Nepos: LIBER DE EXCELLENTIBUS DVCIBUS EXTERARVM GENTIVM

[1] TIMOTHEUS, Cononis filius, Atheniensis. Hic a patre acceptam gloriam multis auxit virtutibus. Fuit enim disertus, impiger, laboriosus, rei militaris peritus neque minus civitatis regendae.

[1] TIMOTHEUS, the son of Conon, an Athenian. He augmented the glory received from his father with many virtues. For he was eloquent, energetic, industrious, an expert in military affairs, and no less in the governance of the state.

2 Multa huius sunt praeclare facta, sed haec maxime illustria. Olynthios et Byzantios bello subegit. Samum cepit; in quo oppugnando superiori bello Athenienses mille et CC talenta consumpserant, id ille sine ulla publica impensa populo restituit; adversus Cotum bella gessit ab eoque mille et CC talenta praedae in publicum rettulit.

2 Many of his deeds are distinguished, but these are most illustrious. He subdued the Olynthians and the Byzantines in war. He took Samos; in besieging which, in the previous war, the Athenians had expended 1,200 talents—this he restored to the people without any public expense; he waged wars against Cotys, and from him he brought back into the public treasury 1,200 talents of booty.

Cyzicum obsidione liberavit.

He freed Cyzicus from siege.

3 Ariobarzani simul cum Agesilao auxilio profectus est; a quo cum Laco pecuniam numeratam accepisset, ille civis suos agro atque urbibus augeri maluit quam id sumere, cuius partem domum suam ferre posset.

3 He set out to aid Ariobarzanes together with Agesilaus; and when the Spartan had received counted cash from him, he preferred that his fellow citizens be augmented with land and cities rather than to take that which he could carry a portion of to his own house.

[2] Itaque accepit Crithoten et Sestum. Idem classi praefectus, circumvehens Peloponnesum Laconicen populatus, classem eorum fugavit, Corcyram sub imperium Atheniensium redegit, sociosque idem adiunxit Epirotas, Athamanas, Chaonas omnesque eas gentes, quae mare illud adiacent.

[2] And so he took Crithote and Sestus. The same man, as prefect of the fleet, sailing around the Peloponnese and having laid waste to Laconia, put their fleet to flight, brought Corcyra back under the dominion of the Athenians, and likewise joined as allies the Epirotes, Athamanians, Chaonians, and all those peoples who border on that sea.

2 Quo facto Lacedaemonii de diutina contentione destiterunt et sua sponte Atheniensibus imperii maritimi principatum concesserunt pacemque his legibus constituerunt, ut Athenienses mari duces essent. Quae victoria tantae fuit Atticis laetitiae, ut tum primum arae Paci publice sint factae eique deae pulvinar sit institutum.

2 This having been done, the Lacedaemonians ceased from the long-standing contention and of their own accord conceded to the Athenians the primacy of the maritime imperium, and they established peace on these terms: that the Athenians should be leaders at sea. This victory was of such great joy to the Athenians that then for the first time altars to Peace were made publicly, and for that goddess a pulvinar was instituted.

3 Cuius laudis ut memoria maneret, Timotheo publice statuam in foro posuerunt. Qui honos huic uni ante id tempus contigit, ut, cum patri populus statuam posuisset, filio quoque daret. Sic iuxta posita regens filii veterem patris renovavit memoriam.

3 So that the memory of this praise might remain, they publicly set up a statue for Timotheus in the forum. This honor befell this one man alone before that time, that, when the people had set up a statue for the father, it also gave one to the son. Thus, placed side by side, the son’s, set next to it, renewed the father’s ancient memory.

[3] Hic cum esset magno natu et magistratus gerere desisset, bello Athenienses undique premi sunt coepti. Defecerat Samus, descierat Hellespontus, Philippus iam tum valens, Macedo, multa moliebatur; cui oppositus Chares cum esset, non satis in eo praesidii putabatur.

[3] He, when he was of great age and had ceased to bear magistracies, the Athenians began to be pressed on all sides by war. Samos had defected, the Hellespont had seceded; Philip, already then powerful, the Macedonian, was contriving many things; and although Chares had been set against him, he was not thought to afford sufficient protection.

2 Fit Menestheus praetor, filius Iphicratis, gener Timothei, et ut ad bellum proficiscatur, decernitur. Huic in consilium dantur viri duo usu sapientiaque praestantes, [quorum consilio uteretur] pater et socer, quod in his tanta erat auctoritas, ut magna spes esset per eos amissa posse recuperari.

2 Menestheus, the son of Iphicrates and the son-in-law of Timotheus, is made praetor, and it is decreed that he set out to war. To him there are given for counsel two men outstanding in experience and wisdom, [on whose counsel he should rely], his father and his father-in-law; for in these men there was such authority that there was great hope that what had been lost could be recovered through them.

3 Hi cum Samum profecti essent et eodem Chares illorum adventu cognito cum suis copiis proficisceretur, ne quid absente se gestum videretur, accidit, cum ad insulam appropinquarent, ut magna tempestas oriretur; quam evitare duo veteres imperatores utile arbitrati suam classem suppresserunt.

3 These men, when they had set out to Samos, and Chares likewise, their arrival having been learned, was setting out with his own forces, lest anything should seem to have been transacted in his absence, it happened that, as they were approaching the island, a great tempest arose; which to avoid, the two veteran commanders, judging it expedient, held back their fleet.

4 At ille temeraria usus ratione non cessit maiorum natu auctoritati, velut in sua manu esset fortuna. Quo contenderat, pervenit, eodemque ut sequerentur, ad Timotheum et Iphicratem nuntium misit. Hinc male re gesta, compluribus amissis navibus eo, unde erat profectus, se recipit litterasque Athenas publice misit, sibi proclive fuisse Samum capere, nisi a Timotheo et Iphicrate desertus esset.

4 But he, employing a temerarious plan, did not yield to the authority of his elders, as though fortune were in his own hand. He reached the place to which he had been striving, and sent a messenger to Timotheus and Iphicrates that they should follow to the same place. From there, the matter going ill, with several ships lost, he withdrew back to the place whence he had set out, and sent letters to Athens publicly, asserting that it had been easy for him to take Samos, had he not been deserted by Timotheus and Iphicrates.

5 Populus ater, suspicax ob eamque rem mobilis, adversarius, invidus - etiam potentiae in crimen vocabantur - domum revocat: accusantur proditionis. Hoc iudicio damnatur Timotheus, lisque eius aestimatur centum talentis. Ille odio ingratae civitatis coactus Chalcidem se contulit.

5 The people, dark, suspicious and on that account fickle, hostile, envious— even their very power was being called a crime— recalls them home: they are accused of treason. In this judgment Timotheus is condemned, and his suit is assessed at one hundred talents. He, compelled by hatred of an ungrateful state, withdrew to Chalcis.

[4] Huius post mortem cum populum iudicii sui paeniteret, multae novem partis detraxit et decem talenta Cononem, filium eius, ad muri quandam partem reficiendam iussit dare. In quo fortunae varietas est animadversa. Nam quos avus Conon muros ex hostium praeda patriae restituerat, eosdem nepos cum summa ignominia familiae ex sua re familiari reficere coactus est.

[4] After his death, when the people repented of their own judgment, they took off nine parts of the fine and ordered Conon, his son, to give ten talents for repairing a certain part of the wall. In this the vicissitude of Fortune was observed. For the walls which Conon the grandfather had restored to the fatherland out of the booty of enemies, the grandson was compelled, with the utmost ignominy to the family, to repair out of his own family estate.

2 Timothei autem moderatae sapientisque vitae cum pleraque possimus proferre testimonia, uno erimus contenti, quod ex eo facile conici poterit, quam carus suis fuerit. Cum Athenis adulescentulus causam diceret, non solum amici privatique hospites ad eum defendendum convenerunt, sed etiam in eis Iason, tyrannus Thessaliae, qui illo tempore fuit omnium potentissimus.

2 As for Timotheus’s moderate and wise life, although we could bring forward very many testimonies, we will be content with one, from which it can easily be conjectured how dear he was to his own. When at Athens, a very young man, he was pleading a case, not only friends and personal guest‑friends gathered to defend him, but even among them Jason, tyrant of Thessaly, who at that time was the most powerful of all.

3 Hic cum in patria sine satellitibus se tutum non arbitraretur, Athenas sine ullo praesidio venit tantique hospitem fecit, ut mallet se capitis periculum adire quam Timotheo de fama dimicanti deesse. Hunc adversus tamen Timotheus postea populi iussu bellum gessit, patriae sanctiora iura quam hospitii esse duxit.

3 He, since in his own country he did not think himself safe without bodyguards, came to Athens without any protection and valued his host so highly that he preferred to enter into peril of his life rather than be wanting to Timotheus as he fought about his reputation. Nevertheless, afterward Timotheus, by order of the people, waged war against this man, deeming the rights of the fatherland more sacrosanct than those of hospitality.

4 Haec extrema fuit aetas imperatorum Atheniensium, Iphicratis, Chabriae, Timothei: neque post illorum obitum quisquam dux in illa urbe fuit dignus memoria.

4 This was the last age of the Athenian commanders, Iphicrates, Chabrias, Timotheus: nor after their death was any leader in that city worthy of remembrance.

5 Venio nunc ad fortissimum virum maximique consilii omnium barbarorum exceptis duobus Carthaginiensibus, Hamilcare et Hannibale.

5 I come now to the bravest man and of the greatest counsel of all the barbarians, except for the two Carthaginians, Hamilcar and Hannibal.

6 De quo hoc plura referemus, quod et obscuriora sunt eius gesta pleraque et ea, quae prospere ei cesserunt, non magnitudine copiarum, sed consilii, quo tum omnes superabat, acciderunt; quorum nisi ratio explicata fuerit, res apparere non poterunt.

6 About whom we will report more at this point, because most of his deeds are rather obscure, and those things which turned out prosperously for him happened not by the magnitude of forces but by counsel, in which he then surpassed everyone; and unless the rationale of these is explicated, the facts cannot appear.