It is also expedient to divert the people’s interest to other useful things, as Demades did when he had the revenues of the State in his charge; for when the people were eager to send out triremes to aid those who were in revolt against Alexander,In 330 b.c. King Agis of Sparta headed the revolt. and were urging him to furnish funds, You have, he said, funds available, for I have made preparations for the Pitcher FestivalThe second day of the , a three-day festival in worship of Dionysus, held in early spring at Athens. so that each of you is to receive a half-mina, but if you had rather apply the funds to this other purpose, use your own money for the festival. And in this way, since they gave up the expedition in order not to lose the distribution of money, he removed any ground of complaint on Alexander’s part against the people of Athens. For there are many unprofitable measures which the statesman cannot avert by direct means, but he must use some sort of roundabout and circuitous methods, such as Phocion employed when ordered at an inopportune time to invade Boeotia. He immediately issued a proclamationCf, chap. xxiv. calling all those from the age of military service up to sixty years to join the ranks, and when the older men made a violent protest, he said: What is there terrible about it? For I, your general, who am eighty years old, shall be with you. So in this way we should prevent inopportune embassies by listing among the envoys many who are not qualified to go, and useless construction by calling for contributions, and improper lawsuits and missions abroad by ordering the parties to appear in court together and together to go abroad on the missions. And those who propose such measures and incite the people to adopt them should be the first to be haled into court and made to take the responsibility for putting them into effect; for so they will either draw back and appear to be themselves nullifying the measure or they will stick to it and share its unpleasant features.

When, however, something important and useful but requiring much conflict and serious effort is to be accomplished, then try to select from among your friends those who are most powerful, or from among the most powerful those who are easiest to get along with; for they are least likely to act against you and most likely to work with you, since they possess wisdom without contentiousness. And, moreover, you should know your own nature and choose for any purpose for which you are naturally less fitted than others, men who are more able rather than men like yourself, as Diomedes chose to go with him on the scouting expedition the man of prudence and passed over the men of courage.cf. Homer, x. 243. He chose Odysseus. For actions are thus more equally balanced, and contention does not arise among men whose ambitions proceed from different virtues and abilities. So, if you are not a good speaker, take an orator as your assistant in a lawsuit or your colleague in an embassy, as Pelopidas took Epameinondas; and if, like Callicratidas, you are too lofty of speech and not persuasive in addressing the masses, choose a man who is winning in his speech and conciliatory; and if you are physically weak and incapable of hard work, choose a man who is fond of labour and strong, as Nicias chose Lamachus. For on this principle Geryon would have been enviable for having many legs, arms, and eyes, if he had directed them all by one mind. But statesmen, by uniting for one purpose not only men’s persons and funds, but also their fortunes, abilities, and virtues, if they are in agreement, can gain greater reputation in connexion with the same action than by other means, not behaving like the Argonauts, who left Heracles behind and then were forced to work through the women’s quartersThis refers to Jason’s seduction of Medea. and use magic and drugs to save themselves and steal the golden fleece.

When entering some sanctuaries men leave their gold outside; but iron, one may say, they do not at all carry into any sanctuary. And since the orators’ platform is a sanctuary common to Zeus the Counsellor and the Protector of Cities, to Themis and to Justice, do you strip off all love of wealth and of money, as you would iron full of rustcf. Plato, , 609 a. and a disease of the soul, cast them straightway at the beginning into the market-place of hucksters and money-lenders, and turning your back depart from them,Homer, v. 350. believing that a man who makes money out of public funds is stealing from sanctuaries, from tombs, from his friends, through treason and by false testimony, that he is an untrustworthy adviser, a perjured judge, a venal magistrate, in brief not free from any kind of iniquity. And therefore there is no need of saying much about these evils.

But ambition, although it is a more pretentious word than covetousness, is no less pernicious in the State; for there is more daring in it; since it is innate, not in slothful and abject spirits, but in the most vigorous and impetuous, and the surge which comes from the masses, raising it on the crest of the wave and sweeping it along by shouts of praise, often makes it unrestrained and unmanageable. Therefore, just as Plato saidPlato, , 416 e. that young people should be told from childhood that it is not proper for them to wear gold on their persons or to possess it, since they have a gold of their own mingled in their souls, - a figurative reference, I believe, to the virtue derived by descent, which permeates their natures, - so let us moderate our ambition, saying that we have in ourselves honour, a gold uncorrupted, undefiled, and unpolluted by envy and fault-finding, which increases along with reasoning and the contemplation of our acts and public measures. Therefore we have no need of honours painted, modelled, or cast in bronze, in which even that which is admired is really the work of another; for the person who receives praise is not the man for whom the trumpeter or the doryphorus,Two famous statues. The doryphorus (spear-bearer) was by Polycleitus. for example, was made, but the man by whom it was made. Cato, Rome then beginning to be full of portrait statues, refused to let one be made of himself, saying, I prefer to have people ask why there is not a statue of me rather than why there is one. Such honours do indeed arouse envy, and the people think that they are themselves under obligations to men who have not received them, but that those who have received them are oppressors of the people, as men who demand payment for their services. Therefore, just as a man who has sailed past the Syrtis and is then capsized at the channel has done nothing so very great or glorious, so the man who has watched over the treasury and the public revenue, but is then found wanting in the presidency or the prytany, is indeed dashed against a lofty promontory, but gets a ducking all the same. No, that man is the best who wants no such things and even avoids and refuses them when offered. But if it is not easy to reject some favour or some kindly sentiment of the people, when it is so inclined, for men engaged in a political struggle for which the prize is not money or gifts, but which is a truly sacred contest worthy of a crown,The prizes at the Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean games were crowns of wild olive, laurel, pine, and parsley respectively. a mere inscription suffices, a tablet, a decree, or a green branch such as EpimenidesEpimenides of Crete was called in by the Athenians, apparently not far from 500 b.c., to purify the city of a pestilence. received from the Acropolis after purifying the city. And Anaxagoras, giving up the honours which had been granted him, requested that on the day of his death the children be allowed to play and be free from their lessons. And to the seven Persians who killed the magi the privilege was granted that they and their descendants should wear their headdress tilted forward over the forehead; for they made this, so it appears, their secret sign when they undertook their act. And there is something that indicates public spirit, too, about the honour received by Pittacus; for, when he was told to take as much as he wished of the land which he had gained for the citizens, he took only as much as he could throw a javelin over. And the Roman Codes received as much as he - and he was lame-could plough around in one day. For the honour should not be payment for the action, but a symbol, that it may last for a long time, as those just mentioned have lasted. But of all the three hundred statues of Demetrius of Phalerum not one acquired rust or dirt; they were all destroyed while he was still living; and those of Demades were melted down into chamber-pots. Things like that have happened to many honours, they having become offensive, not only because the recipient was worthless, but also because the gift bestowed was too great. And therefore the best and surest way to ensure the duration of honours is to reduce their cost but those which are great and top-heavy and weighty are, like ill-proportioned statues, quickly overturned.

And I now give the name honours to those which the multitude, to quote Empedocles,Mullach, i. p. 3, 112. Do not call as is right; and I, too, myself follow custom.Quoted with slightly different wording by Plutarch, , 1113 b. For the statesman will not despise the true honour and favour founded upon the goodwill and disposition of those who remember his actions, nor will he disdain reputation and avoid pleasing his neighbours, as DemocritusMullach, i. p. 355. demanded. For not even the greeting of dogs nor the affection of horses is to be spurned by huntsmen and horse-trainers, but it is both advantageous and pleasant to instil into animals which are brought up with us and live with us such a disposition towards us as was exhibited by the dog of Lysimachus and as the poet tells us that Achilles’ horses felt towards Patroclus.Homer, xix. 404 ff.; Aelian, . vi. 25. And I believe even bees would come off better if they would only welcome and placate their keepers and attendants instead of stinging them and making them angry. But as it is, people punish bees with smoke and lead unruly horses and runaway dogs by force of bits and dog-collars; but nothing makes a man willingly tractable and gentle to another man except trust in his goodwill and belief in his nobility and justice. And therefore Demosthenes is rightDemosthenes, vi. (second ) 24. in declaring that the greatest safeguard States possess against tyrants is distrust; for that part of the soul with which we trust is most easily taken captive. Therefore just as Cassandra’s prophetic power was useless to the citizens because she was held in no esteem, For God, she says, has made me prophesy in vain, And those who suffer or have suffered woes Have called me wise; but ere they suffer, mad,Nauck, p. 919, no. 414. From an unknown play. so the trust which the citizens reposed in ArchytasArchytas of Tarentum was a statesman, Pythagorean philosopher, and mathematician. He was seven times general and never defeated. He lived in the fourth century b.c. and was a friend of Plato. and their goodwill towards BattusProbably Battus III. of Cyrene is meant, under whom the constitution of the city was reformed about the middle of the sixth century b.c. was, on account of their reputation, of great advantage to those who made use of them. The first and most important advantage inherent in the reputation of statesmen is this: the trust in them which affords them an entrance into public affairs; and the second is that the goodwill of the multitude is a weapon of defence for the good against the slanderous and wicked, as when a mother Wards off a fly from her child when he lieth asleep in sweet slumber,Homer, iv. 130. keeping off envy and in the matter of power making the low-born equal to the nobles, the poor to the rich, and the private citizen to the office-holders; and in short, when truth and virtue are added to it, such goodwill is a steady fair wind wafting a man into political office. Now consider the contrary disposition and learn of it by examples. For the men of Italy Violated the daughters and the wife of Dionysius,Dionysius II. of Syracuse; cf, chap. xiii., and Aelian, vi. 12. killed them, and then burned their bodies and scattered the ashes from a boat over the sea. But when a certain man named Menander, who had been a good king of the Bactrians, died in camp, the cities celebrated his funeral as usual in other respects, but in respect to his remains they put forth rival claims and only with difficulty came to terms, agreeing that they should divide the ashes equally and go away and should erect monuments to him in all their cities. But, on the other hand, the Agrigentines, when they had got rid of Phalaris, decreed that no one should wear a grey cloak; for the tyrant’s servants had worn grey garments. But the Persians, because Cyrus was hook-nosed, even to this day love hook-nosed men and consider them the most handsome.

So of all kinds of love that which is engendered in states and peoples for an individual because of his virtue is at once the strongest and the most divine; but those falsely named and falsely attested honours which are derived from giving theatrical performances, making distributions of money, or offering gladiatorial shows, are like harlots’ flatteries, since the masses always smile upon him who gives to them and does them favours, granting him an ephemeral and uncertain reputation. And so he who first said that the people was ruined by the first man who bought its favour was well aware that the multitude loses its strength when it succumbs to bribe-taking; but those also who give such bribes should bear in mind that they are destroying themselves when they purchase reputation by great expenditures, thus making the multitude strong and bold in the thought that they have power to give and take away something important.