Why are cabinet ministers Liz Truss and Dominic Raab squabbling like children over access to grace-and-favour Chevening? Because they know they are, ultimately, powerless.
The Greek statesman Solon (c. 590 bc) made the point long ago: ‘Those who have influence with monarchs are like pebbles used in calculations: for [depending on their place on the board] they can one moment represent a very large number, the next a very small one. So a monarch treats each of his advisers now as important and famous, now as valueless.’ Result: they seek to inflate their self-importance — while they can.
No one understood that better than the Stoic philosopher Epictetus (d. ad 135). Having been the slave of Epaphroditus, the secretary of Nero, he had personal experience of imperial life, and he likened men in Nero’s court to children at parties scrambling for nuts and figs.
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