so that, being more ready to help them in their misfortunes than was
requisite, he seemed to be privy to their injustices. For he saved
Phoebidas, who was accused for having without commission surprised
the castle of Thebes, called Cadmea, saying that such enterprises
were to be attempted without expecting any orders. And when Sphodrias
was brought to trial for an unlawful and heinous act, having made
an incursion into Attica at such time as the Athenians were allies
and confederates of the Spartans, he procured him to be acquitted,
being softened by the amorous entreaties of his son. There is also
recorded a short epistle of his to a certain prince, written in
these words: If Nicias is innocent, discharge him; if he is guilty,
discharge him for my sake; but however it is, discharge him. But
Phocion (on the contrary) would not so much as appear in behalf of
his son-in-law Charicles, when he was accused for having taken money
of Harpalus; but having said, Only for acts of justice have I made
you my son-in-law,—went his way. And Timoleon the Corinthian, when he
could not by admonitions or requests dissuade his brother from being a
tyrant, confederated with his destroyers. For a magistrate ought not to
be a friend even to the altar (or till he comes to the point of being
forsworn), as Pericles sometime said, but no farther than is agreeable
to all law, justice, and the utility of the state; any of which being
neglected brings a great and public damage, as did the not executing of
justice on Sphodrias and Phoebidas, who did not a little contribute to
the engaging of Sparta in the Leuctrian war.
Otherwise, reason of state is so far from necessitating one to show
himself severe on every peccadillo of his friends, that it even permits
him, when he has secured the principal affairs of the public, to assist
them, stand by them, and labor for them. There are, moreover, certain
favors that may be done without envy, as is the helping a friend to
obtain an office, or rather the putting into his hands some honorable
commission or some laudable embassy, such as for the congratulating or
honoring some prince or the making a league of amity and alliance with
some state. But if there be some difficult but withal illustrious and
great action to be performed, having first taken it upon himself, he
may afterwards assume a friend to his assistance, as did Diomedes, whom
Homer makes to speak in this manner:
Since a companion you will have me take,
How can I think a better choice to make,
Than the divine Ulysses?[63]
And Ulysses again as kindly attributes to him the praise of the
achievement, saying:
These stately steeds, whose country you demand,
Nestor, were hither brought from Thracian land,
Whose king, with twelve of his best friends, lies dead,
All slain by th’ hand of warlike Diomed.[64]
For this sort of concession no less adorns the praiser than the
praised; but self-conceitedness, as Plato says, dwells with solitude.
He ought moreover to associate his friends in those good and kind
offices which are done by him, bidding those whom he has benefited
to love them and give them thanks, as having been the procurers and
counsellors of his favors to them. But he must reject the dishonest and
unreasonable request of his friends, yet not churlishly but mildly,
teaching and showing them that they are not beseeming their virtue
and honor. Never was any man better at this than Epaminondas, who,
having denied to deliver out of prison a certain victualler, when
requested by Pelopidas, and yet a little after dismissing him at the
desire of his miss, said to his friend, These, O Pelopidas, are favors
fit for wenches to receive, and not for generals. Cato on the other
side acted morosely and insolently, when Catulus the censor, his most
intimate and familiar friend, interceded with him for one of those
against whom he, being quaestor, had entered process, saying: It would
be a shame if you, who ought to reform young men for us, should be
thrust out by our servants. For he might, though in effect refusing
the requested favor, have yet forborne that severity and bitterness
of speech; so that his doing what was displeasing to his friend might
have seemed not to have proceeded from his own inclination, but to
have been a necessity imposed upon him by law and justice. There are
also in the administration of the state methods, not dishonorable, of
assisting our poorer friends in the making of their fortune. Thus did
Themistocles, who, seeing after a battle one of those which lay dead
in the field adorned with chains of gold and jewels, did himself pass
by him; but turning back to a friend of his, said, Do you take these
spoils, for you are not yet come to be Themistocles. For even the
affairs themselves do frequently afford a statesman such opportunities
of benefiting his friends; for every man is not a Menemachus. To one
therefore give the patronage of a cause, both just and beneficial; to
another recommend some rich man, who stands in need of management and
protection; and help a third to be employed in some public work, or
to some gainful and profitable farm. Epaminondas bade a friend of his
go to a certain rich man, and ask him for a talent by the command of
Epaminondas, and when he to whom the message was sent came to enquire
the reason of it; Because, said Epaminondas, he is a very honest man
and poor; but you, by converting much of the city’s wealth to your own
use, are become rich. And Xenophon reports, that Agesilaus delighted in
enriching his friends, himself making no account of money.
14. Now since, as Simonides says, all larks must have a crest, and
every eminent office in a commonweal brings enmities and dissensions,
it is not a little convenient for a statesman to be forewarned also
of his comportment in these rencounters. Many therefore commend
Themistocles and Aristides, who, when they were to go forth on an
embassy or to command together the army, laid down their enmity at
the confines of the city, taking it up again after their return. Some
again are highly pleased with the action of Cretinas the Magnesian. He,
having for his rival in the government one Hermias, a man not powerful
and rich, but ambitious and high-spirited, when the Mithridatic war
came on, seeing the city in danger, desired Hermias either to take the
government upon himself and manage the affairs whilst he retired, or,
if he would have him take the command of the army, to depart himself
immediately, lest they should through their ambitious contention
destroy the city. The proposal pleased Hermias, who, saying that
Cretinas was a better soldier than himself, did with his wife and
children quit the city. Cretinas then escorted him as he went forth,
furnishing him out of his own estate with all such things as are more
useful to those that fly from home than to those that are besieged; and
excellently defending the city, unexpectedly preserved it, being at
the point to be destroyed. For if it is generous and proceeding from a
magnanimous spirit to cry out,