Freedom of Speech is the Most Beautiful Thing in the World

The Cynics avoided friendships because friends might restrict their freedom. Lucian represents a Cynic as saying to one proposing to become a Cynic; "With wife and children and country you will not concern yourself… You will live alone in the midst (of the city), holding communion with none, admitting neither friend nor guest, for such would undermine your power"; (Vitarum auctio 10). "They (Cynics) consider friends as insincere and faithless, consequently they trust no one" (Philodemus, On the Stoics).

In general the Cynic conception of freedom was freedom from restraint rather than the ability to act in accordance with the individual will, but it also included freedom of speech (παρρησία), which they regarded as their special privilege. "Being asked what was the most beautiful thing in the world, he (Diogenes) replied, 'Freedom of speech'"(D. L. 6, 69). The Cynics seemed to think that they had a special mission or privilege in rebuking rulers and public officials- an impression probably based on the tradition of the meeting of Alexander and Diogenes. "Therefore see what Diogenes himself says and writes, 'Diogenes, it is in your power to speak both with the king of the Persians and with Archidamus the king of the Lacedaemonians as you please’” (Epictetus 4, 1, 156).

This is illustrated by a story which Lucian tells of Demonax; "His remark to the proconsul was at once clever and cutting. This man was one of the sort that use pitch to remove hair from their legs and whole bodies. When a Cynic mounted a stone and charged him with this, accusing him of effeminacy, he was angry, had the fellow hauled down and was on the point of confining him in the stocks or even sentencing him to exile. But Demonax, who was passing by, begged him to pardon the man for making bold to speak his mind in the traditional Cynic way. The proconsul said, 'Well, I will let him off for you this time, but if he ever dares to do such a thing again, what shall be done to him? “'Have him depilated,' said Demonax” (Demonax 50). The Cynic claim of special privilege in this respect was not always respected at Rome, for Cassius Dio Cocceianus tells us that in the 1st century A.D. Cynics were sometimes exiled, sometimes flogged and even beheaded for reviling public officials (Historia Romanorum 66, 13-16).

Image: Fictional portrait of Lucian by William Faithorne, 17th Century
Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons