1.5
There is no comparing the south wall of the Acropolis, which was completed with the moneys brought home by Cimon, with the palaces and sea-washed Belvideres at Neapolis, which Lucullus built out of the spoils of the Barbarians. Nor can the table of Cimon be likened to that of Lucullus; the one was democratic and charitable, the other sumptuous and oriental.
1.6
The one, at slight outlay, gave daily sustenance to many; the other, at large cost, was prepared for a few luxurious livers. It may be said, indeed, that the difference in state was due to the difference in time. For it is at least possible that Cimon also, if he had retired after his active campaigns to an old age which knew neither war nor politics, might have led an even more ostentatious and pleasure-loving life. He was fond of wine and given to display, and his relations with women, as I have said before,See Cimon, iv. 8. were scandalous.
1.7
But success in strenuous achievement, affording as it does a higher pleasure, gives public-spirited and ambitious natures no time to indulge the baser appetites, which are forgotten. At any rate, if Lucullus also had ended his days in active military command, not even the most carping and censorious spirit, I think, could have brought accusation against him. Thus much concerning their manner of life.
2.1
In war, it is plain that both were good fighters, both on land and sea. But just as those athletes who win crowns in wrestling and the pancratium on a single day are called, by custom, Victors-extraordinary, so Cimon, who in a single day crowned Greece with the trophies of a land and sea victory, may justly have a certain pre-eminence among generals.
