came up, and thinking it not advisable to pitch between Dumeæ, a city of the enemy's, and the camp of the Achæans, he boldly dared the Achæans, and forced them to a battle; and routing the phalanx, slew a great many in the fight, and took many prisoners; thence marching to Lagon, and driving out the Achæan garrison, he restored the city to the Elæans. The affairs of the Achæans being in this desperate condition, Aratus, who was wont to continue in his government above a year, refused the command, though they entreated and urged him to accept it; and this was ill done, when the storm was high, to put the power out of his own hands, and set another to the helm. Cleomenes at first proposed fair and easy conditions by his ambassadors to the Achæans; but afterwards he sent others, and required the chief command to be settled upon him; and in other matters he promised to agree to reasonable terms, and to restore their captives and their country. The Achæans were willing to come to an agreement upon those terms, and invited Cleomenes to Lerna, where an assembly was to be held; but it happened that Cleomenes hastily marching on, and unseasonably drinking water, brought up abundance of blood, and lost his voice; therefore, being unable to continue his march, he sent the chiefest of the captives to the Achæans, and putting off the meeting for some time, retired to Lacedæmon. This ruined the affairs of Greece, which was just then ready to recover itself out of its disasters, and avoid the insulting and covetousness of the Macedonians: for Aratus, whether fearing or distrusting Cleomenes, or envying his unlooked-for success, or thinking it a disgrace for him, who had commanded thirty-three years, to have a young man succeed to all his glory and his power, and be head of that government which he had been raising and settling so many years: he first endeavoured to keep the Achæans from closing with Cleomenes; but when they would not hearken to him, fearing Cleomenes's daring spirit, and thinking the Lacedæmonians' proposals to be very reasonable, who designed only to reduce Peloponnesus to its old model, he took his last refuge, in an action which was unbecoming any of the Greeks, most dishonourable to him, and most unworthy his former bravery and exploits; for he called Antigonus into Greece, and filled Peloponnesus with Macedonians, whom he himself, when a youth, having beaten their garrison out of the castle of Corinth, had driven from the same country; beside he declared himself an enemy to all kings, and hath left many dishonourable stories of this same Antigonus, in those commentaries which he wrote: and though he declares that he suffered considerable losses, and underwent great dangers, that he might free Athens from the power of the Macedonians, yet afterward he brought the very same men armed into his own country, and his own house, even to the women's apartment. He would not endure, that one of the family