that many citizens confided to his custody large sums. After the battle of Chæronea (B.C. 388) Lycurgus conducted the accusation against the Athenian general Lysicles. He was one of the orators demanded by Alexander after the destruction of Thebes (B.C. 335). He died about B.C. 323 and his body was burned in the Academia. Fifteen years after his death, upon the ascendancy of the democratic faction, a decree was passed by the Athenian people that public honors should be paid to Lycurgus. A brazen statue of him was erected in the Ceramicus, and the representative of his family was allowed the privilege of dining in the Prytaneum.

Lycurgus is said to have published fifteen orations, of which only one has been preserved,-an accusation against Leocrates as an Athenian citizen, for abandoning Athens after the battle of Charonea, and settling in another Grecian State.

DINARCHUS (born B.C. 361) was a Corinthian by birth who settled at Athens and adopted the occupation of writing speeches for others. He flourished after the passing of Demosthenes and other great orators of his age, and so won his oratorical laurels with ease. He supported the aristocratic party, and upon the ascendancy of the democratic was involved in a charge of conspiracy against the administration, whereupon he withdrew to Chalcis in Euboea. After an absence of fifteen years he was allowed to return to Athens. On his arrival he lodged with Proxenus, an old acquaintance, who robbed the old man of his money. Dinarchus brought an action against him, and for the first time in his life, made his appearance in a court of justice. Of the numerous orations of Dinarchus only three remain (one against Demosthenes, touching the affairs of Harpalus), and these are not entitled to any very high praise. He does not deserve his place among the Ten Attic Orators; this should be given to Pericles.

PLUTARCH

THE LIVES OF

DEMOSTHENES

AND

CICERO

WITH A

COMPARISON OF THE TWO ORATORS

TRANSLATED BY

SIR THOMAS NORTH

FROM THE FRENCH TRANSLATION OF JACQUES AMYOT

WITH AN INTRODUCTORY

LIFE OF PLUTARCH

BY AMYOT

PLUTARCH'S LIVES

TO THE READERS

BY JACQUES AMYOT1

SURELY among all those that ever have taken upon them to write the lives of famous men, the chief prerogative, by the judgment of such as are clearest sighted, is justly given to the Greek philosopher, Plutarch, borne in the city of Charonea in the country of Boeotia, a noble man, perfect in all rare knowledge, as his works may well put men out of doubt, if they list to read them through: who all his life long, even to his old age, had to deal in affairs of the common weal, as he himself witnesseth in divers places, specially in the treatise which he entitled, Whether an old man ought to meddle with the government of a common-weal or not: and who had the hap and honour to be schoolmaister to the Emperor Trajan, as is commonly believed, and as is expressly pretended by a certain epistle set before the Latin translation of his matters of state, which (to say the truth) seemeth in my judgment to be somewhat suspicious, because I find it not among his works in Greek, besides that it speaketh as though the book were dedicated to Trajan, which thing is manifestly disproved by the beginning of the book, and by divers other reasons. Yet notwithstanding, because methinks it is sagely and gravely written, and well beseeming him, I have set it down here in this place. Plutarch unto Trajan sendeth greeting. I know well that the modesty of your nature was not desirous of sovereignty, though you have always endeavoured to deserve

1 Jacques Amyot was born at Melun, France, in 1513, and died at Auxerre, 1593. He was tutor of Charles IX and Henry of Anjou, and attained high honors, becoming Grand Almoner Bishop of Auxerre, and Commander of the Order of the Holy Ghost. He translated the classic Greek novels Theagenes and Chariclea (1547), and Daphnis and Chloe (1559), the works of Diodorus Siculus (1554), Plutarch's Lives (1559), and Plutarch's Morals (1572).

it by your honourable conversation: by reason whereor you have been found the further off from all ambition. And therefore I do now rejoice in your vertue and my fortune, if it be so great as to cause you to administer that thing with justice, which you have obtained by desert. For otherwise, I am sure you have put your self in hazard of great dangers, and me in peril of slanderous tongues, because Rome cannot away with a wicked emperor, and the common voice of the people is always to cast the faults of the scholars in the teeth of their schoolmaisters: as for example: Seneca is railed upon by slanderous tongues, for the faults of his scholar, Nero: the scapes of Quintilian's young scholars are imputed to Quintilian himself: and Socrates is blamed for being too mild to his hearers. But as for you, there is hope you shall do all things well enough, so you keep you as you are. If you first set your self in order, and then dispose all other things according to vertue, all things shall fall out according to your desire. I have set you down the means in writing, which you must observe for the well governing of your common weal, and have showed you of how great force your behaviour may be in that behalf. If you think good to follow those things, you have Plutarch for the director and guider of your life: if not, I protest unto you by this epistle, that your falling into danger to the overthrow of the empire, is not by the doctrine of Plutarch.' This epistle witnesseth plainly that he was the schoolmaister of Trajan, which thing seemeth to be avowed by this writing of Suidas; Plutarch being born in the city of Chæronea in Boeotia, was in the time of the Emperor Trajan, and somewhat afore. But Trajan honoured him with the dignity of Consulship, and commanded the officers and magistrates that were throughout all the country of Illyria, that they should not do any thing without his counsel and authority. So doth Suidas write of him. And I am of opinion, that Trajan being so wise an emperor, would never have done him so great honour, if he had not thought himself greatly beholding to him for some special cause. But the thing that maketh me most to believe it true, is, that the same goodness and justice appeared to be naturally imprinted in most of Trajan's sayings and doings, whereof the pattern