ANTIGONUS
ANTIGONUS. Antigonus exacted money severely. When
one told him that Alexander did not do so, It may be so,
said he; Alexander reaped Asia, and I but glean after him.
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Seeing some soldiers playing at ball in head-pieces and
breast-plates, he was pleased, and sent for their officers,
intending to commend them; but when he heard the officers were drinking, he bestowed their commands on the
soldiers. When all men wondered that in his old age his
government was mild and easy; Formerly, said he, I sought
for power, but now for glory and good-will. To Philip his
son, who asked him in the presence of many when the
army would march, What, said he, are you afraid that you
only should not hear the trumpet? The same young man
being desirous to quarter at a widow's house that had three
handsome daughters, Antigonus called the quartermaster to
him: Prithee, said he, help my son out of these straits.
Recovering from a slight disease, he said: No harm; this
distemper puts me in mind not to aim at great things, since
we are mortal. Hermodotus in his poems called him Son
of the Sun. He that attends my close-stool, said he, sings
me no such song. When one said, All things in kings are
just and honorable,—Indeed, said he, for barbarian kings;
but for us only honorable things are honorable, and only
just things are just. Marsyas his brother had a cause depending, and requested him it might be examined at his
house. Nay, said he, it shall be heard in the judgment-hall, that all may hear whether we do exact justice or not.
In the winter being forced to pitch his camp where necessaries were scarce, some of his soldiers reproached him,
not knowing he was near. He opened the tent with his
cane, saying: Woe be to you, unless you get you farther off
when you revile me. Aristodemus, one of his friends,
supposed to be a cook's son, advised him to moderate his gifts
and expenses. Thy words, said he, Aristodemus, smell of
the apron. The Athenians, out of a respect to him, gave
one of his servants the freedom of their city. And I would
not, said he, have any Athenian whipped by my command. A youth, scholar to Anaximenes the rhetorician,
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spoke in his presence a prepared and studied speech;
and he asking something which he desired to learn, the
youth was silent. What do you say, said he, is all that
you have said written in your table-book? When he heard
another rhetorician say, The snow-spread season makes
the country fodder spent; Will you not stop, said he,
prating to me as you do to the rabble? Thrasyllus the
Cynic begged a drachm of him. That, said he, is too little
for a king to give. Why then, said the other, give me a
talent. And that, said he, is too much for a Cynic (or
for a
dog) to receive. Sending his son Demetrius with
ships and land-forces to make Greece free; Glory, said
he, from Greece, as from a watch-tower, will shine throughout the world. Antagoras the poet was boiling a conger,
and Antigonus, coming behind him as he was stirring his
skillet, said: Do you think, Antagoras, that Homer boiled
congers, when he wrote the deeds of Agamemnon? Antagoras replied: Do you think, O King, that Agamemnon,
when he did such exploits, was a peeping in his army to
see who boiled congers? After he had seen in a dream
Mithridates mowing a golden harvest, he designed to kill
him, and acquainted Demetrius his son with his design,
making him swear to conceal it. But Demetrius, taking
Mithridates aside and walking with him by the seaside,
with the pick of his spear wrote on the shore, ‘Fly,
Mithridates;’ which he understanding, fled into Pontus,
and there reigned until his death.