good reason, although without success, “_not to destroy with sharp axe the branches of the great oak_ (the nobles of the state), _and disfigure its beautiful form; for that, even when deprived of its vigour, it gives proof of its power, when the destructive __ fire of winter_ (of insurrection) _snatches it; or, having left its own place desolate, serves a wretched servitude, supporting with the other columns the roof of the royal palace_” (_i.e._, if the people in despair throws itself under the dominion of a foreign king).(811) But the soothing hand with which the poet advises that the wounds of the state should be treated was not that of Arcesilaus, celebrated only for his boldness and valour. For these reasons he was the last in the line of the princes of Cyrene (after 457 B.C.), and a democratical government succeeded. His son Battus took refuge in the islands of the Hesperides, where he died; and the head of his corpse was thrown by these republicans into the sea.(812) The new form of government obtained stability and duration by an entire change; the number of the tribes and phratrias was increased, the political union of the houses destroyed, the family rites were incorporated in the public worship,(813) &c. Some element of disturbance and revolution must, however, have been still left in the constitution,(814) if the Cyrenæans requested Plato to contrive for them a temperate and well-ordered government, which the philosopher is said to have declined, on the ground that they seemed too prosperous to themselves. At a later period, Lucullus the Roman is said to have restored the city to tranquillity, after many wars and tyrannies.(815)