ugh a few
of the ranks, offering such advice as seemed most suitable; then to
join his own troops in the right wing; and presently after, as if
having given the orders which the occasion might require, to return to
the tyrant. But, on the day which he had fixed for the perpetration of
the deed of death, after accompanying the tyrant for a little time,
he withdrew to his own soldiers, and addressed the horsemen, sent
from home with him, in these words: "Young men, that deed is now to
be dared and done which you were ordered to execute valiantly under my
guidance. Have your courage and your hands ready, that none may
fail to second me in whatever he sees me attempt. If any one shall
hesitate, and prefer any scheme of his own to mine, let him rest
assured that there is no return to his home for him." Horror seized
them all, and they well remembered the charge which they had received
at setting out. The tyrant was now coming from the left wing.
Alexamenus ordered his horsemen to rest their lances, and keep their
eyes fixed on him; and in the mean time he himself recollected his
spirits, which had been discomposed by the meditation of such a
desperate attempt. As soon as the tyrant came near, he charged him;
and driving his spear through his horse, brought the rider to the
ground. The horsemen aimed their lances at him as he lay, and after
many ineffectual strokes against his coat of mail, their points at
length penetrated his body, so that, before relief could be sent from
the centre, he expired.

36. Alexamenus, with all the Aetolians, hastened away, to seize on the
palace. Nabis's life-guards were at first struck with horror, the
act being perpetrated before their eyes; then, when they observed the
Aetolian troops leaving the place, they gathered round the tyrant's
body, where it was left, forming, instead of guardians of his life or
avengers of his death, a mere group of spectators. Nor would any one
have stirred, if Alexamenus had immediately called the people to an
assembly, and, with his arms laid aside, there made a speech suitable
to the occasion, and afterwards kept a good number of Aetolians in
arms, without violence being offered to any one. Instead of which,
by a fatality which ought to attend all designs founded in treachery,
every step was taken that could tend to hasten the destruction of
those who had committed it. The commander, shut up in the palace,
wasted a day and a night in searching out the tyrant's