ree guaranteeing his safety if
he would return. When he returned they appointed him president of the
gymnasium, and afterwards, while he was being anointed in the public
baths, they murdered him there.

Our ancestors tell us that as ghosts used to appear in that place, and
groans were heard there, the doors of the bath-room were built up; and
even at the present day those who live near the spot imagine that
shadowy forms are to be seen, and confused cries heard. Those of his
family who survive (for there are some descendants of Damon) live
chiefly in Phokis, near the city of Steiris. They call themselves
Asbolomeni, which in the AEolian dialect means "sooty-faced," in memory
of Damon having smeared his face with soot when he committed his
crimes.

II. Now the city of Orchomenus, which is next to that of Chaeronea, was
at variance with it, and hired a Roman informer, who indicted the city
for the murder of those persons killed by Damon, just as if it were a
man. The trial was appointed to take place before the praetor of
Macedonia, for at that time the Romans did not appoint praetors of
Greece. When in court the representatives of Chaeronea appealed to
Lucullus to testify to their innocence, and he, when applied to by the
praetor, wrote a letter telling the entire truth of the story, which
obtained an acquittal for the people of Chaeronea. Thus narrowly did
the city escape utter destruction. The citizens showed their gratitude
to Lucullus by erecting a marble statue to him in the market-place,
beside that of Dionysus; and although I live at a much later period,
yet I think it my duty to show my gratitude to him also, as I too have
benefited by his intercession. I intend therefore to describe his
achievements in my Parallel Lives, and thus raise a much more glorious
monument to his memory by describing his real disposition and
character, than any statue can be, which merely records his face and
form. It will be sufficient for me if I show that his memory is held
in grateful remembrance, for he himself would be the first to refuse
to be rewarded for the true testimony which he bore to us by a
fictitious narrative of his exploits. We think it right that portrait
painters when engaged in painting a handsome face should neither omit
nor exaggerate its defects; for the former method would destroy the
likeness and the latter the beauty of the picture. In like manner, as
it is hard, or rather impossible, to find a man whose li