A short Plutarch essay, addressed to Cornelius Pulcher, arguing that a sensible person can turn enemies into a source of self-improvement, vigilance, and moral discipline.
De Capienda Ex Inimicis Utilitate ("On Profiting from One's Enemies") is a brief practical essay from Plutarch's Moralia, cast as a letter to a statesman friend, Cornelius Pulcher, condensing material Plutarch says he already covered at length in his Political Precepts. Its premise is Xenophon's claim, endorsed at the outset, that a sensible person derives benefit even from enemies, since no political life is ever free of rivalry and envy. Plutarch treats the enemy as a resource the way farmers and hunters exploit even useless trees and wild beasts, or the way the sea, though undrinkable, still feeds fish and carries ships.
The essay works through concrete mechanisms. Because an enemy watches you more closely than any friend does, ferreting out faults the way vultures scent decay, his scrutiny forces you to live cautiously and keep your conduct blameless, much as a city under constant threat of war becomes disciplined. Plutarch then turns to verbal abuse: if you must criticize an enemy, do it in a way that also purges the matching fault from your own soul, following Plato's habit of asking himself "Surely I am not like that?" whenever he saw base behavior. Being abused by an enemy is likewise useful, since enemies, unlike flattering friends, will voice truths about you that need to be heard, as when Hiero learned from a taunting foe, not his wife, that his breath smelled bad.
The essay closes with anecdotes of Roman and Greek statesmen (Nasica, Scaurus, Cato, Themistocles, Onomademus) who dealt justly or restrainedly with enemies, arguing that habits of fairness and self-control practiced against enemies carry over into one's dealings with friends, and that envy is best "drained off" onto rivals the way garlic planted beside roses draws off what would otherwise spoil the flowers. The final point is that watching an enemy clearly, without the blindness love produces toward the beloved, lets you learn from both his failures and his successes, becoming better by avoiding his vices and by imitating whatever virtues underlie his advantages.
“it belongs to a man of sense to derive benefit even from his enemies”
— De Capienda Ex Inimicis Utilitate · read this chapter →
“Your enemy is always awake, lying in wait over your affairs, seeking a handle from every quarter, and he patrols your whole life”
— De Capienda Ex Inimicis Utilitate · read this chapter →
“Whenever Plato encountered people behaving disgracefully, he used to say to himself, "Surely I am not like that?"”
— De Capienda Ex Inimicis Utilitate · read this chapter →
“For just as skilled farmers make their roses and violets better by planting garlic and onions alongside them”
— De Capienda Ex Inimicis Utilitate · read this chapter →
“love is blind concerning the beloved”
— De Capienda Ex Inimicis Utilitate · read this chapter →
It is a short essay, addressed to a friend named Cornelius Pulcher, arguing that a sensible person can extract real benefit from having enemies. Plutarch shows how an enemy's constant scrutiny, criticism, and even open abuse can push you toward greater self-discipline, honesty about your own faults, and restraint of envy.
Use your enemy's hostile attention as a spur to live carefully and blamelessly, since he watches your faults more closely than any friend. Also examine yourself before criticizing him, learn from any true criticism he levels at you, and bear insults in silence as a form of discipline that also helps you handle friends and family calmly.
Because friendship, in his view, has grown "tongue-tied" about frank criticism, flattering more than admonishing, whereas enemies will tell you unwelcome truths, as when a taunting rival, not his own wife, alerted Hiero to his bad breath. Enemies also are not blinded by affection the way friends are, so they perceive real faults more clearly.
He cites Roman and Greek figures such as Scipio Nasica warning that Rome's security bred complacency, Cicero's remark on Caesar restoring Pompey's statues, Scaurus refusing to hear a slave's secret information against his own prosecution target Domitius, and Cato's transparent conduct while prosecuting Murena for bribery.
Plutarch compares directing envy toward enemies rather than friends to a farming technique where planting garlic and onions next to roses and violets draws off the soil's foul, pungent matter, making the flowers grow better. Likewise, venting competitive envy on an enemy keeps it from poisoning relationships with friends and kin.
No. He approvingly cites the Chian statesman Onomademus, who, after winning a civil conflict, urged sparing some political opponents rather than expelling them all, warning that people who lose all enemies eventually turn to quarreling with their own friends.
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