s easy as you say it is. What shall we say of
pain? the torments of which are so great that, if at least pain is the
greatest of evils, a happy life cannot possibly exist in company with it.
For Metrodorus himself, who is almost a second Epicurus, describes a happy
man in these words. When his body is in good order, and when he is quite
certain that it it will be so for the future. Is it possible for any one
to be certain in what condition his body will be, I do not say a year
hence, but even this evening? Pain, therefore, which is the greatest of
evils, will always be dreaded even if it is not present. For it will
always be possible that it may be present. But how can any fear of the
greatest possible evil exist in a happy life?

Oh, says he, Epicurus has handed down maxims according to which we may
disregard pain. Surely, it is an absurdity to suppose that the greatest
possible evil can be disregarded. However, what is the maxim? The greatest
pain, says he, is short-lived. Now, first of all, what do you call
short-lived? And, secondly, what do you call the greatest pain? For what
do you mean? Cannot extreme pain last for many days? Aye, and for many
months? Unless, indeed, you intend to assert that you mean such pain as
kills a man the moment it seizes on him. Who is afraid of that pain? I
would rather you would lessen that pain by which I have seen that most
excellent and kind-hearted man, Cnaeus Octavius, the son of Marcus
Octavius, my own intimate friend, worn out, and that not once, or for a
short time, but very often, and for a long period at once. What agonies, O
ye immortal gods, did that man use to bear, when all his limbs seemed as
if they were on fire. And yet he did not appear to be miserable, (because
in truth pain was not the greatest of evils,) but only afflicted. But if
he had been immersed in continued pleasure, passing at the same time a
vicious and infamous life, then he would have been miserable.

XXIX. But when you say that great pains last but a short time, and that if
they last long they are always light, I do not understand the meaning of
your assertion. For I see that some pains are very great, and also very
durable. And there is a better principle which may enable one to endure
them, which however you cannot adopt, who do not love what is honourable
for its own sake. There are some precepts for, and I may almost say laws
of, fortitude, which forbid a man to behave effeminately in pain.
Wherefo