one of the companions[478] of Cæsar. He was not without a certain liking
towards Cleopatra; and now, in order to gratify her request, he secretly
sent and informed her that Cæsar himself was going to march with his
troops through Syria, and that he had determined to send off her with
her children on the third day. On hearing this, Cleopatra first
entreated Cæsar to permit her to pour libations on the tomb of Antonius;
and when Cæsar permitted it, she went to the tomb, and embracing the
coffin in company with the women who were usually about her, said, "Dear
Antonius, I buried thee recently with hands still free, but now I pour
out libations as a captive and so watched that I cannot either with
blows or sorrow disfigure this body of mine now made a slave and
preserved to form a part in the triumph over thee. But expect not other
honours or libations, for these are the last which Cleopatra brings.
Living, nothing kept us asunder, but there is a risk of our changing
places in death; thou a Roman, lying buried here, and I, wretched woman,
in Italy, getting only as much of thy country as will make me a grave.
But if indeed there is any help and power in the gods there (for the
gods of this country have deserted us), do not deliver thy wife up
alive, and let not thyself be triumphed over in me, but hide me here
with thee and bury thee with me; for though I have ten thousand ills,
not one of them is so great and grievous as this short time which I have
lived apart from thee!"
LXXXV. After making this lamentation and crowning and embracing the
coffin, she ordered a bath to be prepared for her. After bathing, she
lay down and enjoyed a splendid banquet. And there came one from the
country bringing a basket; and on the guards asking what he brought, the
man opened it, and taking off the leaves showed the vessel full of figs.
The soldiers admiring their beauty and size, the man smiled and told
them to take some, whereon, without having any suspicion, they bade him
carry them in. After feasting, Cleopatra took a tablet, which was
already written, and sent it sealed to Cæsar, and, causing all the rest
of her attendants to withdraw except those two women, she closed the
door. As soon as Cæsar[479] opened the tablet and found in it the
prayers and lamentations of Cleopatra, who begged him to bury her with
Antonius, he saw what had taken place. At first he was for setting out
himself to give help, but the next thing that he did was to send persons
with all speed to inquire. But the tragedy had been speedy; for, though
they ran thither and found the guards quite ignorant of everything, as
soon as they opened the door they saw Cleopatra lying dead on a golden
couch in royal attire. Of her two women, Iras was dying at her feet,
and Charmion, already staggering and drooping her head, was arranging
the diadem on the forehead of Cleopatra. One of them saying in passion,
"A good deed this, Charmion;" "Yes, most goodly," she replied, "and
befitting the descendant of so many kings." She spake not another word,
but fell there by the side of the couch.
LXXXVI. Now it is said that the asp was brought with those figs and
leaves, and was covered with them; for that Cleopatra had so ordered,
that the reptile might fasten on her body without her being aware of it.
But when she had taken up some of the figs and saw it, she said, "Here
then it is," and baring her arm, she offered it to the serpent to bite.
Others say that the asp was kept in a water-pitcher, and that Cleopatra
drew it out with a golden distaff and irritated it till the reptile
sprang upon her arm and clung to it. But the real truth nobody knows;
for it was also said that she carried poison about her in a hollow comb,
which she concealed in her hair; however, no spots broke out on her
body, nor any other sign of poison. Nor yet was the reptile seen within
the palace; but some said that they observed certain marks of its trail
near the sea, in that part towards which the chamber looked and the
windows were. Some also say that the arm of Cleopatra was observed to
have two small indistinct punctures; and it seems that Cæsar believed
this, for in the triumph a figure of Cleopatra was carried with the asp
clinging to her. Such is the way in which these events are told. Though
Cæsar was vexed at the death of Cleopatra, he admired her nobleness of
mind, and he ordered the body to be interred with that of Antonius in
splendid and royal style. The women of Cleopatra also received
honourable interment by his orders. Cleopatra at the time of her death
was forty years of age save one, and she had reigned as queen
two-and-twenty years, and governed together with Antonius more than
fourteen. Antonius, according to some, was six years, according to
others, three years above fifty. Now the statues of Antonius were thrown
down, but those of Cleopatra remained standing, for Archibius, one of
her friends, gave Cæsar two thousand talents that they might not share
the same fate as those of Antonius.
LXXXVII. Antonius by his three wives left seven children, of whom
Antyllus, the eldest, was the only one who was put to death by Cæsar;
the rest Octavia[480] took and brought them up with her own children.
Cleopatra, the daughter of Cleopatra, she married to Juba, the most
accomplished of kings; and Antonius, the son of Fulvia, she raised so
high that, while Agrippa held the first place in Cæsar's estimation, and
the sons of Livia the second, Antonius had and was considered to have
the third. Octavia had by Marcellus two daughters, and one son,
Marcellus, whom Cæsar made both his son and son-in-law, and he gave one
of the daughters to Agrippa. But as Marcellus died very soon after his
marriage, and it was not easy for Cæsar to choose from the rest of his
friends a son-in-law whom he could trust, Octavia proposed to him that
Agrippa should take Cæsar's daughter and put away her daughter. Cæsar
was first persuaded and then Agrippa, whereupon Octavia took her own
daughter back and married her to Antonius; and Agrippa married Cæsar's
daughter. There were two daughters of Antonius and Octavia, of whom
Domitius Ænobarbus took one to wife; and the other, who was famed for
her virtues and her beauty, Antonia, was married to Drusus, the son of
Livia, and step-son of Cæsar. From the marriage of Drusus and Antonia
came Germanicus and Claudius, of whom Claudius afterwards ruled; and of
the children of Germanicus, Caius, who ruled with distinction for no
long time, was destroyed together with his child and wife; and
Agrippina, who had by Ænobarbus a son, Lucius Domitius, married Claudius
Cæsar; and Claudius adopting her son, named him Nero Germanicus. Nero,
who ruled in my time, slew his mother, and through his violence and
madness came very near subverting the supremacy of Rome, being the fifth
from Antonius in the order of succession.
COMPARISON OF DEMETRIUS AND ANTONIUS.
I. Since, then, great changes of fortune took place in each of their
lives, let us first consider their power and renown. The position of
Demetrius was inherited and already made for him, as Antigonus was the
most powerful of the successors of Alexander, and, before Demetrius came
of age, had overrun and conquered the greater part of Asia: while
Antonius, whose father, though an excellent man, was no soldier, and
left him no renown, yet dared to seize upon the empire of Cæsar, with
which he was in no way connected, and constituted himself the heir of
what Cæsar had won by the sword. Starting as a mere private person, he
raised himself to such a height of power as to be able to divide the
world into two, and to select and obtain the fairer half for his own,
while, without his being even present, his lieutenants and agents
inflicted several defeats upon the Parthians, and conquered all the
nations of Asia as far as the Caspian Sea. Even that for which he is
especially reproached proves the greatness of his power. Demetrius's
father was well pleased at getting Phila, the daughter of Antipater, as
a wife for his son, in spite of the disparity of their ages, because he
regarded her as his son's superior; while it was thought to be a
disgrace for Antonius to ally himself with Cleopatra, a woman who
excelled in power and renown all the Kings of her age, except Arsakes
himself. Antonius had made himself so great that men thought him
entitled to more even than he himself desired.
II. Demetrius, however, cannot be blamed for attempting to make himself
king over a people accustomed to servitude, while it appeared harsh and
tyrannical for Antonius to try to enslave the people of Rome just after
they had been set free from the rule of Cæsar: and the greatest of his
exploits, the war against Brutus and Cassius, was waged with the
intention of depriving his countrymen of their liberty. Demetrius,
before he became involved in difficulties, used always to act as a
liberator towards Greece, and to drive out the foreign garrisons from
her cities, and did not act like Antonius, who boasted that he had slain
the would-be liberators of Rome in Macedonia. And though Antonius is
especially commended for his magnificent generosity, yet Demetrius so
far surpassed him as to bestow more upon his enemies than Antonius would
upon his friends. It is true that Antonius gained great credit for
having caused Brutus to be honourably buried; but Demetrius buried all
his enemy's slain, gave money and presents to his prisoners, and sent
them back to Ptolemy.
III. Both were arrogant when in prosperity, and set no bounds to their
luxury and pleasures. Yet it cannot be said that Demetrius was ever so
immersed in enjoyments as to let slip the time for action, but he only
dedicated the superfluity of his leisure to enjoyment, and used his
Lamia, like the mythical nightmare, only when he was half asleep or at
play. When he was preparing for war, no ivy wreathed his spear, no
perfume scented his helmet, nor did he go forth from his bed-chamber to
battle covered with finery, but, as Euripides says, he laid the Bacchic
wand aside, and served the unhallowed god of war, and, indeed, never
suffered any reverse through his own carelessness or love of pleasure.
But just as in pictures we often see Omphale stealing the club and
stripping off the lion's skin from Herakles, so Cleopatra frequently
would disarm Antonius and turn his mind to pleasure, persuading him to
give up mighty enterprises and even necessary campaigns to wander and
sport with her on the shores of Canopus and beside the tomb of Osiris.
At last, like Paris, he fled from battle to nestle on her breast, though
Paris only took refuge in his chamber after he had been defeated in
battle, while Antonius, by his pursuit of Cleopatra, gave up his chance
of victory.
IV. Moreover, in marrying several wives, Demetrius did not break through
any custom, for he only did what had been usual for the kings of
Macedonia since the days of Philip and Alexander, and what was done by
Lysimachus and Ptolemy in his own time; and he showed due respect to all
his wives; while Antonius, in the first place, married two wives at the
same time, which no Roman had ever dared to do before, and then drove
away his own countrywoman and his legitimate wife to please a foreigner,
and one to whom he was not legally married. Yet with all his excesses
Antonius was never led by his vices into such sacrilegious impiety as is
recorded of Demetrius. We are told that no dogs are allowed to enter the
Acropolis,[481] because these animals copulate more openly than any
others; but Demetrius consorted with harlots in the very temple of the
virgin goddess, and debauched many of the Athenian citizens, while,
although one would have imagined that a man of such a temperament would
be especially averse to cruelty, Demetrius must be charged with this in
allowing, or rather compelling, the most beautiful and modest of the
Athenians to suffer death in order to avoid outrage. To sum up, the
vices of Antonius were ruinous to himself, while those of Demetrius were
ruinous to others.
V. Yet Demetrius always behaved well to his parents, whereas Antonius
allowed his mother's brother to perish in order that he might compass
the death of Cicero, which was of itself so odious a crime that we
should scarcely think Antonius justified if by Cicero's death he had
saved his uncle's life. With regard to the perjuries and breaking of
their words which they both committed, the one in seizing Artabazus, and
the other in murdering Alexander, Antonius has a satisfactory defence;
for he himself was first deserted and betrayed by Artabazus in Media:
while many writers say that Demetrius himself invented false pretexts
for his treatment of Alexander, and accused a man whom he had wronged
with a design on his life, instead of defending himself against one who
was already his enemy. Again, the exploits of Demetrius were all
accomplished by himself in person; while, on the other hand, Antonius
won some of his most important battles by his lieutenants, without
himself being present.
VI. The ruin of both was due to themselves, though in a different
manner, for the Macedonians deserted from Demetrius, while Antonious
deserted his own troops when they were risking their lives in his
defence; so that we must blame the former for having rendered his army
so hostile to him, and the latter for betraying so much loyalty and
devotion. In their manner of death neither can be praised, but that of
Demetrius seems the less creditable of the two, for he endured to be
taken prisoner, and when in confinement willingly spent three years in
drinking and gluttony, like a wild beast that has been tamed; while
Antonius, though he killed himself like a coward, and in a piteous and
dishonourable fashion, nevertheless died before he fell into the hands
of his enemy.
LIFE OF DION.
I. We are told by the poet Simonides, Sossius Senecio, that the Trojans
bore no malice against the Corinthians for joining the rest of the
Greeks in the siege of Troy, because Glaukus, who was himself of
Corinthian extraction, fought heartily on their side. In the same manner
we may expect that neither Greeks nor Romans will be able to blame the
doctrines of the academy, as each nation derives equal credit from their
practice in this book of mine, which contains the lives of Brutus and
Dion, of whom the latter was Plato's intimate friend, while the former
was educated by his writings: so that they were both, as it were, sent
forth from the same school to contend for the greatest prizes. It is not
surprising, therefore, that there should be a great similarity between
their respective achievements, or that they should have proved the truth
of that maxim of their teacher, that nothing great or noble can be
effected in politics except when a wise and just man is possessed of
absolute power combined with good fortune. Just as Hippomachus the
gymnastic trainer used to declare that he could always tell by their
carriage those who had been his pupils, even though he only saw them
from a distance when they were carrying meat home for their dinner, so
we may imagine that philosophy accompanies those who have been brought
up in its precepts in every action of their lives, adding a happy grace
and fitness to all that they do.
II. Their lives resemble one another even more in their misfortunes than
in the objects at which they aimed. Both of them perished by an untimely
fate, unable, with all their mighty efforts, to accomplish the object
which they had in view. The most remarkable point of all is that they
both received a supernatural warning of their death by the appearance to
them of an evil spirit in a dream. Yet it is a common argument with
those who deny the truth of such matters that no man of sense ever could
see a ghost or spirit but that it is only children and women and men who
are wandering in their mind through sickness, who through disorder of
the brain or distemperature of the body are subject to these vain and
ominous fancies, which really arise from the evil spirit of superstition
within themselves. If, however, Dion and Brutus, both of whom were
serious and philosophic men, not at all liable to be mistaken or easy to
be deceived about such matters, did really experience a supernatural
visitation so distinctly that they told other persons about it, I do not
know whether we may not be obliged to adopt that strangest of all the
theories of the ancients that evil and malignant spirits feel a spite
against good men, and try to oppose their actions, throwing confusion
and terror in their way in order to shake them in their allegiance to
virtue; because they fear lest if they passed their lives entirely pure
and without spot of sin, they might after death obtain a higher place
than themselves. This, however, I must reserve for discussion in another
place; and now, in this my twelfth book of parallel lives, I will first
proceed to deal with the elder man of the two.
III. Dionysius the elder, as soon as he had raised himself to the
throne, married the daughter of Hermokrates of Syracuse. However, as his
power was not yet firmly established, the people of Syracuse rose in
revolt, and committed such shocking outrages upon the person of
Dionysius's wife, that she voluntarily put herself to death. Dionysius,
after recovering and confirming his power, now married two wives at the
same time, one of whom was a Lokrian, named Doris, and the other a
native of Syracuse, named Aristomache, the daughter of Hipparinus, one
of the first men in Syracuse, who had acted as colleague with Dionysius
himself when he was appointed to the command of the army with unlimited
powers. It is said that he married them both upon the same day, and that
no man knew which he visited first; and of the remainder of his life he
spent an equal share of his time with each, as he always supped in
company with both of them, and spent the night with each in turn. The
populace of Syracuse would fain have hoped that their countrywoman would
be preferred to the stranger; but it was the stranger who first bore a
son and heir to Dionysius, to counterbalance her foreign parentage;
while Aristomache remained childless for a long time, although Dionysius
was anxious to have a family by her, and even put to death the mother of
his Lokrian wife on a charge of having bewitched her.
IV. Dion was the brother of Aristomache, and at first was treated with
respect for the sake of his sister, but afterwards, when he had given
proofs of his ability, he gained the favour of the despot by his own
good qualities. Besides many other privileges, Dionysius ordered his
treasurers to give Dion anything that he might ask for, letting him know
on the same day what they had given him. He was naturally of a high
minded and manly disposition, and he was greatly encouraged in the path
of virtue by the providential accident of Plato's visit to Sicily. This
never could have been calculated upon according to human ideas of
probability; but it seems as though some divinity, who had long been
meditating how to put liberty within the reach of the Syracusans and to
free them from despotism, must have brought Plato from Italy to
Syracuse, and caused Dion to become his disciple. Dion at this time was
very young, but was by far the most apt of Plato's scholars, and the
readiest to follow out his master's instructions in virtue. This we
learn from Plato's own account of him, and from the circumstances of the
case. Brought up as Dion had been in the humble position of a subject
under a despotic ruler, his life had been full of sudden alarms and
violent alternations of fortune; yet, though he was at this time
accustomed to live in a state of parvenu splendour, and to regard
pleasure and power as the only objects of desire, he, as soon as he had
become acquainted with philosophic reasoning and exhortation to virtue,
became passionately interested in it. With the guileless innocence of
youth he imagined that the discourses which he had heard would produce
an equally deep impression upon the mind of Dionysius, and took
considerable pains to bring Dionysius to meet Plato and listen to his
arguments.
V. When the meeting took place, Plato chose for his subject human
virtue, and discussed more particularly the virtue of manly courage,
proving that despots are the most cowardly of men. From this he went on
to speak of justice, and as he pointed out that the life of the just is
happy, and that of the unjust miserable, Dionysius, who considered the
lecture as a reproach to himself, was much exasperated, especially when
he observed how all the audience admired Plato and were enchanted by his
rhetoric. At last in a rage he asked him why he had come to Sicily: and
when Plato answered that he had come in order to find a good man,
Dionysius caught up his words, and said, "You seem hitherto not to have
found one."
Dion and his friends imagined that this outburst marked the end of
Dionysius's indignation; and as Plato was now anxious to leave Sicily
they obtained a passage for him on board of a trireme which was about to
convey home Pollis, the Lacedæmonian envoy. Dionysius however secretly
besought Pollis to put Plato to death during the voyage, or at any rate
to sell him for a slave, because, he said, Plato, according to his own
showing, would be none the worse off for being a slave, but would be
just as happy, provided that he was just. In consequence of this we are
told that Pollis took Plato to Ægina and there sold him, because the
people of Ægina were at that time at war with the Athenians, and had
passed a decree that any Athenian found in Ægina should be sold for a
slave.[482] Yet Dion was no less honoured and trusted by Dionysius in
consequence of this, but was entrusted with the management of the most
important negotiations, and was himself sent as ambassador to Carthage,
in which capacity he gained great credit. Indeed he was almost the only
person whom Dionysius allowed freely to speak his mind, as is proved by
the reproof which he gave Dionysius about Gelon. It appears that
Dionysius was sneering at Gelon and his kingdom, and saying that he was
the laughing-stock of Sicily. All the other courtiers pretended to
approve of this jest, but Dion harshly answered, "Yet you have been
allowed to become our despot because of the good example set by Gelon;
but your example will not encourage any state to imitate us." In truth
Gelon's conduct as an absolute monarch seems to have been just as
admirable as that of Dionysius was detestable.
VI. Dionysius had three children by his Lokrian wife, and four by
Aristomache. Of his two daughters, Sophrosyne married her half-brother,
and Arete married Thearides, the brother of Dionysius, but on the death
of Thearides Dion took Arete, who was his own niece, for his wife. In
Dionysius's last illness, when his life was despaired of, Dion wished to
ask him what was to become of the children of Aristomache, but the
physicians, who wished to pay their court to the heir to the throne,
would not allow Dion an opportunity of doing so. Timæus even states that
when Dionysius asked for a sleeping draught they gave him one which
rendered him completely insensible, so that he passed from sleep into
death. However, as soon as the young Dionysius assembled his friends in
council, Dion made such an admirable speech upon the political situation
that all the others appeared by his side to be mere children in
intellect, and their words seemed to be those of slaves and grovelling
flatterers of the despot when compared with his bold and fearless
utterances. He impressed upon their minds the greatness of the danger by
which they were menaced by Carthage, and promised that if Dionysius
wished for peace he himself would at once set sail for Africa and obtain
the best terms he could; or that, if he preferred to fight, he would
place at his disposal a force of fifty triremes, which he would maintain
at his own expense.