Ch. 19
Of the right treatment of tyrants.
When a person is possessed of some personal
advantage, either real or imaginary, he will necessarily be puffed up with it, unless he has been well
instructed. A tyrant openly says, " I am supreme over
all." And what can you bestow on me? Can you
exempt my desires from disappointment? How should
you? For do you never incur what you shun? Are
your own aims infallible? Whence came you by that
privilege? Pray, on shipboard, do you trust to yourself, or to the pilot In a chariot, to whom but the
driver? And to whom in all other arts? Just the
same. In what, then, does your power consist?
"All men pay regard to me."
So do I to my desk. I wash it and wipe it, and
drive a nail for my oil-flask.
"What, then; are these things to be valued beyond
me?"
No; but they are of some use to me, and therefore
I pay regard to them. Why, do I not pay regard to
an ass? Do I not wash his feet? Do I not clean
him? Do not you know that every one pays such
regard even to himself; and that he does it to you,
just as he does to an ass? For who pays regard to
you as a man? Show that. Who would wish to be
like you? Who would desire to imitate you, as he
would Socrates?
" But I can take off your head."
You say rightly. I had forgot that one is to pay
regard to you as to a fever, or the cholera; and that
there should be an altar erected to you, as there is to
the goddess Fever at Rome.
What is it, then, that disturbs and terrifies the multitude,--the tyrant and his guards? By no means.
What is by nature free cannot be disturbed or restrained by anything but itself; but its own convictions disturb it. Thus, when the tyrant says to any
one, " I will chain your leg," he who chiefly values his
leg cries out for pity; while he who chiefly values his
own free will says, "If you imagine it for your interest,
chain it."
"What! do you not care? "
No, I do not care.
"I will show you that I am master."
You? How should you? Zeus has set me free.
What! do you think he would suffer his own son to be
enslaved? You are master of my carcass; take it.
"So that, when you come into my presence, you
pay no regard to me? "
No, but to myself; or, if you will have me recognize you also, I will do it as if you were a piece o;
furniture. This is not selfish vanity; for every animal is so constituted as to do everything for itself.
Even the sun does all for himself, and for that matter
so does even Zeus himself; but when he would be
styled the dispenser of rain and plenty, and the father
of gods and men, you see that he cannot attain these
offices and titles unless he contributes to the common
good. And he has universally so constituted the nature of every reasonable creature, that no one can
attain its own good without contributing something
for the good of all. And thus it becomes not selfish to
do everything for one's self; for do you expect that
a man should desert himself and his own concerns,
when all beings have one and the same original instinct, self-preservation? What follows then? That
where we recognize those absurd convictions, which
treat things outward as if they were the true good or
evil of life, there must necessarily be a regard paid to
tyrants; and I wish it were to tyrants only, and not
to the very officers of their bed-chamber too. For
how wise a man grows on a sudden, when Caesar has
made him his flunkey? How immediately we say,
" Felicio talked very sensibly to me ! " I wish he were
turned out of office, that he might once more appear
to you the fool he is.
Epaphroditus owned a shoemaker, whom, because
he was good for nothing, he sold. This very fellow
being, by some strange luck, bought by a courtier,
became shoemaker to Caesar. Then, you might have
seen how Epaphroditus honored him. " How is good
Felicio, pray? " And, if any one of us asked what the
great man himself was about, it was answered, " He is
consulting about affairs with Felicio." Did he not
sell him previously as good for nothing? Who, then,
has all on a sudden made a wise man of him? This
it is to reverence externals.
Is any one exalted to the office of tribune? All
who meet him congratulate him. One kisses his
eyes, another his neck, and the slaves his hands. He
goes to his house; finds it illuminated. He ascends
the capitol; offers a sacrifice. Now, who ever offered
a sacrifice for having good desires; for conforming
his aims to nature? Yet we thank the gods for that
wherein we place our good.
A person was talking with me to-day about applying for the priesthood in the temple of Augustus. I
said to him, Let the thing alone, friend; you will be
at great expense for nothing. "But my name," said
he, "will be written in the annals." Will you stand
by, then, and tell those who read them, "I am the
person whose name is written there"? And even if
you could tell every one so now, what will you do
when you are dead? " My name will remain." Write
it upon a stone, and it will remain just as well. And,
pray, what remembrance will there be of you out of
Nicopolis? "But I shall wear a crown of gold."
If your heart is quite set upon a crown, make and
put on one of roses; for it will make the prettier
appearance.