Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/100

 92 DEMOSTHENES AND CICERO. Demosthenes never received ; nor was he ever in a posi- tion 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 qusBstor 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 Avas created consul in name, but indeed received sovereign and dictatorial authority against Catiline and his con- spirators, 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 oia- tions 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 state- ments 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 • Or, as the dictum is in his Republic, " When the philosopher should be king."