Excerpt from Plutarch's Lives, Vol. 11 of 11: Aratus, Artaxerxes, Galba and Otho III. Thus was Aratus stolen away from the peril that threatened him, and at once that vehement and glowing hatred of tyrants for which he was noted became a part of his nature and grew with his growth. He was reared in liberal fashion among the guests and friends of his father's house at Argos, and since he saw that his bodily growth promised high health and stature, he devoted himself to the exercises of the palaestra, going so far as to win wreaths of victory in contesting the pentathlum.1 And indeed even his statues have plainly an athletic look, and the sagacity and majesty of his countenance do not altogether d-isown the athlete's full diet and wielding of the mattock. Wherefore his cultivation of oratory was perhaps less intense than became a man in public life; and 'yet he is said to have been a more o'r'n'ate speaker than some think who judge from the Com mentaries which - he left; these were a bye-work, and were 'composed 'in haste, off-hand, and in the words that first occurred to him in the heat of contest. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.