ou; nor does he confer a benefit, but merely gives you your
discharge. [The 'discharge' alluded to is that which was granted to
the beaten one of a pair of gladiators, when their duel was not to the
death.]

XXI. It seems to offer more opportunity for debate to consider what a
captive ought to do, if a man of abominable vices offers him the price
of his ransom? Shall I permit myself to be saved by a wretch? When safe,
what recompense can I make to him? Am I to live with an infamous person?
Yet, am I not to live with my preserver? I will tell you my opinion. I
would accept money, even from such a person, if it were to save my life;
yet I would only accept it as a loan, not as a benefit. I would repay
him the money, and if I were ever able to preserve him from danger I
would do so. As for friendship, which can only exist between equals, I
would not condescend to be such a man's friend; nor would I regard him
as my preserver, but merely as a money-lender, to whom I am only bound
to repay what I borrowed from him.

A man may be a worthy person for me to receive a benefit from, but it
will hurt him to give it. For this reason I will not receive it, because
he is ready to help me to his own prejudice, or even danger. Suppose
that he is willing to plead for me in court, but by so doing will make
the king his enemy. I should be his enemy, if, when he is willing to
risk himself for me, if I were not to risk myself without him, which
moreover is easier for me to do.

As an instance of this, Hecaton calls the case of Arcesilaus silly, and
not to the purpose. Arcesilaus, he says, refused to receive a large sum
of money which was offered to him by a son, lest the son should offend
his penurious father. What did he do deserving of praise, in not
receiving stolen goods, in choosing not to receive them, instead of
returning them? What proof of self-restraint is there in refusing to
receive another man's property. If you want an instance of magnanimity,
take the case of Julius Graecinus, whom Caius Caesar put to death merely
on the ground that he was a better man than it suited a tyrant for
anyone to be. This man, when he was receiving subscriptions from many of
his friends to cover his expenses in exhibiting public games, would not
receive a large sum which was sent him by Fabius Persicus; and when he
was blamed for rejecting it by those who think more of what is given
than of who gives it, he answered, "Am I to accept a present from