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[93]
Again: suppose that a millionaire is making some1
wise man his heir and leaving him in his will a
hundred million sesterces;2 and suppose that he has
asked the wise man, before he enters upon his inheritance, to dance publicly in broad daylight in the
forum; and suppose that the wise man has given his
promise to do so, because the rich man would not
leave him his fortune on any other condition; should
he keep his promise or not? I wish he had made
no such promise; that, I think, would have been in
keeping with his dignity. But, seeing that he has
made it, it will be morally better for him, if he
believes it morally wrong to dance in the forum, to
break his promise and refuse to accept his inheritance rather than to keep his promise and accept it
—unless, perhaps, he contributes the money to the
state to meet some grave crisis. In that case, to
[p. 371]
promote thereby the interests of one's country, it
would not be morally wrong even to dance, if you
please, in the forum.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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