We can most clearly perceive both the abruptness and the uncertainty of Fortune from those instances where a man who thinks that he is undoubtedly labouring at certain objects for his own benefit suddenly finds out that he is preparing them for his enemies.
For Perseus was constructing columns, and Lucius Aemilius, finding them unfinished, completed them and set statues of himself on them.
He admired the situation of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Corinth&groupId=493&placeId=928">Corinth</a> and the favourable position of its acropolis as regards the command of both districts, that inside the Isthmus and that outside.
After noting the strength of the fortifications of Sicyon and the power of the city of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Argos&groupId=361&placeId=689">Argos</a>, he came to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Epidaurus&groupId=572&placeId=1070">Epidaurus</a>.
He hastened now to pay the visit to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Olympia&groupId=809&placeId=1462">Olympia</a> to which he had long looked forward.
Lucius Aemilius visited the temple in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Olympia&groupId=809&placeId=1462">Olympia</a>, and when he saw the statue of Zeus was awestruck, and said simply that Pheidias seemed to him to have been the only artist who had made a likeness of Homer\'s Zeus; for he himself had come to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Olympia&groupId=809&placeId=1462">Olympia</a> with high expectations but the reality had far surpassed his expectations.
Walbank Commentary