Moral essays. With an English translation by J.W. Basore

ON ANGER, III. XXII. 1-5These should be regarded as examples to beavoided ; the following, on the other hand, are tobe imitated, being instances of restrained and gentlemen, who lacked neither the provocation to angernor the power of requital. What indeed would havebeen easier than for Antigonus to order the executionof the two common soldiers, who, while they leanedagainst the royal tent, expressed—as men will dowith equally great danger and delight—their illopinion of their king ? Antigonus heard ever\'thing,only a canvas intervening between the speakers andthe listener ; this he gently shook and said, " Movea little farther off, for the king might hear you."Again, one night, when he overheard some of hissoldiers invoking all kinds of curses upon the kingfor having led them into such a road and inextricablemud, he went up to those w^ho were struggling most,and when he had got them out, without revealingwho their helper was, he said, " Now curseAntigonus, by whose fault you have fallen upon thismishap, but bless him who has led you out of thisswamp." He also bore the abuse of his enemiesas calmly as that of his countrymen. And so, whenhe was besieging some Greeks in a small fort, andthey, confident in their position, showed opencontempt for the enemy, and cracking many jokesupon the ugliness of Antigonus scoffed now at hisdiminutive stature, now at his flattened nose, hemerely said, " If I have a Silenus in my camp, I amfortunate and hope for good luck." When he hadsubdued these wags by hunger, he disposed of hiscaptives as follows : those who were fit for militaryser\-ice he assigned to regiments ; the rest he putup at auction, saying that he would not have done311