On the Control of Anger (9-10)

FUNDANUS. These base examples, to be sure, were not pleasant to observe, but merely unavoidable; but in discussing those who deal with transports of rage in a mild and gentle way I offer instances which are very beautiful both to hear and to witness, and I begin with a word of scorn for those who say,

It was a man you wronged: should a man bear this?[*]

and

Trample him underfoot, tread on his neck,

And bring him to the ground![*]

and other provocative expressions, by using which some err in transferring anger from the women’s quarters to the men’s. For although courage gets along well with justice in all other respects, yet, as it seems to me, it fights for the possession of gentleness alone, as belonging rather to itself. But although cases do occur in which even baser men gain the mastery over their betters, yet to erect in the soul a trophy of victory over anger (which Heracleitus[*] says it is difficult to contend against: for whatever it wishes, it buys at the price of the soul) is proof of a great and victorious strength which possesses against the passions the weapons of its judgements, as in very truth its nerves and sinews.[*]

FUNDANUS. For this reason I always strive to collect and to peruse, not only these sayings and deeds of the philosophers, who are said by fools to have no bile,[*] but even more those of kings and despots. There is, for instance, the remark of Antigonus[*] to his soldiers who were reviling him near his tent in the belief that he could not hear them: he merely thrust out his staff and cried, Good heavens! will you not go somewhere farther off to abuse me? And there is the case of Arcadion[*] the Achaean who was always railing against Philip and advising flight

Until one comes to men who know not Philip[*];

when Arcadion later visited Macedonia on some chance or other, Philip’s friends thought that he should not be let off but punished. Yet Philip, when he met him, treated him kindly and sent him friendly presents and gifts; and later bade his friends inquire how Arcadion now spoke of him to the Greeks. When all testified that the fellow had become a wonderful eulogist of the king, Philip said, Then I am a better physician than you. So in Olympia[*] when Philip was being defamed, and some persons said that the Greeks should smart for it since they spoke evil of Philip though they were being well treated by him, Philip said, What will they do, then, if they are badly treated?

FUNDANUS. Likewise admirable was the behaviour of Peisistratus[*] to Thrasybulus, and of Porsenna[*] to Mucius, and of Magas[*] to Philemon. For when Magas had been publicly ridiculed by Philemon in a comedy at the theatre:

A. For you some letters, Magas, from the king.

B. Unhappy Magas, who no letters know![*]

Magas later captured Philemon, who had been cast ashore by a storm at Paraetonium, and ordered a soldier merely to touch Philemon on the neck with a naked sword and then depart courteously; and Magas sent dice and a ball to Philemon, as to a senseless child, and sent him on his way. So also Ptolemy, when he was jeering at a pedant for his ignorance, asked him who was Peleus’ father; and the pedant replied, I shall tell you if you will first tell me who was the father of Lagus. [*] This was a jest at the dubious birth of the king, and everyone was indignant at its improper and inopportune character; but Ptolemy said, If it is not the part of a king to take a jest, neither is it to make one. But Alexander had behaved more harshly than was his custom toward Callisthenes and Cleitus.[*] And so Porus,[*] when he was taken captive, requested Alexander to treat him like a king. When Alexander asked, Is there nothing more? In the words like a king, replied Porus, there is everything. For this reason also they call the king of the gods Meilichios, or the Gentle One, while the Athenians, I believe, call him Maimactes, or the Boisterous[*]; but punishment is the work of the Furies and spirits, not of the high gods and Olympian deities.

FUNDANUS. Just as, then, someone said of Philip[*] when he had razed Olynthus to the ground, But he could not possibly repeople a city so large, so one may address Anger and say, You are able to overturn and destroy and throw down, but to raise up and preserve and spare and forbear is the work of mildness and forgiveness and moderation in passion, the work of a Camillus or a Metellus[*] or an Aristeides or a Socrates; but to attach oneself to the wound and to sting is the part of an ant or a horse-fly. [*] As I study, however, anger’s method of defending itself, I find it for the most part ineffectual, since it spends itself in biting the lips[*] and gnashing the teeth, in vain attacks and railings coupled with senseless threats, and eventually resembles children[*] running races, who, through lack of self-control, fall down ridiculously before they reach the goal toward which they are hastening. Therefore there was point in what the Rhodian said to the Roman general’s servant who was shouting and talking insolently: What you say, said the Rhodian, matters nothing to me, but what your master doesn’t say. And Sophocles,[*] when he has armed Neoptolemus and Eurypylus, says

Without a vaunt, without reviling, they

Have rushed within the ring of brazen arms.

FUNDANUS. For although there are barbarians who poison their steel, true bravery has no need of bitter gall,[*] for it has been dipped in reason; but rage and fury are rotten and easily broken. At any rate the Spartans[*] use the playing of pipes to remove from their fighting men the spirit of anger, and they sacrifice to the Muses before battle in order that reason may remain constant within them; and when they have routed the enemy, they do not pursue,[*] but sound the recall to their high spirits, which, like small daggers,[*] are manageable and can be easily withdrawn. Yet wrath has slain thousands before its revenge was accomplished, as, for instance, Cyrus t and Pelopidas the Theban.[*] But Agathocles[*] endured with mildness the revilings of those he was besieging, and when one of them cried out, Potter, how will you get pay for your mercenaries?, Agathocles laughed and said, If I take this town. And there is the case of Antigonus,[*] who, when some men on the wall of a town jeered at him because of his deformity, said to them, Why, I thought my face was handsome! But when he took the town he sold as slaves those who jeered at him, protesting that he would have speech with their masters if they reviled him again.

FUNDANUS. I observe also that both advocates and orators commit serious mistakes because of anger; and Aristotle[*] relates that the friends of Satyrus the Samian, when he was to plead, stopped up his ears with wax, that he might not spoil his case through temper at the insults of his enemies. And as for ourselves, does it not happen often that the punishment of a delinquent slave eludes our power? For slaves are made afraid by threatening words and run away.[*] The words, therefore, which nurses use with children, Stop crying and you shall have it! may, not without benefit, be applied to temper: Stop hurrying and shouting and making haste, and you shall have what you want better and more easily! For if a father sees his son trying to cut something in two or to make a notch in it with a knife, he takes the knife himself and does it; so likewise, if reason takes upon itself the punishment which temper would inflict, it chastises the person who deserves it safely and harmlessly and for that person’s good, and does not, as temper often does, punish itself instead.[*]