Every Good Man is Free

1 My former treatise, Theodotus, was intended to prove that every wicked man was a slave, and I fully established that proposition by many natural and unquestionable arguments; and this other treatise is akin to that one, its full brother on both the father's and the mother's side, and even, in some sense, its twin, since in it we will proceed to show that every virtuous man is free. 2 It is said that the most sacred sect of the Pythagoreans, among many other excellent doctrines, taught this one also, that it was not good to travel by the plain, ordinary roads; they did not mean to urge us to walk among precipices (for they had no wish to weary our feet with labour), but were hinting, in a figure of speech, that in neither our words nor our actions ought we to use only what is ordinary and unchanged; 3 and all who have studied philosophy in a genuine spirit have obeyed this injunction, regarding it as a maxim, or rather as a law as weighty as a divine oracle; and, departing from the common opinions of men, they have cut out for themselves a new, as yet untravelled path, inaccessible to those with no experience of wise maxims and doctrines, building up systems of ideas, which no one who is not pure may or can handle. 4 When I speak of men who are not pure, I mean those who have either had no education at all, or else have tasted it only obliquely rather than directly, altering the stamp of wisdom's beauty so that it leaves the impression of sophistry's ugliness. 5 These men, unable to discern the light that only the intellect can perceive, because of the weakness of the eyes of their soul, which are by nature easily dazzled by too much brightness, like men living in night and darkness, do not believe those who live in the light of day, and regard everything those people describe, having seen it most distinctly in the beams of the sun shining powerfully on them, as monstrous pictures, like so many visions or dreams, no different from the tricks of conjurers; 6 for how can it be anything but a sheer marvel and absurdity to call men exiles who not only live in the middle of the city but even take part in the councils, and courts of justice, and public assemblies, and who at times serve as clerks of the market, as superintendents of the gymnastic games, and in other offices of various kinds; 7 and, on the other hand, to call men citizens who were either never enrolled as citizens at all, or have been sentenced to disgrace or banishment; men who have been driven beyond the borders of the land and cannot set foot on the country, or even see their native soil from a distance, unless some insane frenzy drives them to rush to certain death; for countless people stand ready to detect and punish anyone who returns from banishment, spurred on both by their own feelings and by the commands of the laws. 8 Again, how can it be anything but a wholly unreasonable assertion, full of utter shamelessness or insanity, (or I really do not know what to call it, for such a saying is so preposterous that it is hard to find a proper name for it), to call men rich who live in utter poverty, lacking even necessities, living hard and miserable lives, barely getting enough to live on from day to day, exposed to famine as their own particular lot amid the plenty and abundance others enjoy, feeding only on the breath of virtue, as grasshoppers are said to feed on air; 9 and then, on the other hand, to call men poor who are surrounded on all sides by silver and gold, abundant possessions and revenues, and an inexhaustible supply of endless good things of every sort, whose wealth has not only benefited all their relatives and friends but has even reached beyond the family to benefit great crowds of people from the owners' own borough or tribe; yes, and going further still, it even supplies the city itself with everything it needs in peace or war. 10 Moreover, those who talk this way, following the same dream, have ventured to call slavery the real condition of men of the greatest importance and genuinely noble birth, men who can point not only to their parents but to their grandfathers and remote ancestors, back to the very first founders of their line, as held in the highest esteem by men and women alike; while, on the other hand, they call free those men whose last three generations have been branded as slaves, born of slaves, and never anything but slaves. 11 But all these things, as I have said before, are the inventions of men whose intellects are clouded, who are slaves to opinions wholly governed by the outward senses, and whose judgment, continually corrupted by those brought before its tribunal, is therefore unstable. 12 But if they had really cared at all about the truth, they ought not to have shown themselves inferior in mind to those who are diseased in body; for such invalids, wanting good health, put themselves in the physicians' hands. But these other men hesitate to rid themselves of that disease of the soul, ignorance, by associating with wise men, from whom they might not only learn to escape ignorance but also acquire man's distinctive possession, knowledge. 13 For, as Plato, the sweetest of all writers, says, envy is banished far from the divine company, and wisdom, the most divine of all things and the most ready to share, never closes her school but is always open to all who thirst for wholesome teaching; she pours out for them the inexhaustible stream of pure instruction and wisdom and persuades them to yield to the intoxication of the soberest of all drunkenness. 14 And her disciples, like people initiated into the sacred and holy mysteries, once they are at last wholly filled with the knowledge offered to them, reproach themselves bitterly for their earlier neglect, for not having made proper use of their time but having lived a life hardly worth calling life, utterly without wisdom. 15 Those, therefore, act worthily who have resolved, always and everywhere, to dedicate the whole of their youth, as the first fruits of their earliest vigour, to education above everything else, since it is good for a man to spend both his youth and his old age in it; for just as vessels, they say, even when empty still keep the odour of whatever was first poured into them, so the souls of the young are deeply stamped with the indelible character of the first ideas offered to their minds, a character that no torrent of ideas flowing over the mind afterwards can wash away; to the last they show the character first given to them. But we have said enough about these matters. 16 We must now examine accurately the subject we have taken up for investigation, so that we are not led astray, deceived by vague words and expressions, but, understanding exactly what we are speaking of, may frame our conclusions aptly. 17 Slavery, then, is of two kinds; slavery of the soul and slavery of the body. Men are masters of our bodies, but wickedness and the passions rule over our souls. We may speak of freedom in the same way. For one kind of freedom frees the body from fear of any danger that men with still more powerful bodies can bring on it, while the other brings peace to the mind by checking the authority of the passions. 18 Hardly anyone ever raises a question about the first kind; for the chances of fortune that happen to men are countless, and men of the highest virtue have often fallen into unexpected misfortunes and so lost the freedom that was theirs by birth. But there is room for inquiry about characters that neither desires, nor fears, nor pleasures, nor pains have ever brought under the yoke, as if they had come out of confinement and the chains that bound them had now been loosened. 19 So, setting aside all talk of the kinds of freedom that are only a pretence, and of all the names that have nothing to do with nature but owe their existence only to opinion, such as slaves born in the house, slaves purchased with money, slaves taken in war, let us now investigate the character of the truly free man, who alone possesses independence, even if ten thousand men declare themselves his masters; for he will quote the line of Sophocles that differs in no way from the doctrines of the Pythagoreans-- 'God is my ruler, and no mortal man.' 20 For in truth the only free man is the one who has God for his leader; indeed, in my opinion, he is even the ruler of all others, and has all the affairs of the earth committed to him, being, as it were, the viceroy of a great king, the mortal lieutenant of an immortal sovereign. But this claim about the wise man's actual authority can wait for a more suitable occasion. For now we must examine closely the question of his perfect freedom. 21 Anyone who goes deeply into the matter and chooses to investigate it closely will see clearly that nothing is so closely related to freedom as independence of action. For this reason a great many things stand in the way of a wicked man's liberty; covetousness of money, the desire of glory, the love of pleasure, and so on. But the virtuous man meets no obstacle at all, since he rises up against, and resists, and overthrows, and tramples on love, and fear, and cowardice, and pain, and everything of that kind, as if they were rivals he had defeated in the public games. 22 For, out of his admiration and desire for freedom, whose most special and inalienable inheritance is independence and spontaneity of action, he has learnt to disregard all the commands that those most lawless masters of the soul try to impose on him; and some people praise the poet who composed this iambic line-- 'No man's a slave who does not fear to die,' for having understood accurately what such courage leads to; for he thought that nothing is so likely to enslave the mind as the fear of death that arises from an excessive desire to live. 23 But we must consider that not only can the man who feels no anxiety to avoid death never be made a slave, but the same privilege belongs to those who are indifferent to poverty, and lack of reputation, and pain, and all the other things that most men regard as evils, being themselves only evil judges of things, since they declare a man a slave by reckoning up what he needs, looking at the duties he is compelled to perform when they ought rather to look at his free and indomitable disposition; 24 for the man who, out of a lowly and slavish spirit, submits to lowly and slavish actions against his considered judgment is really and truly a slave; but he who adapts his circumstances and actions to the present occasion, and who voluntarily and in an enduring spirit bears up against the events of fortune, regarding nothing in human affairs as extraordinary, but having fully convinced himself by diligent thought that all divine things are honoured with eternal order and happiness; and that all mortal things are tossed about in an everlasting storm and flux of affairs, subject to the greatest variety of changes and vicissitudes, and who, for these reasons, bears whatever can happen to him with noble courage, is at once both a philosopher and a free man. 25 For this reason he will not obey everyone who gives him a command, not even someone who threatens him with insults, and tortures, and even still more formidable evils; but he will keep a gallant spirit and will cry out in reply to such menaces-- 'Yes, burn and scorch my flesh, and glut your hate, Drinking my life-warm blood; for heaven's stars Shall quit their place, and darken beneath the earth, And earth rise up and take the place of heaven, Before you wring from me a word of flattery.' 26 Before now I have seen, among the competitors in the pancratium at the public games, one man landing all kinds of blows with both hands and feet, all of them aimed with great accuracy, leaving out nothing that could help him win, and yet after a while growing faint and disheartened, and at last leaving the arena without the crown of victory; and the other, who took all his blows, hardened through and through with great firmness of flesh, and being tough and unyielding, and filled with the true spirit of an athlete, and invigorated throughout his whole body, being like so much iron or stone, never giving way to the other's blows, and at last, by the endurance and resolution of his spirit, overcoming his adversary's strength and winning a complete victory. 27 And the condition of the virtuous man seems to me very like the condition of this athlete. For, having thoroughly fortified his soul with strong and powerful reasoning, he forces the man who is using violence against him to give up from weariness before he himself can be forced to do anything against his sense of what is right. But perhaps this is incredible to those who do not know from experience that virtue is as I have described it, just as that other case would be incredible to those who have never seen the fighters in the pancratium; but it is strictly true all the same. 28 And it was with this fact in view that Antisthenes said that 'the virtuous man is a burden hard to bear.' For just as folly is a light thing, easily tossed about in every direction, so wisdom, on the contrary, is firmly established and immovable, with a weight not easily shaken. 29 Accordingly the lawgiver of the Jews represents the hands of the wise man as heavy, hinting by this figure of speech at the gravity of his actions, which his inflexible mind supports not superficially but solidly. 30 So nothing compels him, since he despises pains, looks on death with contempt and, by the law of nature, has all foolish men for his subjects. For just as goatherds, cowherds and shepherds lead their own flocks of goats, and cattle, and sheep, but shepherds cannot manage a drove of oxen, so most men, being like so many cattle, need a guide and governor. And their proper governors are virtuous men, set as shepherds over the multitude; 31 for Homer constantly calls kings shepherds of their People. But nature has assigned this title more particularly to the good, since the wicked are tended by others rather than occupied in serving them; for they are led captive by strong wine, and by beauty, and by delicate eating, and sweets, and by the arts of cooks and confectioners, to say nothing of the thirst for gold, silver and other things more highly prized. But men of the other class are not lured or led astray by anything; rather, they are inclined to admonish those they see caught in the snares of pleasure. 32 And what happens in war gives the clearest proof that being compelled to perform services for others is not in itself a sign of slavery; for one can see men on military expeditions, all acting by their own means, and not only carrying complete armour, but being also loaded like beasts of burden with everything required for their necessary wants, and going out to fetch water, and fuel, and fodder for the cattle. 33 And why do I need to dwell at length on what is done against the enemy on such expeditions: their labours digging ditches, raising walls or building ships, and doing with their hands and their whole bodies everything that belongs to every kind of necessary work or craft? 34 Moreover, in peacetime too there is another kind of war, not wholly unlike the war fought under arms, stirred up by lack of reputation, poverty and a terrible lack of necessities, and by it men are compelled and constrained to put their hands to the most ignominious and slavish tasks, digging and cultivating the ground and labouring at craftsmen's trades, and serving without hesitation to get food to live on; very often even carrying burdens through the middle of the market-place, in full view of people their own age who grew up with them and have been their school-fellows and lifelong companions. 35 There are others, too, who are slaves by birth and yet have been raised by the bounty of fortune to the condition of freemen; for they have become stewards of houses, and properties, and large possessions, and sometimes they are even appointed rulers of their fellow slaves. And many such have been entrusted with the guardianship of their masters' wives and orphaned children, chosen for positions of trust that properly belong to friends and relations; yet they are slaves nevertheless, though they are employed in borrowing, buying and collecting revenues, and are themselves attended by other servants. What is surprising, then, if, conversely, some people of noble birth, through a sudden failure of good fortune, are subjected to necessities that properly belong to slaves, 36 and by being compelled to obey others are deprived of their own freedom? Moreover, children are to some degree forced to submit to the commands of their father or their mother; and pupils, too, submit to whatever their teachers command; for no one is willingly a slave. But parents will never show such extreme and unnatural dislike of their children as to force their own offspring into menial tasks that are only a symbol of slavery. 37 And anyone who sees people who may have been bought and sold by traffickers in men and at once regards them as slaves is far from the truth; for an act of sale does not make the buyer a master or the one sold a slave, since fathers have sometimes paid a price for their sons, and sons have often laid down a ransom for their fathers, when these have been carried off as prisoners in some pirate raid or taken captive in regular warfare, yet the laws of nature, which are more stable than human laws, declare them free. 38 And before now some people, through excess of confidence, have so completely reversed matters that they have actually become masters instead of slaves, despite having been bought. In any case, I have often seen young people of great beauty and great wit in conversation gaining complete mastery over those who had bought them, by two great incentives, the exquisiteness of their beauty and the elegance of their language; for these are engines able to overthrow any soul that lacks stability and a solid foundation, the most powerful of all the devices ever invented for overthrowing cities. 39 And this is easily proved; for we can see that those who have become the masters of such people serve them, plead with them and eagerly court their favour as they would court the favour of fortune or of the good genius; and if they are neglected they are vexed, and if they get merely a gentle or favourable look they dance for joy. 40 Unless, indeed, someone would say that a man who has bought a lion has become its master, when, if the lion merely gives him a threatening glance, he will soon learn to his cost what kind of master, what a savage and ferocious tyrant, he has purchased. What shall we say then? Shall we not regard a wise man as harder to enslave than a lion, when in his free and invincible soul he has far more courage than any creature made of a body that is by nature a slave can have, however great the strength with which it resists its masters? 41 And everyone may learn from other facts to appreciate the true freedom that the virtuous man enjoys. 'No slave can ever true happiness enjoy.' For what can be more miserable than to have no power over anything, not even over oneself? But a wise man is happy because he bears within himself the foundation and completion of virtue and excellence, in which the supreme power over all things consists, so that, beyond all dispute and of necessity, the virtuous man is free. 42 Besides all this, would anyone deny that the friends of God are free? Unless indeed one can think it consistent to grant the companions of kings not only freedom but at times even great authority, when kings entrust magistracies to them and they consequently serve as subordinate rulers; and yet, at the same time, to speak of slavery in connection with the gods of heaven, when those men, because of the love they have shown to God, have at once become beloved by God, repaid by him with goodwill equal to their own, as truth judges, so that, as the poets say, they are universal princes and kings of kings. 43 But the lawgiver of the Jews ventures an even bolder assertion than this, since he was, as it is reported, a student and practitioner of plain philosophy; and so he teaches that the man who is wholly possessed by the love of God and who serves the living God alone, is no longer man, but actually God, being indeed the God of men, but not of the parts of nature, in order to leave to the Father of the universe the attributes of being both King and God of gods. 44 Is it right, then, to think a man invested with privileges like these a slave, rather than the only one who is free? Even if he himself is not thought worthy to be classed as God, we ought by all means to call him happy, because he has God for his friend; for God is not a weak champion, nor careless of the rights and claims of friendship, since he is the God of companionship and presides over everything that belongs to companions. 45 Moreover, among cities, some, governed by an oligarchy or by tyrants, endure slavery, with those who have subdued them and made themselves their masters as severe and cruel tyrants, while others, living under the watchful care and good protection of the laws, are free and happy. The same is true of men: those who are ruled by anger, or appetite, or any other passion, or of treacherous wickedness, are in every respect slaves; and those who live in accordance with the law are free. 46 But the unerring law is right reason; not an ordinance made by this or that mortal, a corruptible and perishable law, a lifeless law written on lifeless parchment or engraved on lifeless columns; but an imperishable one, stamped by immortal nature on the immortal mind. 47 For this reason anyone may well marvel at the short-sightedness of those who do not see the distinct characters of things so clear, and who say that for those mighty nations of the Athenians and Lacedaemonians, the laws of Solon and Lycurgus are quite enough to secure the people's liberty, provided only that those laws hold mastery and dominion and the people of those cities dutifully obey them, and who yet claim that right reason, the fountain from which all other laws spring, is not enough to give wise men a share in freedom, even though they obey it in every particular of what it commands and what it forbids. 48 Moreover, besides what has already been said, there is one wholly undeniable proof of freedom: the equality of speech that all virtuous men use with one another; this is why the following iambics are said to be inspired by the true spirit of genuine philosophy:-- 'For slaves have no freedom, not even in speech.' And again:-- 'You're but a slave, and may not dare to speak.' 49 So, just as musical science gives all who have studied music an equal right to speak on matters connected with their art; and as a man who is learned in grammar or in geometry has a right to speak among grammarians and mathematicians, so the law of life allows the same privilege to those who are learned in how men ought to live. 50 But all virtuous men are skilled in all the affairs of life, since they are also skilled in the things of universal nature; and some of them are admittedly free; and so, therefore, are those who are free to speak with them on equal terms; therefore no virtuous man is a slave, but all are free. 51 Starting from the same principle, it will also be clearly shown that the foolish man is a slave; for just as the laws governing music do not give those ignorant of it a right to speak about it on equal terms with those well versed in it; and the laws of grammar do not give those ignorant of that knowledge a right to speak about it on equal terms with those well skilled in it; and, in short, the law of no art gives those ignorant of it such a right toward those learned in it; so the law that establishes the proper principles of life does not give those who are strangers to such true principles a real right to speak on these topics with those who have studied and learnt them. 52 But the law gives all free men perfect equality of speech on all subjects; and some virtuous men are free; and the foolish are utterly ignorant of the proper principles of life, while the wise are most profoundly versed in them: therefore no foolish or wicked man is ever free, but they are all slaves. 53 And Zeno, guided by virtue as much as anyone, boldly ventures to assert that the wicked have no right to equality of speech with the virtuous; for he says, 'Shall not the wicked man suffer if he contradicts the virtuous man?' Therefore the wicked man has no right to freedom of speech toward the virtuous man. 54 I know that many people will scoff at this assertion as dictated more by self-conceit than by real wisdom. But if, once they stop mocking and ridiculing it, they will deign to investigate the matter and examine clearly what is really being said, then, recognising and admiring its perfect truth, they will see that nothing makes a man suffer more than disregarding the words of a wise man. 55 For loss of money, and the brand of dishonour, and banishment, and insults by means of beating, and all other things of that sort, injure a man only a little, or rather not at all, compared with acts of wickedness and what results from acts of wickedness. But most men, unable to perceive injuries to the soul because their reason is mutilated, grieve only over external calamities, being wholly without the faculty of correct judgment, the only faculty by which they could grasp the injury done to the intellect. 56 But if they could look up and see clearly, then, seeing the deceits that arise from folly, and the perplexities that come from covetousness, and all the intoxicated folly to which intemperance gives rise, and all the transgressions of the law in which injustice indulges, they would be filled with endless grief at the injuries suffered by the best part of themselves, and would be beyond comfort because the evil is so great. 57 But Zeno seems to have drawn this maxim of his, as it were, from the fountain of the legislation of the Jews, whose history records that, where there were two brothers, one temperate and the other intemperate, their common father, taking pity on the intemperate one who did not walk in the path of virtue, prays that he may serve his brother, believing that service, which generally seems the greatest of evils, is the most perfect good for a foolish man, so that, deprived of his independence of action, he may be prevented from misbehaving with impunity, and may have his disposition improved under the oversight of the one appointed as his master. 58 What has been said so far to establish the truth of the matter under inquiry is, in my opinion, sufficient. But since physicians are accustomed to cure various diseases with still more various remedies, we must bring a series of proofs, keeping close to the subject, to establish propositions that seem paradoxical because they are unusual. For some people, however closely argued the proofs that convict them, can hardly be brought to see their error. 59 It is right, then, to say that the man who does everything wisely does everything well; and he who does everything well does everything correctly; and he who does everything correctly also does everything in an unerring, blameless, irreproachable, faultless and beneficial way: so that he will be free to do everything, and to live as he pleases. And he who has this liberty must be free. But the virtuous man does do everything wisely; therefore he alone is free. 60 And indeed a man who can neither be compelled to do anything nor prevented from doing anything cannot possibly be a slave; and one cannot compel or prevent the virtuous man. Therefore the virtuous man cannot be a slave; and it is quite plain that he is never under compulsion or any restraint; for the man under restraint is the one who does not get what he desires. But the wise man only desires such things as proceed from virtue, and in these he cannot be disappointed. And again, if he is under compulsion, then it is plain that he does something against his will; but all actions are either good ones proceeding from virtue, or evil ones proceeding from wickedness, or else they are of an intermediate and indifferent character. 61 Man, this creature, performs the actions that proceed from virtue not under compulsion but voluntarily, for everything which he does is the result of his deliberate choice; and since the actions that proceed from wickedness ought to be avoided, he does not do them even in his dreams; nor is he likely to perform actions that are indifferent, between which the mind is evenly balanced, as if on a scale, neither induced to yield to them as though they had any power to attract, nor, on the other hand, led to regard them with any particular aversion as deserving hatred; from all this it is plain that the virtuous man does nothing against his will, and nothing under compulsion; and if he were a slave he would be acting under compulsion: so that the virtuous man must be free. 62 But since some people who have paid very little attention to learning, and who do not understand demonstrative arguments, which establish only general principles of action, often ask us, 'Who, then, are these men you describe to us, whether they lived in the past or are alive now?' the right answer is that in former times there were some people who surpassed all their contemporaries in virtue, taking God alone for their guide, and living in strict accordance with the law, that is to say, with the right reason of nature, and who were not only free themselves, but also filled everyone who came near them with a spirit of freedom. And in our own time too there are some who are, so to speak, images of them, bearing the stamp of the virtue of those wise men as their archetypal model; 63 for it does not follow that, because the souls of those who oppose these virtuous men have lost all liberty by being completely led away and enslaved by folly and other vices, the whole human race is enslaved too. And it is no wonder that we do not see large companies of these men advancing, as it were, in a solid body. First, whatever is exceedingly beautiful is rare; second, men who keep away from the crowd of people who judge without thinking have abundant leisure for the contemplation of the things of nature, and try, as far as they can, to correct life in general (for virtue is a thing of great benefit to the whole community); but when they cannot succeed, because of the many absurdities that the various passions and vices of the soul have strengthened in the different cities and that continually obstruct them, they retire into solitude, so as not to be swept away by the violence and rush of these absurdities, as if by a winter torrent. 64 But if we had any real desire to improve, we ought to track down the hiding-places of these men carefully, sit down before them as suppliants, and beg them to come forward and give a touch of civilization to a life that has been savage until now, proclaiming, in place of inward slavery and countless evils, peace and an abundance of every other good thing flowing over it continually. 65 As things are, though, we search out every hiding-place only for the sake of money, and for this purpose we open the hard and rugged veins of the earth; and much of the open country, and no small part of the mountains as well, is opened up in mines as we search for gold, and silver, and brass, and iron, and all kinds of materials. 66 And vain opinion, setting up pride as a god, has gone down to the very lowest depths of the sea in its searches, to see whether anything beautiful that the outward senses might perceive lies hidden anywhere; and, finding many kinds of precious stones, some clinging to the rocks and others, more valuable still, hidden in oyster-shells, it has shown a great desire to deceive the sight; 67 and for the sake of what wisdom, or temperance, or courage, or justice requires, people travel even over parts of the earth that are naturally inaccessible, and sailors cross seas that are dangerous to navigate at any season of the year. 68 And yet, what need is there, either of long journeys over the land, or of long voyages, for the sake of searching out virtue, whose roots the Creator has laid not far away but so near, as the wise lawgiver of the Jews says, 'They are in your mouth, and in your heart, and in your hands:' meaning by these figures of speech the words, actions and intentions of men, all of which need careful cultivation. 69 So those who prefer idleness to industry have not only kept the shoots of virtue from thriving, but have even dried up all the roots, and withered and destroyed them; while those, on the other hand, who regard idleness as harmful and are willing to work cultivate virtue as farmers would cultivate flourishing shoots of good kinds of plants, with incessant care, and thus they raise the virtues to the height of heaven itself in ever-flourishing and undying branches, bearing a fruit of happiness which never ceases, or rather, as some say, not bearing happiness but actually being happiness, which Moses used to call by one compound name, holokarpōmata (whole offerings of entire fruit). 70 For with the things that grow out of the ground, the fruit is not the trees, nor are the trees the fruit. But with those that grow in the soul, the whole branches change entirely into the nature of the fruit; for instance, into wisdom, and justice, and courage, and temperance. 71 Since we have such great help in reaching virtue, should we not be ashamed to claim that the human race necessarily lacks wisdom, when by pursuing it we might kindle it into a flame, like a spark smouldering in wood? The truth is that we show great hesitation and constant slackness in pursuing the things we ought to hurry toward eagerly, as most closely connected and akin to us, and by this hesitation and indolence the seeds of virtue are destroyed; while for the things we ought to neglect we show an insatiable desire and longing. 72 This is why the whole earth and sea are full of men who are rich and of high reputation, and who indulge in all kinds of pleasure; and why the number of those who are prudent, just and virtuous is very small; but what is small in number, though it may be rare, nevertheless exists. 73 All Greece and all the land of the barbarians bear witness to this; for in Greece there flourished those who are truly called 'the seven wise men,' though others had flourished before them, and others in all probability have lived since their time. Though they lived very long ago, their memory has not been erased by the passing of the ages, while the names of others who are more recent have been lost through the neglect of their contemporaries. 74 And in the land of the barbarians, where the same men are authorities in both words and actions, a great many companies of virtuous and honourable men are celebrated. Among the Persians there is the body of the Magi, who investigate the works of nature in order to learn the truth, and at their leisure are initiated themselves and initiate others into the divine virtues through very clear explanations. And among the Indians there is the class of the gymnosophists, who, in addition to natural philosophy, also take great pains over the study of ethics, and thus make their whole existence a sort of lesson in virtue. 75 Palestine and Syria too, which are home to no small part of that most populous nation, the Jews, are not barren of exemplary wisdom and virtue. Some of these people are called Essenes, numbering, by my estimate, somewhat more than four thousand, who take their name from their piety, though not by any accurate form of the Greek language, because they are above all men devoted to the service of God, not sacrificing living animals, but striving instead to keep their own minds in a state of holiness and purity. 76 In the first place, these men live in villages, avoiding all cities on account of the habitual lawlessness of those who inhabit them, knowing well that such a moral disease is caught from associating with wicked men, just as a real disease might be caught from foul air, and that it would stamp an incurable evil on their souls. Some of them cultivate the earth and others devote themselves to the arts that peace produces, and so they benefit both themselves and everyone who comes into contact with them, not storing up treasures of silver and of gold, nor acquiring vast tracts of land out of a desire for large revenues, but providing everything required for the natural needs of life; 77 for they alone of almost all men, though they began poor and destitute, and that more from their own habits and way of life than from any real lack of good fortune, are nevertheless considered very rich, since they judge contentment and frugality to be great abundance, as indeed they are. 78 Among them you will find no makers of arrows, or javelins, or swords, or helmets, or breastplates, or shields; no makers of arms or of military engines; no one, in short, engaged in any occupation at all connected with war, or even in any peacetime occupation that is easily turned to wicked purposes; for they know nothing at all of trade, and of all commercial dealings, and of all navigation, and they reject and keep away from everything that could possibly tempt them to covetousness; 79 and there is not a single slave among them, but they are all free, helping one another through a mutual exchange of services; and they condemn masters not only as unjust, since they corrupt the very principle of equality, but also as impious, because they destroy the ordinances of nature, which gave birth to them all equally and raised them like a mother, as if they were all legitimate brothers, not in name only, but in reality and truth. But in their view this natural kinship of all men with one another has been thrown into disorder by scheming covetousness, which always wants to outdo others in good fortune and so has produced alienation instead of affection, and hatred instead of friendship; 80 and leaving the logical part of philosophy, as in no way necessary for acquiring virtue, to the word-catchers, and the natural part, as too lofty for human nature to master, to those who love to discuss lofty subjects (except insofar as that study includes contemplating the existence of God and the creation of the universe), they devote all their attention to the moral part of philosophy, taking as their teachers the laws of their country, which the human mind could not possibly have devised without divine inspiration. 81 They are taught these laws at other times too, but above all on the seventh day, for the seventh day is considered sacred, and on it they abstain from all other work, and go to the sacred places called synagogues, where they sit in classes by age, the younger below the elder, listening with eager attention and in fitting order. 82 Then one of them takes up the holy book and reads it, and another of the most experienced men comes forward and explains whatever is hard to understand, for a great many precepts are given in enigmatic expressions, and allegorically, in the old manner; 83 and thus the people are taught piety, and holiness, and justice, and economy, and the science of governing the state, and the knowledge of what is naturally good, bad or indifferent, and to choose what is right and to avoid what is wrong, using a threefold set of definitions, rules and criteria, namely the love of God, and the love of virtue, and the love of mankind. 84 So the sacred books present countless examples of a disposition devoted to the love of God, and of a continued and uninterrupted purity throughout the whole of life, of a careful avoidance of oaths and of falsehood, and of strict adherence to the principle that the Deity is the cause of everything good and of nothing evil. They also give us many proofs of a love of virtue, such as abstinence from all covetousness of money, from ambition, from indulgence in pleasures, temperance, endurance, and also moderation, simplicity, good temper, the absence of pride, obedience to the laws, steadiness, and everything of that kind; and lastly, as proofs of the love of mankind, they offer goodwill, an equality beyond all description, and fellowship, about which it is not unreasonable to say a few words. 85 First, then, no one has a house so entirely his own private property that it does not in some sense belong to everyone⁠a as well: for besides the fact that they all live together in communities, the house is open to all who share their views and come to them from elsewhere; 86 then there is one storehouse among them all; their expenses are all in common; their garments belong to them all in common; their food is shared, since they all eat together in common meals; for among no other people will you find a shared house, a shared way of life and a shared table more thoroughly established in practice than among this tribe: and is this not very natural? For whatever wages they receive after working during the day they do not keep as their own, but bring into the common stock, and give the benefit of it to all who wish to make use of it; 87 and those who are sick are not neglected because they are unable to contribute to the common stock, since the tribe has in its public stock the means to supply their needs and help them in their weakness, so that from their ample resources they support them generously and abundantly; and they respect their elders, honouring them and caring for them, just as parents are honoured and cared for by their lawful children: and they support them in complete abundance, both by their own labour and by countless other means. 88 A philosophy free of any needless concern with examining Greek names makes men into such diligent practitioners of virtue, setting before them, as the exercises they need to train for it, all the praiseworthy actions by which a freedom that can never be enslaved is firmly established. 89 A proof of this is that, though at different times a great many rulers of every kind of disposition and character have occupied their country, some of whom tried to outdo even ferocious wild beasts in cruelty, leaving no kind of inhumanity untried, and never stopped murdering their subjects in whole crowds, and even tore them to pieces alive, cutting them limb from limb like cooks, until they themselves, overtaken by the vengeance of divine justice, at last experienced the same miseries in their turn: 90 while others, turning their barbarous frenzy into another kind of wickedness and practising an unspeakable savagery, talking quietly with the people but betraying the ferocity of their real disposition through the hypocrisy of a gentler voice, fawning upon their victims like treacherous dogs, and causing them irreparable miseries, have left in all their cities monuments of their impiety and hatred of all mankind, in the unforgettable miseries endured by those they oppressed: 91 and yet none of them, neither the immoderately cruel tyrants nor the more treacherous and hypocritical oppressors, was ever able to bring any real accusation against the community of those called Essenes or Holy. Instead, every one of them, overcome by the virtue of these men, looked up to them as free by nature and not subject to the frown of any human being, and celebrated their common meals and their fellowship with one another, whose mutual good faith is beyond all description and is ample proof of a perfect and very happy life. 92 But since some people do not believe that there is any perfect virtue in the multitude, and think that whatever looks like virtue in such people grows only to a certain point, we must bring forward as supporting testimony the lives of some particular good men, who are the most undeniable evidence of freedom. 93 Calanus was an Indian by birth, one of the gymnosophists; regarded as the man of greatest fortitude among all his contemporaries, not only by his own countrymen but also by foreigners, which is the rarest thing of all, he was greatly admired by some kings of hostile countries, because he combined virtuous actions with praiseworthy words; 94 so Alexander, king of the Macedonians, wishing to show Greece the wisdom found in the lands of the barbarians, as a kind of faithful copy and image of an archetypal model, first invited Calanus to leave his home and come and live with him, saying that in this way he would win the greatest glory imaginable throughout all Asia and all Europe; 95 and when he could not persuade him by fair means, he said to him, 'You shall be compelled to follow me.' And he replied, very aptly and in a noble spirit, 'What then will I be worth, Alexander, when you exhibit me to the Greeks, after I have been compelled to do what I do not want to do?' Is this speech, or rather this idea, not full of real freedom? And in his writings too, which last longer than spoken words, he has set up, as if on a pillar, indelible signs of his indomitably free disposition; 96 as the letter he sent to the king proves. CALANUS TO ALEXANDER, GREETING 'Your friends are trying to persuade you to apply force and compulsion to the philosophers of the Indians, though they have not seen our actions even in their sleep; for you will be able indeed to transport our bodies from place to place, but you will not be able to compel our souls to do what they do not like, any more than you would be able to make bricks or timber utter words; we can cause the greatest troubles and the greatest destruction to living bodies; but we are above this power; we are burnt alive, and no king or ruler will ever succeed in compelling us to do what we do not choose to do; and we are in no respect like the philosophers of the Greeks, who study speeches to deliver to a public assembly; but our actions always match our words, and our speeches, which are short, have a power different from the power of our actions, and secure for us freedom and happiness.' 97 Faced with such firm refusals and such brave sentiments, is it not natural for anyone to quote the saying of Zeno that, 'It would be easier to sink a bladder full of wind than to compel any virtuous man at all, against his will, to do anything he had never intended.' For the soul of such a man will never submit, and can never be defeated, since it has been fortified by right reason with solid doctrines. 98 Poets and historians, too, bear witness to the real freedom of virtuous men; Greeks and barbarians alike are raised on their teachings almost from the cradle and improved in character by them, as everything in their souls that has been debased by a faulty upbringing and way of life is changed into good coinage; 99 so just look at what Hercules says in Euripides. 'Yes, burn and scorch my flesh, and glut your hate, Drinking my life-warm blood; for heaven's stars Shall quit their place, and darken 'neath the earth, And earth rise up and take the place of heaven, Before you wring from me a word of flattery.' For in truth flattery, adulation and hypocrisy, in which what is said is at odds with what is really felt, are the most slavish of things. But to speak freely, without any disguise and in a genuinely honest spirit of truth, what a clear conscience dictates is conduct suited to those who are nobly born. 100 Again, do you not see how this same virtuous man, even when he is sold, does not look like a servant, but strikes everyone who sees him with awe, as not merely free but about to become the master of the man who bought him? 101 Mercury, at any rate, replies to a man who asks whether he is worthless-- 'By no means worthless, on the contrary, In every part most venerable: never Low, nor of no account, as though a slave. But as to clothing brilliant to behold, And with the club he bears most energetic. But no one willingly becomes the buyer Of one who soon the master will become Of him and all his house. And everyone Who sees you, fears you, for your eye is fire Like that of any bull prepared for war Gainst Afric Lions.' Then, at the end, he speaks again of his disposition-- 'I now do blame you for your stubborn silence, As if you were not subject to a master, But sought to govern rather than be governed.' 102 But when, after Syleus had bought him, he was sent into the fields, he showed by his actions the indomitable freedom of his nature; for he sacrificed the choicest of the bulls there to Jupiter, made a show of holding a feast, drank a vast quantity of wine at one meal, and lay down very contentedly to digest it; 103 and when Syleus came and was angry at both the loss and the easy indifference of his servant, and at his outrageous contempt for his master, he did not change colour or alter his conduct at all, but said with complete confidence-- 'Sit down and drink, and thus you shall At once appreciate my character, And learn to be my master in reality.' 104 Are we then to call him the slave, or rather the master of his master, when he dares not only to address him so freely but even to give orders to the man who bought him, as if he would beat and insult him if he proved stubborn and disobedient, and would destroy them all to a man if he brought in anyone to help him? So the documents drawn up for this purchase must have been an utter absurdity and a mere joke, since they would be trampled on by the more effective power of the slave bought under them, being worth less than unwritten covenants and likely to be utterly destroyed by moths, or time, or mould and rust. 105 But, someone will say, it is not right to cite the actions of heroes as proof that an argument is correct, since they were greater than ordinary human nature and closer to the heavenly beings themselves, being born of a kind of mixed parentage, sprung from mortal and immortal seed at once, and rightly called demigods, the mortal part of their composition being tempered by the incorruptible part, so that there is nothing extraordinary in their having despised the mortals who plotted to enslave them. 106 Very well, let it be so. But are Anaxagoras and Zeno the Eleatic heroes, or descended from gods? Yet when savage tyrants, wholly pitiless by nature and even more enraged against them than usual, tortured them with the most unheard-of cruelties, they regarded their bodies as if they belonged to strangers, or even to enemies, and ignored and utterly disdained the terrible evils inflicted on them; 107 for, having trained their souls through the love of knowledge from the very beginning to keep away from any share in the passions and to cling to education and wisdom, they easily faced the prospect of the soul leaving the body, and made it live with prudence, courage and the other virtues. 108 So the one, hung up and violently stretched to make him reveal some secret, showed himself mightier than fire or iron, though these are the strongest things in nature, and bit off his tongue with his teeth and spat it at his torturer, so that he would not, under the force of agony, involuntarily utter what he ought to bury in silence; 109 and the other said with great fortitude, 'Beat Aristarchus's skin, for you cannot beat Aristarchus himself.' These examples of brave fortitude, full of daring, far exceed the nobility of those heroes, because the heroes have a glory handed down to them by their ancestors without any deeds of their own, while the fame of these men rests on virtuous deeds deliberately performed, which quite naturally make immortal those who practise them in a guileless spirit. 110 I also know that combatants in the pancratium very often, out of an excess of rivalry and eagerness for victory, keep up their spirits when their bodies are exhausted, and fight on with their soul alone, which they have trained to look on danger with contempt, and thus they endure toil and pain to the very end of their life. 111 Are we then to imagine that men who have trained themselves to achieve bodily vigour have been able to trample on the fear of death, either in the hope of victory or from the desire to avoid seeing their own defeat; but that those who train the invisible mind within them, which is really and truly the man himself and carries about the visible form perceived by the outward senses as its house, and who educate it in the principles and maxims of philosophy and the rules of virtue, will not be willing to die for the sake of freedom, in order to perform the journey appointed for them by fate with an indomitable and free spirit? 112 They say that once, at one of the sacred games, two athletes fighting each other with equally matched strength and courage, doing the same things to each other and suffering the same things, did not give up the contest until they both fell dead. 'My too brave son, your courage will destroy You,' someone may say of such people. 113 If the death of such combatants is glorious when it is met for the sake of some wild olives and parsley-leaves, must it not be much more so when endured for the sake of freedom, the love of which, to tell the plain truth, is firmly rooted in the soul alone, as if it were some extraordinary part of it, so closely united with it that if it were cut off the whole make-up of the man would necessarily be destroyed? 114 The indomitable spirit of a Lacedaemonian boy is celebrated, whether it came from his birth or from nature, and his is a nation used to hunting carefully for the virtues; for when he had been carried off as a prisoner by one of the soldiers of Antigonus, he submitted to whatever tasks were fit for a free man, but refused menial duties, saying that he was not going to be a slave; and though because of his age he could not yet have been thoroughly educated in the laws of Lycurgus, having only tasted them, he judged a violent death preferable to the life which was before him, and, despairing of any deliverance, he cheerfully killed himself. 115 It is also told that some Dardanian women who had been taken prisoner by the Macedonians, regarding slavery as the most shameful of all evils, threw the children they were carrying in their arms into the deepest part of the river, saying as they did so, 'At least you shall not be slaves; before you can begin to experience so miserable a life, you shall cut off all such necessity and travel in freedom the last, inevitable road of human existence.' 116 Again, the tragedian Euripides presents Polyxena as disregarding death and thinking only of freedom, and so she speaks as follows: 'Willingly now I die; and let no enemy Seize me with violent hands; for I myself With cheerful courage will put forth my neck. For God's sake do not touch me; but leave me free, That having lived in freedom, I may die Unviolated by a master's hand.' 117 Are we then to imagine that so profound a love of freedom can be firmly fixed in women and children, the first by nature light-minded and the second at an age easily led astray and liable to stumble, that rather than be deprived of it they cheerfully go from death to immortality, but that men who have tasted pure wisdom are not at once thoroughly free, when they carry within themselves a kind of perpetual fountain of happiness, namely virtue, which no scheming or hostile power has ever been able to dissolve, since it holds the everlasting inheritance of authority and sovereign power? 118 Indeed, we hear of whole nations too who, for the sake of freedom and good faith toward their dead benefactors, have willingly faced utter destruction, as the Xanthians are said to have done not long ago; for when Brutus, one of those men who attacked Julius Caesar, invaded their territory and made war upon them, they, fearing not so much the destruction of their city as slavery at the hands of a murderer who had killed his king and his benefactor (for Caesar was both to him), at first resisted with great vigour to the very utmost of their power, 119 and though they were being gradually destroyed, they still held out; and when at last they had exhausted all their strength, they all gathered their wives, parents and children into their houses and killed them there one by one, then piled the slaughtered bodies in a heap, set fire to them and killed themselves on top of it, and so met the fated end of all men with a noble and free spirit. 120 These people, wishing to escape the pitiless inhumanity of tyrannical enemies, preferred a glorious death to an inglorious life; but those to whom the chances of fortune gave a longer life have endured their dangers and afflictions with fortitude, imitating the courage and endurance of Hercules, who also showed himself superior to the commands of Eurystheus. 121 So the Cynic philosopher Diogenes showed such loftiness and greatness of spirit that, when he was taken prisoner by some robbers who fed him very sparingly and scarcely gave him even the food he needed, he was not weighed down by the circumstances which surrounded him, and did not fear the inhumanity of the masters into whose power he had fallen, but said 'that it was utterly absurd for pigs or sheep about to be sold to be carefully supplied with plenty of food to make them fat and fleshy, but for the most excellent of all animals, man, to be reduced to a skeleton by bad food and constant scarcity, and so made worth less than before.' 122 And then, when he had obtained sufficient food, and when he was about to be sold with the rest of the captives, he first sat down and ate his breakfast with great cheerfulness and courage, giving some of his breakfast to his neighbours. And seeing that one of them was not merely sorrowful but in extreme despondency, he said, 'Won't you stop being miserable? Take what you can get.' 'For the golden haired Niobe asked for her food, Though her twelve noble children lay welt'ring in blood; Six daughters, fair emblems of virtue and truth, And six sons, the chief flower of the Lydian youth.' 123 And then, speaking boldly to someone who seemed inclined to buy him and who asked him, 'What do you know?' he replied, 'I know how to govern men:' his soul, it seems, prompting from within his free, noble and naturally royal spirit. Then at once, with his natural indifference and serenity, he turned to joking, which annoyed all the rest, who were full of despondency. 124 Accordingly it is said that, seeing one of the would-be buyers afflicted with the female disease, since he did not even look like a man, he went up to him, and said, 'Buy me, for you seem to me to be in need of a husband;' so that the man, grieved and downcast by the infirmities he knew he had, slunk away, while all the rest marvelled at the ready wit and happy courage of the philosopher. Shall we then say that a man like this was a slave, and not rather free, only without any unaccountable authority? 125 And there was also a man named Choereas, a man of considerable education, who was a zealous imitator of Diogenes's freedom of speech; for he lived in Alexandria in Egypt, and once, when Ptolemy was offended with him and was uttering serious threats against him, he, thinking that the freedom implanted in his nature was in no way inferior to the royal authority of Ptolemy, replied-- 'Rule your Egyptian slaves; but as for me, I neither care for you, nor fear your anger And angry threats.' 126 For noble souls have something authoritative within them, and do not allow their brilliance to be obscured by the injustice of fortune, but their spirit encourages them to contend on equal terms with those of very high rank and great pride, pitting their freedom of spirit against the insolence of such people. 127 It is said that when Theodorus, surnamed the Atheist, had been banished from Athens and had come to the court of Lysimachus, and one of those in power there reproached him for his banishment, mentioning its cause too, namely that he had been expelled after being condemned for atheism and for corrupting the youth, he replied, 'I have not been banished, but the same thing has happened to me which happened to Hercules, the son of Jupiter; 128 for he too was put ashore by the Argonauts, not for doing anything wrong, but only because he alone was both crew and ballast enough for a ship, so that he weighed the ship down and made his fellow voyagers fear it would become waterlogged; and I too have been driven from my country because most of the citizens of Athens could not keep pace with the loftiness and greatness of my mind, and so they envied me.' 129 And when, after this reply, Lysimachus asked him, 'Were you also banished from your native land through envy?' he replied a second time, 'Not through envy, in fact, but because of the exceptionally high qualities of my nature, which my country could not contain; 130 for just as, when Semele, while pregnant with Bacchus, could not carry her child to the appointed time of its birth, Jupiter pitied her and saved from the flames the still unformed child in her womb, and granted it honours equal to those of the heavenly deities, so too some deity, or some god, has made me leave my country because it is too narrow to contain the ample burden of a philosophic mind, and has decided to carry me to a place more fortunate than Athens and settle me there.' 131 Moreover, anyone who considers the matter may find even among brute beasts examples of the freedom that exists among men, as of every other human blessing. Cocks, at any rate, habitually fight one another and show such a real love of danger that, rather than yield or submit, even when they are weaker than their opponent they will not accept being inferior in courage, but hold out even to death. 132 And Miltiades, the famous general of the Athenians, saw this; so when the king of the Persians had roused all the might of Asia and was invading Europe with many myriads of soldiers, as if he meant to destroy all Greece with the mere shout of his army, Miltiades gathered all the allies at the festival called the panathenaea and showed them a battle between these birds, thinking that the encouragement they would draw from such a sight would be more powerful than any argument. 133 And he was not mistaken, for when they had seen the patient endurance and sense of honour of these irrational animals, which could not be subdued by any means short of death itself, they snatched up their arms and rushed eagerly to war, resolved to fight their enemies with their very bodies, utterly indifferent to wounds and death and willing to die for their freedom, so that at all events they might be buried in the still free soil of their native country; for nothing exhorts so forcibly toward improving the character as unhoped-for success on the part of those whom men regard as inferior to themselves. 134 The tragic writer Ion also mentions the fighting spirit of these birds in the following lines: 'Nor though wounded in each limb, Nor though his eyes with blows are dim, Will he forget his might; But still, though much fatigued, will crow, Preferring death to undergo Than slavery, or slight.' 135 Why, then, should we think that wise men will not cheerfully choose death over slavery? And is it not absurd to imagine that the souls of young and nobly born men will prove inferior to the souls of game-cocks in the contest of virtue, barely fit to take second place? 136 And yet who with even the slightest trace of education does not know this fact, that freedom is a noble thing and slavery a disgraceful one, and that what is honourable belongs to virtuous men, and what is disgraceful to worthless ones? This shows beyond all denial that no virtuous man can ever be a slave, not even if ten thousand people, holding every imaginable deed to prove themselves his masters, threaten him; and that no foolish or worthless man can ever be free, not even if he were Croesus, or Midas, or the great king of Persia himself. 137 But the much-celebrated beauty of freedom and the accursed ugliness of slavery are continually attested as such by the more ancient cities and nations, which have lasted a long time and are, as it were, immortal among mortal things, and their testimony cannot err; 138 for what else are councils and assemblies convened nearly every day to discuss but freedom, to secure it where it is present and to gain it where it is absent? And what other aim have Greece and the barbarian nations ever had, in all the continual uprisings and wars within and between those peoples, than to escape slavery and gain liberty? 139 That is why in every battle the chief exhortation of all captains, and commanders, and generals is this, 'Soldiers and allies, let us now repel that greatest of all evils, slavery, which the enemy is attempting to bring upon us; let us never endure the loss of that greatest of all human blessings, liberty. This is the beginning and fountain of all happiness, from which all particular blessings flow.' 140 It is for this reason that the most sharp-sighted of all the Greek nations, namely, the Athenians (for Athens is to Greece what the pupil is to the eye, or reasoning to the soul), when they send out a solemn procession to the venerable goddesses, never allow any slave at all to take part in it, but have everything in it done by free men and women accustomed to such duties, and even then not by just anyone, but only by those who have cultivated a blameless innocence of life; since the finest of the young men prepare the cakes for the feast, regarding that office as contributing (as indeed it does) to their credit and honour. 141 Not long ago, when some actors were performing a tragedy and reciting those iambics of Euripides: 'For e'en the name of freedom is a jewel Of mighty value; and the man who has it E'en in a small degree, has noble wealth;' I myself saw all the spectators standing on tip-toe with excitement and delight, and with loud cries and continual shouts joining their praise of the sentiments with praise of the poet, for having not only honoured freedom by his actions but extolled its very name. 142 I also admire the Argonauts, who made the whole crew of their ship free men, not allowing a single slave to embark even for the purpose of performing the most indispensable services, but at that time chose to do everything themselves, regarding independent action as the brother of freedom; 143 and if I may pay any attention at all to what the poets say (and why should we not, since they teach all mankind how to live, and just as individual parents teach their children, so the poets teach the whole body of a city, correcting the entire population?), then I say that the Argo herself, when Jason was her captain, as if she were at that time endowed with a soul and with reasoning powers, did not permit any slaves to come aboard, since by nature she was devoted to freedom, which is why Aeschylus says of her-- 'And tell me where's the sacred beam That dared the dangerous Euxine stream?' 144 And we must not pay the slightest attention to the threats and menaces some people hold over even wise men, but must answer as Antigonides the flute-player did; for it is told that when one of his rivals in the art, angry with him, said to him, 'I will buy you as a slave,' he replied with very profound wit, 'Then I will teach you to play the flute;' 145 and in the same way it would be fitting for the virtuous man to say to anyone who seemed inclined to buy him, 'Therefore you will be able to learn wisdom.' And if anyone were to threaten him with banishment beyond the borders of the country, it would be fitting for him to reply, 'Every land is my country;' 146 and if anyone were to threaten him with loss of money, he might answer, 'A modest livelihood is enough for me:' while if anyone were to menace him with lashes or death, he would reply, 'These things hold no terror for me, for am I inferior to a boxer or to a wrestler in the pancratium, who see only some indistinct images of virtue and, because they have laboured solely at the one object of getting the body into good condition, endure both blows and death with fortitude; for in me the mind, which is the ruler of the body, has been invigorated by courage, and so completely fortified, that it is able to show itself superior to any kind of pain.' 147 We must take care, therefore, never to catch a beast of the kind that, formidable not only in its strength but also in its appearance, displays an almost invincible power that is far from contemptible. 148 It often happens that places which serve as asylums for fugitives and slaves give them complete freedom from fear and perfect security, as if they held honours and privileges equal to their masters', and sometimes one may see people who are slaves of long standing, descended from grandfathers and still more remote ancestors who were all slaves by a kind of hereditary succession, yet who, once they have taken refuge in temples as suppliants, speak freely and fearlessly in perfect security. 149 Some even argue about their own rights and just claims with their owners, not merely on equal terms, but actually as if they were far superior to them, replying to them with great energy and even contemptuously; for the one party, however nobly born, is enslaved by the conviction their consciences force on them; while the others feel perfectly secure in their persons, because the place they are in is generally recognized as an asylum, and so they display the free and noble disposition of soul that God has made such that no external circumstance can ever subdue it, 150 unless, indeed, anyone is so utterly lacking in reason as to imagine that the place itself causes their confidence and freedom of speech, and that virtue, the most god-like of all things, has nothing to do with it, though virtue alone is what makes either places or anything endowed with sense holy. 151 Indeed, those who take refuge in places regarded as asylums, seeking security only in the places themselves, are constantly much affected by a great variety of other circumstances, by the corruption of their wives, the lost reputation of their children, and the deceitfulness of love, while those who take refuge in virtue, as in a strong and indestructible and invincible fortification, disregard every attack that the treachery of the passions aims and directs against them. 152 Anyone defended by this power may naturally say with complete freedom that other people are taken captive by all kinds of chance things, but, as the tragic poet puts it, 'I am well skilled both to obey myself And rule myself: well weighing all events By virtue's standard.' 153 So too Bias of Priene, when Croesus threatened him, is said to have threatened him back most contemptuously, telling him to eat onions, a figure of speech by which he meant that Croesus should weep, since eating onions brings on tears. 154 Thus wise men, regarding nothing as more royal than virtue, which is the regulator of the whole of their lives, do not fear the authority of other men, whom they regard rather as subject to themselves; in keeping with this idea, they all habitually consider double-minded and treacherous people illiberal and slavish; 155 which is also why the saying is quite apt-- 'Never was heard of slave uprightly held, But stooping always with a downbent neck.' For a crooked, wily and deceitful disposition is a most ignoble thing; just as an upright, straightforward, undisguised and unsuspicious soul indicates a most noble character, its words harmonising with its intentions, and its intentions with its words. 156 We may fairly laugh at those men who, once they have been released from actual ownership by a master, think themselves free from that moment; for these men, once emancipated, are perhaps no longer servants as they were before, but they are all slaves, deeply branded slaves, obeying not men (that would not be so terrible) but even the most dishonoured of inanimate things, strong wine, vegetables, cheesecakes, and all the other things which the superfluous labours of bakers and confectioners invent, as enemies of the miserable belly. 157 So when Diogenes once saw one of those called illiberal and slavish persons giving himself airs, with a great many others sharing in his pleasures, he marvelled at their lack of reason and judgment and said, 'It is just as if someone were to proclaim that one of his servants was from this day on to be counted a good grammarian, or geometrician, or musician, though the servant had not the slightest idea of the art; for just as the proclamation would not make men learned, so also it would not make them free (for then it would be a blessed thing), but all that it could do would be to make them no longer slaves.' 158 Therefore, having put an end to empty opinion, on which most men depend, and devoting ourselves to that most sacred possession, truth, let us not use wrong terms that credit those who call themselves citizens in this way with any real share in a free constitution, or any real liberty; nor, on the other hand, let us reproach those who have been born in the house of a master, or who have been bought with money as slaves, but let us rather pass over all ideas of birth, all writings implying mastership, and, in short, everything relating to the body, and let us confine ourselves to investigating the nature of the soul. 159 For if it is driven to and fro by appetite, or if it is attracted by pleasure, or turned out of the way by fear, or contracted by grief, or tortured by want, it then makes itself a slave, and makes him who possesses such a soul the slave of ten thousand masters. But if it has resisted and subdued ignorance by prudence, and intemperance by temperance, and cowardice by bravery, and covetousness by justice; it then adds power and authority to its indomitable free spirit. 160 As for all the souls that do not yet belong to either of these two classes, neither the enslaved class nor the one in which prudence is confirmed, but are still naked like the souls of very young infants, those we must nurse and cherish carefully, prescribing for them at first tender food instead of milk, namely, instruction in the encyclical sciences, and after that stronger food, such as is prepared by philosophy, by which they will be strengthened so as to become manly, and in good condition, and led on to a favourable end, one recommended by you no more than it is enjoined by the oracle, 'To live in conformity to nature.'