These are the most memorable circumstances recorded in history
of Demosthenes and Cicero which have come to our knowledge. But
omitting an exact comparison of their respective faculties in
speaking, yet thus much seems fit to be said; that Demosthenes,
to make himself a master in rhetoric, applied all the faculties
he had, natural or acquired, wholly that way; that he far
surpassed in force and strength of eloquence all his
contemporaries in political and judicial speaking, in grandeur
and majesty all the panegyrical orators, and in accuracy and
science all the logicians and rhetoricians of his day; that
Cicero was highly educated, and by his diligent study became a
most accomplished general scholar in all these branches, having
left behind him numerous philosophical treatises of his own on
Academic principles; as, indeed, even in his written speeches,
both political and judicial, we see him continually trying to
show his learning by the way. And one may discover the
different temper of each of them in their speeches. For
Demosthenes's oratory was without all embellishment and jesting,
wholly composed for real effect and seriousness; not smelling of
the lamp, as Pytheas scoffingly said, but of the temperance,
thoughtfulness, austerity, and grave earnestness of his temper.
Whereas Cicero's love of mockery often ran him into scurrility;
and in his love of laughing away serious arguments in judicial
cases by jests and facetious remarks, with a view to the
advantage of his clients, he paid too little regard to what was
decent: saying, for example, in his defense of Caelius, that he
had done no absurd thing in such plenty and affluence to indulge
himself in pleasures, it being a kind of madness not to enjoy
the things we possess, especially since the most eminent
philosophers have asserted pleasure to be the chiefest good. So
also we are told, that when Cicero, being consul, undertook the
defense of Murena against Cato's prosecution, by way of
bantering Cato, he made a long series of jokes upon the absurd
paradoxes, as they are called, of the Stoic sect; so that a loud
laughter passing from the crowd to the judges, Cato, with a
quiet smile, said to those that sat next him, "My friends, what
an amusing consul we have."
And, indeed, Cicero was by natural temper very much disposed to
mirth and pleasantry, and always appeared with a smiling and
serene countenance. But Demosthenes had constant care and
thoughtfulness in his look, and a serious anxiety, which he
seldom, if ever, laid aside; and, therefore, was accounted by
his enemies, as he himself confessed, morose and ill-mannered.
Also, it is very evident, out of their several writings, that
Demosthenes never touched upon his own praises but decently and
without offense when there was need of it, and for some
weightier end; but, upon other occasions modestly and sparingly.
But Cicero's immeasurable boasting of himself in his orations
argues him guilty of an uncontrollable appetite for distinction,
his cry being evermore that arms should give place to the gown,
and the soldier's laurel to the tongue. And at last we find him
extolling not only his deeds and actions, but his orations also,
as well those that were only spoken, as those that were
published; as if he were engaged in a boyish trial of skill, who
should speak best, with the rhetoricians, Isocrates and
Anaximenes, not as one who could claim the task to guide and
instruct the Roman nation, the
Soldier full-armed, terrific to the foe.
It is necessary, indeed, for a political leader to be an able
speaker; but it is an ignoble thing for any man to admire and
relish the glory of his own eloquence. And, in this matter,
Demosthenes had a more than ordinary gravity and magnificence of
mind, accounting his talent in speaking nothing more than a mere
accomplishment and matter of practice, the success of which must
depend greatly on the good-will and candor of his hearers, and
regarding those who pride themselves on such accounts to be men
of a low and petty disposition.
The power of persuading and governing the people did, indeed,
equally belong to both, so that those who had armies and camps
at command stood in need of their assistance; as Chares,
Diopithes, and Leosthenes of Demosthenes's, Pompey and young
Caesar of Cicero's, as the latter himself admits in his Memoirs
addressed to Agrippa and Maecenas. But what are thought and
commonly said most to demonstrate and try the tempers of men,
namely, authority and place, by moving every passion, and
discovering every frailty, these are things which Demosthenes
never received; nor was he ever in a position to give such proof
of himself, having never obtained any eminent office, nor led
any of those armies into the field against Philip which he
raised by his eloquence. Cicero, on the other hand, was sent
quaestor into Sicily, and proconsul into Cilicia and Cappadocia,
at a time when avarice was at the height, and the commanders and
governors who were employed abroad, as though they thought it a
mean thing to steal, set themselves to seize by open force; so
that it seemed no heinous matter to take bribes, but he that did
it most moderately was in good esteem. And yet he, at this
time, gave the most abundant proofs alike of his contempt of
riches and of his humanity and good-nature. And at Rome, when
he was created consul in name, but indeed received sovereign and
dictatorial authority against Catiline and his conspirators, he
attested the truth of Plato's prediction, that then the miseries
of states would be at an end, when by a happy fortune supreme
power, wisdom, and justice should be united in one.
It is said, to the reproach of Demosthenes, that his eloquence
was mercenary; that he privately made orations for Phormion and
Apollodorus, though adversaries in the same cause; that he was
charged with moneys received from the king of Persia, and
condemned for bribes from Harpalus. And should we grant that
all those (and they are not few) who have made these statements
against him have spoken what is untrue, yet that Demosthenes was
not the character to look without desire on the presents offered
him out of respect and gratitude by royal persons, and that one
who lent money on maritime usury was likely to be thus indifferent,
is what we cannot assert. But that Cicero refused, from the
Sicilians when he was quaestor, from the king of Cappadocia when
he was proconsul, and from his friends at Rome when he was in exile,
many presents, though urged to receive them, has been said already.
Moreover, Demosthenes's banishment was infamous, upon conviction
for bribery; Cicero's very honorable, for ridding his country of
a set of villains. Therefore, when Demosthenes fled his
country, no man regarded it; for Cicero's sake the senate
changed their habit, and put on mourning, and would not be
persuaded to make any act before Cicero's return was decreed.
Cicero, however, passed his exile idly in Macedonia. But the
very exile of Demosthenes made up a great part of the services
he did for his country; for he went through the cities of
Greece, and everywhere, as we have said, joined in the conflict
on behalf of the Grecians, driving out the Macedonian
ambassadors, and approving himself a much better citizen than
Themistocles and Alcibiades did in the like fortune. And, after
his return, he again devoted himself to the same public service,
and continued firm to his opposition to Antipater and the
Macedonians. Whereas Laelius reproached Cicero in the senate
for sitting silent when Caesar, a beardless youth, asked leave
to come forward, contrary to the law, as a candidate for the
consulship; and Brutus, in his epistles, charges him with
nursing and rearing a greater and more heavy tyranny than that
they had removed.
Finally, Cicero's death excites our pity; for an old man to be
miserably carried up and down by his servants, flying and hiding
himself from that death which was, in the course of nature, so
near at hand; and yet at last to be murdered. Demosthenes,
though he seemed at first a little to supplicate, yet, by his
preparing and keeping the poison by him, demands our admiration;
and still more admirable was his using it. When the temple of
the god no longer afforded him a sanctuary, he took refuge, as
it were, at a mightier altar, freeing himself from arms and
soldiers, and laughing to scorn the cruelty of Antipater.