The Stoic's Bible

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Apollo’s commands:

ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΕΑΥΤΟΝ

KNOW THYSELF

ΜΕΔΕΝ ΑΓΑΝ

NOTHING IN EXCESS

ΕΓΓΥΑ ΠΑΡΑ ΔΑΤΗ

MAKE A PLEDGE AND TROUBLE IS NIGH

Ε

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The

STOIC'S BIBLE

&

Florilegium for the Good Life

__________________

GILES LAURÉN

σπευδε βραδεωσ

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SOPHRON 2010 ISBN:1453816224 13: 9781453816226

Bible is the Greek word for book; it had been in use for eight hundred years when the Christian Bible was written. Florilegium is Latin for a collection of flowers. One of our principal

sources for the ancients is the Florilegium of Stobaeus. σπευδε βραδεωσ,

was an expression favoured by Augustus. It was later used by the great renaissance printer, Aldus, in its Latin form: festina lente, or ‘make haste slowly.’

It was accompanied by the sign of a dolphin entwined about an anchor. Cover photograph:

The Charioteer of Delphi, bronze, 470 B.C. Back cover:

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DEDICATION

Several years ago a dear friend of many years sent me a favourite quotation which he attributed to Seneca:

“The good man always loses.”

The thoughts this troubling paradox evoked led me to several years of study, and through the discovery of the Stoics, to a better understanding of the origins of Western man. This book would never have been conceived nor written without the inspiration of JohnWalker-Haworth, to whom it is gratefully dedicated.

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Myson of Chen fl. 650 Chilon of Sparta 595-525 Pythagoras of Samos 575-495 Xenophanes of Colophon 570-470 THEOGNIS of Megara fl. 540 25 HERACLITUS of Ephesus 535-475 31 SOPHISTS 37 Anaxagoras of Clazomenae 500-428 Protagoras of Abdera 490-420 Prodicus of Cos 465-415 DEMOCRITUS of Abdera 460-370 38 SOCRATES 469-399 (Plutarch) 51 (DiogenesLaertius)

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Aeschines Aristippus 435-356 XENOPHON 431-355 Memorabilia. 54 Oeconomicus. Symposium. Apology. Cyropedia. Scripta Minora PLATO 428-348 Apology 71 Crito. Phaedo. Charmides. Laches. Lysis. Euthyphro. Gorgias. Protagoras. Meno. Euthydemus. Phaedrus. Symposium. Republic. Theatetus. Sophist. Statesman. Philebus. Laws. CYNICS Antisthenes of Athens 112 DIOGENES of Sinope Crates of Thebes 365-285 ARISTOTLE 384-322 Nicomean Ethics. 125

Demetrius of Phalerum 146 EPICURUS of Samos 147 STOICS Zeno of Citium 334-280 150 Ariston Cleanthes of Assos 330-230 Chrysippus 280-207 Cato 95-46 CICERO 106-43 B.C DeOfficius. 153 De Finibus. Tusculan Disputations. De Fato. Paradoxa Stoicorum. De Senectute. De Amicus. De Natura Deorum. Academica. Laelius de Amacitia.

SENECA 4 B.C.-65 A.D.4 B.C.-65 A.D.

De Providentia. 205 De Constantia. De Ira.1,2,3. De Clementia. De Consolatione ad Marciam. De Vita Beata. De Otio. De Tranquillitate Animi. De Brevitate Vitae. De Consolatione af Polybium. De Consolatione ad Helviam. De Beneficiis. Epistles. Maxims. MUSONIUS c.25-c.9 A .D. 338

ABBREVIATIONS

ARIST. Nich. A.G. [BDK] Boethius. Cic. TD. Cic. DeFato. Cic. DeOff. Cic. Paradoxa. Cic. DeSen. Cic. De Amicitia. D. D.K. D.L. H. EPICT. Freeman. Guthrie. M.A. MUS. Frag. PL. Mor. SENECA Mor.Es. SENECA. De Providencia. SENECA. De Constrantia. SENECA. De Ira. SENECA. De Clem. SENECA. Ad Mar. SENECA. De Vita. SENECA. De Otio. SENECA. De Tranquil. SENECA. De Brev. Vit. SENECA. Ad Polybium. SENECA. Ad Helviam. SENECA. DeBen. SENECA. Ep. X. Mem. X. Oec. X. Sym. X. Apo. X. Cyro. X. S.M.

Aristotle. Nichomean Ethics. Aulus Gellius.

Barnes translation of Diels-Kranz. Boet.

Cicero. Tusculan Discourses. Cicero. De Fato.

Cicero. De Officius.

Cicero. Paradoxa Stoicorum. Cicero. De Senectute. Cicero. De Amicitia. Diogenes of Sinope. Diels-Kranz. Diogenes Laërtius. Heraclitus. Epictetus. Freeman. Ancila.

Guthrie. History of Greek Philosophy. Marcus Aurelius. Meditations. Musonius Rufus. Fragments. Plutarch. Moralia. Moral Essays. De Providencia. De Constrantia. De Ira. De Clementia. De Consolatione ad Marciam. De Vita Beata. De Otio. De Tranquillitate Animi. De Brevitate Vitae. De Consolatione ad Polyium. De Consolatione ad Helviam. De Beneficiis. Epistles. Xenophon. Memorabilia. Xenophon. Oeconomicus. Xenophon. Symposium. Xenophon. Apology. Xenophon. Cyropaedia. Xenophon. Scripta Minora

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CHRONOLOGY

1500! B.C. 1300 1225 ???? 1100 950 900 850 800 776 750 725 621 600 590 582 575 530 525 520 510 508 500 493 490 490 480 480 479 450 450 460 440 400 400 390 375 362 360

Mycenaean cities Knossos, Thebes, Argos. Linear B in use.

Trojan War. Delphic oracle.

Arrival of the Dorian Greeks. Iron Age.

Greek alphabet. HOMER invents Poetry. Greeks invent the Gymnasium.

Olympic, Pythian Games.Greeks invent Games. Greeks colonise Magna Grecia: Southern Italy, Sicily. LYCURGUS invents Law at Sparta.

DRACO writes laws for Athens. THALES invents Philosophy SAPPHO. ÆSOP.

Seven Sages; Delphic Maxims.

ANAXIMANDER invents Science & Geography. Athens invents the Public Library & Public Education. DEMOCEDES invents the Medical School.

PYTHAGORAS.

Greeks invent Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, Dialectic. KLEISTHENES invents Athenian Democracy. AESCHYLUS invents Theatre.

THEMISTOCLES walls Athens & builds ships. PROTAGORAS invents Etymology & Sophism. Battle of Marathon.

Battle of Salamis.

HERODOTUS invent History. Battle of Plataea.

PERICLES Greeks invent Architecture, Sewers, the Clock. HIPPODAMUS invents City Planning.

HIPPOCRATES.

SOCRATES invents Living Well. XENOPHON. PLATO.

Greeks invent Gastronomy. DIOGENES invents Cynicism. Greeks invent the Hospital. Battle of Mantinea.

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350 335 310 300 300 272 260 230 146 130 87 75 50 25 10 30" A.D. 100 170 225 267 325 390 406 412 475 520 529 550 560 950 1350

Greeks invent Economics. ALEXANDER the Great.

EPICURUS invents Epicureanism. ZENO invents STOICISM. Library at Alexandria. Rome captures Tarentum.

ARCHIMEDES invents Naval Engineering, etc. Hannibal.

Rome invades Greece.

Panaetius brings Stoicism to Rome. Sulla captures Athens.

Greeks invent fiction with the Ninus Romance. CAESAR, CICERO.

Virgil, Horace.

AUGUSTUS & Pax Romana. SENECA.

PLUTARCH. EPICTETUS. MARCUS AURELIUS. DIOGENES LAERTIUS. Herulians sack Athens.

Council of Nicaea. Nicene Creed.

Theodosius I destroys Delphi & the Temple of Apollo. Jerome’s LatinVulgate.

St. Augustine’s City of God. STOBAEUS’s Florilegium. BOETHIUS.

Justinian closes the schools of Athens. Simplicius, the last Philosopher? Procopius, the last Historian? The Suda.

Petrarch, Father of Humanism & the Renaissance.

Chronology

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PROLOGUE

Does the good man always lose?

From the moment I started reading the Stoics I was struck by the compelling nature of their reasoning; why weren’t these men better known? Why do we misuse the word Stoic? Like Tom Wolfe’s A Man in Full, I came to realise that I had been looking for answers in all the wrong places. How many today realise that the Greeks invented Grammar, Geography, Oratory, Rhetoric, Logic, Poetry, Theatre, History, Philosophy, Political Science, Democracy, Architecture, Natural History, Economics, Gastronomy, Law, Science, and made vast improvements in the Arts and Métiers? Why did this people produce so many great leaders and thinkers in just two centuries? The more I learned about the Greeks, the better I understood the genius of Western civilization, and the more I learned about Western civilization the wider the distance between Western and Eastern thought became. We moderns have blurred this distinction. Witness current interests in Indian shamans, Mayan Elders, astrology, earthquakes, sunspots, Kabbala, Nostradamus, Eastern religions, tarot, meditation, spiritualism, conspiracies, and our curiosity about vampires, the occult, fantasy and science fiction. Socrates would have asked questions about each of these chimeras that would have made them appear fantastic non-sense and brought them to ridicule. We do not ask these questions, we are tolerant, sympathetic, non-judgemental, and this is why we as a people are heading in an Eastern direction that is cloaking reality with delusion and deception. We are confusing change and novelty with advancement.

! So, as the notes grew in complexity and volume, the idea of making a book out of them led to the consideration of what sort of book and by evolution this became an attempt to keep wisdom alive in the manner of the Florilegia of the Dark ages, or at best to reintroduce Greek thought to contemporary man by way of the Stoics, or to do for modern man what Cicero did for the Roman world with such success.

! What is the difference between Western and Eastern thought? Mens’ actions follow from speech which in turn follows from thoughts and our thoughts are organized by either Reason or Superstition. Thoughts thus become acts. Thoughts can come from Principles or from Fear/Dogma/ Training. When Western man asked himself what he should do, he used his

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Reason to weigh the possibilities, motives, objectives and means and chose his best action. Eastern man’s actions were guided by Fear of his rulers, the Superstitious demands of his gods and the customary Training of his clan. The Greek found new answers, the Easterner repeated old mistakes.

! When we consider Stoic thought, it would be presumptuous to think that we can understand thinkers who lived over two thousand years ago. How well do we understand Shakespeare who lived four hundred years ago and spoke English? Seneca, a Roman, was born four centuries after the death of Socrates, a Greek; how well could he have understood him? Epictetus lived four centuries after Zeno; how well could he have understood him? The Stoics endured for over six hundred years; there were countless Stoic teachers in many cities and States separated by weeks of travel, and they were in constant disagreement among themselves.

We philosophers are so far from deprecating criticism that we even welcome it heartily, for even in its best days Greek philosophy would never have been held in such high honour, if the rivalries and disagreements of its chief exponents had not maintained its activity. Cic. TD. II. I. p.151.

For these reasons any modern statement of Stoicism becomes a simplistic collection of opinions and it is for these reasons that this book has grown to over six-hundred pages and is still incomplete.See how many pages it takes you to understand why the good man always loses - or if he does!

! Our best source of Stoic wisdom lies in the writings of the Stoics themselves. They wrote with the elegant simplicity that eliminates mystery, intending to teach and be understood. They wrote so well that their works have survived for more than two millennia, or centuries longer than the Christian Bible. Since no book has been written that sets forth their thoughts so well as they did themselves, why not continue to let them do what they have done so well for so long? Since we possess a considerable body of source documents for Stoic moral thought this work became a selection, or florilegium, of the choicest Greek and Roman thoughts and quotes, in rough chronological order, spanning a thousand years. Many of the translations I have used were intended to assist scholars reading the original Greek or Latin text, so I have paraphrased freely for the benefit of clarity and the modern reader.

! Why the Stoics? Because they are a synthesis of Greek moral thought and because of the abundance and quality of the source material explaining their system. A school that taught how to ‘live well’ using reasoned principles, they were the first to rationally explore most of man’s moral issues such that their

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philosophical successors over the centuries have done little beyond adding footnotes.

! Each quote in this florilegium is directly sourced to its most accessible source, usually a Loeb Classical Library (LCL) volume, which has the advantage of enabling the reader to verify the translation or examine the context. As the single largest source for classical quotations it will also be found useful as a standard quotation dictionary and as an aide memoire to recall a particular dialogue or locate an argument without consulting a large number of volumes. ! If you find in reading these quotes that they make sense and you would like to use them in your life, perhaps as an alternative to Christianity, you will find in the Stoic’s Bible guides for daily living such as many seek in the Christian Bible. This text forms a complete course in Stoicism, with cultural background, anecdotes, examples, and Arrian’s class notes; everything is made plain by the Masters.

Virtue means knowing about things other than virtue; if we are to have virtue we must learn all about virtue. Conduct will not be right unless the will to act is right. Peace of mind is enjoyed only by those who have attained a fixed and unchanging standard of judgement. If you would always desire the same things you must desire truth and one cannot attain truth without doctrines that embrace all of life. Your precepts, when taken alone

wither away, they must be grafted upon a school of philosophy to endure. If proofs are necessary, so are doctrines for they deduce the

truth by reasoning. We advise a man to regard his friends as highly as himself, to reflect that an enemy may become a friend, to stimulate love in the friend and to check hatred in the enemy. How useful it is to know the marks of a fine soul that we may add them to our own! It is more honourable to fall into servitude than to fall in line with it. SENECA. VI. Ep. XCV. p.93.

Later editions of this work are planned with expanded quotes and I will be grateful to anyone who notifies me of its many errors or has suggestions for improvement, at: [email protected]. I regretfully cannot promise a response and the reward as in all noble endeavours must be in the act.

G. L.

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INTRODUCTION

“If you are serious Socrates, and what you say is true, then the life of us mortals must be turned upside down and apparently we are everywhere doing the opposite of what we should.” Callicles. PLATO Gorgias. 481c. p.265.

HISTORIC

Philosophy was invented by the Greeks; a big, aggressive and courageous people who often ended their days on a battlefield in a pool of their own blood. Greek men were enlisted in their city’s army for about twenty years of their lives and for this reason they spent a part of each day training in the gymnasia to keep fit. Aeschylus, Thucydides, Socrates, Euripides, Plato, Xenophon, Diogenes were all big men, and most had faced death in battle. For this reason the first schools were located in or near the gymnasia where everyone of an age to learn came most days. It is understandable that men who must face death will have an interest in religion and philosophy. They also have a very practical desire to know the character of the men fighting beside them.

! Athens was the largest and most beautiful of the Greek cities; she offered the best theatre, music, dance, and medical care; she had silver mines, marble quarries, agriculture, skilled artisans and a merchant fleet. She was at the centre of the Greek world and its hub for trade, with ports at Piraeus, Lavrio, Brauron, Oropus, and in times of peace at Egosthena. She hosted the most important market in Greece and managed it with good laws fairly applied. She was friendly to merchants and attracted the skilled metics, or non citizens, who helped provide her markets with the best of everything. As the first Democracy, she was the first State to grapple with the conflict between free speech, or parrhêsia (παρρησι) and rhetoric or between the honest effort to find the truth and the contrary effort to deceive for gain. Her philosophers’ answers to this conflict has never been improved, nor indeed equalled: through wisdom find the best answer and the best means of expressing it so that the better side will be more likely to gain popular acceptance. Under these conditions it was only natural that Athens should first attract the Sophists, Orators, Rhetoricians and Philosophers and that the pursuit of knowledge should flourish here as nowhere elsewhere.

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! Our first philosophical records date from about 600 B.C. when the Seven Sages first asked: HOW BEST TO LIVE, and recorded their answers in stone at Delphi. Trying to discover how best to live was perhaps the most discussed topic in antiquity and it led to many other questions and to the invention of philosophy.

! Over the course of the century following the death of Socrates in 399, philosophy developed in the directions he had investigated and expanded into new areas of inquiry. More specialised questions and systems to explain them were investigated: The Republic, The Law, Natural Science, Mathematics, Rhetoric, Logic, Ethics and so on. The ancient philosophical schools had some of the characteristics of brotherhoods whose object was the acquisition of knowledge and its transmission to their adherents. In ancient times philosophers were highly reputable men who both attracted followers and taught by personal example. How many today would knowingly agree to learn religion, moral values (or much of anything else) from an evil man? Much has been written about the different philosophical schools, but the modern reader will understand them better if he thinks of their differences as similar to those between say, the Methodists and the Congregationalists, i.e. the differences were vastly outweighed by the similarities. We may be sure that each of the schools was familiar with the teachings of the other schools, and yet, a man might spend a lifetime at one of the schools and still not know all of its nuances.

! The question must have been commonly asked, “What’s the use of these fine theories you philosophers have and what can they do for me?” By the late fourth century two philosophers answered this question in two different ways, though they both agreed that philosophy could teach a man how to live a better life and find happiness thereby. They were Epicurus and Zeno. Fortunately for them, Athens was just then at peace and had been well-ruled from 317 to 307 by Demetrius of Phalerum, a philosopher, skilled orator and famous lawgiver.

! About 307 B.C. Epicurus (341-270), an Athenian citizen from Samos, founded his school of philosophy at Athens; it was known as The Garden since it met in his garden somewhere between the Dipylon Gate and the Academy. Epicurus and his school of Epicureans held that to attain tranquility a man should avoid pain, please the senses and live for his own best interest. Epicureans were in no way immoral, debauched or profligate as certain of their critics claimed. Cicero’s friend Atticus, one of the most moral men of

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any age, was an Epicurean. An echo of this school might be seen today in the highly moral Individualism of Ayn Rand.

! About 301 B.C. Zeno of Citium (334-262) started lecturing on philosophy in Athens. His students assembled at daybreak on the Painted Stoa in the agora, a sheltered colonnade, or porch, renowned for its paintings, and thereby he and his school came to be known as Stoics, or The Porch.

! Zeno was a prosperous young merchant when he suffered a shipwreck. He came to Athens, entered a bookstall and started reading a book on Socrates; fascinated, he asked the bookseller where he might meet such a man and at just that moment Crates the Cynic walked past; a staff of wisdom passed from Socrates to Antisthenes to Diogenes to Crates to Zeno.

! Judging from the sparse fragments of his work that survive, Zeno considered the art of listening important and set a notable example by his silence in company. Every Greek was raised with the Delphic maxim: KNOW THYSELF. Zeno expanded this by teaching that it helps to know your interlocutor if you are to better understand his thoughts and his meaning when he speaks. This was an extension and refinement of the Sophist argument in favour of knowing both sides of the issue and a useful addition to the reflection advised by the Socratics. Obtaining the best possible knowledge will help one to form the best judgments. By Zeno’s time every educated Greek was taught grammar, rhetoric and oratory and knew the various categories of speech. Was a man using words correctly, was he talking to persuade, to deceive, to incite? Recognizing his purpose helps you to understand his point and make the best response possible.

! The Stoics, like all intellectuals, were interested in everything imaginable and undoubtedly worked out any number of theories on any number of subjects, just as the other philosophical schools did. The part that concerns us is the heart of Stoicism, the moral base that has endured over the centuries: how to live the Good Life.

! Zeno studied at several different schools to become familiar with their various arguments; he was not an original thinker and was with justice accused of borrowing other men’s thoughts to construct his moral system. Yet, is it not wise to listen well and take wisdom where you find it? Perhaps we should think of Zeno, if we must pick one individual, as the man who organized the thoughts of others and best realized Socrates’ wish to create a moral base for society. He was undoubtedly of excellent character and an inspired teacher since he attracted many talented students. Because Zeno took his thoughts where he found them, you will find quotes herein from men

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who lived centuries before and after Zeno. There is a certain body of thought unique to the Greeks that predates history and has survived up to the present day; as the reader will soon see.

! The influence of Epicureanism and Stoicism was immediate and immense. In the late fourth century Greek culture was following Alexander’s conquests into the East. The new subjects quickly acknowledged the superiority of Greek thinking and the intelligentsia of the new empire was as quickly won over. Many schools of philosophy opened in Alexander’s wake and soon Alexandria, Pergamon, Antioch and other places, rivalled Athens with their libraries and scholars. The most popular philosophers in these places were usually the Stoics and certainly any educated man now learned Greek and became familiar with Stoic thought. Since the Epicureans discouraged public service while the Stoics encouraged it, it is the Stoics who have moved history and are better known to us today.

! We are generally told that Panaetius of Rhodes, (185-110), brought Stoicism to Rome by way of his influence on Cicero’s later writings, but we should recall that Magna Grecia cities, such as Naples, Brindisi, Croton, Tarentum and Syracuse, were Greek, traded with other Greeks and practised Greek culture. There were certainly educated Romans who were familiar with Stoicism before Panaetius. Scipio Africanus (236-183) and his circle come to mind. I suggest that Stoicism was known and discussed in Rome by 200 B.C.

! By the time of Christ, Stoicism had had three centuries to penetrate the psyche of the Graeco-Roman world. No lawgiver or counsel could hope to argue outside of Stoic precepts; Stoics had defined the roles of State, government and citizen; Stoicism gave support to the soldier and a pattern of conduct in life for civilised men throughout the Empire and indeed beyond. It’s influence on the early church is incalculable and thereafter on mediaeval institutions, renaissance thought, the Age of Reason, and the modern Western world up until about 1950. The importance of the Stoics to Western Civilization is so vast that scholars for the past thousand years have always limited themselves to some dusty corner of Stoic thought. Who thinks of the Stoics when they discuss Saint Paul, Montaigne, Rousseau or Animal Rights?

THE STOIC.

The Stoic finds his happiness through living the best life he can so that he can live at peace with his conscience. If you consider for a moment the people you most admire, you may be surprised to find that what you admire in them is what the Stoics called their virtues.

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! The Stoic looks at the world and decides that it must be either without order and chaotic, or it must be ordered; partial order is inconceivable as any disorder destroys order. He sees the regular movements of the stars, the four seasons, the tides, the many balances in Nature, and he understands that everything man requires for life has been provided for him. He concludes from this that the universe is both ordered and benevolent to man. Who orders it? Some reasoning power greater than man and quite beyond his understanding. He calls this reasoning power god, or the gods. He next looks at the human condition and sees that the quality that sets man above other animals is his ability to reason; is it not possible that the gods who created him gave him a small portion of their reasoning power? What then is the best way for man to live? By maximizing his godlike part, by imitating the gods, by following Nature, by using his reason as best he can, by making right decisions, speaking rightly and doing right acts. If he prays, like Socrates he asks for ‘good things,’ since the gods know better than he what is good. How best to please the gods? By imitating them. It follows that the universe is ordered by benevolent gods who have no cause to treat mankind badly or cause us misfortune. What evils men suffer are part of a greater plan where all is managed for the best in a scheme of things beyond our understanding. ! From the time of Heraclitus (c.535-c.475) our world has been described as a place in flux, where change is to be expected and stability is illusory. Everything is constantly changing; stones, bacteria, insects, humans, trees, cities, countries, continents, planets and universes. Everything has a beginning and an end. Everything comes from dirt and returns to dirt. This is the way of Nature. To the Stoics change was Nature; it was neither good nor bad, it was accepted as the way things are, if not with gladness, with resignation as the natural order of the universe. A man who sought to change the universe before thinking to change himself was considered un-natural, not-sane, insane, sick of mind. He was not following Nature.

! Since any given event is best for the universe of which he is a part, the Stoic decides that it is best for him too. Is it not foolish, unreasonable and pointless for him to be angry and disturbed over things that he cannot change? It is much wiser to change his opinion than to waste himself in trying to change the world. If you choose to change your opinion, you can instantly regain your peaceful calm and sleep in peace. Sensible. Nothing outside of ourselves is either good or bad; it is Nature, only our opinions make things seem good and bad. Therefore, as man is powerless to change these external things he wisely decides to align himself with them. The Stoic chooses to

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adopt the attitude that, “Whatever happens to me happens for the best.” One man injures another: who suffers most? The man who inflicted the injury, because he has to live with his conscience, the god-like part that will never let him forget that he has been evil. The injured man’s body may hurt, but his conscience is innocent and he lives without regret in peace. Forgiveness is a powerful virtue that allows one to triumph over injury, whereas revenge multiplies evil thoughts and corrupts the peaceful mind. What is the purpose of revenge? What is the proper measure for revenge? What will flow from the act of revenge? How can one ever profit from revenge?

! A man can possess no more than himself. He does not control the revolutions of the sun, the seasons, the happiness of his wife. He controls himself. He makes what he controls into the best that he can by practicing virtues. Each one of us carries through life the hair-coat of a conscience; by being virtuous the Stoic lightens his load and finds a peace and contentment that no one else can give him. External possessions do not improve a man, they impoverish him with responsibilities and fear of loss. Alexander was not made braver or a better ruler by wealth; no, he conquered the world with his character. Would wealth have made Solon wiser or more just? More than a few men have given up their wealth to follow Philosophy.

! All men have reasons for their actions; to act without reason is to be less than a man. Every man does what he thinks is right for himself and to do evil cannot be right for any man unless his mind is unhealthy, unnatural. To us the actions of another may seem wrong so long as we don’t know his reasons. If we wish to help a man we must first understand his reasons and then help him to see where his thinking has gone wrong. To know ourselves is to know when we are good or bad; only we know if our intentions are good or bad. Whenever you are feeling critical, examine yourself.

! The goal of man is happiness and true happiness comes from peace of mind. By seeking to do evil we disturb our peace of mind and make ourselves both evil and unhappy. Nobody likes a bad man, not even himself. Much better to seek to do good. The slightest good action counters the evil of a lifetime by putting us on the path of righteousness. It is easy to do good, we feel good when we do good, we sleep better, we gain respect, admiration, friends, and best of all we improve the world by our example. A man who has learned to closely consider his decisions has earned peace of mind from the regrets the impetuous suffer. His conscience is tranquil; one can only do one’s best, after all we are only imperfect, human. For such a man life is internally harmonious, stable, untouched by tyrants, unjust laws, guilt, poverty or even pain. Truth,

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virtue and great deeds are immortal; all else soon perishes. The only thing that cannot be taken away from a man is his character and many a Greek and Roman saved his life by taking it. As the wise man approaches Virtue he becomes more godlike, more sufficient unto himself, as opposed to the non-virtuous man who’s external needs can never be satisfied.

! Stoic teaching began with logic and dialectic and proceeded to their application in discrimination; they believed that through training one could learn to discriminate between what is good, what is evil, and what is indifferent. This discrimination would bring one’s thoughts, words and actions closer to Nature. By substituting good decisions for bad ones a man was fulfilling his duty to the gods and his natural destiny. The virtue of right acts is man’s highest purpose and it alone leads to happiness.

! The Stoic placed great importance on clear thinking, considering all sides of an issue, patiently thinking it through with an open minded willingness to learn and exchange any opinion for a better one, before arriving at the best decision. He was taught how not to cloud his judgement with pleasure or fear; to find his pleasure in the exercise of virtue, to discard all fear of death for, after all, we are mortal and must die, why should we fear what is Natural? An honourable short life is preferable to a long and bestial one; better die a young hero than an old miser. Since nothing can be worse than death, by losing the fear of death one loses all fear of force and injury. The Stoic cannot be frightened, he is beyond fear. All men can be bought, but the Stoic puts his price so high that you can only have him in death.

! What is success? More? Can happiness be bought? For Socrates virtue was the quality which leads to right action rather than successful action; opinions are good or bad according as they are more or less serviceable when translated into action. Who do we serve? Society. When we feed a poor man there is no profit in it, we are doing no more than our duty as members of humanity; the reward is in the act. Does the successful man find happiness by hoarding his food and not feeding the poor man? To succeed you must first choose to do the right thing; success then lies in completing what you intended to do. We cannot teach virtue, but we can teach a reasoning process that will help us to arrive at better opinions, which in turn will lead to more virtuous actions. Upright conduct in life, rather than successful or gainful, conduct, is man’s highest purpose.

! We discipline our diets and train our bodies for health, strength and adeptness; shouldn’t we also train our minds for judgement? The ancients did not study philosophy to be told the answers to life’s questions, or gain

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‘credits,’ as we moderns do, but to train their minds in the best way to think for themselves to find the best answers, for each man his own. A liberal education was intended to liberate its possessor from false beliefs. The classical ideal was the ‘good man,’ virtuous through right reason; the sort of man you might entrust your family to, the sort of man you would like next to you in battle. Since love of knowledge and the pursuit of truth are infinite and man is finite, the object of this study could never be obtained; the good man could do no more than his human best, growing ever closer to wisdom over his lifetime. Socrates, at the end of his life, could only admit that he knew nothing.

! Stoicism was born in a period of uncertainty in Greece; the ancient city-states were losing their independence as they were absorbed into a mega-state where the rights and duties of the individual were uncertain. The need for oratorical training diminished under foreign rule and this left more time for Philosophy. The schools were moving away from the less frequented gymnasia to the Areopagus. The whimsey of foreign force had replaced law, traditions, culture and values. Stoicism promised freedom from the perils of earthly vicissitudes by teaching how to find happiness in a changeable, natural world; thereafter it has always succoured the wise in lawless times made uncertain by wilful, rapacious and ignorant rulers from within or from without. When a society turns from Justice to Force it destroys the traditions that good men live by and acts in ways the majority of men consider unseemly. The good man stoically goes his own way unperturbed. The good man will not compromise his honour for gain; no one trusts a man who can be bought. Material success requires self interest, whereas successful government requires disinterest. Stoics, by changing and improving themselves, found happiness in the immutable human condition. When the game becomes intolerable, the Stoic quietly leaves the game.

! There is much repetition of thought between these covers; bear in mind that these writers were teaching and repetition is the best way to drive a point home; the more often repeated the more important the idea; once you have made a virtue yours, hearing about it will no longer offend you. I suggest that the new reader start with Diogenes or Epictetus.

HYPOTHESIS

After 146 B.C. Greece became a Roman province. With their armies disbanded there was no longer the same need for daily training in the gymnasium and an ancient social bond was severed. Along with her

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independence Greece lost much of her self esteem, and yet, paradoxically, she was to conquer Roman ignorance with her culture and become the dominant intellectual force that allowed Rome to become great. Greek philosophy did what even Alexander had been unable to do, conquer minds. For the next three centuries educated Romans spoke Greek, they were educated by Greeks, Greek art became Roman art, Homer and Plato were quoted at Rome as they were at Athens, and even the two mythologies merged. Latin had perhaps forty percent as many words as Greek, so Latin imported Greek words rather than invent new ones. This meant that throughout the Empire Greeks and Romans could more easily understand one another. By the first century A.D. Greeks were becoming Roman senators and filling official posts. Imagine Marcus Aurelius, centuries later, sitting in his tent on the German march writing philosophy in Greek!

! At a time when Greek Skepticism was flourishing in the Western Empire, the Constitutio Antoniniana of Caracalla in 212 made everyone living within the Empire a Roman citizen. Since much of the Empire was in Asia, this may have tilted the Army and the Bureaucracy to the East; it certainly provided a succession of Eastern Emperors (218-244). Whereas the Empire had been based on the Western thought of the Greeks it now came under the influence of the Eastern thinking centred in Alexandria, a city seething with cosmology, Chaldeans, the Persian mystery cults of Zoroaster, Mithraism, Manichaeism, Mandaeism, with Kabbala, Dervishes, snake charmers, Jews, Gnostics, Christians and whatever else superstition could conjure up. Alexandria had never had a Socrates and Reason had never attained the position that she had in Greece. Who could imagine a Philo or a Plotinus attracting a following in Athens, or a Hypatia being stoned to death there for her thoughts? Eastern thinking brought the Empire a step down and closer to the barbarians who had never much fancied Greek Reason.

! The two and a half centuries of Pax Romana gradually ended some seventy years after the death of Marcus Aurelius and the Empire entered its decline. Pirates and brigands reappeared, trade routes closed, currency became scarce. The great days of the arts, theatres, colosseums, odeons, philosophers and poets was past; civilization was in retreat. In 267 the Herulians sacked Athens, Corinth and Argos. Constantinople was inaugurated in 300 and in 325 the first ecumenical council was held at Nicaea. In 337 Constantine became a Christian. Theodosius I (388-395) proscribed the pagans and levelled the oracles at Delphi, Olympia, Dodona, Alexandria, and Rome. By 395 the Huns were in Thrace. In 410 the Visigoths sacked

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Rome. In 455 the Vandals sacked Rome. In 475 Stobaeus compiled his Florilegium, quoting from five hundred Classical writers. In 525, Boethius, a Christian who had been educated in Athens, wrote his Consolation using Stoical arguments. In 529 Justinian closed the schools of Athens. We know of a philosopher named Simplicius who died about 560. We can speculate that a few isolated Gallo Romans, latifundia or mountain retreats may have survived for a while. In 570 Mohammed was born. In 950 the Suda, an encyclopaedia of classical knowledge, was compiled at Constantinople.

! Apart from Hagia Sophia (532-537), a few pages of history and the Suda, the Byzantine Empire was intellectually absent; gone are the grammarians, the orators, the rhetoricians, the poets, the philosophers, free speech; their language debased, their art primitive. Eastern Faith has displaced Western Righteousness. The Dark Ages are so called because we know so little about them, as if an Iron Curtain had been drawn for a thousand years. The Byzantine Empire was an army with tax collectors and priests. Illiterate barbarians dressed in wolfskins at the frontier, illiterate rulers dressed in ermine within.

! The glorious ancient Greek world of Reason submerged into the Dark Ages of ignorance by centimetres: like Venice in its dark lagoon.

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HOMER

Fl. 850 B.C.

SOURCE:Iliad. Odyssey. Pope’s translations. Heritage.

Like leaves on trees the race of man is found, Now green in youth, now withering on the ground; Another race the following spring supplies;

They fall successive, and successive rise…Glaucus. Hom. Il.VI. 111

For such is fate, nor canst thou turn its course

With all thy rage, with all thy rebel force.Jove to Juno. Hom, Il.VIII. 153

O king! the counsels of my age attend: With thee my cares begin, with thee must end: Thee, prince! it fits alike to speak and hear, Pronounce with judgment, with regard give ear, To see no wholesome motion be withstood, And ratify the best for the public good: Nor, though a meaner give advice, repine,

But follow it, and make the wisdom thine.Nestor to Agamemnon. Hom. Il.IX. 161

A cruel heart ill suits a manly mind:Phœnix. Hom. Il.IX. 172

What for ourselves we can, is always ours; Diomedes. Hom. Il.IX. 177

For great examples justify command

.

Nestor. Hom. Il.X. 182.

Yet, if my years thy kind regard engage, Employ thy youth as I employ my age;

Succeed to these my cares, and rouse the rest;

He serves me most, who serves his country best.Nestor to Diomedes. Hom. Il.X. 183

By mutual confidence and mutual aid,

Great deeds are done, and great discoveries made; The wise new prudence from the wise acquire,

And one brave hero fans another’s fire.Diomedes. Hom. Il.X. 184

Troy and her sons may find a general grave,

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The shouting host in loud applauses join’d; So Pallas robb’d the many of their mind;

To their own sense condemn’d, and left to choose

The worst advice, the better to refuse.Narrator. Hom. Il.XVIII. 355

Long in the field of words we may contend, Reproach is infinite, and knows no end,

Arm’d or with truth or falsehood, right or wrong; So voluble a weapon is the tongue;

Wounded, we wound; and neither side can fail, For every man has equal strength to rail: Women alone, when in the streets they jar,

Perhaps excel us in this wordy war;Æneas to Achihlles. Hom. Il.XIX. 383.

Boasting is but and art, our fears to blind,

And with false terrors, sink another’s mind.Hector to Achillles. Hom. Il.XXII. 418.

Perverse mankind! whose wills, created free, Charge all their woes on absolute decree; All to the dooming gods their guilt translate,

And follies are miscall’d the crimes of fate.Jove. Hom. Od.I. 2.

Presumptuous are the vaunts, and vain the pride Of man, who dares in pomp with Jove contest, Unchanged, immortal, and supremely blest! With all my affluence, when my woes are weigh’d

Envy will own the purchase dearly paid.Menelaüs to Telemachus. Hom. Od.IV. 45.

These riches are possessed, but not enjoy’d.Menelaüs to Telemachus. Hom. Od.IV. 46.

Whoe’er thou art, I shall not blindly join

Thy pleaded reason, but consult with mine:Ulysses. Hom. Od.V. 81.

By Jove the stranger and the poor are sent;

And what to those we give to Jove is lent.Nausicaa. Hom. Od.VI. 92.

A decent boldness ever meets with friends,

Succeeds, and even a stranger recommends.Minerva to Ulysses. Hom. Od.VII. 98.

So near approach we their celestial kind,

By justice, truth, and probity of mind;Alcinoüs. Hom. Od.VII. 103.

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Rare gift! but O, what gift to fools avails!Narrator. Hom. Od.X. 141.

O woman, woman, when to ill thy mind

Is bent, all hell contains no fouler fiend:Agamenon to Ulysses. Hom. Od.XI. 170.

Truth I revere, for wisdom never lies.Ulysses. Hom. Od.XI. 171.

Yield to the force of unresisted Fate,

And bear unmoved the wrongs of base mankind,

The last, and hardest, conquest of the mind. Minerva to Ulysses. Hom. Od.XIII. 199.

Tis Jove that sends the stranger and the poor. Little, alas! is all the good I can;

A man oppress’d, dependant, yet a man:Eumæus. Hom. Od.XIV. 205.

Who love too much, hate in the like extreme,

And both the golden mean alike condemn.Menelaüs to Telemachus. Hom. Od.XV. 221.

No profit springs beneath usurping powers; Want feeds not there where luxury devours, Nor harbours charity where riot reigns:

Proud are the lords, and wretched are the swains.Eumæus. Hom. Od.XV. 229.

Whatever frugal nature needs is thine Ulysses to Eumæus. Hom. Od.XV. 231,232.

The hero stood self-conquer’d, and endured.of Ulysses. Hom. Od.XVII. 253

Then let not man be proud; but firm of mind,

Bear the best humbly, and the worst resign’d; Ulysses. Hom. Od.XVIII. 268.’

To whom the queen: “If fame engage your views, Forbear those acts which infamy pursues; Wrong and oppression no renown can raise;

Know, friend! that virtue is the path to praise. Penelope to Eurymachus. Hom.

Od.XXI. 315.

What! Hopes the fool to please so many lords?Telemachus to Eumæus. Hom.

Od.XXI. 315.

Dogs, ye have had your day!Ulysses to suitors. Hom. Od.XXII. 319.

The hour of vengeance, wretches, now is come;Ulysses to suitors. Hom. Od.XXII. 319.

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Nor rush to ruin. Justice will prevail.Medon. Hom. Od.XXIV. 355.

The valiant with the valiant must contend:Ulysses to Telemachus. Hom. Od.XXIV. 356.

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HESIOD

Fl. 825 B.C.

SOURCE: Hesiod. LCL. (Evelyn-White).

A man grows eager to work when he considers his rich neighbour who hastens to plough and plant and put his house in good order; neighbour vies with neighbour as he hurries after wealth. This Strife is wholesome for men.

HESIOD. Works and Days. p.3.

Little concern has he with quarrels and courts who has not a year’s victuals laid up.HESIOD. Works and Days. p.3.

He is a fool who tries to withstand the stronger, for he does not get the mastery and suffers pain as well as his shame.HESIOD. Works and Days. p.19.

Listen to right and do not foster violence which is bad for a poor man. The better path is on the other side, towards justice; for Justice beats Outrage at the end of the race. Only after he has suffered does the fool learn this. Oath keeps pace with wrong judgements. There is a howling when Justice is being dragged in the road where those who devour bribes and give sentence with crooked judgements take her. She, wrapped in mist, follows to the city and the haunts of people, weeping, and bringing mischief to men, even to such as have driven her forth when they did not deal straightly with her.HESIOD. Works and Days. Honour. p.21.

But they who give straight judgements to strangers and to the men of the land, and hold to what is just, their city flourishes, and the people prosper in it: Peace, the nurse of children, is abroad in their land.HESIOD. Works and Days. Honour. p.21.

For those who practice violence and cruel deeds far-seeing Zeus, ordains a punishment. Often even a whole city suffers for a bad man who sins and devises presumptuous deeds.HESIOD. Works and Days. p.21.

He does mischief to himself who does mischief to another, and evil planned harms the plotter most.HESIOD. Works and Days. p.23.

Zeus has ordained this law for men: that fishes and beasts and winged fowls should devour one another, for reason is not in them; but to mankind he gave reason which proves far the best. Whoever knows right and is ready to speak it, Zeus gives prosperity; but whoever deliberately lies in his witness and so

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hurts Justice, that man’s generation is left obscure

.

HESIOD. Works and Days. pp. 23,25.

Badness can be got easily in the shoals: the road to her is smooth, and she lives very near us. But between us and Virtue the gods have placed the sweat of our brows: long and steep is the path that leads to her, and it is rough at the first; but when a man has reached the top, then is she easy to reach, though before she was hard. HESIOD. Works and Days. p.25.

That man is altogether best who considers all things himself and marks what may be improved; and he is good who listens to a good advisor; but whoever neither thinks for himself nor keeps in mind what another tells him is an unprofitable man. HESIOD. Works and Days. p.25.

Hunger is the meet comrade for a sluggard.HESIOD. Works and Days. p.25.

Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a disgrace. If you work, the idle will soon envy you as you grow rich, for fame and renown attend on wealth. Whatever be your lot, work is best for you, Turn your misguided mind away from other men’s property and attend to your livelihood. An evil shame is the needy man’s companion, shame which both greatly harms and prospers men: shame is with poverty and confidence with wealth.HESIOD. Works and Days. p. 27.

Call your friend to a feast; but leave your enemy alone; and especially call him who lives near you. When mischief happens, neighbours come while kinsmen are preparing to come. A bad neighbour is as great a plague as a good one is a great blessing. Take fair measure from your neighbour and pay him back fairly with the same measure, or better, and so make him a sure ally.

Do not get base gain; it is as bad as ruin. Be friends with the friendly, and visit him who visits you. Give to one who gives, but do not give to one who does not give. A man gives to the free-handed, but no one gives to the close-fisted. Give is a good girl, but Take is bad and she begs trouble. The man who gives willingly, even though he gives a great thing, rejoices in his gift and is glad in heart; but whoever gives way to shamelessness and takes something himself, even though it be a small thing, it freezes his heart. He who adds to what he has, will keep off bright-eyed hunger; for if you add only a little to a little and do this often, soon that little will become great.HESIOD. Works and Days. p.29.

Let the wage promised to a friend be fixed, and even with your brother smile and get a witness; for trust and mistrust, alike ruin men.

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Do not let a flaunting woman coax and cozen and deceive you: she is after your barn. The man who trusts womankind trusts deceivers.

If your heart within you desires wealth, do these things and work with work upon work.HESIOD. Works and Days. p.31.

Do not put your work off, for a sluggish worker does not fill his barn. While industry makes work go well, a man who puts off work is always at hand-grips with ruin.HESIOD. Works and Days. p.33.

Dawn takes away a third part of your work, dawn advances a man on his journey and advances him in his work; dawn appears and sets many men on their road and puts yokes on many oxen.HESIOD. Works and Days. p.45.

Do not put all your goods in hollow ships. It is also bad if you put too great a load on your wagon and break the axle. Observe due measure and proportion in all things.HESIOD. Works and Days. p.53.

Do not make a friend equal to a brother; but do not wrong him first, and do not lie to please the tongue.

Do not get a name either as lavish or as churlish; as a friend of rogues or as a slanderer of good men.

Never dare taunt a man with the deadly poverty which eats out the heart. The best treasure a man can have is a sparing tongue. If you speak evil, you yourself will soon be worse spoken of.HESIOD. Works and Days. p.55.

Do not be boorish at a common feast where there are many guests: the pleasure is greatest and the expense is least.HESIOD. Works and Days. p.57.

Decide no suit until you have heard both sides. HESIOD. The Precepts of Chiron (2). p.73.

If a man sow evil, he shall reap evil increase; if men do to him as he has done, it will be true justice.HESIOD. The Great Works (2). p.75.

Such gifts as Dionysus gave to men, a joy and a sorrow both. Whoever drinks to fullness, in him wine becomes violent and binds together his hands and feet, his tongue also and his wits with fetters unspeakable: and soft sleep embraces him.HESIOD. Catalogues.(87). p.211.

Foolish the man who leaves what he has, and follows after what he has not.

HESIOD. Fragments Unknown.(18). p.279.

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AESOP

c.620-c.560 B.C.

SOURCE: Daly. Aesop without Morals.

A fox and a leopard were disputing over their beauty. When the leopard kept bringing up the intricate pattern of her skin at every turn, the fox interrupted and said: How much more beautiful I am than you, since it is not my skin but my mind that has the intricate pattern!DALY's AESOP. 12. p.99.

A fox in flight from the hunters saw a woodcutter and begged him to conceal her. The woodcutter told her to hide inside his hut. Before long the hunters came along and asked him whether he had seen a fox. The woodcutter said that he hadn’t seen her, but he pointed to where she was hidden. They paid no attention to his gesture but believed his words. When the fox saw they were gone, she came out and was going off without saying a word. When the woodcutter taxed her with not thanking him for her rescue, the fox replied: O, I should have been grateful enough to you if your actions had agreed with your words.DALY's AESOP. 22. p.103.

A wealthy Athenian was sailing with some other men when a violent storm camp up, and capsized the ship. The other men were all swimming away, but the Athenian kept calling on Athena, offering her a thousand vows if he should be saved. One of the other victims of the wreck swam past and said: Move your hand and help Athena.DALY's AESOP. 30. p.106

Demades, the politician, was once speaking in Athens, and when his audience was not very attentive to him, he asked them to permit him to tell them an Aesopic fable. When they assented, he began: Demeter and a swallow and a turtle were travelling the same road. When they came to a river, the swallow took wing, and the turtle dived in. At this point he broke off. When they asked him:What about Demeter? he said: She is angry with you who neglect the affairs of the state and yet have time to listen to an Aesopic fable. DALY's AESOP. 63. p.119.

A kid stood on a housetop and made nasty remarks to a wolf who was passing by. The wolf said to him: Its not you who are making nasty remarks; its you position.DALY's AESOP. 98. p.136.

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When Hercules had been elevated to divinity and a reception was being given in his honour by Zeus, he greeted each one of the gods in the most friendly fashion. But when Plutus [god of wealth] came in, Hercules looked at the floor and turned his back. Zeus was surprised at this and asked him why, when he had spoken so cordially to all the other gods, he singled out Plutus in this way. Hercules said: The reason I look down my nose at him is that while I was among men, I saw him associating for the most part with scoundrels.DALY's AESOP. 111. p.141.

A lion heard a frog croaking and turned in the direction of the sound, thinking it must be some great beast. He waited a little, and when he saw the frog come out of the pool, he walked up and stepped on him with the remark: The sound of a thing shouldn't disturb anyone before he sees it.DALY's AESOP. 141. p. 152.

A lion and a bear found a fawn and fought over it. They mauled one another unmercifully until they both lost consciousness and lay there half-dead. A fox came by and, seeing them lying there with the fawn between them, picked it up and walked off. They couldn’t get up but said: Poor fools, to go to all this trouble for a fox!DALY's AESOP. 147. p.154.

A lion, an ass, and a fox reached an agreement with one another and went out to hunt. When they had made a big catch, the lion told the ass to divide it for them. When the ass divided it into three parts and told him to take his choice, the lion flew into a rage, jumped onto him and ate him up. Then he told the fox to divide up. The fox left only a little for himself, put everything else in one portion, and urged the lion to take it. When the lion asked the fox who had taught him to divide things that way, he said: The fate of the ass. DALY's AESOP. 149. p.155.

A mule driver was driving an ass and a mule with their loads. The ass could manage his burden so long as the road was level, but when they came to a hill and he couldn’t carry it, he called on the mule to relieve him of part of it so he would be able to get along with the rest of it. The mule paid no attention to his pleas, and the ass finally fell over a cliff and was killed. The driver didn't know what else to do and not only put the ass’ load on the mule but also skinned the ass and piled the hide on top. As the mule struggled along under this excessive burden, she said to herself: I have gotten what I deserved, for if I had listened to the ass and lightened his burden a little, I wouldn't now be carrying him and his load too.DALY's AESOP. 181. p.170.

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A rich man bought a house beside a tanner, and when he couldn't stand the foul swell, he tried to get the tanner to move. But the tanner put him off and told him he would move pretty soon. They went through this repeatedly, and as time slipped by, it turned our that the rich man got used to the foul smell and wasn’t bothered by it any more.DALY's AESOP. 204. p.178.

When the birds were deliberating about their kingship, the peacock argued that he ought to be elected for his beauty. As the birds were on the point of doing this, a jackdaw spoke up and said: But if you are king and the eagle attacks us, how will you defend us?DALY's AESOP. 219. p.184.

A miser sold his property, bought a lump of gold, and once he had taken this out and buried it, he kept coming back to look at it. One of the men at work nearby saw him coming and going and, guessing what he was up to, removed the gold after he had left. When the miser came back again and found the cache empty, he began to weep and tear his hair. Someone saw him in this excess of grief, and when he found out what the reason was, he said to him: Don't grieve, my friend; just take a stone and put it in the cache and pretend it’s your gold. You didn't use it when you had it, why should you regret it?

DALY's AESOP. 225. p.187.

A man who wanted to buy an ass took one on trail and led him to his stable, where he put him in with the rest of his asses. The ass walked away from the others and stood beside the laziest one with the biggest appetite. That was all he did, so the man put a halter on him, led him back, and returned him to his owner. When the owner asked if he had tried him out in so short a time, the man said: Oh, I don't need to try him; I know he's the same kind of an ass as the one he chose out of all my asses to associate with. DALY's AESOP. 237. p. 192.

A fowler spread his nets, to which he tied some tame doves, and then went off to keep an eye on them. Some wild doves came up to them, and when they were well entangled in the cords, he ran up and tried to catch them. They began to find fault with the ones for being of the same breed and still not warning them against the trick, but the tame ones replied: But, you see, it's better for us to look out for our masters than to do a favour to our own kind.

DALY's AESOP. 238. p.192.

The rabbits were once at war with the eagles and invited the foxes to be their allies, but the foxes said: We would help you if we didn't know who you are and whom you are fighting.DALY's AESOP. 256. p.200.

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A lioness who was being belittled by a fox for always bearing just one cub said: Yes, but it is a lion.DALY's AESOP. 257. p.200.

Hercules was making his way through a narrow pass. Seeing something that looked like an apple lying on the ground, he tried to crush it. When he saw it swell to twice its size, he stepped on it harder than ever and hit it with his club, but if puffed up to such a size that it blocked the road. Hercules dropped his club and stood there in astonishment. Athena appeared to him and said: Stop, brother. This thing is contentiousness and strife. If a person lets it alone without provoking a quarrel, it will stay just as it is, but in quarrels it swells as you see.DALY's AESOP. 316. p.211.

There was a dog who lived in the house of some smiths, and while they were working, he would go to sleep, but when they sat down to a meal, he would rouse up and come over to them full of friendliness. Then they would say to him: How is it that your sleep isn’t in the least bit disturbed by the noise of our heaviest sledges, but you are immediately awake at the slightest click of our molars?DALY's AESOP. 415. p.228

He might well say what Antisthenes reported as the lions reply to the rabbits who were arguing before the assembly that they ought to have an equal share in everything: Your arguments, good rabbits, need claws and teeth such as we have.DALY's AESOP. 450. p.241.

Aesop tells this sort of story. A wolf, seeing some shepherds in their tent eating a sheep, came up and said to them: What a to-do there would have been if I had done this!DALY's AESOP. 453. p.243.

A mosquito had challenged a bull to a test of strength, and all the people came to see the sight. Then the little mosquito said: I'm satisfied just to have you meet me face to face. I’m your match on your own admission, and off he flew on his flimsy wings, laughing at the crowd and leaving the bull to his threats. If the bull had remembered the strength of his neck, he would have scorned so contemptible an opponent and would not have provided the occasion for so silly a boast.DALY's AESOP. 564. p.256.

When an ass asked a horse to give him a bit of barley, the horse said: Why, if I could, I'd be glad to give you a lot, as is proper when you consider my station, but when we get back to the stable this evening, I'll give you a whole bag of

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meal. The ass replied: Why should I suppose you will do me a great favour when you refuse me so small a thing?DALY's AESOP. 571. p.260.

When the wethers were all in a group together with the rams and realized that the butcher was coming among them, they pretended not to see him. When they saw one of their number caught by the butcher's murderous hand, dragged off, and killed, they still weren't afraid but said indifferently to one another: He’s not touching me, he's not touching you; let him drag off the one he has. Finally, there was just one left. When he saw himself being dragged off too, they say he said to the butcher: We deserve to be slaughtered one by one - its taken so long to open our eyes - for not butting you, smashing you, breaking you, and killing you when we were all together and saw you in our midst.DALY's AESOP. 575. p.263.

A man found a sword lying in the road as he walked along. He asked it: Who lost you? The weapon replied: Why, one man lost me, but I've caused the loss of many.DALY's AESOP. 579. p.264.

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The Commandments of the Seven Wise Men

c.600 B.C.

SOURCE: The Commandments of the Seven from the copy of Sosiades preserved by Stobaeus.

I have my doubts about the right of an editor to provide one translation for many of the Commandments. These thought provoking brief commandments are by no means the type of text that can be assigned easily as having one meaning. In translating them in another language, there is always the danger to push the reader to accept a meaning originating from your own misunderstanding of the text, or not towards the basic meaning but to a secondary one. Even the ancient Greeks had severe difficulties in fully understanding many of the commandments and especially the most ‘archaic’ ones.

! I ask the reader of the translation to consider it only as a provisional one and in the instance that he is not able to follow the concept of a commandment as it appears in the translation, to always go back to the Greek text and open his LSJ Greek-English Lexicon (Please! Not the ‘abridged’ editions). In many cases, I am sure, not only more meaningful translations for many commandments will see the light, but also several others that we presently consider as adequate translations may obtain a better and deeper meaning.

Al.N. Oikonomides. Classical Buletin 63 [1987]

1 _{Επου θεω} _{(Follow God)} 2 _{Νομω πειθου} 3 _{Θεους σεβου} 4 _{Γονεις αιδου} 5 _{Ηττω υπο δικαιου} 6 _{Γνωθι μαθων} 7 _{Ακουσας νοει} 8 _{Σαυτον ισθι} 9 _{Γαμειν μελλε} 10 _{Καιρον γνωθι} 11 _{Φρονει θνητα} 12 _{Ξepsilon;νος ων ισθι} 13 _{Εστιαν τιμα} 14 _{Αρχε σεαυτου} 15 _{Φιλοις βοηθει} 16 _{Θυμου κρατει} 17 _{Φρονησιν ασκει}

(Obey the law) (Worship the Gods) (Respect your parents) (Be overcome by justice) (Know what you have learned) (Perceive what you have heard) (Be Yourself)

(Intend to get married) (Know your opportunity) (Think as a mortal)

(If you are a stranger act like one) (Honour the hearth [or Hestia]) Control yourself)

(Help your friends) (Control anger) (Exercise prudence)

(40)

18 _{Προνοιαν τιμα} 19 _{Ορκω μη χρω} 20 _{Φιλιαν αγαπα} 21 _{Παιδειας αντεχου} 22 _{Δοξαν διωκε} 23 _{Σοφιαν ζηλου} 24 _{Καλον ευ λεγε} 25 _{(Ψεγε μηδενα)} 26 _{Επαινει αρετην} 27 _{Πραττε δικαια} 28 _{Θιλοις ευνοει} 29 _{Εχθρους αμυνου} 30 _{Ευγενειαν ασκει} 31 _{Κακιας απεχου} 32 _{Κοινος γινου} 33 _{Ιδια φυλαττε} 34 _{Αλλοτριων απεχου} 35 _{Ακουε παντα} 36 _{Ευφημος ιοθι} 37 _{Φιλω χαριζου} 38 _{Μηδεν αγαν} 39 _{Χρονου φειδου} 40 _{Ορα το μελλον} 41 _{Υβριν μισει} 42 _{Ικετας αιδου} 43 _{Παςιν αρμοζου} 44 _{Υιους παιδευε} 45 _{Εχων χαριζου} 46 _{Δολον φοβου} 47 _{Ευλογει παντας} 48 _{Φιλοσοφος γινου} 49 _{Οσια κρινε} 50 _{Γνους πραττε} (Honour providence) (Do not use an oath) (Love friendship) (Cling to discipline) (Pursue honour) (Long for wisdom) (Praise the good) (Find fault with no one) (Praise virtue)

(Practice what is just) (Be kind to friends)

(Watch out for your enemies) (Exercise nobility of character) (Shun evil)

(Be impartial) (Guard what is yours)

(Shun what belongs to others) (Listen to everyone)

(Be (religiously) silent) (Do a favour for a friend (Nothing to excess) (Use time sparingly) (Foresee the future) (Despise Insolence)

(Have respect for suppliants) (Be accommodating in everything) (Educate your sons)

(Give what you have) (Fear deceit)

(Speak well of everyone) (Be a seeker of wisdom) (Choose what is divine) (Act when you know)

(41)

51 _{Φονου απεχου} 52 _{Ευχου δυνατα} 53 _{Σοφοις χρω} 54 _{Ηθος δοκιμαζε} 55 _{Λαβων αποδος} 56 _{Υφορω μηδενα} 57 _{Τεχνη χρω} 58 _{Ο μελλεις, δος} 59 _{Ευεργεςιας τιμα} 60 _{Φθονει μηδενι} 61 _{Φυλακη προσεχε} 62 _{Ελπιδα αινει} 63 _{Διαβολην μισει} 64 _{Δικαιως κτω} 65 _{Αγαθους τιμα} 66 _{Κριτην γνωθι} 67 _{Γαμους κρατει} 68 _{Τυχην νομιζε} 69 _{(Εγγυην φευγε} 70 _{Αμλως διαλεγου} 71 _{Ομοιοις χρω} 72 _{Δαπανων αρχου} 73 _{Κτωμενος ηδου} 74 _{Αισχυνην σεβου} 75 _{Χαριν εκτελει} 76 _{Ευτυχιαν ευχου} 77 _{Τυχην στεργε} 78 _{Ακουων ορα} 79 _{Εργαζου κτητα} 80 _{Εριν μισει} 81 _{Ονειδς εχθαιρε} 82 _{Γλωτταν ισχε} 83 _{Υβριν αμυνου} (Shun murder)

(Pray for things possible) (Consult the wise) (Test the character)

(Return what you have received) (Down-look no one)

(Use your skill)

(Do what you mean to do) (Honour a benefaction) (Be jealous of no one) (Be on your guard) (Praise hope) (Despise a slanderer) (Gain possessions justly) (Honour good men) (Know the judge) (Master wedding-feasts) (Recognize fortune) (Flee a pledge) (Speak plainly)

(Associate with your peers) (Govern your expenses) (Be happy with what you have) (Revere a sense of shame) (Fulfil a favour)

(Pray for happiness) (Be fond of fortune)

(Observe what you have heard) (Work for what you can own) (Despise strife)

(Detest disgrace) (Restrain the tongue)

(Keep yourself from insolence)