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The Brothers from the Life of Timoleon
Timoleon had an older brother, whose name was Timophanes, who was
every way unlike him, being indiscreet and rash and infected by
the suggestions of some friends and foreign soldiers, whom he kept
always about him, with a passion for absolute power. He seemed to
have a certain force and vehemence in all military service, and
even to delight in dangers, and thus he took much with the people,
and was advanced to the highest charges as a vigorous and
effective warrior; in the obtaining of which offices and
promotions Timoleon much assisted him, helping to conceal or at
least to extenuate his errors, embellishing by his praise whatever
was commendable in him, and setting off his good qualities to the
best advantage.
It happened once in the battle fought by the Corinthians against
the forces of Argos and Cleonae, that Timoleon served among the
infantry, when Timophanes, commanding their cavalry, was brought
into extreme danger; for his horse being wounded fell forward, and
threw him headlong amidst the enemies, while part of his
companions dispersed at once in a panic, and the small number that
remained, bearing up against a great multitude, had much ado to
maintain any resistance. As soon, therefore, as Timoleon was aware
of the accident, he ran hastily to his brother's rescue, and
covering the fallen Timophanes with his buckler, after having
received an abundance of darts and several strokes by the sword
upon his body and his armor, he at length with much difficulty
obliged the enemies to retire, and brought off his brother alive
and safe. But when the Corinthians, for fear of losing their city
a second time, as they had once before, by admitting their allies,
made a decree to maintain four hundred mercenaries for its
security, and gave Timophanes the command over them, he,
abandoning all regard for honor and equity, at once proceeded to
put into execution his plans for making himself absolute, and
bringing the place under his own power; and having cut off many
principal citizens, uncondemned and without trial, who were most
likely to hinder his design, he declared himself tyrant of
Corinth; a procedure that infinitely afflicted Timoleon, to whom
the wickedness of such a brother appeared to be his own reproach
and calamity. He undertook to persuade him by reasoning to desist
from that wild and unhappy ambition, and bethink himself how he
could make the Corinthians some amends, and find out an expedient
to remedy the evils he had done them. When his single admonition
was rejected and contemned by him, he made a second attempt,
taking with him Aeschylus his kinsman, brother to the wife of
Timophanes, and a certain diviner, that was his friend, whom
Theopompus in his history calls Satyrus. This company coming to
his brother, all three of them surrounded and earnestly importuned
him upon the same subject, that now at length he would listen to
reason and be of another mind. But when Timophanes began first to
laugh at the men's simplicity, and presently broke out into rage
and indignation against them, Timoleon stepped aside from him and
stood weeping with his face covered, while the other two, drawing
out their swords, despatched him in a moment.
When the rumor of this act was spread about, the better and more
generous of the Corinthians highly applauded Timoleon for the
hatred of wrong and the greatness of soul that had made him,
though of a gentle disposition and full of love and kindness for
his family, think the obligations to his country stronger than the
ties of consanguinity, and prefer that which is good and just
before gain and interest and his own particular advantage. For the
same brother, who with so much bravery had been saved by him when
he fought valiantly in the cause of Corinth, he had now as nobly
sacrificed for enslaving her afterward by a base and treacherous
usurpation. But when he came to understand how heavily his mother
took it, and that she likewise uttered the saddest complaints and
most terrible imprecations against him, he went to satisfy and
comfort her, but he found that she would not endure so much as to
look upon him, but caused her doors to be shut that he might have
no admission into her presence, and with grief at this he grew so
disordered in mind and disconsolate, that he determined to put an
end to his perplexity with his life, by abstaining from all manner
of sustenance. But through the care and diligence of his friends,
who were very persistent with him, and added force to their
entreaties, he promised at last that he would endure living,
provided it might be in solitude, and remote from company; so
that, quitting all civil transactions and commerce with the world,
for a long while after his first retirement he never came into
Corinth, but wandered up and down the fields, full of anxious and
tormenting thoughts, and for almost twenty years did not offer to
concern himself in any honorable or public action.
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