And he covered Teucer with gleaming shield.3So, of those engaged in the service of the state, generals do not at all envy popular leaders ; nor, among those occupied with the art of speaking, do barristers envy teachers of rhetoric ; nor, among physicians, do dieticians envy surgeons ; but they even call each other into consultation and commend one another. For brothers to seek eminence and repute from the same art or faculty is precisely the same as for both to fall in love with one woman and each seek to outstrip the other in her esteem. Those, indeed, who travel different roads afford each other no help, but those who follow different modes of life both strive to avoid envy and are of greater service to each other, as were Demosthenes and Chares,4 and again Aeschines and Eubulus, Hypereides and Leosthenes, of whom the former in each pair harangued the people and drew up laws, the latter commanded armies and translated words into action. Therefore those who cannot, by their very nature, share without envy their brothers' reputation and influence, should divert as far as possible from those of their brothers their own desires and [p. 295] ambitions, so that by their successes they may give pleasure to each other instead of pain.5
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But a brother should not, like the pan of a
balance, incline the opposite way and be himself
lowered when his brother is raised on high ; but just
[p. 291]
as lesser numbers multiply greater and are multiplied
by them, so should he give increase to his brother and
at the same time be increased along with him by their
common blessings. For it is not true of the fingers,
either, that the one which writes and plays musical
instruments is superior to the one which cannot, by
either nature or attainment, do so, but in some
manner or other they all contrive to move together
and assist each other, having been made unequal, as
though of set purpose, and all deriving their power
to grasp from the position of the others opposite the
thumb, the largest and strongest of them.
In this spirit Craterus,1 the brother of King Antigonus, and Perlatis, the brother of Cassander, assigned themselves to the management of their
brothers' military and domestic affairs ; but men like
Antiochus and Seleucus, and again Grypus and
Cyzicenus,2 who had not learned to play parts secondary to their brothers, but yearned for the purple and
the crown, infected themselves and each other with
many horrors, and infected all Asia also.
But since envy and jealousy of those who surpass
them in repute and honour are implanted by nature
chiefly in men of ambitious character, to guard
against these vices it is highly expedient that brothers
should not seek to acquire honours or power in the
same field, but in quite different fields. Wild beasts,
to be sure, which depend for their food upon the
same things, war against each other, and athletes
who direct their efforts toward one and the same
contest are rivals ; whereas boxers are friendly to
pancratiasts and long-distance runners are well disposed toward wrestlers, and they mutually assist and
[p. 293]
cheer for each other. This, in fact, is the reason why,
of the two sons of TyndareĆ¼s, Polydeuces won his
victories in boxing and Castor in running. And
Homer did well to represent Teucer as renowned in
archery, while his brother was foremost among the
heavy-armed :
1 Half-brother of Antigonus Gonatas (see F. Jacoby and Schoch, Pauly-Wissowa, RE, xi. col. 1617, 1621).
2 Antiochus, VIII and IX respectively.
3 Ajax and Teucer: Il., viii. 272.
4 Cf. Comp. of Demosthenes and Cicero, iii. (887 c); Life of Phocion, vii. (744 f).
5 With the substance of chapters 13-15 Cicero's remarks on inequality in friendship (Laelius, 19-20, 69-73) may be compared.