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 life is entirely free from blame, it becomes our duty to relate their noble actions with minute exactitude, regarding them as illustrative of true character, whilst, whenever either a man’s personal feelings or political exigencies may have led him to commit mistakes and crimes, we must regard his conduct more as a temporary lapse from virtue than as disclosing any innate wickedness of disposition, and we must not dwell with needless emphasis on his failings, if only to save our common human nature from the reproach of being unable to produce a man of unalloyed goodness and virtue.