Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
Coriolanus, moreover, it should be said, did not as a general obtain any
successes for his country, but only for his enemies against his country.
Alcibiades was often of service to Athens, both as a soldier and as a
commander. So long as he was personally present, he had the perfect
mastery of his political adversaries; calumny only succeeded in his
absence. Coriolanus was condemned in person at Rome; and in like manner
killed by the Volscians, not indeed with any right or justice, yet not
without some pretext occasioned by his own acts; since, after rejecting
all conditions of peace in public, in private he yielded to the
solicitations of the women, and, without establishing peace, threw up
the favorable chances of war. He ought, before retiring, to have
obtained the consent of those who had placed their trust in him; if
indeed he considered their claims on him to be the strongest. Or, if we
say that he did not care about the Volscians, but merely had prosecuted
the war, which he now abandoned, for the satisfaction of his own
resentment, then the noble thing would have been, not to spare his
country for his mother's sake, but his mother in and with his country;
since both his mother and his wife were part and parcel of that
endangered country. After harshly repelling public supplications, the
entreaties of ambassadors, and the prayers of priests, to concede all as
a private favor to his mother was less an honor to her than a dishonor
to the city which thus escaped, in spite, it would seem, of its own
demerits, through the intercession of a single woman. Such a grace
could, indeed, seem merely invidious, ungracious, and unreasonable in
the eyes of both parties; he retreated without listening to the
persuasions of his opponents, or asking the consent of his friends. The
origin of all lay in his unsociable, supercilious, and self-willed
disposition, which, in all cases, is offensive to most people; and when
combined with a passion for distinction passes into absolute savageness
and mercilessness. Men decline to ask favors of the people, professing
not to need any honors from them; and then are indignant if they do not
obtain them. Metellus, Aristides, and Epaminondas certainly did not beg
favors of the multitude; but that was because they, in real truth, did
not value the gifts which a popular body can either confer or refuse;
and when they were more than once driven into exile, rejected at
elections, and condemned in courts of justice, they showed no resentment
at the ill-humor of their fellow-citizens, but were willing and
contented to return and be reconciled when the feeling altered and they
were wished for. He who least likes courting favor, ought also least to
think of resenting neglect: to feel wounded at being refused a
distinction can only arise from an overweening appetite to have it.
Alcibiades never professed to deny that it was pleasant to him to be
honored, and distasteful to him to be overlooked; and, accordingly, he
always tried to place himself upon good terms with all that he met;
Coriolanus's pride forbade him to pay attentions to those who could have
promoted his advancement, and yet his love of distinction made him feel
hurt and angry when he was disregarded. Such are the faulty parts of
his character, which in all other respects was a noble one. For his
temperance, continence, and probity, he might claim to be compared with
the best and purest of the Greeks; not in any sort or kind with
Alcibiades, the least scrupulous and most entirely careless of human
beings in all these points.
TIMOLEON
It was for the sake of others that I first commenced writing
biographies; but I find myself proceeding and attaching myself to it
for my own; the virtues of these great men serving me as a sort of
looking-glass, in which I may see how to adjust and adorn my own
life. Indeed, it can be compared to nothing but daily living and
associating together; we receive, as it were, in our inquiry, and
entertain each successive guest, view
Their stature and their qualities,
and select from their actions all that is noblest and worthiest to
know.
Ah, and what greater pleasure could one have?
or, what more effective means to one's moral improvement? Democritus
tells us we ought to pray that of the phantasms appearing in the
circumambient air, such may present themselves to us as are
propitious, and that we may rather meet with those that are agreeable
to our natures and are good, than the evil and unfortunate; which is
simply introducing into philosophy a doctrine untrue in itself, and
leading to endless superstitions. My method, on the contrary, is, by
the study of history, and by the familiarity acquired in writing, to
habituate my memory to receive and retain images of the best and
worthiest characters. I thus am enabled to free myself from any
ignoble, base, or vicious impressions, contracted from the contagion
of ill company that I may be unavoidably engaged in, by the remedy of
turning my thoughts in a happy and calm temper to view these noble
examples. Of this kind are those of Timoleon the Corinthian, and
Paulus Aemilius, to write whose lives is my present business; men
equally famous, not only for their virtues, but success; insomuch
that they have left it doubtful whether they owe their greatest
achievements to good fortune, or their own prudence and conduct.
The affairs of the Syracusans, before Timoleon was sent into Sicily,
were in this posture: after Dion had driven out Dionysius the
tyrant, he was slain by treachery, and those that had assisted him in
delivering Syracuse were divided among themselves; and thus the city,
by a continual change of governors, and a train of mischiefs that
succeeded each other, became almost abandoned; while of the rest of
Sicily, part was now utterly depopulated and desolate through long
continuance of war, and most of the cities that had been left
standing were in the hands of barbarians and soldiers out of
employment, that were ready to embrace every turn of government.
Such being the state of things, Dionysius takes the opportunity, and
in the tenth year of his banishment, by the help of some mercenary
troops he had got together, forces out Nysaeus, then master of
Syracuse, recovers all afresh, and is again settled in his dominion;
and as at first he had been strangely deprived of the greatest and
most absolute power that ever was, by a very small party, so now in a
yet stranger manner; when in exile and of mean condition, he became
the sovereign of those who had ejected him. All, therefore, that
remained in Syracuse, had to serve under a tyrant, who at the best
was of an ungentle nature, and exasperated now to a degree of
savageness by the late misfortunes and calamities he had suffered.
The better and more distinguished citizens, having timely retired
thence to Hicetes, ruler of the Leontines, put themselves under his
protection, and chose him for their general in the war; not that he
was much preferable to any open and avowed tyrant; but they had no
other sanctuary at present, and it gave them some ground of
confidence, that he was of a Syracusan family, and had forces able to
encounter those of Dionysius.
In the meantime, the Carthaginians appeared before Sicily with a
great navy, watching when and where they might make a descent upon
the island; and terror at this fleet made the Sicilians incline to
send an embassy into Greece to demand succors from the Corinthians,
whom they confided in rather than others, not only upon the account
of their near kindred, and the great benefits they had often received
by trusting them, but because Corinth had ever shown herself attached
to freedom and averse from tyranny, and had engaged in many noble
wars, not for empire or aggrandizement, but for the sole liberty of
the Greeks. But Hicetes, who made it the business of his command not
so much to deliver the Syracusans from other tyrants, as to enslave
them to himself, had already entered into some secret conferences
with those of Carthage, while in public he commended the design of
his Syracusan clients, and dispatched ambassadors from himself,
together with theirs, into Peloponnesus; not that he really desired
any relief to come from there, but, in case the Corinthians, as was
likely enough, on account of the troubles of Greece and occupation at
home, should refuse their assistance, hoping then he should be able
with less difficulty to dispose and incline things for the
Carthaginian interest, and so make use of these foreign pretenders,
as instruments and auxiliaries for himself, either against the
Syracusans or Dionysius, as occasion served. This was discovered a
while after.
The ambassadors being arrived, and their request known, the
Corinthians, who had always a great concern for all their colonies
and plantations, but especially for Syracuse, since by good fortune
there was nothing to molest them in their own country, where they
were enjoying peace and leisure at that time, readily and with one
accord passed a vote for their assistance. And when they were
deliberating about the choice of a captain for the expedition, and
the magistrates were urging the claims of various aspirants for
reputation, one of the crowd stood up and named Timoleon, son of
Timodemus, who had long absented himself from public business, and
had neither any thoughts of, nor the least pretension to, an
employment of that nature. Some god or other, it might rather seem,
had put it in the man's heart to mention him; such favor and
good-will on the part of Fortune seemed at once to be shown in his
election, and to accompany all his following actions, as though it
were on purpose to commend his worth, and add grace and ornament to
his personal virtues. As regards his parentage, both Timodemus his
father, and his mother Demariste, were of high rank in the city; and
as for himself, he was noted for his love of his country, and his
gentleness of temper, except in his extreme hatred to tyrants and
wicked men. His natural abilities for war were so happily tempered,
that while a rare prudence might be seen in all the enterprises of
his younger years, an equal courage showed itself in the last
exploits of his declining age. He had an elder brother, whose name
was Timophanes, who was every way unlike him, being indiscreet and
rash, and infected by the suggestions of some friends and foreign
soldiers, whom he kept always about him, with a passion for absolute
power. He seemed to have a certain force and vehemence in all
military service, and even to delight in dangers, and thus he took
much with the people, and was advanced to the highest charges, as a
vigorous and effective warrior; in the obtaining of which offices and
promotions, Timoleon much assisted him, helping to conceal or at
least to extenuate his errors, embellishing by his praise whatever
was commendable in him, and setting off his good qualities to the
best advantage.
It happened once in the battle fought by the Corinthians against the
forces of Argos and Cleonae, that Timoleon served among the infantry,
when Timophanes, commanding their cavalry, was brought into extreme
danger; as his horse being wounded fell forward, and threw him
headlong amidst the enemies, while part of his companions dispersed
at once in a panic, and the small number that remained, bearing up
against a great multitude, had much ado to maintain any resistance.
As soon, therefore, as Timoleon was aware of the accident, he ran
hastily in to his brother's rescue, and covering the fallen
Timophanes with his buckler, after having received abundance of
darts, and several strokes by the sword upon his body and his armor,
he at length with much difficulty obliged the enemies to retire, and