Lucian of Samosata, De mercede, Austin Morris Harmon (Translator), 5

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[5] It seems to me that I should do well to examine in advance the motives for which some men go into this sort of life and show that they are not at all urgent or necessary. In that way their defence and the primary object of their voluntary slavery would be done away with in advance. Most of them plead their poverty and their lack of necessities, and think that in this way they have set up an adequate screen for their desertion to this life. They consider that it quite suffices them if they say that they act pardonably in seeking to escape poverty, the bitterest thing in life. Then Theognis comes to hand, and time and again we hear: “All men held in subjection to Poverty,”¹ and all the other alarming statements about poverty that the most spiritless of the poets have put forth.

If I saw that they truly found any refuge from poverty in such household positions, I should not quibble with them in behalf of excessive liberty; but when they receive what resembles “the diet of invalids,” as our splendid orator once said,² how can one avoid thinking that even in this particular they are ill advised, inasmuch as their condition in life always remains the same? They are always poor, they must continue to receive, there is nothing put by, no surplus to save: on the contrary, what is given, even if it is given, even if payment is received in full, is all spent to the last copper and without satisfying their need. It would have been better not to excogitate any such measures, which keep poverty going by simply giving first aid against it, but such as will do away with it altogether—yes, and to that end perhaps even .to plunge into the deep-bosomed sea if one must, Theognis, and down precipitous cliffs, as you ~ say. But if a man who is always poor and needy and on an allowance thinks that thereby he has escaped poverty, I do not know how one can avoid thinking that such a man deludes himself.

De mercede. Lucian of Samosata. Austin Morris Harmon (Translator). United States. Perseus 5.0.

Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

On Salaried Posts in Great Houses (English) (Lucian, Vol. 3. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921.)

Editions (1)

Περὶ τῶν ἐν Μισθῷ συνόντων Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 3. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921.) — 5 focus

[5] δοκῶ δέ μοι καλῶς ἂν ποιῆσαι, εἰ τὰς αἰτίας ἀφʼ ὧν ἐπὶ τὸν τοιοῦτον βίον ἀφικνοῦνταί τινες προεξετάσας δείξαιμι οὐ πάνυ βιαίους οὐδʼ ἀναγκαίας· οὕτω γὰρ ἂν αὐτοῖς ἡ ἀπολογία προαναιροῖτο καὶ ἡ πρώτη ὑπόθεσις τῆς ἐθελοδουλείας. οἱ μὲν δὴ πολλοὶ τὴν πενίαν καὶ τὴν τῶν ἀναγκαίων χρείαν προθέμενοι ἱκανὸν τοῦτο προκάλυμμα οἴονται προβεβλῆσθαι τῆς πρὸς τὸν βίον τοῦτον αὐτομολίας, καὶ ἀποχρῆν αὐτοῖς νομίζουσιν εἰ λέγοιεν ὡς συγγνώμης ἄξιον ποιοῦσιν τὸ χαλεπώτατον τῶν ἐν τῷ βίῳ, τὴν πενίαν, διαφυγεῖν ζητοῦντες· εἶτα ὁ Θέογνις πρόχειρος καὶ πολὺ τό,

πᾶς γὰρ ἀνὴρ πενίῃ δεδμημένος

καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα δείματα ὑπὲρ τῆς πενίας οἱ ἀγεννέστατοι τῶν ποιητῶν ἐξενηνόχασιν.

ἐγὼ δʼ εἰ μὲν ἑώρων αὐτοὺς φυγήν τινα ὡς ἀληθῶς τῆς πενίας εὑρισκομένους ἐκ τῶν τοιούτων συνουσιῶν, οὐκ ἂν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἄγαν ἐλευθερίας ἐμικρολογούμην πρὸς αὐτούς· ἐπεὶ δὲ — ὡς ὁ καλός που ῥήτωρ ἔφη — τοῖς τῶν νοσούντων σιτίοις ἐοικότα λαμβάνουσι, τίς ἔτι μηχανὴ μὴ οὐχὶ καὶ πρὸς τοῦτο κακῶς βεβουλεῦσθαι δοκεῖν αὐτούς, ἀεὶ μενούσης αὐτοῖς ὁμοίας τῆς ὑποθέσεως τοῦ βίου; πενία γὰρ εἰσαεὶ καὶ τὸ λαμβάνειν ἀναγκαῖον καὶ ἀπόθετον οὐδὲν οὐδὲ περιττὸν εἰς φυλακήν, ἀλλὰ τὸ δοθέν, κἂν δοθῇ, κἂν ἀθρόως ληφθῇ, πᾶν ἀκριβῶς καὶ τῆς χρείας ἐνδεῶς καταναλίσκεται. καλῶς δὲ εἶχε μὴ τοιαύτας τινὰς ἀφορμὰς ἐπινοεῖν αἳ τὴν πενίαν τηροῦσι παραβοηθοῦσαι μόνον αὐτῇ, ἀλλʼ αἳ τέλεον ἐξαιρήσουσιν, καὶ ὑπέρ γε τοῦ τοιούτου καὶ εἰς βαθυκήτεα πόντον ἴσως ῥιπτεῖν, εἰ δεῖ, ὦ Θέογνι, καὶ πετρέων, ὡς φής, κατʼ ἠλιβάτων. εἰ δέ τις ἀεὶ πένης καὶ ἐνδεὴς καὶ ὑπόμισθος ὢν οἴεται πενίαν αὐτῷ τούτῳ διαπεφευγέναι, οὐκ οἶδα πῶς ὁ τοιοῦτος οὐκ ἂν δόξειεν ἑαυτὸν ἐξαπατᾶν.

Translations (1)

The Dependent Scholar Perseus (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 2. Fowler, Henry Watson and Fowler, Francis George, translators. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.) — 5 focus

[5] But the case of educated men, such as I have mentioned above, is another matter; it calls for our indignation, and for our utmost endeavours to restore them to liberty. I think it will not be amiss, if I first examine into the provocations under which they turn to a life of dependence. By showing how trivial, how inadequate these provocations are, I shall forestall the main argument used by the defenders of voluntary servitude, Most of them are content to cloak their desertion under the names of Poverty and Necessity. It is enough, they think, to plead in extenuation, that they sought to flee from this greatest of human ills, Poverty. Theognis comes pat to their purpose. His

Poverty, soul-subduing Poverty,

is in continual requisition, together with other fearful utterances of our most degenerate poets to the same effect. Now if I could see that they really found an escape from poverty in the lives they lead, I would not be too nice on the point of absolute freedom. But when we find them (to use the expression of a famous orator) ‘faring like men that are sick,’ what conclusion is then left to us to draw? What but this, that here again they have been misled, the very evil which they sold their liberty to escape remaining as it was? Poverty unending is their lot. From the bare pittance they receive nothing can be set apart. Suppose it paid, and paid in full: the whole sum is swallowed up to the last farthing, before their necessities are supplied. I would advise them to think upon better expedients; not such as are merely the protectors and accomplices of Poverty, but such as will make an end of her altogether. _ What say you, Theognis? Might this be a case for,

Steep plunge from crags into the teeming deep?

For when a pauper, a needy hireling, persuades himself that by being what he is he has escaped poverty, one cannot avoid the conclusion that he labours under some mistake.

Notes on the current edition

On Salaried Posts in Great Houses

ἄνδρ᾽ ἀγαθὸν πενίη πάντων δάμνησι μάλιστα,

καὶ γήρως πολιοῦ, Κύρνε, καὶ ἠπιάλου,

ἣν δὴ χρὴ φεύγοντα καὶ ἐς βαθυκήτεα πόντον

ῥιπτεῖν καὶ πετρέων, Κύρνε, κατ᾽ ἠλιβάτων.

καὶ γὰρ ἀνὴρ πενίῃ δεδμημένος οὔτε τι εἰπεῖν

οὐθ᾽ ἕρξαι δύναται, γλῶσσα δέ οἱ δέδεται.

Theognis 173 ff.

Demosthenes3, 33.

Lucian of Samosata De mercede 5

Austin Morris Harmon (Translator)

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