The CDPD Public Domain Collection for CDTV 3/CDPDIII.bin/books/plutarch/p & m comp

Text File | 1992-07-31 | 7KB | 118 lines

                                      75 AD
                   THE COMPARISON OF PELOPIDAS WITH MARCELLUS
                                  by Plutarch
                           translated by John Dryden

  THESE are the memorable things I have found in historians concerning
Marcellus and Pelopidas. Betwixt which two great men, though in
natural character and manners they nearly resemble each other, because
both were valiant and diligent, daring and high-spirited, there was
yet some diversity in the one point, that Marcellus in many cities
which he reduced under his power committed great slaughter; but
Epaminondas and Pelopidas never after any victory put men to death, or
reduced citizens to slavery. And we are told, too, that the Thebans
would not, had these been present, have taken the measures they did
against the Orchomenians. Marcellus's exploits against the Gauls are
admirable and ample; when, accompanied by a few horse, he defeated and
put to flight a vast number of horse and foot together (an action
you cannot easily in historians find to have been done by any other
captain), and took their king prisoner. To which honour Pelopidas
aspired, but did not attain; he was killed by the tyrant in the
attempt. But to these you may perhaps oppose those two most glorious
battles at Leuctra and Tegyrae; and we have no statement of any
achievement of Marcellus, by stealth or ambuscade, such as were
those of Pelopidas, when he returned from exile, and killed the
tyrants at Thebes; which, indeed, may claim to be called the first
in rank of all achievements ever performed by secrecy and cunning.
Hannibal was, indeed, a most formidable enemy for the Romans; but so
for that matter were the Lacedaemonians for the Thebans. And that
these were, in the fights of Leuctra and Tegyrae, beaten and put to
flight by Pelopidas is confessed; whereas Polybius writes that
Hannibal was never so much as once vanquished by Marcellus, but
remained invincible in all encounters till Scipio came. I myself,
indeed, have followed rather Livy, Caesar, Cornelius Nepos and among
the Greeks, King Juba, in stating that the troops of Hannibal were
in some encounters routed and put to flight by Marcellus; but
certainly these defeats conducted little to the sum of the war. It
would seem as if they had been merely feints of some sort on the
part of the Carthaginians. What was indeed truly and really
admirable was, that the Romans, after the defeat of so many armies,
the slaughter of so many captains, and, in fine, the confusion of
almost the whole Roman empire, still showed a courage equal to their
losses, and were as willing as their enemies to engage in new battles.
And Marcellus was the one man who overcame the great and inveterate
fear and dread, and revived, raised, and confirmed the spirits of
the soldiers to that degree of emulation and bravery that would not
let them easily yield the victory, but made them contend for it to the
last. For the same men, whom continual defeats had accustomed to think
themselves happy, if they could but save themselves by running from
Hannibal, were by him taught to esteem it base and ignominious to
return safe but unsuccessful; to be ashamed to confess that they had
yielded one step in the terrors of the fight and to grieve to
extremity if they were not victorious.
  In short, as Pelopidas was never overcome in any battle, where
himself was present and commanded in chief, and as Marcellus gained
more victories than any of his contemporaries, truly he that could not
be easily overcome, considering his many successes, may fairly be
compared with him who was undefeated. Marcellus took Syracuse; whereas
Pelopidas was frustrated of his hope of capturing Sparta. But in my
judgment it was more difficult to advance his standard even to the
walls of Sparta, and to be the first of mortals that ever passed the
river Eurotas in arms, than it was to reduce Sicily; unless, indeed,
we say that that adventure is with more of right to be attributed to
Epaminondas, as was also the Leuctrian battle; whereas Marcellus's
renown, and the glory of his brave actions, came entire and
undiminished to him alone. For he alone took Syracuse; and without his
colleague's help defeated the Gauls, and, when all others declined,
alone, without one companion, ventured to engage with Hannibal; and
changing the aspect of the war first showed the example of daring to
attack him.
  I cannot commend the death of either of these great men; the
suddenness and strangeness of their ends gives me a feeling rather
of pain and distress. Hannibal has my admiration who, in so many
severe conflicts, more than can be reckoned in one day, never received
so much as one wound. I honour Chrysantes also (in Xenophon's
Cyropaedia), who, having raised his sword in the act of striking his
enemy, so soon as a retreat was sounded, left him, and retired
sedately and modestly. Yet the anger which provoked Pelopidas to
pursue revenge in the heat of fight may excuse him.

         "The first thing for a captain is to gain
          Safe victory; the next to be with honour slain,"

as Euripides says. For then he cannot be said to suffer death; it is
rather to be called an action. The very object, too, of Pelopidas's
victory, which consisted in the slaughter of the tyrant, presenting
itself to his eyes, did not wholly carry him away unadvisedly: he
could not easily expect again to have another equally glorious
occasion for the exercise of his courage in a noble and honourable
cause. But Marcellus, when it made little to his advantage, and when
no such violent ardour as present danger naturally calls out
transported him to passion, throwing himself into danger, fell to an
unexplored ambush; he, namely, who had borne five consulates, led
three triumphs, won the spoils and glories of kings and victories,
to act the part of a mere scout, or sentinel, and to expose all his
achievements to be trod under foot by the mercenary Spaniards and
Numidians, who sold themselves and their lives to the Carthaginians,
so that even they themselves felt unworthy, and almost grudged
themselves the unhoped-for success of having cut off, among a few
Fregellan scouts, the most valiant, the most potent, and most renowned
of the Romans. Let no man think that we have thus spoken out of a
design to accuse these noble men; it is merely an expression of
frank indignation in their own behalf, at seeing them thus wasting all
their other virtues upon that of bravery, and throwing away their
lives, as if the loss would be only felt by themselves, and not by
their country, allies, and friends.
  After Pelopidas's death, his friends, for whom he died, made a
funeral for him; the enemies, by whom he had been killed, made one for
Marcellus. A noble and happy lot indeed the former; yet there is
something higher and greater in the admiration rendered by enemies
to the virtue that had been their own obstacle, than in the grateful
acknowledgments of friends. Since, in the one case, it is virtue alone
that challenges itself the honour; while, in the other, it may be
rather men's personal profit and advantage that is the real origin
of what they do.


                              THE END