PHILO
VOLUME VIII
WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY F, H. COLSON
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS LONDON, ENGLAND
First published 1939 Reprinted 1954, 1960, 1968, 1989, 1999
LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY ° is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College
ISBN 0-674-99376-4
Printed in Great Britain by St Edmundsbury Press Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, on acid-free paper. Bound by Hunter ἐσ Foulis Ltd, Edinburgh, Scotland.
CONTENTS
PREFACE vii GENERAL INTRODUCTION ix LIST OF PHILO’S WORKS XXV
ON THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV
INTRODUCTION 3
TEXT AND TRANSLATION 6 ON THE VIRTUES
INTRODUCTION 158
TEXT AND TRANSLATION 162
ON REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS
INTRODUCTION 309
TEXT AND TRANSLATION 312 APPENDICES
I. TO DE SPECIALIBUS LEGIBUS, IV 425
II. TO DE VIRTUTIBUS 440
III. TO DE PRAEMIIS ET POENIS 451
PREFACE TO VOLUME VIII
Tus volume concludes the exposition of the Law which began in vol. vi., and also vol. v. of Cohn and Wendland’s edition. There is only one other point which need be mentioned here.
As in vols. vi. and vii., I have made full use of the German translation published in 1906. The first of the three treatises here translated, Spec. Leg. iv., was the work of Heinemann, who also translated the three first books of the Special Laws, which formed the main part of my vol. vii. In the preface to that volume I said that I occasionally found myself differ- ing from Heinemann as to the meaning of particular sentences and phrases. I say very much the same of his translation of this fourth book. But the transla- tion of the other two treatises, the De Virtutibus and De Praemiis, comes from Dr. Cohn himself, whose labours on the text embodied in his great edition have earned the unbounded gratitude of every student of Philo. I have been startled by the number of times in which I find myself in disagreement with him, a disagreement extending beyond the transla- tion to the text particularly in the cases where he
Vii
PREFACE
seems to me to have printed unjustified emenda- tions. Though it may sometimes seem disputatious, I have felt bound to record in the footnotes or appendix my reasons for differing from him, as what is only due to so high an authority.
As in the last volume, I am also indebted to Goodenough’s Jenish Jurisprudence in Egypt and Heinemann’s Philon’s Bildung, but not to the same extent. Goodenough’s discussion only extended to the first part of Spec. Leg. iv., and Heinemann’s references are also less copious.
F. H. Ὁ.
CamBripGE, December 1938.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Tue first ninety pages of this volume complete the survey of the laws referable to the Ten Command- ments, and cover the eighth, ninth and tenth, though on a scale by no means commensurate with the 130 pages in which he treated the sixth and seventh in the preceding volume. Here the eighth is well exempli- fied from the particular laws. For the ninth Philo has said (De Decalogo 172) “that it forbids not only false witness but deceit, false accusation, co-operation with evildoers and using honesty for a screen for dishonesty, all of which have been the subjects of appropriate laws.” Here he can hardly be said to make good the statement in the last clause. The third of these four points is dealt with fully, and perhaps the fourth, though incidentally. But after the discussion of witness in general this part of the treatise is mainly occupied with the qualities required of a judge, a matter which belongs rather, as he himself recognizes later, to the second half of the treatise on justice.
Though Philo has said (De Decalogo 174) that many ordinances fall under the tenth commandment he does not produce any except the dietary laws, and these are not really germane. Even if we admit his assumption that the flesh of swine and that of other animals are forbidden because they are the most
ix
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
appetizing, Moses is not forbidding the appetite but only the indulgence of it. The fact is that there are no specific laws to quote. For though the Pentateuch does enjoin or prohibit feelings as well as actions such as “‘ thou shalt love thy neighbour ”’ and the like, I do not think there are any except the tenth com- mandment itself which develops the thought ‘“ thou shalt not desire.”
The words “ thy neighbour’s,’’ which are repeated so emphatically in the tenth commandment, as we have it and Philo also had it in the Lxx, receive little attention from him. In this he follows the Stoic idea which conceives of the desire of what we have not got as a spiritual disease quite independent of whether it affects other people or not. Many forms of it of course lead to wrongdoing to others, as Philo points out in the disquisition on desire in general (§§ 79-94), but this is really incidental and is quite absent from the particular example given, namely gluttony, which occupies the rest of his treatment of this commandment.
At this point comes the great break. The subject may be treated in another aspect. The command- ments as a whole, and indeed each separately, incul- cate all the virtues, and therefore if we classify the laws according to the virtues which they enjoin we shall still be referring them to the great Ten. The accepted list of the chief virtues both according to Plato and the Stoics is justice, wisdom or prudence, courage and temperance. To these Philo adds piety
* The allegorical interpretation of the dietary laws is of course a digression, though a very natural one. The story of the quails which concludes this part is a law in the sense that it records the punishment which gluttony incurred.
x
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
(εὐσέβεια), which with the Stoics at any rate is a subordinate virtue,? and humanity (¢Aav@pwria),? a term which, so far as I can judge, was not current in the schools. Of these, piety, wisdom and temper- ance have been treated earlier,* and there remain
4 Defined as ἐπιστήμη θεῶν θεραπείας (see index S.V.F.). Cf. Quod Det. 55, where perhaps read θεραπείας (sc. ἐπι- στήμην) for θεραπείαν.
ἡ The curious description given of φιλανθρωπία in Diog. Laert. iii. 98 as from Plato does not suggest that it ranks among the virtues; there it is said to have three forms, (a) cordial hand-shaking and greeting, (6) helping anyone in misfortune, (c) liking to give good dinners (φιλοδειπνιστής). This is, I suppose, just a lexicographical account of the uses of the word which with its cognates is common enough ; it does not appear at allin S. V.F’. except in a quotation from Clement, who probably depends upon Philo. ‘The later Stoics such as Seneca no doubt prized many of the qualities which it involves, but I am not clear whether even Roman Stoicism had any real equivalent. ‘‘ Humanitas ” seems to have a somewhat different connotation and to include good manners and culture. Possibly ‘‘ caritas”’—and De Car. as sometimes used as a title for this treatise—is the nearest. Compare Cic. Acad. ii. 140 “ ruunt communitas cum humano genere, caritas, amicitia, iustitia aliaeque virtutes,” and the follow- ing from De Fin. v. 65 gives Philo’s conception, though not in a single word: ‘“‘ Caritas humani generis quae... serpit sensim foras, cognationibus primum . . . deinde totius complexu gentis humanae.”’
¢ What does this mean? As stated on p. xiv, a treatise on εὐσέβεια actually existed, but if Cohn and Wendland are right in thinking that this once stood between the De Fort. and De Hum. it cannot be referred to here. Of special treatises on σωφροσύνη and φρόνησις there are no traces. And to satisfy the scheme these treatises should not be so much disquisitions on the virtues as on the special laws which illustrate them. Presumably therefore he means that the three virtues have been sufficiently exemplified in the laws discussed up to now. ΑἹ] of the laws grouped in the first two books on the first four commandments might fairly be said
ΧῚ
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
justice, courage ‘and humanity. We proceed to justice, which in defiance of natural arrangement is included in this fourth book instead of in the De Virtutibus. The treatment of the subject keeps well to the point throughout, as may be seen from the analysis of the contents on page 5, and is copiously illustrated from the law book.
The treatise here printed under the title De Virtutibus, commonly regarded as consisting of four parts, on courage, on humanity, on repentance and on nobility of birth, raises several questions. One thing is certain, that the fourfold form presented here is the same as that in which it was read by Clement of Alexandria at the end of the second cen- tury a.p. Clement in book ii. 18 of his Miscellanies (Στρωματεῖς) sets himself to show that the Old Testa- ment scriptures enjoin all the virtues in the philo- sophical list, and to do so he makes copious use of the De Virtutibus as we have it. That is to say, nothing is taken from the De Justitia in the fourth book. The borrowings, mainly of substance, but with an obvious colouring from Philo’s wording, begin with the De Fortstudine, pass on to the De Humanitate, then to the De Poenttenta, and finally to the De Nobiltate.*
to refer to εὐσέβεια, and those on sexual matters in Book III and the dietary laws in this book would fall under σωφροσύνη, but rhe not see where any referable to φρόνησις are to be found.
. @ The source of these semi-extracts is unacknowledged perhaps because Clement regarded them as merely references to scripture to which his attention has been called by Philo. A little later, where he quotes a non-scriptural saying from the Vita Mosis, he names “ Philo the Pythagorean ”’ as his authority.
X11
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The first of these four componénts seems to me a poor piece of work, at any rate as far as the Ex- position of the Particular Laws is concerned. The first seventeen sections, which praise fortitude in meeting misfortunes and difficulties, are not illus- trated from the laws at all. He then notes the law which forbids a man to assume a woman’s dress, which, as the converse that a woman must not dress as a man is coupled with it, is hardly a law promoting ἀνδρεία in the sense of courage. Passing on to courage in war, the only laws quoted are two which allow exemption from the duty of showing courage,* and the final account of the origin and conduct of the Midianite War is told to illustrate the promise that obedience will ensure either peace or victory and enjoins εὐσέβεια as much as or more than ἀνδρεία.
The next component in our list is the De Humani- tate, but at this point Cohn and Wendland believe that a De Pietate originally stood. While I will not presume to contradict them I cannot accept this unhesitatingly.2 Anyhow, as we know nothing about
* Unless indeed this may be regarded as exemplifying the curious second part of the Stoic definition of ἀνδρεία, as knowledge of not only τὰ ὑπομενετέα but also τὰ οὐχ ὑπομενετέα.
ὃ (1) Cohn and Wendland primarily rely on the opening words “the virtue closest to piety its sister and its twin, humanity is next to be examined.” I do not think that these words necessarily or.even strongly suggest that piety has just been examined. Piety (see iv. 147) is the queen of the virtues, while in § 95 below piety and humanity share the queenship. It is not remarkable that here when he passes on from the less royal “courage” to the more royal ‘‘ humanity ”’ he should note its kinship to the undoubted queen. On the other hand, by any ordinary interpretation the phrase “ Of
ΧΙ]
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
it, we may pass on to what we have. The De Humanitate opens with some sections describing the last actions of Moses which are supposed to exemplify his φιλανθρωπία. In asense they do this, but evidently their main purpose is to give a supplement to the
piety we have spoken earlier ’’ indicates that it is not to be treated in what follows.
(2) The traditional titles in the mss., see note (App. p. 440): apparently nearly all the mss, though not the oldest, S, in- clude εὐσεβείας as Cohn does in the title which he prints and I have reproduced. One of these indeed gives the sub-title Περὶ εὐσεβείας to the De Hum. and omits φιλανθρωπίας al- together. Observation of this leads me to wonder whether the introduction of εὐσεβείας into the general title may be due to the fact that as noted above the De Hum. opens with the words τὴν δ᾽ εὐσεβείας κτλ., from which the scribe or scribes drew the same inference as Cohn and Wendland have done. I put this forward more boldly since I have found that Schiirer, Jewish People, ii. 3 (Eng. trans.), p. 346, takes this view. Again one ms. puts the sub-title [epi εὐσεβείας at the beginning of the story of the Midianite War and this suggests to me that the insertion of the word was supported by the belief that that story is concerned with piety even more than with courage. Still. my knowledge of the general value of titles in mss. as evidence is not enough to allow me to do more than put forward these points for consideration.
(3) Harris’s collection of fragments drawn from mss. of collections of parallels from the Fathers and others contains three items which purport to come from a treatise Περὶ εὐσεβείας. I suppose this is sufficient to show that a treatise existed under that name, and perhaps in combination with the mss. titles noted above there may be a presumption that it formed part of the De Virt. But this presumption has to meet the undoubted fact that Clement did not find it in his copy. Cohn indeed goes so far as to say that this shows that Κατὰ antiquis temporibus videtur periisse.”’ ‘‘ Periisse ᾽ is a strong word, and I think Cohn should at least have noted that if it had perished in the second century, its reappearance in the next century only to perish again after some hundred years requires some explanation.
XIV
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Vita Mosis. Philo has there given a few sections to the last stage of Moses’ life, but it is easy to under- stand that he was glad to take an opportunity of enlarging his account. After this the treatise pro- ceeds in an orderly way through the main classes of human society, then to animals and finally to plants. It shows Philo at his best and includes some of his finest thoughts, and though many of us are not Wordsworthian enough to share his sympathy for plants, and the rhetoric of his denunciation of slaughtering the mother and offspring on the same day and seething the lamb in its mother’s milk is ex- travagant, his thoughts about kindness to animals and particularly his words about the order not to muzzle the ox while treading out the corn show a spirit more to our mind than Paul’s comment on that text ““ Does God take care for oxen?”
What of the two components which complete the book, the De Poenitentta and De Nobilitate? What is their connexion with the De Humanitate and with each other ? Cohn, who says of the first “ artissime cohaerere cum capite [lept φιλανθρωπίας nemo non videt,” explains this very close connexion thus. When Philo has explained the humane precepts of the Mosaic law he turns to those who are still held captive in error and lead a vicious life and calls upon them to embrace the true faith and lead a virtuous life. Ishould accept this more readily if “ or ’’ were substituted for ‘‘ and” in the phrase “ and lead a vicious life.”” I do not think that the proselytes here occupy such an absorbing place in Philo’s mind as Cohn seems to hold. No doubt they take the first place. Conversion to the faith is the first necessity for those outside the faith, but the second half of
XV
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
this short sermon is, I believe, addressed to those within the fold. He speaks to the people at large, neither to the proselytes nor to those who have definitely apostatized. He calls on all members of the Jewish Church to note how the former testify in their lives to the sincerity of their conversion and the latter lose all sense of morality (§ 182), and to deepen and strengthen the honour they give to God, ‘* choose Him ”’ in fact, and this will ineyitably mean a better life. With this emendation and perhaps another to the effect that the call is based not merely on the De Humanitate but on the whole of the Exposition, I should accept Cohn’s view as nearer to the truth than that implied in the title given in the various mss. which treat μετάνοια as one of the virtues. Repentance is not a virtue but a necessary stepping-stone to the virtues.”
According to Cohn the connexion of the De Nobili- tate with the treatise which precedes it is that, as there the outsiders are urged to become proselytes, so here the Jews are urged to treat them with
* According to the title in S it is one of the three virtues which Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. ii. 18, in his catalogue of Philo’s works, declared to be the subject of the De Virt. Cohn, convinced that the De Piet. originally stood between De Fort. and De Hum., naturally concluded that the three are courage, piety and humanity.
May it be that while the incorporation of the De Just. with the fourth book of the Spec. Leg., an arrangement presumably dictated by convenience of size, did, as we know from Clement, exist from early times, there were also libraries in which the arrangement dictated by sense prevailed ? There is not a word in the text to suggest anything to the contrary. To Eusebius in this case the De Virt. began at Spec. Leg. iv. 132, and his three virtues are justice, courage and humanity, ‘Whether this conjecture is plausible I leave for bibliographers to consider,
Xvi
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
affection and not with contempt. If this is the in- tention it is expressed with remarkable indirectness. Abraham and Tamar indeed are treated as converts from heathenism and the former is held out as the standard for proselytes, but nothing whatever is said of what is so often stated elsewhere that it is the duty of the Jews to cherish and esteem them. The treatise is in fact an essay on the Stoic paradox “ the virtuous man alone is high born,” similar to the Quod Omnis Probus on ‘“‘ the virtuous man alone is free,”’ but with a far more religious and scriptural colouring. The moral to the Jews is primarily that their lineage will not in itself give them acceptability with God. No doubt this indirectly involves a warning against showing arrogance to outsiders in general and pro- selytes in particular, and if we must assume a con- nexion with the De Poenztentia,* and if Cohn is right in thinking that that sermon is entirely concerned with the proselytes, the point of the De Nobilitate will, however dubiously expressed, be what he says. But if the second half of the sermon is, as I think, a call to penitence in general, the moral of the De Nobilitate is rather the same as that of the Baptist “ Bring forth fruit therefore worthy of repentance and think not to say within yourselves ‘we have Abraham to our father.’ ”’
A possible alternative, I think, is that although Clement found the De Nobilitate as part of the De Virtutibus, it ought not to be there. The mss. tradition
¢ Such a close connexion is implied by the διὸ καὶ of F, adopted by Cohn (ὃ 187). The reading of the majority of Mss. τοῖς δὲ is somewhat looser, and might conceivably be a harking back after the discussion on μετάνοια to the denuncia- tion of arrogance which closes De Hum. (169 ff.).
XvVil
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
is not against this, for the majority either omit it or put it in a different place, either after the Vita Moszs or after the De Confusione. Mangey placed it after the ‘“‘ curses ”’ at the end of the De Praemius, but a more unsuitable place can hardly be imagined than this, where the indestructible εὐγένεια of the nation has just been asserted. Equally futile seems the suggestion of Schiirer that it is part of the Apology or Hypothetica. Indeed apart from the connecting conjunctions διὸ καί, καί or δέ, which may easily have been appended, the treatise will stand perfectly well by itself, and I should be glad to think it was so. For while the high level of the De Humanitate is ade- quately maintained in the short De Poen:tentsa, this final component shows a sad falling-off. Its thought rarely rises above the commonplace: the rhetoric of the speech of the personified εὐγένεια (88 195 ff.) is exceedingly stilted, and the last examples, not only Tamar but the harmony and virtues of the patriarchal family, border on absurdity. While it suits him, as in the De Somnus, to idealize the Jewish Patri- archs for allegorical purpose, here allegory is not required and the perversion of history, quite unlike the sober story of the De Iosepho, is distressing. The De Virtutibus would gain much if we might suppose that the treatise was incorporated with it under the idea that εὐγένεια, as indeed in one sense it might, should rank among the virtues. , The De Praemiis has been described as an epilogu
¢ Something of the same sort appears in De Praem. 65, but by no means so emphatically. Philo of course was familiar not only with the crime of the brothers against Joseph, but with the outrage of Reuben on Bilhah (Gen. xxxvi. 22 ; xlix. 4). See also note on Tamar, App. p. 450.
XVill
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
to the whole Exposition. I am not sure that the description is very suitable, for sanctions after all are a necessary part of any law: at the end of Spec. Leg. ii. he has described the penalties attaching to breaches of the first five commandments and those incurred under the second five are frequently mentioned. But in this treatise both rewards and punishments attach to loyalty or disloyalty to the law as a whole and the Exposition would not be complete without them.
The difficulties which I felt about the components of the De Virtutibus do not arise in this treatise. Its scheme is perfectly consistent from first to last. Strangely enough, three of the four mss. which con- tain the work appear to treat the last part, the De Exsecrationibus, as a separate work, but its affinity to the part called by Cohn De Benedictionibus speaks for itself, while the unity of both parts with the first 78 sections, though broken by a lacuna at that point, is perfectly clear. I was in error when in the Intro- duction to vol. vii. p. xi I described De Praemus as a treatise on rewards and punishments followed by another perhaps entirely separate on blessings and cursings.* The blessings and cursings are not
51 wrote this under the influence of Prof. Goodenough’s article in Harvard Theological Review, April 1933. At the end of this article, with much of which I agree, he pronounces that the blessings and cursings show a totally different spirit to the first part of De Praem. So strongly does he feel this that he suspects that they have been substituted for: some different conclusion. To me it seems that what difference
here is corresponds to the necessary difference between the indefiniteness of the unwritten laws ‘which Philo finds in the patriarchal story and the definiteness of the written law expressed generally in the decalogue and specifically in the other laws. Goodenough rehearses the blessings without
ΧΙΧ
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
another, but the indispensable second half of De Praemiis. Indeed the words blessings and curses are misleading. They are the rewards promised and the punishments decreed for the future, as what precede them are those given in the past. We remember that Philo’s conception of the Pentateuch, stated in De Abrahamo 6 ff. and Mos. ii. 47 and briefly in De Praemiis 2, is that the historical part containing the lives of saints and sinners constitutes a series of un- written laws, while the actual law book legislates for the future. The scheme of the De Praemiis is in exact accordance with this.
The first part of the treatise follows in the main the scheme of De Abrahamo 1-59 with its two
observing or at least without noting, that they are expansions verse by verse of what Philo finds mainly in Leviticus xxvi. and Deuteronomy xxviii. He declares that they lay upon the importance of the specific and literal laws an emphasis unique in Philo’s works. They do lay an emphasis on obedience to the written law but so do the originals which he is expounding. But I see no grounds for saying that emphasis is laid on specific laws ; both in the Pentateuch and in Philo the blessings and curses are appointed for loyalty and disloyalty to the law as a whole. The one example of reference to a specific law which Goodenough quotes does not belong to the main thread of the curses but to a transitional meditation in which an explanation is given of the phrase that in the desolation the land will enjoy its Sabbaths.
As Goodenough holds that the Exposition is intended for Gentile readers, he thinks that it is impossible that it should have ended in anything so Judaistic. I see no reason to change my view as given in the Introduction to vol. vii. that Philo writes primarily for Gentiles but also for Jews, and has at one moment the first, at another the second class of readers in view, but even if he was writing for Gentiles, why should they be offended by learning that the law promised high rewards for obedience and terrible punishments for dis- obedience and apostasy ?
xX
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
triads of Enos, Enoch, Noah representing hope, re- pentance and justice, and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob representing instruction, nature and practice. And as all these are thought of as values or qualities rather than actual men, the rewards are spiritual rather than material. So too with the family of the second triad, the founders of the twelve tribes who expand not merely into flourishing cities but into schools of wisdom and justice. So too with the one name which does not appear in the scheme of De Abrahamo, Moses. His rewards are the fourfold gifts of king- ship, lawgiving, prophecy and priesthood, all con- ceived of as not mere offices but powers for doing good. The punishment of Cain is treated in some- thing of the same mystical way, and how he would have dealt with Korah and with the two events 4 which I surmise to have been contained in the portion lost after § 78, the flood and the destruction of the cities of the plain, we have no certain means of know- ing. But I should expect that they were treated literally. The true rewards are to Philo spiritual ; punishments are punishments, though not merely vindictive but a means of reformation where possible and of admonition to others.
When we come to the blessings promised in the law for the future Philo has not the same opportunity of letting his mystical fancy range freely as it did in the historical past. These blessings are set down in black and white, chiefly collected in two particular chapters in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and Philo reports them faithfully. Yet it is noteworthy how he takes the opportunity of giving them a spiritual touch where possible. The promise that the evil beasts
@ See note on the lacuna, App. p. 455. ΧΧῚ
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
will be destroyed is not merely read in the light of Isaiah xi. and other passages, but coupled with the necessity of first destroying the evil beasts within the soul (§§ 85 ff.). The promised victories are an opportunity for establishing good government among the conquered (§ 97), and the freedom from bodily disease is justified on the ground that a healthy body is the necessary condition for the proper working of the good mind in which God walks as in a temple and which is itself the crowning blessing (§§ 119 ff.).
The terrific curses are described with a vigour, perhaps unequalled, certainly unsurpassed in Philo’s writings. They close in §152 with the affirmation that the proselyte will be exalted to teach the world the lesson that the only true εὐγένεια is virtuous living. There follows a transitional meditation on the saying that in the desolation the land will enjoy its Sabbaths, ending with a suggestion of the hope of better things, and then his heart goes out in a burst of triumphant patriotism as he predicts the return of the converted remnant, led by the Divine Vision to the land of their fathers, who have all this time been watching over their children and inter- ceding for them.?
¢ I think, however, that we may regret that the last two sections where he develops the text “‘ that the Lord will turn these curses upon thy enemies”? show something of the vindictiveness which we find in some of the psalms, and also a conception of εὐγένεια as still latent in the apostate Israel, whiten is not quite the same as that of the De Nob. or § 152 above.
Xxil
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
NoTE ON THE SUB-TITLES AND NUMERATION OF CHAPTERS IN Coun’s EDITION This is indicated throughout in the footnotes, but collected here for convenience.
Spec. Leg. iv.
The natural division of this gives four parts : The eighth commandment . . §§ 1-40 The ninth commandment , . §§ 41-72 The tenth commandment , . 88 79-135 On Justice. ᾿ : : . 88 136-end
Cohn, however, while marking the beginning of the ninth commandment by the heading Οὐ yevdopap- τυρήσεις (De Falso Testimonio), continues the same numeration of chapters till § 55, when he gives the heading Τὰ πρὸς δικαστήν (De Iudice) and begins a fresh numeration. At §79 with the tenth command- ment we have the sub-title Οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις (De Con- cupiscentia), and a third numeration which takes us on to §135. Then a fourth numeration with the sub- title Περὶ δικαιοσύνης (De Justitia), which continues only to § 151, when comes a fifth numeration, under the head of Κατάστασις ἀρχόντων (De Constitutione Principum), and this regardless of the contents goes on to the end. Cohn marks his sense of the un- reasonableness of this last division in the heading of his pages—where the sub-title De Justitia (following in brackets De Spec. Leg. iv.) is continued from § 136 to the end.
The arrangement in De Virtutsbus is far less com- plicated. The four obvious divisions of De Fort- tudine, De Humanitate, De Poenitentia and De Nobili- tate, have all in Cohn’s edition as in mine their proper sub-titles, and in his a fresh numeration for each.
xxiii
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
In De Praemus Cohn, both in the headings and the numeration, ignores the point that at § 78 a new subdivision which he rightly calls De Benedictionibus begins, and his one new numeration comes at § 127 with the De Exsecrationibus. This he gives in the heading of the pages as the sole title, not as sub- title following De Praemiis in brackets. This is en- tirely contrary to his practice in the rest of the volume and is, I suppose, a concession to the fact that the mss., evidently wrongly, class it as a separate treatise.
The numerations then run as follows :
Spec. [(Ἐα. Iv. CouHN Tuts TRANSLATION De Furto et Falso Test:-
γιοῦ . . . . i-viii. i.-viii. Deludice . . . .1.-ν. ix.-xiii. De Concupiscentta . ὁ. i-xii. Xiv.-Xxv. Delustta. . . . i-iii. XXVi.-xxXviii. De Constitutione Principum i.-xiv. Xxix.-xlii.
De VIRTUTIBUS Coun Tris TRANSLATION
De Fortitudine . : . i-viii. i.-viii.
De Humanitate . , . 1.-xxiv. ix.-xXxii.
De Poententia . : . i.-ii. XXXiii.-xxxiv. De Nobilitate . ὶ . 1-vii. XXXvV.-xli.
De PRAEMIIS CoHN Tuis TRANSLATION De Praemiis et Poenis . 1-XX. i.-XX. De Exsecrationibus . . 11x. XX1.-XXix.
XXiv
LIST OF PHILO’S WORKS
SHOWING THEIR DIVISION INTO VOLUMES
IN THIS EDITION
VOLUME
I.
II.
III.
ΙΝ.
VI.
On the Creation (De Opificio Mundi) Allegorical Interpretation (Legum Allegoriae)
On the Cherubim (De Cherubim)
On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain (De Sacrificiis Abelis et Caini) |
The Worse attacks the Better (Quod Deterius Potiori insidiari solet)
On the Posterity and Exile of Cain (De Posteritate Caini)
On the Unchangeableness of God (Quod Deus im- mutabilis sit)
On Husbandry (De Agricultura)
On Noah’s Work as a Planter (De Plantatione)
On Drunkenness (De Ebrietate)
On Sobriety (De Sobrietate)
On the Confusion of Tongues (De Confusione Lin- guarum)
On the Migration of Abraham (De Migratione Abrahami)
Who is the Heir (Quis Rerum Divinarum Heres)
On the Preliminary Studies (De Congressu quaerendae Eruditionis gratia)
. On Flight and Finding (De F uga et Inventione)
On the pseay of Names (De Mutatione Nominum)
On Dreams (De Somniis)
On Abraham (De Abrahamo)
On Joseph (De Iosepho)
Moses (De Vita Mosis) | XXV
LIST OF PHILO’S WORKS
VOLUME VII. On the Decalogue (De Decalogo) On the Special Laws Books I-III (De Specialibus Legibus) | VIII. On oe Special Laws Book IV (De Specialibus Legi- us On the Virtues (De Virtutibus) On Rewards and Punishments (De Praemiis et Poenis) IX. Every "is Man is Free (Quod Omnis Probus Liber sit On the Contemplative Life (De Vita Contemplativa) On the Eternity of the World (De Aeternitate Mundi) Flaccus (In Flaccum) Hypothetica * Corey pro Iudaeis) On .Providence! (De Providentia) X. On the Embassy to Gaius (De Legatione ad Gaium) GEnERAL InpEx To Votumes I-X SUPPLEMENT I, Questions and Answers on. Genesis? (Quaestiones et Solutiones in Genesin) II. Questions and Answers on Exodus ? (Quaestiones et
XXvi
Solutiones in Exodum) GENERAL INDEx TO SupPpLEMENTs I-II
1 Only two fragments extant. 8 Hxtant only in an Armenian version.
THE SPECIAL LAWS (DE SPECIALIBUS LEGIBUS)
INTRODUCTION TO DE SPECIALIBUS LEGIBUS, IV
The first part of this treatise (1-135) deals with particular laws falling under the eighth, ninth and tenth command- ments. We begin with the eighth. Note that robbery with violence is a worse crime than mere stealing, which is punished by a two-fold restitution, so if the thief cannot pay he may be sold into temporary slavery (2-4). Some con- siderations follow showing that this is not too severe (5-6). A housebreaker caught in the act may be killed in the night- time, but in daylight the ordinary legal process must be observed (7-10). Also the law provides a higher rate of com- pensation, if sheep and, still more, if oxen are stolen, reckoned, Philo thinks, according to the services they render to man- kind (11-12). Kidnapping is another worse form of stealing, especially if the sufferer is an Israelite (13-19). Damage done by the trespassing of other people’s cattle, or by fire started carelessly, also calls for compensation (20-29). Then follows an account of the complicated procedure laid down by the law when anything deposited or lent is stolen from the depositary or borrower (30-38). And this part concludes with shewing how stealing leads up to other crimes culmina- ting in perjury (39-40).
The ninth commandment. We begin with false witness in the literal sense, but pass almost at once to the thought that assent to evil, especially when it arises from subservience to the multitude, comes under the same head (41-47). And so do the deceits of the practisers of divination, which is really false witness against God (48-54). So, too, does any derelic- tion on the part of judges, who must remember the sacredness of their office (55-58). Three of their special duties are emphasized by the law. First, not to listen to idle reports (59-61). Secondly, to receive no gifts, even if no injustice results. To do this is to forget that just and honest: actions may be vitiated by being done with dishonest motives (62-66).
3
PHILO
This leads to a digression on the supreme importance of truthfulness and how it is often lost by bad associations in childhood and how it is symbolized in the place given to it on the breastplate of the high priest (67-69). Thirdly, the judge must not respect persons but must consider only the facts (70-71). And the particular injunction not in giving judgement to show mercy to the poor causes him to point out that the law calls also on the possessor of any authority to remember his weaker brethren and only means that the guilty cannot plead poverty to escape from punishment (72-77). We now pass on to the tenth commandment (78).
The commandment “ Thou shalt not desire’ leads to a long disquisition, much of it repeating what was said of it in De Decalogo on the evils which spring from the desire of what one has not got (79-94). The lawgiver realizing this showed the necessity of restraining concupiscence by regulating, as an example, one particular form, the appetite for food and drink (95-97). He did this, first, by demanding the first fruits (98-99). Secondly, by the dietary laws on the use of the flesh of beasts, fishes and’ fowls (100-101). All carni- vorous beasts are on the prohibited list, and only ten species, which divide the hoof and chew the cud, are allowed (102- 104). An allegorical explanation of these two qualifications follows (105-109). Of fishes only such that have scales and fins are permitted, and again an allegorical explanation is given (110-112). So also creeping things with few exceptions (113-115), predatory birds (116-118), flesh of animals that have died a natural death or been torn by wild beasts (119- 121) are forbidden. Eating strangled animals and taking blood and fat are also forbidden (122-125). The need of restraint is illustrated from the story of the quails and the visitation that followed that craving for flesh (126-131).
So much for the particular laws falling under one or other of the Ten Commandments, but the cardinal virtues belong to all the ten, and we must note how these virtues are exempli- fied in various laws. For piety, wisdom or prudence and temperance, this has been done sufficiently. There remain three others, justice, courage or fortitude and humanity or kindness. The rest of this treatise is concerned with the. exemplification of justice (132-135). We need not here repeat what was said about judges and law-courts when treating the ninth commandment, but before going on to
4
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV
our subject, we give some general thoughts on justice (136). First, there is the injunction to record the laws in the heart, on the hand and before the eyes and on the doors and on the gates (137-142). Secondly, that nothing is to be added or taken away, which may be taken to suggest that each virtue is a mean, which must not be allowed to degenerate into the extremes on the other side (143-148). Thirdly, that in the law, ‘‘ not to remove the landmarks which thy forefathers set up,’’ we may see a command to observe the unwritten law of custom (149-150).
Now for the exemplification of justice. First, as seen in the ruler or king. He must not be chosen by lot, a system which we see in ordinary matters to be absurd (151-156), but by election by the people, confirmed by God, and this ruler is not to be a foreigner (157-159). The ruler must copy out and study the law and its principles (160-169). ‘Thirdly, he must follow the example of Moses in appointing subordinates to decide minor cases, but reserve the greater for himself (170- 175). And the greater are those which concern not great people but the weak and helpless, the stranger, the widow and the orphan (176-178). And as orphanhood is the con- dition of the Jews as a nation (179-182), the ruler must use no guile but hold himself to be the father of his people (183- 187). But the ruler or judge may sometimes find cases too difficult for him, in which case they are to be referred to the priests (188-192). Leaving the duties of the ruler, we have the following general rules of justice. There must be com- plete honesty in commerce (193-194). Wages must be paid on the same day (195-196). The deaf and the blind are not to be ill-treated (197-202). The ordinances about mating different species, ploughing with ox and ass together, and wearing garments of mixed material and sowing the vineyard to bear two kinds of fruit, are treated as rules of justice (203- 207). This last is discussed at greater length as injustice to the land like the violation of the sabbatical year (208-218). _ Next we have the laws of warfare, willingness to make terms, severity if they are not accepted, but mercy to the women (219-225), and joined with this is the prohibition of destroying the fruit-trees (226-229). The treatise concludes with the praises of justice, the daughter of that equality which is the general principle of all life as well as of the cosmic system (230-238).
5
ΠΕΡῚ ΤΩΝ EN MEPEI AIATATMATON
ΠΕΡῚ TQN ANA®EPOMENON ἘΝ EIAEI ΝΟΜΩ͂Ν ΕΙΣ TPIA TENH TON AEKA ΛΟΓΙΩ͂Ν, TO ΟΓΔΟΟΝ KAI TO ENATON KAI TO AEKATON, TO ΠΕΡῚ TOY MH KAEIITEIN KAI (MH) WYEYAOMAPTY- PEIN KAI MH EIIIOYMEIN, KAI ΠΕΡῚ TON ΕΙΣ EKAXTON ANA®EPOMENON, KAI ΠΕΡῚ AIKAIOXYNH2, H WAX ΤΟΙ͂Σ AEKA ΛΟΓΙΟΙ͂Σ E®APMOZEI, O ἘΣΤῚ ΤῊΣ ΟΛΗΣ ΣΥΝΤΑΞΕΩΣ (CTEAOZ)
1 I Ta A > \ 4 \ > ὃ φ ’ \ eo a : μὲν ἐπὶ μοιχείᾳ καὶ ἀνδροφονίᾳ καὶ ὅσ e 4 4 ς 4 4 \ 4 [385] | ἑκατέρᾳ τούτων ὑποστέλλει νόμιμα μετὰ πάσης 3 ’ Ὁ 3 \ 4 4 4 ἀκριβείας, ws ye ἐμαυτὸν πείθω, λέλεκται πρό- τερον. τὸ δ᾽ ἑπόμενον τῇ τάξει συνεπισκεπτέον, ὅ ~ > ~ V4 ~ τι τρίτον μέν ἐστι τῶν ἐπὶ TH δευτέρᾳ στήλῃ, τῶν 9 3 > 4 ” \ “-« \ 4 δ᾽. ἐν ἀμφοτέραις ὄγδοον, περὶ τοῦ μὴ κλέπτειν. ea “ + 4“ 4 A e 7/ \ 4 oA \ 4 20s av ayn ἢ φέρῃ τὰ ἑτέρου, μὴ δέον, ἐὰν μὲν βίᾳ “-Ἠ ~ A 4 Kat φανερῶς τοῦτο ποιῇ, κοινὸς ἀναγραφέσθω 4 4 4 4 [336] πολέμιος, | [γεγράφθω] παρανομίᾳ συνυφαίνων
a See App. p. 425. >’ In the phrase ἄγειν καὶ φέρειν, ἄγειν, according to the
6
THE SPECIAL LAWS BOOK IV
TON HE SPECIAL LAWS WHICH FALL UNDER THREE OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, THE EIGHTH AGAINST STEALING, THE NINTH AGAINST BEARING FALSE WITNESS, THE TENTH AGAINST COVETOUSNESS, AND ON LAWS WHICH FALL UNDER EACH, AND ON JUSTICE WHICH IS PROPER TO ALL TEN, WHICH CONCLUDES THE WHOLE TREATISE.%
—
I. The laws directed against adultery and murder and the offences which fall under either head have been already discussed with all possible fullness as I venture to think. But we must also examine the one which follows next in order, the third in the second table or eighth in the two taken together, which forbids stealing. Anyone who carries off 2 any kind of property ὃ belonging to another and to which he has no right must be written down as a public enemy,’ if he does so openly and with violence, because he combines shameless effrontery with
lexicon, applies properly to animals, φέρειν to other property. But the phrase seems to have become almost proverbial to cover any kind of misappropriation.
¢ For the kind of punishment which this term implies see § 23.
7
PHILO
3 ’ / bm) \ / / 3 ἀναίσχυντον θράσος, ἐὰν δὲ κρύφα, λανθάνειν ἐπι- χειρῶν φωρὸς τρόπον, αἰδῶ προκάλυμμα ποιούμενος a ε / \ , 1 2907 , τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων [τὸ σκότος], ἰδίᾳ κολαζέσθω 4 “A e 4 ®& 3 4 4 \ μόνον ὧν ὑπόδικος ὧν ἐπεχείρησε βλάπτειν Kal κατατιθέτω διπλοῦν τὸ φώριον, ἀδικον ὠφέλειαν 9 ἐξιώμενος βλάβῃ δικαιοτάτῃ. ἐὰν δὲ ἄπορος ὧν ἐκτίνειν ἀδυνατῇ τό γε ἐπιτίμιον, πιπρα- / / A 3 ’ὔ ᾽ὔ \ e σκέσθω---θέμις yap ἐλευθερίας στέρεσθαι τὸν ὑπο- μείναντα κέρδους παρανομωτάτου δοῦλον εἶναι---, ω 9 e \ “" 9 / 3 ἵνα μηδ᾽ ὃ πεπονθὼς κακῶς ἀπαρηγόρητος ἀφε- Α A \ “-Ἠ 4 9 4 3 A θεὶς διὰ THY τοῦ κεκλοφότος ἀχρηματίαν ὀλιγωρεῖ- “- 3 \ \ 3 ’ ’ σθαι δοκῇ. ἀλλὰ μηδεὶς ἀπανθρωπίαν καταγνώτω τοῦ διατάγματος" ὁ γὰρ πραθεὶς οὐκ εἰς ἅπαν ἐᾶται “-ο 3 9 3 \ e 4 9 Ul ~ δοῦλος, ἀλλ᾽ ἐντὸς ἑπταετίας ἀπαλλάττεται κοινῷ
1 So Heinemann. Mangey <xai> τὸ σκότος. Cohn «δι aid@. As the thief does not necessarily steal in the dark, τὸ σκότος is absurd, and the insertion may be easily accounted for from ὃ 7. As it is here printed, the phrase, as Heine- mann points out, is exactly the same as Spec. Leg. ili. 54, of the guilty wife who confesses her sin and thus avoids the culminating guilt of ἀναισχυντία.
¢ Philo could hardly have justified this from Ex. xxii., unless perhaps he argues that the permission to kill the housebreaker shows that the law took a severer view of violence. For analogies in Roman and other law see App.
. 425.
Py This I think must be the meaning, though it gives the phrase a somewhat different sense from what it bears in § 7. Heinemann has merely “ veils his crime in shame’; Good- enough “‘ making a veil of shame for his sin.”’
8
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 2-4
defiance of the law.* But if he does it secretly and tries to avoid observation like a thief, since his ashamedness serves to palliate his misdeeds,’ he must be punished in his private capacity, and, as he is liable only for the damage which he has attempted to work, he must repay the stolen goods twofold ὁ and thus by the damage which he most justly suffers make full amends for the injustice of his gains. If his lack of means makes the payment of this penalty impossible he must be sold, since it is only right that one who has allowed himself to become a slave to profit-making of an utterly lawless kind should be deprived of his liberty. And in this way the injured party also will not be turned away without a solatium or seem to have his interest neglected through the impecuniosity of the
3
thief. No one should denounce this sentence as 4
inhuman, for the person sold is not left a slave for all time but he is released at or before the seventh year under the general proclamation as I have shown
¢ Ex. xxii. 4, utxx “if the thing stolen be left and found in his hand, from an ass to a sheep alive, he shall repay them double.’” Philo’s generalization is supported by v. 7, where it says of goods stolen from a neighbour to whom they have been given to keep “if the thief is found, he shall repay double.’” Soalsov.9. See also App. p. 425.
ὦ Ex. xxii. 3, though this properly applies to the house- breaker.
6 Heinemann translates “at the beginning of the seventh year,” which will make better sense if ἐντός can mean this. I have understood it to mean that he is to be released at the sabbatical year, whether he has served a full six or not. But this involves a contradiction of Ex. xxi. 2, and of Philo’s own statement in Spec. Leg. ii. 122, where liberation independent of the time served only applies to the Jubile, not to the sab- batical year.
9
PHILO
, θά ἢ a . £054 1 235 κηρύγματι, καθάπερ ἐν τοῖς περὶ ἑβδόμης" ἐδήλωσα. 5 καὶ ἀγαπάτω διπλοῦν ἐκτίνων TO φώριον 4 A 4 ~ ~ ἢ καὶ πιπρασκόμενος, ἀδικῶν οὐκ ὀλίγα" πρῶτον μὲν ὅτι τοῖς οὖσιν οὐκ ἀρκούμενος περιττοτέρων ὀρέγεται, ’ὔ 3 4 \ / / 3 πλεονεξίαν, ἐπίβουλον καὶ δυσίατον πάθος, ἐπιτει- / A χίζων: δεύτερον δ᾽ ὅτι τοῖς ἀλλοτρίοις προσοφθαλ- “. \ “~ 4 μιῶν καὶ ἐπικεχηνὼς τὰς ἐπὶ νοσφισμῷ Tayas τίθεται, τοὺς κυρίους ὧν ἔχουσιν ἀφαιρούμενος" , > ¢ \ , ἢ , ΜΆ... τρίτον δ᾽ ὅτι καὶ λανθάνειν ἐπιτηδεύων τὰς μὲν ἐκ “- , “-Ἐ τοῦ πράγματος ὠφελείας μόνος ἔστιν ὅτε καρποῦ- \ Tat, τὰ δ᾽ ἐγκλήματα τρέπει πρὸς τοὺς ἀναιτίους, \ > 4 \ ” ~ 3 / τυφλὴν ἀπεργαζόμενος τὴν ἔρευναν τῆς ἀληθείας. , A A A A 6 ἔοικε δέ πως καὶ αὐτὸς ἑαυτοῦ κατηγορεῖν, ὑπὸ ~ ὃ , >r ld 3 @ e - λ {θ τοῦ συνειδότος ἐλεγχόμενος ἐν οἷς ὑφαιρεῖται λάθρα, \ 4 a \ ’ πάντως αἰσχυνόμενος ἢ εὐλαβούμενος, ὧν τὸ μέν A A A ~ 3 \ , ἐστι σημεῖον τοῦ τὴν πρᾶξιν αἰσχρὰν ὑπειληφέναι --τὰ γὰρ αἰσχρὰ αἰσχύνην ἐπιφέρει--τὸ δὲ τοῦ 4 3 ’ ’ \ 2 lox κολάσεως ἄξιον νομίζεσθαι, δέος yap ἐμποιοῦσιν αἱ κολάσεις. ~ / \ 7 Il. ’Edv τις ἔρωτι τῶν ἀλλοτρίων ἐπιμανεὶς ~ 4 ~ κλέπτειν ἐπιχειρῇ Kal μὴ δυνάμενος εὐπετῶς ὑὕὑφαι- “- “A / : , ρεῖσθαι τοιχωρυχῇ νύκτωρ, προκάλυμμα ποιού- Φ A / ¢ A \ > 9 μενος ὧν ἀδικεῖ τὸ σκότος, ἁλοὺς μὲν ἐπ 3 ’ A . > 4 3 3 “". “" αὐτοφώρῳ, πρὶν ἥλιον ἀνίσχειν, ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ δι- “A / »"» > » 9 ’ὔ ορύγματι πρὸς τοῦ δεσπότου τῆς οἰκίας ἀναιρείσθω,
1 So Mangey and Cohn for mss. ἑβδομάδος. But see note on De Dec. 158 {vol. vii. p. 613) on the interchange of the two words. 2 MSS. ἐπιτηδεύοντας.
10
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 5-7
in the treatise on the seventh day.* Nor 5 need he complain because he has to repay twice the value of the stolen goods, or even if he is sold. For he is guilty in several ways. [First because dissatisfied with what he has he desires a greater abundance and thus fortifies the malignant and well-nigh deadly passion of coveteousness. Secondly because it is the property of others which he eyes so avidly and sets his snares to secure for himself and deprive the owners of their possession. Thirdly because the concealment which he also practises, while it secures him the profits of the business often for his sole enjoyment, leads him to divert the charge in each case to innocent persons and so blindfold the quest for the truth. It would 6 seem too that he is his own accuser, since his con- science convicts him when he filches in this stealthy way, for he must be actuated by shame or fear. Shame is a sign that he feels his conduct to be dis- graceful, for only disgraceful actions are followed by shame. Fear would show that he considers himself to deserve punishment, for it is the thought of punishment which produces terror.
II. If anyone crazed with a passion for other 7 people’s property sets himself to take it by theft and, because he cannot easily manage it by stealth, breaks into a house during the night, using the darkness to cloak his criminal doings, he may, if caught in the act before sunrise, be slain by the householder in the very place where he has broken
¢ See Spec. Leg. ii. 122. The general proclamation appar- ently refers to that mentioned in Lev. xxv. 10, though that also applies only to the year of Jubile, and not to the ordinary sabbatical year. But see App. p. 426.
11
PHILO
[337] τὸ μὲν προηγούμενον | ἔργον ἔλαττον ἐξεργαζό- μενος, κλοπήν, τὸ δ᾽ ἑπόμενον μεῖζον, ἀνδροφονίαν, (διανοούμενος, εἶδ διακωλύοι τις, ὀρυκτῆρσιν οἷς ἐπιφέρεται σιδηροῖς καὶ ἑτέροις ὅπλοις ἀμύνεσθαι παρεσκευασμένος: εἰ δ᾽ ἥλιος ἀνάσχοι, μηκέθ᾽ ὁμοίως αὐτοχειρίᾳ κτεινέσθω, πρὸς δὲ τοὺς ἄρχον- τας καὶ δικαστὰς ἀγέσθω δώσων δίκας, ἃς ἂν
8 ἐπικελεύωσιν οὗτοι. νύκτωρ μὲν Cyap) οἴκοι διατριβόντων καὶ τετραμμένων πρὸς ἀνάπαυλαν ἀρχόντων ὁμοῦ καὶ ἰδιωτῶν, οὐδεμία τῷ πλημ- μελουμένῳ καταφυγὴ πρὸς βοήθειαν, ὅθεν αὐτὸς ἔστω κύριος τῆς τιμωρίας, ὑπὸ τοῦ καιροῦ κατα-
9 σταθεὶς ἄρχων καὶ δικαστής. μεθ᾽ ἡμέραν μέντοι ἀναπέπταται δικαστήρια καὶ Ββουλευτήρια, ἐπλή- θυνε δὲ τῶν συλληψομένων ἡ πόλις, ὧν οἵ μὲν φύλακες τῶν νόμων κεχειροτόνηνται, οἱ δ᾽ ἄνευ χειροτονίας μισοπονήρῳ πάθει τὴν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἠδικη- μένων αὐτοκέλευστοι τάξιν αἱροῦνται" πρὸς οὗς τὸν κλέπτην ἀκτέον: οὕτως γὰρ τὰς ἐπ᾽ αὐθαδείᾳ καὶ προπετείᾳ φεύγων αἰτίας δημοκρατικώτερον αὑτῷ
10 δόξει βοηθεῖν. ἐὰν ὑπὲρ γῆν ὄντος ἡλίου τὸν φῶρά τις αὐτοχειρίᾳ κτείνῃ πρὸ δίκης, ἔνοχος ἔστω, θυμὸν λογισμοῦ προτιμήσας καὶ τοὺς νόμους τῆς ἰδίας ἐπιθυμίας ἐν ὑστέρῳ θείς. μὴ yap, ἐπειδὴ νύκτωρ ἠδίκησαι, φαίην ἄν, ὦ οὗτος, ὑπὸ κλέπτου,
¢ Or “in the very act of breaking in.’’ See Ex. xxii. 2, where the txx has, as here, ἐὰν ἐν τῷ διορύγματι εὑρεθῇ (E. V. “found breaking in Ἢ. Josephus, Ant. iv. 271, has κἂν ἦ πρὸς διορύγματι τειχίου and understands it to’ mean “even though he has got no farther than the breach.”’ So possibly also Philo by his αὐτῷ. On the exact meaning of διόρυγμα and illustrations of the law on this point see App. p. 426.
12
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 7-10
in. Though actually engaged on the primary but minor crime of theft he is intending the major though secondary crime of murder, since he is prepared if prevented by anyone to defend himself with the iron burglar’s tools which he carries and other weapons. But if the sun has risen the case is different ; he must not be killed off hand ὃ but taken before magistrates and judges to pay such penalties as they prescribe. For in the night time when rulers and ordinary citizens alike are settled down at home and retiring to rest, the aggrieved person cannot seek out any one to succour him, and there- fore he must take the punishment into his own hands, as the occasion appoints him to be magistrate and judge. In the day time however law courts and council chambers stand wide open and there are plenty of people to help him in the city, some of them elected to maintain the laws, others who without such election are so moved by their hatred of evil that they need none to bid them to take the role of championing the injured. Before these must the thief be brought, for in this way the owner will escape the charges of wilfulness and recklessness and show that he protects himself in the spirit of true democracy. And if the sun is above the horizon he must be held guilty if he anticipates justice by killing him off hand. He has preferred angry passion to reason and subordinated the law to his personal desire for vengeance. ‘‘ My friend,” I would say to him, “do not because you have been
®’ Or “with his own hand,” which is the only meaning admitted by the lexicon, but see note on Spec. Leg. iii. 91, where the meaning of “ offhand” or “‘on the spot’ seems required by the sense.
13
8
io)
10
PHILO
ὃ \ “- 9 e / A 3 A 3 ὔ la τοῦτο μεθ᾽ ἡμέραν κλοπὴν αὐτὸς ἀπεργάζου χαλεπωτέραν, οὐ τὴν ἐν χρήμασιν, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἐν τοῖς δικαίοις, καθ᾽ ἃ συμβαίνει τὴν πολιτείαν δια- τετάχθαι. 11 III. Τὰ μὲν οὖν ἄλλα φώρια τετίμηται διπλῇ / “A \ nv / 3 e / καταθέσει. βοῦν δὲ ἢ πρόβατον εἴ tis ὑφέλοιτο, ’ὔ 9 / OU ’ὔ ὃ ὃ \ 4 ea μείζονος ἠξίωσε δίκης προνομίαν διδοὺς ζῴοις, ἃ καλλιστεύει τῶν ἐν ταῖς ἡμέροις ἀγέλαις οὐ μόνον εὐμορφίᾳ σώματος ἀλλὰ καὶ ταῖς περὶ τὸν ἀνθρώ- ? 9 , a , 9. 909 99 πινον βίον ὠφελείαις. ἧς χάριν αἰτίας οὐδ᾽ ἐπ ἀμφοῖν τὴν ποσότητα τῶν ἐπιτιμίων ἴσην ὥρισεν, ’ : ἀλλὰ τὰς χρείας διὰριθμησάμενος, ἃς ἑκάτερον παρέχεται τῶν εἰρημένων, ἀνάλογον καὶ τὴν ἔκτισιν 12 ἐνομοθέτησε. κελεύει γὰρ τέτταρα μὲν πρόβατα ἀποτίνειν βοῦς δὲ πέντε τὸν κλέπτην ἀνθ᾽ ἑνὸς τοῦ ς 4 3 \ / \ 4 \ ὑφαιρεθέντος, ἐπειδὴ πρόβατον μὲν φέρει δασμοὺς ὔ \ \ 4 \ 3 τέτταρας, γάλα καὶ τυρὸν καὶ ἔρια καὶ ἐτησίους ἄρνας, ὃ δὲ βοῦς πέντε, τρεῖς μὲν τοὺς αὐτοὺς ἐν γάλακτι καὶ τυρῷ καὶ γεννήμασι, δύο δ᾽ ἐξαιρέ- “A \ 3 4 e e 4 9 \ Tous, ἄροτον γῆς καὶ adonTov, ὧν ὁ μέν ἐστιν ἀρχὴ “A “A 3 ~ [338] σπορᾶς καρπῶν, | 6 δὲ τέλος εἰς κάθαρσιν τῶν συγκομισθέντων πρὸς ἑτοιμοτέραν τροφῆς χρῆσιν. 13: IV. Κλέπτης δέ τίς ἐστι καὶ 6 ἀνδραποδιστής, A - \ A ἀλλὰ τοῦ πάντων ἀρίστου, ὅσα ἐπὶ γῆς εἶναι oup- βέβηκεν. τὰ μὲν οὖν ἀψυχα καὶ τῶν ζῴων ἃ μὴ / 9 ’ὔ / “". 4 A μεγάλας ὠφελείας παρέχεται τῷ βίῳ διπλᾶ προσ- α Ex, xxii. 1. Philo, as also Jos. Ant. iv. 272, ignores the fact that the additional payment only applies if the animal has been killed or sold.
> For the supposed connexion of this explanation with Stoic doctrine see App. p. 426.
14
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 10-18
wronged by a thief in the night time commit in day- light a more grievous theft, in which the spoil is not money but the principles of justice, on which the ordering of the commonwealth is based.”
III. Other stolen goods then are to be paid for at twice their value, but if the thief has taken a sheep or an ox the law estimates them worthy of a larger penalty, thus giving precedence to the animals which excel all the other domesticated kinds not only in comeliness of body but in the benefits they bring to human life. This was the reason why he made a difference even between the two just named in the amount of the penalty to be paid. He reckoned up the services which each of them renders and ordained that the com- pensation should correspond thereto. The thief has to pay four sheep but five oxen for the one that he has stolen because the sheep renders four contri- butions, milk, cheese, wool and the lambs which are born every year, while the ox makes five, three the same as the sheep, of milk, cheese and offspring, and two peculiar to itself, ploughing and threshing, the first of them being the beginning of the sowing of the crops, the second their end, serving to purge them when harvested and make them more ready to be used as food.®
IV. The kidnapper too is a kind of thief who steals the best of all the things that exist on the earth. In the case of lifeless articles and such animals as do not render high benefits to life, the
¢ See Ex. xxi. 16, Deut. xxiv. 7. In Exodus the death penalty is decreed for manstealing in general according to the Hebrew, but in the txx only if the person stolen is an
Israelite. In Deuteronomy both versions limit it to Israelites. See App. p. 427 on this and § 19.
15
a
]
μεν
2
PHILO
’ὔ 9 ’ \ “-- e ’ A τέταχεν ἀποδίδοσθαι παρὰ τῶν ὑφελομένων Tots κυρίοις, ὡς ἐλέχθη πρότερον, καὶ πάλιν τετραπλά- σια καὶ πενταπλάσια ἐν ταῖς ἡμερωτάταις ἀγέλαις
~ Y 14 βοῶν τε Kal προβάτων. ἄνθρωπος δέ, ws ἔοικε,
15
16
A ’ A ” > 4 > 4 τὸν καλλιστεύοντα κλῆρον ἔλαχεν ev ζῴοις, ayyi- σπορος ὧν θεοῦ καὶ συγγενὴς κατὰ τὴν πρὸς λόγον κοινωνίαν, ὃς αὐτὸν καίτοι θνητὸν εἶναι δοκοῦντα > 6 ζ ὃ, \ \ A φ ζῆλ > A ἀπαθανατίζει. διὸ Kal πᾶς, ὅτῳ ζῆλος ἀρετῆς εἰσέρχεται, τραχύς ἐστι τὴν ὀργὴν καὶ παντελῶς ἀμείλικτος κατὰ ἀνδραποδιστῶν, ot δουλείαν ἕνεκα κέρδους ἀδικωτάτου τοῖς γένει μὲν ἐλευθέροις φύσεως δὲ μετέχουσι τῆς αὐτῆς ἐπάγειν τολμῶ-
3 ~ “-- σιν. εἰ γὰρ ἐπαινετὸν πρᾶγμα δεσπόται ποιοῦσιν οἰκότριβας καὶ ἀργυρωνήτους, πολλάκις οὐκ ἐν μεγάλοις ὀνήσαντας, τῆς κατεχούσης δουλείας
9 λλ ’ [χὰ λ θ ’ ae 4 ἀπαλλάττοντες ἕνεκα φιλανθρωπίας ἧ κέχρηνται,
’ πόσης ἄξιοι κατηγορίας τυγχάνειν εἰσὶν οἱ τὸ πάντων ἄριστον κτῆμα, τὴν ἐλευθερίαν, ἀφαιρού- μενοι τοὺς ἔχοντας, ὑπὲρ ἧς ἀποθνήσκειν καλὸν τοῖς γεννηθεῖσιν εὖ καὶ τραφεῖσιν; ἤδη τινὲς τὴν σύμφυτον μοχθηρίαν προσαύξοντες Kal | τὸ ἐπίβουλον ἦθος αὑτῶν τρέποντες εἰς τὸ ἄσπονδον
3 > 93 > A 4 A 9 lA > οὐκ [ἐπ᾽] ἀλλοδαποῖς μόνον Kat addoyevéow ἀν-
4 A “- ᾿ δραποδισμὸν κατεσκεύασαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς ἀπὸ τοῦ
9 ~ » ” > @& A ’ A lA αὐτοῦ ἔθνους, ἔστι δ᾽ ὅτε καὶ δημόταις Kal φυλέ- ταις, ἀλογήσαντες κοινωνίας νόμων τε καὶ ἐθῶν,
a 9 , e ’ 9 , Φ οἷς ἐκ πρώτης ἡλικίας ἐνετράφησαν, ἅπερ βεβαιο-
«α Cf. Plato, Rep. iii. 391 ©, and note to Mos. i. 279. 16
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 13-16
value by order of the law has to be repaid twofold to the owner by the purloiners, as I have said above, and again fourfold and fivefold in the case of the most domesticated kinds of livestock, sheep and oxen. But it is the lot of man, as we see, to occupy the place of highest excellence among living crea- tures because his stock is near akin to God,* sprung from the same source in virtue of his participa- tion in reason which gives him immortality, mortal though he seems to be. And therefore everyone who is inspired with a zeal for virtue is severe of temper and absolutely implacable against men- stealers, who for the sake of a most unrighteous profit do not shrink from reducing to slavery those who not only are freemen by birth but are of the same nature as themselves. If it is a praiseworthy action when masters in the humaneness of their hearts release from the yoke of servitude their home-bred or purchased slaves, though often they have brought them no great profit, how great a condemnation do they deserve who rob those who enjoy liberty of that most precious of all possessions for which men of noble birth and breeding feel that it is an honour to die. Indeed we have known of some who improve on their inborn depravity and developing the malice of their dis- position to complete heartlessness have directed their man-stealing operations, not only against men
of other countries and other races but also against.
those of their own nation, sometimes their fellow wardsmen or tribesmen. They disregard their partnership in the laws and customs in which they have been bred from their earliest years, customs which stamp the sense of benevolence so firmly on
VOL. VIII σ 17
14
15
17
18
[389]
19
20
PHILO
aA a 9 ’ “- τάτην ταῖς ψυχαῖς εὔνοιαν ἐνσφραγίζεται τῶν μὴ λίαν ἀτιθάσων καὶ μὴ ἐπιτηδευόντων ὠμότητα" ot χάριν κέρδους ἐκνομωτάτου πιπράσκουσιν ἀνδρα- ποδοκαπήλοις καὶ οἷς ἂν τύχῃ δουλεύσοντας ἐπὶ ξένης ἀνεπανάκτους, μηδ᾽ ὄναρ τὸ τῆς πατρίδος ἔδαφος ἔτι προσκυνήσοντας ἢ χρηστῆς ἀπογευσο- μένους ἐλπίδος. ἧττον γὰρ ἂν ἠδίκουν ὑπηρετού- μενοι πρὸς τῶν ἀνδραποδισθέντων: νυνὶ δὲ διπλάσιον ἀδίκημα δρῶσιν ἀπεμπολοῦντες, ἀνθ᾽ ἐν» ’ 4 \ A 4 > 4 ἑνὸς δύο δεσπότας καὶ διττὰς δουλείας ἐπιτειχί- ζοντες ἐφέδρους. αὐτοὶ μὲν γὰρ ἐπιστάμενοι τὴν παλαιὰν εὐτυχίαν τῶν ὑπηγμένων ἴσως ἂν μετα- νοήσαιεν ὀψὲ λαβόντες. οἶκτον τῶν ἐπταικότων, | τὸ τῆς τύχης" ἄδηλον καὶ ἀτέκμαρτον καταιδεσθέν- τες" οἱ δὲ πριάμενοι δι᾽ ἄγνοιαν τοῦ γένους ὡς ἐκ πατέρων καὶ προπάππων οἰκετῶν ὀλιγωρήσουσιν, οὐδὲν ἀ ἀγωγὸν ἐν ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἔ ἔχοντες εἰς ἡμερότητα καὶ φιλανθρωπίαν, ἣν εἰκὸς ἐπὶ τοῖς ἐλευθέροις σῴζεσθαι φύσει. δίκη δ᾽ ἔστω κατὰ μὲν τῶν ἕτεροεθνεῖς ἀνδραποδισαμένων, ἣν ἂν τιμήση- 4 A ται TO δικαστήριον, κατὰ δὲ τῶν τοὺς ὁμοφύλους πρὸς τῷ ἀνδραποδίσασθαι καὶ πεπρακότων θάνατος. ἀπαραίτητος" ἤδη γὰρ οὗτοί γε συγγενεῖς εἰσιν οὐ πόρρω τῶν ad αἵματος κατὰ" μείζονα περιγραφὴν γειτνιῶντες. 66 \ 3 9 ma 2 4 s 4 ~ 4 Kai ἐν ἀγρῷ ᾿᾿ καθάπερ εἶπέ τις τῶν πάλαι
{( 4 ’ 32 3 \ ’ \ e -
φύονται δίκαι, ἐπειδὴ πλεονεξίαι καὶ ὁ τῶν 9 ’ @ 3 3 ” / > \ \ »” ἀλλοτρίων ἵμερος οὐκ ἐν ἄστει μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ἔξω
4 4 9 ¢ \ 4 A > A πόλεώς ἐστιν, ἅτε μὴ τόπων διαφοραῖς ἀλλὰ δια-
1 mss. ψυχῆς. 2 MSS. καὶ τὰ.
@ Source unknown.
18
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 16-20
the souls of all who are not exceedingly barbarous nor make a practice of cruelty. For the sake of an 17 utterly unlawful profit they sell their captives to slave dealers or any chance comers to live in slavery in a foreign land never to return, never even to dream of again saluting the soil of their native country or to know the taste of comforting hope. Their iniquity would be less if they themselves retained the services of their captives. As it is, their guilt is doubled when they barter them away and raise up to menace them two masters instead of one and two successive servitudes. For they 18 themselves, as they know the former prosperity of those who are now in their power, might perhaps come to a better mind and feel a belated pity for their fallen state, remembering with awe how un- certain and incalculable fortune is, while the pur- chasers knowing nothing of their origin and supposing them to have generations of servitude behind them will despise them, and have nothing in their souls to incline them to that natural gentleness and humanity which they may be expected to maintain in dealing with the free born. The 19 punishment for kidnapping, if the captives belong to foreign nations, should be such as is adjudged by the court; if they are fellow nationals whom they have not only kidnapped but sold, it is death without hope of reprieve. Yes indeed, for such persons are kinsfolk, bound by a tie closely bordering on blood relationship though with a wider compass.
V. “In the country also lawsuits spring up,” says 20 one of the ancients. Examples of greed and the desire for other people’s property are found not only in the town but also outside its walls, since
19
21
22
23
24
PHILO
votats ἀκορέστων (Kai) φιλαπεχθημόνων ἀνδρῶν ἐνιδρυμένος. ἀφ᾽ οὗ καὶ τῶν πόλεων al εὐνομώτα- ται διττοὺς ἐπιμελητὰς καὶ ἄρχοντας αἱροῦνται τῆς κοινῆς εὐκοσμίας καὶ ἀσφαλείας, τοὺς μὲν ἐντὸς τοῦ τείχους, οὗς ἀστυνόμους προσαγορεύουσι, τοὺς δ᾽ ἐκτός, οἷς ὄνομα οἰκεῖον τίθενται, καλοῦσι γὰρ αὐτοὺς ἀγρονόμους" ἀγρονόμων δὲ τίς ἂν ἦν χρεία τὸ πᾶν, εἰ μὴ κἀν τοῖς χωρίοις ἦσάν τινες ἐπὶ λύμῃ τῶν πλησίον ζῶντες; ἐὰν οὖν τις ποιμὴν ἢ αἰπόλος
ἢ βουκόλος ἢ συνόλως ἀγελάρχης ἀγρὸν ἑτέρου es καὶ κατανέμῃ φειδὼ μηδεμίαν ποιούμενος μήτε καρπῶν μήτε δένδρων, ὅμοιον ἀποτινέτω κτῆμα' προσόδου τῆς ἴσης. καὶ ἀγαπάτω τοῦθ᾽ ὑπομένων, ἐπιεικοῦς καὶ σφόδρα συγγνώμονος τυ- χὼν τοῦ νόμου, ὃς αὐτὸν τὰ πολεμίων ἀσπόνδων ἐργασάμενον, οἷς τὰς ἀρούρας δῃοῦν ἔθος καὶ φυτὰ ἥμερα διαφθείρειν, οὐχ ὡς κοινὸν ἐχθρὸν ἐτιμωρή- σατο θάνατον ἢ φυγὴν ἣ τὸ -γοῦν τελευταῖον, ἁπάσης στέρησιν τῆς οὐσίας, ὁρίσας, ἀλλ᾽ αὐτὸ μόνον δικαιώσας ἐπανορθώσασθαι τὸ βλάβος τῷ κυρίῳ. προφάσεις γὰρ ἀεὶ ζητῶν, αἷς ἐπελαφριεῖ τὰ ἀτυχήματα, du ὑπερβάλλουσαν ἡμερότητα καὶ.
1 So mss. Possibly τμῆμα or τίμημα.
α For what is known about this official title see App.
. 427. a Ex. xxii. 5. E.V. “οὗ the best of his own field and of the best of his own vineyards shall he make restitution.” The txx has “‘he shall repay from his field according to its pro- duce,’’ a vague expression which might mean (or Philo might take it to mean) either that he made compensation with a piece of land or with the fruits. Heinemann, supposing that Philo meant the former, adopted Cohn’s suggestion of τμῆμα
20
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 20-24
that desire is based not on differences of situation but on the thoughts of insatiable and quarrelsome men. And therefore the most law-abiding states 21 elect two kinds of superintendents and magistrates to maintain the general safety and good order, one kind to act within the walls called ‘‘ town warden,” the other outside them bearing the appropriate name of “‘ country warden,’’* and what need could there be of the last if there were not people in the landed estates also who lived to do harm to their neighbours ? So if anyone in charge of sheep or goats or a herd 22 of any kind feeds and pastures his beasts in the fields of another and does nothing to spare the fruits or the trees, he must recoup the owner in kind by property of equal value.2 And he must suffer this without 23 complaining. The law has shown itself reasonable and exceedingly forgiving in its treatment of him. Though his actions are such as are committed in internecine war, where it is customary to lay waste arable fields and destroy the cultivated plants, it has not punished him as a public enemy by senten- cing him to death or banishment, or at the very least ὁ to forfeiture of his whole property, but merely called upon him to make good the damage to the owner. For since it always seeks pretexts for 24 alleviating the state of the unfortunate, so vast is
‘a slice” for κτῆμα. κτήματα (plural)=landed possessions, De Virt. 90, 100, and elsewhere, but κτῆμα (singular) is a strange word for a piece of land. Philo possibly uses it because he feels uncertain between the two alternatives. If emendation is needed τίμημα might be worth considering. I take ὅμοιον to mean that the compensation is not paid in money.
¢ τὸ τελευταῖον, “ the extreme of clemency,” cf. De Ios. 249 and my note.
21
PHILO
\ 3 , A ,ὕ ,ὔ δ τὴν ἐκ φύσεως καὶ μελέτης φιλανθρωπίαν, εὗρεν ἀπολογίαν οὐκ ἀπῳδὸν ὑπὲρ τοῦ νομέως, τὴν φύσιν
“A Ss > ~ A τῶν θρεμμάτων ἄλογον οὖσαν καὶ ἀπειθῆ, Kat
4 > ὦ > 4 ~ ” A iO e 4
25 μάλισθ᾽ ὅταν ὀρέγηται τροφῆς. ἔστω μὲν οὖν ὑπό- A 9 9 δικος, ὅτι τὴν ἀρχὴν ἤλασε τὴν ἀγέλην εἰς ἀνεπι- τήδειον χωρίον" μὴ πάντων δὲ τῶν συμβεβηκότων ἐχέτω τὰς αἰτίας, εἰκὸς γὰρ αὐτὸν μὲν τοῦ κακοῦ : / \ ” ’ , 9 < [340] | λαβόντα τὴν αἴσθησιν ἐξελαύνειν ἐπιχειρεῖν τάχιστα, τὴν δ᾽ ἅτε χλοηφαγοῦσαν, ἁπαλῶν Te’ ~ “"- > καρπῶν Kat βλαστῶν ἐμῴφορουμένην, ἀντιφιλο- νεικεῖν. Va 26 VI. Βλάπτουσι δ᾽ οὐ μόνον κατανέμοντες βοσκή- ’ VA > A \ los 9 μασιν ἀλλοτρίας κτήσεις, ἀλλὰ καὶ πῦρ ἀπερι- ‘9 e A ~ σκέπτως καὶ ἀπροοράτως ἀναφλέγοντες. ἡ yap τοῦ , 4 πυρὸς δύναμις ὕλης λαβομένη πανταχόσε ἅττουσα 4 A \ 3 A Ὁ V4 νέμεταί TE καὶ χεῖται, Kal ἐπειδὰν ἅπαξ κρατήσῃ, \ A σβεστηρίων ὅσα av ἐπιφέρῃ τις ἀλογεῖ καταχρω- 3 aA μένη Kal τούτοις ἀντὶ τροφῆς εἰς συναύξησιν, ἕως \ ~ ~ dv πάντα ἐξαναλώσασα αὐτὴ δαπανηθῇ πρὸς αὑτῆς. VA A 4 3 3 > »ὔὕ 3 3 4 27 προσήκει δὲ μήτ᾽ ἐν οἰκίαις μήτ᾽ ἐπαύλεσιν ἀφύλακτον πῦρ ἐᾶν, ἐπισταμένους ὅτι σπινθὴρ 3 e 4 3 ’ \ 4 ἐντυφόμενος els πολλάκις ἀνερριπίσθη καὶ μεγάλας \ 4 4 ἐνέπρησε πόλεις, καὶ μάλιστα ἐπιφόρῳ πνεύματι 28 ῥυείσης. τῆς φλογός. ἐν γοῦν τοῖς ἀσυμβάτοις πολέμοις ἡ πρώτη καὶ μέση καὶ τελευταία. δύναμίς a ’ὔ lon A ~ ἐστι διὰ πυρός, 7 πιστεύουσι μᾶλλον ἢ Tats πεζῶν e ’ὔ’ 4 A Kal ἱππέων Kal ναυμάχων τάξεσι Kal ταῖς ὅπλων καὶ μηχανημάτων" ἀφθόνοις παρασκευαῖς" πυρφόρον 1 MSS. ἅτε. 2 MSS. ναυμαχητῶν.
22
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 24-28
the gentleness and humanity which it owes to nature and practice, it discovered a well-sounding plea to defend the grazier in the irrational and refractory nature of cattle, particularly when they hanker for food. The trespasser must therefore be held re- 25 sponsible to justice for originally driving the herd into a field where they ought not to be, but should not bear the guilt of all its results, for it may well be that when he perceived the harm they were doing he tried to drive them out as fast as he could, but they as they were browsing on the herbage and taking their fill of tender fruits and plants resisted his efforts. .
VI. But people do damage not merely by grazing 26 their cattle on the property of others but also by starting a fire without circumspection or foresight.* For the force of fire when it has caught hold of the inflammable stuff shoots out in every direction and spreads itself abroad, and when it has once got the mastery it takes no account of any extinguishers applied to it and indeed makes full use of them as fuel to foster its growth until it has consumed them all and dies out from self-exhaustion. Now no one 27 should ever leave a fire unguarded either in house or outbuilding as he knows that a single smouldering spark is often fanned into a blaze and sets fire to great cities, particularly when the flame streams along under a carrying wind. Thus in bitterly con- 28 tested wars the chief instrument of efficiency first intermediate and final is fire, and on this combatants rely more than on their squadrons of infantry and cavalry and marines and their lavishly provided equipments of arms and engines. For a conflagra-
@ Ex. xxil. 6.
23
PHILO
4 3 A Ἁ / 9 Ἁ ~ yap τις οἰστὸν βαλὼν καιρίως εἰς πολὺν νηῶν 4 9 A 9 4 / av 4 στόλον αὐτοῖς ἐπιβάταις κατέφλεξεν ἢ στρατόπεδα 4 “A - @ 9 πολυάνθρωπα μετὰ τῶν παρασκευῶν, ἐφ᾽ αἷς ἐπ- , A “A “A 3 ,ὕ 3 4 oA 29 ἐποίηντο τὰς τοῦ νικᾶν ἐλπίδας, ἐξανάλωσεν. ἐὰν iO 3 > 4 A “-ο 3 4 e 3 οὖν εἰς ἀκανθώδη φορυτὸν πῦρ ἐμβάλῃ τις, ὁ ὃ ἀναφλεχθεὶς προσεμπρήσῃ ἅλω πυρῶν 7 κριθῶν ἢ ὀρόβων ἢ δράγματα ἀσταχύων συγκεκομισμένα ἢ βαθύγειον πεδιάδα χλοηφοροῦσαν, ἀποτινύτω τὸ Ul e A la 3 ᾽ὔ Ὁ 3 > A “-- 4 βλάβος 6 τὸ πῦρ ἐμβαλών, ἵν᾽ ἐκ τοῦ παθεῖν μάθῃ. τὰς πρώτας τῶν πραγμάτων ἐνστάσεις εὖ μάλα φυλάττεσθαι καὶ μὴ δύναμιν ἀήττητον καὶ φύσει φθοροποιὸν ἀνακινῇ καὶ ἀνεγείρῃ δυναμένην ἠρεμεῖν. 80 VII. “Ἰερώτατον παρακαταθήκη τῶν ἐν κοινωνίᾳ 4 3 , A “- πραγμάτων ἐστίν, ἐπὶ τῇ τοῦ λαβόντος κειμένη , 4 \ \ 8Ὰ 7 \ / πίστει. δάνεια μὲν yap ἐλέγχεται διὰ συμβολαίων καὶ γραμμάτων, τὰ δ᾽ ἄνευ δανείων ἐν χρήσει φανερῶς διδόμενα τοὺς θεασαμένους ἔχει μάρτυρας. 31 παρακαταθηκῶν δ᾽ οὐχ οὗτος ὁ τρόπος, ἀλλὰ μόνος τις αὐτὸς δίδωσι μόνῳ κρύφα, περιβλεπόμενος τὸν τόπον, μηδ᾽ ἀνδράποδον ἕνεκα τοῦ διακομίσαι προσ- ’ 3 A 4, 4 3 \ παραλαβών, εἰ καὶ τύχοι φιλοδέσποτον: εἰς yap τὸ ἀναπόδεικτον ἑκάτερος σπεύδειν ἔοικεν, ὁ μὲν Ὁ 4 4 e \ @ > aA , > 4 iva λάθῃ δούς, ὁ δὲ ἵνα ἀγνοῆται λαβών. ἀοράτῳ [341] δὲ πράγματι [ πάντως ἀόρατος μεσιτεύει θεός, ὃν
α Ex, xxii. 6, “If fire having gone forth finds thorns.” The thorns were set as a hedge round the field (Driver).
> Editors quote Jos. Ant. iv. 285 παρακαταθήκην ὥσπερ ἱερόν τι καὶ θεῖον χρῆμα (cf. § 33 below) ὁ παραλαβὼν φυλακῆς ἀξιούτω. Josephus goes on to emphasize the testimony of
God. 94,
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 28-31
tion caused by a man shooting a fire-bearing arrow at the right place into a great fleet of ships has been known to consume it with the troops on board or to annihilate armies of considerable strength with the equipments on which they had rested their hopes of victory. Accordingly if a single 29 person sets a heap of thorns? alight and they burst into a flame which goes on to ignite a threshing floor full of wheat or barley or vetch or stacked sheaves of corn in the ear or rich soiled meadow land where herbage is growing, the person who lighted the fire must pay for the damage and thus learn by experience to guard carefully against the first beginnings of things and to refrain from stirring up and setting in action an invincible and naturally destructive force which might otherwise remain in quiescence.
VII. The most sacred of all the dealings between 30 man and man is the deposit on trust,? as it is. founded on the good faith of the person who accepts it. Formal loans are guaranteed by contracts and written documents, and articles lent openly without such formality have the testimony of the eye-wit- nessess. But that is not the method of deposits. 31 There a man gives something with his own hands secretly to another when both are alone. He looks carefully all round him and does not even bring a slave, however loyal, with him to act as carrier, for the object which both of them evidently pursue is that it should be impossible to show what has happened. The one wishes that nobody should observe his gift, the other that no one should know of his acceptance. And this unseen transaction has assuredly the unseen God as its intermediary,
25
32
33
34
PHILO
εἰκὸς ὑπ᾽ * ἀμφοῖν μάρτυρα καλεῖσθαι, τοῦ μὲν ὡς ἀποδώσοντος ὅταν ἀπαιτῆται, τοῦ δ᾽ ἐν καιρῷ κομιουμένου. μέγιστον οὖν ἀδίκημα δρῶν ὁ παρα- καταθήκην ἀρνούμενος μὴ ἀγνοείτω, ψεύσας μὲν ἐλπίδος τὸν ἐπιτρέψαντα, μοχθηρὰ δ᾽ ἤθη κατα- σκεπάσας" λόγοις ἐπιεικέσιν, ἀπιστίαν δὲ καθυπο- κρινάμενος νόθην πίστιν, ἀσυμβάτους ἀποφήνας δεξιὰς καὶ ἀτελεῖς ὅρκους: ὡς ἀνθρωπείων τε καὶ θείων ὠλιγωρηκέναι καὶ διττὰς ἀρνεῖσθαι παρα- καταθήκας, τὴν μὲν τοῦ τὰ οἰκεῖα ἐπιτρέψαντος, τὴν δὲ τοῦ ἀψευδεστάτου μάρτυρος, ὃς τὰ πάντων ἐφορᾷ καὶ τὰ πάντων ἐπακούει καὶ προαιρουμένων καὶ μὴ θελόντων. ἐὰν δ᾽ ὁ μὲν "λαβὼν ὡς ἱερὸν χρῆμα παρακαταθήκην ἄψαυστον οἴηται δεῖν φυλάτ- τειν, σέβων ἀλήθειάν τε καὶ πίστιν, ot δὲ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων ἔφεδροι βαλαντιοτόμοι καὶ τοιχωρύχοι παρεισφθαρέντες ὑφέλωνται, συλληφθέντες ἐκτι- νέτωσαν ἐπιτίμια διπλᾶ [ra κλεπτῶν “εὑρεθέντα. : εἰ δὲ μὴ συλληφθεῖεν οὗτοι, προσίτω" γνώμῃ ἑκουσίῳ ὁ λαβὼν εἰς τὸ θεῖον δικαστήριον καὶ
᾿ἀνατείνας τὰς χεῖρας εἰς οὐρανὸν ὀμνύτω κατ᾽
1 mss. ἐπ᾽. 2 MSS. κατασκευάσας.
3 These words are expelled as a gloss by Cohn following Mangey. But what did the supposed gloss mean ἢ Mangey himself suggested as an alternative τὰ κατὰ κλεπτῶν ὁρισθέντα (of. §§ 2 and 11 above), wwhich I should be inclined to adopt.
4 MSS. προείτω OF προίτω.
* 4,9. whether their actions and words are genuine or not. This no doubt gives a rather strained meaning to τῶν μὴ θελόντων. Perhaps as Mangey “‘cum voluntarie tum in- voluntarie agentium.” But this, though an antithesis con- stantly recurring in Philo, seems irrelevant here. Heinemann, ‘whether they wish (to be seen and heard) or not,” “ mag es
26
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 31-34
to whom both naturally appeal as their witness, one that he will restore the property when de- manded, the other that he will recover it at the proper time. So then he who repudiates a deposit 32 must be assured that he acts most wrongfully. He deceives the hopes of the friend who confided his goods to him. He has disguised under fair words the vileness of his character. In the faithlessness of his heart he has assumed the mask of a bastard faithfulness. The assurance of the hands given and taken is rendered null and void, the oaths are unfulfilled. Thus he has set at nought both the human and the divine and repudiated two trusts, one that of him who consigned his property, the other that of the most veracious of witnesses who sees and hears all whether they intend or do not wish to do what they say.* Butif the deposit, which 33 the receiver accepts as something sacred and feels bound to keep unharmed because of his reverence for truth and good faith, is purloined by stealthy mischievous intruders, cutpurses and burglars on the watch to take what does not belong to them, the offenders if caught must pay a fine of double the value.° If they are not caught the receiver of 34 the trust must go of his own freewill to the court of God and with hands stretched out to heaven
ihnen lieb oder unlieb sein,”’ also seems pointless and besides misses the sense of intention in προαιρουμένων.
> See Ex. xxii. 7.
ὁ Tix, xxii. 8 “‘come near unto God,” v. 9 ‘‘ before God.”’ Lxx in both places ἐνώπιον θεοῦ, a phrase which, whatever it may have meant in the original, is interpreted by Philo as appealing to the judgement of God. The phrase δικαστήριον θεῖον frequently appears in Philo; see in this volume De Virt. 171, De Praem. 69.
27
PHILO
A / A ’ ἐξωλείας ἑαυτοῦ, UATE τι μέρος τῆς παρακαταθήκης νοσφίσασθαι μήτε ἑτέρῳ κοινοπραγῆσαι μήτε ὅλως συνεπιψεύσασθαι κλοπὴν οὐ γενομένην: ἄτοπον γὰρ ἢ τὸν μηδὲν ἠδικηκότα ζημιοῦν ἢ τὸν συνδραμόντα
3 ’ ’ ey? e¢ fF 3 ’ὔ 4 eis φίλου πίστιν ὑφ᾽ ἑτέρων ἀδικηθέντα βλάβης αἴτιον ἐκείνῳ γενέσθαι.
865 Παρακαταθῆκαι δ᾽ οὐ μόνον ἐν ἀψύχοις εἰσίν, 3 \ \ , Φ A e ’ ς \ \ ἀλλὰ καὶ ζῴοις, ὧν διττὸς ὁ κίνδυνος, ὁ μὲν πρὸς
\ ” A \ A ς \ © \ 3 ’ τὰ ἄψυχα κοινὸς διὰ κλοπῆς, ὁ δὲ ἴδιος καὶ ἐξαί- ρετος διὰ θανάτου. λέλεκται μὲν οὖν περὶ τοῦ προτέρου, χρὴ δὲ καὶ περὶ τοῦ δευτέρου προσνομο-
86 θετεῖν. ἐὰν οὖν (ἐνδ παρακαταθήκῃ θρέμματα τελευτήσῃ, μεταπεμψάσθω τὸν ἐπιτρέψαντα ὁ λα-
4 4 βὼν καὶ ἐπιδεικνύτω, φαύλης ὑπονοίας ῥυόμενος ἑαυτόν: εἰ δὲ ἔκδημος ὧν τυγχάνοι, καλεῖν μὲν
@ A phrase borrowed from Demosthenes. See examples in lexicon. |
Ὁ Ex. xxii. 8. E.V. “to see whether he have not put his hand unto his neighbour’s goods.” τἰχχ “that he has not acted wickedly about the whole (ἐ.6. any part, Philo τι μέρος) of the deposit.’’ Philo gives a very reasonable expansion of the oath.
¢ 2,6. if he is not allowed to exculpate himself by an oath.
4 The translation is an attempt to retain something of the curious double 7. The two things mentioned are not alter- natives, but would both result if the depositary had to make good the theft.
¢ For this section see Ex. xxii. 9-13. Philo’s explanation is a simplification of what, particularly in the txx, is a con- fusing passage. In v. 9 it is stated that in the case of any loss, animals included, the disputants will appear ‘‘ before God” and the person convicted will pay compensation. The verse, which may be out of place, does not seem to refer particularly to deposits, but coming where it does, Philo would naturally conclude that it did so refer, and sup-
28
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 34-36
swear under pain of his own perdition® that he has not embezzled any part of the deposit nor abetted another in so doing nor joined at all in inventing a theft which never took place.®? Otherwise’ an innocent party would be mulcted and the person who ran to avail himself of the good faith of a friend would on account of the wrong he has suffered from others cause injury to that friend, and either of these is preposterous.4 But deposits include not only inanimate things 35
but living animals who are liable to be endangered in two ways: one by theft which they share with the inanimate, the other by death which is peculiar to themselves. The first of these has been dealt with above and we must proceed to lay down laws for the second. ¢So if any animal left in trust dies 36 the person who has accepted the trust must send for the consigner and show him the dead body, thus shielding himself against any suspicion of dishonesty. If the consigner is absent from home, it would not be right for the caretaker to summon
pose that it means that the oath, unless shown to be false, would clear the depositary. Verses 10-12 state that if an animal deposited in trust has been wounded or dies or has been carried away captive, ‘‘and no one knows it,” the oath will clear him, but adds that if it is stolen, the depositary must make it good. Verse 13 says that if it has been torn by wild beasts, he must take the owner to the fragments of the corpse (ἄξει ἐπὶ τὴν θήραν) and so clear himself. Philo ignores the difficulty in v. 12, “‘if it has been stolen he shall pay com- pensation,” and falls back upon the general principle that the oath is to be trusted. Also from the statement that the fragments of the torn animal are sufficient evidence, he seems to argue that the same must hold good of any dead animal if the owner is accessible, and that therefore the oath in this case is not needed.
29
PHILO
ἐν, 9 ¢ 4 “a 4 3 4 ἐτέρους οὐχ ἁρμόττον, οὗς λανθάνειν ἐσπούδασεν , A ἴσως ὁ πιστεύσας, ὀμνύναι δ᾽ ἀναγκαῖον ἐπανήκοντι περὶ τοῦ μὴ ἐπισκιάζειν ἐψευσμένῳ θανάτῳ νο- 87 σφισμὸν ἄδικον. ἐὰν δὲ λάβῃ τις μὴ ὡς παρα- μ' Va > ; ω μ Va ᾽ μή] : 4 Ρ καταθήκην ἀλλ᾽ ἕνεκα τοῦ χρήσασθαι δεόμενος “A “ “A ” 3 ΔΛ, 9 / a ON σκεῦος ἢ ζῷον, ἔπειτα [εἰ τὰ] ἀμφότερα κλαπῇ ἢ \ “"» 3 4 “-- τὸ ζῷον ἀποθάνῃ, συνδιατρίβοντος μὲν τοῦ χρή- ς \ 4 μὴ “--Ο \ σαντος ὁ λαβὼν ὑπόδικος οὐκ av γένοιτο, τοῦ μὴ 4 σκήπτεσθαι μάρτυρι χρώμενος ἐκείνῳ, μὴ συν- / A. 33 4, \ 4 Φ 3 4 38 διατρίβοντος δὲ ἀποτινύτω. διὰ τί; ὅτι ἐνδέχεται μὴ παρόντος τοῦ κυρίου τὸν χρώμενον ἢ πόνοις ἀποτρῦσαι συνεχέσι τὸ ζῷον, ὡς ἀποκτεῖναι, ἢ - “A \ “- 3 VA “A 3 [342] παραρρῖψαι | τὸ σκεῦος ὀλιγωρήσαντα τοῦ ἀλλο- τρίου, ταμιεύειν δέον καὶ μὴ παρέχειν εὐμάρειαν εἰς ὑφαίρεσιν κλέπταις. 3 ’ὔ > 89 ᾿Ακολουθίαν δ᾽ εἰ καί τις ἄλλος δεινὸς ὧν θεάσα- σθαι πραγμάτων ἀπαγορεύσεις ἐπαλλήλους ἑξῆς νομοθετεῖ, στοχαζόμενος εἱρμοῦ καὶ συνῳδὰ τοῖς προτέροις τὰ ἑπόμενα συνυφαίνων. τὴν δὲ τῶν λέγεσθαι μελλόντων ἁρμονίαν χρησμῷ θεσπισθῆναί
1 The ungrammatical εἰ τὰ with the subjunctive, which Cohn brackets, would easily slip in after ἔπειτα. Mangey retaining it has κλαπείη and ἀποθάνοι without ms. authority. Wendland suggested ἢ τὰ with fair probability. Stephanus states that ἀμφότερα preceded by the article is only found in N.T. and later writers. But see rats ἀμφοτέραις, § 129.
@ For this section see Ex. xxii. 14,15. wLxx “ If anyone ask from his neighbour and it is wounded (or broken) or die or is carried away captive, and the owner is not with ‘it, he shall make compensation. But if the owner is with it, he shall not make compensation.”’ Philo interprets the request (or borrowing) to apply to other things besides animals, and
30
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 36-39
other people from whom the depositor may have wished to keep the matter secret, but when he has come home he must swear to him to show that he is not using a fictitious death to cloak an em- bezzlement. * But if any utensil or any animal has been received not as a trust but for his use in response to a request and then either ὃ of these is stolen, or the animal dies, the borrower will not be responsible if the lender is living on the spot, since he can call him to witness that there is no pretence. If he is not living on the spot the borrower must make good the loss. Why is this? Because in the absence of the owner the borrower may either have worn out the animal by constantly overworking it and so h:ve caused its death, or may have risked ὁ the loss of the utensil out of care- lessness for what is another man’s property, whereas he is bound to keep it carefully and not provide thieves with facilities for carrying it off.
The lawgiver with his unsurpassed power of dis- cerning how things follow each other gives a series
37
39
of successive prohibitions in which he aims at logical —
connexion, and makes a harmonious combination of the subsequent with the preceding. He tells us that this accordance between each thing said and
‘carried away captive ” (αἰχμάλωτον γένηται) to include steal- ing, and “‘be with it,” which presumably means that he is present when the mishap occurs, to mean as above, “be accessible.”? The last half of the verse, which is very obscure, he leaves alone.
> Lit. ‘‘ both,” meaning that both are liable to be stolen, but not to die.
¢ Heinemann ‘thrown aside.” Mangey ‘‘temere pro- iecisse.”” The meaning given above, which is a quite common use of παραρρίπτω, seems to me more suitable to the context.
31
PHILO
φησιν ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ θεοῦ τὸν τρόπον TobToV: “οὐ κλέψετε καὶ οὐ ψεύσεσθε καὶ οὐ συκοφαντή- σετε τοὺς πλησίον ὑμῶν: καὶ οὐκ ὀμεῖσθε τῷ ὀνόματί μου ἐπ᾽ ἀδίκῳ καὶ τὸ ἐμὸν ὄνομα οὐ βεβηλώσετε᾽᾿. παγκάλως καὶ σφόδρα παιδευτικῶς: 40 ὅ τε “γὰρ κλέπτης ὑπὸ τοῦ συνειδότος ἐλεγχόμενος ἀρνεῖται καὶ ψεύδεται, δεδιὼς τὰς ἐκ τοῦ ὁμολογῆ- σαι τιμωρίας, ὅ τε ἀρνούμενος ἑτέρῳ σπουδάζων προσβάλλειν τὸ ἔγκλημα συκοφαντεῖ καὶ τέχνας ἐπινοεῖ, Ou ὧν εὔλογον εἶναι δόξει τὸ συκοφάντημα, πᾶς τε συκοφάντης εὐθύς ἐστιν ἐπίορκος, ὀλίγα φροντίζων εὐσεβείας" ἐπειδὴ yap" ἐλέγχων ἀπορεῖ ικαίων, ἐπὶ τὴν ἄτεχνον λεγομένην πίστιν κατα- φεύγει, τὴν δι᾽ ὅρκων, οἰόμενος κατακλήσει θεοῦ πίστιν ἐργάζεσθαι τοῖς ἀκούουσιν. ἀνίερος δ᾽ ὁ τοι- odtos ὧν καὶ βέβηλος ἴστω, μιαίνων τὸ ἀμίαντον φύσει ἀγαθὸν καὶ" θεῖον ὄνομα.
Οὐ ψευδομαρτυρήσεις"
41 VIII. "Evarov μέν ἐστι τουτὶ τῶν δέκα κεφα- λαίων, τῶν δὲ ἐν τῇ δευτέρᾳ στήλῃ τὸ τέταρτον 3 “- ’ὕ \ \ > , ’ 3. A / ἀριθμῷ, μυρία δὲ Tov ἀνθρώπινον βίον ὀνῆσαι δυνά-
1 MSS, ἐπειδήπερ.
2 Cohn rejects ἀγαθὸν καὶ, on the grounds that ἀγαθὸν is an unsuitable epithet, and Mangey’s proposal of ἅγιον or ayaorov because of the hiatus after φύσει. See App. p. 428.
3. This heading stands on quite a different footing from the rest, as the allusion to it in τουτὶ below shows it to be in- dispensable. Possibly it should be printed in line with ἔνατον rather than as a heading.
¢ Or simply as Heinemann and Mangey, “ what is about to be said,’ or “‘has to be said.” The translation given above is based on a feeling that as τῶν μελλόντων so taken
32
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 39-41
each thing still to be said 5 is proclaimed in an oracle spoken by God in his own person in the following terms “ Ye shall not steal and ye shall not lie and ye shall not bring false accusations against your neighbours and ye shall not swear in my name to an injustice and ye shall not profane my name.” ὃ Excellent indeed and full of instructions, for the 40 thief convicted by his conscience disowns the deed and lies through fear of the punishment which confession entails. ‘Then he who disowns his deed in his eagerness to fasten the charge on someone else brings a false accusation and devises schemes to make the accusation seem probable. And every such accuser is necessarily a perjurer with little regard for piety, for since he lacks just arguments he takes refuge in the unscientific ὁ method of proof, as it is called, namely that of oaths, because he thinks that by appeal to God he makes his hearers believe him. Such a one may be assured that he is unholy and profane, since he pollutes the good name which is by nature unpolluted, the name of God.
VIII. ‘‘ Thou shalt not bear false witness.”’ This 4] is the ninth of the ten heads but the fourth in number of those on the second table. Numberless are the blessings which it can bring to human life if kept,
is somewhat pointless, Philo may be carrying on the thought of the previous sentence that each clause is the precursor of the next and leads up to it as its natural consequence. See App. p. 427.
δ Lev. xix. 11, 12.
¢ Or inartistic, inartificial. See note on De Plant. 173, and reference to Aristot. Rhet. i. 15.2. The five inartistic proofs are laws, witnesses, contracts and documents, torture, oaths. See further App. p. 428.
VOL. VIII D 33
PHILO
μενον, εἰ φυλάττοιτο, ws καὶ τοὐναντίον apedov- 42 μενον βλάψαι. ψεκτὸς μὲν γὰρ ὁ συκοφάντης, ὁ δὲ τὰ ψευδῆ μαρτυρῶν μᾶλλον ὑπαίτιος" ὁ μὲν γὰρ αὑτῷ βοηθῶν, ὁ δ᾽ ἄλλῳ συμπράττων πονηρός ἐστιν, ἐν δὲ συγκρίσει κακῶν ἀνδρῶν ὁ ou’ αὑτὸν 48 ἁμαρτάνων τοῦ du ἕτερον ἧττον ἄδικος. καὶ τὸν μὲν κατήγορον ὑποβλέπεται πᾶς δικαστὴς ὡς ὀλίγα φροντίζοντα τῆς ἀληθείας ἕνεκα τοῦ περιγενέσθαι, διὸ καὶ προοιμίων ἐδέησεν εἰς προσοχὴν ἀκροατοῦ τῷ λέγοντι: τοῦ δὲ μαρτυροῦντος μηδὲν ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ προπεπονθὼς ὕπουλον ἐλευθέρᾳ γνώμῃ καὶ ἀνα- πεπταμένοις ὠσὶν ἀνέχεται, πίστιν καὶ ἀλήθειαν ὑποδυομένου, [τὸ] πραγμάτων μὲν ὠφελιμωτάτων τὰ ὀνόματα, ὀνομάτων δὲ προσαγωγότατα,' (ois) καθ- ἅπερ δελέασιν ἐπὶ θήρᾳ χρῆται ὧν ὀρέγεται καὶ 44 ποθεῖ. ιὸ πολλαχοῦ παραινεῖ τῆς νο- μοθεσίας ἀδίκῳ μηδενὶ συναινεῖν, μήτε ἀνθρώπῳ μήτε πράγματι: “προκαλεῖται γὰρ ἡ συναίνεσις ἐφ᾽ ὑγιεῖ μὴ γενομένη τὰ ψευδῆ μαρτυρεῖν, ἐπεὶ καὶ [348] πᾶς, [ ὅτῳ πρόσαντες καὶ ἐχθρὸν τὸ ἄδικον, ἀλη- 45 θείᾳ φίλος. ἑνὶ μὲν οὖν μοχθηρῷ μὴ συναπονοη- θῆναι θαυμαστὸν οὐδὲν εἰς τὰ ὅμοια προκαλουμένῳ, πλήθει δὲ ἐπὶ παρανομίαν" οἷα κατὰ πρανοῦς ἀθρόᾳ
ῥύμῃ φερομένῳ μὴ συνενεχθῆναι γενναίας ψυχῆς
1 MSS. προσαγωγότατος. 2 MSS. παρανομία ( -Ξ -ᾳ).
@ As this only applies to consenting to injustice many examples no doubt could be found, e.g. Ex. xxiii. 7 “ thou shalt keep away from every unjust word,” Lev. xix. 15, Deut. xvi. 19, 20. The further thought that consenting to an injustice involves supporting what we know to be false and therefore is a breach of the ninth commandment has its source in Ex. xxiii. 1,2, where “thou shalt not join with the
34
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 41-45
numberless on the other hand the injuries which it causes if disregarded ; for reprehensible as is the 42 false accuser his guilt is less than that of the bearer of false witness. The former acts as his own champion, the latter as the accomplice of another, and if we compare one bad man with another the iniquity of one who sins for his own sake is less than his who sins for the sake of another. The 43 judge looks with disfavour on the accuser as a person who cares little for truth in his eagerness to win his case, and this is the reason why introductory addresses are required to secure the attention of the hearer to the speaker. But the judge starts with no lurking feelings of hostility to the witness and therefore he listens with a free judgement and open ears, while the other assumes the mask of good faith and truth, names indeed of the most valuable realities, but the most seductive of names when used as baits to capture something which is earnestly desired. And therefore in 44 many places 5 of the Law Book he exhorts us not to consent to an unjust man or unjust action, for consent, if not rendered on honest grounds, is an inducement to testify to falsehoods, Just as everyone to whom injustice gives a feeling of pain and hostility is a friend of truth. Now when a single 45 man of bad character invites us to do as he does there is nothing remarkable in a refusal to share his wicked folly, but when a multitude is carried away in a rushing mass as down a steep slope to law- lessness, it needs a noble soul and a spirit trained
unjust to be an unjust witness,” is followed at once by “ thou shalt not be with a multitude for evil.’’ This last is evi- dently the text expounded in the next sentence.
35
PHILO
> \ / > 4 ἐστι Kal φρονήματος ἀνδρείᾳ συγκεκροτημένου.
3 A Ἁ A A “A “ 46 ἔνιοι γὰρ τὰ Tots πολλοῖς δοκοῦντα, κἂν παρα-
> 4 \ νομώτατα 7, νόμιμα Kat δίκαια εἶναι νομίζουσι, ’ oO κρίναντες οὐκ εὖ' φύσει γὰρ ἕπεσθαι καλόν, ἀκο-
47 λουθίᾳ φύσεως δ᾽ ἀντίπαλον ὄχλου φορά. ἐὰν οὖν
48
49
κατὰ θιάσους καὶ πολυανθρώπους ὁμίλους ἀγειρό- μενοί τινες νεωτερίζωσι, τούτοις οὐ συναινετέον ὡς τὸ ἀρχαῖον καὶ δόκιμον τῆς πολιτείας νόμισμα παρακόπτουσι" σοφὸν γὰρ ἕν βούλευμα τὰς πολλὰς χέρας νικᾷ, σὺν ὄχλῳ δ᾽ ἀμαθία μεῖζον κακόν.
᾿Αλλὰ τοσαύτῃ τινὲς ὑπερβολῇ χρῶνταιμοχθηρίας, ὥστ᾽ οὐ μόνον ἀνθρώπων ἀγένητα κατηγοροῦσιν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐπιμένοντες τῇ μοχθηρίᾳ διαίρουσι καὶ τεί- νουσι τὸ ψεῦδος ἄχρι οὐρανοῦ, τῆς μακαρίας καὶ εὐδαίμονος θεοῦ φύσεως καταμαρτυροῦντες" εἰσὶ δ᾽ οὗτοι τερατοσκόποι καὶ οἰωνοσκόποι καὶ θύται καὶ ὅσοι ἄλλοι μαντικὴν ἐκπονοῦσι τὴν σὺν τέχνῃ κακοτεχνίαν, εἰ δεῖ τἀληθὲς εἰπεῖν, ἐπιτηδεύοντες, παράκομμα τῆς ἐνθέου κατοκωχῆς καὶ προφητείας. προφήτης μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲν ἴδιον ἀποφαίνεται τὸ παράπαν, ἀλλ᾽ ἔστιν ἑρμηνεὺς ὑποβάλλοντος ἑτέρου πάνθ᾽ ὅσα προφέρεται, καθ᾽ ὃν χρόνον ἐνθουσιᾷ γεγονὼς ἐν ἀγνοίᾳ, μετανισταμένου μὲν τοῦ λο- γισμοῦ καὶ παρακεχωρηκότος τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ἀκρόπολιν, ἐπιπεφοιτηκότος δὲ καὶ ἐνῳκηκότος τοῦ θείου πνεύματος καὶ πᾶσαν τῆς φωνῆς ὀργανο-
α Lines from a fragment of Euripides quoted by many
36
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 45-49
to manliness to keep from being carried with them. Some people suppose that what the many think 46 right is lawful and just, though it be the height of lawlessness. But they do not judge well, for it is good to follow nature, and the headlong course of the multitude runs counter to what nature’s leading would have us do. So if some people collect in 47 groups or crowded assemblages to give trouble, we must not consent to their debasing of the long established and sterling coinage of civic life.
Better than many hands is one wise thought, A multitude of fools makes folly worse.*
But some show such an excess of wickedness that 48 they not only lay to the charge of men things which have never occurred but persisting in their wicked- ness exalt and extend the falsehood to heaven and bear testimony against the blessed and ever happy nature of God.® These are the interpreters of portents and auguries and of sacrificial entrails, and all the other proficients in divination who practise an art which is in reality a corruption of art, a counterfeit of the divine and prophetic possession. For no pronouncement of a prophet is ever his 49 own; he is an interpreter prompted by Another in all his utterances, when knowing not what he does he is filled with inspiration, as the reason withdraws and surrenders the citadel of the soul to a new visitor and tenant, the Divine Spirit which
writers and stated to come from the tragedy Antiope. See Nauck, Fr. of Eur. 220.
ὑ This condemnation of divination as a breach of the ninth commandment because it constitutes false witness against God is very strained. In the parallel passage, i. 59-63, it has been connected with the first.
37
δ0
51
[344]
52
PHILO
ποιίαν KpovovTos Te’ Kal ἐνηχοῦντος εἰς ἐναργῆ δήλωσιν ὧν προθεσπίζει. τῶν δὲ τὴν παράσημον καὶ βωμολόχον μαντικὴν ζηλούντων ἕκαστος ταῖς εἰκασίαις καὶ στοχασμοῖς ἀνοίκειον τάξιν παρα- τίθησι τὴν τῆς ἀληθείας καὶ τοὺς ἀβεβαίους τὸ ἦθος ὑπαγόμενος ῥᾳδίως καθάπερ ἀνερμάτιστα σκάφη πολὺς ἀντιπνεύσας" ἀνωθεῖ καὶ ἀνατρέπει, διακωλύων ὑποδρόμοις ἀσφαλέσι προσσχεῖν εὐσε- βείας" τὰ γὰρ τοπασθέντα προλέγειν οἴεται δεῖν ὡς οὐκ αὐτὸς εὑρών, ἀλλ᾽ ὡς ἀφανῶς αὐτῷ μόνῳ χρησθέντα θεῖα λόγια, πρὸς βεβαιοτέραν πίστιν ἀπάτης μεγάλων καὶ πολυανθρώπων ὁμίλων. τὸν τοιοῦτον εὐθυβόλῳ ὀνόματι ψευδοπροφήτην προσ- αγορεύει, κιβδηλεύοντα τὴν ‘| ἀληθῆ προφητείαν καὶ τὰ γνήσια νόθοις εὑρήμασιν ἐπισκιάζοντα. χρόνῳ δὲ παντάπασιν ὀλίγῳ διακαλύπτεται τὰ τοιαῦτα στρατηγήματα, τῆς φύσεως οὐκ ἀεὶ κρύ- πτεσθαι φιλούσης, ἀλλ᾽ ὁπόταν καιρὸς ἢ τὸ ἴδιον κάλλος ἀναφαινούσης ἀηττήτοις δυνάμεσιν. wes γὰρ ἐν ταῖς ἡλιακαῖς ἐκλείψεσιν at ἀκτῖνες πρὸς βραχύτατον ἀμαυρωθεῖσαι μικρὸν ὕστερον ἀναλάμ- πουσιν ἄσκιον καὶ τηλαυγὲς ἐπιδεικνύμεναι φέγ-
1 Perhaps omit τε, and so Mangey, but without ms. author- ity. See note a. 2 Cohn following Mangey inserts ἄνεμος after ἀντιπνεύσας. It seems to me unnecessary. The metaphorical application of wind-terms by the simple verb is common in Philo. See Index s.v. mvéw, 6.95. λαμπρὸν πνέουσι De Cong. 159.
@ Or ‘‘ makes sounds on,”’ “ raises sounds from ”’ it, 1.6. the vocal organism. This must be the sense if τε is retained, though to understand the dative from the preceding accusa- tive seems awkward. Mangey translates ‘“‘formante,”’ and I presume Heinemann means much the same by “ bringt
38
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 49-52
plays upon the vocal organism and dictates words which clearly express its prophetic message. Now 50 everyone who pursues the spurious scurvy trade of divination ranks his surmises and conjectures with truth, a position ill-suited to them, and easily gets the unstable of character into his power ; then with a mighty counterblast as it were he pushes about and upsets their unballasted barks and prevents them from coming to port in the sure roadsteads of piety. For he thinks he must proclaim the results of his guessing to be not his own discovery but divine oracles, secretly vouchsafed to him alone, and thus confirm the great multitudes which gather around him in their acceptance of the fraud. Such 51 a person receives from the lawgiver the appropriate name of false prophet,® for he adulterates the true prophecy and with his spurious inventions throws the genuine into the shade. But in quite a short time such manoeuvres are exposed, for it is not nature's way to be concealed for ever but when the right time comes she uses her invincible powers to unveil the beauty which is hers alone. For as 52 in eclipses of the sun the rays are dimmed for a very short time but soon shine again spreading a light unshadowed and far-reaching, when the sun is
den ganzen Stimmapparat zum Schallen und Toénen,” but I do not see how the word can mean this. For Philo’s regular use of ἐνηχεῖν to express reiteration and insistence in speech see note on De Mut. 57 (vol. v. p. 588). For the sense of this sentence cf. i. 65, Quis Rerum 266. Heinemann compares Plato, lon 534. See App. p. 429.
’ The word ψευδοπροφήτης is not used of diviners in the Pentateuch nor indeed used at all. It is however found elsewhere in the ~xx, and is associated with divination, Jer. xxxiv. (E.V. xxvii.) 9, xxxvi. (E.V. xxix.) 8.
39
PHILO
A > A 4 γος, μηδενὸς ἐπιπροσθοῦντος ἡλίῳ τὸ παράπαν, ἱλλ᾽ e > θ Ul θ A A A 3 ’ 1 ἀλλ᾽ ὡς ἐν αἰθρίᾳ καθαρᾷ ὁλοστὸν avadaivortt,
4 \ A οὕτως κἂν γχρησμολογῶσί τινες μαντικὴν μὲν 3 ἐπεψευσμένην τεχνάζοντες, ὑποδυόμενοι δ᾽ εὐ-
\ Yd πρεπὲς ὄνομα TO προφητείας, ἐνθουσιάσεις κατα- ὃ 4 ᾿ “- la e ’ 4 ‘\ ψευδόμενοι θεοῦ, διελεγχθήσονται ῥᾳδίως" ἥξει yap
tA e 1A 4θ 3 λ 4 “- > 4 πάλιν ἡ ἀλήθεια Kat ἀναλάμψει φῶς ἀστράπτουσα
4 A τηλαυγέστατον, ws Td γε ἐπισκιάσαν ψεῦδος ἀφανισθῆναι.
4 A 53 ΠΠάγκαλον μέντοι κἀκεῖνο προσδιετάξατο κε- λεύσας ἑ ἑνὸς μαρτυρίαν μὴ προσίεσθαι" πρῶτον μὲν ὅτι ἐνδέχεται ἕνα καὶ παριδεῖν τι καὶ παρακοῦσαι καὶ παρενθυμηθῆναι καὶ ἀπατηθῆναι, δόξαι γὰρ at A , \ > \ ψευδεῖς μυρίαι καὶ ἀπὸ μυρίων εἰώθασι προσπίπ- 4 \ o@& \ ’ “᾿ \ > ἐν» 54 Tew? δεύτερον δὲ ὅτι κατὰ πλείονων ἢ καὶ καθ᾽ ἑνὸς 3 4 eA A 4 A 2 \ cf \ ἀδικώτατον Cevi) χρῆσθαι μάρτυρι, τῶν μὲν ὅτι δὴ A ’ 3 A πρὸς πίστιν ἀξιονικότεροι ἑνός, τοῦ δ᾽ ἐπειδὴ κατ᾽ 3 A 9 4 A 3.» ’ > 4 ἀριθμὸν οὐ προφέρει, τὸ δ᾽ ἴσον πλεονεξίας ἀλλό- τριον" τί γὰρ μᾶλλον τῷ μάρτυρι καθ᾽ ἑτέρου δι- Δ “ A εξιόντι ἢ TH κατηγορουμένῳ ὑπὲρ αὑτοῦ λέγοντι / συναινετέον; ἄριστον δ᾽ ὡς ἔοικεν ἐπέχειν, ἔνθα μηδὲν ἐνδεῖ μηδὲ ὑπερβάλλει.
1 Cohn brackets the words ἀλλ᾽ ws... ἀναφαίνοντι, but his arguments (see Hermes, 1908, p. 208) do not seem to me very conclusive. They are (1) the words cannot be explained grammatically, for it is not clear to what ἀναφαίνοντι refers. (It surely agrees with ἡλίῳ, and the construction, though very awkward, is not ungrammatical.) (2) ὁλοστός is only known from a Sloss of Hesychius. (Mangey’s proposal of ὅλως αὐτὸν or αὑτὸν (?) might overcome this.) (3) The hiatus καθαρᾷ ὁλοστὸν is intolerable. (On this see note in App. to
§ 40.) My own further difficulty is that I do not see the meaning of ws. But altogether the clause, though certainly
40
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 52-54
not obscured at all by any intervening object but displays its whole surface in clear open sky, just so though some oracle-mongers may ply their false art of divination, masked under the specious name of prophecy, and palm off their ecstatic utterances upon the Godhead, they will easily be detected. Truth will come back and shine again, illuminating the far distance with its radiance, and the lie which overshadowed it will vanish away.
He added another excellent injunction when he 53 forbade them to accept the evidence of a single person,” first because the single person may see or hear imperfectly or misunderstand and be deceived, since false opinions are numberless and numberless too the sources from which they spring to attack us. Secondly because it is most unjust to accept a single 54 witness against more than one or even against one : against more than one, because their number makes them more worthy of credence than the one: against one, because the witness has not got pre- ponderance of number, and equality is incompatible with predominance. For why should the statement of a witness made in accusation of another be accepted in preference to the words of the accused spoken in his own defence? Where there is neither deficiency nor excess it is clearly best to suspend judgement.®
@ Num. xxxv. 30, Deut. xvii. 6 (of death sentences), Deut. xix. 15 (of all offences).
>’ Heinemann “ where no one is behind or has an advan- tage,” but the neuter μηδέν points rather to a general maxim. See App. p. 430.
open to suspicion, does not seem to me impossible. On ὁλοστός see further App. p. 430. 2 MSS. τὸν OF TO.
41
55
[345]
56
57
58
PHILO
IX. *Oterau δεῖν ὁ νόμος ἅπαντας μὲν τοὺς συμ- φερομένους τῇ κατὰ Μωυσέα ἱερᾷ πολιτείᾳ παντὸς ἀλόγου πάθους καὶ πάσης κακίας ἀμετόχους εἶναι μᾶλλον ἢ τοὺς τοῖς ἄλλοις νόμοις χρωμένους, δια- φερόντως δὲ τοὺς λαχόντας 7 χειροτονηθέντας δικάζειν. ἄτοπον γὰρ ἁμαρτήμασιν ἐνόχους εἶναι | τοὺς τοῖς ἄλλοις τὰ δίκαια βραβεύειν ἀξιοῦντας, οἷς ἀναγκαῖον καθάπερ ἀ ἀπ’ ἀρχετύπου γραφῆς ἀ ἀπο- μάττεσθαι τὰ φύσεως ἔργα πρὸς μίμησιν. ὡς γὰρ ἡ τοῦ πυρὸς δύναμις ἀλεαίνουσα ὧν ἂν προσ- ἄψηται θερμὴ πολὺ πρότερον αὐτὴ καθέστηκεν ἐξ αὑτῆς καὶ κατὰ τοὐναντίον ἡ τῆς χιόνος τῷ κατ- εψύχθαι καὶ τἄλλα ἐπιψύχει, οὕτως ὀφείλει καὶ δικαστὴς ἀνάπλεως εἶναι δικαιοσύνης ἀκραιφνοῦς, εἴ γε μέλλει τὰ δίκαια τοῖς ἐντευξομένοις ἐπάρδειν, ἵν᾽ ὥσπερ ἀπὸ πηγῆς γλυκείας φέρηται νᾶμα πό- τιμον τοῖς διψῶσιν εὐνομίας. τουτὶ δὲ συμβήσεται, ἐάν τις δικάζειν εἰσιὼν ἐν ταὐτῷ νομίσῃ κρίνειν τε καὶ κρίνεσθαι καὶ ἀναλαμβάνῃ ἅμα τῇ ψήφῳ, σύνεσιν μὲν εἰς τὸ μὴ ἀπατᾶσθαι, δικαιοσύνην εἰς τὴν τῶν κατ᾽ ἀξίαν ἐπιβαλλόντων ἑκάστοις ἀπονομήν, ἀνδρείαν δὲ εἰς τὸ ἀνένδοτον πρὸς ἱκε- σίας καὶ οἴκτους κατὰ τὰς τῶν ἑαλωκότων τιμω- ρίας. ὁ τούτων ἐπιμελούμενος τῶν ἀρετῶν κοινὸς εὐεργέτης εἰκότως ἂν νομίζοιτο, κυβερνήτου τρόπον
1 Here the mss. have a heading Τὰ πρὸς δικαστήν, and Cohn begins a new numeration of chapters. But though these sections, 41-78, might perhaps have come more appropriately
in the latter half of the book on δικαιοσύνη, Philo clearly regards them as belonging to the ninth commandment (§ 78).
¢ Heinemann objects that no judges were chosen by lot in Israel, cf. § 157, but Philo of course means that however they
42
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 54-58
IX. The law holds that all who conform to the 55
sacred constitution laid down by Moses must be exempt from every unreasoning passion and every vice in a higher degree than those who are governed by other laws, and that this particularly applies to those who are appointed to act as judges by lot or election. For it is against all reason that those who claim to dispense justice to others should themselves have offences to answer for. On the contrary it is necessary that they should bear the impress of the operations of nature, as from an
original design, and thus imitate them.? Consider 56
the power exerted by fire and snow. Fire warms all it touches but its heat primarily resides in itself, snow its opposite through its own coldness chills other things. So too the judge must be permeated by pure justice if he is to foster with the water of justice those who will come before him, and thus as from a sweet fountain there may issue a stream fit to refresh the lips of those who thirst for true
and lawful dealings. And this will come to pass if 57
a man when he enters upon his duties as judge considers that when he tries a case he is himself on his trial, and with his voting tablet ° takes also good sense to make him proof against deceit, justice to assign to each according to his deserts, courage to remain unmoved by supplication and lamentation
over the punishments of the convicted. He who 58
studies to possess these virtues will properly be considered a public benefactor. Like a good pilot
were elected the law would demand a higher standard from them than from the Gentile. >’ So rather than as Goodenough, “to be imitated by others.” ¢ Lit. “ pebble.” 43
59
PHILO
ἀγαθοῦ τοὺς χειμῶνας τῶν πραγμάτων ἐξευδιάζων ἕνεκα σωτηρίας καὶ ἀσφαλείας τῶν τὰ οἰκεῖα ἐπι- τετροφότων αὐτῷ.
Χ. Κελεύει δὴ πρῶτον ὁ νόμος τῷ δικαστῇ μὴ παραδέχεσθαι ἀκοὴν ματαίαν. τί δὲ τοῦτ᾽ ἐστίν; ἔστω, φησίν, ὦ οὗτος, τὰ ὦτά σου κεκαθαρμένα᾽" καθαρθήσεται δέ, ἐὰν νάμασι σπουδαίων λόγων συνεχῶς ἐπαντλῆται, τὰς ματαίους καὶ πεπατη- μένας καὶ χλεύης ἀξίας μυθογράφων 7 μιμολόγων
nv
7 τυφοπλαστῶν τὰ μηδενὸς ἄξια σεμνοποιούντων
60 μακρὰς ῥήσεις μὴ προσιέμενα. δηλοῦται δ᾽ ἐκ τοῦ
6!
μὴ παραδέχεσθαι ματαίαν ἀκοὴν καὶ ἕτερόν τι τῷ “e προτέρῳ avvadov’ Tots ἀκοὴν μαρτυροῦσι, φησίν, ὁ - ’ A 4 A , προσέχων ματαίως καὶ οὐχ ὑγιῶς προσέξει: διὰ τί; A 3 A ὅτι ὀφθαλμοὶ μὲν αὐτοῖς ἐντυγχάνουσι τοῖς ywo- A ΜΕΝ μένοις, ἐφαπτόμενοι τρόπον τινὰ τῶν πραγμάτων \ Ὁ > 4 4 δ καὶ ὅλα δι’ ὅλων καταλαμβάνοντες, φωτὸς συν- εργοῦντος, ᾧ πάντα αὐγάζεταί τε καὶ διελέγχεται, ὦτα δ᾽, ὡς ἔφη τις οὐκ ἀπὸ σκοποῦ τῶν προτέρων, ὀφθαλμῶν ἀπιστότερα, πράγμασι μὲν οὐκ ἐντυγ- 4 “A > A χάνοντα, ἑρμηνεῦσι δὲ πραγμάτων λόγοις οὐκ ἀεὶ πεφυκόσιν ἀληθεύειν περιελκόμενα. διὸ καὶ τῶν > ὦ 3 “A 4 3 παρ᾽ “Ἕλλησιν ἔνιοι νομοθετῶν μεταγράψαντες ἐκ A A 4 τῶν ἱερωτάτων Μωυσέως στηλῶν εὖ διατάξασθαι
¢ Or “tranquillizing,” which is the natural meaning of the word, but a pilot does not do this.
ὑ Ex. xxiii. 1. E.V. “Thou shalt not take up a false re- port.”” Lxx as quoted here.
¢ Goodenough supposes that these expositions or harangues refer to the sophistry of advocates, cf. Spec. Leg. iii. 121, but this is not borne out by the sequel, mythmakers, etc. Philo seems to have slipped into a general denunciation of ‘“‘ idle hearings,” and particularly of the μυθικὰ πλάσματα against
44
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 58-61
he steers a prosperous voyage” through the storms of business to secure the preservation and security of those who have. entrusted their interests to him.
X. The first instruction that the law gives to the 59 judge is that he should not accept idle hearing.” What is this? “Let your ears, my friend,” he says, “be purged” and purged they will be if streams of worthy thoughts and words are con- stantly poured into them and if they refuse to admit the long-winded expositions,® the idle hackneyed @ absurdities of the makers of myths and farces and of vain inventions with their glorification of the worthless. And the phrase “ not accept idle hear- 60 ing ”’ has another signification consistent with that just mentioned. If men listen to hearsay given as evidence their listening will be idle and unsound. Why so? Because the eyes are conversant with the actual events ; they are in a sense in contact with the facts and grasp them in their completeness through the co-operation of the light which reveals and tests everything. But ears, as one of the ancients has aptly said, are less trustworthy than eyes ®@; they are not conversant with facts, but are dis- tracted by words which interpret the facts but are not necessarily always veracious. And therefore it 61 seems that some Grecian legislators did well when they copied from the most sacred tables of Moses
which he so often inveighs, e.g. De Virt. 102. Cf. the longer digression in §§ 68, 69.
4 Goodenough “worthy of rejection,” and so Mangey “ proculcatas,”” but the usage for “much trodden,” “ trite,” is well established.
€ Quoted almost verbatim from Herodotus i. 8. Polybius xii. 27. 1 ascribes it in a slightly different form (ὀφθαλμοὶ τῶν ὦτων ἀκριβέστεροι μάρτυρες) to Heracleitus.
93
45
PHILO -
A eres, a 2 ie 6 ὃ , cA \ ἴὸ / δοκοῦσι, μὴ μαρτυρεῖν ἀκοήν,' ws δέον, a μὲν εἶδέ gg THs πιστὰ κρίνειν, ἃ δὲ ἤκουσε, μὴ πάντως βέβαια. 1346] XI. | Δεύτερον παράγγελμα κριτῇ δῶρα μὴ λαμβάνειν: τὰ γὰρ δῶρα, φησὶν ὁ νόμος, πηροῖ μὲν ὀφθαλμοὺς βλέποντας, τὰ δὲ δίκαια λυμαίνεται, τὴν δὲ διάνοιαν οὐκ ἐᾷ διὰ λεωφόρου βαίνειν ἐπ᾽ εὐ-
’ \ \ \ aA > > 9 ’ lA 63 θείας. Kal TO μὲν δωροδοκεῖν ἐπ᾽ ἀδίκοις παμπονή- > \ 3 ’ὔ ” ‘ > > A 4 9.9 ρων ἐστὶν ἀνθρώπων ἔργον, τὸ δ᾽ ἐπὶ δικαίοις ἐφ
9 . ἡμισείᾳ πονηρευομένων" εἰσὶ yap εὐπάρυφοί τινες ἡμιμόχθηροι, δικαιάδικοι, τὴν ὑπὲρ᾽ τῶν πεπλημ- μελημένων τεταγμένοι τάξιν κατὰ τῶν πλημμελη- σάντων, προῖκα δ᾽ οὐκ ἀξιοῦντες νικῶντας γράφειν οὗς νικᾶν ἀναγκαῖον, ἀλλὰ τὴν γνῶσιν ὦνιον καὶ 64 ἔμμισθον ἀποφαίνοντες. εἶτα ἐπειδάν τις αἰτιᾶται, φασὶ μὴ -παρατρέψαι τὸ δίκαιον---ἡττηθῆναι μὲν γὰρ οὗς ἁρμόττον ἦν ἡττᾶσθαι, νενικηκέναι δ᾽ οὗς ἐχρῆν περιγίνεσθαι---, κακῶς ἀπολογούμενοι" δύο γὰρ δεῖ προσφέρεσθαι τὸν ἀγαθὸν δικαστήν, νομικω- τάτην γνῶσιν καὶ τὸ ἀδέκαστον: ὁ δὲ ἐπὶ δώροις βραβευτὴς τοῦ δικαίου καλὸν φύσει πρᾶγμα λέ-
3 4 3 4 \ \ 4 Ὁ
65 ληθεν αἰσχύνων. ἐπεξαμαρτάνει δὲ καὶ δύο ἕτερα, τὸ μὲν ἐθίζων ἑαυτὸν εἶναι φιλοχρήματον, ὅπερ ὁρμητήριον τῶν μεγίστων παρανομημάτων ἐστί, τὸ
1 MSS. ἀκοὴ (=axof)). See note a. 2 MSS. περὶ (or παρὰ).
2 A clear reference to Atticlaw. See note on De Conf. 141 (vol. iv. pp. 556, 557), where reference is given to the Dict. of Ant, article “ Akoén Marturein,” and passages in the orators.
> Ex. xxiii. 8. The end “perverteth the words of the
righteous” (Lxx “‘just words ’’) suggests that ῥήματα may have fallen out. |
¢ From Plato, Rep. 352 c. 46
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 61-65
the enactment that hearing is not accepted as evidence,“ meaning that what a man has seen is to be judged trustworthy, but what he has heard is not entirely reliable.
XI. The second instruction to the judge is not to 62 take gifts, for gifts, says the law, blind the eyes? which see and corrupt the things that are just, while they prevent the mind from pursuing its course straight along the high road. And while receiving 63 bribes to do injustice is the act of the utterly de- praved, to receive them to do justice shows a half depravity. For there are some magistrates half way in wickedness,° mixtures of justice and injustice, who having been appointed to the duty of sup- porting the wronged against the wrongdoers think themselves justified in refusing without a considera- tion to record a victory to the necessarily victorious party and so make their verdict a thing purchased and paid for.¢ Then when they are attacked they 64 plead that they did not pervert justice, since those who ought to lose did lose and those who deserved to win were successful. This is a bad defence, for two things are demanded from the good judge, a verdict absolutely according to law and a refusal to be bribed. But the awarder® of justice who has taken gifts for it has unconsciously disfigured what nature has made beautiful. Apart from this 65 he offends in two other ways; he is habituating himself to be covetous of money, and that vice is the source from which the greatest iniquities spring,
@ See App. p. 430.
ὁ Or “umpire.” For the phrase βραβευτὴς τοῦ δικαίου Heinemann quotes Aristot. Rhet. i. 15. 24 τοῦ δικαίου BpaBev- τὴς ὁ δικαστής. See App. p. 431.
47
PHILO
3" A \ “- δὲ βλάπτων ὃν ἄξιον ἦν ὠφελεῖν τιμὴν τοῦ δικαίου 66 κατατιθέντα. διὸ σφόδρα παιδευτικῶς Μωυσῆς δικαίως τὸ δίκαιον προστάττει μεταδιώκειν, αἷ- νιττόμενος ὅτι καὶ ἀδίκως ἔνεστι, διὰ τοὺς ἐπὶ δώροις τοῦ δικαίου βραβευτάς, οὐ μόνον ἐν δικα- στηρίοις, ἀλλὰ πανταχοῦ κατά τε γῆν καὶ θάλατταν καὶ ἐν ἅπασιν ὀλίγου δέω φάναι τοῖς τοῦ βίου A 3 67 πράγμασιν. ἤδη γοῦν ὀλιγοχρήματόν τις παρα- , A > 4 > 23 > » lon καταθήκην λαβὼν ἀπέδωκεν, ἐπ᾽ ἐνέδρᾳ μᾶλλον ~ 4 4“ 9 ’ ig \ > 9\ 7 τοῦ λαμβάνοντος ἢ ὠφελείᾳ, ἵνα τὴν ἐν ὀλίγοις πίστιν δέλεαρ καθεὶς ἀγκιστρεύσηται τὴν ἐν μεί- A > , ζοσιν πίστιν, ὅπερ οὐδὲν ἦν ἕτερον ἢ τὸ δίκαιον μὴ δικαίως ἐπιτελεῖν: δίκαιον μὲν γὰρ ἡ τῶν ἀλλο- ’ > τρίων ἀπόδοσις, οὐ δικαίως δ᾽ ἐγένετο, παρόσον ἐπὶ Yj ~ 68 θήρᾳ πλειόνων. αἴτιον δὲ τῶν τοιούτων 3 \ 3 A ἁμαρτημάτων ἐστὶν ev Tots μάλιστα ἡ πρὸς TO A 9 U > ψεῦδος οἰκείωσις, ὅπερ EK πρώτης γενέσεως Kal σπαργάνων αὐτῶν τίτθαι καὶ μητέρες καὶ ὁ ἄλλος “ 9 > 7+ > 4 ‘ 9 4 Ψ τῶν κατ᾽ οἰκίαν ἀνδραπόδων καὶ ἐλευθέρων ὅμιλος \ 4 9." [4 ἔργοις καὶ λόγοις ἀεὶ σύντροφον κατασκευάζουσιν, \ ἐ A ~ ~ ἁρμοζόμενοι Kat ἑνοῦντες αὐτὸ τῇ ψυχῇ ὡς μέρος > A 3 ~ ἐκ φύσεως ἀναγκαῖον, ὅπερ, εἰ Kal TH ὄντι φύσει συνεγεγέννητο, wheirev ἐπιτηδεύσει τῶν καλῶν ἐκ- A 4 > 4 9 ’ A e > 4 69 τετμῆσθαι. τί δ᾽ οὕτως ἐν βίῳ καλὸν ὡς ἀλήθεια; ἣν ὁ πάνσοφος ἐστηλίτευσεν ἐν ἱερωτάτῳ χωρίῳ, 1 So Mangey, quoting - De Plant. 101 μηδὲ τὴν ἐν ὀλίγοις
πίστιν φύλασσε ἐπὶ θήρᾳ τῆς ἐν πλείοσι πίστεως. MSS. ἀπιστίαν (or ἀδικίαν).
α Deut. xvi. 20. E.V. “that which is altogether just shalt thou follow.” Cf. De Cher. 15, where it is quoted with the
48
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 65-69
and he is injuring one who deserves to be benefited when that person has to pay a price for justice. And therefore Moses gives us a very instructive 66 command, when he bids us pursue justice justly,” implying that it is possible to do so unjustly. He refers to those who give a just award for lucre, not only in law courts but everywhere on land and sea and one may almost say in all the affairs of life. Thus we have heard of a person 67 accepting a deposit of little value and repaying it with a view to ensnare rather than to benefit the person to whom he gives it.? His object was by baiting his hook with trustworthiness in small matters to secure trustfulness in greater things, and this is nothing else than executing justice unjustly, for while repayment of what is due to others is a just deed, it was not done justly being done in pursuit of further gains. Now the principal cause 68 of such misdeeds is familiarity with falsehood which grows up with the children right from their birth and from the cradle, the work of nurses and mothers and the rest of the company, slaves and free, who belong to the household. By word and deed they are perpetually welding and uniting falsehood to the soul as though it were a necessary part inherent in its nature, though if nature had really made it congenital it ought to have been eradicated by habituation to things excellent. And what has life 69 to show so excellent as truth, which the man of perfect wisdom set as a monument on the robe of
same application as here, and Quod. Det. 18, where it is cited as forbidding mistaken asceticism and ritual.
® For this confidence trick see De Plant. 103, De Cher. 14 also in connexion with Deut. l.c., and perhaps De Dec. 172.
VOL. VIII E 49
PHILO
A A ~ > , 4 Yj ~ [347] κατὰ τὴν τοῦ ἀρχιερέως στολήν, | ἔνθα τὸ τῆς aA e 4 3 ,ὔ “. ψυχῆς ἡγεμονικόν, ἀναθημάτων τῷ καλλίστῳ καὶ ’ \ A διαπρεπεστάτῳ βουληθεὶς αὐτὸν ἐπικοσμῆσαι, συγ- ἢ δὲ δύ χληθεί δρύ ἣν ἐκάλ γενῆ δὲ δύναμιν ἀληθείᾳ παριδρύσατο, ἣν ἐκάλεσε , 3 4 ~ 3 A δήλωσιν, ἀμφοτέρων τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν λόγων εἰκόνας, > ’ὔ “- A ἐνδιαθέτου τε Kal προφορικοῦ: δεῖται yap ὁ μὲν \ Sa a \ 9 a A 1 θ᾽ προφορικὸς δηλώσεως, ἧ τὰ ἀφανῆ τῶν' κα , e “A 3 4 A : ἕκαστον ἡμῶν ἐνθύμια γνωρίζεται τῷ πέλας, ὃ δ᾽ > Ul 3 ’ 9 ’ ’ \ ὔ ἐνδιάθετος ἀληθείας, εἰς τελειότητα βίου καὶ πρά- 9» δος.» 59 , ea. > , ἕεων δι᾽ ὧν" ἡ ἐπ᾽ εὐδαιμονίαν ὁδὸς ἀνευρίσκεται. ’ Ul A A Ul 70 XII. Τρίτον παράγγελμα τῷ δικαστῇ τὰ πράγ- A ~ , “A ματα πρὸ τῶν κρινομένων ἐξετάζειν καὶ πειρᾶσθαι Ul 4 aA aA πάντα τρόπον ἀφέλκειν αὑτὸν τῆς τῶν δικαζο- / ’ 9 ” \ , / μένων φαντασίας, eis ἄγνοιαν Kal λήθην βιαζόμενον a 3 / > \ , 3 ’ ὧν ἐπιστήμην εἶχε καὶ μνήμην, οἰκείων, φίλων, πολιτῶν, καὶ πάλιν ἀλλοτρίων, ἐχθρῶν, ξένων, ἵνα μήτε εὔνοια μήτε μῖσος ἐπισκιάσῃ τῶν δικαίων τὴν γνῶσιν: ἀνάγκη γὰρ οἷα τυφλὸν δίχα βάκτρου προ- , ” 4 ερχόμενον καὶ τοὺς ποδηγετήσοντας οὐκ ἔχοντα οἷς 3 V4 A 71 βεβαίως ἐπερείσεται πταίειν. ὅθεν προσήκει τὸν ἰω ἀγαθὸν δικαστὴν τοὺς μὲν κρινομένους, οἵτινες ἂν ὦσι, παρακαλύπτεσθαι, τὴν δὲ φύσιν τῶν πραγ- A A \ 4 μάτων ἄπλαστον Kal γυμνὴν ὁρᾶν, μὴ πρὸς δόξας 3 A A > ’ὔ ’ ’ A , ἀλλὰ πρὸς ἀλήθειαν μέλλοντα κρίνειν καὶ τοιαύτην 1 Perhaps omit τῶν. See note a. 2 Heinemann wishes to read δι᾽ ἧς on the ground that
τελειότης not πράξεις leads to happiness. But as translated the text seems to present no difficulty.
α If τῶν, which is ignored by Heinemann and Mangey, as 50
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 69-71
the high priest in the most sacred place where the dominant part of the soul resides, when he wished to deck him with a sacred ornament of special beauty and magnificence? And beside truth he set a kindred quality which he called “ clear showing,” the two representing both aspects of the reason we possess, the inward and the outward. For the outward requires clear showing by which the invisible thoughts in each of us* are made known to our neighbours. The inward requires truth to bring to perfection the conduct of life and the actions by which the way to happiness is discovered.
XII. A third instruction to the judge is that he 70 should scrutinize the facts rather than the litigants and should try in every way to withdraw himself from the contemplation of those whom he is trying.® He must force himself to ignore and forget those whom he has known and remembered, relations, friends and fellow citizens and on the other hand strangers, enemies, foreigners so that neither kind feeling nor hatred may becloud his decision of what is just. Otherwise he must stumble like a blind man proceeding without a staff or others to guide his feet on whom he can lean with security; and 71 therefore the good judge must draw a veil over the disputants, whoever they are, and keep in view the nature of the facts in their naked simplicity. He must come with the intention of judging accord- ing to truth and not according to the opinions of well as above, is retained, the meaning will be “‘such of our thoughts as are invisible.” But surely all thoughts are in- visible till expressed.
ὃ Deut. i. 17 (xvi. 19) “Thou shalt not respect persons in
judgement.” Lxx οὐκ ἐπιγνώσῃ πρόσωπον (“‘ recognize a face”’), a form which Philo is clearly expounding in the sequel.
51
PHILO
” , ¢ cee A , aA ~ ἔννοιαν λαβόντα, ὅτι “ἡ μὲν κρίσις τοῦ θεοῦ
ἐστιν, ὁ δὲ δικαστὴς ἐπίτροπος τῆς κρίσεως" ἐπιτρόπῳ δ᾽ οὐκ ἐφεῖται τὰ τοῦ κυρίου χαρίζεσθαι, παρακαταθήκην εἰληφότι τὴν πάντων τῶν κατὰ τὸν ἀνθρώπινον βίον ἀρίστην παρὰ τοῦ πάντων ἀρίστου. 72 XIII. Πρὸς δὲ τοῖς λεχθεῖσιν ἤδη καὶ ἄλλο 3 A σοφὸν εἰσηγεῖται" κελεύει {γὰρ πένητα ἐν κρίσει μὴ ἐλεεῖν ὁ πᾶσαν σχεδόν τι τὴν νομοθεσίαν πε- \ A > ” \ 4 TAnpwKws τῶν εἰς ἔλεον καὶ φιλανθρωπίαν διαταγ- μάτων καὶ μεγάλας μὲν ἀπειλὰς ἐπανατεινόμενος e 4 \ 3 4 4 A \ oO ὑπερόπταις καὶ ἀλαζόσι, μεγάλα δὲ προθεὶς ἄθλα A 4 “- τοῖς τὰ ἀτυχήματα τῶν πέλας εἰς ἐπανόρθωσιν A / ἄγειν ἀξιοῦσι Kal Tas περιουσίας οὐκ ἴδια κτήματα ’ 9 A A “- 3 3 ’ a A ” 73 νομίζουσιν ἀλλὰ κοινὰ τῶν ἐν ἐνδείαις. ὃ yap ἔφη τις οὐκ ἀπὸ σκοποῦ τῶν πρότερον, ἀληθές ἐστιν, Ψ , 90." 5 ~ ~ a“ ὅτι παραπλήσιον οὐδὲν ἀνθρωποι θεῷ δρῶσιν 7 4 A δ χαριζόμενοι. τί δ᾽ ἂν εἴη κρεῖττον ἀγαθὸν ἢ μι- A a 93 Ss e 74 μεῖσθαι θεὸν γενητοῖς τὸν ἀΐδιον; μήτ᾽ οὖν ὁ πλούσιος ἄργυρον καὶ χρυσὸν οἴκοι συναγαγὼν a- 3 4 φθονον θησαυροφυλακείτω, προφερέτω δ᾽ εἰς μέσον, A e A iva τὸ okAnpodiaitov τῶν ἀπόρων ἱλαραῖς peTa- 4 , 4 9 Ν 4 e 3 3 δόσεσι λιπαίνῃ, μήτ᾽, εἴ τις ἔνδοξος, ὑψηλὸν αἴρων αὑτὸν αὐχείτω φρυαττόμενος, ἀλλ᾽ ἰσότητα τιμήσας [348] μεταδιδότω παρρησίας τοῖς ἀδόξοις" Ι ὅ τε ῥώμῃ 4 κεχρημένος σώματος ἔρεισμα τῶν ἀσθενεστέρων ἔστω καὶ μὴ καθάπερ ἐν τοῖς γυμνικοῖς ἀγῶσι καταπαγκρατιαζέτω τοὺς ἐλάττους ταῖς δυνάμεσιν,
α Deut. i. 17.
b Ex. xxiii. 8. i. V. “Neither shalt thou favour a poor man in his cause.” Lxx as quoted here. Philo is evidently struck by the absence of the corresponding injunction not to favour the rich either, which is given in Lev. xix. 15.
52
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 71-74
men, and with the thought before him that “ judge- ment is God’s’’* and the judge is the steward of judgement. As a steward he is not permitted to give away his master’s goods, for the best of all things in human life is the trust he has received from the hands of One who is Himself the best of all.
XIII. He adds to those already mentioned another 72 wise precept, not to show pity to the poor man in giving judgement.2 And this comes from one who has filled_ practically his whole legislation with. injunctions to show pity and kindness, who issues severe threats against the haughty and arrogant and offers great rewards to those who feel it a duty to redress the misfortunes of their neighbours and to look upon abundant wealth not as their personal possession but as something to be shared by those who are in need. For what one of the men of old ¢ 73 aptly said is true, that in no other action does man so much resemble God as in showing kindness, and what greater good can there be than that they should imitate God, they the created Him the eternal? So then let not the rich man collect great 74 store of gold and silver and hoard it at his house, but bring it out for general use that he may soften the hard lot of the needy with the unction of his cheerfully given liberality. If he has high position, let him not show himself uplifted with boastful and insolent airs, but honour equality and allow a frank exchange of speech to those of low estate. If he possesses bodily vigour, let him be the support of the weaker and not as men do in athletic contest take every means of battering down the less powerful,
¢ See App. p. 431. 53
PHILO
ἀλλὰ φιλοτιμείσθω τῆς ἰδίας ἰσχύος μεταδιδόναι 75 τοῖς ἐξ ἑαυτῶν ἀπειρηκόσιν. ὅσοι μὲν γὰρ ἀπὸ πηγῶν ἠρύσαντο τῶν σοφίας, φθόνον ὑπερόριον τῆς διανοίας ἐληλακότες ἄνευ προτροπῆς αὐτοκέλευστοι ταῖς τῶν πλησίον ὠφελείαις ἐπαποδύονται, τὰ λό- γων νάματα ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἐκείνων δι᾿ ὥτων ἐπ- αντλοῦντες εἰς μετουσίαν τῆς ὁμοίας ἐπιστήμης" καὶ ἐπειδὰν ἴδωσιν ὥσπερ εὔβλαστα καὶ εὐγενῆ μοσχεύ- ματα νέους εὐφυεῖς, γεγήθασιν οἰόμενοι κληρονό- μους ἀνευρηκέναι τοῦ ψυχικοῦ πλούτου, ὃς μόνος ἀληθείᾳ πλοῦτός ἐστι, καὶ παραλαβόντες γεωργοῦσι τὰς ψυχὰς δόγμασι καὶ θεωρήμασι, μέχρις ἂν στελεχωθεῖσαι καρπὸν τὸν “καλοκἀγαθίας € ἐνέγκωσι. 76 τοιαῦτα Tots νόμοις ἀγάλματα συνύφαν- ται καὶ πεποίκιλται πρὸς εὐπορίαν. ἀπόρων, οὕς ἐπὶ μόνης κρίσεως ἐλεεῖν οὐ θεμιτόν' ἔλεος γὰρ ἐπ᾽ ἀτυχήμασιν, ὁ δ᾽ ἑκουσίῳ γνώμῃ πονηρευόμενος 17 οὐκ ἀτυχής, ἀλλ᾽ ἄδικος. τιμωρίαι δ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἀδίκοις ὡς ἐπὶ δικαίοις τιμαὶ βεβαιούσθωσαν' ὥστε μηδεὶς μοχθηρὸς ἄπορος ὑπείλλων καὶ ὑποστέλλων ἀχρη- ματίας οἴκτῳ τὸ δίκην δοῦναι παρακρουέσθω, δεδρακὼς οὐκ ᾿ἐλέου--πόθεν;--ἀλλ' ὀργῆς ἄξια. καὶ ὁ δικάζειν εἰσιὼν καθάπερ ἀργυραμοιβὸς ἀγαθὸς διαιρείτω καὶ διακρινέτω τὰς φύσεις τῶν πραγ- μάτων, ἵνα μὴ φύρηται συγχεόμενα τοῖς παρασή- 78 μοις τὰ δόκιμα. πολλὰ μὲν οὖν ἄλλα πρός τε ψευδομάρτυρας καὶ δικαστὰς ἔνεστι λέγειν: ὑπὲρ δὲ τοῦ μὴ μακρηγορεῖν itéov ἐπὶ τὸ τελευταῖον τῶν
¢ For the application of ἀγάλματα to beautiful thoughts and qualities ¢f. De Sob. 38 (and possibly 3) and § 238 of this treatise, also θεοῦ μνημὴν. ἀγαλματοφορεῖν De Virt. 165.
54:
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 74-78
but make it his ambition to share the advantage of his strength with those who have none of their own left to brace them. All who have drawn water 75 from wisdom’s wells banish a grudging spirit from the confines of the mind and needing no bidding save their own spontaneous instinct gird themselves up to benefit their neighbours and pour into their souls through the channel of their ears the word- stream which may make them partakers of their own knowledge. And when they see young people gifted by nature like fine thriving plants, they rejoice to think that they have found some to inherit the spiritual wealth which is the only true wealth. They take them in hand and till their souls with the husbandry of principles and doctrines until on their full grown stems they bear the fruit of noble living. Such gems 5 of varied beauty are inter- 76 woven in the laws, bidding us give wealth to the poor, and it is only on the judgement seat that we are forbidden to show them compassion. Com- passion is for misfortunes, and he who acts wickedly of his own free will is not unfortunate but unjust. Let punishment be meted to the unjust as surely as 77 honours to the just. And therefore let no cowering, cringing rogue of a poor man evade his punishment by exciting pity for his penniless condition. His actions do not deserve compassion, far from it, but anger. And therefore one who undertakes to act as judge must be a good money changer, sifting with discrimination the nature of each of the facts before him, so that genuine and spurious may not be jumbled together in confusion. There is much 78 else which might be said about false witnesses and judges, but to avoid prolixity we must proceed to
55
PHILO
δέκα λογίων, ὃ ὃ κεφαλαιώδει τύπῳ καθάπερ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἕκαστον κεχρησμῴδηται, τοῦτο δ᾽ ἐστίν’ “οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις. ᾿ 79 XIV. ‘Tay μὲν πάθος ἐπίληπτον, ἐ ἐπεὶ καὶ πᾶσα ἄμετρος καὶ πλεονάζουσα ὁρμὴ καὶ τῆς ψυχῆς ἡ ἄλογος καὶ παρὰ φύσιν κίνησις ὑπαίτιος" ἑκάτερον γὰρ τούτων (τί), ἐστιν ἕτερον ἣ παλαιὸν πάθος ἐξηπλωμένον; εἴ τις οὖν μὴ μέτρα ταῖς ὁρμαῖς ὁρίζει μηδὲ χαλινὸν ὥ ὥσπερ τοῖς ἀφηνιασταῖς ἵ ἵπποις ἐντίθησι, πάθει χρῆται δυσιάτῳ, κἄπειτα λήσεται διὰ τὸν ἀ ηνιασμὸν ἐξενεχθεὶς οἷα ὑπὸ ἁρμάτων ἡνίοχος εἰς φάραγγας ἢ βάραθρα δυσαναπόρευτα, 80 ἐξ ὧν μόλις ἔστι σῴζεσθαι. τῶν δὲ παθῶν οὕτως οὐδὲν ἀργαλέον ὡς ἐπιθυμία τῶν ἀπόντων ὅσα τῷ δοκεῖν ἀγαθῶν, πρὸς ἀλήθειαν οὐκ ὄντων, χαλεποὺς [349] καὶ ἀνηνύτους | ἔρωτας ἐντίκτουσα" ἐπιτείνει γὰρ καὶ ἐπελαύνει μέχρι πορρωτάτω τὴν ψυχὴν εἰς τὸ ἄπειρον, "φεύγοντος ἔστιν ὅτε τοῦ διωκομένου κατα- 81 φρονητικῶς οὐκ ἐπὶ νῶτα ἀλλ᾽ ἀντικρύ. ὅταν γὰρ ἐπιτρέχουσαν αἴσθηται μετὰ σπουδῆς τὴν ἐπι- θυμίαν, ἠρεμῆσαν ἐπ᾽ ὀλίγον ὑ ὑπὲρ τοῦ δελεάσαι καὶ ἐλπίδα συλλήψεως τῆς [καθ᾽] αὑτοῦ παρασχεῖν, ἐξαναχωρεῖ μακροτέροις διαστήμασι κατακερτο- μοῦν" ἡ δὲ ἀπολειπομένη καὶ ὑστερίζουσα σφαδάζει Ταντάλειον τιμωρίαν ἐπιφέρουσα κακοδαίμονι ψυχῇ" καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνον λόγος ἔχει ποτὸν μὲν ἀρύσασθαι βουλόμενον ἀδυνατεῖν, ὑποφεύγοντος ὕδατος, εἰ δὲ 1 The title Οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις is not required, having been ex-
pressed above. Cohn here begins a fresh numeration of chapters. 2 MSS. ἄπορον.
@ For Philo’s conception of ἐπιθυμία see note to De Dee. 142, and General Introduction to this Volume, p. x.
56
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 78-81 the last of the ten Great Words. ‘This, which like
each of the rest was delivered in the form of a summary, is “‘ Thou shalt not covet.’ 5
XIV. Every passion is blameworthy. This follows 79 from the censure due to every “inordinate and excessive impulse ”’ and to “ irrational and unnatural movements ”’ of the soul,’ for both these are nothing else than the opening out of a long-standing passion. So if a man does not set bounds to his impulses and bridle them like horses which defy the reins he is the victim of a wellnigh fatal passion, and that defiance will cause him to be carried away before he knows it like a driver borne by his team into ravines or impassable abysses whence it is hardly possible to escape. But none of the passions is so 80 troublesome as covetousness or desire of what we have not, things which seem good, though they are not truly good. Such desire breeds fierce and endless yearnings ; it urges and drives the soul ever so far into the boundless distance while the object of the chase often flies insolently before it, with its face not its back turned to the pursuer.* For when it 81 perceives the desire eagerly racing after it it stands still for a while to entice it and provide a hope of its capture, then it is off and away, mocking and railing as the interval between them grows longer and longer. Meanwhile the desire outdistanced and losing ground is in sore distress and inflicts on the wretched soul the punishment of Tantalus,’ who, as the story goes, when he would get him something to drink could not because the water slipt away,
ὃ Both these phrases are Stoic definitions of πάθος. See S.V.F. index s.v. πάθος. ¢ Cf. De Dec. 146. 4 Cf. De Dec. 149.
57
82
89
PHILO
καρπὸν ἐθελήσειε δρέψασθαι, πάντας ἀφανίζεσθαι, στειρουμένης τῆς περὶ τὰ δένδρα εὐφορίας. ὡς γὰρ αἱ ἀμείλικτοι καὶ ἀπαρηγόρητοι δέσποιναι τοῦ σώ- ματος, δίψα {καὶδ πεῖνα, κατατείνουσιν αὐτὸ μᾶλ- λον ἢ οὐχ ἧττον τῶν ἐκ βασανιστοῦ τροχιζομένων ἄχρι θανάτου πολλάκις, εἰ μή τις αὐτὰς ἐξηγριω- μένας τιθασεύσει ποτοῖς καὶ σιτίοις, οὕτως ἡ ἐπι- θυμία κενὴν ἀποδείξασα τὴν ψυχὴν λήθῃ μὲν τῶν παρόντων, μνήμῃ δὲ τῶν μακρὰν ἀφεστηκότων οἷστρον καὶ μανίαν ἀκάθεκτον ἐγκατασκευάσασα, βαρυτέρας μὲν τῶν πρότερον δεσποινῶν ὁμωνύμους δ᾽ ἐκείναις ἀπειργάσατο, δίψαν τε καὶ πεῖναν, οὐ τῶν περὶ γαστρὸς ἀπόλαυσιν, ἀλλὰ χρημάτων, δόξης, ἡγεμονιῶν, εὐμορφίας, ἄλλων ἀμυθήτων ὅσα κατὰ τὸν ἀνθρώπινον βίον ζηλωτὰ καὶ περιμάχητα εἶναι δοκεῖ. καὶ καθάπερ ἡ λεγομένη παρὰ τοῖς ἰατροῖς ἑρπηνώδης νόσος οὐκ ἐφ᾽ ἑνὸς ἵσταται χωρίου, κινεῖται δὲ καὶ περιθεῖ καί, ὡς αὐτό που δηλοῖ τοὔνομα, διέρπει πάντῃ σκιδναμένη καὶ χεο- μένη, πᾶσαν τὴν κοινωνίαν τῶν τοῦ σώματος μερῶν ἀπὸ κεφαλῆς ἄκρας ἄχρι ποδῶν συλλαμβά-
A ’ δ A 4 Α e .vovca καὶ συναίρουσα, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον Kal ἢ
84
ἐπιθυμία δι’ ὅλης ἄττουσα τῆς ψυχῆς οὐδὲν οὐδὲ τὸ βραχύτατον ἀπαθὲς αὐτῆς ἐᾷ, μιμουμένη τὴν ἐν > 4 Ὁ A [4 3 lA A A >
ἀφθόνῳ ὕλῃ πυρὸς δύναμιν: ἐξάπτει yap Kal ava- φλέγει, μέχρις ἂν διαφαγοῦσα πᾶσαν αὐτὴν ἐξ- αναλώσῃ. XV. τοσοῦτον dpa καὶ οὕτως κακὸν ὑπερβάλλον ἐστὶν ἐπιθυμία, μᾶλλον δ᾽, εἰ δεῖ
1 So Mangey for mss. συνείρουσα, which would mean
58
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 81-84
and when he wished to pluck fruit it all vanished and the rich produce of the trees was turned into barrenness. For just as those unmerciful and 82 relentless mistresses of the body, hunger and thirst, rack it with pains as great as, or greater than, those of the sufferers on the tormentor’s wheel, and often bring it to the point of death unless their savagery is assuaged by food and drink, so it is with the soul. Desire makes it empty through oblivion of what is present, and then through memory of what is far away it produces fierce and uncontrollable madness, and thus creates mistresses harsher than those just mentioned though bearing the same name, hunger and thirst, in this case, not for what gives gratification to the belly, but for money, reputation, government, beautiful women® and all the innumerable objects which are held in human life to be enviable and worthy of a struggle. And 83 just as the creeping sickness, as physicians call it, does not stand still in one place but moves about and courses round and round and justifies its name by creeping about, spreading in all directions, and gripping and seizing all parts of the body’s system from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, so does desire dart through the whole soul and leave not the smallest bit of it uninjured. In this it imitates the force of fire working on an abundance of fuel which it kindles into a blaze and devours until it has utterly consumed it. XV. So great then 84 and transcendent an evil is desire, or rather it may be
α εὐμορφία, beauty in others, not in oneself, as § 89 shows. > Cf. De Dec. 150.
‘stringing together’’—a sense which does not suit this description of the “ creeping sickness.” 59
8ὅ
[350]
86
87
88
PHILO
> A 3 A e 4 Ἁ “ A ~ τἀληθὲς εἰπεῖν, ἁπάντων πηγὴ τῶν KaKkav: σῦλα γὰρ καὶ ἁρπαγαὶ καὶ χρεωκοπίαι συκοφαντίαι τε καὶ αἰκίαι καὶ προσέτι φθοραὶ καὶ μοιχεῖαι καὶ 3 ’ ‘\ , 93.ϑ ὦ 3 \ Ἅ / Bs ἀνδροφονίαι καὶ πάνθ᾽ ὅσα ἰδιωτικὰ ἢ δημόσια ἢ e 4 Ἅ 4 > / 4 ” 3 4 \ ἱερὰ 7 βέβηλα ἀδικήματα πόθεν ἄλλοθεν ἐρρύη; τὸ γὰρ ἀψευδῶς ἂν λεχθὲν ἀρχέκακον πάθος ἐστὶν ἐπιθυμία, ἧς ἕν τὸ βραχύτατον ἔγγονον, ἔρως, οὐχ Ω 3 9 3 / > 4 4 \ ἅπαξ ἀλλ᾽ ἤδη πολλάκις ἀμυθήτων κατέπλησε τὴν οἰκουμένην συμφορῶν, ἃς οὐδ᾽ ὁ σύμπας τῆς γῆς lA 3 4 > Α A ~ Ψ e \ κύκλος ἐχώρησεν, | ἀλλὰ διὰ πλῆθος ὥσπερ ὑπὸ χειμάρρου φορᾶς εἰς θάλατταν εἰσέπεσον, καὶ παν- ταχοῦ πάντα πελάγη πολεμίων κατεπλήσθη νηῶν A e Kal ὅσα καινουργοῦσιν οἱ ναυτικοὶ πόλεμοι συνη- νέχθη καὶ ἐπιπεσόντα ἀθρόα πάλιν εἰς νήσους καὶ ἠπείρους ὑπεσύρη, διαυλοδρομήσαντα καθάπερ ἐν ταῖς παλιρροίαις ἀφ᾽ ὧν ἤρξατο φέρεσθαι. τρα- / \ a / >? 1 ἢ \ νοτέραν δὲ τοῦ πάθους ἐνάργειαν' ληψόμεθα τὸν τρόπον τοῦτον: ὅσων ἂν ἐπιθυμία προσάψηται, μεταβολὴν ἀπεργάζεται τὴν πρὸς τὸ χεῖρον, οἷα τὰ ἰοβόλα ζῷα καὶ τὰ θανάσιμα τῶν φαρμάκων. τί δ᾽ ἐστὶν ὃ λέγω; εἰ πρὸς χρήματα γένοιτο, κλέπτας ἀποτελεῖ καὶ βαλαντιοτόμους καὶ λωπο- δύτας καὶ τοιχωρύχους χρεωκοπίαις τε καὶ παρακαταθηκῶν ἀρνήσεσι καὶ δωροδοκίαις καὶ ἱεροσυλίαις καὶ τοῖς ὁμοιοτρόποις ἅπασιν ἐνόχους. 3 A A 4 > / e 4 εἰ δὲ πρὸς δόξαν, ἀλαζόνας, ὑπερόπτας, 3 4 \ > ᾽ὔ A 50 “ A ἀβεβαίους καὶ ἀνιδρύτους τὸ ἦθος, φωναῖς τὰ
1 MSS. ἐνέργειαν.
α See App. p. 431. 60
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 84-88
truly said, the fountain of all evils. For plunderings and robberies and repudiations of debts and false accusations and outrages, also seductions, adulteries, murders and all wrongful actions, whether private or public, whether in things sacred or things pro- fane, from what other source do they flow? For the 85 passion to which the name of originator of evil can truly be given is desire, of which one and that the smallest fruit the passion of love * has not only once but often in the past filled the whole world with countless calamities, which, too numerous to be contained by the whole compass of the land, have consequently poured into the sea as though driven by a torrent, and everywhere the wide waters have been filled with hostile ships and all the fresh terrors created by maritime war have come into being, then fallen with all their mass on islands and con- tinents, swept along backwards and forwards from their original home as in the ebb and flow of the tides.?>. But we shall gain a clearer insight into the 86 passion in the following way. Desire, like venomous animals or deadly poisons, produces a change for the worse in all which it attacks. What do I mean by this? If the desire is directed to money it 87 makes men thieves and cut-purses, footpads, burglars, guilty of defaulting to their creditors, repudiating deposits, receiving bribes, robbing temples and of all similar actions. If its aim is reputa- 88 tion they become arrogant, haughty, inconstant and unstable in temperament, their ears blockaded
ὃ Philo is no doubt thinking primarily of Helen and the Trojan war, and also, one may well believe, of the wars caused by Antony’s passion for Cleopatra. But he writes with much the same exaggeration as in Spec. Leg. iii. 16.
61
89
PHILO
> ’ὔ A ὦτα πεφρακότας, ταπεινουμένους ἐν ταὐτῷ Kal A 4 3 A ~
πρὸς ὕψος ἐπαιρομένους διὰ τὰς TOV πληθῶν ἀνωμα- ’ὔ 3 4 “A
Nias ἐπαινούντων καὶ ψεγόντων axpitw φορᾷ, πρὸς 3) θ \ λί 3 4 e e δί e ᾽ὔ
ἔχθραν καὶ φιλίαν ἀνεξετάστους, ὡς ῥᾳδίως ἑκάτερον > ,
ἀνθυπαλλάττεσθαι, καὶ τἄλλ᾽ ὅσα τούτοις ἀδελφὰ Kal
συγγενῆ. πρὸς δὲ ἀρχὴν εἰ γένοιτο ἐπι-
’ ’ὔ
θυμία, στασιώδεις, ἀνίσους, τυραννικοὺς τὰς φύσεις, > 2 3 \ A
ὠμοθύμους, ἐχθροὺς τῶν πατρίδων, ἀσθενεστέροις"
’ὔ 3 \ δεσπότας ἀμειλίκτους, τὴν ἰσχὺν ἴσοις ἀσυμβάτους ’
πολεμίους, δυνατωτέρων κόλακας εἰς τὴν Ov 3 ὔ 9 ’
ἀπάτης ἐπίθεσιν. εἰ δὲ πρὸς σώματος LAA θ A ’ὔ’ ’ > ’ἢ
κάλλος, φθορεῖς, μοιχούς, παιδεραστάς, ἀκολασίας
‘ / “ καὶ λαγνείας ζηλωτάς, μεγίστων κακῶν ὡς εὐδαι-
90 μονικωτάτων ἀγαθῶν. ἤδη δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ
91
γλῶτταν φθάσασα μυρία ἐνεωτέρισεν: ἔνιοι γὰρ. ἐπιθυμοῦσιν ἣ τὰ λεκτέα σιωπᾶν ἢ τὰ ἡσυχαστέα λέγειν, καὶ ἀναφθεγγομένοις" ἕπεται τιμωρὸς δίκη καὶ ἐχεμυθοῦσι [καὶ] τοὐναντίον. ἁψαμένη δὲ τῶν περὶ γαστέρα παρέχεται γαστριμάργους, ἀκορέ- στους, ἀσώτους, ὑγροῦ καὶ διαρρέοντος" ζηλωτὰς βίου, χαίροντας οἰνοφλυγίαις, ὀψοφαγίαις, ἀκράτου καὶ ἰχθύων καὶ ἐδεσμάτων [καὶ] κακοὺς δούλους, περὶ συμπόσια καὶ τραπέζας ἰλυσπωμένους λίχνων 1 mss. ἀσθενεστέρους.
2 MSS. ἀναφαινομένοις. 3 MSS. ὑγροὺς διαρρέοντας.
α Heinemann translates “die ihr Ohr (leerem) Gerede leihen.” πεφρακότες can come either from ¢pacow or φράζω, but neither verb, so far as I know, can bear any sense which combined with ods would mean “to lend an ear.” ‘The same
62
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 88-91
by the voices they hear,* deaf to all else, at once humbled to the ground and uplifted on high by the inconsistencies of the multitude who deal out praise and blame in an indiscriminate stream. They form friendships and enmities recklessly so that they easily change each for the other, and show every other quality of the same family and kinship as these. If the desire is directed 89 to office, they are factious, inequitable, tyrannical in nature, cruel-hearted, foes of their country, merciless masters to those who are weaker, irrecon- cilable enemies of their equals in strength and flatterers of their superiors in power as a prepara- tion for their treacherous attack. If the object is bodily beauty they are seducers, adulterers, pederasts, cultivators of incontinence and lewdness, as though these worst of evils were the best of blessings. We have known desire to 90 make its way to the tongue and cause an infinity of troubles, for some desire to keep unspoken what should be told or to tell what should be left unsaid, and avenging justice attends on utterance in the one case and silence in the opposite.
And when it takes hold of the region of the belly, it 91 produces gourmands, insatiable, debauched, eagerly pursuing a loose and dissolute life, delighting in wine bibbing and gluttonous feeding, base slaves to strong drink and fish and dainty cates, sneaking
may be said of Mangey’s “ex aurium iudicio pendeant.” I understand it to mean that the idle talk they listen to serves as a fence to exclude other advice. Philo has several times used ἐπιφράττειν ὦτα for blocking or closing the ears from hearing something, e.g. De Mig. 191. An easier sense would perhaps be given by “close their ears to voices,’”’ but the dative can hardly mean this.
63
PHILO
τρόπον κυνιδίων, ἐξ ὧν τὴν ἀθλίαν Kal ἐπάρατον συμβαίνει ζωὴν ἀποτελεῖσθαι, παντὸς ἀργαλεω-
92 τέραν θανάτου. ταύτης ἕνεκα τῆς αἰτίας ob μὴ χείλεσιν ἄκροις γευσάμενοι φιλοσοφίας, ἀλλὰ τῶν ὀρθῶν δογμάτων αὐτῆς ἐπὶ πλέον ἑστιαθέντες, διερευνησάμενοι φύσιν ψυχῆς καὶ τριττὸν' εἶδος ἐνιδόντες αὐτῇ," τὸ μὲν λόγου, τὸ δὲ θυμοῦ, τὸ δ᾽ ἐπιθυμίας, λόγῳ μὲν ὡς ἡγεμόνι τὴν ἄκραν ἀπ-
[351] ένειμαν οἰκειότατον ἐνδιαίτημα κεφαλήν, ἔνθα καὶ | τῶν αἰσθήσεων αἱ τοῦ νοῦ" καθάπερ βασιλέως
93 δορυφόροι τάξεις παρίδρυνται, θυμῷ δὲ τὰ στέρνα, τῇ μὲν ἵνα στρατιώτου τρόπον θώρακα ἀμπεχό- μενος, εἰ καὶ μὴ ἀπαθὴς ἐν πᾶσιν, ἀλλά τοι δυσάλωτος ἣ, τῇ δ᾽ ἵνα καὶ πλησίον τοῦ νοῦ" παρῳκισμένος ὑπὸ τοῦ γείτονος ὠφελῆται, κατ- επάδοντος αὐτὸν φρονήσει καὶ πραὔπαθῆ κατα- σκευάζοντος, ἐπιθυμίᾳ δὲ τὸν περὶ τὸν ὀμφαλὸν καὶ
94 τὸ καλούμενον διάφραγμα χῶρον' ἔδει γὰρ αὐτὴν ἥκιστα μετέχουσαν λογισμοῦ πορρωτάτω τῶν βα- σιλείων αὐτοῦ διῳκίσθαι, μόνον οὐκ ἐπ᾽ ἐσχατιαῖς, καὶ πάντων ἀπληστότατον καὶ ἀκολαστότατον οὖσαν θρεμμάτων ἐμβόσκεσθαι τόποις, ἐν οἷς τροφαί τε καὶ ὀχεῖαι.
95 XVI. IIpos a μοι δοκεῖ πάντα ἀπιδὼν ὁ ἱερώ- τατος Μωυσῆς ἐκδύσασθαι τὸ πάθος καὶ μυσα- ξάμενος ὡς αἴσχιστον καὶ τῶν αἰσχίστων αἴτιον
1 Mss. τρίτον. * MSS. αὐτῆς.
3 MSS, ἀεὶ τοῦ νόμου. 4 MSS. νόμου. 5 MSS. τροποῖς (sic).
α The Platonic division of the soul into λόγος, θυμός and ἐπιθυμία and their location respectively in the head, chest,
64
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 91-95
like greedy little dogs round banqueting halls and tables, all this finally resulting in an unhappy and accursed life which is more painful than any death. It was this which led those who had 92 taken no mere sip of philosophy but had feasted abundantly on its sound doctrines to the theory which they laid down. They had made researches into the nature of the soul and observed that its components were threefold, reason, high spirit and desire.“ To reason as sovereign they assigned for its citadel the head as its most suitable residence, where also are set the stations: of the senses like bodyguards to their king, the mind. To the spirited 93 part they gave the chest, partly that soldier-like clad with a breast-plate it would if not altogether scatheless be scarcely vanquished finally ; partly that lying close to the mind it should be helped by its neighbour who would use good sense to charm it into gentleness. But to desire they gave the space round the navel and what is called the dia- phragm. For it was right that desire so lacking 94 in reasoning power should be lodged as far as might be from reason’s royal seat, almost at the outermost boundary, and that being above all others an animal? insatiable and incontinent it should be pastured in the region where food-taking and copulation dwell. XVI. All these it seems the most holy Moses 95 observed and therefore discarded passion in general and detesting it, as most vile in itself and in its
and round the navel or diaphragm (Timaeus 69 καὶ ἔν. and elsewhere) has been frequently mentioned by Philo, e.g. Leg. All. i. 70-783, iii. 115.
> An allusion to Plato, Timaeus 70 ©, where desire is called ‘a wild beast” (θρέμμα ἄγριον), whose manger (φάτνη) is the belly. See Spec. Leg. i. 148 and note.
VOL. VIII F 65
96
97
98
99
PHILO
ἀπεῖπεν ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν ὥς τινα τῆς ψυχῆς ἐλέπολιν, ἧς ἀναιρεθείσης ἢ πειθαρχούσης κυβερνήτῃ λογισμῷ πάντα διὰ πάντων εἰρήνης, εὐνομίας, ἀγαθῶν τελείων, ἀναπεπλήσεται πρὸς εὐδαίμονος βίου παντέλειαν. φιλοσύντομος δ᾽ ὧν καὶ εἰωθὼς ἐπιτέμνειν τὰ ἀπερίγραφα τῷ πλήθει παραδειγματικῇ διδασκαλίᾳ μίαν τὴν περὶ γαστέρα πραγματευομένην ἐπιθυμίαν ἄρχεται νουθετεῖν τε καὶ παιδεύειν, ὑπολαμβάνων καὶ τὰς ἄλλας οὐκέθ᾽ ὁμοίως ἀφηνιάσειν, ἀλλὰ σταλήσεσθαι τῷ τὴν πρεσβυτάτην καὶ ὡς ἡγεμονίδα μεμαθηκέναι τοῖς σωφροσύνης νόμοις πειθαρχεῖν. τίς οὖν ἡ διδασκαλία τῆς ἀρχῆς; συνεκτικώτατα δύο ἐστίν, ἐδωδὴ καὶ πόσις. ἕκάτερον αὐτῶν οὐκ ἀνῆκεν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐπεστόμισε διατάγμασι καὶ πρὸς ἐγκράτειαν καὶ πρὸς φιλανθρωπίαν καὶ--- τὸ μέγιστον ---πρὸς εὐσέβειαν ἀγωγοτάτοις. ἀπάρχεσθαι γὰρ ἀπό τε σίτου καὶ οἴνου καὶ ἐλαίου καὶ θρεμμάτων καὶ τῶν ἄλλων κελεύει καὶ τὰς ἀπαρχὰς διανέμειν εἴς τε θυσίας καὶ τοὺς ἱερωμένους, τὰς μὲν ἕνεκα εὖ- χαριστίας τῆς πρὸς θεὸν ὑπὲρ εὐγονίας καὶ εὐφορίας ἁπάντων, τοὺς δ᾽ ἕνεκα τῆς περὶ τὸ ἱερὸν ἁγιστείας, μισθὸν ληψομένους τῶν περὶ τὰς ἱερουργίας ὑπηρεσιῶν. ἐφίεται δὲ τὸ παράπαν οὐδενὶ γεύ- σασθαί τινος ἢ μεταλαβεῖν, πρὶν διακρῖναι τὰς
« Heinemann takes ἀρχή to mean the first of the desires. I understand it as carrying on ἄρχεται of the section before. Moses wishes to restrain ἐπιθυμία as a whole, but begins with “the appetite of the belly.*”” He now proceeds to describe the teaching given in this beginning (ἄρχεται however may simply =“ proceed ’’).
66
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 95-99
effects, denounced especially desire as a battery of destruction to the soul, which must be done away with or brought into obedience to the governance of reason, and then all things will be permeated through and through with peace and good order, those perfect forms of the good which bring the full perfection of happy living. And being a lover 96 of conciseness and wont to abridge subjects of unlimited number by using an example as a lesson he takes one form of desire, that one whose field of activity is the belly, and admonishes and dis- ciplines it as the first step, holding that the other forms will cease to run riot as before and will be restrained by having learnt that their senior and as it were the leader of their company is obedient to the laws of temperance. What then 97 is the lesson which he takes as his first step?* Two things stand out in importance, food and drink ; to neither of these did he give full liberty but bridled them with ordinances most conducive to self- restraint and humanity and what is chief of all, piety. For he bids them to take samples of their 98 corn, wine,® oil and live-stock and the rest as first fruits, and apportion them for sacrifices and for gifts to the officiating priests: for sacrifices, to give thanks for the fertility of their flocks and fields ; to the priests, in recognition of the ministry of the temple that they may receive a reward for their services in the holy rites. No one is per- 99 mitted in any way to taste or take any part of his fruits until he has set apart the first fruits, a rule
ὑ This is the only way in which restraint in drinking is enjoined throughout these sections. ¢ See Deut. xviii. 4 and elsewhere. C/. i. 132 ff.
67
100 [352]
101
102
PHILO
ἀπαρχάς, ἅμα καὶ πρὸς ἄσκησιν τῆς βιωφελεστάτης ’
ἐγκρατείας" ὁ γὰρ ταῖς περιουσίαις, αἷς ἤνεγκαν
αἱ τοῦ ἔτους ὧραι, μαθὼν μὴ ἐντρέχειν,᾽ ἀλλ᾽
ἀναμένων, ἄχρις ἂν at ἀπαρχαὶ καθοσιωθῶσι, τὸν
ἀφηνιασμὸν τῶν ὁρμῶν ἔοικεν ἀναχαιτίζειν ἐξευ-
μαρίζων τὸ πάθος.
XVII. | Od “μὴν οὐδὲ τὴν τῶν ἄλλων μετουσίαν ἐφῆκε καὶ χρῆσιν ἀδεᾶ τοῖς κοινωνοῦσι τῆς ἱερᾶς πολιτείας, ἀλλ᾽ ὅσα τῶν χερσαίων ἢ ἐνύδρων ἣ πτηνῶν ἐστιν εὐσαρκότατα καὶ πιότατα, γαργαλί- ζοντα καὶ ἐρεθίζοντα τὴν ἐπίβουλον ἡδονὴν»: πάντα ἀνὰ κράτος ἀπεῖπεν, εἰδὼς ὅτι τὴν ἀνδραποδω- δεστάτην τῶν αἰσθήσεων δελεάσαντα γεῦσιν ἀπλη- στίαν ἐργάσεται, δυσίατον κακὸν ψυχαῖς τε καὶ σώμασιν' ἀπληστία γὰρ τικτει δυσπεψίαν, ἥτις ἐστὶ νοσημάτων καὶ ἀρρωστημάτων ἀρχή τε καὶ πηγή. χερσαίων μὲν οὖν τὸ συῶν γένος ἥδιστον ἀνωμολόγηται παρὰ τοῖς χρωμένοις, ἐνύδρων δὲ τὰ γένη τῶν ἀλεπίδων. . . .” πρὸς γὰρ ἐγκράτειαν, εἰ Kai τις ἄλλος, ἵκανὸς ὧν ἀλεῖψαι τοὺς εὐφυῶς ἔχοντας πρὸς ἄσκησιν ἀρετῆς du ὀλιγοδεΐας καὶ εὐκολίας γυμνάζει καὶ συγκροτεῖ, πειρώμενος ἀφελεῖν πολυτέλειαν: οὔτε σκληραγωγίαν, ὡς ὁ Λακεδαιμόνιος νομοθέτης, ἀποδεξάμενος οὔτε τὸ
1 MSS. συντρέχειν. 2 For the supposed lacuna see note 6.
@ In this and the following sections the prohibition of certain kinds of beasts, fishes, and birds is based on the supposition that they are the most appetizing and to abstain from them encourages self-control. It will be seen that from § 106 onwards a totally different line of argument is adopted, viz. that philosophical and moral lessons are intended by the distinctions.
68
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 99-102
which also serves to give practice in the self-restraint which is most profitable to life. For he who has learnt not to rush to seize the abundant gifts which the seasons of the year have brought, but waits till the first fruits have been consecrated, clearly allays passion and thus curbs the restiveness of the appetites.
XVII. At the same time he also denied to the members of the sacred Commonwealth unrestricted liberty to use and partake of the other kinds of food. All the animals of land, sea or air whose flesh is the finest and fattest, thus titillating and exciting the malignant foe pleasure, he sternly for- bade them to eat, knowing that they set a trap for the most slavish of the senses, the taste, and produce gluttony, an evil very dangerous both to soul and body. For gluttony begets indigestion which is the source and origin of all distempers and infirmities.* Now among the different kinds of land animals there is none whose flesh is so delicious as the pig's, as all who eat it agree, and among the aquatic animals the same may be said of such species as are scaleless.? . . . Having special gifts for inciting to self-control those who have a natural tendency to virtue, he trains and drills them by frugality and simple contented- ness and endeavours to get rid of extravagance. He approved neither of rigorous austerity like the Spartan legislator, nor of dainty living, like
>’ Cohn supposes that some words have fallen out as “‘ these therefore Moses forbade to be eaten.” It would certainly explain the γάρ that follows, which otherwise must refer back to § 100. Otherwise it does not seem very conclusive. If
there is a lacuna, it may perhaps have begun with καὶ ἀπτερύγων (‘and finless’’). 69
100
101
102
PHILO
ἁβροδίαιτον, ὡς ὁ τοῖς Ἴωσι καὶ Συβαρίταις τὰ περὶ θρύψιν καὶ χλιδὴν εἰσηγησάμενος, ἀλλὰ μέσην ἀτραπὸν ἀμφοῖν ἀνατεμὼν τὸ μὲν σφοδρὸν ἐχάλασε,
τὸ δ᾽ ἀνειμένον ἐπέτεινε, τὰς ἐφ᾽ ἑκατέρων τῶν ἄκρων ὑπερβολὰς ὡς ἐν ὀργάνῳ μουσικῷ κερασά- μενος τῇ μέσῃ, πρὸς ἁρμονίαν βίου καὶ συμφωνίαν ἀνεπίληπτον: ὅθεν οὐκ ἀμελῶς ἀλλὰ καὶ πάνυ πεφροντισμένως οἷς χρηστέον ἢ τοὐναντίον διετά- 103 ἕατο. θηρία ὅσα σαρκῶν ἀνθρωπίνων ἅπτεται τάχα μὲν av τις ὑπολάβοι δίκαιον εἶναι τὰ αὐτὰ πρὸς ἀνθρώπων πάσχειν οἷς διατίθησι: Μωυσῇ δὲ τῆς τούτων ἀπολαύσεως ἀνέχειν δοκεῖ, (εἶδ καὶ προσηνεστάτην καὶ ἡδίστην εὐωχίαν παρασκευάζει, λογιζόμενος τὸ πρέπον ἡμέρῳ ψυχῇ" καὶ γὰρ εἰ τοῖς διατιθεῖσιν ἁρμόττει τὰ παραπλήσια παθεῖν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐχὶ τοῖς παθοῦσιν ἀντιδιατιθέναι, μὴ λάθωσιν ὑπ᾽ ὀργῆς, ἀγρίου πάθους, θηριωθέντες. 104 καὶ τοσαύτῃ χρῆται προφυλακῇ τοῦ πράγματος, ὥστε μακρόθεν ἀνεῖρξαι βουλόμενος τὴν ἐπὶ τὰ λεχθέντα ὁρμὴν ἀπαγορεῦσαι καὶ τῆς τῶν ἄλλων σαρκοβόρων ἀνὰ κράτος χρήσεως, τὰ ποηφάγα διακρίνας εἰς ἡμέρους ἀγέλας, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὴν φύσιν ἐστὶ τιθασά, τροφαῖς ἡμέροις αἷς ἀναδίδωσι γῆ χρώμενα καὶ μηδὲν εἰς ἐπιβουλὴν πραγματευόμενα. πῶ XVII. | δέκα δ᾽ ἐστὶν ἀριθμῷ: μόσχος, apvos, ae χίμαρος, ἔλαφος, δορκάς, βούβαλος, τραγέλαφος, πύγαργος, ὄρυξ, καμηλοπάρδαλις. ἀεὶ γὰρ τῆς ἀριθμητικῆς θεωρίας περιεχόμενος, ἣν ἀκριβῶς
@ Or ‘“‘tendency to such vindictiveness.” For μακρόθεν see App. p. 432.
> Deut. xiv.4f. The correctness of the English equivalents must be regarded as uncertain.
70
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 102-105
him who introduced the Ionians and Sybarites to luxurious and voluptuous practices. Instead he opened up a path midway between the two. He relaxed the overstrained and tightened the lax, and as on an instrument of music blended the very high and the very low at each end of the scale with the middle chord, thus producing a life of harmony and concord which none can blame. Consequently he neglected nothing, but drew up very careful rules as to what they should or should not take as food. Possibly it might be thought just 103 that all wild beasts that feed on human flesh should suffer from men what men have suffered from them. But Moses would have us abstain from the enjoyment of such, even though they provide a very appetizing and delectable repast. He was considering what is suitable to a gentle-mannered soul, for though it is fitting enough that one should suffer for what one has done, it is not fitting conduct for the sufferers to retaliate it on the wrongdoers, lest the savage passion of anger should turn them unawares into beasts. So careful is he against this 104 danger that wishing to restrain by implication the appetite for the food just mentioned,’ he also strictly forbade them to eat the other carnivorous animals. He distinguished between them and the gramini- vorous which he grouped with the gentle kind since indeed they are naturally tame and live on the gentle fruits which the earth produces and do nothing by way of attempting the life of others. XVIII. They are the calf, the lamb, the kid, the 105 hart, the gazelle, the buffalo, the wild goat, the pygarg, the antelope, and.the giraffe, ten in all.? For as he always adhered to the principles of
71
106
107
108
PHILO
Ul a A οὶ [4 κατανενόηκεν ὅτι πλεῖστον ἐν τοῖς οὖσι δύναται, οὐδὲν οὐ μικρὸν οὐ μέγα νομοθετεῖ μὴ προσπαρα-
/ a aA λαβὼν καὶ ὥσπερ ἐφαρμόσας τὸν οἰκεῖον Tots νομοθετουμένοις (ἀριθμόν). ἀριθμῶν δὲ τῶν ἀπὸ μονάδος τελειότατος ἡ ἡ δεκὰς καί, ὥς φησι Μωυσῆς, ἱερώτατός τε καὶ ἅγιος, ᾧ τὰ γένη τῶν καθαρῶν
3 \ “--ΨΟὄ ζῴων ἐπισφραγίζεται, βουληθεὶς τὴν τούτων χρῆσιν
> a a 4 “»ἜΜ > 4 ἀπονεῖμαι τοῖς μετέχουσι τῆς κατ᾽ αὐτὸν πολιτείας. βάσανον δὲ καὶ δοκιμασίαν τῶν δέκα Seay ὑπογράφεται κοινῇ κατὰ διττὰ σημεῖα, τό ε διχηλεῖν καὶ τὸ μηρυκᾶσθαι: οἷς γὰρ ἢ μηδέ- τερον ἢ θάτερον αὐτὸ μόνον πρόσεστιν, ἀκάθαρτα. ταυτὶ δὲ τὰ σημεῖα ἀμφότερα σύμβολα διδασκαλίας \ , 3 U4 3 4 Ὁ 3 καὶ μαθήσεως ἐπιστημονικωτάτης ἐστίν, ἡ πρὸς
3 A “A
τὸ ἀσύγχυτον τὰ βελτίω τῶν ἐναντίων διακρίνεται. / \ \ ~ 4 \ καθάπερ yap TO μηρυκώμενον ζῷον, ὅταν διατεμὸν 4 ~ U 3 τὴν τροφὴν ἐναπερείσηται τῇ φάρυγγι, πάλιν ἐκ “A A \ τοῦ Kat ὀλίγον ἀνιμᾶται καὶ ἐπιλεαίνει Kal μετὰ ταῦτ᾽ εἰς κοιλίαν διαπέμπεται, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον
λ ¢ 4 / 3 Ψ᾽ Ἁ ’ὔ καὶ 6 παιδευόμενος, δεξάμενος δι᾿ ὥτων τὰ σοφίας δόγματα καὶ θεωρήματα παρὰ τοῦ διδάσκοντος, ἐπὶ πλέον ἔχει τὴν μάθησιν οὐχ οἷός τε ὧν εὐθὺς
’ \ 4 / 3» συλλαβέσθαι καὶ περιδράξασθαι κραταιότερον, ἄχρις \ , i 3 “ 4 ἂν ἕκαστον ὧν ἤκουσεν ἀναπολῶν μνήμῃ συνεχέσι 4 e 9 > AN 4 4 3
μελέταις-αἱ δ᾽ εἰσὶ κόλλα νοημάτων--ἐνσφρα- > 9 3 \ γίσηται τῇ ψυχῇ βεβαίως τὸν τύπον. ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲν ὡς ἔοικεν ὄφελος ἡ τῶν νοημάτων βεβαία κατά- ληψις, εἰ μὴ προσγένοιτο διαστολὴ τούτων καὶ διαίρεσις εἴς τε αἵρεσιν ὧν χρὴ καὶ φυγὴν τῶν
α Lev. xi. 3 f., Deut. xiv. 6 f. For the allegorical inter- 72
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 105-108
numerical science, which he knew by close observ- ance to be a paramount factor in all that exists, he never enacted any law great or small without calling to his aid and as it were accommodating to his enactment its appropriate number. But of all the numbers from the unit upwards ten is the most perfect, and, as Moses says, most holy and sacred, and with this he seals his list of the clean kinds of animals when he wishes to appoint them for the use of the members of his commonwealth. He adds a general method for proving 106 and testing the ten kinds, based on two signs, the parted hoof and the chewing of the cud.¢ Any kind which lacks both or one of these is unclean. Now both these two are symbols to teacher and learner of the method best suited for acquiring knowledge, the method by which the better is distinguished from the worse, and thus confusion is avoided. For just as a cud-chewing animal after 107 biting through the food keeps it at rest in the gullet, again after a bit draws it up and masticates it and then passes it on to the belly, so the pupil after receiving from the teacher through his ears the principles and lore of wisdom prolongs the process of learning, as he cannot at once apprehend and grasp them securely, till by using memory to call up each thing that he has heard by constant exercises which act as the cement of conceptions, he stamps a firm impression of them on his soul. But the firm 108 apprehension of conceptions is clearly useless unless we discriminate and distinguish them so that we can choose what we should choose and avoid the
pretation of “dividing the hoof” and “chewing the cud ” cf. De Agr. 131-145, and see App. p. 434.
73
109
[384]
110
111
112
PHILO
ἐναντίων, ἧς τὸ διχηλοῦν σύμβολον" ἐπεὶ τοῦ βίου διττὴ ὁδός, ἡ μὲν ἐπὶ κακίαν, ἡ δ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἀρετὴν ἄγουσα, καὶ δεῖ τὴν μὲν dmoorpédeoBas, τῆς δὲ μηδέποτε ἀπολείπεσθαι. XIX. διὰ τοῦθ᾽ ὅσα ἢ μονώνυχα ἢ πολύχηλα τὰ μὲν ἀκάθαρτα, ὅτι > »
αἰνίττεται μίαν καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν φύσιν ἀγαθοῦ τε καὶ κακοῦ, καθάπερ κοίλου καὶ περιφεροῦς καὶ 3 4 e “A \ 4 \ 3 v4 \ ἀνάντους ὁδοῦ καὶ κατάντους, τὰ δ᾽ OTL πολλὰς
e \ A > > ’ 3 ’ “ ὁδοὺς μᾶλλον ὃ ἀνοδίας ἐμφαίνει. τῷ Ι βίῳ πρὸς ἀπάτην" οὐ γὰρ ῥᾷδιον ἐν πλήθει τὴν ἀνυσιμωτάτην
καὶ ἀρίστην ἀτραπὸν καταλαβεῖν. 3 \ ἰχ A XX. Τούτους ἐπὶ τῶν χερσαίων τοὺς ὄρους θεὶς A “A 3
ἄρχεται καὶ τῶν ἐνύδρων τὰ πρὸς ἐδωδὴν καθαρὰ 4 / “A A διαγράφειν, σημειωσάμενος καὶ ταῦτα διττοῖς χαρακτῆρσι, πτέρυξι καὶ λεπίσι" τὰ γὰρ ἢ μηδέ- τερον ἢ θάτερον “ἔχοντα. παραπέμπει καὶ παραι- τεῖται. τὸ δ᾽ αἴτιον οὐκ ἀπὸ σκοποῦ λεκτέον. ὅσα μὲν ἢ ἀμφοῖν ἀμέτοχα ἢ τοῦ ἑτέρου, κατα- σύρεται πρὸς τοῦ ῥοώδους ἀντέχειν ἀδυνατοῦντα τῇ βίᾳ τῆς φορᾶς: οἷς δ᾽ ἑκάτερον πρόσεστιν, 3 4 \ \ > ’ \ ἀποστρέφει Kal» μετωπηδὸν ἀνθίσταται καὶ “A \ ιλονεικοῦντα πρὸς τὸν ἀντίπαλον προθυμίαις καὶ τόλμαις ἀηττήτοις γυμνάζεται, ὡς ὠθούμενά τε ἀντωθεῖν καὶ διωκόμενα ἀντεπιτρέχειν, ὁδοὺς ἐν δυσοδίαις ἀναστέλλοντα εὐρείας πρὸς διεξόδους A a > 3 ’ \ \ εὐμαρεῖς. σύμβολα δὲ Kal ταῦτ᾽ ἐστί, τὰ μὲν ¢ That πολύχηλα is not a mere casual addition is shown by the interpretation given of it in the next words. But there is no foundation for it in Leviticus or Deuteronomy, nor in Philo’s discussion of διχηλεῖν in De Agr. Noram I clear what zoologically it means (“ many-toed”’?). Heinemann trans-
lates ** Vielhufer ’?; Mangey “‘ quae plures ungulas habent.” All IT can suggest is that Philo supposes that, as the stress is
74.
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 108-112
contrary, and this distinguishing is symbolized by the parted hoof. For the way of life is twofold, one branch leading to vice, the other to virtue and we must turn away from the one and never forsake the other. XIX. Therefore all creatures whose hooves are uniform or multiform® are unclean, the one because they signify the idea that good and bad have oné and the same nature, which is like confusing concave and convex or uphill and down- hill in a road; the multiform because they set before our life many roads, which are rather no roads, to cheat us, for where there is a multitude to choose from it is not easy to find the best and most serviceable path.
XX. After laying down these limitations for the land animals he proceeds to describe such creatures of the water as are clean for eating. These too he indicates by two distinguishing marks, fins and scales; all that lack either or both he dismisses and repudiates.® I must state the reason for this which is appropriate enough. Any that fail to possess both or one of these marks are swept away by the current unable to resist the force of the stream; those who possess both throw it aside, front and stem it and pertinaciously exercise them- selves against the antagonist with an invincible ardour and audacity. When they are pushed they push back, when pursued they hasten to assail, where their passage is hampered they open up broad roads and obtain easy thoroughfares. These two kinds of fish are symbolical, the first of a pleasure-
laid upon the “two” in διχηλεῖν, if there are animals πολύχηλα they will be unclean also. See also App. p. 434. > Lev. xi. 9 ff., Deut. xiv. 9 f.
75
109
110
11}
112
PHILO
4 ,ὔ ~ A > @& 4 πρότερα φιληδόνου ψυχῆς, τὰ δ᾽ ὕστερα καρτερίαν καὶ ἐγκράτειαν ποθούσης: ἡ μὲν γὰρ ἐφ᾽ ἡδονὴν 7 ἄγουσα κατάντης ἐστὶ καὶ ῥάστη, συρμὸν ἀπεργαζο- μένη μᾶλλον ἢ περίπατον, ἀνάντης δὲ ἡ πρὸς ἐγκράτειαν, ἐπίπονος μέν, ἐν δὲ τοῖς μάλιστα ὠφέλιμος: καὶ ἡ μὲν ὑποφέρει καὶ ὑπονοστεῖν “A A 9 \ ἀναγκάζει τῷ πρανεῖ κατάγουσα, μέχρις ἂν εἰς τὰ lon 3 A τῆς ἐσχατιᾶς ἀποβράσῃ, ἡ δ᾽ εἰς οὐρανὸν ἄγει τοὺς A μὴ προκαμόντας ἀθανατίζουσα, τὸ τραχὺ καὶ δυσαναπόρευτον αὐτῆς ἰσχύσαντας ὑπομεῖναι.
113 ΧΧΙ. Τῆς δ᾽ αὐτῆς ἰδέας ἐχόμενος τῶν ἑρπετῶν ὅσα ἢ ἄποδα ἢ συρμῷ τῆς γαστρὸς ἰλυσπώμενα ἢ τετρασκελῆ καὶ πολύποδα φησὶν εἶναι πρὸς 3 Α 3 ’ὔ 4 3 ’ \ \ ἐδωδὴν οὐ καθαρά, πάλιν αἰνιττόμενος διὰ μὲν ἑρπετῶν τοὺς ἐπὶ κοιλίαις" τὸν αἰθυίης τρόπον 3 4 “ \ ἐμφορουμένους Kal γαστρὶ τῇ ταλαίνῃ δασμοὺς
4 4 4 ἀπαύστως εἰσφέροντας ἀκράτου, πεμμάτων, ἰχθύων, συνόλως ὅσα σιτοπόνων καὶ ὀψαρτυτῶν τετεχνιτευ- μέναι περιεργίαι μετὰ παντοίων ἐδεσμάτων δη- μιουργοῦσιν ἀναρριπίζουσαι καὶ προσαναφλέγουσαι τὰς ἀπλήστους καὶ ἀκορέστους ἐπιθυμίας, διὰ δὲ τῶν τετρασκελῶν καὶ πολυπόδων τοὺς μὴ ἑνὸς
, ‘9 , > \ / \ / πάθους, ἐπιθυμίας, ἀλλὰ συμπάντων κακοὺς δού- 1 As the ἄποδα are presumably the same as the συρμῷ κτλ.
Heinemann would substitute καὶ. Perhaps omit 7. 2 See note ὁ.
α Lev. xi. 42. E.V. “ Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all four or whatsoever hath many feet.” Lxx πᾶς ὁ πορευόμενος ἐπὶ τέσσαρα διὰ παντός, ὃ πολυ- πληθεῖ ποσίν, which would naturally mean that the four-
76
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 112-113
loving soul, the latter of one to which endurance and self-control are dear. For the road that leads to pleasure is downhill and very easy, with the result that one does not walk but is dragged along ; the other which leads to self-control is uphill, toil- some no doubt but profitable exceedingly. The one carries us away, forced lower and lower as it drives us down its steep incline, till it flings us off on to the level ground at its foot; the other leads heavenwards the immortal who have not fainted on the way and have had the strength to endure the roughness of the hard ascent.
XXI. Holding to the same method he declares that all reptiles which have not feet but wriggle along by trailing their belly, or are four-legged and many footed are unclean for eating.* Here again he has a further meaning: by the reptiles he signifies persons who devote themselves to their bellies ὃ and fill themselves like a cormorant,’ paying to the miserable stomach constant tributes of strong drink, bake-meats, fishes and in general all the delicacies produced with every kind of viand by the elaborate skill of cooks and confectioners, thereby fanning and fostering the flame of the insatiable ever-greedy desires. By the four-legged and many footed he means the base slaves not of one passion only, desire,
legged and the many footed form a single class, and so Philo treats them in the interpretation that follows. The slaves of the four main passions are also slaves to the many specific passions into which these four are subdivided. For the same interpretation of the “ four-legged” cf. Leg. All. iii. 139.
> Lit. “those upon bellies,” certainly a strange phrase. Cohn would correct to τῶν ἐπὶ κοιλίαις «πορευόμενων, τοὺς». See Hermes, 1908, p. 909.
¢ See App. p. 434.
TV
113
PHILO
λους, ἃ γένει μέν ἐστιν ἀριθμῷ τέτταρα, μυρία δὲ τοῖς εἴδεσιν. χαλεπὴ μὲν οὖν καὶ ἡ ἑνὸς δεσποτεία, βαρυτάτη δὲ καὶ ἀφόρητος, ὡς εἰκός, ἡ πλειόνων.
114 οἷ δὲ τῶν ἑρπετῶν ὑπεράνω σκέλη τῶν ποδῶν ἐστιν, ὥστε πηδᾶν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς δύνασθαι, ταῦτ᾽
[355] ἐν | καθαροῖς ἀναγράφει, καθάπερ τὰ τῶν ἀκρίδων γένη καὶ τὸν ὀφιομάχην καλούμενον, πάλιν διὰ συμβόλων ἤθη καὶ τρόπους λογικῆς ψυχῆς δι- ερευνώμενος" ἡ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ σώματος ὁλκὴ φύσει βρίθουσα τοὺς ὀλιγόφρονας συνεφέλκεται τῷ πλήθει
11ὅ τῶν σαρκῶν αὐχενίζουσα καὶ πιέζουσα" μακάριοι δ᾽ οἷς ἐξεγένετο κραταιοτέρᾳ δυνάμει πρὸς τὴν ῥοπὴν τῆς ὁλκῆς ἀντιβιάσασθαι,', παιδείας κανόσιν ὀρθῆς ἄνω πηδᾶν δεδιδαγμένοις ἀπὸ γῆς καὶ τῶν χαμαιζήλων εἰς αἰθέρα καὶ τὰς οὐρανοῦ περιόδους, ὧν ἡ θέα ηλωτὴ καὶ περιμάχητος τοῖς ἑκουσίως ἀλλὰ μὴ παρέργως ἥκουσιν.
116 XXII. ᾿Επεληλυθὼς οὖν τῷ λόγῳ τάς τε τῶν χερσαίων καὶ τὰς τῶν ἐνύδρων ζῴων ἰδέας καὶ νόμοις αὐτὰς ὡς ἐνῆν ἄριστα διακρίνας ἄρχεται καὶ τὴν λοιπὴν φύσιν τῶν ἐν ἀέρι προσεξετάζειν, μυρία γένη τῶν πτηνῶν ἀποδοκιμάσας ὅσα ἢ κατ᾽ ἀλλων᾽ ἢ κατ᾽ ἀνθρώπων φονᾷ, σαρκοβόρα καὶ ἰοβόλα καὶ συνόλως ἐπιβούλοις κεχρημένα ταῖς
117 δυνάμεσι. φάττας δὲ καὶ περιστερὰς καὶ τρυγόνας
1 Cohn places the comma after ὀρθῆς.
2 Cohn suggests ἀλόγων, and so probably Heinemann who translates “‘ Tieren.”
α Lev. xi. 21. The “snake-fighter”’ is the txx translation of the Hebrew word given in R.V. as “ cricket.”
® Or “straight ’’; the creatures have to straighten their legs to leap. κανών is perhaps used in its original sense of a ruler to keep lines straight, in which sense it is often associated
78
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 113-117
but of all. For the passions fall under four main heads but have a multitude of species, and while the tyranny of one is cruel the tyranny of many
cannot but be most harsh and intolerable. Creeping 114
things which have legs above their feet, so that they can leap from the ground, he classes among the clean” as for instance the different kinds of grasshoppers and the snake-fighter as it is called ; and here again by symbols he searches into the temperaments and ways of a reasonable soul. For the natural gravita- tion of the body pulls down with it those of little mind, strangling and overwhelming them with the
multitude of the fleshly elements. Blessed are they 115
to whom it is given to resist with superior strength the weight that would pull them down, taught by the guiding lines of right® instruction to leap upward from earth and earth-bound things into the ether and the revolving heavens, that sight so much desired, so worthy a prize in the eyes of those who come to it with a will and not half-heartedly.
XXII. Having discoursed on the subject of the 116
different kinds of animals on land and in the water and laid down the best possible laws for distinguish- ing between them, he proceeds to examine also the remaining parts of the animal creation, the inhabitants of the air. Of these he disqualified a vast number of kinds, in fact all that prey on other fowls or on men, creatures which are carnivorous and venomous and in general use their strength to
attack others. But doves, pigeons, turtledoves, and 117
with ὀρθός. Cf. De Fug. 152 παιδείας κανὼν ὀρθῆς, preceded (8 150) by ὀρθὴν καὶ ἀκλινῆ παιδείαν. ¢ Lev. xi. 13 ff., Deut. xiv..12 ff. The “clean” species are not mentioned. See App. p. 434. 79
PHILO
καὶ τὰς γεράνων Kal χηνῶν Kal ὁμοιοτρόπων ἀγέλας ἐν τῇ τιθασῷ καὶ ἡμέρῳ τάξει καταριθμεῖ παρέχων τοῖς βουλομένοις τὴν τούτων χρῆσιν
118 ἀδεᾶ. οὕτως ἐφ᾽ ἑκάστου τῶν τοῦ κόσμου μερῶν, γῆς ὕδατος ἀέρος, γένη παντοίων ζῴων, χερσαῖα καὶ ἔνυδρα καὶ πτηνά, τῆς ἡμετέρας χρήσεως ὑφαιρῶν, καθάπερ ὕλην πυρός, σβέσιν τῆς ἐπι- θυμίας ἀπεργάζεται.
119 XXIII. Κελεύει μέντοι μήτε θνησιμαῖον μήτε θηριάλωτον προσίεσθαι, τὸ μὲν ὡς οὐ δέον κοινω- νεῖν τραπέζης dvOpwrov' ἀτιθάσοις θηρίοις, μόνον οὐ συνευωχούμενον ταῖς σαρκοφαγίαις, τὸ δ᾽ ὡς τάχα μὲν βλαβερὸν καὶ νοσῶδες, ἐναποτεθνηκότος τοῦ ἰχῶρος μετὰ τοῦ αἵματος, τάχα δ᾽ ἐπεὶ καὶ τελευτῇ προκατεσχημένον ἁρμόττον ἦν ἄψαυστον διαφυλάττειν, αἰδουμένους τὰς φύσεως ἀνάγκας αἷς
120 προκατελήφθη. τοὺς περὶ τὰ κυνηγέσια δεινοὺς καὶ βάλλειν θῆρας εὐσκόπως ἐπισταμένους, ἥκιστα διαμαρτάνοντας, καὶ ἐπ᾽ ,εὐθήροις ἄγραις ὑψαυ- χενοῦντας καὶ μάλισθ᾽ ὅταν σὺν τοῖς κυνηγοῖς ἀνδράσιν ὁμοῦ καὶ σκύλαξι διανέμωσι τὰ μέρη τῶν ἑαλωκότων, ἐπαινοῦσι μὲν ot πολλοὶ τῶν παρ
1 mss. ἀνθρώπων.
@ Or perhaps . take for food,” and so Heinemann
““geniessen,”’ Mangey “edere.” But the word does not itself carry this sense, though Philo assumes in the sequel that such bodies would only be touched in order to use them as food. He uses the vaguer word, I think, because the Lxx in Lev. v. 2, differing from the Hebrew, forbids or might be understood to forbid touching such bodies, ἐὰν ἅψηται παντὸς πράγματος ἀκαθάρτου, ἢ θνησιμαίου 7 θηριαλώτου ἀκαθάρ- του. Eating θνησιμαῖα is forbidden in Deut. xiv. 21, θηριάλωτα
in Ex, xxii. 31, and both in Lev. xxii. 8 (not mentioned by Cohn or Heinemann).
80
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 117-120
the tribes of cranes, geese and the like he reckons as belonging to the tame and gentle class and gives to any who wish full liberty to make use of them as food. Thus in each element of the universe, earth, water, air he withdrew from our use various kinds of each sort, land creatures, water creatures, flying fowls, and by this as by the withdrawal of fuel from a fire he creates an extinguisher to desire.
XXIII. Further he forbade them to have any- thing to do with? bodies of animals that have died of themselves or have been torn by wild beasts, the latter because a man ought not to be table mate with savage brutes and one might almost say share with them the enjoyment of their feasts of flesh ; the former perhaps because it is a noxious and insanitary practice since the body contains dead serum as well as blood; also it may be because the fitness of things bids us keep untouched what we find deceased, and respect the fate which the
118
119
compulsion of nature has already imposed. Skilful 120
hunters who know how to hit their quarry with an aim that rarely misses the mark and preen them-
selves on their success in this sport, particularly |
when they share? the pieces of their prey with the other huntsmen as well as with the hounds, are extolled by most legislators among Greeks and
> If this is right (and κοινωνικούς below suggests that they keep some for themselves), it is a use of διανέμειν for which I can find no authority. ‘The wording would be more natural if τά was omitted, but even then σύν is strange. The κοινω- κικόν 50 praised lies in giving them to the huntsmen, and it is this which Philo thinks undesirable. ‘“‘ They distribute pieces to the huntsmen as well as to the dogs” is the sense required.
VOL. VIII G 81
PHILO
Ἕλλησι καὶ βαρβάροις νομοθετῶν ὡς οὐκ ἀνδρείους
[3866] μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ κοινωνικοὺς τὸ ἦθος, | μέμψαιτο
121
δ᾽ ἂν [τις] εἰκότως ὁ τῆς ἱερᾶς εἰσηγητὴς πολιτείας, ἄντικρυς ἀπειρηκὼς θνησιμαίων καὶ θηριαλώτων ἀπόλαυσιν διὰ τὰς εἰρημένας αἰτίας. εἰ δέ τις τῶν ἀσκητῶν φιλογυμναστὴς γένοιτο καὶ φιλό- θηρος, μελέτας καὶ προάγωνας ὑπολαμβάνων εἶναι πολέμων καὶ κινδύνων τῶν πρὸς ἐχθρούς, ὁπότε χρήσαιτο εὐτυχίᾳ τῇ περὶ ἄγραν, [καὶ] τοὺς ἕαλω- κότας θῆρας προτιθέτω κυσὶν εὐωχίαν, μισθὸν 7 γέρας εὐτολμίας καὶ ἀνυπαιτίου συμμαχίας, αὐτὸς δὲ μὴ ψαυέτω προδιδασκόμενος ἐν ἀλόγοις ζῴοις, ἃ χρὴ καὶ περὶ ἐχθρῶν φρονεῖν, οἷς πολεμητέον οὐ διὰ κέρδος ἄδικον λωποδυτούντων πράξεις {μιμου- μένοις, ἀλλ᾽ ἤτοι διὰ πεῖραν" κακῶν ὧν προ- πεπόνθασιν ἀμυνομένοις ἢ δι’ ἃ προσδοκῶσι πείσεσθαι.
1 Some insertion is required, but κατὰ after ἄδικον would serve equally well and be perhaps easier. See also note 3.
2 Of the two ss. available here one omits πεῖραν, possibly rightly. πεῖρα does not seem to be used like the English ** experience ”’ for something suffered, though it may be used in such phrases as πεῖραν λαμβάνειν =“ to gain experience in.” To omit it involves taking δὲ ὧν of causes in the past, and δι᾿ ἃ of prospects in the future, but this, I think, could be paralleled from Philo.
3 So mss. Cohn corrects to ἀμυνομένους. But the accusa- tive and dative are both used to express the agent of the verbal in -réov. See Goodwin, Moods and Tenses, Ὁ. 369, where the dative is said to be the commoner of the two. The same rule will apply to the insertion of μιμουμένοις above, where Cohn prints -ous.
@ Or perhaps “ would probably blame them.’ Heinemann 82
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 120-121
Barbarians, not only for their courage, but also for their liberality. But the author of the holy common- wealth might rightly blame them® since for the reasons stated he definitely forbade the enjoyment of bodies which died a natural death or were torn by wild beasts. If anyone of the devotees of hard training who is a lover of gymnastic exer- cises becomes a lover of the chase also,® because he considers that it gives a preliminary practice for war and for the dangers incurred in facing the enemy, he should when he meets with success in the chase throw the fallen beasts to feast the hounds as a wage or prize for their courage and faithful assistance. He himself should not touch these carcases, thus learning from his dealing with irrational animals what he should feel with regard to human enemies, who should be combated not for wrongful gain as foot-pads do, but in self-defence, either to avenge the injuries which he has suffered already or to guard against those which he expects to suffer in the future.
“has rightly blamed them,” which apart from the inaccuracy gives, I believe, a wrong sense. Philo does not speak dog- matically, but thinks that what he urges here may be fairly inferred from the prohibitions mentioned above. Indeed how could the seven species of “clean” game (8 105) be obtained except by hunting?
ὃ Or, as Heinemann and Mangey, “‘if a practiser (of virtue) should become a lover of gymnastics and hunting.” The version given above (taking καί =‘‘also”’) is based on the belief that ἀσκητής is not used absolutely in this way. It means ‘a practiser’’ and a practiser of what is indicated by the context, and that the body rather than virtue is being prac- tised is indicated by φιλογυμναστής. Hunting is a special form of bodily exercise and while the φιλόθηρος must be a
φιλογυμναστής the converse is not necessarily the case. For the motive here ascribed cf. De Jos. 3 and Mos. i. 60.
83
121
122
. 128
124
PHILO
Ἔνιοι δὲ Σαρδανάπαλλοι τὴν ἀκρασίαν τὴν ἄγαν' ἁβροδίαιτον αὑτῶν χανδὸν πρὸς τὸ ἀόριστον καὶ ἀτελεύτητον ἀποτείνοντες, καινὰς" ἐπινοοῦντες ἡδονάς, ἄθυτα παρασκευάζουσιν, ἄγχοντες καὶ ἀποπνίγοντες, καὶ τὴν οὐσίαν τῆς ψυχῆς, ἣν ἐλεύ- θερον καὶ ἄφετον ἐχρῆν ἐᾶν, τυμβεύοντες τῷ σώματι τὸ αἷμα: σαρκῶν γὰρ αὐτὸ μόνον ἀπολαύειν αὔταρκες ἦν, μηδενὸς ἐφαπτομένους τῶν συγγένειαν πρὸς ψυχὴν ἐχόντων. ὅθεν ἐν ἑτέροις τίθησι νόμον περὶ αἵματος, μήθ᾽ αἷμα μήτε στέαρ προσφέρεσθαι: τὸ μὲν αἷμα δι᾿ ἣν εἶπον αἰτίαν ὅτι οὐσία ψυχῆς ἐστίν--οὐχὶ τῆς νοερᾶς καὶ λογικῆς ἀλλὰ τῆς αἰσθητικῆς, καθ᾽ ἣν ἡμῖν τε καὶ τοῖς ἀλόγοις κοινὸν τὸ ζῆν συμβέβηκεν. XXIV. ἐκείνης γὰρ οὐσία πνεῦμα θεῖον καὶ μάλιστα κατὰ Μωυσῆν, ὃς ἐν τῇ κοσμοποιίᾳ φησὶν ἀνθρώπῳ τῷ πρώτῳ καὶ ἀρχη- γέτῃ τοῦ γένους ἡμῶν ἐμφυσῆσαι πνοὴν ζωῆς τὸν θεὸν εἰς τὸ τοῦ σώματος ἡγεμονικώτατον, τὸ πρόσωπον, ἔνθα αἱ δορυφόροι τοῦ νοῦ καθάπερ μεγάλου βασιλέως αἰσθήσεις παρίδρυνται: τὸ δ᾽ ἐμφυσώμενον δῆλον ὡς αἰθέριον ἦν πνεῦμα καὶ εἰ δή τι αἰθερίου πνεύματος κρεῖσσον, ἅτε τῆς μα- καρίας καὶ τρισμακαρίας φύσεως ἀπαύγασμα--, τὸ δὲ στέαρ, διότι πιότατον, πάλιν εἰς διδασκαλίαν
2 ‘ MSS. Kevas.
1 Mss. ἀρὰν.
¢ Heinemann apparently takes dyyovres καὶ ἀποπνίγοντες as
governing τὴν οὐσίαν τῆς ψυχῆς. (xai=“‘even.”) But the
essence of the soul is clearly the blood and this is not strangled.
I understand the participles to govern ζῷα, understood out of
ἄθυτα. Strangling is not forbidden in so many words, but cf. Acts xv. 29 ἀπέχεσθαι... αἵματος Kai πνικτῶν.
84
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 122-124
But some of the type of Sardanapalus greedily 122 extend their unrestrained and excessive luxury beyond all bounds and limits. They devise novel kinds of pleasure and prepare meat unfit for the altar by strangling and throttling the animals,* and entomb in the carcase the blood which is the essence of the soul® and should be allowed to run freely away. For they should be fully contented with enjoying the flesh only and not lay hold on what _ is akin to the soul; and therefore elsewhere ὁ he 123 legislates on the subject of blood that no one should put either-it or the fat to his mouth. Blood is prohibited for the reason which I have mentioned that it is the essence of the soul, not of the intelligent and reasonable soul, but of that which operates. through the senses, the soul that gives the life which we and the irrational animals possess in common. XXIV. For the essence or substance of that other soul is divine spirit, a truth vouched for by Moses especially, who in his story of the creation says that God breathed a breath of life upon the first man, the founder of our race, into the lordliest part of his body, the face,? where the senses are stationed like bodyguards to the great king, the mind. And clearly what was then thus breathed was ethereal spirit, or something if such there be better than ethereal spirit, even an effulgence of the blessed, thrice blessed nature of the Godhead. The fat is prohibited because it is the richest part 124
δ See Lev. xvii. 11 and 14. Luxx ἡ yap ψυχὴ πάσης σαρκὸς αἷμα αὐτοῦ ἐστι. Cf. Deut. xii. 23.
¢ Lev. iii. 17. As the law deals with fat and blood Heine- mann suspects περὶ αἵματος as a gloss, but the law is quoted
for blood and not for fat. @ Gen. ii. 7. E.V. “into his nostrils.”” uxx ‘* face.”
85
PHILO
ἐγκρατείας καὶ ζῆλον αὐστηροῦ βίου, τὰ μὲν ῥᾷστα καὶ κατὰ χειρὸς μεθιεμένου, φροντίδας δὲ καὶ πόνους ἐθελοντὶ ἕνεκα κτήσεως ἀρετῆς ὑπο-
125 μένοντος. ἧς χάριν αἰτίας ἀπὸ παντὸς ἱερείου δύο ταῦτα ἐξαίρετα ὁλοκαυτοῦται, ὥσπερ τινὲς ἀπαρ-
[357] yal, στέαρ τε καὶ αἷμα, τὸ | μὲν ὡς σπονδὴ τῷ βωμῷ προσχεόμενον, τὸ δ᾽ ὡς ὕλη φλογὸς ἐπι- φερόμενον ἀντ᾽ ἐλαίου διὰ τὴν πιότητα τῷ καθ- ὠσιωμένῳ καὶ ἱερῷ πυρί.
120 Μέμφεταί τινας τῶν καθ᾽ αὑτὸν γεγονότων ws γαστριμάργους καὶ τὸ καθηδυπαθεῖν ὡς εὐδαιμο- νικὸν ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα εἶναι ὑπολαμβάνοντας, οἷς οὐκ ἀπέχρη κατὰ πόλεις αὐτὸ μόνον τρυφᾶν, ἐν αἷς αἱ χορηγίαι καὶ παρασκευαὶ τῶν ἐπιτηδείων ἄ- φθονοι, ἀλλὰ καὶ ev) ἐρημίαις ἀβάτοις καὶ ἀτρι- βέσιν, ἀξιοῦντες ἐν ταύταις ἀγορὰς ἔχειν ἰχθύων
12] καὶ κρεῶν καὶ τῶν ἐν εὐετηρίᾳ πάντων. εἶτ᾽ ἐπειδὴ σπάνις ἦν, συνιστάμενοι κατεβόων καὶ κατηγόρουν καὶ ἐδυσώπουν ἀναισχύντῳ θράσει τὸν ἄρχοντα καὶ οὐ πρότερον ἐπαύσαντο νεωτερίζοντες ἢ τυχεῖν μὲν ὧν ὠρέγοντο, τυχεῖν δὲ ἐπ᾽ ὀλέθρῳ, δυοῖν ἕνεκα: τοῦ τ᾽ ἐπιδείξασθαι, ὅτι πάντα θεῷ δυνατὰ πόρον ἐξ ἀμηχάνων καὶ ἀπόρων ἀνευρί- σκοντι, καὶ τοῦ τιμωρήσασθαι τοὺς γαστρὸς ἀκρά-
128 τορας καὶ ἀφηνιαστὰς ὁσιότητος. ἀπὸ γὰρ τῆς θαλάττης ἀρθὲν ὀρτυγομήτρας νέφος ἐκχεῖται περὶ τὴν ἕω καὶ τὸ μὲν στρατόπεδον καὶ τὰ πέριξ ἐφ᾽ ἡμερήσιον ἀνδρὸς εὐζώνου πανταχόθεν ἐν κύκλῳ
@ Lev. iv. 7-10, and elsewhere.
86
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 124-128
and here again he teaches us to practise self- restraint and foster the aspiration for the life of austerity which relinquishes what is easiest and lies ready to hand, but willingly endures anxiety and toils in order to acquire virtue. It is for this reason that with every victim these two, the blood and the fat, are set apart as a sort of first fruits and con- sumed in their entirety. The blood is poured upon the altar as a libation, the fat because of its richness serves as fuel in place of oil and is carried to the holy and consecrated fire.”
ὃ Moses censures some of his own day as gluttons who suppose that wanton self-indulgence is the height of happiness, who not contented to confine luxurious living to cities where their requirements would be unstintedly supplied and catered for, demanded the same in wild and trackless deserts and expected to have fish, flesh and all the accom- paniments of plenty exposed there for sale. Then, when there was a scarcity, they joined together to accuse and reproach and brow-beat their ruler with shameless effrontery and did not cease from giving trouble until their desire was granted though it was to their undoing. It was granted for two reasons, first to show that all things are possible to God who finds a way out of impassable difficul- ties, secondly to punish those who let their belly go uncontrolled and rebelled against holiness. Rising up from the sea in the early dawn there poured forth a cloud of quails whereby the camp and its environs were all round on every side darkened for a distance which an active® man might cover in a
> For §§ 126-131 see Num. xi., especially vv. 31-34. ¢ See App. p. 435. 87
125
126
127
128
PHILO
συνεσκίαστο, τὸ δὲ ὕψος τῆς τῶν ζῴων πτήσεως ὡσεὶ οὐδ χει συναριθμουμένῳ διαστήματι τῆς γῆς 129 ἀφειστήκει πρὸς εὐμαρῆ σύλληψιν. εἰκὸς μὲν οὖν τὸ τεράστιον τοῦ μεγαλουργηθέντος καταπλαγέντας ἀρκεσθῆναι τῇ θέᾳ καὶ γεμισθέντας εὐσεβείας καὶ ταύτῃ τραφέντας ἀποσχέσθαι κρεωφαγίας" οἱ δὲ μᾶλλον ἢ πρότερον ἐπιθυμίαν ἐγείραντες ὡς ἐπὶ μέγιστον ἀγαθὸν ἵεντο καὶ τὰ ζῷα ταῖς ἀμφοτέραις χερσὶν ἐφελκόμενοι τοὺς κόλπους ἐπλήρουν, εἶτ᾽ ἐναποτιθέμενοι ταῖς σκηναῖς ἐφ᾽ ἑτέρων σύλληψιν ἐξήεσαν"---αἰ γὰρ ἄγαν πλεονεξίαι μέτρον οὐκ ἔχουσι --καὶ σκευάζοντες πᾶσαν ἰδέαν ἀπλήστως ἐνεφο- ροῦντο, μέλλοντες οἱ κενοὶ φρενῶν ὑπὸ τῆς πλη- 180 σμονῆς ἀπόλλυσθαι. καὶ δῆτα οὐκ εἰς μακρὰν καθ- άρσεσι χολῆς ἐφθάρησαν, ὡς καὶ τὸ χωρίον ἀπὸ τοῦ περὶ αὐτοὺς πάθους τὴν ἐ ἐπωνυμίαν λαβεῖν. ἐκλήθη γὰρ “᾿ Μνήματα τῆς ἐπιθυμίας, ἧς οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν ψυχῇ, apes ἐδίδαξεν ὃ λόγος, μεῖζον κακόν.
1 MSS. εἴδει πήχεως OF εἰ δίπηχυ. 2 So mss. Cohn κἀν. Mangey καὶ ταύτῃ «ἐν)τραφέντας. See note 6. 3 3 ’ὔ MSS. ἐξιέσαν.
@ In E.V. (υ. 31) “ the wind let them fall about two cubits.” The 7txx ἐπέβαλεν does not bring this out so clearly and Philo aut to suppose that the whole of their flight was at this
eight.
ὃ Cohn and Mangey’s readings (see note 2) evidently mean that having been bred in piety they would have abstained. I greatly prefer the more forcible reading of the mss., which is by no means an absurd exaggeration. A state of great religious excitement does produce an indepen- dence of food. Compare the description in De Vit. Cont. 35 of the Therapeutae who “feasting on the rich banquet of doctrines ᾿᾿ abstained from food for three or even six days.
88
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 128-130 day, while the height of their flight* might be
reckoned at about two cubits above the ground so as to make them easy to capture. It might have been expected that awestruck by the marvel of this mighty work they would have been satisfied with this spectacle, and filled with piety and having it for their sustenance,® would have abstained from fleshly food. Instead they spurred on their lusts
129
more than before and hastened to grasp what ©
seemed so great a boon. With both hands they pulled in the creatures and filled their laps with them, then put them away in their tents, and, since excessive avidity knows no bounds, went out to catch others, and after dressing them in any way ° they could devoured them greedily, doomed in their senselessness to be destroyed by the surfeit. Indeed they shortly perished through discharges of bile,? so that the place also received its name from the disaster which befell them, for it was called “᾿ Monuments of Lust’ @—lust than which no greater evil can exist in the soul as the story shows.
¢ If this is right, it is an odd extension of the cognate accusative; otherwise “ dressing every kind (of quail).”” But there is no reason to suppose that there were different Se of quails. In the E.V. the quails are “spread abroad,” cured by drying i in the sun, which is rendered in the txx by ἔψυξαν ἑαυτοῖς ψυγμούς “they dried for themselves dryings,”’ a phrase which may have puzzled Philo. Heinemann and Mangey ignore ἰδέαν.
@ Cf. v. 20. E.V. “until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you.”” Here the rxx for “loathsome ”’ has εἰς yoAépav=“‘ nausea.”’ But “ discharges of bile’? would be a possible equivalent, and probably the idea was assisted by ‘“‘come out at your nostrils.”
ὁ E.V. Kibroth-hattaavah. Marg. that is “ The graves of ust.”
89
130
PHILO
131 διὸ παγκάλως ἐν ταῖς παραινέσεσι Μωυσῆς φη- ow: “ov ποιήσει ἕκαστος τὸ ἀρεστὸν ἐνώπιον ς “ 3} 3 > 3 A ” ~ 66 \ ~ 3 ’ὔ αὑτοῦ τὸ δ᾽ ἐστὶν ἴσον τῷ “᾿ μηδεὶς τῇ ἐπιθυμίᾳ τῇ αὑτοῦ χαριζέσθω᾽᾽- εὐαρεστείτω γάρ τις θεῷ,
’ ’ὔ ’ A 3 U4 4 κόσμῳ, φύσει, νόμοις, σοφοῖς ἀνδράσι, φιλαυτίαν παραιτούμενος, εἰ μέλλει καλὸς κἀγαθὸς γενήσεσθαι. 12 XXV. Τοσαῦτα καὶ {περὶ τῶν εἰς ἐπιθυμίαν
3 7 ἀναφερομένων ἀποχρώντως κατὰ THY δύναμιν εἴρη- ται πρὸς συμπλήρωσιν τῶν δέκα λογίων καὶ τῶν 4 € / 3 A A A A “~ [358] τούτοις ὑποστελλόντων᾽" | εἰ yap δεῖ τὰ μὲν φωνῇ θείᾳ χρησμῳδηθέντα κεφάλαια γένη νόμων ἀπο- δεῖξαι, τοὺς δὲ κατὰ μέρος πάντας οὗς διηρμήνευσε Μωυσῆς ὑποστέλλοντα' εἴδη, πρὸς τὸ ἀσύγχυτον τῆς ἀκριβοῦς καταλήψεως pidorexvias ἐδέησεν, ἣ χρησάμενος ἑκάστῳ τῶν γενῶν ἐξ ἁπάσης τῆς
A ‘\
νομοθεσίας τὰ οἰκεῖα προσένειμα Kal προσέφυσα.
4 A A [γέ 3 A > 9 A Ψ ω 133 Τούτων μὲν δὴ ἅλις. οὐ δεῖ δ᾽ ἀγνοεῖν, ὅτι Wo- A “ “A 3." περ ἰδίᾳ ἑκάστῳ τῶν δέκα συγγενῆ τινα τῶν ἐπὶ μέρους ἐστίν, ἃ πρὸς ἕτερον γένος οὐδεμίαν ἔχει κοι- νωνίαν, οὕτως ἔνια κοινὰ πάντων συμβέβηκεν, οὐχ
eu ἃ ’ ς ” 3 A A \ 4 U ἑνὶ ἢ δυσίν, ws ἔπος εἰπεῖν, τοῖς (de) δέκα λογίοις 3 ’ A 3 > " e “A 134 ἐφαρμόττοντα. ταῦτα δ᾽ εἰσὶν αἱ κοινωφελεῖς ἀρεταί: καὶ γὰρ ἕκαστος ἰδίᾳ τῶν δέκα χρησμῶν 1 My correction for ὑποστέλλων τὰ (which Cohn retains).
The change from ὑποστέλλοντα intransitive verb to transitive verb seems unnatural and awkward.
* Deut. xii. 8. For παραινέσεις as a name for Deuteronomy =the more usual προτρεπτικοί (sc. λόγοι), cf. De Agr. 84.
> Not (as Heinemann) some laws, but the virtues, as ταῦτα below shows.
¢ Here as in ii. 63, where see note, I see no reason to depart from the established rule that ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν does not
90
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 131-134
And therefore most excellent are these words of 131 Moses in his Exhortations, ‘‘ Each man shall not do what is pleasing in his own sight,’ * which is as much
as to say “let no one indulge his own lust. Let a man be well pleasing to God, to the universe, to nature, to laws, to wise men and discard self love. -So only will he attain true excellence.”
XXV. In these remarks we have discussed the 132 matters relating to desire or lust as adequately as our abilities allow, and thus completed our survey of the ten oracles, and the laws which are dependent on them. For if we are right in describ- ing the main heads delivered by the voice of God as generic laws, and all particular laws of which Moses was the spokesman as dependent species, for accurate apprehension free from confusion scientific study was needed, with the aid of which I have assigned and attached to each of the heads what was appropriate to them throughout the whole legislation.
Enough then of this. But we must not fail to 133 know that, just as each of the ten separately has some particular laws akin to it having nothing in common with any other, there are some things? common to all which fit in not with some particular number ὁ such as one or two but with all the ten Great Words. These are the virtues of universal 134 value. For each of the ten pronouncements separ introduce a metaphor but a general or rough statement, particularly of numbers. ‘‘One-or two” are examples; any law might conceivably fit in to three or four or any other number short of ten. Heinemann here as there translates ‘“*so zu sagen,” but unless the phrase connotes something
different from the English “50 to speak,” I can see no point in it. 91
135
136
PHILO
Kal κοινῇ πάντες ἐπὶ φρόνησιν καὶ δικαιοσύνην καὶ θεοσέβειαν καὶ τὸν ἄλλον χορὸν τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀλείφουσι καὶ προτρέπουσι, βουλαῖς μὲν ἀγαθαῖς ὑγιαίνοντας λόγους, λόγοις δὲ σπουδαίας πράξεις συνείροντες, ἵνα τὸ ψυχῆς ὄργανον εὐαρμόστως ὅλον δι’ ὅλων συνηχῇ πρὸς ἐμμέλειαν βίου καὶ συμφωνίαν ἀνεπίληπτον. περὶ μὲν οὖν τῆς ἡγε- μονίδος τῶν ἀρετῶν, εὐσεβείας καὶ ὁσιότητος, ἐ ἔτι δὲ καὶ φρονήσεως καὶ σωφροσύνης εἴρηται πρό- τερον, νυνὶ δὲ περὶ τῆς ἐπιτηδευούσης ἀδελφὰ καὶ συγγενῆ ταύταις δικαιοσύνης λεκτέον.
XXVI. "Ev τὸ δικαιοσύνης οὐ βραχὺ μέρος ἦν τὸ πρὸς δικαστήρια καὶ δικαστάς, οὗ πρότερον ἐποιησάμην ὑπόμνησιν, ἡνίκα τὰ τῶν μαρτυρίων ἐπὶ πλέον ἀπομηκύνων διεξήειν ἕνεκα τοῦ μηδὲν παραλειφθῆναι τῶν ἐμφερομένων. οὐκ εἰωθὼς δὲ παλιλλογεῖν, εἰ μή πού τις ἀνάγκη γένοιτο βιαζο- μένων τῶν καιρῶν, ἐκεῖνο “μὲν ἐάσω, πρὸς δὲ τὰ ἄλλα μέρη τρέψομαι τοσοῦτον προειπών. τὰ δί- καια, φησὶν ὁ νόμος, ἐντιθέναι δεῖ τῇ καρδίᾳ καὶ ἐξάπτειν εἰς σημεῖον ἐπὶ τῆς χειρὸς καὶ εἶναι σειόμενα πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν, αἰνιττόμενος διὰ τοῦ προτέρου, ὅτι χρὴ μὴ ὠσὶν ἀπίστοις παρακατατίθε-
1 The mss. here have the heading Περὶ δικαιοσύνης, and Cohn begins a fresh numeration of chapters. Though the insertion of a heading would otherwise be justified by the
important break at this point, it is unnecessary in view of the concluding words of the last section.
9 2,6. §§ 55-78. > Deut. vi. 6, 8 (also xi. 18). E.V. ‘‘ These words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart... and
thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes.” In both places the word translated “‘frontlets’’ (whence the (head) phylacteries of
92
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 134-137
ately and all in common incite and exhort us to wisdom and justice and godliness and the rest of the company of virtues, with good thoughts and inten- tions combining wholesome words, and with words actions of true worth, that so the soul with every part of its being attuned may be an instrument making harmonious music so that life becomes a melody and a concent in which there is no faulty note. Of the queen of the virtues, piety or holi- ness, we have spoken earlier and also of wisdom and temperance. Our theme must now be she whose ways are close akin to them, that is justice.
XXVI. One and by no means an inconsiderable part of justice is that which is concerned with law courts and judges. ‘This I have already* mentioned, when I dealt at length with the question of testi- mony in order to omit nothing of the points involved. As it is not my custom to repeat myself unless forced to do so by the pressure of the particular occasion I will say no more about it and with only so much preface address myself to the other parts of the subject. The law tells us that we must set the rules of justice in the heart and fasten them for a sign upon the hand and have them shaking before the eyes.® The first of these is a parable indicating that the rules of justice must not be committed to
Matt. xxiii. 5) is given in the txx by ἀσάλευτον “ unshaken.” The sequel shows that Philo read σαλευτόν. See App. p. 435.
Actually these words prescribe obedience to God’s law, and so belong rather to εὐσέβεια. Heinemann suggests that the description of them as δικαιώματα in v. 3 may have led him to dwell upon them here. [Perhaps it is enough to say that as the Deuteronomic code, which he mostly quotes in the sequel, is largely concerned with δικαιοσύνη, they may be fairly quoted here, though they have other applications also.
08
135
136
137
[389]
138
139
140
PHILO
σθαι τὰ δίκαια---πίστις yap ἀκοαῖς οὐκ ἔνεστιν---, ἀλλὰ τῷ ἡγεμονικωτάτῳ (Ta) πάντων ἄριστα | μα- θημάτων' (ἐν)τυποῦν καὶ ταῦτα χαράττοντα σφρα- γῖσι δοκίμοις: διὰ δὲ τοῦ δευτέρου τὸ μὴ μόνον 9 ’ 4 “A A 9 \ \ \ “4 ἐννοίας λαμβάνειν τῶν καλῶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ δόξαντα πράττειν ἀνυπερθέτως--- γὰρ χεὶρ πράξεως ovp- βολον, ἧς ἐξάπτειν καὶ ἐξαρτᾶν τὰ δίκαια προσ- τάττει, σημεῖον ἔσεσθαι τοῦτο φάσκων, καὶ τίνος ” ’ ὁ, a ἄντικρυς οὐ διείρηκε, διὰ TO μὴ ἑνός," ὥς γέ μοι δοκεῖ, πολλῶν δὲ γενέσθαι καὶ σχεδὸν ἁπάντων ἐν @ e 3 ’ ’ A \ “- 4 A > AN ois ὁ ἀνθρώπινος Bios—: διὰ δὲ τοῦ τρίτου TO ἀεὶ καὶ πανταχοῦ φαντασιοῦσθαι τὰ δίκαια καθάπερ 3 A ” 3 ~ ’ δ᾽ 3 ’ὔ “A ἐγγὺς ὄντα ὀφθαλμῶν: σάλον ἐχέτω ταῦτα ’ ’ 3 . 3 9 ’ὔ Ἁ 95. 4 3 κινούμενα, φησίν, οὐχ ἵν ἀβέβαια καὶ ἀνίδρυτα (ἢ), ἀλλ᾽ ἵνα τῇ κινήσει τὴν ὄψιν ἐκκαλῇ “πρὸς ἀρίδηλον θέαν᾽ ὁράσεως γὰρ ἐπαγωγὸν κίνησις ἐξερεθίζουσα καὶ ἀνεγείρουσα μᾶλλον δ᾽ ἀκοιμή- τους καὶ ἐγρηγορότας κατασκευάζουσα ὀφθαλμούς. ὅτῳ δ᾽ ἐξεγένετο τυπώσασθαι ἐν" τῷ τῆς ψυχῆς ¢ ὄμματι μὴ ἡσυχάζοντα ἀλλὰ κινούμενα καὶ ταῖς κατὰ φύσιν ἐνεργείαις χρώμενα, τέλειος ἀνὴρ ἀναγεγράφθω, μηκέτι ἐν τοῖς γνωρίμοις καὶ A 3 ’ 3 ? ? U4 \ μαθηταῖς ἐξεταζόμενος, ἀλλ᾽ ἐν διδασκάλοις καὶ ὑφηγηταῖς, καὶ παρεχέτω τοῖς ἐθέλουσιν ἀρύεσθαι τῶν νέων ὥσπερ ἀπὸ πηγῆς τῶν λόγων καὶ δογ- μάτων ἄφθονον νᾶμα: κἂν τῶν ἀτολμοτέρων τις
1 mss. ἀναθημάτων. In the words that follow καὶ ταῦτα is Cohn’s correction for ταῦτα καὶ of S (καὶ omitted in M). I think of the four corrections made by Cohn in this sentence μαθημάτων and ἐντυποῦν should stand, but thus corrected the text of 'M is satisfactory, i.e. ἀλλὰ τῷ ἡγεμονικωτάτῳ πάντων ἄριστα μαθημάτων ἐντυποῦν ταῦτα, χαράττοντα κτλ.
2 MSS. μηδένος.
04
THE SPECIAL LAWS, IV. 137-140
untrustworthy ears since no trust can be placed in the sense of hearing but that these best of all lessons must be impressed upon our lordliest part, stamped too with genuine seals. The second shows that we must not only receive conceptions of the good but express our approval of them in unhesitating action, for the hand is the symbol of action, and on this the law bids us fasten and hang the rules of justice for a sign. Of what it is a sign he has not definitely stated because, I believe, they are a sign not of one thing but of many, practically of all the factors in human life. The third means that always and everywhere we must have the vision of them as it were close to our eyes. And they must have vibration and movement, it continues, not to make them unstable and unsettled, but that by their motion they may provoke the sight to gain a clear discernment of them. For motion induces the use of the faculty of sight by stimulating and arousing the eyes, or rather by making them un- sleepful and wakeful. He to whom it is given to set their image in the eye of the soul, not at rest but in motion and engaged in their natural activities, must be placed on record as a perfect man. No longer must he be ranked among the disciples and pupils but among the teachers and instructors, and he should provide as from a fountain to the young who are willing to draw therefrom a plenteous stream of discourses and doctrines. And
3 Mangey’s text here, σάλον δ᾽ ἐχέτω ταῦτα κινούμενον, / 3 σ» 3 / \ 9 & > 30 ° . φησίν, οὐχ iv’ ἀβέβαιον καὶ ἀνίδρυτον, ἀλλ᾽ ἵνα κτλ.. is with a few slight variations the text of the mss., but the neuter singulars are ungrammatical. 4 MSS. μὲν.
95
138
139
140
141
142
[360]
143