Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
kill me here with your own hands; for it is all one; and if I am
murdered yonder, it will be esteemed your act, nor will Antigonus
complain, for he desires not Eumenes alive, but dead. Or if you
withhold your own hands, release but one of mine, it shall
suffice to do the work; and if you dare not trust me with a sword
throw me bound as I am under the feet of the wild beasts. This
if you do I shall freely acquit you from the guilt of my death,
as the most just and kind of men to their general."
While Eumenes was thus speaking, the rest of the soldiers wept
for grief, but the Argyraspids shouted out to lead him on, and
give no attention to his trilling. For it was no such great
matter if this Chersonesian pest should meet his death, who in
thousands of battles had annoyed and wasted the Macedonians; it
would be a much more grievous thing for the choicest of Philip's
and Alexander's soldiers to be defrauded of the fruits of so long
service, and in their old age to come to beg their bread, and to
leave their wives three nights in the power of their enemies. So
they hurried him on with violence. But Antigonus, fearing the
multitude, for nobody was left in the camp, sent ten of his
strongest elephants with divers of his Mede and Parthian lances
to keep off the press. Then he could not endure to have Eumenes
brought into his presence, by reason of their former intimacy and
friendship; but when they that had taken him inquired how he
would have him kept, "As I would," said he, "an elephant, or a
lion." A little after, being loved with compassion, he
commanded the heaviest of his irons to be knocked off, one of his
servants to be admitted to anoint him, and that any of his
friends that were willing should have liberty to visit him, and
bring him what he wanted. Long time he deliberated what to do
with him, sometimes inclining to the advice and promises of
Nearchus of Crete, and Demetrius his son, who were very earnest
to preserve Eumenes, whilst all the rest were unanimously instant
and importunate to have him taken off. It is related that
Eumenes inquired of Onomarchus, his keeper, why Antigonus, now he
had his enemy in his hands, would not either forthwith dispatch
or generously release him? And that Onomarchus contumeliously
answered him, that the field had been a more proper place than
this to show his contempt of death. To whom Eumenes replied,
"And by heavens, I showed it there; ask the men else that engaged
me, but I could never meet a man that was my superior."
"Therefore," rejoined Onomarchus, "now you have found such a man,
why don't you submit quietly to his pleasure?"
When Antigonus resolved to kill Eumenes, he commanded to keep his
food from him, and so with two or three days' fasting he began to
draw near his end; but the camp being on a sudden to remove, an
executioner was sent to dispatch him. Antigonus granted his body
to his friends, permitted them to burn it, and having gathered
his ashes into a silver urn, to send them to his wife and
children.
Eumenes was thus taken off; and Divine Providence assigned to no
other man the chastisement of the commanders and soldiers that
had betrayed him; but Antigonus himself, abominating the
Argyraspids as wicked and inhuman villains, delivered them up to
Sibyrtius, the governor of Arachosia, commanding him by all ways
and means to destroy and exterminate them, so that not a man of
them might ever come to Macedon, or so much as within sight of
the Greek sea.
COMPARISON OF SERTORIUS WITH EUMENES
These are the most remarkable passages that are come to our
knowledge concerning Eumenes and Sertorius. In comparing their
lives, we may observe that this was common to them both; that
being aliens, strangers, and banished men, they came to be
commanders of powerful forces, and had the leading of numerous
and warlike armies, made up of divers nations. This was peculiar
to Sertorius, that the chief command was, by his whole party,
freely yielded to him, as to the person of the greatest merit and
renown, whereas Eumenes had many who contested the office with
him, and only by his actions obtained the superiority. They
followed the one honestly, out of desire to be commanded by him;
they submitted themselves to the other for their own security,
because they could not commend themselves. The one, being a
Roman, was the general of the Spaniards and Lusitanians, who for
many years had been under the subjection of Rome; and the other,
a Chersonesian, was chief commander of the Macedonians, who were
the great conquerors of mankind, and were at that time subduing
the world. Sertorius, being already in high esteem for his
former services in the wars, and his abilities in the senate, was
advanced to the dignity of a general; whereas Eumenes obtained
this honor from the office of a writer, or secretary, in which he
had been despised. Nor did he only at first rise from inferior
opportunities, but afterwards, also, met with greater
impediments in the progress of his authority, and that not only
from those who publicly resisted him, but from many others that
privately conspired against him. It was much otherwise with
Sertorius, not one of whose party publicly opposed him, only late
in life and secretly a few of his acquaintance entered into a
conspiracy against him. Sertorius put an end to his dangers as
often as he was victorious in the field, whereas the victories of
Eumenes were the beginning of his perils, through the malice of
those that envied him.
Their deeds in war were equal and parallel, but their general
inclinations different. Eumenes naturally loved war and
contention, but Sertorius esteemed peace and tranquillity; when
Eumenes might have lived in safety, with honor, if he would have
quietly retired out of their way, he persisted in a dangerous
contest with the greatest of the Macedonian leaders; but
Sertorius, who was unwilling to trouble himself with any public
disturbances, was forced, for the safety of his person, to make
war against those who would not suffer him to live in peace. If
Eumenes could have contented himself with the second place,
Antigonus, freed from his competition for the first, would have
used him well, and shown him favor, whereas Pompey's friends
would never permit Sertorius so much as to live in quiet. The
one made war of his own accord, out of a desire for command; and
the other was constrained to accept of command, to defend himself
from war that was made against him. Eumenes was certainly a true
lover of war, for he preferred his covetous ambition before his
own security; but Sertorius was truly warlike, who procured his
own safety by the success of his arms.
As to the manner of their deaths, it happened to one without the
least thought or surmise of it; but to the other when he
suspected it daily; which in the first, argues an equitable
temper, and a noble mind, not to distrust his friends; but in the
other, it showed some infirmity of spirit, for Eumenes intended to
fly and was taken. The death of Sertorius dishonored not his
life; he suffered that from his companions which none of his
enemies were ever able to perform. The other, not being able to
deliver himself before his imprisonment, being willing also to
live in captivity, did neither prevent nor expect his fate with
honor or bravery; for by meanly supplicating and petitioning, he
made his enemy, that pretended only to have power over his body,
to be lord and master of his body and mind.
AGESILAUS
Archidamus, the son of Zeuxidamus, having reigned gloriously over
the Lacedaemonians, left behind him two sons, Agis the elder,
begotten of Lampido, a noble lady, Agesilaus, much the younger,
born of Eupolia, the daughter of Melesippidas. Now the succession
belonging to Agis by law, Agesilaus, who in all probability was to
be but a private man, was educated according to the usual
discipline of the country, hard and severe, and meant to teach
young men to obey their superiors. Whence it was that, men say,
Simonides called Sparta "the tamer of men," because by early
strictness of education, they, more than any nation, trained the
citizens to obedience to the laws, and made them tractable and
patient of subjection, as horses that are broken in while colts.
The law did not impose this harsh rule on the heirs apparent of the
kingdom. But Agesilaus, whose good fortune it was to be born a
younger brother, was consequently bred to all the arts of
obedience, and so the better fitted for the government, when it
fell to his share; hence it was that he proved the most
popular-tempered of the Spartan kings, his early life having added
to his natural kingly and commanding qualities the gentle and
humane feelings of a citizen.
While he was yet a boy, bred up in one of what are called the
flocks, or classes, he attracted the attachment of Lysander, who
was particularly struck with the orderly temper that he manifested.
For though he was one of the highest spirits, emulous above any of
his companions, ambitious of preeminence in everything, and showed
an impetuosity and fervor of mind which irresistibly carried him
through all opposition or difficulty he could meet with; yet, on
the other side, he was so easy and gentle in his nature, and so apt
to yield to authority, that though he would do nothing on
compulsion, upon ingenuous motives he would obey any commands, and
was more hurt by the least rebuke or disgrace, than he was
distressed by any toil or hardship.
He had one leg shorter than the other, but this deformity was
little observed in the general beauty of his person in youth. And
the easy way in which he bore it, (he being the first always to
pass a jest upon himself,) went far to make it disregarded. And
indeed his high spirit and eagerness to distinguish himself were
all the more conspicuous by it, since he never let his lameness
withhold him from any toil or any brave action. Neither his statue
nor picture are extant, he never allowing them in his life, and
utterly forbidding them to be made after his death. He is said to
have been a little man, of a contemptible presence; but the
goodness of his humor, and his constant cheerfulness and
playfulness of temper, always free from anything of moroseness or
haughtiness, made him more attractive, even to his old age, than
the most beautiful and youthful men of the nation. Theophrastus
writes, that the Ephors laid a fine upon Archidamus for marrying a
little wife, "For" said they, "she will bring us a race of
kinglets, instead of kings."
Whilst Agis, the elder brother, reigned, Alcibiades, being then an
exile from Athens, came from Sicily to Sparta; nor had he stayed
long there, before his familiarity with Timaea, the king's wife,
grew suspected, insomuch that Agis refused to own a child of hers,
which, he said, was Alcibiades's, not his. Nor, if we may believe
Duris, the historian, was Timaea much concerned at it, being
herself forward enough to whisper among her helot maid-servants,
that the infant's true name was Alcibiades, not Leotychides.
Meanwhile it was believed, that the amour he had with her was not
the effect of his love but of his ambition, that he might have
Spartan kings of his posterity. This affair being grown public, it
became needful for Alcibiades to withdraw from Sparta. But the
child Leotychides had not the honors due to a legitimate son paid
him, nor was he ever owned by Agis, till by his prayers and tears
he prevailed with him to declare him his son before several
witnesses upon his death-bed. But this did not avail to fix him in
the throne of Agis, after whose death Lysander, who had lately
achieved his conquest of Athens by sea, and was of the greatest
power in Sparta, promoted Agesilaus, urging Leotychides's bastardy