On Constancy 3

. . . "'How strange, then, that Socrates should have been so treated by the Athenians.' Slave, why do you say Socrates? Speak of the thing as it is: how strange that the poor body of Socrates should have been carried off and dragged to prison by stronger men, and that any one should have given hemlock to the poor body of Socrates, and that it should breathe out the life.

"Do these things seem strange. do they seem unjust, do you on account of these things blame God? Had Socrates then no equivalent for these things, Where, then, for him was the nature of good?

"Whom shall we listen to, you or him? And what does Socrates say? 'Anytus and Meletus can kill me, but they cannot hurt me': and further, he says, 'If it so pleases God, so let it be.'" . . . 

--Epictetus, Discourses 1.29 (tr Long)

 Surely Socrates succumbed to great strength and power, when he was imprisoned, tried, and executed? Couldn't he have played the game a bit more expertly and survived to continue his mission, or even have raised a protest from all the young dissatisfied souls who listened to his teachings? At the very least, he could have defended himself more tactfully, and tugged at the heartstrings of the jurors.

I have heard all kinds of trendy explanations of why Socrates acted as he did. He basically committed suicide because did not wish to live the painful life of an old man, or he wanted to die with the image of a popular martyr, or he was simply an egomaniac. I only know Socrates from what was written about his words and deeds, but if any of these theories are true, then he is absolutely not worth listening to. If he was playing to circumstances in any such a way, then he was nothing but a hypocrite, and then his principles meant nothing at all.

With Epictetus, I think what made Socrates so special was that he had a very different sense of the nature of the good than most of us. He is the grandfather of all Stoics, because he understood that a man is measured by how well he lives in character, and all other circumstances are relative and subservient to this end. He was not worried about his imprisonment or his death at all, because he did not measure the freedom of the body, his possessions or reputation, even his survival as good in themselves.

Socrates was not defeated at all, if we understand the standards of victory and defeat in the right. Anytus and Meletus could not harm him, because Anytus and Meletus could not touch his soul.

I have a short list of passages from philosophy, theology, and literature that I have committed to memory, and these are my refuge and my strength when I feel I am about to go under. I feel no shame in repeating them over and over. This is one of them, straight from Plato's Apology:

"Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy, exhorting anyone whom I meet after my manner, and convincing him, saying: O my friend, why do you who are a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens, care so much about laying up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul, which you never regard or heed at all? Are you not ashamed of this?

"And if the person with whom I am arguing says: Yes, but I do care; I do not depart or let him go at once; I interrogate and examine and cross-examine him, and if I think that he has no virtue, but only says that he has, I reproach him with undervaluing the greater, and overvaluing the less. And this I should say to everyone whom I meet, young and old, citizen and alien, but especially to the citizens, inasmuch as they are my brethren. For this is the command of God, as I would have you know; and I believe that to this day no greater good has ever happened in the state than my service to the God.

"For I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons and your properties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue come money and every other good of man, public as well as private. This is my teaching, and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, my influence is ruinous indeed."

Socrates, and Stoicism, will make no sense whatsoever if we judge them by a power over things, but they make perfect sense if we understand them by a power over oneself. Socrates, and the Stoics, do not need to be rabble-rousers, rulers of men, violent revolutionaries, or captains of industry to find their bliss.

Written in 4/1999

Image: Cesare Dandini,  Personification of Constancy, c. 1634