[112] Then again, whereas the Eleans, who are not superior in other respects to any of the other Peloponnesians, put so high a value upon their own position, are you Rhodians so afraid of all your casual visitors that you think if you fail to set up some one person in bronze, you will lose your freedom? But if your freedom is in so precarious a state that it can be stripped from you on any petty pretext, it would in every way be better for you to be slaves forthwith. So too when men’s bodies are so dangerously ill that there is no longer hope for their recovery, death is better than life.
[113] εἰ γὰρ ὑμῖν ἡ μὲν ἐκ τοσούτου χρόνου πίστις καὶ πρὸς τὸν δῆμον εὔνοια τὸν ἐκείνων καὶ κοινωνία πάσης τύχης οὐ δύναται βεβαιοῦν τὴν πολιτείαν,οὐδὲ Μιθριδάτης καθαιρεθεὶς οὐδ᾽ Ἀντίοχος, οὐδ᾽ ἡ τῆς θαλάττης ἀρχὴ παραδοθεῖσα διὰ πολλῶν κινδύνων καὶ πόνων, οὐδ᾽ οἱ πρὸ τοσούτων ἐτῶν ὅρκοι τῆς φιλίας, οὐδ᾽ αἱ παρ᾽ αὐτὸν τὸν Δία στῆλαι κείμεναι μέχρι νῦν, οὐδ᾽ ἡ μέχρι Ὠκεανοῦ συγκινδυνεύσασα δύναμις, οὐδ᾽ ἡ τὸ τελευταῖον ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν ἁλοῦσα πόλις,ἀλλ᾽ εἰ μὴ τὸν δεῖνα καὶ τὸν δεῖνα κολακεύσετε ἀγεννῶς, πάντα ταῦτα ἀνατέτραπται, ὡς ἀεὶ προσδοκᾶν ὀργήν τινα ἢ μῖσος, σφόδρα ὑμῖν φαύλως τὰ πράγματα ἔχει καὶ ἐπ᾽ οὐδενὸς ἵδρυσθε ἰσχυροῦ. καὶ ἔγωγε φαίην ἄν, εἰ καὶ χαλεπῶς ἀκούσεσθε, κρεῖττον ὑμῶν ἀπαλλάττειν τοὺς ἐν Φρυγίᾳ μέσῃ δουλεύοντας ἢ τοὺς ἐν
[113] Why, if your long-standing loyalty and good will toward that people, and your having shared with them every fortune, are unable to give your state security, nor yet the subjugation of Mithridates or of Antiochus, nor the command of the sea which you have delivered over to them at the cost of so many dangers and hardships, nor the vows of friendship taken so many years ago, nor the tablets which up to the present time have stood at the very side of your statue of Zeus, nor your mighty fleet, which has shared in their battles as far as the Ocean’s edge, nor finally, the capture of your city endured for their sake, yet if you omit to flatter ignobly this man and that man, all these things have come to naught — if this is your condition, so that you are always expecting some outbreak of wrath or hatred, then your position is extremely wretched and rests upon no firm foundation. And I, for my part, would say, even at the risk of angering you, that slaves in the interior of Phrygia, and those in Egypt and Libya, fare better than yourselves.
[114] Αἰγύπτῳ καὶ Λιβύῃ. τὸ γὰρ ἀγνοούμενον καὶ μὴ δοκοῦντα μηδενὸς ἄξιον ποιεῖν ὁτιοῦν ἔλαττον αἰσχρόν: τὸ δὲ οὕτως ὄντας ἐπισήμους καὶ θαυμαζομένους παρὰ πᾶσιν ἀνάγκην ἔχειν ὥσπερ τοὺς ἀγεννεῖς κύνας σαίνειν τὸν παριόντα δεινόν. φέρε τοίνυν, εἰ δὲ καὶ πάντας δέοι τιμᾶν οὕτως καὶ τὴν ἐσχάτηνἀπορίαν θείη τις εἶναι περὶ τὴν πόλιν, πόσῳ κρεῖττον αὐτὸ τὸ ψήφισμα προσπέμψαι τὸ τῆς εἰκόνος, ἵν᾽ ἐὰν βούληται, στήσῃ
[114] For it is less shameful that a man who is unknown and thought to be utterly without desert should resort to any and every expedient; but that a people so distinguished as yourselves and so admired throughout the world should be constrained like low-bred curs to fawn upon every passer-by, is scandalous.
Come then, tell me this: Suppose that it should be necessary to honour all the world in this fashion and that we should assume the city to be in desperate financial straits, how much better it would be to send the simple decree in which the statue is voted to each man so honoured, in order that, if he chooses, he may set it up at his own expense!
[115] παρ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ; νὴ Δί᾽, ἀλλ᾽ αἰσχρόν, εἰ τοσαύτην στενοχωρίαν ὁμολογήσομεν, καὶ Ῥοδίων οὐκ ἄξιον. καὶ τίς οὐκ ἂν εὖ φρονῶν ἕλοιτο πένης δοκεῖν μᾶλλον ἢ πονηρός; ἢ τὸ νυνὶ γιγνόμενον ἧττονὑμῖν δοκεῖ τινος αἰσχρὸν εἶναι, τὸ τοὺς ἀνδριάντας ὑμῶν δύνασθαί τινα διηγεῖσθαι, καθάπερ τὰς οἰκίας, ὅτι πρότερον μὲν ἦν αὕτη τοῦ δεῖνος, νῦν δὲ τοῦ δεῖνος γέγονεν, ἂν δ᾽ οὗτος τελευτήσῃ, πάλιν ἔσται τοῦ κληρονομήσαντος ἢ τοῦ πριαμένου; καίτοι τὴν εἰκόνα οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδενὶ δικαίῳ μεταθεῖναι, καθάπερ τὴν οἰκίαν.
[115] “Good heavens!” you exclaim, “but it would be a disgrace if we are to admit such straightenedº circumstances, and beneath the dignity of the people of Rhodes!”
And yet what person in his right mind would not prefer to be thought poor rather than unprincipled? Or does the present situation seem to you in a less degree disgraceful than any other — that a person is able to describe your statues in the same way as your houses, saying that this one used to belong to So-and-so but that now it has come into the hands of So-and-so; and when the present owner dies it will in turn belong to whoever has inherited it — or who buys it? And yet it is not possible for any right-minded man to transfer the ownership of a statue as he does that of a house.
[116] ἤδη τοίνυν ἤκουσά τι καὶ τοιοῦτόν τινος ἀποσχεδιάζοντος, ὅτι [p. 253] καὶ παρ᾽ ἑτέροις ἰδεῖν ἔστι τοῦτο γιγνόμενον: πάλιν δὲ ἑτέρου, ὡς καὶ παρ᾽ Ἀθηναίοις πολλὰ πράττεται νῦν, οἷς οὐκ ἀπεικότως ἄν τις ἐπιπλήξειεν, οὐ περὶ τὰ ἄλλα μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ τὰς τιμάς: οἵ γε τὸν δεῖνα μὲν Ὀλύμπιον κεκλήκασιν οὐδὲ φύσει πολίτην ἑαυτῶν, Φοίνικα δὲ ἄνθρωπον οὐκ ἀπὸ Τύρου καὶ Σιδῶνος, ἀλλ᾽ ἀπὸ κώμης τινὸς ἢ τῆς ἠπείρου, καὶ ταῦτα πιττούμενον τοὺς βραχίονας καὶ περιδήματα φοροῦντα: τὸν δεῖνα δὲ τὸν εὐχερῆ λίαν ποιητήν, ὃς καὶ παρ᾽ ὑμῖν ποτε κἀνθάδε ἐπεδείξατο, οὐ μόνον χαλκοῦν ἑστάκασιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ παρὰ Μένανδρον. λέγειν δὲ εἰώθασιν οἱ διασύροντες τὴν πόλιν καὶ τὸ ἐπίγραμμα τὸ ἐπὶ τῆς Νικάνορος εἰκόνος, ὃς αὐτοῖς καὶ τὴν Σαλαμῖνα ἐωνήσατο.
[116] Well, I once heard a man make an off-hand remark to the effect that there are other peoples also where one can see this practice being carried on; and again, another man, who said that even in Athens many things are done now which any one, not without justice, could censure, these being not confined to ordinary matters, but having to do even with the conferring of honours. “Why, they have conferred the title of ‘Olympian,’ “ he alleged, upon a certain person he named, “though he was not an Athenian by birth, but a Phoenician fellow who came, not from Tyre or Sidon, but from some obscure village or from the interior, a man, what is more, who has his arms depilated and wears stays”; and he added that another, whom he also named, that very slovenly poet, who once gave a recital here in Rhodes too, they not only have set up in bronze, but even placed his statue next to that of Menander. Those who disparage their city and the inscription on the statue of Nicanor are accustomed to say that
it actually bought Salamis for them.
[117] ἐγὼ δ᾽ εἰ μέν τις ἢ τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις ἐπιτιμῶν λέγει ταῦτα, καὶ δεικνὺς οὐκ ὄντας ἀξίους τοὺς ἐνοικοῦντας τῆς πόλεως οὐδὲ τῆς δόξης, ἣν οἱ πρότερον γενόμενοι κατέλιπον, ἢ καθόλου τὴν Ἑλλάδα ἐλεῶν εἰς ὃ πέπτωκεν, ὅταν τοιαῦτα πράττωσιν οἱ χρόνον τινὰ δόξαντες αὐτῆς προεστάναι, καλῶς αὐτὸν ἡγοῦμαι λέγειν: εἰ δ᾽ ὅτι προσήκει μηδ᾽ ὑμᾶς μηδὲν μέγα φρονεῖν μηδ᾽ ἐκείνων κρεῖττον, οὐκ ἔχω τὴν ὑπερβολὴν τῆς ἀναισθησίας εἰπεῖν τοῦ ταῦτα λέγοντος.
[117] But I, for my part, if any one makes these statements either to reproach the Athenians and to show that its present inhabitants are not worthy of it or of the glory which the Athenians of old bequeathed to them, or to express in a general way a feeling of commiseration for Hellas, that she has fallen to so low an estate, when such acts are committed by a people who for a time were regarded as the foremost of the race, I believe he is right; but if it is his thought that you also should be lacking in pride and should be no better than they, then I am unable to characterize the utter lack of fine feeling shown by the speaker.
[118] οὐ γὰρ ὃν τρόπον τὰ καλῶς παρ᾽ ἑτέροις γιγνόμενα πᾶσιν ἔθος ἐστὶ λέγειν ζήλου καὶ προτροπῆς ἕνεκεν, ὁμοίως κἂν φαῦλόν τι πράττηται παρ᾽ ἄλλοις, δεῖ τοῦτο μνημονεύειν, ὥστε μιμεῖσθαι, τοὐναντίον δὲ ὑπὲρ τοῦ φυλάξασθαι καὶ μὴ λαθεῖν εἴς τι τοιοῦτον ἐμπεσόντας. καὶ γὰρ εἰ μὲν ἐπαινῶν τις ἐκείνους ταῦτα ἔλεγε καὶ μηδὲν χείρονος δόξης ἀποφαίνων ἐπιτυγχάνοντας, ἦν μὲν ἂν δήπουθεν εὐήθης, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀναιδής: πλὴν κατά γε τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γνώμην παρεῖχέ τινα ἀφορμὴν τοῖς ἁμαρτάνειν βουλομένοις. εἰ δ᾽ ὡς αἰσχρὰ καὶ ὀνείδη πάντες αὐτὰ προφέρουσι καὶ οὐθεὶς ἂν εἴποι τῶν ἐγκωμιαζόντων τὴν πόλιν τοιοῦτον οὐδέν, ἀλλ᾽ ἤτοι βλασφημῶν τις ἢ καθαπτόμενος ἄλλως καὶ ἐπιπλήττων, παντελῶς εὐήθης ὁ διὰ τῶν τοιούτων ὑμᾶς προτρέπειν δοκῶν ὥστε ἀμελεῖν τῶν παρ᾽
[118] For as it is the custom of all men to recount the admirable institutions and practices which are found among other peoples for the purpose of encouraging eager emulation of them, we should not in the same way mention any bad practice that is current elsewhere for the sake of encouraging imitation of it, but, on the contrary, only in order that one’s people may be on their guard against it and may not fall unawares into that sort of thing. Indeed if a man were in fact reciting any such things by way of praising that other people and of showing that they enjoyed a reputation no whit worse one that account, he must surely be reckoned a simple, or rather a reckless, person; but yet according to his own opinion he was not offering any incentive to those wishing to do wrong. But if all men cite these practices as a shame and a reproach and not one of those who eulogize the city would mention any such thing, but only a person who wanted either to slander or in some other way to criticize and assail it, that man is an utter simpleton who thinks that by such means he could induce you to abandon your own customs.
[119] αὑτοῖς. καθάπερ εἴ τις ἀθλητὴν πείθων ἀπειπεῖν καὶ προέσθαι τὸν στέφανον ἀργυρίου λέγοι πρὸς αὐτόν, Οὐχ ὁρᾷς ἐκεῖνον τὸν παραχωρήσαντα πρὸ σοῦ μαστιγούμενον; ἢ νὴ Δία εἴ τις τῶν [p. 254] ὑποκριτῶν τινι δεικνὺς τοὺς ἐκπίπτοντας καὶ συριττομένους τοιαῦτα παραμυθοῖτο, Ὅπως μηδὲ σὺ προσέξεις, ἀλλ᾽ ὁμοίως ἀγωνιεῖ. καὶ νῦν ὑμῖν σχεδὸν ἐκεῖνοι λέγουσιν, Οὐχ ὁρᾶτε τοὺς Ἀθηναίους ὡς ἀσχημονοῦσιν, ὡς κακῶς ἀκούουσιν, ὡς παράδειγμα πᾶσίν εἰσι τῆς ἀγεννείας καὶ τῆς ὕβρεως, ἣν ὑβρίζουσιν εἰς τὴν πατρίδα;
[119] It is just as if a person, in trying to persuade an athlete to give up and forego the crown for the price of a piece of silver, should say to him: “Do you not see yonder man, the one who is being scourged, just in front of you, because he dropped out of the contest?” Or, by heavens, just as if a man should point out to one of the actors several who were being hissed off the stage, and should offer this sort of encouragement: “See to it that you also pay no attention to your part, but go through the performance the way they did.” And now those whom we have just described are to all intents and purposes saying to you: “Do you not see how the Athenians are disgracing themselves, how they are getting a bad name, how they are an example to all the world of baseness and of the kind of insolence with which they outrage their own country?”
[120] καίτοιπότερον θῇ τις αὐτοὺς ἀνταγωνιστὰς ὑμῶν, ὥσπερ ἀξιοῦσιν, ἢ μᾶλλον, ὃ τῷ παντὶ βέλτιον καὶ δικαιότερον, καὶ τούτους καὶ τοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους καὶ πάντας τοὺς ὁμοίους μέρος ὑμέτερον ἢ ὑμᾶς ἐκείνων; ἀλλ᾽ οὔτε τοὺς ἀνταγωνιστὰς ἁμαρτάνοντας εὔλογόν ἐστι μιμεῖσθαι, τοὐναντίον δὲ τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον κατορθοῦν, ἵνα τῷ παντὶφαίνησθε προέχοντες αὐτῶν, καὶ μὴ μόνον διὰ τὴν ἐκείνων κακίαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ διὰ τὴν αὑτῶν ἀρετὴν εὐδοκιμῆτε: οὔτε τοὺς οἰκείους καὶ προσήκοντας, ἀλλὰ μάλιστα μὲν κωλύειν, εἰ δ᾽ οὖν, αὐτούς γε πειρᾶσθαι τοῖς ἑαυτῶν ἔργοις τὰ ἁμαρτήματα ἐκείνων ἐλάττω ποιεῖν.
[120] And yet, let me ask, shall anyone class the Athenians as your rivals, as these persons demand, or rather — and this is in every way better and fairer — hold both them and the Spartans and all others like them to be your co-partners, or you theirs? But it is not sensible to imitate your rivals when they err, but on the contrary to endeavour so much the more to do right yourselves, in order that you may be found superior to them in every respect and ever win credit, not only on account of their demerits, but also on account of your own virtue; nor should you copy your friends and relatives, but should try to check them if possible, or, if you do copy them, should by the merit of your own conduct try to minimize their shortcomings.
[121] ἔτι δ᾽ εἰ μὲν ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις μηδὲν αὐτῶν διεφέρετε, οὐδὲνἴσως ἔδει καθ᾽ ἓν τοῦτο φιλοτιμεῖσθαι καὶ σκοπεῖν ὅπως κρείττους δόξετε. νῦν δὲ οὐθέν ἐστιν ἐφ᾽ ὅτῳ τῶν ἐκεῖ γιγνομένων οὐκ ἂν αἰσχυνθείη τις. οἷον εὐθὺς τὰ περὶ τοὺς μονομάχους οὕτω σφόδρα ἐζηλώκασι Κορινθίους, μᾶλλον δ᾽ ὑπερβεβλήκασι τῇ κακοδαιμονίᾳ κἀκείνους καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἅπαντας, ὥστε οἱ Κορίνθιοιμὲν ἔξω τῆς πόλεως θεωροῦσιν ἐν χαράδρᾳ τινί, πλῆθος μὲν δυναμένῳ δέξασθαι τόπῳ, ῥυπαρῷ δὲ ἄλλως καὶ ὅπου μηδεὶς ἂν μηδὲ θάψειε μη
δένα τῶν ἐλευθέρων, Ἀθηναῖοι δὲ ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ θεῶνται τὴν καλὴν ταύτην θέαν ὑπ᾽ αὐτὴν τὴν ἀκρόπολιν, οὗ τὸν Διόνυσον ἐπὶ τὴν ὀρχήστραν τιθέασιν: ὥστε πολλάκις ἐν αὐτοῖς τινα σφάττεσθαι τοῖς θρόνοις, οὗ τὸν ἱεροφάντην καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἱερεῖς ἀνάγκη καθίζειν.
[121] Moreover, if you were no whit superior to the Athenians in other respects, perhaps you would not find it necessary to feel any jealousy of them in this one matter and to consider how you might have a reputation better than theirs. But as matters now stand, there is no practice current in Athens which would not cause any man to feel ashamed. For instance, in regard to the gladiatorial shows the Athenians have so zealously emulated the Corinthians, or rather, have so surpassed both them and all others in their mad infatuation, that whereas the Corinthians watch these combats outside the city in a glen, a place that is able to hold a crowd but otherwise is dirty and such that no one would even bury there any freeborn citizen, the Athenians look on at this fine spectacle in their theatre under the very walls of the Acropolis, in the place where they bring their Dionysus into the orchestra and stand him up, so that often a fighter is slaughtered among the very seats in which the Hierophant and the other priests must sit.
[122] καὶ τὸν εἰπόντα περὶ τούτου φιλόσοφον καὶ νουθετήσαντα αὐτοὺς οὐκ ἀπεδέξαντο οὐδὲ ἐπῄνεσαν, ἀλλ᾽ οὕτως ἐδυσχέραναν, ὥστε ἐκεῖνον ὄντα μὲν γένει Ῥωμαίων μηδενὸς ὕστερον, δόξαν δὲ τηλικαύτην ἔχοντα ἡλίκης οὐδεὶς ἐκ πάνυ πολλοῦ[p. 255] τετύχηκεν, ὁμολογούμενον δὲ μόνον μάλιστα μετὰ τοὺς ἀρχαίους ἀκολούθως βεβιωκέναι τοῖς λόγοις, καταλιπεῖν τὴν πόλιν καὶ μᾶλλον ἑλέσθαι διατρίβειν ἀλλαχόσε τῆς Ἑλλάδος. ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἂν ὑμεῖς, ἄνδρες Ῥόδιοι, τοιοῦτον οὐθὲν ὑπομείναιτε, παρ᾽ οἷς νόμος ἐστὶ τὸν δημόσιον μηδέποτε εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν πόλιν.
Delphi Complete Works of Dio Chrysostom Page 271