Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

"
We
The Delay of the Deity
against me for killing my
the remark to the
father ? The astonished
company reported king, and after
the case had been investigated Bessus received his
just deserts.
9. say these things,"
I continued,
"
on
the
assumption that there is a postponement of punish
ment for the wicked; on the other hand, it is proper
to hear what Hesiod says, who does not think with
Plato that punishment is a pain which follows injus
tice, but that it is something of equal age with it; that
it
springs from the same root and place, for he says,
it,
Evil counsel is most hurtful to him who has given
and,
He who lays plots for another, lays a plot against
himself.
The cantharis, you know, is said to
contain within
itself the antidote (for the pain it inflicts), and vil
lainy, by engendering within itself both pain and
punishment, pays the penalty for evil-doing, not at a
subsequent time, but in the outrage itself. Every
malefactor who is punished by the infliction of pain
on his body bears his own cross, and vice wreaks upon
itself, out of itself, its own vengeance, because it is in
a sense a creator of the woes of life that it
brings into
existence, together with the accompanying disgrace,
many sorrows, fears and violent passions and regrets
and unceasing restlessness.
Some people are in no
wise different from children, who, on seeing male
factors in the theaters often clad in gilded and purple
garments, crowned and dancing about, are
177
delighted