Timotheus

Timotheus, son of Conon, an Athenian. He increased the glory received from his father by many virtues: for he was eloquent, energetic, hardworking, skilled in military matters and no less in governing the state. Many were his splendid deeds, but these are the most illustrious. He subdued the Olynthians and Byzantines in war. He took Samos: in the siege of which town, in an earlier war, the Athenians had spent twelve hundred talents, and he restored it to the people without any public cost. He waged wars against Cotys, and from him brought twelve hundred talents of booty into the treasury. He freed Cyzicus from siege. He set out to aid Ariobarzanes together with Agesilaus; and whereas the Laconian received money in cash, he preferred that his fellow-citizens be increased with land and cities rather than take that of which each man could carry home a part. And so he received Crithote and Sestos.

The same man, being put in command of the fleet, sailing round the Peloponnese and ravaging Laconia, routed their fleet, brought Corcyra under the sway of the Athenians, and then attached as allies the Epirotes, Athamanians, Chaonians, and all those peoples that border on that sea. By this deed the Lacedaemonians desisted from the long contention and of their own accord conceded to the Athenians the primacy of the empire of the sea, and established peace on these terms, that the Athenians should be leaders by sea. This victory was of such joy to the Athenians that then for the first time altars were publicly built to Peace, and a sacred couch was instituted to that goddess. That the memory of this glory might remain, they set up a statue to Timotheus publicly in the market-place. This honour fell to him alone before that time, that, his father having had a statue set up by the people, the people should give one to the son also. Thus, placed side by side, the son's new statue renewed in his country the memory of the old one of the father.

When he was advanced in age and had ceased to hold magistracies, the Athenians began to be pressed in war on every side. Samos had revolted, the Hellespont had fallen away, Philip, already powerful, was contriving many things; and although Chares had been set against him, there was not thought to be enough security in him. Menestheus is made general, son of Iphicrates and son-in-law of Timotheus, and it is decreed that he set out to the war. As advisers there are given him two men outstanding in experience and wisdom, by whose counsel he might be guided, his father and his father-in-law, because their authority was so great that there was good hope that through them what had been lost might be recovered. When these had set out for Samos, and Chares too, learning of their coming, was setting out with his forces, lest anything be thought to have been done in his absence, it happened, as they were drawing near the island, that a great storm arose; and the two old commanders, thinking it expedient to avoid it, held back their fleet. But he, using rash reasoning, 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 making, and sent a messenger to Timotheus and Iphicrates to follow him to the same point. From there, the matter having gone ill and several ships being lost, he returned to the place from which he had set out, and sent a public letter to Athens, that it had been easy for him to take Samos, had he not been deserted by Timotheus and Iphicrates. The people — quick, suspicious, and for that reason fickle, hostile, envious (for his power was being made a matter of accusation) — recalled him home: they are accused of treason. By this judgement Timotheus is condemned, and his suit is assessed at a hundred talents. He, driven out by hatred of his ungrateful state, betook himself to Chalcis.

After his death, when the people repented of their judgement, they took away nine parts of the fine and ordered Conon, his son, to give ten talents for the repair of a certain part of the wall. In this the changeableness of fortune was observed. For the very walls which his grandfather Conon had restored to his country out of the spoils of the enemy, the grandson, to the deepest disgrace of his family, was forced to repair out of his own estate. Of the moderate and wise life of Timotheus, though we could bring forward very many testimonies, we shall be content with one, from which it can easily be conjectured how dear he was to his own people. When at Athens, a young man, he was pleading a case, not only friends and private guest-friends came together to defend him, but among them also Jason, tyrant of Thessaly, who at that time was the most powerful of all men. He, although in his own country he did not think himself safe without bodyguards, came to Athens without any escort, and so esteemed his guest-friend that he chose rather to enter into peril of his life than to fail Timotheus when he was contending for his repute. Yet against this same Jason, Timotheus afterwards, by command of the people, waged war: for he held the claims of his country more sacred than those of guest-friendship. This was the last age of the Athenian commanders — of Iphicrates, Chabrias, and Timotheus — nor after their death was anyone a leader in that city worthy of memory. I come now to the bravest man and of the greatest counsel of all the barbarians, save two Carthaginians, Hamilcar and Hannibal. Of him I shall report the more, because both most of his deeds are rather obscure, and those which fell out prosperously for him came about not by the size of his forces but by his counsel, in which he then surpassed all: and unless the reasoning of these is set forth, his exploits cannot be made plain.