Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950
page |< < of 679 > >|
    <archimedes>
      <text>
        <body>
          <chap>
            <p type="main">
              <s>
                <pb pagenum="15"/>
              have bought the things which he needed for the necessaries of life, and he
                <lb/>
              would not. </s>
              <s>by reason of his poverty, have then been obliged to flatter the
                <lb/>
              tyrant Dionysius, nor would he ever have been called by him a King's dog.
                <lb/>
              </s>
              <s>For this reason Horace, speaking of Damasippus when reviling Staberus for
                <lb/>
              valuing riches very highly, says:</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>“What resemblance has the Grecian Aristippus to this fellow?
                <lb/>
              </s>
              <s>He who commanded his slaves to throw away the gold in the midst of
                <lb/>
              Libya because they went too slowly, impeded by the weight of their
                <lb/>
              burden—which of these two men is the more insane?”
                <emph type="sup"/>
              21
                <emph.end type="sup"/>
              </s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>Insane indeed is he who makes more of riches than of virtue. </s>
              <s>Insane
                <lb/>
              also is he who rejects them and considers them as worth nothing, instead of
                <lb/>
              using them with reason. </s>
              <s>Yet as to the gold which Aristippus on another
                <lb/>
              occasion flung into the sea from a boat, this he did with a wise and prudent
                <lb/>
              mind. </s>
              <s>For learning that it was a pirate boat in which he was sailing, and
                <lb/>
              fearing for his life, he counted his gold and then throwing it of his own will
                <lb/>
              into the sea, he groaned as if he had done it unwillingly. </s>
              <s>But afterward,
                <lb/>
              when he escaped the peril, he said: “It is better that this gold itself should
                <lb/>
              be lost than that I should have perished because of it.” Let it be granted
                <lb/>
              that some philosophers, as well as Anacreon of Teos, despised gold and
                <lb/>
              silver. </s>
              <s>Anaxagoras of Clazomenae also gave up his sheep-farms and
                <lb/>
              became a shepherd. </s>
              <s>Crates the Theban too, being annoyed that his
                <lb/>
              estate and other kinds of wealth caused him worry, and that in his con­
                <lb/>
              templations his mind was thereby distracted, resigned a property valued at
                <lb/>
              ten talents, and taking a cloak and wallet, in poverty devoted all his
                <lb/>
              thought and efforts to philosophy. </s>
              <s>Is it true that because these philo­
                <lb/>
              sophers despised money, all others declined wealth in cattle? </s>
              <s>Did they
                <lb/>
              refuse to cultivate lands or to dwell in houses? </s>
              <s>There were certainly many,
                <lb/>
              on the other hand, who, though affluent, became famous in the pursuit of
                <lb/>
              learning and in the knowledge of divine and human laws, such as Aristotle,
                <lb/>
              Cicero, and Seneca. </s>
              <s>As for Phocion, he did not deem it honest to accept the
                <lb/>
              gold sent to him by Alexander. </s>
              <s>For if he had consented to use it, the
                <lb/>
              king as much as himself would have incurred the hatred and aversion of
                <lb/>
              the Athenians, and these very people were afterward so ungrateful toward
                <lb/>
              this excellent man that they compelled him to drink hemlock. </s>
              <s>For what
                <lb/>
              would have been less becoming to Marcus Curius and Fabricius Luscinus
                <lb/>
              than to accept gold from their enemies, who hoped that by these means
                <lb/>
              those leaders could be corrupted or would become odious to their fellow
                <lb/>
              citizens, their purpose being to cause dissentions among the Romans and
                <lb/>
              destroy the Republic utterly. </s>
              <s>Lycurgus, however, ought to have given
                <lb/>
              instructions to the Spartans as to the use of gold and silver, instead of
                <lb/>
              abolishing things good in themselves. </s>
              <s>As to the Babytacenses, who does
                <lb/>
              not see that they were senseless and envious? </s>
              <s>For with their gold they might
                <lb/>
              have bought things of which they were in need, or even given it to neigh­
                <lb/>
              bouring peoples to bind them more closely to themselves with gifts and
                <lb/>
              favours. </s>
              <s>Finally, the Scythians, by condemning the use of gold and silver </s>
            </p>
          </chap>
        </body>
      </text>
    </archimedes>
Impressum