A series that climbs and collapses at the end. Twenty words, one figure: an ascending catalogue of prey — a fly, a poor hare (λαγίδιον), a sprat in a hand-net (ἀφύη), piglets (συίδια), bears, Sarmatians. Formally the series rises in difficulty and dignity; in fact it is built so that the last member brings the whole scale down: if the spider with its fly is ridiculous, so, by the same measure, is the conqueror with his nation. The diminutive suffixes (λαγίδιον, συίδια) mix in the mockery in advance.

Aimed at himself, not at others. The key to the passage is that behind "Sarmatians" stands Marcus himself: his victory over the Sarmatian Iazyges brought him the title Sarmaticus. This is not an indictment of other men's generals but the erasure of his own triumph: the emperor sets his honorific in a row with the spider's fly. Cf. 9.29, where Alexander, Philip and Demetrius are summoned and dismissed in one movement.

λῃσταί, if you examine the teachings. The conclusion is put as a question: οὗτοι γὰρ οὐ λῃσταί — "are these not robbers?" The condition is exact: EXERCISEἐὰν τὰ δόγματα ἐξετάζῃς, "if you examine their principles." It is not deeds that are judged but δόγματα — what a man holds to be valuable, and on what ground. Outwardly hunting, war and triumph differ; by the principle under examination ("seize what is another's and be proud of the seizure") they are one. This is EXERCISEdefinition in its social application: as at 6.13 the purple is reduced to shellfish blood, so here victory is reduced to brigandage (cf. 3.11).

Pride as the thing analysed. μέγα φρονεῖ — "thinks great things of himself." It is DOGMApride, and not the hunting or the war as such, that is under attack: the spider catches its fly by nature and is not deceived — the deceived one is he who derives a personal worth from the catch. The governing discipline is assent (the valuation), the sustaining one desire.