Book XI - Idomeneus tells Mentor of his betrayal by the self-loving Protesilaus, and of the latter's efforts to ruin the virtuous and honest Philocles

Summary

Idomeneus informs Mentor of the confidence he had reposed in Protesilaus, and the artifices of that favorite, who acted in concert with Timocrates in order to ruin Philocles and betray the king himself. He owns that being prepossessed by these two men against Philocles, he had ordered Timocrates to go and put him to death in an expedition in which he commanded his fleet; that Timocrates having failed in his attempt, had been spared by Philocles, who retired to the isle of Samos, after having resigned the command of the fleet to Polymenes, whom Idomeneus himself had nominated in his written order: that, notwithstanding Protesilaus' treachery, he had not been able to prevail upon himself to discard him.

“Protesilaus, who is a little older than myself, was, of all the young men, he whom I loved most. His temper, naturally bold and lively, recommended him to me; he served me in my pleasures; he flattered my passions; and he made me suspicious of another young man whom I had loved likewise, whose name was Philocles. This last feared the gods, and had a greatness of soul with moderation; he placed grandeur not in exalting but in overcoming one's self, and doing nothing that was base. He spoke to me freely of my faults; and even when he did not dare to speak to me, his silence and his melancholy air made me easily guess at what he wanted to reproach me with.[…]”