Aratus

Plutarch

Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. XI. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1926.

It is true that this came under the law of reprisal;[*](The repeated treacheries of the Mantineians towards the Achaeans are related at length in Polybius, ii. 57 f. ) for though it is a terrible thing to treat men of the same race and blood in this way, out of anger, still

in dire stress even cruelty is sweet,

as Simonides says, when men, as it were, give satisfaction and healing care to a mind that is in anguish and inflamed. But the subsequent treatment of the city by Aratus was neither necessary nor honourable, and cannot be excused.

For after the Achaeans had received the city from Antigonus as a present and had decided to colonize it, Aratus himself was chosen to be the founder of the new settlement, and being then general, got a decree passed that the city should no longer be called Mantineia, but Antigoneia, and this is its name down to the present time. And so it was due to Aratus that the name of

lovely Mantineia

[*](Homer, Iliad, ii. 607.) was altogether extinguished, and the city continues to bear the name of him who destroyed and slew its former citizens.[*](The old name of the city was restored by the Emperor Hadrian, Pausanias, viii. 8. 12. )

After this, Cleomenes, having been defeated in a great battle at Sellasia,[*](In 221 B.C., cf. the Cleomenes, xxviii. ff. ) forsook Sparta and sailed off to Egypt, and Antigonus, after having accorded to Aratus fair and kindly treatment in every way, led his army back to Macedonia. There, being now a sick man, he sent Philip, his successor in the kingdom, who was still a stripling, into the Peloponnesus, and urged him to attach himself to Aratus above all others, and through him to deal with the cities and make the acquaintance of the Achaeans.

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.