SI on me demandoit le choix de tous les hommes qui sont venus à ma cognoissance, il me semble en trouuer trois excellens au dessus de tous les autres.
If I were asked to choose among all the men who have come to my knowledge, I think I find three who excel above all the others.
Homer
Homer is the first of the three most excellent men, the master of all later poets and thinkers.
L’vn Homere; non pas qu’Aristote ou Varro, pour exemple, ne fussent à l’aduenture aussi sçauans que luy; ny possible encore qu’en son art mesme, Virgile ne luy soit comparable. Ie le laisse à iuger à ceux, qui les cognoissent tous deux. Moy qui n’en cognoy que l’vn, puis seulement dire cela, selon ma portée, que ie ne croy pas que les Muses mesmes allassent au delà du Romain. Tale facit carmen docta testudine, quale / Cynthius impositis temperat articulis. Toutesfois en ce iugement, encore ne faudroit il pas oublier, que c’est principalement d’Homere que Virgile tient sa suffisance, que c’est son guide, et maistre d’escole; et qu’vn seul traict de l’Iliade, a fourny de corps et de matiere, à cette grande et diuine Eneide.
One is Homer. Not that Aristotle or Varro, for example, were not perhaps as learned as he; nor even, possibly, that Virgil is not comparable to him in his own art. I leave that to be judged by those who know them both. I, who know only one of them, can say only this, as far as my capacity goes: I do not believe the Muses themselves went beyond the Roman. He makes such a song on his learned lyre / as the Cynthian god tunes with his fingers on the strings. Yet in this judgment we must still not forget that it is chiefly from Homer that Virgil gets his ability, that Homer is his guide and schoolmaster, and that a single stroke of the Iliad supplied the body and matter for that great and divine Aeneid.
Ce n’est pas ainsi que ie compte: i’y mesle plusieurs autres circonstances, qui me rendent ce personnage admirable, quasi au dessus de l’humaine condition. Et à la verité, ie m’estonne souuent, que luy qui a produit, et mis en credit au monde plusieurs deitez, par son auctorité, n’a gaigné reng de Dieu luy mesme. Estant aueugle, indigent; estant auant que les sciences fussent redigées en regle, et obseruations certaines, il les a tant cognues, que tous ceux qui se sont meslez depuis d’establir des polices, de conduire guerres, et d’escrire ou de la religion, ou de la philosophie, en quelque secte que ce soit, ou des arts, se sont seruis de luy, comme d’vn maistre tres-parfaict en la cognoissance de toutes choses.
That is not how I reckon: I add many other circumstances that make this man admirable to me, almost above the human condition. And indeed I am often astonished that he, who by his authority produced so many deities and brought them into credit in the world, did not himself win the rank of a god. Blind, poor, living before the sciences were set down in rules and sure observations, he knew them so well that all those who have since undertaken to establish governments, conduct wars, or write about religion or philosophy, of whatever school, or about the arts, have used him as a most perfect master in the knowledge of all things.
Et de ses liures, comme d’vne pepiniere de toute espece de suffisance, Qui quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid vtile, quid non, / Plenius ac melius Chrysippo ac Crantore dicit: Et comme dit l’autre, A quo, ceu fonte perenni, / Vatum Pieriis labra rigantur aquis. Et l’autre, Adde Heliconiadum comites, quorum vnus Homerus / Astra potitus. Et l’autre, Cuiúsque ex ore profuso / Omnis posteritas latices in carmina duxit, / Amnémque in tenues ausa est deducere riuos, / Vnius fœcunda bonis.
And they have drawn on his books as on a nursery of every kind of ability: He tells us what is fine, what is foul, what is useful and what is not, / more fully and better than Chrysippus and Crantor. And as another says: From whom, as from an everlasting spring, / the lips of poets are moistened with Pierian waters. And another: Add the companions of the Heliconian Muses, among whom Homer alone / has won the stars. And another: From whose overflowing mouth / all posterity has drawn its waters for its songs, / and dared to divert the river into slender streams, / rich in the wealth of one man.
C’est contre l’ordre de Nature, qu’il a faict la plus excellente production qui puisse estre: car la naissance ordinaire des choses, elle est imparfaicte: elles s’augmentent, se fortifient par l’accroissance. L’enfance de la poësie, et de plusieurs autres sciences, il l’a rendue meure, parfaicte, et accomplie. A cette cause le peut on nommer le premier et dernier des poëtes, suyuant ce beau tesmoignage que l’antiquité nous a laissé de luy, que n’ayant eu nul qu’il peust imiter auant luy, il n’a eu nul apres luy qui le peust imiter. Ses parolles, selon Aristote, sont les seules parolles, qui ayent mouuement et action: ce sont les seuls mots substantiels.
It is against the order of Nature that he produced the most excellent work there can be. For the ordinary birth of things is imperfect; they grow and grow stronger as they develop. The infancy of poetry, and of several other sciences, he made mature, perfect and complete. For this reason he may be called the first and last of poets, in keeping with the fine testimony antiquity has left us about him: that having had no one before him whom he could imitate, he has had no one after him who could imitate him. His words, according to Aristotle, are the only words that have movement and action; they are the only words of substance.
Alexandre le grand ayant rencontré parmy les despouïlles de Darius, vn riche coffret, ordonna qu’on le luy reseruast pour y loger son Homere: disant, que c’estoit le meilleur et plus fidelle conseiller qu’il eust en ses affaires militaires. Pour cette mesme raison disoit Cleomenes fils d’Anaxandridas, que c’estoit le Poëte des Lacedemoniens, par ce qu’il estoit tres-bon maistre de la discipline guerriere. Cette loüange singuliere et particuliere luy est aussi demeurée au iugement de Plutarque, que c’est le seul autheur du monde, qui n’a iamais soulé ne dégousté les hommes, se montrant aux lecteurs tousiours tout autre, et fleurissant tousiours en nouuelle grace.
Alexander the Great, having found a rich casket among the spoils of Darius, ordered it to be kept for him to hold his Homer, saying that it was the best and most faithful counselor he had in his military affairs. For this same reason Cleomenes, son of Anaxandridas, said that he was the poet of the Spartans, because he was a very good master of the discipline of war. This singular and special praise has also remained his in Plutarch’s judgment: that he is the only author in the world who has never sated or wearied people, always showing himself quite different to his readers, and always flowering with new grace.
Ce folastre d’Alcibiades, ayant demandé à vn, qui faisoit profession des lettres, vn liure d’Homere, luy donna vn soufflet, par ce qu’il n’en auoit point: comme qui trouueroit vn de nos prestres sans breuiaire.
That madcap Alcibiades, having asked a man who professed letters for a book of Homer, slapped him because he had none—as if one found one of our priests without a breviary.
Xenophanes se pleignoit vn iour à Hieron, tyran de Syracuse, de ce qu’il estoit si pauure, qu’il n’auoit dequoy nourrir deux seruiteurs: Et quoy, luy respondit-il, Homere qui estoit beaucoup plus pauure que toy, en nourrit bien plus de dix mille, tout mort qu’il est. Que n’estoit ce dire, à Panætius, quand il nommoit Platon l’Homere des philosophes? Outre cela, quelle gloire se peut comparer à la sienne? Il n’est rien qui viue en la bouche des hommes, comme son nom et ses ouurages: rien si cogneu, et si reçeu que Troye, Helene, et ses guerres, qui ne furent à l’aduenture iamais. Nos enfans s’appellent encore des noms qu’il forgea, il y a plus de trois mille ans. Qui ne cognoist Hector, et Achilles?
Xenophanes complained one day to Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, that he was so poor he could not afford to feed two servants. “What?” Hiero answered. “Homer, who was much poorer than you, feeds more than ten thousand, dead as he is.” What else did Panaetius mean when he called Plato the Homer of philosophers? Besides, what glory can compare with Homer’s? Nothing lives in men’s mouths like his name and his works; nothing is so well known and so accepted as Troy, Helen and her wars, which perhaps never happened. Our children are still called by names he coined more than three thousand years ago. Who does not know Hector and Achilles?
Non seulement aucunes races particulieres, mais la plus part des nations, cherchent origine en ses inuentions. Mahumet second de ce nom, Empereur des Turcs, escriuant à nostre Pape Pie second: Ie m’estonne, dit-il, comment les Italiens se bandent contre moy, attendu que nous auons nostre origine commune des Troyens: et que i’ay comme eux interest de venger le sang d’Hector sur les Grecs, lesquels ils vont fauorisant contre moy. N’est-ce pas vne noble farce, de laquelle les Roys, les choses publiques, et les Empereurs, vont ioüant leur personnage tant de siecles, et à laquelle tout ce grand vniuers sert de theatre?
Not only certain particular families but most nations seek their origin in his inventions. Mehmed, second of that name, Emperor of the Turks, writing to our Pope Pius II, said: “I am astonished that the Italians band together against me, given that we have our common origin in the Trojans, and that I, like them, have an interest in avenging the blood of Hector on the Greeks, whom they keep favoring against me.” Is it not a noble farce, in which kings, commonwealths and emperors have been playing their parts for so many centuries, and for which this whole great universe serves as the theater?
Sept villes Grecques entrerent en debat du lieu de sa naissance, tant son obscurité mesmes luy apporta d’honneur: Smyrna, Rhodos, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos, Athenæ.
Seven Greek cities disputed the place of his birth, so much honor did even his obscurity bring him: Smyrna, Rhodes, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos, Athens.
Alexander
Alexander is the second, admired for his deeds and virtues and preferred even to Caesar.
L’autre, Alexandre le grand. Car qui considerera l’aage qu’il commença ses entreprises: le peu de moyen auec lequel il fit vn si glorieux dessein: l’authorité qu’il gaigna en cette sienne enfance, parmy les plus grands et experimentez capitaines du monde, desquels il estoit suyui: la faueur extraordinaire, dequoy Fortune embrassa, et fauorisa tant de siens exploits hazardeux, et à peu que ie ne die temeraires: Impellens quicquid sibi summa petenti / Obstaret, gaudénsque viam fecisse ruina: cette grandeur, d’auoir à l’aage de trente trois ans, passé victorieux toute la terre habitable, et en vne demie vie auoir atteint tout l’effort de l’humaine nature:
The second is Alexander the Great. For consider the age at which he began his enterprises; the scant means with which he carried out so glorious a design; the authority he won, in this childhood of his, among the greatest and most experienced captains in the world, who followed him; the extraordinary favor with which Fortune embraced and favored so many of his hazardous—I almost said rash—exploits, Overthrowing whatever stood in the way of his reaching for the heights, / and rejoicing to have made his path through ruin; that greatness of having, at the age of thirty-three, passed victorious through the whole habitable earth, and of having reached in half a life the utmost power of human nature,
si que vous ne pouuez imaginer sa durée legitime, et la continuation de son accroissance, en vertu et en fortune, iusques à vn iuste terme d’aage, que vous n’imaginiez quelque chose au dessus de l’homme: d’auoir faict naistre de ses soldats tant de branches Royales: laissant apres sa mort le monde en partage à quatre successeurs, simples capitaines de son armée, desquels les descendans ont depuis si long temps duré, maintenans cette grande possession: tant d’excellentes vertus qui estoient en luy, iustice, tempérance, liberalité, foy en ses paroles, amour enuers les siens, humanité enuers les vaincus: car ses mœurs semblent à la verité n’auoir aucun iuste reproche: ouy bien aucunes de ses actions particulieres, rares, et extraordinaires.
so that you cannot imagine his natural span, and the continuation of his growth in virtue and fortune up to a proper term of age, without imagining something above man; having caused so many royal branches to spring from his soldiers, leaving the world after his death divided among four successors, mere captains of his army, whose descendants lasted so long afterward, holding on to that great possession; so many excellent virtues that were in him—justice, temperance, generosity, faithfulness to his word, love for his own people, humanity toward the vanquished. For his character truly seems to deserve no just reproach—though some of his particular actions, rare and extraordinary ones, do.
Mais il est impossible de conduire si grands mouuemens, auec les regles de la iustice. Telles gens veulent estre iugez en gros, par la maistresse fin de leurs actions. La ruyne de Thebes, le meurtre de Menander, et du medecin d’Ephestion: de tant de prisonniers Persiens à vn coup, d’vne trouppe de soldats Indiens non sans interest de sa parolle, des Cosseïens iusques aux petits enfans: sont saillies vn peu mal excusables.
But it is impossible to conduct such great movements within the rules of justice. Such men must be judged as a whole, by the chief end of their actions. The destruction of Thebes; the murder of Menander and of Hephaestion’s physician; of so many Persian prisoners at once; of a troop of Indian soldiers, not without damage to his word; of the Cossaeans, down to the little children—these are outbursts that are rather hard to excuse.
Car quant à Clytus, la faute en fut amendée outre son poix: et tesmoigne cette action autant que toute autre, la debonnaireté de sa complexion, et que c’estoit de soy vne complexion excellemment formée à la bonté, et a esté ingenieusement dict de luy, qu’il auoit de la Nature ses vertus, de la Fortune ses vices. Quant à ce qu’il estoit vn peu vanteur, vn peu trop impatient d’ouyr mesdire de soy, et quant à ses mangeoires, armes, et mors, qu’il fit semer aux Indes: toutes ces choses me semblent pouuoir estre condonées à son aage, et à l’estrange prosperité de sa fortune.
As for Clitus, the fault was atoned for beyond its weight; and this action testifies, as much as any other, to the gentleness of his temperament, and shows that his was in itself a nature excellently formed for goodness. It has been cleverly said of him that he had his virtues from Nature and his vices from Fortune. As for his being somewhat boastful, somewhat too impatient of hearing himself spoken ill of, and as for the mangers, weapons and bits he had scattered about in India—all these things seem to me pardonable in view of his age and the strange prosperity of his fortune.
Qui considerera quand et quand, tant de vertus militaires, diligence, pouruoyance, patience, discipline, subtilité, magnanimité, resolution, bonheur, en quoy, quand l’authorité d’Hannibal ne nous l’auroit appris, il a esté le premier des hommes: les rares beautez et conditions de sa personne, iusques au miracle: ce port, et ce venerable maintien, soubs vn visage si ieune, vermeil, et flamboyant: Qualis, vbi Oceani perfusus Lucifer vnda, / Quem Venus ante alios astrorum diligit ignes, / Extulit os sacrum cœlo, tenebrásque resoluit: l’excellence de son sçauoir et capacité:
Consider at the same time so many military virtues—diligence, foresight, endurance, discipline, subtlety, magnanimity, resolution, good fortune—in which, even if Hannibal’s authority had not taught us so, he was the first of men; the rare beauty and qualities of his person, amounting to a miracle; that bearing and that venerable demeanor beneath so young, ruddy and radiant a face: As when the Morning Star, bathed in the Ocean’s wave, / whom Venus loves above all the other fires of the stars, / lifts his sacred face to the sky and dispels the darkness; the excellence of his learning and capacity;
la durée et grandeur de sa gloire, pure, nette, exempte de tache et d’enuie: et qu’encore long temps apres sa mort, ce fust vne religieuse croyance, d’estimer que ses medailles portassent bon-heur à ceux qui les auoyent sur eux: et que plus de Roys, et Princes ont escrit ses gestes, qu’autres historiens n’ont escrit les gestes d’autre Roy ou Prince que ce soit: et qu’encores à present, les Mahumetans, qui mesprisent toutes autres histoires, reçoiuent et honnorent la sienne seule par special priuilege: il confessera, tout cela mis ensemble, que i’ay eu raison de le preferer à Cæsar mesme, qui seul m’a peu mettre en doubte du choix.
the duration and greatness of his glory, pure, clean, free of stain and envy; and that long after his death it was a religious belief that his medals brought luck to those who carried them; and that more kings and princes have written of his deeds than other historians have written of the deeds of any other king or prince whatever; and that even now the Muslims, who despise all other histories, accept and honor his alone by special privilege. Whoever considers all this taken together will admit that I was right to prefer him even to Caesar, who alone could make me hesitate in my choice.
Et il ne se peut nier, qu’il n’y aye plus du sien en ses exploits, plus de la Fortune en ceux d’Alexandre. Ils ont eu plusieurs choses esgales, et Cæsar à l’aduenture aucunes plus grandes. Ce furent deux feux, ou deux torrens, à rauager le monde par diuers endroits.
And it cannot be denied that there is more of Caesar’s own in his exploits, and more of Fortune in Alexander’s. They had many things equal, and Caesar perhaps some greater. They were two fires, or two torrents, ravaging the world in different places.
Et velut immissi diuersis partibus ignes / Arentem in siluam, et virgulta sonantia lauro: / Aut vbi decursu rapido de montibus altis / Dant sonitum spumosi amnes, et in æquora currunt, / Quisque suum populatus iter. Mais quand l’ambition de Cæsar auroit de soy plus de moderation, elle a tant de mal’heur, ayant rencontré ce vilain subiect de la ruyne de son pays, et de l’empirement vniuersel du monde, que toutes pieces ramassées et mises en la balance, ie ne puis que ie ne panche du costé d’Alexandre.
And as fires let loose from different sides / into a dry forest and thickets crackling with laurel; / or as when foaming rivers, rushing headlong down from the high mountains, / roar and run to the sea, / each having laid waste its own path. But even if Caesar’s ambition had more moderation in itself, it has such ill fortune, having met with that vile object, the ruin of his country and the universal worsening of the world, that with all the pieces gathered up and put in the scales, I cannot help leaning to Alexander’s side.
Epaminondas
Epaminondas, the third and greatest, joined valor and ability to a conscience without stain.
Le tiers, et le plus excellent, à mon gré, c’est Epaminondas. De gloire, il n’en a pas à beaucoup pres tant que d’autres (aussi n’est-ce pas vne piece de la substance de la chose,) de resolution et de vaillance, non pas de celle qui est esguisée par ambition, mais de celle que la sapience et la raison peuuent planter en vne ame bien reglée, il en auoit tout ce qui s’en peut imaginer.
The third, and in my opinion the most excellent, is Epaminondas. Of glory he has nowhere near as much as others (nor is it any part of the substance of the thing). Of resolution and valor he had all that can be imagined: not the kind that ambition sharpens, but the kind that wisdom and reason can plant in a well-ordered soul.
De preuue de cette sienne vertu, il en a faict autant, à mon aduis, qu’Alexandre mesme, et que Cæsar: car encore que ses exploits de guerre, ne soyent ny si frequens, ny si enflez, ils ne laissent pas pourtant, à les bien considerer et toutes leurs circonstances, d’estre aussi poisants et roides, et portant autant de tesmoignage de hardiesse et de suffisance militaire. Les Grecs luy ont faict cet honneur, sans contredit, de le nommer le premier homme d’entre eux: mais estre le premier de la Grece, c’est facilement estre le prime du monde. Quant à son sçauoir et suffisance, ce iugement ancien nous en est resté, que iamais homme ne sceut tant, et parla si peu que luy. Car il estoit Pythagorique de secte.
Of proof of this virtue of his, he gave as much, in my view, as Alexander himself, and as Caesar. His feats of war are neither so frequent nor so swollen. Yet if you consider them well, with all their circumstances, they are just as weighty and hard-fought, and bear as much witness to boldness and military skill. The Greeks paid him the honor, without dispute, of calling him the first man among them; but to be the first of Greece is easily to be the foremost in the world. As for his learning and ability, this ancient judgment has come down to us: that no man ever knew so much and spoke so little. For he was of the Pythagorean sect.
Et ce qu’il parla, nul ne parla iamais mieux: excellent orateur et tres persuasif. Mais quant à ses mœurs et conscience, il a de bien loing surpassé tous ceux, qui se sont iamais meslez de manier affaires: car en cette partie, qui doit estre principalement considerée, qui seule marque veritablement, quels nous sommes: et laquelle ie contrepoise seule à toutes les autres ensemble, il ne cede à aucun philosophe, non pas à Socrates mesmes. En cestuy-cy l’innocence est vne qualité, propre, maistresse, constante, vniforme, incorruptible. Au parangon de laquelle, elle paroist en Alexandre subalterne, incertaine, bigarrée, molle, et fortuite.
And when he did speak, no one ever spoke better: he was an excellent orator and highly persuasive. But in his character and conscience he far surpassed all who have ever had a hand in managing affairs. In this respect, which ought to be considered above all, which alone truly marks what we are, and which alone I weigh against all the others put together, he yields to no philosopher, not even to Socrates. In him innocence is a quality that is his own, ruling, constant, uniform, incorruptible. Set beside his, Alexander’s looks subordinate, uncertain, motley, soft, and accidental.
L’ancienneté iugea, qu’à esplucher par le menu touts les autres grands capitaines, il se trouue en chascun quelque speciale qualité, qui le rend illustre. En cestuy-cy seul, c’est vne vertu et suffisance pleine par tout, et pareille: qui en touts les offices de la vie humaine ne laisse rien à desirer de soy: soit en occupation publique ou priuée, ou paisible, ou guerriere: soit à viure soit à mourir grandement et glorieusement. Ie ne cognoy nulle ny forme ny fortune d’homme, que ie regarde auec tant d’honneur et d’amour.
Antiquity judged that if you examine all the other great captains in detail, you find in each some special quality that makes him illustrious. In this one alone there is a virtue and ability that is full and even throughout. In all the offices of human life it leaves nothing to be desired: in public or private occupation, in peace or in war, in living or in dying grandly and gloriously. I know of no form or fortune of man that I regard with so much honor and love.
Il est bien vray, que son obstination à la pauureté, ie la trouue aucunement scrupuleuse: comme elle est peinte par ses meilleurs amis. Et cette seule action, haute pourtant et tres digne d’admiration, ie la sens vn peu aigrette, pour par souhait mesme en la forme qu’elle estoit en luy, m’en desirer l’imitation.
It is true that I find his obstinacy in poverty somewhat overscrupulous, as his best friends portray it. And this one action, lofty though it is and most worthy of admiration, I find a little too sharp for me to wish, even in wishing, to imitate it in the form it took in him.
Le seul Scipion Æmylian, qui luy donneroit vne fin aussi fiere et magnifique, et la cognoissance des sciences autant profonde et vniuerselle, se pourroit mettre à l’encontre à l’autre plat de la balance. O quel desplaisir le temps m’a faict, d’oster de nos yeux à poinct nommé, des premieres, la couple de vies iustement la plus noble, qui fust en Plutarque, de ces deux personnages: par le commun consentement du monde, l’vn le premier des Grecs, l’autre des Romains! Quelle matiere, quelle œuurier!
Only Scipio Aemilianus, if we granted him an end as proud and magnificent and a knowledge of the sciences as deep and universal, could be set against him in the other pan of the scale. Oh, what a vexation time has caused me by taking from our sight, as if on purpose and among the very first, precisely the pair of lives that was rightly the noblest in Plutarch: those of these two men, by the common consent of the world the one the first of the Greeks, the other of the Romans! What material, and what a craftsman!
Pour vn homme non saint, mais que nous disons, galant homme, de mœurs ciuiles et communes: d’vne hauteur moderée: la plus riche vie, que ie sçache, à estre vescue entre les viuants, comme on dit: et estoffée de plus de riches parties et desirables, c’est, tout consideré, celle d’Alcibiades à mon gré.
For a man who is no saint, but what we call a fine gentleman, of civil and ordinary ways and moderate elevation, the richest life I know of to be lived among the living, as they say, and the one furnished with the most rich and desirable qualities, is, all things considered, that of Alcibiades, in my opinion.
Mais quant à Epaminondas, pour exemple d’vne excessiue bonté, ie veux adiouster icy aucunes de ses opinions. Le plus doux contentement qu’il eut en toute sa vie, il tesmoigna que c’estoit le plaisir qu’il auoit donné à son pere, et à sa mere, de sa victoire de Leuctres: il couche de beaucoup, preferant leur plaisir, au sien si iuste et si plein d’vne tant glorieuse action. Il ne pensoit pas qu’il fust loisible pour recouurer mesmes la liberté de son pays, de tuer vn homme sans cognoissance de cause. Voyla pourquoy il fut si froid à l’entreprise de Pelopidas son compaignon, pour la deliurance de Thebes.
But as for Epaminondas, as an example of an excessive goodness, I want to add here some of his opinions. The sweetest satisfaction he had in all his life, he declared, was the pleasure he had given his father and mother by his victory at Leuctra. That is going very far, to prefer their pleasure to his own, so just and so full of so glorious an action. He did not think it permissible, even to recover his country’s liberty, to kill a man without knowing the case against him. That is why he was so cool toward the enterprise of his companion Pelopidas for the deliverance of Thebes.
Il tenoit aussi, qu’en vne bataille il falloit fuyr la rencontre d’vn amy, qui fust au party contraire, et l’espargner. Et son humanité à l’endroit des ennemis mesmes, l’ayant mis en soupçon enuers les Bœotiens, de ce qu’apres auoir miraculeusement forcé les Lacedemoniens de luy ouurir le pas, qu’ils auoyent entreprins de garder à l’entrée de la Morée pres de Corinthe, il s’estoit contenté de leur auoir passé sur le ventre, sans les poursuyure à toute outrance: il fut deposé de l’estat de Capitaine general.
He also held that in battle one should avoid meeting a friend who was on the opposing side, and spare him. And his humanity even toward his enemies made the Boeotians suspicious of him. After miraculously forcing the Spartans to open to him the pass they had undertaken to guard at the entrance to the Morea, near Corinth, he had been content to ride over them without pursuing them to the bitter end. For this he was deposed from his office of commander-in-chief.
Tres honorablement pour vne telle cause: et pour la honte que ce leur fut d’auoir par necessité à le remonter tantost apres en son degré, et recognoistre, combien dependoit de luy leur gloire et leur salut: la victoire le suyuant comme son ombre par tout où il guidast, la prosperité de son pays mourut aussi luy mort, comme elle estoit née par luy.
Very honorably for him, given such a cause; and to their shame, since necessity soon forced them to restore him to his rank and to acknowledge how much their glory and their safety depended on him. Victory followed him like his shadow wherever he led; and the prosperity of his country died when he died, as it had been born through him.