Oration 73
Imperial Dio Chrysostom Greek- Is being trusted a good thing for those who are trusted, and of the same kind as being rich and being healthy and being honoured are for those who are honoured and healthy and rich—bringing them some benefit? I mean, for instance, if a man should happen to be publicly entrusted by his own city or another with an army, or with money, or with walls—as many ere now have been entrusted with such things, and some even with the cities themselves, with the children and women, both in time of peace and sometimes when war had overtaken them; 2. and, by Zeus, if a man should be entrusted by a king or a tyrant with gold or silver, or ships, or arms, or a citadel, or the whole empire—as Leptines often received Syracuse from his brother, and Philistus from the younger Dionysius, and the Magi the royal palace of the Persians from Cambyses, when he was on campaign in Egypt, and Mithranes the citadel of Sardis from Darius, and Persaeus the Acrocorinth from Antigonus; and, long before these, Atreus received Argos from Eurystheus, when Eurystheus marched against Athens, the Athenians refusing to give up the children of Heracles; and his son Agamemnon, when he sailed against Troy, entrusted his wife and his house to a musician— 3. are we to say that all these who are trusted reap some good for themselves from the trust? And again, those entrusted by private men with wives or children or property—as, I suppose, many leave behind them stewards and guardians, some when going abroad, some when dying; and some give deposits without witnesses, having no fear of being robbed; and some, when the laws forbid them to leave behind the heirs they wish, leave others, charging them to render the money to their own friends— 4. are we to say that to all these the thing is profitable, and the reputation which those who entrust their affairs hold of them when they entrust them—and most of all to those last, who are reputed to be trusted contrary to law? Or, on the contrary, that such a thing is hard and the cause of much occupation and of cares, and sometimes even of the greatest dangers? One may consider this straightway, beginning from those who are reputed greatest; for these of necessity neglect their own affairs, both money and children, and attend to the common interests, and are wholly occupied with them. And often they are destroyed by those who plot against the cities, whether enemies or certain of the citizens, and often by the cities themselves, being unjustly slandered. For some have been stripped of their property; others it has befallen to acquire reproaches, being condemned for theft; some have been driven from their fatherlands; some have even been put to death. 5. As, for instance, they say that Pericles was convicted of theft among the Athenians—the man who presided over the city most nobly and most excellently; and that Themistocles was exiled as a traitor—the man who, taking them over when they were unable to dwell on the soil of their fatherland, but were yielding to the enemy the very city and the temples, not only restored all these things, but further made them leaders of the Greeks, taking away that honour from the Lacedaemonians, who had held it from the beginning. 6. And Miltiades, the first to conquer the barbarians with the citizens alone, and to cast down the pride of the Persians, which they had formerly held as being mightier than all men—this man, not long afterward, fell into prison at their hands; and besides, his son Cimon would have been deprived of his rights for all time, had he not given his sister Elpinice in marriage to a man of low birth who had money, who paid the fine of fifty talents on his behalf. And yet Cimon afterward won Cyprus for the Athenians, and conquered the barbarians by land and by sea together off Pamphylia; but nevertheless, such a man, and the son of such a father, 7. had he not come by money, they would have left without civic rights in the city. And Phocion, in later times, who lived above eighty years, and for most of these was general, and guarded the city in the most difficult crises, and was named "the Good" by those very men—him it did not suffice them merely to put to death, but they did not even allow his corpse to remain in Attica, but cast it out beyond the borders. And Nicias, the son of Niceratus, because he was trusted by the citizens, though he knew what the expedition to Sicily would be, both from the god and from his own reasoning, was nevertheless compelled to go on the campaign, sick as he was, on account of this trust. And if, having lost the army or part of it, he had himself at least been saved, it is plain that on reaching home he would have perished. But since, knowing this, he held on in every way, being captured by the enemy he suffered this fate. 8. And these things have been said by me about one city and those who took part in public life in one city—and not even all of these. But if I were to go through, in the case of those reputed faithful to tyrants, what they have met with, I should perhaps need very many days. For it is well-nigh impossible that those men should be saved. For some, if they furnish ground for accusation against themselves, as having done wrong, are on this account destroyed, and it is not possible to obtain any pardon; and those who show themselves good men and able to guard what is entrusted to them obtain, at the moment, some honour, but not long afterward are destroyed, being envied and suspected. 9. For it does not seem profitable to monarchs that any man should be good in their service, nor appear to be well thought of by the multitude. And the trusts that come from private men have, perhaps, lesser dangers, because the matters too are smaller, but endless occupation and toils, and often not even any gratitude at all attends them. And it often happens that one incurs blame from the very men who have been well served, as not having rendered everything justly and honestly. 10. Now with what purpose have I gone through these things? Not, surely, to admonish you with such an admonition, nor to turn you from being trustworthy. For I should be far baser than Zethus in censuring such things—as he admonished his brother, not thinking it fit that he should philosophize or spend his time about music, neglecting the care of his own affairs; and he said that he was introducing a strange and unprofitable Muse. Just as someone might perhaps say that you too have chosen such a course—in no way idle nor a lover of wine, yet perhaps careless of your own money; and, by Zeus, he might say this verse too: "whence you shall come to dwell in an empty house."