Philo Judaeus, De Virtutibus, Charles Duke Yonge (Translator), 152

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[152] And it would be a wicked thing to deprive one’s friends of necessary food, who have probably stored up nothing which can be of use to them because of the uncertainty of the future. For this was an admirable saying which ¹ was in vogue ²³ . 443 PHILO JUDAUS. among the ancients, that one must enter into friendships without at the same time being blind to the possibility that it may be turned into enmity, and that one must repel an enemy as if he may hereafter become a friend, in order that each man might, through this consideration, lay up something in his own soul which might conduce to his safety, and might not, being laid completely bare and defenceless, in word and in deed repent of his too great facility of temper, blaming himself when there is no need of any such thing.

De Virtutibus. Philo Judaeus. Charles Duke Yonge (Translator). Medford, MA, USA. 2023.

Current edition First1KGreek

On Three Virtues, that is to say, on Courage, Humanity, and Repentance (English) (The works of Philo Judaeus, the contemporary of Josephus, volume 3. Yonge, C. D., translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855.)

Editions (1)

De Virtutibus First1KGreek (Philo Judaeus. Opera quae supersunt, Volume 5. Cohn, Leonard, editor. Berlin: Reimer, 1906.) — 152 focus

[152] φίλους δὲ τροφῶν ἀναγκαίων ἀποστερεῖν χαλεπόν, μηδὲν ταμιευσαμένους ¹² τῶν ἐπ’ ὠφελείᾳ διὰ τὴν τοῦ μέλλοντος ἀδηλότητα. πάνυ γὰρ ἐκεῖνο καλῶς εἴρηται τοῖς παλαιοῖς, ὅτι καὶ φιλίας κοινωνητέον μὴ ἀπογινώσκοντας ἔχθραν καὶ προσκρουστέον ὡς φιλίας ἐσομένης, ἵνα ἕκαστος ἐν τῇ ἑαυτοῦ φύσει ταμιεύηταί τι τῶν εἰς ἀσφάλειαν καὶ μὴ ἀπογυμνωθεὶς ἐν ἔργοις καὶ λόγοις μετανοῇ, τῆς ἄγαν εὐχερείας, ὅτ’ οὐδὲν
ὄφελος, αἰτιώμενος ἑαυτόν.

Notes on the current edition

On Three Virtues, that is to say, on Courage, Humanity, and Repentance

1. This idea is deservedly reprobated by Cicero, De Amic. xvi. "We shall be able to arrive at another definition of true friendship when we have first mentioned what Scipio was accustomed to blame with great indignation. He used to say that no sentence more hostile to friendship, or more at variance with every correct notion of it, could possibly be found, than that one of the man who said that it became a man always to form a friendship with the idea that he might some day or other hate his friend. And he said that he could never be induced to believe that this, as some people fancied, had been said by Bias, who was accounted one of the seven wise men, but he looked upon it as the saying of some profligate or ambitious man, or of some one who referred everything to the preservation of his own powers."

2. Deuteronomy xx. 19.

3. This idea is deservedly reprobated by Cicero, De Amic. xvi. "We shall be able to arrive at another definition of true friendship when we have first mentioned what Scipio was accustomed to blame with great indignation. He used to say that no sentence more hostile to friendship, or more at variance with every correct notion of it, could possibly be found, than that one of the man who said that it became a man always to form a friendship with the idea that he might some day or other hate his friend. And he said that he could never be induced to believe that this, as some people fancied, had been said by Bias, who was accounted one of the seven wise men, but he looked upon it as the saying of some profligate or ambitious man, or of some one who referred everything to the preservation of his own powers."

Philo Judaeus De Virtutibus 152

Charles Duke Yonge (Translator)

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