In time of peace, on the other hand, being one of
the voters, you go to the assembly and lord it over
the rich while they quake and cringe and seck your
good will with presents. Besides, it is they who
toil that you may have baths and shows and everything else to your heart’s content, while you investigate and scrutinize them harshly like a master,
sometimes without even letting them say a word for
themselves; and if you choose you shower them
generously with stones or confiscate their properties.
And_ you do not dread an informer, nor yet a robber
who might steal your gold by climbing over the
coping or digging through the wall; and you are
not bothered with casting up accounts or collecting
debts or squabbling with your confounded agents,
and thus dividing your attention among so many
worries. No, after you have finished a sandal and
received your pay of seven obols, you get up from
your bench toward evening, take a bath if you choose,
So in consequence of all this you are sound and strong in body and can stand the cold, for your hardships have trained you fine and made you no mean fighter against adverse conditions that scem to the rest of the world irresistible. No chance that one of their severe illnesses will come near you: on the contrary, if ever you get a light fever, after humouring it a little while you jump out of bed at once, shaking off your discomfort, and the fever takes flight immediately on seeing that you drink cold water and have no use for doctors’ visits. But the rich, unhappy that they are—what ills are they not subject to through intemperance? Gout and consumption and pneumonia and dropsy are the consequences of those splendid dinners.
In brief, some of them who like Icarus fly high and draw near the sun without knowing that their wings are fitted on with wax, now and then make a great splash by falling head-first into the sea, while of those who, copying Daedalus, have not let their ambitions soar high in the air but have kept them close to earth so that the wax is occasionally wet with spray, the most part reach their journey’s end in safety.
You mean temperate and sensible people.
But as for the others, Micyllus, you can see how
sadly they come to grief when a Croesus with his
Tell me, cock, when you were king—for you say you were once on a time—how did you find that life? You were completely happy, I suppose, as you had what is surely the acme of all blessings.
Don’t even remind me of it, Micyllus, so utterly wretched was I then; for although in all things external I seemed to be completely happy, as you say, I had a thousand vexations within.
What were they? What you say is strange and not quite credible.
I ruled over a great country, Micyllus, one that
roduced everything and was among the most noteworthy for the number of its people and the beauty
of its cities, one that was traversed by navigable
rivers and had a sea-coast with good harbours ; and
I had a great army, trained cavalry, a large bodyguard, triremes, untold riches, a great quantity of
gold plate and all the rest of the paraphernalia of
rule enormously exaggerated, so that when I went
out the people made obeisance and thought they
beheld a god inthe flesh, and they ran up one after