into a
Principality." "The Tagos of Thessaly was not a King, because his
office was not hereditary or even permanent; neither was he
exactly a Tyrant, because his office had some sort of legal
sanction. But he came much nearer to the character either of a
King or of a Tyrant than to that of a Federal President like the
General of the Achaians.... Jason of Pherai acts throughout
like a King, and his will seems at least as uncontrolled as that
of his brother sovereign beyond the Kambunian hills. Even Jason
seems to have been looked upon as a Tyrant (see below, 'Hell.' VI.
iv. 32); possibly, like the Athenian Demos, he himself did not
refuse the name" (cf. Arist. "Pol." iii. 4, 9).--Freeman, "Hist.
Fed. Gov." "No True Federation in Thessaly," iv. pp. 152 foll.

(5) See above, and Hicks, 74.

(6) Or, "peasantry."

"Such, Lacedaemonians, were the glowing arguments of Jason. In answer
I told him that what he urged was well worth weighing, but that we, the
friends of Lacedaemon, should so, without a quarrel, desert her and rush
into the arms of her opponents, seemed to me sheer madness. Whereat he
praised me, and said that now must he needs cling all the closer to me
if that were my disposition, and so charged me to come to you and
tell you the plain truth, which is, that he is minded to march against
Pharsalus if we will not hearken to him. Accordingly he bade me demand
assistance from you; 'and if they suffer you,' (7) he added, 'so to work
upon them that they will send you a force sufficient to do battle with
me, it is well: we will abide by war's arbitrament, nor quarrel with
the consequence; but if in your eyes that aid is insufficient, look to
yourself. How shall you longer be held blameless before that fatherland
which honours you and in which you fare so well?' (8)

(7) Or, reading {theoi}, after Cobet; translate "if providentially
they should send you."

(8) Reading {kai e su pratteis}, after Cobet. The chief MSS. give {ouk
ede anegkletos an dikaios eies en te patridi e se tima kai su
prattois ta kratista}, which might be rendered either, "and how be
doing best for yourself?" (lit. "and you would not be doing best
for yourself," {ouk an} carried on from previous clause), or
(taking {prattois} as pure optative), "may you be guided to adopt
the course best for yourself!" "may the best fortune attend you!
Farewell." See Otto Keller