COMPARISON OF ALCIBIADES AND CORIOLANUS
Having described all their actions that seem to deserve
commemoration, their military ones, we may say, incline the
balance very decidedly upon neither side. They both, in pretty
equal measure, displayed on numerous occasions the daring and
courage of the soldier, and the skill and foresight of the
general; unless, indeed, the fact that Alcibiades was victorious
and successful in many contests both by sea and land, ought to
gain him the title of a more complete commander. That so long as
they remained and held command in their respective countries, they
eminently sustained, and when they were driven into exile, yet
more eminently damaged the fortunes of those countries, is common
to both. All the sober citizens felt disgust at the petulance, the
low flattery, and base seductions which Alcibiades, in his public
life, allowed himself to employ with the view of winning the
people's favor; and the ungraciousness, pride, and oligarchical
haughtiness which Marcius, on the other hand, displayed in his,
were the abhorrence of the Roman populace.
Marcius, according to our common conceptions of his character, was
undoubtedly simple and straightforward; Alcibiades, unscrupulous
as a public man, and false.
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