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Xerxes and the Exultation of Power
<html><p xmlns:dct=“http://purl.org/dc/terms/”><a rel=“license” href=“http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/”><img src=“http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png” style=“border-style: none;” alt=“Public Domain Mark” /></a><br />This work (by <a href=“https://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki” rel=“dct:creator”>https://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki</a>), identified by <a href=“http://meninpublishing.org” rel=“dct:publisher”><span property=“dct:title”>Frank Redmond</span></a>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</p></html>
Authored by Frank Redmond, 2011
Seest thou how God with his lightning smites always the bigger animals, and will not suffer them to wax insolent, while those of a lesser bulk chafe him not? How likewise his bolts fall ever on the highest houses and the tallest trees? So plainly does He love to bring down everything that exalts itself. - Herodotus Book 7.10
Read the whole passage HERE.
This passage reminds me of Epicurus' admonition to “live inconspicuously” [lathe biosas]. If attention is not brought upon oneself, then it is much harder to bring you down. If you live as minimally as possible, then your smaller footprint becomes much harder to find.
Epicurus' goal was to eliminate anxiety and reduce fear. Herodotus foreshadows the lessons of this goal by showing that Xerxes' ambition will bring nothing but pain and suffering to his people and the Greeks. Xerxes in the end fails and his ambitions are crushed. If only more people understood this idea; the world would be a much better place.