But what are thought and
commonly said most to demonstrate and try the tempers of men,
namely, authority and place, by moving every passion, and
discovering every frailty, these are things which Demosthenes
never received; nor was he ever in a position to give such proof
of himself, having never obtained any eminent office, nor led any
of those armies into the field against Philip which he raised by
his eloquence. Cicero, on the other hand, was sent quaestor into
Sicily, and proconsul into Cilicia and Cappadocia, at a time when
avarice was at the height, and the commanders and governors who
were employed abroad, as though they thought it a mean thing to
steal, set themselves to seize by open force; so that it seemed no
heinous matter to take bribes, but he that did it most moderately
was in good esteem. And yet he, at this time, gave the most
abundant proofs alike of his contempt of riches and of his
humanity and good-nature. And at Rome, when he was created consul
in name, but indeed received sovereign and dictatorial authority
against Catiline and his conspirators, he attested the truth of
Plato's prediction, that then only would the miseries of states be
at an end, when by a happy fortune supreme power, wisdom, and
justice should be united in one.
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