The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [239]
15. Saying that gaining the consulship would be to him not so much glorious as painful and troublesome, if it were against Pompey’s will and without his co-operation;
16. And so after waiting only one year he both gained the office and retained the friendship.
17. Those who are thus led to renown by the hand of others gain favour with many,
18. And at the same time, if anything unpleasant happens, are less disliked;
19. And that is why Philip advised Alexander to gain friends as long as he could while another man was king,
20. By having pleasant relations with others and maintaining friendly ties with them.
21. But anyone who is entering upon a public career should choose as his leader a man who is not merely of established reputation and powerful,
22. But one who is all this on account of real worth. For just as not every tree will accept and support the vine which entwines about it, but some trees stifle and ruin its growth,
23. So in states, the men who are not lovers of what is noble, but merely lovers of honours and of office,
24. Do not give young men opportunities for public activities,
25. But through envy repress them and, to speak figuratively, wither them up by depriving them of glory, their natural nourishment.
26. So Marius, after having achieved many successes in Libya and Gaul with the help of Sulla, ceased to employ him and cast him off, being angered by his growth in power.
27. Sulla, however, exalted Pompey from the time of his youth, rising up and uncovering his head when he came near;
28. And also by giving the other young men opportunities for leadership,
29. And by urging some on even against their will, he filled his armies with ambition and eagerness;
30. And he gained power over them all by wishing to be, not the only great man, but first and greatest among many great men.
31. Such, then, are the men to whom young statesmen should attach themselves and cling closely,
32. Not snatching glory away from them, like Aesop’s wren who was carried up on the eagle’s shoulders, then suddenly flew out and got ahead of him,
33. But receiving it from them in goodwill and friendship, knowing that no one can ever command well who has not first learned rightly to obey, as Plato says.
Chapter 21
1. Next comes the decision to be made concerning friends, and here we approve neither the idea of Cleon nor of Themistocles.
2. For Cleon, when he first decided to take up political life, brought his friends together and renounced his friendship with them,
3. As something which often weakens and perverts the right and just choice of policy in political life.
4. But he would have done better if he had cast out of his character avarice and love of strife, and cleansed himself of envy and malice;
5. For the state needs, not men who have no friends or comrades, but good and self-controlled men.
6. As it was, he drove away his friends, but a hundred cursed flatterers circled and fawned around him instead,
7. And he subjected himself to the masses to win their favour, making the basest and most unsound element of the people his associates against the best.
8. But Themistocles on the other hand, when someone said that he would govern well if he showed himself equally impartial to all, replied,
9. ‘May I never take my seat on such a throne that my friends shall not have more from me than those who are not my friends!’
10. He also was wrong; for he subordinated the government to his friendship, putting the affairs of the community and the public below private favours and interests.
11. And yet when Simonides asked for something that was not just, he said to him:
12. ‘He is not a good poet who sings contrary to metre, nor is he an equitable ruler who grants favours contrary to law.’
13. For the architect chooses subordinates and handicraftsmen who will not spoil his work but will co-operate to perfect it.
14. The statesman who is, as Pindar says, the best of craftsmen and the maker of lawfulness