For the most part, such men may be seen enjoying
high favour in the courts of kings and among the
friends of governors and princes, where envy is great,
suspicions are countless, and occasions for flattery and
slander are frequent. For where hope runs ever high,
there envy is more bitter, hate more dangerous, and
rivalry more cunning. All eye one another sharply
and keep watch like gladiators to detect some part
of the body exposed. Everyone, wishing to be first
himself, shoves or elbows his neighbour out of his
way and, if he can, slyly pulls down or trips up the
man ahead. In this way a good man is simply
upset and thrown at the start, and finally thrust off
the course in disgrace, while one who is better
versed in flattery and cleverer at such unfair
practices wins. In a word, it is “devil take the
hindmost !” ; for they quite confirm Homer’s saying:
Yet this is not an insignificant or a simple thing,
as one might suppose; it requires much skill, no
little shrewdness, and some degree of close study.
Generally speaking, slander is most often directed
against a man who is in favour and on this account is
viewed with envy by those he has put behind him.
They all direct their shafts at him, regarding him as
a hindrance and a stumbling-block, and each one
expects to be first himself when he has routed his
chief and ousted him from favour. Something of
the same sort happens in the athletic games, in footraces. A good runner fram the moment that the
barrier falls