Cyrus and cambyses

1 passages · search this phrase →

Often appears with: wise man · greed and the love of money · greed and conquest · conquest, plunder, and captives · alexander

Usually: argument (1) · ambition and its cost (1) · censure (1) · indignation (1)

L. Annaeus Seneca on Benefits primary

Lucius Annaeus Seneca · c. 59-65 CE (approx.)
BOOK I. The prevalence of ingratitude--How a benefit ought to be bestowed--The three Graces--Benefits are the chief bond of human society--What we owe in return for a benefit received--A benefit consists not of a thing but of the wish to do good--Socrates and > BOOK VII. (4/22)

He argues greed is common to rulers like Alexander’s imitators and the Persian houses of Cyrus and Cambyses, claiming only the wise man truly has everything without needing conquest or retention.

have seized or given away, or how great a part of the world may pay him tribute; such a man must be in need of as much as he desires. III. This was not the vice of Alexander alone, who followed with a fortunate audacity in the footsteps of Bacchus and Hercules, but it is common to all those whose covetousness is whetted rather than appeased by good fortune. Look at Cyrus and Cambyses and all the royal house of Persi…