L. Annaeus Seneca on Benefits
own slave, he does not consider from whom he receives it, but what he
receives.
XVIII. It has, however, been doubted by Hecaton and some other writers,
whether a slave can bestow a benefit upon his master. Some distinguish
between benefits, duties, and services, calling those things benefits
which are bestowed by a stranger--that is, by one who could discontinue
them without blame--while duties are performed by our children, our
wives, and those whom relationship prompts and orders to afford us help;
and, thirdly, services are performed by slaves, whose position is such
that nothing which they do for their master can give them any claim upon
him....
Besides this, he who affirms that a slave does not sometimes confer
a benefit upon his master is ignorant of the rights of man; for the
question is, not what the station in life of the giver may be, but what
his intentions are. The path of virtue is closed to no one, it lies open
to all; it admits and invites all, whether they be free-born men, slaves
or freed-men, kings or exiles; it requires no qualifications of family
or of property, it is satisfied with a mere man. What, indeed, should we
have to trust to for defence against sudden misfortunes, what could--a
noble mind promise to itself to keep unshaken, if virtue could be lost
together with prosperity? If a slave cannot confer a benefit upon his
master, then no subject can confer a benefit upon his king, and no
soldier upon his general; for so long as the man is subject to supreme
authority, the form of authority can make no difference. If main force,
or the fear of death and torture, can prevent a slave from gaining any
title to his master's gratitude, they will also prevent the subjects of
a king, or the soldiers of a general from doing so, for the same things
may happen to either of these classes of men, though under different
names.
Yet men do bestow benefits upon their kings and their generals;
therefore slaves can bestow benefits upon their masters. A slave can be
just, brave, magnanimous; he can therefore bestow a benefit, for this
is also the part of a virtuous man. So true is it that slaves can bestow
benefits upon their masters, that the masters have often owed their
lives to them.
XIX. There is no doubt that a slave can bestow a benefit upon anyone;
why, then, not upon his master? "Because," it is argued, "he cannot
become his master's creditor if he gives him money. If this be not so,
he daily lays his master under an obligation to him; he attends him when
on a journey, he nurses him when sick, he works most laboriously at the
cultivation of his estate; yet all these, which would be called benefits
if done for us by anyone else, are merely called service when done by
a slave. A benefit is that which some one bestows who has the option of
withholding it:--now a slave has no power to refuse, so that he does
not afford us his help, but obeys our orders, and cannot boast of having
done what he could not leave undone." Even under these conditions I
shall win the day, and will place a slave in such positions, that for
many purposes he will be free; in the meanwhile, tell me, if I give you
an instance of a slave fighting for his master's safety without regard
to himself, pierced through with wounds, yet spending the last drops of
his blood, and gaining time for his master to escape by the sacrifice of
his life, will you say that this man did not bestow a benefit upon his
master because he was a slave? If I give an instance of one who could
not be bribed to betray his master's secrets by any of the offers of
a tyrant, who was not terrified by any threats, nor overpowered by any
tortures, but who, as far as he was able, placed his questioners upon a
wrong scent, and, paid for his loyalty with his life; will you say
that this man did not confer a benefit upon his master because he was a
slave? Consider, rather, whether an example of virtue in a slave be not
all the greater because it is rarer than in free men, and whether it be
not all the more gratifying that, although to be commanded is odious,
and all submission to authority is irksome, yet in some particular cases
love for a master has been more powerful than men's general dislike to
servitude. A benefit does not, therefore, cease to be a benefit because
it is bestowed by a slave, but is all the greater on that account,
because not even slavery could restrain him from bestowing it.
XX. It is a mistake to imagine that slavery pervades a man's whole
being; the better part of him is exempt from it: the body indeed is
subjected and in the power of a master, but the mind is independent, and
indeed is so free and wild, that it cannot be restrained even by this
prison of the body, wherein it is confined, from following its own
impulses, dealing with gigantic designs, and soaring into the infinite,
accompanied by all the host of heaven. It is, therefore, only the body
which misfortune hands over to a master, and which he buys and sells;
this inward part cannot be transferred as a chattel. Whatever comes
from this, is free; indeed, we are not allowed to order all things to be
done, nor are slaves compelled to obey us in all things; they will not
carry out treasonable orders, or lend their hands to an act of crime.
XXI. There are some things which the law neither enjoins nor forbids; it
is in these that a slave finds the means of bestowing benefits. As long
as we only receive what is generally demanded from a slave, that is
mere service; when more is given than a slave need afford us, it is a
benefit; as soon as what he does begins to partake of the affection of
a friend, it can no longer be called service. There are certain things
with which a master is bound to provide his slave, such as food and
clothing; no one calls this a benefit; but supposing that he indulges
his slave, educates him above his station, teaches him arts which
free-born men learn, that is a benefit. The converse is true in the case
of the slave; anything which goes beyond the rules of a slave's duty,
which is done of his own free will, and not in obedience to orders, is a
benefit, provided it be of sufficient importance to be called by such a
name if bestowed by any other person.
XXII. It has pleased Chrysippus to define a slave as "a hireling for
life." Just as a hireling bestows a benefit when he does more than he
engaged himself to do, so when a slave's love for his master raises him
above his condition and urges him to do something noble--something which
would be a credit even to men more fortunate by birth--he surpasses the
hopes of his master, and is a benefit found in the house. Do you think
it is just that we should be angry with our slaves when they do less
than their duty, and that we should not be grateful to them when they do
more? Do you wish to know when their service is not a benefit? When the
question can be asked, "What if he had refused to do it?" When he does
that which he might have refused to do, we must praise his good will.
Benefits and wrongs are opposites; a slave can bestow a benefit upon his
master, if he can receive a wrong from his master. Now an official has
been appointed to hear complaints of the wrongs done by masters to their
slaves, whose duty it is to restrain cruelty and lust, or avarice in
providing them with the necessaries of life. What follows, then? Is it
the master who receives a benefit from his slave? nay, rather, it is
one man who receives it from another. Lastly, he did all that lay in his
power; he bestowed a benefit upon his master; it lies in your power to
receive or not to receive it from a slave. Yet who is so exalted, that
fortune may not make him need the aid even of the lowliest?
XXIII. I shall now quote a number of instances of benefits, not all
alike, some even contradictory. Some slaves have given their master
life, some death; have saved him when perishing, or, as if that were
not enough, have saved him by their own death; others have helped
their master to die, some have saved his life by stratagem. Claudius
Quadrigarius tells us in the eighteenth book of his "Annals," that
when Grumentum was being besieged, and had been reduced to the greatest
straits, two slaves deserted to the enemy, and did valuable service.
Afterwards, when the city was taken, and the victors were rushing wildly
in every direction, they ran before every one else along the streets,
which they well knew, to the house in which they had been slaves, and
drove their mistress before them; when they were asked who she might
be, they answered that she was their mistress, and a most cruel one, and
that they were leading her away for punishment. They led her outside the
walls, and concealed her with the greatest care until the fighting
was over; then, as the soldiery, satisfied with the sack of the city,
quickly resumed the manners of Romans, they also returned to their
own countrymen, and themselves restored their mistress to them. She
manumitted each of them on the spot, and was not ashamed to receive her
life from men over whom she had held the power of life and death. She
might, indeed, especially congratulate herself upon this; for had
she been saved otherwise, she would merely have received a common and
hackneyed piece of kindness, whereas, by being saved as she was, she
became a glorious legend, and an example to two cities. In the confusion
of the captured city, when every one was thinking only of his own
safety, all deserted her except these deserters; but they, that they
might prove what had been their intentions in effecting that desertion,
deserted again from the victors to the captive, wearing the masks of
unnatural murderers.
They thought--and this was the greatest part of the service which they
rendered--they were content to seem to have murdered their mistress, if
thereby their mistress might be saved from murder. Believe me, it is
the mark of no slavish soul to purchase a noble deed by the semblance of
crime.
When Vettius, the praetor of the Marsi, was being led into the presence
of the Roman general, his slave snatched a sword from the soldier who
was dragging him along, and first slew his master. Then he said, "It is
now time for me to look to myself; I have already set my master free,"
and with these words transfixed himself with one blow. Can you tell me
of anyone who saved his master more gloriously?
XXIV. When Caesar was besieging Corfinium, Domitius, who was shut up in
the city, ordered a slave of his own, who was also a physician, to give
him poison. Observing the man's hesitation, he said, "Why do you delay,
as though the whole business was in your power? I ask for death with
arms in my hands." Then the slave assented, and gave him a harmless drug
to drink. When Domitius fell asleep after drinking this, the slave went
to his son, and said, "Give orders for my being kept in custody until
you learn from the result whether I have given your father poison or
no." Domitius lived, and Caesar saved his life; but his slave had saved
it before.
XXV. During the civil war, a slave hid his master, who had been
proscribed, put on his rings and clothes, met the soldiers who were
searching for him, and, after declaring that he would not stoop to
entreat them not to carry out their orders, offered his neck to their
swords. What a noble spirit it shows in a slave to have been willing
to die for his master, at a time when few were faithful enough to
wish their master to live! to be found kind when the state was cruel,
faithful when it was treacherous! to be eager for the reward of
fidelity, though it was death, at a time when such rich rewards were
offered for treachery!
XXVI. I will not pass over the instances which our own age affords. In
the reign of Tiberius Caesar, there was a common and almost universal