ample quite as much as those who have taken trouble
about such representations: for a single pamphlet of Xenophon's in
praise of that king has proved much more effective than all the
portraits and statues of them all. And, moreover, it will more redound
to my present exultation and the honour of my memory to have found my
way into your history, than if I had done so into that of others, in
this, that I shall profit not only by the genius of the writer--as
Timoleon did by that of Timaeus, Themistocles by that of Herodotus--but
also by the authority of a man of a most illustrious and
well-established character, and one well known and of the first repute
for his conduct in the most important and weighty matters of state; so
that I shall seem to have gained not only the fame which Alexander on
his visit to Sigeum said had been bestowed on Achilles by Homer, but
also the weighty testimony of a great and illustrious man. For I like
that saying of Hector in Naevius, who not only rejoices that he is
"praised," but adds, "and by one who has himself been praised." But if I
fail to obtain my request from you, which is equivalent to saying, if
you are by some means prevented--for I hold it to be out of the question
that you would _refuse_ a request of mine--I shall perhaps be forced to
do what certain persons have often found fault with, write my own
panegyric, a thing, after all, which has a precedent of many illustrious
men. But it will not escape your notice that there are the following
drawbacks in a composition of that sort: men are bound, when writing of
themselves, both to speak with greater reserve of what is praiseworthy,
and to omit what calls for blame. Added to which such writing carries
less conviction, less weight; many people, in fine, carp at it, and say
that the heralds at the public games are more modest, for after having
placed garlands on the other recipients and proclaimed their names in a
loud voice, when their own turn comes to be presented with a garland
before the games break up, they call in the services of another herald,
that they may not declare themselves victors with their own voice. I
wish to avoid all this, and, if you undertake my cause, I shall avoid
it: and, accordingly, I ask you this favour. But why, you may well ask,
when you have already often assured me that you intended to record in
your book with the utmost minuteness the policy and events of my
consulship, do I now make this request to you