Delphi Complete Works of Dio Chrysostom

by Dio Chrysostom

  [22] “But if you really think,” said he, “that the orators are qualified to deliberate and that their profession is competent to make men good, I am surprised that you have not entrusted the deciding of questions of state to them instead of to your own selves; and why, if you regard them as the best and most just of men, you have not allowed them to manage your finances also. No, for you would be acting just as if you were to appoint the marines or boatswains to be the helmsmen and captains of your triremes!”

  [23] εἰ δὲ δή τις λέγοι τῶν πολιτικῶν τε καὶ ῥητόρων πρὸς αὐτὸν ὅτι ταύτῃ μέντοι τῇ παιδεύσει χρώμενοι Ἀθηναῖοι Περσῶν ἐπιστρατευσάντων τοσαύταις μυριάσιν ἐπὶ τὴν πόλιν δὶς ἐφεξῆς καὶ τὴν ἄλλην Ἑλλάδα, τὸ μὲν πρῶτον δύναμιν καὶ στρατηγοὺς ἀποστείλαντος τοῦ βασιλέως, ὕστερον δὲ αὐτοῦ Ξέρξου παραγενομένου μετὰ παντὸς τοῦ πλήθους τοῦ κατὰ τὴν Ἀσίαν, ἅπαντας τούτους ἐνίκησαν καὶ πανταχοῦ περιῆσαν αὐτῶν καὶ τῷ βουλεύεσθαι καὶ τῷ μάχεσθαι. καίτοι πῶς ἂν ἠδύναντο περιεῖναι τηλικαύτης παρασκευῆς καὶ τοσούτου πλήθους μὴ διαφέροντες κατ᾽ ἀρετήν; ἢ πῶς ἂν ἀρετῇ διέφερον μὴ τῆς ἀρίστης παιδείας τυγχάνοντες,

  [23] Then if one of the public men and orators said to him in reply: “Anyhow it was this education that the Athenians had received and were using at the time when the Persians came with so many myriads against their city twice in succession, and against the rest of Greece: on the first occasion when the Persian king sent an army and generals, and later when Xerxes came in person with all the hosts of Asia; but nevertheless they conquered all these, and everywhere proved superior to them both in planning and in fighting. And yet how would they have been able to prevail over so great an armament and over so mighty a host, if they had not been superior in the qualities of valour? Or how would they have been superior in such excellence, if they had not enjoyed the most excellent education, but a poor and useless one?”

  [24] ἀλλὰ φαύλης καὶ ἀνωφελοῦς; πρὸς τὸν τοιαῦτα εἰπόντα ἔλεγεν ὅτι οὐδὲ ἐκεῖνοι ἦλθον παιδείαν οὐδεμίαν παιδευθέντες οὐδὲ ἐπιστάμενοι βουλεύεσθαι περὶ τῶν πραγμάτων, ἀλλὰ τοξεύειν τε καὶ ἱππεύειν καὶ θηρᾶν μεμελετηκότες, καὶ τὸ γυμνοῦσθαι τὸ [p. 186] σῶμα αἴσχιστον αὐτοῖς ἐδόκει καὶ τὸ πτύειν ἐν τῷ φανερῷ: ταῦτα δὲ αὐτοὺς οὐδὲν ἔμελλεν ὀνήσειν: ὥστε οὐδ᾽ ἦν στρατηγὸς ἐκείνων οὐδεὶς οὐδὲ βασιλεύς, ἀλλὰ μυριάδες ἀνθρώπων ἀμύθητοι πάντων ἀφρόνων καὶ κακοδαιμόνων. εἷς δέ τις ἐν αὐτοῖς ὑπῆρχεν ὀρθὴν ἔχων τιάραν καὶ ἐπὶ θρόνου χρυσοῦ καθίζων, ὑφ᾽ οὗ πάντες ὥσπερὑπὸ δαίμονος ἠλαύνοντο πρὸς βίαν, οἱ μὲν εἰς τὴν θάλατταν, οἱ δὲ κατὰ τῶν ὀρῶν, καὶ μαστιγούμενοι καὶ δεδιότες καὶ ὠθούμενοι καὶ τρέμοντες ἠναγκάζοντο ἀποθνῄσκειν.

  [24] In answer to anyone using such arguments he would reply that neither had their enemies received any education before they came, nor did they know how to deliberate about affairs of state, but had simply been trained to shoot and ride and hunt, while they thought exposure of the body the most shameful thing, and spitting in public. “But those things,” he said, “were destined to avail them not at all; with the result that there was not even a general over them nor yet a king, but there were simply countless myriads of men, all foolish and doomed to an evil fate. However, there was one among them who had the right to wear his tiara upright and to sit upon a golden throne, by whom all were driven on by compulsion, as if by an evil spirit, some into the sea and some down from the hills; while scourged by the lash, in terror, and jostling one another and trembling, they were forced to die.

  [25] ὥσπερ οὖν εἰ δύο ἀνθρώπω παλαίειν οὐκ εἰδότε παλαίοιεν, ὅ γε ἕτερος καταβάλοι ἂν ἐνίοτε τὸν ἕτερον, οὐ δι᾽ ἐμπειρίαν, ἀλλὰ διά τινα τύχην, πολλάκισδὲ καὶ δὶς ἐφεξῆς ὁ αὐτός, οὕτως καὶ Ἀθηναίοις Πέρσαι συμβαλόντες, τοτὲ μὲν Ἀθηναῖοι περιῆσαν, τοτὲ δὲ Πέρσαι, ὥσπερ ὕστερον, ὅτε καὶ τὰ τείχη τῆς πόλεως κατέβαλον μετὰ Λακεδαιμονίων πολεμοῦντες.

  [25] Hence, just as if two men quite ignorant of wrestling were to wrestle together, one of them would sometimes throw the other, not because of his greater experience but by mere chance, and often the same man would even throw his opponent twice in succession; so too, when the Persians clashed with the Athenians, at one time the Athenians and at another time the Persians, as at a later time, when they were fighting the Athenians with the aid of the Lacedaemonians, they even tore down the walls of their city.

  [26] ἐπεὶ ἔχοις ἄν μοι εἰπεῖν εἰ τότε Ἀθηναῖοι ἀμουσότεροι καὶ ἀγραμματώτεροι γεγόνεσαν; ἔπειτα αὖθις ἐπὶΚόνωνος, ὅτε ἐνίκησαν τῇ ναυμαχίᾳ τῇ περὶ Κνίδον, ἄμεινον ἐπάλαιον καὶ ᾖδον; οὕτως οὖν ἀπέφαινεν αὐτοὺς οὐδεμιᾶς παιδείας χρηστῆς τυγχάνοντας. τοῦτο δὲ οὐ μόνον Ἀθηναίοις, ἀλλὰ καὶ σχεδόν τι πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις καὶ πρότερον καὶ νῦν συμβέβηκεν.

  [26] Yet would you be able to assert to me that at that time the Athenians had become less cultivated and more illiterate? Afterwards, again, in the time of Conon, when they won the naval engagement off Cnidos, were they more skilful at wrestling and singing odes?”

  This is the way, then, in which he would demonstrate that they were not receiving a useful education. And this, he said, had been the experience, not alone of the Athenians, but of practically all mankind, both in the past and in the present age.

  [27] καὶ μὴν τό γε ἀπαίδευτον εἶναι καὶ μηδὲν ἐπιστάμενον ὧν χρὴμηδὲ ἱκανῶς παρεσκευασμένον πρὸς τὸν βίον ζῆν τε καὶ πράττειν ἐπιχειρεῖν οὕτως μεγάλα πράγματα μηδὲ αὐτοὺς ἐκείνους ἀρέσκειν: τοὺς γὰρ ἀμαθεῖς καὶ ἀπαιδεύτους ψέγειν αὐτοὺς ὡς οὐ δυναμένους ζῆν ὀρθῶς: εἶναι δὲ ἀμαθεῖς οὐχὶ τοὺς ὑφαίνειν ἢ σκυτοτομεῖν μὴ ἐπισταμένους οὐδὲ τοὺς ὀρχεῖσθαι οὐκ εἰδότας, ἀλλὰ τοὺς

  [27] “Furthermore,” he would go on to say, “to be uneducated and to know none of the essential things, and to have no adequate preparation for life, and yet to go on living and to attempt while in that condition to carry on important matters of state — this cannot satisfy even the persons themselves; for they themselves criticize the ignorant and uneducated as not being able to live aright. And by the ignorant I mean, not those who do not know how to weave or how to make shoes, nor the people who cannot dance, but those who are ignorant of the things which one must know if he is to be a good and noble man.”

  [28] ἀγνοοῦντας ἃ ἔστιν εἰδότα καλὸν καὶ ἀγαθὸν ἄνδρα εἶναι. καὶ οὕτως δὴ παρ
εκάλει πρὸς τὸ ἐπιμελεῖσθαι καὶ προσέχειν αὑτῷ τὸν νοῦν καὶ φιλοσοφεῖν: ᾔδει γὰρ ὅτι τοῦτο ζητοῦντες οὐδὲν [p. 187] ἄλλο ποιήσουσιν ἢ φιλοσοφήσουσι. τὸ γὰρ ζητεῖν καὶ φιλοτιμεῖσθαι ὅπως τις ἔσται καλὸς καὶ ἀγαθὸς οὐκ ἄλλο τι εἶναι ἢ τὸ φιλοσοφεῖν. οὐ μέντοι πολλάκις οὕτως ὠνόμαζεν, ἀλλὰ μόνον ζητεῖν ἐκέλευεν ὅπως ἄνδρες ἀγαθοὶ ἔσονται.

  [28] And speaking in this manner he would exhort his hearers to take care to give heed to his words, and to pursue philosophy; for he knew that if they sought that which he recommended, they would be doing nothing else than studying philosophy. For if a man strives earnestly to be good and honourable, that is nothing but being a philosopher. However, he did not often use that word for it, but merely bade them to seek to be good men.

  [29] πρός τε οὖν τοὺς ἄλλους σχεδόν τι ταῦτα διελεγόμην ἀρχαῖα καὶ φαῦλα, καὶ ἐπειδὴ οὐκ εἴων ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ Ῥώμῃ γενόμενον ἡσυχίαν ἄγειν, ἴδιον μὲν οὐδένα ἐτόλμων διαλέγεσθαι λόγον, μὴ καταγελασθῶ τε καὶ ἀνόητος δόξω φοβούμενος, ἅτε συνειδὼς αὑτῷ πολλὴν ἀρχαιότητα καὶ ἀμαθίαν: ἐνεθυμούμην δέ, φέρε, ἂν μιμούμενος τοιούτους τινὰς διαλέγωμαι λόγους περὶ τῶν θαυμαζομένων παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς, ὡς οὐδέν ἐστιν αὐτῶν ἀγαθόν, καὶ περὶ τρυφῆς καὶ ἀκολασίας, καὶ ὅτι παιδείας πολλῆς καὶ ἀγαθῆς δέονται, τυχὸν οὐ καταγελάσουσί μου ταῦτα λέγοντος οὐδὲ φήσουσιν ἀνόητον:

  [29] Now to my hearers I used to say practically the same things as Socrates did, things old-fashioned and trite though they were, and when they refused to leave me in peace even on reaching Rome itself, I did not venture to speak any word of my own, fearing lest I be laughed at and regarded as a fool, since I was well aware how completely old-fashioned and ignorant I was; and I said to myself:

  “Come now, if I, copying the words of another, use such derogatory words about things which are highly regarded at Rome here, and tell them that not one of these things is a good, if I speak of luxury and intemperance, and tell them that what they need is a thorough and sound education, perhaps they will not laugh at me for uttering such sentiments nor declare that I am a fool.

  [30] εἰ δὲ μή, ἕξω λέγειν ὅτι εἰσὶν οἱ λόγοι οὗτοι ἀνδρὸς ὃν οἵ τε Ἕλληνες ἐθαύμασαν ἅπαντες ἐπὶ σοφίᾳ καὶ δὴ καὶ ὁ Ἀπόλλων σοφὸν αὐτὸν ἡγήσατο. καὶ Ἀρχέλαος Μακεδόνων βασιλεύς, πολλὰ εἰδὼς καὶ πολλοῖς συγγεγονὼς τῶν σοφῶν, ἐκάλει αὐτὸν ἐπὶ δώροις καὶ μισθοῖς, ὅπως ἀκούοι αὐτοῦ διαλεγομένου τοὺς λόγους τούτους.

  [30] But if they do, I shall be able to say that those words were spoken by a man whom the Greeks one and all admired for his wisdom, and what is more, whom Apollo actually considered the wisest man in the world, while Archelaus, the king of Macedonia, who knew a great deal and had consorted with many wise men, tried to get him to come to Macedonia, offering him gifts and fees that he might have the privilege of hearing him say such things.”

  [31] οὕτω δὴ καὶ ἐγὼ ἐπειρώμην διαλέγεσθαι Ῥωμαίοις, ἐπειδή με ἐκάλεσαν καὶ λέγειν ἠξίουν, οὐ κατὰ δύο καὶ τρεῖς ἀπολαμβάνων ἐν παλαίστραις καὶ περιπάτοις: οὐ γὰρ ἦν δυνατὸν οὕτως ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ πόλει συγγίγνεσθαι: πολλοῖς δὲ καὶ ἀθρόοις εἰς ταὐτὸ συνιοῦσιν, ὅτι δέονται παιδείας κρείττονος καὶ ἐπιμελεστέρας, εἰ μέλλουσιν εὐδαίμονες ἔσεσθαι τῷ ὄντι κατ᾽ ἀλήθειαν, ἀλλὰ μὴ δόξῃ τῶν πολλῶν ἀνθρώπων, ὥσπερ νῦν, ἥτις αὐτοὺς μεταπείσει καὶ διδάξει παραλαβὼν ὅτι τούτων μὲν οὐδέν ἐστιν ἀγαθόν, ὑπὲρ ὧν σπουδάζουσι καὶ πάσῃ προθυμίᾳ κτῶνται, καὶ νομίζουσιν, ὅσῳ ἂν [p. 188] πλείω κτήσωνται, τοσούτῳ ἄμεινον βιώσεσθαι καὶ μακαριώτερον:

  [31] And thus it came about that I too endeavoured to talk to the Romans when they had summoned me and invited me to speak, but I did not take them by twos and threes in wrestling-schools and cloistered walks; for it was not possible to meet them thus in that city; but when a great number had gathered in one place, I would tell them that they needed a better and more carefully planned education, if they were ever to be happy in truth and reality and not merely in the opinion of the majority, as was now the case; that if anyone should win them to this view and take them in charge and teach them that not a single one of those things is a good to which they devoted themselves and which they strove with all their zeal to acquire, in the belief that, the more they acquired, the better and happier their life would be;

  [32] σωφροσύνην δὲ καὶ ἀνδρείαν καὶ δικαιοσύνην ἐάνπερ ἐκμελετήσωσι καὶ ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἀναλάβωσι, διδασκάλους ποθὲν τούτων εὑρόντες καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων ἀμελήσαντες, εἴτε Ἕλληνας εἴτε Ῥωμαίους εἴτε τις παρὰ Σκύθαις ἢ παρ᾽ Ἰνδοῖς ἀνήρ ἐστι διδάσκαλοσὧν εἶπον, ὥσπερ οἶμαι τοξικῆς τε καὶ ἱππικῆς ἢ νὴ Δία ἰατρός τις θεραπεύειν ἐπιστάμενος τὰ νοσήματα τοῦ σώματος, οὕτως ἱκανὸς ὢν ἰᾶσθαι τὰς τῆς ψυχῆς νόσους, ὅστις ἀκολασίας καὶ πλεονεξίας καὶ τῶν τοιούτων ἀρρωστημάτων δυνήσεται ἀπαλλάξαι τοὺς ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν κρατουμένους, τοῦτον παραλαβόντας καὶ ἀγαγόντας, λόγῳ πείσαντασἢ φιλίᾳ:

  [32] but that if they wholeheartedly practised temperance, manliness, and justice, and took them into their souls, securing from somewhere teachers who taught these things and all the other things too, not caring whether the men were Greeks or Romans, or, for that matter, if there is among the Scythians or the Indians a man who teaches the things of which I have spoken, — not, as I think, archery and horsemanship, but far better, if there were a physician who, knowing how to treat the infirmities of the body, is in that way competent to heal the maladies of the soul — a teacher, I mean, who would be able to rid of licentiousness and covetousness and all such infirmities those who were dominated by them —

  [33] χρήμασι μὲν γὰρ οὐ δυνατὸν ἄνδρα πεισθῆναι τοιοῦτον οὐδὲ ἄλλοις δώροις: καταστήσαντας δὲ εἰς τὴν ἀκρόπολιν νόμῳ προαγορεῦσαι τοὺς νέους ἅπαντας φοιτᾶν παρ᾽ αὐτὸν καὶ συνεῖναι, καὶ μηδὲν ἧττον τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους, ἕως ἂν ἅπαντες σοφοὶ γενόμενοι καὶ δικαιοσύνης ἐρασθέντες, καταφρονήσαντες χρυσοῦ καὶἀργύρου καὶ ἐλέφαντος καὶ ὄψου δὴ καὶ μύρου καὶ ἀφροδισίων, εὐδαίμονες οἰκῶσι καὶ ἄρχοντες μάλιστα καὶ πρῶτον αὑτῶν, ἔπειτα καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἀνθρώπων:

  [33] of
that man, I say, they should take possession and lead him to their homes, inducing him to come either by argument or by friendship — for by money such a man cannot be induced nor by any other gifts — and after establishing him on their acropolis they ought to issue an edict bidding all the young men to resort to him regularly and associate with him, and equally the older men too, until all of them, having become enamoured of righteousness, and having learned to despise gold and silver and ivory, yea, and rich food too and perfume and the lust of the flesh, should thereafter live happy lives, and be masters first and foremost of themselves and afterwards

  [34] τότε γάρ, ἔφην, ἔσται ὑμῶν ἡ πόλις μεγάλη καὶ ἰσχυρὰ καὶ ἄρχουσα κατ᾽ ἀλήθειαν: ὡς τό γε νῦν τὸ μέγεθος αὐτῆς ὕποπτον καὶ οὐ πάνυ ἀσφαλές. ὅσῳ γὰρ ἄν,ἔφην, πλείων ἥ τε ἀνδρεία καὶ ἡ δικαιοσύνη. καὶ ἡ σωφροσύνη γίγνηται παρ᾽ ὑμῖν, τοσούτῳ ἔλαττον ἔσται τό τε ἀργύριον καὶ τὸ χρυσίον καὶ τὰ ἐλεφάντινα σκεύη καὶ τὰ ἠλέκτρινα καὶ κρύσταλλος καὶ θύον καὶ ἔβενος καὶ ὁ τῶν γυναικῶν κόσμος καὶ τὰ ποικίλματα καὶ αἱ βαφαὶ καὶ ξύμπαντα ἁπλῶς τὰ νῦν ἐν τῇ πόλει τίμια καὶ

  [34] of all other men as well.

  “For only then,” I continued, “will your city be great and strong and truly imperial, since at present its greatness arouses distrust and is not very secure. For,” said I, “in proportion as courage, justice, and temperance increase among you, in that degree there will be less silver and gold and furniture of ivory and of amber, less of crystal and citron-wood and ebony and women’s adornments and embroideries and dyes of many hues; in short, all the things which are now considered in your city precious and worth fighting for, you will need in smaller quantities,