THALIA. 23

also the severity of Periander expelled him. Yet,
fearful as people were to entertain him, he still found
an asylum, from the consideration of his being the
son of Periander.

LIT. Periander at length commanded it to be pub­
licly proclaimed, that whoever harboured his son, or
held any conversation with him, should pay a stipu­
lated fine for the use of Apollo's temple. After this
no person presumed either to receive or converse with
him, and Lycophron himself acquiesced in the con­
junction, by retiring to the public portico. On the
foWth day, Periander himself observed him in this
situation, covered with filth and perishing with hun­
ger : his heart relenting, he approached, and thus ad­
dressed him: "My son, which do you think preferable,
" your present extremity of distress, or to return to
" your obedience, and share with me my authority and
" riches ? You who are my son, and a prince of the
" happy Corinth, choose the life of a mendicant, and
" persevere in irritating him, who has the strongest
" claims upon your duty.. If the incident which in-
" duces you to think unfavourably of my conduct,
" has any evil resulting from it, the whole is fallen
" upon myself; and I feel it the more sensibly, from
" the reflection that I was myself the author of it. Ex-
" perience has taught you how much better it is to be
l> envied than pitied, and how dangerous it is to pro-
" voke a superior and a parent—return therefore to
" my house." To this speech Periander received no
other answer from his son, than that he himself, by
conversing with him, had incurred the penalty which
his edict had imposed. The king, perceiving the per-
verseness of his son to be immutable, determined to
remove him from his sight; he therefore sent him in
a vessel to Corcyra, which place also belonged to him.
After this, Periander made war upon his father-in-law
Procles, whom he considered as the principal occasion
of what had happened. He made himself master of
Epidaurus, and took Procles prisoner, whom never­
theless he preserved alive.

LHI. In process of time, as Periander advanced in
years, he began to feel himself inadequate to the cares

C2