He also was suspected of receiving bribes from the King of Persia, and was caught in the act of taking a bribe from Harpalus. Even if we suppose these charges, supported as they are by the testimony of so many writers, to be false, yet it is impossible to deny that Demosthenes, who trafficked in that peculiarly discreditable form of usury, marine insurances,[293] would not have been able to refuse a present offered in all honour by a king, while we have already related how Cicero refused to take money from the Sicilians when he was quæstor,[294] and from the Cappadocians when he was proconsul, and even from his friends, who pressed him to accept large sums when he was exiled from Rome. IV. Moreover, Demosthenes was exiled in great disgrace, after he had been convicted of having received a bribe, while Cicero's banishment was the consequence of the noblest action of his life, the ridding his country of wicked men. Wherefore, no one could plead for Demosthenes when he left the country, but the Senate publicly put on mourning for Cicero, grieved for his absence, and refused to transact any business before voting that he should be restored to Rome. Yet Cicero spent his exile idly in Macedonia, while Demosthenes carried out an important part of his policy while in exile; for, as has been related, he accompanied the Athenian embassy to the various states of Greece, discomfited the Macedonian ambassadors, and proved himself a far better citizen than Themistokles or Alkibiades under similar circumstances: moreover, after his restoration to Athens, he continued to pursue the same policy of unceasing opposition to Antipater and the Macedonians, while Lælius reproached Cicero for sitting silent in the senate-house when young Octavius Cæsar, before his beard was grown, petitioned to be allowed to sue for the consulship in spite of the law. Brutus also blamed him for having fostered a greater and harsher tyranny than that which he put down. V. In conclusion, we must regard the death of Cicero as most pitiable, that an old man, through cowardice, should be carried hither and thither by his slaves, seeking to escape death, and hiding himself from his foes, although he could in any case have but a short time to live, and then be murdered after all; while Demosthenes, though he did beg somewhat for his life, must be admired for his forethought in providing himself with the poison, and also for the use which he made of it, to escape from the cruelty of Antipater even when surrounded by his soldiers, and to betake himself to a greater sanctuary, as that of the god was unable to protect him. LIFE OF DEMETRIUS.