But the very exile of
Demosthenes made up a great part of the services he did for his
country; for he went through the cities of Greece, and everywhere,
as we have said, joined in the conflict on behalf of the Greeks,
driving out the Macedonian ambassadors, and approving himself a
much better citizen than Themistocles and Alcibiades did in a
similar fortune. And, after his return, he again devoted himself
to the same public service, and continued firm in his opposition
to Antipater and the Macedonians. Whereas Laelius reproached
Cicero in the senate for sitting silent when Caesar, a beardless
youth, asked leave to come forward, contrary to the law, as a
candidate for the consulship; and Brutus, in his epistles, charges
him with nursing and rearing a greater and more heavy tyranny than
that they had removed.
Finally, Cicero's death excites our pity; for an old man to be
miserably carried up and down by his servants, flying and hiding
himself from that death which was, in the course of nature, so
near at hand; and yet at last to be murdered. Demosthenes, though
he seemed to supplicate a little at first, yet, by his preparing
and keeping the poison by him, demands our admiration; and still
more admirable was his using it.
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