Sunday, May 21, 2023
Contentiousness, Enmity, and Envy
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 11.18.3 (tr. Earnest Cary):
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Such counsels, fathers, are not those of men in their senses nor do they spring from the political foresight which regards the public advantages as more essential than private animosities, but rather from an unseasonable contentiousness, an ill-starred enmity, and an unfortunate envy which does not permit those who are under its influence to show sound judgement.
οὐκ ἔστιν ὑγιαινόντων ἀνθρώπων τὰ τοιαῦτα βουλεύματα, ὦ πατέρες, οὐδὲ προνοίας πολιτικῆς τὰ κοινὰ συμφέροντα τῶν ἰδίων ἀπεχθειῶν ἡγουμένης ἀναγκαιότερα, ἀλλὰ φιλονεικίας ἀκαίρου καὶ δυσμενείας ἀβούλου καὶ φθόνου κακοδαίμονος, ὃς οὐκ ἐᾷ τοὺς ἔχοντας αὐτὸν σωφρονεῖν.
