[-23-] At the end of this speech of his Cicero rejoined:—"There seems to you, then, to be no great evil in dishonor and exile and not living at home nor being with your friends, but instead being expelled with violence from your country, existing in a foreign land, and wandering about with the name of exile, causing laughter to your enemies and disgrace to your connections."
"Not a trace of evil, so far as I can see," declared Philiscus. "There are two elements of which we are constituted,—soul and body,—and definite blessings and evils are given to each of the two by Nature herself. Now if there should be any failure in these details, it might properly be considered hurtful and base, but if all should be right it would be advantageous rather. This, at the outset, is your condition. Those things which you mentioned, cases of dishonor among them, and everything else of the sort are disgraceful and evil only through law and a kind of notion, and work no injury to either body or soul. What body could you cite that has fallen sick or perished and what spirit that has grown wickeder or even more ignorant through dishonor and exile and anything of that sort? I see none. And the reason is that no one of these accidents is by nature evil, just as neither honorable position nor residence in one's country is by nature excellent, but whatever opinion each one of us holds about them, such they seem to be. For instance, mankind do not universally apply the term 'dishonor' to the same conditions, but certain deeds which are reprehensible in some regions are praised in others and various actions honored by this people are punishable by that. Some do not so much as know the name, nor the fact which it implies. This is quite natural. For whatever does not touch what belongs to man's nature is thought to have no bearing upon him. Just exactly as it would be most ridiculous, surely, if some judgment or decree were delivered that so-and-so is sick or so-and-so is base, so does the case stand regarding dishonor.
[-24-] "The same thing I find to be true in regard to exile. Living abroad is somehow in a way dishonorable, so that if dishonor pure and simple contains no evil, surely an evil reputation can not be attached to exile either. You know at any rate that many live abroad the longest possible time, some unwillingly and others willingly; and some even spend their whole life traveling about, just as if they were expelled from every place: and yet they do not regard themselves as being injured in doing so. It makes no difference whether a man does it voluntarily or not. The person who trains unwillingly gets no less strong than he who is willing about it, and the person who navigates unwillingly obtains no less benefit than the other. And as for this very element of unwillingness, I do not see how it can encounter a man of sense. If the difference between being well and badly off is that some things we readily volunteer to do and others we are unwilling and grudge to perform, the trouble can be easily mended. For if We endure willingly all necessary things and show the white feather before none of them, all those matters in which one might assume unwillingness have been abolished. There is, indeed, an old saying and a very good one, to the effect that we ought not to think it requisite for whatever we wish to come to pass, but to wish for whatever does come to pass as the result of any necessity. We neither have free choice in our course of life nor is it on ourselves that we are dependent; but according as it may suit Fortune, and according to the character of the Divinity granted each one of us for the fulfillment of what is ordained, must we also regard our life.
[-25-] "Such is the nature of the case whether we like it or not. If, now, it is not mere dishonor or mere exile that troubles you, but the fact that not only without having done your country any hurt, but after having benefited her greatly you were dishonored and expelled, look at it in this way,—that once it was destined for you to have such an experience, it has been the noblest and the best fortune that could befall you to be despitefully used without having committed any wrong. You advised and performed all that was proper for the citizens, not as individual but as consul, not meddling officiously in a private capacity but obeying the decree of the senate, not as a party measure but for the best ends. This or that other person, on the contrary, out of his superior power and insolence had devised everything against you, wherefore disasters and grief belong to him for his injustice, but for you it is noble as well as necessary to bear bravely what the Divinity has determined. Surely you would not have preferred to coöperate with Catiline and to conspire with Lentulus, to give your country the exact opposite of advantageous counsel, to discharge none of the duties laid upon you by it, and thus to remain at home under a burden of wickedness instead of displaying uprightness and being exiled. Accordingly, if you have any care for reputation, it is far preferable for you to have been driven out, guilty of no wrong, than to have remained at home by executing some villainy; for, among other considerations, shame attaches to the men who have unjustly cast one forth, but not to the man who is wantonly expelled.
[-26-] "Moreover, the story as I heard it was that you did not depart unwillingly nor after conviction, but of your own accord; that you hated to live with them, seeing that you could not make them better and would not endure to perish with them, and that you were exiled not from your country but from those who were plotting against her. Consequently they would be the ones dishonored and banished, having cast out all that is good from their souls, but you would be honored and fortunate, as being nobody's slave in unseemly fashion and possessing all fitting qualities, whether you choose to live in Sicily, in Macedonia, or anywhere else in the world. Surely it is not localities that give either good fortune or unhappiness of any sort, but each man makes for himself both country and happiness always and everywhere. This is what Camillus had in mind when he was glad to dwell in Ardea; this is the way Scipio reckoned when he lived his life out without grieving in Liternum. What need is there to mention Aristides or to cite Themistocles, men whom exile rendered more esteemed, or Anni[44] … or Solon, who of his own accord left home for ten years?
"Therefore do you likewise cease to consider irksome any such thing as pertains neither to our physical nor to our spiritual nature, and do not vex yourself at what has happened. For to us belongs no choice as I told you, of living as we please, but it is quite requisite for us to endure what the Divinity determines. If we do this voluntarily, we shall not be grieved: if involuntarily, we shall not escape at all what is fated and we shall lay upon ourselves besides the greatest of ills,—distressing our hearts to no purpose. The proof of it is that men who bear good-naturedly the most outrageous fortunes do not regard themselves as being in any very dreadful circumstances, while those that are disturbed at the lightest disappointments feel as if all human ills were theirs. And, among people in general, some who handle fair conditions badly and others who handle unfavorable conditions well make their good or ill fortune appear even in the eyes of others to be of precisely the same nature as they figure it to themselves. [-27-] Bear this in mind, then, and be not cast down by your present state, nor grieve if you learn that the men who exiled you are flourishing. In general the successes of men are vain and ephemeral, and the higher a man climbs as a result of them the more easily, like a breath, does he fall, especially in partisan conflicts. Borne along in a tumultuous and unstable medium they differ little, or rather not at all, from ships in a storm, but are carried up and then down, now hither, now yon; and if they make the slightest error, they sink altogether. Not to mention Drusus or Scipio or the Gracchi or some others, remember how Camillus the exile later came off better than Capitolinus, and remember how much Aristides subsequently surpassed Themistocles.
"Do you, then, as well, entertain a strong hope that you will be restored; for you have not been expelled on account of wrong doing, and the very ones who drove you forth will, as I take it, seek for you, while all will miss you. [-28-] But if you continue in your present state,—as give yourself no care about it, even so. For if you lean to my way of thinking you will be quite satisfied to pick out a little estate on the coast and there carry on at the same time farming and some historical writing, like Xenophon, like Thucydides. This form of learning is most lasting and most adaptable to every man, every government, and exile brings a leisure in some respects more productive. If, then, you wish to become really immortal, like those historians, imitate them. Necessities you have in sufficiency and you lack no measure of esteem. And, if there is any virtue in it, you have been consul. Nothing more belongs to those who have held office a second, a third, or a fourth time, except an array of idle letters which benefit no man, living or dead. Hence you would not choose to be Corvinus or Marius, the seven times consul, rather than Cicero. Nor, again, are you anxious for any position of command, seeing that you withdrew from one bestowed upon you because you scorned the gains to be had from it and scorned a brief authority that was subject to the scrutiny of all who chose to practice sycophancy, matters I have mentioned not because any one of them is requisite for happiness, but because, since it was best, you have been engaged in politics enough to learn from it the difference in lives and to choose the one but reject the other, to pursue the one but avoid the other.
"Our life is but short and you ought not to live all of it for others, but by this time to grant a little to yourself. Consider how much quiet is better than disturbance and a placid life than tumults, freedom than slavery, and safety than dangers, that you may feel a desire to live as I am urging you to do. In this way you will be happy, and your name because of it shall be great,—yes, always, whether you are alive or dead.
[-29-] "If, however, you are eager for a return and hold in esteem a brilliant political career,—I do not wish to say anything unpleasant, but I fear, as I cast my eyes on the case and call to mind your freedom of speech, and behold the power and numbers of your adversaries, that you may meet defeat once again. If then you should encounter exile, you can merely change your mind, but if you should incur some fatal punishment you will be unable to repent. Is it not assuredly a dreadful, a disgraceful thing to have one's head cut off and set up in the Forum, if it so happen, for any one, man or woman, to insult? Do not hate me as one foreboding evil to you: I but give you warning; be on your guard. Do not let the fact that you have certain friends among the influential men deceive you. You will get no help against those hostilely disposed from the men who seem to love you; this you probably know by experience. Those who have a passion for domination regard everything else as nothing in comparison with obtaining what they desire: they often give up their dearest friends and closest kin in exchange for their bitterest foes."
[-30-] On hearing this Cicero grew just a little easier in mind. His exile did not, in fact, last long. He was recalled by Pompey himself, who was most responsible for his expulsion. The reason was this.