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you have no small amount of pain. But these women have been deprived of all these things, having sent all their own men to war, expecting to receive them back again, but instead of them receiving the bitter news of their death. For no one returned to them bringing their bodies, but only words, relating the manner of their death. And there are some who were not even deemed worthy of this account, nor were they able to learn how they fell, since they were buried in the great multitude of the battle. And what wonder is it if many of the generals died in this way, when even the emperor himself, having been left behind in a certain village with a few soldiers, did not dare to go out and stand against the attackers, but remaining inside, when they set a fire, he was burned up together with all who were inside, not only men but also horses and walls and beams, and everything became one dust? And this is the news which those who had gone to war with the emperor brought back to his wife instead of the emperor. For nothing, nothing of the splendid things of the world differs from the things that happen on the stage and from the season of spring flowers. For first, it flies away before it appears; and then, even if it should endure to wait a little while, it immediately becomes perishable.

For what is more worthless than honor and glory from the multitude? What fruit does it have, what benefit? To what useful end does it come? And would that this alone were the terrible thing; but now, in addition to gaining no good from it, he who has this most harsh mistress is continuously forced to bear many painful and harmful things. For she is a mistress to those who have her, and the more she is flattered by her slaves, the more she rises up against them and strains them with harsher commands; but as for those who spit upon her and overlook her, she would no longer be able to defend herself; thus she is harsher than any tyrant and any wild beast. For the tyrant and the wild beast are often tamed by attention, but she becomes most savage then when we obey her, and if she finds one who will listen and yield in everything, there is nothing that she refrains from commanding anymore. And she has another ally, whom one would not err in calling her daughter. For when this one also, having been nourished and having grown well, is rooted in us, then it gives birth to arrogance, a thing no less able than herself to cast down the soul of those who have it. Do you then mourn these things, tell me, that God has delivered you from such a very harsh slavery, that he has walled off every assault of these pestilential diseases? For while your husband was alive, they never ceased to continuously leap upon the reasonings of your soul, but now that he is dead, they have no way to take hold of your mind. This, therefore, must henceforth be achieved: not to mourn their departure nor to seek their bitter dominion. For wherever these blow fiercely, they have overturned and pulled down all things from their foundations; and just as many prostituted women, being ugly by nature and hideous, with their cosmetics and paints excite the souls of the young while they are still tender, but when they get them under their own dominion, they treat them more insolently than any slave; so also these passions, both vainglory and arrogance, pollute the souls of men more than any defilement. For this reason also wealth seemed to the many to be a good thing; stripped of this, at any rate, it will itself no longer be lovely. Those, at any rate, to whom it was possible through poverty to attain the glory that comes from the many, no longer chose to be rich, but spat upon much gold when it was offered. And you will not need to learn of these from me, but you yourself know more accurately than we of Epaminondas, Socrates, Aristeides, Diogenes, Crates, who gave up his sheep-pasturing land. For the others, for whom it was not possible to be rich, saw glory coming to them through poverty, and came straight to this; but this man also what he had

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ἔχεις τῆς ὀδύνης οὐ μικράν. Αὗται δὲ τούτων ἁπάντων ἐστέρηνται ἐκπέμψασαι μὲν εἰς πόλεμον ἅπασαι τοὺς αὐτῶν, ὡς πάλιν αὐτοὺς ἀποληψόμεναι, ἀντὶ δὲ ἐκείνων τὴν πικρὰν τῆς τελευτῆς αὐτῶν ἀγγελίαν δεξάμεναι. Οὐδὲ γὰρ τὰ σώματά τις αὐτῶν κομίζων ἐπανῆλθεν αὐταῖς, ἀλλὰ ῥήματα μόνον τὸν τρόπον διηγούμενος τῆς τελευτῆς. Εἰσὶ δὲ αἳ οὐδὲ ταύτης ἠξιώθησαν τῆς διηγήσεως οὐδὲ ὅπως κατέπεσον μαθεῖν ἠδυνήθησαν, ἐν πολλῷ τῷ πλήθει τῆς συμβολῆς καταχωσθέντων αὐτῶν. Καὶ τί θαυμαστὸν εἰ τῶν στρατηγῶν οὕτως ἀπέθανον οἱ πολλοί, ὅπου γε καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ βασιλεὺς εἰς κώμην τινὰ ἀπολειφθεὶς μετ' ὀλίγων στρατιωτῶν ἐξελθεῖν μὲν καὶ ἀντιστῆναι τοῖς ἐπελθοῦσιν οὐκ ἐτόλμησε, μένων δὲ ἔνδον πῦρ ἐξαψάντων ἐκείνων συγκατεφλέχθη τοῖς ἔνδον ἅπασιν οὐκ ἀνδράσι μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ἵπποις καὶ τοίχοις καὶ δοκοῖς, καὶ πάντα μία γέγονε κόνις; Καὶ ταύτην οἱ μετὰ τοῦ βασιλέως ἀπελθόντες εἰς πόλεμον ἀντὶ τοῦ βασιλέως ἐπανῆλθον τῇ γυναικὶ φέροντες τὴν ἀγγελίαν. Οὐδὲν γάρ, οὐδὲν τῶν ἐν τῇ σκηνῇ γινομένων καὶ τῆς τῶν ἐαρινῶν ἀνθέων ὥρας τὰ τοῦ κόσμου λαμπρὰ διενήνοχε. Πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ πρὶν ἢ φανῆναι ἀφίπταται· ἔπειτα δὲ κἂν μικρὸν ἀναμεῖναι ἀνάσχηται χρόνον, εὐθέως εὔφθαρτα γίνεται.

Τί γὰρ τῆς παρὰ τῶν πολλῶν τιμῆς καὶ δόξης οὐδαμινέστερον; Τίνα ἔχει τὸν καρπόν, ποίαν τὴν ὄνησιν; Εἰς ποῖον τέλος χρήσιμον ἀπαντᾷ; Καὶ εἴθε τοῦτο μόνον ἦν τὸ δεινόν· νυνὶ δὲ πρὸς τῷ μηδὲν ἔχειν ἀπὸ τούτου κερδαίνειν καλόν, πολλὰ λυπηρὰ καὶ ἐπιβλαβῆ φέρειν ἀναγκάζεται συνεχῶς ὁ τὴν χαλεπωτάτην ταύτην δέσποιναν ἔχων. ∆έσποινα γάρ ἐστι τῶν ἐχόντων αὐτὴν καὶ ὅσῳπερ ἂν κολακεύηται παρὰ τῶν δούλων, τοσούτῳ πλέον αἴρεται κατ' αὐτῶν καὶ σκληροτέροις αὐτοὺς κατατείνει τοῖς ἐπιτάγμασι· τοὺς δὲ διαπτύοντας αὐτὴν καὶ παρορῶντας οὐδὲ αὐτὴ λοιπὸν ἀμύνασθαι δύναιτ' ἄν· οὕτω καὶ τυράννου καὶ θηρίου παντός ἐστι χαλεπωτέρα. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ τύραννος καὶ τὸ θηρίον τιθασσεύονται διὰ θεραπείας πολλάκις, αὕτη δὲ τότε μάλιστα ἀγριαίνει ὅταν αὐτῇ πειθώμεθα, κἂν εὕρῃ τὸν ἀκουσόμενον καὶ εἰς πάντα εἴξοντα, οὐδέν ἐστιν ὃ παραιτεῖται ἐπιτάξαι λοιπόν. Ἔχει δὲ καὶ σύμμαχον ἑτέραν ἣν οὐκ ἄν τις ἁμάρτοι θυγατέρα αὐτῆς προσειπών. Ὅταν γὰρ καὶ αὕτη τραφεῖσα καὶ αὐξηθεῖσα καλῶς ῥιζωθῇ παρ' ἡμῖν, τότε τίκτει τὴν ἀπόνοιαν, πρᾶγμα οὐχ ἧττον αὐτῆς δυνάμενον κατακρημνίσαι τὴν τῶν ἐχόντων ψυχήν. Ταῦτα οὖν θρηνεῖς, εἰπέ μοι, ὅτι σε ὁ Θεὸς τῆς οὕτω χαλεπωτάτης δουλείας ἀπήλλαξεν, ὅτι ταῖς λοιμικαῖς ταύταις νόσοις πᾶσαν ἀπετείχισεν ἔφοδον; Ζῶντος μὲν γάρ σοι τοῦ ἀνδρὸς οὔπω ἐπαύσαντο συνεχῶς ἐπιπηδῶσαι τοῖς τῆς ψυχῆς λογισμοῖς, τελευτήσαντος δὲ οὐκ ἔχουσι πόθεν ἐπιλάβωνται τῆς διανοίας τῆς σῆς. Τοῦτο οὖν κατορθωθῆναι δεῖ λοιπόν, τὸ μὴ θρηνεῖν αὐτῶν τὴν ἀναχώρησιν μηδὲ τὴν δεσποτείαν ἐπιζητεῖν τὴν πικράν. Ὅπου γὰρ ἂν αὗται πνεύσωσι σφοδρόν, πάντα ἐκ βάθρων ἀνέτρεψαν καὶ κατέσπασαν· καὶ καθάπερ πολλαὶ τῶν πορνευομένων γυναικῶν, δυσειδεῖς οὖσαι κατὰ φύσιν καὶ εἰδεχθεῖς, τοῖς ἐπιτρίμμασι καὶ ταῖς ὑπογραφαῖς ἁπαλὰς οὔσας ἔτι τὰς τῶν νέων ἀναπτεροῦσι ψυχάς, ἐπειδὰν δὲ ὑπὸ τὴν ἀρχὴν λάβωσι τὴν ἑαυτῶν, παντὸς ἀνδραπόδου τούτοις ὑβριστικώτερον κέχρηνται· οὕτω καὶ ταῦτα τὰ πάθη ἥ τε κενοδοξία καὶ ἡ ἀπόνοια παντὸς ἄγους μᾶλλον τὰς τῶν ἀνθρώπων μολύνουσι ψυχάς. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ ὁ πλοῦτος τοῖς πολλοῖς ἔδοξεν εἶναι καλόν· ταύτης γοῦν γυμνωθεὶς οὐδὲ αὐτὸς ἔσται λοιπὸν ἐπέραστος. Οἷς γοῦν ἐξῆν διὰ πενίας ἐπιτυχεῖν τῆς δόξης τῆς παρὰ τῶν πολλῶν, οὐκ ἔτι εἵλοντο πλουτεῖν, ἀλλὰ πολὺ διδόμενον χρυσίον διέπτυσαν. Καὶ τούτους οὐ παρ' ἐμοῦ δεήσῃ μαθεῖν, ἀλλ' ἀκριβέστερον ἡμῶν οἶδας αὐτὴ τὸν Ἐπαμεινώνδαν, τὸν Σωκράτην, τὸν Ἀριστείδην, τὸν ∆ιογένην, τὸν Κράτητα, τὸν μηλόβοτον ἀνέντα τὴν χώραν τὴν αὑτοῦ. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ ἄλλοι παρ' ὧν πλουτῆσαι οὐκ ἦν, διὰ τῆς πενίας εἶδον τὴν δόξαν παραγινομένην αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦτο ἦλθον εὐθέως· οὗτος δὲ καὶ ἅπερ εἶχεν