The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose Volume I - Greece Part 2

II Hannibal's Advance on Rome.

(From Book IX of the "Histories." Translated by Shuckburgh)

III The Defense of Syracuse by Archimedes.

(From Book VIII of the "Histories." Translated by Shuckburgh)

PLUTARCH--(Born about 46 A.D., died in 125.)

I Demosthenes and Cicero Compared.

(From the "Lives." Translated by Sir Thomas North)

II The a.s.sa.s.sination of Caesar.

(From the "Lives." Translated by North)

III Cleopatra's Barge.

(From the "Life of Mark Antony." Translated by North)

IV The Death of Antony and Cleopatra.

(From the "Life of Mark Antony." Translated by North)

EPICTETUS--(Born about the middle of the first century.)

I Of Freedom.

(From the "Discourses." Translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson)

II Of Friends.h.i.+p.

(From the "Discourses." Translated by Higginson)

III The Philosopher and the Crowd.

(From the "Discourses." Translated by Higginson)

LUCIAN--(Born about 120 A.D., died about 200.)

I A Descent to the Unknown.

(From "Menippus." Translated by H. W. and F. G. Fowler)

II Among the Philosophers.

(From the "Fisher: A Resurrection Piece." Translated by H. W. and F. G. Fowler)

III Of Liars and Lying.

(From the "Liar." Translated by H. W. and F. G. Fowler)

GREECE

484 B.C.--200 A.D.

HERODOTUS

Born in Asia Minor, probably in 484 B.C.; died in Italy, probably in 424; commonly called the "Father of History"; a.s.sisted in the expulsion of the tyrant Lygdamis from Halicarna.s.sus; traveled in Persia, Egypt, and Greece; lived afterward in Samos and Athens, settling in Thurii, Italy, about 444 B.C.; his history of the Persian invasion of Greece, extending to 479 B.C., was first printed in Greek by Aldus Manutius in 1502, but a Latin version had appeared in 1474.[1]

I

SOLON'S WORDS OF WISDOM TO CROESUS[2]

When all these conquests had been added to the Lydian empire, and the prosperity of Sardis[3] was now at its height, there came thither, one after another, all the sages of Greece living at the time, and among them Solon, the Athenian. He was on his travels, having left Athens to be absent ten years, under the pretense of wis.h.i.+ng to see the world, but really to avoid being forced to repeal any of the laws which at the request of the Athenians he had made for them. Without his sanction the Athenians could not repeal them, as they had bound themselves under a heavy curse to be governed for ten years by the laws which should be imposed on them by Solon.

On this account, as well as to see the world, Solon set out upon his travels, in the course of which he went to Egypt to the court of Amasis,[4] and also paid a visit to Croesus at Sardis. Croesus received him as his guest, and lodged him in the royal palace. On the third or fourth day after, he bade his servants conduct Solon over his treasuries and show him all their greatness and magnificence. When he had seen them all, and so far as time allowed inspected them, Croesus addrest this question to him: "Stranger of Athens, we have heard much of thy wisdom and of thy travels through many lands, from love of knowledge and a wish to see the world. I am curious therefore to inquire of thee, whom of all the men that thou hast seen thou deemest the most happy?"

This he asked because he thought himself the happiest of mortals; but Solon answered him without flattery, according to his true sentiments, "Tellus of Athens, sire." Full of astonishment at what he had heard Croesus demanded sharply, "And wherefore dost thou deem Tellus happiest?" To this the other replied: "First, because his country was flouris.h.i.+ng in his days, and he himself had sons both beautiful and good, and he lived to see children born to each of them, and these children all grew up; and further, because after a life spent in what our people look upon as comfort, his end was surpa.s.singly glorious. In a battle between the Athenians and their neighbors near Eleusis, he came to the a.s.sistance of his countrymen, routed the foe, and died upon the field most gallantly. The Athenians gave him a public funeral on the spot where he fell, and paid him the highest honors."

Thus did Solon admonish Croesus by the example of Tellus, enumerating the manifold particulars of his happiness. When he had ended, Croesus inquired a second time, who after Tellus seemed to him the happiest, expecting that at any rate he would be given the second place. "Cleobis and Bito," Solon answered: "they were of Argive race; their fortune was enough for their wants, and they were besides endowed with so much bodily strength that they had both gained prizes at the games. Also, this tale is told of them: There was a great festival in honor of the G.o.ddess Juno at Argos, to which their mother must needs be taken in a car. Now, the oxen did not come home from the field in time; so the youths, fearful of being too late, put the yoke on their own necks, and themselves drew the car in which their mother rode. Five and forty furlongs did they draw her, and stopt before the temple. This deed of theirs was witnessed by the whole a.s.sembly of wors.h.i.+pers, and then their life closed in the best possible way.

Herein, too, G.o.d showed forth most evidently how much better a thing for man death is than life. For the Argive men stood thick around the car and extolled the vast strength of the youths; and the Argive women extolled the mother who was blest with such a pair of sons; and the mother herself, overjoyed at the deed and at the praises it had won, standing straight before the image, besought the G.o.ddess to bestow on Cleobis and Bito, the sons who had so mightily honored her, the highest blessing to which mortals can attain. Her prayer ended, they offered sacrifice and partook of the holy banquet, after which the two youths fell asleep in the temple. They never woke again, but so pa.s.sed from the earth. The Argives, looking on them as among the best of men, caused statues of them to be made, which they gave to the shrine at Delphi."

When Solon had thus a.s.signed these youths the second place Croesus broke in angrily, "What, stranger of Athens! is my happiness then so utterly set at naught by thee that thou dost not even put me on a level with private men?"

"O Croesus," replied the other, "thou askedst a question concerning the condition of man, of one who knows that the Power above us is full of jealousy, and fond of troubling our lot. A long life gives one to witness much, and experience much oneself, that one would not choose. Seventy years I regard as the limit of the life of man. In these seventy years are contained, without reckoning intercalary months, twenty-five thousand and two hundred days. Add an intercalary month to every other year, that the seasons may come round at the right time, and there will be, besides the seventy years, thirty-five such months, making an addition of one thousand and fifty days. The whole number of the days contained in the seventy years will thus be twenty-six thousand two hundred and fifty, whereof not one but will produce events unlike the rest. Hence man is wholly accident.

"For thyself, O Croesus, I see that thou art wonderfully rich, and art the lord of many nations; but with respect to that whereon thou questionest me, I have no answer to give, until I hear that thou hast closed thy life happily. For a.s.suredly he who possesses great store of riches is no nearer happiness than he who has what suffices for his daily needs, unless it so hap that luck attend upon him, and so he continue in the enjoyment of all his good things to the end of life.

For many of the wealthiest men have been unfavored of fortune, and many whose means were moderate have had excellent luck. Men of the former cla.s.s excel those of the latter but in two respects; these last excel the former in many. The wealthy man is better able to content his desires, and to bear up against a sudden buffet of calamity. The other has less ability to withstand these evils (from which, however, his good luck keeps him clear), but he enjoys all these following blessings: he is whole of limb, a stranger to disease, free from misfortune, happy in his children, and comely to look upon.

"If in addition to all this he ends his life well, he is of a truth the man of whom thou art in search, the man who may rightly be termed happy. Call him, however, until he die, not happy but fortunate.

Scarcely indeed can any man unite all these advantages: as there is no country which contains within it all that it needs, but each while it possesses some things lacks others, and the best country is that which contains the most, so no single human being is complete in every respect--something is always lacking. He who unites the greatest number of advantages, and retaining them to the day of his death, then dies peaceably--that man alone, sire, is in my judgment ent.i.tled to bear the name of 'happy.' But in every matter it behooves us to mark well the end: for oftentimes G.o.d gives men a gleam of happiness, and then plunges them into ruin."

Such was the speech which Solon addrest to Croesus, a speech which brought him neither largess nor honor. The king with much indifference saw Solon depart, since the former thought that a man must be an arrant fool who made no account of present good, but bade men always wait and mark the end.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Herodotus, at a certain period in his life, came under the influence of Pericles and his contemporaries, but it is clear from his writings that he received from Attic thought and style little definite inspiration. J. P. Mahaffy has likened him to Goldsmith in his aloofness from his environment. Often ridiculed by his friends for simplicity, Goldsmith far exceeded his clever critics in directness and pathos, and thus gained a place in literature which contemporaries never dreamed would be his. The narrative of Herodotus, adds Mahaffy, gives us more information about the state of the ancient nations and their culture than all other Greek historians put together. His purpose, as Herodotus himself declares, was to narrate the great conflict between the Greeks and barbarians, in order that the causes might be known and glorious deeds might not perish. Readers are imprest by the perfect ease and mastery with which a great variety of subjects are dealt with, his story "advancing with epic grandeur to its close." Mahaffy p.r.o.nounces Herodotus an Ionic story-writer, who never became an Attic one--the chief master of Ionic, as Thucydides was of Attic prose.]

[Footnote 2: From Book I of the "History." Translated by George Rawlinson. Croesus reigned from 560 B.C. to 546. The visit of Solon was made some time before 559.]

[Footnote 3: The capital of Lydia, in Asia Minor, and a flouris.h.i.+ng city in the time of Croesus. It was several times destroyed, the last time by Tamerlane. Its site is now a village.]

[Footnote 4: Amasis came to the Egyptian throne in 569 B.C., and reigned 44 years.]