I will make clear that which lies in the midst of our discussion and is doubtful to both those who praise and those who blame; I lift out from the others all the things that have gained him the better reputation. What ever is this? He knew his own soul to be most gentle and most humane, and knew not how to bear a grudge against any of all those who wished to rage against him; now for those who had sinned moderately—I mean moderately, insofar as it does not involve an excess of wickedness towards others—he employed without difficulty such a disposition of his soul, but those whom he knew to have spoken injustice even against the Almighty, these indeed, either condemning to exile or confining within prescribed boundaries, or casting inescapable bonds upon them, he bound himself with secret oaths that he would never give them pardon. 6.168 Indeed, when I once restrained him, saying he would not easily be able to keep his oaths, he tried to persuade me that he was not able in any other way to check the impulses of the most wicked; for some days, then, he adhered to his own decree, for his most just anger was still in bloom, but whenever he relaxed from his intensity—and he suffered this whenever he had heard someone praising clemency and boasting on this account of some of the former emperors—immediately remembering both them and his bond, he was partly in tears, and partly at a loss, as to how he might best handle the matter; indeed, using me as a counselor concerning such a conflict of reason, he would yield rather to his humanity, propitiating the divine in another way. 6.169 Indeed, I for my part a more compassionate soul have neither seen before, nor do I now perceive in any of all men, nor a more ambitious one or one fitting for an emperor more ; for he, as if having obtained the kingship for these purposes, did not seem to be emperor on that day in which he had neither shown some humanity nor laid bare any ambitious sentiment, nor were the seeds of his beneficence cast into a soul, so to speak, so fertile as to immediately give up the ear of gratitude, nor did that soul bear the fruit of thanksgiving more readily than he was ambitious to sow the rich and loamy earth. 6.170 Assuredly, I will also relate a brief account of such virtue in him to those who love to listen; a certain man, having been caught for thefts from military administrations, was fined a large sum of money, many times what he possessed; and this man was, it seems, one of the fortunate and very rich, and the collector was one of the inexorable, for it was the imperial and the public treasury; but he, it seems, begged for an imperial hearing as well, so that from there he might have the verdict and that the public court might not have power over him in all matters; and when to both parties an audience with the emperor was granted, and many were present at the trial, and I myself, before the others, acting as secretary and noting down the pronouncements of Themis, when at any rate both entered, that man who had stolen or seemed to have stolen uttered a certain direct and most pathetic plea, only that he might forfeit his property to the state, but not, however, bequeath promises of debt to his children, and immediately he also took off his garment, as if he might be let go with only his body. 6.171 At this the emperor, moistening his eyes with tears: “But, my good sir,” he said, “then are you not ashamed, dishonoring the prosperity of your family, having thus suddenly brought yourself into extreme poverty, so as to need one who will feed you and cover your body?” At this that man: “But not even, O emperor,” he said, “even if I very much wished, could I be able to procure this for myself.” And what did the emperor say to this statement? “But if someone were to share with you the debt being collected, would you accept the equality? -“He would be a god from the machine,” this man said; “but I do not see if anyone from heaven

ποιήσομαι ἐκφανὲς, ὅπερ ἐν μέσῳ τοῖς λόγοις κείμενον καὶ ἀμφίβολον ὂν τοῖς τε ἐπαινοῦσι καὶ ψέγουσιν, ἐγὼ τῶν ἄλλων ἐξαίρω ὁπόσα αὐτῷ τὴν κρείττονα ὑπόληψιν ἔσχηκε. Τί ποτέ ἐστι τοῦτο; Ἤδει τὴν αὑτοῦ ψυχὴν ἐπιεικεστάτην καὶ φιλανθρωποτάτην τυγχάνουσαν καὶ οὐδενὶ τῶν πάντων ὁπόσοι κατ' ἐκείνου λυττᾶν ἠβουλήθησαν εἰδυῖαν μνησικακεῖν· τοῖς μὲν οὖν μέτρια ἡμαρτηκόσι, λέγω δὴ μέτρια ὁπόσα ἄλλοις κακίας οὐκ ἔχει ὑπερβολὴν, ἀπραγμόνως ἐχρῆτο τῇ τοιαύτῃ τῆς ψυχῆς ἕξει, οὓς δὲ ἐγνώκει ἄχρις αὐτοῦ τοῦ Κρείττονος ἀδικίαν λαλήσαντας, τούτους δὴ ἢ ὑπερορίᾳ καταδικάζων ἢ ὅροις εἵργων περιγράπτοις, ἢ δεσμὰ περιβάλλων ἄφυκτα, ὅρκοις ἑαυτὸν ἐδέσμει ἐν ἀπορρήτῳ μὴ ἄν ποτε δοῦναι ἐκείνοις τὴν ἄφεσιν. 6.168 Ἐμὲ γοῦν τοῦτον ἅπαξ ἐπέχοντα ὡς οὐκ ἂν ῥᾳδίως τοὺς ὅρκους φυλάξαιτο, πείθειν ἐδόκει μὴ ἄλλως δύνασθαι τῶν κακουργοτάτων τὰς ὁρμὰς ἐπισχεῖν· ἡμέρας μὲν οὖν τινας τῷ οἰκείῳ ἐτίθετο δόγματι, ἔτι γὰρ ἐπήνθει αὐτῷ ἡ δικαιοτάτη ὀργὴ, ἐπεὶ δὲ τοῦ συντόνου χαλασθείη ποτὲ, ἔπασχε δὲ τοῦτο ἐπειδάν τινος ἠκηκόει ἐπαινοῦντος τὴν ἐπιείκειαν καί τινας τῶν φθασάντων αὐτοκρατόρων ἐντεῦθεν μεγαληγοροῦντος, αὐτίκα ἐκείνων τε μεμνημένος καὶ τοῦ δεσμοῦ, τὰ μὲν δακρύων ἦν, τὰ δέ γε διαπορού μενος, ὅπως ἂν ἄριστα τῷ πράγματι χρήσαιτο· συμβούλῳ γοῦν ἐμοὶ χρώμενος περὶ τὴν τοιαύτην στάσιν τοῦ λογισμοῦ, ἐδίδου μᾶλλον τῷ φιλανθρώπῳ, ἑτέρῳ τρόπῳ τὸ θεῖον ἐξιλεούμενος. 6.169 Συμπαθεστέραν γοῦν ἔγωγε ψυχὴν οὔτε πρὶν ἑωράκειν, οὔτε νῦν ἐν οὐδενὶ τῶν πάντων κατανοῶ, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ φιλοτιμοτέραν ἢ βασιλεῖ πρέπουσαν <μᾶλλον>· ἐκεῖνος γὰρ ὥσπερ ἐπὶ τούτοις τὸ βασιλεύειν λαχὼν οὐδ' εἶναι τὴν ἡμέραν ἐκείνην βασιλεὺς ἐδόκει ἐν ᾗ μήτε τι φιλάνθρωπον ἐνεδείξατο μήτε τι τῆς φιλοτίμου παρεγύμνωσε γνώμης, οὐδὲ εἰς ψυχὴν, ἵν' οὕτως εἴποιμι, εὔγεω τὰ τῆς εὐεργεσίας κατεβάλλετο σπέρματα, ὡς εὐθὺς τὸν τῆς εὐγνωμοσύνης στάχυν ἀναδιδόναι, οὐδὲ μᾶλλον ἐκείνη τὸν τῆς εὐχαριστίας ἀπεγέννα καρπὸν, ἢ ὁ οὗτος σπείρειν πεφιλοτίμητο τὴν ἐρίβωλον γῆν καὶ πίειραν. 6.170 Ἀμέλει καὶ βραχεῖαν τῆς τοιαύτης αὐτῷ ἀρε τῆς τοῖς φιληκόοις ὑπόθεσιν διηγήσομαι· ἐπὶ κλέμμασί τις ἁλοὺς στρατηγικῶν διοικήσεων, χρήμασιν ἐζημιοῦτο πολ λοῖς, πολλαπλασίοις ὧν ἐκεῖνος ἐκέκτητο· ἦν δ' ἄρα καὶ οὗτος <τῶν> εὐδαιμόνων καὶ πολυχρύσων, καὶ ὁ εἰσπράττων τῶν ἀπαραιτήτων, τὸ βασιλικὸν γὰρ ἦν ταμεῖον καὶ ὁ δημό σιος· ὁ δ' ἄρα ἐδεῖτο καὶ βασιλικῆς ἀκοῆς, ἵν' ἐκεῖθεν ἔχοι τὴν ψῆφον καὶ μὴ ἐπὶ πᾶσιν αὐτῷ ἰσχύῃ τὸ δημόσιον δικα στήριον· ἐπεὶ δὲ ἀμφοῖν τοῖν μεροῖν ἡ πρὸς βασιλέα ἐδόθη εἴσοδος, παρῆσαν δὲ πολλοὶ τῷ ἀγῶνι, καὶ αὐτὸς πρὸ τῶν ἄλλων ὑπογραμματεύων καὶ τὰς τῆς Θέμιδος φωνὰς σημειούμενος, ἐπεὶ γοῦν εἰσῄεσαν ἄμφω, ὁ κεκλοφὼς ἐκεῖ νος ἢ κεκλοφέναι δοκῶν εὐθεῖάν τινα καὶ συμπαθεστάτην ἀφῆκε φωνὴν, μόνον ἐκστῆναι τῶν οἰκείων τῷ δημοσίῳ, μὴ μέντοι γε καὶ τοῖς παισὶ χρεῶν ὑποσχέσεις κληροδοτῆσαι, αὐτίκα δὲ καὶ ἀπεδύετο τὴν ἐσθῆτα, ὡς ἂν ἐπὶ μόνῳ ἀπαλ λαγείη τῷ σώματι. 6.171 Ἐπὶ τούτοις ὁ βασιλεὺς δακρύοις ἐπιτέγξας τὰ ὄμματα· «Ἀλλ' ὦ βέλτιστε, ἔφη, εἶτα δὴ οὐκ αἰσχύναιο τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν ἀτιμάζων τοῦ γένους, οὕτω σαυτὸν εἰς ἐσχάτην ἀθρόον καταγαγὼν πενίαν, ὡς καὶ δεῖσθαι τοῦ θρέψοντος καὶ τὸ σῶμα σκεπάσοντος;» Ἐπὶ τούτοις ἐκεῖνος· «Ἀλλ' οὐδ' ἂν, ὦ βασιλεῦ, ἔφησεν, οὐδ' εἰ πάνυ βουλοίμην, τοῦτο δυναίμην ἂν ἐπ' αὐτῷ προσπορίσασθαι.» Τί δὲ πρὸς τὸν λόγον ὁ βασιλεύς; «Ἢν δέ τίς σοι τὸ εἰσπραττόμενον χρέος ἐπιμερίσαιτο, ἀγαπήσεις ἂν τὴν ἰσότητα; -Ἐκ μηχανῆς, ἔφησεν οὗτος, ἔσται θεός· ἀλλ' οὐχ ὁρῶ εἴ τις ἐξ οὐρανοῦ