[Footnote 573: Cæsar was sole consul in the year B.C. 45. He was still dictator.]
[Footnote 574: Munda was in Bætica, west of Malaca (Malaga). The battle was fought on the day of the Liberalia, the feast of Liber or Bacchus, the 17th of March. Pompeius, B.C. 49, left Brundisium on the Ides of March, the 15th.
The Spanish campaign is contained in a book entitled "De Bello Hispaniensi," which is printed with the "Commentaries of Cæsar:" thirty thousand men fell on the side of Pompeius, and three thousand equites (c. 31). See also Dion Cassius, 43, c. 36; and Appianus, [Footnote 575: Cneius Pompeius, the elder of the two sons of Pompeius Magnus, was overtaken after he had for some time eluded the pursuit of the enemy. His head was carried to Hispalis (Seville) and exhibited in public. Cæsar, who was then at Gades (Cadiz), came shortly after to Hispalis, and addressed the people in a speech. Sextus Pompeius was at Corduba during the battle, and he made his escape on hearing the news of his brother's defeat.]
[Footnote 576: C. Didius. According to Dion, Cn. Pompeius was killed by another set of pursuers, not by Didius. The author of the Spanish War (c. 40) does not mention Didius as having carried the head of Pompeius to Hispalis. After the death of Pompeius, Didius fell in a battle with some Lusitani who had escaped from Munda.]
[Footnote 577: Cæsar celebrated his Spanish triumph in October, B.C.
45.]
[Footnote 578: Cæsar was appointed Dictator for Life, and consul for ten years, (Appianus, ii. 106.)
Dictatorship was properly only a temporary office, and created in some great emergency, or for a particular purpose. The first dictator was T. Lartius, who was appoined, B.C. 501. The original period of office was only six months (Livius, ix. 34), and many dictators abdicated, that is, voluntarily resigned the dictatorship before the end of the six months. The Dictator had that authority within the city which the consuls, when in office, only had without. During his term of office there were no consuls. Under the Dictator there was a Magister Equitum, who was sometimes appointed probably by the Dictator. The whole question of the dictatorship is one of considerable difficulty.
No dictator had been appointed for one hundred and twenty years before the time when Sulla was appointed; and his dictatorship and that of Cæsar must not be considered as the genuine office. Cæsar was the last Roman who had the title of Dictator. The subject of the Dictatorship is discussed by Niebuhr, _Roman History_, vol. i. 552, _English Transl._] [Footnote 579: The honours decreed to Cæsar in the year before are mentioned by Dion Cassius (43. c. 14). Among other things a large statue of him was made which was supported on a figure of the earth (probably a sphere); and there was the inscription--"Semideus, Half-God." The further honours conferred on Cæsar in this year are recorded by Dion Cassius (43. c. 44, &c.). A statue of the Dictator was to be placed in the temple of Quirinus (Romulus), which was equivalent to calling Cæsar a second founder of Rome. Cicero (_Ad Attic._ xii. 45, and xiii. 28) Jokes Atticus on the new neighbour that he was going to have: Atticus lived on the Quirinal Hill, where the temple of Quirinus stood.
The Senate also decreed that Cæsar should use the word Imperator as a title prefixed to his name--Imperator Caius Julius Cæsar. The old practice was to put it after the name, as M. Tullius Cicero Imperator.
The title Imperator prefixed to the name does not occur on the medals of Cæsar. But this decree of the Senate was the origin of the term Imperator being used as a title by the Roman Emperors. (Dion Cassius, 43. c. 44.)]
[Footnote 580: I do not find what particular honours Cicero proposed.
His correspondence with Atticus during this period shows that he was dissatisfied with the state of affairs, and very uneasy about himself, though, as far as concerned Cæsar, he had nothing to fear.]
[Footnote 581: Carthage was destroyed B.C. 146; and Corinth in the same year by L. Mummius. Colonies were sent to both places in B.C. 44.
(Dion Cassius, 43. c. 50.) Many Romans were sent to settle in both places. (Strabo, p. 833; Pausanias, ii. 1.) The colonization of Carthage had been attempted by Caius Gracchus. (Life of C. Gracchus, c. 11, notes.)]
[Footnote 582: In B.C. 45 Cæsar was consul for the fourth time and without a colleague. But he laid down the office before the end of the year, and Quintus Fabius Maximus and C. Trebonius were appointed consuls; the first instance of consuls being appointed for a part of the year, which afterwards became a common practice. (Dion Cassius, 43. c. 46.) The appointment of C. Caninius is mentioned by Cicero (_Ad Diversos_, vii. 30), who remarks that nobody dined in that consulship, and that the consul was so vigilant that he did not sleep during his term of office: in fact he was consul for only part of a day. An inscription records the consulships of this year. (Note to Cicero in the Variorum edition.)]
[Footnote 583: On the intended Parthian expedition of Cæsar, see Dion [Footnote 584: This design of Cæsar is mentioned by Dion Cassius (44.
[Footnote 585: This scheme is not mentioned by any other author that I can find. Circæum, or Circeii, as the Romans called it, is the mountain promontory, now Circello or Circeo, between which and Tarracina lies the southern part of the Pomptine marshes. The intended cut must therefore run nearly in the direction of the Via Appia and to the west of it. But considerable cuttings would be required on that more elevated part of the Campagna which lies between the mountains of Alba and the nearest part of the coast. The basin of the Pomptine marshes is bounded by the offsets of the Alban mountains, the Volscian mountains, and the sea. In the central part it is only a few feet above the sea-level, and in some parts it is below it. When a violent south-west wind raises the sea on the coast between Tarracina and Circeo, the water would be driven into the basin of the Pomptine marshes instead of flowing out. There would therefore be no sufficient fall of water to keep the channel clear, even if the head of the cut, where it originated in the Tiber, were high enough; and that is doubtful. The scheme was probably a canal, which with some locks might be practicable; but if the work could be accomplished, it would probably have no commercial advantages.]
[Footnote 586: Pometia is the common Roman form, from which comes the name of the Pometinæ, or Pomptinæ Paludes, now the Pontine Paludi; the site of Pometia is uncertain. That Cæsar intended to accomplish the drainage of this tract is mentioned by Dion Cassius and Suetonius.
Setia (Sezza), noted for its wine, is on the Volscian hills (the Monti Lepini), and on the eastern margin of the marshes. The physical condition of this tract is described by Prony, in his "Description Hydrographique et Historique des Marais Pontins," 4to. Paris, 1822; the work is accompanied by a volume of plans and sections and a map of the district. A sketch of the physical character of this district, and of the various attempts to drain it, is also given in the 'Penny valuable maps of the Campagna di Roma, and his accompanying Memoir, Berlin and Stettin, 1829.]
[Footnote 587: Ostia, the old port of Rome, on the east bank of the Tiber near the mouth of the river. The present Ostia is somewhat farther inland, and was built in the ninth century by Pope Gregory the Fourth. There are extensive remains of the old town, but they are in a very decayed condition. "Numerous shafts of columns, which are scattered about in all directions, remains of the walls of extensive buildings, and large heaps of rubbish covered with earth and overgrown with grass, give some, though a faint, idea of the splendour, of the ancient city, which at the time of its greatest splendour, at the beginning of our era, had eighty thousand inhabitants." (Westphal, [Footnote 588: The reformation of the Kalendar was effected in B.C.
46. Dion Cassius (43. c. 26) says that Cæsar was instructed on this subject during his residence at Alexandria in Egypt. The Egyptians had a year of 365 days from a very early date (Herodotus, ii. 4). In this year (B.C. 46) Cæsar intercalated two months of 67 days between November and December, and as this was the year in which, according to the old fashion, the intercalary month of 23 days had been inserted in February, the whole intercalation in this year was 90 days. Cæsar made the reformed year consist of 365 days, and he directed one day to be intercalated in every fourth year (quarto quoque anno) in order that the civil year, which began on the 1st of January, might agree with the solar year. The old practice of intercalating a month was of course dropped. The year B.C. 46 was a year of 445 days. By this reformation, says Dion Cassius, all error was avoided except a very small one, and he adds, that to correct the accumulations of this error, it would only be necessary to intercalate one day in 1461 years. But this is a mistake; for in 1460 years there would be an error of nearly eleven days too much. Ten days were actually dropped between the 4th and 15th of October, 1582, by Gregory XIII., with the sanction of the Council of Trent.
A curious mistake was soon made at Rome by the Pontifices who had the regulation of the Kalendar. The rule was to intercalate a day in every fourth year (quarto quoque anno). Now such expressions are ambiguous in Latin, as is shown by numerous examples. (Savigny, _System des heut. Röm. Rechts_, iv. 329.) The expression might mean that both the year one and the year four were to be included in the interpretation of this rule; and the Pontifices interpreted it accordingly. Thus, after intercalating in year one, they intercalated again in year four, instead of in year five. In the time of Augustus, B.C. 8. the error was corrected, and the civil year was set right by dropping the three intercalary days which came next after that year, three being the number of days in excess that had been intercalated. For the future the rule of Cæsar was correctly interpreted. Dion Cassius in expressing the rule as to intercalation uses the phrase, [Greek: dia pente etôn] διὰ πέντε ἐτῶν.
The subject of Cæsar's reformation is explained in the notes to Dion Cassius (43. c. 26), ed. Reimarus, and in the article Calendar (Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities) by Professor Key.]
[Footnote 589: The Romans had a large collection of these writings (libri Sibyllini) which were kept in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus under the care of particular functionaries (duumviri sacrorum). On this curious subject the reader will find sufficient information in the Penny Cyclopædia,--art. _Sibyl_.]
[Footnote 590: Dion Cassius (44. c. 8), who tells the story, says that he was seated in the vestibule of the Temple of Venus; and he mentions another excuse that Cæsar had for not rising.]
[Footnote 591: L. Cornelius Balbus was a native of Gades. Pompeius Magnus gave him the Roman citizenship for his services in Spain against Sertorius, which was confirmed by a lex passed B.C. 72, in the consulship of Cn. Cornelius Lentulus. Probably to show his gratitude to the consul, Balbus assumed the Roman name Cornelius. Balbus is often mentioned in Cicero's correspondence. After Cæsar's death he attached himself to Cæsar Octavianus, and he was consul B.C. 40. He left a journal of the events of his own and Cæsar's life. He also urged Hirtius (Pansa) to write the Eighth Book of the Gallic War (Preface addressed to Balbus), Suetonius, Cæsar, 81.]
[Footnote 592: The Lupercalia are described in the Life of Romulus, c.
21. The festival was celebrated on the 15th of February. It was apparently an old shepherd celebration; and the name of the deity Lupercus appears to be connected with the name Lupus (wolf), the nurturer of the twins Romulus and Remus. Shakspere, who has literally transferred into his play of Julius Cæsar many passages from North's Plutarch, makes Cæsar say to the consul Antonius-- Forget not, in your speed, Antonius, To touch Calphurnia; for our elders say, The barren, touched in this holy chase, Shake off their sterile curse.
Act i. Sc. 2.]
[Footnote 593: Dion Cassius (44. c. 9) speaks of the honours conferred on Cæsar and his supposed ambitious designs.]
[Footnote 594: The Latin word "brutus" means "senseless," "stupid."
The Cumæi, the inhabitants of Cume in Æolis, were reckoned very stupid. Strabo (p. 622) gives two reasons why this opinion obtained; one of which was, that it was not till three hundred years after the foundation of the city that they thought of making some profit by the customs duties, though they had a port.]
[Footnote 595: Compare the Life of Brutus, c. 1, Dion Cassius (44. c.
12), and Drumann, _Geschichte Roms_, Junii, p. 2. This Brutus was not a descendant of him who expelled the last king.]
[Footnote 596: Plutarch means the office of Prætor Urbanus, the highest of the offices called prætorships. There was originally only one prætor, the Prætor Urbanus. There were now sixteen. The Prætor Urbanus was the chief person engaged in the administration of justice in Rome; and hence the allusion to the "tribunal" ([Greek: bêma] βῆμα) where the Prætor sat when he did business.]
[Footnote 597: I have translated this according to the reading of Sintenis. Compare the Life of Brutus, c. 8. Cæsar was very lean. As to the writings compare Dion Cassius (44, c. 12).]
[Footnote 598: See the Life of Brutus, c. 89.]
[Footnote 599: _Cæsar_. Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights: Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
[Footnote 600: The passage was in the Historical Memoirs. See the Life of Sulla, c. 26; and the Life of Lucullus, c. 28. Notes.]
[Footnote 601: The Ides of March were the 15th, on which day Cæsar was murdered.]
[Footnote 602: Compare Dion Cassius (44. c. 17). Cæsar also had a dream.]
[Footnote 603: I have kept Plutarch's word, which is Greek. Suetonius (Cæsar, c. 81) expresses it by the Latin word "fastigium," and also Florus (iv. 2), Cicero (_Philipp._ ii. 43), and Julius Obsequens (c.
127), who enumerates the omens mentioned by Plutarch. The passage of Livius must have been in the 116th Book, which is lost. See the Epitome. The word here probably means a pediment. But it also signifies an ornament, such as a statue placed on the summit of a pediment.]
[Footnote 604: Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus was the son of Decimus Junius Brutus, Consul B.C. 77, and grandson of Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus, Consul B.C. 138. He was adopted by Aulus Postumius Albinus, Consul, B.C. 99, whence he took the name Albinus. He served under Cæsar in Gaul, during which campaign he destroyed the fleet of the Veneti. (_Gallic War_, iii. 12, &c.) Decimus Brutus was a great favourite with Cæsar, who by his will placed him in the second degree of succession; he also gave him the province of Cisalpine Gaul, which Brutus held after Cæsar's death, and appointed him to be consul for B.C. 42. In the year B.C. 43, after M. Antonius had united himself with M. Lepidus, the governor of Gallia Narbonensis, and L. Munatius Plancus and Asinius Pollio had also joined M. Antonius, Decimus Brutus attempted to make his escape into Macedonia to Marcus Brutus; but he was overtaken in the Alps by the cavalry of Antonius, and put to death after abjectly praying for mercy. This was the just punishment of a treacherous friend who helped Cæsar to the supreme power and then betrayed him (Vell. Paterculus, ii. 61). Like many other men, he did well enough when he was directed by others, but when he was put in command, he lost his head and threw away the opportunities that he had. There are extant several of his letters to Ciecro and letters of Cicero to him. (Dion Cassius, 43. c. 53, and the references in the notes; Drumann, _Geschichte Roms_, Junii.)]
[Footnote 605: It was usual for the Romans in their wills to substitute an heres, one or more (in the Roman sense), to take the property in case the person who was first named in the will for any reason did not take it. Cæsar's first heres was his great nephew, C.
Octavius, afterwards Augustus.]
[Footnote 606: It was the general opinion that some roll or writing was put into Cæsar's hands, which informed him of the conspiracy; but, as is usual in such cases, there were different statements current about the particulars of this circumstance. Compare Dion Cassius, 44.
c. 18.]
[Footnote 607: According to Dion Cassius (41. c. 52) the Senate was assembled in the curia ([Greek: synedrion] συνέδριον), which Pompeius had built.]
[Footnote 608: The two sects of Greek philosophy that had most adherents among the Romans were those of the Epicureans and the Stoics. Cassius, as an Epicurean, would have no faith in any superhuman powers; but in the moments of danger a man's speculative principles give way to the common feelings of all mankind. I have kept Plutarch's word "enthusiasm," which is here to be understood not in our sense, but in the Greek sense of a person under some superhuman influence.]
[Footnote 609: This is a mistake of Plutarch, who has stated the fact correctly in his Life of Brutus (c. 17). It was Caius Trebonius who kept Antonius engaged in talk, as we learn from Dion Cassius (44. c.
10), Appianus (_Civil War_, ii. 117), and Cicero, who in a Letter to Trebonius (_Ad Diversos_, x. 28) complains that Trebonius had taken Antonius aside, and so saved his life.]
[Footnote 610: Some would write Tullius Cimber. See the note of Sintenis. Atilius may be the true name.]
[Footnote 611: P. Servilius Casca was at this time a tribune of the Plebs (Dion Cassius, 44. c. 52).]
[Footnote 612: Dion Cassius adds (44. c. 19) that Cæsar said to M.
Brutus, "And you too, my son." Probably the story of Cæsar's death received many embellishments. Of his three and twenty wounds, only one was mortal according to the physician Antistius (Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 82): but though the wounds severally might not have been mortal, the loss of blood from all might have caused death. Suetonius (c. 82) adds, that Cæsar pierced the arm of Cassius (he mentions two Cassii among the conspirators) with his graphium (stylus). See the notes in Burmann's edition of Suetonius.
The circumstances of the death of Cæsar are minutely stated by Drumann, _Geschichte Roms_, Julii, p. 728, &c. The reflections of Dion Cassius (44. c. 1, 2) on the death of Cæsar are worth reading. He could not see that any public good was accomplished by this murder; nor can anybody else.]
[Footnote 613: Cicero was among them. He saw, as he says himself (_Ad Attic._ xiv. 10), the tyrant fall, and he rejoiced. In his letters he speaks with exultation of the murder, and commends the murderers. But he was not let into the secret. They were afraid to trust him. If he had been in the conspiracy, he says (_Philipp._ ii. 14) he would have made clean work; he would have assassinated all the enemies of liberty; in other words, all the chief men of Cæsar's party. He had abjectly humbled himself before Cæsar, who treated him with kind respect. Like all genuine cowards he was cruel when he had power.]
[Footnote 614: M. Æmilius Lepidus, son of M. Lepidus, consul B.C. 78.
He afterwards formed one of the Triumviri with M. Antonius and Octavianus Cæsar. This was the Lepidus with whom Cæsar supped the day before he was murdered. He was a feeble man, though something of a soldier. Shakspere has painted him in a few words: _Antony_. This is a slight unmeritable man, Meet to be sent on errands.
_Julius Cæsar_, Act iv. Sc. 1.
There is more of him in the Lives of Brutus and Antonius.]
[Footnote 615: I do not know who this Caius Octavius is. There is probably some mistake in the name. Lentulus was the son of P.
Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, consul B.C. 57. He had, like many others, experienced Cæsar's clemency. Plutarch is mistaken in saying that this Spinther was put to death, though he was probably included in the proscription. (See Drumann, _Geschichte Roms_, Lentuli, p. 545.) The Lentulus who is mentioned as having been put to death in Egypt (Life of Pompeius, c. 80) was L. Cornelius Lentulus Crus, consul B.C. 49.
The disturbances which followed Cæsar's death are more particularly described in the Lives of Brutus and Antonius.]
[Footnote 616: Cæsar made Caius Octavius, his sister's grandson, his first heres. He left a legacy to every Roman citizen, the amount of which is variously stated. He also left to the public his gardens on Shakspere has made a noble scene of the speech of Antonius over Cæsar's body on the opening of the will: _Ant_. Here is the will, and under Cæsar's seal; To every Roman citizen he gives, To every several man, seventy-five drachmas: Moreover he hath left you all his walks, His private arbours and new planted orchards, On this side Tiber; he hath left them you And to your heirs for ever; common pleasures, To walk abroad, and recreate yourselves.
Here was a Cæsar. When comes such another?
_Julius Cæsar_, Act iii. Sc. 2.
Antonius, according to Roman fashion, made a funeral speech over the body of Cæsar (Life of Antonius, c. 14; of Brutus, c. 20). Dion Cassius (44. c. 36-49) has put a long speech in the mouth of Antonius, mere empty declamation. Appianus (_Civil Wars_, ii. 144-6) gives one which is well enough suited to the character of Antonius. (_Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta_, ed. Mayer, p. 455.) It is probable that the speech of Antonius was preserved, and was used as materials by the historians.]
[Footnote 617: This man, who unluckily bore the name of Cinna, was C.
Helvius Cinna, a tribune of the plebs, a poet, and a friend of Cæsar.
(Dion Cassius, 44. c. 50, and the notes of Reimarus.) The conspirator Cinna was the son of L. Cornelius Cinna, who was a partisan of Marius, and was murdered in his fourth consulship (Life of Pompeius, c. 5).
Cæsar's wife Cornelia, the mother of his only child Julia, was the sister of the conspirator Cinna, as Plutarch names him. But probably he was not one of the conspirators, though he approved of the deed after it was done. (Drumann, _Geschichte Roms_, Cinnæ, p. 591, notes, and also as to Helvius Cinna.)]
[Footnote 618: And also in the Life of Antonius.]
[Footnote 619: Suetonius (_Cæsar_, c. 89) observes that scarce any of his assasins survived him three years; and they all came to a violent end.]
[Footnote 620: This town was on the Asiatic side of the Hellespont.
Compare the Life of Brutus, c. 36. 48, and Appianus (_Civil Wars_, iv.
134). Dion Cassius does not mention the ghost story.]
[Footnote 621: It has been already remarked that Niebuhr is of opinion that the introduction to the Life of Cæsar is lost. This opinion will not appear well founded to those who have got a right conception of the dramatic form in which Plutarch has cast most of his Lives, and more particularly this of Cæsar. He begins by representing him as resisting the tyrant Sulla when others yielded, and then making his way through a long series of events to the supreme power, which he had no sooner attained than he lost it. But his fortune survived him, and the faithless men, his murderers, most of whom owed to him their lives or their fortunes, were pursued by the avenging dæmon till they were all hunted down.
A just estimate of the first of all the Romans is not a difficult task. We know him from the evidence of his contemporaries, both friends and enemies. The devoted attachment of his true friends is beyond doubt; and his enemies could not deny his exalted talents.
Cicero, who has in various places heaped on him every term of abuse that his copious storehouse contained, does not refuse his testimony to the great abilities and generous character of Cæsar. Drumann (_Geschichte Roms_, Julii) has given an elaborate examination of Cæsar's character. His faults and his vices belonged to his age, and he had them in common with nearly all his contemporaries. His most striking virtues, his magnanimity, his generosity, his mercy to the vanquished, distinguished him among all the Romans of his period.
Cæsar was a combination of bodily activity, intellectual power, of literary acquirements, and administrative talent that has seldom appeared. As a soldier he was not inferior in courage and endurance to the hardiest veteran of his legions; and his military ability places him in the first rank of commanders who have contended with and overcome almost insurmountable obstacles. Cicero ranks him in the first class of orators; and his own immortal work, his History of the Gallic Campaign and the Civil War, is a literary monument which distinguishes him among all other commanders. As a speaker and a writer he had no superior among his contemporaries. His varied talents are further shown by his numerous literary labours, of which some small notices remain. His views were large and enlightened, his schemes were vast and boundless. His genius deserved a better sphere than the degenerate republic in which he lived. But the power which he acquired did not die with him. A youth of tender age succeeded to the name and the inheritance of Cæsar, and by his great talents and a long career of wonderful success consolidated that Monarchy which we call the Roman Empire.
Shakspere has founded his play of Julius Cæsar on Plutarch's Life of Cæsar and the Lives of Brutus and Antonius. The passages in North's version which he has more particularly turned to his purpose are collected in Mr. Knight's edition of Shakspere (8vo. edition).
Shakspere has three Roman plays, Coriolanus, Julius Cæsar, and Antony and Cleopatra. As a drama the first is the best. The play of Julius Cæsar has been estimated very differently by different critics. Mr.
Knight has many valuable remarks on these Roman plays (vol. xi.), and he has shown the way, as he conceives, in which they should be viewed.
The Julius Cæsar is so constructed as to show the usurpation and death of Cæsar, and the fall of Brutus, the chief of the assassins, at the battle of Philippi. With Brutus the hopes of his party fell. The play should therefore rather be entitled Marcus Brutus than Julius Cæsar; and it is deficient in that unity without which no great dramatic effect can be produced. The name and the fame of Cæsar, the noblest man, That ever lived in the tide of time, obscure the meaner talents of Brutus; and that death which in Plutarch forms a truly tragical catastrophe, here occurs in the middle of the action, which would appropriately terminate with it. But we have to follow the historical course of events; we follow Brutus to his fate at the battle of Philippi, and witness the vengeance of which Cæsar's ghost forewarns the false friends. Shakspere may have meant to represent Brutus as the last of the Romans, and the Republic as dying with him; but he also represents him as haunted by the ghost of his murdered benefactor, and losing heart before the final contest. The "great dæmon" of Cæsar avenged him on his enemies; and in this point of view the play has a unity. Brutus dies like a Roman, and that murder to which he was led by the instigation of others, only renders the Monarchy inevitable and necessary. But if the play is faulty in construction, as I venture to think it is, it has other merits of the highest order, which place it in some respects among the best works of the great master of dramatic art.]
LIFE OF PHOKION.
I. The orator Demades, who became one of the chief men in Athens by his subservience to the Macedonians and Antipater, and who was forced to say and to write much that was derogatory to the glory and contrary to the traditional policy of Athens, used to excuse himself by pleading that he did not come to the helm before the vessel of the State was an utter wreck. This expression, which seems a bold one when used by Demades, might with great truth have been applied to the policy of Phokion. Indeed Demades himself wrecked Athens by his licentious life and policy, and when he was an old man Antipater said of him that he was like a victim which has been cut up for sacrifice, for there was nothing left of him but his tongue and his paunch; while the true virtue of Phokion was obscured by the evil days for Greece during which he lived, which prevented his obtaining the distinction which he deserved. We must not believe Sophokles, when he says that virtue is feeble and dies out in men: "Why, not the very mind that's born with man, When he's unfortunate, remains the same."
Yet we must admit that fortune has so much power even over good men, that it has sometimes withheld from them their due meed of esteem and praise, has sullied their reputations with unworthy calumnies, and made it difficult for the world to believe in their virtue.
II. It would seem that democracies, when elated by success, are especially prone to break out into wanton maltreatment of their greatest men; and this is also true in the opposite case: for misfortunes render popular assemblies harsh, irritable, and uncertain in temper, so that it becomes a dangerous matter to address them, because they take offence at any speaker who gives them wholesome counsel. When he blames them for their mistakes, they think that he is reproaching them with their misfortunes, and when he speaks his mind freely about their condition, they imagine that he is insulting them.
Just as honey irritates wounds and sores, so does true and sensible advice exasperate the unfortunate, if it be not of a gentle and soothing nature: exactly as the poet calls sweet things agreeable, because they agree with the taste, and do not oppose or fight against it. An inflamed eye prefers the shade, and shuns strong lights: and a city, when involved in misfortunes, becomes timid and weak through its inability to endure plain speaking at a time when it especially needs it, as otherwise its mistakes cannot be repaired. For this reason the position of a statesman in a democracy must always be full of peril; for if he tries merely to please the people he will share their ruin, while if he thwarts them he will be destroyed by them.
Astronomers teach us that the sun does not move in exactly the same course as the stars, and yet not in one which is opposed to them, but by revolving in an inclined and oblique orbit performs an easy and excellent circuit through them all, by which means everything is kept in its place, and its elements combined in the most admirable manner.
So too in political matters, the man who takes too high a tone, and opposes the popular will in all cases, must be thought harsh and morose, while on the other hand he who always follows the people and shares in all their mistakes pursues a dangerous and ruinous policy.
The art of government by which states are made great consists in sometimes making concessions to the people, and gratifying them when they are obedient to authority, and at the same time insisting upon salutary measures. Men willingly obey and support such a ruler if he does not act in a harsh and tyrannical fashion: but he has a very difficult and laborious part to play, and it is hard for him to combine the sternness of a sovereign with the gentleness of a popular leader, If, however, he succeed in combining these qualities, they produce the truest and noblest harmony, like that by which God is said to regulate the universe, as everything is brought about by gentle persuasion, and not by violence.
III. All this was exemplified in the case of the younger Cato: for he had not the art of persuasion and was unacceptable to the people, nor did he rise to eminence by the popular favour, but Cicero[622] says that he lost his consulship because he acted as if he were living in the Republic of Plato, and not in the dregs of Romulus. Such men seem to me to resemble fruits which grow out of season: for men gaze upon them with wonder, but do not eat them: and the stern antique virtue of Cato, displayed as it was in a corrupt and dissolute age, long after the season for it had gone by, gained him great glory and renown, but proved totally useless, as it was of too exalted a type to suit the political exigencies of the day. When Cato began his career, his country was not already ruined, as was that of Phokion. The ship of the state was indeed labouring heavily in the storm, but Cato, although he was not permitted to take the helm and guide the vessel, exerted himself so manfully, and gave so much assistance to those who were more powerful than himself, that he all but triumphed over fortune. The constitution was, no doubt, finally overthrown; but its ruin was due to others, and only took place after a long and severe struggle, during which Cato very nearly succeeded in saving it. I have chosen Phokion to compare with him, not because of the general resemblance of their characters as good and statesmanlike men, for a man may possess the same quality in various forms, as, for example, the courage of Alkibiades was of a different kind to that of Epameinondas; the ability of Themistokles was different to that of Aristeides; and the justice of Numa Pompilius was different to that of Agesilaus. But in the case of Phokion and Cato, their virtues bore the same stamp, form, and ethical complexion down to the most minute particulars. Both alike possessed the same mixture of kindness and severity, of caution and daring: both alike cared for the safety of others and neglected their own: both alike shrank from baseness, and were zealous for the right; so that one would have to use a very nice discrimination to discover the points of difference between their respective dispositions.
IV. Cato is admitted by all writers to have been a man of noble descent, as will be explained in his life: and I imagine that the family of Phokion was not altogether mean and contemptible. If his father had really been a pestle maker, as we are told by Idomeneus, who may be sure that Glaukippus, the son of Hypereides, who collected and flung at him such a mass of abuse, would not have omitted to mention his low birth, nor would he have been so well brought up as to have been a scholar of Plato while a lad, and afterwards to have studied under Xenokrates in the Academy; while from his youth up he always took an interest in liberal branches of learning. We are told by the historian Douris that scarcely any Athenian ever saw Phokion laughing or weeping, or bathing in the public baths, or with his hand outside of his cloak, when he wore one. Indeed when he was in the country or on a campaign he always went barefooted and wore only his tunic, unless the cold was excessively severe; so that the soldiers used to say in jest that it was a sign of wintry weather to see Phokion wearing his cloak.
V. Though one of the kindest and most affable of men, he was of a forbidding and severe countenance, so that men who did not know him