Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
brought off his brother alive and safe. But when the Corinthians, for
fear of losing their city a second time, as they had once before, by
admitting their allies, made a decree to maintain four hundred
mercenaries for its security, and gave Timophanes the command over
them, he, abandoning all regard to honor and equity, at once
proceeded to put into execution his plans for making himself
absolute, and bringing the place under his own power; and having cut
off many principal citizens, uncondemned and without trial, who were
most likely to hinder his design, he declared himself tyrant of
Corinth; a procedure that infinitely afflicted Timoleon, to whom the
wickedness of such a brother appeared to be his own reproach and
calamity. He undertook to persuade him by reasoning, that, desisting
from that wild and unhappy ambition, he would bethink himself how he
should make the Corinthians some amends, and find out an expedient to
remedy and correct the evils he had done them. When his single
admonition was rejected and contemned by him, he makes a second
attempt, taking with him Aeschylus his kinsman, brother to the wife
of Timophanes, and a certain diviner, that was his friend, whom
Theopompus in his history calls Satyrus, but Ephorus and Timaeus
mention in theirs by the name of Orthagoras. After a few days, then,
he returns to his brother with this company, all three of them
surrounding and earnestly importuning him upon the same subject, that
now at length he would listen to reason, and be of another mind. But
when Timophanes began first to laugh at the men's simplicity, and
presently broke out into rage and indignation against them, Timoleon
stepped aside from him and stood weeping with his face covered, while
the other two, drawing out their swords, dispatched him in a moment.
On the rumor of this act being soon scattered about, the better and
more generous of the Corinthians highly applauded Timoleon for the
hatred of wrong and the greatness of soul that had made him, though
of a gentle disposition and full of love and kindness for his family,
think the obligations to his country stronger than the ties of
consanguinity, and prefer that which is good and just before gain and
interest and his own particular advantage. For the same brother, who
with so much bravery had been saved by him when he fought valiantly
in the cause of Corinth, he had now as nobly sacrificed for enslaving
her afterward by a base and treacherous usurpation. But then, on the
other side, those that knew not how to live in a democracy, and had
been used to make their humble court to the men of power, though they
openly professed to rejoice at the death of the tyrant, nevertheless,
secretly reviling Timoleon, as one that had committed an impious and
abominable act, drove him into melancholy and dejection. And when he
came to understand how heavily his mother took it, and that she
likewise uttered the saddest complaints and most terrible
imprecations against him, he went to satisfy and comfort her as to
what had happened; and finding that she would not endure so much as
to look upon him, but caused her doors to be shut, that he might have
no admission into her presence, with grief at this he grew so
disordered in his mind and so disconsolate, that he determined to put
an end to his perplexity with his life, by abstaining from all manner
of sustenance. But through the care and diligence of his friends,
who were very instant with him, and added force to their entreaties,
he came to resolve and promise at last, that he would endure living,
provided it might be in solitude, and remote from company; so that,
quitting all civil transactions and commerce with the world, for a
long while after his first retirement he never came into Corinth, but
wandered up and down the fields, full of anxious and tormenting
thoughts, and spent his time in desert places, at the farthest
distance from society and human intercourse. So true it is that the
minds of men are easily shaken and carried off from their own
sentiments through the casual commendation or reproof of others,
unless the judgments that we make, and the purposes we conceive, be
confirmed by reason and philosophy, and thus obtain strength and
steadiness. An action must not only be just and laudable in its own
nature, but it must proceed likewise from solid motives and a lasting
principle, that so we may fully and constantly approve the thing, and
be perfectly satisfied in what we do; for otherwise, after having put
our resolution into practice, we shall out of pure weakness come to
be troubled at the performance, when the grace and goodliness, which
rendered it before so amiable and pleasing to us, begin to decay and
wear out of our fancy; like greedy people, who, seizing on the more
delicious morsels of any dish with a keen appetite, are presently
disgusted when they grow full, and find themselves oppressed and
uneasy now by what they before so greedily desired. For a succeeding
dislike spoils the best of actions, and repentance makes that which
was never so well done, become base and faulty; whereas the choice
that is founded upon knowledge and wise reasoning, does not change by
disappointment, or suffer us to repent, though it happen perchance to
be less prosperous in the issue. And thus Phocion, of Athens, having
always vigorously opposed the measures of Leosthenes, when success
appeared to attend them, and he saw his countrymen rejoicing and
offering sacrifice in honor of their victory, "I should have been as
glad," said he to them, "that I myself had been the author of what
Leosthenes has achieved for you, as I am that I gave you my own
counsel against it." A more vehement reply is recorded to have been
made by Aristides the Locrian, one of Plato's companions, to
Dionysius the elder, who demanded one of his daughters in marriage:
"I had rather," said he to him, "see the virgin in her grave, than in
the palace of a tyrant." And when Dionysius, enraged at the affront,
made his sons be put to death a while after, and then again
insultingly asked, whether he were still in the same mind as to the
disposal of his daughters, his answer was, "I cannot but grieve at
the cruelty of your deeds, but am not sorry for the freedom of my own
words." Such expressions as these may belong perhaps to a more
sublime and accomplished virtue.
The grief, however, of Timoleon at what had been done, whether it
arose from commiseration of his brother's fate, or the reverence he
bore his mother, so shattered and broke his spirits, that for the
space of almost twenty years, he had not offered to concern himself
in any honorable or public action. When, therefore, he was pitched
upon for a general, and joyfully accepted as such by the suffrages of
the people, Teleclides, who was at that time the most powerful and
distinguished man in Corinth, began to exhort him that he would act
now like a man of worth and gallantry: "For," said he, "if you do
bravely in this service, we shall believe that you delivered us from
a tyrant; but if otherwise, that you killed your brother." While he
was yet preparing to set sail, and enlisting soldiers to embark with
him, there came letters to the Corinthians from Hicetes, plainly
disclosing his revolt and treachery. For his ambassadors were no
sooner gone for Corinth, but he openly joined the Carthaginians,
negotiating that they might assist him to throw out Dionysius, and
become master of Syracuse in his room. And fearing he might be
disappointed of his aim, if troops and a commander should come from
Corinth before this were effected, he sent a letter of advice
thither, in all haste, to prevent their setting out, telling them
they need not be at any cost and trouble upon his account, or run the
hazard of a Sicilian voyage, especially since the Carthaginians,
alliance with whom against Dionysius the slowness of their motions
had compelled him to embrace, would dispute their passage, and lay in
wait to attack them with a numerous fleet. This letter being
publicly read, if any had been cold and indifferent before as to the
expedition in hand, the indignation they now conceived against
Hicetes so exasperated and inflamed them all, that they willingly
contributed to supply Timoleon, and endeavored, with one accord, to
hasten his departure.
When the vessels were equipped, and his soldiers every way provided
for, the female priests of Proserpina had a dream or vision, wherein
she and her mother Ceres appeared to them in a traveling garb, and
were heard to say that they were going to sail with Timoleon into
Sicily; whereupon the Corinthians, having built a sacred galley,
devoted it to them, and called it the galley of the goddesses.
Timoleon went in person to Delphi, where he sacrificed to Apollo,
and, descending into the place of prophecy, was surprised with the
following marvelous occurrence. A riband with crowns and figures of
victory embroidered upon it, slipped off from among the gifts that
were there consecrated and hung up in the temple, and fell directly
down upon his head; so that Apollo seemed already to crown him with
success, and send him thence to conquer and triumph. He put to sea
only with seven ships of Corinth, two of Corcyra, and a tenth which
was furnished by the Leucadians; and when he was now entered into the
deep by night, and carried with a prosperous gale, the heaven seemed
all on a sudden to break open, and a bright spreading flame to issue
forth from it, and hover over the ship he was in; and, having formed
itself into a torch, not unlike those that are used in the mysteries,
it began to steer the same course, and run along in their company,
guiding them by its light to that quarter of Italy where they
designed to go ashore. The soothsayers affirmed, that this
apparition agreed with the dream of the holy women, since the
goddesses were now visibly joining in the expedition, and sending
this light from heaven before them: Sicily being thought sacred to
Proserpina, as poets feign that the rape was committed there, and
that the island was given her in dowry when she married Pluto.
These early demonstrations of divine favor greatly encouraged his
whole army; so that, making all the speed they were able, by a voyage
across the open sea, they were soon passing along the coast of Italy.
But the tidings that came from Sicily much perplexed Timoleon, and
disheartened his soldiers. For Hicetes, having already beaten
Dionysius out of the field, and reduced most of the quarters of
Syracuse itself, now hemmed him in and besieged him in the citadel
and what is called the Island, whither he was fled for his last
refuge; while the Carthaginians, by agreement, were to make it their
business to hinder Timoleon from landing in any port of Sicily; so
that he and his party being driven back, they might with ease and at
their own leisure divide the island among themselves. In pursuance
of which design, the Carthaginians sent away twenty of their galleys
to Rhegium, having aboard them certain ambassadors from Hicetes to
Timoleon, who carried instructions suitable to these proceedings,
specious amusements and plausible stories, to color and conceal
dishonest purposes. They had order to propose and demand that
Timoleon himself, if he liked the offer, should come to advise with
Hicetes, and partake of all his conquests, but that he might send
back his ships and forces to Corinth, since the war was in a manner
finished, and the Carthaginians had blocked up the passage,
determined to oppose them if they should try to force their way
towards the shore. When, therefore, the Corinthians met with these
envoys at Rhegium, and received their message, and saw the Phoenician
vessels riding at anchor in the bay, they became keenly sensible of