Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

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Plutarch and the Greece of His Age It was the evil destiny of the Greek polities that they could never be brought to act together for any length of time; nor did all of them ever act together in any common enterprise. And they learned noth The misfortunes resulting from ing from experience. this centripetal tendency were pointed out time and again by writers and orators, but to no purpose. Local pride always outweighed the dictates of reason or even of common prudence. Had Greece presented a united front, under competent leadership, it would have been a hard task for even Rome to subdue it. But it was impossible for the different states to for get their reciprocal animosities: the increasing perity of one was usually the signal pros for others to turn their arms against it. In this way all of them were gradually weakened and thus became a com paratively easy prey to any strong foreign foe that might choose to attack them. Their subjugation by misfortune that ever Rome was by far the greatest befell them. Philip of Macedon and his successors were at least more than half Greeks, and had a good deal of sympathy with Greek ideas. The Romans had none whatever. Still, cruelly as they carried out the work of subjugation in certain localities, when their first animosity was appeased they seem not to have interfered systematically with existing muni cipal administrations. Yet the financial pressure be came harder as the people grew poorer, and matters went from bad to worse. The wickedness of Corinth, the most Roman of Greek cities after it had been re- 116
Plutarch and the Greece of His Age built under imperial auspices, affords striking evi dence of what Roman influence meant on the morals of a Greek polity. It is a matter of common knowledge what Roman internecine war brought upon Italy. To a certain extent the same evils were shared by Greece. Three of the fiercest battles between the contestants for the principate were fought in or near Greece. The Greeks were always on the losing side, though her soldiers were not numerously represented in the Roman armies. These battles did but accelerate a retrograde movement that had been quite marked least since the Mithridatic war, though it did not begin then. The population was rapidly decreasing. Plutarch says that, in his time all Greece could not furnish three thousand heavy^armed soldiers. This statement must not be taken too literally; it can hardly mean that there were not this number of ablebodied men in the whole of Greece; it must mean that it did not contain three thousand citizens suffi ciently well-to=do to enable them to support them selves in the field. In the days of their glory some of the smallest Greek states were better off at than this would indicate. It is certainly proof positive of poverty, if not of a very sparse population. But this, too, had greatly decreased in some places. In the time of Augustus, Thebes had ceased to be any thing more than a large village the same Thebes that had played so prominent a part in legend and history. With a few exceptions, the larger Boeotian 147
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Between Heathenism and Christianity
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" PREFACE. It is admitted by s
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Preface In the following pages I ha
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CONTENTS, ....... PAGE. PBEFAOE ...
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SENECA: HIS CHARACTER AND ENVIRONME
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" " Seneca: His Character
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Seneca: His Character and Environme
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" No Seneca: His Character and
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SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF SEN
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Selections from the Writings of Sen
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De Providentia untouched, I shall u
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" Why De Providentia gence and
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De Providentia may gain real streng
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De Providentia enough for the immor
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De Providentia down his arms forthw
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De Providentia well-known exemplar
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De Providentia prove by these thing
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De Provldenda to thee when thou wer
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Page 129 and 130: eformer. Plutarch and the Greece of
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Page 167 and 168: " " The Delay of the Deit
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Page 171 and 172: The Delay of the Deity vices, He ad
Page 173 and 174: The Delay of the Deity nature, to h
Page 175 and 176: The Delay of the Deity may turn to
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Page 179 and 180: The Delay of the Deity Sikyonians a
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Page 183 and 184: The Delay of the Deity are allowed
Page 185 and 186: The Delay of the Deity 11. If then
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Page 189 and 190: The Delay of the Deity wished might
Page 191 and 192: " " The Delay of the Deit
Page 193 and 194: The Delay of the Deity to what is p
Page 195 and 196: The Delay of the Deity son from his
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Page 199 and 200: The Delay of the Deity conjured up
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Pindar says? 197 The Delay of the D
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The Delay of the Deity to be a vill
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" " The Delay of the Deit
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The Delay of the Deity distances fr
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The Delay of the Deity the souls of
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The Delay of the Deity cation and p
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The Delay of the Deity the white. H
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The Delay of the Deity offer suppli
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The Delay of the Deityfalling into
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" " " The Delay of t
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The Delay of the Deity is intrinsic
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Appendix VOLUME III. De E apud Delp
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Appendix cited by their Latin title
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