94 PHILO'S POLITICS
such it is rulership with logos (ouv Aoyu), or in harmony with "right
reason" (op6oc Aoyoc), the Law of Nature; with this statement goes an
other, that kingship is rulership according to law (apx*) VOJJIMOC;).^39 The
kingly office is a divine gift especially associated with law, so that, as
every man should consecrate his gifts to God, the king should dedicate
his legal authority and leadership.^40 By his administration the good
ruler imitates God in putting harmony, equality, social-mindedness
(KOIVUVICC), and order into the state.^41
There are a great many additional details which show Philo's complete familiarity with and acceptance of the current theory of kingship
as formulated by the Neo-Pythagorean fragments. All property is in the
royal name, not just that which is collected in taxes and which lies in
the king's treasury. For even the private savings of every subject are
properly the king's. So all are his servants, though the king treats the
court servants as such in a distinctive way. Ultimately all are servants,
and apparently slaves, of the king.^42 The proverbial right of the king to
the lion's share appears,^43 though the true king, far from taking advan
tage of this right to rob his subjects, will in time of need consider even
the property peculiarly his own as not his own but public property.^44
The king is apt to enjoy founding new cities. He does so in accordance
with the king's great love of honor (Kara noAA/jv ^lAorinlav paoiAecjq).
Love of honor (4>iAoTt|j[a), a familiar part of any description of the king,
is here explained:
The king claims autocratic power, and is at the same time magnificent in his
ideas (TO <pp6vv\ia Aapnpoc), and so adds fresh luster to his good fortune.^45
The good king is merciful and considerate toward every individual who
comes to him, particularly toward the unfortunate, the widow, and
- Fug., 10. 40. Mut., 221.
- Spec./vt, 187 f. 42. Plant., 54-57.
- Opif., 56 f. Cf. Diotogenes, ap. Stobaeus, IV, vii, 26; Ecphantus, ap. ibid., IV, vii, 64. See
my "Hellenistic Kingship," 70, 76. - Spec, iv, 159. Cf. Diotogenes* king (see preceding note) who will be xoivcovaxixdc;
jteol xa xQiinaxa. - Opif., 17; cf. Mos., i, 275. The term is used in praise of Ptolemy Philadelphus in Mos., ii,
- The love of being honored, which was one of the most obvious characteristics of an ancient
king, was always having to be rationalized by those idealizing monarchy. So Dio Chrys. (Orat.,
I, 27) says: cpd6xi^iog &v x-fyv qwoav xal eld&c; oxi xovg dyaftovc; jteqwxaaiv ol avfrQCOJioi
xijiav, ftcxov gkni&i xijuacrftai fiv {wi& dx6vxcov ^ Jiaoa uiaovvxcov cpdCa? xvYXdveiv.
Diotogenes wresdes with the same word in Stob., IV, vii, 62. The word could of course be used
in a good sense as ambition.