Oration 46
Imperial Dio Chrysostom Greek- I am not so astonished at what you are doing, men, such as it is; but since I see no cause for your anger against me, this is what brings me to perplexity. For a just anger of men one may beg off, but who could heal an unjust hatred? And I ask you to hear me speak, not for my own sake more than for your own. For if I do no wrong, neither do you, surely, wish to hate one of your own citizens without cause; but if I do wrong, the speech will be against me, not on my behalf — and in that case I shall submit to a greater punishment from you than you yourselves seek. For to be convicted of being base is altogether more dreadful than to be stoned or burned.
- And first learn that the things that seem fearful to you — the stones and the fire — are fearful to no one, nor are you strong in these, but the weakest of all, unless someone reckons up the power of robbers and madmen. But the strength of a city and a people lies in other things, and first of all in being prudent and doing what is just. As for my father, whether he was a good man, I need say nothing; for you always speak well of him, both in common and individually, wherever you make mention of him, as of no mean citizen.
- You must know, however, that these praises are of no profit to him; rather, whenever you receive his offspring well, then you remember him too. And about our grandfather no one could say either that he disgraced the city or that he spent nothing of his own. For the estate which he had inherited from father and grandfather he spent entirely upon public ambition, so that he had nothing left, and then acquired another by his learning and from the emperors.
- And further, he is found to have asked no favour for himself, amid so great a friendship and zeal, but to have kept and stored up the emperor's good will for you. And if it seems to anyone idle babble to remind you of the goodwill and virtue of your own citizens, this man somehow wishes himself to be well treated by someone. Being, then, of such stock, even if we were exceedingly base, yet for their sake we were worthy of some forbearance, not to be stoned by you nor burned.
- But consider my own case too, men, not without fair judgement. For our father left us an estate great in reputation, but in real value small and far less than others'; for the debts were no less than forty myriads, and there were such external entanglements that these were far harder than the debts. For we had, so to speak, no security in anything that was ours, but trusting in his own power he had acquired everything, as though no one would dispute it.
- Left amid such circumstances, I have not even now discharged the portion of the debts that falls to me, yet I have performed for you the greatest public services, and no one in the city more than I. And you yourselves know that there are many richer than I. What, then, is the ground on which you are angry with me, and have put me forward, dishonoured before all, together with so-and-so, and bring stones and fire against us? And let no one say that I speak on his behalf. For perhaps one ought not to be so provoked against anyone, not even against wrongdoers;
- yet for me my own case suffices. And consider, in other respects too, what sort of citizen I am, comparing me with whomever you wish among the many whom you do not burn. For I have lands, and all these in your territory; yet of those who border on me no one ever — neither rich nor poor (and many of such men are my neighbours) — has charged me with depriving him of anything or evicting him, either justly or unjustly. And I am myself neither exceedingly clever at speaking, nor perhaps the last of all in speaking.
- Is there, then, anyone whom I have grieved in a speech, bringing a lawsuit against some quiet man or contriving an injury? Or have I made anyone endanger his property as belonging to Caesar, or betrayed a man in advocacy? And indeed, of the present scarcity no one is more guiltless than I. For have I, who farm the most grain of all, locked it up to raise the price? But you yourselves know the yield of my lands — that it is a rare thing if I ever sold grain, and that only when there is a surplus in abundance, while in such years as these I have not even enough, but my whole produce comes from wine and cattle. But I am unwilling to lend money for the purchasing of grain. Neither, then, need I say anything about this. For you know both those in the city who lend and those who borrow.
- What, then, is the thing that I, being able to do it so as to relieve you of the scarcity, am unwilling to do — that you are so disposed toward me? Because, by Zeus, I have built the porticoes by the hot springs, and workshops? This is the thing in which some say the city is being wronged by me. And whom did ever either you or any other man blame for building a house on his own land? Or is the grain dearer on this account? And yet I bought the property for five myriads, at a price wholly above its worth. But I am ashamed, by Zeus and the gods, if any of the citizens — for surely it is not the city — is so depraved as to be grieved and to envy, if he sees that someone has built a portico or a workshop.
- And indeed the matter at which you were provoked truly needs some attention; yet it is not past remedy, nor such as to warrant doing such things. For the price of grain has risen above what is usual among us, yet not so as to be despaired of. But there are cities in which it is always at this price, even when things are at their best. Again you raise an uproar, as though I were saying that among you too it ought to be at this price and never lower. But I say that one ought indeed to take care that it be lower, yet not to take what has happened so bitterly nor to be beside oneself; since what has now been done is not such as befits such a matter, but if we had killed your children and your wives, you could do nothing harsher.
- For to be angry with your own citizens — whether justly or unjustly, I let pass — but citizens at any rate, and these in full standing and inferior to none, and neither to give them a hearing nor to receive one, but straightway to stone them and burn their houses, so that, if you could, you might burn them together with their children and their wives — of what sort of men is this? To me, by Zeus and the gods — even if you will hear it with displeasure — such things do not seem to belong to men in want, nor to those who lack the necessities. For want makes for self-control. And if you do not think this is said on your behalf, you err greatly.
- For if you are going to be such men — that, even if you grow angry at someone (and it is likely that many things should befall a city, both just and unjust) — you will think fit to take so great a vengeance as straightway to burn men together with their children, and to compel some of the women, free persons, to be seen by you with their clothes torn and supplicating you as in war — what man is so senseless and so ill-starred as to choose to live in such a city for a single day? For it is far better to be an exile and to dwell abroad in a strange land than to suffer such things. Since even now the alleged pretext, on account of which they say you turned aside from my house, wary of the depth of the narrow lane — see what sort of thing it is.
- For if this saved me, it is now high time, for the rest, that the city, as in a camp, should seize the difficult ground, the heights or the steep places. And yet, by the gods, not even in camps do men seek to pitch their tents more safely than one another, but their guard is against the enemy. To Fortune, then, be thanks, on account of which you turned aside, whether you had this in mind or anything else whatever; you did not, however, suspect rightly. For I, for my part, would not have defended myself against you; but on this score at least you have full security, whenever you wish to burn the house: it would have been enough for me to take my wife and child and withdraw.
- And let no one suppose that I have said these things out of indignation on my own behalf rather than out of fear for you, lest you ever be slandered as violent and lawless. For nothing in the cities escapes the governors — I mean the greater governors, above those here — but just as kinsfolk at home accuse the more unruly children before their teachers, so too the offences of the peoples are reported to them. These things, then, you would do neither nobly nor to your own advantage. But to think fit to take care of the market-place, and to elect the capable and those who have not performed public services — or, if not, whomever you wish — this is the part of prudent men, and in these matters at least no one will oppose you.