Vol 12: The Classics

thc12

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Vol 12: The Classics

PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

OF THEMISTOCLES 

PKKICLES • ARISTIDES 

ALCIHIADES AND CORIOLANUS 

DEMOSTHENES AND CICERO 

CESAR AND ANTONY 

IN THE TRANSLATION CALLED DRYDEN'S 

CORRECTED AND REVISED BY 

ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH 

WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES 
VOLUME 12 




P F COLLIER ST SON 
NEW YORK 



Copyright, igog 
By p. F. Collier & Son 



Designed, Printed, and Bound at 

^^Tfje Collier ^ttii, ^tto gorfe 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Themistocles 5 

Pericles 36 

Aristides 80 

Alcibiades no 

coriolanus 152 

Comparison of Alcibiades with Coriolanus .... 192 

Demosthenes 197 

Cicero 225 

Comparison of Demosthenes and Cicero 269 

CvESAR 274 

Antony - • , 334 



A— HC XII 



Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
in 2009 



littp://www.arcliive.org/details/liarvardclassics12elio 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

Plutarch, the great biographer of antiquity, had not the for- 
tune himself to find a biographer. For the facts of his life we 
are dependent wholly upon the fragmentary information that he 
scattered casually throughout his writings. From these we 
learn that he was born in the small Boeotian town of Charoncia 
in Greece, between 46 and 51 A. D., of a family of good standing 
and long residence there; that he married a certain Timoxena, 
to whom he wrote a tender letter of consolation on the death of 
their daughter; and that he had four sons, to two of whom he 
dedicated one of his philosophical treatises. He began the study 
of philosophy at Athens, travelled to Alexandria and in various 
parts of Italy, and sojourned for a considerable period in Rome ; 
but he seems to have continued to regard Chceroncia as his home, 
and here he did a large part of his writing and took his share in 
public service. As a lecturer and teacher of philosophy he 
achieved considerable repute, and the nature of his doctrine may 
he gathered from the treatises in which the substance of many 
of the lectures has been preserved. His death is placed between 
120 and 130 A. D. 

The ruling passion of Plutarch's life was ethical. His miscel- 
laneous ziritjngs are known collectively as his "Morals," and 
though they deal zvith a great variety of themes, the prevailing 
interest is so strongly centred on conduct that the title is not 
unsuitable. Many of the subjects of his biographies, even, are 
treated as models of virtue or warnings against vice, and as a 
rule he was more concern-ed about portraying character than 
about the intricacies of political history. 

The "Parallel Lives of Famous Greeks and Romans" have their 
name from the author's plan of setting side by side a Greek 
statesman, soldier, or orator, and a Roman of eminence in the 
same field, in order to gain illumination from the comparison; 
and in this way he covered almost the whole history of Greece 
and Rome from legendary times to his own day. He cojlecled 
his facts with care and at the expense of great labor, and for 
many periods he is the chief, sometimes the only, source of in- 
formation now accessible. In general, the Greek lives are more 
learned than the Roman, partly, no doubt, because of the greater 

3 



4 INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

difficulty of getting information as to Roman affairs when he was 
writing in Greece, partly because, as he tells us, his mastery of 
Latin was incomplete. 

The biographical as distinct from the historical purpose ivas 
entirely deliberate. "It must be borne in mind," he says in his life 
of Alexander the Great, "that my design is not to write histories 
hut lives. And the most glorious exploits do not always furnish 
us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men; some- 
times a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs 
Us better of their characters and inclinations, than the most fa- 
mous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles what- 
soever. Therefore, as portrait-painters are more exact in the 
lines and features of the face, in which the character is seen, than 
in the other parts of the body, so I must be allowed to give my 
more particular attention to the marks and indications of the souls 
of men, and while I endeavor by these to portray their lives, may 
be free to leave more weighty matters and great battles to be 
treated of by others." Most of the critical comment passed upon 
the "Lives" is but an elaboration of these statements of their 
author. The proportions and the significance of political events 
were often hidden from him, but in his portraiture of men he 
has laid the world under a perpetual debt. 

The influence of these Lives it is almost impossible to exag- 
gerate. All classes of people have taken delight in them, from 
kings to shepherds, and it is safe to say that the influence has 
always been wholesome. Not only do they 'supply a mass of in- 
formation, vividly and picturesquely presented, regarding the 
leading personalities of some of the greatest periods of the world's 
history, but they offer in concrete and inspiring form the ideals 
of human character in the antique world incarnated in a series 
of great heroic figures. Of few books can it be said with such 
assurance that they will remain a permanent possession of the 
race. 

The present translation is that made originally by a group of 
scholars in the end of the seventeenth century and published with 
a life of Plutarch by Dryden. This, usually called the Drydcn 
translation, was revised in 1859 by Arthur Hugh Clough, who 
corrected it by the standards of modern scholarship, so that it 
took the place which it still occupies as the best version in English 
for the purposes of the general reader. 



THEMISTOCLES 



THE birth of Themistocles was somewhat too obscure 
to do him honor. His father, Neocles, was not of the 
distinguished people of Athens, but of the township 
of Phrearrhi, and of the tribe Leontis; and by his mother's 
side, as it is reported, he was base-born. 

I am not of the noble Grecian race, 

I'm poor Abrotonon, and born in Thrace ; 

Let the Greek women scorn me, if they please, 

I was the mother of Themistocles. 

Yet Phanias writes that the mother of Themistocles was not 
of Thrace, but of Caria, and that her name was not Abro- 
tonon, but Euterpe ; and Neanthes adds farther that she was 
of Halicarnassus in Caria. And, as illegitimate children, 
including those that were of the half-blood or had but one 
parent an Athenian, had to attend at the Cynosarges (a 
wrestling-place outside the gates, dedicated to Hercules, who 
was also of half-blood amongst the gods, having had a mortal 
woman for his mother), Themistocles persuaded several of 
the young men of high birth to accompany him to anoint and 
exercise themselves together at Cynosarges; an ingenious 
device for destroying the distinction between the noble and 
the base-born, and between those of the whole and those of 
the half-blood of Athens. However, it is certain that he 
was related to the house of the Lycomedae; for Simonides 
records, that he rebuilt the chapel of Phlya, belonging to 
that family, and beautified it with pictures and other orna- 
ments, after it had been burnt by the Persians. 

It is confessed by all that from his youth he was of a 
vehement and impetuous nature, of a quick apprehension, 
and a strong and aspiring bent for action and great affairs. 
The holidays and intervals in his studies he did not spend 

5 



6 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

In play or idleness, as other children, but would be always 
inventing or arranging some oration or declamation to him- 
self, the subject of which was generally the excusing or 
accusing his companions, so that his master would often say 
to him, "You, my boy, will be nothing small, but great one 
way or other, for good or else for bad." He received reluc- 
tantly and carelessly instructions given him to improve his 
manners and behavior, or to teach him any pleasing or grace- 
ful accomplishment, but whatever was said to improve him 
in sagacity, or in management of affairs, he would give atten- 
tion to, beyond one of his years, from confidence in his natural 
capacities for such things. And thus afterwards, when in 
company where people engaged themselves in what are com- 
monly thought the liberal and elegant amusements, he was 
obliged to defend himself against the observations of those 
who considered themselves highly accomplished, by the some- 
what arrogant retort, that he certainly could not make use 
of any stringed instrument, could only, were a small and 
obscure city put into his hands, make it great and glorious. 
Notwithstanding this, Stesimbrotus says that Themistocles 
was a hearer of Anaxagoras, and that he studied natural 
philosophy under Melissus, contrary to chronology; for Me- 
lissus commanded the Samians in their siege by Pericles, 
who was much Themistocles's junior; and with Pericles, also, 
Anaxagoras was intimate. They, therefore, might rather be 
credited, who report, that Themistocles was an admirer of 
Mnesiphilus the Phrearrhian, who was neither rhetorician 
nor natural philosopher, but a professor of that which was 
then called wisdom, consisting in a sort of political shrewd- 
ness and practical sagacity, which had begun and continued, 
almost like a sect of philosophy, from Solon; but those who 
came afterwards, and mixed it with pleadings and legal 
artifices, and transformed the practical part of it into a mere 
art of speaking and an exercise of words, were generally 
called sophists. Themistocles resorted to Mnesiphilus when 
he had already embarked in politics. 

In the first essays of his youth he was not regular nor 
happily balanced; he allowed himself to follow mere natural 
character, which, without the control of reason and instruc- 
tion, is apt to hurry, upon either side, into sudden and violent 



THEMISTOCLES 7 

courses, and very often to break away and determine upon 
the worst; as he afterwards owned himself, saying, that the 
wildest colts make the best horses, if they only get properly 
trained and broken in. But those who upon this fasten 
stories of their own invention, as of his being disowned by 
his father, and that his mother died for grief of her son's 
ill fame, certainly calumniate him; and there are others who 
relate, on the contrary, how that to deter him from public 
business, and to let him see how the vulgar behave them- 
selves towards their leaders when they have at last no 
farther use of them, his father showed him the old galleys 
as they lay forsaken and cast about upon the sea-shore. 

Yet it is evident that his mind was early imbued with 
the keenest interest in public affairs, and the most passionate 
ambition for distinction. Eager from the first to obtain the 
highest place, he unhesitatingly accepted the hatred of the 
most powerful and influential leaders in the city, but more 
especially of Aristides, the son of Lysimachus, who always 
opposed him. And yet all this great enmity between them 
arose, it appears, from a very boyish occasion, both being 
attached to the beautiful Stesilaus of Ceos, as Ariston the 
philosopher tells us; ever after which, they took opposite 
sides, and were rivals in politics. Not but that the incom- 
patibility of their lives and manners may seem to have in- 
creased the difference, for Aristides was of a mild nature, 
and of a nobler sort of character, and, in public matters, 
acting always with a view, not to glory or popularity, but 
to the best interests of the state consistently with safety and 
honesty, he was often forced to oppose Themistocles, and 
interfere against the increase of his influence, seeing him 
stirring up the people to all kinds of enterprises, and intro- 
ducing various innovations. For it is said that Themistocles 
was so transported with the thoughts of glory, and so in- 
flamed with the passion for great actions, that, though he 
was still young when the battle of Marathon was fought 
against the Persians, upon the skilful conduct of the general, 
Miltiades, being everywhere talked about, he was observed 
to be thoughtful, and reserved, alone by himself; he passed 
the nights without sleep, and avoided all his usual places 
of recreation, and to those who wondered at the change, 



8 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

and inquired the reason of it, he gave the answer, that "the 
trophy of Miltiades would not let him sleep." And when 
others were of opinion that the battle of Marathon would 
be an end to the war, Themistocles thought that it was but 
the beginning of far greater conflicts, and for these, to the 
benefit of all Greece, he kept himself in continual readiness, 
and his city also in proper training, foreseeing from far 
before what would happen. 

And, first of all, the Athenians being accustomed to divide 
amongst themselves the revenue proceeding from the silver 
mines at Laurium, he was the only man that durst propose 
to the people that this distribution should cease, and that 
with the money ships should be built to make war against 
the ^ginetans, who were the most flourishing people in all 
Greece, and by the number of their ships held the sovereignty 
of the sea ; and Themistocles thus was more easily able to 
persuade them, avoiding all mention of danger from Darius 
or the Persians who were at a great distance, and their 
coming very uncertain, and at that time not much to be 
feared ; but, by a seasonable employment of the emulation and 
anger felt by the Athenians against the ^ginetans, he induced 
them to preparation. So that with this money an hundred ships 
were built, with which they afterwards fought against Xerxes. 
And, henceforward, little by little, turning and drawing the 
city down towards the sea, in the belief, that, whereas by land 
they were not a fit match for their next neighbors, with their 
ships they might be able to repel the Persians and command 
Greece, thus, as Plato says, from steady soldiers he turned 
them into mariners and seamen tossed about the sea, and 
gave occasion for the reproach against him, that he took 
away from the Athenians the spear and the shield, and 
bound them to the bench and the oar. These measures he 
carried in the assembly, against the opposition, as Stesim- 
brotus relates, of Miltiades; and whether or no he hereby 
injured the purity and true balance of government, may be 
a question for philosophers, but that the deliverance of 
Greece came at that time from the sea, and that these gal- 
leys restored Athens again after it was destroyed, were 
others wanting, Xerxes himself would be sufficient evidence, 
who, though his land-forces were still entire, after his defeat 



THEMTSTOCLES 9 

at sea, fled away, and thought himself no longer able to 
encounter the Greeks ; and, as it seems to me, left Mardonius 
behind him, not out of any hopes he could have to bring 
them into subjection, but to hinder them from pursuing him. 

Themistocles is said to have been eager in the acquisition 
of riches, according to some, that he might be the more 
liberal ; for loving to sacrifice often, and to be splendid in 
his entertainment of strangers, he required a plentiful reve- 
nue ; yet he is accused by others of having been parsimonious 
and sordid to that degree that he would sell provisions which 
were sent to him as a present. He desired Diphilides, who 
was a breeder of horses, to give him a colt, and when he 
refused it, threatened that in a short time he would turn 
his house into a wooden^ horse, intimating that he would 
stir up dispute and litigation between him and some of his 
relations. 

He went beyond all men in the passion for distinction. 
When he was still young and unknown in the world, he 
entreated Epicles of Hermione, who had a good hand at the 
lute and was much sought after by the Athenians, to come 
and practise at home with him^ being ambitious of having 
people inquire after his house and frequent his company. 
When he came to the Olympic games, and was so splendid 
in his equipage and entertainments, in his rich tents and 
furniture, that he strove to outdo Cimon, he displeased the 
Greeks, who thought that such magnificence might be al- 
lowed in one who was a young man and of a great family 
but was a great piece of insolence in one as yet undistin- 
guished, and without title or means for making any such 
display. In a dramatic contest, the play he paid for won 
the prize, which was then a matter that excited much emula- 
tion; he put up a tablet in record of it, with the inscription, 
"Themistocles of Phrearrhi was at the charge of it ; Phryni- 
chus made it ; Adimantus was archon." He was well liked 
by the common people, would salute every particular citizen 
by his own name, and always show himself a just judge in 
questions of business between private men; he said to Simoni- 
des, the poet of Ceos, who desired something of him, when 
he was commander of the army, that was not reasonable, 

'Full of people ready for fighting, like the Trojan horse. 



10 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

"Simonides, you would be no good poet if you wrote false 
measure, nor should I be a good magistrate if for favor I 
made false law." And at another time, laughing at Simoni- 
des, he said, that he was a man of little judgment to 
speak against the Corinthians, who were inhabitants of a 
great city, and to have his own picture drawn so often, 
having so ill-looking a face. 

Gradually growing to be great, and winning the favor 
of the people, he at last gained the day with his faction 
over that of Aristides, and procured his banishment by 
ostracism. When the king of Persia was now advancing 
against Greece, and the Athenians were in consultation who 
should be general, and many withdrew themselves of their 
own accord, being terrified with the greatness of the danger, 
there was one Epicydes, a popular speaker, son to Euphe- 
mides, a man of an eloquent tongue, but of a faint heart, and 
a slave to riches, who was desirous of the command, and 
was looked upon to be in a fair way to carry it by the 
number of votes; but Themistocles, fearing that, if the 
command should fall into such hands, all would be lost, 
bought off Epicydes and his pretensions, it is said, for a sum 
of money. 

When the king of Persia sent messengers into Greece, 
with an interpreter, to demand earth and water, as an 
acknowledgment of subjection, Themistocles, by the consent 
of the people, seized upon the interpreter, and put him to 
death, for presuming to publish the barbarian orders and 
decrees in the Greek language; this is one of the actions 
he is commended for, as also for what he did to Arthmius of 
Zelea, who brought gold from the king of Persia to corrupt 
the Greeks, and was, by an order from Themistocles, de- 
graded and disfranchised, he and his children and his pos- 
terity; but that which most of all redounded to his credit 
was, that he put an end to all the civil wars of Greece, com- 
posed their differences, and persuaded them to lay aside all 
enmity during the war with the Persians ; and in this great 
work, Chileus the Arcadian was, it is said, of great assist- 
ance to him. 

Having taken upon himself the command of the Athenian 
I forces, he immediately endeavored to persuade the citizens 



THEMISTOCLES 11 

to leave the city, and to embark upon their galleys, and 
meet with the Persians at a great distance from Greece; 
but many being against this, he led a large force, together 
with the Lacedaemonians, into Tempe, that in this pass they 
might maintain the safety of Thessaly, which had not as yet 
declared for the king; but when they returned without per- 
forming any thing, and it was known that not only the 
Thessalians, but all as far as Bceotia, were going over to 
Xerxes, then the Athenians more willingly hearkened to 
the advice of Themistocles to fight by sea, and sent him with 
a fleet to guard the straits of Artemisium. 

When the contingents met here, the Greeks would have 
the Lacedaemonians to command, and Eurybiades to be their 
admiral; but the Athenians, who surpassed all the rest to- 
gether in number of vessels, would not submit to come after 
any other, till Themistocles, perceiving the danger of this 
contest, yielded his own command to Eurybiades, and got 
the Athenians to submit, extenuating the loss by persuading 
them, that if in this war they behaved themselves like men, 
he would answer for it after that, that the Greeks, of their 
own will, would submit to their command. And by this 
moderation of his, it is evic'ent that he was the chief means 
of the deliverance of Greece, and gained the Athenians the 
glory of alike surpassing their enemies in valor, and their 
confederates in wisdom. 

As soon as the Persian armada arrived at Aphetae, Eurybi- 
ades was astonished to see such a vast number of vessels 
before him, and, being infonned that two hundred more 
were sailing round behind the island of Sciathus, he immedi- 
ately determined to retire farther into Greece, and to sail 
back into some part of Peloponnesus, where their land army 
and their fleet might join, for he looked upon the Persian 
forces to be altogether unassailable by sea. But the Euboeans, 
fearing that the Greeks would forsake them, and leave them 
to the mercy of the enemy, sent Pelagon to confer privately 
with Themistocles, taking with him a good sum of money, 
which, as Herodotus reports, he accepted and gave to Eurybi- 
ades. In this afifair none of his own countrymen opposed 
him so much as Architeles, captain of the sacred galley, 
who, having no money to supply his seamen, was eager to 



12 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

go home ; but Themistocles so incensed the Athenians against 
him, that they set upon him and left him not so much as 
his supper, at which Architeles was much surprised, and 
took it very ill; but Themistocles immediately sent him in a 
chest a service of provisions, and at the bottom of it a talent 
of silver, desiring him to sup to-night, and to-morrow pro- 
vide for his seamen; if not, he would report it amongst 
the Athenians that he had received money from the enemy. 
So Phanias the Lesbian tells the story. 

Though the fights between the Greeks and Persians in 
the straits of Euboea were not so important as to make any 
final decision of the war, yet the experience which the 
Greeks obtained in them was of great advantage; for thus, 
by actual trial and in real danger, they found out, that 
neither number of ships, nor riches and ornaments, nor 
boasting shouts, nor barbarous songs of victory, were any 
way terrible to men that knew how to fight, and were re- 
solved to come hand to hand with their enemies ; these things 
they were to despise, and to come up close and grapple with 
their foes. This, Pindar appears to have seen, and says 
justly enough of the fight at Artemisium, that 

There the sons of Athens set 

The stone that freedom stands on yet. 

For the first step towards victory undoubtedly is to gain 
courage. Artemisium is in Eubcea, beyond the city of His- 
tissa, a sea-beach open to the north ; most nearly opposite to 
it stands Olizon, in the country which formerly was under 
Philoctetes ; there is a small temple there, dedicated to Diana, 
surnamed of the Dawn, and trees about it, around which 
again stand pillars of white marble; and if you rub them 
with your hand, they send forth both the smell and color 
of saffron. On one of the pillars these verses are engraved, — 

With numerous tribes from Asia's regions brought 
The sons of Athens on these waters fought; 
Erecting, after they had quelled the Mede, 
To Artemis this record of the deed. 

There is a place still to be seen upon this shore, where, in 
the middle of a great heap of sand, they take out from the 



THEMISTOCLES 13 

bottom a dark powder like ashes, or something that has 
passed the fire; and here, it is supposed, the shipwrecks and 
bodies of the dead were burnt. 

But when news came from Thermopylae to Artemisium, 
informing them that king Leonidas was slain, and that 
Xerxes had made himself master of all the passages by land, 
they returned back to the interior of Greece, the Athenians 
having the command of the rear, the place of honor and 
danger, and much elated by what had been done. 

As Themistocles sailed along the coast, he took notice 
of the harbors and fit places for the enemies' ships to come 
to land at, and engraved large letters in such stones as he 
found there by chance, as also in others which he set up on 
purpose near to the landing-places, or where they were to 
water; in which inscriptions he called upon the lonians to 
forsake the Medes, if it were possible, and come over to 
the Greeks, who were their proper founders and fathers, 
and were now hazarding all for their liberties ; but, if this 
could not be done, at any rate to impede and disturb the 
Persians in all engagements. He hoped that these writings 
would prevail with the lonians to revolt, or raise some 
trouble by making their fidelity doubtful to the Persians. 

Now, though Xerxes had already passed through Doris 
and invaded the country of Phocis, and was burning and 
destroying the cities of the Phocians, yet the Greeks sent 
them no relief; and, though the Athenians earnestly desired 
them to meet the Persians in Boeotia, before they could 
come into Attica, as they themselves had come forward by 
sea at Artemisium, they gave no ear to their request, being 
wholly intent upon Peloponnesus, and resolved to gather all 
their forces together within the Isthmus, and to build a wall 
from sea to sea in that narrow neck of land; so that the 
Athenians were enraged to see themselves betrayed, and 
at the same time afflicted and dejected at their own destitu- 
tion. For to fight alone against such a numerous army was 
to no purpose, and the only expedient now left them was 
to leave their city and cling to their ships ; which the people 
were very unwilling to submit to, imagining that it would 
signify little now to gain a victory, and not understanding 
how there could be deliverance any longer after they had 



14 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

once forsaken the temples of their gods and exposed the 
tombs and monuments of their ancestors to the fury of their 
enemies. 

Themistocles, being at a loss, and not able to draw the 
people over to his opinion by any human reason, set his 
machines to work, as in a theatre, and employed prodigies 
and oracles. The serpent of Minerva, kept in the inner part 
of her temple, disappeared; the priests gave it out to the 
people that the offerings which were set for it were found 
untouched, and declared, by the suggestion of Themistocles, 
that the goddess had left the city, and taken her flight before 
them towards the sea. And he often urged them with the 
oracle^ which bade them trust to walls of wood, showing 
them that walls of wood could signify nothing else but ships ; 
and that the island of Salamis was termed in it, not miser- 
able or unhappy, but had the epithet of divine, for that it 
should one day be associated with a great good fortune of 
the Greeks. At length his opinion prevailed, and he obtained 
a decree that the city should be committed to the protection 
of Minerva, "queen of Athens;" that they who were of 
age to bear arms should embark, and that each should see 
to sending away his children, women, and slaves where he 
could. This decree being confirmed, most of the Athenians 
removed their parents, wives, and children to Trcezen, where 
they were received with eager good-will by the Troezenians, 
who passed a vote that they should be maintained at the 
public charge, by a daily payment of two obols to every 
one, and leave be given to the children to gather fruit where 
they pleased, and schoolmasters paid to instruct them. This 
vote was proposed by Nicagoras. 

There was no public treasure at that time in Athens; 
but the council of Areopagus, as Aristotle says, distributed 
to every one that served, eight drachmas, which was a great 
help to the manning of the fleet; but Clidemus ascribes this 

2" While all things else are taken," said the oracle, "within the boundary 
of Cecrops and the covert of divine Cithaeron, Zeus grants to Athena that 
the vifall of wood alone shall remain uncaptured; that shall help thee and 
thy children. Stay not for horsemen and an host of men on foot, coming 
from the mainland; retire turning thy back; one day yet thou shalt show 
thy face. O divine Salamis, but thou shalt slay children of women, either 
at the scattering of D'emeter or at the gathering." 



THEMISTOCLES IS 

also to the art of Themistocles. When the Athenians were 
on their way down to the haven of Piraeus, the shield with 
the head of Medusa was missing; and he, under the pre- 
text of searching for it, ransacked all places, and found 
among their goods considerable sums of money concealed, 
which he applied to the public use ; and with this the sol- 
diers and seamen were well provided for their voyage. 

When the whole city of Athens were going on board, it 
afforded a spectacle worthy of pity alike and admiration, to 
see them thus send away their fathers and children before 
them, and, unmoved with their cries and tears, pass over into 
the island. But that which stirred compassion most of all 
was, that many old men, by reason of their great age, were 
left behind ; and even the tame domestic animals could not 
be seen without some pity, running about the town and 
howling, as desirous to be carried along with their masters 
that had kept them ; among which it is reported that Xanthip- 
pus, the father of Pericles, had a dog that would not endure 
to stay behind, but leaped into the sea, and swam along by 
the galley's side till he came to the island of Salamis, where 
he fainted away and died, and that spot in the island, which 
is still called the Dog's Grave, is said to be his. 

Among the great actions of Themistocles at this crisis, 
the recall of Aristides was not the least, for, before the 
war, he had been ostracized by the party which Themistocles 
headed, and was in banishment; but now, perceiving that 
the people regretted his absence, and were fearful that he 
might go over to the Persians to revenge himself, and thereby 
ruin the affairs of Greece, Themistocles proposed a decree 
that those who were banished for a time might return again, 
to give assistance by word and deed to the cause of Greece 
with the rest of their fellow-citizens. 

Eurybiades, by reason of the greatness of Sparta, was 
admiral of the Greek fleet, but yet was faint-hearted in time 
of danger, and willing to weigh anchor and set sail for the 
isthmus of Corinth, near which the land army lay encamped; 
which Themistocles resisted ; and this was the occasion of 
the well-known words, when Eurybiades, to check his im- 
patience, told him that at the Olympic games they that start 
up before the rest are lashed; "And they," replied Themis- 



16 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

tocles, "that are left behind are not crowned." Again, Eurybi- 
ades lifting up his staff as if he were going to strike, 
Themistocles said, "Strike if you will, but hear;" Eurybiades, 
wondering much at his moderation, desired him to speak,' 
and Themistocles now brought him to a better understand- 
ing. And when one who stood by him told him that it did 
not become those who had neither city nor house to lose, 
to persuade others to relinquish their habitations and for- 
sake their countries, Themistocles gave this reply: "We 
have indeed left our houses and our walls, base fellow, not 
thinking it fit to become slaves for the sake of things that 
have no life nor soul; and yet our city is the greatest of 
all Greece, consisting of two hundred galleys, which are 
here to defend you, if you please ; but if you run away and 
betray us, as you did once before, the Greeks shall soon 
hear news of the Athenians possessing as fair a country, 
and as large and free a city, as that they have lost." These 
expressions of Themistocles made Eurybiades suspect that 
if he retreated the Athenians would fall off from him. When 
one of Eretria began to oppose him, he said, "Have you 
any thing to say of war, that are like an ink-fish? you have 
a sword, but no heart."^ Some say that while Themistocles 
was thus speaking things upon the deck, an owl was seen fly- 
ing to the right hand of the fleet, which came and sate upon 
the top of the mast ; and this happy omen so far disposed the 
Greeks to follow his advice, that they presently prepared to 
fight. Yet, when the enemy's fleet was arrived at the haven 
of Phalerum, upon the coast of Attica, and with the number 
of their ships concealed all the shore^ and when they saw 
the king himself in person come down with his land army 
to the sea-side, with all his forces united, then the good 
counsel of Themistocles was soon forgotten, and the Pelopon- 
nesians cast their eyes again towards the isthmus, and took 
it very ill if any one spoke against their returning home; 
and, resolving to depart that night, the pilots had order 
what course to steer. 

Themistocles, in great distress that the Greeks should 
retire, and lose the advantage of the narrow seas and strait 

'The Teuthis, loligo, or cuttlefish, is said to have a bone or cartilage 
shaped like a sword, and was conceived to have no heart. 



THEMISTOCLES 17 

passage, and slip home every one to his own city, considered 
•vith himself, and contrived that stratagem that was carried 
out by Sicinnus. This Sicinnus was a Persian captive, but 
a great lover of Themistocles, and the attendant of his 
children. Upon this occasion, he sent him privately to 
Xerxes, commanding him to tell the king, that Themistocles, 
the admiral of the Athenians, having espoused his interest, 
wished to be the first to inform him that the Greeks were 
ready to make their escape, and that he counselled him to 
hinder their flight, to set upon them while they were in this 
confusion and at a distance from their land army, and 
hereby destroy all their forces by sea. Xerxes was very joy- 
ful at this message, and received it as from one who wished 
him all that was good, and immediately issued instructions 
to the commanders of his ships, that they should instantly 
set out with two hundred galleys to encompass all the islands, 
and enclose all the straits and passages, that none of the 
Greeks might escape, and that they should afterwards follow 
with the rest of their fleet at leisure. This being done, 
Aristides, the son of Lysimachus, was the first man that 
perceived it, and went to the tent of Themistocles, not out 
of any friendship, for he had been formerly banished by 
his means, as has been related, but to inform him how 
they were encompassed by their enemies. Themistocles, 
knowing the generosity of Aristides, and much struck by 
his visit at that time, imparted to him all that he had trans- 
acted by Sicinnus, and entreated him, that, as he would be 
more readily believed among the Greeks, he would make 
use of his credit to help to induce them to stay and fight 
their enemies in the narrow seas. Artistides applauded 
Themistocles, and went to the other commanders and cap- 
tains of the galleys, and encouraged them to engage; yet 
they did not perfectly assent to him, till a galley of Tenos, 
which deserted from the Persians, of which Panaetius was 
commander, came in, while they were still doubting, and con- 
firmed the news that all the straits and passages were beset; 
and then their rage and fury, as well as their necessity, 
provoked them all to fight. 

As soon as it was day, Xerxes placed himself high up, 
to view his fleet, and how it was set in order. Phanodemus 



IS PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

says, he sat upon a promontory above the temple of Her- 
cules, where the coast of Attica is separated from the island 
by a narrow channel; but Acestodorus writes, that it was 
in the confines of Megara, upon those hills which are called 
the Horns, where he sat in a chair of gold, with many secre- 
taries about him to write down all that was done. 

When Themistocles was about to sacrifice, close to the 
admiral's galley, there were three prisoners brought to him, 
fine looking men, and richly dressed in ornamented clothing 
and gold, said to be the children of Artayctes and Sandauce, 
sister to Xerxes. As soon as the prophet Euphrantides saw 
them, and observed that at the same time the fire blazed out 
from the offerings with a more than ordinary flame, and 
that a man sneezed on the right, which was an intimation 
of a fortunate event, he took Themistocles by the hand, and 
bade him consecrate the three young men for sacrifice, and 
offer them up with prayers for victory to Bacchus the De- 
vourer: so should the Greeks not only save themselves, but 
also obtain victory. Themistocles was much disturbed at 
this strange and terrible prophecy, but the common people, 
who, in any difficult crisis and great exigency, ever look 
for relief rather to strange and extravagant than to reason- 
able means, calling upon Bacchus with one voice, led the 
captives to the altar, and compelled the execution of the 
sacrifice as the prophet had commanded. This is reported 
by Phanias the Lesbian, a philosopher well read in history. 

The number of the enemy's ships the poet ^schylus gives 
in his tragedy called the Persians, as on his certain knowl- 
edge, in the following words — 

Xerxes, I know, did into battle lead 

One thousand ships ; of more than usual speed 

Seven and two hundred. So is it agreed. 

The Athenians had a hundred and eighty; in every ship 
eighteen men fought upon the deck, four of whom were 
archers and the rest men-at-arms. 

As Themistocles had fixed upon the most advantageous 
place, so, with no less sagacity, he chose the best time of 
fighting; for he would not run the prows of his galleys 
against the Persians, nor begin the fight till the time of day 



THEMISTOCLES 19 

was come, when there regularly blows in a fresh breeze from 
the open sea, and brings in with it a strong swell into the 
channel ; which was no inconvenience to the Greek ships, 
which were low-built, and little above the water, but did 
much hurt to the Persians, which had high sterns and lofty- 
decks, and were heavy and cumbrous in their movements, 
as it presented them broadside to the quick charges of the 
Greeks, who kept their eyes upon the motions of Themis- 
tocles, as their best example, and more particularly because, 
opposed to his ship, Ariamenes, admiral to Xerxes, a brave 
man, and by far the best and worthiest of the king's brothers, 
was seen throwing darts and shooting arrows from his huge 
galley, as from the walls of a castle. Aminias the Decelean 
and Sosicles the Pedian, who sailed in the same vessel, upon 
the ships meeting stem to stem, and transfixing each the 
other with their brazen prows, so that they were fastened 
together, when Ariamenes attempted to board theirs, ran at 
him with their pikes, and thrust him into the sea; his body, 
as it floated amongst other shipwrecks, was known to Arte- 
misia, and carried to Xerxes. 

It is reported, that, in the middle of the fight, a great 
flame rose into the air above the city of Eleusis, and that 
sounds and voices were heard through all the Thriasian 
plain, as far as the sea, sounding like a number of men ac- 
companying and escorting the mystic lacchus, and that a 
mist seemed to form and rise from the place from whence 
the sounds came, and, passing forward, fell upon the galleys. 
Others believed that they saw apparitions, in the shape of 
armed men, reaching out their hands from the island of 
^gina before the Grecian galleys; and supposed they were 
the .^acidae, whom they had invoked to their aid before the 
battle. The first man that took a ship was Lycomedes the 
Athenian, captain of a galley, who cut down its ensign, and 
dedicated it to Apollo the Laurel-crowned. And as the 
Persians fought in a narrow arm of the sea, and could 
bring but part of their fleet to fight, and fell foul of one 
another, the Greeks thus equalled them in strength, and 
fought with them till the evening, forced them back, and 
obtained, as says Simonides, that noble and famous victory, 
than which neither amongst the Greeks nor barbarians was 



20 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

ever known more glorious exploit on the seas; by the joint 
valor, indeed, and zeal of all who fought, but by the wisdom 
and sagacity of Themistocles. 

After this sea-fight, Xerxes, enraged at his ill-fortune, 
attempted, by casting great heaps of earth and stones into 
the sea, to stop up the channel and to make a dam. upon 
which he might lead his land-forces over into the island of 
Salamis. 

Themistocles, being desirous to try the opinion of Aristides, 
told him that he proposed to set sail for the Hellespont, to 
break the bridge of ships, so as to shut up, he said, Asia a 
prisoner within Europe; but Aristides, disliking the design, 
said, "We have hitherto fought with an enemy who has re- 
garded little else but his pleasure and luxury; but if we 
shut him up within Greece, and drive him to necessity, he 
that is master of such great forces will no longer sit quietly 
with an umbrella of gold over his head, looking upon the 
fight for his pleasure; but in such a strait will attempt all 
things ; he will be resolute, and appear himself in person upon 
all occasions, he will soon correct his errors, and supply what 
he has formerly omitted through remissness, and will be 
better advised in all things. Therefore, it is noways our 
interest, Themistocles," he said, "to take away the bridge 
that is already made, but rather to build another, if it were 
possible, that he might make his retreat with the more expe- 
dition." To which Themistocles answered, "If this be requi- 
site, we must immediately use all diligence, art, and industry, 
to rid ourselves of him as soon as may be;" and to this 
purpose he found out among the captives one of the king 
of Persia's eunuchs, named Arnaces, whom he sent to the 
king, to inform him that the Greeks, being now victorious 
by sea, had decreed to sail to the Hellespont, where the boats 
were fastened together, and destroy the bridge; but that 
Themistocles, being concerned for the king, revealed this to 
him, that he might hasten towards the Asiatic seas, and pass 
over into his own dominions; and in the mean time would 
cause delays, and hinder the confederates from pursuing him. 
Xerxes no sooner heard this, but, being very much terrified, 
he proceeded to retreat out of Greece with all speed. The 
prudence of Themistocles and Aristides in this was after- 



THEMISTOCLES 21 

wards more fully understood at the battle of Plataea, where 
Mardonius, with a very small fraction of the forces of 
Xerxes, put the Greeks in danger of losing all. 

Herodotus writes, that, of all the cities of Greece, ^gina 
was held to have performed the best service in the war; 
while all single men yielded to Themistocles, though, out 
of envy, unwillingly; and when they returned to the en- 
trance of Peloponnesus, where the several commanders de- 
livered their suffrages at the altar, to determine who was 
most worthy, every one gave the first vote for himself and 
the second for Themistocles. The Lacedaemonians carried 
him with them to Sparta, where, giving the rewards of 
valor to Eurybiades, and of wisdom and conduct to Themis- 
tocles, they crowned him with olive, presented him with the 
best chariot in the city, and sent three hundred young men 
to accompany him to the confines of their country. And at 
the next Olympic games, when Themistocles entered the 
course, the spectators took no farther notice of those who 
were contesting the prizes, but spent the whole day in look- 
ing upon him, showing him to the strangers, admiring him, 
and applauding him by clapping their hands, and other ex- 
pressions of joy, so that he himself, much gratified, con- 
fessed to his friends that he then reaped the fruit of all his 
labors for the Greeks. 

He was, indeed, by nature, a great lover of honor, as is 
evident from the anecdotes recorded of him. When chosen 
admiral by the Athenians, he would not quite conclude any 
single matter of business, either public or private, but de- 
ferred all till the day they were to set sail, that, by despatch- 
ing a great quantity of business all at once, and having to 
meet a great variety of people, he might make an appear- 
ance of greatness and power. Viewing the dead bodies cast 
up by the sea, he perceived bracelets and necklaces of gold 
about them, yet passed on, only showing them to a friend 
that followed him, saying, "Take you these things, for you 
are not Themistocles." He said to Antiphates, a handsome 
young man, who had formerly avoided, but now in his glory 
courted him, "Time, young man, has taught us both a lesson." 
He said that the Athenians did not honor him or admire him, 
but made, as it were, a sort of plane-tree of him; sheltered 



22 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

themselves under him in bad weather, and, as soon as it was 
fine, plucked his leaves and cut his branches. When the 
Seriphian told him that he had not obtained this honor by 
himself, but by the greatness of his city, he replied, "You 
speak truth; I should never have been famous if I had been 
of Seriphus; nor you, had you been of Athens." When an- 
other of the generals, who thought he had performed con- 
siderable service for the Athenians, boastingly compared his 
actions with those of Themistocles, he told him that once 
upon a time the Day after the Festival found fault with the 
Festival: "On you there is nothing but hurry and trouble 
and preparation, but, when I come, everybody sits down 
quietly and enjoys himself;" which the Festival admitted 
was true, but "if I had not come first, you would not have 
come at all." "Even so," he said, "if Themistocles had not 
come before, where had you been now?" Laughing at his 
own son, who got his mother, and, by his mother's means, 
his father also, to indulge him, he told him that he had the 
most power of any one in Greece : "For the Athenians com- 
mand the rest of Greece, I command the Athenians, your 
mother commands me, and you command your mother." 
Loving to be singular in all things, when he had land to sell, 
he ordered the crier to give notice that there were good 
neighbors near it. Of two who made love to his daughter, 
he preferred the man of worth to the one who was rich, 
saying he desired a man without riches^ rather than riches 
without a man. Such was the character of his sayings. 

After these things, he began to rebuild and fortify the city 
of Athens, bribing, as Theopompus reports, the Lacedaemonian 
ephors not to be against it, but, as most relate it, overreach- 
ing and deceiving them. For, under pretext of an embassy, 
he went to Sparta, where, upon the Lacedaemonians charging 
him with rebuilding the walls, and Poliarchus coming on pur- 
pose from ^gina to denounce it, he denied the fact, bidding 
them to send people to Athens to see whether it was so or 
no ; by which delay he got time for the building of the wall, 
and also placed these ambassadors in the hands of his coun- 
trymen as hostages for him ; and so, when the Lacedaemonians 
knew the truth, they did him no hurt, but, suppressing all 
display of their anger for the present, sent him away. 



THEMISTOCLES 23 

Next he proceeded to establish the harbor of Piraeus, ob- 
serving the great natural advantages of the locality and de- 
sirous to unite the whole city with the sea, and to reverse, 
in a manner, the policy of ancient Athenian kings, who, 
endeavoring to withdraw their subjects from the sea, and to 
accustom them to live, not by sailing about, but by planting 
and tilling the earth, spread the story of the dispute between 
Minerva and Neptune for the sovereignty of Athens, in which 
Minerva, by producing to the judges an olive tree, was de- 
clared to have won ; whereas Themistocles did not only knead 
up, as Aristophanes says, the port and the city into one, 
but made the city absolutely the dependant and the adjunct 
of the port, and the land of the sea, which increased the 
power and confidence of the people against nobility ; the 
authority coming into the hands of sailors and boatstvains 
and pilots. Thus it was one of the orders of the thirty 
tyrants, that the hustings in the assembly, which had faced 
towards the sea, should be turned round towards the land; 
implying their opinion that the empire by sea had been the 
origin of the democracy, and that the farming population 
were not so much opposed to oligarchy. 

Themistocles, however, formed yet higher designs with 
a view to naval supremacy. For, after the departure of 
Xerxes, when the Grecian fleet was arrived at Pagasse, where 
they wintered, Themistocles, in a public oration to the people 
of Athens, told them that he had a design to perform some- 
thing that would tend greatly to their interests and safety, 
but was of such a nature, that it could not be made generally 
public. The Athenians ordered him to impart it to Aristides 
only; and, if he approved of it, to put it in practice. And 
when Themistocles had discovered to him that his design 
was to burn the Grecian fleet in the haven of Pagasae, Aris- 
tides, coming out to the people, gave this report of the 
stratagem contrived by Themistocles, that no proposal could 
be more politic, or more dishonorable ; on which the Athe- 
nians commanded Themistocles to think no farther of it. 

When the Lacedaemonians proposed, at the general council 
of the Amphictyonians, that the representatives of those 
cities which were not in the league, nor had fought against 
the Persians, should be excluded, Themistocles, fearing that. 



24 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

the Thessalians, with those of Thebes, Argos, and others, 
being thrown out of the council, the Lacedaemonians would 
become wholly masters of the votes, and do what they 
pleased, supported the deputies of the cities, and prevailed 
with the members then sitting to alter their opinion in this 
point, showing them that there were but one and thirty 
cities which had partaken in the war, and that most of these, 
also, were very small; how intolerable would it be, if the 
rest of Greece should be excluded, and the general council 
should come to be ruled by two or three great cities. By 
this, chiefly, he incurred the displeasure of the Lacedaemo- 
nians, whose honors and favors were now shown to Cimon, 
with a view to making him the opponent of the state policy 
of Themistocles. 

He was also burdensome to the confederates, sailing about 
the islands and collecting money from them. Herodotus 
says, that, requiring money of those of the island of Andros, 
he told them that he had brought with him two goddesses. 
Persuasion and Force; and they answered him that they 
had also two great goddesses, which prohibited them from 
giving him any money, Poverty and Impossibility. Timo- 
creon, the Rhodian poet, reprehends him somewhat bitterly 
for being wrought upon by money to let some who were ban- 
ished return, while abandoning himself, who was his guest 
and friend. The verses are these: — 



Pausanias you may praise, and Xanthippus he be for, 

For Leutychidas, a third ; Aristides, I proclaim. 

From the sacred Athens came, 

The one true man of all ; for Themistocles Latona doth abhor, 

The liar, traitor, cheat, who, to gain his filthy pay, 
Timocreon, his friend, neglected to restore 
To his native Rhodian shore ; 

Three silver talents took, and departed (curses with him) on his 
way, 

Restoring people here, expelling there, and killing here. 
Filling evermore his purse : and at the Isthmus gave a treat. 
To be laughed at, of cold meat. 

Which they ate, and prayed the gods some one else might give the 
feast another year. 



THEMISTOCLES 25 

But after the sentence and banishment of Themistocles, 
Timocreon reviles him yet more immoderately and wildly in 
a poem which begins thus : — 

Unto all the Greeks repair 

O Muse, and tell these verses there, 

As is fitting and is fair. 

The story is, that it was put to the question whether 
Timocreon should be banished for siding with the Persians, 
and Themistocles gave his vote against him. So when The- 
mistocles was accused of intriguing with the Medes, Timo- 
creon made these lines upon him : — 

So now Timocreon, indeed, is not the sole friend of the Mede, 
There are some knaves besides ; nor is it only mine that fails. 
But other foxes have lost tails. — 

When the citizens of Athens began to listen willingly to 
those who traduced and reproached him, he was forced, with 
somewhat obnoxious frequency, to put them in mind of the 
great services he had performed, and ask those who were 
offended with him whether they were weary with receiving 
benefits often from the same person, so rendering himself 
more odious. And he yet more provoked the people by 
building a temple to Diana with the epithet of Aristobule, or 
Diana of Best Counsel ; intimating thereby, that he had given 
the best counsel, not only to the Athenians, but to all Greece. 
He built this temple near his own house, in the district called 
Melite, where now the public officers carry out the bodies 
of such as are executed, and throw the halters and clothes of 
those that are strangled or otherwise put to death. There 
is to this day a small figure of Themistocles in the temple of 
Diana of Best Counsel, which represents him to be a person, 
not only of a noble mind, but also of a most heroic aspect. 
At length the Athenians banished him, making use of the 
ostracism to humble his eminence and authority, as they ordi- 
narily did with all whom they thought too powerful, or, by 
their greatness, disproportionable to the equality thought 
requisite in a popular government. For the ostracism was 
instituted, not so much to punish the offender, as to mitigate 
and pacify the violence of the envious, who delighted to 



26 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

humble eminent men, and who, by fixing this disgrace upon 
them, might vent some part of their rancor. 

Themistocles being banished from Athens, while he stayed 
at Argos the detection of Pausanias happened, which gave 
such advantage to his enemies, that Leobotes of Agraule, son 
of Alcmseon, indicted him of treason, the Spartans support- 
ing him in the accusation. 

When Pausanias went about this treasonable design, he 
concealed it at first from Themistocles, though he were his 
intimate friend; but when he saw him expelled out of the 
commonwealth, and how impatiently he took his banishment, 
he ventured to communicate it to him, and desired his as- 
sistance, showing him the king of Persia's letters, and exas- 
perating him against the Greeks, as a villainous, ungrateful 
people. However, Themistocles immediately rejected the 
proposals of Pausanias, and wholly refused to be a party in 
the enterprise, though he never revealed his communications, 
nor disclosed the conspiracy to any man, either hoping that 
Pausanias would desist from his intentions, or expecting that 
so inconsiderate an attempt after such chimerical objects 
would be discovered by other means. 

After that Pausanias was put to death, letters and writings 
being found concerning this matter, which rendered Themis- 
tocles suspected, the Lacedaemonians were clamorous against 
him, and his enemies among the Athenians accused him; 
when, being absent from Athens, he made his defence by 
letters, especially against the points that had been previously 
alleged against him. In answer to the malicious detractions 
of his enemies, he merely wrote to the citizens, urging that 
he who was always ambitious to govern, and not of a char- 
acter or a disposition to serve, would never sell himself and 
his country into slavery to a barbarous and hostile nation. 

Notwithstanding this, the people, being persuaded by his 
accusers, sent officers to take him and bring him away to be 
tried before a council of the Greeks, but, having timely 
notice of it, he passed over into the island of Corcyra, where 
the state was under obligations to him; for, being chosen as 
arbitrator in a difference between them and the Corinthians, 
he decided the controversy by ordering the Corinthians to 
pay down twenty talents, and declaring the town and island 



THEMISTOCLES 27 

of Leucas a joint colony from both cities. From thence he 
fled into Epirus, and, the Athenians and Lacedaemonians still 
pursuing him, he threw himself upon chances of safety that 
seemed all but desperate. For he fled for refuge to Admetus, 
king of the Molossians, who had formerly made some re- 
quest to the Athenians, when Themistocles was in the height 
of his authority, and had been disdainfully used and insulted 
by him, and had let it appear plain enough, that, could he 
lay hold of him, he would take his revenge. Yet in this mis- 
fortune, Themistocles, fearing the recent hatred of his neigh- 
bors and fellow-citizens more than the old displeasure of the 
king, put himself at his mercy, and became an humble sup- 
pliant to Admetus, after a peculiar manner, different from 
the custom of other countries. For taking the king's son, 
who was then a child, in his arms, he laid himself down at 
his hearth, this being the most sacred and only manner of 
supplication, among the Molossians, which was not to be re- 
fused. And some say that his wife, Phthia, intimated to 
Themistocles this way of petitioning, and placed her young 
son with him before the hearth; others, that king Admetus, 
that he might be under a religious obligation not to deliver 
him up to his pursuers, prepared and enacted with him a sort 
of stage-play to this effect. At this time, Epicrates of 
Acharnae privately conveyed his wife and children out of 
Athens, and sent them hither, for which afterwards Cimon 
condemned him and put him to death as Stesimbrotus re- 
ports, and yet somehow, either forgetting this himself, or 
making Themistocles to be little mindful of it, says presently 
that he sailed into Sicily, and desired in marriage the daugh- 
ter of Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, promising to bring the 
Greeks under his power; and, on Hiero refusing him, de- 
parted thence into Asia; but this is not probable. 

For Theophrastus writes, in his work on Monarchy, that 
when Hiero sent race-horses to the Olympian games, and 
erected a pavilion sumptuously furnished, Themistocles made 
an oration to the Greeks, inciting them to pull down the 
tyrant's tent, and not to sufifer his horses to run. Thucydides 
says, that, passing over land to the JEgxan Sea, he took ship 
at Pydna in the bay of Therme, not being known to any 
one in the ship, till, being terrified to see the vessel driven 



28 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

by the winds near to Naxos, which was then besieged by 
the Athenians, he made himself known to the master and 
pilot, and, partly entreating them, partly threatening that if 
they went on shore he would accuse them, and make the 
Athenians to believe that they did not take him in out of 
ignorance, but that he had corrupted them with money from 
the beginning, he compelled them to bear off and stand out 
to sea, and sail forward towards the coast of Asia. 

A great part of his estate was privately conveyed away 
by his friends, and sent after him by sea into Asia; besides 
which, there was discovered and confiscated to the value of 
fourscore talents, as Theophrastus writes; Theopompus sayS 
an hundred; though Themistocles was never worth three 
talents before he was concerned in public affairs. 

When he arrived at Cyme, and understood that all along 
the coast there were many laid wait for him, and particularly 
Ergoteles and Pythodorus (for the game was worth the 
hunting for such as were thankful to make money by any 
means, the king of Persia having offered by public proclama- 
tion two hundred talents to him that should take him), he 
fled to ^gse, a small city of the .Eolians, where no one knew 
him but only his host Nicogenes, who was the richest man in 
.i^olia, and well known to the great men of Inner Asia. 
While Themistocles lay hid for some days in his house, one 
night, after a sacrifice and supper ensuing, Olbius, the at- 
tendant upon Nicogenes's children, fell into a sort of frenzy 
and fit of inspiration, and cried out in verse, — 

Night shall speak, and night instruct thee, 
By the voice of night conduct thee. 

After this, Themistocles, going to bed, dreamed that he saw 
a snake coil itself up upon his belly, and so creep to his neck; 
then, as soon as it touched his face, it turned into an eagle, 
which spread its wings over him, and took him up and flew 
away with him a great distance; then there appeared a her- 
ald's golden wand, and upon this at last it set him down 
se:urely, after infinite terror and disturbance. 

His departure was effected by Nicogenes by the following 
artifice; the barbarous nations, and amongst them the Per- 
sians especially, are extremely jealous, severe, and suspicious 



THEMISTOCLES 29 

about their women, not only their wives, but also their bought 
slaves and concubines, whom they keep so strictly that no 
one ever sees them abroad; they spend their lives shut up 
within doors, and, when they take a journey, are carried in 
close tents, curtained in on all sides, and set upon a wagon. 
Such a travelling carriage being prepared for Themistocles, 
they hid him in it, and carried him on his journey, and told 
those whom they met or spoke with upon the road that they 
were conveying a young Greek woman out of Ionia to a 
nobleman at court. 

Thucydides and Charon of Lampsacus say that Xerxes 
was dead, and that Themistocles had an interview with his 
son; but Ephorus, Dinon, Clitarchus, Heraclides, and many 
others, write that he came to Xerxes. The chronological 
tables better agree with the account of Thucydides, and yet 
neither can their statements be said to be quite set at rest. 

When Themistocles was come to the critical point, he ap- 
plied himself first to Artabanus, commander of a thousand 
men, telling him that he was a Greek, and desired to speak 
with the king about important affairs concerning which the 
king was extremely solicitous. Artabanus answered him, 
"O stranger, the laws of men are different, and one thing is 
honorable to one man, and to others another; but it is hon- 
orable for all to honor and observe their own laws. It is the 
habit of the Greeks, we are told, to honor, above all things, 
liberty and equality; but amongst our many excellent laws, 
we account this the most excellent, to honor the king, and 
to worship him, as the image of the great preserver of the 
universe; if, then, you shall consent to our laws, and fall 
down before the king and worship him, you may both see 
him and speak to him; but if your mind be otherwise, you 
must make use of others to intercede for you, for it is not 
the national custom here for the king to give audience to 
any one that doth not fall down before him." Themistocles, 
hearing this, replied, "Artabanus, I that come hither to in- 
crease the power and glory of the king, will not only submit 
myself to his laws, since so it hath pleased the god who 
exalteth the Persian empire to this greatness, but will also 
cause many more to be worshippers and adorers of the king. 
Let not this, therefore, be an impediment why I should not 



90 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

communicate to the king what I have to impart." Artabanus 
asking him, "Who must we tell him that you are? for your 
words signify you to be no ordinary person," Themistocles 
answered, "No man, O Artabanus, must be informed of this 
before the king himself." Thus Phanias relates; to which 
Eratosthenes, in his treatise on Riches, adds, that it was 
by the means of a woman of Eretria, who was kept by 
Artabanus, that he obtained this audience and interview 
with him. 

When he was introduced to the king, and had paid his 
reverence to him, he stood silent, till the king commanding 
the interpreter to ask him who he was, he replied, "O king, 
I am Themistocles the Athenian, driven into banishment by 
the Greeks. The evils that I have done to the Persians are 
numerous; but my benefits to them yet greater, in withhold- 
ing the Greeks from pursuit, so soon as the deliverance of 
my own country allowed me to show kindness also to you. 
I come with a mind suited to my present calamities; pre- 
pared alike for favors and for anger; to welcome your 
gracious reconciliation, and to deprecate your wrath. Take 
my own countrymen for witnesses of the services I have 
done for Persia, and make use of this occasion to show the 
world your virtue, rather than to satisfy your indignation. 
If you save me, you will save your suppliant; if otherwise, 
will destroy an enemy of the Greeks." He talked also of 
divine admonition, such as the vision which he saw at Nico- 
genes's house, and the direction given him by the oracle of 
Dodona, where Jupiter commanded him to go to him that 
had a name like his, by which he understood that he was sent 
from Jupiter to him, seeing that they both were great, and 
had the name of kings. 

The king heard him attentively, and, though he ad- 
mired his temper and courage, gave him no answer at that 
time; but, when he was with his intimate friends, rejoiced 
in his great good fortune, and esteemed himself very happy 
in this, and prayed to his god Arimanius, that all his enemies 
might be ever of the same mind with the Greeks, to abuse 
and expel the bravest men amongst them. Then he sacri- 
ficed to the gods, and presently fell to drinking, and was so 
well pleased, that in the night, in the middle of his sleep, he 



THEMISTOCLES 31 

cried out for joy three times, "I have Themistocles the 
Athenian." 

In the morning, calling together the chief of his court, 
he had Themistocles brought before him, who expected no 
good of it, when he saw, for example, the guards fiercely set 
against him as soon as they learnt his name, and giving him 
ill language. As he came forward towards the king, who 
was seated, the rest keeping silence, passing by Roxanes, a 
commander of a thousand men, he heard him, with a slight 
groan, say, without stirring out of his place, "You subtle 
Greek serpent, the king's good genius hath brought thee 
hither." Yet, when he came into the presence, and again fell 
down, the king saluted him, and spake to him kindly, telling 
him he was now indebted, to him two hundred talents ; for it 
was just and reasonable that he should receive the reward 
which was proposed to whosoever should bring Themistocles; 
and promising much more, and encouraging him, he com- 
manded him to speak freely what he would concerning the 
affairs of Greece. Themistocles replied, that a man's dis- 
course was like to a rich Persian carpet, the beautiful figures 
and patterns of which can only be shown by spreading and 
extending it out; when it is contracted and folded up, they 
are obscured and lost; and, therefore, he desired time. The 
king being pleased with the comparison, and bidding him 
take what time he would, he desired a year; in which time, 
having learnt the Persian language sufficiently, he spoke 
with the king by himself without the help of an interpreter, 
it being supposed that he discoursed only about the affairs of 
Greece; but there happening, at the same time, great altera- 
tions at court, and removals of the king's favorites, he drew 
upon himself the envy of the great people, who imagined 
that he had taken the boldness to speak concerning them. 
For the favors shown to other strangers were nothing in 
comparison with the honors conferred on him; the king in- 
vited him to partake of his own pastimes and recreations 
both at home and abroad, carrying him with him a-hunting, 
and made him his intimate so far that he permitted him to 
see the queen-mother, and converse frequently with her. By 
the king's command, he also was made acquainted with the 
Magian learning. 



32 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

When Demaratus the Lacedaemonian, being ordered by 
the king to ask whatsoever he pleased, and it should imme- 
diately be granted him, desired that he might make his public 
entrance, and be carried in state through the city of Sardia 
with the tiara set in the royal manner upon his head, Mithro- 
paustes, cousin to the king, touched him on the head, and 
'told him that he had no brains for the royal tiara to cover, 
and if Jupiter should give him his lightning and thunder, ht 
would not any the more be Jupiter for that; the king also 
repulsed him with anger, resolving never to be reconciled to 
him, but to be inexorable to all supplications on his behalf. 
Yet Themistocles pacified him, and prevailed with him to 
forgive him. And it is reported, that the succeeding kings, 
in whose reigns there was a greater communication between 
the Greeks and Persians, when they invited any considerable 
Greek into their service, to encourage him, would write, and 
promise him that he should be as great with them as The- 
mistocles had been. They relate, also, how Themistocles, 
when he was in great prosperity, and courted by many, seeing 
himself splendidly served at his table, turned to his children 
and said, "Children, we had been undone if we had not been 
undone." Most writers say that he had three cities given 
him, Magnesia, Myus, and Lampsacus, to maintain him in 
bread, meat, and wine. Neanthes of Cyzicus, and Phanias, 
add two more, the city of Palsescepsis, to provide him with 
clothes, and Percote, with bedding and furniture for his 
house. 

As he was going down towards the sea-coast to take 
measures against Greece, a Persian whose name was Epixyes, 
governor of the upper Phrygia, laid wait to kill him, having 
for that purpose provided a long time before a number of 
Pisidians, who were to set upon him when he should stop to 
rest at a city that is called Lion's-head. But Themistocles, 
sleeping in the middle of the day, saw the Mother of the 
gods appear to him in a dream and say unto him, "Themis- 
tocles, keep back from the Lion's-head, for fear you fall into 
the lion's jaws; for this advice I expect that your daughter 
Mnesiptolema should be my servant." Themistocles was 
much astonished, and, when he had made his vows to the 
goddess, left the broad road, and, making a circuit, went 

A — HC XII 



THEMISTOCLES 33 

another way, changing his intended station to avoid that 
place, and at night took up his rest in the fields. But one of 
the sumpter-horses, which carried the furniture for his tent, 
having fallen that day into the river, his servants spread 
out the tapestry, which was wet, and hung it up to dry ; in 
the meantime the Pisidians made towards them with their 
swords drawn, and, not discerning exactly by the moon what 
it was that was stretched out, thought it to be the tent of 
Themistocles, and that they should find him resting himself 
within it but when they came near, and lifted up the hang- 
ings, those who watched there fell upon them and took them. 
Themistocles, having escaped this great danger, in admira- 
tion of the goodness of the goddess that appeared to him, 
built, in memory of it, a temple in the city of Magnesia, which 
he dedicated to Dindymene, Mother of the gods, in which he 
consecrated and devoted his daughter Mnesiptolema to her 
service. 

When he came to Sardis, he visited the temples of the 
gods, and observing, at his leisure, their buildings, orna- 
ments, and the number of their offerings, he saw in the 
temple of the Mother of the gods the statue of a virgin in 
brass, two cubits high, called the water-bringer. Themistocles 
had caused this to be made and set up when he was surveyor 
of waters at Athens, out of the fines of those whom he de- 
tected in drawing off and diverting the public water by pipes 
for their private use ; and whether he had some regret to see 
this image in captivity, or was desirous to let the Athenians 
see in what great credit and authority he was with the king, 
he entered into a treaty with the governor of Lydia to per- 
suade him to send this statue back to Athens, which so en- 
raged the Persian officer, that he told him he would write the 
king word of it. Themistocles, being affrighted hereat, got 
access to his wives and concubines, by presents of money to 
whom, he appeased the fury of the governor; and after- 
wards behaved with more reserve and circumspection, 
fearing the envy of the Persians, and did not, as Theo- 
pompus writes, continue to travel about Asia, but lived 
quietly in his own house in Magnesia, where for a long time 
he passed his days in great security, being courted by all, 
and enjoying rich presents, and honored equally with the 

B — HC XII 



34 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

greatest persons in the Persian empire ; the king, at that time, 
not minding his concerns with Greece, being taken up with 
the affairs of Inner Asia. 

But when Egypt revolted, being assisted by the Athenians, 
and the Greek galleys roved about as far as Cyprus and 
Cilicia, and Cimon had made himself master of the seas, the 
king turned his thoughts thither, and, bending his mind 
chiefly to resist the Greeks, and to check the growth of their 
power against him, began to raise forces, and send out com- 
manders, and to despatch messengers to Themlstocles at 
Magnesia, to put him in mind of his promise, and to sum- 
mon him to act against the Greeks. Yet this did not increase 
his hatred nor exasperate him against the Athenians, neither 
was he any way elevated with the thoughts of the honor and 
powerful command he was to have in this war; but judging, 
perhaps, that the object would not be attained, the Greeks 
having at that time, beside other great commanders, Cimon, 
in particular, who was gaining wonderful military successes; 
but chiefly, being ashamed to sully the glory of his former 
great actions, and of his many victories and trophies, he de- 
termined to put a conclusion to his life, agreeable to its pre- 
vious course. He sacrificed to the gods, and invited his 
friends ; and, having entertained them and shaken hands with 
them, drank bull's blood, as is the usual story; as others 
state, a poison producing instant death; and ended his days 
in the city of Magnesia, having lived sixty-five years, most 
of which he had spent in politics and in the wars, in govern- 
ment and command. The king, being informed of the cause 
and manner of his death, admired him more than ever, and 
continued to show kindness to his friends and relations. 

Themistocles left three sons by Archippe, daughter to Ly- 
sander of Alopece, — Archeptolis, Polyeuctus, and Cleo- 
phantus. Plato the philosopher mentions the last as a most 
excellent horseman, but otherwise insignificant person; of 
two sons yet older than these, Neocles and Diodes, Neocles 
died when he was young by the bite of a horse, and Diodes 
was adopted by his grandfather, Lysander. He had many 
daughters, of whom Mnesiptolema, whom he had by a second 
marriage, was wife to Archeptolis, her brother by another 
mother; Italia was married to Panthoides, of the island of 



THEMISTOCLES 35 

Chios; Sybaris to Nicomedes the Athenian. After the death 
of Themistocles, his nephew, Phrasicles, went to Magnesia, 
and married, with her brothers' consent, another daughter, 
Nicomache, and took charge of her sister Asia, the youngest 
of all the children. 

The Magnesians possess a splendid sepulchre of Themis- 
tocles, placed in the middle of their market-place. It is not 
worth while taking notice of what Andocides states in his 
Address to his Friends concerning his remains, how the 
Athenians robbed his tomb, and threw his ashes into the 
air; for he feigns this, to exasperate the oligarchical faction 
against the people; and there is no man living but knows 
that Phylarchus simply invents in his history; where he all 
but uses an actual stage machine, and brings in Neocles and 
Demopolis as the sons of Themistocles, to incite or move com- 
passion, as if he were writing a tragedy. Diodorus the cos- 
mographer says, in his work on Tombs, but by conjecture 
rather than of certain knowledge, that near to the heaven 
of Piraeus, where the land runs out like an elbow from the 
promontory of Alcimus, when you have doubled the cape and 
passed inward where the sea is always calm, there is a large 
piece of masonry, and upon this the tomb of Themistocles, 
in the shape of an altar; and Plato the comedian confirms 
this, he believes, in these verses, — 

Thy tomb is fairly placed upon the strand, 
Where merchants still shall greet it with the land; 
Still in and out 't will see them come and go. 
And watch the galleys as they race below. 

Various honors also and privileges were granted to the 
kindred of Themistocles at Magnesia, which were observed 
down to our times, and were enjoyed by another Themis- 
tocles of Athens, with whom I had an intimate acquaintance 
iand friendship in the house of Ammonius the philosopher. 



PERICLES 

C^SAR^ once, seeing some wealthy strangers at Rome, 
carrying up and down with them in their arms and 
bosoms young puppy-dogs and monkeys, embracing 
and making much of them, took occasion not unnaturally to 
ask whether the women in their country were not used to 
bear children ; by that prince-like reprimand gravely reflect- 
ing upon persons who spend and lavish upon brute beasts 
that affection and kindness which nature has implanted in us 
to be bestowed on those of our own kind. With like reason 
may we blame those who misuse that love of inquiry 
and observation which nature has implanted in our souls, 
by expending it on objects unworthy of the attention 
either of their eyes or their ears, while they disregard 
such as are excellent in themselves, and would do them 
good. 

The mere outward sense, being passive in responding to 
the impression of the objects that come in its way and strike 
upon it, perhaps cannot help entertaining and taking notice 
of every thing that addresses it, be it what it will, useful or 
unuseful; but, in the exercise of his mental perception, every 
man, if he chooses, has a natural power to turn himself upon 
all occasions, and to change and shift with the greatest ease 
to what he shall himself judge desirable. So that it becomes 
a man's duty to pursue and make after the best and choicest 
of everything, that he may not only employ his contempla- 
tion, but may also be improved by it. For as that color is 
most suitable to the eye whose freshness and pleasantness 
stimulates and strengthens the sight, so a man ought to apply 
his intellectual perception to such objects as, with the sense 
of delight, are apt to call it forth, and allure it to its own 
proper good and advantage. 

^Probably Augustus. 

36 



PERICLES 37 

Such objects we find in the acts of virtue, which also 
produce in the minds of mere readers about them, an emu- 
lation and eagerness that may lead them on to imitation. In 
other things there does not immediately follow upon the ad- 
miration and liking of the thing done, any strong desire of 
doing the like. Nay, many times, on the very contrary, when 
we are pleased with the work, we slight and set little by the 
workman or artist himself, as, for instance, in perfumes and 
purple dyes, we are taken with the things themselves well 
enough, but do not think dyers and perfumers otherwise 
than low and sordid people. It was not said amiss by An* 
tisthenes, when people told him that one Ismenias was an 
excellent piper, "It may be so," said he, "but he is but a 
wretched human being, otherwise he would not have been an 
excellent piper." And king Philip, to the same purpose, told 
his son Alexander, who once at a merry-meeting played a 
piece of music charmingly and skilfully, "Are you not 
ashamed, son, to play so well?" For it is enough for a king 
or prince to find leisure sometimes to hear others sing, and 
he does the muses quite honor enough when he pleases to be 
but present, while others engage in such exercises and trials 
of skill. 

He who busies himself in mean occupations produces, in 
the very pains he takes about things of little or no use, an 
evidence against himself of his negligence and indisposition 
to what is really good. Nor did any generous and ingenuous 
young man, at the sight of the statue of Jupiter at Pisa, 
ever desire to be a Phidias, or, on seeing that of Juno at 
Argos. long to be a Polycletus, or feel induced by his pleasure 
in their poems to wish to be an Anacreon or Philetas or 
Archilochus. For it does not necessarily follow, that, if a 
piece of work please for its gracefulness, therefore he that 
wrought it deserves our admiration. Whence it is that 
neither do such things really profit or advantage the be- 
holders, upon the sight of which no zeal arises for the imita- 
tion of them, nor any impulse or inclination, which may 
prompt any desire or endeavor of doing the like. But virtue, 
by the bare statement of its actions, can so affect men's 
minds as to create at once both admiration of the things 
done and desire to imitate the doers of them. The goods of 



38 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

fortune we would possess and would enjoy; those of virtue 
we long to practise and exercise ; we are content to 
receive the former from others, the latter we wish others 
to experience from us. Moral good is a practical stimulus; 
it is no sooner seen, than it inspires an impulse to practise; 
and influences the mind and character not by a mere imita- 
tion which we look at, but, by the statement of the fact, 
creates a moral purpose which we form. 

And so we have thought fit to spend our time and pains 
in writing of the lives of famous persons; and have com- 
posed this tenth book upon that subject, containing the life 
of Pericles, and that of Fabius Maximus, who carried on the 
war against Hannibal, men alike, as in their other virtues 
and good parts, so especially in their mild and upright temper 
and demeanor, and in that capacity to bear the cross-grained 
humors of their fellow-citizens and colleagues in office which 
made them both most useful and serviceable to the interests 
of their countries. Whether we take a right aim at our 
intended purpose, it is left to the reader to judge by what he 
shall here find. 

Pericles was of the tribe Acamantis, and the township 
Cholargus, of the noblest birth both on his father's and 
mother's side. Xanthippus, his father, who defeated the 
king of Persia's generals in the battle at Mycale, took to 
wife Agariste, the grandchild of Clisthenes, who drove 
out the sons of Pisistratus, and nobly put an end to their 
tyrannical usurpation, and moreover made a body of 
laws, and settled a model of government admirably 
tempered and suited for the harmony and safety of the 
people. 

His mother, being near her time, fancied in a dream that 
she was brought to bed of a lion, and a few days after was 
delivered of Pericles, in other respects perfectly formed, 
only his head was somewhat longish and out of proportion. 
For which reason almost all the images and statues that were 
made of him have the head covered with a helmet, the work- 
men apparently being willing not to expose him. The poets 
of Athens called him Schinocephalos, or squill-head, from 
schinos, a squill, or sea-onion. One of the comic poets, 
Cratinus, in the Chirons, tells us that — 



PERICLES 39 

Old Gironos once took queen Sedition to wife; 

Which two brought to life 

That tyrant far-famed, 

Whom the gods the supreme skull-compeller* have named. 

And, in the Nemesis, addresses him — 

Come, Jove, thou head of gods. 

And a second, Teleclides, says, that now, in embarrassment 
with political difficulties, he sits in the city, — 

Fainting underneath the load 
Of his own head ; and now abroad. 
From his huge galley of a pate. 
Sends forth trouble to the state. 

And a third, Eupolis, in the comedy called the Demi, in 3 
series of questions about each of the demagogues, whom he 
makes in the play to come up from hell, upon Pericles being 
named last, exclaims, — 

And here by way of summary, now we've done, 
Behold, in brief, the heads of all in one. 

The master that taught him music, most authors are 
agreed, was Damon (whose name, they say, ought to be 
pronounced with the first syllable short). Though Aristotle 
tells us that he was thoroughly practised in all accomplish- 
ments of this kind by Pythoclides. Damon, it is not unlikely, 
being a sophist, out of policy, sheltered himself under the 
profession of music to conceal from people in general his 
skill in other things, and under this pretence attended 
Pericles, the young athlete of politics, so to say, as his train- 
ing-master in these exercises. Damon's lyre, however, did 
not prove altogether a successful blind; he was banished 
the country by ostracism for ten years, as a dangerous inter- 
meddler and a favorer of arbitrary power, and, by this 
means, gave the stage occasion to play upon him. As, for 
instance, Plato, the comic poet, introduces a character, who 
questions him — 

Tell me, if you please, 
Since you're the Chiron who taught Pericles. 

•Kephalegeretes, a play on Nephelegeretes, the cloud-compeller. 



40 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

Pericles, also, was a hearer of Zeno, the Eleatic, who 
treated of natural philosophy in the same manner as Par- 
menides did, but had also perfected himself in an art of his 
own for refuting and silencing opponents in argument; as 
Timon of Phlius describes it, — 

Also the two-edged tongue of mighty Zeno, who. 
Say what one would, could argue it untrue. 

But he that saw most of Pericles, and furnished him most 
especially with a weight and grandeur of sense, superior to 
all arts of popularity, and in general gave him his elevation 
and sublimity of purpose and of character, was Anaxagoras 
of Clazomenae; whom the men of those times called by the 
name of Nous, that is, mind, or intelligence, whether in ad- 
miration of the great and extraordinary gift he displayed for 
the science of nature, or because that he was the first of the 
philosophers who did not refer the first ordering of the world 
to fortune or chance, nor to necessity or compulsion, but to 
a pure, unadulterated intelligence, which in all other existing 
mixed and compound things acts as a principle of discrimina- 
tion, and of combination of like with like. 

For this man, Pericles entertained an extraordinary esteem 
and admiration, and, filling himself with this lofty, and, as 
they call it, up-in-the-air sort of thought, derived hence not 
merely, as was natural, elevation of purpose and dignity of 
language, raised far above the base and dishonest buffoon- 
eries of mob-eloquence, but, besides this, a composure of 
countenance, and a serenity and calmness in all his move- 
ments, which no occurrence whilst he was speaking could 
disturb, a sustained and even tone of voice, and various other 
advantages of a similar kind, which produced the greatest 
effect on his hearers. Once, after being reviled and ill- 
spoken of all day long in his own hearing by some vile and 
abandoned fellow in the open market-place, where he was 
engaged in the despatch of some urgent affair, he continued 
his business in perfect silence, and in the evening returned 
home composedly, the man still dogging him at the heels, 
and pelting him all the way with abuse and foul language; 
and stepping into his house, it being this time dark, he or- 
dered one of his servants to take a light, and to go along 



PERICLES 41 

with the man and see him safe home. Ion, it is true, the 
dramatic poet, says that Pericles's manner in company was 
somewhat over-assuming and pompous; and that into his 
high bearing there entered a good deal of slightingness and 
scorn of others; he reserves his commendation for Cimon's 
ease and pliancy and natural grace in society. Ion, however, 
who must needs make virtue, like a show of tragedies, in- 
clude some comic scenes,^ we shall not altogether rely upon; 
Zeno used to bid those who called Pericles's gravity the 
affectation of a charlatan, to go and affect the like them- 
selves ; inasmuch as this mere counterfeiting might in time 
insensibly instil into them a real love and knowledge of those 
noble qualities. 

Nor were these the only advantages which Pericles derived 
from Anaxagoras's acquaintance ; he seems also to have be- 
come, by his instructions, superior to that superstition with 
which an ignorant wonder at appearances, for example, 
in the heavens possesses the minds of people unacquainted 
with their causes, eager for the supernatural, and 
excitable through an inexperience which the knowledge 
of natural causes removes, replacing wild and timid 
superstition by the good hope and assurance of an intelligent 
piety. 

There is a story, that once Pericles had brought to him 
from a country farm of his, a ram's head with one horn, and 
that Lampon, the diviner, upon seeing the horn grow strong 
and solid out of the midst of the forehead, gave it as his 
judgment, that, there being at that time two potent factions, 
parties, or interests in the city, the one of Thucydides and 
the other of Pericles, the government would come about to 
that one of them in whose ground or estate this token or in- 
dication of fate had shown itself. But that Anaxagoras, 
cleaving the skull in sunder, showed to the bystanders that 
the brain had not filled up its natural place, but being oblong, 
like an egg, had collected from all parts of the vessel which 
contained it, in a point to that place from whence the root of 
the horn took its rise. And that, for that time, Anaxagoras 

•Three tragedies represented in succession were followed by a burlesque, 
the so-called satyric drama, which has no connection, it must be remembered, 
with the moral satire of the Romans, but takes its name from the grotesque 
satyrs of the Greek woods. 



43 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

was much admired for his explanation by those that were 
present ; and Lampon no less a little while after, when Thu- 
cydides was overpowered, and the whole affairs of the state 
and government came into the hands of Pericles. 

And yet, in my opinion, it is no absurdity to say that they 
were both in the right, both natural philosopher and diviner, 
one justly detecting the cause of this event, by which it was 
produced, the other the end for which it was designed. For 
it was the business of the one to find out and give an account 
of what it was made, and in what manner and by what means 
it grew as it did ; and of the other to foretell to what end and 
purpose it was so made, and what it might mean or portend. 
Those who say that to find out the cause of a prodigy is in 
effect to destroy its supposed signification as such, do not 
take notice that, at the same time, together with divine prodi- 
gies, they also do away with signs and signals of human art 
and concert, as, for instance, the clashings of quoits, fire- 
beacons, and the shadows on sun-dials, every one of which 
things has its cause, and by that cause and contrivance is a 
sign of something else. But these are subjects, perhaps, 
that would better befit another place. 

Pericles, while yet but a young man, stood in considerable 
apprehension of the people, as he was thought in face and 
figure to be very like the tyrant Pisistratus, and those of 
great age remarket! upon the sweetness of his voice, and his 
volubility and rapidity in speaking, and were struck with 
amazement at the resemblance. Reflecting, too, that he had 
a considerable estate, and was descended of a noble family, 
and had friends of great influence, he was fearful all this 
might bring him to be banished as a dangerous person; and 
for this reason meddled not at all with state affairs, but in 
military service showed himself of a brave and intrepid na- 
ture. But when Aristides was now dead, and Themistocles 
driven out, and Cimon was for the most part kept abroad by 
the expeditions he made in parts out of Greece, Pericles, 
seeing things in this posture, now advanced and took his side, 
not with the rich and few, but with the many and poor, con- 
trary to his natural bent, which was far from democratical ; 
but, most likely, fearing he might fall under suspicion of 
aiming at yrbitrary power, and seeing Cimon on the side of 



PERICLES 43 

the aristocracy, and much beloved by the better and more dis- 
tinguished people, he joined the party of the people, with a 
view at once both to secure himself and procure means 
against Cimon. 

He immediately entered, also, on quite a new course of 
life and management of his time. For he was never seen 
to walk in any street but that which led to the market-place 
and the council-hall, and he avoided invitations of friends to 
supper, and all friendly visiting and intercourse whatever; 
in all the time he had to do with the public, which was not a 
little, he was never known to have gone to any of his friends 
to a supper, except that once when his near kinsman Eurypto- 
lemus married, he remained present till the ceremony of the 
drink-offering,"* and then immediately rose from table and 
went his way. For these friendly meetings are very quick 
to defeat any assumed superiority, and in intimate familiarity 
an exterior of gravity is hard to maintain. Real excellence, 
indeed, is most recognized when most openly looked into; 
and in really good men, nothing which meets the eyes of ex- 
ternal observers so truly deserves their admiration, as their 
daily common life does that of their nearer friends. Pericles, 
however, to avoid any feeling of commonness, or any satiety 
on the part of the people, presented himself at intervals only, 
not speaking to every business, nor at all times coming into 
the assembly, but, as Critolaus says, reserving himself, like 
the Salaminian galley,^ for great occasions, while matters 
of lesser importance were despatched by friends or other 
speakers under his direction. And of this number we are 
told Ephialtes made one, who broke the power of the council 
of Areopagus, giving the people, according to Plato's expres- 
sion, so copious and so strong a draught of liberty, that, 
growing wild and unruly, like an unmanageable horse, it, as 
the comic poets say, — 

" got beyond all keeping in. 

Champing at Eubcea, and among the islands leaping in." 

*The spondai, or libations, which, like the modern grace, concluded the 
meal, and were followed by the dessert. 

'The Salaminia and the Paralus were the two sacred state-galleys of 
Athens, used only on special missions. 



44 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

The style of speaking most consonant to his form of life 
and the dignity of his views he found, so to say, in the tones 
of that instrument with which Anaxagoras had furnished 
him; of his teaching he continually availed himself, and 
deepened the colors of rhetoric with the dye of natural 
science. For having, in addition to his great natural genius, 
attained, by the study of nature, to use the words of the 
divine Plato, this height of intelligence, and this universal 
consummating power, and drawing hence whatever might 
be of advantage to him in the art of speaking, he showed 
himself far superior to all others. Upon which account, they 
say, he had his nickname given him, though some are of 
opinion he was named the Olympian from the public build- 
ings with which he adorned the city; and others again, from 
his great power in public affairs, whether of war or peace. 
Nor is it unlikely that the confluence of many attributes may 
have conferred it on him. However, the comedies repre- 
sented at the time, which, both in good earnest and in merri- 
ment, let fly many hard words at him, plainly show that he 
got that appellation especially from his speaking; they speak 
of his "thundering and lightning" when he harangued the 
people, and of his wielding a dreadful thunderbolt in his 
tongue. 

A saying also of Thucydides, the son of Melesias, stands 
on record, spoken by him by way of pleasantry upon Peri- 
cles's dexterity. Thucydides was one of the noble and dis- 
tinguished citizens, and had been his greatest opponent; and, 
when Archidamus, the king of the Lacedaemonians, asked him 
whether he or Pericles were the better wrestler, he made this 
answer : "When I," said he, "have thrown him and given him 
a fair fall, by persisting that he had no fall, he gets the better 
of me, and makes the bystanders, in spite of their own eyes, 
believe him." The truth, however, is, that Pericles himself 
was very careful what and how he was to speak, insomuch 
that, whenever he went up to the hustings, he prayed the gods 
that no one word might unawares slip from him unsuitable to 
the matter and the occasion. 

He has left nothing in writing behind him, except some 
decrees; and there are but very few of his sayings recorded; 
one, for example, is, that he said ^gina must, like a gather- 



PERICLES 45 

ing in a man's eye, be removed from Piraeus; and another, 
that he said he saw already war moving on its way towards 
them out of Peloponnesus. Again, when on a time Sophocles, 
who was his fellow-commissioner in the generalship, was 
going on board with him, and praised the beauty of a youth 
they met with in the way to the ship, "Sophocles," said he, 
"a general ought not only to have clean hands, but also clean 
eyes." And Stesimbrotus tells us, that, in his encomium on 
those who fell in battle at Samos, he said they were become 
immortal, as the gods were. "For," said he, "we do not see 
them themselves, but only by the honors we pay them, and 
by the benefits they do us, attribute to them immortality ; 
and the like attributes belong also to those that die in the 
service of their country." 

Since Thucydides describes the rule of Pericles as an 
aristocratical government, that went by the name of a 
democracy, but was, indeed, the supremacy of a single great 
man, while many others say, on the contrary, that by him 
the common people were first encouraged and led on to such 
evils as appropriations of subject territory; allowances for 
attending theatres, payments for performing public duties, 
and by these bad habits were, under the influence of his pub- 
lic measures, changed from a sober, thrifty people, that 
maintained themselves by their own labors, to lovers of 
expense, intemperance, and license, let us examine the cause 
of this change by the actual matters of fact. 

At the first, as has been said, when he set himself against 
Cimon's great authority, he did caress the people. Finding 
himself come short of his competitor in wealth and money, 
by which advantages the other was enabled to take care of 
the poor, inviting every day some one or other of the citizens 
that was in want to supper, and bestowing clothes on the 
aged people, and breaking down the hedges and enclosures 
of his grounds, that all that would might freely gather what 
fruit they pleased, Pericles, thus outdone in popular arts, 
by the advice of one Damonides of CEa, as Aristotle states, 
turned to the distribution of the public moneys; and in a 
short time having bought the people over, what with moneys 
allowed for shows and for service on juries, and what with 
other forms of pay and largess, he made use of them against 



46 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

the council of Areopagus, of which he himself was no mem- 
ber, as having never been appointed by lot either chief archon, 
or lawgiver, or king, or captain.^ For from of old these 
offices were conferred on persons by lot, and they who had 
acquitted themselves duly in the discharge of them were 
advanced to the court of Areopagus. And so Pericles, hav- 
ing secured his power and interest with the populace, directed 
the exertions of his party against this council with such suc- 
cess, that most of those causes and matters which had been 
used to be tried there, were, by the agency of Ephialtes, 
removed from its cognizance. Cimon, also, was banished by 
ostracism as a favorer of the Lacedaemonians and a hater 
of the people, though in wealth and noble birth he was 
among the first, and had won several most glorious victories 
over the barbarians, and had filled the city with money and 
spoils of war; as is recorded in the history of his life. So 
vast an authority had Pericles obtained among the people. 

The ostracism was limited by law to ten years; but the 
Lacedaemonians, in the mean time, entering with a great 
army into the territory of Tanagra, and the Athenians going 
out against them, Cimon, coming from his banishment be- 
fore his time was out, put himself in arms and array with 
those of his fellow-citizens that were of his own tribe, and 
desired by his deeds to wipe off the suspicion of his favoring 
the Lacedaemonians, by venturing his own person along with 
his countrymen. But Pericles's friends, gathering in a body, 
forced him to retire as a banished man. For which cause also 
Pericles seems to have exerted himself more in that than in 
any battle, and to have been conspicuous above all for his 
exposure of himself to danger. All Cimon's friends, also, to 
a man, fell together side by side, whom Pericles had accused 
with him of taking part with the Lacedaemonians. Defeated 
in this battle on their own frontiers, and expecting a new 
and perilous attack with return of spring, the Athenians now 
felt regret and sorrow for the loss of Cimon, and repentance 

•Eponymus, Thesmothetes, Basileus, Polemarchus; titles of the different 
archons, the chief civic dignitaries, who, after the period of the Persian 
wars, were appointed, not by election, but simply by lot, from the whole 
body of citizens. Hence, at this time, the importance of the board of the 
ten strategi, or generals who were elected, and were always persons of real 
or supposed capacity. 



PERICLES 47 

for their expulsion of him. Pericles, being sensible of their 
feelings, did not hesitate or delay to gratify it, and himself 
made the motion for recalling him home. He, uf>on his re- 
turn, concluded a peace betwixt the two cities; for the Lace- 
daemonians entertained as kindly feelings towards him as they 
did the reverse towards Pericles and the other popular leaders. 

Yet some there are who say that Pericles did not propose 
the order for Cimon's return till some private articles of 
agreement had been made between them, and this by means 
of Elpinice, Cimon's sister; that Cimon, namely, should go 
out to sea with a fleet of two hundred ships, and be com- 
mander-in-chief abroad, with a design to reduce the king of 
Persia's territories, and that Pericles should have the power 
at home. 

This Elpinice, it was thought, had before this time pro- 
cured some favor for her brother Cimon at Pericles's hands, 
and induced him to be more remiss and gentle in urging the 
charge when Cimon was tried for his life; for Pericles was 
one of the committee appointed by the commons to plead 
against him. And when Elpinice came and besought him 
in her brother's behalf, he answered, with a smile, "O Elpi- 
nice, you are too old a woman to undertake such business as 
this." But, when he appeared to impeach him, he stood up 
but once to speak, merely to acquit himself of his commission, 
and went out of court, having done Cimon the least prejudice 
of any of his accusers. 

How, then, can one believe Idomeneus, who charges Peri- 
cles as if he had by treachery procured the murder of Ephi- 
altes, the popular statesman, one who was his friend, and of 
his own party in all his political course, out of jealousy, for- 
sooth, and envy of his great reputation? This historian, it 
seems, having raked up these stories, I know not whence, 
has befouled with them a man who, perchance, was not alto- 
gether free from fault or blame, but yet had a noble spirit, 
and a soul that was bent on honor; and where such qualities 
are, there can no such cruel and brutal passion find harbor 
or gain admittance. As to Ephialtes, the truth of the story, 
as Aristotle has told it, is this : that having made himself 
formidable to the oligarchical party, by being an uncompro- 
mising asserter of the people's rights in calling to account 



48 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

and prosecuting those who any way wronged them, his 
enemies, lying in wait for him, by the means of Aristodicus 
the Tanagraean, privately despatched him. 

Cimon, while he was admiral, ended his days in the Isle 
of Cyprus. And the aristocratical party, seeing that Per- 
icles was already before this grown to be the greatest 
and foremost man of all the city, but nevertheless wishing 
there should be somebody set up against him, to blunt and 
turn the edge of his power, that it might not altogether 
prove a monarchy, put forward Thucydides of Alopece, a dis- 
creet person, and a near kinsman of Cimon's, to conduct 
the opposition against him ; who, indeed, though less skilled 
in warlike affairs than Cimon was, yet was better versed in 
speaking and political business, and keeping close guard in 
the city, and engaging with Pericles on the hustings, in a 
short time brought the government to an equality of parties. 
For he would not suffer those who were called the honest 
and good (persons of worth and distinction) to be scattered 
up and down and mix themselves and be lost among the 
populace, as formerly, diminishing and obscuring their supe- 
riority amongst the masses; but taking them apart by them- 
selves and uniting them in one body, by their combined 
weight he was able, as it were upon the balance, to make 
a counterpoise to the other party. 

For, indeed, there was from the beginning a sort of con- 
cealed split, or seam, as it might be in a piece of iron, mark- 
ing the different popular and aristocratical tendencies; but 
the open rivalry and contention of these two opponents made 
the gash deep, and severed the city into the two parties of 
the people and the few. And so Pericles, at that time more 
than at any other, let loose the reins to the people, and made 
his policy subservient to their pleasure, contriving continually 
to have some great public show or solemnity, some banquet, 
or some procession or other in the town to please them, 
coaxing his countrymen like children, with such delights and 
pleasures as were not, however, unedifying. Besides that 
every year he sent out three-score galleys, on board of which 
there went numbers of the citizens, who were in pay eight 
months, learning at the same time and practising the art of 
seamanship. 



PERICLES 49 

He sent, moreover, a thousand of them into the Cher- 
sonese as planters, to share the land among them by lot, and 
five hundred more into the isle of Naxos, and half that 
number to Andros, a thousand into Thrace to dwell among 
the BisaltK, and others into Italy, when the city Sybaris 
which now was called Thurii, was to be repeopled. And 
this he did to ease and discharge the city of an idle, and, by 
reason of their idleness, a busy, meddling crowd of people ; 
and at the same time to meet the necessities and restore the 
fortunes of the poor townsmen, and to intimidate, also, and 
check their allies from attempting any change, by postmg 
such garrisons, as it were, in the midst of them. 

That which gave most pleasure and ornament to the city 
of Athens, and the greatest admiration and even astonish- 
ment to ail strangers, and that which now is Greece's only 
evidence that the power she boasts of and her ancient wealth 
are no romance or idle story, was his construction of the 
public and sacred buildings. Yet this was that of all his 
actions in the government which his enemies most looked 
askance upon and cavilled at in the popular assemblies, crying 
out how that the commonwealth of Athens had lost its 
reputation and was ill-spoken of abroad for removing the 
common treasure of the Greeks from the isle of Delos into 
their own custody ; and how that their fairest excuse for so 
doing, namely, that they took it away for fear the barbarians 
should seize it, and on purpose to secure it in a safe place, 
this Pericles had made unavailable, and how that "Greece 
cannot but resent it as an insufferable affront, and consider 
herself to be tyrannized over openly, when she sees the 
treasure, which was contributed by her upon a necessity for 
the war,' wantonly lavished out by us upon our city, to gild 
her all over, and to adorn and set her forth, as it were some 
vain woman, hung round with precious stones and figures 
and temples, which cost a world of money." 

Pericles, on the other hand, informed the people, that 
they were in no way obliged to give any account of those 
moneys to their allies, so long as they maintained their 
defence, and kept off the barbarians from attacking them; 
while in the mean time they did not so much as supply one 
horse or man or ship, but only found money for the service ; 



so PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

"which money," said he, "is not theirs that give it, but theirs 
that receive it, if so be they perform the conditions upon 
which they receive it." And that it was good reason, that, 
now the city was sufficiently provided and stored with all 
things necessary for the war, they should convert the over- 
plus of its wealth to such undertakings, as would hereafter, 
when completed, give them eternal honor, and, for the pres- 
ent, while in process, freely supply all the inhabitants with 
plenty. With their variety of workmanship and of occasions 
for service, which summon all arts and trades and require 
all hands to be employed about them^ they do actually put 
the whole city, in a manner, into state-pay; while at the 
same time she is both beautified and maintained by herself. 
For as those who are of age and strength for war are 
provided for and maintained in the armaments abroad by 
their pay out of the public stock, so, it being his desire and 
design that the undisciplined mechanic multitude that stayed 
at home should not go without their share of public salaries, 
and yet should not have them given them for sitting still 
and doing nothing, to that end he thought fit to bring in 
among them, with the approbation of the people, these vast 
projects of buildings and designs of works, that would be 
of some continuance before they were finished, and would 
give employment to numerous arts, so that the part of the 
people that stayed at home might, no less than those that were 
at sea or in garrisons or on expeditions, have a fair and 
just occasion of receiving the benefit and having their share 
of the public moneys. 

The materials were stone, brass, ivory, gold, ebony, cypress- 
wood; and the arts or trades that wrought and fashioned 
them were smiths and carpenters, moulders, founders and 
braziers, stone-cutters, dyers, goldsmiths, ivory-workers, 
painters, embroiderers, turners; those again that conveyed 
them to the town for use, merchants and mariners and ship- 
masters by sea, and by land, cartwrights, cattle-breeders, 
waggoners, rope-makers, flax-workers, shoe-makers and 
leather-dressers, road-makers, miners. And every trade in 
the same nature, as a captain in an army has his particular 
company of soldiers under him, had its own hired company 
of journeymen and laborers belonging to it banded together 



PERICLES 51 

as in array, to be as it were the instrument and body for 
the performance of the service. Thus, to say all in a word, 
the occasions and services of these public works distributed 
plenty through every age and condition. 

As then grew the works up, no less stately in size than 
exquisite in form, the workmen striving to outvie the 
material and the design with the beauty of their workman- 
ship, yet the most wonderful thing of all was the rapidity 
of their execution. Undertakings, any one of which singly 
might have required, they thought, for their completion, 
several successions and ages of men, were every one of them 
accomplished in the height and prime of one man's political 
service. Although they say, too, that Zeuxis once, having 
heard Agatharchus the painter boast of despatching his 
work with speed and ease, replied, "I take a long time." 
For ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work 
lasting solidity or exactness of beauty; the expenditure of 
time allowed to a man's pains beforehand for the production 
of a thing is repaid by way of interest with a vital force for 
its preservation when once produced. For which reason 
Pericles's works are especially admired, as having been made 
quickly, to last long. For every particular piece of his work 
was immediately, even at that time, for its beauty and ele- 
gance, antique ; and yet in its vigor and freshness looks 
to this day as if it were just executed. There is a sort 
of bloom of newness upon those works of his, preserving 
them from the touch of time, as if they had some peren- 
nial spirit and undying vitality mingled in the composition 
of them. 

Phidias had the oversight of all the works, and was 
surveyor-general, though upon the various portions other 
great masters and workmen were employed. For Callicrates 
and Ictinus built the Parthenon; the chapel at Eleusis, where 
the mysteries were celebrated, was begun by Corcebus, who 
erected the pillars that stand upon the floor or pavement, 
and joined them to the architraves; and after his death 
Metagenes of Xypete added the frieze and the upper line of 
columns ; Xenocles of Cholargus roofed or arched the lantern 
on the top of the temple of Castor and Pollux; and the long 
wall, which Socrates says he himself heard Pericles propose 



52 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

to the people, was undertaken by Callicrates. This work 
Cratinus ridicules, as long in finishing, — 

'Tis long since Pericles, if words would do it, 
Talk'd up the wall ; yet adds not one mite to it. 

The Odeum, or music-room, which in its interior was full 
of seats and ranges of pillars, and outside had its roof made 
to slope and descend from one single point at the top, was 
constructed, we are told, in imitation of the king of Persia's 
Pavilion; this likewise by Pericles's order; which Cratinus 
again, in his comedy called The Thracian Women, made an 
occasion of raillery, — 

So, we see here, 

Jupiter Long-pate Pericles appear. 

Since ostracism time, he's laid aside his head. 

And wears the new Odeum in its stead. 

Pericles, also, eager for distinction, then first obtained the 
decree for a contest in musical skill to be held yearly at the 
Panathensea, and he himself, being chosen judge, arranged 
the order and method in which the competitors should sing 
and play on the flute and on the harp. And both at that 
time, and at other times also, they sat in this music-room to 
see and hear all such trials of skill. 

The propylaea, or entrances to the Acropolis, were finished 
in five years' time, Mnesicles being the principal architect. 
A strange accident happened in the course of building, which 
showed that the goddess was not averse to the work, but 
was aiding and cooperating to bring it to perfection. One 
of the artificers, the quickest and the handiest workman 
among them all, with a slip of his foot fell down from a 
great height, and lay in a miserable condition, the physicians 
having no hopes of his recovery. When Pericles was in 
distress about this, Minerva appeared to him at night in a 
dream, and ordered a course of treatment, which he applied, 
and in a short time and with great ease cured the man. And 
upon this occasion it was that he set up a brass statue of 
Minerva, surnamed Health, in the citadel near the altar, 
which they say was there before. But it was Phidias who 
wrought the goddess's image in gold, and he has his name 



PERICLES 53 

inscribed on the pedestal as the workman of it; and indeed 
the whole work in a manner was under his charge, and he 
had, as we have said already, the oversight over all the artists 
and workmen, through Pericles's friendship for him; and 
this, indeed, made him much envied, and his patron shame- 
fully slandered with stories, as if Phidias were in the habit 
of receiving, for Pericles's use, freeborn women that came 
to see the works. The comic writers of the town, when 
they had got hold of this story, made much of it, and be- 
spattered him with all the ribaldry they could invent, charging 
him falsely with the wife of Menippus, one who was his 
friend and served as lieutenant under him in the wars; and 
with the birds kept by Pyrilampes, an acquaintance of Peri- 
cles, who, they pretended, used to give presents of peacocks 
to Pericles's female friends. And how can one wonder at 
any number of strange assertions from men whose whole 
lives were devoted to mockery, and who were ready at any 
time to sacrifice the reputation of their superiors to vulgar 
envy and spite, as to some evil genius, when even Stesim- 
brotus the Thasian has dared to lay to the charge of Pericles 
a monstrous and fabulous piece of criminality with his son's 
wife? So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out 
the truth of any thing by history, when, on the one hand, 
those who afterwards write it find long periods of time inter- 
cepting their view, and, on the other hand, the contemporary 
records of any actions and lives, partly through envy and 
ill-will, partly through favor and flattery, pervert and distort 
truth. 

When the orators, who sided with Thucydides and his 
party, were at one time crying out, as their custom was, 
against Pericles, as one who squandered away the public 
money, and made havoc of the state revenues, he rose in the 
open assembly and put the question to the people, whether 
they thought that he had laid out much; and they saying, 
"Too much, a great deal," "Then," said he, "since it is so, 
let the cost not go to your account, but to mine; and let the 
inscription upon the buildings stand in my name." When 
they heard him say thus, whether it were out of a surprise 
to see the greatness of his spirit, or out of emulation of the 
glory of the works, they cried aloud, bidding him to spend 



54 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

on, and lay out what he thought fit from the public purse, 
and to spare no cost, till all were finished. 

At length, coming to a final contest with Thucydides, 
which of the two should ostracize the other out of the 
country, and having gone through this peril, he drew his 
antagonist out, and broke up the confederacy that had been 
organized against him. So that now all schism and division 
being at an end, and the city brought to evenness and unity, 
he got all Athens and all affairs that pertained to the 
Athenians into his own hands, their tributes, their armies, 
and their galleys, the islands, the sea, and their wide-extended 
power, partly over other Greeks and partly over barbarians, 
and all that empire, which they possessed, founded and for- 
tified upon subject nations and royal friendships and alliances. 

After this he was no longer the same man he had been 
before, nor as tame and gentle and familiar as formerly with 
the populace, so as readily to yield to their pleasures and 
to comply with the desires of the multitude, as a steersman 
shifts with the winds. Quitting that loose, remiss, and. in 
some cases, licentious court of the popular will, he turned 
those soft and flowery modulations to the austerity of aristo- 
cratical and regal rule ; and employing this uprightly and 
undeviatingly for the country's best interests, he was able 
generally to lead the people along, with their own wills and 
consents, by persuading and showing them what was to be 
done ; and sometimes, too, urging and pressing them forward 
extremely against their will, he made them, whether they 
would or no, yield submission to what was for their advan- 
tage. In which, to say the truth, he did but like a skilful 
physician, who, in a complicated and chronic disease, as he 
sees occasion, at one while allows his patient the moderate 
use of such things as please him, at another while gives him 
keen pains and drugs to work the cure. For there arising 
and growing up, as was natural, all manner of distempered 
feelings among a people which had so vast a command and 
dominion, he alone, as a great master, knowing how to handle 
and deal fitly with each one of them, and, in an especial 
manner, making that use of hopes and fears, as his two 
chief rudders, with the one to check the career of their 
confidence at any time, with the other to raise them up and 



PERICLES 55 

cheer them when under any discouragement, plainly showed 
by this, that rhetoric, or the art of speaking, is, in Plato's 
language, the government of the souls of men, and that her 
chief business is to address the affections and passions, which 
are as it were the strings and keys to the soul, and require a 
skilful and careful touch to be played on as they should be. 
The source of this predominance was not barely his power 
of language, but, as Thucydides assures us, the reputation 
of his life, and the confidence felt in his character; his 
manifest freedom from every kind of corruption, and su- 
periority to all considerations of money. Notwithstanding 
he had made the city Athens, which was great of itself, as 
great and rich as can be imagined, and though he were 
himself in power and interest more than equal to many 
kings and absolute rulers, who some of them also bequeathed 
by will their power to their children, he, for his part, did 
not make the patrimony his father left him greater than it 
was by one drachma. 

Thucydides, indeed, gives a plain statement of the great- 
ness of his power; and the comic poets, in their spiteful man- 
ner, more than hint at it, styling his companions and friends 
the new Pisistratidae, and calling on him to abjure any 
intention of usurpation, as one whose eminence was too 
great to be any longer proportionable to and compatible with 
a democracy or popular government. And Teleclides says 
the Athenians had surrendered up to him — 

The tribute of the cities, and with them, the cities too, to do with 

them as he pleases, and undo ; 
To build up, if he likes, stone walls around a town; and again, if so 

he likes, to pull them down ; 
Their treaties and alliances, power, empire, peace, and war, their 

wealth and their success forevermore. 

Nor was all this the luck of some happy occasion ; nor 
was it the mere bloom and grace of a policy that flourished 
for a season ; but having for forty years together maintained 
the first place among statesmen such as Ephialtes and Leo- 
crates and Myronides and Cimon and Tolmides and 
Thucydides were, after the defeat and banishment of Thucy- 
dides, for no less than fifteen years longer, in the exercise 



56 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

of one continuous unintermitted command in the office, to 
which he was annually reelected, of General, he preserved 
his integrity unspotted; though otherwise he was not 
altogether idle or careless in looking after his pecuniary 
advantage; his paternal estate, which of right belonged to 
him, he so ordered that it might neither through negligence 
be wasted or lessened, nor yet, being so full of business as 
he was, cost him any great trouble or time with taking care 
of it; and put it into such a way of management as he 
thought to be the most easy for himself, and the most exact. 
All his yearly products and profits he sold together in a 
lump, and supplied his household needs afterward by buying 
every thing that he or his family wanted out of the market. 
Upon which account, his children, when they grew to age, 
were not well pleased with his management, and the women 
that lived with him were treated with little cost, and com- 
plained of his way of housekeeping, where every thing 
was ordered and set down from day to day, and reduced 
to the greatest exactness ; since there was not there, as is 
usual in a great family and a plentiful estate, any thing to 
spare, or over and above; but all that went out or came in, 
all disbursements and all receipts, proceeded as it were by 
number and measure. His manager in all this was a single 
servant, Evangelus by name, a man either naturally gifted 
or instructed by Pericles so as to excel every one in this art 
of domestic economy. 

All this, in truth, was very little in harmony with 
Anaxagoras's wisdom; if, indeed, it be true that he, by a 
kind of divine impulse and greatness of spirit, voluntarily 
quitted his house, and left his land to lie fallow and to be 
grazed by sheep like a common. But the life of a contem- 
plative philosopher and that of an active statesman are, I 
presume, not the same thing; for the one merely employs, 
upon great and good objects of thought, an intelligence that 
requires no aid of instruments nor supply of any external 
materials ; whereas the other, who tempers and applies his 
virtue to human uses, may have occasion for affluence, not 
as a matter of mere necessity, but as a noble thing; which 
was Pericles's case, who relieved numerous poor citizens. 

However, there is a story, that Anaxagoras himself, while 



PERICLES 57 

Pericles was taken up with public affairs, lay neglected, and 
that, now being grown old, he wrapped himself up with a 
resolution to die for want of food; which being by chance 
brought to Pericles's ear, he was horror-struck, and instantly 
ran thither, and used all the arguments and entreaties he 
could to him, lamenting not so much Anaxagoras's condition 
as his own, should he lose such a counsellor as he had found 
him to be ; and that, upon this, Anaxagoras unfolded his 
robe, and showing himself, made answer: "Pericles," said 
he, "even those who have occasion for a lamp supply it 
with oil." 

The Lacedaemonians beginning to show themselves troubled 
at the growth of the Athenian power, Pericles, on the other 
hand, to elevate the people's spirit yet more, and to raise 
them to the thought of great actions, proposed a decree, to 
summon all the Greeks in what part soever, whether of 
Europe or Asia, every city, little as well as great, to send 
their deputies to Athens to a general assembly, or conven- 
tion, there to consult and advise concerning the Greek tem- 
ples which the barbarians had burnt down, and the sacrifices 
which were due from them upon vows they had made to their 
gods for the safety of Greece when they fought against 
the barbarians ; and also concerning the navigation of the 
sea, that they might henceforward all of them pass to and 
fro and trade securely, and be at peace among themselves. 

Upon this errand, there were twenty men, of such as were 
above fifty years of age, sent by commission ; five to summon 
the lonians and Dorians in Asia, and the islanders as far 
as Lesbos and Rhodes ; five to visit all the places in the 
Hellespont and Thrace, up to Byzantium; and other five 
besides these to go to Boeotia and Phocis and Peloponnesus, 
and from hence to pass through the Locrians over to the 
neighboring continent, as far as Acarnania and Ambracia; 
and the rest to take their course through Euboea to the 
CEtaeans and the Malian Gulf, and to the Achceans of 
Phthiotis and the Thessalians; all of them to treat with the 
people as they passed, and to persuade them to come and 
take their part in the debates for settling the peace and 
jointly regulating the affairs of Greece. 

Nothing was effected, nor did the cities meet by their 



58 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

deputies, as was desired; the Lacedaemonians, as it is said, 
crossing the design underhand, and the attempt being dis- 
appointed and baffled first in Peloponnesus. I thought fit, 
however, to introduce the mention of it, to show the spirit 
of the man and the greatness of his thoughts. 

In his miUtary conduct, he gained a great reputation for 
wariness; he would not by his good-will engage in any fight 
which had much uncertainty or hazard; he did not envy the 
glory of generals whose rash adventures fortune favored 
with brilliant success, however they were admired by others ; 
nor did he think them worthy his imitation, but always used 
to say to his citizens that, so far as lay in his power, they 
should continue immortal, and live forever. Seeing Tolmides, 
the son of Tolmaeus, upon the confidence of his former suc- 
cesses, and flushed with the honor his military actions had 
procured him, making preparation to attack the Boeotians in 
their own country, when there was no likely opportunity, 
and that he had prevailed with the bravest and most enter- 
prising of the youth to enlist themselves as volunteers in the 
service, who besides his other force made up a thousand, 
he endeavored to withhold him and to advise him from it in 
the public assembly, telling him in a memorable saying of 
his, which still goes about, that, if he would not take Peri- 
cles's advice, yet he would not do amiss to wait and be ruled 
by time, the wisest counsellor of all. This saying, at that 
time, was but slightly commended ; but within a few days 
after, when news was brought that Tolmides himself had 
been defeated and slain in battle near Coronea, and that 
many brave citizens had fallen with him, it gained him 
great repute as well as good-will among the people, for 
wisdom and for love of his countrymen. 

But of all his expeditions, that to the Chersonese gave 
most satisfaction and pleasure, having proved the safety of 
the Greeks who inhabited there. For not only by carrying 
along with him a thousand fresh citizens of Athens he gave 
new strength and vigor to the cities, but also by belting the 
neck of land, which joins the peninsula to the continent, 
with bulwarks and forts from sea to sea, he put a stop to the 
inroads of the Thracians. who lay all about the Chersonese, 
and closed the door against a continual and grievous war, 



PERICLES Sg 

with which that country had been long harassed, lying ex- 
posed to the encroachments and influx of barbarous neighbors, 
and groaning under the evils of a predatory population both 
Uf>on and within its borders. 

Nor was he less admired and talked of abroad for his 
sailing round the Peloponnesus, having set out from Pegaj, 
or The Fountains, the port of Megara, with a hundred gal- 
leys. For he not only laid waste the sea-coast, as Tolmides 
had done before, but also, advancing far up into main land 
with the soldiers he had on board, by the terror of his 
appearance drove many within their walls ; and at Nemea, 
with main force, routed and raised a trophy over the Sicyo- 
nians, who stood their ground and joined battle with him. 
And having taken on board a supply of soldiers into the 
galleys, out of Achaia, then in league with Athens, he crossed 
with the fleet to the opposite continent, and, sailing along by 
the mouth of the river Achelous, overran Acarnania, and 
shut up the CEniadse within their city walls, and having 
ravaged and wasted their country, weighed anchor for home 
with the double advantage of having shown himself formida- 
ble to his enemies, and at the same time safe and energetic 
to his fellow-citizens ; for there was not so much as any 
chance-miscarriage that happened, the whole voyage through, 
to those who were under his charge. 

Entering also the Euxine Sea with a large and finely 
equipped fleet, he obtained for the Greek cities any new 
arrangements they wanted, and entered into friendly relations 
with them; and to the barbarous nations, and kings and 
chiefs round about them, displayed the greatness of the power 
of the Athenians, their perfect ability and confidence to sail 
wherever they had a mind, and to bring the whole sea under 
their control. He left the Sinopians thirteen ships of war, 
with soldiers under the command of Lamachus, to assist them 
against Timesileus the tyrant; and when he and his accom- 
plices had been thrown out, obtained a decree that six 
hundred of the Athenians that were willing should sail to 
Sinope and plant themselves there with the Sinopians, sharing 
among them the houses and land which the tyrant and his 
party had previously held. 

But in other things he did not comply with the giddy 



60 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

impulses of the citizens, nor quit his own resolutions to follow 
their fancies, when, carried away with the thought of their 
strength and great success, they were eager to interfere 
again in Egypt, and to disturb the king of Persia's maritime 
dominions. Nay, there were a good many who were, even 
then, possessed with that unblest and inauspicious passion 
for Sicily, whiclv afterward the orators of Alcibiades's party 
blew up into a flame. There were some also who dreamt of 
Tuscany and of Carthage, and not without plausible reason 
in their present large dominion and the prosperous course 
of their affairs. 

But Pericles curbed this passion for foreign conquest, and 
unsparingly pruned and cut down their ever busy fancies 
for a multitude of undertakings; and directed their power 
for the most part to securing and consolidating what they 
had already got, supposing it would be quite enough for 
them to do, if they could keep the Lacedaemonians in check; 
to whom he entertained all along a sense of opposition ; 
which, as upon many other occasions, so he particularly 
showed by what he did in the time of the holy war. The 
Lacedaemonians, having gone with an army to Delphi, re- 
stored Apollo's temple, which the Phocians had got into their 
possession, to the Delphians; immediately after their de- 
parture, Pericles, with another army, came and restored the 
Phocians. And the Lacedaemonians having engraven the 
record of their privilege of consulting the oracle before 
others, which the Delphians gave them, upon the forehead of 
the brazen wolf which stands there, he, also, having received 
from the Phocians the like privilege for the Athenians, had 
it cut upon the same wolf of brass on his right side. 

That he did well and wisely in thus restraining the ex- 
ertions of the Athenians within the compass of Greece, the 
events themselves that happened afterward bore sufficient 
witness. For, in the first place, the Euboeans revolted, 
against whom he passed over with forces; and then, im- 
mediately after, news came that the Megarians were turned 
their enemies, and a hostile army was upon the borders of 
Attica, under the conduct of Plistoanax, king of the Lace- 
daemonians. Wherefore Pericles came with his army back 
again in all haste out of Euboea, to meet the war which 



PERICLES 61 

threatened at home; and did not venture to engage a 
numerous and brave army eager for battle ; but perceiving 
that Plistoanax was a very young man, and governed himself 
mostly by the counsel and advice of Cleandrides, whom the 
ephors had sent with him, by reason of his youth, to be a 
kind of guardian and assistant to him, he privately made 
trial of this man's integrity, and, in a short time, having 
corrupted him with money, prevailed with him to withdraw 
the Peloponnesians out of Attica. When the army had re- 
tired and dispersed into their several states, the Lacedaemo- 
nians in anger fined their king in so large a sum of money, 
that, unable to pay it, he quitted Lacedaemon ; while Clean- 
drides fled, and had sentence of death passed upon him in 
his absence. This was the father of Gylippus, who over- 
powered the Athenians in Sicily. And it seems that this 
covetousness was an hereditary disease transmitted from 
father to son; for Gylippus also afterwards was caught in 
foul practices, and expelled from Sparta for it. But this we 
have told at large in the account of Lysander. 

When Pericles, in giving up his accounts of this expedi- 
tion, stated a disbursement of ten talents, as laid out upon 
fit occasion, the people, without any question, nor troubling 
themselves to investigate the mystery, freely allowed of it. 
And some historians, in which number is Theophrastus the 
philosopher, have given it as a truth that Pericles every year 
used to send privately the sum of ten talents to Sparta, with 
which he complimented those in oflfice, to keep off the war; 
not to purchase peace neither, but time, that he might prepare 
at leisure, and be the better able to carry on war hereafter. 

Immediately after this, turning his forces against the re- 
volters, and passing over into the island of Euboea with fifty 
sail of ships and five thousand men in arms, he reduced their 
cities, and drove out the citizens of the Chalcidians. called 
Hippobotae, horse-feeders, the chief persons for wealth and 
reputation among them; and removing all the Histiaeans out 
of the country, brought in a plantation of Athenians in their 
room ; making them his one example of severity, because they 
had captured an Attic ship and killed all on board. 

After this, having made a truce between the Athenians and 
Lacedaemonians for thirty years, he ordered, by public decree. 



62 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

the expedition against the Isle of Samos, on the ground, that, 
when they were bid to leave off their war with the Milesians, 
they had not complied. And as these measures against the 
Samians are thought to have been taken to please Aspasia, 
this may be a fit point for inquiry about the woman, what 
art or charming faculty she had that enabled her to captivate, 
as she did, the greatest statesmen, and to give the philos- 
ophers occasion to speak so much about her, and that, too, 
not to her disparagement. That she was a Milesian by 
birth, the daughter of Axiochus, is a thing acknowledged. 
And they say it was in emulation of Thargelia, a courtesan 
of the old Ionian times, that she made her addresses to men 
of great power. Thargelia was a great beauty, extremely 
charming, and at the same time sagacious ; she had numerous 
suitors among the Greeks, and brought all who had to do 
with her over to the Persian interest, and by their means, 
being men of the greatest power and station, sowed the seeds 
of the Median faction up and down in several cities. ''^ 
Aspasia, some say, was courted and caressed by Pericles upon 
account of her knowledge and skill in politics. Socrates 
himself would sometimes go to visit her, and some of his 
acquaintance with him; and those who frequented her com- 
pany would carry their wives with them to listen to her. 
Her occupation was any thing but creditable, her house being 
a home for young courtesans. .^Eschines tells us also, that 
Lysicles, a sheep-dealer, a man of low birth and character, 
by keeping Aspasia company after Pericles's death, came to 
be a chief man in Athens. And in Plato's Menexenus, 
though we do not take the introduction as quite serious, still 
thus much seems to be historical, that she had the repute of 
being resorted to by many of the Athenians for instruction 
in the art of speaking. Pericles's inclination for her seems, 
however, to have rather proceeded from the passion of love. 
He had a wife that was near of kin to him, who had been 
married first to Hipponicus, by whom she had Callias, sur- 
named the Rich; and also she brought Pericles, while she 
lived with him, two sons, Xanthippus and Paralus. After- 
wards, when they did not well agree nor like to live together, 

T She was married, says Athenaeus, to fourteen husbands; a woman of 
great beauty and intellect. 



PERICLES 63 

he parted with her, with her own consent, to another man, 
and himself took Aspasia, and loved her with wonderful 
affection ; every day, both as he went out and as he came in 
from the market-place, he saluted and kissed her. 

In the comedies she goes by the nicknames of the new 
Omphale and Deianira, and again is styled Juno. Cratinus, 
in downright terms, calls her a harlot. 

To find him a Juno the goddess of lust 
Bore that harlot past shame, 
Aspasia by name. 

It should seem, also, that he had a son by her; Eupolis, in 
his Demi, introduced Pericles asking after his safety, and 
Myronides replying, 

"My son ?" "He lives ; a man he had been long, 
But that the harlot-mother did him wrong." 

Aspasia, they say, became so celebrated and renowned, that 
Cyrus also, who made war against Artaxerxes for the 
Persian monarchy, gave her whom he loved the best of all 
his concubines the name of Aspasia, who before that was 
called Milto. She was a Phocaean by birth, the daughter 
of one Hermotimus, and. when Cyrus fell in battle, was 
carried to the king, and had great influence at court. These 
things coming into my memory as I am writing this story, 
it would be unnatural for me to omit them. 

Pericles, however, was particularly charged with having 
proposed to the assembly the war against the Samians, from 
favor to the Milesians, upon the entreaty of Aspasia. For 
the two states were at war for the possession of Priene ; and 
the Samians, getting the better, refused to lay down their 
arms and to have the controversy betwixt them decided by 
arbitration before the Athenians. Pericles, therefore, fitting 
out a fleet, went and broke up the oligarchical government at 
Samos, and, taking fifty of the principal men of the town as 
hostages, and as many of their children, sent them to the 
isle of Lemnos, there to be kept, though he had offers, as 
some relate, of a talent a piece for himself from each one of 
the hostages, and of many other presents from those who 
were anxious not to have a democracy. Moreover, Pis- 



64 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

suthnes the Persian, one of the king's lieutenants, bearing 
some good-will to the Samians, sent him ten thousand pieces 
of gold to excuse the city. Pericles, however, would receive 
none of all this; but after he had taken that course with the 
Samians which he thought fit, and set up a democracy among 
them, sailed back to Athens. 

But they, however, immediately revolted, Pissuthnes 
having privily got away their hostages for them, and pro- 
vided them with means for the war. Whereupon Pericles 
came out with a fleet a second time against them, and found 
them not idle nor slinking away, but manfully resolved to 
try for the dominion of the sea. The issue was, that, after a 
sharp sea-fight about the island called Tragia, Pericles ob- 
tained a decisive victory, having with forty-four ships routed 
seventy of the enemy's, twenty of which were carrymg 

soldiers. . 

Together with his victory and pursuit, havmg made himselt 
master of the port, he laid siege to the Samians, and blocked 
them up, who yet, one way or other, still ventured to make 
sallies, and fight under the city walls. But after that another 
greater fleet from Athens was arrived, and that the Samians 
were now shut up with a close leaguer on every side, Pericles, 
taking with him sixty galleys, sailed out into the mam sea, 
with the intention, as most authors give the account, to meet 
a squadron of Phoenician ships that were coming for the 
Samians' relief, and to fight them at as great distance as could 
be from the island ; but, as Stesimbrotus says, with a design 
of putting over to Cyprus; which does not seem to be 
probable. But whichever of the two was his intent, it seems 
to have been a miscalculation. For on his departure, Melis- 
sus, the son of Ithagenes, a philosopher, being at that time 
general in Samos, despising either the small number of the 
ships that were left or the inexperience of the commanders, 
prevailed with the citizens to attack the Athenians. And the 
Samians having won the battle, and taken several of the men 
prisoners, and disabled several of the ships, were masters of 
the sea, and brought into port all necessaries they wanted for 
the war, which they had not before. Aristotle says, too, that 
Pericles himself had been once before this worsted by this 
Melissus in a sea-fight. 



PERICLES 65 

The Samians, that they might requite an affront which 
had before been put upon them, branded the Athenians, whom 
they took prisoners, in their foreheads, with the figure of an 
owl. For so the Athenians had marked them before with a 
Samaena, which is a sort of ship, low and flat in the prow, 
so as to look snub-nosed, but wide and large and well-spread 
in the hold, by which it both carries a large cargo and sails 
well. And it was so called, because the first of that kind 
was seen at Samos, having been built by order of Polycrates 
the tyrant. These brands upon the Samians' foreheads, they 
say, are the allusion in the passage of Aristophanes, where 
he says, — 

For, oh, the Samians are a lettered people. 

Pericles, as soon as news was brought him of the disaster 
that had befallen his army, made all the haste he could to 
come in to their relief, and having defeated Melissus, who 
bore up against him, and put the enemy to flight, he imme- 
diately proceeded to hem them in with a wall, resolving to 
master them and take the town, rather with some cost and 
time, than with the wounds and hazards of his citizens. But 
as it was a hard matter to keep back the Athenians, who were 
vexed at the delay, and were eagerly bent to fight, he divided 
the whole multitude into eight parts, and arranged by lot 
that that part which had the white bean should have leave 
to feast and take their ease, while the other seven were fight- 
ing. And this is the reason, they say, that people, when at 
any time they have been merry, and enjoyed themselves, call 
it white day, in allusion to this white bean. 

Ephorus the historian tells us besides, that Pericles made 
use of engines of battery in this siege, being much taken with 
the curiousness of the invention, with the aid and presence of 
Artemon himself, the engineer, who, being lame, used to be 
carried about in a litter, where the works required his attend- 
ance, and for that reason was called Periphoretus. But 
Heraclides Ponticus disproves this out of Anacreon's poems, 
where mention is made of this Artemon Periphoretus several 
ages before the Samian war, or any of these occurrences. 
And he says that Artemon, being a man who loved his ease, 
and had a great apprehension of danger, for the most part 



66 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

kept close within doors, having two of his servants to hold 
a brazen shield over his head, that nothing might fall upon 
him from above; and if he were at any time forced upon 
necessity to go abroad, that he was carried about in a little 
hanging bed, close to the very ground, and that for this 
reason he was called Periphoretus. 

In the ninth month, the Samians surrendering themselves 
and delivering up the town, Pericles pulled down their walls, 
and seized their shipping, and set a fine of a large sum of 
money upon them, part of which they paid down at once, and 
they agreed to bring in the rest by a certain time, and gave 
hostages for security. Duris the Samian makes a tragical 
drama out of these events, charging the Athenians and Pericles 
with a great deal of cruelty, which neither Thucydides, nor 
Ephorus, nor Aristotle have given any relation of, and prob- 
ably with little regard to truth ; how, for example, he brought 
the captains and soldiers of the galleys into the market-place 
at Miletus, and there having bound them fast to boards for 
ten days, then, when they were already all but half dead, gave 
order to have them killed by beating out their brains with 
clubs, and their dead bodies to be flung out into the open 
streets and fields, unburied. Duris, however, who even 
where he has no private feeling concerned, is not wont to 
keep his narrative within the limits of truth, is the more 
likely upon this occasion to have exaggerated the calamities 
which befell his country, to create odium against the Athe- 
nians. Pericles, however, after the reduction of Samos, re- 
turning back to Athens, took care that those who died in the 
war should be honorably buried, and made a funeral har- 
angue, as the custom is, in their commendation at their 
graves, for which he gained great admiration. As he came 
down from the stage on which he spoke, the rest of the 
women came and complimented him, taking him by the hand, 
and crowning him with garlands and ribbons, like a victorious 
athlete in the games ; but Elpinice, coming near to him, 
said, "These are brave deeds, Pericles, that you have 
done, and such as deserve our chaplets; who have lost 
us many a worthy citizen, not in a war with Phoenicians 
or Medes, like my brother Cimon, but for the over- 
throw of an allied and kindred city." As Elpinice 



PERICLES 67 

spoke these words, he, smihng quietly, as it is said, 
returned her answer with this verse, — 

Old women should not seek to be perfumed. 

Ion says of him, that, upon this exploit of his, conquering 
the Samians, he indulged very high and proud thoughts of 
himself: whereas Agamemnon was ten years a-taking a 
barbarous city, he had in nine months' time vanquished and 
taken the greatest and most powerful of the lonians. And 
indeed it was not without reason that he assumed this glory 
to himself, for, in real truth, there was much uncertainty and 
great hazard in this war, if so be, as Thucydides tells us, 
the Samian state were within a very little of wresting the 
whole power and dominion of the sea out of the Athenians' 
hands. 

After this was over, the Peloponnesian war beginning to 
break out in full tide, he advised the people to send help to 
the Corcyraeans, who were attacked by the Corinthians, and 
to secure to themselves an island possessed of great naval 
resources, since the Peloponnesians were already all but in 
actual hostilities against them. The people readily con- 
senting to the motion, and voting an aid and succor for them, 
he despatched Lacedaemonius, Cimon's son^ having only ten 
ships with him, as it were out of a design to affront him ; for 
there was a great kindness and friendship betwixt Cimon's 
family and the Lacedaemonians; so, in order that Lacedae- 
monius might lie the more open to a charge, or suspicion at 
least, of favoring the Lacedaemonians and playing false, if he 
performed no considerable exploit in this service, he allowed 
him a small number of ships, and sent him out against his 
will ; and indeed he made it somewhat his business to hinder 
Cimon's sons from rising in the state, professing that by their 
very names they were not to be looked upon as native and 
true Athenians, but foreigners and strangers, one being called 
Lacedaemonius, another Thessalus, and the third Eleus; and 
they were all three of them, it was thought, born of an Ar- 
cadian woman. Being, however, ill spoken of on account of 
these ten galleys, as having afforded but a small supply to 
the people that were in need, and yet given a great advantage 
to those who might complain of the act of intervention, 



68 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

Pericles sent out a larger force afterward to Corcyra, whicH 
arrived after the fight was over. And when now the Corin- 
thians, angry and indignant with the Athenians, accused 
them publicly at Lacedasmon, the Megarians joined with 
them, complaining that they were, contrary to common right 
and the articles of peace sworn to among the Greeks, kept 
out and driven away from every market and from all ports 
under the control of the Athenians. The ^ginetans, also, 
professing to be ill-used and treated with violence, made 
supplications in private to the Lacedaemonians for redress, 
though not daring openly to call the Athenians in question. 
In the mean time, also, the city of Potidsea, under the do- 
minion of the Athenians, but a colony formerly of the Corin- 
thians, had revolted, and was beset with a formal siege, and 
was a further occasion of precipitating the war. 

Yet notwithstanding all this, there being embassies sent to 
Athens, and Archidamus, the king of the Lacedaemonians, 
endeavoring to bring the greater part of the complaints and 
matters in dispute to a fair determination, and to pacify and 
allay the heats of the allies, it is very likely that the war 
would not upon any other grounds of quarrel have fallen 
upon the Athenians, could they have been prevailed with to 
repeal the ordinance against the Megarians, and to be recon- 
ciled to them. Upon which account, since Pericles was the 
man who mainly opposed it, and stirred up the people's 
passions to persist in their contention with the Megarians, he 
was regarded as the sole cause of the war. 

They say, moreover, that ambassadors went, by order from 
Lacedasmon to Athens about this very business, and that 
when Pericles was urging a certain law which made it illegal 
to take down or withdraw the tablet of the decree, one of 
the ambassadors, Polyalces by name, said, "Well, do not 
take it down then, but turn it; there is no law, I suppose, 
which forbids that;"* which, though prettily said, did not 
move Pericles from his resolution. There may have been, 
in all likelihood, something of a secret grudge and private 
animosity which he had against the Megarians. Yet, upon a 

*The word for taking down, in the literal sense, is also the technical term 
for revoking, or repealing; hence the Spartans play upon the two senses. 
"If you may not take it down, turn it, with its face to the wall." 



PERICLES 69 

public and open charge against them, that they had appro- 
priated part of the sacred land on the frontier, he proposed 
a decree that a herald should be sent to them, and the same 
also to the Lacedaemonians, with an accusation of the Me- 
garians; an order which certainly shows equitable and 
friendly proceeding enough. And after that the herald who 
was sent, by name Anthemocritus, died, and it was believed 
that the Megarians had contrived his death, then Charinus 
proposed a decree against them, that there should be an 
irreconcilable and implacable enmity thenceforward betwixt 
the two commonwealths; and that if any one of the Me- 
garians should but set his foot in Attica, he should be put 
to death ; and that the commanders, when they take the usual 
oath, should, over and above that, swear that they will twice 
every year make an inroad into the Megarian country; and 
that Anthemocritus should be buried near the Thriasian 
Gates, which are now called the Dipylon, or Double Gate. 

On the other hand, the Megarians, utterly denying and dis- 
owning the murder of Anthemocritus, throw the whole 
matter upon Aspasia and Pericles, availing themselves of 
the famous verses in the Acharnians, 

To Megara some of our madcaps ran, 
And stole Simsetha thence, their courtesan. 
Which exploit the Megarians to outdo, 
Came to Aspasia's house, and took off two. 

The true occasion of the quarrel is not so easy to find out. 
But of inducing the refusal to annul the decree, all alike 
charge Pericles. Some say he met the request with a posi- 
tive refusal, out of high spirit and a view of the state's best 
interests, accounting that the demand made in those em- 
bassies was designed for a trial of their compliance, and 
that a concession would be taken for a confession of weak- 
ness, as if they durst not do otherwise ; while other some 
there are who say that it was rather out of arrogance and 
a wilful spirit of contention, to show his own strength, that 
he took occasion to slight the Lacedaemonians. The worst 
motive of all, which is confirmed by most witnesses, is to the 
following eflfect. Phidias the Moulder had, as has before 
been said, undertaken to make the statue of Minerva. Now 



70 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

he, being admitted to friendship with Pericles, and a great 
favorite of his, had many enemies upon this account, who 
envied and maligned him; who also, to make trial in a case 
of his, what kind of judges the commons would prove, should 
there be occasion to bring Pericles himself before them, 
having tampered with Menon, one who had been a workman 
with Phidias, stationed him in the market-place, with a peti- 
tion desiring public security upon his discovery and impeach- 
ment of Phidias. The people admitting the man to tell his 
story, and the prosecution proceeding in the assembly, there 
was nothing of theft or cheat proved against him; for 
Phidias, from the very first beginning, by the advice of 
Pericles, had so wrought and wrapt the gold that was used 
in the work about the statue, that they might take it all off 
and make out the just weight of it, which Pericles at that 
time bade the accusers do. But the reputation of his works 
was what brought envy upon Phidias, especially that where 
he represents the fight of the Amazons upon the goddesses' 
shield, he had introduced a likeness of himself as a bald old 
man holding up a great stone with both hands, and had put 
in a very fine representation of Pericles fighting with an 
Amazon. And the position of the hand, which holds out the 
spear in front of the face, was ingeniously contrived to con- 
ceal in some degree the likeness, which, meantime, showed 
itself on either side. 

Phidias then was carried away to prison, and there died 
of a disease; but, as some say, of poison, administered by 
the enemies of Pericles, to raise a slander, or a suspicion, 
at least, as though he had procured it. The informer Menon, 
upon Glycon's proposal, the people made free from payment 
of taxes and customs, and ordered the generals to take care 
that nobody should do him any hurt. About the same time, 
Aspasia was indicted of impiety, upon the complaint of 
Hermippus the comedian, who also laid further to her charge 
that she received into her house freeborn women for the 
uses of Pericles. And Diopithes proposed a decree, that 
public accusation should be laid against persons who ne- 
glected religion, or taught new doctrines about things above,® 

•"Supera ac coelestia," as Cicero translates the words meteora and 
vtetarsia, whence we have formed our meteorology. The whole Greek 



PERICLES 71 

directing suspicion, by means of Anaxagoras, against Pericles 
himself. The people receiving and admitting these accusa- 
tions and complaints, at length, by this means, they came to 
enact a decree, at the motion of Dracontides, that Pericles 
should bring in the accounts of the moneys he had expended, 
and lodge them with the Prytanes; and that the judges, 
carrying their suffrage from the altar in the Acropolis, should 
examine and determine the business in the city. This last 
clause Hagnon took out of the decree, and moved that the 
causes should be tried before fifteen hundred jurors, whether 
they should be styled prosecutions for robbery, or bribery, or 
any kind of malversation. Aspasia, Pericles begged off, 
shedding, as ^schines says, many tears at the trial, and per- 
sonally entreating the jurors. But fearing how it might go 
with Anaxagoras, he sent him out of the city. And finding 
that in Phidias's case he had miscarried with the people, 
being afraid of impeachment, he kindled the war, which 
hitherto had lingered and smothered, and blew it up into a 
flame; hoping, by that means, to disperse and scatter these 
complaints and charges, and to allay their jealousy; the city 
usually throwing herself upon him alone, and trusting to his 
sole conduct, upon the urgency of great affairs and public 
dangers, by reason of his authority and the sway he bore. 

These are given out to have been the reasons which in- 
duced Pericles not to sufifer the people of Athens to yield to 
the proposals of the Lacedaemonians; but their truth is un- 
certain. 

The Lacedaemonians, for their part, feeling sure that if 
they could once remove him, they might be at what terms 
they pleased with the Athenians, sent them word that they 
should expel the "Pollution" with which Pericles on the 
mother's side was tainted, as Thucydides tells us. But the 
issue proved quite contrary to what those who sent the mes- 
sage expected; instead of bringing Pericles under suspicion 
and reproach, they raised him into yet greater credit and 
esteem with the citizens, as a man whom their enemies most 
hated and feared. In the same way, also, before Archidamus, 
who was at the head of the Peloponnesians, made his irva- 

religion was based on certain conceptions of such phenomena, any tampering 
frith which was, therefore, quickly resented. 



72 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

sion into Attica, he told the Athenians beforehand, that if 
Archidamus, while he laid waste the rest of the country, 
should forbear and spare his estate, either on the ground 
of friendship or right of hospitality that was betwixt them, 
or on purpose to give his enemies an occasion of traducing 
him, that then he did freely bestow upon the state all that 
his land and the buildings upon it for the public use. The 
Lacedaemonians, therefore, and their allies, with a great 
army, invaded the Athenian territories, under the conduct of 
king Archidamus, and laying waste the country, marched on 
as far as Acharnse, and there pitched their camp, presuming 
that the Athenians would never endure that, but would come 
out and fight them for their country's and their honor's sake. 
But Pericles looked upon it as dangerous to engage in battle, 
to the risk of the city itself, against sixty thousand men-at- 
arms of Peloponnesians and Boeotians; for so many they 
were in number that made the inroad at first; and he en- 
deavored to appease those who were desirous to fight, and 
were grieved and discontented to see how things went, and 
gave them good words, saying, that "trees, when they are 
lopped and cut, grow up again in a short time, but men, being 
once lost, cannot easily be recovered." He did not convene 
the people into an assembly, for fear lest they should force 
him to act against his judgment; but, like a skilful steersman 
or pilot of a ship, who, when a sudden squall comes on, out 
at sea, makes all his arrangements, sees that all is tight and 
fast, and then follows the dictates of his skill, and minds the 
business of the ship, taking no notice of the tears and en- 
treaties of the sea-sick and fearful passengers, so he, having 
shut up the city gates, and placed guards at all posts for 
security, followed his own reason and judgment, little regard- 
ing those that cried out against him and were angry at his 
management, although there were a great many of his friends 
that urged him with requests, and many of his enemies 
threatened and accused him for doing as he did, and many 
made songs and lampoons upon him, which were sung about 
the town to his disgrace, reproaching him with the cowardly 
exercise of his office of general, and the tame abandonment 
of everything to the enemy's hands. 

Cleon, also, already was among his assailants, making use 



PERICLES 73 

of the feeling against him as a step to the leadership of the 
people, as appears in the anapaestic verges of Hermippus. 

Satyr-king, instead of swords, 
Will you always handle words? 
Very brave indeed we find them. 
But a Teles'" lurks behind them. 

Yet to gnash your teeth you're seen, 
When the little dagger keen. 
Whetted every day anew, 
Of sharp Cleon touches you. 

Pericles, however, was not at all moved by any attacks, 
but took all patiently, and submitted in silence to the disgrace 
they threw upon him and the ill-will they bore him ; and, 
sending out a fleet of a hundred galleys to Peloponnesus, he 
did not go along with it in person, but stayed behind, that he 
might watch at home and keep the city under his own con- 
trol, till the Peloponnesians broke up their camp and were 
gone. Yet to soothe the common people, jaded and distressed 
with the war, he relieved them with distributions of public 
moneys, and ordained new divisions of subject land. For 
having turned out all the people of /Egina, he parted the isl- 
and among the Athenians, according to lot. Some comfort, 
also, and ease in their miseries, they might receive from what 
their enemies endured. For the fleet, sailing round the 
Peloponnese, ravaged a great deal of the country, and pil- 
laged and plundered the towns and smaller cities ; and by 
land he himself entered with an army the Megarian country, 
and made havoc of it all. Whence it is clear that the 
Peloponnesians, though they did the Athenians much mischief 
by land, yet suffering as much themselves from them by 
sea, would not have protracted the war to such a length, but 
would quickly have given it over, as Pericles at first foretold 
they would, had not some divine power crossed human 
purposes. 

In the first place, the pestilential disease, or plague, seized 
upon the city, and ate up all the flower and prime of their 
youth and strength. Upon occasion of which, the people, 
distempered and afflicted in their souls, as well as in their 

^^ Apparently some notorious coward. 



74 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

bodies, were utterly enraged like madmen against Pericles, 
and, like patients grown delirious, sought to lay violent hands 
on their physician, or, as it were, their father. They had 
been possessed, by his enemies, with the belief that the occa- 
sion of the plague was the crowding of the country people 
together into the town, forced as they were now, in the heat 
of the summer-weather, to dwell many of them together even 
as they could, in small tenements and stifling hovels, and to 
be tied to a lazy course of life within doors, whereas before 
they lived in a pure, open, and free air. The cause and 
author of all this, said they, is he who on account of the war 
has poured a multitude of people from the country in upon 
us within the walls, and uses all these many men that he has 
here upon no employ or service, but keeps them pent up like 
cattle, to be overrun with infection from one another, afford- 
ing them neither shift of quarters nor any refreshments. 

With the design to remedy these evils, and do the enemy 
some inconvenience, Pericles got a hundred and fifty galleys 
ready, and having embarked many tried soldiers, both foot 
and horse, was about to sail out, giving great hope to his 
citizens, and no less alarm to his enemies, upon the sight 
of so great a force. And now the vessels having their com- 
plement of men, and Pericles being gone aboard his own gal- 
ley, it happened that the sun was eclipsed, and it grew dark 
on a sudden, to the affright of all, for this was looked upon 
as extremely ominous. Pericles, therefore, perceiving the 
steersman seized with fear and at a loss what to do, took 
his cloak and held it up before the man's face, and, screen- 
ing him with it so that he could not see, asked him whether 
he imagined there was any great hurt, or the sign of any 
great hurt in this, and he answering No, "Why," said he, 
"and what does that differ from this, only that what has 
caused that darkness there, is something greater than a 
cloak?" This is a story which philosophers tell their scholars. 
Pericles, however, after putting out to sea, seems not to have 
done any other exploit befitting such preparations, and when 
he had laid siege to the holy city Epidaurus, which gave him 
some hope of surrender, miscarried in his design by reason 
of the sickness. For it not only seized upon the Athenians, 
but upon all others, too, that held any sort of communica- 



PERICLES n 

tion with the army. Finding after this the Athenians ill 
affected and highly displeased with him, he tried and en- 
deavored what he could to appease and re-encourage them. 
But he could not pacify or allay their anger, nor persuade 
or prevail with them any way, till they freely passed their 
votes upon him, resumed their power, took away his com- 
mand from him, and fined him in a sum of money; which, 
by their account that say least, was fifteen talents, while 
they who reckon most, name fifty. The name prefixed to the 
accusation was Cleon, as Idomeneus tells us; Simmias, ac- 
cording to Theophrastus ; and Heraclides Ponticus gives it 
as Lacratidas. 

After this, public troubles were soon to leave him unmo- 
lested; the people, so to say, discharged their passion in their 
stroke, and lost their stings in the wound. But his domestic 
concerns were in an unhappy condition, many of his friends 
and acquaintance having died in the plague time, and those 
of his family having long since been in disorder and in a 
kind of mutiny against him. For the eldest of his lawfully 
begotten sons, Xanthippus by name, being naturally prodigal, 
and marrying a young and expensive wife, the daughter of 
Tisander, son of Epilycus, was highly offended at his father's 
economy in making him but a scanty allowance, by little and 
little at a time. He sent, therefore, to a friend one day, and 
borrowed some money of him in his father Pericles's name, 
pretending it was by his order. The man coming afterward 
to demand the debt, Pericles was so far from yielding to pay 
it, that he entered an action against him. Upon which the 
young man. Xanthippus, thought himself so ill used and dis- 
obliged, that he openly reviled his father; telling first, by 
way of ridicule, stories about his conversations at home, and 
the discourses he had with the sophists and scholars that 
came to his house. As for instance, how one who was a prac- 
tiser of the five games of skill,^^ having with a dart or javelin 
unawares against his will struck and killed Epitimus the 
Pharsalian, his father spent a whole day with Protagoras in 
a serious dispute, whether the javelin, or the man that threw 

*'These are recorded in a pentameter verse by Simonides. 

Halma, podokeien, discon, aconta, palen. 

Leaping, and swiftness of foot, wrestling, the discus, the dart. 



76 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

it, or the masters of the games who appointed these sports, 
were, according to the strictest and best reason, to be ac- 
counted the cause of this mischance. Besides this, Stesim- 
brotus tells us that it was Xanthippus who spread abroad 
among the people the infamous story concerning his own 
wife ; and in general that this difference of the young man's 
with his father, and the breach betwixt them, continued never 
to be healed or made up till his death. For Xanthippus died 
in the plague time of the sickness. At which time Pericles 
also lost his sister, and the greatest part of his relations and 
friends, and those who had been most useful and serviceable 
to him in managing the affairs of state. However, he did not 
shrink or give in upon these occasions, nor betray or lower 
his high spirit and the greatness of his mind under all his 
misfortunes; he was not even so much as seen to weep or 
to mourn, or even attend the burial of any of his friends or 
relations, till at last he lost his only remaining legitimate 
son. Subdued by this blow, and yet striving still, as far as 
he could, to maintain his principle, and to preserve and keep 
up the greatness of his soul, when he came, however, to per- 
form the ceremony of putting a garland of flowers upon the 
head of the corpse, he was vanquished by his passion at the 
sight, so that he burst into exclamations, and shed copious 
tears, having never done any such thing in all his life before. 
The city having made trial of other generals for the con- 
duct of war, and orators for business of state, when they 
found there was no one who was of weight enough for such 
a charge, or of authority sufficient to be trusted with so 
great a command, regretted the loss of him, and invited him 
again to address and advise them, and to reassume the office 
of general. He, however, lay at home in dejection and 
mourning; but was persuaded by Alcibiades and others of 
his friends to come abroad and show himself to the people, 
who having, upon his appearance, made their acknowledg- 
ments, and apologized for their untowardly treatment of him, 
he undertook the public affairs once more ; and, being chosen 
general, requested that the statute concerning base-born 
children, which he himself had formerly caused to be made, 
might be suspended ; that so the name and race of his family 
might not, for absolute want of a lawful heir to succeed, be 



PERICLES 77 

wholly lost and extinguished. The case of the statute was 
thus: Pericles, when long ago at the height of his power 
in the state, having then, as has been said, children lawfully 
begotten, proposed a law that those only should be reputed 
true citizens of Athens who were born of such parents as 
were both Athenians. After this, the king of Egypt having 
sent to the people, by way of present, forty thousand bushels 
of wheat, which were to be shared out among the citizens, a 
great many actions and suits about legitimacy occurred, by 
virtue of that edict ; cases which, till that time, had not been 
known nor taken notice of; and several persons suffered 
by false accusations. There were little less than five thou- 
sand who were convicted and sold for slaves; those who, 
enduring the test, remained in the government and passed 
muster for true Athenians were found upon the poll to be 
fourteen thousand and forty persons in number. 

It looked strange, that a law, which had been carried so 
far against so many people, should be cancelled again by the 
same man that made it ; yet the present calamity and distress 
which Pericles labored under in his family broke through 
all objections, and prevailed with the Athenians to pity him, 
as one whose losses and misfortunes had sufficiently pun- 
ished his former arrogance and haughtiness. His sufferings 
deserved, they thought, their pity, and even indignation, and 
his request was such as became a man to ask and men to 
grant ; they gave him permission to enroll his son in the 
register of his fraternity, giving him his own name. This 
son afterward, after having defeated the Peloponnesians at 
Arginusae, was, with his fellow-generals, put to death by 
the people. 

About the time when his son was enrolled, it should seem, 
the plague seized Pericles, not with sharp and violent fits, as 
it did others that had it, but with a dull and lingering dis- 
temper, attended with various changes and alterations, leis- 
urely, by little and little, wasting the strength of his body, 
and undermining the noble faculties of his soul. So that 
Theophrastus, in his Morals, when discussing whether men's 
characters change with their circumstances, and their moral 
habits, disturbed by the ailings of their bodies, start aside 
from the rules of virtue, has left it upon record, that Pericles, 



78 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

when he was sick, showed one of his friends that came to 
visit him, an amulet or charm that the women had hung 
about his neck; as much as to say, that he was very sick 
indeed when he would admit of such a foolery as that was. 

When he was now near his end, the best of the citizens and 
those of his friends who were left alive, sitting about him, 
were speaking of the greatness of his merit, and his power, 
and reckoning up his famous actions and the number of his 
victories; for there were no less than nine trophies, which, 
as their chief commander and conqueror of their enemies, he 
had set up, for the honor of the city. They talked thus to- 
gether among themselves, as though he were unable to under- 
stand or mind what they said, but had now lost his conscious- 
ness. He had listened, however, all the while, and attended 
to all, and speaking out among them, said, that he wondered 
they should commend and take notice of things which were 
as much owing to fortune as to any thing else, and had 
happened to many other commanders, and, at the same time, 
should not speak or make mention of that which was the most 
excellent and greatest thing of all. "For," said he, "no 
Athenian, through my means, ever wore mourning.'" 

He was indeed a character deserving our high admira- 
tion, not only for his equitable and mild temper, which all 
along in the many affairs of his life, and the great animosi- 
ties which he incurred, he constantly maintained; but also 
for the high spirit and feeling which made him regard it the 
noblest of all his honors that, in the exercise of such immense 
power, he never had gratified his envy or his passion, nor ever 
had treated any enemy as irreconcilably opposed to him. 
And to me it appears that this one thing gives that other- 
wise childish and arrogant title a fitting and becoming signif- 
icance ; so dispassionate a temper, a life so pure and unblem- 
ished, in the height of power and place, might well be called 
Olympian, in accordance with our conceptions of the divine 
beings, to whom, as the natural authors of all good and of 
nothing evil, we ascribe the rule and government of the 
world. Not as the poets represent, who, while confounding 
us with their ignorant fancies, are themselves confuted by 
their own poems and fictions, and call the place, indeed, 
where they say the gods make their abode, a secure and quiet 



PERICLES 79 

seat, free from all hazards and commotions, untroubled with 
winds or with clouds, and equally through all time illumined 
with soft serenity and a pure light, as though such were a 
home most agreeable for a blessed and immortal nature; 
and yet, in the mean while, affirm that the gods themselves 
are full of trouble and enmity and anger and other passions, 
which no way become or belong to even men that have any 
understanding. But this will, perhaps, seem a subject fitter 
for some other consideration, and that ought to be treated 
of in some other place. 

The course of public affairs after his death produced a 
quick and speedy sense of the loss of Pericles. Those who, 
while he lived, resented his great authority, as that which 
eclipsed themselves, presently after his quitting the stage, 
making trial of other orators and demagogues, readily ac- 
knowledged that there never had been in nature such a dis- 
position as his was, more moderate and reasonable in the 
height of that state he took upon him, or more grave and 
impressive in the mildness which he used. And that invid- 
ious, arbitrary power, to which formerly they gave the name 
of monarchy and tyranny, did then appear to have been the 
chief bulwark of public safety; so great a corruption and 
such a flood of mischief and vice followed, which he. by 
keeping weak and low. had withheld from notice, and had 
prevented from attaining incurable height through a licentious 
impunity. 



ARISTIDES 

ARISTIDES, the son of Lysimachus, was of the tribe 
I\ Antiochis, and township of Alopece. As to his wealth, 
-*--^ statements differ; some say he passed his life in ex- 
treme 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 Aris- 
tides'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 station 
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 vic- 
tory: 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, ex- 
hibited magnificent shows, the one an entertainment of flute- 
players, the other of dithyrambic singers; Dion, the Syra- 
cusan, supplying the expenses of the latter, and Pelopidas 
those of Epaminondas. For good men do not allow them- 
selves in any inveterate and irreconcilable hostility to re- 
ceiving 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 mag- 

80 



ARISTIDES 81 

nificence. Panaetius, again, shows that Demetrius was de- 
ceived 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 de- 
frayed the expense of representing plays and gained the 
prize, neither of which was the same with the son of Lysima- 
chus; 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 addi- 
tion 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, every one 
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, Idome- 
neus 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 him- 
self 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 ex- 
empt 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 of Neocles, his ad- 
versary 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 inclina- 
tions ; the one being ready, adventurous, and subtle, engaging 



82 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

readily and eagerly in every thing; the other of a staid and 
settled temper, intent on the exercise of justice, not admit- 
ting 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 beau- 
tiful Stesilaus of Ceos, and were passionate beyond all mod- 
eration, and did not lay aside their animosity when the beauty 
that had excited it passed away; but, as if it had only exer- 
cised them in it, immediately carried their heats and differ- 
ences 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 altera- 
tions, 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-defence, 
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 say- 
ing, when he left the assembly, that unless they sent Themis- 

* More correctly, perhaps, both here and elsewhere, Ariston of Ceos. 
There were two philosophical writers of the name, Ariston of Chios, a stoic, 
and Ariston of Ceos, a Peripatetic. 

2 A pit into which the dead bodies of malefactors, or perhaps living male- 
factors themselves, were thrown. "The gallows" perhaps is the English 



ARISTIDES 83 

tocles and himself to the barathrum,^ there could be no 
safety for Athens. Another time, when urging some pro- 
posal 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 inex- 
pediency 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; hold- 
ing the opinion that he ought to offer himself to the service 
of his country without mercenary views 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 -3£schylus in the theatre, 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 im- 
mediately 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 de- 
claring 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 pre- 
term most nearly corresponding to the barathrum, as commonly spoken of 
in the Athenian popular lang^uage. 



84 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

ceding 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 free. 

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 Idome- 
neus 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 condi- 
tion, 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 pretence of pun- 
ishing 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 com- 
manders appointed by the Athenians for the war, Miltiades 
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's 



ARISTIDES g5 

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 every one, 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 defence, 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 prafusion 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 
any thing himself, nor suffered others to do it; unless it 
might be some who took away any thing unknown to him ; 
as Callias, the torch-bearer,^ 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 La€coplitfi, or enriched by the ditch, 
alluding to the place where Callias found the gold. Aris- 
tides, immediately after this, was archon; although Deme- 
trius, the Phalerian, says he held the office a little before he 
died, after the battle of Platsea. But in the records of the 

*In the festivals of Eleusinian Ceres; an office hereditary in the family 
of Callias. 



86 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

successors of Xanthippides, in whose year Mardonius was 
overthrown at Platsea, amongst very many there mentioned, 
there is not so much as one of the same name as Aristides: 
while immediately after Phsenippus, 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 be- 
siegers of cities, thunderers, conquerors, or eagles again, 
and hawks;* affecting, it seems, the reputation which pro- 
ceeds from power and violence, rather than that of vir- 
tue. Although the divinity, to whom they desire to com- 
pare 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 ex- 
emption 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 im- 
mortality 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 

*Demetrius Poliorcetes, or the besieger, Ptolemy Ceraunus, or Thunder, 
and Demetrius Nicator, the conqueror, are the probable examples alluded 
to; with Pyrrhus who had the name of Actus, the eagle, and Antiochus 
surnamed Hierax, the hawk. 



ARISTIDES 87 

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 de- 
stroyed the courts of judicature, and was secretly making 
way for a monarchy in his own person, without the assist- 
ance 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 depres- 
sion 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 intol- 
erable 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 ban- 
ished 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 Hyper- 
bolus. 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 mag- 
istrates 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, sup- 



88 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

posing 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 Aris- 
tides. 

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 defence of their liberty. And 
afterwards, when Themistocles was general with absolute 
power, he assisted him in all ways both in action and coun- 
sel; 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 galleys 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 ^gina 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 ad- 
vising part; even, indeed, as I now understand you to be 
alone adhering to the best advice, in counselling without any 
delay to engage in the straits. And in this, though our own 
party oppose, the eriemy 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 



ARISTIDES 89 

of courage, and fighting, whether we will or no; for there 
is no room left us for flight." To which Themistocles an- 
swered, "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 sail- 
ing 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 



90 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

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 despatched Arnaces, the eunuch, 
his prisoner, giving him in command privately to advertise 
the king that he had diverted the Greeks from their inten- 
tion 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 un- 
skilled 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 fear- 
ing, despatched an embassy to the Athenians, entreating that 
they would send their wives and children to Sparta, and re- 
ceive 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 pur- 
chasable 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. Aris- 
tides, 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, 



ARISTIDES 91 

"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 pro- 
posed 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 Lacedsemon, 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 care- 
lessly keeping holy day, (for they were then celebrating the 
Hyacinthian festival,) but in the night, selecting five thou- 
sand 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 Aris- 
tides, not himself, but Cimon, Xanthippus, and Myronides 
are appointed ambassadors. 

Being chosen general for the war, he repaired to Plataea, 
with eight thousand Athenians, where Pausanias, generalis- 
simo 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 defence. But 
Aristides sending to Delphi, the god answered, that the 
Athenians should overcome their enemies, in case they made 



92 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

supplication to Jupiter and Juno of Cithaeron, Pan, and the 
nymphs Sphragitides, and sacrified to the heroes Androcrates, 
Leucon, Pisander, Damocrates, Hypsion, Actaeon, and Polyi- 
dus; and if they fought within their own territories in the 
plain of Ceres Eleusinia and Proserpine. Aristides was per- 
plexed upon the tidings of this oracle : since the heroes to 
whom it commanded him to sacrifice had been chieftains of 
the Platseans, 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, pos- 
sessed 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, Arim- 
nestus, who commanded the Platseans, dreamed that Jupiter, 
the Saviour, asked him what the Greeks had resolved upon; 
and that he answered, "To-morrow, my Lord, we march our 
army to Eleusis, and there give the barbarians battle accord- 
ing 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 mani- 
fest vision having appeared to Arimnestus, when he awoke 
he sent for the most aged and experienced of his country- 
men, 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 draw- 
ing 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, en- 
vironed with a thick shady grove. And that the oracle might 
be accomplished in all particulars for the hope of victory, 
Arimnestus proposed, and the Platseans decreed, that the fron- 
tiers of their country towards Attica should be removed, 
and the land given to the Athenians, that they might fight 



ARISTIDES 95 

in defence of Greece in their own proper territory. This 
zeal and hberality of the Platseans became so famous, that 
Alexander, many years after, when he had obtained the do- 
minion of all Asia, upon erecting the walls of Platsea, 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 Lace- 
daemonians being ranged on the right wing of the battle, they 
might have the left, alleging several matters in commen- 
dation 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 Platsea, 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 agita- 
tion in the camp, and many persons already corrupted, Aris- 
tides, perceiving the design, and dreading the present junc- 
ture of time, determined neither to let the business pass 
unanimadverted upon, nor yet altogether to expose it; not 



94 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

knowing how many the accusation might reach, and willing 
to set bounds to his justice with a view to the public con- 
venience. Therefore, of many that were concerned, he ap- 
prehended eight only, two of whom, who were first pro- 
ceeded against and most guilty, ^schines of Lampra, and 
Agesias of Acharnas, 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 inten- 
tions 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 in- 
roads 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 al- 
ready hid by the multitude of darts and arrows, and them- 
selves 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 defence and succor of the Megarians. 
The rest being backward, Aristides undertook the enter- 
prise 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 comeli- 
ness 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 



ARISTIDES 95 

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 
to-morrow 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 sacri- 
fices and oracles being unfavorable; and the army is in de- 
spondency 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 



96 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

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 Aris- 
tides, 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 country- 
men 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 defence of our country only, but for the tro- 
phies of Salamis and Marathon; that they may not be looked 



ARISTIDES 97 

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 oppo- 
site 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 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 Platsea; 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's feet, and "by this token," said he, 
"do I give my suffrage for the battle, nor have I any con- 
cern 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 Amom- 
pharetus move. 

D— Bcxn 



98 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

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 shout- 
ing 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 for- 
got 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 defence 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 com- 
pany, 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 practised 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, lift- 
ing up his hands to heaven, besought Juno of Cithseron, and 



ARISTIDES 99 

the other tutelar gods of the Platseans, 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 Pausa- 
nias was thus in the act of supplication, the sacrifices ap- 
peared 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 bar- 
barians 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 Lacedae- 
monians. But they, keeping together in the order of a pha- 
lanx, 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, wait- 
ing for the Lacedaemonians to come up. But when they 
heard much noise as of men engaged in fight, and a messen- 
ger, 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, con- 
juring 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. 



100 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

as the barbarians also were put to flight. The sharpest con- 
flict 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 com- 
manded 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 
unexperienced 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 OR the Greeks' side there perished in all thirteen hun- 
dred and sixty: of which fifty-two were Athenians, all of 
the tribe Mantis, that fought, says Clidemus, with the great- 
est 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, encoun- 
tered the enemy ; for the number of the slain and their monu- 
ments testify that the victory was obtained by all in gen- 



ARISTIDES 101 

eral ; and if the rest had been standing still, while the inhabi- 
tants 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 Platsea, and 
the Plataeans still offer sacrifice for the victory to Jupiter of 
freedom. As for the difference of days, it is not to be won- 
dered 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 counselling the commanders, especially Leoc- 
rates and Myronides, pacified and persuaded them to leave 
the thing to the decision of the Greeks. And on their pro- 
ceeding to discuss the matter, Theogiton, the Megarian, de- 
clared 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 counselled 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 recon- 
ciled, they set apart eighty talents for the Platxans, with 
which they built the temple and dedicated the image to Mi- 
nerva, and adorned the temple with pictures, which even to 
this day retain their lustre. But the Lacedaemonians and 



102 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

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 jour- 
ney 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 Platseans, 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 daugh- 
ter 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 market-places, and those of both sexes that are 
about marrying, sacrificed to her before the nuptials. 

A general assembly of all the Greeks being called, Aristides 
proposed a decree, that the deputies and religious representa- 
tives of the Greek states should assemble annually at Platsea, 
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 spear- 
men, 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 being ratified, the Platseans undertook the perform- 
ance of annual sacrifice to such as were slain and buried in 
that place; which they still perform in the following man- 
ner. On the sixteenth day of Msemacterion (which with the 
Boeotians is Alalcomenus) they make their procession, which, 
beginning by break of day, is led by a trumpeter sounding for 



ARISTIDES 103 

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 defence 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 appar- 
elled 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 
monuments, and sacrificing the bull upon a pile of wood, and 
making supplication to Jupiter and Mercury of the earth, in- 
vites those valiant men who perished in the defence 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 lib- 
erty of Greece." These solemnities the Platseans 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 
phould 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 



104 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

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 consid- 
erate 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 cap- 
tains 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 Byzan- 
tium 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 



ARISTIDES 105 

to that, the Greeks had forborne from inflicting on him the 
punishment he deserved. In fine, they all went off and joined 
the Athenians. And here the magnanimity of the Lacedaemo- 
nians 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 taxa- 
tion, terming it the happy time of Greece; and that more 
especially, as the sum was in a short time doubled, and after- 
wards 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 Athe- 
nians had coming in from their confederates six hundred 
talents. But after Pericles's death, the demagogues, increas- 
ing 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-houses 
allowances, and in erecting statues and temples. Aris- 
tides, therefore, having acquired a wonderful and great repu- 
tation 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 



106 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

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 redhot 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 gen- 
eral, 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 de- 
bate, upon the motion of the Samians for removing the treas- 
ure 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 Cal- 
lias, perceiving the judges were moved more particularly by 



ARISTIDES 107 

this, and were exasperated against him, called in Aristides, 
requiring him to testify that when he frequently ofifered him 
divers presents, and entreated him to accept them, he had re- 
fused, 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 pov- 
erty 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 -^Eschines, the scholar of Soc- 
rates, 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 The- 
mistocles 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 Alcmseon, 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 multi- 
tude, 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 lonians when he was collector of the tribute; 
and being unable to pay the fine, which was fifty minae, sailed 



108 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

to Ionia, and died there. But of this Craterus brings no writ- 
ten 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 banish- 
ment 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 pviblicly 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. Fur- 
thermore, 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, Hiero- 
nymus 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 in- 
deed had another wife, but took her into his house, being a 
widow, by reason of her indigence, and want of the necessa- 
ries 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 laccheum, and sustained himself by a table for 
interpreting dreams and that, upon his proposal and repre- 
sentations, 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 



ARISTIDES 109 

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 grand- 
daughter 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. 



ALCIBIADES 

A LCIBIADES, as it is supposed, was anciently de- 
/\ scended from Eurysaces, the son of Ajax, by his 
-*--^ father's side; and by his mother's side from Alcmseon. 
Dinomache, his mother, was the daughter of Megacles. His 
father, Clinias, having fitted out a galley at his own expense, 
gained great honor in the sea-fight at Artemisium, and was 
afterwards slain in the battle of Coronea, fighting against 
the Boeotians. Pericles and Ariphron, the sons of Xanthip- 
pus, nearly related to him, became the guardians of Alci- 
biades. It has been said not untruly that the friendship 
which Socrates felt for him has much contributed to his 
fame ; and certain it is, that, though we have no account from 
any writer concerning the mother of Nicias or Demos- 
thenes, of Lamachus or Phormion, of Thrasybulus or Thera- 
menes, notwithstanding these were all illustrious men of the 
same period, yet we know even the nurse of Alcibiades, that 
her country was Lacedaemon, and her name Amycla; and 
that Zopyrus was his teacher and attendant; the one being 
recorded by Antisthenes, and the other by Plato. 

It is not, perhaps, material to say any thing of the beauty 
of Alcibiades, only that it bloomed with him in all the ages 
of his life, in his infancy, in his youth, and in his manhood; 
and, in the peculiar character becoming to each of these 
periods, gave him, in every one of them, a grace and a charm. 
What Euripides says, that 

"Of all fair things the autumn, too, is fair," 

is by no means universally true. But it happened so with 
Alcibiades, amongst few others, by reason of his happy con- 
stitution and natural vigor of body. It is said that his lisp- 
ing, when he spoke, became him well, and gave a grace and 
persuasiveness to his rapid speech. Aristophanes takes notice 

110 



ALCIBIADES 111 

of it in the verses in which he jests at Theorus; "How like 
a colax he is," says Alcibiades, meaning a corax^ on which 
it is remarked, 

"How very happily he lisped the truth." 

Archippus also alludes to it in a passage where he ridicules 
the son of Alcibiades; 

"That people may believe him like his father, 
He walks like one dissolved in luxury, 
Lets his robe trail behind him on the ground. 
Carelessly leans his head, and in his talk 
Affects to lisp." 

His conduct displayed many great inconsistencies and 
variations, not unnaturally, in accordance with the many and 
wonderful vicissitudes of his fortunes; but among the many 
strong passions of his real character, the one most prevail- 
ing of all was his ambition and desire of superiority, which 
appears in several anecdotes told of his sayings whilst he wa3 
a child. Once being hard pressed in wrestling, and fearing 
to be thrown, he got the hand of his antagonist to his mouth, 
and bit it with all his force ; and when the other loosed his 
hold presently, and said, "You bite, Alcibiades, like a 
woman." "No," replied he, "like a lion." Another time as 
he played at dice in the street, being then but a child, a loaded 
cart came that way, when it was his turn to throw; at first 
he called to the driver to stop, because he was to throw in 
the way over which the cart was to pass ; but the man giving 
him no attention and driving on, when the rest of the boys 
divided and gave way, Alcibiades threw himself on his face 
before the cart, and, stretching himself out, bade the carter 
pass on now if he would; which so startled the man, that he 
put back his horses, while all that saw it were terrified, and, 
crying out, ran to assist Alcibiades. When he began to 
study, he obeyed all his other masters fairly well, but refused 
to learn upon the flute, as a sordid thing, and not becoming 
a free citizen; saying, that to play on the lute or the harp 
does not in any way disfigure a man's body or face, but one 
is hardly to be known by the most intimate friends, when 

^This fashionable Attic lisp, or slovenly articulation, turned the sound 
f into /. Colax, a flatterer; Corax, a crow. 



112 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

playing on the flute. Besides, one who plays on the harp may 
speak or sing at the same time; but the use of the flute stops 
the mouth, intercepts the voice, and prevents all articulation. 
"Therefore," said he, "let the Theban youths pipe, who do 
not know how to speak, but we Athenians, as our ancestors 
have told us, have Minerva for our patroness, and Apollo 
for our protector, one of whom threw away the flute, and 
the other stripped the Flute-player of his skin." Thus, be- 
tween raillery and good earnest, Alcibiades kept not only 
himself but others from learning, as it presently became the 
talk of the young boys, how Alcibiades despised playing on 
the flute, and ridiculed those who studied it. In consequence 
of which, it ceased to be reckoned amongst the liberal ac- 
complishments, and became generally neglected. 

It is stated in the invective which Antiphon wrote against 
Alcibiades, that once, when he was a boy, he ran away to the 
house of Democrates, one of those who made a favorite of 
him, and that Ariphron had determined to cause proclama- 
tion to be made for him, had not Pericles diverted him from 
it, by saying, that if he were dead, the proclaiming of him 
could only cause it to be discovered one day sooner, and if 
he were safe, it would be a reproach to him as long as he 
lived. Antiphon also says, that he killed one of his own 
servants with the blow of a staff in Sibyrtius's wrestling 
ground. But it is unreasonable to give credit to all that is 
objected by an enemy, who makes open profession of his 
design to defame him. 

It was manifest that the many well-born persons who were 
continually seeking his company, and making their court to 
him, were attracted and captivated by his brilliant and 
extraordinary beauty only. But the afifection which Socrates 
entertained for him is a great evidence of the natural noble 
qualities and good disposition of the boy, which Socrates 
indeed, detected both in and under his personal beauty; and, 
fearing that his wealth and station, and the great number 
both of strangers and Athenians who flattered and caressed 
him, might at last corrupt him, resolved, if possible, to inter-- 
pose, and preserve so hopeful a plant from perishing in the 
flower, before its fruit came to perfection. For never did 
fortune surround and enclose a man with so many of those 



ALCIBIADES 113 

things which we vulgarly call goods, or so protect him from 
every weapon of philosophy, and fence him from every ac- 
cess of free and searching words, as she did Alcibiades ; who, 
from the beginning, was exposed to the flatteries of those 
who sought merely his gratification, such as might well un- 
nerve him, and indispose him to listen to any real adviser 
or instructor. Yet such was the happiness of his genius, that 
he discerned Socrates from the rest, and admitted him, 
whilst he drove away the wealthy and the noble who made 
court to him. And, in a little time, they grew intimate, and 
Alcibiades, listening now to language entirely free from 
every thought of unmanly fondness and silly displays of af- 
fection, finding himself with one who sought to lay open to 
him the deficiencies of his mind, and repress his vain and 
foolish arrogance, 

"Dropped like the craven cock his conquered wing." 

He esteemed these endeavors of Socrates as most truly a 
means which the gods made use of for the care and preser- 
vation of youth,- and began to think meanly of himself, and 
to admire him; to be pleased with his kindness, and to stand 
in awe of his virtue; and, unawares to himself, there became 
formed in his mind that reflex image and reciprocation of 
Love, or Anteros,^ that Plato talks of. It was a matter of 
general wonder, when people saw him joining Socrates in 
his meals and his exercises, living with him in the same 
tent, whilst he was reserved and rough to all others who 
made their addresses to him, and acted, indeed, with great 
insolence to some of them. As in particular to Anytus, the 
son of Anthemion, one who was very fond of him, and in- 
vited him to an entertaniment which he had prepared for 
some strangers. Alcibiades refused the invitation; but, 
having drunk to excess at his own house with some of his 
companions, went thither with them to play some frolic ; and, 
standing at the door of the room where the guests were en- 
joying themselves, and seeing the tables covered with gold 
and silver cups, he commanded his servants to take away the 

' In allusion to the philosophical theory which he quoted in the life of 
Theseus, that love is a divine provision for the care of the young. 
*£ros and Anteros, Love and Love-again. 



114 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

one half of them, and carry them to his own house; and 
then, disdaining so much as to enter into the room himself, 
as soon as he had done this, went away. The company was 
indignant, and exclaimed at his rude and insulting conduct; 
Anytus, however, said, on the contrary he had shown fjreat 
consideration and tenderness in taking only a part, when he 
might have taken all. 

He behaved in the same manner to all others who courted 
him, except only one stranger, who, as the story is told, 
having but a small estate, sold it all for about a hundred 
staters, which he presented to Alcibiades, and besought him 
to accept. Alcibiades, smiling and well pleased at the thing, 
invited him to supper, and, after a very kind entertainment, 
gave him his gold again, requiring him, moreover, not to 
fail to be present the next day, when the public revenue was 
offered to farm, and to outbid all others. The man would 
have excused himself, because the contract was so large, 
and would cost many talents; but Alcibiades, who had at that 
time a private pique against the existing farmers of the rev- 
enue, threatened to have him beaten if he refused. The next 
morning, the stranger, coming to the market-place, offered 
a talent more than the existing rate ; upon which the farm- 
ers, enraged and consulting together, called upon him to 
name his sureties, concluding that he could find none. The 
poor man, being startled at the proposal, began to retire; 
but Alcibiades, standing at a distance, cried out to the magis- 
trates, "Set my name down, he is a friend of mine; I will be 
security for him." When the other bidders heard this, they 
perceived that all their contrivance was defeated; for their 
way was, with the profits of the second year to pay the rent 
for the year preceding; so that, not seeing any other way to 
extricate themselves out of the difficulty, they began to en- 
treat the stranger, and offered him a sum of money. Alci- 
biades would not suffer him to accept of less than a talent; 
but when that was paid down, he commanded him to re- 
linquish the bargain, having by this device relieved his 
necessity. 

Though Socrates had many and powerful rivals, yet the 
natural good qualities of Alcibiades gave his affection the 
mastery. His words overcame him so much, as to draw 



ALCIBIADES 115 

tears from his eyes, and to disturb his very soul. Yet some- 
times he would abandon himself to flatterers, when they pro- 
posed to him varieties of pleasure, and would desert Soc- 
rates; who, then, would pursue him, as if he had been a 
fugitive slave. He despised every one else, and had no rev- 
erence or awe for any but him. Cleanthes, the philosopher, 
speaking of one to whom he was attached, says his only hold 
on him was by his ears, while his rivals had all the others 
offered them; and there is no question that Alcibiades was 
very easily caught by pleasures; and the expression used by 
Thucydides about the excesses of his habitual course of 
living gives occasion to believe so. But those who endeav- 
ored to corrupt Alcibiades, took advantage chiefly of his 
vanity and ambition, and thrust him on unseasonably to 
undertake great enterprises, persuading him, that as soon 
as he began to concern himself in public affairs, he would 
not only obscure the rest of the generals and statesmen, but 
outdo the authority and the reputation which Pericles him- 
self had gained in Greece. But in the same manner as iron 
which is softened by the fire grows hard with the cold, and 
all its parts are closed again ; so, as often as Socrates ob- 
served Alcibiades to be misled by luxury or pride, he reduced 
and corrected him by his addresses, and made him humble 
and modest, by showing him in how many things he was 
deficient, and how very far from perfection in virtue. 

When he was past his childhood, he went once to a gram- 
mar-school, and asked the master for one of Homer's books; 
and he making answer that he had nothing of Homer's, Alci- 
biades gave him a blow with his fist, and went away. An- 
other schoolmaster telling him that he had Homer corrected 
by himself; "How?" said Alcibiades, "and do you employ 
your time in teaching children to read? You, who are able 
to amend Homer, may well undertake to instruct men." 
Being once desirous to speak with Pericles, he went to his 
house, and was told there that he was not at leisure, but 
busied in considering how to give up his accounts to the 
Athenians; Alcibiades, as he went away, said, "It were better 
for him to consider how he might avoid giving up his 
accounts at all." 

Whilst he was very young, he was a soldier in the expedi- 



116 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

tion against Potidsea, where Socrates lodged in the same 
tent with him, and stood next him in battle. Once there hap- 
pened a sharp skirmish, in which they both behaved with 
signal bravery; but Alcibiades receiving a wound, Socrates 
threw himself before him to defend him, and beyond any 
question saved him and his arms from the enemy, and so in 
all justice might have challenged the prize of valor. But 
the generals appearing eager to adjudge the honor to Alci- 
biades, because of his rank, Socrates, who desired to in- 
crease his thirst after glory of a noble kind, was the first to 
give evidence for him, and pressed them to crown him, and 
to decree to him the complete suit of armor. Afterwards, 
in the battle of Delium, when the Athenians were routed and 
Socrates with a few others was retreating on foot, Alcibi- 
ades, who was on horseback, observing it, would not pass 
on, but stayed to shelter him from the danger, and brought 
him safe off, though the enemy pressed hard upon them, and 
cut off many. But this happened some time after. 

He gave a box on the ear to Hipponicus, the father of 
Callias, whose birth and wealth made him a person of great 
influence and repute. And this he did unprovoked by any 
passion or quarrel between them, but only because, in a 
frolic, he had agreed with his companions to do it. People 
were justly offended at this insolence, when it became known 
through the city; but early the next morning, Alcibiades 
went to his house and knocked at the door, and, being ad- 
mitted to him, took off his outer garment, and, presenting 
his naked body, desired him to scourge and chastise him as 
he pleased. Upon this Hipponicus forgot all his resentment, 
and not only pardoned him, but soon after gave him his 
daughter Hipparete in marriage. Some say that it was not 
Hipponicus, but his son Callias, who gave Hipparete to Alci- 
biades, together with a portion of ten talents, and that after, 
when she had a child, Alcibiades forced him to give ten 
talents more, upon pretence that such was the agreement if 
she brought him any children. Afterwards, Callias, for fear 
of coming to his death by his means, declared, in a full as- 
sembly of the people, that if he should happen to die without 
children, the state should inherit his house and all his goods. 
Hipparete was a virtuous and dutiful wife, but, at last, grow- 



ALCIBIADES 117 

ing impatient of the outrages done to her by her husband's 
continual entertaining of courtesans, as well strangers as 
Athenians, she departed from him and retired to her broth- 
er's house. Alcibiades seemed not at all concerned at this, 
and lived on still in the same luxury; but the law requiring 
that she should deliver to the archon in person, and not by 
proxy, the instrument by which she claimed a divorce, when, 
in obedience to the law, she presented herself before him to 
perform this, Alcibiades came in, caught her up, and carried 
her home through the market-place, no one daring to oppose 
him, nor to take her from him. She continued with him till 
her death, which happened not long after, when Alcibiades 
had gone to Ephesus. Nor is this violence to be thought so 
very enormous or unmanly. For the law, in making her 
who desires to be divorced appear in public, seems to design 
to give her husband an opportunity of treating with her, 
and of endeavoring to retain her. 

Alcibiades had a dog which cost him seventy minas, and 
was a very large one, and very handsome. His tail, which 
was his principal ornament, he caused to be cut off, and 
his acquaintance exclaiming at him for it, and telling him 
that all Athens was sorry for the dog, and cried out upon 
him for this action, he laughed, and said, "Just what I 
wanted has happened, then. I wished the Athenians to talk 
about this, that they might not say something worse of me." 

It is said that the first time he came into the assembly was 
upon occasion of a largess of money which he made to the 
people. This was not done by design, but as he passed along 
he heard a shout, and inquiring the cause, and having learned 
that there was a donative making to the people, he went in 
amongst them and gave money also. The multitude there- 
upon applauding him, and shouting, he was so transported at 
it, that he forgot a quail which he had under his robe, and 
the bird, being frighted with the noise, flew off; upon, 
which the people made louder acclamations than before, and 
many of them started up to pursue the bird; and one Antio- 
chus, a pilot, caught it and restored it to him, for which he 
was ever after a favorite with Alcibiades. 

He had great advantages for entering public life; his 
noble birth, his riches, the personal courage he had shown in 



118 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

divers battles, and the multitude of his friends and depen- 
dents, threw open, so to say, folding doors for his admit- 
tance. But he did not consent to let his power with the 
people rest on any thing, rather than on his own gift of 
eloquence. That he was a master in the art of speaking, the 
comic poets bear him witness; and the most eloquent of 
public speakers, in his oration against Midias, allows that 
Alcibiades, among other perfections, was a most accomplished 
orator. If, however, we give credit to Theophrastus, who 
of all philosophers was the most curious inquirer, and the 
greatest lover of history, we are to understand that Alcibi- 
ades had the highest capacity for inventing, for discerning 
what was the right thing to be said for any purpose, and on 
any occasion ; but, aiming not only at saying what was re- 
quired, but also at saying it well, in respect, that is, of words 
and phrases, when these did not readily occur, he would often 
pause in the middle of his discourse for want of the apt word, 
and would be silent and stop till he could recollect himself, 
and had considered what to say. 

His expenses in horses kept for the public games, and in 
the number of his chariots, were matter of great observation ; 
never did any one but he, either private person or king, send 
seven chariots to the Olympic games. And to have carried 
away at once the first, the second, and the fourth prizes, as 
Thucydides says, or the third, as Euripides relates it, out- 
does far away every distinction that ever was known or 
thought of in that kind. Euripides celebrates his success in 
this manner : 

" — But my song to you. 
Son of Clinias, is due. 
Victory is noble ; how much more 
To do as never Greek before ; 
To obtain in the great chariot race 
The first, the second, and third place; 
With easy step advanced to fame, 
To bid the herald three times claim 
The olive for one victor's name." 

The emulation displayed by the deputations of various states, 
in the presents which they made to him, rendered this suc- 
cess yet more illustrious. The Ephesians erected a tent for 



ALCIBIADES 119 

him, adorned magnificently; the city of Chios furnished him 
with provender for his horses and with great numbers of 
beasts for sacrifice; and the Lesbians sent him wine and 
other provisions for the many great entertainments which he 
made. Yet in the midst of all this he escaped not without 
censure, occasioned either by the ill-nature of his enemies or 
by his own misconduct. For it is said, that one Diomedes, 
an Athenian, a worthy man and a friend to Alcibiades, pas- 
sionately desiring to obtain the victory at the Olympic games, 
and having heard much of a chariot which belonged to the 
state at Argos, where he knew that Alcibiades had great 
power and many friends, prevailed with him to undertake to 
buy the chariot. Alcibiades did indeed buy it, but then 
claimed it for his own, leaving Diomedes to rage at him, and 
to call upon the gods and men to bear witness to the injustice. 
It would seem there was a suit at law commenced upon this 
occasion, and there is yet extant an oration concerning the 
chariot, written by Isocrates in defence of the son of Alci- 
biades. But the plaintiff in this action is named Tisias, and 
not Diomedes. 

As soon as he began to intermeddle in the government, 
which was when he was very young, he quickly lessened the 
credit of all who aspired to the confidence of the people, ex- 
cept Phaeax, the son of Erasistratus, and Nicias, the son of 
Niceratus, who alone could contest it with him. Nicias was 
arrived at a mature age, and was esteemed their first gen- 
eral. Phceax was but a rising statesman like Alcibiades; he 
was descended from noble ancestors, but was his inferior, as 
in many other things, so, principally in eloquence. He pos- 
sessed rather the art of persuading in private conversation 
than of debate before the people, and was, as Eupolis said 
of him, 

"The best of talkers, and of speakers worst." 

There is extant an oration written by Phaeax against Alci- 
biades, in which, amongst other things, it is said that Alcibi- 
ades made daily use at his table of many gold and silver 
vessels, which belonged to the commonwealth, as if they 
had been his own. 

There was a certain Hyperbolus, of the township of Peri- 



120 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

thoedae, whom Thucydides also speaks of as a man of bad 
character, a general butt for the mockery of all the comic 
writers of the time, but quite unconcerned at the worst things 
they could say, and, being careless of glory, also insensible 
of shame; a temper which some people call boldness and 
courage, whereas it is indeed impudence and recklessness. 
He was liked by nobody, yet the people made frequent use 
of him, when they had a mind to disgrace or calumniate any 
persons in authority. At this time, the people, by his per- 
suasions, were ready to proceed to pronounce the sentence 
of ten years' banishment, called ostracism. This they made 
use of to humiliate and drive out of the city such citizens as 
outdid the rest in credit and power, indulging not so much 
perhaps their apprehensions as their jealousies in this way. 
And when, at this time, there was no doubt but that the os- 
tracism would fall upon one of those three, Alcibiades con- 
trived to form a coalition of parties, and, communicating his 
project to Nicias, turned the sentence upon Hyperbolus him- 
self. Others say, that it was not with Nicias, but Phseax, 
that he consulted, and, by help of his party, procured the ban- 
ishment of Hyperbolus, when he suspected nothing less. For, 
before that time, no mean or obscure person had ever fallen 
under that punishment, so that Plato, the comic poet, speak- 
ing of Hyperbolus, might well say, 

"The man deserved the fate ; deny 't who can ? 
Yes, but the fate did not deserve the man ; 
Not for the like of him and his slave-brands 
Did Athens put the sherd into our hands." 

But we have given elsewhere a fuller statement of what is 
known to us of the matter. 

Alcibiades was not less disturbed at the distinctions which 
Nicias gained amongst the enemies of Athens, than at the 
honors which the Athenians themselves paid to him. For 
though Alcibiades was the proper appointed person* to re- 
ceive all Lacedaemonians when they came to Athens, and had 

* The Prox^nus, that is, who in the ancient cities exercised, in a private 
station, and as a matter of private magnificence and splendid hospitality 
(he being always a citizen of the state in which he resided) many of the 
duties of protection now officially committed to consuls and resident 
ministers. 



ALCIBIADES 121 

taken particular care of those that were made prisoners at 
Pylos, yet, after they had obtained the peace and restitution 
of the captives, by the procurement chiefly of Nicias, they 
paid him very special attentions. And it was commonly said 
in Greece, that the war was begun by Pericles, and that 
Nicias made an end of it, and the peace was generally called 
the peace of Nicias. Alcibiades was extremely annoyed at 
this, and, being full of envy, set himself to break the league. 
First, therefore, observing that the Argives, as well out of 
fear as hatred to the Lacedaemonians, sought for protection 
against them, he gave them a secret assurance of alliance 
with Athens. And communicating, as well in person as by 
letters, with the chief advisers of the people there, he en- 
couraged them not to fear the Lacedaemonians, nor make 
concessions to them, but to wait a little, and keep their eyes 
on the Athenians, who, already, were all but sorry they had 
made peace, and would soon give it up. And, afterwards, 
when the Lacedemonians had made a league with the Boeo- 
tians, and had not delivered up Panactum entire, as they 
ought to have done by the treaty, but only after first destroy- 
ing it, which gave great offence to the people of Athens, Alci- 
biades laid hold of that opportunity to exasperate them more 
highly. He exclaimed fiercely against Nicias, and accused 
him of many things, which seemed probable enough : as that, 
when he was general, he made no attempt himself to capture 
their enemies that were shut up in the isle of Sphacteria, but, 
when they were afterwards made prisoners by others, he pro- 
cured their release and sent them back to the Lacedaemonians, 
only to get favor with them; that he would not make use of 
his credit with them, to prevent their entering into this con- 
federacy with the Boeotians and Corinthians, and yet, on the 
other side, that he sought to stand in the way of those Greeks 
who were inclined to make an alliance and friendship with 
Athens, if the Lacedaemonians did not like it. 

It happened, at the very time when Nicias was by these 
arts brought into disgrace with the people, that ambassadors 
arrived from Lacedaemon, who, at their first coming, said 
what seemed very satisfactory, declaring that they had full 
powers to arrange all matters in dispute upon fair and equal 
terms. The council received their propositions, and the 



122 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

people was to assemble on the morrow to give them audience. 
Alcibiades grew very apprehensive of this, and contrived to 
gain a secret conference with the ambassadors. When they 
were met, he said: "What is it you intend, you men of 
Sparta? Can you be ignorant that the council always act 
with moderation and respect towards ambassadors, but that 
the people are full of ambition and great designs? So that, 
if you let them know what full powers your commission gives 
you, they will urge and press you to unreasonable conditions. 
Quit, therefore, this indiscreet simplicity, if you expect to 
obtain equal terms from the Athenians, and would not have 
things extorted from you contrary to your inclinations, and 
begin to treat with the people upon some reasonable articles, 
not avowing yourselves plenipotentiaries ; and I will be ready 
to assist you, out of good-will to the Lacedaemonians." When 
he had said thus, he gave them his oath for the performance 
of what he promised, and by this way drew them from Nicias 
to rely entirely upon himself, and left them full of admira- 
tion of the discernment and sagacity they had seen in him. 
The next day, when the people were assembled and the am- 
bassadors introduced, Alcibiades, with great apparent cour- 
tesy, demanded of them, With what powers they were come? 
They made answer that they were not come as plenipo- 
tentiaries. 

Instantly upon that, Alcibiades, with a loud voice, as 
though he had received and not done the wrong, began to 
call them dishonest prevaricators, and to urge that such men 
could not possibly come with a purpose to say or do any thing 
that was sincere. The council was incensed, the people were 
in a rage, and Nicias, who knew nothing of the deceit and the 
imposture, was in the greatest confusion, equally surprised 
and ashamed at such a change in the men. So thus the Lace- 
daemonian ambassadors were utterly rejected, and Alcibiades 
was declared general, who presently united the Argives, the 
Eleans, and the people of Mantinea, into a confederacy with 
the Athenians. 

No man commended the method by which Alcibiades ef- 
fected all this, yet it was a great political feat thus to divide 
and shake almost all Peloponnesus, and to combine so many 
men in arms against the Lacedaemonians in one day before 



ALCIBIADES 123 

Mantinea; and, moreover, to remove the war and the danger 
so far from the frontier of the Athenians, that even success 
would profit the enemy but little, should they be conquerors, 
whereas, if they were defeated, Sparta itself was hardly safe. 

After this battle at Mantinea, the select thousand of the 
army of the Argives attempted to overthrow the govern- 
ment of the people in Argos, and make themselves masters 
of the city; and the Lacedaemonians came to their aid and 
abolished the democracy. But the people took arms again, 
and gained the advantage, and Alcibiades came in to their aid 
and completed the victory, and persuaded them to build long 
walls, and by that means to join their city to the sea, and so 
to bring it wholly within the reach of the Athenian power. 
To this purpose, he procured them builders and masons from 
Athens, and displayed the greatest zeal for their service, and 
gained no less honor and power to himself than to the com- 
monwealth of Athens. He also persuaded the people of 
Patrae to join their city to the sea, by building long walls; 
and when some one told them, by way of warning, that the 
Athenians would swallow them up at last, Alcibiades made 
answer, "Possibly it may be so, but it will be by little and 
little, and beginning at the feet, whereas the Lacedaemonians 
will begin at the head and devour you all at once." Nor did 
he neglect either to advise the Athenians to look to their in- 
terests by land, and often put the young men in mind of the 
oath which they had made at Agraulos to the effect that they 
would account wheat and barley, and vines and olives, to be 
the limits of Attica by which they were taught to claim a 
title to all land that was cultivated and productive. 

But with all these words and deeds, and with all this sa- 
gacity and eloquence, he intermingled exorbitant luxury and 
wantonness in his eating and drinking and dissolute living; 
wore long purple robes like a woman, which dragged after 
him as he went through the market-place; caused the planks 
of his galley to be cut away, that so he might lie the softer, 
his bed not being placed on the boards, but hanging upon 
girths. His shield, again, which was richly gilded, had not 
the usual ensigns of the Athenians, but a Cupid, holding a 
thunderbolt in his hand, was painted upon it. The sight of 
all this made the people of good repute in the city feel dis- 



124 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

gust and abhorrence, and apprehension also, at his free- 
living, and his contempt of law, as things monstrous in them- 
selves, and indicating designs of usurpation. Aristophanes 
has well expressed the people's feeling towards him: — 

"They love, and hate, and cannot do without him. 

And still more strongly, under a figurative expression, 

"Best rear no lion in your state, 't is true; 
But treat him like a lion if you do." 

The truth is, his liberalities, his public shows, and other mu- 
nificence to the people, which were such as nothing could 
exceed, the glory of his ancestors, the force of his eloquence, 
the grace of his person, his strength of body, joined with his 
great courage and knowledge in military affairs, prevailed 
upon the Athenians to endure patiently his excesses, to in- 
dulge many things to him, and, according to their habit, to 
give the softest names to his faults, attributing them to youth 
and good nature. As, for example, he kept Agatharcus, the 
painter, a prisoner till he had painted his whole house, but 
then dismissed him with a reward. He publicly struck Tau- 
reas, who exhibited certain shows in opposition to him and 
contended with him for the prize. He selected for himself 
one of the captive Melian women, and had a son by her, 
whom he took care to educate. This the Athenians styled 
great humanity; and yet he was the principal cause of the 
slaughter of all the inhabitants of the isle of Melos who 
were of age to bear arms, having spoken in favor of that de- 
cree. When Aristophon, the painter, had drawn Nemea sit- 
ting and holding Alcibiades in her arms, the multitude 
seemed pleased with the piece, and thronged to see it, but 
older people disliked and disrelished it, and looked on these 
things as enormities, and movements towards tyranny. So 
that it was not said amiss by Archestratus, that Greece could 
not support a second Alcibiades. Once, when Alcibiades suc- 
ceeded well in an oration which he made, and the whole as- 
sembly attended upon him to do him honor, Timon the 
misanthrope did not pass slightly by him, nor avoid him, as 
he did others, but purposely met him, and, taking him by the 
hand, said, "Go on boldly, my son, and increase in credit with 



ALCIBIADES 125 

the people, for thou wilt one day bring them calamities 
enough." Some that were present laughed at the saying, and 
some reviled Timon ; but there were others upon whom it 
made a deep impression; so various was the judgment which 
was made of him, and so irregular his own character. 

The Athenians, even in the lifetime of Pericles, had al- 
ready cast a longing eye upon Sicily ; but did not attempt any 
thing till after his death. Then, under pretence of aiding 
their confederates, they sent succors upon all occasions to 
those who were oppressed by the Syracusans, preparing the 
way for sending over a greater force. But Alcibiades was 
the person who inflamed this desire of theirs to the height, 
and prevailed with them no longer to proceed secretly, and 
by little and little, in their design, but to sail out with a great 
fleet, and undertake at once to make themselves masters of 
the island. He possessed the people with great hopes, and 
he himself entertained yet greater; and the conquest of 
Sicily, which was the utmost bound of their ambition, was 
but the mere outset cf his expectation. Nicias endeavored to 
divert the people from the expedition, by representing to 
them that the taking of Syracuse would be a work of great 
difficulty; but Alcibiades dreamed of nothing less than the 
conquest of Carthage and Libya, and by the accession of 
these conceiving himself at once made master of Italy and 
of Peloponnesus, seemed to look upon Sicily as little more 
than a magazine for the war. The young men were soon ele- 
vated with these hopes, and listened gladly to those of riper 
years, who talked wonders of the countries they were going 
to; so that you might see great numbers sitting in the wres- 
tling grounds and public places, drawing on the ground the 
figure of the island and the situation of Libya and Carthage. 
Socrates the philosopher and Meton the astrologer are said, 
however, never to have hoped for any good to the common- 
wealth from this war ; the one, it is to be supposed, presaging 
what would ensue, by the intervention of his attendant 
Genius ; and the other, either upon rational consideration of 
the project, or by use of the art of divination, conceived fears 
for its issue, and, feigning madness, caught up a burniiig 
torch, and seemed as if he would have set his own house on 
fire. Others report, that he did not take upon him to act the 



126 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

madman, but secretly in the night set his house on fire, and 
the next morning besought the people, that for his comfort, 
after such a calamity, they would spare his son from the ex- 
pedition. By which artifice, he deceived his fellow-citizens, 
and obtained of them what he desired. 

Together with Alcibiades, Nicias, much against his will, 
was appointed general : and he endeavored to avoid the com- 
mand, not the less on account of his colleague. But the 
Athenians thought the war would proceed more prosperously, 
if they did not send Alcibiades free from all restraint, but 
tempered his heat with the caution of Nicias. This they 
chose the rather to do, because Lamachus, the third general, 
though he was of mature years, yet in several battles had ap- 
peared no less hot and rash than Alcibiades himself. When 
they began to deliberate of the number of forces, and of the 
manner of making the necessary provisions, Nicias made an- 
other attempt to oppose the design, and to prevent the war; 
but Alcibiades contradicted him, and carried his point with 
the people. And one Demostratus, an orator, proposing to 
give the generals absolute power over the preparations and 
the whole management of the war, it was presently decreed 
so. When all things were fitted for the voyage, many un- 
lucky omens appeared. At that very time the feast of Adonis 
happened, in which the women were used to expose, in all 
parts of the city, images resembling dead men carried out to 
their burial, and to represent funeral solemnities by lamenta- 
tions and mournful songs. The mutilation, however, of the 
images of Mercury, most of which, in one night, had their 
faces all disfigured, terrified many persons who were wont to 
despise most things of that nature. It was given out that it 
was done by the Corinthians, for the sake of the Syracusans, 
who were their colony, in hopes that the Athenians, by such 
prodigies, might be induced to delay or abandon the war. 
But the report gained no credit with the people, nor yet the 
opinion of those who would not believe that there was any 
thing ominous in the matter, but that it was only an extrava- 
gant action, committed, in that sort of sport which runs into 
license, by wild young men coming from a debauch. Alike 
enraged and terrified at the thing, looking upon it to proceed 
from a conspiracy of persons who designed some commo- 



ALCIBIADES 127 

tions in the state, the council, as well as the assembly of the 
people, which was held frequently in a few days' space, ex- 
amined diligently every thing that might administer ground 
for suspicion. During this examination, Androcles, one of 
the demagogues, produced certain slaves and strangers be- 
fore them, who accused Alcibiades and some of his friends of 
defacing other images in the same manner, and of having 
profanely acted the sacred mysteries at a drunken meeting, 
where one Theodorus represented the herald, Polytion the 
torch-bearer, and Alcibiades the chief priest, while the rest 
of the party appeared as candidates for initiation, and re- 
ceived the title of Initiates. These were the matters con- 
tained in the articles of information,** which Thessalus, the 
son of Cimon, exhibited against Alcibiades, for his impious 
mockery of the goddesses, Ceres and Proserpine. The people 
were highly exasperated and incensed against Alcibiades 
upon this accusation, which, being aggravated by Androcles, 
the most malicious of all his enemies, at first disturbed his 
friends exceedingly. But when they perceived that all the 
seamen designed for Sicily were for him, and the soldiers 
also, and when the Argive and Mantinean auxiliaries, a thou- 
sand men at arms, openly declared that they had undertaken 
this distant maritime expedition for the sake of Alcibiades, 
and that, if he was ill-used, they would all go home, they 
recovered their courage, and became eager to make use of 
the present opportunity for justifying him. At this his ene- 
mies were again discouraged, fearing lest the people should 
be more gentle to him in their sentence, because of the occa- 
sion they had for his service. Therefore, to obviate this, they 
contrived that some other orators, who did not appear to be 
enemies to Alcibiades, but really hated him no less than those 
who avowed it, should stand up in the assembly and say, that 
it was a very absurd thing that one who was created general 
of such an army with absolute power, after his troops were 
assembled, and the confederates were come, should lose the 
opportunity, whilst the people were choosing his judges by 
lot, and appointing times for the hearing of the cause. And, 
therefore, let him set sail at once; good fortune attend him; 

'^ Eisangllia, the technical term for an indictment before the legislature 
for misdemeanors not coming strictly under the letter of any written law. 



128 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

and when the war should be at an end, he might then in per- 
son make his defence according to the laws. 

Alcibiades perceived the malice of this postponement, and, 
appearing in the assembly, represented that it was monstrous 
for him to be sent with the command of so large an army, 
when he lay under such accusations and calumnies; that he 
deserved to die, if he could not clear himself of the crimes 
objected to him; but when he had so done, and had proved 
his innocence, he should then cheerfully apply himself to 
the war, as standing no longer in fear of false accusers. 
But he could not prevail with the people who commanded 
him to sail immediately. So he departed, together with 
the other generals, having with them near 140 galleys, 
5,100 men at arms, and about 1,300 archers, slingers, 
and light-armed men, and all the other provisions corre- 
sponding. 

Arriving on the coast of Italy, he landed at Rhegium, and 
there stated his views of the manner in which they ought to 
conduct the war. He was opposed by Nicias ; but Lamachus 
being of his opinion, they sailed for Sicily forthwith, and 
took Catana. This was all that was done while he was 
there, for he was soon after recalled by the Athenians to 
abide his trial. At first, as we before said, there were only 
some slight suspicions advanced against Alcibiades, and ac- 
cusations by certain slaves and strangers. But afterwards, 
in his absence, his enemies attacked him more violently, and 
confounded together the breaking the images with the prof- 
anation of the mysteries, as though both had been committed 
in pursuance of the same conspiracy for changing the gov- 
ernment. The people proceeded to imprison all that were 
accused, without distinction, and without hearing them, and 
repented now, considering the importance of the charge, that 
they had not immediately brought Alcibiades to his trial, 
and given judgment against him. Any of his friends or ac- 
quaintances who fell into the people's hands, whilst they 
were in this fury, did not fail to meet with very severe 
usage. Thucydides has omitted to name the informers, but 
others mention Dioclides and Teucer. Amongst whom is 
Phrynichus, the comic poet, in whom we find the follow- 
ing:— 



ALCIBIADES 129 

**0 dearest Hermes ! only do take care, 
And mind you do not miss your footing there; 
Should you get hurt, occasion may arise 
For a new Dioclides to tell lies." 

To which he makes Mercury return this answer: — 

"I will so, for I feel no inclination 
To reward Teucer for more information." 

The truth is, his accusers alleged nothing that was certain 
or solid against him. One of them, being asked how he 
knew the men who defaced the images, replying, that he 
saw them by the light of the moon, made a palpable mis- 
statement, for it was just new moon when the fact was com- 
mitted. This made all men of understanding cry out upon 
the thing; but the people were as eager as ever to receive 
further accusations, nor was their first heat at all abated, 
but they instantly seized and imprisoned every one that was 
accused. Amongst those who were detained in prison for 
their trials was Andocides the orator, whose descent the his- 
torian Hellanicus deduces from Ulysses. He was always 
supposed to hate popular government, and to support oli- 
garchy. The chief ground of his being suspected of defacing 
the images was because the great Mercury, which stood near 
his house, and was an ancient monument of the tribe /Egeis, 
was almost the only statue of all the remarkable ones, which 
remained entire. For this cause, it is now called the Mer- 
cury of Andocides, all men giving it that name, though the 
inscription is evidence to the contrary. It happened that 
Andocides, amongst the rest who were prisoners upon the 
same account, contracted particular acquaintance and inti- 
macy with one Timseus, a person inferior to him in repute, 
but of remarkable dexterity and boldness. He persuaded 
Andocides to accuse himself and some few others of this 
crime, urging to him that, upon his confession, he would be, 
by the decree of the people, secure of his pardon, whereas 
the event of judgment is uncertain to all men, but to great 
persons, such as he was, most formidable. So that it was 
better for him, if he regarded himself, to save his life b} a 
falsity, than to suffer an infamous death, as really guilty of 
the crime. And if he had regard to the public good, it was 

E — HC XII 



130 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

commendable to sacrifice a few suspected men, by that means 
to rescue many excellent persons from the fury of the people. 
Andocides was prevailed upon, and accused himself and some 
others, and, by the terms of the decree, obtained his pardon, 
while all the persons named by him, except some few who 
had saved themselves by flight, suffered death. To gain the 
greater credit to his information, he accused his own serv- 
ants amongst others. But notwithstanding this, the people's 
anger was not wholly appeased; and being now no longer 
diverted by the mutilators, they were at leisure to pour out 
their whole rage upon Alcibiades. And, in conclusion, they 
sent the galley named the Salaminian, to recall him. But 
they expressly commanded those that were sent, to use no 
violence, nor seize upon his person, but address themselves 
to him in the mildest terms, requiring him to follow them to 
Athens in order to abide his trial, and clear himself before 
the people. For they feared mutiny and sedition in the 
army in an enemy's country, which indeed it would have 
been easy for Alcibiades to effect, if he had wished it. For 
the soldiers were dispirited upon his departure, expecting 
for the future tedious delays, and that the war would be 
drawn out into a lazy length by Nicias, when Alcibiades, 
who was the spur to action, was taken away. For though 
Lamachus was a soldier, and a man of courage, poverty de- 
prived him of authority and respect in the army. Alcibi- 
ades, just upon his departure, prevented Messena from fall- 
ing into the hands of the Athenians. There were some in 
that city who were upon the point of delivering it up, but 
he, knowing the persons, gave information to some friends 
of the Syracusans, and so defeated the whole contrivance. 
When he arrived at Thurii, he went on shore, and, conceal- 
ing himself there, escaped those who searched after him. 
But to one who knew him, and asked him if he durst not 
trust his own native country, he made answer, "In every 
thing else, yes ; but in a matter that touches my life, I would 
not even my own mother, lest she might by mistake throw 
in the black ball instead of the white." When, afterwards, 
he was told that the assembly had pronounced judgment of 
death against him, all he said was "I will make them feel 
that I am alive." 



ALCIBIADES 131 

The information against him was conceived in this 
form : — 

"Thessalus, the son of Cimon, of the township of Lacia, 
lays information that Alcibiades, the son of CHnias, of the 
township of the Scambonidae, has committed a crime against 
the goddesses Ceres and Proserpine, by representing in de- 
rision the holy mysteries, and showing them to his com- 
panions in his own house. Where, being habited in such 
robes as are used by the chief priest when he shows the holy 
things, he named himself the chief priest, Polytion the torch- 
bearer, and Theodorus, of the township of Phegaea, the her- 
ald; and saluted the rest of his company as Initiates and 
Novices. All which was done contrary to the laws and 
institutions of the Eumolpidse, and the heralds and priests 
of the temple at Eleusis." 

He was condemned as contumacious upon his not appear- 
ing, his property confiscated, and it was decreed that all the 
priests and priestesses should solemnly curse him. But one 
of them, Theano, the daughter of Menon, of the township of 
Agraule, is said to have opposed that part of the decree, say- 
ing that her holy office obliged her to make prayers, but not 
execrations. 

Alcibiades, lying under these heavy decrees and sentences, 
when first he fled from Thurii, passed over into Pelopon- 
nesus, and remained some time at Argos. But being there 
in fear of his enemies, and seeing himself utterly hopeless 
of return to his native country, he sent to Sparta, desiring 
safe conduct, and assuring them that he would make them 
amends by his future services for all the mischief he had 
done them while he was their enemy. The Spartans giving 
him the security he desired, he went eagerly, was well re- 
ceived, and, at his very first coming, succeeded in inducing 
them, without any further caution or delay, to send aid to 
the Syracusans; and so roused and excited them, that they 
forthwith despatched Gylippus into Sicily, to crush the forces 
which the Athenians had in Sicily. A second point was to 
renew the war upon the Athenians at home. But the third 
thing, and the most important of all, was to make them 
fortify Decelea, which above every thing reduced and wasted 
the resources of the Athenians. 



132 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

The renown which he earned by these public services was 
equalled by the admiration he attracted to his private life; 
he captivated and won over everybody by his conformity to 
Spartan habits. People who saw him wearing his hair close 
cut, bathing in cold water, eating coarse meal, and dining 
on black broth, doubted, or rather could not believe, that he 
ever had a cook in his house, or had ever seen a perfumer, 
or had worn a mantle of Milesian purple. For he had, as it 
was observed, this peculiar talent and artifice for gaining 
men's affections, that he could at once comply with and really 
embrace and enter into their habits and ways of life, and 
change faster than the chameleon. One color, indeed, they 
say the chameleon cannot assume; it cannot make itself ap- 
pear white; but Alcibiades, whether with good men or with 
bad, could adapt himself to his company, and equally wear 
the appearance of virtue or vice. At Sparta, he was devoted 
to athletic exercises, was frugal and reserved; in Ionia, lux- 
urious, gay, and indolent; in Thrace, always drinking; in 
Thessaly, ever on horseback; and when he lived with Tisa- 
phernes, the Persian satrap, he exceeded the Persians them- 
selves in magnificence and pomp. Not that his natural dis- 
position changed so easily, nor that his real character was 
so very variable, but, whenever he was sensible that by pur- 
suing his own inclinations he might give offence to those 
with whom he had occasion to converse, he transformed 
himself into any shape, and adopted any fashion, that he ob- 
served to be the most agreeable to them. So that to have 
seen him at Lacedaemon, a man, judging by the outward ap- 
pearance, would have said, " 'Tis not Achilles's son, but he 
himself, the very man" that Lycurgus designed to form; 
while his real feelings and acts would have rather provoked 
the exclamation, " 'Tis the same woman still." For while 
king Agis was absent, and abroad with the army, he cor- 
rupted his wife Timsea, and had a child born by her. Nor did 
she even deny it, but when she was brought to bed of a son, 
called him in public Leotychides, but, amongst her confi- 
dants and attendants, would whisper that his name was Al- 
cibiades. To such a degree was she transported by her 
passion for him. He, on the other side, would say, in his 
vain way, he had not done this thing out of mere wantonness 



ALCIBIADES 133 

of insult, nor to gratify a passion, but that his race might 
one day be kings over the Lacedaemonians. 

There were many who told Agis that this was so, but time 
itself gave the greatest confirmation to the story. For Agis, 
alarmed by an earthquake, had quitted his wife, and, for ten 
months after, was never with her; Leotychides, therefore, 
being born after those ten months, he would not acknowledge 
him for his son; which was the reason that afterwards he 
was not admitted to the succession. 

After the defeat which the Athenians received in Sicily, 
ambassadors were despatched to Sparta at once from Chios 
and Lesbos and Cyzicus, to signify their purpose of revolt- 
ing from the Athenians. The Boeotians interposed in favor 
of the Lesbians, and Pharnabazus of the Cyzicenes, but the 
Lacedaemonians, at the persuasion of Alcibiades, chose to 
assist Chios before all others. He himself, also, went in- 
stantly to sea, procured the immediate revolt of almost all 
Ionia, and, cooperating with the Lacedaemonian generals, did 
great mischief to the Athenians. But Agis was his enemy, 
hating him for having dishonored his wife, and also im- 
patient of his glory, as almost every enterprise and 
every success was ascribed to Alcibiades. Others, also, 
of the most powerful and ambitious amongst the Spar- 
tans, were possessed with jealousy of him, and, at 
last, prevailed with the magistrates in the city to send orders 
into Ionia that he should be killed. Alcibiades, however, 
had secret intelligence of this, and, in apprehension of the 
result, while he communicated all affairs to the Lacedae- 
monians, yet took care not to put himself into their power. 
At last he retired to Tisaphernes, the king of Persia's satrap, 
for his security, and immediately became the first and most 
influential person about him. For this barbarian, not being 
himself sincere, but a lover of guile and wickedness, ad- 
mired his address and wonderful subtlety. And, indeed, the 
charm of daily intercourse with him was more than any 
character could resist or any disposition escape. Even those 
who feared, and envied him could not but take delight, and 
have a sort of kindness for him, when they saw him and 
were in his company. So that Tisaphernes, otherwise a 
cruel character, and, above all other Persians, a hater of 



134 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

the Greeks, was yet so won by the flatteries of Alcibiades, 
that he set himself even to exceed him in responding to 
them. The most beautiful of his parks, containing salubri- 
ous streams and meadows, where he had built pavilions, and 
places of retirement royally and exquisitely adorned, re- 
ceived by his direction the name of Alcibiades, and was 
always so called and so spoken of. 

Thus Alcibiades, quitting the interests of the Spartans, 
whom he could no longer trust, because he stood in fear of 
Agis, endeavored to do them ill offices, and render them 
odious to Tisaphernes, who, by his means, was hindered from 
assisting them vigorously, and from finally ruining the Athe- 
nians. For his advice was to furnish them but sparingly 
with money, and so wear them out, and consume them in- 
sensibly; when they had wasted their strength upon one an- 
other, they would both become ready to submit to the king. 
Tisaphernes readily pursued his counsel, and so openly ex- 
pressed the liking and admiration which he had for him, 
that Alcibiades was looked up to by the Greeks of both 
parties, and the Athenians, now in their misfortunes, re- 
pented them of their severe sentence against him. And he, 
on the other side, began to be troubled for them, and to 
fear lest, if that commonwealth were utterly destroyed, he 
should' fall into the hands of the Lacedaemonians, his enemies. 

At that time the whole strength of the Athenians was in 
Samos. Their fleet maintained itself here, and issued from 
these head-quarters to reduce such as had revolted, and pro- 
tect the rest of their territories; in one way or other still 
contriving to be a match for their enemies at sea. What 
they stood in fear of, was Tisaphernes and the Phoenician 
fleet of one hundred and fifty galleys, which was said to be 
already under sail; if those came, there remained then no 
hopes for the commonwealth of Athens. Understanding 
this, Alcibiades sent secretly to the chief men of the Athe- 
nians, who were then at Samos, giving them hopes that he 
would make Tisaphernes their friend; he was willing, he 
implied, to do some favor, not to the people, nor in reliance 
upon them, but to the better citizens, if only, like brave men, 
they would make the attempt to put down the insolence of 
the people, and, by taking upon them the government, would 



ALCIBIADES 135 

endeavor to save the city from ruin. All of them gave a 
ready ear to the proposal made by Alcibiades, except only 
Phrynichus, of the township of Dirades, one of the generals, 
who suspected, as the truth was, that Alcibiades concerned 
not himself whether the government were in the people or 
the better citizens, but only sought by any means to make 
way for his return into his native country, and to that end 
inveighed against the people, thereby to gain the others, and 
to insinuate himself into their good opinion. But when Phry- 
nichus found his counsel to be rejected, and that he was him- 
self become a declared enemy of Alcibiades, he gave secret 
intelligence to Astyochus, the enemy's admiral, cautioning 
him to beware of Alcibiades, and to seize him as a double 
dealer, unaware that one traitor was making discoveries to 
another. For Astyochus, who was eager to gain the favor 
of Tisaphernes, observing the credit Alcibiades had with 
him, revealed to Alcibiades all that Phrynichus had said 
against him. Alcibiades at once despatched messengers to 
Samos, to accuse Phrynichus of the treachery. Upon this, 
all the commanders were enraged with Phrynichus, and set 
themselves against him, and he, seeing no other way to ex- 
tricate himself from the present danger, attempted to remedy 
one evil by a greater. He sent to Astyochus to reproach 
him for betraying him, and to make an offer to him at the 
same time, to deliver into his hands both the army and tlie 
navy of the Athenians. This occasioned no damage to the 
Athenians, because Astyochus repeated his treachery, and 
revealed also this proposal to Alcibiades. But this again 
was foreseen by Phrynichus, who, expecting a second accu- 
sation from Alcibiades, to anticipate him, advertised the 
Athenians beforehand that the enemy was ready to sail in 
order to surprise them, and therefore advised them to fortify 
their camp, and to be in a readiness to go aboard their 
ships. While the Athenians were intent upon doing these 
•things, they received other letters from Alcibiades, admon- 
ishing them to beware of Phrynichus, as one who designed 
to betray their fleet to the enemy, to which they then gave 
no credit at all, conceiving that Alcibiades, who knew per- 
fectly the counsels and preparations of the enemy, was 
merely making use of that knowledge, in order to impose 



136 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

upon them in this false accusation of Phrynichus. Yet, 
afterwards, when Phrynichus was stabbed with a dagger in 
the market-place by Hermon, one of the guard, the Athe- 
nians, entering into an examination of the cause, solemnly 
condemned Phrynichus of treason, and decreed crowns to 
Hermon and his associates. And now the friends of Alcibi- 
ades, carrying all before them at Samos, despatched Pisander 
to Athens, to attempt a change of government, and to en- 
courage the aristocratical citizens to take upon themselves 
ihe government, and overthrow the democracy, representing 
to them, that, upon these terms, Alcibiades would procure 
them the friendship and alliance of Tisaphernes. 

This was the color and pretence made use of by those who 
desired to change the government of Athens to an oligarchy. 
But as soon as they prevailed, and had got the administra- 
tion of affairs into their hands, under the name of the Five 
Thousand (whereas, indeed, they were but four hundred), 
they slighted Alcibiades altogether, and prosecuted the war 
with less vigor ; partly because they durst not yet trust the 
citizens, who secretly detested this change, and partly be- 
cause they thought the Lacedaemonians, who always be- 
friended the government of the few, would be inclined to 
give them favorable terms. 

The people in the city were terrified into submission, many 
of those who had dared openly to oppose the four hundred 
having been put to death. But those who were at Samos, 
indignant when they heard this news, were eager to set sail 
instantly for the Piraeus; and, sending for Alcibiades, they 
declared him general, requiring him to lead them on to put 
down the tyrants. He, however, in that juncture, did not, 
as it might have been thought a man would, on being sud- 
denly exalted by the favor of a multitude, think himself 
under an obligation to gratify and submit to all the wishes 
of those who, from a fugitive and an exile, had created him 
general of so great an army, and given him the command of 
such a fleet. But, as became a great captain, he opposed 
himself to the precipitate resolutions which their rage led 
them to, and, by restraining them from the great error they 
were about to commit, unequivocally saved the common- 
wealth. For if they then had sailed to Athens, all Ionia 



ALCIBIADES J37 

and the islands and the Hellespont would have fallen into 
the enemies' hands without opposition, while the Athenians, 
involved in civil war, would have been fighting with one an- 
other within the circuit of their own walls. It was Alcibi- 
ades alone, or, at least, principally, who prevented all this 
mischief; for he not only used persuasion to the whole army, 
and showed them the danger, but applied himself to them, 
one by one, entreating some, and constraining others. He 
was much assisted, however, by Thrasybulus of Stiria, who, 
having the loudest voice, as we are told, of all the Athenians, 
went along with him, and cried out to those who were ready 
to be gone. A second great service which Alcibiades did 
for them was, his undertaking that the Phoenician fleet, 
which the Lacedaemonians expected to be sent to them by 
the king of Persia, should either come in aid of the Athe- 
nians, or otherwise should not come at all. He sailed off 
with all expedition in order to perform this, and the ships, 
which had already been seen as near as Aspendus, were not 
brought any further by Tisaphernes, who thus deceived the 
Lacedaemonians ; and it was by both sides believed that they 
had been diverted by the procurement of Alcibiades. The 
Lacedaemonians, in particular, accused him, that he had ad- 
vised the Barbarian to stand still, and suffer the Greeks to 
waste and destroy one another, as it was evident that the 
accession of so great a force to either party would enable 
them to take away the entire dominion of the sea from the 
other side. 

Soon after this, the four hundred usurpers were driven 
out, the friends of Alcibiades vigorously assisting those who 
were for the popular government. And now the people in 
the city not only desired, but commanded Alcibiades to re- 
turn home from his exile. He, however, desired not to owe 
his return to the mere grace and commiseration of the 
people, and resolved to come back, not with empty hands, 
but with glory, and after some service done. To this end, 
he sailed from Samos with a few ships, and cruised on the 
sea of Cnidos, and about the isle of Cos ; but receiving in- 
telligence there that Mindarus, the Spartan admiral, had 
sailed with his whole army into the Hellespont, and that the 
Athenians had followed him, he hurried back to succor the 



138 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

Athenian commanders, and, by good fortune, arrived with 
eighteen galleys at a critical time. For both the fleets having 
engaged near Abydos, the fight between them had lasted till 
night, the one side having the advantage on one quarter, and 
the other on another. Upon his first appearance, both sides 
formed a false impression ; the enemy was encouraged, and 
the Athenians terrified. But Alcibiades suddenly raised the 
Athenian ensign in the admiral ship, and fell upon those 
galleys of the Peloponnesians which had the advantage and 
were in pursuit. He soon put these to flight, and followed 
them so close that he forced them on shore, and broke the 
ships in pieces, the sailors abandoning them and swimming 
away, in spite of all the efforts of Pharnabazus, who had 
come down to their assistance by land, and did what he could 
to protect them from the shore. In fine, the Athenians, 
having taken thirty of the enemy's ships, and recovered all 
their own, erected a trophy. After the gaining of so glori- 
ous a victory, his vanity made him eager to show himself to 
Tisaphernes, and, having furnished himself with gifts and 
presents, and an equipage suitable to his dignity, he set out 
to visit him. But the thing did not succeed as he had 
imagined, for Tisaphernes had been long suspected by the 
Lacedaemonians, and was afraid to fall into disgrace with 
his king upon that account, and therefore thought that Al- 
cibiades arrived very opportunely, and immediately caused 
him to be seized, and sent away prisoner to Sardis; fancy- 
ing, by this act of injustice, to clear himself from all former 
imputations. 

But about thirty days after, Alcibiades escaped from his 
keepers, and, having got a horse, fled to Clazomenae, where 
he procured Tisaphernes additional disgrace by professing 
he was a party to his escape. From there he sailed to the 
Athenian camp, and, being informed there that Mindarus 
and Pharnabazus were together at Cyzicus, he made a speech 
to the soldiers, telling them that sea-fighting, land-fighting, 
and, by the gods, fighting against fortified cities too, must be 
all one for them, as, unless they conquered everywhere, 
there was no money for them. As soon as ever he got them 
on ship-board, he hasted to Proconnesus, and gave command 
to seize all the small vessels they met, and guard them safely 



ALCIBIADES 139 

In the interior of the fleet, that the enemy might have no 
notice of his coming; and a great storm of rain, accompanied 
•with thunder and darkness, which happened at the same 
time, contributed much to the concealment of his enterprise. 
Indeed, it was not only undiscovered by the enemy, but the 
Athenians themselves were ignorant of it, for he commanded 
them suddenly on board, and set sail when they had aban- 
doned all intention of it. As the darkness presently passed 
away, the Peloponnesian fleet were seen riding out at sea in 
front of the harbor of Cyzicus. Fearing, if they discovered 
the number of his ships, they might endeavor to save them- 
selves by land, he commanded the rest of the captains to 
slacken, and follow him slowly, whilst he, advancing with 
forty ships, showed himself to the enemy, and provoked 
them to fight. The enemy, being deceived as to their num- 
bers, despised them, and, supposing they were to contend 
with those only, made themselves ready and began the fight. 
But as soon as they were engaged, they perceived the other 
part of the fleet coming down upon them, at which they were 
so terrified that they fled immediately. Upon that, Alcibi- 
ades, breaking through the midst of them with twenty of 
his best ships, hastened to the shore, disembarked, and pur- 
sued those who abandoned their ships and fled to land, and 
made a great slaughter of them. Mindarus and Pharna- 
bazus, coming to their succor, were utterly defeated. Min- 
darus was slain upon the place, fighting valiantly; Pharna- 
bazus saved himself by flight. The Athenians slew great 
numbers of their enemies, won much spoil, and took all their 
ships. They also made themselves masters of Cyzicus, which 
was deserted by Pharnabazus, and destroyed its Pelopon- 
nesian garrison, and thereby not only secured to themselves 
the Hellespont, but by force drove the Lacedaemonians from 
out of all the rest of the sea. They intercepted some letters 
written to the ephors, which gave an account of this fatal 
overthrow, after their short laconic manner. "Our hopes 
are at an end. Mindarus is slain. The men starve. We 
know not what to do." 

The soldiers who followed Alcibiades in this last fight 
were so exalted with their success, and felt that degree of 
pride, that, looking on themselves as invincible, they dis- 



140 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

dained to mix with the other soldiers, who had been often 
overcome. For it happened not long before, Thrasyllus had 
received a defeat near Ephesus, and, upon that occasion, the 
Ephesians erected their brazen trophy to the disgrace of the 
Athenians. The soldiers of Alcibiades reproached those who 
were under the command of Thrasyllus with this misfortune, 
at the same time magnifying themselves and their own com- 
mander, and it went so far that they would not exercise with 
them, nor lodge in the same quarters. But soon after, Phar- 
nabazus, with a great force of horse and foot, falling upon 
the soldiers of Thrasyllus, as they were laying waste the 
territory of Abydos, Alcibiades came to their aid, routed 
Pharnabazus, and, together with Thrasyllus, pursued him 
till it was night; and in this action the troops uiiited, and 
returned together to the camp, rejoicing and congratulating 
one another. The next day he erected a trophy, and then 
proceeded to lay waste with fire and sword the whole prov- 
ince which was under Pharnabazus, where none ventured 
to resist; and he took divers priests and priestesses, but re- 
leased them without ransom. He prepared next to attack 
the Chalcedonians, who had revolted from the Athenians, 
and had received a Lacedaemonian governor and garrison. 
But having intelligence that they had removed their corn 
and cattle out of the fields, and were conveying it all to the 
Bithynians, who were their friends, he drew down his army 
to the frontier of the Bithynians, and then sent a herald to 
charge them with this proceeding. The Bithynians, terri- 
fied at his approach, delivered up to him the booty, and 
entered into alliance with him. 

Afterwards he proceeded to the siege of Chalcedon, and 
enclosed it with a wall from sea to sea. Pharnabazus ad- 
vanced with his forces to raise the siege, and Hippocrates, 
the governor of the town, at the same time, gathering to- 
gether all the strength he had, made a sally upon the Athe- 
nians. Alcibiades divided his army so as to engage them 
both at once, and not only forced Pharnabazus to a dishonor- 
able flight, but defeated Hippocrates, and killed him and a 
number of the soldiers with him. After this he sailed into 
the Hellespont, in order to raise supplies of money, and took 
the city of Selymbria, in which action, through his precipi- 



ALCIBIADES 141 

tation, he exposed himself to great danger. For some within 
the town had undertaken to betray it into his hands, and, by 
agreement, were to give him a signal by a lighted torch 
about midnight. But one of the conspirators beginning to 
repent himself of the design, the rest, for fear of being dis- 
covered, were driven to give the signal before the appointed 
hour. Alcibiades, as soon as he saw the torch lifted up in 
the air, though his army was not in readiness to march, ran 
instantly towards the walls, taking with him about thirty 
men only, and commanding the rest of the army to follow 
him with all possible speed. When he came thither, he found 
the gate opened for him, and entered with his thirty men, 
and about twenty more light-armed men, who were come up 
to them. They were no sooner in the city, but he perceived 
the Selymbrians all armed, coming down upon him; so that 
there was no hope of escaping if he stayed to receive them ; 
and, on the other hand, having been always successful till 
that day, wherever he commanded, he could not endure to 
be defeated and fly. So, requiring silence by sound of a 
trumpet, he commanded one of his men to make proclama- 
tion that the Selymbrians should not take arms against the 
Athenians. This cooled such of the inhabitants as were 
fiercest for the fight, for they supposed that all their ene- 
mies were within the walls, and it raised the hopes of others 
who were disposed to an accommodation. Whilst they were 
parleying, and propositions making on one side and the 
other, Alcibiades's whole army came up to the town. And 
now, conjecturing rightly, that the Selymbrians were well 
inclined to peace, and fearing lest the city might be sacked 
by the Thracians, who came in great numbers to his army 
to serve as volunteers, out of kindness for him, he com- 
manded them all to retreat without the walls. And upon the 
submission of the Selymbrians, he saved them from being 
pillaged, only taking of them a sum of money, and, after 
placing an Athenian garrison in the town, departed. 

During this action, the Athenian captains who besieged 
Chalcedon concluded a treaty with Pharnabazus upon these 
articles : That he should give them a sum of money ; that the 
Chalcedonians should return to the subjection of Athens; 
and that the Athenians should make no inroad into the prov- 



142 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

ince whereof Phamabazus was governor; and Pharnabazus 
was also to provide safe conducts for the Athenian ambas- 
sadors to the king of Persia. Afterwards, when Alcibiades 
returned thither, Pharnabazus required that he also should 
be sworn to the treaty; but he refused it, unless Pharna- 
bazus would swear at the same time. When the treaty was 
sworn to on both sides Alcibiades went against the Byzan- 
tines, who had revolted from the Athenians, and drew a line 
of circumvallation about the city. But Anaxilaus and 
Lycurgus, together with some others, having undertaken to 
betray the city to him upon his engagement to preserve the 
lives and property of the inhabitants, he caused a report to 
be spread abroad, as if, by reason of some unexpected move- 
ment in Ionia, he should be obUged to raise the siege. And, 
accordingly, that day he made a show to depart with his 
whole fleet; but returned the same night, and went ashore 
with all his men at arms, and, silently and undiscovered, 
marched up to the walls. At the same time, his ships rowed 
into the harbor with all possible violence, coming on with 
much fury, and with great shouts and outcries. The Byzan- 
tines, thus surprised and astonished, while they all hurried 
to the defence of their port and shipping, gave opportunity 
to those who favored the Athenians, securely to receive 
Alcibiades into the city. Yet the enterprise was not accom- 
plished without fighting, for the Peloponnesians, Boeotians, 
and Megarians not only repulsed those who came out of the 
ships, and forced them on board again, but, hearing that the 
Athenians were entered on the other side, drew up in order, 
and went to meet them. Alcibiades, however, gained the 
victory after some sharp fighting, in which he himself had 
the command of the right wing, and Theramenes of the left, 
and took about three hundred, who survived of the enemy, 
prisoners of war. After the battle, not one of the Byzan- 
tines was slain, or driven out of the city, according to the 
terms upon which the city was put into his hands, that they 
should receive no prejudice in life or property. And thus 
Anaxilaus, being afterwards accused at Lacedsemon for this 
treason, neither disowned nor professed to be ashamed of 
the action; for he urged that he was not a Lacedaemonian, 
but a Byzantine, and saw not Sparta, but Byzantium, in ex- 



ALCIBIADES 14S 

treme danger; the city so blockaded that it was not possible 
to bring in any new provisions, and the Peloponnesians and 
Boeotians, who were in garrison, devouring the old stores, 
whilst the Byzantines, with their wives and children, were 
starving; that he had not, therefore, betrayed his country 
to enemies, but had delivered it from the calamities of war, 
and had but followed the example of the most worthy Lace- 
daemonians, who esteemed nothing to be honorable and just, 
but what was profitable for their country. The Lacedae- 
monians, upon hearing his defence, respected it, and dis- 
charged all that were accused. 

And now Alcibiades began to desire to see his native 
country again, or rather to show his fellow-citizens a person 
who had gained so many victories for them. He set sail 
for Athens, the ships that accompanied him, being adorned 
with great numbers of shields and other spoils, and towing 
after them many galleys taken from the enemy, and the en- 
signs and ornaments of many others which he had sunk and 
destroyed ; all of them together amounting to two hundred. 
Little credit, perhaps, can be given to what Duris the 
Samian, who professed to be descended from Alcibiades, 
adds, that Chrysogonus, who had gained a victory at the 
Pythian games, played upon his flute for the galleys, whilst 
the oars kept time with the music; and that Callippides, the 
tragedian, attired in his buskins, his purple robes, and other 
ornaments used in the theatre, gave the word to the rowers, 
and that the admiral galley entered into the port with a 
purple sail. Neither Theopompus, nor Ephorus, nor Xeno- 
phon, mentioned them. Nor, indeed, is it credible, that one 
who returned from so long an exile, and such variety of mis- 
fortunes, should come home to his countrymen in the style of 
revellers breaking up from a drinking-party. On the con- 
trary, he entered the harbor full of fear, nor would he ven- 
ture to go on shore, till, standing on the deck, he saw 
Euryptolemus, his cousin, and others of his friends and 
acquaintance, who were ready to receive him, and invited 
him to land. As soon as he was landed, the multitud^^ who 
came out to meet him scarcely seemed so much as to see any 
of the other captains, but came in throngs about Alcibiades, 
and saluted him with loud acclamations, and still followed 



144 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

him; those who could press near him crowned him with 
garlands, and they who could not come up so close yet stayed 
to behold him afar off, and the old men pointed him out, and 
showed him to the young ones. Nevertheless, this public 
joy was mixed with some tears, and the present happiness 
was allayed by the remembrance of the miseries they had 
endured. They made reflections, that they could not have 
so unfortunately miscarried in Sicily, or been defeated in 
any of their other expectations, if they had left the manage- 
ment of their affairs formerly, and the command of their 
forces, to Alcibiades, since, upon his undertaking the ad- 
ministration, when they were in a manner driven from the 
sea, and could scarce defend the suburbs of their city by 
land, and, at the same time, were miserably distracted with 
intestine factions, he had raised them up from this low and 
deplorable condition, and had not only restored them to their 
ancient dominion of the sea, but had also made them every- 
where victorious over their enemies on land. 

There had been a decree for recalling him from his ban- 
ishment already passed by the people, at the instance of 
Critias, the son of Callseschrus, as appears by his elegies, in 
which he puts Alcibiades in mind of this service: — 

From my proposal did that edict come, 

Which from your tedious exile brought you home. 

The public vote at first was moved by me, 

And my voice put the seal to the decree. 

The people being summoned to an assembly, Alcibiades came 
in amongst them, and first bewailed and lamented his own 
sufferings, and, in gentle terms complaining of the usage he 
had received, imputed all to his hard fortune, and some ill 
genius that attended him: then he spoke at large of their 
prospects, and exhorted them to courage and good hope. 
The people crowned him with crowns of gold, and created 
him general, both at land and sea, with absolute power. 
They also made a decree that his estate should be restored 
to him, and that the Eumolpidse and the holy heralds should 
absolve him from the curses which they had solemnly pro- 
nounced against him by sentence of the people. Which 
when all the rest obeyed, Theodorus, the high-priest, ex- 



ALCIBIADES 145 

cused himself, "For," said he, "if he is innocent, I never 
cursed him." 

But notwithstanding the affairs of Alcibiades went so 
prosperously, and so much to his glory, yet many were still 
somewhat disturbed, and looked upon the time of his arrival 
to be ominous. For on the day that he came into the port, 
the feast of the goddess Minerva, which they call the Plyn- 
teria, was kept. It is the twenty-fifth day of Thargelion, 
when the Praxiergidse solemnize their secret rites, taking 
all the ornaments from off her image, and keeping the part 
of the temple where it stands close covered. Hence the 
Athenians esteem this day most inauspicious, and never 
undertake any thing of importance upon it; and, therefore, 
they imagined that the goddess did not receive Alcibiades 
graciously and propitiously, thus hiding her face and re- 
jecting him. Yet, notwithstanding, every thing succeeded 
according to his wish. When the one hundred galleys, that 
were to return with him, were fitted out and ready to sail, 
an honorable zeal detained him till the celebration of the 
mysteries was over. For ever since Decelea had been occu- 
pied, as the enemy commanded the roads leading from 
Athens to Eleusis, the procession, being conducted by sea, 
had not been performed with any proper solemnity; they 
were forced to omit the sacrifices and dances and other holy 
ceremonies, which had usually been performed in the way, 
when they led forth lacchus. Alcibiades, therefore, judged 
it would be a glorious action, which would do honor to the 
gods and gain him esteem with men, if he restored the 
ancient splendor to these rites, escorting the procession again 
by land, and protecting it with his army in the face of the 
enemy. For either, if Agis stood still and did not oppose, 
it would very much diminish and obscure his reputation, or, 
in the other alternative, Alcibiades would engage in a holy 
war, in the cause of the gods, and in defence of the most 
sacred and solemn ceremonies; and this in the sight of his 
country, where he should have all his fellow-citizens wit- 
nesses of his valor. As soon as he had resolved upon this 
design, and had communicated it to the Eumolpidae and 
heralds, he placed sentinels on the tops of the hills, and at 
the break of day sent forth his scouts. And then taking 



146 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

with him the priests and Initiates" and the Initiators, and 
encompassing them with his soldiers, he conducted them with 
great order and profound silence; an august and venerable 
procession, wherein all who did not envy him said, he per- 
formed at once the office of a high-priest and of a general. 
The enemy did not dare to attempt any thing against them, 
and thus he brought them back in safety to the city. Upon 
which, as he was exalted in his own thought, so the opinion 
which the people had of his conduct was raised to that de- 
gree, that they looked upon their armies as irresistible and 
invincible while he commanded them; and he so won, in- 
deed, upon the lower and meaner sort of people, that they 
passionately desired to have him "tyrant" over them, and 
some of them did not scruple to tell him so, and to advise 
him to put himself out of the reach of envy, by abolishing 
the laws and ordinances of the people, and suppressing the 
idle talkers that were ruining the state, that so he might act 
and take upon him the management of affairs, without stand- 
ing in fear of being called to an account. 

How far his own inclinations led him to usurp sovereign 
power, is uncertain, but the most considerable persons in the 
city were so much afraid of it, that they hastened him on 
ship-board as speedily as they could, appointing the colleagues 
whom he chose, and allowing him all other things as he de- 
sired. Thereupon he set sail with a fleet of one hundred 
ships, and, arriving at Andros, he there fought with and de- 
feated as well the inhabitants as the Lacedaemonians who 
assisted them. He did not, however, take the city; which 
gave the first occasion to his enemies for all their accusations 
against him. Certainly, if ever man was ruined by his own 
glory, it was Alcibiades. For his continual success had pro- 
duced such an idea of his courage and conduct, that, if he 
failed in any thing he undertook, it was imputed to his neg- 
lect, and no one would believe it was through want of power. 
For they thought nothing was too hard for him, if he went 
about it in good earnest. They fancied, every day, that they 
should hear news of the reduction of Chios, and of the 
rest of Ionia, and grew impatient that things were not ef- 
fected as fast and as rapidly as they could wish for them. 
* Mystae and Mystagogi. 



ALCIBIADES 147 

They never considered how extremely money was wanting, 
and that, having to carry on war with an enemy who had 
supplies of all things from a great king, he was often forced 
to quit his armament, in order to procure money and pro- 
visions for the subsistence of his soldiers. This it was which 
gave occasion for the last accusation which was made 
against him. For Lysander, being sent from Lacedasmon 
with a commission to be admiral of their fleet, and being 
furnished by Cyrus with a great sum of money, gave every 
sailor four obols a day, whereas before they had but three. 
Alcibiades could hardly allow his men three obols, and there- 
fore was constrained to go into Caria to furnish himself 
with money. He left the care of the fleet, in his absence, to 
Antiochus, an experienced seaman, but rash and inconsid- 
erate, who had express orders from Alcibiades not to en- 
gage, though the enemy provoked him. But he slighted and 
disregarded these directions to that degree, that, having 
made ready his own galley and another, he stood for Ephe- 
sus, where the enemy lay, and, as he sailed before the heads 
of their galleys, used every provocation possible, both in 
words and deeds. Lysander at first manned out a few ships, 
and pursued him. But all the Athenian ships coming in to 
his assistance, Lysander, also, brought up his whole fleet, 
which gained an entire victory. He slew Antiochus himself, 
took many men and ships, and erected a trophy. 

As soon as Alcibiades heard this news, he returned to 
Samos, and loosing from thence with his whole fleet, came 
and offered battle to Lysander. But Lysander, content with 
the victory he had gained, would not stir. Amongst others 
in the army who hated Alcibiades, Thrasybulus, the son of 
Thrason, was his particular enemy, and went purposely to 
Athens to accuse him, and to exasperate his enemies in the 
city against him. Addressing the people, he represented that 
Alcibiades had ruined their affairs and lost their ships by 
mere self-conceited neglect of his duties, committing the 
government of the army, in his absence, to men who gained 
his favor by drinking and scurrilous talking, whilst he wan- 
dered up and down at pleasure to raise money, giving him- 
self up to every sort of luxury and excess amongst the cour- 
tesans of Abydos and Ionia, at a time when the enemy's 



148 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

navy were on the watch close at hand. It was also objected 
to him, that he had fortified a castle near Bisanthe in Thrace, 
for a safe retreat for himself, as one that either could not, 
or would not, live in his own country. The Athenians gave 
credit to these informations, and showed the resentment and 
displeasure which they had conceived against him, by choos- 
ing other generals. 

As soon as Alcibiades heard of this, he immediately for- 
sook the army, afraid of what might follow ; and, collecting 
a body of mercenary soldiers, made war upon his own ac- 
count against those Thracians who called themselves free, 
and acknowledged no king. By this means he amassed to 
himself a considerable treasure, and, at the same time, se- 
cured the bordering Greeks from the incursions of the 
barbarians. 

Tydeus, Menander, and Adimantus, the new-made gen- 
erals, were at that time posted at ^gospotami, with all the 
ships which the Athenians had left. From whence they 
were used to go out to sea every morning, and offer battle 
to Lysander, who lay near Lampsacus; and when they had 
done so, returning back again, lay, all the rest of the day, 
carelessly and without order, in contempt of the enemy. 
Alcibiades, who was not far off, did not think so slightly of 
their danger, nor neglect to let them know it, but, mounting 
his horse, came to the generals, and represented to them 
that they had chosen a very inconvenient station, where there 
was no safe harbor, and where they were distant from any 
town; so that they were constrained to send for their neces- 
sary provisions as far as Sestos. He also pointed out to 
them their carelessness in suffering the soldiers, when they 
went ashore, to disperse and wander up and down at their 
pleasure, while the enemy's fleet, under the command of one 
general, and strictly obedient to discipline, lay so very near 
them. He advised them to remove the fleet to Sestos. But 
the admirals not only disregarded what he said, but Tydeus, 
with insulting expressions, commanded him to be gone, say- 
ing, that now not he, but others, had the command of the 
forces. Alcibiades, suspecting something of treachery in 
them, departed, and told his friends, who accompanied him 
out of the camp, that if the generals had not used him with 



ALCIBIADES 149 

such insupportable contempt, he would within a few days 
have forced the Lacedaemonians, however unwilling, either 
to have fought the Athenians at sea, or to have deserted 
their ships. Some looked upon this as a piece of ostentation 
only; others said, the thing was probable, for that he might 
have brought down by land great numbers of the Thracian 
cavalry and archers, to assault and disorder them in their 
camp. The event, however, soon made it evident how 
rightly he had judged of the errors which the Athenians 
committed. For Lysander fell upon them on a sudden, when 
they least suspected it, with such fury that Conon alone, 
with eight galleys, escaped him; all the rest, which were 
about two hundred, he took and carried away, together with 
three thousand prisoners, whom he put to death. And 
within a short time after, he took Athens itself, burnt all 
the ships which he found there, and demolished their long 
walls. 

After this Alcibiades, standing in dread of the Lacedae- 
monians, who were now masters both at sea and land, retired 
into Bithynia. He sent thither great treasure before him, 
took much with him, but left much more in the castle where 
he had before resided. But he lost great part of his wealth 
in Bithynia, being robbed by some Thracians who lived in 
those parts, and thereupon determined to go to the court of 
Artaxerxes, not doubting but that the king, if he would make 
trial of his abilities, would find him not inferior to Themis- 
tocles, besides that he was recommended by a more honor- 
able cause. For he went, not as Themistocles did, to offer 
his services against his fellow-citizens, but against their 
enemies, and to implore the king's aid for the defence of his 
country. He concluded that Pharnabazus would most 
readily procure him a safe conduct, and therefore went into 
Phrygia to him, and continued to dwell there some time, 
paying him great respect, and being honorably treated by 
him. The Athenians, in the mean time, were miserably 
afflicted at their loss of empire, but when they were deprived 
of liberty also, and Lysander set up thirty despotic rulers in 
the city, in their ruin now they began to turn to those 
thoughts which, while safety was yet possible, they would 
not entertain; they acknowledged and bewailed their former 



ISO PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

errors and follies, and judged this second ill-usage of Alcibi- 
ades to be of all the most inexcusable. For he was rejected, 
without any fault committed by himself; and only because 
they were incensed against his subordinate for having shame- 
fully lost a few ships, they much more shamefully 
deprived the commonwealth of its most valiant and ac- 
complished general. Yet in this sad state of affairs, they 
had still some faint hopes left them, nor would they utterly 
despair of the Athenian commonwealth, while Alcibiades 
was safe. For they persuaded themselves that if before, 
when he was an exile, he could not content himself to live 
idly and at ease, much less now, if he could find any favor- 
able opportunity, would he endure the insolence of the Lace- 
daemonians, and the outrages of the Thirty. Nor was it an 
absurd thing in the people to entertain such imaginations, 
when the Thirty themselves were so very solicitous to be 
informed and to get intelligence of all his actions and de- 
signs. In fine, Critias represented to Lysander that the 
Lacedaemonians could never securely enjoy the dominion of 
Greece, till the Athenian democracy was absolutely de- 
stroyed ; and though now the people of Athens seemed 
quietly and patiently to submit to so small a number of gov- 
ernors, yet so long as Alcibiades lived, the knowledge of this 
fact would never suffer them to acquiesce in their present 
circumstances. 

Yet Lysander would not be prevailed upon by these repre- 
sentations, till at last he received secret orders from the 
magistrates of Lacedaemon, expressly requiring him to get 
Alcibiades despatched: whether it was that they feared his 
energy and boldness in enterprising what was hazardous, 
or that it was done to gratify king Agis. Upon receipt of 
this order, Lysander sent away a messenger to Pharnabazus, 
desiring him to put it in execution. Pharnabazus committed 
the affair to Magaeus, his brother, and to his uncle Susa- 
mithres. Alcibiades resided at that time in a small village 
in Phrygia, together with Timandra, a mistress of his. As 
he slept, he had this dream : he thought himself attired in his 
mistress's habit, and that she, holding him in her arms, 
dressed his head and painted his face as if he had been a 
woman; others say, he dreamed that he saw Magaeus cut off 



ALCIBIADES 151 

his head and burn his body; at any rate, it was but a little 
while before his death that he had these visions. Those 
who were sent to assassinate him had not courage enough 
to enter the house, but surrounded it first, and set it on fire. 
Alcibiades, as soon as he perceived it, getting together great 
quantities of clothes and furniture, threw them upon the fire 
to choke it, and, having wrapped his cloak about his left 
arm, and holding his naked sword in his right, he cast him- 
self into the middle of the fire, and escaped securely through 
it, before his clothes were burnt. The barbarians, as soon 
as they saw him, retreated, and none of them durst stay to 
expect him, or to engage with him, but, standing at a dis- 
tance, they slew him with their darts and arrows. When he 
was dead, the barbarians departed, and Timandra took up 
his dead body, and, covering and wrapping it up in her own 
robes, she buried it as decently and as honorably as her cir- 
cumstances would allow. It is said, that the famous Lais, 
who was called the Corinthian, though she was a native of 
Hyccara, a small town in Sicily, from whence she was 
brought a captive, was the daughter of this Timandra. 
There are some who agree with this account of Alcibiades's 
death in all points, except that they impute the cause of it 
neither to Pharnabazus, nor Lysander, nor the Lacedaemo- 
nians: but, they say, he was keeping with him a young lady 
of a noble house, whom he had debauched, and that her 
brothers, not being able to endure the indignity, set fire by 
night to the house where he was living, and, as he endeav- 
ored to save himself from the flames, slew him with their 
darts, in the manner just related. 



CORIOLANUS 

THE patrician house of the Marcii in Rome produced 
many men of distinction, and among the rest, Ancus 
Marcius, grandson to Numa by his daughter, and 
king after Tullus Hostilius. Of the same family were also 
Publius and Quintus Marcius, which two conveyed into the 
city the best and most abundant supply of water they have 
at Rome. As likewise Censorinus, who, having been twice 
chosen censor by the people, afterwards himself induced 
them to make a law that nobody should bear that office 
twice. But Caius Marcius, of whom I now write, being left 
an orphan, and brought up under the widowhood of his 
mother, has shown us by experience, that, although the 
early loss of a father may be attended with other disadvan- 
tages, yet it can hinder none from being either virtuous or 
eminent in the world, and that it is no obstacle to true good- 
ness and excellence ; however bad men may be pleased to 
lay the blame of their corruptions upon that misfortune and 
the neglect of them in their minority. Nor is he less an 
evidence to the truth of their opinion, who conceive that a 
generous and worthy nature without proper discipline, like 
a rich soil without culture, is apt, with its better fruits, to 
produce also much that is bad and faulty. While the force 
and vigor of his soul, and a persevering constancy in all he 
undertook, led him successfully into many noble achievements, 
yet, on the other side, also, by indulging the vehemence of 
his passion, and through an obstinate reluctance to yield or 
accommodate his humors and sentiments to those of people 
about him, he rendered himself incapable of acting and asso- 
ciating with others. Those who saw with admiration how 
proof his nature was against all the softnesses of pleasure, the 
hardships of service and the allurements of gain, while 
allowing to that universal firmness of his the respec- 

152 



CORIOLANUS 153 

tfve names of temperance, fortitude, and justice, yet, in the 
life of the citizen and the statesman, could not choose but 
be disgusted at the severity and ruggedness of his deport- 
ment, and with his overbearing, haughty, and imperious 
temper. Education and study, and the favors of the muses, 
confer no greater benefit on those that seek them, than these 
humanizing and civilizing lessons, which teach our natural 
qualities to submit to the limitations prescribed by reason, 
and to avoid the wildness of extremes. 

Those were times at Rome in which that kind of worth 
was most esteemed which displayed itself in military achieve- 
ments; one evidence of which we find in the Latin word for 
virtue, which is properly equivalent to manly courage. As 
if valor and all virtue had been the same thing, they used 
as the common term the name of the particular excellence. 
But Marcius, having a more passionate inclination than any 
of that age for feats of war, began at once, from his very 
childhood, to handle arms ; and feeling that adventitious 
implements and artificial arms would effect little, and be of 
small use to such as have not their native and natural 
weapons well fixed and prepared for service, he so exercised 
and inured his body to all sorts of activity and encounter, 
that, besides the lightness of a racer, he had a weight in 
close seizures and wrestlings with an enemy, from which it 
was hard for any to disengage himself; so that his competi- 
tors at home in displays of bravery, loath to own themselves 
inferior in that respect, were wont to ascribe their deficien- 
cies to his strength of body, which they said no resistance 
and no fatigue could exhaust. 

The first time he went out to the wars, being yet a strip- 
ling, was when Tarquinius Superbus, who had been king of 
Rome and was afterwards expelled, after many unsuccess- 
ful attempts, now entered upon his last effort, and proceeded 
to hazard all as it were upon a single throw. A great num- 
ber of the Latins and other people of Italy joined their 
forces, and were marching with him toward the city, to pro- 
cure his restoration; not, however, so much out of a desire 
to serve and oblige Tarquin, as to gratify their own fear 
and envy at the increase of the Roman greatness, which 
they were anxious to check and reduce. The armies met 



154 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

and engaged in a decisive battle, in the vicissitudes of which, 
Marcius, while fighting bravely in the dictator's presence, 
saw a Roman soldier struck down at a little distance, and 
immediately stepped in and stood before him, and slew his 
assailant. The general, after having gained the victory, 
crowned him for this act, one of the first, with a garland of 
oaken branches; it being the Roman custom thus to adorn 
those who had saved the life of a citizen ; whether that the 
law intended some special honor to the oak, in memory of 
the Arcadians, a people the oracle had made famous by the 
name of acorn-eaters;^ or whether the reason of it was be- 
cause they might easily, and in all places where they fought, 
have plenty of oak for that purpose; or, finally, whether 
the oaken wreath, being sacred to Jupiter, the guardian of 
the city, might, therefore, be thought a proper ornament for 
one who preserved a citizen. And the oak, in truth, is the 
tree which bears the most and the prettiest fruit of any that 
grow wild, and is the strongest of all that are under cultiva- 
tion; its acorns were the principal diet of the first mortals, 
and the honey found in it gave them drink. I may say, too, 
it furnished fowl and other creatures as dainties, in produc- 
ing mistletoe for birdlime to ensnare them. In this battle, 
meantime, it is stated that Castor and Pollux appeared, and, 
immediately after the battle, were seen at Rome just by the 
fountain where their temple now stands, with their horses 
foaming with sweat, and told the news of the victory to the 
people in the Forum. The fifteenth of July, being the day 
of this conquest, became consequently a solemn holiday 
sacred to the Twin Brothers. 

It may be observed, in general, that when young men 
arrive early at fame and repute, if they are of a nature but 
slightly touched with emulation, this early attainment is apt 
to extinguish their thirst and satiate their small appetite; 
whereas the first distinctions of more solid and weighty char- 
acters do but stimulate and quicken them and take them 
away, like a wind, in the pursuit of honor; they look upon 

^ "You ask me for Arcadia," said the oracle to the Spartans, when 
designing their early invasion. "You ask a great thing, I will not grant it. 
There are in Arcadia many acorn-eaters ready to prevent you. I, however, 
grudge you nothing. I grant you to dance about Tegea, and measure out 
the fair plain by the line." 



CORIOLANUS 155 

these marks and testimonies to their virtue not as a recom- 
pense received for what they have already done, but as a 
pledge given by themselves of what they will perform here- 
after, ashamed now to forsake or underlive the credit they 
have won, or, rather, not to exceed and obscure all that is 
gone before by the lustre of their following actions. Mar- 
cius, having a spirit of this noble make, was ambitious al- 
ways to surpass himself, and did nothing, how extraordinary 
soever, but he thought he was bound to outdo it at the next 
occasion ; and ever desiring to give continual fresh instances 
of his prowess, he added one exploit to another, and heaped 
up trophies upon trophies, so as to make it matter of con- 
test also among his commanders, the later still vying with 
the earlier, which should pay him the greatest honor and 
speak highest in his commendation. Of all the numerous 
wars and conflicts in those days, there was not one from 
which he returned without laurels and rewards. And, 
whereas others made glory the end of their daring, the end 
of his glory was his mother's gladness; the delight she took 
to hear him praised and to see him crowned, and her weep- 
ing for joy in his embraces, rendered him, in his own 
thoughts, the most honored and most happy person in the 
world. Epaminondas is similarly said to have acknowledged 
his feeling, that it was the greatest felicity of his whole life 
that his father and mother survived to hear of his success- 
ful generalship and his victory at Leuctra. And he had the 
advantage, indeed, to have both his parents partake with 
him, and enjoy the pleasure of his good fortune. But Mar- 
cius, believing himself bound to pay his mother Volumnia all 
that gratitude and duty which would have belonged to his 
father, had he also been alive, could never satiate himself 
in his tenderness and respect to her. He took a wife, also, 
at her request and wish, and continued, even after he had 
children, to live still with his mother, without parting 
families. 

The repute of his integrity and courage had, by this time, 
gained him a considerable influence and authority in Rome, 
when the senate, favoring the wealthier citizens, began to 
be at variance with the common people, who made sad com- 
plaints of the rigorous and inhuman usage they received 



156 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

from the money-lenders. For as many as were behind with 
them, and had any sort of property, they stripped of all they 
had, by the way of pledges and sales; and such as through 
former exactions were reduced already to extreme indi- 
gence, and had nothing more to be deprived of, these they led 
away in person and put their bodies under constraint, not- 
withstanding the scars and wounds that they could show in 
attestation of their public services in numerous campaigns; 
the last of which had been against the Sabines, which they 
undertook upon a promise made by their rich creditors that 
they would treat them with more gentleness for the future, 
Marcus Valerius, the consul, having, by order from the 
senate, engaged also for the performance of it. But when, 
after they had fought courageously and beaten the enemy, 
there was, nevertheless, no moderation or forbearance used, 
and the senate also professed to remember nothing of that 
agreement, and sat without testifying the least concern to see 
them dragged away like slaves and their goods seized upon 
as formerly, there began now to be open disorders and dan- 
gerous meetings in the city; and the enemy, also, aware of 
the popular confusion, invaded and laid waste the country. 
And when the consuls now gave notice, that all who were of 
an age to bear arms should make their personal appearance, 
but found no one regard the summons, the members of the 
government, then coming to consult what course should be 
taken, were themselves again divided in opinion : some 
thought it most advisable to comply a little in favor of the 
poor, by relaxing their overstrained rights, and mitigating 
the extreme rigor of the law, while others withstood this 
proposal; Marcius in particular, with more vehemence than 
the rest, alleging that the business of money on either side 
was not the main thing in question, urged that this dis- 
orderly proceeding was but the first insolent step towards 
open revolt against the laws, which it would become the 
wisdom of the government to check at the earliest moment. 
There had been frequent assemblies of the whole senate, 
within a small compass of time, about this difficulty, but 
without any certain issue; the poor commonalty, therefore, 
perceiving there was likely to be no redress of their griev- 
ances, on a sudden collected in a body, and, encouraging 



CORIOLANUS 157 

each other in their resolution, forsook the city with one 
accord, and seizing the hill which is now called the Holy 
Mount, sat down by the river Anio, without committing any 
sort of violence or seditious outrage, but merely exclaiming, 
as they went along, that they had this long time past been, 
in fact, expelled and excluded from the city by the cruelty 
of the rich; that Italy would everywhere afford them the 
benefit of air and water and a place of burial, which was all 
they could expect in the city, unless it were, perhaps, the 
privilege of being wounded and killed in time of war for the 
defence of their creditors. The senate, apprehending the 
consequences, sent the most moderate and popular men of 
their own order to treat with them. 

Menenius Agrippa, their chief spokesman, after much en- 
treaty to the people, and much plain speaking on behalf of 
the senate, concluded, at length, with the celebrated fable. 
"It once happened," he said, "that all the other members of 
a man mutinied against the stomach, which they accused as 
the only idle, uncontributing part in the whole body, while 
the rest were put to hardships and the expense of much labor 
to supply and minister to its appetites. The stomach, how- 
ever, merely ridiculed the silliness of the members, who ap- 
peared not to be aware that the stomach certainly does re- 
ceive the general nourishment, but only to return it again, 
and redistribute it amongst the rest. Such is the case," he 
said, "ye citizens, between you and the senate. The counsels 
and plans that are there duly digested, convey and secure to 
all of you, your proper benefit and support." 

A reconciliation ensued, the senate acceding to the request 
of the people for the annual election of five protectors for 
those in need of succor, the same that are now called the 
tribunes of the people; and the first two they pitched upon 
were Junius Brutus and Sicinnius Vellutus, their leaders in 
the secession. 

The city being thus united, the commons stood presently 
to their arms, and followed their commanders to the war 
with great alacrity. As for Marcius, though he was not a 
little vexed himself to see the populace prevail so far, and 
gain ground of the senators, and might observe many other 
patricians have the same dislike of the late concessions, he 



158 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

yet besought them not to yield at least to the common people 
in the zeal and forwardness they now showed for their 
country's service, but to prove that they were superior to 
them, not so much in power and riches, as in merit and 
worth. 

The Romans were now at war with the Volscian nation, 
whose principal city was Corioli ; when, therefore, Cominius 
the consul had invested this important place, the rest of the 
Volscians, fearing it would be taken, mustered up whatever 
force they could from all parts, to relieve it, designing to 
give the Romans battle before the city, and so attack them 
on both sides. Cominius, to avoid this inconvenience, divided 
his army, marching himself with one body to encounter the 
Volscians on their approach from without, and leaving Titus 
Lartius, one of the bravest Romans of his time, to command 
the other and continue the siege. Those within Corioli, de- 
spising now the smallness of their number, made a sally upon 
them, and prevailed at first, and pursued the Romans into 
their trenches. Here it was that Marcius, flying out with a 
slender company, and cutting those in pieces that first en- 
gaged him, obliged the other assailants to slacken their speed; 
and then, with loud cries, called upon the Romans to renew 
the battle. For he had, what Cato thought a great point in 
a soldier, not only strength of hand and stroke, but also a 
voice and look that of themselves were a terror to an enemy. 
Divers of his own party now rallying and making up to him, 
the enemies soon retreated; but Marcius, not content to see 
them draw off and retire, pressed hard upon the rear, and 
drove them, as they fled away in haste, to the very gates of 
their city; where, perceiving the Romans to fall back from 
their pursuit, beaten off by the multitude of darts poured in 
upon them from the walls, and that none of his followers had 
the hardiness to think of falling in pellmell among the fugi- 
tives and so entering a city full of enemies in arms, he, never- 
theless, stood and urged them to the attempt, crying out, that 
fortune had now set open Corioli, not so much to shelter the 
vanquished, as to receive the conquerors. Seconded by a few 
that were willing to venture with him, he bore along through 
the crowd, made good his passage, and thrust himself into 
the gate through the midst of them, nobody at first daring to 



CORIOLANUS 159 

resist him. But when the citizens, on looking about, saw that 
a very small number had entered, they now took courage, and 
came up and attacked them. A combat ensued of the most 
extraordinary description, in which Marcius, by strength of 
hand, and swiftness of foot, and daring of soul, overpowering 
every one that he assailed, succeeded in driving the enemy 
to seek refuge, for the most part, in the interior of the town, 
while the remainder submitted, and threw down their arms; 
thus affording Lartius abundant opportunity to bring in the 
rest of the Romans with ease and safety. 

Corioli being thus surprised and taken, the greater part of 
the soldiers employed themselves in spoiling and pillaging it, 
while Marcius indignantly reproached them, and exclaimed 
that it was a dishonorable and unworthy thing, when the 
consul and their fellow-citizens had now perhaps encountered 
the other Volscians, and were hazarding their lives in battle, 
basely to misspend the time in running up and down for 
booty, and, under a pretence of enriching themselves, keep 
out of danger. Few paid him any attention, but, putting him- 
self at the head of these, he took the road by which the con- 
sul's army had marched before him, encouraging his com- 
panions, and beseeching them, as they went along, not to give 
up, and praying often to the gods, too, that he might be so 
happy as to arrive before the fight was over, and come sea- 
sonably up to assist Cominius, and partake in the peril of the 
action. 

It was customary with the Romans of that age, when they 
were moving into battle array, and were on the point of 
taking up their bucklers, and girding their coats about them, 
to make at the same time an unwritten will, or verbal testa- 
ment, and to name who should be their heirs, in the hearing 
of three or four witnesses. In this precise posture Marcius 
found them at his arrival, the enemy being advanced within 
view. 

They were not a little disturbed by his first appearance, 
seeing him covered with blood and sweat, and attended with 
a small train ; but when he hastily made up to the consul with 
gladness in his looks, giving him his hand, and recountmg to 
him how the city had been taken, and when they saw Cominius 
also embrace and salute him, every one took fresh heart; 



]60 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

those that were near enough hearing, and those that were at 
a distance guessing, what had happened; and all cried out to 
be led to battle. First, however, Marcius desired to know of 
him how the Volscians had arrayed their army, and where 
they had placed their best men, and on his answering that he 
took the troops of the Antiates in the centre to be their prime 
warriors, that would yield to none in bravery, "Let me then 
demand and obtain of you," said Marcius, "that we may be 
posted against them." The consul granted the request, with 
much admiration of his gallantry. And when the conflict 
began by the soldiers darting at each other, and Marcius sal- 
lied out before the rest, the Volscians opposed to him were 
not able to make head against him; wherever he fell in, he 
broke their ranks, and made a lane through them; but the 
parties turning again, and enclosing him on each side with 
their weapons, the consul, who observed the danger he was 
in, despatched some of the choicest men he had for his rescue. 
The conflict then growing warm and sharp about Marcius, 
and many falling dead in a little space, the Romans bore so 
hard upon the enemies, and pressed them with such violence, 
that they forced them at length to abandon their ground, and 
to quit the field. And, going now to prosecute the victory, 
they besought Marcius, tired out with his toils, and faint and 
heavy through the loss of blood, that he would retire to the 
camp. He replied, however, that weariness was not for con- 
querors, and joined with them in the pursuit. The rest of 
the Volscian army was in like manner defeated, great num- 
bers killed, and no less taken captive. 

The day after, when Marcius, with the rest of the army, 
presented themselves at the consul's tent, Cominius rose, and 
having rendered all due acknowledgment to the gods for the 
success of that enterprise, turned next to Marcius, and first 
of all delivered the strongest encomium upon his rare ex- 
ploits, which he had partly been an eye-witness of himself, 
in the late battle, and had partly learned from the testimony 
of Lartius. And then he required him to choose a tenth part 
of all the treasure and horses and captives that had fallen 
into their hands, before any division should be made to 
others; besides which, he made him the special present of 
a horse with trappings and ornaments, in honor of his ac- 



CORIOLAXUS 161 

tions. The whole army applauded; Marcius, however, 
stepped forth, and declaring his thankful acceptance of the 
horse, and his gratification at the praises of his general, said, 
that all other things, which he could only regard rather as 
mercenary advantages than any significations of honor, he 
must waive, and should be content with the ordinary propor- 
tion of such rewards. "I have only," said he, "one special 
grace to beg, and this I hope you will not deny me. There 
was a certain hospitable friend of mine among the Volscians, 
a man of probity and virtue, who is become a prisoner, and 
from former wealth and freedom is now reduced to servitude. 
Among his many misfortunes let my intercession redeem him 
from the one of being sold as a common slave." Such a re- 
fusal and such a request on the part of IMarcius were fol- 
lowed with yet louder acclamations; and he had many more 
admirers of this generous superiority to avarice, than of the 
bravery he had shown in battle. The very persons who con- 
ceived some envy and despite to see him so specially hon- 
ored, could not but acknowledge, that one who so nobly 
could refuse reward, was beyond others worthy to receive 
it; and were more charmed with that virtue which made 
him despise advantage, than with any of those former ac- 
tions that had gained him his title to it. It is the higher 
accomplishment to use money well than to use arms; but 
not to need it is more noble than to use it. 

When the noise of approbation and applause ceased, Com- 
inius, resuming, said, "It is idle, fellow-soldiers, to force and 
obtrude those other gifts of ours on one who is unwilling to 
accept them; let us, therefore, give him one of such a kind 
that he cannot well reject it; let us pass a vote, I mean, that 
he shall hereafter be called Coriolanus, unless you think 
that his performance at Coriolo has itself anticipated any such 
resolution." Hence, therefore, he had his third name of 
Coriolanus, making it all the plainer that Caius was a per- 
sonal proper name, and the second, or surname. Marcius, one 
common to his house and family; the third being a subse- 
quent addition which used to be imposed either from some 
particular act or fortune, bodily characteristic, or good qual- 
ity of the bearer. Just as the Greeks, too, gave additional 
names in old time, in some cases from some achievement, 

F — HC XII 



162 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

Soter, for example, and Callinicus; or personal appearance, 
as Physcon and Grypus; good qualities, Euergetes and Phila- 
delphus; good fortune, Eudaemon, the title of the second 
Battus.' Several monarchs have also had names given them 
in mockery, as Antigonus was called Doson, and Ptolemy, 
Lathyrus. This sort of title was yet more common among 
the Romans. One of the Metelli was surnamed Diadematus, 
because he walked about for a long time with a bandage on 
his head, to conceal a scar; and another, of the same family, 
got the name of Celer, from the rapidity he displayed in 
giving a funeral entertainment of gladiators within a few 
days after his father's death, his speed and energy in doing 
which was thought extraordinary. There are some, too, 
who even at this day take names from certain casual inci- 
dents at their nativity; a child that is born when his father 
is away from home is called Proculus; or Postumus, if after 
his decease; and when twins come into the world, and one 
dies at the birth, the survivor has the name of Vopiscus. 
From bodily peculiarities they derive not only their Syllas 
and Nigers, but their Cseci and Claudii ; wisely endeavoring 
to accustom their people not to reckon either the loss of 
sight, or any other bodily misfortune, as a matter of dis- 
grace to them, but to answer to such names without shame, 
as if they were really their own. But this discussion better 
befits another place. 

The war against the Volscians was no sooner at an end, 
than the popular orators revived domestic troubles, and raised 
another sedition, without any new cause of complaint or just 
grievance to proceed upon, but merely turning the very mis- 
chiefs that unavoidably ensued from their former contests 
into a pretext against the patricians. The greatest part of 
their arable land had been left unsown and without tillage, 
and the time of war allowing them no means or leisure to 
import provision from other countries, there was an extreme 
scarcity. The movers of the people then observing, that there 
was no corn to be bought, and that, if there had been, they 
had no money to buy it, began to calumniate the wealthy 

"Soter, Saviour; Callinicus, Victorious; Physcon, Fat-paunch; Grypus, 
Hook-nose; Euergetes, Benefactor; Philadelphus, Brotherly; Eudsmon, For- 
tunate; Doson, Going-to-give; Lathyrus is not certain. 



CORIOLANUS 163 

with false stories, and whisper it about, as if they, out of 
malice, had purposely contrived the famine. Meanwhile, 
there came an embassy from the Velitrani, proposing to de- 
liver up their city to the Romans, and desiring they would 
send some new inhabitants to people it, as a late pestilential 
disease had swept away so many of the natives, that there 
was hardly a tenth part remaining of their whole com- 
munitv. This necessitv of the Velitrani was considered by 
all more prudent people as most opportune in the present state 
of affairs; since the dearth made it needful to ease the city 
of its superfluous members, and they were in hope also, at the 
same time, to dissipate the gathering sedition by ridding 
themselves of the more violent and heated partisans and 
discharging, so to say, the elements of disease and disorder in 
the state. The consuls, therefore, singled out such citizens to 
supply the desolation at Velitrse, and gave notice to others, 
that they should be ready to march against the \olscians, 
with the politic design of preventing intestine broils by em- 
ployment abroad, and in the hope, that when rich as well as 
poor plebeians and patricians, should be mingled again in 
the same army and the same camp, and engage in one com- 
mon service for the public, it would mutually dispose them 
to reconciliation and friendship. 

But Sicinnius and Brutus, the popular orators, interposed, 
crying out, that the consuls disguised the most cruel and 
barbarous action in the world under that mild and plausible 
name of a colony, and were simply precipitating so many 
poor citizens into a mere pit of destruction, bidding them 
settle down in a country where the air was charged with 
disease and the ground covered with dead bodies, and ex- 
pose themselves to the evil influence of a strange and an- 
gered deity. And then, as if it would not satisfy their 
hatred to destroy some by hunger, and offer others to the 
mercy of a plague, they must proceed to involve them also 
in a needless war of their own making, that no calamity 
might be wanting to complete the punishment o^ ^he citi- 
zens for refusing to submit to that of slavery to the rich 

By such addresses, the people were so possessed, that 
none of them would appear upon the consular summons to 
be enlisted for the war; and they showed entire aversion 



164 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

to the proposal for a new plantation; so that the senate was 
at a loss what to say or do. But Marcius, who began now 
to bear himself higher and to feel confidence in his past 
actions, conscious, too, of the admiration of the best and 
greatest men of Rome, openly took the lead in opposing the 
favorers of the people. The colony was despatched to Veli- 
trse, those that were chosen by lot being compelled to depart 
upon high penalties; and when they obstinately persisted in 
refusing to enroll themselves for the Volscian service, he 
mustered up his own clients, and as many others as could 
be wrought upon by persuasion, and with these made an 
inroad into' the territories of the Antiates, where, finding 
a considerable quantity of corn, and collecting much booty, 
both of cattle and prisoners, he reserved nothing for himself 
in private, but returned safe to Rome, while those that ven- 
tured out with him were seen laden with pillage, and driving 
their prey before them. This sight filled those that had 
stayed at home with regret for their perverseness, with envy 
at their fortunate fellow-citizens, and with feelings of dis- 
like to Marcius, and hostility to his growing reputation and 
power, which might probably be used against the popular 
interest. 

Not long after he stood for the consulship; when, how- 
ever, the people began to relent and incline to favor him, 
being sensible what a shame it would be to repulse and 
affront a man of his birth and merit, after he had done 
them so many signal services. It was usual for those who 
stood for offices among them to solicit and address them- 
selves personally to the citizens, presenting themselves in 
the forum with the toga on alone, and no tunic under it ; 
either to promote their supplications by the humility of their 
dress, or that such as had received wounds might more 
readily display those marks of their fortitude. Certainly, it 
was not out of suspicion of bribery and corruption that they 
required all such petitioners for their favor to appear un- 
girt and open, without any close garment; as it was much 
later, and many ages after this, that buying and selling crept 
in at their elections, and money became an ingredient in the 
public suffrages ; proceeding thence to attempt their tribunals, 
and even attack their camps, till, by hiring the valiant, and 



CORIOLANUS 165 

enslaving iron to silver, it grew master of the state and 
turned their commonwealth into a monarchy. For it was 
well and truly said that the first destroyer of the liberties 
of a people is he who first gave them bounties and largesses. 
At Rome the mischief seems to have stolen secretly in, and 
by little and little, not being at once discerned and taken 
notice of. It is not certainly known who the man was that 
did there first either bribe the citizens, or corrupt the courts; 
whereas, in Athens, Anytus, the son of Anthemion, is said 
to have been the first that gave money to the judges, when 
on his trial, toward the latter end of the Peloponnesian war, 
for letting the fort of Pylos fall into the hands of the enemy; 
in a period while the pure and golden race of men were 
still in possession of the Roman forum. 

Marcius, therefore, as the fashion of candidates was show- 
ing the scars and gashes that were still visible on his body, 
from the many conflicts in which he had signalized himself 
during a service of seventeen years together they were, so 
to say, put out of countenance at this display of merit, and 
told one another that they ought in common modest)' to 
create him consul. But when the day of election was now 
come, and Marcius appeared in the forum, with a pompous 
train of senators attending him, and the patricians all mani- 
fested greater concern, and seemed to be exerting greater 
efforts than they had ever done before on the like occasion. 
the commons then fell off again from the kindness they had 
conceived for him, and in the place of their late benevolence, 
began to feel something of indignation and envy; passions 
assisted by the fear they entertained, that if a man of such 
aristocratic temper, and so influential among the patricians, 
should be invested with the power which that office would 
give him, he might employ it to deprive the people of all 
that liberty which was yet left them. In conclusion, they 
rejected Marcius. Two other names were announced, to 
the great mortification of the senators, who felt as if the in- 
dignity reflected rather upon themselves than on Marcius. 
He. for his part, could not bear the affront with any patience. 
He had always indulged his temper, and had regarded the 
proud and contentious element of human nature as a sort 
of nobleness and magnanimity; reason and discipline had 



166 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

not imbued him with that solidity and equanimity which 
enters so largely into the virtues of the statesman. He had 
never learned how essential it is for any one who undertakes 
public business, and desires to deal with mankind, to avoid 
above all things that self-will, which, as Plato says, belongs 
to the family of solitude ; and to pursue, above all things, 
that capacity so generally ridiculed, of submission to ill- 
treatment. Marcius, straightforward and direct, and pos- 
sessed with the idea that to vanquish and overbear all oppo- 
sition is the true part of bravery, and never imagining that 
it was the weakness and womanishness of his nature that 
broke out, so to say, in these ulcerations of anger, retired, 
full of fury and bitterness against the people. The young 
patricians, too, all that were proudest and most conscious of 
their noble birth, had always been devoted to his interest, 
and, adhering to him now, with a fidelity that did him no 
good, aggravated his resentment with the expression of their 
indignation and condolence. He had been their captain, and 
their willing instructor in the arts of war, when out upon 
expeditions, and their model in that true emulation and love 
of excellence which makes men extol, without envy or jeal- 
ousy, each other's brave achievements. 

In the midst of these distempers a large quantity of corn 
reached Rome, a great part bought up in Italy, but an equal 
amount sent as a present from Syracuse, from Gelo, then 
reigning there. Many began now to hope well of their af- 
fairs, supposing the city, by this means, would be delivered 
at once, both of its want and discord. A council, therefore, 
being presently held, the people came flocking about the 
senate-house, eagerly awaiting the issue of that deliberation, 
expecting that the market-prices would now be less cruel, 
and that what had come as a gift would be distributed as 
such. There were some within who so advised the senate; 
but Marcius, standing up, sharply inveighed against those 
who spoke in favor of the multitude, calling them flatterers 
of the rabble, traitors to the nobility, and alleging, that, by 
such gratifications, they did but cherish those ill seeds of 
boldness and petulance that had been sown among the people, 
to their own prejudice, which they should have done well to 
observe and stifle at their first appearance, and not have suf- 



CORTOLANUS 167 

fered the plebeians to grow so strong, by granting them mag- 
istrates of such authority as the tribunes. They were, indeed, 
even now formidable to the state, since every thing they 
desired was granted them ; no constraint was put on their 
will ; they refused obedience to the consuls, and, overthrow- 
ing all law and magistracy, gave the title of magistrate to 
their private factious leaders. "When things are come to 
such a pass, for us to sit here and decree largesses and boun- 
ties for them, like those Greeks where the populace is su- 
preme and absolute, what would it be else," said he, "but 
to take their disobedience into pay, and maintain it for the 
common ruin of us all ? They certainly cannot look upon 
these liberalities as a reward of public service, which they 
know they have so often deserted ; nor yet of those seces- 
sions, by which they openly renounced their country; much 
less of the calumnies and slanders they have been always so 
ready to entertain against the senate ; but will rather con- 
clude that a bounty which seems to have no other visible 
cause or reason, must needs be the effect of our fear and 
flattery ; and will, therefore, set no limit to their disobedience, 
nor ever cease from disturbances and sedition. Concession 
is mere madness ; if we have any wisdom and resolution at 
all, we shall, on the contrary, never rest till we have re- 
covered from them that tribunician power they have ex- 
torted from us ; as being a plain subversion of the consul- 
ship, and a perpetual ground of separation in our city, that 
is no longer one. as heretofore, but has in this received such 
a wound and rupture, as is never likely to close and unite 
again, or suffer us to be of one mind, and to give over in- 
flaming our distempers, and being a torment to each other." 
Marcius. with much more to this purpose, succeeded, to 
an extraordinary degree, in inspiring the younger men with 
the same furious sentiments, and had almost all the wealthy 
on his side, who cried him up as the only person their city 
had, superior alike to force and flattery ; some of the older 
men, however, opposed him, suspecting the consequences. 
As, indeed, there came no good of it ; for the tribunes, who 
were present, perceiving how the proposal of Marcius took, 
ran out into the crowd with exclamations, calling on the 
plebeians to stand together, and come in to their assistance. 



168 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

The assembly met and soon became tumultuous. The sum 
of what Marcius had spoken, having been reported to the 
people, excited them to such fury, that they were readv to 
break in upon the senate. The tribunes prevented this, by 
laying all the blame on Coriolanus, whom, therefore, they 
cited by their messengers to come before them, and defend 
himself. And when he contemptuously repulsed the officers 
who brought him the summons, they came themselves, with 
the ^diles, or overseers of the market, proposing to carry 
him away by force, and, accordingly, began to lay hold on 
.his person. The patricians, however, coming to his rescue, 
not only thrust off the tribunes, but also beat the ^diles, that 
were their seconds in the quarrel ; night, approaching, put an 
end to the contest. But as soon as it was day, the consuls, 
observing the people to be highly exasperated, and that they 
ran from all quarters and gathered in the forum, were afraid 
for the whole city, so that, convening the senate afresh, they 
desired them to advise how they might best compose and 
pacify the incensed multitude by equitable language and in- 
dulgent decrees ; since, if they wisely considered the state of 
things, they would find that it was no time to stand upon 
terms of honor, and a mere point of glory ; such a critical 
conjuncture called for gentle methods, and for temperate 
and humane counsels. The majority, therefore, of the sen- 
ators giving way, the consuls proceeded to pacify the people 
in the best manner they were able, answering gently to such 
imputations and charges as had been cast upon the senate, 
and using much tenderness and moderation in the admoni- 
tions and reproofs they gave them. On the point of the 
price of provisions, they said, there should be no difference 
at all between them. When a great part of the commonalty 
was grown cool, and it appeared from their orderly and 
peaceful behavior that they had been very much appeased by 
what they had heard, the tribunes, standing up, declared, 
in the name of the people, that since the senate was pleased 
to act soberly and do them reason, they, likewise, should be 
ready to yield in all that was fair and equitable on their side ; 
they must insist, however, that Marcius should give in his 
answer to the several charges as follows : first, could he deny 
that he instigated the senate to overthrow the government 



CORIOLANUS 169 

and annul the privileges of the people? and. in the next 
place, when called to account for it, did he not disobey their 
summons? and, lastly, by the blows and other public affronts 
to the ^diles, had he not done all he could to commence 
a civil war? 

These articles were brought in against him, with a design 
either to humble Marcius, and show his submission, if, con- 
trary to his nature, he should now court and sue the people ; 
or, if he should follow his natural disposition, which they 
rather expected from their judgment of his character, then 
that he might thus make the breach final between himself 
and the people. 

He came, therefore, as it were, to make his apology, and 
clear himself; in which belief the people kept silence, and 
gave him a quiet hearing. But when, instead of the submis- 
sive and deprecatory language expected from him, he began 
to use not only an offensive kind of freedom, seeming rather 
to accuse than apologize, but, as well by the tone of his voice 
as the air of his countenance, displayed a security that was 
not far from disdain and contempt of them, the whole multi- 
tude then became angry, and gave evident signs of impatience 
and disgust ; and Sicinnius, the most violent of the tribunes, 
after a little private conference with his colleagues, proceeded 
solemnly to pronounce before them all, that Marcius was 
condemned to die by the tribunes of the people, and bid the 
^diles take him to the Tarpeian rock, and without delay 
throw him headlong from the precipice. When they, how- 
ever, in compliance with the order, came to seize upon his 
body, many, even of the plebeian party, felt it to be a hor- 
rible and extravagant act; the patricians, meantime, wholly 
beside themselves with distress and horror, hurried up with 
cries to the rescue ; and while some made actual use of their 
hands to hinder the arrest, and, surrounding Marcius, got 
him in among them, others, as in so great a tumult no good 
could be done by words, stretched out theirs, beseeching the 
multitude that they would not proceed to such furious ex- 
tremities; and at length, the friends and acquaintance of the 
tribunes, wisely perceiving how impossible it would be to 
carry off Marcius to punishment without much blcx^dshed 
and slaughter of the nobility, persuaded them to forbear 



170 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

every thing unusual and odious ; not to despatch him by any 
sudden violence, or without regular process, but refer the 
cause to the general suffrage of the people. Sicinnius then, 
after a little pause, turning to the patricians, demanded 
what their meaning was, thus forcibly to rescue Marcius out 
of the people's hands, as they were going to punish him; 
when it was replied by them, on the other side, and the ques- 
tion put, "Rather, how came it into your minds, and what 
is it you design, thus to drag one of the worthiest men of 
Rome, without trial, to a barbarous and illegal execution?" 
"Very well," said Sicinnius, "you shall have no ground in 
this respect for quarrel or complaint against the people. The 
people grant your request, and your partisan shall be tried. 
We appoint you, Marcius," directing his speech to him, "the 
third market-day ensuing, to appear and defend yourself, and 
to try if you can satisfy the Roman citizens of your inno- 
cence, who will then judge your case by vote." The patri- 
cians were content with such a truce and respite for that 
time, and gladly returned home, having for the present 
brought off Marcius in safety. 

During the interval before the appointed time (for the 
Romans hold their sessions every ninth day, which from 
that cause are called mindinoe in Latin), a war fell out with 
the Antiates, likely to be of some continuance, which gave 
them hope they might one way or other elude the judgment. 
The people, they presumed, would become tractable, and their 
indignation lessen and languish by degrees in so long a space, 
if occupation and war did not wholly put it out of their 
mind. But when, contrary to expectation, they made a 
speedy agreement with the people of Antium, and the army 
came back to Rome, the patricians were again in great per- 
plexity, and had frequent meetings to consider how things 
might be arranged, without either abandoning Marcius, or 
yet giving occasion to the popular orators to create new dis- 
orders. Appius Claudius, whom they counted among the 
senators most averse to the popular interest, made a solemn 
declaration, and told them beforehand, that the senate would 
utterly destroy itself and betray the government, if they 
should once suffer the people to assume the authority of 
pronouncing sentence upon any of the patricians; but the 



CORIOLANUS 171 

oldest senators and most favorable to the people maintained, 
on the other side, that the people would not be so harsh and 
severe upon them, as some were pleased to imagme, but 
rather become more gentle and humane upon the concession 
of that power, since it was not contempt of the senate, but 
the impression of being contemned by it, which made them 
pretend to such a prerogative. Let that be once allowed 
them as a mark of respect and kind feeling, and the mere 
possession of this power of voting would at once dispossess 
them of their animosity. 

When therefore, Marcius saw that the senate was in pain 
and suspense upon his account, divided, as it were betwixt 
their kindness for him and their apprehensions from the 
people he desired to know of the tribunes what the crimes 
were they intended to charge him with, and what the heads 
of the indictment they would oblige him to plead to before 
the people; and being told by them that he was to be ini- 
peached for attempting usurpation, and that they would 
prove him guilty of designing to establish arbitrary govern- 
ment, stepping forth upon this, "Let me go then, he said 
"to clear myself from that imputation before an assembly ot 
them- I freely offer myself to any sort of trial, nor do I 
refuse any kind of punishment whatsoever; only," he con- 
tinued "let what you now mention be really made my accu- 
sation,' and do not you play false with the senate." On their 
consenting to these terms, he came to his trial. But when 
the people met together, the tribunes, contrary to all former 
practice, extorted first, that votes should be taken, not by 
centuries, but tribes; a change, by which the indigent and 
factious rabble, that had no respect for honesty and justice 
would be sure to carry it against those who were rich and 
well known, and accustomed to serve the state in war. In 
the next place, whereas thev had engaged to prosecute Mar- 
cius upon no other head but that of tyranny, which could 
never be made out against him, they relinquished this plea, 
and urged instead, his language in the senate against an 
abatement of the price of corn, and for the overthrow of the 
tribunician power; adding further, as a new impeachment, 
the distribution that was made by him of the spoil and booty 
he had taken from the Antiates, when he overran their coun- 



172 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

try, which he had divided among those that had followed him, 
whereas it ought rather to have been brought into the public 
treasury; which last accusation did, they say, more discom- 
pose Marcius than all the rest, as he had not anticipated he 
should ever be questioned on that subject, and, therefore, 
was less provided with any satisfactory answer to it on the 
sudden. And when, by way of excuse, he began to mag- 
nify the merits of those who had been partakers with him 
in the action, those that had stayed at home, being more 
numerous than the other, interrupted him with outcries. In 
conclusion, when they came to vote, a majority of three 
tribes condemned him; the penalty being perpetual banish- 
ment. The sentence of his condemnation being pronounced, 
the people went away with greater triumph and exultation 
than they had ever shown for any victory over enemies; 
while the senate was in grief and deep dejection, repenting 
now and vexed to the soul that they had not done and suf- 
fered all things rather than give way to the insolence of the 
people, and permit them to assume and abuse so great an 
authority. There was no need then to look at men's dresses, 
or other marks of distinction, to know one from another: 
any one who was glad was, beyond all doubt, a plebeian; 
any one who looked sorrowful, a patrician. 

Marcius alone, himself, was neither stunned nor humili- 
ated. In mien, carriage, and countenance, he bore the ap- 
pearance of entire composure, and while all his friends were 
full of distress, seemed the only man that was not touched 
with his misforttme. Not that either reflection taught him, 
or gentleness of temper made it natural for him, to submit: 
he was wholly possessed, on the contrary, with a profound 
and deep-seated fury, which passes with many for no pain 
at all. And pain, it is true, transmuted, so to say, by its 
own fiery heat into anger, loses every appearance of depres- 
sion and feebleness ; the angry man makes a show of energy, 
as the man in a high fever does of natural heat, while, in 
fact, all this action of the soul is but mere diseased palpita- 
tion, distention, and inflammation. That such was his dis- 
tempered state appeared presently plainly enough in his ac- 
tions. On his return home, after saluting his mother and 
his wife, who were all in tears and full of loud lamentations. 



CORIOLANUS ITS 

and exhorting them to moderate the sense they had of his 
calamity, he proceeded at once to the city gates, whither all 
the nobility came to attend him ; and so, not so much as 
taking any thing with him, or making any request to the 
company, he departed from them, having only three or four 
clients with him. He continued solitary for a few days in a 
place in the country, distracted with a variety of counsels, 
such as rage and indignation suggested to him; and propos- 
ing to himself no honorable or useful end, but only how he 
might best satisfy his revenge on the Romans, he resolved 
at length to raise up a heavy war against them from their 
nearest neighbors. He determined, first to make trial of the 
Volscians, whom he knew to be still vigorous and flourishing, 
both in men and treasure, and he imagined their force and 
power was not so much abated, as their spite and anger 
increased, by the late overthrows they had received from the 
Romans. 

There was a man of Antium, called Tullus Aufidius, who, 
for his wealth and bravery and the splendor of his family, 
had the respect and privilege of a king among the Volscians, 
but whom Marcius knew to have a particular hostility to 
himself, above all other Romans. Frequent menaces and chal- 
lenges had passed in battle between them, and those ex- 
changes of defiance to which their hot and eager emulation 
is apt to prompt young soldiers had added private animosity 
to their national feelings of opposition. Yet for all this, 
considering Tullus to have a certain generosity of temper, 
and knowing that no Volscian, so much as he, desired an 
occasion to requite upon the Romans the evils they had done, 
he did what much confirms the saying, that 

Hard and unequal is with wrath the strife, 
Which makes us buy its pleasure with our life. 

Putting on such a dress as would make him appear to any 
whom he might meet most unlike what he really was, thus, 
like Ulysses, — 

The town he entered of his mortal foes. 

His arrival at Antium was about evening, and though sev- 
eral met him in the streets, yet he passed along without 



174 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

being known to any, and went directly to the house of Tullus, 
and, entering undiscovered, went up to the fire-hearth, and 
seated himself there without speaking a word, covering np 
his head. Those of the family could not but wonder, and 
yet they were afraid either to raise or question him, for 
there was a certain air of majesty both in his posture and 
silence, but they recounted to Tullus, being then at supper, 
the strangeness of this accident. He immediately rose from 
table and came in, and asked him who he was, and for what 
business he came thither; and then Marcius, unmuffling him- 
self, and pausing awhile, "If," said he, "you cannot yet call 
me to mind, Tullus, or do not believe your eyes concerning 
me, I must of necessity be my own accuser. I am Caius 
Marcius, the author of so much mischief to the Volscians; 
of which, were I seeking to deny it, the surname of Corio- 
lanus I now bear would be a sufficient evidence against me. 
The one recompense I received for all the hardships and 
perils I have gone through, was the title that proclaims my 
enmity to your nation, and this is the only thing which is still 
left me. Of all other advantages, I have been stripped and 
deprived by the envy and outrage of the Roman people, and 
the cowardice and treachery of the magistrates and those of 
my own order. I am driven out as an exile, and become an 
humble suppliant at your hearth, not so much for safety and 
protection (should I have come hither, had I been afraid to 
die?), as to seek vengeance against those that expelled me; 
which, methinks, I have already obtained, by putting myself 
into your hands. If, therefore, you have really a mind to 
attack your enemies, come then, make use of that affliction 
you see me in to assist the enterprise, and convert my per- 
sonal infelicity into a common blessing to the Volscians; as, 
indeed, I am likely to be more serviceable in fighting for 
than against you, with the advantage, which I now possess, 
of knowing all the secrets of the enemy that I am attacking. 
But if you decline to make any further attempts, I am neither 
iesirous to live myself, nor will it be well in you to preserve 
a person who has been your rival and adversary of old, and 
now, when he offers you his service, appears unprofitable 
and useless to you." 
Tullus on hearing this, was extremely rejoiced, and giving 



CORIOLANUS ITS 

him his right hand, exclaimed, "Rise, Marcius, and be of 
good courage; it is a great happiness you bring to Antium, 
in the present you make us of yourself ; expect every thing 
that is good from the Volscians." He then proceeded to feast 
and entertain him with every display of kindness, and for 
several days after they were in close deliberation together 
on the prospects of a war. 

While this design was forming, there were great troubles 
and commotions at Rome, from the animosity of the senators 
against the people, heightened just now by the late condem- 
nation of Marcius. Besides that, their soothsayers and priests, 
and even private persons, reported signs and prodigies not 
to be neglected ; one of which is stated to have occurred as 
follows: Titus Latinus,^ a man of ordinary condition, but of 
a quiet and virtuous character, free from all superstitious fan- 
cies, and yet more from vanity and exaggeration, had an ap- 
parition in his sleep, as if Jupiter came and bade him tell 
the senate, that it was with a bad and unacceptable dancer 
that they had headed his procession. Having beheld the 
vision, he said, he did not much attend to it at the first ap- 
pearance; but after he had seen and slighted it a second and 
third time, he had lost a hopeful son, and was himself struck 
with a palsy. He was brought into the senate on a litter to 
tell this, and the story goes, that he had no sooner delivered 
his message there, but he at once felt his strength return, 
and got upon his legs, and went home alone, without need 
of any support. The senators, in wonder and surprise, made 
a diligent search into the matter. That which his dream 
alluded to was this: some citizen had, for some heinous of- 
fence, given up a servant of his to the rest of his fellows, 
with charge to whip him first through the market, and then 
to kill him ; and while they were executing this command, 
and scourging the wretch, who screwed and turned himself 
into all manner of shapes and unseemly motions, through 
the pain he was in, the solemn procession in honor of Jupiter 
chanced to follow at their heels. Several of the attendants 
on which were, indeed, scandalized at the sight, yet no one 
of them interfered, or acted further in the matter than merely 

• The correct name is probably Titus Latinius, for which Tiberius Atiniu& 
in Livy, is merely a misreading. 



176 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

to utter some common reproaches and execrations on a- 
master who inflicted so cruel a punishment. For the Romans 
treated their slaves with great humanity in these time% 
when, working and laboring themselves, and living together 
among them they naturally were more gentle and familiar 
with them. It was one of the severest punishments for a 
slave who had committed a fault, to have to take the piece of 
wood which supports the pole of a wagon, and carry it about 
through the neighborhood; a slave who had once undergone 
the shame of this, and been thus seen by the household and 
the neighbors, had no longer any trust or credit among them, 
and had the name of furcifer; fnrca being the Latin word for 
a prop, or support. 

When, therefore, Latinus had related his dream, and the 
senators were considering who this disagreeable and un- 
gainly dancer could be, some of the company, having been 
struck with the strangeness of the punishment, called to mind 
and mentioned the miserable slave who was lashed through 
the streets and afterward put to death. The priests, when 
consulted confirmed the conjecture; the master was pun- 
ished ; and orders given for a new celebration of the pro- 
cession and the spectacles in honor of the god. Numa, in 
other respects also a wise arranger of religious offices, would 
seem to have been especially judicious in his direction, with a 
view to the attentiveness of the people, that, when the mag- 
istrates or priests performed any divine worship, a herald 
should go before, and proclaim with a loud voice, Hoc age. 
'Do this you are about, and so warn them to mind whatever 
sacred action they were engaged in, and not suffer any busi- 
ness or worldly avocation to disturb and interrupt it; most 
of the things which men do of this kind, being in a manner 
forced from them, and effected by constraint. It is usual 
with the Romans to recommence their sacrifices and proces- 
sions and spectacles, not only upon such a cause as this, but 
for any slighter reason. If but one of the horses which drew 
the chariots called Tensse, upon which the images of their 
gods were placed, happened to fail and falter, or if the driver 
took hold of the reins with his left hand, they would decree 
that the whole operation should commence anew; and, in 
latter ages, one and the same sacrifice was performed thirty 



CORIOLANUS 177 

times over, because of the occurrence of some defect or mis- 
take or accident in the service. Such was the Roman rev- 
erence and caution in reUgious matters. 

Marcius and TuUus were now secretly discoursing of their 
project with the chief men of Antium, advising them to in- 
vade the Romans while they were at variance among them- 
selves. And when shame appeared to hinder them from 
embracing the motion, as they had sworn to a truce and cessa- 
tion of arms for the space of two years, the Romans them- 
selves soon furnished them with a pretence, by making 
proclamation, out of some jealousy or slanderous report, in the 
midst of the spectacles, that all the Volscians who had come 
to see them should depart the city before sunset. Some affirm 
that this was a contrivance of Marcius, who sent a man pri- 
vately to the consuls, falsely to accuse the Volscians of in- 
tending to fall upon the Romans during the games, and to set 
the city on fire. This public affront roused and inflamed 
their hostility to the Romans ; and Tullus, perceiving it, made 
his advantage of it, aggravating the fact, and working on 
their indignation, till he persuaded them, at last, to despatch 
ambassadors to Rome, requiring the Romans to restore that 
part of their country and those towns which they had taken 
from the Volscians in the late war. When the Romans heard 
the message, they indignantly replied, that the Volscians 
were the first that took up arms, but the Romans would be 
the last to lay them down. This answer being brought back, 
Tullus called a general assembly of the Volscians; and the 
vote passing for a war, he then proposed that they should 
call in Marcius, laying aside the remembrance of former 
grudges, and assuring themselves that the services they 
should now receive from him as a friend and associate, would 
abundantly outweigh any harm or damage he had done them 
when he was their enemy. Marcius was accordingly sum- 
moned, and having made his entrance, and spoken to the 
people, won their good opinion of his capacity, his skill, 
counsel, and boldness, not less by his present words than by 
his past actions. They joined him in commission with '^ullus, 
to have full power as genera' -^f their forces in all that re- 
lated to the war. And he, fearing lest the time that would 
be requisite to bring all the Volscians together in full prep- 



178 PLUTARCH'S LIVES , 

aration might be so long as to lose him the opportunity of 
action, left order with the chief persons and magistrates of 
the city to provide other things, while he himself, prevailing 
upon the most forward to assemble and march out with him 
as volunteers without staying to be enrolled, made a sudden 
inroad into the Roman confines, when nobody expected him, 
and possessed himself of so much booty, that the Volscians 
found they had more than they could either carry away or 
use in the camp. The abundance of provision which he 
gained, and the waste and havoc of the country which he 
made, were, however, of themselves and in his account, the 
smallest results of that invasion ; the great mischief he in- 
tended, and his special object in all, was to increase at Rome 
the suspicions entertained of the patricians, and to make 
them upon worse terms with the people. With this view, 
while spoiling all the fields and destroying the property of 
other men, he took special care to preserve their farms and 
lands untouched, and would not allow his soldiers to ravage 
there, or seize upon any thing which belonged to them. From 
hence their invectives and quarrels against one another 
broke out afresh, and rose to a greater height than ever; the 
senators reproaching those of the commonalty with their late 
injustice to Marcius; while the plebeians, on their side, did 
not hesitate to accuse them of having, out of spite and re- 
venge, solicited him to this enterprise, and thus, when others 
were involved in the miseries of a war by their means, they 
sat like unconcerned spectators, as being furnished with a 
guardian and protector abroad of their wealth and fortunes, 
in the very person of the public enemy. After this incursion 
and exploit, which was of great advantage to the Volscians, 
as they learned by it to grow more hardy and to con- 
temn their enemy, Marcius drew them off, and returned in 
safety. 

But when the whole strength of the Volscians was brought 
together into the field, with great expedition and alacrity, it 
appeared so considerable a body, that they agreed to leave 
part in garrison, for the security of their towns, and with 
the other part to march against the Romans. Marcius now 
desired Tullus to choose which of the two charges would be 
most agreeable to him. Tullus answered, that since he knew 



CORIOLANUS 179 

Marcius to be equally valiant with himself, and far more 
fortunate, he would have him take the command of those 
that were going out to the war, while he made it his care 
to defend their cities at home, and provide all conveniences 
for the army abroad. Marcius thus reinforced, and much 
stronger than before, moved first towards the city called Cir- 
caeum, a Roman colony. He received its surrender, and did 
the inhabitants no injury; passing thence, he entered and laid 
waste the country of the Latins, where he expected the Ro- 
mans would meet him, as the Latins were their confeder- 
ates and allies, and had often sent to demand succors from 
them. The people, however, on their part, showing little 
inclination for the service, and the consuls themselves being 
unwilling to run the hazard of a battle, when the time of 
their office was almost ready to expire, they dismissed the 
Latin ambassadors without any effect; so that Marcius, find- 
ing no army to oppose him, marched up to their cities, and, 
having taken by force Toleria, Lavici, Peda, and Bola, all 
of which offered resistance, not only plundered their houses, 
but made a prey likewise of their persons. Meantime, 
he showed particular regard for all such as came over 
to his party, and, for fear they might sustain any dam- 
age against his will, encamped at the greatest distance 
he could, and wholly abstained from the lands of their 
property. 

After, however, that he had made himself master of Bola, 
a town not above ten miles from Rome, where he found great 
treasure, and put almost all the adults to the sword ; and 
when, on this, the other Volscians that were ordered to stay 
behind and protect their cities, hearing of his achievements 
and success, had not patience to remain any longer at home, 
but came hastening in their arms to Marcius, saying that 
he alone was their general and the sole commander they 
would own ; with all this, his name and renown spread 
throughout all Italy, and universal wonder prevailed at 
the sudden and mighty revolution in the fortunes of two 
nations which the loss and the accession of a single man 
had effected. 

All at Rome was in great disorder; they were utterly 
averse from fighting, and spent their whole time in cabals 



180 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

and disputes and reproaches against each other; until news 
was brought that the enemy had laid close siege to Lavinium, 
where were the images and sacred things of their tutelar 
gods, and from whence they derived the origin of their 
nation, that being the first city which ^neas built in Italy. 
These tidings produced a change as universal as it was ex- 
traordinary in the thoughts and inclinations of the people, 
but occasioned a yet stranger revulsion of feeling among the 
patricians. The people now were for repealing the sentence 
against Marcius, and calling him back into the city ; whereas 
the senate, being assembled to preconsider the decree, op- 
posed and finally rejected the proposal, either out of the 
mere humor of contradicting and withstanding the people 
in whatever they should desire, or because they were un- 
willing, perhaps, that he should owe his restoration to their 
kindness; or having now conceived a displeasure against 
Marcius himself, who was bringing distress upon all alike, 
though he had not been ill treated by all, and was become a 
declared enemy to his whole country, though he knew well 
enough that the principal and all the better men condoled 
with him, and suffered in his injuries. 

This resolution of theirs being made public, the people 
could proceed no further, having no authority to pass any 
thing by suffrage, and enact it for a law, without a previous 
decree from the senate. When Marcius heard of this, he 
was more exasperated than ever, and, quitting the siege of 
Lavinium, marched furiously towards Rome, and encamped 
at a place called the Cluilian ditches, about five miles from 
the city. The nearness of his approach did, indeed, create 
much terror and disturbance, yet it also ended their dissen- 
sions for the present; as nobody now, whether consul or 
senator, durst any longer contradict the people in their de- 
sign of recalling Marcius; but, seeing their women running 
affrighted up and down the streets, and the old men at 
prayer in every temple with tears and supplications, and 
that, in short, there was a general absence among them both 
of courage and wisdom to provide for their own safety, they 
came at last to be all of one mind, that the people had been 
in the right to propose as they did a reconciliation with Mar- 
cius, and that the senate was guilty of a fatal error to begin 



CORTOI>ANUS 181 

a quarrel with him when it was a time to forget offences, 
and they should have studied rather to appease him. It was 
therefore, unanimously agreed by all parties, that ambassa- 
dors should be despatched, offering him return to his coun- 
try, and desiring he would free them from the terrors and 
distresses of the war. The persons sent by the senate with 
this message were chosen out of his kindred and acquaint- 
ance, who naturally expected a very kind reception at their 
first interview, upon the score of that relation and their old 
familiarity and friendship with him ; in which, however, they 
were much mistaken. Being led through the enemy's camp, 
they found him sitting in state amidst the chief men of the 
Volscians, looking insupportably proud and arrogant. He 
bade them declare the cause of their coming, which they did 
in the most gentle and tender terms, and with a behavior 
suitable to their language. When they had made an end of 
speaking, he returned them a sharp answer, full of bitterness 
and angry resentment, as to what concerned himself, and 
the ill usage he had received from them; but as general of 
the Volscians, he demanded restitution of the cities and the 
lands which had been seized upon during the late war. and 
that the same rights and franchises should be granted them 
at Rome, which had been before accorded to the Latins; 
since there could be no assurance that a peace would be 
firm and lasting, without fair and just conditions on 
both sides. He allowed them thirty days to consider and 
resolve. 

The ambassadors being departed, he withdrew his forces 
out of the Roman territory. This, those of the Volscians 
who had long envied his reputation, and could not endure 
to see the influence he had with the people, laid hold of. as 
the first matter of complaint against him. Among them was 
also Tullus himself, not for any wrong done him personally 
by Marcius, but through the weakness incident to human 
nature. He could not help feeling mortified to find his own 
glory thus totally obscured, and himself overlooked and neg- 
lected now by the \^olscians. who had so great an o] minion 
of their new leader, that he alone was all to them, while other 
captains, they thought, should be content with that share of 
power, which he might think fit to accord. From hence the 



182 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

first seeds of complaint and accusation were scattered about 
in secret, and the malcontents met and heightened each 
other's indignation, saying, that to retreat as he did, was in 
effect to betray and deliver up, though not their cities and 
arms, yet what was as bad, the critical times and opportuni- 
ties for action, on which depend the preservation or the loss 
of every thing else; since in less than thirty days' space, for 
which he had given a respite from the war, there might 
happen the greatest changes in the world. Yet Marcius spent 
not any part of the time idly, but attacked the confederates 
of the enemy, ravaged their land, and took from them seven 
great and populous cities in that interval. The Romans, in 
the meanwhile, durst not venture out to their relief; but were 
utterly fearful, and showed no more disposition or capacity 
for action, than if their bodies had been struck with a palsy, 
and become destitute of sense and motion. But when the 
thirty days were expired, and Marcius appeared again with 
his whole army, they sent another embassy to beseech him 
that he would moderate his displeasure, and would withdraw 
the Volscian army, and then make any proposals he thought 
best for both parties; the Romans would make no conces- 
sions to menaces, but if it were his opinion that the Vol- 
scians ought to have any favor shown them, upon laying 
down their arms they might obtain all they could in reason 
desire. 

The reply of Marcius was, that he should make no answer 
to this as general of the Volscians, but, in the quality still of 
a Roman citizen, he would advise and exhort them, as the 
case stood, not to carry it so high, but think rather of 
just compliance, and return to him, before three days were 
at an end, with a ratification of his previous demands ; 
otherwise, they must understand that they could not have 
any further freedom of passing through his camp upon 
idle errands. 

When the ambassadors were come back, and had ac- 
quainted the senate with the answer, seei«g the whole state 
now threatened as it were by a tempest, and the waves ready 
to overwhelm them, they were forced, as we say in extreme 
perils, to let down the sacred anchor. A decree was made, 
that the whole order of their priests, those who initiated in 



CORIOLANUS 183 

the mysteries or had the custody of them, and those who, 
according to the ancient practice of the country, divined 
from birds, should all and every one of them go in full pro- 
cession to Marcius with their pontifical array, and the dress 
and habit which they respectively used in their several func- 
tions, and should urge him, as before, to withdraw his forces, 
and then treat with his countrymen in favor of the Volscians. 
He consented so far, indeed, as to give the deputation an ad- 
mittance into his camp, but granted nothing at all, nor so 
much as expressed himself more mildly; but, without capitu- 
lating or receding, bade them once for all choose whether 
they would yield or fight, since the old terms were the only 
terms of peace. When this solemn application proved inef- 
fectual, the priests, too, returning unsuccessful, they deter- 
mined to sit still within the city, and keep watch about their 
walls, intending only to repulse the enemy, should he offer to 
attack them, and placing their hopes chiefly in time and in 
extraordinary accidents of fortune ; as to themselves, they 
felt incapable of doing any thing for their own deliverance; 
mere confusion and terror and ill-boding reports possessed 
the whole city; till at last a thing happened not unlike what 
we so often find represented, without, however, being ac- 
cepted as true by people in general, in Homer. On some 
great and unusual occasion we find him say: — 

But him the blue-eyed goddess did inspire ; 

and elsewhere: — 

But y^r.ie immortal turned my mind away. 
To think what others of the deed would say; 

and again : — 

Were 't his own thought or were 't a god's command. 

People are apt, in such passages, to censure and disregard 
the poet, as if, by the introduction of mere impossibilities and 
)idle fictions, he were denying the action of a man's own de- 
I liberate thought and free choice ; which is not, in the least, 
the case in Homer's representation, where the ordinary, prob- 
able, and habitual conclusions that common reason leads to 



184 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

are continually ascribed to our own direct agency. He cer- 
tainly says frequently enough : — 

But I consulted with my own great soul; 

or, as in another passage : — 

He spoke. Achilles, with quick pain possessed. 
Revolved two purposes in his strong breast ; 

and in a third: — 

— Yet never to her wishes won 
The just mind of the brave Bellerophon. 

But where the act is something out of the way and extraordi- 
nary, and seems in a manner to demand some impulse of 
divine possession and sudden inspiration to account for it, 
here he does introduce divine agency, not to destroy, but to 
prompt the human will ; not to create in us another agency, 
but offering images to stimulate our own; images that in no 
sort or kind make our action involuntary, but give occasion 
rather to spontaneous action, aided and sustained by feelings 
of confidence and hope. For either we must totally dismiss 
and exclude divine influences from every kind of causality 
and origination in what we do, or else what other way can 
we conceive in which divine aid and codperation can act? 
Certainly we cannot suppose that the divine beings actually 
and literally turn our bodies and direct our hands and our 
feet this way or that, to do what is right: it is obvious that 
they must actuate the practical and elective element of our 
nature, by certain initial occasions, by images presented to 
the imagination, and thoughts suggested to the mind, such 
either as to excite it to, or avert and withhold it from, any 
particular course. 

In the perplexity which I have described, the Roman 
women went, some to other temples, but the greater part, and 
the ladies of highest rank, to the altar of Jupiter Capito- 
linus. Among these suppliants was Valeria, sister to the 
great Poplicola, who did the Romans eminent service both 
in peace and war. Poplicola himself was now deceased, as is 
told in the history of his life; but Valeria lived still, and en- 
joyed great respect and honor at Rome, her life and conduct 



CORIOLAXUS 185 

no way disparaging her birth. She, suddenly seized with the 
sort of instinct or emotion of mind which I have described, 
and happily lighting, not without divine guidance, on the 
right expedient, both rose herself, and bade the others rise, 
and went directly with them to the house of Volumnia, the 
mother of Marcius. And coming in and finding her sitting 
with her daughter-in-law, and with her little grandchildren 
on her lap, Valeria, then surrounded by her female com- 
panions, spoke in the name of them all : — 

"We that now make our appearance, O Volumnia, and you, 
Vergilia, are come as mere women to women, not by direc- 
tion of the senate, or an order from the consuls, or the ap- 
pointment of any other magistrate; but the divine being him- 
self, as I conceive, moved to compassion by our prayers, 
prompted us to visit you in a body, and request a thing on 
which our own and the common safety depends, and which, 
if you consent to it, will raise your glory above that of the 
daughters of the Sabines, who won over their fathers and 
their husbands from mortal enmity to peace and friendship. 
Arise and come with us to Marcius; join in our supplication, 
and bear for your country this true and just testimony on 
her behalf: that notwithstanding the many mischiefs that 
have been done her, yet she has never outraged you, nor so 
much as thought of treating you ill, in all her resentment, 
but does now restore you safe into his hands, though there 
be small likelihood she should obtain from him any equitable 
terms." 

The words of Valeria were seconded by the acclamations 
of the other women, to which Volumnia made answer: — 

"I and Vergilia, my countrywomen, have an equal share 
with you all in the common miseries, and we have the addi- 
tional sorrow, which is wholly ours, that we have lost the 
merit and good fame of Marcius, and see his person con- 
fined, rather than protected, by the arms of the enemy. Yet 
I account this the greatest of all misfortunes, if indeed the 
affairs of Rome be sunk to so feeble a state as to have their 
last dependence upon us. For it is hardly imaginable he 
should have any consideration left for us, when he has no 
regard for the country which he was wont to prefer before 
his mother and wife and children. Make use, however, of 



186 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

our service; and lead us, if you please, to him; we are able, 
if nothing more, at least to spend our last breath in making 
suit to him for our country." 

Having spoken thus, she took Vergilia by the hand, and 
the young children, and so accompanied them to the Volscian 
camp. So lamentable a sight much affected the enemies 
themselves, who viewed them in respectful silence. Marcius 
was then sitting in his place, with his chief officers about him, 
and, seeing the party of women advance toward him, won- 
dered what should be the matter; but perceiving at length 
that his mother was at the head of them, he would fain have 
hardened himself in his former inexorable temper, but, over- 
come by his feelings, and confounded at what he saw, he did 
not endure they should approach him sitting in state, but 
came down hastily to meet them, saluting his mother first, 
and embracing her a long time, and then his wife and chil- 
dren, sparing neither tears nor caresses, but suffering him- 
self to be borne away and carried headlong, as it were, by 
the impetuous violence of his passion. 

When he had satisfied himself, and observed that his 
mother Volumnia was desirous to say something, the Vol- 
scian council being first called in, he heard her to the fol- 
lowing eft'ect: "Our dress and our very persons, my son, 
might tell you, though we should say nothing ourselves, in 
how forlorn a condition we have lived at home since your 
banishment and absence from us ; and now consider with 
yourself, whether we may not pass for the most unfortunate 
of all women, to have that sight, which should be the sweet- 
est that we could see, converted, through I know not what 
fatality, to one of all others the most formidable and dread- 
ful, — Volumnia to behold her son, and Vergilia her husband, 
in arms against the walls of Rome. Even prayer itself, 
whence others gain comfort and relief in all manner of mis- 
fortunes, is that which most adds to our confusion and dis- 
tress; since our best wishes are inconsistent with themselves, 
nor can we at the same time petition the gods for Rome's 
victory and your preservation, but what the worst of our ene- 
mies would imprecate as a curse, is the very object of our 
vows. Your wife and children are under the sad necessity, 
that they must either be deprived of you, or of their native 



CORIOLANUS 187 

soil. As for myself, I am resolved not to wait till war shall 
determine this alternative for me; but if I cannot prevail 
with you to prefer amity and concord to quarrel and hostility, 
and to be the benefactor to both parties, rather than the de- 
stroyer of one of them, be assured of this from me, and 
reckon steadfastly upon it, that you shall not be able to reach 
your country, unless you trample first upon the corpse of her 
that brought yoii into life. For it will be ill in me to wait 
and loiter in the world till the day come wherein I shall see 
a child of mine, either led in triumph by his own countrymen, 
or triumphing over them. Did I require you to save your 
country by ruining the V'olscians, then, I confess, my son, 
the case would be hard for you to solve. It is base to bring 
destitution on our fellow-citizens; it is unjust to betray those 
who have placed their confidence in us. But, as it is, we do 
but desire a deliverance equally expedient for them and us; 
only more glorious and honorable on the Volscian side, who, 
as superior in arms, will be thought freely to bestow the 
two greatest of blessings, peace and friendship, even when 
they themselves receive the same. If we obtain these, the 
common thanks will be chiefly due to you as the principal 
cause; but if they be not granted, you alone must expect to 
bear the blame from both nations. The chance of all war is 
uncertain, yet thus much is certain in the present, that you, 
by conquering Rome, will only get the reputation of having 
undone your country ; but if the Volscians happen to be de- 
feated under your conduct, then the world will say, that, to 
satisfy a revengeful humor, you brought misery on your 
friends and patrons." 

Marcius listened to his mother while she spoke, without 
answering her a word; and Volumnia, seeing him stand 
mute also for a long time after she had ceased, resumed: "O 
my son," said she, "what is the meaning of this silence? Is 
it a duty to postpone every thing to a sense of injuries, and 
wrong to gratify a mother in a request like this? Is it the 
characteristic of a great man to remember wrongs that have 
been done him, and not the part of a great and good man to 
remember benefits such as those that children receive from 
parents, and to requite them with honor and respect? You, 
methinks, who are so relentless in the punishment of the un- 



188 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

grateful, should not be more careless than others to be grate- 
ful yourself. You have punished your country already; you 
have not yet paid your debt to me. Nature and religion, 
surely, unattended by any constraint, should have won your 
consent to petitions so worthy and so just as these; but if it 
must be so, I will even use my last resource." Having said 
this, she threw herself down at his feet, as did also his wife 
and children ; upon which Marcius, crying out, "O mother ! 
what is it you have done to me?" raised her up from the 
ground, and pressing her right hand with more than ordinary 
vehemence, "You have gained a victory," said he, "fortunate 
enough for the Romans, but destructive to your son ; whom 
you, though none else, have defeated." After which, and a 
little private conference with his mother and his wife, he 
sent them back again to Rome, as they desired of him. 

The next morning, he broke up his camp, and led the Vol- 
scians homeward, variously affected with what he had done ; 
some of them complaining to him and condemning his act, 
others, who were inclined to a peaceful conclusion, unfavor- 
able to neither. A third party, while much disliking his pro- 
ceedings, yet could not look upon Marcius as a treacherous 
person, but thought it pardonable in him to be thus shaken 
and driven to surrender at last, under such compulsion. 
None, however, opposed his commands ; they all obediently 
followed him, though rather from admiration of his virtue, 
than any regard they now had to his authority. The Roman 
people, meantime, more effectually manifested how much 
fear and danger they had been in while the war lasted, by 
their deportment after they were freed from it. Those that 
guarded the walls had no sooner given notice that the Vol- 
scians were dislodged and drawn off, but they set open all 
their temples in a moment, and began to crown themselves 
with garlands and prepare for sacrifice, as they were wont 
to do upon tidings brought of any signal victory. But the 
joy and transport of the whole city was chiefly remarkable in 
the honors and marks of affection paid to the women, as well 
by the senate as the people in general ; every one declaring 
that they were, beyond all question, the instruments of the 
public safety. And the senate having passed a decree that 
whatsoever they would ask in the way of any favor or honor 



CORTOLANUS 189 

should be allowed and done for them by the magistrates, they 
demanded simply that a temple might be erected to Female 
Fortune, the expense of which they offered to defray out of 
their own contributions, if the city would be at the cost of 
sacrifices, and other matters pertaining to the due honor of 
the gods, out of the common treasury. The senate, much 
commending their public spirit, caused the temple to be built 
and a statue set up in it at the public charge; they, however, 
made up a sum among themselves, for a second image of 
Fortune, which the Romans say uttered, as it was putting up, 
words to this effect, "Blessed of the gods, O women, is your 
gift." 

These words they profess were repeated a second time, 
expecting our belief for what seems pretty nearly an impos- 
sibility. It may be possible enough, that statues may seem 
to sweat, and to run with tears, and to stand with certain 
dewy drops of a sanguine color; for timber and stones are 
frequently known to contract a kind of scurf and rottenness 
productive of moisture ; and various tints may form on the 
surfaces, both from within and from the action of the air 
outside; and by these signs it is not absurd to imagine that 
the deity may forewarn us. It may happen, also, that images 
and statues may sometimes make a noise not unlike that of 
a moan or groan, through a rupture or violent internal sepa- 
ration of the parts ; but that an articulate voice and such ex- 
press words, and language so clear and exact and elaborate, 
should proceed from inanimate things, is, in my judgment, 
a thing utterly out of possibility. For it was never known 
that either the soul of man, or the deity himself, uttered 
vocal sounds and language, alone, without an organized body 
and members fitted for speech. But where history seems in 
a manner to force our assent by the concurrence of numerous 
and credible witnesses, we are to conclude that an impres- 
sion distinct from sensation affects the imaginative part of 
our nature, and then carries away the judgment, so as to be- 
lieve it to be a sensation: just as in sleep we fancy we see 
and hear, without really doing either. Persons, however, 
whose strong feelings of reverence to the deity, and tender- 
ness for religion, will not allow them to deny or invalidate 
any thing of this kind, have certainly a strong argument 



190 PLUTARCH'S IJVES 

for their faith, in the wonderful and transcendent character 
of the divine power; which admits no manner of comparison 
with ours, either in its nature or its action, the modes or the 
strength of its operations. It is no contradiction to reason 
that it should do things that we cannot do, and effect what 
for us is impracticable: differing from us in all respects, in 
its acts yet more than in other points we may well believe 
it to be unlike us and remote from us. Knowledge of divine 
things for the most part, as Heraclitus says, is lost to us by 
incredulity. 

When Marcius came back to Antium, Tullus, who thor- 
oughly hated and greatly feared him, proceeded at once to 
contrive how he might immediately despatch him; as, if he 
escaped now, he was never likely to give him such another 
advantage. Having, therefore, got together and suborned 
several partisans against him, he required Marcius to resign 
his charge, and give the Volscians an account of his admin- 
istration. He, apprehending the danger of a private condi- 
tion, while Tullus held the office of general and exercised the 
greatest power among his fellow-citizens, made answer, that 
he was ready to lay down his commission, whenever those 
from whose common authority he had received it, should 
think fit to recall it, and that in the mean time he was ready 
to give the Antiates satisfaction, as to all particulars of his 
conduct, if they were desirous of it. 

An assembly was called, and popular speakers, as had been 
concerted, came forward to exasperate and incense the mul- 
titude ; but when Marcius stood up to answer, the more un- 
ruly and tumultuous part of the people became quiet on a 
sudden, and out of reverence allowed him to speak without 
the least disturbance ; while all the better people, and such as 
were satisfied with a peace, made it evident by their whole 
behavior, that they would give him a favorable hearing, and 
judge and pronounce according to equity. 

Tullus, therefore, began to dread the issue of the defence 
he was going to make for himself ; for he was an admirable 
speaker, and the former services he had done the Volscians 
had procured and still preserved for him greater kindness 
than could be outweighed by any blame for his late conduct. 
Indeed, the very accusation itself was a proof and testimony 



CORIOLANUS 191 

of the greatness of his merits, since people could never have 
complained or thought themselves wronged, because Rome 
v^as not brought into their power, but that by his means they 
had come so near to taking it. For these reasons, the con- 
spirators judged it prudent not to make any further delays, 
nor to test the general feeling; but the boldest of their fac- 
tion, crying out that they ought not to listen to a traitor, 
nor allow him still to retain office and play the tyrant among 
them, fell upon Marcius in a body, and slew him there, none 
of those that were present offering to defend him. But it 
quickly appeared that the action was in nowise approved by 
the majority of the Volscians, who hurried out of their sev- 
eral cities to show respect to his corpse ; to which they gave 
honorable interment, adorning his sepulchre with arms and 
trophies, as the monument of a noble hero and a famous 
general. When the Romans heard tidings of his death, they 
gave no other signification either of honor or of anger 
towards him, but simply granted the request of the women, 
that they might put themselves into mourning and bewail 
him for ten months, as the usage was upon the loss of a 
father or a son or a brother ; that being the period fixed for 
the longest lamentation by the laws of Numa Pompilius, as 
is more amply told in the account of him. 

Marcius was no sooner deceased, but the Volscians felt 
the need of his assistance. They quarrelled first with the 
^quians, their confederates and their friends, about the ap- 
pointment of the general of their joint forces, and carried 
their dispute to the length of bloodshed and slaughter; and 
were then defeated by the Romans in a pitched battle, where 
not only Tullus lost his life, but the principal flower of their 
whole army was cut in pieces; so that they were forced to 
submit and accept of peace upon very dishonorable terms, 
becoming subjects of Rome, and pledging themselves to 
submission. 



COMPARISON OF ALCIBIADES 
WITH CORIOLANUS 



HAVING described all their actions that seem to de- 
serve commemoration, their military ones, we may 
say, incline the balance very decidedly upon neither 
side. They both, in pretty equal measure, displayed on 
numerous occasions the daring and courage of the soldier, 
and the skill and foresight of the general ; unless, indeed, 
the fact that Alcibiades was victorious and successful in many 
contests both by sea and land, ought to gain him the title 
of a more complete commander. That so long as they 
remained and held command in their respective countries, 
they eminently sustained, and when they were driven into 
exile, yet more eminently damaged the fortunes of those 
countries, is common to both. All the sober citizens felt 
disgust at the petulance, the low flattery, and base seductions 
which Alcibiades, in his public life, allowed himself to 
employ with the view of winning the people's favor ; and the 
ungraciousness, pride, and oligarchical haughtiness which 
Marcius, on the other hand, displayed in his, were the 
abhorrence of the Roman populace. Neither of these courses 
can be called commendable ; but a man who ingratiates him- 
self by indulgence and flattery, is hardly so censurable as 
one who, to avoid the appearance of flattering, insults. To 
seek power by servility to the people is a disgrace, but to 
maintain it by terror, violence, and oppression, is not a 
disgrace only, but an injustice. 

Marcius, according to our common conceptions of his 
character, was undoubtedly simple and straightforward; 
Alcibiades, unscrupulous as a public man, and false. He 
is more especially blamed for the dishonorable and treach- 
erous way in which, as Thucydides relates, he imposed upon 

192 



ALCIBIADES AND CORIOLANUS 193 

the Lacedaemonian ambassadors, and disturbed the continu- 
ance of the peace. Yet this policy, which engaged the city 
again in war, nevertheless placed it in a powerful and 
formidable position, by the accession, which Alcibiades ob- 
tained for it, of the alliance of Argos and Mantinea. And 
Coriolanus also, Dionysius relates, used unfair means to 
excite war between the Romans and the Volscians, in the 
false report which he spread about the visitors at the Games ; 
and the motive of this action seems to make it the worse 
of the two; since it was not done, like the other, out of 
ordinary political jealousy, strife, and competition. Simply 
to gratify anger, from which, as Ion says, no one ever yet 
got any return, he threw whole districts of Italy into con- 
fusion, and sacrificed to his passion against his country 
numerous innocent cities. It is true, indeed, that Alcibiades 
also, by his resentment, was the occasion of great disasters 
to his country, but he relented as soon as he found their 
feelings to be changed ; and after he was driven out a 
second time, so far from taking pleasure in the errors and 
inadvertencies of their commanders, or being indifferent to 
the danger they were thus incurring, he did the very thing 
that Aristides is so highly commended for doing to Themis- 
tocles : he came to the generals who were his enemies, and 
pointed out to them what they ought to do. Coriolanus, on 
the other hand, first of all attacked the whole body of his 
countrymen, though only one portion of them had done him 
any wrong, while the other, the better and nobler portion, 
had actually suffered, as well as sympathized, with him. 
And, secondly, by the obduracy with which he resisted 
numerous embassies and supplications, addressed in propitia- 
tion of his single anger and offence, he showed that it had 
been to destroy and overthrow, not to recover and regain 
his country, that he had excited bitter and implacable hos- 
tilities against it. There is, indeed, one distinction that may 
be drawn. Alcibiades, it may be said, was not safe among 
the Spartans, and had the inducements at once of fear and 
of hatred to lead him again to Athens; whereas Marcius 
could not honorably have left the Volscians, when they 
were behaving so well to him : he, in the command of their 
forces and the enjoyment of their entire confidence, was in 

G — HC XII 



194 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

a very different position from Alcibiades, whom the Lace- 
daemonians did not so much wish to adopt into their service, 
as to use, and then abandon. Driven about from house to 
house in the city, and from general to general in the camp, 
the latter had no resort but to place himself in the hands 
of Tisaphernes; unless, indeed, we are to suppose that his 
object in courting favor with him was to avert the entire 
destruction of his native city, whither he wished himself 
to return. 

As regards money, Alcibiades, we are told, was often guilty 
of procuring it by accepting bribes, and spent it ill in luxury 
and dissipation. Coriolanus declined to receive it, even 
when pressed upon him by his commanders as an honor; 
and one great reason for the odium he incurred with the 
populace in the discussions about their debts was, that he 
trampled upon the poor, not for money's sake, but out of 
pride and insolence. 

Antipater, in a letter written upon the death of Aristotle 
the philosopher, observes, "Amongst his other gifts he had 
that of persuasiveness;" and the absence of this in the 
character of Marcius made all his great actions and noble 
qualities unacceptable to those whom they benefited: pride, 
and self-will, the consort, as Plato calls it, of solitude, made 
him insufferable. With the skill which Alcibiades, on the 
contrary, possessed to treat every one in the way most 
agreeable to him, we cannot wonder that all his successes 
were attended with the most exuberant favor and honor; his 
very errors, at times, being accompanied by something of 
grace and felicity. And so, in spite of great and frequent 
hurt that he had done the city, he was repeatedly appointed 
to office and command; while Coriolanus stood in vain for a 
place which his great services had made his due. The 
one, in spite of the harm he occasioned, could not make 
himself hated, nor the other, with all the admiration he 
attracted, succeed in being beloved by his countrymen. 

Coriolanus, moreover, it should be said, did not as a 
general obtain any successes for his country, but only for 
his enemies against his country. Alcibiades was often of 
service to Athens, both as a soldier and as a commander. 
So long as he was personally present, he had the perfect 



ALCIBIADES AND CORIOLANUS 19S 

mastery of his political adversaries ; calumny only succeeded 
in his absence. Coriolanus was condemned in person at 
Rome ; and in like manner killed by the Volscians, not indeed 
with any right or justice, yet not without some pretext oc- 
casioned by his own acts; since, after rejecting all conditions 
of peace in public, in private he yielded to the solicitations 
of the women, and, without establishing peace, threw up 
the favorable chances of war. He ought, before retiring, to 
have obtained the consent of those who had placed their 
trust in him; if indeed he considered their claims on him 
to be the strongest. Or, if we say that he did not care 
about the Volscians, but merely had prosecuted the war, 
which he now abandoned, for the satisfaction of his own 
resentment, then the noble thing would have been, not to 
spare his country for his mother's sake, but his mother in 
and with his country; since both his mother and his wife 
were part and parcel of that endangered country. After 
harshly repelling public supplications, the entreaties of am- 
bassadors, and the prayers of priests, to concede all as a 
private favor to his mother was less an honor to her than 
a dishonor to the city which thus escaped, in spite, it 
would seem, of its own demerits, through the intercession 
of a single woman. Such a grace could, indeed, seem merely 
invidious, ungracious, and unreasonable in the eyes of both 
parties ; he retreated without listening to the persuasions 
of his opponents, or asking the consent of his friends. The 
origin of all lay in his unsociable, supercilious, and self- 
willed disposition, which, in all cases, is offensive to most 
people ; and when combined with a passion for distinction, 
passes into absolute savageness and mercilessness. Men 
decline to ask favors of the people, professing not to need 
any honors from them ; and then are indignant if they do 
not obtain them. Metellus, Aristides. and Epaminondas 
certainly did not beg favors of the multitude ; but that was 
because they, in real truth, did not value the gifts which a 
popular body can either confer or refuse; and when they 
were more than once driven into exile, rejected at elections, 
and condemned in courts of justice, they showed no resent- 
ment at the ill-humor of their fellow-citizens, but were willing 
and contented to return and be reconciled when the feeling 



196 ALCIBIADES AND CORIOLANUS 

altered and they were wished for. He who least likes court- 
ing favor, ought also least to think of resenting neglect : to 
feel wounded at being refused a distinction can only arise 
from an overweening appetite to have it. 

Alcibiades never professed to deny that it was pleasant to 
him to be honored, and distasteful to him to be overlooked; 
and, accordingly, he always tried to place himself upon 
good terms with all that he met; Coriolanus's pride forbade 
him to pay attentions to those who could have promoted his 
advancement, and yet his love of distinction made him feel 
hurt and angry when he was disregarded. Such are the 
faulty parts of his character, which in all other respects 
was a noble one. For his temperance, continence, and 
probity, he might claim to be compared with the best and 
purest of the Greeks ; not in any sort or kind with Alcibiades, 
the least scrupulous and most entirely careless of human 
beings in all these points. 



DEMOSTHENES 

WHOEVER it was, Sosius, that wrote the poem in 
honor of Alcibiades, upon his winning the chariot- 
race at the Olympian Games, whether it were 
Euripides, as is most commonly thought, or some other 
person, he tells us, that to a man's being happy it is in the 
first place requisite he should be born in "some famous 
city." But for him that would attain to true happiness, 
which for the most part is placed in the qualities and dis- 
position of the mind, it is, in my opinion, of no other 
disadvantage to be of a mean, obscure country, than to 
be born of a small or plain-looking woman. For it were 
ridiculous to think that lulis, a little part of Ceos, which 
itself is no great island, and ^gina, which an Athenian 
once said ought to be removed, like a small eye-sore, from 
the port of Piraeus, should breed good actors and poets,^ and 
yet should never be able to produce a just, temperate, wise, 
and high-minded man. Other arts, whose end it is to 
acquire riches or honor, are likely enough to wither and 
decay in poor and undistinguished towns; but virtue, like a 
strong and durable plant, may take root and thrive in any 
place where it can lay hold of an ingenuous nature, and a 
mind that is industrious. I, for my part, shall desire that 
for any deficiency of mine in right judgment or action, I 
myself may be, as in fairness, held accountable, and shall 
not attribute it to the obscurity of my birthplace. 

But if any man undertake to write a history, that has to 
be collected from materials gathered by observation and the 
reading of works not easy to be got in all places, nor 
written always in his own language, but many of them 

* Simonides, the lyric poet, was born at lulis in Ceos; and Polus, the 
celebrated actor, who is mentioned in the account, further on, of Demos- 
thenes's death, was a native of .i^gina. 

197 



198 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

foreign and dispersed in other hands, for him, undoubtedly, 
it is in the first place and above all things most necessary, 
to reside in some city of good note, addicted to liberal arts, 
and populous; where he may have plenty of all sorts of 
books, and upon inquiry may hear and inform himself of 
such particulars as, having escaped the pens of writers, are 
more faithfully preserved in the memories of men, lest his 
work be deficient in many things, even those which it can 
least dispense with. 

But for me, I live in a little town, where I am willing 
to continue, lest it should grow less; and having had no 
leisure, while I was in Rome and other parts of Italy, to 
exercise myself in the Roman language, on account of public 
business and of those who came to be instructed by me in 
philosophy, it was very late, and in the decline of my age, 
before I applied myself to the reading of Latin authors. 
Upon which that which happened to me, may seem strange, 
though it be true; for it was not so much by the knowledge 
of words, that I came to the understanding of things, as by 
my experience of things I was enabled to follow the meaning 
of words. But to appreciate the graceful and ready pro- 
nunciation of the Roman tongue, to understand the various 
figures and connection of words, and such other orna- 
ments, in which the beauty of speaking consists, is, I doubt 
not, an admirable and delightful accomplishment; but it 
requires a degree of practice and study which is not easy, 
and will better suit those who have more leisure, and time 
enough yet before them for the occupation. 

And so in this fifth book of my Parallel Lives, in giving 
an account of Demosthenes and Cicero, my comparison of 
their natural dispositions and their characters will be formed 
upon their actions and their lives as statesmen, and I shall 
not pretend to criticize their orations one against the other, 
to show which of the two was the more charming or the 
more powerful speaker. For there, as Ion says, 

We are but like a fish upon dry land ; 

a proverb which Csecilius perhaps forgot, when he employed 
his always adventurous talents in so ambitious an attempt 
as a comparison of Demosthenes and Cicero: and, possibly, 



DEMOSTHENES 199 

if it were a thing obvious and easy for every man to know 
himself, the precept had not passed for an oracle. 

The divine power seems originally to have designed De- 
mosthenes and Cicero upon the same plan, giving them 
many similarities in their natural characters, as their passion 
for distinction and their love of liberty in civil life, and 
their want of courage in dangers and war, and at the same 
time also to have added many accidental resemblances. I 
think there can hardly be found two other orators, who, from 
small and obscure beginnings, became so great and mighty; 
who both contested with kings and tyrants; both lost their 
daughters, were driven out of their country, and returned 
with honor; who, flying from thence again, were both seized 
upon by their enemies, and at last ended their lives with the 
liberty of their countrymen. So that if we were to suppose 
there had been a trial of skill between nature and fortune, 
as there is sometimes between artists, it would be hard to 
judge, whether that succeeded best in making them alike in 
their dispositions and manners, or this, in the coincidences 
of their lives. We will speak of the eldest first. 

Demosthenes, the father of Demosthenes, was a citizen of 
good rank and quality, as Theopompus informs us, surnamed 
the Sword-maker, because he had a large work-house, and 
kept servants skilful in that art at work. But of that which 
i^schines, the orator, said of his mother, that she was 
descended of one Gylon, who fled his country upon an ac- 
cusation of treason, and of a barbarian woman, I can affirm 
nothing, whether he spoke true, or slandered and maligned 
her. This is certain, that Demosthenes, being as yet but 
seven years old, was left by his father in affluent circum- 
stances, the whole value of his estate being little short of 
fifteen talents, and that he was wronged by his guardians, 
part of his fortune being embezzled by them, and the rest 
neglected; insomuch that even his teachers were defrauded 
of their salaries. This was the reason that he did not 
obtain the liberal education that he should have had; besides 
that on account of weakness and delicate health, his mother 
would not let him exert himself, and his teachers forbore 
to urge him. He was meagre and sickly from the first, and 
hence had his nickname of Batalus, given him, it is said, 



200 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

by the boys, in derision of his appearance; Batalus being, as 
some tell us, a certain enervated flute-player, in ridicule of 
whom Antiphanes wrote a play. Others speak of Batalus 
as a writer of wanton verses and drinking songs. And it 
would seem that some part of the body, not decent to be 
named, was at that time called batalus by the Athenians. 
But the name of Argas, which also they say was a nick- 
name of Demosthenes, was given him for his behavior, as 
being savage and spiteful, argas being one of the poetical 
words for a snake; or for his disagreeable way of speaking, 
Argas being the name of a poet, who composed very harshly 
and disagreeably. So much, as Plato says, for such matters. 
The first occasion of his eager inclination to oratory, they 
say, was this. Callistratus, the orator, being to plead in 
open court for Oropus, the expectation of the issue of that 
cause was very great, as well for the ability of the orator, 
who was then at the height of his reputation, as also for the 
fame of the action itself. Therefore, Demosthenes, having 
heard the tutors and schoolmasters agreeing among them- 
selves to be present at this trial, with much importunity 
persuades his tutor to take him along with him to the 
hearing; who, having some acquaintance with the door- 
keepers, procured a place where the boy might sit unseen, 
and hear what was said. Callistratus having got the day, 
and being much admired, the boy began to look upon his 
glory with a kind of emulation, observing how he was 
courted on all hands, and attended on his way by the multi- 
tude; but his wonder was more than all excited by the 
power of his eloquence, which seemed able to subdue and 
win over any thing. From this time, therefore, bidding 
farewell to other sorts of learning and study, he now began 
to exercise himself, and to take pains in declaiming, as one 
that meant to be himself also an orator. He made use of 
Isaeus as his guide to the art of speaking, though Isocrates 
at that time was giving lessons ; whether, as some say, because 
he was an orphan, and was not able to pay Isocrates his 
appointed fee of ten minae, or because he preferred Isaeus's 
speaking, as being more business-like and effective in actual 
use. Hermippus says, that he met with certain memoirs 
without any author's name, in which it was written that 



DEMOSTHENES 201 

Demosthenes was a scholar lo Plato, and learnt much of 
his eloquence from him; and he also mentions Ctesibius, as 
reporting from Callias of Syracuse and some others, that 
Demosthenes secretly obtained a knowledge of the systems 
of Isocrates and Alcidamas, and mastered them thoroughly. 
As soon, therefore, as he was grown up to man's estate, 
he began to go to law with his guardians, and to write ora- 
tions against them ; who, in the mean time, had recourse to 
various subterfuges and pleas for new trials, and Demos- 
thenes, though he was thus, as Thucydides says, taught his 
business in dangers, and by his own exertions was successful 
in his suit, was yet unable for all this to recover so much 
as a small fraction of his patrimony. He only attained some 
degree of confidence in speaking, and some competent ex- 
perience in it. And having got a taste of the honor and 
power which are acquired by pleadings, he now ventured to 
come forth, and to undertake public business. And, as it is 
said of Laomedon, the Orchomenian, that by advice of his 
physician, he used to run long distances to keep off some 
disease of his spleen, and by that means having, through 
labor and exercise, framed the habit of his body, he betook 
himself to the great garland games,- and became one of the 
best runners at the long race ; so it happened to Demosthenes, 
who, first venturing upon oratory for the recovery of his 
own private property, by this acquired ability in speaking, 
and at length, in public business, as it were in the great 
games, came to have the preeminence of all competitors in 
the assembly. But when he first addressed himself to the 
people, he met with great discouragements, and was derided 
for his strange and uncouth style, which was cumbered with 
long sentences and tortured with formal arguments to a 
most harsh and disagreeable excess. Besides, he had, it 
seems, a weakness in his voice, a perplexed and indistinct 
utterance and a shortness of breath, which, by breaking and 
disjointing his sentences, much obscured the sense and 
meaning of what he spoke. So that in the end, being quite 
disheartened, he forsook the assembly ; and as he was walking 
carelessly and sauntering about the Piraeus, Eunomus, the 

• The Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian and Nemean Games, where the victors 
were crowned with garlands. 



202 PLUTARCHS LIVES 

Thriasian, then a very old man, seeing him, upbraided him, 
saying that his diction was very much hlce that of Pericles, 
and that he was wanting to himself through cowardice and 
meanness of spirit, neither bearing up with courage against 
popular outcry, nor fitting his body for action, but suffering 
it to languish through mere sloth and negligence. 

Another time, when the assembly had refused to hear him, 
and he was going home with his head muffled up, taking it 
very heavily, they relate that Satyrus, the actor, followed 
him, and being his familiar acquaintance, entered into con- 
versation with him. To whom, when Demosthenes bemoaned 
himself, that having been the most industrious of all the 
pleaders, and having almost spent the whole strength and 
vigor of his body in that employment^ he could not yet find 
any acceptance with the people, that drunken sots, mariners, 
and illiterate fellows were heard, and had the hustings for 
their own, while he himself was despised, "You say true, 
Demosthenes," replies Satyrus, "but I will quickly remedy 
the cause of all this, if you will repeat to me some passage 
out of Euripides or Sophocles." Which when Demosthenes 
had pronounced, Satyrus presently taking it up after him, 
gave the same passage, in his rendering of it, such a new 
form, by accompanying it with the proper mien and gesture, 
that to Demosthenes it seemed quite another thing. By 
this being convinced how much grace and ornament language 
acquires from action, he began to esteem it a small matter, 
and as good as nothing for a man to exercise himself in 
declaiming, if he neglected enunciation and delivery. Here- 
upon he built himself a place to study in under ground, 
(which was still remaining in our time,) and hither he would 
come constantly every day to form his action, and to exercise 
his voice; and here he would continue, oftentimes without 
intermission, two or three months together, shaving one 
half of his head, that so for shame he might not go abroad, 
though he desired it ever so much. 

Nor was this all. but he also made his conversation with 
people abroad, his common speech, and his business, sub- 
servient to his studies, taking from hence occasions and 
arguments as matter to work upon. For as soon as he was 
parted from his company, down he would go at once into his 



DEMOSTHENES 203 

Study, and run over every thing in order that had passed, 
and the reasons that might be alleged for and against it. 
Any speeches also, that he was present at, he would go 
over again with himself, and reduce into periods ; and what- 
ever others spoke to him, or he to them, he would correct, 
transform, and vary several ways. Hence it was, that he 
was looked upon as a person of no great natural genius, 
but one who owed all the power and ability he had in 
speaking to labor and industry. Of the truth of which it 
was thought to be no small sign, that he was very rarely 
heard to speak upon the occasion, but though he were by 
name frequently called upon by the people, as he sat in the 
assembly, yet he would not rise unless he had previously 
considered the subject, and came prepared for it. So that 
many of the popular pleaders used to make it a jest against 
him; and Pytheas once, scoffing at him, said that his argu- 
ments smelt of the lamp. To which Demosthenes gave the 
sharp answer, "It is true, indeed, Pytheas, that your lamp 
and mine are not conscious of the same things." To others, 
however, he would not much deny it, but would admit 
frankly enough, that he neither entirely wrote his speeches 
beforehand, nor yet spoke wholly extempore. And he would 
affirm, that it was the more truly popular act to use pre- 
meditation, such preparation being a kind of respect to the 
people; whereas, to slight and take no care how what is 
said is likely to be received by the audience, shows some- 
thing of an oligarchical temper, and is the course of one 
that intends force rather than persuasion. Of his want of 
courage and assurance to speak offhand, they make it also 
another argument, that when he was at a loss, and discom- 
posed, Demades would often rise up on the sudden to support 
him, but he was never observed to do the same for Demades. 

Whence then, may some say, was it, that ^schines speaks 
of him as a person so much to be wondered at for his boldness 
in speaking? Or, how could it be, when Python, the By- 
zantine, "with so much confidence and such a torrent of 
words inveighed against"^ the Athenians, that Demosthenes 
alone stood up to oppose him? Or, when Lamachus, the 
Myrinsean, had written a panegyric upon king Philip and 

'These are bis own words, quoted from the Oration on the Crown. 



204 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

Alexander, in which he uttered many things in reproach of 
the Thebans and Olynthians, and at the Olympic Games 
recited it publicly, how was it, that he, rising up, and 
recounting historically and demonstratively what benefits 
and advantages all Greece had received from the Thebans 
and Chalcidians, and on the contrary, what mischiefs the 
flatterers of the Macedonians had brought upon it, so turned 
the minds of all that were present that the sophist, in alarm 
at the outcry against him, secretly made his way out of the 
assembly? But Demosthenes, it should seem, regarded other 
points in the character of Pericles to be unsuited to him; 
but his reserve and his sustained manner, and his forbearing 
to speak on the sudden, or upon every occasion, as being the 
things to which principally he owed his greatness, these he 
followed, and endeavored to imitate, neither wholly neglect- 
ing the glory which present occasion offered, nor yet willing 
too often to expose his faculty to the mercy of chance. For, 
in fact, the orations which were spoken by him had much 
more of boldness and confidence in them than those that 
he wrote, if we may believe Eratosthenes, Demetrius the 
Phalerian, and the Comedians. Eratosthenes says that often 
in his speaking he would be transported into a kind of 
ecstasy, and Demetrius, that he uttered the famous metrical 
adjuration to the people. 

By the earth, the springs, the rivers, and the streams, 

as a man inspired, and beside himself. One of the come- 
dians calls him a rhopoperperethras* and another scoffs at 
him for his use of antithesis : — 

And what he took, took back ; a phrase to please 
The very fancy of Demosthenes. 

Unless, indeed, this also is meant by Antiphanes for a jest 
upon the speech on Halonesus, which Demosthenes advised 
the Athenians not to take at Philip's hands, but to take back.^ 

*A loud declaimer about petty matters; from rhopos, small wares, and 
perperos, a loud talker. 

5 Halonesus had belonged to Athens, but had been seized by pirates, from 
whom Philip took it. He was willing to make a present of it to the 
Athenians, but Demosthenes warned them not on any account to take it, 
unless it were expressly understood that they took it back; Philip had no 



DEMOSTHENES 205 

All, however, used to consider Demades, in the mere use 
of his natural gifts, an orator impossible to surpass, and 
that in what he spoke on the sudden, he excelled all the study 
and preparation of Demosthenes. And Ariston, the Chian, 
has recorded a judgment which Theophrastus passed upon 
the orators ; for being asked what kind of orator he ac- 
counted Demosthenes, he answered, "Worthy of the city of 
Athens;" and then, what he thought of Demades, he an- 
swered, "Above it." And the same philosopher reports, that 
Polyeuctus, the Sphettian, one of the Athenian politicians 
about that time, was wont to say, that Demosthenes was the 
greatest orator, but Phocion the ablest, as he expressed the 
most sense in the fewest words. And, indeed, it is related, 
that Demosthenes himself, as often as Phocion stood up to 
plead against him, would say to his acquaintance, "Here 
comes the knife to my speech." Yet it does not appear 
whether he had this feeling for his powers of speaking, or 
for his life and character, and meant to say that one word 
or nod from a man who was really trusted, would go further 
than a thousand lengthy periods from others. 

Demetrius, the Phalerian, tells us, that he was informed 
by Demosthenes himself, now grown old, that the ways he 
made use of to remedy his natural bodily infirmities and 
defects were such as these; his inarticulate and stammering 
pronunciation he overcame and rendered more distinct by 
speaking with pebbles in his mouth; his voice he disciplined 
by declaiming and reciting speeches or verses when he was 
out of breath, while running or going up steep places ; and 
that in his house he had a large looking-glass, before which 
he would stand and go through his exercises. It is told that 
some one once came to request his assistance as a pleader, 
and related how he had been assaulted and beaten. "Cer- 
tainly," said Demosthenes, "nothing of the kind can have 
happened to you." Upon which the other, raising his voice, 
exclaimed loudly, "What, Demosthenes, nothing has been 
done to me?" "Ah," replied Demosthenes, "now I hear 
the voice of one that has been injured and beaten." Of so 

right to give what it was his duty to give back. The distinction thus put 
was apparently the subject of a great deal of pleasantry. Athensus quotes 
five other passages from the comic writers, playing upon it in the same way. 



206 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

great consequence towards the gaining of belief did he 
esteem the tone and action of the speaker. The action which 
he used himself was wonderfully pleasing to the common 
people; but by well-educated people, as, for example, by 
Demetrius, the Phalerian, it was looked upon as mean, hu- 
miliating, and unmanly. And Hermippus says of ^sion, that, 
being asked his opinion concerning the ancient orators and 
those of his own time, he answered that it was admirable 
to see with what composure and in what high style they 
addressed themselves to the people; but that the orations of 
Demosthenes, when they are read, certainly appear to be 
superior in point of construction, and more effective.^ His 
written speeches, beyond all question, are characterized by 
austere tone and by their severity. In his extempore retorts 
and rejoinders, he allowed himself the use of jest and 
mockery. When Demades said, "Demosthenes teach me ! 
So might the sow teach Minerva !" he replied, "Was it this 
Minerva, that was lately found playing the harlot in Colly- 
tus?"^ When a thief, who had the nickname of the Brazen, 
was attempting to upbraid him for sitting up late, and writing 
by candlelight, "I know very well," said he, "that you had 
rather have all lights out ; and wonder not, O ye men of 
Athens, at the many robberies which are committed, since 
we have thieves of brass and walls of clay." But on these 
points, though we have much more to mention, we will add 
nothing at present. We will proceed to take an estimate of 
his character from his actions and his life as a statesman. 
His first entering into public business was much about 
the time of the Phocian war, as himself affirms, and may 
be collected from his Philippic orations. For of these, some 
were made after that action was over, and the earliest of 
them refer to its concluding events. It is certain that he 

• .fusion was a fellow scholar with Demosthenes. The comparison in his 
remarks gives the superiority in manner to the old speakers, whom he re- 
membered in his youth, but in construction, to Demosthenes, his contem- 
porary. 

' " Sus Minervam," the proverb. Collytus, together with Melite, formed 
the south-west, and, apparently, the more agreeable part of Athens. Plu- 
tarch, consoling a friend who was banished from his native city, tells him 
people cannot all live where they like best; it is not every Athenian can 
live in Collytus, nor does a man consider himself a miserable exile, who 
has to leave a house in Melite and take one in Diomea. 



DEMOSTHENES 20? 

engaged in the accusation of Midias when he was but two 
and thirty years old, having as yet no interest or reputation 
as a poUtician. And this it was, I consider, that induced 
him to withdraw the action, and accept a sum of money as 
a compromise. For of himself 

He was no easy or good-natured man, 

but of a determined disposition, and resolute to see himself 
righted; however, finding it a hard matter and above his 
strength to deal with Midias, a man so well secured on all 
sides with money, eloquence, and friends, he yielded to the 
entreaties of those who interceded for him. But had he 
seen any hopes or possibility of prevailing, I cannot believe 
that three thousand drachmas could have taken off the edge 
of his revenge. The object which he chose for himself in 
the commonwealth was noble and just, the defence of the 
Grecians against Philip; and in this he behaved himself so 
worthily that he soon grew famous, and excited attention 
everywhere for his eloquence and courage in speaking. He 
was admired through all Greece, the king of Persia courted 
him, and by Philip himself he was more esteemed than all 
the other orators. His very enemies were forced to confess 
that they had to do with a man of mark; for such a char- 
acter even ^schines and Hyperides give him, where they 
accuse and speak against him. 

So that I cannot imagine what ground Theopompus had to 
say, that Demosthenes was of a fickle, unsettled disposition, 
and could not long continue firm either to the same men or 
the same affairs ; whereas the contrary is most apparent, for 
the same party and post in politics which he held from the 
beginning, to these he kept constant to the end; and was 
so far from leaving them while he lived, that he chose rather 
to forsake his life than his purpose. He was never heard 
to apologize for shifting sides like Demades, who would say, 
he often spoke against himself, but never against the city; 
nor as Melanopus, who, being generally against Callistratus, 
but being often bribed off with money, was wont to tell the 
people, "The man indeed is my enemy, but we must submit 
for the good of our country ;" nor again as Nicodemus, the 
Messenian, who having first appeared on Cassander's side. 



208 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

and afterwards taken part with Demetrius, said the two 
things were not in themselves contrary, it being always 
most advisable to obey the conqueror. We have nothing of 
this kind to say against Demosthenes, as one who would 
turn aside or prevaricate, either in word or deed. There 
could not have been less variation in his public acts if they 
had all been played, so to say, from first to last, from the 
same score. Pansetius, the philosopher, said, that most of 
his orations are so written, as if they were to prove this 
one conclusion, that what is honest and virtuous is for itself 
only to be chosen ; as that of the Crown, that against Aristo- 
crates, that for the Immunities, and the Philippics ; in all 
which he persuades his fellow-citizens to pursue not that 
which seems most pleasant, easy, or profitable; but declares 
over and over again, that they ought in the first place to 
prefer that which is just and honorable, before their own 
safety and preservation. So that if he had kept his hands 
clean, if his courage for the wars had been answerable to 
the generosity of his principles, and the dignity of his ora- 
tions, he might deservedly have his name placed, not in the 
number of such orators as Moerocles, Polyeuctus, and 
Hyperides, but in the highest rank with Cimon, Thucydides, 
and Pericles. 

Certainly amongst those who were contemporary with 
him, Phocion, though he appeared on the less commendable 
side in the commonwealth, and was counted as one of the 
Macedonian party, nevertheless, by his courage and his 
honesty, procured himself a name not inferior to those of 
Ephialtes, Arislides, and Cimon. But Demosthenes, being 
neither fit to be relied on for courage in arms, as Demetrius 
says, nor on all sides inaccessible to bribery (for how 
invincible soever he was against the gifts of Philip and 
the Macedonians, yet elsewhere he lay open to assault, and 
was overpowered by the gold which came down from Susa 
and Ecbatana), was therefore esteemed better able to recom- 
mend than to imitate the virtues of past times. And yet 
(excepting only Phocion), even in his life and manners, he 
far surpassed the other orators of his time. None of them 
addressed the people so boldly ; he attacked the faults, and 
opposed himself to the unreasonable desires of the multitude. 



DEMOSTHENES 209 

as may be seen in his orations. Theopompus writes, that 
the Athenians having by name selected Demosthenes, and 
called upon him to accuse a certain person, he refused to 
do it; upon which the assembly being all in an uproar, he 
rose up and said, "Your counsellor, whether you will or no, 
O ye men of Athens, you shall always have me; but a 
sycophant or false accuser, though you would have me, I 
shall never be." And his conduct in the case of Antiphon 
was perfectly aristocratical ; whom, after he had been ac- 
quitted in the assembly, he took and brought before the court 
of Areopagus, and, setting at naught the displeasure of the 
people, convicted him there of having promised Philip to 
burn the arsenal; whereupon the man was condemned by 
that court, and suffered for it. He accused, also, Theoris, 
the priestess, amongst other misdemeanors, of having in- 
structed and taught the slaves to deceive and cheat their 
masters, for which the sentence of death passed upon her, 
and she was executed. 

The oration which Apollodorus made use of, and by it 
carried the cause against Timotheus, the general, in an 
action of debt, it is said was written for him by Demosthenes ; 
as also those against Phormion and Stephanus, in which 
latter case he was thought to have acted dishonorably, for 
the speech which Phormion used against Apollodorus was 
also of his making; he, as it were, having simply furnished 
two adversaries out of the same shop with weapons to 
wound one another. Of his orations addressed to the public 
assemblies, that against Androtion, and those against Timo- 
crates and Aristocrates, were written for others, before he 
had come forward himself as a politician. They were com- 
posed, it seems, when he was but seven or eight and twenty 
years old. That against Aristogiton, and that for the 
Immunities, he spoke himself, at the request, as he says, of 
Ctesippus, the son of Chabrias, but, as some say, out of 
courtship to the young man's mother. Though, in fact, he 
did not marry her, for his wife was a woman of Samos, as 
Demetrius, the Magnesian, writes, in his book on Persons 
of the same Name. It is not certain whether his oration 
against ^schines, for Misconduct as Ambassador, was ever 
spoken ; although Idomeneus says that ^schines wanted only 



210 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

thirty voices to condemn him. But this seems not to be 
correct, at least so far as may be conjectured from both thei' 
orations concerning the Crown ; for in these, neither of them 
speaks clearly or directly of it, as a cause that ever carre 
to trial. But let others decide this controversy. 

It vi^as evident, even in time of peace, what course De- 
mosthenes would steer in the commonwealth ; for whatever 
was done by the Macedonian, he criticized and found fault 
with, and upon all occasions was stirring up the people of 
Athens, and inflaming them against him. Therefore, in the 
court of Philip, no man was so much talked of, or of so 
great account as he; and when he came thither, one of the 
ten ambassadors who were sent into Macedonia, though all 
had audience given them, yet his speech was answered with 
most care and exactness. But in other respects, Philip 
entertained him not so honorably as the rest, neither did he 
show him the same kindness and civility with which he 
applied himself to the party of ^schines and Philocrates. 
So that, when the others commended Philip for his able 
speaking, his beautiful person, nay, and also for his good 
companionship in drinking, Demosthenes could not refrain 
from cavilling at these praises; the first, he said, was a 
quality which might well enough become a rhetorician, the 
second a woman, and the last was only the property of a 
sponge; no one of them was the proper commendation of 
a prince. 

But when things came at last to war, Philip on the one 
side being not able to live in peace, and the Athenians, on 
the other side, being stirred up by Demosthenes, the first 
action he put them upon was the reducing of Euboea, which, 
by the treachery of the tyrants, was brought under subjection 
to Philip. And on his proposition, the decree was voted, 
and they crossed over thither and chased the Macedonians 
out of the island. The next, v/as the relief of the Byzantines 
and Perinthians, whom the Macedonians at that time were 
attacking. He persuaded the people to lay aside their enmity 
against these cities, to forget the offences committed by them 
in the Confederate War, and to send them such succors as 
eventually saved and secured them. Not long after, he 
undertook an embassy through the States of Greece, which 



DEMOSTHENES 211 

he solicited and so far incensed against Philip, that, a few 
only excepted, he brought them all into a general league. So 
that, besides the forces composed of the citizens themselves, 
there was an army consisting of fifteen thousand foot and 
two thousand horse, and the money to pay these strangers 
was levied and brought in with great cheerfulness. On 
which occasion it was, says Theophrastus, on the allies re- 
questing that their contributions for the war might be ascer- 
tained and stated, Crobylus, the orator, made use of the say- 
ing, "War can't be fed at so much a day." Now was all 
Greece up in arms, and in great expectation what would 
be the event. The Euboeans, the Achseans, the Corinthians, 
the Megarians, the Leucadians, and Corcyrseans, their people 
and their cities, were all joined together in a league. But 
the hardest task was yet behind, left for Demosthenes, to 
draw the Thebans into this confederacy with the rest. Their 
country bordered next upon Attica, they had great forces 
for the war, and at that time they were accounted the best 
soldiers of all Greece, but it was no easy matter to make 
them break with Philip, who, by many good offices, had so 
lately obliged them in the Phocian war; especially consider- 
ing how the subjects of dispute and variance between the 
two cities were continually renewed and exasperated by 
petty quarrels, arising out of the proximity of their frontiers. 
But after Philip, being now grown high and puffed up 
with his good success at Amphissa, on a sudden surprised 
Elatea and possessed himself of Phocis, and the Athenians 
were in a great consternation, none durst venture to rise 
up to speak, no one knew what to say, all were at a loss, 
and the whole assembly in silence and perplexity, in this 
extremity of affairs, Demosthenes was the only man who 
appeared, his counsel to them being alliance with the Thebans. 
And having in other ways encouraged the people, and, as his 
manner was, raised their spirits up with hopes, he, with 
some others, was sent ambassador to Thebes. To oppose 
him, as Marsyas says, Philip also sent thither his envoys, 
Amyntas and Clearchus, two Macedonians, besides Daochus, 
a Thessalian, and Thrasydseus. Now the Thebans, in their 
consultations, were well enough aware what suited best 
with their own interest, but every one had before his eyes 



212 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

the terrors of war, and their losses in the Phocian troubles 
were still recent; but such was the force and power of the 
orator, fanning up, as Theopompus says, their courage, and 
firing their emulation, that casting away every thought of 
prudence, fear, or obligation, in a sort of divine possession, 
they chose the path of honor, to which his words invited 
them. And this success, thus accomplished by an orator, 
was thought to be so glorious and of such consequence, that 
Philip immediately sent heralds to treat and petition for a 
peace: all Greece was aroused, and up in arms to help. And 
the commanders-in-chief, not only of Attica, but of Boeotia, 
applied themselves to Demosthenes, and observed his direc- 
tions. He managed all the assemblies of the Thebans, no 
less than those of the Athenians; he was beloved both by 
the one and by the other, and exercised the same supreme 
authority with both; and that not by unfair means, or 
without just cause, as Theopompus professes, but indeed it 
was no more than was due to his merit. 

But there was, it should seem, some divinely-ordered 
fortune, commissioned, in the revolution of things, to put a 
period at this time to the liberty of Greece, which opposed 
and thwarted all their actions, and by many signs foretold 
what should happen. Such were the sad predictions uttered 
by the Pythian priestess, and this old oracle cited out of 
the Sibyl's verses, — 

The battle on Thermodon that shall be 

Safe at a distance I desire to see, 

Far, like an eagle, watching in the air. 

Conquered shall weep, and conqueror perish there. 

This Thermodon, they say, is a little rivulet here in our 
country in Chaeronea, running into the Cephisus. But we 
know of none that is so called at the present time; and can 
only conjecture that the streamlet which is now called 
Hsemon, and runs by the Temple of Hercules, where the 
Grecians were encamped, might perhaps in those days be 
called Thermodon, and after the fight, being filled with 
blood and dead bodies, upon this occasion, as we guess, might 
change its old name for that which it now bears. Yet 
Duris says that this Thermodon was no river, but that some 



DEMOSTHENES 213 

of the soldiers, as they were pitching their tents and digging 
trenches about them, found a small stone statue, which, by 
the inscription, appeared to be the figure of Thermodon, 
carrying a wounded Amazon in his arms; and that there 
was another oracle current about it, as follows: — 

The battle on Thermodon that shall be. 
Fail not, black raven, to attend and see; 
The flesh of men shall there abound for thee. 

In fine, it is not easy to determine what is the truth. But 
of Demosthenes it is said, that he had such great confidence 
in the Grecian forces, and was so excited by the sight of 
the courage and resolution of so many brave men ready to 
engage the enemy, that he would by no means endure they 
should give any heed to oracles, or hearken to prophecies, 
but gave out that he suspected even the prophetess herself, 
as if she had been tampered with to speak in favor of 
Philip. The Thebans he put in mind of Epaminondas, the 
Athenians, of Pericles who always took their own measures 
and governed their actions by reason, looking upon things 
of this kind as mere pretexts for cowardice. Thus far, 
therefore, Demosthenes acquitted himself like a brave man. 
But in the fight he did nothing honorable, nor was his per- 
formance answerable to his speeches. For he fled, deserting 
his place disgracefully, and throwing away his arms, not 
ashamed, as Pytheas observed, to belie the inscription written 
on his shield, in letters of gold, "With good fortune." 

In the mean time Philip, in the first moment of victory, 
was so transported with joy, that he grew extravagant, and 
going out, after he had drunk largely, to visit the dead 
bodies, he chanted the first words of the decree that had 
been passed on the motion of Demosthenes, 

The motion of Demosthenes, Demosthenes's son,' 

dividing it metrically into feet, and marking the beats. 

But when he came to himself, and had well considered 
the danger he was lately under, he could not forbear from 
shuddering at the wonderful ability and power of ar orator 

"Demosthenes D'emosthenous, Paianlcus, tad' eipen. "Demosthenes, the 
son of Demosthenes, of the Psanian township, made this motion, —the 
usual form of the commencement of the Votes of the Athenian Assembly. 



214 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

who had made him hazard his Hfe and empire on the issue 
of a few brief hours. The fame of it also reached even to 
the court of Persia, and the king sent letters to his lieu- 
tenants, commanding them to supply Demosthenes with 
money, and to pay every attention to him, as the only man 
of all the Grecians who was able to give Philip occupation 
and find employment for his forces near home, in the troubles 
of Greece. This afterwards came to the knowledge of 
Alexander, by certain letters of Demosthenes which he found 
at Sardis, and by other papers of the Persian officers, stating 
the large sums which had been given him. 

At this time, however, upon the ill success which now 
happened to the Grecians, those of the contrary faction in 
the commonwealth fell foul upon Demosthenes, and took the 
opportunity to frame several informations and indictments 
against him. But the people not only acquitted him of these 
accusations, but continued towards him their former respect, 
and still invited him, as a man that meant well, to take a 
part in public affairs. Insomuch that when the bones of 
those who had been slain at Chseronea were brought home 
to be solemnly interred, Demosthenes was the man they 
chose to make the funeral oration. They did not show, 
under the misfortunes which befell them, a base or ignoble 
mind, as Theopompus writes in his exaggerated style, but, 
on the contrary, by the honor and respect paid to their 
counsellor, they made it appear that they were noway dis- 
satisfied with the counsels he had given them. The speech, 
therefore, was spoken by Demosthenes. But the subsequent 
decrees he would not allow to be passed in his own name, 
but made use of those of his friends, one after another, look- 
ing upon his own as unfortunate and inauspicious; till at 
length he took courage again after the death of Philip, who 
did not long outlive his victory at Chaeronea. And this, it 
seems, was that which was foretold in the last verse of the 
oracle. 

Conquered shall weep, and conqueror perish there. 

Demosthenes had secret intelligence of the death of Philip, 
and laying hold of this opportunity to prepossess the people 
with courage and better hopes for the future, he came into 



DEMOSTHENES 215 

the assembly with a cheerful countenance pretending to 
have had a dream that presaged some great good fortune for 
Athens; and, not long after, arrived the messengers who 
brought the news of Philip's death. No sooner had the 
people received it, but immediately they offered sacrifice to 
the gods, and decreed that Pausanias should be presented 
with a crown. Demosthenes appeared publicly in a rich 
dress, with a chaplet on his head, though it were but the 
seventh day since the death of his daughter, as is said by 
.(Eschines, who upbraids him upon this account, and rails 
at him as one void of natural affection towards his children. 
Whereas, indeed, he rather betrays himself to be of a poor, 
low spirit, and effeminate mind, if he really means to make 
wailings and lamentation the only signs of a gentle and 
affectionate nature, and to condemn those who bear such acci- 
dents with more temper and less passion. For my own 
part, I cannot say that the behavior of the Athenians on 
this occasion was wise or honorable, to crown themselves 
with garlands and to sacrifice to the Gods for the death of 
a Prince who, in the midst of his success and victories, when 
they were a conquered people, had used them with so much 
clemency and humanity. For besides provoking fortune, it 
was a base thing, and unworthy in itself, to make him a 
citizen of Athens, and pay him honors while he lived, and 
yet as soon as he fell by another's hand, to set no bounds 
to their jollity, to insult over him dead, and to sing triumph- 
ant songs of victory, as if by their own valor they had 
vanquished him. I must at the same time commend the 
behavior of Demosthenes, who, leaving tears and lamenta- 
tions and domestic sorrows to the women, made it his busi- 
ness to attend to the interests of the commonwealth. And I 
think it the duty of him who would be accounted to have a 
soul truly valiant, and fit for government, that, standing 
always firm to the common good, and letting private griefs 
and troubles find their compensation in public blessings, he 
should maintain the dignity of his character and station, 
much more than actors who represent the persons of kings 
and tyrants, who, we see, when they either laugh or weep 
on the stage, follow, not their own private inclinations, but 
the course consistent with the subject and with their position. 



216 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

And if, moreover, when our neighbor is in misfortune, it 
is not our duty to forbear offering any consolation, but rather 
to say whatever may tend to cheer him, and to invite his 
attention to any agreeable objects, just as we tell people 
who are troubled with sore eyes, to withdraw their sight from 
bright and offensive colors to green, and those of a softer 
mixture, from whence can a man seek, in his own case, better 
arguments of consolation for afflictions in his family, than 
from the prosperity of his country, by making public and 
domestic chances count, so to say, together, and the better 
fortune of the state obscure and conceal the less happy cir- 
cumstances of the individual. I have been induced to say 
so much, because I have known many readers melted by 
^schines's language into a soft and unmanly tenderness. 
But now to return to my narrative. The cities of Greece 
were inspirited once more by the efforts of Demosthenes to 
form a league together. The Thebans, whom he had pro- 
vided with arms, set upon their garrison, and slew many of 
them; the Athenians made preparations to join their forces 
with them; Demosthenes ruled supreme in the popular as- 
sembly, and wrote letters to the Persian officers who com- 
manded under the king in Asia, inciting them to make war 
upon the Macedonian, calling him child and simpleton.^ But 
as soon as Alexander had settled matters in his own country, 
and came in person with his army into Boeotia, down fell 
the courage of the Athenians, and Demosthenes was hushed; 
the Thebans, deserted by them, fought by themselves, and 
lost their city. After which, the people of Athens, all in 
distress and great perplexity, resolved to send ambassadors 
to Alexander, and amongst others, made choice of Demos- 
thenes for one; but his heart failing him for fear of the 
king's anger, he returned back from Cithaeron, and left the 
embassy. In the mean time, Alexander sent to Athens, re- 
quiring ten of their orators to be delivered up to him, as 
Idomeneus and Duris have reported, but as the most and 
best historians say, he demanded these eight only, — Demos- 
thenes, Polyeuctus, Ephialtes, Lycurgus, Mcerocles, Demon, 

" Margites, the name of the character held up to ridicule in an old poem 
ascribed to Homer, — the boy, who, though fully grown up, has never attained 
the sense or wits of a man. 



DEMOSTHENES 217 

Callisthenes, and Charidemus. It was upon this occasion 
that Demosthenes related to them the fable in which the 
sheep are said to deliver up their dogs to the wolves; him- 
self and those who with him contended for the people's 
safety, being, in his comparison, the dogs that defended the 
flock, and Alexander "the Macedonian arch wolf." He fur- 
ther told them, "As we see corn-masters sell their whole 
stock by a few grains of wheat which they carry about with 
them in a dish, as a sample of the rest, so you, by delivering 
up us, who are but a few, do at the same time unawares 
surrender up yourselves all together with us ;" so we find it 
related in the history of Aristobulus, the Cassandrian. The 
Athenians were deliberating, and at a loss what to do, when 
Demades, having agreed with the persons whom Alexander 
had demanded, for five talents, undertook to go ambassador, 
and to intercede with the king for them ; and, whether it 
was that he relied on his friendship and kindness, or that 
he hoped to find him satiated, as a lion glutted with slaughter, 
he certainly went, and prevailed with him both to pardon the 
men, and to be reconciled to the city. 

So he and his friends, when Alexander went away, were 
great men, and Demosthenes was quite put aside. Yet when 
Agis, the Spartan, made his insurrection, he also for a 
short time attempted a movement in his favor; but he soon 
shrunk back again, as the Athenians would not take any 
part in it, and, Agis being slain, the Lacedaemonians were 
vanquished. During this time it was that the indictment 
against Ctesiphon, concerning the Crown, was brought to 
trial. The action was commenced a little before the battle in 
Chseronea, when Chaerondas was archon, but it was not 
proceeded with till about ten years after, Aristophon being 
then archon. Never was any public cause more celebrated 
than this, alike for the fame of the orators, and for the 
generous courage of the judges, who, though at that time 
the accusers of Demosthenes were in the height of power, 
and supported by all the favor of the Macedonians, yet 
would not give judgment against him, but acquitted him so 
honorably, that .^schines did not obtain the fifth part of 
their suffrages on his side, so that, immediately after, he 
left the city, and spent the rest of his life in teaching rhetoric 



218 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

about the island of Rhodes, and upon the continent in Ionia. 
It was not long after that Harpalus fled from Alexander, 
and came to Athens out of x\sia; knowing himself guilty of 
many misdeeds into which his love of luxury had led him, 
and fearing the king, who was now grown terrible even to 
his best friends. Yet this man had no sooner addressed 
himself to the people, and delivered up his goods, his ships, 
and himself to their disposal, but the other orators of the 
town had their eyes quickly fixed upon his money, and came 
in to his assistance, persuading the Athenians to receive 
and protect their suppliant. Demosthenes at first gave advice 
to chase him out of the country, and to beware lest they 
involved their city in a war upon an unnecessary and unjust 
occasion. But some few days after, as they were taking an 
account of the treasure, Harpalus, perceiving how much he 
was pleased with a cup of Persian manufacture, and how 
curiously he surveyed the sculpture and fashion of it, de- 
sired him to poise it in his hand, and consider the weight 
of the gold. Demosthenes, being amazed to feel how heavy 
it was, asked him what weight it came to. "To you," said 
Harpalus, smiling, "it shall come with twenty talents." And 
presently after, when night drew on, he sent him the cup 
with so many talents. Harpalus, it seems, was a person of 
singular skill to discern a man's covetousness by the air of 
his countenance, and the look and movements of his eyes. 
For Demosthenes could not resist the temptation, but ad- 
mitting the present, like an armed garrison, into the citadel 
of his house, he surrendered himself up to the interest of 
Harpalus. The next day, he came into the assembly with 
his neck swathed about with wool and rollers, and when 
they called on him to rise up and speak, he made signs as if 
he had lost his voice. But the wits, turning the matter to 
ridicule, said that certainly the orator had been seized that 
night with no other than a silver quinsy. And soon after, 
the people, becoming aware of the bribery, grew angry, and 
would not suffer him to speak, or make any apology for 
himself, but ran him down with noise ; and one man stood 
up, and cried out, "What, ye men of Athens, will you not 
hear the cup-bearer?" So at length they banished Harpalus 
out of the city; and fearing lest they should be called to 



DEMOSTHENES 219 

account for the treasure which the orators had purloined, they 
made a strict inquiry, going from house to house ; only Cal- 
licles, the son of Arrhenidas, who was newly married, they 
would not suffer to be searched, out of respect, as Theopom- 
pus writes, to the bride, who was within. 

Demosthenes resisted the inquisition, and proposed a 
decree to refer the business to the court of Areopagus, and 
to punish those whom that court should find guilty. But 
being himself one of the first whom the court condemned, 
when he came to the bar, he was fined fifty talents, and 
committed to prison ; where, out of shame of the crime for 
which he was condemned, and through the weakness of his 
body, growing incapable of supporting the confinement, he 
made his escape, by the carelessness of some and by the 
connivance of others of the citizens. We are told, at least, 
that he had not fled far from the city, when, finding that 
he was pursued by some of those who had been his ad- 
versaries, he endeavored to hide himself. But when they 
called him by name, and coming up nearer to him, desired 
he would accept from them some money which they had 
brought from home as a provision for his journey, and to 
that purpose only had followed him, when they entreated 
him to take courage, and to bear up against his misfortune, 
he burst out into much greater lamentation, saying, "But 
how is it possible to support myself under so heavy an 
affliction, since I leave a city in which I have such enemies, 
as in any other it is not easy to find friends." He did not 
show much fortitude in his banishment, spending his time 
for the most part in ^gina and Troezen, and, with tears 
in his eyes, looking towards the country of Attica. And 
there remain upon record some sayings of his, little re- 
sembling those sentiments of generosity and bravery which 
he used to express when he had the management of the 
commonwealth. For, as he was departing out of the city, it 
is reported, he lifted up his hands towards the Acropolis, and 
said, "O Lady Minerva, how is it that thou takest delight in 
three such fierce untractable beasts, the owl, the snake, and 
the people?" The young men that came to visit and con- 
verse with him, he deterred from meddling with state affairs, 
telling them, that if at first two ways had been proposed 



220 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

to him, the one leading to the speaker's stand and the as- 
sembly, the other going direct to destruction, and he could 
have foreseen the many evils which attend those who deal 
in public business, such as fears, envies, calumnies, and 
contentions, he would certainly have taken that which led 
straight on to his death. 

But now happened the death of Alexander, while Demos- 
thenes was in this banishment which we have been speaking 
of. And the Grecians were once again up in arms, en- 
couraged by the brave attempts of Leosthenes, who was 
then drawing a circumvallation about Antipater, whom he 
held close besieged in Lamia. Pytheas, therefore, the orator, 
and Callimedon, called the Crab, fled from Athens, and taking 
sides with Antipater, went about with his friends and am- 
bassadors to keep the Grecians from revolting and taking 
part with the Athenians. But, on the other side, Demos- 
thenes, associating himself with the ambassadors that came 
from Athens, used his utmost endeavors and gave them his 
best assistance in persuading the cities to fall unanimously 
upon the Macedonians, and to drive them out of Greece. 
Phylarchus says that in Arcadia there happened a rencounter 
between Pytheas and Demosthenes, which came at last to 
downright railing, while the one pleaded for the Macedonians, 
and the other for the Grecians. Pytheas said, that as we 
always suppose there is some disease in the family to which 
they bring asses' milk, so wherever there comes an embassy 
from Athens, that city must needs be indisposed. And De- 
mosthenes answered him, retorting the comparison : "Asses' 
milk is brought to restore health, and the Athenians come 
for the safety and recovery of the sick." With this con- 
duct the people of Athens were so well pleased, that they 
decreed the recall of Demosthenes from banishment. The 
decree was brought in by Demon the Paeanian, cousin to 
Demosthenes. So they sent him a ship to ^gina, and he 
landed at the port of Piraeus, where he was met and joyfully 
received by all the citizens, not so much as an Archon or a 
priest staying behind. And Demetrius, the Magnesian, says, 
that he lifted up his hands towards heaven, and blessed this 
day of his happy return, as far more honorable than that 
of Alcibiades; since he was recalled by his countrymen, not 



DEMOSTHENES 221 

through any force or constraint put upon them, but by their 
own good-will and free inclinations. There remained only 
his pecuniary fine, which, according to law, could not be 
remitted by the people. But they found out a way to elude 
the law. It was a custom with them to allow a certain 
quantity of silver to those who were to furnish and adorn 
the altar for the sacrifice of Jupiter Soter. This office, for 
that turn, they bestowed on Demosthenes, and for the per- 
formance of it ordered him fifty talents, the very sum in 
which he was condemned. 

Yet it was no long time that he enjoyed his country after 
his return, the attempts of the Greeks being soon all utterly 
defeated. For the battle at Cranon happened in Metagitnion, 
in Boedromion the garrison entered into Alunychia, and in 
the Pyanepsion following died Demosthenes after this 
manner. 

Upon the report that Antipater and Craterus were coming 
to Athens, Demosthenes with his party took their opportunity 
to escape privily out of the city; but sentence of death was, 
upon the motion of Demades, passed upon them by the 
people. They dispersed themselves, flying some to one 
place, some to another; and Antipater sent about his soldiers 
into all quarters to apprehend them. Archias was their 
captain, and was thence called the exile-hunter. He was a 
Thurian born, and is reported to have been an actor of 
tragedies, and they say that Polus, of ^gina, the best actor 
of his time, was his scholar; but Hermippus reckons Archias 
among the disciples of Lacritus, the orator, and Demetrius 
says, he spent some time with Anaximenes. This Archias 
finding Hyperides the orator, Aristonicus of Marathon, and 
Himeraeus, the brother of Demetrius the Phalerian, in ^gina, 
took them by force out of the temple of ^acus, whither 
they were fled for safety, and sent them to Antipater, then 
at Cleonse, where they were all put to death; and Hyperides, 
they say, had his tongue cut out. 

Demosthenes, he heard, had taken sanctuary at the temple 
of Neptune in Calauria, and. crossing over thither in some 
light vessels, as soon as he had landed himself, and the Thra- 
cian spear-men that came with him, he endeavored to per- 
suade Demosthenes to accompany him to Antipater, as if he 



222 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

should meet with no hard usage from him. But Demos- 
thenes, in his sleep the night before, had a strange dream. 
It seemed to him that he was acting a tragedy, and con- 
tended with Archias for the victory; and though he ac- 
quitted himself well, and gave good satisfaction to the 
spectators, yet for want of better furniture and provision for 
the stage, he lost the day. And so, while Archias was dis- 
coursing to him with many expressions of kindness, he sate 
still in the same posture, and looking up steadfastly upon 
him, "O Archias," said he, "I am as little affected by your 
promises now as I used formerly to be by your acting." 
Archias at this beginning to grow angry and to threaten him, 
"Now," said Demosthenes, "you speak like the genuine Mace- 
donian oracle ; before you were but acting a part. Therefore 
forbear only a little, while I write a word or two home to 
my family." Having thus spoken, he withdrew into the 
temple, and taking a scroll, as if he meant to write, he put 
the reed into his mouth, and biting it, as he was wont to do 
when he was thoughtful or writing, he held it there for some 
time. Then he bowed down his head and covered it. The 
soldiers that stood at the door, supposing all this to proceed 
from want of courage and fear of death, in derision called 
him effeminate, and faint-hearted, and coward. And Archias, 
drawing near, desired him to rise up, and repeating the 
same kind things he had spoken before, he once more prom- 
ised him to make his peace with Antipater. But Demos- 
thenes, perceiving that now the poison had pierced and seized 
his vitals, uncovered his head, and fixing his eyes upon 
Archias, "Now," said he, "as soon as you please you may 
commence the part of Creon in the tragedy, and cast out 
this body of mine unburied. But, O gracious Neptune, I, for 
my part, while I am yet alive, arise up and depart out of 
this sacred place; though Antipater and the Macedonians 
have not left so much as thy temple unpolluted." After he 
had thus spoken and desired to be held up, because already 
he began to tremble and stagger, as he was going forward, 
and passing by the altar, he fell down, and with a groan 
gave up the ghost, 

Ariston says that he took the poison out of a reed, as we 
have shown before. But Pappus, a certain historian whose 



DEMOSTHENES 223 

history was recovered by Hermippus, says, that as he fell 
near the altar, there was found in his scroll this beginning 
only of a letter, and nothing more, "Demosthenes to Anti- 
pater." And that when his sudden death was much won- 
dered at, the Thracians who guarded the doors reported that 
he took the poison into his hand out of a rag, and put it into 
his mouth, and that they imagined it had been gold which he 
swallowed; but the maid that served him, being examined by 
the followers of Archias, affirmed that he had worn it in a 
bracelet for a long time, as an amulet. And Eratosthenes 
also says that he kept the poison in a hollow ring, and that 
that ring was the bracelet which he wore about his arm. 
There are various other statements made by the many authors 
who have related the story, but there is no need to enter 
into their discrepancies ; yet I must not omit what is said by 
Demochares, the relation of Demosthenes, who is of opinion, 
it was not by the help of poison that he met with so sudden 
and so easy a death, but that by the singular favor and 
providence of the gods he was thus rescued from the cruelty 
of the Macedonians. He died on the sixteenth of Pyanep- 
sion, the most sad and solemn day of the Thesmophoria, 
which the women observe by fasting in the temple of the 
goddess. 

Soon after his death, the people of Athens bestowed on him 
such honors as he had deserved. They erected his statue of 
brass; they decreed that the eldest of his family should be 
maintained in the Prytaneum ; and on the base of his statue 
was engraven the famous inscription, — 

Had you for Greece been strong, as wise you were. 
The Macedonian had not conquered her. 

For it is simply ridiculous to say, as some have related, that 
Demosthenes made these verses himself in Calauria. as he 
was about to take the poison. 

A little before he went to Athens, the following incident 
was said to have happened. A soldier, being summoned to 
appear before his superior officer, and answer to an accusa- 
tion brought against him, put that little gold which he had 
into the hands of Demosthenes's statue. The fingers of this 
statue were folded one within another, and near it grew a 



224 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

small plane-tree, from which many leaves, either accidentally 
blown thither by the wind, or placed so on purpose by the 
man himself, falling together, and lying round about the 
gold, concealed it for a long time. In the end, the soldier 
returned, and found his treasure entire, and the i'ame ox this 
incident was spread abroad. And many ingenious persons of 
the city competed with each other, on this occasion, to vindi- 
cate the integrity of Demosthenes, in several epigrams v/hich 
they made on the subject. 

As for Demades, he did not long enjoy the new honors he 
now came in for, divine vengeance for the death of Demos- 
thenes pursuing him into Macedonia, where he was justly 
put to death by those whom he had basely flattered. They 
were weary of him before, but at this time the guilt he lay 
■under was manifest and undeniable. For some of his letters 
were intercepted, in which he had encouraged Perdiccas'o to 
fall upon Macedonia, and to save the Grecians, who, he said, 
hung only by an old rotten thread, meaning Antipater. Of 
this he was accused by Dinarchus, the Corinthian, and Cas- 
sander was so enraged, that he first slew his son in his bosom, 
and then gave orders to execute him ; who might now at last, 
by his own extreme misfortunes, learn the lesson, that trai- 
tors, who make sale of their country, sell themselves first ; a 
truth which Demosthenes had often foretold him, and he 
would never believe. Thus, Sosius, you have the life of 
Demosthenes, from such accounts as we have either read or 
heard concerning him. 

^^ This, apparently, is one of Plutarch's slips of memory. It was not 
Perdiccas, but Antigonus; and so he tells the story himself in the life of 
yhocion. 



CICERO 

IT is generally said, that Helvia, the mother of Cicero, was 
both well born and lived a fair life; but of his father 
nothing is reported but in extremes. For whilst some 
would have him the son of a fuller, and educated in that 
trade, others carry back the origin of his family to Tullus 
Attius, an illustrious king of the Volscians, who waged war 
not without honor against the Romans. However, he who 
first of that house was surnamed Cicero seems to have been 
a person worthy to be remembered ; since those who suc- 
ceeded him not only did not reject, but were fond of the 
name, though vulgarly made a matter of reproach. For the 
Latins call a vetch Cicer, and a nick or dent at the tip of 
his nose, which resembled the opening in a vetch, gave him 
the surname of Cicero. 

Cicero, whose story I am writing, is said to have replied 
with spirit to some of his friends, who recommended him to 
lay aside or change the name when he first stood for office 
and engaged in politics, that he would make it his endeavor 
to render the name of Cicero more glorious than that of the 
Scauri and Catuli. And when he was quaestor in Sicily, and 
was making an offering of silver plate to the gods, and had 
inscribed his two names, Marcus and Tullius, instead of the 
third he jestingly told the artificer to engrave the figure of a 
vetch by them. Thus much is told us about his name. 

Of his birth it is reported, that his mother was delivered 
without pain or labor, on the third of the new Calends,^ the 
same day on which now the magistrates of Rome pray and 
sacrifice for the emperor. It is said, also, that a vision ap- 
peared to his nurse, and foretold the child she then suckled 
should afterwards become a great benefit to the Roman 
States. To such presages, which might in general be thought 

* The third of January. 

225 H— HC XII 



2U6 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

mere fancies and idle talk, he himself erelong gave the credit 
of true prophecies. For as soon as he was of an age to begin 
to have lessons, he became so distinguished for his talent, 
and got such a name and reputation amongst the boys, that 
their fathers would often visit the school, that they might 
see young Cicero, and might be able to say that they them- 
selves had witnessed the quickness and readiness in learning 
for which he was renowned. And the more rude among 
them used to be angry with their children, to see them, as 
they walked together, receiving Cicero with respect into the 
middle place. And being, as Plato would have the scholar- 
like and philosophical temper, eager for every kind of learn- 
ing, and indisposed to no description of knowledge or in- 
struction, he showed, however, a more peculiar propensity 
to poetry; and there is a poem now extant, made by him 
when a boy, in tetrameter verse, called Pontius Glaucus. And 
afterwards, when he applied himself more curiously to these 
accomplishments, he had the name of being not only the best 
orator, but also the best poet of Rome. And the glory of his 
rhetoric still remains, notwithstanding the many new modes 
in speaking since his time ; but his verses are forgotten and 
out of all repute, so many ingenious poets having followed 
him. 

Leaving his juvenile studies, he became an auditor of Philo 
the Academic, whom the Romans, above all the other schol- 
ars of Clitomachus, admired for his eloquence and loved for 
his character. He also sought the company of the Mucii, 
who were eminent statesmen and leaders in the senate, and 
acquired from them a knowledge of the laws. For some 
short time he served in arms under Sylla, in the Marsian 
war. But perceiving the commonwealth running into fac- 
tions, and from faction all things tending to an absolute 
monarchy, he betook himself to a retired and contemplative 
life, and conversing with the learned Greeks, devoted himself 
to study, till Sylla had obtained the government, and the 
commonwealth was in some kind of settlement. 

At this time, Chrysogonus, Sylla's emancipated slave, hav- 
ing laid an information about an estate belonging to one who 
was said to have been put to death by proscription, had 
bought it himself for two thousand drachmas. And when 



CICERO 227 

Roscius, the son and heir of the dead, complained, and 
demonstrated the estate to be worth two hundred and fifty 
talents, Sylla took it angrily to have his actions questioned, 
and preferred a process against Roscius for the murder of 
his father, Chrysogonus managing the evidence. None of 
the advocates durst assist him, but fearing the cruelty of 
Sylla, avoided the cause. The young man, being thus de- 
serted, came for refuge to Cicero. Cicero's friends encour- 
aged him, saying he was not likely ever to have a fairer and 
more honorable introduction to public life; he therefore 
undertook the defence, carried the cause, and got much re- 
nown for it. 

But fearing Sylla, he travelled into Greece, and gave it 
out that he did so for the benefit of his health. And indeed 
he was lean and meagre, and had such a weakness in his 
stomach, that he could take nothing but a spare and thin 
diet, and that not till late in the evening. His voice was 
loud and good, but so harsh and unmanaged that in vehe- 
mence and heat of speaking he always raised it to so high a 
tone, that there seemed to be reason to fear about his health. 

When he came to Athens, he was a hearer of Antiochus 
of Ascalon, with whose fluency and elegance of diction he 
was much taken, although he did not approve of his innova- 
tions in doctrine. For Antiochus had now fallen off from 
the New Academy, as they call it, and forsaken the sect of 
Carneades, whether that he was moved by the argument of 
manifestness- and the senses, or, as some say, had been led 
by feelings of rivalry and opposition to the followers of 
Clitomachus and Philo to change his opinions, and in most 
things to embrace the doctrine of the Stoics. But Cicero 
rather affected and adhered to the doctrines of the New 
Academy; and purposed with himself, if he should be dis- 
appointed of any employment in the commonwealth, to retire 
hither from pleading and political affairs, and to pass his life 
with quiet in the study of philosophy. 

But after he had received the news of Sylla's death, and 

' According to a proposed correction, " by the manifestness of the senses." 
But the enargeia, or manifestness of things seen and felt, seems to be the 
recognized name of the argument against the sceptical views of the New 
Academy as to the possibility of certain knowledge. See Cicero's Academics, 
II. 6. 



228 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

his body, strengthened again by exercise, was come to a 
vigorous habit, his voice managed and rendered sweet and 
full to the ear and pretty well brought into keeping with his 
general constitution, his friends at Rome earnestly soliciting 
him by letters, and Antiochus also urging him to return to 
public affairs, he again prepared for use his orator's instru- 
ment of rhetoric, and summoned into action his political fac- 
ulties, diligently exercising himself in declamations, and at- 
tending the most celebrated rhetoricians of the time. He 
sailed from Athens for Asia and Rhodes. Amongst the 
Asian masters, he conversed with Xenocles of Adramyttium, 
Dionysius of Magnesia, and Menippus of Caria; at Rhodes, 
he studied oratory with Apollonius, the son of Molon, and 
philosophy with Posidonius. Apollonius, we are told, not 
understanding Latin, requested Cicero to declaim in Greek. 
He complied willingly, thinking that his faults would thus 
be better pointed out to him. And after he finished, all his 
other hearers were astonished, and contended who should 
praise him most, but Apollonius, who had shown no signs of 
excitement whilst he was hearing him, so also now, when 
it was over, sate musing for some considerable time, without 
any remark. And when Cicero was discomposed at this, he 
said, "You have my praise and admiration, Cicero, and 
Greece my pity and commiseration, since those arts and that 
eloquence which are the only glories that remain to her, will 
now be transferred by you to Rome." 

And now when Cicero, full of expectation, was again bent 
upon political affairs, a certain oracle blunted the edge of 
his inclination; for consulting the god of Delphi how he 
should attain most glory, the Pythoness answered, by mak- 
ing his own genius and not the opinion of the people the 
guide of his life; and therefore at first he passed his time 
in Rome cautiously, and was very backward in pretending 
to public offices, so that he was at that time in little esteem, 
and had got the names, so readily given by low and ignorant 
people in Rome, of Greek and Scholar. But when his own 
desire of fame and the eagerness of his father and relations 
had made him take in earnest to pleading, he made no slow 
or gentle advance to the first place, but shone out in full 
lustre at once, and far surpassed all the advocates of the bar. 



CICERO 229 

At first, it is said, he, as well as Demosthenes, was defective 
in his delivery, and on that account paid much attention to 
the instructions, sometimes of Roscius the comedian, and 
sometimes of ^sop the tragedian. They tell of this ^sop, 
that whilst he was representing on the theatre Atreus delib- 
erating the revenge of Thyestes, he was so transported be- 
yond himself in the heat of action, that he struck with hisi 
sceptre one of the servants, who was running across the 
stage, so violently, that he laid him dead upon the place. And 
such afterwards was Cicero's delivery, that it did not a little 
contribute to render his eloquence persuasive. He used to 
ridicule loud speakers, saying that they shouted because they 
could not speak, like lame men who get on horseback because 
they cannot walk. And his readiness and address in sar- 
casm, and generally in witty sayings, was thought to suit a 
pleader very well, and to be highly attractive, but his using 
it to excess offended many, and gave him the repute of ill 
nature. 

He was appointed quaestor in a great scarcity of corn, and 
had Sicily for his province, where, though at first he dis- 
pleased many, by compelling them to send their provisions 
to Rome, yet after they had had experience of his care, jus- 
tice, and clemency, they honored him more than ever they 
did any of their governors before. It happened, also, that 
some young Romans of good and noble families, charged 
with neglect of discipline and misconduct in military service, 
were brought before the praetor in Sicily. Cicero undertook 
their defence, which he conducted admirably, and got them 
acquitted. So returning to Rome with a great opinion of 
himself for these things, a ludicrous incident befell him, as 
he tells us himself. Meeting an eminent citizen in Cam- 
pania, whom he accounted his friend, he asked him what the 
Romans said and thought of his actions, as if the whole city 
had been filled with the glory of what he had done. His 
friend asked him in reply, "Where is it you have been, 
Cicero?" This for the time utterly mortified and cast him 
down, to perceive that the report of his actions had sunk 
into the city of Rome as into an immense ocean, without 
any visible efifect or result in reputation. And afterwards 
considering with himself that the glory he contended for was 



230 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

an infinite thing, and that there was no fixed end nor meas- 
ure in its pursuit, he abated much of his ambitious thoughts. 
Nevertheless, he was always excessively pleased with his own 
praise, and continued to the very last to be passionately fond 
of glory; which often interfered with the prosecution of his 
wisest resolutions. 

On beginning to apply himself more resolutely to public 
business, he remarked it as an unreasonable and absurd thing 
that artificers, using vessels and instruments inanimate, 
should know the name, place, and use of every one of them, 
and yet the statesman, whose instruments for carrying out 
public measures are men, should be viegligent and careless in 
the knowledge of persons. And so he not only acquainted 
himself with the names, but also knew the particular place 
where every one of the more eminent citizens dwelt, what 
lands he possessed, the friends he made use of, and those that 
were of his neighborhood, and when he travelled on any road 
in Italy, he could readily name and show the estates and 
seats of his friends and acquaintances. Having so small an 
estate, though a sufficient competency for his own expenses, 
it was much wondered at that he took neither fees nor gifts 
from his clients, and more especially, that he did not do so 
when he undertook the prosecution of Verres. This Verres, 
who had been praetor of Sicily, and stood charged by the 
Sicilians of many evil practices during his government there, 
Cicero succeeded in getting condemned, not by speaking, 
but in a manner by holding his tongue. For the praetors, fa- 
voring Verres, had deferred the trial by several adjourn- 
ments to the last day, in which it was evident there could 
not be sufficient time for the advocates to be heard, and the 
cause brought to an issue. Cicero, therefore, came forward, 
and said there was no need of speeches; and after producing 
and examining witnesses, he required the judges to proceed 
to sentence. However, many witty sayings are on record, 
as having been used by Cicero on the occasion. When a 
man named Cascilius, one of the freed slaves, who was said 
to be given to Jewish practices, would have put by the 
Sicilians, and undertaken the prosecution of Verres himself, 
Cicero asked, "What has a Jew to do with swine?" verres 
being the Roman word for boar. And when Verres began to 



CICERO 231 

reproach Cicero with effeminate living, "You ought," replied 
he, "to use this language at home, to your sons ;" Verres 
having a son who had fallen into disgraceful courses. Hor- 
tensius the orator, not daring directly to undertake the de- 
fence of Verres, was yet persuaded to appear for him at the 
laying on of the fine, and received an ivory sphinx for his 
reward ; and when Cicero, in some passage of his speech, 
obliquely reflected on him, and Hortensius told him he was 
not skilful in solving riddles, "No," said Cicero, "and yet you 
have the Sphinx in your house !" 

Verres was thus convicted ; though Cicero, who set the 
fine at seventy-five myriads,^ lay under the suspicion of 
being corrupted by bribery to lessen the sum. But the Si- 
cilians, in testimony of their gratitude, came and brought 
him all sorts of presents from the island, when he was aedile ; 
of which he made no private profit himself, but used their 
generosity only to reduce the public price of provisions. 

He had a very pleasant seat at Arpi,* he had also a farm 
near Naples, and another about Pompeii, but neither of any 
great value. The portion of his wife, Terentia, amounted 
to ten myriads, and he had a bequest valued at nine myriads 
of denarii ; upon these he lived in a liberal but temperate 
style, with the learned Greeks and Romans that were his fa- 
miliars. He rarely, if at any time, sat down to meat till 
sunset, and that not so much on account of business, as for 
his health and the weakness of his stomach. He was other- 
wise in the care of his body nice and delicate, appointing 
himself, for example, a set number of walks and rubbings. 
And after this manner managing the habit of his body, he 
brought it in time to be healthful, and capable of supporting 
many great fatigues and trials. His father's house he made 
over to his brother, living himself near the Palatine hill, that 
he might not give the trouble of long journeys to those that 
made suit to him. And, indeed, there were not fewer daily 
appearing at his door, to do their court to him. than there 

' Seventy-five ten thousands, i. e. 750,000 drachmas; Plutarch most likely 
counting the drachma as equivalent to the denarius. But the sum does not 
agree with the figures given in Cicero's own orations, and must be regarded 
as quite uncertain. 

* Plutarch calls it Arpi, which is far from Rome, in Apulia, but it is. of 
course, Arpinum, Cicero's native place. 



232 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

were that came to Crassus for his riches, or to Pompey for 
his power amongst the soldiers, these being at that time the 
two men of the greatest repute and influence in Rome. Nay, 
even Pompey himself used to pay court to Cicero, and 
Cicero's public actions did much to establish Pompey's au- 
thority and reputation in the state. 

Numerous distinguished competitors stood with him for the 
praetor's office ; but he was chosen before them all, and man- 
aged the decision of causes with justice and integrity. It is 
related that Licinius Macer, a man himself of great power in 
the city, and supported also by the assistance of Crassus, 
was accused before him of extortion, and that, in confidence 
on his own interest and the diligence of his friends, whilst 
the judges were debating about the sentence, he went to his 
house, where hastily trimming his hair and putting on a clean 
gown, as already acquitted, he was setting off again to go 
to the Forum; but at his hall door meeting Crassus, who 
told him that he was condemned by all the votes, he went 
in again, threw himself upon his bed, and died immediately. 
This verdict was considered very creditable to Cicero, as 
showing his careful management of the courts of justice. On 
another occasion, Vatinius, a man of rude manners and often 
insolent in court to the magistrates, who had large swellings 
on his neck, came before his tribunal and made some request, 
and on Cicero's desiring further time to consider it, told him 
that he himself would have made no question about it, had 
he been praetor. Cicero, turning quickly upon him, answered, 
"But I, you see, have not the neck that you have."^ 

When there were but two or three days remaining in his 
office, Manilius was brought before him, and charged with 
peculation. Manilius had the good opinion and favor of the 
common people, and was thought to be prosecuted only for 
Pompey's sake, whose particular friend he was. And there- 
fore, when he asked a space of time before his trial, and 
Cicero allowed him but one day, and that the next only, the 
common people grew highly offended, because it had been 
the custom of the praetors to allow ten days at least to the 

° The strong, thick neck was both in Greek and Latin the sign of the 
pushing, unscrupulous man, who would take no refusal and stick at no 
doubt or difficulty. So in the life of Marius. 



CICERO 233 

accused: and the tribunes of the people having called him 
before the people, and accused him, he, desiring to be heard, 
said, that as he had always treated the accused with equity 
and humanity, as far as the law allowed, so he thought it 
hard to deny the same to Manilius, and that he had studi- 
ously appointed that day of which alone, as praetor, he was 
master, and that it was not the part of those that were de- 
sirous to help him, to cast the judgment of his cause upon 
another praetor. These things being said made a wonderful 
change in the people, and, commending him much for it, 
they desired that he himself would undertake the defence 
of Manilius; which he willingly consented to, and that prin- 
cipally for the sake of Pompey, who was absent. And, ac- 
cordingly, taking his place before the people again, he 
delivered a bold invective upon the oligarchical party and on 
those who were jealous of Pompey. 

Yet he was preferred to the consulship no less by the 
nobles than the common people, for the good of the city ; and 
both parties jointly assisted his promotion, upon the follow- 
ing reasons. The change of government made by Sylla, 
which at first seemed a senseless one, by time and usage had 
now come to be considered by the people no unsatisfactory 
settlement. But there were some that endeavored to alter 
and subvert the whole present state of affairs, not from any 
good motives, but for their own private gain; and Pompey 
being at this time employed in the wars with the kings of 
Pontus and Armenia, there was no sufficient force at Rome 
to suppress any attempts at a revolution. These people had 
for their head a man of bold, daring, and restless character, 
Lucius Catiline, who was accused, besides other great of- 
fences, of deflouring his virgin daughter, and killing his own 
brother; for which latter crime, fearing to be prosecuted at 
law, he persuaded Sylla to set him down, as though he were 
yet alive, amongst those that were to be put to death by 
proscription. This man the profligate citizens choosing for 
their captain, gave faith to one another, amongst other 
pledges, by sacrificing a man and eating of his flesh ; and a 
great part of the young men of the city were corrupted by 
him, he providing for every one pleasures, drink, and women, 
and profusely supplying the expense of these debauches. 



234 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

Etruria, moreover, had all been excited to revolt, as well as 
a great part of Gaul writhin the Alps. But Rome itself was 
in the most dangerous inclination to change, on account of 
the unequal distribution of wealth and property, those of 
highest rank and greatest spirit having impoverished them- 
selves by shows, entertainments, ambition of offices, and 
sumptuous buildings, and the riches of the city having thus 
fallen into the hands of mean and low-born persons. So 
that there wanted but a slight impetus to set all in motion, 
it being in the power of every daring man to overturn a 
sickly commonwealth. 

Catiline, however, being desirous of procuring a strong 
position to carry out his designs, stood for the consulship, 
and had great hopes of success, thinking he should be ap- 
pointed, with Caius Antonius as his colleague, who was a 
man fit to lead neither in a good cause nor in a bad one, but 
might be a valuable accession to another's power. These 
things the greatest part of the good and honest citizens ap- 
prehending, put Cicero upon standing for the consulship; 
whom the people readily receiving, Catiline was put by, so 
that he and Caius Antonius were chosen, although amongst 
the competitors he was the only man descended from a 
father of the equestrian, and not of the senatorial order. 

Though the designs of Catiline were not yet publicly 
known, yet considerable preliminary troubles immediately 
followed upon the consulship. For, on the one side, those 
who were disqualified by the laws of Sylla from holding any 
public offices, being neither inconsiderable in power nor in 
number, came forward as candidates and caressed the people 
for them; speaking many things truly and justly against the 
tyranny of Sylla, only that they disturbed the government 
at an improper and unseasonable time; on the other hand, 
the tribunes of the people proposed laws to the same purpose, 
constituting a commission of ten persons, with unlimited 
powers, in whom as supreme governors should be vested the 
right of selling the public lands of Italy and Syria and Pom- 
pey's new conquests, of judging and banishing whom they 
pleased, of planting colonies, of taking moneys out of the 
treasury, and of levying and paying what soldiers should be 
thought needful. And several of the nobility favored this 



CICERO 235 

law, but especially Caius Antonius, Cicero's colleague, in 
hopes of being one of the ten. But what gave the greatest 
fear to the nobles was, that he was thought privy to the con- 
spiracy of Catiline, and not to dislike it, because of his great 
debts. 

Cicero, endeavoring in the first place to provide a remedy 
against this danger, procured a decree assigning to him the 
province of Macedonia, he himself declining that of Gaul, 
which was offered to him. And this piece of favor so com- 
pletely won over Antonius, that he was ready to second and 
respond to, like a hired player, whatever Cicero said for the 
good of the country. And now, having made his colleague 
thus tame and tractable, he could with greater courage at- 
tack the conspirators. And, therefore, in the senate, making 
an oration against the law of the ten commissioners, he so 
confounded those who proposed it, that they had nothing to 
reply. And when they again endeavored, and, having pre- 
pared things beforehand, had called the consuls before the 
assembly of the people, Cicero, fearing nothing, went first 
out, and commanded the senate to follow him. and not only 
succeeded in throwing out the law, but so entirely overpow- 
ered the tribunes by his oratory, that they abandoned all 
thought of their other projects. 

For Cicero, it may be said, was the one man above all 
others, who made tjie Romans feel how great a charm elo- 
quence lends to what is good, and how invincible justice is, 
if it be well spoken ; and that it is necessary for him who 
would dexterously govern a commonwealth, in action, al- 
ways to prefer that which is honest before that which is 
popular, and in speaking, to free the right and useful meas- 
ure from every thing that may occasion offence. An inci- 
dent occurred in the theatre, during his consulship, which 
showed what his speaking could do. For whereas formerly 
the knights of Rome were mingled in the theatre with the 
common people, and took their places amongst them as it 
happened, Marcus Otho, when he was praetor, was the first 
who distinguished them from the other citizens, and ap- 
pointed them a proper seat, which they still enjoy as their 
special place in the theatre. This the common people took 
as an indignity done to them, and, therefore, when Otho ap- 



236 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

peared in the theatre, they hissed him; the knights, on the 
contrary, received him with loud clapping. The people re- 
peated and increased their hissing; the knights continued 
their clapping. Upon this, turning upon one another, they 
broke out into insulting words, so that the theatre was in 
great disorder. Cicero, being informed of it, came himself 
to the theatre, and summoning the people into the temple of 
Bellona, he so effectually chid and chastised them for it, 
that, again returning into the theatre, they received Otho 
with loud applause, contending with the knights who should 
give him the greatest demonstrations of honor and respect. 
The conspirators with Catiline, at first cowed and dis- 
heartened, began presently to take courage again. And as- 
sembling themselves together, they exhorted one another 
boldly to undertake the design before Pompey's return, who, 
as it was said, was now on his march with his forces for 
Rome. But the old soldiers of Sylla were Catiline's chief 
stimulus to action. They had been disbanded all about Italy, 
but the greatest number and the fiercest of them lay scat- 
tered among the cities of Etruria, entertaining themselves 
with dreams of new plunder and rapine amongst the hoarded 
riches of Italy. These, having for their leader Manlius, who 
had served with distinction in the wars under Sylla, joined 
themselves to Catiline, and came to Rome to assist him with 
their suffrages at the election. For he again pretended to 
the consulship, having resolved to kill Cicero in a tumult at 
the elections. Also, the divine powers seemed to give inti- 
mation of the coming troubles, by earthquakes, thunderbolts, 
and strange appearances. Nor was human evidence want- 
ing, certain enough in itself, though not sufficient for the 
conviction of the noble and powerful Catiline. Therefore 
Cicero, deferring the day of election, summoned Catiline 
into the senate, and questioned him as to the charges made 
against him. Catiline, believing there were many in the 
senate desirous of change, and to give a specimen of him- 
self to the conspirators present, returned an audacious 
answer, "What harm," said he, "when I see two bodies, the 
one lean and consumptive with a head, the other great and 
strong without one, if I put a head to that body which wants 
one?" This covert representation of the senate and the 



CICERO 237 

people excited yet greater apprehensions in Cicero. He put 
on armor, and was attended from his house by the noble citi- 
zens in a body; and a number of the young men went with 
him into the Plain. Here, designedly letting his tunic slip 
partly off from his shoulders, he showed his armor under- 
neath, and discovered his danger to the spectators ; who, 
being much moved at it, gathered round about him for his 
defence. At length, Catiline was by a general suffrage again 
put by, and Silanus and Murena chosen consuls. 

Not long after this, Catiline's soldiers got together in a 
body in Etruria, and began to form themselves into compa- 
nies, the day appointed for the design being near at hand. 
About midnight, some of the principal and most powerful 
citizens of Rome, Marcus Crassus. Marcus Marcellus, and 
Scipio Mettellus went to Cicero's house, where, knocking 
at the gate, and calling up the porter, they commanded him 
to awake Cicero, and tell him they were there. The business 
was this: Crassus's porter after supper had delivered to him 
letters brought by an unknown person. Some of them were 
directed to others, but one to Crassus, without a name; this 
only Crassus read, which informed him that there was a 
great slaughter intended by Catiline, and advised him to 
leave the city. The others he did not open, but went with 
them immediately by Cicero, being affrighted at the danger, 
and to free himself of the suspicion he lay under for his 
familiarity with Catiline. Cicero, considering the matter, 
summoned the senate at break of day. The letters he brought 
with him, and delivered them to those to whom they were 
directed, commanding them to read them publicly; they all 
alike contained an account of the conspiracy. And when 
Quintus Arrius, a man of pn-etorian dignity, recounted to 
them, how soldiers were collecting in companies in Etruria, 
and iManlius stated to be in motion with a large force, hov- 
ering about those cities, in expectation of intelligence from 
Rome, the senate made a decree, to place all in the hands of 
the consuls, who should undertake the conduct of every 
thing, and do their best to save the state,* This was not 

• Dent operam consules ne quid respublica detrimenti capiat," the usual 
form for suspending otlier autliority, and arming the consuls with dis- 
cretionary power; much the same as placing the town in a state of siege. 



238 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

a common thing, out only done by the senate in case of 
imminent danger. 

After Cicero had received this power, he committed afl 
affairs outside to Quintus Metellus, but the management of 
the city he kept in his own hands. Such a numerous at- 
tendance goiarded him every day when he went abroad, that 
the greatest part of the market-place' was filled with his 
train when he entered it. Catiline, impatient of further 
delay, resolved himself to break forth and go to Manlius, but 
he commanded Marcius and Cethegus to take their swords, 
and go early in the morning to Cicero's gates, as if only 
intending to salute him, and then to fall upon him and slay 
him. This a noble lady, Fulvia, coming by night, discovered 
to Cicero, bidding him beware of Cethegus and Marcius. 
They came by break of day, and being denied entrance, made 
an outcry and disturbance at the gates, which excited all 
the more suspicion. But Cicero, going forth, summoned the 
senate into the temple of Jupiter Stator, which stands at 
the end of the Sacred Street, going up to the Palatine. And 
when Catiline with others of his party also came, as intend- 
ing to make his defence, none of the senators would sit 
by him, but all of them left the bench where he had placed 
himself. And when he began to speak, they interrupted 
him with outcries. At length Cicero, standing up, com- 
manded him to leave the city, for since one governed the 
commonwealth with words, the other with arms, it was 
necessary there should be a wall betwixt them. Catiline, 
therefore, immediately left the town, with three hundred 
armed men ; and assuming, as if he had been a magistrate, 
the rods, axes, and military ensigns, he went to Manlius, and 
having got together a body of near twenty thousand men. 
with these he marched to the several cities, endeavoring to 
persuade or force them to revolt. So it being now come 
to open war, Antonius was sent forth to fight him. 

The remainder of those in the city whom he had cor- 
rupted, Cornelius Lentulus kept together and encouraged. 
He had the surname Sura, and was a man of a noble family, 
but a dissolute liver, who for his debauchery was formerly 
turned out of the senate, and was now holding the office 

^ The Forum, 



CICERO 239 

of praetor for the second time, as the custom is with those 
vho desire to regain the dignity of senator. It is said that 
he got the surname Sura upon this occasion ; being quaestor 
ir. the time of Sylla, he had lavished away and consumed a 
great quantity of the public moneys, at which Sylla being 
provoked, called him to give an account in the senate ; he 
appeared with great coolness and contempt, and said he had 
no account to give, but they might take this, holding up the 
calf of his leg, as boys do at ball, when they have missed. 
Upon which he was surnamed Sura, sura being the Roman 
word for the calf of the leg. Being at another time prose- 
cuted at law, and having bribed some of the judges, he 
escaped only by two votes, and complained of the needless 
expense he had gone to in paying for a second, as one would 
have sufficed to acquit him. This man, such in his own 
nature, and now inflamed by Catiline, false prophets and 
fortune-tellers had also corrupted with vain hopes, quoting 
to him fictitious verses and oracles, and proving from the 
Sibylline prophecies that there were three of the name Cor- 
nelius designed by fate to be monarchs of Rome ; two of 
whom, Cinna and Sylla, had already fulfilled the decree, and 
that divine fortune was now advancing with the gift of 
monarchy for the remaining third Cornelius ; and that there- 
fore he ought by all means to accept it, and not lose oppor- 
tunity by delay, as Catiline had done. 

Lentulus, therefore, designed no mean or trivial matter, 
for he had resolved to kill the whole senate, and as many 
other citizens as he could, to fire the city, and spare nobody, 
except only Pompey's children, intending to seize and keep 
them as pledges of his reconciliation with Pompey. For 
there was then a common and strong report that Pompey 
was on his way homeward from his great expedition. The 
night appointed for the design was one of the Saturnalia ; 
swords, flax, and sulphur they carried and hid in the house 
of Cethegus ; and providing one hundred men, and dividing 
the city into as many parts, they had allotted to every one 
singly his proper place, so that in a moment many kindling 
the fire, the city might be in a flame all together. Others 
were appointed to stop up the aqueducts, and to kill those 
who should endeavor to carry water to put it out. Whilst 



240 PLUTARCH'S LIVES j 

these plans were preparing, it happened there were two 
ambassadors from the Allobroges staying in Rome; a natioa 
at that time in a distressed condition, and very uneasy under 
the Roman government. These Lentulus and his party 
judging useful instruments to move and seduce Gaul to revolt, 
admitted into the conspiracy, and they gave them letters 
to their own magistrates, and letters to Catiline; in those 
they promised liberty, in these they exhorted Catiline to set 
all slaves free, and to bring them, along with him to Rome. 
They sent also to accompany them to Catiline, one Titus, a 
native of Croton, who was to carry those letters to him. 

These counsels of inconsidering men, who conversed 
together over wine and with women, Cicero watched with 
sober industry and forethought, and with most admirable 
sagacity, having several emissaries abroad, who observed 
and traced with him all that was done, and keeping also a 
secret correspondence with many who pretended to join in 
the conspiracy. He thus knew all the discourse which 
passed betwixt them and the strangers; and lying in wait 
for them by night, he took the Crotonian with his letters, 
the ambassadors of the Allobroges acting secretly in concert 
with him. 

By break of day, he summoned the senate into the temple 
of Concord, where he read the letters and examined the 
informers. Junius Silanus further stated, that several per- 
sons had heard Cethegus say, that three consuls and four 
praetors were to be slain; Piso, also, a person of consular 
dignity, testified other matters of the like nature ; and Caius 
Sulpicius, one of the praetors, being sent to Cethegus's house, 
found there a quantity of darts and of armor, and a still 
greater number of swords and daggers, all recently whetted. 
At length, the senate decreeing indemnity to the Crotonian 
upon his confession of the whole matter, Lentulus was con- 
victed, abjured his office (for he was then praetor), and put 
off his robe edged with purple in the senate, changing it 
for another garment more agreeable to his present circum- 
stances. He, thereupon, with the rest of his confederates 
present, was committed to the charge of the praetors in free 
custody. 

It being evening, and the common people in crowds ex' 



CICERO 241 

pecting without, Cicero went forth to them, and told them 
what was done, and then, attended by them, went to the 
house of a friend and near neighbor; for his own was taken 
up by the women, who were celebrating with secret rites 
the feast of the goddess whom the Romans call the Good, 
and the Greeks, the Women's goddess. For a sacrifice is 
annually performed to her in the consul's house, either by 
his wife or mother, in the presence of the vestal virgins. 
And having got into his friend's house privately, a few 
only being present, he began to deliberate how he should 
treat these men. The severest, and the only punishment 
fit for such heinous crimes, he was somewhat shy and 
fearful of inflicting, as well from the clemency of his nature, 
as also lest he should be thought to exercise his authority too 
insolently, and to treat too harshly men of the noblest birth 
and most powerful friendships in the city; and yet, if he 
should use them more mildly, he had a dreadful prospect of 
danger from them. For there was no likelihood, if they 
suffered less than death, they would be reconciled, but rather, 
adding new rage to their former wickedness, they would rush 
into every kind of audacity, while he himself, whose char- 
acter for courage already did not stand very high with the 
multitude, would be thought guilty of the greatest coward- 
ice and want of manliness. 

Whilst Cicero was doubting what course to take, a portent 
happened to the women in their sacrificing. For on the 
altar, where the fire seemed wholly extinguished, a great 
and bright flame issued forth from the ashes of the burnt 
wood; at which others were affrighted, but the holy virgins 
called to Terentia, Cicero's wife, and bade her haste to her 
husband, and command him to execute what he had resolved 
for the good of his country, for the goddess had sent a 
great light to the increase of his safety and glory. Terentia, 
therefore, as she was otherwise in her own nature neither 
tender-hearted nor timorous, but a woman eager for dis- 
tinction (who, as Cicero himself says, would rather thrust 
herself into his public affairs, than communicate her domestic 
matters to him), told him these things, and excited him 
against the conspirators. So also did Quintus his brother, 
and Publius Nigidius, one of his philosophical friends, whom 



S42 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

he often made use of in his greatest and most weighty affairs 
of state. 

The next day, a debate arising in the senate about the 
punishment of the men, Silanus, being the first who was 
asked his opinion, said, it was fit they should be all sent to 
the prison, and there suffer the utmost penalty. To him 
all consented in order till it came to Caius Caesar, who was 
afterwards dictator. He was then but a young man, and 
only at the outset of his career, but had already directed his 
hopes and policy to that course by which he afterwards 
changed the Roman state into a monarchy. Of this others 
foresaw nothing; but Cicero had seen reason for strong 
suspicion, though without obtaining any sufficient means of 
proof. And there were some indeed that said that he was 
very near being discovered, and only just escaped him; others 
are of opinion that Cicero voluntarily overlooked and neg- 
lected the evidence against him, for fear of his friends and 
power; for it was very evident to everybody, that if Caesar 
was to be accused with the conspirators, they were more 
likely to be saved with him, than he to be punished with 
them. 

When, therefore, it came to Caesar's turn to give his opin- 
ion, he stood up and proposed that the conspirators should 
not be put to death, but their estates confiscated, and their 
persons confined in such cities in Italy as Cicero should 
approve, there to be kept in custody till Catiline was con- 
quered. To this sentence, as it was the most moderate, and 
he that delivered it a most powerful speaker, Cicero himself 
gave no small weight, for he stood up and, turning the scale 
on either side, spoke in favor partly of the former, partly 
of Caesar's sentence. And all Cicero's friends, judging 
Caesar's sentence most expedient for Cicero, because he would 
incur the less blame if the conspirators were not put to death, 
chose rather the latter; so that Silanus, also, changing his 
mind, retracted his opinion, and said he had not declared 
for capital, but only the utmost punishment, which to a 
Roman senator is imprisonment. The first man who spoke 
against Caesar's motion was Catulus Lutatius. Cato fol- 
lowed, and so vehemently urged in his speech the strong 
suspicion about Caesar himself, and so filled the senate with 



CICERO 243 

anger and resolution, that a decree was passed for the execu- 
tion of the conspirators. But Caesar opposed the confiscation 
of their goods, not thinking it fair that those who had re- 
jected the mildest part of his sentence should avail them- 
selves of the severest. And when many insisted upon it, 
he appealed to the tribunes, but they would do nothing; 
till Cicero himself yielding, remitted that part of the sentence. 

After this, Cicero went out with the senate to the con- 
spirators; they were not all together in one place, but the 
several praetors had then, some one, some another, in custody. 
And first he took Lentulus from the Palatine, and brought 
him by the Sacred Street, through the middle of the market- 
place, a circle of the most eminent citizens encompassing 
and protecting him. The people, affrighted at what was 
doing, passed along in silence, especially the young men; 
as if, with fear and trembling, they were undergoing a rite 
of initiation into some ancient, sacred mysteries of aristo- 
cratic power. Thus passing from the market-place, and 
coming to the gaol, he delivered Lentulus to the officer, and 
commanded him to execute him ; and after him Cethegus, and 
so all the rest in order, he brought and delivered up to 
execution. And when he saw many of the conspirators in 
the market-place, still standing together in companies, ig- 
norant of what was done, and waiting for the night, sup- 
posing the men were still alive and in a possibility of being 
rescued, he called out in a loud voice, and said, "They did 
live;" for so the Romans, to avoid inauspicious language, 
name those that are dead. 

It was now evening, when he returned from the market- 
place to his own house, the citizens no longer attending him 
with silence, nor in order, but receiving him, as he passed, 
with acclamations and applauses, and saluting him as the 
saviour and founder of his country. A bright light shone 
through the streets from the lamps and torches set up at the 
doors, and the women showed lights from the tops of the 
houses, to honor Cicero, and to behold him returning home 
with a splendid train of the most principal citizens; amongst 
whom were many who had conducted great wars, celebrated 
triumphs, and added to the possessions of the Roman empire, 
both by sea and land. These, as they passed along with 



244 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

him, acknowledged to one another, that though the Roman 
people were indebted to several officers and commanders of 
that age for riches, spoils, and power, yet to Cicero alone 
they owed the safety and security of all these, for delivering 
them from so great and imminent a danger. For though 
it might seem no wonderful thing to prevent the design, and 
punish the conspirators, yet to defeat the greatest of all 
conspiracies with so little disturbance, trouble, and commo- 
tion, was very extraordinary. For the greater part of those 
who had flocked in to Catiline, as soon as they heard the fate 
of Lentulus and Cethegus, left and forsook him, and he 
himself, with his remaining forces, joining battle with 
Antonius, was destroyed with his army. 

And yet there were some who were very ready both to 
speak ill of Cicero, and to do him hurt for these actions; 
and they had for their leaders some of the magistrates of 
the ensuing year, as Csesar, who was one of the praetors, 
and Metellus and Bestia, the tribunes. These, entering upon 
their office some few days before Cicero's consulate expired, 
would not permit him to make any address to the people, but, 
throwing the benches before the Rostra, hindered his speak- 
ing, telling him he might, if he pleased, make the oath of 
withdrawal from office, and then come down again. Cicero, 
accordingly, accepting the conditions, came forward to make 
his withdrawal; and silence being made, he recited his oath, 
not in the usual, but in a new and peculiar form, namely, 
that he had saved his country, and preserved the empire; 
the truth of which oath all the people confirmed with theirs. 
Caesar and the tribunes, all the more exasperated by this, 
endeavored to create him further trouble, and for this pur- 
pose proposed a law for calling Pompey home with his 
army, to put an end to Cicero's usurpation. But it was a 
very great advantage for Cicero and the whole common- 
wealth that Cato was at that time one of the tribunes. For 
he, being of equal power with the rest, and of greater reputa- 
tion, could oppose their designs. He easily defeated their 
other projects, and, in an oration to the people, so highly 
extolled Cicero's consulate, that the greatest honors were 
decreed him, and he was publicly declared the Father of his 
Country, which title he seems to have obtained, the first 



CICERO 245 

man who did so, when Cato gave it him in this address to 
the people. 

At this time, therefore, his authority was very great in 
the city; but he created himself much envy, and offended 
very many, not by any evil action, but because he was always 
lauding and magnifying himself. For neither senate, nor 
assembly of the people, nor court of judicature could meet, 
in which he was not heard to talk of Catiline and Lentulus. 
Indeed, he also filled his books and writings with his own 
praises, to such an excess as to render a style, in itself most 
pleasant and delightful, nauseous and irksome to his hearers ; 
this ungrateful humor, like a disease, always cleaving to 
him. Nevertheless, though he was intemperately fond of his 
own glory, he was very free from envying others, and was, 
on the contrary, most liberally profuse in commending both 
the ancients and his contemporaries, as any one may see in 
his writings. And many such sayings of his are also remem- 
bered; as that he called Aristotle a river of flowing gold, 
and said of Plato's Dialogues, that if Jupiter were to speak, 
it would be in language like theirs. He used to call Theo- 
phrastus his special luxury. And being asked which of 
Demosthenes's orations he liked best, he answered, the long- 
est. And yet some affected imitators of Demosthenes have 
complained of some words that occur in one of his letters, 
to the effect that Demosthenes sometimes falls asleep in his 
speeches ; forgetting the many high encomiums he continually 
passes upon him, and the compliment he paid him when he 
named the most elaborate of all his orations, those he wrote 
against Antony, Philippics. And as for the eminent men 
of his own time, either in eloquence or philosophy, there 
was not one of them whom he did not, by writing or speak- 
ing favorably of him, render more illustrious. He obtained 
of Caesar, when in power, the Roman citizenship for Cratip- 
pus, the Peripatetic, and got the court of Areopagus, by 
public decree, to request his stay at Athens, for the instruc- 
tion of their youth, and the honor of their city. There are 
letters extant from Cicero to Herodes, and others to his 
son, in which he recommends the study of philosophy under 
Cratippus. There is one in which he blames Gorgias. the 
rhetorician, for enticing his son into luxury and drinking, 



246 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

and, therefore, forbids him his company. And this, and 
one other to Pelops, the Byzantine, are the only two of his 
Greek epistles which seem to be written in anger. In the 
first, he justly reflects on Gorgias, if he were what he was 
thought to be, a dissolute and profligate character; but in the 
other, he rather meanly expostulates and complains with 
Pelops, for neglecting to procure him a decree of certain 
honors from the Byzantines. 

Another illustration of his love of praise is the way in 
which sometimes, to make his orations more striking, he 
neglected decorum and dignity. When Munatius, who had 
escaped conviction by his advocacy, immediately prosecuted 
his friend Sabinus, he said in the warmth of his resentment, 
"Do you suppose you were acquitted for your own merits, 
Munatius, and was it not that I so darkened the case, that 
the court could not see your guilt?" When from the Rostra 
he had made an eulogy on Marcus Crassus, with much 
applause, and within a few days after again as publicly 
reproached him, Crassus called to him, and said, "Did not 
you yourself two days ago, in this same place, commend me ?" 
"Yes," said Cicero, "I exercised my eloquence in declaiming 
upon a bad subject." At another time, Crassus had said 
that no one of his family had ever lived beyond sixty years 
of age, and afterwards denied it, and asked, "What should 
put it into my head to say so?" "It was to gain the people's 
favor," answered Cicero; "you knew how glad they would 
be to hear it." When Crassus expressed admiration of the 
Stoic doctrine, that the good man is always rich, "Do you 
not mean," said Cicero, "their doctrine that all things belong 
to the wise?" Crassus being generally accused of covetous- 
ness. One of Crassus's sons, who was thought so exceedingly 
like a man of the name of Axius as to throw some suspicion 
on his mother's honor, made a successful speech in the senate. 
Cicero on being asked how he liked it, replied with the Greek 
words, Axios Crassou.^ 

* Which may mean, either worthy of Crassus, or Crassus's son Axius. 
The jest on the Stoic doctrines is also rather obscure. Crassus appears to 
have praised the first dictum in its proper philosophical sense; that the only 
truly rich man is he who is virtuous; Cicero suggests, that a text which is 
more to Crassus's purpose is the other, that the wise man is the possessor 
of all things, that is, may make himself as rich as he pleases. 



CICERO 247 

When Crassus was about to go into Syria, he desired to 
leave Cicero rather his friend than his enemy, and, there- 
fore, one day saluting him, told him he would come and sup 
with him, which the other as courteously received. Within 
a few days after, on some of Cicero's acquaintances interced- 
ing for Vatinius, as desirous of reconciliation and friendship, 
for he was then his enemy, "What," he replied, "does Vatinius 
also wish to come and sup with me?" Such was his way with 
Crassus. When Vatinius, who had swellings in his neck, 
was pleading a cause, he called him the tumid orator; and 
having been told by some one that Vatinius was dead, on 
hearing presently after that he was alive, "May the rascal 
perish," said he, "for his news not being true." 

Upon Caesar's bringing forward a law for the division of 
the lands in Campania amongst the soldiers, many in the 
senate opposed it ; amongst the rest, Lucius Gellius, one of 
the oldest men in the house, said it should never pass whilst 
he lived. "Let us postpone it," said Cicero, "Gellius does 
not ask us to wait long." There was a man of the name of 
Octavius, suspected to be of African descent. He once 
said, when Cicero was pleading that he could not hear him; 
"Yet there are holes," said Cicero, "in your ears."" When 
Metellus Nepos told him, that he had ruined more as a 
witness, than he had saved as an advocate, "I admit," said 
Cicero, "that I have more truth than eloquence." To a 
young man who was suspected of having given a poisoned 
cake to his father, and who talked largely of the invectives 
he meant to deliver against Cicero, "Better these," replied 
he, "than your cakes." Publius Sextius, having amongst 
others retained Cicero as his advocate in a certain cause, 
was yet desirous to say all for himself, and would not allow 
anybody to speak for him ; when he was about to receive his 
acquittal from the judges, and the ballots were passing, 
Cicero called to him, "Make haste, Sextius, and use your 
time; to-morrow you will be nobody." He cited Publius 
Cotta to bear testimony in a certain cause, one who affected 
to be thought a lawyer, though ignorant and unlearned; to 
whom, when he had said, "I know nothing of the matter," 

_ • The marks of the ears having been bored for ear-rings would be con- 
sidered proof of his being of barbarian origin. 



248 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

he answered, "You think, perhaps, we ask you about a 
point of law." To Metellus Nepos, who, in a dispute be- 
tween them, repeated several times, "Who was your father, 
Cicero?" he replied, "Your mother has made the answer to 
such a question in your case more difficult;" Nepos's mother 
having been of ill repute. The son, also, was of a giddy, 
uncertain temper. At one time, he suddenly threw up his 
office of tribune, and sailed off into Syria to Pompey; and 
immediately after, with as little reason, came back again. 
He gave his tutor, Philagrus, a funeral with more than 
necessary attention, and then set up the stone figure of a 
crow over his tomb. "This," said Cicero, "is really appro- 
priate; as he did not teach you to speak, but to fly about." 
When Marcus Appius, in the opening of some speech in a 
court of justice, said that his friend had desired him to 
employ industry, eloquence, and fidelity in that cause, Cicero 
answered, "And how have you had the heart not to accede 
to any one of his requests?" 

To use this sharp raillery against opponents and antag- 
onists in judicial pleading seems allowable rhetoric. But he 
excited much ill feeling by his readiness to attack any one 
for the sake of a jest. A few anecdotes of this kind may 
be added. Marcus Aquinius, who had two sons-in-law in 
exile, received from him the name of king Adrastus.^" Lucius 
Gotta, an intemperate lover of wine, was censor when Cicero 
stood for the consulship. Cicero, being thirsty at the election, 
his friends stood round about him while he was drinking. 
"You have reason to be afraid," he said, "lest the censor 
should be angry with me for drinking water." Meeting one 
day Voconius with his three very ugly daughters, he quoted 
the verse. 

He reared a race without Apollo's leave. 

When Marcus Gellius, who was reputed the son of a slave, 
had read several letters in the senate with a very shrill, and 
loud voice, "Wonder not," said Cicero, "he comes of the 

^•Adrastus, king of Argos, married his daughters to the exiles, Tydeus 
and Polynices. The verse below, quoted from a tragedy, must refer to 
Laius and his son, born against the warning of the oracle, CEdipus. " With- 
out Apollo's leave " would be a phrase like " invita Minerva " applied to 
any unsuccessful, or infelicitous, or injudicious proceeding. 



CICERO 249 

criers." When Faustus Sylla, the son of Sylla the dictator, 
who had during his dictatorship, by public bills proscribed 
and condemned so many citizens, had so far wasted his estate, 
and got into debt, that he was forced to publish his bills 
of sale, Cicero told him that he liked these bills much better 
than those of his father. By this habit he made himself 
odious with many people. 

But Clodius's faction conspired against him upon the fol- 
lowing occasion. Clodius was a member of a noble family, 
in the flower of his youth, and of a bold and resolute temper. 
He, being in love with Pompeia, Caesar's wife, got privately 
into his house in the dress and attire of a music-girl; the 
women being at that time offering there the sacrifice which 
must not be seen by men, and there was no man present. 
Clodius, being a youth and beardless, hoped to get to Pompeia 
among the women without being taken notice of. But coming 
into a great house by night, he missed his way in the passages, 
and a servant belonging to Aurelia, Caesar's mother, spying 
him wandering up and down, inquired his name. Thus 
being necessitated to speak, he told her he was seeking for 
one of Pompeia's maids, Abra by name ; and she, perceiving 
it not to be a woman's voice, shrieked out, and called in the 
women ; who, shutting the gates, and searching every place, 
at length found Clodius hidden in the chamber of the maid 
with whom he had come in. This matter being much talked 
about, Caesar put away his wife, Pornpeia, and Clodius was 
prosecuted for profaning the holy rites. 

Cicero was at this time his friend, for he had been useful 
to him in the conspiracy of Catiline, as one of his forwardest 
assistants and protectors. But when Clodius rested his 
defence upon this point, that he was not then at Rome, but 
at a distance in the country, Cicero testified that he had come 
to his house that day, and conversed with him on several 
matters; which thing was indeed true, although Cicero was 
thought to testify it not so much for the truth's sake as to 
preserve his quiet with Terentia his wife. For she bore 
a grudge against Clodius on account of his sister Clodia's 
wishing, as it was alleged, to marry Cicero, and having em- 
ployed for this purpose the intervention of Tullus, a very 
intimate friend of Cicero's; and his frequent visits to Clodia, 



250 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

who lived in their neighborhood, and the attentions he paid 
to her had excited Terentia's suspicions, and, being a woman 
of a violent temper, and having the ascendant over Cicero, 
she urged^ him on to taking a part against Clodius, and de- 
livering his testimony. Many other good and honest citizens 
also gave evidence against him, for perjuries, disorders, brib- 
ing the people, and debauching women. Lucullus proved, by 
his women-servants, that he had debauched his youngest 
sister when she was Lucullus's wife ; and there was a general 
belief that he had done the same with his two other sisters, 
Tertia, whom Marcius Rex, and Clodia, whom Metellus Celer 
had married; the latter of whom was called Quadrantia, 
because one of her lovers had deceived her with a purse of 
small copper money instead of silver, the smallest copper 
coin being called a quadrant. Upon this sister's account, in 
particular, Clodius's character was attacked. Notwithstand- 
ing all this, when the common people united against the 
accusers and witnesses and the whole party, the judges were 
affrighted, and a guard was placed about them for their 
defence; and most of them wrote their sentences on the 
tablets in such a way, that they could not well be read. It 
was decided, however, that there was a majority for his 
acquittal, and bribery was reported to have been employed; 
in reference to which Catulus remarked, when he next met 
the judges, "You were very right to ask for a guard, to 
prevent your money being taken from you." And when 
Clodius upbraided Cicero that the judges had not believed his 
testimony, "Yes," said he, "five and twenty of them trusted 
me, and condemned you, and the other thirty did not trust 
you, for they did not acquit you till they had got your money." 
Caesar, though cited, did not give his testimony against 
Clodius, and declared himself not convinced of his wife's 
adultery, but that he had put her away because it was fit 
that Caesar's house should not be only free of the evil fact, 
but of the fame too. 

Clodius, having escaped this danger, and having got him- 
self chosen one of the tribunes, immediately attacked Cicero, 
heaping up all matters and inciting all persons against him. 
The common people he gained over with popular laws; to 
each of the consuls he decreed large provinces, to Piso, 



CICERO 251 

Macedonia, and to Gabinius, Syria ; he made a strong party 
among the indigent citizens, to support him in his proceed- 
ings, and had always a body of armed slaves about him. Of 
the three men then in greatest power, Crassus was Cicero's 
open enemy, Pompey indifferently made advances to both, 
and Caesar was going with an army into Gaul. To him, 
though not his friend (what had occurred in the time of the 
conspiracy having created suspicions between them), Cicero 
applied, requesting an appointment as one of his lieutenants 
in the province. Caesar accepted him, and Clodius, per- 
ceiving that Cicero would thus escape his tribunician author- 
ity, professed to be inclinable to a reconciliation, laid the 
greatest fault upon Terentia. made always a favorable men- 
tion of him. and addressed him with kind expressions, as 
one who felt no hatred or ill-will, but who merely wished 
to urge his complaints in a moderate and friendly way. By 
these artifices, he so freed Cicero of all his fears, that he 
resigned his appointment to Caesar, and betook himself again 
to political affairs. At which Caesar being exasperated, 
joined the party of Clodius against him, and wholly alienated 
Pompey from him; he also himself declared in a public 
assembly of the people, that he did not think Lentulus and 
Cethegus, with their accomplices, were fairly and legally 
put to death without being brought to trial. And this, in- 
deed, was the crime charged upon Cicero, and this impeach- 
ment he was summoned to answer. And so, as an accused 
man, and in danger for the result, he changed his dress, and 
went round with his hair untrimmed. in the attire of a 
suppliant, to beg the people's grace. But Clodius met him 
in every corner, having a band of abusive and daring fellows 
about him, who derided Cicero for his change of dress and 
his humiliation, and often, by throwing dirt and stones at 
him, interrupted his supplication to the people. 

However, first of all, almost the whole equestrian order 
changed their dress with him, and no less than twenty 
thousand young gentlemen followed him with their hair 
untrimmed, and supplicating with him to the people. And 
then the senate met, to pass a decree that the people should 
change their dress as in time of public sorrow. But the 
ponsuls opposing it, and Clodius with armed men besetting 



252 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

the senate-house, many of the senators ran out, crying out 
and tearing their clothes. But this sight moved neither shame 
nor pity; Cicero must either fly or determine it by the sword 
with Clodius. He entreated Pompey to aid him, who was 
on purpose gone out of the way, and was staying at his 
country-house in the Alban hills ; and first he sent his son-in- 
law Piso to intercede with him, and afterwards set out to go 
himself. Of which Pompey being informed, would not stay 
to see him, being ashamed at the remembrance of the many 
conflicts in the commonwealth which Cicero had undergone 
in his behalf, and how much of his policy he had directed for 
his advantage. But being now Caesar's son-in-law, at his 
instance he had set aside all former kindness, and, slipping 
out at another door, avoided the interview. Thus being 
forsaken by Pompey, and left alone to himself, he fled to 
the consuls. Gabinius was rough with him, as usual, but 
Piso spoke more courteously, desiring him to yield and give 
place for a while to the fury of Clodius, and to await a 
change of times, and to be now, as before, his country's 
savior from the peril of these troubles and commotions which 
Clodius was exciting. 

Cicero, receiving this answer, consulted with his friends. 
Lucullus advised him to stay, as being sure to prevail at last; 
others to fly, because the people would soon desire him 
again, when they should have enough of the rage and mad- 
ness of Clodius. This last Cicero approved. But first he 
took a statue of Minerva, which had been long set up and 
greatly honored in his house, and carrying it to the capitol, 
there dedicated it, with the inscription, "To Minerva, Patron- 
ess of Rome." And receiving an escort from his friends, 
about the middle of the night he left the city, and went by 
land through Lucania, intending to reach Sicily. 

But as soon as it was publicly known that he was fled, 
Clodius proposed to the people a decree of exile, and by his 
own order interdicted him fire and water, prohibiting any 
within five hundred miles in Italy to receive him into their 
houses. Most people, out of respect for Cicero, paid no 
regard to this edict, offering him every attention, and escort- 
ing him on his way. But at Hipponium, a city of Lucania, 
now called Vibo, one Vibius, a Sicilian by birth, who, 



CICERO 253 

amongst many other instances of Cicero's friendship, had 
been made head of the state engineers when he was consul, 
would not receive him into his house, sending him word he 
would appoint a place in the country for his reception. Caius 
Vergilius, the praetor of Sicily, who had been on the most 
intimate terms with him, wrote to him to forbear coming 
into Sicily. At these things Cicero being disheartened, went 
to Brundusium, whence putting forth with a prosperous wind, 
a contrary gale blowing from the sea carried him back to 
Italy the next day. He put again to sea, and having reached 
Dyrrachium, on his coming to shore there, it is reported that 
an earthquake and a convulsion in the sea happened at the 
same time, signs which the diviners said intimated that his 
exile would not be long, for these were prognostics of change. 
Although many visited him with respect, and the cities of 
Greece contended which should honor him most, he yet con- 
tinued disheartened and disconsolate, like an unfortunate 
lover, often casting his looks back upon Italy ; and, indeed, 
he was become so poor-spirited, so humiliated and dejected 
by his misfortunes, as none could have expected in a man who 
had devoted so much of his life to study and learning. And 
yet he often desired his friends not to call him orator, but 
philosopher, because he had made philosophy his business, 
and had only used rhetoric as an instrument for attaining 
his objects in public life. But the desire of glory" has 
great power in washing the tinctures of philosophy out of the 
souls of men, and in imprinting the passions of the common 
people, by custom and conversation, in the minds of those 
that take a part in governing them, unless the politician be 
very careful so to engage in public affairs as to interest 
himself only in the affairs themselves, but not participate 
in the passions that are consequent to them. 
Clodius, having thus driven away Cicero, fell to burning 

" Doxa, the Greek word for " the desire of glory," should, perhaps, be 
translated " opinion." It is, in its original sense, " what people think," 
and is commonly used for people's good opinion, "glory," or "reputation." 
On the other hand, the philsophers employ it to express opinion, which may 
be false, as opposed to knowledge, which must be of the truth. If a 
philosopher, engaged in politics, does not confine his attention strictly to 
definite objects and acts, but lets himself be affected by the results, by 
people's good or bad opinion about them, bis real convictions and knowledge 
will soon be overpowered. 



'254 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

his farms and villas, and afterwards his city house, and built 
on the site of it a temple to Liberty. The rest of his prop- 
erty he exposed to sale by daily proclamation, but nobody 
came to buy. By these courses he became formidable to 
the noble citizens, and, being followed by the commonalty, 
whom he had filled with insolence and licentiousness, he 
began at last to try his strength against Pompey, some of 
whose arrangements in the countries he conquered, he at- 
tacked. The disgrace of this made Pompey begin to reproach 
himself for his cowardice in deserting Cicero, and, changing 
his mind, he now wholly set himself with his friends to con- 
trive his return. And when Clodius opposed it, the senate 
made a vote that no public measure should be ratified or 
passed by them till Cicero was recalled. But when Lentulus 
was consul, the commotions grew so high upon this matter, 
that the tribunes were wounded in the Forum, and Quintus, 
Cicero's brother, was left as dead, lying unobserved amongst 
the slain. The people began to change in their feelings; and 
Annius Milo, one of their tribunes, was the first who took 
confidence to summon Clodius to trial for acts of violence. 
Many of the common people and out of the neighboring cities 
formed a party with Pompey, and he went with them, and 
drove Clodius out of the Forum, and summoned the people 
to pass their vote. And, it is said, the people never passed 
any suffrage more unanimously than this. The senate, also, 
striving to outdo the people, sent letters of thanks to those 
cities which had received Cicero with respect in his exile, 
and decreed that his house and his country-places, which 
Clodius had destroyed, should be rebuilt at the public charge. 

Thus Cicero returned sixteen months after his exile, and 
the cities were so glad, and people so zealous to meet him, 
that what he boasted of afterwards, that Italy had brought 
him on her shoulders home to Rome, was rather less than the 
truth. And Crassus himself, who had been his enemy before 
his exile, went then voluntarily to meet him, and was recon- 
ciled, to please his son Publius, as he said, who .was Cicero's 
affectionate admirer. 

Cicero had not been long at Rome, when, taking the op- 
portunity of Clodius's absence, he went, with a great com- 
pany, to the capitol, and there tore and defaced the tribuni- 



CICERO 255 

cian tables, in which were recorded the acts done in the time 
of Clodius. And on Clodius calling him in question for this, 
he answered, that he, being of the patrician order, had ob- 
tained the office of tribune against law, and, therefore, noth- 
ing done by him was valid. Cato was displeased at this, and 
opposed Cicero, not that he commended Clodius, but rather 
disapproved of his whole administration; yet, he contended, 
it was an irregular and violent course for the senate to vote 
the illegality of so many decrees and acts, including those of 
Cato's own government in Cyprus and at Byzantium. This 
occasioned a breach between Cato and Cicero, which, though 
it came not to open enmity, yet made a more reserved friend- 
ship between them. 

After this, Milo killed Clodius, and, being arraigned for 
the murder, he procured Cicero as his advocate. The senate, 
fearing lest the questioning of so eminent and high-spirited 
a citizen as Milo might disturb the peace of the city, com- 
mitted the superintendence of this and of the other trials to 
Pompey, who should undertake to maintain the security alike 
of the city and of the courts of justice. Pompey, therefore, 
went in the night, and occupying the high grounds about it, 
surrounded the Forum with soldiers. Milo, fearing lest 
Cicero, being disturbed by such an unusual sight, should con- 
duct his cause the less successfully, persuaded him to come 
in a litter into the Forum, and there repose himself till the 
judges were set, and the court filled. For Cicero, it seems, 
not only wanted courage in arms, but, in his speaking also, 
began with timidity, and in many cases scarcely left off trem- 
bling and shaking when he had got thoroughly into the 
current and the substance of his speech. Being to defend 
Licinius Murena against the prosecution of Cato, and being 
eager to outdo Hortensius, who had made his plea with 
great applause, he took so little rest that night, and was so 
disordered with thought and over-watching, that he spoke 
much worse than usual. And so now, on quitting his litter 
to commence the cause of IMilo, at the sight of Pompey. 
posted, as it were, and encamped with his troops above, and 
seeing arms shining round about the Forum, he was so con- 
founded, that he could hardly begin his speech, for the trem- 
bling of his body, and hesitance of his tuugue; whereas Milo, 



256 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

meantime, was bold and intrepid in his demeanor, disdaining 
either to let his hair grow, or to put on the mourning habit. 
And this, indeed, seems to have been one principal cause of 
his condemnation. Cicero, however, was thought not so 
much to have shown timidity for himself, as anxiety about 
his friend. 

He was made one of the priests, whom the Romans call 
Augurs, in the room of Crassus the younger, dead in Parthia. 
Then he was appointed, by lot, to the province of Cicilia, 
and set sail thither with twelve thousand foot and two thou- 
sand six hundred horse. He had orders to bring back Cap- 
padocia to its allegiance to Ariobarzanes, its king; which set- 
tlement he effected very completely without recourse to arms. 
And perceiving the Cilicians, by the great loss the Romans 
had suffered in Parthia, and the commotions in Syria, to have 
become disposed to attempt a revolt, by a gentle course of 
government he soothed them back into fidelity. He would 
accept none of the presents that were offered him by the 
kings; he remitted the charge of public entertainments, but 
daily, at his own house, received the ingenious and accom- 
plished persons of the province, not sumptuously, but lib- 
erally. His house had no porter, nor was he ever found in 
bed by any man, but early in the morning, standing or walk- 
ing before his door, he received those who came to offer their 
salutations. He is said never once to have ordered any of 
those under his command to be beaten with rods, or to have 
their garments rent. He never gave contumelious language 
in his anger, nor inflicted punishment with reproach. He 
detected an embezzlement, to a large amount, in the public 
money, and thus relieved the cities from their burdens, and 
at the same time that he allowed those who made restitution, 
to retain without further punishment their rights as citizens. 
He engaged too, in war, so far as to give a defeat to the 
banditti who infested Mount Amanus, for which he was sa- 
luted by his army Imperator. To Caecilius^- the orator, who 
asked him to send him some panthers from Cilicia, to be ex- 
hibited on the theatre at Rome, he wrote, in commendation 
of his own actions, that there were no panthers in Cilicia, for 
they were all fled to Caria, in anger that in so general a peace 
"Probably Cselius. 



CICERO 257 

they had become the sole objects of attack. On leaving his 
province, he touched at Rhodes, and tarried for some length 
at Athens, longing much to renew his old studies. He visited 
the eminent men of learning, and saw his former friends and 
companions; and after receiving in Greece the honors that 
were due to him, returned to the city, where every thing was 
now just as it were in a flame, breaking out into a civil war. 

When the senate would have decreed him a triumph, he 
told them he had rather, so differences were accommodated, 
follow the triumphal chariot of Caesar. In private, he gave 
advice to both, writing many letters to Caesar, and person- 
ally entreating Pompey; doing his best to soothe and bring 
to reason both the one and the other. But when matters 
became incurable, and Caesar was approaching Rome, and 
Pompey durst not abide it, but, with many honest citizens, 
left the city, Cicero, as yet, did not join in the flight, and 
was reputed to adhere to Caesar. And it is very evident he 
was in his thoughts much divided, and wavered painfully be- 
tween both, for he writes in his epistles, "To which side 
should I turn? Pompey has the fair and honorable plea for 
war; and Caesar, on the other hand, has managed his affairs 
better, and is more able to secure himself and his friends. 
So that I know whom I should fly, not whom I should fly 
to." But when Trebatius, one of Caesar's friends, by letter 
signified to him that Caesar thought it was his most desira- 
ble course to join his party, and partake his hopes, but if he 
considered himself too old a man for this, then he should 
retire into Greece, and stay quietly there, out of the way of 
either party, Cicero, wondering that Caesar had not written 
himself, gave an angry reply that he should not do any thing 
unbecoming his past life. Such is the account to be collected 
from his letters. 

But as soon as Caesar was marched into Spain, he immedi- 
ately sailed away to join Pompey. And he was welcomed 
by all but Cato; who, taking him privately, chid him for com- 
ing to Pompey. x\s for himself, he said, it had been indecent 
to forsake that part in the commonwealth which he had 
chosen from the beginning ; but Cicero might have been more 
useful to his country and friends, if, remaining neuter, he 
had attended and used his influence to moderate the result, 

I — HC xu 



258 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

instead of coming hither to make himself, without reason 
or necessity, an enemy to Caesar, and a partner in such great 
dangers. By this language, partly, Cicero's feelings were 
altered, and partly, also, because Pompey made no great use 
of him. Although, indeed, he was himself the cause of it by 
his not denying that he was sorry he had come, by his de^ 
predating Pompey's resources, finding fault underhand with 
his counsels, and continually indulging in jests and sarcastic 
remarks on his fellow-soldiers. Though he went about in the 
camp with a gloomy and melancholy face himself, he was 
always trying to raise a laugh in others, whether they wished 
it or not. It may not be amiss to mention a few instances. 
To Domitius, on his preferring to a command one who was 
no soldier, and saying, in his defence, that he was a modest 
and prudent person, he replied, "Why did not you keep him 
for a tutor for your children?" On hearing Theophanes, the 
Lesbian, who was master of the engineers in the army, 
praised for the admirable way in which he had consoled the 
Rhodians for the loss of their fleet, "What a thing it is," he 
said, "to have a Greek in command !" When Caesar had been 
acting successfully, and in a manner blockading Pompey, 
Lentulus was saying it was reported that Caesar's friends 
were out of heart ; "Because," said Cicero, "they do not wish 
Caesar well." To one Marcius, who had just come from 
Italy, and told them that there was a strong report at Rome 
that Pompey was blocked up, he said, "And you sailed hither 
to see it with your own eyes." To Nonius, encouraging 
them after a defeat to be of good hope, because there were 
seven eagles still left in Pompey's camp, "Good reason for 
encouragement," said Cicero, "if we were going to fight with 
jack-daws." Labienus insisted on some prophecies to the 
effect that Pompey would gain the victory; "Yes," said 
Cicero, "and the first step in the campaign has been losing 
our camp." 

After the battle of Pharsalia was over, at which he was 
not present for want of health, and Pompey was fled, Cato, 
having considerable forces and a great fleet at Dyrrachium, 
would have had Cicero commander-in-chief, according to 
law, and the precedence of his consular dignity. And on his 
refusing the command, and wholly declining to take part in 



CICERO 259 

their plans for continuing the war, he was in the greatest 
danger of being killed, young Pompey and his friends calling 
him traitor, and drawing their swords upon him ; only that 
Cato interposed, and hardly rescued and brought him out of 
the camp. 

Afterwards, arriving at Brundusium, he tarried there 
sometime in expectation of Caesar, who was delayed by his 
affairs in Asia and Egypt. And when it was told him that 
he was arrived at Tarentum, and was coming thence by land 
to Brundusium, he hastened towards him, nol altogether 
without hope, and yet in some fear of making experiment 
of the temper of an enemy and conqueror in the presence of 
many witnesses. But there was no necessity for him either 
to speak or do anything unworthy of himself; for Caesar, as 
soon as he saw him coming a good way before the rest of the 
company, came down to meet him, saluted him, and, leading 
the way, conversed with him alone for some furlongs. And 
from that time forward he continued to treat him with honor 
and respect ; so that, when Cicero wrote an oration in praise 
of Cato, Csesar, in writing an answer to it, took occasion to 
commend Cicero's own life and eloquence, comparing him to 
Pericles and Theramenes. Cicero's oration was called Cato; 
Caesar's, anti-Cato. 

So also, it is related that when Quintus Ligarius was pros- 
ecuted for having been in arms against Caesar, and Cicero 
had undertaken his defence, Caesar said to his friends, "Why 
might we not as well once more hear a speech from Cicero? 
Ligarius, there is no question, is a wicked man and an en- 
emy." But when Cicero began to speak, he wonderfully 
moved him, and proceeded in his speech with such varied 
pathos, and such a charm of language, that the color of 
Caesar's countenance often changed, and it was evident that 
all the passions of his soul were in commotion. At length, 
the orator touching upon the Pharsalian battle, he was so 
affected that his body trembled, and some of the papers he 
held dropped out of his hands. And thus he was overpow- 
ered, and acquitted Ligarius. 

Henceforth, the commonwealth being changed into a mon- 
archy, Cicero withdrew himself from public affairs, and em- 
ployed his leisure in instructing those young men that would. 



260 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

in philosophy; and by the near intercourse he thus had with 
some of the noblest and highest in rank, he again began to 
possess great influence in the city. The work and object 
which he set himself was to compose and translate philo- 
sophical dialogues and to render logical and physical terms 
into the Roman idiom. For he it was, as it is said, who first 
or principally gave Latin names to phantasia, syncatathesis, 
epokhe, catalepsis,^" atomon, ameres, kenon, and other such 
technical terms, which, either by metaphors or other means 
of accommodation, he succeeded in making intelligible and 
expressible to the Romans. For his recreation, he exercised 
his dexterity in poetry, and when he was set to it, would 
make five hundred verses in a night. He spent the greatest 
part of his time at his country house near Tusculum. He 
wrote to his friends that he led the life of Laertes,^* either 
jestingly, as his custom was, or rather from a feeling of 
ambition for public employment, which made him impatient 
under the present state of affairs. He rarely went to the 
city, unless to pay his court to Caesar. He was commonly 
the first amongst those who voted him honors, and sought 
out new terms of praise for himself and for his actions. As, 
for example, what he said of the statues of Pompey, which 
had been thrown down, and were afterwards by Csesar's 
orders set up again: that Caesar, by this act of humanity, 
had indeed set up Pompey's statues, but he had fixed and 
established his own. 

13 Phantasia, sensation excited by some external object, " impulsione 
oblata extrinsecus," Cicero renders by visum; syncatathesis, the act of 
acceptance on our part, he calls assensio or assensus; epokhe is the suspen- 
sion of assent, " suspensio assensionis " ; catalepsis, or comprehensio, is the 
next step in perception after assensio; atomon has been turned, but not by 
Cicero, into insecabile ; he calls atoms individua corpora, or individua, using 
the same word also for ameres; kenon is inane or vacuum. Most of these 
terms are introduced in the Academics, see I. 11, II. 6 and 18, and the 
curious illustration from Zeno in 47. Pointing with his left hand to his 
right, as it lay open and outspread. Here, said he, is sensation, visum, 
phantasia; letting the fingers begin to close, this, he proceeded, is assent, 
syncatathesis; by closing his hand he exemplified comprehension or catalepsis; 
and, at last, seizing it with his left, such, he said, is knowledge. Phantasia, 
of course, is etymologically our fancy, and epokhe, in the sense of a point 
in time to pause at, our epoch. 

I* " Who," says the description in the first book of the Odyssey, " comes 
no more to the city, but lives away in pain and grief on his land, with one 
old -woman to feed him, when he tires himself with tottering about his 
vineyard." So, also, when Ulysses goes to see him, in the last book. 



CICERO 261 

He had a design, it is said, of writing the history of his 
country, combining with it much of that of Greece, and in- 
corporating in it all the stories and legends of the past that 
he had collected. But his purposes were interfered with by 
various public and various private unhappy occurrences and 
misfortunes; for most of which he was himself in fault. 
For first of all, he put away his wife Terentia, by whom he 
had been neglected in the time of the war, and sent away 
destitute of necessaries for his journey; neither did he find 
her kind when he returned from Italy, for she did not join 
him at Brundusium, where he staid a long time, nor would 
allow her young daughter, who undertook so long a jour- 
ney, decent attendance, or the requisite expenses; besides, 
she left him a naked and empty house, and yet had involved 
him in many and great debts. These were alleged as the 
fairest reasons for the divorce. But Terentia, who denied 
them all, had the most unmistakable defence furnished her 
by her husband himself, who not long after married a young 
maiden for the love of her beauty, as Terentia upbraided 
him; or as Tiro, his emancipated slave, has written, for her 
riches to discharge his debts. For the young woman was 
very rich, and Cicero had the custody of her estate, being 
left guardian in trust; and being indebted many myriads of 
money, he was persuaded by his friends and relations to 
marry her, notwithstanding his disparity of age, and to use 
her money to satisfy his creditors. Antony, who mentions 
this marriage in his answer to the Philippics, reproaches him 
for putting away a wife with whom he had lived to old age; 
adding some happy strokes of sarcasm on Cicero's domestic, 
inactive, unsoldier-like habits. Not long after this marriage, 
his daughter died in child-bed at Lentulus's house, to whom 
she had been married after the death of Piso, her former 
husband. The philosophers from all parts came to comfort 
Cicero; for his grief was so excessive, that he put away his 
new-married wife, because she seemed to be pleased at the 
death of Tullia. And thus stood Cicero's domestic affairs 
at this time. 

He had no concern in the design that was now forming 
against Caesar, although, in general, he was Brutus's most 
principal confidant, and one who was as aggrieved at the 



262 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

present, and as desirous of the former state of public affairs, 
as any other whatsoever. But they feared his temper, as 
wanting courage, and his old age, in which the most daring 
dispositions are apt to be timorous. 

As soon, therefore, as the act was committed by Brutus 
and Cassius, and the friends of Caesar were got together, so 
that there was fear the city would again be involved in a 
civil war, Antony, being consul, convened the senate, and 
made a short address recommending concord. And Cicero, 
following with various remarks such as the occasion called 
for, persuaded the senate to imitate the Athenians, and de- 
cree an amnesty for what had been done in Caesar's case, and 
to bestow provinces on Brutus and Cassius. But neither of 
these things took effect. For as soon as the common people, 
of themselves inclined to pity, saw the dead body of Caesar 
borne through the market-place, and Antony showing his 
clothes filled with blood, and pierced through in every part 
with swords, enraged to a degree of frenzy, they made a 
search for the murderers, and with firebrands in their hands 
ran to their houses to burn them. They, however, being 
forewarned, avoided this danger; and expecting many more 
and greater to come, they left the city. 

Antony on this was at once in exultation, and every one 
was in alarm with the prospect that he would make himself 
sole ruler, and Cicero in more alarm than any one. For 
Antony, seeing his influence reviving in the commonwealth, 
and knowing how closely he was connected with Brutus, was 
ill-pleased to have him in the city. Besides, there had been 
some former jealousy between them, occasioned by the dif- 
ference of their manners. Cicero, fearing the event, was 
inclined to go as lieutenant with Dolabella into Syria. But 
Hirtius and Pansa. consuls elect as successors of Antony, 
good men and lovers of Cicero, entreated him not to leave 
them, undertaking to put down Antony if he would stay in 
Rome. And he, neither distrusting wholly, nor trusting 
them, let Dolabella go without him, promising Hirtius that 
he would go and spend his summer at Athens, and return 
again when he entered upon his office. So he set out on his 
journey; but some delay occurring in his passage, new in- 
telligence, as often happens, came suddenly from Rome, that 






CICERO 263 

Antony had made an astonishing change, and was doing all 
things and managing all public affairs at the will of the 
senate, and that there wanted nothing but his presence to 
bring things to a happy settlement. And therefore, blam- 
ing himself for his cowardice, he returned again to Rome, 
and was not deceived in his hopes at the beginning. For 
such multitudes flocked out to meet him, that the compli- 
ments and civilities which were paid him at the gates, and 
at his entrance into the city, took up almost one whole day's 
time. 

On the morrow, Antony convened the senate, and sum- 
moned Cicero thither. He came not, but kept his bed, pre- 
tending to be ill with his journey; but the true reason 
seemed the fear of some design against him, upon a sus- 
picion and intimation given him on his way to Rome. An- 
tony, however, showed great offence at the affront, and sent 
soldiers, commanding them to bring him or burn his house; 
but many interceding and supplicating for him, he was con- 
tented to accept sureties. Ever after, when they met, they 
passed one another with silence, and continued on their 
guard, till Caesar, the younger, ^^ coming from Apollonia, en- 
tered on the first Caesar's inheritance, and was engaged in a 
dispute with Antony about two thousand five hundred myri- 
ads of money, which Antony detained from the estate. 

Upon this, Philippus, who married the mother, and Mar- 
cellus, who married the sister of young Caesar, came with 
the young man to Cicero, and agreed with him that Cicero 
should give them the aid of his eloquence and political influ- 
ence with the senate and people, and Caesar give Cicero the 
defence of his riches and arms. For the young man had 
already a great party of the soldiers of Caesar about him. And 
Cicero's readiness to join him was founded, it is said, on 
some yet stronger motives; for it seems, while Pompey and 
Caesar were yet alive, Cicero, in his sleep, had fancied him- 
self engaged in calling some of the sons of the senators into 
the capitol, Jupiter being about, according to the dream, to 
declare one of them the chief ruler of Rome. The citizens, 
running up with curiosity, stood about the temple, and the 
youths, sitting in their purple-bordered robes, kept silence. 
" Augustus. 



264 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

On a sudden the doors opened, and the youths, arising one 
by one in order, passed round the god, who reviewed thera 
all, and, to their sorrow, dismissed them; but when this one 
was passing by, the god stretched forth his right hand and 
said, "O ye Romans, this young man, when he shall be 
lord of Rome, shall put an end to all your civil wars." It 
is said that Cicero formed from his dream a distinct im- 
age of the youth, and retained it afterwards perfectly, but 
did not know who it was. The next day, going down into 
the Campus Martius, he met the boys returning from their 
gymnastic exercises, asd the first was he, just as he had 
appeared to him in his dream. Being astonished at it, he 
asked him who were his parents. And it proved to be this 
young Caesar, whose father was a man of no great emi- 
nence, Octavius, and his mother, Attia, Caesar's sister's 
daughter; for which reason, Caesar, who had no children, 
made him by will the heir of his house and property. From 
that time, it is said that Cicero studiously noticed the youth 
whenever he met him, and he as kindly received the civility; 
and by fortune he happened to be born when Cicero was 
consul. 

These were the reasons spoken of; but it was principally 
Cicero's hatred of Antony, and a temper unable to resist 
honor, which fastened him to Caesar, with the purpose of 
getting the support of Caesar's power for his own public 
designs. For the young man went so far in his court to 
him, that he called him Father; at which Brutus was so 
highly displeased, that, in his epistles to Atticus he re- 
flected on Cicero, saying, it was manifest, by his courting 
Csesar for fear of Antony, he did not intend liberty to his 
country, but an indulgent master to himself. Notwithstand- 
ing, Brutus took Cicero's son, then studying philosophy at 
Athens, gave him a command, and employed him in various 
ways, with a good result. Cicero's own power at this time 
was at the greatest height in the city, and he did whatso- 
ever he pleased; he completely overpowered and drove out 
Antony, and sent the two consuls, Hirtius and Pansa, with 
an army, to reduce him; and, on the other hand, persuaded 
the senate to allow Caesar the lictors and ensigns of a 
praetor, as though he were his country's defender. But after 



CICERO 265 

Antony was defeated in battle, and the two consuls slain, 
the armies united, and ranged themselves with Caesar. And 
the senate, fearing the young man, and his extraordinary 
fortune, endeavored, by honors and gifts, to call off the sol- 
diers from him, and to lessen his power; professing there 
was no further need of arms, now Antony was put to flight. 

This giving Csesar an affright, he privately sends some 
friends to entreat and persuade Cicero to procure the con- 
sular dignity for them both together; saying he should man- 
age the affairs as he pleased, should have the supreme power, 
and govern the young man who was only desirous of name 
and glory. And Csesar himself confessed, that in fear of 
ruin, and in danger of being deserted, he had seasonably 
made use of Cicero's ambition, persuading him to stand 
with him, and to accept the offer of his aid and interest 
for the consulship. 

And now, more than at any other time, Cicero let him- 
self be carried away and deceived, though an old man, by 
the persuasions of a boy. He joined him in soliciting votes, 
and procured the good-will of the senate, not without blame 
at the time on the part of his friends ; and he, too, soon 
enough after, saw that he had ruined himself, and betrayed 
the liberty of his country. For the young man, once estab- 
lished, and possessed of the office of consul, bade Cicero 
farewell; and, reconciling himself to Antony and Lepidus, 
joined his power with theirs, and divided the government, 
like a piece of property, with them. Thus united, they made 
a schedule of above two hundred persons who were to be 
put to death. But the greatest contention in all their debates 
was on the question of Cicero's case. Antony would come 
to no conditions, unless he should be the first man to be 
killed. Lepidus held with Antony, and Caesar opposed them 
both. They met secretly and by themselves, for three days 
together, near the town of Bononia. The spot was not far 
from the camp, with a river surrounding it. Caesar, it is 
said, contended earnestly for Cicero the first two days; but 
on the third day he yielded, and gave him up. The terms 
of their mutual concessions were these : that Caesar should 
desert Cicero. Lepidus his brother Paulus, and Antony, Lu- 
cius Caesar, his uncle by his mother's side. Thus they let 



266 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

their anger and fury take from them the sense of humanity, 
and demonstrated that no beast is more savage than man, 
when possessed with power answerable to his rage. 

Whilst these things were contriving, Cicero was with his 
brother at his country-house near Tusculum ; whence, hear- 
ing of the proscriptions, they determined to pass to Astura, 
a villa of Cicero's near the sea, and to take shipping from 
thence for Macedonia to Brutus, of whose strength in that 
province news had already been heard. They travelled to- 
gether in their separate litters, overwhelmed with sorrow; 
and often stopping on the way till their litters came to- 
gether, condoled with one another. But Quintus was the 
more disheartened, when he reflected on his want of means 
for his journey; for, as he said, he had brought nothing 
with him from home. And even Cicero himself had but a 
slender provision. It was judged, therefore, most expedient 
that Cicero should make what haste he could to fly, and 
Quintus return home to provide necessaries, and thus re- 
solved, they mutually embraced, and parted with many tears. 

Quintus, within a few days after, betrayed by his servants 
to those who came to search for him, was slain, together 
with his young son. But Cicero was carried to Astura, 
where, finding a vessel, he immediately went on board her, 
and sailed as far as Circaeum with a prosperous gale ; but 
when the pilots resolved immediately to set sail from thence, 
whether fearing the sea, or not wholly distrusting the faith 
of Caesar, he went on shore, and passed by land a hundred 
furlongs, as if he was going for Rome. But losing resolu- 
tion and changing his mind, he again returned to the sea, 
and there spent the night in fearful and perplexed thoughts. 
Sometimes he resolved to go into Caesar's house privately, 
and there kill himself upon the altar of his household gods, 
to bring divine vengeance upon him ; but the fear of tor- 
ture put him off this course. And after passing through a 
variety of confused and uncertain counsels, at last he let 
his servants carry him by sea to Capitae,^^ where he had a 

'• This, as we find from other authority, means Caieta, the present Gaeta. 
Nothing is known of any such place as Capitas. Formise, the present Mola 
di Gaeta, is close by; and here Cicero is known to have had a villa, the 
f ormianum. 



CICERO 267 

house, an agreeable place to retire to in the heat of sum- 
mer, when the Etesian winds are so pleasant. 

There was at that place a chapel of Apollo, not far from 
the sea-side, from which a flight of crows rose with a 
great noise, and made toward Cicero's vessel as it rowed 
to land, and lighting on both sides of the yard, some croaked, 
others pecked the ends of the ropes. This was looked upon 
by all as an ill omen; and, therefore, Cicero went again 
ashore, and entering his house, lay dow-n upon his bed to 
compose himself to rest. Many of the crows settled about 
the window, making a dismal caw'ing; but one of them 
alighted upon the bed where Cicero lay covered up, and witn 
its bill by little and little pecked off the clothes from his 
face. His servants, seeing this, blamed themselves that they 
should stay to be spectators of their master's murder, and do 
nothing in his defence, whilst the brute creatures came to 
assist and take care of him in his undeserved affliction ; and, 
therefore, partly by entreaty, partly by force, they took him 
up, and carried him in his litter towards the sea-side. 

But in the mean time the assassins were come with a band 
of soldiers, Herennius, a centurion, and Popillius, a tribune, 
whom Cicero had formerly defended when prosecuted for 
the murder of his father. Finding the doors shut, they 
broke them open, and Cicero not appearing, and those within 
saying they knew not where he was, it is stated that a 
youth, who had been educated by Cicero in the liberal arts 
and sciences, an emancipated slave of his brother Quintus, 
Philologus by name, informed the tribune that the litter 
li^as on its way to the sea through the close and shady walks. 
The tribune, taking a few with him, ran to the place where 
he was to come out. And Cicero, perceiving Herennius run- 
ning in the walks, commanded his servants to set down the 
litter ; and stroking his chin, as he used to do, with his left 
hand, he looked steadfastly upon his murderers, his person 
covered w-ith dust, his beard and hair untrimmed, and his 
face worn with his troubles. So that the greatest part of 
those that stood by covered their faces whilst Herennius 
slew him. And thus was he murdered, stretching forth his 
neck out of the litter, being now in his sixty-fourth year. 
Herennius cut off his head, and, by Antony's command, his 



268 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

hands also, by which his Philippics were written; for so 
Cicero styled those orations he wrote against Antony, and so 
they are called to this day. 

When these members of Cicero were brought to Rome, 
Antony was holding an assembly for the choice of public 
officers ; and when he heard it, and saw them, he cried out, 
"Now let there be an end of our proscriptions." He com- 
manded his head and hands to be fastened up over the Ros- 
tra, where the orators spoke ; a sight which the Roman 
people shuddered to behold, and they believed they saw there 
not the face of Cicero, but the image of Antony's own soul. 
And yet amidst these actions he did justice in one thing, 
by delivering up Philologus to Pomponia, the wife of Quin- 
tus, who, having got his body into her power, besides other 
grievous punishments, made him cut off his own flesh by 
pieces, and roast and eat it; for so some writers have re- 
lated. But Tiro, Cicero's emancipated slave, has not so 
rnuch as mentioned the treachery of Philologus. 

Some long time after, Caesar, I have been told, visiting 
one of his daughter's sons, found him with a book of 
Cicero's in his hand. The boy for fear endeavored to hide 
it under his gown ; which Caesar perceiving, took it from 
him, and turning over a great part of the book standing, 
gave it him again, and said, "My child, this was a learned 
man, and a lover of his country."^^ And immediately after 
he had vanquished Antony, being then consul, he made Cice- 
ro's son his colleague in the office; and under that consul- 
ship, the senate took down all the statues of Antony, and 
abolished all the other honors that had been given him, 
and decreed that none of that family should thereafter bear 
the name of Marcus ; and thus the final acts of the punish- 
ment of Antony were, by the divine powers, devolved upon 
the family of Cicero. 

" It is not easy to find any proper equivalent for the word here translated 
by " learned." Logics, derived from logos, which is indifferently speech 
and reason (thinking and speaking being both powers of articulating), may 
be one who has thought much and well, one who has much to say, and 
one who can say it well. 



COMPARISON OF 
DEMOSTHENES AND CICERO 

THESE are the most memorable circumstances recorded 
in history of Demosthenes and Cicero which have 
come to our knowledge. But omitting an exact com- 
parison of their respective faculties in speaking, yet thus 
much seems fit to be said; that Demosthenes, to make him- 
self a master in rhetoric, applied all the faculties he had, 
natural or acquired, wholly that way; that he far sur- 
passed in force and strength of eloquence all his contem- 
poraries in political and judicial speaking, in grandeur and 
majesty all the panegyrical orators, and in accuracy and 
science all the logicians and rhetoricians of his day;^ that 
Cicero was highly educated, and by his diligent study be- 
came a most accomplished general scholar in all these 
branches, having left behind him numerous philosophical 
treatises of his own on Academic principles; as, indeed, 
even in his written speeches, both political and judicial, 
we see him continually trying to show his learning by the 
way. And one may discover the different temper of each 
of them in their speeches. For Demosthenes's oratory was 
without all embellishment and jesting, wholly composed for 
real effect and seriousness; not smelling of the lamp, as 
Pytheas scoffingly said, but of the temperance, thoughtful- 
ness, austerity, and grave earnestness of his temper. 
Whereas Cicero's love of mockery often ran him into scur- 
rility; and in his love of laughing away serious arguments 
in judicial cases by jests and facetious remarks, with a view 
to the advantage of his clients, he paid too little regard to 
what was decent ; saying, for example, in his defence of 

* The political, the judicial, and the panegyrical departments were the 
three varieties of oratory. To the practitioners in these are added the 
sophists, the logic and rhetoric masters. 



270 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

Cselius, that he had done no absurd thing in such plenty and 
affluence to indulge himself in pleasures, it being a kind of 
madness not to enjoy the things we possess, especially since 
the most eminent philosophers have asserted pleasure to be 
the chiefest good. So also we are told, that when Cicero, 
being consul, undertook the defence of Murena against 
Cato's prosecution, by way of bantering Cato, he made a 
long series of jokes upon the absurd paradoxes, as they are 
called, of the Stoic sect ; so that a loud laughter passing 
from the crowd to the judges, Cato, with a quiet smile, 
said to those that sat next him, "My friends, what an amus- 
ing consul we have." 

And, indeed, Cicero was by natural temper very much dis- 
posed to mirth and pleasantry, and always appeared with a 
smiling and serene countenance. But Demosthenes had 
constant care and thoughtfulness in his look, and a serious 
anxiety, which he seldom, if ever, laid aside ; and, there- 
fore, was accounted by his enemies, as he himself confessed, 
morose and ill-mannered. 

Also, it is very evident, out of their several writings, that 
Demosthenes never touched upon his own praises but de- 
cently and without offence when there was need of it, and 
for some weightier end ; but, upon other occasions mod- 
estly and sparingly. But Cicero's immeasurable boasting 
of himself in his orations argues him guilty of an uncon- 
trollable appetite for distinction, his cry being evermore that 
arms should give place to the gown, and the soldier's laurel 
to the tongue.- And at last we find him extolling not only 
his deeds and actions, but his orations also, as well those 
that were only spoken, as those that were published ; as if 
he were engaged in a boyish trial of skill, who should speak 
best, with the rhetoricians, Isocrates and Anaximenes, not 
as one who could claim the task to guide and instruct the 
Roman nation, the 

Soldier full-armed, terrific to the foe. 

It is necessary, indeed, for a political leader to be an 
able speaker; but it is an ignoble thing for any man to 

' Translating Cicero's famous verse upon himself — 

Cedant arma togae, concedat laurea linguae. 



DEMOSTHENES AND CICERO 271 

^ admire and relish the glory of his own eloquence. And, 
in this matter, Demosthenes had a more than ordinary grav- 
ity and magnificence of mind, accounting his talent in 
speaking nothing more than a mere accomplishment and 
matter of practice, the success of which must depend greatly 
on the good-will and candor of his hearers, and regarding 
those who pride themselves on such accounts to be men of 
a low and petty disposition. 

The power of persuading and governing the people did, 
indeed, equally belong to both, so that those who had armies 
and camps at command stood in need of their assistance; 
as Chares, Diopithes, and Leosthenes of Demosthenes's, 
Pompey and young Caesar of Cicero's, as the latter him- 
self admits in his Memoirs addressed to Agrippa and Maece- 
nas. But what are thought and commonly said most to 
demonstrate and try the tempers of men, namely, author- 
ity, and place, by moving every passion, and discovering 
every frailty, these are things which Demosthenes never 
received ; nor was he ever in a position to give such proof 
of himself, having never obtained any eminent oflfice, nor 
led any of those armies into the field against Philip which 
he raised by his eloquence. Cicero, on the other hand, was 
sent quaestor into Sicily, and proconsul into Cilicia and Cap- 
padocia, at a time when avarice was at the height, and the 
commanders and governors who were employed abroad, as 
though they thought it a mean thing to steal, set themselves 
to seize by open force ; so that it seemed no heinous matter 
to take bribes, but he that did it most moderately was in 
good esteem. And yet he, at this time, gave the most abun- 
dant proofs alike of his contempt of riches and of his hu- 
manity and good-nature. And at Rome, when he was cre- 
ated consul in name, but indeed received sovereign and 
dictatorial authority against Catiline and his conspirators, 
he attested the truth of Plato's prediction, that then the 
miseries of states would be at an end, when by a happy 
fortune supreme power , wisdom, and justice should be 
united in one.^ 
It is said, to the reproach of Demosthenes, that his elo- 

' Or, as the dictum is in his Republic, " When the philosopher should be 
king." 



272 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

quence was mercenary; that he privately made orations for 
Phormion and Apollodorus, though adversaries in the same 
cause; that he was charged with moneys received from the 
king of Persia, and condemned for bribes from Harpalus. 
And should we grant that all those (and they are not few) 
who have made these statements against him have spoken 
what is untrue, yet that Demosthenes was not the character 
to look without desire on the presents offered him out of 
respect and gratitude by royal persons, and that one who 
lent money on maritime usury was likely to be thus indif- 
ferent, is what we cannot assert. But that Cicero refused, 
from the Sicilians when he was qusstor, from the king of 
Cappadocia when he was proconsul, and from his friends at 
Rome when he was in exile, many presents, though urged 
to receive them, has been said already. 

Moreover, Demosthenes's banishment was infamous, upon 
conviction for bribery; Cicero's very honorable, for ridding 
his country of a set of villains. Therefore, when Demos- 
thenes fled his country, no man regarded it; for Cicero's 
sake the senate changed their habit, and put on mourning, 
and would not be persuaded to make any act before Cicero's 
return was decreed. Cicero, however, passed his exile idly 
in Macedonia. But the very exile of Demosthenes made up 
a great part of the services he did for his country; for he 
went through the cities of Greece, and everywhere, as we 
have said, joined in the conflict on behalf of the Grecians, 
driving out the Macedonian ambassadors, and approving 
I himself a much better citizen than Themistocles and Alci- 
biades did in the like fortune. And, after his return, he 
again devoted himself to the same public service, and con- 
tinued firm to his opposition to Antipater and the Macedo- 
nians. Whereas Lselius reproached Cicero in the senate for 
sitting silent when Caesar, a beardless youth, asked leave to 
come forward, contrary to the law, as a candidate for the 
consulship; and Brutus, in his epistles, charges him with 
nursing and rearing a greater and more heavy tyranny than 
that they had removed. 

Finally, Cicero's death excites our pity; for an old man 
to be miserably carried up and down by his servants, flying 
and hiding himself from that death which was, in the 



DEMOSTHENES AND CICERO 273 

course of nature, so near at hand ; and yet at last to be mur- 
dered. Demosthenes, though he seemed at first a little to 
supplicate, yet, by his preparing and keeping the poison by 
him, demands our admiration; and still more admirable was 
his using it. When the temple of the god no longer afforded 
him a sanctuary, he took refuge, as it were, at a mightier 
altar, freeing himself from arms and soldiers, and laughing 
to scorn the cruelty of Antipater. 



Ci5:SAR 

AFTER Sylla became master of Rome, he wished to 
make Caesar put away his wife Cornelia, daughter 
- of Cinna, the late sole ruler of the commonwealth, 
but was unable to effect it either by promises or intimida- 
tion, and so contented himself with confiscating her dowry. 
The ground of Sylla's hostility to Caesar, was the relation- 
ship between him and Marius ; for Marius, the elder, mar- 
ried Julia, the sister of Caesar's father, and had by her the 
younger Marius, who consequently was Caesar's first cousin. 
And though at the beginning, while so many were to be 
put to death and there was so much to do, Caesar was over- 
looked by Sylla, yet he would not keep quiet, but presented 
himself to the people as a candidate for the priesthood, 
though he was yet a mere boy. Sylla, without any open op- 
position, took measures to have him rejected, and in consul- 
tation whether he should be put to death, when it was 
urged by some that it was not worth his while to contrive 
the death of a boy, he answered, that they knew little who 
did not see more than one Marius in that boy. Caesar, on 
being informed of this saying, concealed himself, and for a 
considerable time kept out of the way in the country of the 
Sabines, often changing his quarters, till one night, as he 
was removing from one house to another on account of his 
health, he fell into the hands of Sylla's soldiers, who were 
searching those parts in order to apprehend any who had 
absconded. Caesar, by a bribe of two talents, prevailed with 
Cornelius, their captain, to let him go, and was no sooner 
dismissed but he put to sea, and made for Bithynia. After 
a short stay there with Nicomedes, the king, in his passage 
back he was taken near the island Pharmacusa by some of the 
pirates, who, at that time, with large fleets of ships and 
innumerable smaller vessels infested the seas everywhere. 

274 



C^SAR 275 

When these men at first demanded of him twenty talents 
for his ransom, he laughed at them for not understanding 
the value of their prisoner, and voluntarily engaged to give 
them fifty. He presently despatched those about him to sev- 
eral places to raise the money, till at last he was left among 
a set of the most bloodthirsty people in the world, the Cili- 
cians, only with one friend and two attendants. Yet he 
made so little of them, that when he had a mind to sleep, 
he would send to them, and order them to make no noise. 
For thirty-eight days, with all the freedom in the world, he 
amused himself with joining in their exercises and games, 
as if they had not been his keepers, but his guards. He 
wrote verses and speeches, and made them his auditors, and 
those who did not admire them, he called to their faces illit- 
erate and barbarous, and would often, in raillery, threaten 
to hang them. They were greatly taken with this, and at- 
tributed his free talking to a kind of simplicity and boyish 
playfulness. As soon as his ransom was come from Miletus, 
he paid it, and was discharged, and proceeded at once to man 
some ships at the port of Miletus, and went in pursuit of 
the pirates, whom he surprised with their ships still sta- 
tioned at the island, and took most of them. Their money he 
made his prize, and the men he secured in prison at Per- 
gamus, and made application to Junius, who was then gov- 
ernor of Asia, to whose office it belonged, as praetor, to de- 
termine their punishment. Junius, having his eye upon the 
money, for the sum was considerable, said he would think 
at his leisure what to do with the prisoners, upon which 
Caesar took his leave of him, and went off to Pergamus, 
where he ordered the pirates to be brought forth and cru- 
cified; the punishment he had often threatened them with 
whilst he was in their hands, and they little dreamed he 
was in earnest. 

In the mean time Sylla's power being now on the de- 
cline, Caesar's friends advised him to return to Rome, but 
he went to Rhodes, and entered himself in the school of 
Apollonius, Molon's son, a famous rhetorician, one who 
had the reputation of a worthy man. and had Cicero for 
one of his scholars. Caesar is said to have been admirably 
fitted by nature to make a great statesman and orator, 



276 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

and to have taken such pains to improve his genius this 
way, that w^ithout dispute he might challenge the second 
place. More he did not aim at, as choosing to be first 
rather amongst men of arms and power, and, therefore, 
never rose to that height of eloquence to which nature would 
have carried him, his attention being diverted to those ex- 
peditions and designs which at length gained him the em- 
pire. And he himself, in his answer to Cicero's panegyric 
on Cato, desires his reader not to compare the plain dis- 
course of a soldier with the harangues of an orator who had 
not only fine parts, but had employed his life in this study. 
When he was returned to Rome, he accused Dolabella 
of maladministration, and many cities of Greece came in to 
attest it. Dolabella was acquitted, and Caesar, in return for 
the support he had received from the Greeks, assisted them 
in their prosecution of Publius Antonius for corrupt prac- 
tices, before Marcus Lucullus, praetor of Macedonia. In 
this cause he so far succeeded, that Antonius was forced 
to appeal to the tribunes at Rome, alleging that in Greece 
he could not have fair play against Grecians. In his plead- 
ings at Rome, his eloquence soon obtained him great credit 
and favor, and he won no less upon the affections of the 
people by the affability of his manners and address, in which 
he showed a tact and consideration beyond what could 
have been expected at his age; and the open house he kept, 
the entertainments he gave, and the general splendor of 
his manner of life contributed little by little to create and 
increase his political influence. His enemies slighted the 
growth of it at first, presuming it would soon fail when his 
money was gone; whilst in the mean time it was growing up 
and flourishing among the common people. When his power 
at last was established and not to be overthrown, and now 
openly tended to the altering of the whole constitution, 
they were aware too late, that there is no beginning so 
mean, which continued application will not make consider- 
able, and that despising a danger at first, will make it at 
last irresistible. Cicero was the first who had any suspi- 
cions of his designs upon the government, and, as a good 
pilot is apprehensive of a storm when the sea is most smil- 
ing, saw the designing temper of the man through this dis- 



CESAR 277 

guise of good-humor and affabilin*. and said, that in general, 
in all he did and undertook, he detected the ambition for 
absolute power, "but when I see his hair so carefully ar- 
ranged, and obser\-e him adjusting it with one finger, I can- 
not imagine it should enter into such a man's thoughts to 
sub\'ert the Roman state." But of this more hereafter. 

The first proof he had of the people's good-will to him, 
was when he received b)' their suffrages a tribuneship in 
the army, and came out on the list with a higher place 
than Caius Popilius. A second and clearer instance of their 
favor appeared upon his making a magnificent oration in 
praise of his aunt Julia, wife to Marius, publicly in the 
fortim, at whose funeral he was so bold as to bring forth 
the images of Marius, which nobody had dared to produce 
since the government came into Sylla's hands, Marius's party 
having from that time been declared enemies of the State. 
When some who were present had begun to raise a cry 
against Caesar, the people answered with loud shouts and 
clapping in his favor, expressing their joyful surprise and 
satisfaction at his having, as it were, brought up again 
from the grave those honors of Marius, which for so long 
a time had been lost to the cit}-. It had always been the 
custom at Rome to make funeral orations in praise of el- 
derly matrons, but there was no precedent of any upon 
young women till Caesar first made one upon the death of 
his own wife. This also procured him favor, and by this 
^low of afifection he won upon the feelings of the people, 
who looked upon him as a man of great tenderness and kind- 
ness of heart. After he had buried his wife, he went as 
quaestor into Spain under one of the praetors, named Vetus, 
whom he honored ever after, and made his son his own 
quaestor, when he himself came to be praetor. After this 
employment was ended, he married Pompeia, his third wife, 
having then a daughter by Cornelia, his first wife, whom 
he afterwards married to Pompey the Great He was 
so profuse in his expenses, that before he had any public 
enq>lo3rment, he was in debt thirteen hundred talents, and 
many thought that by incurring such expense to be popular, 
he changed a solid good for what would prove but a short 
and uncertain return; but in truth he was purchasing what 



278 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

was of the greatest value at an inconsiderable rate. When 
he was made surveyor of the Appian Way, he disbursed, 
besides the public money, a great sum out of his private 
purse; and when he was aedile, he provided such a number 
of gladiators, that he entertained the people with three hun- 
dred and twenty single combats, and by his great liberality 
and magnificence in theatrical shows, in processions, and 
public feastings, he threw into the shade all the attempts 
that had been made before him, and gained so much upon 
the people, that every one was eager to find out new offices 
and new honors for him in return for his munificence. 

There being two factions in the city, one that of Sylla, 
which was very powerful, the other that of Marius, which 
was then broken and in a very low condition, he undertook 
to revive this and to make it his own. And to this end, 
whilst he was in the height of his repute with the people 
for the magnificent shows he gave as aedile, he ordered im- 
ages of Marius, and figures of Victory, with trophies in 
their hands, to be carried privately in the night and placed 
in the capitol. Next morning, when some saw them bright 
with gold and beautifully made, with inscriptions upon them, 
referring them to Marius's exploits over the Cimbrians, they 
were surprised at the boldness of him who had set them up, 
nor was it difficult to guess who it was. The fame of this 
soon spread and brought together a great concourse of peo- 
ple. Some cried out that it was an open attempt against 
the established government thus to revive those honors 
which had been buried by the laws and decrees of the sen- 
ate; that Caesar had done it to sound the temper of the 
people whom he had prepared before, and to try whether 
they were tame enough to bear his humor, and would quietly 
give way to his innovations. On the other hand, Marius's 
party took courage, and it was incredible how numerous 
they were suddenly seen to be, and what a multitude of 
them appeared and came shouting into the capitol. Many, 
when they saw Marius's likeness, cried for joy, and Caesar 
was highly extolled as the one man, in the place of all 
others, who was a relation worthy of Marius. Upon this the 
senate met, and Catulus Lutatius, one of the most eminent 
Romans of that time, stood up and inveighed against Cae- 



C^SAR 279 

sar, closing his speech with the remarkable saying, that 
Caesar was now not working mines, but planting batteries 
to overthrow the state. But when Caesar had made an apol- 
ogy for himself, and satisfied the senate, his admirers were 
very much animated, and advised him not to depart from 
his own thoughts for any one, since with the people's good 
favor he would erelong get the better of them all, and be 
the first man in the commonwealth. 

At this time, Metellus, the High-Priest, died, and Catulus 
and Isauricus, persons of the highest reputation, and who 
had great influence in the senate, were competitors for the 
office ; yet Csesar would not give way to them, but presented 
himself to the people as a candidate against them. The 
several parties seeming very equal, Catulus, who, because 
he had the most honor to lose, was the most apprehensive 
of the event, sent to Cssar to buy him off, with offers of 
a great sum of money. But his answer was, that he was 
ready to borrow a larger sum than that, to carry on the 
contest. Upon the day of election, as his mother conducted 
him out of doors with tears, after embracing her, "My 
mother," he said, "to-day you will see me either High- 
Priest, or an exile." When the votes were taken, after a 
great struggle, he carried it, and excited among the senate 
and nobility great alarm lest he might now urge on the 
people to every kind of insolence. And Piso and Catulus 
found fault with Cicero for having let Caesar escape, when 
in the conspiracy of Catiline he had given the government 
such advantage against him. For Catiline, who had de- 
signed not only to change the present state of affairs, but to 
subvert the whole empire and confound all, had himself 
taken to flight, while the evidence was yet incomplete 
against him, before his ultimate purposes had been prop- 
erly discovered. But he had left Lentulus and Cethegus in 
the city to supply his place in the conspiracy, and whether 
they received any secret encouragement and assistance from 
Caesar is uncertain ; all that is certain is, that they were 
fully convicted in the senate, and when Cicero, the consul, 
asked the several opinions of the senators, how they would 
have them punished, all who spoke before Caesar sentenced 
them to death; but Caesar stood up and made a set speech. 



280 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

in which he told them, that he thought it without preceident 
and not just to take away the Hves of persons of their birth 
and distinction before they were fairly tried, unless there 
was an absolute necessity for it; but that if they were kept 
confined in any towns of Italy Cicero himself should choose, 
till Catiline was defeated, then the senate might in peace 
and at their leisure determine what was best to be done. 

This sentence of his carried so much appearance of hu- 
manity, and he gave it such advantage by the eloquence 
with which he urged it, that not only those who spoke after 
him closed with it, but even they who had before given a 
contrary opinion, now came over to his, till it came about to 
Catulus's and Cato's turn to speak. They warmly opposed 
it, and Cato intimated in his speech the suspicion of Caesar 
himself, and pressed the matter so strongly, that the crim- 
inals were given up to suffer execution. As Caesar was go- 
ing out of the senate, many of the young men who at that 
time acted as guards to Cicero, ran in with their naked 
swords to assault him. But Curio, it is said, threw his 
gown over him, and conveyed him away, and Cicero himself, 
when the young men looked up to see his wishes, gave a sign 
not to kill him, either for fear of the people, or because he 
thought the murder unjust and illegal. If this be true, I 
wonder how Cicero came to omit all mention of it in his 
book about his consulship. He was blamed, however, after- 
wards, for not having made use of so fortunate an oppor- 
tunity against Caesar, as if he had let it escape him out of 
fear of the populace, who, indeed, showed remarkable solici- 
tude about Caesar, and some time after, when he v/ent into 
the senate to clear himself of the suspicions he lay under, 
and found great clamors raised against him, upon the senate 
in consequence sitting longer than ordinary, they went up 
to the house in a tumult, and beset it, demanding Caesar, 
and requiring them to dismiss him. Upon this, Cato, much 
fearing some movement among the poor citizens, who were 
always the first to kindle the flame among the people, and 
placed all their hopes in Caesar, persuaded the senate to give 
them a monthly allowance of corn, an expedient which put 
the commonwealth to the extraordinary charge of seven 
million five hundred thousand drachmas in the year, but 



CiESAR 281 

quite succeeded in removing the great cause of terror for the 
present, and very much weakened Caesar's pov^^er, who at 
that time was just going to be made praetor, and conse- 
quently would have been more formidable by his office. 

But there was no disturbance during his praetorship, only 
what misfortune he met with in his own domestic affairs. 
Publius Clodius was a patrician by descent, eminent both 
for his riches and eloquence, but in licentiousness of life 
and audacity exceeded the most noted profligates of the day. 
He was in love with Pompeia, Caesar's wife, and she had no 
aversion to him. But there was strict watch kept on her 
apartment, and Caesar's mother, Aurelia, who was a dis- 
creet woman, being continually about her, made any inter- 
view very dangerous and difficult. The Romans have a god- 
dess whom they call Bona, the same whom the Greeks call 
Gynaecea. The Phrygians, who claim a peculiar title to her, 
say she was mother to Midas. The Romans profess she 
was one of the Dryads, and married to Faunus. The 
Grecians affirm that she is that mother of Bacchus whose 
name is not to be uttered, and, for this reason, the women 
who celebrate her festival, cover the tents with vine- 
branches, and, in accordance with the fable, a consecrated 
serpent is placed by the goddess. It is not lawful for a man 
to be by, nor so much as in the house, whilst the rites are 
celebrated, but the women by themselves perform the sacred 
offices, which are said to be much the same with those used 
in the solemnities of Orpheus. When the festival comes, the 
husband, who is either consul or praetor, and with him every 
male creature, quits the house. The wife then taking it 
under her care, sets it in order, and the principal ceremonies 
are performed during the night, the women playing together 
amongst themselves as they keep watch, and music of various 
kinds going on. 

As Pompeia was at that time celebrating this feast, Clodius, 
who as yet had no beard, and so thought to pass undiscov- 
ered, took upon him the dress and ornaments of a singing 
woman, and so came thither, having the air of a young girl. 
Finding the doors open, he was without any stop introduced 
by the maid, who was in the intrigue. She presently ran to 
tell Pompeia, but as she was away a long time, he grew un- 



282 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

easy waiting for her, and left his post and traversed the 
house from one room to another, still taking care to avoid 
the lights, till at last Aurelia's woman met him, and invited 
him to play with her, as the women did among themselves. 
He refused to comply, and she presently pulled him forward, 
and asked him who he was, and whence he came. Clodius 
told her he was waiting for Pompeia's own maid, Abra,^ 
being in fact her own name also, and as he said so, betrayed 
himself by his voice. Upon which the woman shrieking, ran 
into the company where there were lights, and cried, out, 
she had discovered a man. The women were all in a fright. 
Aurelia covered up the sacred things and stopped the pro- 
ceedings, and having ordered the doors to be shut, went about 
with lights to find Clodius, who was got in the maid's room 
that he had come in with, and was seized there. The women 
knew him, and drove him out of doors, and at once, that same 
night, went home and told their husbands the story. In the 
morning, it was all about the town, what an impious attempt 
Clodius had made, and how he ought to be punished as an 
offender, not only against those whom he had affronted, but 
also against the public and the gods. Upon which one of 
the tribunes impeached him for profaning the holy rites, and 
some of the principal senators combined together and gave 
evidence against him, that besides many other horrible 
crimes, he had been guilty of incest with his own sister, who 
was married to Lucullus. But the people set themselves 
against this combination of the nobility, and defended 
Clodius, which was of great service to him with the judges, 
who took alarm and were afraid to provoke the multitude. 
Caesar at once dismissed Pompeia, but being summoned as a 
witness against Clodius, said he had nothing to charge him 
with. This looking like a paradox, the accuser asked him 
why he parted with his wife. Caesar replied, "I wished 
my wife to be not so much as suspected." Some say that 
Caesar spoke this as his real thought; others, that he did it 
to gratify the people, who were very earnest to save Clodius. 
Clodius, at any rate, escaped; most of the judges giving their 
opinions so written as to be illegible, that they might not be 

* Abra was the Greek word for the favorite waiting-maid; and was, also, 
this girl's own proper name. Clodius said he was waiting for Pompsia'i 
Abra, that being, also, as it happened, her name. 



C^SAR 283 

in danger from the people by condemning him, nor in dis- 
grace with the nobility by acquitting him. 

Caesar, in the mean time, being out of his praetorship, had 
got the province of Spain, but was in great embarrassment 
with his creditors, who, as he was going off, came upon him, 
and were very pressing and importunate. This led him to 
apply himself to Crassus, who was the richest man in Rome, 
but wanted Caesar's youthful vigor and heat to sustain the 
opposition against Pompey. Crassus took upon him to sat- 
isfy those creditors who were not uneasy to him, and would 
not be put off any longer, and engaged himself to the amount 
of eight hundred and thirty talents, upon which Caesar was 
now at liberty to go to his province. In his journey, as he 
was crossing the Alps, and passing by a small village of the 
barbarians with but few inhabitants and those wretchedly 
poor, his companions asked the question among themselves by 
way of mockery, if there were any canvassing for offices 
there; any contention which should be uppermost, or feuds 
of great men one against another. To which Caesar made 
answer seriously, "For my part, I had rather be the first man 
among these fellows, than the second man in Rome." It is 
said that another time, when free from business in Spain, 
after reading some part of the history of Alexander, he sat 
a great while very thoughtful, and at last burst out into tears. 
His friends were surprised, and asked him the reason of it. 
"Do you think," said he, "I have not just cause to weep, when 
I consider that Alexander at my age had conquered so many 
nations, and I have all this time done nothing that is mem.or- 
able?" As soon as he came into Spain he was very active, 
and in a few days had got together ten new cohorts of foot 
in addition to the twenty which were there before. With 
these he marched against the Calaici and Lusitani and con- 
quered them, and advancing as far as the ocean, subdued 
the tribes which never before had been subject to the Ro- 
mans. Having managed his military affairs with good suc- 
cess, he was equally happy in the course of his civil govern- 
ment. He took pains to establish a good understanding 
amongst the several states, and no less care to heal the dif- 
ferences between debtors and creditors. He ordered that the 
creditor should receive two parts of the debtor's yearly in* 



284 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

come, and that the other part should be managed by the 
debtor himself, till by this method the whole debt was at last 
discharged. This conduct made him leave his province with 
a fair reputation ; being rich himself, and having enriched his 
soldiers, and having received from them the honorable name 
of Imperator. 

There is a law among the Romans, that whoever desires 
the honor of a triumph must stay without the city and expect 
his answer. And another, that those who stand for the con- 
sulship shall appear personally upon the place. Caesar was 
come home at the very time of choosing consuls, and being 
in a difficulty between these two opposite laws, sent to the 
senate a desire that since he was obliged to be absent, he 
might sue for the consulship by his friends. Cato, being 
backed by the law, at first opposed his request; afterwards 
perceiving that Caesar had prevailed with a great part of the 
senate to comply with it, he made it his business to gain 
time, and went on wasting the whole day in speaking. Upon 
which Caesar thought fit to let the triumph fall, and pursued 
the consulship. Entering the town and coming forward im- 
mediately, he had recourse to a piece of state-policy by which 
everybody was deceived but Cato. This was the reconciling 
of Crassus and Pompey, the two men who then were most 
powerful in Rome. There had been a quarrel between them, 
which he now succeeded in making up, and by this means 
strengthened himself by the united power of both, and so 
under the cover of an action which carried all the appear- 
ance of a piece of kindness and good-nature, caused what 
was in eflfect a revolution in the government. For it was not 
the quarrel between Pompey and Caesar, as most men ima- 
gine, which was the origin of the civil wars, but their union, 
their conspiring together at first to subvert the aristocracy, 
and so quarrelling afterwards between themselves. Cato, 
who often foretold what the consequence of this alliance 
would be, had then the character of a sullen, interfering man, 
but in the end the reputation of a wise but unsuccessful 
counsellor. 

Thus Caesar being doubly supported by the interests of 
Crassus and Pompey, was promoted to the consulship, and 
triumphantly proclaimed with Calpurnius Bibulus. When 



Ci^SAR 28S 

he entered on his office, he brought in bills which would have 
been preferred with better grace by the most audacious of the 
tribunes than by a consul, in which he proposed the planta- 
tion of colonies and division of lands, simply to please the 
commonalty. The best and most honorable of the senators 
opposed it, upon which, as he had long wished for nothing 
more than for such a colorable pretext, he loudly protested 
how much against his will it was to be driven to seek sup- 
port from the people, and how the senate's insulting and 
harsh conduct left no other course possible for him, than to 
devote himself henceforth to the popular cause and interest. 
And so he hurried out of the senate, and presenting himself 
to the people, and there placing Crassus and Pompey, one 
on each side of him, he asked them whether they consented 
to the bills he had proposed. They owned their assent, upon 
which he desired them to assist him against those who had 
threatened to oppose him with their swords. They engaged 
they would, and Pompey added further, that he would meet 
their swords with a sword and buckler too. These words 
the nobles much resented, as neither suitable to his own 
dignity, nor becoming the reverence due to the senate, but 
resembling rather the vehemence of a boy, or the fury of a. 
madman. But the people were pleased with it. In order to 
get a yet firmer hold upon Pompey, C?esar having a daughter, 
Julia, who had been before contracted to Servilius Caepio, 
now betrothed her to Pompey, and told Servilius he should 
have Pompey's daughter, who was not unengaged either, but 
promised to Sylla's son, Faustus. A little time after. Caesar 
married Calpurnia, the daughter of Piso, and got Piso made 
consul for the year following. Cato exclaimed loudly against 
this, and protested with a great deal of warmth, that it was 
intolerable the government should be prostituted by mar- 
riages, and that they should advance one another to the com- 
mands of armies, provinces, and other great posts, by means 
of women. Bibulus, Caesar's colleague, finding it was to no 
purpose to oppose his bills, but that he was in danger of being 
murdered in the forum, as also was Cato, confined himself 
to his house, and there let the remaining part of his consul- 
ship expire. Pompey, when he was married, at once filled 
the forum with soldiers, and gave the people his help in 



286 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

passing the new laws, and secured Csesar the government of 
all Gaul, both on this and the other side of the Alps, together 
with Illyricum, and the command of four legions for five 
years. Cato made some attempts against these proceedings, 
but was seized and led off on the way to prison by Csesar, 
who expected he would appeal to the tribunes. But when 
he saw that Cato went along without speaking a word, and 
not only the nobility were indignant, but that the people, also, 
out of respect for Cato's virtue, were following in silence, 
and with dejected looks, he himself privately desired one of 
the tribunes to rescue Cato. As for the other senators, some 
few of them attended the house, the rest being disgusted, 
absented themselves. Hence Considius, a very old man, took 
occasion one day to tell Csesar, that the senators did not meet 
because they were afraid of his soldiers. Csesar asked, 
"Why don't you then, out of the same fear, keep at home?" 
To which Considius replied, that age was his guard against 
fear, and that the small remains of his life were not worth 
much caution. But the most disgraceful thing that was done 
in Csesar's consulship, was his assisting to gain the tribune- 
ship for the same Clodius who had made the attempt upon 
his wife's chastity, and intruded upon the secret vigils. He 
was elected on purpose to effect Cicero's downfall ; nor did 
Csesar leave the city to join his army, till they two had over- 
powered Cicero, and driven him out of Italy. 

Thus far have we followed Csesar's actions before the wars 
of Gaul. After this, he seems to begin his course afresh, and 
to enter upon a new life and scene of action. A.nd the period 
of those wars which he now fought, and those many expedi- 
tions in which he subdued Gaul, showed him to be a soldier 
and general not in the least inferior to any of the greatest 
and most admired commanders who had ever appeared at the 
head of armies. For if we compare him with the Fabii, the 
1^,'Ietelli, the Scipios, and with those who were his con- 
temporaries, or not long before him, Sylla Marius, the two 
LucuUi, or even Pompey himself, whose glory, it may be 
said, went up at that time to heaven for every excellence in 
war, we shall find Csesar's actions to have surpassed them 
all. One he may be held to have outdone in consideration 
of the difficulty of the country in which he fought, another 



C^SAR 287 

in the extent of territory which he conquered ; some, in the 
number and strength of the enemies whom he defeated; one 
man, because of the wildness and perfidiousness of the tribes 
whose good-will he conciliated, another in his humanity and 
clemency to those he overpowered; others, again in his gifts 
and kindnesses to his soldiers; all alike in the number of the 
battles which he fought and the enemies whom he killed. 
For he had not pursued the wars in Gaul full ten years, when 
he had taken by storm above eight hundred towns, subdued 
three hundred states, and of the three millions of men. who 
made up the gross sum of those with whom at several times 
he engaged, he had killed one million, and taken captive a 
second. 

He was so much master of the good-will and hearty service 
of his soldiers, that those who in other expeditions were but 
ordinary men, displayed a courage past defeating or with- 
standing when they went upon any danger where Caesar's 
glory was concerned. Such a one was Acilius, who, in the 
sea-fight before Marseilles, had his right hand struck off 
with a sword, yet did not quit his buckler out of his left, but 
struck the enemies in the face with it, till he drove them 
off, and made himself master of the vessel. Such another 
was Cassius Scseva, who, in a battle near Dyrrhachium, had 
one of his eyes shot out with an arrow, his shoulder pierced 
with one javelin, and his thigh with another; and having 
received one hundred and thirty darts upon his target, called 
to the enemy, as though he would surrender himself. But 
when two of them came up to him, he cut off the shoulder 
of one with a sword, and by a blow over the face forced the 
other to retire, and so with the assistance of his friends, who 
now came up, made his escape. Again, in Britain, when 
some of the foremost officers had accidentally got into a 
morass full of water, and there were assaulted by the enemy, 
a common soldier, whilst Caesar stood and looked on. threw 
himself into the midst of them, and after many signal demon- 
strations of his valor, rescued the officers, and beat off the 
barbarians. He himself, in the end, took to the water, and 
with much difficulty, partly by swimming, partly by wading, 
passed it, but in the passage lost his shield. Cresar and his 
officers saw it and admired, and went to meet him with joy 



28S PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

and acclamation. But the soldier, much dejected and in 
tears, threw himself down at Caesar's feet, and begged his 
pardon for having let go his buckler. Another time in 
Africa, Scipio having taken a ship of Caesar's in which 
Granius Petro, lately appointed quaestor, was sailing, gave 
the other passengers as free prize to his soldiers, but thought 
fit to offer the quaestor his life. But he said it was not usual 
for Caesar's soldiers to take, but give mercy, and having said 
so, fell upon his sword and killed himself. 

This love of honor and passion for distinction were in- 
spired into them and cherished in them by Caesar himself, 
who, by his unsparing distribution of money and honors, 
showed them that he did not heap up wealth from the wars 
for his own luxury, or the gratifying his private pleasures, 
but that all he received was but a public fund laid by for the 
reward and encouragement of valor, and that he looked upon 
all he gave to deserving soldiers as so much increase to his 
own riches. Added to this, also, there was no danger to 
which he did not willingly expose himself, no labor from 
which he pleaded an exemption. His contempt of danger 
was not so much wondered at by his soldiers, because they 
knew how much he coveted honor. But his enduring so 
much hardship, which he did to all appearance beyond his 
natural strength, very much astonished them. For he was a 
spare man, had a soft and white skin, was distempered in 
the head, and subject to an epilepsy, which, it is said, first 
seized him at Corduba. But he did not make the weakness 
of his constitution a pretext for his ease, but rather used war 
as the best physic against his indispositions ; whilst by inde- 
fatigable journeys, coarse diet, frequent lodging in the field, 
and continual laborious exercise, he struggled with his dis- 
eases, and fortified his body against all attacks. He slept 
generally in his chariots or litters, employing even his rest in 
pursuit of action. In the day he was thus carried to the 
forts, garrisons, and camps, one servant sitting with him, who 
used to write down what he dictated as he went, and a soldier 
attending behind with his sword drawn. He drove so rap- 
idly, that when he first left Rome, he arrived at the river 
Rhone within eight days. He had been an expert rider from 
his childhood ; for it was usual with him to sit with his hands 



CESAR 289 

joined together behind his back, and so to put his horse to 
its full speed. And in this war he disciplined himself so far 
as to be able to dictate letters from on horseback, and to give 
directions to two who took notes at the same time, or, as 
Oppius says, to more. And it is thought that he was the first 
who contrived means for communicating with friends by 
cipher, when either press of business, or the large extent of 
the city, left him no time for a personal conference about 
matters that required despatch. How little nice he was in 
his diet, may be seen in the following instance. When at the 
table of Valerius Leo, who entertained him at supper at 
Milan, a dish of asparagus was put before him, on which his 
host instead of oil had poured sweet ointment. Caesar par- 
took of it without any disgust, and reprimanded his friends 
for finding fault with it. "For it was enough," said he, "not 
to eat what you did not like ; but he who reflects on another 
man's want of breeding, shows he wants it as much him- 
self." Another time upon the road he was driven by a storm 
into a poor man's cottage, where he found but one room, and 
that such as would afford but a mean reception to a single 
person, and therefore told his companions, places of honor 
should be given up to the greater men, and necessary accom- 
modations to the weaker, and accordingly ordered that 
Oppius, who was in bad health, should lodge within, whilst 
he and the rest slept under a shed at the door. 

His first war in Gaul was against the Helvetians and 
Tigurini, who having burnt their own towns, twelve in 
number, and four hundred villages, would have marched 
forward through that part of Gaul which was included in 
the Roman province, as the Cimbrians and Teutons formerly 
had done. Nor were they inferior to these in courage; and 
in numbers they were equal, being in all three hundred 
thousand, of which one hundred and ninety thousand were 
fighting men. Caesar did not engage the Tigurini in person, 
but Labienus, under his directions, routed them near the river 
Aran The Helvetians surprised Caesar, and unexpectedly 
set upon him as he was conducting his army to a confederate 
town. He succeeded, however, in making his retreat into a 
strong position, where, when he had mustered and marshalled 
his men, his horse was brought to him; upon which he said, 

J — HC XII 



290 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

"When I have won the battle, I will use my horse for the 
chase, but at present let us go against the enemy," and 
accordingly charged them on foot. After a long and severe 
combat, he drove the main army out of the field, but found 
the hardest work at their carriages and ramparts, where not 
only the men stood and fought but the women also and 
children defended themselves, till they were cut to pieces; 
insomuch that the fight was scarcely ended till midnight. 
This action, glorious in itself, Csesar crowned with another 
yet more noble, by gathering in a body all the barbarians 
that had escaped out of the battle, above one hundred thou- 
sand in number, and obliging them to reoccupy the country 
which they had deserted, and the cities which they had burnt. 
This he did for fear the Germans should pass in and possess 
themselves of the land whilst it lay uninhabited. 

His second war was in defence of the Gauls against the 
Germans, though some time before he had made Ariovistus, 
their king, recognized at Rome as an ally. But they were very 
insufferable neighbours to those under his government ; and 
it was probable, when occasion offered, they would renounce 
the present arrangements, and march on to occupy Gaul. 
But finding his officers timorous, and especially those of the 
young nobility who came along with him in hopes of turning 
their campaigns with him into a means for their own pleasure 
or profit, he called them together, and advised them to march 
off, and not run the hazard of a battle against their inclina- 
tions, since they had such weak and unmanly feelings ; telling 
them that he would take only the tenth legion, and march 
against the barbarians, whom he did not expect to find an 
enemy more formidable than the Cimbri, nor, he added, 
should they find him a general inferior to Marius. Upon 
this, the tenth legion deputed some of their body to pay him 
their acknowledgments and thanks, and the other legions 
blamed their officers, and all, with great vigor and zeal, fol- 
lowed him many days' journey till they encamped within two 
hundred furlongs of the enemy, Ariovistus's courage to 
some extent was cooled upon their very approach; for never 
expecting the Romans would attack the Germans, whom he 
had thought it more likely they would not venture to with- 
stand even in defence of their own subjects, he was the more 



CiGSAR an 

surprised at Caesar's conduct, and saw his army to be in con- 
sternation. They were still more discouraged by the prophe- 
cies of their holy women, who foretell the future by ob- 
serving the eddies of rivers, and taking signs from the 
windings and noise of streams, and who now warned them 
not to engage before the next new moon appeared. Caesar 
having had intimation of this, and seeing the Germans lie 
still, thought it expedient to attack them whilst they were 
under these apprehensions, rather than sit still and wait their 
time. Accordingly he made his approaches to the strong- 
holds and hills on which they lay encamped, and so galled and 
fretted them, that at last they came down with great fury 
to engage. But he gained a signal victory, and pursued 
them for four hundred furlongs, as far as the Rhine; all 
which space was covered with spoils and bodies of the slain. 
AriovJstus made shift to pass the Rhine with the small re- 
mains of an army, for it is said the number of the slain 
amounted to eighty thousand. 

After this action, Caesar left his army at their winter- 
quarters in the country of the Sequani, and in order to attend 
to affairs at Rome, went into that part of Gaul which lies 
on the Po, and was part of his province ; for the river Rubi- 
con divides Gaul, which is on this side the Alps, from the 
rest of Italy. There he sat down and employed himself in 
courting people's favor ; great numbers coming to him con- 
tinually, and always finding their requests answered; for he 
never failed to dismiss all with present pledges of his kind- 
ness in hand, and further hopes for the future. And during 
all this time of the war in Gaul, Pompey never observed how 
Caesar was on the one hand using the arms of Rome to effect 
his conquests, and on the other was gaining over and secur- 
ing to himself the favor of the Romans, with the wealth 
which those conquests obtained him. But when he heard 
that the Belgae, who were the most powerful of all the Gauls, 
and inhabited a third part of the country, were revolted, 
and had got together a great many thousand men in arms, 
he immediately set out and took his way thither with great 
expedition, and falling upon the enemy as they were ravag- 
ing the Gauls, his allies, he soon defeated and put to flight 
the largest and least scattered division of them. For though 



292 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

their numbers were great, yet they made but a slender de- 
fence, and the marshes and deep rivers were made passable 
to the Roman foot by the vast quantity of dead bodies. Of 
those who revolted, all the tribes that lived near the ocean 
came over without fighting, and he, therefore, led his army 
against the Nervii, the fiercest and most warlike people of 
all in those parts. These live in a country covered with con- 
tinuous woods, and having lodged their children and property 
out of the way in the depth of the forest, fell upon Caesar 
with a body of sixty thousand men, before he was prepared 
for them, while he was making his encampment. They 
soon routed his cavalry, and having surrounded the twelfth 
and seventh legions, killed all the officers, and had not Caesar 
himself snatched up a buckler, and forced his way through 
his own men to come up to the barbarians, or had not the 
tenth legion, when they saw him in danger, run in from 
the tops of the hills, where they lay, and broken through the 
enemy's ranks to rescue him, in all probability not a Roman 
would have been saved. But now, under the influence of 
Caesar's bold example, they fought a battle, as the phrase is, 
of more than human courage, and yet with their utmost 
efforts they were not able to drive the enemy out of the field, 
but cut them down fighting in their defence. For out of 
sixty thousand men, it is stated that not above five hundred 
survived the battle, and of four hundred of their senators 
not above three. 

When the Roman senate had received news of this, they 
voted sacrifices and festivals to the gods, to be strictly ob- 
served for the space of fifteen days, a longer space than ever 
was observed for any victory before. The danger to which 
they had been exposed by the joint outbreak of such a num- 
ber of nations was felt to have been great; and the people's 
fondness for Caesar gave additional lustre to successes achieved 
by him. He now, after settling everything in Gaul, came 
back again, and spent the winter by the Po, in order to carry 
on the designs he had in hand at Rome. All who were can- 
didates for ofiices used his assistance, and were supplied with 
money from him to corrupt the people and buy their votes, 
in return of which, when they were chosen, they did all 
things to advance his power. But what was more consider- 



CiESAR 293 

able, the most eminent and powerful men in Rome in great 
numbers came to visit him at Lucca, Pompey, and Crassus, 
and Appius, the governor of Sardinia, and Nepos, the procon- 
sul of Spain, so that there were in the place at one time one 
hundred and twenty lictors, and more than two hundred sena- 
tors. In deliberation here held, it was determined that 
Pompey and Crassus should be consuls again for the follow- 
ing year; that Caesar should have a fresh supply of money, 
and that his command should be renewed to him for five 
years more. It seemed very extravagant to all thinking 
men, that those very persons who had received so much 
money from Caesar should persuade the senate to grant him 
more, as if he were in want. Though in truth it was not 
so much upon persuasion as compulsion, that, with sorrow 
and groans for their own acts, they passed the measure. 
Cato was not present, for they had sent him seasonably out 
of the way into Cyprus ; but Favonius, who was a zealous 
imitator of Cato, when he found he could do no good by 
opposing it, broke out of the house, and loudly declaimed 
against these proceedings to the people, but none gave him 
any hearing; some slighting him out of respect to Crassus 
and Pompey, and the greater part to gratify Caesar, on whom 
depended their hopes. 

After this, Caesar returned again to his forces in Gaul, 
where he found that country involved in a dangerous war, 
two strong nations of the Germans having lately passed the 
Rhine, to conquer it ; one of them called the Usipes, the other 
the Tenteritae.- Of the war with this people, Caesar himself 
has given this account in his commentaries, that the barba- 
rians, having sent ambassadors to treat with him, did, during 
the treaty, set upon him in his march, by which means with 
eight hundred men they routed five thousand of his horse, 
who did not suspect their coming; that afterwards they sent 
other ambassadors to renew the same fraudulent practices, 
whom he kept in custody, and led on his army against the 
barbarians, as judging it mere simplicity to keep faith with 
those who had so faithlessly broken the terms they had agreed 

^ The Usipetes and Tencteri of Caesar's own narrative. The Sugambri 
below are the same as the Sigambri or Sicambri in the neighborhood of the 
river Sieg. Tanusius was an historical writer, and is quoted by Suetonius. 
The bridge was probably a little below Coblenz. 



294 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

to. But Tanusius states, that when the senate decreed fes- 
tivals and sacrifices for this victory, Cato declared it to be 
his opinion that Caesar ought to be given into the hands of 
the barbarians, that so the guilt which this breach of faith 
might otherwise bring upon the state, might be expiated by 
transferring the curse on him, who was the occasion of it. 
Of those who passed the Rhine, there were four hundred 
thousand cut off; those few who escaped were sheltered by 
the Sugambri, a people of Germany. Caesar took hold of 
this pretence to invade the Germans, being at the same time 
ambitious of the honor of being the first man that should 
pass the Rhine with an army. He carried a bridge across it, 
though it was very wide, and the current at that particular 
point very full, strong, and violent, bringing down with its 
waters trunks of trees, and other lumber, which much shook 
and weakened the foundations of his bridge. But he drove 
great piles of wood into the bottom of the river above the 
passage, to catch and stop these as they floated down, and 
thus fixing his bridle upon the stream, successfully finished 
his bridge, which no one who saw could believe to be the 
work but of ten days. 

In the passage of his army over it, he met with no opposi- 
tion ; the Suevi themselves, who are the most warlike people 
of all Germany, flying with their effects into the deepest and 
most densely wooded valleys. When he had burnt all the 
enemy's country, and encouraged those who embraced the 
Roman interest, he went back into Gaul, after eighteen days' 
stay in Germany. But his expedition into Britain was the 
most famous testimony of his courage. For he was the first 
who brought a navy into the western ocean, or who sailed 
into the Atlantic with an army to make war ; and by invading 
an island, the reported extent of which had made its ex- 
istence a matter of controversy among historians, many of 
whom questioned whether it were not a mere name and 
fiction, not a real place, he might be said to have carried the 
Roman empire beyond the limits of the known world. He 
passed thither twnce from that part of Gaul which lies over 
against it, and in several battles which he fought, did more 
hurt to the enemy than service to himself, for the islanders 
were so miserably poor, that they had nothing worth being 



C-ESAR 295 

plundered of. When he found himself unable to put such 
an end to the war as he wished, he was content to take hos- 
tages from the king, and to impose a tribute, and then quitted 
the island. At his arrival in Gaul, he found letters which 
lay ready to be conveyed over the water to him from his 
friends at Rome, announcing his daughter's death, who died 
in labor of a child by Pompey. Caesar and Pompey both 
were much afflicted with her death, nor were their friends 
less disturbed, believing that the alliance was now broken, 
which had hitherto kept the sickly commonwealth in peace, 
for the child also died within a few days after the mother. 
The people took the body of Julia, in spite of the opposition 
of the tribunes, and carried it into the field of Mars, and 
there her funeral rites were performed, and her remains are 
laid. 

Caesar's army was now grown very numerous, so that he 
was forced to disperse them into various camps for their 
winter-quarters, and he having gone himself to Italy, as he 
used to do, in his absence a general outbreak throughout the 
whole of Gaul commenced, and large armies marched about 
the country, and attacked the Roman quarters, and attempted 
to make themselves masters of the forts where they lay. 
The greatest and strongest party of the rebels, under the 
command of Abriorix, cut off Cotta and Titurius with all 
their men, while a force sixty thousand strong besieged the 
legion under the command of Cicero,^ and had almost taken 
it by storm, the Roman soldiers being all wounded, and 
having quite spent themselves by a defence beyond their 
natural strength. But Caesar, who was at a great distance, 
having received the news, quickly got together seven thou- 
sand men, and hastened to relieve Cicero. The besiegers 
were aware of it, and went to meet him, with great con- 
fidence that they should easily overpower such an handful of 
,men. Caesar, to increase their presumption, seemed to avoid 
fighting, and still marched off, till he found a place con- 
veniently situated for a few to engage against many, where 
he encamped. He kept his soldiers from making any attack 
upon the enemy, and commanded them to raise the ramparts 

• Quintus Cicero, the orator's brother. Abriorix is Ambiorix of the 
Commentaries. 



296 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

higher, and barricade the gates, that by show of fear, they 
might heighten the enemy's contempt of them. Till at last 
they came without any order in great security to make an 
assault, when he issued forth, and put them to flight with 
the loss of many men. 

This quieted the greater part of the commotions in these 
parts of Gaul and Caesar, in the course of the winter, visited 
every part of the country, and with great vigilance took 
precautions against all innovations. For there were three 
legions now come to him to supply the place of the men he 
had lost, of which Pompey furnished him with two, out of 
those under his command; the other was newly raised in the 
part of Gaul by the Po. But in a while the seeds of war, 
which had long since been secretly sown and scattered by 
the most powerful men in those warlike nations, broke forth 
into the greatest and most dangerous war that ever was in 
those parts, both as regards the number of men in the vigor 
of their youth who were gathered and armed from all 
quarters, the vast funds of money collected to maintain it, 
the strength of the towns, and the difficulty of the country 
where it was carried on. It being winter, the rivers were 
frozer the woods covered with snow, and the level country 
flooded, so that in some places the ways were lost through 
the depth of the snow; in others, the overflowing of marshes 
and streams made every kind of passage uncertain. All 
which difficulties made it seem impracticable for Caesar to 
make any attempt upon the insurgents. Many tribes had 
revolted together, the chief of them being the Arverni and 
Carnutini ;* the general who had the supreme command in 
war was Vergentorix, whose father the Gauls had put to 
death on suspicion of his aiming at absolute government. 

He having disposed his army in several bodies, and set 
officers over them, drew over to him all the country round 
about as far as those that lie upon the Arar, and having 
intelligence of the opposition which Caesar now experienced 
at Rome, thought to engage all Gaul in the war. Which if 

* The Arverni, the same people whom he presently calls the Aruveni, of 
the mountains of Auvergne, and the Carnutes of the country around 
Orleans. Vergentorix appears to be a Greek abbreviation of Vercingetorix, 
the full name given by Csesar, which is itself conceived to have been not 
A proper name, but a title. 



C^SAR 297 

he had done a little later, when Caesar was taken up with 
the civil wars, Italy had been put into as great a terror as 
before it was by the Cimbri. But Caesar, who above all men 
was gifted with the faculty of making the right use of every 
thing in war, and most especially of seizing the right 
moment, as soon as he heard of the revolt, returned imme- 
diately the same way he went, and showed the barbarians, 
by the quickness of his march in such a severe season, that 
an army was advancing against them which was invincible. 
For in the time that one would have thought it scarce credible 
that a courier or express should have come with a message 
from him, he himself appeared with all his army, ravaging 
the country, reducing their posts, subduing their towns, re- 
ceiving into his protection those who declared for him. Till 
at last the Edui, who hitherto had styled themselves brethren 
to the Romans, and had been much honored by them, declared 
against him, and joined the rebels, to the great discourage- 
ment of his army. Accordingly he removed thence, and 
passed the country of the Lingones, desiring to reach the 
territories of the Sequani, who were his friends, and who lay 
like a bulwark in front of Italy against the other tribes of 
Gaul. There the enemy came upon him, and surrounded him 
with many myriads, whom he also was eager to engage ; and 
at last, after some time and with much slaughter, gained on 
the whole a complete victory ; though at first he appears to 
have met with some reverse, and the Aruveni show you a 
small sword hanging up in a temple, which they say was 
taken from Caesar. Caesar saw this afterwards himself, and 
smiled, and when his friends advised it should be taken down, 
would not permit it, because he looked upon it as consecrated. 
After the defeat, a great part of those who had escaped, 
fled with their king into a town called Alesia, which Caesar 
besieged, though the height of the walls, and number of those 
who defended them, made it appear impregnable ; and mean- 
time, from without the walls, he was assailed by a greater 
danger than can be expressed. For the choice men of 
Gaul, picked out of each nation, and well armed, came to re- 
lieve Alesia, to the number of three hundred thousand; nor 
were there in the town less than one hundred and seventy 
. thousand. So that Caesar being shut up betwixt two such 



298 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

forces, was compelled to protect himself by two walls, one 
towards the town, the other against the relieving army, as 
knowing if these forces should join, his affairs would be en- 
tirely ruined. The danger that he underwent before Alesia,' 
justly gained him great honor on many accounts, and gave 
him an opportunity of showing greater instances of his valor 
and conduct than any other contest had done. One wonders 
much how he should be able to engage and defeat so many 
thousands of men without the town, and not be perceived by 
those within, but yet more, that the Romans themselves, 
who guarded their wall which was next the town, should be 
strangers to it. For even they knew nothing of the victory, 
till they heard the cries of the men and lamentations of the 
women who were in the town, and had from thence seen the 
Romans at a distance carrying into their camp a great quan- 
tity of bucklers, adorned with gold and silver, many breast- 
plates stained with blood, besides cups and tents made in the 
Gallic fashion. So soon did so vast an army dissolve and 
vanish like a ghost or dream, the greatest part of them being 
killed upon the spot. Those who were in Alesia, having 
given themselves and Caesar much trouble, surrendered at 
last; and Vergentorix, who was the chief spring of all the 
war, putting his best armor on, and adorning his horse, rode 
out of the gates, and made a turn about Caesar as he was 
sitting, then quitted his horse, threw off his armor, and re- 
mained seated quietly at Caesar's feet until he was led away 
to be reserved for the triumph. 

Caesar had long ago resolved upon the overthrow of Pom- 
pey, as had Pompey, for that matter, upon his. For Crassus, 
the fear of whom had hitherto kept them in peace, having 
now been killed in Parthia, if the one of them wished to 
make himself the greatest man in Rome, he had only to over- 
throw the other; and if he again wished to prevent his own 
fall, he had nothing for it but to be beforehand with him 
whom he feared. Pompey had not been long under any such 

• Alesia is identified with Alise, or with the summit of Mount Auxois, 
near Flavigny, not far from Dijon. The course of Roman occupation, 
interposing between Central Gaul and the German competitors for its 
possession, seems to follow the line of the Rhone and Saone upwards, and 
the Meuse and Moselle downwards, from Marseilles and Lyons to Treves 
and the Rhine. Alesia is near the head waters of the Saone. 



C^SAR 299 

apprehensions, having till lately despised Caesar, as thinking 
it no difficult matter to put down him whom he himself had 
advanced. But Caesar had entertained this design from the 
beginning against his rivals, and had retired, like an expert 
wrestler, to prepare himself apart for the combat. Making 
the Gallic wars his exercise-ground, he had at once improved 
the strength of his soldiery, and had heightened his own 
glory by his great actions, so that he was looked on as one 
who might challenge comparison with Pompey. Nor did 
he let go any of those advantages which were now given 
him both by Pompey himself and the times, and the ill gov- 
ernment of Rome, where all who were candidates for offices 
publicly gave money, and without any shame bribed the 
people, who having received their pay, did not contend for 
their benefactors with their bare suffrages, but with bows, 
swords, and slings. So that after having many times stained 
the place of election with the blood of men killed upon the 
spot, they left the city at last without a government at all, 
to be carried about like a ship without a pilot to steer her ; 
while all who had any wisdom could only be thankful if a 
course of such wild and stormy disorder and madness might 
end no worse than in a monarchy. Some were so bold as 
to declare openly, that the government was incurable but by 
a monarchy, and that they ought to take that remedy from 
the hands of the gentlest physician, meaning Pompey, who, 
though in words he pretended to decline it, yet in reality 
made his utmost efforts to be declared dictator. Cato per- 
ceiving his design, prevailed with the senate to make him 
sole consul, that with the offer of a more legal sort of 
monarchy he might be withheld from demanding the dic- 
tatorship. They over and above voted him the continuance 
of his provinces, for he had two, Spain and all Africa, which 
he governed by his lieutenants, and maintained armies under 
him, at the yearly charge of a thousand talents out of the 
public treasury. 

Upon this Csesar also sent and petitioned for the consul- 
ship, and the continuance of his provinces. Pompey at first 
did not stir in it, but Marcellus and Lentulus opposed it, 
who had always hated Caesar, and now did every thing, 
^whether fit or unfit, which might disgrace and affront him. 



300 PLUTARCH'S LI\rES 

For they took away the privilege of Roman citizens from 
the people of New Comum, who were a colony that Caesar 
had lately planted in Gaul; and Marcellus, who was then 
consul, ordered one of the senators of that town, then at 
Rome, to be whipped, and told him he laid that mark upon 
him to signify he was no citizen of Rome, bidding him, 
when he went back again, to show it to Caesar. After 
Marcellus's consulship, Caesar began to lavish gifts upon 
all the public men out of the riches he had taken from 
the Gauls; discharged Curio, the tribune, from his great 
debts; gave Paulus, then consul, fifteen hundred talents, 
with which he built the noble court of justice® adjoin- 
ing the forum, to supply the place of that called the 
Fulvian. Pompey, alarmed at these preparations, now 
openly took steps, both by himself and his friends, to have 
a successor appointed in Caesar's room, and sent to demand 
back the soldiers whom he had lent him to carry on the 
wars in Gaul. Caesar returned them, and made each soldier 
a present of two hundred and fifty drachmas. The officer 
who brought them home to Pompey, spread amongst the 
people no very fair or favorable report of Caesar, and flat- 
tered Pompey himself with false suggestions that he was 
wished for by Caesar's army; and though his affairs here 
were in some embarrassment through the envy of some, 
and the ill state of the government, yet there the army was 
at his command, and if they once crossed into Italy, would 
presently declare for him ; so weary were they of Caesar's 
endless expeditions, and so suspicious of his designs for a 
monarchy. Upon this Pompey grew presumptuous, and neg- 
lected all warlike preparations, as fearing no danger, and 
used no other means against him than mere speeches and 
votes, for which Caesar cared nothing. And one of his cap- 
tains, it is said, who was sent by him to Rome, standing be- 
fore the senate-house one day, and being told that the senate 
would not give Caesar a longer time in his government, 
clapped his hand on the hilt of his sword, and said, "But 
this shall." 

Yet the demands which Caesar made had the fairest colors 
of equity imaginable. For he proposed to lay down his arms, 

^ Or basilica. 



CESAR 301 

and that Pompcy should do the same, and both together 
should become private men, and each expect a reward of his 
services from the public. For that those who proposed to 
disarm him, and at the same time to confirm Pompey in all 
the power he held, were simply establishing the one in the 
tyranny which they accused the other of aiming at. When 
Curio made these proposals to the people in Cassar's name, 
he was loudly applauded, and some threw garlands towards 
him, and dismissed him as they do successful wrestlers, 
crowned with flowers. Antony, being tribune, produced a 
letter sent from Caesar on this occasion, and read it, though 
the consuls did what they could to oppose it. But Scipio, 
Pompey's father-in-law, proposed in the senate, that if 
Caesar did not lay down his arms within such a time, he 
should be voted an enemy ; and the consuls putting it to the 
question, whether Pompcy should dismiss his soldiers, and 
again, whether Caesar should disband his, very few assented 
to the first, but almost all to the latter. But Antony pro- 
posing again, that both should lay down their commissions, 
all but a very few agreed to it. Scipio was upon this very 
violent, and Lentulus the consul cried aloud, that they had 
need of arms, and not of suffrages, against a robber; so 
that the senators for the present adjourned, and appeared in 
mourning as a mark of their grief for the dissension. 

Afterwards there came other letters from Caesar, which 
seemed yet more moderate, for he proposed to quit every 
thing else, and only to retain Gaul within the Alps, Illy- 
ricum, and two legions, till he should stand a second time 
for consul. Cicero, the orator, who was lately returned 
from Cilicia, endeavored to reconcile differences, and soft- 
ened Pompey, who was willing to comply in other things, 
but not to allow him the soldiers. At last Cicero used his 
persuasions with Caesar's friends to accept of the provinces, 
and six thousand soldiers only, and so to make up the quar- 
rel. And Pompey was inclined to give way to this, but 
Lentulus, the consul, would not hearken to it, but drove 
Antony and Curio out of the senate-house with insults, by 
which he afforded Cxsar the most plausible pretence that 
could be, and one which he could readily use to inflame the 
soldiers, by showing them two persons of such repute and 



302 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

authority, who were forced to escape in a hired carriage in 
the dress of slaves. For so they were glad to disguise them- 
selves, when they fled out of Rome. 

There were not about him at that time above three hun- 
dred horse, and five thousand foot; for the rest of his army, 
which was left behind the Alps, was to be brought after him 
by officers who had received orders for that purpose. But 
he thought the first motion towards the design which he had 
on foot did not require large forces at present, and that 
what was wanted was to make this first step suddenly, and 
so as to astound his enemies with the boldness of it ; as it 
would be easier, he thought, to throw them into consterna- 
tion by doing what they never anticipated, than fairly to 
conquer them, if he had alarmed them by his preparations. 
And therefore, he commanded his captains and other officers 
to go only with their swords in their hands, without any 
other arms, and make themselves masters of Ariminum, a 
large city of Gaul, with as little disturbance and bloodshed 
as possible. He committed the care of these forces to Hor- 
tensius, and himself spent the day in public as a stander-by 
and spectator of the gladiators, who exercised before him. 
A little before night he attended to his person, and then 
went into the hall, and conversed for some time with those 
he had invited to supper, till it began to grow dusk, when he 
rose from table, and made his excuses to the company, beg- 
ging them to stay till he came back, having already given 
private directions to a few immediate friends, that they 
should follow him, not all the same way, but some one way, 
some another. He himself got into one of the hired car- 
riages, and drove at first another way, but presently turned 
towards Ariminum. When he came to the river Rubicon, 
which parts Gaul within the Alps from the rest of Italy, 
his thoughts began to work, now he was just entering upon 
the danger, and he wavered much in his mind, when he con- 
sidered the greatness of the enterprise into which he was 
throwing himself. He checked his course, and ordered a 
halt, while he revolved with himself, and often changed his 
opinion one way and the other, without speaking a word. 
This was when his purposes fluctuated most; presently he 
also discussed the matter with his friends who were about 



CiESAR 303 

Hm, (of which number Asinius Pollio was one,) computing 
how many calamities his passing that river would bring 
upon mankind, and what a relation of it would be trans- 
mitted to posterity. At last, in a sort of passion, casting 
aside calculation, and abandoning himself to what might 
come, and using the proverb frequently in their mouths who 
enter upon dangerous and bold attempts, "The die is cast," 
with these words he took the river. Once over, he used all 
expedition possible, and before it was day reached Ariminum, 
and took it. It is said that the night before he passed the 
river, he had an impious dream, that he was unnaturally 
familiar with his own mother. 

As soon as Ariminum was taken, wide gates, so to say, 
were thrown open, to let in war upon every land alike and 
sea, and with the limits of the province, the boundaries of 
the laws were transgressed. Nor would one have thought 
that, as at other times, the mere men and women fled from 
one town of Italy to another in their consternation, but that 
the very towns themselves left their sites, and fled for succor 
to each other. The city of Rome was overrun as it were 
with a deluge, by the conflux of people flying in from all 
the neighboring places. Magistrates could no longer govern, 
nor the eloquence of any orator quiet it; it was all but suf- 
fering shipwreck by the violence of its own tempestuous 
agitation. The most vehement contrary passions and im- 
pulses were at work every where. Nor did those who re- 
joiced at the prospect of the change altogether conceal their 
feelings, bHt when they met, as in so great a city they fre- 
quently must, with the alarmed and dejected of the other party, 
they provoked quarrels by their bold expressions of confidence 
in the event. Pompey, sufficiently disturbed of himself, was 
yet more perplexed by the clamors of others ; some telling 
him that he justly suffered for having armed C?esar against 
himself and the government; others blaming him for per- 
mitting Caesar to be insolently used by Lentulus, when he 
made such ample concessions, and oflfered such reasonaMe 
proposals towards an accommodation. Favonius bade him 
now stamp upon the ground ; for once talking big in the 
senate, he desired them not to trouble themselves about 
making any preparations for the war, for that he himself, 



304 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

with one stamp of his foot, would fill all Italy with soldiers. 
Yet still Pompey at that time had more forces than Caesar; 
but he was not permitted to pursue his own thoughts, but 
being continually disturbed with false reports and alarms, 
as if the enemy was close upon him and carrying all before 
him, he gave way, and let himself be borne down by the 
general cry. He put forth an edict declaring the city to be 
in a state of anarchy, and left it with orders that the senate 
should follow him, and that no one should stay behind who 
did not prefer tyranny to their country and liberty. 

The consuls at once fled, without making even the usual 
sacrifices ; so did most of the senators, carrying off their own 
goods in as much haste as if they had been robbing their 
neighbors. Some, who had formerly much favored Caesar's 
cause, in the prevailing alarm, quitted their own sentiments, 
and without any prospect of good to themselves, were car- 
ried along by the common stream. It was a melancholy 
thing to see the city tossed in these tumults, like a ship 
given up by her pilots, and left to run, as chance guides her, 
upon any rock in her way. Yet, in spite of their sad con- 
dition, people still esteemed the place of their exile to be 
their country for Pompey's sake, and fled from Rome, as if 
it had been Caesar's camp. Labienus even, who had been one 
of Caesar's nearest friends, and his lieutenant, and who had 
fought by him zealously in the Gallic wars, now deserted 
him, and went over to Pompey. Caesar sent all his money 
and equipage after him, and then sat down before Cor- 
finium, which was garrisoned with thirty cohorts under the 
command of Domitius. He, in despair of maintaining the 
defence, requested a physician, whom he had among his at- 
tendants, to give him poison ; and taking the dose, drank it, 
in hopes of being dispatched by it. But soon after, when 
he was told that Caesar showed the utmost clemency towards 
those he took prisoners, he lamented his misfortune, and 
blamed the hastiness of his resolution. His physician con- 
soled him, by informing him that he had taken a sleeping 
draught, not a poison ; upon which, much rejoiced, and rising 
from his bed, he went presently to Caesar, and gave him the 
pledge of his hand, yet afterwards again went over to Pom- 
pey. The report of these actions at Rome, quieted those 



C^SAR 305 

who were there, and some who had fled thence returned. 
Caesar took into his army Domitius's soldiers, as he did all 
those whom he found in any town enlisted for Pompey's 
service. Being now strong and formidable enough, he ad- 
vanced against Pompey himself, who did not stay to receive 
him, but fled to Brundisium, having sent the consuls before 
with a body of troops to Dyrrhachium. Soon after, upon 
Cassar's approach, he set to sea, as shall be more particularly 
related in his Life. Caesar would have immediately pursued 
him, but wanted shipping, and therefore went back to Rome, 
having made himself master of all Italy without bloodshed 
in the space of sixty days. When he came thither, he found 
the city more quiet than he expected, and many senators 
present, to whom he addressed himself with courtesy and 
deference, desiring them to send to Pompey about any rea- 
sonable accommodations towards a peace. But nobody com- 
plied with this proposal ; whether out of fear of Pompey, 
whom they had deserted, or that they thought Caesar did not 
mean what he said, but thought it his interest to talk plaus- 
ibly. Afterwards, when Metellus, the tribune, would have 
hindered him from taking money out of the public treasure, 
and adduced some laws against it, Caesar replied, that arms 
and laws had each their own time; "If what I do displeases 
you, leave the place ; war allows no free talking. When I 
have laid down my arms, and made peace, come back and 
make what speeches you please. And this," he added, "I will 
tell you in diminution of my own just right, as indeed you and 
all others who have appeared against me and are now in 
my power, may be treated as I please." Having said this 
to Metellus, he went to the doors of the treasury, and the 
keys being not to be found, sent for smiths to force them 
open. Metellus again making resistance, and some encour- 
aging him in it, Caesar, in a louder tone, told him he would 
put him to death, if he gave him any further disturbance. 
"And this," said he, "you know, young man, is more dis- 
agreeable for me to say, than to do." These words made 
Metellus withdraw for fear, and obtained speedy execution 
henceforth for all orders that Caesar gave for procuring 
necessaries for the war. 

He was now proceeding to Spain, with the determination 



306 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

of first crushing Afranius and Varro, Pompey's lieutenants, 
and making himself master of the armies and provinces 
under them, that he might then more securely advance 
against Pompey, v^^hen he had no enemy left behind him. 
In this expedition his person was often in danger from am- 
buscades, and his army by want of provisions, yet he did not 
desist from pursuing the enemy, provoking them to fight, 
and hemming them with his fortifications, till by main force 
he made himself master of their camps and their forces. 
Only the generals got off, and fled to Pompey. 

When Caesar came back to Rome, Piso, his father-in-law, 
advised him to send men to Pompey, to treat of a peace ; but 
Isauricus, to ingratiate himself with Caesar, spoke against it. 
After this, being created dictator by the senate, he called 
home the exiles, and gave back their rights as citizens to 
the children of those who had suffered under Sylla; he re- 
lieved the debtors by an act remitting some part of the in- 
terest on their debts, and passed some other measures of the 
same sort, but not many. For within eleven days he re- 
signed his dictatorship, and having declared himself consul, 
with Servilius Isauricus, hastened again to the war. He 
marched so fast, that he left all his army behind him, except 
six hundred chosen horse, and five legions, with which he 
put to sea in the very middle of winter, about the beginning 
of the month January, (which corresponds pretty nearly 
with the Athenian month Posideon,) and having past the 
Ionian Sea, took Oricum and Apollonia, and then sent back 
the ships to Brundisium, to bring over the soldiers who 
were left behind in the march. They, while yet on the 
march, their bodies now no longer in the full vigor of youth, 
and they themselves weary with such a multitude of wars, 
could not but exclaim against Caesar, "When at last, and 
where, will this Caesar let us be quiet? He carries us from 
place to place, and uses us as if we were not to be worn out, 
and had no sense of labor. Even our iron itself is spent by 
blows, and we ought to have some pity on our bucklers and 
breastplates, which have been used so long. Our wounds, 
if nothing else, should make him see that we are mortal 
men, whom he commands, subject to the same pains and suf- 
ferings as other human beings. The very gods themselves 



C^SAE «W 

cannot force the winter season, or hinder the storms in their 
time ; yet he pushes forward, as if he were not pursuing, 
but flying from an enemy." So they talked as they marched 
leisurely towards Brundisium. But when they came thither, 
and found Caesar gone off before them, their feelings 
changed, and they blamed themselves as traitors to their 
general. They now railed at their officers for marching so 
slowlv, and placing themselves on the heights overlooking 
the sea towards Epirus. they kept watch to see if they 
could espy the vessels which were to transport them to 
Caesar. 

He in the mean time was posted in Apollonia, but had not 
an army with him able to fight the enemy, the forces from 
Brundisium being so long in coming, which put him to great 
suspense and embarrassment what to do. At last he re- 
solved upon a most hazardous experiment, and embarked, 
without any one's knowledge, in a boat of twelve oars, to 
cross over to Brundisium, though the sea was at that time 
covered with a vast fleet of the enemies. He got on board 
in the night time, in the dress of a slave, and throwing him- 
self down like a person of no consequence, lay along at the 
bottom of the vessel. The river Anius^ was to carry them 
dovm to sea, and there used to blow a gentle gale every 
morning from the land, which made it calm at the mouth of 
the river, by driving the waves forward ; but this night there 
had blown a strong wind from the sea, which overpowered 
that from the land, so that where the river met the influx of 
the sea-water and the opposition of the waves, it was ex- 
tremely rough and angr>' ; and the current was beaten back 
with such a violent swell, that the master of the boat could 
not make good his passage, but ordered his sailors to tack 
about and return. Caesar, upon this, discovers himself, and 
taking the man by the hand, who was surprised to see him 
there, said, "Go on, my friend, and fear nothing; you carry 
Caesar and his fortune in your boat" The mariners, when 
they heard that, forgot the storm, and laying all their 
strength to their oars, did what they could to force their way 
do\\-n the river. But when it was to no purpose, and the 
vessel now took in much water. Cassar finding himself in 

* The Aous or JEas. 



308 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

such danger in the very mouth of the river, much against his 
will permitted the master to turn back. When he was come 
to land, his soldiers ran to him in a multitude, reproaching 
him for what he had done, and indignant that he should 
think himself not strong enough to get a victory by their 
sole assistance, but must disturb himself, and expose his life 
for those who were absent, as if he could not trust those who 
were with him. 

After this, Antony came over with the forces from Brun- 
disium, which encouraged Cssar to give Pompey battle, 
though he was encamped very advantageously, and furnished 
with plenty of provisions both by sea and land, whilst he him- 
self was at the beginning but ill-supplied, and before the end 
was extremely pinched for want of necessaries, so that his 
soldiers were forced to dig up a kind of root which grew 
there, and tempering it with milk, to feed on it. Sometimes 
they made a kind of bread of it, and advancing up to the 
enemy's outposts, would throw in these loaves, telling them, 
that as long as the earth produced such roots they would not 
give up blockading Pompey. But Pompey took what care 
he could, that neither the loaves nor the words should reach 
his men, who were out of heart and despondent, through 
terror at the fierceness and hardiness of their enemies, whom 
they looked upon as a sort of wild beasts. There were con- 
tinual skirmishes about Pompey's outworks, in all which 
Csesar had the better, except one, when his men were forced 
to fly in such a manner that he had like to have lost his camp. 
For Pompey made such a vigorous sally on them that not a 
man stood his ground; the trenches were filled with the 
slaughter, many fell upon their own ramparts and bulwarks, 
whither they were driven in flight by the enemy. Caesar met 
them, and would have turned them back, but could not. When 
he went to lay hold of the ensigns, those who carried them 
threw them down, so that the enemies took thirty-two of 
them. He himself narrowly escaped; for taking hold of one 
of his soldiers, a big and strong man, that was flying by him, 
he bade him stand and face about; but the fellow, full of 
apprehensions from the danger he was in, laid hold of his 
sword, as if he would strike Caesar, but Caesar's armor-bearer 
cut off his arm. Caesar's affairs were so desperate at that 



) 



C^SAR 909 

time, that when Pompey, either through over-cautiousness, 
or his ill fortune, did not give the finishing stroke to that 
great success, but retreated after he had driven the routed 
enemy within their camp, Caesar, upon seeing his withdrawal, 
said to his friends, "The victory to-day had been on the 
enemies' side, if they had had a general who knew how to 
gain it." When he was retired into his tent, he laid himself 
down to sleep, but spent that night as miserably as ever he 
did any, in perplexity and consideration with himself, coming 
to the conclusion that he had conducted the war amiss. For 
when he had a fertile country before him, and all the wealthy 
cities of Macedonia and Thessaly, he had neglected to carry 
the war thither, and had sat down by the seaside, where his 
enemies had such a powerful fleet, so that he was in fact 
rather besieged by the want of necessaries, than besieging 
others with his arms. Being thus distracted in his thoughts 
with the view of the difficulty and distress he was in, he 
raised his camp, with the intention of advancing towards 
Scipio, who lay in Macedonia; hoping either to entice Pom- 
pey into a country where he should fight without the advan- 
tage he now had of supplies from the sea, or to overpower 
Scipio, if not assisted. 

This set all Pompey's army and officers on fire to hasten 
and pursue Caesar, whom they concluded to be beaten and 
flying. But Pompey was afraid to hazard a battle on which 
so much depended, and being himself provided with all neces- 
saries for any length of time, thought to tire out and waste 
the vigor of Caesar's army, which could not last long. For 
the best part of his men, though they had great experience, 
and showed an irresistible courage in all engagements, yet 
by their frequent marches, changing their camps,* attacking 
fortifications, and keeping long night-watches, were getting 
worn-out and broken ; they being now old, their bodies less 
fit for labor, and their courage, also, beginning to give way 
with the failure of their strength. Besides, it was said that 
an infectious disease, occasioned by their irregular diet, was 
prevailing in Caesar's army, and what was of greatest mo- 

' Or, perhaps more probably, " raising fortifications," which had been 
very much their occupation latterly. Up to this point the campaign had 
been a war of intrcnchments. 



310 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

ment, he was neither furnished with money nor provisions, 
so that in a little time he must needs fall of himself. 

For these reasons Pompey had no mind to fight him, but 
was thanked for it by none but Cato, who rejoiced at the 
prospect of sparing his fellow-citizens. For he when he saw 
the dead bodies of those who had fallen in the last battle on 
Caesar's side, to the number of a thousand, turned away, 
covered his face, and shed tears. But every one else up- 
braided Pompey for being reluctant to fight, and tried to 
goad him on by such nicknames as Agamemnon, and king 
of kings, as if he were in no hurry to lay down his sovereign 
authority, but was pleased to see so many commanders at- 
tending on him, and paying their attendance at his tent. 
Favonius, who affected Cato's free way of speaking his 
mind, complained bitterly that they should eat no figs even 
this year at Tusculum, because of Pompey's love of com- 
mand. Afranius, who' was lately returned out of Spain, and 
on account of his ill success there, labored under the sus- 
picion of having been bribed to betray the army, asked why 
they did not fight this purchaser of provinces. Pompey was 
driven, against his own will, by this kind of language, into 
offering battle, and proceeded to follow Caesar. Caesar had 
found great difficulties in his march, for no country would 
supply him with provisions, his reputation being very much 
fallen since his late defeat. But after he took Gomphi, a 
town of Thessaly, he not only found provisions for his army, 
but physic too. For there they met with plenty of wine, 
which they took very freely, and heated with this, sporting 
and revelling on their march in bacchanalian fashion, they 
shook off the disease, and their whole constitution was re- 
lieved and changed into another habit. 

When the two armies were come into Pharsalia,^ and both 
encamped there, Pompey's thoughts ran the same way as 
they had done before, against fighting, and the more because 
of some unlucky presages, and a vision he had in a dream. ^° 

• " Into Pharsalia," is properly " into the territory of the town of 
Pharsalus," and in other passages where the battle is mentioned in the 
translation by the name, as the Romans use it, of Pharsalia, the Greek is 
Pharsalus. 

^^ Here follows the words, " He fancied he saw himself in the theatre, 
receiving the plaudits of the people." Either the text is incomplete, and 



CiESAR 3JJ 

But those who were about him were so confident of success, 
that Domitius, and Spinther, and Scipio, as if they had al- 
ready conquered, quarrelled which should succeed Caesar in 
the pontificate. And many sent to Rome to take houses fit 
to accommodate consuls and praetors, as being sure of enter- 
ing upon those offices, as soon as the battle was over. The 
cavalry especially were obstinate for fighting, being splen- 
didly armed and bravely mounted, and valuing themselves 
upon the fine horses they kept, and upon their own handsome 
persons ; as also upon the advantage of their numbers, for 
they were five thousand against one thousand of Caesar's. 
Nor were the numbers of the infantry less disproportionate, 
there being forty-five thousand of Pompey's, against twenty- 
two thousand of the enemy. 

Caesar, collecting his soldiers together, told them that Cor- 
finius^^ was coming up to them with two legions, and that 
fifteen cohorts more under Calenus were posted at Mcgara 
and Athens ; he then asked them whether they would stay till 
these joined them, or would hazard the battle by themselves. 
They all cried out to him not to wait, but on the contrary to 
do whatever he could to bring about an engagement as soon 
as possible. When he sacrificed to the gods for the lustration 
of his army, upon the death of the first victim, the augur told 
him, within three days he should come to a decisive action. 
Caesar asked him whether he saw any thing in the entrails, 
which promised an happy event. "That," said the priest, 
"you can best answer yourself; for the gods signify a great 
alteration from the present posture of affairs. If, therefore, 
you think yourself well off now, expect worse fortune; if 
unhappy, hope for better." The night before the battle, as 
he walked the rounds about midnight, there was a light seen 
in the heaven, very bright and flaming, which seemed to pass 
over Caesar's camp, and fall into Pompey's. And when 
Caesar's soldiers came to relieve the watch in the morning, 
they perceived a panic disorder among the enemies. How- 
ever, he did not expect to fight that day, but set about raising 
his camp with the intention of marching towards Scoti «;sa. 

the remainder of the description has been lost, or else it is the impeifect 
explanation added in the marg^in by an annotator. The full account is given 
in the Life of Pompey. 
" Corniiicius. 



312 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

But when the tents were now taken down, his scouts rode 
up to him, and told him the enemy would give him battle. 
With this news he was extremely pleased, and having per- 
formed his devotions to the gods, set his army in battle array, 
dividing them into three bodies. Over the middlemost he 
placed Domitius Calvinus ; Antony commanded the left wing, 
and he himself the right, being resolved to fight at the head 
of the tenth legion. But when he saw the enemy's cavalry 
taking position against him, being struck with their fine ap- 
pearance and their number, he gave private orders that six 
cohorts from the rear of the army should come round and 
join him, whom he posted behind the right wing, and in- 
structed them what they should do, when the enemy's horse 
came to charge. On the other side, Pompey commanded the 
right wing, Domitius the left, and Scipio, Pompey's father- 
in-law, the centre. The whole weight of the cavalry was 
collected on the left wing, with the intent that they should 
outflank the right wing of the enemy, and rout that part 
where the general himself commanded. For they thought 
no phalanx of infantry could be solid enough to sustain such 
a shock, but that they must necessarily be broken and shat- 
tered all to pieces upon the onset of so immense a force of 
cavalry. When they were ready on both sides to give the 
signal for battle, Pompey commanded his foot who were in 
the front, to stand their ground, and without breaking their 
order, receive quietly the enemy's first attack, till they came 
within javelin's cast. Caesar, in this respect, also, blames 
Pompey's generalship, as if he had not been aware how the 
first encounter, when made with an impetus and upon the 
run, gives weight and force to the strokes, and fires the men's 
spirits into a flame, which the general concurrence fans to 
full heat. He himself was just putting the troops into mo- 
tion and advancing to the action, when he found one of his 
captains, a trusty and experienced soldier, encouraging his 
men to exert their utmost. Caesar called him by his name, 
and said, "What hopes, Caius Crassinius, and what grounds 
for encouragement?" Crassinius stretched out his hand, and 
cried in a loud voice, "We shall conquer nobly, Caesar ; and I 
this day will deserve your praises, either alive or dead." So 
he said, and was the first man to run in upon the enemy, fol- 



CiESAR 313 

lowed by the hundred and twenty soldiers about him, and 
breaking through the first rank, still pressed on forwards 
with much slaughter of the enemy, till at last he was struck 
back by the wound of a sword, which went in at his mouth 
with such force that it came out at his neck behind. 

Whilst the foot was thus sharply engaged in the main battle, 
on the flank Pompey's horse rode up confidently, and opened 
their ranks very wide, that they might surround the right 
wing of Caesar. But before they engaged, Caesar's cohorts 
rushed out and attacked them, and did not dart their javelins 
at a distance, nor strike at the thighs and legs, as they usually 
did in close battle, but aimed at their faces. For thus Caesar 
had instructed them, in hopes that young gentlemen, who had 
not known much of battles and wounds, but came wearing 
their hair long, in the flower of their age and height of their 
beauty, would be more apprehensive of such blows, and not 
care for hazarding both a danger at present and a blemish 
for the future. And so it proved, for they were so far from 
bearing the stroke of the javelins, that they could not stand 
the sight of them, but turned about, and covered their faces 
to secure them. Once in disorder, presently they turned 
about to fly; and so most shamefully ruined all. For those 
who had beat them back, at once outflanked the infantry, 
and falling on their rear, cut them to pieces. Pompey, who 
commanded the other wing of the army, when he saw his 
cavalry thus broken and flying, was no longer himself, nor 
did he now remember that he was Pompey the Great, but like 
one whom some god had deprived of his senses, retired to 
his tent without speaking a word, and there sat to expect the 
event, till the whole army was routed, and the enemy ap- 
peared upon the works which were thrown up before the 
camp, where they closely engaged with his men, who were 
posted there to defend it. Then first he seemed to have re- 
covered his senses, and uttering, it is said, only these words, 
"What, into the camp too?" he laid aside his general's habit, 
and putting on such clothes as might best favor his flight, 
stole off. What fortune he met with afterwards, how he 
took shelter in Egypt, and was murdered there, we tell you in 
his Life. 

Caesar, when he came to view Pompey's camp, and saw 



314 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

some of his opponents dead upon the ground, others dying, 
said, with a groan, "This they would have; they brought me 
to this necessity. I, Caius Caesar, after succeeding in so 
many wars, had been condemned, had I dismissed my 
army."^2 These words, Pollio says, Caesar spoke in Latin at 
that time, and that he himself wrote them in Greek; adding, 
that those who were killed at the taking of the camp, were 
most of them servants; and that not above six thousand 
soldiers fell. Caesar incorporated most of the foot whom he 
took prisoners, with his own legions, and gave a free pardon 
to many of the distinguished persons, and amongst the rest, 
to Brutus, who afterwards killed him. He did not immedi- 
ately appear after the battle was over, which put Caesar, it is 
said, into great anxiety for him ; nor was his pleasure less 
when he saw him present himself alive. 

There were many prodigies that foreshowed this victory, 
but the most remarkable that we are told of, was that at 
Tralles. In the temple of Victory stood Caesar's statue. The 
ground on which it stood was naturally hard and solid, and 
the stone with which it was paved still harder; yet it is said 
that a palm-tree shot itself up near the pedestal of this statue. 
In the city of Padua, one Caius Cornelius, who had the char- 
acter of a good augur, the fellow-citizen and acquaintance of 
Livy, the historian, happened to be making some augural 
observations that very day when the battle was fought. And 
first, as Livy tells us, he pointed out the time of the fight, 
and said to those who were by him, that just then the battle 
was begun, and the men engaged. When he looked a second 
time, and observed the omens, he leaped up as if he had been 
inspired, and cried out, "Caesar, you are victorious." This 
much surprised the standers by, but he took the garland 
which he had on from his head, and swore he would never 
wear it again till the event should give authority to his art. 
This Livy positively states for a truth. 

Caesar, as a memorial of his victory, gave the Thessalians 
their freedom, and then went in pursuit of Pompey. When 
he was come into Asia, to gratify Theopompus, the author of 
the collection of fables, he enfranchised the Cnidians, and 

** " Hoc voluerunt; tantis rebus gestis C. Caesar condemnatus essem, nisi 
ab exercitu auxiiium petissem," quoted from Asinius Pollio, by Suetonius. 



C^SAR 315 

remitted one third of their tribute to all the people of the 
province of Asia. When he came to Alexandria, where 
Pompey was already murdered, he would look upon Theo- 
dotus, who presented him with his head, but taking only his 
signet, shed tears. Those of Pompey's friends who had been 
arrested by the king of Egypt, as they were wandering in 
those parts, he relieved, and offered them his own friendship. 
In his letter to his friends at Rome, he told them that the 
greatest and most signal pleasure his victory had given him, 
was to be able continually to save the lives of fellow- 
citizens who had fought against him. As to the war in 
Egypt, some say it was at once dangerous and dishonorable, 
and noways necessary, but occasioned only by his passion for 
Cleopatra. Others blame the ministers of the king, and 
especially the eunuch Pothinus, who was the chief favorite, 
and had lately killed Pompey, who had banished Cleopatra, 
and was now secretly plotting Caesar's destruction, (to pre- 
vent which, Caesar from that time began to sit up whole 
nights, under pretence of drinking, for the security of his 
person.) while openly he was intolerable in his afifronts to 
Caesar, both by his words and actions. For when Caesar's 
soldiers had musty and unwholesome corn measured out to 
them, Pothinus told them they must be content with it, since 
they were fed at another's cost. He ordered that his table 
should be served with wooden and earthen dishes, and said 
Caesar had carried off all the gold and silver plate, under 
pretence of arrears of debt. For the present king's father 
owed Caesar one thousand seven hundred and fifty myriads 
of money ; Caesar had formerly remitted to his children the 
rest, but thought fit to demand the thousand myriads at that 
time, to maintain his army. Pothinus told him that he had 
better go now and attend to his other affairs of greater con- 
sequence, and that he should receive his money at another 
time with thanks. Caesar replied that he did not want 
Egyptians to be his counsellors, and soon after privately sent 
for Cleopatra from her retirement. 

She took a small boat, and one only of her confidents, Apol- 
lodorus, the Sicilian, along with her, and in the dusk of the 
evening landed near the palace. She was at a loss how to 
get in undiscovered, till she thought of putting herself into 



316 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

the coverlet of a bed and lying at length, whilst Apollodorus 
tied up the bedding and carried it on his back through the 
gates to Caesar's apartment. Caesar was first captivated by 
this proof of Cleopatra's bold wit, and was afterwards so 
overcome by the charm of her society, that he made a recon- 
ciliation between her and her brother, on condition that she 
should rule as his colleague in the kingdom. A festival was 
kept to celebrate this reconciliation, where Caesar's barber, 
a busy, listening fellow, whose excessive timidity made him 
inquisitive into every thing, discovered that there was a plot 
carrying on against Caesar by Achillas, general of the king's 
forces, and Pothinus, the eunuch. Caesar, upon the first in- 
telligence of it, set a guard upon the hall where the feast was 
kept, and killed Pothinus. Achillas escaped to the army, and 
raised a troublesome and embarrassing war against Caesar, 
which it was not easy for him to manage with his few soldiers 
against so powerful a city and so large an army. The first 
difficulty he met with was want of water, for the enemies 
had turned the canals.^^ Another was, when the enemy en- 
deavored to cut off his communication by sea, he was forced 
to divert that danger by setting fire to his own ships, which, 
after burning the docks, thence spread on and destroyed the 
great library. A third was, when in an engagement near 
Pharos, he leaped from the mole into a small boat, to assist 
his soldiers who were in danger, and when the Egyptians 
pressed him on every side, he threw himself into the sea, and 
with much difficulty swam off. This was the time when, 
according to the story, he had a number of manuscripts in 
his hand, which, though he was continually darted at, and 
forced to keep his head often under water, yet he did not let 
go, but held them up safe from wetting in one hand, whilst 
he swam with the other. His boat, in the mean time, was 
quickly sunk. At last, the king having gone off to Achillas 
and his party, Caesar engaged and conquered them. Many 
fell in that battle, and the king himself was never seen after. 
Upon this, he left Cleopatra queen of Egypt, who soon after 
had a son by him, whom the Alexandrians called Caesarion, 
and then departed for Syria. 
Thence he passed to Asia, where he heard that Domitius 

** By which Alexandria, there being no springs, was wholly supplied. 



C^SAR 317 

was beaten by Pharnaces, son of Mithridates, and had fled 
out of Pontus with a handful of men ; and that Pharnaces 
pursued the victory so eagerly, that though he was already 
master of Bithynia and Cappadocia, he had a further design 
of attempting the Lesser Armenia, and was inviting all the 
kings and tetrarchs there to rise. Caesar immediately 
marched against him with three legions, fought him near 
Zela, drove him out of Pontus, and totally defeated his army. 
When he gave Amantius, a friend of his at Rome, an account 
of this action, to express the promptness and rapidity of it, 
he used three words, I came, saw, and conquered, which in 
Latin^* having all the same cadence, carry with them a very 
suitable air of brevity. 

Hence he crossed into Italy, and come to Rome at the end 
of that year, for which he had been a second time chosen 
dictator, though that office had never before lasted a whole 
year, and was elected consul for the next. He was ill spoken 
of, because upon a mutiny of some soldiers, who killed Cos- 
conius and Galba, who had been praetors, he gave them only 
the slight reprimand of calling them Citizens, instead of 
Fellow-Soldiers, and afterwards assigned to each man a thou- 
sand drachmas, besides a share of lands in Italy. He was 
also reflected on for Dolabella's extravagance, Amantius's 
covetousness, Antony's debauchery, and Corfinius's profuse- 
ness, who pulled down Pompey's house, and rebuilt it, as not 
magnificent enough; for the Romans were much displeased 
with all these. But Caesar, for the prosecution of his own 
scheme of government, though he knew their characters and 
disapproved them, was forced to make use of those who 
would serve him. 

After the battle of Pharsalia, Cato and Scipio fled into 
Africa, and there, with the assistance of king Juba, got to- 
gether a considerable force, which Caesar resolved to engage. 
He, accordingly, passed into Sicily about the winter-solstice, 
and to remove from his officers' minds all hopes of delay 
there, encamped by the sea-shore, and as soon as ever he had 
a fair wind, put to sea with three thousand foot and a few 

" Veni, Vidi, Vici. A tablet with this inscription was displayed in the 
triumph which was afterwards celebrated for this war. Amantius does not 
seem to be a true Roman name. It has been corrected into Caius Matius, 
a well-known friend of Caesar's. 



318 PL QT ARCH'S LIVES 

horse. When he had landed them, he went back secretly, 
under some apprehensions for the larger part of his army, 
but met them upon the sea, and brought them all to the same 
camp. There he was informed that the enemies relied much 
upon an ancient oracle, that the family of the Scipios should 
be always victorious in Africa. There was in his army a 
man, otherwise mean and contemptible, but of the house of 
the African!, and his name Scipio Sallutio. This man 
Caesar, (whether in raillery, to ridicule Scipio, who com- 
manded the enemy, or seriously to bring over the omen to 
his side, it were hard to say,) put at the head of his troops, 
as if he were general, in all the frequent battles which he 
was compelled to fight. For he was in such want both of 
victualling for his men, and forage for his horses, that he 
was forced to feed the horses with sea-weed, which he washed 
thoroughly to take off its saltness, and mixed with a little 
grass, to give it a more agreeable taste. The Numidians, in 
great numbers, and well horsed, whenever he went, came up 
and commanded the country. Csesar's cavalry being one day 
unemployed, diverted themselves with seeing an African, 
who entertained them with dancing and at the same time 
playing upon the pipe to admiration. They were so taken 
with this, that they alighted, and gave their horses to some 
boys, when on a sudden the enemy surrounded them, killed 
some, pursued the rest, and fell in with them into their camp ; 
and had not Caesar himself and Asinius Pollio come to their 
assistance, and put a stop to their flight, the war had been 
then at an end. In another engagement, also, the enemy had 
again the better, when Caesar, it is said, seized a standard- 
bearer, who was running away, by the neck, and forcing him 
to face about, said, "Look, that is the way to the enemy." 

Scipio, flushed with this success at first, had a mind to 
come to one decisive action. He therefore left Afranius and 
Juba in two distinct bodies not far distant, and marched him- 
self towards Thapsus, where he proceeded to build a fortified 
camp above a lake, to serve as a centre-point for their opera- 
tions, and also as a place of refuge. Whilst Scipio was thus 
employed, Cssar with incredible despatch made his way 
through thick woods, and a country supposed to be impass- 
able cut off one party of the enemy, and attacked another in 



C^SAR 319 

the front. Having routed these, he followed up his oppor- 
tunity and the current of his good fortune, and on the first 
onset carried Afranius's camp, and ravaged that of the Nu- 
midians, Juba, their king, being glad to save himself by 
flight ; so that in a small part of a single day he made himself 
master of three camps, and killed fifty thousand of the 
enemy, with the loss only of fifry of his own men. This is 
the account some give of that fight. Others say, he was not 
in the action, but that he was taken with his usual distemper 
just as he was setting his army in order. He perceived the 
approaches of it, and before it had too far disordered his 
senses, when he was already beginning to shake under its 
influence, withdrew into a neighboring fort, where he re- 
posed himself. Of the men of consular and prxtorian dig- 
nity that were taken after the fight, several Caesar put to 
death, others anticipated him by killing themselves. 

Cato had undertaken to defend Utica, and for that reason 
was not in the battle. The desire which Caesar had to take 
him alive, made him hasten thither; and upon the intelli- 
gence that he had despatched himself, he was much discom- 
posed, for what reason is not so well agreed. He certainly 
said, "Cato, I must grudge you your death, as you grudged 
me the honor of saving your life." Yet the discourse he 
wrote against Cato after his death, is no great sign of his 
kindness, or that he was inclined to be reconciled to him. 
For how is it probable that he would have been tender of his 
life, when he was so bitter against his memory? But from 
his clemency to Cicero, Brutus, and many others who fought 
against him, it may be divined that Caesar's book was not 
written so much out of animosity to Cato, as in his own vin- 
dication. Cicero had written an encomium upon Cato, and 
called it by his name. A composition by so great a master 
upon so excellent a subject, was sure to be in every one's 
hands. This touched Caesar, who looked upon a panegyric 
on his enemy, as no better than an invective against him- 
self; and therefore he made in his Anti-Cato, a collection of 
whatever could be said in his derogation. The two compo- 
sitions, like Cato and Caesar themselves, have each of them 
their several admirers. 

Caesar, upon his return to Rome, did not omit to pronounce 



320 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

before the people a magnificent account of his victory, telling 
them that he had subdued a country which would supply the 
public every year with two hundred thousand attic bushels of 
corn, and three million pounds weight of oil. He then led 
three triumphs for Egypt, Pontus, and Africa, the last for 
the victory over, not Scipio, but king Juba, as it was pro- 
fessed, whose little son was then carried in the triumph, the 
happiest captive that ever was, who of a barbarian Numidian, 
came by this means to obtain a place among the most learned 
historians of Greece. After the triumphs, he distributed re- 
wards to his soldiers, and treated the people with feasting 
and shows. He entertained the whole people together at one 
feast, where twenty-two thousand dining couches were laid 
out; and he made a display of gladiators, and of battles by 
sea, in honor, as he said, of his daughter Julia, though she 
had been long since dead. When these shows were over, an 
account was taken of the people, who. from three hundred 
and twenty thousand, were now reduced to one hundred and 
fifty thousand. So great a waste had the civil war made in 
Rome alone, not to mention what the other parts of Italy 
and the provinces suffered. 

He was now chosen a fourth time consul, and went into 
Spain against Pompey's sons. They were but young, yet had 
gathered together a very numerous army, and showed they 
had courage and conduct to command it, so that Caesar was 
in extreme danger. The great battle was near the town of 
Munda, in which Caesar seeing his men hard pressed, and 
making but a weak resistance, ran through the ranks among 
the soldiers, and crying out, asked them whether they were 
not ashamed to deliver him into the hands of boys? At last, 
with great difficulty, and the best efforts he could make, he 
forced back the enemy, killing thirty thousand of them, 
though with the loss of one thousand of his best men. When 
he came back from the fight, he told his friends that he had 
often fought for victory, but this was the first time that he 
had ever fought for life. This battle was won on the feast 
of Bacchus, the very day in which Pompey, four years be- 
fore, had set out for the war. The younger of Pompey's 
sons escaped ; but Didius, some days after the fight, brought 
the head of the elder to Caesar. This was the last war he 



C^SAR 321 

was engaged in. The triumph which he celebrated for this 
victory, displeased the Romans beyond any thing. For he 
had not defeated foreign generals, or barbarian kings, but 
had destroyed the children and family of one of the greatest 
men of Rome, though unfortunate; and it did not look well 
to lead a procession in celebration of the calamities of his 
country, and to rejoice in those things for which no other 
apology could be made either to gods or men, than their be- 
ing absolutely necessary. Besides that, hitherto he had never 
sent letters or messengers to announce any victory over his 
fellow-citizens, but had seemed rather to be ashamed of the 
action, than to expect honor from it. 

Nevertheless his countrymen, conceding all to his fortune, 
and accepting the bit, in the hope that the government of a 
single person would give them time to breathe after so many 
civil wars and calamities, made him dictator for life. This 
was indeed a tyranny avowed, since his power now was not 
only absolute, but perpetual too. Cicero made the first pro- 
posals to the senate for conferring honors upon him, which 
might in some sort be said not to exceed the limits of or- 
dinary human moderation. But others, striving which should 
deserve most, carried them so excessively high, that they 
made Caesar odious to the most indifferent and moderate sort 
of men, by the pretension and the extravagance of the titles 
which they decreed him. His enemies, too, are thought to 
have had some share in this, as well as his flatterers. It gave 
them advantage against him, and would be their justification 
for any attempt they should make upon him ; for since the 
civil wars were ended, he had nothing else that he could be 
charged with. And they had good reason to decree a temple 
to Clemency, in token of their thanks for the mild use he 
made of his victory. For he not only pardoned many of 
those who fought against him, but, further, to some gave 
honors and offices; as particularly to Brutus and Cassius, 
who both of them were praetors. Pompey's images that were 
thrown down, he set up again, upon which Cicero also said 
that by raising Pompey's statues he had fixed his own. When 
his friends advised him to have a guard, and several offered 
their service, he would not hear of it : but said it was better 
to suffer death once, than always to live in fear of it. He 

K — HC XII 



322 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

looked upon the affections of the people to be the best and 
surest guard, and entertained them again with public feasting, 
and general distributions of corn; and to gratify his army, 
he sent out colonies to several places, of which the most re- 
markable were Carthage and Corinth ; which as before they 
had been ruined at the same time, so now were restored and 
repeopled together. 

As for the men of high rank, he promised to some of them 
future consulships and praetorships, some he consoled with 
other offices and honors, and to all held out hopes of favor 
by the solicitude he showed to rule with the general good- 
will; insomuch that upon the death of Maximus one day be- 
fore his consulship was ended, he made Caninius Revilius 
consul for that day. And when many went to pay the usual 
compliments and attentions to the new consul, "Let us make 
haste," said Cicero, "lest the man be gone out of his office 
before we come." 

Caesar was born to do great things, and had a passion after 
honor, and the many noble exploits he had done did not now 
serve as an inducement to him to sit still and reap the fruit 
of his past labors, but were incentives and encouragements 
to go on, and raised in him ideas of still greater actions, and 
a desire of new glory, as if the present were all spent. It 
was in fact a sort of emulous struggle with himself, as it had 
been with another, how he might outdo his past actions by 
his future. In pursuit of these thoughts, he resolved to make 
war upon the Parthians, and when he had subdued them, to 
pass through Hyrcania ; thence to march along by the Cas- 
pian Sea to Mount Caucasus, and so on about Pontus, till 
he came into Scythla; then to overrun all the countries bor- 
dering upon Germany, and Germany itself; and so to return 
through Gaul into Italy, after completing the whole circle of 
his intended empire, and bounding it on every side by the 
ocean. While preparations were making for this expedition, 
he proposed to dig through the isthmus on which Corinth 
stands ; and appointed Anienus to superintend the work. He 
had also a design of diverting the Tiber, and carrying it by a 
deep channel directly from Rome to Circeii. and so into the 
sea near Tarracina, that there might be a safe and easy pas- 
sage for all merchants who traded to Rome, Besides this, he 



C^.SAR 323 

intended to drain all the marshes by Pomentium and Setia, 
and gain ground enough from the water to employ many 
thousands of men in tillage. He proposed further to make 
great mounds on the shore nearest Rome, to hinder the sea 
from breaking in upon the land, to clear the coast at Ostia 
of all the hidden rocks and shoals that made it unsafe for 
shipping, and to form ports and harbors fit to receive the 
large number of vessels that would frequent them. 

These things were designed without being carried into 
effect; but his reformation of the calendar, in order to rectify 
the irregularity of time, was not only projected with great 
scientific ingenuity, but was brought to its completion, and 
proved of very great use. For it was not only in ancient 
times that the Romans had wanted a certain rule to make the 
revolutions of their months fall in with the course of the 
year, so that their festivals and solemn days for sacrifice 
were removed by little and little, till at last they came to be 
kept at seasons quite the contrary to what was at first in- 
tended, but even at this time the people had no way of com- 
puting the solar year ; only the priests could say the time, 
and they, at their pleasure, without giving any notice, slipped 
in the intercalary month, which they called Alercedonius. 
Numa was the first who put in this month, but his expedient 
was but a poor one and quite inadequate to correct all the 
errors that arose in the returns of the annual cycles, as we 
have shown in his Life. Caesar called in the best philosophers 
and mathematicians of his time to settle the point, and out 
of the systems he had before him, formed a new and more 
exact method of correcting the calendar, which the Romans 
use to this day, and seem to succeed better than any nation 
in avoiding the errors occasioned by the inequality of the 
cycles. Yet even this gave offence to those who looked with 
an evil eye on his position, and felt oppressed by his power. 
Cicero, the orator, when some one in his company chanced 
to say, the next morning Lyra would rise, replied, "Yes, in 
accordance with the edict," as if even this were a matter of 
compulsion. 

But that which brought upon him the most apparent and 
mortal hatred, was his desire of being king; which gave the 
common people the first occasion to quarrel with him, and 



324 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

proved the most specious pretence to those who had been his 
secret enemies all along. Those, who would have procured 
him that title, gave it out, that it was foretold in the Sybils' 
books that the Romans should conquer the Parthians when 
they fought against them under the conduct of a king, but 
not before. And one day, as Caesar was coming down from 
Alba to Rome, some were so bold as to salute him by the 
name of king; but he finding the people disrelish it, seemed to 
resent it himself, and said his name was Caesar, not king. 
Upon this, there was a general silence, and he passed on 
looking not very well pleased or contented. Another time, 
when the senate had conferred on him some extravagant 
honors, he chanced to receive the message as he was sitting 
on the rostra, where, though the consuls and praetors them- 
selves waited on him, attended by the whole body of the 
senate, he did not rise, but behaved himself to them as if 
they had been private men, and told them his honors wanted 
rather to be retrenched than increased. This treatment of- 
fended not only the senate, but the commonalty too, as if they 
thought the affront upon the senate equally reflected upon the 
whole republic; so that all who could decently leave him 
went off, looking much discomposed. Caesar, perceiving the 
false step he had made, immediately retired home ; and lay- 
ing his throat bare, told his friends that he was ready to 
offer this to any one who would give the stroke. But after- 
wards he made the malady from which he suffered, the ex- 
cuse for his sitting, saying that those who are attacked by it, 
lose their presence of mind, if they talk much standing; that 
they presently grow giddy, fall into convulsions, and quite 
lose their reason. But this was not the reality, for he would 
willingly have stood up to the senate, had not Cornelius Bal- 
bus, one of his friends, or rather flatterers, hindered him. 
"Will you not remember," said he, "you are Caesar, and claim 
the honor which is due to your merit?" 

He gave a fresh occasion of resentment by his affront to 
the tribunes. The Lupercalia were then celebrated, a feast 
at the first institution belonging, as some writers say, to the 
shepherds, and having some connection with the Arcadian 
Lycaea. Many young noblemen and magistrates run up and 
down the city with their upper garments off, striking all they 



C^SAR 325 

meet with thongs of hide, by way of sport; and many women, 
even of the highest rank, place themselves in the way, and 
hold out their hands to the lash, as boys in a school do to 
the master, out of a belief that it procures an easy labor to 
those who are with child, and makes those conceive who are 
barren. Caesar, dressed in a triumphal robe, seated himself 
in a golden chair at the rostra, to view this ceremony. An- 
tony, as consul, was one of those who ran this course, and 
when he came into the forum, and the people made way for 
him, he went up and reached to Caesar a diadem wreathed 
with laurel. Upon this, there was a shout, but only a slight 
one, made by the few who were planted there for that pur- 
pose ; but when Caesar refused it, there was universal ap- 
plause. Upon the second offer, very few, and upon the sec- 
ond refusal, all again applauded. Caesar finding it would not 
take, rose up, and ordered the crown to be carried into the 
capitol. Caesar's statues were afterwards found with royal 
diadems on their heads. Flavius and Marullus, two tribunes 
of the people, went presently and pulled them off, and having 
apprehended those who first saluted Caesar as king, committed 
them to prison. The people followed them with acclamations, 
and called them by the name of Brutus, because Brutus was 
the first who ended the succession of kings, and transferred 
the power which before was lodged in one man into the hands 
of the senate and people. Caesar so far resented this, that he 
displaced Marullus and Flavius ; and in urging his charges 
against them, at the same time ridiculed the people, by him- 
self giving the men more than once the names of Bruti, and 
Cumaei.^^ 

This made the multitude turn their thoughts to Marcus 
Brutus, who, by his father's side, was thought to be de- 
scended from that first Brutus, and by his mother's side from 
the Servilii, another noble family, being besides nephew and 
son-in-law to Cato. But the honors and favors he had re- 
ceived from Caesar, took off the edge from the desires he 
might himself have felt for overthrowing the new monarchy. 
For he had not only been pardoned himself after Pompey's 
defeat at Pharsalia, and had procured the same grace for 

"Brutus, in Latin, means heavy, stupid; and the Cumseans were for one 
reason or other proverbial for dulness. 



32a PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

many of his friends, but was one in whom Caesar had a par- 
ticular confidence. He had at that time the most honorable 
praetorship of the year, and was named for the consulship 
four years after, being preferred before Cassius, his com- 
petitor. Upon the question as to the choice, Caesar, it is re- 
lated, said that Cassius had the fairer pretensions, but that he 
could not pass by Brutus. Nor would he afterwards listen to 
some who spoke against Brutus, when the conspiracy against 
him was already afoot, but laying his hand on his body, said 
to the informers, "Brutus will wait for this skin of mine," 
intimating that he was worthy to bear rule on account of his 
virtue, but would not be base and ungrateful to gain it. Those 
who desired a change, and looked on him as the only, or at 
least the most proper, person to effect it, did not venture to 
speak with him; but in the night-time laid papers about his 
chair of state, where he used to sit and determine causes, 
with such sentences in them as, "You are asleep, Brutus," 
"You are no longer Brutus." Cassius, when he perceived his 
ambition a little raised upon this, was more instant than be- 
fore to work him yet further, having himself a private grudge 
against Caesar, for some reasons that we have mentioned in 
the Life of Brutus. Nor was Caesar without suspicions of 
him, and said once to his friends, "What do you think Cas- 
sius is aiming at? I don't like him, he looks so pale." And 
when it was told him that Antony and Dolabella were in a 
plot against him, he said he did not fear such fat, luxurious 
men, but rather the pale, lean fellows, meaning Cassius and 
Brutus. 

Fate, however, is to all appearance more unavoidable than 
unexpected. For many strange prodigies and apparitions 
are said to have been observed shortly before the event. As 
to the lights in the heavens, the noises heard in the night, 
and the wild birds which perched in the forum, these are not 
perhaps worth taking notice of in so great a case as this. 
Strabo, the philosopher, tells us that a number of men were 
seen, looking as if they were heated through with fire, con- 
tending with each other ; that a quantity of flame issued from 
the hand of a soldier's servant, so that they who saw it 
thought he must be burnt, but that after all he had no hurt 
As Caesar was sacrificing, the victim's heart was missing, a 



Ci^^SAR 327 

very bad oraen, because no living creature can subsist with- 
out a heart. One finds it also related by many, that a sooth- 
sayer bade him prepare for some great danger on the ides of 
March. When the day was come, Caesar, as he went to the 
senate, met this soothsayer, and said to him by way of rail- 
lery, "The ides of March are come;" who answered him 
calmly, "Yes, they are come, but they are not past." The 
day before this assassination, he supped with Marcus Lepi- 
dus; and as he was signing some letters, according to his 
custom, as he reclined at table, there arose a question what 
sort of death was the best. At which he immediately, before 
any one could speak said, "A sudden one." 

After this, as he was in bed with his wife, all the doors 
and windows of the house flew open together; he was startled 
at the noise, and the light which broke into the room, and 
sat up in his bed, where by the moonshine he perceived Cal- 
purnia fast asleep, but heard her utter in her dream some 
indistinct words and inarticulate groans. She fancied at 
that time she was weeping over Caesar, and holding him 
butchered in her arms. Others say this was not her dream, 
but that she dreamed that a pinnacle which the senate, as 
Livy relates, had ordered to be raised on Caesar's house by 
way of ornament and grandeur, was tumbling down, which 
was the occasion of her tears and ejaculations. When it was 
day, she begged of Caesar, if it were possible, not to stir out, 
but to adjourn the senate to another time; and if he slighted 
her dreams, that he would be pleased to consult his fate by 
sacrifices, and other kinds of divination. Nor was he him- 
self without some suspicion and fears; for he never before 
discovered any womanish superstition in Calpurnia, whom 
he now saw in such great alarm. Upon the report which 
the priests made to him, that they had killed several sacrifices, 
and still found them inauspicious, he resolved to send Antony 
to dismiss the senate. 

In this juncture, Decimus Brutus, surnamed Albinus, one 
whom Caesar had such confidence in that he made him his 
second heir, who nevertheless was engaged in the conspiracy 
with the other Brutus and Cassius, fearing lest if Caesar 
should put off the senate to another day, the business might 
get wind, spoke scoffingly and in mockery of the diviners, and 



328 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

blamed Caesar for giving the senate so fair an occasion of 
saying he had put a slight upon them, for that they were 
met upon his summons, and were ready to vote unanimously, 
that he should be declared king of all the provinces out of 
Italy, and might wear a diadem in any other place but Italy, 
by sea or land. If any one should be sent to tell them they 
might break up for the present, and meet again when Cal- 
purnia should chance to have better dreams, what would his 
enemies say? Or who would with any patience hear his 
friends, if they should presume to defend his government as 
not arbitrary and tyrannical? But if he was possessed so 
far as to think this day unfortunate, yet it were more decent 
to go himself to the senate, and to adjourn it in his own 
person. Brutus, as he spoke these words, took Cassar by the 
hand, and conducted him forth. He was not gone far from 
the door, when a servant of some other person's made towards 
him, but not being able to come up to him, on account of the 
crowd of those who pressed about him, he made his "way 
into the house, and committed himself to Calpurnia, begging 
of her to secure him till Caesar returned, because he had 
matters of great importance to communicate to him. 

Artemidorus, a Cnidian, a teacher of Greek logic, and by 
that means so far acquainted with Brutus and his friends as 
to have got into the secret, brought Caesar in a small written 
memorial, the heads of what he had to depose. He had 
observed that Caesar, as he received any papers, presently 
gave them to the servants who attended on him; and there- 
fore came as near to him as he could, and said, "Read this, 
Caesar, alone, and quickly, for it contains matter of great im- 
portance which nearly concerns you." Caesar received it, 
and tried several times to read it, but was still hindered by 
the crowd of those who came to speak to him. However, he 
kept it in his hand by itself till he came into the senate. Some 
say it was another who gave Caesar this note, and that Artemi- 
dorus could not get to him, being all along kept off by the 
crowd. 

All these things might happen by chance. But the place 
which was destined for the scene of this murder, in which 
the senate met that day, was the same in which Pompey's 
statue stood and was one of the edifices which Pompey 



CESAR 329 

had raised and dedicated with his theatre to the use of the 
public, plainly showing that there was something of a super- 
natural influence which guided the action, and ordered it to 
that particular place. Cassius, just before the act, is said 
to have looked towards Pompey's statue, and silently im- 
plored his assistance, though he had been inclined to the 
doctrines of Epicurus. But this occasion and the instant dan- 
ger, carried him away out of all his reasonings, and filled 
him for the time with a sort of inspiration. As for Antony, 
who was firm to Caesar, and a strong man, Brutus Albinus 
kept him outside the house, and delayed him with a long 
conversation contrived on purpose. When Caesar entered, the 
senate stood up to show their respect to him, and of Brutus's 
confederates, some came about his chair and stood behind 
it, others met him, pretending to add their petitions to those 
of Tillius Cimber, in behalf of his brother, who was in exile; 
and they followed him with their joint supplications till he 
came to his seat. When he was sat down, he refused to 
comply with their requests, and upon their urging him fur- 
ther, began to reproach them severally for their importunities, 
when Tillius, laying hold of his robe with both his hands, 
pulled it down from his neck, which was the signal for the 
assault. Casca gave him the first cut, in the neck, which 
was not mortal nor dangerous, as coming from one who at 
the beginning of such a bold action was probably very much 
disturbed. Caesar immediately turned about, and laid his 
hand upon the dagger and kept hold of it. And both of them 
at the same time cried out, he that received the blow, in 
Latin, "Vile Casca, what does this mean?" and he that gave 
it, in Greek, to his brother. "Brother, help !" Upon this first 
onset, those who were not privy to the design were aston- 
ished, and their horror and amazement at what they saw 
were so great, that they durst not fly nor assise Caesar, nor 
so much as speak a word. But those who came prepared for 
the business inclosed him on every side, with their naked 
daggers in their hands. Which way soever he turned, he 
met with blows, and saw their swords levelled at his face 
and eyes, and was encompassed, like a wild beast in the toils, 
on every side. For it had been agreed they should each of 
them make a thrust at him, and flesh themselves with his 



330 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

blood; for which reason Brutus also gave him one stab in 
the groin. Some say that he fought and resisted all the rest, 
shifting his body to avoid the blows, and calling out for help, 
but that when he saw Brutus's sword drawn, he covered his 
face with his robe and submitted, letting himself fall, whether 
it were by chance, or that he was pushed in that direction by 
his murderers, at the foot of the pedestal on which Pompey's 
statue stood, and which was thus wetted with his blood. So 
that Pompey himself seemed to have presided, as it were, 
over the revenge done upon his adversary, who lay here at 
his feet, and breathed out his soul through his multitude of 
wounds, for they say he received three and twenty. And 
the conspirators themselves were many of them wounded by 
each other, whilst they all levelled their blows at the same 
person. 

When Caesar was dispatched, Brutus stood forth to give 
a reason for what they had done, but the senate would not 
hear him, but flew out of doors in all haste, and filled the 
people with so much alarm and distraction that some shut 
up their houses, others left their counters and shops. All 
ran one way or the other, some to the place to see the sad 
spectacle, others back again after they had seen it. Antony 
and Lepidus, Caesar's most faithful friends, got off privately, 
and hid themselves in some friends' houses. Brutus and his 
followers, being yet hot from the deed, marched in a body 
from the senate-house to the capitol with their drawn swords, 
not like persons who thought of escaping, but with an air 
of confidence and assurance, and as they went along, called 
to the people to resume their liberty, and invited the com- 
pany of any more distinguished people whom they met. And 
some of these joined the procession and went up along with 
them, as if they also had been of the conspiracy, and could 
claim a share in the honor of what had been done. As, for 
example, Caius Octavius and Lentulus Spinther, who suf- 
fered afterwards for their vanity, being taken off by Antony 
and the young Caesar, and lost the honor they desired, as 
well as their lives, which it cost them, since no one believed 
they had any share in the action. For neither did those who 
punished them profess to revenge the fact, but the ill-will. 
The day after, Brutus with the rest came down from the 



C^SAR 331 

capitol, and made a speech to the people, who listened with- 
out expressing either any pleasure or resentment, but showed 
by their silence that they pitied Caesar, and respected Brutus. 
The senate passed acts of oblivion for what was past, and 
took measures to reconcile all parties. They ordered that 
Caesar should be worshipped as a divinity, and nothing, even 
of the slightest consequence, should be revoked, which he 
had enacted during his government. At the same time they 
gave Brutus and his followers the command of provinces, and 
other considerable posts. So that all people now thought 
things were well settled, and brought to the happiest ad- 
justment. 

But when Caesar's will was opened, and it was found that 
he had left a considerable legacy to each one of the Roman 
citizens, and when his body was seen carried through the 
market-place all mangled with wounds, the multitude could 
no longer contain themselves within the bounds of tranquillity 
and order, but heaped together a pile of benches, bars, and 
tables, which they placed the corpse on, and setting fire to 
it, burnt it on them. Then they took brands from the pile, 
and ran some to fire the houses of the conspirators, others 
up and down the city, to find out the men and tear them to 
pieces, but met, however, with none of them, they having 
taken effectual care to secure themselves. 

One Cinna, a friend of Caesar's, chanced the night before 
to have an odd dream. He fancied that Caesar invited him to 
supper, and that upon his refusal to go with him, Caesar took 
him by the hand and forced him, though he hung back. Upon 
hearing the report that Caesar's body was burning in the 
market-place, he got up and went thither, out of respect to 
his memory, though his dream gave him some ill apprehen- 
sions, and though he was suffering from a fever. One of 
the crowd who saw him there, asked another who that was, 
and having learned his name, told it to his next neighbor. 
It presently passed for a certainty that he was one of Caesar's 
murderers, as, indeed, there was another Cinna, a conspira- 
tor, and they, taking this to be the man, immediately seized 
him, and tore him limb from limb upon the spot. 

Brutus and Cassius, frightened at this, within a few days 
retired out of the city. What they afterwards did and suf- 



338 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

fered, and how they died, is written in the Life of Brutus. 
Caesar died in his fifty-sixth year, not having survived Pom- 
pey above four years. That empire and power which he had 
pursued through the whole course of his Hfe with so much 
hazard, he did at last with much difficulty compass, but reaped 
no other fruits from it than the empty name and invidious 
glory. But the great genius which attended him through his 
lifetime, even after his death remained as the avenger of his 
murder, pursuing through every sea and land all those who 
were concerned in it, and suffering none to escape, but reach- 
ing all who in any sort or kind were either actually engaged 
in the fact, or by their counsels any way promoted it. 

The most remarkable of mere human coincidences was that 
which befell Cassius, who, when he was defeated at Philippi, 
killed himself with the same dagger which he had made use 
of against Caesar. The most signal preternatural appearances 
were the great comet, which shone very bright for seven 
nights after Caesar's death, and then disappeared, and the 
dimness of the sun,^'' whose orb continued pale and dull for 
the whole of that year, never showing its ordinary radiance 
at its rising, and giving but a weak and feeble heat. The 
air consequently was damp and gross, for want of stronger 
rays to open and rarify it. The fruits, for that reason, never 
properly ripened, and began to wither and fall off for want 
of heat, before they were fully formed. But above all, the 
phantom which appeared to Brutus showed the murder was 
not pleasing to the gods. The story of it is this. 

Brutus being to pass his army from Abydos to the conti- 
nent on the other side, laid himself down one night, as he 
used to do, in his tent, and was not asleep, but thinking of 
his affairs, and what events he might expect. For he is re- 
lated to have been the least inclined to sleep of all men who 
have commanded armies, and to have had the greatest nat- 
ural capacity for continuing awake, and employing himself 
without need of rest. He thought he heard a noise at the 



-Solem quis dicere falsum 



Audeat? ille etiam caecos instare tumultus 
Saepe monet, fraudemque et operta tumescere bella. 
Ille etiam exstincto miseratus Caesare Romam; 
Cum caput obscura nitidum ferrugine texit, 
Impiaque aeternam timuerunt saecula noctem. 

Virg. Georg. I. 463. 



CESAR 333 

door of his tent, and looking that way, by the light of his 
lamp, which was almost out, saw a terrible figure, like that 
of a man, but of unusual stature and severe countenance. He 
was somewhat frightened at first, but seeing it neither did 
nor spoke any thing to him, only stood silently by his bed- 
side, he asked who it was. The spectre answered him, "Thy 
evil genius, Brutus, thou shalt see me at Philippi." Brutus 
answered courageously, "Well, I shall see you," and im- 
mediately the appearance vanished. When the time was 
come, he drew up his army near Philippi against Antony 
and Caesar, and in the first battle won the day, routed the 
enemy, and plundered Caesar's camp. The night before the 
second battle, the same phantom appeared to him again, but 
spoke not a word. He presently understood his destiny was 
at hand, and exposed himself to all the danger of the battle. 
Yet he did not die in the fight, but seeing his men defeated, 
got up to the top of a rock, and there presenting his sword 
to his naked breast, and assisted, as they say, by a friend, 
who helped him to give the thrust, met his death. 



ANTONY 

THE grandfather of Antony was the famous pleader, 
whom Marius put to death for having taken part with 
Sylla. His father was Antony, surnamed of Crete, 
not very famous or distinguished in pubHc life, but a worthy, 
good man, and particularly remarkable for his liberality, as 
may appear from a single example. He was not very rich, 
and was for that reason checked in the exercise of his good- 
nature by his wife. A friend that stood in need of money 
came to borrow of him. Money he had none, but he bade 
a servant bring him water in a silver basin, with which, 
when it was brought, he wetted his face, as if he meant to 
shave ; and, sending away the servant upon another errand, 
gave his friend the basin, desiring him to turn it to his 
purpose. And when there was, afterwards, a great inquiry 
for it in the house, and his wife was in a very ill humor, 
and was going to put the servants one by one to the search, 
he acknowledged what he had done, and begged her pardon. 
His wife was Julia, of the family of the Caesars, who, for 
her discretion and fair behavior, was not inferior to any of 
her time. Under her, Antony received his education, she 
being, after the death of his father, remarried to Cornelius 
Lentulus, who was put to death by Cicero for having been of 
Catiline's conspiracy. This, probably, was the first ground 
and occasion of that mortal grudge that Antony bore Cicero. 
He says, even, that the body of Lentulus was denied burial, 
till, by application made to Cicero's wife, it was granted to 
Julia. But this seems to be a manifest error, for none of 
those that suffered in the consulate of Cicero had the right 
of burial denied them. Antony grew up a very beautiful 
youth, but, by the worst of misfortunes, he fell into the 
acquaintance and friendship of Curio, a man abandoned to 
his pleasures; who, to make Antony's dependence upon him 

334 



ANTONY 335 

a matter of greater necessity, plunged him into a life of 
drinking and dissipation, and led him through a course of 
such extravagance, that he ran, at that early age, into debt 
to the amount of two hundred and fifty talents. For this 
sum. Curio became his surety; on hearing which, the elder 
Curio, his father, drove Antony out of his house. After 
this, for some short time, he took part with Clodius, the 
most insolent and outrageous demagogue of the time, in his 
course of violence and disorder; but, getting weary, before 
long, of his madness, and apprehensive of the powerful party 
forming against him, he left Italy, and travelled into Greece, 
where he spent his time in military exercises and in the 
study of eloquence. He took most to what was called the 
Asiatic taste in speaking, which was then at its height, and 
was, in many ways, suitable to his ostentatious, vaunting 
temper, full of empty flourishes and unsteady efforts for 
glory. 

After some stay in Greece, he was invited by Gabinius, 
who had been consul, to make a campaign with him in Syria, 
which at first he refused, not being willing to serve in a 
private character, but, receiving a commission to command 
the horse, he went along with him. His first service was 
against Aristobulus, who had prevailed with the Jews to 
rebel. Here he was himself the first man to scale the largest 
of the works, and beat Aristobulus out of all of them; after 
which he routed, in a pitched battle, an army many times 
over the number of his, killed almost all of them, and took 
Aristobulus and his son prisoners. This war ended, Gabinius 
was solicited by Ptolemy to restore him to his kingdom of 
Egypt, and a promise made of ten thousand talents reward. 
Most of the officers were against this enterprise, and Gabinius 
himself did not much like it, though sorely tempted by the 
ten thousand talents. But Antony, desirous of brave actions, 
and willing to please Ptolemy, joined in persuading Gabinius 
to go. And whereas all were of opinion that the most dan- 
gerous thing before them was the march to Pelusium, in 
which they would have to pass over a deep sand, where no 
fresh water was to be hoped for. along the Ecregma and 
the Serbonian marsh (which the Eg^'ptians call Typhon's 
breathing-hole, and which is, in probability, water left behind 



336 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

by, or making its way through from, the Red Sea, which is 
here divided from the Mediterranean by a narrow isthmus), 
Antony, being ordered thither with the horse, not only made 
himself master of the passes, but won Pelusium itself, a great 
city, took the garrison prisoners, and, by this means, rendered 
the march secure to the army, and the way to victory not 
difficult for the general to pursue. The enemy, also, reaped 
some benefit of his eagerness for honor. For when Ptolemy, 
after he had entered Pelusium, in his rage and spite against 
the Egyptians, designed to put them to the sword, Antony 
withstood him, and hindered the execution. In all the great 
and frequent skirmishes and battles, he gave continual proofs 
of his personal valor and military conduct; and once in par- 
ticular, by wheeling about and attacking the rear of the 
enemy, he gave the victory to the assailants in the front, and 
received for this service signal marks of distinction. Nor 
was his humanity towards the deceased Archelaus less taken 
notice of. He had been formerly his guest and acquaintance, 
and, as he was now compelled, he fought him bravely while 
alive, but, on his death, sought out his body and buried it 
with royal honors. The consequence was that he left behind 
him a great name among the Alexandrians, and all who were 
serving in the Roman army looked upon him as a most gallant 
soldier. 

He had also a very good and noble appearance; his beard 
was well grown, his forehead large, and his nose aquiline, 
giving him altogether a bold, masculine look, that reminded 
people of the faces of Hercules in paintings and sculptures. 
It was, moreover, an ancient tradition, that the Antonys were 
descended from Hercules, by a son of his called Anton; and 
this opinion he thought to give credit to, by the similarity 
of his person just mentioned, and also by the fashion of his 
dress. For, whenever he had to appear before large numbers, 
he wore his tunic girt low about the hips, a broadsword on 
his side, and over all a large, coarse mantle. What might 
seem to some very insupportable, his vaunting, his raillery, 
his drinking in public, sitting down by the men as they were 
taking their food, and eating, as he stood, off the common 
soldiers' tables, made him the delight and pleasure of the 
army. In love affairs, also, he was very agreeable ; he gained 



ANTONY 337 

many friends by the assistance he gave them in theirs, and 
took other people's raillery upon his own with good-humor. 
And his generous ways, his open and lavish hand in gifts and 
favors to his friends and fellow-soldiers, did a great deal 
for him in his first advance to power, and, after he had 
become great, long maintained his fortunes, when a thousand 
follies were hastening their overthrow. One instance of his 
liberality I must relate. He had ordered payment to one of 
his friends of twenty-five myriads of money, or decies, as 
the Romans call it, and his steward, wondering at the extrava- 
gance of the sum, laid all the silver in a heap, as he should 
pass by. Antony, seeing the heap, asked what it meant; his 
steward replied, "The money you have ordered to be given to 
your friend." So, perceiving the man's malice, said he, "I 
thought the decies had been much more ; 't is too little ; let 
it be doubled." This, however, was at a later time. 

When the Roman state finally broke up into two hostile 
factions, the aristocratical party joining Pompey, who was 
in the city, and the popular side seeking help from Caesar, 
who was at the head of an army in Gaul, Curio, the friend 
of Antony, having changed his party and devoted himself 
to Caesar, brought over Antony also to his service. And 
the influence which he gained with the people by his elo- 
quence and by the money which was supplied by Caesar 
enabled him to make Antony, first, tribune of the people, and 
then, augur. And Antony's accession to office was at once 
of the greatest advantage to Caesar. In the first place, he 
resisted the consul Marcellus, who was putting under Pom- 
pey's orders the troops who were already collected, and was 
giving him power to raise new levies ; he, on the other hand, 
making an order that they should be sent into Syria to re- 
inforce Bibulus, who was making war with the Parthians, 
and that no one should give in his name to serve under 
Pompey. Next, when the senators would not sufifer Caesar's 
letters to be received or read in the senate, by virtue of his 
office he read them publicly, and succeeded so well, that many 
were brought to change their mind ; Caesar's demands, as 
they appeared in what he wrote, being but just and reasonable. 
A' length, two questions being put in the senate, the one, 
whether Pompey should dismiss his army, the other, if Caesar 



338 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

his, some were for the former, for the latter all, except some 
few, when Antony stood up and put the question, if it would 
be agreeable to them that both Pompey and Caesar should 
dismiss their armies. This proposal met with the greatest 
approval, they gave him loud acclamations, and called for 
it to be put to the vote. But when the consuls would not 
have it so, Caesar's friends again made some new offers, very 
fair and equitable, but were strongly opposed by Cato, and 
Antony himself was commanded to leave the senate by the 
consul Lentulus. So, leaving them with execrations, and 
disguising himself in a servant's dress, hiring a carriage 
with Quintus Cassius, he went straight away to Caesar, de- 
claring at once, when they reached the camp, that affairs 
at Rome were conducted without any order or justice, that 
the privilege of speaking in the senate was denied the tribunes, 
and that he who spoke for common fair dealing was driven 
out and in danger of his life. 

Upon this, Caesar set his army in motion, and marched 
into Italy; and for this reason it is that Cicero writes in his 
Philippics, that Antony was as much the cause of the civil 
war, as Helen was of the Trojan. But this is but a calumny. 
For Caesar was not of so slight or weak a temper as to suffer 
himself to be carried away, by the indignation of the moment, 
into a civil war with his country, upon the sight of Antony 
and Cassius seeking refuge in his camp, meanly dressed and 
in a hired carriage, without ever having thought of it or 
taken any such resolution long before. This was to him, who 
wanted a pretence of declaring war. a fair and plausible oc- 
casion; but the true motive that led him was the same that 
formerly led Alexander and Cyrus against all mankind, the 
unquenchable thirst of empire, and the distracted ambition 
of being the greatest man in the world, which was impractica- 
ble for him, unless Pompey were put down. So soon, then, 
as he had advanced and occupied Rome, and driven Pompey 
out of Italy, he purposed first to go against the legions that 
Pompey had in Spain, and then cross over and follow him 
with the fleet that should be prepared during his absence, in 
the mean time leaving the government of Rome to Lepidus, 
as praetor, and the command of the troops and of Italy to 
Antony, as tribune of the people. Antony was not long In 



ANTONY 339 

getting the hearts of the soldiers, joining with them in their 
exercises, and for the most part living amongst them, and 
making them presents to the utmost of his abilities ; but with 
all others he was unpopular enough. He was too lazy to 
pay attention to the complaints of persons who were injured; 
he listened impatiently to petitions; and he had an ill name 
for familiarity with other people's wives. In short, the 
government of Caesar (which, so far as he was concerned 
himself, had the appearance of any thing rather than a 
tyranny), got a bad repute through his friends. And of 
these friends, Antony, as he had the largest trust, and com- 
mitted the greatest errors, was thought the most deeply in 
fault. 

Caesar, however, at his return from Spain, overlooked the 
charges against him, and had no reason ever to complain, 
in the employments he gave him in the war, of any want of 
courage, energy, or military skill. He himself, going aboard 
at Brundusium, sailed over the Ionian Sea with a few troops, 
and sent back the vessels with orders to Antony and Gabinius 
to embark the army, and come over with all speed into 
Macedonia. Gabinius, having no mind to put to sea in the 
rough, dangerous weather of the winter season, was for 
marching the army round by the long land route ; but 
Antony, being more afraid lest Caesar might sufifer from 
the number of his enemies, who pressed him hard, beat back 
Libo, who was watching with a fleet at the mouth of the 
haven of Brundusium, by attacking his galleys with a number 
of small boats, and, gaining thus an opportunity, put on board 
twenty thousand foot and eight hundred horse, and so set 
out to sea. And, being espied by the enemy and pursued, 
from this danger he was rescued by a strong south wind, 
which sprang up and raised so high a sea, that the enemy's 
galleys could make little way. But his own ships were 
driving before it upon a lee shore of cliffs and rocks running 
sheer to the water, where there was no hope of escape, when 
all of a sudden the wind turned about to south-west, and 
blew from land to the main sea, where Antony, now sailing 
in security, saw the coast all covered with the wreck of the 
enemy's fleet. For hither the galleys in pursuit had been 
carried by the gale, and not a few of them dashed to pieces. 



340 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

Many men and much property fell into Antony's hands; 
he took also the town of Lissus, and, by the seasonable 
arrival of so large a reinforcement, gave Caesar great en- 
couragement. 

There was not one of the many engagements that now 
took place one after another in which he did not signalize 
himself; twice he stopped the army in its full flight, led 
them back to a charge, and gained the victory. So that 
not without reason his reputation, next to Caesar's, was great- 
est in the army. And what opinion Caesar himself had of 
him well appeared when for the final battle in Pharsalia, 
which was to determine every thing, he himself chose to 
lead the right wing, committing the charge of the left to 
Antony, as to the best officer of all that served under him. 
After the battle, Caesar, being created dictator, went in pursuit 
of Pompey, and sent Antony to Rome, with the character 
of Master of the Horse, who is in office and power next to 
the dictator, when present, and in his absence is the first, and 
pretty nearly indeed the sole magistrate. For on the appoint- 
ment of a dictator, with the one exception of the tribunes, all 
other magistrates cease to exercise any authority in Rome. 

Dolabella, however, who was tribune, being a young 
man and eager for change, was now for bringing in a gen- 
eral measure for cancelling debts, and wanted Antony, who 
was his friend, and forward enough to promote any popular 
project, to take part with him in this step. Asinius and 
Trebellius were of the contrary opinion, and it so happened 
at the same time, Antony was crossed by a terrible suspicion 
that Dolabella was too familiar with his wife; and in great 
trouble at this, he parted with her (she being his cousin, 
and daughter to Caius Antonius, the colleague of Cicero), 
and, taking part with Asinius, came to open hostilities with 
Dolabella, who had seized on the forum, intending to pass 
his law by force. Antony, backed by a vote of the senate 
that Dolabella should be put down by force of arms, went 
down and attacked him, killing some of his, and losing some 
of his own men; and by this action lost his favor with the 
commonalty, while with the better class and with all well 
conducted people his general course of life made him, as 
Cicero says, absolutely odious, utter disgust being excited by 



ANTONY 341 

his drinking bouts at all hours, his wild expenses, his gross 
amours, the day spent in sleeping or walking off his de- 
bauches, and the night in banquets and at theatres, and in 
celebrating the nuptials of some comedian or buffoon. It is 
related that, drinking all night at the wedding of Hippias, 
the comedian, on the morning, having to harangue the people, 
he caine forward, overcharged as he was, and vomited before 
them all, one of his friends holding his gown for him. 
Sergius, the player, was one of the friends who could do 
most with him; also Cytheris, a woman of the same trade, 
whom he made much of, and who, when he went his 
progress, accompanied him in a litter, and had her equipage, 
not in any thing inferior to his mother's; while every one, 
moreover, was scandalized at the sight of the golden cups 
that he took with him, fitter for the ornaments of a proces- 
sion than the uses of a journey, at his having pavilions set 
up, and sumptuous morning repasts laid out by river sides 
and in groves, at his having chariots drawn by lions, and 
common women and singing girls quartered upon the houses 
of serious fathers and mothers of families. And it seemed 
very unreasonable that Caesar, out of Italy, should lodge in 
the open field, and, with great fatigue and danger, pursue the 
remainder of a hazardous war, whilst others, by favor of 
his authority, should insult the citizens with their impudent 
luxury. 

All this appears to have aggravated party quarrels in 
Rome, and to have encouraged the soldiers in acts of 
license and rapacity. And, accordingly, when Caesar came 
home, he acquitted Dolabella, and, being created the third 
time consul, took, not Antony, but Lepidus, for his colleague. 
Pompey's house being offered for sale, Antony bought it, 
and, when the price was demanded of him, loudly com- 
plained. This, he tells us himself, and because he thought 
his former services had not been recompensed as they de- 
served, made him not follow Caesar with the army into Libya. 
However, Caesar, by dealing gently with his errors, seems to 
have succeeded in curing him of a good deal of his folly and 
extravagance. He gave up his former courses, and took a 
wife, Fulvia, the widow of Clodius the demagogue, a woman 
not born for spinning or housewifery, nor one that could 



342 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

be content with ruling a private husband, but prepared to 
govern a first magistrate, or give orders to a commander-in- 
chief. So that Cleopatra had great obligations to her for 
having taught Antony to be so good a servant, he coming to 
her hands tame and broken into entire obedience to the 
commands of a mistress. He used to play all sorts of sportive, 
boyish tricks, to keep Fulvia in good-humor. As, for example, 
when Caesar, after his victory in Spain, was on his return, 
Antony, among the rest, went out to meet him ; and, a rumor 
being spread that Caesar was killed and the enemy marching 
into Italy, he returned to Rome, and, disguising himself, 
came to her by night muffled up as a servant that brought 
letters from Antony. She, with great impatience, before she 
received the letter, asks if Antony were well, and instead of 
an answer he gives her the letter; and, as she was opening 
it, took her about the neck and kissed her. This little story 
of many of the same nature, I give as a specimen. 

There was nobody of any rank in Rome that did not 
go some days' journey to meet Caesar on his return from 
Spain ; but Antony was the best received of any, admitted 
to ride the whole journey with him in his carriage, while 
behind came Brutus Albinus, and Octavian, his niece's son, 
who afterwards bore his name and reigned so long over the 
Romans. Caesar being created, the fifth time, consul, with- 
out delay chose Antony for his colleague, but, designing him- 
self to give up his own consulate to Dolabella, he acquainted 
the senate with his resolution. But Antony opposed it with 
all his might, saying much that was bad against Dolabella, 
and receiving the like language in return, till Caesar could 
bear with the indecency no longer, and deferred the matter 
to another time. Afterwards, when he came before the peo- 
ple to proclaim Dolabella, Antony cried out that the auspices 
were unfavorable, so that at last Caesar, much to Dolabella's 
vexation, yielded and gave it up. And it is credible that 
Caesar was about as much disgusted with the one as the 
other. When some one was accusing them both to him, "It 
is not," said he, "these well-fed, long-haired men that I 
fear, but the pale and the hungry looking;" meaning Brutus 
and Cassius, by whose conspiracy he afterwards fell. 

And the fairest pretext for that conspiracy was fur- 



ANTONY 343 

nislied. without his meaning it, by Antony himself. The 
Romans were celebrating their festival, called the Luper- 
calia, when Caesar, in his triumphal habit, and seated above 
the Rostra in the market-place, was a spectator of the sports. 
The custom is, that many young noblemen and of the mag- 
istracy, anointed with oil and having straps of hide in their 
hands, run about and strike, in sport, at every one they 
meet. Antony was running with the rest; but, omitting the 
old ceremony, twining a garland of bay round a diadem, 
he ran up to the Rostra, and, being lifted up by his com- 
panions, would have put it upon the head of Caesar, as if 
by that ceremony he were declared king. Caesar seemingly 
refused, and drew aside to avoid it, and was applauded by 
the people with great shouts. Again Antony pressed it, and 
again he declined its acceptance. And so the dispute be- 
tween them went on for some time, Antony's solicitations 
receiving but little encouragement from the shouts of a few 
friends, and Caesar's refusal being accompanied with the 
general applause of the people ; a curious thing enough, that 
they should submit with patience to the fact, and yet at the 
same time dread the name as the destruction of their lib- 
erty. Caesar, very much discomposed at what had past, got 
up from his seat, and, laying bare his neck, said, he was 
ready to receive the stroke, if any one of them desired to 
give it. The crown was at last put on one of his statues, 
but was taken down by some of the tribunes, who were fol- 
lowed home by the people with shouts of applause. Caesar, 
however, resented it, and deposed them. 

These passages gave great encouragement to Brutus and 
Cassius, who, in making choice of trusty friends for such 
an enterprise, were thinking to engage Antony. The rest 
approved, except Trebonius, who told them that Antony 
and he had lodged and travelled together in the last jour- 
ney they took to meet Caesar, and that he had let fall sev- 
eral words, in a cautious way, on purpose to sound him; 
that Antony very well understood him, but did not encour- 
age it; however, he had said nothing of it to Caesar, but 
had kept the secret faithfully. The conspirators then pro- 
posed that Antony should die with him, which Brutus would 
not consent to, insisting that an action undertaken in de- 



344 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

fence of right and the laws must be maintained unsullied, 
and pure of injustice. It was settled that Antony, whose 
bodily strength and high office made him formidable, should, 
at Caesar's entrance into the senate, when the deed was to 
be done, be amused outside by some of the party in a con- 
versation about some pretended business. 

So when all was proceeded with, according to their plan, 
and Caesar had fallen in the senate-house, Antony, at the 
first moment, took a servant's dress, and hid himself. But, 
understanding that the conspirators had assembled in the 
Capitol, and had no further design upon any one, he per- 
suaded them to come down, giving them his son as a hostage. 
That night Cassius supped at Antony's house, and Brutus 
with Lepidus. Antony then convened the senate, and spoke 
in favor of an act of oblivion, and the r.ppointment of 
Brutus and Cassius to provinces. These measures the sen- 
ate passed; and resolved that all Caesar's acts should remain 
in force. Thus Antony went out of the senate with the 
highest possible reputation and esteem; for it was apparent 
that he had prevented a civil war, and had composed, in 
the wisest and most statesmanlike way, questions of the 
greatest difficulty and embarrassment. But these temper- 
ate counsels were soon swept away by the tide of popular 
applause, and the prospects, if Brutus were overthrown, of 
being without doubt the ruler-in-chief. As Caesar's body 
was conveying to the tomb, Antony, according to the cus- 
tom, was making his funeral oration in the market-place, 
and, perceiving the people to be infinitely affected with what 
he had said, he began to mingle with his praises language 
of commiseration, and horror at what had happened, and, as 
he was ending his speech, he took the under-clothes of the 
dead, and held them up, shewing them stains of blood and 
the holes of the many stabs, calling those that had done 
this act villains and bloody murderers. All which excited 
the people to such indignation, that they would not defer 
the funeral, but, making a pile of tables and forms in the 
very market-place, set fire to it; and every one, taking a 
brand, ran to the conspirators' houses, to attack them. 

Upon this, Brutus and his whole party left the city, and 
Caesar's friends joined themselves to Antony. Calpurnia, 



ANTONY 345 

Caesar's wife, lodged with him the best part of the prop- 
erty, to the value of four thousand talents; he got also into 
his hands all Caesar's papers, wherein were contained jour- 
nals of all he had done, and draughts of what he designed 
to do, which Antony made good use of; for by this means 
he appointed what magistrates he pleased, brought whom 
he would into the senate, recalled some from exile, freed 
others out of prison, and all this as ordered so by Caesar. 
The Romans, in mockery, gave those who were thus ben- 
efited the name of Charonites,^ since, if put to prove their 
patents, they must have recourse to the papers of the dead. 
In short, Antony's behavior in Rome was very absolute, 
he himself being consul, and his two brothers in great place ; 
Caius, the one, being praetor, and Lucius, the other, tribune 
of the people. 

While matters went thus in Rome, the young Caesar, 
Caesar's niece's son, and by testament left his heir, arrived 
at Rome from Apollonia, where he was when his uncle 
was killed. The first thing he did was to visit Antony, 
as his father's friend. He spoke to him concerning the 
money that was in his hands, and reminded him of the 
legacy Caesar had made of seventy-five drachmas to every 
Roman citizen. Antony, at first, laughing at such discourse 
from so young a man, told him he wished he were in his 
health, and that he wanted good counsel and good friends, 
to tell him the burden of being executor to Caesar would 
sit very uneasily upon his young shoulders. This was no 
answer to him; and, when he persisted in demanding the 
property, Antony went on treating him injuriously both in 
word and deed, opposed him when he stood for the tri- 
bune's office, and, when he was taking steps for the dedica- 
tion of his father's golden chair, as had been enacted, he 
threatened to send him to prison if he did not give over 
soliciting the people. This made the young Caesar apply 
himself to Cicero, and all those that hated Antony; by 
them he was recommended to the senate, while he himself 

* Suetonius says Orcini; which was the common name given, even in the 
law-books, to slaves manumitted by their owner, after his death, by his will. 
Charonita, freedmen of Charon, may have been a Greek translation of the 
Latin Orcini, freedmen of Orcus, or the world below; or it was perhaps a 
more familiar word for the sjime thing. 



346 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

courted the people, and drew together the soldiers from their 
settlements, till Antony got alarmed, and gave him a meet- 
ing in the Capitol, where, after some words, they came to an 
accommodation. 

That night Antony had a very unlucky dream, fancying 
that his right hand was thunderstruck. And, some few 
days after, he was informed that Csesar was plotting to take 
his life. Csesar explained, but was not believed, so that 
the breach was now made as wide as ever; each of them 
hurried about all through Italy to engage, by great offers, 
the old soldiers that lay scattered in their settlements, and 
to be the first to secure the troops that still remained un- 
discharged. 

Cicero was at this time the man of greatest influence in 
Rome. He made use of all his art to exasperate people 
against Antony, and at length persuaded the senate to de- 
clare him a public enemy, to send Csesar the rods and axes 
and other marks of honor usually given to praetors, and 
to issue orders to Hirtius and Pansa, who were the con- 
suls, to drive Antony out of Italy. The armies engaged 
near Modena, and Caesar himself was present and took part 
in the battle. Antony was defeated, but both the consuls 
were slain. Antony, in his flight, was overtaken by dis- 
tresses of every kind, and the worst of all of them was 
famine. But it was his character in calamities to be better 
than at any other time. Antony, in misfortune, was most 
nearly a virtuous man. It is common enough for people, 
when they fall into great disasters, to discern what is right, 
and what they ought to do ; but there are but few who in 
such extremities have the strength to obey their judgment, 
either in doing what it approves or avoiding what it con- 
demns; and a good many are so weak as to give way to 
their habits all the more, and are incapable of using their 
minds. Antony, on this occasion, was a most wonderful ex- 
ample to his soldiers. He, who had just quitted so much 
luxury and sumptuous living, made no difficulty now of 
drinking foul water and feeding on wild fruits and roots. 
Nay, it is related they ate the very bark of trees, and, in 
passing over the Alps, lived upon creatures that no one 
before had ever been willing to touch. 



ANTONY 347 

The design was to join the army on the other side the 
Alps, commanded by Lepidus, who he imagined would stand 
his friend, he having done him many good offices with Cae- 
sar. On coming up and encamping near at hand, finding 
he had no sort of encouragement offered him, he resolved 
to push his fortune and venture all. His hair was long 
and disordered, nor had he shaved his beard since his de- 
feat ; in this guise, and with a dark colored cloak flung 
over him, he came into the trenches of Lepidus, and began 
to address the army. Some were moved at his habit, others 
at his words, so that Lepidus, not liking it, ordered the 
trumpets to sound, that he might be heard no longer. This 
raised in the soldiers yet a greater pity, so that they re- 
solved to confer secretly with him, and dressed Laelius and 
Clodius in women's clothes, and sent them to see him. They 
advised him without delay to attack Lepidus's trenches, as- 
suring him that a strong party would receive him, and, if 
he wished it, would kill Lepidus. Antony, however, had 
no wish for this, but next morning marched his army to 
pass over the river that parted the two camps. He was 
himself the first man that stepped in, and, as he went 
through towards the other bank, he saw Lepidus's soldiers 
in great numbers reaching out their hands to help him, and 
beating down the works to make him way. Being entered 
into the camp, and finding himself absolute master, he never- 
theless treated Lepidus with the greatest civility, and gave 
him the title of Father, when he spoke to him, and, though 
he had everything at his own command, he left him the 
honor of being called the general. This fair usage brought 
over to him Munatius Plancus, who was not far off with a 
considerable force. Thus in great strength he repassed the 
Alps, leading with him into Italy seventeen legions and ten 
thousand horse, besides six legions which he left in garri- 
son under the command of Varius, one of his familiar 
friends and boon companions, whom they used to call by 
the nickname of Cotylon.- 

Csesar, perceiving that Cicero's wishes were for liberty, 
had ceased to pay any further regard to him, and was now 
employing the mediation of his friends to come to a good 

■From Cotyle, a cup. 



348 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

understanding with Antony. They both met together with 
Lepidus in a small island, where the conference lasted three 
days. The empire was soon determined of, it being divided 
amongst them as if it had been their paternal inheritance. 
That which gave them all the trouble was to agree who 
should be put to death, each of them desiring to destroy his 
enemies and to save his friends. But, in the end, animosity 
to those they hated carried the day against respect for re- 
lations and affection for friends; and Caesar sacrificed 
Cicero to Antony, Antony gave up his uncle Lucius Caesar, 
and Lepidus received permission to murder his brother 
Paulus, or, as others say, yielded his brother to them. I do 
not believe anything ever took place more truly savage or 
barbarous than this composition^ for, in this exchange of 
blood for blood, they were equally guilty of the lives they 
surrendered and of those they took; or, indeed more guilty 
in the case of their friends, for whose deaths they had not 
even the justification of hatred. To complete the reconcilia- 
tion, the soldiery, coming about them, demanded that con- 
firmation should be given to it by some alliance of mar- 
riage; Caesar should marry Clodia, the daughter of Fulvia, 
wife to Antony. This also being agreed to, three hundred 
persons were put to death by proscription. Antony gave 
orders to those that were to kill Cicero, to cut off his head 
and right hand, with which he had written his invectives 
against him; and, when they were brought before him, he 
regarded them joyfully, actually bursting out more than 
once into laughter, and, when he had satiated himself with 
the sight of them, ordered them to be hung up above the 
speaker's place in the forum, thinking thus to insult the 
dead, while in fact he only exposed his own wanton arro- 
gance, and his unworthiness to hold the power that fortune 
had given him. His uncle Lucius Caesar, being closely pur- 
sued, took refuge with his sister, who, when the murderers 
had broken into her house and were pressing into her cham- 
ber, met them at the door, and, spreading out her hands, 
cried out several times, "You shall not kill Lucius Caesar till 
you first dispatch me, who gave your general his birth ;" and 
in this manner she succeeded in getting her brother out of 
the way, and saving his life. 



ANTONY 349 

This triumvirate was very hateful to the Romans, and 
Antony most of all bore the blame, because he was older 
than Csesar, and had greater authority than Lepidus, and 
withal he was no sooner settled in his affairs, but he re- 
turned to his luxurious and dissolute way of living. Be- 
sides the ill reputation he gained by his general behavior, it 
was some considerable disadvantage to him his living in 
the house of Pompey the Great, who had been as much ad- 
mired for his temperance and his sober, citizen-like habits of 
life, as ever he was for having triumphed three times. They 
could not without anger see the doors of that house shut 
against magistrates, officers, and envoys, who were shame- 
fully refused admittance, while it was filled inside with 
players, jugglers, and drunken flatterers, upon whom were 
spent the greatest part of the wealth which violence and 
cruelty procured. For they did not limit themselves to the 
forfeiture of the estates of such as were proscribed, de- 
frauding the widows and families, nor were they contented 
with laying on every possible kind of tax and imposition ; 
but, hearing that several sums of money were, as well by 
strangers as citizens of Rome, deposited in the hands of 
the vestal virgins, they went and took the money away 
by force. When it was manifest that nothing would ever 
be enough for Antony, Csesar at last called for a division 
of property. The army was also divided between them, 
upon their march into Macedonia to make war with Brutus 
and Cassius, Lepidus being left with the command of the 
city. 

However, after they had crossed the sea and engaged 
in operations of war, encamping in front of the enemy, 
Antony opposite Cassius, and Caesar opposite Brutus, Caesar 
did nothing worth relating, and all the success and victory 
were Antony's. In the first battle, Caesar was completely 
routed by Brutus, his camp taken, he himself very narrowly 
escaping by flight. As he himself writes in his Memoirs, he 
retired before the battle, on account of a dream which one 
of his friends had. But Antony, on the other hand, defeated 
Cassius; though some have written that he was not actually 
present in the engagement, and only joined afterwards in 
the pursuit. Cassius was killed, at his own entreaty and 



350 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

order, by one of his most trusted freedmen, Pindarus, not 
being aware of Brutus's victory. After a few days' interval, 
they fought another battle, in which Brutus lost the day, 
and slew himself; and Caesar being sick, Antony had almost 
all the honor of the victory. Standing over Brutus's dead 
body, he uttered a few words of reproach upon him for the 
death of his brother Caius, who had been executed by 
Brutus's order in Macedonia in revenge of Cicero ; but, saying 
presently that Hortensius was most to blame for it, he gave 
order for his being slain upon his brother's tomb, and, throw- 
ing his own scarlet mantle, which was of great value, upon 
the body of Brutus, he gave charge to one of his own freed- 
men to take care of his funeral. This man, as Antony came 
to understand, did not leave the mantle with the corpse, 
but kept both it and a good part of the money that should 
have been spent in the funeral for himself; for which he 
had him put to death. 

But Caesar was conveyed to Rome, no one expecting that 
he would long survive. Antony, proposing to go to the 
eastern provinces to lay them under contribution, entered 
Greece with a large force. The promise had been made that 
every common soldier should receive for his pay five thou- 
sand drachmas ; so it was likely there would be need of pretty 
severe taxing and levying to raise money. However, to the 
Greeks he showed at first reason and moderation enough ; he 
gratified his love of amusement by hearing the learned men 
dispute, by seeing the games, and undergoing initiation ; and 
in judicial matters he was equitable, taking pleasure in being 
styled a lover of Greece, but, above all, in being called a 
lover of Athens, to which city he made very considerable 
presents. The people of Megara wished to let him know 
that they also had something to show him, and invited him 
to come and see their senate-house. So he went and examined 
it, and on their asking him how he liked it, told them it was 
"not very large, but extremely ruinous." At the same time, 
he had a survey made of the temple of the Pythian Apollo, 
as if he had designed to repair it, and indeed he had declared 
to the senate his intention so to do. 

However, leaving Lucius Censorinus in Greece, he crossed 
over into Asia, and there laid his hands on the stores of 



ANTONTf 351 

accumulated wealth, while kings waited at his door, and 
queens were rivalling one another, who should make him the 
greatest presents or appear most charming in his eyes. Thus, 
whilst Caesar in Rome was wearing out his strength amidst 
seditions and wars, Antony, with nothing to do amidst the 
enjoyments of peace, let his passions carry him easily back 
to the old course of life that was familiar to him. A set of 
harpers and pipers, Anaxenor and Xuthus, the dancing-man 
Metrodorus, and a whole Bacchic rout of the like Asiatic 
exhibitors, far outdoing in license and buffoonery the pests 
that had followed out of Italy, came in and possessed the 
court; the thing was past patience, wealth of all kinds being 
wasted on objects like these. The whole of Asia was like 
the city in Sophocles, loaded, at one time, 

with incense in the air, 



Jubilant songs, and outcries of despair. 

When he made ,his entry into Ephesus, the women met 
him dressed up like Bacchantes, and the men and boys like 
Satyrs and Fauns, and throughout the town nothing was to 
be seen but spears wreathed about with ivy, harps, flutes, 
and psaltries, while Antony in their songs was Bacchus the 
Giver of Joy and the Gentle. And so indeed he was to some, 
but to far more the Devourer and the Savage ;•'' for he would 
deprive persons of worth and quality of their fortunes to 
gratify villains and flatterers, who would sometimes beg the 
estates of men yet living, pretending they were dead, and, 
obtaining a grant, take possession. He gave his cook the 
house of a Magnesian citizen, as a reward for a single highly 
successful supper, and. at last, when he was proceeding to 
lay a second whole tribute on Asia, Hybreas, speaking on 
behalf of the cities, took courage, and told him broadly, but 
aptly enough for Antony's taste, "If you can take two yearly 
tributes, you can doubtless give us a couple of summers, 
and a double harvest time;" and put it to him in the plainest 
and boldest way, that Asia had raised two hundred thousand 

' •' Charidotes and Meilichius in their songs, but too often, in reality, 
Onestes and Agrionius." These are all epithets applied in various forms of 
worship to the Greek Dionysus or Bacchus. It was to Bacchus Omestes, 
the Devourer, that the Greeks, in the battle of Salamis. offered the Persian 
princes. See the story in the lives of Themistocles and AriaMdes. 



352 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

talents for his service: "If this has not been paid to you, 
ask your collectors for it; if it has, and is all gone, we are 
ruined men." These words touched Antony to the quick, 
who was simply ignorant of most things that were done in 
his name; not that he was so indolent, as he was prone to 
trust frankly in all about him. For there was much sim- 
plicity in his character; he was slow to see his faults, but, 
when he did see them, was extremely repentant, and ready 
to ask pardon of those he had injured; prodigal in his acts 
of reparation, and severe in his punishments, but his gen- 
erosity was much more extravagant than his severity; his 
raillery was sharp and insulting, but the edge of it was 
taken off by his readiness to submit to any kind of repartee; 
for he was as well contented to be rallied, as he was pleased 
to rally others. And this freedom of speech was, indeed, 
the cause of many of his disasters. He never imagined that 
those who used so much liberty in their mirth would flatter 
or deceive him in business of consequence, not knowing how 
common it is with parasites to mix their flattery with bold- 
ness, as confectioners do their sweetmeats with something 
biting, to prevent the sense of satiety. Their freedoms and 
impertinences at table were designed expressly to give to 
their obsequiousness in council the air of being not com- 
plaisance, but conviction. 

Such being his temper, the last and crowning mischief that 
could befall him came in the love of Cleopatra, to awaken 
and kindle to fury passions that as yet lay still and dormant 
in his nature, and to stifle and finally corrupt any elements 
that yet made resistance in him, of goodness and a sound 
judgment. He fell into the snare thus. When making 
preparation for the Parthian war, he sent to command her 
to make her personal appearance in Cilicia, to answer an 
accusation, that she had given great assistance, in the late 
wars, to Cassius. Dellius, who was sent on this message, 
had no sooner seen her face, and remarked her adroitness 
and subtlety in speech, but he felt convinced that Antony 
would not so much as think of giving any molestation to a 
woman like this; on the contrary, she would be the first in 
favor with him. So he set himself at once to pay his court 
to the Egyptian, and gave her his advice, "to go," in the 



ANTONY 353 

Homeric style, to Cilicia, "in her best attire,"* and bade her 
fear nothing from Antony, the gentlest and kindest of soldiers. 
She had some faith in the words of Dellius, but more in her 
own attractions, which, having formerly recommended her 
to Caesar and the young Cnaeus Pompey, she did not doubt 
might prove yet more successful with Antony. Their ac- 
quaintance was with her when a girl, young, and ignorant 
of the world, but she was to meet Antony in the time of life 
when women's beauty is most splendid, and their intellects 
are in full maturity.^ She made great preparation for her 
journey, of money, gifts, and ornaments of value, such as so 
wealthy a kingdom might afford, but she brought with her 
her surest hopes in her own magic arts and charms. 

She received several letters, both from Antony and from 
his friends, to summon her, but she took no account of these 
orders; and at last, as if in mockery of them, she came 
sailing up the river Cydnus, in a barge with gilded stern and 
outspread sails of purple, while oars of silver beat time to 
the music of flutes and fifes and harps. She herself lay all 
along, under a canopy of cloth of gold, dressed as Venus in 
a picture, and beautiful young boys, like painted Cupids, 
stood on each side to fan her. Her maids were dressed like 
Sea Nymphs and Graces, some steering at the rudder, some 
working at the ropes. The perfumes diffused themselves 
from the vessel to the shore, which was covered with mul- 
titudes, part following the galley up the river on either bank, 
part running out of the city to see the sight. The market- 
place was quite emptied, and Antony at last was left alone 
sitting upon the tribunal ; while the word went through all 
the multitude, that Venus was come to feast with Bacchus, 
for the common good of Asia. On her arrival, Antony sent 
to invite her to supper. She thought it fitter he should come 
to her; so, willing to show his good-humor and courtesy, he 
complied, and went. He found the preparation to receive 
him magnificent beyond expression, but nothing so admirable 
as the great number of lights ; for on a sudden there was let 

* " To go to Ida in her best attire " is the verse, in which Plutarch 
merely substitutes Cilicia for Ida. See the Iliad, Rook XIV. 162, where 
Juno is described as setting forth to beguile Jupiter from his watch on 
Mount Ida, while Neptune shall check the Trojans. 

' She was now about twenty-eight years old. 

L — HC XII 



354 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

down altogether so great a number of branches with lights 
in them so ingeniously disposed, some in squares, and some 
in circles, that the whole thing was a spectacle that has 
seldom been equalled for beauty. 

The next day, Antony invited her to supper, and was very 
desirous to outdo her as well in magnificence as contrivance; 
but he found he was altogether beaten in both, and was so 
well convinced of it, that he was himself the first to jest and 
mock at his poverty of wit, and his rustic awkwardness. She, 
perceiving that his raillery was broad and gross, and savored 
more of the soldier than the courtier, rejoined in the same 
taste, and fell into it at once, without any sort of reluctance 
or reserve. For her actual beauty, it is said, was not in 
itself so remarkable that none could be compared with her, 
or that no one could see her without being struck by it, but 
the contact of her presence, if you lived with her, was irre- 
sistible; the attraction of her person, joining with the charm 
of her conversation, and the character that attended all she 
said or did, was something bewitching. It was a pleasure 
merely to hear the sound of her voice, with which, like an 
instrument of many strings, she could pass from one language 
to another; so that there were few of the barbarian nations 
that she answered by an interpreter; to most of them she 
spoke herself, as to the ^Ethiopians, Troglodytes, Hebrews, 
Arabians, Syrians, Medes, Parthians, and many others, whose 
language she had learnt ; which was all the more surprising, 
because most of the kings her predecessors scarcely gave 
themselves the trouble to acquire the Egyptian tongue, and 
several of them quite abandoned the Macedonian. 

Antony was so captivated by her, that, while Fulvia his 
wife maintained his quarrels in Rome against Caesar by actual 
force of arms, and the Parthian troops, commanded by 
Labienus (the king's generals having made him commander- 
in-chief), were assembled in Mesopotamia, and ready to 
enter Syria, he could yet suffer himself to be carried away 
by her to Alexandria, there to keep holiday, like a boy, in 
play and diversion, squandering and fooling away in enjoy- 
ments that most costly, as Antiphon says, of all valuables, 
time. They had a sort of company, to which they gave a 
particular name, calling it that of the Inimitable Livers. 



ANTONY 355 

The members entertained one another daily in turn, with 
an extravagance of expenditure beyond measure or belief. 
Philotas, a physician of Amphissa, who was at that time a 
student of medicine in Alexandria, used to tell my grand- 
father Lamprias, that, having some acquaintance with one 
of the royal cooks, he was invited by him, being a young 
man, to come and see the sumptuous preparations for supper. 
So he was taken into the kitchen, where he admired the 
prodigious variety of all things; but particularly, seeing eight 
wild boars roasting whole, says he, "Surely you have a great 
number of guests." The cook laughed at his simplicity, and 
told him there were not above twelve to sup, but that every 
dish was to be served up just roasted to a turn, and if any 
thing was but one minute ill-timed, it was spoiled; "And," 
said he, "maybe Antony will sup just now, maybe not this 
hour, maybe he will call for wine, or begin to talk, and will 
put it off. So that," he continued, "it is not one, but many 
suppers must be had in readiness, as it is impossible to guess 
at his hour." This was Philotas's story; who related besides, 
that he afterwards came to be one of the medical attendants 
of Antony's eldest son by Fulvia, and used to be invited 
pretty often, among other companions, to his table, when 
he was not supping with his father. One day another 
physician had talked loudly, and given great disturbance to 
the company, whose mouth Philotas stopped with this sophisti- 
cal syllogism: "In some states of fever the patient should 
take cold water; every one who has a fever is in some state 
of fever; therefore in a fever cold water should always be 
taken." The man was quite struck dumb, and x\ntony's son, 
very much pleased, laughed aloud, and said, "Philotas, I 
make you a present of all you see there," pointing to a side- 
board covered with plate. Philotas thanked him much, but 
was far enough from ever imagining that a boy of his age 
could dispose of things of that value. Soon after, however, 
the plate was all brought to him, and he was desired to set 
his mark upon it; and when he put it away from him, and 
was afraid to accept the present, "What ails the man?" said 
he that brought it; "do you know that he who gives you this 
is Antony's son, who is free to give it, if it were all gold? 
but if you will be advised by me, I would counsel you to 



356 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

accept of the value in money from us ; for there may be 
amongst the rest some antique or famous piece of workman- 
ship, which Antony would be sorry to part with." These 
anecdotes my grandfather told us Philotas used frequently 
to relate. 

To return to Cleopatra; Plato admits four sorts of flat- 
tery,*' but she had a thousand. Were Antony serious or 
disposed to mirth, she had at any moment some new delight 
or charm to meet his wishes; at every turn she was upon 
him, and let him escape her neither by day nor by night. 
She played at dice with him, drank with him, hunted with 
him ; and when he exercised in arms, she was there to see. 
At night she would go rambling with him to disturb and 
torment people at their doors and windows, dressed like a 
servant-woman, for Antony also went in servant's disguise, 
and from these expeditions he often came home very scurvily 
answered, and sometimes even beaten severely, though most 
people guessed who it was. However, the Alexandrians in 
general liked it all well enough, and joined good humoredly 
and kindly in his frolic and play, saying they were much 
obliged to Antony for acting his tragic parts at Rome, and 
keeping his comedy for them. It would be trifling without 
end to be particular in his follies, but his fishing must not 
be forgotten. He went out one day to angle with Cleopatra, 
and, being so unfortunate as to catch nothing in the presence 
of his mistress, he gave secret orders to the fishermen to 
dive under water, and put fishes that had been already taken 
upon his hooks; and these he drew so fast that the Egyptian 
perceived it. But, feigning great admiration, she told every- 
body how dexterous Antony was, and invited them next day 
to come and see him again. So, when a number of them 
had come on board the fishing boats, as soon as he had let 
down his hook, one of her servants was beforehand with 

• See the Gorgias, chapter 19. The four Flatteries are the four Counter- 
feit Arts, which profess to do good to men's bodies and souls, and in reality- 
only gratify their pleasures. The legislator's place is thus usurped by the 
sophist, the false reasoner, in deliberative assemblies; that of the judge by 
the rhetorician or pleader; the medical adviser is supplanted by the pur- 
veyor of luxuries; and the gymnastic teacher by the adorner of the person. 
The four genuine Arts are nomothetike, dicanike, iatrike, and £-ymnastike; 
the four corresponding Flatteries are sophistike, rhetorike, opsopoiike, and 
kommotike. 



ANTONY 357 

his divers, and fixed upon his hook a salted fish from Pontus. 
Antony, feeling his line give, drew up the prey, and when, as 
may be imagined, great laughter ensued, '"Leave," said Cleo- 
patra, "the fishing-rod, general, to us poor sovereigns of 
Pharos and Canopus ; your game is cities, provinces, and king- 
doms." 

Whilst he was thus diverting himself and engaged in this 
boys' play, two despatches arrived ; one from Rome, that his 
brother Lucius and his wife Fulvia, after many quarrels 
among themselves, had joined in war against Caesar, and, 
having lost all, had fled out of Italy; the other bringing little 
better news, that Labienus, at the head of the Parthians, was 
overrunning Asia, from Euphrates and Syria as far as Lydia 
and Ionia. So, scarcely at last rousing himself from sleep, 
and shaking off the fumes of wine, he set out to attack the 
Parthians, and went as far as Phoenicia ; but, upon the receipt 
of lamentable letters from Fulvia, turned his course with two 
hundred ships to Italy. And, in hi^- way, receivmg such ot 
his friends as- fled from Italy, he was given to understand 
that Fulvia was the sole cause of the war, a woman of a 
restless spirit and very bold, and withal her hopes were that 
commotions in Italy would force Antony from Cleopatra. 
But it happened that Fulvia, as she was coming to meet her 
husband, fell sick by the way, and died at Sicyon, so that 
an accommodation was the more easily made. For when he 
reached Italy, and Caesar showed no intention of laying any 
thing to his charge, and he on his part shifted the blame of 
every thing on Fulvia, those that were friends to them would 
not suffer that the time should be spent in looking narrowly 
into the plea, but made a reconciliation first, and then a par- 
tition of the empire between them, taking as their boundary 
the Ionian Sea, the eastern provinces falling to Antony, to 
Caesar the western, and Africa being left to Lepidus. And 
an agreement was made, that every one in their turn, as they 
thought fit, should make their friends consuls, when they did 
not choose to take the offices themselves. 

These terms were well approved of, but yet it was thought 
some closer tie would be desirable ; and for this, fortune 
offered occasion. Caesar had an elder sister, not of the whole 
blood, for Attia was his mother's name, hers Ancharia. This 



358 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

sister, Octavia, he was extremely attached to, as, indeed, 
she was, it is said, quite a wonder of a woman. Her husband, 
Caius Marcellus, had died not long before, and Antony was 
now a widower by the death of Fulvia; for, though he did 
not disavow the passion he had for Cleopatra, yet he dis- 
owned any thing of marriage, reason, as yet, upon this point, 
still maintaining the debate against the charms of the 
Egyptian. Everybody concurred in promoting this new alli- 
ance, fully expecting that with the beauty, honor, and pru- 
dence of Octavia, when her company should, as it was certain 
it would, have engaged his affections, all would be kept in 
the safe and happy course of friendship. So, both parties 
being agreed, they went to Rome to celebrate the nuptials, 
the senate dispensing with the law by which a widow was 
not permitted to marry till ten months after the death of her 
husband. 

Sextus Pompeius was in possession of Sicily, and with his 
ships, under the command of Menas, the pirate, and Mene- 
crates, so infested the Italian coast, that no' vessels durst 
venture into those seas. Sextus had behaved with much 
humanity towards Antony, having received his mother when 
she fled with Fulvia, and it was therefore judged fit that he 
also should be received into the peace. They met near the 
promontory of Misenum, by the mole of the port, Pompey 
having his fleet at anchor close by, and Antony and Caesar 
their troops drawn up all along the shore. There it was con- 
cluded that Sextus should quietly enjoy the government of 
Sicily and Sardinia, he conditioning to scour the seas of all 
pirates, and to send so much corn every year to Rome. 

This agreed on, they invited one another to supper, and 
by lot it fell to Pompey's turn to give the first entertainment, 
and Antony, asking where it was to be, "There," said he, 
pointing to the admiral-galleyj a ship of six banks of oars, 
"that is the only house that Pompey is heir to of his father's.'"' 
And this he said, reflecting upon Antony, who was then in 
possession of his father's house. Having fixed the ship on 
her anchors, and formed a bridgeway from the promontory 

* " In Carinis," according to Dion Cassius, was the answer. " In the 
Carinae," which might mean either the ships, or the quarter called the 
Carina, at Rome, in which stood bis father's house. 



I 



ANTONY 359 

to conduct on board of her, he gave them a cordial welcome. 
And when they began to grow warm, and jests were passing 
freely on Antony and Cleopatra's loves, Menas, the pirate, 
whispered Pompey in the ear, "Shall I," said he, "cut the 
cables, and make you master not of Sicily only and Sardinia, 
but of the whole Roman empire?" Pompey, having con- 
sidered a little while, returned him answer, "Menas, this 
might have been done without acquainting ine ; now we must 
rest content ; I do not break my word." And so, having 
been entertained by the other two in their turns, he set sail 
for Sicily. 

After the treaty was completed, Antony despatched Venti- 
dius into Asia, to check the advance of the Parthians, while 
he, as a compliment to Caesar, accepted the office of priest to 
the deceased Caesar. And in any state affair and matter of 
consequence, they both behaved themselves with much con- 
sideration and friendliness for each other. But it annoyed 
Antony, that in all their amusements, on any trial of skill or 
fortune, Caesar should be constantly victorious. He had 
with him an Egyptian diviner, one of those who calculate 
nativities, who, either to make his court to Cleopatra, or that 
by the rules of his art he found it to be so, openly declared 
to him, that though the fortune that attended him was bright 
and glorious, yet it was overshadowed by Caesar's; and ad- 
vised him to keep himself as far distant as he could from 
that young man; "for your Genius," said he, "dreads his; 
when absent from him yours is proud and brave, but in his 
presence unmanly and dejected;" and incidents that occurred 
appeared to show that the Egyptian spoke truth. For when- 
ever they cast lots for any playful purpose, or threw dice, 
Antony was still the loser; and repeatedly, when they fought 
game-cocks or quails, Caesar's had the victory. This gave 
Antony a secret displeasure, and made him put the more 
confidence in the skill of his Egyptian. So, leaving the man- 
agement of his home affairs to Caesar, he left Italy, and took 
Octavia, who had lately borne him a daughter, along with 
him into Greece. 

Here, whilst he wintered in Athens, he received the first 
news of Ventidius's successes over the Parthians. of his 
having defeated them in a battle, having slain Labienus and 



360 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

Pharnapates, the best general their king, Hyrodes, possessed. 
For the celebrating of which he made a public feast through 
Greece, and for the prizes which were contested at Athens 
he himself acted as steward, and, leaving at home the ensigns 
that are carried before the general, he made his public 
appearance in a gown and white shoes, with the steward's 
wands marching before ; and he performed his duty in taking 
the combatants by the neck, to part them, when they had 
fought enough. 

When the time came for him to set out for the war, he took 
a garland from the sacred olive, and, in obedience to some 
oracle, he filled a vessel with the water of the Clepsydra,* 
to carry along with him. In this interval, Pacorus, the 
Parthian king's son, who was marching into Syria with a 
large army^ w^as met by Ventidius, who gave him battle in 
the country of Cyrrhestica, slew a large number of his men, 
and Pacorus among the first. This victory w^as one of the 
most renowned achievements of the Romans, and fully 
avenged their defeats under Crassus, the Parthians being 
obliged, after the loss of three battles successively, to keep 
themselves within the bounds of Media and Mesopotamia. 
A'entidius was not willing to push his good fortune further, 
for fear of raising some jealousy in Antony, but, turning his 
arms against those that had quitted the Roman interest, he 
reduced them to their former obedience. Among the rest, 
he besieged Antiochus, king of Commagene, in the city of 
Samosata, who made an offer of a thousand talents for his 
pardon, and a promise of submission to Antony's commands. 
But Ventidius told him that he must send to Antony, who 
was already on his march, and had sent word to Ventidius to 
make no terms with Antiochus, wishing that at any rate this 
one exploit might be ascribed to him, and that people might 
not think that all his successes were won by his lieutenants. 
The siege, however, was long protracted; for when those 
within found their offers refused, they defended themselves 
stoutly, till, at last, Antony, finding he was doing nothing, 
in shame and regret for having refused the first offer, was 

' The Clepsydra was a sacred spring, still to be found, inclosed in a 
chapel in the rock, on the north side of the Acropolis, near the cave of 
Apollo and Pan. 



ANTONY 361 

glad to make an accommodation with Antiochus for three 
hundred talents. And, having given some orders for the 
affairs of Syria, he returned to Athens ; and, paying Ventidius 
the honors he well deserved, dismissed him to receive his 
triumph. He is the only man that has ever yet triumphed 
for victories obtained over the Parthians ; he was of obscure 
birth, but, by means of Antony's friendship, obtained an op- 
portunity of showing his capacity, and doing great things; 
and his making such glorious use of it gave new credit to 
the current observation about Csesar and Antony, that they 
were more fortunate in what they did by their lieutenants 
than in their own persons. For Sossius, also, had great 
success, and Canidius, whom he left in Armenia, defeated the 
people there, and also the kings of the Albanians and Iberians, 
and marched victorious as far as Caucasus, by which means 
the fame of Antony's arms had become great among the 
barbarous nations. 

He, however, once more, upon some unfavorable stories, 
taking offence against Caesar, set sail with three hundred 
ships for Italy, and, being refused admittance to the port of 
Brundusium, made for Tarentum. There his wife Octavia, 
who came from. Greece with him, obtained leave to visit her 
brother, she being then great with child, having already borne 
her husband a second daughter ; and as she was on her way, 
she met Caesar, with his two friends Agrippa and Maecenas, 
and, taking these two aside, with great entreaties and la- 
mentations she told them, that of the most fortunate woman 
upon earth, she was in danger of becoming the most unhappy; 
for as yet every one's eyes were fixed upon her as the wife 
and sister of the two great commanders, but, if rash counsels 
should prevail, and war ensue, "I shall be miserable," said 
she, "without redress; for on what side soever victory falls, 
I shall be sure to be a loser." Caesar was overcome by these 
entreaties, and advanced in a peaceable temper to Tarentum, 
where those that were present beheld a most stately spec- 
tacle ; a vast army drawn up by the shore, and as great a 
fleet in the harbor, all without the occurrence of any act of 
hostility; nothing but the salutations of friends, and other 
expressions of joy and kindness, passing from one armament 
to the other. Antony first entertained Caesar, this also being 



362 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

a concession on Caesar's part to his sister; and when at length 
an agreement was made between them, that Caesar should 
give Antony two of his legions to serve him in the Parthian 
war, and that Antony should in return leave with him a 
hundred armed galleys, Octavia further obtained of her hus- 
band, besides this, twenty light ships for her brother, and of 
her brother, a thousand foot for her husband. So, having 
parted good friends, Caesar went immediately to make war 
with Pompey to conquer Sicily. And Antony, leaving in 
Caesar's charge his wife and children, and his children by 
his former wife Fulvia, set sail for Asia. 

But the mischief that thus long had lain still, the passion 
for Cleopatra, which better thoughts had seemed to have 
lulled and charmed into oblivion, upon his approach to Syria, 
gathered strength again, and broke out into a flame. And, 
in fine, like Plato's restive and rebellious horse of the human 
soul,^ flinging off all good and wholesome counsel, and break- 
ing fairly loose, he sends Fonteius Capito to bring Cleopatra 
into Syria. To whom at her arrival he made no small or 
trifling present, Phoenicia, Coele-Syria, Cyprus, great part 
of Cilicia, that side of Judaea which produces balm, that part 
of Arabia where the Nabathaeans extend to the outer sea ; 
profuse gifts, which much displeased the Romans. For, al- 
though he had invested several private persons in great 
governments and kingdoms, and bereaved many kings of 
theirs, as Antigonus of Judaea, whose head he caused to be 
struck off (the first example of that punishment being in- 
flicted on a king), yet nothing stung the Romans like the 
shame of these honors paid to Cleopatra. Their dissatisfac- 
tion was augmented . also by his acknowledging as his own 
the twin children he had by her, giving them the name of 
Alexander and Cleopatra, and adding, as their surnames, the 
titles of Sun and Moon. But he, who knew how to put a 
good color on the most dishonest action, would say, that the 
greatness of the Roman empire consisted more in giving than 

• The soul of man has in it a driver and two horses, the one strong and 
willing, quick to obey, and eager for applause and for honorable praise; the 
other unruly and ill-conditioned, greedy and violent, whom only flogging 
and the goad can control. D'o what the driver within us will, our better 
horse may be seduced at times from his duty, his evil yoke-fellow may 
obtain the mastery, and bear away all to destruction. 



ANTONY 363 

in taking kingdoms, and that the way to carry noble blood 
through the world was by begetting in every place a new 
line and series of kings; his own ancestor had thus been born 
of Hercules; Hercules had not limited his hopes of progeny 
to a single womb, nor feared any law like Solon's, or any 
audit of procreation, but had freely let nature take her will 
in the foundation and first commencement of many families. 
After Phraates had killed his father Hyrodes, and taken 
possession of his kingdom, many of the Parthians left their 
country; among the rest, Monaeses, a man of great distinc- 
tion and authority, sought refuge with Antony, who, looking 
on his case as similar to that of Themistocles, and likening 
his own opulence and magnanimity to those of the former 
Persian kings, gave him three cities, Larissa, Arethusa. and 
Hierapolis, which was formerly called Bambyce. But when 
the king of Parthia soon recalled him, giving him his word 
and honor for his safety, Antony was not unwilling to give 
him leave to return, hoping thereby to surprise Phraates, who 
would believe that peace would continue ; for he only made 
the demand of him, that he should send back the Roman 
ensigns which were taken when Crassus was slain, and the 
prisoners that remained yet alive. This done, he sent Cleo- 
patra into Egypt, and marched through Arabia and Armenia ; 
and, when his forces came together, and were joined by those 
of his confederate kings (of whom there were very many, and 
the most considerable, Artavasdes, king of Armenia, who 
came at the head of six thousand horse and seven thousand 
foot), he made a general muster. There appeared sixty thou- 
sand Roman foot, ten thousand horse. Spaniards and Gauls, 
who counted as Romans; and, of other nations, horse and 
foot, thirty thousand. And these great preparations, that put 
the Indians beyond Bactria into alarm, and made all Asia 
shake, were all, we are told, rendered useless to him because 
of Cleopatra. For, in order to pass the winter with her, the 
war was pushed on before its due time; and all he did was 
done without perfect consideration, as by a man who had no 
proper control over his faculties, who, under the effects of 
some drug or magic, was still looking back elsewhere, and 
whose object was much more to hasten his return than to 
conquer his enemies. 



364 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

For, first of all, when he should have taken up his winter- 
quarters in Armenia, to refresh his men, who were tired 
with long marches, having come at least eight thousand fur- 
longs, and then have taken the advantage in the beginning 
of the spring to invade Media, before the Parthians were out 
of winter-quarters, he had not patience to expect his time, 
but marched into the province of Atropatene, leaving Armenia 
on the left hand, and laid waste all that country. Secondly, 
his haste was so great, that he left behind the engines abso- 
lutely required for any siege, which followed the camp in 
three hundred wagons, and, among the rest, a ram eighty 
feet long; none of which was it possible, if lost or damaged, 
to repair or to make the like, as the provinces of the upper 
Asia produce no trees long or hard enough for such uses. 
Nevertheless, he left them all behind, as a mere impediment 
to his speed, in the charge of a detachment under the com- 
mand of Statianus, the wagon-officer. He himself laid siege 
to Phraata, a principal city of the king of Media, wherein 
were that king's wife and children. And when actual need 
proved the greatness of his error in leaving the siege train 
behind him, he had nothing for it but to come up and raise 
a mound against the walls, with infinite labor and great loss 
of time. Meantime Phraates, coming down with a large 
army, and hearing that the wagons were left behind with 
the battering engines, sent a strong party of horse, by which 
Statianus was surprised, he himself and ten thousand of his 
men slain, the engines all broken in pieces, many taken 
prisoners, and, among the rest, king Polemon. 

This great miscarriage in the opening of the campaign 
much discouraged Antony's army, and Artavasdes, king of 
Armenia, deciding that the Roman prospects were bad, with- 
drew with all his forces from the camp, although he had 
been the chief promoter of the war. The Parthians, en- 
couraged by their success, came up to the Romans at the 
siege, and gave them many affronts; upon which Antony, 
fearing that the despondency and alarm of his soldiers would 
only grow worse if he let them lie idle, taking all the horse, 
ten legions, and three praetorian cohorts of heavy infantry, 
resolved to go out and forage, designing by this means to 
draw the enemy with more advantage to a battle. To effect 



ANTONY 365 

this, he marched a day's journey from his camp, and, finding 
the Parthians hovering about, in readiness to attack him 
while he was in motion, he gave orders for the signal of 
battle to be hung out in the encampment, but, at the same 
time, pulled down the tents, as if he meant not to fight, but 
to lead his men home again ; and so he proceeded to lead 
them past the enemy, who were drawn up in a half-moon, his 
orders being that the horse should charge as soon as the 
legions were come up near enough to second them. The 
Parthians, standing still while the Romans marched by them, 
were in great admiration of their army, and of the exact 
discipline it observed, rank after rank passing on at equal 
distances in perfect order and silence, their pikes all ready 
in their hands. But when the signal was given, and the horse 
turned short upon the Parthians, and with loud cries charged 
them, they bravely received them, though they were at once 
too near for bowshot ; but the legions, coming up with loud 
shouts and rattling of their arms, so frightened their horses 
and indeed the men themselves, that they kept their ground 
no longer. Antony pressed them hard, in great hopes that 
this victory should put an end to the war; the foot had them 
in pursuit for fifty furlongs, and the horse for thrice that 
distance, and yet, the advantage summed up, they had but 
thirty prisoners, and there were but fourscore slain. So that 
they were all filled with dejection and discouragement, to 
consider, that when they were victorious, their advantage was 
so small, and that when they were beaten, they lost so great 
a number of men as they had done when the carriages were 
taken. 

The next day, having put the baggage in order, they 
marched back to the camp before Phraata, in the way meet- 
ing with some scattering troops of the enemy, and. as they 
marched further, with greater parties, at length with the 
body of the enemy's army, fresh and in good order, who 
defied them to battle, and charged them on every side, and 
it was not without great difficulty that they reached the camp. 
There Antony, finding that his men had in a panic deserted 
the defence of the mound, upon a sally of the Medes, resolved 
to proceed against them by decimation, as it is called, which 
is done by dividing the soldiers into tens, and, out of every 



366 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

ten, putting one to death, as it happens by lot. The rest he 
gave orders should have, instead of wheat, their rations of 
corn and barley. 

The w^ar was now become grievous to both parties, and 
the prospect of its continuance yet more fearful to Antony, 
in respect that he was threatened with famine; for he could 
no longer forage without wounds and slaughter. And 
Phraates, on the other side, was full of apprehension that, if 
the Romans were to persist in carrying on the siege, the 
autumnal equinox being past and the air already closing in 
for cold, he should be deserted by his soldiers, who would 
suffer any thing rather than wintering in open field. To 
prevent which, he had recourse to the following deceit: he 
gave orders to those of his men who had made most ac- 
quaintance among the Roman soldiers, not to pursue too close 
when they met them foraging, but to suffer them to carry off 
some provision; moreover, that they should praise their valor, 
and declare that it was not without just reason that their 
king looked upon the Romans as the bravest men in the 
world. This done, upon further opportunity they rode nearer 
in, and, drawing up their horses by the men, began to revile 
Antony for his obstinacy; that whereas Phraates desired 
nothing more than peace, and an occasion to show how ready 
he was to save the lives of so many brave soldiers, he, on the 
contrary, gave no opening to any friendly offers, but sat 
awaiting the arrival of the two fiercest and worst enemies, 
winter and famine, from whom it would be hard for them to 
make their escape, even with all the good-will of the Parthians 
to help them. Antony, having these reports from many hands, 
began to indulge the hope; nevertheless, he would not send 
any message to the Parthian till he had put the question to 
these friendly talkers, whether what they said was said by 
order of their king. Receiving answer that it was, together 
with new encouragement to believe them, he sent some of his 
friends to demand once more the standards and prisoners, 
lest, if he should ask nothing, he might be supposed to be too 
thankful to have leave to retreat in quiet. The Parthian king 
made answer, that as for the standards and prisoners, he 
need not trouble himself; but if he thought fit to retreat, he 
might do it when he pleased, in peace and safety. Some few 



ANTONY 367 

days, therefore, being spent in collecting the baggage, he set 
out upon his march. On which occasion, though there was 
no man of his time like him for addressing a multitude, or 
for carrying soldiers with him by the force of words, out of 
shame and sadness he could not find in his heart to speak 
himself, but employed Domitius yEnobarbus. And some of 
the soldiers resented it, as an undervaluing of them ; but the 
greater number saw the true cause, and pitied it, and thought 
it rather a reason why they on their side should treat their 
general with more respect and obedience than ordinary. 

Antony had resolved to return by the same way he came, 
which was through a level country clear of all trees; but a 
certain Mardian came to him (one that was very conversant 
with the manners of the Parthians, and whose fidelity to the 
Romans had been tried at the battle where the machines were 
lost), and advised him to keep the mountains close on his 
right hand, and not to expose his men, heavily armed, in a 
broad, open, riding country, to the attacks of a numerous 
army of light-horsc and archers; that Phraates with fair 
promises had persuaded him from the siege on purpose that 
he might with more ease cut him off in his retreat; but, if 
so he pleased, he would conduct him by a nearer route, on 
which moreover he should find the necessaries for his army 
in greater abundance. Antony upon this began to consider 
what was best to be done; he was unwilling to seem to have 
any mistrust of the Parthians after their treaty ; but, holding 
it to be really best to march his army the shorter and more 
inhabited way, he demanded of the Mardian some assurance 
of his faith, who offered himself to be bound until the army 
came safe into Armenia. Two days he conducted the army 
bound, and, on the third, when Antony had given up all 
thought of the enemy, and was marching at his ease in no 
very good order, the Mardian, perceiving the bank of a 
river broken down, and the water let out and overflowing 
the road by which they were to pass, saw at once that this 
was the handiwork of the Parthians, done out of mischief, 
and to hinder their march ; so he advised Antony to be upon 
his guard, for that the enemy was nigh at hand. And no 
sooner had he begun to put his men in order, disposing the 
slingers and dart-men in convenient intervals for sallying 



368 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

out, but the Parthians came pouring in on all sides, fully 
expecting to encompass them, and throw the whole army 
into disorder. They were at once attacked by the light troops, 
whom they galled a good deal with their arrows; but, being 
themselves as warmly entertained with the slings and darts, 
and many wounded, they made their retreat. Soon after, 
rallying up afresh, they were beat back by a battalion of 
Gallic horse, and appeared no more that day. 

By their manner of attack Antony seeing what to do, not 
only placed the slings and darts as a rear guard, but also lined 
both flanks with them, and so marched in a square battle, 
giving order to the horse to charge and beat off the enemy, 
but not to follow them far as they retired. So that the 
Parthians, not doing more mischief for the four ensuing 
days than they received, began to abate in their zeal, and, 
complaining that the winter season was much advanced, 
pressed for returning home. 

But, on the fifth day, Flavius Gallus, a brave and active 
officer, who had a considerable command in the army, came to 
Antony, desiring of him some light-infantry out of the rear, 
and some horse out of the front, with which he would under- 
take to do some considerable service. Which when he had 
obtained, he beat the enemy back, not withdrawing, as was 
usual, at the same time, and retreating upon the mass of the 
heavy infantry, but maintaining his own ground, and engaging 
boldly. The officers who commanded in the rear, perceiving 
how far he was getting from the body of the army, sent to 
warn him back, but he took no notice of them. It is said 
that Titius the quaestor snatched the standards and turned 
them round, upbraiding Gallus with thus leading so many 
brave men to destruction. But when he on the other side 
reviled him again, and commanded the men that were about 
him to stand firm, Titius made his retreat, and Gallus, charg- 
ing the enemies in the front, was encompassed by a party 
that fell upon his rear, which at length perceiving, he sent 
a messenger to demand succor. But the commanders of the 
heavy infantry, Canidius amongst others, a particular favor- 
ite of Antony's, seem here to have committed a great over- 
sight. For, instead of facing about with the whole body, 
they sent small parties, and, when they were defeated, they 



ANTONY 3G9 

still sent out small parties, so that by their bad management 
the rout would have spread through the whole army, if An- 
tony himself had not marched from the van at the head of 
the third legion, and, passing this through among the fugi- 
tives, faced the enemies, and hindered them from any further 
pursuit. 

In this engagement were killed three thousand, five thous- 
and were carried back to the camp wounded, amongst the 
rest Gallus, shot through the body with four arrows, of which 
wounds he died. Antony went from tent to tent to visit and 
comfort the rest of them, and was not able to see his men 
without tears and a passion of grief. They, however, seized 
his hand with joyful faces, bidding him go and see to himself 
and not be concerned about them, calling him their emperor 
and their general, and saying that if he did well they were 
safe. For in short, never in all these times can history make 
mention of a general at the head of a more splendid army; 
whether you consider strength and youth, or patience and 
sufferance in labors and fatigues; but as for the obedience 
and affectionate respect they bore their general, and the 
unanimous feeling amongst small and great alike, officers and 
common soldiers, to prefer his good opinion of them to their 
very lives and being, in this part of military excellence it was 
not possible that they could have been surpassed by the very 
Romans of old. For this devotion, as I have said before, 
there were many reasons, as the nobility of his family, his 
eloquence, his frank and open manners, his liberal and mag- 
nificent habits, his familiarity in talking with everybody, and, 
at this time particularly, his kindness in assisting and pitying 
the sick, joining in all their pains, and furnishing them with 
all things necessary, so that the sick and wounded were even 
more eager to serve than those that were whole and strong. 

Nevertheless, this last victory had so encouraged the enemy, 
that, instead of their former impatience and weariness, they 
began soon to feel contempt for the Romans, staying all 
night near the camp, in expectation of plundering their tents 
and baggage, which they concluded they must abandon ; and 
in the morning new forces arrived in large masses, so that 
their number was grown to be not less, it is said, than forty 
thousand horse; and the king had sent the very guards that 



370 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

attended upon his own person, as to a sure and unquestioned 
victory. For he himself was never present in any fight. 
Antony, designing to harangue the soldiers, called for a 
mourning habit, that he might move them the more, but 
was dissuaded by his friends ; so he came forward in the gen- 
eral's scarlet cloak, and addressed them, praising those that 
had gained the victory, and reproaching those that had fled, 
the former answering him with promises of success, and the 
latter excusing themselves, and telling him they were ready 
to undergo decimation, or any other punishment he should 
please to inflict upon them, only entreating that he would 
forget and not discompose himself with their faults. At 
which he lifted up his hands to heaven, and prayed the gods, 
that if to balance the great favors he had received of them 
any judgment lay in store, they would pour it upon his head 
alone, and grant his soldiers victory. 

The next day they took better order for their march, and 
the Parthians, who thought they were marching rather to 
plunder than to fight, were much taken aback, when they 
came up and were received with a shower of missiles, to 
find the enemy not disheartened, but fresh and resolute. So 
that they themselves began to lose courage. But at the de- 
scent of a hill where the Romans were obliged to pass, they 
got together, and let fly their arrows upon them as they moved 
slowly down. But the full-armed infantry, facing round, 
received the light troops within; and those in the first rank 
knelt on one knee, holding their shields before them, the next 
rank holding theirs over the first, and so again others over 
these, much like the tiling of a house, or the rows of seats in 
a theatre, the whole affording sure defence against arrows, 
which glance upon them without doing any harm. The Par- 
thians, seeing the Romans down upon their knees, could not 
imagine but that it must proceed from weariness; so that 
they laid down their bows, and taking their spears, made 
a fierce onset, when the Romans, with a great cry, leapt 
upon their feet, striking hand to hand with their jave- 
lins, slew the foremost, and put the rest to flight. After 
this rate it was every day, and the trouble they gave made 
the marches short; in addition to which famine began to be 
felt in the camp, for they could get but little corn, and that 



ANTONY an 

which they got they were forced to fight for; and, besides 
this, they were in want of implements to grind it and make 
bread. For they had left almost all behind, the baggage 
horses being dead or otherwise employed in carrying the sick 
and wounded. Provision was so scarce in the army that an 
Attic quart of wheat sold 'for fifty drachmas, and barley 
loaves for their weight in silver. And when they tried vege- 
tables and roots, they found such as are commonly eaten 
very scarce, so that they were constrained to venture upon 
any they could get, and, among others, they chanced upon an 
herb that was mortal, first taking away all sense and under- 
standing. He that had eaten of it remembered nothing in 
the world, and employed himself only in moving great stones 
from one place to another, which he did with as much earn- 
estness and industry as if it had been a business of the great- 
est consequence. Through all the camp there was nothing to 
be seen but men grubbing upon the ground at stones, which 
they carried from place to place. But in the end they threw 
up bile and died, as wine, moreover, which was the one anti- 
dote, failed. When Antony saw them die so fast, and the 
Parthian still in pursuit, he was heard to exclaim several 
times over, "O, the Ten Thousand !" as if in admiration of 
the retreat of the Greeks with Xenophon, who, when they 
had a longer journey to make from Babylonia, and a more 
powerful enemy to deal with, nevertheless came home safe. 
The Parthians, finding that they could not divide the Ro- 
man army, nor break the order of their battle, and that withal 
they had been so often worsted, once more began to treat 
the foragers with professions of humanity ; they came up to 
them with their bows unbended, telling them that they were 
going home to their houses; that this was the end of their 
retaliation, and that only some Median troops would follow 
for two or three days, not with any design to annoy them, 
but for the defence of some of the villages further on. And, 
saying this, they saluted them and embraced them with a 
great show of friendship. This made the Romans full of 
confidence again, and Antony, on hearing of it, was more 
disposed to take the road through the level country, being 
told that no water was to be hoped for on that through the 
mountains. But while he was preparing thus to do, Mithri- 



372 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

dates came into the camp, a cousin to Monaeses, of whom we 
related that he sought refuge with the Romans, and received 
in gift from Antony the three cities. Upon his arrival, he 
desired somebody might be brought to him that could speak 
Syriac or Parthian. One Alexander, of Antioch, a friend 
of Antony's, was brought to him, to whom the stranger, giv- 
ing his name, and mentioning Monaeses as the person who 
desired to do the kindness, put the question, did he see that 
high range of hills, pointing at some distance. He told him 
yes. *'It is there," said he, "the whole Parthian army lie in 
wait for your passage ; for the great plains come immediately 
up to them, and they expect that, confiding in their promises, 
you will leave the way of the mountains, and take the level 
route. It is true that in passing over the mountains you will 
suffer the want of water, and the fatigue to which you have 
become familiar, but if you pass through the plains, Antony 
must expect the fortune of Crassus." 

This said, he departed. Antony, in alarm, calling his friends 
in council, sent for the Mardian guide, who was of the same 
opinion. He told them that, with or without enemies, the 
want of any certain track in the plain, and the likelihood 
of their losing their way, were quite objection enough; the 
other route was rough and without water, but then it was 
but for a day. Antony, therefore, changing his mind, marched 
away upon this road that night, commanding that every one 
should carry water sufficient for his own use; but most of 
them being unprovided with vessels, they made shift with 
their helmets, and some with skins. As soon as they started, 
the news of it was carried to the Parthians, who followed 
them, contrary to their custom, through the night, and at sun- 
rise attacked the rear, which was tired with marching and 
want of sleep, and not ni condition to make any considerable 
defence. For they had got through two hundred and forty 
furlongs that night, and at the end of such a march to find 
the enemy at their heels, put them out of heart. Besides, 
having to fight for every step of the way increased their dis- 
tress from thirst. Those that were in the van came up to a 
fiver, the water of which was extremely cool and clear, but 
brackish and medicinal, and, on being drunk, produced irn- 
mediate pains in the bowels and a renewed thirst. Of this 



ANTONY 373 

the Mardian had forewarned them, but they could not forbear, 
and, beating back those that opposed them, they drank of it. 
Antony ran from one place to another, begging they would 
have a little patience, that not far off there was a river of 
wholesome water, and that the rest of the way was so diffi- 
cult for the horse, that the enemy could pursue them no 
further; and, saying this, he ordered to sound a retreat to 
call those back that were engaged, and commanded the tents 
should be set up, that the soldiers might at any rate refresh 
themselves in the shade. 

But the tents were scarce well put up, and the Parthians 
beginning, according to their custom, to withdraw, when 
Mithridates came again to them, and informed Alexander, 
with whom he had before spoken, that he would do well to 
advise Antony to stay where he was no longer than needs 
he must, that, after having refreshed his troops, he should 
endeavor with all diligence to gain the next river, that the 
Parthians would not cross it, but so far they were resolved 
to follow them. Alexander made his report to Antony, who 
ordered a quantity of gold plate to be carried to Mithridates, 
who, taking as much as he could well hide under his clothes, 
went his way. And, upon this advice, Antony, while it was 
yet day, broke up his camp, and the whole army marched 
forward without receiving any molestation from the Par- 
thians, though that night by their own doing was in effect 
the most wretched and terrible that they passed. For some 
of the men began to kill and plunder those whom they sus- 
pected to have any money, ransacked the baggage, and seized 
the money there. In the end, they laid hands on Antony's 
own equipage, and broke all his rich tables and cups, dividing 
the fragments amongst them. Antony, hearing such a noise 
and such a stirring to and fro all through the army, the belief 
prevailing that the enemy had routed and cut off a portion 
of the troops, called for one of his freedmen, then serving 
as one of his guards, Rhamnus by name, and made him take 
an oath that, whenever he should give him orders, he would 
run his sword through his body and cut off his head, that he 
might not fall alive into the hands of the Parthians, nor, 
when dead, be recognized as the general. While he was in 
this consternation, and all his friends about him in tears, the 



374 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

Mardian came up, and gave them all new life. He con- 
vinced them, by the coolness and humidity of the air, which 
they could feel in breathing it, that the river which he had 
spoken of was now not far off, and the calculation of the 
time that had been required to reach it came, he said, to the 
same result, for the night was almost spent. And, at the sarne 
time, others came with information that all the confusion in 
the camp proceeded only from their own violence and rob- 
bery among themselves. To compose this tumult, and bring 
them again into some order after their distraction, he com- 
manded the signal to be given for a halt. 

Day began to break, and quiet and regularity were just 
reappearing, when the Parthian arrows began to fly among 
the rear, and the light armed troops were ordered out to 
battle. And, being seconded by the heavy infantry, who cov- 
ered one another as before described with their shields, they 
bravely received the enemy, who did not think convenient to 
advance any further, while the van of the army, marching 
forward leisurely in this manner came in sight of the river, 
and Antony, drawing up the cavalry on the banks to confront 
the enemy, first passed over the sick and wounded. And, 
by this time, even those who were engaged with the enemy 
had opportunity to drink at their ease; for the Parthians, 
on seeing the river, unbent their bows, and told the Romans 
they might pass over freely, and made them great compli- 
ments in praise of their valor. Having crossed without mo- 
lestation, they rested themselves awhile, and presently went 
forward, not giving perfect credit to the fair words of their 
enemies. Six days after this last battle, they arrived at the 
river Araxes, which divides Media and Armenia, and seemed, 
both by its deepness and the violence of the current, to be 
very dangerous to pass. A report, also, had crept in amongst 
them, that the enemy was in ambush, ready to set upon them 
as soon as they should be occupied with their passage. But 
when they were got over on the other side, and found them- 
selves in Armenia, just as if land was now sighted after a 
storm at sea, they kissed the ground for joy, shedding tears 
and embracing each other in their delight. But taking their 
journey through a land that abounded in all sorts of plenty, 
they ate, after their long want, with that excess of every 



ANTONY 3„ 

thing they met with, that they suffered from dropsies and 
dysenteries. 

Here Antony, making a review of his army, found that he 
had lost twenty thousand foot and four thousand horse of 
which the better half perished, not by the enemy, but' by 
diseases. Their march was of twenty-seven davs from 
Phraata, during which they had beaten the Parthians in eight- 
een battles, though with little effect or lasting result because 
of their being so unable to pursue. By which it is manifest 
that It was Artavasdes who lost Antony the benefit of the ex- 
pedition. For had the sixteen thousand horsemen whom he 
led away out of Media, armed in the same style as the Par- 
thians and accustomed to their manner of fight, been there 
to follow the pursuit when the Romans put them to flight 
It is impossible they could have rallied so often after their' 
defeats, and reappeared again as they did to renew their at- 
tacks For this reason, the whole army was very earnest 
with Antony to march into Armenia to take revenge But 
he, with more reflection, forbore to notice the desertion, and 
continued all his former courtesies, feeling that the army was 
wearied out, and in want of all manner of necessaries Af- 
terwards, however, entering Armenia, with invitations and 
tair promises he prevailed upon Artavasdes to meet him 
when he seized him, bound him. and carried him to Alex- 
andria, and there led him in a triumph; one of the things 
which most offended the Romans, who felt as if all the honors 
and solemn observances of their country were, for Cleo- 
patra s sake, handed over to the Egyptians 

This, however, was at an after time. ' For the present, 
marching his army in great haste in the depth of winter 
through continual storms of snow, he lost eight thousand of 
his men, and came with much diminished numbers to a 
place called the White Village, between Sidon and Berytus 
on the sea-coast, where he waited for the arrival of Cleu- 
patra And, being impatient of the delay she made, he be- 
thought himself of shortening the time in wine and drunk- 
enness, and yet could not endure the tediousness of a meal 
but would start from table and run to see if she were com- 
ing. Till at last she came into port, and brought with her 
clothes and money for the soldiers. Though some say that 



375 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

Antony only received the clothes from her and distributed 
hU own money in her name. r ,t i- 

ATuarrel presently happened between the king of Media 
and Phraates of Parthia, beginning, it is said, about the di- 
vision of the booty that was taken from the Romans and 
crZng great apprehension in the Median lest he should 
Lse his kingdom. He sent, therefore, ambassadors to An- 
ony with offers of entering into a confederate war against 
Phraa7es. And Antony, full of hopes at being thus asked 
as a favor, to accept that one thing, horse and archers the 
want of which had hindered his beating the Parthians before 
began at once to prepare for a return to Ar mem a there o 
join the Medes on the Araxes, and begin the war afresh. But 
Omvia in Rome, being desirous to see Antony, asked Ce- 
sar's kave to go to him; which he gave her, not so much, 
sav most authors, to gratify his sister, as to obtain a fair 
prete'c to begin the lar upon her dishonorable reception. 
She no sooner arrived at Athens, but by letters from Antony 
she was informed of his new expedition, and his will tha 
he Thould await him there. And, though she were mud 
displeased, not being ignorant of the real reason of this 
usac^e yet she wrote to him to know to what place he wouW 
b ;ieased she should send the things she had brough with 
her for his use; for she had brought clothes for his soldiers, 
baggage, cattle, money, and presents for his friends and offi- 
cers and two thousand chosen soldiers sumptuous yarrned^ 
to form pr^torian cohorts. This message was brought from 
Octavia ?o Antony by Niger, one of his friends who added 
to it the praises she deserved so well. Cleopatra feeling her 
rival already, as it were, at hand, was seized with fear lest 
to h r no'ble life and her high alliance, she once could add 
he charm of daily habit and affectionate intercourse, she 
shoud become irresistible, and be his absolute mistress for 
ever So she feigned to be dying for love of Antony, bring- 
ing her body down by slender diet; when he entered the room 
she fixed her eyes upon him in a rapture, and when he left 
seemed to languish and half faint away. She took great pains 
Tat he should see her in tears, and, as soon as he noticed .t 
hastilv dried them up and turned away, as if it were her 
wish that he should know nothing of it. All this was acting 



ANTONY 377 

while he prepared for Media; and Cleopatra's creatures were 
not s ow to forward the design, upbraiding Antony with his 
unfeehng, hard-hearted temper, thus letting a woman perish 
whose soul depended upon him and him alone. Octavia it 
was true, was his wife, and had been married to him be- 
cause It was found convenient for the affairs of her brother 
that It should be so, and she had the honor of the title • but 
Cleopatra, the sovereign queen of many nations, had been 
contented with the name of his mistress, nor did she shun 
or despise the character whilst she might see him, might live 
with him, and enjoy him; if she were bereaved of this she 
would not survive the loss. In fine, they so melted and un- 
manned him, that, fully believing she would die if he forsook 
her, he put off the war and returned to Alexandria, defer- 
ring his Median expedition until next summer, though news 
came of the Parthians being all in confusion with intestine 
disputes. Nevertheless, he did some time after go into that 
country, and made an alliance with the king of Media by 
marriage of a son of his by Cleopatra to the king's daughter 
who was yet very young; and so returned, with his thoughts 
taken up about the civil war. 

When Octavia returned from Athens, Casar, who consid- 
ered she had been injuriously treated, commanded her to live 
in a separate house; but she refused to leave the house of 
her husband, and entreated him, unless he had already re- 
solved, upon other motives, to make war with Antony that 
he would on her account let it alone; it would be intolerable 
to have It said of the two greatest commanders in the world 
that they had involved the Roman people in a civil war the 
one out of passion for, the other out of resentment about, a 
woman. And her behavior proved her words to be sincere 
She remained in Antony's house as if he were at home in it, 
and took the noblest and most generous care, not onlv of his 
children by her, but of those by Fulvia also. She received 
all the friends of Antony that came to Rome to seek office 
or upon any business, and did her utmost to prefer their re- 
quests to Caesar; yet this her honorable deportment did but, 
without her meaning it, damage the reputation of Antony; 
the wrong he did to such a woman made him hated. Nor was 
the division he made among his sons at Alexandria less un- 



378 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

popular; it seemed a theatrical piece of insolence and con- 
tempt of his country. For, assembling the people in the exer- 
cise ground, and causing two golden thrones to be placed on 
a platform of silver, the one for him and the other for Cleo- 
patra, and at their feet lower thrones for their children, he 
proclaimed Cleopatra queen of Egypt, Cyprus, Libya, and 
Ccele-Syria, and with her conjointly Caesarion, the reputed 
son of the former Caesar, who left Cleopatra with child. His 
own sons by Cleopatra were to have the style of kings of 
kings; to Alexander he gave Armenia and Media, with Par- 
thia, so soon as it should be overcome ; to Ptolemy, Phoenicia, 
Syria, and Cilicia. Alexander was brought out before the 
people in the Median costume, the tiara and upright peak, and 
Ptolemy, in boots and mantle and Macedonian cap done about 
with the diadem ; for this was the habit of the successors 
of Alexander, as the other was of the Medes and Armenians. 
And, as soon as they had saluted their parents, the one was 
received by a guard of Macedonians, the other by one of 
Armenians. Cleopatra was then, as at other times when she 
appeared in public, dressed in the habit of the goddess Isis, 
and gave audience to the people under the name of the New 
Isis. 

Caesar, relating these things in the senate, and often com- 
plaining to the people, excited men's minds against Antony. 
And Antony also sent messages of accusation against 
Caesar. The principal of his charges were these : first, that 
he had not made any division with him of Sicily, which was 
lately taken from Pompey; secondly, that he had retained 
the ships he had lent him for the war; thirdly, that after 
deposing Depidus, their colleague, he had taken for himself 
the army, governments, and revenues formerly appropriated 
to him ; and, lastly, that he had parcelled out almost all Italy 
amongst his own soldiers, and left nothing for his. Caesar's 
answer was as follows : that he had put Lepidus out of gov- 
ernment because of his own misconduct; that what he had 
got in war he would divide with Antony, so soon as Antony 
gave him a share of Armenia ; that Antony's soldiers had no 
claims in Italy, being in possession of Media and Parthia. 
the acquisitions which their brave actions under their general 
had added to the Roman empire. 



ANTONY 379 

Antony was in Armenia when this answer came to him, 
and immediately sent Canidius with sixteen legions towards 
the sea; but he, in the company of Cleopatra, went to Ephe- 
sus, whither ships were coming in from all quarters to form 
the navy, consisting, vessels of burden included, of eight 
hundred vessels, of which Cleopatra furnished two hundred, 
together with twenty thousand talents, and provision for the 
whole army during the war. Antony, on the advice of Domi- 
tius and some others, bade Cleopatra return into Egypt, there 
to expect the event of the war; but she, dreading some new 
reconciliation by Octavia's means, prevailed with Canidius, 
by a large sum of money, to speak in her favor with Antony, 
pointing out to him that it was not just that one that bore so 
great a part in the charge of the war should be robbed of 
her share of glory in the carrying it on ; nor would it be 
politic to disoblige the Egyptians, who were so considerable 
a part of his naval forces; nor did he see how she was in- 
ferior in prudence to any one of the kings that were serving 
with him; she had long governed a great kingdom by herself 
alone, and long lived with him, and gained experience in 
public affairs. These arguments (so the fate that destined 
all to Cajsar would have it), prevailed; and when all their 
forces had met, they sailed together to Samos, and held high 
festivities. For, as it was ordered that all kings, princes, and 
governors, all nations and cities within the limits of Syria, 
the Maeotid Lake, Armenia, and Illyria, should bring or cause 
to be brought all munitions necessary for war, so was it also 
proclaimed that all stage-players should make their appear- 
ance at Samos; so that, while pretty nearly the whole world 
was filled with groans and lamentations, this one island for 
some days resounded with piping and harping, theatres fill- 
ing, and choruses playing. Every city sent an ox as its con- 
tribution to the sacrifice, and the kings that accompanied 
Antony competed who should make the most magnificent 
feasts and the greatest presents ; and men began to ask them- 
selves, what would be don^ to celebrate the victory, when they 
went to such an expense of festivity at the opening of the war. 

This over, he gave Priene to his players for a habitation,^" 

" It seems to have been usual for the guild or company of performers in 
this part of Asia (" Ionia, as far as the Hellespont "}, to have a city of 



380 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

and set sail for Athens, where fresh sports and play-acting 
employed him. Cleopatra, jealous of the honors Octavia had 
received at Athens (for Octavia was much beloved by the 
Athemians), courted the favor of the people with all sorts of 
attentions. The Athenians, in requital, having decreed her 
public honors, deputed several of the citizens to wait upon her 
at her house; amongst whom went Antony as one, he being 
an Athenian citizen, and he it was that made the speech. He 
sent orders to Rome to have Octavia removed out of his 
house. She left it, we are told, accompanied by all his chil- 
dren, except the eldest by Fulvia, who was then with his 
father, weeping and grieving that she must be looked upon as 
one of the causes of the war. But the Romans pitied, not 
so much her, as Antony himself, and more particularly those 
who had seen Cleopatra, whom they could report to have 
no way the advantage of Octavia either in youth or in beauty. 
The speed and extent of Antony's preparations alarmed 
Caesar, who feared he might be forced to fight the decisive 
battle that summer. For he wanted many necessaries, and 
the people grudged very much to pay the taxes ; freemen be- 
ing called upon to pay a fourth part of their incomes, and 
freed slaves an eighth of their property, so that there were 
loud outcries against him, and disturbances throughout all 
Italy. And this is looked upon as one of the greatest of 
Antony's oversights, that he did not then press the war. For 
he allowed time at once for Caesar to make his preparations, 
and for the commotions to pass over. For while people were 
having their money called for, they were mutinous and vio- 
lent; but, having paid it, they held their peace. Titius and 
Plancus, men of consular dignity and friends to Antony, hav- 
ing been ill used by Cleopatra, whom they had most resisted 
in her design of being present in the war, came over to 
Caesar, and gave information of the contents of Antony's 
will, with which they were acquainted. It was deposited in 
the hands of the vestal virgins, who refused to deliver it up, 

their own, a sort of headquarters, whence they went out, and where once a 
year they held a festival of their own. Formerly, says Strabo, it had been 
Teos; intestine troubles drove them thence to Ephesus; king Attalus gave 
them Myonnesus; and afterwards Lebedus, in Roman times, a half aban- 
doned town, "Gabiis desertior atque Fidenis vicus" was only too glad to 
receive them. See Strabo, XIV., 29. 



1 



ANTONY 381 

and sent Cresar word, if he pleased, he should come and seize 
it himself, which he did. And, reading it over to himself, 
he noted those places that were most for his purpose, and, 
having summoned the senate, read them publicly. Many were 
scandalized at the proceeding, thinking it out of reason and 
equity to call a man to account for what was not to be until 
after his death. Caesar specially pressed what Antony said 
in his will about his burial; for he had ordered that even if 
he died in the city of Rome, his body, after being carried in 
state through the forum, should be sent to Cleopatra at 
Alexandria. Calvisius, a dependant of Caesar's, urged other 
charges in connection with Cleopatra against Antony; that 
he had given her the library of Pergamus, containing two 
hundred thousand distinct volumes; that at a great banquet, 
in the presence of many guests, he had risen up and rubbed 
her feet, to fulfil some wager or promise; that he had suf- 
fered the Ephesians to salute her as their queen ; that he had 
frequently at the public audience of kings and princes re- 
ceived amorous messages written in tablets made of onyx and 
crystal, and read them openly on the tribunal ; that when 
Furnius, a man of great authority and eloquence among the 
Romans, was pleading, Cleopatra happening to pass by in her 
chair, Antony started up and left them in the middle of their 
cause, to follow at her side and attend her home. 

Calvisius, however, was looked upon as the inventor of 
most of these stories. Antony's friends went up and down 
the city to gain him credit, and sent one of themselves, Gem- 
inius, to him to beg him to take heed and not allow himself 
to be deprived by vote of his authority, and proclaimed a 
public enemy to the Roman state. But Geminius no sooner 
arrived in Greece but he was looked upon as one of Octavia's 
spies; at their suppers he was made a continual butt for 
mockery, and was put to sit in the least honorable places ; all 
which he bore very well, seeking only an occasion of speak- 
ing with Antony. So, at supper, being told to say what busi- 
ness he came about, he answered he would keep the rest for a 
soberer hour, but one thing he had to say, whether full or 
fasting, that all would go well if Cleopatra would return to 
Egypt. And on Antony showing his anger at it, "You have 
done well, Geminius," said Cleopatra, "to tell your secret 



382 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

without being put to the rack." So Geminius, after a few 
days, took occasion to make his escape and go to Rome. 
Many more of Antony's friends were driven from him by 
the insolent usage they had from Cleopatra's flatterers, 
amongst whom were Marcus Silanus and Dellius the his- 
torian. And Dellius says he was afraid of his life, and that 
Glaucus, the physician, informed him of Cleopatra's design 
against him. She was angry with him for having said that 
Antony's friends were served with sour wine, while at Rome 
Sarmentus, Caesar's little page (his delicia, as the Romans call 
it), drank Falernian.^^ 

As soon as Caesar had completed his preparations, he had a 
decree made, declaring war on Cleopatra, and depriving An- 
tony of the authority which he had let a woman exercise in 
his place. Caesar added that he had drunk potions that had 
bereaved him of his senses, and that the generals they would 
have to fight with would be Mardion the eunuch, Pothinus, 
Iras, Cleopatra's hair-dressing girl, and Charmion, who were 
Antony's chief state-councillors. 

These prodigies are said to have announced the war. 
Pisaurum, where Antony had settled a colony, on the Adri- 
atic sea, was swallowed up by an earthquake; sweat ran 
from one of the marble statues of Antony at Alba for many 
days together, and, though frequently wiped off, did not stop. 
When he himself was in the city of Patras, the temple of Her- 
cules was struck by lightning, and, at Athens, the figure of 
Bacchus was torn by a violent wind out of the Battle of the 
Giants, and laid flat upon the theatre ;^2 ^vith both which 
deities Antony claimed connection, proifessing to be de- 
scended from Hercules, and from his imitating Bacchus in 
his way of living having received the name of Young Bac- 
chus. The same whirlwind at Athens also brought down, 

" Suetonius tells us that it was one of the habitual amusements of 
Augustus to play and talk with children of this kind, who were sought out 
for him chiefly in Syria and Mauritania. They were specially selected for 
their smallness; but he had no liking for dwarfs or deformed children, who 
were often kept by other great people in Rome as their playthings, so called, 
delicia or delicice, much in the same sense as the pet-bird of Catullus's mis- 
tress, " Passer, delicia meae puellae." 

"The Battle of the Giants with the Gods was a piece of sculpture in the 
south wall of the Acropolis, just above the Dionysiac theatre in the side of 
the rock underneath. 



ANTONY 3g3 



from amongst many others which were not d,-.f,irh.H .u 
colossal statues of Eumenes and AttaTus wh th vet n' 
scribed with Antony's nam^ Ar,^ • r-i ""'it-n were in- 

galley, which was ?a IcdThe AmliZ ?'°'T' '""""'- 
omen occurred ; ii '^"'°'"="- " most inauspicious 

r.«,. r:v. • s ^"-'-"ui, oi LiDya, 1 arcondemus of the Tin- 
LTanVrni' '™'" ^"^'"'" '"' ArLnilTthfloniL 

c.ar3rr-p,\-/,;r^:;;,-rs 

Ci, ^dta": ?Sr a^s1h:"p'iLroTH°= L'S' 
tony he provmces fron, Cyrene to Ethiopia " "^ '^"" 

son o ce: : vrh:t'':,r 'ir^^ '""'"'^^^ '° '"^ p- 
5£" "t\~ '-- :s%=sTi 

the r . r- '"^ ^°^'' ^"^ ^°'- ^" this the vessels had not 
aaquarters at Tarentum and Brundusium he sent messages 



384 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

to Antony not to protract the war, but come out with his 
forces; he would give him secure roadsteads and ports for 
his fleet, and, "for his land army to disembark and pitch their 
camp, he would leave him as much ground in Italy, inland 
from the sea, as a horse could traverse in a single course. 
Antony, on the other side, with the like bold language, chal- 
lenged him to a single combat, though he were much the 
older; and, that being refused, proposed to meet him in the 
Pharsalian fields, where Caesar and Pompey had fought be- 
fore. But whilst Antony lay with his fleet near Actium, 
where now stands Nicopolis, Caesar seized his opportunity, 
and crossed the Ionian sea^ securing himself at a place in 
Epirus called the Ladle.^^ And when those about Antony 
were much disturbed, their land-forces being a good way off, 
"Indeed," said Cleopatra, in mockery, "we may well be fright- 
ened if Caesar has got hold of the Ladle !" 

On the morrow, Antony, seeing the enemy sailing up, and 
fearing lest his ships might be taken for want of the soldiers 
to go on board of them, armed all the rowers, and made a 
show upon the decks of being in readiness to fight; the oars 
were mounted as if waiting to be put in motion, and the 
vessels themselves drawn up to face the enemy on either side 
of the channel of Actium, as though they were properly 
manned, and ready for an engagement. And Caesar, deceived 
by this stratagem, retired. He was also thought to have 
shown considerable skill in cutting off the water from the 
enemy by some lines of trenches and forts, water not being 
plentiful anywhere else, nor very good. And again, his con- 
duct to Domitius was generous, much against the will of 
Cleopatra. For when he had made his escape in a little boat 
to Caesar, having then a fever upon him, although Antony 
could not but resent it highly, yet he sent after him his whole 
equipage, with his friends and servants; and Domitius, as if 
he would give a testimony to the world how repentant he had 
become on his desertion and treachery being thus manifest, 
died soon after. Among the kings also, Amyntas and Dei- 
otarus went over to Caesar. And the fleet was so unfortunate 
in every thing that was undertaken, and so unready on every 
occasion, that Antony was driven again to put his confidence 

'^Toryne is the name which has this meaning. 



ANTONY 385 

in the land-forces. Canidius, too, who commanded the le- 
gions, when he saw how things stood, changed his opinion, 
and now was of advice that Cleopatra should be sent back, 
and that, retiring into Thrace or Macedonia, the quarrel 
should be decided in a land fight. For Dicomes, also, the 
king of the Getae, promised to come and join him with a great 
army, and it would not be any kind of disparagement to him 
to yield the sea to Caesar, who, in the Sicilian wars, had had 
such long practice in ship-fighting; on the contrary, it would 
be simply ridiculous for Antony, who was by land the most 
experienced commander living, to make no use of his well- 
disciplined and numerous infantry, scattering and wasting his 
forces by parcelling them out in the ships. But for all this, 
Cleopatra prevailed that a sea-fight should determine all, 
having already an eye to flight, and ordering all her affairs, 
not so as to assist in gaining a victory, but to escape 
with the greatest safety from the first commencement of a 
defeat. 

There were two long walls, extending from the camp to 
the station of the ships, between which Antony used to pass 
to and fro without suspecting any danger. But Caesar, upon 
the suggestion of a servant that it would not be difficult to 
surprise him, laid an ambush, which, rising up somewhat too 
hastily, seized the man that came just before him, he himself 
escaping narrowly by flight. 

When it was resolved to stand to a fight at sea, they set 
fire to all the Egyptian ships except sixty; and of these the 
best and largest, from ten banks down to three, he manned 
with twenty thousand full-armed men, and two thousand 
archers. Here it is related that a foot captain, one that had 
fought often under Antony, and had his body all mangled 
with wounds, exclaimed, "O, my general, what have our 
wounds and swords done to displease you, that you should 
give your confidence to rotten timbers? Let Egyptians and 
Phoenicians contend at sea, give us the land, where we know 
well how to die upon the spot or gain the victory." To 
which he answered nothing, but, by his look and motion of 
his hand seeming to bid him be of good courage, passed 
forwards, having already, it would seem, no very sure hopes, 
since when the masters proposed leaving the sails behind 

M — HC XU 



ggg PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

them he commanded they should be put aboard, "For we 
must not," said he, "let one enemy escape." 

That day and the three following the sea was so rough they 
could not engage. But on the fifth there was a calm, 
and they fought; Antony commanding with Publicola the 
right and Coelius the left squadron, Marcus Octavms and 
Marcus Instelus the centre. C^sar gave the charge of the 
left to Agrippa, commanding in person on the right. As tor 
the land-for'ces, Canidius was general for Antony, Taurus for 
Caesar; both armies remaining drawn up in order along the 
shore Antony in a small boat went from one ship to an- 
other encouraging his soldiers and bidding th^m stand firm 
and fight as steadily on their large ships as if they were on 
Lnd The masters he ordered that they should receive the 
enemy lying still as if they were at anchor, and -tamtam t^^^^^ 
entrance of the port, which was a narrow and difficult pas 
Sage Of C^sar'they relate, that, leaving his tent and going 
round while it was yet dark, to visit the ships, he met a man 
driving an ass, and asked him his name. He answered him 
that his own name was "Fortunate, and my ass, says he, is 
caUed Corquerer."- And afterwards, when he disposed he 
beaks of the ships in that place in token of his victory, the 
statue of his man and his ass in bronze were placed amongst 
iem After examining the rest of his fleet he wen m a 
boat to the right wing, and looked with much admiration at 
the enemy lying perfectly still in the straits, in all appear- 
ance as^f they had been at anchor. For some considerable 
length of time he actually thought they were so and kep 
hi^ own ships at rest, at a distance of about eight fuHong 
from them. But about noon a breeze sprang up from the 
sea and Antony's men, weary of expecting the enemy so 
ong, andlrusting to their large tall vessels, as if they had 
been invincible, began to advance the left squadron. Ca>sar 
was overjoyed to see them move, and ordered his own right 
Tquadron to retire, that he might entice them out to sea a. 
far as he could, his design being to sail ^^^^ af ^^°^^^^'^^^^^ 
so with his light and well-manned galleys to attack these hu^ 
vessels, which their size and their want of men made slow 
to move and difficult to manage. 

"Eutychus the name of the man. and Nicon that of the ass. 



ANTONY 387 



When they engaged, there was no charging or striking of 
^re.. h V '' '"'''''' ''^^'^^^ ^"^°">-' 'y --on of their 

t1[e s rokl Wr? T'f' °1 '''' ''^''''y -q--d to n.ak 
the stroke effectual, and, on the other side, Cesar's durst not 
charge head to head on Antony's, which were all armed with 
solid masses and spikes of brass; nor did they Hke everto 
run m on their sides, which were so strongly b^ilt with great 
squared pieces of timber, fastened together with iron bdts 

innn 1 ^T u ^'f ' '''°"^^ '^''^y ha^e been shattered 
upon them So that the engagement resembled a land fi^ht 
or, to speak yet more properly, the attack and defence of a 
fortified place; for there were always three or four vessels 
of Cssar s about one of Antony's, pressing them with spears, 
javelins, poles, and several inventions of fire, which thev 
flung among them, Antony's men using catapults also, to pour 
down missiles from wooden towers. Agrippa drawing out 
the squadron under his command to outflank the enemy Pub- 
hcola was obliged to observe his motions, and gradually to 
break off from the middle squadron, where some confusion 
and alarm ensued, while Arruntius^^ engaged them. But the 
tortune of the day was still undecided, and the battle equal 
when on a sudden Cleopatra's sixty ships were seen hoisting 
sail and making out to sea in full flight, right through the 
ships that were engaged. For they were placed behind the 
great ships, which, in breaking through, they put into dis- 
order. The enemy was astonished to see them sailing off 
with a fair wind towards Peloponnesus. Here it was that 
Antony showed to all the world that he was no longer actu- 
ated by the thoughts and motives of a commander or a man 
or indeed by his own judgment at all, and what was once 
said as a jest, that the soul of a lover lives in some one else's 
body, he proved to be a serious truth. For, as if he had been 
Dorn part of her, and must move with her wheresoever she 
went as soon as he saw her ship sailing away, he abandoned 
ail that were fighting and spending their lives for him and 
put himself aboard a galley of five ranks of oars, taking 
with him only Alexander of Syria and Scellias, to follow 
her that had so well begun his ruin and would hereafter 
accomplish it. 

"Arruntius commanded in Caesar's centre. 



ggg PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

She perceiving him to follow, gave the signal to come 
aboard. So, as soon as he came up with them, he was taken 
fnto the ship. But without seeing her or lettmg himself be 
seen by her, he went forward by himself, and sat alone w th- 
out a word, in the ship's prow, covering his face with his two 
hands In the meanwhile, some of Cesar's light Liburman 
ships that were in pursuit, came in sight But on Antony s 
commanding to face about, they all gave back except Eury 
cles the Laconian, who pressed on, shaking a lance from the 
deck as if he m;ant to hurl it at him. Antony, standing 
at the prow, demanded of him, "Who is this that pursues 
Antony?" *1 am," said he, "Eurycles, the son of Lachares, 
armed with Cssar's fortune to revenge my father s death 
LaXes had been condemned for a robbery, and beheaded 
by Antony's orders. However, Eurycles did not attack An- 
tony but ran with his full force upon the other admiral- 
galky (for there were two of them), and with the blow 
furnJd her round, and took both her and another ship m 
which was a quantity of rich plate and furniture. So soon as 
Eu yells was gone, Antony returned to his posture, and sate 
TiS and thu^s he remained for three days, either in anger 
wi?h Cleopatra, or wishing not to upbraid her, at the end of 
which they touched at T^narus. Here the women of their 
company succeeded first in bringing them to speak, and af- 
erwU to eat and sleep together. And by this t-e sev 
eral of the ships of burden and some of his "e"ds ^e^^^^^^ 
to come in to him from the rout, bringing news of his fleets 
being qute destroyed, but that the land-forces, they thought 
stil" stood firm. So that he sent messengers to Canidius to 
^a"ch the army with all speed through Macedonia into Asi. 
And designing himself to go from Tsenarus in o Africa, he 
gave one of the merchant ships, laden with a large sum of 
money and vessels of silver and gold of great value, belong- 
Tg to the royal collections, to his friends, desiring them to 
shire it amongst them, and provide for their own safety. 
They refusTng his kindness with tears in their eyes, he corn- 
ier ed hem with all the goodness and humanity ;-agi-^^'_ 
entreating them to leave him, and wrote l^"ers in the^r be 
half to Theophilus, his steward, at Corinth, th^tjie would 
provide for their security, and keep them concealed tiU such 



ANTONY 389 

time as they could make their peace with Caesar. This The- 
ophilus was the father of Hipparchus, who had such interest 
with Antony, who was the first of all his freedmen that went 
over to Caesar, and who settled afterwards at Corinth. In 
this posture were affairs with Antony. 

But at Actium, his fleet, after a long resistance to Caesar, 
and suffering the most damage from a heavy sea that set in 
right ahead, scarcely, at four in the afternoon, gave up the 
contest, with the loss of not more than five thousand men 
killed, but of three hundred ships taken, as Caesar himself 
has recorded. Only few had known of Antony's flight ; and 
those who were told of it could not at first give any belief 
to so incredible a tiling, as that a general who had nineteen 
entire legions and twelve thousand horse upon the sea-shore, 
could abandon all and fly away ; and he, above all, who had 
so often experienced both good and evil fortune, and had in 
a thousand wars and battles been inured to changes. His 
soldiers, however, would not give up their desires and ex- 
pectations, still fancying he would appear from some part or 
other, and showed such a generous fidelity to his service, 
that, when they were thoroughly assured that he was fled in 
earnest, they kept themselves in a body seven days, making 
no account of the messages that Caesar sent to them. But 
at last, seeing that Canidius himself, who commanded them, 
was fled from the camp by night, and that all their officers 
had quite abandoned them, they gave way, and made their 
submission to the conqueror. After this, Caesar set sail for 
Athens, where he made a settlement with Greece, and dis- 
tributed what remained of the provision of corn that An- 
tony had made for his army among the cities, which were in 
a miserable condition, despoiled of their money, their slaves, 
their horses, and beasts of service. My great-grandfather 
Nicarchus used to relate, that the whole body of the people 
of our city were put in requisition to carry each one a cer- 
tain measure of corn upon their shoulders to the sea-side 
near Anticyra, men standing by to quicken them with the 
lash. They had made one journey of the kind, but when 
they had just measured out the corn and were putting it on 
their backs for a second, news came of Antony's defeat, and 
so saved Chaeronea, for all Antony's purveyors and soldiers 



390 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

fled upon the news, and left them to divide the corn among 
themselves. 

When Antony came into Africa, he sent on Cleopatra from 
Parsetonium into Egypt, and staid himself in the most entire 
solitude that he could desire, roaming and wandering about 
with only two friends, one a Greek, Aristocrates, a rhetori- 
cian, and the other a Roman, Lucilius, of whom we have 
elsewhere spoken, how, at Philippi, to give Brutus time to 
escape, he suffered himself to be taken by the pursuers, pre- 
tending he was Brutus. Antony gave him his life, and on 
this account he remained true and faithful to him to the last. 

But when also the officer who commanded for him in 
Africa, to whose care he had committed all his forces there, 
took them over to Caesar, he resolved to kill himself, but was 
hindered by his friends. And coming to Alexandria, he 
found Cleopatra busied in a most bold and wonderful enter- 
prise. Over the small space of land which divides the Red 
Sea from the sea near Egypt, which may be considered also 
the boundary between Asia and Africa, and in the narrowest 
place is not much above three hundred furlongs across, over 
this neck of land Cleopatra had formed a project of drag- 
ging her fleet, and setting it afloat in the Arabian Gulf, thus 
with her soldiers and her treasure to secure herself a home 
on the other side, where she might live in peace, far away 
from war and slavery. But the first galleys which were car- 
ried over being burnt by the Arabians of Petra, and Antony 
not knowing but that the army before Actium still held to- 
gether, she desisted from her enterprise, and gave orders for 
the fortifying all the approaches to Egypt. But Antony, 
leaving the city and the conversation of his friends, built 
him a dwelling-place in the water, near Pharos, upon a little 
mole which he cast up in the sea, and there, secluding him- 
self from the company of mankind, said he desired nothing 
but to live the life of Timon; as, indeed, his case was the 
same, and the ingratitude and injuries which he suffered from 
those he had esteemed his friends, made him hate and mis- 
trust all mankind. 

This Timon was a citizen of Athens, and lived much about 
the Peloponnesian war, as may be seen by the comedies of 
Aristophanes and Plato, in which he is ridiculed as the hater 



ANTONY 391 

and enemy of mankind. He avoided and repelled the ap- 
proaches of every one, but embraced with kisses and the 
greatest show of affection Alcibiades, then in his hot youth. 
And when Apemantus was astonished, and demanded the 
reason, he replied that he knew this young man would one 
day do infinite mischief to the Athenians. He never admitted 
any one into his company, except at times this Apemantus, 
who was of the same sort of temper, and was an imitator 
of his way of life. At the celebration of the festival of 
flagons,^® these two kept the feast together, and Apemantus 
saying to him, "What a pleasant party, Timon !" "It would 
be," he answered, "if you were away." One day he got up in 
a full assembly on the speaker's place, and when there was 
a dead silence and great wonder at so unusual a sight, he 
said, "Ye men of Athens, I have a little plot of ground, and 
in it grows a fig-tree, on which many citizens have been 
pleased to hang themselves; and now, having resolved to 
build in that place, I wished to announce it publicly, that any 
of you who may be desirous may go and hang yourselves 
before I cut it down." He died and was buried at Halae, near 
the sea, where it so happened that, after his burial, a land- 
slip took place on the point of the shore, and the sea, flow- 
ing in, surrounded his tomb, and made it inaccessible to the 
foot of man. It bore this inscription : — 

Here am I laid, my life of misery done. 
Ask not my name, I curse you every one. 

And this epitaph was made by himself while yet alive; that 
which is more generally known is by Callimachus : — 

Timon, the misanthrope, am I below. 
Go, and revile me, traveller, only go. 

Thus much of Timon, of whom much more might be said. 
Canidius now came, bringing word in person of the loss of 
the army before Actium. Then he received news that Herod 
of Judaea was gone over to Caesar with some legions and co- 
horts, and that the other kings and princes were in like man- 

" " The Flagons," or Chocs, was the second day of the Anthesterian 
feast of Bacchus, and was observed by the Athenians as a special day of 
conviviality, when they met in parties, and drank together. 



392 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

ner deserting him, and that, out of Egypt, nothing stood by 
him. All this, however, seemed not to disturb him, but as if 
he were glad to put away all hope, that with it he might be 
rid of care, and leaving his habitation by the sea, which 
he called the Timoneum, he was received by Cleopatra in 
the palace, and set the whole city in to a course of feasting, 
drinking, and presents. The son of Caesar and Cleopatra was 
registered among the youths, and Antyllus, his own son by 
'Fulvia, received the gown without the purple border, given 
to those that are come of age ; in honor of which the citizens 
of Alexandria did nothing but feast and revel for many days. 
They themselves broke up the Order of the Inimitable Liv- 
ers, and constituted another in its place, not inferior in 
splendor, luxury, and sumptuosity, calling it that of the Diers 
together.^^ For all those that said they would die with An- 
tony and Cleopatra gave in their names, for the present pass- 
ing their time in all manner of pleasures and a regular suc- 
cession of banquets. But Cleopatra was busied in making a 
collection of all varieties of poisonous drugs, and, in order to 
see which of them were the least painful in the operation, 
she had them tried upon prisoners condemned to die. But, 
finding that the quick poisons always worked with sharp 
pains, and that the less painful were slow, she next tried 
venomous animals, and watched with her own eyes whilst 
they were applied, one creature to the body of another. This 
was her daily practice, and she pretty well satisfied herself 
that nothing was comparable to the bite of the asp, which, 
without convulsion or groaning, brought on a heavy drowsi- 
ness and lethargy, with a gentle sweat on the face, the 
senses being stupefied by degrees ; the patient, in appearance, 
being sensible of no pain, but rather troubled to be disturbed 
or awakened, like those that are in a profound natural 
sleep. 

At the same time, they sent ambassadors to Caesar into 
Asia, Cleopatra asking for the kingdom of Egypt for her 
children, and Antony, that he might have leave to live as a 
private man in Egypt, or, if that were thought too much, 

" It was a name well known on the stage. There were two, if not three, 
comedies, called the Synapothneskontes, and one of them had been trans- 
lated into Latin by Plautus, as the Commorientes. 



ANTONY 393 

that he might retire to Athens. In lack of friends, so many 
having deserted, and others not being trusted, Euphronius, 
his son's tutor, was sent on this embassy. For Alexas of La- 
odicea, who, by the recommendation of Timagenes, became 
acquainted with Antony at Rome, and had been more power- 
ful with him than any Greek, and was, of all the instruments 
which Cleopatra made use of to persuade Antony, the most 
violent, and the chief subverted of any good thoughts that, 
from time to time, might rise in his mind in Octavia's favor, 
had been sent before to dissuade Herod from desertion ; but, 
betraying his master, stayed with him, and, confiding in 
Herod's interest, had the boldness to come into Caesar's 
presence. Herod, however, was not able to help him, for he 
was immediately put in chains, and sent into his own country, 
where, by Caesar's order, he was put to death. This reward 
of his treason Alexas received while Antony was yet alive. 
Caesar would not listen to any proposals for Antony, but 
he made answer to Cleopatra, that there was no reasonable 
favor which she might not expect, if she put Antony to 
death, or expelled him from Egypt. He sent back with the 
ambassadors his own freedman Thyrsus, a man of under- 
standing, and not at all ill-qualified for conveying the mes- 
sages of a youthful general to a woman so proud of her 
charms and possessed with the opinion of the power of 
her beauty. But by the long audiences he received from her, 
and the special honors which she paid him, Antony's jealousy 
began to be awakened; he had him seized, whipped, and 
sent back ; writing Caesar word that the man's busy, imperti- 
nent ways had provoked him ; in his circumstances he could 
not be expected to be very patient : "But if it offend you," 
he added, "you have got my freedman, Hipparchus. with 
you; hang him up and scourge him to make us even." But 
Cleopatra, after this, to clear herself, and to allay his jeal- 
ousies, paid him all the attentions imaginable. When her own 
birthday came, she kept it as was suitable to their fallen for- 
tunes ; but his was observed with the utmost prodigality of 
splendor and magnificence, so that many of the guests sate 
down in want, and went home wealthy men. Meantime, con- 
tinual letters came to Caesar from Agrippa, telling him his 
presence was extremely required at Rome. 



394 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

And so the war was deferred for a season. But, the winter 
being over, he began his march ; he himself by Syria, and 
his captains through Africa. Pelusium being taken, there 
went a report as if it had been delivered up to Caesar by 
Seleucus, not without the consent of Cleopatra; but she, to 
justify herself, gave up into Antony's hands the wife and 
children of Seleucus to be put to death. She had caused to 
be built, joining to the temple of Isis, several tombs and 
monuments of wonderful height, and very remarkable for 
the workmanship; thither she removed her treasure, her 
gold, silver, emeralds, pearls, ebony, ivory, cinnamon, and, 
after all, a great quantity of torchwood and tow. Upon 
which Caesar began to fear lest she should, in a desperate 
fit, set all these riches on fire; and, therefore, while he was 
marching towards the city with his army, he omitted no oc- 
casion of giving her new assurances of his good intentions. 
He took up his position in the Hippodrome, where Antony 
made a fierce sally upon him, routed his horse, and beat them 
back into their trenches, and so returned with great satis- 
faction to the palace, where, meeting Cleopatra, armed as he 
was, he kissed her, and commended to her favor one of his 
men, who had most signalized himself in the fight, to whom 
she made a present of a breastplate and helmet of gold; which 
he having received, went that very night and deserted to 
Caesar. 

After this, Antony sent a new challenge to Caesar, to fight 
him hand to hand; who made him answer that he might find 
several other ways to end his life; and he, considering with 
himself that he could not die more honorably than in battle, 
resolved to make an effort both by land and sea. At supper, 
it is said, he bade his servants help him freely, and pour him 
out wine plentifully, since to-morrow, perhaps, they should 
not do the same, but be servants to a new master, whilst 
he should lie on the ground, a dead corpse, and nothing. His 
friends that were about him wept to hear him talk so ; which 
he perceiving, told them he would not lead them to a battle 
in which he expected rather an honorable death than either 
safety or victory. That night, it is related, about the middle 
of it, when the whole city was in a deep silence and general 
sadness, expecting the event of the next day, on a sudden 



ANTONY 395 

was heard the sound of all sorts of instruments, and voices 
singing in tune, and the cry of a crowd of people shouting 
and dancing, like a troop of bacchanals on its way. This 
tumultuous procession seemed to take its course right through 
the middle of the city to the gate nearest the enemy; here 
it became loudest, and suddenly passed out. People who 
reflected considered this to signify that Bacchus, the god 
whom Antony had always made it his study to copy and imi- 
tate, had now forsaken him. 

As soon as it was light, he marched his infantry out of the 
city, and posted them upon a rising ground, from whence he 
saw his fleet make up to the enemy. There he stood in ex- 
pectation of the event; but as soon as the fleets came near 
to one another, his men saluted Caesar's with their oars ; and, 
on their responding, the whole body of the ships, forming 
into a single fleet, rowed up direct to the city. Antony had 
no sooner seen this, but the horse deserted him, and went 
over to Caesar; and his foot being defeated, he retired into 
the city, crying out that Cleopatra had betrayed him to the 
enemies he had made for her sake. She, being afraid lest in 
his fury and despair he might do her a mischief, fled to her 
monument, and letting down the falling doors, which were 
strong with bars and bolts, she sent messengers who should 
tell Antony she was dead. He, believing it, cried out, "Now. 
Antony, why delay longer ? Fate has snatched away the only 
pretext for which you could say you desired yet to live." 
Going into his chamber, and there loosening and opening his 
coat of armor, "I am not," said he, "troubled, Cleopatra, to 
be at present bereaved of you, for I shall soon be with you; 
but it distresses me that so great a general should be found 
of a tardier courage than a woman." He had a faithful 
servant, whose name was Eros ; he had engaged him formerly 
to kill him when he should think it necessary, and now he 
put him to his promise. Eros drew his sword, as designing 
to kill him, but, suddenly turning round, he slew himself. 
And as he fell dead at his feet, "It is well done, Eros," said 
Antony ; "you show your master how to do what you had not 
the heart to do yourself;" and so he ran himself into the 
belly, and laid himself upon the couch. The wound, however, 
was not immediately mortal; and the flow of blood ceasing 



396 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

when he lay down, presently he came to himself, and en- 
treated those that were about him to put him out of his pain; 
but they all fled out of the chamber, and left him crying out 
and struggling, until Diomede, Cleopatra's secretary, came 
to him, having orders from her to bring him into the 
monument. 

When he understood she was alive, he eagerly gave order 
to the servants to take him up, and in their arms was carried 
to the door of the building. Cleopatra would not open the 
door, but, looking from a sort of window, she let down ropes 
and cords, to which Antony was fastened; and she and her 
two women, the only persons she had allowed to enter the 
monument, drew him up. Those that were present say that 
nothing was ever more sad than this spectacle, to see Antony, 
covered all over with blood and just expiring, thus drawn up, 
still holding up his hands to her, and lifting up his body with 
the little force he had left. As, indeed, it was no easy task 
for the women ; and Cleopatra, with all her force, clinging to 
the rope, and straining with her head to the ground, with 
difficulty pulled him up, while those below encouraged her 
with their cries, and joined in all her effort and anxiety. 
When she had got him up, she laid him on the bed, tearing 
all her clothes, which she spread upon him; and, beating her 
breasts with her hands, lacerating herself, and disfiguring her 
own face with the blood from his wounds, she called him 
her lord, her husband, her emperor, and seemed to have 
pretty nearly forgotten all her own evils, she was so intent 
upon his misfortunes. Antony, stopping her lamentations 
as well as he could, called for wine to drink, either that he 
was thirsty, or that he imagined that it might put him the 
sooner out of pain. When he had drunk, he advised her to 
bring her own affairs, so far as might be honorably done, to 
a safe conclusion, and that, among all the friends of Caesar, 
she should rely on Proculeius ; that she should not pity him 
in this last turn of fate, but rather rejoice for him in re- 
membrance of his past happiness, who had been of all men 
the most illustrious and powerful, and, in the end, had fallen 
not ignobly, a Roman by a Roman overcome. 

Just as he breathed his last, Proculeius arrived from 
Caesar; for when Antony gave himself his wound, and was 



ANTONY 397 

carried in to Cleopatra, one of his guards, Dercetaeus, took 
up Antony's sword and hid it; and, when he saw his oppor- 
tunity, stole away to Caesar, and brought him the first news 
of Antony's death, and withal showed him the bloody sword. 
Caesar, upon this, retired into the inner part of his tent, and, 
giving some tears to the death of one that had been nearly 
allied to him in marriage, his colleague in empire, and com- 
panion in so many wars and dangers, he came out to his 
friends, and, bringing with him many letters, he read to 
them with how much reason and moderation he had always 
addressed himself to Antony, and in return what overbearing 
and arrogant answers he received. Then he sent Proculeius 
to use his utmost endeavors to get Cleopatra alive into his 
power; for he was afraid of losing a great treasure, and, 
besides, she would be no small addition to the glory of his 
triumph. She, however, was careful not to put herself in 
Proculeius's power; but from within her monument, he 
standing on the outside of a door, on the level of the ground, 
which was strongly barred, but so that they might well 
enough hear one another's voice, she held a conference with 
him ; she demanding that her kingdom might be given to her 
children, and he bidding her be of good courage, and trust 
Caesar for every thing. 

Having taken particular notice of the place, he returned to 
Caesar, and Callus was sent to parley with her the second 
time; who, being come to the door, on purpose prolonged 
the conference, while Proculeius fixed his scaling-ladders in 
the window through which the women had pulled up Antony. 
And so entering, with two men to follow him, he went 
straight down to the door where Cleopatra was discoursing 
with Callus. One of the two women who were shut up in 
the monument with her cried out, "Miserable Cleopatra, you 
are taken prisoner !" Upon which she turned quick, and, 
looking at Proculeius, drew out her dagger, which she had 
with her to stab herself. But Proculeius ran up quickly, and, 
seizing her with both his hands, "For shame," said he, "Cleo- 
patra ; you wrong yourself and Caesar much, who would rob 
him of so fair an occasion of showing his clemency, and 
would make the world believe the most gentle of commanders 
to be a faithless and implacable enemy." And so, taking the 



398 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

dagger out of her hand, he also shook her dress to see if 
there were any poison hid in it. After this, Caesar sent 
Epaphroditus, one of his freedmen, with orders to treat her 
with all the gentleness and civility possible, but to take the 
strictest precautions to keep her alive. 

In the meanwhile, Caesar made his entry into Alexandria, 
with Areius the philosopher at his side, holding him by the 
hand and talking with him; desiring that all his fellow- 
citizens should see what honor was paid to him, and should 
look up to him accordingly from the very first moment. 
Then, entering the exercise-ground, he mounted a platform 
erected for the purpose, and from thence commanded the 
citizens (who, in great fear and consternation, fell prostrate 
at his feet) to stand up, and told them, that he freely ac- 
quitted the people of all blame, first, for the sake of Alex- 
ander, who built their city; then, for the city's sake itself, 
which was so large and beautiful ; and, thirdly, to gratify 
his friend Areius. 

Such great honor did Areius receive from Caesar; and by 
his intercession many lives were saved, amongst the rest that 
of Philostratus, a man, of all the professors of logic that 
ever were, the most ready in extempore speaking, but quite 
destitute of any right to call himself one of the philosophers 
of the Academy. Caesar, out of disgust at his character, 
refused all attention to his entreaties. So, growing a long, 
white beard, and dressing himself in black, he followed 
behind Areius, shouting out the verse. 

The wise, if they are wise, will save the wise. 

Which Caesar hearing, gave him his pardon, to prevent 
rather any odium that might attach to Areius, than any harm 
that Philostratus might suffer. 

Of Antony's children, Antyllus, his son by Fulvia, being 
betrayed by his tutor, Theodorus, was put to death ; and 
while the soldiers were cutting off his head, his tutor con- 
trived to steal a precious jewel which he wore about his 
neck, and put it into his pocket, and afterwards denied the 
fact, but was convicted and crucified. Cleopatra's children, 
with their attendants, had a guard set on them, and were 
treated very honorably. Caesarion, who was reputed to be 



ANTONY 390 

the son of Caesar the Dictator, was sent by his mother, with 
a great sum of money, through Ethiopia, to pass into India; 
but his tutor, a man named Rhodon, about as honest as Theo- 
dorus, persuaded him to turn back, for that Caesar designed 
to make him king. Caesar consulting what was best to be 
done with him, Areius, we are told said, 

Too many Cersars are not well." 

So, afterwards, when Cleopatra was dead, he was killed. 

Many kings and great commanders made petition to Caesar 
for the body of Antony, to give him his funeral rites; but he 
would not take away his corpse from Cleopatra, by whose 
hands he was buried with royal splendor and magnificence, 
it being granted to her to employ what she pleased on his 
funeral. In this extremity of grief and sorrow, and having 
inflamed and ulcerated her breasts with beating them, she 
fell into a high fever, and was very glad of the occasion, 
hoping, under this pretext, to abstain from food, and so to 
die in quiet without interference. She had her own physi- 
cian, Olympus, to whom she told the truth, and asked his 
advice and help to put an end to herself, as Olympus himself 
has told us, in a narrative which he wrote of these events. 
But Caesar, suspecting her purpose, took to menacing lan- 
guage about her children, and excited her fears for them, 
before which engines her purpose shook and gave way, so 
that she suffered those about her to give her what meat or 
medicine they pleased. 

Some few days after, Caesar himself came to make her 
a visit and comfort her. She lay then upon her pallet-bed 
in undress, and, on his entering in, sprang up from off her 
bed, having nothing on but the one garment next her body, 
and flung herself at his feet, her hair and face looking wild 
and disfigured, her voice quivering, and her eyes sunk in her 
head. The marks of the blows she had given herself were 

" A parody on Homer's famous words. 

Too many leaders are not well; the way 

Is to have one commander to obey. 

One king, of Zeus appointed for the sway. 

ouk agathon polnUaisarie being a slight variation upon ouk agathon polu- 

koiranje. Kaisar is the Greek form of Csesar; and Koiran, or Koiranos, 

is a captain or chief. 



400 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

visible about her bosom, and altogether her whole person 
seemed no less afflicted than her soul. But, for all this, her 
old charm, and the boldness of her youthful beauty had not 
wholly left her, and, in spite of her present condition, still 
sparkled from within, and let itself appear in all the move- 
ments of her countenance. Caesar, desiring her to repose 
herself, sat down by her; and, on this opportunity, she said 
something to justify her actions, attributing what she had 
done to the necessity she was under, and to her fear of An- 
tony; and when Caesar, on each point, made his objections, 
and she found herself confuted, she broke off at once into 
language of entreaty and deprecation, as if she desired noth- 
ing more than to prolong her life. And at last, having by 
her a list of her treasure, she gave it into his hands; and 
when Seleucus, one of her stewards, who was by, pointed 
out that various articles were omitted, and charged her with 
secreting them, she flew up and caught him by the hair, and 
struck him several blows on the face. Caesar smiling and 
withholding her, "Is it not very hard, Caesar," said she, 
"when you do me the honor to visit me in this condition I 
am in, that I should be accused by one of my own servants 
of laying by some women's toys, not meant to adorn, be sure, 
my unhappy self, but that I might have some little present 
by me to make your Octavia and your Livia, that by their 
intercession I might hope to find you in some measure dis- 
posed to mercy?" Caesar was pleased to hear her talk thus, 
being now assured that she was desirous to live. And, there- 
fore, letting her know that the things she had laid by she 
might dispose of as she pleased, and his usage of her should 
be honorable above her expectation, he went away, well sat- 
isfied that he had overreached her, but, in fact, was himself 
deceived. 

There was a young man of distinction among Caesar's 
companions, named Cornelius Dolabella. He was not with- 
out a certain tenderness for Cleopatra, and sent her word 
privately, as she had besought him to do, that Caesar was 
about to return through Syria, and that she and her children 
were to be sent on within three days. When she understood 
this, she made her request to Caesar that he would be pleased 
to permit her to make oblations to the departed Antony; 



ANTONY 401 

which being granted, she ordered herself to be carried to 
the place where he was buried, and there, accompanied by 
her women, she embraced his tomb with tears in her eyes, 
and spoke in this manner: "O, dearest Antony," said she, 
"it is not long since that with these hands I buried you ; then 
they were free, now I am a captive, and pay these last duties 
to you with a guard upon me, for fear that my just griefs 
and sorrows should impair my servile body, and make it less 
fit to appear in their triumph over you. No further offerings 
or libations expect from me; these are the last honors that 
Cleopatra can pay your memory, for she is to be hurried 
away far from you. Nothing could part us whilst we lived, 
but death seems to threaten to divide us. You, a Roman 
born, have found a grave in Egypt ; I, an Egyptian, am to 
seek that favor, and none but that, in your country. But if 
the gods below, with whom you now are, either can or will 
do any thing (since those above have betrayed us), suffer 
not your living wife to be abandoned; let me not be led in 
triumph to your shame, but hide me and bury me here with 
you, since, amongst all my bitter misfortunes, nothing has 
afflicted me like this brief time that I have lived awav from 
you." 

Having made these lamentations, crowning the tomb with 
garlands and kissing it, she gave orders to prepare her a 
bath, and, coming out of the bath, she lay down and made 
a sumptuous meal. And a country fellow brought her a little 
basket, which the guards intercepting and asking what it was, 
the fellow put the leaves which lay uppermost aside, and 
showed them it was full of figs; and on their admiring the 
largeness and beauty of the figs, he laughed, and invited them 
to take some, which they refused, and, suspecting nothing, 
bade him carry them in. After her repast, Cleopatra sent to 
Caesar a letter which she had written and sealed ; and, putting 
everybody out of the monument but her two women, she shut 
the doors. Csesar, opening her letter, and finding pathetic 
prayers and entreaties that she might be buried in the same 
tomb with Antony, soon guessed what was doing. At first 
he was going himself in all haste, but, changing his mind, he 
sent others to see. The thing had been quickly done. The 
messengers came at full speed, and found the guards appre- 



402 PLUTARCH'S LIVES 

hensive of nothing; but on opening the doors, they saw her 
stone-dead, lying upon a bed of gold, set out in all her royal 
ornaments. Iras, one of her women, lay dying at her feet, 
and Charmion, just ready to fall, scarce able to hold up her 
head, was adjusting her mistress's diadem. And when one 
that came in said angrily, "Was this well done of your lady, 
Charmion?" "Extremely well," she answered, "and as be- 
came the descendant of so many kings" ; and as she said this, 
she fell down dead by the bedside. 

Some relate that an asp was brought in amongst those 
figs and covered with the leaves, and that Cleopatra had ar- 
ranged that it might settle on her before she knew, but, when 
she took away some of the figs and saw it, she said, "So here 
it is," and held out her bare arm to be bitten. Others say 
that it was kept in a vase, and that she vexed and pricked 
it with a golden spindle till it seized her arm. But what 
really took place is known to no one. Since it was also said 
that she carried poison in a hollow bodkin, about which she 
wound her hair; yet there was not so much as a spot found, 
or any symptom of poison upon her body, nor was the asp 
seen within the monument ; only something like the trail of it 
was said to have been noticed on the sand by the sea, on 
the part towards which the building faced and where the 
windows were. Some relate that two faint puncture-marks 
were found on Cleopatra's arm, and to this account Caesar 
seems to have given credit; for in his triumph there was 
carried a figure of Cleopatra, with an asp clinging to her. 
Such are the various accounts. But Caesar, though much 
disappointed by her death, yet could not but admire the great- 
ness of her spirit, and gave order that her body should be 
buried by Antony with royal splendor and magnificence. Her 
women, also, received honorable burial by his directions. 
Cleopatra had lived nine and thirty years, during twenty-two 
of which she had reigned as queen, and for fourteen had been 
Antony's partner in his empire. Antony, according to some 
authorities, was fifty-three, according to others, fifty-six years 
old. His statues were all thrown down, but those of Cleo- 
patra were left untouched; for Archibius, one of her friends, 
gave Caesar two thousand talents to save them from the fate 
of Antony's. 



ANTONY 403 

Antony left by his three wives seven children, of whom 
only Antyllus, the eldest, was put to death by Caesar ; Octavia 
took the rest, and brought them up with her own. Cleopatra, 
his daughter by Cleopatra, was given in marriage to Juba, 
the most accomplished of kings ; and Antony, his son by 
Fulvia, attained such high favor, that whereas Agrippa was 
considered to hold the first place with Caesar, and the sons 
of Livia the second, the third, without dispute, was pos- 
sessed by Antony. Octavia, also, having had by her first 
husband, Marcellus, two daughters, and one son named Mar- 
cellus, this son Caesar adopted, and gave him his daughter 
in marriage ; as did Octavia one of the daughters to Agrippa. 
But Marcellus dying almost immediately after his marriage, 
she, perceiving that her brother was at a loss to find elsewhere 
any sure friend to be his son-in-law, was the first to recom- 
mend that Agrippa should put away her daughter and marry 
Julia. To this Caesar first, and then Agrippa himself, gave 
assent; so Agrippa married Julia, and Octavia, receiving her 
daughter, married her to the young Antony. Of the two 
daughters whom Octavia had borne to Antony, the one was 
married to Domitius Ahenobarbus; and the other, Antonia, 
famous for her beauty and discretion, was married to Drusus, 
the son of Livia, and step-son to Caesar. Of these parents 
were born Germanicus and Claudius. Claudius reigned later; 
and of the children of Germanicus, Caius, after a reign of 
distinction, was killed with his wife and child; Agrippina, 
after bearing a son, Lucius Domitius, to Ahenobarbus, was 
married to Claudius Caesar, who adopted Domitius, giving 
him the name of Nero Germanicus. He was emperor in our 
time, and put his mother to death, and with his madness and 
folly came not far from ruining the Roman empire, being 
Antony's descendant ia the fifth generation. 



THE PUBLISHERS OF THE HAR- 
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FIVE-FOOT SHELF OF BOOKS • ARE 
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PUBLICATION OF 

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A LIBRARY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS 



The Junior Classics constitute a set 
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CHARLES W. ELIOT 



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