A. M.

242.

kiud, that neither riches nor the friendship of kings, no, nor even the particular advantages of Sicyon, his native place, nor any other consideration whatever, had the least competition in his mind, with the welfare and aggrandizement of the Achæans. He was persuaded, that all weak cities resemble those parts of the body which only thrive and exist by their mutual union; and must infallibly perish when once they are separated; as the sustenance by which they subsist will be discontinued from that moment. Cities soon sink into ruin, when the social bands which connect them are once dissolved; but they are always seen to flourish, and improve in power and prosperity, when they become parts of a large body, and are associated by an unity of interest. A common precaution then reigns through the whole, and is the happy source of life, from whence all the vigour that supports them is derived.

All the views of Aratus, while he continued in his employment, tended entirely to the expulsion of the Macedonians out of Peloponnesus, and the abolition of all kinds of tyranny; the re-establishment of the cities in their ancient liberty, and the exercise of their laws. These were the only motives which prompted him to oppose the enterprizes of Antigonus Gonatas, during the life of that prince.

'He also pursued the same conduct with respect 3762. to Demetrius, who succeeded Antigonus, and reigned Ant. J. C. for the space of ten years. The Etolians had at first joined Antigonus Gonatas, with an intention to destroy the Achæan league; but embroiled themselves with Demetrius his successor, who declared war against them. The Achæans, forgetting on this occasion the ill treatment they had received from Ant. J. C. that people, marched to their assistance, by which 234. means a strict union was re-established between them, and became very advantageous to all the neighbouring cities.

A. M.

3770.

¶ Polyb. l. ii. p. 130.

Polyb. 1. ii. p. 91-101. Appian. de bellis Illyr. p. 760.

Illyrium was then governed by several petty kings, who subsisted chiefly by rapine, and exercised a sort of piracy against all the neighbouring countries. Agron, the son of Pleurates, Scerdiledes, Demetrius of Pharus, so called from a city of Illyrium, subject to him, were the petty princes who infefted all the neighbouring parts; and attacked Corcyra, and the Acarnanians in particular. Teuta reigned after the death of her husband Agron, who ended his days by intemperance, and left a young son, named Pinæus. These people, harrassed in the manner I have mentioned, had recourse to the Etolians and Achæans, who readily undertook their defence; and their good services were not repaid with ingratitude. The people of Corcyra made an alliance with the Illyrians, soon after this event, and received Demetrius of Pharus, with his garrison, into their city.

The Romans were so offended at the piracies with which this people infested their citizens and mer. chants, that they sent an embassy to Teuta, to complain of those injurious proceedings. That princess caused one of the ambassadors to be slain, and the other to be thrown into prison, which provoked the Romans to declare war against her, in revenge for so outrageous an insult. The two consuls, L. Posthumus Albinus, and Cn. Fulvius Centumalus, set out with a commission to invade Illyrium by land and sea. The people of Corcyra, in concert with Demetrius of Pharus, delivered up to the consul Fulvius the garrison they had received into their city; and the Romans, after they had re-instated Corcyra in its former liberties, advanced into Illyrium, and conquered great part of the country; but consigned several cities to Demetrius, as a compensation for his treacherous conduct in their fa

vour.

Teuta, reduced to the utmost extremity, implored peace of the Romans, and obtained it, on her engagement to pay a yearly tribute, and deliver up all Illyrium, except a few places which she was per

171

A. M. 3772. Ant. J. C.

232.

A. M. 3776.

Ant. J. C.

228.

A. M. 3778.

Ant. J. C

226.

A. M.

3779.

Ant. J. C.

225.

172

mitted to enjoy; but the most beneficial article for the Greeks was, her being restrained from sailing beyond the city of Lissus with more than two small vessels, and even those were not to carry any arms. The other petty kings, who seemed to have been subordinate to Teuta, were comprehended in this treaty, though it expressly mentioned none but that princess.

The Romans then caused themselves to be respected in Greece by a solemn embassy, and this was the first time that their power was known in that country. They also sent ambassadors to the Ætolians and Achæans, to communicate to them the treaty they had lately concluded with the Illyrians. Others were also dispatched to Corinth and Athens, and the Corinthians then declared for the first time, by a public decree, that the Romans should be admitted to celebrate the Isthmian games, with the same privileges as the Greeks. The freedom of the city was also granted them at Athens, and they were permitted to be initiated into their solemn mysteries.

Aratus, after the death of Demetrius, who reigned only ten years, found the dispositions of the people very favourable to his designs. Several tyrants, whom that prince had supported with all his credit, and to whom he paid large pensions, having lost their support by his death, made a voluntary resignation of the authority they had usurped over their citizens; others of them, either intimidated by the menaces of Aratus, or prevailed upon by his promises, followed their example; and he procured several advantages for them all, that they might have no temptation to repent their conduct.

S

Aratus, who beheld with regret the subjection of the people of Argos to the tyrant Aristomachus, undertook their deliverance; and made it a point of honour to restore liberty to that city, as a recom-

Plut in Arat. p. 1038-1041.

pence for the education he had received there; and he also considered the accession of so potent a city to the Achæan league, as highly advantageous to the common cause: but his measures to this effect were rendered unsuccessful at that time. Aristomachus was soon after slain by his domestics; and before there could be any opportunity to regulate affairs, Aristippus, a tyrant more detestable than his predecessor, seized the supreme power into his own hands, and had the dexterity to maintain himself in that usurpation, even with the consent of the Argives; but as he beheld a mortal enemy in Aratus, during whose life he imagined his own would always be in danger, he resolved to destroy him by the assistance of king Antigonus Doson, who agreed to be the minister of his vengeance. He had already prepared assassins in all parts, who watched an opportunity for executing their bloody commission. No prince or commander can ever have a more effectual guard, than the firm and sincere affection of those they govern: for when once the nobility and people have been accustomed not to fear their prince, but to fear for him, innumerable eyes and ears are attentive to all that passes. This Aratus was so happy as to experience in the present conjuncture.

Plutarch, on this occasion, draws a fine contrast between the troubles and anxieties of Aristippus, and the peace and tranquillity of Aratus. That tyrant, says he, who maintained such a body of troops for the security of his person, and who had shed the blood of all those of whom he entertained any dread, was incapable of enjoying a moment's repose, either by night or day. Every circumstance alarmed him; his soul was the seat of terror and anxiety, that knew no intermission; and he even trembled at his own shadow. A dreadful guard continually watched round his house with drawn swords; and as his life was perpetually in their power, he feared them more than all the rest of man

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374

kind. He never permitted them to enter his pa lace, but ordered them to be stationed in the porticoes, which entirely surrounded that structure. He drove away all his domestics the moment he had supped; after which he shut the gate of his court with his own hands, and then retired with his concubine into an upper apartment, which he entered by a trap-door. When this was let down, he placed his bed upon it, and slept, as we may suppose a man to sleep in his condition, whose soul is a perpetual prey to trouble, terror, and apprehension. The mother of his concubine removed, each night, the ladder by which he ascended into his chamber, and replaced it in its former situation the next morning. Aratus, on the other hand, who had acquired perpetual power, not by the force of arms, but merely by his virtue and in effect of the laws, appeared in public with a plain robe and a mind void of fear: and whereas all those who possess fortresses, and maintain guards, with the additional precaution of arms, gates, and traps, as so many ramparts for their safety, seldom escape a violent death; Aratus, on the contrary, who always showed himself an implacable enemy to tyrants, left behind him a posterity which subsists, says Plutarch, to this day, and is still honoured and respected by all the world*.

Aratus attacked the tyrant with open force, but acted with no extraordinary resolution in the first engagement, when even one of the wings of his army had defeated the enemy; for he caused a retreat to be sounded very unseasonably, and resigned the victory to the foe, which drew upon him a number of severe reproaches. He however made amends for his fault in a second battle, wherein Aristippus,

Polycrates, to whom Plutarch addresses the life of Aratus, was one of his descendants, and had two sons, by whom the race was still continued, three hundred and fifty years after the death of Aratus.