ABSTRACT
For every profession philosophy has appropriate percepts, beginning with the king. There came one day to Musonius a king of Syria, for those times there were kings subject to the Roman empire. Musonius addressed him thus: 'You ought to be a philosopher as much as him. Your wish is to protect and benefit fellow-men; to do that, you must know what is good and what is evil. A king too must understand Justice; for wars and revolts come about because men quairel about their rights. Two precepts in particular are addressed to kings. First, that they should encourage friends who will speak the truth to them. Even Augustus Caesar needed this lesson; bitterly as he lamented the deaths of Agrippa and Maecenas, he would not have allowed them to speak frankly had they lived. The second, that they should practise clemency, following the example of Julius Caesar, who destroyed the evidence upon which he might have punished his enemies.
