The Game of Chess Moralized

...so much so that after his death many men of worth and scholars, through the noble teachings he left for them in writing, deserved thereafter to bear the name of philosopher.

¶ This Zeno Reference to Zeno of Elea or Zeno of Citium, used here as a model of Stoic virtue and the refusal to compromise truth for safety. was so full of such great righteousness that he preferred to choose to die rather than fail or say anything that was not true and honorable, rather than live nobly with kings in their proud delights and efface righteousness.

When the philosopher saw the life of Evil-Merodach Original: "envillenevies." A variant spelling for the Babylonian king Amel-Marduk, depicted in medieval lore as the tyrant who prompted the invention of chess. so very dishonest and very disordered, and especially that of the king under whom he lived, whom no one dared to blame because of his very great cruelty which he [the philosopher] had seen and witnessed every day. For there was no one so wise in his kingdom that, if he were to reprove him for anything, the king would not immediately have him vilely put to death; for which reason the people assembled and requested the said philosopher that it might please him to provide counsel in this matter. He [the philosopher] preferred to despise his own life and end it by a very cruel death rather than remain and live with a prince so very disordered and full of beastly and evil habits.

Just as Valerius Maximus Original: "Valere le grant." A 1st-century Roman author whose collection of anecdotes was a standard textbook for medieval moral education. relates of Theodorus of Cyrene Original: "theodore tyrannien." Referring to Theodorus "the Atheist" of Cyrene, a philosopher famous for his sharp wit and defiance of authority. who was fixed on the cross because he had rebuked King Lysimachus A successor to Alexander the Great; the anecdote of his confrontation with Theodorus is a classic "truth-to-power" narrative. for his evil works. And he said to him while he hung on the cross: "Let this same punishment befall your false counselors who are with you, ennobled in your purple robes. For it matters not to me whether I rot on high or in the ground, as one who fears nothing from this death since I die innocent."