--- title: "On the Life of a Man occupied with Affairs of State; or, on Joseph" author: "Philo of Alexandria" translator: "C. D. Yonge" languages: [en] shelf: "Second Temple" section: 7 of 21 url: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg021-yonge-ogl/7/ cite: "Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge, On the Life of a Man occupied with Affairs of State; or, on Joseph, section 7. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg021-yonge-ogl/7/" --- # On the Life of a Man occupied with Affairs of State; or, on Joseph *Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge* ## 7. Section 78 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg021-yonge-ogl/7/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg021-yonge-ogl/7/#p-N [¶0] "Now then," as the tragedian says: "Now then let fire, let biting steel come on; Burn, scorch my flesh, and glut your appetite Drinking my dark, warm blood; for here I swear Sooner shall those bright stars which deck the heaven Descend beneath the earth, the earth itself Soar upwards to the sky, than servile words Of flattery creep from out my mouth to thee." ### Section 79 [¶2] But the people, when it is the master, cannot endure a statesman of so masculine a spirit, and one who keeps so completely aloof from the passions, from pleasure, from fear, from grief, from desire; but it arrests its well-wisher and friend, and punishes him as an enemy, in doing which it first of all inflicts upon itself the most grievous of all punishments, namely, ignorance; in consequence of which state it does not itself learn that lesson which is the most beautiful and profitable of all, namely, obedience to its governor, from which the knowledge how to govern subsequently springs. ### Section 80 [¶4] Having now discussed this matter at sufficient length, let us see what follows next. The young man, having been calumniated to his master by his master’s wife, who was in love with him, and who had invented against him the accusation to which she herself was liable, is not allowed to make any defence, but is led away to prison. And while he was in the prison he displayed such exceeding virtue that even the most abandoned persons there marvelled and were amazed, and looked upon it as an alleviation of their calamities to have found such a man as the averter of evil from them. ### Section 81 [¶6] And of the cruelty and inhumanity of which gaolers are full there is no one who is ignorant. For they are both by nature pitiless, and also by constant practise they are made more and more brutal, and increase in ferocity day by day, never seeing, or saying, or doing any good thing, but committing only acts of violence and barbarity. ### Section 82 [¶8] For as men who have very strongly knit bodies, when besides their natural strength they add to it the practise of wrestlers, become stronger still, and acquire an irresistible power and a surpassing perfection of body, so in the same manner when an untameable and implacable nature adds habit to its natural ferocity, it becomes inaccessible to, and immovable by any kind of pity or any single respectable or humane feeling. ### Section 83 [¶10] And as those who associate with good men are improved in their disposition by such association, rejoicing in the pleasant and good persons with whom they are living; so also do they who are living with the wicked take the impression of their wicked ways; for habit is a very powerful thing to put a force upon nature, and to make it resemble itself: ### Section 84 [¶12] now keepers of prisons live among thieves and robbers, and housebreakers, and men of insolence and violence, and murderers, and adulterers, and plunderers of temples, from every one of whom they contract some wickedness, and collect a sort of contribution: and from their manifold mixture, make up one thoroughly confused and wholly polluted iniquity. ### Section 85 [¶14] Nevertheless, even such a man as this was propitiated by the virtue of this young man, and not only gave him liberty and security, but even entrusted to him a share of authority over all the prisoners; so that in word, indeed, and as far as the title went, he continued to be the gaoler; but in reality he had made over all the active part of the work to the young man, in consequence of which conduct of his the prisoners were benefited in no slight degree. ### Section 86 [¶16] Accordingly they no longer thought fit to call the place a prison, but a house of correction: for instead of tortures and punishments which they had previously undergone night and day, being beaten and bound with chains, and suffering every imaginable kind of ill-treatment; they were now admonished with the language and doctrines of philosophy, and also by the life and conduct of their teacher, which was more effective than any discourse in the world; ### Section 87 [¶18] for he, by placing his own life full of temperance and every kind of virtue before them, as a picture and well-constructed model of virtue, changed even those who had appeared to be utterly incurable, so that the long diseases of their souls now got a respite, since they were afflicting themselves for what they had hitherto done, and were repenting of it, and uttering such expressions as these, "Where was there all this good formerly which we originally failed to find? For behold! now it shines forth to such a degree that we are ashamed to face it, seeing our deformity in it as in a looking-glass." ### Section 88 [¶20] While they then were being improved in this manner two of the king’s eunuchs are brought into the prison; the one being his chief butler, and the other his chief baker, having been accused and condemned for malversation in the offices committed to their charge. And Joseph took the same care of them that he took of the others, praying that he might be able to make all those who were entrusted to his care in no respect inferior to irreproachable persons. ### Section 89 [¶22] And when no long period had elapsed, he went to visit his prisoners on one occasion, when he saw these eunuchs more full of perplexity, and more downcast than they had been before; and conjecturing from their excessive grief that some strange event had befallen them, he inquired the reason of their sorrow. ### Section 90 [¶24] And when they answered him, that they were full of distress and perplexity because they had seen dreams, and because there was no one who could interpret them to them, he said "Be of good cheer, and relate them to me; for so, if God will, you shall be led to understand them; for he is willing to reveal, to those who are desirous of the truth, those things which are concealed in darkness."