Warnings against advancement

Epictetus, Book IV, 1:

When a man gain's Caesar's friendship, does he stop being hindered or constrained, does he live in peace and happiness?...So step up, sir, and tell us, when did you sleep more soundly, now or before you became intimate with Caesar? 'By the gods, stop mocking my condition. You don't know what agonies I endure. I can't even fall off to sleep before someone comes and announces, "The emperor is up already, and about to make his appearance," and then I am harassed by one worry and crisis after another...He says that if he's not invited to dine with Caesar, he's an emotional wreck; and if he is invited he behaves like a slave asked to sit beside his master, anxious the whole time lest he do or say something gauche. Is he afraid that, like a slave, he'll get whipped? He should be so lucky. As befits a personage as lofty as a friend of Caesar, he's afraid his head will be chopped off...

...in a word, which life would you prefer, the present or the previous one? I could swear that there is no one so crude or forgetful that they don't actually regret their fortune in precise proportion to how close to Caesar they've become.'