Dream of Scipio and Stoic Paradoxes

Therefore, for the wise man alone

Therefore, it happens only to this wise man that he does nothing unwillingly, nothing constrained, nothing forced. But if this must be discussed in more words, that short point must be confessed: no one is free unless he is so disposed.
Therefore all the wicked are slaves.

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Therefore, all the wicked are slaves. This is not as unexpected or marvelous in reality as it is in speech. They do not say that they are slaves in the way that chattels are made the property of masters by law or any civil right, but if slavery is, as it is, the obedience of a broken and abject spirit lacking its own judgment, who can deny that all the fickle, all the covetous, and finally all the wicked are slaves? Does he seem free to me over whom a woman rules, to whom she imposes laws, prescribes, commands, forbids what she wishes, who can deny nothing that is commanded, dares to refuse nothing? If she asks, it must be given; if she calls, he must come; if she drives him away, he must depart; if she threatens, he must tremble. I truly think that such a man should be called not only a slave, but a most wretched slave, even if he were born into the most noble family. And just as in a large household of fools, there are some slaves who are "more refined" as they appear to themselves, but they are still slaves of the porch original: "atrienses" — slaves who managed the entryway of a Roman house and of their own folly. They are delighted to an excessive degree by statues, by tablets, by engraved silver, by Corinthian works, and by magnificent buildings, and they say, "We are the leaders of the state." You are not even the leaders of your own slaves! But just as in a household, those who handle these things, who clean, who anoint, who turn, who scatter, do not hold the most honorable place of servitude, so in the state, those who have devoted themselves to the desire for these things occupy almost the lowest place of servitude itself. "I have waged great wars," he says, "I have been in charge of great commands and provinces." Then behave with a spirit worthy of praise. The display of your goods keeps you sluggish, or I cry out as I see you looking at and admiring some statue of Polycleitus a famous Greek sculptor, wondering where you stole it from and how you possess it; when I see you, I declare you to be a slave to trivialities.