One might bless the end of Lucullus, which was so timed as to lethim die before the great revolution, which fate, by intestine wars,was already effecting against the established government, and to closehis life in a free though troubled commonwealth. And in this, aboveall other things, Cimon and he are alike. For he died also when Greecewas as yet undisordered, in its highest felicity； though in the fieldat the head of his army, not recalled, nor out of his mind, nor sullyingthe glory of his wars, engagements, and conquests, by making feastingsand debauches seem the apparent end and aim of them all； as Platosays scornfully of Orpheus, that he makes an eternal debauch hereafterthe reward of those who lived well here. Indeed, ease and quiet, andthe study of pleasant and speculative learning, to an old man retiringfrom command and office, is a most suitable and becoming solace； butto misguide virtuous actions to pleasure as their utmost end, andas the conclusion of campaigns and commands, to keep the feast ofVenus, did not become the noble Academy, and the follower of Xenocrates,but rather one that inclined to Epicurus. And this is one surprisingpoint of contrast between them； Cimon's youth was ill reputed andintemperate, Lucullus's well disciplined and sober. Undoubtedly wemust give the preference to the change for good, for it argues thebetter nature, where vice declines and virtue grows. Both had greatwealth, but employed it in different ways； and there is no comparisonbetween the south wall of the acropolis built by Cimon, and the chambersand galleries, with their sea-views, built at Naples by Lucullus,out of the spoils of the barbarians. Neither can we compare Cimon'spopular and liberal table with the sumptuous oriental one of Lucullus,the former receiving a great many guests every day at small cost,and the latter expensively spread for a few men of pleasure, unlessyou will say that different times made the alteration. For who cantell but that Cimon, if he had retired in his old age from businessand war to quiet and solitude, might have lived a more luxurious andself-indulgent life, as he was fond of wine and company, and accused,as has been said, of laxity with women？ The better pleasures gainedin successful action and effort leave the baser appetites no timeor place, and make active and heroic men forget them. Had but Lucullusended his days in the field, and in command, envy and detraction itselfcould never have accused him. So much for their manner of life.

    In war, it is plain they were both soldiers of excellent conduct,both at land and sea. But as in the games they honour those championswho on the same day gain the garland, both in wrestling and in thepancratium, with the name of "Victors and more," so Cimon, honouringGreece with a sea and land victory on the same day, may claim a certainpre-eminence among commanders. Lucullus received command from hiscountry, whereas Cimon brought it to his. He annexed the territoriesof enemies to her, who ruled over confederates before, but Cimon madehis country, which when he began was a mere follower of others, bothrule over confederates, and conquer enemies too, forcing the Persiansto relinquish the sea, and inducing the Lacedaemonians to surrendertheir command. If it be the chiefest thing in a general to obtainthe obedience of his soldiers by good-will, Lucullus was despisedby his own army, but Cimon highly prized even by others. His soldiersdeserted the one, the confederates came over to the other. Luculluscame home without the forces which he led out； Cimon, sent out atfirst to serve as one confederate among others, returned home withauthority even over these also, having successfully effected for hiscity three most difficult services, establishing peace with the enemy,dominion over confederates, and concord with Lacedaemon. Both aimingto destroy great kingdoms, and subdue all Asia, failed in their enterprise,Cimon by a simple piece of ill-fortune, for he died when general,in the height of success； but Lucullus no man can wholly acquit ofbeing in fault with his soldiers, whether it were he did not know,or would not comply with, the distastes and complaints of his army,which brought him at last into such extreme unpopularity among them.But did not Cimon also suffer like him in this？ For the citizens arraignedhim, and did not leave off till they had banished him, that, as Platosays, they might not hear him for the space of ten years. For highand noble minds seldom please the vulgar, or are acceptable to them；for the force they use to straighten their distorted actions givesthe same pain as surgeons' bandages do in bringing dislocated bonesto their natural position. Both of them, perhaps, come off prettymuch with an equal acquittal on this count.

    Lucullus very much outwent him in war, being the first Roman who carriedan army over Taurus, passed the Tigris, took and burned the royalpalaces of Asia in the sight of the kings, Tigranocerta, Cabira, Sinope,and Nisibis, seizing and overwhelming the northern parts as far asthe Phasis, the east as far as Media, and making the South and RedSea his own through the kings of the Arabians. He shattered the powerof the kings, and narrowly missed their persons, while like wild beaststhey fled away into deserts and thick and impassable woods. In demonstrationof this superiority, we see that the Persians, as if no great harmhad befallen them under Cimon, soon after appeared in arms againstthe Greeks, and overcame and destroyed their numerous forces in Egypt.But after Lucullus, Tigranes and Mithridates were able to do nothing；the latter, being disabled and broken in the former wars, never daredto show his army to Pompey outside the camp, but fled away to Bosporus,and there died. Tigranes threw himself, naked and unarmed, down beforePompey, and taking his crown from his head laid it at his feet, complimentingPompey with what was not his own, but, in real truth, the conquestalready effected by Lucullus. And when he received the ensigns ofmajesty again, he was well pleased, evidently because he had forfeitedthem before. And the commander, as the wrestler, is to be accountedto have done most who leaves an adversary almost conquered for hissuccessor. Cimon moreover, when he took the command, found the powerof the king broken, and the spirits of the Persians humbled by theirgreat defeats and incessant routs under Themistocles, Pausanias, andLeontychides, and thus easily overcame the bodies of men whose soulswere quelled and defeated beforehand. But Tigranes had never yet inmany combats been beaten, and was flushed with success when he engagedwith Lucullus. There is no comparison between the numbers which cameagainst Lucullus and those subdued by Cimon. All which things beingrightly considered, it is a hard matter to give judgment. For supernaturalfavour also appears to have attended both of them, directing the onewhat to do, the other what to avoid, and thus they have, both of them,so to say, the vote of the gods, to declare them noble and divinecharacters.

    THE END