The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0095/00953.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 9KB | 161 lines

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$Title{Plutarch's Lives
Comparison Of Demosthenes And Cicero}
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$Author{Plutarch}
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$Date{c75}
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Title:       Plutarch's Lives
Book:        Cicero
Author:      Plutarch
Date:        c75
Translation: Dryden, Arthur Hugh Clough

Comparison Of Demosthenes And Cicero

     These are the most memorable circumstances recorded in history of
Demosthenes and Cicero which have come to our knowledge. But omitting an exact
comparison of their respective faculties in speaking, yet thus much seems fit
to be said; that Demosthenes, to make himself a master in rhetoric, applied
all the faculties he had, natural or acquired, wholly that way; that he far
surpassed in force and strength of eloquence all his contemporaries in
political and judicial speaking, in grandeur and majesty all the panegyrical
orators, and in accuracy and science all the logicians and rhetoricians of his
day; ^1 that Cicero was highly educated, and by his diligent study became a
most accomplished general scholar in all these branches, having left behind
him numerous philosophical treatises of his own on Academic principles; as,
indeed, even in his written speeches, both political and judicial, we see him
continually trying to show his learning by the way. And one may discover the
different temper of each of them in their speeches. For Demosthenes' oratory
was without all embellishment and jesting, wholly composed for real effect and
seriousness; not smelling of the lamp, as Pytheas scoffingly said, but of the
temperance, thoughtfulness, austerity, and grave earnestness of his temper.
Whereas Cicero's love of mockery often ran him into scurrility; and in his
love of laughing away serious arguments in judicial cases by jests and
facetious remarks, with a view to the advantage of his clients, he paid too
little regard to what was decent; saying, for example, in his defence of
Caelius, that he had done no absurd thing in such plenty and affluence to
indulge himself in pleasures, it being a kind of madness not to enjoy the
things we possess, especially since the most eminent philosophers have
asserted pleasure to be the chiefest good. So also we are told, that when
Cicero, being consul, undertook the defence of Murena against Cato's
prosecution, by way of bantering Cato, he made a long series of jokes upon the
absurd paradoxes, as they are called, of the Stoic sect; so that a loud
laughter passing from the crowd to the judges, Cato, with a quiet smile, said
to those that sat next to him, "My friends, what an amusing consul we have."

[Footnote 1: The political, the judicial, and the panegyrical departments were
the three varieties of oratory. To the practitioners in these are added the
sophistae, the logic and rhetoric masters.]

     And, indeed, Cicero was by natural temper very much disposed to mirth and
pleasantry, and always appeared with a smiling and serene countenance. But
Demosthenes had constant care and thoughtfulness in his look, and a serious
anxiety, which he seldom, if ever, laid aside; and, therefore, was accounted
by his enemies, as he himself confessed, morose and ill-mannered.

     Also, it is very evident, out of their several writings, that Demosthenes
never touched upon his own praises but decently and without offence when there
was need of it, and for some weightier end; but, upon other occasions modestly
and sparingly. But Cicero's immeasurable boasting of himself in his orations
argues him guilty of an uncontrollable appetite for distinction, his cry being
evermore that arms should give place to the gown, and the soldier's laurel to
the tongue. ^2 And at last we find him extolling not only his deeds and
actions, but his orations also, as well those that were only spoken, as those
that were published; as if he were engaged in a boyish trial of skill, who
should speak best, with the rhetoricians, Isocrates and Anaximenes, not as one
who could claim the task to guide and instruct the Roman nation, the

[Footnote 2: Translating Cicero's famous verse upon himself - Cedant arma
togae, concedat laurea linguae.]

     "Soldier full-armed, terrific to the foe."

     It is necessary, indeed, for a political leader to be an able speaker;
but it is an ignoble thing for any man to admire and relish the glory of his
own eloquence. And, in this matter, Demosthenes had a more than ordinary
gravity and magnificence of mind, accounting his talent in speaking nothing
more than a mere accomplishment and matter of practice, the success of which
must depend greatly on the good-will and candor of his hearers, and regarding
those who pride themselves on such accounts to be men of a low and petty
disposition.

     The power of persuading and governing the people did, indeed, equally
belong to both, so that those who had armies and camps at command stood in
need of their assistance; as Chares, Diopithes, and Leosthenes of
Demosthenes', Pompey and young Caesar of Cicero's, as the latter himself
admits in his Memoirs addressed to Agrippa and Maecenas. But what are thought
and commonly said most to demonstrate and try the tempers of men, namely,
authority, and place, by moving every passion, and discovering every frailty,
these are things which Demosthenes never received; nor was he ever in a
position to give such proof of himself, having never obtained any eminent
office, nor led any of those armies into the field against Philip which he
raised by his eloquence. Cicero, on the other hand, was sent quaestor into
Sicily, and proconsul into Cilicia and Cappadocia, at a time when avarice was
at the height, and the commanders and governors who were employed abroad, as
though they thought it a mean thing to steal, set themselves to seize by open
force; so that it seemed no heinous matter to take bribes, but he that did it
most moderately was in good esteem. And yet he, at this time, gave the most
abundant proofs alike of his contempt of riches and of his humanity and good -
nature. And at Rome, when he was created consul in name, but indeed received
sovereign and dictatorial authority against Catiline and his conspirators, he
attested the truth of Plato's prediction, that then the miseries of states
would be at an end, when by a happy fortune supreme power, wisdom, and justice
should be united in one. ^3

[Footnote 3: Or, as the dictum is in his Republic, "When the philosopher
should be king."]

     It is said, to the reproach of Demosthenes, that his eloquence was
mercenary; that he privately made orations for Phormion and Apollodorus,
though adversaries in the same cause; that he was charged with moneys received
from the king of Persia, and condemned for bribes from Harpalus. And should we
grant that all those (and they are not few) who have made these statements
against him have spoken what is untrue, yet that Demosthenes was not the
character to look without desire on the presents offered him out of respect
and gratitude by royal persons, and that one who lent money on maritime usury
was likely to be thus indifferent, is what we cannot assert. But that Cicero
refused, from the Sicilians when he was quaestor, from the king of Cappadocia
when he was proconsul, and from his friends at Rome when he was in exile, many
presents, though urged to receive them, has been said already.

     Moreover, Demosthenes' banishment was infamous, upon conviction for
bribery; Cicero's very honorable, for ridding his country of a set of
villains. Therefore, when Demosthenes fled his country, no man regarded it;
for Cicero's sake the senate changed their habit, and put on mourning, and
would not be persuaded to make any act before Cicero's return was decreed.
Cicero, however, passed his exile idly in Macedonia. But the very exile of
Demosthenes made up a great part of the services he did for his country; for
he went through the cities of Greece, and everywhere, as we have said, joined
in the conflict on behalf of the Grecians, driving out the Macedo