I. The particulars which we thought worth extracting from the
histories of Pelopidas and Marcellus are related above. Their
dispositions and habits were so nearly identical (for both were brave,
laborious, and high-spirited) that the only point in which they differ
appears to be that Marcellus put the inhabitants of several captured
cities to the sword, whereas Epameinondas and Pelopidas never slew any
one after they had conquered him, nor enslaved any captured city;
indeed, had they been alive, it is said that the Thebans never would
have so treated the town of Orchomenus. As to their exploits, that of
Marcellus against the Gauls was great and wonderful, when he drove
before him with his little band of horsemen so great a multitude of
horse and foot together, the like of which one cannot easily find to
have been done by any other general, and the killing of the chief of
the enemy. The same thing was attempted by Pelopidas, but the despot
was too quick for him, and he perished without succeeding in his
effort. Yet with these we may compare his deeds at Leuktra and Tegyra,
the most important and glorious of all his feats of arms, while we
have no exploit of Marcellus which corresponds to his management of
the ambuscade by which he brought back the exiled popular party to
Thebes, and destroyed the despots. Indeed, of all deeds performed by
secrecy and stratagem, this takes the van. Hannibal, no doubt, was a
terrible enemy to Rome, as were the Lacedæmonians to Thebes; yet it is
an established fact that at Tegyra and at Leuktra they gave way before
Pelopidas, whereas Marcellus, according to Polybius, never once
defeated Hannibal, but that general appears to have remained
undefeated until the time of Scipio. But we believe, following Livy,
Cæsar, Cornelius Nepos, and, among Greek historians, king Juba, that
Hannibal suffered some defeats at the hands of Marcellus; yet they
never produced any signal result, and we may suspect that the African
sometimes only pretended to have lost the day. But what Marcellus is
so justly admired for, is that after such great armies had been
routed, their generals killed, and the whole military system of Rome
thrown into confusion, he inspired his troops with a confidence that
enabled them to hold their own against the enemy. He roused his men
from their former timid and disheartened condition, making them eager
to distinguish themselves in battle, and, what is more, never to yield
the victory without a determined struggle. And all this, as far as any
single man could, was effected by Marcellus; for whereas his troops
had been accustomed to be well satisfied if they escaped with their
lives from Hannibal, he taught them to be ashamed of surviving defeat,
to blush to give way ever so little, and to grieve if they were not
victorious.
II. Since, then, Pelopidas never was defeated when he was in command,
and Marcellus gained more victories than any Roman of his time;
perhaps he who was so hard to conquer may, in consideration of his
many successes, be held equal to him who never suffered a reverse.
Moreover, the one took Syracuse, while the other failed before
Lacedæmon. But I hold it a greater feat than taking Sicily, to have
marched upon Sparta, and been the first man to cross the Eurotas,
unless indeed it should be said that the credit of this exploit
belongs more to Epameinondas than to Pelopidas, as also does the
battle of Leuktra, whereas the glory of Marcellus's achievements is
all his own. For he took Syracuse alone, and beat the Gauls without
his colleague, and, with no one to assist him, but every one hanging
back, he measured himself with Hannibal and changed the whole
complexion of the war, by being the first to introduce a daring
policy.
III. As for their deaths, I can praise neither one nor the other, but
I am grieved at the unworthy manner of their end. It is strange, that
Hannibal was never even wounded in a number of battles which it would
weary one to recount; and I admire the conduct of Chrysantas in
Xenophon's 'Cyropædia,' who, when standing with his weapon drawn,
about to strike an enemy, heard the trumpet sound the recall, and
leaving his man, quietly and orderly retreated. Yet Pelopidas may be
excused by his excitement during a battle, and his courage, which
urged him to avenge himself on the enemy, for the best thing is for
the general to be victorious and to survive, and the next, for him to
die "breathing forth his life in valour" as Euripides says. Thus his
death becomes no accident, but a premeditated act. And besides
Pelopidas's spirit, the assured victory which he saw within his grasp,
could he but kill the despot, not unreasonably made him make his
desperate attack; for it would have been hard for him to obtain
another opportunity of distinguishing himself so gloriously. But
Marcellus, without any necessity, without the excitement which
sometimes in perilous circumstances overpowers men's reason, pushed
heedlessly into danger, and died the death of a spy rather than a
general, risking his five consulships, his three triumphs, his spoils
and trophies won from kings against the worthless lives of Iberian and
Numidian mercenaries. They themselves must have felt ashamed at their
success, that the bravest, most powerful, and most celebrated of the
Romans should have fallen among a reconnoitring party of Fregellans.
Still, let not this be regarded as a reproach to these great men, but
rather a complaint addressed on their own behalf to them, especially
to that courage, to which they sacrificed all their other virtues,
disregarding their lives, as though their loss would fall upon
themselves only, and not upon their friends and native country. After
his death, Pelopidas was buried by his allies, fighting for whom he
died; but Marcellus was buried by the enemy at whose hands he fell.
The first was an enviable end, but the other is greater, as the
spectacle of an enemy honouring the valour by which he has suffered is
greater than that of a friend showing gratitude to a friend. In the
one case it is the man's glory alone that is respected, in the other,
his usefulness and value are as much thought of as his courage.