Demetrius

In these calculations, however, he was greatly deceived. For he drew nigh and pitched his camp by that of Pyrrhus; but his soldiers had always admired that leader’s brilliant exploits in arms, and from of old they had been wont to consider the man who was mightiest in arms as also the most kingly; besides this, they now learned that Pyrrhus treated his prisoners of war with mildness, and since they were seeking to be rid of Demetrius whether it took them to Pyrrhus or to another, they kept deserting him, at first secretly and in small companies. Then the whole camp was in open agitation and disorder,

and at last some of the soldiers ventured to go to Demetrius, bidding him to go away and save himself; for the Macedonians, they said, were tired of waging war in support of his luxurious way of living. Demetrius thought this very moderate language compared with the harshness of the rest; so he went to his tent, and, as if he had been an actor and not a real king, put on a dark cloak in place of his stage-robes of royalty, and stole away unnoticed.

Most of the soldiers at once fell to pillaging and tearing down his tent, and fought with one another for the spoils; but Pyrrhus came up, mastered the camp without a blow, and took possession of it. And all Macedonia was divided between Pyrrhus and Lysimachus, after Demetrius had reigned over it securely for seven years.[*](From 394 to 287 B.C.)

When Demetrius thus lost his power and fled for refuge to Cassandreia, his wife Phila was full of grief and could not endure to see her husband, that most afflicted of kings, once more in private station and in exile; she gave up all hope, and in hatred of his fortune, which was more secure in adversity than in prosperity, she drank poison and died. But Demetrius, determined to cling still to what was left of his wrecked fortunes, went off to Greece, and tried to assemble his friends and generals who were there.

The Menelaüs of Sophocles[*](Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag.2 p. 315.) applies this simile to his own fortunes:—

1. But my fate on the swiftly turning wheel of God
2. Goes whirling round forever and ever changes shape,
3. Just as the moon’s appearance for two kindly nights
4. Could never be identical and show no change,
5. But out of darkness first she comes forth young and new,
6. With face that ever grows more beautiful and full,
7. And when she reaches largest and most generous phase,
8. Again she vanisheth away and comes to naught.