Die unflinching, like the old heroes. Seneca, Epistles 3.24.4-5
Seneca
gives Lucilius a little tour of Roman and Greek history, noting the
exploits of various heroes who faced death and suffering well,
without flinching.
Damnationem
suam Rutilius sic tulit tamquam nihil illi molestum aliud esset quam
quod male iudicaretur. Exilium Metellus fortiter tulit, Rutilius
etiam libenter; alter ut rediret rei publicae praestitit, alter
reditum suum Sullae negavit, cui nihil tunc negabatur. In carcere
Socrates disputavit et exire, cum essent qui promitterent fugam,
noluit remansitque, ut duarum rerum gravissimarum hominibus metum
demeret, mortis et carceris. Mucius ignibus manum imposuit. Acerbum
est uri: quanto acerbius si id te faciente patiaris! Vides hominem
non eruditum nec ullis praeceptis contra mortem aut dolorem
subornatum, militari tantum robore instructum, poenas a se irriti
conatus exigentem; spectator destillantis in hostili foculo dexterae
stetit nec ante removit nudis ossibus fluentem manum quam ignis illi
ab hoste subductus est. Facere aliquid in illis castris felicius
potuit, nihil fortius. Vide quanto acrior sit ad occupanda pericula
virtus quam crudelitas ad irroganda: facilius Porsenna Mucio ignovit
quod voluerat occidere quam sibi Mucius quod non occiderat.
Rutilius
(†) endured his condemnation so well that it seemed his only grief
was being badly judged. Metellus (‡) bore exile bravely, but
Rutilius took things even further, embracing it freely: while the
former succeeded in coming back to the republic, the latter refused
the return that Sulla gave him, denying a man who was at that time
undeniable. Socrates (*) spoke out in jail, unwilling to go into
exile though there were those who promised to secure his flight. He
remained to remove the fear men have for two heavy things, death and
prison. Mucius (⁑) thrust his hand into the flames. Burning is a
bitter fate: how much harsher, when you do it to yourself! You see
him now. A man uninstructed, armed with no teachings against death or
pain, taught only to wage war in strength, punishing himself for a
botched operation. He stood there watching his own right hand melt in
the foe's brazier, nor did he remove the charred bones dripping gore
before the enemy took the fire away. He might have done something
luckier in that camp, but certainly nothing braver. See how much
keener virtue is to seize perils than cruelty to demand them:
Porsenna forgave Mucius the attempted assasination more easily than
Mucius forgave himself for failing.
---
(†)
Publius Rutilius Rufus (c. 158-78 BCE), the brother of Julius
Caesar's maternal grandmother Rutilia, is best remembered for his
efforts to save the provincials of Asia from rapacious Roman
tax-farmers. While his work was much appreciated by the province of
Asia and his boss, the notoriously incorruptible Quintus Mucius
Scaevola, the knights farming taxes hated him, and succeeded in
having him brought to trial on charges of extortion. He was found
guilty and banished from Rome, forfeiting all his property there to
the state. Rather than continue the fight, he retired permanently to
Asia, living first in Mitylene and finally in Smyrna, where he wrote
history (in Greek) and received visitors (including Cicero, whose
education as an orator culminated in a tour of the East c. 79 BCE).
(‡)
Quintus Caecilius Metellus (c. 160-91 BCE) earned a triumph and the
title Numidicus for presiding as consul over the Roman forces that
defeated Jugurtha in the battle of the Muthul (109 BCE). His
subordinate Gaius Marius succeeded in ousting him as consul
thereafter, and later it was one of Marius' allies, the tribune
Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, who introduced a law exiling Metellus
from Rome. Rather than stay to fight, as some of his supporters
wanted, Metellus withdrew to Rhodes, where he remained until another
tribune had him legally recalled (99 BCE).
(*)
Socrates the Athenian (c. 470-399 BCE) was born into a relatively
prosperous family of the Athenian deme Alopece, inheriting from his
parents both citizenship and a working estate that allowed him to
live well (if a bit frugally) without toil. He married at least once,
possibly more, and had three sons with his wife Xanthippe. Whenever
the city required service, he did his duty, developing a reputation
for brave diligence (cf. his active participation in the
Peloponnesian War, especially at Potidea) and adherence to law (cf.
his refusal to try the generals illegally in 406, and to arrest Leon
of Salamis at the behest of the Thirty Tyrants, who assumed control
of Athens in 404). When enemies brought him to trial on charges of
corrupting the youth, he defended himself in person. After his
defense was rejected, he accepted the city's verdict and chose death
(by drinking hemlock) over exile.
(⁑)
Gaius Mucius Scaevola (fl. 6th century BCE), an ancestor of Quintus
(above), hails from the legendary days of Rome's first republic.
Recently freed from the rule of the last king Tarquin, Rome was
besieged by the Etruscan king Lars Porsenna, from Clusium. Mucius
went in disguise to the enemy camp to murder him, but ended up
killing his secretary instead, as the ritual of paying the troops put
both men on a platform together in similar dress. Before the enemy
could take him, Mucius plunged his right hand into a flaming brazier
on the platform and declared that Romans were as ready to die as to
inflict death. Porsenna had him rescued from the flames and sent free
back to Rome, with an offer to negotiate (that ultimately produced
peace). This exploit earned the now left-handed hero (scaevola
means 'lefty') an allotment of
farmland along the Tiber that was afterwards known as Mucius' Meadows
(Mucia prata). The
full story is preserved by Livy (2.12.13) and Dionysius of
Halicarnassus (5.27-34). Livy gives Mucius a powerful
speech:
Romanus sum
inquit, civis; C. Mucium vocant. Hostis hostem occidere volui, nec
ad mortem minus animi est, quam fuit ad caedem; et facere et pati
fortia Romanum est. Nec unus in te ego hos animos gessi; longus post
me ordo est idem petentium decus. Proinde in hoc discrimen, si iuvat,
accingere, ut in singulas horas capite dimices tuo, ferrum hostemque
in vestibulo habeas regiae. Hoc tibi iuventus Romana indicimus
bellum. Nullam aciem, nullum proelium timueris; uni tibi et cum
singulis res erit.
“I
am a Roman citizen. They call me Caius Mucius. My desire was to kill
the enemy, as one foe to another, and my heart is no less eager for
my own death than for his. The work of Romans is to do brave deeds,
and to suffer them, too. I do not act against you alone in
this motivation. There is a long line of men behind me seeking the
same honor. Gird yourself for strife, if you expect to survive, and
you will be fighting for your life every moment you spend alone,
meeting swords and sworn foes in the porches of your palace. This
is the war we Roman youth declare on you. No skirmish-line, no
pitched battle shall you fear. Your fight will be alone: man-to-man,
hand-to-hand.”
Livy, Ab urbe condita 2.12.8-11