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[p. 51]
where lust holds despotic sway self-control has no
place, and in pleasure's realm there is not a single
spot where virtue can put her foot.
“Imagine,” he begged, to make his meaning
clearer, “imagine a person enjoying the most
exquisite bodily pleasure to be had. No one will
doubt, I think, that such a man, while in the midst
of this enjoyment, is incapable of any mental action,
and can accomplish nothing requiring reason and
reflection. Hence there is nothing so hateful and
so pernicious as pleasure, since, if indulged in too
much and too long, it turns the light of the soul into
utter darkness.” My Tarentine host Nearchus, who
remained steadfast in his friendship to the Roman
people, told me that, according to tradition, Archytas
uttered these words while conversing with Pontius the
Samnite, father of the man who defeated the consuls
Spurius Postumius and Titus Veturius at the Caudine
Forks.1 Indeed he further told me that Plato the
Athenian was present and heard Archytas deliver this
discourse, and, upon investigation, I find that Plato
did come to Tarentum in the consulship of Lucius
Camillus and Appius Claudius.2
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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