Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

The Delay of the Deity
and admire them as fortunate mortals, until they
are
seen goaded and scourged, while the fire breaks forth
from their splendid and costly attire. For many of
the wicked are the owners of fine mansions, and, as
they hold magistracies and other responsible posi
tions, no one is aware that they are undergoing pun
ishment until they are put to death or hurled from
rocks. This, one ought not to call punishment, but
the consummation and fulfilment of punishment.
For as Herodicus of Selymbria, who had been at
tacked by consumption, an incurable disease, was the
first to combine gymnastics with the healing art, and
of whom Plato says, that (in so doing)
he protracted
his own death, and that of all \vho were similarly
diseased; so malefactors who are seen to have escaped
immediate punishment, expiate their crimes by a
longer, not by a shorter penalty; nor after a longer
time but during a longer time; they are not punished
after they have grown old, but they grow old during
their punishment. And I say a long time with refer
ence to ourselves, for to the gods the span of human
life is nothing, now, but not thirty years ago is the
same as to say, that in the evening, but not in the
morning, the malefactor, is to be tortured or hanged,
in this life just as in
especially since man is shut up
a prison from which there is no migration to
another
place or escape, but which in the meanwhile allows
time for many enjoyments and the transaction of
business, the bestowing and receiving of honors and
favors, and for diversions; just as persons in prison
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