De moderatione iustitiae et clementiae principis
The Physician-Prince
A ruler must balance the severity of justice with the tenderness of charity, acting like a physician who treats the body politic with both medicine and surgery.
These things must be tempered in him for the sake of the public good. The prince, therefore, should hold to what everyone ought to hold: 'Let no one seek what is his own, but what belongs to others.' Yet the way he shows this affection—embracing his subjects as brothers with the arms of charity—is kept within the limits of moderation. For he loves his brothers in such a way that he corrects their errors medicinally; he recognizes flesh and blood in them, but in such a way that he subjects them to the rule of the spirit. After all, it's the custom of physicians to treat diseases they can't cure with poultices and milder medicines by applying more severe ones, like fire or iron. They never use severe treatments unless they've despaired of achieving health through milder ones. Likewise, when authority isn't enough to cure the vices of inferiors with a gentle hand, it rightly pours the bitterness of punishment into the wounds, raging with a pious cruelty against the wicked while securing the safety of the good. But who has ever been able to amputate the limbs of his own body without pain? He feels pain, therefore, when he's called upon to demand vengeance for pressing sins, yet he carries it out with an unwilling hand. A ruler has no left hand; when the members of the body—of which he is the head—are in pain, he serves the law with sadness and groaning. When Philip heard that a certain Phicias, a good soldier, had turned against him because he was destitute and could barely feed his three daughters, and was receiving no help from the king, his friends warned him to be on his guard against the man. 'What,' Philip asked, 'if I had a diseased part of my body—would I cut it off, or would I rather cure it?' He then called Phicias to him in private, learned about his domestic struggles, provided him with enough money, and found him to be a better and more faithful man than he had been before he was thought to be an enemy. For as Lucius says: A ruler should be mature in character and one who follows more moderate counsel; he should act like a doctor who treats diseases—now by draining what is congested, now by restoring what is empty—and who soothes pain now with cautery, now with poultices. Furthermore, he should be approachable in his speech, generous in his favors, and maintain the dignity of his authority in his character. For kind words and a gracious tongue win a reputation for benevolence. Acts of kindness extort the most faithful and constant love even from the hardest of hearts, and they cherish and strengthen the one they have won over. And to such dignity, the reverence of the subjects is owed.
The Wisdom of Trajan
Using the example of Trajan and the metaphor of a harpist, the author illustrates how a ruler maintains harmony through moderation and the avoidance of excessive force.
Trajan, the best of the pagan emperors, gave a remarkable response when his friends criticized him for being too accessible—more so than an emperor should be. He said he wanted to be the kind of emperor to private citizens that he would have wanted an emperor to be to him if he were a private citizen. Because of this, and prompted by the report of Pliny the Younger—who at that time was designated as a persecutor of the Church among other judges—he revoked the sword of persecution against the martyrs and softened his edict. He might have acted more gently toward the faithful had he not been urged to destroy that sect—which public opinion considered superstitious and an enemy of true religion—by the laws and examples of his predecessors, the advice of those considered wise, and the authority of the judges. I don't entirely commend the justice of a man who didn't know Christ, but I do excuse his fault, for he was moved by the pressure of others and by his own natural piety to show mercy and kindness. He was naturally gentle toward everyone, and stern only toward the few whom it would have been wrong to spare; so much so that during his entire reign, only one of the city's senators or nobles was condemned, even though many were found to have gravely offended him. However, that man was condemned by the senate without Trajan's knowledge. He used to say it was insane for someone with sore eyes to prefer gouging them out rather than healing them. He also used to say that if fingernails are too sharp, they should be trimmed, not torn off. For if a harpist and other musicians take such great care to correct the fault of a straying string, and to make it sound in harmony with the others, creating a most beautiful consonance from those that were discordant—not by breaking the strings, but by tightening or loosening them proportionally—with how much care should a ruler moderate things, now with the rigor of justice, now with the relaxation of mercy, so that he might make his subjects like those in harmony within a house, and through the ministry of peace and works of charity, make them one perfect and greatest harmony? It's certain that it's safer for strings to be slackened too much than to be stretched too tight. A craftsman can fix slack strings and bring them back to their proper tone, but once a string snaps, no amount of skill can repair it. Indeed, if you demand a sound that isn't there, you're stretching them in vain, and you'll often reach nothing at all much faster than you'll reach the sound you're demanding too harshly. The moralist says: A prince is slow to punish, quick to reward, and grieves whenever he is forced to be harsh. One belongs to justice, the other to mercy. These are so necessary for a prince that anyone who claims a position of leadership—or any office at all—without them is only mocking himself, while also inviting the laughter, contempt, and hatred of others. “Let mercy and truth not leave you,” he says; “bind them around your throat and write them on the tablets of your heart, and you'll find grace and good discipline before God and people.” For grace is owed to mercy, and discipline to justice. Certainly, the grace and love of one's subjects—which divine grace produces—is the best tool for getting anything done.
The Calm of the Judge
True justice requires a ruler to remain emotionally detached and composed, as demonstrated by Plutarch's disciplined correction of his servant.
But love without discipline is ineffective, because when the spur of justice is removed, the people dissolve into lawlessness. He therefore meditates constantly on wisdom, and from it he works justice in such a way that the law of mercy is always on his tongue; and he tempers mercy with the rigor of justice so that his tongue speaks judgment. By virtue of his office, justice is turned into judgment, and this is so necessary that he isn't permitted to be idle, lest he forfeit the honor conferred upon him. For the honor of a king loves judgment, and he restrains the faults of those who do wrong with the calm moderation of his mind. It is said that Plutarch wrote a book on the moderation of magistrates titled 'Archigramaton,' in which he instructed the magistrates of his city in patience and the cultivation of justice, both through his words and his examples. He had a servant, a wicked and stubborn man, who was nonetheless exceptionally well-educated in the liberal arts and quite practiced in philosophical debates. It happened that, for some fault or other, Plutarch ordered his tunic to be stripped off and for him to be whipped. He had begun to be whipped rather harshly, yet he denied the fault, saying that he had done nothing wrong and had committed no crime, and he complained that he had earned such a whipping through many services. Finally, when he saw it wasn't working, he began to shout. While being beaten, he stopped complaining, groaning, and crying out, and instead started throwing serious, reproachful words at Plutarch. He told him that this wasn't how a philosopher should behave, and that it was shameful for him to lose his temper, especially since he had often lectured on the evil of anger and had written a beautiful book about patience. He added that it was disgraceful for him to contradict his own teaching through his actions, because by losing his composure and letting himself be swept away into a fit of rage, he was punishing an innocent man with many blows. To this, Plutarch replied slowly, gently, and with the utmost gravity: "Do you think I'm angry just because you're being beaten?" "Is it my anger if you're simply receiving what you owe?" "Do you judge me to be corrupted or corrected by anger based on my face, my voice, my color, or even my words?" "I don't think my eyes are fierce, my expression is troubled, I'm shouting wildly, foaming at the mouth, turning red, saying anything shameful or regrettable, or trembling or acting out in anger at all." "In case you didn't know, these are all the usual signs of anger." At the same time, turning to the one who was doing the beating, he said: "In the meantime, while he and I are debating, you keep doing your job; and without my anger, suppress this servant's stubbornness, and teach the guilty party to repent rather than argue." So says Plutarch, in whom there is no small amount of wisdom left for all who hold positions of authority.
Read the original Latin
quae debent in eo ad utilitatem rei puhlicae contemperari. Obtineat ergo in principe quod debet in omnibus obtinere: Nemo quae sua sunt quaerat sed quae aliorum. Verumtamen ipsius affectionis modus, quo caritatis brachiis subiectos ut fratres amplexatur, moderationis limitibus clauditur. Sic et enim fratres diligit, quod errores eorum medicinaliter corrigit; sic in eis carnem agnoscit et sanguinem, ut ea spiritus subiciat ditioni. Medicorum utique consuetudo est ut morbos, quos fomentis et leuioribus medicinis curare nequeunt, grauioribus adhibitis igne puta uel ferro curent. Nec umquam utuntur grauibus, nisi cum leuium beneficio desiderata sanitas desperatur; sic et potestas cum inferiorum uitia mansueta manu curare non sufficit, penarum acrimoniam dolens recte uulneribus infundit, et pia crudelitate seuit in malos, dum bonorum incolumitas procuratur. Sed quis sine dolore proprii corporis membra ualuit amputare? Dolet ergo cum exigentibus culpis uindictam exposcitur, eam tamen peragit inuita dextra.
Sinistram namque non habet princeps et in cruciatu membrorum corporis, cuius ipse caput est, legi tristis et gemens famulatur. Philippus, cum audisset Phiciam quendam bonum pugnatorem alienatum animo sibi, quod tres filias inops uix aleret, nec a rege adiuuaretur, monentibus amicis ut eum caueret: Quid, inquit Philippus, si haberem partem corporis egram, abscideremne potius quam curarem? Deinde familiariter secreto elicitum Phiciam accepta difficultate necessitatum domesticarum pecunia sufficienter instruxit ac meliorem fidelioremque habuit quam fuerit antequam crederetur ofiensus. Vt enim ait Lucius: Principem senem moribus esse oportet et qui moderatiora sequatur consilia, et uicem gerere medicorum qui morbos curant nunc ex inanitione in obpletis, nunc refectione in uacuis, et dolorem sedant nunc cauterio, nunc fomentis. Praeterea sit in uerbo afFabilis, munificus in beneficiis, et integrae auctoritatis seruet in moribus dignitatem. Famam namque benignitatis conciliat sermo bonus et lingua gratiosa. Amorem fidelissimum et cond stantissimum etiam a durioribus extorquent beneficia et, quem fecere, fouent et solidant. Et monmi dignitati debetur reuerentia subditorum.
Egregie quidem Traianus, gentilium optimus Augustorum, arguentibus eum amicis, quod in omnes nimium et ultra quam imperatorem deceat communis esset, respondit: Se talem uelle imperatorem esse priuatis, quales impeX5 ratores sibi esse priuatus optasset. Vnde et relatu Plinii Secundi ammonitus, qui tunc inter ceteros iudices persecutor Ecclesiae destinatus erat, a necc martirum persecutionis gladium reuocans, edictum temperauit. Et forte cum fidelibus egisset mitius, nisi decessorum suorum legibus et exemplis et prudentum (ut putabatur) consilio et auctoria tate iudicum ad delendam sectam hominum opinione publica superstitiosam et uerae religionis inimicam inuitaretur. Nec tamen usquequaque commendo iustitiam hominis qui Christum ignorabat, sed culpam ipsius extenuo, qui aliorum excedebat impulsu et ad beneficium miserendumque propriae pietatis agebatur instinctu, natura clemens in onmes, austerus in paucos quibus parcere nefas esset; adeo ut totius imperii sui curriculo unus dampnatus sit senatorum nobiliumue urbis, licet inueniantur plurimi in ipsum grauiter deliquisse. Hic autem a senatu dampnatus est, ignorante Traiano. Dicebat enim insanum esse qui, oculos si habeat lippientes, eos malit effodere quam curare. Aiebat et ungues, si acriores fuerint, resecandos esse, non auellendos. Si enim citharedus aliique fidicines multa diligentia procurant, quomodo oberrantis cordae compescant uitium, et eandem aliis unanimem reddant, faciantque dulcissimam dissidentium consonantiam, cordis non ruptis sed tensis proportionaliter uel remissis; quanta soUicitudine oportet principem moderari nunc rigore iustitiae, nunc remissione clementiae, ut subditos faciat quasi unanimes esse in domo et quasi discordantium in ministerio pacis et caritatis operibus unam faciat perfectam et maximam armoniam?
Hoc autem certum est, quia tutius est cordas remitti intensius quam protendi. Remissarum namque intensio artificis peritia conualescit et debitam soni reddit gratiam; sed quae semel rupta est, nullo artificio reparatur. Profecto, si sonus exigitur quem non habent, frustra tenduntur et saepe citius uenitur ad nullum quam ad eum qui nimis exigitur. Ait ethicus: Est piger ad penas princeps, ad praemia uelox, quique dolet, quotiens cogitur esse ferox. Alterum namque iustitiae, alterum pietatis est, quae adeo principi necessariae sunt, ut quisquis sine illis non modo principatum sed quemlibet magistratum uendicat, frustra se ipsum irrideat, sed et aliorum in se prouocat risum contemptum et odium. Misericordia, inquit, et ueritas non te deserant, circumda eas gutturi tuo et scribe eas in tabulis cordis tui, et inuenies gratiam et disciplinam bonam coram Deo et hominibus. Gratia namque debetur misericordiae, iustitiae disciplina. Vtique gratia et amor subiectorum, quam diuina producit gratia, optimum instrumentum est omnium gerendorum.
Sed et amor sine disciplina non proficit, quia cessante iustitiae stimulo populus se in illicita resoluit. Meditatur ergo iugiter sapientiam, et de ea sic iustitiam operatur, quod lex elementiae semper est in lingua eius; et sie clementiam temperat rigore iustitiae, quod lingua eius iudicium loquitur. Oflficio namque eius iustitia in iudicium uertitur, ea quidem necessitate, ut uacare non liceat quin seipsum sibi collato destituat honore. Honor etenim regis iudicium diligit et delinquentium culpas tranquilla mentis moderatione compescit. De magistratuum moderatione librum fertur scripsisse Plutarcus, qui inscribitur Archigramaton, a et magistratum suae urbis ad patientiam et iustitiae cultum uerbis instituisse dicitur et exemplis. Hic autem seruum habebat, hominem nequam et contumacem sed liberalibus disciplinis eruditum egregie et exercitatum satis in disputationibus philosophicis. Contigit ut ob nescio quam noxam ei tunicam detrahi, caedique iuberet Plutarcus. Loro coeperat uerberari duriuscule, cum tamen infitiaretur culpam, dicens se nichil egisse mali, nichil sceleris admisisse, et obloquebatur se multis demeruisse oteequiis ut uapularet.
Postremo, cum non proficeret, uociferari coepit et inter uapulandum iam non querimonias et gemitus eiulatusque sed uerba seria et obiurgatoria iaculabatur; nec ita se habere PlutarcTim, ut philosophum deceret; irasci turpe esse, ei praesertim, qui de malo irae saepius dissertauerat librumque pulcherrimum scripserat as de patientia. Adiciebat esse probrosum, quod doctrinam suam moribus impugnabat, eo quod a mentis integritate prolapsus, effusus et prouolutus in iram, plurimis plagis mulctaret innoxium. Ad haec Plutarcus, lente quidem et leniter et summa cum grauitate: Numquid quod uapulas tibi irasci uideor? Estne ira mea, si a me debitum recipis? Ex uultune meo an ex uoce an ex colore an etiam ex uerbis ira me corruptum intelligis aut correptum? Michi quidem neque oculi opinor truces sunt neque os turbidum, neque immaniter clamo, neque in spumam ruboremque feruesco, neque pudenda dico aut penitenda, neque omnino trepido ira aut gestio. Haec omnia quippe, si nescis, signa irarum esse solent. Et simul ad eum qui caedebat conuersus: Interim, inquit, dum ego atque hic disputamus, tu hoc age; et sine iracundia mea retunde seruilem contumaciam, et iniquum penitere doceas quam iurgare.
Sic Plutarcus, In quo nonnichil eruditionis relictum est omnibus qui in sullimitate sunt.
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