[1] And now that he was in possession of Athens, he at once laid plans against Sparta. Near Mantineia, where Archidamus the king confronted him, he conquered and routed his foe, and then invaded Laconia. And after he had fought a second pitched battle hard by Sparta itself, where he captured five hundred men and slew two hundred, it was thought that he as good as had the city in his power, although up to this time it had never been taken.
[2] But with none of the kings does Fortune appear to have taken so great and sudden turns, and in the career of no other did she so many times show herself now small and now great, now resplendent and now abased, now insignificant and now all powerful. For this reason, too, we are told that in his worst reverses Demetrius would apostrophise Fortune in the words of Aeschylus:—
1
My flame thou fannest, indeed, and thou seemest
to quench me, too.
[3]
And so at this time, when events so generously favoured the increase of his dominion and power, word was brought to him, first, that Lysimachus had deprived him of his cities in Asia, and next, that Ptolemy had taken Cyprus, with the exception of the single city of Salamis, and had shut up in Salamis under siege his children and his mother.
And so at this time, when events so generously favoured the increase of his dominion and power, word was brought to him, first, that Lysimachus had deprived him of his cities in Asia, and next, that Ptolemy had taken Cyprus, with the exception of the single city of Salamis, and had shut up in Salamis under siege his children and his mother.
[4] However, even Fortune, who, like the woman in Archilochus,
in one deceitful hand bore water, and in the other fire,
2
while by tidings so dreadful and terrifying she drew him away from Sparta, at once inspired him with other hopes of new and great achievements, and on this wise. Demetrius. Plutarch. Bernadotte Perrin (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1920.
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