call him a slave though he wears a praetexta.[1] If then he is doing nothing of this kind, do not yet say that he is free, but learn his opinions, whether they are subject to compulsion, or may produce hindrance, or to bad fortune; and if you find him such, call him a slave who has a holiday in the Saturnalia:[2] say that his master is from home he will return soon, and you will know what he suffers. Who will return? Whoever has in himself the power over anything which is desired by the man, either to give it to him or to take it away? Thus then have we many masters? We have: for we have circumstances as masters prior to our present masters; and these circumstances are many. Therefore it must of necessity be that those who have the power over any of these circumstances must be our masters. For no man fears Caesar himself, but he fears death, banishment, deprivation of his property, prison, and disgrace. Nor does any man love Caesar, unless Caesar is a person of great merit, but he loves wealth, the office of tribune, praetor or consul. When we love, and hate and fear these things, it must be that those who have the power over them must be our masters. Therefore we adore them even as gods; for we think that what possesses the power of conferring the greatest advantage on us is divine. Then we wrongly assume (ὑποτάσσομεν) that a certain person has the power of conferring the greatest advantages; therefore he is something divine. For if we wrongly assume[3] that a certain person has the power of conferring the greatest advantages, it is a necessary consequence that the conclusion from these premises must be false.
What then is that which makes a man free from hindrance and makes him his own master? For wealth does not do it, nor consulship, nor provincial government,
- ↑ See Epict. i. 2, note 4.
Sic praetextatos referunt Artaxata mores.—Juv. ii. 170.
- ↑ Saturnalia. See i. 25, note 3.
At this season the slaves had liberty to enjoy themselves and to talk freely with their masters. Hence Horace says Sat. ii. 74—Age, libertate Decembri,
Quando ita majores voluerunt, utere. - ↑ "Insigne hoc exemplum est τοῦ εἰκῆ τὰς προλήψεις εφαρμόζειν ταῖς ἐπὶ μ όρους οὐσίαις. De quo, vide i. 22, 9, ii. 11, 3, ii. 17, 7." Upton.
