Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/506

 484 HISTORY OF GREECE. to us by the historian), 1 but Kleon as a man of violent tempei and fierce political antipathies, a bitter speaker, and sometimes dishonest in his calumnies against adversaries. These art, the qualities which, in all countries of free debate, go to form what is called a great opposition speaker. It was thus that the elder Cato, " the universal biter, rhom Persephone was afraid even to admit into Hades after his death," was characterized at Borne, even by the admission of his admirers to some extent, and in a still stronger manner by those who were unfriendly to him, as Thucydides was to Kleon. 2 In Cato, such a temper was not 1 The public speaking of Kleon was characterized by Aristotle and Theo- pompus (see Schol. ad Lucian. Timon. c. 30), not as wheedling, but as full of arrogance ; in this latter point too like that of the elder Cato at Rome (Plutarch, Cato, c. 14). The derisory tone of Cato in his public speaking, too, is said to have been impertinent and disgusting (Plutarch, Reipub. Gerend. Pruecept. p. 803, c. 7). porary of Cato the Censor, describes him : Hvfrfibv, TravdaKeTTjv, y7t.avK.6fj.fi.aTov, ov6e ^avo^ra Hopmov et'f 'AiJjfv Hepaefovri dexerai. Livy says, in an eloquent encomium on Cato (xxxix, 40) : " Simultates nimio plures et exercuerunt eum, et ipse exercuit eas: nee facile dixeris utrnm magis presserit eum nobilitas, an ille agitaverit nobilitatem. Asperi procul dubio animi, et linguae acerbae et immodice liberae fuit : sed invicto a cupiditatibns animi et rigidae innoccntiffi : contemptor gratia?, divitiarura Hunc sicut omni vit&, turn censuram pctentem premebat nobili. tas ; coierantque candidati omnes ad dejiciendum honore eum ; non solum ut ipsi potius adipiscerentur, nee quia indignabantur novum hominem cen- Borem videre ; sed etiam quod tristem censuram, periculosamque multoruro famae, et a& Iceso a plerisque et Icedendi cupido, expectabant." See also Plutarch (Cato, c. 15, 16: his comparison between Aristeid6 and Cato, c. 2) about the prodigious number of accusations in which Cato was engaged, either as prosecutor or as party prosecuted. His bitter fend with the nobilitas is analogous to that of Kleon against the Hippeis. I need hardly say that the comparison of Cato with Kleon applies only to domestic politics : in the military courage and energy for which Cato was distinguished, Kleon is utterly wanting, nor are we entitled to ascribo to him anything like the superiority of knowledge and general intelligcnca which we find recorded of Cato. The expression of Cicero respecting Kleon : " turbulentum quidem ci- vein, sed tamen eloquentem," (Cicero, Brutus, 7,) appears to be a transla- tion of the epithets of Thucydides /3mtora'0f r<> typy Tii9avuraro< (iii. 45).
 * An epigram which Plutarch (Cato, c. 1) gives us from a poet contem-