th the Praetorian prefect, Burrus; on the
assassination of Burrus in 62 petitioned for leave to retire
from court, and virtually did withdraw; on being charged
with complicity in the conspiracy of Piso, he committed
suicide in obedience to Nero's order; his extant writings
are numerous, and include "Benefits," "Clemency," and "Minor
Essays."[75]

I

OF THE WISE MAN[76]

I might truly say, Serenus, that there is as wide a difference between
the Stoics and the other sects of philosophers as there is between men
and women, since each class contributes an equal share to human
society, but the one is born to command, the other to obey. The other
philosophers deal with us gently and coaxingly, just as our
accustomed family physicians usually do with our bodies, treating them
not by the best and shortest method, but by that which we allow them
to employ; whereas the Stoics adopt a manly course, and do not care
about its appearing attractive to those who are entering upon it, but
that it should as quickly as possible take us out of the world, and
lead us to that lofty eminence which is so far beyond the scope of any
missile weapon that it is above the reach of Fortune herself. "But the
way by which we are asked to climb is steep and uneven." What then?
Can heights be reached by a level path? Yet they are not so sheer and
precipitous as some think. It is only the first part that has rocks
and cliffs and no apparent outlet, just as many hills seen from a long
way off appear abruptly steep and joined together, because the
distance deceives our sight, and then, as we draw nearer, those very
hills which our mistaken eyes had made into one gradually unfold
themselves, those parts which seemed precipitous from afar assume a
gently sloping outline. When just now mention was made of Marcus Cato,
you whose mind revolts at injustice were indignant at Cato's own age
having so little understood him, at its having allotted a place below
Vatinius to one who towered above both Caesar and Pompey; it seemed
shameful to you, that when he spoke against some law in the Forum his
toga was torn from him, and that he was hustled through the hands of a
mutinous mob from the Rostra as far as the arch of Fabius,[77]
enduring all the bad language, spitting, and other insults of the
frantic rabble.

I then answered, that you had good cause to be anxious on behalf of
the commonwealth, which Publius Clodius on the one