Plutarch's Lives, trans by A. H. Clough
by Plutarch
Hypertext Meanings and Commentaries
from the Encyclopedia of the Self
by Mark Zimmerman
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Abundant wealth and in that wealth no pride;

he was ashamed any one should think that he spent more upon his person
than the meanest Theban. Epaminondas made his familiar and hereditary
poverty more light and easy, by his philosophy and single life; but
Pelopidas married a woman of good family, and had children; yet still
thinking little of his private interests, and devoting all his time to
the public, he ruined his estate: and, when his friends admonished and
told him how necessary that money which he neglected was; "Yes," he
replied, "necessary to Nicodemus," pointing to a blind cripple.

Both seemed equally fitted by nature for all sorts of excellence; but
bodily exercises chiefly delighted Pelopidas, learning Epaminondas; and
the one spent his spare hours in hunting, and the Palaestra, the other in
hearing lectures or philosophizing. And, amongst a thousand points for
praise in both, the judicious esteem nothing equal to that constant
benevolence and friendship, which they inviolably preserved in all their
expeditions, public actions, and administration of the commonwealth. For
if any one looks on the administrations of Aristides and Themistocles, of
Cimon and Pericles, of Nicias and Alcibiades, what confusion, what envy,
what mutual jealousy appears? And if he then casts his eye on the
kindness and reverence that Pelopidas showed Epaminondas, he must needs
confess, that these are more truly and more justly styled colleagues in
government and command than the others, who strove rather to overcome one
another, than their enemies The true cause of this was their virtue;
whence it came that they did not make their actions aim at wealth and
glory, an endeavor sure to lead to bitter and contentious jealousy; but
both from the beginning being inflamed with a divine desire of seeing
their country glorious by their exertions, they used to that end one
another's excellences as their own. Many, indeed, think this strict and
entire affection is to be dated from the battle at Mantinea, where they
both fought, being part of the succors that were sent from Thebes to the
Lacedaemonians, their then friends and allies. For, being placed
together amongst the infantry, and engaging the Arcadians, when the
Lacedaemonian wing, in which they fought, gave ground, and many fled,
they closed their shields together and resisted the assailants.
Pelopidas, having received seven wounds in the forepart of his body, fell
upon a heap of slain friends and enemies; but Epaminondas, though he
thought him past recovery, advanced to defend his arms and body, and
singly fought a multitude, resolving rather to die than forsake his
helpless Pelopidas. And now, he being much distressed, being wounded in
the breast by a spear, and in the arm by a sword, Agesipolis, the king of
the Spartans, came to his succor from the other wing, and beyond hope
delivered both.

After this the Lacedaemonians pretended to be friends to Thebes, but in
truth looked with jealous suspicions on the designs and power of the
city, and chiefly hated the party of Ismenias and Androclides, in which
Pelopidas also was an associate, as tending to liberty, and the
advancement of the commonalty. Therefore Archias, Leontidas, and Philip,
all rich men, and of oligarchical principles, and immoderately ambitious,
urged Phoebidas the Spartan, as he was on his way past the city with a
considerable force, to surprise the Cadmea, and, banishing the contrary
faction, to establish an oligarchy, and by that means subject the city to
the supremacy of the Spartans. He, accepting the proposal, at the
festival of Ceres unexpectedly fell on the Thebans, and made himself
master of the citadel. Ismenias was taken, carried to Sparta, and in a
short time murdered; but Pelopidas, Pherenicus, Androclides, and many
more that fled were publicly proclaimed outlaws. Epaminondas stayed at
home, being not much looked after, as one whom philosophy had made
inactive, and poverty incapable.

The Lacedaemonians cashiered Phoebidas, and fined him one hundred
thousand drachmas, yet still kept a garrison in the Cadmea; which made
all Greece wonder at their inconsistency, since they punished the doer,
but approved the deed. And though the Thebans, having lost their polity,
and being enslaved by Archias and Leontidas, had no hopes to get free
from this tyranny, which they saw guarded by the whole military power of
the Spartans, and had no means to break the yoke, unless these could be
deposed from their command of sea and land; yet Leontidas and his
associates, understanding that the exiles lived at Athens in favor with
the people, and with honor from all the good and virtuous, formed secret
designs against their lives, and, suborning some unknown fellows,
dispatched Androclides, but were not successful on the rest. Letters,
besides, were sent from Sparta to the Athenians, warning them neither to
receive nor countenance the exiles, but expel them as declared common
enemies of the confederacy. But the Athenians, from their natural
hereditary inclination to be kind, and also to make a grateful return to
the Thebans, who had very much assisted them in restoring their
democracy, and had publicly enacted, that if any Athenian would march
armed through Boeotia against the tyrants, that no Boeotian should either
see or hear it, did the Thebans no harm.

Pelopidas, though one of the youngest, was active in privately exciting
each single exile; and often told them at their meetings, that it was
both dishonorable and impious to neglect their enslaved and engarrisoned
country, and, lazily contented with their own lives and safety, depend on
the decrees of the Athenians, and through fear fawn on every
smooth-tongued orator that was able to work upon the people: now they
must venture for this great prize, taking Thrasybulus' bold courage for
example, and as he advanced from Thebes and broke the power of the
Athenian tyrants, so they should march from Athens and free Thebes. When
by this method he had persuaded them, they privately dispatched some
persons to those friends they had left at Thebes, and acquainted them
with their designs. Their plans being approved, Charon, a man of the
greatest distinction, offered his house for their reception; Phillidas
contrived to get himself made secretary to Archias and Philip, who then
held the office of polemarch or chief captain; and Epaminondas had
already inflamed the youth. For, in their exercises, he had encouraged
them to challenge and wrestle with the Spartans, and again, when he saw
them puffed up with victory and success, sharply told them, it was the
greater shame to be such cowards as to serve those whom in strength they
so much excelled.

The day for action being fixed, it was agreed upon by the exiles, that
Pherenicus with the rest should stay in the Thriasian plain, while some
few of the younger men tried the first danger, by endeavoring to get into
the city; and, if they were surprised by their enemies, the others should
take care to provide for their children and parents. Pelopidas first
offered to undertake the business; then Melon, Damoclides, and
Theopompus, men of noble families, who, in other things loving and
faithful to one another, were constant rivals only in glory and
courageous exploits. They were twelve in all, and having taken leave of
those that stayed behind, and sent a messenger to Charon, they went
forward, clad in short coats, and carrying hounds and hunting poles with
them, that they might be taken for hunters beating over the fields, and
prevent all suspicion in those that met them on the way. When the
messenger came to Charon, and told him they were approaching, he did not
change his resolution at the sight of danger, but, being a man of his
word, offered them his house. But one Hipposthenidas, a man of no ill
principles, a lover of his country, and a friend to the exiles, but not
of as much resolution as the shortness of time and the character of the
action required, being as it were dizzied at the greatness of the
approaching enterprise; and beginning now for the first time to
comprehend that, relying on that weak assistance which could be expected
from the exiles, they were undertaking no less a task than to shake the
government, and overthrow the whole power of Sparta; went privately to
his house, and sent a friend to Melon and Pelopidas, desiring them to
forbear for the present, to return to Athens and expect a better
opportunity. The messenger's name was Chlidon, who, going home in haste
and bringing out his horse, asked for the bridle; but, his wife not
knowing where it was, and, when it could not be found, telling him she
had lent it to a friend, first they began to chide, then to curse one
another, and his wife wished the journey might prove ill to him, and
those that sent him; insomuch that Chlidon's passion made him waste a
great part of the day in this quarreling, and then, looking on this
chance as an omen, he laid aside all thoughts of his journey, and went
away to some other business. So nearly had these great and glorious
designs, even in their very birth, lost their opportunity.

But Pelopidas and his companions, dressing themselves like countrymen,
divided, and, whilst it was yet day, entered at different quarters of the
city. It was, besides, a windy day, and it now just began to snow, which
contributed much to their concealment, because most people were gone in
doors to avoid the weather. Those, however, that were concerned in the
design, received them as they came, and conducted them to Charon's house,
where the exiles and the others made up forty-eight in number. The
tyrants' affairs stood thus: the secretary, Phillidas, as I have already
observed, was an accomplice in, and privy to all the contrivance of the
exiles, and he a while before had invited Archias, with others, to an
entertainment on that day, to drink freely, and meet some women of the
town, on purpose that when they were drunk, and given up to their
pleasures, he might deliver them over to the conspirators. But before
Archias was thoroughly heated, notice was given him that the exiles were
privately in the town; a true report indeed, but obscure, and not well
confirmed: nevertheless, though Phillidas endeavored to divert the
discourse, Archias sent one of his guard to Charon, and commanded him to
attend immediately. It was evening, and Pelopidas and his friends with
him in the house, were putting themselves into a fit posture for action,
having their breastplates on already, and their swords girt: but at the
sudden knocking at the door, one stepping forth to inquire the matter,
and learning from the officer that Charon was sent for by the polemarchs,
returned in great confusion and acquainted those within; and all
immediately conjectured that the whole plot was discovered, and they
should be cut in pieces, before so much as achieving any action to do
credit to their bravery; yet all agreed that Charon should obey, and
attend the polemarchs, to prevent suspicion. Charon was, indeed, a man
of courage and resolution in all dangers, yet in this case he was
extremely concerned, lest any should suspect that he was the traitor, and
the death of so many brave citizens be laid on him. And, therefore, when
he was ready to depart, he brought his son out of the women's
apartment, a little boy as yet, but one of the best looking and strongest
of all those of his age, and delivered him to Pelopidas with these words:
"If you find me a traitor, treat this boy as an enemy without any mercy."
The concern which Charon showed, drew tears from many; but all protested
vehemently against his supposing any one of them so mean-spirited and
base, at the appearance of approaching danger, as to suspect or blame
him; and therefore, desired him not to involve his son, but to set him
out of harm's way; that so he, perhaps, escaping the tyrant's power,
might live to revenge the city and his friends. Charon, however, refused
to remove him, and asked, "What life, what safety could be more
honorable, than to die bravely with his father, and such generous
companions?"  Thus, imploring the protection of the gods, and saluting
and encouraging them all, he departed, considering with himself, and
composing his voice and countenance, that he might look as little like as
possible to what in fact he really was.

When he was come to the door, Archias with Phillidas came out to him, and
said, "I have heard, Charon, that there are some men just come, and
lurking in the town, and that some of the citizens are resorting to
them."  Charon was at first disturbed, but asking, "Who are they? and who
conceals them?" and finding Archias did not thoroughly understand the
matter, he concluded that none of those privy to the design had given
this information, and replied, "Do not disturb yourselves for an empty
rumor: I will look into it, however, for no report in such a case is to
be neglected."  Phillidas, who stood by, commended him, and leading back
Archias, got him deep in drink, still prolonging the entertainment with
the hopes of the women's company at last. But when Charon returned, and
found the men prepared, not as if they hoped for safety and success, but
to die bravely and with the slaughter of their enemies, he told Pelopidas
and his friends the truth, but pretended to others in the house that
Archias talked to him about something else, inventing a story for the
occasion. This storm was just blowing over, when fortune brought
another; for a messenger came with a letter from one Archias, the
Hierophant at Athens, to his namesake Archias, who was his friend and
guest. This did not merely contain a vague conjectural suspicion, but,
as appeared afterwards, disclosed every particular of the design. The
messenger being brought in to Archias, who was now pretty well drunk, and
delivering the letter, said to him, "The writer of this desired it might
be read at once; it is on urgent business."  Archias, with a smile,
replied, "Urgent business tomorrow," and so receiving the letter, he put
it under his pillow, and returned to what he had been speaking of with
Phillidas; and these words of his are a proverb to this day amongst the
Greeks.

Now when the opportunity seemed convenient for action, they set out in
two companies; Pelopidas and Damoclides with their party went against
Leontidas and Hypates, that lived near together; Charon and Melon against
Archias and Philip, having put on women's apparel over their
breastplates, and thick garlands of fir and pine to shade their faces;
and so, as soon as they came to the door, the guests clapped and gave a
huzza, supposing them to be the women they expected. But when the
conspirators had looked about the room, and carefully marked all that
were at the entertainment, they drew their swords, and making at Archias
and Philip amongst the tables, disclosed who they were. Phillidas
persuaded some few of his guests to sit still, and those that got up and
endeavored to assist the polemarchs, being drunk were easily dispatched.
But Pelopidas and his party met with a harder task; as they attempted
Leontidas, a sober and formidable man, and when they came to his house
found his doors shut, he being already gone to bed. They knocked a long
time before any one would answer, but, at last, a servant that heard
them, coming out and unbarring the door, as soon as the gate gave way,
they rushed in, and, overturning the man, made all haste to Leontidas's
chamber. But Leontidas, guessing at the matter by the noise and running,
leaped from his bed and drew his dagger, but forgot to put out the
lights, and by that means make them fall foul on one another in the dark.
As it was, being easily seen by reason of the light, he received them at
his chamber door, and stabbed Cephisodorus, the first man that entered:
on his falling, the next that he engaged was Pelopidas; and the passage
being narrow and Cephisodorus's body lying in the way, there was a fierce
and dangerous conflict. At last Pelopidas prevailed, and having killed
Leontidas, he and his companions went in pursuit of Hypates, and after
the same manner broke into his house. He perceived the design, and fled
to his neighbors; but they closely followed, and caught and killed him.

This done they joined Melon, and sent to hasten the exiles they had left
in Attica: and called upon the citizens to maintain their liberty, and
taking down the spoils from the porches, and breaking open all the
armorers' shops that were near, equipped those that came to their
assistance. Epaminondas and Gorgidas came in already armed, with a
gallant train of young men, and the best of the old. Now the city was in
a great excitement and confusion, a great noise and hurry, lights set up
in every house, men running here and there; however, the people did not
as yet gather into a body, but, amazed at the proceedings, and not
clearly understanding the matter waited for the day. And, therefore, the
Spartan officers were thought to have been in fault for not falling on at
once, since their garrison consisted of about fifteen hundred men, and
many of the citizens ran to them; but, alarmed with the noise, the fires,
and the confused running of the people, they kept quietly within the
Cadmea. As soon as day appeared, the exiles from Attica came in armed,
and there was a general assembly of the people. Epaminondas and Gorgidas
brought forth Pelopidas and his party, encompassed by the priests, who
held out garlands, and exhorted the people to fight for their country and
their gods. The assembly, at their appearance, rose up in a body, and
with shouts and acclamations received the men as their deliverers and
benefactors.

Then Pelopidas, being chosen chief captain of Boeotia, together with
Melon and Charon, proceeded at once to blockade the citadel, and stormed
it on all sides, being extremely desirous to expel the Lacedaemonians,
and free the Cadmea, before an army could come from Sparta to their
relief. And he just so narrowly succeeded, that they, having surrendered
on terms and departed, on their way home met Cleombrotus at Megara
marching towards Thebes with a considerable force. The Spartans
condemned and executed Herippidas and Arcissus, two of their governors@
at Thebes, and Lysanoridas the third being severely fined, fled
Peloponnesus. This action so closely resembling that of Thrasybulus, in
the courage of the actors, the danger, the encounters, and equally
crowned with success, was called the sister of it by the Greeks. For we
can scarcely find any other examples where so small and weak a party of
men by bold courage overcame such numerous and powerful enemies, or
brought greater blessings to their country by so doing. But the
subsequent change of affairs made this action the more famous; for the
war which forever ruined the pretensions of Sparta to command, and put an
end to the supremacy she then exercised alike by sea and by land,
proceeded from that night, in which Pelopidas not surprising any fort, or
castle, or citadel, but coming, the twelfth man, to a private house,
loosed and broke, if we may speak truth in metaphor, the chains of the
Spartan sway, which before seemed of adamant and indissoluble.

But now the Lacedaemonians invading Boeotia with a great army, the
Athenians, affrighted at the danger, declared themselves no allies to
Thebes, and prosecuting those that stood for the Boeotian interest,
executed some, and banished and fined others: and the cause of Thebes,
destitute of allies, seemed in a desperate condition. But Pelopidas and
Gorgidas, holding the office of captains of Boeotia, designing to breed a
quarrel between the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, made this contrivance.
One Sphodrias, a Spartan, a man famous indeed for courage in battle, but
of no sound judgment, full of ungrounded hopes and foolish ambition, was
left with an army at Thespiae, to receive and succor the Theban
renegades. To him Pelopidas and his colleagues privately sent a
merchant, one of their friends, with money, and, what proved more
efficient, advice, -- that it more became a man of his worth to set upon
some great enterprise, and that he should, making a sudden incursion on
the unprotected Athenians, surprise the Piraeus; since nothing could be
so grateful to Sparta, as to take Athens; and the Thebans, of course,
would not stir to the assistance of men whom they now hated and looked
upon as traitors. Sphodrias, being at last wrought upon, marched into
Attica by night with his army, and advanced as far as Eleusis; but there
his soldiers' hearts failing, after exposing his project and involving
the Spartans in a dangerous war, he retreated to Thespiae. After this,
the Athenians zealously sent supplies to Thebes, and putting to sea,
sailed to many places, and offered support and protection to all those of
the Greeks who were willing to revolt.

The Thebans, meantime, singly, having many skirmishes with the Spartans
in Boeotia, and fighting some battles, not great indeed, but important as
training and instructing them, thus had their minds raised, and their
bodies inured to labor, and gained both experience and courage by these
frequent encounters; insomuch that we have it related that Antalcidas,
the Spartan, said to Agesilaus, returning wounded from Boeotia, "Indeed,
the Thebans have paid you handsomely for instructing them in the art of
war, against their wills."  In real truth, however, Agesilaus was not
their master in this, but those that prudently and opportunely, as men do
young dogs, set them on their enemies, and brought them safely off after
they had tasted the sweets of victory and resolution. Of all those
leaders, Pelopidas deserves the most honor: as after they had once
chosen him general, he was every year in command as long as he lived;
either captain of the sacred band, or, what was most frequent, chief
captain  of Boeotia. About Plataea and Thespiae the Spartans were
routed and put to flight, and Phoebidas, that surprised the Cadmea,
slain; and at Tanagra a considerable force was worsted, and the leader
Panthoides killed. But these encounters, though they raised the victor's
spirits, did not thoroughly dishearten the unsuccessful; for there was no
set battle, or regular fighting, but mere incursions on advantage, in
which, according to occasion, they charged, retired again, or pursued.
But the battle at Tegyrae, which seemed a prelude to Leuctra, won
Pelopidas a great reputation; for none of the other commanders could
claim any hand in the design, nor the enemies any show of victory. The
city of the Orchomenians siding with the Spartans, and having received
two companies for its guard, he kept a constant eye upon it, and
watched his opportunity. Hearing that the garrison had moved into
Locris, and hoping to find Orchomenus defenseless, he marched with his
sacred band, and some few horsemen. But when he approached the city, and
found that a reinforcement of the garrison was on its march from Sparta,
he made a circuit round the foot of the mountains, and retreated with his
little army through Tegyrae, that being the only way he could pass. For
the river Melas, almost as soon as it rises, spreads itself into marshes
and navigable pools, and makes all the plain between impassable. A
little below the marshes stands the temple and oracle of Apollo
Tegyraeus, forsaken not long before that time, having flourished till the
Median wars, Echecrates then being priest. Here they profess that the god
was born; the neighboring mountain is called Delos, and there the river
Melas comes again into a channel; behind the temple rise two springs,
admirable for the sweetness, abundance, and coolness of the streams; one
they call Phoenix, the other Elaea, even to the present time, as if
Lucina had not been delivered between two trees, but fountains. A place
hard by, called Ptoum, is shown, where they say she was affrighted by the
appearance of a boar; and the stories of the Python and Tityus are in
like manner appropriated by these localities. I omit many of the points
that are used as arguments. For our tradition does not rank this god
amongst those that were born, and then made immortal, as Hercules and
Bacchus, whom their virtue raised above a mortal and passable condition;
but Apollo is one of the eternal unbegotten deities, if we may collect
any certainty concerning these things, from the statements of the oldest
and wisest in such subjects.

As Thebans were retreating from Orchomenus towards Tegyrae, the
Spartans, at the same time marching from Locris, met them. As soon as
they came in view, advancing through the straits, one told Pelopidas, "We
are fallen into our enemy's hands;" he replied, "And why not they into
ours?" and immediately commanded his horse to come up from the rear and
charge, while he himself drew his infantry, being three hundred in
number, into a close body, hoping by that means, at whatsoever point he
made the attack, to break his way through his more numerous enemies. The
Spartans had two companies, (the company consisting, as Ephorus states,
of five hundred; Callisthenes says seven hundred; others, as Polybius,
nine hundred) and their leaders, Gorgoleon and Theopompus, confident of
success, advanced upon the Thebans. The charge being made with much
fury, chiefly where the commanders were posted, the Spartan captains that
engaged Pelopidas were first killed; and those immediately around them
suffering severely, the whole army was thus disheartened, and opened a
lane for the Thebans, as if they desired to pass through and escape. But
when Pelopidas entered, and turning against those that stood their
ground, still went on with a bloody slaughter, an open fight ensued
amongst the Spartans. The pursuit was carried but a little way, because
they feared the neighboring Orchomenians, and the reinforcement from
Lacedaemon; they had succeeded, however, in fighting a way through their
enemies, and overpowering their whole force; and, therefore, erecting a
trophy, and spoiling the slain, they returned home extremely encouraged
with their achievements. For in all the great wars there had ever been
against Greeks or barbarians, the Spartans were never before beaten by a
smaller company than their own; nor, indeed, in a set battle, when their
number was equal. Hence their courage was thought irresistible, and
their high repute before the battle made a conquest already of enemies,
who thought themselves no match for the men of Sparta even on equal
terms. But this battle first taught the other Greeks, that not only
Eurotas, or the country between Babyce and Cnacion, breeds men of courage
and resolution; but that where the youth are ashamed of baseness, and
ready to venture in a good cause, where they fly disgrace more than
danger, there, wherever it be, are found the bravest and most formidable
opponents.

Gorgidas, according to some, first formed the Sacred Band of three
hundred chosen men, to whom, as being a guard for the citadel, the State
allowed provision, and all things necessary for exercise: and hence they
were called the city band, as citadels of old were usually called cities.
Others say that it was composed of young men attached to each other by
personal affection, and a pleasant saying of Pammenes is current, that
Homer's Nestor was not well skilled in ordering an army, when he advised
the Greeks to rank tribe and tribe, and family and family together, that

So tribe might tribe, and kinsmen kinsmen aid,

but that he should have joined lovers and their beloved. For men of the
same tribe or family little value one another when dangers press; but a
band cemented by friendship grounded upon love, is never to be broken,
and invincible; since the lovers, ashamed to be base in sight of their
beloved, and the beloved before their lovers, willingly rush into danger
for the relief of one another. Nor can that be wondered at; since they
have more regard for their absent lovers than for others present; as in
the instance of the man, who, when his enemy was going to kill him,
earnestly requested him to run him through the breast, that his lover
might not blush to see him wounded in the back. It is a tradition
likewise, that Iolaus, who assisted Hercules in his labors and fought at
his side, was beloved of him; and Aristotle observes, that even in his
time, lovers plighted their faith at Iolaus's tomb. It is likely,
therefore, that this band was called sacred on this account; as Plato
calls a lover a divine friend. It is stated that it was never beaten
till the battle at Chaeronea: and when Philip, after the fight, took a
view of the slain, and came to the place where the three hundred that
fought his phalanx lay dead together, he wondered, and understanding that
it was the band of lovers, he shed tears and said, "Perish any man who
suspects that these men either did or suffered anything that was base."

It was not the disaster of Laius, as the poets imagine, that first gave
rise to this form of attachment amongst the Thebans, but their
law-givers, designing to soften, whilst they were young, their natural
fierceness, brought, for example, the pipe into great esteem, both in
serious and sportive occasions, and gave great encouragement to these
friendships in the Palaestra, to temper the manners and characters of the
youth. With a view to this they did well, again, to make Harmony, the
daughter of Mars and Venus, their tutelar deity; since, where force and
courage is joined with gracefulness and winning behavior a harmony ensues
that combines all the elements of society in perfect consonance and
order. -- Gorgidas distributed this Sacred Band all through the front
ranks of the infantry and thus made their gallantry less conspicuous; not
being united in one body, but mingled with so many others of inferior
resolution, they had no fair opportunity of showing what they could do.
But Pelopidas, having sufficiently tried their bravery at Tegyrae, where
they had fought alone, and around his own person, never afterward
divided them, but keeping them entire, and as one man, gave them the
first duty in the greatest battles. For as horses run brisker in a
chariot than singly, not that their joint force divides the air with
greater ease, but because being matched one against the other, emulation
kindles and inflames their courage; thus he thought, brave men, provoking
one another to noble actions, would prove most serviceable and most
resolute, where all were united together.

Now when the Lacedaemonians had made peace with the other Greeks, and
united all their strength against the Thebans only, and their king,
Cleombrotus, had passed the frontier with ten thousand foot and one
thousand horse, and not only subjection, as heretofore, but total
dispersion and annihilation threatened, and Boeotia was in a greater fear
than ever, -- Pelopidas, leaving his house, when his wife followed him on
his way, and with tears begged him to be careful of his life, made
answer, "Private men, my wife, should be advised to look to themselves,
generals to save others."  And when he came to the camp, and found the
chief captains disagreeing, he, first, joined the side of Epaminondas,
who advised to fight the enemy; though Pelopidas himself was not then in
office as chief captain of Boeotia, but in command of the Sacred Band,
and trusted as it was fit a man should be, who had given his country such
proofs of his zeal for its freedom. And so, when a battle was agreed on,
and they encamped in front of the Spartans at Leuctra, Pelopidas saw a
vision, which much discomposed him. In that plain lie the bodies of the
daughters of one Scedasus, called from the place Leuctridae, having been
buried there, after having been ravished by some Spartan strangers. When
this base and lawless deed was done, and their father could get no
satisfaction at Lacedaemon, with bitter imprecations on the Spartans, he
killed himself at his daughters' tombs: and, from that time, the
prophecies and oracles still warned them to have a great care of the
divine vengeance at Leuctra. Many, however, did not understand the
meaning, being uncertain about the place, because there was a little
maritime town of Laconia called Leuctron, and near Megalopolis in Arcadia
a place of the same name; and the villainy was committed long before this
battle.

Now Pelopidas, being asleep in the camp, thought he saw the maidens
weeping about their tombs, and cursing the Spartans, and Scedasus
commanding, if they desired the victory, to sacrifice a virgin with
chestnut hair to his daughters. Pelopidas looked on this as an harsh and
impious injunction, but rose and told it to the prophets and commanders
of the army, some of whom contended, that it was fit to obey, and adduced
as examples from the ancients, Menoeceus, son of Creon; Macaria, daughter
of Hercules; and from later times, Pherecydes the philosopher, slain by
the Lacedaemonians, and his skin, as the oracles advised, still kept by
their kings. Leonidas, again, warned by the oracle, did as it were
sacrifice himself for the good of Greece; Themistocles offered human
victims to Bacchus Omestes, before the engagement at Salamis; and success
showed their actions to be good. On the contrary, Agesilaus going from
the same place, and against the same enemies that Agamemnon did, and,
being commanded in a dream at Aulis to sacrifice his daughter, was so
weak as to disobey; the consequence of which was, that his expedition was
unsuccessful and inglorious. But some on the other side urged, that such
a barbarous and impious oblation could not be pleasing to any Superior
Beings: that typhons and giants did not preside over the world, but the
general father of gods and men; that it was absurd to imagine any
divinities or powers delighted in slaughter and sacrifices of men; or, if
there were an, such, they were to be neglected, as weak and unable to
assist; such unreasonable and cruel desires could only proceed from, and
live in weak and depraved minds.

The commanders thus disputing, and Pelopidas being in a great perplexity,
a mare colt, breaking from the herd, ran through the camp, and when she
came to the place where they were, stood still; and whilst some admired
her bright chestnut color, others her mettle, or the strength and fury of
her neighing, Theocritus, the augur, took thought, and cried out to
Pelopidas, "O good friend! look, the sacrifice is come; expect no other
virgin, but use that which the gods have sent thee."  With that they took
the colt, and, leading her to the maidens' sepulchres, with the usual
solemnity and prayers, offered her with joy, and spread through the whole
army the account of Pelopidas's dream, and how they had given the
required sacrifice.

In the battle, Epaminondas, bending his phalanx to the left, that, as
much as possible, he might divide the right wing, composed of Spartans,
from the other Greeks, and distress Cleombrotus, by a fierce charge in
column on that wing, the enemies perceived the design, and began to
change their order, to open and extend their right wing, and, as they far
exceeded him in number, to encompass Epaminondas. But Pelopidas with the
three hundred came rapidly up, before Cleombrotus could extend his line,
and close up his divisions, and so fell upon the Spartans while in
disorder; though the Lacedaemonians, the expertest and most practiced
soldiers of all mankind, used to train and accustom themselves to nothing
so much as to keep themselves from confusion upon any change of position,
and to follow any leader, or right hand man, and form in order, and fight
on what part soever dangers press. In this battle, however, Epaminondas
with his phalanx, neglecting the other Greeks, and charging them alone,
and Pelopidas coming up with such incredible speed and fury, so broke
their courage, and baffled their art, that there began such a flight and
slaughter amongst the Spartans, as was never before known. And so
Pelopidas, though in no high office, but only captain of a small band,
got as much reputation by the victory, as Epaminondas, who was general
and chief captain of Boeotia.

Into Peloponnesus, however, they both advanced together as colleagues in
supreme command, and gained the greater part of the nations there from
the Spartan confederacy; Elis, Argo, all Arcadia, and much of Laconia
itself. It was the dead of winter, and but few of the last days of the
month remained, and, in the beginning of the next, new officers were to
succeed, and whoever failed to deliver up his charge, forfeited his head.
Therefore, the other chief captains fearing the law, and to avoid the
sharpness of the winter, advised a retreat. But Pelopidas joined with
Epaminondas, and, encouraging his countrymen, led them against Sparta,
and, passing the Eurotas, took many of the towns, and wasted the country
as far as the sea. This army consisted of seventy thousand Greeks, of
which number the Thebans could not make the twelfth part; but the
reputation of the men made all their allies contented to follow them as
leaders, though no articles to that effect had been made. For, indeed,
it seems the first and paramount law, that he that wants a defender, is
naturally a subject to him that is able to defend: as mariners, though
in a calm or in the port they grow insolent, and brave the pilot, yet
when a storm comes, and danger is at hand, they all attend, and put their
hopes in him. So the Argives, Eleans, and Arcadians, in their
congresses, would contend with the Thebans for superiority in command,
yet in a battle, or any hazardous undertaking, of their own will followed
their Theban captains. In this expedition, they united all Arcadia into
one body, and, expelling the Spartans that inhabited Messenia, they
called back the old Messenians, and established them in Ithome in one
body; -- and, returning through Cenchreae, they dispersed the Athenians, who
designed to set upon them in the straits, and hinder their march.

For these exploits, all the other Greeks loved their courage, and admired
their success; but among their own citizens, envy, still increasing with
their glory, prepared them no pleasing nor agreeable reception. Both
were tried for their lives, because they did not deliver up their command
in the first month, Bucatius, as the law required, but kept it four
months longer, in which time they did these memorable actions in
Messenia, Arcadia, and Laconia. Pelopidas was first tried, and therefore
in greatest danger, but both were acquitted. Epaminondas bore the
accusation and trial very patiently, esteeming it a great and essential
part of courage and generosity, not to resent injuries in political life.
But Pelopidas, being a man of a fiercer temper, and stirred on by his
friends to revenge the affront, took the following occasion. Meneclidas,
the orator, was one of those that had met with Melon and Pelopidas at
Charon's house; but not receiving equal honor, and being powerful in his
speech, but loose in his manners, and ill-natured, he abused his natural
endowments, even after this trial, to accuse and calumniate his betters.
He excluded Epaminondas from the chief captaincy, and for a long time
kept the upper hand of him; but he was not powerful enough to bring
Pelopidas out of the people's favor, and therefore endeavored to raise a
quarrel between him and Charon. And since it is some comfort to the
envious, to make those men, whom themselves cannot excel, appear worse
than others, he studiously enlarged upon Charon's actions in his speeches
to the people, and made panegyrics on his expeditions and victories; and,
of the victory which the horsemen won at Plataea, before the battle at
Leuctra, under Charon's command, he endeavored to make the following
sacred memorial. Androcydes, the Cyzicenian, had undertaken to paint a
previous battle for the city, and was at work in Thebes; and when the
revolt began, and the war came on, the Thebans kept the picture that was
then almost finished. This picture Meneclidas persuaded them to
dedicate, inscribed with Charon's name, designing by that means to
obscure the glory of Epaminondas and Pelopidas. This was a ludicrous
piece of pretension; to set a single victory, where only one Gerandas, an
obscure Spartan, and forty more were slain, above such numerous and
important battles. This motion Pelopidas opposed, as contrary to law,
alleging that it was not the custom of the Thebans to honor any single
man, but to attribute the victory to their country; yet in all the
contest, he extremely commended Charon, and confined himself to showing
Meneclidas to be a troublesome and envious fellow, asking the Thebans, if
they had done nothing that was excellent, .... insomuch that
Meneclidas was severely fined; and he, being unable to pay, endeavored
afterwards to disturb the government. These things give us some light
into Pelopidas's life.

Now when Alexander, the tyrant of Pherae, made open war against some of
the Thessalians, and had designs against all, the cities sent an embassy
to Thebes, to desire succors and a general; and Pelopidas, knowing that
Epaminondas was detained by the Peloponnesian affairs, offered himself to
lead the Thessalians, being unwilling to let his courage and skill lie
idle, and thinking it unfit that Epaminondas should be withdrawn from his
present duties. When he came into Thessaly with his army, he presently
took Larissa, and endeavored to reclaim Alexander, who submitted, and
bring him, from being a tyrant, to govern gently, and according to law;
but finding him untractable and brutish, and hearing great complaints of
his lust and cruelty, Pelopidas began to be severe, and used him roughly,
insomuch that the tyrant stole away privately with his guard. But
Pelopidas, leaving the Thessalians fearless of the tyrant, and friends
amongst themselves, marched into Macedonia, where Ptolemy was then at war
with Alexander, the king of Macedon; both parties having sent for him to
hear and determine their differences, and assist the one that appeared
injured. When he came, he reconciled them, called back the exiles, and,
receiving for hostages Philip the king's brother, and thirty children of
the nobles, he brought them to Thebes; showing the other Greeks how wide
a reputation the Thebans had gained for honesty and courage. This was
that Philip who afterward endeavored to enslave the Greeks: then he was
a boy, and lived with Pammenes in Thebes; and hence some conjecture, that
he took Epaminondas's actions for the rule of his own; and perhaps,
indeed, he did take example from his activity and skill in war, which,
however, was but a small portion of his virtues; of his temperance,
justice, generosity, and mildness, in which he was truly great, Philip
enjoyed no share, either by nature or imitation.

After this, upon a second complaint of the Thessalians against Alexander
of Pherae, as a disturber of the cities, Pelopidas was joined with
Ismenias, in an embassy to him; but led no forces from Thebes, not
expecting any war, and therefore was necessitated to make use of the
Thessalians upon the emergency. At the same time, also, Macedon was in
confusion again, as Ptolemy had murdered the king, and seized the
government: but the king's friends sent for Pelopidas, and he, being
willing to interpose in the matter, but having no soldiers of his own,
enlisted some mercenaries in the country, and with them marched against
Ptolemy. When they faced one another, Ptolemy corrupted these
mercenaries with a sum of money, and persuaded them to revolt to him; but
yet, fearing the very name and reputation of Pelopidas, he came to him as
his superior, submitted, begged his pardon, and protested that he kept
the government only for the brothers of the dead king, and would prove a
friend to the friends, and an enemy to the enemies of Thebes; and, to
confirm this, he gave his son, Philoxenus, and fifty of his companions,
for hostages. These Pelopidas sent to Thebes; but he himself, being
vexed at the treachery of the mercenaries, and understanding that most of
their goods, their wives and children, lay at Pharsalus, so that if he
could take them, the injury would be sufficiently revenged, got together
some of the Thessalians, and marched to Pharsalus. When he had just
entered the city, Alexander, the tyrant, appeared before it with an army;
but Pelopidas and his friends, thinking that he came to clear himself
from those crimes that were laid to his charge, went to him; and though
they knew very well that he was profligate and cruel, yet they imagined
that the authority of Thebes, and their own dignity and reputation, would
secure them from violence. But the tyrant, seeing them come unarmed and
alone, seized them, and made himself master of Pharsalus. Upon this his
subjects were much intimidated, thinking that after so great and so bold
an iniquity, he would spare none, but behave himself toward all, and in
all matters, as one despairing of his life. The Thebans, when they heard
of this, were very much enraged, and dispatched an army, Epaminondas
being then in disgrace, under the command of other leaders. When the
tyrant brought Pelopidas to Pherae, at first he permitted those that
desired it to speak with him, imagining that this disaster would break
his spirit, and make him appear contemptible. But when Pelopidas advised
the complaining Pheraeans to be comforted, as if the tyrant was now
certain in a short time to smart for his injuries, and sent to tell him,
"That it was absurd daily to torment and murder his wretched innocent
subjects, and yet spare him, who, he well knew, if ever he got his
liberty, would be bitterly revenged;" the tyrant, wondering at his
boldness and freedom of speech, replied, "And why is Pelopidas in haste
to die?"  He, hearing of it, rejoined, "That you may be the sooner
ruined, being then more hated by the gods than now."  From that time he
forbade any to converse with him; but Thebe, the daughter of Jason and
wife to Alexander, hearing from the keepers of the bravery and noble
behavior of Pelopidas, had a great desire to see and speak with him. Now
when she came into the prison, and, as a woman, could not at once discern
his greatness in his calamity, only, judging by the meanness of his
attire and general appearance, that he was used basely and not befitting
a man of his reputation, she wept. Pelopidas, at first not knowing who
she was, stood amazed; but when he understood, saluted her by her
father's name -- Jason and he having been friends and familiars -- and
she saying, "I pity your wife, Sir," he replied, "And I you, that though
not in chains, can endure Alexander."  This touched the woman, who
already hated Alexander for his cruelty and injustice, for his general
debaucheries, and for his abuse of her youngest brother. She, therefore,
often went to Pelopidas, and, speaking freely of the indignities she
suffered, grew more enraged, and more exasperated against Alexander.

The Theban generals that were sent into Thessaly did nothing, but, being
either unskillful or unfortunate, made a dishonorable retreat, for which
the city fined each of them ten thousand drachmas, and sent Epaminondas
with their forces. The Thessalians, inspirited by the fame of this
general, at once began to stir, and the tyrant's affairs were at the
verge of destruction; so great was the fear that possessed his captains
and his friends, and so eager the desire of his subjects to revolt, in
hope of his speedy punishment. But Epaminondas, more solicitous for the
safety of Pelopidas than his own glory, and fearing that if things came
to extremity, Alexander would grow desperate, and, like a wild beast,
turn and worry him, did not prosecute the war to the utmost; but,
hovering still over him with his army, he so handled the tyrant as not to
leave him any confidence, and yet not to drive him to despair and fury.
He was aware of his savageness, and the little value he had for right and
justice, insomuch that sometimes he buried men alive, and sometimes
dressed them in bear's and boar's skins, and then baited them with dogs,
or shot at them for his divertisement. At Meliboea and Scotussa, two
cities, his allies, he called all the inhabitants to an assembly, and
then surrounded them and cut them to pieces with his guards. He
consecrated the spear with which he killed his uncle Polyphron, and,
crowning it with garlands, sacrificed to it as a god, and called it
Tychon. And once seeing a tragedian act Euripides's Troades, he left the
theater; but sending for the actor, bade him not to be concerned at his
departure, but act as he had been used to do, as it was not in contempt
of him that he departed, but because he was ashamed that his citizens
should see him, who never pitied any man that he murdered, weep at the
sufferings of Hecuba and Andromache. This tyrant, however, alarmed at
the very name, report, and appearance of an expedition under the conduct
of Epaminondas, presently

Dropped like a craven cock his conquered wing,

and sent an embassy to entreat and offer satisfaction. Epaminondas
refused to admit such a man as an ally to the Thebans, but granted him a
truce of thirty days, and, Pelopidas and Ismenias being delivered up,
returned home.

Now the Thebans, understanding that the Spartans and Athenians had sent
an embassy to the Persians for assistance, themselves, likewise, sent
Pelopidas; an excellent design to increase his glory, no man having ever
before passed through the dominions of the king with greater fame and
reputation. For the glory that he won against the Spartans, did not
creep slowly or obscurely; but, after the fame of the first battle at
Leuctra was gone abroad, the report of new victories continually
following, exceedingly increased, and spread his celebrity far and near.
Whatever satraps or generals or commanders he met, he was the object of
their wonder and discourse; "This is the man," they said, "who hath
beaten the Lacedaemonians from sea and land, and confined that Sparta
within Taygetus and Eurotas, which, but a little before, under the
conduct of Agesilaus, was entering upon a war with the great king about
Susa and Ecbatana."  This pleased Artaxerxes, and he was the more
inclined to show Pelopidas attention and honor, being desirous to seem
reverenced, and attended by the greatest. But when he saw him and heard
his discourse, more solid than the Athenians, and not so haughty as the
Spartans, his regard was heightened, and, truly acting like a king, he
openly showed the respect that he felt for him; and this the other
ambassadors perceived. Of all other Greeks he had been thought to have
done Antalcidas, the Spartan, the greatest honor, by sending him that
garland dipped in an unguent, which he himself had worn at an
entertainment. Indeed, he did not deal so delicately with Pelopidas,
but, according to the custom, gave him the most splendid and considerable
presents, and granted him his desires, that the Grecians should be free,
Messenia inhabited, and the Thebans accounted the king's hereditary
friends. With these answers, but not accepting one of the presents,
except what was a pledge of kindness and good-will, he returned. This
behavior of Pelopidas ruined the other ambassadors: the Athenians
condemned and executed their Timagoras, and, indeed, if they did it for
receiving so many presents from the king, their sentence was just and
good; as he not only took gold and silver, but a rich bed, and slaves to
make it, as if the Greeks were unskillful in that art; besides eighty
cows and herdsmen, professing he needed cow's milk for some distemper;
and, lastly, he was carried in a litter to the seaside, with a present of
four talents for his attendants. But the Athenians, perhaps, were not so
much irritated at his greediness for the presents. For Epicrates the
baggage-carrier not only confessed to the people that he had received
gifts from the king, but made a motion, that instead of nine archons,
they should yearly choose nine poor citizens to be sent ambassadors to
the king, and enriched by his presents, and the people only laughed at
the joke. But they were vexed that the Thebans obtained their desires,
never considering that Pelopidas's fame was more powerful than all their
rhetorical discourse, with a man who still inclined to the victorious in
arms. This embassy, having obtained the restitution of Messenia, and the
freedom of the other Greeks, got Pelopidas a great deal of good-will at
his return.

At this time, Alexander the Pheraean falling back to his old nature, and
having seized many of the Thessalian cities, and put garrisons upon the
Achaeans of Phthiotis, and the Magnesians, the cities, hearing that
Pelopidas was returned, sent an embassy to Thebes, requesting succors,
and him for their leader. The Thebans willingly granted their desire;
and now when all things were prepared, and the general beginning to
march, the sun was eclipsed, and darkness spread over the city at
noonday. Now when Pelopidas saw them startled at the prodigy, he did not
think it fit to force on men who were afraid and out of heart, nor to
hazard seven thousand of his citizens; and therefore with only three
hundred horse volunteers, set forward himself to Thessaly, much against
the will of the augurs and his fellow-citizens in general, who all
imagined this marked portent to have reference to this great man. But he
was heated against Alexander for the injuries he had received, and hoped
likewise, from the discourse which formerly he had with Thebe, that his
family by this time was divided and in disorder. But the glory of the
expedition chiefly excited him; for he was extremely desirous at this
time, when the Lacedaemonians were sending out military officers to
assist Dionysius the Sicilian tyrant, and the Athenians took Alexander's
pay, and honored him with a brazen statue as a benefactor, that the
Thebans should be seen, alone, of all the Greeks, undertaking the cause
of those who were oppressed by tyrants, and destroying the violent and
illegal forms of government in Greece.

When Pelopidas was come to Pharsalus, he formed an army, and presently
marched against Alexander; and Alexander understanding that Pelopidas had
few Thebans with him, and that his own infantry was double the number of
the Thessalians, faced him at Thetidium. Some one told Pelopidas, "The
tyrant meets us with a great army;" "So much the better," he replied,
"for then we shall overcome the more."  Between the two armies lay some
steep high hills about Cynoscephalae, which both parties endeavored to
take by their foot. Pelopidas commanded his horse, which were good and
many, to charge that of the enemies; they routed and pursued them through
the plain. But Alexander, meantime, took the hills, and charging the
Thessalian foot that came up later, and strove to climb the steep and
craggy ascent, killed the foremost, and the others, much distressed,
could do the enemies no harm. Pelopidas, observing this, sounded a
retreat to his horse, and gave orders that they should charge the enemies
that kept their ground; and he himself, taking his shield, quickly
joined those that fought about the hills, and, advancing to the front,
filled his men with such courage and alacrity, that the enemies imagined
they came with other spirits and other bodies to the onset. They stood
two or three charges, but finding these come on stoutly, and the horse,
also, returning from the pursuit, gave ground, and retreated in order.
Pelopidas now perceiving, from the rising ground, that the enemy's army
was, though not yet routed, full of disorder and confusion, stood and
looked about for Alexander; and when he saw him in the right wing,
encouraging and ordering his mercenaries, he could not moderate his
anger, but inflamed at the sight, and blindly following his passion,
regardless alike of his own life and his command, advanced far before his
soldiers, crying out and challenging the tyrant who did not dare to
receive him, but retreating, hid himself amongst his guard. The foremost
of the mercenaries that came hand to hand were driven back by Pelopidas,
and some killed; but many at a distance shot through his armor and
wounded him, till the Thessalians, in anxiety for the result, ran down
from the hill to his relief, but found him already slain. The horse came
up, also, and routed the phalanx, and, following the pursuit a great way,
filled the whole country with the slain, which were above three thousand.

No one can wonder that the Thebans then present, should show great grief
at the death of Pelopidas, calling him their father, deliverer, and
instructor in all that was good and commendable. But the Thessalians and
the allies out-doing in their public edicts all the just honors that
could be paid to human courage, gave, in their display of feeling, yet
stronger demonstrations of the kindness they had for him. It is stated,
that none of the soldiers, when they heard of his death, would put off
their armor, unbridle their horses, or dress their wounds, but, still hot
and with their arms on, ran to the corpse, and, as if he had been yet
alive and could see what they did, heaped up spoils about his body. They
cut off their horses' manes and their own hair, many kindled no fire in
their tents, took no supper, and silence and sadness was spread over all
the army; as if they had not gained the greatest and most glorious
victory, but were overcome by the tyrant, and enslaved. As soon as it
was known in the cities, the magistrates, youths, children, and priests,
came out to meet the body, and brought trophies, crowns, and suits of
golden armor; and, when he was to be interred, the elders of the
Thessalians came and begged the Thebans, that they might give the
funeral; and one of them said, "Friends, we ask a favor of you, that will
prove both an honor and comfort to us in this our great misfortune. The
Thessalians shall never again wait on the living Pelopidas, never give
honors, of which he can be sensible, but if we may have his body, adorn
his funeral, and inter him, we shall hope to show that we esteem his
death a greater loss to the Thessalians than to the Thebans. You have
lost only a good general, we both a general and our liberty. For how
shall we dare to desire from you another captain, since we cannot restore
Pelopidas?"

The Thebans granted their request, and there was never a more splendid
funeral in the opinion of those, who do not think the glory of such
solemnities consists only in gold, ivory, and purple; as Philistus did,
who extravagantly celebrates the funeral of Dionysius, in which his
tyranny concluded like the pompous exit of some great tragedy. Alexander
the Great, at the death of Hephaestion, not only cut off the manes of his
horses and his mules, but took down the battlements from the city walls,
that even the towns might seem mourners, and, instead of their former
beauteous appearance, look bald at his funeral. But such honors, being
commanded and forced from the mourners, attended with feelings of
jealousy towards those who received them, and of hatred towards those who
exacted them, were no testimonies of love and respect, but of the
barbaric pride, luxury, and insolence of those who lavished their wealth
in these vain and undesirable displays. But that a man of common rank,
dying in a strange country, neither his wife, children, nor kinsmen
present, none either asking or compelling it, should be attended, buried,
and crowned by so many cities that strove to exceed one another in the
demonstrations of their love, seems to be the sum and completion of happy
fortune. For the death of happy men is not, as Aesop observes, most
grievous, but most blessed, since it secures their felicity, and puts it
out of fortune's power. And that Spartan advised well, who, embracing
Diagoras, that had himself been crowned in the Olympic Games, and saw his
sons and grandchildren victors, said, "Die, Diagoras, for thou canst not
be a god."  And yet who would compare all the victories in the Pythian
and Olympian Games put together, with one of those enterprises of
Pelopidas, of which he successfully performed so many? Having spent his
life in brave and glorious actions, he died at last in the chief command,
for the thirteenth time, of the Boeotians, fighting bravely and in the
act of slaying a tyrant, in defense of the liberty of the Thessalians.

His death, as it brought grief, so likewise it produced advantage to the
allies; for the Thebans, as soon as they heard of his fall, delayed not
their revenge, but presently sent seven thousand foot and seven hundred
horse, under the command of Malcitas and Diogiton. And they, finding
Alexander weak and without forces, compelled him to restore the cities he
had taken, to withdraw his garrisons from the Magnesians and Achaeans of
Phthiotis, and swear to assist the Thebans against whatsoever enemies
they should require. This contented the Thebans, but punishment overtook
the tyrant for his wickedness, and the death of Pelopidas was revenged by
Heaven in the following manner. Pelopidas, as I have already mentioned,
had taught his wife Thebe not to fear the outward splendor and show of
the tyrant's defenses, since she was admitted within them. She, of
herself, too, dreaded his inconstancy, and hated his cruelty; and,
therefore, conspiring with her three brothers, Tisiphonus, Pytholaus, and
Lycophron, made the following attempt upon him. All the other apartments
were full of the tyrant's night guards, but their bed-chamber was an
upper room, and before the door lay a chained dog to guard it, which
would fly at all but the tyrant and his wife and one servant that fed
him. When Thebe, therefore, designed to kill her husband, she hid her
brothers all day in a room hard by, and she, going in alone, according to
her usual custom, to Alexander who was asleep already, in a little time
came out again, and commanded the servant to lead away the dog, for
Alexander wished to rest quietly. She covered the stairs with wool, that
the young men might make no noise as they came up; and then, bringing up
her brothers with their weapons, and leaving them at the chamber door,
she went in, and brought away the tyrant's sword that hung over his head
and showed it them for a confirmation that he was fast asleep. The young
men appearing fearful, and unwilling to do the murder, she chid them, and
angrily vowed she would wake Alexander, and discover the conspiracy; and
so, with a lamp in her hand, she conducted them in, they being both
ashamed and afraid, and brought them to the bed; when one of them caught
him by the feet, the other pulled him backward by the hair, and the third
ran him through. The death was more speedy, perhaps, than was fit; but,
in that he was the first tyrant that was killed by the contrivance of his
wife, and as his corpse was abused, thrown out, and trodden under foot by
the Pheraeans, he seems to have suffered what his villainies deserved.

MARCELLUS

They say that Marcus Claudius, who was five times consul of the Romans,
was the son of Marcus; and that he was the first of his family called
Marcellus; that is, martial, as Posidonius affirms. He was, indeed, by
long experience skillful in the art of war, of a strong body, valiant of
hand, and by natural inclination addicted to war. This high temper and
heat he showed conspicuously in battle; in other respects he was modest
and obliging, and so far studious of Greek learning and discipline, as to
honor and admire those that excelled in it, though he did not himself
attain a proficiency in them equal to his desire, by reason of his
employments. For if ever there were any men, whom, as Homer says,
Heaven,

From their first youth unto their utmost age
Appointed the laborious wars to wage,

certainly they were the chief Romans of that time; who in their youth had
war with the Carthaginians in Sicily, in their middle age with the Gauls
in the defense of Italy itself; and, at last, when now grown old,
struggled again with Hannibal and the Carthaginians, and wanted in their
latest years what is granted to most men, exemption from military toils;
their rank and their great qualities still making them be called upon to
undertake the command.

Marcellus, ignorant or unskillful of no kind of fighting, in single
combat surpassed himself; he never declined a challenge, and never
accepted without killing his challenger. In Sicily, he protected and
saved his brother Otacilius when surrounded in battle, and slew the
enemies that pressed upon him; for which act he was by the generals,
while he was yet but young, presented with crowns and other honorable
rewards; and, his good qualities more and more displaying themselves, he
was created Curule Aedile by the people, and by the high-priests Augur;
which is that priesthood to which chiefly the law assigns the observation
of auguries. In his aedileship, a certain mischance brought him to the
necessity of bringing an impeachment into the senate. He had a son named
Marcus, of great beauty, in the flower of his age, and no less admired
for the goodness of his character. This youth, Capitolinus, a bold and
ill-mannered man, Marcellus's colleague, sought to abuse. The boy at
first himself repelled him; but when the other again persecuted him, told
his father. Marcellus, highly indignant, accused the man in the senate,
where he, having appealed to the tribunes of the people, endeavored by
various shifts and exceptions to elude the impeachment; and, when the
tribunes refused their protection, by flat denial rejected the charge.
As there was no witness of the fact, the senate thought fit to call the
youth himself before them; on witnessing whose blushes and tears, and
shame mixed with the highest indignation, seeking no further evidence of
the crime, they condemned Capitolinus, and set a fine upon him; of the
money of which, Marcellus caused silver vessels for libation to be made,
which he dedicated to the gods.

After the end of the first Punic war, which lasted one and twenty years,
the seeds of Gallic tumults sprang up, and began again to trouble Rome.
The Insubrians, a people inhabiting the subalpine region of Italy, strong
in their own forces, raised from among the other Gauls aids of mercenary
soldiers, called Gaesatae. And it was a sort of miracle, and special
good fortune for Rome, that the Gallic war was not coincident with the
Punic, but that the Gauls had with fidelity stood quiet as spectators,
while the Punic war continued, as though they had been under engagements
to await and attack the victors, and now only were at liberty to come
forward. Still the position itself, and the ancient renown of the Gauls,
struck no little fear into the minds of the Romans, who were about to
undertake a war so near home and upon their own borders; and regarded the
Gauls, because they had once taken their city, with more apprehension
than any people, as is apparent from the enactment which from that time
forth provided, that the high-priests should enjoy an exemption from all
military duty, except only in Gallic insurrections.

The great preparations, also, made by the Romans for war, (for it is not
reported that the people of Rome ever had at one time so many legions in
arms, either before or since,) and their extraordinary sacrifices, were
plain arguments of their fear. For though they were most averse to
barbarous and cruel rites, and entertained more than any nation the same
pious and reverent sentiments of the gods with the Greeks; yet, when this
war was coming upon them, they then, from some prophecies in the Sibyls'
books, put alive under ground a pair of Greeks, one male, the other
female; and likewise two Gauls, one of each sex, in the market called the
beast-market: continuing even to this day to offer to these Greeks and
Gauls certain secret ceremonial observances in the month of November.

In the beginning of this war, in which the Romans sometimes obtained
remarkable victories, sometimes were shamefully beaten, nothing was done
toward the determination of the contest, until Flaminius and Furius,
being consuls, led large forces against the Insubrians. At the time of
their departure, the river that runs through the country of Picenum was
seen flowing with blood; there was a report, that three moons had been
seen at once at Ariminum; and, in the consular assembly, the augurs
declared, that the consuls had been unduly and inauspiciously created.
The senate, therefore, immediately sent letters to the camp, recalling
the consuls to Rome with all possible speed, and commanding them to
forbear from acting against the enemies, and to abdicate the consulship
on the first opportunity. These letters being brought to Flaminius, he
deferred to open them till, having defeated and put to flight the enemy's
forces, he wasted and ravaged their borders. The people, therefore, did
not go forth to meet him when he returned with huge spoils; nay, because
he had not instantly obeyed the command in the letters, by which he was
recalled, but slighted and contemned them, they were very near denying
him the honor of a triumph. Nor was the triumph sooner passed than they
deposed him, with his colleague, from the magistracy, and reduced them to
the state of private citizens. So much were all things at Rome made to
depend upon religion; they would not allow any contempt of the omens and
the ancient rites, even though attended with the highest success;
thinking it to be of more importance to the public safety, that the
magistrates should reverence the gods, than that they should overcome
their enemies. Thus Tiberius Sempronius, whom for his probity and virtue
the citizens highly esteemed, created Scipio Nasica and Caius Marcius,
consuls to succeed him: and when they were gone into their provinces,
lit upon books concerning the religious observances, where he found
something he had not known before; which was this. When the consul took
his auspices, he sat without the city in a house, or tent, hired for that
occasion; but, if it happened that he, for any urgent cause, returned
into the city, without having yet seen any certain signs, he was obliged
to leave that first building, or tent, and to seek another to repeat the
survey from. Tiberius, it appears, in ignorance of this, had twice used
the same building before announcing the new consuls. Now, understanding
his error, he referred the matter to the senate: nor did the senate
neglect this minute fault, but soon wrote expressly of it to Scipio
Nasica and Caius Marcius; who, leaving their provinces and without delay
returning to Rome, laid down their magistracy. This happened at a later
period. About the same time, too, the priesthood was taken away from two
men of very great honor, Cornelius Cethegus and Quintus Sulpicius: from
the former, because he had not rightly held out the entrails of a beast
slain for sacrifice; from the latter, because, while he was immolating,
the tufted cap which the Flamens wear had fallen from his head.
Minucius, the dictator, who had already named Caius Flaminius master of
the horse, they deposed from his command, because the squeak of a mouse
was heard, and put others into their places. And yet, notwithstanding,
by observing so anxiously these little niceties they did not run into any
superstition, because they never varied from nor exceeded the observances
of their ancestors.

So soon as Flaminius with his colleague had resigned the consulate,
Marcellus was declared consul by the presiding officers called
Interrexes; and, entering into the magistracy, chose Cnaeus Cornelius his
colleague. There was a report that, the Gauls proposing a pacification,
and the senate also inclining to peace, Marcellus inflamed the people to
war; but a peace appears to have been agreed upon, which the Gaesatae
broke; who, passing the Alps, stirred up the Insubrians, (they being
thirty thousand in number, and the Insubrians more numerous by far) and,
proud of their strength, marched directly to Acerrae, a city seated on
the north of the river Po. From thence Britomartus, king of the
Gaesatae, taking with him ten thousand soldiers, harassed the country
round about. News of which being brought to Marcellus, leaving his
colleague at Acerrae with the foot and all the heavy arms and a third
part of the horse, and carrying with him the rest of the horse and six
hundred light armed foot, marching night and day without remission, he
staid not till he came up to these ten thousand near a Gaulish village
called Clastidium, which not long before had been reduced under the Roman
jurisdiction. Nor had he time to refresh his soldiers, or to give them
rest. For the barbarians, that were then present, immediately observed
his approach, and contemned him, because he had very few foot with him.
The Gauls were singularly skillful in horsemanship, and thought to excel
in it; and as at present they also exceeded Marcellus in number, they
made no account of him. They, therefore, with their king at their head,
instantly charged upon him, as if they would trample him under their
horses' feet, threatening all kind of cruelties. Marcellus, because his
men were few, that they might not be encompassed and charged on all sides
by the enemy, extended his wings of horse, and, riding about, drew out
his wings of foot in length, till he came near to the enemy. Just as he
was in the act of turning round to face the enemy, it so happened that
his horse, startled with their fierce look and their cries, gave back,
and carried him forcibly aside. Fearing lest this accident, if converted
into an omen, might discourage his soldiers, he quickly brought his horse
round to confront the enemy, and made a gesture of adoration to the sun,
as if he had wheeled about not by chance, but for a purpose of devotion.
For it was customary to the Romans, when they offered worship to the
gods, to turn round; and in this moment of meeting the enemy, he is said
to have vowed the best of the arms to Jupiter Feretrius.

The king of the Gauls beholding Marcellus, and from the badges of his
authority conjecturing him to be the general, advanced some way before
his embattled army, and with a loud voice challenged him, and,
brandishing his lance, fiercely ran in full career at him; exceeding the
rest of the Gauls in stature, and with his armor, that was adorned with
gold and silver and various colors, shining like lightning. These arms
seeming to Marcellus, while he viewed the enemy's army drawn up in
battalia, to be the best and fairest, and thinking them to be those he
had vowed to Jupiter, he instantly ran upon the king, and pierced through
his breastplate with his lance; then pressing upon him with the weight of
his horse, threw him to the ground, and with two or three strokes more,
slew him. Immediately he leapt from his horse, laid his hand upon the
dead king's arms, and, looking up toward Heaven, thus spoke: "O Jupiter
Feretrius, arbiter of the exploits of captains, and of the acts of
commanders in war and battles, be thou witness that I, a general, have
slain a general; I, a consul, have slain a king with my own hand, third
of all the Romans; and that to thee I consecrate these first and most
excellent of the spoils. Grant to us to dispatch the relics of the war,
with the same course of fortune."  Then the Roman horse joining battle
not only with the enemy's horse, but also with the foot who attacked
them, obtained a singular and unheard of victory. For never before or
since have so few horse defeated such numerous forces of horse and foot
together. The enemies being to a great number slain, and the spoils
collected, he returned to his colleague, who was conducting the war, with
ill success, against the enemies near the greatest and most populous of
the Gallic cities, Milan. This was their capital, and, therefore,
fighting valiantly in defense of it, they were not so much besieged by
Cornelius, as they besieged him. But Marcellus having returned, and the
Gaesatae retiring as soon as they were certified of the death of the king
and the defeat of his army, Milan was taken. The rest of their towns,
and all they had, the Gauls delivered up of their own accord to the
Romans, and had peace upon equitable conditions granted to them.

Marcellus alone, by a decree of the senate, triumphed. The triumph was in
magnificence, opulence, spoils, and the gigantic bodies of the captives,
most remarkable. But the most grateful and most rare spectacle of all
was the general himself, carrying the arms of the barbarian king to the
god to whom he had vowed them. He had taken a tall and straight stock of
an oak, and had lopped and formed it to a trophy. Upon this he fastened
and hung round about the arms of the king, arranging all the pieces in
their suitable places. The procession advancing solemnly, he, carrying
this trophy, ascended the chariot; and thus, himself the fairest and most
glorious triumphant image, was conveyed into the city. The army adorned
with shining armor followed in order, and with verses composed for the
occasion and with songs of victory celebrated the praises of Jupiter and
of their general. Then entering the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, he
dedicated his gift; the third, and to our memory the last, that ever did
so. The first was Romulus, after having slain Acron, king of the
Caeninenses: the second, Cornelius Cossus, who slew Tolumnius the
Etruscan: after them Marcellus, having killed Britomartus king of the
Gauls; after Marcellus, no man. The god to whom these spoils were
consecrated is called Jupiter Feretrius, from the trophy carried on the
feretrum, one of the Greek words which at that time still existed in
great numbers in Latin: or, as others say, it is the surname of the
Thundering Jupiter, derived from ferire, to strike. Others there are who
would have the name to be deduced from the strokes that are given in
fight; since even now in battles, when they press upon their enemies,
they constantly call out to each other, strike, in Latin, feri. Spoils
in general they call Spolia, and these in particular Opima; though,
indeed, they say that Numa Pompilius in his commentaries, makes mention
of first, second, and third Spolia Opima; and that he prescribes that the
first taken be consecrated to Jupiter Feretrius, the second to Mars, the
third to Quirinus; as also that the reward of the first be three hundred
asses; of the second, two hundred; of the third, one hundred. The
general account, however, prevails, that those spoils only are Opima,
which the general first takes in set battle, and takes from the enemy's
chief captain whom he has slain with his own hand. But of this enough.
The victory and the ending of the war was so welcome to the people of
Rome, that they sent to Apollo of Delphi, in testimony of their
gratitude, a present of a golden cup of a hundred pound weight, and gave
a great part of the spoil to their associate cities, and took care that
many presents should be sent also to Hiero, king of the Syracusans, their
friend and ally.

When Hannibal invaded Italy, Marcellus was dispatched with a fleet into
Sicily. And when the army had been defeated at Cannae, and many
thousands of them perished, and few had saved themselves by flying to
Canusium, and all feared lest Hannibal, who had destroyed the strength of
the Roman army, should advance at once with his victorious troops to
Rome, Marcellus first sent for the protection of the city fifteen hundred
solders, from the fleet. Then, by decree of the senate, going to
Canusium, having heard that many of the soldiers had come together in
that place, he led them out of the fortifications to prevent the enemy
from ravaging the country. The chief Roman commanders had most of them
fallen in battles; and the citizens complained, that the extreme caution
of Fabius Maximus, whose integrity and wisdom gave him the highest
authority, verged upon timidity and inaction. They confided in him to
keep them out of danger, but could not expect that he would enable them
to retaliate. Fixing, therefore, their thoughts upon Marcellus, and
hoping to combine his boldness, confidence, and promptitude with Fabius's
caution and prudence, and to temper the one by the other, they sent,
sometimes both with consular command, sometimes one as consul, the other
as proconsul, against the enemy. Posidonius writes, that Fabius was
called the buckler, Marcellus the sword of Rome. Certainly, Hannibal
himself confessed that he feared Fabius as a schoolmaster, Marcellus as
an adversary: the former, lest he should be hindered from doing
mischief; the latter, lest he should receive harm himself.

And first, when among Hannibal's soldiers, proud of their victory,
carelessness and boldness had grown to a great height, Marcellus,
attacking all their stragglers and plundering parties, cut them off, and
by little and little diminished their forces. Then carrying aid to the
Neapolitans and Nolans, he confirmed the minds of the former, who,
indeed, were of their own accord faithful enough to the Romans; but in
Nola he found a state of discord, the senate not being able to rule and
keep in the common people, who were generally favorers of Hannibal.
There was in the town one Bantius, a man renowned for his high birth and
courage. This man, after he had fought most fiercely at Cannae, and had
killed many of the enemies, at last was found lying in a heap of dead
bodies, covered with darts, and was brought to Hannibal, who so honored
him, that he not only dismissed him without ransom, but also contracted
friendship with him, and made him his guest. In gratitude for this great
favor, he became one of the strongest of the partisans of Hannibal, and
urged the people to revolt. Marcellus could not be induced to put to
death a man of such eminence, and who had endured such dangers in
fighting on the Roman side; but, knowing himself able, by the general
kindliness of his disposition and in particular by the attractiveness of
his address, to gain over a character whose passion was for honor, one
day when Bantius saluted him, he asked him who he was; not that he knew
him not before, but seeking an occasion of further conference. When
Bantius had told who he was, Marcellus, seeming surprised with joy and
wonder, replied: "Are you that Bantius, whom the Romans commend above
the rest that fought at Cannae, and praise as the one man that not only
did not forsake the consul Paulus Aemilius, but received in his own body
many darts thrown at him?"  Bantius owning himself to be that very man,
and showing his scars: "Why then," said Marcellus, "did not you, having
such proofs to show of your affection to us, come to me at my first
arrival here? Do you think that we are unwilling to requite with favor
those who have well deserved, and who are honored even by our enemies?"
He followed up his courtesies by a present of a war-horse, and five
hundred drachmas in money. From that time Bantius became the most
faithful assistant and ally of Marcellus, and a most keen discoverer of
those that attempted innovation and sedition.

These were many, and had entered into a conspiracy to plunder the baggage
of the Romans, when they should make an irruption against the enemy.
Marcellus, therefore, having marshaled his army within the city, placed
the baggage near to the gates, and, by an edict, forbade the Nolans to go
to the walls. Thus, outside the city, no arms could be seen; by which
prudent device he allured Hannibal to move with his army in some disorder
to the city, thinking that things were in a tumult there. Then
Marcellus, the nearest gate being, as he had commanded, thrown open,
issuing forth with the flower of his horse in front, charged the enemy.
By and by the foot, sallying out of another gate, with a loud shout
joined in the battle. And while Hannibal opposes part of his forces to
these, the third gate also is opened, out of which the rest break forth,
and on all quarters fall upon the enemies, who were dismayed at this
unexpected encounter, and did but feebly resist those with whom they had
been first engaged, because of their attack by these others that sallied
out later. Here Hannibal's soldiers, with much bloodshed and many
wounds, were beaten back to their camp, and for the first time turned
their backs to the Romans. There fell in this action, as it is related,
more than five thousand of them; of the Romans, not above five hundred.
Livy does not affirm, that either the victory, or the slaughter of the
enemy was so great; but certain it is, that the adventure brought great
glory to Marcellus, and to the Romans, after their calamities, a great
revival of confidence, as they began now to entertain a hope, that the
enemy with whom they contended was not invincible, but liable like
themselves to defeats.

Therefore, the other consul being deceased, the people recalled
Marcellus, that they might put him into his place; and, in spite of the
magistrates, succeeded in postponing the election till his arrival, when
he was by all the suffrages created consul. But because it happened to
thunder, the augurs accounting that he was not legitimately created, and
yet not daring, for fear of the people, to declare their sentence openly,
Marcellus voluntarily resigned the consulate, retaining however his
command. Being created proconsul, and returning to the camp at Nola, he
proceeded to harass those that followed the party of the Carthaginian; on
whose coming with speed to succor them, Marcellus declined a challenge to
a set battle, but when Hannibal had sent out a party to plunder, and now
expected no fight, he broke out upon him with his army. He had
distributed to the foot long lances, such as are commonly used in naval
fights; and instructed them to throw them with great force at convenient
distance against the enemies who were inexperienced in that way of
darting, and used to fight with short darts hand to hand. This seems to
have been the cause of the total rout and open flight of all the
Carthaginians who were then engaged: there fell of them five thousand;
four elephants were killed, and two taken; but, what was of greatest
moment, on the third day after, more than three hundred horse, Spaniards
and Numidians mixed, deserted to him, a disaster that had never to that
day happened to Hannibal, who had long kept together in harmony an army
of barbarians, collected out of many various and discordant nations.
Marcellus and his successors in all this war made good use of the
faithful service of these horsemen.

He now was a third time created consul, and sailed over into Sicily. For
the success of Hannibal had excited the Carthaginians to lay claim to
that whole island; chiefly because after the murder of the tyrant
Hieronymus, all things had been in tumult and confusion at Syracuse. For
which reason the Romans also had sent before to that city a force under
the conduct of Appius, as praetor. While Marcellus was receiving that
army, a number of Roman soldiers cast themselves at his feet, upon
occasion of the following calamity. Of those that survived the battle at
Cannae, some had escaped by flight, and some were taken alive by the
enemy; so great a multitude, that it was thought there were not remaining
Romans enough to defend the walls of the city. And yet the magnanimity
and constancy of the city was such, that it would not redeem the captives
from Hannibal, though it might have done so for a small ransom; a decree
of the senate forbade it, and chose rather to leave them to be killed by
the enemy, or sold out of Italy; and commanded that all who had saved
themselves by flight should be transported into Sicily, and not permitted
to return into Italy, until the war with Hannibal should be ended.
These, therefore, when Marcellus was arrived in Sicily, addressed
themselves to him in great numbers; and casting themselves at his feet,
with much lamentation and tears humbly besought him to admit them to
honorable service; and promised to make it appear by their future
fidelity and exertions, that that defeat had been received rather by
misfortune than by cowardice. Marcellus, pitying them, petitioned the
senate by letters, that he might have leave at all times to recruit his
legions out of them. After much debate about the thing, the senate
decreed they were of opinion that the commonwealth did not require the
service of cowardly soldiers; if Marcellus perhaps thought otherwise, he
might make use of them, provided no one of them be honored on any
occasion with a crown or military gift, as a reward of his virtue or
courage. This decree stung Marcellus; and on his return to Rome, after
the Sicilian war was ended, he upbraided the senate, that they had denied
to him, who had so highly deserved of the republic, liberty to relieve so
great a number of citizens in great calamity.

At this time Marcellus, first incensed by injures done him by
Hippocrates, commander of the Syracusans, (who, to give proof of his good
affection to the Carthaginians, and to acquire the tyranny to himself,
had killed a number of Romans at Leontini,) besieged and took by force
the city of Leontini; yet violated none of the townsmen; only deserters,
as many as he took, he subjected to the punishment of the rods and axe.
But Hippocrates, sending a report to Syracuse, that Marcellus had put all
the adult population to the sword, and then coming upon the Syracusans,
who had risen in tumult upon that false report, made himself master of
the city. Upon this Marcellus moved with his whole army to Syracuse,
and, encamping near the wall, sent ambassadors into the city to relate to
the Syracusans the truth of what had been done in Leontini. When these
could not prevail by treaty, the whole power being now in the hands of
Hippocrates, he proceeded to attack the city both by land and by sea. The
land forces were conducted by Appius Marcellus, with sixty galleys, each
with five rows of oars, furnished with all sorts of arms and missiles,
and a huge bridge of planks laid upon eight ships chained together, upon
which was carried the engine to cast stones and darts, assaulted the
walls, relying on the abundance and magnificence of his preparations, and
on his own previous glory; all which, however, were, it would seem, but
trifles for Archimedes and his machines.

These machines he had designed and contrived, not as matters of any
importance, but as mere amusements in geometry; in compliance with king
Hiero's desire and request, some little time before, that he should
reduce to practice some part of his admirable speculations in science,
and by accommodating the theoretic truth to sensation and ordinary use,
bring it more within the appreciation of people in general. Eudoxus and
Archytas had been the first originators of this far-famed and highly
prized art of mechanics, which they employed as an elegant illustration
of geometrical truths, and as a means of sustaining experimentally, to
the satisfaction of the senses, conclusions too intricate for proof by
words and diagrams. As, for example, to solve the problem, so often
required in constructing geometrical figures, given the two extreme, to
find the two mean lines of a proportion, both these mathematicians had
recourse to the aid of instruments, adapting to their purpose certain
curves and sections of lines. But what with Plato's indignation at it,
and his invectives against it as the mere corruption and annihilation of
the one good of geometry, -- which was thus shamefully turning its back
upon the unembodied objects of pure intelligence to recur to sensation,
and to ask help (not to be obtained without base subservience and
depravation) from matter; so it was that mechanics came to be separated
from geometry, and, repudiated and neglected by philosophers, took its
place as a military art. Archimedes, however, in writing to king Hiero,
whose friend and near relation he was, had stated, that given the force,
any given weight might be moved, and even boasted, we are told, relying
on the strength of demonstration, that if there were another earth, by
going into it he could remove this. Hiero being struck with amazement at
this, and entreating him to make good this problem by actual experiment,
and show some great weight moved by a small engine, he fixed accordingly
upon a ship of burden out of the king's arsenal, which could not be drawn
out of the dock without great labor and many men; and, loading her with
many passengers and a full freight, sitting himself the while far off,
with no great endeavor, but only holding the head of the pulley in his
hand and drawing the cord by degrees, he drew the ship in a straight
line, as smoothly and evenly, as if she had been in the sea. The king,
astonished at this, and convinced of the power of the art, prevailed upon
Archimedes to make him engines accommodated to all the purposes,
offensive and defensive, of a siege. These the king himself never made
use of, because he spent almost all his life in a profound quiet, and the
highest affluence. But the apparatus was, in a most opportune time, ready
at hand for the Syracusans, and with it also the engineer himself.

When, therefore, the Romans assaulted the walls in two places at once,
fear and consternation stupefied the Syracusans, believing that nothing
was able to resist that violence and those forces. But when Archimedes
began to ply his engines, he at once shot against the land forces all
sorts of missile weapons, and immense masses of stone that came down with
incredible noise and violence, against which no man could stand; for they
knocked down those upon whom they fell, in heaps, breaking all their
ranks and files. In the meantime huge poles thrust out from the walls
over the ships, sunk some by the great weights which they let down from
on high upon them; others they lifted up into the air by an iron hand or
beak like a crane's beak, and, when they had drawn them up by the prow,
and set them on end upon the poop, they plunged them to the bottom of the
sea; or else the ships, drawn by engines within, and whirled about, were
dashed against steep rocks that stood jutting out under the walls, with
great destruction of the soldiers that were aboard them. A ship was
frequently lifted up to a great height in the air (a dreadful thing to
behold), and was rolled to and fro, and kept swinging, until the mariners
were all thrown out, when at length it was dashed against the rocks, or
let fall. At the engine that Marcellus brought upon the bridge of ships,
which was called Sambuca from some resemblance it had to an instrument of
music, while it was as yet approaching the wall, there was discharged a
piece of a rock of ten talents' weight, then a second and a third, which,
striking upon it with immense force and with a noise like thunder, broke
all its foundation to pieces, shook out all its fastenings, and
completely dislodged it from the bridge. So Marcellus, doubtful what
counsel to pursue, drew off his ships to a safer distance, and sounded a
retreat to his forces on land. They then took a resolution of coming up
under the walls, if it were possible, in the night; thinking that as
Archimedes used ropes stretched at length in playing his engines, the
soldiers would now be under the shot, and the darts would, for want of
sufficient distance to throw them, fly over their heads without effect.
But he, it appeared, had long before framed for such occasion engines
accommodated to any distance, and shorter weapons; and had made numerous
small openings in the walls, through which, with engines of a shorter
range, unexpected blows were inflicted on the assailants. Thus, when
they who thought to deceive the defenders came close up to the walls,
instantly a shower of darts and other missile weapons was again cast upon
them. And when stones came tumbling down perpendicularly upon their
heads, and, as it were, the whole wall shot out arrows at them, they
retired. And now, again, as they were going off, arrows and darts of a
longer range indicted a great slaughter among them, and their ships were
driven one against another; while they themselves were not able to
retaliate in any way. For Archimedes had provided and fixed most of his
engines immediately under the wall; whence the Romans, seeing that
infinite mischiefs overwhelmed them from no visible means, began to think
they were fighting with the gods.

Yet Marcellus escaped unhurt, and, deriding his own artificers and
engineers, "What," said he, "must we give up fighting with this
geometrical Briareus, who plays pitch and toss with our ships, and, with
the multitude of darts which he showers at a single moment upon us,
really outdoes the hundred-handed giants of mythology?"  And, doubtless,
the rest of the Syracusans were but the body of Archimedes' designs, one
soul moving and governing all; for, laying aside all other arms, with his
alone they infested the Romans, and protected themselves. In fine, when
such terror had seized upon the Romans, that, if they did but see a
little rope or a piece of wood from the wall, instantly crying out, that
there it was again, Archimedes was about to let fly some engine at them,
they turned their backs and fled, Marcellus desisted from conflicts and
assaults, putting all his hope in a long siege. Yet Archimedes possessed
so high a spirit, so profound a soul, and such treasures of scientific
knowledge, that though these inventions had now obtained him the renown
of more than human sagacity, he yet would not deign to leave behind him
any commentary or writing on such subjects; but, repudiating as sordid
and ignoble the whole trade of engineering, and every sort of art that
lends itself to mere use and profit, he placed his whole affection and
ambition in those purer speculations where there can be no reference to
the vulgar needs of life; studies, the superiority of which to all others
is unquestioned, and in which the only doubt can be, whether the beauty
and grandeur of the subjects examined, or the precision and cogency of
the methods and means of proof, most deserve our admiration. It is not
possible to find in all geometry more difficult and intricate questions,
or more simple and lucid explanations. Some ascribe this to his natural
genius; while others think that incredible effort and toil produced
these, to all appearance, easy and unlabored results. No amount of
investigation of yours would succeed in attaining the proof, and yet,
once seen, you immediately believe you would have discovered it; by so
smooth and so rapid a path he leads you to the conclusion required. And
thus it ceases to be incredible that (as is commonly told of him), the
charm of his familiar and domestic Siren made him forget his food and
neglect his person, to that degree that when he was occasionally carried
by absolute violence to bathe, or have his body anointed, he used to
trace geometrical figures in the ashes of the fire, and diagrams in the
oil on his body, being in a state of entire preoccupation, and, in the
truest sense, divine possession with his love and delight in science.
His discoveries were numerous and admirable; but he is said to have
requested his friends and relations that when he was dead, they would
place over his tomb a sphere containing a cylinder, inscribing it with
the ratio which the containing solid bears to the contained.

Such was Archimedes, who now showed himself, and, so far as lay in him,
the city also, invincible. While the siege continued, Marcellus took
Megara, one of the earliest founded of the Greek cities in Sicily, and
capturing also the camp of Hippocrates at Acilae, killed above eight
thousand men, having attacked them whilst they were engaged in forming
their fortifications. He overran a great part of Sicily; gained over
many towns from the Carthaginians, and overcame all that dared to
encounter him. As the siege went on, one Damippus, a Lacedaemonian,
putting to sea in a ship from Syracuse, was taken. When the Syracusans
much desired to redeem this man, and there were many meetings and
treaties about the matter betwixt them and Marcellus, he had opportunity
to notice a tower into which a body of men might be secretly introduced,
as the wall near to it was not difficult to surmount, and it was itself
carelessly guarded. Coming often thither, and entertaining conferences
about the release of Damippus, he had pretty well calculated the height
of the tower, and got ladders prepared. The Syracusans celebrated a
feast to Diana; this juncture of time, when they were given up entirely
to wine and sport, Marcellus laid hold of, and, before the citizens
perceived it, not only possessed himself of the tower, but, before the
break of day, filled the wall around with soldiers, and made his way into
the Hexapylum. The Syracusans now beginning to stir, and to be alarmed
at the tumult, he ordered the trumpets everywhere to sound, and thus
frightened them all into flight, as if all parts of the city were already
won, though the most fortified, and the fairest, and most ample quarter
was still ungained. It is called Acradina, and was divided by a wall
from the outer city, one part of which they call Neapolis, the other
Tycha. Possessing himself of these, Marcellus, about break of day,
entered through the Hexapylum, all his officers congratulating him. But
looking down from the higher places upon the beautiful and spacious city
below, he is said to have wept much, commiserating the calamity that hung
over it, when his thoughts represented to him, how dismal and foul the
face of the city would in a few hours be, when plundered and sacked by
the soldiers. For among the officers of his army there was not one man
that durst deny the plunder of the city to the soldiers' demands; nay,
many were instant that it should be set on fire and laid level to the
ground: but this Marcellus would not listen to. Yet he granted, but
with great unwillingness and reluctance, that the money and slaves should
be made prey; giving orders, at the same time, that none should violate
any free person, nor kill, misuse, or make a slave of any of the
Syracusans. Though he had used this moderation, he still esteemed the
condition of that city to be pitiable, and, even amidst the
congratulations and joy, showed his strong feelings of sympathy and
commiseration at seeing all the riches accumulated during a long
felicity, now dissipated in an hour. For it is related, that no less
prey and plunder was taken here, than afterward in Carthage. For not
long after, they obtained also the plunder of the other parts of the city,
which were taken by treachery; leaving nothing untouched but the king's
money, which was brought into the public treasury. But nothing afflicted
Marcellus so much as the death of Archimedes; who was then, as fate would
have it, intent upon working out some problem by a diagram, and having
fixed his mind alike and his eyes upon the subject of his speculation, he
never noticed the incursion of the Romans, nor that the city was taken.
In this transport of study and contemplation, a soldier, unexpectedly
coming up to him, commanded him to follow to Marcellus; which he
declining to do before he had worked out his problem to a demonstration,
the soldier, enraged, drew his sword and ran him through. Others write,
that a Roman soldier, running upon him with a drawn sword, offered to
kill him; and that Archimedes, looking back, earnestly besought him to
hold his hand a little while, that he might not leave what he was then at
work upon inconclusive and imperfect; but the soldier, nothing moved by
his entreaty, instantly killed him. Others again relate, that as
Archimedes was carrying to Marcellus mathematical instruments, dials,
spheres, and angles, by which the magnitude of the sun might be measured
to the sight, some soldiers seeing him, and thinking that he carried gold
in a vessel, slew him. Certain it is, that his death was very afflicting
to Marcellus; and that Marcellus ever after regarded him that killed him
as a murderer; and that he sought for his kindred and honored them with
signal favors.

Indeed, foreign nations had held the Romans to be excellent soldiers and
formidable in battle; but they had hitherto given no memorable example of
gentleness, or humanity, or civil virtue; and Marcellus seems first to
have shown to the Greeks, that his countrymen were most illustrious for
their justice. For such was his moderation to all with whom he had
anything to do, and such his benignity also to many cities and private
men, that, if anything hard or severe was decreed concerning the people of
Enna, Megara, or Syracuse, the blame was thought to belong rather to
those upon whom the storm fell, than to those who brought it upon them.
One example of many I will commemorate. In Sicily there is a town called
Engyium, not indeed great, but very ancient and ennobled by the presence
of the goddesses, called the Mothers. The temple, they say, was built by
the Cretans; and they show some spears and brazen helmets, inscribed with
the names of Meriones, and (with the same spelling as in Latin) of
Ulysses, who consecrated them to the goddesses. This city highly
favoring the party of the Carthaginians, Nicias, the most eminent of the
citizens, counseled them to go over to the Romans; to that end acting
freely and openly in harangues to their assemblies, arguing the
imprudence and madness of the opposite course. They, fearing his power
and authority, resolved to deliver him in bonds to the Carthaginians.
Nicias, detecting the design, and seeing that his person was secretly
kept in watch, proceeded to speak irreligiously to the vulgar of the
Mothers, and showed many signs of disrespect, as if he denied and
contemned the received opinion of the presence of those goddesses; his
enemies the while rejoicing, that he, of his own accord, sought the
destruction hanging over his head. When they were just now about to lay
hands upon him, an assembly was held, and here Nicias, making a speech to
the people concerning some affair then under deliberation, in the midst
of his address, cast himself upon the ground; and soon after, while
amazement (as usually happens on such surprising occasions) held the
assembly immovable, raising and turning his head round, he began in a
trembling and deep tone, but by degrees raised and sharpened his voice.
When he saw the whole theater struck with horror and silence, throwing
off his mantle and rending his tunic, he leaps up half naked, and runs
towards the door, crying out aloud that he was driven by the wrath of the
Mothers. When no man durst, out of religious fear, lay hands upon him or
stop him, but all gave way before him, he ran out of the gate, not
omitting any shriek or gesture of men possessed and mad. His wife,
conscious of his counterfeiting, and privy to his design, taking her
children with her, first cast herself as a suppliant before the temple of
the goddesses; then, pretending to seek her wandering husband, no man
hindering her, went out of the town in safety; and by this means they all
escaped to Marcellus at Syracuse. After many other such affronts offered
him by the men of Engyium, Marcellus, having taken them all prisoners and
cast them into bonds, was preparing to inflict upon them the last
punishment; when Nicias, with tears in his eyes, addressed himself to
him. In fine, casting himself at Marcellus's feet, and deprecating for
his citizens, he begged most earnestly their lives, chiefly those of his
enemies. Marcellus, relenting, set them all at liberty, and rewarded
Nicias with ample lands and rich presents. This history is recorded by
Posidonius the philosopher.

Marcellus, at length recalled by the people of Rome to the immediate war
at home, to illustrate his triumph, and adorn the city, carried away with
him a great number of the most beautiful ornaments of Syracuse. For,
before that, Rome neither had, nor had seen, any of those fine and
exquisite rarities; nor was any pleasure taken in graceful and elegant
pieces of workmanship. Stuffed with barbarous arms and spoils stained
with blood, and everywhere crowned with triumphal memorials and trophies,
she was no pleasant or delightful spectacle for the eyes of peaceful or
refined spectators: but, as Epaminondas named the fields of Boeotia the
stage of Mars; and Xenophon called Ephesus the workhouse of war; so, in
my judgment, may you call Rome, at that time, (to use the words of
Pindar,) "the precinct of the peaceless Mars."  Whence Marcellus was more
popular with the people in general, because he had adorned the city with
beautiful objects that had all the charms of Grecian grace and symmetry;
but Fabius Maximus, who neither touched nor brought away anything of
this kind from Tarentum, when he had taken it, was more approved of by
the elder men. He carried off the money and valuables, but forbade the
statues to be moved; adding, as it is commonly related, "Let us leave to
the Tarentines these offended gods."  They blamed Marcellus, first, for
placing the city in an invidious position, as it seemed now to celebrate
victories and lead processions of triumph, not only over men, but also
over the gods as captives; then, that he had diverted to idleness, and
vain talk about curious arts and artificers, the common people, which,
bred up in wars and agriculture, had never tasted of luxury and sloth,
and, as Euripides said of Hercules, had been

Rude, unrefined, only for great things good,

so that now they misspent much of their time in examining and criticizing
trifles. And yet, notwithstanding this reprimand, Marcellus made it his
glory to the Greeks themselves, that he had taught his ignorant
countrymen to esteem and admire the elegant and wonderful productions of
Greece.

But when the envious opposed his being brought triumphant into the city,
because there were some relics of the war in Sicily, and a third triumph
would be looked upon with jealousy, he gave way. He triumphed upon the
Alban mount, and thence entered the city in ovation, as it is called in
Latin, in Greek eua; but in this ovation he was neither carried in a
chariot, nor crowned with laurel, nor ushered by trumpets sounding; but
went afoot with shoes on, many flutes or pipes sounding in concert, while
he passed along, wearing a garland of myrtle, in a peaceable aspect,
exciting rather love and respect than fear. Whence I am, by conjecture,
led to think that, originally, the difference observed betwixt ovation
and triumph, did not depend upon the greatness of the achievements, but
the manner of performing them. For they who, having fought a set battle,
and slain the enemy, returned victors, led that martial, terrible
triumph, and, as the ordinary custom then was, in lustrating the army,
adorned the arms and the soldiers with a great deal of laurel. But they
who, without force, by colloquy, persuasion, and reasoning, had done the
business, to these captains custom gave the honor of the unmilitary and
festive ovation. For the pipe is the badge of peace, and myrtle the
plant of Venus, who more than the rest of the gods and goddesses abhors
force and war. It is called ovation, not, as most think, from the Greek
euasmus, because they act it with shouting and cries of Eau: for so do
they also the proper triumphs. The Greeks have wrested the word to their
own language, thinking that this honor, also, must have some connection
with Bacchus, who in Greek has the titles of Euius and Thriambus. But
the thing is otherwise. For it was the custom for commanders, in their
triumph, to immolate an ox, but in their ovation, a sheep: hence they
named it Ovation, from the Latin ovis. It is worth observing, how
exactly opposite the sacrifices appointed by the Spartan legislator are,
to those of the Romans. For at Lacedaemon, a captain, who had performed
the work he undertook by cunning, or courteous treaty, on laying down his
command immolated an ox; he that did the business by battle, offered a
cock; the Lacedaemonians, though most warlike, thinking an exploit
performed by reason and wisdom, to be more excellent and more congruous
to man, than one effected by mere force and courage. Which of the two is
to be preferred, I leave to the determination of others.

Marcellus being the fourth time consul, his enemies suborned the
Syracusans to come to Rome to accuse him, and to complain that they had
suffered indignities and wrongs, contrary to the conditions granted them.
It happened that Marcellus was in the capitol offering sacrifice when the
Syracusans petitioned the senate, yet sitting, that they might have leave
to accuse him and present their grievances. Marcellus's colleague, eager
to protect him in his absence, put them out of the court. But Marcellus
himself came as soon as he heard of it. And first, in his curule chair
as consul, he referred to the senate the cognizance of other matters; but
when these were transacted, rising from his seat, he passed as a private
man into the place where the accused were wont to make their defense, and
gave free liberty to the Syracusans to impeach him. But they, struck
with consternation by his majesty and confidence, stood astonished, and
the power of his presence now, in his robe of state, appeared far more
terrible and severe than it had done when he was arrayed in armor. Yet
reanimated at length by Marcellus's rivals, they began their impeachment,
and made an oration in which pleas of justice mingled with lamentation
and complaint; the sum of which was, that being allies and friends of the
people of Rome, they had, notwithstanding, suffered things which other
commanders had abstained from inflicting upon enemies. To this Marcellus
answered; that they had committed many acts of hostility against the
people of Rome, and had suffered nothing but what enemies conquered and
captured in war cannot possibly be protected from suffering: that it
was their own fault they had been made captives, because they refused to
give ear to his frequent attempts to persuade them by gentle means:
neither were they forced into war by the power of tyrants, but had rather
chosen the tyrants themselves for the express object that they might make
war. The orations ended, and the Syracusans, according to the custom,
having retired, Marcellus left his colleague to ask the sentences, and
withdrawing with the Syracusans, staid expecting at the doors of the
senate-house; not in the least discomposed in spirit, either with alarm
at the accusation, or by anger against the Syracusans; but with perfect
calmness and serenity attending the issue of the cause. The sentences at
length being all asked, and a decree of the senate made in vindication of
Marcellus, the Syracusans, with tears flowing from their eyes, cast
themselves at his knees, beseeching him to forgive themselves there
present, and to be moved by the misery of the rest of their city, which
would ever be mindful of, and grateful for, his benefits. Thus
Marcellus, softened by their tears and distress, was not only reconciled
to the deputies, but ever afterwards continued to find opportunity of
doing kindness to the Syracusans. The liberty which he had restored to
them, and their rights, laws, and goods that were left, the senate
confirmed. Upon which account the Syracusans, besides other signal
honors, made a law, that if Marcellus should at anytime come into Sicily,
or any of his posterity, the Syracusans should wear garlands and offer
public sacrifice to the gods.

After this he moved against Hannibal. And whereas the other consuls and
commanders, since the defeat received at Cannae, had all made use of the
same policy against Hannibal, namely, to decline coming to a battle with
him; and none had had the courage to encounter him in the field, and put
themselves to the decision by the sword; Marcellus entered upon the
opposite course, thinking that Italy would be destroyed by the very delay
by which they looked to wear out Hannibal; and that Fabius, who, adhering
to his cautious policy, waited to see the war extinguished, while Rome
itself meantime wasted away, (like timid physicians, who, dreading to
administer remedies, stay waiting, and believe that what is the decay of
the patient's strength is the decline of the disease,) was not taking a
right course to heal the sickness of his country. And first, the great
cities of the Samnites, which had revolted, came into his power; in which
he found a large quantity of corn and money, and three thousand of
Hannibal's soldiers, that were left for the defense. After this, the
proconsul Cnaeus Fulvius with eleven tribunes of the soldiers being slain
in Apulia, and the greatest part of the army also at the same time cut
off, he dispatched letters to Rome, and bade the people be of good
courage, for that he was now upon the march against Hannibal, to turn his
triumph into sadness. On these letters being read, Livy writes, that the
people were not only not encouraged, but more discouraged, than before.
For the danger, they thought, was but the greater in proportion as
Marcellus was of more value than Fulvius. He, as he had written,
advancing into the territories of the Lucanians, came up to him at
Numistro, and, the enemy keeping himself upon the hills, pitched his camp
in a level plain, and the next day drew forth his army in order for
fight. Nor did Hannibal refuse the challenge. They fought long and
obstinately on both sides, victory yet seeming undecided, when, after
three hours conflict, night hardly parted them. The next day, as soon as
the sun was risen, Marcellus again brought forth his troops, and ranged
them among the dead bodies of the slain, challenging Hannibal to solve
the question by another trial. When he dislodged and drew off,
Marcellus, gathering up the spoils of the enemies, and burying the bodies
of his slain soldiers, closely followed him. And though Hannibal often
used stratagems, and laid ambushes to entrap Marcellus, yet he could
never circumvent him. By skirmishes, meantime, in all of which he was
superior, Marcellus gained himself such high repute, that, when the time
of the Comitia at Rome was near at hand, the senate thought fit rather to
recall the other consul from Sicily, than to withdraw Marcellus from his
conflict with Hannibal; and on his arrival they bid him name Quintus
Fulvius dictator. For the dictator is created neither by the people, nor
by the senate; but the consul or the praetor, before the popular
assembly, pronounces him to be dictator, whom he himself chooses. Hence
he is called dictator, dicere meaning to name. Others say, that he is
named dictator, because his word is a law, and he orders what he pleases,
without submitting it to the vote. For the Romans call the orders of
magistrates, Edicts.

And now because Marcellus's colleague, who was recalled from Sicily, had
a mind to name another man dictator, and would not be forced to change
his opinion, he sailed away by night back to Sicily. So the common
people made an order, that Quintus Fulvius should be chosen dictator:
and the senate, by an express, commanded Marcellus to nominate him. He
obeying proclaimed him dictator according to the order of the people; but
the office of proconsul was continued to himself for a year. And having
arranged with Fabius Maximus, that while he besieged Tarentum, he himself
would, by following Hannibal and drawing him up and down, detain him from
coming to the relief of the Tarentines, he overtook him at Canusium: and
as Hannibal often shifted his camp, and still declined the combat, he
everywhere sought to engage him. At last pressing upon him while
encamping, by light skirmishes he provoked him to a battle; but night
again divided them in the very heat of the conflict. The next day
Marcellus again showed himself in arms, and brought up his forces in
array. Hannibal, in extreme grief, called his Carthaginians together to
an harangue; and vehemently prayed them, to fight today worthily of all
their former successes; "For you see," said he, "how, after such great
victories, we have not liberty to respire, nor to repose ourselves,
though victors; unless we drive this man back."  Then the two armies
joining battle, fought fiercely; when the event of an untimely movement
showed Marcellus to have been guilty of an error. The right wing being
hard pressed upon, he commanded one of the legions to be brought up to
the front. This change disturbing the array and posture of the legions,
gave the victory to the enemies; and there fell two thousand seven
hundred Romans. Marcellus, after he had retreated into his camp, called
his soldiers together; "I see," said he, "many Roman arms and bodies, but
I see not so much as one Roman."  To their entreaties for his pardon, he
returned a refusal while they remained beaten, but promised to give it so
soon as they should overcome; and he resolved to bring them into the
field again the next day, that the fame of their victory might arrive at
Rome before that of their flight. Dismissing the assembly, he commanded
barley instead of wheat to be given to those companies that had turned
their backs. These rebukes were so bitter to the soldiers, that though a
great number of them were grievously wounded, yet they relate there was
not one to whom the general's oration was not more painful and smarting
than his wounds.

The day breaking, a scarlet toga, the sign of instant battle, was
displayed. The companies marked with ignominy, begged they might be
posted in the foremost place, and obtained their request. Then the
tribunes bring forth the rest of the forces, and draw them up. On news
of which, "O strange!" said Hannibal, "what will you do with this man,
who can bear neither good nor bad fortune? He is the only man who
neither suffers us to rest when he is victor, nor rests himself when he
is overcome. We shall have, it seems, perpetually to fight with him; as
in good success his confidence, and in ill success his shame, still urges
him to some further enterprise?"  Then the armies engaged. When the
fight was doubtful, Hannibal commanded the elephants to be brought into
the first battalion, and to be driven upon the van of the Romans. When
the beasts, trampling upon many, soon caused disorder, Flavius, a tribune
of soldiers, snatching an ensign, meets them, and wounding the first
elephant with the spike at the bottom of the ensign staff, puts him to
flight. The beast turned round upon the next, and drove back both him
and the rest that followed. Marcellus, seeing this, pours in his horse
with great force upon the elephants, and upon the enemy disordered by
their flight. The horse, making a fierce impression, pursued the
Carthaginians home to their camp, while the elephants, wounded, and
running upon their own party, caused a considerable slaughter. It is
said, more than eight thousand were slain; of the Roman army three
thousand, and almost all wounded. This gave Hannibal opportunity to
retire in the silence of the night, and to remove to greater distance
from Marcellus; who was kept from pursuing by the number of his wounded
men, and removed, by gentle marches, into Campania, and spent the summer
at Sinuessa, engaged in restoring them.

But as Hannibal, having disentangled himself from Marcellus, ranged with
his army round about the country, and wasted Italy free from all fear, at
Rome Marcellus was evil spoken of. His detractors induced Publicius
Bibulus, tribune of the people, an eloquent and violent man, to undertake
his accusation. He, by assiduous harangues, prevailed upon the people to
withdraw from Marcellus the command of the army; "Seeing that Marcellus,"
said he, "after brief exercise in the war, has withdrawn as it might be
from the wrestling ground to the warm baths to refresh himself."
Marcellus, on hearing this, appointed lieutenants over his camp, and
hasted to Rome to refute the charges against him: and there found ready
drawn up an impeachment consisting of these calumnies. At the day
prefixed, in the Flaminian circus, into which place the people had
assembled themselves, Bibulus rose and accused him. Marcellus himself
answered, briefly and simply: but the first and most approved men of the
city spoke largely and in high terms, very freely advising the people not
to show themselves worse judges than the enemy, condemning Marcellus of
timidity, from whom alone of all their captains the enemy fled, and as
perpetually endeavored to avoid fighting with him, as to fight with
others. When they made an end of speaking, the accuser's hope to obtain
judgment so far deceived him, that Marcellus was not only absolved, but
the fifth time created consul.

No sooner had he entered upon this consulate, but he suppressed a great
commotion in Etruria, that had proceeded near to revolt, and visited and
quieted the cities. Then, when the dedication of the temple, which he had
vowed out of his Sicilian spoils to Honor and Virtue, was objected to by
the priests, because they denied that one temple could be lawfully
dedicated to two gods, he began to adjoin another to it, resenting the
priests' opposition, and almost converting the thing into an omen. And,
truly, many other prodigies also affrighted him; some temples had been
struck with lightning, and in Jupiter's temple mice had gnawed the gold;
it was reported also, that an ox had spoke, and that a boy had been born
with a head like an elephant's. All which prodigies had indeed been
attended to, but due reconciliation had not been obtained from the gods.
The aruspices therefore detained him at Rome, glowing and burning with
desire to return to the war. For no man was ever inflamed with so great
desire of any thing, as was he to fight a battle with Hannibal. It was
the subject of his dreams in the night, the topic of all his
consultations with his friends and familiars, nor did he present to the
gods any other wish, but that he might meet Hannibal in the field. And I
think, that he would most gladly have set upon him, with both armies
environed within a single camp. Had he not been even loaded with honors,
and had he not given proofs in many ways of his maturity of judgment and
of prudence equal to that of any commander, you might have said, that he
was agitated by a youthful ambition, above what became a man of that age:
for he had passed the sixtieth year of his life when he began his fifth
consulship.

The sacrifices having been offered, and all that belonged to the
propitiation of the gods performed, according to the prescription of the
diviners, he at last with his colleague went forth to carry on the war.
He tried all possible means to provoke Hannibal, who at that time had a
standing camp betwixt Bantia and Venusia. Hannibal declined an engagement,
but having obtained intelligence that some troops were on their way to
the town of Locri Epizephyrii, placing an ambush under the little hill of
Petelia, he slew two thousand five hundred soldiers. This incensed
Marcellus to revenge; and he therefore moved nearer Hannibal. Betwixt
the two camps was a little hill, a tolerably secure post, covered with
wood; it had steep descents on either side, and there were springs of
water seen trickling down. This place was so fit and advantageous, that
the Romans wondered that Hannibal, who had come thither before them, had
not seized upon it, but had left it to the enemies. But to him the place
had seemed commodious indeed for a camp, but yet more commodious for an
ambuscade; and to that use he chose to put it. So in the wood and the
hollows he hid a number of archers and spearmen, confident that the
commodiousness of the place would allure the Romans. Nor was he deceived
in his expectation. For presently in the Roman camp they talked and
disputed, as if they had all been captains, how the place ought to be
seized, and what great advantage they should thereby gain upon the
enemies, chiefly if they transferred their camp thither, at any rate, if
they strengthened the place with a fort. Marcellus resolved to go, with
a few horse, to view it. Having called a diviner he proceeded to
sacrifice. In the first victim the aruspex showed him the liver without
a head; in the second the head appeared of unusual size, and all the
other indications highly promising. When these seemed sufficient to free
them from the dread of the former, the diviners declared, that they were
all the more terrified by the latter: because entrails too fair and
promising, when they appear after others that are maimed and monstrous,
render the change doubtful and suspicious But

Nor fire nor brazen wall can keep out fate;

as Pindar observes. Marcellus, therefore, taking with him his colleague
Crispinus, and his son, a tribune of soldiers, with two hundred and
twenty horse at most, (among whom there was not one Roman, but all were
Etruscans, except forty Fregellans, of whose courage and fidelity he had
on all occasions received full proof,) goes to view the place. The hill
was covered with woods all over; on the top of it sat a scout concealed
from the sight of the enemy, but having the Roman camp exposed to his
view. Upon signs received from him, the men that were placed in ambush,
stirred not till Marcellus came near; and then all starting up in an
instant, and encompassing him from all sides, attacked him with darts,
struck about and wounded the backs of those that fled, and pressed upon
those who resisted. These were the forty Fregellans. For though the
Etruscans fled in the very beginning of the fight, the Fregellans formed
themselves into a ring, bravely defending the consuls, till Crispinus,
struck with two darts, turned his horse to fly away; and Marcellus's side
was run through with a lance with a broad head. Then the Fregellans,
also, the few that remained alive, leaving the fallen consul, and
rescuing young Marcellus, who also was wounded, got into the camp by
flight. There were slain not much above forty; five lictors and eighteen
horsemen came alive into the enemy's hands. Crispinus also died of his
wounds a few days after. Such a disaster as the loss of both consuls in
a single engagement, was one that had never before befallen the Romans.

Hannibal, little valuing the other events, so soon as he was told of
Marcellus's death, immediately hasted to the hilt. Viewing the body, and
continuing for some time to observe its strength and shape, he allowed
not a word to fall from him expressive of the least pride or arrogancy,
nor did he show in his countenance any sign of gladness, as another
perhaps would have done, when his fierce and troublesome enemy had been
taken away; but amazed by so sudden and unexpected an end, taking off
nothing but his ring, gave order to have the body properly clad and
adorned, and honorably burned. The relics, put into a silver urn, with a
crown of gold to cover it, he sent back to his son. But some of the
Numidians setting upon those that were carrying the urn, took it from
them by force, and cast away the bones; which being told to Hannibal, "It
is impossible, it seems then," he said, "to do anything against the will
of God!"  He punished the Numidians; but took no further care of sending
or recollecting the bones; conceiving that Marcellus so fell, and so lay
unburied, by a certain fate. So Cornelius Nepos and Valerius Maximus
have left upon record: but Livy and Augustus Caesar affirm, that the urn
was brought to his son, and honored with a magnificent funeral. Besides
the monuments raised for him at Rome, there was dedicated to his memory
at Catana in Sicily, an ample wrestling place called after him; statues
and pictures, out of those he took from Syracuse, were set up in
Samothrace, in the temple of the gods, named Cabiri, and in that of
Minerva at Lindus, where also there was a statue of him, says Posidonius,
with the following inscription:

This was, O stranger, once Rome's star divine,
Claudius Marcellus of an ancient line;
To fight her wars seven times her consul made,
Low in the dust her enemies he laid.

The writer of the inscription has added to Marcellus's five consulates,
his two proconsulates. His progeny continued in high honor even down to
Marcellus, son of Octavia, sister of Augustus, whom she bore to her
husband Caius Marcellus; and who died, a bridegroom, in the year of his
aedileship, having not long before married Caesar's daughter. His
mother, Octavia, dedicated the library to his honor and memory, and
Caesar, the theater which bears his name.

COMPARISION OF PELOPIDAS WITH MARCELLUS

These are the memorable things I have found in historians, concerning
Marcellus and Pelopidas. Betwixt which two great men, though in natural
character and manners they nearly resembled each other, because both were
valiant and diligent, daring and high-spirited, there was yet some
diversity in the one point, that Marcellus in many cities which he
reduced under his power, committed great slaughter; but Epaminondas and
Pelopidas never after any victory put men to death, or reduced citizens
to slavery. And we are told, too, that the Thebans would not, had these
been present, have taken the measures they did, against the Orchomenians.
Marcellus's exploits against the Gauls are admirable and ample; when,
accompanied by a few horse, he defeated and put to fight a vast number of
horse and foot together, (an action you cannot easily in historians find
to have been done by any other captain,) and took their king prisoner.
To which honor Pelopidas aspired, but did not attain; he was killed by
the tyrant in the attempt. But to these you may perhaps oppose those two
most glorious battles at Leuctra and Tegyrae; and we have no statement of
any achievement of Marcellus, by stealth or ambuscade, such as were those
of Pelopidas, when he returned from exile, and killed the tyrants at
Thebes; which, indeed, may claim to be called the first in rank of all
achievements ever performed by secrecy and cunning. Hannibal was,
indeed, a most formidable enemy for the Romans but so for that matter
were the Lacedaemonians for the Thebans. And that these were, in the
fights of Leuctra and Tegyrae, beaten and put to fight by Pelopidas, is
confessed; whereas, Polybius writes, that Hannibal was never so much as
once vanquished by Marcellus, but remained invincible in all encounters,
till Scipio came. I myself, indeed, have followed rather Livy, Caesar,
Cornelius Nepos, and, among the Greeks, king Juba, in stating that the
troops of Hannibal were in some encounters routed and put to flight by
Marcellus; but certainly these defeats conduced little to the sum of the
war. It would seem as if they had been merely feints of some sort on the
part of the Carthaginian. What was indeed truly and really admirable
was, that the Romans, after the defeat of so many armies, the slaughter
of so many captains, and, in fine, the confusion of almost the whole
Roman empire, still showed a courage equal to their losses, and were as
willing as their enemies to engage in new battles. And Marcellus was the
one man who overcame the great and inveterate fear and dread, and
revived, raised, and confirmed the spirits of the soldiers to that degree
of emulation and bravery, that would not let them easily yield the
victory, but made them contend for it to the last. For the same men,
whom continual defeats had accustomed to think themselves happy, if they
could but save themselves by running from Hannibal, were by him taught to
esteem it base and ignominious to return safe but unsuccessful; to be
ashamed to confess that they had yielded one step in the terrors of the
fight; and to grieve to extremity if they were not victorious.

In short, as Pelopidas was never overcome in any battle, where himself
was present and commanded in chief, and as Marcellus gained more
victories than any of his contemporaries, truly he that could not be
easily overcome, considering his many successes, may fairly be compared
with him who was undefeated. Marcellus took Syracuse; whereas Pelopidas
was frustrated of his hope of capturing Sparta. But in my judgment, it
was more difficult to advance his standard even to the walls of Sparta,
and to be the first of mortals that ever passed the river Eurotas in
arms, than it was to reduce Sicily; unless, indeed, we say that that
adventure is with more of right to be attributed to Epaminondas, as was
also the Leuctrian battle; whereas Marcellus's renown, and the glory of
his brave actions came entire and undiminished to him alone. For he
alone took Syracuse; and without his colleague's help defeated the Gauls,
and, when all others declined, alone, without one companion, ventured to
engage with Hannibal; and changing the aspect of the war first showed the
example of daring to attack him.

I cannot commend the death of either of these great men; the suddenness
and strangeness of their ends gives me a feeling rather of pain and
distress. Hannibal has my admiration, who, in so many severe conflicts,
more than can be reckoned in one day, never received so much as one
wound. I honor Chrysantes also, (in Xenophon's Cyropaedia,) who, having
raised his sword in the act of striking his enemy, so soon as a retreat
was sounded, left him, and retired sedately and modestly. Yet the anger
which provoked Pelopidas to pursue revenge in the heat of fight, may
excuse him.

The first thing for a captain is to gain
Safe victory; the next to be with honor slain,

as Euripides says. For then he cannot be said to suffer death; it is
rather to be called an action. The very object, too, of Pelopidas's
victory, which consisted in the slaughter of the tyrant, presenting
itself to his eyes, did not wholly carry him away unadvisedly: he could
not easily expect again to have another equally glorious occasion for the
exercise of his courage, in a noble and honorable cause. But Marcellus,
when it made little to his advantage, and when no such violent ardor as
present danger naturally calls out transported him to passion, throwing
himself into danger, fell into an unexplored ambush; he, namely, who had
borne five consulates, led three triumphs, won the spoils and glories of
kings and victories, to act the part of a mere scout or sentinel, and to
expose all his achievements to be trod under foot by the mercenary
Spaniards and Numidians, who sold themselves and their lives to the
Carthaginians; so that even they themselves felt unworthy, and almost
grudged themselves the unhoped for success of having cut off, among a few
Fregellan scouts, the most valiant, the most potent, and most renowned of
the Romans. Let no man think that we have thus spoken out of a design to
accuse these noble men; it is merely an expression of frank indignation
in their own behalf, at seeing them thus wasting all their other virtues
upon that of bravery, and throwing away their lives, as if the loss would
be only felt by themselves, and not by their country, allies, and
friends.

After Pelopidas's death, his friends, for whom he died, made a funeral
for him; the enemies, by whom he had been killed, made one for Marcellus.
A noble and happy lot indeed the former, yet there is something higher
and greater in the admiration rendered by enemies to the virtue that had
been their own obstacle, than in the grateful acknowledgments of friends.
Since, in the one case, it is virtue alone that challenges itself the
honor; while, in the other, it may be rather men's personal profit and
advantage that is the real origin of what they do.

ARISTIDES

Aristides, the son of Lysimachus, was of the tribe Antiochis, and
township of Alopece. As to his wealth, statements differ; some say
he passed his life in extreme poverty, and left behind him two
daughters whose indigence long kept them unmarried: but Demetrius,
the Phalerian, in opposition to this general report, professes in his
Socrates, to know a farm at Phalerum going by Aristides's name, where
he was interred; and, as marks of his opulence, adduces first, the
office of archon eponymus, which he obtained by the lot of the bean;
which was confined to the highest assessed families, called the
Pentacosiomedimni; second, the ostracism, which was not usually
inflicted on the poorer citizens, but on those of great houses, whose
elation exposed them to envy; third and last, that he left certain
tripods in the temple of Bacchus, offerings for his victory in
conducting the representation of dramatic performances, which were
even in our age still to be seen, retaining this inscription upon
them, "The tribe Antiochis obtained the victory: Aristides defrayed
the charges: Archestratus's play was acted."  But this argument,
though in appearance the strongest, is of the least moment of any.
For Epaminondas, who all the world knows was educated, and lived his
whole life, in much poverty, and also Plato, the philosopher,
exhibited magnificent shows, the one an entertainment of flute-players
the other of dithyrambic singers; Dion, the Syracusan, supplying the
expenses of the latter, and Pelopidas those of Epaminondas. For good
men do not allow themselves in any inveterate and irreconcilable
hostility to receiving presents from their friends, but while looking
upon those that are accepted to be hoarded up and with avaricious
intentions, as sordid and mean, they do not refuse such as, apart from
all profit, gratify the pure love of honor and magnificence.
Panaetius, again, shows that Demetrius was deceived concerning the
tripod by an identity of name. For, from the Persian war to the end
of the Peloponnesian, there are upon record only two of the name of
Aristides, who defrayed the expense of representing plays and gained
the prize neither of which was the same with the son of Lysimachus;
but the father of the one was Xenophilus, and the other lived at a
much later time, as the way of writing, which is that in use since the
time of Euclides, and the addition of the name of Archestratus prove,
a name which, in the time of the Persian war, no writer mentions, but
which several, during the Peloponnesian war, record as that of a
dramatic poet. The argument of Panaetius requires to be more closely
considered. But as for the ostracism, everyone was liable to it,
whom his reputation, birth, or eloquence raised above the common
level; insomuch that even Damon, preceptor to Pericles, was thus
banished, because he seemed a man of more than ordinary sense. And,
moreover, Idomeneus says, that Aristides was not made archon by the
lot of the bean, but the free election of the people. And if he held
the office after the battle of Plataea, as Demetrius himself has
written, it is very probable that his great reputation and success in
the war, made him be preferred for his virtue to an office which
others received in consideration of their wealth. But Demetrius
manifestly is eager not only to exempt Aristides but Socrates
likewise, from poverty, as from a great evil; telling us that the
latter had not only a house of his own, but also seventy minae put out
at interest with Crito.

Aristides being the friend and supporter of that Clisthenes, who
settled the government after the expulsion of the tyrants, and
emulating and admiring Lycurgus the Lacedaemonian above all
politicians, adhered to the aristocratical principles of government;
and had Themistocles, son to Neocles, his adversary on the side of the
populace. Some say that, being boys and bred up together from their
infancy, they were always at variance with each other in all their
words and actions as well serious as playful, and that in this their
early contention they soon made proof of their natural inclinations;
the one being ready, adventurous, and subtle, engaging readily and
eagerly in everything; the other of a staid and settled temper,
intent on the exercise of justice, not admitting any degree of
falsity, indecorum, or trickery, no, not so much as at his play.
Ariston of Chios says the first origin of the enmity which rose to so
great a height, was a love affair; they were rivals for the affection
of the beautiful Stesilaus of Ceos, and were passionate beyond all
moderation, and did not lay aside their animosity when the beauty that
had excited it passed away; but, as if it had only exercised them in
it, immediately carried their heats and differences into public
business.

Themistocles, therefore, joining an association of partisans,
fortified himself with considerable strength; insomuch that when some
one told him that were he impartial, he would make a good magistrate;
"I wish," replied he, "I may never sit on that tribunal where my
friends shall not plead a greater privilege than strangers."  But
Aristides walked, so to say, alone on his own path in politics, being
unwilling, in the first place, to go along with his associates in ill
doing, or to cause them vexation by not gratifying their wishes; and,
secondly, observing that many were encouraged by the support they had
in their friends to act injuriously, he was cautious; being of opinion
that the integrity of his words and actions was the only right
security for a good citizen.

However, Themistocles making many dangerous alterations, and
withstanding and interrupting him in the whole series of his actions,
Aristides also was necessitated to set himself against all
Themistocles did, partly in self-defense, and partly to impede his
power from still increasing by the favor of the multitude; esteeming
it better to let slip some public conveniences, rather than that he by
prevailing should become powerful in all things. In fine, when he
once had opposed Themistocles in some measures that were expedient,
and had got the better of him, he could not refrain from saying, when
he left the assembly, that unless they sent Themistocles and himself
to the barathrum, there could be no safety for Athens. Another time,
when urging some proposal upon the people, though there were much
opposition and stirring against it, he yet was gaining the day; but
just as the president of the assembly was about to put it to the vote,
perceiving by what had been said in debate the inexpediency of his
advice, he let it fall. Also he often brought in his bills by other
persons, lest Themistocles, through party spirit against him, should
be any hindrance to the good of the public.

In all the vicissitudes of public affairs, the constancy he showed was
admirable, not being elated with honors, and demeaning himself
tranquilly and sedately in adversity; holding the opinion that he
ought to offer himself to the service of his country without mercenary
news and irrespectively of any reward, not only of riches, but even of
glory itself. Hence it came, probably, that at the recital of these
verses of Aeschylus in the theater, relating to Amphiaraus,

For not at seeming just, but being so
He aims; and from his depth of soil below,
Harvests of wise and prudent counsels grow,

the eyes of all the spectators turned on Aristides, as if this virtue,
in an especial manner, belonged to him.

He was a most determined champion for justice, not only against
feelings of friendship and favor, but wrath and malice. Thus it is
reported of him that when prosecuting the law against one who was his
enemy, on the judges after accusation refusing to hear the criminal,
and proceeding immediately to pass sentence upon him, he rose in haste
from his seat and joined in petition with him for a hearing, and that
he might enjoy the privilege of the law. Another time, when judging
between two private persons, on the one declaring his adversary had
very much injured Aristides; "Tell me rather, good friend," he said,
"what wrong he has done you: for it is your cause, not my own, which
I now sit judge of."  Being chosen to the charge of the public
revenue, he made it appear that not only those of his time, but the
preceding officers, had alienated much treasure, and especially
Themistocles:--

Well known he was an able man to be,
But with his fingers apt to be too flee.

Therefore, Themistocles associating several persons against
Aristides, and impeaching him when he gave in his accounts, caused him
to be condemned of robbing the public; so Idomeneus states; but the
best and chiefest men of the city much resenting it, he was not only
exempted from the fine imposed upon him, but likewise again called to
the same employment. Pretending now to repent him of his former
practice, and carrying himself with more remissness, he became
acceptable to such as pillaged the treasury, by not detecting or
calling them to an exact account. So that those who had their fill of
the public money began highly to applaud Aristides, and sued to the
people, making interest to have him once more chosen treasurer. But
when they were upon the point of election, he reproved the Athenians.
"When I discharged my office well and faithfully," said he, "I was
insulted and abused; but now that I have allowed the public thieves in
a variety of malpractices, I am considered an admirable patriot. I am
more ashamed, therefore, of this present honor than of the former
sentence; and I commiserate your condition, with whom it is more
praiseworthy to oblige ill men than to conserve the revenue of the
public."  Saying thus, and proceeding to expose the thefts that had
been committed, he stopped the mouths of those who cried him up and
vouched for him, but gained real and true commendation from the best
men.

When Datis, being sent by Darius under pretense of punishing the
Athenians for their burning of Sardis, but in reality to reduce the
Greeks under his dominion, landed at Marathon and laid waste the
country, among the ten commanders appointed by the Athenians for the
war, Militiades was of the greatest name; but the second place, both
for reputation and power, was possessed by Aristides: and when his
opinion to join battle was added to that of Miltiades, it did much to
incline the balance. Every leader by his day having the command in
chief when it came to Aristides' turn, he delivered it into the hands
of Miltiades, showing his fellow officers, that it is not dishonorable
to obey and follow wise and able men, but, on the contrary, noble and
prudent. So appeasing their rivalry, and bringing them to acquiesce
in one and the best advice, he confirmed Miltiades in the strength of
an undivided and unmolested authority. For now everyone, yielding
his day of command, looked for orders only to him. During the fight
the main body of the Athenians being the hardest put to it, the
barbarians, for a long time, making opposition there against the
tribes Leontis and Antiochis, Themistocles and Aristides being ranged
together, fought valiantly; the one being of the tribe Leontis, the
other of the Antiochis. But after they had beaten the barbarians back
to their ships, and perceived that they sailed not for the isles, but
were driven in by the force of sea and wind towards the country of
Attica; fearing lest they should take the city, unprovided of defense,
they hurried away thither with nine tribes, and reached it the same
day. Aristides, being left with his tribe at Marathon to guard the
plunder and prisoners, did not disappoint the opinion they had of him.
Amidst the profusion of gold and silver, all sorts of apparel, and
other property, more than can be mentioned, that were in the tents and
the vessels which they had taken, he neither felt the desire to meddle
with anything himself, nor suffered others to do it; unless it might
be some who took away anything unknown to him; as Callias, the
torchbearer, did. One of the barbarians, it seems, prostrated
himself before this man, supposing him to be a king by his hair and
fillet; and, when he had so done, taking him by the hand, showed him a
great quantity of gold hid in a ditch. But Callias, most cruel and
impious of men, took away the treasure, but slew the man, lest he
should tell of him. Hence, they say, the comic poets gave his family
the name of Laccopluti, or enriched by the ditch, alluding to the
place where Callias found the gold. Aristides, immediately after
this, was archon; although Demetrius, the Phalerian, says he held the
office a little before he died, after the battle of Plataea. But in
the records of the successors of Xanthippides, in whose year Mardonius
was overthrown at Plataea, amongst very many there mentioned, there is
not so much as one of the same name as Aristides: while immediately
after Phaenippus, during whose term of office they obtained the
victory of Marathon, Aristides is registered.

Of all his virtues, the common people were most affected with his
justice, because of its continual and common use; and thus, although
of mean fortune and ordinary birth, he possessed himself of the most
kingly and divine appellation of Just; which kings, however, and
tyrants have never sought after; but have taken delight to be surnamed
besiegers of cities, thunderers, conquerors, or eagles again, and
hawks ; affecting, it seems, the reputation which proceeds from power
and violence, rather than that of virtue. Although the divinity, to
whom they desire to compare and assimilate themselves, excels, it is
supposed, in three things, immortality, power, and virtue; of which
three, the noblest and divinest is virtue. For the elements and
vacuum have an everlasting existence; earthquakes, thunders, storms,
and torrents have great power; but in justice and equity nothing
participates except by means of reason and the knowledge of that which
is divine. And thus, taking the three varieties of feeling commonly
entertained towards the deity, the sense of his happiness, fear, and
honor of him, people would seem to think him blest and happy for his
exemption from death and corruption, to fear and dread him for his
power and dominion, but to love, honor, and adore him for his justice.
Yet though thus disposed, they covet that immortality which our nature
is not capable of, and that power the greatest part of which is at the
disposal of fortune; but give virtue, the only divine good really in
our reach, the last place, most unwisely; since justice makes the life
of such as are in prosperity, power, and authority the life of a god,
and injustice turns it to that of a beast.

Aristides, therefore, had at first the fortune to be beloved for this
surname, but at length envied. Especially when Themistocles spread a
rumor amongst the people, that, by determining and judging all matters
privately, he had destroyed the courts of judicature, and was secretly
making way for a monarchy in his own person, without the assistance of
guards. Moreover, the spirit of the people, now grown high, and
confident with their late victory, naturally entertained feelings of
dislike to all of more than common fame and reputation. Coming
together, therefore, from all parts into the city, they banished
Aristides by the ostracism, giving their jealousy of his reputation
the name of fear of tyranny. For ostracism was not the punishment of
any criminal act, but was speciously said to be the mere depression
and humiliation of excessive greatness and power; and was in fact a
gentle relief and mitigation of envious feeling, which was thus
allowed to vent itself in inflicting no intolerable injury, only a ten
years' banishment. But after it came to be exercised upon base and
villainous fellows, they desisted from it; Hyperbolus, being the last
whom they banished by the ostracism.

The cause of Hyperbolus's banishment is said to have been this.
Alcibiades and Nicias, men that bore the greatest sway in the city,
were of different factions. As the people, therefore, were about to
vote the ostracism, and obviously to decree it against one of them,
consulting together and uniting their parties, they contrived the
banishment of Hyperbolus. Upon which the people, being offended, as
if some contempt or affront was put upon the thing, left off and quite
abolished it. It was performed, to be short, in this manner. Every
one taking an ostracon, a sherd, that is, or piece of earthenware,
wrote upon it the citizen's name he would have banished, and carried
it to a certain part of the market-place surrounded with wooden rails.
First, the magistrates numbered all the sherds in gross (for if there
were less than six thousand, the ostracism was imperfect); then,
laying every name by itself, they pronounced him whose name was
written by the larger number, banished for ten years, with the
enjoyment of his estate. As, therefore, they were writing the names
on the sherds, it is reported that an illiterate clownish fellow,
giving Aristides his sherd, supposing him a common citizen, begged him
to write Aristides upon it; and he being surprised and asking if
Aristides had ever done him any injury, "None at all," said he,
"neither know I the man; but I am tired of hearing him everywhere
called the Just."  Aristides, hearing this, is said to have made no
reply, but returned the sherd with his own name inscribed. At his
departure from the city, lifting up his hands to heaven, he made a
prayer, (the reverse, it would seem, of that of Achilles,) that the
Athenians might never have any occasion which should constrain them to
remember Aristides.

Nevertheless, three years after, when Xerxes marched through Thessaly
and Boeotia into the country of Attica, repealing the law, they
decreed the return of the banished: chiefly fearing Aristides, lest,
joining himself to the enemy, he should corrupt and bring over many of
his fellow-citizens to the party of the barbarians; much mistaking the
man, who, already before the decree, was exerting himself to excite
and encourage the Greeks to the defense of their liberty. And
afterwards, when Themistocles was general with absolute power, he
assisted him in all ways both in action and counsel; rendering, in
consideration of the common security, the greatest enemy he had the
most glorious of men. For when Eurybiades was deliberating to desert
the isle of Salamis, and the gallies of the barbarians putting out by
night to sea surrounded and beset the narrow passage and islands, and
nobody was aware how they were environed, Aristides, with great
hazard, sailed from Aegina through the enemy's fleet; and coming by
night to Themistocles's tent, and calling him out by himself; "If we
have any discretion," said he, "Themistocles, laying aside at this
time our vain and childish contention, let us enter upon a safe and
honorable dispute, vying with each other for the preservation of
Greece; you in the ruling and commanding, I in the subservient and
advising part; even, indeed, as I now understand you to be alone
adhering to the best advice, in counseling without any delay to engage
in the straits. And in this, though our own party oppose, the enemy
seems to assist you. For the sea behind, and all around us, is
covered with their fleet; so that we are under a necessity of
approving ourselves men of courage, and fighting, whether we will or
no; for there is no room left us for flight."  To which Themistocles
answered, "I would not willingly, Aristides, be overcome by you on
this occasion; and shall endeavor, in emulation of this good
beginning, to outdo it in my actions."  Also relating to him the
stratagem he had framed against the barbarians, he entreated him to
persuade Eurybiades and show him how it was impossible they should
save themselves without an engagement; as he was the more likely to be
believed. Whence, in the council of war, Cleocritus, the Corinthian,
telling Themistocles that Aristides did not like his advice, as he was
present and said nothing, Aristides answered, That he should not have
held his peace if Themistocles had not been giving the best advice;
and that he was now silent not out of any good-will to the person, but
in approbation of his counsel.

Thus the Greek captains were employed. But Aristides perceiving
Psyttalea, a small island that lies within the straits over against
Salamis, to be filled by a body of the enemy, put aboard his small
boats the most forward and courageous of his countrymen, and went
ashore upon it; and, joining battle with the barbarians, slew them
all, except such more remarkable persons as were taken alive. Amongst
these were three children of Sandauce, the king's sister, whom he
immediately sent away to Themistocles, and it is stated that in
accordance with a certain oracle, they were, by the command of
Euphrantides, the seer, sacrificed to Bacchus, called Omestes, or the
devourer. But Aristides, placing armed men all around the island, lay
in wait for such as were cast upon it, to the intent that none of his
friends should perish, nor any of his enemies escape. For the closest
engagement of the ships, and the main fury of the whole battle, seems
to have been about this place; for which reason a trophy was erected
in Psyttalea.

After the fight, Themistocles, to sound Aristides, told him they had
performed a good piece of service, but there was a better yet to be
done, the keeping Asia in Europe, by sailing forthwith to the
Hellespont, and cutting in sunder the bridge. But Aristides, with an
exclamation, bid him think no more of it, but deliberate and find out
means for removing the Mede, as quickly as possible, out of Greece;
lest being enclosed, through want of means to escape, necessity should
compel him to force his way with so great an army. So Themistocles
once more dispatched Arnaces, the eunuch, his prisoner, giving him in
command privately to advertise the king that he had diverted the
Greeks from their intention of setting sail for the bridges, out of
the desire he felt to preserve him.

Xerxes, being much terrified with this, immediately hasted to the
Hellespont. But Mardonius was left with the most serviceable part of
the army, about three hundred thousand men, and was a formidable
enemy, confident in his infantry, and writing messages of defiance to
the Greeks: "You have overcome by sea men accustomed to fight on
land, and unskilled at the oar; but there lies now the open country of
Thessaly; and the plains of Boeotia offer a broad and worthy field for
brave men, either horse or foot, to contend in."  But he sent
privately to the Athenians, both by letter and word of mouth from the
king, promising to rebuild their city, to give them a vast sum of
money, and constitute them lords of all Greece on condition they were
not engaged in the war. The Lacedaemonians, receiving news of this,
and fearing, dispatched an embassy to the Athenians, entreating that
they would send their wives and children to Sparta, and receive
support from them for their superannuated. For, being despoiled both
of their city and country, the people were suffering extreme distress.
Having given audience to the ambassadors, they returned an answer,
upon the motion of Aristides, worthy of the highest admiration;
declaring, that they forgave their enemies if they thought all things
purchasable by wealth, than which they knew nothing of greater value;
but that they felt offended at the Lacedaemonians, for looking only to
their present poverty and exigence, without any remembrance of their
valor and magnanimity, offering them their victuals, to fight in the
cause of Greece. Aristides, making this proposal and bringing back
the ambassadors into the assembly, charged them to tell the
Lacedaemonians that all the treasure on the earth or under it, was of
less value with the people of Athens, than the liberty of Greece.
And, showing the sun to those who came from Mardonius, "as long as
that retains the same course, so long," said he, "shall the citizens
of Athens wage war with the Persians for the country which has been
wasted, and the temples that have been profaned and burnt by them."
Moreover, he proposed a decree, that the priests should anathematize
him who sent any herald to the Medes, or deserted the alliance of
Greece.

When Mardonius made a second incursion into the country of Attica, the
people passed over again into the isle of Salamis. Aristides, being
sent to Lacedaemon, reproved them for their delay and neglect in
abandoning Athens once more to the barbarians; and demanded their
assistance for that part of Greece, which was not yet lost. The
Ephori, hearing this, made show of sporting all day, and of carelessly
keeping holy day, (for they were then celebrating the Hyacinthian
festival,) but in the night, selecting five thousand Spartans, each of
whom was attended by seven Helots, they sent them forth unknown to
those from Athens. And when Aristides again reprehended them, they
told him in derision that he either doted or dreamed, for the army was
already at Oresteum, in their march towards the strangers; as they
called the Persians. Aristides answered that they jested
unseasonably, deluding their friends, instead of their enemies. Thus
says Idomeneus. But in the decree of Aristides, not himself, but
Cimon, Xanthippus, and Myronides are appointed ambassadors.

Being chosen general for the war, he repaired to Plattea, with eight
thousand Athenians, where Pausanias, generalissimo of all Greece,
joined him with the Spartans; and the forces of the other Greeks came
in to them. The whole encampment of the barbarians extended all along
the bank of the river Asopus, their numbers being so great, there was
no enclosing them all, but their baggage and most valuable things were
surrounded with a square bulwark, each side of which was the length of
ten furlongs.

Tisamenus, the Elean, had prophesied to Pausanias and all the Greeks,
and foretold them victory if they made no attempt upon the enemy, but
stood on their defense. But Aristides sending to Delphi, the god
answered, that the Athenians should overcome their enemies, in case
they made supplication to Jupiter and Juno of Cithaeron, Pan, and the
nymphs Sphragitides, and sacrificed to the heroes Androcrates, Leucon,
Pisander, Damocrates, Hypsion, Actaeon, and Polyidus; and if they
fought within their own territories in the plain of Ceres Eleusinia
and Proserpine. Aristides was perplexed upon the tidings of this
oracle: since the heroes to whom it commanded him to sacrifice had
been chieftains of the Plataeans, and the cave of the nymphs
Sphragitides was on the top of Mount Cithaeron, on the side facing the
setting sun of summer time; in which place, as the story goes, there
was formerly an oracle, and many that lived in the district were
inspired with it, whom they called Nympholepti, possessed with the
nymphs. But the plain of Ceres Eleusinia, and the offer of victory to
the Athenians, if they fought in their own territories, recalled them
again, and transferred the war into the country of Attica. In this
juncture, Arimnestus, who commanded the Plataeans, dreamed that
Jupiter, the Saviour, asked him what the Greeks had resolved upon; and
that he answered, "Tomorrow, my Lord, we march our army to Eleusis,
and there give the barbarians battle according to the directions of
the oracle of Apollo."  And that the god replied, they were utterly
mistaken, for that the places spoken of by the oracle were within the
bounds of Plataea, and if they sought there they should find them.
This manifest vision having appeared to Arimnestus, when he awoke he
sent for the most aged and experienced of his countrymen, with whom
communicating and examining the matter, he found that near Hysiae, at
the foot of Mount Cithaeron, there was a very ancient temple called
the temple of Ceres Eleusinia and Proserpine. He therefore forthwith
took Aristides to the place, which was very convenient for drawing up
an army of foot, because the slopes at the bottom of the mountain
Cithaeron rendered the plain, where it comes up to the temple, unfit
for the movements of cavalry. Also, in the same place, there was the
fane of Androcrates, environed with a thick shady grove. And that the
oracle might be accomplished in all particulars for the hope of
victory, Arimnestus proposed, and the Plataeans decreed, that the
frontiers of their country towards Attica should be removed, and the
land given to the Athenians, that they might fight in defense of
Greece in their own proper territory. This zeal and liberality of the
Plataeans became so famous, that Alexander, many years after, when he
had obtained the dominion of all Asia, upon erecting the walls of
Plataea, caused proclamation to be made by the herald at the Olympic
games, that the king did the Plataeans this favor in consideration of
their nobleness and magnanimity, because, in the war with the Medes,
they freely gave up their land and zealously fought with the Greeks.

The Tegeatans, contesting the post of honor with the Athenians,
demanded, that, according to custom, the Lacedaemonians being ranged
on the right wing of the battle, they might have the left, alleging
several matters in commendation of their ancestors. The Athenians
being indignant at the claim, Aristides came forward; "To contend with
the Tegeatans," said he, "for noble descent and valor, the present
time permits not: but this we say to you, O you Spartans, and you the
rest of the Greeks, that place neither takes away nor contributes
courage: we shall endeavor by crediting and maintaining the post you
assign us, to reflect no dishonor on our former performances. For we
are come, not to differ with our friends, but to fight our enemies;
not to extol our ancestors, but ourselves to behave as valiant men.
This battle will manifest how much each city, captain, and private
soldier is worth to Greece."  The council of war, upon this address,
decided for the Athenians, and gave them the other wing of the battle.

All Greece being in suspense, and especially the affairs of the
Athenians unsettled, certain persons of great families and possessions
having been impoverished by the war, and seeing all their authority
and reputation in the city vanished with their wealth, and others in
possession of their honors and places, convened privately at a house
in Plataea, and conspired for the dissolution of the democratic
government; and, if the plot should not succeed, to ruin the cause and
betray all to the barbarians. These matters being in agitation in the
camp, and many persons already corrupted, Aristides, perceiving the
design, and dreading the present juncture of time, determined neither
to let the business pass unanimadverted upon, nor yet altogether to
expose it; not knowing how many the accusation might reach, and
willing to set bounds to his justice with a view to the public
convenience. Therefore, of many that were concerned, he apprehended
eight only, two of whom, who were first proceeded against and most
guilty, Aeschines of Lampra, and Agesias of Acharnae, made their
escape out of the camp. The rest he dismissed; giving opportunity to
such as thought themselves concealed, to take courage and repent;
intimating that they had in the war a great tribunal, where they might
clear their guilt by manifesting their sincere and good intentions
towards their country.

After this, Mardonius made trial of the Grecian courage, by sending
his whole number of horse, in which he thought himself much the
stronger, against them, while they were all pitched at the foot of
Mount Cithaeron, in strong and rocky places, except the Megarians.
They, being three thousand in number, were encamped on the plain,
where they were damaged by the horse charging and making inroads upon
them on all hands. They sent, therefore, in haste to Pausanias,
demanding relief, as not being able alone to sustain the great numbers
of the barbarians. Pausanias, hearing this, and perceiving the tents
of the Megarians already hid by the multitude of darts and arrows, and
themselves driven together into a narrow space, was at a loss himself
how to aid them with his battalion of heavy-armed Lacedaemonians. He
proposed it, therefore, as a point of emulation in valor and love of
distinction, to the commanders and captains who were around him, if
any would voluntarily take upon them the defense and succor of the
Megarians. The rest being backward, Aristides undertook the
enterprise for the Athenians, and sent Olympiodorus, the most valiant
of his inferior officers, with three hundred chosen men and some
archers under his command. These being soon in readiness, and running
upon the enemy, as soon as Masistius, who commanded the barbarians'
horse, a man of wonderful courage and of extraordinary bulk and
comeliness of person, perceived it, turning his steed he made towards
them. And they sustaining the shock and joining battle with him,
there was a sharp conflict, as though by this encounter they were to
try the success of the whole war. But after Masistius's horse
received a wound, and flung him, and he falling could hardly raise
himself through the weight of his armor, the Athenians, pressing upon
him with blows, could not easily get at his person, armed as he was,
his breast, his head, and his limbs all over, with gold and brass and
iron; but one of them at last, running him in at the visor of his
helmet, slew him; and the rest of the Persians, leaving the body, fled.
The greatness of the Greek success was known, not by the multitude of
the slain, (for an inconsiderable number were killed,) but by the
sorrow the barbarians expressed. For they shaved themselves, their
horses, and mules for the death of Masistius, and filled the plain
with howling and lamentation; having lost a person, who, next to
Mardonius himself, was by many degrees the chief among them, both for
valor and authority.

After this skirmish of the horse, they kept from fighting a long time;
for the soothsayers, by the sacrifices, foretold the victory both to
Greeks and Persians, if they stood upon the defensive part only, but
if they became aggressors, the contrary. At length Mardonius, when he
had but a few days' provision, and the Greek forces increased
continually by some or other that came in to them, impatient of delay,
determined to lie still no longer, but, passing Asopus by daybreak, to
fall unexpectedly upon the Greeks; and signified the same over night
to the captains of his host. But about midnight, a certain horseman
stole into the Greek camp, and coming to the watch, desired them to
call Aristides, the Athenian, to him. He coming speedily; "I am,"
said the stranger, "Alexander, king of the Macedonians, and am arrived
here through the greatest danger in the world for the good-will I bear
you, lest a sudden onset should dismay you, so as to behave in the
fight worse than usual. For tomorrow Mardonius will give you battle,
urged, not by any hope of success or courage, but by want of victuals;
since, indeed, the prophets prohibit him the battle, the sacrifices
and oracles being unfavorable; and the army is in despondency and
consternation; but necessity forces him to try his fortune, or sit
still and endure the last extremity of want."  Alexander, thus saying,
entreated Aristides to take notice and remember him, but not to tell
any other. But he told him, it was not convenient to conceal the
matter from Pausanias (because he was general); as for any other, he
would keep it secret from them till the battle was fought; but if the
Greeks obtained the victory, that then no one should be ignorant of
Alexander's good-will and kindness towards them. After this, the king
of the Macedonians rode back again, and Aristides went to Pausanias's
tent and told him; and they sent for the rest of the captains and gave
orders that the army should be in battle array.

Here, according to Herodotus, Pausanias spoke to Aristides, desiring
him to transfer the Athenians to the right wing of the army opposite
to the Persians, (as they would do better service against them, having
been experienced in their way of combat, and emboldened with former
victories,) and to give him the left, where the Medizing Greeks were
to make their assault. The rest of the Athenian captains regarded
this as an arrogant and interfering act on the part of Pausanias;
because, while permitting the rest of the army to keep their stations,
he removed them only from place to place, like so many Helots,
opposing them to the greatest strength of the enemy. But Aristides
said, they were altogether in the wrong. If so short a time ago they
contested the left wing with the Tegeatans, and gloried in being
preferred before them, now, when the Lacedaemonians give them place in
the right, and yield them in a manner the leading of the army, how is
it they are discontented with the honor that is done them, and do not
look upon it as an advantage to have to fight, not against their
countrymen and kindred, but barbarians, and such as were by nature
their enemies? After this, the Athenians very readily changed places
with the Lacedaemonians, and there went words amongst them as they
were encouraging each other, that the enemy approached with no better
arms or stouter hearts than those who fought the battle of Marathon;
but had the same bows and arrows, and the same embroidered coats and
gold, and the same delicate bodies and effeminate minds within; "while
we have the same weapons and bodies, and our courage augmented by our
victories; and fight not like others in defense of our country only,
but for the trophies of Salamis and Marathon; that they may not be
looked upon as due to Miltiades or fortune, but to the people of
Athens."  Thus, therefore, were they making haste to change the order
of their battle. But the Thebans, understanding it by some deserters,
forthwith acquainted Mardonius; and he, either for fear of the
Athenians, or a desire to engage the Lacedaemonians, marched over his
Persians to the other wing, and commanded the Greeks of his party to
be posted opposite to the Athenians. But this change was observed on
the other side, and Pausanias, wheeling about again, ranged himself on
the right, and Mardonius, also, as at first, took the left wing over
against the Lacedaemonians. So the day passed without action.

After this, the Greeks determined in council to remove their camp some
distance, to possess themselves of a place convenient for watering;
because the springs near them were polluted and destroyed by the
barbarian cavalry. But night being come, and the captains setting out
towards the place designed for their encamping, the soldiers were not
very ready to follow, and keep in a body, but, as soon as they had
quitted their first entrenchments, made towards the city of Plataea;
and there was much tumult and disorder as they dispersed to various
quarters and proceeded to pitch their tents. The Lacedaemonians,
against their will, had the fortune to be left by the rest. For
Amompharetus, a brave and daring man, who had long been burning with
desire of the fight, and resented their many lingerings and delays,
calling the removal of the camp a mere running away and flight,
protested he would not desert his post, but would there remain with
his company, and sustain the charge of Mardonius. And when Pausanias
came to him and told him he did these things by the common vote and
determination of the Greeks, Amompharetus taking up a great stone and
flinging it at Pausanias' feet, and "by this token," said he, "do I
give my suffrage for the battle, nor have I any concern with the
cowardly consultations and decrees of other men."  Pausanias, not
knowing what to do in the present juncture, sent to the Athenians, who
were drawing off, to stay to accompany him; and so he himself set off
with the rest of the army for Plataea, hoping thus to make
Amompharetus move.

Meantime, day came upon them; and Mardonius (for he was not ignorant
of their deserting their camp) having his army in array, fell upon the
Lacedaemonians with great shouting and noise of barbarous people, as
if they were not about to join battle, but crush the Greeks in their
flight. Which within a very little came to pass. For Pausanias,
perceiving what was done, made a halt, and commanded every one to put
themselves in order for the battle; but either through his anger with
Amompharetus, or the disturbance he was in by reason of the sudden
approach of the enemy, he forgot to give the signal to the Greeks in
general. Whence it was, that they did not come in immediately, or in
a body, to their assistance, but by small companies and straggling,
when the fight was already begun. Pausanias, offering sacrifice,
could not procure favorable omens, and so commanded the
Lacedaemonians, setting down their shields at their feet to abide
quietly and attend his directions, making no resistance to any of
their enemies. And, he sacrificing again a second time, the horse
charged, and some of the Lacedaemonians were wounded. At this time,
also, Callicrates, who, we are told, was the most comely man in the
army, being shot with an arrow and upon the point of expiring, said,
that he lamented not his death (for he came from home to lay down his
life in the defense of Greece) but that he died without action. The
case was indeed hard, and the forbearance of the men wonderful; for
they let the enemy charge without repelling them; and, expecting their
proper opportunity from the gods and their general, suffered
themselves to be wounded and slain in their ranks. And some say, that
while Pausanias was at sacrifice and prayers, some space out of the
battle-array, certain Lydians, falling suddenly upon him, plundered
and scattered the sacrifice: and that Pausanias and his company,
having no arms, beat them with staves and whips; and that in imitation
of this attack, the whipping the boys about the altar, and after it
the Lydian procession, are to this day practiced in Sparta.

Pausanias, therefore, being troubled at these things, while the priest
went on offering one sacrifice after another, turns himself towards
the temple with tears in his eyes, and, lifting up his hands to
heaven, besought Juno of Cithaeron, and the other tutelar gods of the
Plataeans, if it were not in the fates for the Greeks to obtain the
victory, that they might not perish, without performing some
remarkable thing, and by their actions demonstrating to their enemies,
that they waged war with men of courage, and soldiers. While
Pausanias was thus in the act of supplication, the sacrifices appeared
propitious, and the soothsayers foretold victory. The word being
given, the Lacedaemonian battalion of foot seemed, on the sudden, like
some one fierce animal, setting up his bristles, and betaking himself
to the combat; and the barbarians perceived that they encountered with
men who would fight it to the death. Therefore, holding their
wicker-shields before them, they shot their arrows amongst the
Lacedaemonians. But they, keeping together in the order of a phalanx,
and falling upon the enemies, forced their shields out of their hands,
and, striking with their pikes at the breasts and faces of the
Persians, overthrew many of them; who, however, fell not either
unrevenged or without courage. For taking hold of the spears with
their bare hands, they broke many of them, and betook themselves not
without effect to the sword; and making use of their falchions and
scimitars, and wresting the Lacedaemonians' shields from them, and
grappling with them, it was a long time that they made resistance.

Meanwhile, for some time, the Athenians stood still, waiting for the
Lacedaemonians to come up. But when they heard much noise as of men
engaged in fight, and a messenger, they say, came from Pausanias, to
advertise them of what was going on, they soon hasted to their
assistance. And as they passed through the plain to the place where
the noise was, the Greeks, who took part with the enemy, came upon
them. Aristides, as soon as he saw them, going a considerable space
before the rest, cried out to them, conjuring them by the guardian
gods of Greece to forbear the fight, and be no impediment or stop to
those, who were going to succor the defenders of Greece. But when he
perceived they gave no attention to him, and had prepared themselves
for the battle, then turning from the present relief of the
Lacedaemonians, he engaged them, being five thousand in number. But
the greatest part soon gave way and retreated, as the barbarians also
were put to flight. The sharpest conflict is said to have been
against the Thebans, the chiefest and most powerful persons among them
at that time siding zealously with the Medes, and leading the
multitude not according to their own inclinations, but as being
subjects of an oligarchy.

The battle being thus divided, the Lacedaemonians first beat off the
Persians; and a Spartan, named Arimnestus, slew Mardonius by a blow on
the head with a stone, as the oracle in the temple of Amphiaraus had
foretold to him. For Mardonius sent a Lydian thither, and another
person, a Carian, to the cave of Trophonius. This latter, the priest of
the oracle answered in his own language. But the Lydian sleeping in
the temple of Amphiaraus, it seemed to him that a minister of the
divinity stood before him and commanded him to be gone; and on his
refusing to do it, flung a great stone at his head, so that he thought
himself slain with the blow. Such is the story. -- They drove the
fliers within their walls of wood; and, a little time after, the
Athenians put the Thebans to flight, killing three hundred of the
chiefest and of greatest note among them in the actual fight itself.
For when they began to fly, news came that the army of the barbarians
was besieged within their palisade: and so giving the Greeks
opportunity to save themselves, they marched to assist at the
fortifications; and coming in to the Lacedaemonians, who were
altogether unhandy and inexperienced in storming, they took the camp
with great slaughter of the enemy. For of three hundred thousand,
forty thousand only are said to have escaped with Artabazus; while on
the Greeks' side there perished in all thirteen hundred and sixty: of
which fifty-two were Athenians, all of the tribe Aeantis, that fought,
says Clidemus, with the greatest courage of any; and for this reason
the men of this tribe used to offer sacrifice for the victory, as
enjoined by the oracle, to the nymphs Sphragitides at the expense of
the public: ninety-one were Lacedaemonians and sixteen Tegeatans. It
is strange, therefore, upon what grounds Herodotus can say, that they
only, and none other, encountered the enemy; for the number of the
slain and their monuments testify that the victory was obtained by all
in general; and if the rest had been standing still, while the
inhabitants of three cities only had been engaged in the fight, they
would not have set on the altar the inscription: --

The Greeks, when by their courage and their might,
They had repelled the Persian in the fight,
The common altar of freed Greece to be,
Reared this to Jupiter who guards the free.

They fought this battle on the fourth day of the month Boedromion,
according to the Athenians, but according to the Boeotians, on the
twenty-seventh of Panemus; -- on which day there is still a convention
of the Greeks at Plataea, and the Plataeans still offer sacrifice for
the victory to Jupiter of freedom. As for the difference of days, it
is not to be wondered at, since even at the present time, when there
is a far more accurate knowledge of astronomy, some begin the month at
one time, and some at another.

After this, the Athenians not yielding the honor of the day to the
Lacedaemonians, nor consenting they should erect a trophy, things were
not far from being ruined by dissension amongst the armed Greeks; had
not Aristides, by much soothing and counseling the commanders,
especially Leocrates and Myronides, pacified and persuaded them to
leave the thing to the decision of the Greeks. And on their
proceeding to discuss the matter, Theogiton, the Megarian, declared
the honor of the victory was to be given some other city, if they
would prevent a civil war; after him Cleocritus of Corinth rising up,
made people think he would ask the palm for the Corinthians, (for next
to Sparta and Athens, Corinth was in greatest estimation); but he
delivered his opinion, to the general admiration, in favor of the
Plataeans; and counseled to take away all contention by giving them
the reward and glory of the victory, whose being honored could be
distasteful to neither party. This being said, first Aristides gave
consent in the name of the Athenians, and Pausanias, then, for the
Lacedaemonians. So, being reconciled, they set apart eighty talents
for the Plataeans, with which they built the temple and dedicated the
image to Minerva, and adorned the temple with pictures, which even to
this very day retain their luster. But the Lacedaemonians and
Athenians each erected a trophy apart by themselves. On their
consulting the oracle about offering sacrifice, Apollo answered that
they should dedicate an altar to Jupiter of freedom, but should not
sacrifice till they had extinguished the fires throughout the country,
as having been defiled by the barbarians, and had kindled unpolluted
fire at the common altar at Delphi. The magistrates of Greece,
therefore, went forthwith and compelled such as had fire to put it
out; and Euchidas, a Plataean, promising to fetch fire, with all
possible speed, from the altar of the god, went to Delphi, and having
sprinkled and purified his body, crowned himself with laurel; and
taking the fire from the altar ran back to Plataea, and got back there
before sunset, performing in one day a journey of a thousand furlongs;
and saluting his fellow-citizens and delivering them the fire, he
immediately fell down, and in a short time after expired. But the
Plataeans, taking him up, interred him in the temple of Diana Euclia,
setting this inscription over him: "Euchidas ran to Delphi and back
again in one day."  Most people believe that Euclia is Diana, and call
her by that name. But some say she was the daughter of Hercules, by
Myrto, the daughter of Menoetius, and sister of Patroclus, and, dying
a virgin, was worshipped by the Boeotians and Locrians. Her altar and
image are set up in all their marketplaces, and those of both sexes
that are about marrying, sacrifice to her before the nuptials.

A general assembly of all the Greeks being called, Aristides proposed
a decree, that the deputies and religious representatives of the Greek
states should assemble annually at Plataea, and every fifth year
celebrate the Eleutheria, or games of freedom. And that there should
be a levy upon all Greece, for the war against the barbarians, of ten
thousand spearmen, one thousand horse, and a hundred sail of ships;
but the Plataeans to be exempt, and sacred to the service of the gods,
offering sacrifice for the welfare of Greece. These things begin
ratified, the Plataeans undertook the performance of annual sacrifice
to such as were slain and buried in that place; which they still
perform in the following manner. On the sixteenth day of Maemacterion
(which with the Boeotians is Alalcomenus) they make their procession,
which, beginning by break of day, is led by a trumpeter sounding for
onset; then follow certain chariots loaded with myrrh and garlands;
and then a black bull; then come the young men of free birth carrying
libations of wine and milk in large two-handed vessels, and jars of
oil and precious ointments, none of servile condition being permitted
to have any hand in this ministration, because the men died in defense
of freedom; after all comes the chief magistrate of Plataea, (for whom
it is unlawful at other times either to touch iron, or wear any other
colored garment but white,) at that time appareled in a purple robe;
and, taking a water-pot out of the city record-office, he proceeds,
bearing a sword in his hand, through the middle of the town to the
sepulchres. Then drawing water out of a spring, he washes and anoints
the monument, and sacrificing the bull upon a pile of wood, and
making supplication to Jupiter and Mercury of the earth, invites those
valiant men who perished in the defense of Greece, to the banquet and
the libations of blood. After this, mixing a bowl of wine, and
pouring out for himself, he says, "I drink to those who lost their
lives for the liberty of Greece."  These solemnities the Plataeans
observe to this day.

Aristides perceived that the Athenians, after their return into the
city, were eager for a democracy; and deeming the people to deserve
consideration on account of their valiant behavior, as also that it
was a matter of difficulty, they being well armed, powerful, and full
of spirit with their victories, to oppose them by force, he brought
forward a decree, that every one might share in the government, and
the archons be chosen out of the whole body of the Athenians. And on
Themistocles telling the people in assembly that he had some advice
for them, which could not be given in public, but was most important
for the advantage and security of the city, they appointed Aristides
alone to hear and consider it with him. And on his acquainting
Aristides that his intent was to set fire to the arsenal of the
Greeks, for by that means should the Athenians become supreme masters
of all Greece, Aristides, returning to the assembly, told them, that
nothing was more advantageous than what Themistocles designed, and
nothing more unjust. The Athenians, hearing this, gave Themistocles
order to desist; such was the love of justice felt by the people, and
such the credit and confidence they reposed in Aristides.

Being sent in joint commission with Cimon to the war, he took notice
that Pausanias and the other Spartan captains made themselves
offensive by imperiousness and harshness to the confederates; and by
being himself gentle and considerate with them and by the courtesy and
disinterested temper which Cimon, after his example, manifested in the
expeditions, he stole away the chief command from the Lacedaemonians,
neither by weapons, ships, or horses, but by equity and wise policy.
For the Athenians being endeared to the Greeks by the justice of
Aristides and by Cimon's moderation, the tyranny and selfishness of
Pausanias rendered them yet more desirable. He on all occasions
treated the commanders of the confederates haughtily and roughly; and
the common soldiers he punished with stripes, or standing under the
iron anchor for a whole day together; neither was it permitted for any
to provide straw for themselves to lie on, or forage for their horses,
or to come near the springs to water before the Spartans were
furnished, but servants with whips drove away such as approached. And
when Aristides once was about to complain and expostulate with
Pausanias, he told him, with an angry look, that he was not at
leisure, and gave no attention to him. The consequence was that the
sea captains and generals of the Greeks, in particular, the Chians,
Samians, and Lesbians, came to Aristides and requested him to be their
general, and to receive the confederates into his command, who had
long desired to relinquish the Spartans and come over to the
Athenians. But he answered, that he saw both equity and necessity in
what they said, but their fidelity required the test of some action,
the commission of which would make it impossible for the multitude to
change their minds again. Upon which Uliades, the Samian, and
Antagoras of Chios, conspiring together, ran in near Byzantium on
Pausanias's galley, getting her between them as she was sailing before
the rest. But when Pausanias, beholding them, rose up and furiously
threatened soon to make them know that they had been endangering not
his galley, but their own countries, they bid him go his way, and
thank Fortune that fought for him at Plataea; for hitherto, in
reverence to that, the Greeks had forborne from indicting on him the
punishment he deserved. In fine, they all went off and joined the
Athenians. And here the magnanimity of the Lacedaemonians was
wonderful. For when they perceived that their generals were becoming
corrupted by the greatness of their authority, they voluntarily laid
down the chief command, and left off sending any more of them to the
wars, choosing rather to have citizens of moderation and consistent in
the observance of their customs, than to possess the dominion of all
Greece.

Even during the command of the Lacedaemonians, the Greeks paid a
certain contribution towards the maintenance of the war; and being
desirous to be rated city by city in their due proportion, they
desired Aristides of the Athenians, and gave him command, surveying
the country and revenue, to assess every one according to their
ability and what they were worth. But he, being so largely empowered,
Greece as it were submitting all her affairs to his sole management,
went out poor, and returned poorer; laying the tax not only without
corruption and injustice, but to the satisfaction and convenience of
all. For as the ancients celebrated the age of Saturn, so did the
confederates of Athens Aristides's taxation, terming it the happy time
of Greece; and that more especially, as the sum was in a short time
doubled, and afterwards trebled. For the assessment which Aristides
made, was four hundred and sixty talents. But to this Pericles added
very near one third part more; for Thucydides says, that in the
beginning of the Peloponnesian war, the Athenians had coming in from
their confederates six hundred talents. But after Pericles's death,
the demagogues, increasing by little and little, raised it to the sum
of thirteen hundred talents; not so much through the war's being so
expensive and chargeable either by its length or ill success, as by
their alluring the people to spend upon largesses and play-house
allowances, and in erecting statues and temples. Aristides,
therefore, having acquired a wonderful and great reputation by this
levy of the tribute, Themistocles is said to have derided him, as if
this had been not the commendation of a man, but a money-bag; a
retaliation, though not in the same kind, for some free words which
Aristides had used. For he, when Themistocles once was saying that he
thought the highest virtue of a general was to understand and foreknow
the measures the enemy would take, replied, "This, indeed,
Themistocles, is simply necessary, but the excellent thing in a
general is to keep his hands from taking money."

Aristides, moreover, made all the people of Greece swear to keep the
league, and himself took the oath in the name of the Athenians,
flinging wedges of red hot iron into the sea, after curses against
such as should make breach of their vow. But afterwards, it would
seem, when things were in such a state as constrained them to govern
with a stronger hand, he bade the Athenians to throw the perjury upon
him, and manage affairs as convenience required. And, in general,
Theophrastus tells us, that Aristides was, in his own private affairs,
and those of his fellow-citizens, rigorously just, but that in public
matters he acted often in accordance with his country's policy, which
demanded, sometimes, not a little injustice. It is reported of him
that he said in a debate, upon the motion of the Samians for removing
the treasure from Delos to Athens, contrary to the league, that the
thing indeed was not just, but was expedient.

In fine, having established the dominion of his city over so many
people, he himself remained indigent; and always delighted as much in
the glory of being poor, as in that of his trophies; as is evident
from the following story. Callias, the torchbearer, was related to
him: and was prosecuted by his enemies in a capital cause, in which,
after they had slightly argued the matters on which they indicted him,
they proceeded, beside the point, to address the judges: "You know,"
said they, "Aristides, the son of Lysimachus, who is the admiration of
all Greece. In what a condition do you think his family is in at his
house, when you see him appear in public in such a threadbare cloak?
Is it not probable that one who, out of doors, goes thus exposed to
the cold, must want food and other necessaries at home? Callias, the
wealthiest of the Athenians, does nothing to relieve either him or his
wife and children in their poverty, though he is his own cousin, and
has made use of him in many cases, and often reaped advantage by his
interest with you."  But Callias, perceiving the judges were moved
more particularly by this, and were exasperated against him, called in
Aristides, requiring him to testify that when he frequently offered
him divers presents, and entreated him to accept them, he had refused,
answering, that it became him better to be proud of his poverty than
Callias of his wealth: since there are many to be seen that make a
good, or a bad use of riches, but it is difficult, comparatively, to
meet with one who supports poverty in a noble spirit; those only
should be ashamed of it who incurred it against their wills. On
Aristides deposing these facts in favor of Callias, there was none who
heard them, that went not away desirous rather to be poor like
Aristides, than rich as Callias. Thus Aeschines, the scholar of
Socrates, writes. But Plato declares, that of all the great and
renowned men in the city of Athens, he was the only one worthy of
consideration; for Themistocles, Cimon, and Pericles filled the city
with porticoes, treasure, and many other vain things, but Aristides
guided his public life by the rule of justice. He showed his
moderation very plainly in his conduct towards Themistocles himself.
For though Themistocles had been his adversary in all his
undertakings, and was the cause of his banishment, yet when he
afforded a similar opportunity of revenge, being accused to the city,
Aristides bore him no malice; but while Alcmaeon, Cimon, and many
others, were prosecuting and impeaching him, Aristides alone, neither
did, nor said any ill against him, and no more triumphed over his
enemy in his adversity, than he had envied him his prosperity.

Some say Aristides died in Pontus, during a voyage upon the affairs of
the public. Others that he died of old age at Athens, being in great
honor and veneration amongst his fellow-citizens. But Craterus, the
Macedonian, relates his death as follows. After the banishment of
Themistocles, he says, the people growing insolent, there sprung up a
number of false and frivolous accusers, impeaching the best and most
influential men and exposing them to the envy of the multitude, whom
their good fortune and power had filled with self-conceit. Amongst
these, Aristides was condemned of bribery, upon the accusation of
Diophantus of Amphitrope, for taking money from the Ionians when he
was collector of the tribute; and being unable to pay the fine, which
was fifty minae, sailed to Ionia, and died there. But of this
Craterus brings no written proof, neither the sentence of his
condemnation, nor the decree of the people; though in general it is
tolerably usual with him to set down such things and to cite his
authors. Almost all others who have spoken of the misdeeds of the
people towards their generals, collect them all together, and tell us
of the banishment of Themistocles, Miltiades's bonds, Pericles's fine,
and the death of Paches in the judgment hall, who, upon receiving
sentence, killed himself on the hustings, with many things of the like
nature. They add the banishment of Aristides; but of this his
condemnation, they make no mention.

Moreover, his monument is to be seen at Phalerum, which they say was
built him by the city, he not having left enough even to defray
funeral charges. And it is stated, that his two daughters were
publicly married out of the prytaneum, or state-house, by the city,
which decreed each of them three thousand drachmas for her portion;
and that upon his son Lysimachus, the people bestowed a hundred minas
of money, and as many acres of planted land, and ordered him besides,
upon the motion of Alcibiades, four drachmas a day. Furthermore,
Lysimachus leaving a daughter, named Polycrite, as Callisthenes says,
the people voted her, also, the same allowance for food with those
that obtained the victory in the Olympic Games. But Demetrius the
Phalerian, Hieronymus the Rhodian, Aristoxenus the musician, and
Aristotle, (if the Treatise of Nobility is to be reckoned among the
genuine pieces of Aristotle,) say that Myrto, Aristides's
granddaughter, lived with Socrates the philosopher, who indeed had
another wife, but took her into his house, being a widow, by reason of
her indigence, and want of the necessaries of life. But Panaetius
sufficiently confutes this in his books concerning Socrates.
Demetrius the Phalerian, in his Socrates, says, he knew one
Lysimachus, son to the daughter of Aristides, extremely poor, who used
to sit near what is called the Iaccheum, and sustained himself by a
table for interpreting dreams; and that, upon his proposal and
representations, a decree was passed by the people, to give the mother
and aunt of this man half a drachma a day. The same Demetrius, when
he was legislating himself, decreed each of these women a drachma per
diem. And it is not to be wondered at, that the people of Athens
should take such care of people living in the city, since hearing the
granddaughter of Aristogiton was in a low condition in the isle of
Lemnos, and so poor nobody would marry her they brought her back to
Athens, and, marrying her to a man of good birth, gave a farm at
Potamus as her marriage-portion; and of similar humanity and bounty
the city of Athens, even in our age, has given numerous proofs, and is
justly admired and respected in consequence.

MARCUS CATO

Marcus Cato, we are told, was born at Tusculum, though (till he
betook himself to civil and military affairs) he lived and was bred
up in the country of the Sabines, where his father's estate lay. His
ancestors seeming almost entirely unknown, he himself praises his
father Marcus, as a worthy man and a brave soldier, and Cato, his
great grandfather too, as one who had often obtained military prizes,
and who, having lost five horses under him, received, on the account
of his valor, the worth of them out of the public exchequer. Now it
being the custom among the Romans to call those who, having no repute
by birth, made themselves eminent by their own exertions, new men or
upstarts, they called even Cato himself so, and so he confessed
himself to be as to any public distinction or employment, but yet
asserted that in the exploits and virtues of his ancestors he was
very ancient. His third name originally was not Cato, but Priscus,
though afterwards he had the surname of Cato, by reason of his
abilities; for the Romans call a skillful or experienced man, Catus.
He was of a ruddy complexion, and gray-eyed; as the writer, who, with
no good-will, made the following epigram upon him, lets us see:--

Porcius, who snarls at all in every place,
With his gray eyes, and with his fiery face,
Even after death will scarce admitted be
Into the infernal realms by Hecate.

He gained, in early life, a good habit of body by working with his
own hands, and living temperately, and serving in war; and seemed to
have an equal proportion troth of health and strength. And he
exerted and practiced his eloquence through all the neighborhood and
little villages; thinking it as requisite as a second body, and an
all but necessary organ to one who looks forward to something above a
mere humble and inactive life. He would never refuse to be counsel
for those who needed him, and was, indeed, early reckoned a good
lawyer, and, ere long, a capable orator.

Hence his solidity and depth of character showed itself gradually,
more and more to those with whom he was concerned, and claimed, as it
were, employment in great affairs, and places of public command. Nor
did he merely abstain from taking fees for his counsel and pleading,
but did not even seem to put any high price on the honor which
proceeded from such kind of combats, seeming much more desirous to
signalize himself in the camp and in real fights; and while yet but a
youth, had his breast covered with scars he had received from the
enemy; being (as he himself says) but seventeen years old, when he
made his first campaign; in the time when Hannibal, in the height of
his success, was burning and pillaging all Italy. In engagements he
would strike boldly, without flinching, stand firm to his ground, fix
a bold countenance upon his enemies, and with a harsh threatening
voice accost them, justly thinking himself and telling others, that
such a rugged kind of behavior sometimes terrifies the enemy more
than the sword itself. In his marches, he bore his own arms on foot,
whilst one servant only followed, to carry the provisions for his
table, with whom he is said never to have been angry or hasty, whilst
he made ready his dinner or supper, but would, for the most part,
when he was free from military duty, assist and help him himself to
dress it. When he was with the army, he used to drink only water;
unless, perhaps, when extremely thirsty, he might mingle it with a
little vinegar; or if he found his strength fail him, take a little
wine.

The little country house of Manius Curius, who had been thrice
carried in triumph, happened to be near his farm; so that often going
thither, and contemplating the small compass of the place, and
plainness of the dwelling, he formed an idea of the mind of the
person, who, being one of the greatest of the Romans, and having
subdued the most warlike nations, nay, had driven Pyrrhus out of
Italy, now, after three triumphs, was contented to dig in so small a
piece of ground, and live in such a cottage. Here it was that the
ambassadors of the Samnites, finding him boiling turnips in the
chimney corner, offered him a present of gold; but he sent them away
with this saying; that he, who was content with such a supper, had no
need of gold; and that he thought it more honorable to conquer those
who possessed the gold, than to possess the gold itself. Cato, after
reflecting upon these things, used to return, and reviewing his own
farm, his servants, and housekeeping, increase his labor, and
retrench all superfluous expenses.

When Fabius Maximus took Tarentum, Cato, being then but a youth, was
a soldier under him; and being lodged with one Nearchus, a
Pythagorean, desired to understand some of his doctrine, and hearing
from him the language, which Plato also uses, -- that pleasure is
evil's chief bait; the body the principal calamity of the soul; and
that those thoughts which most separate and take it off from the
affections of the body, most enfranchise and purify it; he fell in
love the more with frugality and temperance. With this exception, he
is said not to have studied Greek until when he was pretty old; and
rhetoric, to have then profited a little by Thucydides, but more by
Demosthenes: his writings, however, are considerably embellished
with Greek sayings and stories; nay, many of these, translated word
for word, are placed with his own apothegms and sentences.

There was a man of the highest rank, and very influential among the
Romans, called Valerius Flaccus, who was singularly skillful in
discerning excellence yet in the bud, and, also, much disposed to
nourish and advance it. He, it seems, had lands bordering upon
Cato's; nor could he but admire, when he understood from his servants
the manner of his living, how he labored with his own hands, went on
foot betimes in the morning to the courts to assist those who wanted
his counsel; how, returning home again, when it was winter, he would
throw a loose frock  over his shoulders, and in the summer time
would work without anything on among his domestics, sit down with
them, eat of the same bread, and drink of the same wine. When they
spoke, also, of other good qualities, his fair dealing and
moderation, mentioning also some of his wise sayings, he ordered,
that he should be invited to supper; and thus becoming personally
assured of his fine temper and his superior character which, like a
plant, seemed only to require culture and a better situation, he
urged and persuaded him to apply himself to state affairs at Rome.
Thither, therefore, he went, and by his pleading soon gained many
friends and admirers; but, Valerius chiefly assisting his promotion,
he first of all got appointed tribune in the army, and afterwards was
made quaestor, or treasurer. And now becoming eminent and noted, he
passed, with Valerius himself, through the greatest commands, being
first his colleague as consul, and then censor. But among all the
ancient senators, he most attached himself to Fabius Maximus; not so
much for the honor of his person, and greatness of his power, as that
he might have before him his habit and manner of life, as the best
examples to follow: and so he did not hesitate to oppose Scipio the
Great, who, being then but a young man, seemed to set himself against
the power of Fabius, and to be envied by him. For being sent
together with him as treasurer, when he saw him, according to his
natural custom, make great expenses, and distribute among the
soldiers without sparing, he freely told him that the expense in
itself was not the greatest thing to be considered, but that he was
corrupting the ancient frugality of the soldiers, by giving them the
means to abandon themselves to unnecessary pleasures and luxuries.
Scipio answered, that he had no need for so accurate a treasurer,
(bearing on as he was, so to say, full sail to the war,) and that he
owed the people an account of his actions, and not of the money he
spent. Hereupon Cato returned from Sicily, and, together with
Fabius, made loud complaints in the open senate of Scipio's lavishing
unspeakable sums, and childishly loitering away his time in wrestling
matches and comedies, as if he were not to make war, but holiday; and
thus succeeded in getting some of the tribunes of the people sent to
call him back to Rome, in case the accusations should prove true.
But Scipio demonstrating, as it were, to them, by his preparations,
the coming victory, and, being found merely to be living pleasantly
with his friends, when there was nothing else to do, but in no
respect because of that easiness and liberality at all the more
negligent in things of consequence and moment, without impediment,
set sail towards the war.

Cato grew more and more powerful by his eloquence, so that he was
commonly called the Roman Demosthenes; but his manner of life was yet
more famous and talked of. For oratorical skill was, as an
accomplishment, commonly studied and sought after by all young men;
but he was very rare who would cultivate the old habits of bodily
labor, or prefer a light supper, and a breakfast which never saw the
fire; or be in love with poor clothes and a homely lodging, or could
set his ambition rather on doing without luxuries than on possessing
them. For now the state, unable to keep its purity by reason of its
greatness, and having so many affairs, and people from all parts
under its government, was fain to admit many mixed customs, and new
examples of living. With reason, therefore, everybody admired Cato,
when they saw others sink under labors, and grow effeminate by
pleasures; and yet beheld him unconquered by either, and that not
only when he was young and desirous of honor, but also when old and
greyheaded, after a consulship and triumph; like some famous victor
in the games, persevering in his exercise and maintaining his
character to the very last. He himself says, that he never wore a
suit of clothes which cost more than a hundred drachmas; and that,
when he was general and consul, he drank the same wine which his
workmen did; and that the meat or fish which was bought in the market
for his dinner, did not cost above thirty asses. All which was for
the sake of the commonwealth, that so his body might be the hardier
for the war. Having a piece of embroidered Babylonian tapestry left
him, he sold it; because none of his farm-houses were so much as
plastered. Nor did he ever buy a slave for above fifteen hundred
drachmas; as he did not seek for effeminate and handsome ones, but
able, sturdy workmen, horse-keepers and cow-herds: and these he
thought ought to be sold again, when they grew old, and no useless
servants fed in a house. In short, he reckoned nothing a good
bargain, which was superfluous; but whatever it was, though sold for
a farthing, he would think it a great price, if you had no need of it;
and was for the purchase of lands for sowing and feeding, rather than
grounds for sweeping and watering.

Some imputed these things to petty avarice, but others approved of
him, as if he had only the more strictly denied himself for the
rectifying and amending of others. Yet certainly, in my judgment, it
marks an over-rigid temper, for a man to take the work out of his
servants as out of brute beasts, turning them off and selling them in
their old age, and thinking there ought to be no further commerce
between man and man, than whilst there arises some profit by it. We
see that kindness or humanity has a larger field than bare justice to
exercise itself in; law and justice we cannot, in the nature of
things, employ on others than men; but we may extend our goodness and
charity even to irrational creatures; and such acts flow from a
gentle nature, as water from an abundant spring. It is doubtless the
part of a kind-natured man to keep even worn-out horses and dogs, and
not only take care of them when they are foals and whelps, but also
when they are grown old. The Athenians, when they built their
Hecatompedon, turned those mules loose to feed freely, which they
had observed to have done the hardest labor. One of these (they say)
came once of itself to offer its service, and ran along with, nay,
and went before, the teams which drew the wagons up to the acropolis,
as if it would incite and encourage them to draw more stoutly; upon
which there passed a vote, that the creature should be kept at the
public charge even till it died. The graves of Cimon's horses, which
thrice won the Olympian races, are yet to be seen close by his own
monument. Old Xanthippus, too, (amongst many others who buried the
dogs they had bred up,) entombed his which swam after his galley to
Salamis, when the people fled from Athens, on the top of a cliff,
which they call the dog's tomb to this day. Nor are we to use living
creatures like old shoes or dishes, and throw them away when they are
worn out or broken with service; but if it were for nothing else, but
by way of study and practice in humanity, a man ought always to
prehabituate himself in these things to be of a kind and sweet
disposition. As to myself, I would not so much as sell my draught ox
on the account of his age, much less for a small piece of money sell
a poor old man, and so chase him, as it were, from his own country,
by turning him not only out of the place where he has lived a long
while, but also out of the manner of living he has been accustomed
to, and that more especially when he would be as useless to the buyer
as to the seller. Yet Cato for all this glories that he left that
very horse in Spain, which he used in the wars when he was consul,
only because he would not put the public to the charge of his
freight. Whether these acts are to be ascribed to the greatness or
pettiness of his spirit, let every one argue as they please.

For his general temperance, however, and self-control, he really
deserves the highest admiration. For when he commanded the army, he
never took for himself, and those that belonged to him, above three
bushels of wheat for a month, and somewhat less than a bushel and a
half a day of barley for his baggage-cattle. And when he entered
upon the government of Sardinia, where his predecessors had been used
to require tents, bedding, and clothes upon the public account, and
to charge the state heavily with the cost of provisions and
entertainments for a great train of servants and friends, the
difference he showed in his economy was something incredible. There
was nothing of any sort for which he put the public to expense; he
would walk without a carriage to visit the cities, with one only of
the common town officers, who carried his dress, and a cup to offer
libation with. Yet, though he seemed thus easy and sparing to all
who were under his power, he, on the other hand, showed most
inflexible severity and strictness, in what related to public
justice, and was rigorous, and precise in what concerned the
ordinances of the commonwealth; so that the Roman government, never
seemed more terrible, nor yet more mild, than under his
administration.

His very manner of speaking seemed to have such a kind of idea with
it; for it was courteous, and yet forcible; pleasant, yet
overwhelming; facetious, yet austere; sententious, and yet vehement:
like Socrates, in the description of Plato, who seemed outwardly to
those about him to be but a simple, talkative, blunt fellow; whilst
at the bottom he was full of such gravity and matter, as would even
move tears, and touch the very hearts of his auditors. And,
therefore, I know not what has persuaded some to say, that Cato's
style was chiefly like that of Lysias. However, let us leave those
to judge of these things, who profess most to distinguish between the
several kinds of oratorical style in Latin; whilst we write down some
of his memorable sayings; being of the opinion that a man's character
appears much more by his words, than, as some think it does, by his
looks.

Being once desirous to dissuade the common people of Rome, from their
unseasonable and impetuous clamor for largesses and distributions of
corn, he began thus to harangue them: "It is a difficult task, O
citizens, to make speeches to the belly, which has no ears."
Reproving, also, their sumptuous habits, he said, it was hard to
preserve a city, where a fish sold for more than an ox. He had a
saying, also, that the Roman people were like sheep; for they, when
single, do not obey, but when altogether in a flock, they follow
their leaders: "So you," said he, "when you have got together in a
body, let yourselves be guided by those whom singly you would never
think of being advised by."  Discoursing of the power of women:
"Men," said he, "usually command women; but we command all men, and
the women command us."  But this, indeed, is borrowed from the
sayings of Themistocles, who, when his son was making many demands of
him by means of the mother, said, "O woman, the Athenians govern the
Greeks; I govern the Athenians, but you govern me, and your son
governs you; so let him use his power sparingly, since, simple as he
is, he can do more than all the Greeks together."  Another saying of
Cato's was, that the Roman people did not only fix the value of such
and such purple dyes, but also of such and such habits of life:
"For," said he, "as dyers most of all dye such colors as they see to
be most agreeable, so the young men learn, and zealously affect what
is most popular with you."  He also exhorted them, that if they were
grown great by their virtue and temperance, they should not change
for the worse; but if intemperance and vice had made them great, they
should change for the better; for by that means they were grown
indeed quite great enough. He would say, likewise, of men who wanted
to be continually in office, that apparently they did not know their
road; since they could not do without beadles to guide them on it.
He also reproved the citizens for choosing still the same men as
their magistrates: "For you will seem," said he, "either not to
esteem government worth much, or to think few worthy to hold it."
Speaking, too, of a certain enemy of his, who lived a very base and
discreditable life: "It is considered," he said, "rather as a curse
than a blessing on him, that this fellow's mother prays that she may
leave him behind her."  Pointing at one who had sold the land which
his father had left him, and which lay near the sea-side, he
pretended to express his wonder at his being stronger even than the
sea itself; for what it washed away with a great deal of labor, he
with a great deal of ease drank away. When the senate, with a great
deal of splendor, received king Eumenes on his visit to Rome, and the
chief citizens strove who should be most about him, Cato appeared to
regard him with suspicion and apprehension; and when one that stood
by, too, took occasion to say, that he was a very good prince, and a
great lover of the Romans: "It may be so," said Cato, "but by nature
this same animal of a king, is a kind of man-eater;" nor, indeed,
were there ever kings who deserved to be compared with Epaminondas,
Pericles, Themistocles, Manius Curius, or Hamilcar, surnamed Barcas.
He used to say, too, that his enemies envied him; because he had to
get up every day before light, and neglect his own business to follow
that of the public. He would also tell you, that he had rather be
deprived of the reward for doing well, than not to suffer the
punishment for doing ill; and that he could pardon all offenders but
himself.

The Romans having sent three ambassadors to Bithynia, of whom one was
gouty, another had his skull trepanned, and the other seemed little
better than a fool; Cato, laughing, gave out, that the Romans had
sent an embassy, which had neither feet, head, nor heart. His
interest being entreated by Scipio, on account of Polybius, for the
Achaean exiles, and there happening to be a great discussion in the
senate about it, some being for, and some against their return; Cato,
standing up, thus delivered himself: "Here do we sit all day long,
as if we had nothing to do, but beat our brains whether these old
Greeks should be carried to their graves by the bearers here or by
those in Achaea."  The senate voting their return, it seems that a
few days after Polybius's friends further wished that it should be
moved in the senate, that the said banished persons should receive
again the honors which they first had in Achaea; and, to this
purpose, they sounded Cato for his opinion; but he, smiling,
answered, that Polybius, Ulysses-like, having escaped out of the
Cyclops' den, wanted, it would seem, to go back again because he had
left his cap and belt behind him. He used to assert, also, that wise
men profited more by fools, than fools by wise men; for that wise men
avoided the faults of fools, but that fools would not imitate the
good examples of wise men. He would profess, too, that he was more
taken with young men that blushed, than with those who looked pale;
and that he never desired to have a soldier that moved his hands too
much in marching, and his feet too much in fighting; or snored louder
than he shouted. Ridiculing a fat overgrown man: "What use," said
he, "can the state turn a man's body to, when all between the throat
and groin is taken up by the belly?"  When one who was much given to
pleasures desired his acquaintance, begging his pardon, he said, he
could not live with a man whose palate was of a quicker sense than
his heart. He would likewise say, that the soul of a lover lived in
the body of another: and that in his whole life he most repented of
three things; one was, that he had trusted a secret to a woman;
another, that he went by water when he might have gone by land; the
third, that he had remained one whole day without doing any business
of moment. Applying himself to an old man who was committing some
vice: "Friend," said he, "old age has of itself blemishes enough; do
not you add to it the deformity of vice."  Speaking to a tribune, who
was reputed a poisoner, and was very violent for the bringing in of a
bill, in order to make a certain law: "Young man," cried he, "I know
not which would be better, to drink what you mix, or confirm what you
would put up for a law."  Being reviled by a fellow who lived a
profligate and wicked life: "A contest," replied he, "is unequal
between you and me; for you can hear ill words easily, and can as
easily give them; but it is unpleasant to me to give such, and
unusual to hear them."  Such was his manner of expressing himself in
his memorable sayings.

Being chosen consul, with his friend and familiar Valerius Flaccus,
the government of that part of Spain which the Romans call the Hither
Spain, fell to his lot. Here, as he was engaged in reducing some of
the tribes by force, and bringing over others by good words, a large
army of barbarians fell upon him, so that there was danger of being
disgracefully forced out again. He therefore called upon his
neighbors, the Celtiberians, for help; and on their demanding two
hundred talents for their assistance, everybody else thought it
intolerable, that ever the Romans should promise barbarians a reward
for their aid; but Cato said, there was no discredit or harm in it;
for if they overcame, they would pay them out of the enemy's purse,
and not out of their own; but if they were overcome, there would be
nobody left either to demand the reward or to pay it. However, he
won that battle completely, and after that, all his other affairs
succeeded splendidly. Polybius says, that by his command the walls
of all the cities, on this side the river Baetis, were in one day's
time demolished, and yet there were a great many of them full of
brave and warlike men. Cato himself says, that he took more cities
than he stayed days in Spain. Neither is this a mere rhodomontade,
if it be true, that the number was four hundred. And though the
soldiers themselves had got much in the fights, yet he distributed a
pound of silver to every man of them, saying, it was better, that
many of the Romans should return home with silver, rather than a few
with gold. For himself he affirms, that of all the things that were
taken, nothing came to him beyond what he ate and drank. "Neither do
I find fault," continued he, "with those that seek to profit by these
spoils, but I had rather compete in valor with the best, than in
wealth with the richest, or with the most covetous in love of money."
Nor did he merely keep himself clear from taking anything, but even
all those who more immediately belonged to him. He had five servants
with him in the army; one of whom called Paccus, bought three boys,
out of those who were taken captive; which Cato coming to understand,
the man rather than venture into his presence, hanged himself. Cato
sold the boys, and carried the price he got for them into the public
exchequer.

Scipio the Great, being his enemy, and desiring, whiles he was
carrying all things so successfully, to obstruct him, and take the
affairs of Spain into his own hands, succeeded in getting himself
appointed his successor in the government, and, making all possible
haste, put a term to Cato's authority. But he, taking with him a
convoy of five cohorts of foot, and five hundred horse to attend him
home, overthrew by the way the Lacetanians, and salting from them six
hundred deserters, caused them all to be beheaded; upon which Scipio
seemed to be in indignation, but Cato, in mock disparagement of
himself, said, "Rome would become great indeed, if the most honorable
and great men would not yield up the first place of valor to those
who were more obscure, and when they who were of the commonalty (as
he himself was) would contend in valor with those who were most
eminent in birth and honor."  The senate having voted to change
nothing of what had been established by Cato, the government passed
away under Scipio to no manner of purpose, in idleness and doing
nothing; and so diminished his credit much more than Cato's. Nor did
Cato, who now received a triumph, remit after this and slacken the
reins of virtue, as many do, who strive not so much for virtue's
sake, as for vainglory, and having attained the highest honors, as
the consulship and triumphs, pass the rest of their life in pleasure
and idleness, and quit all public affairs. But he, like those who
are just entered upon public life for the first time, and thirst
after gaining honor and glory in some new office, strained himself,
as if he were but just setting out; and offering still publicly his
service to his friends and citizens, would give up neither his
pleadings nor his soldiery.

He accompanied and assisted Tiberius Sempronius, as his lieutenant,
when he went into Thrace and to the Danube; and, in the quality of
tribune, went with Manius Acilius into Greece, against Antiochus the
Great, who, after Hannibal, more than anyone struck terror into the
Romans. For having reduced once more under a single command almost
the whole of Asia, all, namely, that Seleucus Nicator had possessed,
and having brought into obedience many warlike nations of the
barbarians, he longed to fall upon the Romans, as if they only were
now worthy to fight with him. So across he came with his forces,
pretending, as a specious cause of the war, that it was to free the
Greeks, who had indeed no need of it, they having been but newly
delivered from the power of king Philip and the Macedonians, and made
independent, with the free use of their own laws, by the goodness of
the Romans themselves; so that all Greece was in commotion and
excitement, having been corrupted by the hopes of royal aid which the
popular leaders in their cities put them into. Manius, therefore,
sent ambassadors to the different cities; and Titus Flamininus (as is
written in the account of him) suppressed and quieted most of the
attempts of the innovators, without any trouble. Cato brought over
the Corinthians, those of Patrae and of Aegium, and spent a good deal
of time at Athens. There is also an oration of his said to be
extant, which he spoke in Greek to the people; in which he expressed
his admiration of the virtue of the ancient Athenians, and signified
that he came with a great deal of pleasure to be a spectator of the
beauty and greatness of their city. But this is a fiction; for he
spoke to the Athenians by an interpreter, though he was able to have
spoken himself; but he wished to observe the usage of his own
country, and laughed at those who admired nothing but what was in
Greek. Jesting upon Postumius Albinus, who had written a historical
work in Greek, and requested that allowances might be made for his
attempt, he said, that allowance indeed might be made, if he had done
it under the express compulsion of an Amphictyonic decree. The
Athenians, he says, admired the quickness and vehemence of his
speech; for an interpreter would be very long in repeating what he
expressed with a great deal of brevity; but on the whole he professed
to believe, that the words of the Greeks came only from their lips,
whilst those of the Romans came from their hearts.

Now Antiochus, having occupied with his army the narrow passages
about Thermopylae, and added palisades and walls to the natural
fortifications of the place, sat down there, thinking he had done
enough to divert the war; and the Romans, indeed, seemed wholly to
despair of forcing the passage; but Cato, calling to mind the compass
and circuit which the Persians had formerly made to come at this
place, went forth in the night, taking along with him part of the
army. Whilst they were climbing up, the guide, who was a prisoner,
missed the way, and wandering up and down by impracticable and
precipitous paths, filled the soldiers with fear and despondency.
Cato, perceiving the danger, commanded all the rest to halt, and stay
where they were, whilst he himself, taking along with him one Lucius
Manlius, a most expert man at climbing mountains, went forward with a
great deal of labor and danger, in the dark night, and without the
least moonshine, among the wild olive trees, and steep craggy rocks,
there being nothing but precipices and darkness before their eyes,
till they struck into a little pass which they thought might lead
down into the enemy's camp. There they put up marks upon some
conspicuous peaks which surmount the hill called Callidromon, and
returning again, they led the army along with them to the said marks,
till they got into their little path again, and there once made a
halt; but when they began to go further, the path deserted them at a
precipice, where they were in another strait and fear; nor did they
perceive that they were all this while near the enemy. And now the
day began to give some light, when they seemed to hear a noise, and
presently after to see the Greek trenches and the guard at the foot
of the rock. Here, therefore, Cato halted his forces, and commanded
the troops from Firmum only, without the rest, to stick by him, as he
had always found them faithful and ready. And when they came up and
formed around him in close order, he thus spoke to them. "I desire,"
he said, "to take one of the enemy alive, that so I may understand
what men these are who guard the passage; their number; and with what
discipline, order, and preparation they expect us; but this feat,"
continued he, "must be an act of a great deal of quickness and
boldness, such as that of lions, when they dart upon some timorous
animal."  Cato had no sooner thus expressed himself, but the Firmans
forthwith rushed down the mountain, just as they were, upon the
guard, and, falling unexpectedly upon them, affrighted and dispersed
them all. One armed man they took, and brought to Cato, who quickly
learned from him, that the rest of the forces lay in the narrow
passage about the king; that those who kept the tops of the rocks
were six hundred choice Aetolians. Cato, therefore, despising the
smallness of their number and carelessness, forthwith drawing his
sword, fell upon them with a great noise of trumpets and shouting.
The enemy, perceiving them thus tumbling, as it were, upon them from
the precipices, flew to the main body, and put all things into
disorder there.

In the meantime, whilst Manius was forcing the works below, and
pouring the thickest of his forces into the narrow passages,
Antiochus was hit in the mouth with a stone, so that his teeth being
beaten out by it, he felt such excessive pain, that he was fain to
turn away with his horse; nor did any part of his army stand the
shock of the Romans. Yet, though there seemed no reasonable hope of
flight, where all paths were so difficult, and where there were deep
marshes and steep rocks, which looked as if they were ready to
receive those who should stumble, the fugitives, nevertheless,
crowding and pressing together. In the narrow passages, destroyed even
one another in their terror of the swords and blows of the enemy. Cato
(as it plainly appears) was never oversparing of his own praises, and
seldom shunned boasting of any exploit; which quality, indeed, he
seems to have thought the natural accompaniment of great actions; and
with these particular exploits he was highly puffed up; he says, that
those who saw him that day pursuing and slaying the enemies, were
ready to assert, that Cato owed not so much to the public, as the
public did to Cato; nay, he adds, that Manius the consul, coming hot
from the fight, embraced him for a great while, when both were all in
a sweat; and then cried out with joy, that neither he himself, no,
nor all the people together, could make him a recompense equal to his
actions. After the fight he was sent to Rome, that he himself might
be the messenger of it; and so, with a favorable wind, he sailed to
Brundusium, and in one day got from thence to Tarentum; and having
traveled four days more, upon the fifth, counting from the time of
his landing, he arrived at Rome, and so brought the first news of the
victory himself; and filled the whole city with joy and sacrifices,
and the people with the belief, that they were able to conquer every
sea and every land.

These are pretty nearly all the eminent actions of Cato, relating to
military affairs: in civil policy, he was of opinion, that one chief
duty consisted in accusing and indicting criminals. He himself
prosecuted many, and he would also assist others who prosecuted them,
nay would even procure such, as he did the Petilii against Scipio;
but not being able to destroy him, by reason of the nobleness of his
family, and the real greatness of his mind, which enabled him to
trample all calumnies underfoot, Cato at last would meddle no more
with him; yet joining with the accusers against Scipio's brother
Lucius, he succeeded in obtaining a sentence against him, which
condemned him to the payment of a large sum of money to the state;
and being insolvent, and in danger of being thrown into jail, he was,
by the interposition of the tribunes of the people, with much ado
dismissed. It is also said of Cato, that when he met a certain
youth, who had effected the disgrace of one of his father's enemies,
walking in the market-place, he shook him by the hand, telling him,
that this was what we ought to sacrifice to our dead parents-- not
lambs and goats, but the tears and condemnations of their
adversaries. But neither did he himself escape with impunity in his
management of affairs; for if he gave his enemies but the least hold,
he was still in danger, and exposed to be brought to justice. He is
reported to have escaped at least fifty indictments; and one above
the rest, which was the last, when he was eighty-six years old, about
which time he uttered the well-known saying, that it was hard for him
who had lived with one generation of men, to plead now before
another. Neither did he make this the last of his lawsuits; for,
four years after, when he was fourscore and ten, he accused Servilius
Galba: so that his life and actions extended, we may say, as
Nestor's did, over three ordinary ages of man. For, having had many
contests, as we have related, with Scipio the Great, about affairs of
state, he continued them down even to Scipio the younger, who was the
adopted grandson of the former, and the son of that Paulus, who
overthrew Perseus and the Macedonians.

Ten years after his consulship, Cato stood for the office of censor,
which was indeed the summit of all honor, and in a manner the highest
step in civil affairs; for besides all other power, it had also that
of an inquisition into everyone's life and manners. For the Romans
thought that no marriage, or rearing of children, nay, no feast or
drinking-bout ought to be permitted according to everyone's appetite
or fancy, without being examined and inquired into; being indeed of
opinion, that a man's character was much sooner perceived in things
of this sort, than in what is done publicly and in open day. They
chose, therefore, two persons, one out of the patricians, the other
out of the commons, who were to watch, correct, and punish, if any
one ran too much into voluptuousness, or transgressed the usual
manner of life of his country; and these they called Censors. They
had power to take away a horse, or expel out of the senate any one
who lived intemperately and out of order. It was also their business
to take an estimate of what everyone was worth, and to put down in
registers everybody's birth and quality; besides many other
prerogatives. And therefore the chief nobility opposed his
pretensions to it. Jealousy prompted the patricians, who thought
that it would be a stain to everybody's nobility, if men of no
original honor should rise to the highest dignity and power; while
others, conscious of their own evil practices, and of the violation
of the laws and customs of their country, were afraid of the
austerity of the man; which, in an office of such great power was
likely to prove most uncompromising and severe. And so consulting
among themselves, they brought forward seven candidates in opposition
to him, who sedulously set themselves to court the people's favor by
fair promises, as though what they wished for was indulgent and easy
government. Cato, on the contrary, promising no such mildness, but
plainly threatening evil livers, from the very hustings openly
declared himself; and exclaiming, that the city needed a great and
thorough purgation, called upon the people, if they were wise, not to
choose the gentlest, but the roughest of physicians; such a one, he
said, he was, and Valerius Flaccus, one of the patricians, another;
together with him, he doubted not but he should do something worth
the while, and that, by cutting to pieces and burning like a hydra,
all luxury and voluptuousness. He added, too, that he saw all the rest
endeavoring after the office with ill intent, because they were
afraid of those who would exercise it justly, as they ought. And so
truly great and so worthy of great men to be its leaders was, it
would seem, the Roman people, that they did not fear the severity end
grim countenance of Cato, but rejecting those smooth promisers who
were ready to do all things to ingratiate themselves, they took him,
together with Flaccus; obeying his recommendations not as though he
were a candidate, but as if he had had the actual power of commanding
and governing already.

Cato named as chief of the senate, his friend and colleague Lucius
Valerius Flaccus, and expelled, among many others, Lucius Quintius,
who had been consul seven years before, and (which was greater honor
to him than the consulship) brother to that Titus Flamininus, who
overthrew king Philip. The reason he had for his expulsion, was
this. Lucius, it seems, took along with him in all his commands, a
youth, whom he had kept as his companion from the flower of his age,
and to whom he gave as much power and respect as to the chiefest of
his friends and relations.

Now it happened that Lucius being consular governor of one of the
provinces, the youth setting himself down by him, as he used to do,
among other flatteries with which he played upon him, when he wee in
his cups, told him he loved him so dearly that, "though there was a
show of gladiators to be seen at Rome, and I," he said, "had never
beheld one in my life; and though I, as it were, longed to see a man
killed, yet I made all possible haste to come to you."  Upon this
Lucius, returning his fondness, replied, "Do not be melancholy on
that account; I can remedy that."  Ordering therefore, forthwith, one
of those condemned to die to be brought to the feast, together with
the headsman and axe, he asked the youth if he wished to see him
executed. The boy answering that he did, Lucius commanded the
executioner to cut off his neck; and this several historians mention;
and Cicero, indeed, in his dialogue de Senectute, introduces Cato
relating it himself. But Livy says, that he that was killed was a
Gaulish deserter, and that Lucius did not execute him by the stroke
of the executioner, but with his own hand; and that it is so stated
in Cato's speech.

Lucius being thus expelled out of the senate by Cato, his brother
took it very ill, and appealing to the people, desired that Cato
should declare his reasons; and when he began to relate this
transaction of the feast, Lucius endeavored to deny it; but Cato
challenging him to a formal investigation, he fell off and refused
it, so that he was then acknowledged to suffer deservedly.
Afterwards, however, when there was some show at the theater, he
passed by the seats where those who had been consuls used to be
placed, and taking his seat a great way off, excited the compassion
of the common people, who presently with a great noise made him go
forward, and as much as they could, tried to set right and salve over
what had happened. Manilius, also, who, according to the public
expectation, would have been next consul, he threw out of the senate,
because, in the presence of his daughter, and in open day, he had
kissed his wife. He said, that as for himself, his wife never came
into his arms except when there was great thunder; so that it was a
jest with him, that it was a pleasure for him, when Jupiter
thundered.

His treatment of Lucius, likewise, the brother of Scipio, and one who
had been honored with a triumph, occasioned some odium against Cato;
for he took his horse from him, and was thought to do it with a
design of putting an affront on Scipio Africanus, now dead. But he
gave most general annoyance, by retrenching people's luxury; for
though (most of the youth being thereby already corrupted) it seemed
almost impossible to take it away with an open hand and directly, yet
going, as it were, obliquely around, he caused all dress, carriages,
women's ornaments, household furniture, whose price exceeded one
thousand five hundred drachmas, to be rated at ten times as much as
they were worth; intending by thus making the assess-ments greater,
to increase the taxes paid upon them. He also ordained that upon
every thousand asses of property of this kind, three should be
paid, so that people, burdened with these extra charges, and seeing
others of as good estates, but more frugal and sparing, paying less
into the public exchequer, might be tired out of their prodigality.
And thus, on the one side, not only those were disgusted at Cato, who
bore the taxes for the sake of their luxury, but those, too, who on
the other side laid by their luxury for fear of the taxes. For people
in general reckon, that an order not to display their riches, is
equivalent to the taking away their riches; because riches are seen
much more in superfluous, than in necessary, things. Indeed, this
was what excited the wonder of Ariston the philosopher; that we
account those who possess superfluous things more happy than those
who abound with what is necessary and useful. But when one of his
friends asked Scopas, the rich Thessalian, to give him some article
of no great utility, saying that it was not a thing that he had any
great need or use for himself, "In truth," replied he, "it is just
these useless and unnecessary things that make my wealth and
happiness."  Thus the desire of riches does not proceed from a
natural passion within us, but arises rather from vulgar out-of-doors
opinion of other people.

Cato, notwithstanding, being little solicitous as to those who
exclaimed against him, increased his austerity. He caused the pipes,
through which some persons brought the public water into their own
houses and gardens, to be cut, and threw down all buildings which
jutted out into the common streets. He beat down also the price in
contracts for public works to the lowest, and raised it in contracts
for farming the taxes to the highest sum; by which proceedings he
drew a great deal of hatred on himself. Those who were of Titus
Flamininus's party canceled in the senate all the bargains and
contracts made by him for the repairing and carrying on of the sacred
and public buildings, as unadvantageous to the commonwealth. They
incited also the boldest of the tribunes of the people to accuse him,
and to fine him two talents. They likewise much opposed him in
building the court or basilica, which he caused to be erected at the
common charge, just by the senate-house, in the market-place, and
called by his own name, the Porcian. However, the people, it seems,
liked his censorship wondrously well; for, setting up a statue for
him in the temple of the goddess of Health, they put an inscription
under it, not recording his commands in war or his triumph, but to
the effect, that this was Cato the Censor, who, by his good
discipline and wise and temperate ordinances, reclaimed the Roman
commonwealth when it was declining and sinking down into vice.
Before this honor was done to himself, he used to laugh at those who
loved such kind of things, saying, that they did not see that they
were taking pride in the workmanship of brass-founders and painters;
whereas the citizens bore about his best likeness in their breasts.
And when any seemed to wonder, that he should have never a statue,
while many ordinary persons had one; "I would," said he, "much rather
be asked, why I have not one, than why I have one."  In short, he
would not have any honest citizen endure to be praised, except it
might prove advantageous to the commonwealth. Yet still he had
passed the highest commendation on himself; for he tells us that
those who did anything wrong, and were found fault with, used to
say, it was not worthwhile to blame them; for they were not Catos.
He also adds, that they who awkwardly mimicked some of his actions,
were called left-handed Catos; and that the senate in perilous times
would cast their eyes on him, as upon a pilot in a ship, and that
often when he was not present they put off affairs of greatest
consequence. These things are indeed also testified of him by
others; for he had a great authority in the city, alike for his life,
his eloquence, and his age.

He was also a good father, an excellent husband to his wife, and an
extraordinary economist; and as he did not manage his affairs of this
kind carelessly, and as things of little moment, I think I ought to
record a little further whatever was commendable in him in these
points. He married a wife more noble than rich; being of opinion
that the rich and the high-born are equally haughty and proud; but
that those of noble blood, would be more ashamed of base things, and
consequently more obedient to their husbands in all that was fit and
right. A man who beat his wife or child, laid violent hands, he
said, on what was most sacred; and a good husband he reckoned worthy
of more praise than a great senator; and he admired the ancient
Socrates for nothing so much as for having lived a temperate and
contented life with a wife who was a scold, and children who were
half-witted.

As soon as he had a son born, though he had never such urgent
business upon his hands, unless it were some public matter, he would
be by when his wife washed it, and dressed it in its swaddling
clothes. For she herself suckled it, nay, she often too gave her
breast to her servants' children, to produce, by sucking the same
milk, a kind of natural love in them to her son. When he began to
come to years of discretion, Cato himself would teach him to read,
although he had a servant, a very good grammarian, called Chilo, who
taught many others; but he thought not fit, as he himself said, to
have his son reprimanded by a slave, or pulled, it may be, by the
ears when found tardy in his lesson: nor would he have him owe to a
servant the obligation of so great a thing as his learning; he
himself, therefore, (as we were saying,) taught him his grammar, law,
and his gymnastic exercises. Nor did he only show him, too, how to
throw a dart, to fight in armor, and to ride, but to box also and to
endure both heat and cold, and to swim over the most rapid and rough
rivers. He says, likewise, that he wrote histories, in large
characters, with his own hand, that so his son, without stirring out
of the house, might learn to know about his countrymen and
forefathers: nor did he less abstain from speaking anything obscene
before his son, than if it had been in the presence of the sacred
virgins, called vestals. Nor would he ever go into the bath with
him; which seems indeed to have been the common custom of the Romans.
Sons-in-law used to avoid bathing with fathers-in-law, disliking to
see one another naked: but having, in time, learned of the Greeks to
strip before men, they have since taught the Greeks to do it even
with the women themselves.

Thus, like an excellent work, Cato formed and fashioned his son to
virtue; nor had he any occasion to find fault with his readiness and
docility; but as he proved to be of too weak a constitution for
hardships, he did not insist on requiring of him any very austere way
of living. However, though delicate in health, he proved a stout man
in the field, and behaved himself valiantly when Paulus Aemilius
fought against Perseus; where when his sword was struck from him by a
blow, or rather slipped out of his hand by reason of its moistness,
he so keenly resented it, that he turned to some of his friends about
him, and taking them along with him again, fell upon the enemy; and
having by a long fight and much force cleared the place, at length
found it among great heaps of arms, and the dead bodies of friends as
well as enemies piled one upon another. Upon which Paulus, his
general, much commended the youth; and there is a letter of Cato's to
his son, which highly praises his honorable eagerness for the
recovery of his sword. Afterwards he married Tertia, Aemilius
Paulus's daughter, and sister to Scipio; nor was he admitted into
this family less for his own worth than his father's. So that Cato's
care in his son's education came to a very fitting result.

He purchased a great many slaves out of the captives taken in war,
but chiefly bought up the young ones, who were capable to be, as it
were, broken and taught like whelps and colts. None of these ever
entered another man's house, except sent either by Cato himself or
his wife. If any one of them were asked what Cato did, they answered
merely, that they did not know. When a servant was at home, he was
obliged either to do some work or sleep; for indeed Cato loved those
most who used to lie down often to sleep, accounting them more docile
than those who were wakeful, and more fit for anything when they were
refreshed with a little slumber. Being also of opinion, that the
great cause of the laziness and misbehavior of slaves was their
running after their pleasures, he fixed a certain price for them to
pay for permission amongst themselves, but would suffer no
connections out of the house. At first, when he was but a poor
soldier, he would not be difficult in anything which related to his
eating, but looked upon it as a pitiful thing to quarrel with a
servant for the belly's sake; but afterwards, when he grew richer,
and made any feasts for his friends and colleagues in office, as soon
as supper was over he used to go with a leathern thong and scourge
those who had waited or dressed the meat carelessly. He always
contrived, too, that his servants should have some difference one
among another, always suspecting and fearing a good understanding
between them. Those who had committed anything worthy of death, he
punished, if they were found guilty by the verdict of their
fellow-servants. But being after all much given to the desire of gain,
he looked upon agriculture rather as a pleasure than profit;
resolving, therefore, to lay out his money in safe and solid things,
he purchased ponds, hot baths, grounds full of fuller's earth,
remunerative lands, pastures, and woods; from all which he drew large
returns, nor could Jupiter himself, he used to say, do him much
damage. He was also given to the form of usury, which is considered
most odious, in traffic by sea; and that thus: -- he desired that those
whom he put out his money to, should have many partners; and when the
number of them and their ships came to be fifty, he himself took one
share through Quintio his freedman, who therefore was to sail with
the adventurers, and take a part in all their proceedings; so that
thus there was no danger of losing his whole stock, but only a little
part, and that with a prospect of great profit. He likewise lent
money to those of his slaves who wished to borrow, with which they
bought also other young ones, whom, when they had taught and bred up
at his charges, they would sell again at the year's end; but some of
them Cato would keep for himself, giving just as much for them as
another had offered. To incline his son to be of this kind of
temper, he used to tell him, that it was not like a man, but rather
like a widow woman, to lessen an estate. But the strongest
indication of Cato's avaricious humor was when he took the boldness
to affirm, that he was a most wonderful, nay, a godlike man, who left
more behind him than he had received.

He was now grown old, when Carneades the Academic, and Diogenes the
Stoic, came as deputies from Athens to Rome, praying for release from
a penalty of five hundred talents laid on the Athenians, in a suit,
to which they did not appear, in which the Oropians were plaintiffs,
and Sicyonians judges. All the most studious youth immediately
waited on these philosophers, and frequently, with admiration, heard
them speak. But the gracefulness of Carneades's oratory, whose
ability was really greatest, and his reputation equal to it, gathered
large and favorable audiences, and erelong filled, like a wind, all
the city with the sound of it. So that it soon began to be told,
that a Greek, famous even to admiration, winning and carrying all
before him, had impressed so strange a love upon the young men, that
quitting all their pleasures and pastimes, they ran mad, as it were,
after philosophy; which indeed much pleased the Romans in general;
nor could they but with much pleasure see the youth receive so
welcomely the Greek literature, and frequent the company of learned
men. But Cato, on the other side, seeing this passion for words
flowing into the city, from the beginning, took it ill, fearing lest
the youth should be diverted that way, and so should prefer the glory
of speaking well before that of arms, and doing well. And when the
fame of the philosophers increased in the city, and Caius Acilius, a
person of distinction, at his own request, became their interpreter
to the senate at their first audience, Cato resolved, under some
specious presence, to have all philosophers cleared out of the city;
and, coming into the senate, blamed the magistrates for letting these
deputies stay so long a time without being dispatched, though they
were persons that could easily persuade the people to what they
pleased; that therefore in all haste something should be determined
about their petition, that so they might go home again to their own
schools, and declaim to the Greek children, and leave the Roman
youth, to be obedient, as hitherto, to their own laws and governors.

Yet he did this not out of any anger, as some think, to Carneades;
but because he wholly despised philosophy, and out of a kind of
pride, scoffed at the Greek studies and literature; as, for example,
he would say, that Socrates was a prating seditious fellow, who did
his best to tyrannize over his country, to undermine the ancient
customs, and to entice and withdraw the citizens to opinions contrary
to the laws. Ridiculing the school of Isocrates, he would add, that
his scholars grew old men before they had done learning with him, as
if they were to use their art and plead causes in the court of Minos
in the next world. And to frighten his son from anything that was
Greek, in a more vehement tone than became one of his age, he
pronounced, as it were, with the voice of an oracle, that the Romans
would certainly be destroyed when they began once to be infected with
Greek literature; though time indeed has shown the vanity of this his
prophecy; as, in truth, the city of Rome has risen to its highest
fortune, while entertaining Grecian learning. Nor had he an aversion
only against the Greek philosophers, but the physicians also; for
having, it seems, heard how Hippocrates, when the king of Persia sent
for him, with offers of a fee of several talents, said, that he would
never assist barbarians who were enemies to the Greeks; he affirmed,
that this was now become a common oath taken by all physicians, and
enjoined his son to have a care and avoid them; for that he himself
had written a little book of prescriptions for curing those who were
sick in his family; he never enjoined fasting to anyone, but ordered
them either vegetables, or the meat of a duck, pigeon, or leveret;
such kind of diet being of light digestion, and fit for sick folks,
only it made those who ate it dream a little too much; and by the
use of this kind of physic, he said, he not only made himself and
those about him well, but kept them so.

However, for this his presumption, he seemed not to have escaped
unpunished; for he lost both his wife and his son; though he himself,
being of a strong robust constitution, held out longer; so that he
would often, even in his old days, address himself to women, and when
he was past a lover's age, married a young woman, upon the following
pretense. Having lost his own wife, he married his son to the
daughter of Paulus Aemilius, who was sister to Scipio; so that being
now a widower himself, he had a young girl who came privately to
visit him; but the house being very small, and a daughter-in-law also
in it, this practice was quickly discovered; for the young woman
seeming once to pass through it a little too boldly, the youth, his
son, though he said nothing, seemed to look somewhat indignantly upon
her. The old man perceiving and understanding that what he did was
disliked, without finding any fault, or saying a word, went away
as his custom was, with his usual companions to the market: and
among the rest, he called aloud to one Salonius, who had been a clerk
under him, and asked him whether he had married his daughter? He
answered, no, nor would he, till he had consulted him. Said Cato,
"Then I have found out a fit son-in-law for you, if he should not
displease by reason of his age; for in all other points there is no
fault to be found in him; but he is indeed, as I said, extremely
old."  However, Salonius desired him to undertake the business, and
to give the young girl to whom he pleased, she being a humble servant
of his, who stood in need of his care and patronage. Upon this Cato,
without any more ado, told him, he desired to have the damsel
himself. These words, as may well be imagined, at first astonished
the man, conceiving that Cato was as far off from marrying, as he
from a likelihood of being allied to the family of one who had been
consul, and had triumphed; but perceiving him in earnest, he
consented willingly; and, going onwards to the forum, they quickly
completed the bargain.

Whilst the marriage was in hand, Cato's son, taking some of his
friends along with him, went and asked his father if it were for any
offense he brought in a stepmother upon him? But Cato cried out, "Far
from it, my son, I have no fault to find with you nor anything of
yours; only I desire to have many children, and to leave the
commonwealth more such citizens as you are."  Pisistratus, the tyrant
of Athens, made, they say, this answer to his sons, when they were
grown men, when he married his second wife, Timonassa of Argos, by
whom he had, it is said, Iophon and Thessalus. Cato had a son by
this second wife, to whom from his mother, he gave the surname of
Salonius. In the mean time, his eldest died in his praetorship; of
whom Cato often makes mention in his books, as having been a good
man. He is said, however, to have borne the loss moderately, and
like a philosopher, and was nothing the more remiss in attending to
affairs of state; so that he did not, as Lucius Lucullus and Metellus
Pius did, grow languid in his old age, as though public business were
a duty once to be discharged, and then quitted; nor did he, like
Scipio Africanus, because envy had struck at his glory, turn from the
public, and change and pass away the rest of his life without doing
anything; but as one persuaded Dionysius, that the most honorable
tomb he could have, would be to die in the exercise of his dominion;
so Cato thought that old age to be the most honorable, which was
busied in public affairs; though he would, now and then, when he had
leisure, recreate himself with husbandry and writing.

And, indeed, he composed various books and histories; and in his
youth, he addicted himself to agriculture for profit's sake; for he
used to say, he had but two ways of getting -- agriculture and
parsimony; and now, in his old age, the first of these gave him both
occupation and a subject of study. He wrote one book on country
matters, in which he treated particularly even of making cakes, and
preserving fruit; it being his ambition to be curious and singular in
all things. His suppers, at his country-house, used also to be
plentiful; he daily invited his friends and neighbors about him, and
passed the time merrily with them; so that his company was not only
agreeable to those of the same age, but even to younger men; for he
had had experience in many things, and had been concerned in much,
both by word and deed, that was worth the hearing. He looked upon a
good table, as the best place for making friends; where the
commendations of brave and good citizens were usually introduced, and
little said of base and unworthy ones; as Cato would not give leave
in his company to have anything, either good or ill, said about
them.

Some will have the overthrow of Carthage to have been one of his last
acts of state; when, indeed, Scipio the younger, did by his valor
give it the last blow, but the war, chiefly by the counsel and advice
of Cato, was undertaken on the following occasion. Cato was sent to
the Carthaginians and Masinissa, king of Numidia, who were at war
with one another, to know the cause of their difference. He, it
seems, had been a friend of the Romans from the beginning; and they,
too, since they were conquered by Scipio, were of the Roman
confederacy, having been shorn of their power by loss of territory,
and a heavy tax. Finding Carthage, not (as the Romans thought) low
and in an ill condition, but well manned, full of riches and all
sorts of arms and ammunition, and perceiving the Carthaginians carry
it high, he conceived that it was not a time for the Romans to adjust
affairs between them and Masinissa; but rather that they themselves
would fall into danger, unless they should find means to check this
rapid new growth of Rome's ancient irreconcilable enemy. Therefore,
returning quickly to Rome, he acquainted the senate, that the former
defeats and blows given to the Carthaginians, had not so much
diminished their strength, as it had abated their imprudence and
folly; that they were not become weaker, but more experienced in war,
and did only skirmish with the Numidians, to exercise themselves the
better to cope with the Romans: that the peace and league they had
made was but a kind of suspension of war which awaited a fairer
opportunity to break out again.

Moreover, they say that, shaking his gown, he took occasion to let
drop some African figs before the senate. And on their admiring the
size and beauty of them, he presently added, that the place that bore
them was but three days' sail from Rome. Nay, he never after this
gave his opinion, but at the end he would be sure to come out with
this sentence, "Also, Carthage, methinks, ought utterly to be
destroyed."  But Publius Scipio Nasica would always declare his
opinion to the contrary, in these words, "It seems requisite to me
that Carthage should still stand."  For seeing his countrymen to be
grown wanton and insolent, and the people made, by their prosperity,
obstinate and disobedient to the senate, and drawing the whole city,
whither they would, after them, he would have had the fear of
Carthage to serve as a bit to hold in the contumacy of the multitude;
and he looked upon the Carthaginians as too weak to overcome the
Romans, and too great to be despised by them. On the other side, it
seemed a perilous thing to Cato, that a city which had been always
great, and was now grown sober and wise, by reason of its former
calamities, should still lie, as it were, in wait for the follies and
dangerous excesses of the overpowerful Roman people; so that he
thought it the wisest course to have all outward dangers removed,
when they had so many inward ones among themselves.

Thus Cato, they say, stirred up the third and last war against the
Carthaginians: but no sooner was the said war begun, than he died,
prophesying of the person that should put an end to it, who was then
only a young man; but, being tribune in the army, he in several
fights gave proof of his courage and conduct. The news of which
being brought to Cato's ears at Rome, he thus expressed himself: --

The only wise man of them all is he,
The others e'en as shadows flit and flee.

This prophecy Scipio soon confirmed by his actions.

Cato left no posterity, except one son by his second wife, who was
named, as we said, Cato Salonius; and a grandson by his eldest son,
who died. Cato Salonius died when he was praetor, but his son Marcus
was afterwards consul, and he was grandfather of Cato the
philosopher, who for virtue and renown was one of the most eminent
personages of his time.

COMPARISON OF ARISTIDES WITH MARCUS CATO.

Having mentioned the most memorable actions of these great men, if we
now compare the whole life of the one with that of the other, it will
not be easy to discern the difference between them, lost as it is
amongst such a number of circumstances in which they resemble each
other. If, however, we examine them in detail as we might some piece
of poetry, or some picture, we shall find this common to them both,
that they advanced themselves to great honor and dignity in the
commonwealth, by no other means than their own virtue and industry.
But it seems when Aristides appeared, Athens was not at its height of
grandeur and plenty, the chief magistrates and officers of his time
being men only of moderate and equal fortunes among themselves. The
estimate of the greatest estates then, was five hundred medimns; that
of the second, or knights, three hundred; of the third and last called
Zeugitae, two hundred. But Cato, out of a petty village from a
country life, leaped into the commonwealth, as it were into a vast
ocean; at a time when there were no such governors as the Curii,
Fabricii, and Hostilii. Poor laboring men were not then advanced from
the plow and spade to be governors and magistrates; but greatness of
family, riches, profuse gifts, distributions, and personal application
were what the city looked to; keeping a high hand, and, in a manner,
insulting over those that courted preferment. It was not as great a
matter to have Themistocles for an adversary, a person of mean
extraction and small fortune, (for he was not worth, it is said, more
than four or five talents when he first applied himself to public
affairs,) as to contest with a Scipio Africanus, a Servius Galba, and
a Quintius Flamininus, having no other aid but a tongue free to assert
right.

Besides, Aristides at Marathon, and again at Plataea, was but one
commander out of ten; whereas Cato was chosen consul with a single
colleague, having many competitors, and with a single colleague, also,
was preferred before seven most noble and eminent pretenders to be
censor. But Aristides was never principal in any action; for
Miltiades carried the day at Marathon, at Salamis Themistocles, and at
Plataea, Herodotus tells us, Pausanias got the glory of that noble
victory: and men like Sophanes, and Aminias, Callimachus, and
Cynaegyrus, behaved themselves so well in all those engagements, as to
contest it with Aristides even for the second place. But Cato not
only in his consulship was esteemed the chief in courage and conduct
in the Spanish war, but even whilst he was only serving as tribune at
Thermopylae, under another's command, he gained the glory of the
victory, for having, as it were, opened a wide gate for the Romans to
rush in upon Antiochus, and for having brought the war on his back,
whilst he only minded what was before his face. For that victory,
which was beyond dispute all Cato's own work, cleared Asia out of
Greece, and by that means made way afterwards for Scipio into Asia.
Both of them, indeed, were always victorious in war; but at home
Aristides stumbled, being banished and oppressed by the faction of
Themistocles; yet Cato, notwithstanding he had almost all the chief
and most powerful of Rome for his adversaries, and wrestled with them
even to his old age, kept still his footing. Engaging also in many
public suits, sometimes plaintiff, sometimes defendant, he cast the
most, and came off clear with all; thanks to his eloquence, that
bulwark and powerful instrument to which more truly, than to chance or
his fortune, he owed it, that he sustained himself unhurt to the last.
Antipater justly gives it as a high commendation to Aristotle the
philosopher, writing of him after his death, that among his other
virtues, he was endowed with a faculty of persuading people which way
he pleased.

Questionless, there is no perfecter endowment in man than political
virtue, and of this Economics is commonly esteemed not the least
part; for a city, which is a collection of private households, grows
into a stable commonwealth by the private means of prosperous citizens
that compose it. Lycurgus by prohibiting gold and silver in Sparta,
and making iron, spoiled by the fire, the only currency, did not by
these measures discharge them from minding their household affairs,
but cutting off luxury, the corruption and tumor of riches, he
provided there should be an abundant supply of all necessary and
useful things for all persons, as much as any other lawmaker ever did;
being more apprehensive of a poor, needy, and indigent member of a
community, than of the rich and haughty. And in this management of
domestic concerns, Cato was as great as in the government of public
affairs; for he increased his estate, and became a master to others in
economy and husbandry; upon which subjects he collected in his
writings many useful observations. On the contrary Aristides, by his
poverty, made justice odious, as if it were the pest and impoverisher
of a family and beneficial to all, rather than to those that were
endowed with it. Yet Hesiod urges us alike to just dealing and to
care of our households, and inveighs against idleness as the origin of
injustice; and Homer admirably says: --

Work was not dear, nor household cares to me,
Whose increase rears the thriving family;
But well-rigged ships were always my delight,
And wars, and darts, and arrows of the fight:

as if the same characters carelessly neglected their own estates, and
lived by injustice and rapine from others. For it is not as the
physicians say of oil, that outwardly applied, it is very wholesome,
but taken inwardly detrimental, that thus a just man provides
carefully for others, and is heedless of himself and his own affairs:
but in this Aristides's political virtues seem to be defective; since,
according to most authors, he took no care to leave his daughters a
portion, or himself enough to defray his funeral charges: whereas
Cato's family produced senators and generals to the fourth generation;
his grandchildren, and their children, came to the highest
preferments. But Aristides, who was the principal man of Greece,
through extreme poverty reduced some of his to get their living by
juggler's tricks, others, for want, to hold out their hands for public
alms; leaving none means to perform any noble action, or worthy his
dignity.

Yet why should this needs follow? since poverty is dishonorable not
in itself, but when it is a proof of laziness, intemperance, luxury,
and carelessness; whereas in a person that is temperate, industrious,
just, and valiant, and who uses all his virtues for the public good,
it shows a great and lofty mind. For he has no time for great
matters, who concerns himself with petty ones; nor can he relieve many
needs of others, who himself has many needs of his own. What most of
all enables a man to serve the public is not wealth, but content and
independence; which, requiring no superfluity at home, distracts not
the mind from the common good. God alone is entirely exempt from all
want: of human virtues, that which needs least, is the most absolute
and most divine. For as a body bred to a good habit requires nothing
exquisite either in clothes or food, so a sound man and a sound
household keep themselves up with a small matter. Riches ought to be
proportioned to the use we have of them; for he that scrapes together
a great deal, making use of but little, is not independent; for if he
wants them not, it is folly in him to make provision for things which
he does not desire; or if he does desire them, and restrains his
enjoyment out of sordidness, he is miserable. I would fain know of
Cato himself, if we seek riches that we may enjoy them, why is he
proud of having a great deal, and being contented with little? But if
it be noble, as it is, to feed on coarse bread, and drink the same
wine with our hinds, and not to covet purple, and plastered houses,
neither Aristides, nor Epaminondas, nor Manius Curius, nor Caius
Fabricius wanted necessaries, who took no pains to get those things
whose use they approved not. For it was not worth the while of a man
who esteemed turnips a most delicate food, and who boiled them
himself, whilst his wife made bread, to brag so often of a halfpenny,
and write a book to show how a man may soonest grow rich; the very
good of being contented with little is because it cuts off at once the
desire and the anxiety for superfluities. Hence Aristides, it is
told, said, on the trial of Callias, that it was for them to blush at
poverty, who were poor against their wills; they who like him were
willingly so, might glory in it. For it is ridiculous to think
Aristides's neediness imputable to his sloth, who might fairly enough
by the spoil of one barbarian, or seizing one tent, have become
wealthy. But enough of this.

Cato's expeditions added no great matter to the Roman empire, which
already was so great, as that in a manner it could receive no
addition; but those of Aristides are the noblest, most splendid, and
distinguished actions the Grecians ever did, the battles at Marathon,
Salamis, and Plataea. Nor indeed is Antiochus, nor the destruction of
the walls of the Spanish towns, to be compared with Xerxes, and the
destruction by sea and land of so many myriads of enemies; in all of
which noble exploits Aristides yielded to none, though he left the
glory and the laurels, like the wealth and money, to those who
needed and thirsted more greedily after them: because he was superior
to those also. I do not blame Cato for perpetually boasting and
preferring himself before all others, though in one of his orations he
says, that it is equally absurd to praise and dispraise one's self:
yet he who does not so much as desire others' praises, seems to me
more perfectly virtuous, than he who is always extolling himself. A
mind free from ambition is a main help to political gentleness:
ambition, on the contrary, is hard-hearted, and the greatest fomenter
of envy; from which Aristides was wholly exempt; Cato very subject to
it. Aristides assisted Themistocles in matters of highest importance,
and, as his subordinate officer, in a manner raised Athens: Cato, by
opposing Scipio, almost broke and defeated his expedition against the
Carthaginians, in which he overthrew Hannibal, who till then was even
invincible; and, at last, by continually raising suspicions and
calumnies against him, he chased him from the city, and inflicted a
disgraceful sentence on his brother for robbing the state.

Finally, that temperance which Cato always highly cried up, Aristides
preserved truly pure and untainted. But Cato's marriage, unbecoming
his dignity and age, is a considerable disparagement, in this respect,
to his character. For it was not decent for him at that age to bring
home to his son and his wife a young woman, the daughter of a common
paid clerk in the public service: but whether it were for his own
gratification or out of anger at his son, both the fact and the
presence were unworthy. For the reason he pretended to his son was
false: for if he desired to get more as worthy children, he ought to
have married a well-born wife; not to have contented himself, so long
as it was unnoticed, with a woman to whom he was not married; and,
when it was discovered, he ought not to have chosen such a
father-in-law as was easiest to be got, instead of one whose affinity
might be honorable to him.

PHILOPOEMEN

Cleander was a man of high birth and great power in the city of
Mantinea, but by the chances of the time happened to be driven from
thence. There being an intimate friendship betwixt him and Craugis,
the father of Philopoemen, who was a person of great distinction, he
settled at Megalopolis, where, while his friend lived, he had all he
could desire. When Craugis died, he repaid the father's hospitable
kindness in the care of the orphan son; by which means Philopoemen
was educated by him, as Homer says Achilles was by Phoenix, and from
his infancy molded to lofty and noble inclinations. But Ecdemus and
Demophanes had the principal tuition of him, after he was past the
years of childhood. They were both Megalopolitans; they had been
scholars in the academic philosophy, and friends to Arcesilaus, and
had, more than any of their contemporaries, brought philosophy to
bear upon action, and state affairs. They had freed their country
from tyranny by the death of Aristodemus, whom they caused to be
killed; they had assisted Aratus in driving out the tyrant Nicocles
from Sicyon; and, at the request of the Cyreneans, whose city was in
a state of extreme disorder and confusion, went thither by sea, and
succeeded in establishing good government and happily settling their
commonwealth. And among their best actions they themselves counted
the education of Philopoemen, thinking they had done a general good
to Greece, by giving him the nurture of philosophy. And indeed all
Greece (which looked upon him as a kind of latter birth brought
forth, after so many noble leaders, in her decrepit age) loved him
wonderfully; and, as his glory grew, increased his power. And one of
the Romans, to praise him, calls him the last of the Greeks; as if
after him Greece had produced no great man, nor who deserved the name
of Greek.

His person was not, as some fancy, deformed; for his likeness is yet
to be seen at Delphi. The mistake of the hostess of Megara was
occasioned, it would seem, merely by his easiness of temper and his
plain manners. This hostess having word brought her, that the
General of the Achaeans was coming to her house in the absence of
her husband, was all in a hurry about providing his supper.
Philopoemen, in an ordinary cloak, arriving in this point of time,
she took him for one of his own train who had been sent on before,
and bid him lend her his hand in her household work. He forthwith
threw off his cloak, and fell to cutting up the fire-wood. The
husband returning, and seeing him at it, "What," says he, "may this
mean, O Philopoemen?"  "I am," replied he in his Doric dialect,
"paying the penalty of my ugly looks."  Titus Flamininus, jesting
with him upon his figure, told him one day, he had well-shaped hands
and feet, but no belly: and he was indeed slender in the waist. But
this raillery was meant to the poverty of his fortune; for he had
good horse and foot, but often wanted money to entertain and pay
them. These are the common anecdotes told of Philopoemen.

The love of honor and distinction was, in his character, not
unalloyed with feelings of personal rivalry and resentment. He made
Epaminondas his great example, and came not far behind him in
activity, sagacity, and incorruptible integrity; but his hot
contentious temper continually carried him out of the bounds of that
gentleness, composure, and humanity which had marked Epaminondas, and
this made him thought a pattern rather of military than of civil
virtue. He was strongly inclined to the life of a soldier even from
his childhood, and he studied and practiced all that belonged to it,
taking great delight in managing of horses, and handling of weapons.
Because he was naturally fitted to excel in wrestling, some of his
friends and tutors recommended his attention to athletic exercises.
But he would first be satisfied whether it would not interfere with
his becoming a good soldier. They told him, as was the truth, that
the one life was directly opposite to the other; the requisite state
of body, the ways of living, and the exercises all different: the
professed athlete sleeping much, and feeding plentifully, punctually
regular in his set times of exercise and rest, and apt to spoil all
by every little excess, or breach of his usual method; whereas the
soldier ought to train himself in every variety of change and
irregularity, and, above all, to bring himself to endure hunger and
loss of sleep without difficulty. Philopoemen, hearing this, not
only laid by all thoughts of wrestling and contemned it then, but
when he came to be general, discouraged it by all marks of reproach
and dishonor he could imagine, as a thing which made men, otherwise
excellently fit for war, to be utterly useless and unable to fight on
necessary occasions.

When he left off his masters and teachers, and began to bear arms in
the incursions which his citizens used to make upon the
Lacedaemonians for pillage and plunder, he would always march out the
first, and return the last. When there was nothing to do, he sought
to harden his body, and make it strong and active by hunting, or
laboring in his ground. He had a good estate about twenty furlongs
from the town, and thither he would go every day after dinner and
supper; and when night came, throw himself upon the first mattress in
his way, and there sleep as one of the laborers. At break of day he
would rise with the rest, and work either in the vineyard or at the
plow; from thence return again to the town, and employ his time with
his friends, or the magistrates in public business. What he got in
the wars, he laid out on horses, or arms, or in ransoming captives;
but endeavored to improve his own property the justest way, by
tillage; and this not slightly, by way of diversion, but thinking it
his strict duty, so to manage his own fortune, as to be out of the
temptation of wronging others.

He spent much time on eloquence and philosophy, but selected his
authors, and cared only for those by whom he might profit in virtue.
In Homer's fictions his attention was given to whatever he thought
apt to raise the courage. Of all other books he was most devoted to
the commentaries of Evangelus on military tactics, and also took
delight, at leisure hours, in the histories of Alexander; thinking
that such reading, unless undertaken for mere amusement and idle
conversation, was to the purpose for action. Even in speculations on
military subjects it was his habit to neglect maps and diagrams, and
to put the theorems to practical proof on the ground itself. He
would be exercising his thoughts, and considering, as he traveled,
and arguing with those about him of the difficulties of steep or
broken ground, what might happen at rivers, ditches, or
mountain-passes, in marching in close or in open, in this or in that
particular form of battle. The truth is, he indeed took an
immoderate pleasure in military operations and in warfare, to which
he devoted himself, as the special means for exercising all sorts of
virtue, and utterly contemned those who were not soldiers, as drones
and useless in the commonwealth.

When he was thirty years of age, Cleomenes, king of the
Lacedaemonians, surprised Megalopolis by night, forced the guards,
broke in, and seized the marketplace. Philopoemen came out upon the
alarm, and fought with desperate courage, but could not beat the
enemy out again; yet he succeeded in effecting the escape of the
citizens, who got away while he made head against the pursuers, and
amused Cleomenes, till, after losing his horse and receiving several
wounds, with much ado he came off himself, being the last man in the
retreat. The Megalopolitans escaped to Messene, whither Cleomenes
sent to offer them their town and goods again. Philopoemen
perceiving them to be only too glad at the news, and eager to return,
checked them with a speech, in which he made them sensible, that what
Cleomenes called restoring the city, was, rather, possessing himself
of the citizens, and through their means securing also the city for
the future. The mere solitude would, of itself, erelong force him
away, since there was no staying to guard empty houses and naked
walls. These reasons withheld the Megalopolitans, but gave Cleomenes
a pretext to pillage and destroy a great part of the city, and carry
away a great booty.

Awhile after king Antigonus coming down to succor the Achaeans, they
marched with their united forces against Cleomenes; who, having
seized the avenues, lay advantageously posted on the hills of
Sellasia. Antigonus drew up close by him, with a resolution to force
him in his strength. Philopoemen, with his citizens, was that day
placed among the horse, next to the Illyrian foot, a numerous body of
bold fighters, who completed the line of battle, forming, together
with the Achaeans, the reserve. Their orders were to keep their
ground, and not engage till from the other wing, where the king
fought in person, they should see a red coat lifted up on the point
of a spear. The Achaeans obeyed their order, and stood fast; but the
Illyrians were led on by their commanders to the attack. Euclidas,
the brother of Cleomenes, seeing the foot thus severed from the
horse, detached the best of his light-armed men, commanding them to
wheel about, and charge the unprotected Illyrians in the rear. This
charge putting things in confusion, Philopoemen, considering those
light-armed men would be easily repelled, went first to the king's
officers to make them sensible what the occasion required. But they
not minding what he said, but slighting him as a hare-brained fellow,
(as indeed he was not yet of any repute sufficient to give credit to
a proposal of such importance,) he charged with his own citizens, and
at the first encounter disordered, and soon after put the troops to
flight with great slaughter. Then, to encourage the king's army
further, to bring them all upon the enemy while he was in confusion,
he quitted his horse, and fighting with extreme difficulty in his
heavy horseman's dress, in rough uneven ground, full of watercourses
and hollows, had both his thighs struck through with a thonged
javelin. It was thrown with great force, so that the head came out
on the other side, and made a severe, though not a mortal, wound.
There he stood awhile, as if he had been shackled, unable to move.
The fastening which joined the thong to the javelin made it difficult
to get it drawn out, nor would any about him venture to do it. But
the fight being now at the hottest, and likely to be quickly decided,
he was transported with the desire of partaking in it, and struggled
and strained so violently, setting one leg forward, the other back,
that at last he broke the shaft in two; and thus got the pieces
pulled out. Being in this manner set at liberty, he caught up his
sword, and running through the midst of those who were fighting in
the first ranks, animated his men, and set them afire with emulation.
Antigonus, after the victory, asked the Macedonians, to try them, how
it happened the horse had charged without orders before the signal?
They answering, that they were against their wills forced to it by a
young man of Megalopolis, who had fallen in before his time: "that
young man," replied Antigonus, smiling, "did like an experienced
commander."

This, as was natural, brought Philopoemen into great reputation.
Antigonus was earnest to have him in his service, and offered him
very advantageous conditions, both as to command and pay. But
Philopoemen, who knew that his nature brooked not to be under
another, would not accept them; yet not enduring to live idle, and
hearing of wars in Crete, for practice' sake he passed over thither.
He spent some time among those very warlike, and, at the same time,
sober and temperate men, improving much by experience in all sorts of
service; and then returned with so much fame, that the Achaeans
presently chose him commander of the horse. These horsemen at that
time had neither experience nor bravery, it being the custom to take
any common horses, the first and cheapest they could procure, when
they were to march; and on almost all occasions they did not go
themselves, but hired others in their places, and staid at home.
Their former commanders winked at this, because, it being an honor
among the Achaeans to serve on horseback, these men had great power
in the commonwealth, and were able to gratify or molest whom they
pleased. Philopoemen, finding them in this condition, yielded not to
any such considerations, nor would pass it over as formerly; but
went himself from town to town, where, speaking with the young men,
one by one, he endeavored to excite a spirit of ambition and love of
honor among them, using punishment also, where it was necessary. And
then by public exercises, reviews, and contests in the presence of
numerous spectators, in a little time he made them wonderfully strong
and bold, and, which is reckoned of greatest consequence in military
service, light and agile. With use and industry they grew so
perfect, to such a command of their horses, such a ready exactness in
wheeling round in their troops, that in any change of posture the
whole body seemed to move with all the facility and promptitude, and,
as it were, with the single will of one man. In the great battle,
which they fought with the Aetolians and Eleans by the river
Larissus, he set them an example himself. Damophantus, general of
the Elean horse, singled out Philopoemen, and rode with full speed at
him. Philopoemen awaited his charge, and, before receiving the
stroke, with a violent blow of his spear threw him dead to the
ground: upon whose fall the enemy fled immediately. And now
Philopoemen was in everybody's mouth, as a man who in actual fighting
with his own hand yielded not to the youngest, nor in good conduct to
the oldest, and than whom there came not into the field any better
soldier or commander.

Aratus, indeed, was the first who raised the Achaeans, inconsiderable
till then, into reputation and power, by uniting their divided cities
into one commonwealth, and establishing amongst them a humane and
truly Grecian form of government; and hence it happened, as in
running waters, where when a few little particles of matter once
stop, others stick to them, and one part strengthening another, the
whole becomes firm and solid; so in a general weakness, when every
city relying only on itself, all Greece was giving way to an easy
dissolution, the Achaeans, first forming themselves into a body, then
drawing in their neighbors round about, some by protection,
delivering them from their tyrants, others by peaceful consent and by
naturalization, designed at last to bring all Peloponnesus into one
community. Yet while Aratus lived, they depended much on the
Macedonians, courting first Ptolemy, then Antigonus and Philip, who
all took part continually in whatever concerned the affairs of
Greece. But when Philopoemen came to command, the Achaeans, feeling
themselves a match for the most powerful of their enemies, declined
foreign support. The truth is, Aratus, as we have written in his
life, was not of so warlike a temper, but did most by policy and
gentleness, and friendships with foreign princes; but Philopoemen
being a man both of execution and command, a great soldier, and
fortunate in his first attempts, wonderfully heightened both the
power and courage of the Achaeans, accustomed to victory under his
conduct.

But first he altered what he found amiss in their arms, and form of
battle. Hitherto they had used light, thin bucklers, too narrow to
cover the body, and javelins much shorter than pikes. By which means
they were skillful in skirmishing at a distance, but in a close fight
had much the disadvantage. Then in drawing their forces up for
battle, they were never accustomed to form in regular divisions; and
their line being unprotected either by the thick array of projecting
spears or by their shields, as in the Macedonian phalanx, where the
soldiers shoulder close and their shields touch, they were easily
opened, and broken. Philopoemen reformed all this, persuading them
to change the narrow target and short javelin, into a large shield
and long pike; to arm their heads, bodies, thighs, and legs; and
instead of loose skirmishing, fight firmly and foot to foot. After
he had brought them all to wear full armor, and by that means into
the confidence of thinking themselves now invincible, he turned what
before had been idle profusion and luxury into an honorable expense.
For being long used to vie with each other in their dress, the
furniture of their houses, and service of their tables, and to glory
in outdoing one another, the disease by custom was grown incurable,
and there was no possibility of removing it altogether. But he
diverted the passion, and brought them, instead of these
superfluities, to love useful and more manly display, and, reducing
their other expenses, to take delight in appearing magnificent in
their equipage of war. Nothing then was to be seen in the shops but
plate breaking up, or melting down, gilding of breastplates, and
studding bucklers and bits with silver; nothing in the places of
exercise, but horses managing, and young men exercising their arms;
nothing in the hands of the women, but helmets and crests of feathers
to be dyed, and military cloaks and riding-frocks to be embroidered;
the very sight of all which quickening and raising their spirits,
made them contemn dangers, and feel ready to venture on any honorable
dangers. Other kinds of sumptuosity give us pleasure, but make us
effeminate; the tickling of the sense slackening the vigor of the
mind; but magnificence of this kind strengthens and heightens the
courage; as Homer makes Achilles at the sight of his new arms
exulting with joy, and on fire to use them. When Philopoemen had
obtained of them to arm, and set themselves out in this manner, he
proceeded to train them, mustering and exercising them perpetually;
in which they obeyed him with great zeal and eagerness. For they
were wonderfully pleased with their new form of battle, which, being
so knit and cemented together, seemed almost incapable of being
broken. And then their arms, which for their riches and beauty they
wore with pleasure, becoming light and easy to them with constant
use, they longed for nothing more than to try them with an enemy, and
fight in earnest.

The Achaeans at that time were at war with Machanidas, the tyrant of
Lacedaemon, who, having a strong army watched all opportunities of
becoming entire master of Peloponnesus. When intelligence came that
he was fallen upon the Mantineans, Philopoemen forthwith took the
field, and marched towards him. They met near Mantinea, and drew up
in sight of the city. Both, besides the whole strength of their
several cities, had a good number of mercenaries in pay. When they
came to fall on, Machanidas, with his hired soldiers, beat the
spearmen and the Tarentines whom Philopoemen had placed in the front.
But when he should have charged immediately into the main battle,
which stood close and firm, he hotly followed the chase; and instead
of attacking the Achaeans, passed on beyond them, while they remained
drawn up in their place. With so untoward a beginning the rest of
the confederates gave themselves up for lost; but Philopoemen,
professing to make it a matter of small consequence, and observing
the enemy's oversight, who had thus left an opening in their main
body, and exposed their own phalanx, made no sort of motion to oppose
them, but let them pursue the chase freely, till they had placed
themselves at a great distance from him. Then seeing the
Lacedaemonians before him deserted by their horse, with their flanks
quite bare, he charged suddenly, and surprised them without a
commander, and not so much as expecting an encounter, as, when they
saw Machanidas driving the beaten enemy before him, they thought the
victory already gained. He overthrew them with great slaughter,
(they report above four thousand killed in the place,) and then faced
about against Machanidas, who was returning with his mercenaries from
the pursuit. There happened to be a broad deep ditch between them,
along side of which both rode their horses for awhile, the one trying
to get over and fly, the other to hinder him. It looked less like
the contest between two generals than like the last defense of some
wild beast, brought to bay by the keen huntsman Philopoemen, and
forced to fight for his life. The tyrant's horse was mettled and
strong; and feeling the bloody spurs in his sides, ventured to take
the ditch. He had already so far reached the other side, as to have
planted his fore-feet upon it, and was struggling to raise himself
with these, when Simmias and Polyaenus, who used to fight by the side
of Philopoemen, came up on horseback to his assistance. But
Philopoemen, before either of them, himself met Machanidas; and
perceiving that the horse with his head high reared, covered his
master's body, he turned his own a little, and holding his javelin by
the middle, drove it against the tyrant with all his force, and
tumbled him dead into the ditch. Such is the precise posture in
which he stands at Delphi in the brazen statue which the Achaeans set
up of him, in admiration of his valor in this single combat, and
conduct during the whole day.

We are told that at the Nemean games, a little after this victory,
Philopoemen being then General the second time, and at leisure on the
occasion of the solemnity, first showed the Greeks his army drawn up
in full array as if they were to fight, and executed with it all the
maneuvers of a battle with wonderful order, strength, and celerity.
After which he went into the theater, while the musicians were
singing for the prize, followed by the young soldiers in their
military cloaks and their scarlet frocks under their armor, all in
the very height of bodily vigor, and much alike in age, showing a
high respect to their general; yet breathing at the same time a noble
confidence in themselves, raised by success in many glorious
encounters. Just at their coming in, it so happened, that the
musician Pylades, with a voice well suited to the lofty style of the
poet, was in the act of commencing the Persians of Timotheus,

Under his conduct Greece was glorious and was free.

The whole theater at once turned to look at Philopoemen, and clapped
with delight; their hopes venturing once more to return to their
country's former reputation; and their feelings almost rising to the
height of their ancient spirit.

It was with the Achaeans as with young horses, which go quietly with
their usual riders, but grow unruly and restive under strangers. The
soldiers, when any service was in hand, and Philopoemen not at their
head, grew dejected and looked about for him; but if he once
appeared, came presently to themselves, and recovered their
confidence and courage, being sensible that this was the only one of
their commanders whom the enemy could not endure to face; but, as
appeared in several occasions, were frighted with his very name.
Thus we find that Philip, king of Macedon, thinking to terrify the
Achaeans into subjection again, if he could rid his hands of
Philopoemen, employed some persons privately to assassinate him. But
the treachery coming to light, he became infamous, and lost his
character through Greece. The Boeotians besieging Megara, and ready
to carry the town by storm, upon a groundless rumor that Philopoemen
was at hand with succor, ran away, and left their scaling ladders at
the wall behind them. Nabis, (who was tyrant of Lacedaemon after
Machanidas,) had surprised Messene at a time when Philopoemen was out
of command. He tried to persuade Lysippus, then General of the
Achaeans, to succor Messene: but not prevailing with him, because,
he said, the enemy being now within it, the place was irrecoverably
lost, he resolved to go himself, without order or commission,
followed merely by his own immediate fellow-citizens who went with
him as their general by commission from nature, which had made him
fittest to command. Nabis, hearing of his coming, though his army
quartered within the town, thought it not convenient to stay; but
stealing out of the furthest gate with his men, marched away with all
the speed he could, thinking himself a happy man if he could get off
with safety. And he did escape; but Messene was rescued.

All hitherto makes for the praise and honor of Philopoemen. But when
at the request of the Gortynians he went away into Crete to command
for them, at a time when his own country was distressed by Nabis, he
exposed himself to the charge of either cowardice, or unseasonable
ambition of honor amongst foreigners. For the Megalopolitans were
then so pressed, that, the enemy being master of the field and
encamping almost at their gates, they were forced to keep themselves
within their walls, and sow their very streets. And he in the mean
time, across the seas, waging war and commanding in chief in a
foreign nation, furnished his ill-wishers with matter enough for
their reproaches. Some said he took the offer of the Gortynians,
because the Achaeans chose other generals, and left him but a private
man. For he could not endure to sit still, but looking upon war and
command in it as his great business, always coveted to be employed.
And this agrees with what he once aptly said of king Ptolemy.
Somebody was praising him for keeping his army and himself in an
admirable state of discipline and exercise: "And what praise,"
replied Philopoemen, "for a king of his years, to be always
preparing, and never performing?"  However, the Megalopolitans,
thinking themselves betrayed, took it so ill, that they were about to
banish him. But the Achaeans put an end to that design, by sending
their General, Aristaeus, to Megalopolis, who, though he were at
difference with Philopoemen about affairs of the commonwealth, yet
would not suffer him to be banished. Philopoemen finding himself
upon this account out of favor with his citizens, induced divers of
the little neighboring places to renounce obedience to them,
suggesting to them to urge that from the beginning they were not
subject to their taxes, or laws, or any way under their command. In
these pretenses he openly took their part, and fomented seditious
movements amongst the Achaeans in general against Megalopolis. But
these things happened a while after.

While he stayed in Crete, in the service of the Gortynians, he made
war not like a Peloponnesian and Arcadian, fairly in the open field,
but fought with them at their own weapon, and turning their
stratagems and tricks against themselves, showed them they played
craft against skill, and were but children to an experienced soldier.
Having acted here with great bravery, and great reputation to
himself, he returned into Peloponnesus, where he found Philip beaten
by Titus Quintius, and Nabis at war both with the Romans and
Achaeans. He was at once chosen general against Nabis, but venturing
to fight by sea, met, like Epaminondas, with a result very contrary
to the general expectation, and his own former reputation.
Epaminondas, however, according to some statements, was backward by
design, unwilling to give his countrymen an appetite for the
advantages of the sea, lest from good soldiers, they should by
little and little turn, as Plato says, to ill mariners. And
therefore he returned from Asia and the Islands without doing any
thing, on purpose. Whereas Philopoemen, thinking his skill in
land-service would equally avail at sea, learned how great a part of
valor experience is, and how much it imports in the management of
things to be accustomed to them. For he was not only put to the
worst in the fight for want of skill, but having rigged up an old
ship, which had been a famous vessel forty years before, and shipped
his citizens in her, she foundering, he was in danger of losing them
all. But finding the enemy, as if he had been driven out of the sea,
had, in contempt of him, besieged Gythium, he presently set sail
again, and, taking them unexpectedly, dispersed and careless after
their victory, landed in the night, burnt their camp, and killed a
great number.

A few days after, as he was marching through a rough country, Nabis
came suddenly upon him. The Achaeans were dismayed, and in such
difficult ground where the enemy had secured the advantage, despaired
to get off with safety. Philopoemen made a little halt, and, viewing
the ground, soon made it appear, that the one important thing in war
is skill in drawing up an army. For by advancing only a few paces,
and, without any confusion or trouble, altering his order according
to the nature of the place, he immediately relieved himself from
every difficulty, and then charging, put the enemy to flight. But
when he saw they fled, not towards the city, but dispersed every man
a different way all over the field, which for wood and hills, brooks
and hollows was not passable by horse, he sounded a retreat, and
encamped by broad daylight. Then foreseeing the enemy would endeavor
to steal scatteringly into the city in the dark, he posted strong
parties of the Achaeans all along the watercourses and sloping ground
near the walls. Many of Nabis's men fell into their hands. For
returning not in a body, but as the chance of flight had disposed of
every one, they were caught like birds ere they could enter into the
town.

These actions obtained him distinguished marks of affection and honor
in all the theaters of Greece, but not without the secret ill-will of
Titus Flamininus, who was naturally eager for glory, and thought it
but reasonable a consul of Rome should be otherwise esteemed by the
Achaeans, than a common Arcadian; especially as there was no
comparison between what he, and what Philopoemen had done for them,
he having by one proclamation restored all Greece, as much as had
been subject to Philip and the Macedonians, to liberty. After this,
Titus made peace with Nabis, and Nabis was circumvented and slain by
the Aetolians. Things being then in confusion at Sparta, Philopoemen
laid hold of the occasion, and coming upon them with an army,
prevailed with some by persuasion, with others by fear, till he
brought the whole city over to the Achaeans. As it was no small
matter for Sparta to become a member of Achaea, this action gained
him infinite praise from the Achaeans, for having strengthened their
confederacy by the addition of so great and powerful a city, and not
a little good-will from the nobility of Sparta itself, who hoped they
had now procured an ally, who would defend their freedom.
Accordingly, having raised a sum of one hundred and twenty silver
talents by the sale of the house and goods of Nabis, they decreed him
the money, and sent a deputation in the name of the city to present
it. But here the honesty of Philopoemen showed itself clearly to be
a real, uncounterfeited virtue. For first of all, there was not a
man among them who would undertake to make him this offer of a
present, but every one excusing himself, and shifting it off upon his
fellow, they laid the office at last on Timolaus, with whom he had
lodged at Sparta. Then Timolaus came to Megalopolis, and was
entertained by Philopoemen; but struck into admiration with the
dignity of his life and manners, and the simplicity of his habits,
judging him to be utterly inaccessible to any such considerations, he
said nothing, but pretending other business, returned without a word
mentioned of the present. He was sent again, and did just as
formerly. But the third time with much ado, and faltering in his
words, he acquainted Philopoemen with the good-will of the city of
Sparta to him. Philopoemen listened obligingly and gladly; and then
went himself to Sparta, where he advised them, not to bribe good men
and their friends, of whose virtue they might be sure without charge
to themselves; but to buy off and silence ill citizens, who
disquieted the city with their seditious speeches in the public
assemblies; for it was better to bar liberty of speech in enemies,
than friends. Thus it appeared how much Philopoemen was above
bribery.

Diophanes being afterwards General of the Achaeans, and hearing the
Lacedaemonians were bent on new commotions, resolved to chastise
them; they, on the other side, being set upon war, were embroiling
all Peloponnesus. Philopoemen on this occasion did all he could to
keep Diophanes quiet and to make him sensible that as the times went,
while Antiochus and the Romans were disputing their pretensions with
vast armies in the heart of Greece, it concerned a man in his
position to keep a watchful eye over them, and dissembling, and
putting up with any less important grievances, to preserve all quiet
at home. Diophanes would not be ruled, but joined with Titus, and
both together falling into Laconia, marched directly to Sparta.
Philopoemen, upon this, took, in his indignation, a step which
certainly was not lawful, nor in the strictest sense just, but boldly
and loftily conceived. Entering into the town himself, he, a private
man as he was, refused admission to both the consul of Rome, and the
General of the Achaeans, quieted the disorders in the city, and
reunited it on the same terms as before to the Achaean confederacy.

Yet afterwards, when he was General himself, upon some new
misdemeanor of the Lacedaemonians, he brought back those who had been
banished, put, as Polybius writes, eighty, according to Aristocrates
three hundred and fifty, Spartans to death, razed the walls, took
away a good part of their territory and transferred it to the
Megalopolitans, forced out of the country and carried into Achaea all
who had been made citizens of Sparta by tyrants, except three
thousand who would not submit to banishment. These he sold for
slaves, and with the money, as if to insult over them, built a
colonnade at Megalopolis. Lastly, unworthily trampling upon the
Lacedaemonians in their calamities, and gratifying his hostility by a
most oppressive and arbitrary action, he abolished the laws of
Lycurgus, and forced them to educate their children, and live after
the manner of the Achaeans; as though, while they kept to the
discipline of Lycurgus, there was no humbling their haughty spirits.
In their present distress and adversity they allowed Philopoemen thus
to cut the sinews of their commonwealth asunder, and behaved
themselves humbly and submissively. But afterwards in no long time,
obtaining the support of the Romans, they abandoned their new Achaean
citizenship; and as much as in so miserable and ruined a condition
they could, reestablished their ancient discipline.

When the war betwixt Antiochus and the Romans broke out in Greece,
Philopoemen was a private man. He repined grievously, when he saw
Antiochus lay idle at Chalcis, spending his time in unseasonable
courtship and weddings, while his men lay dispersed in several towns,
without order or commanders, and minding nothing but their pleasures.
He complained much that he was not himself in office, and said he
envied the Romans their victory; and that if he had had the fortune
to be then in command, he would have surprised and killed the whole
army in the taverns.

When Antiochus was overcome, the Romans pressed harder upon Greece,
and encompassed the Achaeans with their power; the popular leaders in
the several cities yielded before them; and their power speedily,
under the divine guidance, advanced to the consummation due to it in
the revolutions of fortune. Philopoemen, in this conjuncture,
carried himself like a good pilot in a high sea, sometimes shifting
sail, and sometimes yielding, but still steering steady; and omitting
no opportunity nor effort to keep all who were considerable, whether
for eloquence or riches, fast to the defense of their common liberty.

Aristaenus, a Megalopolitan of great credit among the Achaeans, but
always a favorer of the Romans, saying one day in the senate, that
the Romans should not be opposed, or displeased in any way,
Philopoemen heard him with an impatient silence; but at last, not
able to hold longer, said angrily to him, "And why be in such haste,
wretched man, to behold the end of Greece?"  Manius, the Roman
consul, after the defeat of Antiochus, requested the Achaeans to
restore the banished Lacedaemonians to their country, which motion
was seconded and supported by all the interest of Titus. But
Philopoemen crossed it, not from ill-will to the men, but that they
might be beholden to him and the Achaeans, not to Titus and the
Romans. For when he came to be General himself, he restored them.
So impatient was his spirit of any subjection, and so prone his
nature to contest everything with men in power.

Being now threescore and ten, and the eighth time General, he was in
hope to pass in quiet, not only the year of his magistracy, but his
remaining life. For as our diseases decline, as it is supposed, with
our declining bodily strength, so the quarreling humor of the Greeks
abated much with their failing political greatness. But fortune or
some divine retributive power threw him down the in close of his life,
like a successful runner who stumbles at the goal. It is reported,
that being in company where one was praised for a great commander, he
replied, there was no great account to be made of a man, who had
suffered himself to be taken alive by his enemies.

A few days after, news came that Dinocrates the Messenian, a
particular enemy to Philopoemen, and for his wickedness and villanies
generally hated, had induced Messene to revolt from the Achaeans, and
was about to seize upon a little place called Colonis. Philopoemen
lay then sick of a fever at Argos. Upon the news he hasted away, and
reached Megalopolis, which was distant above four hundred furlongs,
in a day. From thence he immediately led out the horse, the noblest
of the city, young men in the vigor of their age, and eager to
proffer their service, both from attachment to Philopoemen, and zeal
for the cause. As they marched towards Messene, they met with
Dinocrates, near the hill of Evander, charged and routed him. But
five hundred fresh men, who, being left for a guard to the country,
came in late, happening to appear, the flying enemy rallied again
about the hills. Philopoemen, fearing to be enclosed, and solicitous
for his men, retreated over ground extremely disadvantageous,
bringing up the rear himself. As he often faced, and made charges
upon the enemy, he drew them upon himself; though they merely made
movements at a distance, and shouted about him, nobody daring to
approach him. In his care to save every single man, he left his main
body so often, that at last he found himself alone among the thickest
of his enemies. Yet even then none durst come up to him, but being
pelted at a distance, and driven to stony steep places, he had great
difficulty, with much spurring, to guide his horse aright. His age
was no hindrance to him, for with perpetual exercise it was both
strong and active; but being weakened with sickness, and tired with
his long journey, his horse stumbling, he fell encumbered with his
arms, and faint, upon a hard and rugged piece of ground. His head
received such a shock with the fall, that he lay awhile speechless,
so that the enemy, thinking him dead, began to turn and strip him.
But when they saw him lift up his head and open his eyes, they threw
themselves all together upon him, bound his hands behind him, and
carried him off, every kind of insult and contumely being lavished on
him who truly had never so much as dreamed of being led in triumph by
Dinocrates.

The Messenians, wonderfully elated with the news, thronged in swarms
to the city gates. But when they saw Philopoemen in a posture so
unsuitable to the glory of his great actions and famous victories,
most of them, struck with grief and cursing the deceitful vanity of
human fortune, even shed tears of compassion at the spectacle. Such
tears by little and little turned to kind words, and it was almost in
everybody's mouth that they ought to remember what he had done for
them, and how he had preserved the common liberty, by driving away
Nabis. Some few, to make their court to Dinocrates, were for
torturing and then putting him to death as a dangerous and
irreconcilable enemy; all the more formitable to Dinocrates, who had
taken him prisoner, should he after this misfortune, regain his
liberty. They put him at last into a dungeon underground, which they
called the treasury, a place into which there came no air nor light
from abroad; and, which, having no doors, was closed with a great
stone. This they rolled into the entrance and fixed, and placing a
guard about it, left him. In the mean time Philopoemen's soldiers,
recovering themselves after their flight, and fearing he was dead
when he appeared nowhere, made a stand, calling him with loud cries,
and reproaching one another with their unworthy and shameful escape;
having betrayed their general, who, to preserve their lives, had lost
his own. Then returning after much inquiry and search, hearing at
last that he was taken, they sent away messengers round about with
the news. The Achaeans resented the misfortune deeply, and decreed
to send and demand him; and, in the meantime, drew their army
together for his rescue.

While these things passed in Achaea, Dinocrates, fearing that any
delay would save Philopoemen, and resolving to be beforehand with the
Achaeans, as soon as night had dispersed the multitude, sent in the
executioner with poison, with orders not to stir from him till he had
taken it. Philopoemen had then laid down, wrapt up in his cloak, not
sleeping, but oppressed with grief and trouble; but seeing light, and
a man with poison by him, struggled to sit up; and, taking the cup,
asked the man if he heard anything of the horsemen, particularly
Lycortas? The fellow answering, that the most part had got off safe,
he nodded, and looking cheerfully upon him, "It is well," he said,
"that we have not been every way unfortunate;" and without a word
more, drank it off, and laid him down, again. His weakness offering
but little resistance to the poison, it dispatched him presently.

The news of his death filled all Achaea with grief and lamentation.
The youth, with some of the chief of the several cities, met at
Megalopolis with a resolution to take revenge without delay. They
chose Lycortas general, and falling upon the Messenians, put all to
fire and sword, till they all with one consent made their submission.
Dinocrates, with as many as had voted for Philopoemen's death,
anticipated their vengeance and killed themselves. Those who would
have had him tortured, Lycortas put in chains and reserved for
severer punishment. They burnt his body, and put the ashes into an
urn, and then marched homeward, not as in an ordinary march, but with
a kind of solemn pomp, half triumph, half funeral, crowns of victory
on their heads, and tears in their eyes, and their captive enemies in
fetters by them. Polybius, the general's son, carried the urn, so
covered with garlands and ribbons as scarcely to be visible; and the
noblest of the Achaeans accompanied him. The soldiers followed fully
armed and mounted, with looks neither altogether sad as in mourning,
nor lofty as in victory. The people from all towns and villages in
their way, flocked out to meet him, as at his return from conquest,
and, saluting the urn, fell in with the company, and followed on to
Megalopolis; where, when the old men, the women and children were
mingled with the rest, the whole city was filled with sighs,
complaints, and cries, the loss of Philopoemen seeming to them the
loss of their own greatness, and of their rank among the Achaeans.
Thus he was honorably buried according to his worth, and the
prisoners were stoned about his tomb.

Many statues were set up, and many honors decreed to him by the
several cities. One of the Romans in the time of Greece's
affliction, after the destruction of Corinth, publicly accusing
Philopoemen, as if he had been still alive, of having been the enemy
of Rome, proposed that these memorials should all be removed. A
discussion ensued, speeches were made, and Polybius answered the
sycophant at large. And neither Mummius nor the lieutenants would
suffer the honorable monuments of so great a man to be defaced,
though he had often crossed both Titus and Manius. They justly
distinguished, and as became honest men, betwixt usefulness and
virtue, -- what is good in itself, and what is profitable to
particular parties, -- judging thanks and reward due to him who does
a benefit, from him who receives it, and honor never to be denied by
the good to the good. And so much concerning Philopoemen.

FLAMININUS

What Titus Quintius Flamininus, whom we select as a parallel to
Philopoemen, was in personal appearance, those who are curious may
see by the brazen statue of him, which stands in Rome near that of
the great Apollo, brought from Carthage, opposite to the Circus
Maximus, with a Greek inscription upon it. The temper of his mind is
said to have been of the warmest both in anger and in kindness; not
indeed equally so in both respects; as in punishing, he was ever
moderate, never inflexible; but whatever courtesy or good turn he set
about, he went through with it, and was as perpetually kind and
obliging to those on whom he had poured his favors, as if they, not
he, had been the benefactors: exerting himself for the security and
preservation of what he seemed to consider his noblest possessions,
those to whom he had done good. But being ever thirsty after honor,
and passionate for glory, if anything of a greater and more
extraordinary nature were to be done, he was eager to be the doer of
it himself; and took more pleasure in those that needed, than in
those that were capable of conferring favors; looking on the former
as objects for his virtue, and on the latter as competitors in glory.

Rome had then many sharp contests going on, and her youth betaking
themselves early to the wars, learned betimes the art of commanding;
and Flamininus, having passed through the rudiments of soldiery,
received his first charge in the war against Hannibal, as tribune
under Marcellus, then consul. Marcellus, indeed, falling into an
ambuscade, was cut off. But Titus, receiving the appointment of
governor, as well of Tarentum, then retaken, as of the country about
it, grew no less famous for his administration of justice, than for
his military skill. This obtained him the office of leader and
founder of two colonies which were sent into the cities of Narnia and
Cossa; which filled him with loftier hopes, and made him aspire to
step over those previous honors which it was usual first to pass
through, the offices of tribune of the people, praetor and aedile,
and to level his aim immediately at the consulship. Having these
colonies, and all their interest ready at his service, he offered
himself as candidate; but the tribunes of the people, Fulvius and
Manius, and their party, strongly opposed him; alleging how
unbecoming a thing it was, that a man of such raw years, one who was
yet, as it were, untrained, uninitiated in the first sacred rites and
mysteries of government, should, in contempt of the laws, intrude and
force himself into the sovereignty.

However, the senate remitted it to the people's choice and suffrage;
who elected him (though not then arrived at his thirtieth year)
consul with Sextus Aelius. The war against Philip and the
Macedonians fell to Titus by lot, and some kind fortune, propitious
at that time to the Romans, seems to have so determined it; as
neither the people nor the state of things which were now to be dealt
with, were such as to require a general who would always be upon the
point of force and mere blows, but rather were accessible to
persuasion and gentle usage. It is true that the kingdom of Macedon
furnished supplies enough to Philip for actual battle with the
Romans; but to maintain a long and lingering war, he must call in aid
from Greece; must thence procure his supplies; there find his means
of retreat; Greece, in a word, would be his resource for all the
requisites of his army. Unless, therefore, the Greeks could be
withdrawn from siding with Philip, this war with him must not expect
its decision from a single battle. Now Greece (which had not
hitherto held much correspondence with the Romans, but first began an
intercourse on this occasion) would not so soon have embraced a
foreign authority, instead of the commanders she had been inured to,
had not the general of these strangers been of a kind gentle nature,
one who worked rather by fair means than force; of a persuasive
address in all applications to others, and no less courteous, and
open to all addresses of others to him; and above all bent and
determined on justice. But the story of his actions will best
illustrate these particulars.

Titus observed that both Sulpicius and Publius, who had been his
predecessors in that command, had not taken the field against the
Macedonians till late in the year; and then, too, had not set their
hands properly to the war, but had kept skirmishing and scouting here
and there for passes and provisions, and never came to close fighting
with Philip. He resolved not to trifle away a year, as they had
done, at home in ostentation of the honor, and in domestic
administration, and only then to join the army, with the pitiful hope
of protracting the term of office through a second year, acting as
consul in the first, and as general in the latter. He was, moreover,
infinitely desirous to employ his authority with effect upon the war,
which made him slight those home-honors and prerogatives.
Requesting, therefore, of the senate, that his brother Lucius might
act with him as admiral of the navy, and taking with him to be the
edge, as it were, of the expedition three thousand still young and
vigorous soldiers, of those who, under Scipio, had defeated Asdrubal
in Spain, and Hannibal in Africa, he got safe into Epirus; and found
Publius encamped with his army, over against Philip, who had long
made good the pass over the river Apsus, and the straits there;
Publius not having been able, for the natural strength of the place,
to effect anything against him. Titus therefore took upon himself
the conduct of the army, and, having dismissed Publius, examined the
ground. The place is in strength not inferior to Tempe, though it
lacks the trees and green woods, and the pleasant meadows and walks
that adorn Tempe. The Apsus, making its way between vast and lofty
mountains which all but meet above a single deep ravine in the midst,
is not unlike the river Peneus, in the rapidity of its current, and
in its general appearance. It covers the foot of those hills, and
leaves only a craggy, narrow path cut out beside the stream, not
easily passable at any time for an army, but not at all when guarded
by an enemy.

There were some, therefore, who would have had Titus make a circuit
through Dassaretis, and take an easy and safe road by the district of
Lyncus. But he, fearing that if he should engage himself too far
from the sea in barren and untilled countries, and Philip should
decline fighting, he might, through want of provisions, be
constrained to march back again to the seaside without effecting
anything, as his predecessor had done before him, embraced the
resolution of forcing his way over the mountains. But Philip, having
possessed himself of them with his army, showered down his darts and
arrows from all parts upon the Romans. Sharp encounters took place,
and many fell wounded and slain on both sides, and there seemed but
little likelihood of thus ending the war; when some of the men, who
fed their cattle thereabouts, came to Titus with a discovery, that
there was a roundabout way which the enemy neglected to guard;
through which they undertook to conduct his army, and to bring it
within three days at furthest, to the top of the hills. To gain the
surer credit with him, they said that Charops, son of Machatas, a
leading man in Epirus, who was friendly to the Romans, and aided them
(though, for fear of Philip, secretly), was privy to the design.
Titus gave their information belief, and sent a captain with four
thousand foot, and three hundred horse; these herdsmen being their
guides, but kept in bonds. In the daytime they lay still under the
covert of the hollow and woody places, but in the night they marched
by moonlight, the moon being then at the full. Titus, having
detached this party, lay quiet with his main body, merely keeping up
the attention of the enemy by some slight skirmishing. But when the
day arrived, that those who stole round, were expected upon the top
of the hill, he drew up his forces early in the morning, as well the
light-armed as the heavy, and, dividing them into three parts,
himself led the van, marching his men up the narrow passage along the
bank, darted at by the Macedonians, and engaging, in this difficult
ground, hand to hand with his assailants; whilst the other two
divisions on either side of him, threw themselves with great alacrity
among the rocks. Whilst they were struggling forward, the sun rose,
and a thin smoke, like a mist, hanging on the hills, was seen rising
at a distance, unperceived by the enemy, being behind them, as they
stood on the heights; and the Romans, also, as yet under suspense, in
the toil and difficulty they were in, could only doubtfully construe
the sight according to their desires. But as it grew thicker and
thicker, blackening the air, and mounting to a greater height, they
no longer doubted but it was the fire-signal of their companions;
and, raising a triumphant shout, forcing their way onwards, they
drove the enemy back into the roughest ground; while the other party
echoed back their acclamations from the top of the mountain.

The Macedonians fled with all the speed they could make; there fell,
indeed, not more than two thousand of them; for the difficulties of
the place rescued them from pursuit. But the Romans pillaged their
camp, seized upon their money and slaves, and, becoming absolute
masters of the pass, traversed all Epirus; but with such order and
discipline, with such temperance and moderation, that, though they
were far from the sea, at a great distance from their vessels, and
stinted of their monthly allowance of corn, and though they had much
difficulty in buying, they nevertheless abstained altogether from
plundering the country, which had provisions enough of all sorts in
it. For intelligence being received that Philip making a flight,
rather than a march, through Thessaly, forced the inhabitants from
the towns to take shelter in the mountains, burnt down the towns
themselves, and gave up as spoil to his soldiers all the property
which it had been found impossible to remove, abandoning, as it would
seem, the whole country to the Romans. Titus was, therefore, very
desirous, and entreated his soldiers that they would pass through it
as if it were their own, or as if a place trusted into their hands;
and, indeed, they quickly perceived, by the event, what benefit they
derived from this moderate and orderly conduct. For they no sooner
set foot in Thessaly, but the cities opened their gates, and the
Greeks, within Thermopylae, were all eagerness and excitement to ally
themselves with them. The Achaeans abandoned their alliance with
Philip, and voted to join with the Romans in actual arms against him;
and the Opuntians, though the Aetolians, who were zealous allies of
the Romans, were willing and desirous to undertake the protection of
the city, would not listen to proposals from them; but, sending for
Titus, entrusted and committed themselves to his charge.

It is told of Pyrrhus, that when first, from an adjacent hill or
watchtower which gave him a prospect of the Roman army, he descried
them drawn up in order, he observed, that he saw nothing
barbarian-like in this barbarian line of battle. And all who came
near Titus, could not choose but say as much of him, at their first
view. For they who had been told by the Macedonians of an invader,
at the head of a barbarian army, carrying everywhere slavery and
destruction on his sword's point; when in lieu of such an one, they
met a man, in the flower of his age, of a gentle and humane aspect, a
Greek in his voice and language, and a lover of honor, were
wonderfully pleased and attracted; and when they left him, they
filled the cities, wherever they went, with favorable feelings for
him, and with the belief that in him they might find the protector
and asserter of their liberties. And when afterwards, on Philip's
professing a desire for peace, Titus made a tender to him of peace
and friendship, upon the condition that the Greeks be left to their
own laws, and that he should withdraw his garrisons, which he refused
to comply with, now after these proposals, the universal belief even
of the favorers and partisans of Philip, was, that the Romans came
not to fight against the Greeks, but for the Greeks, against the
Macedonians.

Accordingly, all the rest of Greece came to peaceable terms with him.
But as he marched into Boeotia, without committing the least act of
hostility, the nobility and chief men of Thebes came out of their
city to meet him, devoted under the influence of Brachylles to the
Macedonian alliance, but desirous at the same time to show honor and
deference to Titus; as they were, they conceived, in amity with both
parties. Titus received them in the most obliging and courteous
manner, but kept going gently on, questioning and inquiring of them,
and sometimes entertaining them with narratives of his own, till his
soldiers might a little recover from the weariness of their journey.
Thus passing on, he and the Thebans came together into their city not
much to their satisfaction; but yet they could not well deny him
entrance, as a good number of his men attended him in. Titus,
however, now he was within, as if he had not had the city at his
mercy, came forward and addressed them, urging them to join the Roman
interest. King Attalus followed to the same effect. And he, indeed,
trying to play the advocate, beyond what it seems his age could bear,
was seized, in the midst of his speech, with a sudden flux or
dizziness, and swooned away; and, not long after, was conveyed by
ship into Asia, and died there. The Boeotians joined the Roman
alliance.

But now, when Philip sent an embassy to Rome, Titus dispatched away
agents on his part, too, to solicit the senate, if they should
continue the war, to continue him in his command, or if they
determined an end to that, that he might have the honor of concluding
the peace. Having a great passion for distinction, his fear was,
that if another general were commissioned to carry on the war, the
honor even of what was passed, would be lost to him; and his friends
transacted matters so well on his behalf, that Philip was
unsuccessful in his proposals, and the management of the war was
confirmed in his hands. He no sooner received the senate's
determination, but, big with hopes, he marches directly into
Thessaly, to engage Philip; his army consisting of twenty-six
thousand men, out of which the Aetolians furnished six thousand foot
and four hundred horse. The forces of Philip were much about the
same number. In this eagerness to encounter, they advanced against
each other, till both were near Scotussa, where they resolved to
hazard a battle. Nor had the approach of these two formidable armies
the effect that might have been supposed, to strike into the generals
a mutual terror of each other; it rather inspired them with ardor and
ambition; on the Romans' part, to be the conquerors of Macedon, a
name which Alexander had made famous amongst them for strength and
valor; whilst the Macedonians, on the other hand, esteeming of the
Romans as an enemy very different from the Persians, hoped, if
victory stood on their side, to make the name of Philip more glorious
than that of Alexander. Titus, therefore, called upon his soldiers
to play the part of valiant men, because they were now to act their
parts upon the most illustrious theater of the world, Greece, and to
contend with the bravest antagonists. And Philip, on the other side,
commenced an harangue to his men, as usual before an engagement, and
to be the better heard, (whether it were merely a mischance, or the
result of unseasonable haste, not observing what he did,) mounted an
eminence outside their camp, which proved to be a burying-place; and
much disturbed by the despondency that seized his army at the
unluckiness of the omen, all that day kept in his camp, and declined
fighting.

But on the morrow, as day came on, after a soft and rainy night, the
clouds changing into a mist filled all the plain with thick darkness;
and a dense foggy air descending, by the time it was full day, from
the adjacent mountains into the ground betwixt the two camps,
concealed them from each other's view. The parties sent out on
either side, some for ambuscade, some for discovery, falling in upon
one another quickly after they were thus detached, began the fight at
what are called the Cynos Cephalae, a number of sharp tops of hills
that stand close to one another, and have the name from some
resemblance in their shape. Now many vicissitudes and changes
happening, as may well be expected, in such an uneven field of
battle, sometimes hot pursuit, and sometimes as rapid a flight, the
generals on both sides kept sending in succors from the main bodies,
as they saw their men pressed or giving ground, till at length the
heavens clearing up, let them see what was going on, upon which the
whole armies engaged. Philip, who was in the right wing, from the
advantage of the higher ground which he had, threw on the Romans the
whole weight of his phalanx, with a force which they were unable to
sustain; the dense array of spears, and the pressure of the compact
mass overpowering them. But the king's left wing being broken up by
the hilliness of the place, Titus observing it, and cherishing little
or no hopes on that side where his own gave ground, makes in all
haste to the other, and there charges in upon the Macedonians; who,
in consequence of the inequality and roughness of the ground, could
not keep their phalanx entire, nor line their ranks to any great
depth, (which is the great point of their strength,) but were forced
to fight man for man under heavy and unwieldy armor. For the
Macedonian phalanx is like some single powerful animal, irresistible
so long as it is embodied into one, and keeps its order, shield
touching shield, all as in a piece; but if it be once broken, not
only is the joint-force lost, but the individual soldiers also who
composed it; lose each one his own single strength, because of the
nature of their armor; and because each of them is strong, rather, as
he makes a part of the whole, than in himself. When these were
routed, some gave chase to the flyers, others charged the flanks of
those Macedonians who were still fighting, so that the conquering
wing, also, was quickly disordered, took to flight, and threw down
its arms. There were then slain no less than eight thousand, and
about five thousand were taken prisoners; and the Aetolians were
blamed as having been the main occasion that Philip himself got safe
off. For whilst the Romans were in pursuit, they fell to ravaging
and plundering the camp, and did it so completely, that when the
others returned, they found no booty in it.

This bred at first hard words, quarrels, and misunderstandings
betwixt them. But, afterwards, they galled Titus more, by ascribing
the victory to themselves, and prepossessing the Greeks with reports
to that effect; insomuch that poets, and people in general in the
songs that were sung or written in honor of the action, still ranked
the Aetolians foremost. One of the pieces most current was the
following epigram: --

Naked and tombless see, O passer-by,
The thirty thousand men of Thessaly,
Slain by the Aetolians and the Latin band,
That came with Titus from Italia's land:
Alas for mighty Macedon! that day,
Swift as a roe, king Philip fled away.

This was composed by Alcaeus in mockery of Philip, exaggerating the
number of the slain. However, being everywhere repeated, and by
almost everybody, Titus was more nettled at it than Philip. The
latter merely retorted upon Alcaeus with some elegiac verses of his
own: --

Naked and leafless see, O passer-by,
The cross that shall Alcaeus crucify.

But such little matters extremely fretted Titus, who was ambitious of
a reputation among the Greeks; and he, therefore, acted in all
after-occurrences by himself, paying but very slight regard to the
Aetolians. This offended them in their turn; and when Titus listened
to terms of accommodation, and admitted an embassy upon the proffers
of the Macedonian king, the Aetolians made it their business to
publish through all the cities of Greece, that this was the
conclusion of all; that he was selling Philip a peace, at a time when
it was in his hand to destroy the very roots of the war, and to
overthrow the power which had first inflicted servitude upon Greece.
But whilst with these and the like rumors, the Aetolians labored to
shake the Roman confederates, Philip, making overtures of submission
of himself and his kingdom to the discretion of Titus and the Romans,
puts an end to those jealousies, as Titus by accepting them, did to
the war. For he reinstated Philip in his kingdom of Macedon, but
made it a condition that he should quit Greece, and that he should
pay one thousand talents; he took from him also, all his shipping,
save ten vessels; and sent away Demetrius, one of his sons, hostage
to Rome; improving his opportunity to the best advantage, and taking
wise precautions for the future. For Hannibal the African, a
professed enemy to the Roman name, an exile from his own country, and
not long since arrived at king Antiochus's court, was already
stimulating that prince, not to be wanting to the good fortune that
had been hitherto so propitious to his affairs; the magnitude of his
successes having gained him the surname of the Great. He had begun
to level his aim at universal monarchy, but above all he was eager to
measure himself with the Romans. Had not, therefore, Titus upon a
principle of prudence and foresight, lent all ear to peace, and had
Antiochus found the Romans still at war in Greece with Philip, and
had these two, the most powerful and warlike princes of that age,
confederated for their common interests against the Roman state, Rome
might once more have run no less a risk, and been reduced to no less
extremities than she had experienced under Hannibal. But now, Titus
opportunely introducing this peace between the wars, dispatching the
present danger before the new one had arrived, at once disappointed
Antiochus of his first hopes, and Philip of his last.

When the ten commissioners, delegated to Titus from the senate;
advised him to restore the rest of Greece to their liberty, but that
Corinth, Chalcis, and Demetrias should be kept garrisoned for
security against Antiochus; the Aetolians, on this, breaking out into
loud accusations, agitated all the cities, calling upon Titus to
strike off the shackles of Greece, (so Philip used to term those
three cities,) and asking the Greeks, whether it were not matter of
much consolation to them, that, though their chains weighed heavier,
yet they were now smoother and better polished than formerly, and
whether Titus were not deservedly admired by them as their
benefactor, who had unshackled the feet of Greece, and tied her up by
the neck? Titus, vexed and angry at this, made it his request to the
senate, and at last prevailed in it, that the garrisons in these
cities should be dismissed, that so the Greeks might be no longer
debtors to him for a partial, but for an entire, favor. It was now
the time of the celebration of the Isthmian games; and the seats
around the racecourse were crowded with an unusual multitude of
spectators; Greece, after long wars, having regained not only peace,
but hopes of liberty, and being able once more to keep holiday in
safety. A trumpet sounded to command silence; and the crier,
stepping forth amidst the spectators, made proclamation, that the
Roman senate, and Titus Quintius, the proconsular general, having
vanquished king Philip and the Macedonians, restored the Corinthians,
Locrians, Phocians, Euboeans, Achaeans of Phthiotis, Magnetians,
Thessalians, and Perrhaebians to their own lands, laws, and
liberties; remitting all impositions upon them, and withdrawing all
garrisons from their cities. At first, many heard not at all, and
others not distinctly, what was said; but there was a confused and
uncertain stir among the assembled people, some wondering, some
asking, some calling out to have it proclaimed again. When,
therefore, fresh silence was made, the crier raising his voice,
succeeded in making himself generally heard; and recited the decree
again. A shout of joy followed it, so loud that it was heard as far
as the sea. The whole assembly rose and stood up; there was no
further thought of the entertainment; all were only eager to leap up
and salute and address their thanks to the deliverer and champion of
Greece. What we often hear alleged, in proof of the force of human
voices, was actually verified upon this occasion. Crows that were
accidentally flying over the course, fell down dead into it. The
disruption of the air must be the cause of it; for the voices being
numerous, and the acclamation violent, the air breaks with it, and
can no longer give support to the birds; but lets them tumble, like
one that should attempt to walk upon a vacuum; unless we should
rather imagine them to fall and die, shot with the noise as with a
dart. It is possible, too, that there may be a circular agitation of
the air, which, like marine whirlpools, may have a violent direction
of this sort given to it from the excess of its fluctuation.

But for Titus, the sports being now quite at an end, so beset was he
on every side, and by such multitudes, that had he not, foreseeing
the probable throng and concourse of the people, timely withdrawn, he
would scarce, it is thought, have ever got clear of them. When they
had tired themselves with acclamations all about his pavilion, and
night was now come, wherever friends or fellow-citizens met, they
joyfully saluted and embraced each other, and went home to feast and
carouse together. And there, no doubt, redoubling their joy, they
began to recollect and talk of the state of Greece, what wars she had
incurred in defense of her liberty, and yet was never perhaps
mistress of a more settled or grateful one that this which other
men's labors had won for her: almost without one drop of blood, or
one citizen's loss to be mourned for, she had this day had put into
her hands the most glorious of rewards, and best worth the contending
for. Courage and wisdom are, indeed, rarities amongst men, but of
all that is good, a just man it would seem is the most scarce. Such
as Agesilaus, Lysander, Nicias, and Alcibiades, knew how to play the
general's part, how to manage a war, how to bring off their men
victorious by land and sea; but how to employ that success to
generous and honest purposes, they had not known. For should a man
except the achievement at Marathon, the sea-fight at Salamis, the
engagements at Plataea and Thermopylae, Cimon's exploits at
Eurymedon, and on the coasts of Cyprus, Greece fought all her battles
against, and to enslave, herself; she erected all her trophies to her
own shame and misery, and was brought to ruin and desolation almost
wholly by the guilt and ambition of her great men. A foreign people,
appearing just to retain some embers, as it were, some faint
remainders of a common character derived to them from their ancient
sires, a nation from whom it was a mere wonder that Greece should
reap any benefit by word or thought, these are they who have
retrieved Greece from her severest dangers and distresses, have
rescued her out of the hands of insulting lords and tyrants, and
reinstated her in her former liberties.

Thus they entertained their tongues and thoughts; whilst Titus by his
actions made good what had been proclaimed. For he immediately
dispatched away Lentulus to Asia, to set the Bargylians free,
Titillius to Thrace, to see the garrisons of Philip removed out of
the towns and islands there, while Publius Villius set sail, in order
to treat with Antiochus about the freedom of the Greeks under him.
Titus himself passed on to Chalcis, and sailing thence to Magnesia,
dismantled the garrisons there, and surrendered the government into
the people's hands. Shortly after, he was appointed at Argos to
preside in the Nemean games, and did his part in the management of
that solemnity singularly well; and made a second publication there
by the crier, of liberty to the Greeks; and, visiting all the cities,
he exhorted them to the practice of obedience to law, of constant
justice, and unity, and friendship one towards another. He
suppressed their factions, brought home their political exiles; and,
in short, his conquest over the Macedonians did not seem to give him
a more lively pleasure, than to find himself prevalent in reconciling
Greeks with Greeks; so that their liberty seemed now the least part
of the kindness he conferred upon them.

The story goes, that when Lycurgus the orator had rescued Xenocrates
the philosopher from the collectors who were hurrying him away to
prison for non-payment of the alien tax, and had them punished for
the license they had been guilty of, Xenocrates afterwards meeting
the children of Lycurgus, "My sons," said he, "I am nobly repaying
your father for his kindness; he has the praises of the whole people
in return for it."  But the returns which attended Titus Quintius and
the Romans, for their beneficence to the Greeks, terminated not in
empty praises only; for these proceedings gained them, deservedly,
credit and confidence, and thereby power, among all nations, for many
not only admitted the Roman commanders, but even sent and entreated
to be under their protection; neither was this done by popular
governments alone, or by single cities; but kings oppressed by kings,
cast themselves into these protecting hands. Insomuch that in a very
short time (though perchance not without divine influence in it) all
the world did homage to them. Titus himself thought more highly of
his liberation of Greece than of any other of his actions, as appears
by the inscription with which he dedicated some silver targets,
together with his own shield, to Apollo at Delphi: --

Ye Spartan Tyndarids, twin sons of Jove,
Who in swift horsemanship have placed your love,
Titus, of great Aeneas' race, leaves this
In honor of the liberty of Greece.

He offered also to Apollo a golden crown, with this inscription: --

This golden crown upon thy locks divine,
O blest Latona's son, was set to shine
By the great captain of the Aenean name.
O Phoebus, grant the noble Titus fame!

The same event has twice occurred to the Greeks in the city of
Corinth. Titus, then, and Nero again in our days, both at Corinth,
and both alike at the celebration of the Isthmian games, permitted
the Greeks to enjoy their own laws and liberty. The former (as has
been said) proclaimed it by the crier; but Nero did it in the public
meeting place from the tribunal, in a speech which he himself made to
the people. This, however, was long after.

Titus now engaged in a most gallant and just war upon Nabis, that
most profligate and lawless tyrant of the Lacedaemonians, but in the
end disappointed the expectations of the Greeks. For when he had an
opportunity of taking him, he purposely let it slip, and struck up a
peace with him, leaving Sparta to bewail an unworthy slavery; whether
it were that he feared, if the war should be protracted, Rome would
send a new general who might rob him of the glory of it; or that
emulation and envy of Philopoemen (who had signalized himself among
the Greeks upon all other occasions, but in that war especially had
done wonders both for matter of courage and counsel, and whom the
Achaeans magnified in their theaters, and put into the same balance
of glory with Titus,) touched him to the quick; and that he scorned
that an ordinary Arcadian, who had but commanded in a few re-
encounters upon the confines of his native district, should be spoken
of in terms of equality with a Roman consul, waging war as the
protector of Greece in general. But, besides, Titus was not without
an apology too for what he did, namely, that he put an end to the war
only when he foresaw that the tyrant's destruction must have been
attended with the ruin of the other Spartans.

The Achaeans, by various decrees, did much to show Titus honor: none
of these returns, however, seemed to come up to the height of the
actions that merited them, unless it were one present they made him,
which affected and pleased him beyond all the rest; which was this.
The Romans, who in the war with Hannibal had the misfortune to be
taken captives, were sold about here and there, and dispersed into
slavery; twelve hundred in number were at that time in Greece. The
reverse of their fortune always rendered them objects of
compassion; but more particularly, as well might be, when they now
met, some with their sons, some with their brothers, others with
their acquaintance; slaves with their free, and captives with their
victorious countrymen. Titus, though deeply concerned on their
behalf, yet took none of them from their masters by constraint. But
the Achaeans, redeeming them at five pounds a man, brought them
altogether into one place, and made a present of them to him, as he
was just going on shipboard, so that he now sailed away with the
fullest satisfaction; his generous actions having procured him as
generous returns, worthy a brave man and a lover of his country.
This seemed the most glorious part of all his succeeding triumph; for
these redeemed Romans (as it is the custom for slaves, upon their
manumission, to shave their heads and wear felt-hats) followed in
that habit in the procession. To add to the glory of this show,
there were the Grecian helmets, the Macedonian targets and long
spears, borne with the rest of the spoils in public view, besides
vast sums of money; Tuditanus says, 3,713 pounds weight of massy
gold, 43,270 of silver, 14,514 pieces of coined gold, called
Philippics, which was all over and above the thousand talents which
Philip owed, and which the Romans were afterwards prevailed upon,
chiefly by the mediation of Titus, to remit to Philip, declaring him
their ally and confederate, and sending him home his hostage son.

Shortly after, Antiochus entered Greece with a numerous fleet, and a
powerful army, soliciting the cities there to sedition and revolt;
abetted in all and seconded by the Aetolians, who for this long time
had borne a grudge and secret enmity to the Romans, and now suggested
to him, by way of a cause and pretext of war, that he came to bring
the Greeks liberty. When, indeed, they never wanted it less, as they
were free already, but, in lack of really honorable grounds, he was
instructed to employ these lofty professions. The Romans, in the
interim, in great apprehension of revolutions and revolt in Greece,
and of his great reputation for military strength, dispatched the
consul Manius Acilius to take the charge of the war, and Titus, as
his lieutenant, out of regard to the Greeks; some of whom he no
sooner saw, but he confirmed them in the Roman interests; others, who
began to falter, like a timely physician, by the use of the strong
remedy of their own affection for himself, he was able to arrest in
the first stage of the disease, before they had committed themselves
to any great error. Some few there were whom the Aetolians were
beforehand with, and had so wholly perverted that he could do no good
with them; yet these, however angry and exasperated before, he saved
and protected when the engagement was over. For Antiochus, receiving
a defeat at Thermopylae, not only fled the field, but hoisted sail
instantly for Asia. Manius, the consul, himself invaded and besieged
a part of the Aetolians, while king Philip had permission to reduce
the rest. Thus while, for instance, the Dolopes and Magnetians on
the one hand, the Athamanes and Aperantians on the other, were
ransacked by the Macedonians, and while Manius laid Heraclea waste,
and besieged Naupactus, then in the Aetolians' hands, Titus, still
with a compassionate care for Greece, sailed across from Peloponnesus
to the consul; and began first of all to chide him, that the victory
should be owing alone to his arms, and yet he should suffer Philip to
bear away the prize and profit of the war, and sit wreaking his anger
upon a single town, whilst the Macedonians overran several nations
and kingdoms. But as he happened to stand then in view of the
besieged, they no sooner spied him out, but they call to him from
their wall, they stretch forth their hands, they supplicate and
entreat him. At the time, he said not a word more, but turning about
with tears in his eyes, went his way. Some little while after, he
discussed the matter so effectually with Manius, that he won him over
from his passion, and prevailed with him to give a truce and time to
the Aetolians, to send deputies to Rome to petition the senate for
terms of moderation.

But the hardest task, and that which put Titus to the greatest
difficulty was, to entreat with Manius for the Chalcidians, who had
incensed him on account of a marriage which Antiochus had made in
their city, even whilst the war was on foot; a match noways suitable
in point of age, he an elderly man being enamored with a mere girl;
and as little proper for the time, in the midst of a war. She was
the daughter of one Cleoptolemus, and is said to have been
wonderfully beautiful. The Chalcidians, in consequence, embraced the
king's interests with zeal and alacrity, and let him make their city
the basis of his operations during the war. Thither, therefore, he
made with all speed, when he was routed, and fled; and reaching
Chalcis, without making any stay, taking this young lady, and his
money and friends with him, away he sails to Asia. And now Manius's
indignation carrying him in all haste against the Chalcidians, Titus
hurried after him, endeavoring to pacify and to entreat him; and, at
length, succeeded both with him and the chief men among the Romans.

The Chalcidians, thus owing their lives to Titus, dedicated to him
all the best and most magnificent of their sacred buildings,
inscriptions upon which may be seen to run thus to this day: THE
PEOPLE DEDICATE THIS GYMNASIUM TO TITUS AND TO HERCULES; so again:
THE PEOPLE CONSECRATE THE DELPHINIUM TO TITUS AND TO HERCULES; and
what is yet more, even in our time, a priest of Titus was formally
elected and declared; and after sacrifice and libation, they sing a
set song, much of which for the length of it we omit, but shall
transcribe the closing verses: --

The Roman Faith, whose aid of yore,
Our vows were offered to implore,
We worship now and evermore.
To Rome, to Titus, and to Jove,
O maidens, in the dances move.
Dances and Io-Paeans too
Unto the Roman Faith are due,
O Savior Titus, and to you.

Other parts of Greece also heaped honors upon him suitable to his
merits, and what made all those honors true and real, was the
surprising good-will and affection which his moderation and equity of
character had won for him. For if he were at any time at variance
with anybody in matters of business, or out of emulation and rivalry,
(as with Philopoemen, and again with Diophanes, when in office as
General of the Achaeans,) his resentment never went far, nor did it
ever break out into acts; but when it had vented itself in some
citizen-like freedom of speech, there was an end of it. In fine,
nobody charged malice or bitterness upon his nature, though many
imputed hastiness and levity to it; in general, he was the most
attractive and agreeable of companions, and could speak too, both
with grace, and forcibly. For instance, to divert the Achaeans from
the conquest of the isle of Zacynthus, "If," said he, "they put their
head too far out of Peloponnesus, they may hazard themselves as much
as a tortoise out of its shell."  Again, when he and Philip first met
to treat of a cessation and peace, the latter complaining that Titus
came with a mighty train, while he himself came alone and unattended,
"Yes," replied Titus, "you have left yourself alone by killing your
friends."  At another time, Dinocrates the Messenian, having drunk
too much at a merry-meeting in Rome, danced there in woman's clothes,
and the next day addressed himself to Titus for assistance in his
design to get Messene out of the hands of the Achaeans. "This,"
replied Titus, "will be matter for consideration; my only surprise is
that a man with such purposes on his hands should be able to dance
and sing at drinking parties."  When, again, the ambassadors of
Antiochus were recounting to those of Achaea, the various multitudes
composing their royal master's forces, and ran over a long catalog of
hard names, "I supped once," said Titus, "with a friend, and could
not forbear expostulating with him at the number of dishes he had
provided, and said I wondered where he had furnished himself with
such a variety; 'Sir,' replied he, 'to confess the truth, it is all
hog's flesh differently cooked.'  And so, men of Achaea, when you are
told of Antiochus's lancers, and pikemen, and foot guards, I advise
you not to be surprised; since in fact they are all Syrians
differently armed."

After his achievements in Greece, and when the war with Antiochus was
at an end, Titus was created censor; the most eminent office, and, in
a manner, the highest preferment in the commonwealth. The son of
Marcellus, who had been five times consul, was his colleague. These,
by virtue of their office, cashiered four senators of no great
distinction, and admitted to the roll of citizens all freeborn
residents. But this was more by constraint than their own choice;
for Terentius Culeo, then tribune of the people, to spite the
nobility, spurred on the populace to order it to be done. At this
time, the two greatest and most eminent persons in the city,
Africanus Scipio and Marcus Cato, were at variance. Titus named
Scipio first member of the senate;  and involved himself in a
quarrel with Cato, on the following unhappy occasion. Titus had a
brother, Lucius Flamininus, very unlike him in all points of
character, and, in particular, low and dissolute in his pleasures,
and flagrantly regardless of all decency. He kept as a companion a
boy whom he used to carry about with him, not only when he had troops
under his charge, but even when the care of a province was committed
to him. One day at a drinking-bout, when the youngster was wantoning
with Lucius, "I love you, Sir, so dearly," said he, "that, preferring
your satisfaction to my own, I came away without seeing the
gladiators, though I have never seen a man killed in my life."
Lucius, delighted with what the boy said, answered, "Let not that
trouble you; I can satisfy that longing," and with that, orders a
condemned man to be fetched out of the prison, and the executioner to
be sent for, and commands him to strike off the man's head, before
they rose from table. Valerius Antias only so far varies the story
as to make it woman for whom he did it. But Livy says that in Cato's
own speech the statement is, that a Gaulish deserter coming with his
wife and children to the door, Lucius took him into the
banqueting-room, and killed him with his own hand, to gratify his
paramour. Cato, it is probable, might say this by way of aggravation
of the crime; but that the slain was no such fugitive, but a
prisoner, and one condemned to die, not to mention other authorities,
Cicero tells us in his treatise On Old Age, where he brings in Cato,
himself, giving that account of the matter.

However, this is certain; Cato during his censorship, made a severe
scrutiny into the senators' lives in order to the purging and
reforming the house, and expelled Lucius, though he had been once
consul before, and though the punishment seemed to reflect dishonor
on his brother also. Both of them presented themselves to the
assembly of the people in a suppliant manner, not without tears in
their eyes, requesting that Cato might show the reason and cause of
his fixing such a stain upon so honorable a family. The citizens
thought it a modest and moderate request. Cato, however, without any
retraction or reserve, at once came forward, and standing up with his
colleague interrogated Titus, as to whether he knew the story of the
supper. Titus answering in the negative, Cato related it, and
challenged Lucius to a formal denial of it. Lucius made no reply,
whereupon the people adjudged the disgrace just a