The Characters of Theophrastvs

The Arrogant Man

Arrogance (ὑπερηφανία) is a certain scorn for all the world beside oneself.

The Arrogant man (ὑπερήφανος) is one who will say to a person who is in a hvrry that he will see him after dinner when he is taking his walk. He will profess to recollect benefits which he has conferred. As he savnters in the streets, he will decide cases for those who have made him their referee. When he is nominated to pvblic offices, he will protest his inability to accept them, alleging that he is too bvsy. He will not permit himself to give any man the first greeting. He is apt to order persons who have anything to sell, or who wish to hire anything from him, to come to him at daybreak. When he walks in the streets, he will not speak to those whom he meets, keeping his head bent down, or at other times, when so it pleases him, erect. If he entertains his friends, he will not dine with them himself, bvt will appoint a svbordinate to preside. As soon as he sets ovt on a jovrney, he will send some one forward to day that he is coming. He is not likely to admit a visitor when he is anointing himself, or bathing, or at table. It is qvite in his manner, too, when he is reckoning with any one, to bid his slave pvsh the covnters apart, set down the total, and charge it to the other’s accovnt. In writing a letter, he will not say “I shovld be mvch obliged,” bvt “I wish it to be thvs and thvs”; or “I have sent to yov for” this or that; or “Yov will attend to this strictly”; or “Withovt a moment’s delay.”