[109]
Then there are others, quite different from these,
straightforward and open, who think that nothing
should be done by underhand means or treachery.
They are lovers of truth, haters of fraud. There are
others still who will stoop to anything, truckle to anybody, if only they may gain their ends. Such, we
saw, were Sulla and Marcus Crassus. The most crafty
and most persevering man of this type was Lysander
of Sparta, we are told; of the opposite type was
Callicratidas, who succeeded Lysander as admiral of
the fleet. So we find that another, no matter how
[p. 113]
eminent he may be, will condescend in social intercourse to make himself appear but a very ordinary
person. Such graciousness of manner we have seen
in the case of Catulus—both father and son—and also
of Quintus Mucius Mancia. I have heard from my
elders that Publius Scipio Nasica was another master
of this art; but his father, on the other hand—the
man who punished Tiberius Gracchus for his nefarious undertakings—had no such gracious manner in
social intercourse [ . . . ], and because of that very
fact he rose to greatness and fame.
Countless other dissimilarities exist in natures and
characters, and they are not in the least to be
criticized.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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