



Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Turgut Dincer and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net






   ================================================
   Transcriber's note:

   Chapter numbers in the Index with question marks
   do not exist in the previous volumes.
   ================================================




   PLUTARCH'S LIVES.

   Translated from the Greek.

   WITH

   _NOTES AND A LIFE OF PLUTARCH_.

   BY

   AUBREY STEWART, M.A.,
   _Late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge_;

   AND THE LATE
   GEORGE LONG, M.A.,
   _Formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge_.

   IN FOUR VOLUMES.
   VOL. IV.

   LONDON:
   GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK ST., COVENT GARDEN,
   AND NEW YORK.
   1892.

   LONDON:
   PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
   STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.


CONTENTS

                                                             PAGE

   LIFE OF AGIS                                                 1

   LIFE OF KLEOMENES                                           19

   LIFE OF TIBERIUS GRACCHUS (_by G. Long _)                   53

   LIFE OF CAIUS GRACCHUS (_by G. Long _)                      90

   COMPARISON OF TIBERIUS AND CAIUS GRACCHUS WITH AGIS AND
     KLEOMENES                                                115

   LIFE OF DEMOSTHENES                                        119

   LIFE OF CICERO (_by G. Long_)                              146

   COMPARISON OF DEMOSTHENES AND CICERO                       211

   LIFE OF DEMETRIUS                                          215

   LIFE OF ANTONIUS (_by G. Long_)                            263

   COMPARISON OF DEMETRIUS AND ANTONIUS                       348

   LIFE OF DION                                               352

   LIFE OF BRUTUS (_by G. Long_)                              398

   COMPARISON OF DION AND BRUTUS                              454

   LIFE OF ARTAXERXES                                         458

   LIFE OF ARATUS                                             485

   LIFE OF GALBA                                              530

   LIFE OF OTHO                                               556

   INDEX                                                      573




PLUTARCH'S LIVES.


LIFE OF AGIS.


I. Many writers have very naturally conceived that the myth of Ixion,
who is fabled to have embraced a cloud instead of Hera, and so to have
begotten the centaurs, is really typical of ambitious men; for, although
they aim at obtaining glory, and set before themselves a lofty ideal of
virtue, yet they never succeed in producing any very distinct result,
because all their actions are  by various human passions and
prejudices, just as the herdsmen with their flocks say in Sophokles's
play:--

   "We needs must serve them, though their lords we be,
    And to their mute commands obedience pay."

These verses really represent the state of those who, in order to obtain
the empty title of statesmen and popular leaders, govern a country by
following the caprices and impulses of the people. Just as the men
stationed in the bows of a ship see what is coming before the steersmen,
but yet look up to them as their chiefs and execute their orders; so
they who govern with a view solely to their own popularity, although
they may be called rulers, are, in truth, nothing more than slaves of
the people.

II. An absolutely perfect man would not even wish for popularity, except
so far as it enabled him to take part in politics, and caused him to be
trusted by the people; yet a young and ambitious man must be excused if
he feels pride in the glory and reputation which he gains by brilliant
exploits. For, as Theophrastus says, the virtue which buds and sprouts
in youthful minds is confirmed by praise, and the high spirit thus
formed leads it to attempt greater things. On the other hand, an
excessive love of praise is dangerous in all cases, but, in statesmen,
utterly ruinous; for when it takes hold of men in the possession of
great power it drives them to commit acts of sheer madness, because they
forget that honourable conduct must increase their popularity, and think
that any measure that increases their popularity must necessarily be a
good one. We ought to tell the people that they cannot have the same man
to lead them and to follow them, just as Phokion is said to have replied
to Antipater, when he demanded some disgraceful service from him, "I
cannot be Antipater's friend and his toady at the same time." One might
also quote the fable of the serpent's tail which murmured against the
head and desired sometimes to take the lead, and not always follow the
head, but which when allowed to lead the way took the wrong path and
caused the head to be miserably crushed, because it allowed itself to be
guided by that which could neither see nor hear. This has been the fate
of many of those politicians who court the favour of the people; for,
after they have once shared their blind impulses, they lose the power of
checking their folly, and of restoring good discipline and order. These
reflections upon the favour of the people occurred to me when I thought
of its power, as shown in the case of Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, men
who were well born, well educated, and began their political career with
great promise, and yet were ruined, not so much by an excessive craving
for popular applause as by a very pardonable fear of disgrace. They both
received at the outset great proofs of their countrymen's goodwill, but
felt ashamed to remain as it were in their debt, and they ever strove to
wipe out their obligations to the people by legislation on their behalf,
and by their beneficent measures continually increased their popularity,
until, in the heat of the rivalry thus created, they found themselves
pledged to a line of policy in which they could not even pause with
honour, and which they could not desist from without disgrace. The
reader, however, will be able to form his own opinion about them from
their history, and I shall now write, as a parallel to them, the lives
of that pair of Laconian reformers, Agis and Kleomenes, kings of Sparta,
who, like the Gracchi, increased the power of the people, and
endeavoured to restore an admirable and just constitution which had
fallen into desuetude; but who, like them, incurred the hatred of the
governing class, who were unwilling to relinquish their encroachments
and privileges. These Lacedaemonians were not indeed brothers, yet they
pursued a kindred policy, with the same objects in view.

III. After the desire for silver and gold had penetrated into Sparta,
the acquisition of wealth produced greed and meanness, while the use and
enjoyment of riches was followed by luxury, effeminacy, and
extravagance. Thus it fell out that Sparta lost her high and honoured
position in Greece, and remained in obscurity and disgrace until the
reign of Agis and Leonidas. Agis was of the Eurypontid line, the son of
Eudamidas, and the sixth in descent from king Agesilaus, who invaded
Asia, and became the most powerful man in Greece. This Agesilaus had a
son named Archidamus, who fell in battle against the Messapians at the
battle of Mandurium[1] in Italy. He was succeeded by his eldest son
Agis, who, being killed by Antipater near Megalopolis, and leaving no
issue, was succeeded by his brother, Eudamidas; he, by a son named
Archidamus; and Archidamus by another Eudamidas, the father of Agis, the
subject of this memoir.

Leonidas, the son of Kleonymus, was of the other royal family, that of
the Agiadae, and was eighth in descent from Pausanias who conquered
Mardonius at the battle of Plataea. Pausanias had a son named
Pleistoanax, whose son was again named Pausanias. This Pausanias[2]
fled for his life from Sparta to Tegea, and was succeeded by his eldest
son Agesipolis; and he, dying childless, by his younger brother
Kleombrotus. Kleombrotus left two sons, Agesipolis and Kleomenes, of
whom Agesipolis reigned but a short time, and left no children.
Kleomenes succeeded his brother Agesipolis on the throne. Of his two
sons, the elder, Akrotatus, died during his father's lifetime, and the
younger, Kleonymus, never reigned, as the throne was occupied by
Areus[3] the grandson of Kleomenes, and the son of Akrotatus. Areus
perished in battle before Corinth, and was succeeded by his son
Akrotatus. This Akrotatus was defeated and slain near the city of
Megalopolis by the despot Aristodemus, leaving his wife pregnant. When
she bore a son, Leonidas the son of Kleonymus was appointed his
guardian, and, as the child died before reaching manhood, he succeeded
to the throne although he was far from being an acceptable personage to
his countrymen; for, though the Spartans at this period had all
abandoned their original severe simplicity of living, yet they found the
manners of Leonidas in offensive contrast to their own. Indeed,
Leonidas, who had spent much of his life at the courts of Asiatic
potentates, and had been especially attached to that of Seleukus, seemed
inclined to outrage the political feeling of the Greeks by introducing
the arrogant tone of an Oriental despot into the constitutional monarchy
of Sparta.

IV. On the other hand, the goodness of heart and intellectual power of
Agis proved so greatly superior not only to that of Leonidas, but of
every king since Agesilaus the Great, that before he arrived at his
twentieth year, in spite of his having been brought up in the greatest
luxury by his mother Agesistrata and his grandmother Archidamia, the two
richest women in Sparta, he abjured all frivolous indulgence, laid aside
all personal ornament, avoided extravagance of every kind, prided
himself on practising the old Laconian habits of dress, food, and
bathing, and was wont to say that he would not care to be king unless
he could use his position to restore the ancient customs and discipline
of his country.

V. The corruption of the Lacedaemonians began at the time when, after
having overthrown the Athenian empire, they were able to satiate
themselves with the possession of gold and silver. Nevertheless, as the
number of houses instituted by Lykurgus was still maintained, and each
father still transmitted his estate to his son, the original equal
division of property continued to exist and preserved the state from
disorder. But a certain powerful and self-willed man, named Epitadeus,
who was one of the Ephors, having quarrelled with his son, proposed a
rhetra permitting a man to give his house and land to whomsoever he
pleased, either during his life, or by his will after his death. This
man proposed the law in order to gratify his own private grudge; but the
other Spartans through covetousness eagerly confirmed it, and ruined the
admirable constitution of Lykurgus. They now began to acquire land
without limit, as the powerful men kept their relatives out of their
rightful inheritance; and as the wealth of the country soon got into the
hands of a few, the city became impoverished, and the rich began to be
viewed with dislike and hatred. There were left at that time no more
than seven hundred Spartans, and of these about one hundred possessed an
inheritance in land, while the rest, without money, and excluded from
all the privileges of citizenship, fought in a languid and spiritless
fashion in the wars, and were ever on the watch for some opportunity to
subvert the existing condition of affairs at home.

VI. Agis, therefore, thinking that it would be an honourable enterprise,
as indeed it was, to restore these citizens to the state and to
re-establish equality for all, began to sound the people themselves as
to their opinion about such a measure. The younger men quickly rallied
round him, and, with an enthusiasm which he had hardly counted upon,
began to make ready for the contest; but most of the elder men, who had
become more thoroughly tainted by the prevailing corruption, feared to
be brought back to the discipline of Lykurgus as much as a runaway slave
fears to be brought back to his master, and they bitterly reviled Agis
when he lamented over the condition of affairs and sighed for the
ancient glories of Sparta. His enthusiastic aspirations, however, were
sympathised with by Lysander the son of Libys, Mandrokleidas the son of
Ekphanes, and Agesilaus. Lysander was the most influential of all the
Spartans, while Mandrokleidas was thought to be the ablest politician in
Greece, as he could both plot with subtlety and execute with boldness.
Agesilaus was the uncle of King Agis and a fluent speaker, but of a weak
and covetous disposition. It was commonly supposed that he was stirred
to action by the influence of his son Hippomedon, who had gained great
glory in the wars and was exceedingly popular among the younger
citizens; but what really determined him to join the reformers was the
amount of his debts, which he hoped would be wiped out by a revolution.
As soon as Agis had won over this important adherent, he began to try to
bring over his mother to his views, who was Agesilaus's sister, and who,
from the number of her friends, debtors, and dependants, was very
powerful in the state, and took a large share in the management of
public affairs.

VII. When she first heard of Agis's designs she was much startled, and
dissuaded the youth from an enterprise which she thought neither
practicable nor desirable. However, when Agesilaus pointed out to her
what a notable design it was, and how greatly to the advantage of all,
while the young king himself besought his mother to part with her wealth
in order to gain him glory, arguing that he could not vie with other
kings in riches, as the servants of Persian satraps, and the very slaves
of the intendants of Ptolemy and Seleukus possessed more money than all
the kings that ever reigned in Sparta; but that, if he could prove
himself superior to those vanities by his temperance, simplicity of
life, and true greatness of mind, and could succeed in restoring
equality among his fellow-countrymen, he would be honoured and renowned
as a truly great king. By this means the youth entirely changed his
mother's mind, and so fired her with his own ambition, as if by an
inspiration from heaven, that she began to encourage Agis and urge him
on, and invited her friends to join them, while she also communicated
their design to the other women, because she knew that the Lacedaemonians
were in all things ruled by their women, and that they had more power in
the state than the men possessed in their private households. Most of
the wealth of Lacedaemon had fallen into female hands at this time, and
this fact proved a great hindrance to the accomplishment of Agis's
schemes of reform; for the women offered a vehement opposition to him,
not merely through a vulgar love for their idolised luxury, but also
because they saw that they would lose all the influence and power which
they derived from their wealth. They betook themselves to Leonidas, and
besought him, as being the elder man, to restrain Agis, and check the
development of his designs. Leonidas was willing enough to assist the
richer class, but he feared the people, who were eager for reform, and
would not openly oppose Agis, although he endeavoured secretly to ruin
his scheme, and to prejudice the Ephors against him, by imputing to him
the design of hiring the poor to make him despot with the plunder of the
rich, and insinuating that by his redistribution of lands and remission
of debts he meant to obtain more adherents for himself instead of more
citizens for Sparta.

VIII. In spite of all this, Agis contrived to get Lysander appointed one
of the Ephors, and immediately brought him to propose a rhetra before
the Gerusia, or Senate, the main points of which were that all debts
should be cancelled; that the land[4] should be divided, that between
the valley of Pellene and Mount Taygetus, Malea, and Sellasia into four
thousand five hundred lots, and the outlying districts into fifteen
thousand: that the latter district should be distributed among the
Perioeki of military age, and the former among the pure Spartans: that
the number of these should be made up by an extension of the franchise
to Perioeki or even foreigners of free birth, liberal education, and
fitting personal qualifications: and that these citizens should be
divided into fifteen companies some of four hundred, and some of two
hundred, for the public meals, and should conform in every respect to
the discipline of their forefathers.

IX. When this rhetra was proposed, as the Senate could not agree
whether it should become law, Lysander convoked a popular assembly and
himself addressed the people. Mandrokleidas and Agesilaus also besought
them not to allow a few selfish voluptuaries to destroy the glorious
name of Sparta, but to remember the ancient oracles, warning them
against the sin of covetousness, which would prove the ruin of Sparta,
and also of the responses which they had recently received from the
oracle of Pasiphae. The temple and oracle of Pasiphae at Thalamae was of
peculiar sanctity. Pasiphae is said by some writers to have been one of
the daughters of Atlas, and to have become the mother of Ammon by Zeus,
while others say that Kassandra the daughter of Priam died there, and
was called Pasiphae because her prophecies were plain to all men.
Phylarchus again tells us that Daphne the daughter of Amyklas, while
endeavouring to escape from the violence of Apollo, was transformed into
the laurel,[5] which bears her name, and was honoured by the god and
endowed by him with the gift of prophecy. Be this as it may, the
oracular responses which were brought from this shrine bade the Spartans
all become equal according as Lykurgus had originally ordained. After
these speeches had been delivered, King Agis himself came forward, and,
after a few introductory words, said that he was giving the strongest
possible pledges of his loyalty to the new constitution; for he declared
his intention of surrendering to the state, before any one else, his own
property, consisting of a vast extent of land, both arable and pasture,
besides six thousand talents of money; and he assured the people that
his mother and her friends, the richest people in Sparta, would do the
same.

X. The people were astounded at the magnanimity of the youth, and were
filled with joy, thinking that at last, after an interval of three
hundred years, there had appeared a king worthy of Sparta. Leonidas, on
the other hand, opposed him as vigorously as he could, reflecting that
he would be forced to follow his example, and divest himself of all his
property, and that Agis, not he, would get the credit of the act. He
therefore inquired of Agis whether he thought Lykurgus to have been a
just and well-meaning man. Receiving an affirmative reply, he again
demanded, "Where, then, do we find that Lykurgus approved of the
cancelling of debts, or of the admission of foreigners to the franchise,
seeing that he did not think that the state could prosper without a
periodical expulsion of foreigners?" To this Agis answered, that it was
not to be wondered at if Leonidas, who had lived in a foreign country,
and had a family by the daughter of a Persian satrap, should be ignorant
that Lykurgus, together with coined money, had banished borrowing and
lending from Sparta, and that he had no hatred for foreigners, but only
for those whose profession and mode of life made them unfit to associate
with his countrymen. These men Lykurgus expelled, not from any hatred of
their persons, but because he feared that their manners and habits would
infect the citizens with a love of luxury, effeminacy, and avarice.
Terpander, Thales, and Pherekydes were all foreigners, but, since they
sang and taught what Lykurgus approved, they lived in Sparta, and were
treated with especial honour. "Do you," asked he, "praise Ekprepus, who
when Ephor cut off with a hatchet the two additional strings which
Phrynis the musician had added to the original seven strings of the
lyre, and those who cut the same strings off the harp of Timotheus, and
yet do you blame us when we are endeavouring to get rid of luxury,
extravagance, and frivolity, just as if those great men did not merely
mean thereby to guard against vain refinements of music, which would
lead to the introduction of extravagant and licentious manners, and
cause the city to be at discord and variance with itself?"

XI. After this the people espoused the cause of Agis, while the rich
begged Leonidas not to desert them, and by their entreaties prevailed
upon the senators, who had the power of originating all laws, to throw
out the rhetra by a majority of only one vote. Lysander, who was still
one of the Ephors, now proceeded to attack Leonidas, by means of a
certain ancient law, which forbade any descendant of Herakles to beget
children by a foreign wife, and which bade the Spartans put to death any
citizen who left his country to dwell in a foreign land. He instructed
his adherents to revive the memory of this law, and threaten Leonidas
with its penalties, while he himself with the other Ephors watched for
the sign from heaven. This ceremony is conducted as follows:--Every ninth
year the Ephors choose a clear moonless night, and sit in silence
watching the heavens. If a star shoots across the sky, they conclude
that the kings must have committed some act of impiety, and they suspend
them from their office, until they were absolved by a favourable oracle
from Delphi or Olympia. Lysander now declared that he had beheld this
sign, and impeached Leonidas, bringing forward witnesses to prove that
he had two children born to him by an Asiatic wife, the daughter of one
of the lieutenants of Seleukus, and that having quarrelled with his wife
and become hated by her he had unexpectedly returned home, and in
default of a direct heir, had succeeded to the throne. At the same time
Lysander urged Kleombrotus, the son-in-law of Leonidas, who was also of
the royal family, to claim the throne for himself. Leonidas, terrified
at this, took sanctuary in the temple of Athena of the Brazen House, and
was joined there by his daughter, who left her husband Kleombrotus. When
the trial came on, Leonidas did not appear in court, he was removed from
the throne, and Kleombrotus was appointed in his stead.

XII. At this crisis Lysander was forced to lay down his office, as the
year for which he had been elected had expired. The Ephors at once took
Leonidas under their protection, restored him to the throne, and
impeached Lysander and Mandrokleidas as the authors of illegal measures
in the cancelling of debts and the redistribution of the land. As these
men were now in danger of their lives, they prevailed upon the two kings
to act together and overrule the decision of the Ephors; for this, they
declared, was the ancient rule of the constitution, that if the kings
were at variance, the Ephors were entitled to support the one whom they
judged to be in the right against the other, but their function was
merely to act as arbitrators and judges between the kings when they
disagreed, and not to interfere with them when they were of one mind.
Both the kings agreed to act upon this advice, and came with their
friends into the assembly, turned the Ephors out of their chairs of
office, and elected others in their room, one of whom was Agesilaus.
They now armed many of the younger citizens, released the prisoners, and
terrified their opponents by threatening a general massacre. No one,
however, was killed by them; for although Agesilaus desired to kill
Leonidas, and when he withdrew from Sparta to Tegea, sent men to waylay
and murder him on the road, Agis, hearing of his intention, sent others
on whom he could rely, who escorted Leonidas safely as far as Tegea.

XIII. Thus far all had gone well, and no one remained to hinder the
accomplishment of the reforms; but now Agesilaus alone upset and ruined
the whole of this noble and truly Spartan scheme by his detestable vice
of covetousness. He possessed a large quantity of the best land in the
country, and also owed a great sum of money, and as he desired neither
to pay his debts nor to part with his land, he persuaded Agis that it
would be too revolutionary a proceeding to carry both measures at once,
and that, if the moneyed class were first propitiated by the cancelling
of debts, they would afterwards be inclined to submit quietly to the
redistribution of lands. Lysander and the rest were deceived by
Agesilaus into consenting to this, and they brought all the written
securities for money which had been given by debtors, which are called
by them _klaria_, into the market-place, collected them into one heap,
and burned them. As the flames rose up, the rich and those who had lent
money went away in great distress, but Agesilaus, as if exulting at
their misfortune, declared that he had never seen a brighter blaze or a
purer fire. As the people at once demanded the division of the land, and
called upon the kings to distribute it among them, Agesilaus put them
off with various excuses, and managed to spin out the time till Agis was
sent out of the country on military service, as the Achaeans, who were
allies, had demanded a reinforcement from Sparta, because the AEtolians
threatened to invade Peloponnesus through the territory of Megara, and
Aratus, the general of the Achaeans, who was collecting an army to resist
them, sent to Sparta demanding assistance.

XIV. The Spartans at once despatched Agis at the head of an army, whose
high spirits and devotion to his person filled him with delight. The men
were nearly all young and poor; and as they were now relieved from the
pressure of their debts, and expected that on their return the land
would be distributed amongst them, they behaved with the most admirable
discipline. They marched through Peloponnesus without doing the least
damage, without offending any one, almost without noise; so that all the
cities were astonished at the spectacle thus afforded them, and men
began to wonder what a Lacedaemonian army must have been like when led by
Agesilaus or L