Plutarch
46-119 A.C.E - Wrote in Greek
The Comparison of
Demosthenes and Cicero
Written 75 A.C.E.
Translated by John Dryden
The Comparison of
Demosthenes and Cicero
By Plutarch
These are the most memorable circumstances recorded in history of Demosthenes
and Cicero which have come to our knowledge. But omitting an exact comparison
of their respective faculties in speaking, yet thus much seems fit to be
said; that Demosthenes, to make himself a master in rhetoric, applied all
the faculties he had, natural or acquired, wholly that way that he far
surpassed in force and strength of eloquence all his contemporaries in
political and judicial speaking, in grandeur and majesty all the panegyrical
orators, and in accuracy and science all the logicians and rhetoricians
of his day; that Cicero was highly educated, and by his diligent study
became a most accomplished general scholar in all these branches, having
left behind him numerous philosophical treatises of his own on Academic
principles as, indeed, even in his written speeches, both political and
judicial, we see him continually trying to show his learning by the way.
And one may discover the different temper of each of them in their speeches.
For Demosthenes's oratory was without all embellishment and jesting, wholly
composed for real effect and seriousness; not smelling of the lamp, as
Pytheas scoffingly said, but of the temperance, thoughtfulness, austerity,
and grave earnestness of his temper. Whereas Cicero's love of mockery often
ran him into scurrility; and in his love of laughing away serious arguments
in judicial cases by jests and facetious remarks, with a view to the advantage
of his clients, he paid too little regard to what was decent: saying, for
example, in his defence of Caelius, that he had done no absurd thing in
such plenty and affluence to indulge himself in pleasures, it being a kind
of madness not to enjoy the things we possess, especially since the most
eminent philosophers have asserted pleasures to be the chiefest good. So
also we are told that when Cicero, being consul, undertook the defence
of Murena against Cato's prosecution, by way of bantering Cato, he made
a long series of jokes upon the absurd paradoxes, as they are called, of
the Stoic set; so that a loud laughter passing from the crowd to the judges,
Cato, with a quiet smile, said to those that sat next him, "My friends,
what an amusing consul we have."
And, indeed, Cicero was by natural temper very much disposed to
mirth and pleasantry, and always appeared with a smiling and serene countenance.
But Demosthenes had constant care and thoughtfulness in his look, and a
serious anxiety, which he seldom, if ever, laid aside; and therefore, was
accounted by his enemies, as he himself confessed, morose and
ill-mannered.
Also, it is very evident, out of their several writings, that Demosthenes
never touched upon his own praises but decently and without offence when
there was need of it and for some weightier end; but upon other occasions
modestly and sparingly. But Cicero's immeasurable boasting of himself in
his orations argues him guilty of an uncontrollable appetite for distinction,
his cry being evermore that arms should give place to the gown, and the
soldier's laurel to the tongue. And at last we find him extolling not only
his deeds and actions, but his orations also, as well those that were only
spoken, as those that were published; as if he were engaged in a boyish
trial of skill, who should speak best, with the rhetoricians, Isocrates
and Anaximenes, not as one who could claim the task to guide and instruct
the Roman nation, the-
"Soldier full-armed, terrific to the foe."
It is necessary, indeed, for a political leader to be an able speaker;
but it is an ignoble thing for any man to admire and relish the glory of
his own eloquence. And, in this matter, Demosthenes had a more than ordinary
gravity and magnificence of mind, accounting his talent in speaking nothing
more than a mere accomplishment and matter of practice, the success of
which must depend greatly on the good-will and candour of his hearers,
and regarding those who pride themselves on such accounts to be men of
a low and petty disposition.
The power of persuading and governing the people did, indeed, equally
belong to both, so that those who had armies and camps at command stood
in need of their assistance; as Charas, Diopithes, and Leosthenes of Demosthenes's,
Pompey and young Caesar of Cicero's, as the latter himself admits in his
Memoirs addressed to Agrippa and Maecenas. But what are thought and commonly
said most to demonstrate and try the tempers of men, namely, authority
and place, by moving every passion, and discovering every frailty, these
are things which Demosthenes never received; nor was he ever in a position
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 quaestor 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 was created consul
in name, but indeed received sovereign and dictatorial authority against
Catiline and his conspirators, 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 orations 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 statements
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 on maritime
usury was likely to be thus indifferent, is what we cannot assert. But
that Cicero refused, from the Sicilians when he was quaestor, from the
King of Cappadocia when he was proconsul, and from his friends at Rome
when he was in exile, many presents, though urged to receive them, has
been said already.
Moreover, Demosthenes's banishment was infamous, upon conviction
for bribery; Cicero's very honourable, for ridding his country of a set
of villains. Therefore, when Demosthenes fled his country, no man regarded
it; for Cicero's sake the senate changed their habit, and put on mourning,
and would not be persuaded to make any act before Cicero's return was decreed.
Cicero, however, passed his exile idly in Macedonia. But the very exile
of Demosthenes made up a great part of the services he did for his country;
for he went through the cities of Greece, and everywhere, as we have said,
joined in the conflict on behalf of the Grecians, driving out the Macedonian
ambassadors, and approving himself a much better citizen than Themistocles
and Alcibiades did in the like fortune. And, after his return, he again
devoted himself to the same public service, and continued firm to his opposition
to Antipater and the Macedonians. Whereas Laelius reproached Cicero in
the senate for sitting silent when Caesar, a beardless youth, asked leave
to come forward, contrary to the law, as a candidate for the consulship;
and Brutus, in his epistles, charges him with nursing and rearing a greater
and more heavy tyranny than that they had removed.
Finally, Cicero's death excites our pity; for an old man to be
miserably carried up and down by his servants, flying and hiding himself
from that death which was, in the course of nature, so near at hand; and
yet at last to be murdered. Demosthenes, though he seemed at first a little
to supplicate, yet, by his preparing and keeping the poison by him, demands
our admiration; and still more admirable was his using it. When the temple
of the god no longer afforded him a sanctuary, he took refuge, as it were,
at a mightier altar, freeing himself from arms and soldiers, and laughing
to scorn the cruelty of Antipater.
THE END
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