50 PHILO'S POLITICS
hold management (economy) and government (polity) are quite inter
changeable, so much so that he could say of the "best government" that
it was "one administered like a household by the best man."^30 Such
usage continued on into hellenistic speech, as appears for example in
Dinarchus and Polybius.^31
In having experience as a household manager then, as in making
himself a shepherd, Joseph was being trained ideally for the duties of
the politicus. And it should be emphasized that Philo makes clear that
Joseph was appointed to rulership not by man but by nature. Like every
true hellenistic ruler, Joseph was conceived as having his office because
of the character nature had given him, and because nature or God
ideally sees to it that the man with the natural gift for rulership is given
the political power.
Philo now goes on to discuss the third great characteristic possessed
by Joseph, his continence (iyKparzia) or chastity (Kaprepia).^32 He tells
with verve the story of the infatuation of Potiphar's wife, and puts a
long speech into Joseph's mouth praising the unique chastity of the He
brews, a section obviously inserted as propaganda for the gentile reader.
So, he concludes, the politicus must be controlled in his relations with
women. Wars have frequently been brought about by lust for women,
while chastity brings peace and stability. What Philo is doing is to find
in the story of Joseph another familiar ideal virtue of the hellenistic
king, continence, self-mastery (aurapKcia), or self-control (ow^poouv/)),
virtues which were almost always included in a description of the true
kingly nature.^33 It is probable that he gives the limited interpretation of
the term as implying preeminently sexual control, because that is the
problem suggested by the story of Potiphar's wife. But Philo could
easily have generalized from this single aspect had he not himself been
in that deplorable but historically important line of ethical development
which came ultimately to associate the word moral in a unique sense
with sexual repression.
Philo next proceeds to develop the injustice and blind impetuosity of
Joseph's master in imprisoning him without a hearing, and uses the in-
- Politics, 1288a 33 ff.
- Dinarchus 102, 29; Polybius IV, xxvi, 6, and IV, lxvii, 9.
- ]os„ 40-57. Philo, in contrast to Aristode, Eth. Nic, 1145a 33 ff., uses the two words
synonymously. - See my "Hellenistic Kingship," 86 ff. See also Dio Chrys., Orat., I, I4f. Dio also points
out that the king is never a pleasure seeker: ibid., §21.