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The ambassadors whom he had sent to the Bastarnæ, to desire aid from them, returned about the time we are now speaking of. These had brought with them several youths of quality, and even princes of the blood, one of whom promised his sister in marriage to one of Philip's sons. This new alliance with a powerful nation, very much exalted the king's courage. Perseus, taking advantage of this opportunity; "Of what use," said he, can all this be to us? We have not so much to hope from foreign aids as to dread from domestic foes. We harbour in our bosoms, I will not say a traitor, but at least a spy. The Romans, ever since he was a hostage among them, have restored us his body; but as to his heart and inclinations, those he has left with them. Almost all the Macedonians already fix their eyes on him; and are persuaded, that they shall never have any king, but him whom the Romans shall please to set over them." By such speeches, the old king's disgust was perpetually kept up, who was already but too much alienated from Demetrius.

About this time the army was reviewed, in a festival solemnized every year with religious pomp, the ceremonies of which were as follow. A bitch, says Livy, is divided into two parts; it being cut, lengthwise, through the middle of the body, after which half is laid on each side of the road. The troops, under arms, are made to march through the two parts of the victim thus divided.* At the head of this march, the shining arms of all the kings of Macedon are carried, tracing them backwards to the most remote antiquity. The king, with the princes, his children, appear afterwards, followed by all the royal household, and the companies of guards. The march is closed by the multitude of the Macedonians. On the present occasion, the two princes walked on each side of the king; Perseus being thirty years of age, and Demetrius twenty-five; the one in the vigour, the other in the flower of his age; sons who might have formed their father's happiness, had his mind been rightly disposed and reasonable.

The custom was, after the sacrifices which accompanied this ceremony were over, to exhibit a kind of tournament, and to divide the army into two bodies, who fought with no other arms than foils, and represented a battle. The two bodies of men were commanded by the two young princes. This, however, was not a mere mock battle; all the men exerting themselves, with their blunted weapons, with as much ardour as if they had been disputing for the throne; several were wounded on both sides, and nothing but swords were wanting to make it a real battle. The body commanded by Demetrius had very much the superiority. This advantage gave great umbrage to Perseus. His friends, on the contrary, rejoiced at it, judging that this would be a very favourable and natural opportunity for him to form an accusation against his brother.

The two princes, on that day, gave a grand entertainment to the soldiers of their respective parties. Perseus, whom his brother had invited to his banquet, refused to come. The joy was great on both sides, and the guests drank in proportion. During the entertainment, much discourse passed about the battle; and the guests intermixed their speeches with jests and satirical remarks, some of which were very sharp against those of the contrary party; without sparing even the leaders. Perseus had sent a spy to observe all that should be said at his brother's banquet; but four young persons, who came by accident out of the hall, having discovered this spy, gave him very rude treatment. Demetrius, who had not heard of what happened, said to the company : "Let us go and conclude our feast at my brother's, to soften his pain, if he has any remaining, by an agreeable surprise, which will show that we act with frankness and sincerity, and do not harbour any malice against him." Immediately all cried out that they would go, those excepted, who were afraid their ill treatment of the spy would be revenged. But Demetrius forcing them

*We find in Scripture the like ceremony, in which, in order for the concluding of a treaty, the two contracting parties pass through the parts of the victim divided. Jer. xxxiv. 18.

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thither also, they concealed swords under their robes, in order to defend themselves in case there should be occasion. When discord reigns in families, it is impossible for any thing to be kept secret in them. A man running hastily before, went to Perseus and told him that Demetrius was coming, and had four men well armed in his train. He might easily have guessed the cause of it, as he knew that they were the persons who had abused his spy; nevertheless, to make this action still more criminal, Perseus ordered the door to be locked; and then, from the window of an upper apartment which looked into the street, cried aloud to his servants, not to open the doors to wretches, who were come with a design to assassinate them. Demetrius, who was a little warm with wine, after having complained, in a loud and angry tone of voice, at being refused admittance, returned back, and again sat down to table; still ignorant of the affair relating to the spy.

The next day, as soon as Perseus could get an opportunity to approach his father, he entered his apartment with a very dejected air; and continued some time in his presence, but at a little distance, without opening his mouth. Philip, being greatly surprised at his silence, asked what could be the cause of the concern which appeared in his countenance? "It is the greatest happiness for me," answered Perseus," and by the merest good fortune in the world, that you see me here alive. My brother now no longer lays secret snares for me; he came in the night to my house, at the head of a body of armed men, purposely to assassinate me. I had no other way left to secure myself from his fury, than to shut my doors, and keep the wall between him and me." Perseus perceiving, by his father's countenance, that he was struck with astonishment and dread; If you will condescend," said he, "to listen a moment to me, you will be fully acquainted with the whole state of the affair." Philip answered, that he would willingly hear him; and immediately ordered Demetrius to be sent for. At the same time he sent for Lysimachus and Onomastes, to ask their advice on this occasion. These two men who were his intimate friends, were far advanced in years. They had not concerned themselves with the quarrel of the two princes, and appeared very seldom at court. Philip, while he waited for their coming, walked several times up and down his apartment alone; during which he revolved a variety of thoughts, his son Perseus standing all the time at a distance. When word was brought Philip that his two venerable friends were come, he withdrew to an inner apartment with them, and as many of his life guards; and permitted each of his sons to bring three persons, unarmed, along with him; and having taken his seat, he spoke to them as follows:

"Behold in me an unhappy father, forced to sit as judge between my two sons, one the accuser, and the other charged with the horrid guilt of fratricide; reduced to the sad necessity of finding in one of them, either a criminal or a false accuser. From certain rumours which long since reached my ears, and an unusual behaviour I observe between you, a behaviour no ways suiting brothers, I indeed was afraid this storm would break over my head. And yet I hoped, from time to time, that your discontents and disgusts would soften, and your suspicions vanish away. I recollected, that contending kings and princes, laying down their arms, had frequently contracted alliances and friendships; and that private men had suppressed their animosities. I flattered myself, that you would one day remember the endearing name of brothers by which you are united; those tender years of infancy which you spent in simplicity and union; in fine, the counsels so often repeated by a father; counsels, which, alas! I am afraid have been given to children deaf and indocile to my voice. How many times, after setting before you examples of the discord between brothers, have I represented its fatal consequences, by showing you, that they had thereby involved themselves in inevitable ruin; and not only themselves, but their children, families and kingdoms? On the other side, I proposed good examples for your imitation; the strict union between the two kings of Lace

dæmonia, so advantageous, during several centuries, to themselves and their country, in opposition to division and private interest, that changed the monarchial government into tyranny, and proved the destruction of Sparta. By what other method, than by fraternal concord, did the two brothers, Eumenes and Attalus, from such weak beginnings as almost reflected dishonour on the regal dignity, rise to a pitch of power equal to mine, to that of Antiochus, and of all the kings we know of? I even did not scruple to cite examples from the Romans, of which I myself had either been an eye-witness, or heard from others; as the two brothers, Titus and Lucius Quintius, who both were engaged in war with me; the two Scipios, Publius and Lucius, who defeated and subjected Antiochus; their father and their uncle, who having been inseparable during their lives, were undivided in death. Neither the crimes of the one, though attended with such fatal consequences, nor the virtues of the other, though crowned with such happy success, have been able to make you abhor division and discord, and to inspire you with gentle and pacific sentiments. Both of you in my lifetime, have turned your eyes and guilty desires upon my throne. You will not suffer me to live, till surviving one of you, I secure my crown to the other by my death. The fond names of father and brother are insupportable to both. Your souls are strangers to tenderness and love. A restless desire of reigning has banished all other sentiments from your breasts, and entirely engrosses you. But come, let me hear what each of you have to say. Pollute the ears of your parent with real or feigned accusations. Open your criminal mouths; vent all your reciprocal slanders, and afterwards arm your parricidal hands one against the other. I am ready to hear all you have to say; firmly determined to shut my ears eternally from henceforth against the secret whispers and accusations of brother against brother." Philip having spoken these last words with great emotion and an angry tone of voice, all who were present wept, and continued a long time in mournful silence.

At last Perseus spoke as follows: "I perceive plainly, that I ought to have opened my door in the dead of night, to have admitted the assassins into my house, and presented my throat to their murderous swords, since guilt is never believed, till it has been perpetrated; and since I, who was so inhumanly attacked, receive the same injurious reproaches as the aggressor. People have but too much reason to say that you consider Demetrius only as your true son; while unhappy I, am looked upon as a stranger, sprung from a concubine, or even an impostor. For, did your breast glow with the tenderness which a father ought to have for his child, you would not think it just to inveigh so bitterly against me, for whose life so many snares have been laid, but against him who contrived them; and you would not think my life so inconsiderable, as to be entirely unmoved at the imminent danger I escaped; nor to that to which I shall be exposed, should the guilt of my enemies be suffered to go unpunished. If I must die without being suffered to breathe my complaints, be it so; let me leave the world in silence, and be contented with beseeching the gods, in my expiring moments, that this crime, which was begun in my person, may end in it, and not extend to your sacred life. But if, what nature inspires in those, who seeing themselves attacked unawares in solitude, implore the assistance even of strangers to them, I may be allowed to do with regard to you on the present occasion; if, when I see swords drawn round me, in order to pierce my heart, I may be permitted to vent forth a plaintive and supplicating voice; I conjure you by the tender, the dear name of Father, for which, whether my brother or I have had the greatest reverence, you yourself have long known, to listen to me at this time, as if, awaked suddenly from your sleep by the tumult of what passed last night, chance had brought you at the instant of my danger, and in the midst of my complaints; and that you had found Demetrius at my door, attended by persons in arms. What I should have told you yesterday, in the greatest emotion, and seized with fear, I say to you now.

"Brother, it is long since we have not behaved toward one another, like persons desirous of sharing in parties of pleasure. You are fired with an insatiable thirst of reigning but you find an invincible obstacle in my age, the law of nations, the ancient customs of Macedonia, and a still stronger circumstance, my father's will and pleasure. It will be impossible for you ever to force these barriers, and to ascend the throne, but by imbruing your hands in my blood. To compass your horrid ends, you employ instruments of all kinds, and set every engine at work. Hitherto, my vigilance, or my good fortune, have preserved me from your bloody hands. Yesterday, at the review, and the ceremony of the tournament which followed it, the battle, by your contrivance, became almost bloody and fatal; and, had I not suffered myself and my followers to be defeated, you would have sent me to the grave. From this fight, indeed, of enemies, you insidiously wanted, as if what had passed had been only the diversion of others, to allure me to your feast. Can you suppose, royal father, that I should have met with unarmed guests there, as those very guests came to my palace, completely armed, at so late an hour? Can you imagine that, favoured by the gloom, they would not have striven to plunge their daggers in my heart; as the same persons in open day, and be fore your eyes, almost killed me with their wooden weapons? How! You, who are my professed enemy; you who are conscious that I have so much reason to complain of your conduct; you, I say, come to me in the night, at an unseasonable hour, and at the head of a company of armed young men? I did not think it safe for me to go to your entertainment; and should I receive you in my house at a time, when, heated with the fumes of wine, you came so well attended? Had I then opened my door, royal sir, you would be preparing to solemnize my funeral, at this very instant in which you vouchsafe to hear my complaints. I do not advance any thing dubious, nor speak barely from conjecture. For can Demetrius deny, that he came to my house, attended by a band of young people, and that some of them were armed? I only desire to have those whom I shall name sent for. I believe them capable of any thing; but yet they cannot have the assurance to deny the fact. Had I brought them before you, after seizing them armed in my house, you would be fully convinced of their guilt, and surely their own confession ought to be a no less proof of it.

"You call down imprecations and curses upon impious sons who aspire to your throne: this, august sir, you have great reason to do : but then I beseech you, not to vent your imprecations blindly, and at random. Distinguish between the innocent and the guilty. Let him who meditated the barbarous design of murdering his brother, feel the dire effects of the anger of the gods, the avengers of paternal authority: but then let him, who, by his brother's guilt, was brought to the brink of destruction, find a secure asylum in his father's tenderness and justice. For where else can I expect to find one; I, to whom neither the ceremony of the review, the solemnity of the tournament, my own house, the festival, nor the hours of night allotted by the gods to the repose of man, could afford the least security? If I go to the entertainment to which my brother invites me, I am a dead man; and it will be equally fatal to me, if I admit him into my house, when he comes thither at midnight. Snares are laid for me wherever I tread. Death lies in ambush for me wherever I move; to what place then can I fly for security?

"I have devoted myself only to the gods, and to you, my royal father. I never made my court to the Romans, and cannot have recourse to them. There is nothing they more earnestly wish than my ruin, because I am so much affected with their injustice to you; because I am tortured to the soul, and fired with indignation, to see you dispossessed of so many cities and dominions, and, lately, of the maritime coasts of Thrace. They cannot flatter themselves with the hopes of ever making themselves masters of Macedonia, as long as you or I am in being. They are sensible, that, should I die by my

brother's guilt, or age bring you to the grave, or they not wait the due course of nature, that then the king and kingdom will be at their disposal.

"Had the Romans left you the possession of some city or territory, not in the kingdom of Macedon, I possibly might have had some opportunity of retiring to it. But, will it be answered, that I shall find a sufficiently powerful protection in the Macedonians? You, yourself, royal father, saw with what animosity and virulence the soldiers attacked me in the battle. What was wanting for my destruction, but swords of steel? However, the arms they wanted, my brother's guests assumed in the night. What shall I say of a great part of the principal persons of your court, who ground all their hopes on the Romans, and on him who is all-powerful with them? They are not ashamed to prefer him not only to me, who am his elder brother, but I might almost say to you, who are our king and father. For they pretend that it is to him you are obliged for the senate's remitting you some of those things which they otherwise would have required; it is he who now checks the Romans, and prevents their advancing, in a hostile manner, into your kingdom; in fine, if they may be believed, your old age has no other refuge than the protection which your young son procures you. On his side are the Romans, and all the cities which have been dismembered from your dominions, as well as all such Macedonians, whose dependence, with regard to fortune, lies wholly in the Romans. But, with respect to myself, I look upon it as glorious to have no other protector than my royal father, and to place all my hopes in him alone. "What do you judge to be the aim and design of the letter you lately received from Quintius, in which he declares expressly, that you acted prudently for your interest, in sending Demetrius to Rome; and wherein he exhorts you to send him back thither, accompanied by other ambassadors, and a greater train of Macedonian noblemen? Quintius is now every thing with Demetrius. He has no other guide than his counsels, or rather his orders. Quite forgetting that you are his father, he seems to have substituted him in your place. It is in the city of Rome, and in his sight, he formed the secret and clandestine designs which will soon break out into action. It is merely to have the better opportunity of putting them in execution, that Quintius orders you to send along with Demetrius a greater number of the Macedonian nobility. They set out from this country with the most sincere attachment to your person and interest; but, won by the gracious treatment they meet with in that city, they return from it entirely corrupted and debauched by different sentiments. Demetrius is all in all with them; they even presume, in your lifetime, to give him the title of king. If I appear shocked at this conduct, I have the grief to see, not only others, but yourself, my royal father, charge me with the horrid design of aspiring to your throne. Should this accusation be levelled at us both, I am conscious of my own innocence, and it cannot in any manner affect me. For whom, in that case, should I dispossess, to seize upon what would be another's right? There is no one but my father between me and the throne, and I beseech the gods that he may long continue so. In case I should happen to survive him, and this I would not wish, but so long as he should desire it, I shall succeed him in the kingdom, if it be his good pleasure. He may be accused of aspiring to the throne, and of aspiring in the most unjust and criminal manner, who is impatient to break the order and bounds prescribed by age, by nature, by the usages and customs of Macedonia, and by the law of nations. My elder brother, says Demetrius to himself, to whom the kingdom belongs, both by the right of seniority and my father's will, is an obstacle to my ambitious views. What then must be done? I must despatch him. I shall not be the first who has waded through a brother's blood to the throne. My father, in years, and without support, will be too much afraid for his own life, to meditate revenge for his son's death. The Romans will be greatly pleased to see me on the throne; they will approve my conduct, and be able to support me. I own, most gracious father, these projects may be all defeated;