Hiero the Tyrant and Other Treatises (Penguin Classics) (23 page)

[1]Lions, leopards, lynxes, panthers, bears and other exotic animals are caught in foreign lands, on or around mountains which provide suitable habitats for such creatures, such as Pangaeum, Cissus north [2] of Macedon,
¹
Olympus in Mysia, Pindus or Nysa east of Syria. Because the terrain is so difficult, one way of taking them is by using aconite as a poison. Hunters mix it with the animals’ favourite food and leave [3] it near pools and other places they visit. When they come down off the mountain at night, they may be driven into a corner by mounted and armed men, and taken this way, although this method is dangerous [4] for the men involved. For some of these animals, people dig large, deep, round pits, leaving a pillar of earth in the middle. They put a
goat in the pit in the evening, tie it to the pillar and build a fence of undergrowth all around the pit, with no entrances, and high enough not to be looked over.
^*
During the night animals hear the goat inside, run around the outside of the fence and, failing to find a way in, leap over the top and are caught.

So much for the practical aspects of hunting.
¹
A strong desire to hunt [1] can also lead to a great deal of profit. It makes for physical fitness, improves the sight and hearing, slows down the process of growing old, and above all it is good training for warfare.

They will not, for instance, get tired when marching under arms [2] across difficult terrain, because they will have built up their stamina by their habit of carrying weapons when hunting animals.
²
Secondly, they will be able to sleep rough and efficiently guard any spot they are assigned. When attacking the enemy, they will be capable of [3] carrying out their orders as well as the assault, because that is how they do things themselves when hunting game. If they have been posted in the front line, they will not break rank, because they are capable of maintaining a position in the face of danger. If the enemy [4] troops are in flight, they will pursue their opponents in the correct manner and without taking risks, across every kind of terrain, because they are perfectly familiar with this kind of activity. If their own force has suffered a setback in terrain that is wooded, precipitous or otherwise awkward, they will be capable of saving themselves in a respectable manner, and of keeping others alive too, because their familiarity with hunting will increase their level of expertise. In the past, in fact, even [5] with the main body of their allies in flight, a few such men have renewed the battle against the victorious enemy and have routed them, thanks to their fitness
^*
and courage in difficult terrain which has caused the enemy to make mistakes. For those in prime physical and mental condition success is never far off.
³

Our ancestors too were aware that this is the means of success [6] against the enemy, and that is why they made hunting part of a young
man’s course of studies. Even though they were always short of produce, it was the original custom, instituted by them, that hunters could freely follow game through fields bearing any kind of crop; [7] they also prohibited night-hunting within a radius of many stades from the city, so that those who possessed this skill would not deprive young men of their game.
⁴
They appreciated that hunting is the only thing young people enjoy doing which does them a very great deal of good, in the sense that it brings them up surrounded by reality, [8] and so gives them self-restraint and honesty; they realized that their successes in war and in other areas were due to these men. Moreover, whereas other enjoyable activities – the base ones, which should not be studied – debar young men from noble pursuits, hunting does not: they can undertake any other honourable occupation they like.
⁵
These, then, are the kinds of men who develop into fine soldiers and [9] military commanders. For men who have striven to rid their minds and bodies of all that is disgraceful and immoderate, and to instil instead a growing desire for virtue, are men of outstanding worth, because they will not let anyone get away with wronging their city or harming their land.

[10] Some people claim that a passion for hunting is misguided, on the grounds that it makes one neglect one’s domestic affairs. They do not understand, however, that every benefactor of his community and [11] friends is taking particularly good care of his domestic affairs. If hunters are training themselves to be of service to their country in the most important matters, they are not thereby deserting
^*
their own affairs, because everyone’s domestic affairs depend for their preservation or loss on the safety or destruction of the community, and therefore hunters safeguard the affairs of every private citizen in the community, as well as their own.
⁶

[12] The envious irrationality of those who make this claim is often such that they prefer to be ruined by their own badness rather than to be kept safe by other people’s goodness. For the majority ofpleasures are actually bad, and by succumbing to them these people are induced to choose the worse alternative in what they say or what they do – [13] and then their stupid words arouse antagonism, and their evil deeds bring disease, punishment and death down on themselves, their children
and their friends. Given that they are incapable of recognizing evil, but quicker than others to recognize a source of pleasure, who is going to make use of them when the community needs protection?
⁷
However, anyone who takes a passionate interest in the pursuit I am [14] recommending will steer clear of these troubles, since a good education teaches people to observe the laws, to speak about justice and to listen only to others doing the same. So these people, by their dedication [15] to a life of hard work and education, may provide themselves with nothing but arduous training and schooling, but they also provide protection for their communities; the others, however, the ones who refuse to submit to an arduous education and prefer a life of intense pleasures, have no redeeming moral features at all. They submit to [16] neither laws nor good advice, because as a result of their avoidance of hard work they have no idea what sort of qualities a good man should have.
⁸
Consequently, they are incapable of piety or intelligence, and their lack of education frequently makes them find fault with those who have submitted to an education. In short, then, these men [17] are never responsible for any good; every discovery and invention that has helped mankind is due to the better sort – that is,
^*
to those who are prepared to make efforts.

There is convincing evidence to support this claim. After all, in [18] times past those students of Cheiron’s who, as I mentioned,
⁹
started when they were young men with hunting, went on to acquire expertise in a large number of fine fields of endeavour; as a result they attained the high virtue for which they are still admired today. It is perfectly obvious that all men passionately desire virtue, but because it takes hard work to achieve it, the majority give up. The point is that the [19] attainment of virtue is never certain, whereas the hard work involved is all too obvious. Perhaps, if virtue had a visible body and people understood that they were just as visible to her as she was to them, they would neglect her less. For under the watchful eyes of his beloved [20] every man does better than his best and allows nothing disgraceful or bad to enter his words or deeds, in case he is seen by him.
¹⁰
But people [21] openly commit many shocking crimes on the assumption that, just because they cannot see her, virtue is not looking. She is omnipresent, however, because she is one of the immortals, and while she honours
those who are good to her, she has no respect for those who are bad. [22] If people knew that she was watching, they would commit themselves without hesitation to the arduous work and training needed for the hard task of catching her, and their reward would be virtue.

[1] What surprises me about the sophists, as they are called, is that although most of them profess to educate young men in virtue, they actually do exactly the opposite.
¹
It is not just that we have never
seen
a man become good thanks to the sophists of today; their writings are also [2] not designed to improve people. Much of their writing is concerned with trivia, which can give young men vain enjoyment, but not virtue. To read it in the hope of learning something is a pointless waste of time; their treatises keep people from doing something useful [3] and teach them things that are offensive.
²
These are serious criticisms, but then the issue is serious; as regards the content of their treatises, my charge is that while they have gone to great lengths over style, they have eliminated the kind of sound views which educate the younger generation in virtue.

[4] I am just a layman, but I know that the best place to look for instruction in goodness is one’s own nature, and that the second best course is to go to people who really know something good rather [5] than to professional deceivers.
³
My language may perhaps be plain, but then it is not my purpose to embroider. I am trying to put into words sound opinions of the kind needed by those who have been brought up with the proper attitude towards virtue. After all, education is not afforded by language, but by opinions, provided they are good.

[6] I am far from alone in criticizing the sophists of today – note that I am not talking about genuine lovers of wisdom – for using their skills on style rather than content. I am well aware that someone, probably one of the sophists, might point out the faults in something that is not a well-written, coherent treatise; after all, swift and ill-founded [7] criticism will prove no problem for them. I have written it the way I have, however, because my purpose is to produce a sound
treatise, and one which is designed to increase people’s knowledge and virtue, not their sophistic skills. I want it to
be
useful, not just to
seem
useful, because then it will never be refuted. The sophists’ [8] intention in lecturing and writing is to deceive others for their own gain; they do no one any good at all. There has never been in the past nor does there exist now a knowledgeable sophist; in fact, they are all perfectly happy to be called sophists, which to a right-thinking man is a term of reproach. My advice, then, is to be wary of the [9] instruction offered by sophists, but not to disregard the considered opinions of philosophers. For whereas sophists hunt wealthy young men, philosophers are prepared to associate with everyone, and they place neither too much nor too little weight on men’s fortunes.
⁴

One should also not envy those who seek their own advantage at [10] all costs, whether they do so in private or in public life. Bear in mind that whereas the best citizens
^*
are well thought of and assiduous, the bad ones fare badly and have poor reputations. As a result of stealing [11] money from private citizens and embezzling from the community they are less valuable when the state’s safety is at stake,
^*
and they are disgracefully far from being physically fit enough for warfare, since they are incapable of exertion. Hunters, however, present themselves and their property in prime condition for the common good of their fellow citizens. Hunters go after wild animals, while the others go [12] after their friends. Moreover, attacking one’s friends is universally disparaged, whereas hunting wild animals is universally acclaimed, because if hunters succeed they overcome a foe, and if they fail they win praise not only for striking at enemies of the whole community, but also because the purpose of their expedition was not to harm a man or to satisfy their own greed. Then again, the very attempt makes [13] them better and more intelligent people, for the following reason: they will never capture game unless they put in an extraordinary amount of effort and a great deal of thought and study. Their adversaries [14] are battling for their lives on their home territory, so they fight hard and all the hunter’s efforts come to nothing if he does not use considerable determination and a high degree of intelligence to overcome them.

In other words, whereas those politicians who seek their own [15]
advantage train to defeat their own side, hunters train to defeat public enemies; whereas this training makes hunters better equipped to meet enemies in battle, the others are made far worse in this respect by their training; for the one group hunting goes together with [16] self-control, for the other with immoral impetuosity; hunters can rise above moral corruption and sordid greed, the others cannot; they speak with elegance, the others with harshness; and as for the gods, there is nothing to check impiety in the one group, while the others are paragons of piety.
⁵

[17] There exist old stories about the pleasure the gods find in hunting, whether they are doing it or watching it.
⁶
It follows that the young men who take up the pursuit I have been recommending are the favourites of the gods, and are also acting with reverent piety, because they think that some god is watching their hunting. These men, if any, are good to their parents and to their community as a whole, to [18] every one of their friends and fellow citizens. And hunting has imbued not just all its male devotees with virtue, but also all the women to whom the goddess has granted this gift, such as Atalanta and Procris.
⁷