That he should have treated the public supplications of ambassadors and
the prayers of priests with contempt, and afterwards have drawn off his
forces to please his mother, is not so much a credit to her as a
disgrace to his country, which was saved by the tears and entreaties of
one woman, as though it did not deserve to survive on its own merits.
The mercy which he showed the Romans was so harshly and offensively
granted that it pleased neither party; he withdrew his forces without
having either having come to an understanding with his friends or his
foes. All this must be attributed to his haughty, unbending temper,
which is in all cases odious, but which in an ambitious man renders him
savage and inexorable. Such men will not seek for popularity, thinking
themselves already sufficiently distinguished, and then are angry at
finding themselves unpopular.
Indeed, neither Metellus, nor Aristeides, nor Epameinondas would stoop
to court the favour of the people, and had a thorough contempt for all
that the people can either give or take away; yet although they were
often ostracised, convicted, and condemned to pay fines, they were not
angry with their fellow countrymen for their folly, but came back and
became reconciled to them as soon as they repented. The man who will not
court the people, ought least of all to bear malice against them,
reflecting that anger at not being elected to an office in the state,
must spring from an excessive desire to obtain it.
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