Well, for a time Agathocles was put to the test among them, associating with them and drinking with them, though he took little pleasure in that kind of pastime; and Deinias held him in no higher esteem than his toadies. But at length Agathocles began to give offence by rebuking him frequently, and. came to be considered a nuisance by reminding him always of his ancestors and admonishing him to keep what his father had acquired with much labour and left to him. Consequently Deinias no longer even took him along when he caroused about the town, but used to go alone with those others, trying to escape the eye of Agathocles.
In course of time those flatterers persuaded the poor fellow that Charicleia was in love with him. She was the wife of Demonax, a distinguished man, foremost among the Ephesians in public affairs. Notes from the woman kept coming into his house; also, half-faded wreaths, apples with a piece bitten out, and every other contrivance with which gobetweens lay siege to young men, gradually working up their love-affairs for them and inflaming them at the start with the thought that they are adored (for this is extremely seductive, especially to those who think themselves handsome), until they fall unawares into the net.
