Οὐκ ἔστι θαυμαστὸν ἀντιτάξασθαι προσπολεμούσῃ μόνον αὐτῇ, πολὺ δὲ θαυμασιώτερον(389) τῶν ὑπαρξάντων παρ᾽ αὐτῆς ἀγαθῶν ἄξιον φανῆναι. τούτοις ὁ μέγιστος ἑάλω βασιλεὺς ὁ τὴν Ἀσίαν καταστρεψάμενος [B] Δαρείου καὶ Ξέρξου χαλεπώτερος καὶ μᾶλλον ἀλαζὼν φανείς, ἐπειδὴ τῆς ἐκείνων ἀρχῆς κατέστη κύριος, τούτοις ἁλόντες τοῖς βέλεσιν ἄρδην ἀπώλοντο Πέρσαι, Μακεδόνες, ὁ τῶν Ἀθηναίων δῆμος, Συρακούσιοι, τὰ Λακεδαιμωνίων τέλη, Ῥωμαίων στρατηγοὶ καὶ ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς αὐτοκράτορες μυρίοι. πολὺ μῆκος ἂν γένοιτο πάντας ἀπαριθμουμένῳ τοὺς διὰ πλοῦτον καὶ νίκας καὶ τρυφὴν ἀπολομένους· ὅσοι δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν δυσπραγιῶν ἐπικλυσθέντες δοῦλοι [C] μὲν ἀντ᾽ ἐλευθέρων, ταπεινοὶ δὲ ἀντὶ γενναίων καὶ σφόδρα εὐτελεῖς ἀντὶ τῶν πρόσθεν σεμνῶν ἅπασιν ὤφθησαν, τί με χρὴ νῦν ὥσπερ ἐκ δέλτου μεταγράφοντα καταλέγειν; εἰ γὰρ ὤφελεν ὁ τῶν ἀνθρώπων βίος ἀπορεῖν παραδειγμάτων τοιούτων. ἀλλ᾽ οὔτε ἐστὶν οὔτ᾽ ἂν γένοιτό ποτε τῶν τοιούτων ἐνδεὴς παραδειγμάτων, ἕως ἂν τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων διαμένῃ γένος. (Yet it is nothing wonderful to withstand Fortune when she is merely hostile, but much more wonderful is it to show oneself worthy of the favours she bestows. By her favours the greatest of kings, the conqueror(390) of Asia was ensnared, and showed himself more cruel and more insolent than Darius and Xerxes, after he had become the master of their empire. The shafts of her favours subdued and utterly destroyed the Persians, the Macedonians, the Athenian nation, Spartan magistrates, Roman generals, and countless absolute monarchs besides. It would be an endless business to enumerate all who have fallen victims to their wealth and victories and luxury. And as for those who, submerged by the tide of their misfortunes, from free men have become slaves, who have been humbled from their high estate after all their splendour and become poor and mean in the eyes of all men, what need now to go through the list of them as though I were copying it from a written record? Would that human life afforded no such instances! But it does not nor ever will lack such, so long as the race of man endures.)