29
In what circumstances, then, should a friend be severe, and when should he be emphatic in using frank speech? It is when occasions demand of him that he check the headlong course of pleasure or of anger or of arrogance, or that he abate avarice or curb inconsiderate heedlessness. Such was the frankness of Solon Herodotus, i. 30-32; Plutarch, Life of Solon, xx. 94 D. towards Croesus, who was spoiled and pampered by fickle fortune, when he bade him look to the end. In such manner Socrates Plato, Symposium, 215 E. tried to keep Alcibiades in check, and drew an honest tear from his eyes by exposing his faults, and so turned his heart. Of such sort was the conduct of Cyrus Xenophon, Cyropaedia, v. 5. 5 ff. towards Cyaxares, and of Plato toward Dion at the time when the latter was at the height of his splendour and was drawing the eyes of all mankind upon himself through the beauty and magnificence of his works, when Plato exhorted him to be on his guard against arbitrary self-will and to fear it, since it is companion to solitude. Plato, Letters, iv. 321 C. Again quoted by Plutarch, Life of Dion, chap. viii. (961 C); chap. liii. (981 B); and Life of Coriolanus, chap. xv. (220 D); cf. also 220 D. Speusippus also wrote to Dion Diogenes Laertius, iv. 5, also records that Speusipus wrote letters to Dion. not to feel proud if there was much talk of him among children and light-minded women, but to see to it that by adorning Sicily with holiness, justice, and the best of laws, he should bring name and fame to the Academy. Adapted from Euripides, Phoenissae, 1742. But, on the other hand, Euctus and Eulaeus, companions of Perseus, while his good fortune lasted always behaved so as to please him, and complied with his humour, and like all the rest they followed where he led; but when, after his disastrous encounter with the Romans Under Lucius Aemilius Paullus (168 B.C.). at Pydna, he took to flight, these men beset him with bitter reproaches, and continually reminded him of his errors and omissions, reviling him for everything he had done, until the man, smarting with grief and anger, stabbed them with his dagger and made an end of both of them.
