Macedonia, or anywhere else in the world.  Surely it is not localities that give either good fortune or unhappiness of any sort, but each man makes for himself both country and happiness always and everywhere.  This is what Camillus had in mind when he was glad to dwell in Ardea; this is the way Scipio reckoned when he lived his life out without grieving in Liternum.  What need is there to mention Aristides or to cite Themistocles, men whom exile rendered more esteemed, or Anni[44] ... or Solon, who of his own accord left home for ten years?

“Therefore do you likewise cease to consider irksome any such thing as pertains neither to our physical nor to our spiritual nature, and do not vex yourself at what has happened.  For to us belongs no choice as I told you, of living as we please, but it is quite requisite for us to endure what the Divinity determines.  If we do this voluntarily, we shall not be grieved:  if involuntarily, we shall not escape at all what is fated and we shall lay upon ourselves besides the greatest of ills,—­distressing our hearts to no purpose.  The proof of it is that men who bear good-naturedly the most outrageous fortunes do not regard themselves as being in any very dreadful circumstances, while those that are disturbed at the lightest disappointments feel as if all human ills were theirs.  And, among people in general, some who handle fair conditions badly and others who handle unfavorable conditions well make their good or ill fortune appear even in the eyes of others to be of precisely the same nature as they figure it to themselves. [-27-] Bear this in mind, then, and be not cast down by your present state, nor grieve if you learn that the men who exiled you are flourishing.  In general the successes of men are vain and ephemeral, and the higher a man climbs as a result of them the more easily, like a breath, does he fall, especially in partisan conflicts.  Borne along in a tumultuous and unstable medium they differ little, or rather not at all, from ships in a storm, but are carried up and then down, now hither, now yon; and if they make the slightest error, they sink altogether.  Not to mention Drusus or Scipio or the Gracchi or some others, remember how Camillus the exile later came off better than Capitolinus, and remember how much Aristides subsequently surpassed Themistocles.

“Do you, then, as well, entertain a strong hope that you will be restored; for you have not been expelled on account of wrong doing, and the very ones who drove you forth will, as I take it, seek for you, while all will miss you. [-28-] But if you continue in your present state,—­as give yourself no care about it, even so.  For if you lean to my way of thinking you will be quite satisfied to pick out a little estate on the coast and there carry on at the same time farming and some historical writing, like Xenophon, like Thucydides.  This form of learning is most lasting and most adaptable to every man, every government, and exile brings a leisure