---
title: "On the Virtues and on the Office of Ambassadors. Addressed to Caius"
author: "Philo of Alexandria"
translator: "C. D. Yonge"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Second Temple"
section: 2 of 29
url: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg031-yonge-ogl/2/
cite: "Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge, On the Virtues and on the Office of Ambassadors. Addressed to Caius, section 2. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg031-yonge-ogl/2/"
---

# On the Virtues and on the Office of Ambassadors. Addressed to Caius

*Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge*

## 2. Section 13

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg031-yonge-ogl/2/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg031-yonge-ogl/2/#p-N

[¶0] On this occasion the rich were not better off than the poor, nor the men of high rank than the lowly, nor the creditors than the debtors, nor the masters than the slaves, since the occasion gave equal privileges and communities to all men, so that the age of Saturn, which is so celebrated by the poets was no longer looked upon as a fiction and a fable, The golden age was said to have existed during the reign of Saturn upon earth. So Tibullus says— Quam bene vivebant Saturno rege, priusquam Tellus in longas est patefacta vias. And Virgil— Aureus hand vitam in terris Saturnus agebat. on account of the universal prosperity and happiness which reigned every where, and the absence of all grief and fear, and the daily and nightly exhibitions of joy and festivity throughout every house and throughout the whole people, which lasted continually without any interruption during the first seven months of his reign.

### Section 14

[¶2] But in the eighth month a severe disease attacked Caius who had changed the manner of his living which was a little while before, while Tiberius was alive, very simple and on that account more wholesome than one of great sumptuousness and luxury; for he began to indulge in abundance of strong wine and eating of rich dishes, and in the abundant license of insatiable desires and great insolence, and in the unseasonable use of hot baths, and emetics, and then again in wine-bibbing and drunkenness, and returning gluttony, and in lust after boys and women, and in everything else which tends to destroy both soul and body, and all the bonds which unite and strengthen the two; for the rewards of temperance are health and strength, and the wages of intemperance are weakness and disease which bring a man near to death.

### Section 15

[¶4] Accordingly, when the news was spread abroad that he was sick while the weather was still suitable for navigation (for it was the beginning of the autumn, which is the last season during which nautical men can safely take voyages, and during which in consequence they all return from the foreign marts in every quarter to their own native ports and harbours of refuge, especially all who exercise a prudent care not to be compelled to pass the winter in a foreign country); they, forsaking their former life of delicateness and luxury, now wore mournful faces, and every house and every city became full of depression and melancholy, their grief being now equal to and counterbalancing the joy which they experienced a short time before.

### Section 16

[¶6] For every portion of the habitable world was diseased in his sickness, feeling affected with a more terrible disease The golden age was said to have existed during the reign of Saturn upon earth. So Tibullus says— Quam bene vivebant Saturno rege, priusquam Tellus in longas est patefacta vias. And Virgil— Aureus hand vitam in terris Saturnus agebat. than that which was oppressing Caius; for his sickness was that of the body alone, but the universal malady which was oppressing all men every where was one which attacked the vigour of their souls, their peace, their hopes, their participation in and enjoyment of all good things;

### Section 17

[¶8] for men began to remember how numerous and how great are the evils which spring from anarchy, famine, and war, and the destruction of trees, and devastations, and deprivation of lands, and plundering of money, and the intolerable fear of slavery and death, which no one can relieve, all which evils appeared to admit of but one remedy, namely the recovery of Caius.

### Section 18

[¶10] Accordingly when his disease began to abate, in a very short time even the men who were living on the very confines of the empire heard of it and rejoiced, for nothing is swifter than report, So Virgil says— Fama malum quo non aliucl velocius ullum— Æn. iv. 174. and immediately every city was full of suspense and expectation, being continually eager for better news, until at length his perfect recovery was announced by fresh arrivals, at which news they again returned to their original cheerfulness, each thinking the health of Caius to be his own salvation;

### Section 19

[¶12] and this feeling pervaded every continent and every island, for no one can recollect so great and general a joy affecting any one country or any one nation, at the good health or prosperity of their governor, as now pervaded the whole of the habitable world at the recovery of Caius, and at his being able to resume the exercise of his power and having completely got rid of his sickness.

### Section 20

[¶14] For they all rejoiced, from ignorance of the truth, like men who are now for the first time beginning to exchange a wandering and uncivilised mode of life for a social and civilised system, and instead of dwelling in desert places, and the open air, and the mountain districts, to live in walled cities, and instead of living without any governor, or protector, or lawgiver, to be now established under the care of a governor to be a sort of shepherd and leader of a more domesticated flock;

### Section 21

[¶16] for the human mind is apt to be blind towards the perception of what is really expedient and beneficial for it, being influenced rather by conjecture and notions of probability than by real knowledge.

### Section 22

[¶18] At all events it was not long before Caius-who was So Virgil says— Fama malum quo non aliucl velocius ullum— Æn. iv. 174. now looked upon as a saviour and benefactor, and who was expected to shower down some fresh and everlasting springs of benefits upon all Asia and Europe, so as to endow the inhabitants with inalienable happiness and prosperity, both separately to each individual and generally to the whole state-began, as the proverb has it, at home, and changed into a ferocity of disposition, or, I should rather say, displayed the savageness which he had previously overshadowed by pretence and hypocrisy;

### Section 23

[¶20] for he put to death his cousin who had been left as the partner of his kingdom, and who was in fact a more natural successor to it than he himself; for he himself was only Tiberius’s grandson by adoption, but the other was so by blood; arguing as a pretext that he had detected him in plotting against him, though his very age was a sufficient refutation of any such accusation; for the unhappy victim was only just emerging from boyhood, and beginning to rank among the youths.

### Section 24

[¶22] And, as s say, if Tiberius had lived a short time longer, Caius would have been made away with, as he began to be looked upon by him with unalterable suspicion, and the genuine grandson of Tiberius would have been named the future emperor, and the inheritor of his paternal kingdom.

### Section 25

[¶24] But Tiberius was carried off by fate, before he could bring his designs to their completion; and Caius thought that he should be able to escape all evil report which might arise from his transgressing the principles of justice with respect to his partner by outwitting him.