Phocion

Plutarch

Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. VIII. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1919.

Again, when Demosthenes was heaping abuse upon Alexander, who was already advancing against Thebes, Phocion said:

Rash one, why dost thou seek to provoke a man who is savage,

[*](Odyssey, ix. 494, Odysseus, to a companion, of Polyphemus the Cyclops.) and is reaching out after great glory? Canst thou wish, when so great a conflagration is near, to fan the city into flame? But I, who am bearing the burdens of command with this object in view, will not suffer these fellow citizens of mine to perish even if that is their desire.

And when Thebes had been destroyed[*](In 335 B.C.) and Alexander was demanding the surrender of Demosthenes, Lycurgus, Hypereides, Charidemus, and others, and the assembly turned their eyes upon Phocion and called upon him many times by name, he rose up, and drawing to his side one of his friends, whom he always cherished, trusted, and loved most of all, he said: These men have brought the city to such a pass that I, for my part, even if this Nicocles should be demanded, would urge you to give him up.