Understanding makes man master of the beasts
Next he raises against himself what is said as if on behalf of human beings, that the irrational animals were fashioned for their sake. And he says: “If someone should call us rulers of the animals, because we hunt the other animals and feast on them, we shall say: Why were we not rather made for their sake, since they hunt us and eat us? What is more, we need nets and weapons and many men to help us, and dogs, against the beasts we hunt; but to them nature has given weapons at once and of themselves, and easily makes us subject to them.”
And here too you see in what way understanding has been given to us as a great help, stronger than any weapon the beasts seem to have. At any rate we, who are much weaker in body than the animals and very much smaller than some of them, master the beasts by our understanding, and hunt even elephants, huge as they are. Those that are by nature able to be tamed we bring under our own civilised life; and against those that are not, or that do not seem to offer us any use from taming, we take our stand with such security for ourselves that, when we wish, we keep such great beasts shut up, and when we need the food that comes from their bodies, we kill them just as we do the animals that are not wild. So the Creator has made all things servants of the rational animal and of its natural understanding.
We need dogs for some purposes, for example to guard flocks of sheep or herds of cattle or herds of goats, or houses; for others we need oxen, as for farming; and for others we use beasts of burden or animals that carry loads. So too the race of lions and bears and leopards and boars and the like is said to have been given to us to exercise the seeds of courage in us.
Greek
Ἑξῆς δὲ τούτοις ἑαυτῷ ἀνθυποφέρει τὰ ὡς ὑπὲρ ἀνθρώπων λεγόμενα, ὅτι δι᾿ αὐτοὺς τὰ ἄλογα ζῷα δεδημιούργηται. καί φησιν ὅτι. εἴ τις ἡμᾶς λέγοι ἄρχοντας τῶν ζῴων. ἐπεὶ ἡμεῖς τὰ ἄλλα ζῴα θηρῶμέν τε καὶ δαινύμεθα. φήσομεν ὅτι τί δ᾿ οὐχὶ μᾶλλον ἡμεῖς δι᾿ ἐκεῖνα γεγόναμεν. ἐπεὶ ἐκεῖνα θηρᾶται ἡμᾶς καὶ ἐσθίει; ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡμῖν μὲν ἀρκύων καὶ ὅπλων δεῖ καὶ ἀνθρώπων πλειόνων βοηθῶν καὶ κυνῶν κατὰ τῶν θηρευομένων· ἐκείνοις δ᾿ αὐτίκα καὶ καθ᾿ αὑτὰ ἡ φύσις ὅπλα δέδωκεν. εὐχερῶς ἡμᾶς ὑπάγουσα ἐκείνοις. καὶ ἐνταῦθα δὲ ὁρᾷς. τίνα τρόπον ἡ σύνεσις μέγα βοήθημα ἡμῖν δέδοται καὶ παντὸς ὅπλου κρεῖττον. οὗ δοκεῖ ἔχειν τὰ θηρία. ἡμεῖς γοῦν οἱ πολλῷ τῷ σώματι τῶν ζῴων ἀσθενέστεροι τινῶν δὲ καὶ εἰς ὑπερβολὴν βραχύτεροι κρατοῦμεν διὰ τὴν σύνεσιν τῶν θηρίων καὶ τοὺς τηλικούτους ἐλέφαντας θηρεύομεν. τὰ μὲν πεφυκότα τιθασσεύεσθαι ὑποτάσσοντες τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ ἡμερότητι. κατὰ δὲ τῶν μὴ πεφυκότων ἢ μὴ δοκούντων ἡμῖν χρείαν παρέχειν ἐκ τῆς τιθασσείας οὕτω μετὰ τῆς ἡμετέρας ἱστάμεθα ἀσφαλείας. ὥστε. ὅτε μὲν βουλόμεθα. ἔχομεν τὰ τηλικαῦτα θηρία κατακεκλεισμένα. ὅτε δὲ χρῄζομεν τροφῆς τῆς ἀπὸ τῶν σωμάτων αὐτῶν. οὕτως αὐτὰ ἀναιροῦμεν ὡς καὶ τὰ μὴ ἄγρια τῶν ζῴων. δοῦλα οὖν πάντα τοῦ λογικοῦ ζῴου καὶ τῆς φυσικῆς αὐτοῦ συνέσεως κατεσκεύασεν ὁ δημιουργός. καὶ εἰς ἄλλα μὲν κυνῶν χρῄζομεν. φέρ᾿ εἰπεῖν. εἰς φυλακὴν ποιμνίων ἢ βουκολίων ἢ αἰπολίων ἢ οἰκιῶν. εἰς ἄλλα δὲ βοῶν οἶον εἰς γεωργίαν. εἰς ἄλλα δ᾿ ὑποζυγίοις χρώμεθα ἂ ἀχθοφόροις. οὕτως εἰς γυμνάσιον τῶν τῆς ἀνδρείας ἐν ἡμῖν σπερμάτων δεδόσθαι ἡμῖν λέγεται τὸ λεόντων καὶ ἄρκτων παρδάλεών τε καὶ συῶν καὶ τῶν τοιούτων γένος.