KINGSHIP 103and barbarians, the armies and private citizens were in mutual con
cord.^81
So Philo claims to have found the ideal ruler realized in both Augus
tus and Tiberius. Indeed he represents the Romans in official circles as
fully acquainted with the royal philosophy and aware of the necessity of
living up to it. From this point of view he contrasts Gaius with the mag
nificent performances of his predecessors. Gaius has not only failed to
follow their example, he insists, but has thus failed in spite of explicit
precept. For Philo sees fit to idealize the highly dubious character of
Macro, in spite of his admitted lack of sagacity, and to make him into
that wise and philosophic counsellor of royalty whom philosophers al
ways were advising kings to find and follow if the kings could not
themselves be sages. Macro appears in Philo's description almost ridicu
lously devoted to the task of making Gaius into the model king. Gaius
must first be made to look and act the part, Macro thinks. Accordingly
when he saw him asleep at a banquet he would go and waken him,
partly for Gaius' protection and partly for the sake of what was proper
for royal dignity. He would nudge him if he was misconducting him
self by looking excitedly at the dancers, or dancing with them; or if
Gaius were laughing out like a schoolboy at low or scurrilous mimes
instead of smiling with restraint in superior fashion (oeMvorepov); or if
he showed himself to be carried away by the music of singers and
dancers to the extent of sometimes singing with them.^82
When he reclined beside Gaius at a banquet Macro, according to
Philo, would preach to him as follows:
You ought not to be like any of the people here, or any other men, in respect
to what strikes the eye or the ear or any of the other senses, but you ought to
excel in every aspect of your life as much as you are marked off from the rest
of mankind in your good fortune. For it would be strange for the ruler of
earth and sea to be conquered by singing and dancing or ribald jesting, or the
like, and not always and everywhere to bear in mind that he is the ruler, like
a shepherd or keeper of a flock, and take to himself whatever is beneficial,
whether found in word or deed.... When you are present at a contest,
whether theatrical, gymnastic, or horseracing, pay not so much attention to
what is done as to the correctness with which they do it, while you reason
- Legat., 8.
- Ibid., 42, somewhat paraphrased. On Gaius* lasciviousness and especially his love of the
atrical singing and dancing see Suetonius, C. Caligula, passim, especially n, 54; Dio Cassius,
LIX, ii, 5; v, 5.