No More Learning

Alexandria, which had supplanted Athens as the intellectual
centre of the world, was now herself beginning to yield precedence
to all-conquering Rome. Theocritus, the last Greek poet of the
highest rank, had died nearly three centuries before, while Lucian,
the gifted reviver of Attic prose, was yet to come. The only other
Greek writer of this period whose works have been widely popular
was the Hebrew Josephus, who was a few years older than Plutarch.
Born of a wealthy and respected family, and living the peaceful
and happy life of the scholar and writer, Plutarch was the faithful
XX-726


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PLUTARCH
exponent of the literary tendencies in his time. His knowledge of
Greek literature was apparently boundless; and his writings are en-
riched by numerous quotations, many of which are from works which
are lost to us, so that these remnants are of the greatest value. In
all that he wrote we see the evidence of a mind well stocked with
the varied learning of his day, interested and curious about a great
variety of problems, fond of moral and philosophical reflections, but
not the originator of new views, nor even the advocate of any dis-
tinct system in philosophy. We admire his sweetness and purity of
character, his culture of mind and heart, and his wide knowledge
of men and life, rather than the depth of his thought or the soaring
height of his genius.
The writings of Plutarch fall naturally into two classes: the
historical and the ethical. The chief work in the first class is the
'Parallel Lives,' consisting of forty-six biographies arranged in pairs,
the life of a Greek being followed in each case by the life of a
Roman. Nineteen of these double biographies are accompanied in
our text by comparisons of the two characters depicted, though these
are probably spurious, and not the work of Plutarch. In this juxta-
position of the great men of the conquered and the conquering race
we recognize the patriotic pride of the Greek biographer. Living at
a time when his country was in servitude to Rome, he delighted in
showing that Greece too, in her palmy days, had produced warriors
and statesmen who were worthy to stand in company with the men
who had made Rome the mistress of the world. In the selection
of his pairs Plutarch was guided, to some extent at least, by a real
or fancied resemblance in the public careers of his heroes. Thus
he groups together Theseus and Romulus as legendary founders of
States, Lycurgus and Numa Pompilius as mythical legislators, Demos-
thenes and Cicero as orators and statesmen. But in many cases, it
must be confessed, the resemblance is slight or entirely wanting.
As a writer of biography the world has scarcely seen the superior
of Plutarch. To be sure, his methods of historical research were
not severely critical, and modern scholars are forced to use his state-
ments with some degree of caution. But it is biography that he
means to write, and not history; and his clear conception of the dif-
ference in spirit between the two forms of composition has done much
to give his 'Lives' their boundless popularity. His purpose was to
portray character rather than narrate events. For this purpose the
many personal touches which he introduces, the anecdotes which he
repeats without too close a scrutiny, are of more value than many
pages of meaningless events, however accurately told. He distinctly
states in his life of Nicias that he will pass over much that is told
by Thucydides, while he endeavors to "gather and propound things
not commonly marked and known, which will serve, I doubt not, to


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11603
decipher the man and his nature. " None of Plutarch's anecdotes
are empty or pointless. They always help to light up the character
which he is describing, and many of them are treasures which we
could ill afford to spare.
But besides these bits of personal character, Plutarch abounds in
grand historical pictures of a sober eloquence, which touches us all
the more because of the severe self-restraint which the writer never
lays aside. He never strives for pathos or dramatic effect; and when
he thrills his reader it is the result of a passionate earnestness, like
that of Thucydides, which cannot be concealed.
In the light of what has been said, it is easy to understand why
the 'Lives' has been perhaps the most widely beloved among all the
literary treasures of Greece. Statesmen and generals, poets and phi-
losophers, alike have expressed their admiration for this book, and the
traces of its influence are to be found everywhere in modern liter-
ature.
The English translation by Sir Thomas North, published in 1579,
though it was not made from the original Greek, but from the great
French version of Amyot, and though it abounds in errors, is yet a
work of the utmost importance, both as a specimen of vigorous and
racy English, and because it is the channel through which Plutarch
became known to the writers of the Elizabethan age, and especially
to Shakespeare. Shakespeare knew no Greek, and his acquaintance
with Plutarch, and through him with the spirit of ancient life, must
be due chiefly to Sir Thomas North. Three of his greatest plays,
'Coriolanus,' 'Julius Cæsar,' and 'Antony and Cleopatra,' are based
on the 'Lives' to such an extent that it is not too much to say
that they would not have been written had not Shakespeare made the
acquaintance of the old Greek biographer. This is especially true of
Julius Cæsar,' in which not merely are the incidents due to Plutarch,
but even much of the language is suggested by Sir Thomas North.
Many other English writers have given us pictures of ancient life,
whose inspiration is plainly drawn from the same abundant source.
As hinted above, Plutarch is not a critical historian according
to modern standards. He does not reach even the plane of histori-
cal accuracy attained by Thucydides or Polybius. But he evidently
consulted the best authorities accessible to him, and used them with
conscientious diligence. We must admit that numerous errors and
contradictions in details have been found in his biographies; and in
particular, his comprehension of Roman politics seems not always to
be clear. But in the portrayal of character he is always effective and
usually correct. Only in his attack upon Herodotus (in the 'Moralia')
for partiality in favor of Athens, he is influenced by his Boeotian
patriotism to do injustice to his great predecessor. (The authenticity
of this tract is much disputed. )


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Of Plutarch's 'Moralia,' or moral essays, we must speak more
briefly. This vast collection, of more than sixty treatises upon a
great variety of subjects, has not received of late the attention
which it deserves. The subjects treated are ethical, literary, and
historical; and they are illustrated with a wealth of anecdote and
quotation unequaled even in the 'Lives. In these charming essays
the Greek author appears as the serene scholar, the experienced and
philosophic observer, throwing light on each subject he touches, and
delighting the reader with wise reflection and with quaint and un-
usual learning. Among the most interesting portions of the 'Morals,'
are the essays on the Late Vengeance of the Deity, the Education
of Children, the Right Way of Hearing Poetry, on Superstition, and
the so-called Consolation to Apollonius (on the death of his son).
But Plutarch treats also of more obscure and recondite subjects, such
as the Dæmon of Socrates, the Cessation of Oracles, Isis and Osiris,
and others. Indeed, it would be necessary to quote the whole list of
titles of the essays in order to give an adequate conception of their
diversity of subject, and the wide scope of knowledge which they
display. No ancient writer shows so complete a command of Greek
literature and history, combined with so rich a fund of information
bearing upon religion, philosophy, and social life. The style of these
essays is scarcely less admirable than their matter; for while some-
times rugged and involved, it is never marred by affectation or strain-
ing for effect.
It is inevitable to compare Plutarch, in the 'Morals,' with Seneca,
who was only fifty years his senior; but the Greek appears to the
better advantage in the comparison. While Seneca is often prosy and
tiresome, Plutarch is always genial and sympathetic; and his genu-
ine nobility of sentiment and moral feeling is far more attractive
than the somewhat formal sermonizing of the Roman Stoic. Nor can
we forget that Seneca was the supple minister of one of the worst of
the Roman emperors, while Plutarch's life is free from the smallest
taint of insincerity.
In many aspects Plutarch suggests Montaigne, who was one of his
most sympathetic readers. The witty Frenchman was perhaps his
superior in originality and point; but Plutarch far excels his modern.
admirer in elevation of thought and purity of tone. Yet no one has
praised Plutarch more worthily, or more sincerely, than Montaigne.
“We dunces had been lost," he says, "had not this book raised us
out of the dust. By this favor of his we dare now speak and write.
'Tis our breviary. ”
Елижан Виль сварр


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11605
PERICLES
From the Lives of Illustrious Men. Reprinted with the approval of Little,
Brown & Co. , publishers
P
ERICLES was of the tribe Acamantis and the township of
Cholargus, of the noblest birth both on his father's and
mother's side. Xanthippus, his father, who defeated the
King of Persia's generals in the battle at Mycale, took to wife
Agariste, the grandchild of Clisthenes,-who drove out the sons
of Pisistratus and nobly put an end to their tyrannical usurpa-
tion, and moreover, made a body of laws and settled a model of
government admirably tempered and suited for the harmony and
safety of the people.
His mother, being near her time, fancied in a dream that she
was brought to bed of a lion; and a few days after was deliv-
ered of Pericles, in other respects perfectly formed, only his head
was somewhat longish and out of proportion. For which reason
almost all the images and statues that were made of him have
the head covered with a helmet, the workmen apparently being
willing not to expose him. The poets of Athens called him
Schinocephalos, or squill-head, from schinos, a squill or sea-onion.
The master that taught him music, most authors are agreed,
was Damon (whose name, they say, ought to be pronounced
with the first syllable short). Though Aristotle tells us that he
was thoroughly practiced in all accomplishments of this kind by
Pythoclides, Damon, it is not unlikely, being a sophist, out of
policy sheltered himself under the profession of music to conceal
from people in general his skill in other things; and under this
pretense attended Pericles, the young athlete of politics, so to
say, as his training-master in these exercises. Damon's lyre,
however, did not prove altogether a successful blind; he was
banished the country by ostracism for ten years, as a dangerous
intermeddler and a favorer of arbitrary power; and by this means
gave the stage occasion to play upon him. As, for instance,
Plato the comic poet introduces a character, who questions him:
"Tell me, if you please,
Since you're the Chiron who taught Pericles. »
Pericles also was a hearer of Zeno the Eleatic, who treated
of natural philosophy in the same manner Parmenides did, but


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PLUTARCH
had also perfected himself in an art of his own for refuting and
silencing opponents in argument; as Timon of Phlius describes
it,-
"Also the two-edged tongue of mighty Zeno, who,
Say what one would, could argue it untrue. "
But he that saw most of Pericles, and furnished him most
especially with a weight and grandeur of intellect superior to
all arts of popularity, and in general gave him his elevation
and sublimity of purpose and of character, was Anaxagoras of
Clazomenæ, whom the men of those times called by the name
of Nous, that is, mind or intelligence; - whether in admiration
of the great and extraordinary gift he displayed for the science of
nature, or because he was the first of the philosophers who did
not refer the first ordering of the world to fortune or chance,
nor to necessity or compulsion, but to a pure, unadulterated in-
telligence, which in all other existing mixed and compound things
acts as a principle of discrimination, and of combination of like
with like.
-
For this man, Pericles entertained an extraordinary esteem and
admiration; and filling himself with this lofty and-as they call
it-up-in-the-air sort of thought, derived hence not merely, as
was natural, elevation of purpose and dignity of language, raised
far above the base and dishonest buffooneries of mob eloquence,
but besides this, a composure of countenance and a serenity and
calmness in all his movements, which no occurrence whilst he
was speaking could disturb; with a sustained and even tone of
voice, and various other advantages of a similar kind, which pro-
duced the greatest effect on his hearers. Once, after being reviled
and ill-spoken of all day long in his own hearing by some vile
and abandoned fellow in the open market-place, where he was
engaged in the dispatch of some urgent affair, he continued his
business in perfect silence, and in the evening returned home.
composedly, the man still dogging him at the heels, and pelting.
him all the way with abuse and foul language; and stepping into
his house, it being by this time dark, he ordered one of his serv
ants to take a light and go along with the man and see him
safe home. Ion, it is true, the dramatic poet, says that Pericles's
manner in company was somewhat over-assuming and pomp-
ous; and that into his high bearing there entered a good deal of
slightingness and scorn of others; he reserves his commendation


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11607
for Cimon's ease and pliancy and natural grace in society. Ion,
however, who must needs make virtue, like a show of tragedies,
include some comic scenes, we shall not altogether rely upon:
Zeno used to bid those who called Pericles's gravity the affecta-
tion of a charlatan, to go and affect the like themselves; inas-
much as this mere counterfeiting might in time insensibly instill
into them a real love and knowledge of those noble qualities.
Nor were these the only advantages which Pericles derived.
from Anaxagoras's acquaintance; he seems also to have become,
by his instructions, superior to that superstition with which an
ignorant wonder at appearances in the heavens, for example, pos-
sesses the minds of people unacquainted with their causes, eager
for the supernatural, and excitable through an inexperience which
the knowledge of natural causes removes, replacing wild and
timid superstition by the good hope and assurance of an intelli-
gent piety.
Pericles, while yet but a young man, stood in considerable
apprehension of the people, as he was thought in face and figure
to be very like the tyrant Pisistratus; and those of great age
remarked upon the sweetness of his voice, and his volubility and
great rapidity in speaking, and were struck with amazement at
the resemblance. Reflecting, too, that he had a considerable
estate, and was descended of a noble family, and had friends of
great influence, he was fearful all this might bring him to be
banished as a dangerous person; and for this reason meddled
not at all with State affairs, but in military service showed him-
self of a brave and intrepid nature. But when Aristides was
now dead, and Themistocles driven out, and Cimon was for the
most part kept abroad by the expeditions he made in parts out
of Greece, Pericles seeing things in this posture, now advanced
and took sides not with the rich and few, but with the many
and poor; contrary to his natural bent, which was far from demo-
cratical, but most likely fearing he might fall under suspicion
of aiming at arbitrary power, and seeing Cimon on the side of
the aristocracy, and much beloved by the better and more distin-
guished people, he joined the part of the people, with a view at
once both to secure himself and procure means against Cimon.
He immediately entered also on quite a new course of life
and management of his time. For he was never seen to walk
in any street but that which led to the market-place and the
council hall: and he avoided invitations of friends to supper, and


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PLUTARCH
all friendly visiting and intercourse whatever; in all the time he
had to do with the public, which was not a little, he was never
known to have gone to any of his friends to a supper, except
that once when his near kinsman Euryptolemus married, he
remained present till the ceremony of the drink-offering, and then
immediately rose from the table and went his way. For these
friendly meetings are very quick to defeat any assumed superior-
ity, and in intimate familiarity an exterior of gravity is hard to
maintain.
A saying also of Thucydides the son of Melesias stands on
record, spoken by him by way of pleasantry upon Pericles's dex-
terity. Thucydides was one of the noble and distinguished citi-
zens, and had been his greatest opponent; and when Archidamus,
the King of the Lacedæmonians, asked him whether he or Peri-
cles were the better wrestler, he made this answer: "When I,"
said he, "have thrown him and given him a fair fall, by persist-
ing that he had no fall he gets the better of me, and makes the
bystanders, in spite of their own eyes, believe him. " The truth
however is, that Pericles himself was very careful what and how
he was to speak; insomuch that whenever he went up to the
hustings, he prayed the gods that no one word might unawares
slip from him unsuitable to the matter and the occasion.
That which gave most pleasure and ornament to the city of
Athens, and the greatest admiration and even astonishment to all
strangers, and that which now is Greece's only evidence that the
power she boasts of and her ancient wealth are no romance or
idle story, was his construction of the public and sacred buildings.
Yet this was that of all his actions in the government which his
enemies most looked askance upon, and caviled at in the popular
assemblies: crying out how that the commonwealth of Athens had
lost its reputation, and was ill spoken of abroad for removing the
common treasure of the Greeks from the isle of Delos into their
own custody; and how that their fairest excuse for so doing,—
namely, that they took it away for fear the barbarians should
seize it, and on purpose to secure it in a safe place,—this Peri-
cles had made unavailable; and how that Greece cannot but
resent it as an insufferable affront, and consider herself to be
tyrannized over openly, when she sees the treasure which was
contributed by her upon a necessity for the war, wantonly lav-
ished out by us upon our city, to gild her all over, and to adorn
and set her forth, as it were some vain woman, hung round with
·


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11609
precious stones and figures and temples which cost a world of
money. »
Pericles, on the other hand, informed the people that they
were in no way obliged to give any account of those moneys to
their allies, so long as they maintained their defense, and kept
off the barbarians from attacking them: while in the mean time.
they did not so much as supply one horse or man or ship, but
only found money for the service; "which money," said he, “is
not theirs that give it, but theirs that receive it, if so be they
perform the conditions upon which they receive it. " And that it
was good reason that now the city was sufficiently provided and
stored with all things necessary for the war, they should con-
vert the overplus of its wealth to such undertakings as would
hereafter, when completed, give them eternal honor, and for the
present, while in process, freely supply all the inhabitants with
plenty. With their variety of workmanship, and of occasions for
service, which summon all arts and trades and require all hands
to be employed about them, they do actually put the whole city,
in a manner, into State pay; while at the same time she is both
beautified and maintained by herself. For as those who are of
age and strength for war are provided for and maintained in the
armaments abroad by their pay out of the public stock, so, it
being his desire and design that the undisciplined mechanic mul-
titude that stayed at home should not go without their share of
public salaries, and yet should not have them given them for
sitting still and doing nothing, to the end he thought fit to bring
in among them, with the approbation of the people, these vast
projects of buildings and designs of works, that would be of
some continuance before they were finished, and would give
employment to numerous arts, so that the part of the people
that stayed at home might, no less than those that were at sea
or in garrisons or on expeditions, have a fair and just occasion
of receiving the benefit and having their share of the public
moneys.
The materials were stone, brass, ivory, gold, ebony, cypress-
wood; and the arts or trades that wrought and fashioned them
were smiths and carpenters, molders, founders and braziers,
stone-cutters, dyers, goldsmiths, ivory-workers, painters, embroi-
derers, turners; those again that conveyed them to the town for
use were merchants and mariners and shipmasters by sea, and
by land, cartwrights, cattle-breeders, wagoners, rope-makers, flax-


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PLUTARCH
workers, shoemakers and leather-dressers, road-makers, miners.
And every trade in the same nature, as a captain in an army
has his particular company of soldiers under him, had its own
hired company of journeymen and laborers belonging to it,
banded together as in array, to be as it were the instrument and
body for the performance of the service. Thus, to say all in a
word, the occasions and services of these public works distributed
plenty through every age and condition.
As then grew the works up, no less stately in size than exqui-
site in form, the workmen striving to outvie the material and
the design with the beauty of their workmanship, yet the most
wonderful thing of all was the rapidity of their execution. Un-
dertakings, any one of which singly might have required, they
thought, for their completion, several successions and ages of
men, were every one of them accomplished in the height and
prime of one man's political service. Although they say too that
Zeuxis once, having heard Agatharchus the painter boast of hav-
ing dispatched his work with speed and ease, replied, “I take
a long time. " For ease and speed in doing a thing do not give
the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty; the expenditure
of time allowed to a man's pains beforehand for the production
of a thing is repaid, by way of interest, with a vital force for
its preservation when once produced. For which reason Pericles's
works are especially admired, as having been made quickly yet
to last long. For every particular piece of his work was imme-
diately, even at that time, for its beauty and elegance, antique;
and yet in its vigor and freshness looks to this day as if it were
just executed. There is a sort of bloom of newness upon those
works of his, preserving them from the touch of time, as if they
had some perennial spirit and undying vitality mingled in the
composition of them.
The Lacedæmonians beginning to show themselves troubled
at the growth of the Athenian power, Pericles, on the other
hand, to elevate the people's spirit yet more, and to raise them
to the thought of great actions, proposed a decree, to summon
all the Greeks in what part soever, whether of Europe or Asia,
every city, little as well as great, to send their deputies to
Athens to a general assembly or convention, there to consult
and advise concerning the Greek temples which the barbarians
had burnt down, and the sacrifices which were due from them
upon vows they had made to their gods for the safety of Greece


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11611
when they fought against the barbarians; and also concerning
the navigation of the sea, that they might henceforward all of
them pass to and fro and trade securely, and be at peace among
themselves.
Nothing was effected, nor did the cities meet by their depu-
ties, as was desired; the Lacedæmonians, as it is said, crossing
the design underhand, and the attempt being disappointed and
baffled first in Peloponnesus. I thought fit, however, to intro-
duce the mention of it, to show the spirit of the man and the
greatness of his thoughts.
After this, having made a truce between the Athenians and
Lacedæmonians for thirty years, he ordered by public decree the
expedition against the isle of Samos, on the ground that when
the Samians were bid to leave off their war with the Milesians,
they had not complied. And as these measures against them
are thought to have been taken to please Aspasia, this may be
a fit point for inquiry about the woman: what art or faculty of
charming she had that enabled her to captivate, as she did, the
greatest of statesmen, and to give the philosophers occasion to
speak so much about her, and that too not to her disparagement.
That she was a Milesian by birth, the daughter of Axiochus,
is a thing acknowledged. And they say it was in emulation of
Thargelia, a courtesan of the old Ionian times, that she made.
her addresses to men of great power. Thargelia was a great
beauty, extremely charming, and at the same time sagacious:
she had numerous suitors among the Greeks and brought all
who had to do with her over to the Persian interest; and by
their means, being men of the greatest power and station, sowed
the seeds of the Median faction up and down in several cities.
Some say that Aspasia was courted and caressed by Pericles on
account of her knowledge and skill in politics. Socrates himself
would sometimes go to visit her, and some of his acquaintance
with him; and those who frequented her company would carry
their wives with them to listen to her. Her occupation was any-
thing but creditable, her house being a home for young cour-
tesans. Æschines tells us also that Lysicles, a sheep-dealer, a
man of low birth and character, by keeping Aspasia company
after Pericles's death came to be chief man in Athens. And
in Plato's 'Menexenus,' though we do not take the introduction
as quite serious, still thus much seems to be historical: that she
had the repute of being resorted to by many of the Athenians for


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PLUTARCH
instruction in the art of speaking. Pericles's inclination for her
seems, however, to have rather proceeded from the passion of
love. He had a wife that was near of kin to him, who had been
married first to Hipponicus, by whom she had Callias, surnamed
the Rich; and also she bore to Pericles, while she lived with
him, two sons, Xanthippus and Paralus. Afterwards, when they
did not well agree nor like to live together, he parted with her,
with her own consent, to another man, and himself took Aspasia
and loved her with wonderful affection: every day, both as he
went out and as he came in from the market-place, he saluted
and kissed her.
Phidias the sculptor had, as has before been said, undertaken
to make the statute of Minerva. Now he, being admitted to
friendship with Pericles, and a great favorite of his, had many
enemies upon this account, who envied and maligned him; who
also, to make trial in a case of his what kind of judges the com-
mons would prove, should there be occasion to bring Pericles him-
self before them,- having tampered with Menon, one who had
been a workman with Phidias, stationed him in the market-place,
with a petition desiring public security upon his discovery and
impeachment of Phidias. The people admitting the man to tell
his story, and the prosecution proceeding in the assembly, there
was nothing of theft or cheat proved against him; for Phidias
from the very first beginning, by the advice of Pericles, had so
wrought and wrapt the gold that was used in the work about the
statue, that they might take it all off and make out the just
weight of it, which Pericles at that time bade the accusers do.
But the reputation of his works was what brought envy upon
Phidias; especially, that where he represents the flight of the
Amazons upon the goddess's shield, he had introduced a likeness.
of himself as a bald old man holding up a great stone with
both hands, and had put in a very fine representation of Pericles
fighting with an Amazon. And the position of the hand, which
holds out the spear in front of the face, was ingeniously con-
trived to conceal in some degree the likeness, which meantime
showed itself on either side.
Phidias then was carried away to prison, and there died of a
disease; but as some say, of poison administered by the enemies
of Pericles, to raise a slander, or a suspicion at least, as though
he had procured it. The informer Menon, upon Glycon's pro-
posal, the people made free from payment of taxes and customs,


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11613
and ordered the generals to take care that nobody should do him
any hurt. About the same time, Aspasia was indicted of impiety,
upon the complaint of Hermippus the comedian; who also laid
further to her charge that she received into her house freeborn
women for the uses of Pericles. And Diophites proposed a
decree, that public accusations should be laid against persons who
neglected religion, or taught new doctrines about things above;
directing suspicion, by means of Anaxagoras, against Pericles
himself. The people receiving and admitting these accusations
and complaints, at length by this means they came to enact a
decree, at the motion of Dracontides, that Pericles should bring
in the accounts of the moneys he had expended, and lodge them
with the Prytanes; and that the judges, carrying their suffrage
from the altar in the Acropolis, should examine and determine
the business in the city. This last clause Hagnon took out of
the decree, and moved that the causes should be tried before
fifteen hundred jurors, whether they should be styled prosecutions
for robbery, or bribery, or any kind of malversation. Pericles
begged off Aspasia; shedding, as Æschines says, many tears at
the trial, and personally entreating the jurors. But fearing how
it might go with Anaxagoras, he sent him out of the city. And
finding that in Phidias's case he had miscarried with the people,
being afraid of impeachment, he kindled the war, which hitherto
had lingered and smothered, and blew it up into a flame; hoping
by that means to disperse and scatter these complaints and
charges, and to allay their jealousy; the city usually throwing
herself upon him alone, and trusting to his sole conduct, upon
the urgency of great affairs and public dangers, by reason of his
authority and the sway he bore.
Pericles, however, was not at all moved by any attacks, but
took all patiently, and submitted in silence to the disgrace they
threw upon him and the ill-will they bore him; and sending out
a fleet of a hundred galleys to Peloponnesus, he did not go along
with it in person, but stayed behind, that he might watch at
home and keep the city under his own control, till the Pelopon-
nesians broke up their camp and were gone. Yet to soothe the
common people, jaded and distressed with the war, he relieved
them with distributions of public moneys, and ordained new divis-
ions of subject land. For having turned out all the people of
Ægina, he parted the island among the Athenians according to
lot. Some comfort, also, and ease in their miseries, they might


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PLUTARCH
receive from what their enemies endured. For the fleet, sailing
round the Peloponnesus, ravaged a great deal of the country,
and pillaged and plundered the towns and smaller cities; and by
land he himself entered with an army the Megarian country, and
made havoc of it all. Whence it is clear that the Peloponnesians,
though they did the Athenians much mischief by land, yet suffer-
ing as much themselves from them by sea, would not have pro-
tracted the war to such a length, but would quickly have given.
it over, as Pericles at first foretold they would, had not some
divine power crossed human purposes.
In the first place, the pestilential disease or plague seized
upon the city, and ate up all the flower and prime of their youth
and strength. Upon occasion of which, the people, distempered
and afflicted in their souls as well as in their bodies, were utterly
enraged like madmen against Pericles; and like patients grown
delirious, sought to lay violent hands on their physician, or as it
were, their father. They had been possessed, by his enemies,
with the belief that the occasion of the plague was the crowd-
ing of the country people together into the town, forced as they
were now, in the heat of the summer weather, to dwell many of
them together even as they could, in small tenements and sti-
fling hovels, and to be tied to a lazy course of life within doors,
whereas before they lived in a pure, open, and free air. The
cause and author of all this, said they, is he who on account of
the war has poured a multitude of people from the country in
upon us within the walls, and uses all these many men that
he has here upon no employ or service, but keeps them pent up
like cattle, to be overrun with infection from one another, afford-
ing them neither shift of quarters nor any refreshment.
With the design to remedy these evils, and to do the enemy
some inconvenience, Pericles got a hundred and fifty galleys
ready, and having embarked many tried soldiers, both foot and
horse, was about to sail out; giving great hope to his citizens,
and no less alarm to his enemies, upon the sight of so great a
force. And now the vessels having their complement of men,
and Pericles being gone aboard his own galley, it happened
that the sun was eclipsed, and it grew dark on a sudden, to the
affright of all,- for this was looked upon as extremely ominous.
Pericles, therefore, perceiving the steersman seized with fear and
at a loss what to do, took his cloak and held it up before the
man's face, and screening him with it so that he could not see,


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11615
asked him whether he imagined there was any great hurt or the
sign of any great hurt in this; and he answering No, "Why,"
said he, "and what does that differ from this, only that what
has caused that darkness there is something greater than a
cloak? " This is a story which philosophers tell their scholars.
His domestic concerns were in an unhappy condition, many
of his friends and acquaintance having died in the plague-time,
and those of his family having long since been in disorder and
in a kind of mutiny against him.
Xanthippus died in the plague-time, of that sickness. At
which time Pericles also lost his sister, and the greatest part of
his relations and friends, and those who had been most useful
and serviceable to him in managing the affairs of State. Yet
he did not shrink or give in upon these occasions, nor betray or
lower his high spirit and the greatness of his mind under all his
misfortunes; he was not even so much as seen to weep or to
mourn, or even attend the burial of any of his friends or rela-
tions, till at last he lost his only remaining legitimate son. Sub-
dued by this blow, and yet striving still as far as he could to
maintain his principle, and to preserve and keep up the great-
ness of his soul,- when he came, however, to perform the cere-
mony of putting a garland of flowers upon the head of the
corpse, he was vanquished by his passion at the sight, so that
he burst into exclamations, and shed copious tears, having never
done any such thing in all his life before.
The city having made trial of other generals for the conduct
of war, and orators for business of State, when they found there
was no one who was of weight enough for such a charge, or
of authority sufficient to be trusted with so great a command,
regretted the loss of him, and invited him again to address and
advise them and to reassume the office of general. He, how-
ever, lay at home in dejection and mourning: but was persuaded
by Alcibiades and others of his friends to come abroad and
show himself to the people; who having, upon his appearance,
made their acknowledgments, and apologized for their untowardly
treatment of him, he undertook the public affairs once more;
and being chosen general, requested that the statute concerning
base-born children, which he himself had formerly caused to be
made, might be suspended, that so the name and race of his
family might not, for absolute want of a lawful heir to succeed,
―


## p. 11616 (#230) ##########################################

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be wholly lost and extinguished. The case of the statute was
thus: Pericles, when long ago at the height of his power in the
State, having then, as has been said, children lawfully begotten,
proposed a law that those only should be reputed true citizens
of Athens who were born of parents both Athenian. After
this, the King of Egypt having sent to the people, as a present,
forty thousand bushels of wheat, which were to be shared out
among the citizens, a great many actions and suits about legiti-
macy occurred by virtue of that edict,-cases which till that
time had either not been known or not been taken notice of;
and several persons suffered by false accusations. There were
little less than five thousand who were convicted and sold for
slaves; those who, enduring the test, remained in the govern-
ment and passed muster for true Athenians, were found upon
the poll to be fourteen thousand and forty persons in number.
It looked strange that a law which had been carried so far
against so many people, should be canceled again by the same
man that made it; yet the present calamity and distress which
Pericles labored under in his family broke through all objections,
and prevailed with the Athenians to pity him, as one whose
losses and misfortunes had sufficiently punished his former arro-
gance and haughtiness. His sufferings deserved, they thought,
their pity and even indignation, and his request was such as
became a man to ask and men to grant: they gave him permis-
sion to enroll his son in the register of his fraternity, giving
him his own name. This son afterward, after having defeated
the Peloponnesians at Arginusæ, was with his fellow-generals
put to death by the people.
About the time when his son was enrolled, it should seem,
the plague seized Pericles; not with sharp and violent fits, as it
did others that had it, but with a dull and lingering distemper,
attended with various changes and alterations, leisurely by little
and little wasting the strength of his body and undermining the
noble faculties of his soul. So that Theophrastus, in his 'Morals,'
- when discussing whether men's characters change with their
circumstances, and their moral habits, disturbed by the ailings of
their bodies, start aside from the rules of virtue,- has left it on
record that Pericles, when he was sick, showed one of his friends
that came to visit him an amulet or charm that the women had
hung about his neck, as much as to say that he was very sick
indeed when he would admit of such a foolery as that was.


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11617
When he was now near his end, the best of the citizens and
those of his friends who were left alive, sitting about him, were
speaking of the greatness of his merit, and his power, and reckon-
ing up his famous actions and the number of his victories; for
there were no less than nine trophies, which as their chief com-
mander and the conqueror of their enemies he had set up for the
honor of the city. They talked thus together among themselves,
as though he were unable to understand or mind what they said,
but had now lost his consciousness. He had listened however
all the while, and attended to all; and speaking out among them
said that he wondered they should commend and take notice of
things which were as much owing to fortune as to anything
else, and had happened to many other commanders, and at the
same time should not speak or make mention of that which was
the most excellent and greatest thing of all: "For," said he, "no
Athenian, through my means, ever wore mourning. "
He was indeed a character deserving our high admiration: not
only for his equable and mild temper,-which all along in the
many affairs of his life, and the great animosities which he
incurred, he constantly maintained,— but also for the high spirit
and feeling which made him regard it the noblest of all his
honors, that in the exercise of such immense power he never had
gratified his envy or his passion, nor ever had treated any enemy
as irreconcilably opposed to him. And to me it appears that this
one thing gives that otherwise childish and arrogant title a fit-
ting and becoming significance: so dispassionate a temper, a life
so pure and unblemished in the height of power and place, might
well be called Olympian, in accordance with our conception of
the divine beings to whom, as the natural authors of all good
and nothing evil, we ascribe the rule and government of the
world. Not as the poets represent, who, while confounding us
with their ignorant fancies, are themselves confuted by their own
poems and fictions, and call the place indeed where they say the
gods make their abode, a secure and quiet seat, free from all
hazards and commotions, untroubled with winds or with clouds,
and equally through all time illumined with a soft serenity and
a pure light, as though such were a home most agreeable for a
blessed and immortal nature; and yet in the mean while affirm
that the gods themselves are full of trouble and enmity and
anger and other passions, which noway become or belong to even
men that have any understanding. But this will perhaps seem
XX-727


## p. 11618 (#232) ##########################################

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PLUTARCH
a subject fitter for some other consideration, and that ought to be
treated of in some other place.
The course of public affairs after his death produced a quick
and speedy sense of the loss of Pericles. Those who while he
lived resented his great authority, as that which eclipsed them-
selves, presently after his quitting the stage, making trial of other
orators and demagogues, readily acknowledged that there never
had been in nature such a disposition as his was, more moderate
and reasonable in the height of that state he took upon him, or
more grave and impressive in the mildness which he used. And
that invidious arbitrary power, to which formerly they gave the
name of monarchy and tyranny, did then appear to have been
the chief bulwark of public safety: so great a corruption and
such a flood of mischief and vice followed, which he, by keeping
weak and low, had withheld from notice, and had prevented from
attaining incurable height through a licentious impunity.
CORIOLANUS
From the Lives of Illustrious Men. Reprinted with the approval of Little,
Brown & Co. , publishers
I'
T MAY be observed in general, that when young men arrive
early at fame and repute, if they are of a nature but slightly
touched with emulation, this early attainment is apt to extin-
guish their thirst and satiate their small appetite: whereas the
first distinctions of more solid and weighty characters do but
stimulate and quicken them and take them away, like a wind,
in the pursuit of honor; they look upon these marks and testi-
monies to their virtue not as a recompense received for what
they have already done, but as a pledge given by themselves of
what they will perform hereafter; ashamed now to forsake or
underlive the credit they have won, or rather, not to exceed and
obscure all that is gone before by the lustre of their following
actions.
Marcius, having a spirit of this noble make, was ambitious
always to surpass himself, and did nothing, how extraordinary
soever, but he thought he was bound to outdo it at the next
occasion; and ever desiring to give continual fresh instances.
of his prowess, he added one exploit to another, and heaped up
trophies upon trophies, so as to make it a matter of contest also


## p. 11619 (#233) ##########################################

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11619
among his commanders,- the later still vying with the earlier,
which should pay him the greatest honor and speak highest
in his commendation.
Of all the numerous wars and conflicts in
those days, there was not one from which he returned without
laurels and rewards. And whereas others made glory the end of
their daring, the end of his glory was his mother's gladness; the
delight she took to hear him praised and to see him crowned,
and her weeping for joy in his embraces, rendered him, in his
own thoughts, the most honored and most happy person in the
world.
"
The Romans were now at war with the Volscian nation, whose
principal city was Corioli; when therefore Cominius the consul
had invested this important place, the rest of the Volscians, fear-
ing it would be taken, mustered up whatever force they could
from all parts to relieve it, designing to give the Romans battle
before the city, and so attack them on both sides. Cominius,
to avoid this inconvenience, divided his army, marching himself
with one body to encounter the Volscians on their approach from
without, and leaving Titus Lartius, one of the bravest Romans of
his time, to command the other and continue the siege. Those
within Corioli, despising now the smallness of their number,
made a sally upon them; and prevailed at first, and pursued the
Romans into their trenches. Here it was that Marcius, flying
out with a slender company, and cutting those in pieces that first
engaged him, obliged the other assailants to slacken their speed;
and then with loud cries called on the Romans to renew the
battle. For he had-what Cato thought a great point in a sol-
dier-not only strength of hand and stroke, but also a voice
and look that of themselves were a terror to an enemy. Divers
of his own party now rallying and making up to him, the enemy
soon retreated: but Marcius, not content to see them draw off
and retire, pressed hard upon the rear, and drove them, as they
fled away in haste, to the very gates of their city; where, per-
ceiving the Romans to fall back from their pursuit, beaten off
by the multitude of darts poured in upon them from the walls,
and that none of his followers had the hardiness to think of
falling in pell-mell among the fugitives, and so entering a city
full of enemies in arms, he nevertheless stood and urged them
to the attempt, crying out that fortune had now set open Corioli,
not so much to shelter the vanquished as to receive the conquer-
Seconded by a few that were willing to venture with him,
ors.


## p. 11620 (#234) ##########################################

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PLUTARCH
he bore along through the crowd, made good his passage, and
thrust himself into the gate through the midst of them, nobody
at first daring to resist him. But when the citizens, on looking
about, saw that a very small number had entered, they now took
courage, and came up and attacked them. A combat ensued of
the most extraordinary description, in which Marcius, by strength
of hand and swiftness of foot and daring of soul overpowering
every one that he assailed, succeeded in driving the enemy to
seek refuge for the most part in the interior of the town, while
the remainder submitted, and threw down their arms; thus
affording Lartius abundant opportunity to bring in the rest of
the Romans with ease and safety.
The day after, when Marcius with the rest of the army pre-
sented themselves at the consul's tent, Cominius rose, and having
rendered all due acknowledgment to the gods for the success of
that enterprise, turned next to Marcius, and first of all delivered
the strongest encomium upon his rare exploits, which he had
partly been an eye-witness of himself, in the late battle, and
had partly learned from the testimony of Lartius. And then he
required him to choose a tenth part of all the treasure and horses
and captives that had fallen into their hands, before any division
should be made to others; besides which, he made him the special
present of a horse with trappings and ornaments, in honor of his
actions. The whole army applauded; Marcius however stepped
forth, and declaring his thankful acceptance of the horse, and his
gratification of the praises of his general, said that all other things,
which he could only regard rather as mercenary advantages than
any significations of honor, he must waive, and should be content
with the ordinary portion of such rewards. "I have only," said
he, "one special grace to beg; and this I hope you will not
deny me. There was a certain hospitable friend of mine among
the Volscians, a man of probity and virtue, who is become a
prisoner, and from former wealth and freedom is now reduced
to servitude. Among his many misfortunes let my intercession
redeem him from the one of being sold as a common slave. ”
Such a refusal and such a request on the part of Marcius were
followed with yet louder acclamations; and he had many more
admirers of this generous superiority to avarice, than of the brav
ery he had shown in battle. The very persons who conceived
some envy and despite to see him so specially honored, could not
but acknowledge that one who could so nobly refuse reward was


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11621
beyond others worthy to receive it; and were more charmed with
that virtue which made him despise advantage, than with any of
those former actions that had gained him his title to it. It is
the higher accomplishment to use money well than to use arms;
but not to desire it is more noble than to use it.
When the noise of approbation and applause ceased, Cominius
resuming, said: "It is idle, fellow-soldiers, to force and obtrude.
those other gifts of ours on one who is unwilling to accept them:
let us therefore give him one of such a kind that he cannot well
reject it; let us pass a vote, I mean, that he shall hereafter be
called Coriolanus, unless you think that his performance at Corioli
has itself anticipated any such resolution. " Hence therefore he
had his third name of Coriolanus, making it all the plainer that
Caius was a personal proper name, and the second or surname
Marcius was one common to his house and family; the third
being a subsequent addition, which used to be imposed either
from some particular act or fortune, bodily characteristic, or good
quality of the bearer.
Not long afterward he stood for the consulship; and now the
people began to relent and incline to favor him, being sensible
what a shame it would be to repulse and affront a man of his
birth and merit after he had done them so many signal serv-
ices. It was usual for those who stood for offices among them
to solicit and address themselves personally to the citizens, pre-
senting themselves in the forum with the toga on alone, and
no tunic under it; either to promote their supplications by the
humility of their dress, or that such as had received wounds
might more readily display those marks of their fortitude. Cer-
tainly it was not out of suspicion of bribery and corruption that
they required all such petitioners for their favor to appear ungirt
and open, without any close garment: as it was much later, and
many ages after this, that buying and selling crept in at their
elections, and money became an ingredient in the public suf-
frages; proceeding thence to attempt their tribunals, and even
attack their camps, till, by hiring the valiant and enslaving iron
to silver, it grew master of the State, and turned their common-
wealth into a monarchy. For it was well and truly said that
the first destroyer of the liberties of a people is he who first
gives them bounties and largesses. At Rome the mischief seems
to have stolen secretly in, and by little and little, not being at
once discerned and taken notice of. It is not certainly known


## p. 11622 (#236) ##########################################

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PLUTARCH
who the man was that there first either bribed the citizens
or corrupted the courts; whereas in Athens, Anytus the son of
Anthemion is said to have been the first that gave money to
the judges, when on his trial, toward the latter end of the Pelo-
ponnesian war, for letting the fort of Pylos fall into the hands
of the enemy,-in a period while the pure and golden race of
men were still in possession of the Roman forum.
Marcius, therefore, as the fashion of candidates was, showing
the scars and gashes that were still visible on his body, from the
many conflicts in which he had signalized himself during a serv-
ice of seventeen years together, they were, so to say, put out
of countenance at this display of merit, and told one another
that they ought in common modesty to create him consul. But
when the day of election was now come, and Marcius appeared
in the forum with a pompous train of senators attending him,
and the patricians all manifested greater concern and seemed to
be exerting greater efforts than they had ever done before on
the like occasion, the commons then fell off again from the kind-
ness they had conceived for him, and in the place of their late
benevolence, began to feel something of indignation and envy;
passions assisted by the fear they entertained, that if a man of
such aristocratic temper, and so influential among the patricians,
should be invested with the power which that office would give
him, he might employ it to deprive the people of all that liberty
which was yet left them. In conclusion they rejected Marcius.
Two other names were announced, to the great mortification of
the senators, who felt as if the indignity reflected rather upon
themselves than on Marcius. He for his part could not bear the
affront with any patience. He had always indulged his temper,
and had regarded the proud and contentious element of human
nature as a sort of nobleness and magnanimity; reason and disci-
pline had not imbued him with that solidity and equanimity which
enters so largely into the virtues of the statesman. He had
never learned how essential it for any one who undertakes
public business, and desires to deal with mankind, to avoid above
all things that self-will, which, as Plato says, belongs to the
family of solitude; and to pursue above all things that capacity
so generally ridiculed, of submission to ill-treatment. Marcius,
straightforward and direct, and possessed with the idea that to
vanquish and overbear all opposition is the true part of bravery,
and never imagining that it was the weakness and womanishness
-


## p. 11623 (#237) ##########################################

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11623
of his nature that broke out, so to say, in these ulcerations of
anger, retired, full of fury and bitterness against the people.
The young patricians too-all that were proudest and most con-
scious of their noble birth-had always been devoted to his
interest; and adhering to him now, with a fidelity that did him
no good, aggravated his resentment with the expression of their
indignation and condolence. He had been their captain, and
their willing instructor in the arts of war when out upon expe-
ditions, and their model in that true emulation and love of excel-
lence which makes men extol, without envy or jealousy, each
other's brave achievements.
There was a man of Antium called Tullus Aufidius, who for
his wealth and bravery and the splendor of his family had the
respect and privilege of a king among the Volscians; but whom
Marcius knew to have a particular hostility to himself, above all
other Romans. Frequent menaces and challenges had passed in
battle between them; and those exchanges of defiance to which
their hot and eager emulation is apt to prompt young soldiers
had added private animosity to their national feelings of opposi-
tion. Yet for all this, considering Tullus to have a certain gen-
erosity of temper, and knowing that no Volscian so much as he
desired an occasion to requite upon the Romans the evils they
had done, he did what much confirms the saying that —
"Hard and unequal is with wrath the strife,
Which makes us buy its pleasures with our life. ”
Putting on such a dress as would make him appear to any whom
he might meet most unlike what he really was, thus, like Ulys-
ses,-
"The town he entered of his mortal foes. "
His arrival at Antium was about evening, and though several
met him in the streets, yet he passed along without being known.
to any, and went directly to the house of Tullus; and entering
undiscovered, went up to the fire-hearth, and seated himself there
without speaking a word, covering up his head. Those of the
family could not but wonder, and yet they were afraid either to
raise or question him, for there was a certain air of majesty both
in his posture and silence; but they recounted to Tullus, being
then at supper, the strangeness of this accident. He immediately
rose from table and came in, and asked who he was, and for


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11624
PLUTARCH
what business he came thither; and then Marcius, unmuffling
himself and pausing awhile, “If,” said he, "you cannot call me
to mind, Tullus, or do not believe your eyes concerning me, I
must of necessity be my own accuser. I am Caius Marcius, the
author of so much mischief to the Volscians; of which, were I
seeking to deny it, the surname of Coriolanus I now bear would
be a sufficient evidence against me. The one recompense I re-
ceived for all the hardships and perils I have gone through was
the title that proclaims my enmity to your nation, and this is
the only thing which is still left me. Of all other advantages I
have been stripped and deprived by the envy and outrage of
the Roman people, and the cowardice and treachery of the magis-
trates and those of my own order. I am driven out as an exile,
and become a humble suppliant at your hearth, not so much
for safety and protection (should I have come hither, had I been
afraid to die? ) as to seek vengeance against those that expelled
me; which methinks I have already obtained by putting myself
into your hands. If therefore you have really a mind to attack
your enemies, come then," make use of that affliction which
you see me in to assist the enterprise, and convert my personal
infelicity into a common blessing to the Volscians; as indeed
I am likely to be more serviceable in fighting for than against
you, with the advantage which I now possess of knowing all the
secrets of the enemy that I am attacking. But if you decline to
make any further attempts, I am neither desirous to live myself,
nor will it be well in you to preserve a person who has been
your rival and adversary of old, and now, when he offers you his
service, appears unprofitable and useless to you. ”
Tullus on hearing this was extremely rejoiced, and giving him
his right hand, exclaimed, "Rise, Marcius, and be of good cour
age: it is a great happiness you bring to Antium, in the present
you make us of yourself; expect everything that is good from the
Volscians. " He then proceeded to feast and entertain him with
every display of kindness; and for several days after, they were
in close deliberation together on the prospects of a war.
Tullus called a general assembly of the Volscians; and the
vote passing for a war, he then proposed that they should call
in Marcius, laying aside the remembrance of former grudges, and
assuring themselves that the services they should now receive
from him as a friend and associate would abundantly outweigh
any harm or damage he had done them when he was their


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11625
enemy. Marcius was accordingly summoned; and having made
his entrance, and spoken to the people, won their good opinion
of his capacity, his skill, counsel, and boldness, not less by his
present words than by his past actions. They joined him in
commission with Tullus, to have full power as general of their
forces in all that related to the war. And he, fearing lest the
time that would be requisite to bring all the Volscians together
in full preparation might be so long as to lose him the oppor-
tunity of action, left order with the chief persons and magistrates
of the city to provide other things; while he himself, prevailing
upon the most forward to assemble and march out with him as
volunteers without staying to be enrolled, made a sudden inroad
into the Roman confines, when nobody expected him, and pos-
sessed himself of so much booty that the Volscians found they
had more than they could either carry away or use in the camp.
The abundance of provision which he gained, and the waste and
havoc of the country which he made, however, were of them-
selves and in his account the smallest results of that invasion:
the great mischief he intended, and his special object in all, was
to increase at Rome the suspicions entertained of the patricians,
and to make them upon worse terms with the people. With this
view, while spoiling all the fields and destroying the property of
other men, he took special care to preserve their farms and land
untouched, and would not allow his soldiers to ravage there, or
seize upon anything which belonged to them.
But when the whole strength of the Volscians was brought
together in the field, with great expedition and alacrity, it
appeared so considerable a body that they agreed to leave part
in garrison, for the security of their towns, and with the other
part to march against the Romans.
All at Rome was in great disorder; they were utterly averse
from fighting, and spent their whole time in cabals and disputes.
and reproaches against each other: until news was brought that the
enemy had laid close siege to Lavinium, where were the images
and sacred things of their tutelar gods, and from whence they
derived the origin of their nation; that being the first city which
Eneas built in Italy. These tidings produced a change as uni-
versal as it was extraordinary in the thoughts and inclinations of
the people.
It was therefore unanimously agreed by all parties that am-
bassadors should be dispatched, offering Coriolanus return to his


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PLUTARCH
country, and desiring he would free them from the terrors and
distresses of the war. The persons sent by the Senate with this
message were chosen out of his kindred and acquaintance, who
naturally expected a very kind reception at their first inter-
view, upon the score of that relation and their old familiarity
and friendship with him; in which, however, they were much
mistaken. Being led through the enemy's camp, they found
him sitting in state amidst the chief men of the Volscians, look-
ing insupportably proud and arrogant. He bade them declare the
cause of their coming, which they did in the most gentle and
tender terms, and with a behavior suitable to their language.
When they had made an end of speaking, he returned them a
sharp answer, full of bitterness and angry resentment, as to what
concerned himself and the ill usage he had received from them:
but as general of the Volscians, he demanded restitution of the
cities and the lands which had been seized upon during the late
war, and that the same rights and franchises should be granted
them at Rome which had been before accorded to the Latins;
since there could be no assurance that a peace would be firm
and lasting without fair and just conditions on both sides. He
allowed them thirty days to consider and resolve.
But when the thirty days were expired, and Marcius appeared
again with his whole army, they sent another embassy to beseech
him that he would moderate his displeasure, and would withdraw
the Volscian army, and then make any proposals he thought best
for both parties: the Romans would make no concessions to men-
aces, but if it were his opinion that the Volscians ought to have
any favor shown them, upon laying down their arms they might
obtain all they could in reason desire.
The reply of Marcius was, that he should make no answer
to this as general of the Volscians: but in the quality still of
a Roman citizen, he would advise and exhort them as the case
stood, not to carry it so high, but think rather of just compliance,
and return to him before three days were at an end, with a rati-
fication of his previous demands; otherwise they must understand
that they could not have any further freedom of passing through
his camp upon idle errands.
When the ambassadors were come back, and had acquainted the
Senate with the answer, seeing the whole State now threatened as
it were by a tempest, and the waves ready to overwhelm them,
they were forced, as we say in extreme perils, to let down the


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11627
sacred anchor. A decree was made that the whole order of their
priests—those who initiated in the mysteries or had the custody
of them, and those who, according to the ancient practice of the
country, divined from birds-should all and every one of them
go in full procession to Marcius with their pontifical array, and
the dress and habit which they respectively used in their several
functions, and should urge him as before to withdraw his forces,
and then treat with his countrymen in favor of the Volscians.
He consented so far, indeed, as to give the deputation an admit-
tance into his camp, but granted nothing at all, nor so much as
expressed himself more mildly; but without capitulating or reced-
ing, bade them once for all choose whether they would yield or
fight, since the old terms were the only terms of peace. When
this solemn application proved ineffectual, the priests too return-
ing unsuccessful, they determined to sit still within the city
and keep watch about their walls, intending only to repulse the
enemy should he offer to attack them, and placing their hopes
chiefly in time and in extraordinary accidents of fortune; as to
themselves, they felt incapable of doing anything for their own
deliverance; mere confusion and terror and ill-boding reports pos-
sessed the whole city, till at last a thing happened not unlike
what we so often find represented — without, however, being gen-
erally accepted as true-in Homer.
In the perplexity I
have described, the Roman women went, some to other temples,
but the greater part, and the ladies of highest rank, to the altar
of Jupiter Capitolinus. Among these suppliants was Valeria, sis-
ter to the great Poplicola, who did the Romans eminent service
both in peace and war. Poplicola himself was now deceased,
as is told in the history of his life; but Valeria lived still, and
enjoyed great respect and honor at Rome, her life and conduct
noway disparaging her birth. She, suddenly seized with the sort
of instinct or emotion of mind which I have described, and hap-
pily lighting, not without divine guidance, on the right expedient,
both rose herself and bade the others rise, and went directly with
them to the house of Volumnia, the mother of Marcius. And
coming in and finding her sitting with her daughter-in-law, and
with her little grandchildren on her lap,- Valeria, surrounded
by her female companions, spoke in the name of them all:
"We that now make our appearance, O Volumnia, and you,
Vergilia, are come as mere women to women, not by direction
of the Senate, or an order from the consuls, or the appointment.


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PLUTARCH
of any other magistrate; but the divine being himself, as I con-
ceive, moved to compassion by our prayers, prompted us to visit
you in a body, and request a thing on which our own and the
common safety depends, and which, if you consent to it, will
raise your glory above that of the daughters of the Sabines, who
won over their fathers and their husbands from mortal enmity to
peace and friendship. Arise and come with us to Marcius; join
in our supplication, and bear for your country this true and just
testimony on her behalf: that notwithstanding the many mischiefs
that have been done her, yet she has never outraged you, nor so
much as thought of treating you ill, in all her resentment, but
does now restore you safe into his hands, though there be small
likelihood she should obtain from him any equitable terms. "
The words of Valeria were seconded by the acclamations of
the other women, to which Volumnia made answer: —
"I and Vergilia, my countrywomen, have an equal share with
you all in the common miseries; and we have the additional sor-
row, which is wholly ours, that we have lost the merit and good
fame of Marcius, and see his person confined, rather than pro-
tected, by the arms of the enemy. Yet I account this the great-
est of all misfortunes, if indeed the affairs of Rome be sunk to
so feeble a state as to have their last dependence upon us. For
it is hardly imaginable he should have any consideration left for
us, when he has no regard for the country which he was wont
to prefer before his mother and wife and children.
Make use,
however, of our service; and lead us, if you please, to him: we
are able, if nothing more, at least to spend our last breath in
making suit to him for our country. "
Having spoken thus, she took Vergilia by the hand, and the
young children, and so accompanied them to the Volscian camp.
So lamentable a sight much affected the enemies themselves,
who viewed them in respectful silence. Marcius was then sit-
ting in his place, with his chief officers about him, and seeing the
party of women advance toward them, wondered what might be
the matter; but perceiving at length that his mother was at the
head of them, he would fain have hardened himself in his for-
mer inexorable temper: but overcome by his feelings, and con-
founded at what he saw, he did not endure they should approach
him sitting in state, but came down hastily to meet them; salut-
ing his mother first, and embracing her a long time, and then
his wife and children; sparing neither tears nor caresses, but


## p. 11629 (#243) ##########################################

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11629
suffering himself to be borne away and carried headlong, as it
were, by the impetuous violence of his passion.
When he had satisfied himself, and observed that his mother
Volumnia was desirous to say something, the Volscian council
being first called in, he heard her to the following effect:- "Our
dress and our very persons, my son, might tell you, though we
should say nothing ourselves, in how forlorn a condition we have.
lived at home since your banishment and absence from us; and
now consider with yourself, whether we may not pass for the
most unfortunate of all women, to have that sight, which should
be the sweetest that we could see, converted through I know not
what fatality, to one of all others the most formidable and dread-
ful,-Volumnia to behold her son, and Vergilia her husband, in
arms against the walls of Rome. Even prayer itself, whence
others gain comfort and relief in all manner of misfortunes, is
that which most adds to our confusion and distress: since our
best wishes are inconsistent with themselves, nor can we at the
same time petition the gods for Rome's victory and your preser-
vation; but what the worst of our enemies would imprecate as
a curse is the very object of our vows. Your wife and children
are under the sad necessity, that they must either be deprived of
you or of their native soil. As for myself, I am resolved not
to wait till war shall determine this alternative for me; but if I
cannot prevail with you to prefer amity and concord to quarrel
and hostility, and to be the benefactor to both parties rather
than the destroyer of one of them, be assured of this from me,
and reckon steadfastly upon it,- that you shall not be able to
reach your country unless you trample first upon the corpse of
her that brought you into life. For it will be ill in me to wait
and loiter in the world till the day come when I shall see a
child of mine either led in triumph by his own countrymen, or
triumphing over them. Did I require you to save your country
by ruining the Volscians, then, I confess, my son, the case would
be hard for you to solve. It is base to bring destitution on our
fellow-citizens; it is unjust to betray those who have placed their
confidence in us. But as it is, we do but desire a deliverance
equally expedient for them and us; only more glorious and
honorable on the Volscian side, who as superior in arms, will be
thought freely to bestow the two greatest of blessings, peace and
friendship, even when they themselves receive the same.
If we
obtain these, the common thanks will be chiefly due to you as


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PLUTARCH
the principal cause; but if they be not granted, you alone must
expect to bear the blame from both nations. The chance of all
war is uncertain; yet thus much is certain in the present, that
you, by conquering Rome, will only get the reputation of hav-
ing undone your country; but if the Volscians happen to be
defeated under your conduct, then the world will say that to sat-
isfy a revengeful humor, you brought misery on your friends and
patrons. "
―――
Marcius listened to his mother while she spoke, without an-
swering her a word; and Volumnia, seeing him stand mute also
for a long time after she had ceased, resumed:-"O my son,"
said she, "what is the meaning of this silence? Is it a duty to
postpone everything to a sense of injuries, and wrong to gratify
a mother in a request like this? Is it the characteristic of a
great man to remember wrongs that have been done him, and
not the part of a great and good man to remember benefits such
as those that children receive from parents, and to requite them
with honor and respect? You, methinks, who are so relentless
in the punishment of the ungrateful, should not be more careless
than others to be grateful yourself. You have punished your
country already; you have not yet paid your debt to me. Nature
and religion, surely, unattended by any constraint, should have
won your consent to petitions so worthy and so just as these;
but if it must be so, I will even use my last resource. " Having
said this, she threw herself down at his feet, as did also his wife
and children; upon which Marcius, crying out, "O mother! what
is it you have done to me! " raised her up from the ground, and
pressing her right hand with more than ordinary vehemence,
"You have gained a victory," said he, "fortunate enough for the
Romans, but destructive to your son; whom you, though none
else, have defeated. " After which, and a little private conference
with his mother and his wife, he sent them back again to Rome,
as they desired of him.
The next morning he broke up his camp, and led the Vol-
scians homeward, variously affected with what he had done: some
of them complaining of him and condemning his act; others, who
were inclined to a peaceful conclusion, unfavorable to neither.
A third party, while much disliking his proceedings, yet could
not look upon Marcius as a treacherous person, but thought it
pardonable in him to be thus shaken and driven to surrender at
last under such compulsion.


## p. 11631 (#245) ##########################################

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11631
When Marcius came back to Antium, Tullus, who thoroughly
hated and greatly feared him, proceeded at once to contrive how
he might immediately dispatch him; as, if he escaped now, he
was never likely to give him such another advantage. Having
therefore got together and suborned several partisans against
him, he required Marcius to resign his charge, and give the Vol-
scians an account of his administration.
Tullus began to dread the issue of the defense he was going
to make for himself; for he was an admirable speaker, and the
former services he had done the Volscians had procured and still
preserved for him greater kindness than could be outweighed
by any blame for his late conduct. Indeed, the very accusation
itself was a proof and testimony of the greatness of his merits;
since people could never have complained or thought themselves
wronged because Rome was not brought into their power, but
that by his means they had come so near to taking it. For these
reasons the conspirators judged it prudent not to make any
further delays, nor to test the general feeling; but the boldest of
their faction, crying out that they ought not to listen to a traitor,
nor allow him still to retain office and play the tyrant among
them, fell upon Marcius in a body, and slew him there, none of
those that were present offering to defend him. But it quickly
appeared that the action was in no wise approved by the major-
ity of the Volscians, who hurried out of their several cities to
show respect to his corpse; to which they gave honorable inter-
ment, adorning his sepulchre with arms and trophies, as the monu-
ment of a noble hero and a famous general. When the Romans
heard tidings of his death, they gave no other signification of
either honor or of anger towards him, but simply granted the
request of the women, that they might put themselves into mourn-
ing and bewail him for ten months, as the usage was upon the
loss of a father or a son or a brother; that being the period fixed
for the longest lamentation by the laws of Numa Pompilius, as is
more amply told in the account of him.
Marcius was no sooner deceased but the Volscians felt the
need of his assistance. They
were defeated by the Ro-
mans in a pitched battle, where not only Tullus lost his life, but
the principal flower of their whole army was cut in pieces: so
that they were forced to submit and accept of peace upon very
dishonorable terms,- becoming subjects of Rome, and pledging
themselves to submission.
·


## p. 11632 (#246) ##########################################

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PLUTARCH
PLUTARCH ON HIMSELF
From biography of Demosthenes, in the Lives of Illustrious Men. ' Reprinted
by permission of Little, Brown & Co. , publishers.
WHOR
་
HOEVER it was, Sosius, that wrote the poem in honor of
Alcibiades, upon his winning the chariot race at the
Olympian Games,-whether it were Euripides, as is most
commonly thought, or some other person,- he tells us that to a
man's being happy, it is in the first place requisite he should be
born in some famous city. " But for him that would attain to
true happiness, which for the most part is placed in the qualities
and disposition of the mind, it is in my opinion of no other dis-
advantage to be of a mean, obscure country, than to be born of
a small or plain-looking woman. For it were ridiculous to think
that Iulis, a little part of Ceos, which itself is no great island, and
Ægina, which an Athenian once said ought to be removed, like
a small eye-sore, from the port of Piræus, should breed good
actors and poets,* and yet should never be able to produce a
just, temperate, wise, and high-minded man. Other arts, whose
end it is to acquire riches or honor, are likely enough to wither
and decay in poor and undistinguished towns; but virtue, like a
strong and durable plant, may take root and thrive in any place
where it can lay hold of an ingenuous nature, and a mind that
is industrious. I for my part shall desire that for any deficiency
of mine in right judgment or action, I myself may be as in fair-
ness held accountable, and shall not attribute it to the obscurity
of my birthplace.
But if any man undertake to write a history that has to be
collected from materials gathered by observation and the reading
of works not easy to be got in all places, nor written always in
his own language, but many of them foreign and dispersed in
other hands,- for him, undoubtedly, it is in the first place and
above all things most necessary to reside in some city of good
note, addicted to liberal arts, and populous; where he may have
plenty of all sorts of books, and upon inquiry may hear and
inform himself of such particulars as, having escaped the pens
of writers, are more faithfully preserved in the memories of men,
lest his work be deficient in many things, even those which it
can least dispense with.
* Simonides, the lyric poet, was born at Iulis in Ceos; and Polus, the cele-
brated actor, was a native of Ægina.


## p. 11633 (#247) ##########################################

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11633
But for me, I live in a little town, where I am willing to con-
tinue, lest it should grow less; and having had no leisure, while
I was in Rome and other parts of Italy, to exercise myself in
the Roman language, on account of public business and of those
who came to be instructed by me in philosophy, it was very
late, and in the decline of my age, before I applied myself to the
reading of Latin authors. Upon which that which happened to
me may seem strange, though it be true; for it was not so much
by the knowledge of words that I came to the understanding of
things, as by my experience of things I was enabled to follow
the meaning of words. But to appreciate the graceful and ready
pronunciation of the Roman tongue, to understand the various.
figures and connection of words, and such other ornaments in
which the beauty of speaking consists, is, I doubt not, an admi-
rable and delightful accomplishment; but it requires a degree of
practice and study which is not easy, and will better suit those
who have more leisure, and time enough yet before them for the
occupation.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
From the Lives of Illustrious Men. ' Reprinted with the approval of Little,
Brown & Co. , publishers.
the better class and with all well-conducted people his
W [Antony's] general course of life made him, as Cicero says,
absolutely odious; utter disgust being excited by his drink-
ing bouts at all hours, his wild expenses, his gross amours, the
day spent in sleeping or walking off his debauches, and the night
in banquets and at theatres, and in celebrating the nuptials of
some comedian or buffoon.
But it was his character in calamities to be better than at
any other time. Antony in misfortune was most nearly a virtu-
ous man. It is common enough for people when they fall into
great disasters to discern what is right, and what they ought
to do: but there are few who in such extremities have the
strength to obey their judgment, either in doing what it approves
or avoiding what it condemns; and a good many are so weak
as to give way to their habits all the more, and are incapable
of using their minds. Antony on this occasion was a most
wonderful example to his soldiers. He who had just quitted so
XX-728


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11634
PLUTARCH
much luxury and sumptuous living, made no difficulty now of
drinking foul water and feeding on wild fruits and roots. Nay,
it is related they ate the very bark of trees; and in passing over
the Alps, lived upon creatures that no one before had ever been
willing to touch.
Whilst Cæsar in Rome was wearing out his strength amidst
seditions and wars, Antony, with nothing to do amidst the enjoy
ments of peace, let his passions carry him easily back to the old
course of life that was familiar to him. A set of harpers and
pipers, Anaxenor and Xuthus, the dancing-man Metrodorus, and
a whole Bacchic rout of the like Asiatic exhibitors, far outdoing
in license and buffoonery the pests that had followed out of Italy,
came in and possessed the court; the thing was past patience,
wealth of all kinds being wasted on objects like these. The
whole of Asia was like the city in Sophocles, loaded at one time.
<< - with incense in the air,
Jubilant songs, and outcries of despair. "
When he made his entry into Ephesus, the women met him
dressed up like Bacchantes, and the men and boys like Satyrs
and Fauns; and throughout the town nothing was to be seen but
spears wreathed about with ivy, harps, flutes, and psalteries, while
Antony in their songs was Bacchus the Giver of Joy and the
Gentle. And so indeed he was to some, but to far more the
Devourer and the Savage; for he would deprive persons of worth
and quality of their fortunes to gratify villains and flatterers,
who would sometimes beg the estates of men yet living, pretend-
ing they were dead, and, obtaining a grant, take possession. He
gave his cook the house of a Magnesian citizen, as a reward for
a single highly successful supper; and at last, when he was pro-
ceeding to lay a second whole tribute on Asia, Hybreas, speaking
on behalf of the cities, took courage, and told him broadly, but
aptly enough for Antony's taste, "If you can take two yearly
tributes, you can doubtless give us a couple of summers, and a
double harvest-time:" and put it to him in the plainest and bold-
est way, that Asia had raised two hundred thousand talents for
his service; "If this has not been paid to you, ask your collect-
ors for it; if it has, and is all gone, we are ruined men. " These
words touched Antony to the quick, he being simply ignorant
of most things that were done in his name: not that he was so
indolent as he was prone to trust frankly in all about him. For


## p. 11635 (#249) ##########################################

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11635
there was much simplicity in his character: he was slow to see
his faults, but when he did see them, was extremely repentant,
and ready to ask pardon of those he had injured; prodigal in his
acts of reparation, and severe in his punishments, but his gener-
osity was much more extravagant than his severity; his raillery
was sharp and insulting, but the edge of it was taken off by his
readiness to submit to any kind of repartee; for he was as well
contented to be rallied, as he was pleased to rally others. And
this freedom of speech was indeed the cause of many of his dis-
asters. He never imagined that those who used so much liberty
in their mirth would flatter or deceive him in business of conse-
quence; not knowing how common it is with parasites to mix.
their flattery with boldness, as confectioners do their sweetmeats
with something biting, to prevent the sense of satiety. Their
freedoms and impertinences at table were designed expressly to
give to their obsequiousness in council the air of being not com-
plaisance, but conviction.
Such being his temper, the last and crowning mischief that
could befall him came in the love of Cleopatra, to awaken and
kindle to fury passions that as yet lay still and dormant in his
nature, and to stifle and finally corrupt any elements that yet
made resistance in him, of goodness and a sound judgment.
She was to meet Antony in the time of life when women's
beauty is most splendid, and their intellects are in full maturity.
She made great preparations for her journey, of money, gifts,
and ornaments of value, such as so wealthy a kingdom might
afford; but she brought with her her surest hopes in her own
magic arts and charms.
She received several letters, both from Antony and from his
friends, to summon her, but she took no account of these orders;
and at last, as if in mockery of them, she came sailing up the
river Cydnus, in a barge with gilded stern and outspread sails
of purple, while oars of silver beat time to the music of flutes
and fifes and harps. She herself lay all along, under a canopy of
cloth of gold, dressed as Venus in a picture; and beautiful young
boys, like painted Cupids, stood on each side to fan her. Her
maids were dressed like Sea Nymphs and Graces, some steering
at the rudder, some working at the ropes. The perfumes diffused
themselves from the vessel to the shore, which was covered with
multitudes, part following the galley up the river on either bank,
part running out of the city to see the sight. The market-place


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11636
PLUTARCH
was quite emptied, and Antony at last was left alone sitting
upon the tribunal; while the word went through all the multitude
that Venus was come to feast with Bacchus, for the common
good of Asia. On her arrival, Antony sent to invite her to sup-
per. She thought it fitter he should come to her; so, willing to
show his good-humor and courtesy, he complied, and went.
found the preparations to receive him magnificent beyond expres-
sion, but nothing so admirable as the great number of lights; for
on a sudden there was let down altogether so great a number
of branches with lights in them so ingeniously disposed, some in
squares and some in circles, that the whole thing was a spectacle
that has seldom been equaled for beauty.
He
The next day Antony invited her to supper, and was very
desirous to outdo her as well in magnificence as contrivance;
but he found he was altogether beaten in both, and was so well
convinced of it, that he was himself the first to jest and mock at
his poverty of wit and his rustic awkwardness. She, perceiving
that his raillery was broad and gross, and savored more of the
soldier than the courtier, rejoined in the same taste, and fell into
it at once, without any sort of reluctance or reserve. For her
actual beauty, it is said, was not in itself so remarkable that none
could be compared with her, or that no one could see her with-
out being struck by it: but the contact of her presence, if you
lived with her, was irresistible; the attraction of her person, join-
ing with the charm of her conversation and the character that
attended all she said or did, was something bewitching. It was
a pleasure merely to hear the sound of her voice, with which,
like an instrument of many strings, she could pass from one lan-
guage to another: so that there were few of the barbarian nations
that she answered by an interpreter; to most of them she spoke
herself, as to the Ethiopians, Troglodytes, Hebrews, Arabians,
Syrians, Medes, Parthians, and many others, whose language she
had learnt: which was all the more surprising, because most of
the kings her predecessors scarcely gave themselves the trouble
to acquire the Egyptian tongue, and several of them quite aban-
doned the Macedonian.
Antony was so captivated by her, that while Fulvia his wife
maintained his quarrels in Rome against Cæsar by actual force
of arms, and the Parthian troops commanded by Labienus (the
king's generals having made him commander-in-chief) were as-
sembled in Mesopotamia and ready to enter Syria, he could yet


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11637
suffer himself to be carried away by her to Alexandria, there to
keep holiday like a boy in play and diversion, squandering and
fooling away in enjoyments what Antiphon calls that most costly
of all valuables, time. They had a sort of company, to which
they gave a particular name, calling it that of the Inimitable.
Livers. The members entertained one another daily in turn,
with an extravagance of expenditure beyond measure or belief.
Philotas, a physician of Amphissa, who was at that time a student
of medicine in Alexandria, used to tell my grandfather Lamprias
that having some acquaintance with one of the royal cooks, he
was invited by him, being a young man, to come and see the
sumptuous preparations for supper. So he was taken into the
kitchen, where he admired the prodigious variety of all things;
but particularly, seeing eight wild boars roasting whole, says he,
«< Surely you have a great number of guests. " The cook laughed
at his simplicity, and told him there were not above twelve to
sup, but that every dish was to be served up just roasted to a
turn; and if anything was but one minute ill-timed, it was
spoiled.