---
title: "Whether Vice Be Sufficient to Cause Unhappiness · An vitiositas ad infelicitatem sufficiat"
author: "Plutarch"
translator: "William Clark Helmbold"
languages: [grc, en]
shelf: "Philosophy"
url: https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-vice-and-unhappiness/
cite: "Plutarch, tr. William Clark Helmbold, Whether Vice Be Sufficient to Cause Unhappiness · An vitiositas ad infelicitatem sufficiat. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-vice-and-unhappiness/"
---

# Whether Vice Be Sufficient to Cause Unhappiness · An vitiositas ad infelicitatem sufficiat

*Plutarch, tr. William Clark Helmbold*

A short declamation: vice alone makes a man miserable, whatever his fortune.

> Greek: ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-greekLit, tlg0007.tlg099, CC BY-SA 4.0).

> English: William Clark Helmbold, from the Perseus Digital Library (tlg0007.tlg099.perseus-eng3). 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 2–5](https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-vice-and-unhappiness/1.md)

## 1. Sections 2–5

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-vice-and-unhappiness/1/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-vice-and-unhappiness/1/#p-N

[¶0] Again we have a fragment, mutilated at the beginning and the end. The attribution to Plutarch has been questioned by Dübner, Hense, Naber, and Hartman, but on insufficient grounds, which have, in the main, been explained away by Siefert, who has also analysed the structure of the work and the Plutarchean parallels. Wilamowitz, on the other hand, believed this and the following fragment to be scraps of the same dialogue: I follow Pohlenz in rejecting this view. The text is not good, and the work is not mentioned in the Lamprias catalogue. ... He will not submit to (such a marriage) “His body bartered for the dower’s sake,” as Euripides says; but he has only a slight and precarious reason for being envied. For this man (it were better) to make his journey, not “through heaps of hot cinders,” but “through a royal conflagration,” as it were, and surrounded by flames, panting and full of terror and drenched with sweat, and so to perish, though (his mother) had offered to him such a wealth as Tantalus had, which he was too busy to enjoy. For while that Sicyonian horsebreeder was a wise man, who gave to the king of the Achaeans, Agamemnon, a swift mare as a gift,
That he might not follow him to wind-swept Troy,
But stay at home and take his pleasure,
surrendering himself to the enjoyment of deep riches and to unmolested ease; yet modern courtiers who are looked upon as men of affairs, though no one summons them, of their own accord push their way headlong into courts and official escorts and toilsome bivouacs that they may get a horse or a brooch or some such piece of good fortune.
His wife, rending both cheeks, was left behind
In Phylace, and his half-finished home,
while he himself is swept about and wanders afar, worn out by one hope after another and constantly insulted; and even if he obtains any of his desires, yet, whirled about and made giddy by Fortune’s ropedance, he seeks to make his descent and considers happy those who live in obscurity and safety, whereas they so regard him as they look up at him soaring above their heads.

> Greek: … ὑπομένει πεπραμένον τὸ σῶμα τῆς φερνῆς ἔχων ὡς Εὐριπίδης φησίν, βραχέα δεδήλωται καὶ ἀβέβαια τῷ δʼ οὐ πολλῆς διὰ τέφρας, ἀλλὰ πυρκαϊᾶς τινος βασιλικῆς πορευομένῳ καὶ περιφλεγομένῳ, ἄσθματος καὶ φόβου μεστῷ καὶ ἱδρῶτος διαποντίου, πλοῦτόν τινα προσθεῖσα Ταντάλειον ἀπολαῦσαι διʼ ἀσχολίαν οὐ δυναμένῳ. ὁ μὲν γὰρ Σικυώνιος ἐκεῖνος ἱπποτρόφος εὖ φρονῶν ἔδωκε τῷ βασιλεῖ τῶν Ἀχαιῶν θήλειαν ἵππον δρομάδα δῶρον,
ἵνα μὴ οἱ ἕποιθʼ ὑπὸ Ἴλιον ἠνεμόεσσαν
ἀλλʼ αὐτοῦ τέρποιτο μένων
εἰς βαθεῖαν εὐπορίαν καὶ σχολὴν ἄλυπον ἀνακλίνας ἑαυτόν· οἱ δὲ νῦν ἄλυποι καὶ πρακτικοὶ δοκοῦντες εἶναι, μηδενὸς καλοῦντος ὠθοῦνται διʼ αὑτῶν ἐπὶ τράχηλον εἰς αὐλὰς καὶ προπομπὰς καὶ θυραυλίας ἐπιπόνους, ἵνʼ ἵππου τινὸς ἢ πόρπης ἢ τοιαύτης τινὸς εὐημερίας τύχωσι.
τοῦ δὲ καὶ ἀμφιδρυφὴς ἄλοχος Φυλάκῃ ἐλέλειπτο,
καὶ δόμος ἡμιτελής·
σύρεται δὲ καὶ πλανᾶται τριβόμενος ἔν τισιν ἐλπίσιν καὶ προπηλακιζόμενος· ἂν δὲ καὶ τύχῃ τινὸς ὧν ποθεῖ, περιενεχθεὶς καὶ σκοτοδινιάσας πρὸς τὸν τῆς τύχης πεταυρισμὸν ἀπόβασιν ζητεῖ καὶ μακαρίζει τοὺς ἀδόξους καὶ ἀσφαλῶς ζῶντας οἱ δʼ ἐκεῖνον πάλιν ἄνω βλέποντες ὑπὲρ αὑτοὺς φερόμενον.

[¶1] 2. Vice makes all men completely miserable, since as a creator of unhappiness it is clothed with absolute power, for it has no need of either instruments or ministers. But whereas despots, when they desire to make miserable those whom they punish, maintain executioners and torturers, or devise branding-irons and wedges; vice, without any apparatus, when it has joined itself to the soul, crushes and overthrows it, and filis the man with grief and lamentation, dejection and remorse. And this is the proof: many are silent under mutilation and endure scourging and being tortured by the wedge at the hands of masters or tyrants without uttering a cry, whenever by the application of reason the soul abates the pain and by main force, as it were, checks and represses it; but you cannot order anger to be quiet nor grief to be silent, nor can you persuade a man possessed by fear to stand his ground, nor one suffering from remorse not to cry out or tear his hair or smite his thigh. So much more violent is vice than either fire or sword.

> Greek: 2. παντοίως; ἡ κακία διατίθησι πάντας ἀνθρώπους, αὐτοτελής τις οὖσα τῆς κακοδαιμονίας δημιουργός· οὔτε γὰρ ὀργάνων οὔτε ὑπηρετῶν ἔχει χρείαν. ἄλλοι δὲ τύραννοι σπουδάζοντες οὓς ἂν κολάζωσιν ἀθλίους ποιεῖν δημίους τρέφουσι καὶ βασανιστάς, ἢ καυτήρια καὶ σφῆνας ἐπιμηχανῶνται, ἀλόγου ψυχῇ ἡ δὲ κακία δίχα πάσης παρασκευῆς τῇ ψυχῇ συνελθοῦσα συνέτριψε καὶ κατέβαλε, λύπης ἐνέπλησε θρήνων βαρυθυμίας μεταμελείας τὸν ἄνθρωπον. τεκμήριον δέ· τεμνόμενοι πολλοὶ σιωπῶσι καὶ μαστιγούμενοι καρτεροῦσι, καὶ σφηνούμενοι ὑπὸ δεσποτῶν ἢ τυράννων φωνὴν οὐκ ἀφῆκαν, ὅταν ἡ ψυχὴ μύσασα τῷ λόγῳ τὸν πόνον ὥσπερ χειρὶ πιέσῃ καὶ κατάσχῃ· θυμῷ δʼ οὐκ ἂν ἐπιτάξειας ἡσυχίαν οὐδὲ πένθει σιωπήν· οὔτε φοβούμενον στῆναι πείσειας, οὔτε δυσφοροῦντα μετανοίᾳ μὴ βοῆσαι μηδὲ τῶν τριχῶν λαβέσθαι ἢ τὸν μηρὸν κροῦσαι. οὕτω καὶ πυρός ἐστιν ἡ κακία καὶ σιδήρου βιαιοτέρα.

[¶2] 3. Cities, as we know, when they give public notice of intent to let contracts for the building of temples or colossal statues, listen to the proposals of artists competing for the commission and bringing in their estimates and models, and then choose the man who will do the same work with the least expense and better than the others and more quickly. Come, then, let us suppose that we also give public proclamation of intent to contract for making a life wretched, and that Fortune and Vice come to get the commission in a rival spirit. Fortune is provided with all manner of instruments and costly apparatus to render a life miserable and wretched; she brings in her train frightful robberies and wars, the foul bloodthirstiness of tyrants, and storms at sea and thunder from the sky; she compounds hemlock, she carries swords, she levies informers, she kindles fevers, she claps on fetters, and builds prison-enclosures (and yet the greater part of these belong to Vice rather than to Fortune, but let us suppose them all Fortune’s). And let Vice stand by quite unarmed, needing no external aid against the man, and let her ask Fortune how she intends to make man wretched and dejected:
Fortune,
Do you threaten poverty? Metrocles laughs at you,
Metrocles, who in winter slept among the sheep and in summer in the gateways of sacred precincts, yet challenged to vie with him in happiness the king of the Persians who winters in Babylon and summers in Media. Do you bring on slavery and chains and the auction block? Diogenes despises you, for when he was being sold by pirates, he cried out with the voice of an auctioneer, “Who wants to buy a master?” Do you mix a cup of poison? Did you not present this to Socrates also? And cheerfully and calmly, without trembling or changing either colour or posture, he drained it with great cheerfulness; and as he died the living esteemed him happy, believing that “not even in Hades would he be without some god-given portion.” And as for your fire, Decius the Roman general anticipated it, when he built a funeral pyre between the camps and, to fulfil a vow, sacrificed himself to Saturn on behalf of Rome’s supremacy. And among the Indians, loving and chaste wives strive and contend with one another for the fire, and the wife who wins the honour of being consumed together with her dead husband is hymned as happy by the others. And of the wise men in that part of the world, not one is considered enviable or happy, if, while he yet lives and is sane and healthy, he does not separate by fire his soul from his body and emerge pure from the flesh, with the mortal part washed away. Or will you reduce a man from splendid wealth and house and table and lavish living to a threadbare cloak and wallet and begging of his daily bread? These things were the beginning of happiness for Diogenes, of freedom and repute for Crates. But will you nail him to a cross or impale him on a stake? And what does Theodorus care whether he rots above ground or beneath? Among the Scythians such is the manner of happy burial; and among the Hyrcanians dogs, among the Bactrians birds, devour, in accordance with the laws, the bodies of men, when these have met a happy end.

> Greek: 3. αἱ πόλεις δήπουθεν, ὅταν ἔκδοσιν ναῶν ἢ κολοσσῶν προγράφωσιν, ἀκροῶνται τῶν τεχνιτῶν ἁμιλλωμένων περὶ τῆς ἐργολαβίας καὶ λόγους καὶ παραδείγματα κομιζόντων εἶθʼ αἱροῦνται τὸν ἀπʼ ἐλάττονος δαπάνης ταὐτὸ ποιοῦντα καὶ βέλτιον καὶ τάχιον. φέρε δὴ καὶ ἡμᾶς ἔκδοσίν τινα βίου καὶ ἀνθρώπου κακοδαίμονος προκηρύσσειν, εἶτα προσιέναι τῇ ἐργολαβίᾳ τὴν Τύχην καὶ τὴν Κακίαν διαφερομένας· τὴν μὲν ὀργάνων τε παντοδαπῶν κατάπλεων καὶ παρασκευῆς πολυτελοῦς εἰς ἀπεργασίαν κακοδαίμονος ζωῆς καὶ οἰκτρᾶς, λῃστήρια τινα καὶ πολέμους καὶ τυράννων μιαιφονίας καὶ χειμῶνας ἐκ θαλάττης καὶ κεραυνὸν ἐξ ἀέρος ἐφελκομένην καὶ κώνεια τρίβουσαν καὶ ξίφη φέρουσαν καὶ συκοφάντας ξενολογοῦσαν καὶ πυρετοὺς ἐξάπτουσαν καὶ πέδας περικρούουσαν καὶ περιοικοδομοῦσαν εἱρκτάς· καίτοι τούτων τὰ πλεῖστα τῆς Κακίας μᾶλλον ἢ τῆς Τύχης ἐστίν ἀλλὰ πάντʼ ἔστω τῆς Τύχης. ἡ δὲ Κακία παρεστῶσα γυμνὴ καὶ μηδενὸς δεομένη τῶν ἔξωθεν ἐπὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐρωτάτω καὶ τὴν Τύχην, πῶς ποιήσει κακοδαίμονα καὶ ἄθυμον τὸν ἄνθρωπον. τύχη, πενίαν ἀπειλεῖς; καταγελᾷ σου Μητροκλῆς, ὃς χειμῶνος ἐν τοῖς προβάτοις καθεύδων καὶ θέρους ἐν τοῖς προπυλαίοις τῶν ἱερῶν τὸν ἐν Βαβυλῶνι χειμάζοντα καὶ περὶ Μηδίαν θερίζοντα Περσῶν βασιλέα περὶ εὐδαιμονίας εἰς ἀγῶνα προυκαλεῖτο. δουλείαν καὶ δεσμὰ καὶ πρᾶσιν ἐπάγεις; καταφρονεῖ σου Διογένης, ὃς ὑπὸ τῶν λῃστῶν πωλούμενος ἐκήρυττε τίς ὠνήσασθαι βούλεται κύριον; κύλικα φαρμάκου ταράττεις; οὐχὶ καὶ Σωκράτει ταύτην προύπιες, ὁ δʼ ἵλεως καὶ πρᾶος, οὐ τρέσας οὐδὲ διαφθείρας οὔτε χρώματος οὐδὲν οὔτε σχήματος μάλʼ εὐκόλως ἐξέπιεν; ἀποθνῄσκοντα δʼ αὐτὸν ἐμακάριζον οἱ ζῶντες, ὡς οὐδʼ ἐν Ἅιδου θείας ἄνευ μοίρας ἐσόμενον. καὶ μὴν τὸ πῦρ σου Δέκιος ὁ Ῥωμαίων στρατηγὸς προέλαβεν, ὅτε τῶν στρατοπέδων ἐν μέσῳ πυρὰν νήσας τῷ Κρόνῳ κατʼ εὐχὴν αὐτὸς ἑαυτὸν ἐκαλλιέρησεν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἡγεμονίας. Ἰνδῶν δὲ φίλανδροι καὶ σώφρονες γυναῖκες ὑπὲρ τοῦ πυρὸς ἐρίζουσι καὶ μάχονται πρὸς ἀλλήλας, τὴν δὲ νικήσασαν τεθνηκότι τῷ ἀνδρὶ συγκαταφλεγῆναι μακαρίαν ᾅδουσιν αἱ λοιπαί. τῶν δʼ ἐκεῖ σοφῶν οὐδεὶς ζηλωτὸς οὐδὲ μακαριστός ἐστιν, ἂν μὴ ζῶν ἔτι καὶ φρονῶν καὶ ὑγιαίνων τοῦ σώματος τὴν ψυχὴν πυρὶ διαστήσῃ, καὶ καθαρὸς ἐκβῇ τῆς σαρκὸς ἐκνιψάμενος τὸ θνητόν. ἀλλʼ ἐξ οὐσίας λαμπρᾶς καὶ οἴκου καὶ τραπέζης καὶ πολυτελείας εἰς τρίβωνα καὶ πήραν καὶ προσαίτησιν ἐφημέρου τροφῆς κατάξεις; ταῦτʼ εὐδαιμονίας ἀρχαὶ Διογένει, ταῦτʼ ἐλευθερίας Κράτητι καὶ δόξης. ἀλλʼ εἰς σταυρὸν καθηλώσεις ἢ σκόλοπι πήξεις; καὶ τί Θεοδώρῳ μέλει, πότερον ὑπὲρ γῆς ἢ ὑπὸ γῆς σήπεται; Σκυθῶν εὐδαίμονες ταφαὶ αὗται· Ὑρκανῶν δὲ κύνες Βακτριανῶν δʼ ὄρνιθες νεκροὺς ἐσθίουσι κατὰ νόμους, ὅταν μακαρίου τέλους τυγχάνωσιν.

[¶3] 4. Whom, then, do these things make wretched? The unmanly and irrational, the unpracticed and untrained, those who retain from childhood their notions unchanged. Therefore Fortune is not a producer of perfect unhappiness if she does not have Vice to co-operate with her. For as a thread saws through the bone that has been soaked in ashes and vinegar, and as men bend and fashion ivory when it has been made soft and pliable by beer, but cannot do so otherwise, so Fortune, falling upon that which is of itself ill-affected and soft as the result of Vice, gouges it out and inj ures it. And just as the Parthian poison, though harmful to no one else nor injurious to those who touch it and carry it about, if it is merely brought into the presence of wounded men, it straightway destroys them, since they receive its effluence because of their previous susceptibility; so he who is liable to have his soul crushed by Fortune must have within himself some festering wound of his own in order that it may make whatever befalls him from without pitiful and lamentable.

> Greek: 4. τίνας οὖν ταῦτα κακοδαίμονας ποιεῖ; τοὺς ἀνάνδρους καὶ ἀλογίστους, τοὺς ἀτρίπτους καὶ ἀγυμνάστους, τοὺς ἐκ νηπίων ἃς ἔχουσι δόξας φυλάττοντας. οὐκοῦν οὐκ ἔστιν ἡ Τύχη κακοδαιμονίας τελεσιουργός, ἂν μὴ κακίαν ἔχῃ συνεργοῦσαν. ὡς γὰρ ἡ κρόκη τὸ ὀστέον πρίει τέφρᾳ καὶ ὄξει διάβροχον γενόμενον, καὶ τὸν ἐλέφαντα τῷ ζύθει μαλακὸν γενόμενον καὶ χαλῶντα κάμπτουσι καὶ διασχηματίζουσιν, ἄλλως δʼ οὐ δύνανται· οὕτως ἡ τύχη τὸ πεπονθὸς ἐξ αὑτοῦ καὶ μαλακὸν ὑπὸ κακίας προσπεσοῦσα κοιλαίνει καὶ τιτρώσκει. καὶ καθάπερ ὁ παρθικὸς ὀπὸς τῶν ἄλλων οὐδενὶ βλαβερὸς ὢν οὐδὲ λυπῶν ἁπτομένους καὶ περιφέροντας, ἐὰν τετρωμένοις ἐπεισενεχθῇ μόνον, εὐθὺς ἀπόλλυσι τῷ προσπεπονθότι καὶ τὴν ἀπορροὴν δεχομένῳ· ὑπὸ τῆς τύχης συντριβήσεσθαι μέλλοντα ἴδιον ἕλκος ἐν ἑαυτῷ καὶ κακὸν ἔχειν σαρκός, ὅκως τὰ προσπίπτοντα ἔξωθεν ὀδυρτὰ ποιήσῃ.

[¶4] 5. Is, then, Vice such a thing that it needs Fortune’s help to produce unhappiness? How can that be? Vice does not raise up a rough and stormy sea, she does not gird the skirts of lonely mountains with ambushes of robbers along the way, she does not make clouds of hail to burst on fruitful plains, she does not bring in a Meletus or an Anytus or a Callixenus as accusers, she does not take away wealth, she does not debar from the praetorship, in order to make men unhappy. Yet she dismays men who are rich, prosperous, and heirs to fortunes; on land and on sea she insinuates herself into them and clings to them, sinking deep into them through evil lusts, firing them with anger, crushing them with superstitious fears, shattering them with the eyes...

> Greek: 5. ἆρʼ οὖν ἡ κακία τοιοῦτον ὥστε τῆς τύχης δεῖσθαι πρὸς κακοδαιμονίας ἀπεργασίαν; πόθεν; οὐ τραχὺ καὶ δυσχείμερον ἐπαίρεται πέλαγος, οὐ λῃστῶν ἐνοδίοις διαζώννυσιν ἐνέδραις ἐρήμους ὑπωρείας, οὐ νέφη χαλαζοβόλα πεδίοις περιρρήγνυσι καρποφόροις, οὐ Μέλητον οὐδʼ Ἄνυτον οὐδὲ Καλλίξενον ἐπείγει συκοφάντην, οὐκ ἀφαιρεῖται πλοῦτον, οὐκ ἀπείργει στρατηγίας, ἵνα ποιήσῃ κακοδαίμονας· ἀλλὰ ποιεῖ πλουτοῦντας, εὐφοροῦντας, κληρονομοῦντας ἐν γῇ, διὰ θαλάττης ἐνδέδυκε, προσπέφυκεν, ἐκτήκουσα ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις, διακάουσα τοῖς θυμοῖς, συντρίβουσα ταῖς δεισιδαιμονίαις, διασύρουσα τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς.