BOOK VII. XXX. IIO-II2 



XXX. The tyrant Dionysius,<» who was in other mat- and in phHo- 

 ters by nature given to cruelty and pride, sent a ship l^r^Jt^y and 

 decked with garlands to meet Plato the high priest drama. 

 of wisdom, and as he disembarked received him at 

 the coast in person, in a chariot with four white 

 horses. Isocrates sold a single speech for 20 talents. 

 The eminent Athenian orator Aeschines, after read- 

 ing to the citizens of Rhodes the speech'' that he 

 had made in prosecuting, also read Demosthenes's 

 speech<^ in defence that had driven him into exile 

 at Rhodes, and on their expressing admiration said 

 that tliey would have admired it even more on 

 the actual occasion, if they had heard the orator 

 himself : thus his disaster coastituted him a powerful 

 witness for his enemy's case. Thucydides as mih- 

 tary commander was sentenced to exile by the 

 Athenians but as historian was recalled : ^ they 

 admired the eloquence of a man whose valour they 

 had condemned. High testimony was also born to 

 Menander's eminence in comedy by the kings of 

 Egypt and Macedon when they sent a fleet and an 

 embassy to fetch him, but higher testimony was 

 derived from himself by his preferment of the con- 

 sciousness of hterary merit to royal fortune. 



Roman leaders also have borne witness even to Roman 

 foreigners. At the conclusion of the war with ^^eek 

 Mithridates Gnaeus Pompey when going to enter ?«»»«*» 

 the abode of the famous professor of philosophy 

 Posidonius forbade his retainer to knock on the door 

 in the customary manner, and the subduer of the 

 East and of the West dipped his standard to the 

 portals of learning. Cato the censor, on the occa- 



Athens in 403, when there was a general amnesty after the 

 restoration of the democracy. 



579 



