BOOK I. II. 26-34
places, and had not merely been rubbed down with oil in Bato's[1] wrestling school. But another would have had even his neck cut off, if he could have lived without his neck. This is what we mean by regard for one's proper character; and such is its strength with those who in their deliberations habitually make it a personal contribution. "Come then, Epictetus, shave off your beard."[2] If I am a philosopher, I answer, "I will not shave it off" "But I will take off your neck." If that will do you any good, take it off.
30Someone inquired, "How, then, shall each of us become aware of what is appropriate to his own proper character?" How comes it, replied he, that when the lion charges, the bull alone is aware of his own prowess and rushes forward to defend the whole herd? Or is it clear that with the possession of the prowess comes immediately the consciousness of it also? And so, among us too, whoever has such prowess will not be unaware of it. Yet a bull does not become a bull all at once, any more than a man becomes noble, but a man must undergo a winter training,[3] he must prepare himself and must not plunge recklessly into what is inappropriate for him.
Only consider at what price you sell your freedom of will. If you must sell it, man, at least do not sell it cheap. But the great and pre-eminent deed, perhaps, befits others, Socrates and men of his stamp.—Why then, pray, if we are endowed by nature for such
- ↑ Bato seems to have been a well-known athletic trainer of the time. At least one, and possibly two gladiators at Rome bore this name. C.I.L. I. 718, VI. 10188.
- ↑ Philosophers, especially Stoics and Cynics, regularly wore beards in antiquity. See I. 16, 9 ff.
- ↑ Ancient armies generally disbanded or went into permanent quarters during the winter. To continue military training throughout the winter months was indicative of a sincere and strenuous endeavour.
