Saturday, July 29, 2023
Fortune's Game
Procopius, History of the Wars 8.33.24 (tr. H.B. Dewing):
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At this point in the narrative it occurs to me to comment on the manner in which Fortune makes sport of human affairs, not always visiting men in the same manner nor regarding them with uniform glance, but changing about with the changes of time and place; and she plays a kind of game with them, shifting the value of the poor wretches according to the variations of time, place, or circumstance...See Anthony Kaldellis, "God and Tyche in the Wars," Procopius of Caesarea: Tyranny, History, and Philosophy at the End of Antiquity (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), pp. 165-221 (Chapter 5, quoting this passage on p. 215).
ἐνταῦθά μοι τοῦ λόγου ἔννοια γέγονεν ὅντινα ἡ τύχη διαχλευάζει τὰ ἀνθρώπεια τρόπον, οὐκ ἀεὶ κατὰ ταὐτὰ παρὰ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἰοῦσα οὐδὲ ἴσοις αὐτοὺς ὀφθαλμοῖς βλέπουσα, ἀλλὰ ξυμμεταβαλλομένη χρόνῳ καὶ τόπῳ, καὶ παίζει ἐς αὐτοὺς παιδιάν τινα παρὰ τὸν καιρὸν ἢ τὸν χῶρον ἢ τὸν τρόπον διαλλάσσουσα τὴν τῶν ταλαιπώρων ἀξίαν...
