11
Such are the pleas one might bring in defence in such a case as this, none of them pretty. But don’t be afraid, my friend, I’m not going to use any of them. May there never be such a famine at Argos that they try to sow the gymnasium at Cyllarabis, and may I never be so destitute of a reasonable defence that in my need I look for refuges of this sort against the accusation. But realise this: there is a very great difference between entering a rich man’s house as a hireling, where one is a slave and endures what my essay describes, and entering public service, where one administers affairs as well as possible and is paid by the Emperor for doing it. Consider every detail and examine it for yourself. You will find the two lives two octaves apart, to use a musical phrase, and as like each other as lead and silver, bronze and gold, anemone and rose, monkey and man. You are paid in both cases and are under a master’s orders, but there is a world of difference. In the one case the slavery is obvious, and those who enter on these conditions are not much different from slaves, whether bought or bred at home, while those who handle public business and make themselves of service to states and whole provinces cannot rightly be criticised merely because they are paid, or be brought down to the same level of general denunciation. Otherwise you must post-haste abolish all offices of this kind: neither administrators of all the provinces nor governors of cities nor commanders of corps or whole armies will please since they are paid for their work. No, you must not, I fancy, overturn everything because of an isolated example, or lump all wage-earners together.
