03_Wilson_201_221_201_221 10/07/15 12:41 Pagina 214 214 WALTER T. WILSON 214 manity that contributes to the moral formation of its practitioners: “Who could wrong a human being when he found himself so gently and humanely disposed towards other non-human creatures?” (Esu carn. 996A) 47. In the sentence preceding this question, he describes the development of such a disposition as a means of evqismo,j (“habitutation”) in the virtue of humanity. Opinions of this sort were sometimes voiced in conjunction with arguments against an- imal sacrifice and the consumption of animal flesh, arguments that were associated especially with the legacy of Pythagoras 48. Ac- cording to Iamblichus, for example, he ordered abstinence from living beings for many reasons, but mainly because the practice tended to promote peace. For once human be- ings become accustomed (evqizo,menoi) to loathe the slaughter of an- imals as lawless and contrary to nature, they would no longer make war, thinking it even more (polu.. ma/llon) unlawful to kill a human being 49. (Vit. Pythag. 30.186) The author’s working assumption is that habituation to the hu- mane treatment of animals shapes more humane patterns of conduct towards other people. A similar sort of argument a minori ad maius is employed by Porphyry in Abst. 3.26.6: “One who abstains from all animate creatures, even those that do not make a social contract with him, will abstain all the more (pollw/| ma/llon) from harm to his own kind” 50. He goes on to interpret comportment guided by these principles as a means of safeguarding the practice of justice, a virtue that Philo closely aligned with humanity (e.g., Philo, Mos. 2.9; Decal. 164; Spec. 2.63). Such comparisons, then, indicate that in 47 Cf. Inim. util. 91C; Sollert. 959E-960A; É. DE FONTENAY, “La philan- thrôpia à l’épreuve des bêtes”, L’animal dans l’antiquité (eds. B. CASSIN – J.-L. LABARRIÈRE) (Paris 1997) 281-298. 48 DIERAUER, Tier und Mensch, 285-293; SORABJI, Animal Minds, 170-194. 49 Translation from J. DILLON – J. HERSHBELL, Iamblichus. On the Pythagorean Way of Life (SBLTT 29; Atlanta, GA 1991) 195. Cf. BERTHELOT, Philanthrôpia, 294-297. 50 Translation from G. CLARK, Porphyry. On Abstinence from Killing An- imals (London 2000) 97. Porphyry may be drawing on the theories of Theophrastus, who is mentioned by name in Abst. 3.25.1 as well as in 2.32.3, shortly after a passage that parallels 3.26.6 (i.e., 2.31.3). See J. BOUFFARTIGUES – M. PATILLON, Porphyre. De l’abstinence (Paris 1979) II, 25-26, 29.