Demetrius

Then the Athenians, although they had decreed death to anyone who should so much as mention peace and reconciliation with Demetrius, straightway threw open the nearest gates and sent ambassadors to him. They did not expect any kindly treatment from him, but were driven to the step by their destitution,

in which, among many other grievous things, the following also is said to have occurred. A father and a son were sitting in a room and had abandoned all hope. Then a dead mouse fell from the ceiling, and the two, when they saw it, sprang up and fought with one another for it. At this time also, we are told, the philosopher Epicurus sustained the lives of his associates with beans, which he counted out and distributed among them.

Such, then, was the plight of the city when Demetrius made his entry and ordered all the people to assemble in the theatre. He fenced the stage-buildings round with armed men, and encompassed the stage itself with his body-guards, while he himself, like the tragic actors, came down into view through one of the upper side-entrances. The Athenians were more than ever frightened now; but with the first words that he uttered Demetrius put an end to their fears.

For avoiding all harshness of tone and bitterness of speech, he merely chided them lightly and in a friendly manner, and then declared himself reconciled, gave them besides a hundred thousand bushels of grain, and established the magistrates who were most acceptable to the people. So Dromocleides the orator, seeing that the people, in their joy, were shouting all sorts of proposals, and were eager to outdo the customary eulogies of the public speakers on the bema, brought in a motion that Piraeus and Munychia should be handed over to Demetrius the king.

This was voted, and Demetrius on his own account put a garrison into the Museium[*](A hill S.W. of the Acropolis.) also, that the people might not again shake off the yoke and give him further trouble.