[1] Afterwards, we are told, when Chabrias sent him to get their contributions from the islanders and offered him twenty ships, Phocion said that if he was sent to wage war, he needed a larger force, but if to confer with allies, one ship was enough; and after sailing out with his own trireme and discussing matters with the cities and dealing with the magistrates considerately and in a straightforward manner, he returned with many ships, which the allies sent off with money for the Athenians.
[2] And not only while Chabrias was alive did Phocion continue to show him attention and honour, but also after his death he took good care of his relatives, and especially of his son Ctesippus, whom he wished to make a good man; and although he saw that the youth was capricious and intractable, he nevertheless persisted in correcting and covering up his disgraceful conduct. Once, however, we are told, when the young man was troublesome to him on an expedition, and plied him with unseasonable questions and advice, like one making corrections and sharing in the command, he cried:
O Chabrias, Chabrias, surely I make thee a large return for thy friendship in enduring thy son.
[3]
He saw that the public men of his day had distributed among themselves as if by lot the work of the general and the orator. Some of them merely spoke before the people and introduced measures,—men like Eubulus, Aristophon, Demosthenes, Lycurgus, and Hypereides; while such men as Diopeithes, Menestheus, Leosthenes, and Chabrias advanced themselves by holding the office of general and waging war. He therefore wished to resume and restore the public service rendered by Pericles, Aristides, and Solon, which was equally apportioned in both fields of action. For each of those men showed himself to be, in the words of Archilochus,
He also saw that the goddess Athena was a goddess of war as well as of statecraft, and was so addressed.
He saw that the public men of his day had distributed among themselves as if by lot the work of the general and the orator. Some of them merely spoke before the people and introduced measures,—men like Eubulus, Aristophon, Demosthenes, Lycurgus, and Hypereides; while such men as Diopeithes, Menestheus, Leosthenes, and Chabrias advanced themselves by holding the office of general and waging war. He therefore wished to resume and restore the public service rendered by Pericles, Aristides, and Solon, which was equally apportioned in both fields of action. For each of those men showed himself to be, in the words of Archilochus,
As well a squire of Enyalius god of war,
As versed in the lovely Muses’ gifts.
Phocion. Plutarch. Bernadotte Perrin (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1919.
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