partake of the affection of
a friend, it can no longer be called service. There are certain things
with which a master is bound to provide his slave, such as food and
clothing; no one calls this a benefit; but supposing that he indulges
his slave, educates him above his station, teaches him arts which
free-born men learn, that is a benefit. The converse is true in the case
of the slave; anything which goes beyond the rules of a slave's duty,
which is done of his own free will, and not in obedience to orders, is a
benefit, provided it be of sufficient importance to be called by such a
name if bestowed by any other person.

XXII. It has pleased Chrysippus to define a slave as "a hireling for
life." Just as a hireling bestows a benefit when he does more than he
engaged himself to do, so when a slave's love for his master raises him
above his condition and urges him to do something noble--something which
would be a credit even to men more fortunate by birth--he surpasses the
hopes of his master, and is a benefit found in the house. Do you think
it is just that we should be angry with our slaves when they do less
than their duty, and that we should not be grateful to them when they do
more? Do you wish to know when their service is not a benefit? When the
question can be asked, "What if he had refused to do it?" When he does
that which he might have refused to do, we must praise his good will.
Benefits and wrongs are opposites; a slave can bestow a benefit upon his
master, if he can receive a wrong from his master. Now an official has
been appointed to hear complaints of the wrongs done by masters to their
slaves, whose duty it is to restrain cruelty and lust, or avarice in
providing them with the necessaries of life. What follows, then? Is it
the master who receives a benefit from his slave? nay, rather, it is
one man who receives it from another. Lastly, he did all that lay in his
power; he bestowed a benefit upon his master; it lies in your power to
receive or not to receive it from a slave. Yet who is so exalted, that
fortune may not make him need the aid even of the lowliest?

XXIII. I shall now quote a number of instances of benefits, not all
alike, some even contradictory. Some slaves have given their master
life, some death; have saved him when perishing, or, as if that were
not enough, have saved him by their own death; others have helped
their master to die, some have saved his life by stratagem. Claudius
Quadrig