In 829 Emperor Theophilus of Byzantium watched a beautiful merchant ship sail into the harbor of Constantinople. When he asked who owned the ship, he was enraged to learn it belonged to his wife. He snarled at her, “God made me an emperor, you would make me a ship captain!” and ordered that the ship be burned at once. For centuries, Byzantine historians praised Theophilus for this act.7 The classical philosophers would have done so too.
