Thursday, November 01, 2018
Distrust and Ridicule of Philosophers
Ronald Syme (1903-1989), Tacitus, Vol. II (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958; rpt. 1997), pp. 552-553:
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Philosophy encountered a deep distrust among the Romans—it dealt in words and ratiocination, it might lead to subversive opinions or mystical aspirations. The name embraced the high and the low, taking in all manner of sects and pursuits. It covered magic or theosophy. Street preachers were also noxious, for they exploited social discontent and troubled the peace of the cities. But skill or sanctity could rise high, and philosophers, like other experts or charlatans from the gifted peoples of the Greek East, win admittance to the mansions of the aristocracy as spiritual directors, and are suitably installed, along with doctors and astrologers, in the palace of the Caesars.1
Some kept a reputation for honesty and sagacity, friends of the dynasty and useful agents of the government. Others were found out. The allegations range from repulsive habits to crime, vice, and conspiracy. The general charge was hypocrisy. When claims to ethical superiority collapse, the vulgar exult. Satire and declamation scored easy triumphs from the shaggy beards and the intimidating eyebrows.2 At the same time, sober and respectable critics were not loath to speak out. Quintilian bears witness. The profession easily became a disguise for idleness, a refuge for the ignorant and pretentious. Quintilian utters a just pronouncement—'philosophia enim simulari potest, eloquentia non potest'.3
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Tacitus has a keen flair for the spurious and the pretentious. Nero, so he records, admitted philosophers to his company. Not from curiosity or benevolence, but to enjoy their wrangles. They were brought in after dinner, and men of grim demeanour did not disdain to purvey palace entertainment.8
1 p. 507 f.
2 Juvenal II.1 ff.
3 Quintilian XII.3.12. He had been describing persons 'pigritiae arrogantioris ... subito fronte conficta immissaque barba ... in publico tristes domi dissoluti.' Also praef. 15: 'vultum et tristitiam et dissentientem a ceteris animum pessimis moribus praetendebant.' Further, Pliny (Epp. I.22.6; III.11.6)—the venerable Euphrates, of course, was very different (I.10.6 f.).
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8 [Ann.] XIV.16.2: 'nec deerant qui ore vultuque tristi inter oblectamenta regia spectari cuperent.'
