Greece -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Rome -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
VI. He was a man of wonderful temperance, in all other respects also.
For example, when he was general, he only drew from the public stock
three Attic bushels of wheat a month for himself and his servants, and
less than three half-bushels of barley a day for his horses. When he
was Governor of Sardinia, where former governors had been in the habit
of charging their tents, bedding, and wearing-apparel to the province,
and likewise making it pay large sums for their entertainment and that
of their friends, he introduced an unheard-of system of economy. He
charged nothing to the province, and visited the various cities
without a carriage, walking on foot alone, attended by one single
public servant carrying his robe of state and the vessel to make
libations at a sacrifice. With all this he showed himself so affable
and simple to those under his rule, so severe and inexorable in the
administration of justice, and so vigilant and careful in seeing that
his orders were duly executed, that the government of Rome never was
more feared or more loved in Sardinia than when he governed that
island.
VII. His conversation seems also to have had this character, for he
was cheerful and harsh all at once, pleasant and yet severe as a
companion, fond of jokes, but morose at the same time, just as Plato
tells us that Sokrates, if judged merely from his outside, appeared to
be only a silly man with a face like a satyr, who was rude to all he
met, though his inner nature was earnest and full of thoughts that
moved his hearers to tears and touched their hearts. For this reason I
cannot understand how any persons can see a likeness between the
orations of Lysias and those of Cato; however, this point must be
decided by those who are more skilled than myself in the comparison of
oratorical styles. I shall now relate a few of his more remarkable
sayings, believing that a man's real character can be better judged of
by his words than by his looks, although some people hold the contrary
opinion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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