Praecepta gerendae reipublicae

It is true, however, that derision and ridicule are sometimes proper parts of the statesman’s speech if employed, not as insults or buffoonery, but for needful reproof and disparagement. That sort of thing is most laudable in rejoinders and replies; for when employed of set purpose and without provocation, it makes the speaker appear to be a clown and carries with it a suspicion of malice, such as was attached to the ridicule in the speeches of Cicero, Cato the Elder, and Aristotle’s pupil Euxitheüs, all of whom frequently employed ridicule without previous provocation. But for one who employs it in self-defence the occasion makes it pardonable and at the same time pleasing, as when Demosthenes, in reply to a man who was suspected of being a thief and who mocked him for writing at night, said, I am aware that I offend you by keeping a light burning, and to Demades who shouted, Demosthenes would correct me - the sow correcting Athena, he replied, Yes, your Athena was caught in adultery last year Athena was a proverbial expression; cf. Theocritus, Idyl, v. 23. As sus (docet) Minervam the proverb was current in Latin; cf. Festus, p. 310 Müller, p. 408 Lindsay; Cicero, Ad Familiares, ix. 18. 3; Academica, i. 4. 18; De Oratore, ii. 57. 233.) Witty too was Xenaenetus’s rejoinder to the citizens who reviled him for running away when he was general, Yes,

to keep you company, my dears. But in jesting one must guard against going too far and against offending one’s hearers by jesting at the wrong moment or making the speaker appear ignoble and mean-spirited, as Democrates did; for he went up into the assembly and said that he, like the State, had little strength but much bluster, and at the time of the disaster at Chaeroneia he came forward among the people and said, I wish the State had not met with so great a misfortune as to make you listen even to me as adviser, for this remark showed him to be mean-spirited, the other to be crazy, and neither is becoming to a statesman. But in Phocion conciseness of speech was admired. At any rate Polyeuctus declared that Demosthenes was the greatest orator, but Phocion the cleverest in speaking, because his speech contained the most meaning in the fewest words. And Demosthenes, though he despised the other orators, used to say when Phocion rose to speak, The cleaver of my speeches is getting up.

Most of all, then, try to employ in addressing the people well-considered, not empty, speech, and to use precaution, knowing that even the great Pericles used to pray before making a public speech that no single utterance foreign to the matter in hand might occur to him. But nevertheless the orator must always keep his speech nimble and in good practice for making apt rejoinders; for occasions arise quickly and often bring with them in public affairs sudden developments. That is why Demosthenes was inferior to many, as they say, because he drew back and hesitated when the occasion called for the opposite course. And Theophrastus tells us that Alcibiades,[*](Cf. Life of Alcibiades, chap. x.) because he planned, not only to say

the right thing, but to say it in the right way, often while actually speaking would search for words and arrange them into sentences, thereby causing hesitation and failure. But the man who is so moved by the events which take place and the opportunities which offer themselves that he springs to his feet is the one who most thrills the crowd, attracts it, and carries it with him. So it was, for example, with Leo[*](The name Leo, lion, made the little man seem ridiculous.) of Byzantium; he once came to address the Athenians when they were in political discord, and when they laughed at him because he was a little man, he said, What if you should see my wife, who hardly comes up to my knee? Then when they laughed louder, And yet, he said, little as we are, when we quarrel with each other, the city of Byzantium is not big enough to hold us. So also when Pytheas the orator was speaking in opposition to the granting of honours to Alexander and someone said to him, Do you, at your age, dare to speak on such important matters? he replied: And yet Alexander is younger than I, and you are voting to make him a god.

And the statesman must bring to the struggle of statecraft - a struggle which is not unimportant, but calls for all one’s fighting power - speech which is severely trained in firmness of voice and strength of lungs, that he may not be frequently so weary and burnt out as to be defeated by some

Rapacious bawler with a torrent’s voice.[*](Aristophanes, Knights, 137. The reference is to Cleon.)

Cato, when he had no hope of winning his cause by persuasion because the popular assembly or the senate was gained over beforehand by favours and interests, used to get up and speak the whole day, thus destroying his opponents’ opportunity. On the subject, then, of the preparation of one’s speech and the way to use it these remarks are enough for one who has the ability to go on and discover the conclusions to be drawn from them.

There are two entrances to public life and two paths leading to it: one the quick and brilliant road to reputation, by no means without risk, the other more prosaic and slower, but safer. For some men launch out at once into political life with some conspicuous, great, and daring action, like men who launch a vessel from a promontory that juts out into the sea; they think Pindar is right in saying

1. To a work’s beginning we needs must set
2. A front that shines afar,[*](Od. vi. 4. The translation is adapted from that of Sir John Sandys (L.C.L.).)

for the masses are more ready to accept the beginner because they are so palled and surfeited with those to whom they are accustomed, just as spectators at a show are glad to accept a new performer; and authority and power that has a brilliant and rapid growth takes envy’s breath away. For, as Ariston says, fire does not cause smoke, nor reputation envy, if it blazes up quickly at the start, but those who grow great gradually and slowly are attacked one from one side, another from another; hence many men before coming to full bloom as public speakers have withered away. But if, as is said of Ladas,

The noise o’ the barrier’s fall was in his ears[*](Paton’s translation (in L.C.L.) of the phrase in Anth. Pal. xi. 86 on Pericles, quoted from the earlier epigram on Ladas, a famous runner of Sparta. The sudden cutting or loosening of the taut rope stretched across the starting-line was accompanied by an audible sound. See E. N. Gardiner, Jour. Hell. Studies xxiii. p. 262.)

even when he has been crowned for Ms brilliant success on an embassy, for a notable triumph, or for achievement as a general, in such instances neither those who envy a man nor those who despise him have so much power as before. In this way Aratus arrived at fame, beginning his public life with the destruction of the tyrant Nicocles; so Alcibiades, by making the Mantinean alliance against the Lacedaemonians. Pompey demanded a triumph although he had not yet been admitted to the senate, and when Sulla voted against it, he said, More worship the rising than the setting sun; and Sulla, when he heard this, withdrew his opposition. And take the case of Cornelius Scipio; it was not because of any chance beginning that the Roman people suddenly and contrary to law appointed him consul when he wTas a candidate for the aedileship, but rather because they admired his victorious single combat in Iberia when he was a mere youth, and his deeds a little later at Carthage as military tribune, about which Cato the Elder exclaimed

He and he only has sense, the rest are mere flickering shadows.[*](Homer, Od. xi. 495 (slightly changed).)

Nowadays, then, when the affairs of the cities no longer include leadership in wars, nor the overthrowing of tyrannies, nor acts of alliances, what opening for a conspicuous and brilliant public career could a young man find? There remain the public lawsuits and embassies to the Emperor, which demand a man of ardent temperament and one who possesses both courage and intellect. But there are many excellent lines of endeavour that are neglected in our cities which a man may take up, and also many practices resulting from evil custom, that have insinuated themselves to the shame or injury of the city, which a man may remove, and thus turn them to account for himself. Indeed in past times a just verdict gained in a great suit, or good faith in acting as advocate for a weak client against a powerful opponent, or boldness of speech in behalf of the right against a wicked ruler, has opened to some men a glorious entrance into public life. And not a few also have grown great through the enemies they have made by attacking men whose position made them enviable or caused them to be feared; for when such a man is overthrown his power passes at once, and with better reputation, to the man who overcame him. For attacking, through motives of envy, a good man who, on account of his virtue, is leader of the state, as Pericles was attacked by Simmias, Themistocles by Alcmeon, Pompey by Clodius, and Epameinondas by Menecleides the orator, is neither conducive to a good reputation nor advantageous in any other way; for when the people have committed a wrong against a good man and then (which happens quickly) repent of their anger, they think the easiest way to excuse themselves for this offence is the most just, namely, to destroy the man who was the author of it and persuaded them to commit it. On the other hand, to revolt against a bad man who by shameless audacity and cunning has made the city subject to himself, such as Cleon and Cleophon were at Athens, and to pull him down and humble him provides a glorious entrance upon the stage of public life. And I am not ignorant of the fact that some men by curtailing the power of an oppressive and oligarchical senate, as Ephialtes did at Athens and Phormio at Elis, have gained at the same time both power and glory; but to one who is just entering upon public life there is a great risk in this. Therefore Solon made a better beginning, when the State was divided into three factions called the Diacrians (hillfolk), the Pedieans (plainsfolk), and the Paralians (coastfolk); for he entangled himself with none of them, but acted for all in common and said and did everything to bring about concord among them, so that he was chosen lawgiver to reconcile their differences and in this way established his rule.[*](cf. Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, chap. v.) So many, then, and of such kinds are the more conspicuous ways of entering upon a public career.

But the safe and leisurely way has been chosen by many famous men - Aristeides, Phocion, Pammenes the Theban, Lucullus at Rome, Cato, the Lacedaemonian Agesilaüs. For just as ivy rises by twining itself about a strong tree, so each of these men, by attaching himself while still young to an older man and while still obscure to a man of reputation, being gradually raised up under the shelter of his power and growing great with him, fixed himself firmly and rooted himself in the affairs of State. For Aristeides was made great by Cleisthenes, Phocion by Chabrias, Lucullus by Sulla, Cato by Maximus, Epameinondas aided Pammenes, and Lysander Agesilaüs. But Agesilaüs through untimely ambition and jealousy of Lysander’s reputation insulted and quickly cast aside the guide of his actions; but the others in noble and statesmanlike fashion cherished their teachers until

the end and joined in honouring them, enhancing in turn with their own radiance, and illuminating, like the heavenly bodies that face the sun, that which caused themselves to shine. Certainly Scipio’s detractors said that he was the actor, but his friend Laelius the real author of his deeds; Laelius, however, was not puffed up by any of those sayings but continued always eagerly to exalt Scipio’s virtue and renown. And Pompey’s friend Afranius, even though he was of humble station, nevertheless expected to be elected consul, but when Pompey favoured other candidates, he relinquished his ambition, saying that gaining the consulship would be to him not so much glorious as painful and troublesome, if it were against Pompey’s will and without his co-operation; and so after waiting only one year he both gained the office and retained the friendship.[*](Cf. Life of Pompey, chap. xliv., where another story concerning the friendship of Pompey for Afranius is told.) Those who are thus led to renown by the hand of others gain favour with many, and at the same time, if anything unpleasant happens, are less disliked; and that is why Philip advised Alexander to gain friends as long as he could while another man was king by having pleasant intercourse with others and maintaining friendly relations with them.

But anyone who is entering upon a public career should choose as his leader a man who is not merely of established reputation and powerful, but one who is all this on account of real worth. For just as not every tree will accept and support the grape-vine which entwines itself about it, but some trees stifle and ruin its growth, so in States, the men who are not lovers of what is noble, but merely lovers of honours and of office, do not afford young men opportunities for public activities, but through

envy repress them and, to speak figuratively, wither them up by depriving them of glory, their natural nourishment. So Marius, after having achieved many successes in Libya and again in Gaul with the help of Sulla, ceased to employ him and cast him off, being angered by his growth in power, but using the incident of the seal as a pretext. For Sulla, when Marius was general and he was quaestor[*](Equivalent here to adjutant.) in Libya, was sent by Marius to Bocchus and took Jugurtha prisoner; and being a young man who had just had his first taste of glory, he did not bear his good fortune with moderation, but had a seal engraved with a representation of his deed - Jugurtha surrendering to him - and wore it.[*](Cf. Life of Marius, chap. x., and Life of Sulla, chap. iii.) Marius threw this up against him and cast him off. And Sulla, transferring his allegiance to Catulus and Metellus, worthy men and opposed to Marius, quickly drove Marius out and broke his power in the civil war after he had almost overthrown Rome. Sulla, however, exalted Pompey from the time of his youth, rising up and uncovering his head when he came near; and also by giving the other young men opportunities for acts of leadership and even by urging some on against their will, he filled his armies with ambition and eagerness; and he gained power over them all by wishing to be, not the only great man, but first and greatest among many great ones. Such, then, are the men to whom young statesmen should attach themselves and cling closely, not snatching glory away from them, like Aesop’s wren who was carried up on the eagle’s shoulders, then suddenly flew out and got ahead of him, but receiving it from them in goodwill and friendship, knowing that no one can ever command well who has not first learned rightly to obey, as Plato says.[*](Laws, 762 e.)

Next after this comes the decision to be made concerning friends, and here we approve neither the idea of Themistocles nor that of Cleon. For Cleon, when he first decided to take up political life, brought his friends together and renounced his friendship with them as something which ofter weakens and perverts the right and just choice of policy in political life. But he would have done better if he had cast out from his soul avarice and love of strife and had cleansed himself of envy and malice; for the State needs, not men who have no friends or comrades, but good and self-controlled men. As it was, he drove away his friends,

But a hundred heads of cursed flatterers circling fawned[*](Aristophanes, Peace, 756. The poet refers to Cleon.)

about him, as the comic poets say; and being rough and harsh to the better classes he in turn subjected himself to the multitude in order to win its favour,

Its old age tending, dosing it with pay,[*](Quoted by Plutarch, Life of Nicias, chap. ii. p. 524. A parody by an unknown comic poet (unless it be by Aristophanes) of a line from the Peleus of Sophocles, Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. 447, p. 239. See Kock, Com. Att. Frag. iii. p. 400.)

and making the basest and most unsound element of the people his associates against;he best. But Themistocles on the other hand, when someone said that he would govern well if he showed himself equally impartial to all, replied: May I never take my seat on such a throne that my friends shall not have more from me than those who are not my friends! He also was wrong; for he put the government under pledge to his friendship, subordinating the affairs of the community and the public to private favours and interests. And yet when Simonides asked for something that was not just, he said to him: Neither is he a good poet who sings contrary to metre, nor is he an equitable ruler who grants favours contrary to law. For truly it is an outrageous and abominable thing if a pilot selects sailors and a ship-captain selects a pilot

1. Well knowing how at the stern to hold steady the tiller and also
2. How to stretch taut the yard ropes when rises the onrushing tempest,[*](cf. Callimachus, Frag. 382, p. 787, ed. Schneider.)

and an architect chooses subordinates and handicraftsmen who will not spoil his work but will co-operate to perfect it, whereas the statesman, who is, as Pindar says,[*](Pindar, Frag. 57, p. 403 Schroeder.) the best of craftsmen and the maker of lawfulness and justice, does not immediately choose friends whose convictions are I ke his own, who will aid him and share his enthusiasm for what is noble, but rather those who are always wrongfully and by violent means trying to divert him to various other uses. Such a statesman will be found to be no better than a builder or a carpenter who through ignorance and error makes use of such squares and rulers and levels as are sure to make his work crooked. For friends are the living and thinking tools of the statesman, and he ought not to slip with them when they go wrong, but he must be on the watch that they do not err even through ignorance. In fact, it was this that disgraced Solon and brought him into disrepute among the citizens; for when he made up his mind to lighten debts and to introduce the Seisachtheia[*](The cancellation of debts was one of the chief features of Solon’s reorganization of the government of Athens in the sixth century b.c. The popular term means shaking off burdens. This incident is discussed by Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, chap. vi., where Solon’s innocence of wrongdoing is maintained.) (that was the nickname for the cancellation of debts), he told his friends about it, and they did a very wrong thing; they secretly borrowed a great deal of money before the law was published, and a little later, after its publication, they were found to have bought splendid houses and much land with the money they had borrowed, and Solon, who was wronged, was accused of sharing in their wrongdoing. Agesilaüs, too, showed himself very weak and poor-spirited in dealing with his friends’ solicitations and, like Pegasus in Euripides’ drama,

Crouched down and yielded more if more he wished,[*](Euripides, Bellerophon, Frag. 309, p. 451 Nauck. Quoted in part, Moralia 529 e.)

and by too great eagerness in aiding them when in misfortunes he made himself seem like them in wrongdoing; for example, when Phoebidas was on trial for seizing the Cadmeia without orders, he got him off by saying that such things were bound to happen of their own accord; and when Sphodrias was being tried for an illegal and frightful act (for he had invaded Attica when the Athenians were friends and allies), he brought about his acquittal, being softened by the amorous pleadings of his son. And a note of his to a certain ruler is quoted as follows: If Nicias is innocent, let him go; if he is guilty, let him go for my sake; anyway, let him go.[*](cf. Moralia, 209 f.) But Phocion did not even appear in support of his son-in-law Charicles when he was accused in connexion with the Harpalus affair; he merely said: I made you my son-in-law for nothing but what is right and went away. And Timoleon of Corinth,[*](Cf. Life of Timoleon, chaps. iv., v., pp. 237, 238.) when he was unable either by instruction or by entreaty to make his brother give up his tyranny, joined with those who destroyed him. For a statesman ought, by stopping short of being a party to perjury, not to be a friend as far as the altar,[*](A proverbial expression (Latin usque ad aras) equivalent to our to the bitter end; cf. Moralia, 531 d.) as Pericles once said, but only so far as conforms to any law, equity, or advantage the neglect of which leads to great public injury, as did the failure to punish Sphodrias and Phoebidas, for they did a great deal to make Sparta enter into the Leuctrian war. For the principles that govern a statesman’s conduct do not force him to act with severity against the moderate errors of his friends; on the contrary, they make it possible for him, after he has once made the chief public interests safe, out of his abundant resources to assist his friends, take his stand beside them, and help them out of their troubles. And there are also favours which arouse no ill-will, such as aiding a friend to gain an office, putting into his hands some honourable administrative function or some friendly foreign mission, for example one which includes honours to a ruler or negotiations with a State concerning friendship and concord; and if some public activity be laborious, but conspicuous and important, the statesman can first appoint himself to the post and then choose his friend as assistant, just as Diomedes did:

1. So if you tell me myself to choose another as comrade,
2. How in that case could I e’er be forgetful of godlike Odysseus?[*](Homer, Il. x. 242.)

And Odysseus again fittingly returns the compliment:

1. Now these horses, old sir, these new ones, of which thou inquirest,
2. Thracian they are, but their master was slain by the brave Diomedes,
3. Slain and beside him his comrades, twelve comrades and all of the noblest.[*](Homer, Il. x. 558.)

For such concession to one’s friends adorns those who give praise no less than those who receive it; but self-conceit, says Plato,[*](Plato, Letters, iv. 321 b.) dwells with loneliness. Then, besides, a man ought to ascribe to his friends a share in his own good and kindly acts of favour; he should tell those who have been benefited to praise and show them affection as the originators and advisers of the favours. But base and absurd requests he should reject, not harshly but gently, informing the askers by way of consolation that the requests are not in accord with their own excellence and reputation. Epameinondas exemplifies this most admirably: after refusing to let the pedlar out of prison at Pelopidas’s request and then letting him out a little later when his mistress asked it, he said, Favours of that sort, Pelopidas, are fit for courtesans to receive, but not for generals. But Cato acted harshly and arbitrarily when he was quaestor, and Catulus the censor, one of his most intimate friends, asked for the acquittal of a man who was being tried, by saying: It is a disgrace that you, whose duty it is to train us young men to honourable conduct, have to be thrown out by our servants. For he might, while refusing the favour in fact, have avoided harshness and bitterness of speech, by producing the impression that the offensive quality of his action was not due to his own will, but was forced upon him by law and justice. There ai’e also in public life ways which are not dishonourable of helping friends who need money to acquire it; as, for example, when after the battle Themistocles saw a corpse wearing a golden bracelet and necklace, he himself passed it by, but turned to his friend and said, Take these things, for you are not, as I am, Themistocles. For the administration of affairs frequently gives the man in public life this sort of chance to help his friends; for not every man is a Menemachus.[*](The friend to whom this essay is addressed.) Hand over to one friend a case at law which will bring in a good fee as advocate in a just cause, to another introduce a rich man who needs legal oversight and protection, and help another to get some profitable contract or lease. Epameinondas even told a friend to go to a certain rich man and ask for a talent, saying that it was he who bade him give it; and when the man who had been asked for it came and asked him the reason, he replied: Because this man is a good man and poor, but you are rich since you have appropriated much of the State’s wealth. And Xenophon[*](Xenophon, Ages. 4.) says that Agesilaiis delighted in enriching his friends, he being himself above money.