Public reputation

5 passages · search this phrase →

Often appears with: public finance and debt · justice as a virtue · waiting to judge the dead · three classes of goods · the fear of death · suffering and downfall · sacrilege accusations · roman patronage · regulus family scandal · rank, class, and social order · pythagorean teaching · political legitimacy and consent

Usually: detachment (4) · dialogue (3) · curiosity (2) · indignation (2) · commentary or gloss (1) · letter or document (1) · confronting death (1) · crisis of belief (1) · grief and loss (1) · injustice endured (1)

Quotable

“This man whom thou hast sought to arrest With threats and warrants this long while, the wretch Who murdered Laius—that man is here.” Sophocles, Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Col · observation

“He passes for an alien in the land But soon shall prove a Theban, native born.” Sophocles, Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Col · insight

“Therefore wait to see life’s ending ere thou count one mortal blest; Wait till free from pain and sorrow he has gained his final rest.” Sophocles, Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Col · precept

The Republic primary

Plato · c. 380 BCE
BOOK I. > BOOK II. (1/20)

Glaucon pushes back, asking whether being just is better than being unjust in itself, not just for rewards; he classifies goods into harmless pleasures, instrumental results, and disagreeable reward-driven goods.

With these words I was thinking that I had made an end of the discussion; but the end, in truth, proved to be only a beginning. For Glaucon, who is always the most pugnacious of men, was dissatisfied at Thrasymachus’ retirement; he wanted to have the battle out. So he said to me: Socrates, do you wish really to persuade us, or only to seem to have persuaded us, that to be just is always better than to be unjust? I s…

Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone primary

Sophocles · c. 429 BCE–401 BCE
Scene: Thebes. Before the Palace of Oedipus. (7/22)

The Chorus discusses the chase for Laius’s murderer as foretold by Apollo, then Creon enters defending himself against Oedipus’s charge and protesting that the accusation harms his name and honor.

TEIRESIAS. This day shall be thy birth-day, and thy grave. OEDIPUS. Thou lov’st to speak in riddles and dark words. TEIRESIAS. In reading riddles who so skilled as thou? OEDIPUS. Twit me with that wherein my greatness lies. TEIRESIAS. And yet this very greatness proved thy bane. OEDIPUS. No matter if I saved the commonwealth. TEIRESIAS. ’Tis time I left thee. Come, boy, take me home. OEDIPUS. Aye, take him qui…

Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone primary

Sophocles · c. 429 BCE–401 BCE
Scene: Thebes. Before the Palace of Oedipus. (22/22)

Oedipus insists Creon arrange his exile, Creon replies the gods must grant it, the chorus warns that Oedipus should not be judged until death, and the scene ends with reflection on his past fame and present ruin.

OEDIPUS. Send me from the land an exile. CREON. Ask this of the gods, not me. OEDIPUS. But I am the gods’ abhorrence. CREON. Then they soon will grant thy plea. OEDIPUS. Lead me hence, then, I am willing. CREON. Come, but let thy children go. OEDIPUS. Rob me not of these my children! CREON. …

The Letters of the Younger Pliny, First Series — Volume 1 primary

Pliny the Younger (Publius Caecilius Secundus) · c. 96–113 CE (composition of the letters collected as First Series, Volume 1)
Book of his correspondence, and which show us Pliny acting as Governor of the province of Pontus and Bithynia. He had been sent there because the finances of many of the cities had been allowed to fall into a shocking state, and because the Emperor wanted a man whom he could thoroughly trust to put them straight. No doubt Pliny, while flattered at this proof of Trajan's regard, felt the severance from his friends and ordinary pursuits which this term of absence necessitated. But compare his attitude with that of Cicero as Governor of Cilicia! Cicero crawled on the outward journey, and when he reached his destination he counted the days to his return like a bullied school-boy counts the days to the end of the term. He writes to his friends in the capital, begging and praying of them that they will prevent his being obliged to stay for a second year. All his thoughts are of Rome and how to return there. The wretched provincials bore him to distraction; he yearns for the wider arena of the capital in which to play the swelling part to which he aspires. There is, in short, not a trace in Cicero's letters from his province to show that he took the slightest interest in his new surroundings. Pliny displays a far different spirit. He reminds us more of the Colonial Governor of our own day. He is interested in the past history and traditions of the country, he is anxious that the cities shall have good water supplies, good baths, good theatres, good gymnasia. He is for ever suggesting to the Emperor that he should send architects to consult with him on some important public work. And these letters disclose to us what a wonderful system of organised government the Roman Empire possessed. Pliny even writes to Trajan to ask permission that an evil-smelling sewer may be covered over in a town called Amastria. If all the governors of the provinces wrote home for orders on such points, the Emperor must indeed have been busy, and some of his replies to Pliny show that Trajan hinted very plainly that a governor ought to have some initiative of his own. None the less, the tenour of this correspondence proves that Trajan held the threads of government very jealously in his own hands. When Pliny suggested the establishment of a small fire-brigade in Nicomedia, where the citizens had stood enjoying the aesthetic beauty of a disastrous fire which destroyed whole streets, instead of putting it out, Trajan sharply vetoed the suggestion, on the ground that the Greeks were factious people and would turn even a fire-brigade to illicit and seditious purposes. > BOOK IV. (3/22)

Pliny tells Attius Clemens about Regulus’s shocking display of grief for his dead son—slaughtering pets at the pyre—and notes how Regulus’s wealth and eccentricity win visitors.

4.III.--TO ANTONIUS. That you, like your ancestors of old, have been twice consul, that you have been proconsul of Asia with a record such as not more than one or two of your predecessors and successors have enjoyed--for your modesty is such that I do not like to say that no one has equalled you--that in purity of life, influence and age, you are the principal man of the State,--all these things inspire respect and …

The Consolation of Philosophy primary

Boethius · c. 523–525 CE
BOOK I. > BOOK I. (8/11)

Boethius refutes allegations of sacrilege against himself, argues that public opinion judges by outcomes rather than merit, predicts more informers and injustice, and begins a lament about the ruin of the innocent.

and undefended, at a distance of near five hundred miles away.[C] Oh, my judges, well do ye deserve that no one should hereafter be convicted of a fault like mine! 'Yet even my very accusers saw how honourable was the charge they brought against me, and, in order to overlay it with some shadow of guilt, they falsely asserted that in the pursuit of my ambition I had stained my conscience with sacrilegious acts. And y…