Discourses - Book IV   

DISCOURSES

BOOK FOUR
CHAPTER 1

About freedom

He is free who lives as he wishes to live; who is neither subject to
compulsion nor to hindrance, nor to force; whose movements to action
are not impeded, whose desires attain their purpose, and who does
not fall into that which he would avoid. Who, then, chooses to live in
error? No man. Who chooses to live deceived, liable to mistake,
unjust, unrestrained, discontented, mean? No man. Not one then of
the bad lives as he wishes; nor is he, then, free. And who chooses
to live in sorrow, fear, envy, pity, desiring and failing in his
desires, attempting to avoid something and falling into it? Not one.
Do we then find any of the bad free from sorrow, free from fear, who
does not fall into that which he would avoid, and does not obtain that
which he wishes? Not one; nor then do we find any bad man free.
If, then, a man who has been twice consul should hear this, if you
add, "But you are a wise man; this is nothing to you": he will
pardon you. But if you tell him the truth, and say, "You differ not at
all from those who have been thrice sold as to being yourself not a
slave," what else ought you to expect than blows? For he says,
"What, I a slave, I whose father was free, whose mother was free, I
whom no man can purchase: I am also of senatorial rank, and a friend
of Caesar, and I have been a consul, and I own many slaves." In the
first place, most excellent senatorial man, perhaps your father also
was a slave in the same kind of servitude, and your mother, and your
grandfather and all your ancestors in an ascending series. But even if
they were as free as it is possible, what is this to you? What if they
were of a noble nature, and you of a mean nature; if they were
fearless, and you a coward; if they had the power of self-restraint,
and you are not able to exercise it.
"And what," you may say, "has this to do with being a slave?" Does
it seem to you to be nothing to do a thing unwillingly, with
compulsion, with groans, has this nothing to do with being a slave?
"It is something," you say: "but who is able to compel me, except
the lord of all, Caesar?" Then even you yourself have admitted that
you have one master. But that he is the common master of all, as you
say, let not this console you at all: but know that you are a slave in
a great family. So also the people of Nicopolis are used to exclaim,
"By the fortune of Caesar, are free."
However, if you please, let us not speak of Caesar at present. But
tell me this: did you never love any person, a young girl, or slave,
or free? What then is this with respect to being a slave or free? Were
you never commanded by the person beloved to do something which you
did not wish to do? have you never flattered your little slave? have
you never kissed her feet? And yet if any man compelled you to kiss
Caesar's feet, you would think it an insult and excessive tyranny.