3.A REIGN THAT IS CRUEL IS STORMY
4. FOR SINCE HE IS HATED BECAUSE HE IS FEARED
The tyrant is stirred BY CONFLICTING CAUSES TO CONFLICTING COURSES. For he wishes to be feared because he is hated. And yet HE IS HATED BECAUSE HE IS FEARED. No need for fear if there were no hatred. What he thinks is the remedy of an evil is therefore exactly his one great evil.
BECAUSE HE IS HATED
For as Ennius says: He whom they hate, they also fear: whoever fears someone, wishes him dead. Seneca, On Anger [2.11.43f]: How can we explain how terror always works back to him who inspired it, and that no one is feared who is himself at peace? At this point it is well that you should remember that verse of Laberius, which, when pronounced in the theater during the height of the civil war, caught the fancy of the whole people as
though it expressed the national feeling: “He must fear many, whom so many fear.” Thus has nature ordained, that whatever becomes great by causing fear to others is not free from fear itself.
HE WISHES TO BE FEARED
For what else do they do but inspire terror in all when they think every sword is hanging over them and threatening their life? Read Seneca’s tragedy, called the “Octavia,” into which he has transferred sentences almost wordforword from this work Truly spoken, then, is that tyrannical saying of Dionysius, which boasted [Plut., Dionys., 7; 11] that fear, violence, a fleet and ten thousand armed men were adamantine chains.
THAT ACCURSED VERSE
This verse is spoken by Atreus in some ancient tragedy, whether of Accius or of some other author: as Cicero mentions in two places [Off., 1.28.97]: If Aeacus or Minos had said, “Let them hate so long as they fear,” or let the parent be his offspring’s tomb, it would have seemed inappropriate, because we have been taught these men were just; but when Atreus says it, he evokes applause. And Philipp. [1.14.34]: We see this even in the play: the very man who said, “Let them hate, so long as they fear,” found that it was fatal.
LET THEM HATE, SO LONG AS THEY FEAR
Suetonius, Calig. [30.1]: He repeatedly vaunted that tragic utterance: “Let them hate, so long as they fear.” The same in Tib. [59.2]: He repeatedly vaunted that tragic saying: “Let them hate me, so long as they approve of my conduct.” Seneca, On Anger [1.20.4]: that foul and hateful saying...
which you may be sure was written in Sulla’s time, “Let them hate me, if only they fear me.” With this sentiment Lucan [Phars., 3.82f] heaps odium upon Caesar, in the following words:
… Yet he was glad to be so greatly
Feared by the people; and preferred not to be loved.
WHEN HATRED INCREASES BEYOND MEASURE
The tyrant often thinks things go prosperously, if he is feared by his own subjects, thinking that their hatred has nothing to do with him, because it succumbs to terror. Meanwhile the hatred grows, and at last turns to madness, which can no longer be quelled by fear. At this point swords or retainers can do nothing any more; here the wretch is deserted by his bodyguard, which he had appointed for this very emergency.
NOW FEAR IN MODERATION
For good princes also have to restrain criminal men by fear, that their harmful propensities may be curbed by the rule of law: and they must inflict those punishments which the laws prescribe, lest impunity increase boldness. But they practice restraint; since they show themselves open to the entreaty of many, and are loved by even more. That tyrannical terror, which knows neither moderation nor pause, nor distinction, so stings to the quick that it irritates more than it compels.
IN THE SAME WAY ROPES AND FEATHERS
The comparison is most appropriate; it is used by this selfsame Seneca, Controv. [9.6.2]: Certain wild beasts, says he, eagerly bite the weapons, and, though wounded, rush upon the author of their death. But this applies more expressly and fittingly to what he had said. For as that terror, which he had posited, is SHARP AND CONSTANT, AND BRINGS DESPERATION, thus on all sides despair moves wild beasts, hemmed in by the net, when the hunter brandishes his weapon.
ROPES AND FEATHERS
By periphrasis he designates an enclosure, that is, a series of nets set upright on forked poles.
THEY WILL TRY TO ESCAPE THROUGH THE VERY OBJECTS THAT HAD MADE THEM RUN
For while they are fleeing the hunter’s weapon, they get caught in the rope nets. While they are trying to extricate themselves from these, they turn
their course back upon the hunter, and lay hold of his hunting spear with their teeth. And thus arises ultimate despair. The hunter’s art is: to arouse some hope of escape, if they flee, in order that they may rush more easily into the nets.
NO COURAGE IS SO BOLD…
Gnome or proverbial saying, which is frequently placed in conclusions.
This one is simple and related to the matter in hand. Yet this is just as true a saying as popular and common. Porcius Latro in Seneca, Declamations, [1, Pref.]: Grievous indeed are the stings of aggravated Ivant. Q. Curtius [5.4.31]: Necessity spurs on even cowardice, and despair is often a cause for hope. The same author elsewhere [4.3.24]: But necessity, more
inventive than any art, introduced not only the usual means of defense, but also more novel ones. Hence that exhortation of Hannibal to his soldiers, than which nothing more powerful can be said [Livy, 21.43.5]: We must conquer or die, soldiers. Livy [21.44.8]: You must be brave men. Since by despair every alternative except victory and certain death has been
destroyed, you must either conquer or, if fortune wavers, seek death in battle rather than in flight. No stronger incentive to victory has been given to man by the immortal gods. A similar saying is found in Sallust [Cat., 58.19], put on the lips of Catiline.
FORCED OUT
A word elegant in this sense: to designate the violent effort. For it means
“to draw out by pounding”, as Nonius says, who also reads Virgil, Georgics [1.133] as follows:
That by experience man might gradually force forth [extunderet]
the various arts.
Although Servius [Comm., ad loc.] and Festus prefer to read here not extunderet, but excuderet (hammer out). Suetonius, Vesp. [2,2]: He had for a long time a distaste for the laticlavium, though his brother had obtained it; nor could he, by any one but his mother, be persuaded to seek it; she at length forced out his consent more by reproach than by entreaty. Seneca himself [Ben., 1.3.1]: Who forced thanks even out of a hard and
thoughtless heart.
SHOULD LEAVE SOME SENSE OF SECURITY
A good prince is feared as upholder and guardian of the laws, which decree punishment not to all but to those who cannot otherwise be corrected. The wicked and criminal fear him; the good love and revere him.
IF AN INOFFENSIVE MAN
The sense is: a tyrant not only metes out punishment upon those who have conspired to kill him; but he also appoints accusers who oppress the innocent with false charges. Whether, therefore, you plan something great, or remain at rest, you always live in the same mortal danger though it is certainly preferable to be dragged into court by a true accuser than by a calumniator.
AND TAKING (ABUSING) ANOTHER’S LIFE
This is according to the difference which Donatus observed in Terence’s Phormio [2.3.66.413]: We abuse with injury and contumely. Curtius [8.7.11] also understands it in the same way: These, then, are the rewards of the Macedonians, whose blood you abuse as if it were superabundant and mean.
[C. 13 § 1] A PEACEABLE AND GENTLE KING
So far he argued in this manner: even if a tyrant has some protection in armed guards, it is not firm or strong enough, because it is overcome by public hatred. Now he argues that even in them also there is no protection, namely in those who serve unwillingly as his guards.
BLOODTHIRSTY
That is, cruel and seeking after blood. Suetonius, Claud. [34.1]: His cruel and bloodthirsty disposition was exhibited upon great as well as trifling occasions. Pliny the Younger [Ep., 4.22.6]: At take all spoke together about his wickedness and bloodthirsty utterances. Thus Pliny the Elder [H.N., 19.8.53 (169)] calls Tarquin’s reply bloodthirsty, and Seneca, On Anger [3.41.1]: speaks of a bloodthirsty beast. For the Greeks the
corresponding terms were: haimatoeis, haimatgdgs, and haimateros.
Politianus in his translation of Herodian renders them by sanguinarius.
CHAPTER 13
2. No one can ever hold the loyalty and good will of his servants when