The Good Book (84 page)

20. It was this that disgraced Solon and brought him into disrepute among the citizens;

21. For when he made up his mind to lighten debts and to introduce the cancellation of debts, he told his friends about it, and they did a very wrong thing;

22. They secretly borrowed large sums of money before the law was published,

23. And later, after its publication, they were found to have bought splendid houses and much land with the loans they no longer needed to repay.

24. Solon, who was wronged by them, was nevertheless accused of sharing in their wrongdoing.

25. For the principles that govern a statesman’s conduct do not force him to act with severity against the moderate errors of his friends;

26. On the contrary, they make it possible for him, after he has once made the chief public interests safe,

27. Out of his abundant resources to assist his friends, take his stand beside them, and help them out of their troubles.

28. And there are also favours which arouse no ill-will, such as aiding a friend to gain an office,

29. Putting into his hands some honourable administrative function or some friendly foreign mission,

30. For example one which includes honours to a ruler or negotiations with a state concerning friendship and concord;

31. And if some public activity be laborious, but conspicuous and important,

32. The statesman can first appoint himself to the post and then choose his friend as assistant,

33. For such concession to one’s friends adorns those who give praise no less than those who receive it.

34. Then, besides, a man ought to ascribe to his friends a share in his own good and kindly acts of favour;

35. He should tell those who have been benefited to praise and show them affection as the originators and advisers of the favours.

36. But base and absurd requests he should reject, not harshly but gently,

37. Informing the askers by way of consolation that the requests are not in accord with their own excellence and reputation.

38. Epameinondas exemplifies this most admirably: after refusing to let the pedlar out of prison at Pelopidas’ request,

39. 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.’

40. 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,

41. 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.’

42. For he might, while refusing the favour in fact, have avoided harshness of speech,

43. 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.

Chapter 22

  1. The administration of affairs frequently gives the man in public life this sort of chance to help his friends.

  2. Hand over to one friend a case at law which will bring in a good fee as advocate in a just cause,

  3. To another introduce a rich man who needs legal oversight and protection, and help another to get some profitable contract or lease.

  4. 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;

  5. And when the man who had been asked for it came and asked him the reason, he replied:

  6. ‘Because this man is a good man and poor, but you are rich since you have appropriated much of the state’s wealth.’

  7. And Xenophon says that Agesilaus delighted in enriching his friends, he being himself above money.

  8. But since, to quote Simonides, ‘all larks must grow a crest’, and every public career bears its crop of enmities and disagreements, the public man must take care over these matters.

  9. So most people commend Themistocles and Aristeides who, whenever they went on an embassy or in command of an army,

10. Laid down their private enmity at the frontier, then took it up again later.

11. And some people are also immensely pleased by the conduct of Cretinas of Magnesia.

12. He was a political opponent of Hermeias, a man who was not powerful, but was ambitious, with a brilliant mind,

13. And when the Mithridatic war broke out, seeing that the state was in danger,

14. He told Hermeias to take over the command and manage affairs, while he himself withdrew;

15. Or, if Hermeias wished him to be general, then Hermeias should remove himself,

16. That they might not by ambitious strife with one another destroy the state.

17. The challenge pleased Hermeias, and saying that Cretinas was more versed in war than himself, he went away with his wife and children.

18. And as he was departing Cretinas escorted him, first giving him out of his own means such things as were more useful to exiles than to people besieged in a city,

19. After which by his excellent military leadership he saved the state when it was on the brink of destruction.

20. For if it is a noble thing and the mark of an exalted individual to be willing to make peace with a personal enemy for the sake of those things for which we ought even to give up a friend,

21. Certainly Phocion and Cato and their like acted much better,

22. For they would allow no personal enmity to have any bearing whatsoever upon political differences,

23. But were stern and inexorable only in public contests against sacrificing what was for the common good;

24. Yet in private matters they treated kindly and without anger their political opponents.

25. For the statesman should not regard any fellow-citizen as an enemy,

26. Unless some man, such as Aristion, Nabis or Catiline, should appear who is a running sore to the state.

27. Those who are in other ways out of harmony he should, like a skilful musician, bring into unison by gently tightening or relaxing the strings of his control,

28. Not attacking angrily and insultingly those who err, but making an appeal designed rather to make a moral impression.

29. If his opponents say or do anything good, the statesman should not be vexed by their honours,

30. Nor should he be sparing of complimentary words for their good actions;

31. For if we act in this way our blame, where it is needed, will be thought justified,

32. And we shall make them dislike evil by exalting virtue and showing through comparison that good actions are more worthy and fitting than the other kind.

Chapter 23

  1. And I think also that the statesman should give testimony in just causes even for his opponents,

  2. Should aid them in court against malicious prosecutors,

  3. And should discredit calumnies about them if such accusations are alien to the principles he knows that they profess;

  4. Just as the infamous Nero, a little before he put Thrasea to death, whom he hated and feared intensely,

  5. Nevertheless when someone accused him of a bad and unjust decision in court, said: ‘I wish Thrasea were as good a friend to me as he is a most excellent judge.’

  6. And it is not a bad method for confounding persons of a different kind,

  7. Men who are naturally vicious and prone to evil conduct, to mention to them some enemy of theirs who is of finer character,

  8. And to say: ‘He would not have said that or done that.’

  9. Cato, although he had opposed Pompey in the violent measures which he and Caesar applied to the state,

10. When war broke out between them advised handing over the leadership to Pompey, saying:

11. ‘The men who can bring about great evils can also end them.’

12. For blame which is mingled with praise and contains nothing insulting, but merely frankness of speech,

13. And arouses not anger, but a pricking of the conscience and repentance,

14. Appears both kindly and healing; but abusive speech is not at all fitting for statesmen.

15. Jeering and scurrility bring disgrace upon the speakers of them rather than upon those spoken of,

16. And moreover they bring confusion into the conduct of affairs and they disturb councils and assemblies.

17. Therefore Phocion did well when he stopped speaking and yielded the floor to a man who was reviling him,

18. And then, when the fellow had at last become silent, came forward again saying:

19. ‘Well, then, about the cavalry and the heavy infantry you have heard already;

20. ‘It remains for me to discuss the light infantry and the targeteers.’

21. But since many men find it hard to endure that sort of thing quietly, and abusive speakers are often, and not without general benefit, made to shut their mouths by the retorts they evoke,

22. Let the reply be brief in wording, showing no temper and no extreme rancour,

23. But urbanity mingled with playfulness and grace which somehow or other has a sting in it.

24.   There are men who enter upon every kind of public service, as Cato did, claiming that the good citizen ought, so far as in him lies, to omit no trouble or diligence;

25. And they commend Epameinondas because, when through envy and as an insult he had been appointed telmarch by the Thebans, he did not neglect his duties,

26. But saying that not only does the office distinguish the man, but also the man the office,

27. He advanced the telmarchy to a position of great consideration and dignity,

28. Though previously it had been nothing but a sort of supervision of the alleys for the removal of dung and the draining of water in the streets.

29. All such are helped by the remark of Antisthenes which has been handed down to memory;

30. For when someone expressed surprise that he himself carried a dried fish through the marketplace, he said, ‘Yes, but it is for myself’;

31. But I, on the other hand, say to those who criticise me for standing and watching tiles being measured or concrete or stones being delivered,

32. That I attend to these things, not for myself, but for my native town.

33. For there are many other things in regard to which a man would be petty who attended to them himself for his own sake,

34. But if he does it for the public and for the state’s sake, he is not ignoble;

35. On the contrary his attention to duty and his zeal are all the greater when applied to little things.

Chapter 24

  1. But there are others who think the conduct of Pericles was more dignified and splendid, one of whom is Critolaus the Peripatetic,

  2. Who claims that just as the Salaminia and the Paralus, ships at Athens, were not sent out to sea for every service, but only for necessary and important missions,

  3. So the statesman should reserve himself for the most momentous and important matters.

  4. The statesman ought to find the people fond of him when he comes to them and to leave a longing for him when he is not there;

  5. Which Scipio Africanus accomplished by spending much of his time in the country,

  6. Thereby at one and the same time removing the weight of envy and giving a breathing space to those who thought they were oppressed by his glory.

  7. Timesias of Clazomenae was in other respects a good man in his service to the state, but by doing everything himself he had aroused rancour;

  8. But of this he was unaware until the following incident took place:

  9. Some boys were playing a game of knocking a knucklebone out of a hole when he was passing by;

10. And the boy who had struck at it said: ‘I’d like to knock the brains out of Timesias as truly as this has been knocked out of the hole.’

11. Timesias, hearing this and understanding that dislike of him had permeated all the people,

12. Returned home and told his wife what had happened; and directing her to pack up and follow him, he went immediately away from his house and out from the city.  

13. And it appears that Themistocles, when he met with the same treatment from the Athenians, said,

14. ‘Why, my dear people, are you tired of receiving repeated benefits?’

15. Now of such sayings some are well said, others are not.

16. For so far as goodwill and solicitude for the common weal are concerned, a statesman should not hold aloof from any part of public affairs, but should pay attention to them all and inform himself about all details;

17. Nor should he hold himself aloof, waiting for the extreme necessities and fortunes of the state;

18. But perform other duties by means of different instruments operated by different agents,