Part 38

XXXIV. While Alkibiades was in this glorious career of prosperity, some persons in spite of his success foreboded evil from the day which he had chosen for his return home; for on the day on which he sailed into the harbour the statue of Athene on the Acropolis is stripped of its garments and ornaments, which are cleaned, while it in the meanwhile is covered up to conceal it from human eyes. This ceremony takes place on the 25th of the month Thargelion, which day is considered by the Athenians to be the unluckiest of all. Moreover, the goddess did not appear to receive Alkibiades with a kindly welcome, but to turn away her face from him and drive him from her presence. Be this as it may, all went well and just as Alkibiades wished. A fleet of a hundred triremes was manned, and placed at his disposal, but he with creditable pride refused to set sail until after the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries. Since the permanent occupation of Dekeleia and of the passes commanding the road to Eleusis by the enemy, the procession had been necessarily shorn of many of its distinctive features, as it had to be sent by sea. All the customary sacrifices, dances, and other rites which used to be practised on the road, when Iacchus is carried along in solemn procession, were of necessity omitted. It seemed therefore to Alkibiades that it would both honour the gods and increase his own reputation among men, if he restored the ancient form of this ceremony, escorting the procession with his troops and protecting it from the enemy; for he argued that Agis would lose prestige if he did not attack, but allowed the procession to pass unmolested, whereas if he did attack, Alkibiades would be able to fight in a holy cause, in defence of the most sacred institutions of his country, with all his countrymen present as witnesses of his own valour. When he determined to do this, after concerting measures with the Eumolpidae and Kerykes, he placed vedettes on the mountains and sent an advanced guard off at day-break, following with the priests, novices, and initiators marching in the midst of his army, in great good order and perfect silence. It was an august and solemn procession, and all who did not envy him said that he had performed the office of a high priest in addition of that of a general. The enemy made no attack, and he led his troops safely back to Athens, full of pride himself, and making his army proud to think itself invincible while under his command. He had so won the affections of the poor and the lower orders, that they were strangely desirous of living under his rule. Many even besought him to put down the malignity of his personal enemies, sweep away laws, decrees, and other pernicious nonsense, and carry on the government without fear of a factious opposition.

XXXV. What his own views about making himself despot of Athens may have been we cannot tell; but the leading citizens took alarm at this, and hurried him away as quickly as possible to sea, voting whatever measures he pleased, and allowing him to choose his own colleagues. He set sail with his hundred ships, reached Andros, and defeated the inhabitants of that island, and the Lacedaemonian garrison there. He did not, however, capture the city, and this afterwards became one of the points urged against him by his enemies. Indeed, if there ever was a man destroyed by his reputation, it was Alkibiades. Being supposed to be such a prodigy of daring and subtlety, his failures were regarded with suspicion, as if he could have succeeded had he been in earnest; for his countrymen would not believe that he could really fail in anything which he seriously attempted. They expected to hear of the capture of Chios, and of the whole Ionian coast, and were vexed at not at once receiving the news of a complete success. They did not take into account the want of money which Alkibiades felt, while warring against men who had the king of Persia for their paymaster, and which made frequent absences from his camp necessary to provide subsistence for his troops. It was one of these expeditions, indeed, which exposed him to the last and most important of the many charges brought against him. Lysander had been sent by the Lacedaemonians to take the command of their fleet. On his arrival, by means of the money paid by Cyrus, he raised the pay of his sailors from three obols a day to four. Alkibiades, who could with difficulty pay his men even three obols, went to Caria to levy contributions, leaving in command of the fleet one Antiochus, a good seaman, but a thoughtless and silly man. He had distinct orders from Alkibiades not to fight even if the enemy attacked him, but such was his insolent disregard of these instructions that he manned his own trireme and one other, sailed to Ephesus, and there passed along the line of the enemy's ships, as they lay on the beach, using the most scurrilous and insulting language and gestures. At first Lysander put to sea with a few ships to pursue him, but as the Athenians came out to assist him, the

## action became general. The entire fleets engaged and Lysander was

victorious. He killed Antiochus, captured many ships and men, and set up a trophy. When Alkibiades on his return to Samos heard of this, he put to sea with all his ships, and offered battle to Lysander; but he was satisfied with his previous victory, and refused the offer.

XXXVI. Thrasybulus, the son of Thrason, a bitter personal enemy of Alkibiades, now set sail for Athens to accuse him, and to exasperate his enemies in the city against him. He made a speech to the people, representing that Alkibiades had ruined their affairs and lost their ships by insolently abusing his authority and entrusting the command, during his own absence, to men who owed their influence with him to deep drinking and cracking seamen's jokes, and that he securely traversed the provinces to raise money, indulging in drunken debauches with Ionian courtezans, while the enemy's fleet was riding close to his own. He was also blamed for the construction of certain forts in Thrace, near Bisanthe, which he destined as a place of refuge for himself, as if he could not or would not live in his native city.

The Athenians were so wrought upon by these charges against Alkibiades, that they elected other generals to supersede him, thus showing their anger and dislike for him. Alkibiades, on learning this, left the Athenian camp altogether, got together a force of foreign troops, and made war on the irregular Thracian tribes on his own account, thus obtaining much plunder and freeing the neighbouring Greek cities from the dread of the barbarians. Now when the generals Tydeus, Menander, and Adeimantus came with the entire Athenian fleet to Aegospotamoi, they used early every morning to go to Lampsakus to challenge the fleet of Lysander, which lay there, to a sea-fight. After this ceremony they would return and spend the whole day in careless indolence, as if despising their enemy. Alkibiades, who lived close by, did not disregard their danger, but even rode over on horseback and pointed out to the generals that they were very badly quartered in a place where there was no harbour and no city, having to obtain all their provisions from Sestos, and, when the ships were once hauled up on shore, allowing the men to leave them unguarded and straggle where they pleased, although they were in the presence of a fleet which was trained to act in silence and good order at the command of one man.

XXXVII. Though Alkibiades gave this advice, and urged the generals to remove to Sestos, they would not listen to him. Tydeus indeed rudely bade him begone, for they, not he, were now generals. Alkibiades, too, suspected that there was some treachery in the case, and retired, telling his personal friends, who escorted him out of the camp, that if he had not been so outrageously insulted by the generals, he could in a few days have compelled the Lacedaemonians either to fight a battle at sea against their will, or abandon their ships. To some this seemed mere boasting, while others thought that he could very possibly effect it by bringing many Thracian light-armed troops and cavalry to assault the camp on the land side. However, the result soon proved that he had rightly seen the fault of the Athenian position. Lysander suddenly and unexpectedly assailed it, and except eight triremes which escaped under Konon, took all the rest, nearly two hundred in number. Lysander also put three thousand prisoners to the sword. He shortly afterwards captured Athens, burned her ships, and pulled down her Long Walls. Alkibiades, terrified at seeing the Lacedaemonians omnipotent by sea and land, shifted his quarters to Bithynia, sending thither a great amount of treasure, and taking much with him, but leaving much more in his Thracian fortresses. In Bithynia, however, he suffered much loss at the hands of the natives, and determined to proceed to the court of Artaxerxes, thinking that the Persian king, if he would make trial of him, would find that he was not inferior to Themistokles in ability, while he sought him in a much more honourable way; for it was not to revenge himself on his fellow-citizens, as Themistokles did, but to assist his own country against its enemy that he meant to solicit the king's aid. Imagining that Pharnabazus would be able to grant him a safe passage to the Persian court, he went into Phrygia to meet him, and remained there for some time, paying his court to the satrap, and receiving from him marks of respect.

XXXVIII. The Athenians were terribly cast down at the loss of their empire; but when Lysander robbed them of their liberty as well, by establishing the government of the Thirty Tyrants, they began to entertain thoughts which never had occurred to them before, while it was yet possible that the State might be saved from ruin. They bewailed their past blunders and mistakes, and of these they considered their second fit of passion with Alkibiades to have been the greatest. They had cast him off for no fault of his own, but merely because they were angry with his follower for having lost a few ships disgracefully; they had much more disgraced themselves by losing the services of the ablest and bravest general whom they possessed. Even in their present abasement a vague hope prevailed among them that Athens could not be utterly lost while Alkibiades was alive; for he had not during his former exile been satisfied with a quiet life, and surely now, however prosperous his private circumstances might be, he would not endure to see the triumph of the Lacedaemonians, and the arrogant tyranny of the Thirty. Indeed this was proved to be no vain dream by the care which the Thirty took to watch all the motions of Alkibiades. At last, Kritias informed Lysander, that while Athens was governed by a democracy, the Lacedaemonian empire in Greece could never be safe; and if the Athenians were ever so much inclined to an oligarchical form of government, Alkibiades, if he lived, would not long suffer them to submit to it. However, Lysander was not prevailed upon by these arguments until a despatch came from Sparta bidding him make away with Alkibiades, either because the home government feared his ability and enterprise, or because they wished to please his enemy, King Agis.

XXXIX. Lysander now sent orders for his death to Pharnabazus, who entrusted their execution to his brother Magaeus and his uncle Susamithres. Alkibiades was at this time dwelling in a village in Phrygia, with Timandra the courtezan, and one night he dreamed that he was dressed in his mistress's clothes, and that she, holding his head in her arms, was painting his face and adorning him like a woman. Others say that he saw Magaeus in his dream cutting off his head, and his body all in flames. All, however, agree that the dream took place shortly before his death. His murderers did not dare to enter the house, but stood round it in a circle and set it on fire. Alkibiades, on discovering them, flung most of the bedding and clothes on to the fire, wrapped his cloak round his left arm, and with his dagger in his right dashed through the flames unhurt, not giving his clothes time to catch fire. None of the barbarians dared to await his onset, but as soon as they saw him they scattered, and from a distance shot at him with darts and arrows. After he had fallen and the barbarians were gone, Timandra took up his corpse, covered it with her own clothes, and, as far as was in her power, showed it every mark of honour and respect.

This Timandra is said to have been the mother of Lais, commonly called the Corinthian, who really was brought as a captive from Hykkara, a small town in Sicily. Some writers, although they agree in their account of the manner of his death, differ as to its cause, alleging that it was neither due to Pharnabazus nor to Lysander nor the Lacedaemonians, but that Alkibiades had debauched a girl of noble birth and was living with her, and that her relatives, enraged at this insult, during the night set fire to the house in which Alkibiades was living, and, as has been related, shot him as he leaped out through the flames.

LIFE OF CAIUS MARCIUS CORIOLANUS.

I. The patrician family of the Marcii at Rome produced many illustrious men, amongst whom was Ancus Marcius, the grandson of Numa, who became king after the death of Tullus Hostilius. To this family also belonged Publius and Quintus Marcius, who supplied Rome with abundance of excellent water, and Censorinus, twice appointed censor by the Roman people, who afterwards passed a law that no one should hold that office twice.

Caius Marcius, the subject of this memoir, was an orphan, and brought up by a widowed mother. He proved that, hard though the lot of an orphan may be, yet it does not prevent a man's becoming great and distinguished, and that the bad alone allege it as an excuse for an intemperate life. He also proves to us that a naturally noble nature, if it be not properly disciplined, will produce many good and bad qualities together, just as a rich field, if not properly tilled, will produce both weeds and good fruit. The immense energy and courage of his mind used to urge him to attempt and to perform great exploits, but his harsh and ambitious temper made it difficult for him to live on friendly terms with his companions. They used to admire his indifference to pleasure and pain, and his contempt for bribes, but in politics they were angered by his morose and haughty manner, too proud for a citizen of a republic. Indeed there is no advantage to be gained from a liberal education so great as that of softening and disciplining the natural ferocity of our disposition, by teaching it moderation, and how to avoid all extremes. However, at that period warlike virtues were valued above all others at Rome, which is proved by the Romans possessing only one word for virtue and for bravery, so that virtue, a general term, is applied by them to the particular form, courage.

II. Marcius, having an especial passion for war, was familiar from childhood with the use of arms. Reflecting that artificial weapons are of little use without a body capable of wielding them, he so trained himself for all possible emergencies that he was both able to run swiftly and also to grapple with his foe so strongly that few could escape from him. Those who entered into any contest with him, when beaten, used to ascribe their defeat to his immense bodily strength, which no exertions could tire out.

III. He served his first campaign while yet a youth, when Tarquin, the exiled King of Rome, after many battles and defeats, staked all upon one last throw, and assembled an army to attack Rome. His force consisted chiefly of Latins, but many other Italian states took his part in the war, not from any attachment to his person, but through fear and dislike of the growing power of Rome. In the battle which ensued, in which various turns of fortune took place, Marcius, while fighting bravely under the eye of the dictator himself, saw a Roman fallen and helpless near him. He at once made for this man, stood in front of him, and killed his assailant. After the victory, Marcius was among the first who received the oak-leaf crown. This crown is given to him who has saved the life of a citizen in battle, and is composed of oak-leaves, either out of compliment to the Arcadians, whom the oracle calls 'acorn eaters,' or because in any campaign in any country it is easy to obtain oak-boughs, or it may be that the oak, sacred to Jupiter the protector of cities, forms a suitable crown for one who has saved the life of a citizen. The oak is the most beautiful of all wild trees, and the strongest of those which are artificially cultivated. It afforded men in early times both food and drink, by its acorns and the honey found in it, while by the bird-lime which it produces, it enables them to catch most kinds of birds and other creatures, as additional dainties.

This was the battle in which they say that the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, appeared, and immediately after the battle were soon in the Forum at Rome announcing the victory, with their horses dripping with sweat, at the spot where now there is a temple built in their honour beside the fountain. In memory of this, the day of the victory, the 15th of July, is kept sacred to the Dioscuri.

IV. To win distinction early in life is said to quench and satisfy the eagerness of some men whose desire for glory is not keen; but for those with whom it is the ruling passion of their lives, the gaining of honours only urges them on, as a ship is urged by a gale, to fresh achievements. They do not regard themselves as having received a reward, but as having given a pledge for the future, and they feel it their duty not to disgrace the reputation which they have acquired, but to eclipse their former fame by some new deed of prowess. Marcius, feeling this, was ever trying to surpass himself in valour, and gained such prizes and trophies that the later generals under whom he served were always striving to outdo the former ones in their expressions of esteem for him, and their testimony to his merits. Many as were the wars in which Rome was then engaged, Marcius never returned from any without a prize for valour or some especial mark of distinction. Other men were brave in order to win glory, but Marcius won glory in order to please his mother. That she should hear him praised, see him crowned, and embrace him weeping for joy, was the greatest honour and happiness of his life. Epameinondas is said to have had the same feelings, and to have considered it to be his greatest good-fortune that his father and mother were both alive to witness his triumphant success at the battle of Leuktra. He, however, enjoyed the sympathy and applause of both parents, but Marcius, being fatherless, lavished on his mother all that affection which should have belonged to his father, besides her own share. So boundless was his love for Volumnia that at her earnest desire he even married a wife, but still continued to live in the house of his mother.

V. At this time, when his reputation and influence were very considerable because of his prowess, there was a party-quarrel going on in Rome between the patricians, who wished to defend the privileges of men of property, and the people, who were suffering terrible ill-treatment at the hands of their creditors. Those who possessed a small property were forced either to pledge or to sell it, while those who were absolutely destitute were carried off and imprisoned, though they might be scarred and enfeebled from the wars in which they had served in defence of their country. The last campaign was that against the Sabines, after which their rich creditors promised to treat them with less harshness. In pursuance of a decree of the Senate, Marcus Valerius the consul was the guarantee of this promise. But when, after serving manfully in this campaign and conquering the enemy, they met with no better treatment from their creditors, and the Senate seemed unmindful of its engagements, allowing them to be imprisoned and distresses to be levied upon their property as before, there were violent outbreaks and riots in the city. This disturbed condition of the commonwealth was taken advantage of by the enemy, who invaded the country and plundered it. When the consuls called all men of military age to arms, no one obeyed, and then at last the patricians hesitated. Some thought that they ought to yield to the lower classes, and make some concessions instead of enforcing the strict letter of the law against them; while others, among whom was Marcius, opposed this idea, not because he thought the money of great consequence, but because he considered this to be the beginning of an outburst of democratic insolence which a wise government would take timely measures to suppress before it gathered strength.

VI. As the Senate, although it frequently met, came to no decision on this matter, the plebeians suddenly assembled in a body, left the city, and established themselves on what was afterwards called the Mons Sacer, or Sacred Hill, near the river Anio. They abstained from all factious proceedings, and merely stated that they had been driven from the city by the wealthy classes. Air and water and a place in which to be buried, they said, could be obtained anywhere in Italy, and they could get nothing more than this in Rome, except the privilege of being wounded or slain in fighting battles on behalf of the rich. At this demonstration, the Senate became alarmed, and sent the most moderate and popular of its members to treat with the people. The spokesman of this embassy was Menenius Agrippa, who, after begging the plebeians to come to terms, and pleading the cause of the Senate with them, wound up his speech by the following fable: Once upon a time, said he, all the members revolted against the belly, reproaching it with lying idle in the body, and making all the other members work in order to provide it with food; but the belly laughed them to scorn, saying that it was quite true that it took all the food which the body obtained, but that it afterwards distributed it among all the members. "This," he said, "is the part played by the Senate in the body politic. It digests and arranges all the affairs of the State, and provides all of you with wholesome and useful measures."