XLVI. Now Plato, being at the point of death, felicitated himself on his dæmon[143] and his fortune, first that he was born a human being, then that he was a Greek, and neither a barbarian nor an irrational animal; and besides all this, that his birth had fallen on the time when Socrates lived. And indeed it is said that Antipater[144] of Tarsus, in like manner, just before his death, when recapitulating the happiness that he had enjoyed, did not forget his prosperous voyage from Rome to Athens, inasmuch as he considered every gift of favourable fortune as a thing to be thankful for, and preserved it to the last in his memory, which is to man the best storehouse of good things. But those who have no memory and no sense, let the things that happen ooze away imperceptibly in the course of time; and consequently, as they hold nothing and keep nothing, being always empty of all goodness, but full of expectation, they look to the future and throw away the present. And yet fortune may hinder the future, but the present cannot be taken from a man; nevertheless, such men reject that which fortune now gives, as something foreign, and dream of that which is uncertain: and it is natural that they should; for before reason and education have enabled them to put a foundation and basement under external goods, they get and they heap them together, and are never able to fill the insatiate appetite of their soul. Now Marius[145] died, having held for seventeen days his seventh consulship. And immediately there were great rejoicings in Rome, and good hope that there was a release from a cruel tyranny; but in a few days men found that they had exchanged an old master for a young one who was in the fulness of his vigour; such cruelty and severity did the son of Marius exhibit in putting to death the noblest and best citizens. He gained the reputation of a man of courage, and one who loved danger in his wars against his enemies, and was named a son of Mars: but his acts speedily showed his real character, and he received instead the name of a son of Venus. Finally, being shut up in Præneste by Sulla, and having in vain tried all ways of saving his life, he killed himself when he saw that the city was captured and all escape was hopeless. FOOTNOTES: