---
title: "On Exile · De exilio"
author: "Plutarch"
translator: "John Patrick, rev. William W. Goodwin"
languages: [grc, en]
shelf: "Philosophy"
url: https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-on-exile/
cite: "Plutarch, tr. John Patrick, rev. William W. Goodwin, On Exile · De exilio. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-on-exile/"
---

# On Exile · De exilio

*Plutarch, tr. John Patrick, rev. William W. Goodwin*

A consolation for a friend driven from his city: the whole world is our country.

> Greek: ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-greekLit, tlg0007.tlg110, CC BY-SA 4.0).

> English: John Patrick, rev. William W. Goodwin, from the Perseus Digital Library (tlg0007.tlg110.perseus-eng2). Notes are not included.

> Rows follow the references the two texts share (chapters and sections), cut where both reach the end of a sentence.

## Contents

1. [Sections 1–10](https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-on-exile/1.md)
2. [Sections 11–17](https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-on-exile/2.md)

## 1. Sections 1–10

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-on-exile/1/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-on-exile/1/#p-N

[¶0] 1. ONE may say of discourses what they use to say of friends, that they are the best and firmest that afford their useful presence and help in calamities. Many indeed present themselves and discourse with those that are fallen into misfortunes, who yet do them more harm than good. Like men that attempt to succor drowning persons and have themselves no skill in diving under water, they entangle one another, and sink together to the bottom. The discourses of friends, such as would help an afflicted person, ought to be directed to the consolation, and not to the patronage of his sorrows. For we have no need in our distresses of such as may bear us company in weeping and howling, like a chorus in a tragedy, but of such as will deal freely with us, and will convince us that,—as it is in all cases vain and foolish and to no purpose to grieve and cast down one’s self,—so, when the things themselves that afflict us, after a rational examination and discovery of what they are, give a man leave to say to himself thus,
Thou feel’st but little pain and smart,
Unless thou’lt feign and act a part,
it would be extremely ridiculous for him not to put the question to his body, and ask it what it has suffered, nor to his soul, and ask how much worse it is become by this accident, but only to make use of those teachers of grief from abroad, who come to bear a part with him in his sorrow, or to express indignation at what has happened.

> Greek: 1. τῶν λόγων ἀρίστους καὶ βεβαιοτάτους ὥσπερ τῶν φίλων φασὶν εἶναι τοὺς ἐν ταῖς συμφοραῖς παρόντας ὠφελίμως καὶ βοηθοῦντας· ἐπεὶ πάρεισί γε πολλοὶ καὶ προσδιαλέγονται τοῖς ἐπταικόσιν, ἀλλʼ ἀχρήστως μᾶλλον δὲ βλαβερῶς, καθάπερ ἀκόλυμβοι πνιγομένοις ἐπιχειροῦντες βοηθεῖν περιπλεκόμενοι καὶ συγκαταδύνοντες· δεῖ δὲ τὸν παρὰ τῶν φίλων καὶ τῶν βοηθούντων λόγον παρηγορίαν εἶναι μὴ συνηγορίαν τοῦ λυποῦντος. οὐ γὰρ συνδακρυόντων καὶ συνεπιθρηνούντων ὥσπερ χορῶν τραγικῶν ἐν τοῖς ἀβουλήτοις χρείαν ἔχομεν, ἀλλὰ παρρησιαζομένων καὶ διδασκόντων ὅτι τὸ λυπεῖσθαι καὶ τὸ ταπεινοῦν ἑαυτὸν ἐπὶ παντὶ μὲν ἄχρηστόν ἐστι καὶ γιγνόμενον κενῶς καὶ ἀνοήτως· ὅπου δʼ αὐτὰ τὰ πράγματα δίδωσιν ὑπὸ τοῦ λόγου ψηλαφηθέντα καὶ ἀνακαλυφθέντα πρὸς ἑαυτὸν εἰπεῖν οὐδὲν πέπονθας δεινόν, ἂν μὴ προσποιῇ· κομιδῇ γελοῖόν ἐστι, μὴ τῆς σαρκὸς πυνθάνεσθαι τί πέπονθε, μηδὲ τῆς ψυχῆς εἰ διὰ τὸ σύμπτωμα τοῦτο χείρων γέγονεν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἔξωθεν συναχθομένοις καὶ συναγανακτοῦσι διδασκάλοις χρῆσθαι τῆς λύπης.

[¶1] 2. Let us therefore, when we are alone, question with ourselves concerning the things that have befallen us, considering them as heavy loads. The body, we know, is under pressure by a burden lying upon it; but the soul oft-times adds a further weight of her own to things. A stone is hard and ice is cold by nature, not by any thing from without happening to make such qualities and impressions upon them. But as for banishment and disgraces and loss of honors (and so for their contraries, crowns, chief rule, and precedency of place), our opinion prescribing the measure of our joys or sorrows and not the nature of the things themselves, every man makes them to himself light or heavy, easy to be borne or grievous. You may hear Polynices’s answer to this question,
JOCAST. But say, is’t so deplorable a case
To live in exile from one’s native place?
POLYN. It’s sad indeed; and whatsoe’er you guess,’Tis worse to endure than any can express.
But you may hear Alcman in quite another strain, as the epigrammatist has brought him in saying:
Sardis, my ancient fatherland,
Hadst thou, by Fate’s supreme command,
My helpless childhood nourished,
I must have begg’d my daily bread,
Or else, a beardless priest become,
Have toss’d Cybele frantic down.
Now Alcman I am call’d—a name
Inscribed in Sparta’s lists of fame,
Whose many tripods record bear
Of solemn wreaths and tripods rare,
Achieved in worship at the shrine
Of Heliconian maids divine,
By whose great aid I’m mounted higher
Than Gyges or his wealthy sire.
Thus one man’s opinion makes the same thing commodious, like current money, and another man’s unserviceable and hurtful.

> Greek: 2. ὅθεν αὐτοὶ καθʼ αὑτοὺς γιγνόμενοι τῶν συμπτωμάτων ὥσπερ φορτίων ἑκάστου τὸν σταθμὸν ἐξετάζωμεν, τὸ μὲν γὰρ· σῶμα πιέζεται τῷ τοῦ βαρύνοντος ἄχθει, δὲ ψυχὴ τοῖς πράγμασι πολλάκις τὸ βάρος ἐξ αὑτῆς προστίθησιν. ὁ λίθος φύσει σκληρός, ὁ κρύσταλλος φύσει ψυχρός ἐστιν, οὐκ ἔξωθεν εἰκῆ ταύτας τὰς ἀντιτυπίας ἐπιφέροντες καὶ τὰς πήξεις· φυγὰς δὲ καὶ ἀδοξίας καὶ τιμῶν ἀποβολάς, ὥσπερ αὖ τἀναντία, στεφάνους καὶ ἀρχὰς καὶ προεδρίας, οὐ τὴν αὑτῶν φύσιν ἀλλὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν κρίσιν μέτρον ἔχοντα τοῦ λυπεῖν καὶ εὐφραίνειν, ἕκαστος· ἑαυτῷ κοῦφα καὶ βαρέα καὶ ῥᾴδια φέρειν ποιεῖ, καὶ τοὐναντίον. ἔξεστι δʼ ἀκούειν τοῦ μὲν Πολυνείκους ἀποκρινομένου πρὸς τὸ ἐρώτημα τοῦτο
τοῦ δʼ Ἀλκμᾶνος, ὡς ὁ γράψας τοὐπιγραμμάτιον πεποίηκε,
Σάρδιες, ἀρχαῖος πατέρων νομός, εἰ μὲν ἐν ὑμῖν
ἐτρεφόμην, κερνᾶς· ἦν τις ἂν ἢ βακέλας
χρυσοφόρος, ῥήσσων καλὰ τύμπανα· νῦν δέ μοι Ἀλκμὰν
οὔνομα, καὶ Σπάρτας εἰμὶ πολυτρίποδος,
καὶ Μούσας ἐδάην Ἑλικωνίδας, αἵ με τυράννων
θῆκαν Δασκύλεω κρείσσονα καὶ Γύγεω.
τὸ γὰρ αὐτὸ πρᾶγμα τῷ μὲν εὔχρηστον ἡ δόξα καθάπερ νόμισμα δόκιμον, τῷ δὲ δύσχρηστον καὶ βλαβερὸν ἐποίησεν.

[¶2] 3. But let us grant (as many say and sing) that it is a grievous thing to be banished. So there are also many things that we eat, of a bitter, sharp, and biting taste, which yet by a mixture of other things more mild and sweet have all their unpleasantness taken off. There are also some colors troublesome to look upon, which bear so hard and strike so piercingly upon the sight, that they confound and dazzle it; if now by mixing shadows with them, or by turning our eyes upon some green and pleasant color, we remedy this inconvenience, thou mayst also do the same to the afflictions that befall thee, considering them with a mixture of those advantages and benefits thou still enjoyest, as wealth, friends, vacancy from business, and a supply of all things necessary to human life. For I think there are few Sardians but would desire to be in your condition, though banished, and would choose to live as you may do, though in a strange country, rather than—like snails that grow to their shells—enjoy no other good, saving only what they have at home without trouble.

> Greek: 3. ἔστω δὲ δεινόν, ὥσπερ οἱ πολλοὶ λέγουσι καὶ ᾄδουσιν, ἡ φυγή. καὶ γὰρ τῶν βρωμάτων πικρὰ πολλὰ καὶ δριμέα καὶ δάκνοντα τὴν αἴσθησίν ἐστιν· ἀλλὰ μιγνύντες αὐτοῖς ἔνια τῶν γλυκέων καὶ προσηνῶν τὴν ἀηδίαν ἀφαιροῦμεν. ἔστι δὲ καὶ χρώματα λυπηρὰ τῇ ὄψει, πρὸς ἃ γίγνεται τὸ συγχεῖσθαι καὶ μαραυγεῖν διὰ σκληρότητα καὶ βίαν ἀνίατον. εἰ τοίνυν ἴαμα τῆς δυσχρηστίας ἐκείνης ἐμίξαμεν τὴν σκιὰν αὐτοῖς, ἢ τὴν ὄψιν ἀπεστρέψαμεν ἐπί τι τῶν χλοερῶν καὶ προσηνῶν, τοῦτʼ ἔξεστι ποιεῖν καὶ πρὸς τὰ συμπτώματα, κεραννύντας αὐτοῖς τὰ χρήσιμα καὶ φιλάνθρωπα τῶν νυνί σοι παρόντων, εὐπορίαν φίλους ἀπραγμοσύνην τὸ μηδὲν ἐνδεῖν τῶν ἀναγκαίων πρὸς τὸν βίον. οὐ γὰρ οἶμαι πολλοὺς εἶναι Σαρδιανῶν, οἳ μὴ τὰ σὰ πράγματα καὶ μετὰ φυγῆς μᾶλλον ἐθελήσουσιν αὑτοῖς ὑπάρχειν καὶ ἀγαπήσουσιν ἐπὶ ξένης οὕτω διάγοντες, ἤ, καθάπερ οἱ κοχλίαι τοῖς ὀστράκοις συμφυεῖς ὄντες ἄλλο δὲ μηδὲν ἀγαθὸν ἔχοντες, τῶν, οἴκοι μετέχειν ἀλύπως.

[¶3] 4. As he therefore in the comedy that advised his unfortunate friend to take heart and to revenge himself of Fortune, being asked which way, answered, By the help of philosophy; so we also may be revenged of her, by acting worthily like philosophers. For what course do we take when it is rainy weather, or a cold north wind blows? We creep to the fireside, or go into a bath, put on more clothes, or go into a dry house; and do not sit still in a shower and cry. It is in thy power above most men’s to revive and cherish that part of thy life which seems to be chill and benumbed, not needing any other helps, but only according to thy best judgment and prudence making use of the things that thou possessest. The cupping-glasses physicians use, by drawing the worst humors out of the body, alleviate and preserve the rest; but they that are prone to grieve and make sad complaints, by mustering together alway the worst of their afflictive circumstances, by debating these things over and over, being fastened (as it were) to their troubles, make the most advantageous things to be wholly useless to themselves, and especially when their case requires most help and assistance. As for those two hogsheads, my friend, which Homer says lie in heaven, full, the one of the good, the other of the ill fates of men,— it is not Jupiter that sits to draw out and transmit to some a moderate share of evils mixed with good, but to others only unqualified streams of evil; but it is we ourselves who do it. Those of us that are wise, drawing out of the good to temper with our evils, make our lives pleasant and potable; but the greater part (which are fools) are like sieves, which let the best pass through, but the worst and the very dregs of misfortune stick to them and remain behind.

> Greek: 4. ὥσπερ οὖν ἐν κωμῳδίᾳ τις ἠτυχηκότα φίλον θαρρεῖν καὶ τὴν τύχην ἀμύνεσθαι παρακαλῶν, ἐρομένου τίνα τρόπον, ἀποκρίνεται φιλοσόφως· οὕτω καὶ ἡμεῖς αὐτὴν ἀμυνώμεθα φιλοσοφοῦντες ἀξίως· τὸν Δία δὲ πῶς ὕοντα; τὸν βορέαν δὲ πῶς;ʼ πῦρ ζητοῦμεν βαλανεῖον ἱμάτιον στέγην· καὶ γὰρ οὐχ ὑόμενοι καθήμεθʼ οὐδὲ κλαίομεν καὶ σοὶ τοίνυν παρʼ ὁντιναοῦν ἔστι τὸ κατεψυγμένον τοῦτο τοῦ βίου μέρος ἀναζωπυρεῖν καὶ ἀναθάλπειν, ἑτέρων βοηθημάτων μὴ δεόμενον ἀλλὰ χρώμενον εὐλογίστως τοῖς παροῦσιν. αἱ μὲν γὰρ ἰατρικαὶ σικύαι τὸ φαυλότατον ἐκ τοῦ σώματος ἀναλαμβάνουσαι κουφίζουσι καὶ σῴζουσι τὸ λοιπόν, οἱ δὲ φιλόλυποι καὶ φιλαίτιοι τῷ τὰ χείριστα τῶν ἰδίων συνάγειν ἀεὶ καὶ διαλογίζεσθαι καὶ προστετηκέναι τοῖς ἀνιαροῖς ἄχρηστα καὶ τὰ χρήσιμα ποιοῦσιν ἑαυτοῖς, ἐν ᾧ μάλιστα καιρῷ βοηθεῖν πέφυκε. τοὺς γὰρ δοιοὺς πίθους, ὦ φίλε, οὓς Ὅμηρος ἔφη κηρῶν ἐμπλείους ἐν οὐρανῷ κεῖσθαι, τὸν μὲν ἀγαθῶν τὸν δὲ φαύλων, οὐχ ὁ Ζεὺς ταμιεύων κάθηται, καὶ μεθιεὶς τοῖς μὲν ἤπια καὶ μεμιγμένα τοῖς δʼ ἄκρατα ῥεύματα τῶν κακῶν· ἀλλʼ ἡμῶν αὐτῶν οἱ μὲν νοῦν ἔχοντες ἐκ τῶν ἀγαθῶν τοῖς κακοῖς ἐπαρυτόμενοι τὸν βίον ποιοῦσιν ἡδίω καὶ ποτιμώτερον, τοῖς δὲ πολλοῖς ὥσπερ ἠθμοῖς ἐμμένει καὶ προσίσχεται τὰ φαυλότατα, τῶν βελτιόνων ὑπεκρεόντων.

[¶4] 5. Wherefore, if we fall into any real evil or calamity, we must bring in what is pleasant and delightful of the remaining good things in our possession, and thus, by what we enjoy at home, mitigate the sense of those evils that befall us from abroad. But where there is no evil in the nature of the things, but the whole of that which afflicts us is framed by imagination and false opinion, in this case we must do just as we deal with children that are apt to be frighted with false faces and vizards; by bringing them nearer, and making them handle and turn then on every side, they are brought at last to despise them; so we, by a nearer touching and fixing our consideration upon our feigned evils, may be able to detect and discover the weakness and vanity of what we fear and so tragically deplore. Such is your present condition of being banished out of that which you account your country; for nature has given us no country, as it has given us no house or field, no smith’s or apothecary’s shop, as Ariston said; but every one of them is always made or rather called such a man’s by his dwelling in it or making use of it. For man (as Plato says) is not an earthly and unmovable, but a heavenly plant, the head raising the body erect as from a root, and directed upwards toward heaven. Hence is that saying of Hercules:
Am I of Thebes or Argos? Whether
You please, for I’m content with either;
But to determine one,’tis pity,
In Greece my country’s every city.
But Socrates expressed it better, when he said, he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world (just as a man calls himself a citizen of Rhodes or Corinth), because he did not enclose himself within the limits of Sunium, Taenarum, or the Ceraunian mountains.
Behold how yonder azure sky,
Extending vastly wide and high
To infinitely distant spaces,
In her soft arms our earth embraces.
These are the boundaries of our country, and no man is an exile or a stranger or foreigner in these, where there is the same fire, water, air, the same rulers, administrators, and presidents, the same sun, moon, and daystar; where there are the same laws to all, and where, under one orderly disposition and government, are the summer and winter solstices, the equinoxes, Pleiades, Arcturus, times of sowing and planting; where there is one king and supreme ruler, which is God, who comprehends the beginning, the middle, and end of the universe; who passes through all things in a straight course, compassing all things according to nature: justice follows him to take vengeance on those that transgress the divine law, which justice we naturally all make use of towards all men, as being citizens of the same community.

> Greek: 5. διὸ κἂν ἀληθῶς κακῷ τινι καὶ λυπηρῷ περιπέσωμεν, ἐπάγεσθαι δεῖ τὸ ἱλαρὸν καὶ τὸ εὔθυμον ἐκ τῶν ὑπαρχόντων καὶ ὑπολειπομένων ἀγαθῶν, τῷ οἰκείῳ τἀλλότριον ἐκλεαίνοντας· ὧν δʼ ἡ φύσις οὐδὲν ἔχει κακὸν ἀλλʼ ὅλον καὶ πᾶν τὸ λυποῦν ἐκ κενῆς δόξης ἀναπέπλασται, ταῦτα δεῖ, καθάπερ τοῖς δεδοικόσι τὰ προσωπεῖα παιδίοις ἐγγὺς καὶ ὑπὸ χεῖρα ποιοῦντες καὶ ἀναστρέφοντες ἐθίζομεν καταφρονεῖν, οὕτως ἐγγὺς ἁπτομένους καὶ συνερείδοντας τὸν λογισμὸν τὸ σαθρὸν καὶ τὸ κενὸν καὶ τετραγῳδημένον ἀποκαλύπτειν. οἷόν ἐστιν ἡ νῦν σοι παροῦσα μετάστασις ἐκ τῆς νομιζομένης; πατρίδος. φύσει γὰρ οὐκ ἔστι πατρίς, ὥσπερ οὐδʼ οἶκος οὐδʼ ἀγρὸς οὐδὲ χαλκεῖον, ὡς Ἀρίστων ἔλεγεν, οὐδʼ ἰατρεῖον· ἀλλὰ γίγνεται μᾶλλον δʼ ὀνομάζεται καὶ καλεῖται τούτων ἕκαστον ἀεὶ πρὸς τὸν οἰκοῦντα καὶ χρώμενον. ὁ γὰρ ἄνθρωπος, ᾗ φησιν ὁ Πλάτων, φυτὸν οὐκ ἔγγειον οὐδʼ ἀκίνητον ἀλλʼ οὐράνιόν ἐστιν, ὥσπερ ῥίζης τὸ σῶμα τῆς κεφαλῆς ὀρθὸν ἱστάσης, πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀνεστραμμένον. ὅθεν εὖ μὲν ὁ Ἡρακλῆς εἶπεν
Ἀργεῖος ἢ Θηβαῖος· οὐ γὰρ εὔχομαι
μιᾶς· ἅπας μοι πύργος Ἑλλήνων πατρίς.
ὁ δὲ Σωκράτης βέλτιον, οὐκ Ἀθηναῖος οὐδʼ Ἕλλην ἀλλὰ κόσμιος εἶναι φήσας, ὡς ἄν τις Ῥόδιος εἶπεν ἢ Κορίνθιος· ὅτι μηδὲ Σουνίῳ, μηδὲ Ταινάρῳ μηδὲ τοῖς Κεραυνίοις ἐνέκλεισεν ἑαυτόν.
ὁρᾷς τὸν ὑψοῦ τόνδʼ ἄπειρον αἰθέρα,
καὶ γῆν πέριξ ἔχονθʼ ὑγραῖς ἐν ἀγκάλαις;
οὗτοι τῆς πατρίδος ἡμῶν ὅροι εἰσί, καὶ οὐδεὶς οὔτε φυγὰς ἐν τούτοις οὔτε ξένος οὔτʼ ἀλλοδαπός, ὅπου ταὐτὸ πῦρ ὕδωρ ἀήρ, ἄρχοντες οἱ αὐτοὶ καὶ διοικηταὶ καὶ πρυτάνεις, ἥλιος σελήνη φωσφόρος· οἱ αὐτοὶ νόμοι πᾶσι, ὑφʼ ἑνὸς προστάγματος καὶ μιᾶς ἡγεμονίας τροπαὶ βόρειοι τροπαὶ νότιοι ἰσημερίαι Πλειὰς Ἀρκτοῦρος, ὧραι σπόρων ὧραι φυτειῶν· εἷς δὲ βασιλεὺς; καὶ ἄρχων θεὸς ἀρχήν τε καὶ μέσα καὶ τελευτὴν ἔχων τοῦ παντός, εὐθείᾳ περαίνει κατὰ φύσιν περιπορευόμενος· τῷ δʼ ἕπεται Δίκη τῶν ἀπολειπομένων τοῦ θείου νόμου τιμωρός, χρώμεθα πάντες ἄνθρωποι φύσει πρὸς πάντας ἀνθρώπους ὥσπερ πολίτας.

[¶5] 6. But for thee to complain that thou dost not dwell at Sardis is no objection; for all the Athenians do not inhabit Collytus, nor do all the men of Corinth live in the Cranium, nor all of Lacedaemon in Pitane. Do you look upon those Athenians as strangers and banished persons who removed from Melite to Diomea,—whence they called the month Metageitnion, and the sacrifices they offered in memory of their removal Metageitnia, being pleased with and cheerfully accepting this new neighborhood to another people? Surely you will not say so. What parts of the inhabited earth or of the whole earth can be said to be far distant one from another, when mathematicians demonstrate that the whole earth is to be accounted as an indivisible point, compared with the heavens? But we, like pismires or bees, when we are cast out of one ant-hill or hive, are in great anxiety, and take on as if we were strangers and undone, not knowing how to make and account all things our own, as indeed they are. We shall certainly laugh at his folly who shall affirm there was a better moon at Athens than at Corinth; and yet we in a sort commit the same error, when being in a strange country we look upon the earth, the sea, the air, the heavens doubtfully, as if they were not the same, but quite different from those we have been accustomed to. Nature in our first production sent us out free and loose; we bind and straiten and pin up ourselves in houses, and reduce ourselves into a scant and little room. Moreover, we laugh at the kings of Persia, who (if the story be true) will drink only the water of the River Choaspes, by this means making the rest of the habitable world to be without water, as to themselves; but we, when we remove to other countries, and retain our longings after Cephissus and Eurotas, and are pleased with nothing so much as the hills Taygetus and Parnassus, we make the whole earth unhabitable to ourselves, and are without a house or city where we can dwell.

> Greek: 6. τὸ δέ σε μὴ κατοικεῖν Σάρδεις οὐδέν ἐστιν· οὐδὲ γὰρ Ἀθηναῖοι πάντες κατοικοῦσι Κολλυτὸν οὐδὲ Κορίνθιοι Κράνειον οὐδὲ Πιτάνην Λάκωνες. ἆρʼ οὖν ξένοι καὶ ἀπόλιδὲς εἰσιν Ἀθηναίων οἱ μεταστάντες ἐκ Μελίτης εἰς Διωμίδα, ὅπου καὶ μῆνα Μεταγειτνιῶνα καὶ θυσίαν ἐπώνυμον ἄγουσι τοῦ μετοικισμοῦ τὰ Μεταγείτνια, τὴν πρὸς ἑτέρους γειτνίασιν εὐκόλως καὶ ἱλαρῶς ἐκδεχόμενοι καὶ στέργοντες·; οὐκ ἂν εἴποις. τί οὖν τῆς οἰκουμένης μέρος ἢ τῆς γῆς ἁπάσης ἕτερον ἑτέρου μακράν ἐστιν, ἣν ἀποδεικνύουσιν οἱ μαθηματικοὶ σημείου λόγον ἔχουσαν ἀδιαστάτου πρὸς τὸν οὐρανόν; ἀλλʼ ἡμεῖς ὥσπερ μύρμηκες ἢ μέλιτται μυρμηκιᾶς μιᾶς ἢ κυψέλης ἐκπεσόντες ἀδημονοῦμεν καὶ ξενοπαθοῦμεν, οὐκ εἰδότες οὐδὲ μεμαθηκότες οἰκεῖα τὰ πάντα ποιεῖσθαι καὶ νομίζειν ὥσπερ ἐστί. καίτοι γελῶμεν τὴν ἀβελτερίαν τοῦ φάσκοντος ἐν Ἀθήναις βελτίονα σελήνην εἶναι τῆς ἐν Κορίνθῳ· τρόπον τινὰ ταὐτὸ πάσχοντες, ὅταν ἀμφιγνοῶμεν ἐπὶ ξένης γενόμενοι τὴν γῆν τὴν θάλατταν τὸν ἀέρα τὸν οὐρανὸν, ὡς ἕτερα καὶ διαφέροντα τῶν συνήθων. ἡ μὲν γὰρ φύσις ἐλευθέρους ἡμᾶς καὶ λελυμένους ἀφίησιν, ἡμεῖς δʼ αὐτοὶ συνδέομεν ἑαυτοὺς συστενοχωροῦμεν ἐγκατοικοδομοῦμεν, εἰς μικρὰ καὶ γλίσχρα συνελαύνομεν. εἶτα τῶν μὲν Περσῶν βασιλέων καταγελῶμεν, εἴ γε δὴ ἀληθὲς ὅτι τὸ τοῦ Χοάσπου μόνον ὕδωρ πίνοντες ἄνυδρον αὑτοῖς τὴν ἄλλην ποιοῦσιν οἰκουμένην· ὅταν δὲ μεταστῶμεν εἰς ἕτερα χωρία, τοῦ Κηφισοῦ γλιχόμενοι καὶ τὸν Εὐρώταν ἢ τὸν Ταΰγετον ἢ τὸν Παρνασὸν ἐπιποθοῦντες, ἄπολιν καὶ ἀοίκητον αὑτοῖς τὴν οἰκουμένην ποιοῦμεν.

[¶6] 7. When certain Egyptians, not enduring the anger and hard usage of their king, went to dwell in Ethiopia, and some earnestly entreated them to return to their wives and children they had left behind them, they very impudently showed them their privy parts, saying they should never want wives or children whilst they carried those about them. But it is more grave and becoming to say that whosoever happens to be provided with a competency of the necessaries to life, wheresoever he is, is not without a city or a dwelling, nor need reckon himself a stranger there; only he ought to have besides these prudence and consideration, like a governing anchor, that he may be able to make advantage of any port at which he arrives. It is not easy indeed for him that has lost his wealth quickly to gather it up again; but every city becomes presently that man’s country who has the skill to use it, and who has those roots which can live and thrive, cling and grow to every place. Such had Themistocles, and such had Demetrius Phalareus; for this last named, after his banishment, being the prime friend of King Ptolemy in Alexandria, not only was abundantly provided for himself, but also sent presents to the Athenians. As for Themistocles, he was maintained by an allowance suitable to his quality at the King’s charge, and is reported to have said to his wife and children, We had been undone, if we had not been undone. Diogenes the Cynic also, when one told him, The Sinopians have condemned thee to fly from Pontus, replied, And I have condemned them to stay in Pontus,
Close prisoners there to be,
At th’ utmost shore of the fierce Euxine Sea.
Stratonicus enquiring of his host in the isle of Seriphus what crime among them was punished with banishment, and being told forgery was so punished, he asked him why he did not commit that crime that he might be removed out of that strait place; and yet there, as the comedian expresses it, they reap down their figs with slings, and that island is provided with all things that it wants.

> Greek: 7. Αἰγυπτίων μὲν οὖν οἱ διʼ ὀργήν τινα καὶ χαλεπότητα τοῦ βασιλέως εἰς Αἰθιοπίαν μετοικιζόμενοι, πρὸς τοὺς δεομένους ἐπανελθεῖν ἐπὶ τέκνα καὶ, γυναῖκας ἐπιδεικνύντες τὰ αἰδοῖα κυνικώτερον οὔτε γάμων ἔφασαν οὔτε παίδων ἀπορήσειν, ἄχρι οὗ ταῦτα μεθʼ ἑαυτῶν ἔχωσιν εὐπρεπέστερον δʼ ἐστὶ καὶ σεμνότερον εἰπεῖν ὡς, ὅπου καὶ ὅτῳ μετρίων πρὸς τὸν βίον εὐπορεῖν συμβέβηκεν, ἐνταῦθʼ οὗτος οὔτʼ ἄπολις οὔτʼ ἀνέστιος οὔτε ξένος ἐστί· μόνον ἔχειν δεῖ πρὸς τούτοις νοῦν καὶ λογισμὸν ὥσπερ ἄγκυραν κυβερνήτην, ἵνα παντὶ χρῆσθαι λιμένι προσορμισθεὶς δύνηται. πλοῦτον μὲν γὰρ ἀποβαλόντα ῥᾳδίως οὐκ ἔστι καὶ ταχέως· ἄλλον συναγαγεῖν· πατρὶς δὲ γίγνεται πᾶσα πόλις εὐθὺς ἀνθρώπῳ χρῆσθαι μεμαθηκότι καὶ ῥίζας ἔχοντι πανταχοῦ ζῆν τε καὶ τρέφεσθαι καὶ παντὶ τόπῳ προσφύεσθαι δυναμένας· οἵας εἶχε Θεμιστοκλῆς οἵας Δημήτριος ὁ Φαληρεύς. οὗτος μὲν γὰρ ἐν Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ μετὰ τὴν φυγὴν πρῶτος ὢν τῶν Πτολεμαίου φίλων, οὐ μόνον αὐτὸς ἐν ἀφθόνοις διῆγεν ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις δωρεὰς ἔπεμπε. Θεμιστοκλῆς δὲ χορηγίᾳ βασιλικῇ πρυτανευόμενος εἰπεῖν λέγεται πρὸς τὴν γυναῖκα καὶ τοὺς παῖδας ἀπωλόμεθʼ ἄν, εἰ μὴ ἀπωλόμεθα διὸ καὶ Διογένης ὁ κύων πρὸς τὸν εἰπόντα, Σινωπεῖς σου φυγὴν ἐκ Πόντου κατέγνωσαν· ἐγὼ δʼ εἶπεν ἐκείνων ἐν Πόντῳ μονήν, ἄκραις ἐπὶ ῥηγμῖσιν ἀξένου πόρου. Στρατόνικος δὲ τὸν ἐν Σερίφῳ ξένον ἠρώτησεν, ἐφʼ ὅτῳ τῶν ἀδικημάτων φυγὴ τέτακται παρʼ αὐτοῖς ἐπιτίμιον· ἀκούσας δʼ ὅτι τοὺς ῥᾳδιουργοὺς φυγαδεύουσι, τί οὖν εἶπεν οὐκ ἐρρᾳδιούργησας, ὅπως ἐκ τῆς στενοχωρίας ταύτης μεταστῇς; ὅπου φησὶν ὁ κωμικὸς τὰ σῦκα ταῖς σφενδόναις τρυγᾶσθαι, καὶ πάντʼ ἔχειν ὅσων δεῖ τὴν νῆσον.

[¶7] 8. For if you consider the truth of things, setting aside vain fancy and opinion, he that has got an agreeable city to dwell in is a stranger and foreigner to all the rest, for it seems not reasonable and just, that leaving his own he should go to dwell in another city. As the proverb is, “Sparta is the province fallen to your lot, adorn it,” though it should be in no credit or prove unhealthful, though disturbed with seditions, and its affairs in distemper and out of order. But as for him whom Fortune has deprived of his own habitation, it gives him leave to go and dwell where he pleases. That goad precept of the Pythagoreans, “Make choice of the best life you can, and custom will make it pleasant,” is here also wise and useful. Choose the best and pleasantest place to live in, and time will make it thy country, and such a country as will not encumber and distract thee, not laying on thee such commands as these,—Bring in so much money; Go on such an embassy to Rome; Entertain such a governor; Bear such a public office. If a prudent person and no way conceited, calls these things to mind, he will choose to live in exile in such a sorry island as Gyarus, or in Cynarus that is “so hard and barren and unfit for plantation,” and do this without reluctancy, not making such sorrowful complaints as the women do in the poet Simonides:
The troubled sea’s dark waves surround me,
And with their horrid noise confound me;
but will rather remind himself of that saying of King Philip, who receiving a fall in a place of wrestling, when he turned himself in rising and saw the print of his body in the dust, exclaimed, Good God! what a small portion of earth has Nature assigned us, and yet we covet the whole world.

> Greek: 8. ἂν γὰρ σκοπῇς ἄνευ κενῆς δόξης τὴν ἀλήθειαν, ὁ μίαν πόλιν ἔχων ξένος ἐστὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἁπασῶν καὶ ἀλλότριος. οὐ γὰρ δοκεῖ καλὸν οὐδὲ δίκαιον εἶναι καταλιπόντα τὴν ἑαυτοῦ νέμειν ἑτέραν. Σπάρταν ἔλαχες, ταύταν κόσμει, κἂν ἄδοξος ᾖ κἂν νοσώδης κἂν ταράττηται στάσεσιν ὑφʼ ἑαυτῆς καὶ πράγμασι μὴ ὑγιαίνουσιν. οὗ δʼ ἡ τύχη τὴν ἰδίαν ἀφῄρηται, τούτῳ δίδωσιν ἔχειν τὴν ἀρέσασαν. τὸ γὰρ καλὸν ἐκεῖνο παράγγελμα τῶν Πυθαγορείων ἑλοῦ βίον ἄριστον, ἡδὺν δʼ αὐτὸν ἡ συνήθεια ποιήσει, κἀνταῦθα σοφόν ἐστι καὶ χρήσιμον· ἑλοῦ πόλιν τὴν ἀρίστην καὶ ἡδίστην, πατρίδα δʼ αὐτὴν ὁ χρόνος ποιήσει, καὶ πατρίδα μὴ περισπῶσαν μὴ ἐνοχλοῦσαν μὴ προστάττουσαν· εἰσένεγκε, πρέσβευσον εἰς Ῥώμην, ὑπόδεξαι τὸν ἡγεμόνα, λειτούργησον ἂν γὰρ τούτων τις μνημονεύῃ φρένας ἔχων καὶ μὴ παντάπασι τετυφωμένος, αἱρήσεται καὶ νῆσον οἰκεῖν φυγὰς γενόμενος, Γύαρον ἢ Κίναρον σκληρὰν ἄκαρπον καὶ φυτεύεσθαι κακήν, οὐκ ἀθυμῶν οὐδʼ ὀδυρόμενος οὐδὲ λέγων ἐκεῖνα τὰ τῶν παρὰ Σιμωνίδῃ γυναικῶν, ἴσχει δέ με πορφυρέας ἁλὸς, ἀμφιταρασσομένας ὀρυμαγδός· ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον τὸ τοῦ Φιλίππου λογιζόμενος· πεσὼν γὰρ ἐν παλαίστρᾳ καὶ μεταστραφείς, ὡς εἶδε τοῦ σώματος τὸν τύπον, ὧ Ἡράκλεις εἶπεν ὡς μικροῦ μέρους τῆς γῆς φύσει μετέχοντες, ὅλης ἐφιέμεθα τῆς οἰκουμένης.

[¶8] 9. I presume you have seen the island of Naxos, or at least the town of Hyria here hard by; in the former of which Ephialtes and Otus made their abode, and in the latter Orion dwelt. Alcmaeon’s seat was on the newly hardened mud which the river Achelous had cast up,—when he fled from the Furies, as the poets tell us,—but I guess it was when he fled from the rulers of the state and from seditions, and to avoid those furies, the sycophants and informers, that he chose that little spot of ground to dwell on, where he was free from business and lived in ease and quiet. Tiberius Caesar passed the last seven years of his life in the island of Capreae; and that sacred governing spirit that swayed the whole world, and was enclosed as it were in his breast, yet for so long time never removed nor changed place. And yet the thoughts and cares of the empire, that were poured in upon him and invaded him on every side, made that island’s repose and retirement to be less pure and undisturbed to him. But he that by retreating to a small island can free himself from great evils is a miserable man, if he does not often say and sing those verses of Pindar to himself,—
Where slender cypress grows I’d have a seat,
But care not for the shady woods of Crete!
I’ve little land and so not many trees,
But free from sorrow I enjoy much ease,—
not being disquieted with seditions or the edicts of princes, nor with administering affairs when the public is in straits, nor undergoing officers that are hard to be put by and denied.

> Greek: 9. οἶμαί σε τῆς Νάξου· γεγονέναι θεατήν· εἰ δὲ μὴ, τῆς γʼ Ὑρίας ἐνταῦθα πλησίον οὔσης· ἀλλʼ ἐκείνη μὲν ἐχώρει τὸν Ἐφιάλτην καὶ τὸν Ὦτον, αὕτη δὲ τοῦ Ὠρίωνος, ἦν οἰκητήριον ὁ δʼ Ἀλκμέων ἰλὺν νεοπαγῆ τοῦ Ἀχελῴου προσχωννύντος ἐπῴκησεν ὑποφεύγων τὰς Εὐμενίδας, ὡς οἱ ποιηταὶ λέγουσι· ἐγὼ δὲ κἀκεῖνον εἰκάζω φεύγοντα πολιτικὰς· ταραχὰς καὶ στάσεις καὶ συκοφαντίας ἐρινυώδεις ἑλέσθαι βραχὺ χωρίον ἀπραγμόνως ἐν ἡσυχίᾳ κατοικεῖν. Τιβέριος δὲ Καῖσαρ, ἐν Καπρέαις ἑπτὰ ἔτη διῃτήθη μέχρι τῆς τελευτῆς· καὶ τὸ τῆς οἰκουμένης ἡγεμονικὸν ἱερὸν ὥσπερ εἰς καρδίαν συνηγμένον οὐδαμοῦ μετέστη τοσοῦτον χρόνον. ἀλλʼ ἐκείνῳ μὲν αἱ τῆς ἡγεμονίας φροντίδες ἐπιχεόμεναι καὶ προσφερόμεναι πανταχόθεν, οὐ καθαρὰν παρεῖχον οὐδʼ ἀκύμονα τὴν νησιῶτιν ἡσυχίαν ᾧ δʼ ἔξεστιν εἰς μικρὰν ἀποβάντι νῆσον οὐ μικρῶν ἀπηλλάχθαι κακῶν, οὗτος ἄθλιός ἐστι μὴ προσλαλῶν ἑαυτῷ τὰ Πινδαρικὰ μηδʼ ἐπᾴδων πολλάκις
ἐλαφρὰν κυπάρισσον φιλέειν,
ἐᾶν δὲ νομὸν Κρήτας περιδαῖον·
ἐμοὶ δʼ ὀλίγον μὲν γᾶς δέδοται, ὅθεν ἄδρυς,
πενθέων δʼ οὐκ ἔλαχον οὐδὲ στασίων
οὐδὲ προσταγμάτων ἡγεμονικῶν οὐδʼ ὑπουργιῶν ἐν πολιτικαῖς χρείαις καὶ λειτουργιῶν δυσπαραιτήτων.

[¶9] 10. For if that be a good saying of Callimachus, that we ought not to measure wisdom by a Persian cord, much less should we measure happiness by cords of furlongs, or, if we chance to inhabit an island of two hundred furlongs and not (like Sicily) of four days’ sail in compass, think that we ought to disquiet ourselves and lament as if we were very miserable and unfortunate. For what does a place of large extent contribute to the tranquillity of one’s life? Do you not hear Tantalus saying in the tragedy:
I sow the Berecyntian ground,
A field of twelve days’ journey round?
But he says a little after:
My mind, that used to mount the skies,
Fallen to the earth dejected lies,
And now this friendly counsel brings,—
Less to admire all earthly things.
Nausithous, forsaking the spacious country of Hyperia because the Cyclops bordered upon it, and removing to an island far distant from all other people, chose there,
Remote from all commerce t’ abide,
By sea’s surrounding waves denied;
and yet he procured a very pleasant way of living to his own citizens. The Cyclades islands were formerly inhabited by the children of Minos, and afterwards by the children of Codrus and Neleus; in which now fools that are banished thither think they are punished. And indeed, what island is there to which men are wont to be banished that is not larger than the land that lies about Scillus, in which Xenophon after his military expedition passed delicately his old age? The Academy near Athens, that was purchased for three thousand drachmas, was the place where Plato, Xenocrates, and Polemo dwelt; there they held their schools, and there they lived all their lifetime, except one day every year, when Xenocrates came into the city at the time of the Bacchanals and the new tragedies, to grace the feast, as they say. Theocritus of Chios reproached Aristotle, who affected a court-life with Philip and Alexander, that he chose instead of the Academy rather to dwell at the mouth of Borborus. For there is a river by Pella, which the Macedonians call by that name. But as for islands, Homer sets himself as it were studiously to commend them in these verses:
He comes to the isle of Lemnos, and the town
Where divine Thoas dwelt, of great renown;
and
As much as fruitful Lesbos does contain,
A seat which Gods above do not disdain;
and
When he to th’ lofty hills of Scyros came,
And took the town that boasts Enyeus’s name;
and
These from Dulichium and th’ Echinades,
Blest isles, that lie ’gainst Elis, o’er the seas.
And among the famous men that dwelt in islands they reckon Aeolus, a great favorite of the Gods, the most prudent Ulysses, the most valiant Ajax, and Alcinous, the most courteous entertainer of strangers.

> Greek: 10. ὅπου γὰρ οὐ φαύλως δοκεῖ λέγειν ὁ Καλλίμαχος τό μὴ μετρεῖν σχοίνῳ Περσίδι τὴν σοφίην; ἦπου τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν σχοίνοις καὶ παρασάγγαις μετροῦντες, ἐὰν νῆσον οἰκῶμεν διακοσίων σταδίων, ἀλλὰ μὴ τεσσάρων ἡμερῶν ὥσπερ ἡ Σικελία περίπλουν ἔχουσαν, ὀδυνᾶν ἑαυτοὺς καὶ θρηνεῖν ὀφείλομεν ὡς κακοδαιμονοῦντες; τί γὰρ ἡ πλατεῖα χώρα πρὸς τὸν ἄλυπον βίον; οὐκ ἀκούεις τοῦ Ταντάλου λέγοντος ἐν τῇ τραγῳδίᾳ
σπείρω δʼ ἄρουραν δώδεχʼ ἡμερῶν ὁδόν,
Βερέκυντα χῶρον
εἶτα μετʼ ὀλίγον λέγοντος
οὑμὸς δὲ πότμος οὐρανῷ κυρῶν ἄνω,
ἔραζε πίπτει, καί με προσφωνεῖ τάδε·
γίγνωσκε τἀνθρώπεια μὴ σέβειν ἄγαν;
ὁ δὲ Ναυσίθοος τὴν εὐρύχωρον Ὑπέρειαν καταλιπὼν διὰ τὸ γειτνιᾶν τοὺς Κύκλωπας αὐτῇ, καὶ μεταστὰς εἰς νῆσον ἑκὰς ἀνδρῶν ἀλφηστάων καὶ κατοικῶν ἀνεπίμικτος ἀνθρώπων ἀπάνευθε, πολυκλύστῳ ἐνὶ πόντῳ, τὸν ἥδιστον παρεσκεύασε βίον τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ πολίταις. τὰς δὲ Κυκλάδας πρότερον μὲν οἱ Μίνω παῖδες, ὕστερον δʼ οἱ Κόδρου καὶ Νείλεω κατῴκησαν, ἐν αἷς τὰ νῦν οἱ ἀνόητοι φυγάδες οἴονται κολάζεσθαι. καίτοι ποία φυγαδικὴ νῆσος οὐκ ἔστι πλατυτέρα τῆς Σκιλλουντίας χώρας, ἐν ᾗ Ξενοφῶν μετὰ τὴν στρατείαν τὸ λιπαρὸν εἶδε γῆρας; ἡ δʼ Ἀκαδήμεια, τρισχιλίων χωρίδιον ἐωνημένον, οἰκητήριον ἦν Πλάτωνος καὶ Ξενοκράτους καὶ Πολέμωνος αὐτόθι σχολαζόντων καὶ καταβιούντων τὸν ἅπαντα χρόνον, πλὴν μίαν ἡμέραν, ἐν Ξενοκράτης καθʼ ἕκαστον ἔτος εἰς ἄστυ κατῄει Διονυσίων καινοῖς τραγῳδοῖς, ὡς ἔφασαν, τὴν ἑορτήν. Ἀριστοτέλην δὲ καὶ λελοιδόρηκε Θεόκριτος ὁ Χῖος, ὅτι τὴν παρὰ Φιλίππῳ καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρῳ δίαιταν ἀγαπήσας
εἵλετο ναίειν
ἀντʼ Ἀκαδημείας Βορβόρου ἐν προχοαῖς.
ἔστι γὰρ ποταμὸς περὶ Πέλλην, ὃν Μακεδόνες Βόρβορον καλοῦσι. τὰς δὲ νήσους ὥσπερ ἐπίτηδες ὑμνῶν καὶ συνιστὰς ἡμῖν ὁ ποιητής, Λῆμνον δʼ εἰσαφίκανε, πόλιν θείοιο Θόαντος· καὶ ὅσσον Λέσβος ἄνω, μακάρων ἕδος, ἐντὸς ἐέργει· καί Σκῦρον ἑλὼν αἰπεῖαν, Ἐνυῆος πτολίεθρον· καὶ
οἳ δʼ ἐκ Δουλιχίοιο Ἐχινάων θʼ ἱεράων
νήσων, αἳ ναίουσι πέρην ἁλὸς, Ἤλιδος ἄντα.
καὶ τῶν ἐπιφανῶν ἀνδρῶν νῆσον οἰκεῖν φησι τὸν θεοφιλέστατον Αἴολον, τὸν σοφώτατον Ὀδυσσέα, τὸν ἀνδρειότατον Αἴαντα, τὸν φιλοξενώτατον Ἀλκίνουν.

## 2. Sections 11–17

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-on-exile/2/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-on-exile/2/#p-N

[¶0] 11. When Zeno was told that the only ship he had remaining was cast away at sea with all her lading, he replied: Well done Fortune, that hast reduced me to the habit and life of a philosopher. And, indeed, a man that is not puffed up with conceit nor madly in love with a crowd will not, I suppose, have any reason to accuse Fortune for constraining him to live in an island, but will rather commend her for removing so much anxiety and agitation of his mind, for putting a stop to his rambles in foreign countries, to his dangers at sea, and the noise and tumult of the exchange, and for giving him a fixed, vacant, undisturbed life, such a life as he may truly call his own, describing as it were a circle about him, in which is contained the use of all things necessary. For what island is there that has not a horse, a walk, and a bath in it; that has not fishes and hares for such as delight in hunting and angling and such like sports? But the chiefest of all is, that the quiet which others thirst so much after thou commonly mayst have here without seeking. For those that are gamesters at dice, shutting up themselves at home, there are sycophants and busy spies that hunt them out, and prosecute them from their houses of pleasure and gardens in the suburbs, and hale them by violence before the judges or the court. But none sails to an island to give a man any disturbance, no petitioner, no borrower, no urger to suretyship, no one that comes to beg his voice when he stands candidate for an office; only the best friends and familiars, out of good-will and desire to see him, may come over thither; and the rest of his life is safe and inviolable to him, if he has the will and the skill to live at case. But he that cries up the happiness of those that run about in other countries, or spend the most of their life in inns and passage-boats, is no wiser than he is that thinks the planets in a better estate than the fixed stars. And yet every planet rolling about in its proper sphere, as in an island, keeps its order. For the sun never transgresses its limited measures, as Heraclitus says; if it did do so, the Furies, which are the attendants of Justice, would find it out and punish it.

> Greek: 11. ὁ μὲν οὖν Ζήνων, πυθόμενος ἣν ἔτι λοιπὴν εἶχε ναῦν μετὰ τῶν φορτίων καταπεπομένην ὑπὸ τῆς θαλάσσης, εὖγʼ εἶπεν ὦ τύχη, ποιεῖς, εἰς τρίβωνα καὶ βίον φιλόσοφον συνελαύνουσʼ ἡμᾶς. ἀνὴρ δὲ μὴ τετυφωμένος παντάπασι μηδʼ ὀχλομανῶν οὐκ ἂν οἶμαι τὴν τύχην μέμψαιτο συνελαυνόμενος εἰς νῆσον, ἀλλʼ ἐπαινέσειεν ὅτι τὸν πολὺν ἄλυν καὶ ῥέμβον ἑαυτοῦ καὶ πλάνας ἐν ἀποδημίαις καὶ κινδύνους ἐν θαλάσσῃ καὶ θορύβους ἐν ἀγορᾷ περιελοῦσα, μόνιμον καὶ σχολαῖον καὶ ἀπερίσπαστον καὶ ἴδιον βίον ὡς ἀληθῶς δίδωσι, κέντρῳ καὶ διαστήματι περιγράψασα τὴν τῶν ἀναγκαίων χρείαν. ποία γὰρ νῆσος οἰκίαν οὐκ ἔχει περίπατον λουτρὸν ἰχθῦς λαγωοὺς ἄγρᾳ καὶ παιδιᾷ χρῆσθαι βουλομένοις; τὸ μέγιστον, ἡσυχίας, ἧς διψῶσιν ἕτεροι, σοὶ πολλάκις τυχεῖν ἔνεστιν ἀλλὰ πεττεύοντας καὶ ἀποκρυπτομένους οἴκοι συκοφάνται καὶ πολυπράγμονες ἐξιχνεύοντες καὶ διώκοντες ἐκ τῶν προαστείων καὶ τῶν κήπων εἰς ἀγορὰν καὶ εἰς αὐλὴν βίᾳ κατάγουσιν· εἰς δὲ νῆσον οὐκ ἐνοχλῶν τις οὐκ αἰτῶν οὐ δανειζόμενος οὐκ ἐγγυήσασθαι παρακαλῶν οὐ συναρχαιρεσιάσαι, διʼ εὔνοιαν δὲ καὶ πόθον οἱ βέλτιστοι τῶν ἀναγκαίων καὶ οἰκείων πλέουσιν· ὁ δʼ ἄλλος βίος ἄσυλος καὶ ἱερὸς ἀνεῖται τῷ βουλομένῳ καὶ μεμαθηκότι σχολάζειν. ὁ δὲ τοὺς περιτρέχοντας ἔξω καὶ τοῦ βίου τὸ πλεῖστον ἐν πανδοκείοις καὶ πορθμείοις ἀναλίσκοντας εὐδαιμονίζων, ὅμοιός ἐστι τῷ τοὺς πλάνητας οἰομένῳ τῶν ἀπλανῶν ἀστέρων πράττειν ἄμεινον· καίτοι τῶν πλανήτων ἕκαστος ἐν μιᾷ σφαίρᾳ καθάπερ ἐν νήσῳ περιπολῶν διαφυλάττει τὴν τάξιν ἥλιος γὰρ οὐχ ὑπερβήσεται τὰ μέτρα φησὶν ὁ Ἡράκλειτος· εἰ δὲ μή, Ἐρινύες μιν Δίκης ἐπίκουροι ἐξευρήσουσιν.

[¶1] 12. These things, my friend, and such like we say and sing to those who, by being banished into an island, have no correspondence or commerce with other people,
Hindered by waves of the surrounding deep,
Which many ’gainst their mind close prisoners keep.
But as for thee, who art not assigned to one place only, but forbidden only to live in one, the prohibiting thee one is the giving thee leave to dwell anywhere else besides. If on one hand it is urged thus against you: You are in no office, you are not of the senate, nor preside as moderator at the public games, you may oppose on the other hand thus: We head no factions, we make no expensive treats, nor give long attendance at the governor’s gates; we care not at all who is chosen into our province, though he be choleric or unsufferably vexatious. But just as Archilochus disparaged the island of Thasos because of its asperity and inequality in some places, overlooking its fruitful fields and vineyards, saying thus of it,
Like ridge of ass’s back it stood,
Full of wild plants, for nothing good;
so we, whilst we pore upon one part of banishment which is ignominious, overlook its vacancy from business, and that leisure and freedom it affords us. Men admired the happiness of the Persian kings, that passed their winter in Babylon, their summer in Media, and the pleasant spring-time at Susa. And he that is an exile may, if he pleases, when the mysteries of Ceres are celebrated, go and live at Eleusis; and he may keep the feasts of Bacchus at Argos; at the time of the Pythian games, he may pass over to Delphi, and of the Isthmian, to Corinth, if public spectacles and shows are the things he admires; if not, then he may be idle, or walk, or read, or sleep quietly; and you may add that privilege Diogenes bragged of when he said, “Aristotle dines when it seems good to King Philip, but Diogenes when he himself pleases,” having no business, no magistrate, no prefect to interrupt and disturb his customary way of living.

> Greek: 12. ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μέν, ὦ φίλε, καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα πρὸς ἐκείνους λέγωμεν κἀκείνοις ἐπᾴδωμεν, οἷς εἰς νῆσον ἀπῳκισμένοις ἀνεπίμικτα ποιεῖ τἄλλα; πόντος ἁλὸς, ὃ πολεῖς ἀέκοντας ἐρύκει· σοὶ δʼ οὐχ ἑνὸς δεδομένου μόνον, ἀλλʼ ἀπειρημένου τόπου, πασῶν ἐστιν ἐξουσία πόλεων ἡ μιᾶς κώλυσις. ἀλλὰ μὴν τῷ οὐκ ἄρχομεν οὐδὲ βουλεύομεν οὐδʼ ἀγωνοθετοῦμεν ἀντίθες τὸ οὐ στασιάζομεν οὐδʼ ἀναλίσκομεν οὐδὲ προσηρτήμεθα θύραις ἡγεμόνος· οὐδὲν οὖν μέλει ἡμῖν, ὅστις ὁ κεκληρωμένος τὴν ἐπαρχίαν ἐστίν, εἰ ἀκράχολος εἰ ἐπαχθής. ἀλλʼ ἡμεῖς, καθάπερ Ἀρχίλοχος τῆς Θάσου τὰ καρποφόρα καὶ οἰνόπεδα παρορῶν, διὰ τὸ τραχὺ καὶ ἀνώμαλον διέβαλε τὴν νῆσον εἰπών
ἣδε δʼ ὥστʼ ὄνου ῥάχις
ἕστηκεν ὕλης; ἀγρίας ἐπιστεφής,
οὕτω τῆς φυγῆς πρὸς ἓν μέρος τὸ ἄδοξον ἐντεινόμενοι παρορῶμεν τὴν ἀπραγμοσύνην καὶ τὴν σχολὴν καὶ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν. καίτοι τούς γε Περσῶν βασιλέας ἐμακάριζον ἐν Βαβυλῶνι τὸν χειμῶνα διάγοντας, ἐν δὲ Μηδίᾳ τὸ θέρος, ἐν δὲ Σούσοις τὸ ἥδιστον τοῦ ἔαρος. ἔξεστι δήπου καὶ τῷ, μεθεστῶτι μυστηρίοις ἐν Ἐλευσῖνι διατρίβειν Διονυσίοις ἐν Ἀθήναις, Ὀλύμπιʼ ἐν Πίσῃ Νέμεʼ ἐν Ἄργει πανηγυρίζειν, Πυθίων ἀγομένων εἰς Δελφοὺς παρελθεῖν, Ἰσθμίων εἰς Κόρινθον, ἄνπερ ᾖ φιλοθέωρος· εἰ δὲ μή, σχολὴ περίπατος ἀνάγνωσις ὕπνος ἀθορύβητος· τὸ τοῦ Διογένους Ἀριστοτέλης ἀριστᾷ, ὅταν δοκῇ Φιλίππῳ, Διογένης, ὅταν Διογένει μήτε πραγματείας μήτʼ ἄρχοντος μήθʼ ἡγεμόνος τὴν συνήθη δίαιταν περισπῶντος.

[¶2] 13. For this reason, you will find that very few of the most prudent and wise men were buried in their own country, but the most of them, when none forced them to it, weighed anchor and steered their course to live in another port, removing some to Athens, and others from it. Who ever gave a greater encomium of his own country than Euripides in the following verses?
We are all of this country’s native race,
Not brought-in strangers from another place,
As some, like dice hither and thither thrown,
Remove in haste from this to t’other town.
And, if a woman may have leave to boast,
A temperate air breathes here in every coast;
We neither curse summer’s immoderate heat,
Nor yet complain the winter’s cold’s too great.
If aught there be that noble Greece doth yield,
Or Asia rich, by river or by field,
We seek it out and bring it to our doors.
And yet he that wrote all this went himself into Macedonia, and passed the rest of his days in the court of Archelaus. I suppose you have also heard of this short epigram:
Here lieth buried Aeschylus, the son
Of the Athenian Euphorion;
In Sicily his latest breath did yield,
And buried lies by Gela’s fruitful field.
For both he and Simonides before him went into Sicily. And whereas we meet with this title, “This publication of the History of Herodotus of Halicarnassus,” many have changed it into Herodotus of Thurii, for he dwelt at Thurii, and was a member of that colony. And that sacred and divine poet Homer, that adorned the Trojan war,—why was he a controversy to so many cities (every one pleading he was theirs) but because he did not cry up any one of them to the disparagement of the rest? Many also and great are the honors that are paid to Jupiter Hospitalis.

> Greek: 13. διὰ τοῦτο τῶν φρονιμωτάτων καὶ σοφωτάτων ὀλίγους ἂν εὕροις ἐν ταῖς ἑαυτῶν πατρίσι κεκηδευμένους, οἱ δὲ πλεῖστοι μηδενὸς ἀναγκάζοντος αὐτοὶ τὸ ἀγκύριον ἀράμενοι μεθωρμίσαντο τοὺς βίους καὶ μετέστησαν οἱ μὲν εἰς Ἀθήνας οἱ δʼ ἐξ Ἀθηνῶν. τίς γὰρ εἴρηκε τῆς ἑαυτοῦ πατρίδος ἐγκώμιον τοιοῦτον, οἷον Εὐριπίδης;
ᾗ πρῶτα μὲν λεὼς οὐκ ἐπακτὸς ἄλλοθεν,
αὐτόχθονες δʼ ἔφυμεν· αἱ δʼ ἄλλαι πόλεις
πεσσῶν ὁμοίως διαφορηθεῖσαι βολαῖς,
ἄλλαι παρʼ ἄλλων εἰσὶν εἰσαγώγιμοι.
εἰ δὲ πάρεργον χρή τι κομπάσαι, γύναι,
οὐρανὸν ὑπὲρ γῆς ἔχομεν εὖ κεκραμένον
ἵνʼ οὔτʼ ἄγαν πῦρ οὔτε χεῖμα συμπίτνει.
ἃ δʼ Ἑλλὰς Ἀσία τʼ ἐκτρέφει κάλλιστα γῆς,
δέλεαρ ἔχοντες τήνδε συνθηρεύομεν
ἀλλʼ ὁ ταῦτα γράψας εἰς Μακεδονίαν ᾤχετο καὶ παρʼ Ἀρχελάῳ κατεβίωσεν. ἀκήκοας δὲ δήπου καὶ τουτὶ τοὐπιγραμμάτιον
Αἰσχύλον Εὐφορίωνος Ἀθηναῖον τόδε κεύθει
μνῆμα καταφθίμενον πυροφόροιο Γέλας
καὶ γὰρ καὶ οὗτος εἰς Σικελίαν ἀπῆρε καὶ Σιμωνίδης πρότερον. τὸ δʼ Ἡροδότου Ἁλικαρνησέος ἱστορίης ἀπόδεξις ἥδε πολλοὶ μεταγράφουσιν ʽ Ἡροδότου Θουρίοὐ· μετῴκησε γὰρ εἰς Θουρίους καὶ τῆς ἀποικίας ἐκείνης μετέσχε. τὸ δʼ ἱερὸν καὶ δαιμόνιον ἐν μούσαις πνεῦμα, Φρυγίας κοσμήτορα μάχας Ὅμηρον, οὐ τοῦτο πεποίηκε πολλαῖς ἀμφισβητήσιμον πόλεσιν, ὅτι μὴ μιᾶς ἐστιν ἐγκωμιαστής; καὶ ξενίου Διὸς πολλαὶ τιμαὶ καὶ μεγάλαι.

[¶3] 14. If any one object, that these men hunted ambitiously after glory and honor, let him go to the philosophers and the schools and nurseries of wisdom at Athens, those in the Lyceum, the Academy, the Stoa, the Palladium, the Odeum. If he admires and prefers the Peripatetic philosophy before the rest, Aristotle was a native of Stagira, Theophrastus of Ephesus, Straton of Lampsacus, Glycon of Troas, Ariston of Ceus, Critolaus of Phaselis. If thou art for the Stoic philosophy, Zeno was of Citium, Cleanthes of Assus, Chrysippus of Soli, Diogenes of Babylon, Antipater of Tarsus, and Archedemus who was of Athens went over to the Parthians, and left a succession of Stoic philosophers in Babylon. And who, I pray, persecuted and chased these men out of their country? Nobody at all; but they pursued their own quiet, which men cannot easily enjoy at home that are in any reputation or have any power; other things they taught us by what they said, but this by what they (lid. For even now the most approved and excellent persons live abroad out of their own country, not being transported, but departing voluntarily, not being driven thence, but flying from business and from the disquiets and molestations which they are sure to meet with at home. It seems to me that the Muses helped the ancient writers to finish their choicest and most approved compositions, by calling in, as it were, banishment to their assistance. Thucydides the Athenian wrote the Peloponnesian and Athenian War in Thrace, hard by the forest of Scapte; Xenophon wrote his history in Scillus belonging to Elis; Philistus in Epirus, Timaeus of Tauromenum at Athens, Androtion the Athenian in Megara, Bacchylides the poet in Peloponnesus. These and many more, after they had lost their country, did not lose all hope nor were dejected in their minds, but took occasion thereupon to express the vivacity of their spirit and the dexterity of their wit, receiving their banishment at the hands of Fortune as a viaticum that she had sent them; whereby they became renowned everywhere after death, whereas there is no remaining mention of those factious persons that expelled them.

> Greek: 14. εἰ δὲ φήσει τις ὅτι δόξαν οὗτοι καὶ τιμὰς ἐθήρευον, ἐπὶ τοὺς σοφοὺς ἐλθὲ καὶ τὰς· σοφὰς Ἀθήνησι σχολὰς καὶ διατριβάς· ἀναπέμπασαι τὰς ἐν Λυκείῳ τὰς ἐν Ἀκαδημείᾳ, τὴν Στοὰν τὸ Παλλάδιον τὸ Ὠδεῖον. εἰ τὴν Περιπατητικὴν ἀσπάζῃ μάλιστα καὶ τεθαύμακας, Ἀριστοτέλης ἦν ἐκ Σταγείρων, Θεόφραστος ἐξ Ἐρέσου, Στράτων ἐκ Λαμψάκου, Γλύκων ἐκ Τρωάδος, Ἀρίστων ἐκ Κέω, Κριτόλαος Φασηλίτης· εἰ τὴν Στωικήν, Ζήνων Κιτιεύς, Κλεάνθης Ἄσσιος, Χρύσιππος Σολεύς, Διογένης Βαβυλώνιος, Ἀντίπατρος Ταρσεύς· ὁ δʼ Ἀθηναῖος Ἀρχέδημος εἰς τὴν Πάρθων μεταστὰς ἐν Βαβυλῶνι Στωικὴν διαδοχὴν ἀπέλιπε. τίς οὖν τούτους ἐδίωξεν; οὐδείς· ἀλλʼ αὐτοὶ διώκοντες ἡσυχίαν, ἧς οὐ πάνυ μέτεστιν οἴκοι τοῖς ἡντιναοῦν δόξαν ἢ δύναμιν ἔχουσι, τὰ μὲν ἄλλα λόγοις τοῦτο δʼ ἔργοις ἡμᾶς διδάσκουσι. καὶ γὰρ νῦν οἱ δοκιμώτατοι καὶ κράτιστοι ζῶσιν ἐπὶ ξένης, οὐ μετασταθέντες ἀλλὰ μεταστάντες, οὐδὲ φυγαδευθέντες ἀλλὰ φυγόντες αὐτοὶ πράγματα καὶ περισπασμοὺς καὶ ἀσχολίας, ἃς αἱ πατρίδες φέρουσι. καὶ γὰρ τοῖς παλαιοῖς; ὡς ἔοικεν αἱ Μοῦσαι τὰ κάλλιστα τῶν συνταγμάτων καὶ δοκιμώτατα φυγὴν λαβοῦσαι συνεργὸν ἐπετέλεσαν. Θουκυδίδης Ἀθηναῖος συνέγραψε τὸν πόλεμον τῶν Πελοποννησίων καὶ Ἀθηναίων ἐν Θρᾴκῃ περὶ τὴν Σκαπτὴν ὕλην· Ξενοφῶν ἐν Σκιλλοῦντι τῆς Ἠλείας, Φίλιστος ἐν Ἠπείρῳ, Τίμαιος ὁ Ταυρομενίτης ἐν Ἀθήναις, Ἀνδροτίων Ἀθηναῖος ἐν Μεγάροις, Βακχυλίδης ὁ ποιητὴς ἐν Πελοποννήσῳ, πάντες οὗτοι καὶ πλείονες ἄλλοι τῶν πατρίδων ἐκπεσόντες οὐκ ἀπέγνωσαν οὐδʼ ἔρριψαν ἑαυτούς, ἀλλʼ ἐχρήσαντο ταῖς εὐφυΐαις ἐφόδιον παρὰ τῆς τύχης τὴν φυγὴν λαβόντες, διʼ ἣν πανταχοῦ καὶ τεθνηκότες μνημονεύονται· τῶν δʼ ἐκβαλόντων καὶ καταστασιασάντων οὐδὲ εἷς λόγος οὐδενὸς ἀπολέλειπται.

[¶4] 15. He therefore is ridiculous that looks upon it as an ignominious thing to be banished. For what is it that thou sayest? Was Diogenes ignominious, when Alexander, who saw him sitting and sunning himself, came and asked him whether he wanted any thing, and he answered him, that he lacked nothing but that he would go a little aside and not stand in his light? The king, admiring the presence of his mind, turned to his followers and said: If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes. Was Camillus inglorious because he was expelled Rome, considering he has got the reputation of being its second founder? Neither did Themistocles by his banishment lose any of the renown he had gained in Greece, but added to it that which he had acquired among the barbarians; neither is there any so without all sense of honor, or of such an abject mind, that had not rather be Themistocles the banished, than Leobates that indicted him; or be Cicero that had the same fate, than Clodius that expelled him Rome; or be Timotheus that abandoned his country, than Aristophon that was his accuser.

> Greek: 15. διὸ καὶ γελοῖός ἐστιν ὁ νομίζων ἀδοξίαν τῇ φυγῇ προσεῖναι. τί λέγεις; ἄδοξός; ἐστι Διογένης ὃν ἰδὼν Ἀλέξανδρος ἐν ἡλίῳ καθήμενον ἐπιστὰς ἠρώτησεν, εἴ τινος δεῖται· τοῦ δὲ μηδὲν ἀλλʼ ἢ σμικρὸν ἀποσκοτίσαι κελεύσαντος, ἐκπλαγεὶς τὸ φρόνημα πρὸς τοὺς φίλους εἶπεν εἰ μὴ Ἀλέξανδρος ἤμην, Διογένης; ἂν ἤμην; ἠδόξει δὲ Κάμιλλος ἐκ τῆς Ῥώμης ἐλαυνόμενος, ἧς δεύτερος κτίστης νῦν ἀναγορεύεται; καὶ μὴν Θεμιστοκλῆς οὐ τὴν ἐν τοῖς Ἕλλησι δόξαν φυγὼν ἀπέβαλεν ἀλλὰ τὴν ἐν τοῖς βαρβάροις προσέλαβε· καὶ οὐδείς ἐστιν οὕτως ἀφιλότιμος οὐδʼ ἀγεννής, ὃς μᾶλλον ἂν ἐβούλετο Λεωβάτης ὁ γραψάμενος ἢ Θεμιστοκλῆς ὁ φυγαδευθεὶς εἶναι, καὶ Κλώδιος ὁ ἐκβαλὼν ἢ Κικέρων ὁ ἐκβληθείς, καὶ Ἀριστοφῶν ὁ κατηγορήσας ἢ Τιμόθεος ὁ μεταστὰς ἐκ τῆς πατρίδος.

[¶5] 16. But because the words of Euripides move many, who seems to frame a heavy charge against banishment and to urge it home, let us see what he says more particularly in his questions and answers about it.
JOCASTA. But is’t so sad one’s country to forego,
And live in exile? Pray, son, let me know.
POL. Some ills when told are great, when tried are less;
But this is saddest felt, though sad t’ express.
JOC. What is’t, I pray, afflicts the banished most?
POL. That liberty to speak one’s mind is lost.
JOC. He is indeed a slave that dares not utter
His thoughts, nor ’gainst his cruel masters mutter.
POL. But all their insolencies must o’erpass,
And bear their follies tamely like an ass.
These assertions of his are neither good nor true. For first, not to speak what one thinks is not a piece of slavery; but it is the part of a prudent man to hold one’s peace and be silent when time and the circumstances of affairs require it; as he himself says better elsewhere, that a wise man knows
Both when it’s best no tongue to find,
And when it’s safe to speak his mind.
Again, as for the rudeness and insolency of such as have power in their hands, they that stay in their country are no less forced to bear and endure it than those that are driven out of it; nay, commonly the former stand more in fear of false informations and the violence of unjust rulers in cities than the latter. But his greatest mistake and absurdity is his taking away all freedom of speech from exiles. It is wonderful indeed if Theodorus had no freedom of this kind, who,—when King Lysimachus said to him: Thou being such a criminal, the country cast thee forth, did it not?—replied: Yes, not being able to bear me; just as Semele cast out Bacchus, when she could bear him no longer. And when the king showed him Telesphorus in an iron cage, with his eyes digged out of their holes, his nose and ears and tongue cut off, and said: So I deal with those that injure me, he was not abashed. What! did not Diogenes retain his wonted freedom of speaking, who coming into King Philip’s camp, when he was going to give the Grecians battle, was brought before him for a spy; and confessed that he was so, but that he came to take a view of his unsatiable greediness of empire and of his madness and folly who was going in the short time of a fight to throw a die for his crown and life? And what say you to Hannibal the Carthaginian? Did not he use a convenient freedom towards Antiochus (he at that time an exile, and the other a king), when upon an advantageous occasion he advised him to give his enemies battle? He, when he had sacrificed, told him the entrails forbade it. Hannibal sharply rebuked him thus: You are for doing what the flesh of a beast, not what the reason of a wise man, adviseth. Neither does banishment deprive geometricians or mathematicians of the liberty of discoursing freely concerning matters they know and have skill in; and why should any worthy or good man be denied it? But meanness of thought obstructs and hinders the voice, strangles the power of speech, and makes a man a mute. But let us see what follows from Euripides:
JOC. Upon good hopes exiles can thrive, they say.
POL. Hopes have fine looks, but kill one with delay.
This is also an accusation of men’s folly rather than of banishment; for it is not the well instructed and those that know how to use what they have aright, but such as depend upon what is to come and desire what they have not, that are carried and tossed up and down by hopes, as in a floating vessel, though they have scarce ever stirred beyond the gates of their own city. But to go on:
JOC. Did not your father’s friends aid your distress?
POL. Take care to thrive; for if you once are poor,
Those you call friends will know you then no more.
JOC. Did not your high birth stand you in some stead?
POL. It’s sad to want, for honor buys no bread.
These also are ungrateful speeches of Polynices, who accuses banishment as casting disparagement upon noble birth and leaving a man without friends, who yet because of his high birth was thought worthy, though an exile, to have a king’s daughter given him in marriage, and also by the powerful assistance of his friends gathered such an army as to make war against his own country, as he confesses himself a little after:
Many a famous Grecian peer
And captain from Mycenae here
’In readiness t’ assist me tarry;
Sad service ’tis, but necessary.
Neither are the words of his lamenting mother any wiser:
No nuptial torch at all I lighted have
To thee, as doth a wedding-feast beseem;
No marriage-song was sung; nor thee to lave
Was water brought from fair Ismenus’ stream.
She ought to have been well pleased and rejoiced when she heard that her son dwelt in such kingly palaces; but, whilst she laments that the nuptial torch was not lighted, and the want of waters from Ismenus’s river for him to have bathed in (as if people at Argos were destitute both of fire and water at their weddings), she makes those evils, which her own conceit and folly produced, to be the effects of banishment.

> Greek: 16. ἀλλʼ ἐπεὶ πολλοὺς τὰ τοῦ Εὐριπίδου κινεῖ δυνατῶς τῆς φυγῆς κατηγορεῖν δοκοῦντος, ἴδωμεν ἃ λέγει καθʼ ἕκαστον ἐρωτῶν καὶ ἀποκρινόμενος·
ταῦτα πρώτως οὐκ ὀρθῶς οὐδʼ ἀληθῶς ἀξιοῦται. πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ οὐ δούλου τὸ μὴ λέγειν ἅ τις φρονεῖ, ἀλλὰ νοῦν ἔχοντος ἀνδρὸς ἐν καιροῖς καὶ πράγμασιν ἐχεμυθίας; καὶ σιωπῆς δεομένοις, ὥσπερ αὐτὸς ἀλλαχόθι βέλτιον εἴρηκε σιγᾶν θʼ ὅπου δεῖ καὶ λέγειν ἵνʼ ἀσφαλές. ἔπειτα τὴν τῶν κρατούντων ἀμαθίαν οὐχ ἧττον οἴκοι μένοντας ἢ φεύγοντας ἀνάγκη φέρειν· ἀλλὰ καὶ μᾶλλον πολλάκις οἱ μένοντες τῶν ἀπαλλαγέντων τοὺς ἰσχύοντας ἐν πόλεσιν ἀδίκως τῷ συκοφαντεῖν ἢ βιάζεσθαι δεδίασι, τὸ δὲ μέγιστον καὶ ἀτοπώτατον, εἰ παρρησίαν τῶν φυγάδων ἀφαιρεῖται· θαυμαστὸν γάρ, εἰ Θεόδωρος ἀπαρρησίαστος ἦν, ὅς, Λυσιμάχου τοῦ βασιλέως εἰπόντος πρὸς αὐτὸν ἡ πατρίς σε τοιοῦτον ὄντʼ ἐξέβαλε, ναί εἶπε μὴ δυναμένη φέρειν ὥσπερ ἡ Σεμέλη τὸν Διόνυσον. ἐπιδείξαντος δʼ αὐτῷ Τελεσφόρον ἐν γαλεάγρᾳ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐξορωρυγμένον καὶ περικεκομμένον τὴν ῥῖνα καὶ τὰ ὦτα καὶ τὴν γλῶτταν ἐκτετμημένον, καὶ εἰπόντος οὕτως ἐγὼ διατίθημι τοὺς κακῶς με ποιοῦντας· τί δὲ Θεοδώρῳ μέλει, ἔφη, πότερον ὑπὲρ γῆς ἢ ὑπὸ γῆς σήπεται; τί δέ; Διογένης οὐκ εἶχε παρρησίαν, ὃς εἰς τὸ τοῦ Φιλίππου στρατόπεδον παρελθών, ὁπηνίκα μαχούμενος ἐχώρει τοῖς Ἕλλησι, καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀναχθεὶς ὡς; κατάσκοπος, ναί, κατάσκοπος ἔφη τῆς ἀπληστίας ἀφῖχθαι αὐτοῦ καὶ τῆς ἀφροσύνης, ἥκοντος ἐν βραχεῖ καιρῷ διακυβεῦσαι περὶ τῆς ἡγεμονίας ἅμα καὶ τοῦ σώματος; τί δέ; Ἀννίβας ὁ Καρχηδόνιος οὐκ ἐχρῆτο παρρησίᾳ πρὸς Ἀντίοχον βασιλέα ὄντα φυγὰς ὤν, ὁπηνίκα καιροῦ διδόντος ἐκέλευεν αὐτὸν ἐπιχειρεῖν τοῖς πολεμίοις τοῦ δὲ θυσαμένου καὶ τὰ σπλάγχνα κωλύειν φάσκοντος, ἐπετίμησεν εἰπών σὺ τί κρέας λέγει σκοπεῖς, οὐ τί νοῦν ἔχων ἄνθρωπος; ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ γεωμετρῶν φυγὴ παρρησίαν οὐδὲ γραμμικῶν ἀφαιρεῖται, περὶ ὧν ἴσασι καὶ μεμαθήκασι διαλεγομένων πόθεν γε δὴ καλῶν κἀγαθῶν ἀνθρώπων; ἀλλὰ τὸ ἀγεννὲς πανταχοῦ τὴν φωνὴν ἐμφράττει, τὴν γλῶσσαν ἀποστρέφει, ἄγχει, σιωπᾶν ποιεῖ. τὰ δʼ ἑξῆς τοῦ Εὐριπίδου ποῖὰ τινʼ ἐστίν;
καὶ τοῦτο τῆς ἀβελτερίας ἔγκλημα μᾶλλον ἢ τῆς φυγῆς ἐστιν. οὐ γὰρ οἱ μαθόντες οὐδʼ ἐπιστάμενοι χρῆσθαι τοῖς παροῦσιν, ἀλλʼ οἱ ἀεὶ τοῦ μέλλοντος ἐκκρεμάμενοι καὶ γλιχόμενοι τῶν ἀπόντων ὡς ἐπὶ σχεδίας διαφέρονται τῆς ἐλπίδος, κἂν μηδέποτε τοῦ τείχους ἐκτὸς προέλθωσι.
ταῦτʼ ἢδη καὶ ἀχάριστα τοῦ Πολυνείκους, ἀτιμίαν μὲν εὐγενείας ἀφιλίαν δὲ τῆς φυγῆς κατηγοροῦντος, ὃς διὰ τὴν εὐγένειαν ἠξιώθη μὲν φυγὰς ὢν γάμων βασιλικῶν, φίλων δὲ συμμαχίᾳ καὶ δυνάμει τοσαύτῃ πεφραγμένος ἐστράτευσεν, ὡς αὐτὸς μετὰ μικρὸν ὁμολογεῖ
πολλοὶ δὲ Δαναῶν καὶ Μυκηναίων ἄκροι
πάρεισι, λυπρὰν χάριν ἀναγκαίαν δʼ ἐμοὶ
διδόντες.
ὅμοια δὲ καὶ τὰ τῆς μητρὸς ὀλοφυρομένης·
ἐγὼ δέ σοι οὔτε πῦρ ἀνῆψα
γόνιμον ἐν γάμοις,
ἀνυμέναια δʼ Ἰσμηνὸς ἐκηδεύθη
λουτροφόρου χλιδᾶς·.
ταύτην ἔδει χαίρειν καὶ ἀγαπᾶν πυνθανομένην ναίοντα βασίλεια τηλικαῦτα τὸν υἱόν· ἡ δὲ θρηνοῦσα τὴν οὐκ ἀναφθεῖσαν λαμπάδα καὶ τὸν οὐ παρασχόντα λουτρὸν Ἰσμηνόν, ὡς ἐν Ἄργει μήθʼ ὕδωρ τῶν γαμούντων μήτε πῦρ ἐχόντων, τὰ τοῦ τύφου κακὰ καὶ τῆς ἀβελτερίας τῇ φυγῇ περιτίθησιν.

[¶6] 17. But is it not then an ignominious thing to be an exile? Yes, it is among fools, with whom it is a reproach to be poor, to be bald, or of low stature, and (with as much reason) to be a stranger or a pilgrim. But they that do not fall into these mistakes admire good men, though they happen to be poor or strangers or in exile. Do not we see the temple of Theseus venerated by all men, as well as the Parthenon and Eleusinium? And yet Theseus was banished from Athens, by whose means it is at this time inhabited; and lost his abode in that city, which he did not hold as a tenant, but himself built. And what remarkable thing is there remaining in Eleusis, if we are ashamed of Eumolpus, who coming thither from Thrace initiated the Greeks, and still does so, in the mysteries of religion? And whose son was Codrus, that reigned at Athens, but of that Melanthus who was banished from Messene? Will you not commend that speech of Antisthenes, who, when one said to him, Phrygia is thy mother, replied, She was also the mother of the Gods? And if any one reproach thee with thy banishment, why canst not thou answer, that the father of the great conqueror Hercules was an exile? And so was Cadmus the grandfather of Bacchus, who, being sent abroad in search for Europa, did return no more:
Sprung from Phoenicia, to Thebes he came;
Thebes to his grandson Bacchus lays a claim,
Who there inspires with rage the female rout,
That worship him by running mad about.
As for those things which Aeschylus obscurely insinuates in that expression of his, “And of Apollo, chaste God, banished heaven,” I’ll favor my tongue, as Herodotus phrases it, and say nothing. Empedocles, when he prefaces to his philosophy thus,—
This old decree of fate unchanged stands,—
Whoso with horrid crimes defiles his hands,
To long-lived Daemons this commission’s given
To chase him many ages out of heaven.
Into this sad condition I am hurled,
Banished from God to wander through the world,—
does not here only point at himself; but in what he says of himself he shows the condition of us all, that we are pilgrims and strangers and exiles here in this world. For know, says he, O men, that it is not blood nor a spirit tempered with it that gave being and beginning to the soul, but it is your terrestrial and mortal body that is made up of these. And by the soft name of pilgrimage, he insinuates the origin of the soul, that comes hither from another place. And the truth is, she flies and wanders up and down, being driven by the divine decrees and laws; and afterwards, as in an island surrounded with a great sea, as Plato speaks, she is tied and linked to the body, just like an oyster to its shell, and because she is not able to remember nor relate,
From what a vast and high degree
Of honor and felicity
she has removed,—not from Sardis to Athens, not from Corinth to Lemnos or Scyros, but having changed heaven and the moon for earth and an earthly life,—if she is forced to make little removes here from place to place, the soul hereupon is ill at ease and troubled at her new and strange state, and hangs her head like a decaying plant. And indeed some one country is found to be more agreeable to a plant than another, in which it thrives and flourishes better; but no place can deprive a man of his happiness, unless he pleases, no more than of his virtue and prudence. For Anaxagoras wrote his book of the Squaring of a Circle in prison; and Socrates, just when he was going to drink the poison that killed him, discoursed of philosophy, and exhorted his friends to the study of it; who then admired him as a happy man. But Phaëton and Tantalus, though they mounted up to heaven, yet, the poets tell us, through their folly fell into the extremest calamities.

> Greek: 17. ἀλλʼ ἐπονείδιστον ὁ φυγάς ἐστι; παρά γε τοῖς ἄφροσιν, οἳ καὶ τὸν πτωχὸν λοιδόρημα ποιοῦνται καὶ τὸν φαλακρὸν καὶ τὸν μικρόν, καὶ νὴ Δία τὸν ξένον καὶ τὸν μέτοικον. ἀλλὰ μὴν οἱ μὴ τούτοις ὑποφερόμενοι θαυμάζουσι τοὺς ἀγαθούς, κἂν πένητες ὦσι κἂν ξένοι κἂν φυγάδες. ἀλλʼ οὐχ ὁρῶμεν, ὥσπερ τὸν Παρθενῶνα καὶ τὸ Ἐλευσίνιον, οὕτω καὶ τὸ Θησεῖον ἅπαντας προσκυνοῦντας; καὶ μὴν ἔφυγε Θησεὺς ἐξ Ἀθηνῶν, διʼ ὃν ἥκουσι νῦν εἰς Ἀθήνας ἄνθρωποι, καὶ πόλιν ἀπέβαλεν ἣν οὐκ ἔσχεν ἀλλʼ αὐτὸς ἐποίησε. τῇ δʼ Ἐλευσῖνι τί λείπεται καλόν, ἂν αἰσχυνώμεθα τὸν Εὔμολπον, ὃς ἐκ Θρᾴκης μεταστὰς ἐμύησε καὶ μυεῖ τοὺς Ἕλληνας; Κόδρος δὲ τίνος ὢν ἐβασίλευσεν; οὐ Μελάνθου φυγάδος ἐκ Μεσσήνης; τὸ δὲ τοῦ Ἀντισθένους οὐκ ἐπαινεῖς πρὸς τὸν εἰπόντα ὅτι Φρυγία σού ἐστιν ἡ μήτηρ; καὶ γὰρ ἡ τῶν θεῶν τί οὖν οὐ καὶ σὺ λοιδορούμενος φυγὰς ἀποκρίνῃ καὶ γὰρ ὁ τοῦ Ἡρακλέους τοῦ καλλινίκου πατὴρ φυγὰς ἦν, καὶ ὁ τοῦ Διονύσου πάππος, ὡς ἐξεπέμφθη τὴν Εὐρώπην ἀνευρεῖν, οὐδʼ αὐτὸς ἐπανῆλθε Φοίνιξ πεφυκώς, ἐκ· δʼ ὁρίζεται γένος,ʼ εἰς τὰς Θήβας παραγενόμενος, εὔιον ὀρσιγύναικα Διόνυσον μαινομέναις ἀνθέοντα τιμαῖς; καὶ περὶ μὲν ὧν Αἰσχύλος ᾐνίξατο καὶ ὑπεδήλωσεν εἰπών ἁγνόν τʼ Ἀπόλλω φυγάδʼ ἀπʼ οὐρανοῦ θεόν εὔστομά μοι κείσθω καθʼ Ἡρόδοτον· ὁ δʼ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς ἐν ἀρχῇ τῆς φιλοσοφίας προαναφωνήσας
ἔστιν ἀνάγκης χρῆμα, θεῶν ψήφισμα παλαιόν,
εὖτὲ τις ἀμπλακίῃσι φόνῳ φίλα γυῖα μιήνῃ,
δαίμονες οἵ τε μακραίωνος λελόγχασι βίοιο·
τρίς μιν μυρίας ὥρας ἀπὸ μακάρων ἀλάλησθαι.
τὴν καὶ ἐγὼ νῦν εἶμι φυγὰς θεόθεν καὶ ἀλήτης·
οὐχ ἑαυτόν, ἀλλʼ ἀφʼ ἑαυτοῦ πάντας ἀποδείκνυσι μετανάστας ἐνταῦθα καὶ ξένους καὶ φυγάδας ἡμᾶς ὄντας. οὐ γὰρ αἷμα, φησίν, ἡμῖν οὐδὲ πνεῦμα συγκραθέν, ὦ ἄνθρωποι, ψυχῆς οὐσίαν καὶ ἀρχὴν παρέσχεν, ἀλλʼ ἐκ τούτων τὸ σῶμα συμπέπλασται γηγενὲς καὶ θνητόν· τῆς δὲ ψυχῆς ἀλλαχόθεν ἡκούσης δεῦρο, τὴν γένεσιν ἀποδημίαν ὑποκορίζεται τῷ πραοτάτῳ τῶν ὀνομάτων· τὸ δʼ ἀληθέστατον, φεύγει καὶ πλανᾶται θείοις ἐλαυνομένη δόγμασι καὶ νόμοις· εἶθʼ, ὥσπερ ἐν νήσῳ σάλον ἐχούσῃ πολύν, καθάπερ φησὶν ὁ Πλάτων, ὀστρέου τρόπον ἐνδεδεμένη τῷ σώματι διὰ τὸ μὴ ἀναφέρειν μηδὲ μνημονεύειν ἐξ οἵης τιμῆς τε καὶ ὅσσου μήκεος ὄλβου μεθέστηκεν, οὐ Σάρδεων Ἀθήνας οὐδὲ Κορίνθου Λῆμνον ἢ Σκῦρον ἀλλʼ οὐρανοῦ καὶ σελήνης γῆν ἀμειψαμένη καὶ τὸν ἐπὶ γῆς βίον, ἐὰν μικρὸν ἐνταῦθα τόπον ἐκ τόπου παραλλάξῃ, δυσανασχετεῖ καὶ ξενοπαθεῖ, καθάπερ φυτὸν ἀγεννὲς ἀπομαραινομένη. καίτοι φυτῷ μὲν ἔστι τις χώρα μᾶλλον ἑτέρας ἑτέρα πρόσφορος, ἐν ᾗ τρέφεται καὶ βλαστάνει βέλτιον· ἀνθρώπου δʼ οὐδεὶς ἀφαιρεῖται τόπος εὐδαιμονίαν, ὥσπερ οὐδʼ ἀρετὴν οὐδὲ φρόνησιν, ἀλλʼ Ἀναξαγόρας μὲν ἐν τῷ δεσμωτηρίῳ τὸν τοῦ κύκλου τετραγωνισμὸν ἔγραφε, Σωκράτης δὲ φάρμακον πίνων ἐφιλοσόφει καὶ παρεκάλει φιλοσοφεῖν τοὺς συνήθεις, εὐδαιμονιζόμενος ὑπʼ αὐτῶν· τὸν δὲ Φαέθοντα καὶ τὸν Τάνταλον εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀναβάντας οἱ ποιηταὶ λέγουσι ταῖς μεγίσταις συμφοραῖς περιπεσεῖν διὰ τὴν ἀφροσύνην.