Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/139

 SENTIMENTS OF 1>ION. 113 despotism itself. The life of Herakleides now hung upon a thread. Without pronouncing any decided opinion, Dion had only to main- tain an equivocal silence, and suffer the popular sentiment to man ifest itself in a verdict invoked by one party, expect< d even by the opposite. The more was every one astonished when he took upon himself the responsibility of pardoning Herakleides ; add- ing, by way of explanation and satisfaction ' to his disappointed friends "Other generals have gone through most of their training with a view to arms and war. My long training in the Academy has been devoted to aid me in conquering anger, envy, and all malig- nant jealousies. To show that I have profited by such lessons, it is not enough that I do my duty towards my friends and towards honest men. The true test is, if, after being wronged, I show my- self placable and gentle towards the wrong-doer. My wish is to prove myself superior to Herakleides more in goodness and jus- tice, than in power and intelligence. Successes in war, even when achieved single-handed, are half owing to fortune. If Herakleides has been treacherous and wicked through envy, it is not for Dion to dishonor a virtuous life in obedience to angry sentiment. Nor is human wickedness, great as it often is, ever pushed to such an excess of stubborn brutality, as not to be amended by gentle and gracious treatment, from steady benefactors." 2 We may reasonably accept this as something near the genuine speech of Dion, reported by his companion Timonides, and thus passing into the biography of Plutarch. It lends a peculiar in- terest, as an exposition of motives, to the act which it accompanies. The sincerity of the exposition admits of no doubt, for all the or- dinary motives of the case counselled an opposite conduct ; and had Dion been in like manner at the feet of his rival, his life would assuredly not have been spared. He took pride (with a sentiment something like that of Kallikratidas 3 on liberating the prisoners taken at Methymna) in realizing by conspicuous act the lofty morality which he had imbibed from the Academy; the rather, as the case presented every temptation to depart from it Plutarch, Dion, c. 47. '0 6e AJ'WV Trapafiv&ovfiei/or airovf eAej'tv, etc. See Vol. VIII. Ch. Ixiv. p. 165 of this History. 10*
 * Plutarch, Dion, c. 47.