40.8
As soon
as he could get an opportunity of seeing his father the next day, Perseus
entered the palace with a perturbed expression and stood in silence at some
distance from his father. "Are you well?" asked Philip. "Why that gloomy
countenance?" "Let me tell you," he replied, "that it is more than I hoped for
to be alive now. It is no longer by secret plots that my brother is seeking my
life; he came to my house at night with an armed band to kill me. Only by
barring the doors could I shelter myself from his fury behind the walls of the
house." After thus astonishing and alarming his father, he went on, "Yes, and
if you can give me a hearing I will make you see the whole thing clearly."
Philip said that he would certainly hear him and sent orders for Demetrius to
be summoned at once. He also sent for two of his older friends who had
nothing to do with the quarrel between the brothers, and did not often visit
the palace -Lysimachus and Onomastus. He wished to have them present at
the council. Whilst waiting for them he walked up and down deep in
thought, his son standing some distance away. When they were announced
he withdrew with them and two of his life-guards into an inner room, and
allowed each of his sons to bring three companions unarmed. After taking
his seat he began: "Here I, a most unhappy father, am sitting as judge
between my two sons, one accusing the other of fratricide, and I have to find
my own children guilty of either a false accusation or a confession of
criminal intent. I have for some time been dreading the imminence of this
storm as I watched the way you looked at one another with an expression of
anything but brotherly love, and listened to some of your language.
Sometimes I have ventured to hope that your anger was dying down and that
suspicions could be cleared up. Even hostile nations have laid down their
arms and made treaties of peace, and many men have put an end to their
private quarrels. I fancied that some day you might remember your
relationship to one another, the unreserved intimacy of your boyish days and
the teaching which I have given you, which has, I fear, fallen on deaf ears.
How often have I told you of my detestation of fraternal quarrels and the
dreadful results they lead to, how often they have ruined families and houses
and kingdoms! I have also placed before you happier examples on the other
side; the perfectly friendly relations between the two kings of Sparta, which
had for long centuries been such a safeguard to themselves and their country;
but as soon as the fashion came in of each trying to secure despotic power
for himself, that State was destroyed. Look at those two monarchs, Eumenes
and Attalus, who from such small beginnings that they shrank from the title
of king have now become the peers of Antiochus and myself, and this is due
to nothing so much as the brotherly concord that existed between them. I
even drew examples from the Romans which had fallen under my own
observation or which I had heard of: the two Quinctii, Titus and Lucius; the
two Scipios, Publius and Lucius, who conquered Antiochus; their father and
their uncle whose lifelong harmony was cemented by death. And yet the bad
examples which I first mentioned and the evil results of their evil conduct
could not deter you from your insane quarrels, nor could the good character
and the good fortune of the others turn you to a sound and healthy state of
mind. While I am yet alive and drawing vital breath you have in your criminal
ambition decided to whom the crown will pass. You wish me to live just
long enough to survive one of you, and then by my death make the other the
unquestioned king. You cannot bear that either your father or your brother
should live. You have no affection, no conscience; an insatiable desire for the
crown alone has supplanted everything else in your hearts. Go on, then,
grieve and shock your father's ears, fight out your differences with mutual
recriminations as you will soon do with the sword; speak out openly
whatever you can truly allege or find pleasure in inventing. My ears are open
to you now, henceforth they will be closed to any secret charges which you
may make against each other." He uttered these last words in very angry
tones and all present burst into tears; there was a long and sorrowful silence.