Ohiectio novi Stoici
The Vanity of the Stoic
The author critiques a Stoic whose pursuit of wisdom is undermined by his worldly vanity and obsession with material gain.
There still remains for you the question of that Stoic of yours, whom I saw lingering in Apulia for quite some time, so that after many vigils, long fasts, countless labors, and sweat—and with so much complaining about his miserable and useless exile—he brought back to Gaul the bones of Virgil rather than his wisdom. For that Louis was also asking whether you could do any of the things you were least likely to do. Once you had admitted this, he offered you a thousand gold pieces to do it. If you happened to refuse them, he ordered them to be multiplied by any sum you liked, so that you would do what could easily be done. Finally, he broke into an impudent and shameless laugh, either not understanding or despising the power of the union of opposites, and pointed you out to those standing by as a ridiculous figure, because you had refused such a large sum of money for nothing.
The Limits of Human Knowledge
The author reflects on the nature of necessity and contingency, ultimately embracing intellectual humility over false certainty.
You're piling up a great many things in this way. Yet I'm not driven by these goads to believe that all things are necessary because they are known, or that nothing contingent can be known because they aren't necessary. Clearly, I seem a mere dabbler compared to him, who, in the distress of this difficulty, confessed in his Attic Nights that he didn't know whether he was a cicada.
Read the original Latin
Restat tibi illius Stoici tui quaestio, quem in Apulia diutius morantem uidi, ut post multas uigilias, longa ieiunia, labores plurimos et sudores, tanto infelicis et inutilis exilii questu, in Gallias Virgilii ossa potius quam sensum reportaret. Quaerebat et enim Ludowicus ille, an posses aliquid facere eorum quae minime facturus es. Quod cum admisisses, mille tibi aureos offerebat dum illud efficeres. Quos si forte respueres, eos tibi quantalibet summa multiplicari iubebat, ut quod leuiter fieri potest efficias. Tandem impudenti et impudico soluebatur cachinno, uim coniunctionis oppositorum non intelligens aut contempnens, et te ridiculum assistentibus digito ostendebat, qui gratis tantam pecuniam contempsisses. Congeris in hunc modum quamplurima. Non tamen his stimulis urgeor, ut omnia necessaria credam quia sciuntur, aut nichil contingentium sciri quia necessaria non sunt. Plane sciolus paululum mihi cum peripatheticis prae illo uideor, qui huius difficultatis angustia in Athicis Noctibus conf essus est se nescire se non esse cicadam.
Policraticus companion
Study the argument weekly; pray the tradition daily
Pair the outline with the Chosen Portion app, which serves short daily portions from the same royal devotional tradition — free on iOS.
John of Salisbury argued that rulers must keep the law of God before their eyes daily; Chosen Portion gives modern readers that same daily discipline in five minutes a morning.
- 8 weeks, one book per week, with the 3-4 key chapters flagged in each
- Discussion questions usable for a reading group from week one
- A daily 5-minute companion portion in the app alongside your weekly study