15
But a brother should not, like the pan of a balance, incline the opposite way and be himself lowered when his brother is raised on high; but just as lesser numbers multiply greater and are multiplied by them, so should he give increase to his brother and at the same time be increased along with him by their common blessings. For it is not true of the fingers, either, that the one which writes and plays musical instruments is superior to the one which cannot, by either nature or attainment, do so, but in some manner or other they all contrive to move together and assist each other, having been made unequal, as though of set purpose, and all deriving their power to grasp from the position of the others opposite the thumb, the largest and strongest of them.
15
In this spirit Craterus,Half-brother of Antigonus Gonatas (see F. Jacoby and Schoch, Pauly-Wissowa, RE, xi. col. 1617, 1621). the brother of King Antigonus, and Perlatis, the brother of Cassander, assigned themselves to the management of their brothers’ military and domestic affairs; but men like Antiochus and Seleucus, and again Grypus and Cyzicenus,Antiochus, VIII and IX respectively. who had not learned to play parts secondary to their brothers, but yearned for the purple and the crown, infected themselves and each other with many horrors, and infected all Asia also.
