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53. Moreover, there was something dramatic and theatrical even in the funeral ceremonies of Demetrius. For his son Antigonus, when he learned that his remains had been sent home, put to sea with his entire fleet and met them off the islands. They were given to him in a golden urn, and he placed them in the largest of his admiral's ships. [2] Of the cities where the fleet touched in its passage, some brought garlands to adorn the urn, others sent men in funeral attire to assist in escorting it home and burying it. When the fleet put in at Corinth, the cinerary vase was conspicuous on the vessel's poop, adorned with royal purple and a king's diadem, and young men stood about it in arms as a bodyguard. Moreover, the most celebrated flute-player then living, Xenophantus, sat near, and with the most solemn melody upon his flute accompanied the rowers; [3] to this melody the oars kept perfect time, and their splashing, like funereal beatings of the breast, answered to the cadences of the flute-tones. But the most pity and lamentation among those who had come in throngs to the sea-shore was awakened by the sight of Antigonus himself, who was bowed down and in tears. After garlands and other honours had been bestowed upon the remains at Corinth, they were brought by Antigonus to Demetrias for burial, a city named after his father, who had settled it from the small villages about Iolcus.1

[4] The children left by Demetrius were these: Antigonus and Stratonicé, by Phila; two named Demetrius, one who was surnamed the Thin, by a woman of Illyria, and one who ruled Cyrené, by Ptolemaïs; and, by Deïdameia, Alexander, who lived and died in Egypt. It is said also that he had a son named Corrhagus, by Eurydicé. His line came down in a succession of kings to Perseus, the last, in whose reign the Romans subdued Macedonia.

And now that the Macedonian play has been performed, let us introduce the Roman.

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