honour and reputation of a prince is far more precious than that of a vassal. Charles the Fifth, as many other princes have done, laid the loss and dishonour he received in the invasion of France, by the way of Provence, to Antonie de Leva, whether justly or no, I know not; but howsoever, all the historians of that time agree, that the sorrow thereof cost that brave captain his life. Certainly, to give any violent advice in doubtful enterprises is rather a testimony of love than of wisdom in the giver; for the ill success is always cast upon the counsel, the good never wants a father, though a false one, to acknowledge it. Yet I have sometime known it, that great commanders, who are for the present in place of kings, have not only been dissuaded, but held in a kind by strong hand from hazarding their own persons, and yet have those kind of mutineers never been called to a marshal's court.

SECT. II.

How the city of Rhodes was besieged by Demetrius. THIS departure of Antigonus left behind it many dead carcasses, and a great deal of joy in Egypt. Ptolomy held a solemn feast, and sent messengers abroad, loaden with glad news, to Seleucus, Lysimachus, and Cassander, his confederates; strongly encouraging all that side with the report of this his late felicity, though it appeared but in a defensive war. Antigonus on the contrary flattered himself with another interpretation, calling the joys of his enemies for witnesses of his own greatness, seeing they arose but from so little things: his enemies being but bare savers by the last bargain, and himself, as he supposed, having lost but a little time, and no part of his honour in the late retreat. Howsoever it were, yet he meant to follow his affairs henceforth in another fashion; for that which he could not cleave asunder by great blows, he purposed by little and little to pare off, by cutting off the branches first, to fell the tree itself with the more facility. To effect which, he resolved (leaving the great ones to grow a while) to root up the dependants of his enemies; dependants,

whom the forenamed confederates should be forced either to relieve or to lose; and hereby he doubted not to draw them into the field, where the advantage of power, and of all other warlike provisions, promised him victory.

At this time the city of Rhodes was very mighty, being well governed; and having long held itself in good neutrality, it drew the better part of all the trade of those parts, and thereby a great deal of riches to itself; to maintain which, and to increase it, it furnished and kept on the seas a fleet of well-armed ships; by which it not only beat off all pirates and petty thieves, but the reputation of their strength was thereby so much increased, as all the neighbour princes sought their alliance and confederacy.

In this so dangerous a time (in which they must either refuse all that sought them, and so stand friendless and apart, or join themselves to some one, and thereby forego the peace by which their greatness had grown) their affections carried them to the Egyptian, both because the greatest part of their trade lay that way, as also for that Antigonus's disposition, greatness, and neighbourhood was fearful unto them. This affection of theirs, with some other passages, more apparent, gave argument of quarrel to Antigonus, who began to declare himself against them by petty injuries, of taking some of their ships, with such other grievances, while he made a more weighty preparation to pursue the war against them openly and strongly. All things soon after ordered, according to the greatness of the enterprise, he employed his son Demetrius against them in their own island, who brought such terror upon the citizens, that laying aside all respect of friendship and honour, they offered him their assistance and service against whomsoever. Demetrius, who knew from whence this charge came, and that the alteration was persuaded by fear, and not by love, raised his demands to an intolerable height, requiring a hundred hostages to be delivered him, and liberty to lodge in their port as many ships of war as himself pleased; these conditions, more properly to be imposed upon a state already conquered, than on those who

as yet had heard of nothing but a constrained assistance, restored unto the Rhodians their lost courage, and made them resolve to defend their liberty to the last man: this taught them to enfranchise all their able bondmen, and wisely rather to make them their fellow citizens, than to make themselves fellow slaves with them.

Demetrius having refused the fair conditions offered, and the Rhodians the fearful ones propounded them, makes preparation for a long siege; and finding no appearance to carry the place in fury, he set in hand with his engines of battery; in the invention and use of which, he never shewed himself a greater artisan than in this war. But in conclusion, after the citizens had sustained all the assaults given them for a whole year, after many brave sallies out of the town, and the famine which they endured within the town, which had proved far more extreme, if Ptolomy had not with many hazards relieved them, Demetrius, by mediation of the Grecian ambassadors, gave over the siege; a hundred hostages they gave him for performance of the peace made, but with exception of all the magistrates and officers of the city.

Hereunto Demetrius was brought by the usual policy of war and state: for while with the flower of all his father's forces he lay before Rhodes, Cassander recovered many of those places in Greece which Demetrius had formerly taken from him; neither did Cassander make the war as in former times, by practice and surprise, but by a strong and well-compounded army, which he himself led as far as into Attica, and therewith greatly distressed and endangered Athens itself. On the other side (though with less success) did Polysperchon invade Peloponnesus. These dangerous undertakings upon Greece advised the Athenians and lians to despatch their ambassadors towards Demetrius, and advised Demetrius rather to abandon the enterprise of Rhodes, than to abandon the great honour which he had formerly gotten by setting all Greece at liberty.

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Demetrius was no sooner out of the island, than that the Rhodians erected statues in honour of Lysimachus and Cas

sander; but for Ptolomy, whom they most affected, and from whom they received their most relief, they consulted the oracle of Jupiter, whether it were not lawful to call him a god. The priests which attended in the temple of Hammon gave the same fair answer for Ptolomy which they had formerly done for Alexander his master; for as Alexander consulted the oracle with an army at his heels, so was Ptolomy at this time lord of the soil; and yet was this a far more cleanly creation than that done by the Athenians, who deified Antigonus and Demetrius by decree of the people. A mad age it was, when so many of Alexander's captains could not content themselves with the style of kings, but that they would needs be called gods.

SECT. III.

How Demetrius prevailed in Greece; Cassander desires peace of Antigonus, and cannot obtain it. Great preparations of war against Antigonus.

DEMETRIUS, coming with a strong fleet and army into Greece, quickly drove Cassander out of Attica, and, pursuing his fortune, chased him beyond the straits of Thermopyla. Herein his reputation did much avail him ; which was so great, that six thousand of his enemy's soldiers revolted unto him. So, partly by the greatness of his name, partly by force, he recovered in short space all that Cassander held in those straits, and giving liberty unto the people, he bestowed upon the Athenians those pieces which had been fortified against them to block them up. Then went he into Peloponnesus, where he found the like or more easy success; for he suddenly took Argos, Corinth, Sicyon, and the most of the country, bestowing liberty upon such as needed it. The town of Sicyon he translated, by consent of the citizens, from the old seat into another place, and called it after his own name Demetrius. This done, he betook himself to his pleasure: at the Isthmian games he caused himself to be proclaimed captain-general of Greece, as Philip and Alexander had been in former times; whereupon (as if he were now become as great as Alexander) he

despised all others, making it a matter of jest that any, save himself or his father, should usurp the name of king. But in his behaviour he was so far unlike to a king, that in all the time of his leisure he deserved none other name than of a drunken palliard. Yet were the Athenians as ready as ever to devise new honours for him; among which they made one decree, that whatsoever king Demetrius should command ought to be held sacred with the gods and just with men.

All Greece being now at the disposition of Antigonus, Cassander stood in great fear, lest the wars should fall heavily upon him in Macedon, which to avoid he knew no better way than to make peace with his enemy betimes. And to that purpose he sent ambassadors; but had no better answer from Antigonus, than that he should submit his whole estate to his discretion. This proud demand made him look about him, and labour hard in soliciting his friends, both to assist him and take heed to themselves; neither found he them slow in apprehending the common danger, for Lysimachus knew that if once Cassander had lost Macedon, Demetrius would soon be master of Thrace. Neither were Ptolomy and Seleucus ignorant of that which was like to befall them, if Antigonus were suffered to put himself in quiet possession of those provinces in Europe. Wherefore it was agreed, that with joint forces they should all together set upon the common enemy.

Hereof Antigonus had notice; but scorned all their preparations, saying, that he would as easily scatter them, as a flock of birds are driven away with a stone. With these conceits he pleased himself, and no way hindered the proceedings of his enemies. He lay at that time in his town of Antigonia, (a name that it must shortly lose,) where he was carefully providing to set out some stately game and pageants, in ostentation of his glory. But thither was brought unto him the tumultuous news of Lysimachus's victories about Hellespont. For Cassander had committed unto Lysimachus part of his forces, wherewith to pass over into Asia, while himself with the rest should oppose Demetrius