Tuesday, November 08, 2022
Civil Unrest
Dio Chrysostom, Discourses 46.11 (tr. J.W. Cohoon):
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For to be enraged at one's own fellow citizens — I care not whether justly or unjustly, but at all events at fellow citizens, citizens in good standing, yes, as good as anybody — and not to let them explain or to make an explanation to them, but without more ado to try to stone them and burn their houses, with a view to consuming in one conflagration, if possible, them and their children and their wives — what kind of human beings act that way?
τὸ γὰρ πολίταις ἑαυτῶν ὀργιζομένους — εἰ μὲν ἀδίκως ἢ δικαίως, ἐῶ, πολίταις δ' οὖν καὶ τούτοις ἐπιτίμοις καὶ μηδενὸς χείροσι — μὴ δοῦναι λόγον μηδὲ λαβεῖν, ἀλλ' εὐθὺς λιθάζειν καὶ κατακαίειν τὰς οἰκίας, ἵνα, εἰ ἐδύνασθε, μετὰ τῶν παίδων αὐτοὺς καὶ τῶν γυναικῶν συμφλέξητε, τίνων ἐστὶν ἀνθρώπων;
