Philip Dissuaded from Taking Messene
Philip, king of the Macedonians, being desirous of
note
seizing the acropolis of Messene, told the
leaders of the city that he wished to see it and
to sacrifice to Zeus, and accordingly walked up
thither with his attendants and joined in the
sacrifice. When, according to custom, the
entrails of the slaughtered victims were brought
to him, he took them in his hands, and, turning round a little
to one side, held them out to Aratus and asked him "what he
thought the sacrifices indicated? To quit the citadel or hold
it?" Thereupon Demetrius struck in on the spur of the
moment by saying, "If you have the heart of an augur,—to
quit it as quick as you can: but if of a gallant and wise king,
to keep it, lest if you quit it now you may never have so good
an opportunity again: for it is by thus holding the two horns
that you can alone keep the ox under your control." By the
"two horns" he meant Ithome and the Acrocorinthus, and by
-- 518 --
the "ox" the Peloponnese. Thereupon Philip turned to
Aratus and said, "And do you give the same advice?"
Aratus not making any answer at once, he urged him to speak
his real opinion. After some hesitation he said, "If you can
get possession of this place without treachery to the Messenians, I advise you to do so; but if, by the act of occupying this
citadel with a guard, you shall ruin all the citadels, and the
guard wherewith the allies were protected when they came into
your hands from Antigonus" (meaning by that, confidence),
"consider whether it is not better to take your men away and
leave the confidence there, and with it guard the Messenians,
and the other allies as well." As far as his own inclination was
concerned, Philip was ready enough to commit an act of treachery,
as his own subsequent conduct proved: but having been sharply
rebuked a little while before by the younger Aratus for his
destruction of human life; and seeing that, on the present
occasion, the elder spoke with boldness and authority, and
begged him not to neglect his advice, he gave in from sheer
shame, and taking the latter by his right hand, said, "Then let
us go back the same way we came."
