Oration 25

They say the philosophers declare that the wise man alone is happy.—Dio. They do say so.—Then do they seem to you to speak the truth?—Dio. To me they do.—Why, then, have you not explained their meaning to me as well?—Dio. If you will first tell me what you suppose the daimon to be.—For my part, that which is master of each man, and according to which each of mankind lives, whether he be free or slave alike, rich or poor, king or private man, and does whatever he does.—Dio. And do you suppose this thing—that which is master of each, which you call the daimon—to be in the man himself, or to be something external, ruling and lord over the man?—

I do—Dio. Is it, then, another man? For there is, I suppose, a man who is master of some one person, another of many, leading them wherever and however he himself wishes, whether by persuasion or by force or by both. And I say nothing unfamiliar, but mean the popular leaders, whom the cities obey in everything, and in whatever way those men direct and counsel, so they act—whether they counsel war or to keep peace, whether to build walls or to fit out triremes, whether to offer sacrifices, or to banish some of their number or strip them of their property or even put them to death; and the kings and the tyrants, and likewise the masters of slaves, all who, having laid down silver or by some other means, have come to possess a man.

So that one might call Lycurgus the daimon of the Lacedaemonians—for at his bidding the Lacedaemonians even now are scourged and camp in the open and go lightly clad, and endure many other hard things that to other men would seem grievous—and Pisistratus the daimon of the Athenians of old. For you doubtless know that, while Pisistratus held the leadership and ruled, the common people did not come down into the city, but, spending their time in the country, became farmers; and Attica, which before was bare and treeless, they planted with olives, at Pisistratus' command; and in all else they acted as he wished.

And later, perhaps, one might say that Themistocles and Pericles too arose among others—for you are surely not unacquainted with these two men—the one, in that he compelled the Athenians, who before were a land-power, to fight at sea, and to give up their land and their city to the barbarians, and to make all their affairs, the temples of the gods and the tombs of their ancestors, depend upon their ships; and afterward he commanded them to wall the Piraeus, more than ninety stades around, and other such things, some of which they did while he was present, but others even after he had gone into exile and died. And after these, perhaps, you will say that certain others became daimones of the Athenians, such as Alcibiades the son of Cleinias, and Nicias and Cleon and Hyperbolus—some of them perhaps fair enough, others utterly base and harsh.

And further, that Cyrus from a certain time became the daimon of the Persians, both a kingly and a liberal one, who took them, formerly enslaved to the Medes, into freedom, and made them masters of all that is in Asia. And further, Cambyses and Darius and the rest in succession: Cambyses, who squandered their wealth and shot them down and laid upon them grievous and continual campaigns and never let them remain at home; and Darius, who gathered up as much wealth as he could and became the cause to the land that it should be tilled, but who also forced this people to wage grievous and perilous wars, such as, I suppose, the war against the Scythians and the war against the Athenians.

And so likewise the Romans might perhaps call Numa their daimon, the Carthaginians Hanno and Hannibal, the Macedonians Alexander or Philip—who made the Macedonians, lowly and weak as they were, and after his father had ceded the rule to the Olynthians, strong and warlike and masters of well-nigh all Europe. And Alexander, afterward, succeeding him, leading them out into Asia, at once made them the richest of all men and at the same time the poorest, at once strong and at the same time weak, exiles and kings the same men—adding Egypt and Babylon and Susa and Ecbatana, but taking away Aegae and Pella and Dium.

And the Carthaginians—Hanno made them Libyans instead of Tyrians, made them dwell in Libya instead of Phoenicia, and possess much wealth and many trading-posts and harbors and triremes, and rule over much land and much sea. And Hannibal, besides Libya, brought it about that they mastered Italy itself for seventeen years. But again he became the cause of their being uprooted and of their city being overturned by the Romans, after he had destroyed many of the Romans before, and had come within a little of taking Rome herself—but was unwilling, as they say, because of his political opponents at home. And this man, perhaps, it is fitting for neither the Carthaginians nor the Romans to call their good daimon.

Numa, taking over Rome small and inglorious, settled moreover in a foreign land, with inhabitants who were a mongrel and base lot, and besides enemies to all their neighbors, poor and savage and living in peril because of Romulus' harshness—Numa made them hold their land securely and be friends to those round about, and established laws and gods and a constitution, and became the cause of all the prosperity afterward spoken of.

I could speak in the same way too of other cities and races and men who fared well or ill because of certain men who became their rulers and leaders; but I think I have sufficiently shown my meaning. If, then, you call these men daimones, as of those under them and through whom each fared better or worse, I would gladly hear it.