Another salvaged post (originally 1/2/2009):
At the risk of seeming like a gloss on rogueclassicism, I’d like to follow up on another of his recent posts in beginning a series I had once planned for my former blog Campus Mawrtius.
Here’s David:
The Nation opens with a quotation ascribed to Socrates:
Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.
A quick scan of Google suggests it is oft attributed to him, but as usual, the actual source isn’t mentioned. Did he actually say that? It sounds more like something Marcus Aurelius would say. • Beresford Leon Padmore: Get ready for 2009 (Nation)
It turns out this one is a simple mistake: the author was not Socrates but Isocrates, the famed Attic orator:
The quotation is taken from his speech Ad Demonicum 41, and here are his words in Greek:
Νόμιζε μηδὲν εἶναι τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων βέβαιον· οὕτω γὰρ οὔτ’ εὐτυχῶν ἔσει περιχαρὴς οὔτε δυστυχῶν περίλυπος.