that Epaminondas died fo poor, that the Thebans buried him at the public charge; for at his death nothing was. found in his houfe but an iron fpit.* The expenfe of Fabius's funeral was not indeed defrayed out of the Roman treasury, but every citizen contributed a small piece of money towards it; not that he died without effects, but that they might bury him as the father of the people; and that the honors paid him at his death might be suitable to the dignity of his life. PERICLES AND FABIUS MAXIMUS, COMPARED.. SUCH were the lives of those two perfons, so illustrious and worthy of imitation both in their civil and military capacity. We fhall firft compare their talents for war.. And here it ftrikes us at once, that Pericles came into pewer at a time when the Athenians were at the height of prof. perity, great in themselves, and respectable to their neighbors; fo that in the very ftrength of the republic, with only common fuccefs, he was fecure from taking any dif graceful step. But as Fabius came to the helm, when Rome experienced the worst and most mortifying turn of fortune, he had not to preferve the well established profperity of a flourishing state, but to draw his country from: an abyfs of mifery, and raise it to happiness. Befides, the fucceffes of Cimon, the victories of Myronides and Leocrates, and the many_great_achievements of Tolmides, rather furnished occafion to Pericles, during his adminiftration, to entertain the city with feafts and games, than to make new acquifitions, or to defend the old ones by arms. On the other hand, Fabius had the frightful objects before his eyes of defeat, and difgraces, of Roman confuls. and generals flain, of lakes, fields, and forefts full of the dead carcafes of whole armies, and of rivers flowing with Xylander is of opinion, that the word Oceanos in this place does not fignify a fpit, but a piece of money; and he fhows from a paffage in the life of Lyfander, that money anciently was made in a pyrainidical form. But he did not confider that iron money was not in ufe at Thebes, and Plutarch fays that this obelifcus was of iron. * Πολλά και καλά παραδειγματα καταλελοίπασιν * ή ητησασθαι πολεμω και φυλαξασθεσε το blood down to the very fea. In this tottering and decayed condition of the commonwealth, he was to fupport it by his councils and his vigor, and to keep it from falling into abfolute ruin, to which it was brought so near by the errors of former commanders. It may feem, indeed, a lefs arduous performance to manage the tempers of a people humbled by calamities, and compelled by neceffity to liften to reafon, than to restrain the wildness and infolence of a city elated with fuccefs, and wanton with power, fuch as Athens was when Pericles held the reins of government. But then, undauntedly to keep to his firft refolutions, and not to be difcomposed by the vast weight of misfortunes with which Rome was then oppreffed, difcovers in Fabius an admirable firmness and dignity of mind. Against the taking of Samos by Pericles, we may set the retaking of Tarentum by Fabius; and with Euboea we may put in balance the towns of Campania. As for Capua, it was recovered afterwards by the confuls Furius and Appius. Fabius indeed gained but one fet battle, for which he had his first triumph; whereas Pericles erected nine trophies for as many victories won by land and fea. But none of the victories of Pericles can be compared with that memorable refcue of Minucius, by which Fabius redeemed him and his whole army from utter destruction; an action truly great, and in which you find at once the bright affemblage of valor, of prudence, and humanity. Nor can Pericles, on the other hand, be faid ever to have committed fuch an error as that of Fabius, when he suffered himself to be impofed on by Hannibal's ftratagem of the oxen; let his enemy flip in the night through thofe ftraits in which he had been entangled by accident, and where he could not poffibly have forced his way out; and as foon as it was day, faw himself repulfed by the man who fo lately was at his mercy. If it is the part of a good general, not only to make a proper ufe of the prefent, but alfo to form the beft judgment of things to come, it must be allowed that Pericles both forefaw and foretold what fuccefs the Athenians would have in the war, namely, that they would ruin themselves by grafping at too much. But it was entirely against the opinion of Fabius, that the Romans fent Scipio into Africa, and yet they were victorious there, not by the favor of : fortune, but by the courage and conduct of their general. So that the misfortunes of his country bore witness to the fagacity of Pericles, and from the glorious fuccefs of the Romans it appeared that Fabius was utterly mistaken. And, indeed, it is an equal fault in a commander în chief to lose an advantage through diffidence, and to fall into danger for want of forefight. For it is the fame want of judgment and skill,* that sometimes produces too much confidence, and fometimes leaves too little. Thus far concerning their abilities in war. And if we confider them in their political capacity, we shall find that the greateft fault laid to the charge of Pericles, was, that he caufed the Peloponnefian war; through oppofition to the Lacedæmonians, which made him unwilling to give up the leaft point to them. I do not fuppofe, that Fabius Maximus would have given up any point to the Carthaginians, but that he would generously have run the last risk to maintain the dignity of Rome. The mild and moderate behavior of Fabius to Minucius, fets in a very disadvantageous light the conduct of Pericles, in his implacable perfecution of Cimon and Thucydides, valuable men, and friends to the aristocracy, and yet banished by his practices and intrigues. Befides, the power of Pericles was much greater than that of Fabius; and therefore he did not fuffer any miffortune to be brought upon Athens by the wrong measures of other generals. Tolmides only carried it against him for attacking the Boeotians, and in doing it, he was defeated and flain. All the reft adhered to his party, and fubmitted to his opinion, on account of his fuperior authority; whereas Fabius, whofe measures were falutary and fafe, as far as they depended upon himself, appears only to have fallen fhort, by his inability to prevent the miscarriages of others. For the Romans would not have had fo many misfortunes to deplore, if the power of Fabius had been as great in Rome as that of Pericles in Athens. As to their liberality and public fpirit, Pericles fhowed it in refufing the fums that were offered him, and Fabius in ransoming his soldiers with his own money. This indeed was no great expenfe, being only about fix talents.† But *This άugia fignifies, as well as inexperience. Fabius had as much experience as Pericles, and yet was not equally happy in his conjectures with regard to future events. + Probably this is an error of the tranfcribers. For Fabius was to pay two hundred and fifty drachmas for each prisoner, and ke rak it is not easy to say what a treasure Pericles might have amaffed from the allies, and from kings who made their court to him, on account of his great authority; yet no man ever kept himself more free from corruption. As for the temples, the public edifices, and other works, with which Pericles adorned Athens, all the structures of that kind in Rome put together, until the times of the Cæfars, deferved not to be compared with them, either in the greatness of the design, or the excellence of the execution. 0000000 ALCIBIADES. THOSE that have fearched into the pedigree of Alcibiades, fay, that Euryfaces, the fon of Ajax, was founder of the family; and that by his mother's fide he was defcended from Alcmæon; for Dinomache, his mother, was the daughter of Megacles, who was of that line. His father Clinias gained great honor in the fea fight of Artemifium, where he fought in a galley fitted out at his own expenfe, and afterwards was flain in the battle of Coronæ,. where the Boeotians won the day. Pericles and Ariphron,. the fons of Xanthippus, and near relations to Alcibiades, were his guardians. It is faid (and not without reason). that the affection and attachment of Socrates contributed much to his fame. For Nicias, Demosthenes, Lamachus, Phormio, Thrafybulus, Theramenes, were illustrious perfons, and his cotemporaries, yet we do not fo much as know the name of the mother of either of them; whereas we know even the nurfe of Alcibiades, that she was of Lacedæmon, and that her name was Amycla; as well as that Zopyrus was his fchoolmaster; the one being recorded by Antifthenes, and the other by Plato. As to the beauty of Alcibiades, it may be sufficient to fay, that it retained its charm through the feveral stages. of childhood, youth, and manhood. For it is not univerfally true what Euripides fays, The very autumn of a form once fine. fomed two hundred and fortyfeven; which would stand him fixtyone thousand feven hundred and fifty drachmas, that is, more than ten talents. A very confiderable expenfe to Fabius, which hacould not anfwer without felling his oftate. Yet this was the cafe of Alcibiades, amongst a few others, by reafon of his natural vigor and happy conftitution. He had a lifping in his fpeech, which became him, and gave a grace and perfuafive turn to his difcourfe. Arif. tophanes, in thofe verfes wherein he ridicules Theorus, takes notice, that Alcibiades lifped, for instead of calling him Corax, Raven, he called him Colax, Flatterer; from whence the poet takes occasion to obferve, that the term in that lifping pronunciation, too, was very applicable to him. With this agrees the fatirical description which Archippus gives of the fon of Alcibiades. With faunt'ring ftep, to imitate his father, The vain youth moves; his loose robe wildly floats; His manners were far from being uniform; nor is it strange, that they varied according to the many viciffitudes and wonderful turns of his fortune. He was naturally a man of strong paffions; but his ruling paffion was an ambition to contend and overcome. This appears from what is related of his fayings when a boy. When hard preffed in wrestling, to prevent his being thrown, he bit the hands of his antagonift; who let go his hold, and faid, "You bite, Alci66 biades, like a woman." "No," fays he, "like a lion." One day he was playing at dice with other boys in the ftreet; and when it came to his turn to throw, a loaded waggon came up. At first he called to the driver to stop, because he was to throw in the way over which the waggon was to pafs. The ruftic difregarding him and driving on, the other boys broke way; but Alcibiades threw himfelf upon his face directly before the waggon, and stretching himself out, bade the fellow drive on if he pleased. Upon this, he was fo ftartled, that he stopped his horses, while thofe that faw it, ran up to him with terror. In the course of his education, he willingly took the leffons of his other masters, but refufed learning to play upon the flute, which he looked upon as a mean art, and unbecoming a gentleman. "The use of the plectrum upon "the lyre, he would fay, has nothing in it that disorders "the features or form, but a man is hardly to be known "by his most intimate friends when he plays upon the "Alute. Befides, the lyre does not hinder the performer "from speaking or accompanying it with a fong, whereas "the flute fo engages the mouth and the breath, that it |
