Plutarch's Lives

Part 15 out of 35

cure. Marius put himself in readiness, and Sylla with his colleague
moved from Nola, at the head of six complete legions, all of them
willing to march up directly against the city, though he himself as
yet was doubtful in thought, and apprehensive of the danger. As he
was sacrificing, Postumius the soothsayer, having inspected the
entrails, stretching forth both hands to Sylla, required to be bound
and kept in custody till the battle was over, as willing, if they had
not speedy and complete success, to suffer the utmost punishment. It
is said, also, that there appeared to Sylla himself in a dream, a
certain goddess, whom the Romans learnt to worship from the
Cappadocians, whether it be the Moon, or Pallas, or Bellona. This
same goddess, to his thinking, stood by him, and put into his hand
thunder and lightning, then naming his enemies one by one, bade him
strike them, who, all of them, fell on the discharge and disappeared.
Encouraged by this vision, and relating it to his colleague, next day
he led on towards Rome. About Picinae being met by a deputation,
beseeching him not to attack at once, in the heat of a march, for
that the senate had decreed to do him all the right imaginable, he
consented to halt on the spot, and sent his officers to measure out
the ground, as is usual, for a camp; so that the deputation,
believing it, returned. They were no sooner gone, but he sent a
party on under the command of Lucius Basillus and Caius Mummius, to
secure the city gate, and the walls on the side of the Esquiline
hill, and then close at their heels followed himself with all speed.
Basillus made his way successfully into the city, but the unarmed
multitude, pelting him with stones and tiles from off the houses,
stopped his further progress, and beat him back to the wall. Sylla
by this time was come up, and seeing what was going on, called aloud
to his men to set fire to the houses, and taking a flaming torch, he
himself led the way, and commanded the archers to make use of their
fire-darts, letting fly at the tops of houses; all which he did, not
upon any plan, but simply in his fury, yielding the conduct of that
day's work to passion, and as if all he saw were enemies, without
respect or pity either to friend, relations, or acquaintance, made
his entry by fire, which knows no distinction betwixt friend or foe.

In this conflict, Marius being driven into the temple of
Mother-Earth, thence invited the slaves by proclamation of freedom,
but the enemy coming on he was overpowered and fled the city.

Sylla having called a senate, had sentence of death passed on Marius,
and some few others, amongst whom was Sulpicius, tribune of the
people. Sulpicius was killed, being betrayed by his servant, whom
Sylla first made free, and then threw him headlong down the Tarpeian
rock. As for Marius, he set a price on his life, by proclamation,
neither gratefully nor politicly, if we consider into whose house,
not long before he put himself at mercy, and was safely dismissed.
Had Marius at that time not let Sylla go, but suffered him to be
slain by the hands of Sulpicius, he might have been lord of all;
nevertheless he spared his life, and a few days after, when in a
similar position himself, received a different measure.

By these proceedings, Sylla excited the secret distaste of the
senate; but the displeasure and free indignation of the commonalty
showed itself plainly by their actions. For they ignominiously
rejected Nonius, his nephew, and Servius, who stood for offices of
state by his interest, and elected others as magistrates, by honoring
whom they thought they should most annoy him. He made semblance of
extreme satisfaction at all this, as if the people by his means had
again enjoyed the liberty of doing what seemed best to them. And to
pacify the public hostility, he created Lucius Cinna consul, one of
the adverse party, having first bound him under oaths and
imprecations to be favorable to his interest. For Cinna, ascending
the capitol with a stone in his hand, swore solemnly, and prayed with
direful curses, that he himself, if he were not true to his
friendship with Sylla, might be cast out of the city, as that stone
out of his hand; and thereupon cast the stone to the ground, in the
presence of many people. Nevertheless Cinna had no sooner entered on
his charge, but he took measures to disturb the present settlement,
and having prepared an impeachment against Sylla, got Virginius, one
of the tribunes of the people, to be his accuser; but Sylla, leaving
him and the court of judicature to themselves, set forth against
Mithridates.

About the time that Sylla was making ready to put oft with his forces
from Italy, besides many other omens which befell Mithridates, then
staying at Pergamus, there goes a story that a figure of Victory,
with a crown in her hand, which the Pergamenians by machinery from
above let down on him, when it had almost reached his head, fell to
pieces, and the crown tumbling down into the midst of the theater,
there broke against the ground, occasioning a general alarm among the
populace, and considerably disquieting Mithridates himself, although
his affairs at that time were succeeding beyond expectation. For
having wrested Asia from the Romans, and Bithynia and Cappadocia
from their kings, he made Pergamus his royal seat, distributing among
his friends riches, principalities, and kingdoms. Of his sons, one
residing in Pontus and Bosporus held his ancient realm as far as the
deserts beyond the lake Maeotis, without molestation; while
Ariarathes, another, was reducing Thrace and Macedon, with a great
army, to obedience. His generals, with forces under them, were
establishing his supremacy in other quarters. Archelaus, in
particular, with his fleet, held absolute mastery of the sea, and was
bringing into subjection the Cyclades, and all the other islands as
far as Malea, and had taken Euboea itself. Making Athens his
head-quarters, from thence as far as Thessaly he was withdrawing the
States of Greece from the Roman allegiance, without the least ill
success, except at Chaeronea. For here Bruttius Sura, lieutenant to
Sentius, governor of Macedon, a man of singular valor and prudence,
met him, and, though he came like a torrent pouring over Boeotia,
made stout resistance, and thrice giving him battle near Chaeronea,
repulsed and forced him back to the sea. But being commanded by
Lucius Lucullus to give place to his successor, Sylla, and resign the
war to whom it was decreed, he presently left Boeotia, and retired
back to Sentius, although his success had outgone all hopes, and
Greece was well disposed to a new revolution, upon account of his
gallant behavior. These were the glorious actions of Bruttius.

Sylla, on his arrival, received by their deputations the compliments
of all the cities of Greece, except Athens, against which, as it was
compelled by the tyrant Aristion to hold for the king, he advanced
with all his forces, and investing the Piraeus, laid formal siege to
it, employing every variety of engines, and trying every manner of
assault; whereas, had he forbore but a little while, he might without
hazard have taken the Upper City by famine, it being already reduced
to the last extremity, through want of necessaries. But eager to
return to Rome, and fearing innovation there, at great risk, with
continual fighting and vast expense, he pushed on the war. Besides
other equipage, the very work about the engines of battery was
supplied with no less than ten thousand yoke of mules, employed daily
in that service. And when timber grew scarce, for many of the works
failed, some crushed to pieces by their own weight, others taking
fire by the continual play of the enemy, he had recourse to the
sacred groves, and cut down the trees of the Academy, the shadiest of
all the suburbs, and the Lyceum. And a vast sum of money being
wanted to carry on the war, he broke into the sanctuaries of Greece,
that of Epidaurus and that of Olympia, sending for the most beautiful
and precious offerings deposited there. He wrote, likewise, to the
Amphictyons, at Delphi, that it were better to remit the wealth of
the god to him, for that he would keep it more securely, or in case
he made use of it, restore as much. He sent Caphis, the Phocian, one
of his friends, with this message, commanding him to receive each
item by weight. Caphis came to Delphi, but was loath to touch the
holy things, and with many tears, in the presence of the Amphyctyons,
bewailed the necessity. And on some of them declaring they heard the
sound of a harp from the inner shrine, he, whether he himself
believed it, or was willing to try the effect of religious fear upon
Sylla, sent back an express. To which Sylla replied in a scoffing
way, that it was surprising to him that Caphis did not know that
music was a sign of joy, not anger; he should, therefore, go on
boldly, and accept what a gracious and bountiful god offered.

Other things were sent away without much notice on the part of the
Greeks in general, but in the case of the silver tun, that only relic
of the regal donations, which its weight and bulk made it impossible
for any carriage to receive, the Amphictyons were forced to cut it
into pieces, and called to mind in so doing, how Titus Flamininus,
and Manius Acilius, and again Paulus Aemilius, one of whom drove
Antiochus out of Greece, and the others subdued the Macedonian kings,
had not only abstained from violating the Greek temples, but had even
given them new gifts and honors, and increased the general veneration
for them. They, indeed, the lawful commanders of temperate and
obedient soldiers, and themselves great in soul, and simple in
expenses, lived within the bounds of the ordinary established
charges, accounting it a greater disgrace to seek popularity with
their men, than to feel fear of their enemy. Whereas the commanders
of these times, attaining to superiority by force, not worth, and
having need of arms one against another, rather than against the
public enemy, were constrained to temporize in authority, and in
order to pay for the gratifications with which they purchased the
labor of their soldiers, were driven, before they knew it, to sell
the commonwealth itself, and, to gain the mastery over men better
than themselves, were content to become slaves to the vilest of
wretches. These practices drove Marius into exile, and again brought
him in against Sylla. These made Cinna the assassin of Octavius, and
Fimbria of Flaccus. To which courses Sylla contributed not the
least; for to corrupt and win over those who were under the command
of others, he would be munificent and profuse towards those who were
under his own; and so, while tempting the soldiers of other generals
to treachery, and his own to dissolute living, he was naturally in
want of a large treasury, and especially during that siege.

Sylla had a vehement and an implacable desire to conquer Athens,
whether out of emulation, fighting as it were against the shadow of
the once famous city, or out of anger, at the foul words and
scurrilous jests with which the tyrant Aristion, showing himself
daily, with unseemly gesticulations, upon the walls, had provoked him
and Metella.

The tyrant Aristion had his very being compounded of wantonness and
cruelty, having gathered into himself all the worst of Mithridates's
diseased and vicious qualities, like some fatal malady which the
city, after its deliverance from innumerable wars, many tyrannies and
seditions, was in its last days destined to endure. At the time when
a medimnus of wheat was sold in the city for one thousand drachmas,
and men were forced to live on the feverfew growing round the
citadel, and to boil down shoes and oil-bags for their food, he,
carousing and feasting in the open face of day, then dancing in
armor, and making jokes at the enemy, suffered the holy lamp of the
goddess to expire for want of oil, and to the chief priestess, who
demanded of him the twelfth part of a medimnus of wheat, he sent the
like quantity of pepper. The senators and priests, who came as
suppliants to beg of him to take compassion on the city, and treat
for peace with Sylla, he drove away and dispersed with a flight of
arrows. At last, with much ado, he sent forth two or three of his
reveling companions to parley, to whom Sylla, perceiving that they
made no serious overtures towards an accommodation, but went on
haranguing in praise of Theseus, Eumolpus, and the Median trophies,
replied, "My good friends, you may put up your speeches and be gone.
I was sent by the Romans to Athens, not to take lessons, but to
reduce rebels to obedience."

In the meantime news came to Sylla that some old men, talking in the
Ceramicus, had been overheard to blame the tyrant for not securing
the passages and approaches near the Heptachalcum, the one point
where the enemy might easily get over. Sylla neglected not the
report, but going in the night, and discovering the place to be
assailable, set instantly to work. Sylla himself makes mention in
his Memoirs, that Marcus Teius, the first man who scaled the wall,
meeting with an adversary, and striking him on the headpiece a home
stroke, broke his own sword, but, notwithstanding, did not give
ground, but stood and held him fast. The city was certainly taken
from that quarter, according to the tradition of the oldest of the
Athenians.

When they had thrown down the wall, and made all level betwixt the
Piraic and Sacred Gate, about midnight Sylla entered the breach, with
all the terrors of trumpets and cornets sounding, with the triumphant
shout and cry of an army let loose to spoil and slaughter, and
scouring through the streets with swords drawn. There was no
numbering the slain; the amount is to this day conjectured only from
the space of ground overflowed with blood. For without mentioning
the execution done in other quarters of the city, the blood that was
shed about the marketplace spread over the whole Ceramicus within the
Double-gate, and, according to most writers, passed through the gate
and overflowed the suburb. Nor did the multitudes which fell thus
exceed the number of those, who, out of pity and love for their
country, which they believed was now finally to perish, slew
themselves; the best of them, through despair of their country's
surviving, dreading themselves to survive, expecting neither humanity
nor moderation in Sylla. At length, partly at the instance of Midias
and Calliphon, two exiled men, beseeching and casting themselves at
his feet, partly by the intercession of those senators who followed
the camp, having had his fill of revenge, and making some honorable
mention of the ancient Athenians, "I forgive," said he, "the many for
the sake of the few, the living for the dead." He took Athens,
according to his own Memoirs, on the calends of March, coinciding
pretty nearly with the new moon of Anthesterion, on which day it is
the Athenian usage to perform various acts in commemoration of the
ruins and devastations occasioned by the deluge, that being supposed
to be the time of its occurrence.

At the taking of the town, the tyrant fled into the citadel, and was
there besieged by Curio, who had that charge given him. He held out
a considerable time, but at last yielded himself up for want of
water, and divine power immediately intimated its agency in the
matter. For on the same day and hour that Curio conducted him down,
the clouds gathered in a clear sky, and there came down a great
quantity of rain and filled the citadel with water.

Not long after, Sylla won the Piraeus, and burnt most of it; amongst
the rest, Philo's arsenal, a work very greatly admired.

In the mean time Taxiles, Mithridates's general, coming down from
Thrace and Macedon, with an army of one hundred thousand foot, ten
thousand horse, and ninety chariots, armed with scythes at the
wheels, would have joined Archelaus, who lay with a navy on the coast
near Munychia, reluctant to quit the sea, and yet unwilling to engage
the Romans in battle, but desiring to protract the war and cut off
the enemy's supplies. Which Sylla perceiving much better than
himself, passed with his forces into Boeotia, quitting a barren
district which was inadequate to maintain an army even in time of
peace. He was thought by some to have taken false measures in thus
leaving Attica, a rugged country, and ill suited for cavalry to move
in, and entering the plain and open fields of Boeotia, knowing as he
did the barbarian strength to consist most in horses and chariots.
But as was said before, to avoid famine and scarcity, he was forced
to run the risk of a battle. Moreover he was in anxiety for
Hortensius, a bold and active officer, whom on his way to Sylla with
forces from Thessaly, the barbarians awaited in the straits. For
these reasons Sylla drew off into Boeotia. Hortensius, meantime, was
conducted by Caphis, our countryman, another way unknown to the
barbarians, by Parnassus, just under Tithora, which was then not so
large a town as it is now, but a mere fort, surrounded by steep
precipices, whither the Phocians also, in old time, when flying from
the invasion of Xerxes, carried themselves and their goods and were
saved. Hortensius, encamping here, kept off the enemy by day, and at
night descending by difficult passages to Patronis, joined the forces
of Sylla, who came to meet him. Thus united they posted themselves
on a fertile hill in the middle of the plain of Elatea, shaded with
trees and watered at the foot. It is called Philoboeotus, and its
situation and natural advantages are spoken of with great admiration
by Sylla.

As they lay thus encamped, they seemed to the enemy a contemptible
number, for they were not above fifteen hundred horse, and less than
fifteen thousand foot. Therefore the rest of the commanders,
overpersuading Archelaus, and drawing up the army, covered the plain
with horses, chariots, bucklers, targets. The clamor and cries of so
many nations forming for battle rent the air, nor was the pomp and
ostentation of their costly array altogether idle and unserviceable
for terror; for the brightness of their armor, embellished
magnificently with gold and silver, and the rich colors of their
Median and Scythian coats, intermixed with brass and shining steel,
presented a flaming and terrible sight as they swayed about and moved
in their ranks, so much so that the Romans shrunk within their
trenches, and Sylla, unable by any arguments to remove their fear,
and unwilling to force them to fight against their wills, was fain to
sit down in quiet, ill-brooking to become the subject of barbarian
insolence and laughter. This, however, above all advantaged him, for
the enemy, from contemning of him, fell into disorder amongst
themselves, being already less thoroughly under command, on account
of the number of their leaders. Some few of them remained within the
encampment, but others, the major part, lured out with hopes of prey
and rapine, strayed about the country many days journey from the
camp, and are related to have destroyed the city of Panope, to have
plundered Lebadea, and robbed the oracle without any orders from
their commanders.

Sylla, all this while, chafing and fretting to see the cities all
around destroyed, suffered not the soldiery to remain idle, but
leading them out, compelled them to divert the Cephisus from its
ancient channel by casting up ditches, and giving respite to none,
showed himself rigorous in punishing the remiss, that growing weary
of labor, they might be induced by hardship to embrace danger. Which
fell out accordingly, for on the third day, being hard at work as
Sylla passed by, they begged and clamored to be led against the
enemy. Sylla replied, that this demand of war proceeded rather from
a backwardness to labor than any forwardness to fight, but if they
were in good earnest martially inclined, he bade them take their arms
and get up thither, pointing to the ancient citadel of the
Parapotamians, of which at present, the city being laid waste, there
remained only the rocky hill itself, steep and craggy on all sides,
and severed from Mount Hedylium by the breadth of the river Assus,
which running between, and at the bottom of the same hill falling
into the Cephisus with an impetuous confluence, makes this eminence a
strong position for soldiers to occupy. Observing that the enemy's
division, called the Brazen Shields, were making their way up
thither, Sylla was willing to take first possession, and by the
vigorous efforts of the soldiers, succeeded. Archelaus, driven from
hence, bent his forces upon Chaeronea. The Chaeroneans who bore arms
in the Roman camp beseeching Sylla not to abandon the city, he
dispatched Gabinius, a tribune, with one legion, and sent out also
the Chaeroneans, who endeavored, but were not able to get in before
Gabinius; so active was he, and more zealous to bring relief than
those who had entreated it. Juba writes that Ericius was the man
sent, not Gabinius. Thus narrowly did our native city escape.

From Lebadea and the cave of Trophonius there came favorable rumors
and prophecies of victory to the Romans, of which the inhabitants of
those places give a fuller account, but as Sylla himself affirms in
the tenth book of his Memoirs, Quintus Titius, a man of some repute
among the Romans who were engaged in mercantile business in Greece,
came to him after the battle won at Chaeronea, and declared that
Trophonius had foretold another fight and victory on the same place,
within a short time. After him a soldier, by name Salvenius, brought
an account from the god of the future issue of affairs in Italy. As
to the vision, they both agreed in this, that they had seen one who
in stature and in majesty was similar to Jupiter Olympius.

Sylla, when he had passed over the Assus, marching under the Mount
Hedylium, encamped close to Archelaus, who had entrenched himself
strongly between the mountains Acontium and Hedylium, close to what
are called the Assia. The place of his entrenchment is to this day
named from him, Archelaus. Sylla, after one day's respite, having
left Murena behind him with one legion and two cohorts to amuse the
enemy with continual alarms, himself went and sacrificed on the banks
of Cephisus, and the holy rites ended, held on towards Chaeronea to
receive the forces there and view Mount Thurium, where a party of the
enemy had posted themselves. This is a craggy height running up in a
conical form to a point, called by us Orthopagus; at the foot of it
is the river Morius and the temple of Apollo Thurius. The god had
his surname from Thuro, mother of Chaeron, whom ancient record makes
founder of Chaeronea. Others assert that the cow which Apollo gave to
Cadmus for a guide appeared there, and that the place took its name
from the beast, Thor being the Phoenician word for a cow.

At Sylla's approach to Chaeronea, the tribune who had been appointed
to guard the city led out his men in arms, and met him with a garland
of laurel in his hand; which Sylla accepting, and at the same time
saluting the soldiers and animating them to the encounter, two men of
Chaeronea, Homoloichus and Anaxidamus, presented themselves before
him, and offered, with a small party, to dislodge those who were
posted on Thurium. For there lay a path out of sight of the
barbarians, from what is called Petrochus along by the Museum,
leading right down from above upon Thurium. By this way it was easy
to fall upon them and either stone them from above, or force them
down into the plain. Sylla, assured of their faith and courage by
Gabinius, bade them proceed with the enterprise, and meantime drew up
the army, and disposing the cavalry on both wings, himself took
command of the right; the left being committed to the direction of
Murena. In the rear of all, Galba and Hortensius, his lieutenants,
planted themselves on the upper grounds with the cohorts of reserve,
to watch the motions of the enemy, who with numbers of horse and
swift-footed, light-armed infantry, were noticed to have so formed
their wing as to allow it readily to change about and alter its
position, and thus gave reason for suspecting that they intended to
carry it far out and so to enclose the Romans.

In the meanwhile, the Chaeroneans, who had Ericius for commander by
appointment of Sylla, covertly making their way around Thurium, and
then discovering themselves, occasioned a great confusion and rout
amongst the barbarians, and slaughter, for the most part, by their
own hands. For they kept not their place, but making down the steep
descent, ran themselves on their own spears, and violently sent each
other over the cliffs, the enemy from above pressing on and wounding
them where they exposed their bodies; insomuch that there fell three
thousand about Thurium. Some of those who escaped, being met by
Murena as he stood in array, were cut off and destroyed. Others
breaking through to their friends and falling pell-mell into the
ranks, filled most part of the army with fear and tumult, and caused
a hesitation and delay among the generals, which was no small
disadvantage. For immediately upon the discomposure, Sylla coming
full speed to the charge, and quickly crossing the interval between
the armies, lost them the service of their armed chariots, which
require a consider able space of ground to gather strength and
impetuosity in their career, a short course being weak and
ineffectual, like that of missiles without a full swing. Thus it
fared with the barbarians at present, whose first chariots came
feebly on and made but a faint impression; the Romans repulsing them
with shouts and laughter, called out as they do at the races in the
circus, for more to come. By this time the mass of both armies met;
the barbarians on one side fixed their long pikes, and with their
shields locked close together, strove so far as in them lay to
preserve their line of battle entire. The Romans, on the other side,
having discharged their javelins, rushed on with their drawn swords,
and struggled to put by the pikes to get at them the sooner, in the
fury that possessed them at seeing in the front of the enemy fifteen
thousand slaves, whom the royal commanders had set free by
proclamation, and ranged amongst the men of arms. And a Roman
centurion is reported to have said at this sight, that he never knew
servants allowed to play the masters, unless at the Saturnalia.
These men by their deep and solid array, as well as by their daring
courage, yielded but slowly to the legions, till at last by slinging
engines, and darts, which the Romans poured in upon them behind, they
were forced to give way and scatter.

As Archelaus was extending the right wing to encompass the enemy,
Hortensius with his cohorts came down in force, with intention to
charge him in the flank. But Archelaus wheeling about suddenly with
two thousand horse, Hortensius, outnumbered and hard pressed, fell
back towards the higher grounds, and found himself gradually getting
separated from the main body and likely to be surrounded by the
enemy. When Sylla heard this, he came rapidly up to his succor from
the right wing, which as yet had not engaged. But Archelaus,
guessing the matter by the dust of his troops, turned to the right
wing, from whence Sylla came, in hopes to surprise it without a
commander. At the same instant, likewise, Taxiles, with his Brazen
Shields, assailed Murena, so that a cry coming from both places, and
the hills repeating it around, Sylla stood in suspense which way to
move. Deciding to resume his own station, he sent in aid to Murena
four cohorts under Hortensius, and commanding the fifth to follow
him, returned hastily to the right wing, which of itself held its
ground on equal terms against Archelaus; and, at his appearance, with
one bold effort forced them back, and, obtaining the mastery,
followed them, flying in disorder to the river and Mount Acontium.
Sylla, however, did not forget the danger Murena was in; but hasting
thither and finding him victorious also, then joined in the pursuit.
Many barbarians were slain in the field, many more were cut in pieces
as they were making into the camp. Of all the vast multitude, ten
thousand only got safe into Chalcis. Sylla writes that there were
but fourteen of his soldiers missing, and that two of these returned
towards evening; he, therefore, inscribed on the trophies the names
of Mars, Victory, and Venus, as having won the day no less by good
fortune than by management and force of arms. This trophy of the
battle in the plain stands on the place where Archelaus first gave
way, near the stream of the Molus; another is erected high on the top
of Thurium, where the barbarians were environed, with an inscription
in Greek, recording that the glory of the day belonged to Homoloichus
and Anaxidamus. Sylla celebrated his victory at Thebes with
spectacles, for which he erected a stage, near Oedipus's well. The
judges of the performances were Greeks chosen out of other cities;
his hostility to the Thebans being implacable, half of whose
territory he took away and consecrated to Apollo and Jupiter,
ordering that out of the revenue compensation should be made to the
gods for the riches himself had taken from them.

After this, hearing that Flaccus, a man of the contrary faction, had
been chosen consul, and was crossing the Ionian Sea with an army,
professedly to act against Mithridates, but in reality against
himself, he hastened towards Thessaly, designing to meet him, but in
his march, when near Melitea, received advices from all parts that
the countries behind him were overrun and ravaged by no less a royal
army than the former. For Dorylaus, arriving at Chalcis with a large
fleet, on board of which he brought over with him eighty thousand of
the best appointed and best disciplined soldiers of Mithridates's
army, at once invaded Boeotia, and occupied the country in hopes to
bring Sylla to a battle, making no account of the dissuasions of
Archelaus, but giving it out as to the last fight, that without
treachery so many thousand men could never have perished. Sylla,
however, facing about expeditiously, made it clear to him that
Archelaus was a wise man, and had good skill in the Roman valor;
insomuch that he himself, after some small skirmishes with Sylla near
Tilphossium, was the first of those who thought it not advisable to
put things to the decision of the sword, but rather to wear out the
war by expense of time and treasure. The ground, however, near
Orchomenus, where they then lay encamped, gave some encouragement to
Archelaus, being a battle field admirably suited for an army superior
in cavalry. Of all the plains in Boeotia that are renowned for their
beauty and extent, this alone, which commences from the city of
Orchomenus, spreads out unbroken and clear of trees to the edge of
the fens in which the Melas, rising close under Orchomenus, loses
itself, the only Greek river which is a deep and navigable water from
the very head, increasing also about the summer solstice like the
Nile, and producing plants similar to those that grow there, only
small and without fruit. It does not run far before the main stream
disappears among the blind and woody marsh-grounds; a small branch.
however, joins the Cephisus, about the place where the lake is
thought to produce the best flute-reeds.

Now that both armies were posted near each other, Archelaus lay
still, but Sylla employed himself in cutting ditches from either
side; that if possible, by driving the enemies from the firm and open
champain, he might force them into the fens. They, on the other
hand, not enduring this, as soon as their leaders allowed them the
word of command, issued out furiously in large bodies; when not only
the men at work were dispersed, but most part of those who stood in
arms to protect the work fled in disorder. Upon this, Sylla leaped
from his horse, and snatching hold of an ensign, rushed through the
midst of the rout upon the enemy, crying out aloud, "To me, O Romans,
it will be glorious to fall here. As for you, when they ask you
where you betrayed your general, remember and say, at Orchomenus."
His men rallying again at these words, and two cohorts coming to his
succor from the right wing, he led them to the charge and turned the
day. Then retiring some short distance and refreshing his men, he
proceeded again with his works to block up the enemy's camp. They
again sallied out in better order than before. Here Diogenes,
step-son to Archelaus, fighting on the right wing with much
gallantry, made an honorable end. And the archers, being hard
pressed by the Romans, and wanting space for a retreat, took their
arrows by handfuls, and striking with these as with swords, beat them
back. In the end, however, they were all driven into the
entrenchment and had a sorrowful night of it with their slain and
wounded. The next day again, Sylla, leading forth his men up to
their quarters, went on finishing the lines of entrenchment, and when
they issued out again with larger numbers to give him battle, fell on
them and put them to the rout, and in the consternation ensuing, none
daring to abide, he took the camp by storm. The marshes were filled
with blood, and the lake with dead bodies, insomuch that to this day
many bows, helmets, fragments of iron, breastplates, and swords of
barbarian make, continue to be found buried deep in mud, two hundred
years after the fight. Thus much of the actions of Chaeronea and
Orchomenus.

At Rome, Cinna and Carbo were now using injustice and violence
towards persons of the greatest eminence, and many of them to avoid
this tyranny repaired, as to a safe harbor, to Sylla's camp, where,
in a short space, he had about him the aspect of a senate. Metella,
likewise, having with difficulty conveyed herself and children away
by stealth, brought him word that his houses, both in town and
country, had been burnt by his enemies, and entreated his help at
home. Whilst he was in doubt what to do, being impatient to hear of
his country being thus outraged, and yet not knowing how to leave so
great a work as the Mithridatic war unfinished, there comes to him
Archelaus, a merchant of Delos, with hopes of an accommodation, and
private instructions from Archelaus, the king's general. Sylla liked
the business so well as to desire a speedy conference with Archelaus
in person, and a meeting took place on the sea-coast near Delium,
where the temple of Apollo stands. When Archelaus opened the
conversation, and began to urge Sylla to abandon his pretensions to
Asia and Pontus, and to set sail for the war in Rome, receiving money
and shipping, and such forces as he should think fitting from the
king, Sylla, interposing, bade Archelaus take no further care for
Mithridates, but assume the crown to himself, and become a
confederate of Rome, delivering up the navy. Archelaus professing
his abhorrence of such treason, Sylla proceeded: "So you, Archelaus,
a Cappadocian, and slave, or if it so please you, friend, to a
barbarian king, would not, upon such vast considerations, be guilty
of what is dishonorable, and yet dare to talk to me, Roman general
and Sylla, of treason? as if you were not the selfsame Archelaus who
ran away at Chaeronea, with few remaining out of one hundred and
twenty thousand men; who lay for two days in the fens of Orchomenus,
and left Boeotia impassable for heaps of dead carcasses." Archelaus,
changing his tone at this, humbly besought him to lay aside the
thoughts of war, and make peace with Mithridates. Sylla consenting
to this request, articles of agreement were concluded on. That
Mithridates should quit Asia and Paphlagonia, restore Bithynia to
Nicomedes, Cappadocia to Ariobarzanes, and pay the Romans two
thousand talents, and give him seventy ships of war with all their
furniture. On the other hand, that Sylla should confirm to him his
other dominions, and declare him a Roman confederate. On these terms
he proceeded by the way of Thessaly and Macedon towards the
Hellespont, having Archelaus with him, and treating him with great
attention. For Archelaus being taken dangerously ill at Larissa, he
stopped the march of the army, and took care of him, as if he had
been one of his own captains, or his colleague in command. This gave
suspicion of foul play in the battle of Chaeronea; as it was also
observed that Sylla had released all the friends of Mithridates taken
prisoners in war, except only Aristion the tyrant, who was at enmity
with Archelaus, and was put to death by poison; and, above all, ten
thousand acres of land in Euboea had been given to the Cappadocian,
and he had received from Sylla the style of friend and ally of the
Romans. On all which points Sylla defends himself in his Memoirs.

The ambassadors of Mithridates arriving and declaring that they
accepted of the conditions, only Paphlagonia they could not part
with; and as for the ships, professing not to know of any such
capitulation, Sylla in a rage exclaimed, "What say you? Does
Mithridates then withhold Paphlagonia? and as to the ships, deny that
article? I thought to have seen him prostrate at my feet to thank me
for leaving him so much as that right hand of his, which has cut off
so many Romans. He will shortly, at my coming over into Asia, speak
another language; in the mean time, let him at his ease in Pergamus
sit managing a war which he never saw." The ambassadors in terror
stood silent by, but Archelaus endeavored with humble supplications
to assuage his wrath, laying hold on his right hand and weeping. In
conclusion he obtained permission to go himself in person to
Mithridates; for that he would either mediate a peace to the
satisfaction of Sylla, or if not, slay himself. Sylla having thus
dispatched him away, made an inroad into Maedica, and after wide
depopulations returned back again into Macedon, where he received
Archelaus about Philippi, bringing word that all was well, and that
Mithridates earnestly requested an interview. The chief cause of
this meeting was Fimbria; for he having assassinated Flaccus, the
consul of the contrary faction, and worsted the Mithridatic
commanders, was advancing against Mithridates himself, who, fearing
this, chose rather to seek the friendship of Sylla.

And so met at Dardanus in the Troad, on one side Mithridates,
attended with two hundred ships, and land forces consisting of twenty
thousand men at arms, six thousand horse, and a large train of
scythed chariots; on the other, Sylla with only four cohorts, and two
hundred horse. As Mithridates drew near and put out his hand, Sylla
demanded whether he was willing or no to end the war on the terms
Archelaus had agreed to, but seeing the king made no answer, "How is
this?" he continued, "ought not the petitioner to speak first, and
the conqueror to listen in silence?" And when Mithridates, entering
upon his plea, began to shift off the war, partly on the gods, and
partly to blame the Romans themselves, he took him up, saying that he
had heard, indeed, long since from others, and now he knew it himself
for truth, that Mithridates was a powerful speaker, who in defense of
the most foul and unjust proceedings, had not wanted for specious
presences. Then charging him with and inveighing bitterly against
the outrages he had committed, he asked again whether he was willing
or no to ratify the treaty of Archelaus? Mithridates answering in
the affirmative, Sylla came forward, embraced and kissed him. Not
long after he introduced Ariobarzanes and Nicomedes, the two kings,
and made them friends Mithridates, when he had handed over to Sylla
seventy ships and five hundred archers, set sail for Pontus.

Sylla, perceiving the soldiers to be dissatisfied with the peace, (as
it seemed indeed a monstrous thing that they should see the king who
was then bitterest enemy, and who had caused one hundred and fifty
thousand Romans to be massacred in one day in Asia, now sailing off
with the riches and spoils of Asia, which he had pillaged, and put
under contribution for the space of four years,) in his defense to
them alleged, that he could not have made head against Fimbria and
Mithridates, had they both withstood him in conjunction. Thence he
set out and went in search of Fimbria, who lay with the army about
Thyatira, and pitching his camp not far off, proceeded to fortify it
with a trench. The soldiers of Fimbria came out in their single
coats, and, saluting his men, lent ready assistance to the work;
which change Fimbria beholding, and apprehending Sylla as
irreconcilable, laid violent hands on himself in the camp.

Sylla imposed on Asia in general a tax of twenty thousand talents,
and despoiled individually each family by the licentious behavior and
long residence of the soldiery in private quarters. For he ordained
that every host should allow his guest four tetradrachms each day,
and moreover entertain him, and as many friends as he should invite,
with a supper; that a centurion should receive fifty drachmas a day,
together with one suit of clothes to wear within doors, and another
when he went abroad.

Having set out from Ephesus with the whole navy, he came the third
day to anchor in the Piraeus. Here he was initiated in the
mysteries, and seized for his use the library of Apellicon the Teian,
in which were most of the works of Theophrastus and Aristotle, then
not in general circulation. When the whole was afterwards conveyed
to Rome, there, it is said, the greater part of the collection passed
through the hands of Tyrannion the grammarian, and that Andronicus
the Rhodian, having through his means the command of numerous copies,
made the treatises public, and drew up the catalogues that are now
current. The elder Peripatetics appear themselves, indeed, to have
been accomplished and learned men, but of the writings of Aristotle
and Theophrastus they had no large or exact knowledge, because
Theophrastus bequeathing his books to the heir of Neleus of Scepsis,
they came into careless and illiterate hands.

During Sylla's stay about Athens, his feet were attacked by a heavy
benumbing pain, which Strabo calls the first inarticulate sounds of
the gout. Taking, therefore, a voyage to Aedepsus, he made use of
the hot waters there, allowing himself at the same time to forget all
anxieties, and passing away his time with actors. As he was walking
along the sea-shore, certain fishermen brought him some magnificent
fish. Being much delighted with the gift, and understanding, on
inquiry, that they were men of Halaeae, "What," said he, "are there
any men of Halaeae surviving?" For after his victory at Orchomenus,
in the heat of a pursuit, he had destroyed three cities of Boeotia,
Anthedon, Larymna, and Halaeae. The men not knowing what to say for
fear, Sylla with a smile bade them cheer up and return in peace, as
they had brought with them no insignificant intercessors. The
Halaeans say that this first gave them courage to reunite and return
to their city.

Sylla, having marched through Thessaly and Macedon to the sea-coast,
prepared, with twelve hundred vessels, to cross over from Dyrrhachium
to Brundisium. Not far from hence is Apollonia, and near it the
Nymphaeum, a spot of ground where, from among green trees and
meadows, there are found at various points springs of fire
continually streaming out. Here, they say, a satyr, such as
statuaries and painters represent, was caught asleep, and brought
before Sylla, where he was asked by several interpreters who he was,
and, after much trouble, at last uttered nothing intelligible, but a
harsh noise, something between the neighing of a horse and crying of
a goat. Sylla, in dismay, and deprecating such an omen, bade it be
removed.

At the point of transportation, Sylla being in alarm, lest at their
first setting foot upon Italy, the soldiers should disband and
disperse one by one among the cities, they of their own accord first
took an oath to stand firm by him, and not of their good-will to
injure Italy; then seeing him in distress for money, they made, so to
say, a freewill offering, and contributed each man according to his
ability. However Sylla would not accept of their offering, but
praising their good-will, and arousing up their courage, put over (as
he himself writes) against fifteen hostile generals in command of
four hundred and fifty cohorts; but not without the most unmistakable
divine intimations of his approaching happy successes. For when he
was sacrificing at his first landing near Tarentum, the victim's
liver showed the figure of a crown of laurel with two fillets hanging
from it. And a little while before his arrival in Campania, near the
mountain Hephaeus, two stately goats were seen in the daytime,
fighting together, and performing all the motions of men in battle.
It proved to be an apparition, and rising up gradually from the
ground, dispersed in the air, like fancied representations in the
clouds, and so vanished out of sight. Not long after, in the
selfsame place, when Marius the younger, and Norbanus the consul,
attacked him with two great armies, without prescribing the order of
battle, or arranging his men according to their divisions, by the
sway only of one common alacrity and transport of courage, he
overthrew the enemy, and shut up Norbanus into the city of Capua,
with the loss of seven thousand of his men. And this was the reason,
he says, that the soldiers did not leave him and disperse into the
different towns, but held fast to him, and despised the enemy, though
infinitely more in number.

At Silvium, (as he himself relates it,) there met him a servant of
Pontius, in a state of divine possession, saying that he brought him
the power of the sword and victory from Bellona, the goddess of war,
and if he did not make haste, that the capitol would be burnt, which
fell out on the same day the man foretold it, namely, on the sixth
day of the month Quintilis, which we now call July.

At Fidentia, also, Marcus Lucullus, one of Sylla's commanders,
reposed such confidence in the forwardness of the soldiers, as to
dare to face fifty cohorts of the enemy, with only sixteen of his
own; but because many of them were unarmed, delayed the onset. As he
stood thus waiting, and considering with himself, a gentle gale of
wind, bearing along with it from the neighboring meadows a quantity
of flowers, scattered them down upon the army, on whose shields and
helmets they settled, and arranged themselves spontaneously, so as to
give the soldiers, in the eyes of the enemy, the appearance of being
crowned with chaplets. Upon this, being yet further animated, they
joined battle, and victoriously slaying eight thousand men, took the
camp. This Lucullus was brother to that Lucullus who in after-times
conquered Mithridates and Tigranes.

Sylla, seeing himself still surrounded by so many armies, and such
mighty hostile powers, had recourse to art, inviting Scipio, the
other consul, to a treaty of peace. The motion was willingly
embraced, and several meetings and consultations ensued, in all which
Sylla, still interposing matter of delay and new pretences, in the
meanwhile debauched Scipio's men by means of his own, who were as
well practiced as the general himself, in all the artifices of
inveigling. For entering into the enemy's quarters and joining in
conversation, they gained some by present money, some by promises,
others by fair words and persuasions; so that in the end, when Sylla
with twenty cohorts drew near, on his men saluting Scipio's soldiers,
they returned the greeting and came over, leaving Scipio behind them
in his tent, where he was found all alone and dismissed. And having
used his twenty cohorts as decoys to ensnare the forty of the enemy,
he led them all back into the camp. On this occasion, Carbo was
heard to say, that he had both a fox and a lion in the breast of
Sylla to deal with, and was most troubled with the fox.

Some time after, at Signia, Marius the younger, with eighty-five
cohorts, offered battle to Sylla, who was extremely desirous to have
it decided on that very day; for the night before he had seen a
vision in his sleep, of Marius the elder, who had been some time
dead, advising his son to beware of the following day, as of fatal
consequence to him. For this reason, Sylla, longing to come to a
battle, sent off for Dolabella, who lay encamped at some distance.
But because the enemy had beset and blocked up the passes, his
soldiers got tired with skirmishing and marching at once. To these
difficulties was added, moreover, tempestuous rainy weather, which
distressed them most of all. The principal officers therefore came
to Sylla, and besought him to defer the battle that day, showing him
how the soldiers lay stretched on the ground, where they had thrown
themselves down in their weariness, resting their heads upon their
shields to gain some repose. When, with much reluctance, he had
yielded, and given order for pitching the camp, they had no sooner
begun to cast up the rampart and draw the ditch, but Marius came
riding up furiously at the head of his troops, in hopes to scatter
them in that disorder and confusion. Here the gods fulfilled Sylla's
dream. For the soldiers, stirred up with anger, left off their work,
and sticking their javelins into the bank, with drawn swords and a
courageous shout, came to blows with the enemy, who made but small
resistance, and lost great numbers in the flight. Marius fled to
Praeneste, but finding the gates shut, tied himself round by a rope
that was thrown down to him, and was taken up on the walls. Some
there are (as Fenestella for one) who affirm that Marius knew nothing
of the fight, but, overwatched and spent with hard duty, had reposed
himself, when the signal was given, beneath some shade, and was
hardly to be awakened at the flight of his men. Sylla, according to
his own account, lost only twenty-three men in this fight, having
killed of the enemy twenty thousand, and taken alive eight thousand.

The like success attended his lieutenants, Pompey, Crassus, Metellus,
Servilius, who with little or no loss cut off vast numbers of the
enemy, insomuch that Carbo, the prime supporter of the cause, fled by
night from his charge of the army, and sailed over into Libya.

In the last struggle, however, the Samnite Telesinus, like some
champion, whose lot it is to enter last of all into the lists and
take up the wearied conqueror, came nigh to have foiled and
overthrown Sylla before the gates of Rome. For Telesinus with his
second, Lamponius the Lucanian, having collected a large force, had
been hastening towards Praeneste, to relieve Marius from the siege;
but perceiving Sylla ahead of him, and Pompey behind, both hurrying
up against him, straightened thus before and behind, as a valiant and
experienced soldier, he arose by night, and marching directly with
his whole army, was within a little of making his way unexpectedly
into Rome itself. He lay that night before the city, at ten furlongs
distance from the Colline gate, elated and full of hope, at having
thus out-generalled so many eminent commanders. At break of day,
being charged by the noble youth of the city, among many others he
overthrew Appius Claudius, renowned for high birth and character.
The city, as is easy to imagine, was all in an uproar, the women
shrieking and running about, as if it had already been entered
forcibly by assault, till at last Balbus, sent forward by Sylla, was
seen riding up with seven hundred horse at full speed. Halting only
long enough to wipe the sweat from the horses, and then hastily
bridling again, he at once attacked the enemy. Presently Sylla
himself appeared, and commanding those who were foremost to take
immediate refreshment, proceeded to form in order for battle.
Dolabella and Torquatus were extremely earnest with him to desist
awhile, and not with spent forces to hazard the last hope, having
before them in the field, not Carbo or Marius, but two warlike
nations bearing immortal hatred to Rome, the Samnites and Lucanians,
to grapple with. But he put them by, and commanded the trumpets to
sound a charge, when it was now about four o'clock in the afternoon.
In the conflict which followed, as sharp a one as ever was, the
right wing where Crassus was posted had clearly the advantage; the
left suffered and was in distress, when Sylla came to its succor,
mounted on a white courser, full of mettle and exceedingly swift,
which two of the enemy knowing him by, had their lances ready to
throw at him; he himself observed nothing, but his attendant behind
him giving the horse a touch, he was, unknown to himself, just so far
carried forward, that the points, falling beside the horse's tail,
stuck in the ground. There is a story that he had a small golden
image of Apollo from Delphi, which he was always wont in battle to
carry about him in his bosom, and that he then kissed it with these
words, "O Apollo Pythius, who in so many battles hast raised to honor
and greatness the Fortunate Cornelius Sylla, wilt thou now cast him
down, bringing him before the gate of his country, to perish
shamefully with his fellow-citizens?" Thus, they say, addressing
himself to the god, he entreated some of his men, threatened some,
and seized others with his hand, till at length the left wing being
wholly shattered, he was forced, in the general rout, to betake
himself to the camp, having lost many of his friends and
acquaintance. Many, likewise, of the city spectators who had come
out, were killed or trodden underfoot. So that it was generally
believed in the city that all was lost, and the siege of Praeneste
was all but raised; many fugitives from the battle making their way
thither, and urging Lucretius Ofella, who was appointed to keep on
the siege, to rise in all haste, for that Sylla had perished, and
Rome fallen into the hands of the enemy.

About midnight there came into Sylla's camp messengers from Crassus,
to fetch provision for him and his soldiers; for having vanquished
the enemy, they had pursued him to the walls of Antemna, and had sat
down there. Sylla, hearing this, and that most of the enemy were
destroyed, came to Antemna by break of day, where three thousand of
the besieged having sent forth a herald, he promised to receive them
to mercy, on condition they did the enemy some mischief in their
coming over. Trusting to his word, they fell foul on the rest of
their companions, and made a great slaughter one of another.
Nevertheless, Sylla gathered together in the circus, as well these as
other survivors of the party, to the number of six thousand, and just
as he commenced speaking to the senate, in the temple of Bellona,
proceeded to cut them down, by men appointed for that service. The
cry of so vast a multitude put to the sword, in so narrow a space,
was naturally heard some distance, and startled the senators. He,
however, continuing his speech with a calm and unconcerned
countenance, bade them listen to what he had to say, and not busy
themselves with what was doing out of doors; he had given directions
for the chastisement of some offenders. This gave the most stupid of
the Romans to understand, that they had merely exchanged, not
escaped, tyranny. And Marius, being of a naturally harsh temper, had
not altered, but merely continued what he had been, in authority;
whereas Sylla, using his fortune moderately and unambitiously at
first, and giving good hopes of a true patriot, firm to the interests
both of the nobility and commonalty, being, moreover, of a gay and
cheerful temper from his youth, and so easily moved to pity as to
shed tears readily, has, perhaps deservedly, cast a blemish upon
offices of great authority, as if they deranged men's former habits
and character, and gave rise to violence, pride, and inhumanity.
Whether this be a real change and revolution in the mind, caused by
fortune, or rather a lurking viciousness of nature, discovering
itself in authority, it were matter of another sort of disquisition
to decide.

Sylla being thus wholly bent upon slaughter, and filling the city
with executions without number or limit, many wholly uninterested
persons falling a sacrifice to private enmity, through his permission
and indulgence to his friends, Caius Metellus, one of the younger
men, made bold in the senate to ask him what end there was of these
evils, and at what point he might be expected to stop? "We do not
ask you," said he, "to pardon any whom you have resolved to destroy,
but to free from doubt those whom you are pleased to save." Sylla
answering, that he knew not as yet whom to spare. "Why then," said
he, "tell us whom you will punish." This Sylla said he would do.
These last words, some authors say, were spoken not by Metellus, but
by Afidius, one of Sylla's fawning companions. Immediately upon
this, without communicating with any of the magistrates, Sylla
proscribed eighty persons, and notwithstanding the general
indignation, after one day's respite, he posted two hundred and
twenty more, and on the third again, as many. In an address to the
people on this occasion, he told them he had put up as many names as
he could think of; those which had escaped his memory, he would
publish at a future time. He issued an edict likewise, making death
the punishment of humanity, proscribing any who should dare to
receive and cherish a proscribed person, without exception to
brother, son, or parents. And to him who should slay any one
proscribed person, he ordained two talents reward, even were it a
slave who had killed his master, or a son his father. And what was
thought most unjust of all, he caused the attainder to pass upon
their sons, and son's sons, and made open sale of all their property.
Nor did the proscription prevail only at Rome, but throughout all the
cities of Italy the effusion of blood was such, that neither
sanctuary of the gods, nor hearth of hospitality, nor ancestral home
escaped. Men were butchered in the embraces of their wives, children
in the arms of their mothers. Those who perished through public
animosity, or private enmity, were nothing in comparison of the
numbers of those who suffered for their riches. Even the murderers
began to say, that "his fine house killed this man, a garden that, a
third, his hot baths." Quintus Aurelius, a quiet, peaceable man, and
one who thought all his part in the common calamity consisted in
condoling with the misfortunes of others, coming into the forum to
read the list, and finding himself among the proscribed, cried out,
"Woe is me, my Alban farm has informed against me." He had not gone
far, before he was dispatched by a ruffian, sent on that errand.

In the meantime, Marius, on the point of being taken, killed himself;
and Sylla, coming to Praeneste, at first proceeded judicially against
each particular person, till at last, finding it a work of too much
time, he cooped them up together in one place, to the number of
twelve thousand men, and gave order for the execution of them all,
his own host alone excepted. But he, brave man, telling him he
could not accept the obligation of life from the hands of one who had
been the ruin of his country, went in among the rest, and submitted
willingly to the stroke. What Lucius Catilina did was thought to
exceed all other acts. For having, before matters came to an issue,
made away with his brother, he besought Sylla to place him in the
list of proscription, as though he had been alive, which was done;
and Catiline, to return the kind office, assassinated a certain
Marcus Marius, one of the adverse party, and brought the head to
Sylla, as he was sitting in the forum, and then going to the holy
water of Apollo, which was nigh, washed his hands.

There were other things, besides this bloodshed, which gave offense.
For Sylla had declared himself dictator, an office which had then
been laid aside for the space of one hundred and twenty years. There
was, likewise, an act of grace passed on his behalf, granting
indemnity for what was passed, and for the future entrusting him with
the power of life and death, confiscation, division of lands,
erecting and demolishing of cities, taking away of kingdoms, and
bestowing them at pleasure. He conducted the sale of confiscated
property after such an arbitrary, imperious way, from the tribunal,
that his gifts excited greater odium even than his usurpations;
women, mimes, and musicians, and the lowest of the freed slaves had
presents made them of the territories of nations, and the revenues of
cities; and women of rank were married against their will to some of
them. Wishing to insure the fidelity of Pompey the Great, by a
nearer tie of blood, he bade him divorce his present wife, and
forcing Aemilia, the daughter of Scaurus and Metella, his own wife,
to leave her husband, Manius Glabrio, he bestowed her, though then
with child, on Pompey, and she died in childbirth at his house.

When Lucretius Ofella, the same who reduced Marius by siege, offered
himself for the consulship, he first forbade him; then, seeing he
could not restrain him, on his coming down into the forum with a
numerous train of followers, he sent one of the centurions who were
immediately about him, and slew him, himself sitting on the tribunal
in the temple of Castor, and beholding the murder from above. The
citizens apprehending the centurion, and dragging him to the
tribunal, he bade them cease their clamoring and let the centurion
go, for he had commanded it.

His triumph was, in itself, exceedingly splendid, and distinguished
by the rarity and magnificence of the royal spoils; but its yet
greatest glory was the noble spectacle of the exiles. For in the
rear followed the most eminent and most potent of the citizens,
crowned with garlands, and calling Sylla savior and father, by whose
means they were restored to their own country, and again enjoyed
their wives and children. When the solemnity was over, and the time
come to render an account of his actions, addressing the public
assembly, he was as profuse in enumerating the lucky chances of war,
as any of his own military merits. And, finally, from this felicity,
he requested to receive the surname of Felix. In writing and
transacting business with the Greeks, he styled himself
Epaphroditus, and on his trophies which are still extant with us,
the name is given Lucius Cornelius Sylla Epaphroditus. Moreover,
when his wife had brought him forth twins, he named the male Faustus,
and the female Fausta, the Roman words for what is auspicious and of
happy omen. The confidence which he reposed in his good genius,
rather than in any abilities of his own, emboldened him, though
deeply involved in bloodshed, and though he had been the author of
such great changes and revolutions of State, to lay down his
authority, and place the right of consular elections once more in the
hands of the people. And when they were held, he not only declined
to seek that office, but in the forum exposed his person publicly to
the people, walking up and down as a private man. And contrary to
his will, certain bold man and his enemy, Marcus Lepidus, was
expected to become consul, not so much by his own interest, as by the
power and solicitation of Pompey, whom the people were willing to
oblige. When the business was over, seeing Pompey going home
overjoyed with the success, he called him to him and said, "What a
politic act, young man, to pass by Catulus, the best of men, and
choose Lepidus, the worst! It will be well for you to be vigilant,
now that you have strengthened your opponent against yourself."
Sylla spoke this, it may seem, by a prophetic instinct, for, not long
after, Lepidus grew insolent, and broke into open hostility to Pompey
and his friends.

Sylla, consecrating the tenth of his whole substance to Hercules,
entertained the people with sumptuous feastings. The provision was
so much above what was necessary, that they were forced daily to
throw great quantities of meat into the river, and they drank wine
forty years old and upwards. In the midst of the banqueting, which
lasted many days, Metella died of disease. And because that the
priest forbade him to visit the sick, or suffer his house to be
polluted with mourning, he drew up an act of divorce, and caused her
to be removed into another house whilst alive. Thus far, out of
religious apprehension, he observed the strict rule to the very
letter, but in the funeral expenses he transgressed the law he
himself had made, limiting the amount, and spared no cost. He
transgressed, likewise, his own sumptuary laws respecting expenditure
in banquets, thinking to allay his grief by luxurious drinking
parties and revelings with common buffoons.

Some few months after, at a show of gladiators, when men and women
sat promiscuously in the theater, no distinct places being as yet
appointed, there sat down by Sylla a beautiful woman of high birth,
by name Valeria, daughter of Messala, and sister to Hortensius the
orator. Now it happened that she had been lately divorced from her
husband. Passing along behind Sylla, she leaned on him with her
hand, and plucking a bit of wool from his garment, so proceeded to
her seat. And on Sylla looking up and wondering what it meant, "What
harm, mighty Sir," said she, "if I also was desirous to partake a
little in your felicity?" It appeared at once that Sylla was not
displeased, but even tickled in his fancy, for he sent out to inquire
her name, her birth, and past life. From this time there passed
between them many side glances, each continually turning round to
look at the other, and frequently interchanging smiles. In the end,
overtures were made, and a marriage concluded on. All which was
innocent, perhaps, on the lady's side, but, though she had been never
so modest and virtuous, it was scarcely a temperate and worthy
occasion of marriage on the part of Sylla, to take fire, as a boy
might, at a face and a bold look, incentives not seldom to the most
disorderly and shameless passions.

Notwithstanding this marriage, he kept company with actresses,
musicians, and dancers, drinking with them on couches night and day.
His chief favorites were Roscius the comedian, Sorex the arch mime,
and Metrobius the player, for whom, though past his prime, he still
professed a passionate fondness. By these courses he encouraged a
disease which had begun from some unimportant cause; and for a long
time he failed to observe that his bowels were ulcerated, till at
length the corrupted flesh broke out into lice. Many, were employed
day and night in destroying them, but the work so multiplied under
their hands, that not only his clothes, baths, basins, but his very
meat was polluted with that flux and contagion, they came swarming
out in such numbers. He went frequently by day into the bath to
scour and cleanse his body, but all in vain; the evil generated too
rapidly and too abundantly for any ablutions to overcome it. There
died of this disease, amongst those of the most ancient times,
Acastus, the son of Pelias; of later date, Alcman the poet,
Pherecydes the theologian, Callisthenes the Olynthian, in the time of
his imprisonment, as also Mucius the lawyer; and if we may mention
ignoble, but notorious names, Eunus the fugitive, who stirred up the
slaves of Sicily to rebel against their masters, after he was brought
captive to Rome, died of this creeping sickness.

Sylla not only foresaw his end, but may be also said to have written
of it. For in the two and twentieth book of his Memoirs, which he
finished two days before his death, he writes that the Chaldeans
foretold him, that after he had led a life of honor, he should
conclude it in fullness of prosperity. He declares, moreover, that
in vision he had seen his son, who had died not long before Metella,
stand by in mourning attire, and beseech his father to cast off
further care, and come along with him to his mother Metella, there to
live at ease and quietness with her. However, he could not refrain
from intermeddling in public affairs. For, ten days before his
decease, he composed the differences of the people of Dicaearchia,
and prescribed laws for their better government. And the very day
before his end, it being told him that the magistrate Granius
deferred the payment of a public debt, in expectation of his death,
he sent for him to his house, and placing his attendants about him,
caused him to be strangled; but through the straining of his voice
and body, the imposthume breaking, he lost a great quantity of blood.
Upon this, his strength failing him, after spending a troublesome
night, he died, leaving behind him two young children by Metella.
Valeria was afterwards delivered of a daughter, named Posthuma; for
so the Romans call those who are born after the father's death.

Many ran tumultuously together, and joined with Lepidus, to deprive
the corpse of the accustomed solemnities; but Pompey, though offended
at Sylla, (for he alone of all his friends, was not mentioned in his
will,) having kept off some by his interest and entreaty, others by
menaces, conveyed the body to Rome, and gave it a secure and
honorable burial. It is said that the Roman ladies contributed such
vast heaps of spices, that besides what was carried on two hundred
and ten litters, there was sufficient to form a large figure of Sylla
himself, and another, representing a lictor, out of the costly
frankincense and cinnamon. The day being cloudy in the morning, they
deferred carrying forth the corpse till about three in the afternoon,
expecting it would rain. But a strong wind blowing full upon the
funeral pile, and setting it all in a bright flame, the body was
consumed so exactly in good time, that the pyre had begun to smolder,
and the fire was upon the point of expiring, when a violent rain came
down, which continued till night. So that his good fortune was firm
even to the last, and did as it were officiate at his funeral. His
monument stands in the Campus Martius, with an epitaph of his own
writing; the substance of it being, that he had not been outdone by
any of his friends in doing good turns, nor by any of his foes in
doing bad.

COMPARISON OF LYSANDER WITH SYLLA

Having completed this Life also, come we now to the comparison. That
which was common to them both, was that they were founders of their
own greatness, with this difference, that Lysander had the consent of
his fellow-citizens, in times of sober judgment, for the honors he
received; nor did he force anything from them against their
good-will, nor hold any power contrary to the laws.

In civil strife e'en villains rise to fame.

And so then at Rome, when the people were distempered, and the
government out of order, one or other was still raised to despotic
power; no wonder, then, if Sylla reigned, when the Glauciae and
Saturnini drove out the Metelli, when sons of consuls were slain in
the assemblies, when silver and gold purchased men and arms, and fire
and sword enacted new laws, and put down lawful opposition. Nor do I
blame anyone, in such circumstances, for working himself into
supreme power, only I would not have it thought a sign of great
goodness, to be head of a State so wretchedly discomposed. Lysander,
being employed in the greatest commands and affairs of State, by a
sober and well-governed city, may be said to have had repute as the
best and most virtuous man, in the best and most virtuous
commonwealth. And thus, often returning the government into the
hands of the citizens, he received it again as often, the superiority
of his merit still awarding him the first place. Sylla, on the other
hand, when he had once made himself general of an army, kept his
command for ten years together, creating himself sometimes consul,
sometimes proconsul, and sometimes dictator, but always remaining a
tyrant.

It is true Lysander, as was said, designed to introduce a new form of
government; by milder methods, however, and more agreeably to law
than Sylla, not by force of arms, but persuasion, nor by subverting
the whole State at once, but simply by amending the succession of the
kings; in a way, moreover, which seemed the naturally just one, that
the most deserving should rule, especially in a city which itself
exercised command in Greece, upon account of virtue, not nobility.
For as the hunter considers the whelp itself, not the bitch, and the
horse-dealer the foal, not the mare, (for what if the foal should
prove a mule?) so likewise were that politician extremely out, who,
in the choice of a chief magistrate, should inquire, not what the man
is, but how descended. The very Spartans themselves have deposed
several of their kings for want of kingly virtues, as degenerated and
good for nothing. As a vicious nature, though of an ancient stock,
is dishonorable, it must be virtue itself, and not birth, that makes
virtue honorable. Furthermore, the one committed his acts of
injustice for the sake of his friends; the other extended his to his
friends themselves. It is confessed on all hands, that Lysander
offended most commonly for the sake of his companions, committing
several slaughters to uphold their power and dominion; but as for
Sylla, he, out of envy, reduced Pompey's command by land, and
Dolabella's by sea, although he himself had given them those places;
and ordered Lucretius Ofella, who sued for the consulship as the
reward of many great services, to be slain before his eyes, exciting
horror and alarm in the minds of all men, by his cruelty to his
dearest friends.

As regards the pursuit of riches and pleasures, we yet further
discover in one a princely, in the other a tyrannical disposition.
Lysander did nothing that was intemperate or licentious, in that full
command of means and opportunity, but kept clear, as much as ever man
did, of that trite saying,

Lions at home, but foxes out of doors;

and ever maintained a sober, truly Spartan, and well disciplined
course of conduct. Whereas Sylla could never moderate his unruly
affections, either by poverty when young, or by years when grown old,
but would be still prescribing laws to the citizens concerning
chastity and sobriety, himself living all that time, as Sallust
affirms, in lewdness and adultery. By these ways he so impoverished
and drained the city of her treasures, as to be forced to sell
privileges and immunities to allied and friendly cities for money,
although he daily gave up the wealthiest and greatest families to
public sale and confiscation. There was no end of his favors vainly
spent and thrown away on flatterers; for what hope could there be, or
what likelihood of forethought or economy, in his more private
moments over wine, when, in the open face of the people, upon the
auction of a large estate, which he would have passed over to one of
his friends at a small price, because another bid higher, and the
officer announced the advance, he broke out into a passion, saying,
"What a strange and unjust thing is this, O citizens, that I cannot
dispose of my own booty as I please!" But Lysander, on the contrary,
with the rest of the spoil, sent home for public use even the
presents which were made him. Nor do I commend him for it, for he
perhaps, by excessive liberality, did Sparta more harm, than ever the
other did Rome by rapine; I only use it as an argument of his
indifference to riches. They exercised a strange influence on their
respective cities. Sylla, a profuse debauchee, endeavored to restore
sober living amongst the citizens; Lysander, temperate himself,
filled Sparta with the luxury he disregarded. So that both were
blameworthy, the one for raising himself above his own laws, the
other for causing his fellow citizens to fall beneath his own
example. He taught Sparta to want the very things which he himself
had learned to do without. And thus much of their civil
administration.

As for feats of arms, wise conduct in war, innumerable victories,
perilous adventures, Sylla was beyond compare. Lysander, indeed,
came off twice victorious in two battles by sea; I shall add to that
the siege of Athens, a work of greater fame, than difficulty. What
occurred in Boeotia, and at Haliartus, was the result, perhaps, of
ill fortune; yet it certainly looks like ill counsel, not to wait for
the king's forces, which had all but arrived from Plataea, but out of
ambition and eagerness to fight, to approach the walls at
disadvantage, and so to be cut off by a sally of inconsiderable men.
He received his death-wound, not as Cleombrotus at Leuctra, resisting
manfully the assault of an enemy in the field; not as Cyrus or
Epaminondas, sustaining the declining battle, or making sure the
victory; all these died the death of kings and generals; but he, as
it had been some common skirmisher or scout, cast away his life
ingloriously, giving testimony to the wisdom of the ancient Spartan
maxim, to avoid attacks on walled cities, in which the stoutest
warrior may chance to fall by the hand, not only of a man utterly his
inferior, but by that of a boy or woman, as Achilles, they say, was
slain by Paris in the gates. As for Sylla, it were hard to reckon up
how many set battles he won, or how many thousands he slew; he took
Rome itself twice, as also the Athenian Piraeus, not by famine, as
Lysander did, but by a series of great battles, driving Archelaus
into the sea. And what is most important, there was a vast
difference between the commanders they had to deal with. For I look
upon it as an easy task, or rather sport, to beat Antiochus,
Alcibiades's pilot, or to circumvent Philocles, the Athenian
demagogue,

Sharp only at the inglorious point of tongue,

whom Mithridates would have scorned to compare with his groom, or
Marius with his lictor. But of the potentates, consuls, commanders,
and demagogues, to pass by all the rest who opposed themselves to
Sylla, who amongst the Romans so formidable as Marius? what king more
powerful than Mithridates? who of the Italians more warlike than
Lamponius and Telesinus? yet of these, one he drove into banishment,
one he quelled, and the others he slew.

And what is more important, in my judgment, than anything yet
adduced, is that Lysander had the assistance of the State in all his
achievements; whereas Sylla, besides that he was a banished person,
and overpowered by a faction, at a time when his wife was driven from
home, his houses demolished, and adherents slain, himself then in
Boeotia, stood embattled against countless numbers of the public
enemy, and endangering himself for the sake of his country, raised a
trophy of victory; and not even when Mithridates came with proposals
of alliance and aid against his enemies, would he show any sort of
compliance, or even clemency; did not so much as address him, or
vouchsafe him his hand, until he had it from the king's own mouth,
that he was willing to quit Asia, surrender the navy, and restore
Bithynia and Cappadocia to the two kings. Than which action, Sylla
never performed a braver, or with a nobler spirit, when, preferring
the public good to the private, and like good hounds, where he had
once fixed, never letting go his hold, till the enemy yielded, then,
and not until then, he set himself to revenge his own private
quarrels. We may perhaps let ourselves be influenced, moreover, in
our comparison of their characters, by considering their treatment of
Athens. Sylla, when he had made himself master of the city, which
then upheld the dominion and power of Mithridates in opposition to
him, restored her to liberty and the free exercise of her own laws;
Lysander, on the contrary, when she had fallen from a vast height of
dignity and rule, showed her no compassion, but abolishing her
democratic government, imposed on her the most cruel and lawless
tyrants. We are now qualified to consider, whether we should go far
from the truth or no, in pronouncing that Sylla performed the more
glorious deeds, but Lysander committed the fewer faults, as,
likewise, by giving to one the preeminence for moderation and
self-control, to the other, for conduct and valor.

CIMON

Peripoltas, the prophet, having brought the king Opheltas, and those
under his command, from Thessaly into Boeotia, left there a family,
which flourished a long time after; the greatest part of them
inhabiting Chaeronea, the first city out of which they expelled the
barbarians. The descendants of this race, being men of bold attempts
and warlike habits, exposed themselves to so many dangers, in the
invasions of the Mede, and in battles against the Gauls, that at last
they were almost wholly consumed.

There was left one orphan of this house, called Damon, surnamed
Peripoltas, in beauty and greatness of spirit surpassing all of his
age, but rude and undisciplined in temper. A Roman captain of a
company that wintered in Chaeronea became passionately fond of this
youth, who was now pretty nearly grown a man. And finding all his
approaches, his gifts, and his entreaties alike repulsed, he showed
violent inclinations to assault Damon. Our native Chaeronea was then
in a distressed condition, too small and too poor to meet with
anything but neglect. Damon, being sensible of this, and looking
upon himself as injured already, resolved to inflict punishment.
Accordingly, he and sixteen of his companions conspired against the
captain; but that the design might be managed without any danger of
being discovered, they all daubed their faces at night with soot.
Thus disguised and inflamed with wine, they set upon him by break of
day, as he was sacrificing in the marketplace; and having killed him,
and several others that were with him, they fled out of the city,
which was extremely alarmed and troubled at the murder. The council
assembled immediately, and pronounced sentence of death against Damon
and his accomplices. This they did to justify the city to the
Romans. But that evening, as the magistrates were at supper
together, according to the custom, Damon and his confederates
breaking into the hall, killed them, and then again fled out of the
town. About this time, Lucius Lucullus chanced to be passing that
way with a body of troops, upon some expedition, and this disaster
having but recently happened, he stayed to examine the matter. Upon
inquiry, he found the city was in nowise faulty, but rather that they
themselves had suffered; therefore he drew out the soldiers, and
carried them away with him. Yet Damon continuing to ravage the
country all about, the citizens, by messages and decrees, in
appearance favorable, enticed him into the city, and upon his return,
made him Gymnasiarch; but afterwards as he was anointing himself in
the vapor baths, they set upon him and killed him. For a long while
after apparitions continuing to be seen, and groans to be heard in
that place, so our fathers have told us, they ordered the gates of
the baths to be built up; and even to this day those who live in the
neighborhood believe that they sometimes see specters, and hear
alarming sounds. The posterity of Damon, of whom some still remain,
mostly in Phocis, near the town of Stiris, are called Asbolomeni,
that is, in the Aeolian idiom, men daubed with soot; because Damon
was thus besmeared when he committed this murder.

But there being a quarrel between the people of Chaeronea and the
Orchomenians, their neighbors, these latter hired an informer, a
Roman, to accuse the community of Chaeronea, as if it had been a
single person, of the murder of the Romans, of which only Damon and
his companions were guilty; accordingly, the process wee commenced,
and the cause pleaded before the Praetor of Macedon, since the Romans
as yet had not sent governors into Greece.
The advocates who defended the inhabitants appealed to the testimony
of Lucullus, who, in answer to a letter the Praetor wrote to him,
returned a true account of the matter-of-fact. By this means the
town obtained its acquittal, and escaped a most serious danger. The
citizens thus preserved erected a statue to Lucullus in the
market-place, near that of the god Bacchus.

We also have the same impressions of gratitude; and though removed
from the events by the distance of several generations, we yet feel
the obligation to extend to ourselves; and as we think an image of
the character and habits, to be a greater honor than one merely
representing the face and the person, we will put Lucullus's life
amongst our parallels of illustrious men, and without swerving from
the truth, will record his actions. The commemoration will be itself
a sufficient proof of our grateful feeling, and he himself would not
thank us, if in recompense for a service, which consisted in speaking
the truth, we should abuse his memory with a false and counterfeit
narration. For as we would wish that a painter who is to draw a
beautiful face in which there is yet some imperfection, should
neither wholly leave out, nor yet too pointedly express what is
defective, because this would deform it, and that spoil the
resemblance; so, since it is hard, or indeed perhaps impossible, to
show the life of a man wholly free from blemish, in all that is
excellent we must follow truth exactly, and give it fully; any lapses
or faults that occur, through human passions or political
necessities, we may regard rather as the shortcomings of some
particular virtue, than as the natural effects of vice; and may be
content without introducing them, curiously and officiously, into our
narrative, if it be but out of tenderness to the weakness of nature,
which has never succeeded in producing any human character so perfect
in virtue, as to be pure from all admixture, and open to no
criticism. On considering; with myself to whom I should compare
Lucullus, I find none so exactly his parallel as Cimon.

They were both valiant in war, and successful against the barbarians;
both gentle in political life, and more than any others gave their
countrymen a respite from civil troubles at home, while abroad, each
of them raised trophies and gained famous victories. No Greek before
Cimon, nor Roman before Lucullus, ever carried the scene of war so
far from their own country; putting out of the question the acts of
Bacchus and Hercules, and any exploit of Perseus against the
Ethiopians, Medes, and Armenians, or again of Jason, of which any
record that deserves credit can be said to have come down to our
days. Moreover in this they were alike, that they did not finish the
enterprises they undertook. They brought their enemies near their
ruin, but never entirely conquered them. There was yet a greater
conformity in the free good-will and lavish abundance of their
entertainments and general hospitalities, and in the youthful laxity
of their habits. Other points of resemblance, which we have failed
to notice, may be easily collected from our narrative itself.

Cimon was the son of Miltiades and Hegesipyle, who was by birth a
Thracian, and daughter to the king Olorus, as appears from the poems
of Melanthius and Archelaus, written in praise of Cimon. By this
means the historian Thucydides was his kinsman by the mother's side;
for his father's name also, in remembrance of this common ancestor,
was Olorus, and he was the owner of the gold mines in Thrace, and met
his death, it is said, by violence, in Scapte Hyle, a district of
Thrace; and his remains having afterwards been brought into Attica, a
monument is shown as his among those of the family of Cimon, near the
tomb of Elpinice, Cimon's sister. But Thucydides was of the township
of Halimus, and Miltiades and his family were Laciadae. Miltiades,
being condemned in a fine of fifty talents to the State, and unable
to pay it, was cast into prison, and there died. Thus Cimon was left
an orphan very young, with his sister Elpinice, who was also young
and unmarried. And at first he had but an indifferent reputation,
being looked upon as disorderly in his habits, fond of drinking, and
resembling his grandfather, also called Cimon, in character, whose
simplicity got him the surname of Coalemus. Stesimbrotus of Thasos,
who lived near about the same time with Cimon, reports of him that he
had little acquaintance either with music, or any of the other
liberal studies and accomplishments, then common among the Greeks;
that he had nothing whatever of the quickness and the ready speech of
his countrymen in Attica; that he had great nobleness and candor in
his disposition, and in his character in general, resembled rather a
native of Peloponnesus, than of Athens; as Euripides describes
Hercules,

-- Rude
And unrefined, for great things well-endued;

for this may fairly be added to the character which Stesimbrotus has
given of him.

They accused him, in his younger years, of cohabiting with his own
sister Elpinice, who, indeed, otherwise had no very clear reputation,
but was reported to have been over intimate with Polygnotus, the
painter; and hence, when he painted the Trojan women in the porch,
then called the Plesianactium, and now the Poecile, he made Laodice a
portrait of her. Polygnotus was not an ordinary mechanic, nor was he
paid for this work, but out of a desire to please the Athenians,
painted the portico for nothing. So it is stated by the historians,
and in the following verses by the poet Melanthius: --

Wrought by his hand the deeds of heroes grace
At his own charge our temples and our Place.

Some affirm that Elpinice lived with her brother, not secretly, but
as his married wife, her poverty excluding her from any suitable
match. But afterward, when Callias, one of the richest men of
Athens, fell in love with her, and proffered to pay the fine the
father was condemned in, if he could obtain the daughter in marriage,
with Elpinice's own consent, Cimon betrothed her to Callias. There
is no doubt but that Cimon was, in general, of an amorous temper.
For Melanthius, in his elegies, rallies him on his attachment for
Asteria of Salamis, and again for a certain Mnestra. And there can
be no doubt of his unusually passionate affection for his lawful wife
Isodice, the daughter of Euryptolemus, the son of Megacles; nor of
his regret, even to impatience, at her death, if any conclusion may
be drawn from those elegies of condolence, addressed to him upon his
loss of her. The philosopher Panaetius is of opinion, that
Archelaus, the writer on physics, was the author of them, and indeed
the time seems to favor that conjecture. All the other points of
Cimon's character were noble and good. He was as daring as
Miltiades, and not inferior to Themistocles in judgment, and was
incomparably more just and honest than either of them. Fully their
equal in all military virtues, in the ordinary duties of a citizen at
home he was immeasurably their superior. And this, too, when he was
very young, his years not yet strengthened by any experience. For
when Themistocles, upon the Median invasion, advised the Athenians to
forsake their city and their country, and to carry all their arms on
shipboard, and fight the enemy by sea, in the straits of Salamis;
when all the people stood amazed at the confidence and rashness of
this advice, Cimon was seen, the first of all men, passing with a
cheerful countenance through the Ceramicus, on his way with his
companions to the citadel, carrying a bridle in his hand to offer to
the goddess, intimating that there was no more need of horsemen now,
but of mariners. There, after he had paid his devotions to the
goddess, and offered up the bridle, he took down one of the bucklers
that hung upon the walls of the temple, and went down to the port; by
this example giving confidence to many of the citizens. He was also
of a fairly handsome person, according to the poet Ion, tall and
large, and let his thick and curly hair grow long. After he had
acquitted himself gallantly in this battle of Salamis, he obtained
great repute among the Athenians, and was regarded with affection, as
well as admiration. He had many who followed after him and bade him
aspire to actions not less famous than his father's battle of
Marathon. And when he came forward in political life, the people
welcomed him gladly, being now weary of Themistocles; in opposition
to whom, and because of the frankness and easiness of his temper,
which was agreeable to everyone, they advanced Cimon to the highest
employments in the government. The man that contributed most to his
promotion was Aristides, who early discerned in his character his
natural capacity, and purposely raised him, that he might be a
counterpoise to the craft and boldness of Themistocles.

After the Medes had been driven out of Greece, Cimon was sent out as
admiral, when the Athenians had not yet attained their dominion by
sea, but still followed Pausanias and the Lacedaemonians; and his
fellow-citizens under his command were highly distinguished, both for
the excellence of their discipline, and for their extraordinary zeal
and readiness. And further, perceiving that Pausanias was carrying
on secret communications with the barbarians, and writing letters to
the king of Persia to betray Greece, and, puffed up with authority
and success, was treating the allies haughtily, and committing many
wanton injustices, Cimon, taking this advantage, by acts of kindness
to those who were suffering wrong, and by his general humane bearing,
robbed him of the command of the Greeks, before he was aware, not by
arms, but by his mere language and character. The greatest part of
the allies, no longer able to endure the harshness and pride of
Pausanias, revolted from him to Cimon and Aristides, who accepted the
duty, and wrote to the Ephors of Sparta, desiring them to recall a
man who was causing dishonor to Sparta, and trouble to Greece. They
tell of Pausanias, that when he was in Byzantium, he solicited a
young lady of a noble family in the city, whose name was Cleonice, to
debauch her. Her parents, dreading his cruelty, were forced to
consent, and so abandoned their daughter to his wishes. The daughter
asked the servants outside the chamber to put out all the lights; so
that approaching silently and in the dark toward his bed, she
stumbled upon the lamp, which she overturned. Pausanias, who was
fallen asleep, awakened and startled with the noise, thought an
assassin had taken that dead time of night to murder him, so that
hastily snatching up his poniard that lay by him, he struck the girl,
who fell with the blow, and died. After this, he never had rest, but
was continually haunted by her, and saw an apparition visiting him in
his sleep, and addressing him with these angry words: --

Go on thy way, unto the evil end,
That doth on lust and violence attend.

This was one of the chief occasions of indignation against him among
the confederates, who now joining their resentments and forces with
Cimon's, besieged him in Byzantium. He escaped out of their hands,
and, continuing, as it is said, to be disturbed by the apparition,
fled to the oracle of the dead at Heraclea, raised the ghost of
Cleonice, and entreated her to be reconciled. Accordingly she
appeared to him, and answered, that as soon as he came to Sparta, he
should speedily be freed from all evils; obscurely foretelling, it
would seem, his imminent death. This story is related by many
authors.

Cimon, strengthened with the accession of the allies, went as general
into Thrace. For he was told that some great men among the Persians,
of the king's kindred, being in possession of Eion, a city situated
upon the river Strymon, infested the neighboring Greeks. First he
defeated these Persians in battle, and shut them up within the walls
of their town. Then he fell upon the Thracians of the country beyond
the Strymon, because they supplied Eion with victuals, and driving
them entirely out of the country, took possession of it as conqueror,
by which means he reduced the besieged to such straits, that Butes,
who commanded there for the king, in desperation set fire to the
town, and burned himself, his goods, and all his relations, in one
common flame. By this means, Cimon got the town, but no great booty;
as the barbarians had not only consumed themselves in the fire, but
the richest of their effects. However, he put the country about into
the hands of the Athenians, a most advantageous and desirable
situation for a settlement. For this action, the people permitted
him to erect the stone Mercuries, upon the first of which was this
inscription: --

Of bold and patient spirit, too, were those,
Who, where the Strymon under Eion flows,
With famine and the sword, to utmost need
Reduced at last the children of the Mede.

Upon the second stood this: --

The Athenians to their leaders this reward
For great and useful service did accord;
Others hereafter, shall, from their applause,
Learn to be valiant in their country's cause

and upon the third, the following:

With Atreus' sons, this city sent of yore
Divine Menestheus to the Trojan shore;
Of all the Greeks, so Homer's verses say,
The ablest man an army to array:
So old the title of her sons the name
Of chiefs and champions in the field to claim.

Though the name of Cimon is not mentioned in these inscriptions, yet
his contemporaries considered them to be the very highest honors to
him; as neither Miltiades nor Themistocles ever received the like.
When Miltiades claimed a garland, Sochares of Decelea stood up in the
midst of the assembly and opposed it, using words which, though
ungracious, were received with applause by the people. "When you
have gained a victory by yourself, Miltiades, then you may ask to
triumph so too." What then induced them so particularly to honor
Cimon? Was it that under other commanders they stood upon the
defensive? but by his conduct, they not only attacked their enemies,
but invaded them in their own country, and acquired new territory,
becoming masters of Eion and Amphipolis, where they planted colonies,
as also they did in the isle of Scyros, which Cimon had taken on the
following occasion. The Dolopians were the inhabitants of this isle,
a people who neglected all husbandry, and had, for many generations,
been devoted to piracy; this they practiced to that degree, that at
last they began to plunder foreigners that brought merchandise into
their ports. Some merchants of Thessaly, who had come to shore near
Ctesium, were not only spoiled of their goods, but themselves put
into confinement. These men afterwards escaping from their prison,
went and obtained sentence against the Scyrians in a court of
Amphictyons, and when the Scyrian people declined to make public
restitution, and called upon the individuals who had got the plunder
to give it up, these persons, in alarm, wrote to Cimon to succor them
with his fleet, and declared themselves ready to deliver the town
into his hands. Cimon, by these means, got the town, expelled the
Dolopian pirates, and so opened the traffic of the Aegean sea. And,
understanding that the ancient Theseus, the son of Aegeus, when he
fled from Athens and took refuge in this isle, was here treacherously
slain by king Lycomedes, who feared him, Cimon endeavored to find out
where he was buried. For an oracle had commanded the Athenians to
bring home his ashes, and pay him all due honors as a hero; but
hitherto they had not been able to learn where he was interred, as
the people of Scyros dissembled the knowledge of it, and were not
willing to allow a search. But now, great inquiry being made, with
some difficulty he found out the tomb, and carried the relics into
his own galley, and with great pomp and show brought them to Athens,
four hundred years, or thereabouts, after his expulsion. This act
got Cimon great favor with the people, one mark of which was the
judgment, afterwards so famous, upon the tragic poets. Sophocles,
still a young man, had just brought forward his first plays; opinions
were much divided, and the spectators had taken sides with some heat.
So, to determine the case, Apsephion, who was at that time archon,
would not cast lots who should be judges; but when Cimon, and his
brother commanders with him, came into the theater, after they had
performed the usual rites to the god of the festival, he would not
allow them to retire, but came forward and made them swear, (being
ten in all, one from each tribe,) the usual oath; and so being sworn
judges, he made them sit down to give sentence. The eagerness for
victory grew all the warmer, from the ambition to get the suffrages
of such honorable judges. And the victory was at last adjudged to
Sophocles, which Aeschylus is said to have taken so ill, that he left
Athens shortly after, and went in anger to Sicily, where he died, and
was buried near the city of Gela.

Ion relates that when he was a young man, and recently come from
Chios to Athens, he chanced to sup with Cimon, at Laomedon's house.
After supper, when they had, according to custom, poured out wine to
the honor of the gods, Cimon was desired by the company to give them
a song, which he did with sufficient success, and received the
commendations of the company, who remarked on his superiority to
Themistocles, who, on a like occasion, had declared he had never
learnt to sing, nor to play, and only knew how to make a city rich
and powerful. After talking of things incident to such
entertainments, they entered upon the particulars of the several
actions for which Cimon had been famous. And when they were
mentioning the most signal, he told them they had omitted one, upon
which he valued himself most for address and good contrivance. He
gave this account of it. When the allies had taken a great number of
the barbarians prisoners in Sestos and Byzantium, they gave him the
preference to divide the booty; he accordingly put the prisoners in
one lot, and the spoils of their rich attire and jewels in the other.
This the allies complained of as an unequal division, but he gave
them their choice to take which lot they would, for that the
Athenians should be content with that which they refused. Herophytus
of Samos advised them to take the ornaments for their share, and
leave the slaves to the Athenians; and Cimon went away, and was much
laughed at for his ridiculous division. For the allies carried away
the golden bracelets, and armlets, and collars, and purple robes, and
the Athenians had only the naked bodies of the captives, which they
could make no advantage of, being unused to labor. But a little
while after, the friends and kinsmen of the prisoners coming from
Lydia and Phrygia, redeemed every one his relations at a high ransom;
so that by this means Cimon got so much treasure that he maintained
his whole fleet of galleys with the money for four months; and yet
there was some left to lay up in the treasury at Athens.

Cimon now grew rich, and what he gained from the barbarians with
honor, he spent yet more honorably upon the citizens. For he pulled
down all the enclosures of his gardens and grounds, that strangers,
and the needy of his fellow-citizens, might gather of his fruits
freely. At home, he kept a table, plain, but sufficient for a
considerable number; to which any poor townsman had free access, and
so might support himself without labor, with his whole time left free
for public duties. Aristotle states, however, that this reception
did not extend to all the Athenians, but only to his own fellow
townsmen, the Laciadae. Besides this, he always went attended by two
or three young companions, very well clad; and if he met with an
elderly citizen in a poor habit, one of these would change clothes
with the decayed citizen, which was looked upon as very nobly done.
He enjoined them, likewise, to carry a considerable quantity of coin
about them, which they were to convey silently into the hands of the
better class of poor men, as they stood by them in the marketplace.
This, Cratinus the poet speaks of in one of his comedies, the
Archilochi: --

For I, Metrobius too, the scrivener poor,
Of ease and comfort in my age secure,
By Greece's noblest son in life's decline,
Cimon, the generous-hearted, the divine,
Well-fed and feasted hoped till death to be,
Death which, alas! has taken him ere me.

Gorgias the Leontine gives him this character, that he got riches
that he might use them, and used them that he might get honor by
them. And Critias, one of the thirty tyrants, makes it, in his
elegies, his wish to have

The Scopads' wealth, and Cimon's nobleness,
And king Agesilaus's success.

Lichas, we know, became famous in Greece, only because on the days of
the sports, when the young boys run naked, he used to entertain the
strangers that came to see these diversions. But Cimon's generosity
outdid all the old Athenian hospitality and good-nature. For though
it is the city's just boast that their forefathers taught the rest of
Greece to sow corn, and how to use springs of water, and to kindle
fire, yet Cimon, by keeping open house for his fellow-citizens, and
giving travelers liberty to eat the fruits which the several seasons
produced in his land, seemed to restore to the world that community
of goods, which mythology says existed in the reign of Saturn. Those
who object to him that he did this to be popular, and gain the
applause of the vulgar, are confuted by the constant tenor of the
rest of his actions, which all tended to uphold the interests of the
nobility and the Spartan policy, of which he gave instances, when
together with Aristides, he opposed Themistocles, who was advancing
the authority of the people beyond its just limits, and resisted
Ephialtes, who to please the multitude, was for abolishing the
jurisdiction of the court of Areopagus. And when all of his time,
except Aristides and Ephialtes, enriched themselves out of the public
money, he still kept his hands clean and untainted, and to his last
day never acted or spoke for his own private gain or emolument. They
tell us that Rhoesaces, a Persian, who had traitorously revolted from
the king his master, fled to Athens, and there, being harassed by
sycophants, who were still accusing him to the people, he applied
himself to Cimon for redress, and to gain his favor, laid down in his
doorway two cups, the one full of gold, and the other of silver
Darics. Cimon smiled and asked him whether he wished to have Cimon's
hired service or his friendship. He replied, his friendship. "If
so," said he, "take away these pieces, for being your friend, when I
shall have occasion for them, I will send and ask for them."

The allies of the Athenians began now to be weary of war and military
service, willing to have repose, and to look after their husbandry
and traffic. For they saw and did not fear any new vexations from
them. They still paid the tax they were assessed at, but did not
send men and galleys, as they had done before. This the other
Athenian generals wished to constrain them to, and by judicial
proceedings against defaulters, and penalties which they inflicted on
them, made the government uneasy, and even odious. But Cimon
practiced a contrary method; he forced no man to go that was not
willing, but of those that desired to be excused from service he took
money and vessels unmanned, and let them yield to the temptation of
staying at home, to attend to their private business. Thus they lost
their military habits, and luxury and their own folly quickly
changed them into unwarlike husbandmen and traders, while Cimon,
continually embarking large numbers of Athenians on board his
galleys, thoroughly disciplined them in his expeditions, their
enemies driven out of the country, and ere long made them the lords
of their own paymasters. The allies, whose indolence maintained
them, while they thus went sailing about everywhere, and incessantly
bearing arms and acquiring skill, began to fear and flatter then, and
found themselves after a while allies no longer, but unwittingly
become tributaries and slaves.

Nor did any man ever do more than Cimon did to humble the pride of
the Persian king. He was not content with getting rid of him out of
Greece; but following close at his heels, before the barbarians could
take breath and recover themselves, he was already at work, and what
with his devastations, and his forcible reduction of some places, and
the revolts and voluntary accession of others, in the end, from Ionia
to Pamphylia, all Asia was clear of Persian soldiers. Word being
brought him that the royal commanders were lying in wait upon the
coast of Pamphylia, with a numerous land army, and a large fleet, he
determined to make the whole sea on this side the Chelidonian islands
so formidable to them that they should never dare to show themselves
in it; and setting off from Cnidos and the Triopian headland, with
two hundred galleys, which had been originally built with particular
care by Themistocles, for speed and rapid evolutions, and to which he
now gave greater width and roomier decks along the sides to move to
and fro upon, so as to allow a great number of full-armed soldiers to
take part in the engagements and fight from them, he shaped his
course first of all against the town of Phaselis, which, though
inhabited by Greeks, yet would not quit the interests of Persia, but
denied his galleys entrance into their port. Upon this he wasted the
country, and drew up his army to their very walls; but the soldiers
of Chios, who were then serving under him, being ancient friends to
the Phaselites, endeavoring to propitiate the general in their
behalf, at the same time shot arrows into the town, to which were
fastened letters conveying intelligence. At length he concluded
peace with them, upon the conditions that they should pay down ten
talents, and follow him against the barbarians. Ephorus says the
admiral of the Persian fleet was Tithraustes, and the general of the
land army Pherendates; but Callisthenes is positive that Ariomandes,
the son of Gobryas, had the supreme command of all the forces. He
lay waiting with the whole fleet at the mouth of the river Eurymedon,
with no design to fight, but expecting a reinforcement of eighty
Phoenician ships on their way from Cyprus. Cimon, aware of this, put
out to sea, resolved, if they would not fight a battle willingly, to
force them to it. The barbarians, seeing this, retired within the
mouth of the river to avoid being attacked; but when they saw the
Athenians come upon them, notwithstanding their retreat, they met
them with six hundred ships, as Phanodemus relates but according to
Ephorus, only with three hundred and fifty. However, they did
nothing worthy such mighty forces, but immediately turned the prows
of their galleys toward the shore, where those that came first threw
themselves upon the land, and fled to their army drawn up thereabout,
while the rest perished with their vessels, or were taken. By this,
one may guess at their number, for though a great many escaped out of
the fight, and a great many others were sunk, yet two hundred galleys
were taken by the Athenians.

When their land army drew toward the seaside, Cimon was in suspense
whether he should venture to try and force his way on shore; as he
should thus expose his Greeks, wearied with slaughter in the first
engagement, to the swords of the barbarians, who were all fresh men,
and many times their number. But seeing his men resolute, and
flushed with victory, he bade them land, though they were not yet
cool from their first battle. As soon as they touched ground, they
set up a shout and ran upon the enemy, who stood firm and sustained
the first shock with great courage, so that the fight was a hard one,
and some principal men of the Athenians in rank and courage were
slain. At length, though with much ado, they routed the barbarians,
and killing some, took others prisoners, and plundered all their
tents and pavilions which were full of rich spoil. Cimon, like a
skilled athlete at the games, having in one day carried off two
victories, wherein he surpassed that of Salamis by sea, and that of
Plataea by land, was encouraged to try for yet another success. News
being brought that the Phoenician succors, in number eighty sail, had
come in sight at Hydrum, he set off with all speed to find them,
while they as yet had not received any certain account of the larger
fleet, and were in doubt what to think; so that thus surprised, they
lost all their vessels, and most of their men with them. This
success of Cimon so daunted the king of Persia, that he presently
made that celebrated peace, by which he engaged that his armies
should come no nearer the Grecian sea than the length of a horse's
course; and that none of his galleys or vessels of war should appear
between the Cyanean and Chelidonian isles. Callisthenes, however,
says that he did not agree to any such articles, but that upon the
fear this victory gave him, he did in reality thus act, and kept off
so far from Greece, that when Pericles with fifty, and Ephialtes with
thirty galleys, cruised beyond the Chelidonian isles, they did not
discover one Persian vessel. But in the collection which Craterus
made of the public acts of the people, there is a draft of this
treaty given. And it is told, also, that at Athens they erected the
altar of Peace upon this occasion, and decreed particular honors to
Callias, who was employed as ambassador to procure the treaty.

The people of Athens raised so much money from the spoils of this
war, which were publicly sold, that, besides other expenses, and
raising the south wall of the citadel, they laid the foundation of
the long walls, not, indeed, finished till at a later time, which
were called the Legs. And the place where they built them being soft
and marshy ground, they were forced to sink great weights of stone
and rubble to secure the foundation, and did all this out of the
money Cimon supplied them with. It was he, likewise, who first
embellished the upper city with those fine and ornamental places of
exercise and resort, which they afterward so much frequented and
delighted in. He set the market-place with plane trees; and the
Academy, which was before a bare, dry, and dirty spot, he converted
into a well-watered grove, with shady alleys to walk in, and open
courses for races.

When the Persians who had made themselves masters of the Chersonese,
so far from quitting it, called in the people of the interior of
Thrace to help them against Cimon, whom they despised for the
smallness of his forces, he set upon them with only four galleys, and
took thirteen of theirs; and having driven out the Persians, and
subdued the Thracians, he made the whole Chersonese the property of
Athens. Next, he attacked the people of Thasos, who had revolted
from the Athenians; and, having defeated them in a fight at sea,
where he took thirty-three of their vessels, he took their town by
siege, and acquired for the Athenians all the mines of gold on the
opposite coast, and the territory dependent on Thasos. This opened
him a fair passage into Macedon, so that he might, it was thought,
have acquired a good portion of that country; and because he
neglected the opportunity, he was suspected of corruption, and of
having been bribed off by king Alexander. So, by the combination of
his adversaries, he was accused of being false to his country. In
his defense he told the judges, that he had always shown himself in
his public life the friend, not, like other men, of rich Ionians and
Thessalians, to be courted, and to receive presents, but of the
Lacedaemonians; for as he admired, so he wished to imitate the
plainness of their habits, their temperance, and simplicity of
living, which he preferred to any sort of riches; but that he always
had been, and still was proud to enrich his country with the spoils
of her enemies. Stesimbrotus, making mention of this trial, states
that Elpinice, in behalf of her brother, addressed herself to
Pericles, the most vehement of his accusers, to whom Pericles
answered, with a smile, "You are old, Elpinice, to meddle with
affairs of this nature." However, he proved the mildest of his
prosecutors, and rose up but once all the while, almost as a matter
of form, to plead against him. Cimon was acquitted.

In his public life after this, he continued, whilst at home, to
control and restrain the common people, who would have trampled upon
the nobility, and drawn all the power and sovereignty to themselves.
But when he afterwards was sent out to war, the multitude broke
loose, as it were, and overthrew all the ancient laws and customs
they had hitherto observed, and, chiefly at the instigation of
Ephialtes, withdrew the cognizance of almost all causes from the
Areopagus; so that all jurisdiction now being transferred to them,
the government was reduced to a perfect democracy, and this by the
help of Pericles, who was already powerful, and had pronounced in
favor of the common people. Cimon, when he returned, seeing the
authority of this great council so upset, was exceedingly troubled,
and endeavored to remedy these disorders by bringing the courts of
law to their former state, and restoring the old aristocracy of the
time of Clisthenes. This the others declaimed against with all the
vehemence possible, and began to revive those stories concerning him
and his sister, and cried out against him as the partisan of the
Lacedaemonians. To these calumnies the famous verses of Eupolis, the
poet upon Cimon refer: --

He was as good as others that one sees,
But he was fond of drinking and of ease;
And would at nights to Sparta often roam,
Leaving his sister desolate at home.

But if, though slothful and a drunkard, he could capture so many
towns, and gain so many victories, certainly if he had been sober and
minded his business, there had been no Grecian commander, either
before or after him, that could have surpassed him for exploits of
war.

He was, indeed, a favorer of the Lacedaemonians even from his youth,
and he gave the names of Lacedaemonius and Eleus to two sons, twins,
whom he had, as Stesimbrotus says, by a woman of Clitorium, whence
Pericles often upbraided them with their mother's blood. But
Diodorus, the geographer, asserts that both these, and another son of
Cimon's, whose name was Thessalus, were born of Isodice, the daughter
of Euryptolemus, the son of Megacles.

However, this is certain, that Cimon was countenanced by the
Lacedaemonians in opposition to Themistocles, whom they disliked; and
while he was yet very young, they endeavored to raise and increase
his credit in Athens. This the Athenians perceived at first with
pleasure, and the favor the Lacedaemonians showed him was in various
ways advantageous to them and their affairs; as at that time they
were just rising to power, and were occupied in winning the allies to
their side. So they seemed not at all offended with the honor and
kindness showed to Cimon, who then had the chief management of all
the affairs of Greece, and was acceptable to the Lacedaemonians, and
courteous to the allies. But afterwards the Athenians, grown more
powerful, when they saw Cimon so entirely devoted to the
Lacedaemonians, began to be angry, for he would always in his
speeches prefer them to the Athenians, and upon every occasion, when
he would reprimand them for a fault, or incite them to emulation, he
would exclaim, "The Lacedaemonians would not do thus." This raised
the discontent, and got him in some degree the hatred of the
citizens; but that which ministered chiefly to the accusation against
him fell out upon the following occasion.

In the fourth year of the reign of Archidamus, the son of Zeuxidamus,
king of Sparta, there happened in the country of Lacedaemon, the
greatest earthquake that was known in the memory of man; the earth
opened into chasms, and the mountain Taygetus was so shaken, that
some of the rocky points of it fell down, and except five houses, all
the town of Sparta was shattered to pieces. They say, that a little
before any motion was perceived, as the young men and the boys just
grown up were exercising themselves together in the middle of the
portico, a hare, of a sudden, started out just by them, which the
young men, though all naked and daubed with oil, ran after for sport.
No sooner were they gone from the place, than the gymnasium fell down
upon the boys who had stayed behind, and killed them all. Their tomb
is to this day called Sismatias. Archidamus, by the present danger
made apprehensive of what might follow, and seeing the citizens
intent upon removing the most valuable of their goods out of their
houses, commanded an alarm to be sounded, as if an enemy were coming
upon them, in order that they should collect about him in a body,
with arms. It was this alone that saved Sparta at that time, for the
Helots were got together from the country about, with design to
surprise the Spartans, and overpower those whom the earthquake had
spared. But finding them armed and well prepared, they retired into
the towns and openly made war with them, gaining over a number of the
Laconians of the country districts; while at the same time the
Messenians, also, made an attack upon the Spartans, who therefore
dispatched Periclidas to Athens to solicit succors, of whom
Aristophanes says in mockery that he came and

In a red jacket, at the altars seated,
With a white face, for men and arms entreated.

This Ephialtes opposed, protesting that they ought not to raise up or
assist a city that was a rival to Athens; but that being down, it
were best to keep her so, and let the pride and arrogance of Sparta
be trodden under. But Cimon, as Critias says, preferring the safety
of Lacedaemon to the aggrandizement of his own country, so persuaded
the people, that he soon marched out with a large army to their
relief. Ion records, also, the most successful expression which he
used to move the Athenians. "They ought not to suffer Greece to be
lamed, nor their own city to be deprived of her yoke-fellow."

In his return from aiding the Lacedaemonians, he passed with his army
through the territory of Corinth; where upon Lachartus reproached him
for bringing his army into the country, without first asking leave of
the people. For he that knocks at another man's door ought not to
enter the house till the master gives him leave. "But you,
Corinthians, O Lachartus," said Cimon, "did not knock at the gates of
the Cleonaeans and Megarians, but broke them down, and entered by
force, thinking that all places should be open to the stronger." And
having thus rallied the Corinthian, he passed on with his army. Some
time after this, the Lacedaemonians sent a second time to desire
succors of the Athenians against the Messenians and Helots, who had
seized upon Ithome. But when they came, fearing their boldness and
gallantry, of all that came to their assistance, they sent them only
back, alleging they were designing innovations. The Athenians
returned home, enraged at this usage, and vented their anger upon all
those who were favorers of the Lacedaemonians; and seizing some
slight occasion, they banished Cimon for ten years, which is the time

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