Plutarch, Timoleon, Bernadotte Perrin (Translator), 0

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[1] I began the writing of my Lives for the sake of others, but I find that I am continuing the work and delighting in it now for my own sake also, using history as a mirror and endeavouring in a manner to fashion and adorn my life in conformity with the virtues therein depicted.

[2] For the result is like nothing else than daily living and associating together, when I receive and welcome each subject of my history in turn as my guest, so to speak, and observe carefully

how large he was and of what mien,

¹ and select from his career what is most important and most beautiful to know.

[3]

And oh! what greater joy than this canst thou obtain,

² and more efficacious for moral improvement?

[4] Democritus says we ought to pray that we may be visited by phantoms which are propitious, and that from out the circumambient air such only may encounter us as are agreeable to our natures and good, rather than those which are perverse and bad, thereby intruding into philosophy a doctrine which is not true, and which leads astray into boundless superstitions.

[5] But in my own case, the study of history and the familiarity with it which my writing produces, enables me, since I always cherish in my soul the records of the noblest and most estimable characters, to repel and put far from me whatever base, malicious, or ignoble suggestion my enforced associations may intrude upon me, calmly and dispassionately turning my thoughts away from them to the fairest of my examples.

[6] Among these were Timoleon the Corinthian and Aemilius Paulus, whose Lives I have now undertaken to lay before my readers;

[7] the men were alike not only in the good principles which they adopted, but also in the good fortune which they enjoyed in their conduct of affairs,

[8] and they will make it hard for my readers to decide whether the greatest of their successful achievements were due to their good fortune or their wisdom.³

Timoleon. Plutarch. Bernadotte Perrin (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1918.

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Current edition Perseus

Timoleon (English) (Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. VI. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1918.)

Editions (1)

Τιμολέων Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. VI. Perrin, Bernadotte, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1918.) — 0 focus

[1] ἐμοὶ¹ τῆς τῶν βίων ἅψασθαι μὲν γραφῆς συνέβη διʼ ἑτέρους, ἐπιμένειν δὲ καὶ φιλοχωρεῖν ἤδη καὶ διʼ ἐμαυτόν, ὥσπερ ἐν ἐσόπτρῳ τῇ ἱστορίᾳ πειρώμενον ἁμῶς γέ πως κοσμεῖν καὶ ἀφομοιοῦν πρὸς τὰς ἐκείνων ἀρετὰς τὸν βίον.

[2] οὐδὲν γὰρ ἀλλʼ ἢ συνδιαιτήσει καὶ συμβιώσει τὸ γινόμενον ἔοικεν, ὅταν ὥσπερ ἐπιξενούμενον ἕκαστον αὐτῶν ἐν μέρει διὰ τῆς ἱστορίας ὑποδεχόμενοι καὶ παραλαμβάνοντες ἀναθεωρῶμεν ὅσσος ἔην οἷός τε, τὰ κυριώτατα καὶ κάλλιστα πρὸς γνῶσιν ἀπὸ τῶν πράξεων λαμβάνοντες.

[3]

φεῦ, φεῦ· τί τούτου χάρμα μεῖζον ἂν λάβοις,

καὶ² πρὸς ἐπανόρθωσιν ἠθῶν ἐνεργότερον;

[4] Δημόκριτος μὲν γὰρ εὔχεσθαί φησι δεῖν ὅπως εὐλόγχων εἰδώλων τυγχάνωμεν καὶ τὰ σύμφυλα καὶ τὰ χρηστὰ μᾶλλον ἡμῖν ἐκ τοῦ περιέχοντος ἢ τὰ φαῦλα καὶ τὰ σκαιὰ συμφέρηται, λόγον οὔτʼ ἀληθῆ καὶ πρὸς ἀπεράντους ἐκφέροντα δεισιδαιμονίας εἰς φιλοσοφίαν καταβάλλων·

[5] ἡμεῖς δὲ τῇ περὶ τὴν ἱστορίαν διατριβῇ καὶ τῆς γραφῆς τῇ συνηθείᾳ παρασκευάζομεν ἑαυτούς, τὰς τῶν ἀρίστων καὶ δοκιμωτάτων μνήμας ὑποδεχομένους ἀεὶ ταῖς ψυχαῖς, εἴ τι φαῦλον ἢ κακόηθες ἢ ἀγεννὲς αἱ τῶν συνόντων ἐξ ἀνάγκης ὁμιλίαι προσβάλλουσιν, ἐκκρούειν καὶ διωθεῖσθαι, πρὸς τὰ κάλλιστα τῶν παραδειγμάτων ἵλεω καὶ πρᾳεῖαν ἀποστρέφοντες τὴν διάνοιαν.

[6] ὧν ἐν τῷ παρόντι προκεχειρίσμεθά σοι τὸν Τιμολέοντος τοῦ Κορινθίου καὶ τὸν Αἰμιλίου Παύλου βίον,

[7] ἀνδρῶν οὐ μόνον ταῖς αἱρέσεσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ταῖς τύχαις ἀγαθαῖς ὁμοίως κεχρημένων ἐπὶ τὰ πράγματα,

[8] καὶ διαμφισβήτησιν παρεξόντων πότερον εὐποτμίᾳ, μᾶλλον ἢ φρονήσει τὰ μέγιστα τῶν πεπραγμένων κατώρθωσαν.

Notes on the current edition

Timoleon

1. As Priam admired Achilles, Iliad, xxiv. 630 .

2. An iambic trimeter from the Tympanistae of Sophocles (Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag.2, p. 270).

3. In the MSS. this Introduction stands as the first chapter of the Aemilius Paulus.

Plutarch Timoleon 0

Bernadotte Perrin (Translator)

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