When the battle began, Demetrius with the flower of the cavalry charged Antiochus the son of Seleukus, and brilliantly routed the enemy, but he lost the day by his headstrong eagerness to pursue too far. He was unable to rejoin the infantry, for the enemy's elephants interposed between him and the phalanx, which was thus left without any cavalry to cover its flanks. Seeing this, Seleukus kept the rest of his cavalry ever threatening to charge, but never actually doing so, hovering near the phalanx and both terrifying it and giving the men an opportunity of changing sides, which indeed took place; for a great mass of Antigonus's infantry came over to Seleukus, and the rest fled. Many enemies now beset Antigonus, and one of his attendants said to him, "My king, it is you whom they are making for." "Why," replied he, "what other mark could they have but me? But Demetrius will soon be here to the rescue." While he looked round hoping in vain to see his son, a shower of darts fell, and laid him low. All his friends and attendants now fled, except one named Thorax, a native of Larissa, who remained by the corpse. XXX. After this battle the victorious kings proceeded to divide the empire of Antigonus and Demetrius amongst them, each annexing the portion which lay nearest to his own dominions, as though they were cutting slices out of some huge slaughtered beast. Demetrius fled with five thousand infantry and four thousand cavalry, and directed his march with the utmost speed towards Ephesus. All imagined that in his distress for money he would not spare the rich temple there, and he himself, fearing lest his soldiers should do so, set sail as quickly as possible for Greece, as his chief hopes now lay in Athens. Indeed he had left there a part of his fleet, some treasure and his wife Deidameia, and imagined that he could find no surer refuge in his adversity than Athens, where he felt assured of the loyalty of the people. But while he was passing the Cyclades he met an embassy from Athens begging him not to approach that city, since the people had decreed that none of the kings should be admitted within its walls. The ambassadors added that his wife Deidameia had been escorted with due honour and respect to Megara. On hearing this, Demetrius, who had borne the rest of his misfortunes with the utmost serenity, and had never hitherto allowed an unworthy expression to escape him, became transported with anger. He was, in truth, bitterly grieved at being thus unexpectedly betrayed by the Athenians, and at finding that their apparent enthusiasm in his cause had all the while been unreal and fictitious. Apparently the bestowal of excessive honours upon kings and potentates by the people is but a poor test of their real loyalty, for the essence of these honours lies in their being freely offered, and they are worthless if prompted by fear; and men fawn upon those they fear just as they do upon those whom they really love.