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Demetrius gladly granted the request, and found himself so much strengthened by this alliance, that in the spring of the year 296 he was in a condition to attack Athens, which he captured after a long siege, and drove out the bloodthirsty tyrant Lachares, who had been established there by Cassander. He reigned over Macedonia, and the greater part of Greece, about seven years.
The other clung to the back of his steed with his strong bare legs; he wore the sagum of the Celtiberians, a short wool tunic over which the broadsword hung from his shoulder, and his hair, as thick and dishevelled as his beard, outlined a brown and manly countenance. "Greeting, Lachares! Greeting, Alorcus!" replied the pilot with an expression of respect. "Shall you see Sónnica, my mistress?"
Neither can it be said that the tyranny of Lachares was less, if it was not more, calamitous to the Athenians, and that of Dionysius to the Syracusans, than they were to the tyrants themselves; for it was disturbing that made them be disturbed; and their first oppressing and pestering of others gave them occasion to expect to suffer ill themselves.
But on Antony's commanding to face about, they all gave back except Eurycles the Laconian, who pressed on, shaking a lance from the deck, as if he meant to hurl it at him. Antony, standing at the prow, demanded of him, "Who is this that pursues Antony?" "I am," said he, "Eurycles, the son of Lachares, armed with Caesar's fortune to revenge my father's death."
Actæon overhead the conversation of Lachares and Polyanthus outside the temple. They had spent the night before at Sónnica's house. They had left the table at dawn. Lachares still wore his banquet crown, but the roses were withered and falling to pieces.
Alorcus the Celtiberian stood talking with Lachares and three of those young Greeks who so scandalized the Saguntines in the Forum by their effeminate ways. The arrogant barbarian, according to the custom of his race, wore his sword belted to his waist until the banquet began, when he hung it upon the ivory anaclintron of the couch that he might have it ever within reach of his hand.
"But you, philosopher," said the Greek, "are not so lean and emaciated as the others. Who maintains you?" "My poverty. I was so accustomed to hunger in times of plenty that now I scarcely notice the famine. Observe the advantages of being a philosopher and a beggar!" "Trust not the words of that monster," said Lachares with repugnance. "He is as beastly as a Celtiberian.
As the devoted pair entered the banquet chamber the guests divined their felicity in Sónnica's tender, shining eyes, and in the abandon with which she inclined toward Actæon her blonde head, crowned with roses and violets. "At last we have a master," murmured Lachares with a tone of jealousy. "He has been more fortunate than we," replied the Celtiberian resignedly.
The singers, swept away before this wave of enthusiasm, made off with their chairs and instruments. The crown of laurel was bound upon Lachares in the midst of general indifference, and he received no other congratulations than those of his slaves. All the enthusiasm of the city was lavished upon the winner in the races; the people were inflamed with admiration for strength and skill.
Actæon also smiled, with the cynical smile of an Athenian, as he observed the crudeness with which these young fops copied their distant models. At their head strode Lachares, the gallant who had accompanied Sónnica on her morning visit to the temple of Venus.
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