Transcriber’s note:

Chapter numbers in the Index with question marks do not exist in the previous volumes.

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

PLUTARCH’S LIVES.

Translated from the Greek

WITH

NOTES AND A LIFE OF PLUTARCH.

BY

AUBREY STEWART, M.A.,

Late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge,

AND THE LATE

GEORGE LONG, M.A.,

Formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge,

IN FOUR VOLUMES.

VOL. IV.

LONDON:

GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK ST., COVENT GARDEN, AND NEW YORK.

1892.

LONDON:

REPRINTED FROM THE STEREOTYPE PLATES BY WM. CLOWES & SONS, LTD.,

STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.

CONTENTS

PLUTARCH’S LIVES.

LIFE OF AGIS.

I. Many writers have very naturally conceived that the myth of Ixion, who is fabled to have embraced a cloud instead of Hera, and so to have begotten the centaurs, is really typical of ambitious men; for, although they aim at obtaining glory, and set before themselves a lofty ideal of virtue, yet they never succeed in producing any very distinct result, because all their actions are coloured by various human passions and prejudices, just as the herdsmen with their flocks say in Sophokles’s play:—

“We needs must serve them, though their lords we be,

And to their mute commands obedience pay.”

These verses really represent the state of those who, in order to obtain the empty title of statesmen and popular leaders, govern a country by following the caprices and impulses of the people. Just as the men stationed in the bows of a ship see what is coming before the steersmen, but yet look up to them as their chiefs and execute their orders; so they who govern with a view solely to their own popularity, although they may be called rulers, are, in truth, nothing more than slaves of the people.

II. An absolutely perfect man would not even wish for popularity, except so far as it enabled him to take part in politics, and caused him to be trusted by the people; yet a young and ambitious man must be excused if he feels pride in the glory and reputation which he gains by brilliant exploits. For, as Theophrastus says, the virtue which buds and sprouts in youthful minds is confirmed by praise, and the high spirit thus formed leads it to attempt greater things. On the other hand, an excessive love of praise is dangerous in all cases, but, in statesmen, utterly ruinous; for when it takes hold of men in the possession of great power it drives them to commit acts of sheer madness, because they forget that honourable conduct must increase their popularity, and think that any measure that increases their popularity must necessarily be a good one. We ought to tell the people that they cannot have the same man to lead them and to follow them, just as Phokion is said to have replied to Antipater, when he demanded some disgraceful service from him, “I cannot be Antipater’s friend and his toady at the same time.” One might also quote the fable of the serpent’s tail which murmured against the head and desired sometimes to take the lead, and not always follow the head, but which when allowed to lead the way took the wrong path and caused the head to be miserably crushed, because it allowed itself to be guided by that which could neither see nor hear. This has been the fate of many of those politicians who court the favour of the people; for, after they have once shared their blind impulses, they lose the power of checking their folly, and of restoring good discipline and order. These reflections upon the favour of the people occurred to me when I thought of its power, as shown in the case of Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, men who were well born, well educated, and began their political career with great promise, and yet were ruined, not so much by an excessive craving for popular applause as by a very pardonable fear of disgrace. They both received at the outset great proofs of their countrymen’s goodwill, but felt ashamed to remain as it were in their debt, and they ever strove to wipe out their obligations to the people by legislation on their behalf, and by their beneficent measures continually increased their popularity, until, in the heat of the rivalry thus created, they found themselves pledged to a line of policy in which they could not even pause with honour, and which they could not desist from without disgrace. The reader, however, will be able to form his own opinion about them from their history, and I shall now write, as a parallel to them, the lives of that pair of Laconian reformers, Agis and Kleomenes, kings of Sparta, who, like the Gracchi, increased the power of the people, and endeavoured to restore an admirable and just constitution which had fallen into desuetude; but who, like them, incurred the hatred of the governing class, who were unwilling to relinquish their encroachments and privileges. These Lacedæmonians were not indeed brothers, yet they pursued a kindred policy, with the same objects in view.

III. After the desire for silver and gold had penetrated into Sparta, the acquisition of wealth produced greed and meanness, while the use and enjoyment of riches was followed by luxury, effeminacy, and extravagance. Thus it fell out that Sparta lost her high and honoured position in Greece, and remained in obscurity and disgrace until the reign of Agis and Leonidas. Agis was of the Eurypontid line, the son of Eudamidas, and the sixth in descent from king Agesilaus, who invaded Asia, and became the most powerful man in Greece. This Agesilaus had a son named Archidamus, who fell in battle against the Messapians at the battle of Mandurium[1] in Italy. He was succeeded by his eldest son Agis, who, being killed by Antipater near Megalopolis, and leaving no issue, was succeeded by his brother, Eudamidas; he, by a son named Archidamus; and Archidamus by another Eudamidas, the father of Agis, the subject of this memoir.

Leonidas, the son of Kleonymus, was of the other royal family, that of the Agiadæ, and was eighth in descent from Pausanias who conquered Mardonius at the battle of Plataea. Pausanias had a son named Pleistoanax, whose son was again named Pausanias. This Pausanias[2] fled for his life from Sparta to Tegea, and was succeeded by his eldest son Agesipolis; and he, dying childless, by his younger brother Kleombrotus. Kleombrotus left two sons, Agesipolis and Kleomenes, of whom Agesipolis reigned but a short time, and left no children. Kleomenes succeeded his brother Agesipolis on the throne. Of his two sons, the elder, Akrotatus, died during his father’s lifetime, and the younger, Kleonymus, never reigned, as the throne was occupied by Areus[3] the grandson of Kleomenes, and the son of Akrotatus. Areus perished in battle before Corinth, and was succeeded by his son Akrotatus. This Akrotatus was defeated and slain near the city of Megalopolis by the despot Aristodemus, leaving his wife pregnant. When she bore a son, Leonidas the son of Kleonymus was appointed his guardian, and, as the child died before reaching manhood, he succeeded to the throne although he was far from being an acceptable personage to his countrymen; for, though the Spartans at this period had all abandoned their original severe simplicity of living, yet they found the manners of Leonidas in offensive contrast to their own. Indeed, Leonidas, who had spent much of his life at the courts of Asiatic potentates, and had been especially attached to that of Seleukus, seemed inclined to outrage the political feeling of the Greeks by introducing the arrogant tone of an Oriental despot into the constitutional monarchy of Sparta.

IV. On the other hand, the goodness of heart and intellectual power of Agis proved so greatly superior not only to that of Leonidas, but of every king since Agesilaus the Great, that before he arrived at his twentieth year, in spite of his having been brought up in the greatest luxury by his mother Agesistrata and his grandmother Archidamia, the two richest women in Sparta, he abjured all frivolous indulgence, laid aside all personal ornament, avoided extravagance of every kind, prided himself on practising the old Laconian habits of dress, food, and bathing, and was wont to say that he would not care to be king unless he could use his position to restore the ancient customs and discipline of his country.

V. The corruption of the Lacedæmonians began at the time when, after having overthrown the Athenian empire, they were able to satiate themselves with the possession of gold and silver. Nevertheless, as the number of houses instituted by Lykurgus was still maintained, and each father still transmitted his estate to his son, the original equal division of property continued to exist and preserved the state from disorder. But a certain powerful and self-willed man, named Epitadeus, who was one of the Ephors, having quarrelled with his son, proposed a rhetra permitting a man to give his house and land to whomsoever he pleased, either during his life, or by his will after his death. This man proposed the law in order to gratify his own private grudge; but the other Spartans through covetousness eagerly confirmed it, and ruined the admirable constitution of Lykurgus. They now began to acquire land without limit, as the powerful men kept their relatives out of their rightful inheritance; and as the wealth of the country soon got into the hands of a few, the city became impoverished, and the rich began to be viewed with dislike and hatred. There were left at that time no more than seven hundred Spartans, and of these about one hundred possessed an inheritance in land, while the rest, without money, and excluded from all the privileges of citizenship, fought in a languid and spiritless fashion in the wars, and were ever on the watch for some opportunity to subvert the existing condition of affairs at home.

VI.. Agis, therefore, thinking that it would be an honourable enterprise, as indeed it was, to restore these citizens to the state and to re-establish equality for all, began to sound the people themselves as to their opinion about such a measure. The younger men quickly rallied round him, and, with an enthusiasm which he had hardly counted upon, began to make ready for the contest; but most of the elder men, who had become more thoroughly tainted by the prevailing corruption, feared to be brought back to the discipline of Lykurgus as much as a runaway slave fears to be brought back to his master, and they bitterly reviled Agis when he lamented over the condition of affairs and sighed for the ancient glories of Sparta. His enthusiastic aspirations, however, were sympathised with by Lysander the son of Libys, Mandrokleidas the son of Ekphanes, and Agesilaus. Lysander was the most influential of all the Spartans, while Mandrokleidas was thought to be the ablest politician in Greece, as he could both plot with subtlety and execute with boldness. Agesilaus was the uncle of King Agis and a fluent speaker, but of a weak and covetous disposition. It was commonly supposed that he was stirred to action by the influence of his son Hippomedon, who had gained great glory in the wars and was exceedingly popular among the younger citizens; but what really determined him to join the reformers was the amount of his debts, which he hoped would be wiped out by a revolution. As soon as Agis had won over this important adherent, he began to try to bring over his mother to his views, who was Agesilaus’s sister, and who, from the number of her friends, debtors, and dependants, was very powerful in the state, and took a large share in the management of public affairs.

VII. When she first heard of Agis’s designs she was much startled, and dissuaded the youth from an enterprise which she thought neither practicable nor desirable. However, when Agesilaus pointed out to her what a notable design it was, and how greatly to the advantage of all, while the young king himself besought his mother to part with her wealth in order to gain him glory, arguing that he could not vie with other kings in riches, as the servants of Persian satraps, and the very slaves of the intendants of Ptolemy and Seleukus possessed more money than all the kings that ever reigned in Sparta; but that, if he could prove himself superior to those vanities by his temperance, simplicity of life, and true greatness of mind, and could succeed in restoring equality among his fellow-countrymen, he would be honoured and renowned as a truly great king. By this means the youth entirely changed his mother’s mind, and so fired her with his own ambition, as if by an inspiration from heaven, that she began to encourage Agis and urge him on, and invited her friends to join them, while she also communicated their design to the other women, because she knew that the Lacedæmonians were in all things ruled by their women, and that they had more power in the state than the men possessed in their private households. Most of the wealth of Lacedæmon had fallen into female hands at this time, and this fact proved a great hindrance to the accomplishment of Agis’s schemes of reform; for the women offered a vehement opposition to him, not merely through a vulgar love for their idolised luxury, but also because they saw that they would lose all the influence and power which they derived from their wealth. They betook themselves to Leonidas, and besought him, as being the elder man, to restrain Agis, and check the development of his designs. Leonidas was willing enough to assist the richer class, but he feared the people, who were eager for reform, and would not openly oppose Agis, although he endeavoured secretly to ruin his scheme, and to prejudice the Ephors against him, by imputing to him the design of hiring the poor to make him despot with the plunder of the rich, and insinuating that by his redistribution of lands and remission of debts he meant to obtain more adherents for himself instead of more citizens for Sparta.

VIII. In spite of all this, Agis contrived to get Lysander appointed one of the Ephors, and immediately brought him to propose a rhetra before the Gerusia, or Senate, the main points of which were that all debts should be cancelled; that the land[4] should be divided, that between the valley of Pellene and Mount Taygetus, Malea, and Sellasia into four thousand five hundred lots, and the outlying districts into fifteen thousand: that the latter district should be distributed among the Periœki of military age, and the former among the pure Spartans: that the number of these should be made up by an extension of the franchise to Periœki or even foreigners of free birth, liberal education, and fitting personal qualifications: and that these citizens should be divided into fifteen companies some of four hundred, and some of two hundred, for the public meals, and should conform in every respect to the discipline of their forefathers.

IX. When, this rhetra was proposed, as the Senate could not agree whether it should become law, Lysander convoked a popular assembly and himself addressed the people. Mandrokleidas and Agesilaus also besought them not to allow a few selfish voluptuaries to destroy the glorious name of Sparta, but to remember the ancient oracles, warning them against the sin of covetousness, which would prove the ruin of Sparta, and also of the responses which they had recently received from the oracle of Pasiphae. The temple and oracle of Pasiphae at Thalamae was of peculiar sanctity. Pasiphae is said by some writers to have been one of the daughters of Atlas, and to have become the mother of Ammon by Zeus, while others say that Kassandra the daughter of Priam died there, and was called Pasiphae because her prophecies were plain to all men. Phylarchus again tells us that Daphne the daughter of Amyklas, while endeavouring to escape from the violence of Apollo, was transformed into the laurel,[5] which bears her name, and was honoured by the god and endowed by him with the gift of prophecy. Be this as it may, the oracular responses which were brought from this shrine bade the Spartans all become equal according as Lykurgus had originally ordained. After these speeches had been delivered, King Agis himself came forward, and, after a few introductory words, said that he was giving the strongest possible pledges of his loyalty to the new constitution; for he declared his intention of surrendering to the state, before any one else, his own property, consisting of a vast extent of land, both arable and pasture, besides six thousand talents of money; and he assured the people that his mother and her friends, the richest people in Sparta, would do the same.

X. The people were astounded at the magnanimity of the youth, and were filled with joy, thinking that at last, after an interval of three hundred years, there had appeared a king worthy of Sparta. Leonidas, on the other hand, opposed him as vigorously as he could, reflecting that he would be forced to follow his example, and divest himself of all his property, and that Agis, not he, would get the credit of the act. He therefore inquired of Agis whether he thought Lykurgus to have been a just and well-meaning man. Receiving an affirmative reply, he again demanded, “Where, then, do we find that Lykurgus approved of the cancelling of debts, or of the admission of foreigners to the franchise, seeing that he did not think that the state could prosper without a periodical expulsion of foreigners?” To this Agis answered, that it was not to be wondered at if Leonidas, who had lived in a foreign country, and had a family by the daughter of a Persian satrap, should be ignorant that Lykurgus, together with coined money, had banished borrowing and lending from Sparta, and that he had no hatred for foreigners, but only for those whose profession and mode of life made them unfit to associate with his countrymen. These men Lykurgus expelled, not from any hatred of their persons, but because he feared that their manners and habits would infect the citizens with a love of luxury, effeminacy, and avarice. Terpander, Thales, and Pherekydes were all foreigners, but, since they sang and taught what Lykurgus approved, they lived in Sparta, and were treated with especial honour. “Do you,” asked he, “praise Ekprepus, who when Ephor cut off with a hatchet the two additional strings which Phrynis the musician had added to the original seven strings of the lyre, and those who cut the same strings off the harp of Timotheus, and yet do you blame us when we are endeavouring to get rid of luxury, extravagance, and frivolity, just as if those great men did not merely mean thereby to guard against vain refinements of music, which would lead to the introduction of extravagant and licentious manners, and cause the city to be at discord and variance with itself?”

XI. After this the people espoused the cause of Agis, while the rich begged Leonidas not to desert them, and by their entreaties prevailed upon the senators, who had the power of originating all laws, to throw out the rhetra by a majority of only one vote. Lysander, who was still one of the Ephors, now proceeded to attack Leonidas, by means of a certain ancient law, which forbade any descendant of Herakles to beget children by a foreign wife, and which bade the Spartans put to death any citizen who left his country to dwell in a foreign land. He instructed his adherents to revive the memory of this law, and threaten Leonidas with its penalties, while he himself with the other Ephors watched for the sign from heaven. This ceremony is conducted as follows:—Every ninth year the Ephors choose a clear moonless night, and sit in silence watching the heavens. If a star shoots across the sky, they conclude that the kings must have committed some act of impiety, and they suspend them from their office, until they were absolved by a favourable oracle from Delphi or Olympia. Lysander now declared that he had beheld this sign, and impeached Leonidas, bringing forward witnesses to prove that he had two children born to him by an Asiatic wife, the daughter of one of the lieutenants of Seleukus, and that having quarrelled with his wife and become hated by her he had unexpectedly returned home, and in default of a direct heir, had succeeded to the throne. At the same time Lysander urged Kleombrotus, the son-in-law of Leonidas, who was also of the royal family, to claim the throne for himself. Leonidas, terrified at this, took sanctuary in the temple of Athena of the Brazen House, and was joined there by his daughter, who left her husband Kleombrotus. When the trial came on, Leonidas did not appear in court, he was removed from the throne, and Kleombrotus was appointed in his stead.

XII. At this crisis Lysander was forced to lay down his office, as the year for which he had been elected had expired. The Ephors at once took Leonidas under their protection, restored him to the throne, and impeached Lysander, and Mandrokleidas as the authors of illegal measures in the cancelling of debts and the redistribution of the land. As these men were now in danger of their lives, they prevailed upon the two kings to act together and overrule the decision of the Ephors; for this, they declared, was the ancient rule of the constitution, that if the kings were at variance, the Ephors were entitled to support the one whom they judged to be in the right against the other, but their function was merely to act as arbitrators and judges between the kings when they disagreed, and not to interfere with them when they were of one mind. Both the kings agreed to act upon this advice, and came with their friends into the assembly, turned the Ephors out of their chairs of office, and elected others in their room, one of whom was Agesilaus. They now armed many of the younger citizens, released the prisoners, and terrified their opponents by threatening a general massacre. No one, however, was killed by them; for although Agesilaus desired to kill Leonidas, and when he withdrew from Sparta to Tegea, sent men to waylay and murder him on the road, Agis, hearing of his intention, sent others on whom he could rely, who escorted Leonidas safely as far as Tegea.

XIII. Thus far all had gone well, and no one remained to hinder the accomplishment of the reforms; but now Agesilaus alone upset and ruined the whole of this noble and truly Spartan scheme by his detestable vice of covetousness. He possessed a large quantity of the best land in the country, and also owed a great sum of money, and as he desired neither to pay his debts nor to part with his land, he persuaded Agis that it would be too revolutionary a proceeding to carry both measures at once, and that, if the moneyed class were first propitiated by the cancelling of debts, they would afterwards be inclined to submit quietly to the redistribution of lands. Lysander and the rest were deceived by Agesilaus into consenting to this, and they brought all the written securities for money which had been given by debtors, which are called by them klaria, into the market-place, collected them into one heap, and burned them. As the flames rose up, the rich and those who had lent money went away in great distress, but Agesilaus, as if exulting at their misfortune, declared that he had never seen a brighter blaze or a purer fire. As the people at once demanded the division of the land, and called upon the kings to distribute it among them, Agesilaus put them off with various excuses, and managed to spin out the time till Agis was sent out of the country on military service, as the Achæans, who were allies, had demanded a reinforcement from Sparta, because the Ætolians threatened to invade Peloponnesus through the territory of Megara, and Aratus, the general of the Achæans, who was collecting an army to resist them, sent to Sparta demanding assistance.

XIV. The Spartans at once despatched Agis at the head of an army, whose high spirits and devotion to his person filled him with delight. The men were nearly all young and poor; and as they were now relieved from the pressure of their debts, and expected that on their return the land would be distributed amongst them, they behaved with the most admirable discipline. They marched through Peloponnesus without doing the least damage, without offending any one, almost without noise; so that all the cities were astonished at the spectacle thus afforded them, and men began to wonder what a Lacedæmonian army must have been like when led by Agesilaus or Lysander the Great, or by the ancient hero Leonidas, if such awe and reverence was paid by the soldiers to one who was nearly the youngest of them all. Their youthful leader himself was worthy of admiration, and was looked up to by the men because of his simple hard-working habits, and the pride which he took in wearing the same dress and using the same arms as the common soldiers. The revolution which he had effected, however, was very distasteful to the rich, who feared lest it might be taken as an example by the people in other states and lead to further disturbances.

XV. Agis joined Aratus at Corinth, while the question of how to repel the invasion was still being debated. His advice was spirited, without being rash or foolhardy. He gave it as his opinion that it was their duty to fight, and not abandon the gate of Peloponnesus and let the enemy into the country, but that he would defer to the decision of Aratus, who was an older man than himself, and was the general of the Achæans, and that he had not come to give them advice or to take the command of them, but to reinforce them and serve as their ally. The historian Baton of Sinope declares that Agis declined to fight although Aratus wished him to do so; but he is mistaken, and clearly has not read the justification which Aratus has written of his conduct, namely, that as the farmers had nearly all finished gathering in their harvest, he thought it better to allow the enemy to enter the country than to hazard everything upon the issue of a single battle. As Aratus decided not to fight, and dismissed his allies with thanks, Agis returned home, greatly honoured by those under his orders, and found the internal affairs of Sparta in great turmoil and confusion.

XVI. Agesilaus, who was now Ephor, and who was no longer restrained by the presence of those of whom he had formerly stood in awe, was using the most disgraceful expedients to extort money from the people, and had even intercalated a thirteenth month in the year, although the state of the calendar did not require it, and caused taxes to be paid for it. As he feared those whom he had wronged, and was an object of universal hatred, he had taken a body-guard of swordsmen into his pay, and walked through the city accompanied by them. As for the kings, he regarded Kleombrotus with contempt, and though he still paid some respect to Agis, he wished it to be thought that he did so because he was nearly related to himself, not because he was king. He also gave out that he intended to remain in office as Ephor for the next year as well. In consequence of this his enemies determined to bring matters to a crisis. They assembled in force, brought back Leonidas publicly from Tegea, and reinstated him as king, to the great joy of most of the citizens, who were angry with the other party because they had been deceived by them about the redistribution of the land. Agesilaus was able to leave the country in safety, owing to the intercession of his son Hippomedon, who was very popular with all classes on account of his bravery. Of the two kings, Agis fled to the temple of Athena of the Brazen House, while Kleombrotus took sanctuary in the temple of Poseidon.[6] It appeared that Leonidas hated Kleombrotus most of the two; for he passed by Agis, but marched in pursuit of Kleombrotus with an armed force, and angrily reproached him that being his own son-in-law he had conspired against him, dethroned him, and driven him into exile.

XVII. Kleombrotus could find nothing to say in his defence, and sat silent and helpless; but Chilonis, the daughter of Leonidas, who formerly had taken offence at her father’s injurious treatment, and when Kleombrotus usurped the throne had left him, and showed her sympathy with Leonidas in his misfortune by accompanying him in the temple where he took sanctuary, and after he left the country by mourning for him and remaining at variance with her husband Kleombrotus, now changed sides with his changing fortunes, and appeared sitting by her husband’s side as a suppliant to the god with him, with her arms cast round him, and her two children on each side of her. All stood amazed and were moved to tears by her noble and affectionate conduct, and she, pointing to her mean dress and dishevelled hair, said, “Father, I have not adopted this posture and this dress out of pity for Kleombrotus, but I have so long been in mourning for your misfortunes and your banishment that it has become customary with me. Am I now to remain in mourning while you are victorious and reign in Sparta, or am I to dress myself in fine clothes as becomes a princess, while I see my husband murdered by your hand? Unless he can move you to compassion, and obtain your pity by the tears of his wife and children, he will suffer a more terrible penalty for his misconduct than you wish to impose, by seeing me his dearest wife die before him; for how can I endure to live among other women, if I prove unable to move either my husband or my father to compassion? Both as a wife and as a daughter I have been fated to suffer with my own kin and to be despised with them. If there is anything which can be urged on behalf of my husband’s conduct, I have made it impossible to plead it for him by the part which I have taken in protesting against his conduct to you; but you yourself suggest a sufficient apology for his crime, by showing that you think royalty so great and precious a thing, that to obtain it you are willing to murder your son-in-law and neglect your own child.”

XVIII. Chilonis, after speaking thus, nestled her face against that of her husband, and glanced round at the spectators with red and tearful eyes. Leonidas, after a short consultation with his friends, bade Kleombrotus rise and leave the country, but besought his daughter to remain with him, and not to leave him who loved her so dearly, and had just spared her husband’s life in consequence of her entreaties. He could not, however, prevail upon her to stay, but she rose up with her husband, took one child in her arms, and led the other, and so, after kneeling before the altar, followed her husband, who, if his mind was not entirely corrupted by vain ambition, must have thought exile with such a wife preferable to royalty. After driving Kleombrotus from the throne, ejecting the Ephors from office and substituting others chosen by himself, Leonidas addressed himself to Agis. At first he tried to persuade him to come out of sanctuary and reign as his colleague, saying that the citizens had forgiven him, because they knew that he was young and impetuous, and had been deceived by Agesilaus. However, as Agis saw through these devices and remained where he was, Leonidas left off making these hypocritical offers. Amphares, Damochares, and Arkesilaus were in the habit of going to the temple and conversing with him; and once he came out of the temple in their company to take a bath, and after bathing was conducted back again by them in safety. All three were on intimate terms with him, but Amphares, who had lately borrowed some rich clothing and valuable plate from Agesistrata, was inclined to plot against the king and the royal ladies, that he might not be obliged to restore them. He, therefore, we are told, lent a ready ear to Leonidas’s plans, and excited the zeal of the Ephors, one of whom he was.

XIX. Since Agis lived entirely in the temple, and only left it in order to bathe, they determined to seize him when he came out for this purpose. Having one day watched him bathing they came up and greeted him in a friendly way, and walked along with him talking and jesting as young men who are on intimate terms are wont to do. When they reached the place where a road branches off to the public prison, Amphares, in virtue of his Ephorship, laid hold of Agis and said: “Agis, I must lead you before the Ephors to give an account of your conduct.” At the same time Damochares, a tall and strong man, threw his cloak round Agis’s neck and dragged him along by it. Others now appeared by previous arrangement, and pushed him from behind, and as no one came to help him, he was forced into the prison. Hereupon, Leonidas appeared with a band of mercenaries, and surrounded the prison. The Ephors now went in to Agis, and sent for all the senators of their way of thinking to come to the prison in order to go through the form of a trial. Agis laughed at their hypocrisy, but Amphares told him that it was no laughing matter, and that he would soon pay a bitter penalty for his rashness. Another of the Ephors, wishing to offer a means of escape to Agis, inquired of him whether he had acted on his own responsibility, or had been compelled to do so by Agesilaus and Lysander. Agis answered that no man had compelled him, but that he admired and imitated Lykurgus, and had aimed at reviving his institutions. Upon this the same Ephor asked him whether he repented of what he had done. When the brave youth answered that he never would repent of his glorious designs, whatever tortures he might have to suffer for them, the assembly at once condemned him to death, and bade the prison officials at once remove him to the place called Dechas, which is a part of the prison in which criminals are strangled. Seeing that the servants would not lay hands upon Agis, and that even those mercenaries who were present shrunk from such work, because it was held to be unlawful and impious to lay hands upon the person of the king, Damochares, after threatening and abusing them, dragged Agis with his own hands to the place of execution. Many of the citizens had by this time heard of his arrest, and many men had assembled with torches in their hands and were clamouring at the gate of the prison. The mother and grandmother of Agis were also present, and loudly demanded that the king of Sparta should have a fair trial in the presence of his countrymen. For this reason they within hurried on the execution, as they feared that if a larger crowd collected Agis would be rescued during the night.

XX. While Agis was being led to execution, he saw one of the servants of the prison weeping and in great distress. “My man,” said he, “do not weep for me, for I am a better man than those who are murdering me in this cruel and illegal fashion.” With these words he, of his own accord, put the noose round his neck. Meanwhile Amphares proceeded to the prison gate. Here Agesistrata fell at his feet, believing him still to be her friend. Amphares raised her, saying that Agis would suffer no violent treatment, and bade her, if she wished, go in and see her son. As she asked to be accompanied by her mother, Amphares said that there was no objection to that, and after receiving them both within the walls, ordered the prison gates to be closed. He first sent Archidamia, who was now very old, and greatly respected by her countrywomen, to the place of execution, and when she was dead, bade Agesistrata enter. When she saw the corpse of her son lying on the ground, and her mother hanging by a halter, she herself assisted the servants to take her down, laid her body beside that of Agis, and arranged and covered up the two corpses. She then knelt and kissed the face of her son, saying, “My child, thy great piety, goodness, and clemency has brought thee and us to this death.” Upon this Amphares, who was watching and listening at the door, came into the room, and said angrily to Agesistrata, “If you approve of your son’s deeds, you shall suffer with him.” At these words Agesistrata rose and offered her neck to the halter, saying, “I only pray that this may be for the good of Sparta.”

XXI. When the sad news was known throughout the city, and the three corpses brought out of the prison, the terror which was inspired did not prevent the citizens from manifesting their sorrow at the deed, and their hatred of Leonidas and Amphares. No such wicked or cruel deed, they declared, had been committed in Sparta since the Dorians settled in Peloponnesus. The very enemies of the Lacedæmonians generally seemed unwilling to lay violent hands on their kings when they met them in battle, and turned aside through reverence of their exalted position. For this reason, in all the battles which the Lacedæmonians had fought against the Greeks before the era of Philip of Macedon, only one king, Kleombrotus, had fallen on the field of Leuktra; for though the Messenians aver that Theopompus, a king of Lacedæmon, was slain by Aristomenes, the Lacedæmonians deny it, and say that he was only wounded. This matter is doubtful, but Agis was the first king who was put to death by the Ephors in Lacedæmon, because he had conceived a noble design and one which was worthy of Sparta. He was of an age when men’s shortcomings deserve to be pardoned; and deserves to be blamed by his friends more than by his enemies, because with an ill-judged clemency he spared the life of Leonidas, and trusted in the professions of the rest of his political enemies.

LIFE OF KLEOMENES.

I. After the death of Agis, as has been related, Leonidas was not able to seize the person of his brother Archidamus, who at once fled out of the country, but he brought the wife of Agis with her newly-born child out of her house, and forcibly married her to his own son Kleomenes, who was scarcely come to an age for marriage, because he was unwilling for her to marry any one else. Indeed Agiatis was the daughter of Gylippus, and heiress to a great estate. She was thought to be the most beautiful woman of her time in all Greece, and was of a noble disposition. It is said that she made many entreaties not to be forced into a second marriage, but that after her union with Kleomenes, although she continued to hate his father Leonidas, she made a good and affectionate wife to the young man, who became passionately fond of her, and sympathised with her loving remembrance of Agis, so that he would often ask her to tell him about her late husband, and used to listen with rapt attention while she explained the designs and projects of Agis. For Kleomenes was as eager for honour, and had as noble a mind as Agis himself, and was equally moderate and simple in his way of life; but he lacked the other’s discreet and gentle temper, and was of a stirring and vehement nature, eager to embark on any honourable enterprise. He thought it the most glorious position of all to rule over an obedient people; but he took pride also in bending disobedient subjects to his will, and forcibly compelling them to move in the path of honour.

II. He was far from satisfied with the state of things at Sparta, where the citizens had given themselves up to luxurious repose, while the king Leonidas cared nothing for public affairs, so long as he was able to gratify his own love of extravagance and self-indulgence. Public virtue was entirely gone, and no man cared to profit his country, but only himself. As for discipline, orderly training of the young, hardiness of body, and equality, all these things had perished with Agis, and it was not safe even to speak of them. We are told that while yet a lad Kleomenes was instructed in the principles of the Stoic philosophy by Sphærus of Borysthenes,[7] who visited Lacedæmon and gave excellent instruction there to the young. This Sphærus was one of the aptest pupils of Zeno of Kitium,[8] and he seems to have admired the manly spirit of Kleomenes and to have encouraged him in the pursuit of honour. The ancient hero Leonidas, when asked what he thought of Tyrtæus, is said to have answered, “He is good at exciting the minds of the youth.” Indeed they became filled with enthusiasm by the poems of Tyrtæus, and fought with reckless daring in battle: and so also the Stoic philosophy often renders brave and fiery natures over-daring and venturesome, and yields the best fruit when applied to a grave and gentle nature.

III. When after the death of Leonidas, Kleomenes succeeded to the throne, he found the state utterly disorganised, for the rich took no part in politics, and cared for nothing but their own pleasure and profit, while the miserable condition of the poor caused them to fight without spirit in the wars, and to neglect the proper training of their children. He himself was a king only in name, as the Ephors had engrossed all real power. Under these circumstances he at once began to revolve schemes of reform in his mind, and began to sound the opinion of his intimate friend Xenares, by enquiring of him what sort of a king Agis had been, and in what manner, and with what associates he had made his attempts at reform. Xenares at first very willingly gave him a complete narrative of the whole transaction; but as he saw that Kleomenes listened with intense interest, and was deeply excited by the recital of Agis’s designs, to which he was never weary of listening, Xenares at last angrily reproached him with not being in his right mind, and at last broke off all intercourse with him. He did not, however, tell any one the reason of their being at variance, but declared that Kleomenes knew well what it was. Kleomenes, after meeting with this rebuff from Xenares, imagining that every one else would be of the same mind, determined to concert his own measures alone. As he thought that there was more chance of effecting reforms during war than in time of peace, he involved Sparta in a war with the Achæans, for which they themselves furnished the pretext. Aratus, the chief of the Achæans, had always desired to unite the whole of the Peloponnesus in one confederacy, and in all his long political career had steadily kept this object in view, as he thought that thus, and thus alone, the people of Peloponnesus would be able to defend themselves against external foes. Nearly all the tribes of Peloponnesus joined his confederacy except the Lacedæmonians, the people of Elis, and such of the Arcadians as were under Lacedæmonian influence. On the death of Leonidas, Aratus began to make plundering expeditions into the territory of the Arcadians, especially those near the Achæan frontier, in order to see what steps the Lacedæmonians would take; for he despised Kleomenes as a young and inexperienced man.

IV. Upon this the Ephors first sent Kleomenes to occupy the temple of Athena, near Belbina. This place was situated in a mountain pass leading into Laconia, and it was claimed by the citizens of Megalopolis as belonging to their territory. Kleomenes seized the pass and fortified it, to which Aratus offered no objection, but endeavoured by a night march to surprise the cities of Tegea and Orchomenes. However, the hearts of the traitors within the walls failed them, and so Aratus led his army back, hoping that his object had not been discovered. Kleomenes, by way of jest, now wrote him a letter affecting to enquire of him in the most friendly terms where he had been to in the night. He answered that he had heard that Kleomenes was about to erect fortifications at Belbina, and had marched to prevent his doing so. To this Kleomenes answered that he was satisfied that this had been Aratus’s intention. “But,” he continued, “if you do not mind, please tell me why you brought scaling ladders and torches with you.” Aratus laughed at this home-thrust, and enquired what sort of a youth Kleomenes might be. Damochares, the Lacedæmonian exile, answered, “If you mean to do anything against the Lacedæmonians, you must make haste and do it before this young gamecock’s spurs are grown.” After this the Ephors ordered Kleomenes, who was encamped in Arcadia with a few horsemen and three hundred foot, to retire, as they feared to go to war. But since, as soon as he had withdrawn, Aratus captured the city of Kaphyæ, they sent him back again. He captured Methydrium, and overran Argolis, upon which the Achæans sent an army of twenty thousand foot and a thousand horse, under the command of Aristomachus, to attack him. Kleomenes met them near Pallantium, and was eager to fight, but Aratus, alarmed at his daring, would not permit the Achæan general to fight, and drew off his forces, incurring thereby the anger of the Achæans, and the ridicule and contempt of the Lacedæmonians, who only amounted to one-fifth of the enemy’s numbers. This affair gave Kleomenes great self-confidence, and parodying a saying of one of the ancient kings, he said to his countrymen that it was useless nowadays for the Lacedæmonians to ask either how many their enemies were, or where they were.[9]

V. Shortly after, as the Achæans were making war against the Eleans, Kleomenes was sent to aid the latter, and met with the army of the Achæans returning home, near the mountain called Lykæum. He attacked their forces, and utterly routed them, killing many and capturing numbers of prisoners, so that a report spread throughout Greece that Aratus himself had perished. But Aratus, turning the disaster to good account, immediately after the defeat marched to Mantinea, and as no one expected him, captured the city and placed a strong garrison in it. This completely disheartened the Lacedæmonians, who desired to recall Kleomenes and put an end to the war. Kleomenes now sent to Messene and invited back Archidamus, the brother of Agis, who ought to have been on the throne as the representative of the other royal family, imagining that if there were two kings reigning at Sparta at the same time, the power of the Ephors would be weakened. However, the party who had previously murdered Agis perceived this, and as they feared that if Archidamus returned to Sparta he would make them pay the penalty of their crimes, they welcomed him back and assisted him to make a secret entry into the city, but immediately afterwards assassinated him, either against the will of Kleomenes, as we are told by Phylarchus, or else with his connivance, in consequence of the representations of his friends. They indeed bore the chief blame in the matter, as they were thought to have forced Kleomenes into consenting to the murder.

VI.. Kleomenes, determined to carry out his designs of reform, now proceeded to bribe the Ephors into sending him out on a new military expedition. He also won over a considerable number of supporters among the citizens by means of the lavish expenditure and influence of his mother Kratesiklea, who, though averse to a second marriage, is said to have married one of the leading men in Sparta in order to further her son’s interests.

Kleomenes now took the field at the head of his army, and captured a small town within the territory of Megalopolis, named Leuktra.[10] The Achæans under Aratus promptly came up, and a battle was fought under the walls of the town, in which part of the army of Kleomenes was defeated. Aratus however refused to follow up his advantage, and kept the main body of the Achæans motionless behind the bed of a torrent. Enraged at his inaction, Lydiades of Megalopolis charged at the head of the cavalry under his own command, but got entangled in the pursuit of the enemy in ground which was cut up by walls and watercourses. Seeing him thrown into disorder, Kleomenes sent his Tarentine and Cretan troops to attack him, by whom Lydiades, fighting bravely, was overpowered and slain. The Lacedæmonians now recovered their spirits, and with loud shouts attacked the Achæans and completely defeated them. Many were slain, and their corpses were given up to the enemy for burial, with the exception of that of Lydiades, which Kleomenes ordered to be brought to himself. He then attired it in a purple robe, placed a garland upon its head, and sent it to the city of Megalopolis. This was that Lydiades who had been despot of Megalopolis, but who abdicated his throne, restored liberty to his countrymen, and brought the city to join the Achæan league.

VII. After this victory Kleomenes became inspired with fresh confidence, and was convinced that if he only were allowed undisputed management he would easily conquer the Achæans. He explained to his step-father Megistonous that the time had at length come for the abolition of the Ephors, the redistribution of property, and the establishment of equality among the citizens, after which Sparta might again aspire to recover her ancient ascendancy in Greece. Megistonous agreed, and communicated his intentions to two or three of his friends. It chanced that at this time one of the Ephors who was sleeping in the temple of Pasiphæ dreamed an extraordinary dream, that in the place where the Ephors sat for the dispatch of business he saw four chairs removed, and one alone remaining, while as he wondered he heard a voice from the shrine say “This is best for Sparta.” When the Ephor related this dream to Kleomenes, he was at first much alarmed, and feared that the man had conceived some suspicion of his designs, but finding that he was really in earnest recovered his confidence. Taking with him all those citizens whom he suspected to be opposed to his enterprise, he captured Heræa and Alsæa, cities belonging to the Achæan league, revictualled Orchomenus, and threatened Mantinea. By long marches and counter-marches he so wearied the Lacedæmonians that at last at their own request he left the greater part of them in Arcadia, while he with the mercenaries returned to Sparta. During his homeward march he revealed his intentions to those whom he considered to be most devoted to his person, and regulated his march so as to be able to fall upon the Ephors while they were at their evening meal.

VIII. When he drew near to the city, he sent Eurykleidas into the dining-room of the Ephors, on the pretence of bringing a message from the army. After Eurykleidas followed Phoebis and Therukion, two of the foster-brothers of Kleomenes, called mothakes[11] by the Lacedæmonians, with a few soldiers. While Eurykleidas was parleying with the Ephors, these men rushed in with drawn swords and cut them down. The president, Agylæus, fell at the first blow and appeared to be dead, but contrived to crawl out of the building unobserved into a small temple, sacred to Fear, the door of which was usually closed, but which then chanced to be open. In this he took refuge and shut the door. The other four were slain, and some few persons, not more than ten, who came to assist them. No one who remained quiet was put to death, nor was any one prevented from leaving the city. Even Agylæus, when he came out of his sanctuary on the following day, was not molested.

IX. The Lacedæmonians have temples dedicated not only to Fear, but to Death, and Laughter, and the like. They honour Fear, not as a malevolent divinity to be shunned, but because they think that the constitutions of states are mainly upheld by Fear. For this reason, Aristotle tells us that the Ephors, when they enter upon their office, issue a proclamation ordering the citizens to shave the moustache and obey the laws, that the laws might not be hard upon them. The injunction about shaving the moustache is inserted, I imagine, in order to accustom the young to obedience even in the most trivial matters. It seems to me that the ancient Spartans did not regard bravery as consisting in the absence of fear, but in the fear of shame and dread of dishonour; for those who fear the laws most are the bravest in battle; and those who most fear disgrace care least for their own personal safety. The poet was right who said

“Where there is fear, is reverence too;”

and Homer makes Helen call Priam

“My father-in-law dear,

Whom most of all I reverence and fear;”

while he speaks of the Greek army as obeying

“Its chiefs commands in silence and with fear.”

Human nature, indeed, leads most men to reverence those whom they fear; and this is why the Lacedæmonians placed the temple of Fear close to the dining-hall of the Ephors, because they invested that office with almost royal authority.

X. On the following morning Kleomenes published a list containing the names of eighty citizens, whom he required to leave the country, and removed the chairs of the Ephors, except one, which he intended to occupy himself. He now convoked an assembly, and made a speech justifying his recent acts. In the time of Lykurgus, he said, the kings and the senate shared between them the supreme authority in the State; and for a long time the government was carried on in this manner without any alteration being required, until, during the long wars with Messene, as the kings had no leisure to attend to public affairs, they chose some of their friends to sit as judges in their stead, and these persons acted at first merely as the servants of the kings, but gradually got all power into their own hands, and thus insensibly established a new power in the State. A proof of the truth of this is to be found in the custom which still prevails, that when the Ephors send for the king, he refuses to attend at the first and second summons, but rises and goes to them at the third. Asteropus, who first consolidated the power of the Ephors, and raised it to the highest point, flourished in comparatively recent times, many generations after the original establishment of the office. If, he went on to say, the Ephors would have behaved with moderation, it would have been better to allow them to remain in existence; but when they began to use their ill-gotten power to destroy the constitution of Sparta, when they banished one king, put another to death without trial, and kept down by terror all those who wished for the introduction of the noblest and most admirable reforms, they could no longer be borne. Had he been able without shedding a drop of blood to drive out of Lacedæmon all those foreign pests of luxury, extravagance, debt, money-lending, and those two more ancient evils, poverty and riches, he should have accounted himself the most fortunate of kings, because, like a skilful physician, he had painlessly performed so important an operation upon his country: as it was, the use of force was sanctioned by the example of Lykurgus, who, though only a private man, appeared in arms in the market-place, and so terrified King Charilaus, that he fled for refuge to the altar of Athena. He, however, being an honest and patriotic man, soon joined Lykurgus, and acquiesced in the reforms which he introduced, while the acts of Lykurgus prove that it is hard to effect a revolution without armed force, of which he declared that he had made a most sparing use, and had only put out of the way those who were opposed to the best interests of Lacedæmon. He announced to the rest of the citizens that the land should be divided among them, that they should be relieved from all their debts, and that all resident aliens should be submitted to an examination, in order that the best of them might be selected to become full citizens of Sparta, and help to defend the city from falling a prey to Ætolians and Illyrians for want of men to defend her.

XI. After this he himself first threw his inheritance into the common stock, and his example was followed by his father-in-law Megistonous, his friends, and the rest of the citizens. The land was now divided, and one lot was assigned to each of those whom he had banished, all of whom he said it was his intention to bring back as soon as order was restored. He recruited the numbers of the citizens by the admission of the most eligible of the Periœki to the franchise, and organised them into a body of four thousand heavy armed infantry, whom he taught to use the sarissa, or Macedonian pike which was grasped with both hands, instead of the spear, and to sling their shields by a strap instead of using a handle. He next turned his attention to the education and discipline of the youth, in which task he was assisted by Sphærus. The gymnasia and the common meals were soon re-established, and the citizens, for the most part willingly, resumed their simple Laconian habits of living. Kleomenes, fearing to be called a despot, appointed his own brother, Eukleidas, as his colleague. Then for the first time were two kings of the same family seen at once in Sparta.

XII. As Kleomenes perceived that Aratus and the Achæans thought that while Sparta was passing through so perilous a crisis her troops were not likely to leave the country, he thought that it would be both a spirited and a useful act to display the enthusiasm of his army to the enemy. He invaded the territory of Megalopolis, carried off a large booty, and laid waste a large extent of country. Finding a company of players on their road from Messene, he took them prisoners, caused a theatre to be erected in the enemy’s country, and offered them forty minæ for a performance for one day, at which he himself attended as a spectator, not that he cared for the performance, but because he wished to mock at his enemies, and to show by this studied insult the enormous superiority of which he was conscious. At this period his was the only army, Greek or foreign, which was not attended by actors, jugglers, dancing-girls, and singers; but he kept it free from all licentiousness and buffoonery, as the younger men were nearly always being practised in martial exercises, while the elders acted as their instructors; and when they were at leisure they amused themselves with witty retorts and sententious Laconian pleasantries. The great value of this kind of discipline is described at greater length in the life of Lykurgus.

XIII. In everything Kleomenes himself acted as their teacher, and example, offering his own simple, frugal life, so entirely free from vulgar superfluities, as a model of sobriety for them all to copy; and this added greatly to his influence in Greece. For when men attended the courts of the other kings of that period they were not so much impressed by their wealth and lavish expenditure as they were disgusted by their arrogant, overbearing manners; but when they met Kleomenes, who was every inch a king, and saw that he wore no purple robes, did not lounge on couches and litters, and was not surrounded by a crowd of messengers, doorkeepers, and secretaries, so as to be difficult of access, but that he himself, dressed in plain clothes, came and shook them by the hand, and conversed with them in a kindly and encouraging tone, they were completely fascinated and charmed by him, and declared that he alone was a true descendant of Herakles. His dinner was usually served upon a very small Laconian table with three couches,[12] but if he were entertaining ambassadors or foreigners two additional couches were added, and his servants somewhat improved his dinner, not by adding to it made-dishes and pastry, but by serving a greater abundance of food and a more liberal allowance of wine. Indeed he blamed one of his friends, when he heard that when entertaining foreigners at dinner he had placed before them black broth and barley cakes: for he said that in such matters, and when entertaining strangers, it was not well to be too rigidly Spartan. After the table was removed a tripod was brought in which supported a bronze bowl full of wine, two silver pateræ, that held each about a pint, and a number of very small silver cups, from which any one drank who wished, for Kleomenes never forced men to drink against their will. No recitations were performed for the amusement of the guests; for he himself would lead the conversation and entertain them over their wine, partly by asking questions of them and partly by relating anecdotes to them: for he well knew both how to make serious subjects interesting, and to be pleasant and witty without giving offence. He was of opinion that the habit of other princes, of tempting men into their service by presents and bribes, was both clumsy and wicked; but he thought it peculiarly befitting a king to influence and captivate men’s minds by the charm of his conversation, and was wont to say that a friend differed only from a mercenary soldier in that a man wins the one by the influence of his character and his conversation, and the other by his money.

XIV. First of all the people of Mantinea made overtures to him. They admitted him to their city by night, aided him to drive out the Achæan garrison, and placed themselves unreservedly in his hands. He, however, restored them to the enjoyment of their own laws and original constitution, and marched away the same day to Tegea. Shortly afterwards by a circuitous march through Arcadia he arrived before the Achæan city of Pheræ, desiring either to fight a battle with the Achæans, or to make Aratus incur the disgrace of retreating and leaving him in possession of the country: for although Hyperbates was nominally in command, all real power over the Achæans was in the hands of Aratus. The Achæans took the field with their entire force, and encamped at Dymæ, near the temple called Hekatombæon. When Kleomenes arrived here he was unwilling to establish himself between the hostile city of Dymæ and the army of the Achæans, and challenged them, forced them to fight, and completely routed their phalanx. He killed many, took a large number of prisoners, and then, marching to Langon, drove out the Achæan garrison, and restored the city to the Eleans.

XV. As the Achæan power was now quite broken, Aratus, who was usually elected general every other year, refused to take office, and excused himself when they besought him to do so: a dishonourable act, when the times became more stormy, to desert the helm, and give up his power to another. Kleomenes at first used very moderate language to the Achæan ambassadors, but sent others ordering them to acknowledge him for their sovereign, and promising that if they did so he would do them no further hurt, and would at once restore the prisoners and fortresses which he had taken. As the Achæans were willing to accept these terms they invited Kleomenes to a conference at Lerna. It happened, however, that Kleomenes, after a long march, drank a quantity of cold water, which caused him to bring up much blood, and to lose his voice. In consequence of this, although he sent back the most distinguished of his prisoners, he was obliged to postpone the conference, and went home to Lacedæmon.

XVI. This mischance ruined Greece, which even now might have recovered herself, and avoided falling into the hands of the insolent and rapacious Macedonians. For Aratus, either because he distrusted and feared Kleomenes, or else because he grudged him his success, and thought that after he had for thirty-three years been chief of the Achæans, it was not to be endured that a young man should overthrow him, and enter into the fruit of his labours, at first tried to oppose the Achæans when they offered to come to terms with the Lacedæmonians; but as they would not listen to him, because they were cowed by the boldness of Kleomenes, and also admitted the justice of the Lacedæmonian claim to be the leading state in Peloponnesus, as their ancestral right, he adopted a course which was a disgraceful one for any Greek, but especially so for him, and one which was most unworthy of his former political life. He determined to invite Antigonus into Greece, and to fill the Pelopennesus with those very Macedonians whom he himself when a lad had chased out of the country by his capture of the Acro-Corinthus, although he was regarded with suspicion by all the kings, and was at variance with them all, and though he had already accused this very Antigonus himself of every conceivable crime in his “Memoirs,” which are still extant. Yet he himself has stated that he suffered much, and risked much to free Athens from a Macedonian garrison; though now he led these very men with arms in their hands into his own native country, and up to his own paternal hearth. He thought that Kleomenes, a descendant of Herakles, a king of Sparta, who had restored the simple ancient Dorian constitution of Lykurgus, as one tightens the relaxed strings of a lyre, to bring it into tune, was unworthy to be accounted the ruler of Sikyon and Tritæa; and in his eagerness to avoid the rough Spartan cloak, and the Spartan barley bread, and that with which he especially charged Kleomenes, the destruction of wealth and the encouragement of poverty, threw himself and all Achæa with him, into the arms of the Macedonians, with all their diadems and their purple robes and their habits of oriental despotism. That he might avoid acting under the orders of Kleomenes, he was content to offer sacrifice at festivals in honour of Antigonus, and himself to place a garland upon his head, and to lead the pæan in praise of a man wasted and emaciated by consumption. And this I write, not from any desire to depreciate Aratus, for in many respects he proved himself a truly great and patriotic man, but rather out of pity for the weakness of human nature, which will not allow even the most eminent persons to present us with the spectacle of an entirely unblemished virtue.

XVII. When the Achæans again assembled at Argos to hold a conference there, and Kleomenes started to go thither from Tegea, men’s minds were full of hope that peace would be finally established. But Aratus, who had already settled the main points of his treaty with Antigonus, and feared that Kleomenes would either by persuasion or force bring the assembly over to his views, sent to him demanding either that he should take three hundred hostages for his safety and come to the conference alone, or else meet them with his army outside the walls at the gymnasium called the Kyllarabium. Kleomenes on hearing this said that he had not been properly treated; for Aratus ought to have warned him of this at once, not have waited till he was almost at the gates of Argos and then expressed suspicions of his honesty of purpose and driven him away. He sent a letter to the assembled Achæans, containing bitter invectives against Aratus, and as Aratus replied by maligning him in a public oration, he broke up his camp and sent a herald with a declaration of war, not to Argos, according to Aratus, but to Ægium, in order to take the Achæans by surprise. The Achæan cities were all ripe for revolt, as the populace hoped for a redistribution of the land and cancelling of debts if they joined the Spartans, while the leading men were all jealous of the power and influence of Aratus, and some of them hated him as the traitor who was bringing the Macedonians into Peloponnesus. Relying upon the prevalence of this feeling Kleomenes invaded Achaia, took Pellene by surprise, and drove out the garrison and the Achæan inhabitants. Soon afterwards he captured the cities of Pheneus and Penteleum.

The Achæans of Corinth and Sikyon now began to fear that his partisans were plotting to deliver up those cities to him, and in consequence sent their cavalry and foreign mercenaries away from Argos to guard those towns, while they themselves proceeded to Argos to hold the Nemean festival there. Kleomenes, rightly judging that his appearance at a time when the city was full of a disorderly crowd of people who were come to attend the feasts and games would produce great confusion, marched up to the walls by night, seized the place called the ‘Shield,’ which is just above the theatre, and is very difficult of access, and so terrified the citizens that no one attempted to offer any resistance. They willingly agreed to admit a Spartan garrison, to give twenty of their chief men as hostages for their loyalty, and to become the allies of the Lacedæmonians, acknowledging their supremacy.

XVIII. This exploit added not a little to the reputation and power of Kleomenes. None of the ancient kings of Sparta could ever make themselves masters of Argos, although they often attempted to do so; and even that most brilliant general King Pyrrhus, though he forced his way into the city, could not take it, but perished, and with him a great part of his army. For these reasons, the skill and audacity of Kleomenes were the more admired: and those who had before ridiculed his attempts to bring back the days of Solon and Lykurgus by the cancelling of debts and redistribution of land, now became entirely convinced that these measures had been the cause of the revival of Sparta. The Spartans before this had been so feeble and helpless, that the Aetolians invaded Laconia and carried off a booty of fifty thousand slaves, on which occasion it is said that an old Spartan observed that the enemy had greatly benefited Laconia by relieving it from its burdens. Yet a short time after this, by the restoration of their former constitution, and by re-establishing the ancient system of training, they made as magnificent a display of discipline and valour as if Lykurgus himself were alive and at the head of affairs, for they gained for Sparta the first place in Greece, and won the whole of Peloponnesus by the sword.

XIX. The submission of Argos to Kleomenes was soon followed by that of Phlius and Kleonæ. During these events Aratus was at Corinth, busily engaged in searching for the partisans of the Lacedæmonians. When the news of the fall of these cities reached Corinth, as he observed that the city of Corinth was eager to join Kleomenes and leave the Achæan league, he summoned the citizens to meet in the public assembly, and himself made his way unperceived to the gate. He had already sent his horse thither, and mounting, fled to Sikyon. The Corinthians now hurried to Argos to surrender their city to Kleomenes; in such haste, writes Aratus in his ‘Memoirs,’ that they foundered all their horses. Kleomenes reproached them for allowing Aratus to escape, but shortly afterwards sent Megistonous to him, asking him to hand over the citadel of Corinth, which was in possession of an Achæan garrison, and offering him a large sum of money. He answered that the course of affairs was not in his power, but that he was rather in theirs. These particulars we have extracted from Aratus’s own writings. Kleomenes now marched from Argos to Corinth, receiving on the way the submission of Trœzene, Epidaurus, and Hermione. As the garrison refused to surrender the citadel, he built a rampart round it, and sending for the friends and representatives of Aratus, bade them take charge of his house and property during his absence. He now sent the Messenian Tritymallus to Aratus, with instructions to propose to him that the garrison of Acro-Corinthus should be composed partly of Spartan and partly of Achæan troops, while he himself privately offered him double the amount of the pension which he received from King Ptolemy of Egypt. However, as Aratus refused to listen to his overtures, but sent his own son with the other hostages to Antigonus, and persuaded the Achæans to pass a decree to hand over the Acro-Corinthus to Antigonus, Kleomenes invaded the territory of Sikyon and laid it waste, and also took the property of Aratus when it was publicly presented to him by the people of Corinth.

XX. When Antigonus crossed the Geranean mountains with a large force, Kleomenes did not think it necessary to guard the isthmus, but determined to fortify the mountains called Onea, and by holding that strong position, to protract the war and wear out the Macedonian force, rather than fight a pitched battle with their phalanx. By this line of policy he reduced Antigonus to great straits; for he had made no preparations for feeding his troops for more than a short time, and yet to force his way in over the isthmus was a difficult operation while Kleomenes barred the way. An attempt which he made to steal through by Lechæum[13] at night was repulsed with considerable loss; so that Kleomenes and his friends, elated by their victory, supped merrily together, while Antigonus was at his wit’s end to know what to do. He even began to meditate marching to the promontory of Heræum, and conveying his forces over the Corinthian gulf to Sikyon, an operation which would have required much time and many ships. However, late in the evening there arrived certain friends of Aratus by sea from Argos, inviting him to come thither, as the Argives intended to revolt from Kleomenes. The prime mover in this revolt was one Aristoteles, who easily prevailed upon the people to rise, because they were disappointed with Kleomenes, who had not cancelled all their debts as they hoped he would. Aratus now took fifteen hundred of Antigonus’s soldiers and proceeded by sea to Epidaurus. Aristoteles however did not wait for his arrival, but led the citizens to attack the garrison in the citadel, assisted by Timoxenus with a body of Achæans from Sikyon.

XXI. Intelligence of this movement reached Kleomenes about the second watch of the night. He at once sent for Megistonous, and angrily ordered him at once to go to the assistance of the garrison of Argos; for it was he who had so confidently assured Kleomenes of the loyalty of the Argives, and had dissuaded him from banishing those whom he suspected from the city. Having detached Megistonous with two thousand men on this service, he himself turned his attention to Antigonus, and pacified the people of Corinth by assuring them that nothing had happened at Argos except a slight disturbance which would be easily suppressed. However, as Megistonous was killed while forcing his way into the city, and the garrison were hard pressed, and kept sending messengers to Kleomenes begging for assistance, he, fearing that if the enemy gained Argos they might cut him off from Laconia, and sack the defenceless city of Sparta, withdrew his army from Corinth. He lost this city at once, for Antigonus instantly entered it and placed a garrison in it. He now proceeded to assault the city wall of Argos, and concentrated his troops for this purpose. He broke through the vaults supporting the part of the city called the ‘Shield,’ forced his way in, and joined his garrison, who were still holding out against the Achæans. He now, by the use of scaling ladders, captured some of the strong places in the city, and cleared the streets of the enemy by means of his Cretan archers. When however he saw Antigonus marching down from the mountains to the plain with his phalanx in battle array, and saw the Macedonian cavalry pouring along towards the city, he despaired of success, and collecting all his troops into one mass, led them safely out of the city. He had in a wonderfully short time effected great things, and had all but made himself master of the whole of Peloponnesus: but now he lost it all as quickly as he had won it, for some of his allies at once deserted him, and many shortly afterwards surrendered their cities to Antigonus.

XXII. As Kleomenes was marching into the city of Tegea at nightfall, on his return from this disastrous campaign, he was met by messengers bearing the news of a still greater calamity, the death of his wife Agiatis, of whom he was so fond that even when in the full tide of success he never would remain continuously with his army, but used constantly to return to Sparta to see her. He was terribly grieved and cast down, as one would expect a young man to be on losing so beautiful and excellent a wife, yet he did not allow his noble spirit to be crushed by his sorrow, but without showing any outward signs of grief in his voice or countenance, continued to give his orders to his officers, and to take measures for placing Tegea in a posture of defence. At daybreak next morning he returned to Lacedæmon, and after lamenting his misfortune with his mother and his children, began to consider by what policy he might save his country.

Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, now offered him assistance on the condition of receiving his mother and children as hostages. For a long time he shrank from mentioning this proposal to his mother, and often conversed with her without having the courage to allude to it, until she suspected that he had something on his mind, and inquired of his friends whether there was not some subject about which he hesitated to speak to her. At last Kleomenes brought himself to mention Ptolemy’s proposal to her. On hearing it, she laughed loudly, and said, “This, then, is that which you have so long been fearing to tell me. Pray place me and the children on board ship as soon as possible, and send us to any place where this body of mine may be useful to Sparta, before it be uselessly consumed by old age at home.”

When all was prepared for her voyage, Kratesiklea proceeded to Tænarus escorted by Kleomenes with all his troops under arms. Before embarking she retired alone with him into the temple of Poseidon, where, after embracing him as he sorrowed at her departure, she said, “Now, king of the Lacedæmonians, take care when we come out that no one sees us weeping or doing anything unworthy of Sparta. This lies in our own power; but good or evil fortune befalls us according to the will of Heaven.”

Saying thus, she fixed her eyes upon the ship, walked swiftly to it carrying the child, and bade the pilot start at once. When she reached Egypt, as she heard that Ptolemy had received an embassy from Antigonus, and was told that although the Achæans wished to come to terms with him, he had feared on her account to make peace with them without consulting Ptolemy, she wrote to him bidding him act worthily of Sparta, and consult her interests, and not fear to displease Ptolemy because of what he might do to an old woman and an infant. So great a spirit is she said to have shown in her misfortunes.

XXIII. Antigonus now advanced, took Tegea, and allowed his troops to plunder Orchomenus and Mantinea. Kleomenes, who was confined to the territory of Lacedæmon, proceeded to emancipate all helots who could pay a sum of five Attic minæ for their freedom, by which means he raised a sum of five hundred talents. He also organised a special corps of two thousand men, armed after the Macedonian fashion, with which he hoped to be able to meet the Leukaspids,[14] or white-shielded troops of Antigonus, and proceeded to attempt a wonderful and surprising feat of arms.

The city of Megalopolis at that time was itself quite as large and as powerful as Sparta, and had close at hand the army of the Achæans, and that of Antigonus himself, whom the people of Megalopolis had been especially eager to invite into Peloponnesus. This city Kleomenes determined to pounce upon: (no other word expresses the speed with which he surprised it). He ordered his troops to provision themselves for five days, and led them to Sellasia, as though he intended to invade Argolis. From Sellasia he marched into the territory of Megalopolis, halted at Rhœteum for supper, and thence proceeded along the road by Helikus straight towards Megalopolis. When he was close to it he detached Panteus with two regiments to attack a part of the wall lying between two towers, which he had heard was often left unguarded, while he moved slowly forward with the main body. Panteus not only found that spot, but a great extent of the city wall unguarded. While he was engaged in throwing down the wall and killing those who attempted to defend it, Kleomenes came up, and was within the city with his army before the people of Megalopolis knew of his arrival.

XXIV. When at last the inhabitants discovered the extent of their misfortune, some snatched up what they could and fled at once, while others got under arms and endeavoured to drive out the enemy. In this they could not succeed, but they enabled the fugitives to escape unmolested, so that no more than a thousand souls remained in the city, as all the rest got safe with their wives and children to Messene. Of those who offered resistance but a few were slain, and a very small number were taken prisoners, amongst whom were Lysandridas and Thearidas, the two most important persons in Megalopolis. On this account the soldiers who took them brought them at once to Kleomenes. Lysandridas, as soon as he saw Kleomenes at a distance, called out loudly to him, “King of the Lacedæmonians, now you have an opportunity to add to your glory by a deed even more noble and more worthy of a king than that which you have achieved!” Kleomenes, suspecting what he meant, asked, “What do you mean, Lysandridas? do you bid me give you back your city?” “That is what I bid you to do,” answered Lysandridas; “and I advise you not to ruin so great a city, but to fill it with friends and trusty allies, by restoring it to the people of Megalopolis, and becoming their saviour.” To this Kleomenes, after a short silence, replied, “It is hard to believe this; but let us ever prefer honour to profit.” Saying this he sent his prisoners to Messene, and a herald with them, who offered to restore the city to the people of Megalopolis, on the condition that they should desert the Achæans and become the friends and allies of the Spartans. However, Philopimen would not allow his countrymen to break their faith with the Achæans and accept this wise and generous offer. He declared that Kleomenes did not intend to give them back their city, but wanted to get possession of them as well as of their city, and with violent abuse drove Thearidas and Lysandridas out of the Messenian country. This was that Philopœmen who afterwards became the general of the Achæans and won great distinction, as will be found in the life of him which I have written.

XXV. When this answer was brought back to Kleomenes, who had hitherto carefully kept the city unharmed, and had not allowed any one to appropriate the most trifling article, he became furious with disappointment. He plundered the city, sent all the statues and pictures to Sparta, utterly destroyed all the best part of the city, and returned home, for he feared Antigonus and the Achæans. They, however, did not offer to attack him: for they were engaged in holding a conference at Ægium. Here Aratus ascended the tribune, and for a long time wept with his face hidden in his gown. At last, as the others in wonder bade him tell them the cause of his grief, he said that Megalopolis had been ruined by Kleomenes. On hearing this the assembly at once broke up. The Achæans were terror-stricken at the suddenness and importance of the blow, and Antigonus determined to proceed to the assistance of the people of Megalopolis, but as it took a long time to assemble his troops from their winter-quarters, he ordered them to stay where they were, and himself with a small force marched to Argos. Kleomenes now engaged in a second enterprise, which appeared completely insane, but which is said by the historian Polybius to show consummate generalship. As he knew that all the Macedonian troops were scattered over the country in winter-quarters, and that Antigonus with a few mercenary troops was spending the winter at Argos with his friends, he invaded the Argive territory, thinking that either he should shame Antigonus into a battle, and beat him, or else that if he did not dare to fight, the Argives would be disgusted with him. And so it fell out. The Argives, seeing their country spoiled by Kleomenes, were greatly enraged, and gathering together before the house in which Antigonus was lodging, excitedly called upon him either to fight or to resign his post as commander-in-chief in favour of a better man. But Antigonus, like a prudent general as he was, thought it more disgraceful to run foolish risks and incur unnecessary danger than to hear himself called hard names by the mob, and refused to leave the city, but stood constant in his original policy. Kleomenes, after marching up to the gates of Argos, ostentatiously ravaged the country, and returned home unmolested.

XXVI. Shortly afterwards, hearing that Antigonus had again advanced to Tegea, intending to invade Laconia by that route, Kleomenes quickly assembled his army, marched by a different road, avoiding Antigonus, and at daybreak appeared near the city of Argos, where he ravaged the plain country, not reaping the corn, as invaders usually do, with sickles and swords, but beating down with great clubs, so that his soldiers in sheer sport as they marched along were able to destroy the whole crop without trouble. When they reached the gymnasium of Kyllarabis some of the officers proposed to set it on fire; but Kleomenes forbade it, saying that even in destroying Megalopolis he had been guided by anger rather than by honour. Antigonus at first retired directly towards Argos, but afterwards occupied all the passes by which the Lacedæmonians could retreat. Kleomenes affected to set him at defiance, and sent a herald to Argos to demand the keys of the temple of Hera (between Argos and Mycenæ), in order that he might offer sacrifice there before retiring. After insulting the Argives by this ironical request, he offered sacrifice outside the temple, for the doors remained locked, and led away his army to Phlius. From thence he marched to Mount Oligyrtus, where he defeated the Macedonian troops who guarded the pass, and returned home by way of Orchomenus, having inspired his countrymen with hope and confidence, and having proved to his enemies that he was a consummate general, capable of conducting the most important operations. It was indeed no small feat for him, with only the resources of one small state at his disposal, to make war against the power of Macedonia and all the cities of the Peloponnesus, with Antigonus for their paymaster, and not only to prevent the enemy’s setting foot in Laconia, but to lay waste their country, and take such large and important cities from them.

XXVII. However, he who first called money the sinews of war must have had this war in his mind. So also Demades, when the Athenians wished to man a fleet at a time when they had no money, observed that they must make bread before they could make a voyage. Archidamus, too, who was king of Sparta at the opening of the Peloponnesian war, when his allies asked him to fix the limit of their several contributions, answered that the consumption of war is unlimited. For just as trained athletes in time overpower their antagonist in spite of his strength and skill, so Antigonus, having vast resources to draw upon, wearied out and overpowered Kleomenes, who had the greatest difficulty in paying his mercenary troops and feeding his countrymen. In other respects the long duration of the contest was in Kleomenes’s favour, as Antigonus had troubles at home which made the contest a more equal one. The barbarians, in his absence, always overran and plundered the outskirts of the kingdom of Macedonia, and at this period an army of Illyrians had invaded the country from the north, against whose depredations the Macedonians besought Antigonus to return and protect them. The letter calling upon him to return was very nearly delivered to him before the decisive battle of the war; and had he received it, he would no doubt have returned home at once and taken a long farewell of the Achæans. However, fortune, who delights to show that the most important events are decided by the merest trifles, caused the embassy with the letters for the recall of Antigonus to reach him just after the battle of Sellasia, in which Kleomenes lost his army and his country. This makes the misfortune of Kleomenes yet more pitiable; for if he had avoided a battle for two days longer, he never need have fought at all, as the Macedonians would have retreated, and left him to make what terms he pleased with the Achæans: whereas, as has been explained, his want of money forced him to fight, and that too when, according to Polybius, he had only twenty thousand men to oppose to thirty thousand.

XXVIII. In the battle he acted like a great general, and the Spartans fought with desperate courage, while the mercenary troops also behaved well; but he was overpowered by the Macedonian armament and by the irresistible weight of their phalanx. The historian Phylarchus says that Kleomenes was ruined by treachery, for Antigonus sent his Illyrians and Akarnanians to make a flank march and attack one of the enemy’s wings, which was commanded by Eukleidas, the brother of Kleomenes, and there placed the rest of his army in battle array. Kleomenes, who was watching the enemy from an eminence, could not see the Illyrian and Akarnanian troops, and suspected some manœuvre of the kind. He sent for Damoteles, the chief of the Spartan secret-service,[15] and ordered him to explore the ground on both flanks, and see that no attack was meditated in that direction. As Damoteles, who is said to have been bribed by Antigonus, answered that all was well on the flanks, and that he had better give his entire attention to the enemy in front, Kleomenes believed him, and at once charged the army of Antigonus. The furious attack of the Spartans drove back the Macedonian phalanx, and Kleomenes forced it to retreat before him for a distance of about five stadia. Then, as he found that his brother Eukleidas on the other wing was surrounded by the enemy, he halted, and looking towards him, said, “You are gone, my dearest brother; you have fought bravely, and are a noble model to the Spartan youth, a noble theme for Spartan maidens’ songs.” Then, as the entire division under Eukleidas was cut to pieces, and the victors attacked his own men, who were thrown into confusion and could no longer stand their ground, he escaped from the field as best he could. It is said that many of the mercenaries were slain, and that of the Lacedæmonians, who were six thousand in all, only two hundred remained alive.

XXIX. Kleomenes, when he reached Sparta, advised the citizens whom he met to submit to Antigonus, and declared that he himself, whether he lived or died, would do what was best for Sparta. As he saw the women running up to those who had accompanied him in his flight, taking their arms from them and offering them drink, he retired into his own house, where his mistress, a girl of a good family of Megalopolis, whom he had taken to live with him after his wife’s death, came up to him as usual, and wished to attend upon him on his return from the wars. But he would neither drink, although excessively thirsty, nor sit down, weary though he was, but in his armour as he was took hold of one of the columns with his hand, leaned his face upon his elbow, and after resting a short time in this posture while he revolved in his mind every kind of plan, proceeded with his friends to Grythium. Here they embarked on a ship which had been prepared in case of such a disaster, and sailed away.

XXX. After the battle Antigonus advanced upon Sparta, and made himself master of the city. He treated the Lacedæmonians with kindness, and offered no kind of insult to their glorious city, but permitted them to retain their laws and constitution, sacrificed to the gods, and on the third day withdrew, as he had learned that a terrible war was raging in Macedonia, and that his kingdom was being ravaged by the barbarians. His health was already affected by a disease, which ended in consumption. However, he bore up against it, and was able to die gloriously after having recovered his kingdom, won a great victory over the barbarians, and killed a great number of them. Phylarchus tells us that he ruptured his lungs by shouting in the battle itself, and this seems the most probable account, but the common report at the time was that while shouting aloud after the victory, “O happy day!” he brought up a vast quantity of blood and fell sick of a fever, of which he died. Such was the fate of Antigonus.

XXXI. Kleomenes sailed from Kythera to another island, named Ægialea. As he was about to cross over from this place to Cyrene, one of his friends named Therykion, a brilliant warrior and a man of lofty, unbending spirit, said to him in private, “My king, we have lost the opportunity of falling by the noblest of deaths in the battle, although we publicly declared that Antigonus should never enter Sparta unless he first passed over the dead body of the king. However, the course which is next to this in honour is still open to us. Why should we recklessly embark on this voyage merely in order to exchange our misfortunes at home for others in a distant country? If it be not disgraceful for the sons of Herakles to submit to the successors of Philip and Alexander, we shall save ourselves a long voyage by delivering ourselves up to Antigonus, who is probably as much better than Ptolemy as the Macedonians are better than the Egyptians. If, on the other hand, we scorn to become the subjects of our conqueror, why should we become subject to one who has not conquered us, and so prove ourselves inferior to two men instead of one, by becoming the courtiers of Ptolemy as well as fleeing before Antigonus? Is it on account of your mother that we are going to Egypt? If so, you will indeed make a glorious appearance before her, and you will be much to be envied when she shows her son to the ladies of Ptolemy’s court, an exile instead of a king. While we are still masters of our own swords, and are still in sight of Laconia, let us put ourselves beyond the reach of further misfortunes, and make amends to those who died for Sparta at Sellasia, rather than settle ourselves in Egypt, and inquire whom Antigonus has been pleased to appoint satrap of Lacedæmon?”[16]

To these remarks of Therykion Kleomenes answered, “Wretch, do you think that by suicide, the easiest way out of all difficulties, and one which is within every man’s reach, you will gain a reputation for bravery, and will not rather be flying before the enemy more disgracefully than at Sellasia? More powerful men than ourselves have ere now been defeated, either by their own evil fortune or by the excessive numbers of their enemy: but the man who refuses to bear fatigue and misery, and the scorn of men, is conquered by his own cowardice. A self-inflicted death ought to be an honourable action, not a dishonourable means of escape from the necessity for action. It is disgraceful either to live or to die for oneself alone: yet this is the course which you recommend, namely, that I should fly from my present misery without ever again performing any useful or honourable action. I think that it is both your duty and mine, not to despair of our country: for when all hope fails us, we can easily find means to die.” To this Therykion made no answer, but as soon as he had an opportunity left Kleomenes, sought a retired spot upon the beach, and killed himself.

XXXII. Kleomenes sailed from Ægialea to Libya, where he was received with royal honours and conducted to Alexandria. At his first interview Ptolemy[17] treated him with mere ordinary politeness, but when by converation with him he discovered his great abilities, and in the familiar intercourse of daily life observed the noble Spartan simplicity of his habits, and saw with how proud and unbroken a spirit he bore his misfortunes, he thought him a much more trustworthy friend than any of the venal throng of courtiers by whom he was surrounded. Ptolemy felt real regret at having neglected so great a man, and allowed Antigonus to gain so much glory and power at his expense. He showed Kleomenes great kindness and honour, and encouraged him by promising that he would place a fleet and a sum of money at his disposal, which would enable him to return to Greece and recover his throne. He settled upon him a yearly allowance of twenty-four talents, the most part of which he and his friends, who still retained their simple Spartan habits, distributed in charity among the Greek refugees who had found an asylum in Egypt.

XXXIII. The elder Ptolemy died before he could accomplish his promise of attempting to restore Kleomenes to his throne; and amidst the drunken licence of the court of his successor, the affairs of Kleomenes were entirely neglected. The young king[18] was so given up to wine and women, that his soberest moments were spent in organising religious ceremonies in the palace, and in carrying a kettledrum in honour of the mother of the gods. The whole of the public business of the kingdom was managed by Agathoklea, the king’s mistress, her mother, and the brothel-keeper Œnanthes. Yet even here it seems that the assistance of Kleomenes was needed, for the king, fearing his brother Magas, who through his mother had great influence with the army, attached himself in a special manner to Kleomenes, and made him a member of his own secret council, desiring to make use of him to kill his brother. Kleomenes, although every one in the court bade him do this, refused, saying that it would rather be his duty, if it were possible, to raise up more brothers for the king, to strengthen and confirm his throne. When Sosibius, the most powerful of the king’s favourites, said that the mercenary troops were not to be depended upon while Magas was alive, Kleomenes answered that he might be quite easy on that score, for more than three thousand of the mercenaries were Peloponnesians, and at the slightest sign from him would seize their arms and rally round him. This speech was thought at the time to be a great proof of the loyalty of Kleomenes, and gave the courtiers a great idea of his power; but afterwards, as Ptolemy’s weakness of character produced cowardice, and after the manner of empty-headed men he began to think it safest to suspect every one, these words made the courtiers fear Kleomenes, as having a dangerous power over the mercenaries; and many of them were wont to say, “This man moves among us like a lion among a flock of sheep.” Indeed the demeanour of Kleomenes in the Egyptian palace, as he calmly and quietly watched the course of events, naturally suggested this simile.

XXXIV. Kleomenes gave up asking for a fleet and an army; but hearing that Antigonus was dead, and that the Achæans were involved in a war with the Ætolians, while his presence was imperatively demanded at home, as all Peloponnesus seemed to be going to ruin, he desired to be sent home alone with his friends. However, he could persuade no one to accede to this request, as the king thought of nothing but his concubines and his revels, and Sosibius, upon whom devolved the whole conduct of affairs, although he knew that Kleomenes would be dangerous and hard to manage if kept in Egypt against his will, yet feared to set at large so daring and enterprising a man, who had gained a thorough insight into the utter rottenness of the Ptolemaic dynasty. For Kleomenes could not be bribed into remaining quiet, but as the bull[19] sacred to Apis, although he is abundantly fed and supplied with every luxury, yet longs to frisk and range about as nature intended, so he cared for none of their effeminate pleasures,

“but wore his soul away”

like Achilles,

“Idling at home, though eager for the fray.”

XXXV. While his affairs were in this posture, there arrived at Alexandria one Nikagoras, a Messenian, who pretended to be a friend to Kleomenes, but really hated him bitterly, because he had once sold him a fair estate, but had never received the money, either because Kleomenes intended to cheat him, or because he was unable to pay him on account of the wars. As this man was disembarking from his ship, Kleomenes, who happened to be walking upon the quay, saw him, and at once warmly greeted him, and inquired what business had brought him to Egypt. Nikagoras returned his salutation with equal friendliness, and said that he had brought over some fine horses for the king’s use in the wars. At this Kleomenes laughed, and said, “I had rather you had brought singing-girls or beautiful boys, for they are what please the king best.” Nikagoras listened to this remark with a smile, but a few days afterwards he reminded Kleomenes of the estate which he had bought, and asked him to pay the price, saying that he would not have pressed for it if he had not sustained losses on his cargo. As Kleomenes replied that all his pension from the king was spent, Nikagoras in a rage repeated to Sosibius the sarcasm which he had used. Sosibius was much pleased to hear of it, but as he wished to have some graver matter of which to accuse him to the king, he persuaded Nikagoras to write a letter before he left Egypt, accusing Kleomenes of a design to make himself master of Cyrene, if the king put him in possession of a fleet and army. Nikagoras wrote the letter, and sailed away to Greece; and after forty days Sosibius took the letter and showed it to Ptolemy, as though he had just received it. By this means he so wrought upon the young king’s mind, that he confined Kleomenes in a large house, and placed a guard before all the doors, although he continued to allow him his pension as before.

XXXVI. This treatment was in itself sufficiently grievous to Kleomenes, and made him fear that something worse was in store. Now Ptolemy, the son of Chrysermes, who was a friend of the king’s, had always been on good terms with Kleomenes, and they had been in the habit of conversing familiarly together. This man now, at Kleomenes’s own request, came to see him, and talked amicably with him, explaining away all which had appeared suspicious about the king’s conduct. As he was leaving the house, without noticing that Kleomenes had followed him to the door, he harshly reproved the guard for keeping such careless watch over so great and savage a monster. Kleomenes himself heard him say this, and before Ptolemy observed him, retired and told his friends what he had heard. They at once abandoned all hope, and fiercely determined to avenge themselves on Ptolemy for his wickedness and arrogance, and die as became Spartans, not wait to be butchered like fat cattle. They thought that it was intolerable that Kleomenes should have disdained to make terms with Antigonus, who was a soldier and a man of action, and should sit waiting for the pleasure of a timbrel-playing king, who as soon as he was at leisure from his kettle-drummings and revellings, intended to murder him.

XXXVII. As soon as they had formed this resolution, as it happened that Ptolemy had gone to Canopus, they spread a report that the king had given orders for the guard to be removed. Next, observing the custom of the kings of Egypt, which was to send a dinner and various presents to those who are about to be released from confinement, the friends of Kleomenes prepared many presents of this kind and sent them to him, deceiving the guard, who believed that they had been sent by the king. Kleomenes offered sacrifice, and gave the soldiers on guard an ample share of the meat, while he himself put on a garland and feasted with his friends. It is said that they proceeded to action sooner than had been originally intended, because Kleomenes perceived that one of the servants who was in the plot had left the house, though he had only gone to visit his mistress. Fearing that he meant to denounce them, as soon as it was noon, and the guard were sleeping off their wine, Kleomenes put on his tunic, slit up the seam over the right shoulder, seized his naked sword, and sallied forth with his friends similarly arrayed, thirteen in all. One of them named Hippitas, who was lame, came boldly out with the rest, but finding that they proceeded slowly to enable him to keep up with them, begged them to kill him, and not spoil their plot by waiting for a useless man. It happened that one of the Alexandrians was leading a horse past the door; they at once took it, placed Hippitas on its back, and ran quickly through the streets, calling upon the populace to rise and set itself free. The people, it appears, had spirit enough to admire Kleomenes, but no one dared to follow or help him. Three of the conspirators met Ptolemy, the son of Chrysermes, coming out of the palace, and killed him: and when another Ptolemy, the governor of the city, drove towards them in a chariot, they rushed to meet him, scattered his body-guard, dragged him out of the chariot and killed him. They now made their way to the citadel, intending to break open the prison and make use of the prisoners to swell their numbers; but the guardians of the prison had closed the gates effectually before they arrived, and Kleomenes, failing in this attempt, roamed through the city without finding any one to join him, as all fled in terror at his approach. At last he stopped, and said to his friends, “No wonder women bear rule in a city where men fear to be free.” He now bade them all end their lives worthily of him and of themselves. First of all Hippitas, at his own request, was struck dead by one of the younger men; after which, each man deliberately and fearlessly inflicted upon himself a mortal stab, with the exception of Panteus, who had been the first to break into the city of Megalopolis. This man, the handsomest and best warrior of all the Spartan youth, was especially loved by the king, and was ordered by him to wait till all the rest were dead, and then to put an end to his life. When they had all fallen, Panteus pricked each man with his dagger, to make certain that none of them were alive. When he pricked Kleomenes in the ankle he saw his face contract. He kissed him and sat down beside him until he was quite dead, and then, embracing the corpse, killed himself upon it.

XXXVIII. Thus perished Kleomenes, after having reigned over Sparta for thirteen years, as described above. The news of his death was soon bruited abroad, and Kratesiklea, although a woman of high spirit, was so overcome by her misfortune that she embraced the children and wept for Kleomenes. Upon this the eldest boy leaped up, and before any one knew what he was going to do, threw himself headlong from the roof of the house. He was much hurt, but not killed, and was taken up, crying out and reproaching his friends because they would not allow him to die. When Ptolemy heard the news, he ordered the corpse of Kleomenes to be flayed and exposed on a gibbet, and his children, his mother, and her attendants to be put to death. Among these was the wife of Panteus, the fairest and noblest-looking of them all. She and her husband had only recently been married when their misfortunes began. When Panteus left Sparta she wished to accompany him, but her parents would not allow her to do so, and locked her up in their house. But she shortly afterwards procured a horse and a little money, and made her escape by night. She rode all the way to Taenarum, where she found a ship about to sail to Egypt, on board of which she crossed the sea, joined her husband, and cheerfully shared his exile. She now, when the soldiers came to lead away Kratesiklea, took her by the hand, held up the train of her dress, and bade her be of good courage; although Kratesiklea herself was not afraid to die, but only asked one favour, that she might die before her children. When they arrived at the place of execution, the children were first killed before the eyes of Kratesiklea, and then she herself. All she said was: “My children, whither have you come?” The wife of Panteus, being a tall and robust woman, girded up her robe, and arranged each of the corpses as decently as her means permitted. After she had paid the last offices to each of them she prepared herself for death, bared her neck, allowed no one to approach her but the executioner, and died like a heroine, without requiring any one to arrange her corpse. Thus the modesty which she had observed throughout her life, did not desert her even when she was dead.

XXXIX. Thus gloriously, even during its last days, did Lacedæmon, whose women are taught to vie with men in courage, prove that virtue is superior to Fortune. A few days afterwards, those who were watching the body of Kleomenes as it hung upon the gibbet, observed a large snake which wound its body round his head and covered his face, so that no ravenous bird could alight upon it. On hearing this, the king was struck with superstitious terror, fearing that he had offended the gods by the murder of one who was evidently a favourite of Heaven, and something more than mortal. All the ladies of his court began to offer sacrifices of atonement for his sin, and the people of Alexandria went to the place and worshipped Kleomenes as a hero and child of the gods, until they were restrained by the learned, who explained that as from the corrupted bodies of oxen are bred bees, from horses wasps, and from asses beetles, so human bodies, by the melting and gathering together of the juices of the marrow, produce serpents. This was observed by the ancients, who therefore considered that of all animals the serpent was peculiarly appropriated to heroes.

LIFE OF TIBERIUS GRACCHUS.

I. Having finished the first History,[20] it remains to contemplate equal calamities in the pair of Roman Lives, in a comparison of Tiberius and Caius Gracchus with Agis and Kleomenes.[21] Tiberius and Caius were the sons of Tiberius Gracchus,[22] who was censor and twice consul, and celebrated two triumphs, but was still more distinguished for his personal character, to which he owed the honour of having for his wife Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio,[23] the conqueror of Hannibal, whom he married after Scipio’s death, though Tiberius had not been a friend of Scipio, but rather a political opponent. A story is told that Tiberius once caught a couple of snakes[24] in his bed, and the diviners, after consulting on the matter, told him that he must not kill both nor yet let both go; as to the male, they said, if it were killed, the death of Tiberius would follow, and if the female were killed, Cornelia would die. Now Tiberius, who loved his wife and thought it would be more suitable for him to die first, as he was an elderly man and his wife was still young, killed the male snake and let the female go; and he died no long time after, leaving twelve children by Cornelia, Cornelia undertook the care of her family and her husband’s property, and showed herself so prudent, so fond of her children, and of so exalted a character, that Tiberius was judged to have done well in dying in place of such a wife. And though Ptolemæus,[25] the king of Egypt, invited Cornelia to share his crown, and wooed her for his wife, she refused the offer and continued a widow. All her children died before her, except one daughter, who married the younger Scipio,[26] and two sons, of whom I am going to speak, Tiberius and Caius, who were brought up by their mother so carefully that they became, beyond dispute, the most accomplished of all the Roman youth, which they owed, perhaps, more to their excellent education than even to their natural good qualities.

II. Now as the figures of the Dioscuri,[27] whether sculptured or painted, though resembling one another, still present such an amount of difference as appears when we contrast a boxer with a runner, so in these two youths, with all their resemblance in courage, temperance, generous temper, eloquence, and magnanimity, yet great contrasts also in their actions and polity blossomed forth, so to speak, and displayed themselves, which I think it well to set forth. First in the character and expression of his countenance, and in his movements, Tiberius was mild and sedate; Caius was animated and impetuous. When Tiberius harangued the people, he would stand composedly on one spot; but Caius was the first Roman who moved about on the rostra[28] and pulled his toga from his shoulder while he was speaking, as Kleon[29] the Athenian is said to have been the first popular orator at Athens who threw his cloak from him and struck his thigh. The manner of Caius was awe-striking and vehemently impassioned; the manner of Tiberius was more pleasing and calculated to stir the sympathies: the language of Tiberius was pure and elaborated to great nicety; that of Caius was persuasive and exuberant. In like manner, in his mode of life and his table, Tiberius was frugal and simple; compared with others, Caius was moderate and austere, but, contrasted with his brother, luxurious and curious, as we see by Drusus charging him with buying silver dolphins[30] at the price of twelve hundred and fifty drachmæ for every pound that they weighed. The differences in their character corresponded to their respective styles of speaking: Tiberius was moderate and mild; Caius was rough and impetuous, and it often happened that in his harangues he was carried away by passion, contrary to his judgment, and his voice became shrill, and he fell to abuse, and grew confused in his discourse. To remedy this fault, he employed Licinius, a well-educated slave, who used to stand behind him when he was speaking, with a musical instrument,[31] such as is used as an accompaniment to singing, and whenever he observed that the voice of Caius was becoming harsh and broken through passion, he would produce a soft note, upon which Caius would immediately moderate his vehemence and his voice, and become calm.

III. Such were the contrasts between the two brothers, but in courage against the enemy, in justice to the subject nations, in vigilance in the discharge of public duties, and in self-control over indulgence, they were both alike. Tiberius was the elder by nine years, a circumstance which caused their political career to be separated by an interval, and greatly contributed to the failure of their measures, for they did not rise to eminence at the same time nor unite their strength in one effort, which from their union, would have been powerful and irresistible. I must accordingly speak of each separately, and of the elder first.

IV. Immediately on attaining man’s estate, Tiberius had so great a reputation that he was elected a member of the college of augurs,[32] rather for his excellent qualities than his noble birth. Appius Claudius,[33] a man of consular and censorian rank, who in consideration of his dignity was appointed Princeps Senatus,[34] and in loftiness of character surpassed all his contemporaries, showed his opinion of Tiberius; for when the augurs were feasting together, Appius addressed Tiberius with many expressions of friendship, and solicited him to take his daughter to wife. Tiberius gladly accepted the proposal, and the agreement was forthwith made. As Appius was entering the door on his return home, he called out to his wife in a loud voice, “Antistia, I have given our daughter Claudia to wife.” Antistia in surprise replied, “What is the need or the hurry, unless you have got Tiberius Gracchus for her husband?” I am aware that some writers tell this story of Tiberius the father of the Gracchi and of Scipio Africanus; but the majority have the story as I give it, and Polybius[35] says that after the death of Scipio Africanus, his kinsmen selected Tiberius to be the husband of Cornelia, and that she had neither been given in marriage nor betrothed by her father in his lifetime. Now the younger Tiberius served in the army in Africa[36] with the second Scipio,[37] who had married his sister, and by living in the general’s tent he soon learned his character, which exhibited many and great qualities for virtuous emulation and practical imitation. Tiberius, also, soon surpassed all the young soldiers in attention to discipline and in courage; and he was the first to mount the enemy’s wall, as Fannius[38] says, who also asserts that he mounted the wall with Tiberius and shared the honour with him. While he was in the army Tiberius won the affection of all the soldiers, and was regretted when he went away.

V. After that expedition he was elected quæstor,[39] and it fell to his lot to serve in that capacity under the consul Caius Mancinus,[40] no bad man, but the most unlucky of Roman generals. Accordingly in adverse fortune and critical affairs the prudence and courage of Tiberius became the more conspicuous, and not only his prudence and courage, but what was truly admirable, his consideration and respect for his general, whose reverses almost made him forget who he was. Having been defeated in several great battles, Mancinus attempted to leave his camp by night and make a retreat. The Numantines, however, perceived his movements, and immediately seizing the camp, fell on the Romans in their flight and killed those in the rear; and at last, when they were surrounding the whole army and driving them to unfavourable ground, from which escape was impossible, Mancinus, despairing of all chance of saving himself by resistance, sent to treat for a truce and terms of peace. But the Numantines declared that they would trust nobody except Tiberius, and they bade Mancinus send him. The Numantines had come to this resolution as well from a knowledge of the young man’s character, for there was much talk about him in this campaign, as from the remembrance of his father Tiberius, who, after carrying on war against the Iberians and subduing many of them, made peace with the Numantines, and always kept the Roman people to a fair and just observance of it. Accordingly Tiberius was sent, and had a conference with the Numantines, in which he got some favourable conditions, and, by making some concessions, obtained a truce, and thus saved twenty thousand Roman citizens, besides the slaves and camp-followers.

VI.. All the property that was taken in the camp became the booty of the Numantines; and among it were the tablets of Tiberius, which contained the entries and accounts of his administration as quæstor. Being very anxious to recover them, though the army had already advanced some distance, he returned to the city with three or four companions, and calling forth the magistrates of Numantia, he begged to have back his tablets, in order that his enemies might not have an opportunity of calumniating him if he should not be able to give an account of his administration of the public money. The Numantines were pleased at the opportunity of doing him a service, and invited him to enter the city; and when he stood hesitating, they came near and clung to his hands, and were urgent in entreating him not to consider them as enemies any longer, but as friends, and to trust them. Tiberius determined to do so, as he was very anxious to get the tablets, and feared to irritate the Numantines if he should seem to distrust them. When he had entered the city, the first thing they did was to prepare an entertainment, and to urge him most importunately to sit down and eat with them. They afterwards gave him back the tablets, and bade him take anything else he liked. Tiberius, however, would have nothing except the frankincense which he wanted for the public sacrifices, and after a friendly embrace he took his leave of them.

VII. On his return to Rome, the whole transaction was greatly blamed as dishonourable and disgraceful to Rome. The kinsfolk and friends of the soldiers, who were a large part of the people, crowded about Tiberius, charging the general with the disgraceful part of what had happened, and declaring that Tiberius had been the saviour of so many citizens. Those who were the most vexed at the events in Iberia,[41] recommended that they should follow the example of their ancestors; for in former times the Romans stripped of their clothes and delivered up to the Samnites[42] those who had purchased their safety on dishonourable terms, both the generals and all who had any share or participation in the treaty, quæstors and tribunes all alike, and on their heads they turned the violation of the oaths and the infraction of the agreement. It was on this occasion particularly, that the people showed their affection and zeal towards Tiberius: for they decided to deliver up the consul, stripped and in chains, to the Numantines, but they spared all the rest on account of Tiberius. It appears that Scipio also, who was then the most powerful man in Rome, gave his assistance in this matter, but nevertheless he was blamed for not saving Mancinus, and not making any exertion to ratify the treaty with the Numantines, which had been concluded by his relation and friend Tiberius. But whatever difference there was between Scipio and Tiberius on this occasion, perhaps originated mainly in jealousy and was owing to the friends of Tiberius and the sophists, who endeavoured to prejudice him against Scipio. There was, however, no irreconcilable breach made between them, and no bad result from this affair; indeed, it seems to me that Tiberius would never have been involved in those political measures which cost him his life, if Scipio Africanus had been at Rome while they were going on. But it was while Scipio was carrying on the war at Numantia[43] that Tiberius commenced his legislation, to which he was led from the following motives.

VIII. Whatever territory the Romans acquired from their neighbours in war, they sold part, and retaining the other part as public property,[44] they gave it to the poorer citizens to cultivate, on the payment of a small sum to the treasury. But as the rich began to outbid the poor, and so to drive them out, a law was passed which forbade any one to have more than five hundred jugera of land. This law restrained the greediness of the rich for a short time, and was a relief to the poor, who remained on the land which they had hired, and cultivated the several portions which they originally had. But in course of time their rich neighbours contrived to transfer the holdings to themselves in the names of other persons, and at last openly got possession of the greater part of the public lands in their own names, and the poor, being expelled, were not willing to take military service and were careless about bringing up families, in consequence of which there was speedily a diminution in the number of freemen all through Italy, and the country was filled with ergastula[45] of barbarian slaves, with whom the rich cultivated the lands from which they had expelled the citizens. Now Caius Lælius,[46] the friend of Scipio, attempted to remedy this mischief, but he desisted through fear of the disturbances that were threatened by the opposition of the rich, whence he got the name of wise or prudent, for such is the signification of the Roman word “sapiens.” Tiberius, on being elected tribune,[47] immediately undertook the same measures, as most say, at the instigation of the orator Diophanes and the philosopher Blossius.[48] Diophanes was an exile from Mitylene: Blossius was an Italian from Cumæ, and had been an intimate at Rome with Antipater of Tarsus, who had done him the honour of dedicating to him some of his philosophical writings. Some give part of the blame to Cornelia also, the mother of Tiberius, who frequently reproached her sons that the Romans still called her the mother-in-law of Scipio, but not yet the mother of the Gracchi. Others say that jealousy of one Spurius Postumius,[49] a contemporary of Tiberius, and a rival of his reputation as an orator, was the immediate motive: for it is said that when Tiberius returned to Rome from his military service, he found that Postumius had far out-stripped him in reputation and influence, and seeing the distinction that Postumius had attained, he determined to get the advantage over him by engaging in measures which were attended with hazard, but promised great results. But his brother Caius in a certain book has recorded, that as Tiberius was passing through Tyrrhenia (Tuscany), on his road to Numantia, he observed the deserted state of the country, and that the cultivators and shepherds were foreign slaves and barbarians; and that he then for the first time conceived those political measures which to them were the beginning of infinite calamities. But the energy and ambition of Tiberius were mainly excited by the people, who urged him by writing on the porticoes, the walls, and on the tombs, to recover the public land for the poor.

IX. He did not, however, draw up the law without assistance, but took the advice of the citizens most eminent for character and reputation, among whom were Crassus[50] the pontifex maximus, Mucius Scævola,[51] the jurist, who was then consul, and Claudius Appius, his father-in-law. Never was a measure directed against such wrong and aggression conceived in more moderate and gentle terms; for though the rich well deserved to be punished for their violation of law and to be compelled to surrender under penalties the land which they had been illegally enjoying, the law merely declared that they should give up their unjust acquisitions upon being paid the value of them, and should allow the lands to be occupied by the citizens who were in want of this relief. Though the reform of this abuse was so moderate and reasonable, the people were satisfied to take no notice of the past and to secure themselves against wrong for the future. But the rich and those who had possessions detested the proposed law because of their greediness, and the proposer of it was the object of their indignation and jealousy; and accordingly they attempted to divert the people from the measure, by insinuating that Tiberius was proposing a division of land merely to disturb the state and to bring about a revolution. But they failed altogether; for Tiberius, supporting a measure in itself honourable and just, with an eloquence[52] calculated to set off even a meaner subject, showed his power and his superiority over his opponents, whenever the people were crowded round the rostra and he addressed them about the poor. “The wild beasts of Italy,” he would say, “had their dens and holes and hiding-places, while the men who fought and died in defence of Italy enjoyed, indeed, the air and the light, but nothing else: houseless and without a spot of ground to rest upon, they wander about with their wives and children, while their commanders, with a lie in their mouth, exhort the soldiers in battle to defend their tombs and temples against the enemy, for out of so many Romans not one has a family altar or ancestral tomb, but they fight to maintain the luxury and wealth of others, and they die with the title of lords of the earth,[53] without possessing a single clod to call their own.”

X. Such language as this, proceeding from a lofty spirit and genuine feeling, and delivered to the people, who were vehemently excited and roused, none of the enemies of Tiberius attempted to refute. Abandoning, therefore, all idea of opposing him by words, they addressed themselves to Marcus Octavius,[54] one of the tribunes, a young man of sober and orderly disposition, and a companion and friend of Tiberius. At first Octavius, from regard to Tiberius, evaded the proposals, but being urged and importuned by many of the powerful nobles,[55] and as it were, driven to it, he set himself in opposition to Tiberius, and prevented the passing of the law. Now all the power is virtually in the hands of the dissentient tribune, for the rest can do nothing if a single tribune oppose them. Irritated at this, Tiberius withdrew his moderate measure and introduced another, more agreeable to the people and more severe against the illegal possessors of land; this new measure ejected persons out of the lands which they had got possession of contrary to existing laws. There was a daily contest between him and Octavius at the rostra, but though they opposed one another with great earnestness and rivalry, it is said they never uttered a disparaging word against one another, and that no unbecoming expression ever escaped either of them against the other. It is not, then, in bacchanalian revelries[56] only, as it seems, but also in ambitious rivalry and passion, that to be of noble nature and to have been well brought up, restrains and governs the mind. Tiberius, observing that Octavius himself was obnoxious to the law and possessed a considerable tract of the public land, begged him to desist from his opposition, offering to pay him the value of the land out of his own purse, though he was by no means in affluent circumstances. Upon Octavius rejecting the proposal, Tiberius by an edict forbade all the other magistrates to transact any public business until the people had voted upon his law; and he placed his private seals on the temple of Saturn,[57] that the quæstors might not be able to take anything out of it or pay anything in, and he gave public notice that a penalty would be imposed on the prætors if they disobeyed; in consequence of which all the magistrates were afraid and ceased from discharging their several functions. Upon this the possessors changed their dress and went about the Forum in a piteous and humble guise, but in secret they plotted against Tiberius and endeavoured to procure assassins to take him off; in consequence of which, Tiberius, as everybody knew, wore under his dress a short sword, such as robbers use, which the Romans call dolo.[58]

XI. When the day came and Tiberius was calling the people to the vote, the voting-urns[59] were seized by the rich and the proceedings were put into great confusion. However, as the partisans of Tiberius, who had the superiority in numbers, were collecting in order to make resistance, Manlius[60] and Fulvius, both consular men, falling down at the knees of Tiberius, and clinging to his hands with tears, begged him to desist. Tiberius, seeing that matters were near coming to extremities, and from regard to the men also, asked them what they would have him do; to which they replied, that they were not competent to advise on so important a matter, and they urged him to refer it to the senate, and at last he consented. The senate met, but did nothing, owing to the opposition of the rich, who had great influence in the body; upon which Tiberius had recourse to the unconstitutional and violent measure of depriving Octavius of his office, finding it impossible to put his proposed law to the vote in any other way. In the first place, he publicly entreated Octavius, addressing him affectionately and clinging to his hands, to yield to and gratify the people, who asked for nothing but their rights, and would only get a small matter in return for great dangers and sufferings. Octavius rejected this proposition; upon which Tiberius reminded him that both of them were magistrates and were contending with equal power on a weighty matter, and that it was not possible for this struggle to continue without coming to open hostility; that he saw no remedy except for one of them to give up his office; and he bade Octavius put it to the people to vote on his case first, and said that he would immediately descend to the station of a private man, if the citizens should desire it. As Octavius refused this proposal also, Tiberius said that he would put the question about Octavius retiring from the tribunate to the people, if Octavius did not change his resolution.

XII. Thus ended the assembly of that day. On the following day Tiberius mounted the rostra and again endeavoured to persuade Octavius; but as he would not yield, Tiberius proposed a law by which Octavius should be deprived of his tribunate, and he forthwith summoned the citizens to vote upon it. Now, there were five and thirty tribes,[61] and when seventeen of them had already given their vote, and the addition of one more tribe would reduce Octavius to a private condition, Tiberius stopped the voting, and again entreated Octavius, embracing him in the presence of the people and urgently praying him not to be careless about being deprived of his office, and not to bring on him the blame of so severe and odious a measure. It is said that Octavius was not entirely untouched or unmoved by these entreaties, and his eyes were filled with tears and he was silent for some time. But when he looked to the rich and the possessors, who were standing together in one body, through fear of losing their good opinion, as it seems, he boldly determined to run every risk, and he told Tiberius to do what he pleased. Accordingly the law was passed, and Tiberius ordered one of his freedmen to drag Octavius from the rostra, for Tiberius employed his own freedmen as officers; a circumstance which made the spectacle of Octavius dragged from the rostra with contumely still more deplorable. At the same time the people made an assault on Octavius, and though the rich all ran to his assistance and disengaged him from their hands, it was not without difficulty that he was rescued and made his escape from the mob. But one of his faithful slaves, who had placed himself in front of his master to defend him, had his eyes torn out. This violence was quite contrary to the wishes of Tiberius, who, on seeing what was going on, speedily made his way to the disturbance.

XIII. The law about the land was now immediately carried, and triumviri[62] were appointed for ascertaining its bounds and distributing it; the triumviri were Tiberius, and his father-in-law Claudius Appius, and Caius Gracchus, his brother, who, however, was not at Rome, but serving under Scipio against Numantia. All this Tiberius accomplished quietly without any opposition, and he also procured to be elected tribune in the room of Octavius, not a person of rank, but one Mucius[63] a client[64] of his own. The nobles, who were vexed at all these measures and feared the growing power of Tiberius, treated him in the senate with contumely; and upon his asking, according to custom, for a tent from the treasury for his use while he was distributing the land, they refused it to him, though others had often had one allowed them on less important occasions; and they only gave him for his expenses nine oboli[65] a day, which was done on the motion of Publius Nasica,[66] who entered violently into the opposition against Tiberius, for he was in possession of a very large amount of public land, and was greatly annoyed at being forcibly ejected from it. But the people now became still more violent. A friend of Tiberius happened to die suddenly, and suspicious marks immediately showed themselves on the body. The people cried out that he was poisoned, and collecting in great numbers at the funeral, they carried the bier and stood by while the body was burnt. And the suspicion of poison appeared to have some reason, for the body burst on the pile and sent forth such a quantity of corrupt humours as to quench the flame; and though a light was again applied, the body would not burn till it was removed to another place, where, after much trouble, the fire at last laid hold of it. Upon this Tiberius, with the view of exciting the people still more, changed his dress, and showing his children to the people, begged that they would protect them and their mother, for he now despaired of his own safety.

XIV. On the death of Attalus[67] Philometor, Eudemus of Pergamum brought his will to Rome, in which the Roman people were made the king’s heir. In order to please the people, Tiberius promulgated a law to the effect that as soon as the king’s treasures were received, they should be distributed among those who had assignments of land, in order to enable them to stock the farms and to assist them in their cultivation. With respect to the cities included within the kingdom of Attalus, he said that the senate had no right to decide about them, but he would bring the subject before the popular assembly. This measure gave violent offence to the senate, and Pompeius[68] getting up, said that he lived near Tiberius, and so knew that Eudemus of Pergamum had given a diadem out of the royal treasures and a purple robe to Tiberius, who designed to make himself king in Rome. Quintus Metellus[69] reproached Tiberius by reminding him, that whenever his father, during his censorship, was returning home from supper, the citizens used to put out the lights for fear it might be supposed that they were indulging too much in entertainments and drinking, but that the most insolent and needy of the citizens accompanied Tiberius with lights at night. Titus Annius,[70] who was not a man of good repute or sober behaviour, but in any contest of words by way of question and answer was considered to be unequalled, challenged Tiberius to answer definitely whether he had or had not branded with infamy his brother tribune, though by the law he was sacred and inviolable. As the question was received with signs of approbation, Tiberius, hastily quitting the senate-house, convoked the people and ordered Annius to be brought before them, with the intention of accusing him. But Annius, who was much inferior to Tiberius both in eloquence and reputation, had recourse to his tricks, and called on Tiberius to answer a few questions before he began his speech. Tiberius assented, and as soon as there was silence, Annius said, “If you intend to deprive me of my rank, and disgrace me, and I appeal to one of your brother tribunes, and he shall come to my aid, and you shall then fall into a passion, will you deprive him of his office?” On this question being put, it is said that Tiberius, though no man was readier in words or bolder in action, was so confused that he made no reply.

XV. For the present Tiberius[71] dissolved the assembly, seeing that his proceedings with respect to Octavius were not liked either by the nobles or the people, for they considered that the high and honourable dignity of the tribunate, which had been kept unimpaired up to that time, had been destroyed and trampled upon. He made an harangue to the people, a few of the arguments of which it will not be out of place to mention, for the purpose of showing the persuasive eloquence and the subtlety of the man. He said that a tribune was sacred and inviolate, only because he was dedicated to the people and was the guardian of the people. If then a tribune should deviate from his duty and wrong the people, abridge their power and deprive them of the opportunity of voting, he had by his own act deprived himself of his rank, by not fulfilling the conditions on which he received it. Now we must consider a tribune to be still a tribune, though he should dig down the Capitol and burn the naval arsenal. If he should commit such excesses as these, he is a bad tribune; but if he should attempt to deprive the people of their power, he is not a tribune at all. And is it not a monstrous thing if a tribune shall have power to order a consul to be put in prison, and the people shall not be able to deprive a tribune of his power when he is using it against the people who gave it to him? for both tribune and consul are equally chosen by the people. Now the kingly office, besides comprehending within it all civil power, is consecrated to the divinity by the discharge of the chief ceremonials of religion; and yet the state ejected Tarquinius for his wrong-doing, and for the violence of one man the ancient power which established Rome was overthrown. And what is there at Rome so sacred, so venerated as the virgins who guard the ever-burning fire? but if any of them offends, she is buried alive; for when they sin against the gods, they no longer retain that inviolable sanctity which they have by being devoted to the gods. In like manner, neither has a tribune when he is wronging the people any right to retain the inviolable character which he receives from the people, for he is destroying the very power which is the origin of his own power. And indeed, if he has legally received the tribunitian power by the votes of a majority of the tribes, how is it that he cannot even still more legally be deposed by the vote of all the tribes? Now, nothing is so sacred and inviolable as things dedicated to the gods; but yet no one has ever hindered the people from using such things, moving them, and changing their places as they please. It is therefore legal for the people to transfer the tribunate, as a consecrated thing, from one man to another. And that the tribunate is not an inviolable thing, nor an office of which a man cannot be divested, is clear from this that many magistrates have abdicated their office and prayed to be excused from it of their own free will.

XVI. Such were the heads of the justification of Tiberius. His friends, seeing the threats of his enemies and their combination, thought that he ought to be a candidate for the tribunate for the next year; and Tiberius attempted to strengthen his popularity by promising to carry new measures,[72] such as a diminution of the period of military service, an appeal to the people from the judices, an intermixture of an equal number of the Equites with the Senators, from whom alone the judices were then taken; and in every way he attempted to abridge the power of the Senate, influenced rather by passion and ambition, than justice and the interests of the state. While the voting was going on, the friends of Tiberius, seeing that their enemies were gaining the advantage, for all the people were not present,[73] at first attempted to prolong the time by abusing the other tribunes, and next they dissolved the meeting and appointed it for the following day. Tiberius, going down to the Forum, supplicated the citizens in humble manner and with tears in his eyes; he then said that he feared his enemies would break into his house by night and kill him, and thus he induced a great number of the citizens to take their station about his house and watch there all night.

XVII. At daybreak the man came to bring the birds which the Romans use in their auspices, and he threw them food. But the birds would not come out of the basket[74] with the exception of one, though the man shook it hard; and even this one would not touch the food, but after raising its left wing and stretching out a leg it ran back to the basket. This reminded Tiberius of another omen that had happened. He had a helmet which he wore in battle, elaborately worked and splendid. Some snakes had got into the helmet unobserved, and laid their eggs and hatched them there. This made Tiberius still more uneasy about the signs from the fowls. Nevertheless he advanced up the city on hearing that the people was assembled about the Capitol; but before he got out of the house he stumbled over the threshold, and the blow was so violent that the nail of his great toe was broken, and the blood ran out through his shoe. He had not got far before some crows were seen fighting on the roof of a house on the left hand, and though a great crowd was passing by, as was natural on such an occasion, a stone which was pushed off by one of the crows fell by the feet of Tiberius. This made even the boldest of his adherents hesitate; but Blossius of Cumæ, who was present, said it would be a shame and a great disgrace if Tiberius, a son of Gracchus and a grandson of Scipio Africanus, and a defender of the Roman people should not obey the summons of the people for fear of a crow, and that his enemies would not treat this cowardly act as a matter of ridicule, but would make it the ground of calumniating him to the people as playing the tyrant and treating them with contempt. At the same time many persons ran up to Tiberius with a message from his friends in the Capitol, to hasten there, as all was going on favourably. And indeed everything promised well at first, for as soon as he appeared he was greeted with friendly cheers, and as he ascended the Capitol he was joyfully received, and the people crowded about him to prevent any stranger from approaching.

XVIII. Now, Mucius began to summon the tribes again, but nothing could be conducted with the usual forms on account of the confusion that prevailed among those who were on the outskirts of the assembly, where they were struggling with their opponents, who were attempting to force their way in and mingle with the rest. At this juncture Flavius Flaccus,[75] a senator, posted himself in a conspicuous place, and as it was not possible to make his voice heard so far, he made a signal with his hand that he wished to say something in private to Tiberius. Tiberius bade the crowd let Flaccus pass, who, with great difficulty making his way up to Tiberius, told him that the Senate was sitting, that as they could not prevail on the consul, the rich were resolving to kill Tiberius themselves, and that they had armed many of their slaves and friends for this purpose.

XIX. Upon Tiberius reporting this to those who were standing about him, they forthwith tucked up their dress, and breaking the staves which the officers use to keep the crowd back, distributed the fragments among them and made ready to defend themselves against their assailants. While those at a distance were wondering at what was going on, and asking what it meant, Tiberius touched his head with his hand, since his voice could not be heard, intending thereby to signify to the people that his life was in danger. His enemies on seeing this ran to the Senate and told them that Tiberius was asking for a crown, and that his touching his head was a proof of it. On this the whole body was greatly disturbed; Nasica entreated the consul[76] to protect the state and put down the tyrant. The consul however answered mildly that he would not be the first to use violence, and that he would not take any citizen’s life without a regular trial; if however, he said, the people should come to an illegal vote at the instigation of Tiberius, or from compulsion, he would not respect any such decision. Upon this Nasica springing up exclaimed, “Well then, as the consul betrays the state, do you who wish to maintain the laws follow me.” As he uttered these words he drew the skirt of his dress over his head, and hastened to the Capitol; and the senators who followed him, wrapping their dress about them with one hand, pushed all the people they met out of the way, no one opposing them, from respect to their rank, but taking to flight and trampling down one another. The followers of the senators had clubs and sticks which they had brought from home; but the senators seizing the fragments and legs of the benches which were broken by the people in their hurry to escape, made right to Tiberius, and struck all those who were in their road. The people were all put to flight or killed. As Tiberius was attempting to make his escape, some one laid hold of his dress, on which he dropped his toga and fled in his tunic; but he stumbled over some persons who were lying on the ground and was thrown down. While he was endeavouring to rise, he received the first blow, as it is universally admitted, from Publius Satyreius, one of his colleagues, who struck him on the head with the leg of a bench. Lucius Rufus claimed the credit of giving him the second blow, as if that were a thing to be proud of. Above three hundred persons lost their lives by sticks and stones, but none by the sword.

XX. This is said to have been the first disturbance at Rome since the abolition of the kingly power, which ended in bloodshed and the death of citizens. All previous disputes, though they were neither trifling nor about trifling matters, were settled by mutual concession: the nobles yielded through fear of the people, and the people yielded from respect to the Senate. Even on this occasion it is probable that Tiberius would have given way to persuasion without any difficulty, and still more readily if his assailants had not come to bloodshed and blows, for those about him were not above three thousand in number. But the combination against him seems to have proceeded rather from the passion and hatred of the rich citizens, than from the reasons which they alleged; and the brutal and indecent treatment of his dead body is a proof of this. For they would not listen to his brother’s request[77] to take up the body and bury it at night, but it was thrown into the Tiber with the other bodies. And this was not all; they banished some of his friends without trial, and others they seized and put to death, among whom was Diophanes the orator. One Caius Villius[78] they shut up in a vessel with snakes and vipers, and thus he died. Blossius of Cumæ, being brought before the consuls and questioned about what had passed, admitted that he had done everything at the bidding of Tiberius. On Nasica asking[79] him, “What if Tiberius had told you to burn the Capitol?” Blossius said, that Tiberius would never have given him any such order. The same question being often put to him, and by several persons, he said, “If he had commanded me to burn the Capitol, it would have been a good deed for me to do; for Tiberius would not have given such an order unless it were for the interest of the people.” Blossius, however, was set at liberty, and afterwards went to Aristonikus[80] in Asia, on the ruin of whose affairs he killed himself.

XXI. The Senate, under present circumstances, endeavoured to soothe the people; they made no opposition to the distribution of the public land, and they allowed the people to elect another commissioner in place of Tiberius. Having come to a vote, they elected Publius Crassus[81] a relation of Gracchus, for his daughter Licinia was the wife of Caius Gracchus. Cornelius Nepos,[82] indeed, says that Caius did not marry the daughter of Crassus, but the daughter of Brutus[83] who triumphed over the Lusitanians: however, the majority of writers state the matter as I have done. Now, as the people were sore about the death of Tiberius, and were manifestly waiting for an opportunity to be revenged, and Nasica[84] was threatened with prosecutions, the Senate, fearing for his safety, made a decree for sending him to Asia, though they had nothing for him to do there. For when men met Nasica they did not conceal their hostility, but broke out into violence, and abused him wherever they fell in with him, calling him accursed, and tyrant, who had stained with the blood of an inviolable and sacred functionary the most sacred and revered of all the holy places in the city. Accordingly, Nasica left Italy, though bound by the most sacred functions, for he was Pontifex Maximus; and, rambling about despised from place to place, he died no long time after in the neighbourhood of Pergamum. It is no wonder if Nasica was so much hated by the people, when even Scipio Africanus, whom the Romans considered inferior to no man in integrity, and loved as well as any, narrowly escaped losing the popular favour, because, on receiving the news of the death of Tiberius, at Numantia, he exclaimed in the verse of Homer,

So perish[85] all who do the like again.

Subsequently, when Caius and Fulvius asked him, before an assembly of the people, what he thought of the death of Tiberius, he showed by his answer that he was not pleased with the measures of Tiberius. This made the people interrupt him with their shouts when he was speaking, as they had never done before; and Scipio was so far transported with passion as to break out into invectives against them. But of this I have spoken more particularly in the Life of Scipio.[86]

LIFE OF CAIUS GRACCHUS.

I. Caius Gracchus at first, either through fear of his enemies or with the view of making them odious, withdrew from the Forum[87] and kept quiet at home, like a man humbled for the present, and intending for the future to keep aloof from public affairs; which gave occasion for some people to say that he disliked the measures of Tiberius, and had abandoned them. He was also still quite a youth, for he was nine years younger than his brother, and Tiberius was not thirty[88] when he was killed. But in the course of time, as his character gradually displayed itself in his aversion to indolence, luxury, wine, and all matters of private profit, and it was clear, from his application to the study of eloquence, that he was preparing, as it were, his pinions for public life, and that he would not remain quiet; and further, when he showed by his defence of Vettius, one of his friends, who was under prosecution, the people all around him being wild and frantic with delight, that the rest of the orators were mere children, the nobles were again alarmed, and there was much talk among them that they would not allow Caius to obtain the tribunate. It happened without any set design that the lot fell on him to go as quæstor to Sardinia,[89] under Orestes[90] the consul, which pleased his enemies, and was not disagreeable to Caius. For he was fond of war, and equally disciplined for military service and speaking in the courts of justice; but he still shrunk from public affairs and the Rostra, and as he could not resist the invitations of the people and his friends, he was well pleased with this opportunity of leaving Rome. It is true it is a common opinion that Caius was a pure demagogue, and much more greedy of popular favour than Tiberius. But it was not so in fact, and Caius seems to have been involved in public affairs rather through a kind of necessity than choice. Cicero the orator also says that Caius declined all offices, and had determined to live in retirement, but that his brother appeared to him in a dream,[91] and said, “Caius, why do you linger? There is no escape: one life for both of us, and one death in defence of the people is our fate.”

II. Now, Caius during his stay in Sardinia exhibited his excellent qualities in every way; he far surpassed all the young men in military courage, in upright conduct to the subject people, in loyalty and respect to the commander; and in temperance, frugality, and attention to his duties he excelled even his elders. The winter having been severe and unhealthy in Sardinia, the general demanded clothing for his soldiers from the cities, upon which they sent to Rome to pray to be relieved from this imposition. The Senate granted their petition, and ordered the general to get supplies for the troops by other means; but as the general was unable to do this, and the soldiers were suffering, Caius went round to the cities and induced them voluntarily to send clothing and to assist the Romans. This, being reported to Rome, made the Senate uneasy, for they viewed it as a preliminary to popular agitation. Ambassadors also arrived at Rome from Libya, with a message from King Micipsa,[92] that the king had sent corn to the commander in Sardinia, out of respect for Caius Gracchus. The Senate, taking offence at the message, would not receive the ambassadors, and they passed a decree that fresh troops should be sent out to replace those in Sardinia, but that Orestes should stay; intending by this measure to keep Caius there also, in respect of his office. On this being done, Caius immediately set sail in a passion, and appearing at Rome contrary to all expectation, was not only blamed by his enemies, but even the people considered it a strange thing for the quæstor to leave his general behind. However, when the matter was brought before the Censors,[93] he asked for permission to make his defence, and he produced such a change in the opinions of his audience, that he was acquitted, and considered to have been exceedingly ill used: he said that he had served in the army for twelve years, while others were only required to serve ten years, and that he had exercised the functions of quæstor to the commander for three years, though the law allowed him to return after one year’s service; he added that he was the only soldier who took out a full purse with him and brought it back empty, while the rest took out with them only jars of wine, which they had emptied in Sardinia, and brought them back full of gold and silver.

III. After this, his enemies brought fresh charges against him, and harassed him with prosecutions on the ground of causing the defection of the allies and having participated in the conspiracy which had been detected at Fregellæ.[94] But he cleared himself of all suspicion, and having established his innocence, immediately set about canvassing for the tribunate. All the men of distinction, without exception, opposed him; and so great a multitude flocked to Rome from all parts of Italy, to the Comitia, that many of them could not find lodgings, and the Campus Martius[95] being unable to contain the numbers, they shouted from the house-tops and tilings. However, the nobility so far prevailed against the people as to disappoint the hopes of Caius, inasmuch as he was not returned first, as he expected, but only fourth. But upon entering on his office he soon made himself first, for he surpassed every Roman in eloquence,[96] and his misfortunes gave him a licence for speaking freely when lamenting the fate of his brother. He took every opportunity of directing the thoughts of the people to this subject, reminding them of former times, and contrasting the conduct of their ancestors, who went to war with the Falisci on behalf of Gemicius, a tribune, who had been insulted by them, and condemned Caius Veturius to death because he was the only man that did not make way for a tribune as he was passing through the Forum. “But before your eyes,” he exclaimed, “these men beat Tiberius to death with staves, and his body was dragged through the midst of the city to be thrown into the Tiber; and all his friends who were caught were put to death without trial. And yet it is an old usage among us, if a man is accused of a capital charge and does not appear, for a trumpeter to come to the door of his house in the morning and summon him by the sound of the trumpet, and the judices cannot vote upon the charge till this has been done. So circumspect and careful were the Romans of old in the trials of persons accused.”

IV. Having first stirred up the people by such harangues as these (and he had a very loud voice, and was most vigorous in speech), he promulgated two laws:[97] one, to the effect that if the people had deprived any magistrate of his office, he should be incapacitated from holding office a second time; and the other, which rendered a magistrate liable to a public prosecution if he had banished any citizen without trial. One of these rogations had the direct effect of branding with infamy Marcus Octavius, who had been deprived of the tribunate by Tiberius; and Popillius[98] came within the penalties of the other, for during his prætorship he had banished the friends of Tiberius. Popillius did not stand his trial, and he fled from Italy; but the other law Caius himself withdrew, saying that he refrained from touching Octavius at the request of his mother Cornelia. The people admired his conduct on this occasion, and gave their consent, for they respected Cornelia no less for the sake of her sons than her father; and afterwards they set up a bronze statue[99] of her, with the inscription—Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi. There are recorded several things that Caius said in defence of his mother in a rhetorical and coarse way, in reply to one of his enemies. “What,” said he, “do you abuse Cornelia, the mother of Tiberius?” And as the man laboured under the imputation of being a dissolute fellow, he added, “How can you have the impudence to compare yourself with Cornelia? Have you been a mother, as she has?”—and more to the like effect, but still coarser. Such was the bitterness of his language, and many like things occur in his writings.

V. Of the laws[100] which he promulgated with the view of gaining the popular favour and weakening the Senate, one was for the establishment of colonies and the distribution of Public Land among the poor; another provided for supplying the soldiers with clothing at the public expense, without any deduction on this account being made from their pay, and exempted youths under seventeen years of age from being drafted for the army; a third was in favour of the allies, and put the Italians on the same footing as the citizens with respect to the suffrage; another related to grain, and had for its object the lowering of the price for the poor; the last related to the judices, a measure which most of all encroached on the privileges of the senate—for the senate alone supplied judices for the trials, and this privilege rendered that body formidable both to the people and the equites. The law of Gracchus added three hundred equites to the senate, who were also three hundred in number, and it made the judices eligible out of the whole six hundred. In his endeavours to carry this law he is said to have made every exertion; and in particular it is recorded that all the popular leaders who preceded him turned their faces to the senate and the comitium while they were speaking, but he was the first who turned his face the other way to the Forum while haranguing the people, and he continued to do so; and by a small deviation and alteration in attitude he stirred a great question, and in a manner transformed the government from an aristocratical to a democratical form, by this new attitude intimating that the orators should direct their speeches to the many and not to the senate.

VI. The people not only passed this law, but empowered Gracchus to select from the equites those who were to act as judices, which conferred on him a kind of monarchical authority, and even the senate now assented to the measures which he proposed in their body. But all the measures which he proposed were honourable to the senate; such, for instance, was the very equitable and just decree about the grain which Fabius the proprætor sent from Iberia. Gracchus induced the senate to sell the grain and to return the money which it produced to the Iberian cities, and further to censure Fabius for making the Roman dominion heavy and intolerable to the subject nations; this measure brought him great reputation and popularity in the provinces. He also introduced measures for sending out colonies, the construction of roads, and the building of public granaries; and he made himself director and superintendent for the carrying all these measures into effect. Though engaged in so many great undertakings, he was never wearied, but with wonderful activity and labour he effected every single object as if he had for the time no other occupation, so that even those who thoroughly hated and feared him were struck with amazement at the rapidity and perfect execution of all that he undertook. But the people looked with admiration on the man himself, seeing him attended by crowds of building-contractors, artificers, ambassadors, magistrates, soldiers, and learned men, to all of whom he was easy of access; and while he maintained his dignity, he was affable to all, and adapted his behaviour to the condition of every individual, and so proved the falsehood of those who called him tyrannical or arrogant or violent. He thus showed himself more skilful as a popular leader in his dealings with men, and in his conduct, than in his harangues from the Rostra.

VII. But Caius busied himself most about the construction of roads,[101] having in view utility, convenience, and ornament. The roads were made in a straight line, right through the country, partly of quarried stone and partly with tight-rammed masses of earth. By filling up the depressions, and throwing bridges across those parts which were traversed by winter torrents or deep ravines, and raising the road on both sides to the same uniform height, the whole line was made level and presented an agreeable appearance. He also measured all the roads by miles (the Roman mile is not quite eight Greek stadia), and fixed stone blocks to mark the distances. He placed other stones at less distances from one another on each side of the road, that persons might thus easily mount their horses without assistance.

VIII. As the people extolled him for all these services, and were ready to show their good will towards him in any way, he said on one occasion when he was addressing them, that he would ask a favour, which he would value above everything if it was granted, but if it were refused, he should not complain. It was accordingly expected that he would ask for the consulship, and everybody supposed that he would be a candidate for the consulship and the tribunate at the same time. When the consular comitia were near, and all were at the highest point of expectation, Caius appeared conducting Caius Fannius into the Campus Martius, and canvassing with his friends for Fannius.[102] This gave Fannius a great advantage. Fannius was elected consul, and Caius tribune for the second time, though he was neither a candidate nor canvassed, but his election was entirely due to the zeal of the people. Perceiving, however, that the senate was clearly opposed to him, and that the kind feeling of Fannius towards him cooled, he forthwith endeavoured to attach the people by other measures, by proposing to send colonies to Tarentum and Capua, and by inviting the Latins to a participation in the Roman franchise. The senate, fearing that Gracchus would become irresistible, attempted a new and unusual method of diverting the people from him, by opposing popular measures to his, and by gratifying the people, contrary to sound policy. Livius Drusus was one of the colleagues of Caius, a man by birth and education inferior to none in Rome, and in character, eloquence, and wealth equal to any who enjoyed either honour or power by the aid of these advantages. To him accordingly the chief nobles applied, and they urged him to attack Caius, and to unite with them against him, not by adopting violent measures, nor coming into collision with the many, but by a course of administration adapted to please, and by making such concessions as it would have been honourable to refuse, even at the risk of unpopularity.

IX. Livius, having agreed to employ his tribunitian authority on the side of the senate, framed measures which had neither any honourable nor any useful object: he only had in view to outbid Caius in the popular favour, just as it is in a comedy, by making himself busy and vying with his rival. This showed most clearly that the senate were not displeased with the measures of Caius, but only wished to destroy him or completely humble him. When Caius proposed to send out ten colonies consisting of citizens of the best character, the senate accused him of truckling to the people; but they co-operated with Livius, who proposed twelve colonies, each of which was to consist of three thousand needy citizens. They set themselves in opposition to Caius when he proposed to distribute land among the poor, subject to a yearly payment to the treasury from each, on the ground that he was trying to gain the popular favour; but they were satisfied when Livius proposed to relieve the colonists even from this payment. Further, Caius gave them offence by proposing to confer on the Latins the Roman suffrage; but when Livius brought forward a measure which forbade any Latin to be beaten with rods even while serving in the army, they supported it. And indeed Livius himself, in his harangues to the people, always said that he only proposed what was agreeable to the senate, who had a regard for the many; which indeed was the only good that resulted from his measures. For the people became more pacifically disposed towards the senate; and though the most distinguished of them were formerly suspected and hated by the people, Livius did away with and softened their recollection of past grievances and their ill feeling, by giving out that it was in accordance with the wish of the senate that he had entered upon his popular career and framed measures to please the many.

X. But the best proof to the people of the good intentions and honesty of Livius was, that he proposed nothing for himself or in behalf of his own interests; for he appointed other persons to superintend the establishment of the colonies, and he did not meddle with the administration of the money, while Caius had assigned to himself most of such functions, and the most important of them. It happened that Rubrius, one of the tribunes, had proposed a measure for the colonisation of Carthage, which had been destroyed by Scipio; and as the lot fell on Caius, he set sail to Libya to found the colony. In his absence, Drusus, making still further advances, insinuated himself into the favour of the people, and gained them over mainly by calumniating Fulvius.[103] This Fulvius was a friend of Caius and a joint commissioner for the distribution of lands; but he was a noisy fellow, and specially disliked by the senate; he was also suspected by others of stirring up the allies, and secretly encouraging the Italians to revolt; and though this was said without proof or inquiry, Fulvius himself gave it credit by his unwise and revolutionary policy. This more than anything else destroyed the popularity of Caius, who came in for his share of the odium against Fulvius. And when Scipio[104] Africanus died without any obvious cause, and certain signs of blows and violence were supposed to be visible on the body, as I told in the Life of Scipio, the suspicion fell chiefly on Fulvius, who was his enemy, and on that day had abused Scipio from the Rostra. Suspicion attached to Caius also. So abominable a crime committed against the first and greatest of the Romans went unpunished, and there was not even an inquiry; for the many opposed it and stopped the investigation through fear for Caius, lest he should be discovered to be implicated in the murder. These events, indeed, belong to an earlier period.

XI. In Libya, as to the foundation of Carthage,[105] which Caius named Junonia, which is the same as Heraea, it is said there were many supernatural hindrances. For the first standard was seized and broken by a violent gust of wind, though the standard-bearer stuck to it vigorously; and the victims which were lying on the altars were dispersed by a tempest, and scattered beyond the stakes which marked the limits of the city, and the stakes were torn up by the wolves and carried a long way off. However Caius, after settling and arranging everything in seventy days, returned to Rome upon hearing that Fulvius was hard pressed by Drusus, and that affairs required his presence. Lucius Opimius, a man who belonged to the faction of the oligarchs,[106] and had great influence in the senate, failed on a former occasion when he was a candidate for the consulship, at the time when Caius brought forward Fannius and canvassed against Opimius; but now, being supported by a powerful party, it was expected that Opimius would be elected consul and would put down Caius, whose influence was already in some degree on the wane, and the people also were tired of such measures as his, for there were many who sought their favour, and the senate easily gave way.

XII. On his return from Libya, Caius removed from the Palatium to the neighbourhood of the Forum, as being a more popular place of residence, for it happened that most of the lowest classes of the poor lived there; he next promulgated the rest of his measures, intending to take the vote of the people upon them. As crowds were collecting from all parts to support Caius, the senate prevailed on the consul Fannius to drive out of the city all who were not Romans. Accordingly a strange and unusual proclamation was made, to the effect that none of the allies or friends of the Roman state should appear in Rome during those days; on which Caius published a counter edict, in which he criminated the consul and promised his support to the allies if they remained in Rome. But he did not keep his promise; for though he saw one of them, who was his own friend and intimate, dragged off by the officers of Fannius, he passed by without helping him, whether it was that he feared to put to the test his power which was now on the decline, or that he did not choose, as he said, to give his enemies the opportunity which they were seeking of coming to a collision and a struggle. It also chanced that he had incurred the ill-will of his fellow-colleagues, in the following manner:—The people were going to see an exhibition of gladiators in the Forum, and most of the magistrates had constructed seats round the place, with the intention of letting them for hire. But Caius urged them to remove the seats, that the poor might be able to see the show without paying. As no one took any notice of what he said, he waited till the night before the show, when he went with the workmen whom he had under him, and removed the seats, and at daybreak he pointed out to the people that the place was clear; for which the many considered him a man, but he offended his colleagues, who viewed him as an audacious and violent person. Owing to this circumstance, it is supposed, he lost his third tribunate, though he had most votes, for it is said that his colleagues acted illegally and fraudulently in the proclamation and return. This, however, was disputed. Caius did not bear his failure well: and to his enemies, who were exulting over him, he is said to have observed, with more arrogance than was befitting, that their laugh was a sardonic laugh,[107] for they knew not what a darkness his political measures had spread all around them.

XIII. After effecting the election of Opimius to the consulship, the enemies of Caius began to repeal many of his laws and to disturb the settlement of Carthage, for the purpose of irritating Caius, in order that he might give them some cause of quarrel, and so be got rid of. He endured this for some time, but his friends, and especially Fulvius, beginning to urge him on, he again attempted to combine his partisans against the consul. On this occasion it is said that his mother also helped him, by hiring men from remote parts and sending them to Rome in the disguise of reapers, for it is supposed that these matters are obscurely alluded to in her letters[108] to her son. Others, on the contrary, say that this was done quite contrary to the wishes of Cornelia. On the day on which the party of Opimius intended to repeal the laws of Caius, the Capitol had been occupied by the opposite faction early in the morning. The consul had offered the sacrifices, and one of his officers, named Quintus Antyllius,[109] was carrying the viscera to another part, when he said to the partisans of Fulvius, “Make way for honest men, you rascals.” Some say that as he uttered these words he also held out his bare arm with insulting gestures. However this may be, Antyllius was killed on the spot, being pierced with large styles[110] said to have been made expressly for the purpose. The people were greatly disturbed at the murder, but it produced exactly opposite effects on the leaders of the two parties. Caius was deeply grieved at what had happened, and abused his party for having given a handle to their enemies, who had long been looking for it; but Opimius, as if he had got the opportunity which he wanted, was highly elated, and urged the people to avenge the murder.

XIV. A torrent of rain happened to fall just then, and the meeting was dissolved. Early on the following day Opimius summoned the senate to transact business. In the mean time the naked body of Antyllius was placed on a bier, and, according to arrangement, carried through the Forum past the senate-house with loud cries and lamentations. Opimius, though he knew what was going on, pretended to be surprised at the noise, and the senators went out to see what was the matter. When the bier had been set down in the midst of the crowd, the senators began to express their indignation at so horrible and monstrous a crime; but this only moved the people to hate and execrate the oligarchs, who, after murdering Tiberius Gracchus in the Capitol, a tribune, had treated his body with insult; while Antyllius, a mere servant, who perhaps had not deserved his fate, yet was mainly to blame for what happened, was laid out in the Forum, and surrounded by the Roman senate lamenting and assisting at the funeral of a hireling; and all this merely to accomplish the ruin of the only remaining guardian of the people’s liberties. On returning to the senate-house, the senators passed a decree[111] by which the consul Opimius was directed to save the state in such way as he could, and to put down the tyrants. Opimius gave notice to the senators to arm, and each eques was commanded to bring in the morning two armed slaves. On the other side, Fulvius also made preparation and got together a rabble; but Caius as he left the Forum stood opposite his father’s statue, and looking at it for some time without speaking, at last burst into tears, and fetching a deep sigh, walked away. The sight of this moved many of the spectators to compassion, and blaming themselves for deserting the man and betraying him, they came to the house of Caius and passed the night at his door; but not in the same manner as those who watched about the house of Fulvius, for they spent the night in tumult and shouting, drinking, and bragging what they would do. Fulvius himself, who was the first to get drunk, spoke and acted in a way quite unseemly for a man of his age. The followers of Caius, viewing the state of affairs as a public calamity, kept quiet, thinking of the future, and they passed the night watching and sleeping in turns.

XV. At daybreak Fulvius was with difficulty roused from his drunken sleep, and his partisans, arming themselves with the warlike spoils in his house, which he had taken in his victory over the Gauls during his consulship, with loud threats and shouts went to seize the Aventine Hill.[112] Caius would not arm, but went out in his toga just as if he was proceeding to the Forum, with only a short dagger at his side. As he was going out at the door, his wife met him, and throwing one arm round him, while she held in the other their little child, said, “Caius, not as in time past do I take my leave of you going to the Rostra as tribune and as legislator, nor yet going to a glorious war, where, if you died in the service of your country, you would still leave me an honoured grief; but you are going to expose yourself to the murderers of Tiberius: ’tis right indeed to go unarmed, and to suffer rather than do wrong, but you will perish without benefiting the state. The worst has now prevailed; force and the sword determine all controversies. If your brother had died at Numantia, his body would have been restored to us on the usual terms of war; but now perchance I too shall have to supplicate some river or the sea to render up to me your corpse from its keeping. What faith can we put in the laws or in the deities since the murder of Tiberius?” While Licinia was thus giving vent to sorrow, Gracchus gently freed himself from his wife’s embrace, and went off in silence with his friends. Licinia, as she attempted to lay hold of his dress, fell down on the floor, and lay there some time speechless, until her slaves took her up fainting, and carried her to her brother Crassus.

XVI. When they were all assembled, Fulvius, at the request of Caius, sent his younger son with a caduceus[113] to the Forum. He was a most beautiful youth, and with great decorum and modesty, and with tears in his eyes he addressed to the consul and the senate the message of conciliation. The majority who were present were not disinclined to come to terms; but Opimius replied, that Fulvius and Gracchus must not attempt to bring the senate to an accommodation through the medium of a messenger; they must consider themselves as citizens who had to account for their conduct, and come down and surrender, and then beg for mercy; he further told the youth that these were the terms on which he must come a second time, or not at all. Now Caius, it is said, wished to go and clear himself before the senate, but as no one else assented, Fulvius again sent his son to address the senate on their behalf in the same terms as before. But Opimius, who was eager to come to blows, forthwith ordered the youth to be seized and put in prison, and advanced against the party of Fulvius with many legionary soldiers and Cretan bowmen[114] who mainly contributed to put them into confusion by discharging their arrows and wounding them. The partisans of Fulvius being put to flight, he made his escape into a bath that was not used where he was soon discovered and put to death with his elder son. Caius was not observed to take any part in the contest, but greatly troubled at what was taking place, he retired to the temple of Diana, and was going to kill himself there, but was prevented by his faithful friends Pomponius and Licinius, who took the sword away and induced him to fly. It is said that he went down on his knees in the temple, and stretching out his hands to the statue of the goddess, prayed that the Roman people, for their ingratitude and treachery to him, might always be slaves; for the greater part of them had openly gone over to the other side upon an amnesty[115] being proclaimed.

XVII. In his flight Caius was followed by his enemies, who were near overtaking him at the wooden bridge,[116] but his two friends, bidding him make his escape, opposed the pursuers and allowed no man to pass the head of the bridge till they were killed. Caius was accompanied by a single slave, named Philocrates,[117] and though all the spectators urged him to fly, just as if they were shouting at a race, yet no one, though he prayed for it, would come to his aid or lend him a horse: for the pursuers were close upon him. He just escaped into a sacred grove of the Furies,[118] and there he fell by the hand of Philocrates, who killed himself on the body of his master. Some say both of them were taken alive by their enemies, and that the slave embraced his master so closely, that Caius could not be struck until the slave had been dispatched first, and with many blows. It is said that a man cut off the head of Caius and was carrying it away, but it was taken from him by a friend of Opimius named Septimuleius; for proclamation had been made at the beginning of the contest, that those who brought the heads of Caius and Fulvius should have their weight in gold. The head of Caius was brought to Opimius by Septimuleius stuck on a spear, and it weighed seventeen pounds and two-thirds in the scales. Septimuleius was a scoundrel and a knave[119] here also, for he had taken out the brain and dropped melted lead in its place. Those who brought the head of Fulvius got nothing, for they belonged to the lower class. The bodies of Caius and Fulvius and their partisans were thrown into the river, the number of dead being three thousand: their property was sold and the produce paid into the treasury. They also forbade the women to lament for their relatives, and Licinia was deprived of her marriage portion. But their conduct was most cruel to the younger son of Fulvius, who had neither raised up his hand against them nor been among the combatants; for he was seized before the battle, when he came to treat of terms, and was put to death after the battle. But what most of all vexed the people was the circumstance of Opimius erecting a temple to Concord, which was viewed as an evidence of his insolence and arrogance, and as a kind of triumph for the slaughter of so many citizens. Accordingly by night some person wrote under the inscription on the temple the following line:—

The work of Discord[120] makes the temple of Concord.

XVIII. This Opimius,[121] the first man that ever exercised the dictatorial power in the office of consul, and who had condemned without trial three thousand citizens, and among them Caius Gracchus and Fulvius Flaccus[122]—Flaccus, a consular, who had enjoyed a triumph; Gracchus, the first man of his age in character and reputation—this Opimius did not keep himself free from corruption. Being sent as a commissioner to Jugurtha, the Numidian, he was bribed by him, and being convicted of most shameful corruption, he spent the last years of his life in infamy, hated and insulted by the people, who, though humbled and depressed for the time, soon showed how much they desired and regretted the Gracchi. For they had statues of the two brothers made and set up in public places, and the spots on which they fell were declared sacred ground, to which people brought all the first fruits of the seasons, and many persons daily offered sacrifices there and worshipped, just as at the temples of the gods.

XIX. Cornelia is said to have borne her misfortunes with a noble and elevated spirit, and to have said of the sacred ground on which her sons were murdered, that they had a tomb worthy of them. She resided in the neighbourhood of Misenum, without making any change in her usual mode of life. She had many friends, and her hospitable table was always crowded with guests; Greeks and learned men were constantly about her, and kings sent and received presents from her. To all her visitors and friends she was a most agreeable companion: she would tell them of the life and habits of her father Africanus, and, what is most surprising, would speak of her sons without showing sorrow or shedding a tear, relating their sufferings and their deeds to her inquiring friends as if she was speaking of the men of olden time. This made some think that her understanding had been impaired by old age or the greatness of her sorrows, and that she was dull to all sense of her misfortunes, while in fact such people themselves were too dull to see what a support it is against grief to have a noble nature, and to be of honourable lineage and honourably bred; and that though fortune has often the advantage over virtue in its attempts to guard against evils, yet she cannot take away from virtue the power of enduring them with fortitude.[123]

COMPARISON OF TIBERIUS AND CAIUS GRACCHUS WITH AGIS AND KLEOMENES.

I. Now that we have completed the narrative of these men’s lives, it remains for us to compare them with one another. As for the Gracchi, not even their bitterest enemies could deny that they were the most virtuous of all the Romans, or that they were excellently well nurtured and educated; while Agis and Kleomenes appear to have excelled them in strength of mind, because they both, after having been brought up in the same fashion by which their elders had been corrupted, became the restorers of temperance and simplicity of life. Furthermore, the Gracchi, who lived at a period when Rome was at the height of its greatness and renown, felt ashamed to fall short of the glorious achievements of their forefathers; while the virtuous impulses of the others were not checked by their fathers having pursued the opposite course of policy, or by the miserable and distracted condition of their country. The greatest proof of the unselfishness and indifference to money of the Gracchi is that they filled various offices in the state, and yet kept their hands clean from dishonest gains; while it would be an insult to Agis to praise him for not having taken other men’s money, as he gave up to his countrymen his own private property, which alone was worth six hundred talents. If then he thought it discreditable for him to be richer than any of his countrymen, even though his riches were lawfully acquired, what must have been his abhorrence of those who obtain money wrongfully.

II. There was also a great difference in the boldness and extent of their schemes of reform. The Gracchi were chiefly engaged in the construction of roads and the founding of cities, and Tiberius’s most important measure of reform was the division of the public lands among the people, while the best act of his brother Caius was the establishment of a mixed tribunal by adding to the three hundred Senators three hundred Roman Knights. The revolution effected by Agis and Kleomenes was of quite a different kind. They thought, in Plato’s words, that to proceed by slow degrees was merely cutting off the heads of the hydra,[124] and therefore they by one comprehensive measure swept away all abuses at once: although it would be nearer the truth to say that they swept all abuses out of the state by restoring to it its original constitution. It may also be observed that the reforms of the Gracchi were opposed by some of the most powerful men in Rome, whereas the legislation which was begun by Agis, and completed by Kleomenes, followed a famous and ancient precedent, the rhetras on sobriety and equality which had been communicated to their ancestors by Lykurgus with the sanction of the Pythian Apollo. It is also most important to notice that the reforms of the Gracchi made Rome no greater than she was before, while the acts of Kleomenes enabled him in a short time to make Sparta mistress of the whole of Peloponnesus, and to engage in a contest with the most powerful man of his time, with the object of ridding Greece from Illyrian and Gaulish mercenary troops, and of renewing its ancient glories under the rule of the Herakleidæ.

III. I think too that the deaths of these men show a certain difference in their courage. The Gracchi fought with their countrymen, and were slain by them while flying, while of the other two, Agis may almost be said to have died voluntarily, because he would not put a citizen to death, while Kleomenes, when insulted and ill-treated, fiercely attempted to avenge himself, and as circumstances prevented his succeeding, bravely killed himself. It may be said on the other side that Agis never distinguished himself in the field, and we may set against the many brilliant victories of Kleomenes the scaling of the wall of Carthage by Tiberius Gracchus, no slight achievement, and the peace which he made with the Numantines, by which he saved the lives of twenty thousand Roman soldiers, who could not otherwise have hoped to survive; while Caius, in several campaigns both in Italy and Sardinia, showed great military skill; so that they both might have rivalled the fame of the greatest generals of Rome, had they not been cut off so soon.

IV. In political matters Agis appears to have shown weakness, as he allowed Agesilaus to cheat the citizens out of their promised redistribution of lands, and in a feeble and vacillating manner announced his intention and then abandoned it. The cause of his irresolution was his extreme youth; while Kleomenes on the other hand effected his revolution with too great promptitude and daring, putting the Ephors to death without a trial, when it would have been easy for him to have won them over to his side, and banishing many of the citizens. It is not the part either of a wise physician or of a good politician to use the knife except in the last extremity, but it shows a want of skill in both, and in the latter case it is unjust as well as cruel. Of the Gracchi, neither would begin a civil war, and Caius is said not even to have defended himself when struck, but though forward enough in battle he was loth to fight in a party quarrel; for he appeared in public unarmed, and retired when fighting began, and evidently took more pains not to do any harm than not to suffer any. For this reason we must regard the flight of both the Gracchi as a proof, not of cowardice, but of caution; for they must either have retreated when attacked or have retaliated upon their opponents.

V. The heaviest charge that can be brought against Tiberius is that he deposed his colleague from the tribuneship, and afterwards sought a second tribuneship for himself. As for the murder of Antyllius, Caius Gracchus was most falsely and unjustly accused of it, for he did not wish him to die, and was grieved at his death. Again Kleomenes, not to speak of his massacre of the Ephors, set all the slaves at liberty, and practically made himself despot of the kingdom, although for form’s sake he associated his brother with him, who was of the same family. And when Archidamus, who was the next heir to the throne of the other royal house, was persuaded by him to return from Messene to Sparta, as Kleomenes did not avenge his death, he caused men to suspect that he himself had some share in it. Yet Lykurgus, whom he affected to imitate, abdicated the throne of his own free will in favour of his nephew Charilaus, and fearing that if the child died by any mischance he might be thought guilty of having caused its death, he travelled abroad for a long time and did not return until Charilaus had begotten a son to succeed him. However, no Greek can bear comparison with Lykurgus; yet we have proved that Kleomenes effected greater reforms, and showed less respect to the laws than any of the others. Both the Greeks have been blamed for having from the very outset aimed at being nothing more than warlike despots; while the worst enemies of the Romans only charge them with an immoderate ambition, and admit that they became so excited by the contest with their political opponents that the natural heat of their temper drove them in spite of themselves like a baleful gust of wind to advocate extreme measures. What indeed can be more just or honourable than the objects with which they started; for their troubles were brought upon them by the opposition which the rich offered to their laws, so that the one was forced to fight to save his own life, while the other endeavoured to avenge his brother, who was slain without law or justice? From what has been said the reader can himself form an opinion about their respective merits, but if I must say what I think of each, I should give the highest place in respect of virtue to Tiberius Gracchus; I think that the young Agis committed the fewest crimes; while in daring and action Caius fell far short of Kleomenes.

LIFE OF DEMOSTHENES.

I. The writer of the Ode to Alkibiades on the occasion of his winning the chariot-race at Olympia, whether he was Euripides, as is commonly supposed, or some other poet, my friend Sossius, tells us that the first thing necessary for a perfectly happy man is that he should be born a citizen of some famous city. But for my own part I believe that for the enjoyment of true happiness, which depends chiefly upon a man’s character and disposition, it makes no difference whether he be born in an obscure state or of an ill-favoured mother, or not. It would indeed be absurd if one were to suppose that the town of Iulis, which is only a small part of the little island of Keos or Ægina, which some Athenian bade his countrymen clear away because it was an eyesore to Peiræus, should be able to produce good actors and poets, and yet be unable to bring forth a just, virtuous, sensible and high-minded man. We may reasonably expect that those arts by which men gain glory or profit should be neglected and fall into decay in small and obscure towns; but virtue, like a hardy plant, can take root in any country where it meets with noble natures and industrious disposition. I myself therefore must lay the blame of my intellectual and moral shortcomings, not upon the insignificance of my native city, but upon myself.

II. However, when a man is engaged in compiling a history from materials which are not ready to his hand, but for the most part are to be found scattered through other foreign towns, it becomes really of the first importance that he should live in some famous, cultivated, and populous city, where he can have unlimited access to books of all kinds, and where he can also personally collect and inquire into the truth of those stories which, though not reduced to writing, are all the more likely to be true because they rest upon universal popular tradition. The work of a historian who is deprived of these advantages must necessarily be defective in many essential particulars. Now I, who belong to a small city, and who love to live in it lest it should become even smaller, when I was at Rome, and during my travels in Italy, found my time so taken up with political business and with the care of my pupils in philosophy, that I had no leisure to learn the Roman language, and have only applied myself to Latin literature at a very advanced period of life. In this reading of Latin books, singular as it may appear, I did not find that the words assisted me to discover the meaning, but rather that my knowledge of the history enabled me to find out the meaning of the words. I think that to speak the Latin language with elegance, to understand it readily, and to use its various idioms and phrases correctly, is for a literary man both useful and interesting; but the amount of study and practice which it requires is considerable and should only be undertaken by those who are younger than myself, and who have more leisure time to devote to the acquisition of such accomplishments.

III. In consequence of these considerations, in this my fifth book of Parallel Lives, which deals with the lives of Demosthenes and Cicero, I intend to describe their several characters, and to compare them with one another by means of their political acts, but I do not mean to examine minutely into their respective speeches, or to decide which of the two was the more pleasing or the more able orator. Were I to attempt such a task, I should be forgetting Ion’s proverb about a “fish out of water,” like the all-accomplished Cæcilius, who has boldly taken upon himself to write a comparison of Demosthenes with Cicero. Perhaps, however, we might begin to doubt the divine origin of the commandment “know thyself,” if we found men always ready to apply it. Indeed Heaven appears to have originally intended to form the characters of Demosthenes and Cicero on the same model, and in some instances to have implanted in them precisely the same qualities, such as great personal ambition, love of freedom, and want of courage in the wars, yet to have left much to chance. I think it would be difficult to find an instance of any two other orators who both rose from a humble station to great power and influence, who both opposed absolute monarchs, both lost favourite daughters, were both exiled and brought back with honour, who both when flying from their country a second time fell into the hands of their enemies, and with whose deaths the liberties of their countrymen were finally extinguished; so that it is hard to say whether their resemblance is due more to nature, which originally moulded their characters alike, or to fortune, which placed then in exactly similar circumstances. First, then, I will relate the life of the elder of the two.

IV. The father of Demosthenes was also named Demosthenes, and belonged, according to Theopompus, to the best class of Athenian citizens. He was commonly called “the sword cutler,” because he possessed a large workshop and many slaves skilled in cutlery. As for the accusation which the orator Æschines brings against his mother, that she was the daughter of one Gylon, who was banished for treason, by a foreign woman, we cannot tell whether it is true or only a calumnious imputation. Demosthenes was left an orphan at the age of seven years, and was the heir to considerable property, amounting in all to no less than fifteen talents. He was scandalously ill-used by his guardians, who appropriated much of his income, and neglected the rest so much that he was unable to pay his teachers. He grew up ignorant of much that a boy of good birth is expected to learn, partly for this reason, and partly on account of his weak health, which caused his mother to keep him away from school. He was a sickly child, and it is said that the opprobrious nickname of Batalus was bestowed upon him by his school-fellows because of his bodily weakness. Batalus, according to some writers, was an effeminate flute-player, whose habits were satirized in a comic drama written by Antiphanes. Others assert that Batalus was a poet who wrote in a drunken licentious style; and there seems also some foundation for the belief that this word was used for a certain part of the human body by the Athenians of that time. The other nickname of Demosthenes, Argas, either alludes to his savage and harsh temper, for some poets use the word to mean a snake; or else it refers to his speeches, as wearying those who heard them; for Argas was the name of a poet whose verses were bad and tiresome. And, as Plato says, so much for this.

V. We are told that he was first led to turn his attention, to oratory by the following incident. When Kallistratus was going to make a speech in court about the affair of Oropus[125] great interest was taken in the trial because of the ability of the orator, who at that time was at the height of his reputation, and also because of the important character of the law suit. Demosthenes, hearing his teachers and attendants making arrangement to be present at the trial, persuaded his own servant by great entreaties to take him to hear the speeches. The man, who was intimate with the doorkeepers of the court, managed to obtain a place for Demosthenes, in which the boy could sit unseen by the public and hear all that was said. Kallisthenes spoke very brilliantly and was much admired. He excited the envy of Demosthenes by the honours which he received, as he was escorted home by a long train of friends who congratulated him upon his success; but the boy was even more impressed by the power of his eloquence, which enabled him to deal with everything just as he pleased. In consequence of this Demosthenes neglected all other branches of learning, neglected all the sports of childhood, and laboriously practised and exercised himself in the art of oratory, meaning some day to become an orator himself. He studied rhetoric under Isaeus, although Isokrates was giving lessons at the same time, either, according to some writers, because, being an orphan, he was unable to raise the sum of ten minæ which Isokrates demanded as a fee, or because he thought that the vigorous invective of Isaeus was more what he required to learn. Hermippus informs us that he read in some anonymous work that Demosthenes was a scholar of Plato, and learned much of the art of speaking from him, while he mentions having heard from Ktesibius that Demosthenes had been lent the works of Isokrates and Alkidamas by one Kallias, a Syracusan, and some others, and that he used to read and practise himself in them in secret.

VI.. When he came of age he at once brought a series of actions against his guardians for malversation of his property, while they resorted to every species of legal subtlety and chicanery to avoid making restitution. By publicly pleading his cause, as Thucydides says, “he learned his trade by dangers,” and succeeded in recovering some of his paternal estate, though but a small part of that to which he was entitled. He gained, however, confidence and practice as a public speaker, and the fascinating excitement and sense of power which he experienced in these contests emboldened him to become a professional orator and to deal with political matters. We are told that Laomedon of Orchomenus, by the advice of his physicians, used to run long distances as a remedy for a disease of the spleen from which he suffered, until he not only overcame his disorder, but was able to enter for races at the games, and became one of the best long-distance runners of his time. Even so Demosthenes, who was forced by his private misfortunes to make his first appearance as a speaker, gained such skill and power by his success in the law-courts that he soon took the lead among the speakers in the public assembly. Yet when he first addressed the people he was violently coughed down, interrupted and ridiculed, because his speech was found dull and tiresome, being confused in style and strained and artificial in argument. It is said that his voice was weak, and his pronunciation indistinct, and that, as he was frequently obliged to pause for want of breath, it was difficult to follow the meaning of his sentences. At last he left the public assembly and wandered about Peiræus in despair. Here he was met by an old man named Eunomus of Thriasia,[126] who reproved him and told him that he did himself great wrong, because, having a manner of speech extremely like that of Perikles, he permitted himself to be disheartened by failure, and did not face the clamour of the rabble boldly, and did not train his body to be strong enough to support the strain of such contests, but allowed himself to fall into a weakly and effeminate condition.

VII. After a second failure, as he was going home overwhelmed with shame hiding his face in his cloak, Satyrus the actor is said to have followed him and joined him. Demosthenes told him with tears in his eyes that although he had taken more pains than any other speaker, and had devoted all his energes to the study of eloquence, yet he could not gain the ear of the people, but that ignorant drunken sailors were listened to when they mounted the tribune, while he was treated with scorn. On hearing this Satyrus answered, “Demosthenes, what you say is very true, but I will soon apply a remedy, if you will recite to me one of the long speeches from the plays of Sophokles or Euripides.” After Demosthenes had recited a speech, Satyrus recited the same speech in turn, and so altered it and gave it so much more grace, by throwing into it the expression which the verses required, that it appeared to Demosthenes to be quite different. Having thus learned how much a speech gains by a really artistic delivery, Demosthenes perceived that it was of but little use for him to study the matter of a speech, unless he also paid attention to the form in which it was to be presented to his audience. He now built for himself an underground study, which remained entire down to the present day, where he daily practised himself in gesture and declamation, and exercised his voice, and where he sometimes spent two or three months at a time with half of his head shaved, so that even if he wished he could not go out of doors.

VIII. He took, however, his themes and subjects for declamation from the various topics of the day, which he learned from those who came to visit him. As soon as they left him he used to return to his study, and repeated aloud in the form of a speech all the news which he had heard, and made comments upon it. He also used to work up any conversations which he heard, into sentences and periods for his orations, and would alter, correct and paraphrase both his own remarks and those of his friends. This gave rise to the opinion that he was not really a man of ability, but that his power and skill as an orator was obtained by laborious study. A great proof of this was thought to be that Demosthenes seldom spoke on the spur of the moment, but often when he was present in the assembly and was called upon by the people to speak, he would remain silent unless he had prepared and meditated over his speech. Many of the other orators ridiculed him for this, and Pytheas in derision said that his arguments smelt of the lamp. To this Demosthenes made the bitter retort, “My lamp, Pytheas, sees very different work from yours.” In conversation with others, however, he did not altogether deny the practice, but said that although he never spoke without having made notes, yet that he often spoke without having written down everything that he was going to say. He used to say that this careful preparation of his speeches showed that he was a true lover of the people, and felt a due reverence for them; while, on the contrary, to speak without caring how the people take one’s words proves a man to be of an overbearing oligarchical disposition, who would use force rather than persuasion. Many writers allege, as a proof that Demosthenes dared not speak on the spur of the moment, that when he attacked Demades he was always immediately answered by him, but that he never so answered Demades.

IX. How then, one might ask, was it that Æschines in his orations speaks of Demosthenes as a man of unbounded impudence? or how was it that when Python of Byzantium was pouring forth a flood of invective against Athens, Demosthenes alone rose and answered him? Moreover, when Lamachus of Mytilene, who had written an encomium upon the Kings of Macedon, Philip and Alexander, which was full of abuse of the Thebans and Olynthians, read his composition in public at the Olympic festival, Demosthenes came up to him and in a fine speech proved from history how great things the Thebans and inhabitants of Chalkidike had done for Greece, and what evils had arisen from the baseness of those who flattered the Macedonians, till the audience were so much wrought upon by his eloquence that Lamachus was forced to flee for his life. The answer to this appears to be that Demosthenes, although he did not copy Perikles in all respects, imitated his reserve and dignity of manner, and his reluctance to speak upon every trivial occasion; and that he was not so much attracted by the credit which he might gain by engaging in these encounters, as he was unwilling rashly to place his power and reputation at the mercy of fortune. Indeed, his spoken orations had more fire and daring than the written ones, if we may trust Eratosthenes, Demetrius of Phalerum, and the comic poets. Eratosthenes tells us that in his speeches he used to rave like a Bacchanal, while Demetrius says that once, as if inspired, he recited the metrical oath:

“By earth, by fountains, and by waterfloods.”

One of the comic poets also calls him “the random talker,” while another mocks at his fondness for antithesis in the following verses:

“1st Citizen. He got it as he got it back.
2nd Citizen. Demosthenes would willingly have spoken words like these.”

Unless indeed Antiphanes meant by this to allude to the oration on Halonesus, in which Demosthenes advised the Athenians not to take that island, but to take it back from Philip.

X. Yet all admitted that Demades, by his own natural wit, without art, was invincible; and that he often, speaking on the spur of the moment, would demolish the carefully studied orations of Demosthenes. Ariston of Chios has preserved the opinion of Theophrastus about these two orators. Theophrastus, when asked what kind of orator he thought Demosthenes to be, replied, “an orator worthy of Athens.” When again asked his opinion of Demades, he replied that he thought him “Too great for Athens.” The same philosopher relates that Polyeuktus of Sphettus, one of the chief Athenian statesmen of the time, used to declare that Demosthenes was the best orator, but that Phokion was the most powerful speaker, because his speeches contained the greatest possible amount of meaning in the fewest words. Demosthenes himself, whenever Phokion rose to answer him, was wont to whisper to his friends, “Here comes the cleaver of my harangues.” It is not clear whether by this Demosthenes alluded to Phokion’s oratorical skill, or to his blameless life and high reputation, meaning that the slightest sign given by a man in whom the people felt such confidence carried more weight than the longest oration by anyone else.

XI. Demetrius of Phalerum has recorded the devices by which Demosthenes overcame his bodily defects, which he says he heard from Demosthenes’s own lips when he was an old man. He corrected the indistinctness of his articulation and his tendency to lisp by declaiming long speeches with pebbles in his mouth, while he strengthened his voice by running or walking up hill, talking the while, and repeating orations or verses. He also had a large mirror in his house, and used to stand before it and study oratorical gestures. We are told that once a man called upon him and asked him to act as his counsel in a lawsuit against a man by whom he had been beaten. “But,” said Demosthenes, “you have not suffered any of this ill-treatment which you complain of.” At this the man raised his voice and excitedly exclaimed, “Do you say, Demosthenes, that I have not been ill-treated?” “Yes,” answered he, “now I hear the voice of one who has really been ill-used.” So important did he think the action and the tone of voice of a speaker to be in carrying conviction to the minds of his hearers. His manner in speaking marvellously pleased the common people, though men of taste, such as Demetrius of Phalerum, thought it vulgar and affected. Hermippus informs us that Aesion,[127] when asked to give his opinion about the orators of former times and those of his own day, said that the ancient orators used to address the people in a surprisingly decorous and dignified manner, but that the speeches of Demosthenes when read aloud, appeared to him to be much more carefully constructed and more forcible. It is indeed unnecessary to say that the written speeches of Demosthenes are bitter and angry compositions; but in his impromptu repartees, he often was genuinely witty and pleasant. As for example, when Demades exclaimed, “Demosthenes teach me! Will a sow teach Athena?”

Demosthenes answered, “This Athena was caught in adultery in Kollytus[128] the other day.” And when the thief who was surnamed Chalkus, that is, Brazen-face, attempted to sneer at him for sitting up late at night writing, Demosthenes answered, “I know that my habit of burning a lamp at night must disconcert you. But, men of Athens, need we wonder at the thefts which take place, when we see that our thieves are brazen, and our walls are only made of clay.” However, although I could relate several more anecdotes of this kind, I must now stop, as we ought to discover what remains of the disposition and character of Demosthenes from a survey of his political acts.

XII. He first began to take an active part in public affairs during the Phokian war, as we learn from his own words, and as we may also gather from his Philippic orations, some of which were pronounced after that war was ended, while the earlier ones touch on those matters most nearly connected with it. It is evident that when he prepared the oration against Meidias he was thirty-two years of age, and had not as yet acquired any fame or reputation. This appears to me to be the chief reason for his having made up his quarrel with Meidias for a sum of money, for he was far from being a “mild-mannered” man, but keen and savage in avenging the injuries which he received. It must have been because he saw, that to ruin a man who was so rich, so able a speaker, and so well-befriended as Meidias, was too difficult a task for a man of his political power, and so yielded to the entreaties of those who begged him to let the action drop; for I do not believe that the bribe of three thousand drachmae which he received would by itself have caused Demosthenes to lay aside the rancorous hatred which he bore to Meidias, if he had entertained any hopes of obtaining a verdict against him.

In the defence of the liberties of Greece against the encroachments of Philip, Demosthenes found a noble theme for political oratory, which he treated in a manner worthy of the subject, and soon acquired such renown by his able and fearless speeches, that he was courted by the king of

Persia himself, and was more talked about in the court of Philip than any of the other statesmen of the time, while even his bitterest antagonists admitted that they had to deal with no mean adversary; for both Æschines and Hypereides own as much in their invectives against him.

XIII. I cannot, therefore, understand what Theopompus meant by saying that he was of an inconstant disposition, and not able to remain long associated with any party or any line of policy. It appears rather that he remained throughout the consistent advocate of the same principles, and a member of the same political party to which he originally belonged, and that he not only never changed his politics in his life, but even lost his life because he would not change them. He was not like Demades, who to excuse himself for changing sides pleaded that he had oftentimes gone against his own words, but never against the interests of the state. Still less can he be compared with Melanopus, the political opponent of Kallistratus, who was often bribed by him to allow some measure to pass, and on these occasions would say to the people, “The man is my personal enemy, but I postpone my personal feelings to the good of my country.” Nikodemus of Messene, who first took up with Kassander, and afterwards became the advocate of Demetrius, used to declare that he never was inconsistent, because it was always best to obey the strongest party. But in the case of Demosthenes, unlike these men, we can say that he never deviated either in word or deed from the one direct line of policy which he unswervingly pursued to the end. The philosopher Panætius declares that in most of his orations, as in that about the Crown, that against Aristokrates, that on behalf of the persons exempted from taxation (against Leptines), and in the Philippics, we can trace the principle that honour ought to be pursued for its own sake; for in all these he urges his countrymen not to adopt the most pleasant, the most easy, or the most profitable line of policy, but often thinks that caution and even safety should be regarded as of less importance than honourable conduct; so that if to his noble principles and high-minded eloquence he had joined warlike courage and clean hands from bribery, he would have been worthy to rank, not with Mœrokles, Polyeuktus, and Hypereides, but with Kimon, Thucydides, Perikles, and other great men of old.

XIV. Indeed, of his contemporaries, Phokion, although we cannot approve of the strong Macedonian bias of his policy, was nowise inferior to Ephialtes, Aristeides, or Kimon, either in courage or in just dealing; while Demosthenes, who could not be trusted, as we are told by Demetrius, to stand his ground in battle, and who was not altogether proof against the seductions of money—for though he never would receive a bribe from Philip or from Macedonia, yet he was overwhelmed by the torrent of gold which poured from Susa and Ekbatana—was better able than any one else to praise the great deeds of his ancestors, but was not equally capable of imitating them. Yet in spite of these shortcomings, his life was more virtuous than that of any statesman of his time, with the exception of Phokion. He used plainer language to the people than any one else, opposed their wishes, and sharply reproved them for their mistakes, as we learn from his orations. Theopompus has recorded that once when the Athenians called upon him to impeach some person, and became riotous when he refused, he rose and said, “Men of Athens, I will always give you my advice, whether you bid me or not; but I will not accuse men falsely because you bid me.” His mode of dealing with Antiphon also was by no means like that of a man who courts the favour of the people, for when the public assembly acquitted Antiphon, Demosthenes dragged him before the court of the Areopagus, and in defiance of the expressed opinion of the people, proved him guilty of having promised Philip that he would set fire to the dockyard. The wretched man was condemned by the court and executed. He also impeached the priestess Theoris for various evil practices, and especially for teaching slaves to cheat their masters. He obtained a verdict against her, and caused her also to be put to death.

XV. It is stated that the speech by which Apollodorus obtained sentence against the general Timotheus, and had him condemned to pay a large fine, was written for him by Demosthenes: and he also wrote the speeches against Phormio and Stephanus, which, as may be supposed, brought great disgrace upon him. For Phormio actually used a speech written by Demosthenes to combat Apollodorus, which was just as if out of one armourer’s shop he had sold them each daggers to kill one another with. Of his public speeches, those against Androtion, Timokrates and Aristokrates were written for other persons, as he had not at the time of their composition began to speak in public, being only twenty-seven or twenty-eight years of age. The oration against Aristogeiton, he himself pronounced, as he did also that against Leptines, out of regard for Ktesippus the son of Chabrias, according to his own account of the matter, though some say that he was paying his addresses to the young man’s mother at the time. He did not, however, marry her, but married a Samian woman, as we learn from the treatise of Demetrius of Magnesia on Synonyms. It is not clear whether the oration against Æschines for the dishonest embassage was ever spoken; although we are told by Idomeneus that Æschines was only acquitted by thirty votes. This, however, cannot be true, judging from the speeches of Demosthenes and Æschines “on the Crown:” for neither of them distinctly alludes to that affair as having ever come into court. This point, therefore, I shall leave for others to determine.

XVI. Before the war broke out no one could doubt which side Demosthenes would take, as he never allowed any act of the King of Macedonia to pass unnoticed, but seized every opportunity of rousing and exciting his countrymen to oppose him. In consequence of this his name became well known at the court of Philip, and when he was sent with nine others to Macedonia on an embassy, Philip listened to the speeches of them all, but replied to his speech with the greatest care. He did not, however, pay so much attention to Demosthenes in the entertainment which he provided for the ambassadors, but took especial pains to win the favour of Æschines and Philokrates. Hence, when these men praised Philip as being more eloquent, more handsome, and to crown all, able to drink more than any one else, Demosthenes sneeringly replied that the first of these qualities was excellent in a sophist, the second in a woman, and the third in a sponge, but that they were none of them such as became a king.

XVII. When war finally broke out, as Philip was unable to remain quiet, while the Athenians were urged on by Demosthenes, his first measure was to prevail upon the Athenians to recover Eubœa, which had been handed over to Philip by its local rulers. In pursuance of a decree which bore the name of Demosthenes, the Athenians crossed into the island and drove out the Macedonians. Next, as Philip was besieging Byzantium and Perinthus, Demosthenes prevailed upon his countrymen to lay aside their anger and forget the wrongs which they had received from the people of those cities in the social war, and to send them a reinforcement by which they were saved. After this he travelled through Greece, exciting a spirit of resistance to Philip by his speeches, until he succeeded in forming nearly all the Greek cities into a confederacy against Philip, organised an army of fifteen thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry, besides the local forces of each city, and induced them to subscribe cheerfully for the maintenance of the mercenaries and the expenses of the war. At this time, we are told by Theophrastus that, when the allies demanded that their contributions should be limited to some fixed sum, Krobylus the Athenian orator answered that war feeds not by a fixed allowance.[129] Greece was now in a flutter of expectation, and the people of Eubœa, Achaia, Corinth, Megara, Leukas and Korkyra were all in arms. Yet the hardest task of all still remained for Demosthenes to accomplish, namely, to induce the Thebans to join the alliance, because their territory bordered upon that of Athens, and their army was very important, for at that time Thebes was the most warlike state in Greece. It was no easy matter to win over the Thebans, who had just received signal assistance from Philip in their war against the Phokians, and so were inclined to take his side, besides which, their being such near neighbours to the Athenians caused perpetual jealousies and quarrels between the two countries, which were renewed upon the most trifling occasions.

XVIII. Yet when Philip, excited by his success at Amphissa, suddenly marched to Elatea and made himself master of Phokis, when all the Athenians were panic-stricken, and no one dared to ascend the bema, or knew what to say, Demosthenes alone came forward and advised them to stand by the Thebans; and after having, after his wont, encouraged and comforted the people, he was sent with some others as ambassador to Thebes. We learn from the historian Marsyas that Philip, too, sent the Macedonians Amyntas and Klearchus, the Thessalian Daochus, and Thrasydaeus to Thebes to argue on his behalf. The Thebans on this occasion saw clearly enough on which side their interests lay, for the sufferings they had just endured in the Phokian war were still fresh in their memories; but we read in the history of Theopompus that the eloquence of Demosthenes so roused and inflamed their courage that all cold-blooded calculation of the chances, fear of the enemy, and considerations of expediency were entirely lost sight of in the honourable enthusiasm created by his speech. So powerful did his oratory prove, that Philip at once sent an embassy to ask for terms of peace, while Greece stood erect and watchful. Not only the Athenian generals, but even the Boeotarchs took their orders from Demosthenes, and he was as powerful in the public assembly of the Thebans as in that of Athens, being beloved by both nations and possessed of a power which was not beyond his deserts, as Theopompus says, but which he well deserved.

XIX. But some fatal destiny seemed now to have brought round the hour for the extinction of the liberties of Greece, and both counteracted his efforts, and also gave many ominous indications of what was to come. The Pythia at Delphi uttered terrible predictions, and an old oracle of the Sibyls was in every one’s mouth, which ran as follows:—

“Far from the battle, on that fatal day

Beside Thermodon may I flee away,

Or view it as an eagle from the sky;

There shall the vanquished weep, the victor die.”

It is said that the Thermodon is a little rivulet near my own town of Chæronea which runs into the Kephisus. We Chæroneans nowadays do not know of any rivulet which is so called, but we suppose that the stream which we call Hæmon was at that period called the Thermodon; for it runs past the temple of Herakles, where the Greek army encamped: and we imagine that when the battle took place this stream was filled with blood and corpses, and became known by its present name. Yet the historian Douris writes that the Thermodon was not a river at all, but that some men while digging a trench round their tent found a small stone image, with an inscription saying that it represented a man named Thermodon carrying a wounded Amazon in his arms. Concerning this there was another oracle current, as follows:—

“Watch for Thermodon’s field, thou sable crow,

There shalt thou feed on human flesh enow.”

XX. It is hard in these matters to determine the exact truth: but, be this as it may, Demosthenes was greatly encouraged to see such a force of armed Greeks at his disposal, and, elated by their confidence and eagerness for battle would not allow them to pay any attention to oracles and predictions, but hinted that the Pythia was in Philip’s pay, and reminded the Thebans of Epameinondas, and the Athenians of Perikles, both of whom regarded such considerations as mere pretexts for cowardice. Up to this point he behaved as a brave man should; but in the battle[130] itself he performed no honourable exploit worthy of his speeches, but left his place in the ranks and ran away in a most shameful manner, throwing away his arms that he might run faster, and not hesitating to disgrace the motto of “Good Luck,” which Pytheas tells us was written in golden letters upon his shield. Immediately after the victory Philip, in insolent delight at his success, danced in a drunken revel among the corpses and sang the opening words of a decree of Demosthenes, which happened to form an iambic verse, as follows:—

“Demosthenes Pæanian, son of Demosthenes,” &c.

When, however, he came to himself, and comprehended how great his danger had been, he trembled at the ability and power of an orator who had been able to force him in a few hours of one day to risk both his empire and his life. The fame of Demosthenes reached even to the King of Persia, and he sent letters to the Satraps who governed the provinces near the sea, bidding them offer money to Demosthenes, and pay him more attention than any other Greek, because he was able to effect a diversion in favour of Persia by keeping the King of Macedonia’s hands full. This was afterwards discovered by Alexander, who found at Sardis letters from Demosthenes and papers belonging to the King’s lieutenant, containing an account of the various sums of money which they had transmitted to him.

XXI. When this great misfortune befell Greece, the political opponents of Demosthenes at once impeached him for his conduct; but the people not only acquitted him of the charges which they brought against him, but continued to treat him with great honour, and to ask for his advice. When the remains of those who had fallen at Chæronea were brought home and buried, they chose him to make the funeral oration over them, and generally they bore their misfortunes with a noble spirit, not being excessively humbled and cast down, as Theopompus relates in his history, with a view to dramatic effect, but by showing especial honour and esteem for their principal adviser they proved that they did not repent of the policy which they had followed. Demosthenes pronounced the funeral oration over the fallen, but he never again proposed a decree in the popular assembly in his own name, but always in that of some one of his friends, in order to avoid the evil omen of his own unlucky name, until he again took courage at the death of Philip, which took place shortly after his victory at Chæronea. This, it seems, was the meaning of the last verse of the oracle,

“There shall the vanquished weep, the victor die.”

XXII. Demosthenes had secret intelligence of Philip’s death, before it was publicly known. In order to inspirit the Athenians, he went with a cheerful countenance into the senate, and declared that he had dreamed that some great good fortune was in store for them. Not long afterwards messengers arrived with the news of Philip’s death. Upon this the Athenians made sacrifices of thanksgiving to the gods, and decreed a crown to Pausanias who slew Philip. Demosthenes also came abroad in a gay dress, and wearing a garland of flowers on his head, although his daughter had only been dead seven days. This circumstance is reported by Æschines, who reviles him for his conduct, and calls him an unnatural father, though he only proves the weakness and vulgarity of his own nature by supposing that noisy demonstrations of grief show tenderness of heart, and blaming those who bear their sorrows with dignity and composure. Yet I will not say that the Athenians did right to wear garlands and make merry at the death of a king who, after his victory, had dealt so gently with them when they were at his mercy; for it deserved the anger of the gods, and was a thoroughly low-minded act to honour a man while he lived and elect him a citizen of Athens, and then when he fell by the hand of a stranger not to be able to contain themselves for joy, but to dance over his corpse and to sing pæans of victory, as if they themselves had done some great feat of arms. On the other hand, I praise Demosthenes for leaving his own home troubles to be wept for by the women of his household, and himself coming forward and doing what he imagined was best for his country. This shows a manly and patriotic spirit, which ever looks to the good of the community at large; and I think that in forcing his private grief to give way to the public joy he acted well, and even outdid those actors who represent kings and autocrats on the stage, and who laugh or wail not as their own feelings bid them, but as the argument of the play requires. Apart from these considerations, it is our duty not to forsake a man when he is in sorrow, but to administer consolation to him and to turn his thoughts to pleasanter subjects, as physicians bid weak-eyed patients turn their eyes away from a distressing glare of light and direct them to green and soothing colours; and what better means of consolation could one possibly find when one’s country is fortunate, than to bid one’s friend merge his private grief in the public joy? I have been led to make these reflections by observing that this speech of Æschines has had undue influence with many persons, because it makes a mistaken appeal to their tenderer feelings.

XXIII. Now Demosthenes a second time began to rouse the states of Greece and reorganise the confederacy. The Thebans attacked their Macedonian garrison, and killed many of them, with arms furnished by Demosthenes, and the Athenians began to prepare to fight as their allies. Demosthenes reigned supreme in the popular assembly, and wrote to the Persian generals in Asia endeavouring to induce them to attack Alexander, whom he scoffed at as a child, and nicknamed Margites.[131] But when Alexander, after settling the affairs of his kingdom, marched with his army into Bœotia, the courage of the Athenians deserted them. Demosthenes himself quailed in terror, and the Thebans, forsaken by their allies, fought against Alexander alone, and were utterly ruined. Upon this the Athenians, in an agony of terror, sent Demosthenes and several other orators on an embassy to Alexander; but he, fearing Alexander’s fury, went no further than Mount Kithæron, and then returned home. Alexander now at once sent to Athens to demand that ten of her chief orators should be given up to him, according to the historians Idomeneus and Douris, though most of the more trustworthy writers say that he only asked for the eight following:—Demosthenes, Polyeuktus, Ephialtes, Lykurgus, Mœrokles, Demon, Kallisthenes and Charidemus. On this occasion Demosthenes told the people the fable of the sheep who gave up their watch-dogs to the wolves, explaining that he and the other orators were the watch-dogs who guarded the people, and calling Alexander the “great wolf of Macedon.” “Moreover,” said he, “by delivering us up you really deliver up yourselves also, just as you see merchants selling whole cargoes of corn by small samples of a few grains which they carry about in a cup.” This we learn from Aristobulus of Kassandrea.[132] As the Athenians were quite at their wit’s end, and knew not what to do, Demades at last agreed with the orators whose extradition was demanded, that in consideration of a sum of five talents he would himself go to the king of Macedonia and intercede for them, either because he trusted in the friendship which existed between him and Alexander, or because he thought that he should find him like a lion that has been satiated with slaughter. Demades succeeded in saving their lives, and arranged terms of peace between the Athenians and Alexander.

XXIV. After Alexander’s departure Demades and his party were all powerful at Athens, and Demosthenes was completely humbled. He made an effort to assist the abortive attempts of Agis[133] King of Sparta, but as the Athenians would not take part in the proposed rising, and the Lacedæmonians were crushed, he again retired into obscurity. At this time also the action bought by Æschines against Ktesiphon about the Crown came on for trial. This action had been formally begun during the archonship of Chærondas, a short time before the battle of Chæronea, but it was not decided until ten years later, in the archonship of Aristophon. This, although a private action, attracted greater interest than any public one, both on account of the eloquence of the speakers on both sides and the spirited behaviour of the judges, who refused to truckle to the party in power, which had banished Demosthenes and which was slavishly subservient to Macedonia, but acquitted Demosthenes by such a splendid majority that Æschines did not obtain the fifth part of the votes. He in consequence at once left the city, and spent the remainder of his life at Rhodes and the other cities of the Ionian coast as a sophist and teacher of rhetoric.

XXV. Shortly after this, Harpalus arrived in Athens from Asia, fleeing from Alexander, whom he feared to meet, both because he had grossly misconducted himself while in command of a province, and because Alexander had now become a capricious tyrant, terrible even to his friends. When he sought refuge with the Athenians, and placed himself, his ships, and his treasure in their hands, the other orators, casting longing glances at his wealth, at once pleaded for him, and advised the Athenians to receive and protect the suppliant. Demosthenes at first advised them to send Harpalus away, and take care not to involve the city in war by such unjust and uncalled-for proceedings: but a few days afterwards when an inventory was being taken of Harpalus’s property, he, seeing that Demosthenes was admiring a golden Persian drinking cup and examining the sculptures with which it was enriched, bade him take it in his hands and observe the weight of the gold. Demosthenes was surprised at the weight, and asked how much it would fetch. Harpalus answered with a smile, “It will fetch you twenty talents:” and as soon as it was dark he sent the cup and the twenty talents to the house of Demosthenes. Harpalus had very cleverly fathomed the character of Demosthenes by observing the loving and eager glances with which he eyed this cup; for he received the bribe and went over to the side of Harpalus, just as if he were a city which had received a foreign garrison. Next morning he carefully bandaged his throat with woollen wrappers, and proceeded to the assembly, where, when called upon to rise and speak, he made signs that he had lost his voice. Witty men said that the orator had not caught a sore throat, but a silver quinsy during the night. Soon the whole people learned that he had been bribed, and as they would not listen to him when he rose to explain his conduct, but hooted and groaned, some one rose and said, “Men of Athens, will you not listen to a man who has such a golden tongue?” The people thereupon sent Harpalus away, and fearing that inquiry might be made after the treasure which the orators had received, they instituted a vigorous search through every man’s house, except that of Kallikles the son of Arrhenides, which they would not allow to be searched because his newly-married wife was there. These particulars we learn from the history of Theopompus.

XXVI. Demosthenes, wishing to put a good face on the matter, passed a decree in the assembly, that the senate of the Areopagus should enquire into the matter, and punish those who were found guilty. However he was one of the first whom the senate found guilty: and, although he came into court and pleaded his cause, he was condemned to pay a fine of fifty talents, and was imprisoned in default. Overwhelmed with shame at this disgrace, and being also in weak health, he could not bear to remain in prison, and made his escape with the secret assistance of his keepers. We read that after he had got a short distance from Athens he saw that he was being pursued by several of his political opponents, and tried to hide from them. When, however, they came up to him, addressed him by his name, and begged him to receive money for his journey from them, assuring him that they had brought it to give to him and had pursued him for no other reason, Demosthenes burst into tears and exclaimed: “I may well be sorry to leave a home where my very enemies treat me with more kindness than any friends I am likely to find abroad will do.” Demosthenes was much depressed by his banishment, and spent most of his time in Troezene or Aegina, looking towards Attica with tears in his eyes. He is said during his exile to have uttered many unmanly sentiments, very unworthy of his bold speeches when in power. On leaving the city he stretched out his hands towards the Acropolis and exclaimed: “Athena, patroness of Athens, why dost thou delight in those three savage creatures, the owl, the snake, and the people?” He used to dissuade the young men whom he met and conversed with during his travels from taking part in political life, and would say that such were the miseries, the fears, the jealousies, backbitings, and ceaseless struggles by which a public man is beset, that if at the outset of his life he had known them, and had been offered his choice between two courses, one leading to the bema and the public assembly, and the other to utter annihilation, he would unhesitatingly have chosen the latter.

XXVII. While he was in exile Alexander died, and the Hellenic confederacy was again revived under Leosthenes, a brave general, who shut up Antipater in Lauria and besieged him there. Now, Pytheas the orator and Kallimedon, surnamed the “crab,” who were exiled from Athens, joined Antipater, and travelled about Greece in company with his friends and ambassadors, urging the cities not to join the Athenians and revolt from Macedonia. Demosthenes, on the other hand, joined the embassy sent out by Athens and co-operated with them, striving to induce the Greeks to rise against the Macedonians and drive them out of Greece. In Arcadia, Phylarchus tells us that a wordy battle took place between Pytheas and Demosthenes at a public meeting in which Pytheas was advocating the cause of Macedonia, and Demosthenes that of Greece. Pytheas said that we may always know that there is sickness in a house if we see asses’ milk carried into it, and that a city must be in a bad way if it received an embassy from Athens. To this Demosthenes answered by turning his own illustration against him, for, he said, asses’ milk is brought into houses to cure the sick, and Athenians come into other cities to save them from ruin. The people of Athens were so delighted with the conduct of Demosthenes in this matter that they decreed his restoration. The decree was proposed by Demon, one of the township of Paeania, and a cousin of Demosthenes; and a trireme was sent to Aegina to fetch him home. When he landed at Peiræus he was met by the whole people, and by all the priests and archons, all of whom greeted him warmly. On this occasion, Demetrius of Magnesia relates that he raised his hands to heaven and congratulated himself on having returned home more gloriously than Alkibiades, because he had persuaded, not forced, his countrymen to receive him back. As the fine imposed upon him still remained in force, for the people could not alter a verdict at their pleasure, they made use of a legal fiction. It was the custom at the festival of Zeus the Preserver to pay a sum of money to those who ornamented the altar for the sacrifice: they charged Demosthenes with this office, and ordered him to execute it for the sum of fifty talents, which was the amount of his fine.

XXVIII. He did not, however, long enjoy his restoration, for the Greeks were soon utterly ruined. In the month of Metageitnion[134] the battle of Krannon took place, in Bœdromion a Macedonian garrison entered Munychia, and in Pyanepsion Demosthenes was put to death in the following manner:—As soon as it became known that Antipater and Kraterus were marching upon Athens, Demosthenes and his party escaped out of the city, and the people, at the instance of Demades, condemned them to death. As they had dispersed to all quarters of Greece, Antipater sent men in pursuit of them, the chief of whom was Archias, who was surnamed the Exile-hunter. This man, who was a citizen of Thurii, is said once to have been a tragic actor, and to have studied his art under the celebrated Polus of Ægina. Hermippus reckons Archias among the pupils of the orator Lakritus, while Demetrius tells us that he was a student of philosophy of the school of Anaximenes. This Archias tore away from the shrine of Æakus at Ægina the orator Hypereides, Aristonikus of Marathon, and Himeræus, the brother of Demetrius of Phalerum, who had taken sanctuary there, and sent them to Antipater at Kleonæ, where they were put to death. It is even said that Hypereides had his tongue cut out.

XXIX. Hearing that Demosthenes was sitting as a suppliant in the temple of Poseidon at Kalauria,[135] Archias crossed over thither in some small boats with a guard of Thracian mercenaries, and tried to persuade Demosthenes to leave the temple and accompany him to Antipater, promising that he should not be ill-treated. Demosthenes had a strange dream the night before that he was contending with Archias in acting a play, and that although he acted well and delighted his audience, yet he was beaten by Archias, who was better furnished with stage properties and appliances. Wherefore, when Archias tried to cajole him, Demosthenes looked him full in the face, and, without rising, said, “Archias, your acting never affected me on the stage, nor will your promises now.” Upon this Archias became angry, and savagely threatened him. “Now,” said Demosthenes, “you speak like the true Macedonian that you are; but just now you were acting a part. So now wait for a little while until I have sent a letter home.” Saying this, he retired into the inner part of the temple, took his tablets as though about to write, placed his pen in his mouth and bit it, as he was wont to do when meditating what he should write, and after remaining so for some time, covered his head with his robe and leaned it on his arms. The soldiers standing at the door of the temple jeered at him for a coward, and Archias walked up to him and bade him rise, repeating his assurance that he would make Antipater his friend. Demosthenes, as soon as he perceived that the poison was beginning to work upon him, uncovered his head, and, looking steadfastly at Archias, said, “Now, as soon as you please, you may play the part of Kreon in the play, and throw my body to the dogs without burial. But I, good Poseidon, leave thy temple while I am yet alive, and will not profane the sanctuary by my death there, though Antipater and his Macedonians have not feared to pollute it with murder.” Having spoken these words, he asked them to support him by the arms, as his strength was fast failing him, and as they were assisting him to walk past the altar he fell with a groan and died there.

XXX. As for the poison, Ariston says that it was contained in his pen,[136] as has been related. But one Pappas, from whom Hermippus has borrowed his account of the scene, says that when Demosthenes fell before the altar, in his tablets were found written the opening words of a letter, “Demosthenes to Antipater,” and nothing more. All were surprised at the suddenness of his death, but the Thracian mercenaries at the door declared that they saw him take the poison out of a little cloth and put it into his mouth. They imagined that what he swallowed was gold; but a maid-servant that waited on him told Archias, in answer to his inquiries, that Demosthenes had for a long time carried about a packet containing poison, to be used in case of need. Eratosthenes himself writes that Demosthenes carried the poison in a hollow bracelet which he wore on his arm. It would be tedious to notice all the discrepancies to be found in the numerous accounts which have been written of the death of Demosthenes; but I will mention that Demochares, a relative of Demosthenes, states his belief that he did not die by poison, but by the provident care of the gods, who rescued him from the cruelty of the Macedonians by a swift and painless death. He perished on the sixteenth day of the month Pyanepsion, which is observed as a day of the strictest fasting and humiliation by the women who celebrate the festival of the Thesmophoria.[137] The people of Athens soon afterwards bestowed on Demosthenes the honours which he deserved, by erecting a brazen statue in memory of him, and decreeing that the eldest of his family should be maintained in the Prytaneum for ever. On the base of the statue was inscribed the celebrated couplet:

“Could’st thou have fought as well as thou could’st speak,

The Macedonian ne’er had ruled the Greek.”

It is a complete mistake to suppose, as some writers do, that Demosthenes himself composed this couplet in Kalauria just before he took the poison.

XXXI. A short time before my own first visit to Athens, the following incident is said to have taken place. A soldier, being summoned by his commanding officer to be tried for some offence, placed all his money in the hands of the statue of Demosthenes, which are represented as clasped together. Beside the statue grew a small plane-tree, and several leaves of this tree, either blown there by chance, or placed there on purpose by the soldier, concealed and covered up the money, so that it remained there a long while. At last the soldier returned and found it, and as the circumstance became widely known, many literary men seized the opportunity of making epigrams on this striking proof of the incorruptible honesty of Demosthenes.

Demades did not long enjoy the honour which he had won, for the gods, in order to avenge Demosthenes, led him to Macedonia, where he perished miserably by the hands of those whose favour he had so basely courted. He had long been disliked by the Macedonian court, and at last a clear proof of his treasonable practices was discovered in an intercepted letter of his to Perdikkas, in which he urged him to seize the throne of Macedonia and save the Greeks, who were now hanging by an old and rotten thread (meaning Antipater). On the evidence of this letter, Deinarchus of Corinth charged him with treason, and Kassander was so infuriated at his perfidy that he first stabbed Demades’s own son while in his father’s arms, and then ordered him to be put to death. Thus, by inflicting on him the greatest misery which a man could suffer, he proved to him the truth of that saying of Demosthenes which he had never before believed, that traitors first of all betray themselves. You now, my friend Sossius, know all that I have either read or heard concerning the life of Demosthenes.

LIFE OF CICERO.

I. They say that Cicero’s mother Helvia[138] was of good family and conversation, but as to his father the accounts are in opposite extremes. For some say that the man was born and brought up in a fuller’s workshop; but others carry back his pedigree to Tullus Attius,[139] who reigned with distinction among the Volsci and fought against the Romans with no small vigour. However, the first of the family who got the cognomen of Cicero[140] must have been a man of note, and this was the reason why his descendants did not reject the name, but were well pleased with it, though it was a matter of jeering to many: for the Latins call a vetch Cicer, and the first Cicero had at the end of his nose a cleft or split, slightly marked as we may suppose, like the cleft in a vetch, whence he got the cognomen. Indeed Cicero himself, the subject of this Life, on his friends advising him when he was first a candidate for office and began to engage in public life, to get rid of the name and take another, is reported to have boldly replied that he would strive to make the name of Cicero more glorious than that of Scaurus and Catulus. While he was quæstor in Sicily, and causing a silver offering to the gods to be made, he had inscribed on it his first two names, Marcus and Tullius, but in place of the third he jocosely ordered the artist to cut the figure of a vetch by the side of the characters. This then is what is recorded about the name.

II. They say that Cicero’s mother gave birth[141] to him, after a painless and easy labor, on the third day of the new calends, on which the magistrates now offer up prayers and sacrifices on behalf of the Emperor. It is said that a vision appeared to his nurse and foretold her that she was nurturing a great blessing for all Romans. Such things as these are generally considered to be mere dreams and idle talk, but in his case Cicero soon showed that it was a real prophecy when he was of age to be taught, for he was conspicuous for his natural talent and got a name and reputation among the boys, so that their fathers used to visit the schools out of desire to see Cicero, and to inquire of his famed quickness and capacity for learning; but the ill-educated part were angry with their sons when they saw them giving Cicero a place in the midst of them in the public roads by way of honour. Cicero, who had a talent, such as Plato[142] requires in a nature that loves learning and loves wisdom, for embracing all knowledge and undervaluing no kind of learning and discipline, happened to show a strong inclination to poetry: and indeed a small poem of his is still preserved, which was written when he was a boy: it is entitled Pontius Glaucus,[143] and is in tetrameter verse. In the course of time he applied himself to the Muse of such arts with still more versatility, and got the reputation of being not only the first orator, but also the best poet[144] among the Romans. Now his oratorical reputation continues to the present day, though there has been no small innovation in matters that concern eloquence; but as to his poetical reputation, owing to many poets of genius who have come after him, its fate has been to die away altogether unknown to fame and unhonoured.

III. After being released from his youthful studies, he heard Philo[145] of the Academy, whom of all the scholars of Kleitomachus, the Romans admired most for his eloquence and loved most for his manners. At the same time by his intimacy with the Mucii,[146] who were statesmen and leaders in the Senate, he was aided in getting some knowledge of the law; and for a time, also, he served in the army under Sulla in the Marsic war.[147] But seeing that matters were coming to a civil war, and from a civil war to a pure monarchy, betaking himself to a life of quiet and contemplation, he kept company with learned Greeks and applied himself to the sciences, until Sulla had got the mastery, and the state seemed to have received a settlement. During this time Chrysogonus,[148] a freedman of Sulla, having laid an information about a man’s property as being one of those who were put to death during the proscriptions, bought it for two thousand drachmæ. Roscius, the son and heir of the dead man, complained of this, and showed that the property was of the value of two hundred and fifty talents, on which Sulla, being convicted, was angry, and with the assistance of Chrysogonus instituted a prosecution against Roscius for parricide. No one gave Roscius help, but all were deterred through fear of the severity of Sulla, on which the young man in his desolate condition had recourse to Cicero, who was also importuned by his friends, who urged that he would never again have a more splendid opportunity of gaining a reputation nor a more honourable. Accordingly Cicero undertook the defence, and gained credit by his success; but, being afraid of Sulla, he went into Greece,[149] giving out that his bodily health required care. And indeed he was lean and had little flesh, and owing to weakness of stomach, he took little food, and that of a light kind late in the day; his voice was full and good, but hard and unmanageable, and owing to the vehemence and passion of his language being continually carried through the higher notes it gave him alarm about his health.

IV. On his arrival at Athens[150] he became a hearer of Antiochus of Askalon, being pleased with the easy flow of his speech and his graceful manner, but he did not like his doctrinal innovations. For Antiochus was now seceding from what is called the New Academy, and deserting the sect of Karneades; whether it was that he was influenced by the evidence and by the senses, or as some say, through rivalry and differences with the followers of Kleitomachus and the partisans of Philo, he was changing to be a cultivator of the Stoic principle in most things. But Cicero liked the other doctrines better, and attached himself to them in preference, intending, if he should altogether be excluded from public affairs, to remove himself to Athens from the Forum and public life and live there in tranquillity with philosophy. But when news came that Sulla was dead, and his body being strengthened by discipline was attaining a vigorous habit, and his voice being now brought under management had become pleasant to the ear and powerful, and was suitably adapted to his habit of body, and his friends from Rome were sending him many letters and exhortations, and Antiochus strongly urged him to engage in public affairs, he began anew to fashion his oratorical power, as if it were an instrument, and to rouse afresh his political capacity, by exercising himself in the proper discipline and attending the rhetoricians of repute. Accordingly he sailed to Asia and Rhodes;[151] and among the Asiatic orators he attended the instruction of Xenokles of Adramyttium, and Dionysius of Magnesia, and Menippus of Caria; and in Rhodes, the rhetorician Apollonius, the son of Molo, and the philosopher Poseidonius. It is said that Apollonius, who did not understand the Latin language, requested Cicero to perform his exercises in Greek; and that Cicero readily complied, thinking that his faults would thus be better corrected. When he had finished his exercise, all the rest were amazed, and vied with one another in their praises, but Apollonius, while he was listening to Cicero, showed no approbation, and when Cicero had finished he sat for a long time wrapped in thought; and as Cicero showed his dissatisfaction, he said, “You indeed, Cicero, I commend and admire, but I pity the fortune of Greece, seeing that the only excellent things which were left to us have been transferred to the Romans by you, learning and eloquence.”

V. Now Cicero, full of hope in his course to a political career, had his ardour dulled by an oracular answer. For on consulting the god at Delphi[152] how he might get most fame, the Pythia bade him make his own nature, and not the opinion of the many, his guide in life. At first he lived with reserve at Rome, and was slow in offering himself for magistracies, and was undervalued, being called Greek and pedant, names current among and familiar to the lowest citizens. But as he was naturally ambitious and was urged on by his father and friends, he devoted himself to assisting persons in their causes, and he did not approach the highest distinction by gradual steps, but at once blazed forth in reputation, and was far superior to those who exerted themselves in the Forum. It is said that he was as defective as Demosthenes in action, and that accordingly he carefully devoted himself first to Roscius[153] the comedian, and then to Æsopus the tragedian. Of this Æsopus it is told, that when he was representing on the stage Atreus deliberating how he should revenge himself on Thyestes, and one of the servants suddenly ran past him, being transported out of his reason by his feelings he struck the man with his sceptre and killed him. Cicero derived no small power of persuasion from his action.[154] He used scoffingly to say of the orators who bawled loud,[155] that because of their weakness they had recourse to shouting, like lame men leaping on horses. His readiness at sarcasm and other sharp sayings was considered well adapted to courts of justice and clever, but by over use of it he gave offence to many and got the character of an ill-disposed person.

VI. Being elected quæstor[156] at a time of scarcity of corn, and having got Sicily as his province, he gave offence to the people at first by compelling them to send corn to Rome. But afterwards, when they had proof of his care and justice and mildness, they respected him as they never had any governor before. And when many young Romans of good repute and noble birth, who were under a charge of neglect of discipline and bad behaviour in the war, were sent up to the prætor of Sicily, Cicero pleaded for them in a remarkable manner, and gained their acquittal. Being accordingly greatly elated at all this, on his journey to Rome, as he tells us, a ludicrous incident happened to him. In Campania[157] falling in with a man of rank, whom he considered to be a friend of his, he asked him what the Romans said about his conduct in Sicily, and what they thought of it, supposing that the city was full of his name and of his measures, and upon the man replying, “But where have you been all this time Cicero?” he was completely dispirited that his fame was lost in the city as in a boundless sea and had produced no glorious result to his reputation; but on reflection he abated much of his ambition, considering that he was striving for fame as for a thing indefinite and one which had no attainable limit. However all along there abided in him an exceeding love of praise and a strong passion for fame, which, often disturbed much of his sound judgment.

VII. But when he began to engage more actively in public concerns, he thought it a shame that artisans, who make use of inanimate instruments and tools, should be acquainted with the name of each and its place and use, and that the political man, whose public acts are effected by the agency of men, should be indolent and indifferent about the knowledge of his fellow-citizens. Accordingly he not only accustomed himself to remember persons’ names, but he also knew the place in which every man of note dwelt, and the spot where he had his property, and the friends with whom he was familiar and his neighbours; and whatever road in Italy he was traversing, Cicero could easily tell and point out the lands and houses of his friends. As he had only a small property, though sufficient and adequate to his expenses, he obtained credit by accepting neither pay nor presents for his services as an advocate, and most particularly by his undertaking the prosecution against Verres,[158] who had been prætor of Sicily. Verres, who had been guilty of great malversation, was prosecuted by the Sicilians, and Cicero caused his conviction, not by speeches, but in a manner, as one may say, by not speaking at all. For as the prætors favoured Verres, and were putting off the trial to the last day by adjournments and tricks, and it was clear that the space of one day would not be sufficient for the speeches and the trial would not be brought to a conclusion, Cicero got up and said that the case required no speeches, and bringing forward the witnesses and taking their evidence he told the judices to give their vote. Yet many lively sayings of his at that trial are recorded. The Romans call a castrated hog “verres.” Now when a man of the class of libertini named Cæcilius, who was under the imputation of Judaism, wished to put aside the Siceliots and be the prosecutor of Verres, Cicero said “What has a Jew to do with a verres?” Verres also had a son grown up, who was reputed not to have regard to his youthful beauty as a person of free birth ought to have. Accordingly when Cicero was reviled for his effeminacy by Verres, he replied, “A man should find fault with his sons at home.”[159] The orator Hortensius did not venture directly to defend the cause of Verres, yet he was induced to give him his assistance when the damages were assessed, for which he had received an ivory sphinx as his reward. Upon Cicero saying something to him in an oblique way, and Hortensius replying that he had no skill in solving ænigmas, Cicero answered, “And yet you have the sphinx[160] at home.”

VIII. Verres being convicted, Cicero laid the damages at seventy-five ten thousands, and yet he fell under suspicion of having lowered the damages[161] for a bribe. However the Siceliots were grateful, and during his ædileship[162] they came and brought many things from the island, from none of which did Cicero make any gain, but he availed himself of the men’s desire to honour him so far as to cheapen the market. He possessed a fine place at Arpi,[163] and he had an estate near Naples, and another near Pompeii,[164] neither of them large: he had also the marriage portion of his wife Terentia[165] to the amount of ten ten thousands, and a bequest which amounted to nine ten thousands of denarii. With these means he lived honourably and moderately, enjoying the company of the Greeks who were familiar with him, and of the Romans of learning: he rarely, if ever, lay down to table before sunset, and not so much because of his occupations, as because of his health, which suffered much from the stomach. He was also exact and careful in other matters that concerned the care of his body, and he employed both friction and walking a fixed number of times. By thus regulating his habit of body he maintained it free from disease, and equal to undergo many and great trials and labours. He gave up his father’s house to his brother, and he fixed his own residence on the Palatine, in order that those who paid their respects to him might not be troubled by coming a great distance; and people used to come daily to his doors to pay their respects, no fewer than those who waited on Crassus because of his wealth, and on Pompeius because of his influence with the soldiers, which two were at that time highest in repute and chief of the Romans. Pompeius also courted Cicero, and Cicero’s policy contributed greatly to the power and credit of Pompeius.

IX. Though there were many candidates with him for the prætorship,[166] and men of note, he was proclaimed first of all; and he was considered to have discharged his judicial functions with integrity and skill. It is said that Licinius Macer, a man who of himself had great weight in the city, and who was also supported by Crassus, being tried before Cicero for peculation, was so confident in his power and the exertions made on his behalf, that while the judices were giving their votes he went home, and after cutting his hair with all speed, and putting on a clean dress, as if he had been acquitted, he was about to return to the Forum; but on Crassus meeting him near the hall door and telling him that he was condemned by all the votes, he turned back, took to his bed and died. And the circumstance brought Cicero credit for his careful administration of justice. Vatinius[167] was a man whose manner was somewhat rough and contemptuous towards the magistrates when he was pleading before them, and his neck was full of swellings: on one occasion when he was before Cicero, he made a certain demand, and as Cicero did not grant it forthwith, but deliberated some time, Vatinius said that he should not hesitate about it if he were prætor, on which Cicero quickly answered, “But I have not such a neck as you.”

While Cicero had still two or three days in his office, some person brought Manilius[168] before him on a charge of peculation; but Manilius had the goodwill of the people and their zeal in his favour, as it was considered that he was attacked on account of Pompeius, whose friend he was. On Manilius asking for time Cicero gave him only one day, which was the next; and the people were angry, inasmuch as the prætors were accustomed to allow ten days at least to those who were accused. The tribunes also brought Cicero to the Rostra and found fault with him, but he prayed to be heard, and he said that as he had always behaved to accused persons with forbearance and kindness, so far as the laws allowed, he thought it would be harsh not to do so in the case of Manilius, and accordingly he had purposely limited him to the only day which was at his disposal as prætor, for that to throw the trial into the period of another prætor’s jurisdiction was not the part of one who was willing to help another. These words wrought a wonderful change in the people, and with many expressions of goodwill they prayed him to undertake the defence of Manilius. Cicero readily undertook it, and chiefly for the sake of Pompeius who was absent, and coming before the people he again harangued them, in bold terms censuring the oligarchal faction and the enviers of Pompeius.

X. Cicero was invited to the consulship[169] no less by the aristocratical party than by the many who for the interest of the state gave him their aid, and for the following reason. The changes which Sulla had introduced into the constitution at first appeared unseasonable, but now they seemed to the many by length of time and usage to have received a kind of settlement, and not a bad one; but there were those who sought to shake and change the present condition of affairs for the sake of their own gain and not for the public good, while Pompeius was still fighting with the kings in Pontus and Armenia, and there was no power in Rome able to resist those who were for change. These men had for their head a bold man and an ambitious and one of versatile temper, Lucius Catilina, who in addition to other great crimes had once laboured under the imputation of unlawful commerce with his virgin daughter, and of murdering his own brother,[170] and being afraid of being punished for this he persuaded Sulla to proscribe his brother among those who were doomed to die, as if he were still alive. Him the evil-minded took for their leader, and they gave various pledges to one another, and among these they sacrificed a man and ate of his flesh.[171] Catilina had corrupted a large part of the youth in the city by supplying every one of them with pleasure and banquets, and amours with women, and furnishing unsparingly the expense for all this. All Etruria was roused to revolt, and the greater part of Gaul within the Alps: and Rome was exposed to the greatest hazard of change, on account of the inequality in properties, for those who had most reputation and lofty bearing had impoverished themselves by theatrical expenses and entertainments, and love of magistracies and building, and the wealth had all come into the hands of men of mean birth and low persons, so that things needed only a slight inclination, and it was in the power of every man who had courage for the thing to unsettle the state, which of itself was in a diseased condition.

XI. However Catilina, wishing to secure a stronghold, was a candidate for the consulship, and he was high in hope that he should be the colleague of Caius Antonius, a man who of himself was not calculated to be a leader either for good or bad, but one who would add force to another who was a leader. It was from seeing this that the majority of the honourable and the good encouraged Cicero to the consulship, and as the people readily seconded them, Catilina was rejected, and Cicero and Caius Antonius were elected. And yet Cicero alone of the candidates was the son of an eques, not of a senator.

XII. Now the designs of Catilina still remained unknown to the many, but great struggles awaited the consulship of Cicero. For in the first place, those who by the laws of Sulla were excluded from magistracies, being neither weak nor few, became candidates and attempted to gain popular favour, and they made many charges against the tyranny of Sulla which were indeed true and just, but yet they were disturbing the state of affairs at an unfit time and out of season; and in the next place the tribunes brought forward measures to the same purpose, in which they proposed an administration composed of ten men[172] with full powers, whose instructions were to have authority to sell the public property in all Italy and in all Syria, and all that had lately been acquired by Pompeius, to try whom they pleased, to send them into exile, to colonise cities, to take money from the treasury, and to maintain and raise as many soldiers as they might require. Accordingly others of the nobles were in favour of the law, and especially Antonius, the colleague of Cicero, who expected to be one of the ten. It was supposed also that he was acquainted with the designs of Catilina, and was not averse to them on account of the magnitude of his debts, which chiefly gave alarm to the nobles. And this was the first object that Cicero directed his attention to, and he caused the province of Macedonia[173] to be given to Antonius, and Gaul, which was offered to himself, he declined; and by these favours he gained over Antonius like a hired actor to play a second part to himself on behalf of his country. Now when Antonius was gained and had become tractable, Cicero, being emboldened, opposed himself to those who were for making change. Accordingly, in the Senate, he made an attack upon the law, and so alarmed the promoters of it that they had nothing to say against him. When they made a second attempt, and being fully prepared invited the consuls to appear before the people, Cicero, nothing alarmed, bade the Senate follow him, and coming forward, he not only caused the rejection of the law, but made the tribunes give up even the rest of their measures and to yield to his overpowering eloquence.

XIII. For this man most of all showed the Romans what a charm eloquence adds to a good thing, and that justice is invincible if it be rightly expressed in words, and that it befits him who duly directs political affairs, always in his acts to choose the good instead of that which merely pleases, and in his speech to deprive what is useful of that which gives pain. And a sample of his persuasive eloquence was what happened in his consulship with respect to the public exhibitions. In former times those of the equestrian class were mingled with the crowd in the theatres and were spectators among the people, just as chance would have it; but Marcus Otho[174] in his prætorship was the first who, for the sake of distinction, separated the equites from the rest of the citizens, and gave them a particular place, which they still retain. The people took this as a disparagement of themselves, and when Otho appeared in the theatre, they hissed for the purpose of insulting him, but the equites received him with loud applause. Again the people began to hiss louder, and the equites to make still greater plaudits. Upon this they fell to abusing one another, and kept the theatre in confusion. When Cicero heard of this he came, and summoning the people to the temple of Bellona both rebuked and admonished them, on which they went back to the theatre and loudly applauded Otho, and vied with the equites in doing honour to the man and showing their respect.

XIV. The conspirators with Catilina[175] at first crouched and were afraid, but they recovered heart, and assembling together urged one another to take matters in hand with more courage before Pompeius returned, who was said to be now coming home with his force. Catilina was chiefly stirred up by the old soldiers of Sulla, who were planted all through Italy, but the greatest number and the most warlike of them were distributed in the Tuscan cities, and were again forming visions of robbery and plunder of the wealth that existed. These men, with Manlius[176] for their leader, one of those who had served with, distinction under Sulla, were on the side of Catilina, and came to Rome to assist at the Comitia; for Catilina was again a candidate for the consulship, and had resolved to kill Cicero in the tumult of the elections. The dæmon also seemed to pre-signify what was going on by earthquakes and lightnings and sights. The information from human testimony was indeed clear, but not sufficient for conviction of a man of reputation and great power, like Catilina. Wherefore Cicero deferred the day of election, and summoning Catilina to the Senate questioned him about what was reported. Catilina, thinking that there were many in the Senate who were desirous of change, and at the same time wishing to make a display before the conspirators, gave Cicero an insane answer: “What am I doing so strange, if when there are two bodies, one lean and wasted, but with a head, and the other headless, but strong and large, I myself furnish it with a head?”[177] This allusion of his was to the Senate and to the people, which made Cicero more alarmed, and putting on his armour he was conducted by all the nobles from his house and by many of the young men to the Campus Martius. And he purposely let the people have a glimpse of his armour by loosing his tunic from his shoulders, and he showed the spectators there was danger. The people were enraged and rallied round him, and at last by their votes they again rejected Catilina, and chose Silanus[178] and Murena consuls.

XV. Not long after the men in Etruria came together to support Catilina, and were forming themselves into companies; and the appointed day for executing their plan was near, when there came to Cicero’s house about midnight men who were among the first and most powerful in Rome, Marcus Crassus, and Marcus Marcellus,[179] and Scipio Metellus; and knocking at the door and calling the doorkeeper, they bade him rouse Cicero and tell him that they were there. And the matter was thus: after Crassus had supped, the doorkeeper gave him letters brought by some unknown man, which were addressed to different persons, and one to Crassus himself without a signature. Crassus, having read this letter only, and seeing that the letter intimated that there would be great bloodshed caused by Catilina and that it urged him to quit the city, did not open the rest, but went forthwith to Cicero in alarm at the danger, and desiring to acquit himself somewhat of the blame which he bore on account of his friendship with Catilina. Accordingly Cicero after deliberating convened the Senate at daybreak, and taking the letters gave them to the persons to whom they were directed, and bade them read the letters aloud: and all the letters alike gave notice of a conspiracy. When Quintus Arrius, a man of prætorian rank, reported the forming of armed companies in Etruria, and news arrived that Manlius with a large force was hovering about those cities expecting every moment something new from Rome, a decree of the Senate was made to put affairs in the hands of the consuls, and that the consuls on receiving this commission should administer the state as they best could, and save it. The Senate is not used to do this frequently, but only when they apprehend great danger.

XVI. Cicero upon receiving this authority intrusted affairs out of the city to Quintus Metellus; he undertook the care of the city himself, and he daily went forth guarded by so large a body of men, that when he entered the Forum those who accompanied him occupied a large part of the ground, whereupon Catilina, no longer enduring delay, resolved to make his escape to Manlius, and he commissioned Marcius[180] and Cethegus to arm themselves with swords, and going to Cicero’s door in the morning on pretence of paying their respects, to fall on him and kill him. Fulvia,[181] a woman of rank, reported this to Cicero by night, and exhorted him to be on his guard against Cethegus and his associate. The men came at daybreak, and as they were not permitted to enter, they fell to railing and abuse at the doors, which made them still more suspected. Cicero going out called the Senate to the temple of Jupiter the Stayer, whom the Romans call Stator, which is situated at the commencement of the Sacred Road as you go up to the Palatine. Catilina also came there with the rest to make his defence, but none of the senators would sit down with him, and all moved from the bench. Catilina began to speak, but he was interrupted by cries, and at last Cicero got up and bade him leave the city; for he said it was fit that as he was administering affairs with words and Catilina with arms, there should be a wall[182] between them. Accordingly Catilina immediately left the city with three hundred armed men, and surrounding himself with fasces and axes as if he were a magistrate, and raising standards he marched to Manlius; and as about twenty thousand men altogether were collected, he visited the cities and endeavoured to persuade them to revolt, so that there was open war, and Antonius was sent to fight with the now rebels.

XVII. Those who remained in the city of the persons who had been corrupted by Catilina were assembled and encouraged by Cornelius Lentulus Sura,[183] a man of illustrious birth, but who had lived a bad life and been already expelled from the Senate on account of his licentious habits. He was then prætor for the second time, as is the custom for those who recover the senatorial dignity. It is said that he got the name Sura from the following circumstance. In the times of Sulla he was quæstor, and lost and wasted much of the public money. Sulla was angry at this, and called him to account before the Senate; but Lentulus, coming forward in a very indifferent and contemptuous way, said that he had no account to give, but he offered his leg, as boys were wont to do when they had made a miss in playing at ball. From this he got the nickname of Sura, for the Romans call the leg ‘sura.’ Again, being brought to trial he bribed some of the judices, and was acquitted by two votes only, whereon he said that what he had given to one of the judices was fairly wasted, for it was enough to be acquitted by a single vote. Such being the character of the man, and being stirred up by Catilina, he was further corrupted by the vain hopes held out by false prophets and jugglers, who recited forged verses and predictions, alleged to be from the Sibylline books, which declared that it was the law of fate that three Cornelii should be monarchs in Rome, two of whom had fulfilled their destiny, Cinna[184] and Sulla, and that the dæmon was come and had brought the monarchy to him the third of the Cornelii, and he ought by all means to accept it, and not to spoil the critical opportunity by delay like Catilina.

XVIII. Accordingly Lentulus designed nothing small or trivial, but he determined to kill all the senators, and as many of the rest of the citizens as he could, and to burn the city, and spare nobody except the children of Pompeius, whom they intended to seize and keep in their power as securities for coming to terms with Pompeius, for already there was strong and sure report of his returning to Rome from his great expedition. A night had been fixed for the attempt, one of the Saturnalia,[185] and they took and hid in the house of Cethegus swords and tow and brimstone. They also appointed a hundred men, and assigned by lot as many parts of Rome to each, in order that by means of many incendiaries the city might be in a blaze in a short time on all sides.[186] Others were to stop up the water conduits and to kill those who attempted to get water. While this was going on, there happened to be at Rome two ambassadors of the Allobroges,[187] a nation which especially at that time was in a bad condition and oppressed by the supremacy of Rome. The partizans of Lentulus, considering them suitable persons for stiring up Gaul to revolt, made them privy to the conspiracy. They gave these men letters to their Senate and letters to Catilina, promising liberty to the Senate, and urging Catilina to free the slaves and to march upon Rome. They also sent with them to Catilina one Titus[188] of Croton to carry the letters. But inasmuch as the conspirators were unsteady men, who for the most part met one another over wine and in company with women, and Cicero followed up their designs with labour and sober consideration and unusual prudence, and had many men out of their body to keep watch and to help him in tracking out their doings, and as he had secret conversation with many of those who were considered to be in the conspiracy and whom he trusted, he became acquainted with their communication with the strangers, and laying an ambuscade by night he seized the man of Croton and the letters, with the secret assistance of the Allobroges.

XIX. At daybreak[189] Cicero, assembling the Senate at the temple of Concord, read the letters and examined the informers. Silanus Junius also said that some persons had heard Cethegus say, that three consuls and four prætors were going to be killed. Piso, a man of consular rank, gave evidence to the same effect. Caius Sulpicius, one of the prætors, being sent to the house of Cethegus, found there many missiles and arms, and a great quantity of swords and knives newly sharpened. At length the Senate having by a vote promised a pardon to the man of Croton on condition of his giving information, Lentulus being convicted abdicated his office, for he happened to be prætor, and laying down his robe with the purple hem before the Senate assumed a dress suitable to the occasion. Lentulus and his associates were delivered up to the prætors to be kept in custody, but without chains. It was now evening, and the people in crowds were waiting about the temple, when Cicero came forth and told the circumstance to the citizens, by whom he was conducted to the house of a neighbouring friend, for his own house was occupied by the women who were celebrating the mysterious rites to a goddess whom the Romans called Bona,[190] and the Greeks call Gynæceia. A sacrifice is made to the goddess annually in the house of the consul by his wife or his mother in the presence of the Vestal Virgins. Cicero, going into the house, deliberated with a very few persons what he should do with the men: for he had some scruples about inflicting the extreme punishment and that which was due to such great crimes; and he hesitated about it both from the humanity of his disposition, and because he feared that he might seem to be too much elated with his power and to be handling severely men who were of the highest rank and had powerful friends in the State; and if he treated them leniently, he dreaded danger from them. For he considered that they would not be well content if they were punished short of death, but would break forth in all extravagance of audacity and add fresh indignation to their old villainy; and that he should be judged a coward and a weak man, especially as the many had by no means a good opinion of his courage.

XX. While Cicero was thus doubting, there was a sign to the women who were sacrificing: for though the fire seemed to have gone out, the altar sent forth from the ashes and burnt bark a large and brilliant blaze.[191] This alarmed the women, except the sacred virgins, who urged Terentia, the wife of Cicero, to go with all speed to her husband and tell him to take in hand what he had resolved on behalf of his country, for the goddess was displaying a great light to lead him to safety and honour. Terentia, who generally was not a woman of a mild temper nor naturally without courage, but an ambitious woman, and as Cicero himself says,[192] more ready to share in his political perplexities than to communicate to him her domestic matters, reported this to her husband and stimulated him against the conspirators: in like manner too his brother Quintus and Publius Nigidius, one of his philosophical companions, whose advice he used in the most and chiefest of his political measures. On the following day[193] there was a discussion in the Senate about the punishment of the conspirators, when Silanus, who was first asked his opinion, said that they ought to be taken to prison and suffer the extreme punishment: and all who spoke in succession acceded to this opinion, till it came to the turn of Caius Cæsar, who was afterwards Dictator. Cæsar, who was then a young man and in the very beginning of his rise to power, and already in his policy and his hopes had entered on that road by which he changed the state of Rome into a monarchy, though he eluded the penetration of the rest, caused great suspicion to Cicero, without however giving him any hold for complete proof; but there were some heard to say that he came near being caught and yet had escaped from Cicero. However, some say that Cicero purposely overlooked and neglected the information against Cæsar through fear of his friends and his power, for it was plain to every man, that the conspirators would rather become an appendage[194] to Cæsar’s acquittal, than Cæsar would become an appendage to their punishment.

XXI. When, then, it came to Cæsar’s[195] turn to deliver his opinion, he rose and expressed it against putting the men to death, but he proposed to confiscate their property and remove them to the cities of Italy of which Cicero might approve, and there keep them confined till Catilina was defeated. The proposal was merciful and the speaker most eloquent, and Cicero added to it no small weight, for when Cicero rose[196] he handled the matter both ways, partly arguing in favour of the first opinion and partly in favour of Cæsar’s; and all his friends thinking that Cæsar’s opinion was for the advantage of Cicero, for he would be subject to less blame if he did not condemn the men to death, chose the second opinion rather, so that even Silanus himself changed and made his explanation, saying that neither had he delivered his opinion for death, for that the extreme punishment to a Roman senator was the prison. After the opinion was given, Catulus Lutatius was the first to oppose it; and he was followed by Cato, who in his speech vehemently urged suspicion against Cæsar, and so filled the Senate with passion and resolution that they passed a vote of death against the men. With respect to the confiscation of their property Cæsar made opposition, for he did not think it fair that they should reject the merciful part of his proposition and adopt the most severe part. As many of them made violent resistance, he invoked the tribunes, who however paid no attention to the call, but Cicero himself gave way and remitted that part of the vote which was for confiscation.

XXII. Cicero went with the Senate to the conspirators, who were not all in the same place, but kept by the different prætors. He first took Lentulus[197] from the Palatine and led him through the Sacred Road and the middle of the Forum, with the men of highest rank in a body around him as his guards, the people the while shuddering at what was doing and passing by in silence, and chiefly the youth, who felt as if they were being initiated with fear and trembling in certain national rites of a certain aristocratical power. When Cicero had passed through the Forum and come to the prison, he delivered Lentulus to the executioner and told him to put him to death; he then took down Cethegus and every one of the rest in order and had them put to death. Seeing that there were still many members of the conspiracy standing together in the Forum, who did not know what had been done and were waiting for the night, supposing that the men were still alive and might be rescued, Cicero said to them in a loud voice, “They have lived.” In these terms the Romans are used to speak of death when they do not choose to use words of bad omen. It was now evening, and Cicero went up from the Forum to his house, the citizens no longer accompanying him in silence or in order, but receiving him with shouts and clapping as he passed along and calling him the saviour and founder of his country. And numerous lights illuminated the streets, for people placed lamps and torches at their doors. The women too showed lights from the roofs to honour the man and in order to see him going home, honourably attended by the nobles; most of whom, having brought to an end great wars and entered the city in triumph, and added to the Roman possessions no small extent of land and sea, walked along confessing to one another that the Roman people were indebted for wealth and spoils and power to many living commanders and generals, but for their security and safety to Cicero alone, who had removed from them so great a danger. For it was not the preventing of what was in preparation and the punishing of the doers which appeared worthy of admiration, but that he had quenched the greatest of dangers that ever threatened the State with the least evils, and without disturbance and tumult. For most of those who had flocked to Catilina[198] as soon as they heard of the fate of Lentulus and Cethegus left him and went away: and Catilina, after fighting a battle with those who remained with him against Antonius, perished and his army with him.

XXIII. However there were some who were ready to abuse Cicero for this and to do him harm, and they had for their leader among those who were going to hold magistracies, Cæsar as prætor, and Metellus[199] and Bestia as tribunes. Upon entering on office, while Cicero had still a few days in authority, they would not let him address the people, and placing their seats above the Rostra they would not permit him to come forward to speak; they told him that he might, if he chose, take the oath usual on giving up office and then go down. Upon this Cicero came forward as if he were going to take the oath, and when he had procured silence, he swore not the usual oath, but one of his own and a new oath, to the effect that he had saved his country and preserved the supremacy of Rome: and the whole people confirmed the truth of his oath. At this Cæsar and the tribunes, being still more vexed, contrived other cavils against Cicero, and a law was brought forward by them that Pompeius and his army should be recalled on the pretext of putting down the power of Cicero. But Cato, who was then tribune, was a great help to Cicero and to the whole State, and he opposed himself to Cæsar’s measures with equal authority and greater good opinion. For he easily stopped other measures, and he so extolled the consulship of Cicero in a speech to the people, that they voted to him the greatest honours that had ever been conferred and called him the father of his country; for it seems that Cicero was the first on whom this title was conferred, upon Cato having so entitled him before the people.

XXIV. Cicero, who had at that time the chief power in the State, made himself generally odious, not by any ill acts, but by always praising and glorifying himself to the great annoyance of many people. For there was neither assembly of Senate nor people nor court of justice in which a man had not to hear Catilina talked of and Lentulus. Finally, he filled his books and writings with his own praises, and though his oratory was most agreeable and had the greatest charm, he made it wearisome and odious to the hearers by his unseemly habit, which stuck to him like a fatality. However, though he had such unmingled ambition, he was far removed from envying others, for he was most bountiful in his praises of those before him and those of his own time, as we may see from his writings. There are also many sayings of his recorded; for instance, he said of Aristotle, that he was a river of flowing gold, and of the dialogues of Plato, that Jupiter, if it were his nature to use language, would speak like him. Theophrastus he was used to call his own special luxury. Being asked about the speeches of Demosthenes,[200] which he thought the best, he answered, the longest. Yet some of those who pretend to be imitators of Demosthenes, dwell on an expression of Cicero, which is used in a letter to one of his friends, that Demosthenes sometimes nodded in his speeches; but the great and admirable praise which he often bestows on the man, and that he entitled his own orations on which he bestowed most labour, those against Antonius, Philippics, they say nothing about. Of the men of his own time who gained a reputation for eloquence and learning, there is not one whose reputation he did not increase either by speaking or writing in favourable terms of him. When Cæsar was in power he obtained from him the Roman citizenship for Kratippus[201] the Peripatetic, and he prevailed on the Areopagus to pass a vote and to request him to stay in Athens and instruct the young, as being an ornament to the city. There are letters from Cicero to Herodes,[202] and others to his son, in which he exhorts to the study of philosophy under Kratippus. He charged Gorgias[203] the rhetorician with leading the young man to pleasure and drinking, and banished him from his society. This and a letter to Pelops of Byzantium are almost the only Greek letters of his which are written with any passion, in which he properly rebukes Gorgias, if he was worthless and intemperate, as he was considered to be; but his letter to Pelops is in a mean and complaining tone, and charges Pelops with having neglected to procure for him certain honours and public testimonials from the Byzantines.

XXV. All this proceeded from his ambition, and also the circumstance that he was often carried away by the impetuosity of his oratory to disregard propriety. He once spoke in favour of Munatius,[204] who after being acquitted prosecuted Sabinus, a friend of Cicero, who is said to have been so transported with passion as to say, “Do you suppose, Munatius, that you were acquitted on your trial for your own merits, and not because I spread much darkness over the court when there was light?” He gained applause by a panegyric on Marcus Crassus from the Rostra, and a few days after he abused him, on which Crassus observed, “Did you not lately praise me in the same place?” to which Cicero replied, “Yes, for practice sake, exercising my eloquence on a mean subject.” Crassus having remarked on one occasion that none of the Crassi had lived in Rome to be more than sixty years of age, and afterwards denying that he had said so, and observing, What could have led him to say this? Cicero replied, “You know that the Romans would be glad to hear it and so you wished to get their favour.” When Crassus observed that he liked the Stoics, because they proved that the good man was rich,[205] “Consider,” said Cicero, “if they do not rather prove that the wise man possesses everything.” Now Crassus was charged with being fond of money. One of the sons of Crassus who was considered to resemble a certain Axius, and so to attach ill fame to his mother in respect to Axius, had made a speech in the Senate with applause, and Cicero being asked what he thought of him said, He is Axius Crassus.[206]

XXVI. When Crassus[207] was about to set out for Syria, he wished Cicero to be his friend rather than his enemy, and he said in a friendly manner that he wished to sup with him, and Cicero received him readily. A few days after when some of his friends spoke with him about Vatinius, and said that Vatinius sought a recollection and to be on good terms with him, for he was then at enmity with Cicero. “Surely,” said Cicero, “Vatinius too does not want to sup with me.” Such was his behaviour to Crassus. As to Vatinius, who had tumours in his neck, and was on one occasion pleading a cause, Cicero called him a tumid orator. Hearing that Vatinius was dead, and being shortly after certainly informed that he was still living, “Ill betide the man,” said he, “who lied so ill.” Many of the senators were dissatisfied with Cæsar’s carrying a measure for the distribution of the land in Campania among the soldiers, and Lucius Gellius,[208] who was also one of the oldest of them, said, that it should never take place while he lived. “Let us wait,” said Cicero, “for Gellius asks for no long delay.” There was a certain Octavius[209] who had the ill-repute of being a native of Libya, and on the occasion of a certain trial he said that he could not hear Cicero. “And yet,” said Cicero, “your ear is not without a hole in it.” Metellus Nepos observing that Cicero by giving testimony against persons had caused more to be condemned than he had caused to be acquitted by undertaking their cause, “Well,” said he, “I admit that I have more credit than eloquence.” A certain youth who was charged with giving poison to his father in a cake, spoke with great confidence, and said that he would abuse Cicero; “I would rather have this from you,” said Cicero, “than a cake.” Publius Sextius[210] had Cicero with others as his advocate in a cause, but he chose to say everything himself and would let nobody else speak, and when it was plain that he would be acquitted and the judices were giving their votes, Cicero said, “Make the most of your opportunity to-day, for to-morrow you will be a mere nobody.” One Publius Consta,[211] who set up for a lawyer, but was an ignorant and stupid fellow, was called as a witness by Cicero on a trial. On Consta saying that he knew nothing, “Perhaps,” said Cicero, “you suppose that you are asked about legal matters.” Metellus Nepos during a dispute with Cicero often repeated, “Who is your father?” on which Cicero said, “As for yourself, your mother has made this answer rather difficult for you.” Now the mother of Nepos was considered to be an unchaste woman, and himself a fickle kind of man. On one occasion he suddenly deserted his office of tribune and sailed off to join Pompeius[212] in Syria, whence he returned with just as little reason. Nepos had buried his teacher Philagrus with more than usual respect, and set upon his tomb a raven of stone: “In this,” said Cicero, “you have acted wiser than your wont, for he taught you to fly rather than to speak.” Marcus Appius in a certain trial prefaced his speech with saying that his friend had prayed him to exhibit vigilance and judgment and fidelity: “Are you then,” said Cicero, “so iron-hearted as to exhibit not one of such great qualities as your friend prayed you to do?”

XXVII. Now the use of bitterish taunts against enemies or opposing advocates may be considered as belonging to the orator’s business; but the attacking of any persons whom he fell in with, for the purpose of making them ridiculous, brought great odium upon him. I will record a few instances of this also. He called Marcus Aquinius,[213] Adrastus,[214] because he had two sons-in-law who were in exile. Lucius Cotta,[215] who held the office of censor, was very fond of wine, and it happened that Cicero during his canvass for the consulship was athirst, and as his friends stood around him while he was drinking, “You have good reason to be afraid,” said he, “lest the censor should deal harshly with me for drinking water.” Meeting Voconius,[216] who was conducting three very ugly daughters, he said aloud:

“‘Gainst Phœbus’ will his children he begat.”

Marcus Gellius,[217] who was supposed not to be the son of free parents, was once reading some letters to the Senate with a clear and loud voice, when Cicero said, “Don’t be surprised; he too is one of those who have practised their voices.” When Faustus,[218] the son of Sulla who had been dictator in Rome and proscribed many to the death, having got into debt and squandered most of his substance, advertised his household stuff for sale, Cicero said that he liked this proscription better than his father’s.

XXVIII.[219] He thus became odious to many, and the partizans of Clodius combined against him on the following occasion. Clodius was a man of noble birth, young in years, but bold and impudent in his designs. Being in love with Pompeia, Cæsar’s wife, he got into his house secretly by assuming the dress and the guise of a lute-player; for the women were celebrating in Cæsar’s house those mysterious rites which the men were not allowed to see; and as there was no man there, Clodius being still a youth and not yet bearded hoped to slip through to Pompeia with the women. But as it was night when he got into a large house, he was perplexed by the passages; and as he was rambling about a female slave of Aurelia, Cæsar’s mother, saw him and asked him his name. Being compelled to speak, he said that he was looking for a servant of Pompeia, named Abra, but the woman perceiving that it was not a female voice cried out and called the women together. They shut the doors and searching every place found Clodius, who had hid himself in the chamber of the girl with whom he came into the house. The affair being noised abroad Cæsar put away Pompeia, and a prosecution[220] for an offence against religion was instituted against Clodius.

XXIX. Now Cicero was a friend of Clodius, and in the affair of Catilina found him a most zealous assistant and guardian of his person; but as Clodius in answer to the charge relied on not having been in Rome at the time, and maintained that he was staying in places at a very great distance, Cicero bore testimony that Clodius had come to his house[221] and spoken with him on certain matters; which was true. However people did not suppose that Cicero gave his testimony from regard to truth, but by way of justifying himself to his wife Terentia.[222] For Terentia had a grudge against Clodius on account of his sister Clodia, who was supposed to wish to marry Cicero, and to be contriving this by the aid of one Tullus, who was one of the nearest companions and intimates of Cicero, and as Tullus was going to Clodia, who lived near, and paying attention to her, he excited suspicion in Terentia. Now as Terentia was of a sour temper and governed Cicero, she urged him to join in the attack on Clodius and to give testimony against him. Many men also of the highest character charged Clodius by their testimony with perjury, disorderly conduct, bribing of the masses, and debauching of women. Lucullus also produced female slaves to testify that Clodius had sexual commerce with his youngest sister when she was the wife of Lucullus. There was also a general opinion that Clodius debauched his other two sisters, of whom Marcius Rex had Terentia and Metellus Celer had Clodia to wife, who was called Quadrantaria, because one of her lovers put copper coins for her in a purse pretending they were silver and sent them to her; now the smallest copper coin the Romans called Quadrans. It was with regard to this sister that Clodius was most suspected. However as the people on that occasion set themselves against those who bore testimony and combined against Clodius, the judices being afraid procured a guard for their protection, and most of them gave in their tablets with the writing on them confused.[223] It turned out that those who were for acquitting him were the majority, and some bribery was also said to have been used. This led Catulus to say when he met the judices, “Indeed you did ask for a guard to protect you, for you were afraid that some one should take your money from you.” Upon Clodius saying to Cicero that his evidence had no credit with the judices, Cicero replied, “However, five-and-twenty[224] of the judices gave me credit, for so many of them voted against you; but thirty of them gave you no credit, for they did not vote for your acquittal till they had received their money.” Cæsar, however, when called, gave no evidence against Clodius, and he denied that he had convicted his wife of adultery, but that he had put her away, because Cæsar’s wife ought not only to be free from a shameful act, but even the report of it.

XXX. Clodius,[225] having escaped the danger, as soon as he was elected tribune commenced his attack on Cicero, drawing together and agitating against him every thing and all persons. For he gained the favour of the people by popular laws, and caused great provinces to be assigned to each of the consuls, Macedonia to Piso and Syria to Gabinius, and he contrived to associate many of the poor citizens in his designs and kept armed slaves about him. Of the three men who then had the chief power, Crassus was openly at enmity with Cicero, and Pompeius was playing an affected part towards both; and as Cæsar was about to march into Gaul[226] with his army, Cicero paying court to him, though he was not his friend, but an object of suspicion owing to the affair of Catilina, asked to accompany him as a legatus. Cæsar accepted the proposal, but Clodius, seeing that Cicero was escaping from his tribunitian power, pretended to be disposed to come to terms with him, and by laying most blame on Terentia, and always speaking of Cicero in moderate terms and using words which imported a favourable disposition, as a man who had no hatred or ill feeling towards him, but had certain reasonable grounds of complaint to be urged in a friendly way, he completely stopped Cicero’s fears, so that he declined a legation under Cæsar and again applied himself to public affairs. At which Cæsar, being irritated, encouraged Clodius against Cicero, and completely alienated Pompeius from him, and he himself declared before the people that he did not consider it right or lawful for men to be put to death without trial, like Lentulus and Cethegus. For this was the charge, and to this Cicero was called to answer. Being therefore in danger and under prosecution he changed his dress and with his hair unshorn went about supplicating the people. But Clodius met him everywhere in the streets with violent and audacious men about him, who, with many insolent jeers at Cicero’s reverse and attire, and after pelting him with mud and stones, hindered his suppliant applications.

XXXI. However at first nearly all the body of equites changed their dress when Cicero did, and not less than twenty thousand young men accompanied him with their hair uncut and joined in his suppliant entreaties. When the Senate had met in order to pass a vote that the people should change their dress as a public calamity,[227] and the consuls opposed it, and Clodius was in arms about the Senate-house, no small number of the senators ran out tearing their clothes and calling aloud. But as this sight neither procured respect nor pity, and Cicero must either go into exile or try force and the sword against Clodius, he entreated Pompeius to aid him, who had purposely gone out of the way and was staying on his estate at the Alban hills. And first he sent his son-in-law Piso[228] to entreat for him, and then he went himself. Pompeius hearing of his coming did not wait to see him, for he had a strong feeling of shame towards a man who had made great efforts on his behalf, and had carried many public measures to please him, but as he was Cæsar’s son-in-law, he gave up old obligations at his request, and slipping out by a different door evaded meeting with Cicero. Cicero being thus betrayed by him and left deserted, fled for refuge to the consuls. Gabinius still maintained his hostility, but Piso spoke[229] more kindly, and advised him to go out of the way and to yield to the impetuosity of Clodius and to submit to the change in circumstances, and again to be the saviour of his country, which was involved in civil commotion and misfortune through Clodius. Having got this answer Cicero consulted with his friends, of whom Lucullus advised him to stay and said that he would gain the superiority; but others advised him to fly, inasmuch as the people would soon long for him when they were satiated with the madness and desperation of Clodius. This was Cicero’s own judgment; and he carried to the Capitol the statue of Athene,[230] which for a long time had stood in his house, and to which he paid especial honour, and dedicated it with the inscription, “To Athene the guardian of Rome;” and receiving from his friends persons to conduct him safely, he left the city about midnight and went by land through Lucania, designing to stay in Sicily.

XXXII. When it was known that he had fled, Clodius put to the vote the question of his banishment, and issued an edict to exclude him from fire and water, and that no one should furnish him with a shelter within five hundred miles[231] of Italy. Now others paid not the slightest regard to the edict, for they respected Cicero, and showed him all manner of kindness and set him on his way: but in Hipponium, a city of Lucania, which the Romans call Vibo,[232] Vibius, a Sicilian, who had derived many advantages from Cicero’s friendship and had been præfect of the Fabri during his consulship, would not receive Cicero in his house, but sent him word that he would assign him a spot of ground; and Caius Vergilius,[233] the prætor of Sicily, who had been most intimate with Cicero, wrote to tell him to keep away from Sicily. Whereat desponding he set out for Brundusium, and thence attempted to pass over to Dyrrachium[234] with a fair wind; but as it began to blow against him when he was out at sea, he came back the day after, and again set sail. It is said that when he had reached Dyrrachium and was going to land, there was a shaking of the earth and a violent motion in the sea at the same time; from which the diviners prognosticated that his flight would not be lasting, for these were signs of change. And though many men visited him from good will and the Greek cities vied in sending deputations to him, yet he passed his time in despondency[235] and exceeding grief, for the most part looking to Italy, like those who are desperately in love, and in his bearing became very mean and humbled by reason of his calamity, and so downcast as no one would have expected from a man who had spent his life in such philosophical pursuits. And yet he often asked his friends to call him not an orator, but a philosopher,[236] for he said that he had chosen philosophy as his occupation, but that he employed oratory as an instrument for his purposes in his public life. But opinion is powerful to wash out reason from the mind as if it were dye, and to imprint the affects of the many[237] by the force of intercourse and familiarity on those who engage in public life, unless a man be strictly on his guard and come in contact with things external in such wise as to have communion with the things themselves, not with the affects towards the things.

XXXIII. Clodius, after driving out Cicero, burnt his villas, and burnt his house, and built on the ground a temple to Liberty: the rest of Cicero’s property[238] he offered for sale, and announced it daily, but nobody would buy. In consequence of these measures being formidable to the aristocratical party, and dragging along with him the people, who were let loose to great violence and daring, he made an attack on Pompeius, ripping up some of the things that were settled by him in his military command. By which Pompeius losing some of his reputation blamed himself for giving up Cicero; and changing again he used every effort in conjunction with Cicero’s friends to effect his return. As Clodius resisted this, the Senate resolved to ratify nothing in the mean time and to do no public business, unless Cicero was restored. When Lentulus[239] was consul, and the disorder went on increasing so that tribunes were wounded in the Forum, and Quintus the brother of Cicero only escaped by lying among the bodies as if he were dead, the people began to undergo a change of opinion, and one of the tribunes, Annius Milo, was the first to venture to bring Clodius to trial for violence, and many sided with Pompeius both from among the people and the neighbouring cities. Coming forward with them and driving Clodius from the Forum, he called the citizens to the vote: and it is said that the people never confirmed any measure with so much unanimity. The Senate vying with the people passed a decree in honour of those cities which had served Cicero in his exile, and for the restoration[240] at the public expense of his house and villas, which Clodius had destroyed. Cicero was restored in the sixteenth month[241] after his exile, and so great was the joy of the cities and the zeal of all men to meet him, that what was afterwards said by Cicero fell short of the truth: for he said that Italy bore him on her shoulders and carried him into Rome. On which occasion Crassus also, who was his enemy before his exile, readily met him, and was reconciled to him, to please his son Publius, as he said, who was an admirer of Cicero.

XXXIV. After the lapse of no long time, watching the opportunity when Clodius was away, Cicero went with a number of persons to the Capitol and pulled down and broke the tribunitian tablets[242] which contained the records of the administration. When Clodius made this a charge against him, Cicero said that Clodius had illegally passed from the patrician body to the tribunate, and that none of his acts were valid, at which Cato took offence and spoke against him, not indeed in commendation of Clodius, but expressing his mortification at his measures; however he showed that it was an unusual and violent measure for the Senate to vote for the rescinding of so many decrees and acts, among which was his own administration at Cyprus and Byzantium. This led to a collision between him and Cicero, which did not proceed to anything open, but the consequence was that their friendly disposition to one another was weakened.

XXXV. After this Clodius[243] was killed by Milo, who being prosecuted for murder got Cicero for his advocate. But the Senate, being afraid lest there should be some disturbance in the city on the trial of Milo, who was a man of high repute and bold spirit, intrusted to Pompeius the superintendence of this and other trials, and commissioned him to provide for the security of the city and of the courts of justice. Pompeius in the night surrounded the Forum with soldiers on the heights, and Milo, fearing that Cicero might be disturbed at the unusual sight and manage his case worse, persuaded him to be carried in a litter to the Forum and to rest there till the judices met and the court was formed. But Cicero, as it appears, was not only without courage in arms, but was timid even when he commenced speaking, and hardly ceased shaking and trembling in many trials till his eloquence had reached its height and attained steadiness. When he was the advocate of Murena, on his prosecution by Cato, he was ambitious to surpass Hortensius, who spoke with great applause, and he took no rest the night before, in consequence of which exceeding anxiety and wakefulness, his powers were impaired and he was considered to have fallen short of his fame. On this occasion when he came

out of the litter to the trial of Milo and saw Pompeius seated on an elevated place as in a camp and arms flashing all around the Forum, he was confounded and scarcely commenced his speech for trembling and hesitation, though Milo himself bravely and courageously assisted at the trial and would not deign to let his hair grow or to change his dress for a dark one, which seems in no small degree to have contributed to his condemnation. But Cicero in all this was considered rather to have shown his attachment to his friend than any cowardice.

XXXVI. Cicero became also one of the priests, whom the Romans called Augurs,[244] in place of the younger Crassus after his death among the Parthians. The province of Cilicia[245] being allotted to him and an army of twelve thousand legionary soldiers and two thousand six hundred horse, he set sail with instructions to keep Cappadocia friendly and obedient to Ariobarzanes.[246] He accomplished this, and arranged it without any blame and without war; and as he observed that the Cilicians were inclined to a rising on occasion of the defeat of the Romans by the Parthians and the movements in Syria, he pacified them by a mild administration. Nor would he receive any presents when the kings offered them, and he relieved the provincials from giving entertainments: and he himself daily received those who were agreeable to him at banquets, not in a costly way, but liberally. And there was no doorkeeper to his house, nor was he ever seen by any one lying down, but in the morning he would be standing or walking about in front of his chamber, where he received those who paid their respects[247] to him. It is said that he neither punished any one with rods nor allowed any man’s garment to be rent, nor vented abuse in passion, nor inflicted any penalty accompanied with contumelious treatment. By discovering that much of the public property was embezzled he enriched the cities, and he maintained in their civil rights those who made restoration, without letting them suffer anything further. He engaged also in a war in which he defeated the robbers of Mount Amanus, for which he was saluted by his soldiers with the title of Imperator.[248] When Cæcilius[249] the orator requested Cicero to send him panthers from Cilicia to Rome for a certain spectacle, Cicero, who was proud of his exploits, wrote in reply that there were no panthers in Cilicia, for they had fled into Caria, indignant that they were the only things warred upon, while all others were enjoying peace. On his voyage back from his province he first put in at Rhodes, and next tarried at Athens with gladness out of the pleasant recollection of his former residence. After associating with men the first for wisdom, and visiting his old friends and intimates and receiving due honours from Greece, he returned to Rome at a time when affairs, as if from violent inflammation, were bursting out into the Civil War.

XXXVII. In the Senate, when they were proposing to vote him a triumph, he said that he would more gladly follow Cæsar in his triumph, if a settlement could be effected; and he privately gave much advice by writing to Cæsar, and much by entreating Pompeius, and attempting to mollify and pacify both of them. But when things were past remedy, and Cæsar was advancing, and Pompeius did not stay, but quitted the city with many men of character, Cicero did not join in this flight, and it was supposed that he was attaching himself to Cæsar. And it is plain that in his resolves he was much perplexed both ways and suffered much; for he says in his letters[250] that he did not know which way to turn himself, and that Pompeius had an honourable and good cause to fight for, but that Cæsar managed things better and was better able to save himself and the citizens, so that he knew whom to fly from, but not whom to fly to. Trebatius, one of Cæsar’s friends, wrote to the purport, that Cæsar thought that before all things Cicero ought to put himself on Cæsar’s side and to share his hopes, but if he declined by reason of his age, he advised him to go to Greece and there to seat himself quietly out of the way of both; but Cicero, being surprised that Cæsar himself did not write, replied in passion that he would do nothing unworthy of his political life. What appears in his letters is to this effect.

XXXVIII. When Cæsar had set out to Iberia, Cicero immediately sailed to Pompeius. The rest were well pleased that he was come, but Cato on seeing him rated him in private greatly for joining Pompeius: he said it was not seemly in himself to desert that line of policy which he had chosen from the first; but that Cicero, though he could do more good to his country and his friends if he remained at Rome an indifferent spectator and shaped his conduct by the result, without any reason or necessity had become an enemy of Cæsar and had come there to share in great danger. These words disturbed the resolve of Cicero, and also that Pompeius did not employ him in anything of weight. But he was the cause of this himself, inasmuch as he made no secret of repenting of what he had done, and depreciated the resources of Pompeius, and privately showed his dissatisfaction at his plans, and abstained not from scoffing and saying any sharp thing of the allies, though he himself always went about in the camp without a smile and with sorrowful countenance; but he gave cause of laughter to others who had no occasion for it. It is better to mention a few of these things. Domitius[251] was placing in a post of command a man of no warlike turn, and said, How modest he is in his manner and how prudent; “Why then,” said Cicero, “do you not keep him to take care of your children?” When some were commending Theophanes[252] the Lesbian, who was a Præfectus of Fabri in the camp, for his excellent consolation of the Rhodians on the loss of their fleet, “What a huge blessing it is,” he said, “to have a Greek Præfect!” When Cæsar was successful in most things and in a manner was blockading them, he replied to the remark of Lentulus that he heard that Cæsar’s friends were dispirited, “You mean to say that they are ill-disposed[253] to Cæsar?” One Marcius, who had just arrived from Rome, said that a report prevailed in Rome that Pompeius was blockaded. “I suppose you sailed hither then,” said Cicero, “that you might see it with your own eyes and believe.” After the defeat Nonnius observed that they ought to have good hopes, for that seven eagles were left in the camp of Pompeius, “Your advice would be good,” said Cicero, “if we were fighting with jack-daws.” When Labienus was relying on certain oracular answers, and saying that Pompeius must get the victory, “Yes,” said Cicero, “it is by availing ourselves of such generalship as this that we have lost the camp.”

XXXIX. After the battle at Pharsalus, in which he was not present by reason of illness, and when Pompeius had fled, Cato, who had a large army at Dyrrachium and a great fleet, asked Cicero to take the command according to custom, and as he had the superior dignity of the consulship. But as Cicero rejected the command and altogether was averse to joining the armament, he narrowly escaped being killed, for the young Pompeius and his friends called him a traitor and drew their swords, but Cato stood in the gap and with difficulty rescued Cicero and let him go from the army. Having put in at Brundusium he stayed there waiting for Cæsar, who was delayed by affairs in Asia and in Egypt. But when news came that Cæsar was landed at Tarentum[254]; and was coming round by land to Brundusium, Cicero went to him, not being altogether without hope, but feeling shame in the presence of many persons to make trial of a man who was his enemy and victorious. However there was no need for him to do or say anything unworthy of himself; for when Cæsar saw Cicero coming to meet him at a great distance before all the rest, he got down, and embraced him and talking with him alone walked several stadia. From this time he continued to show respect to Cicero and friendly behaviour, so that even in his reply to Cicero, who had written a panegyric on Cato, he commended his eloquence and his life, as most resembling those of Perikles and Theramenes.[255] Cicero’s discourse was called Cato, and Cæsar’s was entitled Anticato. It is said also that when Quintus Ligarius[256] was under prosecution, because he had been one of Cæsar’s enemies and Cicero was his advocate, Cæsar said to his friends, “What hinders us listening after so long an interval to Cicero’s speech, since the man has long been adjudged a villain and an enemy?” But when Cicero had begun to speak and was making a wonderful sensation, and his speech as he proceeded was in feeling varied and in grace admirable, the colour often changed in Cæsar’s face, and it was manifest that he was undergoing divers emotions in his mind; but at last when the orator touched upon the battle at Pharsalus, he was so affected that his body shook and he dropped some of the writings from his hands. Accordingly he acquitted the man of the charge perforce.

XL. After this, as the constitution was changed to a monarchy, Cicero[257] detaching himself from public affairs applied himself to philosophy with such young men as were disposed; and mainly from his intimacy with the noblest born and the first in rank, he again got very great power in the state. His occupation was to compose philosophical dialogues and to translate and to transfer into the Roman language every dialectical or physical term; for it is he, as they say, who first or mainly formed for the Romans the terms Phantasia, Syncatathesis, Epoche, and Catalepsis, and also Atom, and Indivisible, and Vacuum, and many other like terms, some of which by metaphor, and others by other modes of assimilation he contrived to make intelligible and to bring into common use: and he employed his ready turn for poetry to amuse himself. For it is said that when he was disposed that way, he would make five hundred verses in a night. The greatest part of his time he now spent in his lands at Tusculum, and he used to write to his friends that he was living the life of Laertes,[258] whether it was that he said this in jest, as his manner was, or whether from ambition he was bursting with desire to participate in public affairs and was dissatisfied with matters as they were. He seldom went down to the city, and when he did, it was to pay court to Cæsar, and he was foremost among those who spoke in favour of the honours given to him and were eager always to be saying something new about the man and his acts. Of this kind is what he said about the statues of Pompeius, which Cæsar ordered to be set up after they had been taken away and thrown down, and they were set up again. For Cicero said that by this mild behaviour Cæsar placed the statues of Pompeius, but firmly fixed his own.

XLI. His intention being, as it is said, to comprehend in one work the history of his country and to combine with it much of Greek affairs and in fine to place there the stories and myths which he had collected, he was prevented by public and many private affairs contrary to his wish, and by troubles, most of which seem to have been of his own causing. For first of all, he divorced his wife Terentia,[259] because he had been neglected by her during the war, so that he set out in want even of necessaries for his journey, and did not even on his return to Italy find her well-disposed to him. For she did not go to him, though he was staying some time in Brundusium, and when her daughter, who was a young woman, was going so long a journey, she did not supply her with suitable attendance, nor any means, but she even made Cicero’s house void of everything and empty, besides incurring many great debts. These are the most decent reasons for the separation which are mentioned. But Terentia denied that these were the reasons, and Cicero made her defence a complete one by marrying no long time after a maid;[260] as Terentia charged it, through passion for her beauty, but as Tiro[261] the freedman of Cicero has recorded it, to get means for paying his debts. For the young woman was very rich and Cicero had the care of her property, being left fiduciary heir. Being in debt to the amount of many ten thousands he was persuaded by his friends and relatives to marry the girl, notwithstanding the disparity of age, and to get rid of his creditors by making use of her property. But Antonius, who made mention of the marriage in reply to the Philippics, says that he put out of doors his wife with whom he had grown old, and at the same time he made some cutting jibes on the housekeeping habits of Cicero as a man unfit for action and for arms. No long time after his marriage Cicero’s daughter died in child-birth, for she had married Lentulus after the death of her former husband Piso. The philosophers from all quarters came together to console Cicero, but he bore his misfortune very ill, and even divorced his wife because he thought that she was pleased at the death of Tullia.[262]

XLII.[263] Such were Cicero’s domestic affairs. He had no share in the design that was forming against Cæsar, though he was one of the most intimate friends of Brutus and was supposed to be annoyed at the present state of affairs and so long for the old state more than anybody else. But the men feared his temper as being deficient in daring, and the occasion was one in which courage fails even the strongest natures. When the deed was accomplished by the partisans of Brutus and Cassius, and Cæsar’s friends were combining against the conspirators, and there was fear of the city again being involved in civil wars, Antonius, who was consul, brought the Senate together and said a few words about concord; and Cicero, after speaking at length and suitably to the occasion, persuaded the Senate to imitate the Athenians and decree an amnesty[264] for what had been done to Cæsar, and to give provinces to Brutus and Cassius. But none of these things came to a conclusion. For the people of themselves being transported to pity, when they saw the corpse carried through the Forum, and Antonius showed them the garments filled with blood and slashed in every part by the swords, maddened by passion sought for the men in the Forum and ran with fire in their hands to their houses to burn them. The conspirators escaped the danger by being prepared for it, but as they expected other great dangers, they quitted the city.

XLIII. Antonius was forthwith elated, and was formidable to all, as about to become sole ruler; but to Cicero most formidable. For Antonius seeing that Cicero’s power was recovering strength in the State, and knowing that he was closely allied with Brutus, was annoyed at his presence. And there existed even before this some ill-will between them on account of the unlikeness and difference in their lives. Cicero fearing these things, first made an attempt to go with Dolabella[265] to Syria as legatus: but the consuls for the next year, Irtius and Pansa,[266] who were good men and admirers of Cicero, prayed him not to desert them, and they undertook if he were present to put down Antonius. Cicero, neither distrusting altogether nor trusting gave up his design as to Dolabella, and agreed with Irtius to spend the summer in Athens, and when they had entered on their office, to come back, and he sailed off by himself. But as there was some delay about the voyage, and new reports, as the wont is, reached him from Rome that Antonius had undergone a wonderful change, and was doing and administering everything conformably to the pleasure of the Senate, and that matters only required his presence to be brought to the best arrangement, himself blaming his excessive caution turned back to Rome. And he was not deceived in his first expectations, so great a crowd of people through joy and longing for him poured forth to meet him, and near a whole day was taken up at the gates and upon his entrance with greetings and friendly reception. On the following day Antonius summoned a Senate and invited Cicero, who did not come, but was lying down pretending to be indisposed from fatigue. But the truth appeared to be that he was afraid of some design against him, in consequence of certain suspicions and of information which reached him on the road. Antonius was irritated at the calumny and sent soldiers with orders to bring Cicero or burn his house, but as many persons opposed Antonius and urged him by entreaties he took securities only and desisted. And henceforward they continued to pass by without noticing one another and to be mutually on their guard, till the young Cæsar[267] having arrived from Apollonia took possession of the inheritance of the elder Cæsar, and came to a quarrel with Antonius about the two thousand five hundred ten thousands[268] which Antonius detained of his substance.

XLIV. Upon this, Philippus[269] who was married to young Cæsar’s mother, and Marcellus, who was married to his sister, came with the young man to Cicero, and made a compact that Cicero should lend to Cæsar both in the Senate and before the people the power that he derived from his eloquence and his political position, and that Cæsar should give to Cicero the security that could be derived from money and from arms. For the young man had about him many of those who had served under Cæsar.[270] There appeared also to have been some stronger reason for Cicero readily accepting the friendship of Cæsar. For, as the story goes, while Pompeius and Cæsar were living, Cicero dreamed[271] that some one summoned the sons of the senators to the Capitol, as Jupiter was going to appoint one of them chief of Rome, and that the citizens ran eagerly and placed themselves around the temple and the youths seated themselves in their prætextæ in silence. The doors opened suddenly and one by one the youths rising walked round before the god, who looked at them all and dismissed them sorrowing. But when young Cæsar was advancing towards him, the god stretched out his hand and said, “Romans, there is an end to civil wars when this youth becomes your leader.” They say that Cicero having had such a dream as this had imprinted on his memory the appearance of the youth and retained it distinctly, but he did not know him. The following day as he was going down to the Campus Martius, the boys who had taken their exercise were returning, and the youth was then seen by Cicero for the first time just as he appeared to him in his dream, and being struck with surprise Cicero asked who were his parents. Now his father was Octavius, not a man of very illustrious station, but his mother was Attia, a niece of Cæsar. Accordingly Cæsar, who had no children of his own, gave the youth his property and family name by his will. After this they say that Cicero took pains to notice the youth when he met him, and the youth received well his friendly attentions; for it had also happened that he was born in Cicero’s consulship.

XLV. These were the reasons which were mentioned; but his hatred of Antonius in the chief place, and then his disposition, which was governed by ambition, attached him to Cæsar in the expectation of adding to his own political influence Cæsar’s power. For the young man went so far in paying his court to Cicero as to call him father.[272] At which Brutus being much annoyed blamed Cicero in his letters to Atticus, that through fear of Antonius he was courting Cæsar and was thus manifestly not procuring liberty for his country, but wooing for himself a kind master. However Cicero’s son,[273] who was studying philosophy at Athens, was engaged by Brutus and employed in command in many things which he did successfully. Cicero’s power in the city was then at its height, and as he could do what he liked, he drove Antonius out and raised a faction against him and sent out the two consuls Irtius and Pansa[274] to fight against him, and he persuaded the Senate by a vote to give Cæsar lictors and the insignia of a prætor, as if he were fighting in defence of their country. But when Antonius had been defeated and on the death of the two consuls after the battle the forces joined Cæsar, and the Senate through fear of a youth who had enjoyed splendid success was attempting by honours and gifts to call away from him the armies, and to divide his power, on the ground that there was no need of troops to defend the state now that Antonius was fled, under these circumstances Cæsar being alarmed secretly sent messengers to Cicero, to entreat and urge Cicero to get the consulship for the two, but to manage matters as he thought best, and to have the power, and to direct the young man who was only desirous of a name and reputation. And Cæsar himself admitted that it was through fear of his troops being disbanded and the danger of being left alone, that he had availed himself in a time of need of Cicero’s love of power by urging him to take the consulship, and promising that he would act with him and assist in the canvass at the same time.

XLVI. In this way indeed Cicero being very greatly pushed on, he an old man by a young one, and cajoled, assisted at the canvass of Cæsar[275] and got the Senate in his favour, for which he was blamed by his friends at the time, and he shortly after saw that he had ruined himself and betrayed the liberty of the people. For when the youth was strengthened and had got the consulship, he gave himself no concern about Cicero, but making friends with Antonius and Lepidus[276] and uniting his forces with theirs, he divided the chief power with them, just as if it were a piece of property. And a list of above two hundred men was made out, who were doomed to die. The proscription of Cicero caused most dispute among them in their discussions, for Antonius was not inclined to come to any terms unless Cicero was the first to be doomed to death, and Lepidus sided with Antonius, but Cæsar held out against both. They held their meeting by themselves in secret near the city Bononia[277] for three days, and they met in a place at some distance from the camps which was surrounded by a river. It is said that during the first two days Cæsar struggled in behalf of Cicero, but that he yielded on the third and gave up the man. And the matter of their mutual surrender was thus. Cæsar was to give up Cicero, and Lepidus his brother Paulus,[278] and Antonius was to give up Lucius Cæsar, who was his uncle on the mother’s side. So far did they through resentment and rage throw away all human feeling, or rather they showed that no animal is more savage than man when he has gotten power added to passion.

XLVII.[279] While this was going on, Cicero was on his lands at Tusculum, and his brother with him; and on hearing of the proscriptions they determined to remove to Astura,[280] a place belonging to Cicero on the sea-coast, and thence to sail to Macedonia to Brutus, for there was already a rumour about him that he had a force. They were conveyed in litters, being worn out by grief; and halting by the way and placing their litters side by side they lamented to one another. Quintus[281] was the more desponding, and he began to reflect on his needy condition, for he said that he had brought nothing from home; and indeed Cicero was but scantily provided for his journey; it was better then, he said, for Cicero to hurry on in his flight, and for him to hasten back and to provide himself from home with what he wanted. This was agreed, and embracing one another with tears they separated. Now Quintus, not many days after, was betrayed by his slaves to those who were in search of him and put to death with his son. Cicero arrived at Astura, and finding a vessel he immediately embarked, and sailed along the coast to Circæum,[282] the wind in his favour.

When the sailors were wishing to set sail immediately from thence, whether it was that he feared the sea, or had not quite despaired of all trust in Cæsar, he landed, and went on foot about a hundred stadia on the road to Rome. But again perplexed and changing his mind he went down to the sea of Astura; and there he spent the night in dreadful and desperate reflections, so that he even formed a design to get secretly into Cæsar’s house, and by killing himself on the hearth to fasten on him an avenging dæmon. But the fear of tortures drove him from this measure also; and after perplexing himself with other schemes and shifting from one to another, he put himself in the hands of his slaves to convey him by sea to Capitæ,[283] for he had lands there and a place of retreat which was very agreeable in summer, when the Etesian winds blow most softly. The place has also a temple of Apollo, a little above the sea. A flock of crows winging their flight from thence with loud cawing approached the vessel of Cicero as it was rowing to land, and settling at each end of the sail-yard some made a noise, and others gnawed the end of the ropes, and all were of opinion that the omen was bad. Cicero landed, and going to the villa he lay down to rest. But most of the crows perched themselves on different parts of the window, cawing clamorously; and one of them, going down to the couch where Cicero lay wrapped up, by degrees removed with its beak the covering from his face. The slaves seeing this, and considering it a reproach to them if they should wait to be spectators of their master’s murder, while even brute beasts came to his aid and cared for him in his unmerited misfortune, but they themselves were giving no help, partly by entreaty, partly using force, took him up and carried him in a litter towards the sea.

XLVIII. In the meantime the murderers with their helpers came on, Herennius[284] a centurion, and Popilius a tribune, who had once been prosecuted for parricide and Cicero was his advocate. Finding the doors closed they broke them open, and as Cicero was not seen and those who were within denied that they knew where he was, it is said that a youth who had been brought up by Cicero in liberal studies and learning, and was a freedman of Cicero’s brother Quintus, Philologus by name, told the tribune that the litter was being conveyed through the wooded and shady paths to the sea. Accordingly the tribune, taking a few men with him, ran round to the outlet. And as Herennius was running along the paths, Cicero saw him and bade the slaves place down the litter there; and, as his wont was, holding his chin with his left hand he looked steadily on the murderers, being all squalid and unshorn, and his countenance wasted by care, so that most of them covered their faces while Herennius was killing him. He stretched his neck[285] out of the litter and was killed, being then in his sixty-fourth year. Herennius cut off his head and the hands, pursuant to the command of Antonius, with which he wrote the Philippics. For Cicero himself entitled Philippics the speeches which he wrote against Antonius, and to the present day they are called Philippics.

XLIX. When the head and hands[286] were brought to Rome, Antonius happened to be holding an election of magistrates, and when he heard the news and saw what had been done, he called out that the proscriptions were now at an end. He ordered the head and hands to be placed above the Rostra on the place whence the orators spoke, a sight that made the Romans shudder, who thought that they saw, not the face of Cicero, but an image of the soul of Antonius. Still he showed herein one sentiment of just dealing, for he delivered up Philologus to Pomponia the wife of Quintus, who having got him into her power, inflicted terrible vengeance upon him, and among other things compelled him to cut off his flesh bit by bit, and to roast and eat it. Thus some of the historians have told the story, but Tiro, who was Cicero’s freedman, makes no mention at all of the treachery of Philologus.[287] I have heard that Cæsar a long time after once went to see one of his daughter’s sons,[288] and as the youth had in his hands one of Cicero’s writings, he was afraid and hid it in his vest; the which Cæsar observing took the book and read a good part of it while he was standing, and then returning the book to the boy said, “A wise man, my boy, a wise man and a lover of his country.” As soon as Cæsar had finally defeated Antonius, he took Cicero’s son[289] to be his colleague in the consulship, in whose magistracy the Senate threw down the statues of Antonius and destroyed all other testimonials in honour of him, and further decreed that no Antonius should bear the name of Marcus. That the dæmon reserved for the family of Cicero the final vengeance on Antonius.