quidem tibi officii auctoritate ac fide polliceor jam A hinc ac denuntio, quod credere tanquam a magistro traditum debeas, flumina felicitatis in tuam vitam plenis alveis confluxura, si verba mea in cor tuum ut pluvia descenderint. Ὅθεν τὰ ἑκούσια τοῦ στόματός μου εὐδόκησας. Οὐ γὰρ κολακεύσω τὸν ἐμὸν αὐτοκράτορα, οὐδὲ θρύψω σου τὰ ὦτα λόγοις ἀπατηλοῖς, καὶ τὸν σοφιστὴν ἐπιφαίνουσιν· οὐδὲ τὸν Λύδιον ἁρμόσομαι νόμον, ἀλλὰ τὸν σύντονόν τε καὶ Δώριον. Λίαν γὰρ ἂν ἀδικοίην καὶ τὴν τοῦ λαχόντος με βίου προαίρεσιν, καὶ τὴν σὴν φύσιν· ἢ πάντως ἀγαθοὺς καρποὺς καὶ οὐκ ἀγενεῖς δοῦναι δύναται, μόνον εἰ σπέρμα βασιλικὸν ὑποδέχοιτο.
Chapter III. Constantinus a patria felix.
Τί γὰρ οὔ σοι συντρέχει πρὸς τὸ βίον ἑλέσθαι τὸ δεξιώτατον; ᾧ γε καὶ πατρὶς βασίλισσα καὶ μεγαλόπολις καὶ καλλίπολις, ᾗπερ οὐδ' ἂν ὁ Μῶμος αὐτὸς ἐγκαλέσειε τὸ μὴ οὐ πρὸς τὰς ὥρας κεκρᾶσθαι, καὶ τρυφᾶν ἀέρων εὐμοιρίᾳ καὶ συμμετρίᾳ. Οὔτε γὰρ χειμὼν ἐνταῦθα νεωτερίζει, καὶ τοὺς ὅρους ἐκβαίνων Σκυθικώτερον ἡμῖν ἐπιτίθεται, ὡς τὸ αἷμα τοῖς ζώοις πηγνύναι, καὶ τοῖς ποταμοῖς ἐπιβάλλειν δεσμὰ κρυστάλλινα· οὐδὲ θέρος ἐκλύον καὶ πᾶσαν καταβάλλον τὴν δύναμιν, ὡς καὶ τὸν κύνα φοβερὸν ἐπεγείρειν τοῖς σώμασι κατὰ τῆς τούτων εὐσταθείας ἀγριαινόμενον. C Ἀλλὰ χειμὼν μὲν οἷος τὴν ἡμετέραν συγκροτεῖν δύναμιν, καὶ συνάγειν τὴν τῶν στοιχείων παράταξιν, οὐκ ἐῶν αὐτὴν πάμπαν διαφορεῖσθαι καὶ σκίδνασθαι· θέρος δὲ, οἷον θάλψιν διδόναι τοῖς σώμασι καὶ περιττωμάτων διάπνοιαν· αἱ δὲ λοιπαὶ τῶν ὡρῶν, πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἰδέαν ἀναλόγως μορφούμεναι. Οὐχ ὁρᾷς γάρ τι καὶ τοὺς τῶν δένδρων καρπούς, οἷς ἐντρυφῶμεν οἱ τῆς εὐδαίμονος οἰκήτορες πόλεως; Οὕτω μὲν γὰρ μεγέθους ἱκανῶς ἔχουσιν, ὡς μηδένα λόγον εἶναι τοῖς ὁρῶσι περὶ τῆς κατὰ γεῦσιν ἡδύτητος· οὕτω δὲ τὴν γεῦσιν ἡδύνουσιν, ὡς ἐν τούτῳ τῷ μέρει τὸ μέγεθος ἀποκρύπτεσθαι. Καὶ γὰρ οὖν τοὺς μὲν ἀλλαχοῦ μεγάλους τῇ ἡδονῇ ὑπερβάλλουσι· τοὺς δ' ἡδονῇ προύχοντας, τῷ μέγεθος προφαίνειν ἐξαίσιον· τοὺς δ᾽ ἄμφω ταῦτα ἐπαινετούς, τῷ βασιλίδος εἶναι γεννήματα.CHAPTER IV. Dotes eximia corporis in Constantino.
D Αὕτη σου καὶ τὸ σῶμα πτερώσασα πρὸς πᾶν ὁτιοῦν ἔπλασεν ἐπιτήδειον, καὶ ταῖς ψυχικαῖς ἐνεργείαις ὑπέθηκε διάκονον ἀνεμπόδιστον. Οὔτε γὰρ βαρύ σοι τοῦτο, καὶ νωχελὲς, καὶ δυσκίνητον, καὶ πολλῶν κέντρων δεόμενον· οὔτ᾽ αὖ πάλιν εὐκινητότερον τοῦ προσήκοντος, ὥστε καὶ ἄττειν ἀκράτητα.but, having escaped the excess of both, is established within the boundaries A of moderation. For whereas the occasion demands that one should mount a horse, and exercise oneself in frequent races, and turn the spear this way and that with dexterous rotations, and in warlike dances, here your body is most light; but truly also in hunting, to outstrip the others, and to lead the men, and to cast down a beast, the very sight of which dead one of another age would not have endured: and to shoot from a horse flying at full speed, and to hit the mark—these indeed are all tokens of agility. Again, the orderly gait, and the measured tone of voice, and the thoughtful—simply in all things—and as it were philosophical [disposition], and the not gadding about as the possessed, nor turning hither and thither senselessly, manifests the constitution of the elements in you, disposed as if by some balance by the Most High.
CHAPTER V. Ingenium ejusdem et memoria.
What now [shall I say] of your talent, and capacity for learning, and the quickness of discerning any matter in a moment, and the faithful guardianship of memory—where shall I place these, O you of all-embracing talent? I am an unerring and unassailable witness to all these things; and this excellent company, who have tested your nature, are co-witnesses with me. For B often, when some writing of the ancients is read, or a deed or saying worth reading, you, the pupil, anticipate me the teacher, and snatch the meaning beforehand; and having snatched it, you have not straightway lost it, but have stored it in the treasuries of the soul as1 an inalienable treasure. For many learn quickly, but unlearn even more quickly; as soon as they have acquired, they have lost; it is like if someone were to write upon water: quickly he will move the stylus, but not even a trace will follow the swiftness of the motions. But in you, nature has united disparate things: swiftness of learning and incomparable memory. And for the writing of knowledge you are more impressionable than any wax, and for its preservation you are more solid than any tablet.
CHAPTER VI. Concerning the grandfather and father of Constantine.
But indeed, the good qualities of your parents have not escaped me, in whom God himself fashioned you toward every good. For you, O noble boy, and to me more to be desired than all kings, have not had a nature such as this—which the discourse has moderately portrayed—while being ashamed of the baseness of your parents, such that, as the proverb says, one suffers the fate of those with unequal eyes, in the one [aspect] being illuminated, and in the other being cast down. For to you also, royal D
indeed you have obtained such a one as my speech just now described, but you were born of such parents whose squalor or poverty might bring you shame. And they make your countenance of honor, so to speak, like that of Cyclops, whose eyes (as the proverb has it), like stars, one might shine, the other might have set: and the humility of an obscure lineage might obstruct, as if with shadows, the ungrateful and deformed light of your shining virtue. But your lineage is already royal from your grandfather and father, and celebrated with the highest praise of justice. There is no one today who does not celebrate your grandfather as blessed for this reason, that he strove to excel more by his indeclinable rectitude in judgments and his most constant guardianship of law and equity than by the pinnacle of principality. But what species of virtue had not fashioned the soul of your most divine father? Or to whom else did he concede the first place either in the study of humanity or in the accurate investigation of sacred doctrine? To whom the whole empire was nothing else but books and the dissertations of learned men; and either to bring forth something from himself, or to hear from another something worthy of knowledge from antiquity. A
CHAPTER VII. Nobility and religion of the mother of Constantine.
Preparing next to speak of your mother, I see that I would wish for the abundance of Herodotus, at once fluidly liquid and sweetly poured forth, and at the same time the diction of Aristides, nervously strict and thickened with crowded meanings; for with the combined help of these two things, I might perhaps succeed in omitting nothing of those things which such a varied and most worthy subject suggests. In the beginning, the lineage of your August parent is so conspicuous that she can summon not only her father, grandfather, and great-grandfather as most noble and widely illustrious; but she can also count innumerable kings in the series of her ancestors with rare happiness. But she has an even greater nobility from her character and the virtues of her soul: to whom to think that an ornament could be added from the mention of gentile glory would be nothing other than to seek the recommendation and price of a pearl from the shell and the husk of an oyster. B Indeed, what does it matter to boast greatly of dignity and royal origin in her who, as the Apostle says, counted all things as dung, and desired only to gain Christ: whose presence she experienced in danger, and rendered such a return for that grace that she aspired to that hidden life of his, and cultivated it with the study and devotion of her innermost mind, to which she felt she owed the usury of her bodily life, asserted by a recent benefit. And inspired by this religion, the royal maiden strove from the pinnacle of the kingdom, which she avoided as a pit, to the highest and truly heavenly summit of Christian humility, so that to one wondering at such a change, the speed of the change itself appeared more wonderful: furthermore, the highest perfection of the life instituted in religious cloisters after that surpassed even the admirability of that very impulse of most rapid conversion. C I know that the transition to monastic life is a common and daily deed for many. But most women perform this more softly, and, so to speak, more womanishly. But to fly to the poverty of the spirit from the greatest riches with such hot haste and such burning zeal is the proper virtue and singular glory of our Mary, happy in this chief praise. Indeed, if D
diets, being sparing and abstemious. And to put it simply, she kept the hard paths, for the sake of the Lord’s words.
CHAPTER VIII. The mercy of Constantine's mother.
B Verily, someone impatient has long been rebuking me for lingering on these points, asking why I have so long ceased to celebrate the humanity and mercy which were so preeminent in the life of the Augusta Maria. And the discourse itself felt that it was rightly called to the duty it had undertaken; but it hesitated, out of a certain fear and diffidence, lest it should allow its unarmed skiff to be swept away into such a vast sea. For what strength could ever suffice to recount, as they deserve, how many choking nooses of famine you broke from off the throats of the many? How many of the wretched you warmed with the gift of clothing? How many parents mourning the loss of their children you comforted with your address? How many orphans you consoled, diminishing the evil of their bereavement and the deaths of their fathers? How many women, distraught by the recent death of their husbands, you revived with your service and encouragement? O you, thrice happy in this consciousness of infinite kindness! To your glory, this too must be added, that which is written in the voice of Isaiah, that heroic deed in this kind of virtue, not neglected by you, whereby you redeemed lives placed at the very stroke of death from their impending fate, and, turning aside the sword hanging over their necks, you dispelled—like a sun with the most opportune rays of liberal grace—the darkness of certain death already shed upon the eyes of the desperate.
Chapter IX. His non-ambitious liberality.
C You, indeed, although you strove to obscure this light of beneficence, distributing it secretly for the sake of avoiding glory, were nevertheless unable to remain hidden, nor even to suppress the brilliance of your nocturnal almsgivings that burst forth past all the veils of modesty into the public breeze of admiration. As the light of these shone through the darkness, the heavenly Father is undoubtedly glorified, as the Gospel holds, whose work, performed by your right hand in accordance with your commandment, you order the left hand of the opposite side not to know. For I would call the duty of distributing liberality widely the work of the right hand; but to guard against ostentation in giving, and not to proclaim one's beneficence with a trumpet, this I judge to be an act of virtue that protects the good work from a certain evil fascination of the left side (that is, of vainglory which casts one into hell). Thus I interpret that maxim: Let not your left hand know what your right hand does.
CHAPTER X. Digressio in quosdam ambitiose munificos.
D But in truth, who does not feel what in this present time...
what manner this age of ours, and custom, I know not from whence, or by what rationale the prevailing fashion of today has innovated against these patterns and established norms. I verily fear whither this tends; and I pray—would that it be not in vain!—that it may end to an outcome useful and beneficial to the public. But this I do know, that it offers to many a cause of offense. For the dwellings of old, established for the retreat and worship of those who strive for the salvation of their own souls and of others, which have suffered the gnawing tooth of time and, weakened by the defect of a long age, implore helping hands for their restoration, are neglected and allowed to dissolve and crumble away through senescence; whereas buildings of a new work and recent design are erected from the ground up, called by the names of their founders. And many, drawn by the enticements of equal honor, are now vying to make a display of their wealth and resources in similar projects, ostentatious patronages, and titles B durable for glory—thinking, since they are joined with the common nomenclature of eternal works, that they shall not ill purchase these for themselves, even with great sums of money. But to me, these men seem to act no less thoughtlessly than if someone having a sick son, neglecting his care, were to seek a new wife from whom to beget other offspring, when he could not blame the talent or the character of his laboring son. Ho there, you foolish man, and you who are sick with a disease somewhat graver and less curable than your son's, you who have a son at home, grown, of good hope, honest morals, and lying there with an illness not difficult to cure—you neglect him, and for a foolish contempt of present advantage, you put forward a desire, no more sane, of begetting and raising a new family; and you cast your mind into concerns and your wealth into expenditures that are immoderate and useless, while you prefer to begin a long hope in seeking a wife and preparing for weddings, rather than to enjoy the goods already acquired and placed in your bosom!
CHAPTER XI. Largitiones Maria Augusta.
Not by these snares of thoughtless ambition did your mother, O Emperor, allow herself to be caught and entangled. But, spurning all human cogitations, and deeming that to have one's name called on earth was something to be left to the worldly wise, she built and adorned a temple to herself, having followed the delineation of the architect Paul; for she used Christ as the foundation, upon which she built up silver and precious stones through the ministry of the poor. Moreover, she distributed much mercifully to the more needy of the citizens; and with many gifts she refreshed the monastic communities of both sexes, who, with Christ as their leader, virilely endure the professed warfare against the prince of this world, extending even beyond the continent, in a certain course of most profuse liberality, even to the islands opposite our shores—islands into which, by having cast large seeds of mercy, you have commended a hope, not deceitful, of most joyful fruits, which you will reap in time in exultation, not failing, so that it may be permitted to you to use that word taken from the prophet: "Be renewed unto me, ye islands, and as if clothed in festive attire, display yourselves to me, your savior and foster-mother." But how she welcomes each of them as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself; and how the giving is with cheerfulness; and how with this there is also abundance; who is able to explain all things? Or rather, who would attempt it in the face of all this and not present himself to be laughed at? For one would more easily count how often you draw breath during the day than how often you exercise mercy. For to you, to breathe and to show mercy to those who present themselves to you daily are one and the same. But who can encompass in a narrative all these things, or indeed, who would dare to undertake it, so as not to offer himself to ridicule? Since anyone would more easily count how often one draws breath in a day than how often you practice mercy. For it is no more frequent or familiar to you to breathe than it is to show mercy.
CAPUT XII. Her study and erudition.
A How great is her gentleness! And her love of learning exceeds all human estimation. What book has escaped her—even those that are dense and robust—or what narrative of the Fathers? One might find her at times dwelling among the more mature, receiving those doctrines as a sort of solid food; and at other times, she might be found spending time with the simpler ones, as if among the flowers of a pleasant and charming meadow. In short, she meditates upon the law of the Lord day and night, both when she rises and walks, and when she rises and sits, she pursues the divine oracles. And she records these things upon the tablets of her heart in a threefold manner, as David, Moses, and Solomon have declared.
CAPUT XIII. Her praiseworthy care in the training of her son.
What more shall I add? The procreation of children is a noble and praiseworthy thing, and pleasing to God, and sufficient for the mother’s salvation if one must believe Paul, who promises that mothers shall be saved by the exact rearing of their children. And who has so solemnly guided the precarious age of a child? Who has set over her son so many counselors and teachers: some fashioning his speech and forming the boy’s tongue, others ordering his mind, others gathering up history, but all of them contributing something to the youth? You blush at these praises, O dove of the Lord, beautiful and perfect; yet for this very reason you are all the more praiseworthy. For one who hunts for praise is not to be lauded (for he is boastful), but rather he who shrinks from it is to be celebrated, for he is a true philosopher. C
PART TWO, PARENETIC
CAPUT I. A prince who misuses the gifts received from God is wretched.
D Hearken, O Emperor; for these things have not been woven together by me in vain, nor so that I might sing to no purpose, as the proverb has it; but so that I might show you with how many good things you have been endowed by the Almighty, and how easy it is for you, assisted by these instruments for the pursuit of virtue, to surpass all the emperors who have ever lived before you, since you are aided by so many advantages toward...
For who, indeed, could be more fortunate than he who adds the crowning touch of his own virtue to all these things? Or who more miserable, if you then corrupt such excellent gifts of God with shameful and reprehensible deeds?
CHAPTER II. Royal dignity is a disgrace to one who does not possess royal virtues.
A For do not think that your principate will be a source of glory to you unless you show character worthy of command; for in that way the mad Cambyses and the effeminate Sardanapalus would excel Aristides and Epaminondas in splendor. Indeed, you will be the more ridiculed for smearing the royal dignity with the depravity of your life, B in proportion as that vice of yours, set in a more illustrious place, is far removed from the convenience of being hidden. For the iniquity of a private citizen, who follows his desires while spurning reason and trampling underfoot the laws of virtue in his intemperate fury, is unknown even to his neighbors. This is because the sins committed by a citizen of common lot in life do not generally reach the knowledge of the common people, being confined within domestic walls and hiding places. The lot of princes is, however, the opposite: not even a crime designated only in thought can defend itself from the knowledge of the masses.Chapter III. That a king is commended by virtues, not by clothing.
Do not, moreover, persuade yourself that by the very sheen of your gold-woven and purple, palm-embroidered tunics and togas you will bring warlike men, fierce in spirit and looking with a grim countenance C like lions, to veneration for you, unless they also see you armored and handling the matter yourself at close quarters, and dealing slaughter in battle. For the Barbarian is not disturbed by the sight of a rival dressed up for a wedding; but he mocks one adorned with golden ornaments as a mere boy, and judging him to be weak and spindly, he rightly trusts that a single blow of his fist, or even a snap of his fingers, will be enough to finish him.CHAPTER IV. Pleasure must be conquered by the king.
But if, indeed, the seductive tricks of pleasures have overcome you, you are for us a fine emperor, and one worthy above all to reign over others, when you have enslaved yourself to the most illiberal of pleasures in disgraceful servitude! With what face, pray, will such a prince command others not to value their own desires above the laws? For by his own example, he has incited them to do just that. How, therefore, can the same man call them to D duty, if he himself, the leader, having poorly obeyed his mentors, cannot lead the way to honesty, so that they may listen to him?CHAPTER V. Labores regi honesti et utiles.
Pleasure, that most wicked beast, must therefore be driven out by you, and cut away with every effort, even with fire and sword; and in the place of that which has been cast out, labors must be substituted—labors which exercise the bodies of emperors, and nourish them to be firm and valiant against their enemies. These do not allow the flower of youth to wither in the young, and...and to the aged, relieving the hardship of their old age, being their peers and foster-friends.
CAPUT VI. OF THREE GOOD AND AS MANY BAD FORMS OF REGIMEN.
A But for now, come and learn the form of kingship, as concisely as possible. There are three more universal states of republics: of which one is monarchy, and it is called legitimate and a kingship, being the base and pillar of the people, according to the literal meaning of the term. The one composed of many, yet most law-abiding rulers, is named aristocracy. The third is the confluence of the whole people towards the administration of the state, which they have termed democracy.
Opposed to these are three others, which violate the standard of worth. And tyranny lies in wait for kingship; oligocracy attacks aristocracy, whenever certain wealthy and violent men, feigning to be the best, rule; and ochlocracy stands face-to-face against democracy, being a lawless and altogether disorderly gathering of the confused multitude. Concerning the others, however, I shall say nothing at all.
CAPUT VII. THE FIRST CHARACTERISTIC OF THE TYRANT, THAT HE ATTACKS VIOLENTLY.
B Now hear the marks of tyranny and of kingship. First of all, the tyrant forces his way into the office. For he does not receive the reins of power from the citizens, but he seizes them himself through slaughter and blood; such are the preludes of it, and thus from the beginning it is sprinkled with blood.
CAPUT VIII. THE SECOND SIGN OF TYRANNY, AN INHUMAN AND INSULTING ATTACK UPON THE SUBSTANCE AND LIBERTY OF THE SUBJECTS.
D And when he has entered into the palace, what rites does he perform? He honors all pleasures of the body, and crafts all manner of griefs for his subjects, trusting no one, having no friend, and both deeming and treating everyone as an enemy—the good, because he thinks he is hated by them, for the good will truly hate their opposite; and the wicked, for precisely this reason, that they are wicked and desire the same things as he; for he is anxious lest someone more wicked than himself might lay claim to the rule. Therefore, he is always lopping off the heads of the grain, making everyone poor, and forcing everyone to mourn and lament; in order, he says, that no one living in luxury may be at leisure, and while at leisure, plot, and while plotting, consider—
emerging [evils], and ever accumulating causes for mourning and lamenting, lest anyone, having secured leisure in the abundance of his circumstances and having swelled with confidence in himself, might dare to study new things. He plays with the laws at his whim, as if they were dice or counters, turning and changing them, serving either avarice, or lust, or some similar passion of his own. And he knows not how to maintain a proper, disciplined army for the sake of the state; rather, having gathered about him henchmen as bodyguards, he feeds and fattens these, rearing them all against the state, and giving them full license to slaughter, to hold in contempt, and to act wantonly. B
CAPUT IX. The misery of the people oppressed by tyranny.
When a tyrant rules, the farmer reaps nothing but tears, toiling away his whole day in labor, only to see—when he has coaxed the crops along to the very verge of hope—his harvest snatched away by a tyrannical storm; and instead of the grape, which had matured through his long sweat in the cultivated vines, he has only the thorns of grief left for himself, piercing his innards and his heart with the sharpest spines of violent robbery. And this is not the sum of their miseries: for he must also experience the cruelty of enemies breaking through the ill-guarded frontier by the emissaries of that noble prince. This for the rustic. And what of the sailor? He curses the winds and the waves for not having submerged him long ago; so much more agitated are the seas, and so much harsher the storms he suffers in the harbor and on the shore. Finally, the citizens, the inhabitants of a state oppressed by such a monster, are vexed all the more intolerably and incessantly, the closer they are to this Minotaur, being more convenient for his daily outrages, as if they were fodder tossed to a starving and bloodthirsty wild beast. And so, one man’s wealth is suddenly carried off and his property plundered; another’s daughter, once kept with sacred modesty in the protection of a virgin chamber, is snatched away for shameful treatment, the wretched father having to exchange the nuptial joy and festive songs of his daughter’s once-hoped-for marriage into inconsolable laments: and in place of the tears of joy which the marriage of his daughter was to have invited for him, he is forced to pour forth weeping pressed out by the violence of the bitterest grief. What of him whose wife is abducted by powerful henchmen to the tyrant’s bed—with how sharp a dart of the most desperate madness is his heart transfixed? Yet if he murmurs, if he utters a free word, he pays the price immediately, butchered most cruelly by the steel of assassins sent to pierce his innards on account of his ill-timed liberty. Although, for the most wretched, this is perhaps not a punishment, but the only consolation that remains: that by the benefit of the sword they are removed from such spectacles. D
CAPUT X. The anxious fears and perpetual torment of the tyrant.
That wild beast, the tyrant, does not look with pleasure even upon his wife, nor upon his dearest ones; but he suspects even her, and trembles while she sleeps beside him, and shudders at sleep itself, lest she should entrust his head to his sister, Death. And while the banquet offers joy to all others—and they, with a cheerful remission of their cares, look forward with a serene brow amid the crowd—for him, in that moment, he trembles most, fearing lest some poison be mixed into his food, lest his cup should become a cup of death. The wicked man cannot even trust his bodyguards. And why should he?
of those whom he fears most, precisely because they are closer to him, armed with swords. For he is always reflecting whether they might use their swords not for his sake, but against him. Indeed, he arms them against others, but against his own bodyguards he has no one he can arm. Such terror is worthy of a tyrannical and faithless mind; for there is no one by whom a tyrant is more tormented than by the extent to which he torments himself, having placed himself in such straits. A
CHAPTER XI. The peaceful and joyful entry of the righteous king to his subjects.
You have seen the image of the tyrant, how abominable and exsecrable it is; look now at the form of the just prince, how sweet, how pleasant, and how it draws everyone’s love to itself with all the allurements of grace; and no less offering a pleasant appearance to the soul than—if you will permit me to say—than yours, yours, I say, in this age, this most beautiful state of countenance which presents itself to the eyes; which, if you wish, was also the image of your predecessor in power. And although I might have seemed to have already formed the idea of true and just rule when I painted the tyrant, whose aspect—with its sad and cheerless features—would necessarily lead anyone who thought the opposite to the image of a good prince. Nevertheless, I shall add here, as if to complete the picture, a few more colors. First of all, see this true king for me at his very entry, painting—as it were—the doors of power with a color far different from the tyrant: for he does not burst into the throne through violence and slaughter; nor does he stain with the blood of citizens the purple B that is soon to be the insignia of his power; but by the grace and favor of the multitude and the free and orderly concurrence of a people consulting for the common good, he receives the crown of the kingdom as a prize for private virtue; since everyone judges it most just that one who excels all should be granted more excellent things, and that this be conferred beyond the common lot. Therefore, just as bees choose their leader—or rather, recognize him by natural marks—so the people honor and elevate this man, by the prerogative of his own renowned moral character and the recommendation of his holy life, with their most free and joyful votes. Such is his entry into the principate, and such is the vestibule of his reign, that it is bright and alluring, offering nothing untoward or sad. Let us proceed, therefore, further, and advancing inside, let us behold the kingdom itself at close range. C
Chapter XII. How necessary and how useful excellent religion is to a prince.
The true king, therefore, knowing that just as a house and a ship need their foundations to be the most secure, so too does the kingdom require its foundation to be firm and solid, makes piety the base of his rule; so dedicating and surrendering himself to divine worship that he does not allow even the priests and ministers of sacred things to surpass him in true piety toward God, being always so religious in word and deed, everywhere maintaining that duty, and everywhere looking upon that all-seeing and all-hearing Being, the presence of which is nowhere absent. Loving God, he will not fail to be, and to be recognized as, D
in peace, and eager for the success of civil order. Who, then, is more blessed than he who has God as his friend? Who more invincible in wars? Who has a peace treaty more serene? For in truth, he alone is in danger of reigning over the whole world. For if the world belongs to God, and he has been acknowledged as the friend of God, and the possessions of friends are held in common, then the most God-beloved king shall be lord of the world. A
CAPUT XIII. Useful and necessary instrument for governing a kingdom well: faithful friends.
How, then, will he suffice for so great and varied an administration? How will one person be able to preside over all things in such a way that he is absent from no one and nowhere? By what method, I ask (since it is the duty of one who governs all things to look upon, follow, and observe as if present whatever happens anywhere), will he attain this? And how, in these matters, will he praise one, rebuke another, and correct a third? If you wish to learn how one can suffice to rule and administer so many and such diverse things, hear it thus: there is at the ready for the good prince a winged chariot, swiftest in every direction, [the chariot] of faithful friends, by whose benefit he himself, while unmoved, approaches, inspects, cares for, and manages all things, being one and the same yet also manifold; since whatever he does through faithful ministers, he is considered to do by himself. B
CAPUT XIV. Friends are the greatest good of good princes, a good which others lack.
Since I have happened upon the mention of friends, I shall use this occasion to instruct you more fully on this subject. For the matter is great in the first place, and truly so vast that although there are many things in a kingdom that are grand and magnificent, nevertheless nothing can be imagined more auspicious to mention, or more effectively useful to the cause, than a true and proven friend. Nor is it without reason that I adjudge this a good for a king. A tyrant is entirely devoid of this, inasmuch as he loves to show himself girded by fear and dread, and fortifies himself on every side with threats, lashes, and slaughters, as if with iron or adamantine walls: a rampart of this kind, I think, you should not envy him; rather, encompass yourself with the affections of friends and with an impenetrable weave of concord, by far the strongest form of fortification of all. C Furthermore, hold this as certain: that there is nothing weaker than that man, whoever he may be, whom everyone hates, however much he may be guarded assiduously by iron cohorts of praetorians. The citizen indeed venerates him, and bows to greet him, and seems to marvel at him and celebrates him, publicly making vows by which he pretends to wish for and pray to God for many years of his happy reign. But (as the old saying goes) the tongue swears, while the mind remains unsworn, and the grace of a countenance composed for adulation does not reach beyond the brightness of the lips, nor does it succeed in calming the intemperance of the mind. Therefore, though now the liberty of speech is suppressed by fear, so that he is forced to conceal the burning hatred with which he is inflamed, yet the same person, once the opportunity is captured, will express it not with words but with deeds, and will ravenously feast upon the raw entrails of that very prince whom he now fawningly adores, even as he is subject to him. D
CHAPTER XV. The duties of true friends toward the prince.
A Not so is the true friend of the prince. Being moved by a deep and faithful benevolence, he thinks of him night and day, cares for him, and shares in his labors and anxieties. He does not look to this alone—how he might profit and enjoy the fruits of his position in undisturbed ease—but rather, he acts so that the empire may be as firmly established as possible for him. He does not hesitate to sting him sometimes with some annoyance, so that he may afterward delight him more abundantly; so to speak, he will address him with words that are occasionally less pleasant, in order that he may provide him with the most transparent joy through the success of affairs, which often turns out most prosperous following sterner admonitions. Therefore, he will by no means servilely bend himself to the wishes of the king, nor, like a shadow, merely mirror every motion of one who nods or shakes his head, equally flattering with every gesture. Rather, being true and upright, transacting nothing superficially, weighing all things individually according to their importance, he will conduct himself clearly as one who, because of his exceptional benevolence, has made the affairs and hopes of the beloved prince his own.
CHAPTER XVI. The ruin caused by flatterers is to be avoided by the prince.
B Conversely, the prince will hold this man, not in the place of a hateful censor, but of a pleasant advisor; he will, however, gather and pour out all his wrath upon flatterers. Let him remove them—some by the knitting of his brows, some by other threats of countenance and disdain of the eye, others by the acrimony of his words, especially when they attempt to creep in most blandly. For in truth, this class of men offers nothing but poisoned honey. They kiss, indeed, but at the same time they bite; they soothe, but at the same moment they tear; they instill honey, yet what is drunk and conceived in the veins affects the consumer more bitterly and more ruinously than bile. A good prince will not allow the doors of his court, and much less his own ears, to be open to these people; rather, he will preoccupy and protect his ears with the words of the wise, as if with a kind of Odyssean wax, so that he may pass by the harmful songs of these sirens without feeling them.
CHAPTER XVII. That the prince ought to be docile and patient toward the counsels of friends.
C Furthermore, he will offer himself to his friends as if to skilled doctors, ready for any cutting or cauterizing useful for the healing of his own evils and those of the commonwealth. He will not merely accept those who offer themselves, but whoever he knows to be wiser than himself, he will willingly invite and summon to the court; and thus he will snatch many from corners where they whisper elementary precepts to groups of boys, and, paying attention to them and placing himself under their instruction, he will draw into his own soul the wholesome fluids of virtue and wisdom from their limpid fountains.
CHAPTER XVIII. How the prince should prove his friends.
D Now from this class of friends he will choose those whom he will place in charge of governing cities, once he has obtained a suitable trial beforehand that their skill and industry are excellently adapted for performing that administration. You will perhaps ask, what is the method for taking this trial? Direct your attention a little more closely, and you will soon receive from me the Lydian stone.
man, if he has disciplined his own character, so that he has made neither anger nor desire—these slaves and subjects of the rational faculty—masters and rulers, but rather held them in check. And when you find such a one, promote him to the administration of a house; but if you also find him proven in this, raise him to another rank and entrust him with the administration of a city. For he who has not steered himself, how could he govern a house as he ought? He who has not put his own house in order, how could he steer a city? A Let this be for you an infallible rule for magistrates, and those who have been tested in smaller matters, promote to public administrations. For he who is faithful in a little, is faithful also in much, as we have learned; just as if one does not know how to preside over his own house, the Apostle does not entrust the Church to him either.
Chapter XIX.
The wondrous power of the king's favor in stimulating the pursuits of his subjects.
If such are the prefects and magistrates, they will quickly add no small degree of happiness to the state, having produced many others like unto themselves. For that which is favored by kings tends to increase; and if the emperor be a student of rhetoric, lo, a downpour of sophists surrounds the palace with their readings. If he seems to pay attention to philosophy and to occupy himself with mathematical studies, those full of Plato will throng the royal portals, and not even the gatekeepers will be ignorant of Archimedes, Euclid, and Hypsicles. B But if he is thought to be fond of horses, the palace will be crowded with Nisaean and Italian horses, and those flocking in from everywhere to provide them will hardly find enough space in the courtyards of the royal residence.
CAPUT XX.
How unworthy and harmful it is for wicked men to be in favor with the prince.
What, then, will be the scarcity of good men in the palace, if the prince takes no care even to know them, nor to know where they are, nor to grant any access to or sight of himself to those who come? And instead of these, he holds and employs the most lost characters, well-known workshops of fraud and every crime, adorning them with dignities and heaping them with gifts. To these he gives over entire cities for the trafficking of iniquitous gains, and for the basest bargains of plunder and robbery. D Finally, he permits citizens—those miserable victims—to be torn apart and flayed by these men, on the sole condition that, for the price of this granted license, they reserve the fattest spoils for him, having absolutely no regard if he confounds divine and human laws.
...for their slaughter, that he may only gain, and orchestrating the affliction of his subjects, so that he may enjoy their abundance in pleasures. A
CHAPTER XXI.
That the ruler of the Commonwealth, like the pilot of a ship, must labor unceasingly.
It would have been right for the prince not to excel private citizens in the abundance or magnitude of his pleasures, but in the voluntary assumption of heavy cares and labors; indeed, for as the pilot is to the ship, so is the emperor to the Commonwealth. Moreover, you see how the pilot’s function is neither idle nor free from anxiety, in that he flashes in every direction, turns himself about, and while others are composed in sweet and deep sleep, he himself perseveres, standing watch with an unsuitable sharpness. Even if during the day, seizing a moment, he should close his eyes for the necessary rest, how deep and supine his sleep is not; as he wakes, those words immediately burst forth: "Furl the sail, slacken the sheet, turn the rudder, yet the yard groans, yet avoid the projecting rock!" And he works, while sleeping, almost more than those who are awake. Therefore, let the prince devote himself to labors, considering the empire not a place of luxury, but of cares. B
CHAPTER XXII.
How the prince must manage and administer military affairs.
He should conduct wars himself, being personally present at everything, and observing everything with his own eyes. Yet he should not recklessly expose himself to dangers; nor should he face the death of a common soldier, but that of a prudent general who has raised many trophies. C
CHAPTER XXIII.
Military exercises in time of peace should be practiced, and veterans honored.
Furthermore, in time of peace he should meditate on war, training himself repeatedly for every manner of military duty, refusing none, however laborious, and at the same time training the soldiers with himself, while making the veterans and those exempted from service both teachers and spectators of the exercises. For gray hair, as the saying goes, has something to say wiser than youth. D Now, an old man and a young man differ not a little. The former is the mind, the latter the hand; one has need of the other. And indeed, nothing so destroys the Roman state today as the fact that among those who are in charge of affairs, there exists no vigorous old man, equal to business, who, although his skin is wrinkled by age, conceals within, like the husk of a nut, a wholesome and healthy fruit.
Chapter XXIV. Physical exercise is healthy for a prince.
A Let the prince say this law to himself: Never to eat without having first sweated. If he does this, besides the other fruits of that exercise, he will also attain this, that he uses a stronger body; for it is unburdened of the superfluities which a sedentary and voluptuous life collects. The intelligence of the mind, moreover, thrives much more alertly: for it is less obscured and lulled to sleep by the thick vapors steaming from the fat of a corpulent belly. Who would not dread having as an adversary a prince who is thus wakeful with a sharp mind and agile with a prompt body?
CHAPTER XXV. That it is not fitting for a king to devote himself to mimes and buffoons; but to have learned and prudent men with him.
But how will such a one be able to devote himself to mimes and players? Or how will he not draw everyone into love for himself, who see him applying both the cares of the mind, and the contentions of the body, and serious actions, and playful exercises to their own advantages? But if he conducts himself in the opposite way, if the royal doors are open to stage-performers and wicked heads of that kind, if the palatial house receives and admits into the deepest intimacy those worthy of the pit, the master of human affairs, to play basely with the most wicked buffoons, and to have sacrilegious and infamous men, buried in public detestation, not only as companions and interlocutors, but even as authors of counsels, from whose opinions he concludes deliberations and governs the public matter: meanwhile B while men equal to any administration of the empire, because of their excellent wisdom, when they offer themselves even at the first threshold, the doorkeepers suddenly thrust the doors in their faces. If, I say, he is honored who can imitate a parrot and a nightingale with a broken voice, but those who speak what is fitting for a man, or rather what lifts men to God, are spurned and mocked and repelled. If the upright and learned, because of the prince's neglect, themselves unfed, feed dense flocks of lice, if those who abound in petulance and lasciviousness and insolence fly about happy and flourishing with the rewards of honors and goods; but virtue, now an empty name, covered in neglect and squalor, is allowed to grow old in corners: in what place the republic will be under such a regime, anyone will be able to understand easily, so that we may be silent.
CHAPTER XXVI. On the clemency necessary for a prince.
But what limit do we finally prescribe for the clemency of a prince? We want it, as far as it is permitted to him, to be equal to that which God exercises toward men. A prince will never use the sword by a primary and voluntarily undertaken will, C but driven by necessity, after he has tried everything else. For the example of the heavenly King, which he keeps before his eyes, will persuade him of this, the weight of which example, if it were less with him than to draw him to its imitation, would overwhelm the king of men with just shame by the comparison of himself with the king of bees. For nature fashioned the king of bees alone among all bees without a sting. Furthermore, whoever is easy and prone to drawing the sword, let him be called an executioner rather than a king, nor let him be thought to derive the form of his power from the archetype of divine principality; but to emulate the bloodthirsty furies of monstrous furies and the thirst for human blood. D
CHAPTER XXVII.
A How much the king ought to employ the sword and punishments.And let no one, I pray, denounce my speech, as if I were attempting to disarm the majesty of kings, and to blunt and utterly destroy the blade of the sword given to them by God. For I know, I know, most noble king, that your red buskins and vestments are symbols of fire. Now, fire has a double power: it illuminates and it burns; that is to say, it is both efficacious and punitive. Use punishments, therefore, but sparingly. Illuminate more frequently, but burn more rarely. This is also the meaning of the lamp which is carried before the Emperor, which is used only for illuminating, and not for burning. Shine, therefore, and be prodigal with your benefactions.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
B The king must be concerned to excel his subjects in virtue and wisdom.Above all, observe this for me. I say that he who is to rule over men must exceed men in virtue. For just as he who is placed in charge of pasturing and leading sheep is not a sheep, nor are herds of oxen entrusted to be governed by an ox, but to a head that is a partaker of reason and to a person of a nature far superior; so too, it is right and just that a prince should excel his subjects as much as a shepherd excels sheep, and a herdsman excels oxen.
CHAPTER XXIX.
C Conclusion of this work, and the promise of another.I will not burden you with an infinite heap of precepts. For it is better to save the rest for another feast, as it were, than to offer you here things that would be loathsome because you are sated. Nor will it be lacking, God helping, that I shall prepare another table of similar provisions for you, in which I shall set forth what is missing here, if only I see that you have received these things with appetite, and have digested what was eaten, and have benefited in your spiritual stature, so that you are healthier thereby, and have built up your stature (spiritually, at least, not bodily) with a higher dignity.
CHAPTER XXX.
D Divine favor is promised to Constantine, if he is willing to obey this exhortation and the commands of his mother.Letters honor you; do you also honor letters, by obeying the precepts delivered to you through them. Also, always show yourself obedient to your holy mother. For if you allow yourself to be led easily and teachably by her reins, you will have God as your companion and the one who grants success to your undertakings, and as the greatest author and helper in the governing of your kingdom. This, the virtue and blessing of your mother will surely give you, descending upon your head, and building up for you both your royal house and your spiritual house with the firmest foundation.