ἱστορίαι Historiai
Plut. Comparison of Timoleon and Aemilius 1 Comparison of Timoleon and Aemilius, Plutarch; served verbatim
SUCH being the history of these men, it is clear that our comparison of them will have few points of difference or dissimilarity to show. For the wars which both conducted were against notable antagonists; in the one case against the Macedonians, in the other against the Carthaginians. Their victories, too, were far-famed: the one took Macedonia and brought the royal line of Antigonus to an end in its seventh king; the other abolished all the tyrannies in Sicily and set the island free. One might, indeed, argue otherwise, and say that Perseus was strong and victorious over the Romans when Aemilius engaged him, while Dionysius, when Timoleon engaged him, was altogether crushed and desperate. And, again, it might be said in favour of Timoleon that he conquered many tyrants and the force of the Carthaginians, large as it was, with what soldiers he could get, not having at his service, as Aemilius had, men who were experienced in war and taught to obey orders, but men who were hirelings and disorderly soldiers, accustomed to consult their own pleasure in their campaigns. For when equal successes follow an unequal equipment, the greater credit accrues to the commander.

The Greek stands ready in the workroom; the English is served. Both faces will read together.

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Filed here — the addresses this episode attests; counted by the house’s first pass
taking of Sicily — a candidate entry Perseus — a candidate entry Timoleon — a life

Comparison of Timoleon and Aemilius, Plutarch — translated by Bernadotte Perrin, 1914–1926
Perseus Digital Library — Plutarch, Parallel Lives (Perrin translation) · Bernadotte Perrin, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press / William Heinemann, 1914–1926
license: public-domain (US: pre-1930 publication); Perseus digital edition CC BY-SA 4.0, attribution recorded in ops/corpus-staging/SOURCES.md