Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/347

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339

PHOCION. 339 claries, which he counselled them to decide by negotiation, they inclined to blows. " You had better," said he, " carry on the contest with the weapons in which you ex- cel, (your tongues,) and not by war, in which you are inferior." Once, when he was- addressing them, and they would not hear him or let him go on, said he, " You may compel me to act against my wishes, but you shall never force me to speak against my judgment." Among the many public speakers wdio opposed him, Demosthenes, for example, once told him, " The Athenians, Phocion, will kill you some day when they once are in a rage." " And you," said he, " if they once are in their senses." Polyeuctus, the Sphettian, once on a hot day was urging war with Philip, and being a corpulent man, and out of breath and in a great heat with speaking, took numerous draughts of water as he went on. " Here, indeed," said Phocion, " is a fit man to lead us into a war ! What think you he will do when he is carrying his corslet and his shield to meet the enemy, if even here, delivering a pre- pared . speech to you has almost killed him with exhaus- tion?" When Lycurgus in the assembly made many re- flections on his past conduct, upbraiding him above all for having advised them to deliver up the ten citizens whom Alexander had demanded, he replied that he had been the author of much safe and wholesome counsel, which had not been followed. There was a man called Archibiades, nicknamed the Lac- edaemonian, who used to go about with a huge overgrown beard, wearing an old threadbare cloak, and affecting a very stern countenance. Phocion once, when attacked in council by the rest, appealed to this man for his support and testimony. And when he got up and began to speak on the popular side, putting his hand to his beard, " Archibiades," said he, " it is time you should shave." Aristogiton, a common accuser, was a terrible man of