having completed this life also, come we now to the comparison. thatwhich was common to them both was that they were founders of theirown greatness, with this difference, that lysander had the consentof his fellow-citizens, in times of sober judgment, for the honourshe received； nor did he force anything from them against their good-will,nor hold any power contrary to the laws.
"in civil strife e'en villains rise to fame." and so then at rome,when the people were distempered, and the government out of order,one or other was still raised to despotic power； no wonder, then,if sylla reigned, when the glauciae and saturnini drove out the metelli,when sons of consuls were slain in the assemblies, when silver andgold purchased men and arms, and fire and sword enacted new laws andput down lawful opposition. nor do i blame any one, in such circumstances,for working himself into supreme power, only i would not have it thoughta sign of great goodness to be head of a state so wretchedly discomposed.lysander, being employed in the greatest commands and affairs of state,by a sober and well-governed city, may be said to have had reputeas the best and most virtuous man, in the best and most virtuous commonwealth.and thus, often returning the government into the hands of the citizens,he received it again as often, the superiority of his merit stillawarding him the first place. sylla, on the other hand, when he hadonce made himself general of an army, kept his command for ten yearstogether, creating himself sometimes consul, sometimes proconsul,and sometimes dictator, but always remaining a tyrant.
it is true lysander, as was said, designed to introduce a new formof government； by milder methods, however, and more agreeable to lawthan sylla, not by force of arms, but persuasion, nor by subvertingthe whole state at once, but simply by amending the succession ofthe kings； in a way, moreover, which seemed the naturally just one,that the most deserving should rule, especially in a city which itselfexercised command in greece, upon account of virtue, not nobility.for as the hunter considers the whelp itself, not the bitch, and thehorsedealer the foal, not the mare （for what if the foal should provea mule？）, so likewise were that politician extremely out, who, inthe choice of a chief magistrate, should inquire, not what the manis, but how descended. the very spartans themselves have deposed severalof their kings for want of kingly virtues, as degenerated and goodfor nothing. as a vicious nature, though of an ancient stock, is dishonourable,it must be virtue itself, and not birth, that makes virtue honourable.furthermore, the one committed his acts of injustice for the sakeof his friends； the other extended his to his friends themselves.it is confessed on all hands, that lysander offended most commonlyfor the sake of his companions, committing several slaughters to upholdtheir power and dominion； but as for sylla, he, out of envy, reducedpompey's command by land and dolabella's by sea, although he himselfhad given them those places； and ordered lucretius ofella, who suedfor the consulship as the reward of many great services, to be slainbefore his eyes, exciting horror and alarm in the minds of all men,by his cruelty to his dearest friends.
as regards the pursuit of riches and pleasures, we yet further discoverin one a princely, in the other a tyrannical, disposition. lysanderdid nothing that was intemperate or licentious, in that full commandof means and opportunity, but kept clear, as much as ever man did,of that trite saying-
"lions at home, but foxes out of doors；" and ever maintained a sober,truly spartan, and well-disciplined course of conduct. whereas syllacould never moderate his unruly affections, either by poverty whenyoung, or by years when grown old, but would be still prescribinglaws to the citizens concerning chastity and sobriety, himself livingall that time, as sallust affirms, in lewdness and adultery. by theseways he so improverished and drained the city of her treasures, asto be forced to sell privileges and immunities to allied and friendlycities for money, although he daily gave up the wealthiest and thegreatest families to public sale and confiscation. there was no endof his favours vainly spent and thrown away on flatterers； for whathope could there be, or what likelihood of forethought or economy,in his more private moments over wine, when, in the open face of thepeople, upon the auction of a large estate, which he would have passedover to one of his friends at a small price, because another bid higher,and the officer announced the advance, he broke out into a passion,saying： "what a strange and unjust thing is this, o citizens, thati cannot dispose of my own booty as i please！" but lysander, on thecontrary, with the rest of the spoil, sent home for public use eventhe presents which were made him. nor do i comment him for it, forhe, perhaps, by excessive liberality, did sparta more harm than everthe other did rome by rapine； i only use it as an argument of hisindifference to riches. they exercised a strange influence on theirrespective cities. sylla, a profuse debauchee, endeavoured to restoresober living amongst the citizens； lysander, temperate himself, filledsparta with the luxury he disregarded. so that both were blameworthy,the one for raising himself above his own laws, the other for causinghis fellow-citizens to fall beneath his own example. he taught spartato want the very things which he himself had learned to do without.and thus much of their civil administration.
as for feats of arms, wise conduct in war, innumerable victories,perilous adventures, sylla was beyond compare. lysander, indeed, cameoff twice victorious in two battles by sea； i shall add to that thesiege of athens, a work of greater fame than difficulty. what occurredin boeotia, and at haliartus, was the result, perhaps, of ill fortune；yet it certainly looks like ill counsel, not to wait for the king'sforces, which had all but arrived from plataea, but out of ambitionand eagerness to fight, to approach the walls at disadvantage, andso to be cut off by a sally of inconsiderable men. he received hisdeath-wound, not as cleombrotus, at leuctra, resisting manfully theassault of an enemy in the field； not as cyrus or epaminondas, sustainingthe declining battle, or making sure the victory； all these died thedeath of kings and generals； but he, as it had been some common skirmisheror scout, cast away his life ingloriously, giving testimony to thewisdom of the ancient spartan maxim, to avoid attacks on walled cities,in which the stoutest warrior may chance to fall by the hand, notonly of a man utterly his inferior, but by that of a boy or woman,as achilles, they say, was slain by paris in the gates. as for sylla,it were hard to reckon up how many set battles he won, or how manythousand he slew； he took rome itself twice, as also the athenianpiraeus, not by famine, as lysander did, but by a series of greatbattles, driving archelaus into the sea. and what is most important,there was a vast difference between the commanders they had to dealwith. for i look upon it as an easy task, or rather sport, to beatantiochus, alcibiades's pilot, or to circumvent philocles, the atheniandemagogue-
"sharp only at the inglorious point of tongue," whom mithridates wouldhave scorned to compare with his groom, or marius with his lictor.but of the potentates, consuls, commanders, and demagogues, to passby all the rest who opposed themselves to sylla, who amongst the romansso formidable as marius, what king more powerful than mithridates？who of the italians more warlike than lamponius and telesinus？ yetof these, one he drove into banishment, one he quelled, and the othershe slew.
and what is more important, in my judgment, than anything yet adduced,is that lysander had the assistance of the state in all his achievements；whereas sylla, besides that he was a banished person, and overpoweredby a faction, at a time when his wife was driven from home, his housesdemolished, adherents slain, himself then in boeotia, stood embattledagainst countless numbers of the public enemy, and, endangering himselffor the sake of his country, raised a trophy of victory； and not evenwhen mithridates came with proposals of alliance and aid against hisenemies would he show any sort of compliance, or even clemency； didnot so much as address him, or vouchsafe him his hand, until he hadit from the king's own mouth that he was willing to quit asia, surrenderthe navy, and restore bithynia and cappadocia to the two kings. thanwhich action sylla never performed a braver, or with a nobler spirit,when preferring the public good to the private, and like good hounds,where he had once fixed, never letting go his hold, till the enemyyielded, then, and not until then, he set himself to revenge his ownprivate quarrels. we may perhaps let ourselves be influenced, moreover,in our comparison of their characters, by considering their treatmentof athens. sylla, when he had made himself master of the city, whichthen upheld the dominion and power of mithridates in opposition tohim, restored her to liberty and the free exercise of her own laws；lysander, on the contrary, when she had fallen from a vast heightof dignity and rule, showed her no compassion, but abolishing herdemocratic government, imposed on her the most cruel and lawless tyrants.we are now qualified to consider whether we should go far from thetruth or no in pronouncing that sylla performed the more gloriousdeeds, but lysander committed the fewer faults, as, likewise, by givingto one the pre-eminence for moderation and self-control, to the otherfor conduct and valour.
the end