Aratus

Perseus Greek · Perseus Greek · 232 sections

46.2.1
And indeed Aratus did take the prince in hand, and managed matters so as to send him back to Macedonia full of great goodwill towards his patron and of ardour and ambition for the conduct of Hellenic affairs.
47.1.1
But upon the death of Antigonus the Aetolians, despising the Achaeans on account of their slothful ways (for now that they were accustomed to save themselves by other men’s prowess and had taken shelter behind the Macedonian arms, they were living in great inactivity and lack of discipline), proceeded to interfere in the affairs of Peloponnesus; and after plundering the territories of Patrae and Dyme on their way, they invaded Messenia and ravaged it.
47.2.1
At this Aratus was incensed, and seeing that Timoxenus, who at that time was general of the Achaeans, was hesitant and dilatory, since his term of office was just about to expire, he himself, having been chosen to succeed Timoxenus, anticipated his term of office by five days for the sake of giving aid to the Messenians. And having assembled the Achaeans, who were physically and mentally unfit for war, he met with defeat at Caphyae.
47.3.1
Then, being thought to have conducted the campaign with too much ardour, his purposes were once more blunted and he gave up the cause and his hopes for lost, so that oftentimes, when the Aetolians gave him an advantage, he neglected it, and suffered them to revel, as it were, in Peloponnesus, with great boldness and wantonness.
47.4.1
Once more, therefore, the Achaeans stretched out their hands imploringly to Macedonia, and brought Philip down to take part in Hellenic affairs, above all things because his goodwill towards Aratus and his confidence in him led them to hope that they would find him easy-tempered in all things and manageable.
48.1.1
And now for the first time Apelles, Megaleas, and sundry other courtiers made false charges against Aratus to which the king listened, and joining in the canvass made by those of the opposite faction, he favoured the election of Eperatus as general of the Achaeans.
48.2.1
But Eperatus was altogether despised by the Achaeans, and as long as Aratus gave little heed to public matters nothing went well. Philip therefore perceived that he had been entirely wrong. So he reversed his course, went back to Aratus, and was wholly his; and since the progress of events now brought him increased power and reputation, he depended altogether upon Aratus, convinced that his repute and strength were due to him.
48.3.1
And all the world thought that Aratus was a good guardian and tutor for a kingdom no less than for a democracy; for his principles and character were manifest, like colour in a fabric, in the actions of the king. For instance, the moderation of the young prince in dealing with the offending Lacedaemonians, his engaging behaviour towards the Cretans, by means of which he won the whole island to obedience in a few days, and the astonishingly vigorous conduct of his campaign against the Aetolians, all added to the reputation of Philip for taking good advice, and to that of Aratus for giving it.
48.4.1
For this reason, too, the royal courtiers were all the more envious of him, and since they could accomplish nothing by their secret calumnies, they took to abusing and insulting him openly at their banquets, with great wantonness and scurrility; and once they actually pursued and threw stones at him as he was going to his tent after supper. At this Philip was enraged, and for the nonce fined them twenty talents; afterwards, however, regarding them as a noxious and confusing element in his affairs, he put them to death.
49.1.1
But soon, as the king’s fortune flowed smoothly on, he was lifted up by his success, and developed many inordinate desires; his inherent badness, too, forcing aside the unnatural restraints of his assumed deportment and making it swayto the light, little by little laid bare and revealed his true character. In the first place he inflicted a private wrong upon the younger Aratus by corrupting his wife, and was for a long time undetected, since he was a housemate and a guest of the family; in the second place, he began to show hostility towards the civil polities of the Greeks, and it was presently clear that he was trying to shake off Aratus.
49.2.1
First grounds of suspicion were afforded by his conduct at Messene. For there was factional strife in the city, and Aratus was tardy in coming to its aid, and Philip, who got to the city a day before Aratus, at once goaded on the two parties against one another. In private he asked the generals of the Messenians if they had not laws to enforce against the common people, and again in private he asked the leaders of the common people if they had not hands to lift against the tyrants.
49.3.1
Upon this the officials plucked up courage and tried to lay hands upon the leaders of the people, and they, coming to the attack at the head of their followers, slew the officials and nearly two hundred citizens besides.
50.1.1
After this outrageous deed of Philip’s, and while he was striving more than ever to set the Messenians by the ears, Aratus reached the city. He showed clearly that he was indignant himself, and would not check his son when he bitterly reproached and reviled Philip. Now, it would seem that the young man was a lover of Philip; and so at this time he told Philip, among other things, that he no longer thought him fair to look upon, after so foul a deed, but the most repulsive of men.
50.2.1
Philip made no answer to him, although it was expected that he would, since in his anger he had many times cried out savagely while the young man was speaking, but as though he meekly submitted to what had been said and was a person of moderation and not above the ordinary citizen, he gave the elder Aratus his hand, led him forth from the theatre, and brought him to the Ithomatas, in order to sacrifice to Zeus and take a view of the place.
50.3.1
For it is quite as well walled in as Acrocorinthus, and with a garrison in it is difficult of access and a hard place for its neighbours to take by force. Thither Philip went up, and offered sacrifice, and when the seer brought him the entrails of the ox, he took them in both hands and showed them to Aratus and Demetrius of Pharos, leaning towards each one in turn and asking them what indications they saw in the omens; was he to be master of the citadel, or to give it back to the Messenians?
50.4.1
Demetrius, with a laugh, replied: If thou hast the spirit of a seer, thou wilt give up the place; but if that of a king, thou wilt hold the ox by both its horns, speaking darkly of Peloponnesus, which, if Philip added the Ithomatas to Acrocorinthus, would be altogether subject and submissive to him.
50.5.1
Aratus held his peace for a long time, but upon Philip’s asking him to express his opinion, said: There are many lofty hills in Crete, O Philip, and many towering citadels in Boeotia and Phocis; in Acarnania, too, I suppose, as well inland as on its shores, there are many places which show an amazing strength; but not one of these dost thou occupy, and yet all these peoples gladly do thy bidding.
50.6.1
For it is robbers that cling to cliffs and crags, but for a king there is no stronger or more secure defence than trust and gratitude. These open up for thee the Cretan sea, these the Peloponnesus. Relying upon these, young as thou art, thou hast already made thyself leader here, and master there. While he was yet speaking, Philip handed the entrails to the seer, and drawing Aratus to him by the hand, said: Come hither, then, and let us take the same road, implying that he had been constrained by him and made to give up the city.
51.1.1
But Aratus presently began to withdraw from the court and little by little to retire from his intimacy with Philip. When the king was about to cross into Epeirus and asked him to join the expedition, he refused and remained at home, fearing that he would be covered with ignominy by tine king’s proceedings.
51.2.1
Philip lost his fleet most shamefully at the hands of the Romans, and after utter failure in his undertakings, came back into Peloponnesus. Here he tried once more to hoodwink the Messenians, and after being detected in this, wronged them openly and ravaged their territory. Then Aratus was altogether estranged and filled with distrust of the king, being now aware also of the crime committed against his domestic life. At this he was sorely vexed himself, but kept it hidden from his son,
51.3.1
who could only know that he had been shamefully abused, seeing that he was not able to avenge himself. For Philip would seem to have undergone a very great and inexplicable change, in that from a gentle prince and chaste youth he became a lascivious man and a pernicious tyrant. In fact, however, this was not a change of nature, but a showing forth, in time of security, of a baseness which his fears had long led him to conceal.
52.1.1
For that the feelings which he had cherished from the beginning towards Aratus had an admixture of shame and fear, was made plain by what he did to him at the last. For he desired to kill Aratus, and thought he could not be a free man while Aratus lived, much less a tyrant or a king. In a violent way, however, he made no attempt upon him, but ordered Taurion, one of his officers and friends, to do this in a secret way, preferably by poison, when the king was absent.
52.2.1
So Taurion made an intimate companion of Aratus, and gave him poison, not of a sharp and violent sort, but one of those which first induce gentle heats in the body, and a dull cough, and then little by little bring on consumption. The thing was not hidden from Aratus, but since it was no use for him to convict the criminal, he calmly and silently drank his cup of suffering to the dregs, as if his sickness had been of a common and familiar type.
52.3.1
However, when one of his intimate companions who was with him in his chamber saw him spit blood, and expressed surprise, Such, my dear Cephalo, said Aratus, are the wages of royal friendship.
53.1.1
And so he died, at Aegium, while general for the seventeenth time, and the Achaeans were very desirous that he should have burial there and memorials befitting his life. But the Sicyonians regarded it as a calamity that he should not be buried in their city, and persuaded the Achaeans to surrender his body to them.
53.2.1
They had, however, an ancient law that no one should be buried inside the city walls, and the law was supported by strong feelings of superstition. So they sent to Delphi to get advice in the matter from the Pythian priestess, and she gave them the following oracular answer:— Would’st thou, O Sicyon, pay Aratus lasting honour for the lives he saved, And join in pious funeral rites for thy departed lord? Know that the place which vexes or is vexed by him Is sacrilegious, be it in earth or sky or sea.
53.3.1
When the oracle was brought to them the Achaeans were all delighted, and the Sicyonians, in particular, changing their mourning into festival, at once put on garlands and white raiment and brought the body of Aratus from Aegium into their city, amid hymns of praise and choral dances; and choosing out a commanding place, they buried him there, calling him founder and saviour of the city.
53.4.1
And the place is called to this day Arateium, and yearly sacrifices are made to Aratus there, one on the day when he freed the city from its tyranny—the fifth day of the month Daesius (which the Athenians call Anthestenon), which sacrifice has the name Soteria, and one on the day of the month when, according to the records, he was born. The first of these sacrifices was performed by the priest of Zeus the Saviour; the second by the priest of Aratus, who wore a headband, not pure white but purple and white,
53.5.1
and hymns with accompaniment of lyre were sung by the artists of Dionysus, and the gymnasiarch took part in the procession, at the head of the boys and young men of military age; then followed the councillors wearing garlands, and all other citizens who desired. Of these ceremonial rites the Sicyonians still preserve slight traces, celebrated on the same days of the year, but most of them, owing to the passage of time and the pressure of other matters, have lapsed.
54.1.1
Such was the life and such the nature of the elder Aratus, as history tells us; and as for his son, he was deprived of his reason by Philip, who had an abominable nature and added savage cruelty to his wanton exercise of power. He gave the young man poisons which did not kill, but crazed, and thus made him a prey to strange and dreadful impulses, under which he grasped at absurd activities, and experiences not only shameful but destructive, so that death came to him, although he was young and in the flower of his life, not as a calamity, but as release from evils, and salvation.
54.2.1
For this unholy deed, however, Philip paid ample penalties to Zeus, the guardian of hospitality and friendship, as long as he lived. For after being subdued by the Romans and putting his fortunes in their hands, he was stripped of most of his dominions, surrendered all his ships but five, agreed to pay a thousand talents besides, gave up his son to serve as hostage, and only out of pity obtained Macedonia and its tributaries. But he was for ever putting to death the noblest of his subjects and his nearest kin, and thus filled his whole kingdom with horror and hatred of him.
54.3.1
One piece of good fortune only was his, amid so many ills, and that was a son of surpassing excellence; but this son he killed, out of envy and jealousy of the honour paid him by the Romans, and left his kingdom to his other son, Perseus, who was not legitimate, as we are told, but supposititious, the child of a sempstress, Gnathaenion. This king graced the triumph of Aemilius, and with him ended the royal line of the Antigonids; whereas the descendants of Aratus were living at Sicyon and Pellene in my time.

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