Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/424

116 ARATUS. fice, was to be done with the fort ; was he to keep It for himself, or restore it to the Messenians. Demetrius laughed and answered, " If you have in you the soul of a soothsayer, you will restore it, but if of a prince, you will hold the ox by both the horns," meaning to refer to Peloponnesus, which would be wholly in his pqwer and at his disposal if he added the Ithomatas to the Acro- Corinthus. Aratus said not a word for a good while ; but Philip entreating him to declare his ojjinion, he said : " Many and great hills are there in Crete, and man}^ rocks in Boeotia and Phocis, and many remarkable strong-holds both near the sea and in the midland in Acarnania, and yet all these people obey your orders, though you have not possessed yourself of any one of those places. Robbers nest themselves in rocks and precipices ; but the strongest fort a king can have is confidence and affection. These have opened to you the Cretan sea ;. these make you master of Peloponnesus, and by the help of these, young as you are, are you become captain of the one, and lord of the other." While he was still speaking, Philip re- turned the entrails to the priest, and drawing Aratus to him by the hand, " Come, then," said he, " let us follow the same course ; " as if he felt himself forced by him, and obliged to give up the town. From this time Aratus began to withdraw from court, and retired by degrees from Philip's company ; when he was preparing to march into Epirus, and desired him that he would accompany him thither, he excused himself and stayed at home, apprehending that he should get nothing but discredit by having any thing to do with his actions. But when, afterwards, having shamefully lost his fleet against the Romans and miscarried in all his designs, he returned into Peloponnesus, where he tried once more to beguile the Messenians by his artifi.ces, and failing in this, began openly to attack them and to ravage their coun-