10. To be elated by good fortune is like running the stadium race on a slippery course. (Mai, ib., also from Antonius.)
11. The same author [i.e., Dio the Roman] said: "Is it not an outrage to trouble the gods, when we ourselves are not willing to do what the gods deem to be in our power?" (Mai, p. 561, from the Anthology of Arsenius.)
12. The same said: "It is much better to win some success and be envied than to fail and be pitied." (Mai, ib., from Arsenius.)
13. The same said: "It is impossible for any one who acts contrary to right principles to derive any benefit from them." (Mai, p. 562.)
Frag. [CVIII]
B.C. 70
(a.u. 684)The Cretans sent an embassy to the Romans, hoping to renew the old truce and furthermore to obtain some kindness for their preservation of the quæstor and his fellow soldiers. But they, rather imbued with anger at their failure to overcome the Cretans than grateful to the enemy for not having destroyed them, made no reasonable answer and demanded back from them all the captives and deserters. They demanded hostages and large sums of money, required the largest ships and the chief men to be given up, and would not wait for an answer from the envoys' country but sent out one of the consuls immediately to take possession of those things and make war upon them if they failed to give,—as proved to be the case. For the men who at the outset, before any such demand was made and before they had conquered, had refused to make terms would naturally not endure after their victory the imposition of exorbitant demands of such a character. The Romans knowing this clearly and suspecting further that the envoys would try to corrupt some persons with money, so as to hinder the expedition, voted in the senate that no one should lend them anything. (Ursinus, p. 388.)
FOOTNOTES
[1] Iahni Annales, vol. 141, p. 290 sqq.
[2] Mommsen (Hermes VI, pp. 82-89); Haupt (Hermes XIV, pp. 36-64, and XV, p. 160); Boissevain (Program, Rotterdam, 1884).
[3] This would give Dio a considerably longer life than is commonly allowed him.