Book 1
2
and accordingly are content with the Life of Enjoyment—for there are three specially prominent Lives,The doctrine of the three Lives goes back to Pythagoras, who compared the three kinds of men to the three classes of strangers who went to the Games, traders, competitors, and spectators (Iamblichus, Vit. Pythag. 58). This apologue brings out the metaphor underlying the phrase θεωρητικὸς βίος, lit. the life of the spectator (Burnet). the one just mentioned, the Life of Politics, and thirdly, the Life of Contemplation.
3
The generality of mankind then show themselves to be utterly slavish, by preferring what is only a life for cattle; but they get a hearing for their view as reasonable because many persons of high position share the feelings of Sardanapallus.The last two words of the Greek look like a verse passage loosely quoted. Sardanapallus was a mythical Assyrian king; two versions of his epitaph are recorded by Athenaeus (336, 530), one containing the words ἔσθιε, πῖνε, παῖζε· ὡς τἆλλα τούτου οὐκ ἄξια τοῦ ἀποκροτήματος, Eat, drink, play, since all else is not worth that snap of the fingers; the other ends κεῖν’ ἔχω ὅσσ’ ἔφαγον καὶ ἐφύβρισα καὶ μετ’ ἔρωτος τέρπν’ ἔπαθον· τὰ δὲ καὶ ὄλβια πάντα λέλυνται, I have what I ate; and the delightful deeds of wantonness and love which I did and suffered; whereas all my wealth is vanished.
4
Men of refinement, on the other hand, and men of action think that the Good is honor—for this may be said to be the end of the Life of Politics. But honor after all seems too superficial to be the Good for which we are seeking; since it appears to depend on those who confer it more than on him upon whom it is conferred, whereas we instinctively feel that the Good must be something proper to its possessor and not easy to be taken away from him.
