even if they have no regard for honesty; but they do not envy; they wonder as at something which is above them.  But if the honest man is of their own station in life, and has a character of integrity, they may envy him for his superiority.  It appears that if there is a number of people who are generally on a footing of equality, any superiority which one may acquire over the rest, makes him an object of envy.  If high character for integrity brings power and credit with it, there must be some persons with whom the power and the credit prevail, but these are the persons who are farthest removed from rivalry with him who has the credit.  Those who are nearer to him are the persons who envy, who feel that the superiority of one man makes their inferiority.  Plutarch assumes the existence of a class who love the just and give them credit, and of a class who envy them; but the two classes of persons are not the same.]

[Footnote 728:  This name recurs in the Symposium and Phaedon of Plato.  The second sentence in this chapter is very corrupt in the original, and the translation is merely a guess at the meaning.  Favonius was aedile in B.C. 53 (Dion Cassius, 40. c. 45).]

[Footnote 729:  Some apology is necessary for translating “pears " ([Greek:  apious], in the original said to mean “pears”) into “parsley.”  The context shows clearly enough that pears are not meant.  Kaltwasser has made the “pears” into “celery,” and there is just as good reason for making “parsley” of them.  Plutarch may have misunderstood the Roman word “apium” or confounded it with the Greek.]

[Footnote 730:  Scipio was the father-in-law of Cornelia, the last wife of Pompeius (Life of Pompeius, c. 55).  As to P. Plautus Hypsaeus, see the Life of Pompeius, c. 55.  Titus Annius Milo afterwards killed Clodius, and Cicero defended him on his trial (Life of Cicero, c. 35).]

[Footnote 731:  Pompeius was sole consul B.C. 53, for seven months, after which he had his father-in-law Scipio as his colleague.]

[Footnote 732:  T. Munatius Plancus Bursa was a tribune in B.C. 52.  When Clodius was killed by Milo, the populace, who loved Clodius, took the dead body into the Curia Hostilia, at the instigation of Bursa and his colleague Rufus, and making a pile of the benches, burnt the body and the Curia with it (Dion Cassius, 40. c. 49, 55).  Bursa was tried for his share in this matter and convicted, to the great joy of Cicero, who was his accuser.  Cicero speaks of this affair in a letter to Marius (Ad Diversos, vii. 2).]

[Footnote 733:  Servius Sulpicius Rufus, a friend of Cicero, who has recorded his great talents, and a distinguished Jurist.  He was consul in B.C. 51 with M. Claudius Marcellus.]

[Footnote 734:  Kaltwasser refers to the Life of Caesar, c. 22, for an explanation of the first part of this chapter; and to the Life of Caesar, c. 29, and to that of Pompeius, c. 58, for the transactions which are mentioned in the latter part of this chapter.]