and by land, and Ceraunus remained master of the kingdom. This triumph
greatly strengthened his power in respect to the other competitors.
He, in fact, contrived to settle the question with them by treaty, in
which they acknowledged him as king. In the case of Pyrrhus, he
agreed, in consideration of being allowed peaceably to retain
possession of his kingdom, to furnish a certain amount of military aid
to strengthen the hands of Pyrrhus in the wars in which he was then
engaged in Italy and Sicily. The force which he thus furnished
consisted of five thousand foot, four thousand horse, and fifty
elephants.

Thus it would seem that every thing was settled. There was, however,
one difficulty still remaining. Arsinoe, the widow of Lysimachus,
still lived. It was Arsinoe, it will be recollected, whose jealousy of
her half-sister, Lysandra, had caused the death of Agathocles and the
flight of Lysandra, and which had led to the expedition of Seleucus,
and the subsequent revolution in Macedon. When her husband was killed,
she, instead of submitting at once to the change of government, shut
herself up in Cassandria, a rich and well-defended city. She had her
sons with her, who, as the children of Lysimachus, were heirs to the
throne. She was well aware that she had, for the time being, no means
at her command for supporting the claims of her children, but she was
fully determined not to relinquish them, but to defend herself and her
children in the city of Cassandria, as well as she was able, until
some change should take place in the aspect of public affairs.
Ceraunus, of course, saw in her a very formidable and dangerous
opponent; and, after having triumphed over Antigonus, and concluded
his peace with Antiochus and with Pyrrhus, he advanced toward
Cassandria, revolving in his mind the question by what means he could
best manage to get Arsinoe and her children into his power.

He concluded to try the effect of cunning and treachery before
resorting to force. He accordingly sent a message to Arsinoe,
proposing that, instead of quarreling for the kingdom, they should
unite their claims, and asking her, for this purpose, to become his
wife. He would marry her, he said, and adopt her children as his own,
and thus the whole question would be amicably settled.

Arsinoe very readily acceded to this proposal. It is true that she was
the half-sister of Ceraunus; but this relationship was no bar to a
matrimonial union, according to t