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Now the statesman is always by nature ruler of the State, like the leaderThe Greeks did not know that the most important bee in the hive was female - the queen bee. bee in the hive, and bearing this in mind he ought to keep public matters in his own hands; but offices which are called authorities and are elective he ought not to seek too eagerly or often, for love of office is neither dignified nor popular; nor should he refuse them, if the people offer them and call him to them in accordance with the law, but even if they be too small for a man of his reputation, he should accept them and exercise them with zeal; for it is right that men who are adorned with the highest offices should in turn adorn the lesser, and that statesmen should show moderation, giving up and yielding some part of the weightier offices, such as the generalship at Athens, the prytany at Rhodes, and the Boeotarchy here, and should add to the minor offices dignity and grandeur, that we may not be despised in connexion with the latter, nor envied on account of the former. And when entering upon any office whatsoever, you must not only call to mind those considerations of which Pericles reminded himself when he assumed the cloak of a general: Take care, Pericles; you are ruling free men, you are ruling Greeks, Athenian citizens, but you must also say to yourself: You who rule are a subject, ruling a State controlled by proconsuls, the agents of Caesar; these are not the spearmen of the plain,Sophocles, Trachiniae, 1058. nor is this ancient Sardis, nor the famed Lydian power. You should arrange your cloak more carefully and from the office of the generals keep your eyes upon the orators’ platform, and not have great pride or confidence in your crown, since you see the boots of Roman soldiers just above your head. No, you should imitate the actors, who, while putting into the performance their own passion, character, and reputation, yet listen to the prompter and do not go beyond the degree of liberty in rhythms and metres permitted by those in authority over them.In Greece of Plutarch’s time those in authority in political matters were the Romans. For to fail in one’s part in public life brings not mere hissing or catcalls or stamping of feet, but many have experienced The dread chastiser, axe that cleaves the neck,Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 918, no. 412; from an unknown play. as did your countryman Pardalas and his followers when they forgot their proper limitations. And many another, banished to an island, has become, as Solon says,Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. ii. p. 34. Pholegandrian or Sicinete, No more Athenian, having changed his home.
