The Comparison of Lysander with Sylla   

not so much as address him, or vouchsafe him his hand, until he had
it from the king's own mouth that he was willing to quit Asia, surrender
the navy, and restore Bithynia and Cappadocia to the two kings. Than
which action Sylla never performed a braver, or with a nobler spirit,
when preferring the public good to the private, and like good hounds,
where he had once fixed, never letting go his hold, till the enemy
yielded, then, and not until then, he set himself to revenge his own
private quarrels. We may perhaps let ourselves be influenced, moreover,
in our comparison of their characters, by considering their treatment
of Athens. Sylla, when he had made himself master of the city, which
then upheld the dominion and power of Mithridates in opposition to
him, restored her to liberty and the free exercise of her own laws;
Lysander, on the contrary, when she had fallen from a vast height
of dignity and rule, showed her no compassion, but abolishing her
democratic government, imposed on her the most cruel and lawless tyrants.
We are now qualified to consider whether we should go far from the
truth or no in pronouncing that Sylla performed the more glorious
deeds, but Lysander committed the fewer faults, as, likewise, by giving
to one the pre-eminence for moderation and self-control, to the other
for conduct and valour.
THE END