These are the memorable things I have found in historians, concerning
Marcellus and Pelopidas. Betwixt which two great men, though in natural
character and manners they nearly resembled each other, because both were
valiant and diligent, daring and high-spirited, there was yet some
diversity in the one point, that Marcellus in many cities which he
reduced under his power, committed great slaughter; but Epaminondas and
Pelopidas never after any victory put men to death, or reduced citizens
to slavery. And we are told, too, that the Thebans would not, had these
been present, have taken the measures they did, against the Orchomenians.
Marcellus's exploits against the Gauls are admirable and ample; when,
accompanied by a few horse, he defeated and put to fight a vast number of
horse and foot together, (an action you cannot easily in historians find
to have been done by any other captain,) and took their king prisoner.
To which honor Pelopidas aspired, but did not attain; he was killed by
the tyrant in the attempt. But to these you may perhaps oppose those two
most glorious battles at Leuctra and Tegyrae; and we have no statement of
any achievement of Marcellus, by stealth or ambuscade, such as were those
of Pelopidas, when he returned from exile, and killed the tyrants at
Thebes; which, indeed, may claim to be called the first in rank of all
achievements ever performed by secrecy and cunning. Hannibal was,
indeed, a most formidable enemy for the Romans but so for that matter
were the Lacedaemonians for the Thebans. And that these were, in the
fights of Leuctra and Tegyrae, beaten and put to fight by Pelopidas, is
confessed; whereas, Polybius writes, that Hannibal was never so much as
once vanquished by Marcellus, but remained invincible in all encounters,
till Scipio came. I myself, indeed, have followed rather Livy, Caesar,
Cornelius Nepos, and, among the Greeks, king Juba, in stating that the
troops of Hannibal were in some encounters routed and put to flight by
Marcellus; but certainly these defeats conduced little to the sum of the
war. It would seem as if they had been merely feints of some sort on the
part of the Carthaginian. What was indeed truly and really admirable
was, that the Romans, after the defeat of so many armies, the slaughter
of so many captains, and, in fine, the confusion of almost the whole
Roman empire, still showed a courage equal to their losses, and were as
willing as their enemies to engage in new battles. And Marcellus was the
one man who overcame the great and inveterate fear and dread, and
revived, raised, and confirmed the spirits of the soldiers to that degree
of emulation and bravery, that would not let them easily yield the
victory, but made them contend for it to the last. For the same men,
whom continual defeats had accustomed to think themselves happy, if they
could but save themselves by running from Hannibal, were by him taught to
esteem it base and ignominious to return safe but unsuccessful; to be
ashamed to confess that they had yielded one step in the terrors of the
fight; and to grieve to extremity if they were not victorious.
In short, as Pelopidas was never overcome in any battle, where himself
was present and commanded in chief, and as Marcellus gained more
victories than any of his contemporaries, truly he that could not be
easily overcome, considering his many successes, may fairly be compared
with him who was undefeated. Marcellus took Syracuse; whereas Pelopidas
was frustrated of his hope of capturing Sparta. But in my judgment, it
was more difficult to advance his standard even to the walls of Sparta,
and to be the first of mortals that ever passed the river Eurotas in
arms, than it was to reduce Sicily; unless, indeed, we say that that
adventure is with more of right to be attributed to Epaminondas, as was
also the Leuctrian battle; whereas Marcellus's renown, and the glory of
his brave actions came entire and undiminished to him alone. For he
alone took Syracuse; and without his colleague's help defeated the Gauls,
and, when all others declined, alone, without one companion, ventured to
engage with Hannibal; and changing the aspect of the war first showed the
example of daring to attack him.
I cannot commend the death of either of these great men; the suddenness
and strangeness of their ends gives me a feeling rather of pain and
distress. Hannibal has my admiration, who, in so many severe conflicts,
more than can be reckoned in one day, never received so much as one
wound. I honor Chrysantes also, (in Xenophon's Cyropaedia,) who, having
raised his sword in the act of striking his enemy, so soon as a retreat
was sounded, left him, and retired sedately and modestly. Yet the anger
which provoked Pelopidas to pursue revenge in the heat of fight, may
excuse him.
The first thing for a captain is to gain
Safe victory; the next to be with honor slain,
as Euripides says. For then he cannot be said to suffer death; it is
rather to be called an action. The very object, too, of Pelopidas's
victory, which consisted in the slaughter of the tyrant, presenting
itself to his eyes, did not wholly carry him away unadvisedly: he could
not easily expect again to have another equally glorious occasion for the
exercise of his courage, in a noble and honorable cause. But Marcellus,
when it made little to his advantage, and when no such violent ardor as
present danger naturally calls out transported him to passion, throwing
himself into danger, fell into an unexplored ambush; he, namely, who had
borne five consulates, led three triumphs, won the spoils and glories of
kings and victories, to act the part of a mere scout or sentinel, and to
expose all his achievements to be trod under foot by the mercenary
Spaniards and Numidians, who sold themselves and their lives to the
Carthaginians; so that even they themselves felt unworthy, and almost
grudged themselves the unhoped for success of having cut off, among a few
Fregellan scouts, the most valiant, the most potent, and most renowned of
the Romans. Let no man think that we have thus spoken out of a design to
accuse these noble men; it is merely an expression of frank indignation
in their own behalf, at seeing them thus wasting all their other virtues
upon that of bravery, and throwing away their lives, as if the loss would
be only felt by themselves, and not by their country, allies, and
friends.
After Pelopidas's death, his friends, for whom he died, made a funeral
for him; the enemies, by whom he had been killed, made one for Marcellus.
A noble and happy lot indeed the former, yet there is something higher
and greater in the admiration rendered by enemies to the virtue that had
been their own obstacle, than in the grateful acknowledgments of friends.
Since, in the one case, it is virtue alone that challenges itself the
honor; while, in the other, it may be rather men's personal profit and
advantage that is the real origin of what they do.