Demetrius

And it was astonishing that while in the beginning he was displeased at Phila’s disparity in years, he was vanquished by Lamia, and loved her so long, although she was already past her prime. At all events, when Lamia was playing on the flute at a supper, and Demetrius asked Demo, surnamed Mania, what she thought of her, O King, said Mania, I think her an old woman. And at another time, when some sweetmeats were served up, and Demetrius said to Mania, Dost thou see how many presents I get from Lamia? My mother, said Mania, will send thee more, if thou wilt make her also thy mistress.

And there is on record also Lamia’s comment on the famous judgment of Bocchoris. There was, namely, a certain Egyptian who was in love with Thonis the courtesan, and was asked a great sum of money for her favours; then he dreamed that he enjoyed those favours, and ceased from his desires.

Thereupon Thonis brought an action against him for payment due, and Bocchoris, on hearing the case, ordered the man to bring into court in its coffer the sum total demanded of him, and to move it hither and thither with his hand, and the courtesan was to grasp its shadow, since the thing imagined is a shadow of the reality. This judgment Lamia thought to be unjust; for though the dream put an end to the young man’s passion, the shadow of the money did not set the courtesan free from her desire for it. So much, then, for Lamia.

But the fortunes and achievements of the man whose Life I am narrating, brings my narrative back, as it were, from the comic to the tragic stage. For all the other kings leagued themselves together against Antigonus and united their forces, and so Demetrius set forth from Greece,[*](Late in 302 B.C.) and finding his father eager beyond his years for the war, he was himself still more encouraged.

And yet it would seem that if Antigonus had made some trifling concessions and had slackened his excessive passion for dominion, he might have always retained the supremacy for himself and have left it to his son. But he was naturally stern and haughty, and was harsh in what he said no less than in what he did, and therefore exasperated and incited against himself many young and powerful men; and their combination and partnership at this time he said he would scatter asunder with a single stone and a single shout, as if they were a flock of granivorous birds.

He took the field with more than seventy thousand infantry, ten thousand horse, and seventy-five elephants; while his adversaries had sixty-four thousand infantry, five hundred more horse than he, four hundred elephants, and a hundred and twenty chariots. After he had drawn near them, the cast of his expectations rather than of his purposes underwent a change.