Discourses and Selected Writings (40 page)

13.
he is also a spy:
The Cynic is compared to a ‘spy’ in several ancient sources. As a spy abandons the safety of his own camp and risks solitary incursion into enemy territory, relying on darkness and his own wits to survive, so the Cynic eschews the support of a family and the security of four walls and a roof in favour of a solitary and itinerant lifestyle among an enemy of his own creation, the
homme moyen sensuel,
whom he aims to shock and ridicule with his brashness and his outrageous theatrics. By calling him a ‘spy’ Epictetus also implies that the Cynic ideally plies his trade in the service of others, not for selfish or personal reasons. He ‘spies out’ the conditions of life that most men fear – poverty, austerity, exile, social ignominy – and reports – just by the example of his freedom, his good spirits and his wit – that far from being things to fear, and worth compromising one’s integrity in order to avoid, these conditions comprise life nearer to, and therefore more like, the life nature meant for us to lead.

14.
He needs to be like Diogenes… Philip:
On this incident cf. I 24,
3-10 (above), and Diogenes Laertius,
The Lives of the Philosophers
VI 43.

15.
look at Myron or Ophellius… which they are not:
Myron and Ophellius were contemporary athletes or gladiators – and presumably came to a bad end like Croesus. Reference to the plight of ‘the rich of today’ may allude to the practice of the first emperors of charging prominent citizens with treason
(maiestas),
with the covert goal of appropriating their assets for themselves. These paradoxical unfortunates may overlap with the statesmen who drew unwelcome attention to themselves by holding more than one consulship.

16.
Sardanapalus:
The last king of Babylon, and proverbial for luxury.

17.
He pulled many a hair… my chest:
The quotes relating to Agamemnon are from the
Iliad
10. 15, 91, and 94-5.

18.
You are rich in gold and bronze:
Epictetus quotes
Iliad
18. 289.

19.
identify the Cynic… leaves bare:
A Cynic characteristically wore his signature rough mantle (the
tribon)
with one shoulder exposed; this helps, for instance, to identify Diogenes in Raphael’s painting
The School of Athens.
Sarcastic reference to ‘large jaws’ evokes the popular reputation of the Cynic as a parasitic glutton, a malicious parody of his true nature for which the writers of comedy were no doubt responsible.

20.
Take me to the proconsul at once:
The proconsul functioned as a judge in the provinces of the Roman Empire.

21.
the Great King:
The common designation for the king of the Persian empire, proverbially the most fortunate person on earth.

22.
the sceptre and the kingdom:
The Cynic’s signature staff is featured as a royal sceptre, in line with the paradoxical presentation of the Cynic as the true king; cf. §34 above. At the same time he is ‘minister’ to Zeus, who sent him to rule among men; cf. §69 below.

23.
Friendship… indefinitely:
As the Cynic was lampooned in ancient comedy as a parasite, so Epictetus represents parasitism as antithetical to the Cynic ideal of independence.

24.
who has the people… concerns:
Homer,
Iliad
2. 25

25.
his children will not be Cynics straight out of the womb:
I.e. they are not yet ready to survive on the Cynic’s meagre regimen; they still have various material needs.

26.
Crates had a wife:
Crates’ wife was named Hipparchia. Crates made adoption of his philosophy a condition of their marriage,
and out of love for him she complied: Diogenes Laertius,
The Lives of the Philosophers
VI 96.

27.
Epaminondas… Priam… Danaus, or Aeolus
: Epaminondas was a fourth-century
BC
Theban general who scored several notable victories over Sparta. Priam, Danaus and Aeolus are figures from the Greek epic cycle, which is why they are contrasted here with Homer, their chronicler. Like Priam, Danaus and Aeolus were mythical kings credited with epic-sized families; Homer, according to tradition, lacked both home and family.

28.
dogs who beg… gate
:
Iliad
22. 69; the word ‘Cynic’ comes from the Greek word for dog.

29.
A man charged… concerns
: Homer,
Iliad
2. 24–5; cf. §72 above. Diogenes’ ability to give the next line of Homer’s text and finish Alexander’s thought instantaneously shows, in fact, that he was not ‘sleeping the night away’ but even when sleeping was actually half-awake – as Homer said a leader of men ought to be.

30.
what sleep he gets… lay down
: I.e. his reason does not desert him even when asleep; so that, unlike most people, he is not prey to indecent dreams. Cf. I 18, 23 on the dangers posed by sleep, madness and intoxication.

31.
make Argus seem blind by comparison
: Argus was a mythical creature with many eyes.

32.
No, go inside… in particular
: Homer,
Iliad
6. 490 sq., partly paraphrased.

33.
The one where I described Pan and the Nymphs
: Evidently a reference to
ekphrasis
, description of a work of art, and a staple of epideictic oratory, which flourished when other types of oratory dried up after the establishment of the Principate, parallelling the history of rhetoric in Greece following Alexander the Great.

34.
Dio
: Possibly Dio Chrysostom, a contemporary of Epictetus whose writings represent some of the most successful blends in Greek literature of rhetoric and philosophy.

35.
Since this man is constant… does the constant man have?
: A typically Socratic move to define a particular virtue, in this case, constancy.

36.
Lysias or Isocrates
: Leading rhetoricians in classical Athens.

37.
I often wondered by what sort of arguments
: The opening words of the
Memorabilia
, Xenophon’s account of Socrates’ life and teaching.

38.
‘Anytus and Meletus… cannot harm me’
: Socrates is quoted from Plato’s
Apology
30c; G. Vlastos (
Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher
, Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 219) rightly calls this Epictetus’ ‘favourite text’; cf. I 29, 18; II 2, 15, etc.

39.
I’ve always been the sort… my own affairs
: The quote is from Plato’s
Crito
46b; Socrates is the speaker.

40.
‘I know something and I teach it’
: I.e. Socrates was unlike the Sophists in declining to teach and take money, one proof of his contempt for his personal affairs. It also reflects his ‘irony’, i.e. his denial of any knowledge, hence having anything to teach.

41.
‘It would not suit me… callow youth’
: Plato,
Apology
17c.

42.
As the sun… need of help
: On the sun in Stoic physics, cf. I 19, 11.

43.
Rufus
: Musonius Rufus, Epictetus’ teacher.

44.
the epideictic style… as a fourth subject
: The epideictic, or display, style of rhetoric, is one of the three genres of oratory recognized by Aristotle in his
Rhetoric
, along with forensic and deliberative, though he limits its application to praise or denigration, as this was how it was actually applied in his day, when it was still a new form of rhetoric; a surviving example from around Aristotle’s day is Isocrates’
Helen
. The protreptic style was developed as a means to encourage devotion to philosophy; Aristotle himself composed an influential early example, as did Stoics including Cleanthes. The elenctic style is not classified separately by Aristotle, although he does discuss refutational arguments (
Rhetoric
1396
^b
25). The didactic style was presumably adapted for teaching; we know no more of it
per se
. By implying that the protreptic style should not be classified alongside the others, Epictetus presumably means that it is out of place in a philosophical curriculum.

1.
‘
By the grace of Caesar, we are free
’: I.e. the form of the expression makes it self-contradictory. ‘Free’ in this context means politically autonomous and exempt from Roman taxation.

2.
Thrasonides, who fought more campaigns, perhaps, than you
: Thrasonides is the soldier-protagonist of the
Misoumenos
, a play by the fourth-century
BC
Greek comic playwright Menander; his pet slave was Geta. ‘Campaigns’ here puns on a secondary meaning of the word, to refer to love affairs, a usage derived from the language of Roman elegy.

3.
the five per cent tax:
In Rome the five per cent tax was levied on holders of high public office, the assumption being that the slave aspires to be free so that he will qualify to hold such office.

4.
a ring on my finger… blissful and complete:
Wearing a gold ring was the sign and privilege of the Roman equestrian (or ‘upper-middle’) class.

5.
he joins the army… third tour of duty:
Cf. II 14, 17: By a law of Julius Caesar, service in at least three campaigns was required for eligibility to become a municipal senator.

6.
the inability to apply common preconceptions to particulars:
On this topic, cf. esp. II 17.

7.
Caesar’s friend:
On the semi-official status of being ‘Caesar’s friend’, see F. Millar,
The Emperor in the Roman World
(Duckworth, 1977), pp. 110-22.

8.
buying, selling and other such mundane transactions:
I.e. buying and selling slaves, which has been declared irrelevant to the question of what true freedom consists in.

9.
twelve bodyguards:
Literally, ‘twelve fasces,’ a bundle of rods bound together around an axe with the blade projecting, carried before Roman magistrates as an emblem of their authority, by lictors, a magistrate’s usual escort.

10.
a slave on holiday at the Saturnalia:
At Saturnalia restrictions were relaxed and slaves were treated as equals. Thus ‘a slave on holiday at the Saturnalia’ means someone enjoying mock, provisional freedom; cf. I 25, 8.

11.
we even honour them as gods… false as well:
The argument runs: whatever can confer the most benefit is a god. But this man (i.e. the emperor) has the power to confer the most benefit. Therefore the emperor is a god. The second (minor) premise is erroneous, resulting in a false conclusion. The emperors were honoured as deities after their death; the cult of Augustus Caesar was prominent in Epictetus’ hometown of Nicopolis.

12.
How is a fortress demolished?:
The ‘fortress’ (Greek:
acropolis)
is a metaphor for the mind or, in Stoic parlance, for the ‘ruling principle’
(hegemonikon).
The use of ‘fortress’ to represent the mind (or soul) goes back to Plato
(Republic
560b,
Timaeus
70a); it is also used by Marcus Aurelius in this connection
(Meditations
48).

13.
quaestor:
A Roman official in charge of overseeing provincial finances.

14.
a slave presenting your emancipator:
A slave had to present his emancipator before a judge as part of the rite of manumission.

15.
Which explains his behaviour… captive:
An allusion to a famous incident in the life of Diogenes the Cynic, illustrative of how freedom is not a physical condition but a virtue of character and a state of mind. In his old age, sailing to Aegina, he was taken by pirates and carried to Crete, where he was put on the slave market. When the auctioneer asked him what he could do, he said, ‘I can govern men; so sell me to someone who needs a master.’

16.
I continue to value… healthy at all:
Epictetus alludes to his lameness.

17.
Diogenes:
Diogenes the Cynic (again) as in §114 above; he is presented here as a citizen of the world; the entire world is his ‘country’.

18.
the Persian king… Archidamus, king of the Spartans:
Personages representing the acme of power from the Greek and barbarian worlds, respectively, together suggestive of Diogenes’ ‘cosmopolitan’ outlook.

19.
the law:
The universal or divine law.

20.
Socrates… obey it:
The events in Socrates’ life rehearsed in this section are taken from the account given in Plato’s
Apology.

21.
In his own words… injustice:
A paraphrase of Plato,
Crito
47d; the ‘element’ is the soul.

22.
resisted the Athenians’ call… vote:
The motion to execute the generals who commanded at the Battle of Arginusae in 406
BC
, an episode in the Peloponnesian War.

23.
as Plato says: Phaedo
64a,
67d-e.

24.
the Palatine:
The hill in Rome where the emperors had their palaces.

25.
Cassius and Masurius:
Noted jurists active in the first half of the first century
ad
.

26.
the same man… prison walls:
Cf. Plato,
Phaedo
6od, where Socrates is reported to have composed a hymn to Apollo while awaiting execution in jail.