Emperor and Slave

Ζήνων δέ, ἐπεὶ τὴν βασιλειαν τοῦ παιδός οἱ τελευτήσαντος μόνος περιεβάλετο, ὥσπερ οὐκ οἰόμενος τῶν ὅλων ἐγκρατὴς γενέσθαι εἰ μὴ καὶ πὰσαις ταῖς ἐπιούσαις ἡδοναῖς μετ’ ἐξουσίας ἐπεξέλθοι, τοσοῦτον ἐκ προοιμίων ἑαυτον ταῖς ἐπιθυμιῶν ἐκδέδωκεν ὡς μηδὲν αὐτὸν ἐπισχεῖν τῶν ἀπρεπῶν τε καὶ ἀθέσμων, ἀλλ’ οὔτως τούτοις ἐμπολιτεύσασθαι ὡς τὸ σκοτίως ταῦτα καὶ ἐν παραβύστῳ γίγνεσθαι χαμερπὲς εἰναι νομίζειν, τὸ δέ γε ἀναφανδὸν καὶ ὥσπερ ἐξ ἀπόπτου βασιλικὸν καὶ αὐτοκράτορι μονῳ πρέπον, κακῶς καὶ δουλοπρεπῶς κρίνας. Οὐκ ἐξ ὠν γὰρ ἑτέρων κρατεῖν πέφυκεν ὁ αὐτοκράτωπ γνωρίζεται, ἀλλ’ ἐξ ὠν ἑαυτοῦ πρῶτον ἀρχει τε καὶ κρατεῖ, μηδενὶ τῶν ἀτόπων παρείσδυσιν ἑαυτῷ διδούς, οὔτω δὲ ἀνάλωτος ταῖς ἀκρασίας ὑπάρχων ὡς ζῶν ἄγαλμα τῶν ἀρετῶν εἰναι πρὸς μίμησιν, ἐκπαιδεύων τὸ ὑπήκοον. Ὁ δὲ ταὶς ἡδοναῖς ἑαυτόν ἀνοιγνυς λέληθε κατὰ σμικρὸν δοῦλος αἰσχιστος δορυάλωτος ἀνάποινος γιγνόμενος δεσποτείας συχνὰς ἀμείβων ἰσα τοῖς ἀρχείοις τῶν δούλων, εἴπερ ἀναρίθμητοι τῶν ἡδονῶν αἱ δέσποιναι καθεστᾶσιν, ἥκιστα πέτας τῆς συνεχείας τε καὶ τῆς σφῶν ἀλληλουχίας ἔχουσαι· ἀει τῆς ἐν χερσὶν ἡδονῆς οὐχ ἰσταμένης, ὑπέκκαυμα δὲ καὶ προοίμιον ἐτέρας γιγνομενος ἔως ἠ αὐτοκράτωρ τις ὄντως γιγνόμενος τὴν ὀχλοκρατείαν τῶν ἡδονῶν ξενηλατήσοι, βασιλεύων λοιπὸν οὐ τυραννούμενος, ἠ μέχρι τελευταίας ῥοπῆς δουλεύων τὰ ἐν Ἅιδου καταλάβοι.   Εὐαγρίος Σχολαστικός, Ἐκκλησιαστίκη Ἱστορία

Zeno, who on the passing of his son became sole emperor, as if thinking his power was incomplete without a strenuous pursuit of every available pleasure, so much gave himself to the attractions of desire that he hesitated at nothing even in those things improper and illicit but rather he was such a subject of them that he thought to do such things in darkness and in a corner was slavish but to do them openly was to be seen as kingly and most properly an emperor, a wretched and servile judgement; for a ruler is not known by what power he has over others, but by his own rule and power over himself, so that nothing improper to him slips in, and being thus impregnable to weakness, he is like a living statue of virtue for the imitation and the education of his subjects. But he who leaves himself open little by little becomes a base slave, an unransomable captive, regularly passing from one slave owner to another; since pleasures are a countless attendance of mistresses linked in succession, the pleasure at hand not lasting but being only a kindle and prelude to another, until one with power either expels the mob rule of pleasures, being a king rather than one who is tyrannized, or he is a slave until by death he seizes on the things of Hades. Evagrius Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History