Plutarch's Lives, Volume 2 (of 4)

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. II.

LONDON

GEORGE BELL AND SONS

1899

[_Reprinted from Stereotype plates_.]



CONTENTS.

  LIFE OF PELOPIDAS                               1
  LIFE OF MARCELLUS                              34
  COMPARISON OF PELOPIDAS WITH MARCELLUS         64
  LIFE OF ARISTEIDES                             67
  LIFE OF MARCUS CATO                            98
  COMPARISON OF ARISTEIDES AND CATO             128
  LIFE OF PHILOPŒMEN                            134
  LIFE OF TITUS FLAMININUS                      154
  COMPARISON OF PHILOPŒMEN AND TITUS            177
  LIFE OF PYRRHUS                               180
  LIFE OF CAIUS MARIUS (_By G. Long_.)          221
  LIFE OF LYSANDER                              285
  LIFE OF SULLA (_By G. Long_.)                 317
  COMPARISON OF LYSANDER AND SULLA              386
  LIFE OF KIMON                                 391
  LIFE OF LUCULLUS (_By G. Long_.)              414
  COMPARISON OF KIMON AND LUCULLUS              483






PLUTARCH'S LIVES.




LIFE OF PELOPIDAS.


I. Cato the elder, speaking to some persons who were praising a man of
reckless daring and audacity in war, observed that there is a
difference between a man's setting a high value on courage, and
setting a low value on his own life--and rightly. For a daring soldier
in the army of Antigonus, but of broken and ill health, being asked by
the king the reason of his paleness, confessed that he was suffering
from some secret disorder. When then the king, anxious for him,
charged his physicians to use the greatest care in their treatment, if
a cure were possible, at length this brave fellow, being restored to
health, was no longer fond of peril and furious in battle, so that
Antigonus reproved him, and expressed surprise at the change. The man
made no secret of his reason, but answered: "My, king, you have made
me less warlike by freeing me from those miseries on account of which
I used to hold my life cheap." And the Sybarite seems to have spoken
to the same effect about the Spartans, when he said that "they do no
great thing by dying in the wars in order to escape from such labours
and such a mode of life as theirs." However, no wonder if the
Sybarites, effete with luxurious debauchery, thought men mad who
despised death for love of honour and noble emulation; whereas the
Lacedæmonians were enabled by their valour both to live and to die
with pleasure, as the elegy shows, which runs thus:

    "'Twas not that life or death itself was good,
    That these heroic spirits shed their blood:
    This was their aim, and this their latest cry,
    'Let us preserve our honour, live or die.'"

For neither is avoidance of death blameable, if a man does not cling
to his life from dishonourable motives; nor is exposure to peril
honourable, if it springs from carelessness of life. For this reason
Homer always brings the most daring and warlike heroes into battle
well and beautifully armed, and the Greek lawgivers punish the man who
throws away his shield, but not him who throws away his sword or
spear, showing that it is each man's duty to take more care that he
does not receive hurt himself, than to hurt the enemy, especially if
he be the chief of an army or city.

II. For if, as Iphikrates defined it, the light troops resemble the
hands, the cavalry the feet, the main body the breast and trunk, and
the general the head, then it would appear that he, if he runs into
danger and shows personal daring, risks not only his own life, but
that of all those whose safety depends upon him; and _vice versâ_.
Wherefore Kallikratidas, although otherwise a great man, yet did not
make a good answer to the soothsayer; for when he begged him to beware
of death, which was presaged by the sacrifices, he replied that Sparta
had more men besides himself. No doubt, in fighting either by sea or
land[1] Kallikratidas only counted for one, but as a general, he
combined in his own person the strength of all the rest, so that he by
whose death so many perished, was indeed more than one. A better
answer was that of old Antigonus, who, as he was about to begin a
sea-fight off Andros, some one having said that the enemy's fleet was
the more numerous, asked, "And for how many do you count
_me_?"--setting a high value, as is due, upon a skilful and brave
leader, whose first duty is to keep safe him who preserves all the
rest.

So Timotheus said well, when Chares was displaying to the Athenians
the wounds on his body, and his shield pierced by a dart. "Now I,"
said he, "when I was besieging Samos, was quite ashamed if an arrow
fell near me, thinking that I was exposing myself more boyishly than
was fitting for the general and leader of so important a force." In
cases where the personal risk of the general is of great moment to
his army, then he must fight and expose himself without stint, and
disregard those who say that a general should die of old age, or at
any rate, when an old man.