Iambics to Seleucus

I bid the good and noble son Seleucus, a branch of a noble root, to rejoice. And I myself pray to rejoice in your life, taking great pride in your studies and your ways. First, then, have fear and longing for God; for God becomes the beginning and end of all life for all who are wise. And second, practice your character, child, to be gentle, humble, self-controlled, steadfast, sweet, unenvious, just, courageous, wise, august, industrious, steadfast and prudent. For this is an adornment for both young and old, to be rich not so much in money, but in character; for this is yours. But money plays, wandering, the disease of loving wealth, being naturally disposed to smile upon one after another, imitating the way of a faithless prostitute who mocks her many lovers in various ways, being with them and fleeing them and clinging to these men then those, but to no one genuinely. For the nature of wealth has no stability, likened to the violent waves of the sea, swelling up and falling with unstable motion. You therefore, O child, being always rich in character, will have a treasure not carried off by thieves, not laid out in the open for slanderers, nor drained by the hands of tyrants or plundered by the weapons of barbarians, but remaining within the bodiless dwellings, kept safely in the storehouses of the soul, which neither the furious rage of fire consumes, nor will the wave of the sea's swell cover.

Guarding this wealth that is truly and genuinely yours, polish it with studies, with books of poets, the writings of historians, and being trained by the flowing eloquence of orators and the subtle cares of philosophers. And encounter all these things with understanding, wisely collecting from them what is useful, and avoiding the harm of each with discernment, imitating the work of a wise bee, which settles on all flowers, and gathers from each most wisely what is useful, having nature itself as its teacher. But you, by reasoning, gather abundantly from those things that are beneficial. But if something brings harm, understanding its worthlessness, fly away quickly. For the mind of men is swift of wing. So whatever praises of virtue were written by them singing its hymns, and conversely censuring vice, these things you, having learned them with zeal, guard both for their sense and for the grace of the language. But what they wrote about the gods in broad nonsense, unseemly myths, teachings of demons, myths worthy of laughter and tears, turn away from these as from nooses and snares. And having read both, the gods and the words, the ridiculous gods and the lovely words, despise the pleasure-loving gods, but honoring the words, as from one plant, both flee the thorns and pluck the rose. And for the pagan words, this is the best rule for you. But to which it is fitting to give all zeal, we will speak, but a little later. For I want to tell you this first. A young man must flee the company of the utterly wicked and the pleasures with them. For there are many, just like cattle full of scab and some disease, who try the more simple young men, and rubbing up against them in deceitful villainy, wish to infect them as with the disease of wickedness, so that by the companionship of the majority they may cover over their own evils. Guard yourself against these men. For also, as Paul says, evil communications corrupt good manners. Yes, and that must be strongly guarded by you: hate the indecent song of theaters, of wild beast shows, of hippodromes, the contentious spectacle of evils, the vanities of life, the hydra of pleasures, the unseemly lessons of licentious men for whom nothing is shameful except being temperate. For some of them, ministers of shame, have as their art to think with insults, mimes of ridiculous things, accustomed to blows, having cut off shame with razors before their hair, a licentious workshop of shamefulness, for whom to suffer and to do all things which are not lawful, in the [sight] of all men

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Iambi ad Seleucum

Χαίρειν κελεύω τὸν καλόν τε κἀγαθὸν υἱὸν Σέλευκον, εὐγενοῦς ῥίζης κλάδον. χαίρειν δὲ καὐτὸς εὔχομαι τῷ σῷ βίῳ μαθήμασίν τε καὶ τρόποις φρονῶν μέγα. Πρῶτον μὲν οὖν φόβον τε καὶ πόθον ἔχε θεοῦ· θεὸς γὰρ πᾶσιν ἀρχὴ καὶ τέλος τοῖς εὖ φρονοῦσι γίγνεται παντὸς βίου. Τὸ δεύτερον δὲ τὸν τρόπον ἄσκει, τέκνον, πρᾶον, ταπεινόν, ἐγκρατῆ, στερρόν, γλυκύν, ἀβάσκανον, δίκαιον, ἀνδρεῖον, σοφόν, σεμνόν, φίλεργον, εὐσταθῆ καὶ σώφρονα. κόσμος γὰρ οὗτος καὶ νέοις καὶ πρεσβύταις μὴ χρήμασιν τοσοῦτον, ἀλλὰ τῷ τρόπῳ πλουτεῖν· τὸ σὸν γὰρ τοῦτο· τὰ δὲ χρήματα παίζει πλανῶντα τὴν φιλόπλουτον νόσον, ἄλλοις ἀπ' ἄλλων προσγελᾶν πεφυκότα, πόρνης ἀπίστου τὸν τρόπον μιμούμενα πολλοὺς ἐραστὰς ποικίλως μωκωμένης, συνόντα καὶ φεύγοντα καὶ κολλώμενα τούτοις ἐκείνοις, οὐδενὶ δὲ γνησίως. τὸ γὰρ βέβαιον οὐκ ἔχει πλούτου φύσις λάβροις θαλάσσης κύμασιν εἰκασμένη κυρτουμένοις, πίπτουσιν ἀστάτῳ φορᾷ. σὺ τοίνυν, ὦ παῖ, τοῖς τρόποις πλουτῶν ἀεὶ θησαυρὸν ἕξεις οὐ κλοπαῖς συλώμενον, οὐ συκοφάνταις ἐν μέσῳ προκείμενον, οὐδ' αὖ τυράννων χερσὶν ἐξαντλούμενον ἢ βαρβάρων ὅπλοισιν ἐκπορθούμενον, μένοντα δ' ἔνδον τῶν ἀσωμάτων δόμων ψυχῆς ταμείοις ἀσφαλῶς τηρούμενον, ὃν οὔτε λάβρον ἐσθίει πυρὸς μένος, οὐδ' αὖ καλύψει κῦμα ποντίου σάλου.

Τοῦτον τὸν ὄντως ὄντα σὸν καὶ γνήσιον πλοῦτον φυλάττων σμῆχε τοῖς μαθήμασιν, βίβλοις ποιητῶν, ἱστορικῶν συγγράμμασιν, καὶ ταῖς τρεχούσαις ῥητόρων εὐγλωττίαις λεπταῖς τε μερίμναις φιλοσόφων ἀσκούμενος. τούτοις δ' ἅπασιν ἐμφρόνως ἐντύγχανε σοφῶς ἀπ' αὐτῶν συλλέγων τὸ χρήσιμον, φεύγων δ' ἑκάστου τὴν βλάβην κεκριμένως, σοφῆς μελίττης ἔργον ἐκμιμούμενος, ἥτις ἐφ' ἅπασιν ἄνθεσιν καθιζάνει, τρυγᾷ δ' ἑκάστου πανσόφως τὸ χρήσιμον αὐτὴν ἔχουσα τὴν φύσιν διδάσκαλον. σὺ δ' ἐκ λογισμοῦ τῶν μὲν ἀφθόνως δρέπου τῶν ὠφελούντων. εἰ δέ τι βλάβην φέρει, συνεὶς τὸ φαῦλον ὀξέως ἀφίπτασο. ὠκύπτερος γάρ ἐστιν ἀνθρώποις ὁ νοῦς. ὥσθ' ὅσα μὲν αὐτοῖς εἰς ἀρετὴν ἐγκώμια ὑμνοῦσιν αὐτὴν ἐγράφη καὶ τοὔμπαλιν κακίαν ψέγουσιν, ταῦτα σὺ σπουδῇ μαθὼν καὶ νοῦν φύλασσε καὶ χάριν τῆς λέξεως. ἃ δ' εἰς θεοὺς ἔγραψαν ἐν λήρῳ πλατεῖ μύθους ἀσέμνους, δαιμόνων διδάγματα, μύθους γέλωτος ἀξίους καὶ δακρύων, ταῦθ' ὡς βρόχους τε καὶ πάγας ἀποστρέφου. ἄμφω δ' ἀναγνούς, τοὺς θεοὺς καὶ τοὺς λόγους, θεοὺς γελοίους καὶ λόγους ἐρασμίους, καταφρόνει μὲν τῶν φιληδόνων θεῶν, λόγους δὲ τιμῶν, ὥσπερ ἐξ ἑνὸς φυτοῦ, καὶ τὰς ἀκάνθας φεῦγε καὶ ῥόδον δρέπου. καὶ τῶν μὲν ἔξω σοι λόγων οὗτος νόμος ἄριστος. οἷς δὲ πᾶσαν ἁρμόττει νέμειν σπουδήν, ἐροῦμεν, ἀλλὰ μικρὸν ὕστερον. Ἐκεῖνο γάρ σοι πρῶτον εἰπεῖν βούλομαι. φεύγειν κατάκρον τῶν κακῶν ὁμιλίας καὶ τὰς σὺν αὐτοῖς ἡδονὰς χρὴ τὸν νέον. πολλοὶ γάρ εἰσιν, ὡσπερεὶ βοσκήματα ψώρας γέμοντα καὶ νοσήματός τινος, οἳ τοὺς νέους πειρῶσι τοὺς ἁπλουστέρους παρατριβόμενοί τ' ἐν δόλῳ πανουργίας ὥσπερ νόσου θέλουσι τῆς πονηρίας αὐτοὺς ἀναπιμπλᾶν, ὥστε τῇ τῶν πλειόνων κοινωνίᾳ σφῶν τοῖς κακοῖς ἐπισκοτεῖν. τούτους φυλάττου. καὶ γάρ, ὡς Παύλῳ δοκεῖ, φθείρουσιν ἤθη χρηστὰ ὁμιλίαι κακαί. Ναὶ μὴν ἐκεῖνο σφόδρα σοι τηρητέον· μίσει θεάτρων, θηρίων, ἱπποδρόμων ἄσεμνον ᾠδήν, δύσεριν κακῶν θέαν, βίου ματαιότητας, ὕδραν ἡδονῶν, ἀνδρῶν ἀσελγῶν ἀπρεπῆ μαθήματα οἷς οὐδέν ἐστιν αἰσχρὸν ἢ τὸ σωφρονεῖν. οἱ μὲν γὰρ αὐτῶν, αἰσχύνης ὑπηρέται, τέχνην ἔχουσι τὸ φρονεῖν ταῖς ὕβρεσιν, μῖμοι γελοίων κονδύλοις εἰθισμένοι, αἰδῶ τεμόντες τοῖς ξυροῖς πρὸ τῶν τριχῶν, ἀσελγὲς αἰσχρότητος ἐργαστήριον, οἷς πάντα πάσχειν καὶ ποιεῖν, ἃ μὴ θέμις, ἐν ταῖς ἁπάντων

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