Search -
Greek History From Themistocles to Alexander; In a Series of Lives From Plutarch
Greek History From Themistocles to Alexander In a Series of Lives From Plutarch Author:Plutarch General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1870 Original Publisher: Longmans, Green, and Co. Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com wher... more »e you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: PELOPIDAS. Coin of Thebes. Cato the Elder, hearing some people commending a man who was rash, and inconsiderately daring in battle, said, there waa a difference beticeen a man's prizing valour at a great rate, and valuing life at little; a very just remark. Antigonus, we know, had a soldier, a venturous fellow, but of wretched health and constitution; the reason of whose ill looks he took the trouble to inquire into; and, on understanding from him that it was a disease, directed his physicians to employ their utmost skill, and if possible recover him ; which brave hero, when once cured, never afterwards sought danger or did any desperate deed in battle; and, when Antigonus wondered and upbraided him with his change, made no secret of the reason, and said, " Sir, you are the cause of my cowardice, by having freed me from those miseries which made me care little for life." With the same feeling, the Sybarite seems to have said of the Spartans, that it was no great merit in them to be so ready to die in the wars, since by that they were released from such hard labour and miserable living. And certainly the soft and dissolute Sybarites might very well imagine that the Lacedsemonians hated life, because in their eager pursuit of virtue and glory they were not afraid to die: but the truth is, they found their virtue secure them satisfaction alike in living or in dying; as we see in the epitaph, -- They died, but not as lavish of their blood, Or thinking death itself was simply good ; Their wishes neither were to live nor die, But to do both alike commend...« less