Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/167

FEELING TOWARDS TIMOLEON. 141 fus could not make the attempt without the greatest hazard to themselves. Nothing was more likely than that the death of Timophanes would be avenged on the spot ; nor are we told how they escaped such vengeance from the soldiers at hand. It has been already stated that the contemporary sentiment towards Ti- moleon was divided between admiration of the heroic patriot, and abhorrence of the fratricide ; yet with a large preponderance on the side of admiration, especially in the highest and best minds. In modern times the preronderance would be in the opposite scale. The sentiment of duty towards family covers a larger proportion of the field of morality, as compared with obligations towards country, than it did in ancient times ; while that intense antipathy against a despot who overtops and overrides the laws, regarding him as the worst of criminals which stood in the foreground of the ancient virtuous feeling has now disappeared. Usurpation of the supreme authority is regarded generally among the European public as a crime, only where it displaces an estab- lished king already in possession ; where there is no king, the suc- cessful usurper finds sympathy rather than censure : and few rea- ders would have been displeased with Timoleon, had he even sec- onded his brother's attempt. But in the view of Timoleon and of his age generally, even neutrality appeared in the light of treason to his country, when no other man but him could rescue her from the despot. This sentiment is strikingly embodied in the comments of Plutarch ; who admires the fraternal tyranni- cide, as an act of sublime patriotism, and only complains that the internal emotions of Timoleon were not on a level with the subli- mity of the act ; that the great mental suffering which he endur- ed afterwards, argued an unworthy weakness of character ; that the conviction of imperative patriotic duty, having been once de- liberately adopted, ought to have steeled him against scruples, and preserved him from that after-shame and repentance which spoiled half the glory of an heroic act. The antithesis, between Plu- tarch and the modern European point of view, is here pointed ; though I think his criticism unwarranted* There is no reason to presume that Timoleon ever felt ashamed and repentant for hav- ing killed his brother. Placed in the mournful condition of a man agitated, by conflicting sentiments, and obeying that which he deemed to carry the most sacred obligation, he of necessity suf-