Plutarch, De amicorum multitudine, ed. William W. Goodwin, 7

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[7] And it is impossible any should be friends that resent not mutually the affronts and injuries offered unto either, and that do not hate alike and in common. They also who are enemies to yourself will presently suspect and hate your friend; nay, your other friends too will often envy, calumniate, and undermine him. Wherefore what the oracle foretold Timesias concerning his planting a colony, that an hive of bees should be changed into a nest of wasps, may not impertinently be applied to those who seek after a hive of friends, but light before they know it upon a wasps-nest of enemies.

Besides, we should do well to consider that the kindest affections of friends seldom compensate for the misfortunes that befall us from the malice of enemies. It is well known how Alexander treated the familiars of Philotas and Parmenio; Dionysius, those of Dion; Nero, those of Plautus; and Tiberius, those of Sejanus; all shared the same hard fate of being racked and tortured to death. For as the gold and riches Creon’s daughter was adorned with could not secure the good old father from being consumed in her flames, endeavoring too officiously to rescue her; so not a few partake of the calamities and ruin of their friends, before they have reaped the least advantage from their prosperity; a misfortune to which philosophers and the bestnatured men are the most liable. This was the case of Theseus, who for the sake of his dear Pirithous shared his punishment, and was bound with him in the same eternal chains.¹ Thus in the plague of Athens, says Thucydides,² the most generous and virtuous citizens, while without regard to their own safety they visited their sick, frequently perished with their friends.

De amicorum multitudine. Plutarch. ed. William W. Goodwin. Boston. 1874.

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Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Of Large Acquaintance: or, an Essay to Prove the Folly of Seeking Many Friends (English) (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. I. Goodwin, William W., editor, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1874.)

Editions (1)

Περὶ πολυφιλίας Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol I. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1888.) — 7 focus

[7] 96b οὐκ ἔστι φίλον μὴ συναδικεῖσθαι μηδὲ συναδοξεῖν μηδὲ συναπεχθάνεσθαι· οἱ γὰρ ἐχθροὶ τὸν φίλον εὐθὺς ὑφορῶνταί τε καὶ μισοῦσιν, οἱ δὲ φίλοι πολλάκις φθονοῦσί τε καὶ ζηλοτυποῦσι καὶ περισπῶσιν. ὥσπερ οὖν ὁ τῷ Τιμησίᾳ περὶ τῆς ἀποικίας 5 δοθεὶς χρησμὸς προηγόρευσε

σμῆνα¹ μελισσάων τάχα τοι καὶ σφῆκες; ἔσονται

, οὕτως οἱ φίλων ζητοῦντες ἑσμὸν ἔλαθον ἐχθρῶν σφηκιαῖς² περιπεσόντες. καὶ οὐκ ἴσον ἄγει σταθμὸν ἐχθροῦ μνησικακία καὶ φίλου χάρις. ὅρα δὲ τοὺς 10 96c Φιλώτου καὶ Παρμενίωνος φίλους καὶ οἰκείους ἃ διέθηκεν Ἀλέξανδρος, ἃ τοὺς Δίωνος Διονύσιος τοὺς Πλαύτου Νέρων καὶ τοὺς Σηιανοῦ Τιβέριος στρεβλοῦντες καὶ ἀποκτιννύοντες. ὡς γὰρ τὸν Κρέοντα τῆς θυγατρὸς οὐδὲν ὁ χρυσὸς οὐδʼ ὁ πέπλος ὠφέλει, 15 τὸ δὲ πῦρ ἀναφθὲν αἰφνιδίως προσδραμόντα καὶ περιπτύξαντα κατέκαυσε καὶ συναπώλεσεν, οὕτως ἔνιοι τῶν φίλων οὐδὲν ἀπολαύσαντες εὐτυχούντων συναπόλλυνται δυστυχοῦσι. καὶ τοῦτο μάλιστα πάσχουσιν οἱ φιλόσοφοι καὶ χαρίεντες, ὡς Θησεὺς τῷ 20 Πειρίθῳ κολαζομένῳ καὶ δεδεμένῳ

αἰδοῦς³ ἀχαλκεύτοις συνέζευκται⁴ πέδαις⁵

, 96d ἐν δὲ τῷ λοιμῷ φησιν ὁ Θουκυδίδης⁶ τοὺς ἀρετῆς μάλιστα μεταποιουμένους συναπόλλυσθαι τοῖς φίλοις νοσοῦσιν ἠφείδουν γὰρ σφῶν αὐτῶν ἰόντες παρὰ 25 τοὺς ἐπιτηδείους.

Translations (1)

On Having Many Friends Perseus (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. II. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1928 (printing).) — 7 focus

[7] it is impossible for a friend not to share his friend’s wrongs or disrepute or disfavour; for a man’s enemies at once look with suspicion and hatred upon his friend, and oftentimes his other friends are envious and jealous, and try to get him away. As the oracle given to Timesias ¹ about his colony prophesied:

Soon shall your swarms of honey-bees turn out to be hornets,

so, in like manner, men who seek for a swarm of friends unwittingly run afoul of hornets’ nests of enemies. Besides, the resentment of an enemy and the gratitude of a friend do not weigh equally in the ² balance. See what treatment Alexander meted out to the friends and family of Philotas and Parmenio, Dionysius those of Dion, Nero those of Plautus,³ and Tiberius those of Sejanus, ⁴ torturing and killing them. For as the golden crown and the robe of Creon’s daughter did not help Creon,⁵ but, as he suddenly ran to her and clasped her in his arms, the fire, fastening upon him, burned him up and destroyed him as well as his daughter, so some persons without deriving any benefit from their friends’ good fortunes, perish with them in their misfortunes. This is the experience especially of men of culture and refinement, as Theseus, for example, shared with Peirithoüs his punishment and imprisonment,

Yoked fast in duty’s bonds not forged by man,⁶

and Thucydides ⁷ asserts that in the pestilence those who had the highest claim to virtue perished with their friends who were ill; for they did not spare themselves in going, as they did, to visit those who had claims on their friendship.

Notes on the current edition

Of Large Acquaintance: or, an Essay to Prove the Folly of Seeking Many Friends

1. Eurip. Pirith. Frag. 598.

2. Thucyd. II. 51.

Plutarch De amicorum multitudine 7

ed. William W. Goodwin

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