After the last Flavian Emperor Domitian
was murdered in 96,
five Emperors were selected or adopted
based
on their ability rather than on birth.
This resulted in a series
of capable and more responsible
Emperors until Marcus Aurelius
was
succeeded by his son Commodus in 180.
Nerva, a senior senator,
was the first Emperor
to be freely selected by the Senate.
He
was only Emperor from September 96
until his death in January
98, but he helped set the new pattern
by adopting the powerful
governor of Upper Germany, Trajan.
From a family of jurists Nerva
had been consul with Vespasian
in 71 and with Domitian
in 90.
Suetonius wrote that Nerva had debauched the
youthful Domitian, but Martial praised
his quiet life and poetry.
People celebrated the new freedom,
and funds were made
available by melting down silver and gold
images of Domitian.
Nerva
freed those on trial for treason and recalled exiles.
Yet he put
to death slaves and freedmen who plotted against
their masters,
and he prohibited their making complaints.
He protected Jews from
being accused of treason and
exploited by tax collectors, and
informers were put to death.
Nerva swore he would not execute
any senator,
and he kept his word even when
Calpurnius Crassus
and others plotted against him.
Nerva prided himself in acting in such a way
that he could
retire safely into private life.
He returned confiscated property
and granted land to
very poor Romans, selling imperial luxuries
and abolishing sacrifices and spectacles to do so.
He reduced
tribute Domitian had increased,
and he exempted close relations
from the five-percent inheritance
tax.
His laws prohibited castration and marriage to a niece.
Nerva
assisted afflicted communities and removed the
burden from Italians
of providing vehicles
to the public posting service.
Nerva ended
Domitian's ban on stage actors
although Trajan reinstated it.
Nerva kept on Domitian's prefect Casperius Aelianus,
and after
a year the praetorian guards demanded
Nerva hand over those who
killed Domitian.
Instead
Nerva offered them his own neck; but they ignored
him and killed
the two assassins,
forcing Nerva to thank them publicly for doing
so.
Nerva adopted Trajan and made him co-regent,
even though he
was a Spaniard, because of his ability;
although Trajan commanded
so many legions close to Italy,
many believed he would have become
Emperor anyway.
Nerva died of a fever.
Trajan's father was consul under Vespasian,
a commander in
the Jewish war, and governor of Syria.
The Emperor
Trajan had been a military tribune in the Syrian
army and commanded
the legion in Tarraconensis (Spain)
that responded to Domitian's
request when Saturninus rebelled.
Nerva appointed Trajan governor
of Upper Germany
and then adopted him.
Trajan enlarged the Roman
army to thirty legions and fought
two big wars in Dacia from 101
to 106,
commanding twelve legions with 120,000 men.
After the
first war Romans garrisoned Dacia.
When Decebalus broke the treaty,
Trajan had a bridge built
across the Danube and captured the Dacian
capital at
Sarmizegethusa, causing their king Decebalus to commit
suicide.
Dacia lost most of its men, and as a Roman province
it
was settled by people from the Roman empire.
Trajan brought back
to Rome the royal Dacian treasury
of
about a half million Roman
pounds of gold and a million of silver.
The annual yield from
Dacian mines would supply
Roman Emperors with substantial income.
At Rome Trajan celebrated his triumph on 123 days,
slaughtering
11,000 animals in spectacles in which
10,000 gladiators fought.
Palma, the Roman governor of Syria,
conquered the Arabian region
around Petra.
Trajan mixed with people and the Senate so that
it was said
he was more loved than feared.
He told friends he behaved toward
citizens the way
he wished Emperors to behave toward him.
Trajan
gave the praetorian prefect a sword and told him
to use it for
him if he ruled well, but against him if badly.
He too swore not
to execute senators
and sent conspirators into exile.
The historian
Dio Cassius wrote that he loved
and honored the good while ignoring
others.
When the younger Pliny became consul in 100, he delivered
a Panegyricus to the Senate in which he contrasted the
despotism
of Domitian with the tolerance
of Trajan.
Pliny observed that people no longer feared informers
but feared the law instead.
People learn that honesty pays; now
at least
it was enough that it was doing them no harm.
Pliny thanked
Trajan that virtue is being rewarded
by honors, priesthoods, and
provinces.
Pliny wrote that a ruler does more for the morals of
his
country by permitting good conduct than by compelling it,
for fear is an unreliable teacher of morals;
people learn better
from good examples.
A prince's best guard is his innocence.
The
only citadel never breached is never to need defenses.
Pliny argued
that it is useless to be armed with terror if one
lacks the protection
of love; for arms only incite more arms.
Instead of the usual
idea that the prince is above the law,
Pliny now found the law
is above the prince.
He believed that the gods would only preserve
Trajan
if he ruled the state well and in the interests of all.
Rewarding good service and punishing
the bad makes people better.
Pliny noted that men were being promoted based on merit.
A person
may deceive another, but no one can deceive oneself
if one looks
closely at one's life.
Pliny observed that a person's pleasures
usually told most
about the person's true worth and self-control.
When some of Trajan's procurators exploited the rich in their
provinces, his wife Plotina made him detest such unjust exaction.
Yet many of his city magistrates and governors were charged
with
crimes, because he was less diligent
in checking them than Domitian had been.
Trajan
spent large sums on war and public works,
repairing roads, harbors,
and public buildings.
He also built libraries.
A new harbor was
built at Ostia to ensure the grain supply.
Trajan reformed laws by prohibiting anonymous accusations,
and fathers who mistreated sons
were required to emancipate them.
He protected soldiers from technically invalid wills,
and he punished
those who mutilated their sons to prevent
them from being drafted
into the army.
Trajan completed the child welfare program that
Nerva had initiated, distributing free grain
at Rome to 5,000
needy children.
He required candidates for office to invest
one-third
of their estate in Italian land.
Trajan began the practice of
making permanent loans to Italian
landowners for which they only
had to pay
five percent interest to their municipality.
According
to Dio Cassius, he drank heavily and was a
pederast, but in his
relations with boys he harmed no one.
When the Armenian king got his throne from the Parthian king
in 113, Trajan organized another expensive campaign.
He declined
gifts from the Parthian king Osroes.
After wintering in Antioch,
Trajan invaded Armenia,
capturing Arsamosata without a battle.
He appointed Catilius Severus to
govern Armenia along with Cappadocia.
Next Trajan entered Mesopotamia, capturing Nisibis and Batnae.
Trajan entered Babylon and Ctesiphon.
He sailed down the Tigris
to the sea and thought of going to India.
Returning to Babylon,
he learned of rebellions against the garrisons
he had placed in
the new provinces of Mesopotamia and Assyria.
He sent Maximus
and the Moor Lusius Quietus;
Maximus
was killed, but Lusius recaptured
Nisibis and sacked Edessa.
Trajan's army also captured and burned
Seleucia.
About 116 CE Jewish rebellions led to 220,000 being killed
in Cyrenaica, 240,000 on Cyprus, and many in Egypt.
The general
Marcus Turbo commanded Roman armies in
Cyrenaica and Egypt, and
Lusius was sent against
rebellions by Jews in Mesopotamia.
To
prevent Parthian rebellion Trajan crowned Parthamaspates
as their
king, though he was soon rejected
and replaced by the Parthians'
traditional rule.
On his way back to Syria Trajan was unable to
besiege
revolting Hatra because of the Arabian desert.
Trajan
became ill and died in Cilicia in 117; it was reported
that he
had adopted his kinsman Hadrian,
who was governor of Syria.
Dio Chrysostom was born in Prusa of Bithynia about 40 CE
and
died about 120.
Dio became a sophist and criticized philosophers
such as
Musonius until he was converted by him in Rome.
In 82
Dio was banished by Domitian
from Rome, Italy, and
Bithynia for advising a conspiring relative
of the Emperor.
He lived like a poor Cynic traveling and doing
manual labor.
People often asked him questions, and he began to
speak
about human duties and what is beneficial.
Chrysostom means
"golden mouth."
In Viminacium on the Danube,
Dio wrote
a history of the Getae;
but it is not extant.
Dio visited military
camps in his rags.
According to Philostratus, when he saw troops
beginning
to mutiny after Domitian's assassination,
Dio leaped
on an altar and stripped off his rags
like Odysseus as he quoted
Homer.
Then he energetically indicted the tyrant but persuaded
the soldiers it would be wiser to act
according to the will of
the Roman people.
Dio's exile was ended, and the next summer
he made an oration
at Olympia.
At Rome he was well received by Nerva.
Dio Chrysostom
gained royal favors
for his native Prusa and returned there.
He
headed an embassy from Prusa to thank the Emperor,
but Nerva had
died.
Dio became a close friend of Emperor Trajan, who said
he
loved him as himself even though
he did not understand what he
was saying.
Dio traveled before returning to Prusa to beautify
the city,
where he became involved in an urban renewal lawsuit
in 111.
No more was heard of him after that.
Some of Dio Chrysostom's four discourses On Kingship
may have been presented at birthday celebrations of Trajan.
In
the first Dio wrote that although music may arouse the
martial
spirit, it is more difficult for it to make the soul just
and
prudent; he believed only the spoken word
of the wise can do that.
A king should not use power to become licentious and
profligate,
arrogant, and lawless; but he should devote
his attention to guiding
and shepherding his people.
The just and good person has the greatest
faith
in the just and good gods.
Next a good king honors and loves
the good,
while caring for all.
His greatest pleasure may come
from conferring benefits.
Dio favored preparing for war so as
to be able to live in peace.
Yet the greatest defense of a king
is found in the
loyal hearts of those watching out for his welfare.
In the third discourse Dio praised Trajan but argues that
he
is not flattering him, claiming he was the only one bold
enough
to risk his life in telling the truth to Domitian
when others
thought falsehood necessary.
Flattery he considered outrageous,
because it gives to vice the rewards of virtue.
Such a perverter
of truth lies to the very persons
who know best one is lying.
Unless the object of flattery is a fool,
one appears more odious
than pleasing.
When flatterers are discovered, they are hated
and mocked.
It is reasonable for a ruler to steel oneself against
pleasure,
because life is short and filled mostly with remembrance
of the past and expectation of the future.
Dio asked whether the
wicked or the virtuous find more joy
in remembering the past or
are
more encouraged about the future.
The wise realize that labor
brings health and a good reputation,
while luxurious ease results
in the opposite and makes
labor appear more difficult while blunting
pleasures.
The fourth discourse is a dialog between the Macedonian
conqueror Alexander and the Cynic philosopher
Diogenes.
Diogenes
argues that this powerful king is his own bitterest foe
as long
as he is bad and foolish.
Diogenes
asks if he realizes it is a sign of fear to carry a weapon.
Thus
he encourages him to trust acting justly not arms.
He should not
try to become king before he attains wisdom.
He will never be
a king until he has made his spirit commanding,
free, and royal
instead of slavish, illiberal, and vicious.
Diogenes then describes
the three most common lives as
self-indulgence in pleasures, acquisitive
greed,
and ambition for glory.
In his 6th discourse Dio described the simple and free life
of
Diogenes, the only independent
person in the world,
comparing this to the misery of the king
of Persia.
He continued this theme in his 8th discourse on virtue,
arguing that a noble person battles hardships
as one's greatest
antagonists.
The strongest person is the one
who can stay farthest
from pleasures.
Like Diogenes, during his exile Dio found that
the pleasure
of eating and drinking is increased when one is hungry
or
thirsty and that simple food and water can be most delightful.
One can condition oneself to cold and heat as other animals do.
Dio wrote how Diogenes at
the Isthmian games questioned
the value of being proclaimed the
fastest runner.
In Dio's 10th discourse Diogenes
encounters a man looking
for his lost slave and wanting to consult
a god;
he persuades him to give up both pursuits.
He can simplify
his life without a bad slave,
and he should first aim to know
himself
before consulting an oracle.
Dio believed that as courage, justice, and temperance
increased, there would be less surplus wealth and luxuries.
He observed that
most people consider freedom the greatest
blessing and that slavery
is a shameful condition.
Yet they have little knowledge of what
freedom and slavery are,
and they do little to escape slavery
and to gain freedom.
We are permitted to do what is just and beneficial,
because doing the opposite results in suffering and punishment.
Thus freedom is knowing what is allowed, and slavery
is ignorance
of what is just and good.
In discussing distress Dio pointed out
that an intelligent person
is free by not feeling pain because
of troubles and stress.
Nothing by itself must cause fear, but
it results from false
opinion and our own weakness.
There is uncertainty
in everything.
All who have come before us are dead,
and we may
die any day.
Perhaps the greatest achievement would be to live
one day free of worry, fear, and similar emotions.
In his discourse on coveting, Dio associated this vice with
greed,
citing a passage from Euripides' Phoenician
Women that
greed destroys the prosperity of families and
overthrows states,
that human law requires us to honor equality
in order to
establish common friendship and peace for all.
Yet
quarrels, strife, and foreign wars are due to desire for more
but result in each side being deprived even of what is sufficient.
What is more important than life?
Yet men destroy even that for
money,
often causing their own countries to be laid waste.
Wealth
moderately put to use does not injure but makes life
easier and
frees it from want; but if it becomes excessive,
it causes far
more worries and troubles than pleasures.
Dio wrote that the great
majority feed in their hearts an entire
army of desires and try
to accumulate property
far beyond their needs.
In outlining education
for public speaking Dio most highly
recommended reading the works
of Homer, Menander,
Euripides, Thucydides, Demosthenes,
and Socratics like Xenophon.
In writing about
retirement Dio noted that the mind should be
trained never to
turn aside or withdraw from its proper work,
or one will not be
able to rise
above one's surroundings to accomplish things.
Dio Chrysostom questioned whether it is right to go to war
with those who have not done a wrongful act.
If they have done
something wrong, he asked, how serious is it?
Philosophers take
a long-range perspective and are not
influenced by anger, contentiousness,
and bribery, but act justly.
Dio believed that guardian spirits
are good and that the wise are
fortunate and happy because they
are guided by them;
but the unhappy are so, not because their
guardian spirit is bad,
but because they neglect the good spirit.
Philostratus in his Lives of the Sophists wrote that
Dio often
reproached licentious cities, but he managed to do so
without
being ungracious like one who restrains an unruly horse
with the bridle rather than the whip.
At Rhodes Dio criticized
their assembly for voting statues to
honor men and then chiseling
off the names
of old statues to add the new name.
He spoke in
the theater at Alexandria
criticizing their usual entertainment.
He said the gods control all blessings and distribute them to
those who are ready to receive, like the water from the Nile
that
comes from a divine source above; but evils like the
filthy canals
in the city are their own creation.
Human folly and love of luxury
and ambition make life
vexatious and full of deceit, wickedness,
pain, and other ills.
The one cure from the gods is education;
for persons
who use reason consistently will be healthy and happy.
At the Cilician capital of Tarsus Dio suggested that the gods
no longer love the wanton, senseless, and unrestrained,
who are
inclined toward insolence, laziness, and luxury.
They should not
rely on speakers who praise them, for they
only deceive and vainly
excite them like foolish children.
Rather they should welcome
the one who will point out
their faults and can make them think.
Dio compared those who said that practically everyone
has changed
to those who do not take care of themselves
in an epidemic because
nearly all are sick.
People are walking around asleep
dreaming
instead of being guided by reason.
Dio is like the physician who
touches the sore spot;
he makes it smart, but his medicine is
mild
considering the seriousness of their case.
In relation to
other cities Dio asked them to behave with
consideration according
to their honor
and not in a spirit of hostility and hatred.
If
they do so, everyone will follow their leadership
willingly with
admiration and affection.
Superiority in virtue and kindness are
their true blessings
and are worthy of emulation.
Dio noted how
the rivalry between Athens and Sparta caused
them both to lose
their good reputations and then their power
and wealth until finally
they were subjected by their foes.
This is like fellow slaves
quarreling with each other
over glory and pre-eminence.
Yet the
greatest things the philosophers pursue
seriously are always within
our control.
In speaking to his native country in Borysthenes Dio promoted
the philosophical theory of a noble and benevolent fellowship
of gods and humans which gives a share of citizenship
to all living
beings who have reason and intellect.
He believed this code better
and more just than that of Sparta
which denied citizenship to
the Helots.
He recounted a Zoroastrian myth in which
the gods
are led by the one best endowed with truth.
Dio spoke to the Nicomedians urging them to find concord
with
their neighbor Nicaea.
Although concord is so much better than
war, people have
often chosen wars not because they are deluded
that fighting
is better than keeping the peace, but because some
are striving
for royal power, some for liberty, some for territory,
and some for control of the sea.
These two cities are struggling
for primacy; but if they are
concerned for the welfare of all
Bithynia, they will be no less
displeased over wrongs inflicted
upon others than those
inflicted upon themselves; also if anyone
flees to them for succor,
they will aid them promptly and impartially.
This conduct will yield them primacy,
not quarreling with Nicaeans
over titles.
By joining forces they will control other cities
that
might wrong them; but now other cities take advantage
of
their strife, giving primacy to them.
Together the two cities
would double their resources,
and lawbreakers could not escape
justice
by fleeing from one city to the other.
They should not
listen to those who malign them to each other
for selfish purposes,
and so they should
avoid being irritated for petty reasons.
Dio
believed that once concord is achieved,
the gods will help it
to endure.
Dio also spoke against the internal strife in Nicaea, suggesting
that the gods desire nothing more than virtue,
orderly government,
and honor for good citizens.
He prayed that the gods might cast
out strife and jealousy
and implant love and unity.
In his own
city of Prusa Dio argued for concord with their
neighbor Apameia,
as he believed it is never profitable
even for the greatest city
to indulge in hostile strife
with the humblest village.
When the
opposing city is not small,
the hostility will inevitably cause
pain and do harm.
Dio reminded them that the Apameians need Prusa's
timber
and that Prusa has no other harbor
for trade except that
of Apameia.
Dio believed unwillingness to yield or make concessions,
which some imagine are not manly,
is rather senseless and stupid.
Dio felt patriotic feelings toward Prusa; but he also recognized
the democratic right of others to disagree with him,
confident
he could persuade them to change.
Immunity from criticism is more
likely to be given
to dictators than to benefactors.
Dio described
the disadvantage of enmity
and the benefits of concord and friendship.
Furthermore, any enmity towards any people
is an irksome, grievous thing.
For there is no enemy so weak as not on occasion
to hurt even the man who appears to be very strong,
or to display his hatred by either saying some painful
word or doing some injurious act.
For the fruit of hatred is never, so to speak,
sweet or beneficial, but of all things most unpleasant
and bitter, nor is any burden so hard
to bear or so fatiguing as enmity.
For example, while it always interferes with strokes
of good fortune, it increases disasters, and while for
him who suffers from something else it doubles the
pain, it does not permit those who are enjoying good
fortune to rejoice in fitting measure.
For it is inevitable, I suppose, that the masses
should be harmed by one another, and,
on the other hand, be despised and held in low
esteem by the others, not only as having antagonists
to begin with, but also as being
themselves foolish and contentious.
However, there is nothing finer or more godlike
than friendship and concord, whether between
man and man or between city and city.
For who are they who acquire the good things of life
more becomingly, when it is their friends
who assist in supplying them?
Who escape the bad things more easily
than those who have friends as allies?
Who are less affected by distress than those
who have persons to share their suffering
and to help them bear it?
To whom is good fortune sweeter than to those
who gladden by their success not only
themselves but others too?1
After bringing concessions for Prusa from Trajan,
Dio Chrysostom
promoted such improvements to the city as
colonnades and fountains
but also
fortifications, harbors, and shipyards.
He even aimed
to bring together many inhabitants in a
federation of cities with
Prusa as the head.
According to Dio all in the assembly
approved
his plan and supported it financially.
In old age probably at Rome Dio delivered his
Euboean Discourse
in which he told the story of simple
hunters who generously aided
a shipwrecked traveler.
He described the happiness of their rural
life and noted that
the poor often are more helpful to those in
need than the rich,
whose aid usually is a loan which must be
returned with interest.
Dio then turned to the difficulty the
poor had surviving in cities,
where only the water was free; even
firewood had to be bought.
He was concerned that many jobs for
those
without wealth were sedentary and unhealthy.
He was also
critical of corrupt professions
such as entertainers and lawyers.
Dio's strongest arguments were against prostitution
as shameful
and brutal lust.
Brothel-keepers unite individuals without love
and affection
for the sake of filthy lucre.
Women and children
captured in war or purchased as slaves
are exposed to shameful
ends in dirty booths.
Dio believed this sordid trade should be
forbidden and not legal.
This adultery committed with outcasts
can lead to assaults
on the chastity of women and boys of good
families.
To the argument that unbarred brothels at low prices
would
protect free and respected wives from bribes and gifts,
he argued that men become weary of what is cheap
and desire what
is forbidden.
Where intrigues with married women are carried on
with respectability, the maidenhood
of unmarried girls will be
in danger.
When the seduction of women becomes easy,
some men
will turn to corrupting boys.
Although Dio Chrysostom never mentioned Christians,
his preaching
in many ways
was a classical parallel of that new morality.
Plutarch was born about 46 CE in Boeotia at Chaeronea,
which
is midway between Thebes and Delphi.
His father was also a philosopher
and biographer,
and Plutarch was given a good education.
In 66-67
he studied mathematics and philosophy at Athens
with the Peripatetic
philosopher Ammonius, though as a Platonist
Plutarch was later
more closely associated with the Academy.
He often lectured at
Rome between 75 and 90.
At Chaeronea he held municipal posts such
as
building commissioner and chief magistrate.
He traveled in
Greece, to Sardis, Alexandria,
and on public business to Rome.
Plutarch lectured and taught adults
philosophy and ethics at Chaeronea.
About 95 he became one of the two permanent priests at Delphi,
and he had a second home there.
He was married and mentioned four
sons
when his infant daughter died.
Plutarch probably died about
120.
Plutarch is best known for writing biographies,
of which 48
survive, including 22 pairs of parallel Greek and
Roman lives
down to the end of the civil war
with Antony's
death in 30 BC.
His motive for undertaking these was the ethical
improvement
of others; but he soon found history to be a mirror
from which
he learned to adjust and regulate his own conduct.
These biographies have influenced generations and were an
extremely
valuable resource for the fourth volume
of this series on the history
of ethics.
Extant also are 78 ethika or moral essays, though
this
designation was originally for the largest group,
not all
of his other varied writings.
Some of these were not written by
him but were given his name.
The influence of Plutarch's writing
has been great.
Marcus Aurelius took his biographies with him
campaigning against the Marcomanni.
Writing in Greek, his work
became schoolbooks
in the eastern empire for centuries.
Byzantine
scholars introduced them
into Italy during the Renaissance.
An
excellent French translation by Jacques Amyot of the Lives
in 1559 and the Moralia in 1572 led to North's English
Parallel Lives in 1579 and
Philemon Holland's English Moralia
in 1603.
In writing on "Moral Virtue" Plutarch reviewed the
theories of
Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle,
and the Stoics.
He agreed
with Plato that in the psyche
there is clearly a
difference between what judges and what suffers
passions
and that the latter obeys the former and yields,
while
the rational element is what is obeyed or resisted.
The one who
has the worst part obedient to the better
has power over oneself
and is better than the one
who allows the brutish and unreasonable
part of the soul to get its way.
The reason as divine and heavenly
should naturally command
and rule that which is sensual.
In "Virtue
and Vice" Plutarch wrote that people enjoy wealth,
power, and reputation better and bear poverty, exile, and
old
age more gently according to the serenity of their character.
Vice makes every activity more troublesome.
Yet a courageous soul
is calm and joyful.
Learn what is honorable and good,
and you
will be content with your lot.
In "Can Vice Cause Unhappiness?"
Plutarch held that vice makes everyone completely miserable
without
needing instruments or ministers.
No misfortune is really bad
without the aid of vice.
Yet vice can ruin the fortunate with
lust, anger, superstitious fears, and so on.
Plutarch sent an essay "On Listening" to a young
man just old
enough to wear adult clothes, warning him that undisciplined
youths wanting freedom often set over themselves more
tyrannical
masters than teachers or trainers, namely desires.
Now is the
time to replace the rules they have been under
with the divine
leadership of reason;
for only those who follow reason can be
considered free.
Listening is more important than speaking,
because
we listen more than we speak.
One is apt listening to others to
notice faults such as sloppy
thinking, hollow phrases, clichés,
applause seeking,
and so on more than when one is speaking oneself.
Plutarch recommended the study of poetry as a search for truth
with the critical awareness of what is false
from fables that
may be taken allegorically.
He suggested that unjustifiable writings
be corrected
or balanced by other passages.
He believed poetry
can prepare students for philosophy.
Plutarch wrote that the virtues of men and women are the same,
and he gave numerous examples of courageous women from
various
cities and heroic individual actions by women.
In a long essay
"On the Malice of Herodotus" he criticized the
pioneer
historian from an ethical point of view for
characterizing people
in abusive ways.
Plutarch wrote in defense of
Boeotians, Corinthians,
and other Greeks.
Plutarch gave many examples in his essay
"How to Distinguish
a Flatterer from a Friend."
Self-love can open the domain
of friendship to the flatterer.
Truth and knowing oneself are
the best defenses
against the deception of flattery.
Flatterers
imitate the pleasant and attractive aspects of friendship
by putting
on a cheerful face and never being negative.
They may even imitate
frankness by criticizing activities
and ways of life he or she
sees the subject disliking
while praising extravagantly what the
other likes.
The flatterer has no constancy nor authentic likes
and dislikes
but acts like a vanity mirror.
Like an understudy,
the flatterer, while imitating the other person,
keeps inferior
and defective in everything except what is bad.
A true friend
will not be afraid to upset one
when it does good but should not
let the upset destroy the
friendship, using it like a sharp medicine
to protect the patient.
Plutarch asked if it is not flattery that
diverts tyrants into utterly scandalous behavior.
Flatterers do not defer to virtue or age
but rather to wealth
and reputation.
They wait for some emotion they can fatten up,
like a tumor that inflames the mind.
They encourage the angry
to lash out, the spendthrift to buy,
the cowardly to run away,
and the suspicious to be cautious.
A friend is straightforward,
uncomplicated, and sincere;
but the flatterer always conforms
to the other person
in opinions, pleasures, and passions.
For a friend is there as a colleague not a co-rogue,
to consult with not to conspire with, for support in
spreading facts not fictions—and yes, even to
share his adversity not his perversity.2
Plutarch warned against using candor to a friend
when many
people are there.
It was said that Pythagoras
once reproached a pupil harshly
in front of others, and the young
man hanged himself.
Pythagoras
never again told anyone off in the presence of others.
Most disgraceful
is to expose a husband where his wife
can hear, a father where
his children can see,
someone in love before the beloved,
or a
teacher in front of the pupils.
Such people may completely forget
themselves when censured
before those whose good opinion they
want to maintain.
In "On Being Aware of Moral Progress" Plutarch noted
that
frenzied and agitated dreams can tell us that our mind does
not
yet have its own regulator but is still being formed by opinions
and rules which are unraveled by the emotions.
Detachment is an
exalted and divine state,
and progress toward it is a taming of
the emotions.
Thus it is important for us to examine
our emotions
and assess their differences.
If our desires and fears and rages
are less intense than they
were before because we are using reason
to decrease their
violence so that our sense of disgrace is sharper
than our fear,
we prefer to emulate rather than envy;
we value
a good reputation more than money;
our actions are slow rather
than hasty;
and we are astounded rather than contemptuous of arguments;
then we may assume progress in that
the vices now engage more
respectable emotions.
In "How to Profit by One's Enemies" Plutarch observed
that
as states must have good order and government to counter
border warfare so individuals may be stimulated by enmities
to
practice soberness and guard against bad habits.
He suggested
you could distress the person who hates you,
not by reviling but
by showing self-control, being truthful,
and treating everyone
with kindness and justice.
If you do criticize, make sure you
are not guilty of those things,
because nothing is more disgraceful
than that hypocrisy.
He agreed with Antisthenes that if one is
not admonished by
true friends, one needs ardent enemies to turn
one from error.
Insults and abusive attacks can also help one
to discipline the temper and learn patience.
Plutarch warned against
residues of envy, hatred, jealousy,
and vindictiveness that may
be introduced by enmity, just as
laws made during war under bad
conditions may injure
people if they are not abolished after the
emergency.
Plutarch in "On Having Many Friends" described the
coin of
friendship as goodwill and graciousness combined with
virtue,
and he considered this rare.
True friendship is good because
of virtue,
pleasant because of intimacy,
and necessary because
of usefulness.
He found it as difficult to put aside an unsatisfactory
friend
as it is to get rid of harmful food
once it has been eaten.
He recommended not accepting friendship from acquaintances
too
readily but to seek after those who are worthy.
Too many friends
causes separation as it does not allow
blending of goodwill in
intimacy, because one's attention
is constantly being transferred
to another.
Friendship seeks intimacy with a steady character,
which is hard to find.
Plutarch gave advice about keeping well, suggesting that
good
and constant habits will make life pleasant.
He warned against
excess in eating and drinking
and against all self-indulgence.
Increase in civil discord and the rule of despots
may be blamed
on luxury and extravagance.
He recommended appropriate exercise
for scholars
and deep massage with oil.
He concluded that health
provides the best opportunity
for obtaining and using virtue in
words and action.
He also advised cooperation and intellectual
companionship to brides and grooms.
Plutarch's concept translated "Superstition" literally
means
"dread of deities," and he described it as an
emotional idea
that produces fear of gods causing pain and injury.
Even an unmoved atheist is better off than the perverted mind
of the superstitious person.
Plutarch believed atheism is based
on erroneous reasoning,
but superstition is an emotion based on
erroneous reasoning.
By denying all spirits
atheism can look for
other causes of events.
Superstitious fear renders one impotent
and helpless,
because it can relate to anything as "afflictions
of God"
or "attacks by an evil spirit."
Atheism
does not cause superstition,
but superstitious beliefs can lead
to atheism.
Plutarch concluded that true religion lies in between
the
extremes of superstitious belief and hardened atheism.
Like Plato, Aristotle,
Cicero, and Seneca,
Plutarch also wrote on anger.
In his "On the Avoidance of
Anger" Sulla asks Fundanus to
explain how he has been able
to tame his temper
so that it is now moderate and obedient to
reason.
Fundanus admits that anger makes the inside full of chaos,
smoke, and noise so that the mind
cannot see or hear what is beneficial.
When rational discrimination immediately bears down
on an outburst,
it not only remedies the current situation
but also strengthens
the mind's detachment
and energy for the future.
He recommends
not listening to or obeying a tyrannical
temper by keeping quiet
as if the angry emotion were a disease.
Anger arises from mental
pain and
suffering because of weakness;
he disagrees with the
notion that it is the mind's tendons.
Just as Philip destroyed
Olynthus and could not rebuild it,
anger too is good at demolition
and ruination;
but construction, preservation, mercy, and patience
require gentleness, forgiveness, and the moderating of passion.
Fundanus also disagreed with the poet who wrote that
respect follows
fear, arguing that it is the reverse.
Respect engenders the fear
that leads to self-restraint,
while flogging does not instill
remorse
but the intention to get away with misdeeds in the future.
Plutarch has Fundanus describe how he tries to quell his anger
in punishing by allowing the defendants the right
to justify themselves
and by listening to them.
This gives time to check the emotion
and let it dissolve
while rationality finds a fitting punishment.
He observed that anger is often triggered by the belief
that one
has been slighted and ignored.
Thus angry feelings are increased
by self-regard and discontent,
usually accompanied by a luxurious
and enervating way of life.
Anger can ruin marriage and friendship.
When anger is absent, even drunkenness can be tolerated,
though
drinking and anger can produce cruelty and madness.
In our lighter
moments anger imposes enmity on affability,
disputing on debate,
arrogance on authority,
envy on success, and hostility on failure.
Anger even accepts harm to oneself while destroying another,
as
its most disagreeable element
is the desire to hurt someone else.
Turning our thoughts inward to see how we are like that too
may
change righteous indignation to tolerance.
Similarly in writing "On Contentment" Plutarch asked
why
be so quick to spot someone else's weakness
while overlooking
your own?
Also people may obsessively contemplate their own faults
while failing to apply one's mind to good things.
Instead of being
upset about what one has lost,
why not feel happy about what one
has kept?
He warned against the usual practice of envying those
who are better off, as prisoners envy the freed,
the freed those
who have always been free;
these envy citizens, who envy the rich,
who envy provincial commanders,
who envy kings, who envy the gods.
Clearly contentment is not based on one's position in society.
Plutarch suggested treating the mind like a painting,
giving prominence
to bright and vivid colors
while allowing the gloomy hues
to fade
into the obscurity of the background.
Plutarch took the Stoic position that fortune may deprive us
of wealth and relationships; but it cannot make
a good person
bad, cowardly, mean-spirited, petty, or spiteful,
and it cannot
deprive us of a helpful attitude toward life.
The wise calm most
physical matters because their self-control,
responsible regimen,
and moderate exercise tend to prevent illness.
Plutarch reminded
us that it is always in our power not to lie,
mislead, steal,
or intrigue.
These are important to happiness because while reason
eradicates other discomforts, reason itself may create
remorse
when the conscience is pricked.
Good deeds leave behind in the
intelligent person's mind
a pleasant and fresh impression.
Plutarch
believed the world is a sacred temple suitable for divinity,
and
life is an initiation into its natural wonders.
Thus he suggested
we celebrate them
everyday in joy and contentment.
Plutarch explained why some become preoccupied with other
people's
lives in "On Being a Busybody."
Yet there are some who cannot bear to face
their own lives, regarding these as a most unlovely
spectacle, or to reflect and revolve upon themselves,
like a light, the power of reason, but their souls,
being full of all manner of vices, shuddering and
frightened at what is within, leap outwards and
prowl about other people's concerns and there
batten and make fat their own malice.3
He explained the origin of the word "sycophant" as
one who
informed against those exporting prohibited figs,
and
he warned busybodies that they may be similarly hated.
In "On the Love of Wealth" Plutarch noted that this
desire is
not satiated like hunger and thirst;
for neither gold
nor silver relieves the craving for money,
and the greed for gain
is not stopped by acquiring new gains.
A person absorbed in getting
money, lamenting expenditures,
and doing base and painful things
to acquire more money
even though one has houses, land, herds,
slaves,
and much clothing has the trouble
Plutarch called "mental
poverty."
Avarice is an oppressive and vexing mistress,
because
it compels us to make money
but forbids us spending it;
it arouses
the desire but cheats us of the pleasure.
He concluded that mastery
of self is needed
whether one dines alone or gives a sumptuous
feast.
In his essay "On the Slowness of the Gods to Punish"
Plutarch
noted that a horse is best trained by immediately punishing
its mistakes; but if there is a long delay, it does no good.
Yet
divine retribution seems to take a long time and
may even affect
future generations.
Yet on the human side it can be argued that
some delay in
punishing can teach us to avoid anger so that
reprimanding
may be more rational.
Perhaps God is taking a careful look at
sick minds to see
if they are inclined to remorse.
It can be argued
that every sinner's mind ponders how
to get rid of the memory
of its crimes in order to
cleanse its conscience and make a fresh
start in life.
Plutarch closed this essay with a fabulous tale
about Thespesius,
who went out of his body and observed souls
in the other world.
Those who had spent their lives in undetected
iniquity,
covering themselves with the semblance of goodness,
were harassed and tormented
until they turned themselves inside
out.
The last thing he saw was souls being prepared for rebirth.
Plutarch gave a very dramatic account of the patriotic plot
that liberated Thebes from Spartan rule in December 379 BC
in
a fascinating dialog called "On the Daimonion of Socrates."
The conspirators meet at the house of Simmias,
a friend of Socrates, and discuss the
Spartan
excavation of the Alcmena tomb.
An ancient script was deciphered
by Egyptian priests as a
message that God advises the Greeks to
stop fighting but
compete in philosophy and to give up their weapons
and
settle their disputes by means of the Muses and discussion.
Pythagorean ideas are criticized by Galaxidorus, who
denounces
religious mysticism
in favor of the rationalism of Socrates.
Yet Theocritus replies that Socrates had a daimonion
(which
might be translated as a "guardian angel").
Then the
Theban hero Epaminondas arrives
with the Pythagorean Theanor.
The latter wants to repay the former for attending to the funeral
of the Pythagorean Lysis; but Epaminondas refuses the gift
because
of his philosophic discipline of poverty.
Meanwhile Hipposthenidas tries to call off the plot because
he fears it is discovered;
but his messenger is delayed and called
back.
Simmias admires Socrates for being able to receive guidance
from the angel directly in waking consciousness.
Simmias relates
the story of Timarchus, whose soul left
his body and traveled
to the other world,
where he observed the process of reincarnation.
Disobedient souls are restrained by a kind of bridle,
which people
experience as remorse for sins
or lawless and indulgent pleasures.
Finally the Thebans carry out their plan to make the Spartans
drunk so that they can kill them and recover their city.
When Plutarch wrote to his wife to console her
for the death of their infant daughter,
they already had four sons and grandchildren.
He commended her for not indulging in excessive grief,
which can
be an enemy of affection and love and can lead
to an insatiable
desire to grieve if it becomes a habit.
Mental distress subsides
when it is dispersed in physical calm.
He reminded her that since
the soul cannot be destroyed,
life in the physical body could
be compared
to the behavior of caged birds.
In "On the Use
of Reason by 'Irrational' Animals"
Plutarch had one of the
transformed pigs in the
Odyssey
debate with Odysseus whether
humans or animals had more virtue
and contentment.
In his essay "Philosophers and Men in Power" Plutarch
argued
that philosophers by associating with rulers can make them
more
just, moderate, and eager to do good.
They will be a public
blessing by dispensing justice
and making the orderly and good
prosper.
Writing "To an Uneducated Ruler" he asked who
shall rule
the ruler and gave Pindar's answer,
the law, which
he interpreted as reason found within.
The ruler should be more
afraid of doing evil
than of suffering it, because the former
causes the latter.
The danger is that those who can do what they
wish
will do what they should not.
Power gives wickedness speed,
making anger murder,
erotic love adultery, and coveting confiscation.
Suspicion may cause those slandered to be executed.
Power quickly
reveals the corruption in souls,
like water poured into a leaky
container immediately
spills out as acts of desire, anger, falsehood,
and bad taste.
Plutarch shared his "Precepts of Statecraft."
He
began by recommending policy be based on judgment
and reason,
not impulse or contentiousness.
Politicians must apply themselves
to understanding the
character of the citizens, and after gaining
their confidence
they can try to train their character gently
toward
what is better by treating them mildly.
Being on the public
stage, one must first educate and order
one's own character, for
it is difficult to change the multitude.
Virtue though is not
the only important thing;
oratory is its co-worker.
One's speech
should be unaffected, high-minded, frank,
foreseeing, and thoughtfully
concerned for others.
One should be careful about assisting friends
only after
the main public interests are safe and of course
should
not do so in corrupt ways.
Plutarch believed that refusing to
make peace with a
personal enemy for things we ought to give up
even for a friend is uncivilized and beastly.
Politicians in assembly should not all express the same opinion
as if by a previous agreement but should express different
opinions
and draw people along by
persuasion to the public advantage.
Plutarch
also knew the value of having friends in high places,
and he stated
that the Romans are eager to promote
the political interests of
their friends.
Ordinary citizens may be soothed by granting them
equality,
and the powerful can be given concessions within the
bounds
of local government, solving problems as though
they were
diseases in the body politic.
One may conciliate superiors, honor
equals,
and add prestige to the inferior, while being friendly
to all.
One should compete with every official in zeal,
forethought
for the common good, and wisdom.
He urged us to moderate our ambition,
because honor is within ourselves.
The main thing is to instill
concord and friendship
while removing strife, discord, and enmity.
Private troubles can become public ones and small troubles
great
ones if they are overlooked and do not receive
counsel and treatment
from the beginning.
Thus the politician should attend to offenses,
like diseases
in a person that might spread quickly
if one does
not take hold of them, treat them, and cure them.
Plutarch's two short essays on "The Eating of Flesh"
argued against that practice.
Meat is usually unnecessary now
that food is
more plentiful than in primitive times.
Humans are
not naturally carnivorous and lack the appropriate
teeth, claws,
and stomach to digest flesh.
Humans don't eat lions and wolves
that are killed in self-defense
but tame animals that harm no
one.
He believed that meat, like wine, may strengthen the body;
but they weaken the soul, especially when consumed to satiety.
He wrote, "We shall eat flesh, but from hunger, not as a
luxury.
We shall kill an animal, but in pity and sorrow,
not degrading
or torturing it,
which is the current practice in many cases."4
The killing of animals has aroused violent instincts and led to
wars and the murder of humans.
Another argument against the practice
is the migration of souls from body to body.
Plutarch also wrote extensively on the religion of Isis and
Osiris,
oracles such as the one at Delphi,
and the various philosophical
schools.
He noted that the Stoics Zeno, Cleanthes, and Chrysippus
wrote about government, but none of them were involved in
political,
diplomatic, or military activities.
He found numerous inconsistencies
in the writings of Chrysippus.
He criticized the hedonists in
the long essay
"That Epicurus Actually Makes a Pleasant Life
Impossible."
In addition to his biographical contributions
and as a
Platonist philosopher and teacher, Plutarch wrote much
to
apply ethical values to various aspects of life
in his synthesis
of classical philosophy and religion.
Epictetus was born to a slave woman in the city of Hierapolis
in Phrygia about 50 CE; his name means "newly acquired."
His master Epaphroditus was Nero's secretary and allowed
him to
study with the prominent Stoic
teacher Musonius Rufus in Rome.
Origen quoted an account by Celsus describing
how his master twisted
his leg.
Epictetus smiled and informed him it would break;
after
it broke, he merely reminded his master
that he had told him it
would.
He was lame for the rest of his life.
Epictetus gained
his freedom and began teaching philosophy
some time before Domitian banished philosophers
from Rome and Italy in 89.
Then Epictetus went to Nicopolis, a
town in Epirus founded
by Augustus to celebrate his victory at
Actium.
There he taught while living simply in a house with a
mat,
a pallet, and an earthenware lamp,
which replaced the iron
one that was stolen.
In his old age when friends of his were going
to expose
their baby, Epictetus married in order to bring up the
child.
He emulated Socrates and
did not write anything;
but his pupil Flavius Arrianus (the historian
Arrian) published
his notes in eight books of Discourses,
the first four of which survive,
and a compendium Handbook
(Encheiridion).
Epictetus probably died late in the
reign
of Hadrian which ended in 138.
Epictetus focused on the rational faculty, which is the only
faculty we have received that
examines itself
and all other faculties.
It is best and supreme over all and is the only thing which
the
gods have put in our power.
All other things are not under our
power.
Thus we must make the best use we can of what is
within
our power while using the rest
according to nature as it pleases
God.
I must die, and I may have to be put in chains or go into
exile;
but Epictetus questioned whether I must lament.
No one
can hinder me from smiling
and being cheerful and content.
You
may fetter my leg, he said,
but not even Zeus can overpower my
will.
In deciding what to do, each person knowing oneself must
decide how much one is worth and at what price
one should sell
oneself;
for all sell themselves at various prices.
We have a body in common with the animals
and intelligence
in common with the gods.
Many incline toward the miserable and
mortal kinship,
a few to what is divine and happy.
Everyone uses
things according to their opinions;
the few formed for fidelity
and modesty
have no ignoble thoughts about themselves.
Yet most
neglect what is better and attach themselves to things
related
to their wretched flesh,
like treacherous wolves, lions, and foxes.
Virtue produces tranquillity.
The work of improvement enables
one to achieve what
one desires and not fall into that which one
would avoid.
Epictetus praised providence based on seeing and
gratitude.
God has made humans spectators of God and its works,
yet not only spectators but interpreters as well.
God has given
us the ability to bear everything that happens
without being depressed
or broken.
Epictetus aimed to reveal powers for greatness and
courage,
while expecting others to show fault-finding and accusations.
Instead of identifying as an Athenian or Corinthian,
Epictetus
encouraged people to think of themselves
as citizens of the world.
In observing the intelligent administration of the world
one realizes
the greatest and most comprehensive
community is of people and
God.
By having communion with God one may not only
call oneself
a cosmopolitan but also a son of God.
With this divine kinship
why should we grieve or flatter or envy?
A person is not made
miserable through the means of another.
We are only responsible
for what is in our power,
the proper use of appearances.
Why then
draw on ourselves things for which we are
not responsible and
so give trouble to ourselves?
When someone asked Epictetus to
persuade his brother
to stop being angry with him, he pointed
out that
philosophy does not secure external things.
The art of
living is each person's life.
His brother's anger is external
to him;
but if he would send his brother,
Epictetus would talk
to him about it.
He asked why we are angry with many, and one
might say
because they are thieves and robbers.
This means they
are mistaken about good and evil.
Then should we be angry with
them or pity them?
Show them their error, and they may desist
from their errors.
Epictetus defined education as learning how to adapt
intelligence to particular things according to nature,
then to distinguish
what things are in our power.
In our power are will and all acts
depending on will.
Things not in our power are the body, possessions,
relatives,
country, and all with whom we live in society.
Thus
we should transfer the concept of the good
to what is within our
power.
To look after my own interest may lead to taking the land
of a neighbor, which is the origin of wars,
civil commotion, tyrannies,
and conspiracies.
It is circumstances which reveal what people
are.
Therefore when a difficulty falls on you,
remember that God
is training you.
Keep by all means what is your own,
and do not
desire what belongs to others.
Fidelity and virtuous shame are
yours.
Who can take them from you?
Who will hinder you using them?
But when you act by seeking what is not your own,
you lose what
is your own.
The law of life is to act according to nature.
We
should realize that consequences will not escape us.
Nothing else can conquer will except will itself,
and opinion
conquers itself and is not conquered by another.
Since the law
of nature is that the superior overpowers the
inferior, why not
use the superior principles?
Epictetus admitted that the man who
stole his lamp was
superior in wakefulness; but he bought the
lamp
at the price of becoming a thief.
Epictetus explained that
caution should be used in things
that are dependent on the will,
but we may employ confidence
in those things not within our power.
Yet many do the reverse and attempt to avoid
what is not within
their power,
resulting in fear and being disturbed.
We can be
confident about death, because it is inevitable;
but we can be
cautious about the fear of death
since that is within our power.
Many think that only the free should be educated;
but philosophers
believe that only the educated are free.
God does not allow those
not educated to be free.
No one in a state of fear or sorrow or
perturbation is free;
but the one who is free of those is delivered
from servitude.
If you run after externals, you must ramble up
and down
in obedience to the will of your master,
who is the one
who has power over
the things you seek to gain or avoid.
Epictetus
argued that divination is useless,
because it does not explain
anything about good or evil.
When one known for adultery came to him, Epictetus noted
that laying aside fidelity to make designs on a neighbor's wife
destroys
a person of fidelity, modesty, and sanctity.
One is also overthrowing
neighborhood, friendship,
and community, for who will trust that
person?
Modest actions preserve the modest person;
immodest actions
destroy that.
The same is true with fidelity.
Shamelessness strengthens
the shameless person,
faithlessness the faithless, abusive words
the abusive person,
anger the person with an angry temper,
and
unequal giving and receiving makes
the avaricious even more so.
This is why philosophers admonish us not to be satisfied
with
learning only, but they urge us to add study and practice.
For
we often have long been
accustomed to doing contrary things.
Just
as the adulterer loses modesty and temperance,
so the angry person
loses temper, and the coward fortitude.
No one is bad without
suffering some loss and damage;
though if you look at money only,
they may gain in that.
Epictetus asked why he should respond to
an unjust act
with an unjust act since that would be
hurting himself
because the other had hurt himself.
Philosophers weigh and test rules of behavior by examining
and confirming them; then when they are known,
the wise and good
use them.
Epictetus suggested that the way to cast away sadness,
fear,
desire, envy, malevolence, avarice, effeminacy, and
intemperance is by looking only to God with your affection
and consecrating
yourself to divine commands.
Any other way compels one to be overcome
by stronger things,
and then one will never be able to find tranquillity.
In struggling against appearances he observed that
the affections
of the soul easily become habits.
So being angry feeds the fire
of that habit.
Being overcome by sexual intercourse increases
incontinence.
Corresponding acts strengthen those habits.
If you
wish not to be angry, count the days
on which you have not been
angry.
The habit will weaken as you experience more peaceful days;
when you reach thirty days or more,
the habit may be completely
destroyed.
Epictetus commended himself for abstaining
when a woman stripped and lay down next to him
and even tempted him with fondling.
He exhorted us to be willing to appear beautiful to God
in purity
with our own pure self and God.
In regard to friendship Epictetus believed that only those
who understand the good can also know how to love.
How can those
unable to distinguish good from bad
possess the power to love?
Thus true loving is only in the power of the wise.
Everyone is
attached to their own interest,
for wherever the "I"
and "Mine" are placed, the animal inclines.
If it is
in the flesh, then that is the ruling power;
if in the will, then
it is there; and if in externals, it is there.
Only when I am
where my will is, may I be a friend
as I should be; for then my
interest will be to maintain fidelity,
modesty, patience, abstinence,
and cooperation.
If I separate myself from honesty, Epictetus
concluded,
then the doctrine of Epicurus, that honesty is only
what
opinion holds, becomes strong.
Can there be friendship without
honest communication?
Give thanks to God for things like wine and oil that
you receive, but remember that God gives you
something better, the ability
to use them, prove them,
and estimate the value of each.
Eyes
see, but whether we should look upon the wife
of someone else
and in what manner is decided by the will.
Whether we believe
what is said or not and whether
we are moved by it or not are
also
in the faculty of the will.
The will makes use of everything
else
and can even destroy the whole person.
Can anything be stronger
than this?
Why then are the things subject to restraint
often
stronger than what is not?
Those who do not know who they are
nor for what purpose they exist, what the world is,
with whom
they are associated,
what things are good and bad,
beautiful and
ugly, who do not understand discourse
nor demonstration nor what
is true or false
and cannot distinguish them, will neither desire
according to nature nor turn away nor move upward
nor intend nor
assent nor dissent nor suspend judgment.
Such people go around
blind thinking
they are somebody when they are nobody.
Every error
is a contradiction,
because those who err do not wish to do so;
but they do not do what they wish to do.
Thieves seek their own
interest, but do they achieve it?
Show the rational faculty a
contradiction,
and it will withdraw from it.
If you do not show
it,
blame yourself instead of the one not persuaded.
Just as it is the nature of every soul to assent to the true,
dissent from the false, and withhold judgment
from what is uncertain,
so it is its nature to move
toward the good, turn away from the
evil,
and feel neutral toward what is neither good nor evil.
Yet
we often make judgments about things that lie outside
the province
of moral purpose and so weep and sigh.
Misfortune, strife, disagreement,
fault-finding, accusing,
and impiety are all such judgments.
Epictetus
recommended the arrogant practice submission
when you are reviled
and not being disturbed
when you are insulted.
Then you will make
progress so that even if someone hits you,
you will not react.
Neighbors may be bad for themselves; but for me
they can be good,
because they exercise
my good disposition and fair-mindedness.
Epictetus called this the "magic wand of Hermes,"
which
turns what it touches into gold.
Bring whatever you will, and
I will turn it into a good.
Disease, death, poverty, reviling,
danger to one's life in court—
all these become helpful when
treated
as challenges to the good will.
Let not someone else acting contrary to nature
become an evil
for you; for you are born not to be humiliated
nor to suffer misfortune
but to share good fortune.
God made all humanity to be happy and
serene,
giving us resources, some our own and others not our own.
What is subject to hindrance, deprivation, and compulsion
are
not our own;
but those which cannot be hindered are our own.
God
gives us the ability to distinguish
the true nature of the good
and evil.
Epictetus recommended we become affectionate as a person
of noble spirit who is fortunate; for it is against nature
to
be abject or broken in spirit or depend on something
other than
yourself or to blame either God or other people.
Yet in loving
others remember they are mortal,
as generals riding in triumph
are reminded by one standing behind.
They are not one of your
possessions but have been given to
you temporarily like figs or
clusters of grapes in certain seasons.
To want such fruit in the
winter is foolish.
The longest chapter in the Discourses of Epictetus
is
on freedom.
The free live according to their will and are not
subject to
compulsion nor hindrance nor force.
Their choices are
unhampered; they attain their desires;
and their aversions do
not fall into what they would avoid.
Epictetus asked who wishes
to live in error, deceived,
impetuous, unjust, unrestrained, peevish,
or abject?
The answer is no one.
Thus no bad person lives according
to their will,
and no bad person is free.
For no one wishes to
live in grief, fear, envy, pity,
desiring things and failing to
get them,
avoiding things and falling into them.
Epictetus pointed
out that even the friend of Caesar
is not relieved of hindrance
or compulsion
nor does that one live securely or serenely.
Whoever
possesses the science of how to live
cannot help but be a master.
True human nature is not to bite or kick or throw into prison
or behead, but to do good, work together,
and pray for the success
of others.
Therefore one is doing badly when one acts unfeelingly.
Epictetus cited Socrates and Diogenes
as the greatest exemplars
of freedom.
He concluded that freedom is not satisfying what you
desire
but is gained by destroying your desires.
He suggested
keeping vigils to acquire judgment that will
free you, and he
recommended devoting yourself
to a philosopher instead of to a
rich old man.
Epictetus warned against continuing to associate too much
with
those descending to lower levels, or you will ruin yourself.
Remember
that nothing is done without paying for it
and that one will not
remain the same person
if one does not do the same things.
Choose,
therefore, what you prefer.
He asked why you blame the one who
gives you all
when something is withdrawn from you.
When you have
lost some external thing,
ask yourself what you have acquired
in its place.
If this is more valuable, do not say you have suffered
a loss but made an exchange.
By paying attention to your sense
impressions and watching
over them you are guarding self-respect,
fidelity, and mental
constancy undisturbed by passion, pain, fear,
or confusion.
In this way one may be free and a friend of God.
Regardless of what the external object may be,
the value you put
on it makes you subservient to someone else.
Epictetus emphasized
self-improvement.
If you see any of the things that you have learned
and studied thoroughly coming to fruition for you
in action, rejoice in these things.
If you have put away or reduced a malignant
disposition and reviling or impertinence or foul
language or recklessness or negligence;
if you are not moved by the things that once
moved you, or at least not to the same degree,
then you can keep festival day after day;
today because you behaved well in this action,
tomorrow because you behaved well in another.
How much greater cause for thanksgiving is this
than a consulship or a governorship?
These things come to you from your own self
and from the gods.
Remember who the Giver is, and to whom He gives,
and for what end.
If you are brought up in reasonings such as these,
can you any longer raise the questions
where you are going to be happy,
and where you please God?5
The fine and good do not contend with anyone, nor do they,
as far as they have power, allow others to contend.
Epictetus
urged people to announce that they are at peace
with all people,
no matter what they do.
He even suggested being amused at those
who think they are hurting you.
He pointed out that the opinions
of others are in the class
of things outside one's sphere of moral
purpose
and beyond one's control.
So if you are disturbed by the
opinions of others,
do you still fancy that you have been persuaded
as to what things are good and evil?
Epictetus found his true
emancipation in God
by knowing divine commands.
No one could make
a slave of him although
they might master his body or property.
Their power still did not extend beyond those things to him.
He
chose to wish what takes place; for he regarded
God's will as
better than his will.
He attached himself to God as a servant
and follower,
making his choice and desire and will one with God's.
He was not frightened by threats made against his body;
for he
knew that he was not flesh, bones, and muscles
but that which
employs them,
that which governs the impressions of the senses
and understands them.
Epictetus taught,
You have but to will a thing, and it has happened;
the reform has been made; as, on the other hand,
you have but to drop into a doze and all is lost.
For it is within you that both destruction
and deliverance lie.
But what good do I get after all that?
And what greater good than this are you looking for?
Instead of shameless, you will be self-respecting;
instead of faithless, faithful;
instead of dissolute, self-controlled.
If you are looking for anything else greater than
these things, go ahead and do what you are doing;
not even a god can any longer save you.6
There is no activity in life to which attention does not extend.
Is not attention always better than inattention?
Epictetus suggested
paying attention to general principles,
that no one is master
of another's moral principles.
Thus no one has the power to procure
good for me
nor to involve me in evil,
but I alone have authority
over myself in these.
When these are secure, there is no excuse
for being disturbed about external things.
I have but one whom
I must please and obey;
that is God, and after God, myself.
God
commends me to myself and subjects me alone
to my moral purpose,
giving me standards for its correct use.
Epictetus hoped that
death would find him occupied with these
things so that he could
say to God that the faculties he received
enabled him to understand
God's governance and to follow it,
that he did not dishonor God,
that he dealt with his senses
and his preconceptions without blaming
God,
that he was not discontented with what happened nor did he
wish it otherwise, that he did not violate his relationships
with
others, and that he was grateful for what God gave him.
The Encheiridion or Handbook of Epictetus summarizes
many of his teachings and includes more preaching.
He noted that
our duties are generally measured by our
social relationships
to a father or brother or neighbor
or citizen or a commanding
officer.
Even if they are bad or wrong you, you can still maintain
your good relation with them.
For no one will harm you without
your consent,
and you are only harmed
when you think you have
been harmed.
Epictetus contrasted the position and character of
the average,
who never expect benefit or harm from themselves
but from those outside, with the philosopher,
who expects every
benefit or harm to come from oneself.
He summarized the signs
of those making progress as follows:
They blame no one, praise no one, fault no one,
accuse no one, say nothing about themselves
as though being someone or knowing something.
If someone praises them, they laugh to themselves
at the one praising; if blamed, they make no defense.
They go around like the feeble, taking care about
moving any of what is set, until it has been fixed.
They keep out of themselves every desire;
and they transfer aversion only to things
against nature in our power.
They use unrestrained effort toward everything.
If they seem foolish or unlearned, they do not care.
In a word, as a treacherous enemy
they guard themselves.7
Such were the teachings of the man
born a slave who found freedom
within himself.
Hadrian was born on January 24 in 76 CE.
After his father died
ten years later,
one of his guardians was Trajan.
He studied Greek
culture so enthusiastically
that he was called "Little Greek."
His military training began at 15, and he was a military tribune
in Lower Moesia, where an astrologer told him
he would be Emperor.
Hadrian was favored by Trajan and married his grandniece.
He served
under Trajan in the Dacian war and commanded
a legion in the second
campaign.
Trajan gave him four million sesterces to put on games and
then appointed him praetorian governor of Lower Pannonia,
where he restrained the Sarmatians,
maintained military discipline,
and checked wayward procurators.
Hadrian was made a consul in
108 and,
through the favor of Trajan's wife Plotina, for 118.
While he was governor of Syria at Antioch,
he received his letter
of adoption by the Emperor
in August 117 only a few days before
news of Trajan's death.
His possession of a large military force
in the area
facilitated his taking power, though rumors spread
that
Hadrian had bribed Trajan's freedmen and cultivated
his boy
favorites by having frequent sexual relations with them.
As Emperor Hadrian began by giving
a double donative to soldiers.
He gave up all territory beyond the Euphrates, making
Parthian king Parthamaspates ruler over neighboring peoples.
Provinces
Trajan had annexed in Armenia, Mesopotamia,
and Assyria, were
abandoned.
Hadrian disarmed Lusius Quietus by taking away the
Moorish tribesmen under his command,
because he suspected him
of wanting imperial power.
It was said he refused to execute other
conspirators,
though a procurator killed Frugi Cassius in exile.
After the Jews were suppressed, Hadrian appointed
Marcius Turbo
to put down an uprising in Mauretania.
Then he transferred Turbo
to Pannonia and Dacia
while he headed for Moesia,
where he made
peace with the Roxolani king.
While Hadrian was away, the Senate
ordered four
of Trajan's consular generals executed for plotting
to murder Hadrian, including Lusius Quietus.
To gain favor in 118 Hadrian burned in the Forum records
of
900,000,000 sesterces of debt, remitting private debts
owed to
the imperial treasury for fifteen years.
He made grants to senators
whose property had fallen below
that required by the senatorial
register,
and he bestowed largesses on those in public offices
and to help women maintain their social positions.
He produced
a gladiatorial show for six days,
and a thousand wild beasts appeared
in the arena
on his birthday,
though he refused circus games on
other days.
Hadrian tightened discipline in the army by reducing luxuries
and by improving arms and equipment.
He used soldier "foragers"
to spy on provincial staffs.
Hadrian instituted a law forbidding
senators
from farming out taxes.
His passion for young men and
married women
did not always endear him to his friends.
Hadrian
made Roman administration more professional
by excluding imperial
household freedmen, enabling the
equestrian class to dominate
government departments
with three grades of officials.
Civilian
careers were distinguished from military ones,
and the secretariat
separated Latin and Greek correspondence.
Annual edicts of praetors
were codified into law by the
distinguished jurist Salvius Julianus.
By now imperial edicts had completely replaced the
legislation
of the old tribal assembly.
The rights of minors, women, and slaves
were protected
by law from abusive parents and masters.
A slave
could not be sold to a pimp or a gladiatorial trainer
without
cause, and Hadrian abolished workhouses
for slaves and freedmen.
Yet by now citizens had been divided into a superior class
(honestiores)
of senators, knights, landowners, soldiers,
civil servants, and
municipal counselors with more rights
and milder penalties than
the inferior class (humiliores)
of everyone else.
In the provinces political power tended to concentrate
among the wealthy, who supported and thus
controlled much of local government.
As these families passed on their wealth, hereditary
aristocracies
tended to develop.
Hadrian promoted education by endowing professorial
chairs
in the provinces and by supporting municipal schools.
Hadrian
honored and supported the arts,
though he occasionally interfered
by imposing his own ideas.
Hadrian traveled more than any other
Emperor,
spending half his reign outside of Italy.
He aided allied
and subject cities by supporting their
water supplies, harbors,
food, public works, and treasuries.
According to Dio Cassius he
was able to stop rioting in
Alexandria with a letter of reproach.
These supportive measures and Rome's well disciplined
army lessened
uprisings, and Hadrian arbitrated
differences between countries.
In 129 Hadrian's conference with kings and princes
of the East
established vassals to protect the frontier.
Hadrian had a continuous
wooden palisade built in Raetia
and Upper Germany, and long stone
walls
were constructed in Britain and Numidia.
At Jerusalem a city was rebuilt and named Aelia Capitolina
after his family name.
This new temple to Jupiter, Hadrian's refusal
to allow the Jews
to rebuild their temple, and his prohibition
of circumcision
provoked another major revolt by the Jews
after
he left the region.
Rebel Jews, led by the Messianic Simon Bar-Kochba,
took advantageous positions and
strengthened them with walls and
mines.
The Roman governor of Judea, Tinnius Rufus, had to retreat,
as rebels took over most of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee.
Hadrian
sent for his governor in Britain, Julius Severus,
to conduct the
war in 132.
Severus used his large army to intercept small groups
and starve the rest, destroying fifty important outposts
and 985
small villages.
The great stronghold at Bethar was attacked by
100,000 Roman soldiers, and in three days
all the inhabitants
were massacred.
According to Dio Cassius 580,000 were killed in
raids and
battles, and untold numbers died of famine, disease,
and fire,
making Judea desolate.
Many Romans were also killed
in this war that lasted until 135.
This war and the persecution of Jews that followed
separated
Jews from the Jewish Christians,
who tended to give up their Judaic traditions.
Hadrian particularly
ordered his officers to punish those
assembling in schools or
ordaining disciples.
Ishmael complained that sinful Rome inflicted
such severe laws
on them that unless they stopped marrying and
having children,
they would have to transgress some religious
laws for a time.
Some Tannaim (scholars) were willing to suffer
death
rather than give up their meetings at schools,
including
Ishmael and Akiba, who died under the tortures
of Rufus, rejoicing
that he could love God
with his life and saying finally, "God
is one."8
Another war broke out when the Alani led by Pharasmanes
revolted
in Media, Armenia, and Cappadocia,
but the governor of Cappadocia
persuaded them to stop.
In 136 Hadrian adopted the young senator
Ceionius Commodus as Lucius Aelius Caesar.
This led to his closest
male relative, Pedanius Fuscus,
being executed and his grandfather
Julius Fuscus Servianus,
Hadrian's brother-in-law, committing
suicide
in a suspected conspiracy.
Lucius died, and in 138 Hadrian
chose the wealthy senator
Aurelius Antoninus, who was 51 and had
no sons.
Hadrian also had Antoninus
adopt 16-year-old Marcus Aurelius
and the 7-year-old son of Lucius, Lucius Verus,
so that future
Emperors would be prudent.
Hadrian was prevented from committing
suicide
but he died after he abandoned his careful diet.
Antoninus of Gallic origin was born on September 19 in 86 CE
and was brought up at Lorium by his grandparents.
Several reasons
were given to explain why he was called Pius,
but they all indicate
he was loyal, conservative, and pious.
He used his large fortune
to assist many people
with loans at only four percent.
He had
been a munificent quaestor, a distinguished praetor,
and was consul
in 120.
Hadrian chose Antoninus as one of four ex-consuls
to administer
a portion of Italy.
He also won praise for his proconsulship of
Asia.
As one of Hadrian's council at Rome,
he always recommended
merciful judgments.
When Antoninus became Emperor in 138, he gave
a largess to the soldiers and people from his own funds
and contributed
much to Hadrian's public works.
Girls received state support and
were called
Faustinians in honor of his wife.
He did not refuse
the circus games for his birthday,
but he rejected other honors.
Antoninus oversaw various wars, conquering northern Britain
through his legate Lollius Urbicus and erecting another wall,
forcing the Moors to make peace in Mauretania,
and crushing rebellions
by
Germans, Dacians, Greeks, Egyptians, and Jews.
He ordered his
procurators to levy moderate tribute
and made those who exceeded
the limit accountable.
The author of the Augustan history credited
him with
assisting many communities financially.
Also his letter
was said to have stopped the
Parthian king from assaulting the
Armenians.
Antoninus sent auxiliary soldiers to the Black Sea
area
to help the Olbiopolitans defeat the Tauroscythae.
His efforts
were to maintain peace, as he often quoted Scipio
that he would
prefer to save one citizen
than kill a thousand enemies.
Antoninus listened to complaints and pardoned those
who had
been condemned by Hadrian.
It was said that he brought the imperial
eminence down
to the ordinary citizen, and court servants complained
they had no more secret information to sell
nor could they intimidate
people.
Informers were squelched, and confiscation of property
became more rare than ever.
Atilius Titianus was charged with
usurpation
and was punished by the Senate.
In 145 Cornelius Priscianus
in Spain was charged with
attempted usurpation and took his own
life.
In both these cases the Emperor forbade
investigation of
conspiracy.
Those who were convicted of corrupt administration
had
their estates restored to their children if they restored
what had been taken from the provincials.
Antoninus bestowed honors
and salaries
on rhetoricians and philosophers in all provinces.
Antoninus removed salaries from those doing nothing,
including
the lyric poet Mesomedes.
He kept close watch on the accounts
and taxes of the provinces.
He gave his private fortune to his
daughter
while donating its interest to the republic.
Antoninus
sold superfluous imperial assets and lived on his
own private
estates according to season.
He stayed in Rome to be at the center
of communications.
A new law invalidated bequests made to avoid
a penalty.
During scarcity his own treasury bought wine, oil,
and grain,
and these were freely given to people.
When his daughter
Faustina married Marcus Aurelius in 145,
Antoninus gave another
donative to soldiers.
When Marcus wept after one of his teachers
died
and was reprimanded by the court, the Emperor told them
to
let him be human, because neither philosophy
nor imperial power
can take away feelings.
Antoninus set a limit to expenses on gladiatorial
games
and put the posting service under careful management.
He
accounted for everything to the Senate and by edicts.
He died
in 161 of a fever, praised by all according to the
historian for
his dutifulness, clemency, intelligence, and purity.
Marcus Aurelius was born at Rome April 26 in 121.
His father
died when he was about three,
and Marcus was brought up by his
paternal grandfather.
The Emperor Hadrian supervised his upbringing,
enrolling him
in the equestrian order at six and in the
college
of Salian priests two years later.
At the age of twelve Marcus
began attending lectures of Stoics
and other philosophers and
jurists.
When Marcus assumed the toga of manhood in 136,
Hadrian
had him betrothed to the
daughter of Lucius Commodus.
Two years
later Marcus became the son of his
uncle Antoninus as both were
adopted
into the royal Aurelian family.
When Pius became Emperor,
he had Marcus betrothed
instead to his daughter Faustina although
she was too young to marry for seven years.
The next year Marcus
jumped from quaestor to serve
as consul with Emperor Antoninus,
and he was given the name Caesar.
During the 23 years that Antoninus
Pius reigned
Marcus was only separated from his new father on
two nights.
No one ever had more domestic training to become Emperor,
but he had no experience in the provinces.
When Pius died in 161, the Senate made
Marcus Aurelius Emperor,
though he was the first to share
that honor by making Lucius Commodus
his equal.
They promised each soldier a bounty of 20,000 sesterces
(several years' wages) with more for higher ranks.
After two long
reigns of relative peace,
wars were beginning to break in on the
Roman empire.
Calpurnius Agricola was sent against the Britons,
and Aufidius Victorinus took on the Chatti invading Germany.
Parthian
king Vologases III entered Armenia, which was
protected by Rome
and installed an
Arsacid relative named Pacorus.
Rome's Cappadocia
governor Sedatius Severianus took a
legion into Armenia, but Parthian
forces led by Chosrhoes
destroyed them at Elegia, Severianus committing
suicide.
After the Parthians defeated and sent fleeing Roman forces
under Syrian governor Attidius Cornelianus, the Senate
agreed
to appoint Lucius himself to take command
of the war while Marcus
ruled in Rome.
Lucius lived in luxury in Antioch and its resort
town of Daphne
while his legates waged war.
By 163 forces led
by Statius Priscus (transferred from Britain)
had captured Artaxata
in Armenia,
and a New City
was built thirty miles closer to the
Roman border.
Lucius crowned as king of Armenia an Arsacid prince
named
Sohaemus, who had become a Roman senator and consul.
Marcus deferred to the Senate by allowing ex-consuls
and ex-praetors
to adjudicate legal matters.
He reformed the law so that all youths
could receive guardians
without special reasons,
and he improved
the child welfare system.
In cases involving slaves Marcus leaned
toward giving them
freedom instead of treating them as property.
During a famine he gave Roman grain to the Italian communities.
Marcus limited gladiatorial spectacles and
what could be donated
to theatrical performances.
The Augustan historian concluded that
he restored the old laws
instead of making new ones,
and he described
his affect on people as follows:
Towards the people, indeed, he conducted himself
no differently than is the case under a free state.
He was in all matters a very great influence for
moderation, in deterring people from evil and
urging them to good deeds, generous in rewarding
and mild in granting pardon; and he made the bad
good and the good very good, even bearing
with restraint criticism from several quarters.9
In 165 Roman forces moved into Mesopotamia,
occupying Edessa
and Nisibis, while restoring
the pro-Roman Mannus in Osrhoene.
Avidius Cassius moved down the Euphrates;
his army was welcomed
into the large Hellenic city
of Seleucia, enabling them to capture
Ctesiphon
and burn the palace of Vologases.
Many blamed the plague
on the destruction of Seleucia
after an agreement had been made.
The returning army would spread perhaps ancient history's
worst
epidemic all the way back to Rome itself.
Romans crossed the Tigris
and invaded Parthian Media in 166.
The province of Syria was enlarged,
and the departing
Roman army left garrisons at key places
such
as Kaine Polis (New City) and Nisibis.
That year Marcus named
his son Commodus Caesar,
and the Augustan historian explained
his crude character by
the allegation of the empress Faustina's
passion for a gladiator.
As the Parthian War was winding down, 6,000 Langobardi
and
Obii crossed the Ister (Danube) into Pannonia;
but they were routed
and driven back by the Roman cavalry
under Vindex and the infantry
commanded by Candidus.
Eleven tribes sent envoys led by Marcomanni
king
Ballomarius and made peace with Iallius Bassus,
the Roman
governor of Upper Pannonia.
Germans crossed the Rhine and headed
toward Italy,
but Marcus sent forces under
Pompeianus and Pertinax
to stop them.
The Marcomanni were also causing trouble.
So with
Cassius in charge of all Asia, in 168 both Emperors
went north
to fight them,
but at the end of that year Lucius died of apoplexy.
While the plague was killing many thousands of civilians
and soldiers,
Marcus Aurelius used diplomacy and his army
to control the Marcomanni,
Sarmatian Jazyges, Vandals,
and Quadi, liberating the Pannonian
provinces.
In exchange for their alliance some tribes were given
land in
Dacia, Pannonia, Moesia, Roman Germany, and even in Italy;
but after an uprising in Ravenna,
Marcus banished them from Italy.
The Astingi and the Lacringi aided Marcus and eventually
were
allowed to settle in Dacia.
However, the Cotini broke their promises
and were later destroyed.
Twice as many recruits were needed in 169;
slaves were given
their freedom for volunteering; special units
of gladiators were
formed;
and bandits were used as guerrilla fighters.
The war drained
the treasury so much that for two months
Marcus Aurelius held
an auction in the Forum to sell
imperial furnishings, jewelry,
and even his wife's
embroidered clothing.
Also the imperial currency
was debased.
The next Roman offensive was defeated, and the "barbarian"
tribes invaded Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece,
even destroying
the mysteries temple at Eleusis.
Marcus used imperial money frugally
but assisted towns on the brink of ruin.
Enemy prisoners were
treated fairly.
Yet the Romans had so many captured that Marcus
passed
a law that ransomed captives did not gain their freedom
until they repaid the amount of the ransom.
In 172 a tribe of
Egyptian shepherds
led by the priest Isidorus defeated the Romans
in Egypt
and almost captured Alexandria;
but Cassius was sent
with forces from Syria
and managed to divide and conquer them.
Meanwhile the Roman army drove the Jazyges
back across the
frozen Danube.
Marcus refused to negotiate with the Quadi,
because
they had deceived him and joined the Jazyges.
When the Quadi expelled
their king Furtius and on their own
chose Ariogaesus king, Marcus
would not recognize him
nor renew their treaty even though they
promised
to return 50,000 captives if he did.
Marcus put a price
on the head of Ariogaesus,
though
when he was captured, he merely
sent him to Alexandria.
When the Quadi surrounded thirsty Romans,
a miraculous rainstorm (claimed to have been caused by an
Egyptian
magician or by Christian prayers)
saved the Roman soldiers.
The
Quadi were then defeated.
Marcus suffered from some condition
in his chest and stomach,
and he began taking a daily antidote (theriac)
containing opium prescribed for him
by the famous
physician Galen.
In 175 Avidius Cassius led a rebellion in the east,
and so
Marcus Aurelius came to terms with the Jazyges
without his usual
consultation with the Senate,
and the Jazyges returned 100,000
captives.
They were required to live twice as far from the Danube
as the Quadi and Marcomanni.
The Jazyges then contributed 8,000
cavalry to the
Roman alliance, 5,500 being sent to Britain.
Marcus
told the soldiers and wrote to the Senate
that he would have been
willing to argue before them
or the Senate what is best for the
state;
but Cassius would not consent to that,
and his rebellion
had already started a civil war.
Marcus hoped that he would be
able to pardon Cassius,
but that was not to be.
The Senate declared
Cassius a public enemy,
and he was put to death along with his
son
and the prefect he had appointed.
Marcus did pardon others,
including communities
like Antioch that had sided with Cassius.
A few were executed, because they had committed
overt crimes on
their own account.
To show he was free of guilt Marcus was initiated into the
Eleusinian mysteries, and he
established teachers at Athens
in every branch of knowledge.
At
Alexandria he negotiated a peace treaty with the
Parthian kings
and ambassadors.
Faustina gave Marcus many children,
most of whom
died quite young.
When she died, he chose not to remarry and put
a
step-mother over his children;
so he took a concubine instead.
In 177 Marcus made his son Commodus co-Emperor
even though he
was only fifteen.
In a case of matricide the two wrote that if
the defendant
is determined insane, punishment should not be considered,
because insanity is punishment enough.
The insane may be kept
in chains though for public security.
A husband who killed his
wife when caught in adultery
was acquitted of capital murder.
Because of the shortage of gladiators, Marcus allowed
his procurator
in Gaul to sell criminals condemned to death.
An archaic ritual
there had demand human sacrifices;
now Rome was supplying victims
for six gold pieces each.
In 178 Marcus canceled all debts to
the imperial treasury
back as far as 133, and the documents
were
publicly burned in the Forum.
He was moved to tears by a request
from Aelius Aristeides
on the earthquake at Smyrna and consented
to rebuild the city.
The last two years of his life Marcus spent fighting the
Marcomanni,
Hermunduri, Jazyges Sarmatae, and the Quadi.
Marcus granted concessions
to an embassy of the Jazyges
after they proved useful to him.
Marcus had Roman forces stop the Quadi from migrating
to the land
of the Senones to show that he did not want
their land but to
punish them for their previous behavior.
The historian Dio Cassius
speculated that Marcus would
have subdued the entire region if
he had lived longer.
When he became ill, he stopped eating
to
bring on death sooner, which came in 180.
Often translated Meditations, Marcus Aurelius wrote
down the
thoughts he wanted to remember in twelve short books
entitled
To Himself or To Oneself.
The first book
describes the character traits
he learned from various people.
He learned courtesy and serenity from his grandfather;
manliness
without ostentation from his father; piety, generosity,
and simplicity
from his mother; to be skeptical from Diognetus;
that his character
needed work from Rusticus;
to make decisions for himself from
Apollonius;
kindness and patience from Sextus; to watch out for
fault-finding from the critic Alexander; from the rhetorician
Fronto that malice and duplicity go with absolute power;
to take
seriously a friend's reproach from Catullus;
to love his relations,
truth, and justice from Severus;
self-control and cheerfulness
from Maximus;
and many things from his father Antoninus including
lenience,
decisiveness, diligence, rewarding merit,
and efforts
to suppress pederasty.
The Emperor also helped to cure him of
pomposity and to
realize he could live at court without royal
escorts.
Marcus found the qualities of his brother Lucius a continual
challenge to his own self-discipline.
Much of the correspondence
between Marcus and Fronto
still exists, showing his lessons in
rhetoric
and their concern for each other's well being.
Rusticus
exposed Marcus to the Discourses of Epictetus.
Marcus reminded himself that the offenses of others
he encountered
are caused by ignorance
of what is good and evil.
Thus they cannot
injure him.
Rather than be angry with his brother,
he can work
together with him like two hands.
The Stoic view is that one is
flesh (physical body),
breath (spirit), and reason (mind) that
rules all.
Marcus concentrated on reason.
Time is to be used to
advance one's enlightenment.
He resolved to do what is correct
with dignity, humanity,
independence, and justice,
freeing his
mind from other considerations.
By approaching each action as
if it were one's last he dismissed
wayward thoughts, emotional
reactions, the desire to impress,
self-admiration, and discontent
with one's lot.
If you are distracted by outward cares, allow
yourself quiet
space to know the good and curb restlessness.
No
one can hinder you from conforming
to Nature in word and deed.
At any time one can withdraw from life.
Yet living and dying,
honor and dishonor, pain and pleasure,
riches and poverty, and
so on are neither good nor evil,
for they neither elevate nor
degrade.
Hold fast to the divine spirit within and serve it loyally
by keeping it pure from passion, aimlessness, and discontent.
To quarrel with circumstances is to rebel against Nature,
for
Nature includes our individual nature.
It is also wrong to reject
or oppose
a fellow creature with malicious intent.
A third self-inflicted
wrong is surrendering to pleasure or pain;
fourth is being insincere
or false; and
fifth is wasting energy without purpose or thought.
A philosopher keeps the divine spirit unscathed within,
transcending
all pleasure and pain, acting with purpose and
without falsehood,
not depending on another's actions,
accepting everything as coming
from the same Source
as oneself, and waiting graciously for death
as a mere dissolving of the elements.
A person aspiring to the heights, who makes full use of the
indwelling power that keeps one unsullied by pleasure or insult,
is a minister of the gods.
The greatest contest is the struggle
to master passions.
Why ask what others are saying or doing
unless
the public interest requires it?
One should fix one's attention
on one's own concerns in
the universal web to see that one's actions
are honorable,
believing one is under a higher direction and not
forgetting
the brotherhood of all rational beings nor that a concern
for every person is proper for humanity.
The secret of cheerfulness
is not depending on help from
outside to find tranquillity but
to stand upright oneself,
not be set up.
Marcus recommended avowing
allegiance to the gods
and compassion for humanity, for all else
is mean and
worthless compared to the deity within.
The most important
task in life is to keep one's mind from
straying from the concerns
of an intelligent and social being.
From your reasoning power
you can gain circumspection,
good relations with your fellow humans,
and conformity with the will of heaven.
Humans live only in the present, and mortal life is a little
thing.
The mind is enlarged by its ability to examine methodically
and
accurately life's experiences in order to understand the purpose
of each and its value to the universe and people as members
of
the universal city in which every city is like a household.
Analyze
each impression.
Does it ask for the moral response of gentleness,
courage,
candor, good faith, sincerity, self-reliance, or another
quality?
Realize that each strand in the complex web comes from
God.
It may be the work of a person
who is ignorant of what Nature
requires.
I, however, may act in accordance with Nature's law
of
brotherhood and deal amiably and fairly with them.
By acting
in conformity with nature and making each word
fearlessly truthful
the good life may be yours.
The inward power that rules us by being true to Nature
will
always adjust itself readily to circumstances.
At any moment one
may retire within oneself,
for the soul is an untroubled retreat.
Do the vices of humanity bother you?
Remember that rational beings
are created for one another,
and toleration is part of justice;
people do not do evil intentionally.
Outward things can never
touch the soul;
so disquiet can only arise from inward fancies.
The universe is change, and life is belief.
Put aside the opinion
that "I have been wronged"
and the feeling will go with
it.
Reject the sense of being injured, and the injury will disappear.
Act according to reason for the common good;
but reconsider any
decision if anyone corrects you and
persuades you of a better
way
to serve justice or the common good.
Time and ease can be
gained by acting justly and ignoring
what neighbors are saying
or doing.
Contentment comes from doing a few things well.
Always
think of the universe as a
living organism with a single soul.
Reserve your right to act according to your own nature and
also the cosmic Nature without being put off by critics
guided
by their own reasons.
Marcus suggested cultivating qualities within
your power
such as sincerity, dignity, industriousness, and sobriety.
Avoid grumbling and be frugal, considerate, and frank.
The fulfillment
of Nature should be viewed
like the health of our body.
Receive
gladly what occurs even if it is unpalatable, for it
balances
the health of the universe and the well-being of God.
If it were
not beneficial to the whole, it would never happen
to the individual;
for Nature's government only brings about
what is designed for
good.
For Marcus the goods a person should value are such things
as prudence, temperance, justice, and courage,
while the goods
of wealth, luxury, and prestige are
what leave no room for personal
ease.
Outward things cannot touch the soul and have no power
to
sway it; for the soul moves itself and has self-approved
standards
to evaluate experience.
Marcus did not concern himself with another
doing wrong;
but he believed he received what the cosmic Nature
willed him to receive, and he acted
as his own nature willed him
to act.
He observed that the Mind of the universe is social,
that
lower forms served the higher,
and the higher are linked in mutual
dependence.
What people set their hearts on in this life is
vanity,
corruption, and trash.
Marcus believed that the best revenge for an offense
is to
refrain from imitating it.
He found and recommended finding delight
in passing
from
one service to the community to another,
keeping
God always in mind.
The one who values the soul aims to keep all
its activities
rational and social, working with others to this
end.
Marcus was willing to change if anyone could prove to him
that he was wrong in thought or deed.
He sought the truth, which
never hurt anyone.
Persisting in self-delusion and ignorance is
what does harm.
He noted that in death Alexander of Macedon
was
no different than a stable-boy.
Marcus recommended keeping oneself
simple, good, pure,
serious, unassuming, kind, affectionate, and
resolute in duty.
Revere the gods and help fellow humans.
Life
is short and bears only the fruit of holiness
inside and selfless
action outside.
Then he exhorted himself to be like his
adopted
father, the previous Emperor.
Be in all things Antoninus's disciple; remember his
insistence on the control of conduct by reason,
his calm composure on all occasions,
and his own holiness; the serenity of his look and
the sweetness of his manner; his scorn of notoriety,
and his zeal for the mastery of facts;
how he would never dismiss a subject until he had
looked thoroughly into it and understood it clearly;
how he would suffer unjust criticisms without
replying in kind; how he was never hasty,
and no friend to tale-bearers; shrewd in his
judgments of men and manners, yet never censorious;
wholly free from nervousness, suspicion,
and over-subtlety; how easily satisfied he was
in such matters as lodging, bed, dress, meals,
and service; how industrious, and how patient;
how, thanks to his frugal diet, he could remain
at work from morning till night without even
attending to the calls of nature until his customary
hour; how firm and constant he was in his friendships,
tolerating the most outspoken amendments;
what reverence, untainted by the smallest trace
of superstition, he showed to the gods.
Remember all this, so that when your own last hour
comes your conscience may be as clear as his.10
Very likely this described Marcus Aurelius
as much as his father.
He wrote that nothing can stop you living according to
your own
personal nature, and nothing can happen to
you
that is against
the laws of the cosmic Nature.
Everything Marcus did, by himself or with another,
was aimed
to serve the harmony of all.
For a rational being acting according
to nature
is acting according to reason.
He advised us, when anyone
offends us, first to ask under
what conception of good and ill
it was committed.
Knowing that, anger will usually give way to
pity.
Withdraw into yourself; for our master reason only asks
us
to act justly and so achieve calm.
Marcus urged us to dig inside
ourselves to the well-spring
of good; always dig, and it will
always flow.
He thought it ridiculous not to flee from one's own
wickedness, which is possible, yet to try to flee
from another's,
which is not possible.
He believed that universal Nature creates
an orderly world,
and so everything happening follows a logical
sequence.
Remembering this helps one face many things more calmly.
Marcus Aurelius believed that what is good for a person
is
what helps to make one just, self-disciplined, courageous,
and
independent; bad is what has the contrary effect.
In considering
any action, ask what the consequences will be.
He wrote that you
may break your heart,
but people will still go on as before.
His
first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.
Second is to look
things in the face and know them
for what they are, remembering
one's duty is to be good.
He urged one to say what you think is
most just,
though with courtesy, modesty, and sincerity.
For Marcus
repentance is remorse for a lost opportunity
to help, because
what is good is always helpful
and must be the concern of every
person.
Yet a good person does not regret
letting an opportunity
for pleasure pass.
Therefore, he concluded, pleasure is neither
good nor helpful.
He considered thoughts of blame out of place.
If you can, correct an offender;
if you cannot, correct the offense;
if both are impossible, what good are recriminations?
Nothing
pointless is worth doing.
From the perspective of the soul Marcus wrote of these three
relationships: to our bodily shell which envelops us,
to the divine
Cause which is the source of all,
and to the fellow mortals around
us.
He wrote, "Accept modestly; surrender gracefully."11
Distress, coming from something external, is not because
of the
thing itself but from your estimate of it;
this is in your power
to revoke at any moment.
If the cause is in your character, then
reform your principles.
Who can hinder you?
If it is failing to
take a sound action that is bothering you,
then why not take it,
instead of worrying?
For the Stoics vice does not injure the universe
nor harm
anyone but the culprit, and one can free oneself from
it
as soon as one chooses.
Even though we are made to help each
other,
still each person's self has sovereign rights.
Otherwise
my neighbor's vice would become my evil.
Marcus believed God has
not willed this, lest my happiness
should be in the power of another.
Yet since people do exist for each other;
you can either improve
them, or put up with them.
Marcus believed that Nature made all rational beings for
mutual
benefit, to help each other and not to do harm.
Injustice is a
sin, as is untruthfulness.
Truth is another name for Nature,
for
to go contrary to truth is mutiny against Nature.
The sinner only
sins against oneself; the wrongdoer wrongs
oneself in becoming
worse by one's action.
If things originate in one intelligent
source and make up
a single body, then no part should complain
of
what happens for the good of the whole.
Instead of praying
to be granted things, Marcus recommended
praying to be delivered
from dreading or lusting or grieving.
When you are indignant with
anyone,
turn your thoughts to yourself; for it is your error
to
have put faith in that person.
If I believe I am a part of the whole under Nature's governing,
then I have a bond of kinship with other similar parts.
Thus I
should not grieve over what is assigned to me
from the Whole,
for what is beneficial to the whole
can never be harmful to a
part.
Nothing outside the Whole can compel it to harm itself.
Thus I should do nothing to injure the common welfare
of fellow
parts but direct every impulse to their good.
In doing this I
will find the current of my life flowing smoothly
as one who consistently
serves people.
In a rare admission Marcus asked whether those
who hunt Sarmatians are anything but robbers.
For the soul to respect other souls like itself implies that
the principle of rationality includes justice.
Marcus urged firmness
in decision and action but at the
same time gentleness to those
who obstruct or molest you.
He listed ten counsels in response
to being offended.
First, remember your close bond with all humans.
Second, consider their characters.
Third, if their action is not
right,
it can only be unintentional or ignorant.
Fourth, you offend
in various ways and are not different.
Fifth, you cannot be sure
they are doing wrong,
for there may be other motives.
Sixth, remind
yourself that mortal life is brief.
Seventh, it is not their action
that annoys,
but your interpretation of it.
Eighth, our anger
is more detrimental
to us than what causes the anger.
Ninth, genuine
kindness is irresistible;
a gentle word of admonition often is
enough.
Tenth, to expect bad people never to do bad things
is
to hope for the impossible; to tolerate their offenses
against
others and expect none against yourself is irrational.
In the last book Marcus encouraged himself (and his readers)
to have done with the past and trust the future to providence
by seeking the paths of holiness and justice—
holiness by a loving
acceptance of what Nature produces
for you, justice in frank and
truthful speech and in action
by respecting law and every person's
rights.
Look for something higher and more godlike within you than
mere instincts and emotions that "twitch you like a
puppet."
Ask what is clouding my understanding at this moment.
Is it fear or jealousy or lust or something else?
He concluded
by commending humans to their cosmopolitan
citizenship so that
without complaining about one's
span of life one may pass on with
a smiling face
under the smile of the one who bids you go.
Juvenal was born to a prosperous family in Aquinum
about 55
CE.
In 78 he commanded a cohort of Dalmatian auxiliaries
and served
in Britain under Agricola.
Juvenal was exiled to Egypt about 93
by Domitian
for criticizing an influential actor at court.
His
five books containing a total of Sixteen Satires
were probably
published between 110 and 130.
His brilliant writing exposed the
moral climate of the empire
and was first used by Christian polemicists
before it became popular in later centuries.
In the First Satire Juvenal asked who could endure the
monstrous city of Rome with so callous a heart and swallow
one's
wrath so as not to write satires when it is crammed
with corpulent
owners, chiseling advocates, and informers.
Who cares for reputation
if one can keep the cash?
A young blade who squanders his family
fortune on race horses
can still get command of a cohort.
One
sees forgers carried on the necks of six porters in a litter.
Honesty may be praised; but honest men freeze
as wealth springs
from crime.
Indignation drove him to verse.
Observing so rich
a crop of vices, Juvenal wondered
when the purse of greed yawned
wider.
The same man who loses ten thousand on a throw of the dice
grudges a shirt to his shivering slave.
Clients used to be guests;
now Roman citizens scramble
for scraps at their patron's doorstep.
Temples worship abstractions like honor, peace, victory, virtue,
or concord; but wealth, not God,
is given the deepest reverence.
Many survive on the dole, a mere pittance.
Juvenal poked fun at
those who waddle to the bath with a
stomach bloated by undigested
peacock meat and die of a
heart attack before they can make a
will.
Every vice reaching its ruinous zenith
gives the satirist
ample material.
No one dares speak against the man, who poisoned
three uncles with belladonna, riding in a feather-bed litter.
In his second satire Juvenal complained of a Roman clique
who
affects peasant virtues and uses high-flown
moral discourse as
a front for their lechery.
Even the worst people despise these
bogus moralists.
Juvenal satirized the prevalence of homosexuality,
noting that
male brides yearn to be noticed in the newspapers.
He wondered what he could do in Rome since he never
learned to
lie, and he refused to be an accomplice in theft,
which meant
no governor would accept him on his staff.
In fact no one could
get to the top easily
if meager resources crippled their talent.
By far the longest satire of Juvenal is the 6th,
his tirade
against women and their sensuality.
He described a decline from
the heralded golden age of Saturn
when chastity lingered until
Justice withdrew to heaven.
In the past poverty had kept Latin
women chaste
by hard work and little sleep.
Now he complained
they were suffering from the evils of a
peace that lasted too
long so that the deadlier invader, luxury,
avenged the world they
conquered.
No lust or crime spares them, as filthy lucre brings foreign
morals, and enervating wealth destroys them
with self-indulgence.
Juvenal described women who completely ignore their
husbands without
giving a thought to all they cost them,
being more a neighbor
than a wife except when
she loathes his friends and slaves or
runs up bills.
In the 7th satire Juvenal noted that all the arts and scholarly
work depended now on Caesar, probably meaning Hadrian.
No one
else who cared could afford
to support such cultural activities.
He concluded this sad commentary on Roman values by
observing
that a school teacher makes less money in a year
than a jockey
gets from one race.
Then he made fun of those
who pride themselves
in their family trees.
For Juvenal virtue remains the one true
nobility,
not a hall lined with waxen busts.
He would be glad
to acknowledge their noble status
regardless of their birth if
they would prove their life
is stainless and that their deeds
and words are always just.
When one finally obtained the reward
of a provincial
governorship, he advised curbing anger and greed
to pity the
destitute local inhabitants whose bones
have been
sucked dry of marrow.
Observe the law, respect the Senate's decrees,
think of the
rewards given to a good ruler, and remember that
their
parliament may strike down with the thunderbolt of justice
governors more piratical than the Cilicians.
The higher a criminal's
position the more public
will be the shame his vices call down
on him.
Juvenal seemed to mature in his later satires.
In the 10th
satire he wrote,
What you ask for, you get.
The Gods aren't fussy, they're willing
To blast you, root and branch, on request.
It's universal,
This self-destructive urge, in civilian and soldier Alike.
The gift of the gab, a torrential facility,
Has proved fatal to so many; so has excessive reliance
On muscle and physical beef.12
Yet most people seemed to be concerned
only with bread and
games.
In spite of the beliefs of the Stoics and Cynics he wondered
who would embrace poor Virtue
naked of the rewards she bestows.
Whole countries have been ruined by the vainglory of a few
who
lusted for power.
Juvenal concluded this satire by suggesting
we ask,
For a sound mind in a sound body, a valiant heart
Without fear of death, that reckons longevity
The least among Nature's gifts, that's strong to endure
All kinds of toil that's untainted by lust and anger,
That prefers the sorrows and labors of Hercules to all
Sardanapalus' downy cushions and women and junketings.
What I've shown you, you can find yourself: there's one
Path, and one way, to a life of peace—through virtue.
Fortune has no divinity, could we but see it: it's we,
We ourselves, who make her a goddess,
and set her in the heavens.13
Juvenal in his 13th satire warned that all evil deeds setting
bad examples end unpleasantly for the doer.
No guilty person can
be acquitted by conscience even if
they have suborned the judge
to award a rigged verdict.
The man, whose temper explodes because
a friend
won't repay capital entrusted to him, he satirized by
asking
if life experience has taught this person nothing.
Juvenal
lamented that dishonesty, which used to be exceptional
and shocking,
is common; it has now been reversed such that
honesty is surprising,
and a decent
God-fearing person is considered a freak.
Like Plutarch,
Juvenal commented on the time lag
in the wrath of the gods.
Some
try to release their guilt by hoping God may be
persuaded to forgive
and by rationalizing that the same crime
may produce the opposite
results of the cross or a royal crown.
Juvenal advised those wanting
to know the truth of human
nature to spend a few days in the courtroom.
Then see if you dare to complain about your own misfortunes.
Juvenal
criticized the vindictive who believe that vengeance
is sweeter
than life itself for being ignorant and letting their
temper flare
up for any trifling excuse or flimsy reason.
Only the small, mean,
weak-willed mind
takes pleasure in paying off scores.
Juvenal
believed that the guilty conscience keeps people
in fear and that
the mind is its own best torturer because
the fear of retribution
is more cruel than what judges devise.
Juvenal's 14th satire is concerned with the bad examples
children
may catch from their parents.
Flogging slaves teaches sadism.
That crimes are copied by the children raised should be a
powerful
motive for steering clear of reprehensible acts.
Juvenal believed
it can be a fine thing to raise another citizen
for your country
as a capable farmer who is also skilled
in the arts of peace and
war.
The practical and moral education one gives a son
can make
a great difference.
Juvenal criticized the law of Moses for not
allowing Jews
to help an uncircumcised stranger.
He believed avarice
has to be taught, because it is against
one's natural instincts.
This vice is deceptive, as it has the semblance of virtue.
In the 15th satire Juvenal noted that only humans have reason,
and yet they kill their own kind more than savage beasts do.
The
ancients crafted hoes, plowshares,
and pruning hooks but not swords.
An Egyptian riot in 127 showed that present fury is not even
satisfied
with killing but even eats human flesh.
In his 16th and last satire
Juvenal suggested that military men
are protected by military
courts from the beatings they give,
and the whole regiment will
turn on anyone
who offends one of theirs.
It is easier to get
someone to perjure oneself against a civilian
than to get someone
to tell the truth
if it is against a soldier's honor or interest.
Greek novels during this period include Xenophon's Ephesian
Tale of Anthia and Habrocomes about a beautiful couple who
are separated and survive various adventures and miraculously
keep their marriage vows intact.
Strongly influenced by Chariton's Chaereas and Callirhoe,
this melodramatic yarn replaces
Aphrodite and Artemis
with Isis as Anthia protects her chastity
in Egypt
by saying she is dedicated to the goddess.
Finally returned
to her beloved husband, Anthia summarizes,
"I have found
you again, after all my wanderings over land
and sea, escaping
robbers' threats and pirates' plots and pimps'
insults, chains,
trenches, fetters, poisons, and tombs."14
Some Greek novels
of the second century only
survive in summaries by the ninth-century
Constantinople patriarch Photius.
Of Antonius Diogenes' The
Wonders Beyond Thule
Photius made the following two observations:
First, that he presents a wrong-doer, even if
he appears to escape countless times,
paying the penalty just the same;
second, that he shows many guiltless people,
though on the brink of great danger,
being saved many times
in defiance of expectations.15
Photius also summarized A Babylonian Story by Iamblichus
which was written between 165 and 180.
The medical writer Theodorus
Priscianus in the fourth century
recommended this story as a stimulant
to those suffering from sexual impotence.
Cleitophon and Leucippe by Achilles Tatius was probably
written in the last half of the second century.
This romantic
adventure is narrated by Cleitophon,
whose father wants him to
marry his half sister Kalligone;
but he falls in love with his
cousin Leucippe.
Kallisthenes takes advantage of a Byzantine law
that a man
who kidnaps a woman and makes her his wife is only
punished by staying married to her, and he abducts Kalligone.
Cleitophon elopes to Egypt with Leucippe, who is captured
by bandits
and is twice thought dead.
Believing her husband Thersandros is
dead, the wealthy Melite
persuades Cleitophon to marry her, although
out of respect
for Leucippe he refrains from consummating it
until
they have left Egypt.
However, Thersandros is alive and prosecutes
Cleitophon
for adultery, while Leucippe under another name
has
become the slave of Thersandros.
After trying to commit suicide
by confessing to Leucippe's
murder, Cleitophon is eventually cleared
in court, while
Leucippe proves her remarkable virginity
in the
temple of Artemis at Ephesus.
In spite of their restraint the
erotic theme of the novel finally
culminates in the marriage of
Cleitophon and Leucippe at Byzantium.
A Greek novel about Lucius from Patrae, who is transformed
by magic into an ass by mistake after he is given sexual lessons
by a woman named the wrestler, was adapted into a more
sophisticated
Latin novel by Apuleius.
Born at the Roman colony Madaura in Morocco
about 124,
Apuleius and his brother inherited two million sesterces.
He studied at Carthage and took up
Platonic philosophy at Athens.
Apuleius freed three slaves and provided education
and dowries
for friends.
He apparently ran short of money after visiting the
Olympic games, but he was helped by Thyasus at Corinth.
He was
initiated into the mysteries of Isis before going
to Rome to study
oratory and become a successful lawyer.
Apuleius traveled to Asia Minor and Egypt,
where he became
ill and married a wealthy older woman,
who soon died.
He was charged
by her family with winning her affection
by magic and causing
her death.
His defense speech discussing magic survived.
He argued
that poverty is no reproach to a philosopher,
because it helps
one to be frugal, temperate,
content with little, eager for praise,
averse to material wealth,
safe and simple in living, and to promote
what is right.
If Apuleius thought that for him to be proved really
poor,
his accuser Aemilianus must show that he is avaricious.
Apuleius described a hypnotic trance in which the mind
may be
lulled to sleep, estranged from the body,
summoned by charms so
that all remembrance of what
is done is banished for a time and
future events may be
presaged before it is restored to its original
nature.
He criticized his prosecutor for accusing him
of what
he knew to be false.
He warned that if one does not have to prove
the case,
anyone could be charged with magic or witchcraft.
Apuleius admitted that he had been initiated into several
mysteries;
but because he was sworn to secrecy,
he would never disclose them.
He reminded Aemilianus of the old saying that
a liar should have
a good memory.
To the evidence that his wife had written that
she was insane
he suggested that is self-contradictory.
He removed
the motive when he showed that he did not inherit
his late wife's
estate that included 400 slaves, but he actually
insisted she
leave it to her greedy son
to release himself from incurring hatred.
Apuleius also wrote three treatises on Platonic philosophy,
including "On the God of Socrates."
The guardian divinity
that connects human souls with God
he described as conscience
that watches, regulates, observes,
reproves evil actions, approves
good ones, and if heeded may
forewarn, monitor doubtful matters,
defend from danger,
assist in need, prevent evil, increase blessings,
aid when depressed, support when falling, lighten darkness,
regulate
prosperity, and modify adversity.
In areas beyond wisdom Socrates
was guided
by this prophetic power.
Apuleius suggested that better
than having wealth and property
is to be well educated, learned
in philosophy, wise,
and skilled in knowledge of the good, for
these things last.
The Florida of Apuleius contains various
anecdotes and
philosophical stories he apparently used in his
public speeches.
He admired the philosophers of India and how
before their
meal the young men would describe the good things
they did or learned that day.
Philosophy taught Apuleius that
better than seeking his own
advantage is to listen to reason and
prefer
what is expedient for the public.
He also described the
life of Pythagoras and how
he imposed silence on his students
for long periods.
Apuleius became a priest of the healing god Asclepius
and also
of Isis and Osiris.
The novel by Apuleius entitled The Transformations
of Lucius
has become popular as The Golden Ass.
Written
in the first person, Lucius visits Hypata in Thessaly,
where he
calls on the wealthy money-lender Milo,
whose "high interest
is the only thing
that has ever interested him highly."16
Their slave girl Fotis engages Lucius in sexual play
as a form of "fighting."
Drinking wine, Lucius believes he killed
three men
who attacked him; but the joke is on him when it is
revealed these were three inflated wine-skins.
Lucius observes
Milo's wife Pamphile use magic
to become an owl.
He wants to fly
also; but Fotis gets the wrong ointment,
and he is transformed
into a jackass
and must eat roses to change back.
Robbers take
goods away from Milo's on the horse of Lucius
and on Lucius himself
to the bandits' cave.
There an old woman tells the story of Cupid
and Psyche.
The beautiful Psyche is put on a cliff and is loved by Cupid,
son of the goddess Venus; but Psyche must never see her lover.
She becomes pregnant, and her child will be divine
if she can
keep her secret.
Psyche's two older sisters make her afraid her
lover is a snake
and urge her to cut off his head.
Using a lamp,
Psyche sees the handsome Cupid,
but some oil burns his shoulder;
he awakes and flies away.
In revenge Psyche gets both sisters,
now queens of cities,
to jump off cliffs to their deaths.
Psyche
searches for Cupid, but he is in heaven.
Venus hears that love
relations on earth are in disorder
because natural affection is
now considered disgusting.
Venus reprimands her son for falling
for this mortal;
but he asks why she is repressing sexual desire
in her own son.
Venus tests Psyche with several tasks, but Psyche
gets
miraculous help from ants, Pan's reed, and Jupiter's eagle,
which enables her to bring back a box of beauty
to Venus from
the underworld.
Jupiter allows Psyche to drink the nectar to become
immortal,
but she must always remain faithful to her lawful husband;
her daughter is named Pleasure.
This charming myth reverses several
elements of Eve's story.
Here curiosity leads to divinity and
the pleasure of sex
while encouraging faithful marriage.
The soul,
instead of dying, becomes immortal.
Lucius as an ass suffers under the loads
of the bandits and
injures his leg.
He tries to escape with the girl Charite; but
they are caught
and about to be punished with horrible deaths
by sewing her
into the ass's belly when the young man Haemus suggests
they sell her to a brothel and becomes the bandits' captain.
Haemus
turns out to be Tlepolemus, the bridegroom of Charite,
and they
kill the bandits.
Lucius runs off to a stud-farm,
where he barely
escapes castration.
Tlepolemus is killed by the wicked Thrasyllus,
who is blinded
by Charite before she slays herself;
Thrasyllus
allows himself to die of starvation.
Lucius is bought by eunuch
priests of the great Syrian goddess.
However, they are arrested
for stealing, and the ass Lucius
is purchased by a baker; then
he is owned
by a market gardener and a centurion.
A councilor's son is nearly stoned to death,
but magistrates
rule the law requires a trial.
In this melodrama the defense is
not allowed to call needed
witnesses; but a respected doctor proves
that the suspected
poison was a drug, and he saves the victim
and the defendant.
The incestuous step-mother is only banished,
but the slave who carried out her orders is crucified.
Apuleius
has Lucius refer to his own profession of lawyers
as the lowest
of the low.
Apuleius also included several melodramatic tales
involving women in adultery.
Sold again to two brothers, Lucius
is used by a
lusty woman in the manner of Pasiphae.
Maintaining
his human intelligence and appetite for cooked
food while in the
body of an ass, Lucius is soon trained to do
tricks and is going
to be displayed having sex with a criminal
woman in a theater;
but he escapes and is divinely guided to
a festival of Isis so
that he can eat roses, regain his human form,
and dedicate his
life to serving the goddess.
The allegory of his transformation
becomes clear
as the priest summarizes his experience.
Now at last you have put into the harbor of peace
and stand before the altar of loving-kindness.
Neither your noble blood and rank nor your
education sufficed to keep you from falling a
slave to pleasure; youthful follies ran away with you.
Your luckless curiosity earned you
a sinister punishment.17
Now bound to chastity, Lucius refrains from drinking wine
and eating meat as he prepares for initiations
into the mysteries
of Isis and Osiris.
Though sworn to secrecy, he describes his
mystical experience
as approaching the gate of death and returning
after seeing
a sun-like light at midnight and entering the world
of the gods.
His days of youthful passion over,
Lucius is purifying
his life as he matures.
Lucian was born at Samosata in Syria about 115.
He was well
educated and at 14 left home to study rhetoric
during this era
when rhetoricians and sophists were prevalent.
He apparently earned
his living as a lawyer and a traveling
lecturer, touring Asia
Minor, Greece,
and Italy until he settled in Gaul.
Lucian's early
writings were rhetorical exercises, arguing such
things as a man
deserves the reward of a tyrannicide because
he killed the active
son of an elderly tyrant,
who then killed himself with the sword
left in his son.
He also praised Demosthenes
and explained how patriotism
derives from the love for one's father
and the land of one's ancestors.
When he was about forty, Lucian
moved to Athens and was
influenced by the eclectic philosopher
Demonax.
He disavowed rhetoric to write satirical dialogs
and
give public readings.
In old age Lucian served on the staff of
the governor of Egypt,
and he outlived Marcus Aurelius, who died
in 180.
In 150 or so Lucian wrote a dialog about the philosopher
Nigrinus,
who praised Greece and Athenians because
they are brought up to
value poverty and philosophy.
Foreigners trying to introduce luxury
do not find favor and
by gentle steps are trained to correct this
tendency.
A rich man who brings a crowd of attendants to the baths
or gymnasiums is subtly mocked as are flamboyant clothes.
Nigrinus
believed that a single-hearted person taught to despise
wealth
may preserve there a pure morality in harmony with the
truly beautiful;
but the person, over whom gold casts a spell,
living among flatterers
and slaves, does not know
sweet freedom nor the blessing of candor.
Nigrinus suggests that those, who give their souls to pleasure
by gluttony, wine, and women and who speak
in deceit and hypocrisy,
should live in Rome.
The turmoil of Rome includes slander, insolence,
gluttony,
flattery, false friends, legacy-hunters, and murderers;
but to give evil its due there is no better school for virtue
to test moral strength than living in Rome.
Lucian commended the
example of Nigrinus for his frugal living,
habits of bodily exercise,
modest bearing, simple dress,
gentle manners, constant mind, and
for urging followers
not to postpone the pursuit of virtue.
Nigrinus
did not recommend torturing one's body,
but he believed our first
care should be to discipline the soul.
Describing a vision or dream, Lucian explained why he found
greater value in culture than in the more physical art of sculpture.
In "Toxaris" he portrayed the values of friendship by
describing
beneficial relationships between men.
Abauchas justifies
abandoning his wife and children in a
burning house to help his
friend, arguing that he could easily
have other children, but
it would be
difficult to find such a good friend.
In his essay "Slander," Lucian defined it as "an
undefended
indictment, concealed from its object, and owing its
success
to one-sided half-informed procedure."18
Lucian believed
that slanderers offend against justice, law,
and piety, and are
pests to anyone associated with them.
By insisting on possessing
the listener, they guard against
impartiality by blocking them
with prejudice.
Lucian could think of nothing worse than
being
condemned unjudged and unheard.
Slanderers are cowards, because
they do not come out into
the open but ambush from a hiding place.
These creatures are found mostly in the courts of kings.
They
concentrate their attacks on hearers' most vulnerable
points in
order to irritate them.
A slavish nature bites the lip while nursing
spite and cultivating
secret hatred; one thing is in the heart
but another on their
tongues, playing with comedy's smiles a sinister
tragedy.
Slander only survives because ignorance conceals
the
mysteries of human characters.
If some God would unveil all lives
with illuminating truth,
slander would have to retire to the bottomless
pit.
In "The Way to Write History" Lucian lamented the
fashion of
neglecting the examination of facts while indulging
in eulogies of generals and commanders.
For Lucian the one aim
of history should be what is useful,
and its single source is
the truth.
The two indispensable qualifications of his perfect
historian
are political insight and the faculty of expression.
The first Lucian considered a natural gift, but the second
can
be acquired by long practice, continuous work,
and a loving study
of the classics.
The historian should be a person of independent
spirit with
nothing to fear or hope from anyone, or else one will
be
a corrupt judge open to undue influences.
Anyone intent on
immediate effect may be classed as a
flatterer, and flattery is
about as helpful to history as
personal adornment is to an athlete's
training.
Lucian's model historian is fearless, incorruptible,
independent,
frank, and truthful, who will not make concessions
to likes
and dislikes nor spare anyone out of pity or respect
or propriety, an impartial judge kind to all but too kind to none,
a literary cosmopolitan with neither ruler nor king,
never heeding
what this or that person may think,
but setting down what happened.
Lucian aimed for a lucidity which leaves nothing obscure
while
avoiding abstruse expressions and the illiberal jargon
of the
market, hoping the vulgar will understand
and the cultivated will
commend.
The historian should view the scene from above like
Homer's
Zeus, and one's brain should reflect events like a
clear mirror
without distortion, discoloration, or variance.
The narration
should include a preliminary view of the causes
in operation and
a precise summary of events.
Praise and censure should be sparing,
cautious, brief, and never intrusive.
Historical characters should
not be treated as prisoners on trial.
Instead of writing for the
present, the historian should aim at
eternity by composing for
posterity,
writing the truth freely without flattery or servility.
In a dialog between Hermotimus and Lycinus Lucian explored
the difficulties of pursuing philosophy.
Hermotimus has been studying
Stoicism for twenty years
and hopes that twenty more years will
enable him to climb
the mountain of philosophy; but the questions
of Lycinus
make him realize the difficulty of knowing this school
of
philosophy is best.
Hermotimus found more Stoic disciples
and
so inferred it is superior.
He considers Epicureans sensual and
self-indulgent,
Peripatetics avaricious and contentious, Platonists
conceited
and vain, but that Stoics are courageous with an open
mind.
Hermotimus believes his Stoic teacher demolishes the other
schools; but Lycinus suggests he must give each school at least
twenty years to really understand them.
This is not like tasting
wine, which is homogeneous throughout.
One must investigate critically
with mental acumen,
intellectual precision, and independence.
Discernment and judgment may be learned from a teacher
skilled
at demonstrating.
Yet virtue is manifested in action by doing
what is just, wise,
and brave; but most advanced philosophers
spend their time
on sentences and verbal demonstrations and problems.
By the end of the dialog Hermotimus' enthusiasm for
studying philosophy
seems to have evaporated.
In his dialog "The Parasite" Lucian seeks to demonstrate
that
sponging is a profession.
In this parody of philosophic dialog
Simon argues that the
parasite must distinguish between true and
false men,
be skilled in directing words and actions so as to
achieve
intimacy and persuade the patron of one's devotion, be
able
to tell a good dinner from a bad one,
and exercise these
skills on a daily basis.
Yet parasites find more pleasure than
Epicureans
who are troubled about cosmic controversies.
The parasite
can be neither too poor to attain pleasure
nor too rich, because
much spending brings worries.
The profit from learning sponging
comes immediately,
and noble friendship is the beginning of sponging.
It is a royal art to recline like a king.
Parasites must be indifferent
to reputation and not care
what people think about them,
desiring
neither fame nor wealth nor beauty.
When asked if he will feel
pain when supplies run short,
Simon replies one is not a true
sponger when that happens.
Lucian also satirized superstition
in his dialog "The Liar,"
and the manners of philosophers
are mocked in
"A Feast of Lapithae" which results in
a brawl.
Relations of women are treated in a series of
short dialogs
of the companions (hetaerae).
In thirty short "Dialogs of the Dead" Lucian satirized
temporary
earthly attachments which are shown to be valueless
in the next
world, usually by a Cynic such as Diogenes
or Menippus.
Diogenes tells
Pollux to charge philosophers not to play the
fool by quarreling
over metaphysics
or tricking each other with puzzles.
The rich
should be told they bring none of their gold,
and the handsome
lose their good-looks
and athletes their muscles.
Among the dead
one person is as good as another.
Charon tells Hermes all the
things people must leave behind
when departing earth including
not only physical things like
wealth and beauty but also pomp,
pride, cruelty, folly,
insolence, hatred, victories, glories,
quackery, ignorance,
quarrelsomeness, arguments, intricate conceptions,
avarice,
self-indulgence, impudence, and flattery.
The only things
Hermes finds light and handy are
plain speaking, independence,
indifference, high spirit, and jests.
Hermes takes them straight
to the judgment seat,
and Menippus realizes every detail of their
lives
will now come to light.
Lucian portrayed human characteristics of mythical figures
in his
"Dialogs of the Gods" and "Dialogs of the
Sea-Gods."
In a necromantic experiment Menippus tells Philonides
how
he learned from Homer and Hesiod about the adulterous,
rapacious,
violent, litigious, usurping, and incestuous gods,
observing that
human laws are contradicted
by the poets' accounts of the gods.
So he goes to the philosophers; but he finds them maintaining
opposite views with convincing arguments.
These same teachers
in practice do what is
opposed to their precepts.
Menippus decides
to go to Babylon and asks the help of a
Zoroastrian Magus, who
takes him disguised as Heracles down
to Hades, where he observes
Minos judging each prisoner.
After their punishment kings and
slaves, governors and paupers,
rich and beggars, all repent of
their sins.
An assembly issues a decree against the rich for their
violence,
ostentation, pride, and injustice, condemning them to
be born
on earth as asses in order to bear the burdens of the
poor.
Finally Menippus emerges back on earth through the shrine
of Trophonius described by Plutarch.
Another satire of philosophic dialog by Lucian is the
"Icaromenippus
or Up in the Clouds."
Menippus despairs of finding out the
truth on earth and so gets
Daedalus to give him wings to fly up
to heaven.
Looking down on earth, he can see many evils being
performed.
He observes Egyptians engaged in farming, Phoenicians
in
commerce, Cilicians in piracy, Spartans in flagellation,
and
Athenians in litigation.
After visiting the moon he sets a course
between the sun and
stars and arrives at the outskirts of heaven.
He observes Zeus listening to human prayers.
When two men pray
for opposite things,
he keeps an open mind and,
like the skeptics,
suspends judgment.
At a meeting Zeus speaks as follows:
As we all know, that comparatively recent biological
phenomenon known as the human race is lazy,
quarrelsome, empty-headed, bad-tempered,
rather greedy, rather stupid, with an inflated idea
of itself, and a vast amount of arrogance.
It is, to quote Homer, 'a useless burden on the earth.'
Well, these creatures have now split up into various
schools of thought based on various tortuous
arguments, and taken to calling themselves
Stoics, Academics, Epicureans, Peripatetics,
or even more ridiculous names.
Their next step is to attach to themselves the grand
word virtue, and go about with furrowed brows and
flowing beards, concealing absolutely revolting
characters beneath a veneer of respectability.19
Zeus goes on to say they despise others and say all kinds of
extraordinary things about the gods.
Teachers collect impressionable
youngsters, rant about virtue,
and claim to know the answer to
any problem; but when they
are by themselves you have no idea
what they do.
The assembly passes a resolution to explode all
philosophical
and scientific theories but cannot carry out
the
sentence immediately.
Menippus is deposited back on earth by Hermes.
In a dialog with Lycinus a Cynic argues quite well for his
austerely simplified life-style, noting that most people are
carried away by their appetites, pleasures, fancies, avarice,
rage, and
fear that are all out of control.
With only an old cloak the Cynic
has a quiet life doing what
he wills and keeping the company he
wants; for ignorant
and uneducated people have nothing to do with
him,
and soft livers turn away from him.
Yet the refined, reasonable,
and sincere seek him out,
and these are the people he wishes to
see.
Lucian satirized religion in the essay "Of Sacrifice."
He asked whether to call them devout worshippers or outcasts,
whose opinion of God is so low they believe he needs
anything
from humans, is pleased by their flattery,
or is wounded by their
neglect.
After discussing various absurd beliefs of ancient religions
Lucian suggested one should either laugh at their ignorance
like
Democritus or deplore their folly like Heraclitus.
Lucian's True History is a satire of the wild stories
found
in early historians such as Herodotus.
Despite his title
Lucian warned the readers he will not write
one thing that is
true, ironically making the
paradoxical statement that he is a
liar.
This famous paradox perplexed philosophers, causing the
mind to go round and round, because if the statement is true,
the author is a liar; but if the author is a liar,
why should
we believe the statement?
Lucian's inventive imagination is at
his best in this model for
fantastic travel narratives that even
stimulated later science
fiction like H. G. Wells' The First
Men in the Moon.
Lucian offered intellectual entertainment
by satirizing
various literary works.
The narrator's ship is driven
by storms across the Atlantic.
Then a whirlwind takes them into
the air as far as the moon,
where men riding vultures are engaged
in a war
against the people of the sun.
The narrator is captured
with lunar troops
and bound with spiderwebs.
After visiting Cloud
Cuckooland the travelers are swallowed
by an enormous whale, where
they fight with other inhabitants.
The Greeks start a forest fire
to kill the whale
from the inside and escape.
Before returning,
the narrator describes several famous
characters on the Isle of
the Blessed.
Lucian wrote a letter to a friend about the philosopher
Peregrine, who liked to be called Proteus.
Wanting fame, he announced that
he was going to cremate
himself at the next Olympic games in 169.
The attempt by Proteus to find a place among the Christians
of Palestine yielded the only comments
by Lucian on this new religion.
Proteus describes them as worshipping a distinguished man
who
introduced new rites and was crucified for that.
Asiatic Christian
communities offered sympathy, assistance,
and
legal advice, and
he notes they spared no trouble nor expense.
The cynical Lucian
had Proteus write
They are always incredibly quick off the mark,
when one of them gets into trouble like this—in fact
they ignore their own interests completely.
Why, they actually sent him large sums of money
by way of compensation for his imprisonment,
so that he made a considerable profit out of them!
For the poor souls have persuaded themselves
that they are immortal and will live for ever.
As a result, they think nothing of death, and most
of them are perfectly willing to sacrifice themselves.
Besides, their first law-giver has convinced them
that once they stop believing in Greek gods,
and start worshipping that crucified sage of theirs,
and living according to his laws, they are all
each other's brothers and sisters.
So, taking this information on trust,
without any guarantee of its truth,
they think nothing else matters, and believe
in common ownership—which means that any
unscrupulous adventurer who comes along can
soon make a fortune out of them,
for the silly creatures are very easily taken in.20
Proteus believed his suicide would teach the human race
to
scorn death and show courage in difficult circumstances;
but Lucian
wondered if the criminal classes would profit
from this lesson
in fortitude too.
How can he improve the honest without hardening
and encouraging rogues as well?
Proteus did leap into the pyre.
Lucian satirized the Cynics in his dialog "The Runaways"
and all the major philosophical schools in
"The Sale of Creeds" and "The Fisher."
He satirized the religious charlatan
Alexander in a biography
on his bogus oracle, showing the susceptibility
of many at this
time to superstitions and prophecies.
He hoped
to shatter some of their illusions and confirm
sensible ideas
they might have.
He did this as a tribute to Epicurus,
whom he considered
a great man for perceiving the beauty of truth.
Lucian also made fun of religious customs in his essay
"Of
Mourning," which he believed sprung from the common
error
that death is the worst thing that can happen to a person.
Lucian did write a positive eulogy of the philosopher Demonax.
He never knew him to shout or get angry
even when correcting someone.
He noted offenses while pardoning offenders, using the
physician's
model of treating the sickness
without getting angry at the sick.
Demonax believed that it is human to err but divine
to put error
right whether it is in God or humans.
He considered everyone with
a human shape his friend.
He defined happiness as freedom, clarifying
that whoever is
subject to hope or fear is not free.
When a friend
asked him to accompany him to the temple
of Asclepius to pray
for his son, Demonax asked could not
Asclepius hear them from
a distance?
He advised a governor to keep his temper,
say little,
and hear much.
When Athenians were considering starting gladiatorial
shows
to compete with Corinth, Demonax reminded them
first to
destroy the altar to Pity.
He once made the Athenian assembly
ashamed
of their party spirit by his silent presence.
He lived
to be nearly one hundred, free of disease and pain,
burdening
no one, serving friends, and having no enemies.
When he could
no longer take care of himself,
Demonax abstained from food
and
left life as cheerfully as he had lived.
With his independent philosophical spirit and broad sense
of
humor Lucian left a large collection of writings that
portray
many characteristics of the ethics prevalent at the height
of
the Roman empire under Marcus Aurelius.
1. Dio Chrysostom, 41st Discourse 11-13 tr. H. Lamar
Crosby.
2. Plutarch, "How to Distinguish a Flatterer from a Friend"
64C tr. Robin Waterfield.
3. Plutarch, "On Being a Busybody" 516C-D tr. W. C.
Helmbold.
4. Plutarch, "The Eating of Flesh" 996-997 tr. W. C.
Helmbold.
5. Arrian's Discourses of Epictetus 4:4:46-48 tr. W. A.
Oldfather.
6. Ibid. 4:9:16-18 tr. W. A. Oldfather.
7. Arrian, Handbook of Epictetus 48 tr. Sanderson Beck.
8. Graetz, Heinrich, History of the Jews, Volume 2, p.
428
9. Lives of the Later Caesars tr. Anthony Birley, p. 120.
10. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6:30 tr. Maxwell Staniforth.
11. Ibid. 8:33.
12. Juvenal, The Sixteen Satires 10:7-12 tr. Peter Green.
13. Ibid. 10:357-366.
14. Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale
tr. Graham Anderson
in Collected Ancient Greek Novels ed. B. P. Reardon, p.
169.
15. Antonius Diogenes, The Wonders Beyond Thule
tr. Gerald
N. Sandy in Collected Ancient Greek Novels ed. B. P. Reardon,
p. 782.
16. Apuleius, The Golden Ass tr. Robert Graves, p. 19.
17. Ibid., p. 272.
18. The Works of Lucian of Samosata
tr. H. W. Fowler and
F. G. Fowler, Volume 4, p. 3.
19. Lucian, Satirical Sketches tr. Paul Turner, p. 130.
20. Ibid., p. 11.
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