Letter 7: To Timotheus (1-5)

Of the friendly relations which exist between your family and me I think you have heard from many sources, and I congratulate you as I receive word, first that you are making use of the princely power you now possess in better and wiser fashion than your father,[*] and also, that you choose rather to win good repute than to amass great wealth. In making this your purpose you give no slight indication of virtue, but the very greatest; so that, if you are faithful to your present reputation, you will not lack those who will praise both your wisdom and this choice.

I think that the reports which have been noised abroad about your father will also contribute a great deal of credibility to the general opinion of your good judgement and superiority to all others; for most men are wont to praise and honor, not so much the sons of fathers who are of good repute, as those born of harsh and cruel fathers, provided that they show themselves to be similar in no respect to their parents. For any boon which comes to men contrary to reason always gives them greater pleasure than those which duly come to pass in accordance with their expectation.

Bearing this in mind, you should search and study in what fashion, with the aid of whom, and by employing what counsellors you are to repair your city’s misfortunes, to spur your citizens on to their labors and to temperate conduct, and to cause them to live more happily and more confidently than in the past; for this is the duty of good and wise kings.

Some, disdaining these obligations, look to nothing else save how they may themselves lead lives of the greatest licentiousness and may mistreat and pillage by taxation the best and wealthiest and most sagacious of their subjects, being ill aware that wise men who hold that high office should not, at the cost of injury to all the rest, provide pleasures for themselves, but rather should by their own watchful care make their subjects happier[*];

nor should they, while being harshly and cruelly disposed toward all, yet be careless of their own safety; on the contrary, their conduct of affairs should be so gentle and so in accordance with the law that no one will venture to plot against them; yet they should rigorously guard their persons as if everybody wished to kill them. For if they should adopt this policy, they would themselves be free from danger and at the same time be highly esteemed by all; blessings greater than these it would be difficult to discover.