Apophthegmata [Volume 37-38 ed.] 9781442622791

Table of contents :
Contents
Introduction
Dedicatory Epistle
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5
Book 6
Dedicatory Epistle
Book 7
Book 8
Works Frequently Cited
Short-Title Forms for Erasmus’ Works
Index of Classical Persons
Index of Mediaeval and Renaissance Persons
Index of Scriptural References
General Index

Citation preview

COLLECTED WORKS OF ERASMUS

VOLUME 37 and VOLUME 38

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COLLECTED WORKS OF

ERASMUS APOPHTHEGMATA

translated and annotated by Betty I. Knott and Elaine Fantham edited by Betty I. Knott

University of Toronto Press Toronto / Buffalo / London

The research and publication costs of the Collected Works of Erasmus are supported by University of Toronto Press.

c University of Toronto Press 2014 Toronto Buffalo London /

/

Printed in the U.S.A. isbn 978-1-4426-4166-2

Printed on acid-free paper Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Erasmus, Desiderius, –1536 [Works. English] Collected works of Erasmus. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Contents: v. 37–8. Apophthegmata isbn 978-1-4426-4166-2 (v. 37–38) i. Title. pa8500 1974

199'.492

c740-06326x

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for its publishing activities.

de di cat e d t o

Ronald Martin Schoeffel 1936–2013

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Collected Works of Erasmus The aim of the Collected Works of Erasmus is to make available an accurate, readable English text of Erasmus’ correspondence and his other principal writings. The edition is planned and directed by an Editorial Board, an Executive Committee, and an Advisory Committee.

e di t ori al b oa r d William Barker, University of King’s College Alexander Dalzell, University of Toronto James M. Estes, University of Toronto Charles Fantazzi, East Carolina University James K. Farge, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies John N. Grant, University of Toronto Paul F. Grendler, University of Toronto Brad Inwood, University of Toronto James K. Mc Conica, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Chairman † John H. Munro, University of Toronto John O’Malley, Georgetown University Mechtilde O’Mara, University of Toronto Hilmar M. Pabel, Simon Fraser University Jane E. Phillips, University of Kentucky Erika Rummel, University of Toronto Robert D. Sider, Dickinson College James D. Tracy, University of Minnesota Mark Vessey, University of British Columbia

e x e cut i ve com m i t t e e Alexander Dalzell, University of Toronto James M. Estes, University of Toronto Charles Fantazzi, East Carolina University Lynn Fisher, University of Toronto Press Paul F. Grendler, University of Toronto James K. McConica, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies John O’Malley, Georgetown University

Mechtilde O’Mara, University of Toronto Jane E. Phillips, University of Kentucky Erika Rummel, University of Toronto † R.M. Schoeffel, University of Toronto Press, Chairman Robert D. Sider, Dickinson College James D. Tracy, University of Minnesota John Yates, University of Toronto Press

advi s ory c o m m i t t e e Jan Bloemendal, Conseil international asd H.J. de Jonge, Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden Anthony Grafton, Princeton University Ian W.F. Maclean, Oxford University Clarence H. Miller, Saint Louis University John Tedeschi, University of Wisconsin J. Trapman, Conseil international asd Timothy J. Wengert, The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia

These volumes, the last in the Collected Works of Erasmus series to grow from their inception to publication under his supervision, are dedicated to the series originator, mover, and champion, Ron Schoeffel.

Contents

vo l um e 3 7 Introduction xi Dedicatory Epistle 3 Book 1 19 Book 2 154 Book 3 221 Book 4 335 vol um e 3 8 Book 5 455 Book 6 598 Dedicatory Epistle 763 Book 7 765

Book 8 866 Works Frequently Cited 971 Short-Title Forms for Erasmus’ Works 974 Index of Classical Persons 979 Index of Mediaeval and Renaissance Persons 1004 Index of Scriptural References 1006 General Index 1007

Introduction

Erasmus’ Apophthegmata, ‘things well said,’ was dedicated to the fifteenyear old Prince William of Cleves, and Erasmus makes it clear in his letter of dedication that his primary purpose was to provide something of an edifying nature for the moral instruction of young boys in general, and in particular of a young prince destined to rule. This educational function of the text explains the nature of the material that immediately confronts the reader: a succession of sayings many of which exemplify, either directly or by contrast, the virtues of the good ruler and high standards of personal integrity. These potentially instructive sayings are presented individually in short free-standing paragraphs that Erasmus presumably thought would be easily grasped by a young mind and painlessly absorbed without undue boredom. This format was taken from Erasmus’ primary source, the Greek Apophthegmata of Plutarch and was maintained by Erasmus throughout his own collection of Apophthegmata as it grew from a modest two books to eight, drawing on a wide variety of other sources. Much of the content of Erasmus’ collection is unoriginal in so far as the anecdotes are either translated from a Greek source or adapted from a Latin one, with varying degrees of freedom. Erasmus’ own contribution is to be found in miscellaneous comments and explicatory material which he adds to many of them. In the early books these are mostly intended to reinforce the moral message. Erasmus believed that the early years of any educational programme should, with adaptation to the learners’ capacities, inculcate virtue and the abhorrence of vice, a theme he had emphasized years before in a similar work, The Education of a Christian Prince of 1516, dedicated to another young prince, the one born to be the Emperor Charles v. In that treatise, Erasmus in passing (cwe 27 251) specifically recommends Plutarch’s Apophthegmata as conducive to the proper training of the young princely mind, and now, 15 years later in 1531, seeking something to dedicate to young Prince William,

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he offers this collection of sayings and anecdotes which draws in the first instance on that collection of Plutarch.1 He takes from it the sayings of Spartans with which the work opens. These, by the living word, give vividness to the qualities of the ideal ruler set out at length in that earlier treatise. (For the importance of speech for the revelation of character, see eg dedicatory epistle 5–6, and 3.70 with n1 242 below). These include qualities such as self-discipline, putting country before personal advantage, tireless vigilance, considered decisions, dispassionate judgment, magnanimity, firmness without cruelty, absolute integrity, and above all being impervious to flattery. Erasmus had long seen this as the bane of rulers’ courts (see General Index: flattery). He often quotes in his Apophthegmata from Plutarch’s essay How to tell a flatterer from a friend (Moralia 48e–74e), which he had chosen to translate in England in 1513, saying (Ep 271) that he liked it best of all Plutarch’s treatises, and he had sent the Latin translation of the essay in manuscript to the young Henry viii of England. It was published with the first edition of The Education of a Christian Prince. Erasmus also believed that the learning experience should be pleasurable to be effective, so, as the work grew, he included with his ‘worthy’ sayings all kinds of puns and witty retorts, even those emanating from the mouths of parasites and prostitutes. Whatever philosophical justifications he may offer for such inclusions,2 the primary purpose seems to be light relief and entertainment. We should also take into account the role Erasmus intended for his text in language teaching. Not that young William still needed instruction in basic Latin grammar. Erasmus wanted to set before him a model of good writing in Latin and to increase his copia in vocabulary, versatility in grammatical construction, fluency, and supply of illustrative examples (see Introduction xxv–xxvi below). This last was particularly important for the wider audience Erasmus had in mind beyond his dedicatee, for the work, especially in its final form, provides an abundance of quotable anecdote and glimpses of life in the classical world, assembled in one place from a wide variety of sources to most of which his readers would probably not have ready access. It did indeed find a wide readership. It was reprinted three times in 1531 and Erasmus was encouraged by its popularity to produce two subsequent editions in 1532 and 1535, the first of which was enlarged by two new books, 7 and 8, and this last edition was frequently reprinted before the end of the century (see 764 below). ***** 1 See dedicatory epistle 7 n19 below. 2 See dedicatory epistle 14–17 below.

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Book 1 of Erasmus’ Apophthegmata, and most of book 2, are essentially translations from the Greek of the sayings collected in Plutarch’s Moralia 208b–242d – in book 1 Sayings of Spartans (Moralia 208b–232d); in book 2 Sayings of unnamed Spartans (Moralia 232d–236e), Early Spartan customs (Moralia 236f–240b), and Sayings of Spartan women (Moralia 240c–242d), supplemented from other sources. The sayings of the Spartan Chilon with which book 2 concludes are translated from Diogenes Laertius Lives of the Philosophers, again supplemented from elsewhere. For Plutarch, Erasmus had available the important editio princeps of the Moralia (Venice: Aldus et Andreas Asulanus 1509). He had witnessed the preparation of this when he was staying at the house of Aldus in Venice in 1507–8. Armed with this, Erasmus was able to use Plutarch as a major source for the revised Adages and for Parabolae of 1514, and to translate various treatises from Moralia in 1512–14 (and again in 1525–6). In fact, Plutarch becomes his third most-quoted author after Homer and Cicero, and he can never praise him too highly (see dedicatory epistle 6 and 9 below). Erasmus does not seem to have worked specifically on Plutarch’s collection of sayings before embarking on this present work, though his use of it in Lingua of 1525 and the addition of a number of extracts from Sayings of Spartans to the Adages in 1526 show his thoughts turning towards it. Erasmus was, however, unhappy with the quality of Aldus’ printed text of Moralia (for an early complaint in 1513 about its corruptions, see Ep 268:18, also 1.331n 147 below) and he made numerous marginal emendations in his copy. (For details relating to this text, see ter Meere’s edition of Apophthegmata i–iv, asd iv-4 Introduction 13.) In preparing his own Apophthegmata, for the early books Erasmus was also able to use the Latin translations from Plutarch of Francesco Filelfo and Raffaele Regio (see dedicatory epistle 7–8 and nn20 and 21). Latin translations were an important factor in the transmission and interpretation of Greek texts both before and after the texts themselves became available in the original Greek. In later books, Erasmus will use Traversari’s translation of Diogenes Laertius, Giorgio Merula’s Latin version of Dio Cassius for his citations from that author, and Angelus Cospus for Diodorus Siculus. (See Introduction xvi–xvii and xx, dedicatory epistle 6 n17.) The texts translated in books 1 and 2 (like those in books 4 and 5 from Sayings of kings and commanders and Romans) contain much material which is also to be found incorporated into various of Plutarch’s Lives of famous men and also into other parts of the Moralia. A comparison of the Apophthegmata with these other texts often reveals discrepancies of fact or interpretation. Erasmus clearly consulted them as he, in places, made silent adjustments to his translation or added explanatory details (see, for example, 1.13, 1.16–17, 1.77). Nonetheless, in spite of his censures of the author, who-

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ever he was,3 Erasmus mostly accepts the text in front of him and in spite of the freedom which he claims in approaching his sources4 does in these books at least provide a Latin version which for the most part follows the Greek text fairly closely. It has not been judged necessary to analyze comparable passages in the Lives and supply cross-references on every occasion, but only where this seems relevant to Erasmus’ treatment of the section. If the reader wishes to pursue this matter however, the footnotes in, for example, the Loeb text of Plutarch Moralia iii will provide the necessary information. Modern scholarship is divided on the question of the authenticity of Plutarch’s Apophthegmata Laconica (translated in books 1 and 2) and Dicta regum et imperatorum (translated in books 4 and 5). There is as has been said a certain amount of overlap in the content of these and Plutarch’s Lives. It is possible that, as the Preface to Dicta regum claims, Plutarch himself extracted that group of sayings from the Lives and offered them to the Emperor Trajan as a separate work and Erasmus accepts this view.5 As for Apophthegmata Laconica, it could represent a collection of Spartan sayings (in alphabetical order for reference purposes) made by Plutarch himself for use in his other works. Plutarch could, however, have used an already existing collection – he refers in more than one place to collections of sayings attributed to various persons, and the appearance in Greek literature of Spartan sayings not included here indicates a wider tradition. The view that Apophthegmata Laconica is independent of Plutarch is supported not only by the historical errors it contains, not repeated by Plutarch elsewhere, but by its more uncritical pro-Spartan tone compared with corresponding passages in the Lives. Apophthegmata Laconica is listed as number 169 in the ‘Lamprias’ catalogue of Plutarch’s works, but not all the works listed there are genuine.6 Erasmus too thinks that this work is not genuine Plutarch (dedicatory epistle 9 below), but he translates it nonetheless. In fact, although Sayings of kings and commanders actually comes first in Plutarch’s collection of sayings, Erasmus has put the Apophthegmata Laconica first because the Spartans ‘win first prize in apophthegms’ (end of book 3, 334 below). Possibly his doubts about its genuineness developed only as he worked on it. ***** 3 4 5 6

See dedicatory epistle 9 below. See dedicatory epistle 8 below. See dedicatory epistle 5. See Detti dei Lacedemoni, introduzione, testo critico, traduzione e commento a cura di Carlo Santaniello (Naples 1995).

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These Spartan sayings are predominantly noble, admirable, and meant to inspire, but the Spartans also come across as self-righteous, priggish, and the product of a blinkered world-view. The cumulative effect on the reader combined with Ersamus’ insistent moralizing is tedium and exasperation, and one wonders how this first part of the work was received by its young dedicatee, but presumably it was meant to be read only in short bursts. After the somewhat daunting austerity and high-mindedness of Sparta and its warriors and its women, Erasmus has a change of tone, topic, and source, and in book 3 moves to philosophers, starting with the most famous of all, Socrates. This excursus in justified by his idea that Socrates was ‘very like the Spartans.’7 Socrates brings in his train two highly-contrasted philosophers from the next generation: the worldly and pleasure-loving Aristippus from the Greek city of Cyrene in Libya, and the famous Diogenes from Sinope, on the south coast of the Black Sea, the isolationist and often outrageous founder of the Cynic school.8 Socrates himself wrote nothing (see 3.88 and 8.112 below) and is reported by Plato as believing, like Diogenes (see 3.257 below) that written texts were an untrustworthy source for philosophical thinking, but the tradition was rich in anecdote of his spoken word. Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of the Philosophers is Erasmus’ main source in this book, and this was written about five hundred years after Socrates and the others, but Erasmus’ other two main sources were contemporary with Socrates: Plato’s dialogues with their vivid portrayal of Socrates’ philosophical method (see 3.130, 8.198 below) and his character (he was known as ‘the buffoon of Athens,’ see dedicatory epistle 17 below), and Xenophon’s Memorabilia, memoirs of conversations which he, like Plato, had personally heard conducted by Socrates. Xenophon, like Plato, wrote a version of Socrates’ defence against the death sentence for corrupting the young, also a dramatic scene set at a banquet (but not the same symposium that Plato reports). Erasmus will quote from all these together with Plutarch’s Moralia (Plutarch has no collected sayings of Socrates). Diogenes, like Socrates, probably wrote nothing, but his personality too attracted a plethora of anecdotes, many of them demonstrating both his austerity and his disregard of normal conventions, or telling how he confronted and impressed Alexander the Great, so many, indeed, that once Erasmus has adapted the many tales found in Diogenes Laertius, he can still find ***** 7 See note at beginning of book 3, 221 below. 8 For testimonia and fragments of Aristippus and Diogenes see Socraticorum Reliquiae ed Gabriele Giannantoni (Rome 1983) 2.185-285 (reference supplied by a University of Toronto Press reader).

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new ones in other classical authors. Many of the Cynic Diogenes’ sayings are similar to apophthegms of Socrates and a number of sayings are attributed to both in the tradition. In contrast to both Socrates and Diogenes, Aristippus cultivated a life of leisured comfort as the guest of wealthy men and despots. The tradition left a number of stories describing how Aristippus sparred with Plato when both were at the court of Dionysius i, despot of Syracuse. Some readers may regret that we get fewer than seventy stories of the hedonist Aristippus as opposed to two hundred and twenty-five stories about the admirable but harsh Diogenes, though many of the anecdotes show Diogenes to have had a ready if brutal wit.9 The whole book is much less earnest than the previous two, but many of the sayings of Socrates and Diogenes still implicitly convey a moral message. Erasmus did not at first have access to Diogenes Laertius in Greek for this book. For the first edition of Apophthegmata he was dependent for his extracts on the Latin translation originating with Ambrogio Traversari, a straightforward version following the Greek text faithfully as far as possible, even though the translator is often puzzled by its corruptions. Erasmus paraphrased this translation more or less freely. (In the earlier editions of Adages too quotations from Laertius are given in Latin from the same source.) Ambrogio Traversari (c. 1386–1439) was a Greek scholar and theologian, Minister General of the Camaldoese Order, possibly a pupil of Chrysoloras, the pioneer teacher of Greek in Florence at the end of the fourteenth century. He dedicated his Latin translation of Diogenes Laertius to Cosimo de’ Medici in 1433, after about ten years’ work consulting a number of manuscripts in the hope of elucidating the problematic text. It was printed in 1473 (Rome, Georgius Laver, ed Elius Franciscus Marchisius) and again in 1475 (Venice, per Nicolaum Jenson, ed Benedictus Brognolus) and frequently reprinted thereafter, sometimes in corrected or expanded form, for example in 1524 by Valentinus Curio (see below xvii). Froben’s editio princeps of Diogenes Laertius appeared in 1533, based on a Greek manuscript which he acquired in 1532 and which was made available to Erasmus in time for ***** 9 On Diogenes and his image and legend as reported by the Cynics, see the general introduction to R. Bracht Branham and Marie Odile Goulet Caz´e eds The Cynics: the Cynic Movement in Antiquity and it Legacy (Berkeley 1997) and A.A. Long ‘The Socratic tradition: Diogenes, Crates and Hellenistic Ethics’ 28– 46 in the same volume.

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the second edition of Apophthegmata. This edition contained the new book 7, largely made up of extracts from Laertius. Though Erasmus was now able to translate directly from the Greek, he continued to refer to the Latin translation, especially when faced with the many problems of text or interpretation. There are a number of places where he refers to ‘the translator’ (unnamed) or offers an alternative version which on investigation is seen to be suggested by Traversari’s text. In other places he has been silently influenced by Traversari who sometimes leads him astray.10 The title page of this second edition specifically says that Traversari has been corrected on the basis of the manuscript. The preface to the Greek text of Laertius, written by Froben and Nicolaus Episcopius, comments that the Latin translation had long been available, though they question its accuracy. They also comment on the fact that Traversari did not translate into Latin the numerous extracts from the Greek poets which Laertius recorded the philosophers as quoting to reinforce their message. Traversari asked Filelfo (see dedicatory epistle 7 n20 below) for verse translations, but he did not oblige. In any case, in his own preface Traversari says he omitted many quotations where this did not destroy the sense, as being ‘not sufficiently serious.’ As Erasmus quotes these in Greek (and translates them into Latin verse), it is clear he is using not the 1475 edition of Traversari but one which added the verse quotations in Greek, and this appears to be the 1524 edition by Valentinus Curio (ter Meere, Introduction 17). Erasmus’ version also includes a number of Greek words and phrases not dependent on Curio. For proverbial phrases in Greek he could use his knowledge of the Corpus paroemiographorum which he had drawn on for Adagia. Other words are his own insertions, Greek translations of a Latin term, all part of ‘making the work his own’ (see dedicatory epistle 8 and 10 below). Though Latin texts had their problems, the texts of all Greek authors were particularly susceptible to corruption through misreading and misunderstanding, as Erasmus himself comments (see dedicatory epistle 8 below). It is clear from his Latin translations from Greek in all the books that his Greek text, whether manuscript or printed, frequently offered unsatisfactory ***** 10 For references to Traversari see Index of Mediaeval and Renaissance Persons. Not every case of influence by Traversari has been recorded in our annotations. For full details of Erasmus’ use of Traversari in book 3 and in the sayings of Chilon taken from Diogenes Laertius at 2.161–87 (208–216 below) see the commentary of ter Meere asd iv-4 16–17 and book 3 passim.

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readings that have been eliminated from modern editions. There are numerous places throughout the Apophthegmata where Erasmus discusses a reading and emends the text, both in Greek and Latin. If such textual cruces significantly affect the understanding of the extract they are commented on in the footnotes. To balance the three Greek philosophers in book 3, Erasmus now has the thought of selecting in book 4 three Greek military commanders: the two kings, Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander, and Antigonus i. These are followed by three parallel figures from Roman history, Augustus, Julius Caesar, and Pompey. He then thinks of including three great orators (see 4.256): Phocion, Cicero, and Demosthenes. The bulk of his anecdotes are again extracted from Plutarch’s Apophthegmata (the so far untapped parts of Sayings of kings and commanders and also Sayings of Romans). Plutarch’s Life of Augustus was lost, and Erasmus has converted the mere fifteen stories from Plutarch’s collection of sayings into more than sixty (4.133–199) from his knowledge of Suetonius’ Augustus, Macrobius, and other Latin sources. The twenty-one anecdotes about Cicero have become seventy, drawing on the collections of Cicero’s witticisms in Macrobius and Quintilian, supplemented by Aulus Gellius and Plutarch’s Life of Cicero. The Demosthenes anecdotes come from Plutarch’s Life of the orator, from various essays in Moralia, and from elsewhere. Erasmus originally intended to stop at the end of book 4, but he could not resist the temptation to go on (see his comment at the beginning of book 5, 493 below), so in book 5 he returns to Plutarch’s collection and translates the remaining Sayings of kings and commanders and Romans that he had not used in book 4. As usual, when he has exhausted Plutarch’s supply of anecdotes, he supplements from his wide reading (for example, Plutarch’s Lives, Nepos, Valerius Maximus). When he comes to the Roman heroes, Erasmus justifiably inserts between Fabius Maximus and Scipio Africanus a collection of deeds and sayings of their great opponent, the Carthaginian commander Hannibal. These have no parallel in Plutarch; Erasmus must rely on Nepos’ Life of Hannibal and Livy’s continuous historical narrative from book 21 to Hannibal’s death in book 39 (see 5.270n and 5.281n below). At the end of the book, we have a small selection of anecdotes about various later historical personages of considerable significance (Marius, Sulla, Lucullus, Crassus, Antony), but because Erasmus has already covered Caesar, Pompey, and Cicero in book 4, there is a thinness and scrappiness in his material from the last generation of the republic. It is worth noting his impatience with Plutarch for including anecdotes that did not contain ‘sayings,’ but were ‘stratagems,’ that is, effective military tactics not accompanied by speech, but he cannot bear to leave them out,

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nor the anecdotes describing a silent message by demonstration (as, for example, performed by Heraclitus or Alexander) or indeed describing nothing more than plain actions.11 Erasmus gets fresh inspiration in book 6. Continuing the historical sequence from Roman republic to Roman empire in the first part of the book, apophthegms from Roman emperors (including usurpers) from Tiberius to Bonosus (that is, from the first to the third century ad) are assembled. Julius Caesar and Augustus, the first two emperors, are omitted as they had already figured in book 4. Here Erasmus is drawing primarily on Latin sources: Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars, Tacitus, and the lives of later emperors (Hadrian onwards) recorded in the Historia Augusta. Here he could use his own emended texts: he had supplied an edition of Suetonius together with the Historia Augusta for Froben’s Historiae Augustae scriptores of 1518 (Basel, Froben, reprinted 1533; see the dedicatory epistle to that edition, Ep 586). Two years previously in 1516 Battista Egnazio had produced an edition of Suetonius for the Aldine firm. This edition of Suetonius reached Erasmus too late for him to take account of it in establishing his own text, as he explained in a second preface to his edition (Ep 648). Froben’s 1518 edition did however incorporate a list of Egnazio’s emendations to Suetonius, as well as his texts of Eutropius and Aurelius Victor,12 also texts of Paulus Diaconus and Ammianus Marcellinus, and a list of unusual expressions and Greek words in Suetonius compiled by Erasmus. (Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, and Ammianus are sources Erasmus draws on occasionally in Apophthegmata.) Six writers were accredited at the time with the authorship of the Historia Augusta: Aelius Spartianus, Julius Capitolinus, Aelius Lampridius, Vulcatius Gallicanus, Trebellius Pollio, and Flavius Vopiscus, names nowadays considered spurious. Erasmus does not question their authenticity, though elsewhere he, like many others, with good reason censures their Latinity.13 Erasmus also draws indirectly on Dio Cassius. The text of Dio Cassius’ eighty-book history of Rome exists in a fragmentary state, mainly books ***** 11 For references to stratagems, see General Index: stratagems. For Heraclitus see 8.188 below, for Alexander 4.49 below, and for other ‘actions’ see eg 1.43, 4.120, 4.243, 4.300. See also dedicatory epistle 9 n26 below and General Index: wordless sayings. 12 For Aurelius Victor, see 6.81 n2 (Vespasian) below. 13 See Ciceronianus cwe 28 410 / lb 1 1006d. The ‘six authors’ were criticized on grounds of style, accuracy, and credulity for centuries, but were not finally discredited and seen as the work of a single forger until H. Dessau’s article ¨ ¨ ‘Uber Zeit und Personlichkeit der scriptores historiae Augustae’ in Hermes 24 (1889) 338–92.

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36–60, the rest being reconstructed from excerpts and the twelfth-century epitomes of Zonaras and Xiphilinus. The first attempt at an edition was not made until Robert Stephanus published books 23 and 36–58 in Greek from a single manuscript in 1548 (Lutetia Parisiorum: R. Stephanus), so Erasmus is unlikely to have any direct knowledge of Dio in Greek. However, Giorgio Merula (1430–94) had translated into Latin Xiphilinus’ epitome covering the reigns of Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian (Venice: Bernardino dei Vitali 1500). The Historia Augusta has no account of Nerva or Trajan, but begins with the Emperor Hadrian. Erasmus draws on Merula for Nerva and Trajan and also to supplement HA’s account of Hadrian. (Modern references to Dio Cassius are given only for the reader’s convenience.) A text of Merula may be found eg in Baptista Egnazius’ De Caesaribus (Florence: 1519, Per haeredes Philippi Iuntae). Erasmus speaks well of him as a translator from Greek in Ciceronianus of 1528 (cwe 28 417), no doubt on the basis of this text, but Merula does not appear to have translated anything else. These emperors in book 6, good and bad (but, as he remarks, mostly bad) gave Erasmus ample scope for illustrating, sometimes with brief comments to make sure the young prince did not miss the point, behaviour to be emulated or shunned in a ruler. In the second half of book six however his aim seems to be pure entertainment, and he raids several explicit and well-known ancient joke collections: the excursus on jokes in Cicero De oratore 2.240–289, Quintilian’s chapter 6.3 on Wit, and Macrobius’ collection of jokes in Saturnalia 2.2–5 (already drawn on for Cicero in book 4). These are topped up with all kinds of witty and satirical remarks, puns, and smart ripostes assembled from all kinds of people and from a variety of sources – in Latin, Aulus Gellius, Tacitus, Livy, Valerius Maximus, Frontinus, Quintus Curtius, the Elder Pliny - very often with quite a run from the same author. In Greek, he draws above all on his favourite and much admired Plutarch, using both the Lives and the Moralia, supplemented with extracts from Herodotus, Aristotle, Lucian, Aelian,14 Philostratus, Diogenes Laertius, and Stobaeus (for whom see below xxi). The amusing collection of witticisms attributed to the citharist ***** 14 Thirteen sayings in books 4, 6, and 8 seem to be derived from Aelian Varia historia books 2 and 9, but Erasmus could not have had a printed text of this as the Greek text first appeared in 1545 (Rome, ed Camillo Peruschi) and it was not translated into Latin until 1558 by Vulteius Wetteranus. Stobaeus quoted a number of extracts but they are on the whole not the ones quoted by Erasmus. Aelian’s Historia animalium, which was more popular, had been translated into Latin by Pierre Gilles (Lyon 1533) and Erasmus owned this text; see cebr 2 98.

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Stratonicus (6.445–488) is lifted almost entirely from Athenaeus (see below xx), who in turn was drawing on ready-made collections by Machon and Clearchus.15 Athenaeus also supplied many of the amusing tales about notorious courtesans which Erasmus incorporates, regardless of their doubtful moral implications. Erasmus here, as indeed elsewhere on occasion, seems to lose sight of his young dedicatee in his zeal for collecting anecdotes. For his citations from Athenaeus, Erasmus uses the publication of 1514 edited by Manutius and Musurus (Venice, apud Aldum et Andream socerum, Aug. 1514). His annotated copy is in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. The first complete translation of Athenaeus into Latin was made by Natale de’ Conti in 1556 (Venice, A. Arrivabene).16 Erasmus however deserves credit for his pioneering work in translating and explaining Athenaeus. He had been using Athenaeus as a source for Adages since 1509, first from a manuscript source, and then from the 1514 publication.17 A modern reader, equipped with a better text and various aids to understanding, can fault Erasmus’ interpretation in many places (see footnotes passim), but his achievement was considerable, since he was wrestling with a text that was physically difficult to read in Aldus’ complicated Greek font, confusingly presented, and still corrupt in many places in its printed form, in spite of the great insights brought by Musurus. It was also full of strange vocabulary, and stuffed with literary allusions and unfamiliar quotations from otherwise unknown Greek literature. There were no aids to the reader and no index. Yet the way he uses the material shows his control of this very sizable work. Like Athenaeus’ discursive text, Stobaeus’ Florilegium, a vast anthology of extracts from Greek literature, offers a useful assemblage of miscellaneous sayings and anecdotes, but in this case handily arranged by subject under 126 headings. The complete version of this text was not published till February 1535 (Venice, Bartholomaeus Zanetti, ed Victor Trincavallus), though books 3 and 4 appeared in 1525/6. It is clear however that Erasmus knew of Stobaeus long before that, from manuscript and other sources. He mentions Stobaeus in passing in the first edition of De copia (1508; see cwe 24 626) and in the first edition of Adagia (also 1508) in the introduction (cwe 31 8) and in Adagia i vi 1, where he says that he found a collection of ***** 15 See 6.445 n1 below. 16 For this see Rosemary Bancroft-Marcus ‘A Dainty Dish to Set before a King, Natale de’ Conti’s Translation of Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistae’ in D. Braund and J. Wilkins eds Athenaeus and His World (Exeter 2000). 17 See Adages ii i 1: Festina Lente cwe 33 14, also 400 82n.

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anecdotes, not attributed to any author, which he surmises (correctly) are from Stobaeus. Books 3 and 4 are quoted sixty times in the Adagia. As this was the first section to be printed it was presumably the most readily available in manuscript. Aldus, in the preface to his edition of Lucretius (1500), said that he planned to publish the fragments of Empedocles out of Stobaeus.18 Presumably he had the use of a manuscript of Stobaeus which Erasmus could have seen at the time of his stay in Venice with Aldus (1507–8), though he does not mention a Stobaeus in the list of manuscripts to which he says he had access there (Adagia ii i 1 cwe 33 14). Thomas Gaisford, in his edition of Stobaeus (Clarendon, Oxford 1822, Praefatio iii) quotes Conrad Gesner (bilingual edition of Stobaeus, 1543) to the effect that a good number of extracts from Stobaeus were incorporated by Raffaele Maffei of Volterra in his Commentaria Urbana (1506). According to cebr (s.v. Raffaele Maffei), Erasmus was familiar with this work, so this provides another possible source. Froben also included in an edition of Callimachus’ hymns of 1532 some Stobaeus extracts on which Erasmus drew for Adagia (see Adagia i vi 1 5n cwe 32 283). There are numerous places where the translators have posited Stobaeus as a source, but this is often in default of any other traceable source and may give an overgenerous impression of Erasmus’ use of this collection. In book 7, added like book 8 in 1532, Erasmus returns to straightforward translation of a Greek source, taking up those anecdotes in Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of Eminent Philosophers which he had not used in book 3, with occasional supplements as usual from his other sources: Plutarch, Cicero, Herodotus, Valerius Maximus, Athenaeus, and Xenophon. (As mentioned previously, xvii above, he now has both a manuscript of Laertius’ text in Greek and Froben’s edition, but continues to refer to Traversari’s version.) For the last book of his collection, Erasmus declares he will pass from ‘horses to asses,’ that is, from philosophers to sophists, those rhetoricians of the late first and second century ad for whom in general he has nothing but contempt. Here Erasmus seems to be hunting for material and the book turns out to be rather a rag-bag as he seeks to make up his quota – whatever his goal was, he eventually achieves 3080 apophthegms. He opens with a run of fifty-three anecdotes taken from a new Greek source, The Lives of the Sophists, of the second century ad Lucius Flavius Philostratus, and he has another long run of thirty-five sayings from another new Greek source, Lucian’s probably fictional biography (second century ad) of the Cynic De***** 18 A. Firmin-Didot Alde Manuce et l’Hell´enism a` Venise (Paris 1875) 146

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monax. This is followed in 1532 only by sixteen sayings (transmitted in Latin) of a modern personage, King Alfonso v of Aragon (i of Naples). See the dedicatory epistle (11–12 below) for Erasmus’ original intention to confine himself to classical sources. The rest of the book is a miscellaneous collection of sayings drawn rather haphazardly from various sources, some familiar but worth trawling again for anything missed, but also some other new ones, such as the letters of the younger Pliny, and the late third to fourth century ecclesiastical historians, both Latin and Greek. For his possible use of Aelian see n14 above. From all this, it will be seen that Erasmus’ working method in Apophthegmata is to follow one particular source, working through it rather mechanically, and, when he has taken all it has to offer, to supplement it with miscellaneous material from elsewhere. With major sources used in extenso, Erasmus presumably has the text in front of him. Incidental single insertions and short clusters of anecdotes about the same person but from different sources are more likely to come from Erasmus’ notebooks, where, according to contemporary practice, he had jotted down under useful headings miscellaneous material gleaned from a lifetime’s reading in classical literature. The inadequacy or illegibility of his notes probably accounts for some of the features one can fault in his version when compared with the source, such as hasty misreading of text, excessively truncated or muddled account, anecdote attributed to the wrong speaker, etc (see notes passim). Not that one would gather from Erasmus’ text what sources he is using. The dedicatory epistle informs the reader only that much of what is to come is derived from Plutarch’s vast output. Even the much-used Diogenes Laertius is only occasionally mentioned by name (see Index of Classical Persons). Probably Erasmus did not pause to consider whether information about sources other than Plutarch was necessary. The whole work is in some ways a superficial production (as he himself seems to suspect, dedicatory epistle 10–11 below), one not planned but developing in an unsystematic way as he wrote it and one which the numerous mistakes and careless errors suggest was written at speed. There are in the text a number of vague attributions to source provided for individual anecdotes in a haphazard way: ‘this comes from St Augustine,’ ‘from Livy’s third decade,’ ‘from Plutarch’s Life of Aemilius Paulus,’ ‘Cornelius Nepos says,’ ‘the line in comedy,’ ‘Philostratus tells the story quite differently in his Sophists,’ ‘Herodotus in book 3,’ ‘Cicero in the first book of the Tusculan Disputations.’ More precise references in the modern style where not of course possible. Erasmus was dependent on what his texts offered. Like the manuscripts from which they were printed, prose

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texts were at first presented continuously without chapter divisions within the separate books and this continued for some time. This makes it difficult to locate individual passages within the solid text, hence the dependence on extracts in note books. Possibly Erasmus did not usually record even the author there. Such references as occur seem from their casual tone to be passing thoughts based on memory. A striking more precise reference occurs at 7.287: Gellius, book seventeen, chapter nineteen. Joannes Andreas, the editor of the editio princeps of Gellius’ Noctes Atticae (Rome 1469, Conradus Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz) boasts in his preface that he has marked separate chapters with rubrication, and this was continued in Aldus’ edition of 1515, which is probably the text Erasmus had. Erasmus’ memory was indeed prodigious, but was not infallible. For example, in book 8 there are three stories (8.115–17) attributed to Eutropius, where they are not to be found. At 6.532 an anecdote is attributed to Valerius Maximus but it seems to be from Plutarch. Some whole anecdotes similarly seem to be written up from memory rather than reflecting a specific source. One wonders if Erasmus’ adult readers would have wished for some more generous indication of author, especially if they were going to re-use the anecdote. Lycosthenes, who re-arranged Erasmus’ anecdotes with those of others under commonplace headings in his own Apophthegmata of 1577, thought it desirable to add author and work where he could. Many of these apophthegms of Erasmus are related to the chreiae or ‘useful sayings’ discussed in handbooks of rhetoric by authors such as Theon, Hermogenes, and Aphthonius. In fact, a number of the Greek ones occur as demonstration examples, either quoted in the rhetoricians or identified as such elsewhere.19 Erasmus could have read the Greek rhetoricians in Greek in Aldus’ editio princeps of Rhetores antiqui Graeci (Venice 1508–9), but he may well have known them in a Latin version also (see 3.386 n1 below). The chreia was originally nothing more than the concise reporting of a noteworthy saying or action (or a combination of saying and action), prompted by some occurrence and attributed usually to some well-known figure, such as Alexander the Great and especially Diogenes the Cynic. It could also be ascribed to a less specific but typical figure, such as ‘a slave,’ ‘a Spartan.’ (Erasmus gives a series of sayings of unnamed Spartans in book 2.) A typical chreia takes the form, ‘On seeing so and so’ or ‘On being asked such and such, X said/did . . .’ (Quintilian 1.9.4). A simple chreia of this ***** 19 For references to chreiae see General Index: chreia; and to the Greek rhetoricians Theon, Hermogenes, and Aphthonius see Index of Classical Persons. Texts are cited from Leonhard Spengel ed Rhetores Graeci (Leipzig 1854).

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standard type may be found at 1.29 (Agesilaus): ‘When someone asked him how far Spartan dominion extended, he brandished his lance and said, ‘As far as this can reach’ (Plutarch Moralia 210e). Such sayings were recorded frequently in Greek literature, especially in lives, such as Plutarch’s Lives of Famous Greeks and Romans. They also pervade Plutarch’s Moralia as illustrative examples. Various persons made separate collections of them, as Plutarch says he did himself (Moralia 457d– e). Their popularity in literature can be gauged from the wide variety of sources on which Erasmus is able to draw in these eight books. The chreia was however taken up by the teachers of rhetoric and made the basis of a series of exercises designed to train the young pupil in the first stages of rhetoric, teaching him the fundamental techniques of first expressing the basic material in a variety of linguistic forms, and then developing it imaginatively. Different teachers put forward slightly different schemes with different emphases. The student might first learn to manipulate the anecdote at the verbal level, for example, by the use of different grammatical cases (many of the anecdotes reported by Erasmus are given in the form ‘to one who asked him X replied’) or by substituting different vocabulary or by paraphrase or by casting it in a different form, such as a question. The student would eventually proceed to the elaboration (\rgas’a), employing a set series of procedures, such as brief single-sentence comment (labelling it ‘noble, unworthy’ etc); expansion and condensation; explanation and justification of the remark; refutation (as, for example, implausible, shameful, a bad example); and finally confirmation, that is, a development by such means as praise of the speaker, historical parallels, digressions, explanations, and reinforcement by quotations from literature, all of which could develop into a short essay.20 Erasmus does not specifically mention the chreia anywhere in this work, but the whole exercise seems to be in the back of his mind as he writes up these sayings, especially in the earlier books. In the dedicatory epistle (14– 16 below), he speaks of what happens tractando ‘in the handling’ of sayings, a word which probably corresponds to the \rgas’a of the rhetoricians, and goes on to give two extended examples employing the various rhetorical procedures. He then speaks of the value of worthwhile sayings as material for school-boy exercises. On the educative value of apophthegms in general, see De recta pronuntiatione (lb i 930c / cwe 26 402): In hunc usum vale***** 20 See Ronald F. Hock and Edward N. O’Neil The Chreia in Ancient Rhetoric 1 The Progymnasmata (Atlanta ga 1986). See also Erasmus’ treatment of examples at De copia cwe 24 606–20.

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bunt celebrium virorum apophthegmata, exquisitae brevesque sententiae, proverbia ac lepide dicta, cuiusmodi suppellex ad omnem dicendi facultatem plurimum habet momenti ‘The sayings of famous men, good, pithy aphorisms, proverbs, bon mots, all these server the purpose [ie of giving children worthwhile material] and moreover provide extremely useful ammunition for the future speaker on all sorts of occasions.’ Cf Seneca Epistles 33.17: ideo pueris et sententias ediscendas damus et has quas Graeci chrias vocant, quia complecti illas puerilis animus potest, qui plus adhuc non capit ‘We give schoolboys sententious sayings to learn by heart and also what the Greeks call chreiae, because the mind of the child, which cannot as yet take in more than this, can grasp these.’ The earlier apophthegms in book 1 offer worked-out examples of how to develop a saying by means of mini-essays according to a selection of the precepts of the rhetoricians. The very first one, for example, concerning Agasicles, king of Sparta, has both an introductory and a closing paragraph. We find there reasons why such a remark should be made, confirmation from a parallel example (Rome), contrast with an opposite example (Athens), and an explanation of the implied meaning of the not immediately obvious remark (this meaning being that teachers are more important than parents, which is a chreia in its own right, attributed to Isocrates; Theon Progymnasmata 5.207, Spengel 2.99). This in its turn is expanded with both positive and negative arguments. (See also 1.108 or the second paragraph of 1.12.) For practical reasons, Erasmus could not continue to develop each apophthegm at such length, and thereafter the scale of comment varies greatly. A good many sayings still give rise to short paragraphs in which Erasmus rewrites the saying in other words or explicates its import (frequently, ‘He meant by this . . .,’ ‘This means . . .’); for a few examples out of many, see 1.257, 5.141, 5.196, 5.339, 8.93. Many of his comments are, however, brief and perfunctory, as if Erasmus felt that he must write something. More positively, the saying may, as in the rhetoricians, be identified as cruel or witty or a joke, especially one dependent on an unexpected retort.21 Erasmus also added in the margin similar one- or two-word characterizations of the majority of his extracts, as witty, cunning, trenchant, cruel, merciful, and so on, which also links them to the contemporary practice of keeping notebooks where examples were assembled from one’s reading under commonplace headings. In many cases any ‘moral’ explication is replaced by a brief account of Greek or Roman practices, a correction on a point of fact, or a discussion of the reading in the text. Many apophthegms are left with no added comment at all.

***** 21 For examples, see General Index: replies, unexpected.

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One of the things Erasmus remarks on in his dedicatory epistle (12– 13 below) is that these sayings were attributed now to this person and now to that; many such duplicate attributions are pointed out in the translators’ footnotes, and Erasmus himself also points out some of them. This is really an essential feature of the chreia. According to the etymology given by the Greeks, it must not be a trivial remark but useful (chreiodes) for life, because of its wit or wisdom or striking (or even shocking) nature. Therefore it does not really matter who said it, provided it is appropriate to the character of the person uttering it (a commander, a philosopher, a courtesan, etc). This is why so many of these apophthegms, even if attributed, came to Erasmus in a chronological limbo. In one sense, the exact historical situation is unimportant, so long as the anecdote carries its essential message, for example, the admirable character of the Spartans, the quick wit of the philosopher, and many of the sayings throughout the whole work are self-explanatory. Some background knowledge would however be necessary if the chreia is to be developed with appropriate detail. Perhaps Erasmus expected a teacher or tutor to supply this along with his other expository material (see dedicatory epistle 8 below). Many sayings, however, do require a context, social or historical, for the real import of the remark to be appreciated, or to be even comprehensible, especially to the modern reader who is not as familiar with the main events and main names of Greek and Roman history as the original (ancient) readership. Historical notes have therefore been supplied throughout by the translators as an extension of Erasmus’ own practice and as an aid to modern readers. In book 1, for example, where the various Spartan kings have been identified and given their dates, this is justified by the fact that Erasmus himself, speaking of book 1 in the dedicatory epistle (10 below), comments that the arrangement of the speakers in alphabetical order has destroyed any sense of historical relationship and so made it impossible for the reader to get the added bonus of learning some history, a subject which he considered of great educative value. ‘Sayings’ may also be unclear because of the truncated form in which they are presented. The words in themselves without a further clue supplied by a context could be interpreted in more than one way and there are numerous places where it is easy to ‘miss the point’ – Erasmus, being human, seems to have done so on occasion, as he was well aware (see the dedicatory epistle 8 below). The jokes especially very often need the original context to be comprehensible and to enable one to tease out the reason why this particular saying was thought memorable and worth recording. Those apophthegms that depend on ambiguity, punning, and wordplay, especially in Greek, where they may also give rise to textual problems, are particularly difficult to grasp. Many jokes, even if the point is grasped, are untranslatable into Latin (or English) and Erasmus gives up, though conscientiously

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explicating the mechanics of the wordplay.22 There are many places where Erasmus seems merely to have translated the unadorned saying automatically without questioning its meaning. Where he does attempt to explicate a joke, his heavy-handed explanation often succeeds in killing it. m a i n e di t i on s a 1531 editio princeps Basel: Froben (books 1–6). It was reprinted in Venice, Paris, and Lyons in the same year. b 1532 Basel: Froben (revised and improved, and enlarged with the addition of books 7 and 8) c 1535 Basel: Froben (as 1532, with corrections and some omissions and additions, especially 8.306–319) d 1538–9 Basel: Froben (a reprint of C, with minor alterations and miscorrections) e 1550 Basel: Froben (a reprint of d) bas Omnia opera Basel: Hier. Froben et Nicholas Episcopius, 1540, t. iv lb Opera omnia ed P. vander Aa, Lugduni Batavorum 1703–6. t. iv 85–380 The translators were able to use a text of Apophthegmata i–viii prepared many years ago by Professor Sir Roger Mynors, which largely agrees with the definitive edition of Apophthegmata i–iv by Dr. Tineke ter Meer, asd iv4 (2010). For books v–viii, Mynors’ text was generally preferred to that of lb, which often has inferior readings and seems to go back to d. Variations among the different editions are annotated only if they seem significant for Erasmus’ practices. e d i t o ri al p ract i ce s For the benefit of the modern reader, in all eight books the translators have, as far as possible, indicated in the source note (an unnumbered note for each apophthegm) the source apparently being used. Erasmus’ additional comments and explanations have usually been set out as a separate paragraph. It is hoped that this will make it easier to see what sources Erasmus was drawing on ultimately and how he employed and adapted them. The Loeb edition index (volume 16) to Plutarch’s vast corpus of Moralia, on which Erasmus draws constantly, has been particularly helpful in identifying sources, also the index to the Teubner text of the Lives. However, there remain a number of anecdotes from sources other than Plutarch where the ***** 22 Eg 1.222, 3.280, 6.19, 6.33, 6.563, 6.456, 7.137.

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translators, in spite of much searching, have not been able to identify the precise source. Well known stories appear in several places and Erasmus may well in these cases have written his own free version of the incident. The apophthegms have been numbered continuously throughout each book, in order to facilitate cross-referencing and indexing, rather than following lb’s numeration by successive hundreds or smaller units. The lb numbering is given in Roman numerals at the beginning of the source note for each item. Erasmus’ marginal notes (see xxvi above) also appear in the source note. Erasmus’ Latin text of Apophthegmata is full of Greek words and quotations. It was felt to be inappropriate to preserve the Greek in its entirety in a translation designed for a readership of whom many would have no Greek. Accordingly, as much Greek as possible has been removed from the translation itself, even if this gives a false impression of Erasmus’ actual practice. (A definitive text such as asd reveals the extent to which Erasmus without question interweaves the two languages.) Extensive quotations have been translated in the text and the original Greek relegated to a footnote. Individual words and brief phrases have been omitted without comment where this can be done without detriment to the meaning. Where Erasmus discusses the reading of his Greek text or tries to explain a Greek joke or pun, the Greek words are an integral part of what Erasmus writes and these have been preserved and/or represented in transliteration according to context. In books 1 and 2, made up of sayings of Spartans mostly translated from Greek texts, Erasmus uses several Latin words for ‘Spartan,’ his choice being determined by what the Greek text offers. By far the commonest word, as in the Greek original, is Lacedaemonii. This means all the free inhabitants of Laconia, the geographical area round the River Eurotas in the south-east Peloponnese immediately controlled by the city of Sparta. As a political entity, this was known as Lacedaemon. The term included the inhabitants of the city of Sparta and also those of various subject communities at some distance from Sparta, known as perioikoi ‘dwellers round about.’ These perioikoi were obliged to provide military contingents when ordered to do so. Consequently, in many of these apophthegms, which occur in a military context, Lacedaemonii refers to the whole military force led by Sparta. An individual ‘Spartan,’ especially in book 2, may be Lacedaemonius, Lacon, Laconicus, or for a woman, Lacaena. All of these have been translated, according to convention, by ‘Spartan / Spartans.’ The inhabitants of the actual city of Sparta and its immediate environs were the ‘true Spartans,’ an e´ lite, politically and economically privileged class, whose origins went back to the early days of the city (according to

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tradition, 9000 in number). It was these who conformed their lives to the famous all-embracing, all-demanding Spartan social and military discipline (described 1.258–87 below under Lycurgus and 2.83–119 in book 2 Early Spartan Customs). They were called, among other things, Spartiatai, and this term occurs at appropriate points in the text of Plutarch. Erasmus sometimes represents this by Spartiatae, but mostly by Spartani, a term he also employs where the dwellers in the actual city of Sparta are indicated by the context. He inserts the word Spartanus where an anonymous saying seems to belong naturally in the mouth of a true Spartiate. To maintain the distinction from ‘Spartan’ in general, Spartiates is translated by ‘Spartiate’ where Erasmus employs this term. Otherwise Spartani and Spartanus / Spartana are represented by such terms as ‘warrior class,’ ‘Spartan e´ lite,’ ‘true/traditional Spartan,’ or finally, where appropriate, ‘inhabitants of Sparta.’ a c k n o w l e dgm e n t s The translators wish to acknowledge the contribution of the two readers, Professor William Barker and Dr Tineke ter Meer, who read the whole work at an advanced stage and made many useful suggestions which led to its improvement, both in detail and in general. Dr ter Meer also generously made available in advance the Latin text with extensive and learned commentary prepared for her edition of Apophthegmata books 1 to 4, asd iv-4 (Amsterdam 2010). This provided additional information on many points of detail and a deeper understanding of the development of Erasmus’ text, especially Erasmus’ use of translations of Greek authors by earlier scholars. The translators are grateful for her free permission to make use of this material for the betterment of their own work. We also wish to thank the anonymous reader who at an early stage made us aware of the relevance to the Apophthegmata of the ancient rhetorical exercise of the chreia. Its importance can be seen from the many references to chreiae now supplied in the footnotes. Especial thanks are due to Philippa Matheson who has meticulously copy-edited this lengthy text and its annotations, identifying obscurities, removing redundancies and inconsistencies, and generally improving the economy of the whole work. That in itself is no small contribution, but her valuable suggestions as to procedure and her enthusiastic collaboration throughout have played an inestimable part in producing the final result. Also at the University of Toronto Press, Lynn Browne prepared the manuscript, then deciphered, typed, and coded for typesetting a much corrected text, with extraordinary patience, care, and attention to detail. Such errors and inadequacies as remain are the responsibility of the editor.

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We also wish to pay tribute to the late Ron Schoeffel for his guidance and for the kind words and unfailing encouragement and optimism at all times over many years which did so much to re-invigorate endeavour in the face of what often seemed a daunting task. We are honoured that this volume is dedicated to his memory. bik

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APOPHTHEGMATA

THE APOPHTHEGMS AND AGREEABLE SAYINGS OF RULERS, PHILOSOPHERS, AND MEN OF DIVERSE KINDS SELECTED FROM GREEK AND LATIN AUTHORS AND SUPPLIED WITH A HANDY COMMENTARY EXPLICATING THE NICETIES OF THE SAYING BY DESIDERIUS ERASMUS OF ROTTERDAM

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DEDICATORY EPISTLE

t o t h e i l l us t ri ous p ri n ce w i l l i a m t h e y o u n g e r , duke of cl e ve s - j ul ¨ ich-berg, coun t of m ark an d rav e n s b e r g , e t c f rom d. e ras m us of r o t t e r d a m , gre e t i n g

Your royal highness, the gracious reception accorded by yourself together with your illustrious parents1 to the modest volumes which I sent you earlier as a token, however humble, of my esteem,2 made me desirous of presenting to you another work, more appropriate to your noble rank and more beneficial, I trust, to your studies. I have therefore made a collection, drawn from all the best authors, of what the Greeks call apophthegmata, ie ‘things well said,’ as this seemed to me the most appropriate subject for a book offered to a prince, especially one still young. It is of course good to know what the philosophers have written about how to conduct oneself, how to govern, and how to wage war. But few men, even those without public responsibilities, have sufficient time to unravel the labyrinthine twists and turns of Socrates’ methods of argument, his manner of feigning ignorance, his ways of leading into the subject,3 as depicted for us by Plato. Aristotle had much to say on the subject of ethics, but he wrote for philosophers, not for a prince. His works on ***** 1 Duke John iii of Cleves and Maria of Juliers. 2 Ie De pueris instituendis, published in 1529, when William was thirteen, which included Ambrose’s Apologia David and De David interpellatione (Epp 2189, 2190). Now, at the time of this second dedication in 1531, the young duke was fifteen. He succeeded his father as duke 8 years later in 1539, and ruled until his death in 1592, though his powers were impaired after a stroke in 1566. He endeavoured to improve the educational and legal systems in his territories and in religious matters was in favour of moderate reform (see cebr 1 316). Erasmus had a long-standing association with the Duchy. His ideas on Church reform and education had found their way to the ducal court via Erasmus’ friend John Vlatten, who was counsellor from 1530 and influential in forming the educational and religious policies of both the older and younger duke (see cebr 3 414–6). 3 See 3.36, 3.130, 8.198 below.

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economics4 and politics are easier to understand, but whatever his subject, he demands of the reader both concentration and plenty of time. Besides, his dispassionate style has nothing to grip the attention of a mind taken up with all the concerns proper to a prince. In the philosophical works, as in Cicero’s writings on philosophical subjects, there is much of such a sort that it does not matter a great deal whether a prince knows it or not; for example, their discussions on ‘the bounds of ultimate good and evil,’5 which are ingenious but of no practical benefit. These are fine for people who spend their lives debating right conduct but go no further. A man born to exercise authority needs to put virtue into immediate practice, not debate it at leisure. As for history, this presents us with a vivid tableau wherein we can observe with pleasure the representation of things nobly or ill done. Consequently it might be thought more congenial to persons in high places, but even if a prince had time to turn the pages of the vast number of books on the subject, who could possibly remember it all? Wrestlers have in their repertoire specific sequences of moves which enable them to grip their opponent or escape his grip in turn. Likewise, those wrestling with the problems of peace and war need to have to hand specific thoughts which will help them to decide what is the appropriate course of action in the circumstances and what is not. In this we see that learned men have endeavoured to use their skills to lighten the prince’s burden of care. Some, like Theognis6 and Isocrates,7 wrote books of maxims; others collected ***** 4 The Oeconomica is now considered spurious. The other writings of Aristotle here referred to are chiefly the Nicomachean Ethics and the Politics, published by Aldus Manutius in Venice 1495–8. In 1531 Johann Bebel produced a new edition of Aristotle (ed S. Grynaeus) for which Erasmus wrote the preface (Ep 2432). This task had required much reading in Aristotle. Consequently Aristotle was still much in his mind as he wrote this dedicatory epistle in the same month as that preface. 5 Ie De finibus bonorum et malorum, the title of a five-volume work by Cicero. For the term finis, see Cicero De finibus 3.26, 5.23. 6 Theognis was a Greek poet of the sixth century bc. The work going under his name contains elegiac verses which give moral advice and exhortation of a sententious nature. Numerous extracts are quoted by Stobaeus (for whom see Introduction xxi–xxii above). 7 Isocrates was a fifth- to fourth-century bc Athenian teacher of rhetoric and a political and educational theorist. Erasmus is here thinking of Isocrates’ De institutione principis ad Nicoclem. Erasmus’ translation of this work was published with his own Institutio principis Christiani in 1516. (It was a favourite subject for translation.) Both were works dedicated to a young ruler and consist largely

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the stratagems and apophthegms of distinguished men, writers such as Valerius Maximus8 and Sextus Iulius Frontinus.9 Frontinus tells us that several other people had done the same thing. It takes a great deal of time to hunt for gold in ore-bearing veins or search for gemstones on the beach or in the sea. A man does great service to a busy ruler when he presents him with the gold ready refined and shaped, who offers him gems already selected,10 cleaned and mounted in gold or set in goblets. Many have sought to do this service but no one in my opinion performed it better than Plutarch. After publishing that very useful work of his on the lives of eminent men,11 where their words and deeds are recorded all interlaced together, he made and dedicated to Trajan,12 the best loved of the Roman emperors, a separate collection of the striking sayings of the various individuals, his reason being that sayings let us see the mind of the *****

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of a series of precepts loosely grouped under different heads. In paragraph 43, Isocrates recommends the gnomic poets Hesiod, Theognis (see previous note), and Phocylides as wise teachers for human conduct. Much that Erasmus says in this part of the dedicatory epistle echoes Isocrates’ sentiments. This seems to be the work of Isocrates that Erasmus is most familiar with. He rarely quotes Isocrates in Adagia, and his criticisms of Isocrates’ excessively smooth and polished style in Ciceronianus (cwe 28 377–8) and elsewhere seem to be derived from Cicero Orator 151, 174– 6 and Quintilian 10.1.79. Valerius Maximus, a Roman historian of the first century ad, author of Factorum et dictorum memorabilium libri XI, a convenient collection of illustrative examples derived from earlier writers and organized according to subject matter on which Erasmus drew for the Apophthegmata. Sextus Iulius Frontinus, a Roman general of the second century ad. Of his several practical writings, only De aquis urbis Romanae (on aqueducts) and the Strategemata in four books have survived. This last is a collection of examples taken from Greek and Roman history, illustrating various types of military stratagem used by great commanders, for the information of officers. Other similar works are mentioned in his preface to book 1. See p9 and n26 below. See Quintilian 5.10.121 on the usefulness of ready-made collections of examples. Ie Plutarch’s Parallel Lives of distinguished Greeks and Romans. These and also the considerable corpus of the Moralia had long been a favourite source for Erasmus; see Introduction xi–xiv above. In fact, Plutarch is the third most common source in the Adagia after Cicero and Homer. For Erasmus’ use of him in Apophthegmata, see n19 below. Trajan, Roman emperor ad 98–117, was the second of the ‘Five Good Emperors.’ For the dedication, see the preface to Plutarch’s Sayings of kings and commanders (Moralia 172b–e), a work which Erasmus accepts as genuine. Although he does not translate this preface, Erasmus uses material from it in this paragraph and elsewhere in the dedicatory epistle. See Introduction xiv.

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person truly reflected.13 In deeds on the other hand, while a good part of the credit goes to the counsellor, the leader or the soldier, most of it goes to fortune. Fortune sees to it that sometimes the best laid plans end in disaster, while unthinking folly has a successful outcome. The Persian Siramnes (a general, I think) was asked why events did not correspond to his noble words. ‘I can control what I say,’ he replied, ‘but what happens lies in the hand of Fortune and the king.’14 Not that honourable purposes are for that reason robbed of the approbation they deserve. Plutarch is superior to the other writers not only in what he chooses for inclusion but in the way he presents it. Apophthegms have a special property and character of their own: they provide a brief, sharp, witty, amusing revelation of character. Just as individual persons have their own traits of character, so do individual nations. One way of going about things fits Alexander, another Philip or Antigonus, another Phocion, another Alcibiades.15 One form of behaviour characterizes a Spartan, another a Scythian or Thracian, yet another an Athenian or Roman.16 Xenophon’s representation of this seems to me rather undifferentiated, Herodotus is flat, Diodorus17 ***** 13 See 3.70 n1 (Socrates) below. 14 An apophthegm quoted in Plutarch’s preface (see n12) 15 Ie Alexander the Great, his father Philip ii of Macedon, Antigonus i (one of Alexander’s generals and successors), and two contrasting Athenian characters, the upright Phocion and the rakish Alcibiades. All of these are represented in Plutarch’s Sayings of kings and commanders, translated by Erasmus in books 4 and 5 below. 16 Erasmus has a number of Adages illustrating the accepted stereotypes of various nations, ancient and modern, which he does not question, eg Greeks (duplicitous: i vii 95), Thracians (drunkards: ii iii 17, iv ix 58), Thessalians (fraudulent: i iii 10–12), Cretans (liars: i ii 29), Carthaginians (treacherous: i viii 28), Scythians (cruel, boorish: ii iii 35), Germans (arrogant, overbearing, drunkards: i ix 44), Dutch (unsophisticated and uncultured: iv vi 35). 17 See 4.97–9 below. It is doubtful whether Erasmus was familiar with the Greek text of Diodorus Siculus, a contemporary of Caesar and Augustus. Of his forty book compendium (‘too wordy’) of world history only books 1 to 5 (prehistory) and 11 to 20 (covering the period from the second Persian War to the death of Alexander) were extant, the rest being fragmentary. There was no edition of the Greek text until books 16 to 20 appeared in 1539 (Basel per Joannem Oporinum). There were however numerous ms copies of the extant sections in Italy and various sections had been translated into Latin over the years. Poggio, for example, translated books 1– 5 (prehistory); Angelus Cospus translated books 16–17 (Vienna 1516, repr Froben, Basel 1532); in the Preface to Aldus’ Greek Grammar, published posthumously in 1515, the editor, Musurus,

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and Quintus Curtius18 too wordy, to say nothing of the rest. Plutarch satisfies on every count, so above them all I have chosen him as my guide. Consequently, you will find in this work everything that is included in his Apophthegmata.19 This has been twice translated into Latin, first by Francesco Filelfo,20 and then by Raffaele Regio, with whom I was acquainted ***** says that Andreas Asolanus intends to carry out various of Aldus’ unfinished projects, including an edition of Diodorus Siculus, whether in Latin or Greek is not clear. In 1525 (see Allen vii p547) Erasmus ordered a number of books including a Diodorus. Perhaps he had wind of a projected edition, but as the title is listed after Cicero’s Letters to Atticus and the Historia Augusta, he may have assumed it would be in Latin. 18 Quintus Curtius (first century ad) wrote a ten-book history of Alexander the Great, of which the first two are missing with gaps elsewhere. It may be padded out with rhetorical speeches and moralizing comments, but the vivid circumstantial narrative is fast-paced and gripping. It is not, however, a quick source for the apophthegms, the point being made here. Erasmus had pub¨ lished an edition in 1518 (Strasburg: Matthias Schurer); see Ep 704. 19 Ep 2261 (1530) and the dedicatory epistle (see 10–11 below) suggest that Erasmus’ first plan for Apophthegmata was to present his personalized version only of some of the sayings recorded in Plutarch’s collection, a plan which was modified as the work developed over the three editions. However much he intended to include at first, he does eventually finish up by translating it all somewhere: Sayings of kings and commanders in books 4 and 5, Sayings of Romans in book 5, Sayings of Spartans in book 1, Sayings of unnamed Spartans, Early Spartan customs, and Sayings of Spartan women in book 2, with two extracts from The bravery of women inserted at the end of book 6, and as an afterthought, 8.207. This is why he devotes so much of this dedicatory epistle to discussing Plutarch. 20 Francesco Filelfo (1398–1 481) was a distinguished if turbulent scholar, teacher, and writer, especially and with justification proud of his expertise in classical Greek, which he acquired in Constantinople, and which enabled him to become a pioneer in the art of composing Greek verse in classical metres. He was intensely interested in Greek philosophy and admired especially Plutarch’s Moralia. His translations into Latin from Greek literature include the Dicta regum et imperatorum and Apophthegmata Laconica. Erasmus uses these translations; for references see Index of Mediaeval and Renaissance Persons: Filelfo. Filelfo also translated Xenophon’s Agesilaus and De republica Laconica, which are related in subject matter. Dicta regum was complete in 1437, Apophthegmata Laconica in 1454; both translations were printed in 1471 (Venice: Vendelino da Spira). Erasmus considered Filelfo of sufficient importance as a Latinist to merit inclusion in the list of notable writers in Latin given in Ciceronianus. He also acknowledged his achievement, in spite of errors, as an early translator of Greek literature into Latin. See Ciceronianus

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in Padua.21 Filelfo made a number of errors which Raffaele corrected, but he in turn made shipwreck elsewhere; they were, after all, both human. Neither of them intended to do anything more than produce a straight translation, whereas my own policy has been, for several reasons, to take my cue from Plutarch rather than translate him, to expand the text rather than simply convert it into Latin.22 For one thing, the Latin version can be clearer if it is not closely tied to the words of the Greek original. After all, this book is not intended for Trajan, who was well read in both Greek and Latin literature and a man moreover of long experience. It is for a young prince, and – through your royal highness – for all those of school or student age who are engaged in liberal studies. Nor is it written for an age when such words and deeds were the subject of common talk in the baths,23 at social gatherings, and in town squares. Next, I wanted to be free to clarify the point of a saying if it was not immediately obvious. Many of these sayings are puzzling not only to inexperienced readers but even to persons of some scholarship. I certainly had to rack my brains to tease out the meaning in many places, and I suspect I sometimes did not get it right even then. There were besides many places where I had to wrestle with a faulty text,24 where the translators too had met problems. You would hardly believe what licence copyists or rather, persons of half-baked knowledge, have allowed themselves in ill-treating the text of this author, who deserves to be *****

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cwe 28 415 / lb i 1008 ff; also Ep 2422 11.62–5, where he says he had no predecessor. Filelfo, like Raffaele (see next note), would be translating from manuscript copies with all their textual problems (see 8–9 below). There were several fifteenth-century manuscripts of Plutarch which included the Apophthegmata, as well as many earlier ones. Raffaele Regio (ca 1440–1520) a scholar whose publications were mainly in the field of Latin literature. He crossed swords with Filelfo on points of classical scholarship. His translation of Plutarch’s Dicta regum et imperatorum and Apophthegmata Laconica appeared in 1508 (Venice: G. dei Rusconi) and again in 1510 (Paris: Crispinus). Erasmus met him in Padua in 1508. For Erasmus’ use of his translations, see Index of Mediaeval and Renaissance Persons: Regio. See Introduction xi and xiii–xiv above and 10 below. Public baths in the Roman world were, like gymnasia, cultural and social centres. See Introduction xvii–xviii above. There are many places where Erasmus’ Latin version reveals an inferior reading in the Greek text available to him. For some examples, see eg book 1.9, 23, 47, 151, 312, 328; book 2.40; book 3.335; book 6.447, 461, 502, 513, 527, 575; book 7.74, 192, 212.

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regarded with a kind of religious awe. Of all the Greek writers, Plutarch is the most saintly and the most worth reading, especially in the area of moral instruction. The very thing that should have made them fear to touch invited these hankerers after fame and fortune to corrupt, to put in, to take out. It is of course the most admired and famous authors that are most subjected to this treatment, all for the sake of gain. This is demonstrated by the variations one finds in different manuscript copies of a Greek work. Saying nothing of others, I shall illustrate this only from the work we are concerned with at the moment. Filelfo has some things which do not appear in Raffaele, and vice versa. Plutarch tells us in his preface25 that in the Lives he reported the words of his famous men all mixed up together with their deeds, but here, in order to produce something more compact, he strung together the apophthegms by themselves. Yet we find a lot of things included which are stratagems, not apophthegms.26 Moreover, the many repetitions of the same anecdote that we find here surely cry aloud that the body of the text has been tampered with by some other person. We can forgive the fact that an apophthegm is reported under the name of the person to whom it is said, not by whom it is said (as with Lysimachus and Philippides: in Plutarch’s own collection, Philippides’ reply to Lysimachus is given under Lysimachus).27 It was more highhanded to make two books out of one.28 Because Plutarch had used only some of the many sayings attributed to Spartans in the tradition (quite enough, in his opinion, for a busy emperor), this fellow, whoever he was (if indeed there was only one), created a separate book for ‘sayings of Spartans,’29 and, what’s more, arranged the speakers alphabetically according to the order of the letters in Greek. (Raffaele changed this to Latin alphabetical order in his translation.) This alphabetical order was absolutely the worst of three possible ways of arranging the material. Valerius and Frontinus organize their maxims into groups based on what the sayings illustrate: patriotism, loyalty, bravery, justice, and so on, distributing each under its proper head. The arrangement that Plutarch followed is the one requiring the greatest understanding of the ***** 25 Plutarch Moralia 172e. 26 See 11 n40 below. Erasmus quotes them nonetheless, though always with a disclaimer. 27 For the wrong attribution, see Erasmus’ comment in 5.111 (Lysimachus) below (Plutarch Moralia 183e), and also 6.408 below where the remark is correctly attributed to Philippides; see also 5.272–3. 28 See Introduction xiii–xiv above. 29 See Introduction xiv above.

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subject matter:30 he works methodically through a list of countries and kingdoms, and puts individuals into correct temporal sequence. After each king he puts his generals, and after each general his colleagues. From the Persians he moves to the Egyptians, from the Egyptians to the Thracians, from the Thracians to the Scythians, from the Scythians to the Sicilians, from the Sicilians to the Macedonians, from there to the Athenians and on from them to the Spartans (where he has the individual persons in chronological, not alphabetical, order); from the Spartans to the Thebans, from the Thebans to the Romans; with the result that the reader gets an idea of the whole course of history from these sayings of a few individuals. Any such historical sequence was thrown into wretched confusion by the person who made that separate book of Spartan sayings – in which, incidentally, he repeated ones Plutarch had put in his collection for Trajan. There are repetitions within each book, but there are so many places where this second book of Spartan sayings repeats the other one that one cannot attribute such an oversight to Plutarch, who was a most meticulous writer. Moreover, this second book has no preface, and the dedication to Trajan which precedes the first is not applicable to both of them. I am not going to say anything at the moment about the debt of gratitude we owe to persons who interfere with the works of great authors in this way; to me it seems a form of sacrilege. All the same, except for a few Spartan sayings, all of them repeated in the other series,31 I have omitted nothing that passes under Plutarch’s name, for two reasons: the avid reader (if not the discriminating one) will not feel that he has been deprived of something; also I saw nothing there that was not worth the knowing, even if it was not in the right place. The whole work however I have made to some extent my own, as I have expanded the Greek text by inserting additional information from other authors and including a good deal of material which was not in Plutarch’s text at all. I have also added notes explaining the meaning of a saying or its application, at least in places where some light on the subject was required, but only brief ones, as I did not want to spoil things by getting away from the essential nature of an apophthegm. ***** 30 The rest of this paragraph describes the organization of Plutarch’s two books of Sayings of kings and commanders and Sayings of Romans (Moralia 172b–194e), translated by Erasmus in books 4 and 5. 31 A number of sayings are recorded in both Sayings of Spartans (book 1) and Sayings of kings and commanders (book 4), eg those attributed to Brasidas, Agis i, Lysander, Eudamidas, Antiochus the ephor. Erasmus occasionally omits a repeated anecdote. See 1.329n, 2.1, and 2.3 below.

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My arrangement is even more confused than the one I found in the text, because my first intention was to go over just a few individuals, distinguished ones of course, but as I warmed to the task I got carried away and went on and on instead of stopping.32 There would have been no end to it if the vastness of the sea of material presenting itself to my eyes33 had not forced me to sound the retreat. According to Quintilian,34 one of the marks of a good teacher is not to know some things; with a subject like this, a thoughtful treatment means leaving out some parts of it. So I decided to be a civilized host and not an embarrassing one, especially as anything not included in this meal can be served at another one, when all this has been digested.35 In any case, there is an index to make up for the lack of order.36 As for the general title, the name of the book does not matter particularly, since Plutarch’s collection of sayings, which he called Apophthegmata, includes many examples that other people might well wish to classify as skommata, ‘jibes,’ loidoriai, ‘raillery,’ asteia, ‘witticisms,’ eutrapela, ‘repartees’ or geloia, ‘jokes.’ Cicero laboured to no avail37 trying to distinguish between different types of humorous remark; the efforts of the learned Marsus did not satisfy Quintilian.38 For that matter, Quintilian, who was a better scholar than Marsus, did not satisfy himself. So I did not think it worth while to devote thought and effort to the problem of distinguishing one from another, but contented myself with pointing out now and again in passing what sort of saying or joke we have.39 In my own additions to the work, I was very careful not to confuse stratagems with apophthegms,40 nor did I add anything at all that was not taken ***** 32 The work is confused because of the way it developed. Erasmus’ first intention seems to have been to use just Plutarch’s Apophthegmata Laconica and outstanding characters from Dicta regum (books 1, 2, and 4), but he decided to change subject and source and insert book 3, concerning just three philosophers. He probably then meant to stop at the end of book 4, but instead used the rest of Dicta regum to make book 5. 33 This metaphor was probably suggested to Erasmus by Livy’s remarks in the Preface to book 31 of his history (31.1.5) where he says he finds himself getting into ever deeper water as he wades into his subject. 34 Quintilian 1.8.21 35 See 2.193 n1 below. 36 Erasmus provided indexes of persons and of things and loci communes. 37 Cicero De oratore 2.253–89 38 See Quintilian 6.3.102ff. 39 For example, ‘jokes depending on the unexpectedness of the reply’; see General Index: replies, unexpected. 40 See 5 n9, 9 n26 above.

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from standard classical authors, either Greek or Latin. I know, of course, that recent writers have contributed many witty and amusing sayings, but things that come to us with all the venerability of antiquity carry more weight. In any case, I had to draw the line somewhere.41 We find the same remark attributed to different speakers42 in different authorities, but this should not worry anyone. What was said is more important than who said it, even if sayings do come with authority and find ready acceptance when they originate with somebody famous and well-liked. This happens so often it doesn’t need demonstrating with examples. Sometimes, of course, it is due to a lapse of memory (a very human failing!), but there is no reason why the same sentiment should not have been expressed by more than one person, whether in deliberate imitation or purely by chance. It is agreed43 that the line ‘Rulers learn wisdom by consorting with the wise’44 comes from Sophocles,45 but Plato cites it46 from Euripides. Sophocles’ Philoctetes47 has the line ‘I shall guide you, one old man leading another.’ It occurs in Euripides’ Bacchae48 as well. Likewise the line ‘Keeping silent where silence needful is and in due season speaking timely words,’ comes from Aeschylus’ Prometheus,49 but we find it in Euripides with the small change to ‘To keep silent . . . to speak.’50 ***** 41 Nonetheless, Erasmus did, when running out of material, include in book 8, which was added in 1532, some sayings of the near contemporary King Alfonso i of Naples (8.288–8.304). 42 See eg 1.102, 1.297, 1.298, 1.332 below. Many such items are pointed out in the notes passim. 43 The whole section from here to the end of the paragraph follows closely Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticae 13.19. 44 See Adagia iii vi 97: Sapientes tyranni sapientum congressu ‘Kings become wise through association with the wise.’ See also Plutarch’s essay Maxime cum principibus philosopho esse disserendum (Moralia 776a–778b). 45 According to Aulus Gellius this comes from the (now lost) Ajax Locrus (fr 13 Nauck2). 46 According to Aulus Gellius, Plato cites this in his Theaetetus, but actually at Theages 6. 47 According to Aulus Gellius, not from Philoctetes but the (now lost) Phthiotides (fr 633 Nauck2). There is however a textual problem here in Aulus Gellius. Aldus’ 1515 edition of Gellius reads Philoctetes. 48 Euripides Bacchae 193, again quoted from Aulus Gellius. 49 Not from Prometheus Vinctus but the (now lost) Prometheus Pyrphoros (fr 208 Nauck2), as Aulus Gellius says. 50 Euripides Ino (fr 413 Nauck2). The line as quoted by Aulus Gellius is actually more divergent in form than Erasmus suggests (‘to speak what is sure.’ So in Aldus’ 1515 text). Erasmus’ is possibly misremembering and confusing it

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Sometimes the sources differ not only over the speaker but over the content of the saying. For example, Fabius Maximus was taunted by a certain person who said it was thanks to himself that Fabius had recaptured Tarentum. For Cicero that person is Livius Salinator,51 for Livy Marcus Livius,52 for Plutarch Marcus Lucius (or as the Greek manuscripts have it, Markios Leukios).53 Again, Fabius Philostratus has the story that the Athenian assembly all laughed at the sophist Leon because he was enormously fat;54 Plutarch says it was because he was a tiny man. 55 What differences there are in the accounts of the quarrel between Gnaeus Domitius and Lucius Crassus in Valerius Maximus56 and Pliny!57 The least convincing sayings are those put into the mouths of characters from literature. The sophist Philostratus for example makes up anything he pleases for Palamedes, Ulysses and so forth.58 These become twice as feeble once you start handling them.59 I have included absolutely nothing of this sort. Close behind these come sayings attributed to characters in the sort of dialogue that makes no claim to verisimilitude but is devised simply to provide recreation. Sayings extracted from comedy or tragedy have more life, in fact they can be very satisfactory used in the right place, even if they can’t be called apophthegms, except when some great writer adapts them to his present purpose – they become more pleasing if they are given a new twist and made to imply something slightly different. For example, Aristotle cautioned Callisthenes when he was more outspoken with Alexander than was wise,60 quoting the line from Homer, ‘Doomed to an early death shalt thou be, my son, with such words upon thy lips.’61 *****

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with Aeschylus Choephori 582, which does simply show the small change from participle to infinitive. Cicero De oratore 2.273; De senectute 11. Livy 27.25.3; see 5.276 below. Plutarch Life of Fabius Maximus 23.3. Modern texts give the name as Marcus Livius. Philostratus Vitae sophistarum 1.2, the same author as the one referred to in n58 below. Plutarch Moralia 804a (Precepts of statecraft). See 6.414n and 8.1 below. Valerius Maximus 9.1.4 Pliny Naturalis historia 17.1.2–4. See 6.329 below. The sophist Favius (sic) Philostratus in Heroicos, a dialogue on the heroes of the Trojan War, 3.25, 11.2, 19.5. Presumably developing them in the various exercises prescribed for chreiae (see Introduction xxv above). See Plutarch Life of Alexander 54.1. Callisthenes was notorious for his bluntness and lack of tact or moderation. The incident will be used in 7.220 below. Homer Iliad 18.95

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I felt no inclination to include many of Herodotus’ apophthegms, because most of them seem to be entirely the product of the author’s imagination. Of the same stamp62 are sayings found in the speeches which historians invent, according to their ability, for the characters in their narrative, though even such sayings have their uses in developing the critical faculty and fluency of style. The best type of apophthegm is one which in a few words suggests rather than spells out some out-of-the-ordinary thought, such that no one could deliberately invent it, and which becomes more and more satisfactory the more closely you study it. Everything included under proverbs, maxims, striking sayings, striking actions, is particularly relevant to men in positions of authority, who are so busy with the practicalities of government that they cannot devote much of their lives to books. But the things I have listed are learned with enjoyment and easily take root in the mind, and actually contain more deep teaching than appears at first sight. We are told that whenever Caesar Augustus came across any of these instructive items, he made sure to have them copied and sent out to various places.63 It was the policy of those wise men of old to use the bait of pleasure to introduce into young minds things worth knowing, so that children while still unformed and not yet ready for serious moral instruction should learn in play what would stand them in good stead all their lives. In line with this theory, they sprinkled their cosmology, astronomy, music, natural and moral philosophy with cleverly thought up stories and fables. It will be observed that my collection contains some items that do nothing to teach morals but simply raise a laugh. Not that I should be censured for that – laughter relaxes tired spirits, provided the joke shows some wit and is not offensive. This sort of thing cheers and enlivens the minds of the young, makes life more civilized, our speaking more attractive.64 What does more to sweeten Cicero’s style than his constant seasoning of it with bon-mots of this sort? What are Plutarch’s moral writings if not tapestries embroidered with such colours? Indeed, things that seem to be quite ridiculous become serious once you start handling them. What could be more ridiculous than Diogenes ***** 62 Adagia iii v 44: Nostrae farinae ‘Same flour as we are’ 63 Suetonius Augustus 89.2 64 Erasmus believed in the need for interspersing hard work with lighter pursuits. See Adagia iv viii 39: Iocandum ut seria agas ‘Play in order to be serious.’ Cf Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics 10.6 (1176b33–5).

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going about with a lantern in broad daylight in the crowded city centre and saying over and again that he was looking for a man?65 We laugh, but at the same time we learn that what looks like a man is not necessarily a man – after all, statues look like a man. To find a man, you have to look into the mind. If the mind is guided by reason rather than feelings, then you have at last found a man. Then what about that ridiculous thing Phryne did? At a banquet, she got all the other women to agree to copy whatever she did. She then twice dipped her hand in water and laid it on her brow. By this trick, to everyone’s amusement, she revealed that all the others were wearing cosmetics, while she herself appeared even more lovely.66 From this amusing incident we learn the same moral lesson as we do from Socrates when he remarked, in a serious context, that we should endeavour to be in reality the kind of people we want others to think we are.67 Otherwise, once our pretence is stripped off, our ill-based repute will be replaced by humiliation. We also learn not to depend on external impermanent advantages, which all kinds of mishap can take away from us, but to provide ourselves with the true riches of the mind, over which fortune has no jurisdiction. All this serious moral teaching is to be found in an amusing thing done by a mere woman, and one of easy virtue at that. Similarly, although the r´egime which Lycurgus devised for the citizens of Sparta was generally speaking a harsh one, he not only allowed but positively enjoined decent, healthy humour. He established an activity which he called leschai.68 The older men, who were retired from serving the state, met for that purpose and happily passed the time in pleasant chat and jocular conversation free from vulgarity, praising the good and censuring the bad. ***** 65 See Diogenes Laertius 6.41 (3.226 below). This is quoted as a chreia in the rhetoricians (see Hock and O’Neill 321; Introduction xxiv n19 above). 66 Phryne was a courtesan famed for her beauty which needed no enhancement. She was used as a model by the painter Apelles for his Venus Anadyomene and the sculptor Praxiteles for his Cnidian Venus. For the incident, see Galen Protrepticus 10.26. There are anecdotes about her in 6.575–581 below, where this story is repeated. 67 Xenophon Memorabilia 1.7.1; 2.6.39; Cicero De officiis 2.12.43. 68 See Plutarch Lycurgus 25.2–3. When writing Adagia ii ii 3 ‘Nightingales perching on trifles’ Erasmus thought lŽsxai meant ‘trifles.’ He later discovered the true meaning ‘public benches’ from Harpocration and in 1533 rather grudgingly added this as a possible meaning to Adagia iv vi 36. (Harpocration Lexicon in decem oratores Atticos [Aldus 1503] was a source which Erasmus used extensively for the 1533 additions to Adagia.) Here however he interprets it as a light-hearted form of relaxation in which retired gentlemen indulged in witty conversation.

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He even dedicated a statue to Gelos, the god of laughter69 as he thought it a good thing to restore jaded spirits with clean humour and so make them alert and ready again for worthwhile labours. Truly in the affairs of men, ‘Nothing can last that knows not rest in turn.’70 Cleomenes was so strict that he would not allow into the country actors or female performers on the lyre or pipers, yet even he allowed the citizens to bandy about decent jokes and wisecracks.71 If we have some free time or if we find ourselves in a situation where some merriment is appropriate, it is far more decent to have fun with this kind of talk than to find pleasure in vulgar, ignorant, obscene stories. It seems to me much more sensible to give schoolboys practice with items of this sort rather than the ones in common use, which are not only pathetically unappealing in content but don’t reveal the mysteries of the Latin language either. The teacher must, of course, point out the various ways of expanding what has been said concisely and of adapting to serious use what has been said in jest. I would also say this: while it is probably not right to mingle human jest with divine scripture in sermons, there would be more excuse for putting in this sort of thing to wake the sleepers up72 than the old wives’ tales picked out of the gutter which some preachers drag in for no apparent reason. In the midst of all his civil and military preoccupations, Julius Caesar used to dispel the weariness brought on by burden of care by reading witty remarks, which he enjoyed so much he appreciated even ones directed at himself, provided they were clever.73 None of the emperors was more to be revered, or more devoted to his task than Augustus, yet none could surpass him in the polished urbanity of his witticisms.74 Cicero I shall ignore, as some people think he paid no attention to either moderation or decency in making his wisecracks.75 The philosopher Xenocrates was a great man, but marred by his dour disposition – Plato was constantly telling him to offer ***** 69 See Plutarch Life of Lycurgus 25.4. 70 Ovid Heroides 4.89 71 This is Cleomenes iii, king of Sparta 236–2 22 bc. See Plutarch Life of Agis and Cleomenes 33. 72 See Erasmus Ecclesiastes 2 / lb v 860 / asd v-4 276, lines 640–71. 73 See Cicero Ad familiares 9.16.4; Suetonius Julius Caesar 73. 74 See Macrobius Saturnalia 2.3.13. A selection of Augustus’ witticisms is given there at 2.4. See 4.133–199 below. 75 See Quintilian Institutio oratoria 6.2.3– 6; Macrobius Saturnalia 2.3.13; Erasmus Ciceronianus cwe 24 358 / lb i 980d. See some of these quoted at 4.280–350 below.

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some sacrifice to the Graces.76 Zeno was the complete Stoic and used to call Socrates ‘the buffoon of Athens,’77 because of his constant flow of amusing talk. Yet everyone would agree that Socrates is more to be revered than either of them. I need not remind you that the most celebrated sayings are those salted with clever wit. Socrates, Diogenes, and Aristippus would have more to contribute to the education of children than Xenocrates or Zeno.78 If wise men were right in using things that appeal to children in order to draw them on gradually to enjoy instruction that is harder and more demanding, this approach is even more appropriate in the case of a student somewhat older and a prince as well. A prince needs to be alert, he must never be depressed or send anyone away depressed.79 The mind that has enjoyed what it has learnt has more resilience in the face of any problems, is more able to be genial whatever company he finds himself in. I could defend myself with arguments such as these if my collection were entirely made up of humorous items. As it is, humorous items are combined with serious ones, acting like seasoning in a dinner. If I learn that you have enjoyed a book like this, I shall not regret writing such a work, even if some people maybe will think it rather elementary. Others may well produce works for students at a more advanced stage: we are providing milk for a prince of tender years. If however this is not advanced enough for you (and I should be pleased if that were so), I know that you will be happy if, through you, this attempt at something useful becomes available to help all young persons in their studies. Maybe we will give you something harder one day, once you have got this by heart – for it all needs to be learnt, so that it can all be ready to hand. Though you have no need of anything I can offer, since you have Conrad Heresbach80 living with you, a man thoroughly versed in every literary discipline and so affectionate towards you that, like every good tutor, he is more delighted with the advances and successes of his pupil than with ***** 76 See Plutarch Life of Marius 2.3; Moralia 769d (On love); Moralia 141f (Advice to bride and groom); Diogenes Laertius 4.6; also 6.581 and n1 below. This is briefly referred to in Adagia ii vi 18: *Amousoi ‘Strangers to the Muses.’ 77 See Cicero De natura deorum 1.93. 78 These are the three philosophers whom Erasmus singles out for inclusion in book 3. Zeno here seems to be the abusive Epicurean, Zeno of Sidon, not the famous Zeno of Citium. 79 See 6.84 (Titus) below. 80 It was due to the recommendations of Erasmus and John Vlatten (see n2 above) that Heresbach was appointed tutor to the prince in September 1523. See Ep 1316 introduction.

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his own. He has shaped your childhood with his lessons; he will be able to assist your maturer years with loyal and wise counsel. I too feel honoured as well as pleased that my efforts have been able to contribute in however small a capacity to the advancement of your gifts of intellect. It remains only to pray almighty God that he may graciously preserve, protect, and increase the gifts which he has bestowed upon you in such rich measure. Then you will fulfil all the hopes that your honoured parents cherish for you, grow up worthy of your long line of distinguished ancestors, and be equal to ruling the glorious realm to which you have been born and for which you are destined. One more thing and I have done: when you study this book, remember you are reading the apophthegms not of Christians but of pagans, in other words, read critically. Freiburg im Breisgau, 26 February 1531

BOOK I

SAYINGS OF SPARTANS ARRANGED IN ORDER ACCORDING TO THE GREEK ALPHABET Agasicles The Spartans were markedly strict and their morals particularly uncorrupted. Their chief concern was military glory. Consequently they despised all arts which in their view made the minds of the citizenry soft and drew them away from true worth to idle ostentation.1 Rome too, at the time when she was still breathing that spirit of austerity with which she began, drove from the city those pestilential Greeks.2 No part of Greece was more corrupted by such intellectual pursuits than Athens, where Gorgias, Lysias, Isocrates, Prodicus and innumerable other sophists3 performed their patter to the plaudits of the people – and considerable financial reward. ***** 1 On Erasmus’ translation of words for ‘Sparta’ and ‘Spartan’ see Introduction xxix–xxx above. For the Spartan attitude to music, see General Index: trivial pursuits. 2 This refers to the year 155 bc, when the Greek states sent to the Roman senate an embassy consisting of the philosophers Diogenes the Stoic, Carneades the Academic, and Critolaus the Peripatetic. While in Rome, they took the opportunity of lecturing on philosophical topics, and Carneades in particular made a great impression by his eloquent demonstration of the opposing theses that justice is a/ natural, b/ merely conventional. Cato the Censor, famed for his strict, old-fashioned views, accordingly took steps to have them hurried from the city as a dangerous influence. See Plutarch Cato maior 22; Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticae 6.14. Erasmus employs the term Graeculi, a disparaging diminutive form, used by the Romans (first century bc onwards) to refer to contemporary Greeks, whom they considered clever, unprincipled, and lacking in seriousness. See eg Juvenal 3.78; Adagia i vii 95: Da mihi mutuum testimonium ‘Lend me your evidence.’ 3 These were itinerant Greek teachers who charged fees for public lectures and courses of instruction in various subjects including the art of public speaking. Given the nature of contemporary Greek society, this skill was expected to ensure success in life. Students were taught, among other things,

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1 So when somebody remarked to Agasicles, king of Sparta, that he was surprised that he, Agasicles, being so fond of learning things, did not invite the sophist Philophanes1 to join his retinue, he with true kingly dignity replied, ‘I desire to be the pupil of those whose son I also am.’2 By this he meant that it is equally important whom you get as parents and whom you engage as teachers. As family characteristics reappear in later generations, so the faults of teachers are transmitted to their pupils. Where honourable living is the subject of instruction, the teachers must be those who have demonstrated virtue in their actions, not those who prate about virtue in stylish rhetoric. But nowadays, good God, what sort of men are entrusted with the formation and education from their earliest years of those who will one day be rulers of the whole world! Yet for a prince it is just as harmful, just as improper, to be educated by persons of unworthy character as to be born of them. Moreover, a prince should not learn any and every art, but only those which teach the principles of good government. ***** how to argue effectively for any point of view, irrespective of truth or personal conviction. The most famous sophists amassed large fortunes as their courses were immensely popular, especially in cities such as Athens. Gorgias, Lysias, Isocrates, and Prodicus were some of the most famous, working in the period fifth to fourth century bc. To some extent their teaching overlapped with that of contemporary philosophers. In the hands of lesser men, the teaching concentrated on self-advancement at the expense of truth and integrity and gave rise to the bad name that sophistry eventually acquired. A later generation of sophists flourished in the first to second centuries ad (the ‘Second Sophistic’) concentrating on rhetoric. Erasmus will record sayings of both early and later sophists in 8.1–52 below. See the Preface to book 8 for Erasmus’ views on sophists, which are no doubt influenced by Plutarch’s low opinion of them. See also 1.88, 2.17 n2, and 3.36 below. 1

(i) Plutarch Moralia 208b (Apophthegmata Laconica). In margin ‘noble‘ Agasicles was king of Sparta, c. 575–550 bc. Information about the various kings of Sparta and other Spartan persons whose sayings will be recorded in Apophthegmata is to be found in Paul Poralla and Alfred S. Bradford A Prosopography of Lacedaemonians from the Earliest Times to the Death of Alexander the Great (X–323 B.C.) 2nd ed (Chicago 1985). 1 For the sixth century bc, the word ‘sophist,’ which Erasmus has taken from the Greek text of Plutarch, is an anachronism. When it first came into use in the fifth century it had no pejorative overtones and meant simply a wise or skilled man, which is presumably what it means here. 2 A better version of Plutarch’s Greek text here gives the meaning, ‘whose son I would also wish to be.’

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2 On another occasion someone asked Agasicles how any ruler could be safe without a bodyguard. He replied, ‘If he rules his people as a father rules his children.’ No one ever said more in so few words. It is only masters who are feared, and that by slaves: it is fear of punishment that restrains those who are not kept from wrongdoing by a sense of decency. Since a father is concerned for his children rather than for himself, their love for him combines reverence with an acknowledgement of his authority. There is no need of a bodyguard to protect from these – their attendance on him is in fact the most reliable form of bodyguard. If a king wins over the affections of the citizens by benevolence and well-doing, he will have no need of foreign mercenaries to guard him. His own citizens, towards whom he will feel as a father feels, will be the surest possible protectors of his person. There is a well-known quotation: ‘Let them hate as long as they fear.’1 Those who approve of such a sentiment find in the very people they should be trusting their chief objects of suspicion, and anyone feared by many must needs fear many in turn. Agesilaus 3 Agesilaus, the famous king of Sparta, was once at a drinking party, and after lots had been cast in the customary fashion, was appointed master of ceremonies. (The duty of the master of ceremonies was to prescribe the amount each person should drink.) When the butler asked him how much wine he should pour each person, he replied, ‘If there is plenty of wine provided, give each as much as he asks for; if there isn’t enough, divide it equally among them all.’ This clever solution made sure that in case of plenty, there would be no shortage for those who liked to drink deeply, while the abstemious would not be compelled to drink. On the other hand, if supplies were limited, by treating all equally he removed any occasion for resentment. As an equal ***** 2

(ii) Plutarch Moralia 208b. In margin ‘weighty, forbearing‘ 1 A famous line from the early Roman tragedian Accius, a fragment quoted by Cicero Philippics 1.14.34. See also Seneca De clementia 2.2.2; Adagia ii ix 62. See the anecdote about Caligula (6.21 below).

3

(iii) Plutarch Moralia 208b–c. In margin ‘ingenious‘ Agesilaus ii, king of Sparta 400–360 bc, was one of the most famous of Spartan kings and the city’s foremost general. He was promoted to the kingship only in 400 bc, after the Peloponnesian War. Many of the sayings here quoted belong to the time when he was general but not yet king, though Erasmus often calls him ‘King.’ See 1.242 n1 below. In Plutarch’s Parallel Lives he is compared with the Roman military leader Pompey the Great.

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amount of wine was served to each person, those who usually drank with moderation had plenty; and those who were intending to drink more deeply had enough to satisfy normal physical needs and could not complain if their greed went unsatisfied, since no one in the whole company had more or less than the rest. So even those who normally liked to indulge settled without ill-humour for moderation. The Spartans indeed approved of frugal living more than the rest of the Greeks. 4 When it was reported to Agesilaus that a certain criminal had withstood torture with fortitude, he said, ‘A man who applies his powers of endurance and tolerance of suffering to wicked and disgraceful ends is truly wretched.’ Among the Spartans endurance of suffering was considered admirable. If suffering is accepted for honourable ends, it merits high praise; but if for evil ends, the person concerned does not deserve praise for fortitude; in fact, the more resolute he shows himself, the more to be pitied and the more reprehensible he is. (I give these two meanings because the Greek word pon¯eros means either ‘wicked’ or, with a different accent, ‘distressed’ or ‘unfortunate.’)1 The general was very sorry that so much strength of mind and body had been expended on an unworthy end. If the person had employed it on honourable ends, he could have served his country well. 5 Someone else was praising a rhetorician for his amazing development of a slight subject. Agesilaus remarked, ‘I wouldn’t consider even a shoemaker good, if he fitted big shoes on a small foot.’1 ***** 4

(iv) Plutarch Moralia 208c. In margin ‘weighty‘ 1 Erasmus’ comment does not make it clear that the word ponhr—w [poner´os] occurs in the Greek text of the apophthegm, where he has opted (line 3) for the Latin translation miser, ie ‘wretched, unfortunate.’ This distinction between p—nhrow [p´on¯eros] ‘suffering, unfortunate,’ and ponhr—w [pon¯er´os] ‘wicked, evil’ is propounded in Byzantine etymological compilations: Hesychius’ Lexicon of fifth to sixth century ad (M. Musurus, Venice 1514), the Suda of the tenth century (Demetrios Chalcondyles, Milan 1499), and the Etymologicum Magnum of the twelfth century (Zacharias Callierges, Venice 1499). Only the accentuation ponhr—w is recognized nowadays for all meanings.

5

(v) Plutarch Moralia 208c. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 For the sentiment, 1.230 and 2.115 below; Adagia iii vi 67: Herculis cothurnos aptare infanti ‘To put Hercules’ boots on a baby’

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Sincerity is highly desirable in oratory,2 and the best speaker is one whose speech fits his subject;3 the style of the speech must derive from the subject matter, not from the speaker’s artistry. 6 A certain person kept badgering Agesilaus, relentlessly pursuing him with some petition and saying, ‘You promised,’ over and over again, as if that constituted some moral obligation not to deny the request. ‘Quite right,’ said Agesilaus. ‘If what you ask is justified, I did promise; if it is not, then I spoke but I didn’t promise.’ (By these words he cut the ground from under the importunate fellow’s feet.) He however was still not prepared to desist and brought in a new argument: ‘All the same, kings should honour anything “to which they give their royal nod.” ’1 ‘And petitioners to kings,’ said Agesilaus, ‘should just as much come with justifiable requests and legitimate appeals, choosing the right moment and bearing in mind what is right and proper for kings to grant.’ Some people spring on kings out of ambush, as it were, and demand something unjustifiable of them when they have been drinking or when they are busy with something else, and so cannot consider properly what kind of request is being put to them. It is quite right to go back on a promise made to such people, and wrong of them, when refused, to demand that the promiser keep faith, since they did not remember their own obligations when making their requests. 7 Whenever he heard people being praised or blamed, it was his view that one should look into the character of the speakers as much as the character of those they were speaking of. Being a very sensible man, he realized that those who are only too ready to disparage others betray their own diseased minds more than they expose other people’s failings. Those who applaud dishonourable conduct ***** 2 On the need for a speaker to generate trust in his hearers, especially by avoidance of obvious artifice, see Ad Herennium 1.10.17; Cicero De inventione 1.25; De oratore 2.156, 177; Quintilian Institutio oratoria 12.9.5. 3 See Cicero De oratore 3.210; Orator 123; Erasmus Ciceronianus cwe 28 380 / lb i 991a / asd i-2.634. 6

7

(vi) Plutarch Moralia 208c–d. In margin ‘just and courteous‘ 1 Based on Homer Iliad 1.527. (vii) Plutarch Moralia 208d. In margin ‘sensible‘

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in others or censure admirable behaviour demonstrate their own stupidity and inverted standards. 8 While Agesilaus was still a boy, the annual boys’ athletics demonstration was taking place, and the organizer assigned him to a not very prominent position.1 He accepted this, although he was already king designate, saying, ‘That’s fine by me. I shall show that position does not bring distinction to men, but men give distinction to position.’ These words demonstrate the boy’s remarkable nobility of mind combined with self-control. It is persons like this who are best fitted to rule a kingdom. A similar story is told of Aristippus.2 9 A doctor once prescribed him an elaborate form of treatment, by no means the simple sort the Spartans normally employ. ‘By the Twin Gods,’1 he said. ‘I will take your prescription, if indeed it’s my fate not to live, even if I don’t take it all.’2 He meant that treatment of that sort was more likely to hasten death than ward off disease, and that such powerful drugs should only be taken by someone set on dying. The Spartans approved of frugality and simplicity in every sphere. ***** 8

(viii) Plutarch Moralia 208d–e. In margin ‘noble‘ 1 This was no doubt because of his lameness and small stature, which disqualified him for the kingship. He was appointed to the office unexpectedly only in 400 bc. 2 See Diogenes Laertius 2.73: Aristippus was sent to the bottom of the table after he had offended Dionysius i, ruler of Syracuse. Aristippus remarked, ‘You must have wanted to confer distinction on the last place.’ It was a popular story: see 1.163 below, where it is told of Damonidas, and Plutarch Moralia 149a (Dinner of the seven wise men), where it is told of an unknown Spartan. Cf Adagia i x 76: Magistratus virum indicat ‘ ’Tis the place that shows the man.’ For Aristippus see 3.102–63 below.

9

(ix) Plutarch Moralia 208e. In margin ‘shrewd‘ 1 Ie Castor and Pollux, the Heavenly Twins. This oath was characteristic of the Spartans. Cf 2.17 below. 2 Erasmus was puzzled by the inferior reading offered by his text of Plutarch, and has inserted Sumam quae praescribis ‘I will take your prescription,’ for which there is nothing corresponding in the Greek. A better text supplies the meaning: ‘I don’t have to live at any cost, and I don’t put up with everything.’

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10 Once when Agesilaus was standing at the altar of Pallas (called Chalkioikos among the inhabitants of Sparta because of her temple of bronze)1 preparing to offer a heifer in sacrifice, he was bitten by a louse. He did not turn away, but in full view of everyone caught and killed it, saying, ‘By the Gods, so much for the lurking foe, even on the very altar.’ He thus demonstrated a mind free from foolish shame and from superstition and also indicated by implication that no altar or place of refuge should be safe for conspirators. 11 He once watched a boy pulling a mouse he had caught out of a hole. The mouse turned, bit the hand of its captor, and escaped. Agesilaus drew the attention of his companions to this and said, ‘Since a little tiny creature avenges itself like that on those who injure it, just think what men should do.’ The general, a brave man himself, used to find opportunities in all kinds of circumstance to fire the spirits of his men and make them bolder in the face of the enemy. The incident however serves better to show that no one, however powerful, should provoke some one weaker than himself by ill-treatment. For it often happens, as Horace says, that he who ‘sinks his teeth into something soft, strikes on something hard.’1 12 When he was considering launching a war against the Persian king with a view to liberating the Greeks living in Asia,1 Agesilaus consulted the oracle ***** 10

(x) Plutarch Moralia 208f. In margin ‘unaffected‘ 1 ‘She of the House of Bronze,’ a cult title of Pallas Athene at Sparta, so well known that the name of the goddess could be omitted, as in the Greek text Erasmus is translating. He inserts the name Pallas and explains the title. See also 1.145 and 1.263 below.

11

(xi) Plutarch Moralia 208e 1 Horace Satires 2.1.77–8. Cf Adagia iii vii 1: Scarabaeus aquilam quaerit ‘A dungbeetle hunting an eagle’ for the moral that one should not despise weak opponents.

12

(xii) Plutarch Moralia 208f–209a. In margin ‘reverent‘ 1 The Greeks living in Asia were inhabitants of Greek cities originally founded by colonists from the mainland in the coastal regions of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and now subject to the kings of Persia, to whom they paid tribute. Several attempts were made to assert their independence. Agesilaus’ campaign, launched in 396 bc, was attended with considerable success at first.

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of Jove at Dodona. (The Spartans used to follow in most things the advice given by oracles of the gods.)2 Jove directed him to commence hostilities as he thought fit, and he reported the god’s answer to the ephors.3 (These were five judges, to whose authority even the kings had to submit.) They urged him to go to Delphi and make the same enquiry of the oracle there. So he went and put his question in this form: ‘Apollo, do you take the same view as your father?’ Apollo confirmed the reply of Jove, and only then was Agesilaus appointed commander-in-chief and able to proceed with the war. By this one incident, Agesilaus teaches us several things: first, inner control, since, though king, he was prepared to obey the ephors’ superfluous instruction; second, that war should not be embarked upon thoughtlessly. For them, the oracle of Jove was not sufficient, whereas princes today often rush into hostilities without consulting, or indeed in opposition to, the will of the leading men and the cities. Finally, he demonstrated a genuinely religious attitude to the gods, since, if the gods disagree with each other, they are not gods.4 In this he censured by implication the tales of Homer, who depicts violent quarrels between the gods and goddesses and ascribes to his divine powers behaviour that would be shocking in princes and magistrates. 13 The Persian general Tissaphernes1 had concluded a treaty with Agesilaus not out of genuine desire but from fear. Under its terms, he was to allow the Greek city states autonomy under their own laws. Before long however, he sent to his king for huge reinforcements, and when they arrived he ***** 2 See Cicero De divinatione 1.95: ‘(The Spartans) always used to seek an oracle from Delphi or Ammon or Dodona on all important matters.’ 3 This is the first occurrence in this text of these important Spartan officials. They were first appointed in the seventh century bc in the reign of Theompompus (see 1.198 n1 below) and were elected to hold office for one year. There were three at first, five later. From the beginning they were intended to act as a check on the autocratic power of the kings, but their powers grew until they eventually controlled the kings. See eg 1.39, 1.107, 1.121 below; also General Index: ephors. Cleomenes iii (236–222 bc) executed the ephors and abolished the office. 4 See Aristotle Rhetoric 1398b–1399a, where Hegesippus, an Athenian statesman, likewise consults Zeus and Apollo, and Aristotle suggests it would be improper for the gods to contradict each other. 13

(xiii) Plutarch Moralia 209a–b. Erasmus has extended this apophthegm and 1.14 with material from Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus 9. In margin ‘equitable‘ 1 Erasmus seems to have been careless here in translating the Greek \n úrx¤ mŽn, meaning ‘at the outset,’ not ‘at the head, in command,’ ie ‘the general.’

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informed Agesilaus that it would be war if he did not withdraw from Asia. Agesilaus gladly seized on this violation of the treaty, and with a pleased smile told the delegation that he was very grateful to Tissaphernes for antagonizing both gods and men by his perjury and so causing them to favour the other side. (He was well aware that nothing can be brought about in the affairs of men without God’s providence, and that one should put one’s confidence in divine favour rather than human counsel or strength.) He then manoeuvred his forces to give the impression that he was about to make a thrust into Caria. Tissaphernes, taken in by this stratagem, deployed his troops in that area, while Agesilaus made a sudden move against Phrygia. There he captured a considerable number of cities and carried off a large amount of money, and he said to his friends, ‘To violate treaties without cause is wicked, but tricking the enemy is both justifiable and laudable – it’s also satisfying and profitable.’ Although he loved fighting, nevertheless he always shrank from an unjust war, and tried not to provide others with any pretext for starting hostilities; but he happily seized on any pretext offered to himself, and thought it quite moral to use deceit against anyone who violated treaty obligations and broke the word he had sworn before gods and men. 14 Finding himself deficient in cavalry, Agesilaus withdrew to Ephesus and announced to the rich citizens that anyone who supplied a man and a horse to take his own place would be exempt from military service. This move enabled him to assemble quickly a force of horses and men both vigorous and fit for fighting, in place of cowardly, frightened, rich men. He used to say that in this he was following the example of Agamemnon, who took a mare of good stock and in return released from service a rich but ignoble fellow. The reference is to Homer Iliad 23:1 the mare Which Echepolus, son of Anchises, gave Agamemnon, Atreus’ son, a gift to save him from going With the army to Troy, the windy town on the hill, But let him instead stay at home and there enjoy himself. For the thunder-wielding father had bestowed vast wealth on him. Indeed he dwelt in Sicyon with its spacious meadows.

***** 14

(xiv) Plutarch Moralia 209b–c. In margin ‘ingenious‘ 1 Homer Iliad 23.296–9. Erasmus supplies the passage in Greek (which is not in Plutarch) and appends his own Latin verse translation. The practice of the translators in such cases is to translate only Erasmus’ Latin version.

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Such skills befit a good prince. They enable him to acquire what is necessary for maintaining the state’s position and safety, not by violent requisitions which cause antagonism, but by skilfully extracting it in a manner which places no burdens on humble folk and even makes the richer classes feel grateful to him. 15 When Agesilaus had decreed that the captives1 should be sold unclothed, the laphyropolae (these were the people whose function it was to auction off the spoils of war) arranged the sale on that basis. Many came forward to purchase the clothes (for, as is the custom with barbarians, these were splendid and worth a great deal of money). The bodies of the prisoners however were pale, soft, and pampered, showing no sign of manliness, having been reared in idleness and pleasure, spending most of their time indoors. Far from desiring to buy them, everybody jeered at the merchandise thus offered as useless and of no value whatsoever. Agesilaus, who was presiding over the auction, (deciding to turn this chance event into yet another object lesson in bravery for his soldiers and pointing to the captives’ fine clothes) said, ‘These are what you are fighting for,’ and (indicating the prisoners’ naked bodies) ‘These are what you are fighting against.’ He thus gave them a double incentive to bravery – eager anticipation of material reward and total contempt for the unwarlike foe. 16 When Agesilaus had put Tissaphernes to flight in Lydia, had killed large numbers of men, and had actually made an incursion into the royal domains, the Persian king sent an embassy headed by Titraustes1 with an enormous sum of money, begging him to desist from the war. Agesilaus rejected the money and replied that in time of peace the authority of the state was paramount,2 and the state accordingly had the right of determining what course of action seemed best suited to maintaining the country in ***** 15

(xv) Plutarch Moralia 209c. In margin ‘clever‘ 1 Ie prisoners of war of various Asiatic nationalities serving in the Persian armies.

16

(xvi) Plutarch Moralia 209d. In margin ‘spirited, generous‘ 1 Information added from Plutarch Agesilaus 10.4. 2 The Greek appears to mean ‘it was the state that had the authority to make peace.’ Erasmus seems to have misunderstood this and added the explanatory section ‘and the state accordingly . . . in time of war it was not so.’ Agesilaus could not make peace on his own initiative but had to consult the authorities in Sparta.

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a peaceable condition. In time of war it was not so. He personally would get more pleasure from enriching his troops than from becoming rich himself. Besides, he thought it was a good thing for Greeks to take spoils off the enemy by fighting, not to accept gifts from them. What a splendid attitude this reveals! He sought no other reward for courage than glory, and would not sell peace to the enemy at the expense of his troops. 17 Megabates, son of Spithridates,1 a very good looking youth, once went up to Agesilaus to greet him and, after the Persian custom, made to give him a kiss, being under the impression that Agesilaus was very fond of him; but he shrank from the kiss and turned his face away. The lad blushed, feeling he had been humiliated, and thereafter greeted him from a distance. This made the king regret avoiding the kiss, and he pretended to wonder what had happened to Megabates that he didn’t greet him with a kiss any more. His attendants replied, ‘The fault is yours, your majesty. You did not draw him close when he approached you, but shrank from letting such a handsome lad kiss you. Even so, he could still be persuaded to come and kiss you, only be sure not to draw back.’ Agesilaus considered this in silence for some time, and then said, ‘There is no need to persuade him to come back. I feel I would rather get the upper hand in a thing of this sort than take by force an enemy city garrisoned with brave men. I consider it a better thing for a man to preserve his own liberty than to take others’ liberty from them.’ Now this was a man clearly fit to bear rule over others, since he could rule his own desires. And how surprising to find in a military man such ***** 17

(xvii) Plutarch Moralia 209d. In margin ‘self-controlled‘ 1 Spithridates was a Persian commander who had defected to Agesilaus with his children, his treasures, and two hundred cavalry. Erasmus’ version of this incident has been influenced by the accounts of it in Plutarch Agesilaus 11.7 and Xenophon Agesilaus 5.4–5, but it still follows in the main the text of Plutarch’s Apophthegmata Laconica, which, with its moralizing approach, does not make the point sufficiently clear. Also the Greek text appears to be at fault. In its context, the story lays more emphasis on Agesilaus’ passionate attachment to the boy. Xenophon tells us that it was the custom among the Persians to kiss those they honoured and the boy was mortified at having his kiss of courtesy refused. Agesilaus was of course afraid of the effect of accepting his kiss and so felt it necessary to resist his inclination, even if this meant denying himself the pleasure of the boy’s proximity. Plutarch uses the incident again as an example of resisting temptation in Moralia 31c (How to study poetry) and 81a (On progress in virtue).

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a philosophical opinion! He understood that no one is free who is a slave to desire; he understood that the most impressive form of dominion is dominion over one’s own inclinations. This example of self-control appears all the more admirable when one considers that Greek law allowed the love of handsome boys, though excluding vileness or coercion. Plutarch records this apophthegm rather differently in his Lives: ‘For myself,’ he said, ‘I would rather fight that fight about the kiss all over again than have everything before my eyes turn to gold.’ The more conscious this great man was of the pangs of desire, the more convinced he was of the virtue of resisting. 18 Generally speaking, Agesilaus was rather inflexible and a stickler for justice and legality, but where his friends’ affairs were concerned, he thought an overstrict application of the law in their case was just an excuse for inhumanity and cruelty.1 This is borne out by a very brief letter written, as the story goes, to Hidrieus the Carian. In it he asks for mercy for a friend in these words: ‘If Nicias has done nothing wrong, let him go; if he has done wrong, let him go for my sake; but in any case, let him go.’2 It is wicked to punish an innocent man, but occasionally to condone a guilty act as a favour to a respected person who speaks up for the accused is to show decent human feeling. Justice should always be tempered with clemency, but when a person of standing interposes, there is less resentment, more approval. So this is how Agesilaus behaved with regard to his friends’ affairs most of the time. On occasion though he acted as the interests of the state required instead of giving way to his feelings for his friends. 19 For example, one day camp had to be broken amidst considerable confusion, and he was leaving behind sick a young man of whom he was extremely fond. When the young man tried with tears and soft entreaties to keep him from going, he turned to his entourage and said, ‘How difficult it is to feel sorry for someone and be sensible at the same time!’ ***** 18

19

(xviii) Plutarch Moralia 209e and f. In margin ‘merciful‘ 1 The words ‘for inhumanity and cruelty’ were added by Erasmus to elucidate the not very clear meaning of the Greek. 2 The anecdote is repeated at Plutarch Agesilaus 13.5, 603b, Moralia 191b (Sayings of kings and commanders) and Moralia 807f (Precepts of statecraft). (xix) Plutarch Moralia 209f. In margin ‘controlled and wise‘

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He preferred to follow the course of action that was right in the circumstances rather than do what his affection for his friend dictated. Such mental gifts made Agesilaus superior to others. 20 His physical r´egime was in no way superior to that of his companions, except that he totally abstained from over-eating and over-drinking. His sleep pattern did not dictate his activities but was subservient to them. He was so immune to cold and heat that he wore only the one set of clothing all year round.1 When encamped in the midst of his troops he slept on a pallet bed just like everyone else’s, as if he were any rank and file soldier. He was constantly saying, ‘The mark of a prince is to excel ordinary men not in luxury and self-gratification but in self-control and fortitude.’ A remark truly worthy of a king, if he had added ‘wisdom,’ for that word sums up all the virtues of a prince. 21 When someone asked what benefit the laws of Lycurgus1 had brought to Sparta, he replied, ‘Contempt for pleasure.’ He thus implied that the chief source of corruption in a nation is selfindulgence. 22 To another who expressed surprise that Agesilaus and the other Spartans were so abstemious with regard to food and dress, he replied, ‘My friend, in return for this abstinence we reap the rich harvest of liberty.’ He thus gave him a wise reminder that no pleasure is sweeter to freeborn men than liberty, and that liberty cannot exist long where selfindulgence reigns. 23 When someone was urging him to relax his rigorous way of life to some extent, reinforcing his words with the argument that life is so uncertain ***** 20

(xx) Plutarch Moralia 209f–210a. In margin ‘controlled, weighty‘ 1 Modern texts of Plutarch offer a meaning ‘he was the only one able to make good use of all the seasons.’ Cf 1.24 below.

21

(xxi) Plutarch Moralia 210a. In margin ‘controlled‘ 1 See 1.258–287 below.

22

(xxii) Plutarch Moralia 210a. In margin ‘wise‘

23

(xxiii) Plutarch Moralia 210b. In margin ‘controlled and resolute‘

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that time itself could impose another manner of living, he replied, ‘But I so condition myself as to seek no change personally, whatever change of fortune may befall.’1 What wonderful discipline of mind – in an austere lifestyle not to feel any need of luxuries and amidst luxuries to be incapable of being corrupted by them. 24 Not even in old age did Agesilaus introduce any relaxation in his manner of life, his diet, or his physical activities. When someone asked him why a man of such advanced years was walking about in the depths of winter wearing only a cloak and no tunic,1 he replied, ‘So that the young may copy this way of life, when they have as their example a man who is not only very old but also a prince.’ These words are a wise reminder that old men should so live as to display before the young a practical example of good living; also that common men copy with the greatest enthusiasm what they see important people doing. 25 The inhabitants of Thasos enjoyed an abundance of material things, being especially famous for their outstanding wine,1 and were accordingly rather addicted to self-indulgence. When Agesilaus was passing through their territory with his army, the Thasians as a mark of respect sent him cereals, geese, sweetmeats, spiced honey-cakes, and all sorts of other luxurious things to ***** 1 Modern texts of Plutarch offer a meaning ‘to find a change in no change.’ Erasmus’ Greek text may have offered, with the negative placed earlier, ‘to find no change in change.’ He has endeavoured to elucidate this by expanding it slightly. 24

(xxiv) Plutarch Moralia 210b. In margin ‘weighty‘ 1 See 2.87 below.

25

(xxv) Plutarch Moralia 210c. The story as told in Plutarch Life of Agesilaus 36 and Nepos Agesilaus 8.3–4 is set in Egypt, whither Agesilaus had gone to serve as a mercenary under King Tachos (or Thacos; see 1.74 below). Agesilaus’ attitude arouses the contempt of the Egyptians. Agesilaus on his way home from his campaigns in Asia passed through Thrace (see 1.41 below), and Thasos is an island off the coast of Thrace. Perhaps there has been confusion in the tradition between Thacos and Thasos. The island of Thasos became a proverbial example of abundance of good things: Adagia i iii 34: Thasos bonorum ‘A Thasos of good things.’ In margin ‘temperate‘ 1 Information from Pliny Naturalis historia 14.9.

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eat and drink. He would accept none of this apart from the cereals, and ordered the bearers to take the rest home again as being of no use whatsoever to himself and his men. When they pressed him most insistently to accept it as a gift of friendship, he ordered it to be distributed among the Helots (they were a sort of slave the Spartans had).2 When asked his reason for acting thus, he replied, ‘It is not fitting for men who are motivated by a passion for virtue and courage to accept delicacies and tit-bits like these. This kind of thing has its attraction for those born with a slave mentality – it should be totally alien from men of free birth.’ In saying this he censured the Thasian way of life. Being slaves to pleasure they were not free, nor had they the mind of genuinely free men. He also indicated that spending one’s life in thrall to the appetites and the pleasures of the belly is totally servile and abject. 26 That was an example of a heart undefiled when confronted by pleasure. The incident I shall now relate shows him equally invincible in face of vainglory. The people of Thasos realized that Agesilaus had done much that deserved their gratitude, so they conferred on him temples and divine honours and sent a delegation to inform him of this. When he had read over the honours which the delegation had come to offer, he asked them whether their country had the power to turn men into gods. They replied that it had, so he said, ‘Right, turn yourselves into gods first; if you manage that, then I will believe you when you say you can make me a god too.’ Which quality deserves our admiration more here? Is it the high principle of a mind which showed such contempt for apotheosis when it was handed to him? Yet apotheosis was a prize for which Empedocles the philosopher1 threw himself into the crater of Etna, and so many educated ***** 2 The Helots, who will appear frequently in these apophthegms of Spartans, were the serfs of the Spartiates. They worked the land for their masters, supplying them with a stipulated amount of produce and other services, thus freeing them from the need to work themselves and making possible the peculiar Spartiate social and military system (described below 1.258–87 under Lycurgus). As well as Laconian Helots, there was also a Helot population of Messenia, a territory in the western Peloponnese taken over by military force in the eighth century bc and kept in subjugation, in spite of attempts to regain their freedom, until 370 bc. 26

(xxvi) Plutarch Moralia 210d. In margin ‘frank and earnest‘ 1 See Diogenes Laertius 8.67 67–72 for various accounts of the death of Empedocles (ca 493–492 bc). He had always sought adulation and, according to one

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princes have manoeuvred with ingenuity and expenditure to win it. Or is it the cleverness which forcibly opened the eyes of the Thasians to their supreme stupidity – or their abject flattery? 27 We have a comparable demonstration of nobility of mind in the following incident. The people who inhabited Greece1 at that time decreed that statues should be erected in his honour in all the chief cities, but he wrote back: ‘There is to be no representation of my person either painted or modelled or produced by any other technique.’2 The general run of rulers was of the opinion that this kind of honour put them on a level with the gods, and considered it the supreme reward for their achieveents. Agesilaus was content with honour itself and scorned such flatteries, for such they were, not real occasions of glory. He preferred to have his image carved on the hearts of wise and good men, rather than stand fashioned in bronze or gold in their public places. There is a special honour that naturally follows in the train of outstanding virtue. No statue can be as impressive as the admiring recollection of a life well lived. 28 When he was in Asia, Agesilaus saw a house which had a roof constructed with squared timbers. He asked the owner whether trees grew square in their country. When he replied that they didn’t grow like that, but that the round logs were processed to make them square, ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘if they grew square would you make them round?’1 What a difference between that king’s attitude and the elaboration of ***** account, leapt into the crate of Etna in order that his unexplained disappearance might lend credence to a report that he had become a god. See 7.360 and 7.365, but the anecdotes in Erasmus’ Apophthegmata do not touch on his philosophy: four basic elements governed by the opposing forces of love and strife, repeated world cycles and reincarnation. 27

(xxvii) Plutarch Moralia 210d. In margin ‘high-minded‘ 1 A mistake for Asia. 2 According to Plutarch Agesilaus 2.2, his reluctance to be portrayed was due to his lameness and unimposing presence, features which almost cost him the kingship.

28

(xxviii) Plutarch Moralia 210e. In margin ‘frugal‘ 1 For the saying, cf 1.235 and 1.265 below.

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our buildings, where nothing pleases unless imported from the far corners of the world or interfered with by artifice. 29 When someone asked Agesilaus how far Spartan dominion extended, he brandished his lance and said, ‘As far as this can reach.’1 That was a reply worthy of a great general who embarked on no war but a just one and maintained by bravery an empire won by bravery. 30 When another person asked him why the city of Sparta had no walls,1 he pointed to the armed citizens and said, ‘These are the walls of the Spartan state.’ This indicates that the safest defence of a country is the courage of its citizens. 31 Similarly, when someone else asked the same question, he replied that a city should not be fortified by stones and beams. Instead of ramparts and walls, it is the noble qualities of its inhabitants that keep it safe.1 If they are linked by concord, they are more impregnable than any wall. 32 Agesilaus used to warn his friends against the desire for money, a vice which most people suffer from, urging them to strive to be rich not in money but in bravery and virtue. ***** 29

(xxix) Plutarch Moralia 210e. In margin ‘resolute‘ 1 For the saying, cf 1.149 below. It is identified as a chreia ‘one combining speech and action’ in Theon Progymnasmata 5.206 (Spengel ii 99). See Introduction xxiv n19 above.

30

(xxx) Plutarch Moralia 210e. In margin ‘resolute‘ 1 Sparta was exceptional among ancient cities for not being walled, a fact of which the Spartans were inordinately proud, causing them to affect to despise other conventionally walled cities. Their military reputation in fact kept invaders at bay for 600 years, making walls unnecessary, until the occasion in 370 bc during the conflict with Thebes, recorded below at 1.82. For other relevant apophthegms, see General Index: Sparta.

31

(xxxi) Plutarch Moralia 210e–f. In margin ‘wise‘ 1 Cf 1.30 n1 above.

32

(xxxii) Plutarch Moralia 210f. In margin ‘wise‘

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It is pointless for a man to lay up riches if he is destitute of the real wealth of the mind. 33 If there was any task he wanted the soldiers to perform quickly, Agesilaus was the first to tackle the job himself in front of them all. This was to shame them into making an effort. It is a very effective form of exhortation if the ruler does himself what he wants to be done by others. 34 He used to congratulate himself particularly on the fact that, although he was king and had to look to the future and take counsel for all the rest, he was second to none in taking on hard physical labour; and he thought it a finer thing that he could command himself and was, so to speak, king over himself than that he held sway over others. 35 Someone saw a lame Spartan going off to war and tried to get him a horse on the grounds that a cripple needed one, but Agesilaus said, ‘Don’t you realize that war needs people who stay at their post, not people who flee?’1 This means that the soldiers really valuable in war are the ones who have made up their minds to find either victory in the battle or death. 36 When someone asked how he could win himself great glory,1 he replied, ‘By scorning death.’ A man whose mind is preoccupied with the fear of death will perform no great exploit in war. This same fear holds people back2 from noble deeds in every sphere of human life. ***** 33

(xxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 210f. In margin ‘energetic‘

34

(xxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 210f. Erasmus has expanded the brief original. In margin ‘weighty‘

35

(xxxv) Plutarch Moralia 210f. In margin ‘apt‘ 1 Cf the incident at 1.122 below.

36

(xxxvi) Plutarch Moralia 210f. In margin ‘weighty, disregard for life‘ 1 This should be ‘asked how Agesilaus had achieved his great glory.’ 2 Cf 2.189 below.

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37 When someone enquired why the Spartan warriors deployed into battle positions to the music of pipes,1 Agesilaus replied, ‘So that, when they march in time with the music, it may be obvious who are the fearful and who the brave.’ The anapaestic rhythm2 would rouse the ardour of the bold, while striking the terrified with trembling and pallor. The cowards’ weakness was betrayed by their inability to keep time with the music. It is vital for a general to be thoroughly acquainted with the minds of his soldiers, so that he knows who should be withdrawn from the battle and who should be stationed in which section. Valerius Maximus in book 23 expresses the opinion that pipes were used to rouse the soldiers’ ardour; Thucydides on the other hand, as we read in Aulus Gellius,4 tells us that the Spartans used pipes for battle, instead of trumpets and horns, in order to moderate5 the soldiers’ force and impetuosity, so that they did not rush upon the enemy in a ragged and straggling mob, but advanced in disciplined formation, each keeping to his line. The records tell us that the Cretans6 used to march into battle to the music of the lyre. 38 When someone was commenting admiringly in his hearing on the good fortune of the Persian king, to be so prosperous and so young, he replied, ‘Not even Priam was unfortunate at that age.’ He was saying that no one should be called happy unless he had reached the last day of his life – neither Priam1 nor Croesus2 died happy. ***** 37

(xxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 210f–211a. In margin ‘sagacious‘ 1 ‘Pipes’ translates Greek aulos, Latin tibia. This was a reeded instrument and with its sharp sound was more akin to the modern oboe than the flute, fife, or recorder, names which give the wrong impression. 2 ‘The anapaestic rhythm’ is added from Cicero Tusculan Disputations 2.37 and Valerius Maximus 2.6.2. This rhythm was a recurrent pattern of two light syllables followed by a heavy one ( ˘ ˘ ¯ in traditional notation). 3 Valerius Maximus 2.6.2. 4 Aulus Gellius 1.11.5, referring to Thucydides 5.70. 5 Cf 2.97 below. 6 See Aulus Gellius 1.11.6. The whole chapter is relevant.

38

(xxxviii) Plutarch Moralia 211a. In margin ‘shrewd‘ 1 The aged king of the flourishing city of Troy who eventually, at the end of the Trojan War, saw his family murdered and his city sacked by the victorious Greeks and was himself slain. 2 The king of Lydia in the sixth century bc who became a byword for wealth

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39 When he had subjugated most of Asia by arms, Agesilaus decided to advance on the king of Persia himself, in order to put a stop to his activities, since the king was so little affected by the war personally that he was meantime sending money to bribe the Greek leaders. Agesilaus was however summoned home by the ephors on account of Sparta’s now being surrounded by hostile Greek states, which is what the Persian king had brought about by his bribes. He obeyed, saying that a good commander should obey the commands of the law, and without delay sailed from Asia, to the great regret of the Greeks living there.1 His scheme had a good chance of success and the enthusiasm of the Greeks invited him to proceed with it. This king, however, had nothing to do with tyranny and considered the authority of the law to be paramount. 40 Persian coinage bore the image of an archer, so when he was leaving Asia he used to say that the king was driving him out of Asia with 33,000 archers. By sending that number of gold darics1 to Athens and Thebes and distributing them to those who controlled the mob, Timocrates had roused in the people there a belligerent attitude towards the army.2 However, Agesilaus wrote to the ephors in these terms: ‘Greetings from Agesilaus to the ephors. We have subjugated a large part of Asia, driven out the barbarians, and fought many engagements in Ionia; but since in virtue of the authority of your office you bid me present myself before you by an appointed day, I shall follow close on this letter of mine, or possibly arrive before it. I do not bear rule for my own benefit, but for the state and the ***** and prosperity until he was defeated and captured by Cyrus, king of the Persians. See the famous story of Croesus and the sage Solon in Herodotus 1.30– 43 – Solon warns Croesus that no man may be called happy until his life has concluded still in happiness (7.22 below). This was a commonly voiced sentiment: see eg Epaminondas at 5.243 below. 39

(xxxix) Plutarch Moralia 211a–b. This paragraph and 40 should be read together. In margin ‘controlled‘ 1 One of Agesilaus’ aims in attacking the Persian empire was to liberate from Persian overlordship the Greek cities along the coast of Asia Minor. See 1.12 above. He had had a number of military successes before he was recalled.

40

(xl) Plutarch Moralia 211b–c. In margin ‘witty, controlled‘ 1 Ie Daric staters, the gold coinage issued by the Persian kings and named from King Darius of Persia. Timocrates of Rhodes was the agent of the Persians. 2 A better reading in the Greek text gives ‘towards the Spartiates.’

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allies and friends of the state. A man who exercises authority only uses that authority truly and legitimately when he himself submits to the authority of the law and the ephors, or whoever it may be who bears office in the state.’ What could be more controlled than the attitude of this king? Yet what more splendid? 41 Then, after crossing the Hellespont, when Agesilaus was making his way through Thrace, he did not request any of the barbarians to grant him passage, but sent messengers to the various tribes to ask whether he was passing through hostile or friendly territory. All the others received him in friendly fashion when he arrived and gave him an escort out of their territories, but the people called Troades, to whom Xerxes, according to the story, had given gifts and so purchased permission for himself to pass through, demanded from Agesilaus as the price of passage1 one hundred talents of silver and one hundred women. He laughed at them and asked why they hadn’t come at once to collect what they were demanding. He moved his army up close and falling upon them as they stood in battle formation barring his path, slaughtered a large number and put them to flight. Thus he opened up a path with his sword. 42 Similarly, he sent messengers to the Macedonian king1 to ask whether they would pass over enemy or friendly soil. When the king replied that he would take counsel, Agesilaus said, ‘Do so then; in the meantime we will go on our way.’ The king was amazed at the man’s boldness, and fearing for himself decided it was better to receive him as a friend. 43 Agesilaus ravaged the territory of the Thessalians, who had given aid to the enemy. His bravery was so tempered with justice that he neither hurt friends nor spared enemies if chance gave him the opportunity of taking revenge. ***** 41

(xli) Plutarch Moralia 211c–d. In margin ‘confident, spirited‘ 1 Erasmus seems to have translated twice the Greek words meaning ‘the price of passage.’

42

(xlii) Plutarch Moralia 211d. In margin ‘fearless‘ 1 This was probably Amyntas iii. The Macedonian kings had in recent years constantly switched their support between Sparta and Athens.

43

(xliii) Plutarch Moralia 211e. In margin ‘uncompromising‘

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This is not an apophthegm, and was added in mutilated form by some ignorant fellow.1 44 The people of Larissa,1 however, had not assisted the enemy, and he sent Xenocles and Scythes to them as ambassadors to establish friendly relations. When the Larissaeans seized the two men and kept them in custody, the others took great exception to it and proposed that Agesilaus should move up his troops and invest the city. He, however, said that he was not prepared to take even Thessaly in its entirety if it meant losing either of the two men he had sent, and he would lose both if he provoked the inhabitants of the city with hostile moves. Accordingly he offered terms and so freed and recovered the captives. He overlooked such a gross injury to ensure the safety of his two friends, though generally speaking he did not put up with slights. You could say he had his feelings under control. 45 A successful battle had been fought outside Corinth.1 Agesilaus was informed that only a few of the Spartan e´ lite had been lost in the fight, whereas a huge number of Corinthians had perished, as also of Athenians and men from other allied cities. Far from rejoicing and feeling elation at the victory, he sighed deeply and lamented the fate of Greece. ‘Poor Greece,’ he said, ‘she has lost enough men in civil conflict to defeat the whole barbarian world.’ To this noble-souled man victory was a desirable thing, but the safety of his companions in arms was more important. How would he have felt if the victory had cost the lives of large numbers of Spartan citizens? Such an attitude deserved high praise when seen in a Spartan general of bellicose character, and a pagan at that. To a christian prince every victory should be an occasion for sorrow when it involves the destruction of many men, even if they are enemies. ***** 1 ‘This is . . . ignorant fellow’ was added in C. See the dedicatory epistle 9 above. 44

(xliv) Plutarch Moralia 211e. In margin ‘controlled, affectionate‘ 1 Larissa was the chief town of Thessaly. Cf 1.43 above.

45

(xlv) Plutarch Moralia 211f. In margin ‘merciful‘ 1 Sparta’s combined enemies had assembled at Corinth, where they were defeated. Agesilaus at this point was still in northern Greece and was not involved in the battle.

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46 When the people of Pharsalus1 kept making annoying raids on his forces, he put them to flight with six hundred cavalry,2 and set up a trophy in the territory of the Narthacii.3 He was more pleased about this victory than any other, because he himself at the head of a small cavalry unit without the support of any other forces had defeated a people who prided themselves particularly on their horsemanship. It is satisfying to defeat those who attack you, especially when you deploy the very resources on which the foe congratulates himself. 47 Here are two examples of moderation provided by this leader, in spite of his passion for glory. Diphridas brought Agesilaus a message from his home country that he was to abandon his current activities and immediately invade Boeotia.1 He had in fact determined to do precisely that later on, when he had assembled greater resources. Nonetheless in obedience to the magistrates, he summoned 20,000 of the troops who were serving in the Corinth area and invaded Boeotia. Close to Coronea he joined battle with the Thebans, Athenians, Argives, and Corinthians, and defeated both battle lines,2 although he himself was in a poor physical state because of the many wounds he had received. This battle was the greatest of all his exploits, according to Xenophon.3 Yet when he got back to Sparta he made no alteration to his long established way of life or to his modest standard of living, in spite of all his great successes and many victories. Far more deserving of a triumph was the victory by which this great man first gave the authority of the law precedence over his own designs and then remained completely unaffected by all his mighty deeds. ***** 46

(xlvi) Plutarch Moralia 211f. For the moral, cf 1.160 below. In margin ‘successful‘ 1 Pharsalus was a town in Thessaly. 2 A mistake for five hundred. The Thessalian cavalry were second to none. 3 Possibly this should be ‘at Mount Narthecium,’ a mountain a few miles south of Pharsalus.

47

(xlvii) Plutarch Moralia 212a. In margin ‘modest‘ 1 Boeotia lay some distance to the south of Thessaly and shared its southern border with Athenian territory. It lay across Agesilaus’ homeward route to Sparta. Sparta’s combined enemies met him in Boeotia at Coronea (394 bc). 2 Modern texts of Plutarch give ‘engaged in battle the Thebans and the two Locrian peoples’ (ie contingents from the two separate parts of Locris). 3 Xenophon was present at the battle (see 1.49 below) and he describes it in Agesilaus 2.9–16.

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48 Observing some citizens who were looked up to by others and also had high opinions of themselves because they kept racing stables, Agesilaus persuaded his sister Cynisca to mount a chariot and take part in the race at the Olympic Games,1 hoping thereby to show the Greeks that that kind of exercise required no real valour, but merely involved the display of wealth and the spending of it. For that reason it was more fit for women than men. 49 He had in his company the famous philosopher Xenophon.1 He thought so highly of him that he asked him to send for his sons to come to Sparta, where they would be instructed in the fairest art of all, that is, the art of both wielding authority and of submitting to it. Every kind of liberal discipline flourished at Athens,2 but Agesilaus was of the opinion that this subject, the noblest of them all, could be studied nowhere better than among the Spartans, where people did not talk about good government but provided a living example of the splendid thing in the conduct of its citizens. At the same time he demonstrated that those who did not know how to submit to the laws and to the authority of office were not fit to hold office themselves.3 50 When someone asked him why the traditional Spartan state was so success***** 48

(xlviii) Plutarch Moralia 212b. In margin ‘amusing‘ 1 Erasmus’ Greek text seems to have read kay’sasan from kay’zv ‘sit’ rather than kaye”san from kay’hmi ‘enter (for a race),’ as in Plutarch Agesilaus 20.1, hence his idea that Cynisca drove the chariot herself. Not even wealthy men drove their own chariots but employed professionals. Cynisca’s chariot was victorious in 396 and again in 392 bc.

49

(xxlix) Plutarch Moralia 212b. In margin ‘earnest‘ 1 Xenophon is best known for his historical writings, especially the famous Anabasis, but he wrote on numerous topics, including memoirs of Socrates and other writings touching on Socrates’ teaching and character. Primarily an experienced soldier, he has been described as ‘an amateur philosopher, historian, and economist’ (OCD), and would not today be considered a serious philosopher. He wrote an encomium of Agesilaus, who was his hero. He is considered a philosopher by Quintilian (10.1.75 and 82), and Plutarch, like Quintilian, links him with Plato (Moralia 79d) 2 Xenophon was an Athenian. 3 The Spartans prided themselves on their unquestioning obedience. See eg 1.39, 1.47, 1.88, 1.195, and 2.70 below.

50

(l) Plutarch Moralia 212c. In margin ‘civic discipline‘

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ful compared with others, he replied, ‘Because they endeavour more than others to know both how to command and how to obey.’ These two things exclude sedition from the citizen-body and preserve concord. 51 After Lysander’s death, Agesilaus discovered the existence of a large group of supporters whom Lysander had organized immediately after returning from Asia1 to use against Agesilaus. Incensed by this, Agesilaus determined to make known to everyone the kind of citizen Lysander had been while he was alive. He also found and read a speech of which Lysander had left a copy among his papers. It had been composed by Creon of Halicarnassus2 for Lysander to learn by heart and deliver before the general populace, and its subject was of a revolutionary nature, advocating constitutional change. Agesilaus wanted to publish this, since it indicated that Lysander had been disruptive and seditious, but when an old man (who happened to be an ephor) had read it, he was alarmed lest the forcefulness and vehemence of the language even when read, might incite many to revolutionary fervour. Accordingly he advised Agesilaus not to raise Lysander from his grave but to suppress the speech. Agesilaus took the old man’s advice and gave up his plan. He was schooled to obey not only public laws and bearers of office but also advice given by an old man in a private capacity. Being a man of noble spirit, he was happy to let the public good carry more weight with him than his personal grudge. He also realized that it was undignified to carry on a quarrel with the dead and buried.3 This self-control was displayed in relation to one who had been a manifest enemy. ***** 51

(li) Plutarch Moralia 212c–d. In margin ‘controlled‘ This is the first mention of Lysander, an influential Spartan politician and general at the time of the long Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta (431–404 bc). Lysander set up an alliance with the younger Cyrus, a Persian prince, and using Persian money defeated the Athenians decisively at sea and eventually reduced the city by blockade. He supported Agesilaus and helped to secure his unexpected election to the kingship in 400 bc. He had high political ambitions, perhaps hoping to be elected king himself (see 1.302 n1 below), and his establishment of a personal faction caused a certain rift with Agesilaus. He died in 394 bc. 1 He returned from Asia (ie the area covered by modern Turkey) at the end of the Peloponnesian War in 404/3. 2 It was customary to commission speeches to deliver oneself, especially in a law-suit, from professional teachers of rhetoric. The name should probably be Cleon, but nothing more seems to be known of him. 3 See Adagia i ii 53: Cum larvis luctari ‘To wrestle with ghosts.’

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52 He never did anything openly to make trouble for his secret opponents, but arranged for them to accompany him on military service. Quite a number of these he promoted to the rank of officers and magistrates. After they had behaved dishonestly and greedily when holding their public positions and were called to account and in trouble, Agesilaus now spoke up for them and took their side, and so transformed them from stealthy opponents into supporters and won them over to himself. And so eventually he had no one opposing him. This wise behaviour was extremely civic-minded, in that he preferred to reform the malicious rather than punish them. 53 A certain person asked Agesilaus to write a letter of recommendation for him to the people in Asia with whom Agesilaus had ties of friendship and hospitality, so that he would receive from them what was right. Agesilaus replied that there was no need of a commendatory letter. ‘My hosts,’ he said, ‘do what is right of themselves, without my writing to them.’ With good men and a good cause commendation is superfluous, for in such circumstances the favourable response which entreaties might extort is granted as a matter of course. This fine general had formed ties of hospitality only with persons like himself. 54 Somebody was once showing him the well-fortified and strongly built walls of a certain city, and asked him whether he thought them a fine sight. ‘By Jove,’ he said, ‘very nice indeed, but they seem to have been built for a population of women rather than men.’ He believed that the most appropriate defence for a city was its brave citizens.1 55 An inhabitant of Megara1 was boasting to Agesilaus with youthful cocksure***** 52

(lii) Plutarch Moralia 212d. In margin ‘ingenious, controlled‘

53

(liii) Plutarch Moralia 212e. In margin ‘honourable, civilized‘

54

(liv) Plutarch Moralia 212e. In margin ‘earnest‘ 1 See 1.30 above.

55

(lv) Plutarch Moralia 212e. In margin ‘forbearing‘ 1 See 1.86 below.

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ness about his native city. ‘Young man,’ said Agesilaus, ‘your talk requires great strength.’ He meant that it is inappropriate for anyone to talk big unless he has the power to match his words. 56 Our wise hero was so far from sharing the opinions of the crowd that he did not merely despise things he saw others admiring but was so indifferent to them as to seem unaware of their existence. Take for example what happened with Callipides.1 He was a tragic actor of great renown, far-famed among the Greeks and highly esteemed by all. This man first of all came up to Agesilaus and spoke to him; then he brazenly joined the group of people walking with the king and drew attention to himself, thinking that the king would make the first move and welcome him with a gracious and friendly gesture. When this did not happen, eventually he said, ‘Do you not recognize me, your majesty? Or haven’t you heard who I am?’ Agesilaus peered at him and said, ‘Aren’t you that mummer fellow?’ He used the word dikeliktas, which in the Spartan dialect means mimus,2 that is, a ‘mimic’ or ‘copier’; deikelon means a likeness or statue in Spartan speech.3 He wisely measured everything by its value to the state, and accordingly paid no honour to an actor, however distinguished he was, since his art served no purpose but pleasure and was more likely to corrupt the morals of the citizens than edify them.4 57 There was a similar incident when he was asked to listen to someone who could do a life-like imitation of a nightingale. He refused, saying, ‘I’ve heard real nightingales often enough.’ He meant that it’s a foolish pleasure to take more delight in the imitation than in the real thing.1 ***** 56

(lvi) Plutarch Moralia 212f. In margin ‘serious‘ 1 See Adagia i vi 43: Callipides. 2 An actor in a vulgar, farcical type of popular entertainment called a mime – not a mime in the modern sense, but with speaking accompaniment. Athenaeus Deipnosophistae 14.621 describes the kind of performance given by a deikeliktas. 3 Information possibly derived by Erasmus from the Suda de’kelon, d’kelon. (See 1.4 n1 above.) 4 For the Spartan attitude to expertise in the fine arts, especially in music, see General Index: trivial pursuits.

57

(lvii) Plutarch Moralia 212f. In margin ‘shrewd‘ 1 See Adagia i i 10: Nihil ad Parmenonis suem ‘Nothing like Parmeno’s pig.’

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58 He himself was remarkably modest and accordingly did not tolerate arrogance in others. A certain Doctor Menecrates had met with success in curing some desperately ill patients and was hailed as Jupiter by the admiring populace. The arrogant fellow was delighted with this appellation and conceitedly incorporated it into his name. When he came eventually to write to Agesilaus also, he had no hesitation in beginning the letter with these words: Menecrates Jupiter wishes King Agesilaus well. The king was displeased by this opening and read no further, but wrote back as follows: King Agesilaus wishes Menecrates health. He did not use the word chairein ‘be glad,’ which is what the Greeks use when they wish someone well, but hygiainein ‘be well,’ a word which can be used in a good or bad sense, but usually carries a bad implication in that we suggest that someone’s mental health needs improvement.1 Someone once used this same word to censure Caesar’s foolish behaviour.2 59 He provided a remarkable demonstration of fortitude even in adverse circumstances. The Persian king’s fleet gave Conon and Pharnabazus1 control of the sea and they were investing the maritime regions of Laconia. At the same ***** 58

(lviii) Plutarch Moralia 212f–213a. In margin ‘witty, forbearing‘ 1 The normal word used in greeting in Greek was xa’rein [chairein] ‘be well, be glad,’ and Menecrates used this to address Agesilaus. To translate it, Erasmus employs the equivalent Latin phrase salutem (dicere) ‘wish well.’ He translates ¿gia’nein [hygiainein] in Agesilaus’ sarcastic response by sanitatem (dicere) ‘wish health, soundness.’ The English translation has been expanded to spell out Erasmus’ comment, which requires a knowledge of the Greek original to be comprehensible. 2 The Latin text seems to be at fault and should probably mean ‘Caesar used . . . to censure someone’s foolish behaviour.’ See Plutarch Moralia 508b (On talkativeness), where Augustus Caesar answers with hygiaine the greeting chaire of a man who had foolishly blabbed confidential information to his wife. As hygiaine could mean ‘Fare well,’ the man in this case took it as a command to commit suicide.

59

(lix) Plutarch Moralia 213b. In margin ‘brave‘ 1 At this point in the long rivalry between Sparta and Athens, the Athenians were allied with the Persians. The Athenian admiral Conon was working in conjunction with the Persian fleet and shared the naval command with Pharnabazus, governor of the north western Persian territories, which included some Greek cities.

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time Athens had got walls built round it again. As Pharnabazus was providing the money,2 the Spartans made peace with the king, and sent one of their citizens, Antalcidas, to Tiribazus, betraying to the king the Asiatic Greeks on whose behalf Agesilaus had waged war. As a result, a certain amount of the disgrace occasioned by this action unfairly fell upon Agesilaus.3 For Antalcidas was an enemy of Agesilaus, and for that reason made peace on any chance that offered, being jealous of Agesilaus’ renown, and thinking that the war gave him importance and made him great and famous. This setback did not however discourage Agesilaus. In fact, when someone commented that the Spartans were now ‘siding with the Medes,’ he said, ‘No, rather it is the Medes who are siding with the Spartans’4 – meaning that fortune could not change the character of his people for the worse. 60 Agesilaus was once asked which was the superior virtue, bravery or justice. He gravely replied that there was no place for bravery without justice, but if everyone were just there would be no need of bravery. ***** 2 The words ‘As Pharnabazus was providing the money’ should have been translated by Erasmus with the previous sentence; see Plutarch Agesilaus 23.1. The Spartans had destroyed the Long Walls linking Athens with its port Piraeus at the end of the Peloponnesian War in 404 bc. These had now been rebuilt by Conon in 393 bc with Persian money and this signified the potential resurgence of Athens as a power. However, the visit of the Spartan Antalcidas in 392 bc to Tiribazus (Persian governor of Western Asia, including the Greeks living in Ionia) persuaded the Persians to realign themselves with the Spartans. The terms of the agreement in 386 bc included the abandonment of the Greek cities of Ionia to Persian overlordship. For Agesilaus’ campaigns on their behalf, see 1.12–16 and 1.39 above. Apophthegms of Antalcidas are recorded at 1.123–30 below. 3 A variant reading (adopted in modern texts of Plutarch) gives the meaning: ‘So Agesilaus had absolutely no share in this shameful business.’ See also Plutarch Agesilaus 23. 4 The words ‘in fact . . . siding with the Spartans’ occur as a separate apophthegm in Plutarch. ‘To side with the Medes’ M¯edizein was to accept Persian policies and influence (and support) and so betray Greek values and Greek freedom and independence. In practice this meant abandoning the Greek cities of Asia Minor to Persian rule. The verb M¯edizein was used in fifth to fourth century bc political invective to denote the ultimate treachery, as the various states shifted their alliance according to where they saw the best advantage. Persian money was a powerful factor in all this. 60

(lx) Plutarch Moralia 213c. In margin ‘just‘

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An attitude worthy of a great leader, for he was of the opinion that nothing should be done by strength divorced from justice, and was well aware of the difference between daring and bravery. 61 The Asiatic Greeks were accustomed to call the Persian king ‘The Great King.’ Agesilaus remarked, ‘In what way is he greater than I am, unless he is more just and more disciplined?’1 This splendid man despised the external goods which are so admired by the common man and measured man’s whole felicity by the goods of the mind. Such a sentiment was often on the lips of philosophers, but this military man expressed it with genuine feeling. 62 Observing the perverse licentiousness of the Greeks who lived in Asia (corrupted as they were by the practices of the local peoples), he used to say, ‘Over there the wicked are the free men, whereas the virtuous are the slaves.’1 This was because vice was there without restraint, virtue was abhorred. 63 On being asked how a man could best win an honourable reputation, he said, ‘If his words are the best and his actions the finest.’ How could it be put more briefly or more incisively? Socrates likewise in answer to the same question said, ‘If you try really to be the sort of person you want to be thought to be.’1 Glory won by false pretences is not only not true glory, it does not last either. 64 There is another famous remark by Agesilaus which princes should take to heart – namely that the proper course for a commander is to ***** 61

(lxi) Plutarch Moralia 213c. In margin ‘spirited‘ 1 Cf a similar remark made about Pompey, 5.461 below.

62

(lxii) Plutarch Moralia 213c. In margin ‘weighty‘ 1 The Greek probably means ‘the inhabitants were poor freemen but good slaves.’ See 1.206 below, where similar Greek words are so interpreted by Erasmus.

63

(lxiii) Plutarch Moralia 213c. In margin ‘wise‘ 1 See Xenophon Memorabilia 1.7.1; Adagia iv i 92: Cura esse quod audis ‘Take care to be what you are said to be’

64

(lxiv) Plutarch Moralia 213c. In margin ‘just, restrained‘

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display boldness in the face of opposition but to treat kindly those who submit. Virgil1 said the same thing in that noble line: ‘Spare the defeated and beat down the proud in war.’ A man is not truly victorious if he cannot bridle his wrath when it clamours for revenge. 65 When someone asked him what children should learn especially, he replied, ‘Things that they will still find useful when they are grown up.’1 This wise man believed quite rightly that virtue alone should be our very first study, ‘right from our baby finger-nails,’2 and that no portion of life should be devoted to trifling activities which may well seem praiseworthy when children pursue them, but which are not going to be suitable for adults or useful to people with a serious vocation. 66 Agesilaus was sitting as judge in a lawsuit where the prosecutor put up a good case, the defending counsel a poor one – he merely kept on repeating as the case proceeded, ‘Agesilaus, a king should back up the law’ (implying that he had a good case and the law supported him). Agesilaus put a stop to the man’s effrontery by saying, ‘If someone broke into your house or stole your clothes, would you be looking for the architect or clothes manufacturer to come to your assistance?’ This suggests that a king is so to speak the architect of the law, and that it would not be right for him to help someone who had done something contrary to the law. 67 After peace had been agreed,1 a letter from the Persian king was delivered to Agesilaus, brought to Sparta by Perses2 and Callias. In it the Persian king proposed that he and Agesilaus should enter into a relationship of ***** 1 Virgil Aeneid 6.853. 65

66 67

(lxv) Plutarch Moralia 213d. In margin ‘wise‘ 1 Cf 1.233 below. 2 See Adagia i vii 52: A teneris unguiculis ‘Since the time their nails were soft.’ (lxvi) Plutarch Moralia 213d. In margin ‘witty‘ (lxvii) Plutarch Moralia 213d–e. In margin ‘uncorrupted‘ 1 This is the peace negotiated by the Spartan Antalcidas between the Greeks and Persians in 386 bc. See 1.59 n2 above. 2 Perses is not a personal name but ‘the Persian.’ See eg Xenophon Agesilaus 7.3.

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hospitality and friendship.3 Agesilaus did not accept this proposal, but told them to take back the message that there was no need to write to him privately; if it were clear that the king was indeed of a friendly mind towards the Spartans and the Greeks, he too would show himself a staunch friend; but if the king were caught acting treacherously, ‘then,’ he said, ‘he need not think he will have me as a friend, even if I receive many, many letters from him.’4 Could anything be nobler than such an attitude? In every situation his sole aim was to consider what was good for the state. 68 He was extremely fond of his children, and there is a story that one day he was playing with them at home and riding a hobby-horse. One of his friends happened to see this, and Agesilaus asked him to tell no one what he had seen until he had children of his own. This request indicated in a light-hearted way that the game was not a sign of silliness on his part but of fatherly affection; and that his behaviour could not appear foolish to anyone who knew from experience how powerful an emotion is parents’ love for their children. 69 Agesilaus was constantly fighting against the Thebans, and when he was wounded in one of the battles, Antalcidas,1 according to the story, remarked, ‘Agesilaus, you are getting a fine fee from the Thebans for your instruction, since you taught them to fight when they neither wanted to fight nor knew how to.’ They do indeed say that the Thebans became much more warlike than they had been as a result of the Spartans’ frequent expeditions against them. For that reason, Lycurgus,2 the famous early law-giver, in the laws called Rhetrae (that is, god-given pronouncements),3 forbade making ***** 3 Cf 1.53 above. 4 A similar story is told of Epaminondas in book 5.233 below. 68

(lxviii) Plutarch Moralia 213e. Cf a similar story of Socrates playing with his children with a hobby-horse, Valerius Maximus 8.8 ext. 1. In margin ‘affectionate, affable‘

69

(lxix) Plutarch Moralia 213f. In margin ‘sharp‘ 1 An opponent of Agesilaus. See 1.59 above. 2 For Lycurgus see 1.258–87 below. 3 Literally, ‘covenants, agreements, ordinances.’ See Plutarch Lycurgus 6 where rhetra is originally the name given to an oracle obtained by Lycurgus from Delphi, giving divine support to his first reforms. The name was then used for other Spartan ordinances; see Plutarch Lycurgus 13.

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war frequently on the same people, lest the foe should learn to fight by practice.4 This apophthegm however is not one of Agesilaus’.5 70 Agesilaus had heard that the allies were grumbling about the number of military expeditions,1 especially since the allies were numerous, while the Spartans who led them were few in number. Agesilaus accordingly, wishing to demonstrate the size of the Spartan force, ordered all the allies to sit down in one place, all mixed together, and the Spartans by themselves in another place. Then through a herald he ordered all the potters to stand up first; when they had done so, he next ordered the smiths to stand, then the carpenters and builders; and so on with all the other trades. In this way, practically all the allies stood up, but not one of the Spartans, because Spartans, being trained for military service, were forbidden to practise or learn any trade or sedentary occupation. Agesilaus then laughed and said, ‘Well, men, you see how many more 2 we take into battle than you do.’ By this device this famous general showed that what matters is not the number of troops you take into battle but their bravery and expertise. 71 At the battle of Leuctra1 many Spartans ran away and should have paid the penalty prescribed by law.2 The ephors, bearing in mind that a state short of men is deficient in soldiers, wanted to pardon the soldiers for their ***** 4 Cf 1.128 and 1.266 below. 5 For this cf the dedicatory epistle 9 above. 70

(lxx) Plutarch Moralia 213f–214a. In margin ‘ingenious‘ 1 Sparta’s allies were obliged to provide contingents of soldiers for Sparta’s military expeditions. They were for many years citizen soldiers, not professionals. 2 The necessary word ‘soldiers’ is supplied from modern texts of Plutarch.

71

(lxxi) Plutarch Moralia 214b. In margin ‘ingenious‘ 1 Leuctra was a place in Boeotia where, in 371 bc, the Spartans and their allies, under King Cleombrotus i (see 1.211 below) were routed by a Theban force under Epaminondas, for whom see 1.72–3, 1.82, and 5.221–55 (000–000) below. This marked the beginning of the end of Spartan power and influence. Agesilaus had remained in Sparta; see 1.81 below. 2 This meant total disgrace, entailing exclusion from holding any public position and from marriage, utter rejection by society, and the wearing of a degrading and ludicrous garb. See Plutarch Agesilaus 30; Xenophon Respublica Lacedaemoniorum 9.4–6. Xenophon remarks that death is preferable to a life so ignominious.

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disgraceful behaviour, yet at the same time maintain the laws. So they appointed Agesilaus to promulgate new laws. He advanced onto the platform and said, ‘I am certainly not going to put through different laws, for I am not going to add anything to or subtract anything from the laws you have, nor change anything at all. But it seems to me right that the laws you already have should have force and authority – from tomorrow.’ By this clever move our experienced hero was able to deal with the present crisis and also avoid introducing the dangerous precedent of changing laws, simply by suspending the laws for one day. 72 An example of his presence of mind and imperturbability is provided by the following occasion. Epaminondas was attacking1 with tempestuous force and violence, so that the Thebans and their allies were already congratulating themselves on winning the victory. Nonetheless Agesilaus kept the city of Sparta safe. The defenders were very few, yet he compelled the enemy to retire. You can call this anything you like, but it certainly can’t be called an apophthegm.2 73 That incident demonstrated resoluteness. The following wins our admiration for his decisiveness and good sense. During the battle of Mantinea,1 he instructed the Spartan contingent to ignore all the rest and concentrate the force of their attack on Epaminondas alone, saying that only men of intelligence were brave and they alone were the architects of victory. ‘If we take him,’ he said, ‘we will easily subdue the rest, as they are men of no sense and no account.’ That is exactly what ***** 72

(lxxii) Plutarch Moralia 214c. In margin ‘resolute‘ 1 Epaminondas, leader of the Thebans, invaded Spartan territory after Leuctra with 70,000 men. This was in 370 bc, and was the first time that Spartan territory had ever been invaded in 600 years. For more details see Plutarch Agesilaus 31. 2 This remark was added in 1532. For Erasmus’ criticism of anecdotes involving stratagems rather than sayings, see the dedicatory epistle 11 and General Index: stratagems.

73

(lxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 214c–d. In margin ‘sensible‘ 1 At this second battle of Mantinea in 362 bc, the Spartans, the Athenians, and their allies met the Thebans and their allies under Epaminondas, and had in fact lost the fight at the point when Epaminondas was killed. As a result of his death, terms were agreed which Sparta refused to recognize.

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happened: the victory began to go Epaminondas’ way, but, with quite a number of troops in retreat, while he was encouraging his men and calling them back,2 one of the Spartans dealt him a fatal wound. After he fell, the troops with Agesilaus began to stand their ground and the fight became much more evenly balanced, with the Thebans being much less effective and the Spartans making more impression. This is how the general’s good sense secured the safety of his men, who would otherwise undoubtedly have perished. At the same time, he demonstrated that one really sensible and intelligent man carries more weight in war than a whole crowd of fools. 74 When Sparta was unable to wage war because there was no money to pay mercenary troops,1 Agesilaus went to Egypt to serve for pay there in answer to a call from Thacos,2 king of Egypt. But the people of the country treated him with contempt because of his plain appearance and simple dress – they expected a Spartan king to look like the Persian king, with his person splendidly attired, for they had a quite erroneous conception of kings (thinking their worth was to be measured by outward appearance rather than by inner virtues). Agesilaus however made no alteration to his simple garb and manner of life, but made it clear while he was there that majesty and honour should be accorded to kings not because of their magnificent robes but because of their wisdom and valour. His attitude was also a criticism of the common run of kings, who have nothing kingly left once you take away the crown, the purple, the gold, and the jewels. This same incident also demonstrated his outstanding love of his country, as he went to Egypt without complaint in order to serve the common weal, and did not try to make his advancing years (he was almost eighty) an ***** 2 There is a misunderstanding here. The Spartans, not the Thebans, were in retreat, and the Greek means ‘while he was turning round and encouraging his men . . .’ 74

(lxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 214d–e. In margin ‘patriotic‘ 1 At first an unpaid citizen and allied army had sufficed for Sparta’s wars, but by the fourth century bc it had become necessary to hire mercenary troops because of Sparta’s decline, due to adverse economic conditions and the decrease in the number of Spartiates, said to be down to 1500 from the original 9,000. 2 The name Thacos (properly Tachos) is taken from Plutarch Agesilaus 36, from which other material is added at the end of the section.

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excuse for not performing military service in a foreign country if by doing so he could help his own country in its need. Athenaeus tells the story as follows: Agesilaus went to Egypt to provide support for King Tachos, and the king laughed at him because he was such a small man, quoting the lines: ‘The mountain laboured, Jupiter was afraid, / and forth there came – a mouse.’3 Agesilaus replied, ‘One day you will think me a lion.’ And in fact later on, when Agesilaus did not come to his aid, he was indeed driven from his kingdom and took refuge with the Persians.4 75 He observed that the men he was about to lead out into battle were very fearful of the dangers ahead of them because of the size of the enemy – 200,000 of them – and because they were so few in number themselves. He therefore decided to perform a sacrifice before the conflict, as if seeking a good omen from the entrails. Unknown to everybody, he wrote the word ‘victory’ backwards on the palm of his left hand. Then he took the liver from the diviner, laid the hand with the secret writing on top of it, and held it for some time, pretending to be deep in thought and giving the impression of a man wondering what to do, until the marks of the letters had been transferred to the liver. Then he showed it to the troops whom he was about to lead into battle, saying that the gods by these letters assuredly predicted victory. The men, thinking they had a sure sign of future victory, were powerfully encouraged for the fight.1 This ruse was much more effective than a speech, however long and carefully composed. Again, this is a stratagem, not an apophthegm.2 76 The enemy were in process of encircling Agesilaus’ army with a trench, as they were numerous enough to do this easily, and Nectabius,1 whom ***** 3 A Greek proverbial expression; see Diogenianus cpg 1 8.75; Horace Ars Poetica 139; Adagia i ix 14. 4 Athenaeus Deipnosophistae 14, 616d–e. See also 1.76 n1 below. 75

(lxxv) Plutarch Moralia 214e. In margin ‘ingenious‘ 1 This incident occurred during Agesilaus’ campaigns as a mercenary in Egypt, immediately before the battle described in 1.76 below. 2 The last sentence was added in 1532 and 1535. A similar ruse is attributed to Alexander in Frontinus Strategemata 1.11.14.

76

(lxxvi) Plutarch Moralia 214f–215a. In margin ‘spirited‘ 1 Nectabius (ie Nectanabis) was cousin to King Tachos and succeeded in claim-

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Agesilaus was supporting, was of the opinion that they should make a sortie and involve the enemy in fight, to prevent them completing the investment. Agesilaus said that they should not interfere, as the enemy were thus putting themselves on equal terms with their opponents, not making their position superior. (The trench of course prevented both sides from fighting.) However, when the trench was all but complete, he drew up what troops remained to him in the narrow intervening space and, equal numbers2 now being involved on both sides, he put the foe to flight, and with the few troops he had, inflicted great slaughter on them, and out of the spoils sent a huge sum of money to Sparta. 77 He died on his way home from Egypt, falling ill at Port of Menelaus.1 On his deathbed, he instructed those present to make no statue or any kind of representation of him.2 ‘If I have performed any noble exploit,’ he said, ‘that will be my memorial; if not, all the statues in the world, being but the work of common artisans of no significance, will not add lustre to my memory.’ Who would not admire such a philosophical mind in a man of war? 78 When addressing his troops, he constantly urged them not to ill-treat prisoners as if they were criminals, but to look after them as fellow men. When children were captured in war, he made sure that they were all collected in one place, so that they would not be left behind and perish when camp was broken. He showed the same consideration for old men taken prisoner, so that they should not be savaged by dogs and wolves when they could ***** ing the Egyptian throne through the support of Agesilaus and his Spartan mercenaries, who had changed sides. 2 ‘Equal numbers’ translates the reading of 1531 (inter pares), which agrees with the Greek text. 77

(lxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 215a. In margin ‘modest‘ 1 The name of the place has been supplied by Erasmus either from Plutarch Agesilaus 40, or from Nepos Agesilaus 8.6. 2 These words do not occur in Plutarch’s account of the death of Agesilaus, but are found in an earlier section of his Life of Agesilaus 2.2. Cf 1.27 above.

78

(lxxviii) The remaining sections on Agesilaus are taken from other sources: 1.78 is from Xenophon Agesilaus 1.21–2, while 1.79–82 are derived fairly closely from Cornelius Nepos, known as Aemilius Probus in Erasmus’ time, with paraphrase and incorporation of whole phrases from the original Latin text. For Nepos/Probus, see the source note to 1.79 below. In margin ‘merciful‘

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not keep up with the army. This humane attitude won him great goodwill among the prisoners and other people as well. Nowadays men consider themselves members of the human race when they slaughter infants and the old, and carry off captive those of an age fit for lust or labour or both. What depths this brutal savagery has attained! 79 The Athenians, Boeotians, and their allies endeavoured to bar Agesilaus’ path at Coronea,1 but he inflicted a severe defeat upon them. It was a splendid victory in itself, and enhanced by an incident demonstrating Agesilaus’ respect for religion. Many who fled from the battle had taken refuge in the temple of Minerva, and when he was asked what he wanted done with them, he said sanctuary should not be violated. He had been wounded several times in the course of that battle, and he was obviously extremely hostile to all those who had taken up arms against him at that time. Nonetheless, religion carried more weight with him than resentment. It was not only in Greece that he held the temples of the gods sacred; among the barbarians too he reverently preserved images and altars as if exempt from the rules of war. A striking remark was often on his lips: he said he was amazed that men were not considered sacrilegious when they ill-treated people who had flung themselves on their mercy, appealing to them in the name of the gods; and amazed that men who diminished religion were not punished more severely than those who robbed temples. He quite rightly considered that the gods had more care for the safety of human beings than for the lifeless objects adorning temples. ***** 79

(lxxix) Nepos Agesilaus 4.5–8. This apophthegm was preceded by the heading ‘Taken from Aemilius Probus,’ covering 1.79–82. In margin ‘reverent‘ Nepos, c. 110–24 bc, was a prolific writer, most of whose works have been lost. What has survived apart from fragments is twenty lives of great generals of non-Roman nations and, from his work on Roman historians, a brief account of Cato the Elder and the life of Cicero’s friend Pomponius Atticus. The foreign lives were edited by a grammarian Aemilius Probus, who dedicated his edition to the Emperor Theodosius ii (ad 408–50). Consequently, for centuries the foreign lives were thought to be his work and only Cato and Atticus the work of Nepos, as eg in the editio princeps of 1471 (Nicolaus Jenson, Venice). This distribution was being questioned already in the fifteenth century (eg by Siccus Polenta, c. 1430), but it was not until Giphanius’ edition of 1566 and Lambinus’ of 1569 that all the lives were definitively reclaimed for Nepos. Erasmus follows the traditional assignment on the few occasions when he mentions Probus/Nepos (see eg Ep 406; Ciceronianus 28.410) 1 See 1.47 above.

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80 Next we have an example of bravery tempered with mercy. After Agesilaus had broken the strength of Corinth1 in a great carnage and had forced the inhabitants back behind their walls, many urged him to lay siege to the city, but he refused, saying that to do so would not be consonant with his high standards of conduct – while he could compel wrongdoers to do what they ought to do, he was not one to overthrow the noblest cities of Greece. This showed remarkable self-control, but his next remark demonstrated his admirable good sense. If we are prepared, he said, to wipe out those who have stood beside us and faced the barbarian foe,2 we will destroy ourselves without the enemy lifting a finger. If our allies are ruined, the enemy will crush us without difficulty any time they want. 81 My next example seems to display something superhuman in his make-up. When the expedition to Leuctra,1 which turned out to be so calamitous for the Spartans, was being set in motion, Agesilaus refused to go,2 though many urged him to do so. It was as if he had a premonition of the irreparable disaster. 82 Now we have an incident demonstrating quickness of mind on his part. By this he saved the state. Epaminondas was making a violent onslaught on the city of Sparta1 (and Sparta was not protected by walls).2 A number of youths, terrified at the enemy’s approach, decided to desert to the Thebans and had already occupied a piece of high ground outside the city. Agesilaus realized that there was no possibility of preserving the city if the general population learned that some people were trying to desert to the Thebans. So, without disclosing ***** 80

(lxxx) Nepos Agesilaus 5.2–4. In margin ‘forbearance, wise‘ 1 This seems to refer to his campaigns of 390 bc, in which he occupied Lechaeum, the port of Corinth. 2 The Corinthians took part in the naval battle of Salamis, 480 bc, in which the Persian invaders under Xerxes were defeated.

81

(lxxxi) Nepos Agesilaus 6.1 1 See 1.71 above. 2 The Spartan army at Leuctra was commanded by King Cleombrotus i, and a relief force was sent out under Archidamus, Agesilaus’ son.

82

(lxxxii) Nepos Agesilaus 6.1–3. In margin ‘resourceful‘ 1 See 1.72 above. 2 See 1.30 n1 above, and cf 5.212 (Pisistratus) below.

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anything, he went out with his men to where the group of youths was. As if they had acted in good faith, he praised their initiative in occupying the place, and said he had been intending to do the same thing himself. By thus pretending to praise them, he undermined their resolution. He then made the place secure by leaving some of his companions with them. The lads, who had secretly planned to desert, saw that they were now outnumbered by men who had no share in the plan and so they dared not make any move. They acquiesced the more readily because they thought their intentions had not been discovered. Undoubtedly Sparta would no longer have been Sparta if Agesilaus had not preserved it by his quick thinking. The same clever ruse remedied the young men’s folly rather than punishing it. Agesipolis, son of Cleombrotus 83 Someone once, in the presence of Agesipolis, Cleombrotus’ son, was extolling King Philip of Macedon’s destruction of the city of Olynthus, which he had brought about in just a few days, as if this were some splendid achievement. ‘By heaven,’ said Agesipolis, ‘he won’t build such a city in a much longer period of time.’ He meant that it was a more kingly activity to build cities than to demolish existing ones. 84 Another person commented on the fact that Agesipolis, though king, had himself served as a hostage1 together with other men of the same age as himself, and not their wives and children. (This person seemed to think it was dishonourable for a king to be surrendered into the power and juris***** 83

84

(lxxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 215b. In margin ‘merciful‘ The son of Cleombrotus (i) was Agesipolis ii, king of Sparta 371–370 bc, and later in time than Agesipolis, son of Pausanias, Agesipolis i (see 1.86 below), whose nephew he was. However, the apophthegms here, 1.83–5, seem more appropriate to Agesipolis iii, grandson of Cleombrotus ii, king of Sparta 219– 215 bc, who was in exile after being driven from Sparta by Lycurgus, his colleague in the kingship, who set himself up as sole ruler. In any case, this occurred too late for Agesipolis ii. Philip ii of Macedon destroyed Olynthus in 348 bc, as punishment for its double dealing with respect to himself and Athens. (lxxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 215b. In margin ‘just‘ 1 This is unlikely to refer to Agesipolis ii, who only reigned for one year.

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diction of other people. Other kings usually give their wives and children as hostages in their place.) ‘And quite right too,’ said Agesipolis. ‘It is only fair that we bear the consequences of our own mistakes.’ He meant that if any military or national disaster occurs, it is due to a failing on the part of kings, and accordingly, justice requires that kings, who have brought about the disaster, should be singled out for punishment. The accepted practice of surrendering innocent wives and children as hostages is quite unjust. 85 When this same king ordered some young dogs to be dispatched to him from Sparta,1 someone commented that the Spartans did not export pups. He replied, ‘They did not export men at one time, but they have started doing so now.’2 By this humorous remark he was indicating that in a well-organized state everything tends to get better. In the past the Spartans had barely been able to defend their own territory; later they boldly made war on distant kings and nations. The appropriate discipline makes men useful to the state in war; training makes dogs good for hunting. Agesipolis, son of Pausanias 86 Agesipolis, son of Pausanias, was in dispute with the city of Athens, and the Athenians chose the city of Megara as arbiter to settle their mutual complaints. ‘It’s a shameful thing,’ said Agesipolis, ‘if the people of Megara know better where justice lies than these Athenians who have acted as the guides and leaders of the Greeks.’ The Megarians had a bad reputation among the Greeks. It was commonly said of them that they were neither first nor second nor third nor fourth nor anywhere at all,1 whereas the Athenians dominated the greater ***** 85

(lxxxv) Plutarch Moralia 215b. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 Spartan hunting dogs were famous. See eg Virgil Georgics 3.44, 405. 2 Agesipolis was presumably referring to the practice of Spartan soldiers enlisting as mercenaries from the fourth century bc onwards, as eg in 1.74 above.

86

(lxxxvi) Plutarch Moralia 215c. In margin ‘noble‘ Agesipolis, son of Pausanias, ie Agesipolis i, king of Sparta 394–380 bc. 1 The Megarians were generally despised. See Adagia ii i 79: Megarenses neque tertii neque quarti ‘The Megarians are neither the third nor the fourth.’ In particular, they were thought to be mean and grasping; see Plutarch Moralia 526c (On love of wealth).

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part of Greece.2 The king accordingly wanted the dispute settled by the very Athenians with whom he was at variance. He thus demonstrated both his confidence in his own case and his belief in the honesty of his adversaries, preferring to lose by the adjudication of a famous city than to win by Megarian arbitration. Agis (1) 87 Agis, son of Archidamus, was told by the ephors, ‘Take the troops and go to this man’s country, for he will personally guide you into the citadel.’ He replied, ‘How can it be right, ephors, to entrust so many young men to a man who has betrayed his own country?’ He thus gravely reminded them that those who have been traitors to their native land can be safely trusted in nothing. 88 When he was asked what was the main concern of education in Sparta, he replied, ‘Learning how to rule and to be ruled.’1 At Athens many branches of learning were cultivated, most of them pandering to intellectual curiosity rather than serving any necessary end in the good government of the state. ***** 2 This was true at the time of Athens’ greatest power, glory and prestige in the fifth century bc, when she had an empire. 87

88

(lxxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 215c–d. In margin ‘shameful treachery‘ There are several examples of Spartan kings with the same name: Agesipolis (1.83, 1.86); Agis, as here (1.87, 1.105, 1.107); Archidamus (1.140, 1.148); Cleomenes (1.212, 1.229); Leotychidas (1.231, 1.236); see also Pausanias (not a king 1.312, a king 1.318). These are distinguished in Plutarch by the name of the father. As Erasmus usually incorporates this into his translation, he needs some other means of separating them. He does so (Agis and later) by giving them a number, but this may not correspond with the actual regnal number of the king concerned, which Erasmus probably did not know. Agis, son of Archidamus ii, will be Agis ii, king of Sparta 427–401 bc. (The first Agis was a shadowy figure belonging to the very early years of Sparta’s history, possibly the tenth century bc.) Some apophthegms attributed to Agis ii have been wrongly assigned in the tradition. Incidents involving Philip ii of Macedon must concern Agis iii, son of Archidamus iii; see 1.105–6 below. This apophthegm too should probably be assigned to Agis iii; see Plutarch Moralia 191e (Sayings of kings and commanders). For Agis iv see 1.107 below. (lxxxviii) Plutarch Moralia 215d 1 Cf 1.49 and 1.50 above, and 1.195 below.

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89 The following spirited words are also attributed to him: ‘Spartans should not ask how many the enemy are, but where they are.’ This means that victory depends not on the numerical strength of an army but on its courage and speed in action, for a man who asks where the enemy are wants to engage at once. 90 At Mantinea1 some people tried to dissuade Agis from joining battle because the enemy were numerically superior. He replied, ‘Anyone who wishes to rule many must fight many.’ 91 When someone asked Agis how many Spartans there were, ‘Enough,’ he replied, ‘to repel the wicked.’1 This means that what matters to a state is the bravery of its men, not their number. 92 When he was passing the walls of Corinth and observed how high and strong and extensive they were, ‘What women,’ he said, ‘live in this place?’ He meant that brave men don’t need walls.1 93 A certain sophist1 declared in his hearing that speech was the finest of all things (a remark intended to glorify his own profession). ‘So when you are speechless,’ said Agis, ‘you are of no value?’ He meant that it was much more impressive to do magnificent deeds than to have a tongue ever ready to utter magnificent words. ***** 89

(lxxxix) Plutarch Moralia 215d. In margin ‘spirited‘

90

(xc) Plutarch Moralia 215d. In margin ‘spirited‘ 1 A great battle was fought at Mantinea in 418 bc between the Spartans (under Agis ii), the Athenians, and their allies on both sides. Large numbers of troops seem to have been involved. The Spartans were eventually victorious.

91

(xci) Plutarch Moralia 215d. In margin ‘shrewd‘ 1 The same remark is attributed to Ariston at 1.135 below.

92

(xcii) Plutarch Moralia 215d. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 See 1.30 above.

93

(xciii) Plutarch Moralia 215d. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 See n3 on Erasmus’ preamble 19 above.

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94 Agis had defeated the Argives in battle, but they had reassembled their forces and were now coming at him with even more ferocity. Seeing that many of the allied troops were wavering, he called out, ‘Keep your courage up, men. If we who have conquered are trembling, what do you think the ones we have defeated are doing?’ By these words this resourceful general rekindled his men’s courage. 95 The inhabitants of Laconia1 were noted for being men of few words, so that brevity of speech, taking its name from that region, is known as Laconismus.2 So when an ambassador from Abdera, after making a lengthy speech before Agis, at long last with great difficulty brought himself to a stop and was asking what answer he should take to his city, Agis replied, ‘Tell them that all the time you took for talking I spent listening in silence.’ These words expressed his disapproval of the stupid speaker’s empty prating which deserved no reply. 96 Some people were lauding the inhabitants of Elis for their just administration of the Olympic Games. He said, ‘What’s great or remarkable in acting justly merely on one day in five years?’ This wise man considered that only someone who practised justice in every action throughout his whole life could properly be praised for justice. The Olympic Games were celebrated only once in a five-year period.1 97 Some people told Agis that certain members of the other family1 were ***** 94

(xciv) Plutarch Moralia 215e. In margin ‘resourceful‘

95

(xcv) Plutarch Moralia 215e–f. A very similar incident is reported at 1.101 below. In margin ‘loquacity censured‘ 1 Ie the area surrounding and dependent on the city of Sparta. 2 See Adagia ii x 49: Laconismus ‘Laconic.’ There are many illustrations of the famous Spartan ‘Laconic’ speech throughout Apophthegmata. See General Index: Laconismus, Laconic speech.

96

(xcvi) Plutarch Moralia 215f. In margin ‘just‘ 1 The Olympic Games were celebrated at four-yearly intervals at the great shrine of Zeus in Elis in the Peloponnese. The Greeks, like the Romans used ‘inclusive reckoning,’ so a four-year period ended for them in the fifth year. The last sentence was added in 1535.

97

(xcvii) Plutarch Moralia 215f. In margin ‘envy censured‘ 1 Ie the other royal family – the Spartans had two royal lines and two kings

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envious of him. ‘Then they will have double trouble,’ he said, ‘for their own misfortune will make them miserable, and they will be tormented by the good fortune of myself and my friends as well.’ A fine remark, telling us that those in the grip of envy deserve pity rather than anger, because the envious man pays a heavy penalty even if no one exacts retribution from him. 98 When someone suggested that Agis should let the retreating enemy troops make their escape, ‘And how,’ said he, ‘shall we fight those who are brave enough to stay, if we don’t fight those who run away?’ This intrepid man felt that no opportunity should be lost where an enemy was concerned. 99 On the question of Greek liberty, someone brought forward a noble proposal but one extremely difficult to put into practice. ‘Friend,’ said Agis, ‘your words require strength and money.’ He thus neatly indicated that it is pointless discussing things which one hasn’t the means to carry out. When taking counsel one must consider not only what would be the most prestigious thing to do but what is actually possible.1 100 When someone remarked that Philip1 was going to make it impossible for the Spartans to set foot in the rest of Greece, ‘Friend,’ he replied, ‘as far as we are concerned, our own country is adequate for us to live in.’ Here we have a heart prepared for either contingency, happy to extend the bounds of empire if things so fall out, or contentedly accepting what fortune grants, however modest it may be. The majority of princes on the other hand neither deal wisely with what they have received nor remain content, whatever accessions are made to their realms.

***** ruling simultaneously. Agis was, in spite of his name, a ‘Eurypontid’ king; the others were ‘Agiads.’ See 1.328 nn1 and 2 below. 98 99

(xcviii) Plutarch Moralia 215f. In margin ‘shrewd‘ (xcix) Plutarch Moralia 216a 1 Cf 2.170 below.

100 (c) Plutarch Moralia 216a. In margin ‘temperate‘ 1 Philip ii of Macedon. See 1.87n above, 1.148 n1 below.

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101 A spokesman who had been sent to Sparta from Perinthus addressed Agis at great length, and when he had concluded his speech asked him what answer was to be taken back to the Perinthians. ‘Only that you found great difficulty in coming to an end,’ he replied, ‘whereas I said nothing.’ This apophthegm is very like the remark recorded above, where he censured the wordiness of the ambassador from Abdera.1 102 He undertook an embassy to Philip1 and went without any entourage. When the king said in surprise, ‘What’s this? Is there just the one of you?’ he replied, ‘Why not? I have come to talk to one.’ This was a sharp condemnation of other leaders’ ostentation. They exhaust the public purse with extravagant and showy embassies, when one man of sense could do everything that the national interest requires. 103 When Agis was an old man he heard an elderly fellow lamenting that the ancient laws and old customs were being done away with while new bad ones were coming in their place, and that Sparta was being turned upside down and destroyed, with everything topsy-turvy. Agis jokingly replied, ‘If that’s the case, then things are proceeding quite normally, for when I was a boy, I used to hear my father saying that already in those days things were being turned upside down.’ If they are being turned upside down again, they must have gone back to their original position. That was a joke;1 but he used to say in all seriousness that when he was a boy he also heard his father saying that it was not at all surprising if things went to the bad, but it would be amazing if they got better or stayed the same. While he found fault with the habit old men have of complaining about things getting worse, he also noted that it is in the nature of things to go steadily downhill. ***** 101 (i) Plutarch Moralia 216a. In margin ‘loquacity‘ 1 See 1.95 above. 102 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 216b. In margin ‘unaffected‘ 1 See 1.87n above. Cf Plutarch Moralia 511a (On talkativeness), where the same words are spoken to Demetrius i (king of Macedonia) by an unnamed Spartan ambassador. ‘One to one’ became a saying: see Adagia ii ii 42: Unum ad unum. 103 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 216b. In margin ‘humorous‘ 1 There is nothing corresponding to ‘If they are being turned . . . a joke’ in the Greek text. It is presumably Erasmus’ own humorous comment.

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104 When someone asked Agis how a man might preserve his liberty, ‘By despising death,’ he said.1 The fear of death, which, we are told, is one of the things affecting the man who does 2 remain constant, keeps many people from performing great exploits. The man who is free of it can follow what is right in every circumstance, and has no reason to fear the wicked. These, though they plot their worst, can do no more than kill him. Agis (2) 105 When Demades1 remarked to the younger Agis that Laconian swords were so short that fairground performers used them for their sword-swallowing act, ‘Ah,’ he said, ‘but with these swords Spartans get through to enemies armed with longer weapons.’ This remark made it plain that what matters is not the means by which something is achieved but the importance of the achievement. When a man has little to defend himself with apart from his courage, his victory is all the more impressive.2 106 Likewise, when some knavish fellow kept asking him who was the best man among the Spartiates, he replied, ‘The one least like you.’ Being a noble-spirited man, he was incensed that a person riddled with vices should discuss grades of virtue. ***** 104 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 216c 1 Cf 1.36 above. 2 In spite of the unanimous reading of the editions, the sense requires the insertion of a negative. Accordingly in constantem has been emended to in inconstantem virum (bik). For this idea, see eg Seneca Epistulae morales 85.16: non cadit autem in sapientem haec diversitas mentis, ‘such inconstancy is not compatible with the nature of the wise man.’ The whole paragraph discusses anger and fear. 105 (v) Plutarch Moralia 216c. In margin ‘urbane‘ This must be Agis iii, king of Sparta 338–331 bc. See 1.157 n1 below. 1 Demades is presumably the Athenian fourth-century bc orator and politician Demades, who had a cruel wit. See 6.377–82 below for some of his sayings. 2 Erasmus’ comment suggests he did not get the point here, or at 1.130 below, but compare 2.144 below, which he explains correctly. 106 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 216c. In margin ‘frank‘

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The last Agis 107 Agis, the last of the Spartan kings, was taken through treachery and undeservedly condemned to death by the ephors. When he was being led off to be strangled and saw one of the execution squad weeping for the shamefulness of the deed which he was obliged to carry out, Agis said to him, ‘Man, do not weep on my account. In dying thus unjustly and undeservedly I am better and happier than those who kill me.’ With these words he readily thrust his head into the noose. This outstanding young man demonstrated not in word but in deed a fortitude surpassing anything taught by any Stoic, measuring happiness by virtue alone, and judging those who injure others to be more wretched than those who are injured.1 [Acrotatus] 108 When his parents asked him to support them in some unjust act, he refused for some time, but when they insisted, he replied in these words: ‘When I was in your house,1 I had no knowledge at all of justice, but now that you have entrusted me to my country and to my country’s laws and have done your best to have me taught justice and honourable conduct, I ***** 107 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 216d. In margin ‘brave‘ ‘Agis, the last of the Spartan kings,’ is Agis iv, king of Sparta, 244–241 bc. Although the last to bear the name Agis, Agis iv was not the last Spartan king, as kings continued to be appointed for some years after his death. He could perhaps be called the last ‘real’ king. Sparta was now in decline, her constitution in disarray, and eventually after a period of turmoil and attempts at resuscitation, the city succumbed in the second century bc to Rome and Roman governance. 1 A philosophical commonplace; see eg Hesiod Works and Days 265–6; Socrates in Plato Gorgias 469; Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics 5.11.7; Plutarch Moralia 36b (How to study poetry); Cicero Tusculan Disputations 5.19.56; Adagia i ii 14: Malum consilium ‘Bad advice.’ 108 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 216d–e. In margin ‘just, weighty‘ This anecdote should be told of Acrotatus, son of Cleomenes ii. The name seems to have been missing in Erasmus’ Greek text, consequently he assigns the saying to Agis. Erasmus then adds more anecdotes about Agis iv, derived from Plutarch’s Life of Agis and Cleomenes before returning to the Moralia with Alcamenes (1.111 below). There are several anecdotes about rulers refusing to commit an injustice to oblige their friends, eg 5.143, 5.176, 5.379 below. 1 Spartan boy-children lived with their mothers until the age of seven, when they left to embark on the communal life of discipline and training in traditional Spartan ways. The heir-apparent was however exempt from this.

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shall strive to obey these rather than you. Since your will is that I should do what is best, and since what is just is best, both for the ordinary citizen and even more so for a ruler, I will do your will. Your request I shall refuse.’ We are told that Agis was brought up in the greatest luxury as a boy, but as soon as he was promoted, while still a young man, to the government of the state, there was an incredible change. He renounced the pleasures of his early life and bent all his energies to recalling to its original sobriety the state of Sparta2 which was by this time thoroughly corrupted by the morals of both foreigners and Greeks. It was this that brought about his downfall. I wish that other princes, whose early years are usually corrupted with luxury and extravagance, would at least like Agis turn over a new leaf when they take the reins of government, and follow the pattern set by him, if anyone asks something of them which is contrary to law and morality. This splendid young man did not hurt his parents’ feelings by refusing in a rough and churlish manner but replied with admirable courtesy that he obeyed his parents by doing what was their settled will and what they would applaud in the long run, rather than falling in with a transient impulse on their part. 109 When an ephor asked him when he was in the prison whether he regretted the things he had done, he fearlessly replied that he felt not the slightest regret for a course of action that embodied both wisdom and honour, even though he was well aware that he would get no reward but death. He knew well that virtue was its own reward, whatever the outcome. 110 The ephor Agesilaus successfully carried a proposal to abolish all debts.1 When the promissory notes had been brought into the forum which they ***** 2 From Plutarch Life of Agis and Cleomenes 4. Agis became king at an early age (19) and reigned for four years only. See 1.110 n1 below. 109 (ix) Plutarch Life of Agis and Cleomenes 19.7–8. In margin ‘resolute‘ 110 (x) Plutarch Life of Agis and Cleomenes 13. In margin ‘unprincipled‘ 1 This incident, which at first sight seems to have nothing to do with Agis, was concerned with Agis’ reforms and in particular his attempt to break up the big estates acquired by the rich and to restore the old Spartan system of citizen land allotments. His high-handed overriding of opposition provoked a counter coup and led to his execution by the ephors. See 2.157 below.

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call Claria2 and set alight and the flames were leaping up, he began to taunt the other creditors who were gloomily watching, saying that he had never seen a brighter light or a purer fire. This was because he himself owed large sums of money and also possessed great estates, but he had no intention of paying anybody anything. It’s wickedness carried to the limit to add insult to injury. Alcamenes 111 When Alcamenes, son of Telecrus, was asked how a ruler might best preserve his kingdom, he replied, ‘By not being over concerned with his own advantage.’ In this he showed a very different attitude from the general run of princes, for these endeavour to make their position secure simply by building up their own resources at the expense of the citizens, whereas justice and equity are the things that really put sovereignty on a secure footing. 112 On another occasion, when he was asked why he had refused the gifts offered by the Messenians,1 he replied, ‘Because if I had accepted them, I could not have kept peace with the laws.’ Here we see a mind fit to rule, a mind that gave the authority of the law precedence over great gain ready for the taking. Where does this leave the people who cry, ‘What the prince pleases has the force of law,’ people who say that the prince makes laws but is not bound by them? 113 Somebody was censuring Alcamenes for living frugally and abstemiously when he had a considerable fortune. He replied, ‘A man who has great possessions must live as reason dictates, not desire.’ By this he meant that wealth brings ruin unless the possessor has a mind superior to wealth, able to regulate the use of it not on the basis of what he possesses but of what he needs. ***** 2 This should be ‘brought the promissory notes, for which the Spartan word is claria, into the forum.’ 111 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 216e. In margin ‘weighty‘ Alcamenes was an early king of Sparta, c. 785–754 bc. For Telecrus, see 1.339– 42 below. 112 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 216e–f. In margin ‘upright‘ 1 See 1.25 n2 above. 113 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 216f. In margin ‘temperate‘

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Anaxandridas 114 A certain person was taking it very hard that he was being sent into exile from the city. Anaxandridas, son of Leon, said to him, ‘My good friend, do not dread being made to depart from the city. The dreadful thing is to depart from justice.’ He knew that people are not pitiable when misfortune befalls them if they have done nothing to deserve it and their integrity is unimpaired. The really pitiful are those who of their own free will have abandoned honour, whether or not misfortune follows. 115 Someone was once making some relevant points to the ephors, but at too great length. Anaxandridas said to him, ‘Friend, you apply a necessary thing where there is no necessity.’1 He meant that something that is both right and expedient has no need of a long speech, because the excellence of the cause easily commends itself. If there ever is a place for verbosity, it should be used on bad causes. 116 When someone asked him why the Spartans, instead of cultivating their fields themselves, entrusted the farming of them to the Helots1 (this was the name given to those whose social class lay between slave and free), he said, ‘Because we acquired the Helots not for their benefit but for ours.’ In this he censured the folly of those who keep servants in idleness simply for ostentation, and prefer their attendants to be partners and ministers in their pleasures rather than have them busied with useful activities. 117 Someone put forward the view that glory and reputation were harmful things and that the happy man was therefore the one who shunned them. ‘Well then,’ said Anaxandridas, ‘if what you say is true, then wrongdoers ***** 114 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 216f. In margin ‘wise‘ Anaxandridas ii was king of Sparta, c. 560–520 bc. 115 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 216f. In margin ‘loquacity‘ 1 See 1.241 below, where Erasmus translates identical Greek words differently. The meaning of the Greek phrase is not immediately obvious. Erasmus takes it to refer to speech. 116 (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 216f–217a. In margin ‘neat‘ 1 See 1.25 n2 above. 117 (xvii) Plutarch Moralia 217a. In margin ‘witty‘

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will be happy. For how can the man who commits sacrilege or some other crime possibly have any concern for reputation?’ This remark censured those who reject praise and then do nothing praiseworthy out of idleness. In fact, a great name naturally attaches itself to excellence, and in noble souls a passion for praise is an inborn stimulus to great achievements. 118 When he was asked why the Spartan warriors exposed themselves so fearlessly to danger, ‘Because,’ he replied, ‘we train ourselves to have respect for our lives but not to fear1 for them like other men.’ He meant that a controlled concern for one’s life is a spur to brave actions, but an excessive terror of death frightens men away from noble deeds. 119 Someone asked Anaxandridas why, among the Spartans, the elders1 took many days to consider their verdict in capital cases, and why, if the accused were acquitted, he remained liable to retrial. ‘They spend many days on their investigation,’ he said, ‘because if they make a mistake where capital punishment is involved there is no possibility of correcting the decision. If acquitted, the accused should still be answerable to the law, because it is possible that on the basis of that same law a sounder decision in the case may yet be arrived at.’ By thus avoiding extremes they sought to prevent the innocent being executed and the guilty escaping. Even if the guilty is acquitted by a mistake on the part of those passing judgment, he can be prosecuted again under the same law and pay the legally prescribed penalty. Anaxander 120 When Anaxander, son of Eurycrates, was asked why the Spartans did not have a state treasury, he replied, ‘To prevent the people in charge of it from being corrupted.’ ***** 118 (xviii) Plutarch Moralia 217a. In margin ‘sensible‘ 1 Cf 2.189 below. 119 (xix) Plutarch Moralia 217a–b. In margin ‘sensible, just‘ 1 The elders formed a council of twenty-eight men over the age of sixty (plus the two kings), first established by Lycurgus and appointed for life. They were drawn from an inner circle of aristocratic families. They dealt, among other things, with important criminal cases. See 1.242 n1 and 1.299 n4 below. 120 (xx) Plutarch Moralia 217b. In margin ‘uncorrupted‘ Anaxander was king of Sparta, c. 640–615 bc.

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What little concern people show for their own integrity when they store away private wealth in a chest, whereas this man of wisdom feared the effect on the morals of his fellow citizens of public moneys of which they were to be custodians only, not masters! Anaxilas 121 When someone expressed his surprise that the ephors1 did not rise as a mark of respect to the kings, especially as the ephorate had been established by kings, Anaxilas replied, ‘They do not rise for the very reason that they are ephors.’ The Spartans have an office, the holders of which are called ephors. The early kings instituted them to be kings’ ministers, but their powers subsequently increased to such an extent that they controlled the kings and eventually even executed them. The above remark witnesses to a temperate spirit. What the questioner saw as insolent and arrogant, Anaxilas interpreted as legitimate right. Androclidas 122 A certain Spartan named Androclidas who was lame in one leg presented himself in the line of fighting men. Some of them rounded on him, intending to expel him because of his lameness, but he said, ‘War needs a man who will stand his ground, not one who will run away.’ He amusingly presented himself as a better soldier by reason of his handicap than the rest who had nothing wrong with their feet. Antalcidas 123 When Antalcidas was being initiated in Samothrace, the priest asked him if he had done anything noteworthy1 in his life. ‘If I have,’ he said, ‘the gods know of it.’ ***** 121 (xxi) Plutarch Moralia 217c. In margin ‘temperate‘ Anaxilas was king of Sparta, c. 645–625 bc. 1 The first ephors were appointed in the seventh century bc. See 1.12 n3 above. 122 (xxii) Plutarch Moralia 217c. Androclidas was an otherwise unknown Spartan. Cf 1.35 above, 2.139 below. 123 (xxiii) Plutarch Moralia 217d. In margin ‘modest‘ Antalcidas, a Spartan general in the fourth century bc, opposed to Agesilaus. See 1.69 above. 1 The word deinon in the original probably means ‘shocking, dreadful’ and refers to crimes. Cf the similar story in 1.298 below, and 2.67 below.

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Antalcidas thought it foolish to commend himself to the gods by a recital of his achievements, when they knew about them, whether he declared them or not. He could of course have lied to the priest. We can take this as an example both of modesty and of a noble belief about the divine. 124 A certain Athenian called the Spartans ignorant. ‘Well then,’ he said, ‘we are the only people who have learned nothing bad from you.’ He felt that the arts on which the Athenians prided themselves were more fitted to ostentation, idleness, and pleasure than to government. The Spartans were not lacking in any discipline that contributed to that. 125 Another Athenian was boasting, ‘Of course, we’ve often driven you back from the Cephisus!’ ‘But,’ said Antalcidas, ‘we’ve never made you retreat from the Eurotas!’ He meant that the real sign of valour was that the Spartans had often dared to advance right up to the river Cephisus in Athenian territory, whereas the Athenians had never managed to reach the Eurotas, Sparta’s river. 126 Someone asked him how a man could make himself popular. ‘By addressing people as pleasantly as possible,’ he said, ‘and doing what will help them most.’ This advice means that one should use a pleasant tone in speaking and perform services with a view to the other person’s good. Some people deserve criticism because they are genuinely persons you can rely on, but they spoil the service they do you by their brusque manner. Worse than these are people who address you kindly but do you actual harm. Worst of all are those who are both unpleasant in speech and harmful in action. 127 A sophist1 was about to give a reading from a book, and Antalcidas asked ***** 124 (xxiv) Plutarch Moralia 217d. Cf 1.331 below. In margin ‘weighty‘ 125 (xxv) Plutarch Moralia 217d. In margin ‘witty‘ 126 (xxvi) Plutarch Moralia 217d. In margin ‘wise‘ 127 (xxvii) Plutarch Moralia 217d. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 See n3 on Erasmus’ preamble 19 above.

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him what it was about. When told that it was in praise of Hercules, he said, ‘But who speaks ill of him?’ He thought it pointless to waste effort on eulogizing someone whom everyone was unanimous in praising. Hercules was revered most devoutly by the Spartans.2 128 When Agesilaus was wounded in battle against the Thebans, Antalcidas said to him, ‘That’s the payment for your lessons – you taught them how to fight when before they neither knew how to fight nor wanted to.’ The Thebans had seemingly turned into fighters as a result of Agesilaus’ frequent expeditions against them. Antalcidas meant that it was not a good idea to be constantly fighting the same adversary, for fear they might acquire expertise in warfare through practice. 129 This same Antalcidas used to say that the walls of Sparta were the young men of Sparta, and that the bounds of Spartan jurisdiction were the points of their spears. In other words, a city had no need of walls1 when it reared young men fit for war, and the authority of the Spartans extended as far as they could reach with their weapons.2 The bounds of empire must be extended by valour, not by guile or money. 130 When someone asked why the Spartans used short dagger-like weapons1 in battle, ‘Because,’ he replied, ‘we engage the enemy at close quarters.’ He wittily turned into a proof of valour the very thing by which the other man intended to make it appear that the Spartans were less effective as a fighting force. ***** 2 See 1.302 n2 below. 128 (xxviii) Plutarch Moralia 217e. An anecdote repeated from 1.69 above. 129 (xxix) Plutarch Moralia 217e 1 See 1.30 above. 2 See 1.29 above, 1.149 below. 130 (xxx) Plutarch Moralia 217e. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 See 1.105 above.

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Antiochus 131 When the ephor Antiochus heard that King Philip had granted the Messenians possession of their territory,1 he kept asking whether Philip had also given them the strength to guard the land they had been given against anyone fighting to get it. Argeus 132 Some men were expressing admiration not of their own wives but of other people’s. ‘Good heavens!’ said Argeus, ‘No one should talk lightly about good respectable women. In fact no one should have any idea at all what they are like, except the husbands they live with.’ Among the ancients, the modesty of girls and married women was so important that for them to be seen by anyone other than their parents or their own husbands was considered a step in the direction of shamelessness. Such precautions were taken to guard their reputation that a woman was considered immoral if it was possible for even unfounded rumour to spread concerning her. In fact, the highest praise accorded to a chaste married woman was that she lived her life so confined to her home that there was no one who could speak of her, either for good or ill.1 For a married woman to be gossiped about and become the subject of talk was considered a form of prostitution. Anyone who praises another man’s wife appears to be acquainted with the woman whose praise he sings, and this in itself damages her reputation as a chaste woman. What would that fine man think of married women who like going, without their husbands, to parties where young men are present, who are always running about to festivals and markets in other towns, who join ***** 131 (xxxi) Plutarch Moralia 217f. In margin ‘shrewd‘ Antiochus was a Spartan ephor 338/7 bc. 1 The Spartans lost control of the subject territory of Messenia (see 1.25 n2 above) after three hundred years of domination, as a result of the disaster of Leuctra in 371 bc. Philip ii of Macedon later, after the battle of Chaeronea in 338 bc, confirmed the independence from Sparta of various states in the Peloponnese. Sparta in fact had now no hope of recovering her former power and influence. 132 (xxxii) Plutarch Moralia 217f. In margin ‘modesty in wives‘ Argeus: this should read Areus, ie Areus i, king of Sparta, 309–265 bc. 1 This ideal is famously enunciated in Pericles’ Funeral Oration, Thucydides 2.45.2. Plutarch criticizes it at Moralia 242e–f (Bravery of women). Cf 1.177 below.

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in dances where men and women dance together, and display their naked bodies in the baths for any man to see? 133 Argeus was once travelling via Selinus,1 when he saw this elegiac verse inscribed on a tomb: These while they were quenching tyranny did savage Mars destroy. They fell close by the walls of Selinus.

‘You deserved to perish,’ he remarked, ‘since you tried to quench tyranny while it was blazing. It would have been better to leave it until it burned itself out.’ It was the word ‘quench’ that suggested this joke to him. Anything that is suppressed is quenched, but so is a blaze. Ariston 134 Someone was extolling a remark made by Cleomenes when he was asked what a good king should do. He had replied, ‘Do good to his friends and ill to his enemies.’ ‘But, my good sir,’ said Ariston, ‘how much better it is to do good to one’s friends and turn enemies into friends.’ It was undoubtedly Socrates who first uttered this maxim,1 and it is ascribed to him as the originator. 135 When someone asked how many Spartiates there were, ‘As many as suffice,’ said Ariston, ‘to repel the wicked.’1 ***** 133 (xxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 217f 1 Plutarch’s Greek identifies Selinus as a town in Sicily. Areus however campaigned in Crete. The saying is attributed to an unnamed Spartan in Plutarch Lycurgus 20.5. 134 (xxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 218a. In margin ‘civilized‘ Ariston was king of Sparta, c. 550–515 bc. For his co-monarch Cleomenes i (c. 520–490) see 1.212–58 below. 1 See possibly Plato Republic 335b–c. A similar saying is ascribed to Cleobulus at Diogenes Laertius 1.91, but Erasmus omits sayings of Cleobulus when dealing with The Seven Sages in book seven. See 7.38 n2 below. Plutarch describes this saying as a chreia. See Introduction xxiv–xxvii. 135 (xxxv) Plutarch Moralia 218a 1 The word echthros in the Greek text can mean both ‘hateful’ and ‘hostile.’ While the second meaning might seem more appropriate here, cf 1.91 above, where

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136 An Athenian was reading out in Ariston’s presence a funeral oration composed in honour of those who had been killed in battle by the Spartans. ‘Then what do you think our men are like,’ he said, ‘who defeated the ones you are praising?’ It was an Athenian custom that those who had fallen in battle should be publicly lauded in a speech called by them an epitaph.1 In this speech first Athens and the Athenian people were elaborately eulogized, then those in particular who had bravely met their end in battle. This generous man did not resent this rhetorically exaggerated praise of Athens, but turned it to the glory of his own people. Consequently the effect of the speech was to light up the valour of the Spartans rather than that of the Athenians. In the same way, Homer extols Hector’s bravery in all kinds of ways in order to make Achilles’ victory over him the more impressive.2 [Archelaus] 137 Archelaus, who was Charilaus’ colleague in the kingship,1 used to say of him, ‘How could Charilaus possibly not be a good man, when he isn’t unpleasant even to wrongdoers?’ Charilaus is said to have had a very gentle nature. In my next example this apophthegm occurs in a form which expresses the very opposite idea, and in my opinion this makes it more incisive. Possibly in this passage from the Life of Lycurgus the first ‘not’ should be omitted.2 Moreover, I suspect that Charilaus and Charillus3 are the same person. ***** the same apophthegm is quoted in the Greek text with the word kakos ‘evil’ instead of echthros. Erasmus translates by malus, ‘wicked,’ in both places. 136 (xxxvi) Plutarch Moralia 218a–b. In margin ‘astute‘ 1 See Thucydides 2.34–46, which describes the rite and records Pericles’ famous Funeral Oration; see 1.132 n1 above. 2 Immediately Homer Iliad 22.90–6, but also in the narrative generally. 137 (xxxvii) Plutarch Life of Lycurgus 5.5. Archelaus was king of Sparta in the eighth century bc. 1 See 1.97 n1 above. 2 Cf Plutarch Moralia 537d (On envy and hate) and 55c (How to tell a flatterer) where the negative is omitted. 3 For Charillus, see next apophthegm, also 1.343–7 below.

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Archidamidas 138 When someone was praising Charillus on the grounds that he had been equally mild and gentle to all, Archidamidas said, ‘How can anyone possibly have the nerve to praise someone who presents a mild front to wrongdoers?’ This fine man was well aware that gentleness must be combined with justice. Otherwise a prince’s softness towards criminals is nothing but cruelty to the virtuous. 139 Someone was finding fault with Hecataeus, the teacher of rhetoric,1 because, after being admitted to their dining-club, he said nothing. Archidamidas retorted, ‘You don’t seem to realize that a man who has learned how to speak has also learned the right moment to speak.’ 2 In supreme councils, law-courts, and public meetings, on diplomatic missions and on other official occasions, there is a place for the orator. At parties where the wine flows the man of knowledge does better to keep silence than to speak. Likewise the experienced soldier knows when to retreat as well as how to fight. Archidamus 140 When someone asked him who ruled the Spartan state, Archidamus, son of Zeuxidamus, replied, ‘The laws, and the legally appointed magistrates.’1 ***** 138 (xxxviii) Plutarch Moralia 218b. In margin ‘just‘ It is not known who Archidamidas was. Cf Plutarch Moralia 55e (How to tell a flatterer), but that passage gives no clue as to Archidamidas’ identity either. For Charillus see 1.343–347 below. 139 (xxxix) Plutarch Moralia 218b. In margin ‘silence when appropriate‘ 1 It is not clear who this Hecataeus was – it could be the fourth-century bc Hecataeus of Abdera, but he is not usually described as a sophist/teacher of rhetoric. 2 This is another common anecdote – a similar tale is told of the sage Bias in Plutarch Moralia 503f (On talkativeness). For the sentiment, see 1.170 below, and 7.176 and 7.252 below. 140 (xl) Plutarch Moralia 218c. In margin ‘authority of the laws‘ This Archidamus was Archidamus ii, king of Sparta, 469–427 bc. See 1.154n below. Archidamus i was king in the seventh century bc. 1 Better, ‘and the magistrates, in accordance with the laws,’ which is what Erasmus’ comment suggests. See 1.171 and 1.318 below.

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Archidamus whole-heartedly believed that in a well-conducted state supreme authority must be vested in the laws, and that no magistrate had the right to attempt anything contrary to the laws of the nation. 141 He once heard someone talking enthusiastically about a man who sang and played the lyre, and marvelling at his musical talents. ‘Really, my good fellow,’ he said, ‘how ever will you praise and reward good men, when you speak so highly of a singer?’ He was quite rightly finding fault with the inverted values held by the crowd and by princes too. These latter often set more store by an actor or a court fool than a wise and loyal counsellor. A singer, whose skills serve not the public good but mere pleasure, was in his eyes so far from deserving praise that he did not even classify him as a good man.1 142 A certain person wished to commend a musician to him and said, ‘This man is a fine performer.’ Archidamus replied, ‘Well, as far as we’re concerned, he’s a fine cook,’ implying that it was all one whether someone gave pleasure by means of music or by tasty dishes and savouries.1 At Athens, musicians were held in high repute, whereas cooks were not so honoured. The Spartans did not approve of any art which made the citizens soft instead of inciting them to valour. 143 Archidamus was promised on one occasion that the wine would be good. ‘What use is that?’ he said. ‘It means more will be drunk and all that characterizes brave men1 will be made ineffective.’ Here we have a truly masculine mind, despising all self-indulgence.2 ***** 141 (xli) Plutarch Moralia 218c. In margin ‘useless arts‘ 1 See General Index: trivial pursuits. 142 (xlii) Plutarch Moralia 218c. In margin ‘useless arts‘ 1 See Adagia ii v 35: Bonus cantor, bonus cupediarius ‘A good fiddler or a good pastrycook, all’s one.’ See General Index: trivial pursuits. 143 (xliii) Plutarch Moralia 218d. In margin ‘temperate‘ 1 The Greek phrase tˆ úndre”a, which Erasmus translates by quae fortes decent viros, is one of the names given to the communal meals taken by the Spartiate men (see 1.262 below), and here probably means ‘the practice of eating together.’ 2 A similar remark is attributed to a woman, Gorgo, at 2.122 below.

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144 When Archidamus was besieging the city of Corinth, he saw hares leaping up from a spot near the city walls. Turning to his fellow-soldiers, he said, ‘We have an easy enemy to defeat.’ He seized on this chance event as an omen, for the Greeks call soft and womanish persons ‘hares.’ This is shown in that line from comedy: You’re a hare, and you go chasing game?’1 145 He was chosen as arbiter by two people who were unable to agree, so he took them to the sacred grove of Minerva of the House of Bronze,1 and there exacted an oath from them that they would abide by his decision. When they had sworn, he said, ‘I declare that you are not to leave this place until you have abandoned your quarrel and are reconciled to one another.’ He very cleverly found a way of avoiding either giving offence to both parties if he refused to act as arbiter, or antagonizing one of them if he decided in favour of the other. The Spartans considered it shocking to break any promise made in the shrine of Minerva. 146 Dionysius, despotic ruler of Sicily,1 sent Archidamus’ daughters a present of some magnificent and very expensive clothes. He refused to accept them, saying, ‘I am afraid that if they wear these, my daughters will look ugly to me.’ This wise man understood that girls are best dressed simply. Silks, jewels, and gold degrade them rather than making them prettier. Extravagant dressing is a sign of a frivolous mind, and it arouses lustful thoughts rather than an attitude of respect in the mind of the beholder. A young maid should be absolutely and in every respect a virgin, and give no suggestion at all of a mind not innocent. ***** 144 (xliv) Plutarch Moralia 218d. In margin ‘clever‘ 1 Terence Eunuch 426. The words are addressed to a young boy, himself of desirable age, who is making a pass at a woman. See Adagia i vi 7: Tute lepus es et pulpamentum quaeris ‘A hare thyself and goest in quest of game.’ For the incident, cf 1.297 below. Hares were a stock example of weakness and timidity. 145 (xlv) Plutarch Moralia 218d. In margin ‘ingenious‘ 1 The Roman goddess Minerva was equated with the Greek Pallas Athene and Erasmus has here inserted the Latin name to explain Plutarch’s elliptical used of the cult title ‘She of the House of Bronze’ without the name Athena. Cf 1.10 above. 146 (xlvi) Plutarch Moralia 218e. In margin ‘strict‘ 1 This will be Dionysius i, despot of Syracuse in Sicily, 430–367 bc. The same story is told of Dionysius and Lysander, 1.288 below.

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147 He saw his son fighting Athenians1 with the bold recklessness of youth, and said to him, ‘You need more strength or less high spirits.’ He was saying that boldness is dangerous unless there is the strength to back up the daring.2 Archidamus (2) 148 After the battle of Chaeronea,1 Archidamus, son of Agesilaus, received a letter from King Philip of Macedon, written in a rather peremptory tone. He wrote back to this effect: ‘If you measure your shadow, you will find it no bigger than it was before your victory.’ This weighty remark reminds us that a man of sense does not swell with pride when fortune grants him some success, while he himself is no greater than he was before. A proper course is to measure oneself by achievements and qualities that really are one’s own, not by external success that Fortune gives or takes away as she pleases. 149 When he was asked how much territory the Spartan warrior class controlled, he replied, ‘As much as they can get with the spear.’ There is an allusion here to surveyors, who measure land with ten-foot rods. 150 Periander was a celebrated and highly regarded physician, but he wrote very poor verse. Archidamus said to him, ‘What has got into you, Periander? ***** 147 (xlvii) Plutarch Moralia 218e. In margin ‘dangerous boldness‘ 1 Archidamus led invasions into Attica early in the Peloponnesian War. 2 Erasmus added all this in 1526 to Adagia iv ii 90: Aut minus animi aut plus potentiae ‘Less ambition or more strength.’ 148 (xlviii) Plutarch Moralia 218e–f. In margin ‘arrogance‘ This Archidamus was Archidamus iii, son of Agesilaus ii, king of Sparta 360– 338 bc. 1 At Chaeronea in 338 bc, King Philip ii of Macedon had defeated the combined Athenians and Thebans with their allies and asserted his authority over the whole of Greece north of the Peloponnese. The Spartans had not been involved in the battle. This anecdote must either be placed before Chaeronea or not associated with Archidamus, as he was killed fighting in Italy as a mercenary at that time. 149 (xlix) Plutarch Moralia 218f. See 1.29 and 1.129 above. 150 (l) Plutarch Moralia 218f. In margin ‘degeneration‘

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Why do you want to be known as a bad poet rather than an exclusive physician?’1 These words are a criticism of the way people who have taken up a worthwhile activity abandon it for some vulgar pursuit, when the best thing is for each person to practise the skill in which he excels.2 151 In the war against Philip,1 some people put forward the opinion that Archidamus should meet with the enemy somewhere well outside his own country. He replied, ‘That’s not what one should consider. It’s by fighting well2 that we shall defeat the enemy.’ He meant that what matters is not so much where you meet the enemy, but how lively general and soldiers show themselves to be in the fight. 152 Someone was praising Archidamus for his victory over the Arcadians.1 ‘It would have been more glorious,’ he said, ‘if we had shown ourselves superior in intelligence rather than physical strength.’ This distinguished general knew that the most brilliant victory is one obtained by ability, since even the brute beasts surpass us in strength. 153 After invading Arcadia, he received information that the people of Elis were ***** 1 All this is repeated in Adagia iii iv 85: Pro eleganti medico malus poeta ‘Instead of an exclusive physician, a bad poet’ 2 See Aristophanes Wasps 1431; Cicero Tusculan Disputations 1.18.41; Adagia i vi 15: In dolio figularem artem discere ‘To learn the potter’s art on a big jar’ 151 (li) Plutarch Moralia 218f. In margin ‘resolute‘ 1 During the years preceding Chaeronea (see 1.148 above), the Spartans were involved in various alliances and military manoeuvres designed to keep alive Spartan influence and halt the establishment of Philip ii’s hegemony over Greece. 2 Erasmus translates the Greek text found in Aldus’ edition. An alternative Greek text gives the meaning ‘one should consider where a battle is likely to be won,’ ie one should not choose a battle-site that will avoid destructions to one’s own country, but one that is likely to contribute to victory. 152 (lii) Plutarch Moralia 218f. In margin ‘specious victory‘ 1 This victory was won in 368/7 bc. He is credited with not losing a single Spartan soldier in the engagement. He was not yet king, as his father Agesilaus ii was still alive, but left military affairs to his son. See Plutarch Agesilaus 33 and 1.81 n2 above. 153 (liii) Plutarch Moralia 219a. In margin ‘succinct‘

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sending help to his opponents. He sent the Eleans this message: ‘Archidamus to the Eleans. Quiet is good.’ In the fewest possible words he advised them what was in their best interests and also warned them of the consequences if they tried anything out of line. Such brevity befits a commander, especially a Spartan one.1 154 During the Peloponnesian War,1 his allies asked him how much money would be needed and requested him to state the exact amount they were to contribute. He replied, ‘War does not look for fixed amounts.’ He meant that people who embark on a war must surrender themselves entirely to the requirements of the war, and there is no fixed limit to these, for all kinds of unforeseen situations develop in wartime. 155 When he saw a missile designed to be hurled by a catapult, an idea newly introduced from Sicily, he cried out. ‘Ye gods, man has lost his virility!’1 In a battle, whenever machines are used to shoot weapons or rocks and strike at a distance, it makes little difference whether a man is brave or a coward; but when the action is at close quarters, then it is obvious who are men and who are not. 156 When the Greeks were unwilling to rescind the agreement they had made with Antigonus and Craterus1 and accept the liberty Archidamus was ***** 1 A reference to the famous Spartan ‘Laconic’ speech. See 1.95 n2 above. The same saying is attributed to Periander in Diogenes Laertius 1.97, but see 7.38 n2 below. 154 (liv) Plutarch Moralia 219a. In margin ‘uncertainties of war‘ 1 This conflict occupied Sparta and Athens from 431–404 bc. Consequently this apophthegm must belong to Archidamus ii (see 1.140–7 above), or else refer to the fourth-century disagreements between Athens and Sparta. 155 (lv) Plutarch Moralia 219a. In margin ‘forceful‘ 1 For a similar sentiment, see 1.280 and 2.43 below. 156 (lvi) Plutarch Moralia 219a–b. In margin ‘devious‘ 1 Athenian policy throughout the later fourth century bc fluctuated between resistance and submission to Macedonia. Sparta was at the same time trying to stir up Greek resistance to Macedonia and reassert her lost authority. Antipater (who should be read for Antigonus) and Craterus were two of Alexander’s generals, who endeavoured to impose Macedonian sovereignty on the warring Greek city states while Alexander was away in Asia from 334 bc onwards. As

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offering them – they were in fact afraid they would find the Spartans more oppressive than the Macedonians – he said, ‘A sheep can only say baa, but a man says all kinds of different things, until he has achieved what he had in mind.’ This saying suggests that one should break one’s word if there is sufficient advantage in doing so. Indeed, no animal has such a wide range of expression as man. The remark could seem unworthy of a Spartan, if it were not for the fact that the integrity of the Spartan people had degenerated in the course of time through contact with non-Greek races. An honourable application of the words could be made to express the idea that one should vary the tenor of one’s speech to fit the occasion and the circumstances.2 There are times for speaking bluntly and times for being conciliatory; times for pleasant words, times for harsh ones. If no treachery is involved, this is sensible behaviour. Stupid men who do not know how to adapt to people and circumstances3 are called ‘muttonheads.’4 So Archidamus attributed to stupidity the persistence of the Greeks, who were unwilling to change their tune when freedom was offered them. Astycratidas 157 After Agis1 had been defeated in battle fighting Antigonus at Megalopolis, someone said, ‘What are you going to do now, Spartans? Are you going to be subject to the Macedonians?’ Astycratidas replied, ‘What a suggestion! Has Antigonus the power to forbid us to die fighting for our country?’ What noble words, expressing the idea that the liberty of one’s city is dearer than one’s own life, and that a man does not die ignobly if he dies ***** Archidamus died in 338 bc, this saying should perhaps be assigned to his son Agis iii (338–331 bc). See 1.157 n1. 2 See 1.231 below. 3 Cf 1.231 and 1.264 below. 4 See Adagia iii i 95: Ovium mores ‘The character of a sheep’; Apostolius cpg 2 14.80. 157 (lvii) Plutarch Moralia 219b. In margin ‘noble‘ 1 Ie Agis iii, king of Sparta 338–331 bc, son of Archidamus iii (see 1.148–156 above). Using Persian money, he organized the resistance of some Greeks (Athens refused to collaborate) to the power of Macedonia after Philip ii’s death, while his successor Alexander was absent in Asia. Megalopolis was one of the cities that refused to join him, and while he was besieging it he was defeated by Antipater (not Antigonus) and died in battle. See Plutarch Agesilaus 15.4 and 2.52 below. Astycratidas is unknown apart from this incident.

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fighting for his native land. Since no enemy can deprive him of the power to die, anyone who despises death has the means of claiming his liberty whenever he wishes.2 The saying does indeed argue a mind of remarkable courage, but no good man should copy the example offered here. There is more fortitude shown in enduring long servitude, however harsh, than in putting an end to one’s misery by dying. Socrates gave much holier guidance when he taught that it was sinful for the soul to desert its post in the body except by order of the commander.3 Bias of Sparta 158 Bias the Spartan was trapped in an ambush by the Athenian general Iphicrates.1 When his soldiers asked him what was to be done in this extremity, he said, ‘Only this. You are to save yourselves, but I shall die fighting.’ Cato of Utica was of the same mind: he urged the rest to look to their own safety, but himself escaped base servitude by taking his own life.2 Brasidas 159 Brasidas caught a mouse1 among some figs, and when it bit him, let it go. He then said to those with him, ‘There is no creature so tiny that it can’t save itself, provided it has the courage to turn on its attacker.’ With these words this brave and courageous leader filled his men with courage in face of the enemy. ***** 2 This is another philosophical commonplace, especially among the Stoics. See eg Cicero Tusculan Disputations 5.40.117; Seneca Epistulae morales 12.10, 77.15; Seneca De ira 3.15.4; and 1.158 n2 below. 3 See Plato Phaedo 62b; cf Cicero Tusculan Disputations 1.30.74. 158 (lviii) Plutarch Moralia 219c. In margin ‘brave‘ 1 Iphicrates was a distinguished Athenian general in the earlier part of the fourth century bc. This incident took place in 388 bc near the Hellespont and seems to have involved the Spartan commander Anaxibius, not Bias. 2 See Plutarch Cato the Younger 70–2 (793d–794c); Moralia 781d (To an uneducated ruler). Cato was a Stoic; see 1.157 n2 above and 4.164 n1 below. 159 (lvix) Plutarch Moralia 219c. In margin ‘resourceful‘ Brasidas was a most distinguished and effective Spartan general in the earlier part of the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens (431–404 bc). He was ephor in 429 bc. 1 Cf a similar story concerning Agesilaus, 1.11 above.

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160 Once in a battle Brasidas was wounded by a weapon which pierced his shield. He plucked the spear from the wound and with it killed the foe who had wounded him. It is very satisfactory to beat a foe with his own weapons. This is not an apophthegm. 161 When someone asked him how he got the wound, he laughingly replied, ‘My shield let me down.’ We so often meet with misfortune through the very people whose support makes us believe ourselves secure. 162 When he set off for the war, he wrote to the ephors, ‘Whatever misfortune befalls in the war, I shall either rise superior to it or die.’1 These words reveal an attitude of mind proper to a brave leader, for the outcome of things does not lie in the hand of man. When he fell in battle while trying to liberate the Greeks2 living in Thrace, a delegation bearing the news was sent to Sparta. They went to his mother Archileonis, and the first thing she asked was whether Brasidas had met an honourable end. When the Thracians praised his valour and said there was no one to equal him among the Spartans, she replied, ‘Gentlemen, you do not know what the Spartans are like. Brasidas was indeed a good man, but Sparta has many superior to him.’ What should we admire more in this woman? Is it her nobility of spirit? Far from weeping a woman’s tears for the death of her son, she judged it something to glory in, because it was an honourable one. Or is it her modesty ***** 160 (lx) Plutarch Moralia 219c. This and 1.161 are one item in Plutarch and should be read together. 161 (lxi) Plutarch Moralia 219d. In margin ‘humorous‘ 162 (lxii) Plutarch Moralia 219d (Brasidas to the ephors), 219d–e (his death). In margin ‘brave‘ 1 The apophthegm is quoted in Plutarch in Laconian dialect and this seems to have caused problems in Erasmus’ Greek text. The original words meant, ‘As far as the war goes, I will achieve what I want or die in the attempt.’ 2 One of Sparta’s moves in the war was to encourage to rebel or to ‘liberate’ various city-states that, willingly or unwillingly, had been drawn into membership of the Athenian confederacy. Brasidas was campaigning against various cities situated in the Chalcidic Peninsula in Thrace, and at the battle for Amphipolis was killed in the moment of victory in 422 bc. For his death see 2.120 below.

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and love of her country? She was not prepared for her son to be praised in a way that detracted from the glory of the other Spartan warriors. Damonidas 163 Damonidas was assigned a position at the back of the chorus by the chorusmaster. ‘Splendid!,’ he said. ‘Sir, you have found a way of making even this undistinguished position a place of honour.’ The noble-souled youth, confident of his own worth, was not afraid of being humiliated by the ignominious position. Rather he was of the opinion that his presence there would make it a place of distinction. There are numerous accounts telling how the noble character of the holder has won respect for an office in itself despised and insignificant.1 Damis 164 When Alexander the Great sent a missive to the Spartans requesting them to pass a decree giving him divine honours and enrolling him among the gods, Damis said, ‘Very well, let us grant Alexander that, if he so wish, he be called a god.’ What contemptuous amusement he showed at the foolish aspirations of a prince who imagined that gods could be made by those who were but men themselves, or if he did not actually think so, was foolish enough to find a source of pride in an empty title without substance. Damindas 165 When Philip invaded the Peloponnese,1 someone said, ‘Unless the Spartans come to an agreement with Philip, it’s very likely that they will suffer badly.’ ***** 163 (lxiii) Plutarch Moralia 219e. Damonidas is an unknown Spartan. Cf 2.79 below. 1 See eg 1.8 and n2 above. 164 (lxiv) Plutarch Moralia 219e. In margin ‘self-aggrandizement censured‘ Damis is an unknown Spartan. There are numerous anecdotes illustrating Alexander’s desire to be recognized publicly as a god, and acquiescing in the adulation, while secretly acknowledging its folly. See Index of Classical Persons: Alexander (1). Cf 1.26 above. 165 (lxv) Plutarch Moralia 219f. In margin ‘contempt for death‘ Damindas is an unknown Spartan. For the saying cf 1.157 above. 1 Philip ii of Macedon invaded the Peloponnese and marched through Laconia, Sparta’s own territory, in 338 bc, after the battle of Chaeronea. See 1.148 n1 above.

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‘You pansies!’ Damindas replied. ‘What suffering can befall us when we have no fear of death?’ Dercylidas 166 Pyrrhus had entered Spartan territory with his army and Dercylidas was sent as official representative to find out what his intentions were. Pyrrhus ordered the Spartans to take back their king Cleonymus,1 or else they would find out that they were no braver than anyone else. Dercylidas replied ‘If Cleonymus is a god, we are not afraid of him, as we have done nothing wrong. If he is a man, he is on the same level as us.’ This alternative proposition showed what he thought of the king’s arrogant threat. Gods can harm whom they will and suffer no harm in return, but they only hurt the wicked. Men however are on level terms when it comes to fearing and being feared. Accordingly, those who threaten others as if from a position of superiority either think themselves gods or do not recall that the very thing with which they threaten others can be turned upon themselves. Demaratus 167 After Orontes had had a very outspoken exchange with Demaratus, someone remarked that Orontes had been very blunt with him. Demaratus replied, ‘He has done me no wrong. The people who do harm are those who speak to curry favour, not those who make offensive remarks out of illwill.’ This sensible man was well aware that nothing is more pernicious than flattery, for even if it does not deceive, it makes a man arrogant, whereas someone who is hostile and outspoken does no harm to his hearer. In fact, ***** 166 (lxvi) Plutarch Moralia 219f. In margin ‘noble‘ Dercylidas is an unknown Spartan. 1 Although he was the son of Cleomenes ii, Cleonymus did not become king. He was exiled from Sparta after a fairly unsuccessful military career, and induced King Pyrrhus of Epirus to invade Spartan territory in 272 bc in an attempt to place him on the throne. For Pyrrhus see 5.119–31 below. 167 (lxvii) Plutarch Moralia 220a. In margin ‘flattering talk‘ Demaratus was deposed from the Spartan kingship in 491 bc on grounds of illegitimacy and took refuge at the Persian court of Darius i and then of Xerxes, whom he accompanied on his invasion of Greece in 480 bc. The anecdotes 167–74 seem to be nearly all set in the Persian court. Orontes is presumably a Persian of the royal court.

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he sometimes does positive good, especially if the other knows how to glean some advantage from an enemy.1 168 When someone asked why at Sparta those who jettisoned their shields were branded with infamy (they were called by the insulting name of ‘shieldditchers’),1 while those who abandoned helmet and breast plate were not, Demaratus replied, ‘Because they wear helmet and breast plate for their own benefit, but they carry the shield for the sake of the army of which they are all fellow members.’ By this he meant that each person should set more store by the common good than his own. A man who has thrown away helmet or breastplate betrays and exposes to danger himself only. If he abandons his shield he betrays the whole troop: the screen of shields protects the entire line from enemy missiles. 169 He was once listening to a singer demonstrating his expertise. The only praise he gave him was to say, ‘He seems to be quite good at playing the fool.’ Such was his contempt for skills which, however much application they involved, merely delighted the ears and brought no real benefit to the state. 170 Demaratus was once asked at a meeting whether he said nothing because he was a fool or because of inability to speak. He replied, ‘A fool wouldn’t be able to keep silent.’ Some people think it’s brilliant to keep talking all the time, whereas it’s the clearest sign of silliness. On the other hand, to say nothing when it is not the moment for speaking is the mark of wisdom.1 ***** 1 ‘How to glean some advantage from an enemy’ is the title of a work by Plutarch, De capienda ex inimicis utilitate, often quoted by Erasmus: Plutarch Moralia 86b–92f (How to profit by one’s enemies); see especially 89b, 90b. 168 (lxviii) Plutarch Moralia 220a. In margin ‘communal benefit‘ 1 See Adagia ii ii 97: Abiecit hastam. Rhipsaspis ‘He threw away his spear’; see 2.110 with n2 below. 169 (lxix) Plutarch Moralia 220a. See General Index: trivial pursuits. In margin ‘useless art‘ 170 (lxx) Plutarch Moralia 220a–b. In margin ‘timely silence‘ 1 Cf 1.139 above.

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171 When someone asked him why he was exiled from Sparta in spite of being king, he said, ‘Because in Sparta the laws have the greater power.’1 He meant by this that in Sparta the king was the head of the state, but was not above the laws. The king was just as much subject to these as the citizens were. He found admirable the very feature in the Spartan constitution which obliged him to live in exile. At the same time, he provided a fine example of self-control in that he calmly accepted an exile imposed by the authority of the laws and did not rail against his country or complain that the laws were unfair. 172 A certain Persian had finally succeeded in wheedling away a boy that Demaratus loved by constantly sending him presents. Crowing over this, he said, ‘Well, Spartan, I’ve hunted down your boyfriend.’ ‘Good heavens!’ Demaratus replied, ‘you didn’t hunt him, you went shopping for him.’ Other people ‘raise Hell’1 when humiliated like this, but he made a joke of it. At the same time, he suggested that it is not very impressive to win through money. 173 One of the Persian king’s subjects had defected, but Demaratus persuaded him to change his mind. When he returned home, the king intended to execute him, but Demaratus said, ‘Your majesty, while he was your enemy you had no power to punish him for deserting. It would be a base act to desire his death when he has become your friend.’ These wise words of Demaratus moderated the king’s displeasure and saved the life of the man he had persuaded to return. To both his advice was beneficial, in that one was persuaded to do nothing unworthy of a merciful monarch, and the other had no cause to regret that he had listened to Demaratus when he urged him to abandon his wrong-headed action. ***** 171 (lxxi) Plutarch Moralia 220b. In margin ‘self-restraint‘ 1 See 1.140 above and 1.318 below. 172 (lxxii) Plutarch Moralia 220b. The last sentence, ‘At the same time . . .,’ was added in 1532 only. In margin ‘self-control‘ 1 Literally ‘mingle sky and earth together’; Adagia i iii 81: Mare caelo miscere: ‘To mingle sea and sky.’ 173 (lxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 220b–c. In margin ‘merciful‘

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174 The Persian king’s jester kept making jokes about Demaratus’ exile. ‘My friend,’ said Demaratus, ‘I am not going to fight you as I’ve no rank any more.’ This joke depends on the two meanings of the Greek word taxis – it can mean either a position or a line or rank of troops drawn up for battle. Someone who has no rank left is not in a position to fight, and a king who has become an exile is finished with his former rank in life. Emerepes 175 The ephor Emerepes cut two strings out of the musician Phrynis’ ninestringed lyre,1 saying ‘Don’t ruin the music.’ Earlier generations had known only seven strings, and he thought it a corruption of the art to add to these and make music complicated instead of simple. Simplicity and frugality appealed to the Spartans in every sphere. Epaenetus 176 Epaenetus was in the habit of saying that ‘liars were the source of all wrongdoing and injustice.’ This saying accords with the writings of the Hebrews, where we are told that it was the serpent’s falsehood that first opened the doors to every kind of sin.1 ‘Liars’ includes flatterers, slanderers, treacherous counsellors, and depraved guardians of the young. These are the source of almost all the evils that cause such turmoil in human life. Euboidas 177 When Euboidas heard some men discussing the wives of various people in favourable terms, he reproved them, saying that ‘no comment whatsoever ***** 174 (lxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 220c. In margin ‘self-controlled‘ 175 (lxxv) Plutarch Moralia 220c. In margin ‘frugal‘ The name is also recorded as Ekprepes or Emprepes. For the apophthegm, cf 2.97 below; Adagia iv iii 14: Ne vities musicam ‘Don’t spoil the music.’ 1 Phrynis was a fifth-century bc musician and poet, whose musical innovations were much ridiculed. 176 (lxxvi) Plutarch Moralia 220c. In margin ‘untruth‘ Epaenetus is not otherwise known. 1 This is not an exact biblical reference but recalls Genesis 3 in general and verses such as 1 John 3:8 and others. 177 (lxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 220d. Euboidas is an unknown Spartan.

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should be passed on the character and accomplishments1 of wives in the presence of people outside the family.’ As he was not prepared to allow praise of other people’s wives, what would be his reaction to criticism of them? The chief praise which can be accorded to a chaste married woman is to be known to no one except the husband with whom she shares her bed. Eudamidas 178 Eudamidas, son of Archidamus and brother of Agis, heard Xenocrates in his old age conducting a philosophical discussion in the Academy with his friends.1 He asked who the old man was and was told that he was a wise man, one of those who sought virtue. ‘And just when,’ said he, ‘is he going to put it into practice, if he is still looking for it?’ The Spartan thought it silly to spend one’s whole life discussing virtue as if it were something on which different opinions could be held, when one ought to have definite views on what constitutes honourable conduct firmly fixed in one’s mind from earliest youth. One should direct one’s conduct according to virtuous principles, not ask questions about virtue, as the philosophers do. They cross swords acrimoniously with each other on the question of the supreme good and the supreme evil, and can’t even agree to any extent as to what goodness or happiness is. 179 He had listened to a lecture by a philosopher who put forward the view that only the wise man would be a good general.1 ‘The words are marvellous,’ he said, ‘but the speaker doesn’t carry conviction because he has never had the trumpet sounding in his ears.’ ***** 1 Erasmus translates by de moribus ingenioque ‘on the character and accomplishments’ the Greek words per“ fœsevw in Plutarch, which could however refer to physical attributes rather than mental ones. Cf 1.132 above. 178 (lxxviii) Plutarch Moralia 220d. In margin ‘shrewd‘ Eudamidas i was king of Sparta, 331–305 bc, succeeding his brother Agis iii. See 1.105–6 above. 1 For Xenocrates as head of the Academy founded by Plato in Athens see 7.171–9 below. 179 (lxxix) Plutarch Moralia 220e. In margin ‘experience‘ 1 See Adagia iv iii 54: Dives promissis ‘Rich in promises,’ (where the name is given as Eudaemonidas). As Erasmus there conjectures, the philosopher was probably a Stoic, as the Stoics taught the supremacy and perfection of the (Stoic) wise man in every sphere.

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He approved of the thesis, but pointed out that no one can convince his audience if he is speaking about something of which he has no experience. 180 One day Eudamidas arrived when Xenocrates had completed his exposition of the topic he had chosen for discussion, and had actually stopped speaking. One of Eudamidas’ companions remarked, ‘Now that we’ve arrived, he’s stopped speaking.’ ‘Quite right,’ replied Eudamidas, ‘if he’s said what he wanted to say.’ Then the other said, ‘It would have been good to hear him,’ (thinking that to please him Eudamidas would ask Xenocrates to give his entire lecture again from the beginning). Eudamidas said, ‘Suppose we had arrived just as he had finished dinner. Surely we wouldn’t be asking him to start eating again?’ As a considerate man, he did not wish to force the philosopher to repeat his exposition, as this would have been tiring for him. As a man of Spartan virtue, he had more admiration for displays of noble action than for discussions of virtue.1 181 When someone asked him why he had spoken against war with Macedon when the citizens were calling for it, he replied, ‘Because I don’t want to prove that they are lying.’ This was his way of showing that he knew that the Spartans were demanding war more for appearances’ sake than because they really wanted it. If he too had supported war, he would have shown them up, as he believed that the citizens would in that case back down. As it was, he made it appear that he was responsible for the rejection of military action, and so left the citizens with their reputation for bravery intact, as if they really had the spirit and readiness for war. 182 Someone was speaking in favour of war with Macedon and supporting the proposal with reference to the glory and the trophies which the Spartans had brought back from their victorious encounters with the Persians.1 ***** 180 (lxxx) Plutarch Moralia 220e. In margin ‘considerate‘ 1 See 1.178 above. 181 (lxxxi) Plutarch Moralia 220e–f. In margin ‘civility‘ 182 (lxxxii) Plutarch Moralia 220f. In margin ‘shrewd‘ 1 ‘Victorious encounters with the Persians’ presumably refers to the exploits of King Agesilaus in the fifth century bc, for which see 1.13–16 above. The confrontation with Macedon belongs to the fourth century bc.

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Eudamidas remarked, ‘You don’t seem to realize that that’s like someone who has defeated a thousand sheep having a fight with fifty wolves.’ He meant that it had not been difficult to defeat the Persians who were rendered impotent by luxury and indulgence and were therefore quite unwarlike, but it was a different thing to have dealings with a bellicose race like the Macedonians. Anyone who proposed that a war with Macedon should be started on the grounds of victories won from the Persians was talking as much sense as someone saying to a person who had defeated a thousand sheep, ‘As you’ve defeated so many sheep, now dare to take on fifty wolves.’ 183 He was asked what he thought of a singer1 who had given a fine performance. ‘A considerable charmer,’ he said, ‘in a trifling activity.’ He had no time for an art that required great application but brought no reward apart from a little empty and transitory gratification of the ears. 184 When someone was extolling the city of Athens, he said, ‘How can anyone be justified in praising a city which no one has ever loved because he became a better man there?’ He did not consider worthy of any praise a city so corrupted by pleasure and vice that no one who lived there from choice was improved by it, rather everyone became worse. He implied that Sparta was preferable to Athens, in that living there made people better. 185 A citizen of Argos was remarking that the character of the Spartans degenerated when they went abroad,1 because while there they fell away from the laws and institutions of their ancestors. ‘But you,’ retorted Eudamidas, ‘when you come to Sparta, finish up not worse but better.’ Eudamidas turned the remark back on the Argive citizen, for in effect the Argive’s words criticized his own people rather than the Spartans. At the same time he pointed out the importance of the kind of people you live with. ***** 183 (lxxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 220f. In margin ‘useless art‘ 1 See General Index: trivial pursuits. 184 (lxxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 220f. In margin ‘uncorrupted‘ 185 (lxxxv) Plutarch Moralia 220f–221a. In margin ‘clever retort‘ 1 The Spartans were in fact notorious for corruption and tyranny once they got away from Spartan discipline and found themselves in a position of power. See 2.99 below; 2.136–7 below.

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186 At the Olympic Games Alexander had an announcement made that all exiles had the right of returning to their own countries, except for the Thebans.1 ‘An unhappy announcement for you, men of Thebes,’ said Eudamidas, ‘but one that does you honour. You are the only people Alexander fears.’ Being a man of resource, he put this interpretation on the situation to bring the Thebans comfort. Anyone who allows exiles to return home has no fear that they will plot revenge. Accordingly, Alexander did fear such a thing from the Thebans, but from no one else. 187 When someone asked him why the Spartans sacrificed to the Muses before going into battle1 (for there seemed to be no connection between the Muses and Mars the god of war), he replied, ‘So that our exploits may receive honourable commemoration.’ The Spartans assumed that the glory of success would be theirs, but the celebration of their exploits in splendid words they considered something they must request of the Muses, the guardians of all splendid utterance, because they themselves paid no attention to the study of eloquence. This remark also reminds us that one should not expect tributes of praise unless one has earned them by virtuous acts. Eurycratidas 188 When Eurycratidas, son of Anaxandridas, was asked why the ephors pronounced judgment every single day1 in cases of bargain and contract, he replied, ‘So that we may have mutual confidence in one another even amidst our enemies.’ ***** 186 (lxxxvi) Plutarch Moralia 221a. In margin ‘shrewd‘ 1 Alexander (the Great) succeeded his father Philip ii of Macedon in 336 bc. This decree belongs to the year 323 bc, as does Alexander’s demand to be recognized as a god by the Greek states. See 1.164 above and Index of Classical Persons: Alexander (1). 187 (lxxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 221a. In margin ‘noble‘ 1 See 2.97 below. Cf Plutarch Lycurgus 21.7, where the purpose of the sacrifice is to inspire the warriors to perform deeds worthy of commemoration. 188 (lxxxviii) Plutarch Moralia 221b. Eurycratidas was king of Sparta, c. 615–590 bc. After this apophthegm, modern texts of Plutarch, following the Greek alphabet, have two sayings of Zeuxidamus. These seem to have been misplaced in Erasmus’ text and will be found at 1.308–9 below. 1 Two of the five ephors accompanied the army on campaign.

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Even more harm is done to a nation when agreements are broken while a war is on, but people who are accustomed to play false at home break their word also when away at the war. Herondas 189 Herondas happened to be in Athens and was told of someone who had been found guilty of the crime of not having an occupation and was being escorted home in distress by his grieving friends. Herondas asked to have pointed out to him this person who was prosecuted for behaving like a free man. The Spartans expected every kind of trade or practical activity to be carried out by their slaves, the Helots, and not by the citizens.1 Accordingly, Herondas was amazed that anyone could be brought to trial for not practising a servile occupation, and that in Athens a way of life was considered criminal that in Sparta would be thought honourable and appropriate to a free man. Thearides 190 When Thearides was sharpening his sword on a whet-stone, someone asked him if it was sharp. ‘Sharper than slander,’ he said. This effectively reminds us that slander is the deadliest thing there is. Themisteas 191 Themisteas, in his capacity as a prophet, predicted to King Leonidas that there would be total annihilation of the king and his fellow soldiers at Thermopylae.1 Leonidas tried to send Themisteas back to Sparta on the pretext ***** 189 (lxxxix) Plutarch Moralia 221c. In margin ‘noble-spirited‘ Herondas is an unknown Spartan. 1 See 1.25 and 1.70 above, 2.117 below; Plutarch Lycurgus 24. 190 (xc) Plutarch Moralia 221c. In margin ‘slander‘ Thearides is a Spartan of unknown date. 191 (xci) Plutarch Moralia 221c–d. In margin ‘considerate [Leonidas], brave [Themisteas]‘ Nothing is known of Themisteas apart from this incident. He was killed in the battle. 1 This is the site in southern Thessaly of the famous exploit of Leonidas and his 300 Spartiates, who died trying to delay the invading Persian hordes under Xerxes from getting through the narrow pass and on into the rest of Greece in 480 bc. See 1.242–56 below.

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of announcing what was to happen, but in reality to save him from perishing with the rest. He would have none of it, saying, ‘I was sent here to fight, not to carry messages.’ Who would not admire this resolute spirit in the prophet? He foresaw destruction, but did not desire to escape it, though he had a fair pretext for doing so. One must also respect Leonidas’ self-control. When the prophet gave him bad news, he did not fly into a rage as the general run of princes do,2 but tried to preserve both the man’s life and his reputation. Theopompus 192 When Theopompus was asked how a ruler could preserve his kingdom in safety, he replied, ‘By allowing his friends due liberty, while at the same time exercising great vigilance to make sure his subjects do not become the victims of injustice.’ Many princes have been destroyed because they allowed their friends total liberty of action and ignored the injustices inflicted on the people. A middle course should be followed here: a ruler should neither alienate his supporters by tyrannical harshness, nor let them abuse their familiarity with him and do what they like to the common people with complete disregard for justice; for the common people, when goaded beyond endurance, have often thrown off their rulers. 193 A visitor was boasting to Theopompus that among his fellow-citizens he was known as ‘a man who loves Sparta.’ Theopompus replied, ‘It would be better if you were called “a man who loves his country” rather than “a man who loves Sparta.” ’ The other expected to be commended for his pro-Spartan attitude. Theopompus however censured him for preferring to be known as an admirer of another state rather than his own. One’s first affection is owed to one’s own country. Anyone who is enthusiastic about another country is to some extent showing dissatisfaction with his own. ***** 2 See Adagia v ii 1: Nuncio nihil imputandum ‘Don’t blame the messenger.’ 192 (xcii) Plutarch Moralia 221d. Cf 1.18 above. In margin ‘moderation‘ Theopompus was king of Sparta, c. 720–675 bc. 193 (xciii) Plutarch Moralia 221d–e. In margin ‘sharp‘

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194 Here is a similar incident. An ambassador from Elis stated that his fellowcitizens had chosen him as representative because he was the only one who expressed admiration for the Spartan way of life.1 Theopompus asked him which he thought better, the way of life of the other citizens or his own. When he replied, ‘My own,’ Theopompus said, ‘How ever can that state be saved where, among so many, there is only one good man?’ This neat retort showed what he thought of the want of sense shown by a spokesman who praised the Spartans and himself and criticized his fellow-citizens. The man thought the Spartan way of life a good thing, but he was the only one of the Eleans who did – which implied that among the citizens of Elis there was only one single good man who approved of virtuous conduct. 195 When it was remarked that the Spartan state stood firm because the kings knew how to command, Theopompus replied, ‘No, it’s because the citizens know how to obey.’1 With remarkable modesty he transferred this praise of the kings to the citizens. The integrity of the ruler is of great moment, but even more depends on a proper attitude among the citizens. 196 When the people of Pylos1 published a decree awarding Theopompus the highest honours, he wrote back, ‘The passage of time increases modest honours, but erases excessive ones.’ What a splendid attitude! He rejected when it was freely offered the very thing that others either arrogantly assume or foolishly go touting for. This remark showed how modest he was himself and also reminded his friends that moderation is best in everything. Moreover, he was well aware that things that grow fast, like beets and gourds, do not last long, whereas ***** 194 (xciv) Plutarch Moralia 221e. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 The Greek implies that the man tried to copy the Spartans in his daily life. 195 (xcv) Plutarch Moralia 221e. In margin ‘weighty‘ 1 Cf 1.49–50 and 1.88 above. 196 (xcvi) Plutarch Moralia 221f. In margin ‘modest‘ 1 Theopompus with his colleague Polydorus (1.332 below) won the first Messenian war, in which Sparta acquired control over Northern Messenia. Pylos was an ancient city in Southern Messenia, an area which retained nominal independence for a time.

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things that develop slowly, like oaks and box-trees, stand the passage of time. 197 When someone was showing Theopompus the walls of his city and asked whether he thought them high and strong, ‘Not at all,’ he replied, ‘if the inhabitants are women.’ He meant that a city has protection enough if it has real men; if not, defence-works are useless, however elaborate. 198 When his wife berated him, complaining that he would hand on to his sons a kingdom smaller and less powerful than the one he had received, he replied, ‘No, greater because more likely to last.’1 This comes from Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus. Things that are kept to modest size stand the test of time, and for this reason they are better. Thectamenes 199 After the ephors had sentenced him to death, Thectamenes smiled as he left the place. The bystanders asked him if he was actually showing contempt for the laws of Sparta. ‘Not at all,’ he said, ‘I am happy because this fine is to be paid by me, and I have never imposed it on anyone else, nor have I borrowed it from anyone.’ He was innocent, but did not rail against his country’s laws. He thought himself happy in that, being sentenced to die, he himself had brought death upon no one and owed life to no one but himself. He humorously called the penalty of death a fine, using a milder word1 for a dreadful thing. A ***** 197 (xcvii) Plutarch Moralia 221f. This apophthegm is not found in some mss of Plutarch and was presumably missing in Erasmus’ text, as a marginal note in 1531, 1532, and 1532 comments: ‘This is not in the Greek but is Philelphus’ translation.’ For Filelfo see the dedicatory epistle 7 n20 above. In 1532 and 1535 there is a marginal note, ‘This is found twice elsewhere’ (ie 1.92 above and 1.310 below). 198 (xcviii) Plutarch Life of Lycurgus chapter 7. In margin ‘wise‘ 1 Theopompus had agreed to the appointment of the first ephors, who were from the beginning a check on the autocratic power of the kings. See 1.12 n3 above. 199 (xcix) Plutarch Moralia 221f. In margin ‘death scorned‘ This apophthegm and the next (1.200) are inverted in modern texts of Plutarch. Neither person is otherwise known. 1 Ie in the figure of speech known as meiosis.

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man is rightly compelled to pay out money when he has either extorted it or borrowed it from another. Cicero has the following version of this aphorism in book I of the Tusculan Disputations.2 A certain Spartan, whose name is not even recorded, showed such contempt for death that when he was being led off to execution after the ephors had passed sentence, he was smiling and cheerful. When one of his enemies asked, ‘Do you treat the laws of Lycurgus3 with such disrespect?’ he replied, ‘No, I feel great gratitude towards him, for he has imposed a fine on me that I can pay without borrowing or raising a loan.’ What a man, truly worthy of Sparta! As he showed such a noble spirit, I am sure he was innocent when convicted. Cicero seems to have translated the Greek word diait¯esanta ‘imposing’ by versura ‘raising a loan.’4 Thectamenes so despised death that he made a joke of it, as if death were a lesser penalty than a monetary one, because anyone can pay the fine of death out of his own resources. To pay a monetary fine many have to borrow or raise a second loan. Therycion 200 When Therycion was returning from Delphi, he found the narrow neck of land at the Isthmus of Corinth occupied by Philip’s forces. ‘Men of Corinth,’ he exclaimed, ‘the Peloponnese has poor gate-keepers in you!’1 He was referring to the fact that citizens who have been entrusted with the city gates are punished severely if they guard them carelessly. The ***** 2 Cicero Tusculan Disputations 1.42.100. 3 Lycurgus is the famous lawgiver and architect of the Spartan constitution. See 1.258–87 below. 4 Erasmus’ remarks and also his translation of the apophthegm show that his Greek text of Plutarch offered the reading o[te diait}santa [oute diait¯esanta], ‘neither having imposed (?)’ (see lines 4–5). Modern texts read the more straightforward o[te ti úit}santa [oute ti ait¯esanta], ‘neither begging,’ and the version of the story available to Cicero must have had something similar. The remark makes more sense in this form, and this is no doubt why Erasmus quotes Cicero’s version, even though, faced with a different reading in Plutarch, he is puzzled by Cicero’s translation. Strictly speaking, versura is a second loan raised at a higher rate of interest to pay off an earlier creditor. See Adagia i x 23: Versuram solvere ‘To pay by a switching loan.’ 200 (c) Plutarch Moralia 221f. Therycion (or Thorycion) is an otherwise unknown Spartan. 1 The saying is the subject of Adagia iv ii 52: Malus ianitor ‘A bad gate-keeper.’

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Corinthians were far more guilty, in that they had betrayed to Philip the gates of the whole Peloponnese. Hippodamus 201 When Agis had his forces drawn up ready to do battle against Archidamus, Hippodamus was ordered to go with Agis to Sparta to organize what was needful.1 ‘Surely,’ he said, ‘it is more honourable to meet my end playing the part of a good and brave man for Sparta’s sake?’ Thereupon, taking his weapons and stationing himself at the king’s right hand, he died fighting. They were acting out of consideration for his age, for he was well on in years and not really likely to contribute much to the battle, whereas he would be of use back home. He was more than eighty years old,2 but he granted himself no concessions. Hippocratidas 202 Hippocratidas received from the Persian governor of Caria a letter informing him that a certain Spartan who had known of a plot against the governor had kept quiet instead of reporting the matter. The governor also wanted to know what he should do about him. Hippocratidas replied, ‘If he has received any great benefit at your hands, execute him. If not, expel him from your territory, as being too cowardly for any right action.’ He was of the opinion that ingratitude towards a benefactor should be punished by death, whereas for something motivated by fear rather than by some evil impulse exile was an adequate response. The man in question had not been involved in the plot himself, but had failed to betray it out of fear. ***** 201 (i) Plutarch Moralia 222a. In margin ‘death scorned‘ Nothing more is known of this aged Spartan, Hippodamus. 1 The account here is confused because Erasmus has mistranslated Plutarch’s paretasseto which means ‘to do battle alongside.’ He is following the Latin version offered by Filelfo and Regio. See the dedicatory epistle 7–8 nn20 and 21 above. The incident is however not made clear in the Greek without some explanation. The king is Archidamus iii who fought against the state of Megalopolis in 352 bc. Agis is presumably Archidamus’ son, the heir to the throne and the future Agis iii. 2 This information is part of Plutarch’s narrative. Erasmus has included it in his comment. 202 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 222a–b. In margin ‘temperate‘ Hippocratidas was king of Sparta, c. 600–575 bc.

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203 He once met a youth who blushed because he had his lover with him. Hippocratidas said, ‘You should go walking with persons who won’t make you embarrassed if you’re seen.’ This pointed out that bad company brings nothing but shame and humiliation. Callicratidas 204 The admiral Callicratidas was offered fifty talents by friends of Lysander1 to allow them to kill one of their enemies. Although he was in desperate need of money to pay the sailors’ wages, he would not agree to the proposal. One of his staff-officers, Cleander,2 said, ‘If I’d been you, I would have taken it.’ Callicratidas replied, ‘So would I, if I’d been you.’ What a marvellous example of integrity! The admiral could not be bribed by any sum of money, however much he needed it, to allow an injustice to be inflicted on a single individual. His remark also reminds us that every action should be in keeping with one’s character and status. What might have been in accordance with Cleander’s character would not have been suitable for Callicratidas. What a private citizen might do is not always appropriate for a prince. 205 Callicratidas went to Sardis to have an audience with Cyrus the Younger,1 who was at that time supporting the Spartans in their military operations. He was intending to ask for a subvention for his fleet. The first day after he arrived, he sent a message that he wished to speak with Cyrus. When he was informed that Cyrus was holding a drinking party, ‘I will wait,’ he said, ‘until he has finished drinking.’ So this time he went away, as he realized that there was no possibility of getting an audience that day, for he did not wish to give the impression of not knowing the proper way to behave.2 ***** 203 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 222b. In margin ‘decency‘ 204 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 222b–c. In margin ‘honourable‘ Callicratidas was a Spartan naval commander in the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens, 431–404 bc. 1 For the Spartan commander Lysander, see 1.288–303 below. 2 See 1.209 below. 205 (v) Plutarch Moralia 222c–d. In margin ‘spirited‘ 1 Cyrus had been instructed by his father Darius ii, king of Persia, to support the Spartans in the war with Athens and provide subventions of money. 2 Again Erasmus’ Greek text seems to differ from more modern ones which

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The next day however, when he was again told that Cyrus was drinking and that there would be no audience, he announced that, while money was important, one should not for the sake of it do anything unworthy of Sparta. He then went straight back to Ephesus, cursing those who had first met with insolence from the barbarians and, by submitting to it, had taught them to think their wealth entitled them to treat others in a high-handed manner. He assured his companions most vehemently that as soon as he got back to Sparta he would do everything in his power to make the Greeks settle their differences. Then the barbarians would consider them something to be reckoned with, and the Greeks would no longer need to apply to the king for help in pursuing their internal quarrels.3 What will men not do and suffer when pressed by financial hardship? Yet the noble spirit of this Spartan preferred to ignore financial considerations rather than submit to a third demonstration of arrogance on the part of this voluptuary of a king. Other people are prepared for reasons much less pressing to accept it without complaint if they have to wait a whole six months before being admitted to put their case to the king. Secondly, Callicratidas said nothing against the barbarians or their king, but heaped his indignation on those who by their submissive behaviour had taught them so to flaunt themselves on account of their vast riches. If they had all been like the Spartans, despisers of wealth and pleasure, the barbarians would never have reached such heights of insolence. Thirdly, in his wisdom he saw that the Greeks could become something the barbarians needed to take seriously only by setting aside their internal quarrels and solemnly agreeing to keep the peace. 206 When Callicratidas was asked what sort of persons the Ionians were, he replied, ‘Bad freemen, but good slaves.’1 He meant that they did not know how to command and exercise freedom, but accepted servitude without discontent, and so were to be assigned to Hesiod’s second class of men who have no wisdom of their own but obey one who has understanding.2 ***** offer: ‘. . . an audience that day, thus giving the impression of being somewhat boorish.’ 3 See 1.59 nn1, 2, and 4 above. 206 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 222e 1 Cf 1.62 above, 5.39 below. They acquiesced in Persian domination. 2 Hesiod Works and Days 295; see 1.212 n2 below.

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207 When Cyrus had sent the money to pay the soldiers1 and included a separate gift for Callicratidas as a mark of friendship, Callicratidas accepted the money but sent back the present, saying that it was not for him to have a special private relationship with Cyrus; the public relationship that Cyrus had with all Spartans operated between Cyrus and himself also. Such an attitude demonstrates the highest integrity, wholly concerned with what is good for the country. 208 Just before the naval battle at Arginusae,1 Hermon, Callicratidas’ captain,2 said that he would do well to withdraw because the Athenian fleet was numerically far superior. He replied, ‘What of it? Fleeing will bring disgrace on Sparta and harm her too. The honourable course is to stand one’s ground and either die or conquer.’ He valued glory above life – the public glory of his country, not his own personal glory. 209 When he had performed the pre-battle sacrifice, the seer, looking at the burnt offering, declared that victory was indicated for the Spartan force but death for its commander. No whit perturbed, Callicratidas said, ‘Sparta does not depend on one person. If I die, my country will be no worse off, but if I yield to the foe my country will be diminished.’ So he appointed Cleander commander in his place, engaged the enemy in the naval battle, and died fighting. Clearchus 210 Clearchus was always drumming into his soldiers that ‘a soldier should fear ***** 207 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 222e 1 See 1.205 above 208 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 222e–f. In margin ‘contempt for death‘ 1 The battle of Arginusae was an important sea battle in 406 bc, in which the Spartans were heavily defeated by the Athenians and Callicratidas was killed. 2 Hermon was a skilled captain and was honoured by Lysander with a statue at Delphi for his services a year later in 405 bc at the battle of Aegospotami, in which Lysander annihilated the Athenians. See 1.293 below. 209 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 222f. In margin ‘contempt for death‘ 210 (x) This is not in Plutarch’s Apophthegmata Laconica, but is taken from Valerius Maximus 2.7 ext. 2.

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his general more than he fears the enemy’1 – words that promised death to any soldier who displayed less than adequate vigour on the battlefield. It is more creditable to surrender one’s life to one’s country with honour than to yield it to execution with disgrace. Not every soldier would submit to such a dictum, but the Spartans did so easily – their mothers at home used to tell them plainly ‘either to come back victorious carrying their shields or be carried back dead on them.’2 Cleombrotus 211 A visitor from another country was arguing with Cleombrotus’ father, Pausanias,1 about moral worth. Cleombrotus said, ‘My father is a better man than you, until you too become a father.’ He politely stopped the man arguing further by indicating that his father was superior for the very reason that he had provided a son for his country, whereas the other was as yet without offspring. Cleomenes (1) 212 Cleomenes, son of Anaxandridas, was accustomed to say that Homer was the poet of the citizens of Sparta, Hesiod the poet of the Helots (that is, of slaves), because Homer told how to wage war,1 Hesiod how to cultivate the land.2 As I said earlier, Spartans were trained purely for military activities, and for that reason assigned all humbler tasks and manual skills to their slaves, whom they called Helots.3 213 This same Cleomenes arranged a seven-day truce with the people of Argos,1 but when he had discovered by observation that, relying on the truce, they ***** 1 Also quoted in Frontinus Strategemata 4.1.17 2 Cf 2.142 below. 211 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 223a. In margin ‘courteous‘ Cleombrotus later became king of Sparta, 380–371 bc, and was killed at the battle of Leuctra 371 bc. 1 See 1.318–24 below. 212 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 223a. This was Cleomenes i, king of Sparta, c. 520–490 bc. In margin ‘shrewd‘ 1 A reference to Homer’s Iliad, the story of the Trojan War. 2 The author of Works and Days, a poem partly about agriculture. 3 See 1.25 n2 and 1.116 above. 213 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 223a–b. In margin ‘cunning‘ 1 Cleomenes attacked Argos in 494 bc.

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were all fast asleep on the third night, he attacked them, killing some and capturing others. When he was reviled for this violation of his sworn word, he replied, ‘The agreement to which I swore referred to the days only; the nights were not included.2 In any case, any evil one can inflict on an enemy is judged superior to justice by gods and by men as well.’ These arrogant words were not upheld by subsequent events – he failed to capture the city, to achieve which he had violated the agreement,3 because the women fetched down the weapons dedicated in the temples of the gods and took their revenge on him (as if the very gods whom he had treated with such contempt were exacting the penalty from him).4 Later he lost his wits and gouged out his flesh with a dagger, cutting himself up from ankles to vitals, and so died, grinning and laughing. There is nothing worthy of imitation in this apophthegm, but it is a useful example to show that one’s given word should not be broken. 214 The seer urged him not to advance on Argos, for, he said, he would return thence covered in shame; but after Cleomenes had brought his troops up to the place and could see the gates barred and women standing on the walls, he said, ‘So you think it’s shameful to return from a place where the gates have been barred by the women because the men have been killed?’ A bold spirit, if it had been combined with right and just principles. 215 When some of the Argives called him a godless perjurer, he said, ‘You have the power to speak ill of me, but I have the power to do ill to you.’ This reminds us that it is not safe to provoke with insults those who have it in their power to do actual harm when they choose; also that the powerful should not let themselves be unduly angered by the words of lesser people – there is sufficient retaliation in the knowledge that they, the powerful, can exact vengeance whenever they will, whereas the others have nothing at their command but words of abuse. ***** 2 A tale of similar treachery on the part of the Thracians is found in Zenobius cpg 1 4.37. 3 He was in fact prosecuted in the ephors’ court (and acquitted) for failing to take the city. 4 For the women’s act, see next apophthegm (1.214). The words ‘took their revenge’ should be: ‘drove him off.’ 214 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 223c. In margin ‘bold‘ 215 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 223c. In margin ‘restrained‘

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216 The people of Samos sent a delegation to Cleomenes to urge him to declare war on Polycrates,1 despot of the island. They spoke at far greater length than was necessary2 and he replied after this fashion: ‘What you said first I can’t remember, and for that reason I can’t grasp the middle either. What you said last I reject.’ This reminds us that verbosity is not only tedious for the listener but contributes nothing towards gaining our end, especially when directed at rulers who have much on their minds and are very choosy as to what they listen to. 217 A pirate was ranging about in Spartan territory, looking for plunder. He was captured and when asked why he had done this bold thing, replied, ‘I was short of supplies to give to my men, so I came to take it by force from those who had but would not willingly give.’ At this, Cleomenes remarked, ‘A succinct crime.’ He was incensed at the robber’s wicked deed, but approved of the brisk brevity of his words.1 218 When some low person kept reviling him with insults, Cleomenes said, ‘Are you slandering everyone so that, if we decide to reply to your charges, we will not have any time left to talk about your own nasty tongue?’ What lofty contempt he showed for this scurrilous fellow! He considered this remark both a sufficient response and a sufficient punishment for a contemptible creature whose only weapon was his slanderous tongue.1 ***** 216 (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 223d. In margin ‘loquacity‘ 1 Polycrates was the sixth-century bc ruler (tyrant) of the island of Samos. He was helped in establishing his sole rule by Lygdamis, sole ruler of the island of Naxos, for whom see 2.66 below. The Greeks were generally antagonistic to rule by any one person and the Spartans did in fact send a force to support the people of Samos in their rebellion against Polycrates. This expedition was a failure. It took place in 525 bc, which is before Cleomenes became king. 2 See 1.95 n2 above. 217 (xvii) Plutarch Moralia 223d. In margin ‘assurance‘ 1 Ie Laconismus, see 1.95 n2 above. 218 (xviii) Plutarch Moralia 223d. In margin ‘restraint‘ 1 Cf 1.215 above and 1.236 below.

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219 Cleomenes heard one of the citizens saying that a good king ought to be absolutely mild and gentle towards everyone.1 ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘but not enough to make them despise him.’ He meant that to show too much kindness towards the evil-doer is of no use to the state. He was also referring to certain people who learn to despise outstandingly good and merciful rulers when they ought to be devoted to them. To be sure, approachability and gentleness in a ruler is a very fine thing; but because of the wickedness of people it has to be tempered, so that the prince retains his authority. 220 He was afflicted by a long-term illness1 and took to consulting soothsayers and performers of purificatory rituals, which he had not been in the habit of doing before. When someone expressed surprise at this, he said, ‘Why are you surprised? I am not the man I was. As I am a different man, I choose different things.’ He thus deflected the charge of inconsistency, but it is true that an old man does not find pleasure in the things that pleased him in his youth. 221 A sophist was giving a long disquisition on courage. Cleomenes laughed, and when the other asked, ‘What do you find so funny, Cleomenes, in hearing someone talking about courage, especially when you are a king?’ ‘My friend,’ said the king, ‘if a swallow were talking about courage, I should laugh as I do now; but if an eagle were talking, I should listen in total silence.’ He thought it ridiculous for anyone to talk impressively about courage when he had himself never done anything courageous1 and could do nothing better than twitter like a swallow. 222 The people of Argos declared that they would repair the defeat inflicted on them earlier by having another fight. ‘I’m surprised,’ Cleomenes said, ‘if the addition of two syllables makes you better than you were before.’ ***** 219 (xix) Plutarch Moralia 223e. In margin ‘courteous‘ 1 Cf 1.138 above. 220 (xx) Plutarch Moralia 223e. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 Cf possibly 1.213 above. 221 (xxi) Plutarch Moralia 223f. In margin ‘suitability‘ 1 Cf 1.179 above. 222 (xxii) Plutarch Moralia 223f. In margin ‘humorous‘

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The point of this witty remark cannot be reproduced in a Latin translation. In Greek, the verb machesthai means ‘to fight’; anamachesthai means ‘to fight again.’ The only difference between the two words is that the second is longer by two syllables, ie ana.1 223 Someone taunted him with being a voluptuary. ‘That, at any rate,’ he said, ‘is better than being unjust – and you’re ruled by love of money, though you have plenty for your needs.’ This quick retort implied that no one dominated by a passion for amassing more than he needs can possibly live without deviating from just principles. Moreover, it is foolish to censure someone else for a lesser fault when he can immediately retaliate with a more serious charge against you. 224 Someone was telling Cleomenes how good a certain singer was. As well as praising him on various specific counts, he asserted that he was the finest singer in all Greece. Cleomenes pointed to one of the people in the room. ‘Believe you me,’ he said, ‘I have this man who’s an artist in creating soups.’ He had no time for a skill which served no end but pleasure. 225 In consequence of the Persian invasion Maeander, despot of Samos,1 fled to Sparta. He showed Cleomenes what monies2 he had brought with him and offered to give him as much as he wanted. Cleomenes accepted none of it himself, but he was afraid that Maeander would give something to other citizens. So he went to the ephors and told them it would be best if they were to ban his Samian guest from the Peloponnese, to prevent him from persuading any of the Spartan citizens to become a bad man. The ephors ***** 1 The Argives used the Greek verb anamachesthai, which means ‘to fight again’ and carries the implication of success at the second attempt. Erasmus feels that there is no two-syllable Latin word or prefix which will neatly express this, and translates the word by iterato praelio sarcire, ‘repair by a repeat battle.’ 223 (xxiii) Plutarch Moralia 223f. In margin ‘nice retort‘ 224 (xxiv) Plutarch Moralia 224a. See 1.56 n4 and 1.142 above. In margin ‘useless art‘ 225 (xxv) Plutarch Moralia 224a–b. In margin ‘integrity‘ 1 Maeander (Maeandrios) succeeded Polycrates as sole ruler of Samos in 522 bc; see 1.216 above. He sought help in Sparta in 516 bc. Cf 2.121 below. 2 The Greek text has ‘gold and silver cups.’

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took his advice and on that same day issued an edict expelling Maeander from the Peloponnese. How this man despised wealth! He considered it no less lethal to his fellow-citizens than a virulent poison, yet most people think their country happy only if it has vast resources of wealth. Herodotus, in book 3, calls this Maeander Maeandrius.3 226 Someone asked him why the Spartans hadn’t destroyed the Argives who were always fighting against them, when they had so often defeated them in battle. ‘We wouldn’t even want them to be destroyed,’ he said. ‘We need someone to give our young men some practice.’1 This splendid leader knew only too well that young men go to the bad if left to idleness, which teaches them indiscipline and every kind of evil. 227 Someone asked Cleomenes why the Spartan warriors did not dedicate to the gods the spoils they had stripped from their defeated foes. ‘Because,’ he said, ‘they have come from cowards.’ It is not right for young men to have before their eyes things acquired from men captured because of their cowardice, nor for such things to be offered to the gods in dedication. He held the view that in war one should either defeat the foe or courageously meet one’s end. He considered fear of death to be such a disgraceful thing that reminders even of other people’s cowardice should be kept from the eyes of young men. 228 One of Cleomenes’ friends took a guest to the common dining-hall and offered him nothing but black wine1 and hard biscuit. Cleomenes was angry and said to him, ‘You shouldn’t behave too much like a Spartan towards visitors.’ It is discipline to make oneself submit to a harsh r´egime, but uncouth to force it upon a guest. ***** 3 Herodotus 3.148 226 (xxvi) Plutarch Moralia 224b. In margin ‘purposeful‘ 1 See 2.23–4 below; 6.336 below. 227 (xxvii) Plutarch Moralia 224b. In margin ‘bold‘ 228 (xxviii) Added from Xenophon Cleomenes 34(13)d–e 1 ‘Black wine’ should be ‘black broth,’ the notorious Spartan dish. See 2.84 below.

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Cleomenes (2) 229 Somebody presented Cleomenes, son of Cleombrotus, with some fightingcocks, and (seeking to enhance his gift by praising it) said that they would die fighting for victory. Cleomenes replied, ‘Then give me some of the cocks that kill these, for they are superior.’ Being a military man, he made everything apply to war. If you praise the defeated, you enhance the conqueror’s glory.1 Labotus 230 When someone addressed him at excessive length, Labotus said, ‘Why spin out this great introduction to a tiny subject? Your speech should match your subject in size.’1 All Spartans had this characteristic of finding fault with speech that was longer than the occasion demanded.2 They admired economy in everything. To apply a superfluous spate of words to a modest topic is a form of self-indulgence. Herodotus calls this Labotus Leobotas, which means ‘shepherd of the people.’3 Leontychidas (1) 231 Someone reproached Leontychidas, the first of that name, with being too ready to change. ‘I do change,’ he replied, ‘but only as circumstances demand, not out of inbuilt weakness like you.’ A wise man alters his plans to fit the circumstances, but to be constantly changing for no reason is inconsistency, which is a fault.1 ***** 229 (xxix) Plutarch Moralia 224c. In margin ‘humorous‘ This is Cleomenes ii, king of Sparta, 370–309 bc, son of Cleombrotus i, for whom see 1.211 above. This Cleomenes was much later than Cleomenes i, c. 520–490 bc. 1 Cf 1.136 above. 230 (xxx) Plutarch Moralia 224c. In margin ‘loquacity‘ Labotus (Labotas) was an early king of Sparta, c. ninth century bc. 1 Cf 1.5 above; 2.115 below. 2 Cf 1.95 n2 above. 3 Herodotus 1.65 231 (xxxi) Plutarch Moralia 224c–d. Leotychidas (sic) i was king of Sparta, c. 625–600 bc. 1 See Adagia i i 93: Polypi mentem obtine ‘adopt the outlook of a polyp.’

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232 When someone asked Leontychidas how a man could preserve the possessions he had, ‘By not entrusting all to fortune,’ he replied. Fortune has no power over the riches of the mind. As for material possessions, we will put these on a surer basis if we lay some aside and do not entrust them to fickle fortune. There are rulers who, out of desire to extend their dominion, put themselves in danger of losing the realm they have. There are also men of wealth who, out of desire to increase their possessions, entrust all they have to some maritime adventure. 233 When he was asked what in particular free-born boys should learn, he said, ‘Things that will be useful to them when they reach man’s estate.’ 234 When someone asked him why the Spartiates were so abstemious in their drinking habits, ‘So that we may make decisions for others,’ he replied, ‘and not others for us.’ A smart answer, indicating that wine-bibbers are not fit to take part in deliberations. Sobriety is the mother of healthy decisions. 235 Leontychidas, a Spartan elder – there were twenty-eight of them, we are told1 – was having dinner at Corinth. He asked his host whether logs grew square in Corinth. When he said they did not, Leontychidas then said, ‘Well then, if they grew square, would you make them round?’ So Plutarch relates the incident in his Life of Lycurgus,2 though the story is recorded elsewhere, with a different speaker, ie Agesilaus. ***** 232 (xxxii) Plutarch Moralia 224d. In margin ‘sagacious‘ 233 (xxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 224d. Cf 1.65 above and 3.153 below. 234 (xxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 224d. In margin ‘sobriety‘ 235 (xxxv) Added from Plutarch Life of Lycurgus 13.7 where the speaker is called Leotychidas. This Leotychidas could be the son of Timaea, wife of Agis ii (for whom see 1.87–104 above). He was excluded from the kingship on grounds of illegitimacy. But the Greek probably means ‘Leotychidas the Elder,’ ie Leotychidas i, to whom the saying is attributed at 1.265 below. In any case, his seventh-century date fits the anecdote better. 1 For elders, see 1.119 above; ‘there were twenty-eight . . . told’ is Erasmus’ addition. 2 See 1.28 above. The name Agesilaus was added in 1535.

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Leontychidas (2) 236 Someone told Leontychidas, son of Ariston, that Demaratus’1 supporters were speaking ill of him. ‘Upon my word,’ he said, ‘I’m not surprised. None of them could speak well of anyone.’ This shows us that we should pay no attention to malicious talk, which has its origin not in considered opinion but in a sickness of the mind. It is obvious that those who go about slandering everyone do it because of some fault in their own make-up, not because of anything in their victims that justifies it. 237 A snake had wrapped itself round the key of a door near-by, and the interpreters of signs declared that this was a portent. ‘I don’t think so at all,’ he said. ‘If the key had wrapped itself round the snake, now that would be a portent.’1 He wittily made fun of the superstition of human beings, who are terrified by perfectly normal chance occurrences. This mental weakness is nourished by diviners, soothsayers, fortune-tellers, and clairvoyants. But when someone instigates some wicked scheme that disregards all justice and honour, then we should recoil in horror at the portent and expect some great evil to follow. 238 A certain Philippus was a leader in the Orphic sect and used to initiate others into its mysteries. He was extremely poor, and one day he remarked in Leontychidas’ hearing that those who were initiated into the Orphic rites at his hands would be happy after death. ‘Well then, you silly man,’ said Leontychidas, ‘why don’t you bring your life to an end as soon as possible, so you can stop complaining about your misfortunes and your poverty?’ ***** 236 (xxxvi) Plutarch Moralia 224e. In margin ‘malicious talk‘ Leotychidas (sic) ii was king of Sparta, c. 491–469 bc. 1 Demaratus was king of Sparta from c. 515 until 491 bc when he was deposed on a false claim of illegitimacy manufactured by his colleague and enemy Cleomenes i (see 1.212–28 above) and his successor Leontychidas. His supporters therefore had good reason to speak against Leontychidas. 237 (xxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 224e. In margin ‘humorous‘ 1 For a similar story about Cato, see 5.383 below. 238 (xxxviii) Plutarch Moralia 224e–f. In margin ‘freedom from superstition‘

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There we have a mind free of all superstition! It is those who have lived their lives here dutifully and justly who will be happy in the next life, not someone initiated into illusory rites. The Spartans were convinced that those who had lived dutifully in this life would become divine after death. Leon 239 Leon, son of Eurycratidas, was asked if there was any city in which a man could live in safety. ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘one where the inhabitants possess neither too much nor too little, a place where justice flourishes, injustice is powerless.’ This was a solemn reminder that equality nourishes peace and tranquillity, whereas inequality is a seed-bed of sedition; and that there is no place for justice where greater power implies greater licence to oppress the weak. 240 This same Leon observed at the Olympic Games that the runners were trying to get a starting position that would give them an advantage and help them to win.1 ‘How much more concerned they are with speed,’ he said, ‘than with fairness!’ This man of integrity wanted fairness to be a consideration even in games and was of the opinion that the aim should be not to cross the line first but to win fairly. 241 Someone was discussing matters of some importance in an inappropriate manner. ‘Friend,’ said Leon, ‘you are using a convenient thing in an inconvenient way.’1 Speech is the noblest of gifts, provided you are not too prodigal in bringing out the treasures of your tongue.2 ***** 239 (xxxix) Plutarch Moralia 224f. In margin ‘equality‘ Leon was king of Sparta, c. 590–560 bc. 240 (xl) Plutarch Moralia 224f. In margin ‘fair‘ 1 It seems that the runners in the centre of the starting line had a slight advantage. See Harris 71–2. 241 (xli) Plutarch Moralia 224f 1 See 1.115 above, for a different translation of the identical Greek words. 2 See 1.95 n2 above.

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Leonidas 242 Someone once said to Leonidas, son of Anaxandridas and brother of Cleomenes, ‘Apart from being king, you are no different from us.’ ‘But,’ said he, ‘if I were not better than you, I would not be king.’ With these restrained words he both parried the taunt and asserted his own status. Where men are made kings not by birth but by the choice of the citizens,1 the very fact that the prince has by popular election been called to rule shows that the people have judged him to be better than the rest. 243 When he was setting off for Thermopylae to fight the Persians,1 his wife Gorgo asked him if he had any instructions for her.2 ‘Marry good men,’ he said, ‘and bear good children.’ These words showed that he had a premonition of his death, but this foreboding did not frighten him into cancelling the expedition – he believed that it was a glorious thing to die fighting for one’s country. 244 When the ephors commented that he was taking only a small force with him to Thermopylae, ‘Of course I am,’ he said, ‘in view of the business we’re engaged on.’1 ***** 242 (xlii) Plutarch Moralia 225a. In margin ‘restrained‘ Leonidas i was king of Sparta, 490–480 bc, and hero of Thermopylae; see 1.191 above and 1.243–56 below. 1 The transmission of the kingship of Sparta was, as far as we know, based on birth without any element of election in normal circumstances. It was confined to two noble families (see 1.97 n1 above) and the succession passed to a son or brother of the deceased king. The apparent heir could however be rejected or a king deposed in favour of the next heir on grounds of illegitimacy, physical deformity, or other indication of unsuitability. See 1.27 n2, 1.167n, and 1.235n above. Such decisions were probably taken by the Council of Elders, but there is some evidence for a disputed succession being settled by appeal to the people. See eg Xenophon Hellenica 3.3.1–3. Leonidas was half-brother to Cleomenes who died without male issue. For the Council of Elders (Gerousia) see 1.119 n1 above. 243 (xliii) Plutarch Moralia 225a. In margin ‘serious‘ 1 This was after Xerxes i invaded Greece in 480 bc. See 5.9n below. 2 For sayings of Gorgo see 1.268 and 2.121–4 below. 244 (xliv) Plutarch Moralia 225a 1 This refers to the famous 300 Spartiates who perished at Thermopylae. See 1.191 n1 above. They were a suicide squad, resolved to die; see the next

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He meant that he was taking plenty of men with him if they went with the aim of dying in battle. It was better for few to perish rather than many.2 245 Again when the ephors asked him if he intended to do anything else, ‘Just this,’ he replied, ‘in theory to block the barbarian invasion, but in reality to die for Greece.’1 A splendid demonstration of a fearless spirit, not to shrink even from an inevitable death in an honourable and patriotic cause. 246 When Leonidas reached Thermopylae, he addressed his fellow-soldiers in these words: ‘They say the barbarian foe is close by, but we are wasting time. For now we have come upon the foe, and them we must either defeat or else be conquered and die ourselves.’ 247 One of the men said, ‘We won’t even be able to see the sun for the barbarian arrows.’ ‘Won’t it be nice then,’ Leonidas replied, ‘if we’re going to fight them in the shade?’ Could anything be braver than the spirit shown by this man? He was marching to his death, yet he could even make a joke, and this had the effect of freeing his men’s minds from fear. Cicero records this aphorism in book one of the Tusculan Disputations,1 attributing it to some unnamed person: When they were parleying, the Persian foe boastfully declared, ‘You will not see the sun for the number of our spears and the shade cast by our arrows.’ ‘Well then,’ replied one of the Greeks, ‘we shall fight in the shade.’ ***** apophthegm 1.245. Erasmus’ Latin text reads nimirum, ‘of course,’ which is probably a mistake for nimium, ‘too many, more than enough,’ translating Plutarch’s pleonas. 2 The last sentence was added in 1535. 245 (xlv) Plutarch Moralia 225a. In margin ‘contempt for death‘ 1 The Greek text suggests that this paragraph should be punctuated differently, ie: ‘asked him if he intended to do anything else but block the barbarian invasion. ‘That in theory,’ he replied, ‘but in reality to die for Greece.’ 246 (xlvi) Plutarch Moralia 225b. In margin ‘bravely‘ 247 (xlvii) Plutarch Moralia 225b. In margin ‘joking‘ 1 Cicero Tusculan Disputations 1.42.101.

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248 Another of the soldiers said, ‘They’re very close to us.’ Leonidas replied, ‘And so are we to them.’ He meant that the situation entailed just as much danger to the enemy as to themselves. 249 When someone said, ‘Have you come here like this to try the fortunes of war with just a few men pitted against a great army?’ Leonidas replied, ‘If you think I have come here relying on numbers, not even the whole of Greece would be enough, for she is just a small fraction compared to the barbarian horde. But if relying on courage, even this number will suffice.’ He was of the opinion that the quality of one’s troops is more significant than their number. 250 When someone else commented that he was leading only a few troops out to face a large force, ‘No,’ he replied, I am leading out a large number, since they are going to die.’ This agrees with what he said to the ephors earlier.1 251 Xerxes had written to Leonidas, saying, ‘If you cease to fight against the will of heaven1 and come and serve with my army, you can become king of Greece.’ He replied, ‘If you had any idea what was honourable in life, you would have refrained from coveting what belongs to others. As for myself, I would rather die for Greece than submit my fellow Greeks to the rule of an autocrat.’ Is there any wicked deed that people in general will not do in order to extend their sphere of influence? But the man we have here preferred to meet an honourable end endeavouring to set his friends free rather than become king and oppress with servitude the very people from whom he had set out with the intention of warding off the threat of servitude to barbarians. ***** 248 (xlviii) Plutarch Moralia 225b. In margin ‘spirited‘ 249 (xlix) Plutarch Moralia 225c. In margin ‘courageous‘ 250 (l) Plutarch Moralia 225b–c 1 See 1.244 above. 251 (li) Plutarch Moralia 225c. In margin ‘honourable‘ 1 Erasmus gives ‘fight against the will of heaven’ in Greek: yeomaxe”n [theomachein]. See Adagia ii v 44: Cum diis pugnare ‘To fight against the gods.’

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252 On another occasion, when Xerxes sent a message saying, ‘Hand over your arms,’ he wrote back, ‘Come and take them.’ He preferred to die with his weapons rather than surrender them and ignominiously treat with the enemy for his life. 253 Leonidas was getting impatient to join battle with the enemy, but the military commanders1 urged him to wait for the remaining allied forces to arrive.2 ‘The people who are going to fight are here, aren’t they?’ he said. ‘Don’t you realize that the only people who fight the enemy are those who respect and fear their own rulers?’3 He did not think they ought to wait for people who had not presented themselves by the time specified by the commander-in-chief. Even if the others were present, they would not be fighters. 254 He addressed his troops, saying, ‘Eat your breakfast, my fellow-soldiers, like men who expect to have dinner in the place of the dead.’ These words would have terrified the cowardly, but they inspired those courageous men, urging them not to enter the fight heavy with food and wine, or at any rate bidding them for their country’s sake bravely to meet their inevitable end. 255 When he was asked why brave men prefer a glorious death to an inglorious life, Leonidas replied, ‘Because they hold that one is natural, the other is characteristically their own.’ Even the most cowardly of men have life as a gift from nature, but only those endowed with courage can die nobly. ***** 252 (lii) Plutarch Moralia 225d. In margin ‘spirited‘ 253 (liii) Plutarch Moralia 225d. In margin ‘weighty‘ 1 ‘The military commanders’ were polemarchs, high military officials in the Spartan army. Erasmus does not reproduce the technical term. 2 In fact only the Thespians fought beside Leonidas and his 300 Spartiates at Thermopylae, as the contingents from other states had been dismissed by Leonidas because they had no heart for the fight; see Herodotus 7.222. For troops not arriving, cf the battle of Plataea the following year (479 bc), when contingents from Mantinea and Elis were suspiciously late in turning up for the battle. 3 Cf 1.210 above; 1.335 below. 254 (liv) Plutarch Moralia 225d 255 (lv) Plutarch Moralia 225d. In margin ‘wise‘

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256 Leonidas wanted to keep the unmarried lads out of the battle to save their lives, but he knew they would not by any means acquiesce in this. So he gave each of them a scytala (a form of secret dispatch used by the Spartans) and sent them off to the ephors. He also wanted to save three of the older lads who had already taken wives, and tried to send them away home on a similar pretext. They however saw through this subterfuge and would not accept the dispatches. One of them excused himself by saying, ‘I joined your force as a combatant, not a courier.’ The second said, ‘I will be a better man if I stay here’; and the third, ‘I will not be the last of these to enter the fight, but the first.’ What commands our admiration the more here? Is it the commander’s attitude? He had no concern for his own safety but wanted to preserve those whose continued existence would be of advantage to their country. Or is it such unconcern for life displayed by young men in the flower of their youth? Lochadas 257 Lochadas, son of Polyaenides and father of Siron,1 was told that one of his two sons had died. ‘I knew long ago,’ he said, ‘that he would have to die.’ He could see nothing remarkable in a mortal man dying, nor did he think it made much difference whether he departed this life a little sooner or later, as he would have to go before long anyway.2 Lycurgus 258 Lycurgus, the architect of the Spartan constitution, wished to convert his fellow citizens away from their existing habits to a more disciplined way of life and to create in them a desire for bravery and rectitude, since they were soft with self-indulgence. So he took two pups from the same ***** 256 (lvi) Plutarch Moralia 225e. In margin ‘considerate, spirited‘ 257 (lvii) Plutarch Moralia 225e. In margin ‘resolute‘ Little is known of Lochadas (Lochagus), a Spartan of the fourth century bc. 1 The text should read: ‘father of Polyaenides and Siron.’ 2 A very similar remark is famously attributed to the philosopher Anaxagoras in many places; see 7.126 n1 below 258 (lviii) Plutarch Moralia 225f–6b. In margin ‘upbringing‘ Lycurgus was the famous law-giver and reputed founder of the peculiar Spartan constitution, traditionally eighth century bc. Much of the material in the succeeding apophthegms is to be found also in Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus.

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litter.1 One of them he kept in the house and fed on dainty foods, the other was taken outside and trained to hunt. He then assembled the population in the town centre and brought in the two dogs. He laid out on one side some bones and tasty morsels. Then he released a hare. Each dog dashed towards the thing it was familiar with, one seizing the food, the other the hare. ‘Now, citizens,’ he said, ‘surely you can see that those two pups have turned out quite differently though they are of the same breed, because they have been trained differently. Upbringing carries more weight than heredity in the forming of good character.’ Another version of the story says that the two pups were not from the same litter. One was of an inferior breed of the sort used as guard dogs, the other of a breed kept for hunting. The pup of inferior stock was trained to hunt, while the one with the better pedigree was kept just as a pet. After each dog had made for what it was used to, and Lycurgus had thus demonstrated to all of them the importance of upbringing for both good and ill, he said, ‘In just the same way, citizens, noble lineage, which men so admire, and our descent from Hercules2 will do us no good, unless we do the deeds which made Hercules the most famous and noble of mortal men, and unless we, all our lives, study and work at what is honourable.’ Being an ingenious man, he found a way of setting a visual representation of Virtue before the general populace who were little suited to abstract argument. What we see stirs us and makes more of an impression on us than what we hear. Now every head of a family in his own home, every instructor with his own group, can do what Lycurgus did at the national level. Heredity is a powerful force, but upbringing has an even greater effect, correcting a bad nature and changing it to good. No one has any control over the kind of children born to him, but it lies within our power to ensure that they develop into good persons through proper upbringing. 259 Lycurgus was well aware of the supreme importance of equality in fostering thrift and concord. So he made a fresh distribution of land and allocated an equal share to each citizen.1 We are told that some time later he was returning from a visit abroad and was travelling through territory where the fields had just ***** 1 This story is used again in Plutarch Moralia 3a (The education of children). 2 See 1.302 n2 below. 259 (lix) Plutarch Moralia 226b. In margin ‘equality‘ 1 According to tradition 9,000 ‘true Spartans’ each received a share.

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been harvested. When he saw the stooks of sheaves all of the same size and standing in line, he was delighted at the spectacle and said to his companions with a smile, ‘The whole territory of Sparta looks like land belonging to many brothers who have just divided the inheritance between them.’ A good ruler finds nothing more delightful than civic concord. A tyrant finds nothing more disquieting. 260 After Lycurgus had delivered from debt all those who owed money by wiping the slate clean, he then tried to get everyone’s private possessions redistributed in equal shares, in order to eliminate differentiation and inequality of wealth from Spartan society. When he saw that they would not tolerate this open confiscation of their property, he set about achieving the same end by indirect means. He abolished gold and silver coinage and established iron as the sole medium of exchange. Also, in so far as the practicalities of the situation demanded, he limited the amount of a person’s wealth that could be converted to the new currency.1 As a result of this, all wrong disappeared from Sparta. As the iron currency could not be hidden and possessing it gave one no status and using it involved risk and importing or exporting it was not safe, no one was able any more to steal it or use it to bribe others or be bribed with it or rob its owners of it by malpractice or violence. By this ingenious scheme he prevented the people whom he could not induce to despise wealth from making use of wealth, took away from them any desire to hoard it, and deprived them of the possibility of using it for trade. 261 Furthermore, Lycurgus had everything unnecessary removed from the country, with the result that no merchant or itinerant lecturer or soothsayer or huckster or maker of fancy goods visited Sparta. For he did not allow the existence of any money there that would be of use to such persons. The only ***** 260 (lx) Plutarch Moralia 226c–d. In margin ‘disregard for wealth‘ 1 Erasmus seems to have had difficulty with the interpretation of the Greek text here. His first version did not render it adequately and second thoughts led him to add ‘in so far as . . . demanded’ (quatenus postulabat usus) in 1535. Probably the passage means ‘He also limited the time one could keep one’s property before changing it.’ 261 (lxi) Plutarch Moralia 226d. In margin ‘unnecessary skills‘

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units of currency issued were of iron, each weighing about half a kilo on the Aeginetan scale1 and worth four copper coins. These measures drove out avarice. 262 Having decided to wage war on refinements and luxuries and eliminate the attraction of wealth in that sphere too, Lycurgus established syssitia, that is, communal eating arrangements.1 When someone asked him why these were organized in such a way that each mess consisted of a small group of men who kept their weapons by them at table, he replied, ‘So that they remain at the ready to obey any order; if any disaffection arises, the evil is confined to a small group; and everyone has an equal share of food and drink. In fact, it applies not only to eatables and drinkables – in coverlets and tableware and every single thing the rich man is treated no better than the poor man.’ By these tactics he removed the desire for riches, as there was eventually no one left who could either use wealth or make a show of it. Then he often said to his friends, ‘What a splendid thing it is, my friends, to have demonstrated in practical terms the nature of wealth. It is indeed blind itself – and there is besides no one to see it or wonder at it.’2 He also made sure that no one came to the public dinners stuffed with non-prescribed food after eating at home. If anyone did not eat and drink with the group, the others taunted him with growing soft on illegitimate foodstuffs and being unfitted for the communal life. Anyone who was found out was fined. That was why a fine was imposed on Agis, (who was king long after the time of Lycurgus).3 He had returned home after a victory over the Athenians, and wanted for one day to have dinner with his ***** 1 ‘Half a kilo,’ literally ‘a mina,’ which probably weighed 460 grammes. The coinage of Aegina provided a standard weight, as the first silver coins minted west of the Aegean were produced in Aegina. Sparta’s earliest monetary units may have been in the form of iron skewers: Plutarch Lysander 17.4–5. 262 (lxii) Plutarch Moralia 226d–e. In margin ‘living together‘ 1 Each syssition or ‘mess’ probably had about twenty members drawn from men of all age classes, excluding young boys still undergoing training. Members had to contribute to the common table produce from their land-holdings, worked for them by their Helots, and from spoils of the hunt. 2 ‘and there is besides . . . wonder at it’ is an addition by Erasmus to the Greek text. He seems to be making a play on the two meanings of the Latin word caecus, ‘blind,’ ie ‘unable to see,’ ‘unable to be seen.’ 3 This Agis is probably Agis ii, who, during the Peloponnesian War in 413 bc, built a permanent fort in Athenian territory ten miles north of Athens, and

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wife. So he asked for his allocation of food from the common table, but the military commanders 4 would not send it. The next day the ephors learned what had happened and imposed a fine on him. This incident offers us an example of two things; the first of frugal living; the second of strictness, since the laws did not spare even the king in this minor offence. 263 The fate that befalls most people who launch a campaign against corruption in society then befel Lycurgus. The rich did not take kindly to these arrangements and rose against him, not merely shouting at him but pelting him with stones in an attempt to kill him. When they closed in on him, he managed to make his escape across the market-place, and gave most of them the slip. But a man called Alcander kept up the pursuit and when Lycurgus turned his head to look behind him, hit him with his club and blinded him in one eye. This Alcander was sentenced to be punished by decree of the people and handed over to Lycurgus to be dealt with. Lycurgus neither exacted any form of retribution from him, nor even reproached him, but made him a sharer in his daily life, with the result that Alcander in the end had nothing but praise for Lycurgus himself and for the way of life he had shared with him, and became an advocate not only of the practical arrangements for the citizens’ lives but of the whole system which Lycurgus had introduced. Lycurgus dedicated a memorial of this unfortunate incident in the temple of Minerva Chalkioikos (so called from her shrine of bronze),1 and gave her the additional title of ‘Optiletis.’ Optiloi (derived from the Greek verb opto, meaning ‘see’) was the word for ‘eyes’ among the Dorians who lived in the territory round Sparta.2 Again we have an incident demonstrating two things. First it tells us that it is a dangerous thing to try to reform the corrupt morals of society and make it wholesome. Secondly it shows us an example of remarkable ***** inflicted great hardship on the city. See 1.87–104 above. Lycurgus traditionally belongs to the eighth century bc. 4 See 1.253 n1 above. 263 (lxiii) Plutarch Moralia 227a–b. In margin ‘forbearance‘ 1 For Minerva Chalkioikos, see 1.10 above. 2 The Dorians were one of the chief tribal divisions of the ancient Greek people, the others being the Ionians and Achaeans. There were various Dorian states, mainly in the Peloponnese, of which Sparta with its dependent territory was the most important. The Spartans spoke a distinctive dialect of Doric Greek.

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forbearance which turned an enemy to the death into a friend and supporter. Even if he had executed Alcander, as he had every right to do, Lycurgus would not have got his eye back and he would have had one person less to lend support to his reforms. 264 When someone asked him why he did not have written laws,1 he replied, ‘Because properly trained and instructed citizens will know what is the appropriate response to the circumstances.’ He meant that what is written is fixed, whereas a sound and sensible man often has to modify his plans in the light of changed circumstances.2 It is not possible to legislate specifically for every event. It is enough if the citizens have acquired sound principles, for then they will of themselves see what action is required in any situation. 265 On another occasion Lycurgus was asked why he had decreed that workmen were not to use any tool other than an axe when putting the roof on a house, and only a saw for making doors. He replied, ‘So that the citizens will avoid any extravagance in their household goods and own none of the things which are so admired elsewhere.’ It would indeed have looked silly to carry in through a crude rough entrance furnishings that were out of the ordinary, expensive and elaborately decorated. The door itself practically spoke out against any such thing. This accounts for the story told about Leontychidas, the first king of the Spartans.1 He was a guest at dinner somewhere and observed that the roof was constructed with sumptuous ornamentation and fitted with decorative panels, so he asked his host whether trees grew square in their country.2 He was of the opinion that spoiling what was natural with artifice was extravagant and self-indulgent. ***** 264 (lxiv) Plutarch Moralia 227b. In margin ‘sagacious‘ 1 There was in fact a rhetra forbidding the writing down of the laws. Cf 1.69 n3 above, and see Plutarch Lycurgus 13.6. 2 See 1.231 n1 above. 265 (lxv) Plutarch Moralia 227c (both anecdotes). In margin ‘frugal‘ 1 Erasmus’ Latin appears to mean this. It should read ‘Leontychidas the first, king of the Spartans.’ See 1.235 above (where the subject of the story is made a Spartan elder). 2 Cf a similar remark attributed to Agesilaus at 1.28 above.

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266 When Lycurgus was asked why he had forbidden the Spartans to keep on launching military expeditions against the same enemy, he replied, ‘To prevent them from constantly defending themselves and so learning how to fight a war by experience.’ This is why Agesilaus was criticized so sharply – his frequent expeditions and campaigns against Sparta’s enemy, Thebes, had provoked them into fighting back. When Antalcidas saw that Agesilaus himself had been wounded, he taunted him with instructing the Thebans in the art of fighting, when hitherto they had neither known how to conduct a war nor wanted to. ‘You have a fine reward,’ he said, ‘for your instruction. The Thebans had no mind for war nor any expertise in it, yet you have accustomed them to waging war even against their will and taught them how to do it.’1 This same tactic can be applied to other situations, for example one should avoid constantly going to law or engaging in a dispute with the same people, otherwise they will get used to us and either treat us with contempt or get the better of us. 267 Someone asked Lycurgus why he subjected girls to vigorous exercise, making them participate in running, wrestling, and throwing the discus and javelin. He replied, ‘To ensure that any children they conceive may from the very moment of implantation get a strong start in strong bodies; next, that the girls themselves, when the time of delivery comes, may easily and with spirit cope with the effort and pains of childbirth; and finally, that they may be able, should the need arise, to fight for themselves, their children, and their country.’ The wise man was well aware that idleness and having nothing to do are a bane to a society, whereas moderate physical activity makes bodies stronger and healthier as well. For this reason he did not let the young girls – any more than the boys – spend their time on idle pursuits but, by submitting them to masculine exercises, in a way he made them masculine too. In most societies self-indulgence and pleasures turn the men into women. ***** 266 (lxvi) Plutarch Moralia 227c–d 1 This same story involving Agesilaus and Antalcidas is told earlier in 1.69 and 1.128 above. 267 (lxvii) Plutarch Moralia 227d. In margin ‘manly women‘

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268 Lycurgus made the young girls participating in processions and ceremonial games go naked for all to see.1 Some people took exception to this and asked why he had instituted this practice. ‘To give them the same training as the boys,’ he replied, ‘so that their bodies are absolutely equal to theirs in health and strength and their minds in courage and spirit and ambition to earn true praise, while despising vulgar glory.’ This accounts for the following story, or something like it, told of Gorgo, wife of Leonidas. Some woman or other, probably a foreigner, said to her, ‘You Spartans are the only women who rule the men.’ ‘Naturally,’ she replied, ‘we are the only women who give birth to men.’2 You must not think that this practice is to be imitated either in the case of boys or of girls. We can however learn this from it at least: children must at a tender age be freed from that silly self-consciousness which often acts as an obstacle to honourable action,3 and must learn, right at the beginning, that the only thing to be ashamed of is base conduct. You will find countless girls who would blush with confusion if they were seen not dressed, but never change colour in the slightest degree if they do or say something discreditable. There are countless others whose cheeks would redden with shame if they had to wear poor clothes or a rather plain outfit, while they think it something to be proud of if they appear in public gorgeously dressed – but they are indifferent to the things which bring true honour and real praise. 269 Citizens who shunned marriage, preferring a bachelor life, were prohibited from attendance at those events where the young people participated naked,1 and were also subjected to other forms of humiliation.2 By such measures Lycurgus made sure that the citizens took seriously the matter of ***** 268 (lxviii) Plutarch Moralia 227e 1 This probably does not mean stark naked, but wearing some kind of athletic strip, possibly a short tunic with one shoulder bare. Cf 1.344 below. The Athenians professed to be shocked by this practice. See Plato Republic 452b. 2 Adagia iv iii 17: Solae Lacaenae viros pariunt ‘Only Spartan women produce men’; Plutarch Lycurgus 14.4. For Gorgo see 1.243 n1 above. 3 See Plutarch Moralia 529a (On compliancy); Younger Pliny Epistulae 4.7.3: recta ingenia debilitat verecundia ‘diffidence undermines right-thinking minds.’ 269 (lxix) Plutarch Moralia 227f. In margin ‘condemnation of the unmarried state‘ 1 This refers chiefly to the Gymnopaidiai, athletic contests in high summer for naked boys. 2 See Plutarch Lycurgus 15.1–2; Xenophon Respublica Lacedaemoniorum 9.5.

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begetting children. It was a Spartan custom that younger men should show great honour and respect to their elders. Lycurgus took this honour away from those who refused to take wives and add to the number of citizens.3 For this reason no one took exception to the remark that was made to Dercylidas, experienced military leader though he was.4 When a certain young man did not rise as he approached,5 Dercylidas complained, ‘You did not rise and give place to me.’ The other replied, ‘And you have not fathered anyone who will give place to me.’ The Spartan people would never have stood for such an impertinent remark from a young man to an older one, and one famous for his military successes at that, if they had not considered as the worst type of citizen those who were childless from choice and refused to honour their obligations to their country. If you think about it, there is not much difference between a man who kills a citizen and one who refuses to provide the state with a citizen when he can. 270 When someone asked Lycurgus why he had introduced a law decreeing that girls should be given in marriage without a dowry, Lycurgus replied, ‘To prevent any of them being left unmarried through poverty, or sought after because of wealth, and to ensure that each young man considers the character of the girl and makes his choice on the basis of virtue.’ For the same reason he banished from the city all cosmetics and adornments which other girls use to fake good looks or to enhance them. This splendid man promoted equality in every sphere! 271 He fixed the age at which both girls and youths should marry. When he was asked why he thought such a regulation necessary, he replied, ‘To ensure that the offspring are healthy and vigorous, being born of parents of sufficient maturity and in the prime of life.’ ***** 3 Erasmus inserts the words ‘who shunned . . . bachelor life’ and ‘from those who refused . . . citizens’ thus emphasizing the importance of marriage and making it clear that children were to be born in wedlock. Plutarch simply calls them ‘the unmarried.’ 4 For Dercylidas, see 1.166 above. 5 Cf 1.341, 2.10, 2.53, 2.54, and 2.92 below. 270 (lxx) Plutarch Moralia 227f. In margin ‘choosing a wife‘ 271 (lxxi) Plutarch Moralia 228a

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If women conceive children when they are too young, not only are their own bodies damaged, but the children are born sickly. Also, those who father children before they are ready cannot exercise that authority over them which maturity commands. On the other hand, those who beget children much later on in life neither get pleasure out of their offspring nor see their upbringing through to the end, being overtaken by old age and death. 272 Someone expressed curiosity as to why Lycurgus had forbidden husband and wife to sleep together, but decreed that each of them should spend most of the day with the members of his or her own age group1 and sleep the whole night in their company, the husband only meeting by stealth and privately to have intercourse with his spouse. He replied, ‘First, to ensure that they are strong in body, since they do not engage in intercourse long enough to be utterly satisfied; secondly, to ensure that their mutual affection for each other lasts and remains fresh and strong; and finally, to ensure that they bring stronger children into the world.’ Now that really is fulfilling the role of Father of the Country – to be watching everywhere for ways to promote the interests of the state and to provide for the physical and mental well-being of the citizens even in points of detail. Many persons in positions of authority however, consider themselves to be properly fulfilling their office if they exact as much as possible from the citizens by way of taxes and assessments and punish a few heinous crimes, while at the same time putting incentives to crime in the way of their own supporters. 273 He even went so far as to ban perfumes, calling them ‘a contamination and a waste of oil.’ Oil mixed with perfume1 is of no use either for cooking or for rubbing into the body, and when people waste a necessity of life on frivolities, supplies of it run short. ***** 272 (lxxii) Plutarch Moralia 228a. In margin ‘intercourse restricted‘ 1 Spartan boys started their training at the age of seven and moved with their contemporaries through the successive stages until reaching the status of full citizens at the age of thirty. Even then they could not live entirely as they chose, though husbands were then allowed to sleep at home. See Plutarch Lycurgus 15.3. 273 (lxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 228b. In margin ‘perfumes‘ 1 Ancient perfumes used an oil base.

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274 He also forbade the practice of dyeing, calling it ‘a flattery of the senses.’ Indeed, when colour offers its blandishments to the eyes, the true nature of the object is spoiled. In short, he debarred from entering the city of Sparta anyone who made anything designed to enhance the body with spurious adornment, saying that such persons ‘corrupted good arts by their evil arts.’ Lycurgus did this because delights of this sort distracted the citizenry from healthy and serious interests. 275 In those days wives were so chaste and so free from the lax morals which later infected them, that it was unbelievable at that time that any true Spartan woman would commit adultery. People still recount the story of what was said by Geradas, a man who lived in Sparta in very early times.1 Some stranger asked him what was the penalty for adultery in Sparta, as he had not discovered any enactment of Lycurgus relating to it. ‘My friend,’ said Geradas, ‘we don’t have any adulterers.’ The other persisted, ‘Suppose you did, what then?’ ‘He will make payment of an ox,’ said Geradas, ‘so huge that it can stretch out its neck over Mount Taygetus and drink out of the Eurotas.’ The other laughed and said, ‘There couldn’t be such a huge ox.’2 To which Geradas replied, ‘And how could there be an adulterer in Sparta, when wealth, frivolous luxuries, and extraneous bodily adornment are all considered disgraceful there, whereas decency, modesty, and the habit of proper obedience to the magistrates are approved and admired?’3 Geradas was wise enough to see that vices cannot take root where nothing is allowed that could act as a seed-bed. No interest is ever shown in anything that earns contempt rather than admiration. This is the kindest way of healing depraved morals and stimulating the desire for moral rectitude. 276 Someone demanded of Lycurgus that he turn the state into a democracy (that ***** 274 (lxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 228b (both quotations). In margin ‘frivolities‘ 275 (lxxv) Plutarch Moralia 228b–c. In margin ‘adultery‘ 1 The Greek words could equally mean ‘a very old-fashioned type.’ 2 ‘He will make . . . a huge ox’ was added to the story from Plutarch Lycurgus 15.17–18. Taygetus was the mountain range close to the city of Sparta to the west and the river Eurotas flowed past the city to the east. 3 The anecdote is used in Adagia iv ii 59: Bos porrecto ultra Taygeton capite ‘An ox putting its head over Taygetus,’ added to Adagia in 1526. 276 (lxxvi) Plutarch Moralia 228c–d. In margin ‘trenchant‘

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is, one where the people rule) instead of an aristocracy (that is, one where the best classes rule). He replied, ‘You go and establish democracy first in your own home.’ This was a quick way of showing that no form of government is good for a state if no one is prepared to have it in his own household. The state is nothing but the household writ large.1 277 When he was asked why he had made a regulation that all sacrifices were to consist of small and inexpensive things, Lycurgus replied, ‘So that we may never find ourselves without the means of honouring the divinity.’ Now everyone would say that splendour and magnificence should characterize the solemn worship of the gods. But this wise man realized that the divine power is more pleased with modest offerings than with expensive sacrificial victims, as this prevents religion acting as a pretext for extravagance or, more likely, impoverishment. God does not need great outlay on our part – rather he cares for men, and that expenditure could have been used to supply their needs. 278 Lycurgus only allowed contests in which the hands were not raised. Some one asked him the reason for this. He replied, ‘To prevent them getting into the habit of wearing themselves out with hard physical effort.’1 The purpose of exercise is to strengthen the body, not to exhaust it. People who constantly tire themselves out with exercise soon collapse when they embark on necessary hard work, because they come to it in a weakened state.2 ***** 1 This definition was added in 1532. 277 (lxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 228d. In margin ‘inexpensive sacrifices‘ 278 (lxxviii) Plutarch Moralia 228d. In margin ‘exercise‘ 1 Erasmus doesn’t seem to have recognized ‘raising the hands’ here as a gesture of surrender and has taken the Greek verb apaudan as ‘faint, grow weary’ (ie ‘wear themselves out,’ line 3), rather than ‘cry off, cry quits,’ in a hard struggle. The point is that the contestants should not get used even in play to the gesture of raising the hands in surrender. Lycurgus for this reason forbade boxing and the pancration which combined boxing and wrestling (Herodotus 9.105), in which sports the contestants conceded defeat rather than relying on an umpire (Plutarch Moralia 189e). See however Adagia i ix 79: Dare manus ‘To put one’s hands up,’ ie surrender. 2 See Plutarch Moralia 8c (The education of children).

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279 Someone asked Lycurgus why he made the Spartan army keep moving camp. He replied, ‘In order to inflict more damage on the enemy.’ The Spartans took only a small amount of equipment with them and so could move the army from place to place with very little trouble. But it was not so easy for their enemies, as they took huge amounts of baggage and equipment with them and furthermore usually fortified their camps with ditches, ramparts, and palisades. 280 When someone asked why he had forbidden assaults on walled cities, he replied, ‘To prevent the finest soldiers from being killed by a woman or a boy, or by some man or other not very different from a boy or a woman.’ He did not approve of a form of fighting in which there was no place for valour. A boy or a woman can throw stones down from a tower and kill a man, however brave he is. So what place is there for valour in our wars, in which the chief part is played by cannon?1 281 The people of Thebes sought Lycurgus’ advice about the sacrifice and ritual mourning which they were accustomed to offer to Leucothea.1 ‘If you believe her to be divine,’ he said, ‘you should not mourn her. If you think her human, you should not offer sacrifice to her as to a goddess.’ He thus tellingly censured the contradictory practices of the Thebans. Mourning and sacrifice are not compatible – you cannot ask help from one who is herself in dire distress and a cause of grief and mourning. 282 Some citizens asked him how they could avoid enemy raids. ‘By being poor,’ he said, ‘and none of you wanting more than another.’ When men have possessions and are loaded with potential loot, the ***** 279 (lxxix) Plutarch Moralia 228d. In margin ‘stratagem‘ 280 (lxxx) Plutarch Moralia 228d. In margin ‘stratagem‘ 1 Cf 1.155 above. 281 (lxxxi) Plutarch Moralia 228e. In margin ‘astute‘ 1 A minor deity worshipped at several sites in Greece. As a woman, Ino, she threw herself and her child into the sea in a fit of madness and was transformed into a sea-nymph by Neptune (Ovid Metamorphoses 4.512–42). Her ritual involved mourning for her death, but sea-farers prayed to her in her divine form. 282 (lxxxii) Plutarch Moralia 228e. In margin ‘poverty travels light‘

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prospect of winning it attracts the enemy, and it is not easy to escape when hampered by baggage and equipment. Furthermore, equality and the concord that results from equality are a defence against enemy attack.1 283 The same people asked why Lycurgus would not let the city have defensive walls built round it. ‘A city is not without walls,’ he replied, ‘if it is encircled not by bricks but by men.’ He meant that physical defence works suggested that the citizens were cowards rather than brave men.1 284 The Spartan warriors made a point of letting their hair grow long, and Lycurgus gave a reason for this too. ‘Hair enhances good looks,’ he said, ‘and makes the ugly look more terrifying to the enemy.’ Hair looks good on the handsome and lends an alarming and somewhat bestial air to those endowed with a less fortunate outward form. A good head of hair is a natural adornment and costs practically nothing. Lycurgus did not object to adornment of this kind as it neither depended on elaborate workmanship nor replaced plainness with extravagance. He did not approve of artificial beautifying and false adornments procured at great expense. So we ought to find even more abhorrent the topsy-turvy ideas of people who take the trouble to pluck and shave those parts of the body which nature endowed with hair in the interests of comeliness or modesty or even health, and contrariwise, artificially produce a forest of hair1 where nature decreed hairlessness. 285 Lycurgus was always telling them that, in a war, after they had put the enemy to flight and had gained the upper hand, they should pursue them as they fled only long enough to make the victory secure and should then quickly return to base. It was, he said, not the Greek way to slaughter those who yielded, and to spare them was not only honourable but ***** 1 Cf 1.279 above. 283 (lxxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 228e. In margin ‘resolute‘ 1 See 1.30 above. 284 (lxxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 228f. In margin ‘hair‘ 1 See Adagia iii iii 94: Penicissare ‘To wear a wig,’ which Erasmus considers a form of deception. 285 (lxxxv) Plutarch Moralia 228f. In margin ‘moderation in victory‘

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advantageous. If the enemy they were engaged with knew that the Spartans spared those who yielded but slew those who stood their ground, they would think it in their own interest to run away rather than make a stand. Desperation often lends great courage, just as much as expectation of victory. As men imbued with concepts of law and discipline, it was expected of Greeks to observe clemency even in war; only barbarian savages behave with ferocious cruelty when people are at their mercy. On the other hand, clemency needs to be exercised with caution or it may do us harm – the enemy often feigns retreat in order to recombine and launch a fiercer attack on the victor. 286 When someone asked why he would not let the Spartan army pillage enemy corpses, Lycurgus replied, ‘To prevent them being so keen on looting that they forget about fighting, and to make them keep their simple way of life as well as their position in line.’ This wise man was always concerned about the effect on his citizens of wealth, which he saw as the source of most evils. The average man desires wealth above all else, believing it to be the chief safeguard of human happiness. 287 A constant saying of his was that ‘the state is maintained by two things, reward and punishment.’1 This is recorded in Cicero’s Letters to Brutus. Lysander 288 Lysander would not accept the expensive clothes which Dionysius had sent for his daughters.1 ‘I am afraid,’ he said, ‘that if they wear these they will look ugly.’ ***** 286 (lxxxvi) Plutarch Moralia 228f–9a. In margin ‘stratagem‘ 287 (lxxxvii) Cicero Letters to Brutus 1.15.3, where the saying is attributed to Solon. This apophthegm was added in 1535. 1 Cf 1.299 below. 288 (lxxxviii) Plutarch Moralia 229a. For Lysander, see 1.51n above. 1 As Plutarch’s Greek text explains, Lysander had on this occasion (and the one reported in 1.289) been sent to Dionysius i, ruler of Syracuse, as ambassador from Sparta, to ask for naval support in the war with Athens. The two apophthegms should be read together.

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289 When a little later the same Dionysius sent him two dresses, telling him to choose one to send to his daughter, he said, ‘She will choose better herself,’ and departed with both. This anecdote contains nothing fit to be emulated, nothing worthy of a Spartan. One would not expect of this leader anything except villainous duplicity. 290 Lysander became marvellously adept at giving a false impression and putting a cunning gloss on his cruel and greedy acts. Justice for him was expediency and right simply what was advantageous. He went so far as to agree that ‘truth had the advantage over falsehood’ but ‘the standing and value of either depended on the use one could put it to.’ This wicked man inverted the philosophical doctrine that what is right is also to our advantage1 – he said that whatever offered some advantage was also the right thing to choose. 291 He was attacked for using guile and deceit in pursuit of his aims and achieving them by underhand and dishonourable methods, in this showing himself an unworthy descendant of Hercules, (the founder of the Spartan race).1 He laughed and said that ‘where the lion-skin2 wouldn’t stretch to what he wanted, it would have to be extended with a fox-skin.’ He meant that one should use deceit and guile where one couldn’t achieve one’s purpose by honourable means.3 ***** See earlier, 1.146 above, where the story is told of Archidamus ii. A marginal note in 1531 and 1532 records that ‘this occurs earlier [ie 1.146 above] and is not in Aldus’ text.’ It was however translated by Filelfo and Regio, for whom see the dedicatory epistle 7–8 nn20 and 21. Cf 1.197n above. 289 (lxxxix) Plutarch Moralia 229a. In margin ‘cunning‘ 290 (xc) Plutarch Moralia 229a–b. In margin ‘expediency preferable to right action‘ 1 This is a Stoic doctrine. See Cicero, De officiis 3.5.20. 291 (xci) Plutarch Moralia 229b. In margin ‘guile‘ 1 For Spartiate descent from Hercules, see 1.302 n2 below. 2 One of Hercules’ ‘Labours’ was the destruction of the lion of Nemea. After killing the beast he thereafter wore its skin, which, together with his club, became his characteristic garb. 3 This is expanded in Adagia iii v 81: Si leonina pellis non satis est, vulpina addenda ‘If the lion’s skin is not enough, a fox’s must be added.’

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292 Others censured him for violating the agreement he had made in Miletus,1 confirming it with solemn oaths. He commented, ‘Boys have to be tricked with knuckle-bones, grown men with oaths’2 – as if tricking people with broken promises were fit behaviour for a man. 293 After overcoming the Athenians at the River Aegis,1 not by valour but by trickery, and then starving them into surrendering the city to him, he wrote to the ephors, ‘Athens is taken’ – as if he had taken it by force, giving a false impression so as to enhance his own glory. 294 The people of Argos were in dispute with the Spartans over the boundaries of their territory and declared that they had the juster cause. Lysander drew his sword and said, ‘When it comes to boundaries, the strongest argument belongs to the one who has the upper hand through this.’ This arrogant fellow disregarded what was right and just and appealed to force. 295 He was marching through the territory of the Boeotians,1 who were undecided and had not committed themselves to either side. He sent messengers to ask them ‘whether he was to pass through their lands with lances upright or sloped.’ ***** 292 (xcii) Plutarch Moralia 229b. In margin ‘perfidy‘ 1 By this agreement made with the Persian Tissaphernes in 412 bc, Sparta abandoned the Greek cities of Asia Minor to Persian domination in return for money to finance the war against Athens. Later the Spartans set out to recover the same cities. 2 The same remark is attributed to Dionysius ii, ruler of Syracuse, at Plutarch Moralia 330e (The Fortune of Alexander i). 293 (xciii) Plutarch Moralia 229b. In margin ‘boastful‘ 1 This refers to the naval battle at Aegospotami in Asia Minor in 405 bc, at which Lysander killed 3–4000 Athenian troops and annihilated Athenian sea-power. The Athenian fleet was caught unprepared, but treachery may have been involved. Lysander then sailed unopposed to Athens and blockaded its port of Piraeus. The city was eventually starved into surrender. Cf 1.51n above. 294 (xciv) Plutarch Moralia 229c. In margin ‘aggressive‘ 295 (xcv) Plutarch Moralia 229c. In margin ‘bold‘ 1 This incident could be dated to 395 bc. Lysander was killed in that year at Haliartus in Boeotia. Cf the attitude of Agesilaus 1.41–2 above.

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He meant by this that whether the Boeotians were friendly or hostile, he was going to continue on his way regardless, except that if he was to proceed through enemy territory the lances would be in the ‘ready’ position, prepared to repel any who stood in their way; if through friendly territory, they would be in the resting position, as a sign that he intended to harm no one. This remark sounds typically Spartan – he would neither ask favours of enemies nor act threateningly towards a friendly state. 296 An inhabitant of Megara spoke very freely against him in a public meeting. ‘My friend,’ he said, ‘your words require a city.’1 He meant that anyone was free to say what he thought in a meeting of civilians, but the same freedom of speech was not allowable in time of war. 297 The inhabitants of Corinth had rebelled, and when Lysander brought his troops up to the walls of the city he observed that his men were not eager to make an assault. By chance a hare that had been disturbed was seen leaping the ditch.1 ‘Are you not ashamed, you men of Sparta,’ he said, ‘to feel afraid of an enemy who are so spineless that they let hares sleep in their walls?’ Lysander was an astute general who could turn this chance occurrence into something that would fire his men’s courage. 298 When Lysander consulted the oracle in Samothrace,1 the priest ordered him to declare the most wicked thing he had ever done in his life. He asked the priest, ‘Is it by your order or by order of the gods that I have to do this?’ When the priest answered, ‘By order of the gods,’ he said, ‘Well then, you take yourself off, and I will tell the gods if they ask me.’ ***** 296 (xcvi) Plutarch Moralia 229c. In margin ‘outspokenness‘ 1 For similar apophthegms see eg 1.55 and 1.99 above. In view of these, the remark here probably meant that bold words require the strength of a city to back them. It also suggested that Megara did not count as a city. See 1.86 above, 4.100 below. Erasmus’ comment implies a different interpretation, seemingly based on the version of the story in Plutarch Moralia 71e (How to tell a flatterer) which sets the incident in a military context. 297 (xcvii) Plutarch Moralia 229d. In margin ‘astute‘ 1 Cf the same story told at 1.144 above, of Archidamus ii. 298 (xcviii) Plutarch Moralia 229d 1 Cf the similar story, told of Antalcidas, 1.123 above and 2.67 below.

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It is up to the reader to decide whether to applaud here a mind free of all superstition or the alertness of a man who saw through the subterfuge of the priest, who wanted to get a hold over him through knowledge of his wickedness. The Spartans never undertook any fresh course of action without consulting an oracle.2 Lysander had no religious belief of any kind, yet he used religion, like everything else, to cloak his vices with an appearance of virtue, though without great success. 299 A Persian asked him what kind of state he most approved of. ‘One,’ he said, ‘in which appropriate rewards are given to the brave and to the cowardly.’1 He knew that valour is drawn out by recognition and cowardice stirred into action by disgrace. It was seeing brave men receive no more recognition than cowards that made Achilles so resentful in Homer.2 This remark of Lysander’s is of relevance not merely in public life but in the private household. These two things, honour and disgrace, are of prime importance in maintaining discipline in any group of people. Honours nourish not only arts, as the proverb says,3 but also virtue. What is important is not whether we have monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, or some form of government combining elements of all three,4 but whether under any constitution a distinction is made at public level between those who contribute to the state and those who serve only their own base pleasures. 300 Someone was boasting to Lysander that he was always singing Lysander’s praises and defending him against criticism. Lysander replied, ‘I have two ***** 2 See 1.12 above. 299 (xcix) Plutarch Moralia 229e. In margin ‘reward for bravery‘ 1 Cf 1.287 above, and 7.56 below. 2 ‘The Wrath of Achilles,’ the main theme of the Iliad, was occasioned when the girl Briseis, who had been allocated to him as the spoils of battle after his great exploits, was taken away from Achilles and given to King Agamemnon, who had done nothing. See Iliad, book 1 in general. 3 Adagia i viii 92: Honos alit artes ‘Honours nourish arts’ 4 Among Greek political theorists of the fourth century bc and later, Sparta was admired for its constitution which, in theory at least, owed its stability to a combination of monarchy (with its two royal houses), aristocracy (its council of elders, the Gerousia), and democracy (the assembly of full Spartiate citizens). See 1.119 n1 above and 1.328 n1 below; Polybios 6.10; also Cicero De republica 1.30, 35; 2.28. 300 (c) Plutarch Moralia 229e. In margin ‘praise from men‘

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oxen in the country. Neither says a word, but I know well which one is lazy and which works hard.’ He knew that true virtue does not need men’s praises, as praise and honour follow it naturally.1 It is those who do nothing admirable who need someone to cry them up. 301 Someone kept shouting insults at him. ‘Keep talking, my little friend,’ said Lysander, ‘keep on and on and don’t leave anything out. Maybe you’ll be able to empty your mind of all the nasty things you seem to be full of.’ This was truly a sign of a great mind – not to respond to the insults even with anger, when he could well have punished the man. 302 A little later, after Lysander’s death, a disagreement arose about a military alliance, so Agesilaus went to Lysander’s house to look for some papers relating to it which Lysander had kept. He also found there a document written by Lysander containing proposals for a change in the constitution. Lysander had said there that the kingship ought to be taken away from the Eurytiontids and Agis (as it was, kings could be created only from these families) and made subject to election, the choice of king to be made from the best persons.1 This would mean that this high office would be bestowed not on those who were directly descended from Hercules2 but on those who were like Hercules in moral worth, since it was moral worth and not noble lineage that had exalted him to a place among the gods.3 Agesilaus was eager to publish this document, hoping to show ***** 1 Adagia iv viii 71: Virtus gloriam parit ‘Virtue begets glory’ 301 (i) Plutarch Moralia 229e. In margin ‘forbearance‘ 302 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 229f. This whole incident is given at 1.51 above. 1 The Spartan kings were not derived from all the noble families of Sparta but only from two branches, the Eurypontidae and Agiadae (both given wrongly in Erasmus’ text); see 1.328 n2 below. Lysander, who, according to this story, fancied himself as king, was not even noble, but a commoner like Brasidas. His family had actually lost its Spartiate status through poverty and he had had to win back full citizenship. 2 The Dorian Greeks, of whom the Spartans became the most important, believed that they had occupied the Peloponnese c. 1000 bc under the leadership of princes who were descended from Hercules and were the direct ancestors of the two Spartan royal houses. 3 As a reward for his benefits to mankind in performing the Twelve Labours and other exploits, Hercules was exalted to heaven and given a place among

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the people what sort of citizen Lysander had really been and also to discredit Lysander’s supporters. We are told however that Cratidas, who was then chief among the ephors, was afraid that if people read the speech they would agree with it, so he persuaded Agesilaus not to carry out his intention, saying that ‘they should not resurrect Lysander, but rather bury the speech with him,’ as it seemed to him cunningly and persuasively written. The story demonstrates Lysander’s depraved ambition – he left nothing untried in his attempts to gain the kingship. It also demonstrates Agesilaus’ self-control, in that he put the good of the state before personal animosity. 303 The men who had sought the hand of Lysander’s daughters in marriage withdrew their offer soon after his death, when it became known that he was poor.1 The ephors imposed a fine on them for cultivating a man they believed to be rich and then throwing him off when he was shown to be fair and honest by his modest means. While this is not a ‘saying,’ it is a good example of firm principle, and tells us that in arranging marriages one should look for good character rather than wealth; also that friends who measure friendship by what they can get out of it are false and unreliable – when there is nothing more to be gained they immediately cease the acquaintance. It also reminds us that it is better to be rich in reputation than in money. Namertas 304 When Namertas was acting as ambassador for his country, a citizen of the place he was visiting called him a lucky man to have so many friends. So Namertas asked him what kind of test a man with many friends could use to see if he had a genuine, honest friend. The other said he did not know but would be glad to be told. Namertas replied, ‘Misfortune.’1 ***** the gods. He had to overcome the disadvantage of illegitimacy, being the son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene. 303 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 230a. In margin ‘uncompromising‘ 1 For all his lack of scruple, Lysander was believed to be above taking bribes. See Plutarch Lycurgus 30. For his poverty, see 1.302 n1 above. 304 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 230a–b. In margin ‘a test for friendship‘ Namertas is a Spartiate of whom nothing more is known. 1 Cf Adagia iv v 5: Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur ‘Uncertainty sees a certain friend’; cf 2.174 below)

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Nicander 305 Someone told Nicander that the citizens of Argos were speaking ill of him. ‘And the people who speak ill of the good,’ he said, ‘are not paying the penalty, are they?’1 He meant that a country had low moral standards if its people were allowed to slander with impunity those who had deserved no ill. 306 The same person asked why the Spartans let their hair and beards grow.1 ‘This adornment is the most beautiful a man can have,’ he replied, ‘it is special to him and it costs nothing.’ 307 An Athenian remarked to Nicander, ‘You Spartans are too keen on not working.’ ‘True enough,’ he replied, ‘but we don’t try, like you, to achieve leisure by any and every means.’ He meant that leisure created by honest means had no blame attached to it, but that it was reprehensible to go to any lengths to achieve a life of indolence. But what the Athenian meant by ‘not working’ was ‘not engaging in a trade.’1 Zeuxidamus 308 When someone asked him why the Spartans kept their laws about bravery in oral form instead of writing them down and giving them to the young ***** 305 (v) Plutarch Moralia 230b. Nicander was king of Sparta in the eighth century bc, the son of Charillus, for whom see 1.343 below. 1 Erasmus’ translation and comment suggest that he read oákoun ‘certainly not’ in his Greek text and took the words as a question, in this agreeing with Filelfo (see the dedicatory epistle 7 n20 above). More recent texts of Plutarch offer, with a different accentuation, o[kožn ‘certainly’ and make the words a statement: ‘. . . are indeed paying the penalty . . .’ Nicander was at the time invading the territory of Argos and laying it waste. See Pausanias Periegesis 3.7.4. 306 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 230b 1 See 1.284 above. 307 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 230b 1 See 1.70 above. 308 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 221b–c. Zeuxidamus has been misplaced. In Plutarch’s text he comes after Eurycratidas (1.188 above). Zeuxidamus was the son of Leotychidas ii (1.236–8 above), but he died before his father and so never became king.

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men to read,1 Zeuxidamus replied, ‘Because they must learn to put their minds to great deeds, not to reading.’ It is a form of laziness to talk about fortitude like the philosophers. Bravery needs to be given immediate practical expression, and a few precepts are enough to instil it. 309 A citizen of Aetolia remarked that those who were keen to combine virtue and valour would prefer war to peace. ‘Heavens, no!’ said Zeuxidamus, ‘but they should put death before life.’ The man from Sparta corrected the Aetolian – war is not to be desired, but neither in war nor in peace can one defend liberty unless one has ceased to fear death. Panthoidas 310 Panthoidas went on an embassy to Asia and was shown a strongly built fortification. ‘Good heavens, sir!’ he said, ‘a fine set of women’s quarters.’1 311 When he had listened to a long philosophical debate in the Academy on the subject of virtue, Panthoidas was asked what he thought of discussions of that sort. ‘They are good, of course,’ he replied, ‘but absolutely useless in your case, as you don’t make use of them.’ He wittily put his finger on an Athenian characteristic: they always had virtue on their lips but did not demonstrate it in practice. Pausanias (1) 312 The inhabitants of Delos were in dispute with the Athenians about the ***** 1 Cf 1.264 above. 309 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 221c 310 (x) Plutarch Moralia 230c. This could be the Panthoidas who was sent from Sparta in 403/2 bc to capture Byzantium. He was killed at Tanagra in 377 bc fighting Pelopidas (for whom see 5.255–62 below). 1 Cf 1.197 above. 311 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 230c. In margin ‘sharp‘ 312 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 230c–d. In margin ‘pointed‘ This Pausanias was regent of Sparta for his under-age cousin Plistarchus (see 1.328–30 below) from 479 bc onwards, and was commander at the

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sovereignty of the island. While putting their case, they remarked that according to local custom no woman was allowed to give birth on the island and no one could be buried there. Pausanias, son of Cleombrotus, commented, ‘How can this island be a homeland for you, when none of you has ever been there or ever will be?’1 This was a witty criticism of the foolish custom of the Delians who would not let their own citizens either be born alive or buried dead in their native land. A country, like a woman, cannot be a mother unless it gives birth; and it would be unthinkable for a loving mother to refuse burial to her children.2 313 The Athenian1 exiles were trying to persuade him to take his army and attack Athens, saying that when the herald announced his victory at the Olympic Games, only the Athenians had booed. He replied, ‘If they did that when I had done well by them, what do you think they will do if I treat them ill?’ We have here a remarkable example of emotions under control, in that he was quite unmoved by this gross insult. The incident also demonstrates his quick wit in turning into an argument for the opposite course of action the thing they put forward as an incentive for starting hostilities. ***** battle of Plataea in 479 bc. The apophthegm itself raises various historical problems which are not relevant to Erasmus’ translation. The situation is too late for Pausanias for one thing. For the actual events, see Thucydides 3.104. 1 There is a problem in the text of Plutarch here, which reads o[te gŽgone tiw ¿m™n o[t' Ástai. Literally, this means ‘none of you has been or will be.’ One solution offered by editors has been to take gŽgone as ‘has been born’ and to emend Ástai ‘will be’ to ke’setai ‘will lie’ (buried). Erasmus seems to have translated the problem text literally, as his Latin version appears to mean ‘none of you has been or will be,’ but as the previous text and his comment indicates, some reference at least to birth is required. Accordingly, the word ‘born’ has been inserted in the English translation. 2 Delos was supposed to be the birth-place of the gods Apollo and Artemis, and the purpose of the regulation was to keep the sacred island free from pollution. 313 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 230d. Cf a similar saying attributed to Philip of Macedon at 4.25 below. In margin ‘forbearance‘ 1 Erasmus has added the word ‘Athenian.’ Possibly the exiles were Delians, as the Athenians had expelled them from the island.

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314 When someone asked him why they had given the poet Tyrtaeus Spartan citizenship,1 he replied, ‘So that we should not be seen to have had a foreigner as general.’ Poets were not esteemed by the Spartans,2 and Tyrtaeus did not merit the honour of citizenship on that score. He had shown himself a vigorous leader in war, and so they thought they should claim the glory of that for their own country. 315 A weakling was urging Pausanias to risk a battle with the enemy by land and sea. ‘Are you prepared to strip and show us what you are like,’ he said, ‘you who are so keen that we should fight?’ So he wittily made fun of the man who encouraged others to take a course of action to which he himself could contribute nothing. 316 People were admiring the expensive clothes that had been taken as spoils from the barbarians.1 ‘It would have been better,’ Pausanias remarked, ‘if they had been worth a lot themselves, rather than owning things worth a lot.’ He thus checked their admiration and put them in the way of admiring truly good things. 317 After defeating the Medes at Platea, Pausanias ordered his men to serve up the Persian banquet which the barbarian enemy had prepared before the battle. It was rich and sumptuous. ‘Persian,’ he said, ‘you were a greedy fellow to come for our barley-cakes when you had all these delicacies.’ Barley-cakes were a cheap type of bread, generally looked down on. ***** 314 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 230d. In margin ‘clever‘ 1 Tyrtaeus was a poet active in Sparta in the seventh century bc. His works, now fragmentary, seem to have included marching songs and other material appropriate to a militaristic society. The story was that an oracle had ordered the Spartans in their second war with the Messenians (c. 650 bc) to take a leader from among the Athenians and Tyrtaeus had been chosen. See the geographer Pausanias Periegesis 4.15.6. 2 See 2.39 n2 below. 315 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 230e. In margin ‘witty‘ 316 (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 230e. In margin ‘wise‘ 1 This booty was taken from the Persians (also called Medes; cf 1.59 and n4 above) after the battle of Plataea in 479 bc, at which the Persian king Xerxes, who had invaded Greece with a vast army, was finally repulsed. See 1.317 below. 317 (xvii) Plutarch Moralia 230e–f. In margin ‘humorous‘

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He here reminds us that it is folly for those with possessions to fight people who have very little that can be taken from them. If the lottery of war favours them, their gain is minimal. If it goes against them, the loss is great. But the real point of the remark is that it is an arrogant kind of faddiness to ask for cheap food, such as humble people eat, in the midst of all kinds of delicacies. Rich people sometimes do this,1 when they are sickened by a constant supply of luxuries. Pausanias (2) 318 Someone asked Pausanias, son of Plistonax, why the Spartans were not allowed to change any of their ancient laws. ‘Because,’ he said, ‘the laws should have authority over men and not men over laws.’1 319 He was in exile in Tegea1 and when he praised Sparta, someone said to him, ‘Why ever didn’t you stay in Sparta instead of going into exile?’ He replied, ‘Because doctors too spend their time among the sick and not among the healthy.’2 He wittily turned the taunt of exile back on the citizen of Tegea, for the corrupt morals of that people were in need of Spartan discipline.3 320 Someone asked Pausanias how they could defeat the Thracians. He replied, ‘By choosing the best man to conduct the war.’ He reminded them to what extent victory is dependent on the commanader-in-chief. Indeed, in every undertaking, the character of those who are put in charge is of the utmost importance. ***** 1 See Seneca Epistulae morales 18.5ff; Ad Helviam 12.3. 318 (xviii) Plutarch Moralia 230f. In margin ‘authority of the laws‘ This Pausanias was king of Sparta, 409–395 bc. 1 Cf 1.140 and 1.171 above. 319 (xix) Plutarch Moralia 230f. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 Pausanias was condemned to death for a military reverse in 394 bc, in which Lysander (for whom see 1.288–303 above) was killed, and he spent the rest of his life in exile. 2 The saying, a common sentiment, is ascribed also to Antisthenes (see 7.60 below), to Aristippus in Diogenes Laertius 2.70 (3.117 below), and to Diogenes in Stobaeus 13.25 (Meineke i 261). 3 Cf 3.327 below. 320 (xx) Plutarch Moralia 230f. In margin ‘a good leader‘

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321 A doctor who was paying Pausanias a visit told him he had nothing wrong with him. ‘That’s because I don’t make use of your professional services,’ he replied. So far from attributing his freedom from illness to doctors, Pausanias was of the opinion that the only people who enjoyed good health were those who made no use of doctors. While this is not always true, it is nonetheless beyond dispute that the majority of illnesses are caused by doctors, because of their inexperience, carelessness, ambition, or concern for making money.1 322 A friend took him to task for speaking ill of a certain doctor who had done him no harm, of whom in fact he had no experience. ‘And if I had,’ he replied, ‘I wouldn’t be alive.’ 323 A certain doctor remarked to Pausanias that he had reached a good age. ‘That’s because I never employed you as my doctor,’ he replied. The doctor thought that it was due to his profession if anyone reached old age. Pausanias was of the opinion that those who employ doctors hardly ever achieve ripe years. 324 Pausanias considered that the best doctor was one who didn’t let his patients rot but got them buried as soon as possible. This seems rather a brutal idea, but it is not all that different from Socrates’ view. He suggested that people in a very poor state of health, who could no longer serve the state in any useful capacity, ought contentedly to depart this life, not meaning that any should lay violent hands on themselves,1 but that they should pass away while still able to do what was right.2 Certainly it ***** 321 (xxi) Plutarch Moralia 231a. In margin ‘scorn for medicine‘ 1 Erasmus is often uncomplimentary about doctors. See General Index: doctors. 322 (xxii) Plutarch Moralia 231a. In margin ‘hater of doctors‘ 323 (xxiii) Plutarch Moralia 231a. In margin ‘hater of doctors‘ 324 (xxiv) Plutarch Moralia 231a. In margin ‘the best doctor‘ 1 For Socrates’ rejection of suicide, see Plato Phaedo 61b–62c. 2 Cf Cicero De senectute 20.72, which spells out what seems to be meant here: ideally one should live doing one’s duty as long as this is possible, leaving the crumbling edifice of the body to fall apart naturally, without doing anything either to hasten, or (the point being made here) to delay the end.

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is by no means clear what good is being achieved when a dozen or so doctors strive for a long time at huge expense to extend for a month or two the life of an old woman who is already half dead. They are just using their skills to spin death out, as if any sane person would wish to be a long time a-dying. Wise men have declared that the best death is a sudden and a quick one.3 Paedaretus 325 When someone pointed out how large the enemy force was, ‘All the more glory for us,’ replied Paedaretus, ‘as we shall kill more.’ What the other saw as a reason for cowardice, he turned into a spur to bolder action. One can use the same weapon against anyone who pleads the difficulties of the right course of action as a reason for not embarking on it. 326 A man who was soft by nature was nonetheless praised by the citizenry for his kindness. Paedaretus remarked that ‘no praise should be given to men who are like women, nor to women who are like men, unless some extreme situation forces such behaviour on a woman.’ He saw that one kind of behaviour was appropriate for a good man, another for a good woman. He accepts that extreme circumstances may force a woman to act the man, but there is no excuse for a man who degenerates into a woman. Likewise, a prince should not be praised for the same things as a subject, nor a person in public life for the same things as a private citizen. 327 When he was not chosen to be one of the three hundred,1 an honour which confers the highest status in Spartan society, in spite of his rejection ***** The Stoics however taught that one should voluntarily end one’s life when no longer able to live virtuously. See Seneca Epistulae morales 58.32–6. Erasmus as a Christian can, of course, not agree with this. Cf 1.157 above. 3 Eg Julius Caesar; see Suetonius Divus Iulius 87. 325 (xxv) Plutarch Moralia 231b. In margin ‘resolute‘ Paedaretus was a Spartiate general in the Peloponnesian War (431–404 bc). 326 (xxvi) Plutarch Moralia 231b. In margin ‘appropriateness‘ 327 (xxvii) Plutarch Moralia 231b. In margin ‘unaffected‘ 1 When Spartiate youths became young adults, the ephors appointed the three most outstanding of the age group as commanders. Each of these in turn picked a group of a hundred to form an e´ lite corps. See Xenophon Respublica Lacedaemoniorum 4.3.

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Paedaretus left the place cheerful and smiling. The ephors called him back and asked what he was smiling about. ‘I am glad for my country,’ he said, ‘because it has three hundred citizens much better than me.’ What a philosophical attitude! He did not feel aggrieved at being passed over, nor complain at the ephors’ decision, but found more satisfaction in the general good of his country than he would have felt if he had received the honour. Plistarchus 328 Someone asked Plistarchus, son of Leonidas, why the kings of Sparta did not bear a name derived from the earliest kings. ‘Because,’ he said, ‘the early kings preferred to lead rather than rule, but their successors took a very different view.’ The first of all the Spartan kings was called Agis, and this name did pass down to some of the later ones.1 ‘Agis’ is derived from the word for ‘leading,’2 because the early kings commanded, even if in a kindly manner. It is the function of kings to command, not persuade. ‘Plistarchus’ in fact means ‘commanding many.’ 329 A defence counsel in a lawsuit kept making jokes. Plistarchus interrupted ***** 328 (xxviii) Plutarch Moralia 231c. In margin ‘temperate‘ Plistarchus was king of Sparta, 480–459 bc. 1 The first Spartan kings were in actuality the shadowy Eurysthenes and Procles, but the two Spartan royal houses, the Agiads and Eurypontids, were named after Agis i, possibly tenth century bc, son of Eurysthenes, and Eurypon, grandson of Procles. The early kings became increasingly autocratic, and Theopompus, king in the eighth to seventh century bc, appointed the first ephors as a check on royal power, see 1.12 n3 above. For Agis ii, iii and iv see 1.87–110 above. Erasmus seems to be commenting on the fact that not many were called Agis. 2 Ie Greek agein. Erasmus’ translation of the apophthegm and forced comment on ‘lead’ suggest that he was endeavouring to make sense of and explain a reading in his Greek text agein e¯ basileuein echr¯eizon, which he renders as ‘preferred to lead rather than rule.’ A modern emendation of the text offers agan basileuein echr¯eizon ‘needed to rule excessively’ ie autocratically. The Greek verb chr¯eiz¯o can mean either ‘desire’ or ‘need.’ 329 (xxix) Plutarch Moralia 231c. In margin ‘foolish talking‘ After this some mss of Plutarch have an apophthegm which repeats the substance of one attributed to Agesilaus (1.57 above). It may not have been in Erasmus’ text of Plutarch, but see the dedicatory epistle 10 n31 above.

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him and said, ‘You had better take care, my friend, not to be constantly raising a laugh. People who constantly practise wrestling turn into wrestlers, and you are in danger of becoming a joke yourself.’ This excellent man was well aware that people should be forgiven the occasional lapse, but when a fault has turned into a habit and regular behaviour the evil is past healing. If our friends constantly commit the same fault, we should challenge them,1 as Plistarchus did here, and check them, so that they do not get used to doing whatever it is and the fault becomes second nature. 330 Someone told Plistarchus that he was being praised by a man who was always speaking ill of people. ‘I wonder,’ he said, ‘if someone has told him I was dead. He couldn’t speak well of anyone living.’1 This fine man took no pleasure in praise coming from a man of evil reputation. Plistonax 331 When a certain Athenian orator accused the Spartans of being ignorant, Plistonax, son of Pausanias, replied, ‘Yes, we are the only Greeks who have learnt nothing bad from you.’ ***** 1 Cf 2.173 below. 330 (xxx) Plutarch Moralia 231d 1 Cf 7.57 and 7.69 below. 331 (xxxi) Plutarch Moralia 231d Plistonax was king of Sparta, 459–409 bc. Here Froben in 1538 included the following: ‘A note by Erasmus: Plistonax is called the son of Pausanias, though shortly before two Pausaniases are mentioned, one the son of Cleombrotus [1.312 above], the other the son of Plistonax [1.318 above]. Plutarch writes here “Plistonax of Pausanias.” The Greeks use the father’s name like this to distinguish the son. I am not sure whether the father can likewise be distinguished by the name of the son. I included this apophthegm from the Greek of Plutarch’s collection, but it is not in Filelfo’s version, nor in Raffaele’s [see the dedicatory epistle 7–8 nn20 and 21 above], and I suspect it was added to Plutarch’s text without good reason, especially since the same saying is earlier attributed to Antalcidas [1.124 above]. Aldus used as the basis of his edition [of Plutarch’s Moralia] a not very sound text, and for that reason Lascaris advised him to postpone the edition until he had acquired an improved text, but he was not listened to.’

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The Spartans classed as bad anything that did not contribute to the improvement of the state. Polydorus 332 A certain man kept on making threats against his enemies. Polydorus, son of Alcamenes, said to him, ‘Don’t you realize you are squandering the greatest part of your vengeance?’ Anyone who has decided to take revenge on an enemy achieves nothing by issuing threats except to forewarn him and reduce his own scope for injuring him. Brave men hurt those who deserve to be hurt by what they do, not by what they say. 333 When he had marched out into Messenian territory,1 someone asked him if they were going to fight against their brothers.2 ‘No,’ he replied, ‘we are just moving into that part of the land which has not yet been allocated.’3 He misled the questioner by giving this false impression of what he planned to do. This can provide another example of concealing your intention when you want to harm someone. 334 After the famous Battle of the Three Hundred,1 the people of Argos sus***** 332 (xxxii) Plutarch Moralia 231d. In margin ‘noble-spirited‘ Polydorus was king of Sparta, c. 700–665 bc. This odd saying is also attributed to the sage Chilon. See 2.173 below. 333 (xxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 231e. In margin ‘misleading‘ 1 Sparta gradually extended her territory beyond the bounds of Laconia in a series of aggressive wars against Messenia to the north and west, taking over the land and reducing the Messenian inhabitants to the status of Helots. Polydorus was believed to have contributed to bringing the first Messenian War to a successful conclusion in the seventh century bc with his colleague Theopompus (see 1.196 n1 above). 2 The Messenians were probably Dorians, like the Spartans. See 1.263 n2 above. 3 Occupied Messenian territory was divided into additional lots which were allocated to individual Spartans and worked by Helot serfs for the upkeep of their masters. The original allocations were in Sparta’s own territory of Laconia (see 1.259 above). Polydorus left behind a reputation as a popular fair-minded king and a distributor of land. 334 (xxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 231e. In margin ‘self-control‘ 1 For this battle in 546 bc between Sparta and Argos, see Herodotus 1.82. It was fought by 300 picked warriors from each side to avoid a general engagement. Two Argives survived and one Spartan. As both sides claimed the victory for different reasons a conventional battle was then fought, which the Spartans

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tained another military defeat. Polydorus’ associates urged him not to let the opportunity slip but to attack the walls and take the enemy city. This, they said, would be easy, because the men had been killed and only women were left. He replied to this effect: ‘I consider it right and proper to defeat rebels on the battle-field where both sides have an equal chance. But I do not think it fair, when I have fought to win land, then to want to capture the city. I came here to recover territory, not to capture a city.’ This high-minded man was of the opinion that even in dealing with an enemy one’s conduct should be governed by equity, whereas most people think that anything is permissible where an enemy is concerned. Even if the dispute is over some pathetic little town, the victor thinks he has the right to occupy the whole territory of the vanquished. Polydorus further considered that it would stain his reputation to make war on people who did not have the means of fighting back. From such a victory comes not the renown accorded to bravery but the infamy due to cruelty. 335 When someone asked him the reason why the Spartan warriors exposed themselves so courageously to danger in war, he replied, ‘Because they have learned to respect their commander rather than fear him.’1 Respect is linked with love, but we fear above all those whom we hate. A man who wholeheartedly does what he is required to do does it better than one who does it from fear of evil consequences. Polycratidas 336 Polycratidas was sent with others on an embassy to the King’s1 generals. When he was asked whether they had come privately or officially, he replied, ‘Officially, if our request is granted; if not, privately.’ This remark reveals his loving concern for his country. If the embassy went the way they wanted, he wished the glory of it to go to the state; if not, he did not want the humiliation of being refused to be linked with his country. ***** won. Polydorus did attack Argos and was defeated in 669 bc, but the famous battle occurred long after his reign. 335 (xxxv) Plutarch Moralia 231f. In margin ‘wise‘ 1 Cf 1.210 and 1.253 above. 336 (xxxvi) Plutarch Moralia 231f. In margin ‘concern for country‘ Polycratidas is an otherwise unknown Spartan. 1 Ie the king of Persia, known as The Great King. See 1.61 above.

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Soebidas 337 When the Spartans were about to expose themselves to the chances of war in the battle of Leuctra,1 someone remarked, ‘Today will show the good man.’ Soebidas replied, ‘A splendid day – if it can show the good man unharmed.’2 He foresaw that many fine men would bravely meet their end in that battle, men that he would prefer to stay alive for the country’s sake. 338 When [Soos] found himself penned in by the enemy forces on rugged terrain with no water supply, he made the following pact with the enemy, as the story goes: he would cede to them the territory he had won in the war if his men and he himself could drink from the nearby spring – the enemy had control of this. When the agreement was ratified, he called all his men together and promised to grant dominion over that region1 to any man who did not drink. Not one of them mastered his thirst, but all of them drank. After everyone else, he himself went down into the spring and splashed himself with water. Then, with the enemy force still there, he went off and seized the area on the grounds that he alone had not drunk. By this ruse he delivered the army from the perils of thirst and tricked the enemy and by his physical endurance kept the kingdom for himself. He was not bound to the enemy by the terms of the agreement because it was not the case that everyone had drunk including himself. Nor had he tricked his men because no one apart from himself had refrained from drinking. If the enemy had resorted to arms at this point, he could now meet them on equal terms as he had a strategically better position and control of the spring. Telecrus 339 Telecrus was told that his father was saying unpleasant things about him. ***** 337 (xxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 231f. In margin ‘pointed‘ ‘Soebidas’ should be Phoebidas, Spartiate general and brother of Eudamidas i. 1 The Spartans were heavily defeated at the battle of Leuctra (371 bc; see 1.71 n1 above). Phoebidas however had already met his end fighting the Thebans at Thespiae (see Plutarch Pelopidas 15). 2 ‘Unharmed’ translates Aldus’ text of Apophthegmata which reads s¯oon, a mistake for S¯oos, which should be the first word of the next item. 338 (xxxviii) Plutarch Moralia 232a. This story should be told of Sous, a very early king of Sparta (see Plutarch Life of Lycurgus 2). In margin ‘wily‘ 1 ‘Dominion over that region’ should read ‘the kingship,’ as in Plutarch’s text; cf line 12 below. 339 (xxxix) Plutarch Moralia 232b. In margin ‘filial piety‘ Telecrus (Teleclus) was the son of Archelaus, king of Sparta in the eighth cen-

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He replied, ‘He wouldn’t be saying them if it weren’t necessary.’ He preferred to take the blame on himself rather than make it appear that his father had spoken without thinking. Here you have an example of filial piety and an absence of self-conceit. 340 Telecrus’ brother complained that the citizens did not show towards himself the same consideration as they did towards him, but treated him rather callously in failing so far to elect him ephor.1 ‘You don’t know,’ Telecrus replied, ‘how to submit to injustice. I do.’ He meant that anyone who desires to enjoy public favour must learn not to react to a great deal of unfair comment.2 341 When he was asked why it was customary in Spartan society for the young to show respect for their elders by rising from their seats,1 he replied, ‘To ensure that, being accustomed to show respect to persons not related to them, they may honour their parents the more.’ It is a splendid way of accustoming people to doing what they ought to do, if we teach them to do more than is actually required. For example, if a man is accustomed to living with his own wife in a controlled and continent manner, he will not be so likely to make improper advances to other people’s wives.2 342 When he was asked how much he possessed, ‘No more,’ he replied, ‘than enough.’ He measured wealth by need, not greed. ***** tury bc. He himself became king later, and was active in expanding Spartan territory southwards c. 750–740 bc, and in sending colonists to annex part of Messenia. 340 (xl) Plutarch Moralia 232b. In margin ‘good-humoured‘ 1 The words ‘in failing so far to elect him ephor’ have nothing to correspond in the text of Plutarch, which reads ‘though he belonged to the same (royal) family.’ They seem to have been imported from a comparable story about Chilon and his brother, recorded at 2.161 below. 2 Adagia iii viii 89: Magistratum gerens audi iuste et iniuste ‘When in office expect both just and unjust criticism’ 341 (xli) Plutarch Moralia 232b. In margin ‘weighty‘ 1 See 1.269 n5 above. 2 See Plutarch Moralia 522b (On being a busybody). 342 (xlii) Plutarch Moralia 232b

1 . 343

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Charillus/Charilaus 343 When Charillus was asked why Lycurgus had established so few laws for the Spartans, he replied, ‘Because people who don’t say much don’t need many laws.’ He knew well that nearly all evils arise from excessive talking. The Spartans were characterized by their laconic speech.1 344 Someone else asked him why the Spartans let their unmarried girls appear in public lightly clad,1 but kept their married women covered up. He replied, ‘Because girls have to find husbands, wives have to be kept by those who have got them.’ This custom was intended to ensure that girls were not left without husbands and that wives were not seduced. This is different from other nations, where young girls are religiously kept from men’s eyes but wives are available for all to look at. 345 When a Helot slave spoke to him rather insolently, he said, ‘If I weren’t so angry, I would kill you.’ He believed so strongly that an angry man cannot say or do anything right that he would not even punish his slave while his emotions were at all roused.1 346 When he was asked what he considered the best type of political constitution, ‘The one,’ he replied, ‘under which the majority of citizens compete with each other in the attainment of excellence, without however generating sedition.’ ***** 343 (xliii) Plutarch Moralia 232b–c. In margin ‘loquacity‘ Charillus was an early king of Sparta, c. 775–750 bc, supposedly nephew of Lycurgus. See 1.137 n3 above. 1 For ‘Laconic’ speech see 1.95 n2 above. 344 (xliv) Plutarch Moralia 232c 1 Cf 1.268 above. 345 (xlv) Plutarch Moralia 232c. In margin ‘controlled‘ 1 This saying was ascribed to several people. See eg 7.155 below. Cf Plutarch Moralia 10d (The education of children), where it is ascribed to Archytas and Plato. See also Seneca De ira 3.12.3–5. 346 (xlvi) Plutarch Moralia 232c. In margin ‘wise‘

1 . 347

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153

In most states, people strive for wealth and office; for excellence, hardly anyone. Yet even the pursuit of excellence should not be prosecuted so passionately that it results in strife – if it reaches that stage, it is not what is honourable that is the point at issue, but self-seeking. A man truly endowed with excellence has no end in view but service to his country. Civil strife however is a virulent poison in the national body. 347 Someone asked Charillus why all the statues of gods in Sparta were represented bearing arms.1 He replied, ‘So that the reproaches which are heaped on men for cowardice cannot be ultimately turned against the gods; and so that the young may pray to the gods only when carrying their arms.’ This explanation was meant to instil the idea in the citizens’ minds that the gods loved bravery and hated cowardice; also that the young should get used to being armed, as this would make them less inclined to idle pursuits and better prepared for military service, if it was not allowed to lay aside one’s weapons even for religious reasons. Idleness and self-indulgence often creep into a society under cover of religion.

***** 347 (xlvii) Plutarch Moralia 232d. After this apophthegm, Plutarch’s text has (not in all mss) one that repeats the one attributed to Nicander in 1.306 above. In margin ‘idleness‘ 1 Cf 2.105 below.

BOOK II

Sayings of unnamed Spartans 1 Ambassadors from Samos had presented their case at inordinate length.1 The citizens of Sparta replied, ‘We have forgotten what you said first, and because we don’t remember the beginning, we haven’t understood the end.’ 2 The Thebans were making their point with some vehemence. ‘You should have less spirit,’ the Spartans commented, ‘or more strength.’1 3 An aged Spartan was asked why he wore his beard long and bushy. ‘So that I may look at my grey hairs,’ he said, ‘and do nothing that shames them.’ A good man tries to find incentives to virtue everywhere. ***** 1

(i) Plutarch Moralia 232d. This group of apophthegms, 2.1–71, is translated from Plutarch Moralia 232d– 236e. After this apophthegm, modern texts of Plutarch have an incident similar to 1.95, but using different words. It is not in Erasmus’ Latin text, and he may simply have omitted it. See the dedicatory epistle 10 n31 above. 1 Cf 1.216 above, another version of the incident.

2

(ii) Plutarch Moralia 232e. Cf 1.55 and 1.99 above. The city of Thebes had a varied political history and this incident no doubt occurred during one of its less influential periods. Contrast 2.21 and 2.159 below. See General Index: Thebes. 1 Adagia iv ii 90: Aut minus animi aut plus potentiae ‘Less ambition or more strength.’

3

(iii) Plutarch Moralia 232e. In margin ‘grey hairs‘ After this apophthegm, Plutarch’s text has a saying that repeats in substance one found above at 1.105. Again this is not in Erasmus’ Latin text. See 2.1n above.

2.6

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155

4 Someone was bestowing exaggerated praise on some splendid warriors.1 ‘Yes,’ said the Spartan, ‘at Troy.’ He meant that there were such warriors in those days, but men like that hadn’t existed for a long time. 5 Another Spartan, on hearing that some people were being compelled to drink after dinner, remarked, ‘They aren’t being forced to eat as well, are they?’ He censured the Greek custom of making everyone down a certain number of cups.1 That was just as stupid as making a man who wasn’t hungry eat a certain number of dishes, except that people didn’t find the former silly because it was the custom. 6 When someone quoted Pindar’s line about ‘Athens, the mainstay of Greece,’1 a Spartan remarked that ‘Greece would collapse if it depended on a prop like that.’ This remark censured the Athenians’ moral flabbiness which he felt in no way merited the poet’s praise, or, if not that, censured the poet’s insincerity in bestowing such praise on undeserving subjects. ***** 4

(iv) Plutarch Moralia 232e. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 A better reading in Plutarch’s text gives ‘some Argive warriors,’ which makes more sense. Sparta was often at odds with Argos, a powerful city to the north. The Trojan War took place, according to Greek tradition, in the early twelfth century bc, and Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, the leader of the Greek forces, is described at Homer Iliad 2.108 as ‘ruling all Argos.’ Mycenae was in the area known as the Argolid.

5

(v) Plutarch Moralia 232e. In margin ‘excessive drinking‘ 1 Lycurgus had abolished this practice in Sparta; see Xenophon Respublica Lacedaemoniorum 5.4.

6

(vi) Plutarch Moralia 232e. In margin ‘frank‘ 1 This is a famous line surviving from one of Pindar’s dithyrambs (elaborate choral odes). See Plutarch Moralia 349a–350b (On the fame of the Athenians), where Plutarch lists glorious Athenian achievements, including the battle of Marathon when, in 491 bc, a modest Athenian force withstood the Persian invaders under Darius. Plutarch tells us that Pindar was inspired by all this to award this accolade to the Athenians, to their great delight. Sparta and Athens were continually jostling (and fighting) for acknowledged supremacy in the whole of Greece, and indulging in mutual denigration.

2.7

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156

7 Someone was looking at a picture representing Spartans being slaughtered by Athenians. ‘Oh, brave Athenians!’ he exclaimed. A Spartan who heard him retorted, ‘Yes – in the picture.’ He meant that it was ridiculous to congratulate oneself on the strength of a picture, since a picture can lie just as much as a poet. 8 There was a person who was very ready to lend an ear to slander directed at others. To him a Spartan said, ‘Stop listening against me.’ He felt that people who slander others deserve censure, but so do those who listen to their insinuations. It is a form of injury to give ear to malicious attacks on those who have done nothing to deserve it, for there would be no slanderers if they had no one to heed them. That was why the Spartan took the man to task for listening to the fellow who was slandering him. 9 A slave who was being punished kept saying, ‘I didn’t intend to do it.’ The other replied, ‘Then take your punishment without intending to.’ It’s a common enough excuse but a feeble one to say ‘I didn’t intend to.’ The person should have been taking care not to do wrong by mistake. 10 A man who was away from Sparta saw men sitting on stools.1 ‘I hope I never sit on a seat,’ he exclaimed, ‘where I cannot rise and give place to an older person.’2 These refined persons sat on such seats with their legs stretched out, and the low roof prevented them from getting up. But the Spartan considered it reprehensible for a young man not to rise and show respect for an older one. 11 Some people from Chios who were visiting Sparta, after dining, first of all ***** 7

(vii) Plutarch Moralia 232f. In margin ‘witty‘

8

(viii) Plutarch Moralia 232f. In margin ‘being slandered‘

9

(ix) Plutarch Moralia 232f. In margin ‘neat‘

10

11

(x) Plutarch Moralia 232f. In margin ‘censorious‘ 1 The Greek reveals that this occurs in a privy, as Erasmus obliquely indicates in his comment. 2 See 1.269 n5 above. (xi) Plutarch Moralia 232f–233a. In margin ‘toleration‘

2 . 14

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vomited in the ephors’ hall and then fouled the seats on which the ephors sat. Immediately a rigorous inquiry was instituted to find out who had perpetrated this crime, in case they were citizens, but when it was discovered that they were from Chios, an announcement was made to the effect that ‘they had no objection to Chians acting like louts.’ Fine men pay no attention to insults coming from the openly disreputable. Even praise from such people is unacceptable. 12 A Spartan saw two ‘hard’ almonds1 being sold for twice the normal price. ‘Are stones so scarce here?’ he asked. He saw no difference between ‘hard’ almonds and stones. As a Spartan he was so unacquainted with luxuries that he didn’t know that the kernel is hidden inside two outer layers. It seems that this species of tree was not known in any and every region, since Pliny is not sure whether it had reached Italy in Cato’s time.2 13 A Spartan plucked a nightingale and found very little flesh. ‘You are just a voice,’ he said, ‘nothing else.’ The same can be said of people who have nothing but a fluent tongue and high-sounding words.1 14 Another man saw Diogenes ‘the Dog’ with his arms round a bronze statue on an extremely cold day. He asked him if he was cold. When the other said no, he said, ‘Well then, what great thing are you doing?’ The philosopher, who was obsessed with winning glory, thought it was a marvellous thing that he had so inured his body to all hardships that ***** 12

(xii) Plutarch Moralia 233a. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 As there is nothing suggesting ‘two’ (duas) in the Greek, the word should probably be deleted as a mistake based on a repetition of duras ‘hard.’ 2 Ie the Elder Cato, second century bc; see Pliny Naturalis historia 15.90, and also 15.114, where we are told that the almond, like the chestnut and walnut, has two layers over the kernel. As Erasmus mentions the two layers, he presumably understands that the almonds were being sold in their shells, rather than being a harder species of nut, which is what the Greek suggests.

13

(xiii) Plutarch Moralia 233a. In margin ‘loquacity‘ 1 For Erasmus’ comment, cf the same moral drawn in Aesop 201 (Chambry), where a tiny frog makes a great croaking and is contemptuously squashed by a wolf.

14

(xiv) Plutarch Moralia 233a. For Diogenes the Cynic (‘the Dog’) see 3.164–388 below. In margin ‘telling‘

2 . 14

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he could endure contact with a cold statue on a frosty day and not feel discomfort. The Spartan thought this was no more admirable than someone doing much the same thing in summer without any ill effects. 15 When a Spartan accused the people of Metapontum1 of cowardice, a citizen of the place a retorted, ‘All the same, we do possess a lot of land belonging to other states!’ ‘Well,’ said the Spartan, ‘in that case you are not only cowardly but unscrupulous as well.’ He meant that anyone who was craven and unwarlike could possess much that rightfully came under another’s jurisdiction only if it had been acquired by sharp practice. 16 A man who was visiting Sparta was standing on one leg and putting his sandal on the other foot. He said to one of them, ‘I don’t think you can stand on one leg as long as I can.’ The Spartan retorted, ‘I agree. But any goose can do what you’re doing.’ He was right to pour scorn on a man who had by long practice acquired a skill which contributed nothing of any use to his country. The same is true of the skills of jugglers, tight-rope walkers, and suchlike. 17 A man was boasting of his art as an orator. ‘By the Twin Gods,’1 a Spartan commented, ‘without a grasp of the truth there is no art, nor ever will be.’ This was a criticism directed at professional orators who openly claim to say what is convincing even if it is not true.2 18 A citizen of Argos declared, ‘There are many tombs of your Spartan warriors in our country.’ A Spartan took him up on this. ‘There isn’t a single Argive ***** 15

16 17

18

(xv) Plutarch Moralia 233a–b. In margin ‘telling‘ 1 A city founded by Greek colonists on the Gulf of Taranto in Italy. The remark may have been made by Cleonymus, son of Cleomenes ii (see 1.166 above) who took the city in 304 bc during an expedition sent out in support of neighbouring Tarentum, a Spartan settlement. (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 233b. In margin ‘ridiculous‘ (xvii) Plutarch Moralia 233b. In margin ‘weighty‘ 1 The Twin Gods were Castor and Pollux, the Heavenly Twins. This oath was characteristic of the Spartans. See 1.9 above. 2 Probably another dig at the ancient sophists, Cf 1.1 n2 above. (xviii) Plutarch Moralia 233c. In margin ‘neat‘

2 . 22

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tomb in ours,’ he said, meaning that the Spartans had always invaded Argive territory, but the Argives had never invaded Sparta.1 The Spartan neatly turned what the other had said, intending to praise his country, into something to be ashamed of. 19 A Spartan was taken prisoner of war. He was being sold by auction and the auctioneer announced, ‘Next lot, a Spartan.’ The Spartan stopped the auctioneer’s mouth and said, ‘Say you are auctioning a prisoner.’1 He accepted his own fate but could not bear the disgrace of having his country held up to shame at the auction. 20 One of the soldiers serving for pay under Lysimachus1. was asked by him whether he was not one of the Helots2 (that is, the serfs of the Spartans). He replied, ‘Do you imagine a Spartan would come for the few cents you pay?’ He would rather pass as a serf than have the shame of the situation attach to the name of Sparta. 21 After defeating the Spartans at the battle of Leuctra,1 the Thebans penetrated right to the Eurotas.2 One of them triumphantly exclaimed, ‘Where are the Spartans now?’ A Spartan warrior whom they had captured retorted, ‘Not here, or you would not have got this far.’ Not even in defeat and capture could he forget his Spartan character and endure the enemy’s boasting. 22 After surrendering their city,1 the Athenians asked to be allowed to keep ***** 1 Cf 1.125 and 2.4 n1 above. 19

(xix) Plutarch Moralia 233c 1 Cf 2.37 below.

20

(xx) Plutarch Moralia 233c 1 From the fourth century bc onwards, Spartans often enlisted as mercenary soldiers under foreign commanders. Lysimachus was one of the successors of Alexander the Great, and became king of Thrace c. 323 bc 2 See 1.25 n2 above.

21

(xxi) Plutarch Moralia 233c. In margin ‘noble‘ 1 See 1.71 above. 2 The Eurotas was the river flowing past the city of Sparta.

22

(xxii) Plutarch Moralia 233d. In margin ‘pointed‘ 1 Ie to the Spartans at the end of the Peloponnesian War in 404 bc. The island

2 . 22

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just Samos. The Spartans replied, ‘You don’t own yourselves, and you ask to own others?’ This gave rise to the proverb, ‘He who owns not himself asks for Samos.’2 23 After the Spartans had taken a certain city by force of arms, the ephors remarked, ‘Our young men have lost their training ground; they will not have anyone to fight against now.’ They were pleased with the victory, but sorry that the young men no longer had anyone on whom to practise their warrior’s craft. 24 One of the Spartan kings swore that he would raze to the ground a certain city that had often been a trouble to the Spartans. The ephors forbade him to do so, saying, ‘You shall not wipe out and destroy the whet-stone of our young men.’ They called the hostile city the ‘whet-stone of the young men’ because the young men sharpened their military skills on it. 25 The Spartans did not have instructors to teach the boys wrestling, as they wanted it to be a contest of courage rather than skill. So when Lysander1 was asked how Charon had come to defeat him, he replied, ‘By knowing lots of moves.’2 The Spartan people did not consider any kind of victory impressive if it were won by cunning counsels rather than strength of mind and body.3 ***** of Samos had been a member of the Athenian Confederacy and the Athenian naval base. 2 Quoted in Diogenianus cpg 1 7.34; Apostolius cpg 2 13.5. See Adagia i vii 83, where Erasmus comments ‘this will suit people who demand something outrageous.’ 23

(xxiii) Plutarch Moralia 233d. With this and the following apophthegm, cf 1.226 above and 6.336 below.

24

(xxiv) Plutarch Moralia 233e. See 2.23n above. In margin ‘noble‘

25

(xxv) Plutarch Moralia 233e 1 For Lysander, see 1.288–303 above, but the text should probably read Lysanoridas. He was one of the Spartan garrison commanders in Thebes, who had to surrender to Charon and his fellow liberators in 397 bc. The occupying Spartan forces had actually engaged in wrestling matches with the Theban population. See Plutarch Pelopidas 7. 2 Cf 2.71 below. 3 But contrast 2.102 below.

2 . 28

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The further any skill departs from the simplicity of nature the closer it approaches to deceit. 26 Philip entered Spartan country1 and sent them a message enquiring whether they wished him to come as friend or foe. They sent back the reply: ‘Neither.’ In one word they said what they had to say, which was typical of Spartans,2 and boldly denied the king passage, which was typical of brave men. 27 The Spartans sent an ambassador to Antigonus, son of Demetrius.1 Although he returned bringing from Antigonus a measure of wheat for each person at a time when there was a great food shortage, they fined him because they heard that he had addressed Antigonus as ‘king.’ Such was the rigour of Spartan law that not even the relief of the famine by such a generous subvention could earn leniency and allow them to condone their successful ambassador’s use of the one little word. 28 A man of evil morals made an excellent proposal. They approved the proposal, but setting aside the proposer, attributed it to a man of blameless character. They were absolutely convinced that no standing in the community should be granted to evil-livers. They changed the proposer so that the appearance of his name should not bring discredit on the state. They did not change the proposal, as they did not want it to appear that they had allowed the public good to suffer because of private infamy. Aulus Gellius records this incident.1 ***** 26

(xxvi) Plutarch Moralia 233e. In margin ‘frank‘ 1 See 1.165 above. 2 See 1.95 n2 above.

27

(xxvii) Plutarch Moralia 233e–f. In margin ‘deed of note‘ 1 Ie Antigonus ii, king of Macedonia, 276 bc onwards. In 272 bc, Sparta appealed to Antigonus for help in resisting an invasion of their territory by Pyrrhus, king of Epirus.

28

(xxviii) Plutarch Moralia 233f. In margin ‘deed of note‘ 1 Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticae 18.3.2–8. The story is also to be found in Plutarch Moralia 41b (On listening to lectures).

2 . 29

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29 Two brothers were quarrelling. The Spartans fined the father for failing to deal with the disagreement between his sons. They were of the opinion that the young men could be forgiven, but any fault they had committed in the hot-headedness of youth the Spartans laid at the father’s door, as his authority should have ensured that no contention arose between his sons. 30 A musician who was visiting Sparta was fined for playing his lyre with his fingers, and not with a plectrum.1 They were totally opposed to any change in accepted custom. The same attitude caused the famous incident when a Spartan cut two strings out of a nine-stringed lyre.2 31 Two boys were fighting and one dealt the other a fatal blow.1 As he lay dying, the other boys promised revenge, saying they would kill the boy who had injured him. But he said, ‘Do not do it, for heaven’s sake! It would not be right, for I would have done the same to him, if I had got in first and had been strong enough.’ What a truly Spartan character! Though conquered and dying he spoke up for the one who had beaten him in fair fight, winning by fighting ability and not by trickery. How happy such characters would have been if they had been brought up from their earliest years to seek true virtue rather than the toughness demanded of soldiers! 32 At the time when it was the Spartan custom to let the free-born boys steal anything they could, though only if they did not get caught, which was a disgrace, some boys stole a live vixen-cub and gave it to one of their number ***** 29

(xxix) Plutarch Moralia 233f. In margin ‘deed of note‘

30

(xxx) Plutarch Moralia 233f. In margin ‘an uncompromising act‘ 1 Presumably because playing with the fingers would give more scope for ornamentation. Erasmus has added the explanatory words ‘and not with a plectrum.’ 2 See 1.175 above.

31

(xxxi) Plutarch Moralia 233f. In margin ‘noble‘ 1 Erasmus neglects to say that the fatal blow was struck with a sickle. Perhaps he thought this unfair. Cf his comments on unfair practices at 2.41 below.

32

(xxxii) Plutarch Moralia 234a–b. In margin ‘courageous‘

2 . 35

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to keep. When the owners came looking for it, he kept it hidden under his cloak. The creature, maddened, gnawed right through the boy’s side to his vitals, but, to prevent the theft being discovered, he made not a sound and didn’t give the secret away. After the others had gone and the boys saw what had happened, they reproached him, saying ‘It would have been better to let the vixen be discovered than conceal it to the death.’ ‘Never,’ he replied. ‘It is better to die in agony than be branded with the infamy of saving through weakness a life ever after tainted with shame.’1 There could be nothing more perfect than this, if the true wisdom had been added to spirits so richly endowed by birth. 33 Some people met some Spartans on the road, and said, ‘You’re lucky, Spartans. Some robbers have only just left here.’ ‘By Enyalius,’ they retorted (that’s the Spartan name for Mars).1 ‘We’re not lucky. They’re the lucky ones, because they didn’t meet us.’ The Spartans were quite unafraid of all the things that normal people fear. 34 A Spartan was asked what skills he had. ‘I am a free man,’ he replied. The Spartan race was not trained either in philosophical disciplines or in crafts.1 They simply guarded their liberty with independent spirit, not submitting readily either to men or to vice. 35 A Spartiate boy was captured by King Antigonus1 and sold as a slave. He obeyed the man who had bought him in everything that he felt a free-born person could properly do. However, when he was asked to bring a chamber***** 1 For the ignominies suffered at Sparta by those branded as cowards see 1.71 n2 above; Xenophon Respublica Lacedaemoniorum 9.4–6. Xenophon remarks that death is preferable to a life so ignominious. 33

(xxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 234b. In margin ‘spirited‘ 1 Mars is the Roman name for the god of war. Enyalius was a title of Ares, the corresponding Greek god of war.

34

(xxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 234b. In margin ‘noble‘ 1 See 1.189 above.

35

(xxxv) Plutarch Moralia 234b–c. In margin ‘noble, resolute‘ 1 Sparta and Athens resisted King Antigonus ii of Macedonia in the period 267–263 bc.

2 . 35

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pot, he would not brook that, but said, ‘I will not be a slave.’ When his master insisted, the boy went up onto the roof, and declaring, ‘You will find out what kind of a purchase you have made,’ threw himself down from the height and was killed.2 He could live as a captive, but he could not perform slave tasks, and he won his freedom by death. 36 Another boy, when he was being sold, was asked by the prospective purchaser, ‘Will you be a good reliable boy if I buy you?’ He replied, ‘Yes, and if you don’t buy me too.’ Not even a slave’s fate could teach him slave’s words. A naturally honest person will be honest everywhere and with everybody. 37 Another boy was captured and when he was being sold, the auctioneer announced the sale of a slave. ‘You villain,’ he cried. ‘Announce the sale of a captive, will you?’1 He was not ashamed of his hard lot, but he was ashamed of being called ‘slave.’ Such was his passion for liberty. 38 A certain Spartan had as a device on his shield a fly, painted life-size. When some people made fun of it and said he had done it so as not to be noticed, he retorted, ‘On the contrary, it’s to make me stand out. I go so close to the enemy that they can see for themselves what my device is like.’ He smartly turned the reproach of cowardice into a proof of valour. 39 On another occasion, after dinner, a lyre was brought in. A Spartan present commented, ‘Spartans don’t indulge in silly activities.’ In this they differed markedly from other Greeks, who considered no dinner party really satisfactory without music. The Spartan thought this ***** 2 Seneca records the story at Epistulae Morales 77.14, an essay on suicide. See also 2.156 below) 36 37

(xxxvi) Plutarch Moralia 234c (xxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 234c 1 Cf 2.19 above

38

(xxxviii) Plutarch Moralia 234c–d. In margin ‘smart‘

39

(xxxix) Plutarch Moralia 234d. In margin ‘stern‘

2 . 41

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silly, being of the opinion that it was more civilized to spice up the afterdinner drinking with decent and humorous conversation1 than by listening to the empty twanging of the lyre.2 40 A citizen of Sparta was asked whether the road to Sparta was safe. ‘It depends,’ he replied, ‘what sort of person you are when you make the journey. Lions going in that direction weep, but hares lurking in the shadows we hunt.’1 He meant that it wasn’t safe for wild and violent men to go in the direction of Sparta, nor for soft, unmanly ones, because those who approached with hostile intent would get a dusty reception from those who were stronger than they were, and they wouldn’t allow fops to indulge their perverted appetites in the shadows. 41 During a wrestling bout (for which the Spartan word is cheirapsia, ‘clinch’), one of the contestants was gripping the other by the neck and was to no effect and against the rules hitting him and dragging him down. The other, who was being forced into submission as his opponent hung onto him, felt ***** 1 Cf the dedicatory epistle 15 above, for Lycurgus’ encouragement of humour at Sparta (Plutarch Lycurgus 25.1–2). 2 Erasmus’ comment is no doubt based on various Spartan sayings already translated which disparaged musical expertise: eg 1.141–2, 1.169, 1.183, 1.224. He has yet to translate various sayings which on the other hand illustrate the Spartans’ appreciation of music of a rousing and inspiring nature and its importance in their educational curriculum, provided it was in a traditional and non-innovative style: eg 2.60 n1, 2.95, 2.97. His comment here is rather superficial and the wording perhaps reveals his own attitude towards musical expertise. His remarks in various places indicate that he thought that the time spent on becoming an expert player or athlete would be better spent on cultivating the mind and on activities conducive to moral worth. The philosophers also frequently condemn such trivial pursuits. See General Index: trivial pursuits. 40

41

(xl) Plutarch Moralia 234d. In margin ‘incisive‘ 1 Textual problems have arisen in the transmission of the Greek text, occasioned by the use of Laconian dialect in Plutarch. Erasmus translates the reading as found in Aldus’ text and follows Regio’s interpretation in the words ‘hares in the shadows we hunt.’ See the dedicatory epistle 8 n21 above. One suggested modern emendation of the text gives a meaning, ‘Lions wander where they will, but hares we chase over those lands.’ (xli) Plutarch Moralia 234e. In margin ‘neat‘

2 . 41

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his strength going, so he bit the arm that gripped him. The other cried, ‘Spartan, you bite like a woman!’ He retorted, ‘No, like a lion.’1 How quickly he turned the taunt of cowardice into a proof of courage! The worst disgrace known among the Spartans was the reproach of womanish weakness. He was right to save himself by biting, when the loser was attacking him contrary to the rules of the contest. 42 A lame man who was going off to fight was laughed at by the others. ‘It’s not people who run away who are needed,’ he said ‘but those who stand fast and keep their place in the line.’1 43 One of them was wounded by an arrow1 and as he lay dying said, ‘I am not distressed at dying, but at being killed by a skulking archer, no better than a woman, and I am sorry to die without having achieved anything impressive.’ It is a solace to the conquered to fall to the courage and skill of a warrior. The Spartans fought with the sword at close quarters and did not ***** 1 In translating this anecdote Erasmus seems to be thinking of a passage in Galen which he had added in 1528 to Adagia i ix 79 Dare manus ‘To put one’s hands up’: ‘. . . like one of those unskilled wrestlers who, when they have been thrown by the wrestling-master and are lying on their backs on the ground, are still so far from admitting the fall that they continue to hold those who have thrown them by their necks, refusing to let them go, and think that this is evidence that they have not been beaten.’ As the last sentence of his comment makes clear, Erasmus assumes that the contestant on top did the biting as a last resort because the loser was refusing to follow the rules and acknowledge defeat as soon as he had been floored. Consequently he has added the words praeter legem ‘against the rules’ (line 3) for which there is nothing in the Greek text (and see again at the end, praeter ius certaminis ‘contrary to the rules of the contest.’) At Plutarch Moralia 186d (Sayings of kings and commanders) 5.184 below, it is Alcibiades, the loser, who bites his opponent. Erasmus there comments that it is the opposite of this story. See Cicero Tusculan Disputations 5.27–77 for the determination of Spartan youths to win at all costs. 42

(xlii) Plutarch Moralia 234e 1 Cf 1.35 and 1.122 above, 2.139 below.

43

(xliii) Plutarch Moralia 234e. In margin ‘noble‘ 1 According to Plutarch Aristides 17.7, this was one Callicrates, killed at the battle of Plataea (see 1.316 n1 above). The invading Persians and their allies employed bow and arrow, a weapon not used by the Greeks. It was on the same occasion that the incident concerning Pausanias took place; see 2.116 n5 below.

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think it brave to kill someone by shooting an arrow from a distance, as even women can do that.2 Men can depart this life more contentedly if they leave behind them the memory of things well done. 44 A Spartan went into an inn and gave the innkeeper some fish to prepare. The innkeeper asked him for cheese and oil. ‘What!’ said he. ‘If I had cheese, I wouldn’t need fish!’1 The innkeeper asked him for cheese and oil to make the fish tasty. The Spartan, who was satisfied with very plain fare, thought it unnecessary to combine one food with another when either was enough on its own. How different is the attitude of those who combine a hundred different items in one dish! 45 A man was speaking admiringly of Lampis of Aegina1 and saying how lucky he was, because he owned a large merchant fleet and must be very rich. A Spartan commented, ‘I am not impressed by good fortune that hangs on ropes.’ All wealth is in the hand of fortune, but especially wealth which merchants entrust to ships. If the ropes break, shipwreck follows, with the loss of all the goods. This is why a philosopher2 who was asked whether he thought the living were more numerous than the dead, asked in his turn how he should classify those who take to ships – they were hardly to be counted as really living when their whole existence was spent in peril of their lives. ***** 2 For the cowardice of shooting from a distance instead of engaging hand to hand, see 1.155 above. 44

(xliv) Plutarch Moralia 234e–f. In margin ‘abstemious‘ 1 See Adagia iii iv 89 Si caseum haberem, non desiderarem opsonium ‘If I had cheese, I wouldn’t want meat.’ Though opsonium can mean any kind of prepared dish, including meat, in this apophthegm Erasmus interprets it as ‘fish,’ possibly basing this on Plutarch Moralia 667f–668a (Table-talk), where it is said that at Athens it had come to mean primarily ‘fish,’ which was there considered a great delicacy. The same information is found at Athenaeus Deipnosophistae 276e–f, another source much used by Erasmus. As Erasmus did not like fish, he no doubt thinks ‘fish’ more appropriate for an ascetic Spartan.

45

(xlv) Plutarch Moralia 234f. In margin ‘astute‘ 1 Lampis of Aegina was a shipowner famed for his wealth. Aegina is an island lying between Athens and the Peloponnese. 2 Ie Anacharsis, one of the Seven Sages; see 2.161 below.

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46 Someone accused a Spartan of lying. ‘Of course,’ he said, ‘we are free men. Others get beaten if they don’t tell the truth.’1 The Spartan was quite unabashed by the shocking accusation and turned it with a joke, incidentally taunting the one who made it with not being a Spartan and so not being free, because a whipping is what slaves get to teach them a lesson if they tell any sort of lie. 47 A man was trying to get a corpse to stand upright without success. After trying everything, ‘By Jove,’ he said, ‘there must be something inside.’ This Spartan had the idea that a spirit or an evil genius was lurking within the corpse. Corpses are stood upright on the funeral pyre.1 48 Tynnichus bore the death of his son Thrasybulus with great fortitude. The following epigram was composed in the son’s memory: To Pitane1 you came, Thrasybulus, Dead upon your shield. With seven dread wounds returned to us From Argive battle field, And all upon your breast displayed. I, Tynnichus, your sire, With these words your corpse have laid, All bloodied, on the pyre: ‘Tears are for cowards shed. You I shall not weep. True son of father and of fatherland you sleep.’

49 The bath attendant was supplying Alcibiades the Athenian1 with a great ***** 46

(xlvi) Plutarch Moralia 234f. In margin ‘clever‘ 1 Spartan boys were trained to be cunning and live by their wits. The crime for which they would be beaten was being found out. See 2.32 above and 2.94 below.

47

(xlvii) Plutarch Moralia 234f 1 Cf 3.187 below

48

(xlviii) Plutarch Moralia 235a. In margin ‘brave‘ 1 Pitane was one of the districts of the city of Sparta. See 2.116 n7 below.

49

(xlix) Plutarch Moralia 235a. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 During one phase of his brilliant but erratic career, Alcibiades defected to

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deal of water. A Spartan who observed this said, ‘What have we here? He’s pouring extra water as if he’s not clean but very dirty.’ This jibe pointed the finger at Alcibiades’ notorious life-style. 50 King Philip of Macedon wrote to the Spartans, giving them some orders. They answered, ‘In reply to yours, no.’1 They answered the king’s long missive with the monosyllable, NO, which they wrote in huge letters filling up the space usually taken up by the text of the letter.2 In this they displayed both the economy of words for which the Spartans were famous and also their usual boldness.3 51 On another occasion Philip had entered Spartan territory with his army and things had reached such a pass that the Spartans would, it seemed, all perish to a man. The king remarked to one of the Spartan warriors, ‘What will you do now, you Spartans?’ To which he replied, ‘What else than die bravely, since we alone of all the Greeks have learned to be free and not obey others.’1 No one who is prepared to die is compelled to be a slave.2 What a good sweet thing is liberty bought at the price of death; what a wretched thing is a servitude worse than death! What mental attitude shall we then ascribe to people who deliberately surrender themselves to a bondage from which there is no escape, either by ransom or by free release?3 ***** Sparta during the Peloponnesian War and lived like a Spartan, taking cold drenches. See Plutarch Moralia 52e (How to tell a flatterer). The bath attendant poured water over the bathers. If this incident occurred at Sparta, Alcibiades wanted more than the usual modest amount with which Spartans were satisfied. See 5.191 below. 50

(l) Plutarch Moralia 235a 1 All three editions of Apophthegmata have a marginal note, ‘This is not in our Greek text but in Philelphus.’ For Filelfo, see the dedicatory epistle 7 n20 above. 2 This detail comes from Plutarch Moralia 513a (On talkativeness). 3 See 1.95 n2 above.

51

(li) Plutarch Moralia 235b. In margin ‘brave‘ 1 Cf 1.157 and 1.165 above. 2 See 1.157 n2 above. 3 This last sentence possibly refers to the binding vows of the monastic profession. See Ep 447:34–7, 169–74.

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52 After defeating Agis in battle, Antipater1 demanded fifty boys as hostages. Eteocles, who was an ephor at the time, replied that he would not hand over boys for fear that they would get used to living without correction and become incapable of accepting the discipline of their native land, and so would not even be citizens.2 He would however hand over twice as many women and old men. Antipater threatened them with dire retribution if they did not accede to his demands. The people replied with one voice, ‘If the thing you demand is worse than death, we shall find death the easier thing.’ It would not be so wonderful maybe to find this kind of courage in one or two people in the citizen body, but to see such unanimity in the whole people is really extraordinary. This story also reminds us how carefully we should approach the task of bringing up those of tender years and imbuing them with sound principles, since the Spartans did not consider that young persons left to grow up undisciplined should be treated as citizens. This is like a mother rejecting the son she has borne if his moral standards do not measure up to those of his ancestors. 53 At the Olympic Games an old man wanted to watch a contest that had already started but there were no seats left. He went from place to place being laughed at and made the butt of jokes, because no one would let him in. When he came to the Spartans, not only did all the boys rise from their seats but many of the men too offered him their place.1 All the other Greeks assembled there applauded and spoke admiringly of this traditional Spartan behaviour, but the old man ‘shaking his grey beard and grizzled locks,’2 said with tears in his eyes, ‘How sad it is that all the Greeks know what is the right thing to do, but only the Spartans do it.’ ***** 52

(lii) Plutarch Moralia 235b–c. In margin ‘outspoken‘ 1 Antipater 397–319 bc was a trusted Macedonian general serving first under Philip ii. Under his successor Alexander he held important administrative posts and was regent of Macedonia during Alexander’s absence. He defeated Agis iii of Sparta at Megalopolis in 311–310 bc, after Sparta had organized rebellion against Macedonia. After Alexander’s death he was one of the successors contending for domination. 2 Only those who submitted to the traditional Spartan discipline could be full Spartiate citizens. See 2.99 n1 below.

53

(liii) Plutarch Moralia 235c–d. In margin ‘telling‘ 1 See 1.269 n5 above; 2.54 and 2.59 below. 2 Homer Iliad 22.74, 24.516.

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54 The same thing is said to have occurred in Athens during the Panathenaea.1 The Athenians were making fun of an old man, pretending to offer him a seat and then closing up when he approached. After he had walked round nearly all of them, he came to where the Spartan spectators were sitting. They all rose from the benches and offered him a place.2 The people were delighted with this and showed their appreciation with clapping and signs of approval. Meantime one of the ‘true Spartans’ remarked, ‘In the name of the Twin Gods, the Athenians know what’s the right thing, but they don’t do it.’ Philosophy was much in vogue at Athens, teaching what was base and what was honourable. The ‘true Spartans’ would not countenance such studies, but, following their ancestral code of conduct, demonstrated virtue both in character and in action. So it came about that Athens had the words of philosophy while the Spartans had the real thing. The Spartan’s comment reminds us that it is disgraceful to know the proper thing to do and yet do the opposite. 55 A beggar asked a Spartan to give him something. He replied, ‘If I give you something, it will confirm you as a beggar. The person who first gave you something started you on your shameful way of life and made you idle.’ The Spartans condemned begging because they hated being idle and were content with very little. Generosity to beggars looks like a virtue, but this goodness on the part of pious persons often feeds the selfish laziness of the reprobate. 56 A Spartan saw someone making a collection for the gods. ‘I’ve no time,’ said he, ‘for gods who are poorer than myself.’ This anecdote shows that the practice of going out with a begging-bowl under the pretext of religion is nothing new. Very often what is donated ***** 54

(liv) Plutarch Moralia 235d–e 1 The Panathenaea was the great annual festival held at Athens in honour of Pallas Athene, the patron goddess of Athens. At the Greater Panathenaea, held every four years, there were athletic and musical contests open to people from all over Greece. 2 Cf 2.53 just above. The story is also related by Cicero De senectute 63 but that is not Erasmus’ source here.

55

(lv) Plutarch Moralia 235e. In margin ‘sharp‘

56

(lvi) Plutarch Moralia 235e

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because people think it is for some religious cause is not spent on the gods, who have no need of anything, but used to supply the extravagance and lusts of villainous men. 57 A Spartan caught an adulterer in bed with his wife,1 who was an ugly woman. ‘Poor fellow,’ he said, ‘whatever drove you to this?’ First of all we have here an example of self-control. Who would keep his temper when faced with an adulterer caught in the act? This man seems rather to have felt sorry for the other, who, it appears, had been driven by some dire compulsion to have sex with an ugly woman. It seemed unlikely that the adulterer would get himself into that particular tricky situation just for pleasure’s sake. 58 Another Spartan heard an orator weaving together his swathes of circumlocutory speech. ‘By the Twin Gods,’ he commented. ‘What a powerful fellow! He has nothing to say, yet he can roll his tongue round it splendidly!’ The Spartans appreciated a speech only if it were brief, truthful, and dealt with a serious subject. So this man thought it ludicrous that the speaker could generate such a wealth of words on an imaginary topic.1 59 A man who was visiting Sparta observed the respect shown there by the younger men to the older ones. ‘Sparta is the only place,’ he commented, ‘where there are advantages in growing old.’ Poverty is a wretched, heavy burden as the comic writer says.1 But the greatest misery is that it makes men laughing-stocks as well, as says the Satirist.2 So among the disadvantages brought by advancing years, one of the greatest is that old men are usually treated with mockery and contempt. ***** 57

(lvii) Plutarch Moralia 235e. In margin ‘forbearing‘ 1 Erasmus has got the idea that it is the man’s own wife who was involved from a similar story in Plutarch Moralia 525d (On avarice), used in 6.270 below. Adultery was supposed to be unthinkable in Sparta: see 1.275 above. The original remark is in Spartan dialect.

58

(lviii) Plutarch Moralia 235e. In margin ‘loquacity‘ 1 For numerous aphorisms on this subject, see 1.95 n2 above.

59

(lix) Plutarch Moralia 235f. In margin ‘honoured old-age‘ 1 Ie the Roman dramatist Terence, in Phormio 94. 2 Ie the Roman satirist Juvenal, in Satires 3.153.

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Accordingly, many people saw Sparta as the most honourable home for old age.3 60 A Spartan was asked what he thought of the poet Tyrtaeus. ‘Good,’ he said, ‘for corrupting1 the minds of the young.’ Plato considered that the poetry of Homer had nothing to contribute to the kind of republic he wanted to see established.2 Likewise, the Spartans had no time for poets who wrote verse that pleased rather than improved. 61 A man with very bad eyes went off to the war. Several people said to him, ‘Where are you off to with that complaint of yours? What do you expect to do?’ ‘If nothing else,’ he replied, ‘you will find I have certainly blunted the enemy’s sword.’ I haven’t made up my mind whether this was a witty remark or a brave one. 62 Two Spartans, Buris and Spartis, volunteered to go to Xerxes, the Persian king, and pay the penalty which the Spartans had incurred, as declared by the oracle, for killing the envoys the king had sent.1 When they came before ***** 3 This translates the reading of 1531. The later editions have ‘the honourable home of virtue.’ See Adagia iv ii 68: In sola Sparta expedit senescere ‘Only in Sparta does it pay to grow old.’ 60

61 62

(lx) Plutarch Moralia 235f. In margin ‘a useless skill‘ 1 The meaning of the Greek word (possibly a Laconian dialectal word) translated by Erasmus as ‘corrupting’ is dubious, but more likely means ‘sharpening.’ This meaning is spelt out at Plutarch Moralia 959b (where the saying is attributed to Leonidas). Erasmus follows Filelfo here rather than Regio, who opts for the second meaning. See the dedicatory epistle 7–8 nn20 and 21 above. The fragments of Tyrtaeus’ poetry suggest battle songs and a military context. See 1.314 above. 2 Plato Republic 10.607a (lxi) Plutarch Moralia 235f. In margin ‘brave‘ (lxii) Plutarch Moralia 235f–236b. In margin ‘love of country‘ 1 The Persian envoys came to various cities in Greece after the collapse of the Ionian revolt in 494 bc, demanding submission. Athens and Sparta executed them. The oracle emanated from the shrine of Talthybius (Agamemnon’s herald), situated at Sparta.

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him, they asked him to execute them as representatives of the Spartans, choosing whatever manner of death he thought appropriate. The king, impressed both by their patriotism and by their bravery, released them from all punishment and asked them to stay in his court. ‘How can we live here,’ they replied, ‘leaving our country, its laws and its men, when it is for their sake that we have made this long journey for the purpose of dying?’ Indarnus, the king’s general, also tried to persuade them, saying that they would have the same status as those held in highest honour among the king’s associates. They replied to this, ‘You do not seem to be aware what an enormous blessing liberty is and that no sane man would exchange it even for the whole realm of Persia.’ This incident sets before us an example of patriotism, of unshakable love of liberty and of a mind free from the terror of death. Herodotus in book 7 calls the pair Sperthies and Boulis.2 63 A man had avoided asking a Spartan friend to stay with him the day before, but the next day, having borrowed bed-covers, he gave him a lavish welcome. But the Spartan threw the covers down and stamped on them, saying, ‘Because of these, I wasn’t allowed to sleep even on a rush mat last night.’ This was a witty dig at people of modest means who try to appear rich by borrowing or hiring furniture, especially to entertain visitors or for weddings or any other sort of special occasion. While it is foolish to make a parade of one’s wealth, it is even more ridiculous to show off furnishings belonging to other people, sometimes even hired for the occasion. The Spartans however invited not just king’s ambassadors but kings1 themselves to their common dining-hall, being of the opinion that the simplicity observed there would actually earn them great respect. 64 Another Spartan, when visiting Athens, observed people hawking pickles and delicatessen, and pursuing various dishonourable occupations, such as tax-collecting1 and pimping, seeing no activity as shameful. When he ***** 2 Herodotus 7.133–6, who also calls the Persian general Hydarnes, the form of the name used in lb. The last sentence was added in 1535. 63

(lxiii) Plutarch Moralia 236b. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 For example, Dionysius i, tyrant of Sicily. See 2.84 below.

64

(lxiv) Plutarch Moralia 236b–c. In margin ‘lack of restraint‘ 1 Tax-collecting was a speculative profit-making business in ancient times, which usually enriched the operators. As Spartiates were forbidden to engage in any

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returned home, his fellows asked him how things were in Athens. ‘Everything is OK,’ he replied, sarcastically indicating that at Athens everything was acceptable, nothing considered disreputable. The wit of the remark lies in the fact that it can be taken in more than one way. 65 Another Spartan, when asked some question or other, answered, ‘No.’ The questioner then said that he was lying. To which he replied, ‘Don’t you see how stupid it is to ask a question to which you already know the answer.’ This was his smart criticism of the other’s fault of talkativeness, since he was trying to manufacture something to talk about out of nothing.1 66 Some Spartans came on an embassy to the despot Lygdamis.1 Their audience with him was constantly being postponed on various pretexts. At last, after all the other excuses, they were told that he was not in very good health and was feeling rather weak. The ambassadors replied, ‘Good God, we haven’t come to wrestle with him but to have a talk with him!’ This was a neat criticism of the barbarian king’s arrogance and foppishness since he neglected serious business for any reason, however frivolous. 67 A Spartan was about to be initiated into the holy mysteries and the officiant asked him what was the worst thing in his whole life that his conscience accused him of. He replied, ‘The gods already know that.’ The other pressed him, saying, ‘You have to declare it.’ The Spartan ***** money-making activity or craft or sedentary occupation (see Xenophon Respublica Lacedaemoniorum 7.2), they no doubt considered tax-collecting, like the other activities mentioned, a degrading occupation for a free citizen. ’Craft or sedentary occupation’ is Erasmus’ version of tŽxnh b‡nausow ‘artisan skill,’ which covers smithing, building, carpentry, etc, and strictly sedentary occupations such as potting, weaving, tailoring. See 1.70 above, 2.117 and 3.12 below. 65

(lxv) Plutarch Moralia 236c 1 See Plutarch Moralia 512b (On talkativeness).

66

(lxvi) Plutarch Moralia 236c 1 ‘The despot Lygdamis’ was sole ruler of the island of Naxos 560–524 bc. See 1.216 n1 above.

67

(lxvii) Plutarch Moralia 236d. Cf 1.123 above.

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then asked him, ‘Do I have to tell you or the god?’ When the other answered, ‘The god,’ he replied, ‘You remove yourself then, so that I can tell him.’ 68 A Spartan was once passing a tomb at night and thought he saw a ghost. He ran at it with his lance levelled and as he struck at it, cried out, ‘Spirit, where can you run to escape from me? You will now die a second time.’ What a mind utterly free of all terrors, quite undaunted by spectres and hobgoblins! 69 A certain Spartan took a vow to jump off the Leucadian cliff,1 but when he climbed up and saw how high it was, he turned back. When people jeered at him for this, he replied, ‘I didn’t think my vow needed an even greater vow.’ He thus jokingly deflected the charge of cowardice and not sticking to his resolution. Anyone who sees himself performing some challenging deed should first pray the gods for a spirit equal to the deed. 70 In the thick of battle a Spartan had his sword drawn and was about to plunge it into an enemy soldier when the signal was given to withdraw, so he did not make the fatal thrust. Someone asked him why he had not killed the man when he had him at his mercy. He replied, ‘Because it is better to obey one’s commander than kill the foe.’ We have here an example of military discipline. How far removed from such obedience are those who use war as a pretext for mere brigandage! In earlier days one was not allowed to strike the foe unless the trumpet had given the signal, and once the withdrawal was sounded killing a foe was treated as murder. ***** 68 69

70

(lxviii) Plutarch Moralia 236d. In margin ‘absence of superstition‘ (lxix) Plutarch Moralia 236d. In margin ‘humorous‘ 1 The Leucadian cliff was a high cliff on the island of Leucas off the northwest coast of Greece, from which unhappy lovers used to leap into the sea. Some, it is said, survived and were cured of their passion, others drowned. The poetess Sappho was supposed to have been the first to take the plunge. The leap became proverbial. (lxx) Plutarch Moralia 236e. In margin ‘military discipline‘

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71 Someone said to a Spartan who had been defeated in a contest at the Olympic Games, ‘Spartan, your opponent was better than you.’ ‘No,’ he replied, ‘just better at throws.’1 The contest was one of skill, not courage, so the Spartan did not consider himself inferior for being defeated. The wit of the remark depends on the ambiguity of the word ‘better.’ It means both ‘more good’ and ‘more powerful,’ ‘stronger’ or ‘superior.’ 72 The Aetolians once raided Spartan territory and took away 50,000 slaves. An elderly Spartan wittily commented, ‘The enemy have done Sparta a great service, as they have relieved us of such a crowd.’ 73 It was a Spartan custom that the king should go into battle preceded by a man wearing a garland on his head who had at some time won a victor’s crown in an athletic contest. A certain Spartan at the Olympic Games was offered a large bribe, which he rejected with scorn. In the contest he eventually threw his opponent after a long hard struggle and took the victor’s crown. Someone said to him, ‘Well then, Spartan, what will you get out of your victory?’ He smiled and promptly replied, ‘I will march to meet the enemy in front of the king, wearing my crown.’ It is a noble spirit that loves glory more than money. 74 A certain Spartan soldier had been brought to the ground and the enemy was kneeling on his back ready to kill him. He asked his assailant to turn him over and plunge his sword into his breast rather than his back. When asked ***** 71

(lxxi) Plutarch Moralia 236e. In margin ‘witty‘ This is the last of Plutarch’s Sayings of Spartans. The remaining Spartan apophthegms are taken from various sources, mainly other works of Plutarch. 1 Cf 2.25 above.

72

(lxxii) Plutarch Life of Agis and Cleomenes 39 [18].3.

73

(lxxiii) Plutarch Life of Lycurgus 22.4. The prizes for victory offered at the major Greek athletic contests were in themselves of no value, consisting of wreaths of greenery (eg laurel, olive), though the victors expected other more tangible rewards from their home cities. Plutarch does not actually say that they wore the garland into battle. In margin ‘noble‘

74

(lxxiv) Plutarch Life of Pelopidas 18.4

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why, he replied, ‘So that my lover1 may not see my body with sword-cuts dealt from behind and be shamed.’ 75 Diagoras of Rhodes1 saw his own sons and also the sons of both a son and a daughter crowned as victors at the Olympic Games. A Spartan said to him, ‘Time to die, Diagoras. You won’t ascend to Olympus.’ He meant that it was best to depart this life at the highest point of happiness and success. The story is found in Plutarch’s Lives. Cicero also records it in the Tusculans, book i. What gives the remark its point is the ambiguity of the word Olympus. Olympus is a hill where the Olympian contests were held at the end of every five year period,2 and it also signifies Heaven.3 76 A Spartan tutor took on the charge of a boy and when he was asked what he was going to teach him, ‘I will make sure,’ he said, ‘that he takes pleasure in what is honourable and detests what is evil.’ Nothing contributes more to true happiness than loving virtue for itself and hating vice for itself. ***** 1 It was customary in Sparta for men and boys to enter into close relationships and share each other’s fame and disgrace. See Plutarch Lycurgus 18; also 2.89 below. 75

76

(lxxv) Plutarch Life of Pelopidas 34 and Cicero Tusculan Disputations 1.46.111 1 Diagoras of Rhodes was the first Olympic victor in a distinguished family of athletes, winning the boxing in 464 bc, a victory celebrated by Pindar in his seventh Olympian Ode. His son Damagetus won the pankration in 452 and 448, at which meeting a younger brother Acusilas won the boxing. A third son, Dorieus, won the pankration in 432, 428, and 424. In 404 Eucles, his daughter’s son, won the boxing, and another grandson, Pisorrhodus, won the boys’ boxing contest. See Harris 123. 2 See 1.96 n1 above. 3 The famous Mount Olympus (height 2911 metres) was the home of the gods, far above the concerns of men and ‘to ascend to Olympus’ signified becoming divine and joining the company of the gods, as eg Hercules did. Diagoras has achieved all an ordinary man can hope for. The mountain was in the far north of Greece, on the extreme border of Thessaly, and nowhere near Olympia in Elis in southern Greece where the Olympic Games were celebrated. However, several other hills bore the name Olympus, and one of these overlooked the plain where the Olympic sanctuary and the site of the games lay. (lxxvi) Plutarch Moralia 452d (On moral virtue)

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77 A traditional-type Spartan was asked what good it did to assign tutors to boys. ‘They see to it,’ he replied, ‘that what is honourable becomes pleasurable to them as well.’ 78 [a] In the Peloponnesian War, Callicratidas, the Spartan general, was urged to withdraw the fleet from Arginusae1 and not engage with the Athenians. He refused to comply, saying that if the Spartans lost that fleet they could replace it, but they could not flee without incurring dishonour. [b] Agesilaus said that it gave him pleasure to be praised by people who were not afraid to take him to task if they found fault with anything. If such people praise anything, they do so out of conviction, not from fear or in order to flatter. 79 When Demonides1 had his sandals stolen, he prayed that they would fit the thief’s feet. This looked like a blessing prayer, but actually it was a cursing prayer, as he was asking that the thief might have deformed feet like his own. 80 The Spartans sent relief supplies to the people of Smyrna when they were in need. They began to thank them profusely, but the Spartans interrupted. ‘It’s nothing,’ they said. ‘We and our horses went without dinner for one day and this is the proceeds.’ A favour is more acceptable if the one who bestows it makes light of it. Those who exaggerate their generosity (which is what most people do), lose much of the recipient’s gratitude. ***** 77

(lxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 439f (Can virtue be taught?)

78

(lxxviii) [a] was used in 1531 and was replaced by [b] in 1532, 1535. [a] Cicero De officiis 1.84; [b] Plutarch Moralia 55c (How to tell a flatterer). See also Xenophon Agesilaus 11.5 1 See 1.208 above, from a different source.

79

(lxxix) Plutarch Moralia 18d (How to study poetry) 1 This (the Latin form of the name) could be the same person as in 1.163. A similar story is told of Dorion in Athenaeus 338a. It is ascribed to one Damon and identified as a chreia ‘in the form of a prayer’ in Theon Progymnasmata 5.199 (Spengel ii 100); see Introduction xxiv–xxvii.

80

(lxxx) Plutarch Moralia 64b (How to tell a flatterer). See also 2.190 below.

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81 When Cephisicrates was standing trial for treason, Lacydes, an intimate of Arcesilaus,1 came with his other friends to support him. When the accuser demanded the production of a ring which could have proved his guilt, Cephisicrates stealthily dropped it on the ground. Lacydes observed this and put his foot over it. So Cephisicrates denied the charge and was acquitted. Then when the defendant was thanking the jury in the customary way, one of them, who had seen what happened, told him to thank Lacydes as well. 82 Arcesilaus was suffering from a very painful attack of gout. Carneades1 came to call on him and was sadly going away, but the other, pointing to his feet and his breast, said, ‘Stay, Carneades. Nothing from there has reached here.’ He meant that his feet were in pain but his mind was free from pain. Early Spartan Customs 83 As each person entered the common dining hall,1 the oldest person present pointed to the door and said, ‘No word goes out through here.’ This was to remind them not to blab if anyone said anything unguarded over the meal. This custom was instituted by Lycurgus. 84 The Spartans set great store by a ‘black broth’ as they called it. In fact the ***** 81

(lxxxi) Plutarch Moralia 63e (How to tell a flatterer). 2.81 and 2.82 do not seem to have any very obvious Spartan connection. 1 Arcesilaus was an Ionian, born at Pitane in Asia Minor. (An area of Sparta was also called Pitane – this might have occasioned an association with Sparta in Erasmus’ mind.) He was the founder of the sceptical Middle Academy at Athens and died c. 240 bc. Lacydes was his pupil and succeeded him as head of the Middle Academy. See 7.181–6, 7.336 below.

82

(lxxxii) For the incident see Cicero De finibus 5.94 (where, however, the visitor is Charmides, an Epicurean). 1 Carneades was a native of Cyrene in North Africa, a Doric settlement. He was the founder of the New Academy at Athens in the second century bc. See 1.1 n1 above, 7.217–8 below.

83

(i) Plutarch Moralia 236f. The section on Early Spartan Customs (2.83–2.119) is translated from Plutarch Moralia 236f–240b (The ancient customs of the Spartans). In margin ‘silence‘ 1 For ‘the common dining hall’ see 1.262 above.

84

(ii) Plutarch Moralia 236f. In margin ‘exercise as seasoning‘

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older men took it instead of meat, which they left to the younger men. For this reason, Dionysius, the despot of Sicily, we are told, bought a Spartan cook and ordered him to prepare this broth for him, no expense spared; but when he tasted it, he found it revolting and spat it out. The cook then remarked, ‘You have to eat this broth, your majesty, after exercising in Spartan fashion and swimming in the Eurotas.’ Cicero in book 5 of the Tusculans has a more amusing version of the same story which is somewhat different from Plutarch’s.1 He tells us that Dionysius had dinner in the common mess-hall at Sparta and after the meal said that he had not liked the black broth which had been the main dish. The man who had prepared the broth said that it wasn’t surprising that he hadn’t liked it, as it didn’t have the proper seasonings. When Dionysius wanted to know what these might be, he replied, ‘The hard work of the hunt, sweating, running after a swim in the Eurotas, hunger, and thirst. These are the seasonings used in Spartan meals.’2 85 The Spartans drink in moderation at their communal meals and afterwards leave the hall without using any torches, as they are not allowed to light their way on this route or any other. This is to get them used to travelling boldly and fearlessly at night in the dark. In wartime this practice sometimes become a necessity. 86 These same Spartans did indeed learn to read and write but would have nothing to do with other, foreign, intellectual disciplines, refusing to admit either the people who taught such things or even books on the subjects. Their scholarship was summed up in this: obey the magistrates wholeheartedly, bear toil patiently, and in battle conquer or die. At one time some of the Romans were of the same mind, the ones, that is, who expelled the Greek philosophers from Rome because their novel teachings were enticing the young away to idleness and neglect of duty, teaching them to talk, to be sure, but making them unfit to fulfil their obligations to the state.1 What would these Romans have said if they had come ***** 1 Cicero Tusculan Disputations 5.34.98 2 For hunger and thirst as the best seasoning see 4.44 and 5.93 below. 85 86

(iii) Plutarch Moralia 237a. In margin ‘getting used to the dark‘ (iv) Plutarch Moralia 237a. In margin ‘simple philosophy‘ 1 See n1 on Erasmus’ preamble 19 above.

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across those sophistical conundrums, the stultifying complications of the nominal and the real?2 87 They always wore a single garment without a tunic and had grubby bodies, as they abstained almost entirely from baths and the use of body lotions.1 People like this, who are both poor and tough, are not readily attacked. Nor were they driven to seek wealth by evil means, being content with so little. This was how the Spartans lived, knowing nothing of either philosophy or Christ. Are we not ashamed of our self-indulgence? We call people religious when they are content with four layers of clothing. 88 The young men slept by troop and company in communal dormitories, on beds of vegetation which they collected for themselves, pulling by hand without any implement the tops of the rushes which grew along the Eurotas. In winter they added a layer of a kind of moss which they mixed with the rushes, as it was believed to have heat-giving properties. Now what about those people who sleep stretched out on goose feather mattresses and complain that the hard bed gives them a pain in the side? 89 It was acceptable among the Spartans to become emotionally attached to boys of good character for their qualities of mind, but it was considered disgraceful to have physical relations with them, as this suggested love for ***** 2 Nominalism and Realism were schools of thought dealing with such topics as language, meaning, reality, existence, knowledge, and universals – logical problems bequeathed to the Middle Ages in part by Aristotle’s Categories – and were the stuff of mediaeval logic, metaphysics, and theology. Erasmus of course had had direct experience of all this in his own education and often expresses impatience with its hair-splitting complexity and irrelevance. He often calls mediaeval scholasticism ‘sophistry.’ 87

(v) Plutarch Moralia 237b. In margin ‘thrifty‘ 1 This paragraph refers to the training of boys; see Plutarch Lycurgus 16.12. The wearing of a single garment was enforced from the age of twelve. Adult Spartans did not take hot baths, which were considered effeminate and enervating, but they did take cold drenches; see 2.49 above. Plutarch considered the taking of cold baths ostentatious and bad for the health; see Plutarch Moralia 131b (Advice about keeping well).

88

(vi) Plutarch Moralia 237b. In margin ‘thrifty‘

89

(vii) Plutarch Moralia 237c. In margin ‘love of the mind‘

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the body rather than the mind. If anyone was accused of improper conduct towards boys, he was a social outcast for the rest of his life and ineligible for any public position. Thus the law, protecting those of tender years, allowed older persons to love them, but without any sordid implications.1 This holds good not only with children, but with spouses too. A man does not truly love his wife if he loves her for her body rather than herself. 90 It was customary for youths, when they were going somewhere, to be asked by the older men where they were going and for what purpose. Anyone who didn’t reply or offered a frivolous reason was given a dressing-down. An older man who failed to take to task a youth who did something wrong before his very eyes had to pay the same penalty as if he had done the deed himself. Anyone who resented being corrected brought shame on himself. It is only right to blame the faults of children on those whose task it is to control or correct them. Furthermore, the older men had a compelling reason not to let the boys see them doing anything unseemly themselves, for how could they have the face to censure the younger generation if they were deserving of censure themselves?1 91 Anyone caught doing wrong was compelled to walk round a certain altar in the city, reciting a chant about his own shortcomings. This had the effect of making him blame himself in his own words. Boys of a noble disposition are directed more effectively towards good by shame and the desire for commendation. To be whipped or beaten is only for slaves.1 92 Furthermore, it was expected that the young should not only respect and obey their own parents, but also honour all older persons,1 standing aside ***** 1 Cf Plato Republic 3.403; Plutarch Moralia 11f (The education of children). 90

(viii) Plutarch Moralia 237c. In margin ‘wise‘ 1 For this whole paragraph see Plutarch Moralia 14a (The education of children).

91

(ix) Plutarch Moralia 237c. In margin ‘reprimand‘ 1 For this paragraph, see Plutarch Moralia 9a (The education of children). Cf 2.46 above.

92

(x) Plutarch Moralia 237d. In margin ‘communal living‘ 1 Cf 1.341 above.

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for them in the street, rising to offer them their seats,2 and not talking or making a noise when they went by. As a result of this, each person had authority not only over his own children, slaves, and possessions as in other states, but had as much right over his friends’ and neighbours’ children and possessions as over his own. So everything was to be held totally in common and everybody was to look after what belonged to other people in the same way as he looked after what was his own. They realized the advantages to be gained from common ownership not imposed from outside but arising naturally from mutual goodwill. Pythagoras was ultimately responsible for the idea that ‘everything is shared among friends,’3 and this concept they wished to have the widest possible application in their society. For all fellow-citizens are friends. How much more those who share the same faith! Indeed, all human beings should be motivated by mutual benevolence simply because they are members of the same human race. 93 If a boy was punished by someone and complained to his father, the father would be censured if he did not thereupon give his son another beating. Their ancestral constitution had given them such mutual confidence in each other that they believed no one would order anyone else’s son to do anything improper, as they treated other people’s children as if they were their own. Children do not yet understand right and wrong and so need correction. But when boys are beaten by their teachers they usually complain to their parents of the cruelty of those who have corrected them. Because this undermines the authority of other older persons, the Spartans did not leave their children this opening, with the result that all older persons had the same authority over the boys as their parents. 94 In Sparta boys steal anything they can,1 including food, learning to take ***** 2 See 1.269 n5 above. 3 See Adagia i i 1: Amicorum communia omnia ‘Between friends all is common’; Diogenes Laertius 8.10. 93 94

(xi) Plutarch Moralia 237d–e. In margin ‘the discipline of children‘ (xii) Plutarch Moralia 237e–f. In margin ‘the art of stealing‘ 1 Cf 2.32 above. See also Xenophon Respublica Lacedaemoniorum 2.5–6 for this whole paragraph. A marginal note reads: ‘This is not Plutarch’s style. It comes from Xenophon.’

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people unawares when they are asleep or not being sufficiently careful. The punishment if they are caught is a beating and going without food. They are kept on short rations anyway in order to make them bold and cunning, since they have to use their wits if they don’t want to go hungry. This was one reason why they were made to suffer hunger. But another reason for giving them so little to eat was to get them used to never having enough to satisfy them and to being able to endure the pangs of hunger. They thought that this practice would make them more effective soldiers, if they could go without food and still continue to function efficiently. Furthermore, they would have more disciplined bodies able to subsist on poor fare, if they lived for long periods at small expense. Not only that, they believed that, if they were used to not having anything fancy and to eating gladly anything put in front of them, their bodies would grow healthier and taller, because less food means more height, since the body is not weighed down and so can grow upwards rather than sideways, and it also looks more attractive. A thin spare physique also contributes to mobility; fatness due to overeating hinders movement because of the weight.2 That race made no concessions to pleasure and indulgence but in everything put the good of the state first! In this they totally disagreed with the majority, who have this idea that there is nothing better than stuffing children with far too much food and drink, when in reality this not only makes them slow and useless for any work but makes their bodies ugly and their brains thick. 95 They paid as much attention to the style of music, melody and song as they did to food, dress, and the other things mentioned earlier. Their music was such that it stirred the mind and spirit and inspired an ardour for doing great things, in effect not unlike the divine afflatus.1 The other Greek states preferred soothing music that debilitated the spirit, inclining it to pleasure and softness. Plato thinks it very important what kind of music a nation listens to.2 ***** 2 Similar ideas are expressed in Aulus Gellius 4.19. 95

(xiii) Plutarch Moralia 238a. In margin ‘virile music‘ 1 Erasmus here uses the phrase adflatus divinus ‘divine afflatus’ which Cicero uses quite often (eg at Divinatio 2.167) to translate the Greek word \nyousiQdhw [enthousi¯od¯es] which is in Plutarch’s text here. 2 See Plato Republic 398c–399e.

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96 Their oratory was simple and unaffected, without refinement or frippery, and it was employed only in praise of those who had lived bravely and nobly, had given their lives for Sparta, and were extolled by all as blessed beings; or else it was employed in denouncing those who, for fear of danger, had never done anything out of the ordinary and because of their cowardice in the face of death were living lives of anguish and misery.1 Finally it was employed in making declarations appropriate to each person’s stage in life, that would inspire deeds of valour by implanting in their souls a passion for glory. To this end, there were three choirs put together at the festivals, drawn from each of the three age groups. The choir of older men began by singing, ‘Valiant young warriors in days gone by were we’; the second choir, made up of men in the prime of life, sang, ‘Such are we now; try us if you will and see’; and a third choir of boys sang, ‘We in days to come the best by far shall be.’ 97 Moreover they marched in time to certain rhythms1 which had the effect of stirring their spirits to courage, audacity, and contempt for death. They employed these rhythms in their choral dancing too, as well as when they advanced to engage with the enemy to the accompaniment of pipes.2 Lycurgus indeed combined army drill with the practice of music to ensure that their impetuous eagerness for battle should be disciplined by musical rhythms and display harmony and unison. Hence it was the custom for the king to sacrifice to the Muses before joining battle, so that the fighting men should perform deeds worthy of honoured remembrance in the spoken and the written word.3 They allowed no one to introduce innovations4 into the traditional music. Even Terpander,5 the most senior and the finest lyre player of the age, ***** 96

(xiv) Plutarch Moralia 238a–b. In margin ‘three choirs‘ 1 See 2.32 n1 above.

97 1 2 3 4 5

(xv) Plutarch Moralia 238c–d (music in battle) and 238b (innovations). In margin ‘type of music‘ Cf 1.37 and 2.95 above. See Athenaeus 14.630f for Spartan warriors chanting the songs of Tyrtaeus (see 1.314 above) as they marched into battle. For ‘pipes,’ see 1.37 above. Cf 1.187 above. Cf 1.175 and 2.30 above. Terpander was a seventh-century bc poet and musician, who came originally from Lesbos but worked in Sparta. He was believed to be the first to win the music competition at the Carneian Games (see below n7).

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and a great celebrant of heroic deeds, was fined by the ephors, who snatched away his lyre and nailed it to the wall because he had added just one unnecessary string in order to give a greater variety of pitch. They approved of only the simplest of melodies. When Timotheus6 was competing in the Carneian Games (this was a festival in honour of some prophet or other called Carnes, though Pausanias7 tells us that the Spartans gave Apollo the title Carneius), one of the ephors took his sword and asked him from which side of the lyre he would prefer to have the strings that exceeded the number seven cut out. How the Spartan people practised frugality and abhorred excess in every sphere, fearing to depart from ancestral custom, because everything that brings destruction on a nation takes its origin from that! 98 Lycurgus went so far as to abolish all superstitious practices connected with tombs. He not only allowed burials within the city but allowed the burial places to be close to religious buildings. He did away with the rites for expiating the pollution occasioned by a death and allowed nothing to be buried with the corpse. (Other nations used to put in the grave anything which had been particularly dear to the departed during his life, a wasteful and silly superstition, suggesting that the dead still have some sort of sensation.) Lycurgus ordered everyone to be buried in exactly the same way, wrapped in a red cloth and with olive leaves. He forbade the addition of any name or inscription to the tomb, except in the case of those who had fallen in battle. He also abolished ritual mourning and dirges. People in general used to mark a death with incredible expense and elaboration, even hiring mourners for the occasion, all of which was a very foolish procedure, suggesting that the departed retained consciousness, and ***** 6 Timotheus was a musician and poet of the fifth to fourth century bc, famed for his bold musical innovations, which were not at first well received anywhere. In his hands, the seven-stringed lyre, which had gradually had more strings added, seems to have acquired an eleventh string, to facilitate his use of chromatic figuration. 7 Pausanias Periegesis (Description of Greece) 3.13.4 ff, where we read of a prophet Carnus, another figure Carneus who had an old-established worship in the Peloponnese, and of Apollo Carneus, who likewise was worshipped at various places in the Peloponnese. The Carneian Games in honour of Apollo (the god of music) at Sparta lasted for nine days and included music competitions as well as more directly military activities. 98

(xvi) Plutarch Moralia 238d. In margin ‘superstitions connected with funerals‘

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that if they did, they still took pleasure in the things they had loved in life, and loved indeed not by rational choice but through some folly of the mind. 99 They were not allowed to visit foreign countries. This was to prevent them catching the contagion of foreign ways and undisciplined living. They even kept foreigners from coming into their city, so that they should not gradually infiltrate and become tutors to the citizens in some evil practice or other. Any citizen who objected to his children being educated in the traditional way1 was deprived of citizen rights. We are also told that any foreigner who was capable of submitting himself to the traditional institutions of the Spartan state was, according to the decision of Lycurgus, admitted to that share in the citizen body that had been determined in the earliest days.2 But no one was allowed to sell the rights of citizenship. The wise Lycurgus was well aware that even well constituted states are corrupted by trade and foreign contacts, since all men are more receptive of vice than of virtue. But no admixture is more pernicious than the one that results from the carrying abroad and extension of imperial power. Rome lost her manliness through the influx of Greeks. Even Sparta eventually, through her dealings with barbarian nations, became utterly corrupt after being totally undefiled.3 Likewise, France lost its masculinity by the admixture of foreign races, and so did Germany to some extent. 100 It was accepted that anyone could make use of his neighbour’s servants just as if they were his own, likewise his dogs and horses, unless maybe the master needed them himself. Even out in the country, if a man was short of anything, he would open someone’s storehouse, take enough to supply his immediate needs, then reseal the doors and depart. ***** 99

(xvii) Plutarch Moralia 238e–f. In margin ‘foreign customs‘ 1 Plutarch’s Greek probably means ‘would not submit to the traditional boy’s education.’ 2 This may mean that he received a kleros, an allocation of land, like Spartan citizens, but there is some doubt about the Greek text of Plutarch here. See 1.259 above. 3 The extension of Spartan influence beyond the Peloponnese involved contact with many other states and peoples, especially the Persians in the fifth century bc onwards. For the resultant corruption, see 1.185 above and 2.136 below.

100 (xviii) Plutarch Moralia 238f. In margin ‘communal living‘

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In a society like this, what place was there for insatiable greed? For the rapacity that claims others’ possessions for its own? For the arrogance derived from wealth? For the violence of thugs who murder some unknown innocent traveller for a paltry sum? You could call the Spartans true Christians if they had had Christ as their lawgiver instead of Lycurgus. 101 In war they wore red tunics, either because they thought this a manly colour, or because the blood-red hue would inspire more terror in inexperienced enemy troops, or to keep the enemy from noticing immediately if anyone had been wounded, as the tunic, being the same colour as blood, would conveniently conceal the fact. 102 If ever they defeated the enemy by a clever stratagem, they sacrificed a bull to Mars, but if in straight fight, a cock. This got the military leaders used to the idea that they should not only engage battle boldly but devise cunning tactics against the enemy. They thought it more impressive to defeat the enemy bloodlessly by tactics than by fighting a battle involving bloodshed on both sides.1 103 When they pray to the gods they always include a petition that they may be able to submit to injustice. This was because they considered no one fit to wield authority or undertake important functions in general if he were upset by unjust treatment of any sort.1 104 The sum total of their prayers was that the gods should grant honour to good men – apart from that, nothing. They sought no reward for virtue other than fair fame. Other nations employ very different prayers, with vain repetitions, ineffective, and even asking the gods very often for shameful things. ***** 101 (xix) Plutarch Moralia 238f. In margin ‘wily‘ 102 (xx) Plutarch Moralia 238f. In margin ‘counsel in war‘ 1 Cf 1.152 above. 103 (xxi) Plutarch Moralia 239a. In margin ‘acceptance‘ 1 Cf 1.340 above, 2.161 below. 104 (xxii) Plutarch Moralia 239a. In margin ‘prayers‘

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105 They worship a Venus in armour (whom they call Morpho).1 In fact, all their divinities, both gods and goddesses, are represented lance in hand,2 as this signifies that all of them are possessed of warlike valour. They considered nothing worse than cowardice, nothing finer than martial valour, and so they made their gods represent what they saw as their citizen ideal. The beliefs about the gods in other Greek states made them out to be inactive and peaceable and so they represented them in a recumbent posture. Since the model for all that is good is to be sought in the divine, it is dangerous for a state to make gods of such a nature that, if anyone were to imitate them, he would become useless or even harmful to the state. 106 They had a well-known saying that ‘your own hand you must first apply when on Fortune you would call.’1 They meant that when we call on the gods for aid, we must put out our own hand and make some effort ourselves, otherwise our prayer will be in vain. It is true that we must see it as the gift of God if anything turns out well in human affairs, but the Divinity does not show favour to the idle and lazy. He wants his blessings to come to us as a result of our own endeavours, as it would look foolish if he showed favour to those who despise what he has given them. 107 They used to display to the boys slaves made tipsy with wine, so that they would decide that drunkenness was disgusting. The boys would see what a revolting spectacle was a man reeling with excessive drink and behaving like a madman. The Spartans even used to force Helots to drink to excess and then perform a silly dance and sing vulgar songs.1 Others waste many words on trying to persuade the young that sobriety is a fine thing and that drunkenness is totally unworthy of a human being, whereas the Spartans gave them a quick practical demonstration, ***** 105 (xxiii) Plutarch Moralia 239a. In margin ‘gods in armour‘ 1 The information about Morpho is derived from Pausanias Periegesis 3.15.8. 2 Cf 1.347 above. 106 (xxiv) Plutarch Moralia 238a. In margin ‘effort‘ 1 Adagia ii ii 81: Manum admoventi fortuna est imploranda ‘Set your hand to the work before you appeal to Fortune.’ 107 (xxv) Plutarch Moralia 239a. In margin ‘drunkenness‘ 1 See Plutarch Lycurgus 28.9.

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using slaves, however, as it is particularly shameful for free-born men to sink to their level. 108 It was the custom among the Spartans not to knock on the outside door but to call the person out if they wanted anything. They wanted nothing done in secret but everything to be open for all to see. 109 They took off the sweat with scrapers made of cane, not metal. They used such scrapers in the baths because they could be acquired easily and cheaply. They tried to be economical and to save in every situation. 110 They did not watch either comedies or tragedies, as they did not want to hear spoken, either seriously or in jest, anything that contravened the laws.1 The laws forbid fornication, incest, and adultery; they forbid trickery, injustice, theft, and other crimes; but poets represent the gods as doing all these things in the tales they tell. The Spartans were not impressed by the justification put forward by some, that stories were invented to give pleasure, not to be taken as the literal truth. Pleasure of that sort corrupts simple minds. For this reason the Spartans expelled the poet Archilochus2 from Sparta as soon as he arrived, because they learned that he had expressed the view in his poems that it was better to throw away one’s weapons than die. The poem in question runs as follows: ***** 108 (xxvi) Plutarch Moralia 239b 109 (xxvii) Plutarch Moralia 239b. In margin ‘economical‘ 110 (xxviii) Plutarch Moralia 239b (the second paragraph is Erasmus’ commentary). 1 Cf Diogenes Laertius 1.59 (Solon, the Athenian lawgiver, prohibited Thespis from performing tragedies on the ground that fiction was pernicious); Plato Laws 7.817c–d. 2 Archilochus was a lyric poet of the eighth to seventh century bc, originally from Ionia, who spent many years in the island of Thasos in the north Aegean. He lost his shield in a battle with Thracians inhabiting the nearby mainland. Erasmus translated into Latin verse the faulty three-and-a-half line Greek original as given in his text of Plutarch. He does not comment on the faulty verse, as he usually does. Modern texts have an additional half-line supplied from Sextus Empiricus (Bergk plg 2.384 / Archilochus 6). Cf 1.168 above.

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Some Thracian chap enjoys my shield – nice one it was, I didn’t want to lose it! But I dropped it in the darksome wood. I’ll have to say goodbye to that. But never mind! One day no doubt I’ll get another just as good.

111 Girls and boys attended the same religious rites. This like everything else was to ensure that the girls developed masculine strengths. 112 The ephors fined Sciraphidas1 because many people treated him unjustly. They assumed that his timidity was the cause of so many people doing him wrong. If you tamely submit to one injury, you invite another.2 If the first man who wronged him had been brought to book and had paid the legal penalty, the rest would have refrained from harming him. 113 They executed a shield-bearing soldier, because he added a bit of purple trimming to his shield.1 They were so wary of foreign extravagance and the example it might give, knowing well that from the tiniest beginnings an unstoppable flood of filthy vice could come pouring in, so that it was safest to make a stand at the very outset. For that reason they inflicted the severest of penalties on those who were the first to do something. Anyone who opens a window of opportunity to evil does great harm to the state. ***** 111 (xxix) Plutarch Moralia 239c 112 (xxx) Plutarch Moralia 239c. In margin ‘the wrong sort of mildness‘ 1 Sciraphidas was an ephor contemporary of Lysander; see 1.288–303 above. It has been suggested that he was the victim of a hate campaign organized by political opponents. 2 A common-place. See Publilius Syrus 587, Qui culpae ignoscit uni suadet pluribus. 113 (xxxi) Plutarch Moralia 239c. In margin ‘severity‘ 1 Erasmus has been misled by Filelfo’s version here. See dedicatory epistle 7 n20 above. At some point s‡kkow [sakkos] ‘coarse garment’ in Plutarch’s Greek has been confused with s‡kow [sakos] ‘shield.’ The meaning should be, ‘They executed a man wearing a coarse garment because he inserted a border in it.’ There is no word for ‘soldier’ in the original.

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114 They censured one of the youths who exercised in the gymnasium for knowing the road to Pylea.1 They were very anxious to keep their citizens from travelling outside the city and gaining knowledge of foreign things, for fear this might occasion a falling away from ancestral custom, especially since Arcadia, the country where Pylea was situated, was corrupt with self-indulgence and exotic creature-comforts. 115 They expelled one Ctesiphon,1 who claimed to be able to talk all day on any topic whatsoever, saying that a good speaker should keep his words commensurate with his subject.2 They were of the opinion that the most appropriate place for the application of economy was in speech, which Hesiod says should be brought out of store sparingly, like a precious treasure, for use and not for display.3 116 It is the custom among the Spartans for boys to be flogged all day1 at the altar of Diana Orthia2 (so called by them for her irrepressible valour). This they often endure to the point of death, cheerful and exultant, vying with each other to see which of them can triumph by holding out for the longest ***** 114 (xxxii) Plutarch Moralia 239c. In margin ‘foreign customs‘ 1 It is not certain what ‘the road to Pylea’ means. It has been suggested that Pylea indicates a market (full of temptations for a Spartan) just outside the city. See S.A. Naber ‘Observationes miscellaneae ad Plutarchi Moralia i’ Mnemosyne 28 (1900) 134–8. But see also cpg 1 Zenobius 5.36 and Adagia ii vii 57: Novit haec Pylaea et Tyttygias, where it is identified as a place in Arcadia where stolen goods were sold on. For the corrupt morals see General Index: Arcadia. 115 1 2 3

(xxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 239c. In margin ‘loquacity‘ Ctesiphon, or Cephisophon as in Plutarch, is in either case unknown. See 1.95 n2. Hesiod Works and Days 719.

116 (xxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 239c–d. In margin ‘hard childhood‘ 1 The custom was still observed in Plutarch’s day in the second century ad. See Plutarch Lycurgus 18.1. It had by that time become something of a tourist attraction. 2 The name Orthia means ‘Upright.’ The image of the goddess was ancient and made of wood, and was supposedly found standing upright in a thicket (see the geographer Pausanias, as in n6 below).

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time with the greatest courage. The winner makes a great name for himself. This type of contest is called ‘The Scourging’3 and is held every year. Plutarch gives the origin of this custom in his life of Aristides:4 When Pausanias5 was performing the sacrifice at a little distance from where his troops were positioned, some Lydians made a sortie and destroyed the sacrifice and everything connected with it. He rounded on them with his companions but because they had not got their weapons with them, attacked them with whips. The contest above mentioned was founded in memory of this incident. Pausanias6 gives a different explanation in his book dealing with Laconia: The inhabitants of Limnae, Cynosura, Mesoa, and Pitane7 were offering sacrifice to Diana, when a disagreement arose between them. The disagreement turned into a fight so bitter that bodies were strewn all over the altar. The survivors were carried off by plague. Consequently a pronouncement from an oracle declared that the desecration of Diana’s altar must be expiated with human blood. When they set about performing the sacrifice with victims chosen by lot, Lycurgus substituted the flogging of the young men for the actual slaughter. As a result the altar was purged with human blood but without human sacrifice. While it would be foolish to follow this example, it does tell us how wrong it is to treat children with excessive lenience. We bring them up so indulgently that they are unfit even for the demands of study and become resentful of any correction, however mild. 117 Whatever we think of that, Lycurgus does seem to have secured for his citizens one particular thing that contributed to an honourable and happy way of life. And what was that? It was plenty of free time, as they were absolutely forbidden to touch any sedentary craft.1 Indeed, they had no need to exercise any laborious and demanding craft in order to make money, ***** 3 Erasmus quotes the name in Greek, diamast’gvsiw. 4 Plutarch Aristides 17.8 5 This is Pausanias, regent of Sparta, and the incident occurred at the battle of Plataea against the Persian host, which included contingents of Lydians. See 2.43 above. 6 This is a different Pausanias, the author of Periegesis, book three of which deals with Laconia. For this incident see Periegesis 3.16.9ff. 7 Limnae, Cynosura, Mesoa, and Pitane were all districts of the town of Sparta. The second is properly Conooura. 117 (xxxv) Plutarch Moralia 239d–e. In margin ‘civilized leisure‘ 1 See 2.64 n1 above.

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since Lycurgus had done away with any admiration or respect for riches. The Helots (that is, the slaves) cultivated the fields for them and paid a rent in kind, the amount of which had been fixed by the ancestors. There are people nowadays who copy them, using slaves or hired servants, or children they turn into slaves, for nearly everything, but they do this not to give themselves time for meditation on lofty subjects, but to be free for drinking and playing dice. 118 There was a curse on anyone who asked more than the prescribed rent for the land. This made the slaves work more cheerfully for their masters, since they could expect some profit for themselves, and it stopped the citizens from trying to get more than the customary amount. What wisdom that nation showed in thus directing everything that could be a source of evil onto their slaves and diverting it away from those of free birth! How differently other nations behave – they claim for their children all that is productive of self-indulgence, lust, avarice, and drunkenness, but force their servants to practice poverty and economy. 119 They were forbidden to sail ships or engage in naval battles, though later on they did win control of the sea through naval engagements; but when they realized that the character of their citizens was degenerating, they gave up their sea power. But they changed their minds again in this as in everything else. When money was first introduced into Spartan territory, they executed those responsible for bringing it in, as an oracle had been given to the two kings Alcamenes and Theopompus1 that ‘love of money would destroy Sparta.’2 All the same, after defeating the Athenians, Lysander brought in a huge amount of gold and silver, and they not only accepted the money but honoured the man.3 As long as Sparta observed the laws of Lycurgus and did not break her word, she held first place among the Greeks, for six hundred years, through the fairness and fame of her laws. However, as they gradually fell away from these, and love of money and the evil of avarice came flooding ***** 118 (xxxvi) Plutarch Moralia 239e 119 (xxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 239e–240b. In margin ‘money a pernicious thing, degeneration‘ 1 Alcamenes and Theopompus were kings of Sparta in the eighth century bc. 2 See Adagia ii vii 94, ‘Love of money will be Sparta’s undoing and nothing else.’ 3 For apophthegms attributed to Lysander, see 1.288–303 above. For his bringing home huge spoils to Sparta at the end of the Peloponnesian War in 404 bc, including quantities of silver coinage, see Plutarch Lycurgus 30.1; Lysander 16.

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in as a result, not only did their power decline, but they now found hostile to them those who had formerly been their friends and allies in war. Yet, in spite of their changed ways, after the victory of King Philip of Macedon at Chaeronea,4 when all the other Greeks acknowledged him as supreme ruler by land and sea, and his son Alexander after him, the Spartans were the only people, once Thebes had been overthrown, who would not ally themselves in war either with other Greeks or, later, with the Macedonian kings, or make common cause with them,5 and this in spite of the fact that their city was not defended by walls,6 their numbers had been seriously reduced by constant warfare, and their weakness, compared with their past strength, made them vulnerable. They were able to act like this because they still cherished a few faint sparks of the Lycurgan constitution. Nor were the Spartans reduced to paying tribute until the time when they lost all respect for Lycurgus’ laws and were oppressed by a tyranny exercised by their own citizens.7 Nothing then remained of their ancestral constitution and they became like the rest, stripped of the glory and the liberty they once enjoyed and reduced to servitude. Now, just like the rest of the Greeks, they are subject to the Romans.8 This is a serious warning to us all that dominion is won by bravery, but through greed, indiscipline, and indulgence it is either lost or turned into tyranny. Sayings of Spartan women 120 After the death of Brasidas,1 men from Amphipolis came to Sparta to visit his ***** 4 In the decisive battle at Chaeronea in 338 bc Philip ii of Macedon defeated the allied Greeks led by Athens and Thebes. The Spartans were not involved in the actual battle. 5 This is more likely to mean ‘either with them (ie Philip and Alexander) or the Macedonian kings who came after them.’ What happened during this period is however very confused with constantly shifting alliances. 6 See 1.30 n1 above. 7 The reforming Spartan kings Agis iv and Cleomenes iii of the third century bc were regarded as autocratic and tyrannous by their political opponents, see 1.12 n2, 1.107–10 above and 2.157 below. Nabis, a violent reforming ruler at the end of the century, succumbed to Roman authority. 8 Plutarch (if he is the author) was writing in the period first to second century ad, when Greece had been subject to Rome for about 250–300 years. 120 (i) Plutarch Moralia 240c. This section (2.120–56) is translated from Plutarch Moralia 240c to 242d. 1 For Brasidas see 1.159–62 and 1.162 n2 above. The saying also occurs at Moralia 190c (Sayings of kings and commanders), which provides Adagia iii iv 17: Brasidas quidem vir bonus ‘Brasidas indeed is a good man.’

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mother Archileonis. She asked them whether her son had died honourably, as befitted a citizen of Sparta. They began to extol the young man’s bravery and say that he was the finest military man in all Sparta. She replied, ‘Friends, my son was indeed a fine spirited man, but Sparta has many men better than he.’ 121 Aristagoras of Miletus was trying to persuade King Cleomenes to start a war against the King of the Persians in support of the Greeks of Ionia. He offered him a considerable sum of money and when Cleomenes persisted in refusing, he made the promised sum ever larger. Gorgo, Cleomenes’ daughter said, ‘Father, this little foreigner will corrupt you if you don’t throw him out instantly.’1 Where does this leave the people who call women money-lovers, since Gorgo urged her father to refuse money, not accept it? 122 This same Gorgo was instructed by her father to give some corn to a certain individual by way of thanks. The father added as a commendation, ‘He taught me to enjoy my wine.’ She replied, ‘So, father, more wine will be drunk and those who drink will become more self-indulgent and lesser men.’1 How can one adequately praise this girl who had stricter standards than either her elderly father or the other man? Though the female sex in general is much taken by attractive things. 123 When Gorgo saw Aristagoras having his shoes put on by one of his slaves,1 she exclaimed, ‘Whatever next, father! Hasn’t this foreigner got any hands?’ She had no time for the foppery of a man who wasted his servants’ energies on doing what he could do for himself with his own two hands. How ashamed those people should be who find ten servants hardly enough ***** 121 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 240d. In margin ‘contempt for money‘ 1 Aristagoras, the ex-ruler of Miletus, was fostering rebellion among the Greek states subject to the Persians, and sought assistance from Cleomenes i in 499 bc; cf 1.225 above for a similar story about Cleomenes’ incorruptibility. Gorgo was only eight years old at the time; see Herodotus 5.51. 122 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 240d–e 1 Cf 1.143 above. 123 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 240e. In margin ‘censorious‘ 1 See 2.121 above. Aristagoras had adopted the luxurious customs of Eastern rulers.

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to get them dressed and their hair arranged! When they go to the toilet, they need one servant to untie their hose and another to pass them grass or wool to wipe themselves, and all but do the wiping for them.2 124 A foreigner was somewhat effetely and with difficulty trailing his rather long garment. Gorgo gave him a push and said, ‘Off with you! You can’t even do what women do!’ It is for women to wear fringed garments reaching down to the ground. Sometimes they have long trains behind as well. However, they don’t find them heavy, or else they loop them up. 125 Gyrtias’ grandson Acrotatus1 – his mother was Gyrtias’ daughter – was carried home for dead after a fight with other boys in which he had been severely injured. Everyone else in the household started weeping, but Gyrtias observing them, said, ‘Cease your noise! He has shown of what blood he comes.’ She added that ‘the brave need to be cared for, not wept over.’2 ***** 2 Cf 3.239 below. 124 (v) Plutarch Moralia 240e. In margin ‘censorious‘ Both the text and the meaning of the Greek are debatable here. Modern editors, following all the manuscripts which read malak™w sxol_ ‘languidly, without making an effort,’ with no word stol}n [stol¯en] ‘garment,’ have suggested either that the man was making mild and ineffectual advances, or that he was walking in a mincing and effeminate manner (interpreting the verb as intransitive, ‘advancing’). Raffaele Regio, either finding a reading sxol_ stol}n ‘in a leisurely way . . . a garment’ or emending the text himself, translated cum peregrinus quidam vestem molliter traheret ‘when some foreigner was trailing his garment in a languid way.’ Erasmus took account of this text and translation (see the dedicatory epistle 7 n21 above), and made a marginal note stol}n ‘garment’ in his copy of the Aldine Moralia. He spelt out the meaning more clearly in 1535 by adding ‘with difficulty’ and changing the verb from ‘pulling on’ to ‘trailing.’ Letting one’s clothes trail sloppily was a sign of effeminacy. Cf 4.303 below. 125 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 240e–f. In margin ‘brave‘ 1 Gyrtias’ grandson Acrotatus was the son of King Areus i, and later on briefly king of Sparta, 265–c. 262 bc. 2 Erasmus follows the interpretation of Filelfo and Regio. See dedicatory epistle 7–8 nn20 and 21 above. The text may mean: ‘the brave should do something helpful, not weep.’ See Adagia iii ix 41: Non luctu, sed remedio opus in malis ‘Misfortunes need healing, not mourning.’

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126 When Gyrtias received news from Crete of Acrotatus’ death,1 she said, ‘When he went off to war, was it not inevitable that he would be killed himself or else kill the enemy? It is more satisfying to hear that he met his end in a manner worthy of himself, his country, and his family than have him tamely live out the life of a coward.’ Grandmothers tend to have a more indulgent and emotional attitude to their grandchildren than the children’s mothers have. What justification have women for ending their own lives if their children die, when Gyrtias would have no lamenting over her grandson when he was at death’s door,2 and did not consider mourning appropriate when he had perished fighting bravely? 127 Damatria heard that her son’s conduct on the battle-field showed him to be unworthy of her, so when he came home, she killed him. The following epigram was written concerning the incident:1 The city and its laws he failed And by his mother’s hand was slain. Damatria as true Spartan stood revealed. He was no Spartan but in name.

This terrible deed is more akin to barbarian savagery than to true bravery. All the same, we can use it to point up the folly of the excessive indulgence mothers show their children – in fact they often love them all the more intensely just because they are bad characters. 128 Another Spartan woman also killed her son for being unworthy of his country, when he had deserted his station in the battle-line and fled. She com***** 126 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 240f. In margin ‘brave, wise‘ 1 Acrotatus died in battle c. 262 bc, but at Megalopolis in the Peloponnese, not in Crete. See Plutarch Agis 3.6. His father Areus had campaigned in Crete (Plutarch Pyrrhus 27), and this may have caused confusion. See 1.133n above. 2 See 2.125 just above. 127 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 240f. In margin ‘resolute‘ 1 The English version translates Erasmus’ Latin verse translation of the Greek verse quoted in Plutarch, which Erasmus does not quote in Greek. 128 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 241a. In margin ‘resolute‘

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mented, ‘This is no sprig of mine.’ There is an epigram about her too:1 Useless sprig, through the shadows away! Even to timorous deer Eurotas his waters would deny, So strong his hate for you. Worthless whelp, rotten remnant, To the depths of hell now go. Go, unworthy son of Sparta, go, A son I never bore.

Another woman, hearing of her son’s brave death in battle, said: Tears are for cowards shed. You I shall not weep. True son of mine and of your native land, you sleep.

This verse was earlier attributed to Tynnichus,2 but Filelfo3 records it without any specific reference. 129 Another woman heard that her son was alive but had fled in the face of the enemy. She wrote to him, ‘There is a nasty rumour going about concerning you. Either disprove it, or cease to exist.’ She thought it better to die than to live in disgrace.1 130 The sons of another woman came to her after fleeing from battle. ‘Where are you going, you cowardly runaway varlets?’ she said. Then showing them her belly, she asked them, ‘Do you think you can creep back in here from where you came forth?’1 This remark would do credit to a follower of the Cynic sect.2 ***** 1 This translates Erasmus’ Latin verse translation of the Greek verse quoted in Plutarch as also at line 11. These again Erasmus does not quote in Greek. 2 For Tynnichus, see 2.48 above. 3 For Francesco Filelfo (1398–1481) see the dedicatory epistle 7 n20 above. 129 (x) Plutarch Moralia 241a. In margin ‘spirited‘ 1 Cf 2.136 below 130 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 241b. The last sentence was added in 1532. In margin ‘crude‘ 1 Cf 6.586 below. 2 The Cynics were quite without inhibition where body parts and bodily func-

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131 A woman saw her son approaching and asked him, ‘How goes the country?’ When he replied, ‘Everyone is dead,’ she threw a tile at him and killed him, saying, ‘So they sent you to tell us the bad news, did they?’ She considered him unfit to live since he had not had the courage to die with his fellow-soldiers. 132 A man was telling his mother how nobly his brother had died. ‘And isn’t it disgraceful’ she said, ‘that you didn’t manage to keep company with him?’1 133 A woman whose five sons had gone off to the war was standing just outside the city waiting to hear how the fighting had gone. Someone came up to her and told her that all her sons were dead. ‘That’s not what I was asking, you cowardly menial,’ she replied, ‘but how the country fares.’ When he told her that the country had the victory, ‘Well then,’ she said, ‘I am quite happy about the death of my sons.’ This splendid woman put her love for her country above her private affection for her sons. 134 A woman was burying her son. Some contemptible old hag came up to her and said, ‘Oh what a sad thing, you poor woman!’ But she retorted, ‘No, by the Twin Gods, a good thing! For my son has died for Sparta and I have seen fulfilled the purpose for which I brought him into the world.’ This brave woman turned the old woman’s commiseration into congratulation. Cicero refers to this woman in the first book of the Tusculan Disputations.1 135 A woman from Ionia was boasting about a tapestry she had woven as a ***** tions were concerned. See 7.290 below; De copia 1.11 Indecent words (cwe 24 315 / lb 1.11d). 131 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 241b. In margin ‘resolute‘ 132 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 241b. In margin ‘spirited‘ 1 Cf 2.148 below. 133 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 241c. In margin ‘resolute‘ 134 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 241c. In margin ‘resolute‘ 1 Cicero Tusculan Disputations 1.43.102 135 (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 241d. In margin ‘worthy‘

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thing of great value. A Spartan woman pointed to her four well-mannered sons and said, ‘This is the kind of work for a good and honourable woman. These are the achievements she should take pride in and boast about.’ The inhabitants of Ionia find time to create elaborate tapestries depicting various scenes. But the Spartan woman declared that her finest work was bringing up sons of good character. These are more of an adornment to a country than Ionian hangings or garments. 136 Another Spartan woman heard that her son was behaving disgracefully while he was abroad.1 She wrote to him, ‘There is a nasty rumour going about concerning you. Either scotch it or stop living.’ 137 Some exiles from Chios came to Sparta, complaining of the way Paedaretus was acting.1 His mother Teleutia sent for them, and when she had learnt what their grounds of complaint were and had realized that her son was in the wrong, she wrote to him to this effect: ‘His mother to Paedaretus. He is to improve his conduct or stay where he is, giving up all expectation of living safe in Sparta.’ That forceful woman threatened her son with death unless he improved his conduct. 138 Another woman said to her son, who was on trial for some crime or other, ‘Free yourself from this charge, my son, or else free yourself from life.’ The mother was harder on her son than the judge, as she preferred him dead rather than living with a bad name. 139 Another woman was walking beside her lame son as he left for the war. ‘Son,’ she said, ‘with every step mind you think of valour.’ Lameness might well make other mothers anxious, but this woman urged her son to find inspiration for brave action in his very handicap, on ***** 136 (xvii) Plutarch Moralia 241d 1 Cf 1.185 above, 2.138 below. 137 (xviii) Plutarch Moralia 241d–e. In margin ‘stern‘ 1 Paedaretus was a commander stationed by the Spartans on the island of Chios in 412–411 bc, during the Peloponnesian War against Athens, where he acted with great harshness and injustice. See 1.325–7 above. 138 (xix) Plutarch Moralia 241e. In margin ‘stern‘ 139 (xx) Plutarch Moralia 241e. In margin ‘lame‘

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the grounds that running away is no help to a lame man;1 he must either win or die. 140 Another woman’s son came home from the war with a wound in the foot which gave him great pain. She said to him, ‘If you remember your bravery, my son, you will not only not feel the pain, but will be of good heart.’ Mothers usually make their sons’ suffering worse by fussing and weeping. She gave her son strength to bear the pain. 141 A Spartan was so badly wounded in the war that he could not walk normally but had to crawl on all fours. He felt humiliated when people laughed at him, but his mother took him to task: ‘It would be better, my son, to take pride in your courage rather than blush at the laughter of fools.’ Cicero has a similar story about the mother of Spurius Claudius,1 but he ascribes to her the words found in the example quoted earlier. 142 Another Spartan woman, as she hung her son’s shield upon him, gave him these words of encouragement: ‘Son, either with this or on this.’ With Spartan economy of words she gave him to understand that he must so conduct himself on the battle-field as to bring home his shield in triumph or else be carried home upon it dead.1 143 Another woman as she hung the shield upon her son as he set off for the war said to him, ‘Your father always kept this shield safe for you; mind you always keep it safe, or else stop living.’1 ***** 1 Cf 2.42 above. 140 (xxi) Plutarch Moralia 241e–f. In margin ‘resolute‘ 141 (xxii) Plutarch Moralia 241f. In margin ‘resolute‘ 1 Cicero De oratore 2.249. The story is used at 6.207 below. The subject there is Spurius Carvilius, whose mother says ‘With every step you take, remember your valorous exploits.’ For similar stories, see 2.139, 2.140 above, 4.94 (Alexander to Philip) below. 142 (xxiii) Plutarch Moralia 241f. In margin ‘resolute‘ 1 Cf 1.210 above. See Adagia iii v 10: Aut manenti vincendum aut moriendum ‘He must stay and conquer or die.’ 143 (xxiv) Plutarch Moralia 241f. In margin ‘resolute‘ 1 Cf 1.168 above and 2.142 just above.

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144 When her son remarked that his sword was short, a Spartan woman said, ‘Well, add a pace to it.’1 She meant that the short sword would be no disadvantage if he went up close to the enemy. 145 Another woman heard that her son had perished fighting bravely on the battle field. ‘Of course,’ she said, ‘he was mine.’ She did not feel aggrieved at the death of her son, but congratulated herself on his courage. When however she heard that her other son had survived because he had refused to fight out of cowardice, she said, ‘Of course, he was not mine.’1 She believed that those who fell short of their parents’ standards should not be considered as their children. 146 Another woman heard that her son had been slain in battle. ‘Lay him aside,’ she said, ‘just where he was stationed,1 and let his brother take his place.’ You would be hard put to find such strength of mind in a man! She had no fear of being left childless, provided her sons gave their lives for their country. 147 Another woman was taking part in a procession in a religious ceremony when she received the news that her son had been victorious in battle but was dying from his many wounds. She did not remove the garland from her head1 but said exultantly to her companions, ‘How much more splendid it is, my friends, to die victorious in battle than to win a victory at the Olympic Games and live!’ ***** 144 (xxv) Plutarch Moralia 241f. In margin ‘trenchant‘ 1 Cf 1.105 and 1.130 above. 145 (xxvi) Plutarch Moralia 242a. In margin ‘resolute‘ 1 Cf 2.128 above. 146 (xxvii) Plutarch Moralia 242a. In margin ‘resolute‘ 1 Modern editors punctuate differently and take the Greek phrase translated by the words ‘just where he was stationed’ together with ‘slain in battle.’ Erasmus here follows Filelfo. See dedicatory epistle 7 n20 above. 147 (xxviii) Plutarch Moralia 242a–b. In margin ‘resolute‘ 1 Taking the garland from her head would have been a sign of mourning. Cf the aftermath of the battle of Leuctra (Plutarch Agesilaus 29), when the religious ceremonies were not interrupted in spite of the bad news of the shattering defeat. See 1.337 n1 above.

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This forceful woman had quite different ideas from other people. They believe that to take first place at the Olympics puts one almost up with the gods, yet the contest there is about expertise and the spending of large sums of money, not about bravery.2 They also believe that nothing is more terrible than death and that there is nothing so precious that it is worth losing one’s life to gain it. She believed that the most impressive victory was one gained for one’s country and that no death was more desirable than one linked with the glory of that achievement. 148 A man was telling his sister how bravely her son had perished in the battle. ‘I am glad about my son’s death,’ she said, ‘but sorry for you, because you didn’t stay in such good company.’1 149 A man sent a message to a Spartan woman asking whether she would agree to an assignation with him. She sent back the answer, ‘When I was a girl, I was taught to obey my father and that is what I did. When I became a married woman, I obeyed my husband. If this man wants to meet me for some honest purpose, he may discuss it with my husband first.’ 150 A poor girl was asked what dowry she would bring her husband. ‘The modesty traditional in our family,’ she replied. A noble declaration – a girl who brings purity to her marriage bed is well endowed. 151 A Spartan woman was asked whether she had made advances to her husband. ‘No,’ she replied, ‘but he has to me.’ She implied that she had relations with her husband not to satisfy desire but in obedience to her parents and what the law required of her. It was disgraceful for a woman to take the initiative. ***** 2 Cf 1.48 above. 148 (xxix) Plutarch Moralia 242b 1 Cf 2.132 above. 149 (xxx) Plutarch Moralia 242b. In margin ‘chaste‘ 150 (xxxi) Plutarch Moralia 242b. In margin ‘chaste‘ 151 (xxxii) Plutarch Moralia 242c. In margin ‘chaste‘

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152 A girl who was pregnant as a result of a secret encounter brought on an abortion, and bore up so bravely under the pain that she uttered not a sound. In fact the abortion took place without her father and others who were close by realizing what was happening. The shame combined with her self-respect overcame the excruciating pain. Because she was a proud girl, she could not face disgrace. To escape the shame consequent on what she had done, she suffered in silence the pangs of labour which make other women cry out in distress. 153 Another Spartan girl was being sold as a slave, and when she was asked what she knew, replied, ‘To be faithful.’ She was of the opinion that faithfulness in a slave was better than any practical skill. 154 Another captive likewise, when asked what she could do, replied, ‘Manage a house well.’ This is no common ability in a woman. 155 Another girl was asked by a prospective purchaser if she would be good if he bought her. ‘Yes,’ she replied, ‘and if you don’t buy me.’ 156 Another girl was asked by the auctioneer what she knew. ‘How to be a free person,’ she replied. She meant that she might well be a captive, but that she would not obey if ordered to do things not appropriate to a free-born person. So when the person who had bought her ordered her to perform some tasks not fitting for a free-born woman, she said, ‘You will regret not letting yourself keep such a valuable possession,’ and proceeded to kill herself. ***** 152 (xxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 242c. In margin ‘brave‘ 153 (xxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 242c. In margin ‘noble‘ 154 (xxxv) Plutarch Moralia 242c 155 (xxxvi) Plutarch Moralia 242c. Cf the same story told of a boy, 2.36 above. 156 (xxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 242d. Cf the similar story told at 2.34 above. This anecdote was the basis of a chreia. ‘End of Sayings of Spartan Women’ is marked in the text after this apophthegm. The remaining four sayings are taken from other works by Plutarch.

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157 When Agesistrata saw her son Agis lying dead,1 she kissed his face and said, ‘My dear son, you were too good and gentle and compassionate, and so destroyed yourself and us too.’ Agis had been trying to reform the degenerate character of the Spartans and bring back the old-fashioned discipline, a noble scheme but one that generated much hostility. While he tried to offend no one and please everyone he brought about his own destruction. 158 The same woman, putting her head in the noose, said, ‘In this at least I was useful to Sparta.’1 This noble-spirited woman was grieved that her son was not permitted to do the good he would for his country. 159 The Thebans invaded Spartan territory and took away captives of both sexes, including large numbers of Helots. These they ordered to sing the songs of the Spartan poets Terpander, Alcman, and Spendon, but they refused, saying that ‘their masters’ daughters would not allow it.’ The authority of these girls who were their fellow captives carried more weight with them than the commands of those who had conquered them. Some people took this incident as proof of the saying that in Sparta the free man was more free than anywhere, but a slave was more a slave than anywhere.1 This is taken from Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus. 160 When Theano1 was putting on her cloak, she accidentally uncovered her ***** 157 (xxxviii) This and the following incident are taken from Plutarch Life of Agis 20. 1 This is Agis iv, king of Sparta 244–241 bc. See 1.107–110 and 2.119 n7 above. 158 (xxxix) Plutarch Life of Agis 20. In margin ‘patriotism‘ 1 Agis’ mother and grandmother were strangled because they supported his reforms and protested at his unjust execution. 159 (xl) Plutarch Life of Lycurgus 28. Plutarch says that the Helots had been allowed to sing only low songs and not the literary, inspiring ones of Spartan poets such as Terpander and Alcman. Spendon is otherwise unknown. Cf 2.97 and 2.107 above. In margin ‘an entourage of slaves‘ 1 Adagia iv ix 35: Spartae servi maxime servi ‘Nowhere more a slave than at Sparta.’ 160 (xli) Plutarch Moralia 142c (Advice to bride and groom) 1 Theano was the wife of the philosopher Pythagoras.

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arm. When some man remarked, ‘What a pretty arm!’ she retorted, ‘But not one for general approbation!’ She indicated that only one person was entitled to find it attractive, not anybody, and she also reprimanded the man who had thus expressed admiration for his failure to control himself, looking with curiosity at a body that was not his to look at. Sayings of Chilon the Spartan 161 I am quite sure that the Spartan Chilon, who was said to be one of the Seven Sages of Greece,1 displayed true Spartan character in his sayings, though this does not come through in the sayings that are attributed to him, no doubt through the fault of the writers. The following sayings are taken from Diogenes Laertius. When his brother complained that he was not made ephor when Chilon was,2 Chilon replied, ‘I know how to submit to injustice, you don’t.’3 ***** 161 (i) Diogenes Laertius 1.68. In margin ‘controlled‘ This section is mainly derived from Diogenes Laertius 1.68–73. Erasmus, however, did not have the text of Diogenes Laertius in Greek at this stage, but used Traversari’s Latin translation. See Introduction xvi above. 1 The list of the Seven Sages was not fixed – various selections were made from a list that in its fullest form included seventeen names, though Thales, Bias, Pittacus, and Solon were nearly always in, Chilon often. See book 7 (preliminary note) 765 below. Their utterances were variously reported and attributed now to one, now to the other. They are recorded in many places in Greek and Latin literature – Erasmus tells us (line 5) that he is here using Diogenes Laertius as his main source for Chilon (ie 2.161–87). He has supplemented this in 2.187–91 below with material from a poem attributed to Ausonius (a fourth-century ad Christian poet from Gaul), ie Appendix Ausoniana i Septem sapientum sententiae (vi Chilon Lacedaemonius). This whole poem first appears in an edition of Ausonius by Thaddaeus Ugoletus (Parma 1499) and is nowadays considered to be spurious. Thaddaeus made numerous additions to the accepted text of Ausonius. The list of Sages given here in Ausonius is: Bias, Pittacus, Cleobulus, Periander, Solon, Chilon, and Anacharsis the Scythian (or Thales). Erasmus’ comments on Chilon’s sayings in several places echo the utterances attributed in Ausonius and Diogenes Laertius to other sages, but the sayings are all commonplaces in Greek and Latin literature. See also 7.38 n1 below. 2 Chilon, like the other Sages, was a real figure, and held the office of ephor in Sparta in 556 bc. He was also made a member of the Gerousia, the council of elders (Aristotle Rhetoric 2.23 1398b4). He came to be worshipped in Sparta as a hero. Ephors were elected annually by the assembly of Spartiate citizens. There were no formal restrictions as to who could be chosen. See 1.12 n2. 3 Cf 1.340 above.

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He meant that no one was fitted for bearing office if he couldn’t pretend on many occasions not to notice unfair and hurtful comments, as in the famous line,4 ‘Ruler, accept impartially both fair and unfair words.’ 162 When Aesop1 asked him what Jupiter was doing, he replied, ‘Putting down the exalted and raising the humble.’2 He meant that the affairs of men swing up and down in accordance with the divine will. 163 When Chilon was asked what distinguished the informed from the ignorant, he replied, ‘Good expectations.’ By ‘informed,’ he meant people of good character, brought up under good laws, living disciplined lives. They are superior to the bad, though equal in other respects, in that they hope for a reward after this life for their good deeds. The Spartans believed that outstanding characters after their deaths were translated to a blessed life and became divine.1 164 Chilon used to say, ‘As the touchstone tries gold, so gold tries men.1 The stone when rubbed against the gold reveals its quality, but the gold itself reveals what sort a man is.’ This is like the proverb: ’Tis the place that shows the man.2 ***** 4 See cpg 2 Apostolius 4.3; cpg 1 Diogenianus 2.99. It is there ascribed to Solon. See also Adagia ii vii 89: Magistratum gerens audi et iuste et iniuste ‘When in office expect both just and unjust criticism.’ 162 (ii) Diogenes Laertius 1.69. In margin ‘life’s vicissitudes‘ 1 Aesop is the famous writer of fables. A meeting is not chronologically impossible. They are both among the guests at the Dinner party of the seven sages described in Plutarch Moralia 146b–164d. 2 See Hesiod Works and Days 4–7. 163 (iii) Diogenes Laertius 1.69. In margin ‘rewards of virtue‘ 1 As Chilon himself was. See 2.161 n2 above. 164 (iv) Diogenes Laertius 1.71. In margin ‘gold the touch-stone‘ 1 See Adagia i v 87: Lydius lapis sive Heraclius lapis; ii iv 51: Quod index auro, id aurum homini. 2 ‘Place’ in the sense of power and official position. See Adagia i x 76: Magistratus virum indicat (úrx| t˜n Ändra de’knusin).

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165 When Chilon had become a very old man, he used to say he could not recall any act which he regretted save one. He had been called in as arbiter to settle a dispute between two friends. He did not want to do anything contrary to the law, so he persuaded one of them to take the matter to others for a decision. In this way he both kept the law and kept his friend.1 What was worrying the old man’s conscience was that a person of perfect integrity would not have been deflected from strict legality by any sort of consideration, nor would he have set much store by the friendship of a man who would cease to be his friend if judgment was given to suit the law rather than himself. What could be more saintly than this soul that had committed only this one sin throughout his whole long life? 166 A number of writers, including Aulus Gellius, attribute to Chilon the following saying: ‘Love allowing for a change to hate, hate allowing for a change to love.’1 This warns us not to be so bitterly at odds with anyone that all hope of reconciliation is precluded, nor to be so trusting of friends that you give them the means of destroying you if they become your enemies. 167 He used to say we should ‘never indulge in invective, for if we say what we enjoy saying we may have to listen in turn to what we don’t enjoy hearing.’1 The sick urge to hurl abuse at people does provide its own kind of pleasure, but this is very often counterbalanced by the unpleasant experience of being on the receiving end ourselves. This is what Cicero meant ***** 165 (v) Diogenes Laertius 1.71. In margin ‘clear conscience‘ 1 The version of the story actually given in Diogenes Laertius 1.71 and also in Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticae 1.3.4–7 is less creditable: Chilon secretly voted for conviction in a trial but persuaded his fellow-judges to vote for acquittal. Erasmus is using Traversari’s version (see Introduction xvi–xvii above). 166 (vi) Diogenes Laertius 1.71. In margin ‘controlled‘ 1 Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticae 1.3.30. See Adagia ii i 72: Ama tamquam osurus, oderis tamquam amaturus. It is there attributed to Bias, another of the Seven Sages. 167 (vii) Diogenes Laertius 1.70. In margin ‘abuse‘ 1 See Hesiod Works and Days 721; Plutarch Moralia 88c (How to profit by one’s enemies); Adagia i i 27: Qui quae vult dicit, quae non vult audit ‘He who says what he would will hear what he would not.’

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when he warned Sallust that any satisfaction he had derived from making his abusive attack would be wiped out when he had to listen to himself being trounced.2 168 He used to say that ‘one should never let one’s tongue outrun one’s thoughts.’ He meant that one should think what one is going to say before the tongue embarks on speech. For ‘a word once spoken never recalled can be.’1 A first thought can often be corrected by a second thought that is better, as the proverb says,2 but this is not true of a word. 169 ‘Loss,’ said Chilon, ‘is better than dishonest gain. One regrets the former at the time, the other for ever.’ Material loss can easily be made up, but a stained reputation can hardly ever be restored. Loss grieves one temporarily, but a guilty conscience is a continuous torment. So gains made by dishonest means are not gains but loss.1 170 ‘One should not attempt the impossible.’1 There are enterprises which are splendid and laudable, but they only damage a country if they cannot be carried through. The chief function of a ***** 2 Included in the corpus of the historian Sallust’s works were two spurious speeches of invective, one supposedly by Sallust, attacking the famous orator and statesman Cicero, and the other Cicero’s reply. Erasmus seems to have misremembered here: this warning occurs in the opening of Sallust’s attack on Cicero (In M. Tullium Ciceronem invectiva 1.1). But cf in Cicero’s reply (In C. Sallustium Crispum invectiva 8.21): ‘Anyone who intends to make a speech of attack ought to be free of all taint himself. It is the man who has no truths to fear who can safely fulminate against others.’ 168 (viii) Diogenes Laertius 1.70. In margin ‘headlong speech‘ 1 Horace Ars poetica 390. 2 Adagia i iii 38: Posterioribus melioribus ‘Better luck next time’ 169 (ix) Diogenes Laertius 1.70. In margin ‘dishonest gain‘ 1 See Adagia iii iii 52: Lucrum malum aequale dispendio ‘Gain ill-gotten is as bad as loss,’ for other occurrences of this sentiment. 170 (x) Diogenes Laertius 1.70. In margin ‘impossibles‘ 1 See Adagia v ii 2: Quod fieri non potest nec incipiendum quidem est ‘Do not even begin what cannot be achieved.’

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good adviser is to identify not only what is the best thing in absolute terms, but what is feasible in the circumstances. 171 When Chilon was asked to name something difficult, he replied, ‘To keep a secret.’ The tongue is the most slippery and uncontrolled thing there is, though you might well think nothing was easier than to say nothing. 172 He used to tell people also that ‘they should guard their tongues always, but especially at a party.’ At a party the food and drink encourage recklessness.1 Where there is more danger, there is need of more caution. 173 ‘One should not make threats,’ not only ‘because it is characteristic of women to do so’ rather than men, but because threatening a person you intend to harm warns your enemy to be on his guard and reduces your chances of damaging him.1 As for friends, it is uncivilized to use threatening language to them. All the same, it is right to do so when we intend the threat to be the means of correcting a person2 and are minded to punish him no further. 174 ‘One should rally round one’s friends in ill fortune rather than good fortune.’ Some people come running when things are going well, even people who are hardly friends. True friends are the ones who stand by you when fortune goes against you.1 ***** 171 (xi) Diogenes Laertius 1.69. In margin ‘silence‘ 172 (xii) Diogenes Laertius 1.69. In margin ‘careless talk at a party‘ 1 Cf Plutarch Moralia 503e–f (On talkativeness) and General Index: mouth, keeping shut 173 (xiii) Diogenes Laertius 1.70. In margin ‘pointless threats‘ 1 Cf 1.332 above. 2 See Adagia iii viii 52: Amicorum est admonere mutuum ‘It is the duty of friends to admonish each other’; also Ausonius (2.161 n1 above) Anacharsis 5: Cum vere obiurges, sic inimice iuvas ‘Just reproof is help in unfriendly guise’; Plutarch Moralia 50b, 55c, 59b (How to tell a flatterer). 174 (xiv) Diogenes Laertius 1.70. In margin ‘a true friend‘ 1 Adagia iv v 5: Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur ‘Uncertainty sees a certain friend’

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175 ‘Marry a poor wife with few possessions.’ Otherwise you will take home not a wife but a ruler.1 A girl has a good enough dowry if she brings with her modesty and good character.2 That is why it was a Spartan custom for girls to be married without a dowry.3 176 Chilon forbade speaking ill of the dead. Because it was cowardly to attack those who could not answer back, and despicable to wrestle with ghosts and spirits,1 for that is exhuming the dead in a way. 177 Chilon taught that the young should reverence the old. Then, when they became old themselves, they too would be esteemed by others. This was useful in two ways: the authority and standing of the old deterred the disorderly young from doing wrong, and the old took care not to do anything that would either make them a laughingstock to the young because of folly, or a danger to them because of moral turpitude. There was the same respectful relationship between the whole older and younger age groups as between parents and their own children.1 178 Chilon warned against ‘applauding or smiling on a man made arrogant by good fortune.’ Good fortune becomes bad fortune if it makes a man conceited and then it merits not cheers but tears. Those who encourage self-conceit are worse than those who display it. The people often cry out against the prince’s avarice and tyranny, but it is from the people that princes learn these things.1 ***** 175 (xv) Diogenes Laertius 1.70. In margin ‘a humble wife‘ 1 See Plutarch Moralia 13f (The education of children); Adagia i viii 1: Aequalem uxorem quaere ‘Seek a wife of your own sort.’ 2 Cf 2.150 above. 3 See 1.270 above. 176 (xvi) Diogenes Laertius 1.70. In margin ‘spare the dead‘ 1 See Adagia i ii 53: Cum larvis luctari ‘To wrestle with ghosts.’ 177 (xvii) Diogenes Laertius 1.70. In margin ‘respect for old age‘ 1 See 2.92 above. 178 (xviii) Diogenes Laertius 1.70. In margin ‘arrogance‘ 1 For this idea see Plutarch Agis 1.3–4.

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One copy of the Greek text had ‘Do not mock (or insult) the unfortunate.’ To do so marks the depths of inhumanity.2 179 Chilon taught that ‘power must be combined with clemency, so that the ruler does not so much screw fear out of his subjects as invite and receive respect.’ Love accompanies respect, hatred accompanies fear. To be loved is not only more honourable, it is also safer. 180 He urged ‘every man to look after his own house well.’ We owe our first responsibility to our immediate household, and no one is fit to administer public affairs if he cannot give proper direction to his personal ones. A household is but the state writ small.1 181 ‘Anger must be conquered.’ Anger is the most powerful of all emotions and to defeat it demands more valour than laying low an armed foe. Anger is as destructive to mortal men as a human enemy. 182 ‘Prophecy,’ said Chilon, ‘is not to be despised.’ ***** 2 This section from ‘One copy of the Greek text’ was added in 1532. The first version, translating a reading e[tuxožnti m| \pigeln, literally, ‘Do not laugh at the successful’ is based on Traversari (see Introduction xvi–xvii above). Erasmus found this puzzling. His explanation is perhaps based on Diogenes Laertius 1.88, where the maxim ‘Do not praise an unworthy man because of his wealth’ is accredited to Bias. The easier variant reading útuxožnti m| \pigeln ‘Do not laugh at the unfortunate’ found in Froben’s edition of Diogenes Laertius 1533 is supported by Ausonius (2.161 n1 above) ii Pittacus 4: ‘The fool laughs at the grief of the unfortunate’; also Quintilian Institutio oratoria 6.3.33, ‘It is uncivilized to make jokes about the unfortunate.’ 179 (xix) Diogenes Laertius 1.70. In margin ‘control‘ 180 (xx) Diogenes Laertius 1.70 1 Cf 1.276 above. 181 (xxi) Diogenes Laertius 1.70. In margin ‘anger‘ 182 (xxii) Diogenes Laertius 1.70 (prophecy), 1.68 (foreseeing events), and 1.71–2 (Cythera). In margin ‘prophecy‘

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He believed that the ability to foresee events was a gift from the gods and could be exercised rationally by a man endowed with outstanding ability.1 He himself predicted that much harm would come to the Spartans from the island of Cythera.2 When he observed its nature and situation, he said, ‘I wish this island had never existed or that it had sunk the moment it was born.’ For when Demaratus fled from Sparta,3 he went to Xerxes and urged him to station a fleet at that island. If Xerxes had followed Demaratus’ advice, he would undoubtedly have conquered Greece. Later on, Nicias4 gained control of it, put a garrison of Athenians there, and inflicted a number of defeats on the Spartans. 183 Chilon is also credited with the saying, ‘Do not rush along the street.’ The way a man walks reveals his temperament. A headlong rush indicates a hasty man, an excessively slow pace a dullard. In public it is proper to display a calm manner. Perhaps Chilon meant that one should avoid hasty decisions.1 184 Very like this is the saying, ‘Do not wave your hands about when speaking, for that looks crazy.’ That is why we read in the book of Proverbs that the fool speaks with his fingers.1 ***** 1 A comparison with the actual Greek text shows that Erasmus is adapting Traversari. See Introduction xvi–xvii above. 2 Cythera was a large island lying off the southern coast of Laconia and commanding the Laconian Gulf. 3 Demaratus was exiled from Sparta and took refuge first with Darius i and then with Xerxes, the Persian king who invaded Greece via the Hellespont and was finally repulsed at Plataea in 479 bc. See 1.167–74 above for anecdotes from Demaratus’ time in exile. 4 Nicias was an Athenian commander who occupied Cythera during the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and from there made incursions onto the mainland. 183 (xxiii) Diogenes Laertius 1.70. In margin ‘conduct in public‘ 1 The last sentence is found in 1532. 184 (xxiv) Diogenes Laertius 1.70 1 Prov 6.12–13: ‘A naughty person . . . speaketh with his feet, he teaches with his fingers.’

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185 Chilon insisted that ‘the laws must be obeyed.’ This applies particularly to rulers who think they are above the law. A lively respect for law contributes more than anything else to national wellbeing, and tyranny cannot arise where everything is done in obedience to long-established laws. 186 He used to say, ‘Quiet is highly desirable,’ that is, if honourable leisure comes our way, which agrees with that well-known Greek saying, ‘Quiet is a good thing.’1 There is nothing safer or pleasanter than being still. And no business is more dangerous than war. 187 He is also credited with the saying, ‘Watch out for yourself.’ Perhaps it should be taken to mean ‘Watch yourself,’ or ‘Beware of yourself,’ or ‘Keep an eye on yourself,’ since the Greek means ‘Guard yourself.’1 So he is telling us that we should be an object of suspicion to ourselves. We all try to protect ourselves from others, but a man’s worst enemy is often himself, when he allows himself to be guided by lust, rage, or ambition. I wonder what authority Ausonius was following when he attributed the following sentiments to him.2 188 ‘One should so direct one’s life that subordinates are not terrified nor superiors contemptuous.’ To be feared by those under us is the mark of a tyrant; but to earn the contempt of those above us shows supineness. This saying can be related ***** 185 (xxv) Diogenes Laertius 1.70. In margin ‘the authority of the law‘ 186 (xxvi) Diogenes Laertius 1.70. In margin ‘leisure‘ 1 Cf 1.153 above. 187 (xxvii) Diogenes Laertius 1.70. In margin ‘watch yourself‘ 1 ‘Or “Keep an eye . . . Guard yourself” ’ is not in the first edition 1531. 2 See 2.161 n1 above for Erasmus’ use of Ausonius here. Each of Ausonius’ seven sections, in different metres and each dealing with one of the Seven Sages, is made up of seven lines. See eg the editions in pl 19 col 878; bt 1886 (ed Rudolphus Peiper) 408; Loeb 1921 (ed H.G. Evelyn White) 2.276; Green 676. Chilon is treated in section 6, and Erasmus quotes only six lines of this section as it stands today: 2.188 quotes line 1, 2.189 lines 2–3, 2.190 line 4, 2.191 lines 6–7. For line 5 see 2.190 n2 below. Erasmus’ headings are paraphrases of Ausonius’ words, not quotations. He gives the actual quotations later. 188 (xxviii) Ausonius Septem sapientum sententiae 6.1 (see 2.187 n2 just above). In margin ‘to be loved without being despised‘

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to your stage in life: you should so conduct yourself that younger persons love rather than fear you, and older persons do not find you contemptible. Excessive severity generates fear. To be torpid, wine-sodden, senseless and so on stirs contempt. This saying can also be applied to one’s fortune: if it is extremely large, it is more likely to occasion fear than affection or respect; if it is humble, it lays one open to contempt. In this case as in others, the avoidance of either extreme is best. Ausonius’ poem puts it this way: No fear of me from humbler men, Nor scorn, I hope, from greater!

189 Moreover, ‘We should despise death, but still take care to preserve ourselves.’1 It is folly, not courage, recklessly to put one’s life in danger. But whenever inescapable necessity leaves us no choice or a serious and honourable cause gives us reason, then it is the mark of a brave spirit to treat death as unimportant. When one is ill, one does not have to fear death, but one should still apply reasonable medication. In war one must prepare oneself to face death, but in the meantime fight bravely for victory.2 I think the line in Ausonius’ poem should read: Live ever mindful of your end, Yet take thought for living too.3

We could take this to mean: ‘Remember that you must die, and so refrain from sin and useless concerns, but meanwhile assume that many ***** 189 (xxix) See Ausonius Septem sapientum sententiae 6.2–3 (see 2.187 n2 above). In margin ‘how far death to be disregarded, friend as supporter‘ 1 See 1.118 above. 2 The omission of the negative in line 4 (‘When one is ill, one does not . . .’) might create a more satisfactory comparatio in maius, ie a parallel progressing to something greater: When one is ill, one should be aware of the possibility of death, but still take the prescribed medicine. In war, one must prepare oneself to face death, but still fight bravely for victory. See De copia book 2, method 9, cwe 24 592. 3 Ausonius Septem sapientum sententiae 6.2: Vive memor mortis, item vive memor salutis. Erasmus does not say what reading he is emending. Ugoletus’ text had: immemor ut sis vive salutis. Erasmus’ emendation uti sis memor et salutis is adopted in pl 19 column 878; item vive for Erasmus’ uti sis is read in mgh, bt (1886), and the Loeb text (ii 274). See 2.187 n2.

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years lie ahead of you and so give thought to all that contributes to an honourable and happy life.’ Brooding on death inhibits many people from pursuing worthwhile activities; while ignoring it encourages them to sin more recklessly. One could also interpret the saying to mean: ‘Fear death, but don’t for that reason live in apprehension and misery,4 but let hope of life temper the horror of death.’ This last sense is suggested by the line that follows:5 Triumphing over all that hurts Through courage or support of friends.

Life is subject to many miseries, but the most depressing thing is that death is the most certain thing in it, the day of death the most uncertain.6 But we must rise above everything, either through a courageous spirit or through the support of friends. There is nothing more helpful in a time of trouble than to confide our worries and inner torment to friends, whose encouragement and sympathy lift the greater part of the burden.7 190 ‘One should forget that one has conferred a favour, remember that one has received one.’1 People usually do just the opposite. If they have done someone a favour, they boast about it endlessly and blow it up out of all proportion. ***** 4 Cf Seneca Epistulae morales 54.7: ‘follow the man who is prepared to die but is still glad to live’; see also ibidem 78.25. 5 Ausonius Septem sapientum sententiae 6.3 6 For the whole section, cf Cicero De senectute 20.74. 7 Erasmus has many adages on the value of true friendship, eg i i 1 Amicorum communia omnia ‘Between friends all is common’; i i 2: Amicitia aequalitas ‘Friendship is equality’ (containing Amicus alter ipse ‘A friend is another self’); ii ii 75: Amicus magis necessarius quam ignis et aqua ‘A friend is more necessary than fire and water’; iv v 5: Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur ‘Uncertainty sees a certain friend’; iv v 26: Amicitias immortales esse oportet ‘Friendships should last forever.’ 190 (xxx) Ausonius Septem sapientum sententiae 6.4 (see 2.187 n2 above). In margin ‘gratitude‘ 1 See Adagia iii x 68: Benefactorum memoria ‘The memory of good deeds’; iii i 83: Simul et misertum est et interiit gratia ‘No sooner is he pitied than his gratitude is dead.’ A similar saying to Chilon’s is there attributed to Seneca. See Seneca De beneficiis 2.10.4: the whole chapter is relevant to Erasmus’ remarks here.

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If someone has done something for them, they either forget it very soon, or pretend it was never done or belittle it. Ausonius’ poem puts it like this: If some kindness you bestow, Forget you ever did it.2

191 Ausonius also attributes to Chilon the opinion that ‘a youthful old age is desirable, a senile youth burdensome.’ Most of the ills that give old age a bad name are the result of men’s vices. Old age in fact brings a number of advantages: remembering and enjoying many things in retrospect, being able to give advice, receiving respect, exercising authority. If these advantages are present and the disadvantages absent, this kind of old age is preferable to the youth that is experienced by many, trickling away in vice and indolence. You see in many young people the feebleness associated with age, the lethargy associated with age, the fearfulness, the bad temper associated with age. The youth of such persons is worse than old age. They are not old but they are aged. Ausonius put it like this: Age will no burden prove to man When youthful thoughts remain. But youth if prematurely old Becomes a sad affliction.

192 Pliny also attributes to Chilon that famous saying, which was considered to have the force of an oracle: ‘Stand surety and ruin is at hand.’1 ***** 2 Modern editions of Ausonius have an additional line here: Quae bene facta accipias perpetuo memento ‘But of some benefit received / Keep the memory ever.’ Erasmus was possibly using the edition of Ausonius by Thaddaeus Ugoletus (Parma 1499) which omits the line (see 2.161 n1); Aldus had a copy of this edition which he annotated by hand. Erasmus’ heading may be based on Seneca, see n1 above. 191 (xxxi) Ausonius Septem sapientum sententiae 6.6–7 (see 2.187 n2 above). In margin ‘youthful old age‘ 192 (xxxii) Pliny Naturalis historia 7.32.119 but he does not quote these actual words; see also Diogenes Laertius 1.73. 1 The saying is the subject of Adagia i vi 97: Sponde, noxa praesto est.

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193 Aulus Gellius in book i, chapter 3, of the Attic Nights attributes to Chilon the following saying, and does so on the authority of Plutarch in the De anima. Someone was boasting that he had no enemy, so Chilon asked him whether he had any friend either, as he was of the opinion that friendships and enmities follow in each other’s train. Anyone who has many friends must inevitably have many enemies. So, if you please, let this serve as the second course1 of our banquet. We will follow it with some philosophers, not all of them or there will be no end, but a few of the most distinguished. The change will prevent boredom in the reader. If anyone wants more of this dish, Diogenes Laertius will easily satisfy his appetite,2 provided he is not too hard to please.

***** 193 (xxxiii) Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticae 1.3.31, quoting Plutarch’s De anima, a work that survives in fragmentary form. The story is also found in Plutarch Moralia 86c (How to profit by one’s enemies) and 96a (On having many friends). In margin ‘friendship linked with enmity‘ 1 This metaphor of a banquet with various courses and dishes is set up in the dedicatory epistle (11 above) and reappears not only here but with more or less elaboration in the Prefaces to books 5–8 and in passing in 4.256. The first five books are seen as the five main courses of the meal (cena), the sixth is the desert (mensae secundae), and books 7–8 (added in 1532) represent the sweetmeats served afterwards. For the frequent metaphor of a book as a meal, see eg Pliny Letters 2.5.7–8. Often a whole work is presented as a record of a discussion over dinner, eg Plato Symposium, Macrobius Saturnalia (see 1.1 there), Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticae (7.13), Plutarch’s nine books of Table-talk, and Athenaeus Deipnosophistae (Doctors at Dinner) – a banquet of food and talk, a feast of many dishes and many topics, which provides an important source for Erasmus, in book 6 below. 2 Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of Eminent Philosophers treats of the Seven Sages of Greece as well as early philosophers. Erasmus will draw on it for Socrates, Aristippus, and Diogenes in book three, using Traversari’s Latin version. See Introduction xvi–xvii above. He will himself provide more, returning to this source in book seven, for stories of many other philosophers.

BOOK III

SOCRATES AND HIS SCHOOL

It seems to me that Socrates comes very close to the Spartan temperament, not just in his incorruptible behaviour, his precepts, and his witty sayings, but in his capacity for endurance: so you might say he was Athenian by birth but Spartan by intellect – except that he did not practise Spartan brevity, since he preferred to put virtue across by persuasion rather than precept. He was particularly fond of using similes and inductive argument, which the Greeks call eisagogai, for this purpose, and the famous laconic brevity of the Spartan was ill suited to this type of speech. But though he may have been outdone by the Spartans in this respect, he far surpassed them in the holiness of his pronouncements. So it will be in order to review a number of these sayings. [Socrates] 1 Socrates used to say that the gods were the best and most blessed of all, and the nearer anyone came to resembling them, the better and more blessed he would be. ***** Erasmus provides a title Socratica for book 3, suggesting ‘material relating’ to Socrates and his followers. Socratici is a common term for Socrates, his followers, and the various schools they founded. His many followers included, besides Plato and Xenophon, the proto-Cynic Antisthenes (see 7.39–46 below and some isolated sayings in other books), as well as Aristippus and Diogenes to whom much of book 3 is devoted. There was a mass of anecdotal literature, much of it no doubt tendentious, since Socrates’ followers tended to father different schools of thought. For Erasmus’ sources in book 3, especially his use of Diogenes Laertius, see Introduction xv, xvi–xvii above. References given to Xenophon’s Memorabilia (passim 3.1–3.25), like those to the dialogues of Plato, often do not necessarily point to an exact source, as Erasmus tends to summarize, paraphrase, and combine memories of more than one passage. 1

(i) Xenophon Memorabilia 1.3.2. In margin ‘be like God‘

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If you correct the number of that one word to the singular, there could no more Christian sentiment. 2 He said one should not ask anything from the gods except things intrinsically good, although men usually pray for a wife with a good dowry, for riches, office, power, and long life, as if they were advising the deity what he should do. But God knows best what is good for us and what is not. 3 Socrates wanted sacrifices to cost as little as possible, since he said the gods did not need men’s property, and were more concerned with the feelings of those who made sacrifices than with their wealth. Otherwise, since the worst men are always the most wealthy, human affairs would be beyond hope, if the gods took more pleasure in the offerings of bad men than good. So he greatly approved of the following line of verse: ‘Man must offer the immortals gifts that he can afford.’1 This precept concerns us Christians too, when we decorate our sacred buildings and conduct our services and our rites for dead relations at outrageous expense, although we would be more pleasing to God, if we assigned to our brothers in need whatever is left after decent thrift.2 He declared that one should show the same thrift in entertaining guests, and applied the same rule: ‘offer what you can afford.’ 4 When a friend reproached Socrates for providing too modest a spread to entertain his guests, he said, ‘If they are good men it will be enough: it will be more than enough if they aren’t.’ ***** 2

(ii) Xenophon Memorabilia 1.3.3 with material from Valerius Maximus 7.2 ext. 1. In margin ‘what sort of prayers‘

3

(iii) Xenophon Memorabilia 1.3.3–4. In margin ‘sacrifices to cost little‘ 1 Hesiod Works and Days 336: Kaddœnamin d' Árdein ´Žr' úyan‡toisi yeo”si 2 Erasmus backs up Socrates’ precept of making offerings according to one’s resources by moralizing about the expenditure of contemporary Christians on erecting chapels, or on church furnishings and services. He adds parentalia, the Roman festival of offerings to the family dead, whose Christian equivalent would be masses for the souls of departed relatives, which a priest would be paid to say.

4

(iv) Diogenes Laertius 2.34. In margin ‘pointed‘

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5 He declared that one should avoid foods that provoked a man to eat when he was not hungry, and drink which enticed a man who was not thirsty to drink. For it is wrong to indulge in such things beyond the needs of the body. 6 He said hunger was the best seasoning,1 because it sweetened everything so well, and cost nothing. This was why he always ate and drank with pleasure, because he did neither unless he was hungry and thirsty. 7 Socrates even practised enduring hunger and thirst; for when he had built up a sweat from the exercise ground, at a time when other men desperately wanted a drink, he never drank from the first pitcher; asked why he refused he said it was, ‘In case I get used to obeying my desires.’ For sometimes even when you are thirsty, it is dangerous to drink; in this case when reason advises self-control, and desire is urging you to drink, you should listen to reason. 8 He said that men who had practised self-control and thrift had far more pleasure and less pain than men who wasted effort on procuring delicacies from all over the world. This was because the pleasures of the profligate not only caused the torment of bad conscience, disgrace, and poverty, but often brought the body more discomfort than enjoyment into the bargain. On the other hand the things that are best also become the most pleasurable, if one has become accustomed to them. ***** 5

(v) Plutarch Moralia 124d (Advice about keeping well); cf 513d (On talkativeness) and 661f (Table-talk book 4); Xenophon Memorabilia 1.3.6. In margin ‘abstemious‘

6

(vi) Xenophon Memorabilia 1.3.5; Diogenes Laertius 2.27. In margin ‘abstemious‘ 1 Cf 2.84 above and 3.30 below.

7

(vii) Cf Plutarch Moralia 512f (On talkativeness). In margin ‘physical urges controlled‘

8

(viii) Xenophon Memorabilia 1.3.15. In this and the next citation Erasmus passes over material in Xenophon that he must have felt unsuitable, avoiding Xenophon’s views on the desire for beautiful boys. He resumes with Socrates’ comments on food and drink (3.8) and condemnation of enslavement to money (3.9). In margin ‘pleasure from doing right‘

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9 Socrates declared it was shameful for anyone to choose to be a slave of pleasures, and make himself into the kind of fellow that no one would want to have in his home as a slave. There was no hope of salvation for such men unless others prayed to God for them to find good masters, since they were committed to being slaves. Indeed he thought no one experienced more vile and wretched slavery than those who were slaves of pleasure in mind and body. 10 Once, asked why he did not take part in public life, since he understood government so well, Socrates replied that a man was more use to the state if he trained many to be fit to govern, than if he alone governed well. In fact Niccolo` Leoniceno of Ferrara1 gave me the same reply, when I expressed amazement that he did not himself practise the art of medicine, which he taught. ‘I do more good’ he said, ‘by teaching all the doctors.’ And I had a similar reply from that great patron of my studies William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury,2 when I wrongly declined preferment to a parish and said to him, ‘How could I have the effrontery to enjoy the money of men whom I cannot preach to, since I do not know their language? Nor can I support them by warning or consolation, or provide any of the services of a good shepherd.’ He answered, ‘As if you were not doing more by teaching all the shepherds with your books, than if you devoted yourself to one little country parish!’ I admitted that he spoke like a good friend, but he did not convince me. 11 When someone asked Socrates how he could achieve a good reputation, his ***** 9

(ix) Xenophon Memorabilia 1.5.5. In margin ‘slavery to pleasures‘

10

(x) Xenophon Memorabilia 1.6.15. Socrates did fulfil the obligations of an ordinary Athenian citizen. In margin ‘being useful to many‘ 1 This is Niccolo` Leoniceno, originally of Vicenza. Erasmus met him in Ferrara, where he taught medicine and other subjects for sixty years. Erasmus had a high opinion of him. See cebr 2 323. 2 On Erasmus’ relationship to his generous patron Archbishop Warham see cebr 3 427–31 (William Warham), and cf 8.152 below. In March 1512 Erasmus was appointed rector to the parish of Aldington in Kent, but resigned four months later. Warham presumably expected him to appoint a curate to perform the parish duties (as was often done) and use the revenues of the parish to support himself in his studies and writing. After his resignation Erasmus was allowed to draw a pension from the living.

11

(xi) A paraphrase and summary of Xenophon Memorabilia 1.7.1–5. In margin ‘how to win a reputation‘

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reply was, ‘By striving to be what you want men to think you are.’1 It is just like wanting to be thought a good piper: a man must demonstrate the skills he sees displayed in respected pipers. A person without training in medicine doesn’t become a doctor because he has a doctor’s position and is commonly called Doctor.2 In the same way a man elected by popular vote does not immediately become prince or a magistrate, unless he knows the art of governing. 12 Socrates used to say it was utterly absurd that no one would, without suffering disgrace, practise sedentary skills1 which he had not learned, nor would anyone commission a bookchest from a man ignorant of the craft, yet men were admitted to public office who had never studied the disciplines without which no man could hold office properly. Anyone would damn a man who took the helm with no knowledge of piloting. Surely then men deserved far greater curses for entering politics without knowledge of political science. In fact he did not really think a man should be called a trickster for taking money or plate he could not return from someone who trusted him; but men should certainly be called tricksters when they deceitfully persuaded others that they were fit to govern, although they were good for nothing. This comment is even more appropriate to Christian princes, magistrates, and bishops, than to pagans. 13 He often said that no treasure was more precious than a real and good friend, and nothing could give so much benefit and pleasure. So it is quite perverse of people to be more distressed at waste of money than the loss of a friend, or to protest that they have wasted a favour freely given, when this has won them a friend more precious than any profit.1 14 We commission statues from men whom we already know as the creators of a number of tasteful statues. Accordingly, we should not invite men into ***** 1 Adagia iv i 92: Cura esse quad audis ‘Take care to be what you are said to be’ 2 Erasmus adds the example of the doctor. 12

(xii) Xenophon Memorabilia 1.2.9 and 1.7.5. In margin ‘the art of governing‘ 1 For ‘sedentary skills’ see 2.64 n1 above.

13

(xiii) Xenophon Memorabilia 2.4.1–4. In margin ‘a true friend‘ 1 Cf 3.31 below.

14

(xiv) Xenophon Memorabilia 2.6.6–7. In margin ‘judge according to behaviour‘

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our friendship unless we have already found them to be faithful and useful friends to others. 15 When someone was punishing a slave rather savagely, Socrates asked him why he was raging so. The other replied, ‘Because he is the greatest glutton and the laziest worker, the greediest, and the most idle.’ To which Socrates said, ‘Have you never thought which of you needs more beatings, you or your slave?’ Whenever anyone finds himself punishing in others a fault he forgives in his own case – or if not the same fault then an even worse one – if only he said to himself what Socrates said to this fellow. 16 When someone wanted to go to Olympia but was put off by the effort of the journey, Socrates said, ‘At home you often walk around all day, before lunch and again before dinner. If you kept on with your local walks for five or six days you would easily get to Olympia.’ He cleverly showed the fellow that what deters us in undertaking some effort is more one’s imagining than the effort itself. If any risk, expense, or effort is to be made for the sake of something honourable, we make excuses and cry off, and shudder, though we often voluntarily go to more trouble in trivial and even shameful matters. So some people when invited to take part in intellectual activities, make excuses of their health, the sleeplessness, the cost of books, yet they stay up all night dicing, and get a fever or gout or dropsy or weakened eyesight from drinking, and paralysis or the new disease they call the French pox from whoring.1 17 Once a man complained that he was tired by the long journey, so Socrates asked if his slave could keep up with him. ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Was the slave unburdened or carrying a load?’ ‘He was carrying quite a lot of baggage,’ said the other. ‘Well then,’ said Socrates, ‘does he complain that he ***** 15

(xv) Xenophon Memorabilia 3.13.4. In margin ‘punishing others for what one does oneself‘

16

(xvi) Xenophon Memorabilia 3.13.5. In margin ‘effort undertaken voluntarily‘ 1 A virulent form of syphilis appeared in Europe about 1500, perhaps brought back from the New World by sailors. It was variously known as ‘the Neapolitan scab’ or ‘the French disease’.

17

(xvii) Xenophon Memorabilia 3.13.6. In margin ‘slave better than his master‘

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is tired?’ When the other said no, Socrates went on ‘Aren’t you ashamed of your softness, when you are tired walking without a load, although he carries his load without complaining that he is tired?’ Thus Socrates showed that the slave was superior to the master in that, being better exercised for hardship, he felt less discomfort. 18 Socrates used to remind men that what was called in other lands simply ‘dining’ or ‘feasting,’ was called euocheisthai ‘to be well fed / to fare well’ by the Athenians, and this was meant to remind us that food should be taken in such moderation that neither mind nor body was burdened. He explained it this way, I think, because ocheisthai means ‘to be carried’ (hence oxeion, ‘vehicle, carriage’ though ox¯e ‘support’ can also mean ‘food, sustenance’) and eu ‘well’ was added to the verb so that an unreasonably heavy burden was not put upon the body. 19 He said good training should be especially applied to well-born and freeborn young people. The same thing tended to happen with them as with horses: among horses the proud ones with a noble nature, if they are well trained from their early years, grow up superb and adapted to every use, but if they are not trained, they are wild and ungovernable and good for nothing. So the most talented natures are ruined through the ignorance of their teachers, who quickly turn horses into donkeys because they don’t know how to command lofty and free-born spirits. 20 Another thing Socrates used to say was that a cowherd who reduced the size of his herd would be acting shamelessly if he expected still to be thought a good cowherd, but it was much more absurd if someone expected to be thought a good statesman when he reduced the number of citizens.1 He aimed this comment at Critias and Charicles who had killed ***** 18

(xviii) Xenophon Memorabilia 3.14.7. In margin ‘moderation in food‘

19

(xix) Xenophon Memorabilia 4.1.3–4. In margin ‘a lofty spirit‘

20

(xx) Xenophon Memorabilia 1.2.32–3 (cowherd/statesman); Xenophon Memorabilia 1.2.37–8 (Charicles and Critias). 1 Cf Xenophon Cyropaedia ‘education of Cyrus’ 8.2.14, where a good king is likened to a good shepherd.

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many citizens.2 This came to their ears, and Critias threatened Socrates that if he did not keep quiet, he too would reduce his herd; and what he threatened he carried out, for it was through him that Socrates met his death. 21 Socrates had chosen some lines from the old authors which he often used like proverbs, one of which is that line of Hesiod: ‘It is no dishonour to work, but idling is dishonour.’1 He used this to discourage young men not just from idleness but also from unprofitable activities; certainly he called men idle who wasted their life in dicing, drinking, and whoring. 22 Another favourite was this line of Homer, as Gellius and Diogenes Laertius report: ‘The good or ill that’s wrought in our own halls.’1 Socrates quoted this to deter his hearer not just from inquisitiveness into other men’s affairs, but from unnecessary skills, such as a precise knowledge of astrology, or geometry, or natural science, or the study of things beyond this world, towards learning ethics, the knowledge of which enables us to know ourselves and administer our private and public business profitably.2 23 This is the drift of another saying ascribed to him, which is particularly famous: ‘What is above us is none of our business.’1 ***** 2 Critias was leader of the so-called thirty tyrants who imposed an oligarchic revolution on Athens in 404. Charicles, who had once been a rabble-rousing demagogue, also became one of the tyrants. They had both been followers of Socrates. 21

(xxi) Xenophon Memorabilia 1.2.56–7. In margin ‘dishonourable idleness‘ 1 Hesiod Works and Days 311: Árgon g' o[dn »neidow, úergei| d t' »neidow.

22

(xxii) Aulus Gellius 14.6.5; Diogenes Laertius 2.21. In margin ‘curiosity‘ 1 Odyssey 4.392: Ðtti toi \n meg‡roisi kak™n t' úgay™n te tŽtuktai, a line also cited by Plutarch Moralia 122d (Advice about keeping well), and 1063d (Against the Stoics). The saying and quotation are also attributed to Aristippus. 2 Erasmus’ comment is based on the context of the remark in Diogenes Laertius. See Adagia i vi 85.

23

(xxiii) Diogenes Laertius 2.21. In margin ‘curiosity‘ 1 Adagia i vi 69: Quae supra nos nihil ad nos ‘The things that are above us are nothing to us’

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This was his customary reply to those who expressed amazement that he always talked about ethics and never about stars or celestial phenomena. 24 When someone deliberately kicked him in the street, and others were surprised that he put up with it, he asked what he was supposed to do. When they urged him to sue the man, he said, ‘That’s absurd. If a donkey had struck me with his hoof, would you have told me to sue him?’1 He thought there was no difference between a donkey and a stupid man without virtue, and it seemed to him utterly absurd not to accept from such a man what you would accept from a brute creature. 25 Once a man he had greeted did not return his greeting. Socrates did not resent this, but his friends were amazed and indignant at the man’s discourtesy. Then he said to them, ‘If someone passed us by who was in a worse state of bodily health than we are, we would not be angry with him, so why should I be angry with someone who is in a worse state of mental health than I am?’ 26 Euripides once brought Socrates a book written by Heraclitus,1 and after he had read it to him asked him what he thought of it? ‘By god,’ he said, ‘what I understood seems to me splendid, and I suppose the same could be said of what I didn’t understand, but it needs some kind of Delian swimmer.’2 This was a very witty way of commenting on the artificial obscurity of that writer, from which he was nicknamed ‘The Dark One.’ As for the Delian swimmer we have explained that in the Adages.3 ***** 24

25 26

(xxiv) Diogenes Laertius 2.21. In margin ‘acceptance‘ 1 Cf Plutarch Moralia 10c (The education of children). (xxv) Xenophon Memorabilia 3.13.1. In margin ‘forbearing‘ (xxvi) Diogenes Laertius 2.22. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 The Ionic natural philosopher Heraclitus wrote natural philosophy in gnomic prose so oracular and allusive that he was called ‘the Obscure.’ Only fragments survive. His doctrines of logos ’thought’, constant flux, and fire as a basic element of the universe were developed by the Stoics. 2 Cf Diogenes Laertius 9.12 where Crates makes the same comment. Delian divers did not just dive and surface; they could swim under water. 3 Adagia i iv 29: Delius natator ‘A Delian diver.’

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27 When Alcibiades1 presented him with an extensive piece of ground on which to build a house, he said, ‘What! If I needed shoes, would you give me a whole hide to make them from? And if you gave it to me, wouldn’t I seem a fool to accept it?’ He used this comparison to refuse a useless gift. 28 When Socrates was walking through the marketplace looking at the quantity of goods for sale there, he used to say to himself: ‘What a lot of things I don’t need!’ Yet others torture themselves thinking ‘how many things I lack.’ Socrates was congratulating himself that because he lived according to nature and was used to very little, he neither wanted nor needed gold, purple, jewels, ivory, tapestries, and all the other things rich men delight in. Indeed he used to say they were needed more to stage tragedies than for real life. To support this he often quoted these iambic lines from some poet or other: those vessels wrought of silver, purple cloths, are suited to those acting tragedies but make no contribution to good life.1

29 Another of his sayings was that the most godlike man was the one who needed least, since the gods need absolutely nothing. But people usually think the wealthy are like the gods, although nothing is enough for their enjoyment. Hence the remark about rich men in the comedy of Terence ‘How easily you live your lives!’1 Now this was what ***** 27

(xxvii) Diogenes Laertius 2.24. In margin ‘a useless gift‘ 1 Alcibiades, nephew of Pericles and Athenian statesman, was Socrates’ most extravagant and unstable pupil. See 5.184n below.

28

(xxviii) Diogenes Laertius 2.25. In margin ‘abstemious‘ 1 Erasmus quotes the Greek: Tˆd' úrgurQmat' \stin, ¾ te porfœra / E w tow tragQdouw xr}sim', o[k e w t˜n b’on. The last section (‘To support this . . .’) was added in 1532. By this date Erasmus has a copy of Diogenes Laertius with the Greek verse inserted; see Introduction xvi above. Stobaeus 56.15 (Meineke ii 336) attributes the iambic quotation to the comic dramatist Philemon (incerta fr 105 pcg), who could not have been quoted by Socrates, since Philemon lived and wrote after Socrates’ death.

29

(xxix) Diogenes Laertius 2.27. In margin ‘abstemious‘ 1 Terence Adelphi 501

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Homer ascribed to the gods, whom he called ]on Ägontaw [rhaon agontas], that is, ‘easy livers.’2 But the man lives most easily who is happy with least possessions. 30 Socrates used to say that a man who could eat bread with enjoyment did not need a cooked dish, and someone who would enjoy drinking anything did not hanker for a drink other than what was available. For hunger and thirst season everything best.1 31 He also said that it was easy for anyone to list his prize possessions, and yet it was most difficult for him to list his friends, although no possession was more precious than these.1 By this comment he criticized the popular values, which treated most carelessly the things which everyone should value most. A man who has acquired money thinks himself richer, and curses his misfortune if he loses it, but the man who has won a good friend does not see himself as better off, nor does he weep for the loss if he loses him. 32 To Euclides, who was very keen on rather tricky arguments,1 Socrates said ‘Euclides, you know how to associate with sophists but not with men.’ In this way he made it clear that sophistic skills were useless for public purposes. Anyone who aspired to take part in public life should not play with riddles and empty quibbles, but adapt himself to the ways of men. 33 He said that knowledge was the only good, and conversely ignorance the only evil. ***** 2 Cf eg Homer Iliad 6.138, Odyssey 4.805, 5.122 (actually rheia z¯oontes). 30

(xxx) Diogenes Laertius 2.27. In margin ‘abstemious‘ 1 Cf 2.84 above.

31

(xxxi) Diogenes Laertius 2.30. In margin ‘a true friend‘ 1 Cf 3.13 above, 4.71 below.

32

(xxxii) Diogenes Laertius 2.30. Euclides of Megara (c. 450–380 bc) was the founder of the Megarian school of philosophy. He was particularly interested in logical disputation. In margin ‘common sense‘ 1 Erasmus has corrected his translation of the 1531 edition, where he referred to Euclides’ passion for court cases, instead of intellectual disputes.

33

(xxxiii) Diogenes Laertius 2.31

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Men who commit an injustice blunder because they do not know what each man is entitled to; on the other hand brave men are brave only in knowing that they must seek what the common people think should be dreaded; again intemperate men go wrong because they think things are sweet or admirable which are nothing of the sort. So he declared that the highest good was the knowledge of what one ought to seek and what one ought to shun. 34 When someone said Antisthenes the philosopher had a Thracian mother, as if it were an insult to the man to call him of mixed race, having an Athenian father but a barbarian mother,1 Socrates protested, ‘Do you think such a fine fellow could have come from Athenian parents on both sides?’ He was censuring the depraved morals of the Athenians, which made it more likely that a good man would have a Thracian or Scythian mother than an Athenian, and he thought Antisthenes’ virtue should be credited to his mother. 35 Socrates used to say leisure was the best of all possessions. But he understood leisure not as being idle but as being untroubled by upsetting business and desires that interfere with peace of mind. 36 The most famous of his sayings is that he knew nothing except that he knew nothing, for he went around asking questions as though he was uncertain, not because he did not really know anything; but by this irony he made apparent his modesty and reproached the arrogance of others, who declared there was nothing they didn’t know, though in fact they did not know anything.1 ***** 34

35 36

(xxxiv) Diogenes Laertius 2.31. In margin ‘humorous‘ 1 For Antisthenes see 7.39–100 below. This jibe is repeated at 7.47 and 7.76. If Antisthenes had a foreign mother he would not be entitled to Athenian citizenship. Low birth was considered a legitimate target for wit; see 3.329 and 7.116 below. (xxxv) Diogenes Laertius 2.31. In margin ‘honourable leisure‘ (xxxvi) Diogenes Laertius 2.32. In margin ‘modest‘ 1 Socrates explains in Plato’s Apology 21 and the following narrative, that his loyal disciple Chaerephon asked the Delphic oracle of Apollo whether there was anyone wiser than Socrates. The oracle said there was no one and Socrates, puzzled, came to realize from questioning experts that he alone knew that he knew nothing, and was superior to them in this respect.

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Indeed sophists publicly claimed that they would reply on the spot to any theme set before them, and Socrates often exposed their arrogant ignorance.2 And as he saw it, this was the reason he was judged to be wise by Apollo, that although he shared general ignorance with everyone else, he was superior to them because he recognized his own ignorance while they were unaware of theirs. 37 Diogenes Laertius also credits Socrates with the saying that ‘the beginning is half the job.’1 For he used to say half a task was completed once a man had started it. For some people waste all their lives in delaying and planning. Indeed there is a half line of Hesiod, ‘The beginning is half the whole.’2 38 He would say that men who bought fruits ripened early at high prices must have given up hope of living until the normal season for ripening. Otherwise it would be stupid to pay a higher price for an inferior product, when one could soon buy better fruit for less. In this way he constantly recalled men’s irrational greed to sound judgment. 39 Once Euripides was speaking about virtue and said: ‘Such random things should best be left alone,’ as if virtue could hardly be found anywhere.1 Then Socrates got up and said this was absurd. If a slave could not be found ***** 2 For this sophistic practice compare Gorgias’ claim at Plato Gorgias 447c and Cicero De Oratore 1.103; see 8.27 below. 37

(xxxvii) Diogenes Laertius 2.32. In margin ‘delay an evil‘ 1 Cf 3.93 below. 2 Hesiod Works and Days 40: &Arx| ³misu pant—w. See Adagia i ii 39: Principium dimidium totius ‘Well begun is half done.’ (xxxviii) Diogenes Laertius 2.32. In margin ‘haste‘

38 39 1

(xxxix) Diogenes Laertius 2.33. In margin ‘virtue to be sought‘ Kr‡tiston e k_ tažta \‰n úfeimŽna. Erasmus introduced the Greek words and changed Traversari’s translation (see Introduction xvi–xvii above) in 1532, after he had access to the Greek text. The 1531 edition simply says ‘Euripides, when speaking about virtue, said it was best to let virtue go, since it could scarcely be found.’ The line occurs at Euripides Electra 379, but is attributed by Laertius to the lost play Auge. Erasmus has omitted ‘and went out’ after ’Socrates got up,’ obscuring the fact that the incident occurred in the theatre, as Diogenes Laertius makes clear.

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at once we would think it worth while to search for him. It was absurd to think virtue not worth a search if it didn’t come to a man at once. 40 When a young man asked him whether it was better to marry a wife or not,1 Socrates said, ‘You will be sorry whatever you do.’ He judged that both bachelor life and marriage had their inconveniences, for which one must prepare the spirit. The bachelor’s lot means loneliness, childlessness, the end of the family line, an outsider as heir; but marriage means endless harassment, constant complaints, reproaches about dowry, the raised eyebrow of in-laws, the chatter of a mother-in-law, a betrayer in wait to ruin other men’s marriages, no guarantee of how children will turn out, and countless other disadvantages. Accordingly this was not a choice between good and bad, but between more or less tiresome nuisances. 41 One of his friends was complaining that everything cost too much at Athens – Chian wine cost a mina, purple three minae, half a pot of honey five drachmae. So Socrates took him by the hand into a grain merchant’s store. ‘Look’, he said, ‘a half measure costs an obol, so wheat is cheap.’ Then he took him to the oil store and said, ‘A whole measure is just two brass bits. So not everything in the city costs a lot.’ The man who is content with a few essentials makes food cheap for himself. 42 King Archelaus had invited Socrates with lavish promises.1 But Socrates answered that he did not want to come in order to take favours from him, since ***** 40

(xl) Diogenes Laertius 2.33 for the general sentiment; the details are added from Valerius Maximus 7.2 ext. 1. In margin ‘marriage‘ 1 A question frequently put to philosophers. See General Index: marriage. It was used as a chreia, ie the subject for elementary exercises in composition (progymnasmata). See Introduction xxiv–xxvii above. Aphthonius Progymnasmata 13.109–114 (Spengel ii 49–53) takes it as a thesis and gives sample arguments pro and con.

41

(xli) Plutarch Moralia 470f (On tranquillity of mind). In margin ‘abstemious‘

42

(xlii) Seneca De beneficiis 5.6.2. In margin ‘gifts scorned‘ 1 Archelaus, son of Perdiccas, was king of Macedonia from 413–399, and invited to his court both Socrates (who declined) and Euripides (who accepted). Erasmus quotes some of his sayings at 5.87–91 below.

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he could not return them. Seneca criticizes this saying, on the grounds that a philosopher who teaches contempt for gold and silver gives more than if he were to give gold and silver. 43 Once when he came back from market he said to his friends ‘I would have bought a cloak, if I had any money.’ He didn’t ask for anything but modestly reminded them of his need. Soon there was a contest among his friends as to whom Socrates would take it from. ‘Yet anyone who was eager after that remark,’ Seneca commented, ‘was already late in giving.’ 44 A certain man complained that his travels had done him no good. ‘That is what you deserve,’ Socrates said, ‘for you travelled in your own company.’ Many people think that wisdom is gathered from long journeys, although Horace declares ‘Men change the sky, not their mood, when they cross the sea.’1 It is the association of wise men that brings good judgment, not mountains or oceans. 45 When a fellow struck him in the street he made no answer, except to say that men never knew when they should go out wearing a helmet. Laertius gives the same witticism to Diogenes.1 46 Socrates used to say he wondered why sculptors who tried so hard to make stone look like the man, didn’t take as much trouble not to look like stone and actually be like stone themselves. Now there is a belief that Socrates had been a statue maker before he took to philosophical leisure. 47 He always urged young men to gaze in a mirror, so that if they were good looking, they would take care not to act in a manner unworthy of their ***** 43

(xliii) Seneca De beneficiis 7.24.1–2. In margin ‘unsolicited kindness‘

44

(xliv) Seneca Epistulae morales 104.7. In margin ‘travel useless‘ 1 Horace Epistles 1.11.27

45

(xlv) Diogenes Laertius 6.41. In margin ‘forbearing‘ 1 See 3.228 below.

46

(xlvi) Diogenes Laertius 2.33 (the saying) and 2.19 (Socrates as sculptor). Cf 3.122, 7.234, and 7.249 below. In margin ‘witty‘

47

(xlvii) Diogenes Laertius 2.33. In margin ‘development of mind‘

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looks; but if not, they would compensate for their physical deficiencies by the development of their intellect and character.1 This great man was always so eager to seize any opportunity for urging men towards virtue. 48 Socrates had asked some rich men to dinner. Xanthippe was worried about this, because they had very few provisions. ‘Keep calm,’ he said ‘for if they are modest and self controlled they will make the best of it, but if not, we shouldn’t worry about them.’ These alternatives should eliminate our laborious and costly pretensions in entertaining guests. 49 He used to say that many lived to eat and drink, but he ate and drank in order to live, indulging in these things not for pleasure but to satisfy nature. This is how the satirist adapted the saying: ‘Don’t live to eat but eat so you can live.’1 50 Socrates declared that those who trusted the ignorant mob behaved like a man who questioned and rejected a single tetradrachm, but approved and accepted a whole pile of similar coins. If you wouldn’t trust a man by himself, you should trust him even less in a crowd of others like him. It doesn’t make any difference how many ***** 1 See also Plutarch Moralia 141d (Advice to bride and groom). 48 49

50

(xlviii) Diogenes Laertius 2.34. Cf 3.4 above. In margin ‘frugality‘ (xlix) Diogenes Laertius 2.34; also quoted in Aulus Gellius 19.2 and Macrobius 2.8.16. In margin ‘indulgence‘ 1 ‘The satirist’ usually means Juvenal, but this is from Alexander de Villa Dei Doctrinale 2611; see asd iv-4 589 p208. This was an elementary instruction manual in verse on various points of Latin usage and forms of nouns and verbs. This line comes from chapter 12 on figures of speech. It was a basic school text and there were many mss and printings. It was used in Hegius’ school in Deventer; it was published there c. 1484 and frequently thereafter (see the preface to Dietrich Reichling Das doctrinale des Alexander de Villa-Dei: kritisch-exegetische Ausgabe [Berlin 1893] li). So this may be a distant memory from Erasmus’ school-days (see cebr 2 173 [Hegius]), hence the wrong attribution. (l) Diogenes Laertius 2.34. In margin ‘what sort of coin‘

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they are, only how reliable, for a counterfeit coin remains a counterfeit coin however big the pile.1 This was his argument against a crowd of witnesses and the verdicts of the ignorant rabble. 51 Aeschines wanted to be one of Socrates’ pupils, and modestly excused his poverty, being embarrassed because Socrates’ other wealthy friends poured money on him, while he had nothing to offer but himself. So Socrates said, ‘Don’t you realize what a great gift you are giving me, unless perhaps you don’t think much of yourself? In that case I will take care to return you to yourself better than I found you.’1 Although other sophists taught sheer nonsense, they took no pupil without a large fee, but Socrates took in the penniless as gladly as the well off. 52 When someone said to him ‘the Athenians have condemned you to death’ Socrates answered, ‘and Nature has condemned them!’ He felt it was not a great evil if someone was put to death since he would die soon anyway, even if no one executed him. But some people attribute this remark to Anaxagoras.1 53 His wife wept, the way women will, and said, ‘Dear husband you are going to die although you are innocent,’ but he said ‘Well, wife, would you rather I died guilty?’ ***** 1 This entry was heavily remodelled from the first edition (1531) which offered: ‘He used to say that those who trusted the common crowd which hates poverty but admires wealth, behaved . . . a pile of similar coins, as if numbers increased value. If a coin is good in itself, why is that one rejected? If it is not, what does having more of them contribute?’ 51

(li) Diogenes Laertius 2.34. In margin ‘gracious‘ 1 This is Aeschines of Sphettus, ‘the Socratic,’ whom Laertius 2.64 distinguishes from the famous orator and others of the same name.

52

(lii) Diogenes Laertius 2.35. In margin ‘death inevitable‘ 1 See 7.127 below, where Diogenes Laertius attributes the remark to Anaxagoras.

53

(liii) Diogenes Laertius 2.35. This anecdote is given as a chreia (with Apollodorus, see 3.54 below, in place of Xanthipppe) in Theon Progymnasmata 5.208 (Spengel ii 99). Erasmus’ comment seems to be suggested by Theon’s conclusion. In margin ‘death not to be lamented‘

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We should shed fewer tears over the death of good men, because they are dying undeservedly; but men deserve twice as many tears when they are paying the penalty for their wicked deeds. It is far more pitiable to deserve punishment than receive it. 54 The day Socrates was due to drink the poison Apollodorus brought him a very valuable cloak to comfort him, so that he could die in it.1 But he refused the gift, saying ‘Do you think my cloak, which suits me well alive, will not suit me dead?’ Thus he condemned the pretentiousness of people who take strange pains to have a funeral procession and be buried as grandly as possible. 55 A friend reported that someone was speaking ill of him: ‘I suppose,’ Socrates said, ‘he has not learnt to speak well,’1 attributing the man’s sick tongue not to malice but ignorance. He didn’t think it mattered to him what men said who spoke out of a mental affliction, not from judgment. 56 When the Cynic Antisthenes had a torn cloak and turned round to let everyone see the tear, Socrates said, ‘Through that hole in your cloak I can see your – vanity.’1 This was a neat way of pointing out how it was more shameful to be pretentious about the cheapness of one’s dress than about a splendid garment. If only there were not many like Antisthenes among the Christians, who conceal more self-satisfaction under a dark cheap dirty robe than other – wealthy – men have in their robes of pure silk or muslin. 57 When someone was amazed that Socrates was not upset with a fellow who assailed him with insults, Socrates said, ‘It’s not me he is abusing, since what he is saying isn’t true of me and doesn’t apply to me.’ ***** 54

(liv) Diogenes Laertius 2.35. In margin ‘concern for one’s funeral‘ 1 Apollodorus, a devoted pupil of Socrates, was present at Socrates’ death and is the spokesman who reports Plato’s Symposium (174a).

55

(lv) Diogenes Laertius 2.35. In margin ‘forbearance‘ 1 Cf 1.236 above.

56

(lvi) Diogenes Laertius 2.36; 6.8. In margin ‘pretentious squalor‘ 1 The story is repeated in 8.204 below. There are several anecdotes on this topic.

57

(lvii) Diogenes Laertius 2.36. In margin ‘forbearance‘

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Yet most men are more upset if accusations are undeserved. When good men are spoken ill of, they congratulate themselves on being innocent of the evils that are cast in their teeth, and do not believe that these are anything to do with them. It’s like someone with poor eyesight addressing Plato as Socrates and then abusing Socrates. He would not be abusing Plato, but the man he thought Plato was. 58 The Old Comedy regularly insults men under their own names.1 Although most people were afraid of this licence, Socrates said it was in a person’s interest to offer himself knowingly and willingly as a target. ‘For if they attack us for something that deserves reproach,’ he said, ‘we will take warning and correct it, and they will have done us good: but if they sling false insults at us, that’s nothing to do with us.’ 59 When Socrates had put up with Xanthippe scolding him indoors for a long time, and had finally gone to sit wearily outside the doorway, she was even more enraged by her husband’s calm, and poured a chamber pot onto him out of the window. The passers-by laughed and Socrates laughed with them, saying, ‘It was easy to guess that after such thunder rain would follow.’ 60 Alcibiades was amazed that Socrates endured the unbearably quarrelsome Xanthippe at home. Socrates said, ‘I have been accustomed to this for so long now, that I am no more irritated than if I were listening to the screech of the wheel that hauls water from the well.’ For this noise is very disturbing to those who are not used to it, but the man who hears it every day is so little troubled that he doesn’t know he is hearing it. 61 When Alcibiades made another similar remark, Socrates said, ‘But don’t you endure the squawking of hens at home?’ ‘Yes, I do,’ said Alcibiades, ‘but ***** 58

(lviii) Diogenes Laertius 2.36. In margin ‘profit from insults‘ 1 For Aristophanes’ comedy about Socrates see 3.83 below.

59

(lix) Diogenes Laertius 2.36. In margin ‘witty, mild‘

60

(lx) Diogenes Laertius 2.36. In margin ‘familiarity makes things tolerable‘

61

(lxi) Diogenes Laertius 2.36. In margin ‘reason for enduring a wife‘

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they lay eggs and hatch chickens.’ ‘Well,’ said Socrates, ‘Xanthippe has given me children.’ 62 Some people believe Socrates kept two wives at home at the same time, Myrto and Xanthippe.1 So when someone wondered aloud what need he had to keep two wives, especially quarrelsome ones, and why he did not drive them out, Socrates said, ‘They teach me endurance at home, which I need to use in public. Now I have been trained by their behaviour I will be better adjusted to the company of others.’2 Aulus Gellius gives this question to Alcibiades.3 63 When Xanthippe tore his cloak off Socrates in public and his friends urged him to avenge this wrong with his fists, he said ‘Fine! So that you can cheer us on as we fight, one saying ‘Go it Socrates,’ another ‘Go it, Xanthippe’ (for these are the kind of cries with which supporters encourage two people having a fight). He wisely preferred to offer an example of tolerance, than provide the absurd spectacle of a husband fighting his wife. 64 He told a man who asked why he kept Xanthippe, since her temper was so disagreeable, ‘We should practise living with bad-tempered wives the way men learn horsemanship: they get horses of a fierce temperament and if they control them and can bear with them, they can handle others more easily. So the man who has learnt to bear the ways of a bad-tempered wife, will associate much more easily with any kind of person.’ ***** 62

(lxii) Diogenes Laertius 2.26 and 2.27; Aulus Gellius 1.17.2–3. In margin ‘mildness‘ 1 Laertius (2.26) attributes this report to Aristotle. Towards the end of the Peloponnesian war when many young Athenian men had been killed, a law was passed to make it legal for one citizen to have two wives; Laertius notes that Socrates married Myrto, daughter of Aristides, as a second wife. 2 Cf 3.64 below. 3 Aulus Gellius 1.17.1–3, but Erasmus has misremembered – the question there is only about Xanthippe.

63

(lxiii) Diogenes Laertius 2.37. In margin ‘mildness‘

64

(lxiv) Diogenes Laertius 2.37 and Xenophon Symposium 2.10. In margin ‘mildness‘

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65 When Lysias read to Socrates the speech he had composed as his defence, Socrates said, ‘It is a fine and elegant speech, but it doesn’t fit Socrates.’ For it was more suited to law court practice than to a philosopher, and such a philosopher. So when Lysias asked why he thought the speech wouldn’t suit him if it was a good one, he said, ‘Can’t a garment or a shoe be smart and elegant and still not fit a man?’1 Valerius Maximus tells the same story in a more offensive form and one less worthy of Socrates. For he reports that Socrates answered Lysias, ‘Take it away, for if I could be persuaded to utter it in the remotest Scythian desert, I would really think I deserved the death penalty.’ 66 When the jury disagreed on the penalty that Socrates deserved, he said, ‘Personally I think that for what I did I deserve to be fed in the city hall.’1 This was the honour paid to men who had served the State exceptionally well. Cicero reports this in the first book of The Making of an Orator. This is what he says: ‘At Athens when the accused had been found guilty, and assuming it was not a capital offence, the determination of the sentence was assigned to the jury. They then used to ask the defendant what sentence he thought he most deserved. Now when Socrates was asked this he said that he deserved to be heaped with the greatest honours and rewards, and be offered his daily meals at state expense in the city hall – for this was considered the highest honour by the Greeks. But the jury was so enraged by this reply that they condemned this totally innocent man to death.’2 67 Socrates came upon Xenophon in some side street and when he recognized that the young man had an exceptional nature he stretched out his stick and barred his path. Once he had stopped, Socrates asked him where various ***** 65

(lxv) Diogenes Laertius 2.40 and Valerius Maximus 4.4 ext. 2. Defendants had to plead their own case and often commissioned a speech from a speech writer, such as the famous and prolific Lysias. See 3.120, 3.125 below. In margin ‘appropriate to the individual‘ 1 The story is also found in Cicero De oratore 1.232, cited in the next anecdote.

66

(lxvi) Diogenes Laertius 2.42 and Cicero De oratore 1.232–3. In margin ‘confidence based on good acts‘ 1 This comes from the second part of Socrates’ defence, in which he proposed his own penalty (or reward) after hearing the verdict: Plato Apology 36–7. 2 The supplementary material from Cicero was added only in 1535.

67

(lxvii) Diogenes Laertius 2.48. In margin ‘training of the mind‘

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products that men generally used were made and sold; so after Xenophon had given ready answers, Socrates asked, ‘Where were good men made?’ When the young man said he didn’t know, Socrates said, ‘Follow me, so that you will find out.’ From this time Xenophon was a pupil of Socrates.1 Now it is absurd to know where you can get a decent garment or cup and not know where you can obtain training for your mind. 68 Once when Socrates was energetically walking about in front of his house into late evening, one of the passers-by said, ‘What are you doing, Socrates?’ He replied ‘I am getting the appetizers for my supper.’ He meant the hunger he was working up by this physical exercise. Cicero’s version says ‘to enjoy my dinner better I am giving my hunger a first course by walking about.’1 69 Socrates said perfumes should be left to women, and no perfume smelt better on young men than the oil they used while exercising. For if you think of herbal oils like marjoram and nard, they make a slave and a freeman smell just the same. They asked him what old men should smell of and he said, ‘Honesty.’ So they asked where it was sold and he recited the line of Theognis: ‘Whoever is good, learn what is good from him.’1 Xenophon gathers a number of such sayings in his Symposium. 70 When a wealthy man sent his young son to Socrates for him to assess his character, and the boy’s attendant said, ‘His father has sent his son for you to look him over, Socrates,’ Socrates said to the boy, ‘Speak then, so I can see you,’1 meaning that a man’s character did not shine forth so clearly from ***** 1 This is Xenophon, the philosopher and historian. See 1.49 and Introduction xv above. 68

(lxviii) Athenaeus 4.46, 157e. In margin ‘abstemious‘ 1 Cicero Tusculan Disputations 5.97

69

(lxix) Xenophon Symposium 2.3–4. 1 Theognis 1.69: &Esyl™n mn gˆr úp' \sylˆ did‡jeai; Adagia iv viii 37: A bonis bona disce ‘Learn goodness from the good.’ For Socrates’ dislike of perfume cf Plutarch Moralia 401c (The oracles at Delphi) and 713d (Table-talk book vii).

70

(lxx) Apuleius Florida 2.1 with Plato Charmides 154e. Cf 3.101, 3.184–5 below. In margin ‘speech the mirror of the mind‘ 1 Erasmus is fond of quoting the words of Socrates. See eg Lingua cwe 29 326; Adagia i vi 50: Qualis vir, talis oratio’ ‘As the man is, so is his talk’; Adagia ii vi

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his face as from his speech, since this is the surest and least deceitful mirror of the mind. 71 Socrates used to claim that the female sex was just as fit to learn the disciplines and all the virtues including courage (which the Greeks called manliness as if it were peculiar to men), provided they were properly taught. He inferred this from the little dancing girl who was brought to the dinner party and threw twelve hoops into the air and then caught them with amazing skill, controlling both the height of each and the rhythm of her steps so well that she never missed; she also danced fearlessly among the sharpest swords, to the great horror of the spectators. 72 When Agathon had invited Socrates to dinner and he had bathed and was wearing party slippers, contrary to his practice, a friend met him and asked why he was smarter than usual, and Socrates said playfully, ‘To look handsome as I go to visit a handsome fellow,’ though no one was more remote from this kind of passion.1 73 The day he was due to drink the poison, when his shackles were removed he rubbed his legs and felt pleasure at the sensation. He said to his friends, ‘How marvellously nature has ensured that these two things, pleasure and pain, go together; for if there had not been the discomfort before, I would not be feeling this pleasure now.’ ***** 54: Pluris est oculatus testis quam auriti decem ‘One eye-witness is worth more than ten ear-witnesses.’ Here Erasmus has enlivened the anecdote with the addition of the wealthy father and the attendant. No single direct source is suggested. 71

(lxxi) Xenophon Symposium 2.7–12 summarized. In margin ‘the female sex fit to learn everything‘

72

(xxii) Plato Symposium 174a. In margin ‘like to like‘ (1531) 1 This is the opening scene of Plato’s Symposium. Erasmus adds the remark in order to dispel any idea that Socrates could have had homosexual relationships. For his relationship with eg Alcibiades see Plato Symposium 218e–219d and see 7.198 n1 below. This is in line with the mildly deprecatory moral stance he usually takes on this subject throughout the Apophthegmata. Agathon was a celebrated tragic poet, ridiculed by Aristophanes for passive homosexual leanings.

73

(lxxiii) Plato Phaedo 60b. In margin ‘pleasure linked with pain‘

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74 When the prison attendant offered him the hemlock in a cup, Socrates asked how this medicine should be taken, since the attendant was an expert (this was a reference to the way sick people find out from doctors when and how they should take the doctors’ mixture). The slave said he should drink it in one gulp if he could and walk around a little until he felt heaviness in his legs, and then lie down in bed on his back, and then the drug would take its usual effect. Socrates asked whether he might use some of it for a libation (as it is the practice at dinner parties to pour out a small part of the wine and offer it by name to some god or other), but the attendant said he had only mixed as much as was needed, implying there was nothing left over to pour out. Then Socrates said, ‘Still, it is right and proper to pray to the gods that my journey hence be blessed and fortunate.’ 75 When the slave uncovered his face because he was already growing chill around the heart, he said ‘Crito, we owe a cock to Aesculapius;1 please don’t forget to offer it’ – as if he had regained his health by taking the draught. For Crito had worked with all his might to make Socrates preserve his life.2 But there was such a natural spring of wit in the man that he even joked when dying. For they say this was his last utterance. 76 Socrates taught that one should love the beauty of the soul rather than of the body, and that we should transfer the pleasure which the sight of a lovely face produces in us to the far more beautiful but hidden appearance of the mind. But really we need philosophical eyes to see this. He was aware that the Greek verb phileisthai was an ambiguous word, describing both kissing and loving, of which the first is an act of those loving the body, the second of those loving the mind. ***** 74

(lxxiv) Plato Phaedo 117a–c. In margin ‘cheerfulness in unhappy circumstances‘

75

(lxxv) Plato Phaedo 118a. In margin ‘cheerfulness when dying‘ 1 Aesculapius as the son of Apollo was a god of healing. Those who were healed by him customarily offered the sacrifice of a cock. Possibly Socrates meant that he was now cured of the disease of life. 2 See 3.77 below

76

(lxxvi) Possibly Plato Symposium 218e–219a (beauty) and Xenophon Symposium 4.26 (loving); also Xenophon Symposium 8.36 – the whole speech from 8.6–42 is on this theme. In margin ‘pure love‘

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77 When Crito passionately urged him, if he was personally indifferent to his life, at least to save himself for his children who were still young and for his friends who depended on him, he said, ‘God who gave them to me will care for them; when I leave, I will either find friends like you or better than you. What is more, I will not even feel the lack of your company, for before long you will soon join me in the same place.’ 78 Socrates said men who only loved the body were like beggars who were always in need, and always pressuring others with demands; but those who were friends rather than lovers were like men who owned an estate which they were always trying to improve. A lover seeks to satisfy his own pleasure, whereas a friend does not aim at his own advantage but thinks he is all the richer for making his friend a better man. 79 At Xenophon’s dinner party, when individuals were told to say what skill or asset they were particularly proud of, and the turn came round to Socrates, he said jokingly that he was most proud of his pimping. He meant that he was procuring real virtue, which made its possessor most attractive, and which both in private and in public life wins the goodwill and love of men. 80 A physiognomist who claimed to be an expert in determining the natures of men from looking at the build of their body and at their facial features examined Socrates and said he was dumb and stupid, a womanizer, lecherous in the love of boys, a wine-bibber and a profligate. Socrates’ friends were furious and threatened the fellow, but Socrates controlled them, saying, ‘He didn’t lie; I would have been all of these things if I had not surrendered myself to the guidance of philosophy.’1 ***** 77

(lxxvii) Plato Crito 45c–d (children), Phaedo 69e and 115a (afterlife). Crito had offered Socrates the chance of escape into exile in Thessaly (Plato Crito 45a–b). In margin ‘a holy death‘

78

(lxxviii) Xenophon Symposium 8.23 and 25. In margin ‘pure love‘

79

(lxxix) Xenophon Symposium 3.10, 4.56–64. In margin ‘pimping‘

80

(lxxx) Cicero De fato 5.10; Tusculan Disputations 4.80, which names the physiognomist as Zopyrus. In margin ‘philosophy changes a man’s nature‘ 1 For the benefits of philosophy see General Index: philosophy, benefits of.

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81 When Socrates’ pupil Aristippus sent him twenty minae from his fees, which he was the first of the Socratics to charge for teaching, Socrates immediately sent the money back to him, saying his own daimon would not let him take it. For Socrates said he had a personal daimon which stopped him by a secret signal if he was attempting something dishonourable. In my opinion this daimon was Reason. But at any rate, this was a polite way of telling Aristippus that he did not approve of Aristippus teaching philosophy for pay, and he rejected the gift as if it had been won by sacrilege. 82 Socrates was going home from the exercise ground when he chanced to meet Euthydemus and asked him to dinner. While they were discussing all sorts of things together Xanthippe got up angrily from the table and hurled a lot of abuse at her husband; but he was not at all affected, until in the end she turned the table over. Euthydemus was very upset and got up to leave, but Socrates said, ‘What is the matter? Didn’t the same thing happen at your home, when a hen flew up and knocked over what was on the table? But we didn’t get indignant about that.’ 83 In Aristophanes’ comedy The Clouds, Socrates was attacked with many bitter insults, and one of the bystanders said, ‘Don’t you resent all this, Socrates?’ ‘No, by Jove,’ he said, ‘I don’t mind being stung by witty abuse in the theatre any more than I would mind if it happened at a huge dinner party.’ Indeed the custom still persists among some Germans of inviting some jester to crowded dinner parties make jokes about the diners, and it is thought very uncivilized to be upset by them. 84 He used to say that anybody who exercised using dance movements needed ***** 81

(lxxxi) Diogenes Laertius 2.65 (Aristippus); Plato Apology 40a (daimon). For Aristippus see 3.102–163 below. In margin ‘disregard for money‘

82

(lxxxii) Plutarch Moralia 461d (On the control of anger). In margin ‘forbearance‘ This is Euthydemus of Chios, a sophist.

83

(lxxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 10c–d (The education of children). In margin ‘comic licence‘

84

(lxxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 130e (Advice about keeping well). In margin ‘moderate exercise‘

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a large house for it,1 but any space would be enough for a person using singing or declaiming, whether he stood or reclined. By this saying he gave his approval to moderate exercise, especially after taking food, and expressed disapproval of the more violent movements. 85 When Socrates scolded a friend rather seriously at a dinner party Plato said, ‘Wouldn’t it have been better to take him aside and say this?’ To which Socrates said, ‘And wouldn’t you have done better to take me aside too and say what you are saying?’ This was a very witty way of censuring Plato for committing the same offence by his reproaches as the one he was himself reproaching. 86 Once at a dinner, Socrates saw a young man greedily devouring the cooked dish and often dipping his bread in the sauce. ‘Fellow guests,’ he said ‘which of you is treating the bread as the cooked dish and the cooked dish as the bread?’ This caused a discussion among the guests, and when the young man realized, he blushed and began to eat the cooked dish with more restraint. 87 When someone asked Socrates what was a particular merit in young men, he said, ‘Not to overdo anything.’ For the heat of youth scarcely allows them to keep within limits. This was what Terence had in mind in his report on young Pamphilus.1 88 Socrates said that writing, which the common crowd thinks was invented ***** 1 Socrates used dancing as a healthy exercise (Diogenes Laertius 2.32). 85

(lxxxv) Plutarch Moralia 70e–f (How to tell a flatterer). In margin ‘witty‘

86

(lxxxvi) Athenaeus 186d and Xenophon Memorabilia 3.14.2–4. Cf Adagia ii iv 64: Edax currus ‘Greedy as a racing car.’ In margin ‘delicacies‘

87

(lxxxvii) Diogenes Laertius 2.32. In margin ‘moderation‘ 1 Pamphilus is the devoted young lover in Terence’s Andria. His father is deluded in thinking his son has done ‘nothing to excess.’ See Andria 55–60; also Adagia i vi 96: Ne quid nimis ‘Nothing to excess.’

88

(lxxxviii) This is the gist of the reproach voiced by Thamus to Thoth on his invention of writing in the myth at Plato Phaedrus 274e–5b. See also Quintilian 11.2.9 and 7.53 below. In margin ‘memory‘

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to assist memory, was a serious obstacle to memory. For formerly if men heard anything worth knowing they wrote it not in books but in their minds. Their memory was strengthened by this exercise, they easily retained whatever they wanted, and everyone had whatever he knew ready to hand. Then when writing was discovered, coming to rely on books, they did not take equal pains to fix in their minds what they had discovered. So with the neglect of memory training, their knowledge of things was less lasting and each man knew less; for we only know as much as we can keep in our memory. 89 When the time to die was already at hand, Socrates was asked by Crito how he wanted to buried: ‘My friends,’ he said, ‘I have wasted a lot of effort, if I haven’t persuaded Crito here that I will fly away from here and leave nothing of myself behind. But really Crito, if you can catch up with me, or if you find me anywhere, bury me as you choose. But believe me, once I have got out of here, none of you will catch up with me.’1 Socrates felt that the mind was the real man, whereas the body was simply the tool or residence of the mind. Thus those who worry about how they will be buried are being foolish. 90 He used to say, too, that death was like a deep sleep or a very long journey to someone else.1 A really deep sleep takes away all consciousness, and the mind, separated from the body, will some day return to its home. 91 He also used to say that if all the misfortunes of all men were heaped together and then equal shares of that pile were distributed to individuals, what would happen would be that each man would prefer to take back his own misfortunes rather than receive his fair share of the common lot. This he said as a criticism of men’s common behaviour, envying others, and deploring their own lot. ***** 89

(lxxxix) Cicero Tusculan Disputations 1.103. In margin ‘the soul immortal‘ 1 Cf Plato Phaedo 115c–116a.

90

(xc) Plutarch Moralia 107c (Consolation to Apollonius). In margin ‘death and sleep‘ 1 Cf 3.372 below.

91

(xci) Plutarch Moralia 106b (Consolation to Apollonius). In margin ‘everyone dissatisfied with his lot‘

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92 Socrates was quite old when he learnt to play the lyre, and learnt among children: and when men were surprised at this as if it were absurd, he said it was not at all absurd for a man to learn what he didn’t know. No one is blamed for acquiring things he needs if he has not got them. It’s not the person’s age that matters, it’s the fact that he’s without something. 93 He said beginning well was not trivial but almost trivial.1 The Greek puts it this way: e[ Ärxes yai, mikr˜n mn m| eånai paramikr—n de [eu archesthai mikron men m¯e einai, paramikron de], which the translator of Laertius2 has rendered: ‘to begin well is not small but very great.’ Yet Socrates’ words have a different meaning: he means, if I am not mistaken ‘to begin well is not small but is considered unimportant,’ or ‘making a good start is not trivial but next to trivial.’ For one must begin gradually, because those who are hasty at the beginning reach the end late, referring to Hesiod’s command that we add little to little.3 The wit of the saying is in the Greek words, and cannot be turned into Latin. 94 Socrates advised that geometry should be studied up to the point when a man could both take over and pass on land knowing its size. The Greek puts it thus: Áfaske de”n gevmetre”n, mŽxri Än tiw mŽtr~ dœnhtai gn paralabe”n te ka“ paradožnai [ephaske dein geometrein, mechri an tis metr¯ oi dun¯etai g¯en paralabein te kai paradounai] ‘He said one should “geometrize” until a man could . . .’ I think he meant that you should get modest estates such as it is comfortable to receive from ancestors and pass on to your heirs. For large possessions cannot be obtained without trouble, nor do they pass down to heirs without lawsuits. The wit of the saying lies in the word ***** 92

(cii) Diogenes Laertius 2.32. Erasmus added apophthegms 3.92–100 in the second edition (1532), and 3.101 in the third (1535).

93

(xciii) Diogenes Laertius 2.32. See 3.92n above. 1 This is an alternative version of 3.37 above, inserted when Erasmus had access to the Greek text (see Introduction xvi–xvii). Erasmus was clearly puzzled by this saying. Cf 7.328 below, where he gives a different interpretation of similar words. 2 This is Traversari; see Introduction xvi above. 3 A paraphrase of Hesiod Works and Days 361–2, quoted in Plutarch Moralia 9f (The education of children).

94

(xciv) Diogenes Laertius 2.32. See 3.92n above.

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‘geometrize,’ which has a double sense, referring to both geometry and land surveyors. 95 When someone complained that he had been passed over when the thirty tyrants took over the government,1 he said, ‘Is that anything to regret?’ Socrates felt one should not resent being despised by wicked men, and no one should be discontented on this account, only if he did anything which rightly displeased himself and other good men. For it does one credit to displease wicked men. 96 When a figure in a dream said to him ‘You should come to Phthia as soon as the third dawn rises,’1 he told Aeschines ‘I shall die on the third day.’ He interpreted the Homeric verse as an oracular saying, and this indeed happened. Phthia in Thessaly was Achilles’ homeland, and Socrates’ friends tried to persuade him to flee to Thessaly, because he had good friends there.2 97 Socrates said that men should obey the laws of the state, and wives should obey the practices of the husband with whom they lived. A husband is the rule for his wife, and she lives rightly if he obeys the public laws. 98 He used to remind people that pleasures should be avoided like sirens by anyone who is as eager to set eyes on Virtue as if he had his sights set on his native land. He was referring to Ulysses, who sailed past the Sirens with his ears stopped with wax, so that he might see the smoke of Ithaca arise.1 ***** 95

96

(xcv) Diogenes Laertius 2.34. See 3.92n above. 1 On the ‘thirty tyrants’ at Athens see 3.20 n2 above. (xcvi) Diogenes Laertius 2.35. See 3.92n above. *Hmati mn trit‡t~ Fy’hn \r’bvlon ¨koio, Iliad 9.363, in which Achilles considers the future life open to him if he abandons the Trojan expedition to return home to Phthia. 2 See 3.77 above. 1

97 98

(xcvii) Stobaeus 74.58 (Meineke iii 62). See 3.92n above. (xcviii) Stobaeus 5.81 (Meineke i 132). See 3.92n above. 1 Erasmus has misremembered Homer (Odyssey 12.47–52 and 192–200). Ulysses

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99 When Socrates heard the Lysis of Plato read aloud he said ‘Great god, how many lies the young fellow tells about me!’1 Either his modesty prevented him from recognizing the praises that Plato gave to him, or else Plato invented a great deal about Socrates in the dialogue. 100 Aeschines was oppressed by poverty,1 and Socrates used to advise him to ‘borrow from himself’ with or without interest and he added the explanation of the method, which was to reduce his own food supplies. This agrees with that well known saying: Thrift is a great source of revenue.2 The quickest way of increasing your income, is to reduce your expenditure. 101 When someone asked him about Archelaus son of Perdiccas who was thought to be very powerful at that time,1 wanting to know whether Socrates thought him happy, he said, ‘I don’t know: I’ve never talked to him’; and when the man added that you might just as well question whether the king of Persia was happy, Socrates said, ‘Of course, since I don’t know how wise or good he is.’2 Socrates measured a man’s happiness by the real blessings of the mind. The story is quoted by Cicero in the fifth book of Tusculans, from Plato’s Gorgias. ***** sailed past the Sirens with his own ears unblocked, but tied himself to the mast so that he would not be bewitched by hearing the Sirens’ song, while his men rowed past with their ears stopped with wax. 99

(xcix) Diogenes Laertius 3.35. See 3.92n above. 1 Laertius adds that Plato included in the dialogue much that Socrates never said. See Athenaeus 505d and 507d for other denials of the truth of Plato’s dialogues.

100 (c) Diogenes Laertius 2.62 1 Cf 3.51 above. 2 Cicero Paradoxa Stoicorum 6.3.49 101 (ci) Cicero Tusculan Disputations 5.35; Plato Gorgias 470d–e. The second part of this is given as a chreia of the type that gives a reason for what is said; Theon Progymnasmata 5.204 (Spengel ii 98). See Introduction xxiv–xxvii. This entry was added only in 1535; see 3.92n above. 1 On King Archelaus of Macedon see 3.42 above. 2 Cf 3.70 above with n1.

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Aristippus I think it is appropriate to follow the teacher with the pupil next to him in age and authority. No philosopher had a more nimble mind or one more adaptable to every circumstance of life, nor was anyone wittier or more amusing in his sayings, even if he does not seem to have shown the same probity of life which everyone admires in Socrates. 102 There was considerable competition between Aristippus and Diogenes the Cynic, because of their different way of life. Diogenes called Aristippus the king’s dog because he paid court to Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily.1 Aristippus in return said, ‘If Diogenes knew how to handle kings he would not live on raw greens.’ To which Diogenes retorted, ‘If Aristippus had learnt to be content with raw greens, he would not be the king’s dog.’ 103 Once when he had had his slaves buy a partridge for fifty drachmae, someone denounced luxury in a philosopher, so he said, ‘and wouldn’t you buy one too, if it were sold for an obol?’ When the other agreed that he would buy it in that case, Aristippus said, ‘Well, that is all fifty drachmae are worth to me.’ What the other condemned under the name of luxury, Aristippus turned into a creditable contempt for money. For if anyone is put off buying by the high price, it is not that he despises the food, but that he puts more value on money. But to the philosopher fifty drachmae meant no more than an obol to the other man. So Aristippus matched him in desire for delicacies, but was superior to him in contempt for money. ***** 102 (i) Diogenes Laertius 2.66, 2.68. In margin ‘frank speech‘ Aristippus (fourth century bc) was an associate of Socrates and possibly the founder of the Cyrenaic school of philosophy, which posited the sensory pleasure of the moment as the supreme good. He was famous for his self-indulgent and self-seeking life-style, but also for his inconsistency, alternating wildly between ostentatious extravagance and harsh self-denial. Many of the following anecdotes relate to the period when Aristippus, as a dependent of the Sicilian despot Dionysius i (403–377 bc), was living comfortably at the tyrant’s expense. Plato too is recorded as associating with Dionysius (cf 3.110), but he offended him (Diogenes Laertius 3.18 and 3.147 below) and was sold by him into slavery according to some sources (7.151 below). In contrast to Aristippus, Diogenes the third philosopher (treated below 3.164–388) was a follower of the proto-Cynic Antisthenes and lived in deliberate poverty at Athens. For testimonia and fragments of Aristippus and Diogenes see Introduction xv n8. 1 For Diogenes’ nickname as ‘dog’ see 3.192 n1 below. 103 (ii) Diogenes Laertius 2.66. Cf 3.133, 3.137, 3.141 below. In margin ‘pointed‘

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104 When Dionysius offered him three lovely courtesans, urging him to choose the one he liked, he claimed them all, saying ‘It wasn’t safe even for Paris to prefer one to the others’: but he escorted the girls to the antechamber of the court and dismissed them, finding it as easy to cast them away as to embrace them.1 105 Straton, or Plato as others say, said to Aristippus, ‘You alone are able to wear either a chlamys or a rag.’ The chlamys is the dress of satraps, a rag belongs to beggars. Horace commented on this when he said every colour suited Aristippus.1 He danced in front of Dionysius in purple, but sometimes wore a cheap ordinary garment, always keeping an eye on what was appropriate.2 106 When Dionysius spat upon him, he took it in good part, saying to those who were indignant at this insult, ‘When fishermen catch a gudgeon they let themselves be drenched in seawater. When I catch a whale, shouldn’t I put up with being spattered with saliva?’ By the reference to a whale he meant the king whom he was patiently striving to win over to the pursuit of philosophy. For a great deal of good arises from wisdom on the part of sovereigns. 107 Asked what benefit he got from his devotion to philosophy, he said, ‘Thanks to philosophy I can speak freely to anyone I choose.’1 He was not afraid of the powerful, nor contemptuous of the humble. Since his mind was equally free of hope and fear he was a slave to no man, and flattered no one contrary to his true opinion. ***** 104 (iii) Diogenes Laertius 2.67. In margin ‘humorous‘ 1 Aristippus compares himself with the Trojan shepherd prince Paris who being called to judge the beauty contest between three goddesses, chose Aphrodite, and provoked the hatred of Hera and Athene. 105 (iv) Diogenes Laertius 2.67, but Straton (of Lampsacus) is too late. 1 Horace Epistles 1.17.23. The chlamys was a short military cloak, not an elaborate robe as worn by Persian governors. 2 See 3.149 and 7.170 below. 106 (v) Diogenes Laertius 2.67. Cf 3.351 below. In margin ‘shrewd‘ 107 (vi) Diogenes Laertius 2.68. In margin ‘freedom‘ 1 Philosophers were often questioned about the benefits of philosophy. For various replies see General Index: philosophy, benefits of.

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108 When certain men reproached him for being a philosopher, but living in luxury and refinement, he said, ‘If this were a vice, it would not be the practice in honouring the gods.’ For on such occasions of worship men usually dress magnificently and enjoy the richest preparation of foods. So, since gods are angered by vices, they would not be appeased but enraged by this kind of magnificence if it was associated with vice. So he did indeed escape the reproach, but failed to indicate the best course of behaviour. 109 When Dionysius asked what extraordinary quality philosophers had beyond other men, Aristippus said, ‘Even if all the laws were abolished, we would go on living as we do now.’1 For the crowd is prevented from sinning by the terms of the laws, but the philosopher has reason as his guide instead of the laws and he does not do right because the law has commanded it, nor does he shun crime because the law has forbidden it, but he acts so from knowledge that one thing is intrinsically right, and the other wrong. 110 Both Aristippus and Plato courted Dionysius, but Aristippus did not forgo the luxuries of the court when they were available, whereas Plato strove to observe frugality even amid royal luxury. So when Plato reprimanded Aristippus because he indulged so freely in delicacies, Aristippus asked what his opinion was of Dionysius – did he seem a good man? When Plato replied that he seemed good, Aristippus retorted, ‘But he lives a lot more extravagantly than I! So there is nothing to forbid the same man to live in comfort and live well.’ 111 When Dionysius asked how it was that philosophers crowded the doors of the wealthy, and not the other way round, he said, ‘because philosophers know what they need, and the rich do not.’ Philosophers know that one cannot live without money; so they seek ***** 108 (vii) Diogenes Laertius 2.68. In margin ‘witty‘ 109 (viii) Diogenes Laertius 2.68. In margin ‘the fruits of philosophy‘ 1 Cf the comparable remark of Aristotle at 7.240 below. See 3.107 n1 above. 110 (ix) Diogenes Laertius 2.69. In margin ‘humorous‘ 111 (x) Diogenes Laertius 2.69. Cf 3.117 below. In margin ‘philosophy necessary‘

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out those who can give what they need. If rich men had an equal realization of their lack of wisdom, they even more would crowd the thresholds of philosophers. For poverty of mind is more wretched than poverty of body. So the rich are more wretched in their need because they do not realize what a precious and necessary thing they lack. 112 Asked the difference between educated and uneducated men, Aristippus said, ‘The same as between broken-in horses and unbroken ones.’ Just as an unbroken horse is useless for anything because of its ignorance and wildness, so the man carried away by the emotions which only philosophy can tame is useless for every association in life.1 113 Once when he visited a prostitute, he noticed one of the very young men who were with him blushing as if it was disgraceful for a philosopher to enter a brothel. He turned to the young man and said, ‘Young man, it is no disgrace to come in here, only to be unable to leave.’ He felt it was pardonable if a man indulged moderately in permitted sex, but not if he was enslaved to pleasure. This sentiment could be approved in that age when no law forbade associating with a prostitute, but now it has nothing to recommend it except the witticism. 114 Someone once proposed a logical problem and eagerly urged Aristippus to solve it. ‘You fool!’ he said, ‘why do you want me to let it loose when it is giving us such trouble tied up?’ He was making a pun. For one can solve a problem and one can untie a man, or a beast, that is tied up, but it is stupid to untie a madman or a dangerous beast, so that it will do even more harm.1 ***** 112 (xi) Diogenes Laertius 2.69. In margin ‘the fruits of philosophy‘ 1 Defining the difference between the educated and uneducated man was a test case for philosophers. Chilon (Diogenes Laertius 1.69) said the difference lay in good expectations (2.163 above); Aristotle (Diogenes Laertius 5.19) said they differed as much as the living differed from the dead or live men from statues (7.234 and 7.249 below). Cf 3.115 and 3.122 below. 113 (xii) Diogenes Laertius 2.69. In margin ‘moderation in sexual activity‘ 114 (xiii) Diogenes Laertius 2.70. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 The pun depends on the fact that in both Greek and Latin the same verb can mean ‘solve’ or literally ‘untie.’

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115 Aristippus said it was better to be a beggar than an ignorant man, since the beggar only lacks money, but the other lacks what makes a human being. The man without money is no less a man, but the man without wisdom is no man. A man without money asks passers-by for it; while a fellow without wisdom does not pester anyone in order to get it. 116 When he was being harassed with insults by some fellow, he went away without a word; but when the abuser followed him as he left, saying, ‘Why are you running away?’ he said, ‘Because you have the power to abuse me, but I have the power not to listen.’ This was a very witty condemnation of the fellow’s shamelessness, in assuming the right to abuse, but not allowing the other even the right to withdraw, and stop listening to abuse. For the question ‘Why are you running away?’ was as if he were complaining about an injury.1 117 Someone pouring out complaints against philosophers added that he always saw them hanging around the doors of the rich. Aristippus answered, ‘Doctors visit the houses of sick patients, but no one would rather be a sick man than a doctor.’1 This was a smart way to turn around the abuse. Philosophers preach happiness which they claim for the wise man alone and yet they constantly associate with the rich, hunting for something from them, from which the other inferred that rich men were better off than philosophers. But Aristippus interpreted it that philosophers particularly cultivated the rich because their luxury and wealth made them more stupid and corrupt than other mortals, and so in greater need of philosophical instruction. For the ***** 115 (xiv) Diogenes Laertius 2.70. In margin ‘education profitable‘ 116 (xv) Diogenes Laertius 2.70. In margin ‘yield to the abuser‘ 1 The first edition (1531) has a very different text: ‘You have the ability to abuse me, but I don’t have the same ability to put up with it. The philosopher yielded to the stronger, for the other man was more expert in abuse than he in enduring insults, and it is much easier to abuse than endure insults. But here the one who wins is inferior, and the man defeated is superior’ (cf 4.372 below). Erasmus changed the translation of the saying on the basis of the Greek text which he acquired (see Introduction xvi-xvii above) and this involved changing his comment. 117 (xvi) Diogenes Laertius 2.70. In margin ‘philosophy the medicine of the soul‘ 1 Cf the similar remark of Pausanias (2), 1.319 above.

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philosopher is the doctor of minds in bad condition. And it is a better thing to be the doctor than the sick man. 118 Once when he was sailing to Corinth and a storm arose and threatened to wreck the ship, Aristippus went pale. Noticing this, one of the passengers, a fat soldier who hated philosophers,1 began to insult him once the storm was calmed: ‘Why do you philosophers who preach that death is not to be feared, grow pale in times of danger, while we ignorant fellows are not afraid?’ ‘Because you and I do not have lives of equal value to fear for,’ said Aristippus. Aulus Gellius adds ‘I am afraid for the life of Aristippus, you aren’t afraid for the life of a worthless fellow,’ a remark rather too sharp to suit Aristippus, whose wit does not have so much black salt. We feel least fear for the cheapest things, hence the proverb ‘keep the water pot by the door.’2 So Aristippus joked that the other was not frightened, not because he was braver but because he was worthless, with a mind lacking any virtue at all, so it was small loss if he died. An educated and wise man does not die without a grave loss to the state. 119 When a certain fellow boasted that he was a polymath, that is, a man of many kinds of learning, as if there was nothing he did not know, Aristippus said, ‘It is not true that those who eat and excrete1 the most are healthier than those of us who take just what we need; in the same way it’s not the people who read most who should be thought learned and scholarly but the ones who read what is truly useful.’2 He criticized strongly those who stuff themselves with random and excessive reading without taking to heart what they read, but just store it in their memory. This makes them neither more learned nor better men. ***** 118 (xvii) Diogenes Laertius 2.71; Aulus Gellius 19.1.10. In margin ‘fear of death‘ 1 Erasmus seems to have invented this character who does not appear in any other version of the story. 2 Adagia ii i 65: In foribus urceum ‘The water-jar on the doorstep’ 119 (xviii) Diogenes Laertius 2.71. In margin ‘variant reading‘ 1 The text of Laertius says ‘take exercise,’ which is how Traversari (see Introduction xvi–xvii above) translates it, exercentur. Modern texts omit it. Erasmus obviously felt it was inappropriate and emended it to excernunt. 2 Compare Seneca Epistulae morales 2.2–4, 45.1–2, on the need to read much, that is, a few books deeply, rather than many books.

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120 An orator defended Aristippus in court, and won the lawsuit. When he, seemingly exalting his art above philosophy, said ‘What help was Socrates to you, Aristippus?’ Aristippus replied, ‘Socrates helped me by ensuring that what you said in my defence was true.’1 For he had defended Aristippus as a good and innocent man. But it was Socrates who had ensured that he was the man the advocate said he was, by teaching him philosophy. For an advocate does not make someone good, but makes him seem good to the jury, even if he is not. So what the philosopher provides is more valuable than what the advocate provides. 121 He brought up his daughter Arete with morally improving precepts, accustoming her to despise whatever was excessive, because the mean is best in all things, and it is an achievement of the greatest virtue in a woman to control her desires. 122 When someone asked Aristippus why his son would become better if he had him trained in literature, he said, ‘If nothing else, at least he won’t sit in the theatre like one block on top of another.’ For amphitheatres had steps made of blocks of marble on which the people sat to watch, but men also commonly called an uneducated and inarticulate man a block. 123 A father was negotiating with Aristippus to take on educating his son; but when the philosopher asked five hundred drachmas as his fee, the man was put off by the size of the fee and said ‘I could buy a slave for less than that.’ ‘But, said Aristippus, ‘here you will have two slaves!’ He realized that with the same money the man would get himself both a useful philosopher and an obedient son.1 This was a splendid criticism of ***** 120 (xix) Diogenes Laertius 2.71. Cf 3.125 below. In margin ‘oratory better than philosophy‘ 1 The words ‘seemingly . . . philosophy’ are Erasmus’ insertion. 121 (xx) Diogenes Laertius 2.72. In margin ‘moderation‘ 122 (xxi) Diogenes Laertius 2.72. In margin ‘education profitable‘ 123 (xxii) Diogenes Laertius 2.72. In margin ‘proper education‘ 1 Erasmus seems to have missed the point, which is that the man will buy a slave to educate his son and so will have two slaves because his son will be

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popular judgment, for men are never meaner than in educating their sons properly, and spend more money on their horses than their children. 124 When Aristippus was criticized for taking money from his friends, he said he was not taking it to use it himself, but to teach them the things money should be used for. For rich men generally waste money on horses or building or on luxury, when it should be spent on good men if they need it. But you can understand it another way. Aristippus did not use money except for necessities, and so he took from rich men to show them the right way to use it. He could not do this unless they supplied the raw material. In the same way a man who wants to learn the art of writing offers paper and pen to the one who is going to teach him. 125 When he was reproached for having used a hired orator in his own case, he said, ‘It is not surprising, for when I am going to serve dinner, I hire a cook.’ The other man wanted to make out that the the orator was superior to the philosopher because the philosopher had hired his services, but Aristippus turned the charge round by implying that the inferior is the one who is hired. For the task of the orator is too low to be fitting for a philosopher. 126 Dionysius once told Aristippus to give some examples of his philosophy and when he was reluctant, Dionysius insisted, so he said, ‘It is ridiculous for you to ask me to talk about philosophy, and then instruct me when I should talk.’ Aristippus realized that it was precisely the philosopher’s job to know when to talk and when to be silent. Now the man who asks to hear something ***** as ‘ignorant as a slave.’ See Plutarch Moralia 4f–5d (The education of children), which supports that view. The odd idea that the man is buying himself a tame philosopher who will be as good as a slave to him is repeated at 8.155 below. See also De pueris educandis cwe 26 314 / lb i 498a. 124 (xxiii) Diogenes Laertius 2.72. In margin ‘the use of money‘ 125 (xxiv) Diogenes Laertius 2.72. Cf 3.65, 3.120 above. In margin ‘philosopher superior to orator‘ 126 (xxv) Diogenes Laertius 2.73 (first paragraph); Diogenes Laertius 2.73 (third paragraph). In margin ‘frank speech, the man honours the place‘

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philosophical is saying he wants to learn philosophy from a philosopher, but if he compels him to talk he seems more learned than the philosopher, inasmuch as he knows better the time to talk than the philosopher himself. The king was angry with this reply of Aristippus and ordered him to be seated in the lowest position at dinner. At this Aristippus was not at all offended. He said ‘O king, you want to distinguish this position and make it a source of honour,’ indicating that the position did not make the man worth less but the man’s dignity added honour to the place.1 127 Aristippus could not stand it when someone was very pleased with himself for his skill in swimming: ‘Aren’t you ashamed,’ he said, ‘to boast so shamelessly about skills that belong to dolphins?’ It would have been wittier if he had said ‘to frogs.’ For it befits a man to boast about the skills proper to a man, and nothing is becoming to a man more than skill in reasoning. After all no one swims so well he cannot be outdone by dolphins. 128 When he was asked how a wise man differed from an ignorant one, he said, ‘Send them both naked among strangers and you will see.’ He meant that the wise man carried in his breast the means to win approval from anyone. Hence if you send an educated man and an ignorant one in the same way to a foreign country where they are both equally unknown, the wise man will immediately find money and friends by bringing out his own riches, but the other naked man will be laughed at as a madman and risk dying of hunger. 129 A fellow boasted to him that he drank a lot but didn’t get drunk. ‘Why boast,’ said Aristippus, ‘when a mule can do the same?’ 130 Someone reproached Aristippus with having a relationship with a courtesan. Aristippus silenced him with a Socratic induction: ‘Tell me,’ he said ***** 1 Cf Athenaeus 12.544c–d. See also 1.8 and 1.163 above. 127 (xxvi) Diogenes Laertius 2.73 128 (xxvii) Diogenes Laertius 2.73. Cf 3.162 below. In margin ‘education profitable‘ 129 (xxviii) Diogenes Laertius 2.73. In margin ‘bibulousness‘ 130 (xxix) Diogenes Laertius 2.74

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‘does it matter whether you take a house that many men have lived in or no one?’ When the man said it didn’t matter, he said, ‘Well, does it matter whether you are carried in a ship that has carried many passengers or none?’ When he said no to this too, Aristippus said, ‘So what difference does it make whether I have a relationship with a woman who has made herself available to many or to no one?’1 This remark too can be approved of for its wit by people who do not regard plain fornication as an offence. 131 When a man criticized him because he was a pupil of Socrates but took money contrary to Socrates’ practice, he said, ‘I am right to do this, for many rich friends sent Socrates wheat and wine; he would keep a little for his needs and return the rest. It seems he had the leading Athenians as his stewards, but I only have my slave Eutychides whom I bought.’ He meant that he despised money no less than Socrates, but Socrates enjoyed more generous friends. This argument could be used by men even today to excuse themselves for professing the greatest contempt for money, when their money is deposited with their friends. At one time they had generous custodians of their stores, but now they would starve well enough if they didn’t have some cash laid up somewhere. 132 Aristippus is said to have had an affair with the famous courtesan Lais. When he got a bad reputation on this account, and someone objected that he, a philosopher, was in thrall to Lais, he said, ‘On the contrary, I have Lais, she does not have me!’1 He meant it was no disgrace to enjoy lawful pleasure, but to be a slave to it should be thought shameful. ***** 1 The Socratic eisagoge, also called epagoge, was inductive reasoning based on an accumulation of examples; see 221 above (Erasmus’ introductory paragraph to book 3). 131 (xxx) Diogenes Laertius 2.74. Aristippus was the first of the sophists to charge fees for his teaching, see 3.81 above. In margin ‘provision of necessaries‘ 132 (xxxi) Diogenes Laertius 2.75 1 A much quoted story, cf Athenaeus 12.544c, 13.588e, 599b. For anecdotes about Lais see 6.572–3 below.

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133 Again this is how Aristippus silenced a man who complained that he enjoyed fancy foods: ‘Wouldn’t you buy these foods for three obols?’ When the would-be despiser of luxury nodded, he said, ‘Then I am not as devoted to pleasure as you are to avarice.’ For the other man would have indulged in the delicacies if they had been free or very cheap. In the same way, some countries accuse the Germans of drunkenness and the English of greed, although no nation is more greedy than these same people if they are offered a chance to indulge their gluttony for nothing. So they are more avaricious, not more selfcontrolled. The anecdote about the partridge which I reported above is very like this.1 134 Dionysius’ steward, called Simus, a Phrygian by birth, showed Aristippus his house, which was magnificent in every way, even with an exquisite mosaic pavement. After he had seen it all, Aristippus spat on Simus’ beard and when Simus was angry, he said that he had seen nothing in the whole house more convenient for spitting into, implying that in the whole house nothing was uglier or more unclean than the barbarian’s face, although it should have been the cleanest part of a man.1 Admittedly this remark fits better some Cynic than Aristippus, for all that it is ascribed to him.2 135 Once when he was delighted by a splendid perfume he said, ‘A curse on those horrible perverts who have discredited such a fine thing,’ thinking that many things were rejected through the fault of those who misused them.1 136 When asked how Socrates had died, Aristippus said, ‘As I would wish to die,’ meaning that such a death was preferable to any life. Indeed he couldn’t have described a happy death more succinctly. ***** 133 (xxxii) Diogenes Laertius 2.76. In margin ‘fancy foods‘ 1 For the story of the partridge see 3.103 above. Cf 3.137 and 3.141 below. 134 (xxxiii) Diogenes Laertius 2.75. In margin ‘uninhibited‘ 1 Erasmus gives no reason for this behaviour. Phrygians had a reputation as idle worthless slaves: cpg 2 Apostolius 18.1 ‘If you beat a Phrygian he’ll be better and more useful.’ 2 It is attributed to the Cynic philosopher Diogenes in Diogenes Laertius 6.32. 135 (xxxvi) Seneca De beneficiis 7.25.1 1 Cf 3.163 below. 136 (xxxv) Diogenes Laertius 2.76

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But the wit of the remark lies in this, that the philosopher answered differently from what the questioner expected.1 For he was asking about the type of death, had he died of illness, by the sword, by poison, or by falling from a precipice, whereas Aristippus thinking it immaterial, answered that he had died happily. 137 The sophist Polyaenus went into Aristippus’ house, and saw beautifully dressed women and a dinner splendidly laid out; then he began to criticize such luxury in a philosopher. Aristippus pretended not to notice the rebuke and said a little later, ‘Can you be our guest tonight?’ When the other did not decline, he said ‘So why do you accuse me? For you seem not to be reproaching a lavish table so much as the expense.’ If the dinner had offended just by being lavish, he would have declined to be a guest. But to approve the display but take offence at the expense seems more characteristic of an avaricious than a thrifty man. 138 I can hardly believe what Bion reports of Aristippus, that when the slave carrying his money on a journey was wearied by the burden he said, ‘Throw away what is too much for you and carry what you can.’1 139 Once he was on a voyage and realized it was a pirate ship, so he took out his gold and began to count it and soon threw it in the sea groaning loudly, pretending he had dropped it accidentally. With this clever ruse he took care of his life, by taking from the pirates the reason to kill him or tie him up. Some people say he also added, ‘It is better for this to be lost through Aristippus than for Aristippus to be lost on account of this.’ 140 When Dionysius asked why Aristippus had left Socrates and come to Sicily, ***** 1 This is an example of humour depending on an unexpected reply; see General Index: replies, unexpected. It was a recognized form of chreia: Theon Progymnasmata 5.209 (Spengel ii 100). See Introduction xxiv–xxvii. 137 (xxxvi) Diogenes Laertius 2.76–7. In margin ‘witty‘ 138 (xxxvii) Diogenes Laertius 2.77. In margin ‘passion for philosophy‘ 1 Erasmus rather disingenuously gives the impression he got the anecdote from Bion’s (lost) diatribes, rather than from Laertius’ reference to them. 139 (xxxviii) Diogenes Laertius 2.77. In margin ‘clever‘ 140 (xxxix) Diogenes Laertius 2.78. In margin ‘frank‘

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he said, ‘To share what I have and receive what I haven’t.’ Some say he gave this answer: ‘When I was short of wisdom I went to Socrates; now I am short of money I have come to you.’ 141 Aristippus said to Plato, who criticized him for buying a lot of fish, that he had bought them for an obol. So when Plato said, ‘I would have bought them too at that price,’ he commented ‘You see, Plato I am not greedy for delicacies, but you are for money.’ We have already reported other similar remarks.1 142 He kept company with Phryne in Aegina at the feast of Poseidon, and when someone reproached him with spending so much money on a woman who had served Diogenes for nothing, he said, ‘I supply her with money so that I can enjoy her, not so that no other man can.’ It is said of Phryne that although she was incredibly beautiful she would let anyone use her body without discrimination, whether they were rich or poor, disdaining nobody. So she had a crowd of lovers. Horace is thinking of this when he writes, ‘The freedwoman Phryne torments me, not content with one man.’1 143 When Aristippus kept company with Phryne this is how Diogenes reproached him: ‘Aristippus’ he said, ‘you are having an affair with a public whore. You should either play the dog like me or give up.’ Aristippus refuted him by the following inductive argument: ‘Does it seem absurd to you, Diogenes, to live in a house which others lived in before you?’ When he said no, Aristippus said, ‘What about travelling in a ship which has already carried many passengers?’ When he said this wasn’t absurd either, Aristippus said, ‘So why do you think it absurd to make love to a woman whom many have used before you?’ This has been reported already except that Athenaeus is the source of this version.1 ***** 141 (xl) Athenaeus 8.343b. In margin ‘sharp‘ 1 See 3.103, 3.133, and 3.137 above. 142 (xli) The story should be told of Lais, not Phryne; Athenaeus 13.588e. Erasmus has misread the text. In margin ‘unaffected‘ 1 Horace Epodes 14.16 143 (xlii) Athenaeus 13 588f 1 This is another version of the anecdote told above at 3.130. Again the courtesan is Phryne.

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144 When he lost a very pleasant estate and someone lamented his sad misfortune, he said, ‘Don’t you know that you have only one little piece of land whereas I have three fields left?’ The other nodded, and Aristippus said, ‘Then why don’t we lament your misfortune instead?’ He felt it was foolish to grieve for what was lost rather than rejoice for what was left. 145 When someone asked him, ‘You aren’t everywhere, are you?’ He laughed and said, ‘I’m not wasting my fare if I am everywhere.’ Aristippus was making fun of the sophistic problem of whether the same body could be in different places, by answering that there was no risk he would waste his fare. For a man wastes his fare who pays the price and doesn’t reach his destination. It can also be understood this way, ‘Well then, I have wasted my fare.’1 146 He was once defeated in an argument by a confident man who was also crazy and stupid, and when he saw the man was triumphant and puffed up with his victory he said, ‘I am leaving defeated, but I shall sleep more sweetly than you who refuted me.’ 147 One of Plato’s contemporaries, Helicon of Cyzicus, had foretold an eclipse of the sun; so after it happened as he had predicted, he received a talent of silver from Dionysius. Then Aristippus told the other philosophers, ‘I too have got something miraculous to foretell!’ When they begged him to tell them he said, ‘I foretell that there will soon be a quarrel between Plato and Dionysius.’ For he felt the king had long been concealing his real feelings.1 148 The thing Aristippus particularly condemned in men’s behaviour was that ***** 144 (xliii) Plutarch Moralia 469d–e (On tranquillity of mind). In margin ‘enjoy what’s left‘ 145 (xliv) Plutarch Moralia 439e (Can virtue be taught?). In margin ‘humorous‘ 1 The doctrine in question is that body (matter) is continuous and interchangeable. The last sentence, added in 1535, is a better interpretation of the Greek. 146 (xlv) Plutarch Moralia 80c (Progress in virtue). In margin ‘forbearance‘ 147 (xlvi) Plutarch Life of Dion 19.6–7 1 This last remark is based on the previous section in Plutarch (ie Dion 19.4–5). 148 (xlvii) Diogenes Laertius 2.78. In margin ‘choosing friends‘

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at auctions they looked carefully at objects before buying them, but they did not examine the lives of those they made their friends. Yet you have more advantage from loyal friends than from objects and more harm if you do not exercise choice. 149 Once at a dinner Dionysius ordered his guests to dance one at a time in a purple robe.1 (Now wearing purple used to be the privilege of kings, but now it is common even for a tailor.) Plato refused to do so, quoting these dramatic trimeters: I scarce can put me on a woman’s dress, myself a man and born from race of men.

But Aristippus did not refuse, but dressing in the purple all ready to dance he recited these verses with a clever change: for at the rites of Father Liber a mind that’s pure cannot be made corrupt.2

150 Once he was appealing to Dionysius on behalf of a friend, and when the king would not grant his prayers, Aristippus threw himself down and embraced the king’s feet and so got his request. When someone criticized this behaviour as beneath a philosopher, he said, ‘I am not to blame but Dionysius, for keeping his ears in his feet.’ His was a nature ready both to do and to excuse anything at all. ***** 149 (xlviii) Diogenes Laertius 2.78. In margin ‘good-humoured‘ 1 Another illustration of Plato’s pride and Aristippus’ indifference to what he was wearing. Cf 3.105 above. 2 Plato quotes Euripides Bacchae 836: O[k ©n duna’mhn ylun \ndžnai stol|n / *Aß]hn pefukWw, ka“ gŽnouw \j Äß]enow (the protest of Pentheus about to capitulate and wear women’s clothes), Aristippus wittily misquotes Bacchae 317– 18: Ka“ gˆr \n bakxeœmasin / ` nožw ` sQfrvn o[ diafyar}setai, spoken by the prophet Teiresias earlier in the same play, ‘for at the rites of Bacchus a woman that’s pure cannot be made corrupt’ changing ‘a woman that’s pure’ to ‘a mind that’s pure.’ The second line of Plato’s quotation, which appears thus in many early texts, has been excised from modern editions. For misquoting verse see 3.283 n1 below. 150 (xlix) Diogenes Laertius 2.78. In margin ‘abject entreaty‘

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151 When he was in Asia he was arrested by the satrap Artaphernes. When someone asked him then whether he still had his usual confidence he said, ‘Silly man, as if I was ever more confident than now, since I am going to talk to Artaphernes.’ For philosophy gave him this advantage that he feared no man, but spoke freely to them all. 152 Aristippus said that if men were educated in the liberal arts but neglected philosophy they were like Penelope’s suitors, since they had affairs with Melantho and Polydora the maids, expecting to get anything but marriage with their mistress.1 He felt that the liberal arts were like attendants on moral philosophy, which was the most important thing to be acquired, and for whose sake men should learn everything else. They say Ariston made a similar remark about Ulysses, who went down to the underworld and talked to nearly all the shades although he could not even see the queen herself. 153 Asked what it was most important for young men to learn, he said, ‘What will be profitable to them as men.’ His remark is also attributed to others.1 For we should learn the best things first, and youth should not be busy with superfluous things when it is most teachable. 154 After Aristippus had acquired a great sum of money and Socrates said in amazement, ‘Where did you get so much from?’ Aristippus said, ‘Where did you get so little?’1 ***** 151 (l) Diogenes Laertius 2.79. In margin ‘a mind free from fear‘ 152 (li) Diogenes Laertius 2.79–80. In margin ‘philosophy the queen‘ 1 The point is that Aristippus treats the liberal arts (poetry) as mere handmaids of philosophy, which men settled for just as Penelope’s suitors contented themselves with seducing her maids when she refused to choose any of them. Plutarch Moralia 7d (The education of children) attributes this remark to Bion (7.214 below). Ariston is probably Ariston of Chios, whom Laertius treats briefly at 7.160–3. Erasmus has a few anecdotes: see 6.560, 7.300, 7.335, 7.352, and 8.101–2 below. 153 (lii) Diogenes Laertius 2.80. In margin ‘the best things first‘ 1 See 1.65 and 1.233 above. 154 (liii) Diogenes Laertius 2.80. In margin ‘a rich philosopher‘ 1 Erasmus followed Traversari (see Introduction xvi–xvii above) in taking

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For he thought it no less amazing that so great a philosopher as Socrates, with such important friends, should be poor. 155 When a prostitute said to him, ‘I’m pregnant by you, Aristippus,’ he said, ‘You can no more be sure of this than if you walked through dense thorns and said, ‘This is the one that pricked me!’ 156 When he was reproached with neglecting and abandoning his son, as if he had not fathered him, he said, ‘Don’t we get rid of both the mucus and the lice which we produce because they are good for nothing?’ He felt one should not treat as sons children who had nothing to commend them to a parent’s affection except being born from them. This is what the old man says in the comedy: ‘I want you to be mine only while you act worthily of yourself.’1 157 When Aristippus accepted money from Dionysius, but Plato was given books, he was rebuked by someone for this as if he were more interested in money than Plato. But he said, ‘What difference does it make? I needed money, Plato needed books,’ meaning that neither should be blamed. 158 Asked why Dionysius contradicted him he said, ‘For the same reason that everyone else does,’ meaning that a philosopher’s freedom of speech is inconvenient to everyone, so it was not surprising that it was unwelcome to the king. But he also implied that the king’s judgment was no different from that of the crowd, because fortune does not add wisdom. ***** Aristippus’ remark as a question, but it is more witty if taken as a statement: ‘From the place where you got so little.’ 155 (liv) Diogenes Laertius 2.81. In margin ‘witty‘ 156 (lv) Diogenes Laertius 2.81. In margin ‘degenerate children‘ 1 Cf Terence Hautontimoroumenos 106, but Erasmus has quoted from memory, reordering the words and disturbing Terence’s metre. 157 (lvi) Diogenes Laertius 2.81. In margin ‘avarice in things other than money‘ 158 (lvii) Diogenes Laertius 2.81. In margin ‘truth unwelcome‘

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159 Aristippus once asked Dionysius for a talent and the king seized the opportunity of refuting him, saying, ‘Didn’t you declare that a philosopher needed nothing?’ He said, ‘Give it me and then we’ll discuss the point.’ Once he had received the money he said, ‘Wasn’t I right to say that a philosopher needed nothing?’ For a man is not in need if he has a source of money when he needs it. 160 When Dionysius recited a verse of a Sophoclean tragedy whoever betakes himself to a tyrant’s hall becomes his slave although he freely came,1

Aristippus replied by correcting the second verse to ‘He’s scarcely slave if he came there free.’2 He meant that no one was truly free unless philosophy had set his mind free from hope and fear. For a man is not really free by being freeborn. Some people attribute this saying to Plato. 161 When a quarrel broke out between Aristippus and Aeschines, someone said, ‘So where is your friendship now?’ He said, ‘It is sleeping, but I will wake it up.’ So Aristippus healed the quarrel by a gracious and open appeal. To ***** 159 (lviii) Diogenes Laertius 2.82. In margin ‘the philosopher needs nothing‘ 160 (lix) Diogenes Laertius 2.82. In margin ‘true liberty‘ 1 In the same kind of literary exchange as at 3.149 above, Dionysius quotes this passage of Sophocles (Nauck Sophocles fr. 789): Pr˜w t˜n tœrannon Ðw tiw \mporeœetai / Ke’n~ 'sti dožlow, kín \leœyerow m—l+ to assert that Aristippus has enslaved himself. Aristippus retorts by changing Sophocles’ second line to o[k Ásti dožlow, ín \leœyerow m—l+. The first lines are also quoted by Plutarch Moralia 33d (How to study poetry) and taken up by Pompey going to his death, Plutarch Pompey 78 (4.251 below). As the Greek was not quoted in Traversari or Curio (see Introduction xvi–xvii above) Erasmus has supplied the first two lines direct from the Greek sources and apparently reconstructed Aristippus’ retort from Traversari’s Latin version. 2 In 1531, Erasmus has Aristippus interrupting with his line before the couplet is completed. 161 (lx) Diogenes Laertius 2.82–3, amplified from Plutarch Moralia 462d (On the control of anger), which contributes the opening remark about sleeping friendship; but the last two exchanges are the same. In margin ‘reconciliation‘

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prevent the evil growing worse, as usually happens, through silence, he voluntarily went to Aeschines and said, ‘Can’t we become friends again as soon as possible and stop being silly? Or shall we wait and provide scope for jesters to talk about us at drinking parties?’ When Aeschines answered that he would be glad to be reconciled, Aristippus said, ‘Remember, then, that although I was older I came to you first.’ Then Aeschines said, ‘Indeed you are a much better man than I, since the quarrel began with me, but mending the goodwill began with you.’ This is how their friendship was restored. 162 Once Aristippus was sailing with some fellow citizens and was shipwrecked. When he saw mathematical figures drawn in the sand, he said, ‘Friends, it is all right. I see the traces of men,’ and he went into the nearby city and enquired what students of philosophy there were there. When he met them they treated not only him but his companions too with the greatest humanity and even provided travel money for their return. Finally when those who had come with Aristippus were preparing their return to their country and asked him if he wanted any message taken to his fellow citizens, he said, ‘Tell them to strive to obtain the resources that do not perish in a shipwreck but float ashore with their owner.’1 Vitruvius tells the same tale in On Architecture book 6, adding that it was Rhodes Aristippus came to on that occasion.2 163 When Socrates was inveighing against men who drenched themselves with perfumes1 Charondas, or as others say Phaedo, asked who was this man soaked in perfume. Aristippus said, ‘I, wretched fellow, and the king of Persia who is even more wretched than I am. But see,’ he said, ‘he’s not superior to any other animal by reason of this, and he’s not of more consequence than any other man either.’2 ***** 162 (lxi) Galen Protrepticus 5 and Vitruvius 6 preface (first paragraph). In margin ‘the true possessions of the mind‘ 1 Erasmus’ version of Galen translated at cwe 29 225–39, this anecdote 227 2 Syracuse in Galen. Cf 3.128 above and 7.59 below. 163 (lxii) Diogenes Laertius 2.76. In margin ‘frank speech‘ 1 See 3.69 above, from where Erasmus has introduced Socrates into this anecdote. 2 The Greek probably means, ‘No other creature is diminished by wearing perfume, nor is a man.’ In Diogenes Laertius the anecdote concludes with the

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He felt that a man was not made a better man in any way by external goods, and that a horse smeared with marjoram smelt the same as a king; and a beggar smeared with the same perfume does not smell any less pleasing than the highest priest. The Cynic Diogenes I do not think it will seem out of order if we follow Socrates’ witty purity and Aristippus’ cheerful frankness by recalling Diogenes of Sinope, who far excelled all others in the varied charm of his sayings; although I personally think all three should be respected for different virtues, but on equal terms. However different they were, you would say they were equal in merit. 164 When Diogenes first set out for Athens he approached Antisthenes. Though he was repeatedly sent away1 (for Antisthenes did not take any pupils) he did not give up attaching himself to him; indeed when Antisthenes finally shook his stick at him, Diogenes deliberately submitted his head to the stick, saying, ‘Beat me if you want, but you won’t find any stick hard enough to drive me away from you while you have something to say.’ This is an extraordinary example of devotion to wisdom. 165 Once when he saw a mouse running around in Megara1 without looking for its hole, or taking fright at the crowds,2 or seeking food, he said, ‘A splendid example of liberty,’ and soon after he rejected everything and began to live in a storage jar. ***** remark recorded at 3.135 above. Aristippus is actually defending the wearing of perfume. 164 (i) Diogenes Laertius 6.21. In margin ‘devotion to wisdom‘ For Diogenes of Sinope (and testimonia and fragments), see Introduction xv (and n8) above. 1 On Antisthenes’ initial rejection of Diogenes cf also Aelian Varia historia 10.16. For Antisthenes see 7.39–100 below. 165 (ii) Diogenes Laertius 6.22. In margin ‘freedom‘ 1 Diogenes Laertius says: ‘As Theophrastus says in The Megarian (sc. Dialogue) . . .’; Erasmus was misled by the punctuation in Traversari (see Introduction xvi–xvii above), understanding ‘in [the town of] Megara.’ 2 ‘Crowds’ instead of ‘dark’ translates a reading proposed in bas and lb.

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166 People were amazed that Diogenes had no house in which to eat, but he pointed to the portico of Zeus and said the Athenians had constructed a magnificent residence for him to feed in. He treated what was public as available for his use, and he certainly could not have wanted a more splendid dining hall. 167 He called Euclides’ school chol¯e, that is ‘bile and trouble,’ because it taught ideas that were clever but useless for good living. (The Greek word schol¯e means ‘leisure’). He also called Plato’s diatrib¯e, that is ‘way of life,’ katatrib¯e, that is ‘waste of life,’ altering the word for the worse, because Plato kept apart from public life and grew old with discussions, whereas Diogenes lived in public and preferred to live in a philosophical fashion rather than just discuss.1 168 As for the contests of the Dionysia1 (which were celebrated at Athens in honour of Bacchus at enormous expense), he called them a great marvel for fools, because everything that happened on this occasion was ridiculous. 169 Orators were highly esteemed in Athens but he called them ‘lackeys of the crowd,’ because they were forced to speak to please and to flatter the stupid crowd in servile fashion.1 He also said that crowns were pustules of glory, in Greek exanth¯emata, such as burst into bloom on some men’s nose or face from biliousness.2 ***** 166 (iii) Diogenes Laertius 6.22. In margin ‘humorous‘ 167 (iv) Diogenes Laertius 6.24. In margin ‘useless skills‘ 1 The hostile puns are evidence of Diogenes’ disapproval of formal teaching on any subject; for him philosophy was a practice, or way of life. For Euclides see 3.32 n1 above. 168 (v) Diogenes Laertius 6.24. In margin ‘foolish parade‘ 1 These were the festivals at which the surviving tragedies and comedies of the great dramatists were performed. 169 (vi) Diogenes Laertius 6.24 and Diogenes Laertius 6.41 (second paragraph). In margin ‘orators‘ 1 Socrates argued that political orators were slaves of the people in Plato’s Gorgias 502, and Diogenes makes the same point to Demosthenes 3.196 and 8.174 n1 below. 2 This was added in 1532.

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170 Whenever he considered in human affairs the governors of states, the doctors and philosophers, he said, ‘No animal was wiser than man.’ But then looking at dream-interpreters, diviners, holy men, and others of this kind, or those enslaved to glory and wealth, he said nothing seemed to him more stupid than man. He meant that the human mind was fit for the best achievements if it was exercised, but if it degenerated into vice it was far below dumb animals. 171 Diogenes used to say that one should in life more often provide a speech than a noose. Men in despair resort to the noose, when they should resort to a speech of consolation. For speech is a doctor to a sick mind.1 Indeed the sentiment is not absurd if you understand ‘speech, word’ as ‘reason.’2 172 When he saw Plato at a lavish dinner eating none of the delicacies, but feeding simply on olives, he said, ‘Wisest of men, what has happened? You went to Sicily to get this kind of dinner and now you’re here you are abstaining from it when it’s laid before you.’ Plato replied, ‘By Hercules, Diogenes, I was quite content with this kind of food in Sicily too.’ ‘So why did you need to sail to Syracuse?’ said Diogenes. ‘Didn’t Attica produce olives then?’ Some people ascribe this saying to Aristippus.1 173 Once when Diogenes was eating figs he met Plato and offered them to him saying, ‘You may share them.’ When Plato accepted them and ate them, he said, ‘What I said was share them, not eat them all up.’ This joke can be ***** 170 (vii) Diogenes Laertius 6.24. In margin ‘man the stupidest of creatures‘ 171 (viii) Diogenes Laertius 6.24 1 Adagia iii i 100: Animo aegrotanti medicus est oratio ‘To a sick spirit speech is a physician’ 2 Greek logos has many meanings, including speech, reason, wisdom (see John 1). Traversari (see Introduction xvi–xvii above) had translated with sermo ‘speech,’ but a marginal note gave Erasmus the Greek original, logos. 172 (ix) Diogenes Laertius 6.25. In margin ‘the philosopher at court‘ 1 According to Diogenes Laertius it was the second-century sophist Favorinus (see 7.44 n1 and 8.8–9 below) who made the ascription to Aristippus. See Adagia ii i 91: Concupivit assam farinam ‘He lost his heart to wheaten loaves.’ See 3.110 above. 173 (x) Diogenes Laertius 6.25. In margin ‘abusing permission‘

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adapted to serious matters, especially against men who abuse the permission of a prince or instructor or parents to do things that are not granted – for instance, if someone is advised that it is not useless to sample dialectic but then devotes his entire life to that pursuit. The saying is reported by Laertius in such a way that you are not sure which of them offered the other the figs. 174 Plato was certainly thrifty, but inclined to elegance whereas Diogenes was dirty. So he trampled on Plato’s cushions and said to some friends of Dionysius whom Plato had invited to dinner, ‘I am trampling on Plato’s pretences.’ To which Plato said, ‘But how swollen your pride is, Diogenes, to think you are trampling another man’s pride underfoot.’ This story is better told by other sources. When Diogenes said, ‘I am trampling on Plato’s pretences,’ Plato said, ‘Yes, you are, but with a different kind of pretentiousness.’ For this too was a kind of arrogance, to boast of contempt for elegance. Men who glory in shabbiness are no less pretentious than those who dress splendidly, just in a different way. Yet it is a more shameful form of pretentiousness to seek honour from a false show of virtue. But Sotion does not attribute this to Diogenes, but to Plato the Cynic.1 175 Diogenes had asked Plato for a little wine, and then for some figs. Plato sent him a flagon, and the Cynic thanked him like this: ‘When you are asked how much is two and two, do you answer twenty? So you don’t give the amount you are asked for, nor do you answer the question you are asked.’ He criticized Plato as excessively talkative, a feature Aristotle also criticized in his writings. 176 Someone asked where he had seen good men in Greece: ‘I saw no good men anywhere,’ he said, ‘but good boys at Sparta.’1 ***** 174 (xi) Diogenes Laertius 6.26. In margin ‘concealed vanity‘ 1 Sotion of Alexandria, was a Peripatetic philosopher of second century bc. Erasmus has followed Traversari’s version (see Introduction xvi–xvii above). As there does not seem to be a ‘Plato the Cynic,’ it has been suggested either that the text of Laertius is corrupt or that it can be interpreted as meaning, ‘It is Sotion in his fourth book who reports that the Cynic said this to Plato.’ Sotion was one of Diogenes Laertius’ sources. 175 (xii) Diogenes Laertius 6.26. In margin ‘excessive generosity‘ 176 (xiii) Diogenes Laertius 6.27. In margin ‘few good men‘ 1 The first of several anecdotes in which Diogenes withholds the name of men,

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This was a criticism of the corrupt behaviour of all Greece, so much so that even among the Spartans, that least corrupt of nations, old-fashioned innocence only existed in the boys. Diogenes also implied that in the rest of Greece not even the boys were good, and that the men were worse than the boys, although they should be training the boys to honest ways. 177 Once when he was talking about a serious topic he found no one was listening, so he began to sing a silly song as if there was going to be some dancing. When a large crowd had assembled he scolded them for coming in large enthusiastic numbers to a stupid and silly entertainment, but not gathering around for serious instruction useful for good living, or listening to it attentively. This is very like the story attributed to Demosthenes about the ass’s shadow.1 178 Diogenes reproached men for training to become skilled in wrestling, kicking, and suchlike, whereas no one made an effort to become good and honest. 179 He did not restrain his wit against any kind of man. He said he was surprised by grammarians who investigated the misfortunes of Ulysses with such enthusiasm without being aware of their own misfortunes. (For in those days grammarians were especially concerned with the poems of Homer, and in the Odyssey Homer records the various wanderings of Ulysses.) He also accused musicians in the same way, saying that they carefully tuned the strings of the lyre to obtain harmony, but their morals were out of tune.1 He also reproached astronomers because they gazed at the sun, moon, and stars, and did not see what was at their feet. He used to criticize orators, because they took care to speak justly but not to behave justly. ***** ie good men, from those he met. See 3.188, 3.193, 3.221, 3.226, 3.234, 3.317, 3.318 below. 177 (xiv) Diogenes Laertius 6.27. In margin ‘silly things preferred to worthwhile‘ 1 cpg 1 Zenobius 6.28; pseudo-Plutarch Moralia 848a–b (Lives of the Ten Orators); Adagia i iii 52: De asini umbra ‘About an ass’s shadow.’ See 8.142 below. 178 (xv) Diogenes Laertius 6.27. In margin ‘misplaced application‘ 179 (xvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.27–8. In margin ‘misplaced studies‘ 1 Cf 3.345 below.

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And he scolded misers because they abused money when they spoke, but valued it highly in their minds. For this is a peculiar quality of misers, that nobody curses avarice more than they. 180 Diogenes condemned the common crowd for calling people good because they despise money, although they did not imitate the men they praised so passionately, but rather followed the wealthy whom they abused. He also let off his spleen against those who sacrificed to obtain good health, and gorged themselves on excessive feasting at the actual rite, acting against the interest of their health. He said he was amazed at slaves who saw their masters indecently greedy and did not snatch their food away. For this would show concern for their masters’ health, and greed is more appropriate to slaves. 181 So far I have reported those whom he reproached and on what score. Now hear whom he praised: he praised those who were going to marry and did not do so, those who were going to sail and then did not, who were going to rear children and did not, who were going to take part in public life and then did not, who prepared themselves to associate with influential men, and then did not. He meant that one should avoid all these activities and so he thought men wise who were invited to such things but changed their mind in good time, since once they had started they would no longer have the option of declining, even if they regretted their undertaking. A man who has married is no longer his own master; a man who has trusted himself to the sea must be carried away by the winds, the man who has entered public life must be a slave to this theatre,1 and, even if he longs to, it is not safe for him to return to private life. 182 This puzzling saying is credited to Diogenes: ‘You should not hold out your hands to your friends with your fingers curled up.’ He meant that it was not enough for us to be courteous to friends, ***** 180 (xvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.28 181 (xviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.29. In margin ‘what to be avoided in life‘ 1 Adagia i i 91: Servire scaenae ‘To be a slave to your theatre’ 182 (xix) Diogenes Laertius 6.29. In margin ‘generosity‘

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but that generosity must accompany courtesy. Men who treat their friends courteously are said in Greek to ‘right hand’ them.1 183 When Diogenes was captured and sold in Crete, and the auctioneer asked what skills he had, and under what title he should recommend him to a purchaser he said, ‘Say you are selling a man who knows how to command free men.’ A certain Xeniades of Corinth, impressed by the novelty of the auction entry, approached Diogenes to find out whether he really knew what he claimed to know. And when he discovered from conversation that Diogenes was educated and wise, he bought him and took him home, and put him in charge of educating his children. Diogenes took charge of them and gave them a gentlemanly education. First he taught them the liberal arts, then he taught them to ride horses, shoot a bow, twist a sling, hurl a weapon. However, at the wrestling ground he would not let the trainer exercise them like athletes with strenuous exercise, but only allowed as much exercise as would foster their complexion and good bodily health. He made sure they learnt by heart the best excerpts from the poets and other writers, because we really know only what we have in our memory. In short he reduced to a compact form for them the total of all knowledge, so that they would understand it faster and hold it more faithfully in their memory. He also trained them to wait on their parents at home and to be content with a cheap and light diet and water to drink. While the others grew their hair long to enhance their beauty, he ordered them to cut it very short. If ever they had to go out in public he sent them out uncombed and without tunics, unshod and silent. He also trained them in hunting, in imitation of the Spartans. As a result he was respected by the children and through them won the goodwill of their parents. Others say the auctioneer was instructed by Diogenes to say this: ‘Does anyone want to buy a master?’1 ***** 1 Erasmus gave the word in Greek dexiousthai and added the translation in 1532. 183 (xx) For apophthegms 3.183–7, Laertius quotes two (lost) sources for the stories associated with Diogenes’ supposed enslavement, both called ‘the Sale of Diogenes,’ one by the satirist Menippus (or possibly the Peripatetic biographer Hermippus), the other by the comic playwright Eubulus. Erasmus has recast and re-ordered Diogenes Laertius 6.29–31 and added details from Diogenes Laertius 6.74, Aulus Gellius 2.18.9, and elsewhere. In margin ‘a sober education‘ 1 Diogenes Laertius 6.30

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184 When he sat at the auction he was forbidden to sit and told to stand, I suppose so that the buyer could more easily inspect what he was buying. But Diogenes said, ‘What difference does it make? Fish are bought no matter how they lie.’ This was a criticism of the stupidity of the crowd, who take care when they buy a slave that no physical fault escapes them, but are more careless about his mental condition. That can be discovered from speech.1 185 Diogenes said he was amazed that men did not buy a pot or lid without testing it by the sound when it was struck, but when they bought a man they were content with seeing what he looked like. He meant that a man could be known by nothing so well as his speech. People planning to buy an earthenware dish for a few pennies strike it with their fingers, and can tell from the ringing it produces whether it is intact, of good clay, and well baked. Similarly before they buy a man for several minae, they should provoke him into talking, and discover from his speech what kind of man he is.1 This is the point of the earlier saying: a fish is silent and it doesn’t matter how it lies, since it is just a fish. Just so a man’s physique is irrelevant if you buy him without making him speak.2 186 He said to Xeniades who had bought him, ‘Although I am a slave you will have to obey me, because anyone who has a slave as ship’s helmsman or doctor has to obey him if he wants to get any value out of him.’ 187 He is supposed to have grown old with this man Xeniades, and been buried by his pupils. When Xeniades asked him how he wanted to be buried, he ***** 184 (xxi) Diogenes Laertius 6.29 and see 3.183n just above. In margin ‘speech reveals the mind‘ 1 In 1532, Erasmus added his own comments to the bare anecdote: ‘Naturally men usually purchased slaves to perform physical tasks, and so examined their physical condition but not their intellectual qualities.’ See 3.70 above. 185 (xxii) Diogenes Laertius 6.30 and see 3.183n above. 1 Cf 3.148 above. 2 See 3.184 just above. 186 (xxiii) Diogenes Laertius 6.30 and see 3.183n above. In margin ‘obey a wise slave‘ 187 (xxiv) Diogenes Laertius 6.31–2 and see 3.183n above. In margin ‘burial‘

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said, ‘On my face.’ Xeniades asked why, and he said, ‘Because very soon it will come to pass that the things below will be above,’ referring to the fact that the Macedonians had come to power, and from being humble had become lofty. So if everything was going to be turned upside down, a corpse would soon change from being prone to being supine. Perhaps he meant that it made no difference in what condition a dead body was buried, although the crowd had a great superstitious preoccupation with this: the dead were carried out for burial with their feet stretched towards the door, and cremated standing. And today as I hear the Jews are buried standing; certainly all Christians are buried lying supine.1 188 Diogenes once shouted out as he stood in the forum, ‘Come here men, one and all’ as if he was going to make a speech to the people. And when they had gathered in large numbers, and he didn’t stop shouting, ‘Come here men, one and all’ someone said indignantly, ‘Well, here we are, say something.’ Then Diogenes drove him away with his stick, saying, ‘I said “Come here, men, not trash from a dungheap.” ’ He did not think the title of man fitted those who did not live according to reason, but were moved by their emotions like brute beasts.1 189 When Alexander the Great was at Corinth he approached Diogenes sitting in front of his jar and talked to him at length. When he left, the king’s friends were indignant that he had shown so much honour to this ‘dog,’1 who had not even thought fit to get up for the king. ‘No,’ said Alexander, ‘if I were not Alexander I should want to be Diogenes.’2 Such was his admiration for this free spirit who rose above all human affairs, that he thought nothing was closer to being a king. Kings are particularly blessed because they serve nobody, but can easily do whatever they want, and they lack nothing: but philosophy provides a man ***** 1 For Diogenes’ indifference to the manner of his burial, see 3.284 and 3.372–3 below. 188 (xxv) Diogenes Laertius 6.32. In margin ‘men like cattle‘ 1 See 3.176 above. 189 (xxvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.32 1 See 3.192 n1 below. 2 Only the last sentence is an actual translation. The rest seems to be a conflation of the many versions of this story. See 3.209–10 below.

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with this very state much more truly than monarchy provides it for kings. Although Alexander thought being Alexander was something greater than being king.3 190 Diogenes said it was not the deaf or blind who should be called weak and crippled, ‘but those without a bundle.’ He was playing on the resemblance between the words: for anap¯eros in Greek means ‘crippled or amputated’ and ap¯eros means ‘without a bundle.’ He meant, I think, that a man was useless for every function of life if he was ignorant of philosophy, for a bundle was the Cynic’s travelling equipment.1 191 Once he went to a dinner party of young men with his head half shaved, and far from being received politely was sent away with many blows. He took his revenge in this way: he wrote on a tablet the names of the young men who had beaten him up, and wearing it on his forehead he strolled about in Leucon, the most crowded part of the city where lawsuits are conducted.1 As he walked around with his cloak thrown open the marks of the blows showed what he had suffered and the tablet declared those responsible. Thus he exposed those coarse young men to universal censure and condemnation. 192 Since he was a Cynic he was called a dog.1 Many praised this way of life but nobody imitated it. So he used to say that he was the dog of those who ***** 3 Cf Plutarch Alexander 14.2–5 and Plutarch Moralia 331f On the fortune of Alexander. 190 (xxvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.33. In margin ‘philosophy‘ 1 See 3.204 below. 191 (xxviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.33. In margin ‘civilized revenge‘ 1 ‘Wearing it . . . conducted’ translates the reading of 1531 (cf 7.273 below). ‘In Leucon’ seems to be derived from Traversari’s translation (see Introduction xvi–xvii). It is a doublet of in albo ‘on a (white) tablet’ (leukos means ‘white’). It is unknown on what Erasmus based his explanation (1531) of this fictitious place. In 1532 onwards this was changed to: ‘he strolled about with his cloak thrown open.’ 192 (xxix) Diogenes Laertius 6.33. In margin ‘virtue merely praised‘ 1 This is one of many allusions to the name ‘dog,’ applied first to Diogenes and then to his ‘Cynic’ followers. Cf 3.220 below, in which Plato calls him dog; also in book 3: 242, 248, 326 below, and finally 3.298 below,

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praised him, but none of the praisers dared to go hunting with the dog they praised. 193 When someone was boasting, saying that ‘I can beat men in the Pythian games,’ he said ‘I can beat men, but you only beat slaves.’ Again he was playing on the similarity between the Greek words ‘men’ andras and ‘slaves’ andrapoda. For he called all those who were enslaved to their passions ‘slaves.’1 It is nobler to defeat passions through philosophy than defeat men at the Pythian games. 194 When someone advised Diogenes that now he was an old man he should rest from his labours, he said, ‘If I were running in the footrace, should I slacken my pace near the winning post, or quicken it?’ He rightly felt that devotion to virtue should be all the more intensified as less of life remained, because it would be despicable to cool off and abandon one’s honourable and established way of life at that stage. 195 Once when he was invited to dinner he said he would not go. When he was asked why, he said, ‘Because yesterday they did not thank me.’ The mass of men expect to be thanked as if for a great favour if they invite anyone to dinner: but Diogenes, though poor, thought he was entitled to thanks because he was prepared to attend the dinner, since he never went without a contribution but nourished the souls of the host and fellow guests more generously with philosophical conversations than the host fed their bodies with feasting. ***** where Erasmus cites Diogenes’ own interpretation of the name. ‘Cynic’ kunik—w [kunikos] is derived from kœvn [ku¯on] ‘dog.’ The insulting name was applied to Diogenes for what people saw as his sordid and shameless way of life, flouting all conventions of accepted behaviour, but essentially for his biting criticism of the attitudes and beliefs of his contemporaries. ‘Cynic’ and ‘Cynicism’ did not originally imply being cynical in the modern sense. 193 (xxx) Diogenes Laertius 6.33. In margin ‘truly slaves‘ 1 See 3.176 n1 above. 194 (xxxi) Diogenes Laertius 6.34. In margin ‘the passion for rectitude to be intensified‘ 195 (xxxii) Diogenes Laertius 6.34

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196 Diogenes once caught young Demosthenes taking supper at a public inn and when he retreated inside at the sight of Diogenes he said, ‘You will be even further inside the inn that way.’ He meant that Demosthenes would become even more the talking point of dinner guests if he not only frequented an inn, but even hid himself as if he was involved in a crime. This was more worth remarking on than the fact that he was drinking there. Others report this as said to a certain young man who might well be Demosthenes. A simple interpretation is to take it that the young man was advised to flee not inside but outside the inn. For the further he withdrew into the inn the more he was in the inn.1 197 When some visitors were eager to see the celebrated Demosthenes, he stuck out his middle finger and said, ‘Here is the famous Demosthenes, the advocate of Athens.’ Now the finger next to the thumb is called the index, because we extend it when we want to point to something. But the middle finger was shameful among the ancients for a reason that ought to not be mentioned here,1 and Demosthenes had a bad reputation with the general public, for being unmanly. Diogenes had this in mind when he preferred to point to Demosthenes with the middle finger rather than the index. 198 Someone dropped a loaf of bread and left it lying there because he was ashamed to pick it up. Diogenes wanted to censure this man, so he put a rope round the neck of a pitcher and dragged it through the Ceramicus, doing to the vessel what the other was ashamed to do to the bread. 199 When he was judged by many to carry philosophy to excess, he replied that ***** 196 (xxxiii) Diogenes Laertius 6.34 1 This is only one version of the story in which Diogenes finds the orator in a tavern: cf Plutarch Moralia 82c–d (How to profit by one’s enemies) and 847f (Lives of the ten orators). In a different version (8.174 below from Aelian Varia historia 9.19) Diogenes ironically tells Demosthenes to enter the tavern freely since his master (ie the common folk) goes there often. 197 (xxxiv) Diogenes Laertius 6.34. In margin ‘here he is‘ 1 The middle finger was associated with soliciting homosexual intercourse; see also 3.200 below. Cf Adagia ii iv 68 Medium ostendere digitum ‘To show the middle finger.’ 198 (xxxv) Diogenes Laertius 6.35. In margin ‘pointless shame‘ 199 (xxxvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.35. In margin ‘outstanding examples‘

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he was imitating the choral trainers who used to aim above the right pitch so that the others would reach the correct one. For whatever goes beyond the limit, even to a fault, is useful for rousing other men’s slackness. Thus the cloak and jar of Diogenes reproached rich men for their luxury. 200 He said most men were crazy in more than a finger. If someone constantly extended his middle finger instead of his index finger, he was generally thought mad; but if he extended his index finger he was thought sane.1 But there are very many men who, in matters of importance, do far more seriously crazy things than pointing one finger instead of another, yet they are not usually considered mad. Just so parents even today punish it as a serious offence in children if they use the left hand instead of the right; but they don’t punish them in the same way when they choose shameful instead of honourable behaviour. 201 Diogenes also criticized men’s folly for buying and selling precious things for very little and cheap things for a great deal. For a statue could be bought for 3000 sesterces whereas a measure of flour sold for two pennies. But a statue was no use for living, whereas one could not live without flour. So it would have been right for flour to cost a lot more than statues. The philosopher assessed the worth of things by their natural use, whereas the crowd assesses them from a foolish persuasion. 202 The story about Xeniades that we told above1 is told by some sources in this way: When Diogenes had been purchased, as if he had himself bought Xeniades, he said to him, ‘Be sure to obey my orders.’ When the other said, ‘rivers run backwards,’2 meaning that things really were back to front, if the ***** 200 (xxxvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.35. In margin ‘forms of madness‘ 1 See 3.197 above. 201 (xxxviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.35. In margin ‘topsy-turvy values‘ 202 (xxxix) Diogenes Laertius 6.36 and Diogenes Laertius 6.29 (second paragraph). In margin ‘slave wiser than his master‘ 1 See 3.183 above. 2 The opening line of the chorus in Euripides Medea 401, comparing the reversal of justice in society with the impossible phenomenon of rivers running uphill. Cf Adagia i iii 15: Sursum versus sacrorum fluminum ferunter fontes ‘The springs of the sacred rivers flow backwards.’

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slave ordered his master, Diogenes said, ‘If you had bought a doctor when you were sick, would you obey his prescriptions, or would you say “rivers run backwards?” ’ If a crippled master listens to a slave with expertise in medicine, then a sick mind has all the more reason to listen to a slave expert in philosophy. What the medical art offers the body, philosophy provides for the mind: the one cures a fever, the other corrupt desires. And as the mind is more important than the body, so its illnesses are more serious. Laertius added that when Diogenes was asked by the auctioneer under what title he wanted to be advertised, he said, ‘As one who knew how to give orders to free men.’ Then when he saw a smartly dressed man passing, he said, ‘Sell me to this one, because he needs a master.’ 203 When someone applied to be taken as a pupil in philosophy by Diogenes and he took him on probation, he gave him a ham to carry in the street and ordered the man to follow him, but the other was ashamed and discarded what he was carrying and stealthily sneaked away. A little later he happened to meet him and laughing said, ‘That ham destroyed your and my friendship.’1 Diogenes meant that the other was not suited to study philosophy, because he could not rise above a foolish embarrassment. For it is not disgraceful to carry a ham, but it is to retreat from honest enterprise. Diocles tells this story too in a slightly different way.2 When someone eager to become Diogenes’ pupil said to him: ‘Diogenes, order me to do something,’ Diogenes made him one of his household and gave him a piece of cheese to carry. When the other refused out of shame, Diogenes said, ‘A little bit of cheese destroyed our friendship.’ 204 Once when he saw a boy drinking from the hollow of his hand, he said, ‘This boy has outdone me in thrift, for I have been carrying around useless equipment,’ and he pulled his wooden cup out of his bundle and threw it away. ‘I did not know,’ he said, ‘that nature had taken thought for us even in this.’ When he saw another boy whose dish had broken holding his lentil ***** 203 (xl) Diogenes Laertius 6.36. In margin ‘pointless shame‘ 1 Following Traversari (see Introduction xvi–xvii above), Erasmus has a ham where Laertius has a tuna-fish. 2 Diocles of Magnesia, mid to late first century bc, wrote on the history of philosophy and was a major source for Diogenes Laertius. 204 (xli) Diogenes Laertius 6.37. Cf 3.199 above. In margin ‘thrift‘

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porridge in a hollow crust of bread, he threw away his wooden dish as a superfluous object. I will allow these acts to seem absurd, provided we admit that an example of simplicity taken to extremes can serve to make us ashamed of our luxury. 205 Diogenes used this syllogism to deduce that the wise man lacked nothing: All things belong to the gods, but wise men are friends of the gods, and friends have everything in common, so wise men have everything.1 But the same syllogism could have been used to refuse him when he asked for anything: ‘Why do you ask when you have everything?’ 206 When he saw a woman who was reverencing the gods bowing her body so deeply that from behind parts of her body were seen that should not be bared to the eyes of men, he went up to her saying, ‘Aren’t you afraid, woman, that when god stands behind you (for everything is full of him) you are not acting very decently?’ He is said to have dedicated to Aesculapius a thug who would come running and beat up people who prostrated themselves, by this fancy idea deterring people from superstition, when they think that the gods will not listen to them unless they supplicate them with an unseemly physical gesture.1 207 He used to say as a joke that tragic curses had befallen him, since he was ‘without home, city, and country, a pauper, and a wanderer and living from day to day.’ He was alluding to some passage in tragedy.1 We have spoken about the curses of Oedipus in the adage collection.2 ***** 205 (xlii) Diogenes Laertius 6.37. In margin ‘the wise man rich‘ 1 See Adagia i i 1: Amicorum communia omnia ‘Between friends all is common,’ where the whole saying is mistakenly attributed to Socrates. Cf 3.159 above. 206 (xliii) Diogenes Laertius 6.37. In margin ‘decency at all times‘ 1 As Aesculapius was the god of healing, perhaps Diogenes meant that he hoped the thug would be preserved to continue the good work. 207 (xliv) Diogenes Laertius 6.38. In margin ‘tragic destitution‘ 1 The play is unknown, but Erasmus seems to deduce that its subject was Oedipus (Nauck adespota fr 284). Erasmus quotes the words in Greek, but as he was using Traversari’s Greekless version of Diogenes Laertius (see Introduction xvi–xvii), he may well have made his own Greek version of the quotation, as it appears in a very different form in Laertius’ Greek text. 2 Adagia i ii 84: Devotionis templum ‘Temple of cursing’; i vii 61: Oedipi imprecatio ‘The curse of Oedipus’

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208 Diogenes is also supposed to have said this: He set self-confidence against fortune, nature against prescription, and reason against the emotions, since by these three principles men’s peace of mind is won and kept. A fearless heart preserves the wise man against the storms of fortune; he follows Nature as a substitute for prescription, and if prescription conflicts with Nature, he despises it; moreover he crushes the turmoil of desires with the aid of reason. 209 When Alexander the Great went to see Diogenes he found him sitting in the Craneion1 in front of a storage jar, and joining together torn pages with glue. When the king had talked with him at length and was about to go he said, ‘Diogenes, think what you would like to ask of me, for you will get whatever you choose.’ Diogenes replied, ‘We’ll talk about other things later. Meantime, just move away a bit.’ After the king had moved away, supposing Diogenes wanted to think it over, Diogenes was silent for some time. Alexander approached him again: ‘Ask what you want, Diogenes.’ ‘That was what I wanted,’ Diogenes said, ‘for before you were cutting out the sunlight which I need for my task.’2 Others report that he said, ‘Don’t put me in the shade,’ because he wanted to enjoy the sun.3 210 Another version of the tale is that Alexander had said, ‘Here I am, Diogenes, I have come to help you, since I see you are in need of many things.’ Then Diogenes replied, ‘Which of us needs more? I, who want nothing except my bundle and cloak, or you, who have not been content with your ancestral ***** 208 (xlv) Diogenes Laertius 6.38. In margin ‘the life of the philosopher‘ 209 (xlvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.38 1 The Craneion was the gymnasium of Corinth. 2 Erasmus seems to be recalling various sources other than Laertius (6.38) as the story was often told. See eg Plutarch Alexander 14.2–4; Valerius Maximus 4.3 ext. 4; 3.210 below. The strange detail of Diogenes gluing pages together comes from pseudo-Diogenes epistola 33 in R. Hercher ed Epistolographi Graeci (Paris 1873) 247; see ter Meer, edition of Apophthegmata asd iv-4 749 p248. Cf Aristophanes Thesmophoriazusae 54–7, where the playwright Agathon is gluing scraps together. 3 Cicero Tusculan Disputations 5.92 210 (xlvii) Erasmus’ version does not seem to reflect any source exactly. For Alexander not being content with the whole world, see Juvenal 10.168: ‘One world does not suffice the youth from Pella.’ Cf 4.33 below. In margin ‘the philosopher has few needs‘

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kingdom but expose yourself to so many dangers to increase your rule, so that it seems the whole world will scarcely be enough for your desire?’ 211 Once, when he had been reading a very long time and finally reached the point where the paper was blank, he said, ‘Be of good cheer, friends, I have sighted land.’1 He was playing on the idea of men weary after a long voyage, who recover their spirits when they see the harbour in the distance. 212 Someone deduced by sophistical arguments1 that Diogenes had horns; so he rubbed his brow and temples with his hands and said, ‘But I don’t see them.’ He preferred to make fun of a silly argument rather than refute it. 213 When Zeno was lecturing in his classes and proved by the sharpest arguments that no motion existed or could exist, Diogenes got up and began to walk about. Zeno was amazed and said, ‘What are you doing, Diogenes?’ ‘I am refuting your arguments’ he said.1 This is how he criticized an empty display of cleverness. 214 A certain sophist wanted to display the keenness of his wits to Diogenes, and argued in this fashion: ‘What I am, you are not.’ When Diogenes agreed, he said, ‘I am a man, therefore you are not a man.’ Then Diogenes said, ‘Start with me and your deduction will be right.’ He did not think it worthwhile explaining the fallacy in the argument, but preferred to make fun of a man who was proud of such silly trifles. If ***** 211 (xlviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.38. In margin ‘humorous‘ 1 In Diogenes Laertius, the reader is an unknown person, and Diogenes utters a cry of relief, which makes the story more amusing. Adagia iv viii 18: Terram video ‘I see land’ 212 (xlix) Diogenes Laertius 6.38. In margin ‘silly subtleties‘ 1 Ie ‘What you have not lost you still have. You have not lost horns. Therefore you still have horns.’ 213 (l) Diogenes Laertius 6.39 1 Erasmus identifies the lecturer as Zeno of Elea. The doctrine certainly suggests Zeno of Elea, famous for paradoxes about motion, but he is chronologically too early for Diogenes. For Zeno see 7.379–82 below and Diogenes Laertius 9.72. 214 (li) Aulus Gellius 18.13.7–8. In margin ‘silly subtleties‘

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the sophist had made his premise, ‘You are a man’ it would have followed that the sophist was not a man. 215 When someone was lecturing at length on the heavenly bodies, Diogenes asked, ‘How recently have you come from heaven?’ In this he was echoing Socrates, who made the well-known judgment, ‘What is above us has nothing to do with us.’1 216 A eunuch of foul reputation had inscribed on his house ‘Let nothing bad enter here.’ When Diogenes saw this, he said, ‘So where is the master’s entrance?’ The eunuch had set up this inscription for a good omen, so that no evils would affect the house, but Diogenes reinterpreted it to mean evil of mind, which are the only real evils. 217 He got some ointment and anointed his feet with it, contrary to popular practice. When people expressed surprise, he said ‘I did it because ointment poured over the head rises and perfumes the air, but scent coming from the feet rises to the nostrils.’ Just so another man criticizes the public practice of putting garlands on the head when it would be more fitting to put them under the nostrils, since the odour of perfume does not sink but rise. 218 The Athenians used to urge Diogenes to be initiated into the mysteries, adding that the initiated held sway over the underworld. Diogenes gave them this answer: ‘It is quite absurd if Agesilaus and Epaminondas1 are kept lingering in the mud while that thief Patetion and other completely ***** 215 (lii) Diogenes Laertius 6.39. In margin ‘talking about the unknown‘ 1 Adagia ii i 69: Quae supra nos nihil ad nos ‘The things that are above us are nothing to us.’ Cf 3.23 above. 216 (liii) Diogenes Laertius 6.39. Cf 3.266 below. In margin ‘real evils‘ 217 (liv) Diogenes Laertius 6.39 and Lucian Nigrinus 32 (last paragraph). In margin ‘ridiculous‘ 218 (lv) Diogenes Laertius 6.39. In margin ‘initiation not enough‘ 1 Agesilaus king of Sparta and Epaminondas the Theban commander were both fourth-century heroes: Erasmus has quoted many sayings of the Spartan Agesilaus from Plutarch’s Sayings of the Spartans in 1.3–82 above, and will

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worthless men will be in the Isles of the Blest because they have got themselves initiated.’2 He severely criticized the behaviour of priests who for the sake of profit appealed to the superstition of inexperienced men, persuading them that initiation bestowed blessedness after this life, when this is the reward of those who have earned it by pious and glorious achievements, whether they are initiated or not. 219 When Diogenes first began to be a philosopher, living in his jar and feeding only on dry and mouldy bread, he heard the whole city humming with celebration (for it was a feast day) and felt some discouragement, and for a long time seriously considered abandoning his way of life. But finally when he saw the mice creeping up and eating the crumbs of his bread, he said to himself, ‘Why be discontented? You are quite grand enough; look, you even support your own hangers-on.’ 220 When Plato called him a dog because of the shabbiness of his life he said, ‘Quite right, since I ran back to those who sold me.’1 For when dogs are sold they often return to their old masters. He was not offended by the insult, but turned it neatly. When he was sailing to Aegina he was caught by pirates and taken to Crete, and sold there. I think the pirates were Corinthians, or Athenians, or if not, Aeginetans.2 221 When Diogenes was returning from the baths and someone asked him ***** assemble more than thirty sayings of Epaminondas from various sources in 5.221–55 below. 2 Diogenes challenges the claim of salvation through initiation into the mysteries; cf Plutarch Moralia 21f (How to study poetry). See the remarks at 1.238 above and 7.46 below. 219 (lvi) A combination of Plutarch Moralia 77e–78a (How to profit by one’s enemies) and Diogenes Laertius 6.40. In margin ‘humorous‘ 220 (lvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.40. In margin ‘a dog’s mockery‘ 1 Another retort to the abusive name of dog; see 3.192 n1 above. 2 A journey from Athens to Aegina was very short, but capture by pirates (also alleged to have happened to Plato) served to explain his enslaved status when he was put up for sale, although born free (see 3.183, 3.202 above). Diogenes lived in both Athens and Corinth. 221 (lviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.40. In margin ‘men no men‘

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whether there were a lot of men there, he said there weren’t. But when he was asked if there was a great crowd, he agreed that there was, meaning that the name of man fits very few.1 222 Here is another, almost incredible story. Plato had defined man as a twolegged creature without feathers. When Plato’s pupils applauded this definition, Diogenes brought to the school a cockerel plucked of its feathers and wingless and said, ‘Here you are: here is Plato’s man!’ So Plato added to the definition ‘with broad nails’ because birds do not have nails of that sort. 223 When someone asked what time a man should eat dinner, Diogenes said: ‘If he is rich, when he wants; if he is poor, when he can.’ 224 Once in Megara Diogenes saw the sheep wearing jackets of skin to protect them against the cold, while the Megarians’ own children went bare. Then he said, ‘It is better to be a Megarian’s sheep than his child.’1 It is generally reported of the Megarians that they are careless about the way they treat their children.2 225 Someone carrying a long beam through the street accidentally hit Diogenes and quickly said, ‘Watch out!’ out of habit. But Diogenes said, ‘Why? You don’t want to strike me again do you?’ Others tell the story like this: When the man said, ‘Watch out,’ Diogenes struck the man on the head with his stick and followed the blow with ‘Watch out!’ giving tit for tat. For he should have said ‘watch out’ before the blow. ***** 1 See 3.176 n1 above. 222 (lix) Diogenes Laertius 6.40. In margin ‘ridiculous‘ 223 (lx) Diogenes Laertius 6.40. In margin ‘witty‘ 224 (lxi) Diogenes Laertius 6.41; Aelian Varia historia 12.56 (last paragraph). In margin ‘education‘ 1 The jackets were to protect the fleece from damage; see Varro De re rustica 2.2.18. 2 Plutarch Moralia 526c (On love of wealth) says that the Megarians taught their children only how to make money and did not educate them properly, hence Erasmus’ marginal comment. 225 (lxii) Diogenes Laertius 6.41. In margin ‘a warning too late‘

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226 Diogenes once walked around the market-place in full daylight carrying a lighted lamp like someone searching. When men asked what he was doing, he said, ‘I am looking for a man,’1 thus criticizing the behaviour of the community as hardly worthy of men. 227 On another occasion he got a drenching and stood there dripping all over. Some bystanders as you might expect, sympathized with him for suffering undeservedly. But Plato, who happened to be there said to them, ‘If you want to show sympathy for Diogenes, go away,’ thus commenting on the philosopher’s love of glory. For as Diogenes took pleasure in being a spectacle, he was happy rather than pitiable; but if he had been soaked without a witness he would have been really pitiable. 228 When someone boxed his ears he said, ‘I didn’t know I was walking about with a helmet on my head.’ In jest he called the flat of the man’s hand a helmet. This was his only retaliation against the man who struck him. Unless we should read ‘I didn’t realize I ought to go around wearing a helmet.’1 229 But he didn’t put up with Midias so submissively. Midias hit him on the head and said, ‘I have deposited three thousand for you at the banker’s table,’ mockingly congratulating him because so much money in compensation for the blow would come to him from the fine if he sued. But Diogenes the next day took a boxer’s leather thong, struck Midias with it, and said aping his words, ‘And there’s three thousand deposited at the banker’s table for you.’1 ***** 226 (lxiii) Diogenes Laertius 6.41. In margin ‘a man hard to find‘ 1 This is identified as a chreia in the rhetoricians. See the dedicatory epistle xxiiixxiv above; see also 3.176 above. 227 (lxiv) Diogenes Laertius 6.41. In margin ‘concealed vainglory‘ 228 (lxv) Diogenes Laertius 6.41. In margin ‘forbearing‘ 1 The first translation was suggested to Erasmus by Traversari’s version. See Introduction xvi above. The Greek probably means ‘How come I forgot about taking a walk with a helmet on my head?’ Cf 3.45 above. 229 (lxvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.42; Aulus Gellius 20.1.13 (last paragraph). In margin ‘tit for tat‘ 1 Midias is presumably the same thug as the one against whom Demosthenes delivered a powerful prosecuting speech (oration 21). The thong was wrapped around the hand and by this time was loaded with metal studs.

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Aulus Gellius tells a story about a man who like to hit others and then order the fine to be counted out from the purse he carried round for the purpose. But Diogenes made it known that not everyone was so longsuffering as to be content with a fine. 230 Philosophers are generally abused either for not believing in the gods or for despising them. With this in mind Lysias kept asking Diogenes whether he believed in the gods? Diogenes replied, ‘How could I not believe in the gods, when I am sure you are hateful to them?’1 Some attribute this saying to Theodorus.2 Diogenes did not answer the question but turned the exchange against his questioner’s insulting manner. 231 When he saw someone sprinkling himself with river water on religious grounds – for this is how men of old used to purify themselves, if they thought they had committed some sin – he said, ‘Wretched man, when you make a mistake in grammar you are not excused because you sprinkle yourself, so it is far less likely that a sprinkling will free you from sins in life.’ He was right to comment on men’s superstition, for believing that stains of the soul could be cured by a physical element, without cutting away wicked desires. 232 Diogenes vigorously reproached people who blamed fortune if something bad happened, as most men do. He said, ‘It was rather men themselves who should be blamed for asking fortune not for what is really good, but for things that they think good.’ For if they trusted the gods to give what they thought best, they would do so, but as it is they feel no shame in blaming the gods when they get what they asked for. 233 He used to make fun of the superstition of men terrified by dreams by ***** 230 (lxvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.42. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 Diogenes Laertius says Lysias was a pharmakopol¯es or hawker of quack remedies and drugs, a despised trade. 2 Possibly Theodorus the Atheist; see 7.133 and 7.291 below. 231 (lxviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.42. In margin ‘superstition‘ 232 (lxix) Diogenes Laertius 6.42. Cf 3.238 below. In margin ‘stupid prayers‘ 233 (lxx) Diogenes Laertius 6.43

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saying, ‘You don’t worry about what you do when you are awake, but you anxiously investigate what you dream when asleep.’ For what a man experiences in his dreams is not as relevant to his happiness or unhappiness as what he does when awake. He ought to fear the anger of the gods and a bad consequence whenever he actually does something shameful, not if he sees something in a dream. 234 When the herald at Olympia announced, ‘Dexippus has defeated the men,’ Diogenes corrected him: ‘He has defeated slaves,’ he said, ‘but I have defeated men.’ He meant that the competitors at Olympia were not real men, but slaves to glory. Only the philosopher defeats men. This is like the story we told above.1 235 When Philip’s army was at Chaeronea, Diogenes went there and was seized by the soldiers and brought to the king. He looked at Diogenes, whom he did not know, and said, ‘A spy!’ Diogenes replied, ‘Quite right, I am a spy. I came here to examine your folly in not resting content with ruling the Macedonians, but seeking other men’s territory at the risk of losing both your kingdom and your life.’ Amazed at the man’s frankness, the king bade him go free.1 236 Alexander king of Macedon sent a letter to Antipater through a messenger called Athlios. Diogenes was there at the time and said, like a true Cynic, ‘Wretch from a wretch by reason of a wretch to yet another wretch.’1 Now athlius in Greek means ‘wretched, enduring many sufferings,’ hence the word ‘athlete.’ The philosopher realized that princes whose ambition drove them to make troubles in constant warfare were really wretched. Those who abetted the desires of princes were equally wretched. ***** 234 (lxxi) Diogenes Laertius 6.43. In margin ‘admirable victory‘ 1 See 3.176 above. 235 (lxxii) Plutarch Moralia 606c (On exile). In margin ‘ambition‘ 1 Erasmus has enriched the version in Plutarch Moralia 606 with elements from 70e (How to profit by one’s enemies) and Diogenes Laertius 6.43. 236 (lxxiii) Diogenes Laertius 6.44 1 Diogenes’ comment is in trochaic verse. To spell it out, Alexander the Great, a king and the son of a king (Philip ii of Macedon) writes via Athlios to Antipater, a general and governor of Macedonia.

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237 When he was invited to go to Alexander he refused, and when the commander Perdiccas threatened to kill him if he didn’t come1 he said, ‘That won’t be a great achievement, since the cantharis and phalangium can do the same.’ (A cantharis is a little insect rather like a scarab,2 but its poison is instantaneous: a phalangium is a deadly kind of spider.) He didn’t hesitate to threaten Perdiccas in return, saying that he would be happy if he lived without Perdiccas, meaning that those who lived with Perdiccas were unhappy. 238 Diogenes said the gods were generous in giving men life, but men did not realize this when they craved sweetmeats and perfume and other kinds of self-indulgence. For men who enjoy these luxuries think they are living, when only wisdom provides real life that is calm and sweet. So it is not the gods who deserve reproach, but men who in their stupidity do not ask the gods for life but for pleasures. 239 When he saw a pampered man having his shoes put on by a slave he said, ‘You haven’t yet attained felicity, unless he also wipes you clean; that will happen when you’ve lost the use of your hands.’ It seemed to Diogenes not much less absurd to use a slave’s help to put on his shoes, if a man can do it for himself, than if after evacuating he employs a slave to wipe his arse.1 Though this could be understood of wiping his nose.2 To the pagan philosopher it seemed outrageous luxury for a pagan to be shod by a slave, but I know a Christian, a priest and theologian, not crippled in any limb, who used to summon servants when he went to the latrine to undo his laces and tie them up again when he returned. When I saw this I thought to myself: ‘If only Diogenes were here to see him!’ ***** 237 (lxxiv) Diogenes Laertius 6.44. In margin ‘free speech‘ 1 Perdiccas was a distinguished military commander close to Alexander. 2 Erasmus has replaced cantharos ‘dung-beetle’ in the original with cantharis ‘blister-fly.’ This had medicinal uses but could prove fatal. See De copia cwe 24 564:3n and Pliny Naturalis historia 29.4.93–4, no doubt Erasmus’ source. See 8.136 below where the same story is told of Lysimachus. 238 (lxxv) Diogenes Laertius 6.44. Cf 3.232 above. In margin ‘pleasure‘ 239 (lxxvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.44. In margin ‘affectation‘ 1 Cf 2.123 above. 2 This alternative translation of wiping the nose was added in 1532.

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240 Diogenes once saw a man being led off to execution who had stolen a bowl from a treasure house – he was escorted by the magistrates the Greeks called hieromnemones.1 Diogenes said, ‘The big thieves are arresting a little one!’ If only this could not be said truthfully of some Christian magistrates who sometimes hang a man who has stolen ten pence, but themselves get rich without punishment from great thefts, or rather embezzlement. 241 On another occasion he saw a youth throwing stones at a cross, and said, ‘Fine, you will reach your target.’ He meant that one day the youth would be put on the cross. 242 A group of young men stood around Diogenes and jeered at him, calling him, ‘Dog, dog!’ but then began to run away as if scared. Then he asked them why they were running away and they said, ‘In case you bite us, you dog.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry, my boys; a dog doesn’t eat beets,’ an indirect way of accusing them of effeminacy.1 243 One fellow was very pleased with himself for walking around clad in a lionskin. Diogenes said, ‘Stop putting the dress of courage to shame.’ He thought it unbecoming for an effeminate fellow to wear the costume of Hercules. The same thing can be said to those who by their extraordinary clothing make a show of holiness to which their lives do not correspond. 244 When people said the philosopher Callisthenes1 was lucky to be welcomed ***** 240 (lxxvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.45 1 These were magistrates in charge of temples and religious matters. 241 (lxxviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.45. In margin ‘witty‘ 242 (lxxix) Diogenes Laertius 6.45. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 See Adagia ii iv 72: Betizare, Lachanizare ‘To wilt like beet or salad,’ where this incident is quoted. See also 3.192 n1 above. 243 (lxxx) Diogenes Laertius 6.45. In margin ‘acting a part‘ 244 (lxxxi) Diogenes Laertius 6.45 1 Callisthenes was Aristotle’s nephew, and served as historian to Alexander’s expedition, but provoked the king and was executed on a charge of conspiracy in 317 bc.

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by Alexander with lavish hospitality, Diogenes said, ‘No, he is unlucky, because he will have to lunch and dine when it suits Alexander.’ He meant that nothing was fortunate without freedom. This Callisthenes is the pupil of Aristotle who was finally thrown into prison by Alexander and died there. Some sources substitute Aristotle2 himself for Callisthenes, and add that when men praised his good luck for living with the king’s son, Diogenes said, ‘Aristotle will lunch when Alexander chooses, but Diogenes when Diogenes chooses.’ 245 If ever he was short of money he used to take it from friends, but when men criticized him for asking, a beggar’s practice and contrary to the dignity of a philosopher, he said, ‘No, I am not asking, but asking back.’1 For we ask back a loan or a deposit. Now a friend who gives to a friend in need does not make a present, but returns what he owes. Whoever holds on to money in such a situation is holding back another man’s due.2 246 When a rather fancily dressed young man put a question to Diogenes. Diogenes said, ‘I won’t answer you until you lift up your clothes1 and show me whether you are a man or a woman.’ He identified the fellow’s effeminacy from his unmanly costume. 247 Another young man was showing some skill in a lover’s game in the baths which the Greeks call kottabizein.1 Diogenes said, ‘The better you play the worse you are.’ ***** 2 For Erasmus’ alternative version ‘Aristotle dines at Alexander’s pleasure, etc’ cf Plutarch Moralia 604d (On exile). 245 (lxxxii) Diogenes Laertius 6.46, expanded. In margin ‘generosity‘ 1 Erasmus added the Greek in 1535, o[k a t™, úll& úpait™. 2 Erasmus here omits two coarse anecdotes, but then gives the first at 3.367 below 246 (lxxxiii) Diogenes Laertius 6.46. In margin ‘effeminacy‘ 1 ‘lift up your clothes’: omitted in 1531 247 (lxxxiv) Diogenes Laertius 6.46. In margin ‘a shameful ability‘ 1 Athenaeus has a long section (15.665b–668e) on the kottabus game. It consisted of throwing the last drop of wine remaining in a cup to hit a metal target, and sounds innocent enough, though obviously involving noisy drinking. Erasmus’ identification of it as ‘a lover’s game’ is perhaps based on Athenaeus’ statement that one could invoke the lover’s name when making the throw. Diogenes was probably condemning it as a waste of time.

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He was condemning a skill he disapproved of – dicing is another – for the better a man is as player, the worse he is as a man. 248 When Diogenes was at a dinner-party, the diners called him, ‘You dog,’ and threw bones to him, as this is what people do to dogs. He in turn, as he left, pissed on the diners from behind, to show that this too went with being a dog.1 249 He called public speakers and others who did everything for glory ‘thricemen,’ an ambiguous phrase. For while the generality of people won’t call anyone a man if he is neither educated nor humane, the philosopher called a man ‘wretched’ if he had nothing apart from being a man. Now, according to Homer no creature is more wretched than man.1 So when he called them ‘thrice-men’ he meant ‘thrice wretched,’ for devoting all their efforts to a worthless thing and enslaving themselves to the common crowd, a many-headed beast.2 250 He called a certain uneducated rich man who was splendidly dressed ‘a sheep with a golden fleece.’1 For the poets say there were such sheep.2 Those who were weak of mind were proverbially said to be just like sheep.3 251 When he passed the house of a spendthrift which had a notice up ‘for sale,’ ***** 248 (lxxxv) Diogenes Laertius 6.46. In margin ‘what dogs do‘ 1 Another ‘dog’ story (see 192 n1 above); this time Diogenes answers by action not words. 249 (lxxxvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.47. In margin ‘thrice-men‘ 1 Homer Iliad 17.466–7 2 See Horace Epistles 1.1.76. 250 (lxxxvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.47 1 In one among several versions of this chreia Diogenes calls a rich but ignorant boy ‘filth in a silver covering’ (Theon Progymnasmata 5.203 [Spengel ii 97]). 2 See the story of the Argonauts and the quest for the Golden Fleece, related most notably by Apollonius Rhodius (third century bc) in his four book epic poem Argonautica. See also Virgil Eclogues 4.42–4, where the sheep will have gold-coloured fleeces at the return of the Golden Age. 3 Adagia iii i 9: Ovium mores ‘The character of a sheep.’ Erasmus there quotes Aristophanes and Plautus. 251 (lxxxviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.47. In margin ‘extravagance‘

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he said, ‘I could easily guess that your excessive drinking bouts would make you vomit up your house.’1 The man had already swallowed his house before he put it up for sale. So this was really more a sicking up than a selling up. 252 When a young man complained that many people were upsetting him, Diogenes said, ‘Stop letting it show that you are upset by it then,’ meaning that the tiresomeness of men who aim to hurt is best brought to an end if the victim conceals his distress. For men who attack someone in order to torment him will stop if they see he is unmoved by it. I suspect the Greek words have another meaning: when the young man said lots of people were bothering him, Diogenes’ reply really meant, ‘You too stop giving out signals of your inclinations,’ ie of being a passive effeminate.1 253 There was an incompetent lyre player of huge bulk whom everyone found fault with and Diogenes was the only one to praise. When they wondered why he did this, he said, ‘I praise him because, being like that, he prefers to play the lyre rather than practise robbery.’ He meant that being strong in body but weak in talent the man was better suited to robbery than music. This is a joke based on the unexpected.1 254 Another lyre player was deserted by the audience whenever he sang. Diogenes used to greet him when they met with ‘Hail, rooster!’ When the other ***** 1 Diogenes Laertius actually says the opposite: ‘make you (the house) vomit up your owner,’ which has more point. Erasmus seems to have misread dominum in Traversari’s version as domum (see Introduction xvi–xvii). He may have been influenced by 3.275 below. See also Job 20:15: He hath swallowed down riches and he shall vomit them up again. 252 (lxxxix) Diogenes Laertius 6.47. In margin ‘distress concealed‘ 1 The first version misinterprets Traversari’s Latin translation of Diogenes Laertius’ Greek. The corrected interpretation was added in 1532 after Erasmus had been able to consult the Greek original (see Introduction xvii above). 253 (xc) Diogenes Laertius 6.47. Erasmus has again passed over one of Laertius’ anecdotes, but will insert it as 281 below. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 The last sentence was added in 1532. For ‘a joke based on the unexpected’ see 3.136 n1 above. 254 (xci) Diogenes Laertius 6.48. In margin ‘witty‘

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was offended by the strange salutation and said, ‘Why do you say that?’ he said, ‘because when you sing you make everyone get up.’ He made a joke depending on the ambiguity of the Greek verb: for a man is said anegeirein when he rouses someone from sleep, as roosters do when they crow in the morning, but also when he provokes a man to rise from his seat, which is what that man did. 255 Once a great many people were staring at a beautiful youth, so Diogenes bent over and filled the fold of his cloak with lupin beans. When everyone turned to stare at this sight, he said he was amazed that they forgot the youth and stared at him,1 thus commenting on their lack of selfcontrol. 256 A very superstitious fellow prone to terror of ghosts and ghouls once threatened to kill Diogenes, saying, ‘I will smash your skull at a blow.’ ‘But if you do that’ said Diogenes, ‘I will stand on your left and make you shudder.’1 He meant that once dead he could terrify even the man who despised him alive. This state of mind possesses a lot of people even nowadays: they are aggressive against the living but terrified of ghosts. 257 When Hegesias asked him to lend him some books he said, ‘Hegesias, you are not wise: you pick real figs, not painted ones, but you neglect real training and betake yourself to a written version.’ This remark was an adverse comment on all those who spend their life doing nothing more than reading the books of philosophers which contain rules for good living, when virtue is better learned from practice than reading. Now in Greek graphein means both ‘to write’ and ‘to paint.’ So virtue expressed in books is like a painting of virtue. It does seem absurd to be selective about figs but not about virtue. ***** 255 (xcii) Diogenes Laertius 6.48 1 Misled by Traversari, Erasmus has omitted that the young man was giving a demonstration speech and Diogenes gobbled the beans to attract attention. 256 (xciii) Diogenes Laertius 6.48. In margin ‘superstition‘ 1 Erasmus is following Traversari whose text seems to have read par¯on ‘standing by’ instead of ptar¯on ‘sneezing.’ See Introduction xvi–xvii above. A sneeze on the left was an ill omen for a Greek. 257 (xciv) Diogenes Laertius 6.48. In margin ‘reading dead‘ Hegesias was possibly a pupil of Diogenes and, like him, from Sinope in Pontus (see 3.259 below).

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258 When a man taunted Diogenes with being exiled from his country Diogenes said, ‘Wretched fellow, that is why I took to philosophy.’ Either exile had compelled Diogenes to take up philosophy, or he had learnt philosophy in order to bear exile and similar misfortunes calmly.1 259 Another fellow said to him as an insult; ‘The people of Sinope have condemned you to exile.’ But I,’ said Diogenes, ‘condemn them to staying put.’ He meant that, having been ordered to change country he was no worse off than those who stayed in their native land and would not be able to bear exile calmly. For it is as wretched to be forced to stay as to be forced to leave. To a philosopher any land is his country; if he is ordered to go into exile, he is exiled only from one community. But the man who cannot live anywhere except in his own country is an exile from many lands. Now Diogenes, it is thought, was ordered to change country for debasing coinage. For he was a native of Sinope.1 This is how Plutarch reports the tale in his book On exile: ‘The people of Sinope have ordered you to become an exile from Pontus.’ ‘But,’ said Diogenes, ‘I condemn them to the penalty of forever remaining confined to the region of Pontus and the far shores of the Black Sea.’ Diogenes had changed his native land, but for the better: it was the people allotted to that barren region who were really in exile.2 260 When Diogenes came upon an Olympionices (which means ‘a competitor at the Olympic games’) pasturing sheep, he said, ‘My famous friend, how quickly you have taken yourself from Olympia to Nemea!’ playing on words. For the Nemea are games called after the place, like the Olympia.1 But in Greek nemo means ‘I pasture,’ and nemos means ‘pastures.’ ***** 258 (xcv) Diogenes Laertius 6.49. In margin ‘exile profitable‘ 1 For the benefits bestowed by philosophy, see 3.107 n1 above. 259 (xcvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.49; Plutarch Moralia 602a (On exile) (second paragraph). 1 The claim that Diogenes was exiled from his city Sinope for debasing its coinage when he was a mint-master is found at Diogenes Laertius 6.20. 2 The last sentence was added in 1532. See 3.334 below. 260 (xcvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.49. In margin ‘humorous‘ 1 As well as the famous Olympian Games, there were the Pythian, Nemean and Isthmian, as well as various minor athletic festivals.

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261 Asked once why athletes had no feeling, he replied, ‘Because they have been reared on pork and beef.’ For athletes are fed on heavier foods, which give strength to the body but blunt the edge of the mind. The double meaning made the joke possible. For both the Greek word ‘to feel’ and the corresponding Latin sentire concern the mind as much as the body. But the questioner was asking why athletes were not upset by blows, as if they felt nothing, whereas Diogenes preferred to criticize their dull minds. 262 He used to go up to statues from time to time and ask them for something. When men wondered why he did this, he said, ‘to get into the habit of not minding if ever I don’t get what I ask for from men.’ 263 After Diogenes had been driven by poverty to start begging, he used to accost men with these words: ‘If you have given to anyone else then give to me, but if you have not given to anyone, then start with me.’ He meant that he was no worse than other beggars, so it was fair that a man who had given to anybody else should give to Diogenes; but if a man was too stingy to give to anyone, then it was time for him to start giving. 264 Once when asked by a tyrant what sort of bronze should be used to make statuary, he said, ‘The bronze from which they moulded Harmodius and Aristogeiton.’1 This implied that the man should be removed, since they were tyrantkillers. 265 Someone asked him how Dionysius treated his friends: ‘Like wineskins’ said ***** 261 (xcviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.49. In margin ‘dullness of mind‘ 262 (xcix) Diogenes Laertius 6.49. In margin ‘long experience reduces distress‘ 263 (c) Diogenes Laertius 6.49. In margin ‘beggary‘ 264 (i) Diogenes Laertius 6.50. In margin ‘outspoken‘ 1 Harmodius and Aristogeiton were the famous killers of Hipparchus, tyrant of Athens at the end of the sixth century, who were revered as heroes of democracy. ‘The tyrant’ is Dionysius i, tyrant of Syracuse, but the story really belongs to Antiphon, see 7.372 below. 265 (ii) Diogenes Laertius 6.50. In margin ‘witty‘

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Diogenes; ‘when they are full he hangs them up, when they are empty he throws them away.’ He meant that the tyrant killed the rich and neglected the poor. 266 A man once wrote a boastful inscription over his house: ‘Callinicus Hercules, son of Jove, lives here; let no evil enter in.’ Diogenes detected the man’s stupidity from the inscription and added the words ‘help after the war.’1 He meant that it was too late to pray to avert all evils after such a horror had moved in. Hercules was worshipped as ‘averter of evil’ and he should have moved into the house before the master, since the master himself was a great evil.2 267 Once seeing a debauchee eating olives in a tavern he said, ‘If you had lunched like that, you would not be dining like that.’ He meant that the fellow was not eating olives as an economy, but because his stomach was weighed down with too rich a luncheon, so he wanted nothing for dinner. For a light luncheon is the best seasoning for dinner. 268 Diogenes used to say that love of money was ‘the stronghold’ ‘the metropolis’ of all evils, a turn of phrase not far from the saying of Solomon who said, ‘love of money was the root of all evils.’1 ***** 266 (iii) Diogenes Laertius 6.50. In margin ‘too late‘ 1 Callinicus, ‘glorious in victory,’ is a cult title of Hercules. Adagia iii vi 17: Post bellum auxilium ‘Help when the war is over.’ 2 Erasmus has missed the all-important fact that the man was newly married: the evil that has entered is the wife. Diogenes was a notorious misogynist: see 3.278, 3.282, 3.288, 3.344 below. Erasmus is perhaps recalling 3.216 above. 267 (iv) Diogenes Laertius 6.50. In margin ‘indulgence‘ 268 (v) Diogenes Laertius 6.50. In margin ‘avarice‘ 1 The Greek word philargyria ‘love of money’ is translated by Erasmus with the Biblical word cupiditas. See 1 Tim 6:10, Radix omnium malorum est cupiditas ‘Love of money is the root of all evils’ (av). Possibly Erasmus is thinking of the Wisdom of Solomon 14:2, cupiditas acquirendi ‘desire of gain.’ This book (in the Apocrypha) was known as The Proverbs of Solomon at one time. Diogenes’ words are identified as a chreia and attributed to Bion (see 7.187– 215 below) in Theon Progymnasmata 5.207 (Spengel ii 99). It was a well-known aphorism, attributed also to Bias and Democritus among others.

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269 Diogenes said good men were visual representations of the gods. The gods are by nature completely good, and it is their characteristic to do all men good, and harm nobody. This concept is illustrated with greater clarity in wise and good men than it is in statues, since the gods are incorporeal. 270 Love, he said, was the business of people with time on their hands. Certainly this emotion chiefly seizes those with nothing to do. So while they have time for idleness, they fall into something that requires a great deal of busy involvement and yet at the same time they do nothing worthwhile. 271 To someone who inquired what was most wretched in life, he said, ‘A needy old man.’ Yes indeed: when the protection of nature deserts a man, the weakness of age has to be buttressed by external advantages. But a man should not be counted needy who has provided himself with noble arts and good friends, the surest travelling fund for old age. That man is most wretchedly in need who is endowed with no virtue. 272 He was asked what creature had the most deadly bite: ‘If you are asking about wild animals,’ he said, ‘a slanderer, but if you mean tame ones, a flatterer.’1 For a slanderer displays his hatred openly, while in the guise of a friend a flatterer hurts much more severely. 273 Diogenes once saw a very badly painted picture of two centaurs fighting, and asked, ‘Which of them is worse?’ This was his criticism of the painter’s incompetence, pretending not ***** 269 (vi) Diogenes Laertius 6.51. In margin ‘good men like the gods‘ 270 (vii) Diogenes Laertius 6.51. See 8.76 below. In margin ‘base love‘ 271 (viii) Diogenes Laertius 6.51. In margin ‘old age‘ 272 (ix) Diogenes Laertius 6.51 1 Cf 7.38 below. 273 (x) Diogenes Laertius 6.51. In margin ‘witty‘

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to know which of them was worse painted. But he was making a pun, for cheiron means both worse, and one worsted in a fight.1 274 He used to call a flattering but insincere speech that was composed to please ‘a honeyed noose,’1 because it throttled a man while giving him a pleasant embrace. 275 He called a pampered belly a Charybdis of life, because it devoured everything and was never sated.1 Charybdis only swallows what sails on the sea, and finally regurgitates what she has swallowed; but neither air nor land nor rivers suffice the stomachs of gluttons, but they swallow up whole estates and houses and do not regurgitate them. 276 When some men reported to Diogenes that Didymon had been caught in adultery he said, ‘He deserves to be hanged by his name.’1 Now testicles are called didymi in Greek, so he wanted the man to be hanged by the source of his name and the instrument of his offence. 277 A certain scientist asked Diogenes why gold was pale yellow: he replied, ‘Because it is pursued by so many assassins.’ For men that are afraid turn pale and yellow. ***** 1 There is a pun here, but not the one Erasmus explains: Cheiron / cheiron is also the name of the most famous centaur, teacher of Achilles, Jason, and others. Diogenes actually asks, ‘Which centaur is worse / Cheiron?’ Erasmus inserts ‘fighting,’ to support his interpretation of cheiron as ‘the loser.’ See 3.315 below. 274 (xi) Diogenes Laertius 6.51. In margin ‘sweet talk‘ 1 See Adagia i viii 58: Letale mulsum ‘A deadly honey-brew.’ 275 (xii) Diogenes Laertius 6.51. In margin ‘the belly devouring all‘ 1 The use of Charybdis, the engulfing sea-monster in the Odyssey, for bottomless extravagance became classic in ancient rhetoric. 276 (xiii) Diogenes Laertius 6.51. In margin ‘adultery‘ 1 This was a chreia: Theon Progymnasmata 5.211 (Spengel ii 102), where the man, there called Didymos, is identified as a pipe-player. See 3.363 below. 277 (xiv) Diogenes Laertius 6.51. In margin ‘love of gold‘

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278 When Diogenes saw a woman in a litter he said, ‘The cage doesn’t suit the creature.’ He implied that such a wild and dangerous animal needed to be in an iron cage. Now a litter is a kind of seat enclosed with a grille, so that it gives something of the appearance of a cage; rich and spoilt women are accustomed to sit and even be carried in these. 279 Seeing a runaway slave sitting by a well he said, ‘Be careful that you don’t get dislodged, young man,’ making a pun. For the man who falls into a well gets dislodged, and he also ‘gets dislodged’ if he is driven from a place. I think wells were once sacred and it was not right to drag anyone away from them, as in the case of temples and statues of the emperor.1 280 When he saw a clothes thief in the baths, he said to him, ‘Have you come ep’ aleimmation “to get a bit of a rubdown” (or ep’ all’ imation “to get another garment?” ’) Again he was playing on a resemblance between the Greek words, which cannot be represented in Latin. The Greek phrases differ only by a slight change of sound: aleimma, from aleiph¯o ‘anoint,’ is ‘a rubdown’ (hence aliptai ‘masseurs’) and this diminutive aleimmation is ‘a little rubdown.’ All’ imation is two words, but the elision makes them seem almost one; if you remove the elision you get allo imation that is, ‘another garment.’ For men used to rub themselves with oil in the baths, and that is also where thieves carried on their trade, since it is usual for bathers to take off their clothes. So he reprimanded the thief who had stolen one garment somewhere else and had come to steal another. ***** 278 (xv) Diogenes Laertius 6.51. In margin ‘luxurious‘ For Diogenes the Cynic’s misogyny see 3.266 n2 above. See also General Index: women, attitudes to. 279 (xvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.52. In margin ‘ambiguous‘ 1 Temples regularly offered sanctuary in the Greek world, as did the statues of deified emperors (or their temples) in the Roman Empire. See Seneca De clementia 1.18.2. 280 (xvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.52

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281 Diogenes once entered a dirty bath and said, ‘Where do the men who bathe here go to bathe?’ He meant that even clean men would get dirty there, and if they had bathed there would need another bath to get clean in. 282 On one occasion when he saw women who had been hanged dangling from an olive tree he said, ‘If only other trees bore similar fruit!’ For Diogenes was a misogyn¯es, that is, a woman-hater, and so he wanted to see them all hanged. 283 Noticing someone with a bad reputation for robbing tombs, Diogenes greeted him with a Homeric verse: Why has thou come hither, fine fellow? Perhaps to strip one of those whom black death has seized?1

284 Once when asked whether he had a slave or slave girl, he said no. But when the questioner added: ‘Then who would bury you if you died?’ He said, ‘Whoever needs a home.’ Many are superstitiously anxious about how they will be buried and by whom. Diogenes was completely indifferent to this, having no doubt that someone would throw out his body, if only to clear the house for himself. And yet he did have an honourable burial. ***** 281 (xviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.47. In margin ‘filth‘ 282 (xix) Diogenes Laertius 6.52. See 3.266 n2 above. In margin ‘misogynist‘ 283 (xx) Diogenes Laertius 6.52. In margin ‘sacrilege‘ 1 Cf Iliad 10.343, 387. The introductory words are Homeric-sounding but not part of the quotation. Quoting an apt line of verse on the spur of the moment or deliberately making a small change in the original to make it fit the situation seems to have been a traditional form of wit. The main source was Homer, who would be instantly recognizable as the Homeric poems were the foundation of Greek education. The equally well-known dramatists were also drawn upon. Diogenes seems to have been particularly good at this. See 3.285–6, 3.297, 3.306, 3.335, 3.350, 3.356–7, 3.384 below. For Aristippus, see 3.149 and 3.160 above. 284 (xxi) Diogenes Laertius 6.52 and 6.78 (burial). For Diogenes’ indifference to his own death, see 3.187 n1 above. In margin ‘burial‘

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285 When he noticed a youth sleeping carelessly, Diogenes prodded him with his stick and uttered a verse of Homer: ‘Get up: “lest someone spears you in the back as you sleep.” ’1 286 To a man who was indulging excessively in fancy food and luxury, Diogenes applied the Homeric tag: ‘O my son, you will be short of living.’1 He meant that he would bring on his death with luxury. 287 Even Aristotle laughed at the Platonic ideas, that is the forms. Once when Plato was talking at length about the ideas and trying to explain this imaginary thing in invented language – bringing to his lips table-hoods and cuphoods, by which he meant the ‘ideas’ of a table and a cup – Diogenes, mocking these subtle triflings, said, ‘I see a table and a cup, but I cannot see a table-hood and a cup-hood.’ (Just so there are men today who think themselves clever talking of happen-hoods and this-hoods.)1 But Plato retaliated: ‘I’m not surprised,’ he said, ‘for you have eyes to see cups and tables, but no mind to see table-hoods and cup-hoods.’ 288 When someone asked when he should take a wife, he said, ‘A young man should not take one yet and an old man never.’ This is neater in Greek with the similar sounding m¯edep¯o ‘never’ and m¯edep¯opote ‘not at any time yet.’ He was implying that one should completely avoid marriage. But the questioner wanted to know what year of his life, or what time of the year, it was advantageous to take a wife, as Aristotle recommended for the girl the eighteenth year and for the man the thirty***** 285 (xxii) Diogenes Laertius 6.53 1 This is another witty adaptation of a line in Homer Iliad 8.95: m} t’w toi e¹donti metafrŽn~ \n d—ru p}j+ ‘lest someone spears you in the back as you flee.’ ‘Get up’ is not part of the quotation. 286 (xxiii) Diogenes Laertius 6.53. In margin ‘luxury‘ 1 Homer Iliad 18.95: ½kœmorow d} moi, tŽkow, Ásseai. The final two words were omitted in Traversari’s translation (see Introduction xvi–xvii) and these contained the essence of the joke. The original line said ‘. . . short of living by reason of your speaking.’ Diogenes made it ‘. . . by reason of your shopping.’ 287 (xxiv) Diogenes Laertius 6.53, expanded. In margin ‘silly subtleties‘ 1 Sorteitates . . . ecceitates: terms, used by mediaeval logicians to express individuation. ‘But Plato retaliated . . .’ The rest was added in 1532. 288 (xxv) Diogenes Laertius 6.54. In margin ‘matrimony to be avoided‘

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fifth,1 and the Romans thought April and June favourable for weddings, but May inauspicious.2 289 When someone asked Diogenes what he would want for a box on the ears, he said, ‘a helmet.’ This is another joke depending on the unexpected;1 for the other expected to find out what compensation Diogenes would take for a box on the ears. 290 When he saw a young man dressing himself up, he said, ‘If that is for men, it is in vain, if it is for women, it is unfair.’ This is a wittier joke in Greek because of the similar words, atucheis ‘you are unlucky’ and adikeis ‘you are unjust.’ For a man dresses up for another man in vain, since there can be no marriage between them, and a young man is acting unfairly if he deceives the weaker sex by making himself look good, since a wife is to be won not by specious attractiveness but by sound character. 291 Once, when a young man was embarrassed by his own blushing, Diogenes said, ‘Don’t worry; that is the colour of virtue.’1 292 When he heard two legal experts disputing, he cursed them both, on the grounds that one had committed a theft but the other had not lost anything. He meant that both deserved death. The wit of the saying is this: the man who robs makes a profit, and the one robbed is afflicted with a loss. But ***** 1 Aristotle Politics 7.1335a 2 On Roman taboos against marrying in May see Ovid Fasti 6.219–34; Adagia i iv 9: Mense Maio nubunt malae ‘Bad women marry in May.’ For Diogenes’ misogyny see 3.266 n2 above. 289 (xxvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.54. In margin ‘joke from the unexpected‘ 1 See 3.136 and 3.229 above 290 (xxvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.54. This is given as a chreia in Theon Progymnasmata 5.208 (Spengel ii 99). In margin ‘effeminacy‘ 291 (xxviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.54. In margin ‘modesty‘ 1 Cf 5.332 below. 292 (xxix) Diogenes Laertius 6.54. In margin ‘thievishness‘

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here something absurd had happened: one had stolen the other’s property, and yet the man robbed had not lost anything, because he had himself stolen the thing the other took from him. 293 Someone asked which wine he preferred; he answered, ‘Someone else’s.’ Here too the aprosdok¯eton – the unexpected point1 – adds wit to the saying. For the questioner expected something different, that is, he was thinking of the type of wine. 294 A man told him, ‘Most people laugh at you.’ ‘Ah,’ he said, ‘but I am not laughed at.’ Now this seems an impossibility, that someone strikes you and you are not struck; but Diogenes said he was not laughed at either because he was not laughable, or because he thought men’s mockery did not concern him. 295 When someone said life was wretched, he said, ‘It is not living that is wretched, but living badly.’ The common crowd calls a life wretched if it is exposed to toils, pains, sicknesses, losses, periods of exile, and many misfortunes of this kind. But the philosopher thought nothing bad or wretched unless it was combined with what was shameful. 296 Diogenes had a servant called Manes. When he ran away from his master his friends advised him to search for the fugitive. ‘But it’s absurd’ said Diogenes, ‘if Manes can live without Diogenes, but Diogenes cannot live without Manes.’ Yet many pursue their slaves to be revenged on them, whereas Diogenes looked to the advantage to himself. For a philosopher is better if he needs fewer things. So our man did not want to seem inferior to a slave. ***** 293 (xxx) Diogenes Laertius 6.54. In margin ‘nicer if it’s other people’s‘ 1 See 3.136 above. 294 (xxxi) Diogenes Laertius 6.54. Cf Socrates at 3.57 above, and 3.312 below. In margin ‘disregard for hurt‘ 295 (xxxii) Diogenes Laertius 6.55. In margin ‘life wretched‘ 296 (xxxiii) Diogenes Laertius 6.55. In margin ‘thrifty‘

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297 Once he was lunching on olives, and when a cake was brought in as well he threw it away, quoting that famous tag from tragedy: ‘O stranger, from tyrants far betake yourself,’ followed by a Homeric verse: ‘sometimes he drove them on with whips.’1 Diogenes called himself a tyrant as the despiser of sweetmeats, which he wanted driven far from him. 298 Diogenes was commonly called a dog. Now there are many kinds of dogs: hunting dogs, retrievers, sheepdogs, guard dogs, and lap dogs. So when someone asked what kind of dog he was, he gave a splendid answer: ‘When starving I am a Maltese spaniel, but when full a Molossian hound.’1 His point was that he would fawn when he wanted food but once sated he would bite. 299 When someone asked him whether philosophers ate cakes, he said: ‘Yes, everything, just like the rest of mankind.’ Again he answered a different question than the one that was asked. For his questioner wanted to know whether it was proper for philosophers who professed moderation to eat cakes, the food of the pampered. But Diogenes replied, feigning misunderstanding, as if philosophers were not men,1 and yet fed on human foods. For brute beasts do not eat everything available: the ox eats hay, the lion doesn’t touch it; sheep love willow leaves, but horses love oats. Some birds feed on juniper berries, some feed on flesh, and some on fish. This was the point of Diogenes’ joke.2 ***** 297 (xxxiv) Diogenes Laertius 6.55 1 The quotations come from Euripides Phoenissae 40: )V jŽne tur‡nnoiw \kpodWn kay’staso, and from Iliad 5.366 and 8.45: Ällote m‡stijen d' \l‡an. Cf a similar story about Philoxenus (6.511 below where the joke will be explained). This second story suggests that Diogenes threw away the olives not the cake. See 3.299–300 below. 298 (xxxv) Diogenes Laertius 6.55. In margin ‘Diogenes the Dog‘ 1 Another ‘dog’ story (see 3.192 n1 above). The famous fierce hunting dogs from Molossis in Epirus were also used as guard dogs. See eg Horace Satires 2.6.112–5. 299 (xxxvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.56. In margin ‘the philosopher human‘ 1 For philosophers not counting as human, see 7.151 below. 2 Erasmus added the parallel about animal and bird diet in 1535. See also 8.279 below.

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300 Once when Diogenes was eating cake at a dinner party, one of the guests said, ‘What are you eating, Diogenes?’ thinking that a Cynic philosopher did not know what cake was. ‘Some nicely baked bread,’ he said, pretending not to know what he was eating. To others it was cake, to Diogenes, who did not eat for pleasure, it was bread.2 301 When someone inquired why men gave generously to other beggars but not to philosophers, he said, ‘Because they hope they’ll become blind or lame sooner than they’ll become philosophers.’ Those who pitied the afflicted, and most beggars are afflicted, do it in contemplation of men’s common lot: thus they help a blind man, thinking, ‘This could happen to me,’ but they don’t have the same idea about a philosopher. The saying is rather witty because of its misinterpretation of the word sperare which can mean ‘expect’ as well as ‘hope’: one may well hope to become a philosopher, but nobody hopes for blindness or lameness.1 302 Diogenes was asking a miser for some help, but when he saw him hesitating and about to refuse, he said, ‘Good man, I am asking you for food, not a funeral,’ to render the similarity of the Greek words as best I can. For in Greek troph¯e is ‘food,’ and taph¯e is ‘burial.’ 303 Someone reproached him for having once falsely coined money; for as men say, he was ordered into exile for this.1 ‘I admit,’ he said, ‘there was a time when I was just as you are now; but you will never be what I am now.’ He was criticizing those who condemn the errors of youth in others, although they do not correct their own even in old age. ***** 300 (xxxvii) Athenaeus 3.80, 113f. In margin ‘pretence‘ 2 Erasmus has transformed the very brief original with several interpolations and has omitted the fact that Diogenes was gobbling the cake. In Athenaeus, the story comes in a section on greedy eating. The joke is presumably similar to the one in 3.299, but this time Diogenes plays along with the questioner. 301 (xxxviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.56. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 The joke seems to be that the words can be misinterpreted to mean ‘anything rather than become a philosopher.’ 302 (xxxix) Diogenes Laertius 6.56. In margin ‘giving reluctantly‘ 303 (xl) Diogenes Laertius 6.56. In margin ‘error corrected‘ 1 On Diogenes’ debasement of the coinage see 3.259 above.

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304 When someone else reproached him with this same crime, he defended the offence on the grounds of his youth, saying, ‘I pissed more quickly then, but now it is different.’ He censured his juvenile years with a Cynic’s circumlocution; for youth more easily pours liquid from the bladder, but old men suffer from dysouria. 305 Diogenes once travelled to Myndus, and found that the gates were huge and magnificently built, whereas the town itself was tiny. ‘Men of Myndus,’ he said, ‘shut your gates in case your city gets away.’ He meant that the town was so small it could leave through the gates. 306 When he saw a thief arrested who stole purple clothes, he adapted a Homeric verse to fit him: ‘Now you,’ he said, ‘purple death has grasped and violent destiny.’1 307 Craterus, a commander under Alexander the Great, and a very wealthy man, had invited Diogenes to move into his house.1 He replied, ‘I would rather lick salt2 at Athens than enjoy a delicate table at Craterus’ home.’ He believed liberty however poor was to be preferred to all the luxury of the wealthy, where liberty is impaired. 308 The rhetoric teacher Anaximenes1 was weighed down by a big belly. Dio***** 304 (xli) Diogenes Laertius 6.56. In margin ‘youthful error‘ 305 (xlii) Diogenes Laertius 6.57. In margin ‘amusing‘ Myndus was the capital of Caria in south-west Asia Minor. 306 (xliii) Diogenes Laertius 6.57. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 Iliad 5.83. The original line said: ‘Him purple death . . .’ See 3.283 n1 above. 307 (xliv) Diogenes Laertius 6.57. In margin ‘liberty‘ 1 It was a matter of prestige for public figures to attach philosophers to their households, and it was the main source of support (often in relative luxury) for such men. Although Craterus was one of Alexander’s chief generals, Diogenes asserted his independence. 2 ‘To lick salt’ meant to have an impoverished life-style. See Adagia iii vii 33: Salem lingere ‘to lick salt.’ 308 (xlv) Diogenes Laertius 6.57. In margin ‘obesity‘ 1 The historian and rhetorician Anaximenes of Lampsacus (c. 380–320 bc) was a prosperous glutton.

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genes went up to him and said: ‘Share your stomach with us poor fellows; for you will be relieved of a burden and do us a favour.’ 309 Once, when Anaximenes was orating, Diogenes held out a ham1 and turned the audience’s attention to himself. Anaximenes was angry at this and fell silent, abandoned by his audience. Then Diogenes said, ‘An obol of expense has paid off Anaximenes’ discourse.’ He meant that the other was talking about silly matters, which did not keep the audience attentive enough. 310 When certain men reproached him with eating in the market-place, he said, ‘What is surprising about that? The market-place is where I get hungry.’ He was arguing from corresponding opposites: if a man did not feel hungry in the market-place, it might well be inappropriate for him to eat there. But on the same principle he could have defended himself for evacuating or urinating in the market-place.1 311 Some writers also credit Diogenes with this retort: They say Plato came upon him rinsing greens and said in his ear, ‘If you had humoured Dionysius you wouldn’t be rinsing greens now.’ Diogenes in turn said in Plato’s ear, ‘And if you rinsed greens, you wouldn’t have been a slave to Dionysius.’ But really this seems modelled on a story we told before (about Aristippus),1 as the next one is.2 312 Someone once said to Diogenes, ‘There are many who laugh at you, Diogenes!’ and he replied, ‘And most likely donkeys laugh at them.’ And when ***** 309 (xlvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.57. In margin ‘humorous‘ 1 Once again Erasmus has changed Diogenes’ gesture by substituting a ham (which would cost more than an obol) for the fish mentioned by Laertius, no doubt because of his own distaste for fish. 310 (xlvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.57. In margin ‘eating in public‘ 1 As the Cynics did as a gesture; it was natural and therefore nothing to be ashamed of. See 3.367 below. 311 (xlviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.57. In margin ‘liberty‘ 1 See 3.102 above (Aristippus); also 3.110 above. 2 See 3.312, similar to 3.294 above. 312 (xlix) Diogenes Laertius 6.58. See 3.294 above. In margin ‘mockery ignored‘

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another butted in, ‘But these folk take no notice of donkeys,’ Diogenes answered, ‘Nor do I take any notice of them.’ He credited donkeys with laughing because when they bare their teeth they give the appearance of laughter. Again men making fun of someone put their hands to their ears to imitate donkeys’ ears. So too a donkey that twitches its ears seems to make fun of people but nobody takes offence. 313 Diogenes noticed a very young man studying philosophy and said, ‘Bravo! You are diverting lovers of physical beauty towards the beauties of the mind.’1 He meant that by concentrating on enriching his mind with virtue and honourable studies the young man would come to have far superior friends. For nothing is more beautiful than wisdom, or more lovable than virtue. 314 Once men who had been rescued from danger used to hang up votive gifts in temples as if attributing their safety to the gods. So when he was shown votive offerings in Samothrace dedicated by men saved from war, sickness, a voyage, or some other hazard, he said, ‘But there would be a lot more offerings if those who had not survived had dedicated them.’ I think he felt that those who were saved were saved by chance, not as a favour from the gods. For if we must credit the gods when someone is rescued, we must also lay it to their charge that more perish than are saved. Some writers attribute this to Diagoras of Melos, the atheist.1 Certainly the Samothracians were afflicted with great superstition in these matters. 315 When a handsome young man was going to a dinner-party Diogenes said, ‘You will come back worse for it!’ So when the young man returned and ***** 313 (l) Diogenes Laertius 6.58. In margin ‘cultivation of the mind‘ 1 The editor of the Loeb text suggests that Diogenes addresses philosophy. 314 (li) Diogenes Laertius 6.59. In margin ‘offerings‘ 1 This information also from Laertius 6.59. See also Cicero De natura deorum 3.89. Diagoras of Melos was a philosopher and a lyric poet of the fifth century bc, whether justly or not, particularly regarded as an atheist for his nonconformity with traditional religious views. Samothrace was a centre of worship of the Cabiri, deities especially invoked by sailors. 315 (lii) Diogenes Laertius 6.59. In margin ‘bad associates‘

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said, ‘I went and I haven’t come back worse,’ Diogenes said ‘Indeed you have come back worse.’1 He meant that it was impossible for a young man to escape being the worse for a drunken and wanton party. 316 Diogenes asked a big favour of Eurytion,1 and when Eurytion characteristically refused it with these words, ‘I’ll do it, if you can persuade me,’ Diogenes said, ‘If I could, I would have persuaded you to hang yourself long since.’ But there is nothing to admire here except Cynic licence. 317 He had paid a visit to Sparta and when he returned to Athens someone asked him, as men do, where he was going and where had come from. ‘From a land of men to one of women,’ he said, as a criticism of the Athenian way of life that had become effeminate from luxury, whereas the Spartans were given a tough training.1 318 Once on his return from Olympia he was asked whether he had seen a great crowd. ‘A huge crowd,’ he said, ‘but hardly any men.’ This story seems to be an imitation of the earlier one about the baths.1 ***** 1 This story depends on a pun on the names of the wise centaur Cheiron (whose name also meant ‘worse’) and another, violent, centaur Eurytion (whose name meant ‘broad- or slack-arsed’). Cf 3.273 above. Diogenes’ final retort to the young man was ‘Indeed you haven’t come back Cheiron/worse, you’ve come back Erytion/slack-arsed!’ In Erasmus’ version the negative is omitted (‘Indeed you have come back worse’) and Erytion’s name has somehow been incorporated into the next saying. This does not seem to be an example of Erasmus censuring a risky anecdote; rather he seems to have been misled by Traversari’s version (see Introduction xvi–xvii above). 316 (liii) Diogenes Laertius 6.59. In margin ‘uninhibited‘ 1 See n1 on 3.315 just above. In Laertius, the other person is ‘a bad-tempered man.’ 317 (liv) Diogenes Laertius 6.59. In margin ‘fancy living‘ 1 For the benefit of this criticism of Athenians, Diogenes honours the Spartans as real men; but usually he denies anybody the name of ‘real man’; see 3.176 n1 above. 318 (lv) Diogenes Laertius 6.60. In margin ‘men are few‘ 1 Ie 3.221 above.

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319 He said that men who squandered their estate in self-indulgence on cooks, whores, play-boys, and flatterers, were like trees growing on a precipice, because no man could taste their fruit, but they were eaten by vultures and crows. His point was that those who were slaves of their throats and bellies were not men.1 320 If the Greeks want to curse anyone they tell them to ‘go to the crows.’1 But Diogenes used to say that it was much more dangerous to fall among flatterers than among crows. We have lost the joke here which depends on the resemblance of the Greek words. For they call crows korakas and with a change of one letter they call flatterers kolakas. This saying is also credited to Antisthenes.2 321 The courtesan Phryne dedicated a golden Venus at Delphi, and when Diogenes saw it he added an inscription: ‘The spoils of Greek wantonness.’1 He implied that the Greeks were excessively addicted to lust since a whore had accumulated so much gold from her disgraceful trade. 322 Some people also credit this saying to him. When Alexander the Great came to see Diogenes and greeted him, Diogenes asked who he was; and when he replied, ‘I am the famous King Alexander’ Diogenes replied, ‘And I am the famous dog Diogenes.’ He was as proud of his freedom of speech as Alexander was of his kingdom. And when he was asked how he had earned ***** 319 (lvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.60. In margin ‘squandering‘ 1 Erasmus’ last sentence shows he has missed Diogenes’ point, that debauchees were preyed upon by con-men as the fruit from fig trees on a cliff edge was only consumed by vultures. Cf 7.283, where the saying is ascribed to Crates. 320 (lvii) Athenaeus 6.254c. In margin ‘flattery‘ 1 Adagia ii i 96: Ad corvos ‘Off with you to the crows’ 2 Diogenes Laertius 6.4 (see 7.51 below) 321 (lviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.60 1 This story is also told at Plutarch Moralia 336d (On the fortune of Alexander). Erasmus quotes sayings of Phryne in 6.575–81 below. There were at Delphi many dedications set up by states from the spoils of enemies defeated in war. This is the joke. See 6.472 below. 322 (lix) Diogenes Laertius 6.60. In margin ‘freedom of speech‘

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the nickname dog, he said, ‘Because I fawn on those who make me gifts, I bark at those who don’t, but bad men I even bite.’1 323 When Diogenes was plucking some fruit from a fig tree and the orchard keeper said to him, ‘A man hanged himself from this tree a few days ago,’ Diogenes said, ‘But I will clean it up.’1 The other man thought Diogenes would take the warning and stay away from the deadly tree that had carried a corpse. But he was free of all superstition and thought the fruit no more unclean for that. 324 When he saw an Olympic victor staring so fixedly at a whore that he turned his head to gaze at her after she passed, he said, ‘See how that champion ram is led away bound with his neck in a noose by a mere street woman.’1 He thought it absurd for a man to compete with champions and be dragged around like a prisoner by a cheap girl without even being bound. 325 He said that beautiful whores were like sweet wine mixed with deadly poison, because they brought pleasure at first, but one followed by unending pain. 326 Once when Diogenes was lunching in the open street and many crowded round him because of the strangeness of the sight and kept shouting, ‘Dog, dog!’ he said, ‘No, you are the dogs, to stand around someone when he is eating his lunch.’ For this is a particularly common habit of dogs.1 ***** 1 Another interpretation of the nickname ‘dog’; see 3.192 n1 above. 323 (lx) Diogenes Laertius 6.61. In margin ‘no superstition‘ 1 Possibly Diogenes is making a pun and means he will strip the tree of its fruit. 324 (lxi) Diogenes Laertius 6.61. In margin ‘sensual pleasure‘ 1 Cf Plutarch Moralia 521b (On being a busybody), who names the Olympic champion as Dioxippus. See Adagia iv ix 50: Obtorto collo ‘With one’s neck in a noose.’ 325 (lxii) Diogenes Laertius 6.61. Adagia i viii 58: Letale mulsum ‘A deadly honeybrew.’ In margin ‘whore‘ 326 (lxiii) Diogenes Laertius 6.61. In margin ‘uninhibited speech‘ 1 Another Diogenes dog story; see 3.192 above.

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327 When someone mentioned a boy who was a rent-boy, Diogenes was asked where he was from and made a pun saying, ‘He’s a Tegeate.’ Now Tegea is a community in Arcadia: but tegos is sometimes used to mean ‘brothel’: hence the philosopher called the common whore a Tegeate.1 328 He saw someone who had previously been a wrestler, but a poor one, claiming to be a doctor and said to him, ‘So are you going to lay low the men who used to lay you low?’ A wrestler lays a man low when he defeats him, and a doctor lays low those he sends to their beds or even their deaths. Diogenes guessed he was as bad as a doctor as he had been as a wrestler. There is a joke like this in Martial about the man who changed from a doctor into an armed gladiator, and did the same thing as a gladiator that he had done as a doctor.1 329 When a bastard son of a courtesan was throwing stones at the crowd, Diogenes said, ‘Mind you don’t hit your father!’1 Since he was a whore’s son his father was unknown. 330 When some people were hymning the generosity of a man who had made Diogenes a present, he said, ‘Why don’t you praise me too, for deserving to receive it?’ It is greater to deserve a kindness than to give it, according to the saying of Publius the Mime-writer: Who gives a kindness well-deserved receives one.1 ***** 327 (lxiv) Diogenes Laertius 6.61. In margin ‘punning‘ 1 See General Index: Arcadia. 328 (lxv) Diogenes Laertius 6.62. In margin ‘bad doctor‘ 1 Cf Martial 8.74. 329 (lxvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.62 1 In the first edition the boy is simply illegitimate; his mother’s profession was added in 1532. For wit exercised on disreputable birth cf 3.34 n1 above. This is given as a chreia in Theon Progymnasmata 5.209–10 (Spengel ii 100–1) classified as ‘mixed,’ both ‘figurative’ and ‘jesting.’ 330 (lxvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.62. In margin ‘a benefit deserved‘ 1 This is from the collection of apophthegms of the first-century bc Roman mime-writer Publilius Syrus (Sententiae b55 Meyer.)

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331 Diogenes made a very witty retort to someone who asked him to give back a cloak: ‘If you gave it me, I am keeping it; if you lent it, I am still using it.’ He meant that he didn’t intend to return it, whether he had received it as a gift or a loan. It is shameful to demand back something you have given away,1 and unkind to snatch away something the user needs. 332 When a supposititious man1 said about Diogenes that he ‘had gold wrapped in his cloak,’ Diogenes countered the insult: ‘That’s right, so I sleep on something pushed in underneath.2 Now supposititious birth is the name they give when men pretend to be born from a womb they didn’t come from. We ‘sleep on’ a treasure to keep it safe, and we ‘shut our eyes to’ something we disregard. And Diogenes used his cloak as a pillow at night.3 333 When he was asked what profit he got from philosophy, he said, ‘If nothing else, at least I am ready for every kind of luck.’ This saying hardly sounds like Diogenes, even if it is credited to him. 334 Somebody asked Diogenes where he came from and he said ‘kosmopolites,’ ***** 331 (lxviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.62 1 Adagia iv viii 98: Quod recte datum est ‘What’s once given’ 332 (lxix) Diogenes Laertius 6.62 1 Supposititious: ‘put in under,’ said of a child fraudulently set up to displace the real heir. 2 This not very accurate rendering of Diogenes Laertius’ Greek has coloured Erasmus’ comment. The meaning of the passage is not immediately clear in any case, but it seems to mean: When a supposititious man said to Diogenes that he had gold in his cloak, ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘and for that reason you sleep with it pushed in underneath’; or: ‘for that very reason you sleep as one pushed in.’ This alternative interpretation depends on dividing the words differently and the remark could be deliberately ambiguous as many of Diogenes’ quips are. 3 Traditionally it was said that fraudulent babies were smuggled into the birth room in a cloak. Diogenes both sleeps on his folded cloak (see Diogenes Laertius 6.22) and ignores the remarks of a ‘smuggled in’ or ‘pushed in underneath’ man. 333 (lxx) Diogenes Laertius 6.63. In margin ‘the philosopher‘ 334 (lxxi) Diogenes Laertius 6.63. In margin ‘every land a homeland to the brave‘

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‘I’m a world citizen,’ meaning that wherever a philosopher spent his time, he was living in his own country.1 335 Once when he asked for alms, he addressed the eranarches, that is the charity commissioner, in a Homeric verse: ‘Despoil the rest, from Hector hold your grasp.’1 The wit lies in the wordplay. He substituted enarize ‘strip of arms’ for eranize ‘give a contribution’ and by Hector’s name he meant himself. For a man who denies to the needy is taking spoils. Indeed this kind of man is prone to thieving. 336 Diogenes said that whores were ‘queens of kings’ because they asked and got whatever they fancied from kings. That is, he called them queens of kings, not because they were like wives, but because they held sway over kings. Kings do not always get what they want from the people, but nothing is denied to a whore. I think barbarian kings must have been like this. 337 To flatter Alexander the Athenians decreed that he should be treated and ***** 1 On Diogenes as a citizen of the world see J.L. Moles ‘Cynic cosmopolitanism’ 105–111 in Bracht Branham and Marie Odile Goulet-Caz´e eds The Cynics: the Cynic movement in antiquity and its legacy (University of California Press 1996). Moles rejects the authenticity of similar stories about Socrates, eg Plutarch Moralia 600f (On exile) and Cicero Tusculan Disputations 5.108. Arrian Epictetus 1.9.1 attributes the claim to Epictetus. The quotation in the margin is from Ovid Fasti 1.493. Cf 3.259 above. 335 (lxxii) Diogenes Laertius 6.63. In margin ‘humorous‘ 1 This verse is not in our text of Homer, but some editors added it in the past after Iliad 16.82 or 90. This anecdote had already been garbled in Traversari’s Latin version (see Introduction xvi–xvii) hence Erasmus’ muddled paragraph. Diogenes was being asked for a contribution, not requesting alms for himself. As on many occasions, he made a joke by deliberately changing a Homeric line (see eg 3.285 above), substituting eranize ‘ask a contribution’ for Homer’s enarize ‘strip (a fallen foe) of arms.’ The similar sounding Greek words have been muddled in the text, spoiling the joke. Diogenes actually said ‘ask the others for a contribution’ instead of ‘despoil the others.’ 336 (lxxiii) Diogenes Laertius 6.63. In margin ‘imperious whore‘ 337 (lxxiv) Diogenes Laertius 6.63

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worshipped as Father Liber. Diogenes made fun of this honour saying, ‘And make me Serapis!’1 For as Bacchus is among the satyrs, so Serapis is worshipped by the Egyptians in the form of a bull.2 338 When he was censured for going into dirty and dishonourable places, he said, ‘But the sun enters latrines without being fouled.’ He felt that an honest man was not damaged by the ill fame of a place. 339 When he was eating dinner in a shrine and they put down dirty rolls beside him, he threw them out of the shrine saying, ‘Nothing dirty should come into a temple.’ 340 One man asked him saucily why he called himself a philosopher when he knew nothing. Diogenes said, ‘If I pretend to be a philosopher, this too is practising philosophy.’ ***** 1 There are other stories of protests by eg Pytheas (5.212 below) and Damis (1.164 above) against the deification of the still living king, but the status of god was generally bestowed upon him after death, in keeping with Greek cult of ancestor heroes. Alexander was quite prepared to accept the adulation and liked to equate himself with Dionysus Bacchus (Father Liber in Latin; Erasmus prefers to use Latin rather than Greek names for divinities.) 2 The point of Diogenes’ quip may simply be that the Egyptian Serapis was associated with a three-headed animal (dog, lion, wolf), also with the dogheaded divinity Anubis. (For Diogenes as ‘dog’ see 3.192 n1 above.) Serapis however became a syncretistic Greco-Egyptian deity about this date, identified with Osiris and the bull-headed Apis. In Egypt the Greek Dionysus was identified with Osiris: Herodotus 2.42, 2.144, Plutarch Moralia 362b (On Isis and Osiris). See J. Servais ’Alexandre-Dionysus et Diog`eneSerapis. A propos de Diog`ene Laerce vi 63’ L’Antiquit´e classique 28 (1959) 98–106 (reference supplied by Dr ter Meer). Among his many representations, Bacchus was depicted on coins with horns, either of a ram or a bull. The Satyrs were Dionysus / Bacchus’ drunken, half-animal companions. Erasmus’ cryptic comment only adds confusion to an unclear anecdote. 338 (lxxv) Diogenes Laertius 6.63. In margin ‘a place does not defile‘ 339 (lxxvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.64. In margin ‘keep sacred things clean‘ 340 (lxxvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.64. In margin ‘pretence of philosophy‘

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He implied that philosophy was such a difficult matter that even to affect it was a great part of the art. In the same way a man has much of the nature of a king who can play the role of king skilfully. And to pretend is to imitate and to imitate philosophers is to practise philosophy, that is, to be devoted to philosophy. 341 Someone brought a boy to Diogenes for him to share in Diogenes’ learning, and to recommend him to the philosopher he said that the boy was of excellent intellect and fine character. Then Diogenes said, ‘So what does he need from me?’1 He was reproaching the man’s excessive praise, for crediting the boy with the qualities which boys are sent to philosophers to acquire. It would have been enough to mention the boy’s decent character and promise. 342 Diogenes said that men who talked about virtue and did not live rightly were like a lyre which was useful to others for its sound, but neither understood nor heard anything itself. This comment is not very different from St Paul’s saying about the tinkling cymbal.1 343 One day when the crowd was leaving the theatre, Diogenes was making his way in, pushing against the flow of people. When he was asked why he was doing it, he said, ‘This is what I aim to do in all my life.’ His point was that philosophy consisted of acting as far as possible in opposition to the crowd, because the mass of men are driven by desires not by reason. 344 When he caught sight of a very young man whose clothing and gestures were unmanly he said, ‘Aren’t you ashamed to choose something worse for ***** 341 (lxxviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.64. In margin ‘excessive praise‘ 1 This story treats Diogenes as if he were a regular teacher, like most of his philosophical peers. 342 (lxxix) Diogenes Laertius 6.64. In margin ‘teaching without moral application‘ 1 1 Cor 13:1. Cf 7.341 below. 343 (lx) Diogenes Laertius 6.64. In margin ‘nothing pleases the crowd for right reasons‘ 344 (lxxxi) Diogenes Laertius 6.65. This is another example of Diogenes’ notorious misogyny; see 3.266 n2 above. In margin ‘degeneracy‘

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yourself than nature intended for you? For Nature made you a man and you have remodelled yourself as a woman.’ This can be said against most men whom nature has made human but who of their own accord sink into being cattle. 345 When Diogenes saw a foolish singer of undisciplined lifestyle tuning his zither he said, ‘Aren’t you ashamed that you know how to make sounds harmonize with wood but don’t know how to tune your life to the right way of living?’ This apophthegm too seems to have been put together from earlier ones.1 346 He was urging someone to the pursuit of wisdom and the man said, ‘I am not suited to philosophy.’ ‘So why do you keep on living,’ he said, ‘if you’re not interest in living rightly?’ For a man does not live just to stay alive but to learn how to live. Nature gives us life, philosophy the right way of life.1 Nature begets men so they can learn virtue; she does not beget them already learned. 347 He said to a son who was expressing contempt for his father, ‘Aren’t you ashamed to despise the man to whom you owe your own self-satisfaction?’1 The elegance of the saying lies in the play of opposites; for being despised and pleased with oneself are contraries. 348 When he heard a young man of respectable appearance using disreputable language, he said, ‘Aren’t you ashamed to draw a leaden sword out of an ivory scabbard?’ ***** 345 (lxxxii) Diogenes Laertius 6.65. In margin ‘we neglect what is best‘ 1 Cf 3.179 above. 346 (lxxxiii) Diogenes Laertius 6.65. In margin ‘life without learning is death‘ 1 The usual form of the saying is ‘Parents give us life, teachers living aright.’ See 7.235 n1 below. For the marginal heading see Seneca Epistulae morales 82.3 ‘leisure without learning is death.’ 347 (lxxxiv) Diogenes Laertius 6.65. In margin ‘lack of respect for father‘ 1 This seems to be another ‘unexpected reply’ (see 3.136 above): he should be ashamed for despising the father to whom he owed – the very fact that he could feel superior. Cf Seneca De beneficiis 3.29. 348 (lxxxv) Diogenes Laertius 6.65. In margin ‘disreputable language‘

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For ivory was once very expensive. The mind is concealed by the body, but shines through the speech. 349 When someone made it a reproach to him that he drank in an inn, Diogenes said, ‘Yes, and I get shaved at a barber’s!’ His point was that it was no more dishonourable to drink than to have a haircut or shave. Just as nobody blames a man for being shaved at a barber’s, since that is the purpose of his shop, so it should not seem shameful to drink in an inn, if a man does it moderately. For to drink immoderately is shameful anywhere. 350 To a fellow who reproached him with accepting a cloak from King Philip, he answered with the Homeric verse: ‘The glorious gifts of gods should not be spurned.’1 What Homer said of physical beauty, which is a gift of the gods, Diogenes applied to the cloak given by the king. And I myself could chant the same line to those reproaching me because I sometimes accept gifts from princes or bishops that are presented to do me honour. There is no one from whom I have ever asked for a gift, either openly or indirectly; but what men freely bestow I gladly accept, less as gifts than as commendations, especially when their wealth is too great for them to feel the gift as a loss. 351 When Diogenes was speaking earnestly about avoiding anger, a certain rude young man, as if to test whether Diogenes could practise what he preached, spat in his face. He took it mildly and wisely: ‘I am not angry,’ he said, ‘but I am wondering whether I should be angry!’1 ***** 349 (lxxxvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.66. In margin ‘eating anywhere‘ 350 (lxxxvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.66 (where the gift is from Antipater). In margin ‘gifts of kings‘ 1 Iliad 3.65: Oátoi úpobl}t' \sti ye”vn \rikudŽa d™ra 351 (lxxxviii) Seneca De ira 3.38.1. In margin ‘mildness‘ 1 Both the motif of submitting to being spat at (see 3.106 above and 4.274 below) and resistance to anger (see 1.345 above and 7.155–6 below) are recurrent themes. Erasmus replaced Diogenes Laertius 6.66 with this anecdote, because Diogenes Laertius was here reporting on earlier story (see 3.225 above).

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352 Seeing someone entreating a courtesan to get what he desired he said, ‘What is it you want, you poor fool? It is better not to get what you are asking for.’ For it is happier to be sent away by a whore than to be invited in. Yet most men urgently solicit their own harm and pay a great price for it. 353 Diogenes said to a fellow with heavily perfumed hair oil: ‘Take care that the sweet odour of your head does not put your life in ill odour!’ We are trying to catch the neat resemblance of the Greek words eu¯odia ‘nice smell’ and dys¯odia ‘bad smell’ as best we can. Of course perfume in a man suggests effeminacy of behaviour, and a man’s repute is his perfume as it were. Martial said something similar: ‘Naevolus, a man doesn’t smell good, if he always smells good.’1 354 He said there was no difference between slaves and bad masters except their name; the slaves served their masters, the masters their lusts. He meant that both groups were slaves, but that the masters are more wretchedly enslaved than the slaves, if they are bad men. For a man led by the whim of his emotions has many masters, and they are both shameful and ruthless. 355 Greek calls slaves, especially runaways, andrapoda, a word apparently compounded of andra and pod- ‘man’ and ‘foot,’ though grammarians give a different etymology.1 So when a corrupt man asked Diogenes why runaway slaves were called andrapoda, he said, ‘Because they have the feet of men but a soul like yours who ask me this question.’ He meant that the other man too had the mind of a farm animal, not of a man. ***** 352 (lxxxix) Diogenes Laertius 6.66. In margin ‘consorting with whores‘ 353 (xc) Diogenes Laertius 6.66. In margin ‘perfumes‘ 1 Martial 2.12.4, but ‘Naevolus’ is in error for ‘Postumus.’ 354 (xci) Diogenes Laertius 6.66. In margin ‘slavery to vice‘ 355 (xcii) Diogenes Laertius 6.67. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 See eg Etymologicum magnum which, suggests derivations from words of similar sound meaning ‘exhibit’ or ‘man’ and ‘shackles,’ and says ‘they put shackles on because they run away.’ Also Suda A 2155, which suggests ‘man’ and ‘foot’: ‘because the foot is below the whole body as the slave is subject to his master.’ For slaves equated with farm animals see Aristotle Politics 1254b.

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356 Diogenes once tried to beg a whole mina from a spendthrift.1 The other was amazed at the outrageous demand and asked, ‘Why do you ask me for a whole mina when you usually ask others for an obol?’ Diogenes replied, ‘Because with other men I can hope that I will receive some money on another occasion, but “it lies in the lap of the gods” whether I will ever again get anything from you.’ He worked in this Homeric half-line,2 implying by it that a spendthrift was at risk of being soon reduced to penury, without even an obol left. 357 When some fellows reproached Diogenes with begging, since Plato did not do it, he said, ‘On the contrary, he begs too, but “with head up close so that no one else may hear.” ’ He mis-applied the Homeric verse, from the first book of the Odyssey,1 to indicate that Plato was no less prone to begging, except that he begged discreetly, whereas Diogenes did it openly. 358 When he saw someone hurling the javelin incompetently, he sat next to the target and when he was asked why, replied, ‘So that he won’t accidentally hit me.’ He was implying that the man would hit anything rather than the target, but the other spectators put themselves as far as possible from the target so as not to be struck. 359 Men who miss the target are commonly said in Greek atuxein, that is, ‘to fail.’ But Diogenes said men did not fail by missing the target, but by making pleasures the target of their endeavours. They hope for happiness from pleasures, whereas they are brought by them to utmost wretchedness. ***** 356 (xciii) Diogenes Laertius 6.67. In margin ‘extravagance‘ 1 This was an extravagant demand, since one mina was six hundred obols, more than a craftsman’s annual wage. 2 Eg Homer Iliad 17.514, Odyssey 1.267: ye™n \n goœnasi ke”tai. See Adagia ii viii 58: In quinque iudicum genibus situm est ‘It lies on the knees of five judges.’ 357 (xciv) Diogenes Laertius 6.67. In margin ‘concealed begging‘ 1 Odyssey 1.157, also 4.70. ‘Odyssey 1’ was added in 1535. In the original context, the goddess Athena whispers to Telemachos. See 3.283 n1 above. 358 (xcv) Diogenes Laertius 6.68. Adagia ii vi 78: nec propius ferire ‘Nowhere near the mark.’ In margin ‘humorous‘ 359 (xcvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.68. In margin ‘pleasure‘

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360 Asked once whether death was a misfortune, he said, ‘How can it be a misfortune when we do not notice its presence?’ For what is not present is a misfortune to nobody. While a man is conscious, he is alive, so death is not present; for if it were, there would be no consciousness. And what cannot be perceived is no misfortune. Some attribute this argument to Epicurus. Indeed death is not a bad thing, but the approach to death is wretched.1 If we fear that, what else is a man’s whole life except the approach to death?2 361 They say Alexander the Great stood by Diogenes and asked him if he was afraid of him. But Diogenes said, ‘What are you? A good thing or a bad one?’ Alexander answered that he was good. ‘Well then,’ said Diogenes, ‘who is afraid of a good thing?’ He demonstrated that a king was not to be feared unless he declared himself to be a bad thing. By the same syllogism he could deduce that God was not to be feared either. 362 He recommended learning to everyone with the claim that it brought young men sobriety, old men comfort, poor men wealth, and rich men adornment: for it controlled youth, which was naturally at risk and kept it from excesses, it softened the discomforts of old age with an honourable consolation, it was as good as resources for the poor, since men who have been instructed do not feel need, and it adorned the wealth of the rich. 363 Didymon, who was commonly thought of as an adulterer, was treating a maiden’s eye. Diogenes said to him, ‘See you don’t harm the pupil.’1 This witticism loses its charm in Latin. For in Greek the word kor¯e means both a maiden and the pupil of the eye. So Diogenes was exploiting the double meaning. ***** 360 (xcvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.68. In margin ‘is death an evil?‘ 1 Diogenes Laertius 10.125. See also Plutarch Moralia 110a (Consolation to Apollonius), said by Arcesilaus 2 Seneca Dialogues 11.11.2 (Ad Polybium de consolatione) 361 (xcviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.68. In margin ‘neat‘ 362 (xcix) Diogenes Laertius 6.68. In margin ‘learning‘ 363 (c) Diogenes Laertius 6.68. In margin ‘joke depending on ambiguity‘ 1 The seducer Didymos (sic) is identified as a flute-player at 3.276 n1 above, though this anecdote suggests he was a doctor.

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364 After someone warned him that he should be careful because his friends were laying a trap for him, Diogenes said, ‘What are you to do if we have to associate with friends and enemies on the same terms?’ For we protect ourselves from enemies but trust our friends. But if we must protect ourselves equally from both, life is just not pleasant. 365 When asked what was best in life, he said, ‘Freedom.’ But a man is not truly free who is a slave to vices, nor can a man be free who feels the need of many things: the miser, the ambitious man, and one given to indulgence feel the need of a great many things.1 366 Once the Muses used to be painted in schools as presiding over studies. So when he entered a school and saw many Muses but few pupils, he said to the teacher, ‘If the gods are with you, you have a lot of pupils.’1 He was playing on the ambiguity of the phrase, for the Greeks say ‘with the gods’ when we would say ‘with the gods’ good favour.’ Greek syn, ‘with,’ also means ‘together with’; for instance ‘I with many others defended you’ means ‘many defended you together with me.’ 367 Diogenes used to say that whatever was not inherently shameful was not shameful even in public. This is how he argued the point: ‘If it is not bad to dine, then it is not bad to dine in the market-place; but there is nothing bad about dining, so it cannot be bad to dine in the market-place either.’1 One could endure the Cynic syllogism this far, but who would put up with his inferring in the same way that to evacuate or urinate or copulate with one’s wife or undress is not bad, therefore it is not bad in public either. For decent men like modesty everywhere. ***** 364 (i) Diogenes Laertius 6.68. In margin ‘friends to be trusted‘ 365 (ii) Diogenes Laertius 6.69. In margin ‘freedom‘ 1 Misled by Traversari (see Introduction xvi–xvii), Erasmus has taken ‘freedom’ wrongly. In Laertius it is ‘freedom of speech.’ 366 (iii) Diogenes Laertius 6.69. In margin ‘joke depending on ambiguity‘ 1 Cf the anecdote about Stratonicus at 6.482 below. 367 (iv) Diogenes Laertius 6.69. In margin ‘what is shameful is shameful everywhere‘ 1 See 3.310 and 3.363 n1 above.

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When he had ‘plied his hand’ in public in full sight of everyone, he said, ‘If only one could satisfy one’s hunger by rubbing one’s belly like this.’ He knew that agitation of the body brought on a desire to evacuate and he wanted to be free from that necessity. Scholars likewise find it very annoying to be called away from their books by the demands of nature.2 368 Diogenes used to say that practice and exercise produced both speed and ease in mental and moral, just as in physical, performance. 369 He said there was no law without a community and no community without the law. 370 He said that nobility and other similar kinds of ornaments of fortune were nothing but cloaks of vice. For rich men are no better than others, but they sin with less restraint, as Horace says about the wealthy man: ‘and whatever he wants, this he hopes will bring him great repute, as if it were achieved by virtue.’1 In fact nobles generally allow themselves every kind of indulgence even nowadays. 371 When he was a slave of Xeniades, his friends discussed ransoming him, but he said, ‘Not at all. Don’t you know that lions do not serve the men who feed them, but rather their trainers serve the lions.’ For a lion is a lion wherever he is. 372 After he was woken from a deathly sleep and the doctor asked ‘How are things?’ he said, ‘Fine; one brother is embracing another,’ alluding to Homer ***** 2 This paragraph occurs only in 1531 and 1532. Erasmus omitted it in 1535, no doubt realizing its indecency. His comment suggests that he had missed the point earlier, but see 3.245 n2 above. 368 (v) Diogenes Laertius 6.70; Erasmus gives the gist of the whole paragraph. 369 (vi) Diogenes Laertius 6.72 370 (vii) Diogenes Laertius 6.72. In margin ‘gifts of fortune‘ 1 Cf Horace Satires 2.3.98–9. 371 (viii) Diogenes Laertius 6.75. In margin ‘freedom‘ 372 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 107e–f (Consolation to Apollonius). Erasmus now has a run of extracts mainly from Plutarch. In margin ‘humour in face of death‘

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who made ‘death’ and ‘sleep’ brothers, because sleep is the semblance of death.1 373 Asked how he wanted to be buried, he told them to throw away his body without burial. Then his friends said, ‘What, for the birds and beasts to eat?’ ‘Not at all,’ he said, ‘put a stick beside me for me to drive them away.’ They answered, ‘How can you, since you won’t be conscious?’ ‘Well then,’ he said, ‘what harm will the mauling of wild beasts do to me, if I’m not aware of anything?’ 374 When Plato was praising someone because he was very kind to everyone, Diogenes said, ‘What kind of tribute should we pay to the man who has spent so many years in philosophy and caused no man any grief?’1 He meant that the proper role of philosophy was to heal men’s vices, but this could not be done without fear and grief, that is, fear of shame and grief at present humiliation. 375 Once seeing a stranger in Sparta who was earnestly preparing for a holy day he said, ‘What are you doing? Isn’t any day a holy day for a good man?’ He felt that this world was a shrine worthy of god, and once man was set in it he should always behave honourably as if in the sight of all-seeing God. He adapted to this situation the proverb ‘For lazy men it is always a feast day.’1 376 Diogenes used to say to young men, ‘Go into courtesans’ houses to see what worthless creatures are bought at so great a price.’ ***** 1 Iliad 14.231 (focused on sleep) or 16.682 (focused on death). 373 (x) Cicero Tusculan Disputations 1.104. There are various versions of this; see eg Diogenes Laertius 6.79. See 3.187n above, for Diogenes’ indifference regarding his burial. In margin ‘burial‘ 374 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 452d (On moral virtue). In margin ‘leniency bad‘ 1 Cf 1.137 and 1.138 above. 375 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 477c (On tranquillity of mind). In margin ‘every day a holy day for the wise man‘ 1 Adagia ii vi 12: Ignavis semper feriae sunt ‘For sluggards it is always holiday’ 376 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 5c (The education of children). In margin ‘whores‘

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Terence refers to this: ‘To know all this is salvation to young men.’1 377 Diogenes said that for our salvation we need either loyal friends or fierce enemies, because the ones advise and the others speak bluntly to us. So both groups benefit us in different ways but to the same degree, since we learn our faults through them. Laertius credits this to Antisthenes, but Plutarch to Diogenes.1 378 Asked by someone how he could best be revenged on an enemy, Diogenes said, ‘If you show yourself to be a good and honourable man.’ For the man who does this does himself most good and gives his enemy most torment. If an enemy is tormented by seeing a farm well cultivated, what will he feel if he sees you yourself adorned with real good qualities? 379 When Diogenes went to see Antisthenes lying sick, he said, ‘Do you have any need of a friend?’ He meant that in suffering one should make use of loyal friends who can either help materially or by consoling soften the discomfort. 380 On another occasion when he heard that Antisthenes was enduring his illness badly from love of life, he went in with a dagger, and when Antisthenes said, ‘Who will free me from these agonies?’ Diogenes held out the dagger and said, ‘This will do it.’ Antisthenes retorted, ‘I said from agonies, not from life.’ ***** 1 See Parmeno’s speech in Terence Eunuchus 50–70. 377 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 74c (How to tell a flatterer), 82a (Progress in virtue). In margin ‘reprimand‘ 1 Diogenes Laertius 6.12 (Antisthenes on enemies, see 7.93 below); see also Plutarch Moralia 89b (How to profit by one’s enemies, Antisthenes on friends and enemies). 378 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 87b (How to profit by one’s enemies). In margin ‘the best revenge‘ 379 (xvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.18. In margin ‘a friend a consoler‘ 380 (xvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.18. In margin ‘death releases from torment‘

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381 He went to Corinth and entered the school which Dionysius had opened when he was driven into exile, and heard the boys singing badly. Meanwhile Dionysius came in and thinking Diogenes had come to comfort him, said, ‘You are very kind, Diogenes. This is the way human lives are turned upside down.’ ‘No I’m not,’ said Diogenes, ‘in fact I am amazed you are still alive, after committing so many evils in your monarchy, and I see you are no better as a schoolmaster than you were as a king.’1 382 Diogenes also used to say, ‘For other mortals, life is pleasant and death odious if all is well with them; but if they are unfortunate, life is a burden and death desirable.1 But tyrants experience the misery of both situations: on the one hand their lives are more unpleasant than those of the people who long for death, while at the same time they fear death as much as if they lived a delightful life. 383 When someone showed him a clock, he said, ‘By Jove, a fine instrument to make sure we don’t miss dinner.’ He felt that the mathematical disciplines were useless like all the others.1 384 Another fellow boasted of his expertise in music, so Diogenes replied: ***** 381 (xviii) Cf Plutarch Moralia 783d (Old men in public affairs) and Timoleon 15 8– 9, but these are not the precise source here. In margin ‘the evil man is evil wherever he is‘ 1 It was a notorious reverse of fortune that the Sicilian despot Dionysius ii (the younger Dionysius) supposedly went to Corinth in exile and supported himself by school teaching. See 7.152 below; Adagia i i 83: Dionysius Corinthi ‘Dionysius in Corinth.’ 382 (xix) Dio Chrysostom 6.46–7 (On kingship). This and the six following sayings were added in 1535. 1 A common sentiment; cf Publilius Syrus (Meyer 438): o vita misero longa, felici brevis; Seneca Controversiae 7.3; Stobaeus 121.34 (Meineke iv 119). 383 (xx) Diogenes Laertius 6.104 1 The Cynics cancelled geometry, astronomy, music, and such like disciplines (Diogenes Laertius 6.73, 104) 384 (xxi) Diogenes Laertius 6.104

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‘By wisdom are cities governed well, And a house also – not by tunes and twanging strings.’1

385 When Speusippus was paralysed and was brought into the Academy in a carriage, he met Diogenes by chance and said, ‘I wish you well.’ Diogenes replied, ‘But I don’t wish you well, when you are so badly afflicted and can bear to live.’ He felt it was the act of a real philosopher to bring on his own death once he ceased to be useful to human life. And Speusippus actually did this later. 386 When he saw a boy behaving badly he struck his attendant with a stick, saying, ‘Why do you train him like this?’ He wanted to show that it depends on those who shape children’s first years whether they grow up into young men with bad morals or otherwise. Aphthonius and Priscian report this.1 387 When someone reproached him with poverty to insult him, though the man himself was criminal, Diogenes said, ‘I have not seen anyone tortured for poverty, but many for vice.’1 ***** 1 See 3.383 above. Diogenes as usual adapts well-known verse to fit his purpose. For the original see Nauck tgf 419, Euripides Antiope 200.1–2 where the second line ends ‘and it is mighty too in war.’ 385 (xxii) Diogenes Laertius 4.3. Speusippus succeeded Plato as head of the Academy 347–339 bc. 386 (xxiii) Aphthonius and Hermogenes 3.63 and 3.19, Priscian 2.8 (see n1). 1 Cf Plutarch Moralia 439e (Can virtue be taught) where Diogenes catches the boy eating candy and beats his escort. This is a chreia demonstrating speech combined with action, given as an example by Aphthonius and Hermogenes Progymnasmata 3.63 and 3.19 (Spengel ii 23 and 6). See also Quintilian 1.9.5. For Priscian, see his Praeexercitamina 2.8 (K. Halm ed Rhetores Latini minores [Leipzig 1863] 552). This was a Latin version of Hermogenes Progymnasmata, written about ad 500. Aphthonius (fourth century ad) made an abridgment (in Greek) of Hermogenes and this was adapted into Latin by Rodolphus Agricola and others. 387 (xxiv) Stobaeus 95.12 (Meineke iii 199). In margin ‘poverty‘ 1 For the general sentiment ‘poverty is no crime,’ originating with Pericles in Thucydides 2.40, see Plutarch Moralia 533a (On false shame) and 822e (Precepts of statecraft).

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388 Diogenes called poverty ‘self-taught’ virtue. For rich men need many rules to make them live decently, exercise their bodies by hard work, not delight in showy adornment of the person, and countless other things, all of which poverty teaches of itself.1 To the Spartans who rightly win first prize in the matter of Apophthegms, I have appended three philosophers, each exceptional of their kind, to whom I will now add just three kings who are most famous for their civilized sayings, so as not to crush the reader with a mass of material.

***** 388 (xxv) Stobaeus 95.19 (Meineke iii 200) 1 This again is a commonly expressed sentiment. A similar saying is attributed to Xenocles: Stobaeus Florilegium Monacense 220 (Meineke iv 285).

BOOK IV

In my opinion there has never been a king of the Greeks to match Philip, king of Macedon, the father of Alexander, in either the adroitness of his mind or the wit of his sayings. [Philip of Macedon] 1 Philip used to say he thought the Athenians very fortunate to find ten men to appoint as generals every year,1 because he had only found one real general in many years, and that was Parmenion.2 He meant that it was pointless for the state to keep changing leaders, and far better not to change the man you had found to be capable and loyal. Moreover in warfare it did not matter how many leaders there were, only how fit they were to conduct the war. ***** In this book Erasmus returns to Plutarch, this time selecting the most prominent figures from Sayings of kings and commanders (Moralia 172b and following). Omitting Plutarch’s reported sayings of Persian kings and Sicilian tyrants (to which he will return in book v) he begins book iv with Philip ii of Macedon. 1

(i) Plutarch Moralia 177c Sayings of kings and commanders. In margin ‘don’t change a good man when you’ve got one‘ In his long rule (382–336 bc) Philip took control of mainland Greece by a mixture of diplomacy and conquest, defeating Thebes and Athens at the battle of Chaeronea in 338 bc. See General Index: battles. 1 The Athenian democracy had its ten tribes elect ten generals each year, though not all of them would serve on campaign rather than acting as presiding magistrates in the city. 2 Parmenion was Philip’s most powerful and effective military commander and continued in that role under Alexander after him.

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2 When the news was brought to him of many successes obtained on one day (for he had won the four horse chariot race at Olympia, and Parmenion had defeated the Dardanians in battle, and Olympias had born him a male child)1 Philip stretched out his arms to the heavens and said ‘Fortune, in return for these great blessings, inflict some trivial misfortune upon me!’ Shrewd as he was, he did not become over-excited by his material success, but was wary of Fortune’s indulgence. He knew her tendency to beguile with new success the men she was planning to destroy. The story told by Pliny about Polycrates of Samos is a case in point.2 3 When Philip had conquered the Greeks, and some counsellors advised him to control the cities with garrisons so that they would not rebel, he replied, ‘I would rather be called good and tolerant for many years than master for a brief moment.’ He felt that rule maintained by kindnesses and goodwill was long lasting, but one depending on force and intimidation was short-lived. 4 There was an insolent fellow who used to hurl abuse at Philip, so that the king’s companions urged him to send the man into exile. But he surprised them by refusing. When they asked him why, he said, ‘I don’t want him to wander around abusing me to a lot more people.’ Not having the slanderer crucified could be seen as clemency if he forgave him, or nobility of spirit if he thought him beneath notice, but not sending him into exile was an act of prudence. For he would have done Philip a lot more harm. ***** 2

(ii) Plutarch Moralia 177c. In margin ‘fortune’s spite‘ 1 ‘(for he had won . . . child)’ was added 1535 from Plutarch Moralia 105a–b (Consolation to Apollonius). For Parmenion see 4.1 n1 above. 2 The tale of the tyrant Polycrates of Samos in Pliny Naturalis historia 37.3–4 is based on Herodotus 3.41–2. Polycrates was so disturbed by his own good fortune that he tried to counter it by throwing his favourite ring into the sea, but it was returned by a fisherman who found it in a fish he had caught. Polycrates took this as a sign that the gods would bring about his downfall. After surviving an unsuccessful popular revolt (see 1.216 and n1 above) he was lured into a trap by the Persian satrap Oroetes, who had him crucified. Cf Aemilius Paulus’ remark, 5.322 below.

3

(iii) Plutarch Moralia 177c–d. In margin ‘fear a poor guarantee of permanence‘

4

(iv) Plutarch Moralia 177d. In margin ‘the abuser scorned‘

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5 Smicythus kept reporting to the king that Nicanor incessantly spoke ill of him, and when Philip’s friends urged him to have Nicanor arrested and punished, Philip replied, ‘Nicanor is not the worst of the Macedonians, so we must be careful in case we are neglecting our duty in some respect.’ So when the king discovered that Nicanor was suffering dreadful poverty but he had overlooked giving him any relief, he ordered the man to be given a gift of some kind. After this when Smicythus reported that Nicanor was incessantly uttering Philip’s praises to everyone, Philip said, ‘You see, it depends on us whether we are well or ill spoken of.’ How appallingly far from the behaviour of this ruler are those men who never think they have been praised enough although they are doing nothing that deserves praise, men who make no effort to win men’s goodwill by kindnesses, but prefer to be feared rather than loved. Indeed they often behave abominably, and quite blatantly, and yet anyone who dares to utter a word is done for. 6 Philip used to say he felt very grateful to Athenian politicians because their abuse had made him improve in both eloquence and character, ‘as I tried to prove them liars both by my words and by my deeds.’ This king truly had a philosophical nature, in knowing how to derive benefit even from his enemies. Instead of behaving like most people, who aim only to harm those who abuse them, he aimed to improve himself, taking warning from their abuse. 7 Philip had released all the Athenians captured at Chaeronea without asking a ransom, yet they asked for the return of their clothes and bedding and wanted to sue the Macedonians for them. Philip laughed, saying, ‘What next? It looks as if the Athenians imagine they’ve lost to us at a game of dice, doesn’t it?’ ***** 5

(v) Plutarch Moralia 177d. Neither Smicythus or this Nicanor are otherwise known. In margin ‘it depends on us whether we are well spoken of‘

6

(vi) Plutarch Moralia 177e. In margin ‘the abuser useful‘ Demosthenes made his reputation as an orator by denouncing Philip’s aggressive intentions towards Athens, and was followed by other Athenian politicians such as Demochares (4.35 below). Philip saw this as an opportunity to profit from his enemies (the subject of a Plutarch essay much used by Erasmus.)

7

(vii) Plutarch Moralia 177e. See 4.1 n1 above. In margin ‘ingratitude tolerated‘

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Such was the restraint with which he, as victor, bore the ingratitude of the defeated, although they did not thank him for letting them go free and unharmed, but even charged him with not returning their clothes and bedding as well, as though they did not know the code of war, and as if competing in battle was no different from competing in a children’s game like dice. 8 When Philip broke his collar-bone in battle and the doctor who was treating him asked for something new each day, he said, ‘Take as much as you want, for you are in charge of my key.’ He was playing on words, for Greek kleis means both a key to open a desk or door, and the link between the shoulder and the chest.1 What could be more modest than this attitude, in a man ready to joke while in pain and facing a greedy doctor. The pain did not spoil his good humour nor did the shamelessness of the demands make him lose his temper. 9 There were two brothers, one called Amphoteros, which is the Greek for ‘both,’ the other called Hekateros, which in their language is ‘either.’ Philip noticed that Either was clever and adaptable whereas Both was clumsy and incompetent, so he altered their names, saying, ‘Either is Both, and Both is Neither.’1 He meant that one brother, Hekateros (Either), possessed the virtues of both, so that nothing was left to the other. So he changed the name of the one called Amphoteros (Both) to its opposite, that is, he was called Oudeteros (Neither) meaning that he was worthless. 10 When his advisers encouraged him to treat the Athenians more harshly, he answered that it was unreasonable to urge a man who did and suffered everything for glory to throw away an opportunity of parading his glory for all to see. He meant that his purpose was not to destroy Athens, but to win approval for his virtues from a famous city rich with an abundance of most learned men. ***** 8

(viii) Plutarch Moralia 177f. In margin ‘joking in illness‘ 1 The collar-bone is similarly clavicula ‘small key’ in Latin, clavicle in English.

9

(ix) Plutarch Moralia 177f. In margin ‘joke based on wordplay‘ 1 Phrase from the translation by W. Hinton ‘The Apophthegms or Remarkable Sayings of Kings and Great Commanders’ in William W. Goodwin (corr and rev) Plutarch’s Morals 5 vols (Boston 1878) i 195.

10

(x) Plutarch Moralia 178a. In margin ‘clemency‘

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11 Two equally vicious men were bandying mutual accusations when Philip was acting as judge. After hearing the case he gave the verdict that ‘one should be exiled from Macedonia and the other should pursue him.’ This sounds more amusing in Greek because the verb phugein means both to run away and to be exiled, and when someone runs away we pursue him. So Philip acquitted neither man but condemned both to exile.1 12 When he was preparing to pitch camp in a fine situation and someone warned him that there was no fodder for the pack animals, he said, ‘What sort of life is this, if we have to live to suit even the convenience of donkeys?’ 13 Once he was determined to capture a heavily fortified citadel and its garrison, but his scouts reported that it was utterly difficult, indeed impossible. Then Philip asked whether it was so steep that not even a donkey loaded with gold could enter. He was hinting that no place was so well fortified that it could not be stormed with gold. This is what the poets meant by the myth of Dana¨e seduced by Jupiter, when the god turned himself into gold. Hence Horace’s ‘gold delights to pass through the midst of bodyguards and break through camps more powerfully than steel.’1 14 When the supporters of Lasthenes1 complained indignantly that some of Philip’s escort called them traitors, Philip retorted, ‘Macedonians are obviously unsophisticated peasants, who don’t know any name for a spade but a spade.’ He was alluding to the famous proverb ‘calling figs figs and tubs tubs.’2 ***** 11

(xi) Plutarch Moralia 178a. In margin ‘witty judgment‘ 1 The joke is that the Greek verbs also mean ‘stand trial’ and ‘accuse.’

12

(xii) Plutarch Moralia 178a. In margin ‘a wretched sort of campaign‘

13

(xiii) Plutarch Moralia 178b. In margin ‘nothing that cannot be stormed with gold‘ 1 For Dana¨e enclosed in a tower but impregnated by Zeus in the form of a shower of gold and the moral, see Horace Odes 3.16, 1–11 (misquoted, saxa potentius / ictu fulmineo)

14

(xiv) Plutarch Moralia 178b. In margin ‘truth‘ 1 The Olynthian Lasthenes betrayed his city to Philip: cf Plutarch Moralia 97d (On chance). 2 cpg 2 Apostolius 15.95b, 16.10; quoted in Adagia ii iii 5: Ficus ficus, ligonem ligonem vocat ‘He calls figs figs and a spade a spade.’ See also Apostolius 1.24a

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He implied of course that the men really were traitors, for peasant truthfulness calls everything by its own name. 15 Philip used to advise his son Alexander to keep on friendly terms with the Macedonians, so as to win strength and power by acquiring general goodwill while someone else was ruling and he could still afford to be humane. He realized that nothing so sustained authority as the goodwill of citizens: but it was very difficult for anyone exercising a monarchy to be humane with all and sundry, not only because royal power is exposed to jealousy, but because a state cannot remain unharmed unless crimes are disciplined by punishment. So kings must dilute their humanity towards their citizens enough to preserve their royal authority. For too much kindness often breeds contempt.1 16 He also advised his son to make friends of men influential in the state, whether good or bad, and to employ the good, but exploit the bad. It is a special art of kingship not to reject anyone but to adapt all men’s services to the public good. Just as God, the sole monarch of the world, makes use of evil spirits and impious men for the benefit of the church, so clever rulers know how to employ both good and evil men, not to do harm by means of the wicked, but to make use of them as instruments to punish other wicked men. But there are many rulers who perversely exploit the good and employ the bad. They use men renowned for holiness to implement tyrannical decisions so that the crowd may believe that what they do is good and pious. 17 When Philip was a hostage in Thebes, he enjoyed the hospitality of Philon ***** ‘I’m a peasant calling a tub a tub.’ Erasmus is responsible for the well-known ‘spade’ version. See cwe 33 384. 15

(xv) Plutarch Moralia 178b. In margin ‘benevolence on the part of kings‘ 1 See 1.219 above

16

(xvi) Plutarch Moralia 178c. A further illustration of how to make use of one’s enemies; cf 4.6 above. Erasmus presents his own Christian version in which God, being almighty, makes use of the devil and wicked men for the benefit of the Church. In margin ‘use the good, exploit the bad‘

17

(xvii) Plutarch Moralia 178c. In margin ‘beneficence‘

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of Thebes and received many kindnesses at his hands.1 When Philon would not take any gifts from Philip in return, Philip said, ‘Don’t outdo me in generosity and deprive me of my glory that, until now, I have never been outdone by any man in kindnesses.’ This was a spirit worthy to rule! He thought it nobler to win by kindness than by power. 18 When many prisoners of war were up for sale Philip was sitting at the auction with his cloak embarrassingly hitched up. Then one of the prisoners being sold cried out, ‘Pardon me, Philip, for I am a friend of your father.’ When Philip asked him, ‘How is that? What was the origin of this friendship?’ he said, ‘I would like to come closer and tell you.’ So he was allowed to approach and as if telling a secret, he said, ‘Pull down your cloak a little, because the way you are sitting now is not decent.’ Then Philip said, ‘Let this man go free, for I did not realize he was truly a friend and well-wisher.’ Such a great king was not offended by either the deception or the advice of a stranger, but covered up his deception by a reciprocal deception, and rewarded this small service with the great prize of liberty. 19 Once he was invited to dinner by a guest-friend, and brought with him as uninvited guests several men he happened to meet on the way.1 When he realized the host was upset because the food prepared was not enough for so many, he sent a slave round the guests individually in advance to urge them to save space for the cake;2 they obediently ate very little while they waited for the cake and so the dinner was sufficient to go round them all. ***** 1 This was probably in 369–367 bc when Macedonia was in danger of dissolution through civil war and foreign invasion, some years before his accession to the throne. 18

(xviii) Plutarch Moralia 178c–d. Erasmus’ comment does not condemn the mild deception, but praises Philip for using his own pretence to endorse the tactful subterfuge of the prisoner of war. There is a similar praise of deception in 4.19 below. In margin ‘welcome admonition‘

19

(xix) Plutarch Moralia 178d–e. In margin ‘civilized deception‘ 1 Erasmus has mistranslated: Philip was invited while on the road and the men were part of his retinue, not random travellers he met on the way. 2 Plakous in Greek, placenta in Latin. It was served at the dessert stage of the meal. The recipe given in Cato De agricultura 76 suggests that the Roman version was substantial (and filling), consisting of alternate layers of pastry and sheep’s cheese mixed with honey.

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By this witty jest he both deceived his friends and relieved his host’s embarrassment. 20 When Hipparchus of Euboea died, Philip showed how bitterly he grieved over his death. So when someone wanted to console his grief and said, ‘But his death was timely, when he was already old,’ Philip replied, ‘Yes, timely for him, but premature for me: for death took him too soon, before he had received a kindness from me worthy of our friendship.’1 It is very rare that a prince feels the emotion of gratitude; instead they mostly treat their friends like horses, caring for them while they are useful, but discarding them when they grow useless. Indeed they strip them rather than help them by favours. 21 When Philip heard that his son Alexander was complaining that his father had children by many women, he encouraged him in these terms: ‘Since you have many rivals to the throne, take care to grow up honourable and virtuous, so that it will be clear that you won the throne not through me but through your own qualities.’1 With truly royal prudence Philip did not comfort his son but increased his anxiety so as to stimulate him to virtue. He showed him that he could not hope for his father’s kingdom unless he proved himself worthy of the succession, and that it was less glorious to obtain the throne than to deserve it. 22 He also urged Alexander to pay attention to Aristotle, who had been entrusted with teaching him, and devote himself to philosophy, ‘so that you will not make the many mistakes which I now regret making.’ This excellent prince realized that no man ignorant of philosophy was fit for ruling, and was not ashamed to admit that he had made many mis***** 20

(xx) Plutarch Moralia 178e. In margin ‘gratitude‘ 1 Hipparchus was made tyrant of Eretria in Euboea in 343 bc, no doubt in return for bringing his city under Macedonian control, and died soon after 342 bc.

21

(xxi) Plutarch Moralia 178e–f. This and the next item form one unit in Plutarch, who tells the same story in his Life of Alexander 9. In margin ‘kingship to be sought by virtue‘ 1 Philip divorced Olympias, the mother of Alexander, in 337 and married Cleopatra, daughter of one of his generals. In the disruption that followed, Alexander went into temporary exile in Illyria. Of Philip’s many other wives, one was named Phila, possibly the sister of Machaetes in 4.24 below.

22

(xxii) See 4.21 above. In margin ‘philosophy necessary for a king‘

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takes because he had not been steeped from earliest childhood1 in the precepts of philosophy. For men who learn to run a kingdom by trial and error, however talented their nature, still become good kings only late and at great cost to the state. But the man who comes to the throne prepared by philosophy, if he has a sound mind, can hardly stray from what is honourable. So where are those who insist that the study of literature and philosophy is quite useless for governing the state? 23 Philip had enrolled one of Antipater’s friends in the panel of judges. But later when he found out that he dyed his beard and hair he disqualified him, saying that a man not trustworthy about his hair did not seem fit to be trusted in public life. The man used deception in dying his hair where little profit was involved, so he was much more likely to use deception in public business, where fraud sometimes brings a huge profit. This should be the special concern of kings, to set men of integrity to judge cases. How can this happen when the position of judge is for sale and a judge is appointed not because he is a better man but because he is quicker or more lavish in bribery? But with Philip not even Antipater’s authority was strong enough to prevent him demoting a dubious figure from the rank of judge. 24 Philip was on the bench to hear the case of Machaetes, but he was sleepy and did not pay enough attention to the rights of the case and so found against him. But when Machaetes cried out that he would appeal against the verdict the king said angrily, ‘To whom?’ For kings hate the word ‘appeal.’ Then Machaetes said, ‘To you yourself, King, if you will rouse yourself and listen with more attention to my case.’ At the time the king simply adjourned the court, but after he had weighed up the case more carefully in his mind, and realized Machaetes had been wronged, he did not rescind his decision, but he personally paid the fine imposed on Machaetes. ***** 1 Adagia i vii 52: A teneris unguiculis ‘Since the time their nails were soft.’ 23

(xxiii) Plutarch Moralia 178f. The story is also told by Aelian Varia historia 7.20 about Archidamus of Sparta instead of Antipater. For Antipater see 2.52 n1 above. In margin ‘a sham not to be trusted‘

24

(xxiv) Plutarch Moralia 178f–9a. A similar tale is told at 4.31 below of the old woman’s retort when Philip did not want to be bothered with hearing her case. In margin ‘an attentive judge‘

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How many demonstrations of royal excellence there are in this one action! He did not persist in his anger against a man who had challenged him and publicly accused him of sleeping, but considered the matter more carefully when he was at leisure and his anger had subsided. Let that be credited to him as royal restraint and moderation; it was a mark of shrewdness to relieve the man of his penalty by a clever contrivance so as not to undermine his own royal authority as a judge, paying the fine privately as if he himself had been found liable. 25 Philip’s friends were angry at the Peloponnesians for jeering and hissing at him at the Olympic games, especially since they had received particular favours from the king, saying this to make Philip retaliate. But he said, ‘So how will they behave if we actually do them any harm?’ Philip wittily turned around his friends’ argument: If they are so depraved that they jeer at those who have treated them well, they will do even worse harm if anyone provokes them with mistreatment. It was proof not merely of restraint and clemency but of exceptional nobility of spirit that the king ignored the hisses of these ungrateful men. 26 When Crates, a friend and kinsman of Harpalus, was accused of wrongdoing, Harpalus asked Philip to let the defendant pay the fine but acquit him, since if he was condemned he would be exposed to insult and abuse. Then Philip said, ‘It is better for him to be spoken ill of than for us to be maligned on his account.’ He was indulgent to his friends but only as far as was compatible with his reputation as an honest judge. 27 When he woke up after sleeping for a long time on campaign, he said, ‘It was safe for me to sleep because Antipater was awake.’ ***** 25

(xxv) Plutarch Moralia 179a–b. In margin ‘affable‘

26

(xxvi) Plutarch Moralia 179a. In margin ‘a strict judge‘ Harpalus, a Macedonian noble, was later a friend of Alexander the Great, and put in charge of the central treasuries of Alexander’s empire, which he used to fund a lavish lifestyle. Alexander’s return from the east forced him to flee. He eventually reached Athens, where he engaged in political bribery. (See 4.358 below.) He then fled to Crete with a mercenary army, where he was murdered. This Crates seems to be otherwise unknown. (xxvii) Plutarch Moralia 179b. For Antipater see 2.52 n1 above. In margin ‘a wakeful officer‘

27

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He was hinting that a king should not indulge in sleep, especially during a war, but that this sometimes incurred no danger if the king had a trusty and wakeful officer in command. Thus he combined excusing his own sleepiness and praising his friend. 28 On another occasion when Philip was sleeping in the daytime, the many Greeks who had come to his door resented it and reproached the king because they were not instantly admitted to confer with him because of his need to sleep. Parmenion defended the king by saying, ‘Don’t be surprised if Philip is sleeping now, for when you were sleeping he stayed awake.’1 What he meant was that when the Greeks were not giving sufficient thought to the conduct of their affairs, Philip had served as a protection to them. 29 Witty as he was, he was also delighted by other men’s witty sayings. So when he wanted to criticize a singer at dinner and was talking about plucking the strings, the singer said, ‘May the gods forbid, Sire, that you know more about this than I do.’1 This was a courteous way of asserting his professional judgment without offending the king, by declaring him too good to dispute about lyreplaying with a player. 30 He also took calmly quite sharp remarks, provided that they were timely. For when he was quarrelling with his wife Olympias and his son Alexander, Demaratus the Corinthian came to see him and he asked him how relations ***** 28

(xxviii) Plutarch Moralia 179b. In margin ‘sleep excused‘ 1 A similar anecdote is told about Alexander in Plutarch’s Life of Alexander 31. Both Philip and Alexander were heavy drinkers and often had to sleep it off. This is often glossed over in the anecdotes, (see 4.99) but see 6.380 and 8.62 below. For Parmenion see 5.113 n1 below.

29

(xxix) Plutarch Moralia 179b. Cf Plutarch Moralia 67f (How to tell a flatterer) and 334c–d (On the fortune of Alexander). Plutarch cites many of the same type of sayings in this essay and the Apophthegmata. In margin ‘the craftsman to judge the craft‘ 1 Greek citharoedes accompanied their own song on the lyre. Erasmus has missed the nuance of the Greek: ‘Sire, may you never fare so badly that you know this sort of thing better than I.’ Cf 4.32 and 6.454 below.

30

(xxx) Plutarch Moralia 179c. In margin ‘frank reprimand‘

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between the various Greek states were going.1 Demaratus answered, ‘Of course harmony among the Greeks must be very important to you, since your nearest and dearest treat you like this.’ What would you expect here except that the king would take offence at Demaratus’ frankness and have him taken away out of his sight? No; since Demaratus’ comment diverted him from anger to wiser counsels the king heeded his reproach, and setting aside his anger was reconciled with his family. 31 A poor old woman once appealed to Philip to hear her case, and when she interrupted repeatedly with her demands, he answered that he did not have time. Then she cried out, ‘Then you should not want to be king.’ He was amazed at her frank criticism, and heard not only her case, but other cases as well. Latin writers also attribute this story to the emperor Hadrian.1 32 When Philip heard that his son had sung expertly at some social occasion, he rebuked him courteously, saying, ‘Aren’t you ashamed to know how to sing so well?’ He meant that other arts were more worthy of a king. 33 Again when Philip fell while wrestling, and saw the traces of his body in the dust as he got up, he said, ‘By Jove, what a small a portion of earth we are allotted by nature, and still we seek the whole world!’ ***** 1 Philip had long been intervening militarily and diplomatically in turbulent inter-state Greek politics, supporting various warring factions in order to achieve the ultimate subjugation of all Greece. Demaratus is one of his friends. 31

(xxxi) Plutarch Moralia 179c–d; cf Life of Demetrius 42 where the story is told of Antigonus, and Stobaeus 13.28 (Meineke i 262) where it is told of Antipater. For the similar story concerning Hadrian, see 6.110 below. In margin ‘kings should hear all‘ 1 Erasmus is probably thinking of the Historia Augusta, but he has misremembered as this story is not found there, but in Dio Cassius; see however Introduction xix–xx above.

32

(xxxii) Plutarch Life of Pericles 1.6. This and 4.33–5 have been added by Erasmus from sources other than Plutarch’s Sayings of kings and commanders. Cf the story at 4.29 above. In margin ‘skills unworthy of a king‘

33

(xxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 602d (On exile). In margin ‘ambition‘

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If only this saying had stayed in his son’s heart, for the world itself was too cramped for Alexander’s ambition. 34 Scolding his son because he was trying to win the affection of the Macedonians by bribery, he said, ‘Dammit, what reason led you to expect that men would be faithful to you whom you have corrupted with money? Are you aiming to have the Macedonians think you not their king but their provisioner?’ 35 The Athenians had sent an embassy to Philip. He heard it kindly and as a polite form of dismissal asked them to tell him how he could oblige the Athenians. Then Demochares took him up: ‘By hanging yourself’ he said. This Demochares was one of the envoys, nicknamed ‘Loudmouth’ because of his uncontrolled tongue. The king’s friends were angry at such a rude a reply, but Philip silenced them, and ordered them to let this Thersites1 go unharmed. Then he turned to the rest of the envoys and said ‘Tell the Athenians that men who say that sort of thing are much more arrogant than those who listen without punishing them.’ Only spirit like this is worthy of monarchy. Alexander the Great 36 Among Philip’s sayings none were without wit. They also encouraged good behaviour; and I cannot see anyone more fitting to set next to Philip than his son Alexander. Even when he was still a boy, when his father enjoyed many successes, Alexander did not exult in them but said to his foster-brothers and peers: ***** 34

(xxxiv) Cicero De officiis 2.15.53. In margin ‘goodwill to be won by virtue‘

35

(xxxv) Seneca De ira 3.23.1–2. For Philip’s response to criticism and abuse, cf 4.4–6 above. In margin ‘leniency‘ 1 Thersites is the ugly common soldier who dares to criticize Agamemnon in Iliad 2, and is punished for voicing an otherwise justifiable opinion out of turn.

36

(i) Plutarch Moralia 179d. In margin ‘restless nature‘ This is the formal transition to the group of sayings of Alexander iii of Macedon, ‘the Great’ (356–323 bc). Erasmus follows Plutarch in combining tales of his military prowess with tributes to his education by Aristotle and his love of Homer. Many of the sayings are also quoted in Plutarch’s Life of Alexander and the essay On the fortune of Alexander.

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‘My father will leave nothing for me!’ When they disagreed, saying, ‘No, he is preparing all this for you,’ Alexander said, ‘What will it benefit me, if I have so much and achieve nothing?’1 Even then you would recognize the spark of his ambitious and restless spirit. 37 Alexander excelled in lightness of body and swiftness of foot, and when his father urged him to compete in the foot-race at Olympia, he said, ‘I would do, if I had kings as competitors.’ Here you can recognize his lofty pride, unwilling to yield to any man in the contest for glory and empire. He was not yet king, yet he thought it beneath him to be matched against anyone except kings. 38 When a girl was brought to Alexander to sleep with him very late at night the king asked where she had been for so long, and she replied, ‘waiting for her husband to go to bed.’ The King summoned his chamberlains and reprimanded them fiercely. ‘Take her back’ he said, ‘through your fault I was almost turned into an adulterer.’ This is a splendid example of chastity, whether in a young man or a monarch. For with Greeks ordinary irregular sexual connection was thought no crime. It is clear too that they observed the custom which still obtains in Italy, that wives slept apart from their husbands unless they were summoned.1 39 When Alexander as a boy was making a rather lavish offering to the gods, and constantly running to get more incense,1 Leonidas, his paedagogus, happened to be present and said, ‘Hey, boy, you can make lavish offerings of incense when you have conquered the land that produces incense.’ So when ***** 1 Cf Plutarch Alexander 5. 37

(ii) Plutarch Moralia 179c; cf Alexander 4, and Moralia 331b (On the fortune of Alexander). In margin ‘what is kingly befits a king‘

38

(iii) Plutarch Moralia 179e. In margin ‘adultery‘ 1 Compare 4.54 in which Alexander, feeling desire for the woman brought by Antipater to dine with them, is angry when he discovers she is Antipater’s mistress and not a casual partner. His code forbade him to take a woman if she belonged to another man.

39

(iv) Plutarch Moralia 179e–f; cf also Alexander 25 and Pliny Naturalis historia 12.62. In margin ‘extravagance‘ 1 Erasmus talks of Alexander running to get the incense where Plutarch merely has him repeatedly picking up handfuls of it.

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Alexander had conquered that region, remembering the saying, he wrote a letter to Leonidas as follows, ‘I am sending you some hundredweights of incense and cassia, so that you need not be stingy towards the gods from now on, since you know we have taken possession of the region that produces the perfumes.’ 40 When he was about to enter battle at the Granicus river, Alexander urged the Macedonians to eat their fill, since the next day they would be eating the enemy’s rations.1 This shows a resolute spirit, confident and carefree about the outcome of the war. 41 One of Alexander’s friends, Perillus, asked Alexander for a dowry for his daughters. The king ordered him to be given fifty talents, and when he answered that ten would be enough, replied, ‘Certainly enough for you to receive, but not enough for me to give.’ A splendid saying, if only the desire to outdo had not spoilt his virtuous nature. 42 Alexander had ordered his treasurer to give Anaxarchus, the philosopher, as much as he asked for, and when the treasurer heard his demand, he was troubled and told Alexander the philosopher was asking for a hundred talents. The king said, ‘He is right, because he knows he has a friend who can give so much and is willing to do so.’ Here you might wonder whether to be more amazed by the generosity of the king’s gift or the greed of the philosopher’s demand, unless we choose to call it confidence instead. 43 When he was at Miletus and saw many statues of victors at the Olympian and Pythian games, all of them huge, he asked, ‘Where were those mighty bodies when the barbarians were besieging your city?’ ***** 40

(v) Plutarch Moralia 179f. In margin ‘confidence‘ 1 The Granicus river was the scene of Alexander’s first victory over the Persians in 334 bc.

41

(vi) Plutarch Moralia 179f. This is the first of several illustrations of his generosity. In margin ‘generosity‘

42

(vii) Plutarch Moralia 179f. Anaxarchus of Abdera, a philosopher who accompanied Alexander on his campaigns. In margin ‘generosity‘

43

(viii) Plutarch Moralia 180a. In margin ‘ill-timed display of strength‘

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This was a witty censure of their foolish pretensions, for boasting of men who had won contests in the games because of their size and strength of body, although none of them displayed the same qualities against the barbarians in their times of danger.1 44 When Queen Adas of the Carians was eager to send Alexander constant supplies of dainty foods and pastries skilfully prepared by cooks and confectioners, Alexander said he had better culinary artists: a night march before breakfast, and a skimpy breakfast to give appetite for dinner. 45 Once when all the preparations had been made for battle and he was asked whether he wanted anything else done, he said, ‘Nothing, except that the Macedonians should shave their beards.’ When Parmenion wondered what he had in mind, he explained, ‘Don’t you know that in battle the beard is the best handle?’ He meant that they would have to fight at close quarters, a kind of combat in which beards are a nuisance because soldiers can easily be seized by them.1 46 Darius offered Alexander these terms: that Alexander should receive ten thousand talents and take an equal share of Asia with him. When Alexander refused, Parmenion said, ‘I would have accepted, if I were Alexander,’ and Alexander replied, ‘So would I, if I were Parmenion.’ But this was his reply to Darius: ‘As the earth cannot support two suns, so Asia cannot support two kings.’ You might approve his lofty spirit in this case too, if the saying did not suggest an uncontrolled lust for mastery. ***** 1 The defeat and sack of Miletus by the Persians in the early fifth century was notorious and even recorded in a tragedy by Phrynichus. Compare the proverb cited at Athenaeus 523f: ‘The Milesians were valiant in days of yore’ (Adagia i ix 49: Fuere quondam strenui Milesii). 44

(ix) Plutarch Moralia 180a; cf Alexander 22 and Moralia 127b (Advice about keeping well), 1099c (On the impossibility of living pleasantly). In margin ‘abstinence‘

45

(x) Plutarch Moralia 180b; cf Theseus 3. In margin ‘beards useless in war‘ 1 According to Chrysippus, cited at Athenaeus 565a, the practice of being cleanshaven began under Alexander. For Parmenion see 5.113 n1 below.

46

(xi) Plutarch Moralia 180b; cf Alexander 29 and 4.73 below. This is Darius iii. In margin ‘rule by one‘

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47 When he was about to risk his whole empire at Arbela in an engagement with an array of a million armed men, some will-disposed soldiers came to him and informed on the others for conspiring in camp and plotting not to bring any booty to the king’s tent1 but keep it all for their own profit. When he heard this Alexander smiled: ‘That is good news,’ he said, ‘the talk I am hearing is of men set on winning, not running away.’ And his intuition did not deceive him, for many soldiers approached him and said, ‘Sire, be confident and have no fear of the enemy’s numbers, for they won’t even be able to endure the smell of us!’ 48 And when the battle line was drawn up and he saw a soldier just starting to attach the thrower to his javelin, he dismissed him from the force as useless, because he was only getting his weapons ready when he should have been using them. But this should have been listed among the military tactics, rather than the apophthegms, like the next item which I add here.1 49 Alexander was reading a letter from his mother which contained some secrets and slander against Antipater, and Hephaestion was reading it with the king as usual. In fact the king did not forbid him to read it, but after scanning the letter he pulled his signet ring off his finger and pressed it to Hephaestion’s mouth to indicate that he should keep the material secret. This is a model of trust in his friend and exceptional consideration: he did not want the slander to spread, although he disliked Antipater. ***** 47

(xii) Plutarch Moralia 180c. In margin ‘opportune interpretation‘ 1 Erasmus followed Filelfo or Regio here, instead of translating ‘to the royal treasury’ (see dedicatory epistle 7–8 nn20 and 21 above). After defeating the vast army of Darius iii at Gaugamela in Mesopotamia in 331 bc, Alexander pursued the fleeing king to Arbela but failed to capture him, though he captured his family. Darius was later assassinated. Alexander acquired a huge amount of Persian treasure as booty from the captured camp and later from the royal palaces of Babylon, Susa and Persepolis. Persian luxury and wealth were legendary.

48

(xiii) Plutarch Moralia 180c–d. In margin ‘preparing too late‘ 1 See the dedicatory epistle 9 and 11 above.

49

(xiv) Plutarch Moralia 180d. For Antipater see 2.52 n1 above and see also 4.91 below. Hephaestion was Alexander’s most intimate friend. See 4.64 and 4.97 below. In margin ‘silence‘

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50 When he was hailed as son of Jupiter by the prophet in the temple of Ammon, he said, ‘That is not surprising, since Jupiter is by nature father of all, but he singles out all the best men to be his own.’ He interpreted the oracle with great modesty: for the prophet called him son of Jupiter as a piece of flattery, as if he were begotten by Jupiter in the way that Hercules is believed to be Jupiter’s son. Now Alexander admitted that Jupiter was by nature source and parent of all, but claimed that he acknowledged as his sons those who came closest to divinity by their bravery and great deeds. It is the divine nature to bestow kindness on all men. 51 When he was wounded in the leg by an arrow and many ran to help who had often called him a god, he alluded to Homer’s epic, saying with a cheerful and relaxed expression, ‘Isn’t this blood that you see, and not “the liquid that flows from the blessed gods?” ’ He was making fun of the foolishness of his flatterers, since what had happened showed he was nothing but a man. He was referring to Iliad 5 and the tale of the wounding of Venus by Diomedes.1 52 When several men praised Antipater’s thrift, because he lived a plain life far from all self-indulgence, Alexander said, ‘Antipater wears a white cloak in public, but in private he is all purple.’ He was criticizing Antipater’s pretence of economy, since he went to excess in all other respects.1 53 When he was entertained by a friend in winter and chilly weather and he saw a small hearth and scanty fire, he said, ‘Bring in either logs or incense!’ He was hinting that his host was as sparing with the logs as if they ***** 50

(xv) Plutarch Moralia 180d. Alexander made an excursion to the desert shrine of the god Ammon (equated with Jupiter) while he was in Egypt in 331 bc. See 4.98 below. In margin ‘those who are the sons of the gods‘

51

(xvi) Plutarch Moralia 180d. The story is told again at Alexander 28 and Moralia 341b (The fortune of Alexander 28.3); also by Diogenes Laertius 9.60 (see 7.375 below) and Seneca Letters 59.12. 1 Homer Iliad 5.330–51. The reference was added in 1535. Erasmus accidentally omitted the negative ‘not.’

52

(xvii) Plutarch Moralia 180e. Cf Phocion 29. In margin ‘hypocrisy‘ 1 For Antipater see 2.52 n1.

53

(xviii) Plutarch Moralia 180e. In margin ‘parsimony‘

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were pure incense, though in such icy weather they should not have spared even the incense; at the same time he meant that there was enough fire to offer a sacrifice of perfume to the gods, but too little to drive away the cold. 54 When he was dining with Antipatrides, and his host brought a beautiful lyre player into dinner, Alexander was seized with passion for her at sight, so he asked Antipatrides whether he was in love with the woman, and when he admitted it Alexander said, ‘You wretch, take the woman away from the party immediately.’ How utterly remote was his disposition from seducing another man’s wife, if he was so afraid of lusting after his host’s girl friend.1 55 Again when Cassander wanted to force his embrace on Python, the boyfriend of Evius the pipe-player, and Alexander realized that Evius was upset, he jumped up, angry with Cassander, and shouted, ‘So because of us, can no man feel love for anything?’1 It was not enough for the king to behave chastely himself; he had to make his officers share his standards. When would he ever have allowed the daughter or wife of a respectable citizen to be raped by his followers, since he wanted even a pipe-player to keep his beloved unviolated, even by a kiss? In short he thought the offences of his generals were his responsibility. 56 Alexander was discharging the sick, crippled and feeble from the Macedonian force to go back to the coast, when he was informed that someone had had himself listed among the sick although he was not sick. When this man was brought before the king and interrogated, he confessed he had pretended to be ill for love of Telesippa, who had left for the coast. Alexander asked him whom he should commission to fetch Telesippa back to the army. But when he discovered she was a free woman he said, ‘So we will have to ***** 54

(xix) Plutarch Moralia 180f. In margin ‘self-control‘ 1 See 4.38 n1 above. Antipatrides is otherwise unknown.

55

(xx) Plutarch Moralia 180f. In margin ‘self-control‘ 1 Another instance (see 4.38 n1 above) of Alexander’s rule that one should not touch another man’s partner, in this case a boy beloved. Cf Plutarch Eumenes 2. Cassander was Antipater’s son, a general involved in the struggles for succession after Alexander’s death. Alexander disliked him intensely. It makes more sense to read per vos for per nos ie ‘because of you.’

56

(xxi) Plutarch Moralia 181a. See 4.38 n1 above. In margin ‘decent‘

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persuade Telesippa to stay with us, Antigenes. For it is not our way to use force on a free woman.’ He was indulgent to the love of a good soldier whom he wanted to keep in his force, but not willing to bring back a free woman except by persuading her. 57 When the Greek mercenaries serving with the enemy came into Alexander’s power he ordered the Athenians to be shackled, because they were receiving pay from the state, but had served the enemy for wages; he also shackled the Thessalians because they possessed splendid land but were not farming it; but he released the Thebans, saying, ‘It is our fault they have nothing left, neither city nor countryside.’1 Thus he reduced the penalty, decreeing not death but chains for those who deserved death, and taking the blame for those who could make an excuse of need. 58 When he had taken prisoner a famous Indian archer so skilled he could shoot an arrow through a ring, Alexander ordered him to give a demonstration of his skill, but when the man refused he angrily ordered him to be killed. But as the Indian was being led to execution, he said to his guards that he had not practised his art for many days and so was afraid of missing his mark. When Alexander was told that he had refused not from arrogance but fearing the humiliation of failure, the king was impressed by his passion for glory and released him with a present, because he had preferred to die rather than seem inferior to his reputation. This shows that the proverbial ‘like is friend to like’1 is not entirely foolish. Alexander in his excessive desire for glory loved the same passion in others. 59 When Taxilas, one of the Indian kings, met Alexander he addressed him like ***** 57

(xxii) Plutarch Moralia 181a–b. In margin ‘reduction of penalty‘ 1 After the battle of Chaeronea in 338 bc, Philip had occupied Thebes with a garrison and freed its dependencies, leaving it weak and helpless. After Philip’s assassination in 336 bc, Thebes hopefully rebelled, but Alexander took the city, destroyed it utterly and sold the population into slavery.

(xxiii) Plutarch Moralia 181c. 4.58–60 record incidents from Alexander’s campaigns in India 327–6 bc. In margin ‘reputation dearer than life‘ 1 Adagia i ii 21: Simile gaudet simili ‘Like rejoices in like.’ 59 (xxiv) Plutarch Moralia 181c; cf Alexander 59. In margin ‘a truly royal contest‘ 58

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this: ‘I challenge you, not to battle or war but to another kind of contest. If you are weaker, receive a favour from us; but if you are superior, bestow the favour upon us.’ In reply Alexander said, ‘Indeed this is the contest we must enter, to see which can surpass the other in bestowing favours.’ And he embraced him very courteously, and not only did not deprive him of his wealth but increased it.1 60 There was a rock in Indian territory, which was so high that it was called ‘birdless’ as if inaccessible to birds. When Alexander heard that the place was indeed difficult to storm but its commander was cowardly, he said, ‘Now the place is easy to take,’ meaning that fortifications were useless unless a brave man was defending them. For a citadel is not secure with ditches and walls but with men. 61 And when another man was holding a rock that was thought impossible to storm, he surrendered to Alexander; but Alexander not only appointed him as ruler over the area but added to it, saying, ‘This man seems to me to have good sense, preferring to trust a good man rather than a fortified position.’ 62 When he had captured the rock and his companions declared he had surpassed Hercules in noble deeds, he said, ‘But I do not think my achievements while in command can be compared even as a fancy phrase with Hercules’ achievements.’1 ***** 1 In the spirit of Homeric heroes, the competition in generosity between Alexander and the Indian king ends in exchanging a pact of friendship. Taxilas surrendered to Alexander rather than face defeat in battle, and established friendly relations with him, entertaining him for three days. He gave Alexander lavish gifts on his departure, which Alexander returned, giving Taxilas some of the rich Persian booty he had with him, as well as other things. See Curtius Historia Alexandri 8.12.42–3. 60

(xxv) Plutarch Moralia 181c. In margin ‘the confidence of a brave man

‘

61

(xxvi) Plutarch Moralia 181c–d. In margin ‘confidence in one who surrendered‘

62

(xxvii) Plutarch Moralia 181d 1 This is the same rock as in 4.60 above. In Curtius’ account (Historia Alexandri 8.11.39–41) the precipitous pinnacle surrounded by a ravine was captured only after a difficult two-day assault in which Alexander lost many men. The

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They were flattering him, but no form of flattery pleased his spirit. 63 Alexander fined some of his companions because he realized they were not playing the game of dice as an amusement. And yet many play dice as if it were a very serious business. For those who risk their fortunes, and even their children, on the whim of the dice are no longer playing a game. 64 Amongst his special and most influential friends he seemed to honour Craterus most, but to love Hephaestion most of all. He said, ‘This is because Craterus loves his king, but Hephaestion loves Alexander.’ This is neater in Greek with the words philobasileus ‘king-lover,’ philalexandros ‘Alexander-lover.’ He felt that Craterus was a faithful friend in all that pertained to his royal status, but Hephaestion loved Alexander with a personal affection. So he rewarded differently those who loved him equally but in a different way: he loaded Craterus with honour, but admitted Hephaestion into his intimate friendship. 65 Alexander sent the philosopher Xenocrates fifty talents, and when he declined, saying he did not need it, he asked whether Xenocrates had no friend who needed it, and commented ‘I didn’t find even the wealth of Darius enough for my friends.’1 In this I have not yet decided whose spirit I should admire most; the king so inclined to generosity or the philosopher who returned so great a gift spontaneously offered by such a great king. ***** defenders fled on the third night. Nonetheless, Alexander treated it as a great victory and (Arrian Anabasis 5.26.5) boasted of capturing the rock fortress that, according to local legend, had defeated Hercules. 63

(xxviii) Plutarch Moralia 181d

64

(xxix) Plutarch Moralia 181d. In margin ‘a friend‘ Craterus was one of Alexander’s chief generals. Hephaestion, also a Macedonian noble, was his dearest friend, but no great military man, in spite of being given commands.

65

(xxx) Plutarch Moralia 181e. In margin ‘generosity‘ 1 Alexander had defeated King Darius iii of Persia at Gaugamela and had received his possessions on his death. See 47 n1 above. For Xenocrates see 1.178 above.

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66 When King Porus was defeated by Alexander and was asked after the battle, ‘How shall I treat you?’ he said, ‘Royally.’ Then Alexander added, ‘Is there anything more?’ and Porus said, ‘Everything is included in this single word “royally.” ’ Marvelling at the man’s wisdom and courage Alexander gave him an even wider authority than he had previously held.1 He would have given less to a suppliant prostrate before his feet, so greatly did this proud young man love fearless spirits. Quintus Curtius tells the story a little differently. When Porus was asked what he thought the victor should decree he said, ‘What you are persuaded by this day in which you learned how insecure is prosperity.’ He was warning the king to use his good fortune with moderation, remembering that what had happened to Porus could happen to himself.2 67 When Alexander found out that someone was assailing him with abuse he said, ‘It is a king’s lot to act kindly and be spoken of unkindly.’ Nothing is more noble than this saying, though it is also ascribed to others.1 68 When he was near death he looked up at his companions and said, ‘I see I will have a mighty funeral oration,’ guessing that his achievements would be celebrated by the eloquence of many writers. And his intuition was correct. 69 When he took Darius’ daughters prisoner he greeted them with lowered ***** 66

(xxxi) Plutarch Moralia 181e. In margin ‘royally‘ 1 Porus, the most powerful of Indian kings, confronted Alexander at the Hydaspes river, barring his progress with a huge army including war-elephants. After a hard-fought battle in which the issue long hung in the balance, Porus, defiant to the last, was badly wounded and captured. This, in 326 bc, was the climax of Alexander’s Indian campaign. He was much impressed by Porus’ dignity and proud courage. 2 See Curtius Historia Alexandri 8.14.51. This reference was added in 1532.

67

(xxxii) Plutarch Moralia 181f; cf Alexander 41. In margin ‘a truly royal attitude‘ 1 See Diogenes Laertius 6.3 (7.45 below), Epictetus Discourses 4.6, Marcus Aurelius Meditations 7.36.

68

(xxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 181f. Alexander died at Babylon in 323 bc, probably from fever, though poison was rumoured.

69

(xxxiv) Plutarch Life of Alexander 21.10 From here on Erasmus’ anecdotes do not come from Plutarch’s Apophthegms

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eyes, and rarely, for fear of being attracted by their beauty. For he used to say to his intimates ‘Persian girls are distressing to the eyes.’ 70 He issued a decree forbidding anyone to paint his portrait except Apelles, or to sculpt his likeness except Lysippus, since these were the most distinguished artists of that time. For he thought this too was a matter of royal dignity. He also made an agreement with Choerilus the poet that he would receive a gold Philippic coin for every good verse, and a box on the ears for every bad one. 71 Asked where he hid his treasures, he said, ‘With my friends,’ meaning that there was nowhere more safe to store one’s wealth. For when there is need, it returns to you with interest. 72 When a messenger ran up exultant with joy stretching out his hand, all ready to report a success, he asked, ‘What great thing will you tell me, my good man, unless it is that Homer has been restored to life?’ He meant that all the glory of great deeds must fade away unless they meet a herald such as Homer. 73 There was a city that offered Alexander a part of its territory and half its possessions in order to enjoy peace from his warfare. His reply was ‘I came ***** but from passages in his Life of Alexander and Moralia 326d–345b (On the fortune of Alexander), or from the Greek historians of Alexander. Alexander captured Darius iii’s family after the battle of Gaugamela; see 4.47 above. 70

(xxxv) On the painter Apelles and Lysippus the sculptor in bronze see Plutarch Moralia 335a–b (On the fortune of Alexander) and Life of Alexander 4.1–3, for Apelles’ reported sayings and deeds see 6.523–31 below). The monopolies given to Apelles and Lysippus are quoted by Horace in Letter to Augustus (Epistles 2.1.232–41), Valerius Maximus 8.11 ext. 2, and Pliny Naturalis historia 7.125. For Choerilus and the box on the ears, see 8.202 n3 below. In margin ‘arts‘

71

(xxxvi) Ammianus Marcellinus 25.4.15. Cf the similar saying given as a chreia in Theon Progymnasmata 5.208 (Spengel ii 2.100). See Introduction xxiv–xxvii above. In margin ‘generosity‘

72

(xxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 85c (Progress in virtue). For Alexander’s veneration of Homer see 4.85, 4.89, 4.95, 8.202. In margin ‘report of achievements‘

73

(xxxviii) Seneca Letters 53.10. In margin ‘imperious‘

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to Asia not to receive what you offer, but to let you have what I leave over.’ 74 Alexander kept Eudaemonicus, a philosopher, but one more ready to flatter than any parasite. When it thundered one day very violently, so that everyone was frightened, he said to Alexander, ‘Why don’t you do something like that, Alexander, son of Jupiter?’ But the king could not stand the remark of so base a philosopher, and said with a laugh, ‘Because I don’t want to be fearsome, as you would have me be, urging me to serve the heads of satraps and kings at dinner.’ This is Athenaeus’ version.1 But Plutarch tells it a little differently in the Life: ‘Why are you angry with me for serving fish at dinner and not the heads of satraps?’2 75 When Alexander was leading a campaign in winter he sat by the fire and began to review the forces as they passed, but when he saw an old man shivering with cold and stopping by the fire, he bade him sit down in his place, saying, ‘If you had been born in Persia it would have been a capital offence to sit in the king’s chair, but it is yielded up to a man born in Macedonia.’ 76 When Alexander was very young and saw his father Philip was going to discard as if good for nothing a horse that was very fierce and could endure no rider, he said, ‘What a horse your men are wasting, because in their ignorance and softness they don’t know how to handle him.’ And when he had fondled the horse quite marvellously without any blows, and then mounted it and cantered, and then used his spurs, and brought the horse back with a gentle pull on the rein, his father kissed his head as he dismounted and said, ‘My son, find yourself another kingdom equal to this since Macedonia cannot contain you.’ ***** 74

(xxxix) Athenaeus 6.57, 250f and Plutarch Life of Alexander 28.4. In margin ‘flattery‘ 1 Erasmus has misread Athenaeus. Eudaemonicus ‘the Happy Man’ is a nickname of Anaxarchus the philosopher. Anaxarchus accompanied Alexander on his Eastern campaign. See 7.375–6 below. He was a follower of Democritus, for whom see 7.367 below. Erasmus has interpolated ‘but one . . . parasite’ and ‘But the king . . . so base a philosopher.’ 2 Plutarch Alexander 28.4, where Anaxarchus is named.

75

(xl) Frontinus Strategemata 4.6.3. In margin ‘unassuming‘

76

(xli) A paraphrase of Plutarch Life of Alexander 6. This tale introduces Bucephalus, Alexander’s favourite warhorse. In margin ‘lofty spirit‘

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That wise man divined that so lofty a spirit would not be content with his father’s dominion. But this horse reminds us that many naturally fine intellects are ruined by the fault of their instructors, who mostly do not know how to exercise authority without turning thoroughbreds into donkeys. 77 Alexander also used to regard Aristotle, who had been entrusted with his upbringing from boyhood, with the greatest reverence, saying that he owed him as much as he owed to his father, because he had received the beginning of life from his father but of good life from his teacher.1 78 When a pirate was taken prisoner and brought to him, and Alexander asked him how he dared to raid the seas, the pirate retorted neatly, ‘Because I raid with one small ship, I am called a pirate, but when you raid with a great fleet, you are called king.’ Impressed by his fearless spirit Alexander spared his life. 79 He went on a journey to Delphi and when the priestess refused to consult the god, because these were ill-omened days on which not even oracles were allowed to speak, he dragged the priestess with him by force and went up into the temple: and when she was overwhelmed by his ruthlessness and said, ‘Thou art invincible, my son’ Alexander said, ‘That is a sufficient oracle for me,’ treating the woman’s words as an oracular response. 80 After he set out on his expedition he distributed almost all his royal wealth to his soldiers and generals. When Perdiccas asked, ‘What is left for yourself now, Sire?’ he answered, ‘Hope.’ Then Perdiccas said, ‘That will be shared ***** 77

(xlii) Plutarch Life of Alexander 8.4. In margin ‘reverence for teacher‘ 1 It was a much repeated saying that we owe more to teachers than to parents. See 7.235 below.

78

(xliii) Augustine City of God 4.4. In margin ‘spirited‘

79

(xliv) Plutarch Life of Alexander 14.6–7. This occurred before he left Greece on his campaigns. He wanted a favourable oracle to start with. In margin ‘oracle‘

80

(xlv) Plutarch Life of Alexander 15.4–5. Perdiccas was one of Alexander’s senior generals and a contender for power after his death. In margin ‘confidence in the outcome‘

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with us, your fellow soldiers,’ and refused the estate that Alexander had marked out for him. Such was his confidence that the expedition would be successful. 81 When he first sat as a judge in capital cases, he used to block up one ear against the accuser, and when he was asked why, said ‘I am keeping one ear unbiased for the defendant.’1 82 When his admiral Philoxenus wrote to Alexander that a Tarentine dealer called Theodorus was visiting him with handsome slave boys for sale, if Alexander wanted to buy them, he was very indignant, and exclaimed to his friends, ‘What impurity has Philoxenus seen in me to inflict such an insult upon me?’ 83 This was the verse he uttered against Callisthenes who could not adjust to the ways of the court, but made clear in word and gesture that it all offended him: ‘I loathe a wiseacre who is not wise on his own behalf.’1 84 When he was about to storm Nisa, and saw the soldiers were intimidated by the depth of the river that surrounded the city, he leapt up and said, ‘Oh! I am the worst of men, for not learning to swim’ and then leaning on his shield as if it were a cork raft he was the first to cross. 85 Alexander went to Ilium and set a garland around the statue of Achilles, ***** 81

(xlvi) Plutarch Life of Alexander 42.2. In margin ‘unbiased judge‘ 1 Cf Education of a Christian Prince cwe 27 280, which reports the anecdote more clearly.

82

(xlvii) Plutarch Life of Alexander 22. The story is also told at Moralia 333a (On the fortune of Alexander). In margin ‘integrity‘

83

(xlviii) Plutarch Life of Alexander 53.2. In margin ‘serve the times‘ 1 Aristotle’s nephew Callisthenes accompanied Alexander’s expedition as a historian but provoked his own execution by his intransigence. Alexander quotes an apposite fragment of Euripides (Nauck fr 905): Mis™ sofist|n, `stiw o[x a¿t! sof—w.

84

(xlix) Plutarch Life of Alexander 58.6. This is the Indus river (Curtius Historia Alexandri 8.9.34). In margin ‘the leader’s example‘

85

(l) Plutarch Life of Alexander 15.7–8. In margin ‘outstanding blessings‘

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saying, ‘O happy Achilles to have such a friend while you lived and such a herald when you were dead.’ He was talking about Patroclus and Homer: the former was Achilles’ most loyal friend, the latter celebrated him throughout the epic Iliad.1 86 He was hailed as god by many but used to say he knew he was mortal from two things, from sleep and intercourse, because these states betrayed the weakness of the body, but he was unconquerable in all other respects. For sleep is the likeness of death, and intercourse is a kind of seizure. 87 When he entered the palace of Darius and saw a lofty bedchamber with coverlets and tables and everything set out in marvellous array, he said, ‘Is this what it was to be ruler?’ He felt that it was not kingly to indulge in such luxury. 88 Again when he got into bed he used to shake out the bedclothes very carefully saying, ‘I hope my mother has not slipped in anything luxurious or unnecessary.’ Such was his detestation of womanly luxury.1 89 When a little box was brought to him more precious and beautiful than anything else found among Darius’ treasures, those present asked what it was intended for. Various suggestions were offered, but he said, ‘This is the best place to keep Homer,’ meaning that no treasure was more precious to ***** 1 Cf Cicero pro Archia 24, Ad familiares 5.12.7, Arrian Anabasis 1.12. After his death in the Trojan War, Achilles became a divine hero. One of his shrines was on Cape Sigaeum in north-west Turkey near Troy (Ilium). 86

(li) Plutarch Life of Alexander 22.6; cf Plutarch Moralia 65f (How to tell a flatterer), which Erasmus has also used here. In margin ‘intimations of mortality‘

87

(lii) Plutarch Life of Alexander 20.13. This is after the defeat of Darius iii, see 4.47 above. In margin ‘luxury unworthy of a ruler‘

88

(liii) Plutarch Life of Alexander 22.10 1 Actually Alexander says his tutor Leonidas (for whom see 4.39 above) did this.

89

(liv) Plutarch Life of Alexander 26.1. For Darius see 4.47 above. In margin ‘love of literature‘

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him than Homer.1 This is what the young man felt who modelled himself entirely on Achilles. 90 Parmenion urged Alexander to attack the enemy by night, saying that otherwise there would be great danger in risking open combat with so great a multitude. For they estimated from the distant clamour, roaring like the sea, that the number was immense. But Alexander answered, ‘I do not win victory by stealth,’ refusing to conquer by virtue of darkness. 91 When he read a verbose letter from Antipater, containing many slanders against Olympias, he said, ‘Antipater does not seem to know that one tear from a mother will erase many letters.’1 92 When he found out that his sister was having an affair with an elegant young man he was not shocked,1 but said, ‘We must allow her too to benefit from our kingship in some small way.’ In this he differed greatly from Caesar Augustus, who was bitterly angry at the wantonness of his daughter and grand-daughter.2 ***** 1 Cf 8.202 below. 90

(lv) Plutarch Life of Alexander 31.10–12. For Parmenion see 5.113 n1 below. In margin ‘open‘

91

(lvi) Plutarch Life of Alexander 39.13. In margin ‘a mother’s tears‘ 1 Antipater was acting as regent in Macedonia during Alexander’s absence, but Alexander’s mother the dowager Olympias constantly intrigued at court. Cf 4.49 above. For Antipater see 2.52 n1 above.

92

(lvii) Plutarch Moralia 818b (Precepts of statecraft). In margin ‘good-natured‘ 1 Alexander’s tolerance of his sister’s affair was exceptional in a society where fathers and brothers felt their honour damaged by any sexual activity (outside marriage) of a daughter or sister. 2 On Augustus’ repudiation of his daughter and granddaughter, see also 4.139 and 4.196 below. Augustus had passed stringent laws to punish adultery, and was driven to exile both his daughter Julia and later her daughter for open adulterous relationships. Having no son, he had used the marriages of his only child to mark her husbands as his successors; and adopted her sons by her second husband Agrippa to be his own ‘sons.’ But her third marriage to Tiberius ended in estrangement, and her adulteries, if such they were, were political relationships when she was forbidden to obtain a divorce.

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93 When Alexander heard Anaxagoras putting forward the theory that there were worlds beyond number, he is said to have wept. And when men asked if something had happened to cause his tears, he said, ‘Don’t I have good cause to weep if there are countless worlds and I have not yet become master of even one?’1 94 Philip was wounded in battle by the Triballi, when his thigh was pierced by a lance. Once he had escaped the risk of death, thanks to a surgeon, he began to grieve that he would continue to suffer the deformity of limping. Then Alexander said, ‘Don’t be afraid to appear in public, but when you step out remember your own valour.’1 95 If ever there was a dispute in conversation or at parties about the epics of Homer, when different men preferred one line or the other, Alexander gave his approbation to this one in particular: ‘a good leader and likewise a mighty fighter at arms.’1 He used to add that Homer was celebrating the valour of Agamemnon in this verse, but foreseeing that of Alexander. 96 When he had crossed the Hellespont and went to visit Troy, he meditated on the achievements of the ancient heroes, and someone said that if he wished he would give him the lyre of Paris. Then Alexander said, ‘I don’t need that at all, for I have Achilles’ lyre. That courageous warrior used to “sing ***** 93

(lviii) Plutarch Moralia 466d (On tranquillity of mind). In margin ‘insatiable ambition‘ 1 See also Valerius Maximus 8.14 ext. 2. Both sources give Anaxarchus, not Anaxagoras. Anaxarchus accompanied Alexander on his expeditions. See 7.373–8 below. As a follower of the Democritean/Epicurean school, he would believe in a multiplicity of worlds. See 4.76 n1 above.

94

(lix) Plutarch Moralia 331b (On the fortune of Alexander). This occurred during Philip’s campaigns in Thrace in 340–339 bc. 1 For similar remarks attributed to others, see 2.20–2 above and 6.207 below.

95

(lx) Homer Iliad 3.179 and Plutarch Moralia 331c–d (On the fortune of Alexander). In margin ‘comparison of the Homeric poems‘ 1 See Adagia iii x 75: Imperator bonus et idem robustus miles ‘A good commander and a hard soldier too.’

96

(lxi) Plutarch Moralia 331d (On the fortune of Alexander). In margin ‘music worthy of a leader‘

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the praises of gallant heroes” ’1 on this lyre, whereas Paris intoned soft and wanton tunes on his.’ 97 Once he went to visit the womenfolk of Darius with Hephaestion.1 Now Hephaestion wore the same costume as the king and was slightly taller, so Syngambris, Darius’ mother, bowed before him as if he were the king. And when she realized her mistake from the reactions of the bystanders, she was distressed and changed to greeting Alexander. Then Alexander said, ‘Good mother, there is no need to be distressed, for he is Alexander too.’ What he meant was that his friend was a second Alexander. 98 When he came to the temple of Ammon, an ancient priest greeted him and said, ‘Hail, my son! May you be so named by the god also.’ Then Alexander said, ‘I accept it, father, and henceforth I shall allow myself to be called your son if you grant me dominion over the whole world.’ The priest withdrew inside, and as if he had consulted the god replied that Jupiter certainly promised what he sought. Then Alexander said, ‘I would like to know whether anyone of my father’s assassins has survived unpunished.’ The priest replied, ‘All Philip’s assassins have paid the penalty, but no mortal man can assassinate your father.’ He meant that Alexander was the son of Jupiter, not Philip.1 99 When Darius had drawn up his multitudinous army for battle, Alexander was seized by a sleep so profound that he could not even be woken up with the daylight, but finally as the danger drew close his companions went in and aroused the king, and when they said they were amazed at his great ***** 1 Homer Iliad 9.189. Achilles was famed for his skill on the lyre. 97

(lxii) Diodorus Siculus 17.37.5–6. In this and the next two anecdotes, Erasmus seems to be abbreviating and paraphrasing the Latin translation of Angelus Cospus. See the dedicatory epistle 6 n17 above. See also Quintus Curtius 3.31. In margin ‘merciful‘ 1 See 4.49 and 4.64 above.

98

(lxiii) Diodorus Siculus 17.51.1–3. See also Quintus Curtius 4.32. In margin ‘adulation‘ 1 Cf 4.50 above.

99

(lxiv) Diodorus Siculus 17.56.1–4. See 4.28 above. See also Quintus Curtius 4.49. In margin ‘spirited‘

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calm at this time of crisis, Alexander said, ‘King Darius has released me from great anxiety by concentrating all his forces against me at once so that one day can decide the final outcome.’ 100 The Corinthians sent an embassy to offer Alexander the Great their citizenship. And when the king laughed at this form of homage, one of the envoys said, ‘We have never offered citizenship to any other man except to you and Hercules.’ Then the king gladly accepted the honour they offered, pleased partly by its rarity and partly by sharing it with Hercules. 101 He was besieging a city and seeking out the weakest part of the walls when he was struck by an arrow, but still did not abandon his task; only when the blood had been staunched and the pain of the dry wound increased and his leg slung over his horse had gradually become numb, was he forced to give up his undertaking and call for a surgeon. ‘Everyone declares I am the son of Jupiter,’ he said, ‘but this wound proclaims me a man.’ 102 Zenophantus used to summon Alexander to arms with a specific melody. But when everybody expressed amazement at the power of his music, someone said, ‘If he is such an artist, let him play tunes that will call Alexander back from warring.’ His meaning was that it did not require great artistry to drive a man to what he is naturally inclined to do. Antigonus, King of Macedon 103 Antigonus was fierce and strict in demanding tribute. When someone ***** 100 (lxv) Seneca De beneficiis 1.13.1–2; a similar story is told about Alexander and the inhabitants of Megara, an insignificant place, in Plutarch Moralia 826c (On government). 101 (lxvi) Seneca Letters 59.12. Cf 4.51 above. 102 (lxvii) The first part of the anecdote appears in more than one source, and different musicians are named: Antigenidas, a Theban lyre-player, in Plutarch Moralia 335a (On the fortune of Alexander; Timotheus, the most famous of lyreplayers in Dio Chrysostom 1.1 (On kingship) quoted in Adagia i ii 46: Currentem incitare ‘To cheer on the runner’; Adagia ii v 93: A Dorio ad Phrygium ‘From Dorian to Phrygian,’ where the rousing music is said to be in the Dorian mode; and Xenophantes (sic), the most famous pipe-player, in Seneca Dialogues 4.2.6. 103 (i) Plutarch Moralia 182a. Erasmus returns (4.103–20) to Plutarch’s Sayings of kings and commanders, last used at 4.68. In margin ‘humorous‘

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protested, ‘But Alexander was not like this,’ he answered, ‘Quite right, for he harvested Asia, whereas I am gleaning the straw.’ His meaning was that the wealthy land of Asia had already been stripped by Alexander, so that he had to scrape up what he could. 104 Seeing some soldiers playing ball in breastplates and helmets, he was delighted by the sight, and ordered their officers be fetched so that he could commend the soldiers to them: but when he was told that the officers were drinking, he gave their position to the soldiers who played ball in their armour. In this way he punished the leaders’ slackness and honoured the energy of the common soldiers. 105 Everybody expressed amazement that Antigonus had been somewhat harsh at the beginning of his rule, but as he grew old governed his kingdom mercifully and mildly. He replied, ‘At first I needed to rule, but now only to enjoy glory and goodwill.’ He felt that rule was often won by force of arms and severity but could only be maintained by good reputation and the citizens’ goodwill. 106 When his son Philip asked in front of a crowd, ‘When will we break camp?’ ***** Antigonus i (called Monophthalmos ‘the One-eyed’) was one of Alexander’s generals who survived to compete for power after his death. Plutarch (Life of Demetrius 3) calls Antigonus ‘the oldest and greatest of the successors of Alexander.’ He had been governor of Asia (Minor) and was left in control of it after Alexander’s death but had to fight Cassander and Ptolemy, two other successors, from 323–310 bc, who eventually ousted him. He then championed the cause of the mainland Greeks with his son Demetrius Poliorketes (‘the Besieger’), promising to liberate them from Cassander’s occupation, starting with Athens. (See 4.118 below.) The Athenians welcomed him with extravagant honours in 307 bc, and he made it his base. He was killed in battle fighting the other successors in 301 bc. The sayings in Plutarch’s collection are often duplicated in his lives of Demetrius and Pyrrhus, and Erasmus will use these as sources later (4.121 onwards). Plutarch did not write an independent life of Antigonus. 104 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 182a. In margin ‘strict‘ 105 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 182 a–b. See 4.112 and 4.128–9 below for his mildness. In margin ‘stable rule‘ 106 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 182b. Philip was Antigonus’ second son. Plutarch in his Life of Demetrius 28.10 makes the son in question Demetrius, and Frontinus Strategemata 1.1.13 tells this story of Crassus. In margin ‘secrecy in war‘

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he answered, ‘What, are you afraid you will be the only one not to hear the bugle?’ He rebuked the young man’s indiscretion in asking his father such a question in front of a large audience. The plans of the commanders should be kept secret in war; but whenever camp is to be broken, the bugle sounds the signal to everyone. 107 When young Philip insisted on being lodged with a widow with three beautiful daughters, Antigonus summoned the billeting officer and said, ‘Won’t you remove my son from this tight spot?’ He did not betray his son’s desire, although he knew he was seeking a love affair, but made a pretext of the smallness of a house in which a widow and her three daughters were living. 108 After he had recovered from a serious illness, he said, ‘It is none the worse if this illness has reminded me not to be over-confident, since I am mortal.’ Who taught this pagan king this philosophy worthy of a Christian soul? His friends were lamenting as if it was a great misfortune that he had been so gravely ill, but he understood that more good than evil had come from the sickness. It had slimmed down his body but made his mind more moderate; it had reduced some of his bodily strength, but reduced the arrogance of his mind, by far the most dangerous of sicknesses. In short it is not a bad state of affairs when a milder sickness drives away a greater one.1 109 Hermodotus described Antigonus in a poem as ‘son of Jupiter.’1 Reading this he said, ‘My lasanus-bearer never realized this,’ wittily mocking the poet’s flattery and admitting with equal modesty the humbleness of his birth. (A lasanus is an earthenware chamber pot.) So if he was the son of Jupiter this ***** 107 (v) Plutarch Moralia 182b. In margin ‘sexual purity‘ 108 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 182b. In margin ‘utility of sickness‘ 1 Erasmus’ extended comment recalls his own adaptation of Plutarch’s essay Whether the affections of the soul are worse than those of the body (Moralia 500b–2a) in the preface of his Lingua ‘On the tongue’ cwe 29 257–9. 109 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 182c. In margin ‘modesty‘ 1 Here in Plutarch Antigonus is hailed as ‘child of the Sun’ (Helios), as also in Moralia 360e (On Isis and Osiris). Perhaps Erasmus was distracted by his earlier tales of Alexander as son of Jupiter. Nothing is known of this Hermodotus.

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had escaped the notice of both the slave who usually carried the pot to his chamber and also of Antigonus, Jupiter’s son. 110 When someone said that everything was just and honourable for kings, he said, ‘So they are, by Jupiter, at least for kings who rule barbarians, but for us, only those things are honourable which are honourable, and only those things are just which are just.’ He sternly rejected the flattering remark that claimed kings could do what they chose. For a king is not the measure of what is honourable and just, but its agent. If only Christian ears did not hear such remarks, or if they heard them would reject them with equal severity. What else are men saying who keep chanting, ‘Whatever the prince decides has the force of law?’ Such men deny that a prince is bound by law and credit him with dual powers, established and unchallenged, one which empowers him to do what is required by laws, contracts, and treaties, the other to do as he chooses.1 111 Marsyas, Antigonus’ brother, had a lawsuit but petitioned the king to hear the case privately. Antigonus replied, ‘If we are doing nothing against the law, it will be better done in the public court with everyone listening.’1 His love for his brother did not persuade the king to deviate even the least bit from justice. Indeed he tied up his brother with this dilemma: ‘If you know you have an unjust case, why are you suing? But if it is just, why are you avoiding men’s knowledge and withdrawing a public matter into the secrecy of our house, where you will not escape your fellow citizens’ suspicion, even if you win in a just cause?’ 112 Once when Antigonus had forced his men to move camp in winter to a place without sufficient essential supplies, and some of the soldiers were ***** 110 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 182c. In margin ‘kings may only do what is honourable‘ 1 Erasmus seizes on this scrupulous principle of Antigonus to trigger an attack on Christian rulers who regard themselves as sole arbiters of the law. 111 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 182c. In margin ‘strict‘ 1 A slight mistranslation: Plutarch says, ‘It will take place in public, with everyone hearing whether we are committing injustice.’ Erasmus was possibly misled here by Regio’s version (see the dedicatory epistle 8 n21 above). 112 (x) Plutarch Moralia 182c. Cf Moralia 457e (On the control of anger), and Seneca De ira 3.22.2. In margin ‘mild‘

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damning the king for it, not knowing he was nearby, he opened the flap of his tent with his baton and said, ‘You’ll be sorry if you don’t go further away before you abuse me!’ What could be more mild than this witticism, or more witty than this mildness? He pretended not to mind them abusing him, only that they were so near that they could be heard by the object of their abuse. 113 Aristodemus, one of the king’s friends who was thought to be the son of a cook, urged him to reduce his spending and his largess, and the king replied, ‘Your words taste of gravy.’1 He was hinting that such economy was proper to cooks, not kings, and in giving such advice Aristodemus was forgetting whose friend he was while remembering whose son he was. 114 When the Athenians enrolled a slave of Antigonus in their citizen register to honour him as if he were free-born man, he said, ‘I would not want a single Athenian to have a flogging at my hands,’ meaning that they had put him in the position of being able to flog one Athenian citizen, that is, his own slave; but that there were more persons than one at Athens who deserved a flogging from the king, for effectively setting free another man’s slave. 115 A young pupil of the rhetorician Anaximenes1 was delivering a speech composed by his teacher which he had been prompted to recite before Antigonus. When Antigonus wanted to know something and interrupted with a question, the young man fell silent. Antigonus said, ‘What’s the matter?’ ‘Wasn’t that “written on your tablets”?’2 ***** 113 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 182d. In margin ‘royal liberality‘ 1 Plutarch’s Greek text has ‘smells of a cook’s apron.’ Erasmus has followed the versions of Filefo and Regio (see the dedicatory epistle nn20 and 21 above). 114 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 182d. See 103 headnote above. In margin ‘harsh‘ 115 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 182e. In margin ‘speech written by another‘ 1 For Anaximenes, see 3.308-9 above. 2 The young man only knew what he had learnt by heart. Antigonus quotes a line of Euripides Iphigenia in Tauris 787, where the speaker is reading someone else’s letter and only partly understands it. Erasmus takes the opportunity to criticize contemporary speakers who deliver speeches by others that have taken six months to prepare. Cf Ciceronianus cwe 28 350–4, where Erasmus satirizes contemporary Ciceronians as taking a week to write six sentences.

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He thought this absurd in the young man, but people think it a fine thing nowadays for grown men to memorize a speech that has been worked up by a hired speech-maker for six months and deliver it like a parrot even in front of princes. And quite often they dry up even when nobody interrupts them, and are a laughing-stock to everybody. 116 When he heard another rhetorician speaking like this, ‘The season that hurls the spears of snows came and rendered the land ungrassed,’ he asked him, ‘Won’t you stop addressing me like a crowd?’ The king was offended by this over-wrought speech, such as orators use to advertise themselves to the ignorant rabble with a fine flourish of words. To act like this before the king was to abuse his patience. I will write down the Greek, because the pretentious figure of speech cannot be appropriately expressed in Latin: xionob—low = ºra genomŽnh, leipobotane”n \po’hsen t|n xQran. He could have said ‘winter’ for xionob—low = ºra ‘the snow-hurling season’ and leipobotane”n ‘to make poor in grass’ is an artificial verb which would be scarcely excusable in a poet. 117 When the Cynic Thrasyllus asked for a drachma, Antigonus said, ‘It is not royal to make such a gift.’ So the Cynic followed up, ‘Then give me a talent.’ He retorted, ‘But it is not a Cynic’s act to take such a gift.’ He rejected the shamelessness of the demand using both alternatives of the dilemma, because he did not think the man deserved a kindness. 118 When he sent his son Demetrius with a huge fleet and large infantry force to liberate the Greeks, he said that glory spread like fire throughout all the world from a beacon lit in Greece. ***** 116 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 182e. The story is repeated in Plutarch Life of Demetrius 12. The speaker’s words are rhythmical, almost verse, as well as being farfetched. In margin ‘affected language‘ 117 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 182e. So also Moralia 531e (On compliancy), Seneca De beneficiis 2.17. Cynics flaunted their self-imposed impoverished way of life. In margin ‘witty‘ 118 (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 182e–f. In margin ‘encouragement to win glory‘ Antigonus sent Demetrius with a large fleet from Asia (Minor) to liberate Athens from Cassander, one of the other successors, promising the city its freedom. He said that Athens was the beacon of Greece because of its glorious reputation. Plutarch Life of Demetrius 8.

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In this way he used the young man’s passion for glory to spur him on to campaign energetically, because fame of such achievement would not be restricted to the boundaries of Greece, but spread throughout the world because of the celebrated name of Greece. 119 Antigonus caught the poet Antagoras in his tent cooking an eel and wielding the pan himself, and standing behind him said, ‘Antagoras, do you think Homer was cooking an eel when he composed the deeds of Agamemnon?’ Antagoras replied, ‘And you, Sire, do you think king Agamemnon had time when he did those deeds, to wonder whether anyone in his army was cooking an eel?’1 The king took the retaliation in good part, as if it were an exchange between equals. 120 Antigonus once saw in his dreams Mithridates harvesting a crop of gold, which led him to plot to eliminate him. So when he had informed his son Demetrius, he made him swear silence. But when Demetrius was walking by the sea shore with Mithridates, he wrote in the sand with the butt of his spear, ‘Get away from here, Mithridates.’ Mithridates understood and went to Pontus and enjoyed uninterrupted rule there.1 This is not an apophthegm, but seems to have been added by some interpolator.2 121 Antigonus’ friends urged him to control Athens, if he captured it, with powerful garrisons in case it might ever revolt, and to guard it with the greatest care as the foundation-stone of Greece; to which he replied that he had ***** 119 (xvii) Plutarch Moralia 182f. In margin ‘affable‘ 1 Antagoras was court poet to Antigonus ii Gonatas, who has probably been confused in the tradition with Antigonus i, as in 4.123 below. Antagoras wrote, among other things, epigrams and an epic poem Thebais. 120 (xviii) Plutarch Moralia 183a. In margin ‘a friend’s loyalty‘ 1 This is Mithridates i who founded the dynasty of Pontus (in northern Turkey) which ended with the defeat and suicide of Mithridates vi in 63 bc. 2 See Introduction xix n11 and dedicatory epistle 9 above. 121 (xix) Plutarch Life of Demetrius 8.3. In margin ‘merciful‘ Erasmus has now reached the end of the sayings recorded in Plutarch’s collection of sayings and uses other sources, from Plutarch and other authors. These further illustrate the confusion in the tradition between Antigonus i and his grandson Antigonus ii Gonatas, and also Antigonus iii Doson.

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always been minded to believe that there was no firmer garrison for a ruler than the goodwill of his citizens.1 122 Again when he heard that the kings had conspired to eliminate him, he replied with arrogance that he would put them all to flight with a single stone and a single shout like birds pecking at seeds. 123 When Antigonus kept his army on steep inaccessible ground overlooking the plain and Pyrrhus had pitched camp near Nauplia, Pyrrhus challenged him the next day via a herald to come down to the plain and risk battle. But Antigonus replied that his own campaign depended as much on timing as on forces; as for Pyrrhus, if he had become weary of life, there were quite enough ways open to meet his death. 124 Asked whom of his own generation he thought the most distinguished commander, he said, ‘Pyrrhus would be, if he reached old age.’1 He did not call him best, but said that he would excel if age added experience. 125 Once he saw a soldier who was otherwise energetic and ready to take risks but in poor bodily condition, and asked him why he was pale. When the ***** 1 Cf 1.2 above (Agesilaus) for the same sentiment. 122 (xx) Plutarch Life of Demetrius 28.5. In margin ‘arrogant‘ 123 (xxi) Plutarch Life of Pyrrhus 31.3–4. In margin ‘fighting not always appropriate‘ This is Antigonus ii Gonatas who was contemporary with Pyrrhus, not Antigonus i. Pyrrhus was king of Epirus in north-west Greece 319–272 bc. Seeking to extend his territories, he clashed with Antigonus ii in southern Greece, and was ignominiously killed at the battle for the city of Argos, by a tile thrown by a woman, in 272 bc. See 4.131 below. There are sayings of Pyrrhus which Plutarch includes at Moralia 184c, almost last among the foreign kings, but which Erasmus postpones until he returns to the collection in 5.119–30 below. 124 (xxii) Plutarch Life of Pyrrhus 8.4. This again is Antigonus ii Gonatas. 1 Hannibal likewise gave high place to Pyrrhus both at Plutarch Pyrrhus 8.4 and at Flamininus 21.4–5. Pyrrhus had notable successes against the Romans in southern Italy. 125 (xxiii) Plutarch Life of Pelopidas 1.2–4. It is not clear which Antigonus this is. In margin ‘prosperity makes people fearful‘

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man admitted he had a secret disease, the king told the doctors to apply remedies if it was at all possible. But after he was cured the soldier began to shirk battle and expose himself less readily to danger. In surprise the king asked him what had changed his attitude. The soldier answered, ‘It is your fault: when I lived in poor health I was not very fearful for my wretched existence, but now that you have made my life more precious I am more careful not to lose it.’1 126 The old Antigonus1 said to a sophist who was offering him a book on justice, ‘You are crazy to talk about justice to me when you can see I am busy attacking foreign cities.’ He realized that those who wage war on foreign cities to expand their empire and win glory cannot keep the laws of justice. 127 When the old Antigonus had suffered Bias repeatedly making importunate demands he was finally overcome by weariness and said, ‘Give Bias a talent, even under compulsion.’1 He felt the kindness had not been won but extorted by shameless persistence. ***** 1 Compare Horace’s story (Epistle 1.7) of the auctioneer enriched by Philippus, with disastrous result. 126 (xxiv) Plutarch Moralia 330e (On the fortune of Alexander). In margin ‘unjust war‘ 1 This could be Antigonus i or ii. This passage and the next refer to Antigonus as senior, either in the sense ‘the elder Antigonus’ (to distinguish him from his grandson, Antigonus ii Gonatas, the contemporary of Pyrrhus of Epirus) or meaning ‘Antigonus, when he was an old man.’ 127 (xxv) Plutarch Moralia 531e (On compliancy) 1 See 4.126 n1 above. Modern texts have (since Casaubon) emended the name to Bion, ie Bion the Borysthenite, a Cynic philosopher at the court of Antigonus ii Gonatas. The mss however all give Bias, as in Erasmus’ version. There is often confusion in the tradition between Bion and the famous Bias of Priene, one of the Seven Sages. Bias (seventh century bc) is too early for either Antigonus. The Greek text here shows that Antigonus was making a pun on the name: ‘Give Force a talent,’ in Greek biai, and this may have occasioned the substitution of the more famous name Bias for Bion. (See the discussion in Plutarque Oeuvres morales vii 2, ed and trans Robert Klaert and Yvonne Verni`ere, Paris 1974, 181 n3). The pun cannot be reproduced in Latin or English.

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128 One night Antigonus heard some of his soldiers uttering every kind of curse on the king for leading them on that route into an inescapable bog. So he went up to those in the worst difficulties, and when he had helped them out, although they did not know who was helping them, he said, ‘Now curse Antigonus, through whose fault you fell into this desperate mess: but wish him well too for leading you out of this pit.’ The king’s genuine magnanimity was content with this retaliation. 129 Again when the Greeks were being besieged in a small fortress and, relying on their position, treated the enemy with contempt and made many jokes against Antigonus’ ugliness, jeering now at his short stature now at his broken nose, he said, ‘I am delighted and expect some good out of this since I have a Silenus in my camp.’1 And when he had reduced these jesters to starvation he said he would not even have followed the customary treatment of the surrendered, that is enrolling the good fighters in his cohorts and putting the others up for sale, if it had not been good for men with such a nasty tongue to be subjected to a master. I think this is the same story as told by Plutarch, except that Seneca tells it in a different way.2 130 When he was given a document written in huge letters, he said, ‘These are clear even to a blind man,’1 making fun of his own eye problem, for he was one-eyed. Any other man would have risked his life if he had said this, ***** 128 (xxvi) Seneca De ira 3.22.2. Seneca ascribes this and the remark in 4.129 to an Alexander, allegedly grandfather of Alexander the Great, but this is a mistake: Alexander’s grandfather was Amyntas iii, king of Macedon. The subject of both is probably Antigonus i the One-eyed. Cf 4.112 above. 129 (xxvii) Seneca De ira 3.22.4–5 and Plutarch Moralia 458f (On the control of anger); see 4.128n just above. 1 Antigonus’ short stature and snub nose made him resemble Silenus, an enigmatic figure, ugly and debauched on the outside, but wise and inspired within. Socrates was often likened to him. See Adagia iii i 1: Sileni Alcibiadis ‘The Sileni of Alcibiades.’ 2 In Plutarch’s shorter version (Moralia 458f) Antigonus mildly remarks, ‘And I thought I was good-looking.’ 130 (xxviii) Plutarch Moralia 633c (Table-talk 2). This saying was added in 1535. This must be Antigonus i, the One-eyed. In margin ‘a joke against oneself‘ 1 Cf Adagia i viii 93: Vel caeco appareat ‘A blind man might see that’

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which is what happened to Theocritus of Chios, who will be mentioned later.2 131 When King Antigonus was informed that his son Alcyoneus had fallen in battle,1 he bowed his head and thought privately for a little while. Then he burst out with this cry, ‘O Alcyoneus, you exchanged life for death later than might have been expected, for you leapt so boldly onto the enemy, paying no attention to your own survival nor to my warnings.’ He did not think he should weep over a man who died by his own fault and brought disaster on himself. This has been taken from Plutarch. 132 Again, seeing his son treating his subjects too boastfully and arrogantly, he said, ‘My son, don’t you know our rule is a glorious servitude?’1 Nothing could be more shrewd. For a prince is as much compelled to be a servant to the people as the people to him, except that the prince does it with dignity; otherwise it is really reciprocal enslavement. Now to match the Greeks we will set Julius Caesar against Alexander, Augustus against Philip, and Cicero against Antigonus. ***** 2 See 6.492 below. The sophist Theocritus of Chios is reported by Athenaeus as insulting various hosts and rivals. 131 (xxix) Plutarch Moralia 119c–d (Consolation to Apollonius). This and the next apophthegm were not included in 1531 and in 1532 were used in book 8. They were moved to this position in 1535. 1 Alcyoneus is the son of Antigonus ii Gonatas. Little else is known of Alcyoneus. His father had been angered with him for treating with disrespect the severed head of King Pyrrhus of Epirus, instead of honouring a noble opponent. See Plutarch Life of Pyrrhus 34, Valerius Maximus 5.1 ext. 4. See 4.132 below, 4.124 above. 132 (xxx) Aelian Varia historia 2.20. See Introduction xx n14. In margin ‘to rule is to serve‘ 1 This too refers to Antigonus ii Gonatas. This son is Demetrius ii. This anecdote was later repeated; see 8.173a below. After this saying, Erasmus passes over the rest of Plutarch’s Sayings of kings and commanders and many of the early figures in his Sayings of the Romans. He singles out for inclusion Augustus, Julius Caesar, and Pompey as parallels to his three Macedonian kings. His mention of Cicero here is a mistake; he will appear in the section on orators, 4.257ff, as a counterpart to Demosthenes. Erasmus abandons the order followed in Plutarch’s Sayings of the

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Octavius Caesar Augustus 133 When King Rhimirales of Thrace, who deserted Mark Antony for Augustus, was boasting excessively at a party of his services to Augustus, and became a nuisance by endlessly bringing up his alliance in the war, Augustus ignored his rudeness and, offering the toast to another king, said ‘I love treachery but cannot praise traitors.’1 He meant that men who have been useful by treachery deserve no thanks, for although their service is welcome at the time, they themselves are thought evil treaty-breakers. 134 After Alexandria was taken by storm the Alexandrians expected the worst, but Augustus mounted the tribunal with Arius of Alexandria and said he would spare the city, firstly because of its greatness and beauty, then for the sake of Alexander the Great who founded it, and finally as a favour to his friend Arius.1 This was an act of rare clemency, not to sack a city that had been obstinate in rebellion, but he deserves no less praise for his modesty in that he did not claim the credit for this favour for himself but attributed it for the most part to the city, secondly to Alexander, whose memory he knew ***** Romans, which moves from Pompey (Moralia 208b–204e), to Cicero (Moralia 204e–205f), to Caesar (205f–206f), to Augustus (206f–208a). Plutarch in his Lives likewise pairs Alexander and Caesar, and Demosthenes and Cicero.

133 (i) Plutarch Moralia 207a. Erasmus first draws on Plutarch’s Sayings of the Romans for his sayings of Augustus (4.133–45), omitting the first one, probably because it mentions large sums of money impossible to represent in Latin terms. ‘Caesar Augustus’ was the final name of Julius Caesar’s great-nephew Octavius, who first became Octavianus Caesar by adoption in Caesar’s will; he ruled Italy as the main triumvir from 43–33 bc, defeated Antony and Cleopatra at Actium in 31, and conquered Egypt in 30. In 27 bc he was awarded the honorific title Augustus in return for handing over to the senate and people of Rome control of the demilitarized provinces. King Rhimirales had defected after Antony’s defeat at Actium. In margin ‘treachery welcome‘ 1 Cf Plutarch Romulus 17 where the remark is also attributed to Antigonus i. Stobaeus 54.63 (Meineke ii 330) attributes a similar comment to Philip ii of Macedon. 134 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 207a. In margin ‘merciful‘ 1 These events took place in 30 bc. See Suetonius Augustus 89.1 for Arius Didymus of Alexandria, the Stoic philosopher, Augustus’ former teacher and later adviser.

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was particularly cherished by the Alexandrians, and thirdly to Arius, a citizen of that city, commending his friend to his fellow-citizens by giving him this prestigious title. 135 When Augustus was informed that Eros, his administrator in Egypt, had bought a quail that defeated all others in battle and was absolutely invincible, but had then roasted and eaten it, he had the man brought to him and when he admitted it on interrogation he ordered Eros to be nailed to a ship’s mast. He must have thought Eros did not deserve to live, for sacrificing to such a brief gastronomic pleasure a bird that could have brought pleasure to many by fighting for a long time; and indeed by its good omen promised Caesar continuing success in war.1 136 Augustus made Arius chief magistrate in Sicily instead of Theodorus, but when someone passed a note to him which said, ‘Theodorus of Tarsus was a bald-headed thief: what do you think?’ he read it and wrote underneath simply, ‘That’s obvious.’1 137 When the philosopher Athenodorus begged to be allowed to go home, on ***** 135 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 207b. In margin ‘harsh‘ 1 Erasmus’ explanation of Augustus’ act in executing his procurator (a high fiscal administrator) hardly justifies the savage punishment, but other stories such as that of Vedius Pollio (4.192 below) reflect his dislike of both gluttony and wanton cruelty. Quails were bred for the popular sport of quail-fighting (see 8.44 below), and the bird probably had a considerable following. 136 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 207c. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 There are problems with this anecdote. It may be about the Athenodorus of 4.137 below, whom Augustus appointed governor of his native city of Tarsus in the Roman province of Cilicia (in south-west Turkey) in 33 bc. In this case Erasmus’ Sicily (from Plutarch) is a mistake for Cicilia, to which it was corrected in bas and lb (for these editions see Introduction xxviii above). Cicero (Letters to Atticus 16.11) calls this man Athenodorus Calvus, ‘Athenodorus Baldhead,’ presumably a nickname. Erasmus’ translation suggests that his Greek text of Plutarch read Ôn ‘was a thief,’ or that he silently emended the reading ¾ ‘or,’ ie ‘a baldhead or a thief.’ With Ôn the word order produces a nice ambiguity: either Theodorus Baldhead was a thief, or Theodorus was a bald-headed thief. Augustus chooses the second interpretation. 137 (v) Plutarch Moralia 207c. Erasmus has omitted Plutarch’s sixth entry in Sayings of Romans for Caesar Augustus, which does not involve a saying or even a wise action. In margin ‘a remedy for anger‘

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the grounds of his increasing age, Augustus granted the request. But as he said goodbye, wanting to present Augustus with something to remember worthy of a philosopher, he said, ‘Caesar, do not say or do anything when you are angry until you have recited the twenty four letters of the Greek alphabet.’ The emperor clutched the philosopher’s right hand and said, ‘I still need you,’ and kept him for a whole year, uttering the Greek proverb, ‘There are safe rewards for faithful silence.’1 Either he approved the philosopher’s saying, because it was safe to control one’s anger and not let it escape in words, or because he thought it would have benefited the philosopher not to make this pronouncement when he was leaving.2 Yet such a beneficial precept deserved some magnificent reward. 138 When he heard that at the age of thirty-two after crossing most regions of the world Alexander had wondered what to do in the rest of his life, he expressed amazement that Alexander had not thought it more important to govern well the empire he had won, than merely to acquire a vast territory.1 In any case he was right to censure Alexander’s insatiable ambition, for thinking that a king had no other purpose than to extend the boundaries of his territory: for it is much nobler and more difficult to enrich the kingdom one has received with correct laws and virtuous morals than to add one kingdom to another by conquest. 139 Augustus passed a law against adulterers, establishing procedures to judge those accused of this charge and how they were to be punished if found guilty. Then in uncontrollable anger he assaulted a young man accused of ***** 1 Augustus attached great importance to two philosophers, Arius of Alexandria (cf 4.136 just above and 4.157 below) and Athenodorus of Tarsus. The ‘Greek proverb’ is in fact a line from Simonides (Bergk plg Simonides 66) also recalled by Horace (Odes 3.2.25f); cf Adagia iii v 3: Silentii tutum praemium ‘Safety is silence’s reward’ and cpg 2 Apostius 8.97. 2 There are various sayings on the value of holding one’s tongue. General Index: mouth, keeping shut frequently recommended. 138 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 207d. In margin ‘most important to preserve what has been won‘ 1 In contrast with Augustus’ adoptive father Julius Caesar, who despaired at not matching Alexander’s world conquest (see 4.203 below), Augustus pragmatically stressed the need to organize and administer his new empire; Augustus may never have made this comment, but it reflects his own actual policies. 139 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 207d. In margin ‘the ruler observant of the law‘

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having relations with Julia, Augustus’ daughter, and beat him up. But when the young man cried out, ‘You passed a law on this, Caesar,’ he was so remorseful that he refused to dine that day.1 It was a serious charge, and one committed against Caesar’s daughter. What prince would have controlled his indignation at this? Or who would have waited for the delays entailed by law and the courts? But this great prince was so ashamed that he punished himself for failing to obey in all respects the law he promulgated for others. 140 When he was sending his grandson (his daughter’s son), Gaius,1 to Armenia, he asked the gods that the popularity of Pompey, the boldness of Alexander, and Augustus’ own good fortune should accompany him. He wished for one man to have the exceptional blessings of each of these individuals. But what marked his unique modesty was that this man, distinguished in intellect, learning, and judgment, should attribute his own great achievements to fortune. 141 Augustus used to say he would leave the Romans a successor who never had to deliberate twice on the same problem, meaning Tiberius.1 142 Some upper-class young men of good standing in society were staging a ***** 1 Augustus tried to strengthen Roman family life and reproductivity by legislating in 18 bc both to regulate marriage and to punish adultery (ie extramarital affairs by or with wives; a husband could freely sleep with unprotected slave and foreign partners). After her second husband’s death, and abandoned by her third husband Tiberius, Augustus’ daughter Julia supposedly had adulterous affairs; however, this anecdote does not concern an adulterer, but, as Plutarch reports, a man slandered as having an affair with her. The man reminded Augustus that by his own law, a father could only punish an adulterer if he caught him in the act or if the man was prosecuted and convicted. 140 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 207e. In margin ‘prayer‘ 1 For Augustus’ adoption of his grandsons Gaius and Lucius as ‘sons,’ see 4.92 above with n2. 141 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 207e. In margin ‘ready counsel‘ 1 After the first two men Augustus had considered as successors died, he marked out his stepson Tiberius for the succession in ad 4. For Tiberius see 6.1–13 below 142 (x) Plutarch Moralia 207e. In margin ‘authority‘

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noisy demonstration. Augustus wanted to calm them but when they would not listen to him, but went on creating a disturbance, he said, ‘Young men, listen to an old one, whom old men listened to when he was young.’1 The fact is that Augustus entered public life as a very young man and held high authority. He disciplined them by this single comment and did not impose any other penalty for the riot they had stirred up. 143 When the Athenian people had, as it seemed, committed some offence he wrote from the city of Aegina,1 ‘I don’t think you have missed the fact that I am angry, for I have not come to Aegina to spend the winter.’ He neither said nor did anything else to them, thinking it enough to threaten them if they did not stop it. 144 When one of Euclides’1 accusers, exploiting his freedom of speech to the full and most tediously, was so carried away that he said something like, ‘If these don’t seem to you great offences, have him recite Thucydides’ seventh book to me,’ the emperor was offended, and ordered him to be taken away. But then he heard that he was the last of Brasidas’ descendants, so he sent for him and scolded him mildly before letting him go.2 145 When Piso built his house from the foundation to the roof-top with the greatest care, Augustus said, ‘You make me confident, Piso, building as though Rome would be eternal.’1 ***** 1 This seems to refer to the occasion (Suetonius Augustus 34.2) when Augustus had to deal with a protest of unmarried e´ lite men against being penalized for remaining bachelors. See 4.170 n1 below. 143 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 207f. In margin ‘clemency‘ 1 Aegina is an island not far from the coast of Attica. 144 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 207f. In margin ‘clemency‘ 1 Modern texts of Plutarch correctly name the man as Eurycles (possibly the Spartan who fought on Augustus’ side at the battle of Actium). 2 This is the fourth book of Thucydides as they are now numbered, which relates the achievements of the Spartan hero Brasidas. For Brasidas see 1.159–62 above. 145 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 208a. In margin ‘opportune interpretation‘ 1 There were several Pisos who held consulships under Augustus. It is possible this was Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, Augustus’ colleague in the consulship 23 bc, or his son Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso (consul 7 bc), the friend of Tiberius

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He was not offended by the extravagant display of the building, but what another might have thought suggested tyrannical ambition he turned into a happy omen for the empire of Rome. This is as far as Plutarch goes. 146 Augustus wrote a tragedy called Ajax and later, since it did not satisfy him, obliterated it with a sponge. So when Lucius the tragic poet asked him, ‘How was Ajax getting on?’ the emperor quite wittily said, ‘He has fallen on his sponge.’ He was referring to the plot of the play in which Ajax committed suicide by falling on his sword when he learns what he had said and done during his madness.1 147 When someone offered him a petition very timidly, now stretching out and now withdrawing his hand, Augustus said, ‘What, do you think you are giving a penny to an elephant?’ Children often give a very small coin to an elephant which it picks up with its trunk without hurting the boy’s hand, to the great admiration of the spectators. Likewise we see children putting their hands even into the gaping mouth of a bear, though they are frightened to do it. This excellent emperor didn’t like people to be afraid of him. 148 When Pacinnius Taurus1 asked him for a gift and reported that there was ***** who subsequently seems to have undermined if not also poisoned Germanicus on behalf of Tiberius. Certainly we know from the Senate’s decree of condemnation that this Piso had a magnificent house. 146 (xiv) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.2; Macrobius no doubt found this story in Suetonius Augustus 85.2. In margin ‘humorous‘ Except for 4.157–8 Erasmus now follows Macrobius’ collection of Augustus’ witticisms in Saturnalia 2.4 for 4.146–80. 1 Erasmus recalls Sophocles’ Ajax, which may have been the model of Augustus’ aborted Latin tragedy. The tragic poet is probably Lucius Varius Rufus, friend of Horace and Virgil. 147 (xv) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.3. Macrobius’ anecdote is also found in Suetonius Augustus 53.2. In margin ‘a ruler easy of approach‘ 148 (xvi) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.4. In margin ‘humorous‘ 1 The man’s name is given in Macrobius as Pacuvius Taurus. He was tribune in 27 bc.

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a common rumour that Augustus had given him a great deal of money, Augustus said, ‘Don’t you believe it!’ By this smart joke he implied he wouldn’t give anything. The man had thought that the emperor would help out his embarrassment, so that he would not be made fun of if the rumour was found to be false. But the emperor offered another solution, to let men say what they chose, provided that they didn’t persuade Pacinnius to believe a falsehood! 149 Another man, who was removed from his command of a cavalry squadron, actually dared to ask Augustus for a salary, with the argument that he was not seeking it for the sake of the money but ‘So that it may seem,’ he said, ‘that I have been granted a post on your recommendation, and so may be thought not to have been dismissed from my previous position but to have resigned from it.’ Augustus answered, ‘Tell everyone you have received it and I won’t put out a denial.’ If this petitioner was only prompted by the fear of disgrace, Augustus showed him a way of protecting his honour just as good as if he had received the money. 150 Caesar Augustus had ordered the vicious young man Herennius to leave his camp, and when he was dismissed he with weeping and supplication begged him with this appeal, ‘How can I face returning home, what shall I say to my father?’ The emperor said, ‘Tell him I did not meet your satisfaction.’ Since the young man was ashamed to admit that he had not satisfied Augustus, the emperor allowed him to reverse the saying and put the blame on him. 151 A soldier was struck by a rock on campaign and his forehead was disfigured by a conspicuous scar. Since he was marked by an honourable wound he boasted excessively of his deeds, so Augustus gently reproached his arrogance: ‘Take care,’ he said, ‘that you don’t look back any time you are running away.’ He hinted that it was possible that the man had suffered the wound which he kept bragging about in flight, and not in battle. ***** 149 (xvii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.5. In margin ‘an amusing way of refusing‘ 150 (xviii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.6. In margin ‘jocose‘ 151 (xix) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.7. In margin ‘witty‘

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152 Galba’s body was deformed by a hump, and the common gossip was that Galba’s mind was ill-housed.1 So when he was pleading before the emperor and kept saying, ‘Set me straight, Caesar, if you see anything in me to find fault with,’ Augustus replied, ‘I can bring it to your notice, but not set you straight.’ For what is criticized is set straight, and so is whatever is changed from being out of shape into the right shape. 153 When most of the defendants accused by Cassius Severus were discharged,1 and the man to whom Augustus had given the contract to construct his forum was keeping him waiting for a long time for the work, he said, ‘I only wish Cassius had accused my forum!’ He was playing on words, for a thing completed and man acquitted are both called discharged (absolutus): the architect discharges a contract and the judge discharges the defendant. 154 Once men felt great reverence for tombs and memorials, and the part of a field dedicated to a funeral monument was never tilled. So when Vectius, undeterred by any religious scruple, had ploughed up his father’s memorial, Augustus made a witty remark: ‘This is real cultivation of your father’s memorial.’ Again he was playing on words. For we cultivate (colimus) both what we worship and a field or suchlike. If would be a double pun if he had substituted memory for memorial, which I think is what he must have said. In fact we talk about the sacred remembrance of the deceased persons we reverence, and we call funeral monuments remembrances in imitation of the Greeks.1 ***** 152 (xx) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.8. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 Gaius Sulpicius Galba was an orator of moderate abilities. He was the father of Servius Sulpicius Galba who became emperor briefly in ad 68–9. Romans felt no inhibitions about jokes at the expense of deformed or crippled people; see many of Cicero’s witticisms reported below. ‘Galba . . . ill-housed’: added by Erasmus from Macrobius 2.6.3.; 6.242 below. 153 (xxi) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.9. In margin ‘humorous‘ 1 Cassius Severus was an eloquent, if dissident, speaker, historian and wit; his oratory is praised by Seneca the elder (Controversiae 3 pref. 2–7) and, with qualifications, Tacitus in the Dialogue on Orators 19.2, 26.14. 154 (xxii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.10. In margin ‘joke depending on ambiguity‘ 1 Erasmus has expanded on Macrobius’ two-liner with his explanation: Greek mnema can be used both of memory and of a physical memorial of the dead.

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155 When the report came to Augustus of Herod’s cruelty in having all boy children in Syria under two years old killed, including a child of his own, he said, ‘It is better to be Herod’s pig than his son.’ For Herod was a Jew and the Jews by a strange scruple refrain from eating pig’s flesh.1 156 Maecenas was esteemed for other qualities but was wanton in his style, often indulging in pretentious language and eccentric sentence structure. Augustus on the other hand used to say one must shun a strange word as if it were a reef.1 So when he wrote to others he used a plain style, but writing to Maecenas,2 whom he fondly loved, he used to imitate Maecenas, so extravagantly that in a letter in which he made many frank and wanton jests he ended with: ‘Farewell, my honey of the nations, my little gem, my ivory from Etruria, my spice from Arezzo, my diamond of the northwest, my pearl of the Tiber,3 my emerald of the Cilnei,4 my jasper of potters,5 my beryl of Porsenna,6 my precious jewel,7 in short, my mattress of adulteresses.’8 This is how Augustus mocked his friend’s affectations in writing. He used to jeer at his myrrh-soaked curls and call his far-fetched phrases and ideas ‘stinks.’9 He loved a correct and elegant diction which would express ***** 155 (xxiii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.11. In margin ‘cruelty‘ 1 This refers to the ‘massacre of the innocents’ ordered by Herod as ruler of Judaea. See Matt 2:16–18. The form of the joke resembles Diogenes’ jibe (3.224 above) that he would rather be a Megarian’s sheep than his child. 156 (xxiv) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.12 1 Erasmus has added this from Macrobius Saturnalia 1.5.2, but he has misremembered; it was said by Julius Caesar. 2 Augustus’ minister, the Etruscan nobleman Maecenas, was notorious for his effeminate lifestyle, and a famous letter of the younger Seneca (114) attributes his degenerate literary style, parodied in this intimate letter from Augustus (which Erasmus knew from Macrobius), to his way of life. 3 The joke here is that these places in Etruria did not produce these precious substances. 4 The Cilnei were Maecenas’ Etruscan clan. 5 Arezzo (Arretium, in Etruria) was famous for its red-glazed pottery. 6 Porsenna: the king of Clusium in Etruria who attacked Rome to restore the exiled Tarquinic Superbus 7 Macrobius’ text is corrupt here: carbuculum habeas Italiae, possibly ‘my jewel of Italy’ or ‘my jewel of the Adriatic.’ 8 Malagma, or with a variant reading allagma, ‘my reward of adulteresses.’ 9 Suetonius Augustus 86.1

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his meaning as clearly as possible. Nor did he spare Tiberius, who sometimes hunted out obscure and obsolete words. He used to abuse Antony for writing for admiration rather than comprehension. Indeed when he praised the intellect of his granddaughter Agrippina, he added, ‘But you must take care not to speak tiresomely.’10 157 After occupying Alexandria he spared many for the sake of the philosopher Arius, but he cast off Sostratus, a man of very ready tongue who offended the emperor by wanting to be thought an Academic philosopher without good cause. Then the man began to follow Arius around in mourning and with untrimmed white beard wherever he went uttering this verse: ‘Wise men save the wise if they are truly wise,’1 and by this subterfuge compelled Caesar to pardon him. 158 When Augustus was already over forty and was in Gaul, he was informed that L. Cinna, a young noble and Pompey’s grandson, was plotting against him; the information included when, how, and where they would make the attempt, for they planned to assassinate him while sacrificing. Augustus was already composing the decree of outlawry, but as he expressed out loud now this emotion, now that, Livia came in and said, ‘Do what the doctors do: when the usual medicines don’t work, they try the opposite. You have gained nothing by severity so far – pardon him instead. Now he has been caught Cinna cannot harm your life, only enhance your reputation.’ So he had Cinna brought in alone for interview and when he came in had a chair set for him. ‘My first request from you, Cinna,’ he said, ‘is that you don’t interrupt me as I speak; you will have a time to talk yourself.’ Then after mentioning his many kindnesses to Cinna – he had saved him when he was found in the enemy camp, he had granted him all his paternal inheritance, he had awarded him a priesthood – Augustus asked why Cinna thought he ***** 10 Augustus was a fastidious but plain stylist. Suetonius (Augustus 86.2) reports his criticisms of Tiberius and his enemy Mark Antony, and quotes (86.3) this private letter advising his granddaughter Agrippina to write without affectation. She was the daughter of Augustus’ daughter Julia. 157 (xxv) Plutarch Life of Antony 80. For Arius see 6.134 above. In margin ‘pardon extorted‘ 1 Erasmus added a translation of the (unidentified) Greek tragic verse (Nauck adespota fr 422: S—foi sofow sQzousin, ©n ãsin s—foi) only in 1532. 158 (xxvi) Seneca De clementia 1.9.1–9, abbreviated

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should be killed. Cinna was distressed, but Augustus finished his rebuke: ‘I am giving you your life for a second time, Cinna, first when you were my enemy and now when you are an assassin and parricide. Let friendship between us start today, and let us compete to see whether I show better faith in giving you your life, or you in owing it to me.’ Then he offered him the consulship. Do you want to hear the end of the story? He found Cinna a devoted friend all his life, and was made his sole heir, nor was he ever again the object of any murderous attempt by anybody. 159 It was Augustus’ practice never to refuse an invitation to dinner. So when he had been entertained by somebody with a very meagre dinner, almost everyday food, and was saying goodbye, he whispered in his ear just this: ‘I didn’t think I was such a close friend.’ Another man would have treated such scanty hospitality as an insult, but he avoided embarrassing his host as well, taking it as intimacy, and that in his ear, so that the others would not think Augustus had found fault with his miserliness. What could be more worthy of love than such courtesy in a monarch, whom scarcely thirty of our present kings put together could match? 160 He was going to buy some Tyrian purple cloth, but was critical of its dullness; however, when the seller said, ‘Hold it higher and look up at it,’ he retorted, ‘So do I have to walk in the gallery so that the Roman people will call me well dressed?’ 161 Augustus had an aide (nomenclator) who was very forgetful, although men in this position ought to have an exceptional memory. When he was going to the Forum he asked Augustus whether he had any instructions. Augustus said, ‘Take a letter of recommendation with you, since you don’t know anyone there!’1 ***** 159 (xxvii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.13. In margin ‘courteous‘ 160 (xxviii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.14. In margin ‘witty‘ 161 (xxix) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.15. In margin ‘a forgetful name-prompter‘ 1 This story plays on two Roman customs; that public men employed a ‘namesayer’ who stood at their shoulder and whispered the names of those approaching, and that the same kind of powerful man would issue letters of recommendation to inferiors travelling abroad where they were not known.

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Now the special function of name-prompters is to know the names and family names and rank and office of everybody, so as to prompt their masters when needed. This is the source of their title, compounded of Greek and Latin.2 162 Even as a young man Augustus scored brilliantly off Vatinius; for Vatinius was liable to gout but wanted to seem cured of the ailment, and was boasting that he could now walk a mile. ‘I am not surprised,’ said Augustus, ‘for the days are getting quite a bit longer,’ meaning that Vatinius was no more free from gout than before but the days were getting longer.1 163 When a Roman knight died it was discovered that he was so deeply in debt that he owed more than twenty million sesterces, a fact which he had concealed in his lifetime. So when his property was auctioned to pay off his creditors, Augustus ordered men to buy his bed-pillow, and when everyone expressed surprise he added, ‘I need that pillow to help me sleep, if he could enjoy sleep on it despite his enormous debt.’ In fact Augustus, because of his immense responsibilities, often spent part of the night unable to sleep.1 164 Once he came to the house where Cato of Utica had lived, and when Strabo in order to flatter Augustus condemned Cato’s obstinacy, blaming him for preferring suicide to acknowledging Julius Caesar’s victory, Augustus said, ‘Whoever does not want the current constitution of the state to change is a good man and a good citizen.’1 ***** 2 Erasmus derives the word nomenclator from Latin nomen ‘name’ and Greek kalein ‘to call.’ It is actually derived from the archaic Latin verb calare ‘to proclaim.’ 162 (xxx) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.16. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 The story of the ailing Vatinius’ boast is told again at 4.323 below) where he claims to have walked two miles, not one, and the jibe is attributed to Cicero. 163 (xxxi) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.17. In margin ‘pillow of the man in debt‘ 1 See Suetonius Augustus 78.1–2. 164 (xxxii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.18. In margin ‘weighty‘ 1 Cato ‘of Utica’ was a doctrinaire Stoic and fierce republican. He acted as the moral leader of the republican resistance to Julius Caesar, both during the decade from 59 bc and in the African campaigns after the defeat and death of Pompey in 48 bc. When the remnants of the republican army were defeated at

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With this one comment he protected Cato’s memory and his own position, discouraging any future attempt at revolution. For the current constitution does not just mean the one in force when Augustus spoke but also the constitution at the time of Julius Caesar’s assassination.2 That is, praesens in Latin relates to all three tenses, past, present, and future, as in, ‘He was not content with the current circumstances,’ or ‘current life’ meaning that being lived now, or ‘Let him drop it till the current time’ meaning ‘the appropriate time in the future.’3 165 Just as Augustus liked to make gentlemanly jokes against others, so he took in good part the jokes and retorts made against himself, sometimes rather too freely. A young man from the provinces once came to Rome so closely resembling Augustus that he attracted everyone’s attention. Caesar Augustus heard this and had him brought for interview, gazed at him, and then asked, ‘Tell me, young man, was your mother ever in Rome?’ He answered ‘No,’ and getting the point of the joke, retorted ‘but my father was often here.’ Augustus had jestingly cast suspicion on the young man’s mother, as if she had been seduced by him, but the young man immediately cast it back on the emperor’s mother or sister. For the facial resemblance could equally well make him out to be Augustus’ brother or nephew as his son.1 ***** Thapsus (in modern Tunisia) in 46 bc, Cato, who commanded the garrison at Utica, secured the safe conduct of those under his charge but famously took his own life rather than surrender to Caesar. Under the principate of Augustus and after, he was remembered as a martyr of the resistance to autocracy. This is one of a number of ancient stories designed to show Augustus’ respect for the republic and its supporters (cf 5.383–99 for sayings of the younger Cato). 2 For the current constitution . . . assassination: added in 1532. 3 That is, . . . in the future: added in 1535. The last example is from Horace Ars Poetica 44. 165 (xxxiii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.19–20. In margin ‘joking retort to the princeps‘ 1 Augustus’ parents were Gaius Octavius and Atia, Julius Caesar’s niece, daughter of Caesar’s sister. (Augustus was Caesar’s ‘son’ only by adoption, and in his early career was afraid of any rival like Cleopatra’s son Caesarion, claiming to be the actual child of Caesar.) The story is better left without Erasmus’ obfuscating ‘explanation.’ The anecdote implies that Augustus and the young man are step-brothers because they have the same father, either Augustus’ father or the young man’s. Either way one of the mothers is insulted. The young man coolly throws Augustus’ implied insult to his mother back at Augustus’

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166 In the triumviral period1 when Octavius, Lepidus, and Antony shared power, Augustus wrote Fescennine abusive verse2 against Pollio as a joke. Then Pollio commented, ‘I am keeping quiet, for it is not easy to write (scribere) against a man who can write you off (proscribere).’ This was how he commented on Augustus’ tyrannical power. But Augustus was not offended by his frankness. 167 A Roman knight called Curtius, who wallowed in luxury, was dining with Augustus and lifted a skinny thrush from his plate asking the emperor whether he might send it out, and when Augustus said, ‘Of course,’ immediately threw the thrush through the window. He was making a joke of the word’s ambiguity. For food from a dinner was sent out as a gift for friends, a Roman custom, but is also sent out when it is thrown away. And Augustus was not offended by this joke either. 168 He also paid off unasked the debts of a senator of whom he was fond, disbursing 4,000,000 sesterces on his behalf. When the senator found out, instead of thanking the emperor, he merely wrote ‘Nothing for me.’ He was jokingly protesting because Augustus had given money to all his creditors but none to him. A more ill-tempered person would have ***** mother. Macrobius calls the retort ‘a cruel jibe.’ Cf 6.275 below. Erasmus seems to reject any suggestion that Augustus himself might be the young man’s father although Augustus was well-known to be a serial adulterer and rapist; see Suetonius Life of Augustus 68–9. 166 (xxxiv) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.21. In margin ‘outspoken‘ 1 During the triumviral period of 43–33 bc (the so-called Second Triumvirate) Asinius Pollio had been an ally of Mark Antony, but withdrew from politics when Octavian broke with Antony. (Octavius, Octavian, and [Caesar] Augustus are successive names of the emperor Augustus.) He was older than Octavian and his seniority enabled him to remain politically neutral throughout the rest of his life. Compare 4.191 below on his hospitality to the dissident historian Timagenes. 2 Fescennine verses were an ancient Italian form improvised at triumphs or weddings. Our only examples are in eight-foot trochees (from Caesar’s triumph): they often led to an exchange of versified abuse similar to the hexameters of Virgil Eclogues 3. 167 (xxxv) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.22. In margin ‘uninhibited‘ 168 (xxxvi) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.23. In margin ‘ingratitude‘

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treated this joke as ingratitude, but the emperor was delighted by his confidence in their friendship. 169 Augustus’ freedman Licinus1 used to contribute generous sums to his patron when he started on a new building scheme. So when Augustus was about to begin a new building Licinus promised him 10,000,000 in writing. There was a gap left after the amount, which was indicated with a superscript symbol.2 The emperor exploited this opportunity to add another 10,000,000 to the sum which the freedman had written, carefully filling in the empty space himself and making sure the letters looked the same. So he received double the amount, and the freedman kept it quiet. But the next time Augustus began a new public work, the freedman gently drew his attention to this, with the following message, ‘Master, I am contributing for your new work whatever amount you wish.’ He did not name the amount, so that Augustus was free to write what he wished, since he had doubled the previous offer. 170 When Augustus was exercising the task of censor, a Roman knight was reported to him as having reduced his property. But when he was interviewed he proved he had increased it. Then he was accused of not marrying, although the law bade him do so. He then stated that he had a wife and was father of three children.1 But the knight was not content merely to ***** 169 (xxxvii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.24. In margin ‘witty protest‘ 1 This was the freedman Licinus, a Gaul whom Julius Caesar had made his steward. Augustus made him governor of Gaul, in which office he acquired a vast fortune by plundering his fellow-countrymen. He escaped punishment by contributing to Augustus’ building projects. Like Crassus, his name was synonymous with wealth. After Caesar’s death, he seems to have viewed Augustus as his patron (a title given by a freedman to a former master). 2 Macrobius says the superscript line, which indicated hundred thousands, had already been extended over the space, presumably accidentally. Augustus put figures in the space. 170 (xxxviii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.25. The next two anecdotes (4.171–2) also demonstrate Augustus’ tolerance of opposition in small matters, but in both cases from soldiers, who were to some extent privileged. In margin ‘frank speech based on innocence‘ 1 Augustus introduced legislation in 18 bc and ad 9 which, among other things, required all men between 25 and 60 to take wives and beget children, and penalizing those who did not conform. This was mainly aimed at the wealthy knights and upper classes. The begetting of three children brought certain

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be let off; he added as a reproach to the emperor’s credulity, ‘From now on, Caesar, trust respectable sources when you are investigating respectable men.’2 He made it quite clear that men who had told Augustus blatant lies were not decent men, and incidentally charged Augustus with entrusting his own responsibility to false informers. And Caesar forgave this frankness too in view of his innocence. 171 Augustus’ nights in a certain country house were disturbed because the cries of an owl spoilt his sleep. A soldier skilled in fowling undertook to catch the owl and brought it to Augustus hoping for a huge reward. Augustus thanked him and ordered him to be given only a thousand sesterces. The soldier had the nerve to say, ‘Then let it live’ and released the owl. Who would not be amazed that the soldier got away with such insolence? 172 When a veteran was threatened by a lawsuit, he openly went to Augustus and asked him to support him. The emperor immediately assigned a member of his staff and recommended the litigator to him. Then the soldier shouted out, ‘But when you were threatened in the Actium campaign I did not look for a deputy, but fought for you in person,’ and laid bare the scars of his wounds. Augustus blushed and came in person to support him in the suit, fearing to seem not only proud but ungrateful.1 173 At dinner he had enjoyed the chorus of the slave-dealer Turonius Flaccus, and gave them a gift of grain, although he usually gave others he listened to ***** rewards. (There was comparable legislation for women.) The legislation was not popular. See 4.142 n1 above. 2 It was the censor’s task to examine the finances and moral record of each member of the senatorial or equestrian e´ lite. Knights were required to own a specific amount of property. Augustus declined the title of censor, but exercised the censor’s function of scrutiny more than once. 171 (xxxix) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.26. In margin ‘emperor’s clemency‘ 172 (xl) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.27. In margin ‘emperor’s gratitude‘ 1 The battle of Actium, 31 bc, brought the final defeat of Antony and the end of the Second Civil War. 173 (xli) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.28

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large sums of money. When Augustus asked for them to perform again at dinner, Turonius excused them by saying, ‘They are busy grinding away.’1 This is how the man reproached him with the gift of grain. And he got away with this too, though it was a slave-dealer, not a soldier who said it. 174 When Augustus was returning exalted by the victory at Actium, a man appeared among those congratulating him with a crow which had been taught to say, ‘Hail victorious Caesar!’ Augustus was delighted by the greeting and bought the bird for 6000 sesterces. But the partner of the trainer, who had received no share in the gift, told the emperor that the man had another crow, and asked that he be forced to bring it. When it was brought in it said the words it had learnt, ‘Hail Antony, victorious general!’ Augustus was not at all angry, but ordered the gift to be shared with the informer.1 175 When he had the same greeting from a parrot he ordered its purchase: and impressed by the same trick in a jackdaw, he bought that too. This encouraged a poor tailor to train a crow to make this kind of greeting. But after he ran out of money, he often used to say to the bird when it didn’t reply: ‘I’ve wasted my effort and my money.’ Finally by persistence he succeeded in making the crow repeat the greeting as rehearsed. But when it greeted Augustus as he passed, he said, ‘I have enough greetings like that at home.’ Then the crow, remembering the other words it had heard so often said, ‘I’ve wasted my effort and my money.’ Augustus laughed and ordered the bird to be bought at a higher price than any of the previous birds.1 176 Some poor Greek or other adopted this method of trying to win over Augustus: whenever Augustus left the Palatine he would offer him an epigram in his honour. But when he had often done this in vain and Augustus saw he ***** 1 The point of the joke is that the musicians would have to grind their gift of grain before they could use it, but that grinding grain was itself a punishment for offending slaves. 174 (xlii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.29. In margin ‘leniency‘ 1 The word ‘informer’ in 1532 and 1535 replaces ‘partner’ in the first edition. 175 (xliii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.30. In margin ‘ingenious‘ 1 Erasmus has already told this story in Adagia i iv 62 Oleum et operam perdidi ‘I have wasted both oil and toil.’ 176 (xliv) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.31. In margin ‘forced generosity‘

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would not give up, he copied out a neat Greek epigram in his own hand and sent it to the Greek as he came to meet him, as if paying for poems with poems. The Greek took it and read it and not only praised the poem in words but expressed admiration and wonder by his voice and expression and gestures. Then he approached the litter in which the emperor was riding, put his hand in his poor wallet and fetched out a few coins which he gave to Augustus with these words: ‘This is not appropriate to your fortune, Caesar, but if I had more I would give it.’ When everyone laughed, Augustus called his steward and ordered him to pay out 100,000 sesterces to the Greek.1 The Greek did well by openly criticizing the emperor’s miserliness. 177 Julia Augusta once greeted her father and noticed he was offended by her provocative dress, although he kept quiet about it. So the next day she changed her costume before embracing her father. Then Augustus, who had concealed his discontent the previous day, could not suppress his delight. ‘How much more that costume suits the emperor’s daughter!’ he said. Then Julia replied, ‘Of course: today I dressed for my father’s eyes, yesterday for my husband’s.’ 178 Livia1 and Julia attracted everyone’s attention at a gladiatorial show because of the difference in their entourage. Livia was surrounded by dignified older men, Julia accompanied by rakish young men. When her father Augustus warned Julia in a letter to take notice of the difference between the two imperial ladies, she wrote back, ‘But these will grow old along with me.’ If you take this favourably it is witty, but if you take it ill, it could seem a wanton remark. 179 Julia also began to get grey hairs early, and Augustus coming unannounced caught the hairdressers plucking out his daughter’s grey hair, for one could ***** 1 Being Greek he spoke in Greek, which Erasmus both quotes and translates. 177 (xlv) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.5.5. The first of Macrobius’ set of stories about Augustus’ father-daughter relationship. Julia was Augustus’ only daughter by his first wife, Scribonia. See 4.92 n1 above. In margin ‘clever‘ 178 (xlvi) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.5.6. In margin ‘chosen companions reveal the mistress’s character‘ 1 Livia, Augustus’ last wife (from 39 or early 38 bc until his death in ad 14) was Julia’s stepmother. 179 (xlvii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.5.7. In margin ‘deliberate baldness‘

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see the hairs they had pulled out on their clothing. Augustus made no comment, but after and passing the time with other topics finally brought up the question of age. He took the chance to say, ‘In a few years would you rather be grey-haired or bald?’ And when she replied, ‘I’d rather be grey, father,’ he asked, ‘Then why are they working to make you prematurely bald?’ He proved her a liar by his witty retort. 180 When a serious friend urged Julia to model herself on her father’s thrift, Julia said saucily, ‘He forgets that he is emperor, but I remember I am the emperor’s daughter.’ 181 Two mime-artists1 were competing turn and turn about with their miming representations. Augustus said one was leaping about, the other was leaping in.2 He meant that one mimed too energetically, while the other did not seem to be miming, but to be obstructing the dancer. 182 When the people of Tarraco1 announced as a joyous omen that a palm tree had sprung up on his altar, he said, ‘It’s obvious how often you light a fire on it!’ They wanted to credit this to the gods, but he credited it to their negligence, because they never burned incense on Caesar’s altar. 183 When the Gauls presented Augustus with a gold torque1 of a hundred pounds weight, Dolabella,2 teasing him, finally carried his jest so far as to ***** 180 (xlviii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.5.8 181 (xlix) Quintilian 6.3.65; a run of extracts from Quintilian 6.3 follows. 1 The mime was a simple dramatic piece performed in mime to the accompaniment of words and music. See 8.192 below. 2 The joke is contained in the two rhyming words in Latin: saltator ‘dancer, leaper,’ interpellator ‘interrupter’; ie neither of them was truly miming. See 4.199 n1 below. Augustus seem to have been a connoisseur of the mime. 182 (l) Quintilian 6.3.77. In margin ‘flattery rejected‘ 1 The people of Tarraco (Tarragona) in Spain were among the first to request the right to have a temple of Augustus. 183 (li) Quintilian 6.3.79 1 The torque, a neck ornament of twisted metal, was a reward for valour. 2 This may be the Publius Cornelius Dolabella mentioned as Augustus’ companion in Plutarch Antony 84.1.

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say, ‘Commander, present me with a torque’ and Augustus said, ‘I’d rather give you the civic crown.’3 This was a witty way of repelling his shameless demand, for Dolabella had never served in a war, and so the civic crown was all the more fitting. This was usually made of oak and ilex leaves, as the triumphal crown is made of gold. Though the other crowns, for being first to enter the enemy camp, or being first to storm a wall, or for being first to board an enemy ship, are also made of gold. See on this Aulus Gellius book 5 chapter 6.4 But Augustus offered him the civic crown, which was more prestigious, as a joke. For Suetonius5 notes that Augustus was more inclined to give medals and torques and anything of gold or silver among military honours, than the crowns for mounting a rampart or a wall, which were superior in honour. If you do not know this, you miss the point of Augustus’ joke. (Though Suetonius disagrees with Gellius about the material of these crowns.) 184 When he had beautified and reinforced the city of Rome in many ways, and made it secure for the future as far as he was able, he used to say, in justifiable pride, ‘I found Rome a city of brick and leave it a city of marble.’ Nothing is more glorious for a prince than to improve the territory he has received. 185 A soldier was shamelessly asking a favour from Augustus. He saw Martianus approaching, whom he suspected of also being about to make an importunate request, so Augustus said, ‘My fellow soldier, I am no more going to grant your request than what Martianus is about to ask me.’ 186 There was a law that a man who killed his father should be sewn in a sack, but this penalty was only imposed on one who admitted it. To free a man ***** 3 The ‘civic crown’ or ‘crown of gallantry’ was awarded by a citizen to another citizen for saving his life in battle, and being made of twigs, cost nothing. Augustus had been awarded it by the Senate as the saviour of Rome. 4 Aulus Gellius 5.6 5 Suetonius Augustus 25.3 184 (lii) Suetonius Augustus 28.3. Erasmus now draws on Suetonius for 4.184– 99 (except for 4.185, 4.191, 4.192). In margin ‘a prince’s duty to beautify his realm‘ 185 (liii) Quintilian 6.3.95 186 (liv) Suetonius Augustus 33.1. In margin ‘leniency‘

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guilty of obvious parricide from this cruel penalty, Augustus asked ‘Of course you didn’t kill your father?’1 He thus offered the man a way of denying it. Such was the emperor’s leniency when trying cases. 187 He used to say that nothing was less suited to a perfect commander than haste and rashness, and often uttered the famous, ‘Make haste slowly, for a safe general is better than a bold one.’1 But we have said enough on this in our Adages. 2 188 When his wife Livia was asking the citizenship for a certain Gaul, he refused but offered him exemption from tax, saying that he would more easily allow a loss to his treasury1 than the cheapening of the honour of citizenship. Of course he preferred the good of the state to his private advantage. 189 When he was making a public speech and saw many in working clothes or ‘Greek clothes’ (which I think is the proper reading),1 he was indignant and cried out ‘Lo, here the Roman people, lords of the world, the togaed race!’2 He was so keen to restore old ways of life that he even regretted the change in dress and costume. ***** 1 For more on this penalty see Adagia iv ix 18: Culleo dignus, aut, Non uno culleo dignus ‘Fit for the sack, or One sack is not enough.’ Cf also 6.44 below. 187 (lv) Suetonius Augustus 25.4. In margin ‘make haste slowly‘ 1 Augustus’ famous words were in Greek, which Erasmus quotes without translating: Speœde bradŽvw / &Asfal|w g‡r \st' úme’nvn É yrasw strathl‡thw. 2 See Adagia ii i 1: Festina lente ‘Make haste slowly.’ There Erasmus recognized the quotation as a line of verse, but did not recall its source: Euripides Phoenissae 599. The first two words are not part of the quotation but were one of Augustus’ favourite sayings. 188 (lvi) Suetonius Augustus 40.3. In margin ‘status cheapened if shared with many‘ 1 Roman citizens were exempt from certain forms of taxation levied on inhabitants of provinces. 189 (lvii) Suetonius Augustus 40.5. In margin ‘dress‘ 1 Erasmus is proposing to change pullati ‘in dark work clothes,’ which he read in his text, into palliati ‘clad in the Greek pallium,’ though he does not propose this in his edition of Suetonius. Both forms of dress would be seen as incorrect as opposed to the formal toga, which was heavy and inconvenient and increasingly neglected. It was supposed to be worn at formal gatherings. 2 Jupiter’s proud title for the Romans, Virgil Aeneid 1.282

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190 When the people were complaining of the shortage and high price of wine, he said sufficient measures had been taken to spare men from thirst when his son in law Agrippa had extended several aqueducts.1 For Agrippa had a scrupulous concern to keep the city supplied with water. So Augustus austerely bade the people turn from wine to water. 191 Timagenes the historian had made many wanton accusations against Augustus, his wife, and his whole family, so the emperor advised him to use his tongue with more restraint. When he persisted in his abuse, Augustus simply refused the man access to his home. But Timagenes gave recitations of the books in which he reported Augustus’ achievements and then burnt them out of hatred for him, as if wanting to destroy the memory of his achievements. But although he was openly and persistently conducting a feud with the emperor no Roman citizen closed his doors to him, and he grew old in Pollio’s household. Yet Augustus never protested to Pollio, his enemy’s host, except that he once said in Greek Th¯eriotrofeis, that is, ‘You are feeding a wild animal (or a viper).’ Then when Pollio began to make excuses, Augustus cut in saying, ‘Enjoy him, Pollio, enjoy him.’ But when Pollio, still anxious, said, ‘If you bid me, Caesar, I will forbid him my house.’ Augustus said, ‘Do you think I would do that, when I was responsible for reconciling you two?’ For Pollio had been angry with Timagenes, and had no other reason for stopping being angry with Timagenes except that Augustus had started. The prince’s leniency took in good part the ill will of both men. 192 Augustus was dining with Atedius or Vedius Pollio, and when one of the slaves broke a crystal vase the order was given by Atedius for him to be seized and thrown to the lampreys. The slave took refuge at the emperor’s feet with no other request than that he should die some other way. Moved ***** 190 (lviii) Suetonius Augustus 42.1. In margin ‘frugal‘ 1 Agrippa had restored the existing Roman aqueducts as aedile in 33 bc and added two more, bringing abundant water for baths, fountains, and cisterns. 191 (lxix) The elder Seneca Controversiae 10.5.22 speaks of Timagenes as a dissident Greek historian, repudiated by Augustus and given a home by the elder statesman Asinius Pollio (cf 4.166 above). But the rest of Erasmus’ story follows closely the narrative of the younger Seneca De ira 3.23.3–5. In margin ‘admirable leniency‘ 192 (lx) Seneca De ira 3.40.1–3. Vedius Pollio was one of the wealthiest knights at the time, and an ex-slave himself. In margin ‘cruelty censured‘

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by this unprecedented form of cruelty, Augustus ordered the slave to be let go and all the crystal vases to be broken in front of him, and the fishpond to be filled with these instead of the slave. Then he rebuked his friend severely: ‘Do you order men to be executed and torn apart by a new kind of punishment at a dinner party? If your cup is broken, shall a man’s entrails be ripped open? Are you so pleased with yourself that you order a man to be executed in front of the emperor?’ 193 Once in a trial Aemilius Aelianus of Corduba was accused of many charges but especially of speaking ill of Augustus.1 The emperor turned to the accuser and said, ‘Prove it to me. I want Aelianus to know I too have a sharp tongue, and will say worse things about him in return.’ Making these threats was enough for him and he made no further investigation of Aelianus. 194 When Tiberius often complained irritably by letter about those who spoke ill of Augustus he wrote back telling him not to indulge his youth too much in this matter. ‘It is enough,’ he said, ‘if we have a situation such that no man can do us ill.’ 195 He never recommended his sons1 to the people except with this proviso: ‘if they deserve it,’ since he wanted honour paid not to his authority but to their merits. 196 He had sent into exile the two Julias, his daughter and grand-daughter, and later his grandson Agrippa as well, whom he had first adopted then disowned because of his mean and intractable nature.1 When any of these ***** 193 (lxi) Suetonius Augustus 51.2. In margin ‘mildness‘ 1 This man is otherwise unknown. 194 (lxii) Suetonius Augustus 51.3 195 (lxiii) Suetonius Augustus 56.2. In margin ‘modesty‘ 1 The traditional practice of leading men ‘commending’ candidates for office had become more like an automatic command with Julius Caesar’s dictatorship. These were Augustus’ adopted sons, Gaius and Lucius, sons of his daughter Iulia. 196 (lxiv) Suetonius Augustus 65.4. In margin ‘bad children‘ 1 Augustus himself was author, through his official denunciation to the Senate, of the general accusations of adultery against his daughter Julia, summarily exiled in 2 bc, and her daughter Julia the younger, exiled in ad 8. Julia’s

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were mentioned he used to say in the words of Homer ‘Would that I had lived unmarried and died childless.’2 He always called them his three abscesses or cancers. For he bore the deaths of his children better than their disgrace. Indeed in his will he laid down that if anything befell his daughter Julia and his grandchild, they should not be buried in his tomb. 197 Augustus resented anything being composed about him except in serious vein and by the best writers, and he urged the magistrates not to allow his name to be cheapened in the sketches of mimes and dancers, imitating Alexander the Great in this respect.1 It is right that the prince’s prestige be kept ‘windproof and watertight’ in all circumstances.2 198 There was an island near Capri where his court used to retreat in search of recreation, and he called it Apragopolis ‘Sans-Souci,’ because apragia in Greek means ‘freedom from business.’ 1 199 When he felt death coming on he called his friends in and asked them whether he seemed to them to have acted the mime of life nicely, meaning that the drama of his life was over, and then he uttered the usual envoi at the end of a comedy: Dote kroton, kai pantes h¯emeis meta char¯as ktup¯esate.1 ***** youngest son Agrippa Postumus was first exiled in ad 7 then murdered in ad 14 either by Augustus’ orders or by the decision of Tiberius. 2 a y& »felon Ägamow te mŽnein, Ägonow t'úpolŽsyai. Augustus changed the verb in the Homeric verse (Iliad 3.40), where Hector reproaches Paris, declaring that ‘you (Paris the adulterer of Helen) should have remained unwed.’ 197 (lxv) Suetonius Augustus 89.3. In margin ‘majesty of the name‘ 1 See 4.70 above. 2 Adagia iv v 37: Sarta teeta ‘Wind-proof and water tight,’ a legal term 198 (lxvi) Suetonius Augustus 98.4. In margin ‘leisure‘ 1 Suetonius reports that Augustus took recreation in the coastal resorts of Campania or its islands, mentioning Capri in chapters 72 and 92. His son Tiberius would move to Capri for the last eleven years of his reign as Emperor. 199 (lxvii) Suetonius Augustus 99.1 1 Although Augustus did not allow allusions to himself in mimes, he loved to watch them according to Suetonius, and on his deathbed treated his own life as a mime. See 4.181 above. The text of the Greek line appears to be corrupt. Erasmus did not translate it. The general sense is: ‘Grant your applause and all

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C. Julius Caesar 200 When Julius Caesar was fleeing from Sulla as a young man he was taken by Cilician pirates, and when they told him the amount they wanted from him for his ransom, he laughed at the pirates for not knowing whom they had taken and promised them double. Then when he was being kept under guard until the money arrived, he ordered them to keep quiet and not disturb his sleep. He used to recite to them the speeches and poems he composed, and when they did not admire them enough he called them stupid barbarians, and threatened with a laugh to crucify them, as he actually did. For when the money which the pirates had agreed for his release was delivered and he was set free, he hired men and ships in Asia and seized the pirates and nailed them up, but after he had cut their throats,1 so that his severity should not lack mercy. Wouldn’t you recognize in this the spirit of Alexander the Great, for whom nothing moderate was enough? 201 He was a candidate for the office of Chief Priest at Rome, and his competitor was Quintus Catulus, a man of the highest rank and power among the Romans. So when Caesar’s mother escorted him to the door, he said, ‘Today, mother, your son will either be Chief Priest or an exile.’1 He had a lofty nature, intolerant of any defeat. ***** beat your hands together with delight.’ This is the reading Erasmus adopted in his edition of Suetonius. 200 (i) Plutarch Moralia 205f–206a. Erasmus follows Plutarch Sayings of the Romans for 4.200–14 beginning with an anecdote from Julius Caesar’s youth. In margin ‘a lofty spirit‘ The date of this escapade is probably c. 75 bc, when Julius Caesar was about 25 years old. He had incurred the enmity of the dictator Sulla initially by his connection in marriage with Sulla’s defeated opponent Gaius Marius, though his life was spared. After failing to make his mark in Roman politics after Sulla’s death in 79 bc, he retreated to Asia (ie modern Turkey), ostensibly to study oratory (Suetonius Julius Caesar 4.1–2). Cilicia (in southern Turkey) was a notorious hide-out for pirates. 1 This detail added from Suetonius Julius Caesar 74.1. 201 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 206a. In margin ‘self-confidence‘ 1 This anecdote belongs to 63 or 62 bc. According to Suetonius Julius Caesar 13.2 Caesar’s debts incurred in bribing the voters (to elect him rather than the obvious candidate) would have forced him into exile, presumably as a bankrupt.

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202 He divorced his wife Pompeia because her reputation was damaged by allegations that she had had an affair with Clodius. But when Clodius was prosecuted on these grounds, and Julius Caesar was called as witness he said nothing against his wife. Then when the accuser asked, ‘So why did you divorce her?’ he replied, ‘Because Caesar’s wife must be clear even of suspicion.’ Besides the neatness of his reply one must praise its courtesy in sparing the reputation of his divorced wife. 203 When Caesar read the deeds of Alexander the Great he could not hold back his tears and said to his friends, ‘At my age now Alexander had defeated Darius, whereas I have done no glorious deed up to this day.’ Suetonius says this happened when he went on assizes as Praetor and saw a statue of Alexander the Great in the temple of Hercules at Gades.1 If only his temperament had driven him to emulate a moderate rather than a great prince! 204 When he was passing some chilly little town in the Alps1 and his friends were discussing whether even this place had political troubles and competition for leadership, he paused and thought for a while. ‘I would rather be first man here,’ he said ‘than second in Rome.’ This is what the poet Lucan says, that neither could Caesar endure a superior nor Pompey an equal.2 ***** 202 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 206a. In margin ‘courteous‘ On Caesar’s divorce see Suetonius Julius Caesar 6.2. Pompeia, granddaughter of Sulla, was Caesar’s second wife. The notorious Appius Claudius Pulcher (see 6.208 n1 below) had infiltrated Caesar’s official residence as Chief Priest disguised as a woman during the rites of the Good Goddess, restricted to women (see Plutarch Life of Caesar 10). 203 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 206b. In margin ‘ambition‘ 1 Suetonius Julius Caesar 7.1. Caesar was quaestor in Spain in 69–8 bc. He served as praetorian governor of Spain in 62–1 bc, but the earlier date fits better as Caesar was then 31. As the governor’s deputy he visited the four main cities of southern Spain to hear Assizes. Gades (Cadiz) had Greeks among its population and this may account for the statue of Alexander so far from the scenes of his exploits. For Darius iii see 4.47 above. 204 (v) Plutarch Moralia 206b. In margin ‘love of the chief position‘ 1 Caesar’s position as governor of both Northern Italy and Transalpine Gaul (Provence) required him to cross the Alps at the beginning and end of each season. 2 Lucan Bellum civile 1.125–6.

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205 He said of actions that are great but dangerous, that ‘one should do them and not hesitate about them,’ because speed is of the most importance in achieving them. For the weighing up of danger deters a man from boldness. 206 When he was marching from his province of Gaul against Pompey he crossed the river Rubicon and said, ‘Let every die be cast’ meaning that he was prepared to risk everything. This is the river dividing Gaul from Italy.1 207 When Pompey had left Rome and was in retreat to the sea, Caesar wanted to take the money in the treasury, but Metellus, the supervisor, resisted and closed it. Then Caesar threatened him with death. When this silenced Metellus with the shock, Caesar said, ‘Young man, it was harder for me to say this than it will be to do it.’ He meant that he could kill whom he chose with a nod, since he had armed cohorts with him.1 208 Caesar was waiting at Dyrrhachium for soldiers to be sent from Brundisium,1 and when this was too slow in happening, he took a small boat, unknown to everyone, and tried to cross the sea. But when the boat was sinking in the waves and the helmsman was despairing, he revealed his identity saying, ‘Trust in fortune, and know that you are carrying Caesar.’ Such was his presence of mind, as if he had fortune and the gods in his control. But on that occasion the storm got worse and he was prevented from completing his journey. And when his soldiers knew what he had done, they ***** 205 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 206b. In margin ‘boldness‘ 206 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 206c 1 Caesar’s unconstitutional invasion of Italy from his province took place in January 49 bc. The province of Nearer Gaul covered Northern Italy; the Rubicon was its boundary. This precipitated the First Civil War which ended with the defeat and death of Pompey, and Caesar’s emergence as sole ruler. See Adagia i iv 32: Omnem iacere aleam ‘To cast all the dice.’ 207 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 206c. In margin ‘the threats of the powerful‘ 1 Plutarch reports this incident also in his Life of Caesar 35.6–10. This is Lucius Caecilius Metellus, tribune in 49 bc. Tribunes traditionally defended the rights of the people. See 4.230 below. 208 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 206c–d. In margin ‘fearless spirit‘ 1 Brundisium in the heel of Italy (Brindisi), Dyrrhachium on the coast of Macedonia. At this stage in the Civil War Caesar had crossed to Macedonia in pursuit of Pompey, his army, and his Republican supporters.

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rushed to Caesar and took it badly that he was waiting for other troops as if he had no faith in them. 209 However when battle was joined, Pompey was victorious, but instead of following up his victory, he retreated towards the main force. Thereupon Caesar said, ‘Today the enemy had victory in their grasp, but they do not have a leader who knows how to make use of victory.’ 210 When Pompey drew up his line at Pharsalus and told the men to stay put and wait for the enemy, Caesar said that he had blundered in weakening by delay the force and impact and divine inspiration of spirits ready to charge. There was rivalry between Caesar and Pompey not just in the fortune of war but in the science of war. 211 When he defeated Pharnaces at the first encounter, he wrote to his friends, ‘I came, I saw, I conquered,’1 marking the extreme swiftness of the affair. 212 After the soldiers who followed Scipio into Africa had been put to flight1 and Cato, defeated, had killed himself at Utica, Caesar said, ‘Cato, I begrudge you that death of yours, since you begrudged me your preservation.’ Caesar thought it would contribute greatly to his renown if such a great a man had been defeated by him in war and owed his life to him. But Cato preferred an honourable death to being enslaved to anyone once the nation’s freedom had been destroyed. Hence Caesar begrudged the glory ***** 209 (x) Plutarch Moralia 206d. In margin ‘make use of victory‘ 210 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 206e. The Battle of Pharsalus in which Pompey was defeated decided the outcome of the Civil War. In margin ‘delay harmful‘ 211 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 206e. In margin ‘swift conclusion‘ 1 After the murder of Pompey in Egypt (see 4.251 below) Caesar was in 47 bc returning to Rome via Asia Minor (modern Turkey). He conducted a 5day (but hard-fought) campaign against Pharnaces ii, king of Pontus, and his victory occasioned this famous saying. The Latin version (veni, vidi, vici) comes from Suetonius Julius Caesar 37.2. 212 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 206e. In margin ‘love of glory‘ 1 The last phase of the Civil War was dragged out in the Roman province of north Africa where the remnants of the Republican forces re-assembled. Quintus Caecilius Metellus Scipio became supreme commander and died when fleeing after his defeat in the battle of Thapsus in 46 bc.

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of his death to Cato, because the other had begrudged Caesar the credit for saving Cato. 213 Some men suspected Antony and Dolabella and warned him to beware of them. But Caesar said, ‘I am not afraid of those red-faced stout men, but of those thin and pale ones,’ pointing at Brutus and Cassius. And his suspicion was not mistaken, for these men killed him.1 214 At dinner, when the conversation turned to the best kind of death, he unhesitatingly replied, ‘Sudden,’ and what he thought best was indeed the way he died. 215 Once in battle when the standard-bearer of the Martian legion had turned to flee, Caesar seized him by the throat and turned him round, and stretching his right arm towards the enemy said, ‘Which way are you going? The men we are fighting are over there.’ He set right one soldier with his hands but with his biting words dispelled the fearfulness of all the legions and taught those ready to be conquered how to conquer. 216 After the mime-writer Publius had defeated everyone on stage including Laberius, Caesar declared, ‘Though Caesar favoured you Laberius, you’re beaten by a Syrian.’ For Publius Syrus was a slave and a Syrian in origin.1 A man is left far behind if he is defeated even when the judge favours him. 217 When Caesar saw rich foreigners at Rome carrying round puppies and monkey whelps in their arms and petting them, he asked whether their ***** 213 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 206f. In margin ‘less to fear from fat men‘ 1 Cf Plutarch Life of Caesar 62 (adapted in Shakespeare Julius Caesar Act 1 scene 2). These are Mark Antony, later the Triumvir, and the shady Publius Cornelius Dolabella, at one time Cicero’s son-in-law, Tullia’s third husband. 214 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 206f. He was famously assassinated on the Ides of March 44 bc. 215 (xvi) Valerius Maximus 3.2.19 216 (xvii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.7.7–8 1 Decimus Laberius was a knight who wrote mimes. See 4.311 below. In a competition in extemporizing, Publius (or Publilius) Syrus (ie Syrian) defeated all comers, including Laberius. 217 (xviii) Plutarch Life of Pericles 1.1. In margin ‘children as monkeys‘

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womenfolk bore children. For he felt no puppies were sweeter than children. Plutarch tells the story in his life of Pericles, but he does not say which Caesar said this. I suspect it was Augustus.1 218 When he saw his soldiers were terrified as they awaited the enemy, he addressed the assembled troops, saying: ‘Know that in a very few days the king will be here with ten legions, 30 squadron of horse, a hundred thousand light infantry and 300 elephants. So let people stop enquiring further or guessing, and believe me who have the facts; or else I will set them on a very old ship and have them carried away by whatever wind blows to whatever shores.’1 This was a new method of dispelling panic, not by denying or reducing but by exaggerating the cause for panic, so that they would be sure of the serious danger and get courage worthy of it. 219 When men declared publicly that Sulla had resigned his dictatorship, but Caesar held his for life, which was little short of tyranny, he said, ‘Sulla didn’t know his alphabet, and so had resigned his dictatorship.’ The grammar teachers dictate to their pupils when they read out or recite what is to be written; it was alluding to this that he said Sulla did not know his alphabet.1 220 When Caesar was passing the tribunician benches in his triumph Pontius Aquila alone did not get up, and Caesar resented this so much that he declared, ‘Aquila, demand the republic back from me – tribune!’1 And after that he did not promise anything to anyone for days on end without adding the proviso, ‘that is if Pontius Aquila will permit.’ ***** 1 The sentiment better fits Augustus’ views on the importance of child-rearing. See 4.170 n1 above. 218 (xix) Suetonius Julius Caesar 66. For 4.218–24 Erasmus uses Suetonius Divus Iulius (Julius Caesar). In margin ‘courage generated by danger‘ 1 King Juba i of Mauretania supported the Republican side in the Civil War and fought alongside Metellus Scipio (see 212 n1 above) at the battle of Thapsus in 46 bc. 219 (xx) Suetonius Julius Caesar 77. In margin ‘power resigned‘ 1 The point surely is that Caesar thought Sulla a fool. 220 (xxi) Suetonius Julius Caesar 78. In margin ‘honour denied‘ 1 The tribunes were traditionally defenders of the rights of the people and had the power of veto (see 4.207, 4.222, 4.230). Pontius was later one of Caesar’s assassins.

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221 When the people flattered him by hailing him as King, he said, ‘I am Caesar, not King.’ He preferred his private name, rather than that of king which was seen as hateful.1 222 One of the crowd put a laurel crown bound with a white ribbon on Caesar’s statue; but when the tribunes pulled off the ribbon and ordered the man to be taken off to prison, Caesar rebuked them violently and stripped them of their power, and made the excuse, in case he seemed to be aiming at kingship, that they had robbed him of the glory of refusal.1 223 Since Caesar had enrolled many foreigners in the senate a notice was put up saying, ‘It is a good deed to show any new senator the way to the Senate house.’ The anonymous writer meant that these foreigners did not even know the way to the senate house unless they were shown it. 224 Someone wrote under Brutus’ statue1 ‘If only you were alive!’ because King Tarquin had been driven out thanks to Brutus. And they wrote the following verses on Caesar’s statue: ‘Brutus drove the kings away and so became the first consul; Caesar drove the consuls out and so became the last king.’ ***** 221 (xxii) Suetonius Julius Caesar 79. This story and 4.222 both come from the episode at the Lupercalia in 44 bc when Antony tried to present Caesar with a diadem. In margin ‘modest‘ 1 Caesar was originally a family name, like Cicero (see 4.280) eventually adopted by all emperors as a title and it becomes the normal title by which subordinates address the emperor. Since the expulsion of the kings in 510 bc (see 4.224 below) the governing classes had always reacted violently to the very word ‘king.’ 222 (xxiii) Suetonius Julius Caesar 79.1. In margin ‘excuse‘ 1 The popular gesture of crowning Caesar’s statue employed double symbolism: the laurel marked Caesar as having earned a triumph as commander, but the white ribbon was the diadem associated with Hellenistic kings. Hence the tribunes (who were defenders of the rights of the people against the powerful) pulled it down, and Caesar deposed them from office. 223 (xxiv) Suetonius Julius Caesar 80.2. In margin ‘jibe‘ 224 (xxv) Suetonius Julius Caesar 80.3. In margin ‘tyranny‘ 1 Brutus’ statue was the statue of L. Junius Brutus who drove out the Tarquins, the supposed ancestor of M. Junius Brutus who would kill Caesar. See 4.221 n1 above.

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225 When plots seemed to threaten on all sides and Caesar was warned to be on guard for his life, he said, ‘It is better to suffer once than always be on guard.’ He meant that a man who lives in constant fear of death is not really living. 226 After Caesar had reduced the Tigurini and was setting out for an allied city, he heard the Helvetii were approaching on his march and withdrew to a safe place. When he had gathered his forces and drew up a battle line they brought him his usual horse, but he said, ‘I’ll use him to pursue the enemy rout after the victory,’ and attacked the Helvetii on foot. 227 Caesar was now openly enacting many decrees by force and against the law when Considius, who was a very old man, said frankly that the senate was not assembling because it was afraid of Caesar’s weapons. When Caesar said to him, ‘Then why don’t you stay home for the same reason?’ Considius said, ‘Old age has made me fearless. When there is so little life left I have no reason to trouble myself much.’1 228 When the soldier Pomponius was displaying the wound he got in the face during the sedition stirred up by Sulpicius, and boasting that he suffered it fighting for Caesar, Caesar said, ‘Take care you don’t ever look back when you are running away.’ Macrobius credits a similar witticism to Augustus, but Quintilian to Caesar.1 ***** 225 (xxvi) Plutarch Life of Caesar 57.7. The remaining stories about Julius Caesar (4.225–35) are drawn from Plutarch’s Lives and other sources. In margin ‘a life of anxiety‘ 226 (xxvii) Plutarch Life of Caesar 18.2–3. This incident belongs to 59–49 bc, when Caesar held the command of the province of Transalpine Gaul (ie southern France and Switzerland), before he achieved supreme power in 48 bc. In margin ‘spirited‘ 227 (xxviii) Plutarch Life of Caesar 14.13–15. In margin ‘the boldness conferred by age‘ 1 Quintus Considius, a senator, was praised by Cicero for his integrity as a juryman (Pro Cluentio 38.107). 228 (xxix) Quintilian 6.3.75. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 Cf 4.151 above, told of Augustus from Macrobius Saturnalia 2.4.7; the story in Quintilian, here ascribed to Caesar (reference added in 1535), is not about

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229 Again when a witness, to exaggerate the wrong done to him, said that his thighs had been attacked with a sword by the defendant, Caesar said, ‘What else could he do, when you had a helmet and breastplate?’ He was well aware why the man’s enemy had chosen to attack that part of his body, but preferred to ignore this and make a joke instead. The breastplate and helmet cover everything except the thighs. 230 When Metellus resisted him to prevent him taking money from the treasury and quoted laws forbidding this, Caesar said, ‘The time for arms is not the same as the time for laws. If you can’t bear the situation, get away from here now, and when we have made treaties and put down our arms, then if you like you can play protector of the people.’ 231 He also used to say that he had the same policy towards the enemy as most doctors towards bodily illnesses, that they should be overcome by hunger rather than steel. For doctors do not resort to surgery until they have tried everything.1 (This is still the custom with the Italians, who prescribe starvation against every illness.) This is like the remark of Domitius Corbulo, that the enemy should be defeated with a builder’s adze.2 232 It generated great ill will towards Caesar that one of his envoys to Rome stood in the senate and when he heard the senate would not give Caesar ***** Julius Caesar but about another member of the gens, Gaius Iulius Caesar Strabo, as the reference to (Publius) Sulpicius (Rufus) shows. During his tribunate in 88 bc, there was violence as Sulpicius endeavoured to pass popular measures opposed by this Caesar and other conservatives. 229 (xxx) Quintilian 6.3.91. Cf 6.251 below. In margin ‘witty‘ 230 (xxxi) Plutarch Life of Caesar 35.6–7. Cf 4.207 above the same story from a different source. In margin ‘weapons pay no attention to laws‘ 231 (xxxii) Frontinus Strategemata 4.7.1–2. In margin ‘to win by starvation‘ 1 Cf 5.417 below on Scipio Aemilianus. ‘For doctors . . . everything’ was added in 1532. 2 The 1535 edition drops two sentences explaining the difference between the piecemeal demolition possible with an adze and the immediate impact of the axe (securis). 232 (xxxiii) Plutarch Life of Caesar 29.7. In margin ‘violence in place of legality‘

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his extension of office, struck his sword hilt and said, ‘But this will give it’ threatening the republic with violence.1 233 When Sulla won the praetorship, he threatened that he would use his office against Caesar. Then Caesar laughed and said, ‘You are right to call it your office, since you bought it with your money.’1 He was criticizing Sulla for buying that magistracy with bribery. 234 Marcus Tullius in the third book of ‘On Obligations’ (De officiis) writes that Caesar always had lines from Euripides’ Phoenissae on his lips, which Cicero translates as: ‘If we must violate the law, then for monarchy let it be violated; in all else observe piety.’1 235 When he sailed for Africa, he fell while disembarking, and turned the bad omen for the better, saying, ‘Africa, I hold you!’ Frontinus thinks it happened when he was embarking and said, ‘Mother Earth, I hold you.’ I suppose he was alluding to the fact that he was distressed by a dream in which he seemed to rape his mother, but the interpreters explained that it denoted rule over all the earth. ***** 1 Caesar wanted his military command in Gaul (see 4.226 above) extended while he manoeuvred for the consulship of 48 bc. The same story is more plausibly told of Octavian’s soldier demanding from the senate in 43 bc that Octavian be made consul unconstitutionally and without election. (Suetonius Augustus 26.1) 233 (xxxiv) Plutarch Life of Sulla 5.5. In margin ‘power purchased with money‘ 1 Again not about Julius Caesar, but an earlier member of the family, possibly the Caesar of 4.228 n1 above, who supported Sulla’s enemy, Gaius Marius. Sulla was praetor in 93 bc when Julius Caesar was seven. 234 (xxxv) Cicero De officiis 3.82. In margin ‘supreme power does not recognize the rights of piety‘ 1 Taken from a speech of the tyrant Eteocles from Euripides Phoenissae 524–5:

Eæper gˆr údike”n xr}, turann’dow per“ / K‡lliston údike”n, t& Älla d& e[sebe”n xreQn.

235 (xxxvi) Suetonius Julius Caesar 59. Cf Frontinus 1.12.1 which also quotes the alternative (1.12.2); for the dream, Suetonius Julius Caesar 7.2. The anecdotes about Pompey are all taken from Plutarch’s collection of sayings and his Life of Pompey except for 4.252.

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Pompey the Great 236 Gnaeus Pompey, known as Magnus, was as dear to the Roman people as his father had been loathed.1 While still a young man he devoted himself to the party of Sulla, and although he was not a magistrate or even a senator he drafted a large army from Italy. When Sulla summoned him, he said, ‘I shall not present to my commander-in-chief a force unbloodied or without spoils.’ And he did not come to him until he had beaten enemy commanders in many engagements. He already provided the model of an excellent prince born to high achievements. He did not want to contribute mere numbers, but a soldiery tested in valour. 237 When he had been appointed general and was sent by Sulla to Sicily, Pompey began to play the part of a just as well as an efficient leader. For when he found out that his soldiers were deviating from the route on their marches with acts of violence and theft, he executed those wandering and riding around irregularly; and when he sent his own scouts ahead he pressed the seal of his ring on their swords, so that they would not harm anyone on their route.1 ***** 236 (i) Plutarch Moralia 203b–c. In margin ‘a lofty spirit‘ ‘Pompeius Magnus’ (Pompey the Great) was Pompey’s preferred title, which he used to assimilate himself to Alexander the Great. (It was first given him by Sulla – Plutarch Life of Pompey 13.7 – but Pompey soon used it in his correspondence and orders. See 4.240 below.) He was early given military commands and backed by his successes and his armies held magistracies before the legal age. Between 67 and 63 bc he defeated Rome’s great enemy Mithridates and conquered most of the Middle East to add to Rome’s imperial revenues, notably clearing the eastern Mediterranean of pirates. Meeting resistance from the traditionalists in the senate he formed an alliance with Caesar and Crassus in 60 bc. He sealed this alliance by his marriage to Caesar’s daughter Julia, but after her death he broke with Caesar and accepted a mandate from the Senate to fight against his growing power at the beginning of 49 bc, the beginning of the First Civil War. Pompey was defeated when they met in battle at Pharsalus in 48, and fled to Egypt where he was treacherously murdered 1 For the unpopularity of Pompey’s father see Plutarch Pompey 1 and for Pompey’s early actions Pompey 6. 237 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 203c. In margin ‘soldiers doing no harm‘ 1 Pompey was sent to Sicily in 82 bc to fight Sulla’s political opponents, supporters of Marius, who had fled there after losing in battle to Sulla in Italy. See 4.254 below.

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238 Pompey ordered the Mamertines to be executed en masse because they had supported the enemy.1 But the leader of the community, Sthenius, came to Pompey saying, ‘You are not acting fairly, Pompey, in preparing to kill many innocent men on account of one guilty person. For I am the one who persuaded my friends and compelled my enemies to support the side of Marius.’ At this Pompey felt admiration for the man’s courage and said he pardoned the Mamertines, since they had been persuaded by a man who actually put his country’s survival before his own; so he set free both the community and Sthenius. You have in the case of Sthenius an instance of the spirit a leader should have towards the state if danger arises; in Pompey a model of forgiveness: he preferred to honour piety rather than gratify his anger. 239 After he made the sea-crossing to Libya against Domitius and had overcome him in a major battle, his soldiers saluted him as General, but he said he would not accept the honour as long as the enemy palisade stood firm. When they heard this the soldiers charged at the enemy camp, in the face of a heavy rainstorm, and took it by storm. He rejected an honour he had not fully earned. 240 It was when he returned from that victory that Sulla welcomed him with various honours and first bestowed the name Great upon him. But when Pompey was not content and wanted to hold a triumph, Sulla would not allow it, because Pompey was not yet a senator. However when Pompey remarked to those present that Sulla did not realize that more men reverenced the rising than the setting sun, Sulla cried out, ‘Let him triumph.’ ***** 238 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 203d. In margin ‘love of country‘ 1 The Mamertines were the inhabitants of Messana in north-east Sicily. 239 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 203d. In margin ‘deserved honours please‘ This is Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, consul in 87 bc, a supporter of Marius, who fled to Africa after Sulla’s victory. Pompey had him killed after the battle. See 8.157 below. It was possibly in this campaign that the title Magnus was first used, and later confirmed by Sulla (Plutarch Life of Pompey 13.8). See 4.240. 240 (v) Plutarch Moralia 203e. The two items 4.240 and 4.241 come from the same context of Pompey’s first triumph in 81 bc, in face of Sulla’s opposition. Erasmus has expanded the section with material from Plutarch Pompey 14.6–8, and Frontinus Strategemata 4.5.1. In margin ‘the rising sun‘

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He was afraid of the young man’s spirit and his glory which increased every day, and did not hesitate to give way to the man he saw could give way to no other. 241 Meanwhile Servilius, a distinguished conservative leader, was resentful that Pompey had been granted a triumph, and even the soldiers were protesting against the holding of the triumph, not from ill-will towards Pompey but because they wanted donatives, as if the triumph had to be bought from them with bribes. They said that otherwise they would pillage the money carried in the triumph, and so Servilius and Glaucia tried to persuade him to divide it among the soldiers rather than let it be plundered. But Pompey said he would sooner abandon the triumph than pander to the soldiers, and threw his laurelled fasces in their face, telling them to start plundering with these. Servilius said, ‘Now, Pompey, I can see you are truly Great and deserve a triumph.’ Pompey did not think a triumph was splendid unless it was offered for good deeds without canvassing and bribery. 242 It was the practice at Rome for cavalrymen who had served the due period to lead their horse into the Forum before the Board of Two, called censors, and list their campaigns and the generals under whom they had served, receiving praise or blame for their services. So when Pompey was consul he personally led his horse up to the censors Lentulus and Gellius, and when they asked whether he had fulfilled all the military obligations, he answered, ‘Yes, all, under my own command.’1 He meant that while he had served as commander he had still carried out effectively all the functions of a soldier. He was both a good general and a capable soldier: no higher praise can be given to any prince. ***** 241 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 203e–f. In margin ‘spirited‘ Publius Servilius Isauricus was consul at the time, 79 bc. (Servilius) Glaucia (praetor 100 bc) is a mistake (from Frontinus Strategemata 4.5.1). The other consul was Appius Claudius Pulcher. 242 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 203f–204a. In margin ‘soldier and commander both‘ 1 Pompey’s early career had broken the traditional pattern, so that he commanded an army, won triumphs, and was elected consul below the normal age and without ever having been elected to lower magistracies. The episode comes from 70 bc. The two censors were Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus and Lucius Gellius Poplicola.

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243 When he obtained possession of Sertorius’ dispatches in Spain, which included many letters from leading men inviting Sertorius to Rome to start a revolution and overthrow the constitution, Pompey burnt them all to give the disloyal a chance to repent and change their policy for the better.1 Now while this should be counted among his wise and moderate actions, I do not see why it is among his apophthegms. But then many such items occur in Plutarch’s collection of sayings.2 If Pompey had made known the men’s names they would have prepared open violence from fear of being punished. Again in treating the enemy’s correspondence with secrecy, he demonstrated what an offence it is to unseal other men’s letters or bring into the open something entrusted to you under seal. 244 Phraates king of Parthia sent envoys to demand that Pompey accept the Euphrates as the boundary of Roman territory, but he replied, ‘On the contrary, we should demand that justice determine the boundaries between the Romans and Parthians.’1 He meant that nobody should prescribe to the Romans how far they might extend their empire, and that neither mountains nor rivers should keep them from expansion; instead the only limit of Roman territory would be where they had no right to proceed further. 245 When Lucius Lucullus abandoned himself to pleasure and lived luxuriously after fulfilling his military duties,1 he used to reproach Pompey’s desire to be involved in many enterprises in a way out of keeping with his age. ***** 243 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 204a. In margin ‘merciful‘ 1 Sertorius (whose life Erasmus would know from Plutarch’s Sertorius) was a Roman supporter of Marius and enemy of Sulla, who broke away and successfully governed his own rebel territory in Spain. Pompey was sent there in 77 bc to suppress him. Sartorius was betrayed to Pompey by a subordinate and assassinated. 2 See Introduction xix and n11. 244 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 204a. In margin ‘justice determines boundaries‘ 1 Pompey’s retort to the Parthian king Phraates iii was made probably in 66 bc after Pompey’s defeat of King Mithridates, when he was settling various matters in the east of the Roman empire. 245 (x) Plutarch Moralia 204b. In margin ‘idleness disgraceful‘ 1 Lucius Licinius Lucullus had a distinguished military career, especially in the east. He was cheated of deserved recognition and retired from public life and thereafter became a by-word for luxurious living.

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Pompey retaliated that it was more out of keeping with Lucullus’ age for an old man to devote himself to indulgence rather than exercising command. This was a severe criticism of people who think old men should do nothing, whereas it is proper to die either governing the state or on their feet.2 In young men luxury and idleness are folly; they are an offence in old men. 246 When Pompey fell ill his doctor prescribed a diet of thrushes. But the men commissioned to find them said they could not be obtained, since they were out of season. Then another man said they could be obtained from Lucullus, since he reared thrushes all the year round. ‘Do you mean,’ said Pompey, ‘that Pompey could not live if Lucullus were not addicted to luxury?’ And he disregarded the doctor and fed on easily available foods.1 What a truly manly spirit! He could not endure even to owe his life to luxuries. 247 When there was a great shortage of grain at Rome, Pompey was given the title of Commissioner of the grain supply but was in reality made master of earth and sea.1 He sailed to Africa, Sardinia, and Sicily, where he forcibly gathered a large supply of grain and was in a hurry to return to Rome; but when a severe storm arose the captains refused to sail, so he entered the ship ahead of all and ordered the anchors aweigh, saying, ‘We have to sail: we do not have to live.’ He meant that one should consider the risk to one’s country not one’s personal safety. For it is glorious to die out of concern for relieving one’s country, but absolutely disgraceful that it should be deserted in time of need because of our cowardice. This reminds us that not only brute animals lose their liberty and are enslaved, but untamed men too can be tamed by hunger. At the same time we learn that personal safety should be second after public welfare. 248 When Pompey’s quarrel with Julius Caesar was already public, Marcellinus ***** 2 See 6.83 below on Vespasian. 246 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 204b. In margin ‘contempt for luxury‘ 1 See 4.245 just above for Lucullus’ luxury. 247 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 204c. In margin ‘country dearer than life‘ 1 This was in 57 bc, for five years. 248 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 204c–d. This is Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinas, consul in 56 bc. In margin ‘ingratitude‘

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(according to Plutarch, or Marcellus in other sources), one of those whom Pompey was thought to have promoted, transferred his support to Caesar and did not hesitate to make many attacks on Pompey in the senate. Pompey silenced him like this: ‘Aren’t you ashamed, Marcellinus, to curse the man whose favour turned you from a dumb fellow to an orator, and from a starveling to a glutton who cannot control your vomit?’ He severely reproached the man with ingratitude, for abusing his rank, authority, and eloquence to attack the man he should have thanked. For this is the most disgraceful kind of ingratitude, but only too common, alas! 249 When Cato was inveighing bitterly against Pompey because, while he himself had repeatedly said that Julius Caesar’s growing power would not benefit the people’s government, but tended towards tyranny, [. . .] Pompey replied, ‘Your words are more prophetic, Cato, but mine are more suited to friendship.’1 He meant that what Cato said was not sure to happen, because no man could clearly anticipate the outcome of human events, but he had followed the demands of his friendship with Caesar at that time.2 He knew what he owed to his friend, but he did not know whether he would be his friend or his enemy in future. However it is more civilized to hope well of a friend than foresee the worst. 250 Pompey would freely admit that he had obtained every magistracy he held before he expected to, and laid it down before others expected him to. That he won office early was a matter of luck, or youthful excellence, that he laid it down in good time marked his moderation in aiming not at tyranny but the good of the republic. 251 After the battle of Pharsalus he fled to Egypt, and when he was disembarking from his trireme into a little fishing boat sent by the Egyptian king, he ***** 249 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 204d. In margin ‘prophesying the future‘ 1 Erasmus’ text seems to have been faulty. The sense requires ‘but Pompey had taken a contrary stance,’ and in Pompey’s reply it should be, ‘Your words were more prophetic but mine were . . .’ See Plutarch Pompey 60.8. 2 Pompey had been Julius Caesar’s son-in-law in 59–54 bc. This exchange took place in 49 bc after Caesar crossed the Rubicon. 250 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 204e. In margin ‘moderation‘ 251 (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 204e

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turned to his wife and son and simply quoted these verses from Sophocles: Whoever betakes himself to a tyrant’s hall becomes his slave, although he freely came.1

He seems to have intuited his approaching death. When he climbed into the boat he was struck with a sword, and uttering just one sigh, covered his head and surrendered himself to be killed. 252 Weary of Cicero’s wit, Pompey used to say among his friends, ‘I wish Cicero would go over to the enemy, so that he would fear us.’ He was commenting on Cicero’s character which reputedly made him grovelling towards enemies but insolent towards his friends. This is how Quintilian reports Pompey’s saying: ‘Go over to Caesar and then you will fear me.’1 253 After his disastrous defeat fighting Julius Caesar, when he was reduced to extreme despair, Pompey came into his tent as if dazed, and said nothing but ‘Right into the very camp, then?,’ put on clothing appropriate to his misfortune, and fled in secret.1 254 When the uprising had been put down in Sicily and the cities that rebelled had been peacefully reclaimed, only the Mamertines demanded a hearing, citing laws that the Romans had granted them in the past. Pompey said, ***** 1 Sophocles, Nauck fr 789. Pharsalus was the decisive battle in the civil war between Caesar and Pompey. For the Greek words see the anecdote about Aristippus 3.160 above. 252 (xvii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.3.7–8. In margin ‘hurtful clever remarks‘ After 4.251, which finds Pompey at the moment of his assassination (in 48bc), Erasmus adds chronologically earlier anecdotes from other sources. Cicero was notorious for his wit, not always in the best of taste. See the selection given below at 4.280–320, especially 4.295–6, 4.301–2. 1 Quintilian 6.3.111 253 (xviii) Plutarch Life of Pompey 72.5. In margin ‘despair‘ 1 After Pompey’s defeat at Pharsalus, he retreated to his camp but Caesar’s troops began breaking in in large numbers. See 4.251 above. 254 (xix) Plutarch Life of Pompey 10.3. Erasmus has gone back to Pompey’s early career under Sulla, the context of 4.236–42 above (see especially 4.238). In margin ‘requests backed by weapons‘

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‘Stop quoting laws while you are wearing swords,’ meaning that men who wished to negotiate at law did not need swords.1 255 When he learnt from a dispatch of the senate that everything that Sulla had taken by force had been put under his official control by the centuriate assembly of the people, Pompey struck his thigh and said, ‘Alas, my dangers are never at an end: it would have been so much better to be born humble, if I shall never have a chance to step aside from military responsibilities, escape from this ill will, and live in the country with my wife.’ The inexperienced man seeks great power, but the experienced man shuns it; yet it is not safe to set it aside. 256 When some senators claimed they did not see how he would be able to oppose an attack from Caesar, he cheerfully told them not to be troubled about it, saying: ‘As soon as I strike the Italian soil with my foot, cavalry and infantry will spring up in plenty.’1 A ready reaction, if the outcome had matched it. Now if you have not had enough of this feast let us add some men of distinction from among the orators too. Phocion of Athens 257 Take Phocion first, an Athenian by race but Spartan in his integrity of char***** 1 Erasmus may have misread his text. Pompey says the Mamertines should not hope to negotiate with the Romans who have the swords. This is in line with other ‘might is right’ sayings (eg 4.207 and 4.232 above). 255 (xx) Plutarch Life of Pompey 30.6–7. This belongs to 66 bc, when Pompey was given supreme command in the Third Mithridatic War in Asia (modern Turkey). The dictator Sulla had previously had some military successes there, but much was left unfinished. (See 4.244 n1 above) Pompey had already fought successfully in Sicily (4.238), Africa (4.239), and Spain (4.243). In margin ‘weary of glory‘ 256 (xxi) Plutarch Life of Pompey 57.9. In margin ‘misplaced confidence‘ 1 Pompey’s confident assertion made shortly before 49 bc proved unwarranted. He had a considerable personal following in Picenum in eastern Italy. 257 (i) Plutarch Moralia 187e and 187f (Sayings of kings and commanders). In margin ‘pithy brevity‘ The fourth-century Athenian statesman Phocion, famous for his integrity, defended the interests of Athens as far as he could, and though opposed to Macedonian ambitions, saw that they could not be resisted entirely for practical

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acter and concision of speech. He resembled Socrates in this, that he never seemed to weep or laugh, such was his self-control.1 Now someone said to him as he sat at an assembly, ‘You seem thoughtful, Phocion?’ ‘You are right,’ he said, ‘I am working out whether I can subtract anything from what I am going to say to the Athenians.’2 Other men are anxious to say as much as possible, so as to seem eloquent: he had a different concern, that is, to express what was relevant in the fewest possible words. 258 When an oracle was given to the Athenians that there was one man in their city who opposed their common will, the assembled people cried out to have the man searched out. But Phocion revealed himself saying, ‘I am the man the oracle means. For I alone dislike everything that the crowd does or says.’ What would you admire first in this, his fearless nature, or his generosity, which did not allow suspicion to fall on some innocent man, or his exceptional wisdom, which perceived that the untrained crowd does not do or say anything sensible because it is moved by emotion? 259 One day Phocion was speaking to the Athenian assembly and pleased them all; but when he saw his speech met with general approval he turned to his friends: ‘What happened?’ he said. ‘Did I accidentally say something wrong?’1 He was absolutely convinced that nothing which was based on sound judgment pleased the crowd.2 ***** reasons. He therefore opposed the violently anti-Macedonian policies of the orator Demosthenes, and this often did not please the Athenian crowd. He was condemned to death in 318 bc supposedly for giving Antipater of Macedon access to the Piraeus, although innocent of either conspiracy or corruption. Because he was an austere Stoic later Stoics made him into a kind of hero and Plutarch presents him as a counterpart to Cato of Utica by juxtaposing their lives. 1 This was one of Socrates’ most noteworthy characteristics: Cicero De officiis 1.90; 3.59 above 2 Phocion’s desire to make his speech concise is in the Spartan tradition of brevity (Laconism); see General Index: Laconismus, Laconic speech. 258 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 187a. In margin ‘nothing that the crowd does is sensible‘ 259 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 188a 1 The same story is told of others in Diogenes Laertius 6.5 and 8 (7.57 and 7.69 below). 2 Cf Adagia iii i 32: Panidis suffragium ‘The judgment of Panides.’

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260 When the Athenians asked the citizens for the customary contributions for an approaching sacrifice, and everyone else contributed, Phocion was called on repeatedly, but he said, ‘I’d be ashamed to add my share to yours and pay nothing back to him,’ pointing to his creditor. Many people think money well spent if it is spent on temples and sacrifices and feasts for the gods, but that observant man realized that it was much holier to pay back to your creditors. What would he think of those who cheat their wife and children and heap up royal structures for priests, and spend much of their wealth on feeding such men’s idleness? 261 The orator Demosthenes said, ‘The Athenians will kill you, Phocion, if ever they go mad.’ To which he replied, ‘Yes, they’ll kill me if they go mad, but you if they return to their right mind.’1 For Demosthenes usually spoke to win popular favour, with arguments more welcome than salutary. 262 When the informer Aristogeiton had been condemned and was in prison awaiting execution, he asked Phocion to visit him, but his friends would not let him go. Phocion said, ‘When else would anyone rather talk to Aristogeiton?’ He wittily reversed his friends’ case, meaning that he was not going to play patron to the criminal but to enjoy his well-deserved downfall. 263 The Athenians were angry with the Byzantines for refusing to admit Chares who had been sent with a force to help their city against Philip. Phocion had said they should not get angry with their allies for being mistrustful, but with the leaders for being untrustworthy, and so was himself elected ***** 260 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 188a. In margin ‘use what is left for sacrifices‘ 261 (v) Plutarch Moralia 188a. In margin ‘smart retort‘ 1 Phocion opposed Demosthenes’ anti-Macedonian attitude which he had persuaded the Athenians to support. Plutarch Moralia 811a (Precepts of statecraft) gives this exchange to the orator Demades (see 4.271 below) who also opposed Demosthenes on this. 262 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 188b. In margin ‘a pleasure to visit the wicked in prison‘ Aristogeiton was considered a sycophant and a demagogue, with a coarse vehement style of oratory. He was attacked by Demosthenes in two extant speeches. 263 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 188b. In margin ‘confidence in a leader‘

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leader. Because the Byzantines trusted him, he made sure that Philip left without accomplishing his purpose.1 He blamed the mistrust of the Byzantines on the leader Chares, because Chares did not seem a man it was safe to trust. It is a mark of proper caution to mistrust an untrustworthy man: but they did not hesitate to trust themselves to Phocion as a man of established good repute. 264 Alexander, king of Macedon, sent a hundred talents to Phocion as a gift, but Phocion asked those who brought it why, when there were so many Athenians, Alexander had sent the gift to him alone? They answered, ‘Because he thinks you the only honourable and good man.’ ‘Then he should let me not only be thought to be such a man, but actually to be one,’ he said.1 How cleverly he grasped and twisted their argument into grounds for refusing the gift. Who would not be impressed by the integrity of his pure heart? Phocion was poor, but indifferent to the greatness of the gift. At the same time his action shows that statesmen who do not abstain from accepting gifts are not good men and should not be thought such. 265 When Alexander demanded that the Athenians provide him with triremes, and the assembly called on Phocion by name to come and deliver his advice, he rose and said, ‘My advice is that you either defeat them in war, or make friends with the victors.’ In brief he urged them to deny nothing to Alexander unless they were sure they could overcome him in war when he was angered with them. But if they thought him superior in fighting power, they should not provoke a spirited young ruler who would be intolerant of a refusal. 266 A rumour of unknown origin had arisen that Alexander was dead, and soon speakers were leaping up to urge the Athenians not to delay but instantly ***** 1 In 339 bc, Philip was blockading Byzantium which had detached itself from Philip and shifted its allegiance to Athens. For Chares see 5.205 n1 below. 264 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 188c. In margin ‘corruption by gifts‘ 1 Phocion had always proposed a conciliatory attitude to both Philip and Alexander. See 4.265 below. 265 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 188c. In margin ‘the same policy had to be adopted with the Turks‘ 266 (x) Plutarch Moralia 188d. In margin ‘precipitate advice‘

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launch a war. Phocion told them to wait until they had surer information, saying, ‘If he is dead today he will still be dead tomorrow and the day after.’ His thoughtful advice restrained the speakers’ headlong rashness. 267 When Leosthenes had provoked the Athenian state into war, stirring it up it with grandiose hopes of liberty and pre-eminence,1 Phocion said his words were like cypresses, which are lofty and beautiful but bear no fruit. Nothing could be more appropriate to a speech making splendid fancy promises but barren of fruit; just as the cypress with its lofty and pointed top seems from a distance to promise some fine thing, but scarcely any tree is more barren.2 268 However when the first phases of the war went well, and the city was thanking the gods for news of success, Phocion was asked whether he regretted what had happened. ‘I am indeed glad that this has happened,’ he said, ‘but I still wish the other decree had been passed.’ He felt that even ill-advised decisions sometimes turn out well, and when this happens the state was to be congratulated, but that did not excuse not making the best decisions on all occasions. Perhaps Phocion also realized that one should not immediately rely on early successes, but the outcome of the whole campaign will reveal the quality of the initial decision.1 269 When the Macedonians invaded Attica and ravaged its coastal regions, Phocion led out the young men in their prime. Many of them ran up to him urging him to seize a certain hill and station his force there. ‘O Hercules,’ he said, ‘how many leaders I can see, and how few soldiers.’ Thus he criticized the rashness of youth which tried to dictate to its leader: but the soldier’s task is not to give advice but offer good service when it is demanded. ***** 267 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 188d. In margin ‘splendid promises but empty‘ 1 Leosthenes urged Athens to join in the wars for Greek liberation after Alexander’s death in 323 bc, which they did in spite of the dissuasion of Phocion and Demades. 2 Cf Adagia iv iii 10: Cyparissi fructus ‘The fruit of the cypress.’ 268 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 188d. In margin ‘the best decisions should be taken‘ 1 The war went well at first, but Antipater (see 4.269 n1 just below) and Craterus (another of Alexander’s successors) defeated the united Greek forces led by Athens and Aetolia at Crannon in 322 bc. 269 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 188e–f. In margin ‘a soldier’s duty‘

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Yet when they engaged in battle he won, and defeated Micion the Macedonian commander. But shortly after, the Athenians were conquered by Antipater, and received a garrison.1 270 Later, when Menyllus, the garrison commander, wanted to bribe Phocion, Phocion was indignant and said Menyllus was no better than Alexander; now he had a worse reason to take such a bribe than when he had refused it before.1 O what a spirit, which no one’s gifts could take by storm! 271 Antipater used to say that of his two friends in Athens, he had never been able to persuade Phocion to take a bribe, nor to satisfy Demades with giving.1 This Demades was brilliant in extempore oratory, whereas Demosthenes never spoke except from a written text.2 272 Phocion told Antipater when he asked him to do something contrary to justice as a favour to him, ‘Antipater, you cannot enjoy Phocion as a friend and as a toady too!’1 A friend gives help as far as right and justice allows. Nor should any true friend request something unjust from his friend. But a toady will oblige him in anything. 273 When the Athenian assembly was clamouring for Phocion to lead a force ***** 1 For Antipater see 2.52 n1 above, 4.271–2, 4.274, 5.113–4 below and Index of Classical Persons. The Athenian success against a junior commander was followed by Antipater’s own attack and their surrender, resulting in the imposition on Athens of a Macedonian garrison and the exile of Demosthenes and Hyperides, another prominent anti-Macedonian politician. 270 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 188f. In margin ‘unbribable character‘ 1 See 4.264 and 2.69 above. 271 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 188f 1 See 4.261 n1 above. 2 See 6.382 below. Plutarch actually says that Demosthenes always prepared very carefully, but was in fact a great extempore speaker (Plutarch Moralia 848c). 272 (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 188f 1 This is a favourite citation of Plutarch’s: Moralia 64c (How to tell a flatterer), 142b (Advice to bride and groom), 533a (On compliancy); Life of Agis and Cleomenes 2.4. 273 (xvii) Plutarch Life of Phocion 24.3–4. See 4.267–8 above.

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into Boeotia, and Phocion thought this would not be in the interest of the state, he proposed that everyone in the city from the new recruits to the men of sixty should follow him. When the older men protested and made an excuse of their age he said, ‘There is nothing absurd in my proposal, since I myself am eighty and will set out as leader along with them.’ This clever rejoinder quenched the momentary ardour of the crowd. 274 After the death of Antipater,1 when the Athenian state returned to popular government, Phocion was condemned to death in an assembly. His other friends who were condemned with him, were led off weeping but Phocion went in silence. When one of his enemies met him, he insulted him and spat in his face. Then Phocion looked back at the magistrates and said, ‘Will not someone control this man in his indecent behaviour?’ This holy man took thought for public order even on the point of death. He did not complain of such a savage insult, or demand revenge against the man who illegally assaulted a condemned man, but merely ordered suppression of an example contrary to good manners, and called a disgusting act nothing worse than improper behaviour. 275 One of those condemned to die with Phocion was indignant and lamented his misfortune. Phocion consoled him with these words: ‘Isn’t it enough, Euippus (or as some read Thoudippus)1 to die with Phocion?’ Phocion was not only innocent but had served the state well, yet was being led to execution. So it should have been a great comfort to die innocent with this innocent man. 276 Finally when he was offered the cup of blended hemlock, someone asked ***** 274 (xviii) Plutarch Moralia 189a. In margin ‘acceptance‘ 1 After Antipater’s death, in the new power struggle between Alexander’s generals, Polyperchon, the Macedonian governor, encouraged a democratic revolution at Athens and Phocion (now eighty years old: see 4.273 just above) was condemned by the new popular r´egime for his past cooperation with Antipater. 275 (xix) Plutarch Moralia 189a 1 Thoudippos in Plutarch Phocion 36.3 276 (xx) Plutarch Moralia 189a–b. This is the last saying of Phocion in Plutarch’s collection of Sayings of kings and commanders. Erasmus now adds some further apophthegms from his Life of Phocion. In margin ‘rejection of vengeance‘

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if he wanted to say anything to his son, for his son was present.1 He said, ‘My son, I recommend and even beg you to have no ill feeling towards the Athenians when you remember this matter.’ The hope of vengeance used to be a particular comfort to others at their death, but he took thought that his son should not avenge his father’s undeserved death, and preferred him to observe piety towards his country rather than towards his father. 277 Nicocles begged to be allowed to take the poison before Phocion. ‘That is hard,’ said Phocion, ‘but I must grant it to one to whom I never denied anything in life.’ For Phocion loved Nicocles, his most faithful friend, with a special love, and so it was distressing for him to watch Nicocles die. It was to avoid this same distress that Nicocles asked to be allowed to drink first. In this too Phocion obliged his friend. 278 When they had all drunk, and only Phocion was left, the poison had been used up by his friends and the executioner refused to give him any unless he paid twelve drachmae, for that was the price of an ounce of hemlock. So to prevent the man’s insistence delaying his death he summoned one of his friends and said, ‘Since we aren’t allowed even to die free of charge at Athens, please give him his price.’ 279 When Demosthenes made a savage attack on Alexander who was already threatening Thebes,1 Phocion reproved him with a verse of Homer from book one of the Odyssey:2 ‘you wretch, why do you choose to enrage the savage man?’ ***** 1 Erasmus’ text has interpolated, ‘for his son was present’ but both Plutarch’s Sayings of kings and commanders and his Life of Phocion 36.2 imply that the friend was offering to take a message. 277 (xxi) Plutarch Life of Phocion 36.5. In margin ‘friendship‘ 278 (xxii) Plutarch Life of Phocion 36.7. In margin ‘dying paid for‘ 279 (xxiii) Plutarch Life of Phocion 17.1. This anecdote was added in 1532. 1 Erasmus goes back some years, to Phocion’s reproach of Demosthenes before Alexander attacked Thebes in Boeotia in 335 bc. See 4.57 above. 2 Not Odyssey 1, but from 9.494. Erasmus quotes and translates the Greek: sxŽtlie, t’pt& \yŽleiw \rey’zemen Ägrion Ändra.

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M. Tullius Cicero 280 Marcus Tullius was assailed with wisecracks because of his name, Cicero, and was advised by his friends to adopt another name. Instead he replied that he would make the name of Cicero more glorious than that of a Cato, a Catulus, or a Scaurus. For these were particularly distinguished families among the Romans, whereas Tullius was a new man.1 And his name was open to jests because it was thought to derive from the chickpea, a very cheap form of pulse. As if the Fabii too didn’t apparently get their name from faba ‘bean’ and the Lentuli from lens ‘lentil.’ A man is not very distinguished if he has nothing noble except his name and ancestral images; but the best kind of nobility is won by each man through his own merits. And Cicero was not mistaken. For his name is more celebrated today than three hundred Catuli or Scauri, with all their family trees, statues, and images. 281 When he was dedicating a silver cup to the gods, he marked his name and forename in letters, but instead of Cicero he inscribed the outline of a chickpea, not afraid of the comment of scoffers. 282 Cicero said that orators who shouted when they made a speech were like lame men, since they resorted to shouting as lame men took to horses. ***** 280 (i) Plutarch Moralia 204e. Erasmus returns to Plutarch’s Moralia 204e–205f Sayings of Romans for 4.280–300. In margin ‘nobility won by virtue‘ Marcus Tullius Cicero was Rome’s greatest orator and an honourable statesman, if ultimately unable to resist the power of the triumvirs and maintain senatorial government by consensus. Cicero recognized the many failings of Pompey and the republican side, but supported them until Caesar’s victory forced him to retire from politics, only returning to resist Antony and support Julius Caesar’s heir Octavian after Caesar’s death. He was assassinated by order of the triumvirs in 43 bc. 1 For Cato, Catulus, and Scaurus, see Index of Classical Persons. Erasmus expands on Plutarch’s first saying, adding to the ‘chickpea’ of Cicero’s family cognomen parallel cases of aristocratic clans named after beans (the Fabii) and lentils (the Lentuli). The family trees, statues, and images (imagines, wax death masks) were all associated with previous members of each clan who had held public office, but Cicero’s family had held no office at Rome, which made him a ‘new man.’ Cf 8.29 below. ’Chickpea’ perhaps because the first to be called Cicero had a nick in the end of his nose (Plutarch Cicero 1.4). 281 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 204f. In margin ‘“chickpea” instead of “Cicero”‘ 282 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 204f. In margin ‘bawling orator‘

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You can meet men like this nowadays, who resort to frenzied bawling when they feel weak in their case, so that since they cannot persuade by argument they may extort agreement by shameless browbeating. 283 Verres1 had a son who abused his youth in perversion, so when Verres assailed Cicero with insults to the effect that he was unmanly and perverted Cicero said, ‘You don’t seem to know what kind of reproaches should be kept for sons behind the closed doors of the home.’ He meant that this particular taunt did not apply to himself, but to the son of the man who had made it. Now it is the duty of parents to scold their children, but inside the walls of their home, not to take such accusations out of doors. For a man who charges others with what his own sons do at home is bringing his scandals out of doors. 284 Metellus Nepos accused Cicero of causing the deaths of more men by his evidence than he had saved by his advocacy:1 ‘Yes,’ said Cicero, ‘because I have more credibility than eloquence.’ This was a splendidly clever twist to his own credit. For in a witness his credibility is the issue, in an orator, his eloquence. 285 Again when Metellus kept asking Cicero who his father was (taunting him for his family’s lack of distinction), Cicero replied, ‘What makes that a rather difficult question to answer is the mother – yours.’ For Metellus’ mother had a bad reputation. And Metellus himself resembled his mother, fickle and inconstant and a slave to his emotions. Cicero transferred the insult from father to mother. For the father is unknown when a mother has relations with more than one man. 286 When the same Metellus put a stone crow on the tomb of Diodorus, his ***** 283 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 204f. In margin ‘smart retort‘ 1 Verres was the corrupt provincial governor prosecuted in 70 bc by Cicero for extortion from the Sicilians. See 4.290 below. 284 (v) Plutarch Moralia 204f–205a. In margin ‘insult turned into praise‘ 1 This is Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos, an aristocrat, who as tribune in 62 bc caused trouble for Cicero and became consul in 57. 285 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 205a. In margin ‘smart retort‘ 286 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 205a. In margin ‘witty‘ Plutarch calls the teacher Diodotus in the Sayings of Romans, but, correctly,

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former teacher of eloquence, Cicero said, ‘He gave him a fair reward. For he taught Metellus to flap about, not to speak,’ implying criticism of Metellus’ fickle inconsistency.1 The crow is a bird unblessed by the muses.2 287 Cicero had heard that his enemy Vatinius, a most evil fellow, had died, and when he discovered he was still alive he said, ‘May the man perish horribly who deceived us so horribly!’ meaning that Vatinius did not deserve to go on living. For every lie is bad, but that lie was twice as bad, because it threw good men into false rejoicing. But his comment was ambiguous, because it could also be said about someone you don’t want to die. 288 Cicero was pleading once and a man believed to be of African stock said, ‘I don’t hear that,’ (meaning that he did not approve what was being said). ‘That’s odd,’ said Cicero, ‘your ear has a hole in it.’ For that nation usually had ears pierced to hang earrings and jewels, such as we now wear around our neck and on our fingers. Celsus explains how these holes are made.1 289 Gaius Popilius wanted to seem a legal expert, although he was ignorant and ***** Philagrus in his Life of Cicero (26.11), which also records Metellus’ inability to stick at anything (26.10). 1 See 4.285 just above. 2 Cf Adagia i vii 22: Graculus inter Musas ‘A jackdaw among the Muses.’ 287 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 205a–b Vatinius will be the butt of several more anecdotes below (4.323 and 4.324). As tribune in 59 bc he had proposed several radical bills to the assembly for Caesar, and would later appear as a hostile witness in the prosecution of Cicero’s client Sestius in 56. Cicero as defence counsel savaged him verbally and published the proceedings as the ‘Interrogation of the Witness Vatinius’ (In Vatinium). But after being compelled by Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus to defend him on a charge of bribery, Cicero found Vatinius a grateful friend. See 4.338 below. 288 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 205b 1 Afer ‘man of African stock’ probably means Carthaginian. See Plautus Poenulus 981 for Carthaginians wearing rings in their ears and Celsus 7.8.3–4 for the enormous holes caused by wearing heavy earrings. But pierced ears could also imply a slave origin. 289 (x) Plutarch Moralia 205b. In margin ‘knowing nothing‘

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stupid, and once when he was summoned as witness in a case he answered that he didn’t know anything. Then Cicero said, ‘Perhaps you think I am asking you about the law?’ 290 The orator Hortensius was given a silver sphinx as reward for his defence of Verres. So when Cicero was speaking allusively and by implication, Hortensius said, ‘I haven’t learned to solve riddles.’ ‘That’s odd,’ said Cicero, ‘you have a sphinx at home.’1 Everybody knows the story about the monster called the sphinx, which proposed riddles for a reward, but if men failed to solve them the reward was death.2 291 When he happened to meet Voconius, accompanied by his three exceptionally ugly daughters, he surreptitiously muttered a Greek verse to his friends: ‘though Phoebus scarce allowed he sowed his brood.’1 Cicero meant that he had begotten children against the will of Apollo, either because Apollo is represented as beautiful by poets or because men think luckier children are conceived when the sun is rising. 292 When Sulla’s son Faustus put his furniture up for sale because of his enormous debts, Cicero said, ‘I think better of this posting than of his father’s.’ He was making a pun. For things are posted in an auction, and men were posted, for anyone to kill. This was the cruel way Sulla ‘posted’ great numbers of citizens.1 ***** 290 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 205b–c. In margin ‘a sphinx at home‘ 1 Cicero’s oratorical rival Hortensius received the gift of a (stolen) sphinx from Verres (the rapacious governor of Sicily) in return for his defence of him on charges of extortion. Cicero was speaking for the prosecution. 2 Oedipus solved the riddle and destroyed the sphinx before his return to Thebes. See Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus 391–8. 291 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 205c. In margin ‘ugliness disparaged‘ This is possibly Quintus Voconius Naso, mentioned by Cicero at Pro Cluentio 53.147; he may have held the office of praetor, but nothing else is known of him. 1 Fo’bou pot& o[k \™ntow Áspeiren tŽkna. This tragic fragment may come from Euripides’ lost Oedipus (Nauck adespota fr 378 ). Erasmus both quotes the verse in Greek and translates. 292 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 205c. In margin ‘joke depending on ambiguity‘ 1 Proscribere simply meant to post a public notice; Faustus’ father, Sulla, the dictator, had used such postings (the infamous ‘proscriptions’) to put a price on the head of his political enemies. See 8.116 below.

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293 When Pompey and Caesar quarrelled, Cicero said, ‘I know whom to flee but not whom to follow,’ meaning that both leaders were fighting not for the freedom of the republic but for domination. 294 He blamed Pompey for deserting the city in imitation of Themistocles rather than imitating Pericles,1 although his situation was quite different from Themistocles’ and like Pericles’. For Themistocles fled to the Persians, but Pericles stayed in Athens.2 295 When he came to join Pompey1 and regretted coming, he was asked where he had left his son-in-law Piso: ‘He is with your father-in-law’ he said, meaning Caesar.2 Just as Cicero was being criticized for being dissociated from his sonin-law, he retaliated by criticizing Pompey for waging war with his fatherin-law. ***** 293 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 205c. In margin ‘neither party pleases‘ 294 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 205c 1 When Pompey abandoned first Rome then Italy as Caesar’s troops advanced early in 49 bc, Cicero and others saw this as cowardice and betrayal. When Athens was under attack by an overwhelming Persian force, Themistocles persuaded the Athenians to abandon the city in order to man their fleet (cf Herodotus 5.135–59), which then won the battle of Salamis. Pericles too faced a superior force of Spartans and their allies at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, but persuaded the people of Attica to withdraw within the city walls and stand siege. Pompey, like Themistocles felt that mastery of the sea was decisive, but in Themistocles’ case one small city was facing the might of the Persian Empire. The Spartans were a more equal foe, even if having the upper hand at the time. (Cicero Letters to Atticus 10.8.4). 2 This is out of place here. It refers to a much later period in Themistocles’ life when he was exiled. See 5.149 below. 295 (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 205d. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 This and the next witticism are among the bitter remarks made by a disillusioned Cicero when he joined Pompey and the republican nobles in Epirus. 2 Son-in-law . . . father-in-law: Pompey had married Caesar’s daughter Julia as his fourth wife, and was spoken of as Caesar’s son-in-law, even after her death in 54 bc. But both Plutarch and Erasmus have named the wrong son-in-law of Cicero; Piso was already dead, and it was Cicero’s third son-in-law, Dolabella, who sided with Caesar in the civil war (correctly named in Macrobius Saturnalia 2.3.7).

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296 When a deserter from Julius Caesar to Pompey said he had left his horse behind in his haste, Cicero said he had made a better choice for his horse than for himself, meaning he himself would have done far better if he too had stayed with Caesar. 297 Someone reported that Caesar’s friends were gloomy.1 ‘Do you mean that they are not on good terms with Caesar?’ he said. Cicero laughed at the flattering message, which intended to imply that the Caesarians were discouraged and feared Pompey. 298 When Pompey was in flight after the engagement at Pharsalus, Nonius said there were still seven eagles left, and urged them to have confidence. ‘You would be quite right,’ said Cicero, ‘if we were fighting starlings.’ But the other man meant eagles in the sense of Roman standards bearing eagle emblems.1 299 When Julius Caesar, having gained supreme power, honoured Pompey by restoring the statues that had been pulled down, Cicero said, ‘In restoring Pompey’s statues, Caesar adds permanence to his own.’ He meant that Caesar was not doing this for Pompey’s sake, but to win good will with his fellow citizens by the pretence of clemency, and so strengthen his domination. 300 Marcus Tullius Cicero was so concerned to speak well, and paid such anxious devotion to this, that when he was going to speak before the Court of a Hundred, and the day was approaching, he set free his slave Eros for announcing that the hearing had been postponed to the next day. And someone has put this too among the apophthegms, although it is not one.1 ***** 296 (xvii) Plutarch Moralia 205d. In margin ‘shrewd‘ 297 (xviii) Plutarch Moralia 205d. In margin ‘interpretation‘ 1 The war was going well for Caesar at the time. 298 (xix) Plutarch Moralia 205e. In margin ‘fighting starlings‘ 1 Again Cicero mocked the republicans who wanted to fight on after the defeat of Pharsalus. Seven eagles implied seven legions. 299 (xx) Plutarch Moralia 205e. In margin ‘pretended clemency‘ 300 (xxi) Plutarch Moralia 205f. In margin ‘concern to speak well‘ 1 See Introduction xix n11 above, and dedicatory epistle 8–9 above.

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301 When Cicero came to Pompey’s camp and they said, ‘You have come late,’ he replied, ‘Far from it, for I can see nothing is ready here.’1 This was a reference to those who arrive at a party late. There is wordplay based on ambiguity, for the man who comes reluctantly is late, and so is the man who arrives after the proper time. 302 Pompey gave Roman citizenship to a Gaul who had deserted to him from Caesar. Cicero commented, ‘A fine fellow, to promise foreign citizenship to Gauls, when he can’t restore our own citizenship to us.’ 303 After Julius Caesar’s victory when Cicero was asked why he had misjudged his choice of side, he said, ‘I was deceived by the way he dressed,’ (meaning that he had not expected victory to side with a namby-pamby effeminate).1 For Caesar wore his toga trailing one end like effeminate men: that is why Sulla used to warn Pompey to beware of the sloppily dressed boy. 304 Again when he was dining with Damasippus, his host had served a mediocre wine and, wanting to recommend it to the guests for its age, said, ‘Drink this Falernian, it’s forty years old.’ Cicero said, ‘It carries its age well!’ This is how we usually talk about a man who has not lost much of his good looks and strength with age. But it was absurd to praise wine for its excessive age. 305 When Cicero saw Lentulus Dolabella, his son-in-law, wearing a long sword although he was a little man, he said, ‘Who tied my son-in-law to a sword?’ ***** 301 (xxii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.3.7. From here Erasmus starts a run of Cicero’s witticisms drawn from Macrobius’ collection in Saturnalia 2.3. In margin ‘nothing ready‘ 1 Cicero hesitated a long time before throwing in his lot with Pompey. See 4.293 above. 302 (xxiii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.3.8. In margin ‘open reproach‘ 303 (xxiv) Plutarch Moralia 205d. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 Cf 4.331 below. 304 (xxv) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.3.2. Iunius Damasippus: the bankrupt art connoisseur who appears in Horace Satires 2.8. In margin ‘old wine‘ 305 (xxvi) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.3.3. In margin ‘disproportionate‘

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It looked as though the man was attached to the sword, not the sword to the man.1 306 He once saw his brother Quintus’ likeness depicted on a shield in the province which he had governed, representing his head and shoulders as was customary, but on a huge scale. He said, ‘Half of my brother is greater than the whole,’ for Quintus was rather short.1 307 When Cicero’s daughter Tullia walked more briskly than suited a woman, but his son-in-law Piso more casually than became a man, Cicero criticized both of them when he said to his daughter in front of her husband, ‘Walk like your man.’1 308 Vatinius was consul for a few days1 and Cicero mocked him by saying, ‘There was a great portent in Vatinius’ year, for while he was consul there was no winter or spring or summer or autumn.’ For a whole year is defined by these seasons, each of which lasts three months. I don’t know if this is the same joke told differently by Pollio in Marius the Tyrant.2 A man who was consul for six hours in the afternoon was also the butt of Cicero’s wit: he said, ‘We have such a severe and censorious consul that during his consulship nobody lunched or dined or even slept.’ But perhaps this refers to Caninius Rebilus.3 ***** 1 This is Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Dolabella, Cicero’s third son-in-law, who went over to Caesar. See 4.295n above. 306 (xxvii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.3.4. In margin ‘joke against a short man‘ 1 Cicero’s brother Quintus governed the province of Asia from 62–60. Magistrates were often honoured with statues and reliefs, in this case his bust (head and shoulders) depicted on an ornamental shield. 307 (xxviii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.3.16. In margin ‘walking appropriately‘ 1 It is difficult to translate this pun. It means both ‘walk like your husband’ and ‘walk like a man.’ Gaius Calpurnius Piso Frugi was Tullia’s first husband from 63–57 bc. 308 (xxix) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.3.5 1 On Vatinius see 4.287 above. He was made consul by Caesar’s nomination in December 47 bc. 2 See 6.172 below, from Trebellius Pollio, one of the supposed authors of the Historia Augusta. See Introduction xix above. 3 See 4.310 below.

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309 Again when Vatinius protested that Cicero had been unwilling to visit him when he was sick, Cicero said, ‘I wanted to come during your consulship, but night came on too soon.’ This may seem a retaliation, for previously when Cicero was boasting that the republic had carried him on her shoulders,1 Vatinius had asked, ‘So how did you get your swollen veins?’ For varicose veins trouble the legs of men who stand or walk, not men who sit. 310 Caninius Rebilus was consul for only one day,1 and when he went up to the public platform he entered on his office and uttered the oath of departure at the same time.2 Cicero is supposed to have said of him ‘Caninius is a consul logothe¯or¯etos.’3 And he made this other witticism against the same man: ‘Rebilus scored a record, that men would ask under which consuls Rebilus was consul.’ For they used to date the years by the names of consuls, and Rebilus was indeed consul, but did not have a year. Again he said, ‘We have a very wakeful consul, for he never saw a moment’s sleep in his whole consulship.’ 311 Julius Caesar co-opted many senators unworthy of the rank, including Laberius, the Roman knight who became a mime player. So when Laberius passed Cicero looking for a seat in the senate, Cicero said, ‘I would have made room for you, if I were not already sitting squeezed up.’ Thus he both repulsed Laberius and joked against the new senate, since Caesar had increased its numbers beyond the proper amount.1 But Laberius did not ***** 309 (xxx) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.3.5. In margin ‘Vatinius’ remark attacking Cicero‘ 1 As Macrobius says, this refers to Cicero’s triumphant return from exile in 57 bc. 310 (xxxi) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.3.6. In margin ‘a brief consulship‘ 1 Gaius Caninius Rebilus, was appointed by Caesar for the last day of the old consular year in 45 bc, when one of the consuls died suddenly. Rebilus had held military commands on Caesar’s side in the Civil War and this was his reward. See 4.308 above. 2 Roman consuls swore that they had acted correctly before they stepped down from their office. 3 Erasmus does not translate the Greek word. Possibly it means ‘apprehended by the intellect alone.’ 311 (xxxii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.3.10. In margin ‘straddling two seats‘ 1 Laberius was never a senator but a knight and composer of stage mimes whom Julius Caesar compelled to appear on stage in his own works. This automatically demoted him from his status as a knight, but Caesar at the end of the performance restored him to his former rank. Laberius immediately made his way through the senators sitting at the front of the theatre to find a seat in the

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let this wisecrack pass without retaliation: he said, ‘I am surprised you are cramped, for you usually straddle two seats,’2 reproaching him with fickleness, because he had adhered with slippery loyalty now to one side and now the other. 312 When Cicero’s host Titus Manlius asked him to get the position of decurion for his stepson, he said in front of a crowd of citizens, ‘If Pompey is in control it will be difficult,’ criticizing Caesar’s readiness to co-opt new members to the senate.1 313 When Cicero was greeted by Andron of Laodicea, he asked why he had come to Rome. Andron said he had been sent as an envoy to Julius Caesar to obtain liberty for his city. Then Cicero said in Greek, making open allusion to the public enslavement: ‘If you win your request, be envoy also for us!’ or, ‘plead for us also.’1 314 When Marcus Lepidus said in the senate, ‘Conscript, not to say circumscript, fathers,’ Cicero said, ‘I wouldn’t have put such stress on the homoioptoton.’1 ***** fourteen rows reserved behind them for knights, but they would not let him in because he had been disgraced. Cicero, sitting in the senatorial seats, made this joke at the overcrowding caused by Caesar’s new senators. See 4.216 above. 2 Cf Adagia i vii 2: Duabus sedere sellis ‘To sit on two stools’ 312 (xxxiii) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.3.12. In margin ‘joke by implication‘ 1 Erasmus it seems had a faulty text. It is not Pompey but the town of Pompeii that is in question. The decurionate was a municipal office and according to Macrobius Cicero replied that, thanks to Caesar’s arbitrary treatment of election to office, ‘At Rome, if you wish, he will have it; at Pompeii it’s difficult.’ 313 (xxxiv) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.3.12. In margin ‘liberty oppressed‘ 1 \ˆn \pitux_w, ka“ per“ =mvn prŽsbeuson. Cicero’s joke points to the request of the Greek envoy for free status for his city of Laodicea as paradoxical, since Caesar has deprived the Romans of the same liberty. Cicero had enjoyed this man’s friendship during his pro-consulship in Cilicia (southern Turkey) in 51–50 bc, and no doubt he was hoping for Cicero’s support. See Cicero Ad familiares 13.67. 314 (xxxv) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.3.16. In margin ‘unsatisfactory use of figure of speech‘ 1 This is ultimately Macrobius 2.3.16, but the text does not make much sense and no satisfactory emendation has been proposed. Erasmus has tried to heal it by introducing a joke based on Quintilian 9.3.72: ne patres conscripti videantur

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For Lepidus aimed at the figure of words with the same ending, which rhetoricians call homoioptoton. But it would have been better to sacrifice the figure rather than offend the senate. However, these words are really less a homoioptoton than a prosonomasia, ‘a play on names’2 which is more pleasant than the other figure. 315 When a candidate for office who was thought to be a cook’s son was asking for another man’s vote in front of Cicero, Cicero said, ‘I too [quoque] will support you.’ From this we infer that coce from cocus and the adverb quoque have either the same or a similar sound.1 316 When Milo’s accuser argued on the basis of timing that Milo had planned to assassinate Clodius,1 and then kept asking when Clodius was killed, Cicero said, ‘Late,’2 indicating by this ambiguous word that it would have benefited the republic if Clodius had been killed much earlier. 317 When Vatinius’ death was announced to Cicero, but the source of the rumour was uncertain, Cicero said, ‘Meanwhile I will enjoy it on loan,’ meaning that ***** circumscripti, ‘so that the conscript fathers are not circumscript.’ ‘Conscript fathers’ (meaning ‘enrolled’ or ‘registered’) was the formal title of the senators and the usual way of addressing the assembled body. Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, the speaker, became one of the Second Triumvirate in 43 bc. As he was the third most powerful man in Rome there would be an edge to such a remark. 2 The proper term for this kind of wordplay (adnominatio in Latin) is paronomasia, a frequent error in Erasmus.

315 (xxxvi) Quintilian 6.3.47. Erasmus now cites a number of Cicero’s witticism from the collection in Quintilian 6.3. In margin ‘joke depending similarity of words‘ 1 This pun cannot be reproduced in English. The pronunciation of quoque ‘also, too’ was like coce a vocative, ‘O cook.’ 316 (xxxvii) Quintilian 6.3.49. In margin ‘too late‘ 1 In this famous case Cicero unsuccessfully defended his friend Milo, whose slaves had killed Cicero’s great enemy Clodius after a brawl on the Appian Way. Cicero claimed that Clodius was lying in wait for Milo. Although the encounter was probably accidental, Clodius was wounded and was then carried to safety in a tavern but was then killed, no doubt on Milo’s orders. 2 Sero can mean ‘too late,’ as well as ‘late.’ Clodius was killed in the evening. 317 (xxxviii) Quintilian 6.3.68. In margin ‘temporary enjoyment‘

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he would enjoy a short term pleasure from Vatinius’ death, like a borrower who uses money for a time as if it were his own.1 318 He said that Marcus Caelius, who was a better accuser than defending counsel,1 had a good right hand but a weak left, alluding to the fact that in battle we hold our sword in our right hand but bear our shield on our left; we strike with the sword and defend ourselves with the shield. 319 Cicero refuted Jubius Curtius who kept lying about his age in order to seem younger: ‘So when we were declaiming together1 you had not been born!’ 320 When Dolabella’s wife Fabia said she was thirty, Cicero said, ‘That’s true, I have been hearing it for twenty years.’ She wanted to seem younger than she was, so Cicero mocked her with a feigned confirmation, implying that she was actually fifty. 321 When they censured him for marrying a young virgin when he was sixty,1 he said, ‘Tomorrow she’ll be a woman.’ He was joking that this reproach would soon be cancelled, since the next day they would not be able to reproach him as a virgin’s husband. ***** 1 Another version of the witticism at 4.287 above; see also 4.324 below. 318 (xxxix) Quintilian 6.3.69. In margin ‘right hand better‘ 1 Cicero’s former pupil and a distinguished orator, whom Cicero defended in the speech Pro Caelio. He made his name by prosecuting a number of distinguished political figures. He was also notoriously part of the Roman social scene. 319 (xl) Quintilian 6.3.73 1 Ie when they were studying oratory and practising techniques. The name could be Vibius Curius, as given in modern texts of Quintilian. 320 (xli) Quintilian 6.3.73. In margin ‘pretended agreement‘ 321 (xlii) Quintilian 6.3.75. In margin ‘virgin into woman‘ 1 On his return to Rome in 47 bc after two years out of Italy Cicero divorced Terentia, his wife of thirty years or more, and quickly married a rich young girl, Publilia, although he was her legal guardian. It was seen as improper on both counts and the marriage quickly broke down.

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322 He also made a joke about Curio, who always introduced his speeches with a reference to his age. He said that it was easier every day for him to use this introduction, meaning that his age increased each day.1 323 And he made another joke against Vatinius. The man had a foot ailment but wanted to give the impression that he enjoyed better health and said that he now walked two miles. ‘Yes,’ said Cicero, ‘for the days are getting longer.’ Fabius ascribes this joke to Cicero but Macrobius to Augustus.1 And now too there is a joke just as amusing, if it only had the merit of being ancient. A certain soldier was boasting at a dinner party that he had an arbalest which would shoot a weapon to an unbelievable distance. When all the guests protested, he said his servent had seen it happen. So the servent was fetched in and he asked him whether he had not seen it as his master said. Then the servent said, ‘You are telling the truth, master, but on that occasion you shot the arrow with a following wind.’ 324 When Cicero heard a false rumour of Vatinius’ death, and was questioning his freedman Ovinius, he asked, ‘Is everything all right?’ and the freedman replied, ‘Yes, all right.’ Cicero said, ‘Is he dead, then?’ He meant that everything would not be all right if he was still alive.1 325 When a witness called Sextus Annalis had damaged the case of Cicero’s client, and the accuser kept insisting: ‘Marcus Tullius, say something if you can of Sextus Annalis,’1 Cicero immediately began to recite the sixth book of Ennius’ Annals: ‘Thou who canst unravel the mighty causes of the war . . .’ ***** 322 (xliii) Quintilian 6.3.76. In margin ‘age as an introductory topic‘ 1 This is presumably the older Gaius Scribonius Curio, not his son the younger Curio, tribune in 50 bc. In his dialogue Brutus 213–6 Cicero offers an unflattering picture of the elder Curio’s bad memory and incompetence as a speaker. Erasmus has spoilt the story by not making clear that Curio always started off by making his age an excuse. 323 (xliv) Quintilian 6.3.77. In margin ‘gout‘ 1 Vatinius (see 4.287, 4.308–309, 4.317, 4.338) was a favourite butt. See 4.162 above where the joke is attributed to Augustus. 324 (xlv) Quintilian 6.3.84. In margin ‘against Vatinius‘ 1 Another version of 4.287 above 325 (xlvi) Quintilian 6.3.86. In margin ‘unexpected reply‘ 1 ‘Sextus Annalis’ could also mean ‘the sixth book of annals.’ Cicero was defending counsel and had to respond to the incriminating evidence.

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For Ennius wrote Annals and the accuser was called Sextus Annalis. 326 Again, he misquoted a verse from some old poet against Accius,1 a clever and tricky man, who had come under suspicion in connection with a court case of some kind, saying, ‘Unless indeed Ulysses son of Laertes escaped somehow by ship.’2 The cunning Ulysses escaped both Scylla and Charybdis by ship and so did Accius escape by his trickery from the risk of being brought to court. 327 He also made fun of someone who had once been thought very stupid, but then received an inheritance and began to be asked his opinion before everyone else. ‘Who has,’ he said, ‘the inheritance which they call wisdom?’1 In the verse he changed ‘competence’ to ‘inheritance,’ for the poet wrote ‘Who has the competence which they call wisdom?’2 Cicero meant that the man had been endowed with an inheritance instead of wisdom, and now because of it he was called wise. 328 When Marcus Brutus’ mother Servilia got hold of a valuable estate from Caesar at a low price when Caesar was auctioning off citizens’ confiscated property, Cicero joked, ‘and just to show you how good a price she paid for the farm, Servilia got it with a third taken off!’ for Servilia’s third daughter called Junia Tertia, was the wife of Gaius Considius,1 and the dictator Caesar had relations as much with the mother as with the daughter. Cicero’s joke depended on the ambiguity of the words tertia deducta which could be construed as ‘with a third (of the price) taken off’ but a wife or prostitute is also ‘taken off.’2 ***** 326 (xlvii) Quintilian 6.3.96. In margin ‘a verse misapplied‘ 1 Erasmus, using Aldus’ 1514 edition of Quintilian, reads Accius (a correction of the ms artium). The modern emendation Lartius gives more point to the quotation: ‘Son of Laertes’ is in Latin Laertius, and Cicero quoted it as Ulysses Lartius. 2 Ulysses’ many escapes (from the Laestrygones, from the Cyclops, from Circe, etc) were proverbial. So also were his trickiness and versatility. 327 (xlviii) Quintilian 6.3.97 1 Here too Erasmus is following the text of Quintilian in Aldus’ 1514 edition. 2 crf fr 35. 328 (xlix) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.2.5. In margin ‘a third taken off‘ 1 ‘Considius’ is a mistake. Tertia was the wife of Brutus’ fellow conspirator Gaius Cassius (Longinus) (for whose sayings see 5.457–8 below). 2 The verb deducere was used to signify taking home a new bride, or any woman, with sex to follow.

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329 He also mocked the mother of Pletorius who was one of the prosecutors of Fonteius, with a riddle, saying that she had a school while she lived, but masters when she died; he was implying that while she lived women of ill fame used to consort at her place, and after her death her goods were sold up. It seems both an absurd and a preposterous statement, for those who keep schools are themselves the masters and have the pupils. However, masters are not only teachers but people in charge.1 330 He joked about Verres’ name, as if he was so called because he swept everything up, that is, the thieving fellow left nothing behind.1 In a similar jest someone called the thief Tullius Tollius ‘Lifter’2 and there were even some who called Tiberius Biberius ‘Drinker.’3 331 He used to say of Julius Caesar, ‘Whenever I see his trickery and ambition lurking under the appearance of human kindness, I fear a tyrant for the republic; but again when I look at his elegantly flowing locks and see him scratching his head with one finger,1 I can hardly persuade myself that he would conceive such an outrageous deed.’ 332 When they reproached Cicero with taking money from a defendant to buy ***** 329 (l) Quintilian 6.3.51. In margin ‘witty‘ Cicero defended Marcus Fonteius in 69 bc on a charge of extorting money from his province. 1 The joke is that ludus ‘school’ here means ‘brothel,’ that she was the mistress, and that magister ‘master’ also meant ‘receiver,’ appointed to sell up a bankrupt’s estate. 330 (li) Quintilian 6.3.55. In margin ‘joking about someone’s name‘ 1 Cicero’s prosecution in 70 bc of Verres, rapacious governor of Sicily, is full of puns on his name, using either the noun ‘boar’ or the verb verrere ‘to sweep.’ 2 Quintilian 6.3.53, from the verb tollere ‘to lift.’ 3 For Tiberius’ punning nickname Biberius Caldius Mero ‘the bibulous lover of hot and strong drink,’ see 6.8 below. Tullius might be Lucius Tullius, a friend of Verres, who was head of the syndicate collecting taxes in Sicily. See Cicero Verrines 3.71. 331 (lii) Plutarch Life of Caesar 4.8–9. In margin ‘inconsistent character‘ 1 This gesture was traditionally associated with homosexual practices. Pompey was similarly accused. Adagia i viii 34: Unico digitudo scalpit caput ‘He scratches his head with a single finger.’ 332 (liii) Aulus Gellius 12.12.2–4. Erasmus uses Plutarch’s Life of Cicero for 4.333– 46. In margin ‘a charge of lying evaded‘

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a grand house,1 he said ‘I shall admit accepting it, if I buy it.’ And when he bought the house and they reproached him with lying, he said, ‘Don’t you know it is the mark of a good householder to conceal any plans to purchase?’2 333 Cicero had a feud with Crassus.1 Now one of Crassus’ sons rather resembled a man called Dignus ‘Worthy,’ for which reason suspicion fell on Crassus’ wife of having an affair with Dignus. When the son gave a fine speech in the senate and Cicero was asked what he thought of him, he replied, ‘A Worthy son for Crassus.’ He was making a covert illusion to the name Dignus. The joke is smarter if you use the Greek construction and say ‘Crassus’ Worthy son.’2 This gives one to understand that there are two Crassuses, the bastard and Crassus’ other son, who looks like Crassus. 334 Cicero had been advocate for Munatius when he was on trial, and when after his acquittal Munatius was proceeding against Cicero’s friend Sabinus, Cicero angrily reproached him with his own kindness: ‘Were you, Munatius, acquitted in that trial by your own effort, or by mine, when I threw a big smokescreen in front of the jury?’1 335 When Cicero praised Marcus Crassus on the public platform to great applause from the people, and later attacked him with fierce abuse on the ***** 1 The defendant was Publius Sulla, charged with involvement in the Catilinarian conspiracy. Advocates were not supposed to accept fees or presents. 2 Erasmus’ truncated version obscures the story: Cicero when first challenged flatly denied either receiving the money or intending to buy a house, and then later made the quoted remark. 333 (liv) Plutarch Life of Cicero 25.5. In margin ‘joke based on a name‘ 1 This is Licinius Crassus, the triumvir, with whom Cicero was reconciled on the eve of Crassus’ departure for Syria (cf 4.338 below) where he was defeated and killed by the Parthians. 2 The Greek word for ‘worthy’ is combined with the genitive case, ‘worthy of.’ 334 (lv) Plutarch Life of Cicero 25.1. In margin ‘eloquence triumphs, not the case‘ 1 In Roman thinking Munatius Plancus showed ingratitude to his patron, Cicero, in accusing Cicero’s client after the orator had secured Munatius’ own acquittal. This is possibly Titus Munatius Plancus, tribune 52 bc. It is not known when Cicero defended Plancus. They were usually enemies. See Cicero Ad familiares 7.23. 335 (lvi) Plutarch Life of Cicero 25.2. In margin ‘out of one mouth hot and cold‘

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same spot, Crassus said, ‘What? Didn’t you recently praise me in this very place?’ ‘Yes, I praised you,’ Cicero said ‘but as an exercise in boosting a contemptible subject.’ For rhetoricians often handle dishonourable themes, such as praising Busiris, or malaria, or ingratitude.1 336 When Crassus said, ‘None of the Crassi at Rome ever lived beyond sixty’ and then regretting his words added, ‘What came over me to say that?’ Marcus Tullius said, ‘You knew the Romans would be glad to hear this, and that is how you came to govern the republic.’ Cicero meant two things: firstly that the name of the Crassi was hateful to the Romans, and secondly that Crassus had been advanced in office by flattery, not by his own merit. 337 When Crassus said, ‘There is a Stoic doctrine that the good man is wealthy,’ Cicero said, ‘Consider the possibility that they really mean that it is the wise man who has everything.’ In this way he covertly criticized Crassus’ greed, since nothing was enough for him.1 338 Crassus was about to set out for Syria1 and preferred to leave Cicero as his friend rather than his enemy, so he greeted him very fussily and said he would like to dine with Cicero, and Cicero promptly received him. After a few days some of his friends urged Cicero to be reconciled ***** 1 Cicero’s praise of Crassus was insincere, but he turned Crassus’ protests by describing it as an exercise. Rhetoricians practised praising paradoxical themes such as fever (malaria), fleas, and baldness; Isocrates’ praises of the adulteress Helen and of Busiris, the murderous king of Egypt, survive as examples; also Lucian’s praise of Phalaris, a by-word for cruelty. For the marginal comment cf Adagia i viii 30. 336 (lvii) Plutarch Life of Cicero 25.3. In margin ‘acerbic‘ 337 (lviii) Plutarch Life of Cicero 25.4. In margin ‘greed‘ 1 See Cicero’s Stoic paradoxes 6, Only the wise man is rich, an invective against a wealthy man recognized by everyone as Crassus, the wealthiest man in Rome. 338 (lxix) PlutarchLife of Cicero 26.1. In margin ‘reconciliation‘ 1 Crassus had obtained a command in Syria which he used to mount an illconceived expedition against the Parthians, leading to his defeat and death in battle at Carrhae.

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with Vatinius as well.2 ‘Does Vatinius want to dine with me, too?’ said Cicero. He meant that Vatinius was looking for dinner rather than friendship. 339 Again when Vatinius, who had boils (a kind of ailment) on his neck, was pleading a case Cicero said, ‘We have a swollen orator.’ The speakers called Asiatic are ‘swollen’ in style.1 340 Caesar had decided to share out the Campanian territory among his soldiers, and when many senators were angry at this, Lucius Gellius, a man of great age, said he would not let it happen while he lived. ‘Let us wait, then,’ said Cicero, ‘It doesn’t involve a long postponement.’ He meant that Gellius was very near death. 341 A certain young man was accused of killing his father with a poisoned cake, and got very angry, threatening to destroy Cicero with abuse: ‘I’d rather have that than a cake,’ said Cicero, ambiguously imputing parricide to him. 342 Publius Sextius had retained Cicero with several others as advocates in his case, but wanted to handle it all himself and gave the others no chance to speak. When it was clear that Sextius would be acquitted by the jury, and ***** 2 Plutarch says the friends told Cicero that Vatinius was seeking reconciliation. See 4.287n above. 339 (lx) Plutarch Life of Cicero 26.3. ‘a kind of ailment’ and the last phrase on the Asiatic style in oratory were added in 1532. In margin ‘an ailment taunted‘ 1 In rhetoric, the ‘Asiatic’ style was characterized as flamboyant and showy, ‘swollen’ by contrast with the plain ‘Attic’ style. 340 (lxi) Plutarch Life of Cicero 26.4. In margin ‘against an old man‘ This is Lucius Gellius Poplicola (136–55/52 bc, consul in 72 bc. He was already 77, but lived several more years. 341 (lxii) Plutarch Life of Cicero 26.7. In margin ‘covert accusation‘ 342 (lxiii) Plutarch Life of Cicero 26.8. Erasmus’ P. Sextius is the Sestius mentioned in 4.287n above, and this anecdote probably refers to the same prosecution in 56 bc, in which Sestius is known to have spoken in his own defence. Cicero did not think much of his style (ad Atticum 7.17.2). Cf Catullus’ complaint, in poem 44, that reading one of Sestius’ speeches had made him ill. He was a loyal supporter of Cicero. In margin ‘loquacity‘

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the vote was being cast, Cicero said, ‘Make the most of your opportunity today, for tomorrow you’ll be a person of no importance,’ criticizing the man for pleading the entire brief at his whim. 343 When Marcus Appius said in his introduction that he had been urgently asked by a friend to exercise care, eloquence, and good faith in his client’s case, Cicero said, ‘Are you so hard-hearted that you satisfy none of your friend’s many requests?’ 344 Marcus Aquilius had two sons-in-law, both exiled, so Cicero called him Adrastus, because he was the only one to keep his place, referring to the etymology of the Greek name.1 345 When Lucius Cotta, who was thought to be extremely fond of his wine, was censor, Cicero was standing for the consulship and feeling thirsty took a drink as his friends crowded round him. Cicero said, ‘You are right to be afraid that the censor will take against me, for drinking water.’ Cicero pretended to believe that his friends were standing closely around him so that the censor would not see him drinking water. For like is friend to like.1 346 When M. Caelius,1 who was thought not to be born of free parents, read out a letter to the Senate in a firm loud voice, Cicero said, ‘Don’t be surprised, ***** 343 (lxiv) Plutarch Life of Cicero 26.12. The occasion of this speech by Marcus Appius is unknown. In margin ‘mockery‘ 344 (lxv) Plutarch Life of Cicero 27.2 1 Erasmus’ text of Plutarch may have given the name as Aquinius, but Erasmus takes him to be Marcus Aquilius Gallus the jurist. Cicero’s joke is based on the mythical King Adrastus of Argos who took as his sons-in-law two exiles, Polynices and Tydeus, but Erasmus’ explanation seeks a pun on the Greek adjective adrastus ‘he who does not run away.’ 345 (lxvi) Plutarch Life of Cicero 27.3. This comes from an earlier year, 64, when Cicero was a candidate for the consulship. In margin ‘bibulous censor‘ 1 Cf Adagia i ii 21: Simile gaudet simili ‘Like rejoices in like’ 346 (lxvii) Plutarch Life of Cicero 27.5. In margin ‘a loud clear voice‘ 1 This is not Cicero’s former pupil, his friend the orator Caelius. Plutarch’s text calls the man Gellius, in either case unknown.

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for he is one who had to shout.’ He meant that Caelius had been an auctioneer or crier, and thus had learned by experience to be clear voiced. On the other hand, slaves for sale used to be advertised by the crier.2 347 A certain Memmius was abusing Cato of Utica, and saying that he was drunk all night: ‘But you don’t add the charge that he plays dice all day,’ said Cicero. Thus he courteously exonerated Cato, who devoted the whole day to the business of the republic and took a few hours at night to relax his spirit. 348 When Julius Caesar was earnestly defending the case of Nicomedes of Bithynia’s daughter in the senate and recalling the king’s kindnesses to him, Cicero said, ‘Away with that, since we all know what he gave to you and you to him.’ This joke is based on a double meaning, for a man who bestows a kindness gives, and so does a woman who makes herself available. Hence Martial’s verse: ‘to give you wish, but not to give away.’1 Caesar had a bad reputation for being more obliging to King Nicomedes in Bithynia than the laws of chastity require. 349 Marcus Calidius accused Gallus, whom Marcus Tullius Cicero was defending. And when the accuser declared that he would prove by witnesses, documents, and cross-examination that the defendant had prepared poison for him, but enunciated this atrocious charge with a relaxed expression, drawling voice, and too little emotion in his deportment, Cicero said, ‘Would you plead like that if you were not inventing the charge, Calidius?’ He drew the inference from his delivery that he was not speaking sincerely. ***** 2 Erasmus seems to have misunderstood the joke. The meaning probably is ‘he had to make a claim,’ ie to get his freedom. proclamare (literally, ‘to cry out’) is in this sense a legal term. 347 (lxviii) Plutarch Life of Cato Minor 6.4. Cf the anecdote about the elder Cato 5.361 below. In margin ‘joke based on adding something‘ 348 (lxix) Suetonius Julius Caesar 49.3. In margin ‘taunt based on double meaning‘ 1 Martial 7.75.2, where an old hag wants it, but doesn’t want to pay (see De copia cwe 24 316). 349 (lxx) Valerius Maximus 8.10.3; for Cicero’s criticism of the low-key orator Marcus Calidius, see Brutus 274–8.

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350 He also joked against Isauricus when he said, ‘I don’t understand how it happened that your father, that firm and constant man, left you to us so fickle (varius).’ This is another joke depending on a double meaning. For varius means ‘fickle,’ but varius also means a man ‘marked by bruises.’ Now it was common talk that this Isauricus had once been beaten by his father with straps, which explains not a saying but an action of the praetor M. Caelius: when Isauricus as consul broke Caelius’ curule chair of office, Caelius set out another chair with a seat of leather straps, silently threatening and reproaching him for being beaten with thongs by his father. The orator Demosthenes 351 Pytheas reproached Demosthenes1 because his arguments ‘smelled of the lamp’2 (meaning that he never spoke except from a written text, and with material he had worked on by night). But Demosthenes turned this criticism against him, by commenting that his lamp and Pytheas’ lamp did not cost the same.3 He meant that the other man indulged in feasts all night, spending more on luxury than Demosthenes did on his profession. ***** 350 (lxxi) Quintilian 6.3.25 and 6.3.48. Publius Servilius Isauricus was a distinguished Roman politician and general, being consul, proconsul and censor. Quintilian thinks Cicero’s jibe inappropriate and in poor taste. In margin ‘taunt based on double meaning‘ 351 (i) Plutarch Life of Demosthenes 8.4–5. In margin ‘smells of the lamp‘ Erasmus has saved to the end of the book the Athenian orator Demosthenes (384–322 bc), who led the opposition first to Philip of Macedon then to Alexander and Alexander’s regent, Antipater, and, as the fickle Athenian assembly shifted its allegiance, was subsequently exiled from Athens (see 4.358–4.368 below). Plutarch did not include sayings of Demosthenes among those of his other Athenian generals and statesmen, so Erasmus depends on Plutarch’s Life of Demosthenes and other sources. 1 Pytheas was an Athenian orator of disreputable character and shifting political alliances, but his animosity towards Demosthenes was unceasing. He opposed the Athenians’ proposal that Alexander be offered divine honours (Plutarch Moralia 804b [Precepts of statecraft]) but later supported Macedonian interests. See 5.212 below. 2 Adagia i vii 71: Olet lucernam ‘It smells of the lamp’ 3 Possibly Erasmus’ text was faulty. The Greek says, ‘His lamp and Pytheas’ lamp were not privy to the same activities.’

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352 When others held his excessive practice for speaking in public against him, he answered that preparation for public speaking showed a man to be a lover of the people, whereas those who neglected it belonged to the party seeking tyranny over the people, since they did not aim to persuade by words but to compel by force. 353 Whenever Phocion got up to speak in the assembly Demosthenes used to say to the friends around him that a hatchet was being lifted to chop his arguments. For Phocion was a concise but sharp speaker, and he usually disagreed with Demosthenes. 354 The Athenian assembly was pressing Demosthenes to accuse a certain person, and when he refused they began to shout at him, as they do. Then he got up and said, ‘Athenians, you have me as your adviser whether you like it or not, but you will never have me as your slanderer, even if you want.’ 355 Demosthenes was one of the ten envoys sent by the Athenians to Philip of Macedon. So when Aeschines and Philocrates, whom Philip had treated with special warmth, returned from the embassy they praised the king for many reasons and especially for his good looks, eloquence, and hard drinking. Demosthenes made fun of them, saying none of the qualities they praised were worthy of a king; for the first was a merit in women, the second in sophists, and the third in sponges.1 ***** 352 (ii) Plutarch Life of Demosthenes 8.6. In margin ‘popular eloquence‘ 353 (iii) Plutarch Life of Demosthenes 10.4. For Phocion, whose policies in opposition to Demosthenes were for conciliating the Macedonian king, see 4.257–79 above. He was considered a more effective speaker than Demosthenes even if less eloquent (Plutarch Moralia 803e [Precepts of statecraft]. In margin ‘concise and effective speech‘ 354 (iv) Plutarch Life of Demosthenes 14.4. In margin ‘adviser, not a slanderer‘ 355 (v) Plutarch Life of Demosthenes 16.2–4 1 The Athenians sent this embassy to Philip ii in 346 bc to negotiate peace. Philocrates was the chief architect of the settlement, which the Athenians later rejected. The orator Aeschines was another opponent of Demosthenes.

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356 Demosthenes had written in gold letters in Greek on his shield ‘For good luck.’ But when it came to fighting, he immediately threw away his shield and ran. When men insulted him as a ‘shield-ditcher,’1 he dismissed it with this well-known saying: ‘a man who flees and runs away will live to fight another day.’2 He thought it more service to his country to run away than to die in battle. For a dead man cannot fight, but the man who seeks safety in flight can be useful to his country in many battles.3 357 When Alexander offered peace to the Athenians on condition they handed over to him eight citizens, among them Demosthenes, Demosthenes told them the fable of the wolf who offered the sheep peace on condition they surrendered the sheepdogs: he meant that Alexander was the wolf, the dogs were those guarding people’s interests, while the sheep were the Athenian masses. Then he added, ‘As merchants present a small quantity of grain as a sample in a side dish, as a means of selling vast heaps of grain, so if you now offer the eight citizens he demands, you will be surrendering the entire people.’ 358 When he was condemned by the council of the Areopagus and was making his escape from prison, he met a number of men from the opposite party ***** 356 (vi) Aulus Gellius 17.21.31; Plutarch Life of Demosthenes 20.2. Erasmus is combining sources here. See also Plutarch Moralia 845 f (Lives of the ten orators). In margin ‘flight excused‘ 1 For the disgrace of ditching one’s shield see 1.168 and 2.110 above. He threw away his shield at the battle of Chaeronea (338 bc) when Philip of Macedon defeated the Athenians. See Adagia ii ii 97: Abiecit hastam. Rhipsaspis ‘He threw away his spear.’ 2 Erasmus quotes and translates the Greek: &An|r d feœgvn ka“ p‡lin max}setai. The line is from Menander Sententiae 45 (56 J¨akel). See also the proverb collection cpg 2 Apostolius 3.19a; Adagia i x 40. 3 The words ‘He thought . . . in many battles’ were added in 1532. 357 (vii) Plutarch Life of Demosthenes 23.4–5. This was after the defeat of the allied Greek states at the battle of Chaeronea in 338 bc and the destruction of Thebes in 336 bc. See 4.57 n1 above. In margin ‘a few on behalf of all‘ 358 (viii) Plutarch Life of Demosthenes 26.3. Demosthenes was found guilty of taking bribes from Harpalus (see 3.370 n1 below) in 323 bc, but the charge may have been politically motivated. He fled to Arcadia. In margin ‘desire for one’s homeland‘

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a little distance from the city, and at first wanted to hide, then when they called him by name and told him to cheer up and offered him some travelling money as well, he groaned deeply, saying, ‘How can I leave this city, where I have better enemies than I would have friends in another city?’ 359 They say that on his flight he kept looking back at the Acropolis and stretched out his arms to Pallas, saying, ‘Pallas, mistress of cities, why do you delight in three ill-omened beasts, the night owl, the serpent, and the common people?’ For the night owl is the most unlucky of birds, but sacred to Pallas, and she wears serpents on her breastplate, and the people is a beast with many heads, accustomed to give the worst thanks to those who serve it best like Socrates, Phocion, Scipio, and many others.1 360 He used to say to the young men associated with him that he now knew how much ill will, fear, slander, and danger was to be expected by a politician, and if he had to choose between the two, he would sooner face death than go on the platform or rostrum. 361 When Demosthenes was an exile in Arcadia, Pytheas was speaking in support of the Macedonians,1 and said, ‘As we suspect that a house in which ***** 359 (ix) Plutarch Life of Demosthenes 26.6. See 358 immediately above. In margin ‘the people a deadly creature‘ 1 Erasmus explains Demosthenes’ prayer: Athens’ tutelary goddess Athena has as her sacred bird the ill-omened owl, and she bears the Aegis, a shield adorned with the head of Medusa, which he interprets as symbolic of the many-headed and bestial nature of the common people whom she protects. He then cites the ingratitude with which the Athenians condemned Socrates and Phocion to death; See 3.73–5 and 3.89 above for Socrates, and 4.274–8 above for Phocion. The snake is, however, the sacred snake which lived on the Acropolis. The Scipio mentioned here is the elder Scipio (Africanus Major), the conqueror of Hannibal, who amid increasing hostility was involved in his brother Lucius’ conviction (183 bc) and, being accused himself, retired from political life, complaining of the nation’s ingratitude. 360 (x) Plutarch Life of Demosthenes 26.7. In margin ‘avoid politics‘ 361 (xi) Plutarch Life of Demosthenes 27.5–6. In margin ‘an exile loyal to his country‘ 1 See 4.358 above for Demosthenes’ exile. The slanging match between Demosthenes and his enemy Pytheas occurred in the Arcadian assembly, when an embassy had arrived from Athens. This was after the death of Alexander. Athens

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milk has to be purchased2 and brought in, is suffering some misfortune, so a state must be sick when an Athenian embassy comes to it.’ Then Demosthenes retorted, ‘As milk is brought in to restore the sick to health, so the Athenians are here for the health of the cities.’ When the Athenian people heard of this they immediately recalled him from exile. 362 A ship was sent for him when he came back from exile and many magistrates and citizens came to meet him. Then he stretched his arms to the sky and said that his return to his country did him more honour than that of Alcibiades, because Alcibiades returned when his fellow citizens were forced into it,1 but he had returned because they were convinced it was right. 363 After Demosthenes fled to the island of Calauria for fear of Antipater, he kept to the temple of Neptune as sanctuary. Then Archias, who had risen to power from being a tragic actor, tried to persuade him with soft words to trust himself to Antipater, saying that he would not suffer any ill but would be honoured with lavish gifts. Demosthenes said, ‘I never fancied you as an actor on stage, and you will not persuade me now as an orator.’ But when Archias grew angry and threatened to drag him from the temple, he said, ‘At last you have spoken the true oracular response of the Macedonians; before you were pretending like an actor.’ ***** wanted to set up a coalition of Greek states to attack Alexander’s successor, the Macedonian ruler Antipater (see 2.51 n1 above, 4.363 below). Demosthenes even in exile continued his anti-Macedonian policies and supported the embassy, whereas Pytheas was at this time pro-Macedonian. 2 Erasmus seems to have confused two Greek words. This should be ‘asses’ milk,’ used as a medicine. 362 (xii) Plutarch Life of Demosthenes 27.7–8. In margin ‘things freely offered give pleasure‘ 1 After many ups and downs in his career, Alcibiades had once again been a successful commander. The political situation at Athens had made his return from exile necessary. See 5.184 n1 below. 363 (xiii) Plutarch Life of Demosthenes 29.1–3. Cf Moralia 846f (Lives of the ten orators). In margin ‘acerbic‘ Antipater and Craterus had just defeated the coalition of Greek cities at the battle of Crannon, 322 bc. The one-time tragic actor Archias was known as phugadotheras, ‘the exile hunter,’ and was responsible for the deaths of several other distinguished exiles, whom he dragged from sanctuary (Demosthenes 28.4).

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364 Demosthenes is supposed to have been enticed by the reputation of the famous harlot Lais to sail to Corinth so as to experience her notorious lovemaking. But when she demanded ten thousand drachmae for a night, he changed his mind, put off by the enormous fee, and said ‘I don’t pay that much for something I’ll regret.’1 He meant that regret was the sure consequence of shameful pleasure. 365 There is a famous saying of Pytheas, that ‘Demosthenes’ speech smells of the lamp’1 because he composed and wrote out by night what he was intending to say. Then when another man who had a bad reputation for thieving was attacking him on the same grounds, Demosthenes said, ‘I know we are a nuisance to you for lighting a lamp at night.’ For thieves prefer darkness. 366 Again when Demades cried out, ‘Demosthenes wants to set me straight, like a pig teaching Minerva,’1 Demosthenes said, ‘But that Minerva got caught in adultery a year ago.’ He turned Demades’ adultery against him, while the poets make Minerva a virgin. 367 Again when the Athenians demanded his advice, he said, ‘I have not been brought into line.’ He meant that he was not a slave to the people’s desires, but made his own decision what he thought he should do.1 ***** 364 (xiv) Macrobius Saturnalia 2.2.11; Aulus Gellius 1.8.3. In margin ‘pleasure costing much‘ 1 See Adagia i iv 1: Non est cuiuslibet Corinthum appellere ‘It is not given to everyone to land at Corinth.’ 365 (xv) Plutarch Life of Demosthenes 11.6). In margin ‘witty‘ 1 See 4.351 above. Whereas Demosthenes prepared his speeches carefully, his enemy Demades (see 4.366 just below) was highly esteemed for his extempore eloquence; see also 6.382 below. 366 (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 803d (Precepts of statecraft). In margin ‘acerbic‘ 1 Adagia i i 40: Sus Minervam ‘The sow (teaches) Minerva’ 367 (xvii) Plutarch Moralia 6d (The education of children). In margin ‘resolute‘ 1 Erasmus quotes the Greek words o[ suntŽtagmai. A similar anecdote and retort are attributed to Pericles in 5.183 below, which is drawn from the same section in Plutarch. The context is the dangers of lack of preparation. Both Pericles

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368 A maidservant received money as a deposit from two guests on condition that she returned it to them both at the same time. After a while one of them came in mourning clothes, pretending that his friend had died, tricked the woman and took away the cash. After this, the other one returned and began to ask for his deposit back. When the woman became panic-stricken and thought about hanging herself, Demosthenes took up her defence. Entering to plead her case, he challenged the claimant like this: ‘The woman is ready to keep the agreement, but if you do not bring your friend, she can not do so, because, as you say, the terms were that she should not pay over the money to one without the other.’ By this clever argument he saved the poor woman and frustrated the conspiracy of the two wastrels who had done this to get the same money twice over. 369 When someone asked Demosthenes what was most important in oratory, he answered ‘performance’ (hypocrisis). When asked what came next, he said, ‘performance’ and when asked what came in third place, he said nothing except ‘performance.’ He thought delivery was so important that the whole art depended on it. For delivery includes many things, control of the voice, power of the eyes, expression of face, and the movement of the whole body.1 370 When the Athenians were eager to aid Harpalus,1 and were already arming against Alexander, Philoxenus, whom Alexander had put in charge of his naval campaigns, made a sudden appearance. The people were astounded and fell silent in fear. Demosthenes asked what they would do if they saw the sun, since they could not face a lantern? This is how he condemned the people’s ill-considered reactions. ***** and Demosthenes prepared carefully. Erasmus interprets both remarks in the same way; the words probably mean ‘I am not prepared.’ 368 (xviii) Valerius Maximus 7.3 ext. 5. In margin ‘cunning‘ 369 (xix) Plutarch Moralia 845b (Lives of the ten orators). In margin ‘delivery is all‘ 1 See also Cicero De oratore 3.213 and Quintilian 11.3.6. 370 (xx) Plutarch Moralia 531a (On false shame). In margin ‘rashness‘ 1 Harpalus was a friend of Alexander who had defected to the Athenians. See 4.26 above (on Philip).

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371 When some people thought Demades had ceased his knavery, Demosthenes said, ‘Yes, for now you see him well fed, like lions.’1 Demades was greedy for money, and lions are milder when they are well fed. 372 When he was being provoked by some abusive fellow, Demosthenes said, ‘I am being challenged to a combat in which the one who emerges superior will be the worse man, and the loser will be the victor.’ 373 On another occasion, when he heard an orator shouting excessively, Demosthenes said, ‘What is great need not be good, but what is good is great.’ This is also credited to others.1 Some people even think dinners are smart if they are prolonged and furnished with many courses.

***** 371 (xxi) Plutarch Moralia 526a (On love of wealth) 1 See 4.271 above (on Antipater). 372 (xxii) Stobaeus 18.4 (Meineke i 300). In margin ‘weighty‘ 373 (xxiii) Stobaeus 4.51 (Meineke i 102). In margin ‘shouting‘ 1 Cf Zeno at 7.310 below.

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BOOK V

For my part I had decided to be content with the number of examples which I have recorded in the earlier books; but since the attractive abundance of all kinds of memorable sayings gave me encouragement, and it occurred to me what an underfed guest I had invited and one hungry for these treats, it seemed a good idea to add a fifth instalment, going back again to the order followed by Plutarch. Cyrus the Great The Persians love men with a hooked nose, which the Greeks call gryphi, and think they are very handsome, just because Cyrus, dearest of their kings to all the people, had a nose of this kind.1 Now there are two kinds of gryphi, one whose nose comes straight out from the forehead, which Aristotle thinks the mark of a shameless nature and compares with ravens; in the other type the curve of the nose is separated ***** For the fifth book Erasmus returned to Plutarch’s Sayings of kings and commanders, including nearly all the anecdotes about oriental kings and Greek and Roman leaders which he had passed over in book 4. See dedicatory epistle 7 n19 above. For the first few figures associated with Persia, her subject cities, and the barbarian Thracians and Scythians, Erasmus is almost entirely dependent on Plutarch (not just the Sayings but also other essays in the Moralia and the life of Artoxerxes). Occasionally however, he uses Xenophon (without citation) or cites Herodotus. First of the foreign kings and commander is Cyrus the Great, who founded the Persian empire and died in 530 bc: in the previous twenty years he had conquered first Media then Lydia with its capital Sardis, then Babylonia and parts of central Asia. In margin ’Gryphos’ 1 The introductory excursus on hook noses is from Plutarch Sayings of kings and commanders (Moralia 172e); cf Xenophon Cyropaedia 8.4.21, and Plutarch Moralia 821e (Precepts of statecraft).

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from the brow and swells out about midway, taking on the appearance of a hook as it reaches the lower part; Aristotle thinks this is the mark of a noble spirit, and characteristic of the eagle.2 1 In this connection Cyrus used to say, ‘Men who are unwilling to benefit themselves are forced to be useful to others,’ meaning that men born with the spirit of a slave and useless to themselves must be compelled by authority to serve the advantage of others. Now the crowd thinks men with an eagle’s nose are especially alert to their own advantage and born to command rather than be slaves. This is why the ancient poets attributed to the eagle kingship over all the species of birds. But Cyrus also said, ‘No man should take on leadership unless he is superior to those over whom he is asserting it.’ He thought that the only function of a leader was to take thought for others and consult the common good, but no one can do so unless he excels others in wisdom, vigilance, and integrity of mind. And it is not birth, but correct education and experience that produces this. 2 When the Persians, who occupied a rough and mountainous region, wanted to exchange it for a softer1 and low lying area, Cyrus would not let them do so, arguing that, like plants and seeds, men’s characters change according to the nature of the land. His idea was that he wanted men to be tough and used to hard work. For a soft and fertile region produces soft and idle men. 3 Cyrus refrained from looking at Panthea, and when Araspes said she was a conspicuously beautiful woman, worthy of a king’s eye, he said, ‘This is just why one must refrain from seeing her. If I heed your advice and go to her when I have leisure, perhaps she will persuade me to visit her often, ***** 2 Aristotle offers a full comment on the aristocratic nature of such noses in Politics 1309b24; cf also Physiognomica 6 811a36 and Plato Republic 474d and Phaedrus 253d, where the hook nose is called kingly (basilicon). 1

(i) Plutarch Moralia 172e continued. In margin ‘a ruler excelling in virtue‘

2

(ii) Plutarch Moralia 172f. In margin ‘comfort enervates‘ 1 This translates molliore, the preferable reading of 1535; bas and lb (see Introduction xxviii above) read meliore ‘better.’

3

(iii) Plutarch Moralia 521f (On curiosity). In margin ‘sexually controlled‘

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even when I am not at leisure. And I will be attending on her to the neglect of serious business.’1 That was a smart reply to the proposal, because he did not forget his royal duty. Darius 4 Darius, the father of Xerxes, used to say in his own commendation that he had learnt wisdom through battles and hardships. But this kind of wisdom costs a state too much. It is better for a prince to derive discernment from the teachings of philosophy than to acquire from experience what they call a sad kind of wisdom.1 5 When the king had decreed the amount of tribute to be paid by his subjects, he summoned the governors of the provinces and asked them about the taxes enquiring among other things, whether they were burdensome. When they said the taxes were average, he ordered them individually to exact half the amount. To this fair-minded king the amount that seemed moderate to the governors, seemed too much by half. For he wanted to win over his people by kindness rather than subdue them after they had armed against him. The charm of his stratagem lay in this, he had demanded twice as much as he intended to receive. If he had demanded half as much, and not reduced the amount, his kindness would have gone unnoticed, but by halving the demands he ensured that every one felt his kindness. 6 When he opened an extra large pomegranate, and someone asked him what he would like to have in as great a quantity as the number of seeds in the ***** 1 The story is also found at Xenophon Cyropaedia 5.1.8. 4

(iv) Plutarch Moralia 172f. Darius i, king of Persia, took control of the Greek cities in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and then invaded Greece itself to consolidate his power. He was defeated by Athens at Marathon in 490 bc. For Xerxes i, see 5.9–14 below. In margin ‘misfortune makes men wise‘ 1 cpg 2 Apostolius 13.90; cf Adagia i iii 99: Post mala prudentior ‘Sadder and wiser’

5

(v) Plutarch Moralia 172f. In margin ‘popularity won by guile‘

6

(vi) Plutarch Moralia 173a. In margin ‘nothing more precious than a loyal friend‘

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fruit, he said ‘men like Zopyrus.’ This man was virtuous and Darius’ loyal friend. By this Darius meant that nothing should be more important or dear to the king than good and loyal friends. But Herodotus reports in book 4 that this was said about Megabyzes.1 7 This man Zopyrus cut off his nostrils and ears and deserted to the Babylonians, concealing his identity and pretending he had been cruelly mutilated by Darius. So the Babylonians were persuaded and entrusted the governorship to him. When he had the opportunity he handed over the city to Darius. After that Darius often used to say that he would rather win one unmutilated Zopyrus than a hundred Babylons.1 Now Babylon was a very wealthy city, but he still preferred one friend to a hundred Babylons. How far some princes fall short of this attitude, in preferring a jester or a horse or hound to a good, loyal, and shrewd friend! The king said, by way of criticizing Zopyrus’ deed, that he had given a noble name to a most shameful deed. For it seemed a strange demonstration of loyalty to the king, since he actually inflicted both a great loss and great distress upon him. Semiramis 8 Queen Semiramis of Assyria, who is said to have founded Babylon, inscribed on the tomb she had prepared for herself, ‘Any king who needs money may open my tomb and take as much as he wishes.’ So Darius, when he had taken possession of her city, believed the inscription and with great difficulty dislodged the stone which closed the tomb. But he found no money, only an inscription on the back of the stone: ‘If you were not a bad man, insatiable for money, you would never have disturbed the burial places of the dead.’ ***** 1 The reference, added by Erasmus in 1535, is to Herodotus 4.143; for Zopyrus see 5.7 just below. 7

(vii) Plutarch Moralia 173a. In margin ‘a loyal friend‘ 1 A longer and more detailed account is found in Herodotus 3.154–8: for Darius’ second remark see Herodotus 3.155.

8

(viii) Plutarch Moralia 173a–b. In margin ‘avarice duped‘ Semiramis, queen of Assyria and supposed builder of the walls and gardens of Babylon, can be dated to the beginning of the ninth century. The longer account in Herodotus 1.187 ascribes the trick to a later queen, Nitocris.

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Admittedly this story would have been better recorded among stratagems or jests.1 The second Xerxes 9 There was a contest for the throne between Xerxes son of Darius and his brother Arimenes. So when Xerxes realized his brother was coming down into the plain from the district of Bactria, he sent him gifts and ordered the men assigned to deliver them to say to him in Xerxes’ words, ‘Your brother Xerxes honours you with these gifts for the time being, but if he is proclaimed king, you will be first of all men with him.’ Charmed by this courtesy Arimenes abandoned the contest and when his brother had won the kingdom paid him the honour of prostrating himself before him and set the diadem on his head. And Xerxes gave him the position next to himself. Nor do I see why this should be counted among the sayings, although Plutarch includes it.1 We read a similar story about Jacob and Esau in the Hebrew scriptures.2 Anger and strife are better dispelled by gentle words and kindness than by fighting back. 10 Xerxes was angry with the Babylonians for rebelling against him, so when he had brought them back under his control he forbade them to bear arms, and told them to play the pipe and psaltery, to enjoy prostitutes and keep taverns and wear voluminous tunics, so that they would be emasculated by pleasure and not attempt another rebellion. I would not have cited this among the sayings either, if Plutarch had not included it.1 ***** 1 See dedicatory epistle 9 n26. 9

(ix) Plutarch Moralia 173b–c. In margin ‘kindness more effective than violence‘ The heading mistakenly gives Xerxes ii. This is Xerxes i, son of Darius i and Atossa, who ruled Persia from 486–465. Like his father he invaded mainland Greece, crossing the Hellespont with a vast army. After being temporarily halted by the 300 Spartans under Leonidas at Thermopylae (see 1.243– 56 above), he was eventually defeated by the Athenians and Peloponnesian Greeks at Salamis (480) and Plataea (479). 1 See 5.8 n1 above. 2 Genesis 32–3

10

(x) Plutarch Moralia 173c. In margin ‘pleasures‘ 1 See Introduction xviii–xix and n11, and dedicatory epistle 10 above.

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11 When imported Attic figs were brought to Xerxes he said he would not eat such figs until he had conquered the region which produced them. So great was the pride of his lofty heart.1 12 When Xerxes saw the entire Hellespont covered with his warships and all the shores and plains of Abydos full of soldiers, he claimed that he was happy, but soon he shed tears. The king’s uncle Artabanus was amazed at such a quick change of mood (he had dared to advise against the expedition) and he asked Xerxes the reason. Xerxes answered that ‘the thought came to me how short is human life, since after a hundred years no one from such a countless host will be alive.’ 13 When he was about to declare war on Greece, Xerxes summoned all the princes of Asia and said, ‘I have called you together so that I will not seem to be embarking on this expedition simply on my own initiative. But remember you must obey me rather than persuade me.’ This remark was tyrannical in two respects, because he used the assembly of princes as a pretence, and because he undertook this highly risky enterprise more from his unique greed than by rational judgment. 14 When Xerxes was obstructed by the three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae although he was at the head of such a huge army, he said he had been misled by the fact that he had many men but very few real soldiers. He meant that it did not matter how many men you commanded but how well trained they were.1 15 He inflicted no punishment on the Greek scouts arrested in his camp. ***** 11

(xi) Plutarch Moralia 173c. In margin ‘self-confidence‘ 1 Cf the anecdote about Alexander at 4.39. Attica was the area round Athens. It produced an early variety of fig: Pliny Naturalis historia 16.26.113.

12

(xii) Herodotus 7.45–6. Anecdotes 5.12–5.15 are not from Plutarch’s Sayings of kings and commanders.

13

(xiii) Valerius Maximus 9.5 ext. 2

14

15

(xiv) Frontinus Strategemata 4.2.9. In margin ‘a mob useless‘ 1 Cf Scipio at 5.296 below. (xv) Plutarch Moralia 173c–d. In margin ‘confidence‘

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Rather he bade them survey the whole camp and sent them away unharmed. Even if this is an example of exceptional confidence, I don’t see why it should be called a saying.1 Artoxerxes 16 Artoxerxes, the son of Xerxes, whose nickname was ‘Long-hand,’ because he had one hand longer than the other, used to say that it was more kingly to add than to take away. He meant that it was more worthy of a prince to increase the honours and wealth of those they commanded than to reduce them. 17 He also allowed men who hunted with him to hurl their javelin before the king if they had the chance and wanted to. This may be an example of good humour but I don’t see what it has to do with sayings.1 18 Indeed he was as mild in military discipline as he was indulgent in the hunt. When officers blundered, instead of their bodies being flogged for this offence, as was usual, he ordered their clothes to be taken off and flogged in their place, and instead of their heads being plucked as usual, he had their tiaras removed and the decorations pulled off.1 (This does not belong among the sayings either.)2 19 When Satibarzanes the chamberlain of Artoxerxes asked an unjust favour from him and the king realized he was doing this because he had been ***** 1 See Introduction xviii–xix and n11 above. 16

(xvi) Plutarch Moralia 173d. In margin ‘generosity kingly‘ Artoxerxes i king of Persia (465–422 bc), son of Xerxes i and Amestris, came to power after the murder of Xerxes.

17

(xvii) Plutarch Moralia 173d. In margin ‘good humour in the hunt‘ 1 See Introduction xviii–xix and n11.

18

(xviii) Plutarch Moralia 173d. In margin ‘merciful‘ 1 Erasmus has misinterpreted the text. It is not officers but governors who are thus disciplined. The tiara ‘head-dress’ was a Persian mark of status. 2 See Introduction xviii–xix and n11.

19

(xix) Plutarch Moralia 173e. In margin ‘just and gracious‘

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offered a bribe of 30,000 darics, he instructed his treasurer to bring him 30,000 darics and then gave them to Satibarzanes, with the remark, ‘Take them, Satibarzanes, for I will be no poorer after giving them to you, but I would be more unjust if I did what you asked of me.’ The excellent king found a way to avoid saddening his friend or deviating from justice. Cyrus the Younger 20 The younger Cyrus commended himself to the Spartans, so that they would ally themselves with him instead of his brother, with the following speech. He said that his heart was much stronger than his brother’s, that he drank more straight wine than his brother and carried it better. For in a hunt his brother could hardly stay on his horse without being thrown off and in times of crisis he could not even stay on his chair. (For Cyrus knew the Spartans loathed soft and cowardly men.) He also urged them to send men to him, promising to give their infantry horses and their cavalry chariots; he would give villages to men who owned land and make men who owned villages into masters of cities; he would also give them so much gold and silver that they would not be able to count it but would have to weigh it. This is surely what Artoxerxes meant by ‘it is more kingly to add than to take away.’1 If any prince made this kind of promise nowadays I am afraid we would soon see all of Germany empty. 21 When Cyrus was going to fight the enemy in the place called Cunaxa, Clearchus urged him to keep behind the Macedonians and not thrust himself into the danger of battle. ‘What do you mean, Clearchus?’ he said, ‘Are you telling me to show myself unworthy of the throne I am aspiring to?’ ***** 20

(xx) Plutarch Moralia 173e–f. ‘The younger Cyrus’ was the second son of Darius ii and Parysatis (see 5.30 below) who revolted against his brother Artoxerxes ii (see 5.23–9 below) hiring a force of Greek mercenaries to support his attempt to usurp the throne. After Cyrus was killed at the battle of Cunaxa in 401 bc, the Greeks made the famous forced march back to the Aegean coast (see 1.49 n1 above) recorded in the Anabasis by Xenophon, who was a member of the Greek force. 1 See 5.16 above.

21

(xxi) Plutarch Life of Artoxerxes 8.2. In margin ‘spirited‘ Clearchus was the commander of the Greek mercenaries and was killed in the battle.

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22 A Phocian woman from Ionia, born of respectable parents and bred as a lady, was invited with other women to the king’s dinner, but when the others welcomed the king’s jokes and flirtation cheerfully and were not afraid to let him touch them, she alone entered and stood by his couch in silence and did not obey Cyrus when he summoned her. But when the chamberlains tried to bring her to him she said, ‘Any of these men who lays hands on me will weep for it.’ When the others judged her rustic and graceless, Cyrus was delighted and turned with a smile to the man who had escorted the women: ‘Don’t you realize,’ he said, ‘that this is the only lady of integrity that you have brought?’ After that he paid her particular attention and fell deeply in love with her, calling her a wise woman.1 Among barbarians, to have touched a woman was to have violated her. Artoxerxes II 23 Artoxerxes the brother of this Cyrus, nicknamed ‘the mindful,’ not only made himself freely available to all who wished but ordered his lawful wife to ride with the curtains of her carriage raised to give access to those who wanted to meet her, even when travelling. I approve of this example of affability but how does it belong among sayings?1 24 When a poor man offered him an apple of exceptional size he took it with good humour saying, ‘By Mithras’ (for this is what Persians call the sun) ‘I think this man is such a fine fellow that if someone put a city-state in his hands he could make a small one great.’ 25 A countryman saw all kinds of presents being carried to the king but had ***** 22

(xxii) Plutarch Life of Artoxerxes 26.5–9. In margin ‘modesty‘ 1 She became his favoured concubine.

23

(xxiii) Plutarch Moralia 173f. In margin ‘affable‘ Artoxerxes ii was king of Persia from 405/4 to 359/8 bc. 1 See Introduction xviii–xix and n11 above.

24

(xxiv) Plutarch Moralia 174a. Similar stories were told of various kings; see 5.25, 5.29, 5.93 below.

25

(xxv) Plutarch Life of Artoxerxes 5.1. In margin ‘a timely gift‘; cf Adagia iii ix 100: Munus exiguum sed opportunem ‘A small gift but a timely one.’ This is quoted also in Plutarch’s dedicatory epistle to Trajan Moralia 172b as a precedent for the offering of his collection of sayings to the emperor. See Erasmus’ dedicatory epistle 5 n12 above.

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nothing to offer himself. So he took up water from the river in his hollowed hands and offered it to him with an eager expression. The king was delighted and ordered that he be given a gold vessel and made him a present of a thousand darics. 26 Once when he was in retreat and his supplies had been plundered, he fed on dried figs and barley bread. ‘Ye gods,’ he said, ‘what a great pleasure I had never experienced until now!’ 27 When Aclides Iapson1 uttered a lot of wanton insults against Artoxerxes, he limited his revenge on the abuser to sending him a message through an officer that Aclides was free to say what he liked against the king, but he, the king, was free both to say and to do what he liked against him. 28 During a hunt Tiribazus showed Artoxerxes that his Persian robe had been torn and asked what was to be done. The king replied that he would have to put on another robe. ‘Then you should give me yours,’ he said. The king handed over this robe with the comment, ‘I am making you a present of this robe, but I forbid you to wear it.’ Tiribazus was not a bad fellow but frivolous and rash, so he ignored the king’s warning and put it on, adorning it with the [women’s] golden ornaments that he had received from the king.1 Everyone else was very indignant at this, for it was not right to laugh.2 But the king, laughing heartily, said, ‘I grant you the gold as a woman and the authority and right over royal robes as a madman.’ ***** 26

(xxvi) Plutarch Moralia 174a. In margin ‘hunger gives food its flavour‘; cf 5.93 below.

27

(xxvii) Plutarch Life of Artoxerxes 5.2. In margin ‘not safe to insult a king‘ 1 The man’s name should be Euclides Lacon (the Laconian), presumably one of the Spartan mercenaries.

28

(xxviii) Plutarch Life of Artoxerxes 5.3–4. In margin ‘fools may do anything‘ The anecdote has become muddled: Tiribazus pointed out that the king’s robe was torn, the king asked what he should do, and Tiribazus told him to put on another robe and give him the torn one. 1 ‘[women’s]’ is excluded from modern texts. The Greek means ‘adorning himself with the gold necklaces which were part of the king’s regalia.’ 2 The Greek text merely says ‘It was not right’ ie for an ordinary person to wear royal clothes (not ‘to laugh’, supplied by Erasmus.)

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29 When Artoxerxes was half dead with thirst, Peribarzanes1 the eunuch, for lack of an alternative, bought him a dirty wineskin from a peasant, containing a pint or two of rancid water. When the king had drained the entire skinful he was asked whether he had liked the drink. He swore by the gods that he had never drunk wine with more pleasure, nor had any water, however pure, seemed sweeter to him. Later he found the man who had given the water to the eunuch and made the pauper rich.2 It is so important to give a gift in good time! Parysatis 30 Parysatis, mother of Cyrus and Artoxerxes used to say that a king who was going to speak frankly in public should use words of fine fabric, that is, both rich and smooth, so that the charm of speech would soften the severity of the content. Kings dress in fine cloths and a king’s speech should match his clothing.1 Orontes 31 Orontes, son in law of Artoxerxes, was repudiated and condemned by the king in anger. He said ‘Just as the fingers of men calculating can at one time represent an infinite number and at other times only one, so the king’s friends can at times exercise immense power, but at others none at all.1 In those days sums were added up on fingers as they are now on abacus counters. ***** 29

(xxix) Plutarch Life of Artoxerxes 12.4–6. In margin ‘a timely gift‘ 1 In the source the man is called Satibarzanes. 2 See 5.24n above.

30

(xxx) Plutarch Moralia 174a. In margin ‘severity tempered by words‘ Parysatis was the mother of four sons by Darius ii including Cyrus the Younger and Artoxerxes ii. She is mentioned in Xenophon’s Anabasis, and plays a major role in Plutarch’s Life of Artoxerxes, where she shows great subtlety in dealing with her son, the king, but this saying does not appear in either work. 1 An alternative reading adopted in modern texts says the advice was offered to anyone intending to speak frankly to a king. A marginal note in Erasmus’ text says ‘The translators disagree about this’ (presumably both Filelfo and Regio; see dedicatory epistle 7–8 nn20 and 21 above).

31

(xxxi) Plutarch Moralia 174a. In margin ‘the favour of kings impermanent‘ This Orontes was Satrap of Sardis and lost the favour of Artoxerxes ii after his false accusation of Tiribazus, one of the king’s governors. 1 Cf the similar remark attributed to Solon at 7.25 below.

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Memnon the commander 32 When Memnon was campaigning against Alexander for Darius, he struck with his spear a mercenary soldier who was coarsely hurling abuse against Alexander, saying ‘I feed you to fight Alexander, not to insult him.’ The Egyptians 33 The Egyptian kings followed the custom of that region and bound judges to swear by oath that even if the king ordered them to make an unjust judgment, they would not do so. They thought it so important that the people should have just judges. The overriding sanctity of the oath opposed it to royal power and aggression. Such an oath could not seem imposed though it was demanded by the kings themselves. But how can a state have judges free of corruption, when the king sells the power of judgment for a great price? Poltys 34 Poltys, king of Thrace at the time of the Trojan war, listened to both Trojans and Greeks when they sent embassies to him, and then gave his judgment that Paris should return Helen and receive two beautiful wives from him, Poltys, instead of one. Paris would have been wise to do this, for having had enough enjoyment from one woman, he would have gained two new ones and shown consideration for his country. Who would not be amazed at the civilized attitude of the Greeks, who would have been satisfied simply with the return of the woman who had slept so long with an adulterer? Teres 35 Teres, the father of Sitalces, used to say that when he was at peace and not fighting he was no better than his grooms. ***** 32

(xxxii) Plutarch Moralia 174b–c. In margin ‘evil speaking‘ Memnon of Rhodes allied with Darius iii fought against Alexander at the battle of the Granicus, in 334 bc.

33

(xxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 174c. In margin ‘judges free from corruption‘

34

(xxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 174c. In margin ‘insane love‘

35

(xxxv) Plutarch Moralia 174d. In margin ‘passion for fighting‘ Teres was king of Thrace in the early fifth century bc. The remark is attributed to Atheas (see 40–2 below) at Moralia 792c (Old men in politics).

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What does this remark sound like if not the boorishness of a barbarian, as if a good prince had nothing to do in peacetime! Cotys, king of Thrace 36 When someone sent Cotys a leopard, he gave a lion in return, matching a savage beast with one equally savage. 37 He was naturally quick to anger, and cruel in punishing those who failed in their service. A guest happened to present him with delicate and fragile vessels which were cleverly and artistically wrought with the burin and the lathe.1 In return he did make the man gifts, but he smashed all the vessels. When people wondered why he did this he said, ‘So that I will not get in a rage with the men who would have broken them.’ It is the mark of a wise man to know the weaknesses of his own nature and remove any opportunity for his faults to manifest themselves. 38 When Cotys learnt that the Athenians had declared him an honorary citizen of their city, being eager to repay him with thanks for the help he had supplied against the Dorians, ‘By Jove, he said, ‘I will give them the rights of my nation in return.’1 He implied that it was as much a source of honour to be called a Thracian as an Athenian. Idanthyrsus the Scythian 39 Idanthyrsus, king of the Scyths, against whom Darius campaigned,1 urged ***** 36

(xxxvi) Plutarch Moralia 174d. In margin ‘tit for tat‘ Cotys was king of Thrace 382–358 bc

37

(xxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 174d. In margin ‘prevent a provocation to anger from occurring‘ 1 Erasmus has omitted the fact that these were ceramic vessels. The Greek text suggests a meaning ‘with incised and relief decoration.’

38

(xxxviii) Valerius Maximus 3.7 ext. 7. In margin ‘every man loves his own country‘ 1 Cotys was usually opposed to Athens and entered into various alliances against them, but when he briefly appeared to offer them concessions in his area, he was granted Athenian citizenship. He did not keep his promises. Cf 6.415 below where the Athenians are pleased at Cotys’ death.

39

(xxxix) Plutarch Moralia 174e. In margin ‘servitude accepted‘ 1 Idanthyrsus was king of the Scythians c. 500 bc. See 6.390 below. Darius i had crushed a revolt of the Ionians, c. 500–493 bc, and ordered them to build a

5 . 39

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the rulers of the Ionians to break the cables of the bridge over the Danube and abscond, and so reclaim their freedom. When they refused to do this because they did not want to break the oath which bound them to Darius, he called them good slaves unwilling to run away.2 It is a great merit in slaves not to run away when they can, but to refuse to exchange enslavement to a tyrant for liberty when given the chance is the mark of a slavish spirit. Atheas the Scythian 40 Atheas wrote to Philip as follows, ‘You rule over Macedonians experienced in war, but I rule over Scythians who can fight hunger and thirst as well.’ He meant that the Scythians were better suited to war in this respect. 41 When he was rubbing down his horse in front of Philip’s ambassadors Atheas asked them, ‘Philip wouldn’t do this, would he?’ He meant that he was a better warrior than Philip. 42 When Atheas captured the expert piper Ismenias in battle, he told him to play and while everyone else was full of admiration he swore by the wind and his scimitar that he found it sweeter to listen to the neighing of his horse.1 Scilurus the Scythian 43 Scilurus had eighty sons and when he was dying he offered a bundle of javelins to each of them in turn, telling them to break it. When each one ***** bridge over the Danube and guard it, to facilitate his advance into Scythia: Herodotus 4.90. 2 For a similar view of the Ionians see 1.206 above. 40

(xl) Plutarch Moralia 174f. In margin ‘a tough soldier‘ Atheas was king of Scythia in the fourth century bc.

41

(xli) Plutarch Moralia 174f. In margin ‘a king rubbing down his horse‘

42

43

(xlii) Plutarch Moralia 174f. In margin ‘uncultured Scythian‘ 1 For several similar remarks by the Spartans, see General Index: trivial pursuits, music. See 6.410 below for Ismenias, the most famous of pipe-players. (xliii) Plutarch Moralia 175a. In margin ‘concord between brothers‘ Scilurus was king of Scythia in the second to first century bc.

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refused because it seemed impossible, he took out the javelins one at a time, and easily broke them all. Then he advised his sons in these terms, ‘If you are united you will stay strong and unconquered, but if you are torn apart by quarrels and disloyalty, you will be weak and easy to overthrow.’ The Scythian could not have put the reality before their eyes in a more Scythian fashion. Gelon of Syracuse 44 Gelon, tyrant of Sicily, defeated the Carthaginians at Himera and forced them to accept a peace treaty, and to add to the terms they had already accepted that they would not henceforth sacrifice their children to Saturn. For this race used to put their babies into the arms of a bronze statue of Saturn which was hollow with a fire inside it, so that they were suffocated as if in the god’s embrace. What made them think that this was welcome to Saturn was the tale that he was accustomed to devour all his wife’s children: he would have devoured Jupiter too if they had not substituted a stone for the child.1 45 Gelon often used to march the Syracusans out to till their land, but equipped as if going to war. His intention was that the fields would be improved by tilling while the men would not be made useless by idleness. This too would seem more fitting to be called a stratagem than an apophthegm.1 46 He was demanding money from his citizens and when he saw them rioting he said he was asking for a loan and would return it. So they gave it willingly and when the war was over he did return it. ***** 44

(xliv) Plutarch Moralia 175a. In margin ‘true piety‘ The Sicilian general Gelon, son of Deinomenes, seized power first in Gela (491 bc) then after restoring aristocratic rule in Syracuse, seized the city, making his brother Hieron (see 5.49 below) ruler of the less important Gela. The defeat of the Carthaginians in 480 confirmed him as overlord of all Sicily. 1 According to Hesiod’s Theogony Kronos (Saturn) was driven to eat all his male children by a prophecy that he would be dethroned by his own son; finally, his wife Ge or Rhea substituted a stone for Zeus and hid the baby in the care of the nymphs.

45

(xlv) Plutarch Moralia 175a. In margin ‘military agriculture‘ 1 See dedicatory epistle 9 n26, Introduction xviii–xix n11.

46

(xlvi) Plutarch Moralia 175a. In margin ‘clever‘

5 . 46

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By this ruse he made sure there was no lack of necessary money for the war, and he did not lose the goodwill of his citizens. 47 When a lyre was being passed round at a party and the other guests each sang in turn (for this was thought honourable among the Greeks) Gelon ordered his horse to be led into the party and easily and agilely leapt onto it, implying that this was more kingly than playing on the lyre. 48 When the Athenians rejected the terms of the treaty offered by Gelon1 and made many boasts about the antiquity and superiority of their race, Gelon answered the envoy, ‘Athenian guest, you Greeks have men ready to command, but no men to be commanded. So since you prefer to keep the whole rather than yield a part, get out of here at full speed and tell the Greeks that the spring of their year has dried up.’2 He meant that they would lose the best and most effective part of the army, for by ‘spring’ he meant his own troops.3 Hieron, ruler of Gela and Syracuse 49 Hieron, who succeeded Gelon in the tyranny, said no one who spoke frankly in his presence was being rude or offensive. But he thought men who let out a secret harmed even the listeners to whom they leaked their tales, because we shun not only those who tell tales, but even those who have heard things we wish they had not. ***** 47

(xlvii) Plutarch Moralia 175b. In margin ‘kingly skills‘

48

(xlviii) Herodotus 7.158–64 1 Herodotus reports that the Athenians, Spartans, and other Greek states (see 5.12–14 above) sought Gelon’s help in 480 bc against the Persian invasion of Xerxes i but were unwilling to yield him the supreme command. He was already fully occupied in fighting the Carthaginians in western Sicily, and his victory at Himera was supposed to have occurred on the same day as the victory of Salamis. 2 Cf Adagia iv v 60: Ver ex anno tollere ‘To remove the spring from the year.’ 3 He had offered more men and ships than the combined forces of the Greek states.

49

(i) Plutarch Moralia 175b. In margin ‘chatterers‘ Hieron, brother of Gelon (see 5.44n above), succeeded him first as regent of Gela, then as tyrant of Syracuse. He died in 466 bc.

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50 Someone reproached him with bad breath. He in turn scolded his wife for not telling him. She replied, ‘I thought all men smelled like that.’ That was a splendid demonstration of her modesty, that she had not been near enough to any man to smell his breath except her husband. 51 When Xenophanes of Colophon1 complained of his poverty, because he could barely support two slaves, Hieron said, ‘But Homer, whom you carp at, even after death supports more than ten thousand men, and yet you, who want to be thought more clever than him, cannot support two!’ In those days too there were fellows who hunted glory by belittling the work of great men. 52 When the comic poet Epicharmus1 had said something indecent in front of his own wife, Hieron fined him. Epicharmus being a Sicilian was inclined to a lot of jesting, in character with that region. But the king thought so much respect was due to marriage that he held it a crime to make a wanton joke when a man’s wife was listening. 53 When Hieron had executed some of his acquaintances, he invited Epicharmus to dinner a few days later. Epicharmus said, rather frankly, ‘But you didn’t invite me when you were sacrificing your friends.’ ***** 50

(ii) Plutarch Moralia 175b–c. Stobaeus 5.83 (Meineke i 132) tells the same story about Hieron’s brother Gelon. See a variant, attributing the saying to Bilia (Vilia?) wife of the Roman commander Duillius, at 8.64 below. Stobaeus identifies it as a chreia. See Introduction xxiv–xxvii. In margin ‘modesty‘

51

(iii) Plutarch Moralia 175c. In margin ‘denigrators of others’ fame‘ 1 Xenophanes, theologian, philosopher, and poet (sixth to fifth century bc) composed lampoons on other poets and philosophers; he is best known for criticizing Homer’s and Hesiod’s anthropomorphic representation of the gods. The story is told of Zoilus (another carper) and Ptolemy ii in Vitruvius 7 introduction 9.

52

(iv) Plutarch Moralia 175c. In margin ‘chaste‘ 1 The fifth-century Sicilian dramatist Epicharmus wrote comedies, of which only fragments survive. In this anecdote it is not clear in the Greek whose wife is in question.

53

(v) Plutarch Moralia 68a (How to tell a flatterer) where Plutarch gives examples of risky comments that do nothing but put the speaker in danger. In margin ‘foolish free speech‘

5 . 53

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For men who are offering a sacrifice usually prepare a splendid feast and invite their friends to it. But frankness is dangerous when it brings more credit to the man who accepts it than to the speaker. Dionysius 54 When magistrates were being appointed using lots based on letters of the alphabet1 and the letter M fell to Dionysius’ lot, a man said to him as a joke ‘You are a moron, Dionysius.’ ‘No, no,’ he replied, ‘I shall be monarch.’ And he won the magistracy and was immediately elected commander by the Syracusans. He had a mind above being offended by that joke, and was content to interpret the omen of the letter in a different sense. 55 At the beginning of his rule, when his palace was besieged by the citizens conspiring against him, his friends advised him to abdicate unless he wanted to be taken and killed. But he noticed that an ox slain by the butcher fell down instantly and said, ‘Since death is so quick, wouldn’t it be absurd for us to abandon such a dominion out of fear of death?’ What a lust for power possessed his heart to think that ruling was worth the price of death! 56 On discovering that his son, whom he intended to succeed him as ruler, had committed adultery with the wife of a freeborn man, Dionysius angrily ***** 54

(i) Plutarch Moralia 175d. In margin ‘convenient interpretation of omen‘ Dionysius i, son of Hermocrates the democratic leader of Syracuse, seized power in 405 bc, and controlled Eastern Sicily and parts of Italy until his death in 367 when he was succeeded by his son. He was one of the richest and most powerful rulers of his time. Items 5.54–66 come from Plutarch’s collection of sayings, 5.67– 76 from other sources, as indicated below. He would also be familiar to Erasmus from Cicero who presents Dionysius as the supreme example of tyranny in Tusculan Disputations 5.55–76 which includes several of these anecdotes. At different times Dionysius was host to various writers and philosophers including Plato and Aristippus. See 3.104, 3.106, 3.109, 3.110, 3.111, 3.126, 3.140, 3.149, 3.150. 1 For lots drawn with letters of the alphabet cf Adagia iv ii 64: My sortitus es ‘You have drawn M.’ The lots were to determine the order in which speakers would address the people.

55

(ii) Plutarch Moralia 175d. In margin ‘the attraction of ruling‘

56

(iii) Plutarch Moralia 175d–e. In margin ‘adultery in a king’s son‘ For his son Dionysius the Younger see 5.77n below.

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asked him whether he had ever caught his father doing that sort of thing. Then the young man said, ‘No, for you didn’t have a king as your father.’ ‘And you will not have a king as your son,’ said Dionysius, ‘unless you stop committing that sort of offence.’ The tyrant thought his son’s adultery an offence worthy of disinheritance, although it is now the sport of men of power. 57 Again when he went to visit his son and saw a great quantity of golden and silver vessels, he protested, ‘You don’t have the attitude of a king, since you have not made any friends with all these many cups that I presented to you.’ He meant that without the citizens’ goodwill no kingship is won or kept, and it is generosity that most wins goodwill. But the young man in his ignorance thought it more blessed to have gold and silver than friends. 58 Dionysius had exacted money from the Syracusans, and then when he saw them complaining, begging, and denying that they had anything left to give, he decreed a second levy, and did this again for a third time. But after he had demanded a yet bigger amount, he heard them laughing and hurling abusive jokes at the king as they walked in the city square, so he ordered his officials to give up. ‘For now,’ he said, ‘they must have nothing left, since they are treating us with derision.’ 59 When Dionysius’ mother wanted to marry well over the proper age, he said, ‘Mother, the laws of the state can be broken, but not the laws of nature.’ He meant that it was unnatural for an old woman who could no longer give birth to marry. But now women of seventy marry. 60 Although he used to punish severely those who committed other crimes, he used to pardon clothes thieves, so that the Syracusans would stop dining and getting drunk together. ***** 57

(iv) Plutarch Moralia 175e. In margin ‘generosity a kingly thing‘

58

(v) Plutarch Moralia 175e–f. In margin ‘a man with nothing has no fear‘

59

(vi) Plutarch Moralia 175f. In margin ‘unseasonable marriage‘

60

(vii) Plutarch Moralia 175f. In margin ‘excessive drinking censured‘

5 . 60

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For lopodytae, that is, clothes thieves, used to hunt at the baths and crowded parties. This is because outer garments like togas and cloaks are cast aside at parties just as men take off their clothes at the baths. 61 A stranger once asked to talk privately to Dionysius, claiming that he would show the tyrant how to foresee who was conspiring against him. The tyrant invited the fellow in and told him to speak now that no one was listening. The man said, ‘Give me a talent, so that people will think you have had information from me about assassins.’ Impressed by the man’s suggestion, Dionysius gave him the money and pretended to have had information. Certainly this trick was very useful for deterring treachery. Some men say Emperor Maximilian by a similar ruse, pretended he had magic arts, magician’s robes, lucky swords, and genies enclosed in rings to make himself more feared by criminals and enemies.1 62 When someone asked Dionysius if he was at leisure, he said, ‘May that never befall me.’ He realized that it was very shameful for a ruler ever to be at leisure from state business. So where are those men who spend a great part of the day in dicing and games of chance? 63 When Dionysius was told that two young men were uttering a lot of abuse in their cups against him and his rule, he invited them both to dinner. He noticed that one of them drank to excess and fooled around, but the other drank seldom and cautiously. So he let the first one go, on the grounds that he was naturally a drinker and had been abusive out of tipsiness, but he executed the other one because he was deliberately hostile and an enemy.1 This was an exemplary act of a very wise prince. But what has it to with sayings?2 ***** 61

62 63

(viii) Plutarch Moralia 176a. In margin ‘useful deception‘ 1 Giambattista Egnazio has a section on the later Holy Roman Emperors in his De Caesaribus (Aldus 1516); he has nothing but praise for Maximilian i and does not mention this. (ix) Plutarch Moralia 176a. In margin ‘leisure unworthy of a king‘ (x) Plutarch Moralia 176a–b. In margin ‘tipsiness condoned‘ 1 Compare the similar story about Pyrrhus told at 6.183 below. 2 See Introduction xviii–xix and n11.

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64 When some people protested because Dionysius treated with honour a wicked man loathed by his fellow citizens and preferred him before others, he said, ‘I want there to be someone they hate more than me.’ He recognized the nature of the crowd: if there is someone on whom they can divert their ill will and hatred, they are milder towards their prince. That is why you see some monarchs entrusting great rank and authority to fellows whom they do not really like, so as to be safer from the rage of the crowd. If there is such an outburst they have victims they can use to appease the citizens’ anger. 65 He offered the usual bounties to the envoys sent to him by the Corinthians, but they said they would not accept them because of the law in their city prohibiting men serving on an embassy from accepting gifts from a prince. He commented, ‘You are acting absurdly. You take away the one good feature that tyranny has by teaching that it is dangerous to accept even a favour from a tyrant.’ He thought it was a serious insult to refuse the gifts that were offered, since this was the one way tyrants could commend themselves to others. For once men have obtained tyrannical power, their only resource is to mitigate the unpopularity of power by generosity and affability. 66 When Dionysius learned that one of his citizens had buried gold at his home, he ordered it to be brought to him. But the man kept back some of the gold and moved to another city and bought some land there. So Dionysius invited him back and returned all the gold to him, since he had now started to use his gold and had stopped making a useful commodity useless. By this act he made it clear that he did not covet the other man’s gold but had wanted to cure his addiction. At the same time he showed the proper use for gold, that is if you spend it on agriculture rather than usury. 67 Dionysius used to say he was wary of wise friends, because he was sure ***** 64

(xi) Plutarch Moralia 176b. In margin ‘ill will diverted to another‘

65

(xii) Plutarch Moralia 176b. In margin ‘generosity makes tyranny more tolerable‘

66

(xiii) Plutarch Moralia 176c. In margin ‘using gold well‘

67

(xiv) Plutarch Life of Dion 9.6. In margin ‘the wise hateful to tyrants‘

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that not even among them was there a man who would not rather rule than be ruled. 68 When he was performing a sacred ritual in the palace and the herald was praying in the customary fashion that his rule should last undiminished for many ages, he said, ‘Won’t you stop bringing down evil on my head?’1 He felt that one should ask the gods for good sense, rather than things that do not contribute to human happiness. If anybody is surprised at the tyrant’s comment, let him bear in mind that at that time he was a pupil of Plato.2 69 Dionysius’ sister Tescha1 was married to Polyxenus, who had fled the country out of fear of the tyrant, so Dionysius accused his sister of complicity for not informing on her husband’s flight. She answered, ‘Do you think I am such a low and craven creature that if I had guessed he was planning to flee I would not have attached myself to him as his companion on the voyage and in all his fortunes?’ 70 He enticed a famous lyre-player to his court with lavish promises and ordered him to sing his best, because the better he sang, the greater his reward would be. After the artist had sung with great skill on several days and the tyrant had not yet given him any reward, he began to ask for his honorarium. Then Dionysius swore he had paid the reward he had promised in good faith. ‘But you haven’t paid me a penny,’ the man said. ‘No,’ said Dionysius, ‘but I returned pleasure for pleasure, since I entertained you as well with hope as you entertained me with song.’ 71 In admiration for the glorious loyalty of Damon and Pythias, Dionysius said, ***** 68

(xv) Plutarch Life of Dion 13.5. In margin ‘what to ask the gods for‘ 1 There are several anecdotes illustrating the fear that too much prosperity will bring disaster. See 5.322 below, 4.2 above. 2 The last sentence is found in 1531 but omitted from 1532, 1535, and lb.

69

(xvi) Plutarch Life of Dion 21.7–8 1 Her name is given as Theste in modern editions of Plutarch. Polyxenus had been a strong supporter and counsellor of Dionysius.

70

(xvii) Plutarch Moralia 41d (On listening to lectures). In margin ‘tit for tat‘

71

(xviii) The well-known story of Damon and Pythias (or Phintias) is reported by Diodorus 10.4.3, Cicero De officiis 3.43–6, Tusculan Disputations 5.63, and

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‘I am asking you to admit me too into your friendship.’ For the tyrant had set a day for the execution of one of them and when he asked for a few days to settle his household affairs, it was granted on condition that his friend should go surety, and if he did not return on the appointed day the other man should pay the penalty. But he came at the due time, preferring to die rather than let his friend down. So both of them were saved and honoured with the tyrant’s friendship. So effective is outstanding virtue, even with tyrants. 72 Dionysius used to disguise his sacrileges with witticisms. He had plundered the temple of Proserpina at Locri, and when his fleet sailed off with a favouring wind he said, ‘You see what a successful voyage is granted by the gods to sacrilegious thieves.’ He inferred from the event that either there were no gods, or they were not offended by sacrilege. 73 He stole a golden robe of great weight from Olympian Jupiter (Hieron1 had honoured the god with this offering from his spoils won from Carthage) and put a woollen cloak on the divine image instead of the stolen gold. He joked that ‘a golden robe is heavy in summer and cold in winter, but wool is better suited to both seasons of the year.’ 74 At Epidaurus Dionysius stripped the golden beard from Aesculapius, because he said it was not seemly that the father Apollo should appear beardless when the son wore a beard. Aesculapius is said to be Apollo’s son, and the theology of the poets ***** (without naming them) De finibus 2.79; cf also Valerius Maximus 4.7 ext. 1. None of these is Erasmus’ precise source. He has probably written his own version. In margin ‘the loyalty of friends‘ 72

(xix) Valerius Maximus 1.1 ext. 3. This and the next four anecdotes (5.72–6) about the sacrilegious thefts of Dionysius appear in very similar words in Cicero De natura deorum 3.83–4, but Erasmus seems to be following Valerius Maximus. Aelian Varia historia 1.20 reports that he plundered the temples of his own original city, Syracuse, as well as listing other thefts. In margin ‘impiety turning out well‘

73

(xx) Valerius Maximus 1.1 ext. 3. In margin ‘thieving with a joke‘ 1 This should be Gelon as in Valerius Maximus. See 5.44 above.

74

(xxi) Valerius Maximus 1.1 ext. 3. In margin ‘bearded doctors‘

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always represents Apollo as beardless, but Aesculapius with a beard, to suggest that a physician has experience of many things. 75 He took from the temples the tables of gold and bronze which had been dedicated to the gods. There was an inscription on these declaring as was Greek custom that they belonged to the good gods so that no man should lay hands on them. But he made the clever quibble that he was profiting by the goodness of the gods. For the gods are called good because they do good to all men. 76 Dionysius also took the gold Victories and the libation dishes and chaplets which the divine images held out in their arms as if offering them. He commented that he was accepting what was offered, not taking it, and added that it was absurd when we pray to the gods each day for good things, to refuse good things when they freely hold them out. Dionysius the Younger 77 The younger Dionysius used to say that he maintained many sophists not because he admired them, but because he wanted to be admired on their account. He knew the people thought highly of them as learned men and he cleverly exploited this belief to win the goodwill of the crowd. It is on the same principle perhaps that some princes support in their palaces men respected from a belief in their learning and holy life, so that the people will presume that most of their policies are based on these men’s advice. 78 When the dialectician Polyxenus said to Dionysius, ‘I have proved you wrong,’ he replied, ‘Yes, in words, but I prove you wrong in deeds for abandoning your own affairs to pay court to me and mine.’ ***** 75

(xxii) Valerius Maximus 1.1 ext. 3. In margin ‘dedications‘

76

(xxiii) Valerius Maximus 1.1 ext. 3. In margin ‘mockery added to sacrilege‘

77

(i) Plutarch Moralia 176c. Dionysius the younger, son of Dionysius i, succeeded his father in 367 bc. First Plato, and later his uncle Dion (see 5.85–6 below) tried to educate him into making reforms, but failed. There was much internal dissension (see 5.80), he quarrelled with the citizens, and they expelled him in 357; eventually he lived on as a schoolmaster in Corinth. See 5.79n.

78

(ii) Plutarch Moralia 176c–d. In margin ‘facts more effective than words‘

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He meant that the man had deserted his school for the court and left philosophers for a tyrant, which he would not have done if he had not thought this life happier than the other. 79 When Dionysius had been driven out of his tyranny, someone said to him, ‘What good did Plato and philosophy do to you?’ He answered, ‘They taught me to accept such a change of fortune easily.’ Indeed he did not commit suicide as others did, but opened a school.1 80 A man once asked Dionysius how it was that his father had obtained princely control over the city of Syracuse, starting from a humble condition with no official position, but he, who had been a king’s son and accepted the monarchy as his inheritance, had lost it. He replied: ‘My father took power when popular government had fallen in to bad odour, but I took up the position of prince when tyranny was struggling with unpopularity.’ 81 He gave a concise answer to another man with the same question: ‘My father left me his rule but not his luck.’ All things do not turn out equally well for all men. Agathocles 82 Agathocles was born the son of a potter. Now when he had won control of Sicily and was declared ‘king’ he used to set out earthenware cups on the table alongside golden ones and show them to the young men. He would say as he pointed to the earthenware, ‘Although I used to make this kind of cup, I now am able by my vigilance and courage to make myself these,’ pointing to the golden cups. He was not ashamed of his original lot in life but thought it more glorious to win a kingdom by merit than if it had come to him by inheritance. ***** 79

(iii) Plutarch Moralia 176d. In margin ‘philosophy in misfortune‘ 1 Cf Adagia i i 83: Dionysius Corinthi ‘Dionysius in Corinth.’ See 3.381 above and General Index: philosophy, benefits of.

80

(iv) Plutarch Moralia 176d. In margin ‘practical understanding‘

81

(v) Plutarch Moralia 176e

82

(i) Plutarch Moralia 176e. In margin ‘position won by hard work‘ Agathocles, born 361/60 bc, became tyrant of Syracuse through a military coup in 316, and fought the Carthaginians successfully in western Sicily as well as some of the cities of Southern Italy. He was assassinated in 289/8.

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For it is no great thing to be born a king, but it is a truly great achievement to prove oneself worthy of a kingdom. 83 When Agathocles was besieging a city and some fellows were taunting him from the walls and saying, ‘Potter, how will you find pay for your soldiers?’ he answered calmly with a smile, ‘When I have captured this place.’ But when he had taken the city by storm and was selling the prisoners he said, ‘If you insult me again, I will complain about you to your masters.’1 This was an affable way of twitting them for their ill-timed abuse and the slavery which was its reward. 84 When the people of Ithaca reported his sailors to him because they had taken some sheep when they put in to the island, he said, ‘But when your king called in on us, he not only took the sheep but blinded the shepherd.’ This was a reference to the story about Ulysses blinding the Cyclops Polyphemus.1 Dion 85 Dion, who drove Dionysius from his kingdom, heard that Calippus, the guest and friend whom he most trusted, was plotting treachery against him, but could not persuade himself to condemn him, saying, ‘It would be better to die than live, if we have to mistrust not only our enemies but our friends too.’ He deserved the best friends, for preferring to die rather than distrust a friend. ***** 83

(ii) Plutarch Moralia 176e–f. In margin ‘insult‘ 1 A similar saying is attributed to Antigonus ‘the One-eyed’ at Plutarch Moralia 458f (On the control of anger); see 4.129 above.

84

(iii) Plutarch Moralia 176f. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 See Homer Odyssey 9.374–436. Odysseus, king of Ithaca, landed in Sicily during his travels after the fall of Troy, and escaped from the cave of the Cyclops, whom he had blinded, by clinging under one of his sheep.

85

(i) Plutarch Moralia 176e–7a. Dion, disciple of Plato, was earlier the trusted minister of Dionysius i. He attempted to set up a philosophic monarchy in Syracuse in 357 bc after the expulsion of Dionysius ii (see 5.79 above). His imperiousness alienated his supporters and he was assassinated by his friend Calippus, who briefly became ruler of Syracuse.

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86 Again when he was in exile and needed the services of Pteodotus of Megara, he went to his house and saw that he was so burdened with important business that he hardly let anyone in to see him. When his friends were indignant Dion said, ‘Why do we reproach him? Didn’t we do the same thing when we were at Syracuse?’ Archelaus 87 Once at a party a guest lacking in good manners asked Archelaus to give him a cup. Archelaus immediately instructed a slave to give the cup to Euripides. When the man who had made the request expressed surprise at this Archelaus said, ‘You deserved to ask and not receive, but he deserved to receive even without asking.’ He meant that acquaintance with the king had given the man confidence to ask for anything but the modesty of the good man Euripides had earned the right to be given something unasked. 88 When a chattering barber asked how he should shave Archelaus, he replied, ‘In silence.’ The fellow expected a different reply, hence the wit of the retort. Some barbers do make themselves a nuisance when doing their job; and it was enough for Archelaus if the man kept silent. We sometimes have to deal with drunks who are just as talkative. 89 Euripides was at a banquet embracing and kissing the beautiful Agathon. Agathon’s beard was just beginning to grow, and Archelaus said to his friends, ‘Don’t be surprised, since even the autumn of handsome youths is handsome.1 This was a courteous way of excusing his friend before others. ***** 86

(ii) Plutarch Life of Dion 17.9–10. In margin ‘forbearing‘ Dion was banished by Dionysius i on suspicion of treachery, and spent some time in Athens, before returning and eventually seizing control of Syracuse.

87

(i) Plutarch Moralia 177a. In margin ‘requested by one, given to another‘ Archelaus, king of Macedon (413–399 bc) invited Socrates (who declined) and Euripides to his court, where Euripides presented his Bacchae.

88

(ii) Plutarch Moralia 177a. In margin ‘talkativeness‘

89

(iii) Plutarch Moralia 177a–b. In margin ‘courteous‘ 1 Agathon may be the Athenian tragic poet. See 3.72 above.

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90 Timotheus the lyre-player was hoping for a huge fee from Archelaus, but when he received less than he had hoped for, he reproached him openly. He happened to be singing this phrase, ‘You indeed praise silver, the metal born of earth,’ and he nodded to indicate the king. But Archelaus mimicked his song, ‘You indeed ask for it . . .’ There is more elegance in the Greek because of the similar sound of aineis and aiteis ‘you praise’ and ‘you ask.’1 It is humiliating to ask for something and have your request rejected. 91 Archelaus was once splashed with water by a fellow, and his friends were egging him on against the man who had done this. He replied, ‘No, no, it wasn’t me he splashed but the man he thought I was.’ What could be more courteous than this moderation! On this model it is easy and becoming to forgive those who offend unwittingly, even against a man of power. Ptolemy son of Lagus 92 Ptolemy the son of Lagus used to dine and spend the night at his friends’ homes. But if he ever asked them back to dinner he borrowed their possessions, taking cups and tapestries and tables on loan from them. For himself he provided nothing more than necessity required, claiming that it was more kingly to make men rich than to be rich oneself. 93 When he was travelling across Egypt and his friends had not caught up with him, someone in a cottage gave him plain bread and he said no ***** 90

(iv) Plutarch Moralia 177b. Cf the story at 5.70 above. In margin ‘an apt retort‘ 1 Erasmus does not attempt to reproduce the wordplay in Latin.

91

(v) Plutarch Moralia 177b. In margin ‘lenient‘

92

(i) Plutarch Moralia 181f. In margin ‘frugality in a king‘ Ptolemy son of Lagus (367/7–282 bc), one of Alexander’s generals, took over the rule of Egypt after Alexander’s death. He commandeered the king’s body on its return from Babylon and buried it in the new city of Alexandria, to which he transferred his power from the old capital Memphis. With his third wife Berenice he founded the dynasty of Ptolemies. Lagus was a man of obscure birth and it was commonly believed that Ptolemy was not his son.

93

(ii) Cicero Tusculan Disputations 5.97. In margin ‘hunger the seasoning‘

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food had ever seemed sweeter to him. For he had hunger as the best of seasoning.1 94 When Ptolemy had shamed a scholar for his ignorance by asking him, ‘Who was the father of Peleus,’ he got the reply, ‘You tell me first who was the father of Lagus?’ Ptolemy’s friends urged him to retaliate against such impudence,1 but he said, ‘If it is the mark of a king not to let himself be stung by any man’s comment, it is not kingly either to provoke anyone with one’s own comment.’ It is unjust for a man who has given first provocation to seek retaliation, no matter what his rank; and he should not be mindful of his rank either if he is struck back, since he has shed his privilege by provocation.2 Xenophanes 95 This was the reply of Xenophanes the son of Lagus when Hermoneus accused him of timidity for refusing to play dice with him. ‘I admit I am not just afraid but indeed very afraid, but only of committing a dishonourable act.’ The timidity that discourages us from shameful deeds is itself honourable.1 ***** 1 Cf Adagia ii vii 69: Optimum condimentum fames ‘Hunger is the best sauce,’ and the stories of Artoxerxes at 5.24 and 5.26 above and a Spartan at 2.84 above. 94

(iii) Plutarch Moralia 458a–b (On the control of anger). In margin ‘royal clemency‘ 1 See 5.92n above. 2 Cf 6.68 below, where Erasmus repeats this comment.

95

(i) Plutarch Moralia 530f (On compliancy). In margin ‘timidity praised‘ This is included here because of the mention of the well-known Lagus in 5.92 and 5.94. That Lagus did not have a son Xenophanes. It is not even his grandson Lagus, illegitimate son of Ptolemy i (Athenaeus 13.37 576e). Xenophanes, son of Lagus, and Hermoneus are non-existent persons, generated by a misreading or fault of the Greek text (Lagus being substituted for Lasus) and a consequent wrong division of the Greek words. We should have: ‘Xenophanes, when Lasus of Hermione accused him’ . . . (Hermoneus is an adjective, not a name.) The real Xenophanes was a poet and philosopher of the sixth century bc. 1 This is the general argument of Plutarch’s essay. Erasmus perhaps did not have to hand the context for this story: they were drinking heavily, which justifies Xenophanes’ refusal. Erasmus thought dicing itself reprehensible. Cf 5.474 below.

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Demetrius son of Antigonus 96 When Demetrius was besieging Rhodes, he appropriated a painting he found in the outskirts, which was the work of the famous painter Protogenes, and portrayed Ialyson, that is Bacchus. The Rhodians sent heralds to him begging him to spare the picture. He answered that he would rather destroy his father’s likenesses than that painting.1 So great was the honour that king paid to art. 97 After he had made a treaty with the Rhodians, he left his helepolis (that is his siege engine called City-Taker) with them to be a witness to the king’s magnificence and to their courage. But this should not have been included among the sayings either.1 However, the memorial served to remind men that Rhodes had been splendidly besieged by Demetrius and that the Rhodians had defended their country bravely. 98 He took the city of Athens after the Athenians had rebelled, and found the city in serious trouble for lack of grain. He immediately summoned an assembly and bestowed a large quantity of grain on them free of charge. But in speaking about this to the people he committed a barbarism, pronouncing a word incorrectly, and one of the audience interrupted him to advise him how the word should be pronounced. ‘In return for that reproof’ he said, ‘I will add another 50,000 measures for you.’ Should we be more admiring of this prince’s generosity towards men who had just been his enemies, or his courtesy in not only taking the act of the corrector in good part but even thinking it deserved such a substantial reward? ***** 96

(i) Plutarch Moralia 183b–c. In margin ‘honour paid to art‘ This Demetrius is the Macedonian general known as Poliorketes ‘the besieger,’ son of Antigonus the One-eyed. It was the year-long siege of Rhodes which won him the title. It was ended by negotiation, not capture. Erasmus passes over the sayings of his father which he had translated in book 4 along with the many sayings of Philip and Alexander of Macedon. Protogenes was a friendly rival of the painter Apelles. 1 This painting was one of his masterpieces. See 6.524 below.

97

(ii) Plutarch Moralia 183c. In margin ‘helepolis‘ 1 See Introduction xviii–xix and n11 above.

98

(iii) Plutarch Moralia 183b–c. In margin ‘a kind conqueror‘

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99 After occupying Megara, he had the philosopher Stilpon summoned and asked him whether any of his soldiers had stolen anything. ‘No, none of them,’ said Stilpon, ‘for I did not notice anyone stealing knowledge.’1 His point was that only intellectual property was invulnerable to the violence of war. 100 Again when Demetrius had taken away the slaves of all the citizens and said to Stilpon, ‘I am leaving your state free,’ Stilpon said, ‘Quite right, for you are leaving no slave in our whole state.’ 101 Lysimachus1 assailed Demetrius with insults and said Lamia looked to him like a courtesan appearing on the tragic stage. (This was Demetrius’2 mistress, who was sumptuously dressed.) Demetrius answered that his courtesan Lamia was more modest and respectable than Lysimachus’ Penelope, meaning his wife.3 102 Demetrius sent envoys to Lysimachus who told them in an idle moment how he had been compelled by Alexander to fight with a very savage lion, and showed them the scars of the beast’s claws on his arms and legs. In reply the envoys said, ‘Our king too has serious bites from a fierce Lamia on his neck,’ meaning the traces of love-bites but also alluding to the savage monster called Lamia. ***** 99

(iv) Plutarch Life of Demetrius 9.9. In margin ‘a philosopher honoured‘ 1 The story is told differently at Diogenes Laertius 2.115 (the source used for 7.132 below.

100 (v) Plutarch Life of Demetrius 9.10. In margin ‘witty‘ 101 (vi) Plutarch Life of Demetrius 25.9. In margin ‘Lamia the courtesan‘ 1 Lysimachus (cf 5.111–12) was assigned rule over Thrace on Alexander’s death in 323 bc, then made an alliance with Seleucus of Syria and was given northern Asia in return. In Europe, he expelled Demetrius and took over the whole of Macedon in 285. 2 Demetrius was notorious for his mistresses, one of whom was the famous courtesan Lamia; cf 6.582–3 below. 3 Penelope has the same name as Odysseus’ famously chaste and faithful wife, but she seems to be Lysimachus’ courtesan; ‘wife’ is an addition by Erasmus. 102 (vii) Plutarch Life of Demetrius 27.3. In margin ‘the king’s lamia‘ For Lamia see 5.101 just above.

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103 No one was more experienced in good and bad fortune than Demetrius,1 so he used to quote the Aeschylean tag about fortune: ‘You have raised me up and now you cast me down again.’2 104 When Erasistratus had revealed to Demetrius1 his son Antiochus’ suicidal intent and had revealed that love was the cause of his affliction, Demetrius, who loved the boy devotedly, began to implore Erasistratus with many tears and all kinds of entreaty to take thought for the boy’s preservation. Then Erasistratus added that the sickness was incurable because the boy loved Erasistratus’ own wife. Demetrius began to beg him even more passionately to give the boy his wife for the sake of his survival. The doctor said, ‘As a father you can easily say such things, but you would react differently if he loved your wife Stratonice.’ When the king began to pray to the gods to change his son’s love and transfer it from his doctor’s wife to his own, saying he would do anything if it were only possible to save his son, Erasistratus kissed the father’s right hand and said, ‘O king, you don’t need Erasistratus any more: since you are father and husband and king, you yourself will be the best doctor for your family. For Antiochus is not in love with my wife but with your wife Stratonice.’ After this Demetrius decreed that Antiochus should be named king2 and Stratonice, whom he surrendered to his son, be named queen. 105 He so excelled in skill and ingenuity with siege engines that it was justifiably claimed that the size of Demetrius’ siege engines brought total amazement even to his friends but their beauty brought pleasure even to his enemies. ***** 103 (viii) Plutarch Life of Demetrius 35.3–4. In margin ‘the vicissitudes of fortune‘ 1 He was involved in the collapse of the empire of his father Antigonus i in the East, and was ousted from north-west Greece by Pyrrhus (see 5.106 n1 and 5.125 n1 below). 2 Aeschylus Nauck fr 259: Su toi m& Áfusaw, sœ me kataye”n moi doke”w 104 (ix) Plutarch Life of Demetrius 38. In margin ‘wonderful affection for a son‘ 1 Demetrius is a mistake for Seleucus i. See also Valerius Maximus 5.7 ext. 1. Erasmus has been misled because the story is in the life of Demetrius. Stratonice is Antiochus’ step-mother, and the daughter of Demetrius Poliorketes. (Demetrius is the father of Antigonus, not Antiochus, see 6.106 below). 2 Antiochus i Soter (c. 324–261 bc), son of Seleucus i. 105 (x) Plutarch Life of Demetrius 20.1 and 6

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Antigonus the Second 106 When Antigonus’ father Demetrius was captured, he gave instructions to Antigonus through a friend sent as messenger, that he should not respond if he, Demetrius, wrote any request under compulsion from Seleucus, nor surrender any cities to him. Antigonus wrote of his own accord to Seleucus, giving up all his power and himself as hostage if his father Demetrius were released.1 Here piety was competing against piety. The father was indifferent to his own lot and wanted to spare his son and his son’s kingdom, but the son put his father’s liberty before his kingdom and himself. 107 Antigonus was about to join battle with the forces of Ptolemy, when his pilot warned him that the enemy had more ships. He asked, ‘How many ships do you think my presence here is worth?’ His point was that it was a vital factor in victory if a good general was in personal command of the force. As it happened Ptolemy was not present with his force at the time. 108 On one occasion when he gave way to the enemy’s onslaught he said he was not in flight but seeking the advantage that lay behind him. He meant that it was no disgrace to flee at any time when it was more advantageous to give way to the enemy than to join battle. The wit of his remark is that while fleeing and pursuing are opposites, he was fleeing but explained it as pursuing rather than fleeing. For we pursue an enemy but we also pursue whatever we most earnestly desire. ***** 106 (i) Plutarch Moralia 183c. In margin ‘right affection for one’s country [father]‘ Antigonus ii Gonatas (320–239 bc), ruler of Macedon from 287, took the title of king on the death in 282 of his father, Demetrius Poliorketes. 1 Demetrius suffered reverses in Asia Minor when fighting Seleucus i for control. The three chief successors of Alexander, Antigonus i, Antiochus i and Ptolemy i, and their descendants, were constantly at war, endeavouring to extend or consolidate their spheres of control. 107 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 183c–d. In margin ‘the eye of the master‘ He defeated the forces of Ptolemy ii Philadelphus ruler of Egypt at the naval battle of Cos in 254 bc. 108 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 183d. In margin ‘flight excused‘

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109 There was a young man who was the son of a brave father, although he himself was not a particularly good fighter. This fellow demanded the same pay as his father’s, to which Antigonus replied, ‘Young fellow, it is my practice to give pay and rewards to a man not for parental merits but for personal ones.’ With this comment he was challenging the young man to match his father’s bravery if he wanted to earn his father’s pay. The saying is more pleasing in Greek because of the similar forms of the words andragathias and patragathias (that is, manly courage and father’s courage). Antigonus coined the second word on the model of the first. 110 When Zeno, the philosopher whom he most revered, met his death, Antigonus used to say that the theatre for his heroic deeds had been taken from him, since he had planned his enterprises to please the other’s judgment in particular – a man he thought equal to many thousands.1 Lysimachus 111 Lysimachus was defeated in Thrace by Dromochetes and surrendered himself and his force because he could not endure thirst. But once he was taken prisoner and had a drink, he said, ‘Ye gods! To think I made myself a slave instead of a king for so short-lived a pleasure.’ The story about Philippides1 reported here will be quoted in its proper place, since this is not an apophthegm of Lysimachus but of Philippides. ***** 109 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 183d. In margin ‘each man commended by his own bravery‘ 110 (v) Plutarch Moralia 183d. In margin ‘pleasing good men‘ 1 Cf 7.294 below. 111 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 183e. Lysimachus (c. 355–281 bc) was one of the lesser successors of Alexander who initially received Thrace as his area, but extended his power into Asia Minor. He was captured by Dromochetes in 292 bc while pushing his European boundaries north. He was killed fighting Seleucus i in 281 bc. 1 Erasmus has postponed Plutarch’s anecdote about Lysimachus and the comic poet Philippides (also at Plutarch Moralia 183e) with a promise to report it under the latter’s name: he will do so in 6.408 below. See dedicatory epistle 9 above.

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112 Lysimachus was offended by Theodorus’1 outspokenness and said to him, ‘Your country drove you out because you behaved like this.’ The other replied, ‘Of course. It was not strong enough to bear me any more than Semele could bear Bacchus.’ Theodorus meant that he was too great to be endured by unworthy men but his expulsion had been more their misfortune than his own. Semele conceived Bacchus from Jupiter in the form of a thunderbolt and could not bear the fiery embryo, so the child was cut out from her and sewn into Jupiter’s thigh. Antipater 113 When Antipater heard that Parmenion1 had been killed by Alexander he said, ‘If Parmenion conspired against Alexander whom can we trust? If he didn’t conspire what are we to do?’ Parmenion was like a second Alexander in warfare. If so great a friend betrayed him it is not safe to trust any friend, but if Alexander eliminated an innocent man then it is best to avoid dealing with kings. 114 He used to say of Demades, the aging orator, that like a sacrificial victim nothing was left of Demades except his tongue and his belly. For the victim’s belly was discarded and its tongue given to the herald. So as he grew old the orator just kept on talking, since being talkative increases with age. And they say that Demades was addicted to gluttony and that is why he criticized Phocion’s austerity.1 ***** 112 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 606b (On exile). In margin ‘exile made light of‘ 1 This is Theodorus ‘the Atheist.’ He was expelled from his native Cyrene, and after fleeing from Athens in turn, he went to the court of Ptolemy i, who sent him on an embassy to Lysimachus. His unacceptable views about normal standards of moral behaviour aroused sufficient hostility to endanger his life. For another saying see 6.420 below. 113 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 183f. In margin ‘friendship with kings‘ For Antipater see 2.52 n1 above. 1 Parmenion was a distinguished general with long service under both Philip and Alexander. He was probably falsely accused of plotting against Alexander, who stained his reputation by having him secretly murdered. 114 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 183f. In margin ‘belly and tongue‘ 1 For Demades and Phocion, see 4.271 above and 6.379 below; on Phocion see also 4.257–79 above.

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Antiochus the Third 115 Antiochus the Third wrote to the city states that if he gave any written orders contrary to the law they should not execute them,1 on the grounds that the orders were written without his knowledge. Sometimes princes, afraid to offend certain people, write orders that they will not want carried out. So whatever is in conflict with the laws should be treated as if proposed without the prince’s knowledge, since he is simply the agent of the laws. 116 At Ephesus, when Antiochus saw that the priestess of Diana was exceptionally attractive he immediately set sail, for fear that the power of desire might drive him to act against divine law. How appallingly different are Christian soldiers from the scruples of this pagan prince, treating it as sport to rape virgins consecrated to god. Antiochus the Fourth 117 Antiochus, called the Hawk, was fighting against his brother Seleucus for the throne. But when Seleucus was missing, defeated by the Galati and believed to have perished in battle, Antiochus cast off his purple robes and put on a mourning garment; then a little later hearing his brother was unharmed, he made a sacrifice to the gods for the good news and made the cities under his rule put on garlands. If there are feuds between brothers they are very bitter because the lust for the throne considers nothing impious or wicked.1 But this man sought ***** 115 (x) Plutarch Moralia 183f. In margin ‘just‘ Antiochus iii ‘the Great’ (242–187 bc) was the son of Seleucus ii of Syria. He accepted an invitation from the Greeks to defend them from Rome, but was driven back into Asia Minor and defeated at Magnesia (190 bc), followed by the treaty of Apamea by which he renounced his rule of Western Asia. It is this Antiochus who was defeated by Lucius Scipio (cf 5.134). 1 Cf 5.33 above. 116 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 183f. In margin ‘decent‘ 117 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 184a. In margin ‘proper feeling towards a brother‘ Antiochus ‘the Hawk’ (263–226 bc) was brother of Seleucus ii and second son of Antiochus the Second. ‘The Hawk’ cannot be the monarch usually called Antiochus iv Epiphanes (216–164 bc), who is a grandson of Seleucus ii. ‘The Hawk’ did not succeed in becoming king in spite of fighting for many years. 1 Cf Adagia i ii 50: Fratrum irae inter se sunt acerbissimae ‘The bitterest quarrels

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the throne with such moderation that he wanted his brother unharmed. And yet I don’t see why this should be counted among the sayings.2 Eumenes 118 An attempt was made by Perseus to assassinate Eumenes and he was believed dead. When the rumour reached Pergamum, Eumenes’ brother Attalus put on the diadem and married his brother’s wife and seized power. But when he heard that Eumenes was alive he set out to meet him armed as usual with a spear and with his bodyguard. But Eumenes embraced him affectionately and whispered in his ear, ‘Hasten not to marry until you see me dead!’1 And henceforward throughout his life he showed no other sign of resentment in word or deed: in fact when he died he left his brother both wife and throne. Remembering his attitude Attalus did not bring up any of his many sons to be king but once Eumenes’ son had reached manhood, he handed over the kingship to him in his own lifetime. Pyrrhus 119 When Pyrrhus, king of the Epirots, was asked by his sons, still mere boys, ‘To which of us will you leave your throne?’ he replied, ‘To whoever has the sharpest sword.’ He meant that he would not give succession to the throne by age but ***** are between brothers.’ There is a longer account in Plutarch Moralia 489a (On brotherly love). 2 See Introduction xviii–xix and n11 above. 118 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 184a–b. In margin ‘humane behaviour in brothers‘ This is Eumenes ii, king of Pergamum in Asia Minor (197–158 bc). His brother succeeded him as Attalus ii. Eumenes made Pergamum Rome’s ally against Perseus, king of Macedon (179–168 bc). 1 Apparently a parody of a line from a lost play of Sophocles (Nauck fr 601). 119 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 184c. In margin ‘the succession given to merit‘ Pyrrhus was king of Epirus (319–272 bc). With the support of Ptolemy i and Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse (see 5.82 above), he regained his ancestral kingdom, and strove to preserve the independence of Epirus. In 285 he responded to an appeal from Tarentum to support them against the Romans (see 5.122 and 5.128 below), and fought several fierce campaigns against Rome, but his victories were too costly in manpower, and he left Italy to campaign in Sicily from 278–6, following these campaigns with an unsuccessful attack on Sparta. For his ignominious death at Argos see 4.123 above. Our main source for his achievements is Plutarch’s Life of Pyrrhus.

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by merit. With this he challenged all his sons to a contest in valour. 120 Someone asked him who was the better pipe-player, Python or Charisius, and he answered ‘Polysperches.’1 This man was a distinguished commander. Pyrrhus despised the unwarlike art and preferred a valiant leader to either of them. 121 Pyrrhus had twice been victorious over the Romans in battle but with the loss of many Companions and officers. At this he said, ‘If we defeat the Romans in one more battle we shall be ruined!’1 The victor said what is usually said by the defeated, showing that victory at great cost of life is no victory but a disaster. 122 When he was departing from Sicily disappointed in his hope of occupying the island, he turned to his friends and said, ‘What a wrestling ground we are leaving to the Romans and Carthaginians!’ He meant that he was glad to leave this bloody and arduous struggle to others. Sometimes it is more fortunate not to succeed than to pay too high a price for what you are pursuing. 123 Men say that Pyrrhus used to tell any man whom he charged with drafting soldiers to pick strong fellows and he would make them brave. ***** 120 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 184c. In margin ‘an art useless in war‘ 1 Ie the Macedonian commander Polyperchon (sic). Cf Plutarch Pyrrhus 8.7. Pyrrhus seems to have said ‘Polyperchon the general’ or, ‘Polyperchon is a general.’ He was a contemporary of Pyrrhus. See 4.274n. Plutarch adds ‘as that sort of thing was all that a king should be interested in.’ This is an example of a chreia where the answer is not what was expected; see Theon Progymnasmata 5.209 (Spengel ii 100). 121 (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 184c. In margin ‘victory bought dearly‘ 1 Pyrrhus defeated the Romans in southern Italy at Heraclea (280 bc) and Ausculum (279 bc). These were ‘Pyrrhic victories,’ though this phrase doesn’t seem to have become proverbial until comparatively recent times. The ancient equivalent was ‘Cadmean victories.’ 122 (xvii) Plutarch Moralia 184c–d. In margin ‘costing a great deal‘ He had responded to an appeal from the people of Syracuse to help them against the Carthaginians. The struggle for control of Sicily was the cause of the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage. 123 (xviii) Frontinus Strategemata 4.1.3. In margin ‘training‘

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What he meant was that a good soldier was the product of training. Indeed Pyrrhus was held to be the best instructor in military discipline.1 124 Pyrrhus also used to say that Cineas had overwhelmed more cities by his eloquence than he himself had taken with arms. Now Cineas was a Thessalian of great talent who had heard Demosthenes and devoted himself to imitating him, especially in conveying the same passion.1 So was confirmed what Euripides says:2 Speech takes everything by storm That even steel of enemies might accomplish.

125 When he returned home successful and was hailed as an eagle by his men he said, ‘It is through you that I am an eagle. How could I not be an eagle when I soar aloft on your weapons as if on wings?’ By modestly transferring the credit of the boastful title to his soldiers, he avoided ill will.1 126 In Ambracia his friends urged him to exile an abusive fellow who hurled a lot of insults at him but Pyrrhus said, ‘It is better for him to hurl silly abuse in our small company than wander around all nations.’ 127 After Pyrrhus came to Athens and went up to the Acropolis to sacrifice to Pallas Athene and came down from the citadel that same day. He then ***** 1 See Plutarch Pyrrhus 8.3; Pyrrhus left a memoir on the subject. See 5.290 below. 124 (xix) Plutarch Life of Pyrrhus 14.2. In margin ‘the power of eloquence‘ 1 Cineas served Pyrrhus as a diplomat. See 5.129 below. 2 Euripides Phoenissae 516–17: P‰n \jaire” l—gow, / ­ ka“ s’dhrow polem’vn seien Än.

dr‡-

125 (xx) Plutarch Moralia 184d. In margin ‘an eagle in the clouds‘(from the Greek proverb collections). See Adagia i ix 20: Aquila in nubibus. 1 Pyrrhus clashed with Demetrius i Poliorketes over control of Epirus, and had just defeated in single combat Pantauchus, one of Demetrius’ generals, and then routed his army. See Plutarch Life of Pyrrhus 7.5–10. 126 (xxi) Plutarch Life of Pyrrhus 8.11. In margin ‘control‘ Pyrrhus gained control of Ambracia in north-west Greece during his clashes with the Macedonians. 127 (xxii) Plutarch Life of Pyrrhus 12.7. In margin ‘kings not to be admitted‘

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praised the Athenians’ loyalty to him, but warned them, if they were sensible, not to open their gates thereafter to any other king.1 His point was that the liberty of the people was naturally hated by all kings. 128 When the Tarentines were debating in the assembly about embarking on a war and taking Pyrrhus as their ally,1 a man called Meton took a garland and a lantern and went into the market-place led by a piper as if he were drunk and carousing. When some men laughed and others applauded – as will happen – while some even invited him to sing, he went into the assembly and stopped still as if he were going to sing. After the crowd fell silent he said, ‘You do well, Tarentines, to allow those who want to joke and play the fool to do so while we still can. If you have any sense you will all make the most of this freedom to play before Pyrrhus comes. For after that we shall have to live by his decision and not our own.’ 129 To discourage Pyrrhus from his desire for war, Cineas spoke to him like this when they were at leisure: ‘The Romans are said to be very warlike but when we have defeated them what shall we do next, Pyrrhus?’ ‘Then,’ said Pyrrhus ‘we will occupy all of Italy.’ Then Cineas repeated the question, ‘And what shall we do after conquering Italy?’ Pyrrhus replied, ‘Sicily is next.’ Then Cineas asked, ‘Will this be the end of campaigning?’ ‘Not at all,’ said Pyrrhus, ‘these are just preliminaries to greater things. There are still Libya and Carthage.’ ‘Right,’ said Cineas, ‘once you are in control of these you will easily recover Macedonia and be lord of Greece. But when we have destroyed them all, what shall we do next?’ Smiling, Pyrrhus said, ‘Then we will enjoy leisure, my dear fellow and it will be bumpers every day and we shall entertain each other with conversation.’ Then Cineas objected, ‘What is to stop us enjoying that leisure, those bumpers, and all that conversation right now, my king? For now without any trouble we have all those things available to us which we are planning to seek through blood***** 1 After his unsuccessful ventures in Italy and Sicily, Pyrrhus made an attempt to extend his domains into Greece in 273–272 bc. 128 (xxiii) Plutarch Life of Pyrrhus 13.4–9. In margin ‘a wise man in the guise of a fool‘ 1 See 5.119n above, 5.131 below. 129 (xxiv) Plutarch Life of Pyrrhus 14.4–13. In margin ‘wise counsel‘

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shed and hardships and dangers to ourselves and others without knowing whether we shall succeed.’ 130 When Pyrrhus, alleging false reasons for his approach, had invaded and plundered Spartan territory, the Spartan envoys protested that he had invaded Spartan territory without declaring war.1 He replied, ‘Neither do you Spartans announce to others in advance what you are going to do.’ 131 In his victory at Tarentum he was full of admiration for the valour of Roman soldiers and the strategy of their generals and cried out, ‘How easy it would have been for me to take possession of the world with Romans as my soldiers, or for the Romans with me as their king.’1 So Florus reports in book 1 of his Epitomes. Antiochus 132 The famous Antiochus who twice led an expedition against the Persians was following a beast in the hunt, and, getting separated from his friends and attendants, came to the cottage of some poor folk who did not know him. When there was a reference to the king at dinner he learned that he was a good man in other respects but entrusted most of his functions to bad friends, turning a blind eye to their offences, also that he often neglected essential business in his excessive passion for hunting. At the time he made no comment and did not let on who he was, but at dawn when his guard came to the cottage and he was at last recognized since they brought his purple robes and diadem, he said, ‘Well now, ever since I first put on these garments, yesterday was the first time I heard the truth about myself.’ For the usual desire of those who live at the courts of princes is that the princes should only hear what is soothing to their ears. ***** 130 (xxv) Plutarch Life of Pyrrhus 26.22–3. In margin ‘unexpected moves‘ 1 See 5.119n and 5.127 n1 above. 131 (xxvi) Florus Epitome bellorum omnium 1.13. This saying was added in the 1532 edition but not given a separate number until 1535. 1 Appealed to by the Tarentines, Pyrrhus defeated the Romans at Heraclea in 280 bc, but with heavy losses. 132 (xxvii) Plutarch Moralia 184d–e. In margin ‘kings rarely hear the truth‘ This is Antiochus vii, king of Syria (c. 159–129 bc). The expeditions against Parthia were later than the attack on Jerusalem (see 5.133). After all his earlier successes, he was defeated and killed in Parthia.

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133 When Antiochus was besieging Jerusalem1 the Jews asked for seven days to celebrate that great festival of theirs, and he not only granted this but ordered bulls adorned with gilded horns and a great quantity of incense and perfumes to be brought to the gates of the city in a solemn procession, and after handing over the victims to their priests he returned to his camp. The Jews were full of admiration for the king’s generosity and as soon as the holy days were ended surrendered to his authority. But although this is a fine stratagem it contains no apophthegm, so it is likely that it was added to Plutarch by some zealous person.2 134 When Antiochus lost the province of Asia and the neighbouring tribal regions because the boundaries of his empire had been moved back beyond the Taurus mountains by Lucius Scipio, he thanked the Roman people because they had freed him from a great part of his anxieties. He wisely understood that the mind of one man, however watchful, cannot be equal to so many responsibilities. Themistocles 135 When Themistocles was a young man he indulged in drinking parties and love affairs. But once Miltiades1 had been appointed commander and de***** 133 (xxviii) Plutarch Moralia 184f. In margin ‘kindness to enemies‘ 1 Antiochus vii reconquered Palestine in 135–4 bc. This story is confirmed by Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 8.2 (242). 2 See dedicatory epistle 9 above on the insertions in Plutarch’s text. 134 (xxix) Valerius Maximus 4.1 ext. 9. This anecdote concerns the earlier Antiochus iii ‘the Great’ (see 5.115n above). The identification is confirmed by the mention of Scipio (Asiagenes). See 5.115n above. 135 (i) Plutarch Moralia 185a (Sayings of kings and commanders). Here Erasmus uses an additional heading ‘Sayings of the Greek commanders’ to mark his return to Plutarch. In margin ‘passion for glory‘ The Athenian statesman Themistocles (c. 524–459 bc) is treated by historians (eg Herodotus 7.143–4) as a clever and unscrupulous upstart, but respected for persuading the Athenians to build themselves the navy with which they would defend Greece against Xerxes i (Darius’ successor) at the naval battle of Salamis in 480 (see 5.137 below). He remained controversial and was exiled after the war, taking refuge with the Persian king (see 5.149, 5.159 below) who gave him the city of Magnesia to rule. Like earlier historians Plutarch saw a natural contrast between Themistocles and his contemporary Aristides (see 5.160–72 below). 1 An Athenian aristocrat of the sixth to fifth century bc. After a time as gover-

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feated the barbarians at Marathon, no man ever found him doing anything that was not proper. When he was asked why he had suddenly changed so much he said, ‘Miltiades’ victory trophy will not let me sleep or waste time.’ The passion for glory shook off his love of pleasures; as they say, ‘hitting a nail with a nail.’2 136 Asked whether he would rather be Achilles or Homer, Themistocles replied, ‘Tell me first whether you would rather be an Olympic victor or the herald who declares the victors.’ In comparing Homer to a herald he meant that it was far more glorious to do great deeds than to celebrate them. 137 When Xerxes came down upon Greece with that vast fleet Themistocles was afraid that if the demagogue Epicydes, a shameful money-grubber and a coward, obtained office he would ruin the city. So he gave him money and persuaded him to abstain from competing for the military command. Nor do I see why this should be reported among the sayings.1 138 Adeimantus was averse to a naval battle, and said to Themistocles who was urging and encouraging the Greeks to fight, ‘Themistocles, those who leap out ahead of the others in races are usually flogged.’ Themistocles replied, ‘As you say, Adeimantus, but no one gives the victory crown to those who withdraw from the contest.’ ***** nor of territories in Thrace and Asia Minor, he was forced to return to Athens by a revolt and was elected as one of the ten generals for 490/489 bc. According to tradition, he was responsible for the strategy which defeated the huge invading Persian army under Darius i at Marathon (490 bc). 2 Cf Adagia i ii 4: Clavum clavo pangere ‘To drive out one nail with another.’ 136 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 185a. In margin ‘poets as heralds‘ 137 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 185a. In margin ‘the corruption of bribery‘ 1 See Introduction xviii–xix and n11. 138 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 185a–b. In margin ‘accusation turned back on the accuser‘ Adeimantus of Corinth and Eurybiades of Sparta (see 5.139–40 below) were Themistocles’ fellow commanders before the naval engagement at Salamis at which Xerxes’ fleet was shattered (480 bc).

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Adeimantus was criticizing Themistocles’ rash courage, but he in turn accused the other of cowardice, for avoiding battle when the opportune moment invited it. 139 When Eurybiades raised his staff against Themistocles who was shouting him down, Themistocles said, ‘Strike me then, but listen,’ showing presence of mind and confidence in his judgment. 140 When he did not succeed in persuading Eurybiades to engage in naval battle at the straits, Themistocles secretly sent a messenger to the enemy urging him not to be afraid of the Greeks as they were planning to flee. Believing this, the king was defeated in the battle, because it was joined in the most advantageous location for the Greeks. After this Themistocles sent further messengers to warn him to withdraw to the Hellespont as fast as possible, since the Greeks were planning to break up his bridge.1 This was a clever move, pretending to be concerned for the king’s welfare when he really intended to save the Greeks. By this ruse he freed the Greeks from the barbarians, winning no less glory than Miltiades had brought back from his victory at Marathon.2 141 When a man from Seriphos objected that Themistocles was not famous in his own right but because of the nobility of his city, he replied, ‘You are quite right, for I would not have been famous if I had come from Seriphos nor would you if you had been Athenian.’1 He was not denying that the fame of his city contributed a lot to his distinguished reputation, but he meant that the other was so worthless that even if he had been born at Athens he would still have stayed unknown. ***** 139 (v) Plutarch Moralia 185b. In margin ‘confidence‘ 140 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 185b–c. In margin ‘an exile loyal to his country‘ Themistocles had not been exiled at this point though he was ten years later (see 5.135n above). 1 Xerxes had built a bridge over the Hellespont, to bring his vast army across from Asia. 2 See 5.135 n1 above. 141 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 185c. In margin ‘obscurity‘ 1 Seriphos was a small unimportant island in the Aegean.

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142 A young man called Antiphates had previously scorned and shunned Themistocles who wanted to be his lover, but when he saw Themistocles was famous and enjoyed enormous power, he went to him of his own accord with endearments. Then Themistocles replied, ‘Young man, we have both been too slow, but we have finally come to our senses.’ He meant that the other had not taken the opportunity when it was offered, and that he himself was now so busy that he no longer had time to indulge in such emotions. 143 When Simonides asked him to give an unjust verdict in some business matter1 he said, ‘You would not be a good lyric poet if you sang out of key, nor would I be a good leader if I gave sentence against the laws.’2 144 Themistocles used to argue that his son, who was spoiled by his devoted mother, had the greatest power of all Greeks, on this basis: ‘The Athenians control the Greeks and I control the Athenians, his mother controls me and her son controls her.’ 145 When he gave preference to an honest man among his daughter’s suitors over a rich one, some people expressed surprise. ‘I prefer a man without money to money without a man.’ An energetic man will easily acquire money, whereas it is useless to a feeble one. 146 When Themistocles was selling an estate he told the auctioneer to add that it had a good neighbour. Like Hesiod1 he believed that there was a great advantage from a ***** 142 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 185c. In margin ‘opportunity lost‘ 143 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 185d. In margin ‘just‘ 1 There are many anecdotes in the Greek tradition about the greed for money of the elegiac poet Simonides (see 6.385–7 below). 2 For similar stories see 1.108 above, 5.176 and 5.377 below. 144 (x) Plutarch Moralia 185d. In margin ‘private affections‘ 145 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 185e. In margin ‘a man preferable to money‘ 146 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 185e. In margin ‘a good neighbour‘ 1 Hesiod Works and Days 146–7

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good neighbour, but on the other hand the greatest harm from a bad one.2 147 When the Athenians shouted abuse at him, ‘Why are you rioting,’ he said, ‘against those who have so often heaped advantages upon you?’ He said he was like plane trees: men run to their shelter when assailed by a storm, but as soon as the sun returns they strip them and ill-treat them.1 He knew that it is the habit of the people to beg for the help of strong men in the dangers of war, but to despise and persecute them in peacetime. 148 Themistocles used to joke at the Eretrians saying they were like the fish called ‘little swords’1 because they had swords, but no heart. This was a reproach to their cowardice for having no courage when under arms. 149 After Themistocles had been exiled first from Athens and then from all of Greece, he fled to the king of Persia, and when he was received and told to speak, he said ‘Speech is like patterned rugs. For when they are unrolled they show pictures, but when they are rolled up they conceal and efface them; it is the same with speech.’ Now he asked for a year in order to learn the Persian language at his own pace so that he would not have to explain what he wanted to say to the king through an interpreter. He didn’t trust an interpreter because he would lose the appeal of the speech by omitting some phrases and adding others and changing the contents of other parts. ***** 2 Cf Adagia i i 32: Aliquid mali propter vicinum malum ‘Something bad from a bad neighbour.’ 147 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 185e. In margin ‘ingratitude‘ 1 The leaves of the plane-tree had various medicinal uses, and were used dried to preserve grapes: Pliny Naturalis historia 24.44–5, 15.66. 148 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 185e. In margin ‘cowardice bearing a weapon‘ 1 In Plutarch’s text teuthis ‘the cuttlefish.’ Erasmus possibly identifies the creature as the swordfish xiphias in Greek (from xiphos ‘sword’). See Pliny Naturalis historia 32.15; but see also Aristotle Historia animalium 4.1.12: among cuttlefish is the one called ‘sword.’ 149 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 185f. In margin ‘exile turning out well‘

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But when he was honoured by the king with many gifts and quickly became rich he said, ‘My sons, we would have been ruined if we had not been ruined!’1 For a man compelled to be an exile seems to be ruined, but the exile of Themistocles turned out well for him. 150 When Xerxes had stormed Thermopylae and cruelly abused Astus,1 the naval commanders were terrified by the news of this and planned to make for home. When most of them were urging this course, Themistocles was the only man to resist, saying that they would be a match for the enemy if they fought together, but would perish if they scattered.2 So Aemilius Probus reports.3 151 The tutor of Themistocles used to say, ‘You will be nothing ordinary, my boy. You will be either a great blessing to the state or a great evil.’ If proper training is given to a noble nature it is a great boon for the country, but if it degenerates into vice, it brings enormous misfortune. 152 As a young man Themistocles had seemed to be wild and volatile in disposition,1 so when men expressed surprise at the change in his behaviour he said that fierce and refractory colts turned into the best horses, provided someone applied discipline and correct training to them. ***** 1 For Themistocles’ travels in exile and flight to Persia see Plutarch Themistocles 29, Thucydides 1.137, and Plutarch Moralia 602a (On exile). 150 (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 185f. In margin ‘combined forces‘ 1 In a rare textual note lb explains the apparent proper name Astum as astu, ‘the City’ (of Athens). Xerxes burnt the temple on the Acropolis (the predecessor of the Parthenon). 2 The Greek fleet at Salamis was made up of contingents from Sparta, Corinth and other Greek states. See 5.138n above. 3 [Aemilius Probus] Life of Themistocles 2.4.1–2 (shortened). See 1.79n above below for Aemilius Probus (ie Cornelius Nepos). 151 (xvii) Plutarch Life of Themistocles 2.2. In margin ‘nothing unremarkable‘ Erasmus now draws on Plutarch’s Lives as well as his Sayings of kings and commanders. 152 (xviii) Plutarch Life of Themistocles 2.7. In margin ‘training‘ 1 Cf 5.135 above.

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153 When he travelled to the crowded festival at Olympia and entered the stadium, everybody abandoned the contests and turned their eyes on him, spending the entire day gazing upon him, and displaying the famous Themistocles to foreigners with applause and admiration. Delighted by this, being a man eager for glory, Themistocles said to his friends that on that day he had won the greatest reward for all the toils that he had undertaken for Greece.1 154 By his affability Themistocles won the goodwill of many citizens and obtained power with the people. When someone commented, ‘You will make good use of your leadership at Athens, if you are willing to be the equal and common associate of all,’ he said, ‘May I never occupy a seat of office where my friends gain no more from me than strangers.’1 155 Once passing a school in which there was said to be a special study, Themistocles asked what the man claimed to teach. When he was told it was the art of memory he belittled it, saying, ‘I would prefer to learn the art of forgetfulness.’ This remark was worthy of the man who could learn Persian within a year.1 Indeed there are men whose forgetfulness is more welcome to us than memory. We easily remember what we want to remember, but we cannot forget what we want to forget. 156 Once when Themistocles was going to the theatre, someone asked whose voice he would most enjoy hearing. He answered, ‘The man who would best sing my praises.’ He candidly admitted that he was obsessed by a passion for glory. And in those days musicians used to sing the praises of distinguished men in public. ***** 153 (xix) Plutarch Life of Themistocles 17.4. In margin ‘the leader’s glory‘ 1 Cf 5.156 below. 154 (xx) Plutarch Life of Aristides 2.5. In margin ‘equality‘ 1 At Moralia 808f–809 (Precepts of statecraft) Plutarch describes various honourable means of aiding friends. Cf 1.18 above (for Agesilaus). 155 (xxi) A story told in several places by Cicero: De oratore 2.299; Academica 2.1.2; De finibus 2.32.104. The teacher is named as Simonides (the poet). In margin ‘memory‘ 1 See 5.149 above. 156 (xxii) Valerius Maximus 8.14 ext. 1

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157 Themistocles once went to the sea-shore to see the corpses, and noticed neckpieces and bracelets scattered about. He passed them by but said to the friend who was following him, ‘You pick them up for yourself, for you are not Themistocles.’1 He could not even be moved by such easily accessible booty to do anything unworthy of a great leader, for whom glory should be a sufficient reward. 158 When he was demanding money from Andros he said ‘I am bringing you two gods, Force and Persuasion,’ meaning that if he did not get his demands by persuasion he would take them by force.1 But they answered that they too had two great deities, the goddesses Poverty and Impossibility, who prevented them giving what he sought. 159 When Artabanus, satrap of the Persian king, asked what Greek he should say had arrived,1 Themistocles said, ‘No one will know this before the king himself, Artabanus.’ Artabanus had guessed from their conversation that this was no ordinary man, but Themistocles wanted to remain unknown until he had recommended himself to the king by his own speech. As for the king, when he had heard Themistocles, he prayed to his god Ahriman to go on sending his enemies the state of mind that made them drive out men of this quality. Aristides 160 Aristides, called ‘The Just,’ always governed the state relying only on his ***** 157 (xxiii) Plutarch Life of Themistocles 18.2. In margin ‘spoils despised‘ 1 This is after the battle of Salamis; see 5.138 above. 158 (xxiv) Plutarch Life of Themistocles 21.1. In margin ‘the gods Force and Persuasion‘ 1 Themistocles is requisitioning money from the Aegean islands, like Andros, to finance the Athenian navy as their defence against Persia. 159 (xxv) Plutarch Life of Themistocles 27.7–8; 28.6. In margin ‘the best men are thrown out‘ 1 Again taken from the tale of his exile; see 5.135n above. 160 (i) Plutarch Moralia 186a Sayings of kings and commanders. In margin ‘factions and groups‘ Aristides was a political rival of Themistocles, known for his honesty. Like Themistocles he was accused of embezzlement and famously ostracized (cf

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own strength. He shunned political affiliations because the power of friends gave men confidence to inflict injustice on others. How greatly the man loathed every kind of association, since he avoided friendships simply so that he would not be compelled by them to do something unjust, or forced to refrain from acts he judged were in the interests of the state. But now the world is everywhere full of associations commended by plausible names and the specious cover of religion. And for men of exceptional merit it is not advisable to enrol in these bodies because the greater part, which is usually the worse part, often forces men to do what they do not want to do or to refrain from what would have been the best course of action. 161 When the Athenians were inflamed into driving Aristides into exile by ostracism (a kind of condemnation by potsherds), and a peasant who could not write brought his potsherd to Aristides and asked him to write the name of Aristides, he asked, ‘Do you know Aristides?’ The peasant admitted he didn’t but resented the fact that he was called ‘The Just.’ Aristides kept quiet and wrote his own name on the pot and gave it back. Such was the mildness with which he accepted the unfair condemnation. The most impressive evidence of a life lived innocently is the fact that out of all that multitude there was no man who could reproach him with anything except the name of ‘The Just,’ which he had not chosen for himself anyway. 162 Aristides had a feud with Themistocles. So when the other had been chosen as his colleague to conduct an embassy, he asked, ‘Themistocles would you like us to discard our feud while in these mountains? For if you like we can take it up again on our return.’1 He put private attitudes second to public interest. For almost every kind of ruin in human life arises from these emotions. ***** 5.161 below) but recalled in the emergency of the Persian invasion in 480 bc. Many of the anecdotes about him also appear in Plutarch’s Life of Aristides. 161 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 186b. In margin ‘equanimity‘ 162 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 186b 1 Cf Plutarch Moralia 809b (Precepts of statecraft). This was not a single occasion; it was their regular practice to lay aside their enmity at the boundary of the country. Two similar words have been confused: oros ‘mountain’ and horos ‘boundary.’

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163 When Aristides had assessed the tribute for the Greeks, he returned poorer by the amount he had spent on the journey. Yet others used to reap a rich harvest in performing such an office. He took all the more pains to avoid any suspicion falling upon him, and so he conducted the business at his own expense. 164 When these verses, written by Aeschylus about Amphiaraus, were uttered in the theatre:1 For he does not wish to seem but be a virtuous man, Tilling a deep furrow with devoted mind Since beneficial plans will sprout from this,

the whole audience turned its eyes on Aristides, recognizing that this praise fitted him. 165 After an assembly where he had opposed Themistocles in vain, he bore witness loudly as he left that the affairs of the Athenians could not go well unless they threw both him and Themistocles into the Pit.1 He preferred incarceration rather than letting the conflict of two men cause unwise decisions contrary to public interest. 166 Aristides had prosecuted a man, but when the judges refused to hear the fellow after his speech of accusation but were rushing straight to cast the vote of condemnation, Aristides interceded for the defendant, begging the judges to hear the man attentively according to the laws. Such was this man’s respect for the laws and for fairness. ***** 163 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 186b. Cf 5.158 n1 above. In margin ‘integrity‘ 164 (v) Plutarch Moralia 186b–c. In margin ‘genuine probity‘ 1 Aeschylus Seven against Thebes 592–4: o[ gˆr doke”n Äristow,

úll' eånai yŽlei, / baye”an aálaka diˆ fren˜w karpoœmenow, / úf' Çw tˆ kednˆ blast‡nei bouleœmata

165 (vi) Plutarch Life of Aristides 3.2. In 5.165–171, Erasmus now supplements Plutarch’s collection of sayings with extracts from the Life of Aristides. In margin ‘hostility between magistrates‘ 1 This was a cleft into which criminals were thrown. 166 (vii) Plutarch Life of Aristides 4.1. In margin ‘fairness‘

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167 When he was judging a lawsuit between two private individuals, and one of them, in order to provoke Aristides against his antagonist, had mentioned a lot of irrelevant occasions on which the man had harmed Aristides, Aristides interrupted the fellow: ‘Leave all that, my good man, and speak out if he has done you any harm, for at the moment I am sitting as a judge on your behalf, not mine.’ 168 He was also treasurer, an office he carried out with absolute integrity, but he was accused by Themistocles none the less, and condemned for embezzlement. But the goodwill of the aristocrats not only cancelled his fine, but returned him to the same office. So as a pretence he now administered it by abandoning his original severity and showing leniency and indulgence to those who delighted in enriching themselves at the public cost. Thanks to them the people enthusiastically bestowed the office for a third time on Aristides. Then he said, ‘You condemned me for conducting my office honestly, but now that I have made many concessions contrary to fairness to men who rob the state, you are judging me worthy of office. So I feel I have been more disgraced by being offered this position than when you condemned and fined me and took it away.’ He knew how to make himself popular, except that he preferred to be just rather than appealing. Demea does the same kind of thing in Terence.1 169 When Aristides was going into exile he raised his hands to heaven and prayed to the gods that they should so prosper the fortunes of the Athenians that they would never give a thought to Aristides. For in times of misfortune the people usually take refuge in great men, as in fact happened, since three years later when Xerxes had decided to invade Attica, Aristides was recalled from exile. 170 Themistocles said in the assembly that he had thought of a plan that would greatly benefit the dignity of the Athenians, but its nature was such that it ***** 167 (viii) Plutarch Life of Aristides 4.2. In margin ‘nothing to do with the case‘ 168 (ix) Plutarch Life of Aristides 4.3–7. In margin ‘integrity condemned‘ 1 This refers to the change of heart of the stern father Demea who begins to make concessions in the last act of Terence’s Adelphoe, to win his son’s affection. 169 (x) Plutarch Life of Aristides 7.8 and 8.1. In margin ‘no thought of revenge‘ 170 (xi) Plutarch Life of Aristides 22.2–4. In margin ‘authority‘

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would be damaging to propose it. So the people decreed that he should reveal it to Aristides alone, and if he approved, then they would all approve it. But when Themistocles told Aristides that he was thinking of setting fire to the Greek fleet, because this would lead to Athenian domination over all Greece, Aristides came forward and said to the people, ‘Nothing could be more advantageous than Themistocles’ advice, but nothing is more dishonourable.’ On hearing this the people forbade Themistocles to mention the matter again in future. Surely this people showed a philosophic nature, rejecting self-interest when it was combined with shameful behaviour; at the same time they made clear how great is the authority of true and tested moral excellence by not hesitating to entrust the fortune of the state to the judgment of one man. 171 When Themistocles was mocking the proposal of Aristides, who was aiming to keep the state revenues safe, he said that doing that was a commendation not of a man but of a chest that kept money safely. Then he went on to define the highest commendation of a good leader as a man knowing and anticipating the plans of one’s enemies. ‘Yes, Themistocles,’ said Aristides, ‘we should do this too, but above all one must have hands that shun theft, and this is the chief commendation of a distinguished leader.’ With this comment he criticized the greed of Themistocles. 172 When Aristides was being led to his punishment, an enemy spat in his face, but he simply wiped his face clean and said to the accompanying magistrate with a smile, ‘Tell him not to open his mouth so wide in that vulgar manner.’ This is very like the words they credit to Phocion.1 The emperor Marcus, after staying three days at Smyrna without seeing Aristides sent the Quintilii to escort and bring him. ‘Why are we so late in seeing you?’ he asked. ‘Because some deliberation was holding me back.’ Then the emperor, charmed by the man’s simplicity, said, ‘When shall I hear you?’ ‘Give me a subject today,’ said Aristides, ‘and you will hear me ***** 171 (xii) Plutarch Life of Aristides 24.6–7. In margin ‘abstinence‘ 172 (xiii) Philostratus Lives of the Sophists 2.9.2, 583–4 gives the stories in the second and third paragraphs, which were added rather carelessly in 1532. 1 This story has probably been erroneously associated with Aristides’ execution. Erasmus reports the same story of Phocion (4.274 above). The tale is incompatible with the various accounts of Aristides’ death in Plutarch Aristides 26.

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tomorrow. For I am not one of those who blurt things out but who speak carefully. Caesar, are my friends permitted to attend the performance?’ ‘They will be,’ said Caesar, ‘for it is a public affair.’ Then Aristides added, ‘Then let them be allowed to shout approval and applaud as much as they can.’ To which the emperor replied with a smile, ‘That depends on you.’2 Aristides also said the Arimaspians were kinsmen of Philip, because that race gave birth to one-eyed men. Myronides 173 When Myronides was appointed commander of the expedition against the Boeotians he gave the order for the Athenians to march out. But when the time came for mustering and the officers warned him that they were not yet all present, he said, ‘The ones who are going to fight are present.’ So since he saw those men were eager for action he attacked the enemy and won. His understanding was that the lazy fellows who had not made an effort to present themselves on time would not do good service in battle either. Pericles 174 Whenever Pericles was reappointed general he would say, as he put on his cloak, ‘Remember, Pericles, that you will be commanding free men, Greeks and Athenians at that.’ ***** 2 The second and third anecdotes from Philostratus are a surprising insertion; the mention of ‘Caesar’ shows the story must be about the second-century rhetor Aelius Aristides, contemporary with the emperors Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius. The emperor happened to be in Aristides’ home town of Smyrna (see 8.18 below) and obviously expected the celebrated orator to present himself and demonstrate his far-famed expertise in declaiming on a proffered theme. For the Quintilii see 8.34 below. Philip ii lost an eye in battle. 173 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 185f–186a. In margin ‘do not wait for the faint-hearted‘ The Athenian general Myronides won the victory of Oenophyta over the Boeotians in the 450s. Erasmus tells the same story of Leonidas in 1.253 above. 174 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 186c. In margin ‘command of free men‘ The Athenian statesman Pericles, great grandson of Cleisthenes who founded the democracy (cf Herodotus 6.131) gradually came to prominence as a popular leader and guided Athens’ imperialist policy from approximately 450 bc to his death during the early years of the Peloponnesian war. Though not popular in all quarters, after 443 bc his leadership was unchallenged and he was elected general every year. He was much involved in the controversial building programme which produced the Parthenon.

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With these words the shrewd man reminded himself to conduct his leadership with moderation. It requires a great talent to command free men but the Greeks were then more than just free, and of the Greeks the Athenians were the freest of all. 175 Pericles wanted to persuade the Athenians to destroy Aegina, on the grounds that it was the eyesore of the Piraeus,1 because he suspected that it would be the origin of a war. It is the role of doctors to remove evil humours from the body. 176 When a friend asked him to give false witness for him under oath, that is to commit perjury, he said, ‘He was certainly his friend but only as far as the altar.’1 He meant that one should oblige friends up to a certain point, but stop short of violating religion. 177 As he was dying, Pericles congratulated himself that no Athenian had ever put on dark garments on his account. He meant that he had not been the occasion of any man’s death, nor accused any one of a capital offence. Men wear dark clothes to mourn a death and in those days a defendant on a capital charge wore dark clothes and his friends accompanied him also dressed in dark clothes. 178 Once when he was a general he had Sophocles the poet appointed his colleague by lot. When they were sailing together, Sophocles caught sight of a handsome boy and said, ‘Look! What a pretty boy!’ He replied ‘Sophocles, a general must have not only clean hands but a clean tongue.’1 ***** 175 (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 186c. In margin ‘anything injurious to be removed‘ 1 Aegina is an island lying close to the Piraeus, Athens’ harbour. Its inhabitants were Dorian by race and so hostile to the Athenians. 176 (xvii) Plutarch Moralia 186c. In margin ‘as far as the altar‘ 1 See book 1.108 above; Adagia iii ii 10: Usque ad aras amicus ‘A friend as far as the altar.’ 177 (xviii) Plutarch Moralia 186d. In margin ‘power that does not harm‘ 178 (xix) Plutarch Life of Pericles 8.8. In margin ‘a sense of propriety‘ 1 Erasmus has (accidentally) replaced Plutarch’s ‘eyes’ with ‘tongue.’ Cf Valerius Maximus 4.3 ext. 1 (eyes) and the story of Isocrates at 8.151 below (eyes).

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179 Thucydides1 was declaiming against Pericles to the popular assembly because he was squandering the wealth of the state on paintings and statues by the finest artists. So Pericles got up and asked the people whether he seemed to be spending a lot of money; when they replied, ‘Yes, a huge amount’ he replied, ‘Well then, let these be my expenses not yours, and I will inscribe only my own name on the votive gifts to the gods.’ This remark instantly changed the people’s attitude and they ordered him to continue at public cost, and not to spare any expense. So effective was his presence of mind and his pointed words. 180 After Pericles defeated the Samians1 and returned to Athens, he praised those who had fallen in war in a public oration, and all the other married women adorned him with garlands and fillets as he returned from the address, but Elpinice, the sister of Cimon, came up to him and said, ‘Your deeds are certainly glorious and worthy of garlands, since you have deprived us of so many gallant men.’ Unmoved by this and her other reproaches he just smiled: his only answer was to quote a verse of Archilochus:2 ‘Beware, old lady that you are, of smearing yourself with perfumes.’ He meant that an old woman should not concern herself with public business, for this was as improper as if she used perfumes. Or perhaps he meant that it was improper for someone already old to feel desire for a husband.3 181 When there was a sudden eclipse of the sun Pericles saw many others but especially the chief helmsman of his fleet struck with panic, so he covered the helmsman’s face with his cloak and asked him whether he thought this was a dreadful portent. When the other man said no, he added, ‘What is the difference then, except that it is something bigger than a cloak that has just brought on darkness?’ ***** 179 (xx) Plutarch Life of Pericles 14.1–2. In margin ‘fame as an incentive‘ 1 This is not the historian Thucydides but his older kinsman, the politician. 180 (xxi) Plutarch Life of Pericles 28.4–7. In margin ‘involving yourself in others’ concerns‘ 1 Pericles had defeated Athens’ rebellious allies on the island of Samos in 440 bc. Elpinice was half sister of the aristocratic Cimon, a distinguished general and political opponent, now dead. No doubt his ostracism of 461 bc still rankled. 2 Archilochus West fr 205: o[k ún mœroisi graœw \ožs& úle’feo. 3 The last sentence was added in 1532. 181 (xxii) Plutarch Life of Pericles 35.2–4. In margin ‘presence of mind‘

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This wise man realized that the sun is hidden from us by the intervention of the moon,1 just as a cloak put in front cut off the sight of other men. And nothing that is natural is a portent. 182 Ariphron wanted to use the public herald to search for Alcibiades when the young lad had stolen out of his home and gone to join his friend Democrates.1 But Pericles stopped him, saying, ‘If he has perished without us knowing, the herald will achieve nothing except that his death becomes obvious a day sooner; but if he is unharmed, he will be damaged for the rest of his life.’2 Pericles found a courteous way of avoiding the young man’s disgrace, which he could never have eradicated. 183 When Pericles was constantly called upon by the people he paid no heed, saying, ‘I am not in battle order,’ that is, he felt he should not be brought into line, nor treated like some nonentity from the ranks.1 Alcibiades 184 When Alcibiades was still a boy and had been caught in a wrestling hold from which he could not extract himself, he seized his antagonist’s hand and bit it. But when the other said, ‘Alcibiades, you bite like a woman, he said, ‘No, like a lion.’ ***** 1 Valerius Maximus 8.11 ext. 1 says Pericles learnt the scientific cause of eclipse from Anaxagoras. 182 (xxiii) Plutarch Life of Alcibiades 3.1. In margin ‘courteous‘ 1 Erasmus has replaced Plutarch’s reference to ‘one of Alcibiades’ lovers’ with the neutral ‘friends’. Pericles feared the ruin of his moral reputation more than his death. 2 This translates the Greek text where there is a pun which Erasmus has not been able to represent satisfactorily in Latin. 183 (xxiv) Plutarch Moralia 6d (The education of children). In margin ‘authority‘ 1 Erasmus quotes the Greek words here, úsœntakt—w e mi, but does not translate them. Cf 4.367 above, with n1, where a similar remark is ascribed to Demosthenes. 184 (i) Plutarch Moralia 186d. In margin ‘winning by whatever means‘ Alcibiades, nephew of Pericles, was the self-indulgent Athenian commander blamed for the mutilation of the herms on the eve of the Sicilian expedition in which he was one of the commanders (415 bc). Recalled from the expedition to face trial, he fled to Sparta (see 5.188 below) and advised the Spartans how

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This was reported above about some Spartan, but to make a different point.1 Even then one could recognize his unyielding spirit. 185 Alcibiades had a particularly fine dog which he had bought for seven thousand drachmas, and cut off its tail, letting it walk around the city like that. When men wondered why he did this he said, ‘So that the Athenians will say this about me and not pay attention to other matters.’ He knew the public attitude, which likes to have something bad to say about well-known men, so he gave this mania some more trivial fuel. 186 As a boy he went into a school and demanded Homer’s Iliad. When the teacher said he did not have any work of Homer, he struck him with his fist and went off, saying that he was shameless to teach reading if he did not always have Homer ready to hand. What would he have done if someone had offered him Michael the Modist or the Florista1 instead of Homer? 187 On one occasion Alcibiades went to see Pericles and heard he was not at leisure because he was working out how he could give an account of his actions to the Athenians. Alcibiades said, ‘Wouldn’t it have been better to work out how not to give an account?’ ***** to defeat Athens, but was subsequently recalled by the Athenian democracy. His policies contributed to the ultimate defeat of Athens and he was again exiled. His whole career was erratic, marked by several changes of allegiance, but characterized by flashes of brilliance. He was eventually murdered in Phyrgia where he had taken refuge. 1 See 2.41 above. 185 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 186d. In margin ‘popular gossip‘ 186 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 186e. In margin ‘the school-teacher‘ 1 The mediaeval grammarians were frequently the butt of Erasmus’ satire for their pedantic and rule-bound methods of teaching Latin grammar, though he probably had only a fairly superficial acquaintance with them. He probably adopted this stance from Valla. These two often appear in his lists of ‘stupid’ and ‘barbarians.’ The teaching of Michael the Modist (thirteenth century) among others was based on the concept of modes (modi) of signifying, ie the relation between thing signified and the signifier, defined via grammatical categories such as noun, verb, adverb, etc. The Florista was identified by Allen (Ep 31) as Ludolph of Luchow (c. 1317), author of Flores artis grammatice sive Florista. See Chomarat 183–224. 187 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 186e. In margin ‘account rendered to the people‘

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He thought that things had been dealt with in such a way that it was not easy to set out what had been done. Dodging giving an account altogether was simpler than providing a satisfactory one. 188 Alcibiades was recalled from Sicily by the Athenians to defend himself on a capital charge, but went into hiding,1 saying that a man was a fool who tried to get acquittal when summoned at law, if he had the option of avoiding attendance altogether. He meant that it was wiser not to expose yourself to danger than to see how to escape from danger, once you had got yourself into it. The saying sounds better in Greek because of the similar sound of the two verbs phugein and apophugein: in Greek a man is said apophugein diken ‘to get clear off’ if he is acquitted of a charge by the jury’s verdict, but phugein ‘to clear off’ if he avoids it or runs away. 189 When someone said to Alcibiades, ‘Don’t you trust your country to judge you?’ he said, ‘I don’t even trust my mother: I would be afraid she might carelessly drop a black pebble instead of a white one.’1 190 When the message was delivered that he and his associates had been condemned to death at Athens, he said, ‘We will show them that Alcibiades is still alive’ and immediately went over to the Spartans and stirred up the Decelean war (called after the city of Decelea) against the Athenians. 191 He was steeped in the teachings of philosophy and despised inelegant pleasures and arts, while always embracing the liberal disciplines. For this reason he refused the lyre because it imitated the human voice (from which ***** 188 (v) Plutarch Moralia 186e. In margin ‘better to avoid danger‘ 1 This was the occasion of his desertion to join the Spartans (5.184n above). 189 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 186f. In margin ‘mistrust‘ 1 Cf Adagia i v 53: Album calculum addere ‘To add a white stone.’ A black stone signified condemnation, a white stone acquittal. 190 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 186f. In margin ‘revenge‘ 191 (viii) Plutarch Life of Alcibiades 2.5–6. In margin ‘music rejected‘ Erasmus has recast his source and seems to have misunderstood it thoroughly. He starts from the assumption that music is a trivial pleasure (see General Index: trinial pursuits), and so reads the judgments of playing the lyre and the pipe (aulos) as equally hostile. But Plutarch says that Alcibiades did not

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we can infer that men who played on the lyre in those days also sang); he also refused the plectrum because it changed a gentlemanly appearance and form into an uncouth one, and he condemned the pipe on two counts, because it distorted the player’s features so that he was scarcely recognizable by his closest friends, and because it robbed a man of his own voice and deprived him of the gift of speech. For no man can at the same time play the pipe and speak. So he said, ‘Let the sons of Thebans play,1 since they don’t know how to speak; but for us Athenians, as we learned from our ancestors, Pallas is founder of our race, and so is Apollo, she who broke the pipe and he who flayed the piper.’2 For there was an ancient tale that Pallas played the pipe in front of a mirror and was offended by the distortion of her face, so she smashed the pipe and threw it away, while Apollo flayed Marsyas, when he had defeated him in playing the lyre. Timon of Athens 192 Timon of Athens was called ‘the Misanthrope’ by Lucian because he had the most uncivil behaviour towards everyone else, and shunned the company of men. He loved and lavished devotion only on Alcibiades. When Apemantus expressed amazement at this and asked why, Timon said the young man was dear to him because he saw that he would one day be a source of great woe to the Athenians. ***** criticize the lyre (the e´ lite instrument on which singers accompanied their poetry) but praised it for blending with the singer’s vocal line; also playing the lyre did not distort a man’s appearance. In contrast he undoubtedly rejected playing the pipe because blowing out the cheeks disfigured a man’s features and made him look vulgar; and Plutarch adds that naturally it prevented the player from singing. The first sentence means ‘when he started his education.’ This misunderstanding has thrown out the interpretation of the whole anecdote. Possibly the Aldine text of Plutarch was defective. 1 Thebans were renowned as pipe-players; see 6.410 below. 2 According to the myth Athene invented the pipe but when she saw herself reflected in a pool with her cheeks inflated as she played, discarded it. It was picked up by the satyr Marsyas, who boasted that he played better than Apollo (whose instrument was the lyre). Marsyas was defeated in the contest and punished by Apollo, who flayed him alive. 192 (ix) The three sayings of the misanthrope Timon of Athens reported in 5.192– 4 come from Plutarch’s Life of Antony 70. See also Lucian’s dialogue Timon. They were probably brought to Erasmus’ mind because the first story concerns Alcibiades. This Timon is often confused with Timon the Sceptic. In margin ‘loved for a bad reason‘

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193 When Apemantus was dining with Timon (who used to invite him because he had similar habits) and said, ‘This is a very fine dinner, Timon,’ Timon answered, ‘Yes, it would be if you weren’t here!’ 194 Timon also went to a public meeting one day and, after requesting silence, when everyone was expecting something momentous, because it was unusual for Timon to speak, he said, ‘Athenians, there is a little garden behind my house and a fig tree in it from which many have already hanged themselves. I have decided to build on that site and I thought I should make a public announcement so that any people who want to hang themselves may hurry to do it before the tree is cut down.’ Lamachus 195 Lamachus censured one of his captains for some failing or other and when the man said, ‘I won’t do it again,’ Lamachus said, ‘You wouldn’t be able to make the same blunder twice in a war.’ For a blunder in war means death. Iphicrates 196 Iphicrates was despised because it was thought his father was a cobbler. He got himself a good opinion for the first time when in spite of being wounded himself, he seized and carried an enemy soldier alive and in full armour into his own trireme. When he was leading his force through friendly and allied territory, he still constructed a rampart and dug a ditch with great care, and when someone said to him, ‘What are we afraid of?’ Iphicrates replied, ‘The worst thing a general can say is “I never thought it would happen.” ’ ***** 193 (x) See 5.192 just above. In margin ‘brutal‘ 194 (xi) See 5.192 above. In margin ‘brutal‘ 195 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 186f Lamachus was an Athenian general of the early years of the Peloponnesian war, mocked by Aristophanes in his Acharnians. 196 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 187a. In margin ‘caution against all possibilities‘ Iphicrates successfully commanded Athenian forces in several campaigns of the early fourth century bc and also served the Persians and the Macedonians. Besides these sayings recorded by Plutarch, several of Iphicrates’ stratagems are reported by Polyaenus (Strategemata 3.9) who thought highly of him as a commander.

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He meant that sometimes in the most peaceful circumstances a danger can arise that no one would have expected, so he took precautions for his troops against unexpected disasters, to make sure that if something happened he would not be forced to say, ‘I never thought . . . ’ The Romans transfer this saying to Scipio.1 197 When he was drawing up his battle line against the barbarians, he said he was afraid the enemy would not recognize Iphicrates, because he used to terrify other enemies by his mere name. But others take care that no one recognizes who is the general. 198 When Iphicrates was prosecuted on a capital charge he said to the informer who was making the accusation, ‘What is this you are doing, fellow? War is threatening and you are urging the state to deliberate about me instead of with me?’ He meant that the state urgently needed his advice and services at that time. 199 When Harmodius, a great-grandson of the famous old hero Harmodius,1 was taunting Iphicrates with his humble ancestry he said, ‘My family is taking its origin from me, but yours has ended with you.’ Cicero imitated this remark. 200 When a speaker in the assembly asked Iphicrates, ‘Who are you to have such a lofty spirit? Are you a cavalryman or an archer, a heavy-armed soldier or an infantryman?’ He replied, ‘None of these, but one who has learned how to command them all.’ ***** 1 Valerius Maximus 7.2.2 attributes this comment to Scipio Africanus; see 5.306 below. 197 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 187b. In margin ‘the name matters‘ The name means ‘mighty in valour.’ The barbarians (possibly Thracians) had probably not heard of him. 198 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 187b. In margin ‘untimely‘ 199 (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 187b. In margin ‘true nobility‘ 1 This Harmodius was a descendant of the Harmodius who with Aristogeiton assassinated Hipparchus, tyrant of Athens, in 508 bc. Iphicrates was a selfmade cobbler’s son. 200 (xvii) Plutarch Moralia 187b. In margin ‘a good general‘

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He meant that it was nobler to show oneself a good leader than any kind of soldier. 201 Iphicrates also thought that a soldier1 should be eager for wealth and pleasure, arguing that he would risk dangers more boldly in order to provide himself with what he desired. 202 In a court case when he was overwhelmed by the eloquence of the lawyer defending Aristophon, Iphicrates said, ‘My opponent has a better actor, but mine is a better play.’ As a play is sometimes driven off stage because of the actor’s failure, so often a better court case is defeated by a worse through the incompetence or folly of the pleader. Xenaenetus 203 Xenaenetus the general said to his fellow citizens who were reproaching him because he fled from battle though he was in command, ‘But I was fleeing with you, my dear fellows!’ Thus he shared the disgrace with those criticizing him, for a leader cannot stand his ground without soldiers. And it is shameful to reproach another man with a failure of which one is oneself guilty. Timotheus 204 Timotheus was called a lucky general. Some people from envy painted pictures of cities spontaneously trapping themselves in the net while he slept.1 But he was not offended and replied courteously, ‘If I capture such great cities while asleep what could I do when awake?’ ***** 201 (xviii) Plutarch Life of Galba 1.1. In margin ‘a soldier with wealth‘ 1 Iphicrates actually said ‘a mercenary soldier.’ 202 (xix) Plutarch Moralia 801f (Precepts of statecraft). In margin ‘eloquence wins the day‘ For Aristophon see 8.185 n1. 203 (xx) Plutarch Moralia 803d (Precepts of statecraft). In margin ‘a shared disgrace‘ Xenaenetus was an Athenian general in the fourth century bc. 204 (xxi) Plutarch Moralia 187b–c. In margin ‘jibe disregarded‘ The Athenian commander Timotheus was a colleague of Iphicrates (see 5.196– 202 above). 1 Cf Adagia i v 82: Dormienti rete trahit ‘The sleeper’s net makes a catch.’

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205 When a bold soldier1 was showing his wound to the Athenians, Timotheus said, ‘I too was ashamed, because when I was your commander in Samos a catapult bolt fell close to me.’ He meant that the other man had not suffered his wound fighting at close quarters2 but from a distance. But a good leader must take care that no missile can even come near. A sword wound proves courage, but the wound from a catapult bolt shows neglect of duty. 206 When speakers were praising Chares and proposing that he should be appointed leader of the Athenians, Timotheus said, ‘Not leader but the man who carries the leader’s bedding!’ Chabrias the general 207 Chabrias used to say that men who knew most about the enemy’s affairs were best at carrying out the duties of a general. 208 He was accused of treason along with Iphicrates,1 but when Iphicrates censured him because he continued to visit the gymnasium and dine at his usual time, although he was at risk of condemnation, Chabrias said, ‘So if the Athenians condemn us, they will execute you hungry and dirty, but I will be well-fed and oiled.’ ***** 205 (xxii) Plutarch Moralia 187c. In margin ‘precaution‘ 1 According to Plutarch Life of Pelopidas 278d, it was an overbold fellow general Chares, who also figures in 5.206 just below, who made the remark. Chares was the most distinguished Athenian general of the fourth century bc. He and Timotheus were opponents, hence these verbal exchanges. Chares’ denunciations brought Timothaeus’ career to an end and drove him into exile. 2 For a similar sentiment, cf 1.155 above. 206 (xxiii) Plutarch Moralia 187c. In margin ‘big but not brave‘ Cf a longer account at Moralia 788d (Old men in public life). 207 (xxiv) Plutarch Moralia 187d. In margin ‘a general’s expertise‘ Chabrias, another distinguished Athenian general of the early fourth century bc. As a professional soldier, he fought for other states as well as Athens. 208 (xxv) Plutarch Moralia 187d. In margin ‘miserable in advance‘ 1 This should be Callistratus, not Iphicrates (Plutarch’s mistake). Chabrias and Callistratus, an Athenian politician and general, were prosecuted together in 366 bc. Chabrias was executed, but Callistratus escaped through his brilliant oratory. Cf 5.234 below.

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209 Chabrias also used to say that an army of deer led by a lion was more to be feared than an army of lions led by a deer. He felt that the entire outcome of war depended on the merit and forethought of the leader. Hegesippus 210 When Hegesippus, nicknamed ‘Topknot,’ was inflaming the Athenians against Philip, one of the assembly cried out, ‘Is this how you bring war upon us, Hegesippus?’ ‘Yes, by Jove,’ he replied, ‘and mourning clothes and public burials and funeral eulogies, if we are to live freely and not obey Macedonian orders.’ He meant that liberty was well worth a great cost and could not be preserved without great trouble. [Pytheas] 211 When Pytheas was still a young man he went into the assembly to oppose the decrees that were being drafted about Alexander. When someone said to him, ‘Do you dare to speak of such important matters when you are so young?’ he replied, ‘But the man you are making a god with your votes is younger than I am.’ Pisistratus 212 Some friends of Pisistratus, tyrant of Athens, rebelled from him and occupied Phyle. So he came to them carrying his own bedding in a bundle. But ***** 209 (xxvi) Plutarch Moralia 187d. The saying is attributed to Philip by Stobaeus 54.61 (Meineke ii 330); compare also 5.418 below where the speaker stresses that the qualities of the leader are more important than those of his forces. In margin ‘an outstanding leader‘ 210 (xxvii) Plutarch Moralia 187e. In margin ‘liberty to be purchased at great cost‘ The orator Hegesippus urged the Athenians to resist Philip of Macedon during the mid-fourth century bc. 211 (xxviii) Plutarch Moralia 187e This anecdote is a generation later than the previous story. Pytheas opposed the decree offering Alexander divine status (see 4.351 n1 above). So too did Demades (see 6.381 below). Other Greeks made equally sharp comments on Alexander’s deification; see 3.337 above (Diogenes) and 1.164 above (Damis the Spartan). 212 (xxix) Plutarch Moralia 189b. In margin ‘ingenious‘ Erasmus passes over the sayings of Phocion, which he has already translated

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when they asked what he meant by it, he replied, ‘So that if I persuade you I can bring you back, but if I don’t I can stay with you. This is why I came with my baggage.’ What a gallant spirit, to be unwilling to rule or live without his friends! 213 It was reported to him that his mother was in love with a young man and was making secret assignations with him, but the young man often refused her intimacy from fear of Pisistratus. Pisistratus invited the young man to dinner and after the dinner asked him how he had been received. The young man said, ‘Very pleasantly,’ and Pisistratus said, ‘This will happen to you every day if you please my mother.’ This was a civilized way of indulging his mother’s affections and freeing the young man from any fear. 214 Thrasybulus loved Pisistratus’ daughter and when he met her kissed her in public. For this Pisistratus’ wife tried to inflame her husband against him, but he replied, ‘If we treat with hatred those who love us, what shall we do to those who hate us?’ And he allowed Thrasybulus to marry the girl he loved. 215 Some revellers came upon Pisistratus’ wife and said and did a lot of lewd things. The next day when they had recovered from their drunkenness they tearfully approached Pisistratus seeking his pardon. Then Pisistratus said, ‘From now on take care to stay sober, but my wife did not even leave the house yesterday.’ It was a mark of his kindness to forgive the young men and his loyalty that he took thought for his wife’s honour by denying that any such thing had happened to her. 216 When he decided to marry another wife his children asked if he had any ***** in 4.257–79 above among the orators, and resumes with the sixth-century Athenian tyrant Pisistratus. Cf the anecdote at 1.82 above. 213 (xxx) Plutarch Moralia 189b. In margin ‘civilized‘ 214 (xxxi) Plutarch Moralia 189b. In margin ‘civilized‘ 215 (xxxii) Plutarch Moralia 189c. In margin ‘civilized and wise‘ 216 (xxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 189d. In margin ‘remarkable reply‘

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complaints against them. ‘Not at all,’ he said. ‘In fact I am taking a second wife because I am commending you and want to have other such children born to me.’ Demetrius 217 Demetrius of Phalerum used to urge king Ptolemy to equip himself with books on the art of ruling and commanding an army, and to read them through because the advice friends did not dare to give to kings was to be found in these books. 218 When he was in exile and living at Thebes humble and dishonoured, he listened to the mild and wise counsel of Crates the philosopher who came to see him, about enduring exile with moderation. ‘A curse on my business and preoccupations,’ he said, ‘which prevented me from getting to know such a man until now!’ The general Nicostratus 219 The Argive Nicostratus was being solicited by Archidamus, with a huge sum of money and marriage with any Spartan woman he chose, to betray the town of Cromnus. So he answered that Archidamus did not come from the family of Hercules because Hercules had travelled the world destroying wicked men, but Archidamus was making wicked men out of decent ones. ***** 217 (xxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 189d. Demetrius of Phalerum was a peripatetic philosopher, who governed Athens in the interests of Macedon from 317–307 bc but fled when Demetrius Poliorketes took Athens. He went first to Boeotia and eventually took refuge with Ptolemy ii Philadelphus in Alexandria, where he served as an adviser on obtaining manuscripts for the new library. See 7.255–64 below, where this and the next anecdote are repeated. 218 (xxxv) Plutarch Moralia 69c–d (How to tell a flatterer). In margin ‘philosophy‘ At this point Erasmus passes over sayings of various Spartan commanders as he had already used them in book 1. 219 (xxxvi) Plutarch Moralia 535a–b (On false shame). In margin ‘unworthy descendants‘ Nicostratus seems to be the distinguished Argive general who served as a mercenary under Artoxerxes iii king of Persia 359–338 bc. Archidamus will be Archidamus iii, king of Sparta 360–338, who seems to have had an unscrupulous streak. See 1.156 above.

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Now the Spartan kings were particularly proud of deriving their birth from Hercules.1 Epaminondas 220 When Epaminondas was commander at Thebes there never was an occasion when panic seized his army. This is a thing which can sometimes suddenly arise; they call it panic because they believe it is sent by the god Pan.1 221 He used to say that death in war was the finest kind of death. In the first place this death brings with it praise for gallantry, provided the war is fought for one’s own country, and secondly it is quick, not torturing a man for a long time or making him gradually waste away. 222 He also used to say that soldiers who had to employ weapons needed to have a well exercised body, not just in an athlete’s way but also in a military fashion. (For athletes are only concerned with physical strength, but a soldier needs to have a quick and nimble body.) For this reason he was very hostile to fat men, and dismissed such a man from the army, saying that ***** 1 Nicostratus exploits the claim of the two dynasties of Spartan kings to be descended from Hercules. Descent from Hercules features in several Spartan sayings in book 1: cf 1.127, 1.258, 1.291, and 1.302. The Peloponnese was supposedly conquered by his three sons, but this conflicts with the traditional dating of the Dorian conquest to the tenth century. 220 (i) Plutarch Moralia 192c. In margin ‘forethought‘ Epaminondas was Thebes’ greatest general; with Pelopidas, another great general (see 5.255–62 below), he brought his city to its highest success, defeating Sparta at the battle of Leuctra in 371 bc. Plutarch came from Chaeronea in Boeotia and valued both these Theban commanders as national heroes; he has gathered into his collection twenty-four sayings of Epaminondas, but only eight of Pelopidas, though he also wrote a Life of Pelopidas. No life of Epaminondas has survived. Erasmus however knew heroic stories of Epaminondas from other classical sources, and has added ten more sayings mainly from Cornelius Nepos’ short and rather bald Life of Epaminondas though he could have drawn on Cicero and the Strategemata of Frontinus and Polyaenus. 1 Cf Adagia iii viii 3: Panicus casus ‘A panic attack’ 221 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 192c. In margin ‘death in war‘ 222 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 192d. In margin ‘a fat soldier‘

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three or four shields could hardly cover his belly, which even prevented him seeing his own genitals.1 223 He himself lived on so slender a diet that once when he was invited to dinner by a neighbour, and he saw the array of sweets and cooked meats and unguents, he went away immediately saying, ‘I thought you were going to make a sacrifice, not indulge in dainties and make a mockery of it.’1 224 When a cook was giving Epaminondas’ colleagues the accounts for several days’ expenses, he was particularly angry that so much oil had been used. His colleagues were amazed, but he said he was not offended by the expense but resented so much oil being taken into men’s bodies. He meant that oil was created to anoint the body externally, not to glut it internally. Oil rubbed onto the body makes it stronger and more enduring of injury, but poured into the organs it makes it softer and sluggish. 225 When the state was celebrating a feast day and everyone was indulging in drinking and sexual licence, Epaminondas met one of his acquaintances. Epaminondas was still in his dirty clothes and was deep in thought. When his friend expressed amazement and asked what was the matter that he was walking about alone and in that state, he said, ‘It’s so that you all can be drunken and idle.’ That was a saying worthy of a ruler! A prince must be most vigilant just when his people are most enjoying themselves. But he himself must never be at leisure to live pleasurably.1 226 Some wretched fellow had committed a trivial offence. Epaminondas did ***** 1 For Epaminondas’ concentration on training the heavy armed hoplites see Nepos Epaminondas 2.4 and 5. 223 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 192d. In margin ‘frugal‘ 1 Perhaps implying an ordinary meal preceded by an offering. 224 (v) Plutarch Moralia 192d–e. In margin ‘frugal‘ 225 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 192e. In margin ‘a sober prince‘ 1 See Adagia ii vii 95: Non decet principem solidam dormire noctem ‘A ruler should not sleep the whole night through.’ 226 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 192e. In margin ‘have regard to the persons involved‘

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not pardon him when Pelopidas interceded for him, but when his girl friend asked, he did pardon him, saying, ‘This kind of favour should be received by whores, not by soldiers.’ He was ready to forgive, but just as we don’t give any and every thing to everyone, so we must examine whom we oblige and on what matters. 227 When the Spartans were campaigning against the Thebans and various oracles were circulating among the Thebans, some of them promising victory, others foretelling the opposite, Epaminondas ordered the favourable ones to be placed on the right of his dais and the unfavourable on the left. Once they had all been arranged like this he got up and said, ‘If you want to obey your leaders and advance on the enemy united, these are your oracles’ – pointing to the better ones – ‘but if you are slow and fearful to join battle, these are the oracles provided for you’ – pointing to those which promised the worse outcome. In a clever way he neither despised the authority of the oracles nor let his soldiers’ spirits be cast down by them, but took them to mean that God promises good fortune to vigorous fighters and bad luck to cowards, on the grounds that the outcome of events depends on us. 228 Again when Epaminondas was moving his forces nearer to the enemy’s camp and there was a clap of thunder, his soldiers asked him what he thought God intended. ‘The enemy must have been thunderstruck,’ he said, ‘because when they had such territory nearby, they pitched their camp on a site like this.’ The leader’s shrewdness did more than remove terror from his soldiers’ hearts; it even by this convenient interpretation increased their eagerness. 229 Epaminondas said that of all his glorious and honourable deeds throughout his life, what gave him most pleasure was to have defeated the Spartans at Leuctra1 while both his parents lived. ***** 227 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 192f. In margin ‘oracles depend on us‘ Apophthegms 5.227–31 relate to the battle of Leuctra (371 bc) in which the Thebans decisively defeated the Spartans and killed their king Cleombrotus (see 1.211 above). This was a total humiliation for the once invincible Spartans. 228 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 192f–3a. In margin ‘convenient interpretation of a portent‘ 229 (x) Plutarch Moralia 193a. In margin ‘honour for parents‘ 1 See 5.227n above.

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This loyal son did not congratulate himself on wining this glory as much as on giving this pleasure to those to whom he owed his life. 230 Epaminondas usually went out in public anointed and with cheerful face, but on the day after his successful battle at Leuctra,1 he went out in shabby clothes and with a deject air. When his friends asked if he had suffered any misfortune he said, ‘No, nothing, but yesterday I felt I was too pleased with myself, so today I am punishing the excess of my rejoicing.’ That was how afraid this man was of arrogance, for all that he was a military man and a Boeotian.2 Shall we not behave like him whenever things go well for us on a favourable breeze of fortune? 231 When he saw the Spartans were aiming to conceal that disaster,1 Epaminondas found a way to display how great this defeat was: he would not let anyone remove the bodies at random but ordered that each state should remove its own. So it was revealed that more than a thousand Spartans had perished. Perhaps someone added this stratagem as if it were a saying.2 232 Jason, king of Thessaly, had come to Thebes hoping to become an ally and sent Epaminondas two thousand gold coins at a time when he was in severe need of money. Epaminondas did not accept the gold but gazed at Jason and said, ‘You are worse than the unjust men over whom you rule.’ Instead he took a loan of fifty drachmae from a fellow citizen as support for the army on the journey and invaded the Peloponnese.1 He felt that wealth was a bad thing when it made the possessor worse. Gallant men are content with glory as reward of their merit. ***** 230 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 193a–b. In margin ‘moderate rejoicing in prosperity‘ 1 See 5.225 above. 2 Boeotians were proverbially boorish and insensitive; see eg Adagia iii ii 48: Boeotia auris ‘A Boeotian ear.’ 231 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 193b. In margin ‘glory‘ 1 Ie the battle of Leuctra (see 5.227n above) 2 See Introduction xviii–xix and n11, dedicatory epistle 9 above. 232 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 193b–c. In margin ‘glory preferable to money‘ 1 After the success of Leuctra, Epaminondas invaded Spartan territory on the first occasion, intending to free Messenia. He invaded again in 369 and 367 bc, when he finally destroyed Sparta’s power.

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233 Again when Artoxerxes king of Persia1 sent him thirty thousand darics, Epaminondas rebuked Diomedon of Cyzicus very harshly for embarking on such a voyage to corrupt him, and ordered him to take back this message to the king, that if he supported the interests of the Thebans he would have Epaminondas as his friend without charge, but if not, then as his enemy.2 What is more free from corruption than this spirit, which considers only his country’s interest? 234 When the Argives were allied to the Thebans, Athenian envoys sent to Arcadia abused both nations and the rhetorician Callistratus1 started to bring up Orestes and Oedipus against them. (For Orestes was an Argive, and Oedipus a Theban.) Epaminondas stood up and said ‘I admit we had a citizen who killed his father and the Argives one who killed his mother, but we drove out these murderers, whereas the Athenians took them in.’2 So neatly did he turn the insult against its originators. 235 The Spartans brought many serious charges against the Thebans and Epaminondas said to them, ‘These at any rate made you abandon your economy of speech.’1 For Spartans usually boasted of their economy with words, but after the Thebans inflicted so many disasters on them they needed many words to voice their complaints. ***** 233 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 193c. In margin ‘integrity‘ 1 This is Artoxerxes ii. 2 Cf 6.369 below, told of Pomponius, a Roman soldier. 234 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 193c–d. In margin ‘an insult returned‘ 1 For Callistratus, see 5.208 above. After Leuctra, the Arcadians sought the support of Athens. 2 The Athenian Callistratus reproached Argos with their prince Orestes, who killed his mother Clytemnestra to avenge her murder of his father Agamemnon, and Thebes, with their king Oedipus who had unwittingly murdered his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta. After being hounded out of their cities, both Orestes and Oedipus found sanctuary and absolution at Athens. 235 (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 193d. In margin ‘misery finds a great deal to say‘ 1 On Spartan brevity cf Adagia ii x 49: Laconismus ‘Laconic speech’ and ii i 92: Battologia Laconismus ‘Vain repetition and Spartan brevity.’ See General Index: Laconismus, Laconic speech.

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236 After the Athenians had made a friend and ally of Alexander, tyrant of Pherae,1 who was hostile to the Thebans, and he promised them he would ensure that they could buy a pound of meat for a few pence, meaning he would bring them such a number of cattle and beasts of burden out of the booty, Epaminondas added, ‘And we will give the Athenians free wood to cook that meat. For we shall cut down their trees if they meddle unnecessarily in our business.’ 237 Epaminondas wanted to keep the Boeotians continuously under arms, because they had grown slack with idleness, so as soon as he had been appointed general he addressed them in these terms: ‘Now think carefully, men. For if I am commander of your force you will have to be soldiers.’ This abolished their hope of idleness under such a commander. 238 Epaminondas used to call a low-lying plain the dancing floor of war,1 (like a theatre with open views on all sides.) He claimed it could not be kept secure unless they always had their hand inside the strap of their shield. For we can protect areas surrounded by mountains with not much effort, but since a plain is open to every kind of raid, it must be protected by arms. 239 When Chabrias1 had laid low a few Thebans fighting too eagerly under the walls of Corinth, and had for that reason put up a trophy, Epaminondas mocked him, saying, ‘In that place surely it should not have been a trophy but an image of Hecate.’ In the old days men used appropriately enough to erect the likeness of Hecate at places where the roads ***** 236 (xvii) Plutarch Moralia 193e. In margin ‘threats‘ 1 See 5.258–61 below. 237 (xviii) Plutarch Moralia 193e. In margin ‘tough military service‘ 238 (xix) Plutarch Moralia 193e. In margin ‘vigilance‘ 1 Ie the orchestra in a Greek theatre, where the chorus danced. Epaminondas is specifically referring to Boeotia, which was flat and open. 239 (xx) Plutarch Moralia 193f. In margin ‘a ridiculous trophy‘ 1 For Chabrias see 5.207n above. At this point he is fighting in the Peloponnese, when Athens was aligned with Sparta against Thebes.

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joined in front of the city gates, either to mark the way or to conciliate the dead.2 240 Some one reported that the Athenians had sent a force with new equipment to the Peloponnese. ‘So what?’ he said, ‘does Antigenidas groan if Tellis gets new pipes?’ Tellis was a very poor piper, but Antigenidas was very good.1 He meant that it was futile to equip the Athenians with new weapons, since they didn’t know how to use them. 241 Epaminondas guessed that one of the heavy-armed soldiers had received a great quantity of money from a prisoner. So he said to the man, ‘Give me back your shield, and buy yourself a tavern to live in. You will not want to be exposed to danger after this, since you are now one of the rich and prosperous folk.’1 He rightly thought, as the proverb says, that riches are cowardly.2 For a man who has the means to live agreeably at home is more afraid of death. 242 Asked who he thought was the most outstanding leader, himself or Chabrias or Iphicrates,1 Epaminondas said, ‘That is very difficult to judge as long as we are alive.’ He was referring to Solon’s remark that no man should be called blessed until his death.2 For as long a man lives he can either advance to better things or sink back to worse. ***** 2 Hecate was the goddess of the underworld, and was particularly associated with crossroads, places of ill omen. 240 (xxi) Plutarch Moralia 193f. In margin ‘weapons not fit for the man‘ 1 On the great flute-player Antigenidas see eg Plutarch Moralia 335a (On the fortune of Alexander). For Tellis see Adagia ii vi 8: Cane Tellenis cantilenas ‘Sing Tellen’s songs’; cpg 1 Zenobius 45. 241 (xxii) Plutarch Moralia 194a. In margin ‘a soldier acquiring wealth‘ 1 Cf 4.125 above. 2 Adagia iii vii 2: Timidus Plutus ‘Plutus is a coward.’ 242 (xxiii) Plutarch Moralia 194a. In margin ‘look to the end of life‘; see Adagia i iii 37: Finem vitae specta. 1 For the Athenian general Iphicrates see 5.196–202 above, and for Chabrias, 5.207–9 and 5.239 above. 2 Cf Solon at 7.22 below.

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243 When Epaminondas returned from Sparta and was prosecuted with his colleagues on a capital charge for adding four months to his command1 contrary to the law, he ordered the other leaders to cast the blame on himself on the grounds that they had been coerced. But he defended himself, saying that he did not have better arguments than his deeds (thinking that his achievements should serve as his advocates). ‘But if I absolutely must make some claims to the jury,’ he said, ‘I request that when they kill me they inscribe on the column a statement of my indictment for the Greeks to see it, that Epaminondas compelled the Thebans against their will to sack with fire and the sword the land of Sparta which could not be taken in five hundred years and which had occupied Messenia for 230 years, to reconcile the Arcadians to each other and reorganize their state, and finally to restore the Greeks to liberty. For these were the achievements during that command.’ When they heard this, the jury adjourned with much laughter and did not even want to collect the votes.2 In deflecting the danger of the whole case away from the other commanders and onto his own head, you might well ask whether he was acting with generosity or spirit, for in doing so he demonstrated the confidence which a consciousness of great services does give to a man. 244 In his last battle at Mantinea he was wounded and carried into his tent, where he called first for Daiphantus, then after him for Iollidas. When he heard that these men were dead, he ordered them to break off the war, since the army now had no leaders,1 and what happened afterwards confirmed his words and showed that Epaminondas knew his fellow citizens very well.2 ***** 243 (xxiv) Plutarch Moralia 194b–c. In margin ‘confidence based on merit‘ 1 Epaminondas was made Boeotarch for the year 370–69 bc, and invaded Spartan territory for the first time in its history. The charge was brought by Meneclides, see 5.245 below. 2 This story was a favourite of rhetorical schools: cf Cicero De inventione 1.55–6 and 69. 244 (xxv) Plutarch Moralia 194c. In margin ‘leaders the chief hope of victory‘ 1 For Epaminondas’ brave death at the battle between Thebes and the city of Mantinea in 362 bc see 5.250–1 below. Epaminondas died in the moment of victory. 2 For his view of the Thebans without a strong leader see 5.237 above and cf 1.73 above (on Agesilaus). The fortunes of Thebes declined rapidly after Epaminondas’ death, and the city was eventually destroyed by Alexander; see 4.57 above.

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This too seems to have been an addition to the sayings.3 245 Meneclides was jealous of Epaminondas’ glory and persuaded the people to opt for peace rather than war. But Epaminondas said to him, ‘You are cheating your fellow citizens, calling them to slavery under the name of peace.’ For peace is earned by war and cannot be maintained unless the citizens are equipped for war. 246 When this same man reproached Epaminondas with not marrying he said, ‘There is no man whose advice on this matter I would use less than yours,’ criticizing him because he had a wife of ill repute.1 247 Again when Meneclides accused him of competing with the glory of Agamemnon, he said, ‘You are mistaken; he employed the forces of all Greece and barely captured one city in ten years, but I with the forces of this one city have struck down the Spartans in one day and set all Greece free.’1 248 Epaminondas suffered the injustices of his fellow citizens most patiently, saying that it was wrong to be angry with one’s country, just as piety forbids one to retaliate in response to wrongs done by one’s parents. 249 Pelopidas scolded him for rearing no children, and so failing to benefit his country. ‘Take care,’ he said, ‘that you have not failed it more by leaving your country a son like yours.’ For Pelopidas had a disgraceful son with a bad reputation. ‘As for me,’ he said, ‘the battle of Leuctra will be my child, one that will never die.’1 ***** 3 See Introduction xviii–xix n11 and dedicatory epistle 9 above. 245 (xxvi) Nepos Life of Epaminondas 5.2–4. In margin ‘peace won by war‘ 246 (xxvii) Nepos Life of Epaminondas 5.5. In margin ‘an oblique dig‘ 1 Cf 5.249 below. 247 (xxviii) Nepos Life of Epaminondas 5.6. In margin ‘greater than Agamemnon‘ 1 See 5.227 above. 248 (xxix) Nepos Life of Epaminondas 7.1. In margin ‘a right attitude‘ 249 (xxx) Nepos Life of Epaminondas 10.1–2. In margin ‘good deeds in place of children‘ 1 For the battles of Leuctra and Mantinea (see 5.227 and 5.244 above) as his

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We rear children so that our memory will not perish, but great deeds ensure this more successfully, for children often cloud a parent’s glory. 250 When Epaminondas felt that his wound was fatal he did not pull out the javelin until he had heard that the Thebans were victorious, then he said, ‘I have lived long enough, since I am dying unconquered.’ He drew out the weapon and immediately breathed his last.1 251 Valerius says that he inquired whether his shield was safe, and when he heard it was, he asked whether the enemy had been defeated. When he heard that victory was in Theban hands, he spoke thus to his soldiers, ‘This is not the end of my life, comrades, but a better and loftier beginning is approaching. For now your Epaminondas is being born, since he is dying so gloriously.’ 252 When some mean and despicable office was imposed on Epaminondas by the Theban people out of envy and to insult him, he did not reject it, but said, ‘It is not just an office that shows a man’s nature, but the man too shows the nature of the office’1 and he carried out the duties of this office so well that thereafter it was competed for by many as an honourable service, although previously it had been nothing but the charge of throwing out dirt and dung from back alleys. 253 Epaminondas gave instructions to a poor man to ask for a talent from one of Epaminondas’ friends; the man asked and was given the money. When ***** glorious inheritance, see Valerius Maximus 3.2 ext. 5. For the saying, cf the chreia given at Theon Progymnasmata 5.213 (Spengel ii 103). 250 (xxxi) Nepos Life of Epaminondas 9.3.4. In margin ‘a noble death‘ 1 See 5.244 above. 251 (xxxii) Valerius Maximus 3.2 ext. 5 252 (xxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 841b (Precepts of statecraft) and Valerius Maximus 3.7 ext. 5. In margin ‘the man gives honour to the position‘ 1 Cf similar sayings attributed to Agesilaus (1.8 and n2 above) and Damonides (1.163 above). Cf Adagia i x 76: Magistratus virum indicat ‘T ’is the place that shows the man.’ 253 (xxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 809a (Precepts of statecraft). In margin ‘kindly‘

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the friend asked why he had told him to do this, he said, ‘Because he is oppressed by poverty, although he is a decent man; but you are rich, having embezzled a lot from the state.’ Being poor himself Epaminondas found this way of helping a man in need. For it is a scandal to good men that a decent man should go without necessities. 254 At the time of the campaign at Leuctra, Epaminondas heard that a gallant man had died of disease, and is supposed to have said as a joke, ‘How did he find the time to die when we are so busy?’ Now often a large part of a sickness is imagination or fear of the sickness, but wholehearted involvement in some activity shakes off the lethargy. Pelopidas 255 Pelopidas, the colleague of Epaminondas in his military command, was told by his friends that he, Pelopidas, showed no concern for a necessary thing, that is, for acquiring money. ‘By Jove,’ he said, ‘it is necessary, but only for Nicomedes here,’ pointing to a lame and handicapped man. He meant that strong men did not need money. 256 When his wife asked him in womanly fashion as he set out to war to keep himself safe, Pelopidas said, ‘Other men need that sort of advice. A leader and general should be urged to keep his citizens safe.’ This remark was worthy of a commander, who should put the well-being of many citizens before his own preservation. 257 When one of the soldiers who had seen the Spartans approaching through the mountain passes said to Pelopidas, ‘We are falling among the enemy.’ He answered, ‘Why say that we are falling among them rather than that they are falling among us?’1 ***** 254 (xxxv) Plutarch Moralia 136d (Advice about keeping well). In margin ‘leisure‘ 255 (i) Plutarch Moralia 194c–d. In margin ‘disregard for money‘ For Pelopidas, see 5.220n above. 256 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 194d. In margin ‘the leader one who preserves others‘ 257 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 194d. In margin ‘spirited‘ 1 Compare the similar story of Leonidas at 1.248 above.

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258 Captured by Alexander the tyrant of Pherae1 and put in chains contrary to their treaty, Pelopidas hurled insults at the treaty breaker, but when the other man in anger said, ‘Are you in such a hurry to die?’ he said, ‘Yes, certainly, to make the Thebans more enraged with you, so that you will be punished sooner for violating the treaty, being hated by gods and men alike.’2 259 The tyrant Alexander’s wife Thebe went to Pelopidas and said she was surprised he was so cheerful when in chains, to which he answered, ‘I am more surprised that you put up with Alexander without being chained.’1 260 After Epaminondas had freed Pelopidas and brought him back, Pelopidas said he was grateful to Alexander because he had learned from the experience that he had a spirit ready not only for war but for death. 261 When Pelopidas was about to join battle with Alexander the tyrant of Pherae at Pharsalus, his soldiers warned him that there were twice as many Thessalians fighting for Alexander than he had Thebans: ‘All the better for us,’ he said, ‘for we will defeat a greater number.’ This saying is also credited to another man.1 262 Plutarch tells a witty story about Pelopidas in the second book of his Tabletalk. He was feasting with his fellow generals and drank rough wine at the end of the dinner. When they asked if this was good for his health, he said, ***** 258 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 194d. In margin ‘free speech‘ 1 Alexander was twice defeated by the Thebans and in 364 bc was (temporarily) forced to submit. 2 Erasmus imports the word yeomisw ‘hated by gods’ from Plutarch’s other account in Life of Pelopidas 28.3. 259 (v) Plutarch Moralia 194d. In margin ‘frank‘ 1 Alexander of Pherae was depicted in the ancient sources as a cruel monster. 260 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 194e. In margin ‘death despised‘ 261 (vii) Plutarch Life of Pelopidas 32.1 1 See 1.325 above (about Paedaretus). 262 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 633c (Table-talk 2.1) This anecdote was added in 1532.

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‘I don’t know, but it is good for one thing, making sure a man remembers the way he lives at home (or: his domestic arrangements).’ He meant that it was good against a hangover and contributed to sobriety, but at the same time he hinted that he was used to living on the most thrifty diet at home. Manius Curius 263 When a number of people complained that Manius Curius had given a small fraction of the lands captured in war to each of his soldiers, but a large part to the state, he prayed to the gods that no Roman should ever be born who thought a plot small if it could support its master.1 He meant that no man was worthy of the name of Roman who desired more than was enough for a thrifty living. 264 When the Samnites had been conquered, they came to Manius Curius and offered him a great quantity of gold. Now at the time he was cooking turnips in earthenware pots, so he answered the Samnites as follows: ‘A man who dined on such food had no need of gold, and he would rather command men who possessed gold than possess it himself.’ G. Fabricius 265 Gaius Fabricius heard that the Romans had been defeated by Pyrrhus, so he turned to Labienus and said, ‘It is Pyrrhus, not the Epirots, who have defeated the Romans.’ ***** 263 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 194e. Here Plutarch marks a new section Sayings of the Romans. In margin ‘a modest parcel of land‘ Manius Curius Dentatus (5.263–4) consul of 290 bc, and Gaius Fabricius (5.265– 9 below) consul of 282 and 278 bc, were Roman generals in the wars against the Samnites and later against Pyrrhus, king of Epirus (in 285 and 280–79 bc). For Pyrrhus see 5.119–31 above. They were celebrated for their simple way of life and refusal of Pyrrhus’ bribes. 1 Curius’ modest idea of an adequate plot of land is quoted by Roman writers on farming: Pliny Naturalis historia 18.18, Columella 1.3.10, and Valerius Maximus 4.3.5. 264 (x) Plutarch Moralia 194f. A frequently told tale; see Plutarch Life of Cato 2, Cicero De re publica 3.40 and De senectute 56, Valerius Maximus 4.3.5, Pliny Naturalis historia 19.87, Athenaeus 418a. Others attribute the same story to Fabricius, as does Erasmus in 6.321 below. In margin ‘gold scorned‘ 265 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 194f. In margin ‘an outstanding general‘

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He meant that victory should be credited to the genius of one general not to the valour of his soldiers. In this way he diminished the shame inflicted on the Roman reputation, since they were superior to the Epirots in valour, and only inferior in not having a leader like Pyrrhus.1 266 When Pyrrhus had sent a great sum of money to ransom the captives, Fabricius would not accept the gold. The next day Pyrrhus released a huge elephant which suddenly appeared from behind trumpeting, without Fabricius expecting it. Then Fabricius looked round and laughed: ‘Neither your gold yesterday nor your wild beast today made any impression on me,’ he said.1 He realized that Pyrrhus had done this on purpose, so that, since he could not be charmed by gold and fine words, he would be intimidated by the monstrous sound of the beast. But Pyrrhus discovered that his spirit was unconquerable on any front. 267 Indeed when Pyrrhus urged Fabricius to fight with him as his ally and joint commander he said, ‘That would not even be in your interest, for if the Epirots knew both of us they would prefer to obey me as king rather than you.’ 268 When Fabricius had been made consul, Pyrrhus’ doctor sent him a letter promising to kill the king with poison if Fabricius asked him to. But he returned the letter to Pyrrhus without mentioning its author, and warned him to protect himself, since he was a very bad judge of both friends and enemies.1 He meant that Pyrrhus treated as enemies men he ought to embrace if he had known them properly and treated as friends men who felt more ill will towards him than enemies. ***** 1 For Pyrrhus see 5.119–31 above and 5.290 below. 266 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 195a. In margin ‘an unconquerable spirit‘ 1 Cf Plutarch Pyrrhus 20.1–5. Fabricius was trying to negotiate the ransoming of captives, and was offered a bribe (see 5.269 below). The Romans first encountered elephants as part of Pyrrhus’ invasion force. 267 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 195a. In margin ‘self-confidence‘ 268 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 195a–b. In margin ‘honourable conduct towards an enemy‘ 1 The event is dated to 278 bc.

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269 So when Pyrrhus discovered the treachery and had crucified his doctor, he sent the prisoners back to Fabricius without ransom. But Fabricius refused to take them without ransom; instead he sent back an equal number of prisoners so that he would not seem to have taken a reward from Pyrrhus for revealing the poisoner. He said he had not informed on him for Pyrrhus’ sake but so that it would not look as if the Romans killed their enemy by guile because they could not overcome him by strength.1 Fabius Maximus 270 Because Fabius Maximus avoided fighting Hannibal, but by holding back wore down his forces as they ran out of money and supplies, following him over rough mountain terrain, then suddenly confronting him, he was mockingly called ‘Hannibal’s attendant’ by some. But he was undisturbed by this insult and persisted in his policy, saying to his friends that anyone who is afraid of witticisms and abuse seemed to him more of a coward than those who fled from the enemy. He meant that this was a more shameful kind of cowardice, just because the risk was more trivial. For nothing is more trivial than words; if a man is afraid of them, how will he resist the onslaught of the enemy? ***** 269 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 195b. In margin ‘nothing gratis‘ 1 Erasmus will also have known of the episode from Cicero’s quotation of Pyrrhus’ noble speech refusing to accept a ransom for prisoners of war (De officiis 1.38, taken from Ennius Annals 6). 270 (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 195c. In margin ‘insults disregarded‘ Much of the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage was fought in Italy, which Hannibal, the great Carthaginian general invaded in 218 bc. Fabius Maximus was the veteran ex-consul elected dictator in the early years of the war after several Roman defeats; he followed a policy of avoiding battle by delay and evasion. He was immortalized by the saying of the epic poet Ennius: ‘One man restored our affairs by his delaying.’ Fabius’ military career was inevitably intertwined with that of Claudius Marcellus (whose Life Plutarch recorded, but who is absent from Plutarch’s Apophthegmata) and the early career of Cornelius Scipio (later ‘Africanus’) for whom we have sayings in Plutarch’s collection (5.293–307 below), but no Life. These three Roman commanders spanned the narrative of the second Punic war, but their deeds and sayings naturally were concerned not only with each other but with Hannibal. Where Erasmus innovates is in his decision to insert from various sources representative sayings of Hannibal, neither a Greek nor a Roman. See 5.281 below.

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271 When there had been a lot of talk about Fabius’ colleague Minucius as a man worthy of the name of Roman, because he had dislodged some of the enemy, Fabius said he was more afraid of Minucius’ good fortune than his bad. He felt that this man’s rashness was very dangerous to the state, and if it was inflated by success, would bring the entire Roman people into extreme danger, but with some misfortunes it would be more restrained.1 272 A little later when Minucius was trapped in an ambush and was in great danger of perishing with all his forces, Fabius moved his army down from the mountain and came to his aid, rescuing him and slaying many of the enemy. At this Hannibal said to his companions, ‘Didn’t I often tell you that that cloud on the mountain would one day discharge a storm on us?’ I suspect this saying, belonging to Hannibal, not Fabius, has been written in from another place.1 273 After the Roman disaster at Cannae Fabius was appointed general together with Claudius Marcellus, a bold man who was always only too ready to fight with Hannibal.1 In contrast Fabius hoped that if he held off from battle Hannibal’s army would weaken with the lapse of time. Then Hannibal said he was more afraid of Fabius resting from battle than Marcellus fighting. This saying too does not belong to Fabius but to Hannibal.2 274 A soldier from Lucania was reported to Fabius for leaving camp frequently by night from love of some woman. When Fabius heard that he was otherwise a splendid fighter he ordered the woman whom the soldier loved to ***** 271 (xvii) Plutarch Moralia 195d. In margin ‘rashness‘ 1 For Fabius’ mistrust of Marcus Minucius Rufus’ overconfidence see Plutarch Fabius 8, with further details in 9 and 12. 272 (xviii) Plutarch Moralia 195d. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 See dedicatory epistle 9 above. 273 (xix) Plutarch Moralia 195d–e. In margin ‘holding back‘ 1 After the annihilation of the Roman army at the battle of Cannae in 216 the Romans re-elected Fabius together with the more audacious general M. Claudius Marcellus (on Marcellus’ eagerness to fight cf 6.372 below). 2 See dedicatory epistle 9 above. 274 (xx) Plutarch Moralia 195e. Cf 4.56 above for a similar story. In margin ‘misdemeanour forgiven because of merit‘

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be secretly seized and brought to him. As soon as she had been brought, he had the man summoned and spoke to him as follows: ‘We did not miss the fact that you were spending nights out of camp, contrary to military law, but it was not unknown to us either that you were a good soldier, so we are forgiving your offences in view of your achievements and from now on you will be with us, since I have a guarantor.’ Then he brought the woman forward and entrusted her to the soldier. 275 Hannibal imposed a garrison on the city of Tarentum and controlled it except for the citadel. So Fabius as a trick led his army as far away as possible from the city;1 but when he had taken and plundered it, and a scribe asked what he wanted done with the temple images, he said, ‘Let us leave their angry gods to the Tarentines.’ 276 When Marcus Livius1 claimed the credit for Fabius’ capture of Tarentum, on the grounds that he had maintained a garrison on the citadel, everyone else laughed at the man’s boastfulness, but Fabius said, ‘You are right, for if you had not lost the city I could not have recovered it.’ 277 Fabius’ son was made consul when his father was already an old man, and when the son had made a speech before a large audience, Fabius mounted his horse and made as if to precede him. The younger man sent a lictor ordering his father to dismount, and others took offence at this action but Fabius leapt down regardless of his age, and embraced his son; ‘Good, my boy,’ he said,’ you have the sense to know whom you are commanding and how great an office you have taken on.’ 278 When Minucius was boasting that thanks to him the grandeur of Fabius’ ***** 275 (xxi) Plutarch Moralia 195f. In margin ‘humorous‘ 1 Fabius drew Hannibal away from the city by a trick, not his own army. The Tarentines had gone over to Hannibal in 213 bc. Fabius recaptured the city in 209 bc. 276 (xxii) Plutarch Moralia 196a; Livy 27.25.3. Cf the same saying at 6.356 below. 1 See dedicatory epistle 13 above. 277 (xxiii) Plutarch Moralia 196a. A frequently told tale: cf Plutarch Fabius 24.1– 4, Livy 24.44, Valerius Maximus 2.2.4, Aulus Gellius 2.2. In margin ‘the high standing of the consulship‘ 278 (xxiv) Plutarch Life of Fabius 10.7. In margin ‘weighty‘

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position was much diminished,1 Fabius said, ‘If you had any sense, Minucius, you would recall that you are in contest with Hannibal, not with Fabius.’ 279 Fabius said it seemed absurd to him that we tamed horses and hounds with close relationship and food rather than chains and blows, but we did not win over men fierce at heart with kindness and favours but were more rough with them than farmers are towards wild fig trees and crab apples and wild olives, which they do not instantly cut down but teach to be domesticated by grafting. 280 Fabius Maximus criticized the smallness of bounties by saying they were not bushels but half-pints. For gifts presented to the people are called bushel bounties. A bushel is a large size of measure and the half pint is much smaller. So as a joke on the measure he said it was not a bushel but a half-pint.1 Hannibal 281 When Hannibal had ambushed Minucius and pinned him down, he was driven off by Fabius’ forces. He returned to camp and is supposed to have said that in this battle Minucius had been defeated by him, but he himself ***** 1 Fabius had been chosen dictator, an interim sole magistracy of great power to deal with a crisis, but Minucius had unusually been granted equal authority in military matters. 279 (xxv) Plutarch Life of Fabius 20.4. In margin ‘kindness the best means of taming‘ 280 (xxvi) Quintilian 6.3.52. This story has become attached to the wrong Fabius Maximus. In Quintilian it concerns a descendant who was contemporary with the Emperor Augustus. 1 This story depends on a pun: congiaria ‘donations, bounties, bonuses,’ from the large measure congius, and the invented word heminaria from hemina, a much smaller measure. Congiaria were largesses of oil or wine given to the people. 281 (xxvii) Livy 22.29.6. Cf 5.272 above. In margin ‘both victorious and defeated‘ Hannibal was the great Carthaginian general who invaded Italy in 218 bc, defeated the Romans at Trebia, Trasimene, and Cannae, and maintained his army in Italy until forced out by Scipio’s invasion of the region of Carthage in 204. Defeated at Zama (202) he eventually fled from Carthage, first to Antiochus iii in 195 bc then to king Prusias of Bithynia. Erasmus draws anecdotes from Plutarch Life of Marcellus and Life of Fabius, from Nepos Life of Hannibal, from Valerius Maximus and Aulus Gellius, and especially from Livy, who recorded Hannibal’s achievements in Italy in books 21–30, and continued to follow

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had been overcome by Fabius, that is, he returned from the same battle both defeated and victorious. For Minucius would have been lost if Fabius had not come to his aid. 282 When Marcellus had fought with Hannibal with changing outcomes on several days in succession, Hannibal said he was dealing with an enemy who did not know how to keep still whether he was defeated or victorious.1 283 When Fabius had recovered Tarentum by the same method that Hannibal had taken it,1 Hannibal said, ‘Rome too has its Hannibal.’ 284 When the envoys of the Romans delivered conditions of peace to the Carthaginians and a certain Gisco dared to urge them to renew hostilities with the Romans, Hannibal resented it that a man without experience in war should talk about difficult matters and thrust him down from the platform as he was still talking. The crowd was amazed and indignant at this violent behaviour in a free society, but Hannibal mounted the platform and said no one should be surprised if he who had left Carthage in his earliest years and spent all the intervening time in war and under arms, was less familiar with urban customs. With this preamble he began to urge them to make peace and succeeded. ***** his career in exile, where he acted as a foreign adviser for Antiochus iii until Antiochus was defeated by Scipio in 189, and then for Prusias of Bithynia until his own suicide in 183 (see 5.291 below). In fact Hannibal by virtue of his unique skills as a tactician and his extraordinary personality was too good to pass over, and Erasmus has gone to some length to provide situations and sayings right through Hannibal’s more than thirty years as a commander, but he does not follow chronological order. Hannibal is the only non-Roman included in this sequence. See 5.272 above. 282 (xxviii) Plutarch Life of Marcellus 26.2. In margin ‘persistence wins‘ Marcus Claudius Marcellus, was an outstanding commander and was consul several times. He was killed fighting Hannibal in 208 bc. 1 For Hannibal’s honourable funeral for Marcellus, see Plutarch Marcellus 30. 283 (xxix) Plutarch Life of Fabius 23.1. In margin ‘guile defeats guile‘ 1 See 5.275 above. 284 (xxx) Livy 30.37.7–12 paraphrased. In margin ‘a military man’s fierce nature‘ This was after the final defeat of Hannibal by Scipio Africanus at the battle of Zana in 204 bc.

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285 When the day came for the Romans to demand the first payment from the Carthaginians, the entire people groaned at the mention of the tribute, but Hannibal laughed extravagantly. When Hasdrubal Haedus rebuked him, he answered that this was not a laugh of rejoicing but of someone mocking the belated and useless tears now shed by others over a more trivial misfortune, although they should have flowed when the Romans stripped Carthage of its fleets, armed forces, and the spoils of magnificent victories, and imposed conditions on the conquered.1 286 After Hannibal’s enormously successful victory at Cannae his friends urged him to pursue the fleeing enemy and break into Rome, but he did not listen to them. Then Barca the Carthaginian was so indignant that he said that Hannibal knew how to win a victory but not to make use of it. Livy credits this saying to Maharbal.1 287 Gisco told Hannibal that the number of Romans arrayed for battle seemed to him quite amazing. ‘Actually,’ he said, ‘you have missed another much more amazing thing.’ Gisco asked what this could be and Hannibal replied, ‘that in such a great number of men no one is called Gisco.’ This joke on the part of their general removed much of his soldiers’ fear and added greatly to their eagerness. 288 When Hannibal was on the run in exile, he stayed with King Antiochus.1 He showed Hannibal his army lavishly equipped with barbarian armour, but more suited for plunder than warfare. When Hannibal had carefully viewed all these forces, Antiochus asked him whether all of this would be enough for the Romans. Then Hannibal said, ‘Quite enough, I think, even if they ***** 285 (xxxi) Livy 30.44.4–7, paraphrased. In margin ‘tears late in the day‘ 1 After the defeat of Carthage, the Romans imposed harsh peace terms and demanded reparations. 286 (xxxii) Plutarch Life of Fabius 17.1–2. In margin ‘using a victory‘ 1 This saying, uttered after Cannae, is attributed by Livy (22.51) to Maharbal, but by Plutarch to one of the Barca family, always hostile to Hannibal. See 5.292 below. 287 (xxxiii) Plutarch Life of Fabius 15.2–3. In margin ‘joking‘ 288 (xxxiv) Aulus Gellius 5.5. In margin ‘an army fit for plundering‘ 1 Antiochus iii of Syria whom Hannibal visited during his exile around 190 bc.

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are very greedy.’ The Carthaginian made a joke contrary to expectation, for the king was asking about his troops’ fitness for battle, whereas he replied about their value as booty. For what is an unwarlike soldier, loaded with gold, silver, and other things inviting plunder, if he is not a piece of booty? 289 When Hannibal was still a boy and the question arose of ending the feud between Rome and Carthage, he struck the ground with his foot, stirring up dust, and said that the war would only end when one side or the other was reduced to the condition of dust.1 You may recognize a spirit born to seek the destruction of the Roman race. 290 Scipio Africanus and Hannibal got into conversation about the superiority of leaders. When Scipio asked whom he thought first of all he answered, ‘Alexander the Great.’ And who was second? ‘Pyrrhus, king of Epirus.’ And for the third he named himself. ‘But what would you say,’ said Scipio, ‘if you had conquered me?’ ‘Then,’ said Hannibal, ‘I would have judged myself to be not second or third but greatest of all.’1 291 On the point of drinking the poison he had kept for this purpose, Hannibal said, ‘Let us relieve the Roman people of a great anxiety.’ Or, as Livy reports: ‘Let us relieve the Roman people of their longstanding anxiety, since they think it too long to wait for an old man’s death.’1 ***** 289 (xxxv) Valerius Maximus 9.3 ext. 3. In margin ‘undying hatred‘ 1 As a boy Hannibal was made by his father to swear undying hatred against Rome. Cf Nepos Hannibal 2.3–5. 290 (xxxvi) Livy 35.14.5–12. In margin ‘pre-eminence‘ 1 This is not the dialogue with Scipio which Polybius and Livy reproduce from before the battle of Zama, but a later diplomatic occasion when Scipio and Hannibal found themselves together at Ephesus after Hannibal’s exile. The Roman tradition elevated their own generals and soldiers by fully acknowledging the greatness of their adversary. 291 (xxxvii) Livy 39.51.9 and Plutarch Life of Flamininus 20.10. In margin ‘undying hatred‘ 1 Erasmus added Livy’s version in 1535. Nepos reports the circumstances of his suicide in Hannibal 12.3–5. Hannibal had taken refuge with King Prusias of Bithynia, whom the Romans ordered to surrender him. Hannibal took his own life to avoid capture.

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At the end it rankled that he could no longer cause the Romans trouble in some way or other. 292 After the victory of Cannae, if Hannibal had made straight for Rome, he could have dined on the Capitol,1 but he preferred to enjoy his victory rather than make use of it,2 travelling around Campania and Tarentum, so that presently both he and his army’s vigour had been so weakened that it was rightly said that Capua3 had been Hannibal’s Cannae. Certainly this man, undefeated by the Alps and unconquered in battle, was tamed by Campania with its sunshine and Baiae, basking in its hot springs. This is reported by Florus.4 Scipio Africanus 293 If ever Scipio the Elder was free from warfare and occupied in study, he used to say that he was never less leisured than when he was at leisure. ***** 292 (xxxviii) Various sources have contributed to this item: Livy 22.51.2; 23.18.10– 16; Valerius Maximus 9.1 ext. 1; Seneca Letters 51.5, as well as Macrobius and Florus. In margin ‘pleasure enervates the hitherto unconquered‘ Added in 1532, it combines two criticisms made of Hannibal: first the excessive caution which prevented him from advancing on Rome itself after his overwhelming victory at Cannae (see 5.286 above), then the deleterious effect on his forces of wintering in luxurious Capua and the further time spent around Tarentum. Erasmus anachronistically associates the city of Capua with the later development of Campanian resorts like Baiae. 1 See Macrobius 1.4.26 2 Florus Epitome 1.22.19. 3 On the wealth and pride of Capua and on Campania, see Adagia iv viii 14: Campana superbia ‘Campanian arrogance.’ 4 Florus Epitome 1.22.21 293 (i) Plutarch Moralia 196b. In margin ‘the leisure of a wise man‘ Erasmus returns to the Sayings of Romans and translates most of Plutarch’s anecdotes. Although Plutarch did not write a life of Cornelius Scipio Africanus (235–183 bc), Erasmus would have known his career from Livy’s books covering Scipio’s adult life from his aedileship in 214 (Livy 25.2.6f) to his triumph and the title of Africanus won in 202, through his later military successes against Antiochus iii of Syria, to his withdrawal from political life after his brother’s condemnation in 184 (see 5.298 n1 and 5.301 below) and subsequent death. Scipio is called the elder Africanus (Maior) because his adoptive grandson Scipio Aemilianus also won the title of Africanus for his victory over a resurgent Carthage in 146. Scipio took over the Roman forces in Spain after the defeat and death of his father and uncle. He had been elected aedile under age (214 bc) and was given

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He meant that at these times he was not giving his mind up to idleness or pleasure but thinking over many issues for the benefit of the state.1 294 After Scipio took New Carthage which belonged to the Hispani,1 his soldiers brought to him a captive maiden of refined beauty, and handed her over to him. But he said, ‘I would gladly accept her if I were a private citizen and not a general.’2 This young man could not be seduced by the girl’s conspicuous beauty into forgetting what was proper for a general. But there are many nowadays who think they can do what they like and everything is proper for them just because they are generals. 295 Again when Scipio was besieging a town situated on low ground, with the temple of Venus towering over it, he ordered people bailed to appear in court to present themselves in the temple, as he would be dealing out justice there in two days’ time. And after capturing the city he did what he said he would do. So confident was he of victory. 296 When Scipio was in Sicily, a man asked him what gave him the confidence to prepare to take his fleet across to Africa. So he showed the man three ***** the Spanish command, where he defeated Hannibal’s forces at New Carthage (Cartagena, cf 5.294 below), and repossessed Spain for Rome. Elected consul for 205 he was first given command of Roman forces in southern Italy, and later obtained a further command (despite the opposition of Fabius Maximus) to lead an expeditionary force into Africa (5.297 below), where he defeated the Carthaginian forces under Hannibal at Zama and imposed surrender on the city. He was again elected consul in 194 and later sent as legate to his brother against Antiochus iii of Syria (5.299 below), whom he defeated at Magnesia in 189, imposing harsh terms in the treaty of Apamea in 188. 1 For Scipio’s comment cf Cicero De officiis 3.1. See Adagia v ii 21: Liber non est qui non aliquando nihil agit ‘A man is not free unless he sometimes does nothing.’ 294 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 196b. In margin ‘a general not succumbing to lust‘ 1 A correction in 1535. Erasmus mistakenly referred to Carthage itself in 1531, 1532. 2 This episode, reported in various places, was celebrated by Romans as evidence of Scipio’s self-restraint; other versions report that she was a chieftain’s daughter and that Scipio restored her to her betrothed. 295 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 196b–c. In margin ‘confidence in the outcome‘ 296 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 196c. In margin ‘a soldier obeying orders‘

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hundred armed men exercising and a high tower poised at the edge of the sea, and said, ‘There isn’t one of these men who will not climb that tower and leap into the sea if I order it.’ He meant that it did not matter how large was the force you commanded, provided a gallant commander led them and they were welltrained and obedient. 297 When Scipio crossed over to Africa, occupied the land and burned the enemy camp, the Carthaginians sent envoys and struck a treaty with him, promising to hand over elephants and camels1 and ships and money. But after Hannibal set sail from Italy to Carthage, they began to regret the agreement because they had now recovered their confidence. Hearing this Scipio said he would not observe the treaty even if they wanted to, unless they added five thousand talents to his earlier demands, on account of their having summoned Hannibal. 298 But after the Carthaginians were compelled to send envoys to Scipio about a treaty and making peace, he ordered those who had come to go away at once, saying he would not listen to them until they had fetched Lucius Terentius before him. Now Terentius was a Roman, a decent and kind man, who had been captured in the war and was being held prisoner by the Carthaginians. When they brought him in, Scipio, who was seated on the platform, placed the man beside him and only then heard the envoys and terminated the war. Indeed, in memory of this great service, Terentius followed Scipio in his triumph wearing a freedman’s cap, as if he had been a slave freed by Scipio. More than that, when Scipio died he readily provided wine for the funeral and other supplies for the crowd attending.1 But more of this later.2 Here you have in Scipio an example of a kindness genuinely offered to do honour, and in Terentius a model of a grateful heart. ***** 297 (v) Plutarch Moralia 196c–d. In margin ‘an unfaltering spirit‘ 1 ‘Elephants and camels’ is Erasmus’ interpretation of Plutarch’s theria ‘beasts.’ The camels were expelled from the later editions (1535, bas, and lb). 298 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 196d–e. In margin ‘kindness and gratitude‘ Scipio triumphed after the battle of Zama in 202 bc; he died in 183 bc. 1 After being brought to trial by his political enemies (see 5.301 below), Scipio retired to his country estate in 184 bc and spent the rest of his life in voluntary exile from Rome. 2 Erasmus has mistranslated. Plutarch says ‘all that was later.’

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299 After the Romans crossed over to Asia to attack King Antiochus, he sent envoys to Scipio asking for peace, but Scipio said, ‘You should have done this before, not now when you have accepted both a bridle and a rider.’1 He was referring to the fable about the horse and its rider, which is too well-known to be related here.2 300 The senate decreed that Scipio should take money from the treasury, but when the officers of the treasury refused to open it that day he said, ‘I will open it myself, since it is my fault the treasury is shut as I have filled it with such a quantity of money.’ It is not empty buildings that are closed up, and so Scipio said as a joke, that he had to undertake the task of opening it, since he had been the cause of it being so carefully closed up that the officers needed a whole day to open it up. This is an example of great confidence based on services. 301 When Petilius and Quintus,1 tribunes of the people, laid many charges against Scipio before the Roman people, Scipio made no reply to these charges but simply said, ‘On this day, citizens, I conquered Hannibal and ***** 299 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 196f. In margin ‘submitting to the bridle‘ 1 Scipio’s message to King Antiochus iii must come after the Romans had defeated Antiochus and forced him to withdraw from Greece in 191 bc and before the battle of Magnesia, 190 bc, in which Antiochus was finally defeated (cf Polybius 21.15, Livy 37.36). 2 The fable of the horse who accepted human help against his attacker and was then broken in and saddled was retold by Horace (Epistles 1.10.34–9) and Appian (Syrian wars 6.29). The story was said to be invented by Stesichorus (Aristotle Rhetoric 3.30, 139.3b). The point is that Antiochus is no longer in a position to put any proposals forward. 300 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 196f. In margin ‘confidence based on services‘ 301 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 196f. In margin ‘confidence based on services‘ Erasmus will have known this famous story of Scipio’s high handed reaction to the tribunes’ prosecution not only from Plutarch Moralia 540f (On inoffensive self-praise) and his Life of Cato the Elder 15, but from Polybius 23.14, Livy 38.50–1, Valerius Maximus 3.7.1, and Aulus Gellius 4.18. The story is similar to that told of Epaminondas (5.243 above). See 5.298 n1 above. 1 This agrees with Plutarch’s account. In bas (1540) it was changed to ‘the Petilii.’ In 1535 Erasmus had added a marginal note reporting that Livy (38.50–1) mentioned that each of the two Petilii was called Quintus Petilius.

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Carthage. Accordingly I will put on a garland and go up to the Capitol to sacrifice to Jupiter Greatest and Best; if anyone wants to cast a vote in my case, let him do so.’ With this he went up to the Capitol leaving his accusers alone in the middle of their speech. So powerful is the confidence in exceptional services to the state that the severity of the court was suddenly turned into a celebration and the defendant played the triumphant general instead of a suppliant. 302 Scipio Africanus answered some men who slandered him as a poor fighter: ‘My mother bore me to be a general, not a warrior,’ he said. He meant that in a general shrewdness and caution in deliberation is more important than strength in battle. 303 Scipio also used to say that one must not only give the enemy a path to flee by but construct it for them. He was telling us that victory must be controlled and we should not be brutal against men who have given up the fight. 304 Scipio also said to a soldier whose shield was rather too stylishly adorned, ‘I am not surprised that you adorn your shield with such care, since you get more protection from it than from your sword.’ He meant that the fellow was a poor soldier. The shield is defensive but the sword is the tool of bravery. But the same story is told of the other Scipio below.1 305 Scipio also used to say that men with fierce horses hand them over to tamers to make them more manageable. Just so men made wild and over-confident with success should be led into the ring so to speak of reason and schooling, so that by perceiving human vulnerability and the fickleness of fortune they may become more moderate. ***** 302 (x) Frontinus Strategemata 4.7.4. In margin ‘noble‘ 303 (xi) Frontinus Strategemata 4.7.16. Cf 8.301 below. In margin ‘mercy‘ 304 (xii) Frontinus Strategemata 4.1.5. In margin ‘cowardice‘ 1 5.415 below relates a similar but not identical story of Scipio Aemilianus. The last sentence was added in 1535. 305 (xiii) Cicero De officiis 1.90. In margin ‘weighty‘

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306 Scipio used to say that in military matters one phrase was disgraceful: ‘I wouldn’t have thought,’1 since in other circumstances an opportunity is given sometimes to correct bad practice by later and better policies;2 but matters of the sword should not be rashly undertaken, because a blunder here is usually incurable. The same remark is also in place for other things that once done cannot be reversed, like marrying a wife, or taking holy orders. 307 Scipio said one should not clash with the enemy unless either the opportunity encouraged it or necessity compelled it.1 It was the act of a thoughtless man to neglect an opportunity when it was offered and of extreme cowardice not to show a brave spirit when boldness offers hope of coming through unharmed and fearfulness promises only certain destruction. T. Quinctius Flamininus 308 Titus Quinctius Flamininus was distinguished from his very beginning, so that he was made consul before he was aedile or military tribune or praetor. When he was sent as commander against Philip, Flamininus persuaded him to come to negotiate. But when Philip demanded hostages, because Flamininus was escorted by many Romans whereas he himself was alone, Flamininus said, ‘You are responsible for your own isolation, by killing your friends and kinsmen.’ ***** 306 (xiv) Valerius Maximus 7.2.2 1 Cf Seneca De ira 2.31.2, where the same remark is attributed to Fabius Maximus; see also 5.196 above. 2 Cf Adagia i iii 38: Posterioribus melioribus ‘Better luck next time.’ 307 (xv) Valerius Maximus 7.2.2. In margin ‘when to join battle‘ 1 This may have been attributed to the wrong person. See Aulus Gellius 13.3.6 where the younger Scipio (Aemilianus) reports this as said by Aemilius Paulus, his father. 308 (i) Plutarch Moralia 197a. In margin ‘frank‘ Titus Quinctius Flamininus (consul 198 bc) commanded the Roman forces against Macedon, won the victory of Cynoscephalae over Philip v, and proclaimed the liberation of Greece in 195 (see 5.309 below). It seems unlikely that, as Plutarch claims here and in Life of Flamininus 2, he was made consul without holding any previous office. He does seem to have been military tribune and quaestor, but he had not progressed through the usual succession of offices.

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309 When Flamininus had defeated Philip in the war he ordered the heralds at the Isthmian games to announce that he was handing the Greeks over to their own liberty and law.1 The Greeks then gave him as a gift all the Romans who had been taken prisoner in the time of Hannibal and were now enslaved to Greek masters, although the Greeks had bought them for 500 drachmas a head. These men followed Flamininus in his triumph wearing the freedman’s cap, which is what slaves used to wear when they had been freed from slavery. And I am surprised that Plutarch included this too in his sayings.2 310 Flamininus warned the Achaeans who were contemplating an expedition against the island of Zacynthos,1 to take care they didn’t stick their heads outside the Peloponnese like tortoises and put themselves in danger. For tortoises are safest inside their shell. 311 King Antiochus came to Greece1 with an immense army and the number of his soldiers and variety of their equipment amazed everybody. Flamininus relieved the Achaeans of anxiety with this story: ‘When I was dining with my host in Chalcis, I was amazed at the abundance of meat dishes because the whole country was covered in snow,2 but my host replied that they were ***** 309 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 197b. In margin ‘generous victor‘ 1 Philip v was defeated at Cynoscephalae in 197 bc. The famous ‘declaration of freedom’ was in 196 bc. 2 See Introduction xviii–xix n11 above. 310 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 197b–c. In margin ‘safe counsel‘ 1 Achaea was a state in the north of the Peloponnese; Zacynthos was an island off the western shore, eventually annexed by Rome. Achaea was in the third to second centuries bc the head of a Confederacy recognized by Rome under treaty. It had at times as its chief general a mercenary soldier Philopoemen (see 5.312 below). Rome remonstrated against its aggressive policies but could not interfere because of the treaty. 311 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 197c–d. In margin ‘empty ostentation‘ 1 Antiochus iii the Great invaded Greece in 191 bc in support of the Achaeans and was defeated by the Romans at Thermopylae. 2 Cf Livy 35.49.1–8. Erasmus is supplementing Plutarch here with Livy and has misunderstood Livy’s reference to ‘the solstice.’ Quinctius reported that this occurred at ‘the solstice,’ when hunting was ruled out; but he meant the summer solstice. It is Erasmus who has construed it as mid-winter, and added his own explanation that the snow-covered landscape would make hunting difficult.

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nothing but the flesh of household swine, only seasoned and served in different ways. So you should not,’ he said, ‘marvel at the kings’ forces, when you hear they are spearsmen, cavalry in coats of mail, infantry, troopers, and archers. For they are all Syrians, differing only in their equipment.’ 312 Flamininus made this joke against Philopoemen, the leader of the Achaeans,1 who had many horsemen and armed fighters but was short of money. He said, ‘Philopoemen has arms and legs but no stomach.’ Indeed Philopoemen did look rather like this. Flamininus called the cavalry and armed infantry the leader’s arms and legs, but since he had nothing to feed his soldiers on, he said he had no stomach. C. Domitius 313 Gaius, or Gnaeus Domitius as Livy calls him in the seventh book of his fourth decade,1 was sent by the elder Scipio as legate to his brother Lucius in his own place. When Domitius surveyed the enemy’s phalanx and the army’s officers urged him to attack immediately, he said there was not enough time for them to slay so many soldiers and plunder their baggage before returning to camp to attend to their own physical needs. But he said he would do this early on the next day. Then joining battle the next day he slew 50,000. This tough warrior had no doubt of victory, but was choosing a period of time sufficient to carry the enterprise through. P. Licinius 314 The consul Publius Licinius when commander in chief was defeated in a cavalry battle by Perseus king of Macedon and lost 2800 soldiers, partly as ***** 312 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 197c–d. In margin ‘empty ostentation‘ 1 See 5.310 n1 above 313 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 197d–e. In margin ‘confidence in the outcome‘ C. Domitius Ahenobarbus (consul 192 bc) is mentioned only here in the Apophthegmata. He was sent by Scipio Africanus in 190 to act as lieutenant (legatus) to his brother, Lucius Scipio, consul in the war against Antiochus iii in his own place, possibly because he was ill (Livy 37.37.6). Domitius probably did not play such a prominent part in the battle as in Plutarch’s anecdote (see Livy 37.39.5). 1 Erasmus added the alternative praenomen Gnaeus and the reference to Livy 37 in 1535. 314 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 197e–f. In margin ‘spirited‘

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casualties and partly taken prisoner. But when Perseus sent envoys after the battle to negotiate a peace treaty, Licinius, the defeated commander, required the victor, if he wanted a peace, to put under Roman control all the areas subject to him. Not even disaster could diminish the spirit of this gallant man. Nor did Perseus fail to recognize the kind of men he was dealing with, and so though victor he acted as the defeated usually do. Paulus Aemilius 315 When Aemilius Paulus was a candidate for his second consulship he was defeated. Later, however, when the war against Perseus and the Macedonians was being dragged out by the inexperience and inactivity of the commanders and they offered him the consulship, he said he owed them no gratitude, since he had been chosen as general not because he himself wanted the command but because they wanted him as commander. 316 Aemilius came home from the Forum and found his daughter Tertia weeping, so he asked her what was the matter. When she answered, ‘Our Perseus has died’ (this was the name of the puppy she had as a pet) he said, ‘May it bring us luck, dear daughter; I accept the omen.’1 Shortly after he went out on campaign and won a glorious triumph from the enemy. 317 He found there was great over-confidence and bold talk among the soldiers of his army, claiming the duties of officers for themselves and concerning themselves with things that were not their business; so he told them to relax and do nothing but sharpen their swords, and he would ***** Publius Licinius Crassus was consul 171 bc. Perseus knew he was not strong enough to take on the full might of Rome, in spite of his success of 171 bc. 315 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 197f. In margin ‘office bestowed out of necessity‘ Lucius Aemilius Paulus (consul 182 and 168 bc) defeated Perseus of Macedon at Pydna in 168. One of his sons was adopted by Scipio Africanus’ son to become Scipio Aemilianus (cf 5.322 below). 316 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 198a 1 The people had just voted for war against Perseus of Macedon and appointed Aemilius commander. 317 (x) Plutarch Moralia 198a. In margin ‘discipline for the troops‘

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look after everything else. Furthermore he ordered them to keep night watch without lances and swords, so that they would be all the more alert to resist sleep, being deprived of any hope of fending off the enemy. 318 When Aemilius had suddenly burst into Macedonia over steep passes and saw the enemy’s forces arrayed for battle, Nasica1 urged him to join battle immediately but he said, ‘I’d do so if I were your age, but my extensive experience prevents me from engaging straight from the march with a line already in battle order. 319 After Perseus had been defeated, Aemilius was giving a victory feast. He said that it required the same skill to draw up a battle line well as to provide a dinner party, ensuring that the former would be as frightening as possible to the enemy, and the latter as pleasant as possible to one’s friends. 320 When Perseus was taken prisoner and was begging not to be led in triumph Aemilius said, ‘That lay in your own power.’ That is he could have died in the war or won it decisively.1 321 Aemilius took nothing for himself from the immense quantity of monies found in the enemy camp, but gave to his son-in-law Aelius Tubero a cup weighing five drachmas as reward for his bravery. And they say that this was the first silver vessel to enter the house of the Aelii. Pliny mentions this in chapter 11 of book 33, but he says there were two cups, and he does not call him Tubero, but Gaius Aelius.1 ***** 318 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 198a. In margin ‘a general wise from experience‘ 1 Scipio Nasica, son-in-law of Africanus was one of Aemilius’ officers and fought with distinction in this campaign. Nasica became consul in 162 and 155 bc. 319 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 198b. In margin ‘the art of party-giving‘ 320 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 198b. In margin ‘harsh‘ 1 In reporting Aemilius’ words, Erasmus has made partial use of Plutarch Aemilius 34.3. There Aemilius says ‘That is in your power,’ giving him permission to commit suicide. Erasmus avoids this endorsement of suicide. 321 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 198b–c. In margin ‘frugal‘ 1 In 1535 Erasmus added the last sentence referring to the first silver vessel owned by the puritanical and impoverished Aelii Tuberones, and the further

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322 Aemilius had four sons, but had previously given two for adoption.1 Of the two who remained in his family one died five days before his father’s triumph aged fourteen, and the other on the fifth day after the triumph, aged twelve. When the people joined him in mourning for this, he came before the crowd and said that he had expected some great misfortune after such continued success in action; but now he felt reassured about his country’s safety and feared no danger, since fortune had inflicted her jealousy for his successes on his household and he himself had paid the penalty for them all.2 323 Aemilius’ wife was Papiria, the daughter of the former consul Maso, to whom he had been married for a long time and with whom he had reared a glorious son, the renowned and famous Scipio Aemilianus.1 But now he divorced her and when his friends passionately urged him against divorce he stretched out his shoe, saying, ‘This shoe is new and handsome, isn’t it? But none of you knows where it pinches my foot.’ 324 Perseus cast himself at the victor’s feet, uttering abject pleas, but Aemilius said to him, ‘Why do you free fortune of blame by behaving so badly that you seem unworthy even of your former fortune? Why do you disgrace my victory and darken the glory of my achievements by showing yourself so vile that you do not seem worthy to be an enemy of the Roman people?’1 325 Aemilius also used to say that a general ought to be old, if not in age, then in character. He felt that one should not rush on plans as young men do, but practise the ways of old men. ***** comment (subsequently deleted in bas) that Pliny called him Caius [or Catius] Aelius; see Pliny Naturalis historia 33.11.142. 322 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 198c–d 1 The second son was adopted by the son of Cornelius Scipio Africanus and became the famous Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus. 2 Cf Philip’s remark, 4.2 above. 323 (xvi) Plutarch Life of Aemilius Paulus 5.1–3. In margin ‘where the shoe pinches‘ 1 See 5.322 n1 just above. 324 (xvii) Plutarch Life of Aemilius Paulus 26.9–11. In margin ‘noble‘ 1 Another occasion when Aemilius reproached Perseus with unmanly behaviour; see 5.320 above. 325 (xviii) Frontinus Strategemata 4.7.3. Cf 5.318 above. In margin ‘rashness‘

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Cato the Elder 326 Cato the Elder was about to speak in the assembly on the subject of a per capita distribution of grain and opened with this remark, that it was very difficult to speak to a stomach without ears. He called them a stomach because the topic was feeding the people.1 327 He said he wondered how a state could be saved in which a fish sold for more than an ox. In those days fish was an especial luxury, so that we read that someone bought a fish for 6000 sesterces.1 328 Once finding fault with the extreme wilfulness of wives, Cato said, ‘All men rule their wives, and we rule all men, – but our wives rule us,’ thus deducing that women were the rulers of everything.1 ***** 326 (i) Plutarch Moralia 198d. In margin ‘the stomach does not listen‘ Cato the Elder (Marcus Porcius Cato, consul 196, censor 184) was born around 235 bc and lived through three generations, dying between 150–146. He served as an active soldier in the Hannibalic war, and commanded in Spain during his proconsulship, and as a legate against Antiochus iii. He was chiefly renowned for his condemnation of Rome’s recent luxury, which he saw as influenced by her campaigns in Greece and Asia Minor. A severe censor, he also prosecuted many political rivals and was himself a successful defendant in more than 40 cases. Besides the surviving fragments of his political speeches, excerpts have survived from his Origines, the first Latin history of Rome and Italy, and his De agri cultura has been preserved complete, though with some additions to his original text; see 3.379 below. Erasmus cites most of Plutarch’s twenty-nine apophthegms, and more than forty sayings from Plutarch’s Life of Cato the Elder. No other Roman is so fully represented by Erasmus apart from Augustus and Cicero. 1 This seems a combination of Plutarch Moralia 198d and Cato the Elder 8.1, where Cato is trying to curb the constant demands of the people for grain distributions. 327 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 198d. In margin ‘luxury‘ 1 Highly prized fish such as mullet sold for vast sums in Rome (see Moralia 668b (Table-talk 4). Erasmus may be recalling Seneca Epistles 95.42, where a fish sold by the Emperor Tiberius is bought by a gourmet for 5000 sesterces. Erasmus detested fish, even the smell of it, no doubt because it was either stale or salted, and protested against the obligation to fast by eating fish in his colloquy &Ixyuofag’a ‘A Fish Diet’ cwe 40 675–762. See 6.490 below. 328 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 198d. In margin ‘the dominance of wives‘ 1 Also at Plutarch Cato The Elder 8 where Cato is arguing against the repeal of

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329 Cato used to say that he preferred to receive no thanks for a benefit conferred rather than pay no penalty for a misdeed committed. He meant that nothing was more dangerous than going unpunished, which always entices men into worse behaviour. 330 Cato also said that he forgave all offenders except himself. This is very different from that man Nevius1 who criticized others but forgave himself everything. A man pardons himself when he feels no regret for his offence; a man punishes himself who makes up by effort for something committed out of thoughtlessness. 331 When he was urging the magistrates to punish offenders, Cato said that those who could prevent wrongdoers and did not do so should be stoned.1 His meaning was that they deserved ill of the entire nation because they were inviting the wicked to indulge freely in crimes. 332 Cato said he preferred young men who blushed to those who went pale,1 because a blush was proof of a decent character whereas pallor was not. 333 Cato used to say that he loathed a soldier who moved his hands when marching and moved his feet when fighting and whose snores were louder than his battle cry, and that the worst commander was one who could not command himself. ***** the Oppian Law restricting female luxury. As Plutarch notes in Cato the Elder 8.2, the claim that Roman wives ruled the world is adapted from Themistocles (Plutarch Themistocles 18.7; cf 5.144 above). 329 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 198e. In margin ‘impunity a bad thing‘ 330 (v) Plutarch Moralia 198e. In margin ‘unforgiving towards oneself‘ 1 Ie Maenius, Horace’s example of complacency in Satires 1.3.21–4. 331 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 198e 1 Erasmus’ text has possibly led him astray. Plutarch says nothing about stoning; there is a pun in the Greek: men who have the power to prevent (k¯oleuein) crime and do not do so are actually encouraging (ordering, keleuein) it. 332 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 198e. In margin ‘shame‘ 1 Cf 3.291 above (on Diogenes). 333 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 198e. In margin ‘a good soldier‘

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334 Cato strongly believed that each man should feel shame before himself because no man was ever away from himself. In this way we would fear to do alone what we would not dare to do with others as witness. 335 When he noticed that statues were being erected of many individuals Cato said, ‘I would rather men asked in my case why no statue of Cato had been set up than why it had been set up.’ He felt that he would rather his achievements were memorable, so that when men found out in future that he had deserved a statue they would be surprised that none had been set up. 336 Cato warned that powerful men should be sparing in using their power so that they would always be able to use it. He felt that power endured through clemency and affability, but was shortened by savagery. 337 Cato used to say that men who deprived courage of its honour were taking courage away from youth, meaning that young men’s hearts were inflamed to perform courageously by rewards, and if you removed these courage would flag. 338 According to Cato, a magistrate or juror should not have to be begged to do what was just, nor cajoled into what was unjust. He felt it was the fault of jurors if they had to be begged to be fair to the innocent, since they ought spontaneously to support the good; and to beg on behalf of the unjust was perhaps a form of kindness, but to be swayed by this was to deviate from justice. 339 Cato said that even if injustice brings no risk to the perpetrator, it is still dangerous to society. ***** 334 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 198f. In margin ‘each man his own witness‘ 335 (x) Plutarch Moralia 198f. In margin ‘ostentation of statues‘ 336 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 198f. In margin ‘controlled power‘ 337 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 198f. In margin ‘courage honoured‘ 338 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 198f. In margin ‘justice‘ 339 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 199a. In margin ‘impunity‘

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What he meant was that a case of injustice unpunished threatened injustice to all. For if men were allowed to do harm without punishment no one would be safe from the violence of the wicked. 340 Since there are many shameful things about old age, Cato said, one should not add disgrace to misfortune, meaning that old age is maligned on many counts, for example being called ugly, toothless, half-blind, feeble, forgetful, and unteachable.1 It is enough to endure these afflictions without the additional charge of a wicked life, which is vile in anybody but most vile in an old man. Others say that he made this remark when he met an old man with a corrupt way of life: ‘Don’t add disgraceful behaviour to the evils of your old age.’2 341 He said an angry man was only different from a madman in the length of time. He meant that anger was a short spell of madness.1 342 Cato used to say that men who used their good fortune soberly and with moderation were least exposed to envy. ‘For men feel envy,’ he said, ‘not of us but of the assets that surround us.’ Material assets are those outside a man’s own nature, but the fault of misusing them is within him, and those who foster envy by this fault are the truly invidious. 343 Men who devoted serious effort to foolish things would, Cato said, be foolish in serious matters.1 He meant that that being accustomed to foolish things from ingrained ***** 340 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 199a. In margin ‘old age‘ 1 Erasmus draws on the charges against old age quoted and argued against by Cicero in Cato maior / On old Age (passim). 2 Plutarch Moralia 829f (On borrowing) 341 (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 199a. In margin ‘anger‘ 1 A philosophical commonplace, on which see Seneca De ira 1.1.2; also Horace Epistles 1.2.62. 342 (xvii) Plutarch Moralia 199a. In margin ‘how to avoid envy‘ 343 (xviii) Plutarch Moralia 199a. In margin ‘getting used to foolish pursuits‘ 1 For various remarks condemning frivolous pursuits see General Index: trivial pursuits.

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habit, they would behave in serious matters in such a way that they were not only laughed at but made a laughing-stock. 344 Cato said that distinguished actions should be secured by distinguished words so that they would not trickle away from glory. But Filelfo’s version1 is more telling, because I think he followed a different text. He said that honourable actions should be secured by honourable actions, that is good deeds should be piled on good deeds, in case the memory of earlier good deeds fade away if we cease to do good. 345 Cato reproached his fellow citizens because they always bestowed the magistracy on the same men: ‘For it seems,’ he said, ‘as though you either hold the magistracy cheap or judge that few men are worthy of it.’ The first was to have a poor opinion of public office, the other to have a poor opinion of one’s fellow citizens. 346 When a man was obliged by his extravagance to sell land near the sea Cato said he was amazed that the fellow had more power than the sea itself, because he had easily swallowed up what the sea was eroding only little by little. 347 As a candidate for the censorship, when Cato saw the other candidates begging and cajoling the people, he cried out that the people needed an uncompromising doctor and strong remedies; accordingly they should elect not the most pleasing but the most inflexible candidate. And although he said this he was elected censor before all the others. The people recognized its own ailment and so Cato was more successful through berating them than the rest through cajoling. 348 When Cato was training young men to fight fearlessly, he often said that ***** 344 (xix) Plutarch Moralia 199a 1 Erasmus’ text was faulty here. Filelfo’s version follows the reading in modern texts. For Filelfo see dedicatory epistle 7 n20 above. 345 (xx) Plutarch Moralia 199b. In margin ‘office not always to the same men‘ 346 (xxi) Plutarch Moralia 199b. In margin ‘spendthrift‘ 347 (xxii) Plutarch Moralia 199b. In margin ‘severity‘ 348 (xxiii) Plutarch Moralia 199b–c. In margin ‘the voice as a weapon‘

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words would turn the enemy to flight more than a sword and shouts would strike them with more fear than actions. He did not want a soldier to be dumb in battle but to intimidate the enemy with ferocious words and shouting and a grim expression.1 349 Cato was fighting the people who live by the river Baetis when his situation became dangerous on account of the size of the enemy forces and the Celtiberians offered him support if they were paid 200 talents.1 When the other Romans would not let him bargain with barbarians, he said that they were mistaken, because if they were victorious they would pay the money not from their own resources but from the enemies’ possessions; but if they were defeated there would then be neither debtors nor creditors. 350 Although he had captured many cities, Cato said that on the days which he spent among the enemy he had taken nothing except what he had eaten and drunk out of their lands.1 351 When Cato allotted a pound of silver to a certain soldier1 he said it was better for many soldiers to return from campaign with silver than a few with gold. For generals should return from their command enriched by nothing except glory. He felt that it was success enough if such a great number of soldiers returned unharmed that only a small share from the distribution of the spoils came to each individual, rather than if a few men returned richer out of the booty because there had been many casualties. Since the glory of military successes accrues to the generals, it is fair for them to be content with this as their share, whether there is a lot or only a little booty. ***** 1 Cf Plutarch Cato the Elder 1.6, where Cato does the same himself. 349 (xxiv) Plutarch Moralia 199c. In margin ‘shrewd‘ 1 For Cato’s victories in Spain as proconsul in 195 bc, cf Plutarch Cato the Elder 10.1–3. 350 (xxv) Plutarch Moralia 199c. In margin ‘abstinence on the part of the leader‘ 1 Possibly Erasmus’ text was faulty. Plutarch says that Cato claimed to have ‘captured cities more in number than the days he spent among the enemy.’ 351 (xxvi) Plutarch Moralia 199d. In margin ‘return from war‘ 1 Plutarch says Cato gave a pound of silver to each soldier.

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352 On campaign Cato had five servants one of whom had bought three prisoners.1 When he realized that Cato had found this out, before he could be brought before him he hanged himself. So greatly did Cato hate profiteering in a soldier, and so greatly did the offender despair of pardon. But this does not seem to be a saying, either.2 353 When Scipio Africanus was urging him to support the Achaean exiles, so that they would get permission to return to their country, Cato pretended that he was indifferent to this matter. But when there was much debate in the senate about this, he rose and said, ‘As if we had nothing else to discuss, we are sitting here disputing whether a few insignificant old Greeks will be buried by our funeral directors or their own.’1 354 When Postumius Albinus wrote his history in Greek and asked his audience’s pardon for doing so, Cato said, mocking him, ‘We should have pardoned him if he had been compelled by an Amphictyonic decree to write in Greek.1 Gellius and Macrobius tell this story in a slightly different version.2 ***** 352 (xxvii) Plutarch Moralia 199d. In margin ‘severity‘ 1 This translates the reading of Erasmus’ translation in all editions and bas, which was wrongly corrected in lb. 2 See Introduction xviii–xix n11 above. 353 (xxviii) Plutarch Moralia 199e. In margin ‘old man treated as of no consequence‘ 1 This episode occurred considerably later (150 bc) and concerned the restoration of the historian Polybius, who was a friend and prot´eg´e of Scipio Africanus, and other Achaean political hostages. See 5.363 below. 354 (xxix) Plutarch Moralia 199f. In margin ‘a Latin speaker writing in Greek‘ This is the last entry on Cato derived from Plutarch’s collection and Erasmus begins a series of translations from the sayings gathered in Plutarch Cato the Elder 8 and 9. 1 Himself the author of a Latin history, Cato criticized Postumius Albinus, a Roman, for choosing to write in Greek and then apologizing for his limited Greek. The Amphictyons were the Sacred Council administering the religious shrine of Delphi, and their decrees had considerable authority, even in the political sphere. 2 Aulus Gellius 11.8; Macrobius Saturnalia Pref. 14–15. These accounts are much longer and circumstantial but neither mentions the Amphictyonic decree.

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355 He used to compare the Roman people to a flock of sheep who would not as individuals obey anyone but as a body followed the leader of the flock. ‘Just so,’ he said, ‘you, when you are gathered here in a body, are led and driven by people whom you would not consider using to advise you in a private capacity.’ He was criticizing the people for giving the magistracies to the worst men. 356 Cato said that the Roman people set a high value not only on purple but on virtue too.1 For just as dyers dip clothes for preference in the colour which they see people like best, so young men devote themselves to those pursuits on which the people bestows honours. Now honours nourish not only the arts but also virtue.2 So he was urging the people to give positions of honour only to those who had given a proof of virtue. As a result very many young persons would devote themselves to praiseworthy pursuits. 357 Cato encouraged young men who had reached high status by virtue and justice not to degenerate shamefully into worse practices; but if they had succeeded by ambition and violence, he urged them to redirect themselves to better behaviour. In this way the first group would increase their glory and the others would wash out the stain by their good deeds.1 358 Cato said those who repeatedly were candidates for the same office ‘were like men who did not know their way and were always looking ***** 355 (xxx) Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder 8.3. In margin ‘what the populace is usually like‘ 356 (xxxi) Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder 8.6. In margin ‘honour nourishes virtue‘ 1 Cato actually said, ‘The Roman people determines the value not only of purple but of the things men pursue.’ His misconception has skewed Erasmus’ comment. 2 Cf Adagia i viii 92: Honos alit artes ‘Honours nourish arts’ and 1.299 above. 357 (xxxii) Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder 8.7. In margin ‘excellent counsel‘ 1 Cf Adagia v i 48: Benefactis pensare delicta ‘Make up for failings with noble deeds.’ 358 (xxxiii) Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder 8.8. Erasmus has added ‘the same.’ Cf 5.345 above. In margin ‘moderation in office-bearing‘

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for lictors going in front to save them from getting lost.’ In fact lictors go before a magistrate not to show them the way but to do them honour.1 359 Talking about an enemy with a corrupt life, Cato said that when the fellow’s mother begged the gods for her son to outlive her, she was not uttering a blessing but a curse, meaning that she was wishing a great misfortune on both herself and the state. 360 When King Eumenes came to Rome and was received with honour by the senate and surrounded by a crowd of the most distinguished men, Cato did not hide the fact that he regarded the enthusiasm of so many Romans for this man as something to mistrust, and himself avoided association with the king.1 When some persons were amazed and said that Eumenes was a good man and well-disposed to the Roman people, he said, ‘That may be true, but that creature is by nature a savage dog’2 meaning that all kings, whatever they pretended for the occasion, were by nature tyrants and hostile to democracy. Indeed the name of king was utterly loathed at Rome. 361 Cato said that his enemies were stirring up ill will against him because each day he got up while it was still night, neglecting his own family affairs, in order to take thought for the affairs of the country. This is how he criticized the ingratitude of the people. 362 When three men were appointed to set out as envoys to Bithynia of whom one was gouty, one had a head dented by operations, and the third seemed ***** 1 Lictors at Rome carried the fasces (rods and axes) before the magistrates as a sign of their authority. Erasmus has obscured the irony. 359 (xxxiv) Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder 8.10. In margin ‘a worthless son‘ 360 (xxxv) Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder 8.12 1 Eumenes ii of Pergamum was Rome’s valuable ally against Antiochus iii and Perseus of Macedonia. 2 ‘Savage dog’ is Erasmus’ rendering of Plutarch’s ‘flesh-eating beast.’ 361 (xxxvi) Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder 8.15. In margin ‘ill will in return for benefits‘ 362 (xxxvii) Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder 9.1. In margin ‘witty‘

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to be suffering from dementia, Cato mocked them saying that the embassy of the Roman people had neither feet nor head nor heart. 363 After the request to repatriate the Achaean exiles had been granted, Polybius brought another request to the senate, that those reinstated should be restored to their former honours and offices.1 At this Cato gave his opinion that Polybius seemed to be acting like a Ulysses wanting to return to the Cyclops’ cave to recover the cap and belt that he had forgotten.2 He meant that it was quite enough that the exiles had been granted return to their country, and by seeking their original positions they were putting themselves in danger of losing even that right of return. 364 Cato used to say that fools were more useful to wise men than wise men were to fools. For since wise men easily see the blunders of the stupid they avoid them and become more careful, but stupid men do not see what is well done by the wise and so they cannot imitate it. 365 When he saw an exceedingly fat man Cato wondered aloud what use a body like that could be to the state when the belly occupied everything between the throat and the loins. 366 A certain glutton was intriguing to be included among Cato’s friends, but Cato rejected him, saying he could not live with a man who had more taste and sense in his palate than his heart. 367 He said that a lover’s spirit lived in another’s body, a thought that is also common today: that a man’s spirit is where his love is, not where his life is. ***** 363 (xxxviii) Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder 9.3. In margin ‘dangerous to bother about trivialities‘ 1 This continues the narrative of 5.353 above. 2 For Odysseus’ desperate escape from the cave of Polyphemus, at the cost of several of his men, see Odyssey 9.307–565. 364 (xxxix) Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder 9.4. In margin ‘a novel idea‘ 365 (xl) Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder 9.6. In margin ‘obese‘ 366 (xli) Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder 9.7. In margin ‘sense in the palate‘ 367 (xlii) Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder 9.8. In margin ‘love‘

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368 Cato said that in his whole life he regretted three things: one, whenever he had trusted a secret to his wife, two, if he had travelled anywhere by ship that he could have reached on foot, and three, if he had carelessly let any day pass without profit.1 369 Cato told a tribune of the people who had a bad name as a poisoner and was proposing an unjust law: ‘Young man, I don’t know whether it is worse to drink what you mix or to approve what you write.’ He meant that the law the man was preparing was also ruinous to the state. 370 When he was being persecuted by a man disgraced on many accounts Cato said, ‘This is an unfair fight between you and me. It is very easy and natural for you to be abused and to abuse others, but I find it unpleasant to abuse and being abused is quite unfamiliar.’ 371 Cato was speaking before the Athenians and whatever Cato dealt with very concisely the interpreter hardly managed to translate with a long rigmarole. So it was said that the speech of Greeks came from their lips but the Romans spoke from their hearts. 372 A young man soon summoned the personal enemy of his deceased father to court, and so avenged him. Then Cato met him and embraced him warmly saying, ‘This is how you should celebrate your father’s funeral honours, not with lambs and kids but with the tears and condemnation of evil men.’ 373 When someone said to Cato ‘let us go for a walk about’ a young man inter***** 368 (xliii) Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder 9.9. In margin ‘regrets‘ 1 Cf Titus in 6.85 and 6.87 below, and 2.165 above (on Chilon). 369 (xliv) Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder 9.11. In margin ‘sharp‘ 370 (xlv) Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder 9.12. In margin ‘abuse‘ 371 (xlvi) Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder 12.7 372 (xlvii) Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder 15.3. In margin ‘proper feeling towards a father‘ 373 (xlviii) Cicero De oratore 2.256. In margin ‘picking on trifles‘

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rupted, asking what was the need for ‘about.’ ‘No,’ said Cato, ‘what’s the need for this lout?’1 By changing one letter he indicated that the youth was more superfluous in life than the word ‘about’ in the expression. 374 Cato was knocked by a man carrying a chest and when the porter said, ‘Watch out,’ he asked whether the man was carrying anything else beside the chest? For as far as the chest was concerned it was too late to say, ‘Watch out.’ So he pretended he was being warned about some other burden besides the chest which he had to avoid. This is like the story we told about Diogenes being struck by the beam.1 375 When some people were praising a rashly bold fellow who was vigorous in warfare, the elder Cato said it mattered much whether a man put a high value on courage or a low value on his life. He meant that men were not automatically courageous who thought little of life on any terms; rather men were brave who valued courage so highly that for its sake they would be careless of life which is otherwise dear to them. For to rush into a situation that endangers one’s life is either the behaviour of unhappy creatures already weary of life or of men as monstrous as beasts.2 376 This was Cato’s joke against Albidius who had wasted his resources in luxury and swallowed up the price of his house and finally let a fire that followed consume all that was left; he said the man had performed a ***** 1 The pun here cannot be reproduced in English. Cato, who was fond of older types of speech, used an out-dated form deambulare ‘to take a walk,’ rather than the contemporary simple verb ambulare. The young man priggishly and rudely objected that de was superfluous. Cato riposted by saying that what was superfluous was te ‘you.’ 374 (xlix) Cicero De oratore 2.279. In margin ‘a warning too late‘ 1 See 3.225 above. 375 (l) No source identified. In margin ‘true courage‘ 2 Cf 2.189 above (on Chilon). 376 (li) Macrobius 2.2.4. In margin ‘lavish extravagance‘

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holocaust;1 this was a primitive form of sacrifice in which if anything was left it was a matter of religious scruple not to save it but let it be burned up by the fire. 377 When Catulus was censor he asked Cato, who was bound to him by a close friendship, to acquit someone coming up for trial in his court, for Cato was quaestor at the time. Cato replied as follows: ‘It is shameful for us who should be models of good training for youth to be mocked by our own lictors.’1 This was his rather sharp refusal of an unjust request. 378 According to Plutarch, Cato is supposed to have declared that hope made big things seem little and little things mere nothings, talking, I suppose, about dangers. The hope of victory diminishes everything that usually deters a man from war. 379 Some of Cato’s reported utterances about farming have almost the status of oracular responses. He said that the stoutest men and most vigorous soldiers were born from farmers, and the least malicious. Do not buy an estate too eagerly. Spare your effort in working the land, but not at all in buying it. A bad bargain is always a source of regret. Men preparing to acquire land should always consider the water supply and the neighbour. One ought ***** 1 Erasmus’ text of Macrobius presumably read proterviam, a non-existent word, which Erasmus has deduced to mean ‘holocaust.’ Froben’s 1535 edition of Moralia footnotes a correction by Leopardus of proterviam to propter viam, as in modern texts, that is, a sacrifice made ‘on account’ of a journey. Macrobius says one ate as much as one could before leaving, and burnt the rest. 377 (lii) This story has been wrongly assigned to Cato the elder. Plutarch tells the story in detail of Cato Uticensis (his great-grandson) (Cato the Younger 16.7) when he was quaestor in charge of the treasury and Catulus the censor asked his indulgence in penalizing a subordinate. In margin ‘blunt‘ 1 The story recalls the reply of Themistocles to Simonides, 5.143 above. See also 1.108 above. ‘Lictors’ should probably be ‘subordinates,’ ie treasury clerks. 378 (liii) Plutarch Moralia 125f (Advice about keeping well). In margin ‘treacherous hope‘ 379 (liv) Many of these aphorisms occur in the preface and chapters 1–2 of Cato’s De agri cultura, but here Erasmus is quoting verbatim from the selection in Pliny Naturalis historia 18.26–36, some of which Pliny assigns not to Cato, but to ‘the ancients.’

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to calculate how well the adjacent lands are maintained. It is bad piece of land with which the master must struggle. It is better to buy a farm from a good master. Land is like a man; however productive it is, if it is also expensive then there will not be much over. When he was asked what was the most reliable source of income he said ‘good pasturing.’ And what was next? ‘fairly good pasturing’ and after that? ‘good wool production,’ and after that ‘arable farming.’ But when someone added a question about lending at interest, he asked ‘what about being a murderer?’ He said a farmer should be a seller, not a buyer. A farm should be sown in one’s youth without delay, and buildings put up only after the land had been sown, and then with hesitation. It was best to benefit from another man’s folly. A man who is comfortably housed will come more often to his land, and the master’s face does more good than the back of his head.1 One should observe this proportion for the plot, that the farm is not short of an adequate farmhouse nor the farmhouse of a farm. He said that it was better to sow less and plough less;2 that the vast ranges had been the ruin of Italy;3 that a bailiff should be as near as possible to his master’s heart and yet not be aware that he is; that it was worst for the countryside to be worked by slave gangs, as for anything that was done by men without hope. And that nothing was less profitable than to cultivate the land as well as possible.4 380 When Cato was pleading a case in the forum, Lentulus formed a thick gob of saliva and spat at Cato’s forehead as violently as he could. Cato wiped his face clean and said ‘I shall tell everyone that people are mistaken when they say you have no mouth.’1 ***** 1 Cf Adagia i ii 19: Frons occipitio prior ‘Forehead before occiput.’ 2 The quotation of this in Pliny Naturalis historia 18.6.35 suggests that the true reading should be ‘sow less and cultivate better,’ which is given as the view of ‘the ancients,’ not Cato. In view of Cato’s disparagement of arable farming, Erasmus may well have thought Cato said the words he ascribed to him. 3 These were the notorious latifundia, enormous estates acquired in the second century bc by a few rich men by various means (especially buying up adjacent properties of impoverished small farmers) which were worked largely by slave labour. 4 Pliny 18.6.36 remarks that this, another saying of the ancients, was a strange idea, but explains it by saying that huge surplus harvests do not make economic sense. 380 (lv) Seneca De ira 3.38.2. In margin ‘forbearance‘ 1 There are several similar tales; see Diogenes (3.351 above), Phocion (4.274 above) and Aristides (5.172 above). This is Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura,

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Men are said to have no mouth when they are ashamed of nothing, and when Lentulus had made this only too clear by his behaviour, Cato in jest declared he did indeed have a mouth, not because he felt shame but because his mouth vomited a lot of corruption. 381 Once when a man got up in the morning he found his boots had been nibbled by field-mice. He was alarmed by this portent and consulted Cato as to what misfortune it signified. But Cato said, ‘It is no portent if field-mice have nibbled your boots, but if the boots had nibbled the field-mice, that would have been a portent.’1 382 Cato used to say that expense was made up for by footwork, meaning, if I have not misunderstood, that it was very expensive to travel frequently to a distant villa, but this expense was set off by the feet if a strenuous master went on foot to visit his villa estate. M. Tullius reports this in his speech for Lucius Flaccus.1 Cato of Utica 383 Cato, later called the hero of Utica, was blamed for the fault of taciturnity even as a boy. He did not exercise in rhetoric with other boys or want to be heard and judged by anyone but said, ‘Let them criticize my taciturnity, so long as they approve of my life.’ And he added ‘I will only break my silence when I can say things that do not deserve silence.’ ***** consul 71 bc but removed from the senate by the censors because of his notorious lifestyle. This again must refer to Cato the Younger (see 5.377 above). 381 (lvi) Augustine De doctrina Christiana 2.13. In margin ‘superstition ridiculed‘ 1 Cf 1.237 above. It was a bad omen to have one’s clothes nibbled by mice. 382 (lvii) Cicero Pro L. Flacco 29.72. This anecdote was added in 1535. 1 See Adagia iv vi 30: Pecuniae pedibus compensantur ‘Feet make up for funds.’ 383 (i) Plutarch Life of Cato the Younger 4.4. In margin ‘taciturnity‘ Cato ‘of Utica’ (95–46 bc) was great-grandson of the elder Cato; Erasmus inserts him here out of chronological order so as to associate him with his famous ancestor. See 4.164 above. Plutarch does not include apophthegms of the younger Cato in his Sayings of Romans; Erasmus has taken most of these sayings from Plutarch’s Life of Cato the Younger.

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384 When they were drawing lots for the portions of food at a party and chance did not favour him, his friends urged him to choose first but he said ‘It is not right if Venus is against it.’ Cato was so just by nature that he did not want to profit by his friends’ favour contrary to the way the lot had fallen out. The throw called Venus was a lucky throw in dice games. 385 When Marcus Tullius Cicero was defending Murena and made many wisecracks against the Stoic paradoxes, everyone else laughed and finally Cato too was amused and said to his neighbours, ‘Ye gods, what an amusing consul we have.’ Cato especially followed the Stoic philosophy, having had a tutor from this sect as a boy.1 386 When the senate was debating the conspiracy of Catiline, a letter was handed to Caesar. When Cato noticed this, thinking it came from the conspirators, he began to cry out that it should be read aloud. To avoid this Caesar handed the letter to Cato. It was a love letter from Cato’s sister, Servilia, and rather indecent. When Cato read it he threw it back to Caesar, saying, ‘Take it, you sot.’ And without another word he returned to the interrupted business. 387 Hortensius asked Cato to give him in marriage his daughter Porcia, who was married to Bibulus, and promised that he would return her to her husband as soon as she had borne him a child. When he had persuaded Cato by many arguments, Cato answered that for his own part he would gladly oblige his friend, but he did not dare ask this favour of Bibulus. Then Hortensius bared his heart and asked for Marcia, Cato’s own wife. For already Cato had robbed himself of the excuse of a husband’s rights. Cato consented, ***** 384 (ii) Plutarch Life of Cato the Younger 6.1. In margin ‘fairness‘ 385 (iii) Plutarch Life of Cato the Younger 21.7–8. In margin ‘an amusing consul‘ 1 Cicero defended Lucius Licinius Murena the newly elected consul for 62 bc against Cato’s charges of electoral bribery, by ridiculing the absolutism of Stoic ideas of right and wrong and quoting some of their paradoxical statements (Pro Murena 29.60–2). Murena was acquitted. 386 (iv) Plutarch Life of Cato the Younger 24.1–3. In margin ‘a mild reaction‘ 387 (v) Plutarch Life of Cato the Younger 25.3–12. In margin ‘love of offspring‘

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provided that this happened with his wife’s father’s goodwill. And Cato himself was present when the betrothal occurred.1 388 Cato came into the forum with Thermus and saw that the temple of Castor was occupied by armed men and every entrance to the forum was beset by gladiators, and Metellus himself was together with Caesar. ‘What a cowardly fellow,’ he said, ‘to have armed such a crowd against one person!’1 389 To make his party stronger, Pompey asked through Munatius for Cato to give one of his nieces to Pompey and the other to Pompey’s son.1 Cato told Munatius to return and give Pompey his answer, that he could not be hooked through women, but he welcomed Pompey’s goodwill. He even promised his friendship, which would be stronger than any relationship by marriage, if Pompey followed policies which were in the interests of the state. However he would never give hostages against the interests of the state (implying that his nieces would have been given in marriage as hostages). There are those who say it was not Cato’s nieces but his daughters whom Pompey sought in marriage. 390 When Munatius complained that he had wanted to visit Cato in Cyprus and had been discourteously turned away, although Cato had no business, but was chatting inside with Canidius, Cato excused himself by saying he was afraid in case, to quote Theophrastus’ saying, ‘excessive friendship might give rise to ill will.’1 ***** 1 For Marcia’s return to Cato after Hortensius’ death, see Lucan Bellum civile 2.330f. 388 (vi) Plutarch Life of Cato the Younger 27.5. In margin ‘authority‘ 1 This passage reports Cato’s opposition as tribune early in 62 bc to the armed crowd provoked by Caesar (as praetor) and the tribune Metellus Nepos. 389 (vii) Plutarch Life of Cato the Younger 30.3–6. In margin ‘partisanship avoided‘ 1 Pompey sought these politically motivated marriage alliances after his divorce in 60 bc from his wife Mucia, allegedly on the grounds of adultery with Caesar. Munatius (Rufus) was a close friend of the younger Cato. Cato, a staunch republican, distrusted Pompey’s power and influence, as much as Caesar’s. See 5.394 below. 390 (viii) Plutarch Life of Cato the Younger 37.2–3. In margin ‘too close familiarity‘ 1 Munatius wrote a biography of Cato (on which see Cato the Younger 37.1) which Plutarch quotes here.

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391 Cato was praised by the senate for calming a popular riot by addressing them, but he answered ‘For my part, senators, I have no praise at all for you for abandoning me, your praetor, in such danger.’1 392 On the very day of the elections Cato found one of the guarantors1 guilty and transferred to another man the money that had been entrusted to him. The people admired Cato’s fairness but also absolved the condemned man of his fine, saying that he had paid a sufficient penalty in being condemned by Cato. 393 Many people accused Publius Sulpicius of ingratitude because he had set himself up as a rival candidate to Cato, who had done him great service. Cato excused him by saying that it was not at all surprising if a man was reluctant to surrender to another what he considered the greatest of good things.1 394 When Caesar had seized Ariminum and control of affairs in the city of Rome had been transferred to Pompey,1 Cato said, ‘Senators, if you had believed me when I foretold this, we would not now be afraid of one man, nor would our hopes depend on one other man.’ ***** 391 (ix) Plutarch Life of Cato the Younger 44.4–6. In margin ‘frank‘ 1 The others had fled the scene, alarmed by the violence of the crowd; Cato had been stoned. 392 (x) Plutarch Life of Cato the Younger 44.10–11. In margin ‘a serious matter to be condemned by men of integrity‘ 1 In an attempt to prevent electoral bribery, the candidates were required to deposit a sum of money to be forfeited, in case of malpractice, to the other candidates. Erasmus seems to have misread the Greek here: Cato himself was the stake-holder; he found one of the candidates guilty, but the other candidates refused to accept the money. 393 (xi) Plutarch Life of Cato the Younger 49.3–4. In margin ‘courteous‘ 1 Servius Sulpicius, Cato’s former friend, competed with Cato for the consulship of 51 bc and was elected. The consulship was the crown of a Roman’s political career. 394 (xii) Plutarch Life of Cato the Younger 52.1–2. In margin ‘foresight‘ 1 The Senate’s terrified reaction to Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon was to declare a state of emergency and entrust the Republican forces to Pompey. See 4.206 above.

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395 When things were going badly for Pompey and victory was inclining towards Caesar, Cato repeatedly said that there was much obscurity in the gods’ decisions, since everything went well for Pompey when he was acting contrary to the law but nothing worked out well for him now that he was defending the cause of the constitution. 396 When the situation was beyond hope and Cato’s friends urged him to throw himself on Caesar’s mercy,1 he answered that playing the suppliant was the role of the defeated and those who had offended, but Cato had been neither defeated nor captured, having shown himself undefeated throughout his life. Furthermore he had far surpassed Caesar in integrity and justice. Rather it was Caesar who had been defeated and caught, since he had now been found guilty of conducting the very war which he had for so long denied that he was waging against his own country. So those who wished might supplicate Caesar on their own account, but no one should plead on behalf of Cato. 397 When Marcus Octavius, who commanded two legions not far from Utica, demanded that the command be decided between himself and Cato, Cato gave no answer to his envoys but turned to his friends saying, ‘Who would now be surprised that the cause has failed, when you see the lust for supremacy rife among our officers even at the point of death?’ He meant that the war had turned out badly because of the ambition of their leaders.1 398 When a motion was proposed in the senate to decree a Thanksgiving for the victory Caesar had won over the German tribes of Usipetes and Tencteri, ***** 395 (xiii) Plutarch Life of Cato the Younger 53.3. In margin ‘God’s plans mysterious‘ 396 (xiv) Plutarch Life of Cato the Younger 64.7–9. In margin ‘spirited‘ 1 This is in 46 bc when Caesar had all but won the Civil War against Pompey. 397 (xv) Plutarch Life of Cato the Younger 65.4–5. In margin ‘ambition‘ 1 Cato’s point is that this man Octavius (not the future Augustus) was fighting on the same side but more interested in disputing the right to command with Cato than in fighting Caesar. He was an officer under Metellus Scipio, for whom see 4.212 above and 5.422n below. 398 (xvi) Plutarch Life of Cato the Younger 51.1–2 is less informative for this story than his Life of Caesar 22.1–4.

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Cato made a formal proposal that Caesar be surrendered to the enemy in order to purge the Roman state of treachery, and to turn the curse upon the man who had incurred it.1 399 Again when he was proposing in the senate to give the command to Pompey whom he otherwise disliked, he said it was typical of such men to bring great misfortunes onto the state, but also to avert them. Thus he adjusted his policy to circumstances.1 Scipio the Younger 400 They say that the younger Scipio during his fifty-four years of life never bought or sold anything, nor indulged in building projects, but left thirtythree pounds of silver and two pounds of gold in his spacious home, and this despite the fact that he had conquered Carthage and enriched his soldiers more than all other generals. 401 Scipio observed Polybius’ recommendations and never went home from the ***** 1 Erasmus has gone back some years to Cato’s proposal in the senate to surrender Caesar to the Germans after he had allegedly massacred Usipetes and Tencteri during an armistice in 55 bc. 399 (xvii) Plutarch Life of Cato the Younger 52.3. In margin ‘prudent‘ 1 See 5.394 above. 400 (i) Plutarch Moralia 199f. In margin ‘frugality‘ Scipio the Younger (Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, later Africanus), 183–129 bc, was the adopted grandson of P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus (5.293– 307 above). After a distinguished military career in Spain and north Africa (see 5.402 n1 below) Scipio returned to Rome to stand for the aedileship as the first step in his political career, but though under-age, was by popular vote elected consul in 147 bc to take over the command in the war against the revived city of Carthage, which he destroyed (see 5.402–5). More than a dozen years later as consul in 134 bc when Rome despaired of overcoming the rebellious Viriathus, chief of the Celtiberians in Spain, Scipio raised a volunteer force and besieged and captured his capital, Numantia. See 5.407 n2, 5.412–3, 5.419. He took an unpopular stance against the reforms of his brother-in-law, the tribune Tiberius Gracchus (5.419–20), and died mysteriously in 129. Erasmus returns to following Plutarch’s collection of Apophthegmata. Plutarch had written a life of this Scipio (now lost), and probably took many of the sayings here from it. 401 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 199f. In margin ‘friends‘

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forum before he had in some way or other won someone as friend and intimate from among the men he encountered there,1 because he felt that no other possession was more precious to a man. 402 While he was still a young man Scipio already had such a reputation for courage and shrewdness that when the elder Cato was asked about the men campaigning at Carthage, including the younger Scipio,1 he replied with a verse of Homer: ‘He alone is shrewd; the others flit around like shadows.’ This is the judgment made about Tiresias in Homer’s Odyssey book 10.2 403 When he came to Rome Scipio was recalled from the army not to do him a favour but because they believed that through him they would quickly take Carthage.1 404 After Scipio took up position inside the walls of the city and the Carthaginians were defending themselves from the citadel, Polybius urged him to scatter iron balls or spiked plates in the shallow sea which lay between them, so that the enemy would not be able to cross the sea and fight in front of the siege mounds, but Scipio said it was ridiculous for them to avoid engaging with the enemy when they already held the walls and were inside the city itself. 405 When he discovered that the city was full of Greek statues of the gods ***** 1 Polybius reports how he became the friend and mentor of Scipio in his Histories 31.23–4. He accompanied Scipio to Africa. 402 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 200a. In margin ‘Cato’s testimony‘ 1 See Moralia 804f (Precepts of statecraft) where Cato hears news of Scipio’s exploits in Africa as military tribune under the incompetent commanders conducting the Third Punic War (149–146 bc). Cato died shortly after the start of hostilities. 2 Erasmus added ‘the younger’ for clarification in 1535 along with the last sentence naming Teiresias and the reference to Homer (Odyssey 10.495). 403 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 200a. In margin ‘expediency‘ 1 This is the occasion of the consulship to which he was elected (when under the accepted age of 43) in 147 bc. The Greek probably means ‘when he returned from campaign, he was called to office,’ but there are problems with the text here. See 5.400n above. 404 (v) Plutarch Moralia 200a–b. In margin ‘resolute‘ 405 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 200b. In margin ‘respect for art‘

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and commemorative decorations carried away from Sicily, he sent a herald to declare that men from those cities should claim them and return them home.1 And he did not allow any of his freedmen or slaves to take any of the monies, or even to buy anything, although otherwise all sorts of persons would usually loot and plunder at random. 406 When he was supporting Gaius Laelius, his dearest friend, as a candidate for the consulship, Scipio asked Quintus Pompeius Nepos whether he too was a candidate for the office. (This Pompeius was believed to be the son of a piper). So when Pompeius said he was not a candidate and even promised that he would escort Laelius in his canvassing and canvass for votes along with him, they believed his promises, and were waiting for him, but they were deceived. For the report came back that Pompeius was actually going round in the forum as a candidate himself and shaking citizens’ hands. Others were indignant about this but Scipio smiled and said, ‘We are exceptionally silly to be wasting time waiting for a piper as if we were about to pray to the gods, not men.’1 For it was the custom for a piper to give the signal for prayer as if the god were now present. 407 Appius Claudius was Scipio’s rival in canvassing for the censorship1 and boasted that he could greet all the citizens by name without using a nameprompter, whereas Scipio knew almost no one. ‘You are right,’ said Scipio, ‘for my aim was not to know many people but have everyone know me.’ It is the merit of a name-prompter to know as many men as possible, but it is the achievement of a great general to be known to every citizen. ***** 1 Scipio’s scrupulous restoration to the Sicilian cities of sacred statues stolen by the Carthaginians fifty years earlier was celebrated by Cicero Verrines 2.2.86 and 2.4.73; where he names some of the most famous works of art involved. 406 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 200c. In margin ‘humorous‘ 1 When Scipio canvassed in 142 bc for his friend Laelius to be elected consul, he was deceived by Quintus Pompeius, who was elected for 141 instead of Laelius. Laelius was elected for the following year. Cicero Laelius (De amicitia) 77 says that Scipio broke with Pompey, previously his friend, over this. Scipio and Laelius were the chief members of the so-called ‘Scipionic circle,’ a group of leading Romans, writers and philosophers. 407 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 200c–d. In margin ‘true nobility‘ 1 Scipio was elected censor for 142 bc, but Appius Claudius had to wait until the next election for the censors of 136 bc.

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When there was a war in progress against the Celtiberi, Scipio told the citizens, who had appointed both of them to take part in the campaign, to appoint either the lieutenants or tribunes of the soldiers who had taken part in the war as witnesses and judges of the merit of each of them.2 408 When Scipio was appointed censor he took away the horse of a young man because during the siege of Carthage he had indulged in a lavish dinner with a cake in the shape of the city, and named it Carthage, offering it for his guests to tear apart. But when the young man asked the reason why he had been stripped of his horse, Scipio said, ‘Because you plundered Carthage before me.’1 409 When Gaius Licinius presented himself, Scipio said, ‘I know this man has perjured himself, but since no one will report him I cannot act simultaneously as both accuser and judge.’1 Let this be an example of his moderation and justice as censor. 410 When he had been sent out by the senate for the third time, ‘to observe cities and men well administered by the laws,’1 as Clitomachus tells us, and to serve as inspector of tribes, cities, and kings, Scipio came to Alexandria and, ***** 2 This seems to mean that Appius Claudius was also eager to command against the Celtiberians. Plutarch’s text is ambiguous. Erasmus understands it to say that Scipio wanted the people to take either the legionary commanders or military tribunes as witnesses to the two leaders’ achievements. Scipio went to Spain as consul for the second time in 134 bc. See 5.412 below. 408 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 200d–e. In margin ‘vainglory‘ 1 The siege of Carthage began in 149 bc, but was not successful until 146 when Scipio took over. This was four years before Scipio’s censorship. One of the censor’s duties was to review the conduct of citizens. A Roman cavalryman could be deprived of the horse conferred on him by the state for misconduct. See 5.409 just below. Scipio’s action seems to be based on personal animosity. 409 (x) Plutarch Moralia 200e. In margin ‘the judge cannot act as accuser‘ 1 Gaius Licinius Sacerdos was a knight and this incident occurred when Scipio as censor was reviewing the knights. In Roman law it was left to individuals to launch a prosecution; there was no office of public prosecutor. 410 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 200f–201a. In margin ‘a sluggish king‘ 1 This is ultimately Homer Odyssey 17.487. Erasmus’ text of Plutarch had a variant reading, corrected in modern editions. Clitomachus was an Academic philosopher, and a prolific writer.

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after disembarking, walked around with his head covered by his cloak. Then the Alexandrians gathered from all sides and demanded that he uncover his head and show his face to them as they desired. When he bared his head they demonstrated their delight with shouting and applause, and since the king of Alexandria could scarcely keep up with the Romans as they proceeded because of his self-indulgence and soft living, Scipio whispered into Panaetius’ ear in a low voice, ‘The Alexandrians have already won some profit from our travels, since they owe it to us that they have seen their king walking.’ For Athenaeus reports on Posidonius’ authority that Ptolemy was very fat and had never previously walked on foot.2 411 As companion on his travels Scipio had one friend, the philosopher Panaetius, and five slaves. When one of them died abroad, he was unwilling to buy another, and sent for a replacement for the dead man from Rome.1 412 When it seemed the people of Numantia were invincible as they had already defeated many Roman generals, the people made Scipio consul for a second time in order to take on this war.1 Many were eager to go on this campaign, but the senate would not allow it, on the grounds that this would leave Italy deserted, and did not even permit him to withdraw money from the treasury, but assigned him the revenues from taxes which were not yet due.2 Then Scipio said that, as for funds, he did not need them, but his own money and that of his friends would be enough. However he did complain ***** 2 Plutarch cites Posidonius for this story in Moralia 777a (Philosophers and men in power) as does Athenaeus 549d. Posidonius, another philosopher and prolific writer, was a student of Panaetius, the Stoic philosopher who was a member of Scipio’s entourage. See 5.411 below. 411 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 201a. In margin ‘thrifty‘ 1 The story is told at Athenaeus 6.104 (273a), attributed to Polybius and Posidonius. Five slaves was a modest number for a person of Scipio’s standing, and was commented on. See Valerius Maximus 4.3.13. For Panaetius and Posidonius, see 5.410 n2 above. 412 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 201a–b. In margin ‘money disregarded‘ 1 Numantia was the centre of the long drawn-out resistance to Rome in Spain. Scipio finally subdued it in 133 bc. See 5.413–19 below. 2 Clearly there was a majority of enemies of Scipio active in the senate to prevent him either holding a military draft or using existing funds. He took a volunteer force to Numantia.

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about the denial of fighting men, saying that the war was a difficult one. He declared, ‘If my predecessors have been defeated so often because of the valour of the enemy, the war is going to be difficult, since we will have to fight with such a foe: but if the cause was the slackness of our citizens, it will be just as difficult, because we will have to use the services of the same men as before.’3 413 After Scipio came to the camp and found there excessive licence and misbehaviour, superstition and luxury, he immediately threw out the soothsayers and sacrificers along with the panders, and ordered the removal of all equipment except a pot, a spit, and an earthenware jug. As for silver, he allowed a cup of not more than two pounds weight if anyone wanted to have one, but he forbade the use of baths. He ordered that any who used ointments should rub themselves down, ‘for,’ he said, ‘it’s beasts of burden who have no hands who need someone else to rub them down.’ He gave orders that the soldiers should have uncooked food for lunch and eat it standing up, but might recline while dining, eating bread or plain porridge and boiled or roast meat. He himself walked around the encampment wrapped in his military cloak saying that he was mourning the disgrace of the army.1 414 When Scipio intercepted the pack animals of a certain military tribune called Memmius, loaded with gem-studded wine-coolers and Thericlean cups1 – that is an elaborate form of cup – he said, ‘By your behaviour you have made yourself useless to me and your country for thirty days, but to yourself for your whole life.’ He meant that the war he was fighting for his country might last a month. It was trivial that the fellow had made himself a useless soldier, but much worse that if he persisted in this behaviour he would always remain a useless citizen. ***** 3 See 5.413 just below. 413 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 201b–c. In margin ‘military discipline‘ This and the next three stories are included in the epitome of the lost book 57 of Livy. 1 Plutarch says the cloak was black. 414 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 201c–d. In margin ‘condemnation of luxury‘ 1 See Adagia iii iii 53: Thericlei amicus ‘A friend of the Thericleian,’ which puts forward various theories about the nature of the cups and the name.

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415 When another man displayed a finely ornamented shield, Scipio said, ‘Young man, that is a pretty shield, but a Roman should put his hopes in his right hand rather than his left.’1 Now the shield is held by the left hand but the sword in the right. 416 A man carrying a stake complained that he was sorely burdened by the weight.1 ‘No wonder,’ he said. ‘You trust that piece of timber more than your sword.’ He meant that the stake was heavier because it weighed more with the man. If soldiers trusted in their swords, they would have no need of stakes. 417 When Scipio saw that the enemy were losing heart he said that he had used delay to buy the chance of a safe victory, adding that a good general, like a doctor, did not apply the steel except as a desperate remedy.1 Nonetheless when the opportunity arose, he attacked the Numantines and forced them to retreat. 418 When the older Numantines reproached their defeated men with cowardice, for fleeing from the men whom they had so often put to rout, a certain Numantine is supposed to have answered, ‘Yes, they are still the same sheep, but with a different shepherd.’ He meant that Scipio was the reason for the change in the fortune of war, despite the soldiers being the same men. 419 After the capture of Numantia, when Scipio had triumphed for the second time,1 he got into a conflict with Gaius Gracchus, on matters affecting both ***** 415 (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 201d. In margin ‘reliance on one’s shield‘ 1 Cf 5.304 above, where a similar story is told of Scipio Africanus the Elder. 416 (xvii) Plutarch Moralia 201d. In margin ‘relying on stakes‘ 1 Soldiers carried stakes to build a palisade. 417 (xviii) Plutarch Moralia 201d–e. In margin ‘victory without loss of life‘ 1 Cf 4.231 above for a similar story. 418 (xix) Plutarch Moralia 201e. Cf 5.209 and 5.265 above. In margin ‘the general is the effective one‘ 419 (xx) Plutarch Moralia 201e–f; Valerius Maximus 6.2.3. In margin ‘outspoken‘ 1 Scipio was granted a triumph for his victory over Carthage after 146 bc and again for his Numantine victory on his return in 132.

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the senate and the Roman allies.2 The people resented this and rioted, but Scipio mounted the rostrum and said, ‘I was never frightened by the shouting in camp nor will I be intimidated by the insurrection of men who I know have Italy not as a mother but a stepmother.’ He meant that men who were objecting to the public advantages of their country were not real Italians but foreigners. Valerius reports that he said ‘I will never fear men now released from chains whom I brought here in bonds.’3 He meant that the very men who were now rampaging against the victor had been brought to Rome as prisoners. 420 When Gracchus’ supporters shouted out that the tyrant must be killed, Scipio said, ‘Naturally, men who are attacking their country want me removed from public life first. For Rome cannot fall while Scipio stands, nor can Scipio live once Rome has been brought down.’ Many anecdotes have been introduced into this list that are not sayings.1 421 Scipio Africanus was a candidate for the consulship but when he realized that his friend Pompeius was supporting other candidates, he himself withdrew from the contest, saying that this consulship would not bring him as ***** 2 Scipio resisted the agrarian reforms of his brother-in-law Gaius Gracchus, brother of Tiberius Gracchus, tribune of the people 122–121 bc, who desired to relieve poverty and introduce measures to protect the inhabitants of the provinces. 3 Surviving fragments of Scipio’s speeches (Malcovati ORF) reflect the same contempt for the citizen populace of Rome, many of whom were in fact freed Greek and Asiatic slaves. 420 (xxi) Plutarch Moralia 201f. This continues the same incident. 1 See Introduction xviii–xix and n11. 421 (xxii) No precise source for this anecdote has been traced. In margin ‘restraint‘ Erasmus added the last sentence of 5.421 and 5.422 in 1535, suspecting by that time that both anecdotes had been attached to the wrong Scipio. See 5.406 above for the story about the famous Scipio Africanus and Quintus Pompeius, to which this bears some resemblance. It is however more likely to be about Quintus Caecilius Metellus Scipio (see 4.212 n1 above). He was the father-inlaw of Pompey the Great. He failed to be elected consul in the turbulent elections of 52 bc, from which Pompey emerged as sole consul, though Pompey made him his colleague for the later part of the year. He fought for Pompey in the Civil War.

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much glory if he obtained it as trouble and bad luck if he obtained it against the vote of Pompeius. He preferred to yield the consulship rather than lose his friend. See whether this tale was told about Scipio Africanus or Scipio Metellus and Gnaeus Pompeius. 422 Scipio had followed Pompey’s party to Africa but when he met with little success there, he set out for Spain. Discovering that the ship he was travelling in had been captured by the enemy, he drove his sword through his breast. Then when Caesar’s soldiers asked, ‘Where’s your general?’ he replied, ‘The general is fine.’ This last word of the dying man showed a spirit worthy of a better fortune. This too seems to be a story about the last Scipio, called Metellus. Caecilius Metellus 423 When Caecilius Metellus wanted to move his army against a fortified site and a centurion said to him, ‘You will capture the place if you are willing to lose only ten men,’ he asked the man whether he was willing to be one of the ten. This saying is also attributed to someone else.1 424 When one of the younger military tribunes asked Metellus what he was going to do, he said, ‘If I knew my tunic had information about this matter I would strip it off and throw it in the fire.’1 ***** 422 (xxiii) Valerius Maximus 3.2.13. For this Scipio (Caecilius Metellus) see 4.212 n1 above. Again the last sentence was added in 1535. 423 (i) Plutarch Moralia 202a. In margin ‘cutting‘ This Quintus Caecilius Metellus (Macedonicus), a distinguished general, was consul 143 bc. The name Caecilius is common to all Metelli, but this man can be identified by his participation and that of his four sons in Scipio Aemilianus’ obsequies in 129 bc (5.425 below). He fought in Greece (148–146 bc) and conducted a hard campaign in Spain (143 bc). 1 Erasmus tells the story (assigned to simply Q. Fabius in Frontinus Strategemata 4.6.1) in 6.320 below, giving it to Q. Fabius Minucius. 424 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 202a. Cf the similar story told of Antigonus i at 4.106 above. (The story is attributed by Polyaenus Strategemata 1.1.2 to Metellus Scipio, consul 52 bc, for whom see 5.421n above.) In margin ‘a general keeps his counsel‘ 1 Metellus Macedonicus put the enemy off guard and confused his officers by

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425 Metellus had been the enemy of Scipio in his lifetime but was deeply distressed by his death, and ordered his sons to put their shoulders to the bier and carry Scipio out for burial, saying he thanked the gods in the name of the Roman state that Scipio had not been born in another country. He meant that Rome would not have remained secure if the enemy had had a leader of this quality. A feud should end with death, but not a friendship. G. Marius 426 Gaius Marius was born of an undistinguished family but entered political life commended by his military achievements. Firstly he was a candidate for the greater aedileship,1 but when he saw that this hope was not to be realized he competed for the junior aedileship on the same day. When he failed in this too, he still did not give up hope that he would be first citizen of Rome, thus showing how powerful is persistence in human affairs. 427 Marius had varicose veins on both legs, and presented himself to a doctor to be cut without having his legs tied down, and without a sigh or a frown ***** apparently marching about at random in all directions (Valerius Maximus 7.4.5). 425 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 202a. For Scipio (Aemilianus) see 5.400n. In margin ‘quarrels to be laid aside with the funeral‘ 426 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 202a–b. In margin ‘dogged application‘ Gaius Marius (140?–86 bc) was seven times consul, in 107, 105–100, and 86 bc. As a new man of non-aristocratic background, Marius achieved the lower magistrates through the patronage of the Metelli, but they opposed his bid for the consulship, to which he got himself elected 107 bc. His later commanding position was the reward of his military successes and popular policies. He reformed the army by drafting those without property and improved its equipment and achieved the defeat of Jugurtha in Africa (105 bc) and of the Cimbri and Teutones who were invading northern Italy in 102/1 bc. See 5.430–1 and 5.432n below. Plutarch’s small collection of sayings hardly does justice to such a significant figure. Erasmus does not add anything from Plutarch’s Life of Marius. 1 Cf Plutarch Life of Marius 5. The elections for the curule (which Erasmus like Plutarch calls greater aedileship) were separate from the elections of plebeian aediles, but Marius was defeated in both. 427 (v) Plutarch Moralia 202b. In margin ‘the cure worse than the complaint‘

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endured the surgeon’s treatment. But when the surgeon moved over to cut the other leg, he stopped him, saying that the cure was not worth such great torment. 428 When Marius was consul for the second time, Marius’ nephew by his sister, called Lusius, attempted to violate a young soldier called Trebonius. The young man killed him. When many people charged him with this, Trebonius did not deny that he had killed his commanding officer, but added the reason and won approval for his act. So Marius ordered the crown to be brought which was usually awarded for a gallant deed in warfare, and bestowed it on Trebonius.1 By this severe example he warned others not to assail the modesty of young men in this way, since he not only acquitted but even honoured with a crown the young man who had killed his general’s kinsman and his own commanding officer. 429 When he had laid out his camp against the Teutones in a place very short of water, his soldiers said they were thirsty, so he showed them a river flowing close to the enemy’s rampart, and said, ‘There is a drink over there to be bought with your blood.’ Then they told him to lead them where he would as long as their blood flowed and had not completely dried up with thirst. 430 Marius made a thousand men of Camerina who had displayed courage in the war against the Cimbri, equal in honour to Romans, and that beyond all legal right.1 But when people reproached him with this action he answered that he had not been able to hear the protest of the law because of the din of battle.2 ***** 428 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 202b–c. In margin ‘severe and moral‘ 1 Romans did not expect such strict respect for the law when the offender was a kinsman. It is not clear which of the various military crowns for valour Marius awarded to Trebonius for defending his virtue. See 4.183 above. 429 (vii) Plutarch Moralia 202c. In margin ‘thirst‘ 430 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 202c–d. In margin ‘weapons do not listen to the law‘ 1 Camerina was an allied town in Sicily and its inhabitants were not Roman citizens. Marius overstepped his powers in giving them citizenship (Cicero Pro Balbo 46). 2 Cf Cicero Pro Milone 11 ‘In the midst of weapons, laws are silent.’

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431 In the civil war1 Marius was encircled by a ditch and under siege from the enemy, but he bided his time, waiting for a suitable opportunity. But when Popaedius Silo said, ‘If you are a great general, Marius, come down into battle,’ he retorted, ‘No, if you are a great general, make me enter the fray against my will.’ Catulus Lutatius 432 In the Cimbric war Lutatius Catulus stationed his army alongside the river Athesis, and when the Romans saw the barbarians starting to cross, they retreated, since they could not withstand their onslaught.1 Then he quickly took himself to the front of the fleeing troops so that they would seem not to be fleeing the enemy but following their general. But this is a stratagem, not a saying.2 Gaius Popilius 433 Gaius Popilius was sent as envoy to king Antiochus with a letter from the senate which ordered him to lead his army out of Egypt, and not strip the orphaned children of King Ptolemy of their kingdom.1 But when the king had greeted him courteously from a distance as he approached through the midst of his army, he handed over the letter without returning the king’s greeting. When Antiochus had read it and said he would take counsel and give his reply, Popilius drew a line around the king with the staff which ***** 431 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 202d. In margin ‘retort‘ 1 This episode comes not from what we call the civil war, but Rome’s Social War (90–88) against her Italian allies, one of whose leaders was Pop(p)aedius Silo. See 5.443–4 below. 432 (x) Plutarch Moralia 202d–e. In margin ‘quick thinking‘ Quintus Lutatius Catulus (consul 102 bc) commanded forces against the invading Cimbri while his colleague Marius fought the Teutones and won the victory of Aquae Sextiae. His stratagem of pretending to lead his fleeing men in an organized retreat was notorious. Cf 5.203 above. 1 The modern text of Plutarch says ‘Since he could not hold them back.’ 2 See Introduction xviii–xix n11 and dedicatory epistle 9 n26. 433 (xi) Plutarch Moralia 202f–3a. In margin ‘high-handed‘ Gaius Popilius (consul 172 and 158 bc) is famous for the ‘new-style diplomacy’ of his peremptory treatment of the Syrian ruler Antiochus iv Epiphanes when he was sent as Roman envoy first to the Greek states and then to Antiochus in 168 bc. 1 This seems to be Ptolemy vi Philometor.

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he was holding saying, ‘So stand here to take counsel and reply!’ Everyone was amazed at the man’s bravado. After Antiochus had promised to do what the Romans thought good, Popilius finally greeted and embraced him. Lucullus 434 When Lucullus was marching against Tigranes in Armenia with a force of ten thousand armed men and a thousand cavalry, while Tigranes had a hundred and fifty thousand men in his army, it came to the day before the nones of October, on which day Scipio’s forces had once been destroyed.1 Someone reminded Lucullus that the Romans feared that date as abominable and ill-omened, but Lucullus answered, ‘Then let us fight keenly today to change this date from one abominable and ill-omened for Romans to one happy and of good omen.’ 435 Since the Romans were particularly afraid of the armoured cavalry1 he told them to be of good heart, saying it would be more trouble to strip these horsemen than to defeat them. (He meant that heavy armour would not help the enemy in battle since they were cowards, but would profit the victors as booty.) He then climbed the hill before the rest, and when he observed the disorder of the enemy he said, ‘We have won, my fellow soldiers,’ and instantly attacked. No one withstood his onslaught and he lost only five Romans who fell in battle but he slaughtered a hundred thousand of the enemy. ***** 434 (xii) Plutarch Moralia 203a. In margin ‘contempt for superstition‘ Lucius Licinius Lucullus was consul in 74 bc and was given command in the East against Mithridates vi of Pontus and his ally Tigranes. He plundered his capital, and forced Mithridates to retreat to Pontus. Political opposition in Rome brought about his recall in 66 bc, his influence waned and he devoted the last years of his life to living in exquisite luxury, becoming famous for his sumptuous buildings, country estates, ingeniously extravagant banquets and his beautiful pleasure gardens. See 5.439–40 and Plutarch Life of Lucullus 39–40. 1 Ie October 6th. The force defeated by the Cimbri on October 6th 105 bc was commanded by Quintus Servilius Caepio. Erasmus’ text no doubt read Scipio, later corrected to Caepio by Xylander (Wilhelm Holtzmann 1532–76). 435 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 203a–b. In margin ‘bold‘ 1 The mounted Armenian Cataphracts wore armour which covered both horse and rider, except for the legs (Plutarch Life of Lucullus 28.4).

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436 Lucullus as commander said to those urging him to plunder that he would rather snatch one Roman soldier from enemy hands than claim for himself the entire wealth of the enemy.1 437 Archelaus who had deserted Mithridates for the second time declared that if Lucullus were seen in Pontus everything would submit to Roman authority, but Lucullus replied, ‘I don’t yield to hunters in boldness, Archelaus – I don’t leave the wild beasts alone while I advance into their empty lairs.’ For Mithridates had already left Pontus. 438 After they had slaughtered a hundred thousand infantry in battle with Tigranes, while just a few cavalry had saved themselves by flight, and less than a hundred of their own men had been wounded, and five killed, the Romans said that they blushed to have drawn their swords against such worthless and slavish fellows. 439 When his steward prepared a modest dinner for Lucullus he summoned him and scolded him. The man said ‘I didn’t think we needed any lavish provision since you were dining alone. ‘What do you mean?’ said Lucullus, ‘Didn’t you know that Lucullus would be dining with Lucullus today?’1 440 When he had entertained some Greeks magnificently for several days and ***** 436 (xiv) Plutarch Life of Lucullus 8.3. In margin ‘care for the troops‘ 1 At this point Mithridates had left his own country of Pontus and had crossed to northern Greece to confront the Romans there. Lucullus’ co-commander Cotta had been defeated by Mithridates and was under siege. He appealed for help, but Lucullus’ troops wanted to abandon him to his fate and go to plunder Mithridates’ undefended country. For the remark, cf 6.114 below. 437 (xv) Plutarch Life of Lucullus 8.4. This follows on from the previous anecdote. In margin ‘spirited‘ Archelaus was a Greek general previously serving under Mithridates. 438 (xvi) Plutarch Life of Lucullus 28.7–8. See 5.434–5. In margin ‘an enemy to be ashamed of‘ 439 (xvii) Plutarch Life of Lucullus 41.3. In margin ‘splendid‘ 1 After retiring in resentment from political life, Lucullus devoted himself to extravagant luxury. 440 (xviii) Plutarch Life of Lucullus 41.2. In margin ‘splendid‘

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they said they were amazed that he was going to such expense on their account, he said, ‘Some of it was on your account but most of it was on behalf of Lucullus.’ Sulla 441 Sulla, nicknamed Felix ‘the lucky,’ counted two things among the good things that had happened to him, first that he had Metellus Pius as a friend1 and second that he had not destroyed the city of Athens.2 442 When Sulla was short of essential funds and had to lay hands even on dedications to the gods, he sent his friend Caphis to Delphi to bring him back money and votive offerings. But when some people said that the sound of the lyre had been heard in the temple, which they interpreted as a portent, indicating that Apollo the lyre-player was angry, Caphis wrote reporting what he had heard to Sulla. Then Sulla wittily wrote back, ‘Why don’t you interpret this, Caphis, as a sign of the god’s delight and joy, rather than his anger? So do you too be of good cheer and take the money, just as if the god was cheerfully making a present.’1 ***** 441 (xix) Plutarch Moralia 202e. In margin ‘luck‘ Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix, consul of 88 and 80 bc, had a successful military career in Africa under Marius, and then in Asia Minor and the east. He then marched his troops against Rome, where his brutality alienated his supporters. He transferred to Greece and took over the fighting against Mithridates (see 5.436 n1 above). There he partially sacked Athens for its opposition (5.445 below). He then marched on Rome again and after a decisive defeat of his opponents, was appointed dictator. Then followed the notorious ‘proscriptions’ through which he had his enemies murdered (see 4.292 n1). He returned to private life in 79 bc and died soon after. 1 Metellus Pius served as a legate under Sulla and supported him when he turned his troops against Rome in 88 bc. 2 Erasmus deleted in 1532 a final phrase: sed parcere maluisset, ‘but he had preferred to spare it,’ found in 1531 (it is in Plutarch Moralia), no doubt because this does not fit with what Plutarch says elsewhere about Sulla’s brutal treatment of Athens to punish them for their support of Mithridates (Plutarch Sulla 14.5–8). 442 (xx) Plutarch Life of Sulla 12.5–8. In margin ‘convenient interpretation of a sign‘ 1 Commanders would plunder shrines like that of Apollo at Delphi to pay their soldiers, because the shrines were enormously rich from dedications; also the treasuries of Greek cities were stored there. This was during Sulla’s campaign in Greece, 87–86 bc.

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443 When Sulla had been sent to the Social War with a large force, a great fire shot up near Limerna from a gaping chasm in the earth, and the flame stood there, reaching the heavens.1 The prophets interpreted this to mean that a good man of conspicuous and marvellous appearance would seize the role of first citizen and free the state from its present troubles. When he heard this Sulla said ‘I am that man.’ For it was peculiar to him that he had golden hair the same colour as fire, and he said he was not ashamed of acknowledging his own outstanding qualities, seeing that he had so many glorious achievements to his credit. 444 When soldiers in the Social War had beaten up the ex-praetor Albinus with clubs, Sulla left this atrocious crime unpunished, saying that he would henceforward find them more eager in battle as they would strive to compensate for their offence with brave deeds.1 445 When the Athenians sent Sulla two or three men to negotiate for peace1 and they offered nothing that would argue for the preservation of the city but boasted in empty words about Theseus and Eumolpus and the campaigns against the Medes, he said, ‘Be off, you self-satisfied fellows and take your speeches with you, since I was not sent by the Roman people to be educated but to overthrow rebels.’ 446 When his soldiers were straggling in the battle at Orchomenos1 and began ***** 443 (xxi) Plutarch Life of Sulla 6.11–13. In margin ‘self-confidence‘ 1 An episode in the Social War in Italy of 90–88 bc in which Sulla distinguished himself. Cf Plutarch Sulla 6.11–13, where the town is called Laverna, but there are variant readings. 444 (xxii) Plutarch Life of Sulla 6.16. In margin ‘making use of the wicked‘ 1 See Adagia v i 48: Benefactis pensare delicta ‘Make up for failings with noble deeds.’ 445 (xxiii) Plutarch Life of Sulla 13.5. In margin ‘spoken like a soldier‘ 1 This was before Sulla’s capture of the city (see 5.441 n2 above). Instead of seeking forgiveness for their support of Rome’s enemy Mithridates the Athenian envoys spoke only of their glorious past: Athens’ foundation by Theseus, its sacred heralds the Eumolpidae (see 8.264 below), and the city’s victory over the Persians in the fifth century. 446 (xxiv) Plutarch Life of Sulla 21.2–3. In margin ‘spirited‘ 1 After the destruction of Athens, Sulla engaged with Mithridates’ forces under Archelaus at Orchomenos in Boeotia.

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to fall back with their ranks disrupted, Sulla leapt down from his horse and snatched up a standard, and rushing against the enemy shouted, ‘I think it noble to die here, soldiers. When you are asked where you lost your general, remember to say it was at Orchomenos.’ With these words he rallied his troops. 447 When Mithridates went to meet Sulla and held out his right hand, Sulla did not greet him in return but asked whether he would renounce the war on the conditions which he, Sulla, had agreed with Archelaus.1 When Mithridates stayed silent Sulla continued, ‘Men who need peace should speak first; it is enough for the victor to stay silent.’ And on another occasion when Mithridates used various pretexts to excuse what had happened, he said, ‘I heard long ago and now I see for myself that you are endowed with rare eloquence, to be able to find an excuse for such wicked deeds.’ 448 Lucius Sulla, nicknamed ‘the Lucky,’ planned to kill Gaius Caesar, but his friends urged him not to, since it was not worthwhile to kill such a boy. Then he said, ‘You are out of your minds, if you don’t see that there are many Mariuses in this boy.’ He recognized a lofty character in Caesar that would not be appeased by any honours, given that he had sought a priesthood when he had barely reached puberty. He also used to warn the Roman people to ‘beware of the ill-dressed boy.’ M. Antonius 449 Mark Antony had a son by Fulvia. This boy gave to Philotas a vast quantity of dishes; but when Philotas would not take them, for fear that his father Antony would disapprove of such generosity on his son’s part, the boy said, ***** 447 (xxv) Plutarch Life of Sulla 24.2–3. In margin ‘uncompromising victor‘ 1 After the battle of Orchomenos (see 5.446 just above) Sulla had offered terms to Archelaus, Mithridates’ commander (see 5.437 above), which, after further defeats in Asia, Mithridates was forced to accept in humiliating circumstances. 448 (xxvi) Plutarch’s Life of Caesar 1.3–4 and Suetonius Julius Caesar 45.3 supply the story of Sulla’s plan to kill the young Julius Caesar and his comment on the ‘sloppily dressed boy.’ Cf 4.201, 4.303, and 4.331 above. In margin ‘foresight‘ 449 (i) Plutarch Life of Antony 28.7–11. In margin ‘a son like his father‘ Erasmus replaces sayings of Pompey, Cicero, Caesar, and Augustus which he has already translated in book 4 with his own small selection from Plutarch’s Lives of Antony, Crassus, Sertorius, and Brutus, who are not represented among Plutarch’s sayings.

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‘Why are you afraid to take them? Don’t you know that the giver is Antony’s son?’1 450 Antony being himself inclined to monstrous extravagance, used to say that the splendour of Roman power was reflected not by what it received but by what it gave.’ This saying might have seemed a mark of a lofty spirit if it had not come from Antony. 451 Geminius travelled to join Mark Antony in Greece, but he was suspected by Cleopatra as having come there to act in Octavia’s interests,1 and so he was constantly put off and deceived in various ways until he was asked at a party to explain his motive for coming. Then he said, ‘The rest requires sober speech, Antony, and is not fitted to this occasion, but I do know one thing, drunk or sober, that everything will turn out well if Cleopatra is sent back to Egypt.’ And he soon returned to Rome, fearing trouble from Antony. For Cleopatra thanked him at the party for speaking openly without any beating about the bush, but this kind of thanks was really a threat. Geminius knew well how unpalatable the truth was to them. ***** Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony, 88–30 bc) fought as second-in-command on Caesar’s side in the first civil war between Caesar and Pompey, and after Caesar’s victory at Pharsalus (48 bc) was appointed to guard his interests in Italy until he returned. After Caesar’s assassination in 44 bc, he had considerable personal dominance, but his position as leader of the Caesarian party was challenged by the rise of Octavian (Augustus). This led eventually to the second civil war between Antony and Octavian. After his defeat at Actium in 31 bc, Antony fled with Cleopatra back to Egypt, and pursued by Octavian, they committed the famous double suicide (5.453 below). He combined considerable military ability and a rough bonhomie with a flamboyant, dissolute and undisciplined lifestyle. 1 Antonius Antyllus, Antony’s son by Fulvia (his forceful second wife), was still a minor. 450 (ii) Cf Plutarch Life of Antony 24.9 and elsewhere for stories of his extravagance, but the source for this saying has not been identified. In margin ‘liberality‘ 451 (iii) Plutarch Life of Antony 59.3–5. In margin ‘frank speech‘ 1 During the political manoeuvres before the final rift between Antony and Octavian, Antony had been given a command in the East, during which he had become involved with Cleopatra, who travelled about with him. He was still married to his loyal second wife Octavia, sister to Octavian.

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452 When Antony was preparing to fight Octavian in the naval battle, a tribune1 who was brave and experienced in warfare showed Antony as he was passing by his body marked by many scars and said, ‘My general, why do you have such little faith in these wounds and this sword, and put your hope in fragile timbers? Let the Phoenicians and Egyptians fight with their fleet, but give us Romans the land on which we have always either defeated the enemy or met our deaths.’ 453 Fearing Antony’s rage Cleopatra fled to her monument, and having let down the portcullises, sent messengers to tell him she had died by her own hand. Antony believed this and being also about to do violence to himself, said, ‘Cleopatra, I am not grieved to lose you, for soon we shall be together, but grieve that despite being a great general I have been outdone in courage by a woman.’1 He thought he was outdone because she had seized the glory of a voluntary death before him. 454 When Octavian went to visit Cleopatra and demanded lists of assets from her, Seleucus, one of her administrators showed him that she had concealed something. Then she leapt on Seleucus and seizing his hair repeatedly struck him in the face. When Octavian laughed and tried to stop her, she said, ‘Isn’t it really infuriating, Caesar, that when you pay me the honour of coming to see me, my slaves accuse their mistress because I have kept back some pieces of women’s jewelry, not for myself but so as to make small gifts to Octavia and Livia?’ By this ingenious explanation she persuaded Caesar that she was intent on living, although she had determined to die.1 ***** 452 (iv) Plutarch Life of Antony 64.2–3. In margin ‘courage shown in fighting on land‘ 1 This is before the decisive naval battle off Actium in Greece. Plutarch makes the man a foot-soldier, ie a battle-scarred veteran. 453 (v) Plutarch Life of Antony 76.4–6. In margin ‘voluntary death‘ 1 This is one of several short speeches given by Plutarch to Antony during his long-drawn out suicide. 454 (vi) Plutarch Life of Antony 83. In margin ‘cunning‘ 1 Erasmus has considerably shortened his source, omitting the scantily-clad Cleopatra’s feigned entreaties, but including the rest. Octavia is Octavian’s sister and Livia his wife. At this point the future Emperor Augustus is still called Octavianus Caesar.

5 . 455

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Cassius 455 Even as a boy Cassius would not put up with Faustus, the son of Sulla, when he boasted among his peers of his father’s sole rule, but punched his head. When Pompey took on himself the role of arbitrator in this affair, he summoned both boys, and Cassius dared to say, ‘Hey, Faustus, dare to repeat in front of this man the words which made me mad with you, so that I can smash your face again.’ Cassius had a natural loathing for tyranny, so that it was already obvious he would not lack the courage to kill Caesar. 456 When he took the island of Rhodes by storm and was greeted as ‘king’ and ‘lord’ as he entered, he said, ‘I am neither a king nor a lord, but the killer of a king and lord.’ Crassus 457 Marcus Crassus, the famously rich, maintained a great crowd of slaves in his house, and gave particular care to them, supervising while they learned their jobs and sometimes even teaching them himself, saying, ‘This should be the special concern of a householder, since they are the living tools of his household economy.’ Aristotle held the same opinion.1 458 That’s a good saying, but the next one is reprehensible: Crassus said that no man should be thought rich unless he could maintain an army1 from his private resources. ***** 455 (i) Plutarch Life of Brutus 9.1–4. In margin ‘a boy showing remarkable character‘ Gaius Cassius Longinus joined Brutus in killing Caesar. He later raised an army in Asia in the Republican cause. Together with Brutus he was defeated by Antony and Octavian at Philippi in 42 bc. For the elder Sulla see 5.441n. 456 (ii) Plutarch Life of Brutus 30.3. In margin ‘hater of tyranny‘ The Rhodians refused to support the Republican side after Caesar’s murder. 457 (i) Plutarch Life of Crassus 2.7. In margin ‘care for slaves‘ Marcus Licinius Crassus (112–53 bc), consul 70 and 55, was an ally of Pompey and Caesar in the so-called ‘first triumvirate.’ He was given an Eastern command and was defeated and killed by the Parthians at Carrhae in 53 bc (see 5.464 n1 below). He was famously wealthy and this made him powerful and ambitious; cf Adagia i vi 74: Croeso, Crasso ditior ‘As rich as Croesus or Crassus.’ 1 Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics 1161b4 458 (ii) Plutarch Life of Crassus 2.9. In margin ‘excessive wealth‘ 1 This was toned down to ‘a legion’ in 1535, though Plutarch says ‘army.’

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459 Crassus resented the fact that the name ‘the Great’ was given to Pompey, and a triumph voted to him, so when a certain Roman said, ‘Soon Pompey the Great will be here,’ he said, ‘How ‘great’ is he, pray?’ meaning that he was equal to others in body, and no greater in spirit.1 460 When Pompey and Crassus as colleagues in the consulship were about to step down from office, a man called Gnaeus Aurelius1 suddenly ran into the forum and said that he had dreamed that Jupiter had ordered them not to resign the magistracy before they had been reconciled. When the people made the same demand, Pompey was unmoved, but Crassus got up and freely offered his hand to his colleague saying, ‘Citizens, I do not think I am doing anything unworthy of me if I take the initiative in being reconciled to Pompey, whom you named ‘the Great’ even when he was not yet a grown man and to whom you awarded a triumph before he was even co-opted into the senate.’ 461 When Crassus was setting out on his expedition against the Parthians, he saw Deiotarus,1 who was now in extreme old age, founding a new city, and said, ‘What sort of business is this, king, that you have begun to set up a new city even at the twelfth hour?’ Deiotarus smiled and replied, ‘Rather, what came into your head, general, to rush into Parthia with an army when you are not exactly in the morning of your life.’ For Crassus was in his sixtieth year at the time. Now the twelfth hour which is at midday for us, was once the last hour of the day.2 ***** 459 (iii) Plutarch Life of Crassus 7.1. In margin ‘envy belittles‘ 1 See 4.236n above. 460 (iv) Plutarch Life of Crassus 12.4–5. In margin ‘reconciliation‘ 1 Plutarch describes this man as an unknown and undistinguished member of the equestrian order. Pompey was younger than Crassus but had made himself famous as a commander in Italy, Sicily, and Spain, while Crassus had not won distinction until he put down the slave war, 73–71 bc, for which Pompey claimed the credit and offended Crassus. Pompey and Crassus were consuls in 70, a political arrangement in spite of their personal dislike of each other. See 5.459 just above. 461 (v) Plutarch Life of Crassus 17.2–3. In margin ‘an old man building‘ 1 The first of three sayings commenting on Crassus’ advanced age (60). King Deiotarus of Galatia (in central Turkey) was a loyal ally of Rome. Crassus passed through his territories on his way to fight the Parthians in 55 bc. 2 The Romans counted 12 hours in each day, beginning at dawn and ending at dusk.

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462 When the Parthians gave notice to Crassus through envoys that at his age he should avoid war, he replied arrogantly, ‘We will answer those instructions in Seleucia.’ Then Agisis, one of the envoys,1 raised his hand and showed his palm saying, ‘Sooner will bristles grow on this hand than you will have any chance of seeing Seleucia.’2 463 When Crassus was about to join battle with the Parthians the entrails slipped from his hand, and everyone else interpreted this as a portent of ill omen, and urged him not to fight, but he said, ‘Old age brings us many accidents of this kind. But my weapons have never slipped from my hands.’ 464 When Crassus’ son Publius had fought gallantly and fallen bravely in the war, the enemy put the young man’s head on a spear and rode close to the Romans brandishing it, and insulting them, and asking of what family this young man was born, since it was impossible that such a son could have been born from such a cowardly and unwarlike father. Crassus was unmoved by this grim sight and spoke to all the ranks, saying, ‘This is my private sorrow, Romans, and my calamity, this is my personal mourning, but the public well-being and glory of the state depends on your survival and your courage.’1 465 When Marcellus and Domitius asked Pompey in the senate whether he would seek the consulship at the next election he said, ‘Perhaps I will, perhaps I won’t.’ When they asked him again he said ‘I shall seek it from good citizens but certainly not from bad ones.’ These confusing and arrogant replies offended many people, but Crassus answered the same question with, ‘If I judge it to be in the interest of the state, I shall seek it, but if not, I shall refrain from candidacy.’1 ***** 462 (vi) Plutarch Life of Crassus 18.1–2. In margin ‘soldierly jibes‘ 1 Seleucia was the Parthian capital. Agisis is called Vagises by Plutarch. 2 For the phrase ‘bristles grow on this hand’ cf Adagia v i 56: Socratis gallus aut callus ‘Socrates’ cockerel or hide.’ 463 (vii) Plutarch Life of Crassus 19.8. In margin ‘an old warrior‘ 464 (viii) Plutarch Life of Crassus 26.4–6. In margin ‘courageous‘ 1 Crassus’ son Publius, was serving as his legate. This defeat foreshadowed Crassus’ own disastrous defeat and death at Carrhae in 53 bc. 465 (ix) Plutarch Life of Crassus 15.2–3. In margin ‘candid‘ 1 An earlier episode from 56 bc when Crassus and Pompey were deciding to

5 . 469

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Sertorius 466 Sertorius had scattered Pompey’s troops in all directions and defeated them with many casualties; then he heard that Metellus was approaching with another force, so he broke off the battle, saying to his men as he called them off, ‘I would have flogged this boy and sent him back home if the old woman had not come up.’ By ‘the boy’ he meant Pompey and by ‘the old woman’ Metellus. 467 After his several victories, Sertorius sent envoys to Pompey and Metellus, with the proposal that he was ready to return to Rome if he was allowed, and said he would rather be the most humble of citizens at Rome than be called ‘commander’ of all other states as an exile. 468 Sertorius used to warn his men that nothing unseemly should either be done or said at a party, and in particular that they should avoid quarrels and obscenity. Nor did he ever endure hearing or seeing such things in person. Marcus Brutus 469 When his situation was utterly desperate and he had only a few of his officers ***** stand for the consulship for the second time. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus (sic) was consul in 56 bc and Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus in 54 bc and were senior political figures. Pompey and Crassus were elected for 55 bc. 466 (x) Plutarch Life of Sertorius 19.10–11. In margin ‘an aging general‘ After distinguished military service under Marius, Sertorius became praetor in 85 bc and governor of Spain in 83/2. During Sulla’s terror r´egime, he was proscribed and driven out of Spain, but later returned and set up a successful independent kingdom. He defeated the young Pompey (see 4.236n), sent against him in 77, and also the consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius. These two then cooperated and began to win victories. Sertorius was assassinated in 75 by Marcus Perperna Veiento, an ex-praetor, who had taken his army to join him. Perperna was eventually defeated and executed by Pompey. See 8.157n. 467 (xi) Plutarch Life of Sertorius 22.7–8. In margin ‘the homeland is sweet‘ This is Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, consul 80 bc. 468 (xii) Plutarch Life of Sertorius 26.7. In margin ‘decent parties‘ 469 (i) Plutarch Life of Brutus 51–2 (an extended treatment of Brutus’ suicide). In margin ‘divine vengeance‘ Marcus Iunius Brutus (the tyrannicide or liberator), as praetor in 44 bc combined with Cassius and others to kill Julius Caesar. In the civil war which followed, he joined Cassius in fighting Antony and Octavian (the future

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and friends left, Marcus Brutus raised his eyes to the star-studded heavens and spoke this fragment of Greek verse from some tragedy:1 ‘May that man not escape you, highest Jupiter, who was the origin of all these ills,’ invoking divine vengeance, as it were, upon Caesar. Volumnius reports that he quoted another line, but he cannot remember what it was.2 470 When one of those present urged Brutus above all to escape from there, he said, ‘Yes indeed, I must escape, but with my hands and not my feet,’ meaning that he would have to escape the tyranny of the Caesarian forces by suicide. 471 When the conspirators were debating whether Antony should be killed along with Caesar, Brutus dissuaded them, saying that since they were undertaking this business on behalf of the laws and justice, it should be free of all injustice.1 This excellent man did not want the slaughter to be extended to others. But this act of mercy turned out badly for them.2 472 Brutus was about to engage in the last battle when some of those with him urged him not to put himself in such danger. He replied, ‘Today either all will be right or I shall cease to care,’1 meaning that he would either be victor or not be alive. For death takes away all awareness of misfortune. ***** Emperor Augustus); he was defeated and committed suicide at Philippi in 42 bc. Erasmus’ selection of sayings, mostly from Plutarch’s Life of Brutus, ignores chronology. 1 Euripides Medea 334: Zež m| l‡yoi se, t™nd& ­w aætiow kak™n. 2 Volumnius was a long-standing faithful friend, with Brutus until the end (Plutarch Brutus 52.2). For another example of his faithfulness, this time to Marcus Lucullus, see Valerius Maximus 4.7.4 (see 6.306 below). 470 (ii) Plutarch Life of Brutus 52.3, again from Plutarch’s account of Brutus’ suicide. In margin ‘death decided upon‘ 471 (iii) Plutarch Life of Brutus 18.3–4. In margin ‘merciful‘ 1 This discussion took place immediately after Caesar’s murder in 44 bc. 2 Antony joined forces with Octavian and defeated Brutus and the other conspirators at Philippi in 42 bc. See 5.469–70 above. Cf 6.139 below (on Geta). 472 (iv) Plutarch Life of Brutus 40.9. In margin ‘conquer or die‘ 1 In summarizing Plutarch’s long account here, Erasmus has given these words to Brutus instead of Cassius (for whom see 5.455–6 above). This is before the battle of Philippi.

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473 When Brutus’ wife Porcia, daughter of Cato, realized that there was a conspiracy to kill Caesar, on the night before the murder, after Brutus left the bedroom, she asked for a barber’s knife as if intending to cut her nails, and then letting it fall as if by accident, wounded herself severely. Brutus, called back to the room by the cries of her maids, began to scold her for not waiting for the barber to do his job. Then taking her husband aside, she said: ‘I did not do this by accident. I wanted to discover how calmly I could take my life if what you have decided does not go according to plan.’1 474 Brutus said that he thought a man who never said no to anything must have spent his early years badly. Diffidence is useless if it prevents us from refusing to comply with someone who invites us to act dishonourably.

***** 473 (v) Valerius Maximus 3.2.15. In margin ‘a wife’s faithfulness‘ 1 Cf Plutarch Brutus 13.3–11 for Porcia’s demonstration of her courage (according to Plutarch, she stabbed her thigh). This anecdote returns to 44 bc. 474 (vi) Brutus 6.9, part of Plutarch’s opening general characterization of Brutus, and Moralia 530a (On compliancy). Cf 5.95 above. In margin ‘useless diffidence‘

BOOK VI

MISCELLANEOUS SAYINGS OF VARIOUS PERSONS

In what follows, noble youth, you will be surprised to find some sayings not fit to be uttered by Scythians or Cyclops.1 Remember however that, with a few exceptions, the supreme power was then held not by men but by monsters, either because the army unthinkingly co-opted persons of that type,2 or because absolute power, unless associated with a mind already fortified with the safeguards provided by philosophy,3 will turn men into monsters. Even so, those phenomenally evil persons said and did some things that could well be imitated. Moreover, the spectacle of another’s wickedness played out on the stage, so to speak, provides to minds that are not altogether beyond redemption an incentive to shun evil and pursue virtue. This book is the last.4 Think of it as the sweetmeats5 brought on for dessert, where there will be some dishes from which you will take a helping, some which you will just taste and quite a number which you will only look ***** 1 See Adagia i x 69: Cyclopica vita ‘To live like the Cyclops’; ii iii 35: Scytharum oratio ‘Scythian language.’ 2 The Roman military were instrumental to a greater or lesser degree in the elevation to the imperial purple of most Roman emperors after Tiberius. Of these, the most notorious were Gaius (Caligula), Nero, Domitian, Commodus, and Elagabalus, though few were really satisfactory. See the dedicatory epistle to Erasmus’ edition of Suetonius (Ep 586): ‘an army of barbarians . . . often chose a master for the world not by their votes but by raging insurrection, and as a rule there was no right of succession other than the murder of a predecessor.’ See especially the notes on the later Roman emperor, 6.120–82 below. 3 For this and Erasmus’ thoughts as he assembles the following sayings of rulers see Adagia i iii 1: Aut fatuum aut regem nasci oportere ‘One ought to be born a king or a fool’ lb ii 106c–111d. 4 The first edition of Apophthegmata (1531) contained books one to six only. 5 This picks up the banquet image hinted at in the dedicatory epistle to the first edition (3 above) and repeated at 2.193 above (see note there) and in the prefaces to all books 5–8.

6.3

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at. I would rather send you home content than full and bloated. If some of the things served up seem trifling and farcical, originating with actors, cooks, stable-boys, men-about-town, ladies of the night, every feast should be characterized by jollity, especially at the dessert stage. Although even persons of no account sometimes say things which no sage could find fault with. And you are aware that at the end of a banquet it was in ancient times the custom to bring on fools, dancing-girls, and monkeys. I am not so much concerned about the presence of hilarity as about the absence of indecency. Some may find the book lacking in organization. This and anything else deserving of censure will be excused by the freedom permitted over the dessert. Tiberius Caesar 1 When the Imperial power was conferred upon Tiberius Caesar, he made a show of hesitating and accepting with reluctance. Somebody dared to say to his face, ‘Others are slow to perform what they promise; you are slow to promise what you are already performing.’ This person was censuring his pretended hesitation, demurring to accept what he actually desired.1 2 When somebody called him ‘lord,’ he told him never to address him again if he was going to insult him. What modesty in a great prince! Nowadays people can’t bear being called anything but ‘Sacred Majesty,’ ‘Gracious Highness,’ ‘Most Reverend Lordship.’ 3 When somebody spoke of Tiberius’ ‘sacred occupations,’ he interrupted him and told him to call them ‘not sacred, but burdensome.’ When somebody else said he had approached the Senate ‘on the authority of Caesar,’ Tiberius corrected him, changing ‘authority of Caesar’ to ‘recommendation of Caesar.’ ***** For the structure of book 6, see Introduction xix–xx above. 1

(i) Suetonius Tiberius 24.1. In margin ‘frankly spoken‘ Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus succeeded Augustus and was emperor ad 14–37 1 The last sentence was added in 1532.

2

(ii) Suetonius Tiberius 27. In margin ‘modest‘

3

(iii) Suetonius Tiberius 27. In margin ‘modest‘

6.4

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4 Tiberius was frequently attacked in jokes, lampoons, scurrilous songs, and tales spread abroad. When his friends urged him to take revenge, he replied that ‘in a free country the tongue and the mind should be free.’ 5 Even when the Senate demanded that something be done about such crimes and guilty persons, ‘We haven’t so much time to spare,’ he said, ‘as to embroil ourselves in yet more things to do. If you once open this window, you will allow nothing else to be done.’ 6 Diogenes, the teacher of language and literature, used to lecture in Rhodes on Saturdays. When Tiberius came and asked that he might hear him by special arrangement, Diogenes did not invite him in but sent a slave boy to tell him to come back in seven days’ time. When Diogenes came to Rome and stood at Caesar’s door to present his compliments, Tiberius told him to come back in seven years’ time. This was the only revenge he took on Diogenes for his arrogance. 7 His governors urged him to increase the tribute levied from the provinces. He wrote back that ‘a good shepherd shears the flock, not flays it,’1 ie removes the wool, not the skin.2 8 When he was a young soldier, he used to drink wine excessively. So the soldiers jokingly called him not Tiberius Claudius Nero, but Biberius Caldius Mero.1 ***** 4

(iv) Suetonius Tiberius 28. In margin ‘mild‘

5

(v) Suetonius Tiberius 28. In margin ‘mild‘

6

(vi) Suetonius Tiberius 32.2. In margin ‘civilized revenge‘ While Augustus was still alive, Tiberius felt temporarily out of favour and withdrew to Rhodes, a centre for philosophical and rhetorical studies.

7

(vii) Suetonius Tiberius 32.2. In margin ‘moderate levies‘ 1 Adagia iii vii 12: Boni pastoris est tondere pecus, non deglubere ‘A good shepherd should shear his sheep, not skin them’ 2 The explanation was added in 1532.

8

(viii) Suetonius Tiberius 42.1. In margin ‘making a joke about a bad trait of character‘ 1 Names coined from bibere ‘to drink,’ calidus ‘hot’ and merum ‘new wine.’ Tiberius had a distinguished military career before he became emperor.

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9 Theodorus of Gadara, who instructed Tiberius in rhetoric, observed that a bloody streak lay under the boy’s apparently easy-going nature. He often took him to task, calling him, ‘clay kneaded with blood.’1 At the beginning of his rule, Tiberius displayed remarkable tolerance, but as time went on, he progressed to monstrous cruelty. 10 Tiberius heard that a prisoner called Carvilius had committed suicide before he could be sentenced. He exclaimed, ‘Carvilius has escaped me!’ He thought mere death a light punishment. 11 He was reviewing the cases of those in custody and one of them asked him to bring forward his execution. He replied, ‘I am not yet on good terms with you again.’ He considered it a mark of a civilized relationship to execute a condemned man quickly. 12 After he became aware of Caligula’s savage and maleficent nature, Tiberius often used to remark that ‘he was nurturing a natrix (a sort of snake) for the state and a Phaethon for the world.’1 13 The Emperor Tiberius is also reported to have said that he ‘thought it ridiculous for anyone over the age of sixty to offer his hand to a doctor.’1 He opined that a man of that age ought to know by now how to medicate himself. ***** 9

(ix) Suetonius Tiberius 57.1. In margin ‘hidden cruelty‘ 1 Adagia ii x 39

10

(x) Suetonius Tiberius 61. In margin ‘cruel‘

11

(xi) Suetonius Tiberius 61. In margin ‘cruel‘

12

(xii) Suetonius Caligula 11. In margin ‘a maleficent nature‘ 1 Phaethon was the son of the sun-god Helios, who begged to drive the chariot of the sun for one day and, being unable to control the horses, nearly destroyed the world in a conflagration. Caligula succeeded Tiberius as emperor (6.14–24 below).

13

(xiii) Plutarch Moralia 136d (Advice about keeping well). In margin ‘medicine‘ 1 In Suetonius Tiberius 68 and Tacitus Annals 6.46 the figure is given as ‘thirty.’ No doubt the sixty-four-year-old Erasmus preferred the version in Plutarch.

6 . 13

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People offer their hand to a doctor when they consult him and have their pulse taken. Gaius Caligula 14 To remove any fears that might be felt in the future by any informer or witness, he had the documents relating to the false charges brought against his mother and brothers conveyed to the Forum and, after swearing by the gods for all to hear that he had not read or handled any of them, he had them burnt. He even refused to accept a note offered to him concerning his own safety, declaring that ‘he had done nothing to deserve anyone’s hatred, and that he had no ears for informers.’ All these acts could have been seen as the marks of a good prince, except that they were feigned. 15 Caligula happened to hear that some kings who had come to Rome to make their obeisance to him had been arguing over dinner about the nobility of their descent. He exclaimed, ‘From heaven a king has come to us,’ adding the line from Homer,1 ‘Let there be one lord, one king.’ Indeed, he was on the verge of assuming the crown and turning the semblance of a principate into the reality of a kingdom. 16 He used to call his great-grandmother Livia Augusta, ‘a Ulysses in petticoats.’ In this he referred to her guile and treachery. The only difference between them was that Livia, being a woman, wore women’s clothes. ***** 14

15

16

(i) Suetonius Caligula 15.4. In margin ‘deaf to the informer‘ Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus Caligula was emperor ad 37–41. As direct descendants of Augustus, his mother and brothers had been a potential focus of opposition to Tiberius, whose suspicious mind readily believed the accusations of informers. They all died in exile or in prison. Caligula however was nurtured by Tiberius (6.12 above). (ii) Suetonius Caligula 22.1. In margin ‘a tyrannous utterance‘ 1 Iliad 2.204: e´w ko’ranow \stv, e´w basileœw (iii) Suetonius Caligula 23.2. In margin ‘guile‘ This is Augustus’ powerful wife, whom he married in 39 bc. They had no children. She was the mother of Tiberius by a previous marriage, and not related to Caligula by blood.

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17 Caligula used to say that the thing that he most admired about himself was his shamelessness. While shame hinders many from doing fine deeds, it often holds men of evil disposition back from disgraceful ones.1 Words more fit for a thug than an emperor! 18 Antonia, in virtue of her authority as his grandmother, was advising him to behave differently in some matters. ‘Remember,’ he said, ‘that I am allowed to do anything to anybody!’ The world at that time had to endure monsters like this under the name of emperor. I wouldn’t record such monsters, except to use emperors like this to instil horror of their monstrous savagery. 19 Caligula determined to kill his brother,1 but suspecting that he had protected himself against this by taking various substances, he said, ‘What! An antidote against Caesar!’ The brother feared poison, as if the emperor couldn’t slay by some other means anyone he wanted dead. 20 A man of praetorian rank had asked the emperor to grant him leave to go to Anticyra for health reasons. When he kept asking to have his leave extended, Caligula ordered him to be killed, remarking that ‘he was in need of bloodletting, since hellebore had done him no good in all that time.’ In dangerous illnesses, doctors resort to blood-letting. People went to Anticyra when they were in need of a purge.1 ***** 17

18

(iv) Suetonius Caligula 29.1. In margin ‘shameless‘ 1 Ideas expanded in Plutarch’s essay De vitioso pudore (On compliancy) Moralia 528–35. Erasmus draws many of his anecdotes from this source. (v) Suetonius Caligula 29.1. In margin ‘a tyrannous utterance‘ This is Antonia, daughter of Antony and Augustus’ sister Octavia.

19

(vi) Suetonius Caligula 29.1. In margin ‘cruel and contrary to all natural feeling‘ 1 His brother by adoption, Gemellus, Tiberius’ grandson, who was made joint heir with Caligula in Tiberius’ will

20

(vii) Suetonius Caligula 29.2. In margin ‘brutal‘ 1 Anticyra in Phocis, Greece, was a famous source of hellebore, a poisonous plant much used medicinally as a purge and especially as a cure for insanity. There is much information on black and white hellebore and their

6 . 21

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21 One of Caligula’s favourite sayings was the line from tragedy, ‘Let them hate, as long as they fear.’1 That’s nothing to be wondered at – he also said, ‘I wish the Roman people had but one neck!’ He let drop this remark when he was incensed against the crowd for favouring the Blue charioteers when he favoured the Greens. 22 He was a profligate squanderer: he bathed in hot and cold perfumed oils, drank priceless pearls dissolved in wine, served his guests rolls and other food accompaniments fashioned out of gold, scattered coins in large quantities among the crowd for several days in succession from the roof of the Basilica Julia, and had warships built with jewelled sterns and multicoloured sails. He often remarked, ‘One must be either a decent chap – or emperor.’ 23 At an auction, a certain Apronius, a man of praetorian rank, had dozed off and his head was nodding. Caligula spotted this and urged the auctioneer ‘not to miss that man nodding at him.’ He kept on doing this until the man, all unknowing, had thirteen gladiators knocked down to him for nine million sesterces. 24 When he played dice, he used to increase his winnings by lying and even by perjury. One day, getting his neighbour to take his turn, he went out into the hall of the house and had two rich Roman knights who happened to be passing by seized and robbed of their money. He went back into the house in a state of exhilaration, boasting that ‘he had never had better luck at dice.’ ***** uses in Pliny Naturalis historia 25.5.47–61. See Adagia i viii 52: Naviget Anticyras ‘Let him take ship for the Anticyras’; i viii 51: Bibe elleborum ‘Drink hellebore.’ 21

(viii) Suetonius Caligula 30.2 and 30.1. In margin ‘an enemy of the people‘ 1 Accius crf fr 203 (Atreus); Adagia ii ix 62: Oderint dum metuant ‘Let them hate as long as they fear.’ See 1.2 above and 8.117 below.

22

(ix) Suetonius Caligula 37.1–2. In margin ‘squandering‘

23

(x) Suetonius Caligula 38.4. In margin ‘a mad joke‘

24

(xi) Suetonius Caligula 41.2. In margin ‘rapacity‘

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Claudius Caesar 25 Some Greek or other was making a plea before the Emperor Claudius and, becoming rather heated during the exchanges, let fly the words, ‘You’re an old man – and a silly one!’1 The supreme power had become so openly and generally an object of contempt through Claudius’ stupidity, that this could be said to his face by someone who was not a senator but an ordinary little Greek, and said with impunity at that. 26 He was reviewing membership of the Order of Knights in his capacity as censor, and discovered among them a young man whose conduct was notoriously disgraceful. His father however declared that he was of good character, so he let him go without forfeiture of rank. When his friends expressed surprise, Claudius remarked, ‘He has his own private censor.’ He thus abdicated his own responsibility in favour of the father. 27 He merely advised another, who was notorious for all kinds of sexual misconduct, ‘to indulge his youthful extravagances less often or at least to do it with more circumspection.’ He added, ‘Why should I know what ladyfriends you have?’ O what a severe censor! 28 He was so fond of Narcissus, his secretary, and Pallas, his financial administrator, that he was only too pleased to have the Senate honour them not only with huge financial rewards, but with the insignia proper to the rank of quaestor and praetor. He also allowed them to pillage and annex so much that, when he complained that the treasury was empty, someone pointedly remarked ‘that there would be plenty in the exchequer if the two freedmen took him into partnership.’ ***** 25

(xii) Suetonius Claudius 15.4 and 15.3. In margin ‘free speech‘ Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus was emperor ad 41–54. 1 S gŽrvn eå ka“ mvr—w. See 6.57 below. Claudius was (unjustifiably) treated as stupid all his life.

26

(xiii) Suetonius Claudius 16.1. In margin ‘the father to judge‘

27

(xiv) Suetonius Claudius 16.1. In margin ‘a bad example of leniency‘

28

(xv) Suetonius Claudius 28. In margin ‘peculation overlooked‘

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Pliny says these two were richer than Crassus.1 29 Claudias removed the mark of censure put against somebody’s name in response to his friends’ entreaties, but said, ‘All the same, let the erasure show.’ He meant that the previous disgrace still left its mark, even if the guilt had been remitted, as is the case with writing where traces of the correction still show, even if the words are wiped off with a sponge or scraped away with a stylus. 30 When he was drunk one day, he said, ‘It was his fate first to endure the crimes of his wives, then to punish them.’ These words struck great terror into Agrippina.1 Domitius Nero 31 Nero’s ancestor, Gnaeus Domitius, carried the family nickname Ahenobarbus, ‘Brassbeard.’ The orator Lucius Crassus used to say of him that ‘it was no wonder that he had a brass beard since his face was iron and his heart lead.’1 ***** 1 Pliny Naturalis historia 33.47.134. Marcus Licinius Crassus was a millionaire contemporary with Cicero, whose name became a by-word for riches; see Adagia i vi 74: Croeso, Crasso ditior ‘As rich as Croesus or Crassus.’ See 5.457–9 above. This remark was added in 1535. 29

(xvi) Suetonius Claudius 16. In margin ‘disgrace not erased‘

30

(xvii) Tacitus Annals 12.64. In margin ‘drunkenness blabs‘ 1 Julia Agrippina the younger was niece and fourth wife of Claudius, and mother of the next emperor, Nero, by her previous husband, Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus. She had been involved in a failed plot to assassinate her brother, the Emperor Gaius Caligula, and after marrying Claudius, had engineered the advancement of her son Nero over Claudius’ own son Britannicus, getting Claudius to adopt him.

31

(i) Suetonius Nero 1.1, 2.2 and 41.1. In margin ‘joke based on name‘ Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar was emperor ad 54–68. Erasmus’ text here, and in 5.32 below gives the name as Sextus Nero, which was corrected in bas to Domitius. Sextus is due to a misreading of the heading in Suetonius: Suetonii . . . liber sextus. Nero. Nero’s name was Domitius before his adoption by Claudius. 1 This is Lucius Licinius Crassus, the famous orator, grandfather of Mark Antony. In spite of differences, he and Ahenobarbus were censors in 92 bc. See 6.329 below.

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The ‘iron face’ jibe referred to his effrontery, the ‘lead heart’ to his dull wits. Some people called Nero himself Ahenobarbus instead of Nero and this was one of two insults which he resented greatly. The other was that people jeeringly called him a bad lyre-player. 32 When Nero was about to sign the death warrant of a condemned prisoner, as custom required of him, he said, ‘If only I didn’t know how to write!’ Words indicating a reluctance to shed human blood – if he had meant them! Seneca tells us in book two of On clemency, that Burrus, Prefect of the Guard, was about to execute two people and asked Nero to sign the order. When Nero kept delaying and putting it off, Burrus became insistent and laid the document before him. Then Nero said, ‘I wish I didn’t know how to write!’1 Yet this apparently merciful nature ended as a monster of cruelty.2 33 He castrated a boy called Sporus and tried to turn him into a woman – he gave him a dowry, a bride’s veil, a wedding ceremony with crowds of guests. What more need I say? He openly treated him as a wife. Someone accordingly remarked rather wittily ‘that it would have been a good thing for the human race if Nero’s father Domitius had had such a wife!’ He meant that Nero’s birth had been disaster for the whole world. He would never have been born if his father had had someone like Sporus in place of a wife. 34 Nero never assigned a task to anyone without saying, ‘You know what I need,’ and, ‘Let’s see to it that no one has anything.’ A saying more fit for a robber than a prince. ***** 32

(ii) Suetonius Nero 10.2; Seneca De clementia 2.1. In margin ‘merciful‘ 1 This paragraph was added in 1535. 2 The first five years of Nero’s reign were good, influenced by the philosopher Seneca and Burrus, his prefect of the Praetorian Guard (see 6.56 and 6.58 below).

33

(iii) Suetonius Nero 28.1

34

(iv) Suetonius Nero 32.4. In margin ‘rapacity‘

6 . 35

608

l b i v 276a

35 When someone in the course of conversation happened to quote the Greek line ‘When I am dead let earth be mixed with fire,’1 he countered with, ‘No, while I am still alive.’ What monsters the state is sometimes entrusted to! 36 There was no crime from which he refrained. Elated with his ‘successes,’ he used to say ‘that no ruler before him had realized what was within his power to do.’ The one who said this found out eventually what people-power could do in turn to an evil ruler. 37 When Nero had set fire to the city of Rome, he watched it burning, saying ‘that he was enjoying the beauty of the flames.’ Meantime he played and sang his Helosis. The Helosis was his composition on the destruction of the city of Troy. 38 When Nero was passing by in a public place, Isidore the Cynic loudly rebuked him, shouting out that he was good at singing the bad deeds of Nauplius, but bad at making use of the good things that were his. Nauplius1 was the father of Palamedes, who avenged the slaughter of his son, when he was unjustly put to death, by inflicting great destruction on the Greeks. Nero used to sing roles from tragedy. 39 He was stigmatized on another occasion by Datus, the actor in Atellan farces. During a performance of one of these, when he came to the line, ‘Farewell father, farewell mother,’ Datus mimed one as drinking, one as swimming, thus signifying the end of Gaius Claudius and Agrippina.1 ***** 35

(v) Suetonius Nero 38.1. In margin ‘savage‘ 1 Nauck adespota fr 513: &Emož y‡nontow ga”a mixy}tv

pur’; Adagia i iii 80

36

(vi) Suetonius Nero 37.3. In margin ‘a ruler’s unrestrained power‘

37

(vii) Suetonius Nero 38.2

38

(viii) Suetonius Nero 39.3. In margin ‘bold words‘ 1 Nauplius lit false beacons to wreck the Greek fleet on its way home from Troy. See Euripides Helen 1126–31; Philostratus Heroicus 1.11.

39

(ix) Suetonius Nero 39.3. In margin ‘bold words‘ 1 Both this and the next passage quoted are to be found in crf Fabula Atellana: incerti nominis reliquiae 5.

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Nero had removed Claudius by poisoning, Agrippina by a fake shipwreck. When the actor came to the last line in another passage, ‘Hell directs your feet,’ he made a gesture in the direction of the senators. This hinted that they were threatened with extinction by Nero. 40 Astrologers had often told him that one day he would be deposed. For that reason he had constantly on his lips the Greek iambic dimeter, ‘Skill fills your hand in every land.’1 He thought he had acquired such expertise in singing that, even if he were driven out, he could be valued anywhere for his musical abilities. When those who were pursuing him closed in and he saw that escape was impossible, thinking that he was about to be murdered, he kept saying, ‘What a great artist perishes in me!’ 41 Once Nero visited the theatre in secret and when one of the actors pleased the crowd, he resented it and sent him the message ‘that he was taking advantage of the emperor being so busy.’1 42 Several of Nero’s entourage were making money out of the high price of grain and this too stirred up resentment against him. It so happened that during the shortages a ship from Alexandria had arrived rumoured ‘to be carrying a cargo of sand for the wrestlers attached to the court.’1 This story not only attacked Nero’s passion for all things connected with the theatre but also the monopolies operated by certain persons who, through Caesar’s favour, were profiting from the public distress. 43 A chariot was placed on the head of one of his statues with an inscription in Greek meaning, ‘Now comes the real contest; draw in at last.’1 ***** 40 1

(x) Suetonius Nero 40.2 and 49.1. In margin ‘skill provides a living anywhere‘ T˜ tŽxnion p‰sa g trŽfei. See Adagia i vii 33: Artem quaevis alit terra.

41

(xi) Suetonius Nero 42.2. In margin ‘a prince on the stage‘ 1 Ie too busy to be appearing on the stage himself. See 6.38 above.

42

(xii) Suetonius Nero 45.1. In margin ‘disgraceful monopolies‘ 1 Such a ship would normally be carrying a cargo of grain. Egypt was an important source of grain for the capital.

43

(xiii) Suetonius Nero 45.2. In margin ‘a prince driving a chariot‘ 1 There are problems with the text here. Modern texts read cirrus ‘lock of hair’

6 . 43

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610

This criticized the emperor’s passion for chariot-racing, at the same time warning him of the danger to come. 44 Another statue had a leather bag tied over its head with a label saying, ‘What could I do? But you deserved the sack.’ At one time those who murdered parents were sewn into a sack and Nero had killed his mother. The sack is here excusing itself and says, ‘What could I do? I’m ready, if anyone is going to sew you in. But whether you are sewn in or not, you have deserved the sack all the same.’1 This saying can be adapted and put into the mouth of a country. 45 On the bases of his statues people wrote, ‘The Gauls stirred you up by their crowing.’1 Nero had been infuriated by the revolt of the Gallic provinces and had consequently ordered all Gauls doing business in Rome to be slaughtered and the province to be given over to the army for the troops to plunder. 46 People pretended at night to be punishing their slaves and called out for a vindex, ‘an avenger.’ Vindex was the leader of the insurrection against Nero and this joke indicated that Caesar’s tyranny was becoming insupportable. ***** (as worn by singers to the lyre), not currus ‘chariot,’ but Erasmus’ comment shows that he read currus. Modern trade ‘yield’ is perhaps better than Erasmus’ trahe ‘draw in,’ though the meaning is not clear. The implication is that Nero’s victories in the song-contests were sham victories – a real test was coming. 44

(xiv) Suetonius Nero 45.2. In margin ‘parricide execrated‘ 1 See Adagia iv ix 18: Culleo dignus ‘Fit for the sack.’ The meaning of the graffito is not clear, hence Erasmus’ attempt to explain it. There are various modern suggestions, eg that it is a dialogue between Nero and Agrippina.

45

(xv) Suetonius Nero 45.2 and 43.1. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 Galli in Latin means both ‘Gauls’ and ‘barnyard cocks.’ The text of Suetonius could also mean ‘he had stirred up the Gauls/cocks by his crowing’ (ie singing).

46

(xvi) Suetonius Nero 45.2. In margin ‘witty‘ Gaius Iulius Vindex led a revolt in ad 68 of Gallic nobles in the province of which he was governor, which was put down by a Roman army. (See 6.45 above.)

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47 When Nero’s speech attacking Vindex was read out in the Senate, in response to the passage where he declared that the guilty would pay the penalty and would soon meet a condign fate, everyone cried, ‘You will do it, Augustus.’ This could be taken in two ways: either, ‘You will see that they pay the penalty,’ or, ‘You yourself will pay the penalty.’ 48 We are told that when performing Oedipus, which was his last appearance on stage, Nero fell to the floor at the line ‘Wife, mother, father, bid me die.’1 Oedipus had unknowingly killed his father and married his own mother. Nero had knowingly killed his father Claudius, murdered his mother after committing incest with her, and treated his wife Octavia shamefully.2 49 Realizing that all was lost, when night came, he went round the quarters of various individuals to ask their advice about escaping. He found every door shut, and when he returned to his own room, he discovered that the guards had fled after looting the bed-coverings and removing the phial of poison which he had procured in case the worst should happen. Then he looked for Spiculus, a murmillo,1 or indeed anyone else at whose hands he might find death. When he found no one, he said, ‘So, have I neither friend nor enemy?’ There was a determination to sacrifice this beast to the public execration of the whole world. 50 During his flight, his freedman Phaon urged him to hide in a cave dug out of the sandy soil, but he said ‘he would not go beneath the earth while living.’ ***** 47

(xvii) Suetonius Nero 46.3. In margin ‘ambiguous words‘

48

(xviii) Suetonius Nero 46.3. In margin ‘an omen of his end‘ 1 Nauck adespota fr 8 2 For Nero’s suspected involvement in Claudius’ death by poisoning, see Suetonius Nero 33.1; for his incest with and murder of his mother, see Suetonius Nero 28 and Tacitus Annals 14.4–8; and for his adultery with Acte and Poppaea and ultimate divorce and murder of his wife Octavia, see Tacitus Annals 13.12.46; 14.60–4.

49

(xix) Suetonius Nero 47.3. In margin ‘completely abandoned‘ 1 A type of gladiator, and so a man used to killing quickly and ruthlessly

50

(xx) Suetonius Nero 48.3. In margin ‘buried alive‘

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612

51 He scooped water with his hand from a pool lying below some villa and, as he was about to drink, said, ‘And this too is Nero’s distilled water.’ He had invented a way of making boiled water taste like fresh by adding snow to the glass.1 52 When he realized that the horsemen were drawing close who had orders to take him alive, he quoted the line of Homer, ‘The clatter of galloping horses sounds about my ears.’1 Then he cut his throat. 53 A centurion coming in found him already dying and, pretending that he had come to help him, pressed his cloak against the wound. Nero made no response except to say, ‘Too late,’ and, ‘Is this loyalty?’1 These words are ambiguous. They could mean that the man had come too late, since he found him already dying, or that he had come too late to take him alive. Likewise, ‘Is this loyalty?’ could be his words expostulating at the lack of loyalty shown by Nero’s friends. But Nero knew he could not trust what the man said, and proof of this was the mortal wound in his throat. 54 The Chaldaean horoscope-casters told Agrippina when she consulted them that her son would indeed become emperor but would kill his mother. She replied, ‘Let him kill, so long as he rules.’ So unbridled was the woman’s thirst for domination. And she got what she desired.1 55 When this same woman was being murdered on Nero’s orders and the centurion was drawing his sword for the fatal blow, she pointed to her belly and ***** 51

(xxi) Suetonius Nero 48.4. In margin ‘sweets turned to bitterness‘ 1 See Pliny Naturalis historia 31.40, though there Pliny says the container was immersed in snow to cool the contents.

52

(xxii) Suetonius Nero 49.3 1 Iliad 10.535

53

(xxiii) Suetonius Nero 49.4. In margin ‘Nero’s last words‘ 1 Erasmus’ comment suggests that he thought these words may have been said by the centurion, but Suetonius gives them to Nero, as does Erasmus’ marginal heading.

54

(xxiv) Tacitus Annals 14.9.15. In margin ‘ambition‘ 1 See 6.55 immediately below.

55

(xxv) Tacitus Annals 14.8.6. In margin ‘defiant‘

6 . 58

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613

cried, ‘Strike this – the sword must rip the belly that bore that monstrous creature!’1 56 Nero was extremely unpopular because it was believed that he had murdered Burrus, one of the leading men in the state, by having his throat smeared with poison, pretending it was a remedy. When Nero came to visit him, Burrus, who by now realized what a dreadful deed had been done, turned his back on him, and, when Nero kept on questioning him, merely replied, ‘I’m very well.’ What wonderful moderation, even when he was dying!1 57 Nero was always cracking a joke he had invented about Claudius’ stupidity – he lengthened the first vowel in the word morari ‘to hang about,’ making m¯orari, ‘to fool about.’ The joke was postquam desiit inter vivos morari, ‘after he stopped hanging about / fooling about among the living.’ M¯oros in Greek means ‘idiotic’ and he invented a verb m¯orari ‘to act the idiot’ from that word, like other invented words we have, eg poetari derived from poeta ‘to play the poet’ and iuvenari from iuvenis ‘to act the teenager.’1 58 Some people think a secret decision had been taken, which even Seneca knew nothing about, that after Nero’s assassination, Piso too should be murdered ***** 1 This incident is taken from Tacitus Annals 14.8.6, but in modern texts Agrippina cries only ventrem feri ‘Strike my belly.’ The longer exclamation is based on pseudo-Seneca Octavia 373–4. Either the words there or similar ones were first cited in the margin of mss of Tacitus and then were adopted into the text, appearing in earlier editions until that of Lipsius (1574). In the c. 1475 edition of Tacitus of Franciscus Puteolanus (Milan) and the 1515 edition of Philippus Beroaldus (Stephanus Guillerchi, Rome) the words are hic est, hic est fodiendus ferro monstrum qui tale tulit. 56

(xvi) Tacitus Annals 14.51.3. In margin ‘brave‘ 1 Modern commentators take Burrus’ words as sarcastic, meaning that he, unlike Nero, was well, morally and spiritually.

57

(xxvii) Suetonius Nero 33.1. In margin ‘joke at a dead man’s expense‘ 1 See Adagia iv i 83: Iuvenari ‘Behaving like an adolescent.’ This word, invented by Horace (Ars poetica 246) is an old favourite of Erasmus’. He had used it in the 1512 edition of De copia (cwe 28.310) in the section on poetic words; morari was added to that text in 1534 (cwe 28.316), under ‘New Words.’ The first six books of Apophthegmata were published in 1531.

58

(xxviii) Tacitus Annals 15.65.2. In margin ‘witty‘

6 . 58

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614

and the imperial power bestowed on Seneca.1 Meantime a remark of Flavius was bandied about to the effect that ‘it made no difference, as far as the disgrace was concerned, if the lyre-player were removed and the tragic actor succeeded him.’ Nero used to sing to the lyre, Piso performed tragic roles. Flavius considered both of them equally unworthy of the imperial power. 59 When the conspirators were on trial, Nero asked the tribune Subrius Flavius what had led him to forget his oath of allegiance. He replied, ‘I had come to hate you. No one among your soldiers was more faithful to you while you deserved to be loved, but I began to hate you after you revealed yourself as a mother-murderer, a wife-murderer, a charioteer, an actor, and a fireraiser.’ They say that this was the thing that Nero found most unpalatable in the whole conspiracy: he was ready enough to commit crimes but quite unable to bear hearing them spoken of. 60 On the same occasion, when Nero asked the centurion Sulpicius Asper why he had conspired to assassinate him he replied, ‘There was no other way to remedy your many wickednesses.’ 61 After spending the day on his official duties, the consul Vestinus was suddenly arrested at dinner, taken away, and executed. The dinner-guests expected nothing other than their own destruction. Nero found their terror amusing and remarked ‘that they had paid dear enough for having dinner with the consul.’ ***** 1 Gaius Calpurnius Piso was the figurehead in the conspiracy of ad 65 against Nero. He had no real heart for it and after its betrayal committed suicide. Seneca is the Stoic philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Nero’s chief adviser at the beginning of his reign. See 6.32 above. Subrius Flavius (see 6.59 immediately below) was a tribune in the Praetorian Guard, the emperor’s bodyguard, and chief motivator in the conspiracy. 59

(xxix) Tacitus Annals 15.67.1–2, 5. In margin ‘outspoken‘

60

(xxx) Tacitus Annals 15.68.1. In margin ‘outspoken‘

61

(xxxi) Tacitus Annals 15.69.2–4. In margin ‘a brutal joke‘ Vestinus Atticus was consul in the year of the conspiracy (ad 65). Nero took the opportunity of getting rid of a man he hated on the pretext of his involvement.

6 . 65

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615

You could say that these words showed leniency in the light of Nero’s other crimes! 62 After Nero killed his mother, a certain Africanus offered him his condolences, saying, ‘Your Gallic provinces urge you, Caesar, to bear up under your good fortune.’1 Otho 63 When the Emperor Sylvius Otho was taking the auspices, a storm arose. He fell to the ground, muttering over and over again, as we are told, ‘What business have I with long pipes?’ He realized it was useless for him to try to placate the shades of Galba1 with sacrifices and expiatory rites. There is more about this in my Adages.2 64 After he had determined to die, he learned that those who had abandoned their allegiance to him and were trying to leave were being seized and held as deserters. He ordered that no one should be harmed, saying, ‘Let us add to our life this one night more.’ He kept his door open until well into the evening and made himself available if anyone wanted to visit him. 65 Many people begged Otho not to renounce the imperial power and abandon army and state, and one of the common soldiers, raising his sword, cried, ***** 62

(xxxii) Quintilian 8.5.15 1 Quintilian credits Julius Africanus, an orator from Gaul, first century ad, with this stupid remark from a speech of flattery.

63

(i) Suetonius Otho 7.2. In margin ‘an omen of the end‘ Marcus Salvius Otto was briefly the second emperor in ‘the year of the four emperors,’ ad 68–69: Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian, all military men backed by their respective armies, who proclaimed their own candidate emperor. 1 Galba, the first of the ‘four emperors,’ was assassinated with the cognizance of Otto. 2 Adagia i v 97: Quid opus erat longis canere tibiis ‘What need was there to play on the long pipes?’ Otho’s words were in Greek: t’ moi ka“ makro”w a[lo”w; Erasmus discusses the reading both in this adage and in the second dedicatory epistle of his edition of Suetonius (Ep 648:22–9).

64

(ii) Suetonius Otho 11.1. In margin ‘set on dying‘ Otho’s forces had been defeated by those of his rival Vitellius.

65

(iii) Plutarch Life of Otho 15.3. In margin ‘a soldier’s loyalty‘

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‘Know, Caesar, that we are all so minded in your defence,’ and immediately slew himself. 66 When Otho had determined to die, he called to him his brother’s son, Cocceius, and gave him this parting exhortation: ‘My boy, do not entirely forget that your uncle was emperor, but do not remember it too well either.’ He didn’t want him to forget entirely and fail to care about his family; he didn’t want him to remember too powerfully and avenge his uncle’s death. Vespasian the Elder 67 A young man was thanking Flavius Vespasianus for granting him a prefecture. He reeked of perfume, and Vespasian indicated his contempt by turning his head away and reprimanding him severely. ‘I would rather you smelled of garlic,’ he said, and immediately recalled his letter of appointment. 68 An altercation had arisen between a senator and a Roman knight. Vespasian pronounced on this by saying, ‘It is not acceptable to insult senators; but to return an insult is lawful and the right of a citizen.’ The senator who insulted first deprived himself of the prerogative of his rank. 69 Vespasian was privately complaining to a mutual friend about Licinius Mucianus, a man of notorious immorality, but added at the end, ‘Still, I am a man.’ ***** 66

(iv) Plutarch Life of Otho 16.2. In margin ‘forbearance‘

67

(i) Suetonius Vespasian 8.3. In margin ‘reeking of perfume‘ Titus Flavius Vespasianus emerged the victor from the conflicts of ad 69 and ruled as emperor ad 69–79. The Emperor Vespasian was called ‘the Elder’ to distinguish him from his son, Titus Vespasianus, known as the Emperor Titus. A few sayings of Titus are given below, 6.84–7. Vespasian as emperor kept up the character of the bluff, plain military man. Erasmus omits Vitellius, the third emperor.

68

(ii) Suetonius Vespasian 9.2. In margin ‘a provoked man justified‘

69

(iii) Suetonius Vespasian 13. In margin ‘mild comment‘

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He meant that the one who had spoken of him disparagingly was an effeminate. There is something similar in Virgil’s line ‘Remember to be less free with such insults / When offered to men at least.’1 70 When Salvius Liberalis was defending a wealthy man in court, he remarked, ‘What is it to the emperor if Hipparchus has a hundred million sesterces?’ This was an oblique hit at Vespasian, suggesting that he was gasping to get his hands on the defendant’s money,1 but the emperor did not take offence. In fact, he approved of the remark as a frank expression of opinion. 71 It was Vespasian’s custom to advance the greediest characters to positions of responsibility, so that, once they had enriched themselves, he could try them and find them guilty. Consequently it was commonly said ‘that he treated his officials as sponges, filling them up when they were dry and squeezing them out when they were wet.’ 72 A countryman humbly petitioned Vespasian to grant him his freedom without payment, but he was refused. He was bold enough to remark audibly, ‘The fox changes his coat but not his nature.’1 He was censuring Vespasian’s habitual rapacity, assuming that he would have granted for money the boon he would not grant for nothing. 73 Mestrius Florus, a man of consular rank, told him that the correct pronunciation of the word for ‘wagons’ was plaustra, not plostra. The next day, Vespasian addressed him as Flaurus, not Florus. This was an affable joke about the man’s pedantic admonition. The ***** 1 Virgil Eclogues 3.7 70

71 72

73

(iv) Suetonius Vespasian 13. In margin ‘mild reaction‘ 1 One of several anecdotes illustrating Vespasian’s rapacity and tight-fistedness. (v) Suetonius Vespasian 16.2. In margin ‘rapacity‘ (vi) Suetonius Vespasian 6.3. In margin ‘avarice in a ruler‘ 1 Cf Adagia iii iii 19: Lupus pilum mutat. (vii) Suetonius Vespasian 22. Vespasian originated from a country district and possibly kept his local accent. In margin ‘a joke‘

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ancient Romans employed the sound o instead of the diphthong au in some words, eg Clodius for Claudius.1 74 A certain woman said she was dying of love for Vespasian. He took her to bed and paid her forty thousand sesterces for the night. When his steward asked him under what head he should write it down in the accounts, he replied, ‘To a passion for Vespasian.’ 75 Vespasian applied to a very tall man with an unfortunate physical characteristic the line from Homer, ‘With great strides out he stepped, brandishing his long-shadowed spear.’1 76 A man called Cerylus, a freedman who had also become very rich, began to pass himself off as free born in order eventually to escape the death duties imposed by the imperial treasury, and to that end he changed his name from Cerylus to Laches. Vespasian quoted against him these lines, from a play I think: ‘O Laches, Laches, / once you’re dead, you’ll again be – Cerylus.’1 He meant that the change of name would do him no good. 77 An official who was one of Vespasian’s favourites begged him to entrust an administrative post to someone he pretended was his brother. Vespasian ***** 1 See 6.208 n1 below. 74

(viii) Suetonius Vespasian 22. In margin ‘humorous‘

75

(ix) Suetonius Vespasian 23.1. In margin ‘a joke out of Homer‘ 1 Homer Iliad 7.213: makrˆ bibˆw, krad‡vn dolix—skion Ágxow

76

(x) Suetonius Vespasian 23.1. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 Menander Theophoroumene (caf 3 fr 223): ã L‡xhw, L‡xhw, / \p' Än' úpoy‡n+w a{yiw Áss+ – K}rulow. The Greek reading in Erasmus’ text here is the one he proposed in Ep 684:47–56. His reading is not accepted by modern editors. ‘O Laches, Laches’ is not part of this fragment but is fragment 921. Vespasian, who was something of a wit, was it seems adapting the original lines, which were in a passage about the humorous possibility of returning as some other creature after death. After death Laches, however, would not be some other being, but Cerylus again, and the tax-officials would get him. This gives more point to the anecdote. The full text of Menander’s fragment is quoted at Stobaeus 106.8 (Meineke iv 30).

77

(xi) Suetonius Vespasian 32.2. In margin ‘avaricious‘

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guessed the truth of the matter, so he summoned the candidate to his presence alone and exacted from him the same sum as he had agreed to give his sponsor. Once he received it, he appointed him to the post. The official, who knew nothing of this, made another appeal on behalf of his ‘brother.’ Vespasian said, ‘Get yourself another brother. The man you think is yours is mine.’ 78 On one of his journeys, the muleteer dismounted, pretending that he had to shoe the mules, but really to create a delay and provide an opportunity for a man involved in a law-suit to approach the emperor. Vespasian, suspecting that something underhand was going on, asked the muleteer how much it had cost to shoe the mules. He then settled for part of the proceeds. If he did this to discipline his household, he was behaving as a responsible citizen. It if was to enrich himself with the proceeds, it was demeaning. 79 Vespasian instituted a tax on urine.1 His son remonstrated with him, but he said nothing until the first payments came in. He held the money up to his son’s nose and asked him whether he found the smell unpleasant. When he said, ‘No,’ he remarked, ‘Yet it comes from urine.’2 80 A deputation informed him that a statue costing a considerable amount of money was going to be erected in his honour at public expense. He ordered them to erect it at once, and holding out his cupped hand, said, ‘See, the base is already in position.’ He was suggesting that they could place in his palm while he was alive the money which they had decided to spend on a statue for him when he was dead. 81 When the mausoleum of the Caesars suddenly gaped open and a long-tailed comet appeared, other people interpreted this as portending the emperor’s ***** 78 79

(xii) Suetonius Vespasian 23.2. In margin ‘demeaning‘ (xiii) Suetonius Vespasian 23.3. In margin ‘demeaning‘ 1 Urine was used in various industrial processes, such as fulling, and it was supplied from public collection points such as conveniences. 2 See Adagia iii vii 13: Lucri bonus est odor ex re qualibet ‘Profit smells good whatever it comes from.’

80

(xiv) Suetonius Vespasian 23.3. In margin ‘grasping‘

81

(xv) Suetonius Vespasian 23.4. In margin ‘interpretation of omens‘

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death. But he put a light-hearted interpretation on it, saying that the first portent referred to Julia Calvina, as she came of Augustus’ family,1 and the second to the king of the Parthians (or, as Aurelius Victor has it, the king of the Persians), because he wore his hair long.2 82 As his final illness worsened, ‘I think,’ he said, ‘that I’m becoming a god.’ He meant that he was about to die, for it was the custom for deceased emperors to be enrolled in the company of the gods by public ceremonials. 83 Vespasian was in great pain from an intestinal complaint but nonetheless continued to carry out his duties as emperor. He even received embassies as he lay on a couch. When his friends urged him to take more care of himself, he replied ‘that an emperor should die on his feet.’1 Titus son of Vespasian 84 Titus, Vespasian’s son, was taken to task by his friends for making more promises to those who came to him with their petitions than he could pos***** 1 Augustus built the Mausoleum in 28 bc. Julia Calvina was a great-granddaughter of Augustus. There may also be a joke here on the name Calvina, as calvus in Latin means ‘bald’ (as suggested in a note in the Loeb text). 2 Sextus Aurelius Victor, fourth century ad, was author of De Caesaribus, a short history of the Caesars from Augustus to Constantius ii (ad 360). Erasmus mentions Aurelius Victor several times, eg in Ciceronianus (cwe 28.410), where he pours scorn on his Latin style. But what Erasmus and others knew as Aurelius Victor’s work was in reality the Epitome de Caesaribus, an anonymous compilation (probably fourth to fifth century ad) from various sources, which uses Aurelius with Suetonius in its chapters 1–11. This was published under Aurelius’ name with the title Libellus de vita et moribus imperatorum Romanorum sive Epitome in 1503 (Laurentius Abstemius ex urbe Fanestri) and again in 1504 (Paris, Ascensius). The real Aurelius Victor was a rare work, surviving in only two mss, and was not published until 1579 by Andreas Schott (Antwerp, Plantin), who declared the Epitome to be the work of a different person. The Epitome, unlike Aurelius Victor, was a common text, being a school book in the Middle Ages, and it exists in many manuscript copies. 82 83

84

(xvi) Suetonius Vespasian 23.4. In margin ‘joking in the face of death‘ (xvii) Suetonius Vespasian 24. In margin ‘die on one’s feet‘ 1 Cf 6.542 below. (i) Suetonius Titus 8.1. In margin ‘approachability in an Emperor‘ Titus Flavius Vespasianus was emperor ad 79–81

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sibly fulfil. He replied ‘that it was not right for anyone to go away sad from a meeting with his emperor.’ 85 Over dinner on one occasion Titus remembered that he had done no one a service that day and spoke those famous and deservedly admired words: ‘Friends, I have lost a day.’ 86 Titus used to remark ‘that he could have been a very successful fraudster because he could imitate with the greatest ease any handwriting he saw.’ 87 He fell ill of a fever and had to be carried away in a litter from the place he had gone to. He pulled aside the curtains and looked up at the sky, lamenting ‘that he did not deserve to have life taken from him, as in his whole life he had done not a single thing that he regretted, save one.’ He never revealed what that one was nor could anyone make a guess at it. A Caesar who deserved to live long!1 Domitian 88 When he first became emperor, Domitian made it his habit to go off by himself every day to a private place, where he did nothing but catch flies and stab them with a sharp stylus. When somebody asked whether the emperor had anyone with him, Vibius Crispus wittily replied, ‘Not so much as a fly.’1 89 He published an edict ordering vineyards to be chopped down because the craze for growing vines was causing the cultivation of crops to be neglected. He rescinded this decree on account of pamphlets that were going about, containing the lines, ‘Gnaw me down to the root, yet shall ***** 85

(ii) Suetonius Titus 8.1. In margin ‘generosity‘

86

(iii) Suetonius Titus 3.2. In margin ‘dexterity‘

87

(iv) Suetonius Titus 10.1. In margin ‘a ruler who did no harm‘ 1 He died at the age of forty-two, having ruled for just over two years. He was known as ‘the darling of the human race’ (Suetonius Titus 1.1).

88

(v) Suetonius Domitian 3.1. In margin ‘witty‘ Titus Flavius Domitianus was emperor ad 81–96. He died by assassination. 1 Adagia ii i 84: Ne musca quidem

89

(vi) Suetonius Domitian 14.2. In margin ‘threats against the emperor‘

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I bear fruit enough / To sprinkle you, O Caesar, when as sacrifice you stand!’1 This epigram was originally about the goat which gnaws vines. The hegoat was sacrificed to Bacchus because it damages the vines with its teeth.2 The verse was turned to fit Domitian by substituting ‘you, O Caesar’ for ‘you, O goat.’ 90 Observing that one Metius was excessively vain, Domitian used to remark, ‘I wish I were as handsome as Metius thinks he is.’ Cocceius Nerva 91 Under Nerva, a ‘good emperor,’1 many people were falsely informed upon. The consul Fronto is supposed to have said openly ‘that while it was bad to have an emperor under whom nobody was allowed to do anything, it was much worse to live under one who let anybody do anything he liked.’ It’s a hard-hearted prince who makes no concessions to his friends and acquaintances, but it’s ruinous if he lets them do whatever they want. Trajan 92 At dinner one day, Trajan proposed to his friends that they should name ten people whom they considered fit to be entrusted with supreme power. They remained silent, and he said, ‘I ask you for ten. I have just one, Severianus.’1 ***** 1 Anthologia Palatina 9.75. Erasmus quotes the Greek but does not translate it: k©n me f‡g+w \p“ ]’zan, Ðmvw £ti karpofor}sv / Ðsson \pispe”sai Ka’sari yuomŽn~. 2 See Ovid Fasti 1.355–60. 90

(vii) Suetonius Domitian 20. In margin ‘amusing‘

91

(viii) Dio Cassius 68.1.3, via Merula. See Introduction xix–xx above. In margin ‘an indulgent prince‘ Marcus Cocceius Nerva was emperor ad 96–98, chosen by the conspirators against Domitian. 1 The five so-called ‘good emperors’ (by contrast with many of their predecessors and successors) were Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, covering the period ad 96–180.

92

(ix) Dio Cassius 69.17.3, via Merula Life of Hadrian. See Introduction xix–xx above. In margin ‘one outstanding man‘ Marcus Ulpius Traianus was emperor ad 98–117. 1 Lucius Julius Ursus Servianus (the name is wrongly given as Severianus). He held high office under Domitian, and was consul for the second time under Trajan. Hadrian later ordered his death as a pretender to the imperial throne.

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He considered him the only one fit to rule. Hadrian 93 When he was dying, Hadrian uttered those well-known words, ‘Too many doctors killed the emperor.’ I think he was adapting the Greek proverb, ‘Too many generals destroyed Caria,’ making it into ‘Too many doctors killed the king.’1 It’s true today also that having too many doctors is in many cases the cause of death. 94 Hadrian frequently said in the senate that ‘he would so conduct himself as princeps1 as to keep in mind that the state belonged to the people and was not his private possession.’ In this he put his finger on the one thing that distinguishes a king from a tyrant. 95 When he had become emperor, he was so indifferent to his personal enemies that when he by chance met one of those whom he had previously considered a mortal foe, he merely said, ‘You’ve escaped.’ In private quarrels, it should be enough for princes that they could have taken revenge. 96 Hadrian was wonderfully affable in conversing even with the humblest people and loathed those who begrudged him the pleasure he derived from this friendly behaviour, when they protested that the dignity of the emperor should be preserved in all circumstances. ***** See 6.99 (Hadrian) below – the anecdotes occur together in Dio. 93

(i) Dio Cassius 69.22.4, via Merula. See Introduction xix–xx above. In margin ‘a crowd of doctors‘ Publius Aelius Hadrianus was emperor ad 117–138. 1 See cpg 2 Apostolius 14.51 and cpg 1 Diogenianus 7.72; Adagia ii vii 7: Multitudo imperatorum Cariam perdidit ‘Excess of generals ruined Caria.’ Merula translates Dio as interfecit regem ‘killed the king.’

94

(ii) Historia Augusta, Hadrian 8.3. In margin ‘a prince‘ 1 Princeps ‘first citizen’ was a title originally adopted by Augustus to disguise his supreme power, but it gradually came to mean ‘ruler.’

95

(iii) Historia Augusta, Hadrian 17.1. In margin ‘merciful‘

96

(iv) Historia Augusta, Hadrian 20.1. In margin ‘affable‘

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97 Dionysius of Miletus, a distinguished sophist, made this comment on Heliodorus, to whom Hadrian was singularly attached: ‘Caesar can grant honour and wealth, but he cannot make a master of rhetoric.’ Hadrian had made Heliodorus head of petitions out of partiality rather than judgment.1 98 At a show in Rome, the crowd shouted for Hadrian to grant freedom to a charioteer who had pleased them. He put up a notice saying ‘that what they asked was contrary to justice. If he freed another man’s slave, an injustice would be done to the slave’s owner.’ You could say that Hadrian abhorred the use of coercion in any form. 99 Hadrian ordered the deaths of Servianus1 and his grandson Fuscus,2 because they appeared to take exception to the designation of Lucius Commodus as Hadrian’s successor. Severianus was ninety years old, Fuscus eighteen. When the old man was about to be garrotted, he asked for fire and, after burning some incense, said, ‘I call you, O gods, to witness that I have not committed any crime. I do not pray for any evil to befall Hadrian except that, when he desires to die, he may not be able to do so.’ And that indeed happened, for the barbarian brought in to stab him and so grant him the boon of death fled from the deed. 100 A man whose hair was going white asked him for a favour which was refused. He came back some time later with the same request, but now his ***** 97

(v) Dio Cassius 69.3.5, via Merula. See Introduction xix–xx above. In margin ‘gifts of the mind‘ 1 For Dionysius of Miletus and Heliodorus in general, see Philostratus Lives of the Sophists 521–6 and 625–7. Heliodorus was appointed chief Advocate of the Treasury (Philostratus 626). In spite of Hadrian’s favouritism, he does not seem to have been particularly outstanding. His son was much more distinguished, and was, briefly, a claimant to the Imperial throne.

98

(vi) Dio Casssius 69.16.3, via Merula. See Introduction xix–xx above. In margin ‘justice‘

99

(vii) Dio Cassius 69.22.2–3 and 69.17.1–2, via Merula. See Introduction xix–xx above. In margin ‘a dying man’s prayer‘ 1 See above 6.92 n1 (Trajan). Servianus was Hadrian’s brother-in-law. 2 Gnaeus Pedanius Fuscus Salinator was Hadrian’s great-nephew, as his grandmother was Hadrian’s sister. See 6.102 below.

100 (viii) Historia Augusta, Hadrian 20.8. From here until 6.182 Erasmus draws on the Historia Augusta. See Introduction xix–xx above. In margin ‘witty‘

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hair was black, as he had dyed it. The emperor recognized his face and said, ‘I have already refused that to your father.’1 101 Hadrian once saw one of his slaves walking between two senators, so he sent someone to box his ears and say, ‘Do not walk between men whose slave you might yet become.’ He was both defending the status of senators and punishing the slave’s insolence, derived from having the emperor as his master. 102 Hadrian made Aelius Verus Commodus consul for the second time and marked him out as his successor.1 When he saw that he was weak both in mind and body, he used to say, ‘We have leaned on a tottering wall2 and lost the four hundred million sesterces which we gave to people and army on the occasion of his adoption.’ He truly foresaw that Commodus would be useless as emperor but foresaw it too late. 103 Florus made a dig at the emperor in the following squib: I would not a Caesar be – Plod through British tribes, Endure those Russian frosts.1

The emperor replied with: I would not a Florus be – Plod round all the pubs,

***** 1 For a similar story in quite a different context see 6.573 below. 101 (ix) Historia Augusta, Hadrian 21.3. In margin ‘arrogance of rulers’ slaves‘ 102 (x) Historia Augusta, Hadrian 23.14. In margin ‘not up to ruling‘ 1 Hadrian’s first choice as successor. He was made consul in ad 132, and in the same year was adopted as Hadrian’s son. He was consul again in 137, but died suddenly in 138. 2 Adagia ii vi 69: In caducem parietem inclinare 103 (xi) Historia Augusta, Hadrian 17.3. In margin ‘honest occupations‘ 1 Hadrian made a point of inspecting his provinces on foot and subjecting himself to strict army discipline (Historia Augusta, Hadrian 10–11). This Annius Florus may be the same person as at 6.73 above.

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Lurk in back-street dives, Endure great rounded bugs.

He made it clear that he preferred honest occupation to useless and disgraceful ease. 104 Hadrian used to say that ‘he didn’t like to see anyone unhappy,’ yet he used to pester all the scholars with tiresome questions. But after doing so, he would reward them in some way. 105 A man’s wife wrote to her husband complaining that he was so busy dallying at the baths1 and enjoying himself that he didn’t want to come home to her. The emperor found out about this through his agents. So when the man asked for leave, he taxed him with these baths and pleasures. Then the man said, ‘Did my wife write to you, Caesar, the same as she wrote to me?’ So he censured Hadrian’s prying, so unworthy of an emperor. 106 As Hadrian approached death, he is said to have made light of it by composing the following verses: Little soul, so restless, so charming, This body’s companion and guest, Now must you pass to your last long rest, All wan and chill, little naked thing, Nor ever more, as heretofore, Indulge your jesting.

107 They say that Hadrian was skilled in the mathematical sciences and could predict the future, and that he foretold that Verus would not live long,1 ***** 104 (xii) Historia Augusta, Hadrian 16.8–9. In margin ‘a ruler not being trying‘ 105 (xiii) Historia Augusta, Hadrian 11.6. In margin ‘prying‘ 1 Large public baths in the imperial period were social centres which might include gardens, lecture-rooms, and libraries. 106 (xiv) Historia Augusta, Hadrian 25.9. In margin ‘making light of death‘ 107 (xv) Historia Augusta, Aelius Verus 3.9–4.1. In margin ‘prescience‘ 1 See 6.102 above.

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quoting the following lines from Virgil: ‘The fates shall grant the earth but a glimpse of him, / Nor let him longer stay.’2 108 When someone quoted, with reference to Verus, Virgil’s lines, ‘Bring armfuls of lilies,’ etc,1 Hadrian wryly commented, ‘I adopted myself a god, not a man.’ He was referring to the Roman practice of enrolling emperors among the gods, but only after the funeral pyre. 109 Someone else tried to console him by suggesting that Verus’ horoscope had not been correctly cast and that there was accordingly hope that he would live for some time. Hadrian said, ‘It’s easy for you to say that. You only need someone to leave your estate to, not a whole state.’ He meant that it was supremely important for a good ruler to live as long as possible. 110 As Hadrian was passing by, a woman called out to him, ‘Hear me, Caesar.’ He replied that he hadn’t got time. So she cried out, ‘Stop being emperor then.’ At this he halted and listened to her. This saying is attributed to others, and there is no reason why it shouldn’t be said and done by more than one person.1 Aelius Verus Commodus 111 Aelius was involved in many extra-marital affairs and when his wife complained, he said, ‘Let me indulge my desires on other women. The name “wife” implies respect, not passion.’1 ***** 2 Virgil Aeneid 6.869–70 108 (xvi) Historia Augusta, Aelius Verus 4.3, 5. In margin ‘short-lived‘ 1 Virgil Aeneid 6.883–4 109 (xvii) Historia Augusta, Aelius Verus 4.5. In margin ‘the choice of a ruler‘ 110 (xviii) Dio Cassius 69.6.3, via Merula. In margin ‘outspoken‘ 1 Eg Philip of Macedon, 4.31 above and 8.160 below. See dedicatory epistle 12 above. 111 (i) Historia Augusta, Aelius Verus 5.11. In margin ‘respect for a wife‘ 1 A conventional theoretical attitude to sexual pleasure, eg Plutarch Moralia 752c (Dialogue on love): ‘respectable women should neither feel sexual passion nor be the object of it.’ See also 7.87 (Antisthenes), 7.270 (Crates) below.

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112 As his health began to fail, he often said that ‘an emperor should die healthy, not weak.’1 He said this because a good many earlier emperors had died a violent death. Julius Caesar desired such a death, as being both sudden and soon over, and he got what he desired.2 (Marcus) Antoninus Pius 113 Marcus Antoninus, when on his death-bed, urged his son, Aurelius Commodus, not to allow the barbarian nations, now much reduced, to recover their strength. The son replied ‘that a living person can complete projects even if it takes a long time, a dead man can do nothing.’1 This may well be true, but the remark flies in the face of all proper behaviour. The one who made it rejected his father’s parting words of advice and more or less mocked him on his death-bed. This story is in Sextus Aurelius Victor.2 114 He was very fond of that famous saying of Scipio’s, which he was constantly quoting, namely that ‘he would rather save the life of one citizen than kill a thousand enemies.’1 He was a man who preferred peace to war, and, in the eventuality of war, he was well aware that the first concern of the leader should be to secure victory with the smallest possible loss of citizen life.2 ***** 112 (ii) Historia Augusta, Aelius Verus 6.10. In margin ‘a ruler’s death‘ 1 This anecdote actually concerns Hadrian, though like 6.107–9 above (Hadrian), it is recorded in the life of Aelius Verus. 2 Suetonius Julius Caesar 87. Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 bc. See 4.214 above. 113 (iii) Epitome de Caesaribus 17.2. Titus Aelius Aurelius Antoninus Pius was emperor ad 138–161. 1 This anecdote has been mistakenly attributed to Antoninus Pius instead of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, father of another Commodus for whom see 6.121 n1 below. 2 See 6.81 n2 (Vespasian) above. 114 (iv) Historia Augusta, Antoninus Pius 9, 10 1 This saying of Scipio does not appear elsewhere in the Apophthegmata. Cf a remark of Lucullus 5.436 above and Phocion 7.395 below. 2 His reign was marked by peace and stability, with no major wars.

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115 Apollonius, the teacher of rhetoric, who had been brought over from Chalcis,1 was summoned to the House of Tiberius where the emperor was living at the time, the emperor’s intention being to entrust him with the education of Marcus Antoninus.2 Apollonius replied, ‘The teacher should not come to the pupil but the pupil to the teacher.’ The emperor laughed at the man’s self-importance and said, ‘It was easier for Apollonius to come to Rome from Chalcis than for him to come from his own house to the palace!’ What had attracted Apollonius to Rome was the prospect of the salary, not any interest in the country.3 116 When Marcus Antoninus was grieving over the death of the man who had always looked after him and the courtiers tried to prevent the boy from displaying his affection for the person who had brought him up, the Emperor Antoninus said, ‘Allow him first to be a human being. Neither philosophy nor imperial power removes normal feelings of affection.’ 117 Once, when visiting the house of one Omulus, Antoninus Pius admired the columns of porphyry and asked where he had got them from. Omulus replied, ‘When you are in somebody else’s house, you should be deaf and dumb,’ meaning that he should not pry into someone else’s private affairs. The emperor did not take offence at being twitted in this outspoken way. Marcus (Antoninus) Aurelius 118 Faustina, the wife of Marcus Antoninus, was being talked about and when his friends urged him to divorce her if he didn’t want to execute her, he ***** 115 1 2 3

(v) Historia Augusta, Antoninus Pius 10.4. In margin ‘self-importance laughed at‘ A town in Macedonia This is the future emperor, Marcus Antoninus Aurelius. See 6.118–23 below. This remark of Erasmus is based on the statement in the source that the emperor had already noted the man’s greed in the matter of salary.

116 (vi) Historia Augusta, Antoninus Pius 10.5. In margin ‘humane‘ 117 (vii) Historia Augusta, Antoninus Pius 11.3. In margin ‘outspoken‘ 118 (viii) Historia Augusta, Marcus Antoninus 19.8–9. In margin ‘a kingdom for a dowry‘ Marcus Aelius Aurelius Antoninus Verus was emperor ad 161–180. The following six sayings were mistakenly attributed to (Marcus) Antoninus Pius in the source.

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replied, ‘If we divorce a wife, we have to return the dowry.’ By ‘dowry,’ he meant the empire, which he had inherited from his father-in-law after being adopted by him at the desire of Hadrian.1 119 He never did anything in either the military or civil sphere without first consulting men of standing, saying, ‘It is more equitable that I should follow the advice of so many friends of such worth than that all those friends should follow what I alone wish.’ He was very different from those characters who consult their pal and say, ‘You give me very good advice, but my pal1 tells me something else.’ 120 He allowed Cassius, a man of senatorial rank, to be killed, though he didn’t actually order his execution.1 Afterwards he even mourned his death, saying ‘he had wished his reign to pass without the spilling of senatorial blood.’ Wonderful clemency in anyone who aspired to empire! 121 Two days before he died, he called his friends in and told them what he felt about his son, which was the same as Philip felt about Alexander. He said that he was content to die, because he left a son.1 ***** 1 Marcus Aurelius had been adopted as son by Antoninus Pius at Hadrian’s request and after Hadrian’s death married Pius’ daughter, Faustina. He succeeded Antoninus in ad 161. 119 (ix) Historia Augusta, Marcus Antoninus 22.3. In margin ‘take the advice of many‘ 1 Erasmus here uses the word pilleum. He possibly found this meaning for the word in Nonius 3.220m, which quotes Plautus Cornicularia: pilleum meum, mi sodalis, mea salubritas ‘my pal, my mate, my salvation.’ 120 (x) Historia Augusta, Marcus Antoninus 26.10.13. In margin ‘merciful‘ 1 Cassius attempted to usurp the imperial power and was executed as a traitor. 121 (xi) Historia Augusta, Marcus Antoninus 27.11. In margin ‘a son as solace in death‘ 1 Erasmus seems to have read his source hastily. Philip and Alexander were on bad terms when Philip died (see Plutarch Life of Alexander 9) and Erasmus’ source, Historia Augusta, says that Marcus Aurelius’ one regret when he died was that he left such a son behind. Commodus was already showing his bad characteristics and Marcus Aurelius foresaw that he would be a bad emperor and wished for him to die (Historia Augusta 27.12; 28.10). He was emperor from ad 180–192 when he was assassinated. Erasmus gives him no sayings, and moves on to the emperor Severus.

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122 Another day, Marcus Aurelius said to his friends, ‘Why do you weep for me and not rather consider the pestilence and the death that threatens us all?’ Philosophy had taught him to think nothing of man or death and to treat all human affairs with derision. When they were about to leave, he said, ‘If you now give me leave to go, I bid you farewell and go on ahead of you.’ He made a little joke, asking of his friends permission to leave and saying goodbye as if he were going abroad, though hinting at the same time that they would follow where he went before them. 123 When he was asked to whom he commended his son, he replied, ‘To you, if he is worthy, and to the immortal gods.’ He wanted their support to be given to his son not on his own authority, but on his son’s merits. Severus 124 The judgment of the Senate on Severus was ‘that he either should not have been born or should not have died,’ for, though he was cruel, he was seen to be extremely useful to the state for his other qualities.1 125 The army saluted Severus’ son Bassianus (afterwards called Antoninus Caracalla), as Augustus,1 their reason being that the father, who suffered from gout, was keeping the war at a standstill. Severus had himself carried to the commander’s platform and ordered to be present all the tribunes, centurions, generals, and units who had organized that event, and had his son, who had been quite willing to accept the title of Augustus, set in front of him. He ordered all the instigators to be punished, except for his son. When they ***** 122 (xii) Historia Augusta, Marcus Antoninus 28.4–5. In margin ‘death as a journey to some other place‘ 123 (xiii) Historia Augusta, Marcus Antoninus 28.6. In margin ‘modest‘ 124 (i) Historia Augusta, Severus 18.7. In margin ‘inconsistent character‘ Lucius Septimius Severus was emperor ad 193–211, raised to the purple by the might of his legions. 1 In the course of establishing his position, he murdered many senatorial opponents. See 6.139 below. Also Historia Augusta, Severus 21.10. His two sons Caracalla and Geta who succeeded him were disastrous as emperors. See 6.136–40 below. 125 (ii) Historia Augusta, Severus 18.9–10. In margin ‘authority‘ 1 The title implies the rank of co-emperor.

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prostrated themselves before him and begged for mercy, Severus touched his head and said, ‘Now you realize it is the head that rules and not the feet.’ 126 Another famous saying of his was, ‘I have been everything, but nothing is any good.’ He was referring to the fact that he had been advanced to the imperial purple by fortune’s favour, starting from humble origins and passing through many stages, holding administrative and military posts, but nothing had turned out well or satisfied him in any way. 127 Severus’ last words are said to have been, ‘I took over a state in complete turmoil; I leave it at peace, even for the Britons. I am old and my feet are diseased, but I leave an empire for my two Antonini,1 a strong one if they are good; a weak one, if they are bad.’ 128 He gave orders to issue to the tribune the password, ‘Let us toil.’ When Pertinax1 had been elevated to the imperial power, he had given the password, ‘Let us be soldiers.’ Pertinax liked something that suggested war, Severus peace. Once war is over, there is a return to the cultivation of the land and the putting up of buildings. Having nothing to do in peace time encourages self-indulgence and every kind of wrongdoing. ***** 126 (iii) Historia Augusta, Severus 18.11. In margin ‘experiencing everything‘ 127 (iv) Historia Augusta, Severus 23.3. In margin ‘a ruler’s excellence‘ 1 Ie his elder son Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Caracalla (co-emperor with Severus, 198–211, then sole emperor till 217), and his younger son, Publius Septimius Geta (briefly co-emperor with Caracalla on Severus’ death, 211). They hated each other and Caracalla murdered Geta in 211 (see 6.137 below). Severus had to fight off two rival claimants to the throne, Pertinax and Pescennius Niger, at the beginning of his reign. See 6.128–135 below. He and his two sons campaigned in Britain ad 208–211, and he died at York (Eburacum). See 6.499 below. 128 (v) Historia Augusta, Severus 23.4. In margin ‘hard work‘ 1 See Historia Augusta, Life of Pertinax 5.7. After the murder of the Emperor Commodus in ad 192, Pertinax ruled briefly January–March ad 193, when he was assassinated. After the short rule of Didius Julius (ad 193), Severus finally succeeded to the throne.

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129 An epigram in praise of Pescennius Niger was carved on a statue of him that depicted him to the life. Severus’ officials wanted him to have it erased, but he refused, saying, ‘If he was such a man, let everyone know what sort of a man we defeated. If he was not, let everyone think we defeated such a man.’ Pescennius Niger 130 Pescennius Niger1 gave a salary to those providing expert advice to prevent their making demands on those to whom they were acting as advisers, saying ‘that a judge should neither give nor receive.’ If only this example were followed by those who impoverish the judge by selling offices, leaving the advisors to live by what they can seize. 131 When the frontier troops in Egypt asked the emperor for wine, he replied, ‘You have the Nile, and you look for wine?’ They say that the water of the Nile is so sweet that those who live on its banks have no desire for wine. 132 When the soldiers who had been defeated by the Saracens said, ‘We are not getting any wine, so we can’t fight,’ the emperor replied, ‘You should feel ashamed. Those who defeat you drink water.’ Even today the Saracens think it wrong to taste wine. 133 When the inhabitants of Palestine asked to have their tax assessment reduced because the region was overburdened, Pescennius gave the merciless response, ‘You want to get relief for your land. I would like to tax your air as well.’ ***** 129 (vi) Historia Augusta, Pescennius Niger 12.6–7. In margin ‘temperate‘ For Pescennius Niger see 6.130 n1 below. 130 (i) Historia Augusta, Pescennius Niger. In margin ‘integrity‘ 1 Gaius Pescennius Niger Iustus was recognized as emperor in the eastern provinces for a brief period ad 193–194. See 6.127–8 and nn above. 131 (ii) Historia Augusta, Pescennius Niger 7.7. In margin ‘water instead of wine‘ 132 (iii) Historia Augusta, Pescennius Niger 7.8. In margin ‘unrelenting‘ 133 (iv) Historia Augusta, Pescennius Niger 7.9. In margin ‘harsh‘

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134 Once Pescennius had been proclaimed emperor, someone wanted to deliver before him a speech which he had written in his praise. He said, ‘Write in praise of Marius or Hannibal or some other great general who is no longer alive, so that I may follow his example. It is laughable to praise the living, especially emperors: they are the object of expectation or fear, they can kill, they can outlaw.’ He added ‘that he wanted to give satisfaction while he was alive, but when he was dead he wanted to be praised as well.’ 135 When someone asked his opinion of the Scipios, he replied ‘that he considered them fortunate men rather than fine ones, because both of them had in their younger days passed their lives at home in a far from commendable fashion.’1 Antoninus Caracalla 136 Caracalla’s step-mother, was a very beautiful woman, and as if by accident, let the greater part of her body be seen. Caracalla said, ‘I would, if I might.’ She replied, ‘You may, if you want. Don’t you know that you are emperor and make the laws instead of submitting to them?’ These words encouraged Caracalla to commit a heinous sin. 137 Caracalla boastfully added many titles to his name – Germanicus, Parthicus, Arabicus, Alamanicus.1 Helvius Pertinax, the son of Pertinax,2 wittily remarked, ‘Please add Geticus the Great3 as well.’ That was because ***** 134 (v) Historia Augusta, Pescennius Niger 11.5. In margin ‘the living to be instructed not lauded‘ 135 (vi) Historia Augusta, Pescennius Niger 12.2. In margin ‘judgmental‘ 1 Cf Valerius Maximus 6.9.2: ‘In his youth he (ie Scipio Africanus) had a rather lax way of life, though not going so far as total self-indulgence.’ 136 (vii) Historia Augusta, Antoninus Caracallus 10.2–3. In margin ‘licence in rulers‘ Marcus Aurelius Septimius Bassianus Caracallus, usually known as ‘Caracalla,’ was co-emperor with Severus 193–211, sole emperor 211–17. ‘Caracalla’ was a nickname. It denoted a type of hooded cloak. 137 (viii) Historia Augusta, Antoninus Caracallus 10.6. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 These titles were adopted after supposed victories over Germans, Parthians, Arabs, and Alamani. 2 See 6.127–8 above. 3 Literally meaning ‘great triumpher over the Getae (Goths),’ but Caracalla had just ‘triumphed’ over his brother Geta by murdering him.

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Caracalla had killed his brother Geta. 138 The prefect Bassianus1 suggested to Caracalla that he should give his dead brother the title Divus Geta,2 ‘the divine Geta,’ to counteract the ill will he had aroused by murdering him. ‘He can be divus “divine,” ’ he said, ‘so long as he isn’t vivus “living” among humanity.’ The lust for power disregards all laws of proper and natural affection. Antoninus Geta 139 When Severus, Antoninus Geta’s father, set in motion the murder of all his political opponents, he used to say to his family, ‘I am getting rid of enemies for you.’ Bassianus1 was so much in favour of this idea that he urged him to kill their children as well. The young Geta asked how many would have to be killed. When Severus revealed the figure, Geta then asked whether they had parents and relations. The reply was that they had, and many of them. Geta then said, ‘So more people in the country will grieve at our victory than rejoice at it.’ The boy’s judicious remark would have carried weight had not cruelty in certain quarters counteracted it. 140 When Bassianus said half-jokingly that they all had to be killed together with their children,1 the young Geta said, ‘You spare no-one. You could even kill a brother.’ No-one paid any attention to this remark at the time. Afterwards, it was seen to be prophetic. Bassianus eventually committed the crime of murdering his brother. ***** 138 (ix) Historia Augusta, Geta 2.8–9. In margin ‘against all natural affection‘ 1 This is an error. Bassianus was one of Caracalla’s names. 2 Emperors, after their deaths, were assumed to have joined the company of the gods and were awarded the title divus. It was a conventional mark of respect and approval and was refused to emperors whose wickedness had made them abominated, such as Commodus (see 6.121 n1 above). 139 (x) Historia Augusta, Geta 4.2–3. In margin ‘wise‘ Publius Septimius Geta was co-emperor for a few months in 211 with his brother Caracalla, before he was murdered by him. For Severus see 6.124–7 above. 1 The name by which Caracalla was known before he became emperor. See also 6.138 and 6.140 just above and just below. 140 (xi) Historia Augusta, Geta 4.8. In margin ‘frank‘ 1 For the danger of leaving survivors cf 5.471 (Brutus) above.

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Antoninus Heliogabalus 141 Heliogabalus had so little respect for the senate that he used to call them ‘slaves in togas,’ holding that they retained nothing of their original dignity but their togas. 142 He liked to be told that the cost of what was served at table was greater than it actually was, saying that ‘this was a good appetizer,’ because as the Satirist1 says people enjoy things more if they cost more. 143 Before he became emperor, someone who was amazed at his extravagance said, ‘Are you not afraid of becoming poor?’ ‘What better,’ he replied, ‘than being my own heir, and my wife’s too?’ Alexander Severus 144 Severus purged city, provinces, and his own court of supernumerary persons, saying that ‘an emperor had learnt his lesson badly1 if he fed men who were unnecessary and of no use to the country on the life-blood of the ordinary people of the empire.’ 145 He donated to temples very little silver and not the tiniest piece or flake of gold, constantly quoting the line of Persius: ‘Tell me, you priests, what does ***** 141 (xii) Historia Augusta, Heliogabalus 20.1. In margin ‘tyrannous remark‘ Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Elagabalus was emperor ad 218–222. He came to the throne through the machinations of his mother and grandmother, who claimed he was the son of Caracalla, and set him up as the figurehead of a rebellion against Macrinus, who was briefly Roman emperor after Caracalla. Heliogabalus’ excesses alienated all sections of society and he was assassinated. 142 (xiii) Historia Augusta, Heliogabalus 29.9. In margin ‘things costing a lot‘ 1 See Juvenal 11.16 and 117–29. Cf Aelian Varia historia 10.9, where the same remark is attributed to the greedy Philoxenus. See 6.507–8 below. It seems to be a commonly expressed sentiment. 143 (xiv) Historia Augusta, Heliogabalus 31.2. In margin ‘extravagance‘ 144 (i) Historia Augusta, Severus Alexander 15.2–3. In margin ‘superfluous offices‘ Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander was emperor ad 222–235. He had been adopted by his cousin Heliogabalus and succeeded after his murder. 1 Reading malum pupillum ‘was a bad pupil’; alternative reading malum publicum ‘was a public disaster.’ 145 (ii) Historia Augusta, Severus 44.9. In margin ‘gold in temples‘

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gold achieve in holy places?’1 146 Severus said he would never allow decisions that were his to make to be sold by his courtiers, as other rulers let their freedmen and eunuchs do. Consequently the decisions he took never turned out differently from his intentions. 147 He awarded salaries to advisors, though he said that ‘people who were capable of holding an administrative post without help were the ones who should be promoted and everyone should be doing the thing he knows about.’ This very sensible young man was well aware that the worst canker in any body politic is the fact that all functions are performed through deputies, sometimes even to the second or third tier of delegation; the city governor has a deputy, and the deputy has his own deputy, who has yet another deputy. Very often the one who has the office and the salary is the least suitable of them all actually to carry out the duties involved. Princes should be aware of this, as they are often forced to overburden the people with their exactions. 148 Severus kept an account of what he had awarded each individual. If anyone had asked for nothing or not much, he would summon that person and ask him, ‘Why do you not ask me for anything? Do you want to put me in the position of owing you something? Ask, so that you don’t complain of me when you cease to hold office.’ He recognized that a ruler has obligations to those who carry out their duties efficiently and he didn’t think it right that a man who displayed integrity while holding office should, when he demitted it, be impoverished in private life. 149 He paid great attention to food-supplies for the army, saying that ‘he was ***** 1 Persius Satires 2.69 146 (iii) Historia Augusta, Severus 45.4. See 6.159 below. In margin ‘consistency‘ 147 (iv) Historia Augusta, Severus 46.1. Cf 6.130 above and 6.469 below. In margin ‘deputies are a burden‘ 148 (v) Historia Augusta, Severus 46.3. In margin ‘benevolent‘ 149 (vi) Historia Augusta, Heliogabalus 47.1. In margin ‘care for the troops‘

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more concerned for the troops than for himself, since the safety of the country depended on them.’ It’s easier to find another emperor than another trained soldier. 150 Ovinius Camillus, a senator from an ancient family and a man of luxurious lifestyle, was fomenting rebellion in the hope of setting himself up as sole ruler. This was reported to Severus and immediately found to be true. So he summoned him to the palace and thanked him for being willing to take on the burden of government, which is usually imposed on good men who do not want it. Then he proceeded to the senate where he named the man, who was by this time terrified, knowing full well what a crime he had committed, as his partner in empire. He received him into the palace, decorated him with imperial insignia better than his own, and took him as his companion when he went on a military expedition. The emperor himself travelled on foot and he invited Ovinius, a man used to every luxurious comfort, to join in him this physical effort. After five miles Ovinius began to fall behind, so he told him to get on a horse. After two stages Ovinius had had enough of the horse, so he put him in a carriage. He found this uncongenial as well, and having no stomach for all this effort, he wanted to get rid of this imperial power. In fact he was ready to die. So the emperor dismissed him, and entrusting him to some soldiers who were particularly loyal, told him to go home in safety to his country estates. In this way he showed what wielding imperial power really was like. 151 Severus absolutely refused to allow the selling of the privilege of law and the sword.1 ‘The one who buys,’ he said, ‘must of necessity sell.’ Those were the words of a pagan and a young man too. So what is proper for Christian princes? 152 The Christians had taken over a place which had been public before, but some cook-shop owners said that it belonged to them. His official answer was that ‘it was better for God to be worshipped there in any way whatsoever than for it to be given over to keepers of cook-shops.’1 ***** 150 (vii) Historia Augusta, Severus 48.1–5. In margin ‘merciful‘ 151 (viii) Historia Augusta, Heliogabalus 49.1. In margin ‘saintly‘ 1 Ie the right of summary execution 152 (ix) Historia Augusta, Heliogabalus 49.6. In margin ‘pious‘ 1 These were usually places of low repute.

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153 On his military expeditions, if anyone diverged from the route onto someone’s private property, the perpetrator was, according to his status, beaten with clubs or rods, or in other cases, condemned to death.1 If the standing of the person made such a punishment inappropriate, he was given a severe reprimand, the emperor saying, ‘Would you like what you are doing on someone else’s property to be done on yours?’ He often voiced something he had heard from the Christians, and had it proclaimed by a herald when he was censuring someone: ‘As you would that men do not do unto you, do not do unto others.’2 What shall we then say about Christian soldiers, who, whether they are on the way out or back, thieve, seize, rape, beat up, drive off cattle, and breach casks so that the wine goes to waste? I needn’t go on at length – they mistreat their own side worse than the enemy. And this nowadays, so please heaven, is called the right of the military, and rulers connive at these practices. 154 Severus took great care that the officers and commanders should not cheat the soldiers of their pay, saying, ‘A soldier feels fear only when he has clothes on his back, weapons, boots, food in his belly, and something in his money-belt.’ He knew that when a soldier owns something he is afraid of losing it, but poverty makes a man in arms turn to desperate measures. 155 When Severus came to Antioch, he ordered the arrest of all the soldiers who had spent their leisure time at the baths indulging in luxuries only suitable for women. The legionary soldiers whose comrades had been arrested mutinied, so he mounted the commander’s platform and had all the prisoners brought before him, and, surrounded as he was by troops, and armed ones at that, he sternly told them to remember the discipline proper to Romans. His words were drowned out by hostile shouts, but completely unperturbed he told them to shout at the enemy, not at their emperor, and threatened to cashier them unless they quietened down. At this they roared even louder and threatened him with their weapons as well. ‘Lower your right hands,’ he said, ‘which should only be raised against the enemy, if you are truly ***** 153 (x) Historia Augusta, Severus 51.6–8. In margin ‘a soldier doing no harm‘ 1 Cf below 6.416, where a similar story is told of Lycurgus. 2 Cf Luke 6:31. 154 (xi) Historia Augusta, Severus 52.3. In margin ‘care for the troops‘ 155 (xii) Historia Augusta, Severus 53.2–54.7. In margin ‘uncompromising‘ In ad 231 Severus went to the East to face a renewed Persian threat.

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brave. All this does not frighten me.’ The uproar went on, so he shouted, ‘Civilians,1 disband. Lay down your arms.’ Immediately they all laid down their weapons and their soldiers’ cloaks as well, and moved off, not however to the camp but to various lodging houses. All the same, Severus later on found these troops to be most dependable.2 156 Severus couldn’t bear the sight of anyone suspected of dishonesty, so when Septimius Arabinus, who in spite of his notoriety had been acquitted of theft under Heliogabalus, came with the other senators to salute the emperor, he cried out, ‘Ye spirits above, O Jupiter, ye immortal gods! Arabinus not only lives, but even comes to the senate! Perhaps he has hopes of me, he thinks me such a fool and idiot.’ 157 He was always saying that only thieves complained of poverty, hoping thereby to conceal their criminal way of life. He used also to quote that well-known line about thieves: ‘He that steals much, gives little, will be alright,’1 thus censuring those individuals who steal a great deal in order to have the wherewithal to bribe the judge or the agent. 158 His mother Mammaea and his wife Memmia found fault with him, because his excessive familiarity with people was making his authority less formidable. He replied, ‘but also safer and longer lasting,’ thus pointing out that fear is a poor guarantee of duration. 159 A close friend of his, Veronius Thurinus, sold his patronage to those who had a petition to put to the emperor, promising much he could not fulfil. Severus saw that he was brought to trial and when he had been found guilty ***** 1 Julius Caesar had famously quelled a mutiny by calling his troops ‘civilians.’ See Suetonius Julius Caesar 70; Tacitus Annals 1.42.5. 2 In this paragraph, Erasmus has summarized an extended account in his source, which includes a long speech by Alexander Severus. 156 (xiii) Historia Augusta, Severus 17.2–4. In margin ‘hatred of dishonesty‘ 157 (xiv) Historia Augusta, Severus 18.4–5. In margin ‘bribery‘ 1 Adagia ii ii 72: Qui multa rapuerit, pauca suffragatoriis dederit, salvus erit ‘He who helps himself on a grand scale and gives his backers little, will be alright’; cf Adagia iv viii 29: Pecuniosus damnari non potest ‘A rich man cannot be found guilty.’ 158 (xv) Historia Augusta, Severus 20.3. In margin ‘a kingdom’s stability‘ 159 (xvi) Historia Augusta, Severus 35.6–36.2. In margin ‘a seller of smoke‘

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and sentence passed, he had him bound to a stake, put damp wood under him and set it alight, while a herald proclaimed, ‘He who sold smoke1 is punished by smoke.’ 160 He sold all the jewels he found in the palace and put the money into the public treasury, saying, ‘Men have no need of jewels, and the royal ladies should be content with a net for the hair, a pair of eardrops and a necklace trimmed with pearls, a circlet for sacrificing, only one dress with gold embroidery, and one outer garment with not more than six ounces of gold on it.’ Nowadays this amount of ornament hardly suffices merchants’ wives! 161 Severus never used as a courier anyone except his own slaves, saying that a free-born man should not run except in a race in a religious context. Likewise, all his cooks, fish-wardens, launderers, and bath-attendants were slaves, as he didn’t want to shame any free-born man by making him perform degrading services. 162 If he found his friends and relations to be dishonest, Severus would punish them. If a long-standing friendship or close ties made that inappropriate, he would banish them from his presence, saying, ‘The whole state is dearer to me than these,’ thus indicating that private affections have to take second place to the general good. Maximinus 163 When Maximinus was given command of a legion, there was no hardship which he shirked in training the troops and seeing to their welfare. Some ***** 1 See Adagia i iii 41: Fumos vendere ‘To sell smoke’; iv viii 83: Fumus ‘Smoke.’ 160 (xvii) Historia Augusta, Severus 41.1. In margin ‘ornaments for the imperial ladies‘ 161 (xviii) Historia Augusta, Severus 42.2. In margin ‘dignity‘ 162 (xix) Historia Augusta, Severus 67.3. In margin ‘one’s first care for the state‘ 163 (i) Historia Augusta, Maximini duo 6.4. In margin ‘hard work‘ Gaius Iulius Verus Maximinus, usually known as Maximinus Thrax ‘the Thracian,’ was emperor ad 235–238. This is the elder Maximinus, a huge violent man who rose from humble barbarian origins through the ranks to become emperor, largely due to his physical prowess and domineering personality. See Adagia i i 21: Caliga Maximini ‘The boot of Maximinus.’ His elevation was owed as so often to his troops.

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of the officers took him to task, saying, ‘Why do you work so hard when you have already achieved a rank from which you may become a general?’ ‘For myself,’ he replied, ‘the greater I am, the harder I shall work.’ 164 He used to wrestle with his troops and threw many of them. This aroused general ill will, so an officer of huge physique and proven courage which made him all the more aggressive, said to him, ‘It’s no big deal if you, an officer, defeat your men.’ Maximinus replied, ‘Would you like a match?’ The other came forward and Maximinus drove his palm flat against his chest and laid him on his back, then said, ‘Bring on another, but make sure it’s an officer.’ 165 Maximinus trusted overmuch in his physical strength, so somebody recited in the theatre when he was actually present some Greek lines which mean in translation: The elephant is huge and yet is slain; The lion is brave and yet is slain; The tiger is brave and yet is slain. Fear many, if you do not fear one. He whom one cannot slay, is slain by many.

166 The elder Maximinus never allowed anyone to kiss his feet, saying, ‘God forbid that any free-born man should press kisses upon my feet!’ Where does this leave those who not only allow but actually invite or more or less compel not merely free-born men but great kings to kiss not their feet but their shoes? Gallienus 167 Gallienus used to laugh it off when whole provinces abandoned their allegiance, treating it as the loss of something insignificant. When he was told ***** 164 (ii) Historia Augusta, Maximini duo 6.5–7. In margin ‘bodily strength‘ 165 (iii) Historia Augusta, Maximini duo 9.3–4. In margin ‘outspoken‘ 166 (iv) Historia Augusta, Maximini duo 28.7. In margin ‘unassuming‘ 167 (i) Historia Augusta, Gallieni duo 6.3–6. In margin ‘neglect of the country‘ Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus was emperor ad 253–268. His father Valerian was proclaimed emperor by his troops in ad 253 and Gallienus was co-emperor until Valerian’s death in ad 260. He was assassinated in ad 268.

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that Egypt had seceded, ‘What of it?’ he said. ‘Can we not live without Egyptian linen?’ When news came that the province of Asia had been devastated by invaders from Scythia, ‘Well?’ he said. ‘Can we not exist without saltpetre?’ When Gaul was lost he laughed and said, ‘Is the state threatened because we have no fine cloaks?’1 These are the words of a dreadful ruler, treating anything as more important than the country. The ancient word for saltpetre was aphronitum, literally ‘foam of nitre,’ and the best sort was produced in Asia.2 168 Gallienus left his father’s death unavenged.1 So when a mock king of the Persians was led in procession through Rome as a pretended captive, some waggish men about town went among the Persian figures staring at everything and in particular peering intently into every face. When they were asked what they were doing, they said, ‘We’re looking for the emperor’s father’ (thus censuring Gallienus’ failure to take action in his father’s memory). When this was relayed to Gallienus, he had them burnt alive. An act demonstrating disregard of all proper feeling on the part of the emperor – and an example of dangerous free-speech on the part of the wits. 169 He had a huge bull released into the arena and the matador advanced to the fight, but after ten bouts failed to kill it. The emperor awarded the man the crown of victory and when the crowd muttered at the strangeness of awarding a crown to such a coward, Gallienus ordered the public announcer to make the proclamation, ‘It is difficult not to kill a bull so many times.’ He humorously indicated that it is very dangerous to confront a bull so often, even if you don’t kill it. ***** 1 Erasmus’ text reads trabeatis sagis, possibly ‘purple cloaks.’ The modern reading is Atrebatis sagis ie ‘woollen cloth from the Atrebates,’ a people in north Gaul who were experts in the production of quality wool cloth. 2 ‘Asia’ refers to the area covered by modern Turkey. See Pliny Naturalis historia 31.113, who specifically says the best saltpetre came from Lydia (in west Turkey). The substance exudes from rocks. 168 (ii) Historia Augusta, Gallieni duo 9.2.5–7. In margin ‘disastrous freedom of speech‘ 1 His father, the Emperor Valerian, with whom he was co-emperor, died as a captive of the Persians in ad 260. 169 (iii) Historia Augusta, Gallieni duo 12.3–4. In margin ‘humour‘

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170 Somebody sold Gallienus’ wife fake jewels, and when she found out, she demanded revenge. The emperor had the man seized, declaring that he would be thrown to a lion. The whole crowd and the cheat too were expecting a terrible lion to bound into the arena, when out jumped a capon. Everyone was puzzled by this ridiculous turn of events, so he ordered the public announcer to proclaim, ‘He made a substitution, and he suffered one.’ At one and the same time, he paid back the cheat in his own coin and made fun of his wife. 171 When he heard of the death of his father Valerian, Gallienus said those famous yet infamous words, ‘I knew my father was mortal.’1 Marius 172 Of Marius, seventh of the pretenders, it was said that on the first day he was made emperor, the second day he gave the appearance of ruling, the third day he was killed by a soldier who, before he struck him, said, ‘This is the sword you made yourself.’ Marius had been an iron-worker. The assassin was also echoing that proverb: ‘Killed with your own sword.’1 [Saturninus] 173 When the soldiers had clothed Saturninus, the twenty-first of the pretenders, ***** 170 (iv) Historia Augusta, Gallieni duo 12.5. In margin ‘a ludicrous punishment‘ 171 (v) Historia Augusta, Gallieni duo 17.1. In margin ‘contrary to all proper feeling‘ 1 A cruel application of the well-known sentiment attributed to Anaxagoras and reported in various ancient writers. On hearing of the death of his son, Anaxagoras said, ‘I knew my son was mortal.’ See 7.126 n1 below. 172 (i) Historia Augusta, Tyranni triginta 8.2.7. In margin ‘a brief rule‘ Marcus Aurelius Marius Augustus, one of a whole series of short-lived pretenders to the imperial throne in the late third century, briefly elevated by the army and as soon discarded. He was emperor for three days, possibly in ad 270. The author of the ‘Thirty tyrants’ section of Historia Augusta was Trebellius Pollio; see Introduction xix–xx above. 1 Adagia i i 51: Suo sibi hunc iugulo gladio, suo telo ‘I am cutting his throat with his own sword, his own weapon.’ 173 (ii) Historia Augusta, Tyranni triginta 23.3. In margin ‘honest‘ Saturninus was briefly emperor after the murder of Gallienus in ad 268. See 6.172n above.

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with the imperial robe, he summoned an assembly and said of himself, ‘Fellow-soldiers, you have lost a good general and made a bad emperor.’ He had been an excellent general beforehand, but because he showed excessive severity as emperor, he was murdered by the very men who had made him emperor. Zenobia 174 Zenobia, twenty-eighth of the pretenders and a woman, won deserved praise on many counts. When she was captured and brought into the presence of Aurelian, he said to her, ‘Zenobia, why were you so bold as to insult Roman emperors?’ She replied, ‘I recognize you as emperor, since you have conquered. Gallienus and Aureolus and the other leaders I did not count as emperors.’1 Aurelian 175 When Aurelian reached Tyre and found it barred against him, he swore in his fury, ‘I will not leave a dog alive in this town.’ These words filled the soldiers with excitement at the prospect of loot, and Heradamon, a native of the place, fearing that he would be killed with the rest, betrayed the city. After its capture, Aurelian had Heradamon executed as a traitor to his native land. The soldiers clamoured to be allowed to go ahead with sacking the city as the emperor had promised, but he replied, ‘Well now, I said I wouldn’t leave a dog alive; so – kill all the dogs.’ ***** 174 (iii) Historia Augusta, Tyranni triginta 30.23. In margin ‘spirited‘ Zenobia’s husband Odonaethus, king of Palmyra, had kept the Parthians in check as Gallienus’ unofficial deputy in the eastern empire. After his death, she acted as regent of the kingdom of Palmyra for her young son. Exploiting the political instability of the Roman empire she considerably enlarged her sphere of influence and took over large areas of the eastern empire, calling her son emperor and herself empress. Aurelian eventually moved against her and she was captured in ad 272. 1 Gallienus left Odonaethus and Zenobia largely to their own devices, provided they paid lip-service to Roman supremacy. Aureolus was very briefly emperor after Gallienus’ assassination in ad 268. 175 (iv) Historia Augusta, Divus Aurelianus 22.5–23.2. In margin ‘clemency‘ Marcus Domitius Aurelianus was emperor ad 270–275. He too was made emperor by his troops. His whole reign was spent dealing with the dissensions, rebellions and foreign threats which developed in the troubled years after the death of Gallienus. He dealt with Palmyra in ad 272. This incident took place during his Eastern campaigns. He was assassinated in ad 275.

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So he rewarded the traitor as he deserved and thwarted the soldiers’ greed in one move. This turn of speech seems to originate with the Jews. In the Jewish writings kings who threaten total destruction say that they will leave nothing alive, right down to ‘one that pisseth against the wall.’ This is a periphrasis for ‘dog.’1 Diocletian 176 While he was still a commoner, Diocletian used to say that ‘nothing was more difficult than ruling well.’ Flavius Vopiscus1 records in his Aurelianus that he heard this story from his father and he goes on to explain why it is so: Four or five people get together and arrange among themselves to deceive the emperor. They tell him what should be decided. The emperor, shut up in his palace, doesn’t know the truth; his information is of necessity restricted to what they tell him. He appoints judges who shouldn’t be appointed; he dismisses from government those who should be retained. So, as Diocletian says, an emperor who is actually good, prudent, and virtuous is sold. The ordinary person thinks it is enough to be born to the imperial title or elected. Being born to it just happens somehow or other, being elected depends on bought votes and being confirmed by solemn rituals. Tacitus 177 The Emperor Tacitus requested that his brother be made consul but was refused. Far from being offended at this rebuff, he was delighted, saying, ‘The senate knows whom it has appointed ruler.’ ***** 1 Eg 1 Sam 25:22; 1 Kings 16:11; 2 Kings 9:8; Erasmus rather prudishly interprets this as ‘dog,’ not ‘man.’ 176 (v) Historia Augusta, Divus Aurelianus 43.2–4. In margin ‘difficult to rule‘ Gaius Aurelius Diocletianus was emperor ad 285–305. In spite of his long and forceful reign (ad 275–313), there is no specific biography of Diocletian in the Historia Augusta. 1 One of the six supposed authors of the Historia Augusta; see Introduction xix above. 177 (vi) Historia Augusta, Tacitus 9.6. In margin ‘taking it calmly‘ Marcus Cornelius Tacitus was emperor ad 275–276. He was a senator himself. The senate still functioned pretending to wield their ancient authority. Tacitus was killed by his own troops.

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Probus 178 Probus cleared of brigands many areas occupied by barbarians, but when he came to the Isauri, he said ‘it was easier to keep brigands out of those areas than to get rid of them.’1 He realized that measures had to be taken not only to prevent brigands making incursions but also to stop the young men turning to brigandage. So he entrusted to veteran soldiers all the areas which had only a narrow approach route and also ordered their sons to join the army at the age of eighteen, so that they would learn to be soldiers before they learnt to be robbers. This was the right course for Probus at that time when there was a considerable difference between a soldier and a robber. Nowadays the difference is minimal. 179 He did not allow soldiers to be idle, but used their labour in many construction works, saying that ‘soldiers should not eat their rations for nothing.’ 180 He is also supposed to have said, ‘Soon we will not need soldiers.’ He hoped that peace would be so well established that there would be no need of an army. May God grant such a mind to all princes of our own age! Firmus 181 The Emperor Firmus is said to have been able to drink huge quantities of wine without ever getting drunk. He was once challenged to a drinking contest by a standard-bearer by the name of Barbarus. Firmus drank two bucketfuls of wine and remained sober for the rest of the meal. When Barbarus ***** 178 (vii) Historia Augusta, Probus 16.4–6. In margin ‘morally admirable‘ Marcus Aurelius Probus was emperor ad 276–282. He became emperor by defeating his rivals in battle and was assassinated by his own troops. 1 The Isauri were a fierce independent people occupying mountainous territory in what is now central southern Turkey. 179 (viii) Historia Augusta, Probus 20.2. In margin ‘idle soldiers‘ 180 (ix) Historia Augusta, Probus 20.3 181 (x) Historia Augusta, Firmus, Saturninus, Proculus et Bonosus 4.4. In margin ‘able to carry his wine‘ Firmus was a pretender in the reign of Aurelian (ad 270–275), who set himself up as ruler of Egypt.

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said, ‘Why didn’t you drink the dregs as well?’ ‘You fool,’ he replied, ‘you don’t drink earth.’ Bonosus 182 The Emperor Bonosus is said to have been a great drinker. Aurelian often used to say of him, ‘He wasn’t born to live but to drink.’1 Sobriety is a primary virtue in a prince. Miscellaneous sayings of various persons 183 A group of soldiers from Tarentum made a lot of unguarded comments over dinner about King Pyrrhus.1 This was relayed to the king and the young men were summoned before him. Since they could neither deny nor justify what they had done, they were in danger of their lives. Then one of them, of more nimble wits than the rest, said, ‘True, O king, we did say those things, but we would have said far worse things if the wine flask hadn’t run dry,’ thus putting the blame for their insolent words on the fact that they were drunk. At this, the king’s anger turned to amusement and they were allowed to go. Who would deny that this was a very apposite remark in the circumstances? 184 Sulpicius Longus, who was himself a remarkably ugly man, was speaking for the prosecution in a case concerning someone’s status as a free-born man and remarked that the defendant didn’t even have the face of a free man. In reply, Domitius Afer said, ‘Nor you, in my honest opinion, Longus.1 A man with an ugly face can’t possibly be a free man.’ ***** 182 (xi) Historia Augusta, Firmus, Saturninus, Proculus et Bonosus 14.3. Bonosus briefly seized imperial power in Germany in ad 280 during the reign of Probus. ‘Aurelian’ should be Aurelius (Probus) see 6.178. 1 In the original Latin Non ut vivat natus est sed ut bibat, there is a pun, as at this period vivat and bibat were pronounced very similarly. 183 (i) Valerius Maximus 5.1 ext. 3. Erasmus now ceases to follow any specific source, except for 6.445–90, based on Athenaeus. The rest are no doubt derived from the collection in his notebooks, where he seems rarely to have recorded his source. In margin ‘quick-witted‘ 1 For Pyrrhus see 5.119–31 above. 184 (ii) Quintilian 6.3.32. In margin ‘a retort‘ 1 This translates the reading of the text: ne tu ex animi mei sententia. Modern texts read: ex animi tui sententia ‘Do you really believe on your conscience?’ This was a traditional formula used in legal contexts to ratify statements. Cf 6.334 below.

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If the man on trial was not a free man because he was ugly, neither should Sulpicius, who was hideous, be thought free. 185 People used to call Junius Bassus, who was a very witty fellow, ‘the white donkey,’ because he succeeded in being both silly and funny. The ancients called lucky things ‘white.’1 186 The orator Philippus said to a man with bad breath, ‘I can tell that you are getting round me,’ meaning that he was overwhelmed with the smell, though ‘getting round’ usually means ‘tricking.’ 187 When his client said, ‘I want to divide the ship,’ Cascellius replied, ‘You will lose it then.’ The client was consulting him about the value of a ship and about its cargo. Cascellius replied in different vein, for literally to divide a ship means destroying it. Macrobius quotes the reply differently: ‘If you divide it, neither you nor your partner will have it.’ The ship was jointly owned by two merchants. 188 Danger was already looming from the direction of the Emperor Claudius, and meantime Silius and Messalina were in the house celebrating a mock vintage with every form of licentious behaviour. Vectius Valens climbed a high tree and stood there like a look-out. When people asked him what he could see, he said, ‘A terrible storm coming from Ostia.’ Whether this was a joke or just a casual remark, it turned out to be prophetic, for Caesar’s messengers arrived and set his revenge in train. ***** 185 (iii) Quintilian 6.3.57. In margin ‘a white donkey‘ 1 See Adagia i i 78: Albae gallinae filius ‘A son of the white hen.’ 186 (iv) Cicero De oratore 2.249. In margin ‘against a smelly person‘ This is Lucius Marcius Philippus, a famous orator, second to first century bc. 187 (v) Quintilian 6.3.87 and Macrobius 2.6.2. In margin ‘witty‘ Erasmus has at the back of his mind the context of the whole section in Quintilian which is about humour dependent upon deliberate misinterpretation, but he has not explicated this sufficiently. Aulus Cascellius was a legal expert, second to first century bc. 188 (vi) Suetonius Claudius 29.3 and Tacitus Annals 11.31.4–32.1. In margin ‘danger foreseen‘

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This Silius was an adulterer whom Messalina had secretly married. The emperor after pretending to recognize the marriage, had her executed.1 189 There was a young man who made an affectation of using ancient and long out of date vocabulary, and the philosopher Favorinus said to him, ‘Curius and Fabricius1 conversed perfectly comprehensibly with their friends and family and didn’t use words employed by the Aurunci or Sicani or the Pelasgians, who, as the records tell us, were the earliest inhabitants of Italy2 – they used the words of their own time. But you, as if you were today talking to Evander’s mother,3 use words that went out of use long ago. If you don’t want people to understand what you are saying, wouldn’t you achieve that most effectively by saying nothing?’4 190 Some figs had been prepared for Philemon and set before him, but an ass began to eat them. He called for his slave to drive the ass away but he came too late. Since all the figs had now been eaten, he said, ‘As you have been so slow, now give the ass the wine.’ The old man laughed so much he choked.1 191 When Helvius a dealer1 kept on shouting him down, Gaius Julius said to ***** 1 This explanatory paragraph was added in 1535. Messalina was married to Claudius who was blind to her sexual escapades until she was betrayed. 189 (vii) Aulus Gellius 1.10.1. In margin ‘affectation in reviving the obsolete‘ 1 Distinguished Romans of the early third century bc. The anecdote belongs to the second century ad, when archaism was fashionable with both Greek and Latin intellectuals. 2 All three were early inhabitants of Italy, belonging to an even more ancient period of Rome’s history. The Sicani and the Pelasgians are pre-Roman. 3 Evander is a figure from the legendary period of Rome’s history. He occupied the site of the future city of Rome in the time of the Trojan hero Aeneas. See Virgil Aeneid 8. 4 For the sophist Favorinus see 8.8–9 below. 190 (viii) Valerius Maximus 9.12 ext. 6. In margin ‘laughing oneself to death‘ 1 The same story is told of Chrysippus in Diogenes Laertius 7.185 below. This is Philemon, poet of the New Comedy, fourth to third century bc. 191 (ix) Quintilian 6.3.38 1 ‘A dealer’ translates the word manceps, a mistake for the name Mancia. Gauis

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him, ‘I will show you what you are like,’ and when Helvius pressed him to do just that, Julius pointed to a painting of a Gaul on a Cimbric shield from the wars of Marius, depicted with twisted joints, sticking out tongue, and flabby cheeks, a figure which the dealer just happened to resemble. There was a tavern by the forum where the shield was hung up as an inn sign. Everyone roared with laughter, as they had all expected him to make some adverse comment on his character. 192 Someone complained that Juba’s horse had splashed him with urine. ‘So what?’ he said. ‘Do you think I’m a hippocentaur?’ Juba laughed at him for blaming the owner of the horse, who was riding him at the time, for what the horse had done, as if rider and horse were one creature like the imaginary hippocentaurs. 193 When Gaius Crassus saw a soldier practising manoeuvres without his sword, ‘Hey comrade,’ he said, ‘you will have to make good use of your fists.’ He jokingly taxed the soldier for being unarmed and having to use fists in place of sword. 194 When Publius1 saw Publius Mucius, a spiteful and mean-minded individual, looking more miserable than usual, he remarked, ‘Either something bad has happened to Mucius, or something good to somebody else.’ 195 The master of a slave who was suffering from dropsy saw him lying in the forecourt and asked him censoriously what he was doing there. ***** Julius is Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo Vopiscus, a Roman orator, a character in Cicero’s dialogue De oratore. Mancia, the son of a freedman, was a bold prosecutor. See 8.157 below. This happened in a trial held near the forum. 192 (x) Quintilian 6.3.90. In margin ‘joking‘ This is Juba ii, king of Mauretania, who was brought up in Italy. 193 (xi) Quintilian 6.3.90. In margin ‘a soldier without his sword‘ Modern texts of Quintilian have Gaius Cassius. 194 (xii) Macrobius 2.2.8. In margin ‘envy‘ 1 Possibly Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, an enemy of Publius Mucius Scaevola. The same story is told of Bion the Borysthenite 7.211 below. 195 (xiii) Macrobius 2.7.6. In margin ‘a sufferer from dropsy‘ This is Publilius Syrus, the mime-writer.

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Publius the Syrian spoke up for the slave, and wittily replied, ‘He’s heating water.’ 196 A light-hearted discussion arose over dinner as to what could be leisure that one didn’t enjoy. Different people put forward different suggestions, but the same Publius opined that it was ‘gouty feet.’ Everyone desires leisure as something pleasurable, but the leisure of a man suffering from gout brings agony with it. 197 Sulla’s son Faustus made a very witty remark about his sister, who was having an affair with two adulterers at the same time, one called Fulvius, son of a fuller, and the other Pompeius, surnamed Macula ‘Stain.’ ‘I’m surprised,’ he said, ‘that my sister has a Stain when she has a Fuller.’ 198 Servilius Geminus was dining with Lucius Mallius, a distinguished artist at Rome. He observed that Mallius had ugly sons, and remarked, ‘Mallius, you don’t model as well as you paint.’ ‘No wonder,’ said Mallius. ‘I model in the dark, I paint in the light!’ 199 Marcus Votacilius Pitholaus1 made a witty remark about Gaius Servilius, who was consul for just one day. He said, ‘We used to have flamines diales, now we have consules diales.’ He gave a twist to the word dialis, as if it were derived from dies ‘day,’ and not connected with Jove, who was served by priests (flamines) called diales. 200 When Vatinius was going to organize a gladiatorial show, he was stoned by the people, so he got the aediles to decree that no one should throw anything except fruit into the arena. About that time Cascellius was asked to give his ***** 196 (xiv) Macrobius 2.7.6. In margin ‘unenjoyable leisure‘ 197 (xv) Macrobius 2.2.9. In margin ‘joking on a name‘ 198 (xvi) Macrobius 2.2.10. In margin ‘painting and modelling‘ Neither of these persons has been further identified. 199 (xvii) Macrobius 2.2.13. In margin ‘brief power‘ 1 The anecdote is repeated later on in Macrobius 7.3.10, where the remark is attributed to Cicero. The name should be Otacilius. 200 (xviii) Martial 13.25.1–2 and Macrobius 2.6.1. In margin ‘the pine-cone‘ For Vatinius, see 4.287n above.

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opinion as to whether a pine-cone was a fruit. He replied, ‘If you are going to throw it at Vatinius, it’s a fruit.’ The pine-cone is hard and heavy and as good as a stone. Martial calls it a fruit in the following distich: ‘We are Cybele’s fruits. Keep your distance, traveller, / Lest crashing down we fall upon your wretched head.’ 201 Publius Clodius was reported to be furious with Decimus Valerius because he had refused him a loan.1 Valerius remarked, ‘What’s the most you can do to me, except make me go to Dyrrachium and back?’ He was bringing up the matter of Cicero’s exile, which Clodius had engineered, though this did not last as long as Clodius desired because of the support for Cicero on the part of the people and the solid citizens.2 202 The younger Brutus had squandered his father’s estates and also the mansion, which included baths. He happened to remark one day that he was sweating to no good purpose. ‘Not surprising,’ commented Crassus. ‘You’ve just vacated the baths.’ We have a play on meanings here. Someone who has come from bathing has ‘vacated’ the baths, and someone who has sold a property and ceded possession to another has ‘vacated’ it. 203 This same Brutus, when speaking for the prosecution against Gaius Plancius, produced two persons to read from speeches made by Lucius Crassus, who was appearing for the defence. One speech concerned the colony at Narbo, the other the Servilian Law, and Brutus’ intention was to show that Crassus had said things that were contradictory. Crassus in turn gave to three readers three books by Brutus’ father on the subject of civil law. The first one began, ‘It so happened that we were on my estate at Privernum.’ Crassus remarked at this point, ‘Do you hear that, Brutus? Your father bears ***** 201 (xix) Macrobius 2.6.6. In margin ‘covert jibe‘ 1 More modern texts offer ‘Laberius (see 6.432 below) had refused to write him a mime.’ 2 When sent into exile, Cicero had travelled as far as Dyrrachium on the north west coast of Greece when he was recalled. For Clodius, Cicero’s enemy, see 6.208 below. 202 (xx) Cicero De oratore 2.223. In margin ‘squandering‘ This Brutus, the disreputable son of the eminent lawyer Marcus Iunius Brutus, was himself a pleader in the courts. 203 (xxi) Cicero De oratore 2.223–4. In margin ‘squandering‘

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witness that he left you an estate at Privernum.’ In the second it said, ‘I was on my Alban estate with my son Marcus.’ Crassus again: ‘He knew this bottomless pit. He was afraid that when his son had nothing, people would think nothing had been left him.’ Then the reader read out from the third, ‘I was on my estate at Tibur with my son Marcus.’ Then Crassus asked, ‘Where are these estates, Brutus, which your father left you, their existence guaranteed by these texts which are in the public domain? If you had not already been a teenager, he would have written a fourth book as well and left it on record that he had also bathed with his son.’1 So Crassus took his revenge on Brutus for digging up the two readers to attack him by producing three of his own to strike at Brutus. This example of urbane wit comes from Cicero. It is not one that can be compressed into a few pithy words but extends through a whole narrative. 204 When Philippus was conducting a certain case, a very short witness came forward. Philippus requested permission to question him. The president of the court, who wanted to get away, said, ‘You may, provided you keep it short.’ At this, Philippus said, ‘You will have nothing to complain of. I shall ask something very short.’ The laughter was first of all directed at the witness, but then turned against Lucius Aurifex, the man presiding, as he was even shorter than the witness. 205 When Aulus Sempronius was canvassing for election, he embraced Vargula and his brother Marcus. Vargula called out, ‘Boy, drive the midges away.’1 Vargula thought the act of embracing both superficial and offensive, but his remark was just a joke, not really witty. 206 One of the Neros said, with reference to a pilfering slave, that he was the only person who found nothing in the house sealed or locked against him. If ***** 1 Ie in the baths on his estate; see 6.202 just above. Fathers did not bathe with their sons after they reached puberty. 204 (xxii) Cicero De oratore 2.245. See 6.186 above. In margin ‘joke depending on a double meaning‘ 205 (xxiii) Cicero De oratore 2.247. In margin ‘drive the midges away‘ 1 The Sempronii had the cognomen Musca ‘Midge,’ which gives some point to the joke. Erasmus’ comment suggests that he was unaware of this. 206 (xxiv) Cicero De oratore 2.248. In margin ‘thieving‘ This would be an ancestor of the emperor Nero.

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you are talking of an honest slave, that’s praise; if of a thief, it’s a humorous remark. We have to understand that no seal or lock would prevent him from stealing. We lock containers for papers – in olden days people also sealed jars and bottles. 207 Spurius Carvilius was lame as a result of a wound while fighting for his country. His lameness made him the house, but his mother said to him, ‘Why don’t dear Spurius, and at every step you take, remember deeds?’1

he had received ashamed to leave you go out, my your courageous

208 Of Calvinus, who walked with a limp, one Glaucia remarked, ‘Does he plod (claudicat)? No, he clods (clodicat).’1 The ancients said ‘Clodius’ instead of ‘Claudius,’ so clodicat was a joke aimed at a man who supported Clodius. 209 Publius Blessius called Junius, who was swarthy, skinny, and bent, ‘a brooch of iron,’ on account of his colour, boniness, and posture. 210 When Vatinius was on trial, Calvus, who was prosecuting, made an adverse comment on the fact that he was mopping his brow with a white towel. Vatinius replied, ‘I may be on trial, but I still eat white bread.’ In thus trying to excuse his faux-pas, he made it worse. It was the custom for people on trial to go about in dark-coloured clothes. ***** 207 (xxv) Cicero De oratore 2.249. In margin ‘an honourable claudication‘ 1 This is Spurius Carvilius Maximus, consul 234 and 228 bc. The same story is told of several Spartan women: see earlier 2.139–41 above. Also Alexander says the same to his father Philip 4.94 above. 208 (xxvi) Cicero De oratore 2.249. In margin ‘clodication‘ 1 The pun cannot be satisfactorily reproduced in English; claudicare means ‘to limp.’ Clodicare is a nonce-word, invented from the name of Clodius, a turbulent political figure from an aristocratic family, the Appii Claudii, who chose to use the non-aristocratic form of his name, ‘Clodius,’ instead of ‘Claudius.’ See 6.73 above. 209 (xvii) Quintilian 6.3.58. In margin ‘bent over‘ 210 (xviii) Quintilian 6.3.10. In margin ‘a fastidious defendant‘ For Vatinius see 4.287 above. Gaius Licinius Calvus was an outstanding orator, a contemporary of Cicero, a poet and friend of the poet Catullus.

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211 In Julius Caesar’s triumph, model towns made of ivory were carried in procession. A few days later, in Fabius Maximus’ triumph, wooden models were displayed. Chrysippus joked that ‘they were boxes for Caesar’s towns.’ Precious objects are protected by being put in wooden boxes. 212 In the arena, a gladiator armed with a net was pursuing a heavy-armed opponent and not getting a strike. Empedocles remarked, ‘He wants to take him alive.’1 Just so in a hunt, anyone who wants to take an animal alive is careful not to wound it. 213 Augustus saw a Roman knight drinking at the games and sent him the message, ‘The emperor says “If I want to have lunch, I go home.” ’ The knight replied, ‘But you are not afraid of losing your seat.’ Augustus thought it was improper to drink in public at such a venue. The knight put a humorous construction on it – Caesar could leave the theatre without penalty as his seat would be kept for him, but the seat would not be kept for a knight. 214 Manius Curtius saw Campatius coming out of the theatre and asked him if he had been to the show. Campatius, treating the silly question with derision, said, ‘No, I was playing ball-games in the front stalls.’ What else could he have been doing in the theatre except watching the show? It’s like asking someone coming out of the baths if he had bathed. The idea of playing ball in the front stalls is even more ludicrous. 215 When Passanius’ wife Domitia complained that Junius Bassus had accused ***** 211 (xxix) Quintilian 6.3.61. This is not the famous Fabius Maximus (Cunctator), but a descendant. Chrysippus was an architect. 212 (xxx) Quintilian 6.3.61 1 The speaker here should be Pedo, and the retiarius (a gladiator who swung a net to ensnare his opponent) should be the one on the defensive. 213 (xxxi) Quintilian 6.3.63. In margin ‘outspoken‘ 214 (xxxii) Quintilian 6.3.71. In margin ‘joke based on the absurd‘ 215 (xxxiii) Quintilian 6.3.74. In margin ‘insult made worse‘

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her husband of such meanness that he sold old shoes, he replied, ‘Upon my word, I never said that. I said he bought them.’ Indeed, it’s much meaner to buy old shoes than to sell them. His answer made the woman look foolish by substituting something much more hurtful than what she was complaining about. 216 When Augustus took a Roman knight to task for squandering his patrimony, ‘I thought it was mine,’ he said. He made out that the accusation was based on a misapprehension, at the same time suggesting that it was no crime for someone to choose to squander what was his own. 217 When Cassius Severus was rebuked by the praetor because his legal advisors had insulted Lucius Varus, an Epicurean who was a friend of the emperor’s, he said, ‘I don’t know who insulted him. I suppose they must have been Stoics.’ He was referring to the extreme enmity existing between Epicureans and Stoics. The Epicureans make pleasure the measure of human happiness, the Stoics rate moral rectitude as the only good. 218 This same Severus replied to someone who brought up against him the fact that Proculeius had forbidden him entrance to his house, ‘But do I ever go there?’ He thus invalidated the charge. It’s people who disobey the praetor’s edict and go to a place from which they are excluded who are taken to court, not the people who conform. He also implied that he felt absolutely no desire to go to the other’s house. 219 When a certain Suillius, in the course of setting out his case, said, ‘If this ***** 216 (xxxiv) Quintilian 6.3.75. In margin ‘outspoken‘ 217 (xxxv) Quintilian 6.3.78. For Cassius Severus see 4.153 above. 218 (xxxvi) Quintilian 6.3.79. In margin ‘witty‘ 219 (xxxvii) Quintilian 6.3.78. In margin ‘derision‘ Galerius Trachalus was a distinguished orator of the first century ad. Publius Rufus Suillius was also an orator, who was exiled in reign of Tiberius for receiving bribes. He returned and prospered, but was exiled again for various

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is how it is, you go into exile,’ Trachalus amusingly interjected, ‘And if it is not, you go back into exile.’ 220 When the orator Philippus asked, ‘Why are you barking?’ Catulus replied, ‘I see a thief.’ He turned the accusation of ‘barking’ back on its author, censuring the man’s rapacity. 221 A poor orator, under the impression that he had stirred everyone’s sympathy in his peroration, after sitting down asked Catulus whether he thought he had stirred people’s sympathy. ‘Very much so,’ he replied. I don’t think there was anyone so hard of heart that he didn’t think your speech deserving of pity.’ 222 Some of Pharaoh’s advisers agreed that Pompey should be received, others said he should not. Theodotus, Pharaoh’s tutor, sided with neither group, saying that he should indeed be received, but killed, adding the joke, ‘The dead don’t bite.’1 His view carried the day, a safe course of action rather than an honourable one. 223 Scipio said of a certain Navius, ‘Is there anything more nauseous than this Navius?’ The change of one little sound produces the opposite kind of joke 1 here. ***** crimes. 220 (xxxviii) Quintilian 6.3.81. In margin ‘insult reversed‘ For Philippus see 6.186 above. He meant that (Quintus Lutatius) Catulus was shouting, a fault Cicero censured in an orator, though he actually thought highly of Catulus. The name Catulus means ‘puppy.’ 221 (xxxix) Cicero De oratore 2.278. In margin ‘meaning twisted‘ 222 (xl) Plutarch Life of Pompey 77.6–7. In margin ‘the dead don’t bite‘ 1 This anecdote is used for Adagia iii vi 41: Mortui non mordent ‘Dead men do not bite.’ Pompey fled to Egypt after his forces were finally defeated by Caesar at the battle of Pharsalus. See 4.251 above. 223 (xli) Cicero De oratore 2.249. In margin ‘joking on a name‘ 1 In the original context, Cicero compares a serious and a flippant joke, both depending on a similar kind of wordplay.

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224 After Marcus Scipio Maluginensis had declared the number of votes from his century1 in favour of Acidinus as consul, the herald said, ‘Declare in favour of Lucius Manlius.’ Scipio replied, ‘I consider him an excellent person and a fine citizen.’ The herald was expecting to hear the number of votes cast for Manlius. Scipio replied as if he had been asked about his character. Possibly the full name of Acidinus was Lucius Manlius Acidinus, and when Scipio simply said Acidinus, the herald told him to include the other names. This gave Scipio the opportunity to make his joke. 225 The inhabitants of Corinth promised the elder Scipio that they would erect a statue of him in the place where the statues of other great generals stood. He replied that ‘he didn’t fancy being in a troop.’ He meant that anything added to a crowd is lost to view. ‘Troop’ is properly applied to a squadron of horse; Scipio applied it to these statues of military figures. 226 Scipio Aemilianus, when at Numantia, became exasperated with Gaius Metellus1 and said that ‘if his mother produced a fifth offspring, it would be an ass,’ finding fault with the slowness of brain and ugliness of body of both Gaius and his brothers. 227 Marcus Flaccus, after making a violent verbal attack on Scipio, appointed Publius Mucius to give a decision on the matter. Scipio said, ‘I reject him. He is unfair.’ A murmur arose at this remark, and Scipio said. ‘Ah, senators, I reject him, not as unfair to me but to all.’ People expected him to apologize for the slur, but he made it worse. It ***** 224 (xlii) Cicero De oratore 2.260 1 Here a Roman voting unit 225 (xliii) Cicero De oratore 2 262. In margin ‘a troop‘ This is the great Scipio Africanus. 226 (xliv) Cicero De oratore 2.267. In margin ‘contemptuous‘ 1 See 5.412 above for Numantia. This is Gaius Caecilius Metellus, fourth son of Metellus Macedonicus. See 5.425 above. 227 (xlv) Cicero De oratore 2.285. In margin ‘apology making remark worse‘ Flaccus attacked Scipio Nasica Serapio, for the murder of the tribune Tiberius Gracchus in 133 bc. Publius Mucius Scaevola was consul at the time.

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is permissible to reject a judge who is hostile or unfair, that is, ill-disposed towards the defendant, even more so one who is fair to no one. 228 The elder Scipio Africanus had a garland upon his head at a banquet, but it kept breaking. As he tried to adjust it, Licinius Varus remarked, ‘Don’t be surprised if it doesn’t fit. We have a great Head here.’ He meant that Scipio was a powerful individual whom not any and every headdress would fit. 229 When Manlius Sura, during the course of his speech, ran to and fro, jumped up and down, waved his hands about, let his toga slip and then pulled it up again, Domitius Afer remarked, ‘He’s not acting in this case, he’s overacting.’ ‘Action’ refers to an orator’s performance; anyone who tries too hard and spoils the effect ‘overacts.’ 230 Didius Gallus canvassed hard to get himself appointed to the governorship of a province, and when he got the appointment he began to complain as if it had been forced upon him. Afer said to him ‘Come on, put some effort into something for the country as well.’ This joke depends on irony and makes mocking allusion to the determination he put into his canvassing. 231 The orator Afer had brought a case against one of the Emperor Claudius’ freedmen. A man of the same social class as the defendant called out from the other side of the court, ‘You’re always attacking the emperor’s freedmen like this, aren’t you?’ (intending to alarm him by mentioning the emperor). Afer retorted, ‘Yes, but God knows I’m not making any progress.’ He signified that this man was still there after the other freedmen and he would have to prosecute him. ***** 228 (xlvi) Cicero De oratore 2.250. In margin ‘appropriate‘ 229 (xlvii) Quintilian 6.3.54. In margin ‘act/overact‘ Gaius Domitius Afer was a distinguished orator of the first century ad. 230 (xlviii) Quintilian 6.3.68. In margin ‘irony‘ Gallus was appointed governor of Roman Britain in ad 52. 231 (xlix) Quintilian 6.3.81. In margin ‘witty‘

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232 This same Afer wittily remarked of an ineffectual counsel who sold himself to clients by his splendid clothes, ‘In the conduct of cases, this fellow is remarkably well- . . . dressed.’ This is a joke depending on the unexpected. The hearer expected something like ‘well-informed’ or ‘well-grounded.’ 233 The opposing counsel kept reiterating that ‘Celsina says this.’ Afer, who was well aware that Celsina was a woman with influence, pretended to think that Celsina was a man and asked, ‘Who is this Celsina fellow?’ This remark pointed out how silly it was to attribute such importance to a woman just because she was rich, so as to keep on citing what she said as evidence. 234 Domitius Afer had an ungrateful client who tried to avoid being seen by him in the forum so that he wouldn’t have to acknowledge his obligation to the man who had defended him. Domitius sent the slave whose duty it was to remind him of people’s names across to the fellow with the message, ‘Are you obliged to me for not having seen you?’ He thus indirectly censured the ingratitude of the man, who was happy not to be seen by his benefactor so that he wouldn’t have to thank him. 235 This same Afer had a steward who couldn’t give a satisfactory answer about the left-over supplies. The man kept saying, ‘I haven’t eaten bread and I drink water.’ Afer said, ‘Eat what you will, but repay what you owe.’1 It was not a question of eating and drinking but of what he owed. He left it to him to feed himself in any way he wanted, provided he paid what was owing. 236 Someone standing for election said to him, ‘I have always shown respect for ***** 232 (l) Quintilian 6.3.84. In margin ‘joke depending on the unexpected‘ 233 (li) Quintilian 6.3.85. In margin ‘pretence‘ 234 (lii) Quintilian 6.3.93. In margin ‘ingratitude‘ 235 (liii) Quintilian 6.3.93. In margin ‘irrelevant to the case‘ 1 Erasmus’ text must have had several variants from modern ones which say ‘I haven’t eaten it,’ ‘I live on bread and water,’ ‘Sparrow, repay what you owe.’ 236 (liv) Quintilian 6.3.94. In margin ‘ironic agreement‘

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your family.’ Afer could have denied it outright, but he replied, ‘I believe you – it’s quite true.’ The candidate made this up to win Afer’s support. 237 [Lucius] Gabba, the wit, said to someone not making much effort to reach for (petere) the ball, ‘You try for it (petis) like one of Caesar’s candidates.’1 Candidates nominated by the emperor canvassed for support in a halfhearted fashion, relying on his backing.2 The joke depends on the word petere ‘seek’ being taken in two ways – a ball which is to be returned is reached for (petitur) and election to a magistracy is sought for (petitur). 238 This same Gabba lived in an attic with a leaking roof. When someone asked him for the loan of a cloak, he replied, ‘I can’t lend it to you. I am staying in.’ He meant that he needed the cloak most of all at home. Another form of excuse is, ‘I can’t lend it to you. I’m going out myself.’ 239 Similarly, when somebody else asked for the use of his cloak, he said, ‘If it’s not raining, you don’t need it. If it is raining, I shall use it myself.’ He excused his refusal to do a service by this use of the figure known as dilemma ‘division.’1 240 The same Gabba invited Maecenas to dinner and when he understood that Maecenas wanted to indulge in some sexual play with his wife, he pretended to go to sleep to give Maecenas freer rein to do what he wanted. Meantime, someone came up to steal something from the table. Gabba said, ***** 237 (lv) Quintilian 6.3.62. In margin ‘an ambiguity‘ 1 Aulus Gabba was Augustus’ jester. ‘Gabba’ is often confused with ‘Galba.’ 2 This translates the text of bas. The four main editions of Erasmus’ Apophthegmata have: ‘Those who stood for office at the same time as Caesar canvassed for support in a half-hearted fashion, either because they feared the emperor, who would not be pleased if he failed to be elected, or because they didn’t expect to be elected with Caesar standing, or because they wanted to curry favour with him.’ 238 (lvi) Quintilian 6.3.64. In margin ‘a ridiculous reply‘ 239 (lvii) Quintilian 6.3.66. In margin ‘excuse‘ 1 Quintilian calls the figure partitio. Erasmus substitutes the Greek term dilemma (in transliteration) on which see eg [Cicero] Rhetorica ad Herennium 2.24.38. 240 (lviii) Plutarch Moralia 760a (Love stories). In margin ‘pretence‘

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‘You rogue, I’m asleep for him, not for you.’ I have written more about this in my Adages.1 241 A man was boasting that he had bought a lamprey five feet long in Sicily for half a denarius. Gabba replied, ‘That’s nothing remarkable. They grow so long there that the fishermen use them as ropes.’1 He made fun of the lie by producing an even less credible lie. 242 Marcus Lollius made mock of Galba, a distinguished orator who was also a hunch-back, by saying, ‘Galba’s abilities have a poor lodging.’1 Indeed, the body is the dwelling-place of the soul. 243 Orbilius the school master made an even more cutting remark to Galba when he was testifying against a defendant for whom Galba was acting as counsel. In order to unsettle him, Galba pretended not to know that he was a schoolmaster and gave himself an opening for sneering at him by asking, ‘What kind of occupation do you follow?’ Orbilius replied, ‘Out in the sun I massage protuberances.’1 244 When Manius Curius1 was on trial, in order to stir up prejudice against him, ***** 1 Adages i vi 4: Non omnibus dormio ‘I’m not asleep to everyone.’ 241 (lix) Quintilian 6.3.80. In margin ‘an obvious lie‘ 1 This translates the reading of 1535. 1531 and 1532 have ‘tie them round themselves instead of ropes,’ which agrees with the source, Quintilian. 242 (lx) Macrobius 2.6.3. In margin ‘deformed in body with a good mind‘ 1 For this Galba see 4.152 above. 243 (lxi) Macrobius 2.6.4. In margin ‘a retort‘ 1 There may be a double-entendre here. It could possibly refer to Orbilius’ activities as a school-master (he was a notorious wielder of the cane, see Horace Epistles 2.1.70–71) and suggest ‘massaging boys’ buttocks,’ or it could have sexual overtones, as well as sneering at Galba’s deformity. ‘The sun’ perhaps means ‘the real world.’ Another version is given in Suetonius On Grammarians 9, where Orbilius says to Murena (also a hunch-back) that ‘he moves hunchbacks out of the sun into the shadows,’ ie (possibly) ‘removes them from the limelight.’ 244 (lxii) Quintilian 6.3.72 1 The notorious gambler Manius Curius was appointed to serve on juries by Mark Antony in 44 bc (Cicero Philippics 5.5.13).

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his accuser had painted on a kind of canvas banner a number of little scenes showing him either naked and in fetters or rescued by his friends from his gambling debts. The accuser’s intention was to persuade everyone of his hopeless addiction to gambling. Manius repudiated the charge by laughing at it. ‘So I never won then?’ he said. The accuser intended the message to be that Curius was always gambling. Curius made it suggest that he was being blamed for being unlucky. It isn’t likely that someone who frequently plays dice won’t win sometimes.2 This comes from Quintilian. 245 A man of a lower social class was speaking very freely against a certain person, who said to him, ‘I will serve you with a box on the ears and bring an action against you for having a hard head.’ Instead of ‘I will serve you with a summons,’ he said, ‘I will serve you with a box on the ears.’ In ‘hard head,’ there is a joke dependent on a double meaning. An obstinate person has a hard head, and so does someone whose hard head injures the hand of a man who strikes him. There is a reference here to the practice of those who summon a person to court. They appoint a day for the accused and serve him with a document saying what the charge is. 246 When someone was asked what he thought of a man caught in the act of adultery, he said, ‘It seems to me that he was slow off the mark.’ This joke depends on the unexpected – meaning that he didn’t escape in time. 247 One man was bemoaning the fact that his wife had hanged herself from a fig-tree. The other said, ‘I beg you, give me a cutting from that tree so I can plant it.’1 This joke depends on insinuation – he implies that he found his wife infuriating. ***** 2 Adagia i ii 13: Si crebro iacias, aliud alias ieceris ‘If you throw often, you’ll throw this way and then that,’ ie you are bound to win sometimes. 245 (lxiii) Quintilian 6.3.83. In margin ‘ridiculous‘ 246 (lxiv) Quintilian 6.3.88. In margin ‘a joke depending on the unexpected‘ See General Index: replies, unexpected. 247 (lxv) Quintilian 6.3.88. In margin ‘a troublesome wife‘ 1 A frequently told joke; also in Cicero De oratore 2.278. See 8.209 below.

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248 When people expressed surprise that a certain person had bought a stumpy candle-holder, he said, ‘It will do for use at lunch-time.’ He excused his conduct with a humorous fiction to avoid seeming mean. We use shorter candlesticks at dinner parties to see better the dishes set before us. 249 It’s worth mentioning the man who apparently praised a fellow of whom nothing good was ever said by remarking, ‘What does this man lack save wealth – and virtue?’ There’s a very similar humorous saying current among the French today: ‘I am totally yours – except for body and possessions.’ 250 An inhabitant of the town of Sybaris was out in the country and saw some people digging. He said that seeing them digging gave him a rupture. Hearing this, one of them replied, ‘I got a pain in the side hearing you.’ The people of Sybaris were so effete1 that they allowed no noisy trade to be carried on within the city, such as building, iron-working, and carpentry. It wasn’t even allowed to keep a barnyard cock within the city bounds so that there should be nothing to interrupt their sleep. The joke lies in the fact that it was more convincing for the farmer to say that he got a pain in the side from such a stupid remark than for the Sybarite to say that he got a rupture from the diggers’ mattock. Normally, it is the speaker whose sides hurt, not the hearer; and it is the man doing hard physical work who suffers a rupture, not the man watching him. All this comes from Athenaeus, book twelve. 251 A witness who kept on saying he had been wounded by the defendant was asked whether he had any scars to show. When he showed a long scar on his thigh, the defending counsel said, ‘Your side would have been more convenient.’ ***** 248 (lxvi) Quintilian 6.3.99 249 (lxvii) Quintilian 6.3.84, quoting from Cicero De oratore 2.281. In margin ‘humorous exception‘ 250 (lxviii) Athenaeus 12.518c–d 1 See Adagia ii ii 65: Sybaritica mensa ‘A Sybaritic table’ 251 (lxix) Quintilian 6.3.100. In margin ‘witty‘

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He meant that he deserved a more life-threatening injury.1 252 Scipio, in his capacity as praetor, allocated to a Sicilian litigant a man to represent him in court who was linked to himself by ties of hospitality. This man was of noble birth but remarkably stupid. Hereupon the Sicilian said, ‘Please sir, give this man as advocate to my opponent. Then you won’t need to assign me anybody.’ He meant that the man was so incredibly stupid that if he supported the other side, he himself could win his case even without anyone to represent him. 253 Someone saw Favonius, in the absence of slaves, performing the duties of a servant for Pompey, even going so far as to wash his feet. This person exclaimed, ‘Ah! How every deed befits a noble soul!’1 254 Those who resented Scipio’s fame and glory used to say that he was the actor who performed the great deeds, his colleague Laelius was the author of the script. They meant that the performer of the play and the author are very different. Scipio achieved great things but the ideas came from Laelius. 255 A certain Metiochus was excessively busy in public affairs and had a finger in every pie. The following verses attacking him were bandied about:1 ***** 1 The commentators agree with Erasmus’ interpretation, but Quintilian uses this anecdote to show how a joke can be used to get out of an embarrassing situation. Presumably the witness, when questioned by the defence counsel, pulled up his tunic to show the scar, to the laughter of the court. 252 (lxx) Cicero De oratore 2.280. In margin ‘a bad counsel‘ This Scipio is unidentified. 253 (lxxi) Plutarch Life of Pompey 73.10–11. In margin ‘a humble service‘ 1 Euripides Nauck incerta fr 961: fež, to”si gennaio’sin qw §pan kal—n. Marcus Favonius eventually joined Pompey’s side in the civil war, and accompanied him in his flight after Pharsalus. 254 (lxxii) Plutarch Moralia 806a (Precepts of statecraft). In margin ‘counsellor‘ These are Scipio Aemilianus and Gaius Laelius; see 5.406 above. 255 (lxiii) Martial 2.7.8 and Plutarch Moralia 811e (Precepts of statecraft). In margin ‘a busybody‘ 1 pcg 8 adespota fr *741: Mht’oxow mn strathge”, Mht’oxow d tˆw `doœw, / Mht’oxow

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Metiochos is a general and commissioner for roads. Metiochos is a baker too and grinds the barley-groats. Metiochos is one and all, Metiochos shall one day bawl.

It’s something to do just a few things really well. Martial pours scorn on a busybody who did everything very nicely but did nothing well. 256 There was a certain Athenian who was of great practical ability and a more skilful practitioner in the field, but he had no gifts as a speaker. When the other person made impressive proposals in an eloquent and well-prepared speech, the first man said, ‘Men of Athens, what he has expressed so splendidly in words I will perform in reality.’ 257 When Sulla1 had taken the town of Praeneste by force of arms, he ordered every single citizen to be slaughtered with the exception of a man with whom he shared ties of hospitality and friendship, intending by this favour to repay the hospitality he had enjoyed. But the man said quite frankly, ‘I do not wish to owe my life to the man who has annihilated my country,’ and immediately went and stood among the crowd of citizens and was killed with them. 258 When a poor versifier, one of the masses, passed up to him a pamphlet – he’d composed an epigram attacking Sulla, only the alternate lines were slightly too long1 – this same Sulla immediately gave orders to send him a reward out of the things he was selling at the time, on condition that he never wrote anything again. He thought the work of even a bad poet deserved some recompense. *****

d'Ärtouw \popt‰, Mht’oxow d t'Älfita, / Mht’oxow d p‡nta ke”tai, Mht’oxow d'o mQjetai. 256 (lxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 802a (Precepts of statecraft). In margin ‘doing better than saying‘ 257 (lxxv) Plutarch Life of Sulla 32.1–2 and Plutarch Moralia 816a (Precepts of statecraft). In margin ‘love of country‘ 1 For the dictator Sulla, see 5.441n above. 258 (lxxvi) Cicero Pro Archia 25 1 This might mean that the epigram was meant to be in the usual elegiac verse form, couplets consisting of a hexameter and a pentameter (six- and five-foot measures), but the versification was unskilful.

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At the same time he bought the silence of the man who couldn’t write, rather like the wit among my own countrymen who, if ever he came across a bad barber, would give him twice the price on condition he never came back.2 259 A slave had run off from his master, who was a trader from Chios.1 When asked why he had run away, he said, ‘Because when good things are to hand, my master seeks out the bad.’ That master used to sell large quantities2 of wine of prime sweetness, while he himself drank nothing but sour wine that had gone flat. 260 Another slave, when asked what his master was doing, said, ‘He’s waiting for the wine to go sour.’ He had a very parsimonious master who wouldn’t let the wine be drunk until it had gone sour. Consequently, the household always had to drink flat, sour wine. 261 A man was pursuing a runaway slave who hurled himself into a mill. The master said, ‘What better place could I find you in?’ Slaves hated mills most of all and so were sent there in punishment for the worst offences.1 262 When a Thessalian was asked who were the worst among the Thessalians, he replied, ‘Those who give up fighting.’ ***** 2 This second paragraph was added in 1535. 259 (lxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 469b (On tranquillity of mind). In margin ‘shabby parsimony‘ 1 The wine of Chios was famous and the Chians were normally known for indulgence; Adagia i vi 71: Risus Chius ‘The laugh of Chios.’ 2 The text reads vinum mustum ‘newly pressed wine,’ but this must be a mistake for multum ‘much,’ translating polœn. 260 (lxxviii) This sounds very like a hit at the Antronius satirized in Erasmus Colloquia, Opulentia sordida ‘Shabby wealth.’ Cf the marginal heading Parsimonia sordida ‘shabby parsimony’ (with thanks to Dr. T. ter Meere). 261 (lxxix) Plutarch Moralia 144a (Advice to bride and groom) 1 Slaves in comedy are threatened with being sent to the mill, eg Terence Andria 199. 262 (lxxx) Plutarch Moralia 2f (The education of children). In margin ‘quiet‘

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Barbarians don’t know how to enjoy peace.1 263 A groom was asked what was the best thing for putting horses in good condition. He replied, ‘The eye of the king.’ A horse, in his opinion, was looked after in the best possible way if the master often came in person. The same idea is expressed in that well-known saying, ‘Forehead before occiput.’1 264 Nestor in Sophocles says to Ajax, who is railing at him with hard words, ‘I do not censure you; you speak evil but do what is good.’1 One must make some concessions to brave men who serve the state well. A man whose deeds are extraordinary makes up for faults of tongue. 265 Some Egyptians who had been on guard duty for a long time without being relieved, plotted together to take themselves off to Ethiopia. King Psammetichus learnt of this and chased after them, begging them not abandon the gods of their fatherland, their wives and children. One of them pointed to his male member and replied, ‘Wherever this is, there will wives and children be.’ 266 In olden days when rich Egyptians gave a banquet, somebody would show to each of those present a totally realistic wooden effigy of a dead body, saying to them, ‘Look at him as you drink and enjoy yourself. After death, you will be as he is.’ ***** 1 Modern texts have a word meaning ‘the mildest, most peaceable’ instead of ‘worst.’ 263 (lxxxi) Plutarch Moralia 9d (The education of children). In margin ‘the master’s presence‘ 1 See Adagia i ii 19: Frons occipitio prior, where Erasmus’ sources for the saying are given as Aristotle Economicus 1.6 (1345a 1–5) and Plutarch Moralia 9d (De liberis educandis ‘The education of children’), probably the one used here. The saying comes ultimately from Xenophon Oeconomicus 12.20. Cf 5.379 (Cato the Elder) 567 above. 264 (lxxxii) Plutarch Moralia 504b (On talkativeness). In margin ‘recompense for faults‘ 1 Sophocles Nauck incerta fr 771: O[ mŽmfoma’ se, dr™n gˆr e[ kak™w lŽgeiw. 265 (lxxxiii) Herodotus 2.30. In margin ‘blunt truth‘ 266 (lxxxiv) Herodotus 2.78. In margin ‘mindful of death‘

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One could well ask in what spirit this was done, whether to encourage them to show moderation in their pleasures, being mindful of their mortal state, or to enjoy everything more enthusiastically as being soon to depart. 267 A boy being educated at Plato’s Academy returned to his father after some time and when he saw him laughing uproariously, he said in wonder that he had never seen anything like that at Plato’s.1 It is so important to make a habit of right behaviour from one’s earliest days. 268 A citizen of Rhodes remarked to a Roman general’s underling who was blustering and threatening, ‘I don’t care what you say. What matters is what he’s not saying.’ Verbosity fails to achieve its purpose, a few well-chosen words indicate wiser counsels. 269 When an Egyptian porter carrying something wrapped in cloth was asked what he was carrying, he replied, ‘It’s wrapped up to prevent you knowing. Why are you so inquisitive and poke into what is hidden?’ Customs officials look into bundles.1 Egyptians were called ‘carriers of burdens.’2 270 A citizen of Byzantium caught a man committing adultery with his wife, ***** 267 (lxxxv) Source not identified. In margin ‘get used to what is best‘ 1 Aelian Varia historia 3.35 says that laughter was not allowed in the Academy. Erasmus disapproves of unseemly laughter: see Adagia ii vi 39: Risus syncrisius ‘Shaking with laughter’; iv x 60: Intra labia risit ‘He kept his laughter within his mouth.’ Plato himself never laughed outright: Diogenes Laertius 3.26. 268 (lxxxvi) Plutarch Moralia 458d (On the control of anger). In margin ‘empty threats‘ 269 (lxxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 516e (On curiosity). In margin ‘curiosity‘ 1 This incidental remark may depend on Erasmus’ lasting resentment over the confiscation of his money by the customs officials at Dover at the end of his first visit to England in 1500; see Ep 119 cwe i 237 n9. A correspondent comments on the excessive exactions of English officials (Ep 1590). 2 Cf Adagia iii v 48: Aegyptius laterifer ‘An Egyptian brick-carrier’ 270 (lxxxviii) Plutarch Moralia 525d (On love of wealth). In margin ‘adultery‘

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who was an ugly woman. ‘Poor fellow,’ he said. ‘What did Sapragora need a dowry for?’1 He meant that there would not have been anyone to lie with such an ugly woman unless induced by the dowry. As it was, since she had acquired an adulterer for nothing, what need was there for Sapragora to bring a dowry to a husband, since there was someone prepared to do it for nothing? 271 A man dreamed that he saw an egg suspended from one of the straps under his mattress. When he consulted an interpreter of dreams, he was told to dig in that place, as there was treasure buried there. He did so and found the treasure. He took a little of the silver to the dream-interpreter, saying nothing about the gold. The interpreter said, ‘What? None of the yolk?’ The dreamer had found gold surrounded by silver in the form of an egg, and this was no secret to the interpreter. 272 A follower of Pythagoras had bought some Greek shoes called phaecasia from a shoe-maker, but hadn’t the money with him. So a few days later he went back to the shop to pay. The door was shut and when he had been knocking at it for some time, somebody came along and said, ‘Why are you wasting your time? That shoe-maker you’re looking for is dead and buried.’ He then made a joke against the Pythagorean: ‘It’s sad for us, as we lose our people for ever, but not at all for you, as you know he will be reborn.’ Hearing this, the Pythagorean took his three denarii home in a hand that was not at all reluctant, jingling them in his palm all the time and feeling pleased with his gain. Later on, he blamed himself for this attitude, so he went back to the shop, saying to himself, ‘To your way of thinking, this man is alive. You pay what you owe.’ He then pushed the three coins through into the shop where the planks had come apart beside the lock, punishing himself for his wicked greed, so that he should not get into the habit of keeping others’ property. How wisely he acted in applying a remedy to the disease as soon as the symptoms made their first creeping appearance. ***** 1 Erasmus’ text presumably read t’w ún‡gka Saprag—rÙ pro’j; Modern texts offer t’w ún‡gka; saprˆ gˆr Æ pro’j ‘What need was there? The dregs are spoilt.’ Cf the similar story told in 2.57 above. 271 (lxxxix) Cicero De divinatione 2.134. In margin ‘none of the yolk‘ 272 (xc) Seneca De beneficiis 2.21.1–2. In margin ‘eagerness for gain‘

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273 Vopiscus, in his Life of the Deified Aurelian, records the remark of some wit who said that ‘all the good emperors could be engraved on a single ring,’ meaning that there were plenty of emperors but very few good ones among them! 274 A certain nameless king – though he certainly deserves to be known by name – was offered a diadem, which he held for some time in his hand and said, ‘You silly bauble – bringer of status rather than happiness. If anyone knew your true nature, crammed with dangers, worries, and miseries, he would not even bother to pick you up off the ground.’1 275 A Roman governor in Sicily saw a young man with a remarkable physical resemblance to himself. He asked how this had come about since his father had never visited Sicily. The young man replied, ‘But mine often went to Rome.’ The young Sicilian turned the joke back on the speaker, regardless of the rods and axes of the governor. A similar remark was made about Augustus.1 276 Somebody once remarked that the man who first gave the Roman people free dinners and hand-outs had been the cause of their ruin. Caesar Augustus accordingly did once consider cancelling these distributions. Favour which is purchased by gifts is not genuine. If you reduce the gifts there is a great outcry. If you do away with them, there is a riot. 277 Philip, king of Macedon, achieved most things by bribery rather than ***** 273 (xci) Historia Augusta, Aurelian 42.5–6. In margin ‘shortage of good men‘ For Vopiscus see Introduction xix–xx. 274 (xcii) Valerius Maximus 7.2 ext. 5. In margin ‘to rule brings nothing but worry‘ 1 Cf a similar remark ascribed to Seleucus at 8.90 below. 275 (xciii) Valerius Maximus 9.14 ext. 3. In margin ‘retaliation for a joke‘ 1 See 4.165 above 276 (xciv) Plutarch Life of Aemilius Paulus 12.10, Suetonius Augustus 42.3, and Plutarch Life of Coriolanus 14.4. In margin ‘largess‘ 277 (xcv) Plutarch Life of Aemilius Paulus 12.10. In margin ‘gold as a weapon of war‘ This is Philip ii, father of Alexander the Great.

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fighting. Consequently, it was said of him that ‘it was not Philip but Philip’s gold that conquered Greece.’ This comes from Plutarch’s Life of Aemilius Paulus. 278 Romulus, founder of the city of Rome, is said to have been very abstemious. He was invited to a dinner at which he drank very little because he had business to deal with the next day, so his companions said to him, ‘If everybody drank like you, wine would be a lot cheaper.’ ‘No,’ he replied, ‘dearer, if everybody drank as much as they wanted, for I drank as much as I wanted.’ 279 Porsenna was much impressed with the peerless spirit of Mucius Scaevola. Scaevola was disgusted with his right hand for making a mistake when drawing the dagger,1 so he thrust it into the fire and allowed it to be burnt. Porsenna said to him, ‘Return to your people, Mucius, and tell them that though you sought my life, I have given you yours.’ 280 After Tarquinius Superbus had been driven into exile, he is supposed to have said that ‘he finally knew which of his friends were loyal and which were not, now that he was unable to return favours to either.’ People who are friends for what they can get abandon the friendship when hope of gain is removed. Prosperity creates friends, misfortune puts them to the test. 281 Horatius returned to his own side bearing the spoils of the three brothers Curiatius whom he had slain. His maiden sister had been betrothed to one of them, and she, recognizing her fianc´e’s cloak which she had made with her own hands, loosened her hair and with tears cried out ***** 278 (xcvi) Aulus Gellius 11.14.2. In margin ‘sobriety‘ 279 (xcvii) Valerius Maximus 3.2.1. In margin ‘clemency‘ 1 A famous story: Scaevola set out to assassinate Porsenna, the Etruscan king, who was besieging Rome, and by mistake stabbed his secretary. See Livy 2.12.7. 280 (xcviii) Cicero De amicitia 15.53. Tarquinius Superbus was the last (Etruscan) king of Rome. 281 (xcix) Livy 1.26.2–4. In margin ‘passion for renown‘ The Horatii and the Curiatii were two sets of triplets who fought to settle the struggle for supremacy between Rome and Alba Longa.

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the name of her dead fianc´e. Horatius ran her through with his sword, saying, ‘Away with you, together with your ill-conceived love, with no thought for your dead brothers or the living one, with no thought for your country.’ So powerful was his love of renown and his country’s glory. 282 Collatinus returned with a few friends to Lucretia, after Sextus Tarquinius had raped her. When her husband asked her as usual, ‘Is all well?,’ she replied, ‘By no means. What can be well for a woman whose chastity has been destroyed? The traces of another man, Collatinus, are in your bed. But only my body has been violated, my mind is innocent. Death shall bear me witness.’ At this she drove into her heart a dagger she had kept hidden and fell dying to the ground.1 283 The consul Gaius Plautius put before the senate the question of the citizens of Privernum, who had revolted from Rome. When opinions on the matter differed, one senator asked the representatives of the citizens of Privernum what they thought would be an appropriate punishment. One of them replied, ‘The one merited by people who think they deserve to be free.’ To this the consul replied, ‘Well, if we remit your punishment, what kind of peace shall we have with you?’ ‘If you grant us a good peace,’ he said, ‘a trustworthy and lasting one; if bad, one of short duration.’ 284 Papirius Cursor, an indefatigable man, was daringly asked by the cavalry to release them from some of their tasks in return for good service. His answer was, ‘So you don’t say I made no concession, I release you from any rubbing of backs when you dismount.’ This wasn’t any remission of a task but making the care of the horses less onerous. Unless maybe he knew that some of the more selfindulgent soldiers were in the habit of getting their backs massaged after ***** 282 (c) Livy 1.58.5–11. In margin ‘chastity in marriage‘ 1 Cf below 6.588. This act of Tarquinius Superbus brought about the expulsion of the Etruscan kings from Rome. 283 (ci) Livy 8.21.1–4. In margin ‘outspoken‘ 284 (cii) Livy 9.16.15–16. In margin ‘strict‘ Papirius Cursor was a famous general of the fourth century bc, remembered for his strict discipline.

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the effort of being in the saddle. It was from this ‘work’ that he excused his men.1 285 Appius upbraided the Roman people, saying they should be grateful to him that, instead of having a tongue-tied and speechless consul, they now had an eloquent one. He meant by the first his colleague Lucius Volumnius. Volumnius replied, ‘I would much rather that you had learnt energetic deeds from me than that I should learn clever talking from you.’ 286 The Romans used to say that ‘in the first stages of a battle the Gauls were more than men, in the last stages less than women.’ At the first charge they were furious, but they soon lost heart. 287 When the Roman army began to flee before the Samnites, the consul Marcus Atilius rode up to the camp gate and proclaimed that any soldier who moved in the direction of the camp defences would be treated as an enemy, whether he was Samnite or Roman. ‘Soldier,’ he said. ‘Which direction are you going in? You will find weapons and men here as well, and while your consul lives, you will not enter the camp unless victorious. So choose whether you prefer to fight with your fellow citizens or with the foe.’ 288 The Carthaginians had laid siege to the town of Saguntum contrary to the terms of the treaty, so the Romans sent an embassy, which included Quintus Fabius, to Carthage, to find out whether the attack had been officially authorized. When one of the leading Carthaginians made a somewhat aggressive response to this inquiry, Fabius made a loop out of his toga and said, ‘See, ***** 1 This second and more likely explanation was added in 1535. See 5.413 (on Scipio Aemilianus) above. 285 (ciii) Livy 10.19.7. This apophthegm was omitted at this point in 1535 and removed to 6.440 below. In margin ‘deeds preferable to words‘ Appius Claudius Caecus and Lucius Volumnius were consuls in 296 bc. Appius was a powerful orator and Volumnius had of necessity developed into a good speaker in order to hold his own. Appius became blind in later life. 286 (civ) Livy 10.28.4. In margin ‘the first clash‘ 287 (i) Livy 10.36.6. In margin ‘harsh‘ This is the Roman hero, Marcus Atilius Regulus. 288 (ii) Livy 21.18.1, 13–14. In margin ‘spirited‘

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we bring you peace and war. Choose which pleases you.’ The Carthaginians shouted out in hot blood that he could give whichever he wanted. So the Roman let the loop fall and said, ‘We give you war.’ The Carthaginians replied that they accepted it and would wage it with the same spirit with which he gave it.1 289 In the war with the Volscians, Marcus Coriolanus was urged to retire to the camp, since he was weak from weariness and wounds. He replied, ‘It is not for conquerors to falter,’ and proceeded to pursue the fleeing enemy. The sweetness of victory blotted out any sensation of physical distress. 290 In recognition of his prowess, Coriolanus was ordered to choose for himself ten items from each of the categories of goods, horses, and captives before a general division of the spoil was made. He was also given a splendid horse by the consul. ‘I am very pleased,’ he said, ‘to be praised by the consul, and I gladly accept the horse as a reward for courage. The other things, which are not so much an honour as a payment, I will not accept,’ and he was content to receive the same share as everyone else. Coriolanus asked for nothing extraordinary except that a certain Volscian, a good and honest man, whose friendship and hospitality he had enjoyed, should not be sold into captivity but be left to enjoy his freedom. He was more admired for this spirit, being impervious to mere money and mindful of his friend, than for his success in battle. 291 When Coriolanus, justifiably angry with the ungrateful people of Rome, was threatening the city with destruction and could not be persuaded to desist by embassies or priests, his mother Veturia came to his camp accompanied by his wife and children. Coriolanus ran to embrace her, but she said, ‘Let me first know whether I have come to my enemy or my son, and whether ***** 1 The edge of the toga as it hung in a curve over the chest could be tucked in to make a sort of bag which functioned as a pocket. This incident marked the beginning of the second Punic War, 218–201 bc. 289 (iii) Plutarch Life of Coriolanus 9.8. In margin ‘victory sweet‘ Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus was a great general and early Roman hero. In 490 bc, the Volscii, a south Italian tribe, were threatening the rising Roman state. 290 (iv) Plutarch Life of Coriolanus 10.2–6. In margin ‘honour preferred to payment‘ 291 (v) Livy 2.40 and Valerius Maximus 5.4.1. In margin ‘respect for mother and country‘ Coriolanus, charged and exiled for tyrannical conduct, defected to the Volscii.

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I stand in your camp as your captive or your mother.’ She said much else besides, and then Coriolanus, embracing his mother, said, ‘You have prevailed and overcome my anger. My country, though I have good reason to hate you, yet I yield you to this woman’s entreaties.’ 292 Atilius Regulus, who was twice consul during the first Punic War, used to say ‘one should not get oneself an unhealthy estate however fertile the area, nor a very healthy one where the soil is exhausted.’ A healthy spot is no use of one dies of hunger, and a fertile one is useless if one cannot live there. 293 Titus Manlius Torquatus was elected to the consulship by general consensus, but he refused the office on the grounds of failing eyesight. When everyone pressed him to accept, he said, ‘Find another man, citizens, on whom you may bestow that office. If you compel me to undertake it, I will not be able to endure your conduct and you will not be able to endure my authority.’ 294 Gaius Figulus failed to be elected when he stood for the consulship. He was all the more aggrieved at this because his father had been consul twice. The day after the voting, many people came to ask his advice, for he was an expert in civil law, but he sent them away, saying by way of justification, ‘You all know how to consult me, you don’t know how to make me consul.’ 295 Marcus Drusus, when tribune of the people, threw the consul Lucius Philippus into prison for daring to interrupt him while speaking. Not content with that, when the senate sent to ask him to come to the senate house, he even said, ‘Why doesn’t the senate rather come to me, to the Hostilian senate house, which is handy for the speakers’ platform?’1 What followed? The ***** 292 (vi) Pliny Naturalis historia 18.5.27. In margin ‘both healthy and fertile‘ 293 (vii) Valerius Maximus 6.4.1. In margin ‘hard‘ Torquatus was celebrated for his harsh discipline. See 6.298 below. 294 (viii) Valerius Maximus 9.3.2. In margin ‘ingratitude‘ 295 (ix) Valerius Maximus 9.5.2. In margin ‘arrogance achieves its end‘ 1 The Hostilian senate house (founded by Hostilius, sixth king of Rome) was near the speakers’ platform where the tribunes, and others, addressed the people, but the senate met also in other large buildings, as on this occasion. The tribunes, elected to defend the rights of the people, became increasingly highhanded and disruptive with popular support. See General Index: tribunes.

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tribune treated the authority of the senate with contempt, the senate did what the tribune asked. 296 Gaius Fimbria arranged to have Scaevola assassinated at Gaius Marius’ funeral. When he learned that he had recovered from the wound, he set about calling him to account before the people. When he was asked what charge he was going to bring against such an excellent and totally innocent person, he said, ‘I will charge him with being a bit grudging about letting the weapon into his body.’ As if not to have died was an actual crime! 297 When Marcus Tullius declared in the senate that Catiline had set a conflagration in train, ‘I know I have,’ said Catiline, ‘and if I cannot put it out with water, I will do it by bringing the building down.’ Words not of a human being but a fury! 298 When representatives from Macedonia came to Manlius Torquatus and laid serious charges against his son Decius Sullanus who had been appointed to govern that province, he asked the senate to take no decision on the matter until he had investigated it himself. The senate delegated the investigation to him, so he took his seat at home and without involving anyone else, devoted two whole days to hearing both sides. On the third day, he made the following official pronouncement: ‘Since it has been proved that my son Sullanus has accepted bribes from the allied community, I judge him to be unworthy of this country and my house, and accordingly banish him from my presence.’ 299 Aulus Fulvius had a gifted son, handsome and well-educated. The son set off to join Catiline’s camp, but the father caught him on the way and put him to death, saying, ‘I brought you into the world not for the benefit of Catiline against your country, but for the benefit of your country against Catiline.’ ***** 296 (x) Valerius Maximus 9.11.2. In margin ‘brutal‘ Fimbria was consul at the time, Scaevola an ex-consul. 297 (xi) Valerius Maximus 9.11.3. In margin ‘wicked‘ Catiline headed a dangerous conspiracy in 63 bc when Cicero was consul. 298 (xii) Valerius Maximus 5.8.3. See 6.293 above. In margin ‘severity‘ 299 (xiii) Valerius Maximus 5.8.5. See 6.297 above. In margin ‘a father’s severity‘

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300 Marcus Castricius, a magistrate of Placentia, was ordered by the consul Gnaeus Carbo to get a decree passed authorizing hostages from the town to be surrendered to him. He refused, and when the consul threatened, saying, ‘I have many swords,’ he replied, ‘And I have many years,’ making it plain that his advanced years freed him from fear of swords. 301 Cascellius refused to do what the triumvirs ordered and also spoke his mind about conditions under Julius Caesar. When his friends urged him to be more careful, he replied, ‘There are two things which make other people fearful, but give me confidence – old age and childlessness.’ An old man will die soon, even if no one kills him; a man without children has no one to worry about or be fearful for. Vengeance is often continued against a man’s children. 302 The ship in which Granius, a quaestor in the service of the praetor, was travelling, was captured by Metellus Scipio. Everyone else was stripped of everything, but Scipio promised Granius he would be safe.1 He replied, ‘Caesar’s soldiers grant others safety, they do not accept it,’ and without another word drew his dagger and stabbed himself. 303 Granius, an auctioneers’ announcer,1 advised an incompetent pleader in the courts who had talked till he was hoarse to go home and drink chilled honeywine. He replied, ‘If I do that, I shall ruin my voice.’ To which Granius retorted, ‘Better to ruin your voice than your client.’ ***** 300 (xiv) Valerius Maximus 6.2.10. In margin ‘confidence based on advanced years‘ 301 (xv) Valerius Maximus 6.2.12. In margin ‘confidence based on age and childlessness‘ For Cascellius see 6.187 above. 302 (xvi) Plutarch Life of Caesar 16.8–9. In margin ‘spirited‘ 1 See 4.212 above for Metellus Scipio. This occurred during the last phase of the Civil war between Caesar and Pompey. 303 (xvii) Cicero De oratore 2.282. In margin ‘an incompetent counsel‘ 1 The phrase ‘an auctioneer’s announcer’ was added in 1535, no doubt to distinguish him from the Granius in 302. This Granius, second century bc, was renowned for his wit and mixed with high society in spite of his humble status.

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304 This same Granius, in his function of public announcer, had on the orders of the consul Publius Nasica, proclaimed in the forum a moratorium on all public business. Seeing him going down to his house from there, Nasica asked him why he was so gloomy. ‘Is it because of the auctions?’ ‘No,’ he said, ‘it’s because of the legions.’1 Granius was censuring him for using troops to settle things. This was a plain-spoken remark from a mere public announcer to a consul, but it’s also an example of remarkable self-control on the part of Nasica in that the man could say this with impunity. 305 When Marcus Drusus, tribune of the people, a powerful individual always introducing innovative measures, hailed this same Granius with the conventional greeting, ‘How are you doing, Granius?’ he replied, ‘It’s rather, what are you doing?’ Both of these are found in Cicero’s speech For Gnaeus Plancius. 306 Mark Antony had Marcus Lucullus killed for joining the side of Brutus and Cassius. Volumnius,1 who had been a close friend during his life, never ceased lamenting his death, and when brought before Antony, he said, ‘Have me taken forthwith to Lucullus’ body and killed. I have no right to survive his extinction, since I was the one who persuaded him to his unlucky military venture.’ 307 Gaius Furius Cresimus, who had been freed from slavery, got much larger crops from his tiny farm than his neighbours did from their large ones. Consequently he was very unpopular and suspected of drawing their crops ***** 304 (xviii) Cicero Pro Gnaeo Plancio 14.33 1 Some texts of Cicero had a different reading here: ‘an quod reiectae auctiones essent?’ ‘immo vero,’ inquit, ‘quod legationes.’ ‘Is it because the auctions have been put off?’ ‘No,’ he said, ‘because the embassies have.’ Being an auctioneer among his other activities, Granius would be unemployed with no auctions being held. For Scipio Nasica see 5.318 above. 305 (xix) Cicero Pro Gnaeo Plancio 14.33 306 (xx) Valerius Maximus 4.7.4. In margin ‘spoken like a friend‘ 1 For Volumnius see 5.469 above. 307 (xxi) Pliny Naturalis historia 18.6.41–3. In margin ‘hard work brings profit‘

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away by magic arts. So he was summoned to court by the curule aedile, Spurius Albinus. Fearing that he would be found guilty, when the tribes were due to cast their vote, he brought into the forum all his agricultural implements, his healthy household,1 well-favoured and well-clothed, his tools of good quality, his heavy mattocks, his weighty ploughshares, his plump oxen. Then he said, ‘These, citizens, are my magic arts, but I cannot show you or bring into the forum my late nights, my early mornings, my sweat and toil.’ He was unanimously acquitted. This is recorded in Pliny also, book eighteen, chapter six.2 308 Quintus Flavius was arraigned before the people on a charge brought by Gaius Valerius. When the first fourteen tribes had brought in a verdict of guilty, he shouted out that he was being done away with in spite of his innocence. Valerius replied just as loudly that ‘he didn’t care whether he died innocent or guilty.’ This outrageous remark swung the other tribes in favour of the accused, and so the man Valerius thought he had destroyed was acquitted. 309 At his mother’s funeral, whom he buried in her ninetieth year being sixtyseven himself, Pomponius Atticus made the boast that ‘he had never been reconciled with his mother, had never quarrelled with his sister,’ who was much of an age with himself. Cornelius Nepos writes that he himself heard him say these words.1 It is a greater thing not to have been reconciled than not to have been on bad terms – he had never had a serious disagreement with his mother. And even if he and his sister had had their differences, these had never resulted in a break-down of relations, which can often be very bitter between siblings.2 ***** 1 familia: the editions of Apophthegmata and lb read filia ‘daughter,’ which is presumably a misprint, as comparison with the text of Pliny (see n2) shows. 2 This last sentence was added in 1535. Erasmus has quoted the Pliny passage almost verbatim. 308 (xxii) Valerius Maximus 8.1.7. In margin ‘anger achieves nothing‘ For voting purposes the assembly of the people was divided into 35 tribes, and when 18 had voted in the same way no more votes were taken. 309 (xxiii) Nepos Atticus 19.1. See 1.79n above for Nepos. In margin ‘harmony‘ 1 Nepos Atticus 17.1. 2 Adagia i ii 50: Fratrum inter se irae sunt acerbissimae ‘The bitterest quarrels are between brothers.’

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310 After losing their fleet off Sicily, the Carthaginians were discussing making peace with the Romans. Hamilcar said he was afraid to approach the consuls lest the Romans do to him what the Carthaginians had done to the consul Cornelius Asina, whom they had thrown into chains in spite of his being an ambassador. Hanno had a higher opinion of Roman good faith and undertook the journey. He was putting the Carthaginian case rather forcibly when one of the military tribunes threateningly warned him that he could suffer the same fate as the consul Cornelius. At this point, both the consuls ordered the tribune to be silent and said, ‘Hanno, the good faith of our country frees you from that fear.’ 311 When the Samnites were debating what should be done with the Roman legions trapped inside the Caudine Forks, Herennius Pontius urged that they should be released unharmed. The next day, when consulted again on the same matter, he said they should be killed to a man, his opinion being that either the enemy should be won over by a generous act of clemency or that their strength should be crushed by an irreparable loss. The Samnite army followed neither counsel but sent them under the yoke, and by this humiliation enraged the Romans even more against themselves. 312 Marcus Bibulus lost two fine sons, killed in Egypt by Gabinius’ soldiers. Cleopatra sent the murderers to Bibulus in chains, to deal with as he saw fit; but he ordered them to be taken straight back to Cleopatra, saying that ‘authority to exact vengeance for this lay not in his hands but the senate’s.’ ***** 310 (xxiv) Valerius Maximus 6.6.2 (paraphrased). In margin ‘good faith shown to the enemy embassy‘ This incident occurred at the end of the first Punic War between Rome and Carthage. The Carthaginians were finally defeated at the naval battle of Drepana in 242 bc. Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Asina was consul in 260 (when he was captured and imprisoned by the Carthaginians) and 254 bc. 311 (xxv) Valerius Maximus 7.2.17. In margin ‘the enemy should either be destroyed or put under an obligation‘ This incident in 321 bc is part of the protracted campaign by Rome to reduce the Samnites, an independent people of central Italy. 312 (xxvi) Valerius Maximus 4.1.15. In margin ‘moderation‘ Gabinius left legionaries in Egypt c. 56 bc to support Ptolemy xii Auletes.

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313 Gaius Sulpicius Gallus divorced his wife because she had gone out with her head uncovered, saying, ‘The law prescribes my eyes alone as the only ones to which you may display your charms. It is for them that you are to prepare your adornments, for them alone look lovely. To want others to find you attractive must necessarily arouse suspicion and lead to accusation.’ 314 When Tiberius entered the senate, some toady stood up and loudly declared that members should speak freely and not hold back on matters of public importance. Everyone pricked up their ears at this, and Tiberius too turned his attention to the man. ‘Caesar,’ he said. ‘There is something in which we all find fault with you, even if no one dares to voice it out loud. Hear what it is. You spend yourself for us and exhaust your strength, toiling and caring for the country by night and day.’ He said much more in the same vein, indulging in the grossest flattery under the pretext of free speech. Gaius Severus is said to have commented, ‘That wonderful free speech will be the ruin of the fellow.’ 315 There were various reactions to this proposal, and among them Cato put forward the view that the office of perpetual dictator should be abolished as being tyrannous. Bibulus, though he was Pompey’s enemy, took the initiative in proposing in the senate that Pompey be appointed sole consul.1 ‘Either,’ Cato said, ‘the country will be delivered through him from the storm that threatens or we will find ourselves obeying the best of men.’ What a splendid attitude, putting private enmity second to the good of the country! Cato said he supported this proposal as it had been put forward by someone else, though it wouldn’t have been right to suggest it himself. ***** 313 (xxvii) Valerius Maximus 6.3.10. In margin ‘uncompromising attitude towards a wife‘ 314 (xxviii) Plutarch Moralia 49c–d (How to tell a flatterer). In margin ‘flattery under the guise of free speech‘ 315 (xxix) Plutarch Life of Pompey 54.5–7 1 This not very clear summary refers to the political turmoil of 52 bc. First it was proposed that Pompey be appointed perpetual dictator, which Cato opposed, then that he (unconstitutionally) be made sole consul, which Cato was prepared to go along with.

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316 When Musonius was making a visit to Rome,1 Rutilius said to him, ‘Tell me, Musonius – Jupiter the Saviour, whom you follow, doesn’t borrow money, does he?,’ making a hit at Musonius’ poverty, for he was at times forced to accept a loan. Musonius laughed and said, ‘He doesn’t loan it either.’ It’s more shaming to lend money than to borrow it. But Rutilius, who did the worse thing himself, taxed Musonius with something less reprehensible. 317 When Valerius Publicola was in the act of dedicating Jupiter’s temple and had actually got to the point in the ritual where he laid his hand on the door-post, his brother Marcus suddenly insisted on giving him a message of deadly import. ‘Consul,’ he said, ‘your son has died of an illness while away in the camp.’ Everyone was cast down by this news, but Publius, unmoved, simply said, ‘Throw the corpse out where you will,’ and carried out the solemn ritual of dedication to the end. It was not in fact true that his son had died, but this was a deliberate ploy to make him abandon the dedication so that the honour of performing it could be transferred to another.1 Though Livy gives a rather different account in the second book of his history From the Foundation of the City.2 318 Caesetius, a Roman knight, was ordered by Caesar to disinherit his son because, when he was tribune of the people, he had with his colleague Marullus stirred up ill will against Caesar for trying to make himself king. Caesetius replied, ‘You will sooner take all my sons away from me, Caesar, than I will drive any one of them away with a slur on his character.’ ***** 316 (xxx) Plutarch Moralia 830b (On borrowing) 1 Musonius was a first-century ad Stoic philosopher. Publius Rutilius Rufus was a rhetorician. 317 (xxxi) Plutarch Life of Poplicola 14.6–7 and Livy 2.8.6–8. In margin ‘resolute‘ 1 Erasmus’ paraphrase gives a garbled version of the account in Plutarch. The dedication was allocated not to Valerius Publicola but to the other consul, Horatius, and Publicola’s brother tried to upset the proceedings and invalidate the ritual out of jealously. 2 Livy’s shorter account agrees in essentials. Like all the other sources, he gives the dedication to Horatius. The reference to Livy was added in 1535. 318 (xxxii) Valerius Maximus 5.7.2. In margin ‘affection for a son‘

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319 Titus Labienus gave gold from the Gallic spoils to a cavalryman who had acquitted himself well. Seeing this, Scipio said to the man, ‘You will have the gift of a rich man.’ At this, the cavalryman threw the gold down at Labienus’ feet. When he heard Scipio say, ‘The commander gives you silver arm-bands,’ this same man went away elated.1 The soldier despised the gold, embraced the honour. 320 Quintus Fabius Minucius was urged by his son to expend the lives of a few men in capturing a useful strategic position. ‘Are you prepared,’ he said, ‘to be one of those few men?’1 He thus reminded him that it is not the mark of a good general to treat as negligible the safety of any one of his men. 321 When Cineas, acting as ambassador for the people of Epirus, brought a large amount of gold as a gift to Fabricius, he refused to accept it, saying that ‘he preferred to give orders to people who owned gold than to own it himself.’ 322 After he had put Hasdrubal to flight, several people urged Marcus Livius ***** 319 (xxxiii) Valerius Maximus 8.14.5. In margin ‘honour preferable to monetary value‘ 1 Erasmus has so truncated this anecdote as to make it obscure. Scipio thought that Labienus should not give gold, which was the reward for someone of higher status, to a soldier who had been a slave. The recipient, being rebuked, was shamed and rejected the gold, but gladly took the silver armlets which Scipio gave him as something more appropriate. This Scipio is identified by the editor of Valerius Maximus (Carolus Kempf, bt 1888) as Quintus Caecilius Metellus Scipio, a supporter of Pompey. Labienus, formerly one of Caesar’s chief lieutenants in Gaul, deserted to Pompey in the Civil War, and fought with Metellus Scipio in north Attica. See 4.212 n1 above. 320 (xxxiv) Frontinus Strategemata 4.6.1. In margin ‘no one has no regard for his life‘ 1 Cf Plutarch Moralia 201f (Sayings of the Romans), where the words are attributed to Caecilius Metellus. The story is used at 5.423 above. 321 (xxxv) Frontinus Strategemata 4.3.2. Cf Valerius Maximus 4.3.5, where a similar story (together with the Curius story in 6.324 below) is told of Manius Curius. The Manius Curius version is also in Plutarch Moralia 194f (Sayings of Romans) told as 5.264 above, and Cicero De senectute 56. In all these versions the money is offered by the Samnites, not by Cineas. In margin ‘gold despised‘ 322 (xxxvi) Frontinus Strategemata 4.7.15. In margin ‘clemency‘

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to pursue the enemy and destroy them to the last man. ‘No,’ he said, ‘let a few survive to report our victory to the foe.’ 323 Because he survived the battle of Cannae1 which was so disastrous to the Romans, Varro, Paulus’ colleague, refused the honours offered him by the people, saying that ‘the state needed more fortunate magistrates than himself.’ Though he had nothing to blame himself for, he chose to make atonement to the state for his misfortune, a man for this very reason worthy of the highest honours. 324 After his victory over the Sabines, Curius was offered by decree of the senate a larger allocation of land than time-served soldiers usually received, but he refused it, contenting himself with a common soldier’s allocation and saying, ‘it was a bad citizen who found insufficient what was sufficient for the rest.’ 325 The orator Hortensius was often the subject of taunts even in the law-courts on account of his modish dress and the rather effeminate gestures he used when delivering his speeches. One Lucius Torquatus, a boorish and unattractive character, during the investigation into Sulla’s case before the council, didn’t merely describe Hortensius as an actor but called him a female mime artiste, addressing him as Dionysia, the name of a notorious little dancing girl. At this Hortensius remarked in a sweet and gentle voice, ‘Dionysia? I would rather be a Dionysia than what you are, Torquatus, vulgar, boorish, and surly.1 It’s dangerous to taunt another person when the same or a similar accusation or even a different one can be levelled against the taunter. ***** 323 (xxxvii) Frontinus Strategemata 4.5.6. In margin ‘virtue not meeting with success‘ 1 See General Index: Cannae 324 (xxxviii) Frontinus Strategemata 4.3.12 and Valerius Maximus 4.3.5. Cf 6.290 above. In margin ‘equality‘ 325 (xxxix) Aulus Gellius 1.5.3. In margin ‘affable‘ 1 Modern texts of Aulus Gellius read, more tellingly, ‘a stranger to the Muses, Aphrodite – and Dionysus,’ Ämousow, únafrod’tow, úprosdi—nusow, ie to poetry, love, and wine, but also with a pun on the name Dionysia. See Adagia ii vi 17: *Amousoi ‘Strangers to the Muses.’

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326 Hortensius also used to boast that he had never taken part in civil war. This is in a letter Cicero wrote to Caelius, in book two. 327 The orator Lucius Crassus said of Nenenius, an extremely tall man, that ‘whenever he went down to the forum, he hit his head on the Arch of Fabius.’ This joke depends on hyperbole – for Roman arches were so high that you could hardly touch the highest point of the curve with a spear. 328 Lucius Crassus again, when he was censor, said to his colleague Gnaeus Domitius, who took him to task for weeping over a lamprey which had died in his fishpond,1 ‘But you buried three wives without shedding a tear.’ This was a clever rebuttal of the reproof, implying that Domitius was responsible for the deaths of his wives. In any case, it’s worse not to weep at a wife’s funeral than to shed a tear over a lamprey. 329 This same Gnaeus Domitius took his colleague Lucius Crassus to task for living in such an expensive house when he held the office of censor1 – he had columns of Hymettian marble in the portico – and Domitius frequently offered him ten million sesterces for the house. Crassus, who had a ready wit, asked his colleague how much he thought his own house was worth. ‘Six million sesterces,’ he replied. So Crassus asked him, ‘How much less do you think it would be worth if I cut down ten little trees?’ They were nettle trees, shedding a happy shade with their spreading branches. When ***** 326 (xl) Cicero Ad familiares 2.16.3 327 (xli) Quintilian 6.3.67 with Cicero De oratore 2.267 (re Memmius). In margin ‘extremely tall‘ 6.327–33 are all about the famous second-century bc orator Lucius Licinius Crassus. 328 (xlii) Plutarch Moralia 89a (How to profit by one’s enemies) and 811a (Precepts of statecraft). In margin ‘rebuttal‘ 1 Special fish were highly prized and rich Romans would pay vast sums for prize specimens which they kept in their private fishponds. Cf 4.192 above. 329 (xliii) Valerius Maximus 9.1.4 with Pliny Naturalis historia 17.1 2–4. Erasmus’ version combines elements from both sources introducing some confusion. In dedicatory epistle 13 above he remarks how different the two versions are. In margin ‘a charge rebutted‘ 1 Censors were supposed to check public morals, eg extravagance. See 6.358 below. Crassus and Domitius were censors in 92 bc.

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Domitius replied, ‘Three million sesterces,’ Crassus said, ‘Which of us is the more extravagant, I who bought ten columns for a hundred thousand sesterces, or you who value the shade of ten little trees at three million?’ People have sharp eyes for others’ failings but are blind to their own. 330 The consul Lucius Philippus ordered the arrest of Lucius Crassus, a man of considerable standing and a great orator, because Crassus took exception to Philippus’ remark that he needed a different senate. Crassus threw off the lictor and said, ‘You, Philippus, are no consul to me, since I am not a senator to you.’ 331 Lucius Crassus said of Mummius, nick-named Divisor ‘Backhander,’ that ‘he won his name in the Campus Martius just as Neoptolemus won his at Troy.’1 332 When someone asked Lucius Crassus whether he would be a nuisance if he called on him very early in the morning before dawn, Crassus replied, ‘You will not be a nuisance.’ The man then said, ‘Will you ask someone to wake you?,’ to which Crassus replied, ‘But you said you wouldn’t be a nuisance.’ Just coming wasn’t a nuisance, but being woken was. The questioner was asking whether, if he came early for a consultation, he would be nuisance. Crassus jokingly took it to mean if he just came early he wouldn’t be a nuisance. 333 Crassus was defending Aculeo before Perperna as presiding magistrate. The accusing counsel was Lucius Aelius Lamia, a deformed man. He kept interrupting in an offensive manner, so Crassus said, ‘Let’s hear the pretty ***** 330 (xliv) Valerius Maximus 6.2.2. In margin ‘authority rejected‘ 331 (xlv) Cicero De oratore 2.257. In margin ‘joking on a name‘ 1 According to modern texts, the joke lies in the name Nummius (sic), who happened to be, appropriately enough, a divisor, a man whose job it was to distribute cash (nummi) as an inducement to the voters in the Campus Martius (Plain of Mars), where some Roman elections took place. The young Neoptolemos (New-to-war) won his fame fighting on the plains of Troy (Homer Odyssey 11.510–37). The speaker is actually Julius Caesar Strabo Vopiscus, but this occurs in the middle of a very long exposition. Crassus is also a speaker, so an easy mistake. 332 (xlvi) Cicero De oratore 2.259. In margin ‘humorous‘ 333 (xlvii) Cicero De oratore 2.262. In margin ‘mockery‘

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boy.’ When everyone laughed at this, Aelius said, ‘I have been able to mould my own talents, I could not mould my body.’ Then Crassus said, ‘Very well, let’s hear the eloquent boy.’ Everyone laughed even louder at this. 334 Cato as censor put to Lucius Porcius Nasica the question in the prescribed formula, ‘Can you, in so far as you know your own heart,1 declare that you are a married man?’ To which he replied, ‘I am indeed a married man, but not as I know my own heart.’ But he was penalized for making this untimely joke. 335 Scipio Nasica went to visit the poet Ennius, and when he asked for him at the door, the maid said he was not at home. Nasica guessed that she was saying this on her master’s orders and that Ennius was actually there, but on this occasion he pretended to believe her and went home. A few days later, Ennius came to visit Nasica and when he was enquiring for him at the door, Nasica himself called out that he was not at home. ‘What?’ said Ennius, ‘Don’t I recognize your voice?’ To which Nasica replied, ‘Really, you do have a cheek. When I came looking for you, I believed your maid. Don’t you believe me when I tell you myself?’ 336 When some people were saying that the Roman state was now secure after the annihilation of the Carthaginians and the reduction of the Greeks to servitude, this same Nasica said, ‘No. It is now that we face the greatest danger, for there is no one left for us to fear or respect.’ He knew that enemies can on occasion serve a purpose, as they do not allow us to grow careless without danger and serious consequences.1 ***** 334 (xlviii) Cicero De oratore 2.260 and Aulus Gellius 4.20.6. In margin ‘an untimely jest‘ This is possibly a mistake in the text of Cicero for Publius Scipio Nasica. 1 This pun is difficult to translate. The import of the formulaic expression is something like ‘in all honesty’; but the literal meaning of the words is ‘to my liking.’ Cf 6.184 above. He had his citizen status reduced to the lowest class. 335 (xlix) Cicero De oratore 2.276. In margin ‘making fun of‘ 336 (l) Plutarch Moralia 88a (How to profit by one’s enemies). In margin ‘peace not a good thing‘ 1 Cf 2.23–4.

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337 When this same Nasica was in his youth standing for the curule aedileship, he was, as candidates do, shaking hands with voters and he grasped a hand that was horny with toil. He asked the man whether he walked on his hands. The men from the country tribes took this remark to be a dig at their poverty, and it was because of them that he failed to be elected. His untimely jest cost him dear. 338 In Caesar’s Gallic triumph the soldiers chanted these doggerel lines against their general: Lock up your wives, you men of Rome, We bring you the bald lecher. With gold you bought your sex in Gaul, In Rome you had to borrow.

They were commenting on the fact that while in Gaul he had induced other men’s wives to have sex with him for gold, but in Rome he didn’t buy sex but got it on loan, as his wife was the subject of scandal in connection with Clodius.1 Unless maybe they were hinting at something even more unsavoury, for Suetonius tells us a bit further on that the elder Curio in some speech or other called him ‘every woman’s man and every man’s woman.’ 339 When some man disparaged his mother Cornelia, Gaius Gracchus asked, ‘How dare you speak ill of Cornelia, who brought Tiberius Gracchus into the world?’ He went further and said, ‘What insolence to compare yourself with Cornelia. Have you borne children as she has done? In any case, there isn’t a single citizen who doesn’t know that she has been without a man longer than a man has been without you.’ The man being thus attacked was the subject of adverse comment as to his sexual proclivities. ***** 337 (li) Valerius Maximus 7.5.2. He was aedile in 169 bc. Cf 6.334 above. In margin ‘an untimely jest‘ 338 (lii) Suetonius Julius Caesar 51, 52.3. In margin ‘indecency‘ 1 See 4.202, 4.331, 4.348 above. 339 (liii) Plutarch Life of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus 25.3–4 and Life of Gaius 4.3–4. In margin ‘proper respect for one’s mother‘

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340 When Carbo was making some promise and backing it up with an oath and a curse, the people swore in response that they didn’t believe him. One has to trust honest men without any oath on their part, whereas lightweight characters are not to be trusted even with an oath. That line of Menander is relevant here: ‘The speaker’s life persuades and not his words.’1 341 When Silenus was an old man, he was captured by Midas, who asked him what was the best thing for mankind. He was silent for long time, but at length, when pressed for an answer, he replied, ‘Not to be born is best, the next best is to be extinguished as soon as possible.’1 This was the price of his release. Ovid records this saying with others in Metamorphoses book 11.2 342 The residence of Julius Drusus Publicola1 was overlooked by neighbours from several directions. A builder said he could put this inconvenience right for five talents and make it so no part was open to other people’s gaze. Drusus replied, ‘I will pay ten talents if you will make my home open to everyone’s eyes on every side, so that not only my neighbours but all citizens may see how life is lived in my house.’ ***** 340 (liv) Plutarch Moralia 801b (Precepts of statecraft). In margin ‘distrust‘ 1 Menander pcg 362.7 fr 472, quoted by Plutarch Moralia 801c (Precepts of statecraft): Tr—pow \sy' ` pe’yvn tož leg—ntow, o[ l—gow. 341 (lv) Cicero Tusculan disputations 1.47.114 with Plutarch Moralia 115c–d (Consolation to Apollonius). In margin ‘life is a misery‘ 1 Adagia ii iii 49: Optimum non nasci, which lists several sources for this wellknown sentiment. 2 Ovid Metamorphoses 11.90–9 does tell of Silenus’ capture and release by Midas, but does not include this saying. Erasmus added this reference in 1535, no doubt relying on memory. 342 (lvi) Plutarch Moralia 800e–f (Precepts of statecraft). In margin ‘an innocent life‘ 1 Julius Drusus Publicola appears in 1531, 1532, and 1535 but he is an imaginary person. The incident concerns Marcus Livius Drusus, the well-known tribune of 91 bc. Iulius seems to have arisen from a misreading of the name Livius in Greek script and Publicola ‘people’s champion’ is not in this case part of the name (as with Publius Valerius Publicola, see 6.317 above) but translates Plutarch’s ‘the demagogue.’ The text was emended (wrongly) in an edition of 1538–9 to Iulii Drusi sedes publicae ‘the official residence of Julius Drusus’ and Iulii was corrected to Livii in bas (see Introduction xxviii above).

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343 When Marcus Servilius was about to speak against a bill put forward by Marcus Pinarius, ‘Tell me, Pinarius,’ he said. ‘If I speak against you, you won’t malign me the way you do others, will you?’ ‘As you have sown,’ replied Pinarius, ‘so also shall you reap.’1 By using this allegory,2 he warned him that if he indulged in abuse, he would get the same in return. 344 When Libo said to Servius Galba, ‘When are you ever going to get out of your dining room?,’ he got the retort, ‘When you get out of others’ bedrooms.’ Libo was censuring Galba because he kept nominating to Lucius Scribonius, the tribune of the people, jurymen who were cronies of his. He had bribed these men to support him by inviting them to his dinner parties. Galba retaliated by calling him an adulterer. 345 There’s also a famous remark made by Glaucia to Metellus: ‘You have a country house in Tibur, but the farmyard is on the Palatine.’ The farmyard and the house are usually close together. He was pointing the finger at Metellus for putting people under an obligation to him with gifts of food and other things, which is the same charge as Libo was making against Galba, but in different words. It is your domesticated animals that are fed in the farmyard. 346 When Sextus Titius called himself a Cassandra (presumably because of his predictions, for she was a prophetess), Antonius remarked. ‘There are plenty of men you could name as your Ajax son of Oileus,’ making a dig at him for ***** 343 (lvii) Cicero De oratore 2.261. Neither of these persons has been further identified. In margin ‘the abuser gets repaid in his own coin‘ 1 Adagia i viii 78: Ut sementem feceris, ita et metes 2 A trope covering various forms of metaphor and often found with reference to proverbial expressions, as here. See [Cicero] Ad Herennium 4.34.46; Erasmus De copia cwe 24.335. 344 (lviii) Cicero De oratore 2.263. In margin ‘an insult turned back on the speaker‘ 345 (lvix) Cicero De oratore 2.263 346 (lx) Cicero De oratore 2.265. In margin ‘a joke making a literary reference‘

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his shameful sexual activities, for Ajax dragged Cassandra out of the temple of Pallas Athene and raped her.1 347 When Gallus was giving evidence against Piso, he stated that vast sums of money had been given to the prefect Magius. Scaurus began to refute the charge by pointing out Magius’ straitened circumstances. Gallus replied, ‘You misunderstand me, Scaurus. I am not saying that Magius kept the money, but that he stowed it in his belly like a naked man gathering nuts.’1 Gallus modified his statement, but so as to add to the charge of bribery and corruption the charge of extravagant living. 348 Cicero’s father, the elder Marcus Cicero, used to say that the peoples of Italy were like Syrian slaves for sale – the better they knew Greek, the worse villains they were. He meant that Greek morals had come to Italy together with Greek literature. So Cicero’s rather unfair attitude towards the Greeks seems to be something he inherited from his father. 349 When Testius Pinarius was delivering a speech, he always used to grimace and twist his jaw about. When he invited the opposing counsel to make any observations he wished, the man replied, ‘I will, if you’ve managed to crack your nut.’ 350 This last is very similar to a story Suetonius tells about the emperor Vespasian. ***** 1 See Virgil Aeneid 2.403–6. The phrase ‘for she was a prophetess’ was added in 1532. Her prophecies were never believed. 347 (lxi) Cicero De oratore 2.265. In margin ‘a correction making things worse‘ 1 Ie not having any pockets, so having to eat what he gathered. 348 (lxii) Cicero De oratore 2.265. In margin ‘Greek morals‘ 349 (lxiii) Cicero De oratore 2.266. In margin ‘a joke‘ As this Pinarius is mocked by Julius Caesar Vopiscus (see 6.191 above) he must belong to the second to first centurybc. 350 (lxiv) Suetonius Vespasian 20 and Martial 3.89.1–2. In margin ‘joke based on physical appearance‘

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He challenged a wit who was making digs at many other people to make a joke about him. ‘I will,’ the man replied, ‘when you’ve stopped relieving yourself.’ He was referring to Vespasian’s expression – he always looked like someone straining at the toilet. Martial has some humorous lines about a similar man: Eat lettuces, Phoebus, softening mallows eat – You have the face of a man with constipation.

351 Gaius Fabricius had cast his vote in favour of Publius Cornelius when he stood for the consulship. Cornelius was a man generally considered avaricious and grasping, but a remarkably brave man and a competent commander. When Cornelius was thanking him, as was customary, and commenting on the fact that, disregarding their long-standing enmity, he had voted for him to be consul, and during a great and dangerous war at that, he replied, ‘No need to thank me, if I preferred being pillaged to being sold.’ We are pillaged by theft, prisoners taken in war are sold. So he supported his enemy in the hope that his abilities would prevent the Romans falling into the hands of their foes. 352 When Septumuleius Anagninus, who had been paid in gold for the head of Gaius Gracchus, asked Scaevola to take him to Asia as an administrator, Scaevola replied, ‘What’s the idea, you fool? There’s such a crowd of villains among the population of Rome that I assure you that if you remain in the city, you will in a few years attain to vast sums of money.’1 He censured the man for his avarice, for he was trying to get the post for no other reason than to fleece the inhabitants of the province, and Scaevola jokingly made out that he would achieve this aim sooner in Rome. Fannius in his Annals ascribes this witticism to Aemilius Africanus, who got the nick-name ‘the Ironic.’2 ***** 351 (lxv) Cicero De oratore 2.268. In margin ‘pillaged/sold‘ Fabricius was an old-style Roman of integrity. See 6.321 above. Cornelius is possibly Cornelius Rufinus, consul 290 bc. 352 (lxvi) Cicero De oratore 2.269. In margin ‘a thieving magistrate‘ 1 Anagninus filled the head with lead for the reward (Valerius Maximus 9.4.3). 2 Cicero actually says that Fannius (second century bc), in his Annals, remarked that (Publius Cornelius) Aemilianus Africanus was particularly renowned for this type of ironic comment, not that he was the originator of this one.

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353 Quintus Scaevola, who was the son of Publius, requested that the vendor of a farm he was negotiating to buy should name a definite price. When the man did so, Scaevola said he thought the farm was worth more, and added a hundred thousand sesterces to the price. An example of integrity hardly to be credited in this day and age! 354 Gaius Publicius used to say that Publius Mummius was ‘a man for any season,’ meaning that his skills and abilities made him fit for any position in life. In the same vein we read that Asinius Pollio was ‘a man for all hours,’1 and the emperor Tiberius2 used to call two men of whom he was particularly fond, ‘friends for all hours.’ 355 Africanus, when censor, removed from his tribe a centurion who had not joined in the battle fought under Paulus’ command. The man said he had stayed behind in the camp to guard it and asked why he was being disgraced. ‘I have no liking,’ said Africanus, ‘for people who are too careful.’ He glossed over the centurion’s cowardice and instead blamed his overzealous guard-duty. 356 Livius Salinator lost the city of Tarentum but managed to hold the citadel and made many a fine sally from it. When Fabius Maximus retook the city a few years later, Salinator asked him to remember that it was due to him that he had recaptured the city. ‘Of course I will,’ said Maximus. ‘I would never have retaken it, if you had not lost it.’1 The joke lies in Maximus’ taking Livius’ words in a different way from what the speaker intended. Cicero records this in book two of On the orator and Plutarch does so ***** 353 (lxvii) Cicero De officiis 3.15.62. In margin ‘fair‘ 354 (lxviii) Cicero De oratore 2.271 and Quintilian 6.3.111 1 Cf Adagia i iii 86: Omnium horarum homo 2 See Suetonius Tiberius 42. 355 (lxix) Cicero De oratore 2.272. In margin ‘witty‘ This was the battle of Pydna, fought 26 years before under Aemilius Paulus. 356 (lxx) Cicero De oratore 2.273 and Plutarch Life of Fabius Maximus 23.3–4. In margin ‘taking words in a different way‘ 1 This anecdote has already been used at 5.276 above.

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in his life of Fabius Maximus, though he calls the man Marcius Lucius and doesn’t give the name Salinator.2 357 When this same Salinator was leaving Rome in order to join battle with Hasdrubal, he was urged by Fabius Maximus not to start hostilities until he had ascertained the size of Hasdrubal’s forces and what his intentions were. He retorted that he would seize the earliest opportunity for a fight, and when asked why he was in so much of a hurry, he replied, ‘So that I can as soon as possible experience either the glory of defeating the enemy or the pleasure of humiliating the citizens.’ This remark arose from a mixture of military ardour and resentment, the former making him eager to win a triumph, the other arising from the memory of his unjust condemnation.1 358 When Mancia heard that that the censor Antonius, towards whom he was ill-disposed, was being taken to court by Marcus Duronius on a charge of bribery, ‘At last,’ he remarked, ‘you will be able to turn your attention to some business of your own.’ Censors inquire into other people’s morals; somebody charged with a crime has something of his own to occupy his mind. 359 Quintus Opimius, an ex-consul, had a bad reputation in his youth. He taunted with sexual deviation one Aegilius, a witty fellow who looked effeminate but was not, saying to him, ‘Now my dear Aegilia, when will you come to visit me with your wool and distaff?’ Aegilius replied, ‘I really dare not. My mother told me not to go near women of bad reputation.’ The first one made out he was speaking to a woman; the other, taking on the character, used the pretended situation to deride the speaker. ***** 2 See dedicatory epistle 13 above. Lucius is a variant reading in Plutarch. This final paragraph was added in 1535. 357 (lxxi) Livy 27.40.8–9. In margin ‘revenge‘ 1 He was condemned for not dividing the booty fairly and this injustice rankled for years. See Frontinus Strategemata 4.1.45; Livy 27.34.12–13. 358 (lxxii) Cicero De oratore 2.274. In margin ‘witty‘ Antonius is the distinguished orator, censor in 96 bc. For Mancia see 8.157 below. 359 (lxxiii) Cicero De oratore 2.277. In margin ‘taking on a role‘

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360 Cicero records among other humorous remarks, the passage from Nevius1 where a son says to his father, ‘Father, why do you weep?’ and the father replies, ‘Strange I do not sing – I have been condemned.’ The depressed old man is angered at being asked why he weeps, as if a condemned man shouldn’t rather be singing. It’s like asking a sick man, ‘Why are you sighing?’ or ‘Why are you in bed?’ 361 Scaurus took Rutilius to court on a charge of electoral corruption, though it was he who had been elected consul and Rutilius who had suffered defeat. Scaurus showed the letters afpr in Rutilius’ account books and interpreted them as meaning ‘Authorized From Publius Rutilius.’ Rutilius protested that they stood for ‘Ancient Fees Presently Recorded.’ Then Gaius Caninius, a man of equestrian rank who was supporting Rutilius, called out that the letters meant neither of these things, and when Scaurus said, ‘What then?’ Caninius wittily retorted, turning the joke back on him, ‘Aemilius1 Fixed it, Penalty to Rutilius.’ Indeed, it was more likely that the one elected to office had employed bribery than the one who failed at the polls. A similar story is told of Bede the Venerable, as he is called.2 When he went to Rome he was shown inscribed on a stone the letters spqr, which are held to signify Senatus Populusque Romanus ‘Senate and People of Rome.’ As a visitor, he was asked what these letters meant, and pretending not to know, he said, ‘Stupid People – Quick to Rome.’ 362 When Marcus Scaurus was brought to trial before the people on a charge of taking a bribe from King Mithridates to betray his country, he made his ***** 360 (lxxiv) Cicero De oratore 2.279. In margin ‘a caustic joke‘ 1 Not Naevius, the famous Roman poet and dramatist, but Novius, a writer of Atellan farces of the first century bc, of whose works only fragments survive, such as this passage quoted by Cicero, crf Novii incerta fr 10. 361 (lxxv) Cicero De oratore 2.280. In margin ‘initial letters interpreted‘ 1 Scaurus’ full name was Marcus Aemilius Scaurus. See 6.362n. 2 Beda, quem Venerabilem dicunt, no doubt inserted to distinguish him from Erasmus’ contemporary and persistent critic, No¨el B´eda. It is unlikely that Bede ever went to Rome. The story that he did so seems due to William of Malmesbury Gesta regum Anglorum 1.57–8, though this particular anecdote is not reported there. Possibly it is something Erasmus heard in Rome. 362 (lxxvi) Valerius Maximus 3.7.8. In margin ‘personal standing‘ Scaurus was a senior political figure, consul 96 bc, influential and wealthy, though his wealth was of questionable origin. See 6.363 below.

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defence in the following words: ‘It is contrary to justice, citizens of Rome, that, when I have been living among one group of people I should have to give an account of my conduct before another. All the same, I shall venture to ask you this. Varius Sucronensis declares that Marcus Aemilius Scaurus took a bribe and betrayed the people of Rome. Marcus Aemilius Scaurus declares that he has no connection with this offence. Which one of these do you believe?’ The mere naming of accuser and accused moved the people to reject the accusation. 363 During the trial of Bestia, for whom Scaurus was appearing, a funeral happened to pass by. Gaius Memmius, who was prosecuting, said, ‘Look, Scaurus, there’s a dead man being hurried away – see if you can get possession.’ Scaurus was the subject of talk because he had got possession of the property of Pompeius Phrygio, who had died intestate. 364 In the trial of Piso, for whom Crassus was appearing, the defendant’s case had been damaged by the witness of one Silus, who repeated an accusation which he said he had heard someone make against him. ‘Silus,’ said Crassus, ‘it’s possible that the person you heard this from was speaking in anger.’ Silus nodded agreement. ‘It’s also possible, ‘he said, ‘that you misunderstood him.’ Silus nodded again, very emphatically this time, thus laying himself wide open. Crassus then followed on with, ‘It’s also possible that this thing you say you heard, you never heard at all.’ This was so unexpected that Silus was covered in confusion as the whole court burst into laughter. 365 When a person of low birth taunted him with being unworthy of his ancestors, Gaius Laelius retorted, ‘Upon my oath, you are worthy of yours.’ If you say that to a good man of good stock, it’s praise; if to a villain of evil stock, it’s a weighty censure. 366 The day Marcus Cincius proposed his bill dealing with gifts and presentations, Gaius Cento came forward and demanded rather contemptuously, ***** 363 (lxxvii) Cicero De oratore 2.283. See 6.362n above. In margin ‘legacy-hunter‘ 364 (lxxviii) Cicero De oratore 2.285. In margin ‘joke based on the unexpected‘ 365 (lxxix) Cicero De oratore 2.286. In margin ‘retort using the same words‘ 366 (lxxx) Cicero De oratore 2.286. In margin ‘mockery returned‘

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‘What’s this you’re promoting, my dear little Cincius?’ Cincius replied, ‘Something for you to buy, if you want the use of it.’ Cento was always delighted to get the use of something given or lent to him for nothing. Cincius was thinking of that good old saying, ‘I would rather buy than beg.’1 Further, there is a double meaning in the word ‘promote’: one who promulgates a bill ‘promotes it,’ and a man ‘promotes’ something he has for sale. 367 Marcus Lepidus was lounging in the grass in the Campus while other people were doing exercises, and he said. ‘I wish this counted as work.’ We have the same sort of thing in Terence’s line, ‘How I wish it were the thing to help one’s friends at night.’ The young man wishes for something impossible.1 368 The censor Marcus Lepidus disqualified Marcus Antistius of Pyrgi from holding a cavalry horse, and when his friends protested and asked what explanation he could give his father as to why his horse had been taken from him, since he was a very good farmer, careful, orderly, of excellent habits, he said, ‘He can tell him that I don’t believe any of that.’ Augustus made a similar but less hurtful remark: ‘Tell him that I offended you.’1 369 Pomponius, a distinguished soldier who had received many wounds in the battle, was brought to Mithridates,1 who asked him whether he would be a friend if he had him cared for. He replied, ‘If you will be a friend to the Romans, you will have me as a friend also.’ ***** 1 See Cicero Verrines 2, 4.6.12; Otto 597; Adagia i iii 20: Emere malo quam rogare. 367 (lxxxi) Cicero De oratore 2.287 and Terence Adelphi 532. In margin ‘something impossible‘ Marcus Aemilius Lepidus Porcina (if correctly identified) was consul in 137 bc. 1 The slave Syrus (not the young man) wishes that helping one’s friends could be an excuse for staying out all night. 368 (lxxxii) Cicero De oratore 2.287 and Quintilian 6.3.64. In margin ‘witty‘ This Marcus Aemilius Lepidus seems to be different from the Aemilius Lepidus of 6.367 above. He was consul in 187 bcm censor 179 bc. 1 See 4.150 above. 369 (lxxxiii) Plutarch Life of Lucullus 16.2. In margin ‘loyal to one’s country‘ 1 See Index of Classical Persons: Mithridates

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370 The soothsayer Spurinna warned Julius Caesar to beware of a dangerous moment that would occur no later than the first of March.1 Caesar was going to the senate that day and, happening to meet Spurinna, said, ‘ What have you to say? Hasn’t the first of March come?’ ‘It has come,’ he replied, ‘but it is not over yet.’ 371 When Spartacus was rallying all his forces against Crassus, someone brought him a horse. But he said, ‘If I conquer, I shall have plenty of horses taken from the enemy. If I lose, not even this horse will be of any use to me,’ and with these words ran the horse through with his sword and killed it. 372 Pompey was very unpopular because of the excessive power he wielded. Because of a wound, he had a linen band round his shin, and someone said, ‘What does it matter where he wears the band, on his head or round his leg?’ In ancient times a band tied round the head was the mark of kingship. 373 Fabius baffled Hannibal by holding back from pitched battle, whereas Marcellus1 assailed the foe with might and main. Consequently Fabius was called the shield of Rome, Marcellus the sword. The one was primarily concerned to make sure Rome suffered no disaster, the other to destroy the enemy. Sayings of various Greeks 374 Anytus, one of Alcibiades’ friends, invited him to dinner. He declined, but, after drinking heavily at home with his cronies, he burst in, noisy and inebriated, and standing at the door, ordered his attendants to seize the drinkingcups and take them off to his house. Nearly half were carried away. The ***** 370 (lxxxiv) Suetonius Julius Caesar 81.2, 4 with Plutarch Life of Julius Caesar 63.5–6. In margin ‘divination‘ 1 A strange slip, as everyone knows that Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March (March 15th). 371 (lxxxv) Plutarch Life of Crassus 11.9. In margin ‘barbaric‘ Spartacus led the slave revolt of 73–71 bc. After defeating three Roman armies, he was finally defeated by Marcus Licinius Crassus. 372 (lxxxvi) Valerius Maximus 6.2.6. In margin ‘power invidious‘ 373 (lxxxvii) Plutarch Life of Fabius Maximus 19.4. In margin ‘shield/sword‘ 1 For Claudius Marcellus, see 5.273 above. 374 (lxxxviii) Plutarch Life of Alcibiades 4.5–6. In margin ‘relying on friendship‘

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other guests expostulated at Alcibiades’ insolence and high-handedness, but Anytus said ‘he had behaved in a civilized fashion, for when he could have taken all, he had left him half.’ 375 The athletics trainer Hippomachus saw from time to time the youths in his class carrying sides of meat out of the market-place. He used to say ‘he could tell from some distance that they were his students.’ Training shows in everything a man says and does. 376 When some people were praising to the skies a very tall man with extremely long arms as being very suitable for boxing-contests, ‘Certainly,’ Hippomachus said, ‘if the crown were hanging high up and had to be pulled down.’1 377 After the death of Alexander, the orator Demades said that he saw the Macedonian army, now deprived of its chief, as like the Cyclops. He meant that a mass of soldiers, if there is no wise and vigilant leader with them, is of no use whatsoever, just as Polyphemus, after his eye had been taken out, could do nothing with his vast body and huge strength. 378 When the Athenian people had been persuaded that they should send warships to help those who had revolted from Alexander, and ordered Demades, as city treasurer, to provide the necessary funds immediately, he said, ‘The moneys are there, men of Athens, laid aside by me for the Festival of Libations, at which each one of you would receive half a mina. But if you prefer to withdraw the money for this purpose, as far as I’m concerned, you may use what is yours in whatsoever way you will.’ Just like untamed animals, the populace has to be drawn to better counsels by artful means. ***** 375 (lxxxix) Plutarch Life of Dion 1.4. In margin ‘training‘ 376 (xc) Plutarch Moralia 523c (On love of wealth) 1 This apophthegm was added in 1532. Hippomachus had won the crown for boxing at the Olympics and was now a trainer. 377 (xci) Plutarch Moralia 181f (Sayings of kings and commanders); Life of Galba 1.5. In margin ‘a crowd without a leader‘ 378 (xcii) Plutarch Moralia 818e–f (Precepts of statecraft). In margin ‘the populace handled cunningly‘ For Demades, the Athenian politician and orator, see 4.366 above.

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379 When he was having dinner with Phocion, Demades, observing a very meagre spread, remarked, ‘I am surprised that you run the country, when you can dine in this fashion.’ He was wrong on two counts: he thought that people should go into politics simply for the sake of gain, and also he thought luxury was appropriate to a person whose position actually required self-control. But Demades judged others by himself – he was both greedy for money and addicted to luxurious ways.1 380 When he observed Philip, who had been drinking heavily with his friends, dancing through the midst of the crowd of prisoners and insolently taunting them with their misfortune, Demades spoke out and said, ‘Now that fortune has assigned you, O king, the role of Agamemnon, are you not ashamed to act the part of Thersites?’1 This remark changed the king’s whole way of life.2 381 When the Athenians refused to accord divine honours to Alexander, Demades remarked, ‘Take care that while you are guarding heaven, you do not lose the earth.’1 Alexander was aiming at monarchy. Even so, it was foolish ‘to deny someone else heaven’ if the result was being driven out of their own land. ***** 379 (xciii) Plutarch Moralia 525b (On love of wealth). In margin ‘sobriety‘ 1 See 6.382 below and 5.114 above. 380 (xciv) Diodorus Siculus 16.87. For Diodorus as the source, see dedicatory epistle 6 n17 above. In margin ‘an outspoken reproof‘ 1 The ugliest man at Troy, according to Homer (Iliad 2.216), and a stock example of a noisy, vulgar trouble-maker. See Adagia iv iii 80: Thersitae facies ‘The look of Thersites.’ 2 Philip ii’s drunken dancing is reviled by Demosthenes Olynthiac 2.18. 381 (xcv) Valerius Maximus 7.2. ext. 13. Apophthegms 6.381 and 6.382 were omitted in 1531. In margin ‘outspoken‘ 1 This translates the corrected reading of bas. The editions of 1532 and 1535 have ‘when the Athenians wanted to accord’ and ‘it was foolish to make someone the gift of heaven and lose the earth.’ The corrected reading agrees with Valerius Maximus, which seems to be the source here. Demades’ policy was generally one of appeasement towards Macedon. At other times the Athenians wanted to accord Alexander divine honours. See 3.337 above.

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382 Demades used to joke about Demosthenes, saying that other orators spoke according to the water, but Demosthenes wrote according to it as well. He criticized him for never speaking except from a script and also for being ‘a water drinker.’1 Demades on the other hand was a great imbiber and also excelled at extempore speaking.2 In those days speakers were timed with a water-clock.3 383 After the defeat of his political opponents, when some people were of the opinion that every person belonging to the opposition should be expelled from the city, Onomademus of Chios disagreed, saying it was not a good plan, as he feared that if every last opponent were driven out, dissension would arise among friends. He well knew that the nature of many people is such that if they have no enemies on whom to exercise their native malice, they will turn on their friends. 384 Pausanias, king of Sparta, was constantly boasting about his great exploits, and eventually mockingly asked Simonides to give him some wise advice. Simonides replied, ‘I advise you to remember you are just a man.’1 385 People found fault with Simonides because he wrote for money, but he ***** 382 (xcvi) pseudo-Lucian Demosthenis encomium 15. In margin ‘joke‘ 1 [Plutarch] Moralia 848c (Lives of the ten orators, Demosthenes) 2 Plutarch Moralia 850c (Demosthenes 10.1). For a contrast between Demosthenes and Demades see Athenaeus 2.44e–f. For the inspiration provided by wine, see Adagia iv iii 58: Non est dithyrambus si bibat aquam ‘There is no dithyramb if he drinks water’; ii vi 2: Aquam bibens nihil bone parias ‘Water drinkers are not powerful thinkers.’ 3 Cf Adagia i iv 73: Inaniter aquam consumis ‘You are wasting water (time)’ 383 (xcvii) Plutarch Moralia 813b (Precepts of statecraft), 91f (How to profit by one’s enemies). In margin ‘opponents have their uses‘ 384 (xcviii) Plutarch Moralia 105a (Consolation to Apollonius). See 1.312 above and Index of Classical Persons: Pausanias (1). In margin ‘an outspoken reproof‘ 1 Simonides of Ceos was an early Greek poet. His considerable output included songs in praise of rulers, cities, and victors at the games. 385 (xcix) Plutarch Moralia 555f (On the slowness of divine justice). In margin ‘love of money‘

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laughingly replied that he had two chests at home, one for money, one for thanks. He found the first one full, the other always empty.1 386 Simonides used to cajole people into paying him money by writing in their praise. Somebody asked him why he didn’t try to catch the Thessalians as well. He replied, ‘They are too stupid for me to be able to take them in.’ People looking for someone to impose on go to the stupid. But people too stupid to appreciate the brilliance of his poetry and immune to any desire to hand down their name to posterity, couldn’t be beguiled by him. 387 When Simonides was asked why he was so concerned about money1 at his advanced age, he replied, ‘Because I would rather leave it to my enemies when I die than be without friends during my life.’ In saying this, he was censuring the fickleness of human friendships. Once people have got what they want, they drop their ‘friend,’ but the same people pay court to him as long as they hope for something. 388 When someone censured the orator Lycurgus1 for using money to escape from a false accusation, he didn’t deny it but addressed the people in a loud voice, saying, ‘It’s good, men of Athens, that when I have spent so many years in public life, my detractors accuse me of giving money, not taking it.’ 389 Archidamus, king of Sparta, asked Thucydides whether he or Pericles were better at wrestling. Thucydides replied, ‘After I have thrown him, he denies that he has fallen, and so he wins. He also gets the spectators to come round to his account of what happened.’ ***** 1 Cf Adagia ii ix 12: Simonidis cantilenae ‘Simonides’ songs’ 386 (c) Plutarch Moralia 15c (How to study poetry). In margin ‘stupid‘ 387 (i) Stobaeus Florilegium 10.62 (Meineke i 240). In margin ‘astute‘ 1 He was notoriously close with money; cf 6.385 and 6.386 above. 388 (ii) Plutarch Life of Crassus 34.3. In margin ‘integrity‘ 1 This Lycurgus is the Athenian statesman and orator of the fourth century bc. He had a long political career and was at one time in charge of the city’s finances. 389 (iii) Plutarch Life of Pericles 8.5. In margin ‘a contest in eloquence‘

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He meant that he was better at political thinking but that Pericles was his superior in eloquence and could move the crowd in any direction he wanted. Thucydides was an influential figure who long opposed Pericles in Athenian politics,1 and Archidamus referred to this confrontation as ‘wrestling.’ 390 Darius1 kept on attacking with the all the military might of his entire empire and the Scythians gradually retreated until they had withdrawn to the farthest reaches of totally desolate country. At last he asked them at what point they would cease fleeing before him and they replied that they had no fields or farmhouses or cities to fight for, but when they came to the tombs of their forebears, then Darius would learn how the Scythians fight. 391 Alexander had decided to destroy Lampsacus. As he approached with this in mind, his old tutor Anaximenes came to meet him outside the walls, to try to avert the utter destruction of his city. Alexander, guessing what he was going to ask, said, ‘I swear that I will not do what Anaximenes will ask.’ What Anaximenes said was, ‘I beg you to destroy Lampsacus.’ So Alexander was caught out and was compelled by his oath to preserve those whom had had decided to wipe out. 392 When he consulted the oracle, Alexander was advised to order the death of the first male he met when he went out of the door. He was met by his groom; he had him seized. When the man asked what he had done to deserve this, he was told that the god had ordered it so. ‘If that’s the case, O king,’ he said, ‘the oracle had another in mind, for the ass met you first.’ The groom was walking behind the ass to make it go forward, as it certainly wouldn’t follow. Alexander was delighted by this ingenious suggestion and killed the ass instead of the man. ***** 1 This is not Thucydides the historian, but Thucydides the son of Milesias, a political figure. 390 (iv) Herodotus 4.126–7. In margin ‘respect for ancestors‘ 1 This is Darius i. See 5.39 n1 above. 391 (v) Valerius Maximus 7.3 ext. 4. In margin ‘ingenious‘ 392 (vi) Valerius Maximus 7.3 ext. 1. In margin ‘resourceful‘

6 . 393

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393 Amasis, king of Egypt, was censured by his friends because, when he had finished his official business, he drank and let himself go in every kind of pleasure. He replied by saying, ‘Those who carry bows string them only when they need them. If they keep them strung all the time, they inevitably snap and are of no use when the occasion demands.’1 In the same way, those who never let their cares go in some form of relaxation finish up either mentally or physically ill. 394 Seeing someone mourning the loss of his son, Amasis said, ‘If you did not grieve when he did not yet exist, you should not grieve now, when he does not exist.’ 395 Psammenitus, king of Egypt,1 was removed from his royal estate by Cambyses. Cambyses ordered Psammenitus’ daughter to be sent in slave’s clothes, along with the young daughters of several noblemen, to fetch water, in order to make their captive parents feel anguish at the sight. All the others took this hard, but Psammenitus alone merely cast down his eyes. Then Cambyses ordered Psammenitus’ son to be brought in with many others of the same age, with ropes round their necks and bits in their mouths. At this sight too, Psammenitus alone was not moved to tears. Yet when Psammenitus saw someone he knew well stripped of all he possessed and walking past begging, he was so moved by this sight that he wailed aloud, called out his friend’s name and beat his head in barbarian fashion. Learning of this, Cambyses sent a messenger to ask why he remained silent at the misfortunes of his children, but was so overcome at the misfortune of one poor old man. Psammenitus replied. ‘Son of Cyrus, disasters that befall one’s family are felt too deeply for tears; but one must weep for a friend who has fallen from great wealth to extreme poverty, and that right on the brink of old age.’ 396 Croesus, king of Lydia,1 was captured by Cyrus, and he put forward this ***** 393 (vii) Herodotus 2.173, 2–3. In margin ‘the mind needs relaxation‘ 1 Adagia iv v 77: Arcus tensus rumpitur ‘The bow breaks if strung too tight’ 394 (viii) Stobaeus 124.32 (Meineke iv 133) 395 (ix) Herodotus 3.14.2–10. In margin ‘resolute, affectionate‘ 1 Psammenitus son of Amasis was king of Egypt in the sixth century bc. 396 (x) Herodotus 1.87.4. In margin ‘peace preferable to war‘ 1 Croesus was the last king of Lydia in the sixth century bc. He was defeated by Cyrus i the Great.

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argument to show that peace was preferable to war: In peace-time sons bury their fathers; in war, on the contrary, fathers bury their sons. 397 When Croesus saw Cyrus’ soldiers scurrying about the captured city, he asked him what they were doing. Cyrus replied. ‘They are looting your city and plundering your treasures.’ ‘Not at all, O king,’ he replied. ‘Nothing here is mine. What they are plundering is yours.’ Cyrus was so impressed by these words that he called his soldiers back from the looting. 398 When Cambyses was comparing himself with his father Cyrus and his friends assured him that he surpassed his father, Croesus remarked that ‘a man should not be thought equal to his father if he had not yet left a son.’1 He meant that it was no inconsiderable service to the state not only to show yourself an outstanding person but to beget and bring up someone like yourself for the benefit of your country. 399 When Megabyzes was in the area round the Hellespont, he heard that the people of Chalcedon had founded their city seventeen years before the Byzantines founded theirs. He remarked that the people of Chalcedon had been blind at the time, for when there was a place close by which was much superior as the site of a city, they had chosen the worse one. Herodotus says that this saying won Megabyzes an immortal memory among the peoples of the Hellespont. If this is true, there must have been a wonderful shortage of sayings at the time! 400 When Simonides was asked whether riches or wisdom were more desirable, ‘I’m not sure,’ he said, ‘since I see wise men haunting the doors of the rich.’1 He was hinting that philosophers assert that they despise riches but are in fact on the look out for them. ***** 397 (xi) Herodotus 1.88. In margin ‘wise‘ 398 (xii) Herodotus 3.34. In margin ‘one owes one’s country children‘ 1 Cf 1.211 and 1.269 above. 399 (xiii) Herodotus 4.114. In margin ‘choosing a site for a city‘ 400 (xiv) Aristotle Rhetoric 2.1391a8. In margin ‘riches‘ 1 For Simonides see 6.385–7.

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401 There was uproar among the Athenian audience when they took offence at something said in the tragedy by Euripides which was being performed, and they demanded that the author change it. He came onto the stage and said that ‘he wrote plays to instruct the people, not to be instructed by them.’ Knowledge, conscious of its own worth, despised the judgment of the crowd. 402 Euripides one day lamented in the hearing of Alcestis, a writer of tragedies, that after three days of supreme effort he had been able to write only three lines. When Alcestis in response to this boasted that he had with great ease written a hundred in one day, Euripides retorted, ‘But yours will only last three days; mine will last for ever.’ 403 When someone said to Euripides, ‘You have written for the chorus in modes fit for dancing,’ and someone else laughed at this, Euripides replied, ‘If he weren’t stupid, he wouldn’t have laughed at me for fitting serious topics to Lydian modes.’ Lydian modes are rather frivolous. It is quite proper to brighten by one’s art subjects that are of themselves melancholy. The following version occurs in Plutarch’s essay On Listening. When Euripides was demonstrating to the directors of the chorus how to sing a piece set in a particular mode, one of them laughed. The poet said to him, ‘If you weren’t stupid and quite devoid of feeling, you wouldn’t have laughed when I sang in the Mixolydian mode.’1 404 The poet Alexis censured the orator Callimedon for being totally given over to pleasure in the following lines: ‘Anyone would die for fatherland (patra) / ***** 401 (xv) Valerius Maximus 3.7 ext. 1. In margin ‘confidence in one’s art‘ 402 (xvi) Valerius Maximus 3.7 ext. 1. In margin ‘confidence in one’s art‘ 403 (xvii) Plutarch Moralia 46b (On listening to lectures). In margin ‘balance‘ 1 These seem to be alternative versions of the same story, the first one perhaps recorded from memory. The second version was added in 1532. The Mixolydian mode was lower pitched and considered particularly appropriate for tragedy (Plato Republic 399c; Plutarch Moralia 1136c [On music]), whereas the Lydian was excited (Lucian Harmonides 1). The point seems to be that it depends on the context in which the composer applies it. 404 (xviii) Athenaeus 3.100c. Erasmus’ first quotation from Athenaeus, see Introduction xxi above. In margin ‘luxury‘

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But for womb (metra) only Callimedon the Crawfish.’1 This joke can’t be represented in Latin. Patra means ‘father-land,’ but metra doesn’t mean ‘mother,’ but ‘womb’ or a kind of fish. Fish were in ancient times a great delicacy. 405 Someone saw Alexis when weary with old age walking along slowly and with difficulty and asked him how he was. ‘I am dying bit by bit,’ he said, or, ‘I am dying a step at a time.’ He meant that old men don’t live but die slowly. 406 Menander is said to have written a hundred and five plays but he only won with eight of them. He was often beaten by Philemon, who was nowhere near his equal, because of the people’s partisanship. Meeting him by chance one day, Menander said, ‘Please be so kind as to tell me, Philemon, when you beat me, don’t you blush?’ It’s the losers who usually blush, but Menander thought winning like that deserved a blush. 407 When the poet Philoxenus1 heard his songs being badly rendered by brickmakers, he broke up their bricks, saying, ‘You destroy my things, so I destroy yours.’ 408 Philippides, the writer of comedies, was a very close friend of Lysimachus,1 who, wanting him to experience his generosity, said, ‘What would you like ***** 1 From the playwright Alexis, fourth to third century bc (pcg 198: ^UpŽr p‡traw mŽn tiw úpoyn¤skein yŽlei, / ¿per d m}traw KallimŽdvn ` K‡rabow). Alexis often refers to Callimedon as ‘the Crawfish’ because of his excessive fondness for this fish. He was a famous gourmand of fish in general. See Athenaeus 3.64 (104d), 8.24 (339f–340d). Metra is however not a fish, but ‘sow’s womb,’ another delicacy. 405 (xix) Stobaeus Florilegium 116.47 (Meineke iv 83). Stobaeus says that this comes ‘from Aristotle’s Chreiae.’ 406 (xx) Aulus Gellius 17.4.1. In margin ‘the popular verdict‘ 407 (xxi) Diogenes Laertius 4.6.36 1 This is the distinguished dithyrambic poet, 435–380 bc. See below 6.507n. 408 (xxii) Plutarch Moralia 183e (Sayings of kings and commanders) and 517b (On curiosity). In margin ‘rulers’ secrets‘ 1 See 5.111–12 above and dedicatory epistle 9 above.

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me to give you of what I possess?’ ‘Anything you like,’ he replied, ‘except your secrets.’ He meant that it is dangerous to know the secrets of the great, for if you let anything out, it’s all up with your life, though in any case they usually hate those who know things they don’t want to get out. 409 The poet Accius was asked why he didn’t conduct cases in the courts when he was so good at handling argument in his tragedies. He replied, ‘Because in my tragedies the things that are said are of my choosing, in the courts my opponents would say things I didn’t want at all.’ It’s the same in dialogues – there the writer allocates to each speaker the words he thinks appropriate, whereas it’s quite different in the courts. 410 Antigenidas of Thebes said to his pupil Ismenias, who played and sang with great expertise but did not win the people’s favour, ‘Sing to me, and the Muses.’1 He was telling him that the judgment of the ignorant multitude was to be utterly despised. The supreme reward of art is consciousness of its own worth. 411 Leon of Byzantium was arraigned by his fellow citizens and a number of people urged him to flee to the enemy, but he came before the assembly and said, ‘I prefer, fellow citizens, to be slain by you rather than with you.’ 412 Someone found fault with Leon’s poor eyesight, yet the speaker was himself deformed with a crooked back. Leon commented, ‘You have reproached me ***** 409 (xxiii) Quintilian 5.13.43. In margin ‘poetic invention‘ Lucius Accius was a dramatist of the second to first century bc. 410 (xxiv) Valerius Maximus 3.7 ext. 1. In margin ‘confidence in one’s art‘ 1 See also Cicero Brutus 186–7; Adagia iii v 80: Sibi canere ‘Singing your own song.’ Antigenidas and Ismenias were two of many distinguished Theban players on the aulos. West gives a list 366 n39. Cf 6.401 above for the moral. 411 (xxv) Plutarch Life of Nicias 22.3. In margin ‘loyalty to one’s country‘ 412 (xxvi) Plutarch Moralia 88e (How to profit by one’s enemies). In margin ‘retaliation‘

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with a defect all too human, when you yourself carry Nemesis on your own back.’1 He gave the name of Nemesis to the defect with which the other could be taunted in return. 413 Aeschylus, the tragic poet, was once watching the Isthmian games. One of the boxers received a hard blow and the whole audience cried out, ‘You have routed Ion of Chios.’ ‘See,’ he said, ‘how men behave – the one who is hit says nothing, the spectators cry out.’1 It is people who are hit who usually cry out in pain. Here on the contrary, the one in pain kept quiet, those who were not hurt shouted aloud. 414 Python, an orator of Byzantium, was enormously fat, and when he came into the assembly to try to persuade the citizens, who were in a state of riotous civil discord, to agree among themselves, everyone laughed at him for his size and shape. But he turned the mirth to a serious purpose. ‘So you laugh, citizens, do you? Though I have a body like this, I have a wife who is even larger than I am. Yet when we agree together, any little bed holds the two of us, but when we disagree, the whole house is not big enough.’ After this introduction he launched into his speech.1 415 When the Athenians expressed their admiration for Python for his great exploits and lauded him for killing King Cotys, he said, ‘It is to the gods ***** 1 There is another version of the same story at 8.3 below. 413 (xxvii) Plutarch Moralia 79d (Progress in virtue). In margin ‘the wrong way round‘ 1 Erasmus’ text seems to be faulty here. Modern texts give nœjaw [nuxas] ‘nudging Ion of Chios’ (a tragic poet). Did Erasmus read \n’khsaw [enik¯esas]? He translates Äskhsiw [ask¯esis] as mores ‘behaviour.’ A better interpretation would be, ‘See what training does.’ Both these corrections are attributed in a footnote in lb to P. Leopardus in his Emendationes et miscellanea (Antwerp 1568) 2.21. 414 (xxviii) Athenaeus 550f. In margin ‘concord‘ 1 Python of Byzantium was a distinguished orator in the service of Philip of Macedon c. 346–340 bc. A similar story is told of Leon of Byzantium at Plutarch Moralia 804a–b (Precepts of statecraft), used at 8.1 below. The two men are often confused. 415 (xxix) Plutarch Moralia 816e (Precepts of statecraft), 542e–f (Inoffensive self-praise). In margin ‘thanks owed to God‘

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that you owe your gratitude. It was through them that this deed was so splendidly performed. I did nothing but provide the hand and the effort.’1 The outcome of what we do lies in the hand of God, and we owe him our thanks if anything turns out well. But he does wish our own efforts to contribute. 416 Lysander the Spartan reprimanded a soldier who had turned off the road. When the man said he had not left the column to do any thieving, Lysander said, ‘I don’t want you even to look like someone who is going to steal.’1 417 When Thrasybulus was seeking to free the city of Athens from the domination of the Thirty Tyrants with just a tiny band of men, one of those in the plot said, ‘What a debt of gratitude will Athens owe you when it has gained its freedom!’ ‘The gods grant,’ he replied, ‘that I may be seen to have offered Athens the gratitude it deserves.’ By this he meant that no one can make adequate requital to his country, even if he gives his life. 418 The philosopher Anaxarchus of Abdera was being tortured by Nicocreon, the tyrant of Cyprus, to make him betray his fellow conspirators. After Anaxarchus had shouted a lot of insults at him, the king was so enraged he even threatened to cut out his tongue. To which he replied, ‘Pansy youth, ***** 1 See Adagia iv ix 24: Dea excogitavit ‘The goddess thought of it.’ This is Python of Aenos in Thrace, who, with his brother Heraclides, assassinated the tyrannous Cotys i, king of Thrace, in 359 bc. As tyrannicides they were honoured by the Athenians. They became disciples of Plato. See 5.38 n1 above. 416 (xxx) Frontinus Strategemata 4.1.9. In margin ‘right behaviour in a soldier‘ 1 Cf a similar story told of Alexander Severus 6.153 above. For Lysander see 1.51 above. 417 (xxxi) Valerius Maximus 5.6 ext. 2. In margin ‘patriotism‘ At the end of the Peloponnesian War in 404 bc the Spartans imposed on Athens a group of rulers of anti-democratic sympathies. Thrasybulus’ revolution succeeded in ousting them. See also 3.20 above. In 1535 the anecdote after this one was moved to 7.377 below to the section there on Anaxarchus. 418 Valerius Maximus 3.3 ext. 4. This was moved in 1535 to 7.377 below in the section there on Anaxarchus. In margin ‘loyal silence‘

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this part of my body shall not be in your power like the rest of me.’ With these words he bit off his tongue, chewed it up and spat it into his face, all off guard as he was in his fury. 419 Gorgias the sophist1 delivered an oration on the subject of concord before the Greeks at the Olympian Games. One Melanthus remarked, ‘He goes on about concord for the whole of Greece, yet he hasn’t yet got himself, his wife and her maid, just three people, to live together in harmony.’ 420 Theodorus of Athens, known as ‘the Atheist,’1 used to say that ‘he offered instruction to his listeners with the right hand, but they took it with the left,’ meaning that they turned good words to bad ends. 421 Stratocles the Athenian received a report that victory had been won, and straightway informed the people and persuaded them to decree a supplication to the immortal gods. A little later a more reliable report came in that actually a defeat had been suffered. The people were indignant, saying that they had been misled, but he said, ‘Did any one of you suffer any harm by spending the last three days happy and cheerful, thanks to me?’ 422 Theramenes, one of the Thirty Tyrants, was the only one to escape unharmed when the house in which a large number of people were having dinner collapsed on top of them. Other people were calling him lucky, but he cried out, ‘O Fortune, for what are you saving me?’ 423 This same Theramenes boldly drank off the cup of poison sent him by order ***** 419 (xxxii) Plutarch Moralia 144b (Advice to bride and groom). In margin ‘domestic harmony‘ 1 For Gorgias see 1.1 n3 above. 420 (xxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 467b (On tranquillity of mind). 1 For Theodorus see 5.112 above. 421 (xxxiv) Plutarch Moralia 799f–780a (Precepts of statecraft). In margin ‘transient pleasure‘ 422 (xxxv) Plutarch Moralia 105b (Consolation to Apollonius). In margin ‘fortune‘ For the Thirty Tyrants see 6.417 above. 423 (xxxvi) Valerius Maximus 3.2 ext. 6. In margin ‘resolute‘ For Critias see 3.20 n2 above.

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of the Tyrants and threw the dregs on the ground with such force as to make a loud splat.1 Giving the cup back to the slave who had brought it, he said, ‘I toast Critias. See that you take this cup straight back to him.’ Critias was the cruellest of the Thirty Tyrants. 424 Those words of Jason of Thessaly are deservedly famous in which he sought to justify himself in the eyes of those on whom he had brought trouble or violence. ‘A man who wants to be considered an upholder of justice in large matters may properly violate justice sometimes in small ones.’ Just as in war, to preserve the country, the fields and houses of individuals are in some instances destroyed. 425 After Cleon determined on entering political life, he declared that ‘he now wanted to break all bonds of friendship.’ Friends often prevent one from steering a straight course. 426 There was intense enmity between Nero and Thrasea,1 but when a certain person laid a detailed and scurrilous accusation against Thrasea, claiming that he had given a false verdict in a trial, Nero rejected the charge, saying. ‘I wish Thrasea’s affection for me equalled his integrity and fairness as a judge.’ Here ‘an enemy spoke up for an enemy’ when his reputation was at stake. There is no more weighty testimony than one volunteered by an enemy. ***** 1 The action perhaps imitated the after-dinner sport of skilfully throwing the dregs in a wine-cup so as to hit a target (cottabos), for which see Athenaeus 15.1 (665d–668f). 424 (xxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 817f–818a (Precepts of statecraft) 425 (xxxviii) Plutarch Moralia 806f (Precepts of statecraft). In margin ‘private affections‘ Cleon was a self-made man in politics and a demagogue. Plutarch does not find this saying praiseworthy. 426 (xxxix) Plutarch Moralia 810a (Precepts of statecraft). In margin ‘the testimony of an enemy‘ 1 A Stoic renowned for his uprightness. He was a leading member of senatorial opposition to Nero, who eventually ordered him to commit suicide.

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427 Nero had a wonderful awning constructed, of great beauty and value. Seeing it, Seneca remarked, ‘You have shown yourself to be a poor man.’ When Nero asked why, Seneca replied, ‘Because if you lose it, you will not be able to get another like it.’ It so happened that the awning was lost in a shipwreck, but Seneca’s admonition had the effect of making Nero bear the loss of his prized possession with greater self-control. If a man has only one coin which he cannot replace once it is lost, he is a poor man. The safest course is to take pleasure in ordinary things which are easily procured. 428 When Dolabella’s slave was asked if his master was proposing to sell him, he replied, ‘He has sold his house.’1 This was a criticism of his master’s extravagance, since the statement was an invention – a man who has sold his house has no need to put up a slave for sale. 429 Plancus was defending a friend in court and wanted to unsettle a troublesome witness, so he asked how he earned his living – he knew he was a cobbler. But the man got back at Plancus by answering, ‘I grind galla.’ Now galla ‘oak-apple’ is something used by cobblers, but he was making a covert dig at Plancus for his notorious adultery with Mevia Galla. 430 After the retreat from Mutina, when people asked what Antony was doing, one of his friends is said to have answered, ‘The same as a dog at the Nile – he drinks and keeps running.’ ***** 427 (xl) Plutarch Moralia 461f (On the control of anger). In margin ‘ordinary things‘ 428 (xli) Quintilian 6.3.99. Quintilian in this passage is dealing with irrelevant responses. In margin ‘extravagance‘ 1 Erasmus has taken the words dominus eius auctionem proposuisset to mean ‘the master had proposed a sale of him’ rather than ‘his master had proposed a sale [sc of effects].’ Modern commentators prefer the second interpretation, ie how could he sell effects when he had already sold off house and all? 429 (xlii) Macrobius 2.2.6. In margin ‘an insult cleverly rebutted‘ This is Lucius Munatius Plancus, consul 42 bc 430 (xliii) Macrobius 2.2.7. In margin ‘he drinks and runs‘ After the assassination of Caesar, Antony attempted to take Mutina in northern Italy, which was held by Republican supporters.

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It is well-known that in Egypt dogs drink from the Nile on the run,1 no doubt for fear of the crocodiles who are kings of the river. 431 Gaius Caesar used to give a hundred thousand sesterces to the others who played handball with him, but only half that sum to Lucius Caecilius. He said, ‘What? ’Do I play with one hand instead of two then?’ If it was his duty to join in the game, he had provided no less a service than the rest. 432 Caesar compelled Laberius,1 a Roman knight, to become a mime actor at the age of sixty. In one play Laberius came on in the character of Syrus who had been flogged and was making off and shouting, ‘And after this, citizens, our liberty is done for.’ 433 And a bit later on he added, ‘He whom many fear must himself fear many.’ At these words, the whole people turned to look at Caesar, understanding that Laberius was casting stones at Caesar’s unlimited powers. In this way, Laberius took vengeance in the only way he could for what had befallen him.1 434 A certain Titius1 was a fanatical handball player, but he was suspected of damaging holy images at night. When his companions missed him in the Campus when he failed to turn up, Vespa Terentius made his excuses by saying, ‘He has broken an arm.’ Images of the gods held offerings in their arms. Vespa was referring to this. ***** 1 Adagia i ix 80: Ut canis e Nilo ‘Like a dog drinking out of the Nile’ 431 (xliv) Macrobius 2.6.5. In margin ‘witty‘ This is the Emperor Caligula. 432 (xlv) Macrobius 2.7.2, 4. In margin ‘outspoken‘ 1 This is Julius Caesar. See 4.311 above. 433 (xlvi) Macrobius 2.7.4–5 1 See 6.432 just above. 434 (xlvii) Cicero De oratore 2.253. In margin ‘a concealed dig‘ 1 This is Sextus Titius, tribune in 99 bc.

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435 Pylades was a famous mime actor in the time of Augustus, and he had a pupil Hylas, whom he had trained up to be his rival. Hylas was performing an aria which finished with the words ‘the great Agamemnon,’ and he made movements indicating a tall man. Pylades called out from the audience, ‘You are making him tall, not great.’1 The audience then demanded that Pylades should perform the same aria, and when he came to the passage with which he had found fault, he represented Agamemnon as deep in thought, as he considered nothing more appropriate to a great leader than taking thought for all. It’s thinking that makes a great leader, not height. 436 This same Pylades censured Hylas for his inappropriate representation of Oedipus by shouting out, ‘You can see.’ He should have shown by his acting that Oedipus was blind. 437 Pylades again, when acting Hercules in his madness, was thought by some of the spectators to be going beyond what was acceptable on the stage. Taking off his mask, he addressed the mockers saying, ‘Idiots, I am acting a madman.’ What seemed inappropriate was actually entirely appropriate. 438 Appius,1 whose witty remarks were often offensive, said to Gaius Sextius, ‘I will come to dinner with you, as I see there is space for one.’ He was making fun of the fact that Sextius was blind in one eye. Sextius made a quick retort: ‘Wash your hands and then you may come,’ hitting at his unclean morals or at least his greedy hands. 439 The senate was debating the issue of public lands and Lucilius was being ***** 435 (xlviii) Macrobius 2.7.12–14. In margin ‘a king deep in thought‘ 1 Here and in 6.436–7 the words quoted are in Greek, showing that the Roman audience understood Greek. The libretto the mime artists used was in Greek. 436 (xlix) Macrobius 2.7.15. In margin ‘a bad representation‘ 437 (l) Macrobius 2.7.16. In margin ‘appropriate‘ 438 (li) Cicero De oratore 2.246. In margin ‘joke based on the unexpected‘ 1 This is Appius Claudius Pulcher, consul in 79 bc, father of Cicero’s enemy, Clodius Pulcher (see 6.208 above). 439 (lii) Cicero De oratore 2.284

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attacked by those who claimed that his flock was grazing on land that was public. The older Appius1 said, ‘This is not Lucilius’ flock. You are mistaken.’ So far he seemed to be defending him but then he added, ‘I think it hasn’t a master. It grazes where it will.’ The joke depends on the unexpected.2 Everyone was expecting him to demonstrate that the flock belonged not to Lucilius but to some other man and so back up the accused. As it was, everybody laughed and at the same time the charge was made more serious. 440 Appius upbraided the Roman people, saying they should be grateful to him that instead of having a tongue-tied and speechless consul, they now had an eloquent one. He meant by the first his colleague Lucius Volumnius. Volumnius replied, ‘I would much rather that you had learnt energetic deeds from me than that I should learn clever talking from you.’ 441 Appius Claudius used to say that ‘it was much better to keep the Roman people busy than to allow them leisure.’ He was of the opinion that wars inspired the common people to noble endeavour, whereas in peacetime they sank into soft living and self-gratification, vices which bring about the destruction of nations and lands. 442 A doctor was asking a countryman who was feeling ill from overindulgence whether what he had eaten had gone as far as making him sick. Ischomachus, a very well-known mime-actor, said, ‘Not at all. It gave him diarrhoea.’ The joke works better in Greek, as eis means not only ‘into’ but ‘resulting in,’ which is what we have here in the two Greek phrases: eis emeton ***** 1 This is another Appius Claudius Pulcher, active at the end of the second century bc. Lucilius may be Gaius Lucilius the satirist, 148–103 bc, who was a wealthy landowner. See 5.379 n3. 2 See 3.136 n1. 440 (liii) Livy, 10.19.7. This appears as 6.285 above in 1531 and 1532, but was moved to this position in 1535. 6.441 was added at the same time. In margin ‘deeds preferable to words‘ For Appius Claudius Caecus and Volumnius see 6.285n. 441 (liv) Valerius Maximus 7.2.1. In margin ‘peace serves no good purpose‘ 442 (lv) Athenaeus 453a. In margin ‘ridiculous‘

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‘went as far as making him sick’ and eis koilian ‘went to the belly’ or ‘made him have diarrhoea.’ 443 Again, when a beggar-woman was suffering from stomach pains and the doctor asked whether she had anything in her belly, Ischomachus said, ‘How can she, when she hasn’t eaten for three days?’ Like the previous one, this joke is funnier in Greek. In Greek, a woman is said ‘to have in the belly’ if she is ‘carrying.’ What the doctor was asking was whether she was pregnant. 444 Polybius recast Antiochus’ title Epiphanes ‘the Wondrous’ into Epimanes ‘the Raving Mad’ because he used to abandon himself to physical pleasures in the company of the dregs of society or even with his guests, in a manner quite incompatible with royal dignity. Stratonicus 445 Stratonicus, the performer on the lyre, an Athenian by birth, was as famous for his wit as for his gifts as a musician. When he was going to bed, he always told his slave to pour him some wine, ‘Not that I’m thirsty,’ he said, ‘but so that I won’t be thirsty.’ ***** 443 (lvi) Athenaeus 453a. In margin ‘joke depending on taking words two ways‘ 444 (lvii) Athenaeus 10.439a, quoting a fragment of Polybius (26.10.1). In margin ‘distorting the name‘ This is Antiochus iv Epiphanes. 445 (i) Athenaeus 349f. In margin ‘preventing thirst‘ Erasmus now embarks on a series of anecdotes, 6.445–88, all except for 6.457– 8, culled from Athenaeus Deipnosophistae, about Stratonicus (c. 410–360 bc), a famous and self-opinionated citharist, renowned for his witticisms, who travelled all over the Greek world. Athenaeus here, as throughout his work, is using material assembled by other people. His main source here is Clearchus (fourth century bc, a pupil of Aristotle), chiefly his second book On friendship. Erasmus simply translates most of this section as it comes. He frames these stories with some extracts from Athenaeus’ other source, Machon, a third-century bc raconteur and writer of New Comedy. Machon’s anecdotes, which come first in Athenaeus and are quoted verbatim, are in iambic trimeters. Erasmus does not attempt a verse translation but provides a prose paraphrase of the sections that appealed to him, not following the order of the original. For Erasmus’ use of Athenaeus see Introduction xxi.

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446 When he had taken himself off to Corinth, an old woman spent some time looking at him intently, not taking her eyes off him, as if in admiration. When he asked her, ‘What do you want, mother, and why do you look at me like that?’ she replied, ‘I wonder that your mother put up with carrying you for ten months, when this town finds it painful having you here for just one day.’ 447 Stratonicus had sailed to Pontus, to King Berisades, and after he had spent some time there, he wanted to escape back to Greece. When it was clear the king would not allow this, Stratonicus said, ‘You’ve the right idea, your majesty, in deciding to stay here.’1 This both hinted at his own departure and praised the king’s decision, as if the king too had thought of going elsewhere, while he himself was only going for very compelling reasons. 448 Again at Byzantium, when some lyre-player had sung his prelude very nicely but didn’t manage the rest so well, Stratonicus stood up and proclaimed, ‘Anyone who points out the musician who sang the prelude so nicely will receive a thousand drachmas.’ 449 When he was asked who were the most wretched people in Pamphylia, he replied, ‘The people of Phaselis.’ But he added, ‘But the most wretched in the whole world are the people of Side.’ Both communities lived in Pamphylia. The squalid way of life of the people of Phaselis became proverbial in the saying, ‘A sacrifice Phaselitefashion,’1 because they offered little salt fish as a sacrifice to the gods. What Stratonicus meant by ‘wretched’ was ‘niggardly.’ ***** 446 (ii) Athenaeus 349d–e. In margin ‘tiresome‘ 447 (iii) Athenaeus 349d. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 Erasmus’ text has led him astray. A better reading is s dianoe” with the sentence treated as a question, rather than e[ dianoe”, ie not ‘you make a good decision to stay here’ but ‘so you’re thinking of staying here yourself?’ 448 (iv) Athenaeus 349f–350a. In margin ‘the prelude very nice‘ 449 (v) Athenaeus 350a 1 Adagia ii vii 33: Phaselitarum sacrificium

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450 When Stratonicus was asked whether the Boeotians or Thessalians were more barbaric, his reply was ‘the Eleans.’ He meant that these were more barbaric than either of the others, though those two peoples were considered utterly uncivilized. This was a funnier answer if the questioner was an Elean, as perhaps he was. 451 Stratonicus once erected a trophy with the inscription, ‘In triumph over bad lyre-players.’1 This meant that there were lots of these everywhere and he had defeated them. 452 When he was asked what kind of ship was safest, a warship or a merchantman, he replied, ‘The ones that are beached.’1 By this he meant that no passenger was safe in any ship except when it was drawn up on dry land, which in ancient times used to happen in winter. 453 Again at Rhodes, when Stratonicus had given a demonstration recital and no one clapped or gave any other sign of appreciation, he left the place saying, ‘If you don’t provide what costs you nothing, how can I hope that you will ever pay me money.’ 454 When King Ptolemy was having something of an argument with him on the subject of music, he said, ‘The sceptre, your majesty, and the plectrum are very different things.’1 ***** 450 (vi) Athenaeus 350a. In margin ‘barbarity‘ 451 (vii) Athenaeus 350b. In margin ‘bad lyre-players‘ 1 The trophy was actually in his lecture-room. See 6.488 below where it is said he was the first to give lectures on music theory. 452 (viii) Athenaeus 350b. In margin ‘joke depending on an unexpected reply‘ 1 See 7.113 (Anacharsis) below. 453 (ix) Athenaeus 350b. In margin ‘applause‘ 454 (x) Athenaeus 350c. In margin ‘in keeping‘ 1 Adagia iv i 56: Alia res sceptrum, alia plectrum ‘A sceptre is one thing, a plectrum another.’ Ptolemy is too late. Stratonicus went to Pella in Macedonia (6.477 below) and Philip ii is possible. Cf 4.29 (Philip) above.

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He meant that it was not for a king to argue with a musician about music. 455 Stratonicus was invited to hear a lyre-player giving a recital, and after listening to him he quoted the line of Homer, ‘To him the Father, lord of the thunder, granted one thing, but denied the other.’1 When someone asked how this was, he explained it as ‘he granted him to play the lyre badly, but refused the gift of singing well.’2 456 When a beam fell on one of the guests at a dinner and killed him, Stratonicus said, *Andrew, dok™ e s“ yeo’, e  de m} e si, dok™ e si. It is impossible to translate this literally. The joke depends on the ambiguity of a word in the Greek. dok! [dok¯oi] with an iota subscript means ‘for the beam’ while dok™ [dok¯o] without an iota subscript means ‘I consider’: ‘Men, I consider that there are gods; but if there are not, there are for the beam.’ Unless maybe we have to read dokQ [dok¯o] with an acute accent, meaning ‘there are beams.’1 457 When he was staying at Seriphos, he asked his host what crime people in that society would have to commit to be made to leave the country. When he replied that the people of Seriphos punished the really villainous with exile, he said, ‘Why don’t you too commit some crime then, so that you can move from this confined place?’1 Stratonicus thought the whole place unattractive and the town dull. ***** 455 (xi) Athenaeus 350c–d. In margin ‘different people have different abilities‘ 1 Homer Iliad 16.250: T! d'£teron mn Ádvke pat|r, £teron d'únŽneusen 2 The anecdote is made part of Adagia iii ix 1: Alia dantur, alia negantur ‘Some things are given, some are denied.’ 456 (xii) Athenaeus 350e–f and 350d. In margin ‘joke depending on words that are alike‘ 1 The story has more point if, instead of ‘one of the guests’ one reads, with the first edition of Athenaeus ‘one of the wicked,’ ie the man deserved retribution, either from the gods, or, failing them, via the beam. The second explanation is more likely. In the last sentence one should probably read doko’, not dokQ. 457 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 602a (On exile). Erasmus inserts two anecdotes from Plutarch into his consecutive series from Athenaeus. In margin ‘exile desirable‘ 1 Seriphos was a tiny rocky island, a symbol of smallness; cf 5.141 above.

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458 When Stratonicus was in Rhodes, he censured the luxury and self-indulgence of the inhabitants by saying that ‘they built as if they were going to live for ever, and ate as if they had only a short time left.’1 We enjoy things more avidly if we know we will shortly lose them. 459 Stratonicus said of Phaon, a poor wind-player, that ‘he played not Harmony but Cadmus.’1 When Phaon gave himself airs as a wind-player and boasted that he conducted a chorus in Megara, Stratonicus replied, ‘Rubbish. You don’t conduct, you’re conducted,’ meaning either that he was a pupil rather than the master, or that the chorus knew more about it than he did. 460 This same Stratonicus said ‘he really admired the mother of the sophist Satyrus for bearing him ten months when no city could bear him for ten days.’1 461 When Stratonicus heard that Satyrus had gone to stay in Ilium, he jokingly used of him that proverbial saying, ‘Always evils in Ilium.’1 The joke depends on the ambiguity of the word ‘evil’: it can refer to miseries and griefs, or to wicked men. 462 When Minnacus (a smith, I suppose) was arguing with him about music, he ***** 458 (xiv) Plutarch Moralia 525b (On love of wealth). In margin ‘luxury‘ 1 The same criticism is attributed to various persons: see 7.238 (Aristotle), 7.360 (Empedocles of Agrigentum). For Rhodian luxury see 6.488 below. 459 (xv) Athenaeus 350e–f. In margin ‘a bad musician‘ 1 Harmony (Harmonia) was the wife of Cadmus. This may be the extent of the joke, but possibly there is a reference to Cadmus’ most famous exploit, which was to sow dragon’s teeth from which sprang armed warriors who attacked each other, and so were perhaps an example of discord. 460 (xvi) Athenaeus 350f. In margin ‘unbearable‘ 1 Cf 6.446 above. 461 (xvii) Athenaeus 350f. In margin ‘evils in Ilium‘ 1 Adagia iv i 20: Semper Ilio mala. In that adage, Erasmus quotes this passage from Athenaeus, and remarks that the text is not without problems, but he lets it pass without comment here. 462 (xviii) Athenaeus 351a. In margin ‘beyond your hammer‘

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commented, ‘Don’t you realize you’re talking beyond your hammer?’1 There’s a very similar remark made by Apelles: ‘Let the cobbler stick to his last.’2 463 When he was met by an acquaintance whose shoes were highly polished, he pretended to praise him while actually finding fault, saying, ‘his shoes could never have been polished so well if he hadn’t done them himself.’ 464 Stratonicus came by chance to Miletus, a place where the population consisted of incomers, and when he saw that all the tombs had names of people from elsewhere, he said, ‘Boy, let’s get away from here. For visitors seem to die here and not the natives.’ 465 When Zethus was giving a lecture on music, Stratonicus commented, ‘You’re the one person who shouldn’t be talking about music, as you chose yourself a name totally alien from the Muses, preferring Zethus to Amphion.’ As the stories tell us, Amphion built the city of Thebes by the music of his lyre, but his brother Zethus was a boorish peasant.1 It seems that the man in the story had changed his name to Zethus. 466 When Stratonicus was teaching a Macedonian to play and his pupil was making no progress, he said in exasperation, ‘Go to M – acedonia!’ ***** 1 Erasmus has confused the very similar words, sfœra ‘hammer’ and sfœron ‘ankle,’ which the first edition of Athenaeus (1514) definitely reads, ie ‘above the ankle.’ Minnacus was presumably a shoe-maker, not a smith. See footnote ad loc. in lb. 2 Adagia i vi 16: Ne sutor ultra crepidam, which contains both these anecdotes. Cf 6.469 and 6.530 below. 463 (xix) Athenaeus 351a. In margin ‘damning with praise‘ 464 (xx) Athenaeus 351a–b. In margin ‘immigrants‘ 465 (xxi) Athenaeus 351b. In margin ‘joking about a name‘ 1 The rough, uneducated Zethus was often contrasted with his musician brother Amphion, whom he tried to persuade to abandon music for something more useful. See eg Plato Gorgias 484–6; [Cicero] Ad Herennium 2.27.43. 466 (xxii) Athenaeus 351c. In margin ‘Macedonia‘

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This was a play on the phrase occasionally used to swear at someone, ‘Oh, go to – Merryland.’1 467 Stratonicus once saw, close to a mean and sordid bath-house, a little shrine richly adorned with dedications. He had an unpleasant bath in the bathhouse, and when he came out he said, ‘I’m not surprised that so many dedicatory plaques hang here. Anyone who has a wash here hangs up a plaque to show he’s come out alive and well.’ He felt it was quite a thing if anyone came out safe from a bath like that! He was referring to the custom of sailors and soldiers of making a dedication if they came out alive from the sea or a battle. 468 When he was leaving the city of Heraclea, he looked round at the gates and walls. When someone asked him why he was looking round, ‘I’m ashamed,’ he said, ‘in case I’m seen coming out of the brothel.’ This was a censure on the morals of the place. There are a number of cities called Heraclea. He meant the one in Thrace, I think. 469 A man who had once been a vegetable-grower but had become a musician was arguing with him about music. Stratonicus addressed to him that wellknown Greek line, ‘Let each man sing the skill he knows.’ Except that he changed a word to make it fit the case. The original line said, ‘Let each man practise . . .’1 470 Stratonicus was once drinking with some companions in Maronia and said that he could tell whereabouts in the city he was if they led him there blind***** 1

e w makar’an, literally ‘to blessedness’; see Adagia ii i 98: In beatam ‘To blessedness,’ where Erasmus first explains the phrase as a euphemism for ‘to hell with.’

467 (xxiii) Athenaeus 351c. In margin ‘a dirty bath-house‘ 468 (xxiv) Athenaeus 351d. In margin ‘the whole city a brothel‘ 469 (xxv) Athenaeus 351d 1 Aristophanes Wasps 1431: *Erdoi tiw Ön £kastow e dŽ+ tŽxnhn; Adagia ii ii 82: Quam quisque norit artem, in hac se exerceat ‘Each man had best employ what skill he has.’ Cf 6.462 above and 6.530 below. 470 (xxvi) Athenaeus 351e. In margin ‘Antwerp‘

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fold. So they led him out and asked him what he was facing. ‘An eating house,’ he said, indicating that the whole city was nothing but a huge eating house. Whatever direction his was facing with his eyes covered, he knew he was facing an inn. Maronia was a town among the Cicones, totally given over to trade.1 471 When Stratonicus was in Arcadia,1 the bath-house attendant offered him rough earth and salt water. He joked that ‘he was being attacked by land and by sea.’ It seems that in the baths they made use of earth as fullers do now. 472 When he was in Sicyon, after defeating the lyre-players competing against him, he set up in the temple of Aesculapius a trophy with the inscription: ‘Dedicated by Stratonicus out of bad lyre-players.’1 If this is the same as the one I recorded shortly before, I’m surprised that the same thing was reported twice by the same author in the same place. These are both found in Athenaeus.2 473 Stratonicus asked someone who had performed badly who was the author of the song. When the man replied, ‘Carcinus,’ he remarked, ‘More likely that than a man!’ Carcinus means ‘crab’ and it’s also the name of some singer mocked in Greek sayings.1 474 Stratonicus’ slave was arguing with the bath-attendant about the fee, for ***** 1 Maronia was a port in uncivilized Thrace, famous in antiquity for its wine and Odysseus’ visit (cf Homer Odyssey 9.195–211). The marginal comment may explain why Erasmus says it was ‘totally given over to trade.’ 471 (xxvii) Athenaeus 351e 1 In Athenaeus, not Arcadia but Cardia. This was another place by the sea in uncivilized Thrace, so the anecdote probably refers to gritty sand and sea-water. 472 (xxviii) Athenaeus 351e–f 1 This is a parody of dedications such as ‘Athens out of (the spoils of) the Persians’ (at Delphi after the battle of Marathon). Cf 3.321 above. 2 Cf 6.451 above. 473 (xxix) Athenaeus 351f. In margin ‘joking on a name‘ 1 See Adagia iii ii 30: Carcini poemata ‘Carcinus’ verses.’ His poems were obscure. 474 (xxx) Athenaeus 351f–352a. In margin ‘the people of Phaselis‘

6 . 478

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visitors had to pay more to bathe than citizens. ‘You villain,’ he said to the slave, ‘you almost turned me into a citizen of Phaselis for the sake of a few pence!’ Now this happened in Phaselis, of whose inhabitants he had a very low opinion1 because of their meanness. He may have berated his slave, but he was really censuring the people’s evil disposition. 475 When someone praised him, hoping to receive something from him in return, Stratonicus said, ‘I’m more of a beggar than you are.’ He felt that it was not appropriate for musicians to give to people who praised them, but to receive from the people they praised. 476 When he was teaching in a very small town, he made a joke about it which involved the change of one letter. He said, ‘It’s not a polis but a molis,’ that is, ‘It’s not a city, hardly a wee bitty,’ meaning it was hardly worth the name of ‘city.’1 477 When Stratonicus was in Pella, he went down to a well and asked whether the water was drinkable. Those who were drawing water said, ‘We drink it.’ ‘Well then,’ he said, ‘it’s not drinkable,’ for he saw that they had pale sickly complexions. He interpreted this as a sign of ill health, the result of drinking the water. 478 When he heard the cries of the mother of King Timotheus when she was in labour, he commented, ‘If she had produced a workman instead of a god, what cries would she have uttered?’1 ***** 1 See 6.449 above. 475 (xxxi) Athenaeus 352a. In margin ‘one beggar from another‘ 476 (xxxii) Athenaeus 352a. In margin ‘a name slightly altered‘ 1 ‘Hardly’ translates molis. The phrase actually says literally ‘not a city but hardly,’ but it is difficult to represent this pun in English. 477 (xxxiii) Athenaeus 352a. In margin ‘facts contradict words‘ 478 (xxxiv) Athenaeus 352a. In margin ‘the birth of kings‘ 1 Erasmus seems to have misunderstood the Greek text here. The anecdote refers to The Birth, a poem by the dithyrambic poet Timotheus on the subject of ‘Semele in Labour’ (ie the mother of the god Dionysus). Here and in 6.479, Erasmus seems to think Timotheus is a king.

6 . 478

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He thus mocked the disgusting sycophancy of people who attributed divinity to the sons of kings, when the cries of a woman giving birth to a king are as pathetic as those of a woman producing any lowly citizen. Stratonicus himself was the son of an artisan. 479 When Polyidas was boasting that his pupil Philotas had defeated Timotheus in a musical contest, ‘It’s surprising,’ Stratonicus remarked, ‘that you don’t know that your pupil applies the rules, whereas Timotheus makes them.’ Here again the joke depends on taking a word in two senses. Nomos in Greek means ‘rule’ and also ‘musical composition.’ So it’s dangerous to defeat a king.1 480 Some harp-player was making himself a nuisance, so he exclaimed, ‘Go and – twang yourself,’ saying psall’ es korakas instead of the usual Greek ball’ es korakas ‘Go and hang yourself’ [literally ‘go to the crows’].1 481 After he had seen Propis, the Rhodian harp-player, a man of huge body but little skill, people asked him what he thought of him. He replied in the words of the proverb, ‘No bad big fish,’ but he put a pause between each word to make it mean something else. I have written about this in my Adages.1 482 Stratonicus had in his classroom nine representations of the Muses and one of Apollo, and only two pupils. When someone asked him how many pupils he had, he replied, ‘With the gods, twelve.’ I have written elsewhere about this kind of joke.1 ***** 479 (xxxv) Athenaeus 352b. In margin ‘compete with a king‘ 1 On Timotheus see 6.478 just above. 480 (xxxvi) Athenaeus 352b. In margin ‘by change of a letter‘ 1 Adagia ii i 96: Ad corvos ‘Off with you to the crows.’ See 3.320 above. 481 (xxxvii) Athenaeus 347f–348a. In margin ‘big and stupid‘ 1 Adagia ii iii 92: Nullus magnus malus piscis ‘No bad big fish.’ Stratonicus made it mean ‘nobody – rotten player – hulking brute – dumb as a fish.’ 482 (xxxviii) Athenaeus 348d. In margin ‘with the gods‘ 1 This is the joke depending on the unexpectedness of the retort. Erasmus is possibly referring to De copia cwe 24.630, but the brief comment there refers the reader to the section dealing with this in Quintilian (8.5.15). Erasmus identifies numerous examples of this type of joke in Apophthegmata. See

6 . 486

729

l b i v 311d

483 Stratonicus went to stay in Mylasa and when he observed that there were many temples but few inhabitants, he stood on the middle of the central square and cried out, ‘Hear, O ye temples.’1 484 He was staying in Abdera and observed that individual citizens had their own personal announcers, so that there were almost more announcers than citizens, so after dinner he began walking about the city on tip-toe, looking at the ground. When the people of the place asked him what had suddenly happened to his feet, he replied, ‘Actually, there’s nothing wrong with me anywhere, and I can run to dinner quicker than the spongers. It’s just that I’m afraid that as I walk along, I may stub my toe on an announcer.’ The whole place was full of announcers. 485 At a sacrifice once a poor pipe-player was going to perform. ‘May there be nothing of evil omen,’ he said. ‘Let us offer a libation and pray to the gods.’ He meant that the man needed the help of the gods to play well.1 486 A bad lyre-player once invited Stratonicus to a dinner, and over the meal displayed his art. It was a very lavish spread. Stratonicus, having no one to talk to while the host was playing, smashed his cup and demanded a bigger one.1 He filled it up with many a ladle-full, pledged the full cup to the sun, swilled down the wine and fell asleep. It so happened that some revellers arrived who were known to the singer who was giving the dinner, and Stratonicus, waking up, found himself quite drunk. When the others observed that he had become intoxicated from drinking long ***** General Index: replies, unexpected. A similar story is told of Diogenes at 3.366 above. 483 (xxxix) Athenaeus 348d. In margin ‘empty temples‘ 1 A parody of the herald’s cry, ‘Hear, O ye people,’ substituting ‘temples’ for lao’ [laoi] ‘people.’

nao’

[naoi]

484 (xl) Athenaeus 349b–c. In margin ‘a multitude of criers‘ Erasmus neglects to say this was at the games. 485 (xli) Athenaeus 349c. In margin ‘a bad musician‘ 1 A better interpretation might be that the man’s playing was so bad as to be an evil omen and would be best omitted. Stratonicus uses a word which means either ‘speak no words of evil omen’ or (in effect) ‘keep solemn silence.’ 486 (xlii) Athenaeus 348f–349a 1 Cf 7.110 below.

6 . 486

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and deep,2 Stratonicus summed it up by saying, ‘This treacherous wicked singing-fellow invited me to dinner, and then, like an ox at the manger,3 slew me.’ Oxen are fattened up before being killed. 487 A very unskilled lyre-player called Cleon was nicknamed ‘Ox.’ Stratonicus remarked, ‘It used to be said that the ass took to the lyre,1 now it’s an ox.’ 488 When Stratonicus observed the inhabitants of Rhodes totally given over to pleasure, and taking their drinks hot, he called them ‘white Cyrenaeans,’1 and called their country ‘a country of suitors,’2 because their skin colour might be different from the Cyrenaeans but in self-indulgence and the pursuit of pleasure they were alike. Nowadays some people speak of ‘white Moors.’ There are other outspoken and caustic remarks of his on record, and in these he is said to have followed Simonides and Philoxenus.3 If you want to know what kind of reward he got for his freedom of speech, he offended King Nicocles of Cyprus4 and died from the administration of poison. He is said to have been the first to increase the number of strings on the lyre,5 to have held classes in music theory6 and to have established the scale.7 ***** 2 The Greek text could mean ‘asked why a man accustomed to drink long and deep had suddenly become intoxicated.’ Erasmus has inserted the words ‘waking up.’ 3 Adagia ii i 39: Bos ad praesepe 487 (xliii) Athenaeus 348c–d. In margin ‘an ox to the lyre‘ 1 Adagia i iv 35: Asinus ad lyram ‘An ass to the lyre’ 488 (xliv) Athenaeus 352b and 352e–d 1 Cyrene was in north Africa and its inhabitants dark-skinned, but otherwise there was nothing to choose between them and the Rhodians. 2 Like Penelope’s famous dissolute suitors in Homer’s Odyssey. See Adagia ii ix 69: Sponsi vita ‘A wooer’s life.’ 3 See 6.384–7, 6.400, 6.407, 6.507–12 for some witticisms of Simonides and Philoxenus. 4 King Nicocles of Salamis in Cyprus, c. 373/2–c. 354/3 bc 5 Athenaeus says more precisely ‘increased the number of strings in unaccompanied lyre-playing’ (ie up to eleven). 6 For Stratonicus as a teacher, see the anecdotes at 6.476 and 6.482 above. 7 Erasmus keeps the Greek word for scale, diagramma, from Athenaeus (there is no native Latin word) and makes no attempt here at explanation of this fairly rare word, but for what he took it to mean see Adagia iv iv 45: Ab uno

6 . 492

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489 Phoenicides was serving fish at a banquet, but only to those who had paid their share. Phoenicides said, ‘The sea of course is free to all, but the fish found in it belong to the people who have bought them.’ 490 Diocles, a great epicure, had lost his wife, and at the funeral banquet he was gobbling delicacies amidst his tears. Theocritus of Chios1 said to him, ‘Poor fellow. Do stop. Eating all that food will not help you.’2 He meant he would always have something to weep about if he continued his indulgence in delicacies. In the ancient world fish were considered a delicacy. Nowadays eating fish is a religious virtue.3 491 When Anaximenes was about to speak, this same Theocritus1 remarked before he began, ‘Here comes a river of words and a trickle of intelligence,’ indicating that he was a man of many words and not much sense. 492 When Theocritus was being brought before King Antigonus,1 the people accompanying him told him not to lose heart, saying he would be safe once the king’s eyes fell on him. ‘That destroys any hope I have of safety,’ he said, making allusion to the fact that Antigonus had only one eye. When the king heard of this flippant remark he had him crucified. ***** diagrammate ‘In one key’ (written long before in 1515, quoting Plutarch Moralia 55d (How to tell a flatterer). He would also know the word in Greek from Plutarch Demosthenes 13.4 and, in a Latin text, from Vitruvius On Architecture 6.1.7. Here in Athenaeus it is suggested that it has the more technical meaning of a diagrammatic representation of the modal scales and their combination in one system (see West 219 n2).

489 (xlv) Athenaeus 345e. In margin ‘bought‘ 490 (xlvi) Athenaeus 344b. In margin ‘indulgence‘ 1 This is not the famous writer of pastoral idylls but an earlier orator and sophist. There was possibly a collection of his witticisms, drawn on by later writers. His wit was the chief cause of his celebrity. 2 Erasmus has omitted to translate the word kla’vn, ‘Do stop crying,’ and this has affected his interpretation. 3 Erasmus could not bear fish. See the colloquy &Ixyuofag’a ‘A Fish Diet’ cwe 40 675–762. 491 (xlvii) Stobaeus 36.20 (Meineke ii 39). In margin ‘wordiness‘ 1 See 6.490 n1 just above. 492 (xlviii) Macrobius 7.3.12. In margin ‘a joke out of season‘ 1 Antigonus i, famously ‘the One-eyed,’ for whom see 4.103–32 above.

6 . 493

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732

493 Chirosophus, Dionysius’ toady, saw the king laughing with a group of friends, and, although he was too far off to hear what was said, he laughed too. Dionysius asked him if he could hear what was being said, and when he said, ‘No,’ Dionysius asked, ‘Why are you laughing then?’ He replied, ‘I am quite sure that whatever you are doing together, it is something funny.’ The Greeks use the word meaning ‘funny’ for things that are amusing as well as for those that are ridiculous.1 494 The sycophant Arcadion1 took against Philip of Macedon and voluntarily took himself into exile. It so happened that he found himself in Delphi when Philip was there. The king summoned him and asked, ‘Just how far will you run, Arcadion?’ He replied, ‘Until I reach a place where nobody has heard of Philip.’ Who would not wonder at this freedom of speech used by a professional toady? But the king was amused by his outspokenness and invited him to dinner, and so relations were restored between them. But flattery lurked beneath that apparent frankness, for it suggested that there was no place where Philip was not well-known. 495 Melanthius, who was a long-time scrounger off Alexander of Pherae, was asked how Alexander had been killed. ‘Through his hip,’ he replied, ‘and into my belly.’ The blow that killed Alexander, he implied, had entered his own belly too, as he would now have to starve, the man who used to feed him being dead. ***** 493 (i) Athenaeus 249e. In margin ‘two meanings‘ Athenaeus identifies the ruler as Dionysius i but comments that his son Dionysius ii was surrounded by sycophants (249e–f). 1 The word ‘funny’ in Athenaeus, which Erasmus does not quote in Greek, is gŽloion. 494 (ii) Athenaeus 249c–d 1 Erasmus has missed the negative and this has influenced his comments. Athenaeus says Arcadion was not a sycophant, though the man in the previous anecdote was. 495 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 50c (How to tell a flatterer). In margin ‘concern for one’s belly‘

6 . 498

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496 Melanthius also made a gibe at the Athenian leader Archippus,1 who had misshapen humped shoulders, saying o[ proest‡nai tw p—levw úllˆ keku-

fŽnai2

This joke is impossible to translate into Latin – though I do think one should read prokekufŽnai [prokekuphenai] instead of kekufŽnai [kekuphenai], that is, he hadn’t ‘stood before the city,’ but ‘stooped before.’ A man with a straight body ‘stands,’ a man who bows down to somebody ‘stoops.’3 497 When he was asked what he thought of a tragedy by Diogenes,1 Melanthius said he hadn’t seen it, ‘because it was concealed in a wrapping of words.’ He meant that the business of the play was lost in an ostentatious flurry of words. This is in Plutarch’s On listening to lectures. 498 Agis, a flatterer from Argos, saw Alexander giving huge presents to some jester or other, and exclaimed, ‘What a stupid thing!’ Alexander, taking exception to this remark, said, ‘What do you mean by that?’ Agis replied, ‘I must say that I can’t bear it when I see all you sons of Jove behaving in the same way and taking delight in people who set out to ingratiate themselves. Jove had Vulcan for his fool, Hercules was amused by the Cercopes,1 and Bacchus by Silenus and his like. We see you too setting great store by such persons.’ ***** 496 (iv) Plutarch Moralia 633d (Table-talk 2) 1 This is Melanthius, a tragic poet probably, not the hanger-on of 6.495. Archippus is unknown elsewhere. 2 Erasmus does not translate the Greek. Literally it means ‘he hadn’t stood before (ie at the head of) the state but stooped.’ 3 Erasmus’ suggested reading is the one adopted in modern texts of Plutarch. The whole section in Plutarch relates jokes about people’s physical disabilities. 497 (v) Plutarch Moralia 41c (On listening to lectures). In margin ‘bombast‘ 1 This is probably not the famous Diogenes (though Diogenes Laertius 6.80 mentions seven feeble tragedies credited to him) but a tragic poet of whom little is known. 498 (vi) Plutarch Moralia 60b (How to tell a flatterer). In margin ‘outspokenness that flatters‘ 1 The Cercopes were a gang of cunning rascals, who were perhaps turned into monkeys; see Adagia ii vii 35: Cercopum coetus ‘An assembly of Cercopes’; ii vii 37: Cercopissare ‘Cercopian tricks’; ii i 43: Ne in Melampygum incidas ‘Mind you don’t fall in with Blackbottom.’

6 . 498

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The worst type of flattery is the one that flatters in the guise of outspokenness. 499 When the Emperor Severus was returning from Britain, not merely victorious but having established peace on a permanent footing, he was wondering what kind of an omen might present itself. An Ethiopian soldier who was well-known as a joker and famous for his buffoonery came to meet him with a garland of cypress. The emperor was taken aback by the bad omen offered by the man’s black skin and the garland (for cypress is associated with funerals) and angrily ordered him to be removed. But as he left, the joker said something that was an even worse omen, for he said, ‘You have lived totally, you have conquered totally, now in your victory be a god.’ The joke became a prophecy, for the emperor perished shortly thereafter.1 500 When Anaxarchus saw Alexander agonizing over his murder of Clitus,1 he said, ‘Clitus has met the justice which sits as counsellor to the gods.’ He hoped to persuade him that anything done by a ruler was right and just, for Alexander too was quite prepared to let people treat him as a god.2 501 Praxaspes urged King Cambyses not to drink so heavily, for drunkenness was shameful in a king on whom all eyes were fixed. The king retorted, ‘To make you realize how I never lose grip of my senses, I will demonstrate that even after drinking I still have complete control of hand and eye.’ He then drank even more than usual, and once he was inebriated, ordered his critic’s son to be brought in and told to stand with his left hand raised above his head. Then he shot an arrow at the boy’s heart (for he had said he would ***** 499 (vii) Historia Augusta, Severus 22.4–5. In margin ‘an omen‘ 1 For Septimius Severus see 6.124–9 above. 500 Plutarch Life of Alexander 52.6. This apophthegm, which was here in 1531 and 1532, was moved in 1535 to 7.378 below, in a section on Anaxarchus quoting some of his flatteries of Alexander. In margin ‘flattering‘ 1 In a fit of drunken rage, Alexander killed Clitus, a loyal and experienced general, who had saved his life. For Anaxarchus see 4.93 n1. 2 For Alexander’s supposed divinity, see Index of Classical Persons: Alexander (1) the Great. 501 (viii) Seneca De ira 3.14.1

6 . 505

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aim at that) and, opening up the chest, showed the father the dart lodged in the heart, asking him whether his aim was true enough. The father replied that Apollo himself couldn’t have shot straighter.1 502 When Alexander was shooing away midges, complaining that he was being eaten by them, Nicesias commented, ‘By others rather, who have more of you, having drunk your blood.’1 He meant flatterers, who suck more blood than any midges. 503 When Philip took to task the flatterer Clisophus, an Athenian by birth, and asked him why he was always making some request, he replied, ‘I forget I’ve asked.’1 A nice joke, but one at variance with that well-known saying, ‘One should remember a favour received but forget one granted.’2 504 Philip gave Clisophus a horse which was injured, so he sold it, and when Philip asked him later what had become of the horse, he said, ‘That injury disposed of him.’ He was playing on the double meaning of the word ‘dispose,’ pepraktai in the Greek, which can mean ‘sold’ or ‘finished off.’ 505 When Philip was making jokes about him and being very genial, Clisophus remarked, ‘So shall I not keep you after this?’ ***** 1 This ia a covert dig at Cambyses. Apollo, the archer god, was not only the god of light and music and healing, but he could also slay viciously. 502 (ix) Athenaeus 249e. In margin ‘a king’s midges‘ 1 Erasmus translates the text as punctuated in the first edition of Athenaeus. A more natural reading is that Nicesias, a flatterer, says that these midges will be stronger than others, having drunk Alexander’s blood. See Adagia iv vii 43: Muscae ‘Flies,’ n3. 503 (x) Athenaeus 248d. In margin ‘always asking‘ 1 An alternative reading suggests a meaning, ‘So that I’m not forgotten.’ 2 Adagia iii x 68: Benefactorum memoria ‘The memory of good deeds.’ See 2.190 n1. 504 (xi) Athenaeus 248e 505 (xii) Athenaeus 248e and Plutarch Moralia 633b (Table-talk 2). Added in 1532. In margin ‘change of roles’ and ‘witty‘

6 . 505

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Clisophus wittily inverted the true state of affairs, for kings give bed and board to their buffoons in order to be amused by their witticisms, but if kings know how to play the fool and make jokes about people, they have no need of professional buffoons, since they know how to take on the role themselves. In that case the buffoons keep the kings rather than the kings the buffoons. Though Plutarch, in his Table-talk reports the words as, ‘I’m not keeping you,’ censuring the king for inverting their roles and acting the fool himself: ‘You keep me to amuse you with my foolish remarks, not I you.’ 506 King Lysimachus arranged to have a scorpion made of wood and totally lifelike (or, according to Plutarch, a poisonous toad)1 pinned on the clothes of Bithys, the parasite. He jumped back in alarm and when everybody laughed he realized it was a trick. So he said, ‘It’s my turn to terrify you, your majesty.’ The king replied, ‘Do so.’ So he then said, ‘Give me a talent.’ This was a hit at the king’s stinginess and penny-pinching. 507 A conversation arose about the high price of thrushes when a man called Corydus, who was reviled as once having been a male prostitute, happened to be present. Philoxenus, surnamed Pternocopis,1 a native of Corinth, remarked, ‘But I can remember when you could get a corydus for a penny.’ This was a joke depending on a double meaning, for corydus is also the Greek name for a small bird. 508 It was the same man, I think, who said that the tastiest meat is not meat, and the most delectable fish are not fish.1 ***** 506 (xiii) Athenaeus 246e. In margin ‘meanness censured‘ 1 See Plutarch Moralia 2.633b (Table-talk 2), but there the creature is still a scorpion. Erasmus has considerably expanded the original. For Lysimachus see 5.111–12. 507 (xiv) Athenaeus 241e. In margin ‘joking on a name‘ 1 This is Philoxenus of Leucadia, a glutton and debauchee, and also a great wit. He was a contemporary of Philoxenus, the (dithyrambic) poet and the two are often confused in anecdotes as they are in Erasmus’ selection. For witticisms of Corydus see 6.515–19. 508 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 14d (How to study poetry) and 621d (Table-talk 1). Plutarch is talking about concealing valuable lessons in things that children enjoy reading. In margin ‘not too much of anything‘ 1 The first saying seems to refer to fancy cooking that can disguise dishes.

6 . 511

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He likewise said, ‘The nicest type of sailing is along the shore and the nicest walk is alongside water.’2 509 When Dionysius was reciting his own poetry, everyone else flattered him with their praises, but Philoxenus the poet cried out, ‘Away with me to the quarries!’1 This fate was easier to endure than listening to and praising such bad poetry! He had in fact angered the king before and had been sent to the quarries. 510 When Philoxenus was asked why he had wicked women as characters in his tragedies whereas Sophocles had good ones, he neatly replied, ‘He shows women as they ought to be, I portray them as they are.’ 511 This same Philoxenus1 was dining with Python and a pot of olives was laid on the table. When a plate of fish was brought in a little later, he struck the jar containing the olives and quoted a half-line of Homer: ‘He whipped them to pull away.’2 In the context this refers to a charioteer, but Philoxenus meant that the olives ought to be removed at once. He was making a pun, as elaan can be the noun ‘olive,’ ie ‘he whipped the olive,’ as well as being the verb elaan ‘he whipped them to pull’ a chariot or such like. ***** 2 See Adagia i ii 91, where both these sayings occur. Plutarch merely says the second was a common saying. It seems to mean that a mixture of experiences gives most pleasure. 509 (xvi) Suda E 1291 and A 2862; also (last sentence) Stobaeus 13.16 (Meineke i 260). In margin ‘outspoken‘ 1 ‘Away to the quarries!’ became proverbial; see Cicero Ad Atticum 4.6; cpg 1 Appendix 2.26; Adagia ii i 31: In lapicidinas ‘To the quarries.’ The huge quarries near Syracuse were regularly used as a place of imprisonment and punishment. Dionysius i’s tragedies were also criticized by Antiphon, see [Plutarch] Moralia 833c (Lives of ten orators); Adagia iii ii 95: Philoxenis non ‘Philoxenus’ No.’ This Philoxenus is not the glutton of 6.507 above. See note there. 510 (xvii) This seems to be a combination of Aristotle Poetics 1448a and 1460b, where the story is told of Sophocles and Euripides. In margin ‘telling‘ 511 (xviii) Athenaeus 246a. In margin ‘using Homer‘ 1 Athenaeus identifies this Philoxenus as the wit, not the poet, as in 6.512 also. 2 Homer Iliad 5.366: M‡stijen d'\l‡an

6 . 512

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512 Philoxenus was invited to a dinner, and when black bread was served, he remarked, ‘Don’t put a lot of those out, or you’ll make it dark!’ Black things make darkness, and we speak of ‘black shades.’ Whereas white has a lot of light, which is why it hurts the eyes. 513 The parasite Corydus was once drinking in the company of a courtesan called Gnome. When the wine ran out, he ordered a contribution of a hundred and two obols,1 but said Gnome should contribute whatever the people thought appropriate referring to the fact that she made her living from the people. 514 When the lyre-player Polyctor was eating lentils and bit on a stone mixed in with them, Corydus remarked, ‘Poor man, even the little lentil hits you’ meaning that he was fit to be pelted with stones by everyone, since even a lentil had thrown a stone at him. 515 At a dinner given by Ptolemy, a ragout (a highly prized concoction) was being carried round, but the dishes had always run out by the time they got to Corydus. ‘Ptolemy,’ he said, ‘am I drunk or do I think I see those plates going round?’ He was nothing but a looker-on when it came to the ragout! Drunks seem to see everything going round and round. 516 When Chaerephon the parasite remarked, ‘I can’t stand wine,’ this same Corydus remarked, ‘Nor stand your contribution either!’ He meant that he didn’t have the wherewithal to pay for the wine. ‘Stand’ can mean ‘being able to support’ or ‘paying for.’1 ***** 512 (xix) Athenaeus 246a–b 513 (xx) Athenaeus 245d 1 In saying ‘a hundred and two obols,’ Erasmus is translating the reading of the first edition of Athenaeus, where °kat—n ‘a hundred’ is probably a misprint for £kaston ‘each,’ ie ‘asked each of them for two obols.’ The word is there divided between two lines. 514 (xxi) Athenaeus 245d 515 (xxii) Athenaeus 245f. In margin ‘only a looker-on at the dinner‘ 516 (xxiii) Athenaeus 245f. In margin ‘a double meaning‘ 1 To represent the pun in English, ‘stand’ is here used to translate Greek fŽrein and Latin ferre ‘carry, bear.’

6 . 521

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517 When Chaerephon was sprawling naked at a party, Corydus remarked, ‘Chaerephon, it’s like looking at a bottle – I can see how full you are!’ If you take a glass bottle out of its case, you can see how full it is. Similarly, you could tell from his skin how far he’d filled up his body. 518 When Demosthenes accepted that present of a huge goblet from Harpalus, Corydus remarked, ‘He calls other people acrocothones (that is, heavy drinkers) when he himself has taken in this great bowl.’ The cothon is a clay drinking vessel.1 Anyone who accepts a present ‘takes it in,’ and so does anyone who drinks. 519 It was Corydus’ custom to contribute dark brown rolls to a party, and when someone brought in some that were even darker, he said that the other person ‘wasn’t bringing rolls, but the shadows of rolls.’ This was because they were excessively black. 520 Pausimachus said of a parasite who was kept by an old woman that a man who consorted with an old woman had a different fate from her – he was always getting something in his belly, she never did. He was always getting stuffed, she remained barren. 521 When Cinesias1 saw Alexander badly affected by a medicine he had taken, he exclaimed, ‘What’s to become of us, when you gods suffer like this?’ Alexander, barely able to raise his eyes, said, ‘Fine gods we are! I fear the gods hate us.’ ***** 517 (xxiv) Athenaeus 245f. In margin ‘guzzling‘ 518 (xxv) Athenaeus 246a. For Harpalus see 4.370. In margin ‘bribes‘ 1 Information from Athenaeus 483b–c, in a section dealing with drinking cups which describes the useful nature of the cothon. Erasmus leaves his readers to observe that cothon is part of the word acrocothones quoted above. (The proper form of the word is acratocothones ‘neat cups.’) The word acrocothones is discussed in Adagia iv vi 69: Cothonissare ‘To be in one’s cups.’ Demosthenes was a notorious water drinker (6.382). 519 (xxvi) Athenaeus 246a. Cf 6.512 above. In margin ‘shadows‘ 520 (xxvii) Athenaeus 246b–c. In margin ‘an old woman’s gigolo‘ 521 (xxviii) Athenaeus 251c. In margin ‘Gods suffering‘ 1 Modern texts have ‘Nicesias.’

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522 Pantaleon composed the following squib about Arsinoe, Lysimachus’ wife, who was subject to vomiting: Kak™n kat‡rxeiw t|nd' \možsan e s‡gvn ‘A faulty household do you rule, allowing in this puking woman.’1 When Lysimachus learnt of this, he threw the fellow into a cage, had him carried round like a wild animal, and so fed him until he died. His witticism certainly cost him dear. 523 Arcesilaus went to visit Apelles of Chios when he was ill and realizing that he was destitute as well, went back the next day taking ten drachmas with him. Sitting close by him, he said, ‘Nothing is there here save the elements of Empedocles – fire and water, earth and realms of yielding air.’1 And he added, ‘And you’re not even lying comfortably.’ He then moved the pillow and secretly pushed the money underneath. The old woman who was looking after Apelles found the money, and when she told Apelles he laughed and said, ‘Devil take me if this isn’t some underhand trick of Arcesilaus.’2 ‘Trick’ (klemma) comes from klepto, which means ‘keep secret’ as well as ‘deceive.’ 524 When Apelles saw the painting by Protogenes which Demetrius had preserved in the war in answer to the Rhodians’ entreaties,1 he looked at it for some time in silent amazement. At last he burst out, ‘A huge under***** 522 (xxix) Athenaeus 616c. In margin ‘unlucky free speech‘ 1 There is a play on words here. With a different word division, ie t}nde možsan, it could mean allowing in ‘this Muse.’ As Athenaeus’ sophisticated readers would recognize, the joke is a parody of a line of Euripides with this second meaning (Euripides Nauck incerta fr 395 and 184). The story is actually told in Athenaeus, as elsewhere, of Telesphorus. Erasmus has made a slip – the previous anecdotes are about Pantaleon. For more details of Telesphorus’ horrendous punishment, see Plutarch Moralia 606b (On exile); Seneca De ira 3.17.3 and 8.214 below. 523 (xxx) Plutarch Moralia 63d (How to tell a flatterer). In margin ‘kind‘ 1 Diels-Kranz 31 B 17.18: pžr ka“ ¹dvr ka“ ga”a ka“ Ҏraw Äpeleton ¹caw, but Erasmus does not quote the Greek. 2 A similar story is told of Arcesilaus and another of his pupils, Ctesibius, in Diogenes Laertius 4.37 (used at 8.58 below). Arcesilaus was head of the Plato’s Academy in Athens. 524 (xxxi) Plutarch Life of Demetrius 22.4–6. In margin ‘a work worthy of immortality‘ 1 For Demetrius and the painting, see 5.96 above.

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taking and a wonderful piece of work, but it lacks those special beauties which would carry away this and other works of his and set them in heaven.’2 Protogenes had in fact left the work unfinished. 525 Megabyzes once came to Apelles’ studio and began saying something or other about the art of painting. Apelles could not stand the king expressing an opinion on things which he knew nothing about, so he said, ‘As long as you said nothing, everyone thought you a great man on account of your gold, your purple, and your crown. Now the very lads who grind my colours are laughing at you because of your ignorance.’ Pliny puts Alexander the Great in place of Megabyzes. 526 A rather poor painter was boasting about the speed with which he could paint a picture, and producing a picture he said, ‘I’ve just painted this one.’ ‘Even if you had said nothing,’ remarked Apelles, ‘the picture itself tells us you dashed it off on impulse.’1 527 Apelles saw Lais1 when she was still a virgin carrying water from Peirene, and admiring her outstanding beauty, he took her with him to a party attended by his friends. They all laughed at him for bringing a virgin to the party instead of a courtesan, but he said, ‘Don’t be surprised. I am keeping her so that I may enjoy her one day. Before three years are up, I will make her beautiful.’2 ***** 2 Possibly Apelles is speaking of the qualities of his own work. Cf 6.528 n1 and 8.195 below. 525 (xxxii) Plutarch Moralia 471f–472a (On tranquillity of mind) and Pliny Naturalis historia 35.10.85. Plutarch is mistaken – Megabyzes visited Zeuxis (fifth century bc). In margin ‘an artist on art‘ 526 (xxxiii) Plutarch Moralia 6f (The education of children). In margin ‘speed without ability‘ 1 Cf 6.532 below. 527 (xxxiv) Athenaeus 588c–d. In margin ‘hope of a great future‘ 1 Lais is the name of at least two famous Greek courtesans. This is the younger Lais, who lived in the fourth century bc and was beloved by the painter Apelles. She was a contemporary of Phryne, for whom see 6.575–81 below. 2 The Greek text is corrupt: ‘make her beautiful’ is difficult to interpret. Also Erasmus read ’Piraeus’ for ’Peirene,’ a spring in Corinth (Athenaeus 43b).

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528 Apelles used to say that he and Protogenes were equal in everything, or may be Protogenes was better, but he himself had the advantage in one thing – Protogenes didn’t know when to take his hand away.1 Protogenes went wrong through that over attention to detail which is never satisfied, a fault that harms speakers as well as painters. The learned Paolo Emilio of Verona2 was prey to this fault. He could never satisfy himself, and every time he went over what he had written, he made a lot of changes – he wasn’t correcting the work but rather producing a different one – and he did this constantly. For this reason, an elephant would give birth sooner than he would manage to publish something.3 The history which he did publish he had on hand for more than thirty years, and I suspect he only let it out into the public domain because he was forced to do so. The widely accomplished and learned Englishman Thomas Linacre4 was not immune from this fault. 529 Apelles was never so busy that he let a day go by without exercising his talent and painting something at some point in it. So he used to leave whatever else he was doing, saying, ‘I haven’t done a stroke today.’ This saying has become proverbial,1 and is used of any duty neglected. ***** 528 (xxxv) Pliny Naturalis historia 35.10.80. In margin ‘pernickety attention to detail‘ 1 Cf Adagia i iii 19: Manum de tabula ‘Hands off the picture.’ Protogenes spent seven years on the painting mentioned in 6.524 above. 2 Erasmus probably met Paolo Emilio of Verona in Paris 1495–1500, where Emilio became royal historian. The first four books of his De rebus gestis Francorum appeared in 1516–17 (Paris: J. Bade) after twenty years’ work; two more books appeared about 1519, but the completed work in ten books was not published until 1539, after Erasmus’ death. 3 Cf Adagia i ix 11: Celerius elephanti pariunt ‘Elephants breed faster’ 4 Thomas Linacre was the distinguished Greek and Latin scholar and physician, appointed royal physician to King Henry viii in 1509. Erasmus met him during his stay in England and relations between them were cordial and lasting. Although Linacre did publish two educational works as aids in the teaching of Latin, the main literary activity of this busy physician was the translation of various treatises of Galen from Greek to Latin, which appeared at regular intervals from 1517 until his death in 1524. Erasmus’ criticism may hint at a wish that his friend had written more original and literary works. 529 (xxxvi) Pliny Naturalis historia 35.10.84. In margin ‘practising one’s art‘ 1 Adagia i iv 12: Nullam hodie lineam duxi ‘I haven’t done a stroke today.’ These words are not found in the Pliny passage but are added from cpg 2 Apostolius 16.44c, as is the explanation.

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530 Apelles also used to display his pictures in an arcade and then hide behind them and listen to the criticisms of passers-by. A cobbler found fault with the fact that he had painted the sandals with one loop too few on the inside. Apelles accepted this in silence, but when the next day the same man made some comment about the leg, Apelles put his head out and said indignantly, ‘Let the cobbler stick to his last.’ This too has become a proverb.1 531 Protogenes was living in Rhodes, and Apelles travelled there to visit him. He went straight to his studio, where a huge painting stood on a scaffold. The old woman in charge said that Protogenes was not at home and asked who she should say had been asking for him. ‘This man,’ said Apelles, and taking up a brush he drew a very thin coloured line across the painting. When Protogenes returned, the old woman showed him what had been done. He looked at the line and immediately said, ‘Obviously Apelles has come to Rhodes. No one else has the ability to do something so perfect.’ He then drew an even thinner line on top of the other one in a different colour, and told the old woman that, if the stranger returned, she should show him the line and say, ‘Here is the man you’re looking for.’ Apelles came back and, mortified at being beaten, drew down the middle a third line of a different colour, too narrow for any further refinement. Protogenes acknowledged that he had been worsted, rushed down to the harbour, hunted out his visitor and took him home, the vanquished hosting the victor. The smallest thing reveals one artist to another. 532 The painter Agatharchus used to boast about how quickly he could paint, while Zeuxis would linger over a picture. Zeuxis retorted that things that come into being quickly die quickly, but things brought to a slow conclusion with scrupulous care stand the test of time.1 ***** 530 (xxxvii) Pliny Naturalis historia 35.10.85. In margin ‘passing judgment on someone else’s art‘ 1 See 6.462 and 6.469 above. 531 (xxxviii) Pliny Naturalis historia 35.10.81–3. In margin ‘judging by a line‘ 532 (xxxix) Cf Plutarch Life of Pericles 13.3–4. In margin ‘things brought to birth quickly do not last‘ 1 Cf 6.526 above for a similar story.

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According to Valerius, what he said was, ‘I spend a long time painting because I paint for eternity.’1 Things brought to birth quickly die quickly. Things that are worked on for a long time stand the test of time. Beets grow quickly, the box-tree slowly. 533 Zeuxis and Parrhasius had a painting contest. Zeuxis painted some grapes so skilfully that birds flew to the picture. Parrhasius brought in a painting of a cloth so realistic that Zeuxis, flushed with confidence because the birds had been misled, eventually asked him to take away the cloth and let him see the picture. When he realized his mistake, ‘Parrhasius, ‘ he said, ‘you win. I deceived the birds, you deceived the artist.’ An example of rare generosity between skilled practitioners. 534 Later on Zeuxis painted a boy stealing grapes. When birds flew towards the picture, he went up to the painting in anger. ‘I painted the grapes better than the boy,’ he said, ‘for if I had got this right, the birds should have been afraid of the boy.’ An example of honest self-criticism. The birds saw no movement in the boy, so they thought he was dead or asleep. 535 When someone in amazement asked why Scopas the Thessalian, a very rich man,1 had so many unnecessary and useless things about his house, ‘Why,’ he said, ‘it’s these unnecessary things that make us rich and happy, not the necessary ones.’ Things essential for life are precious of their very nature, but because they are in daily use and common to many people, they are not thought of ***** 1 Ie Valerius Maximus, but Erasmus seems to have misremembered. These words appear to be a translation of Plutarch Moralia 94e (On having many friends). 533 (xl) Pliny Naturalis historia 35.10.65 534 (xli) Pliny Naturalis historia 35.10.66. In margin ‘representation‘ 535 (xlii) Plutarch Moralia 527c (On love of wealth) and Cicero De oratore 2.352. In margin: ‘the sculptor’ (corrected to ‘a very rich man’ in bas) and ‘unnecessary things.’ 1 ‘a very rich man’ is the correction of bas. The editions of 1531, 1532, and 1535 have ‘the sculptor,’ confusing him with the famous sculptor of that name, in spite of the quotation from Cicero.

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any value. But dire necessity shows their true worth. When necessity strikes, anyone would gladly exchange all his jewels, tapestries, and gold for just one loaf. All the rest is for show rather than the preservation of life. I think this is the same Scopas of whom Cicero writes in the second book of his On the Orator: When Simonides was in Crannon in Thessaly, dining with Scopas, a rich nobleman, and had sung the ode he had composed in honour of his host, including a great deal in praise of Castor and Pollux, which is the kind of embellishment that poets go in for, Scopas said he would pay him only half of what he had agreed for the poem and he could go for the rest to his favourite Tyndaridae2 whom he had praised equally with himself. (Some people are quite unwilling to share their praise.) Simonides was called out of the house by two young men who were nowhere seen again. While he was outside, Scopas and his fellow guests were all crushed by the collapse of the dining room, while Simonides was saved. 536 Polycletus the sculptor used to say that the most irksome type of craft was one where people got clay got under the nails.1 He was referring, I imagine, to modellers in clay and potters. He also meant that one should practise those arts which don’t dirty the practitioner. Such is philosophy, of course. 537 Polycletus made two versions of the same statue, one as a true work of art, the other popular in style and such as the man-in-the-street would like. When he had finished them, he let in the crowd. The one he had made on artistic principles was greatly admired, the other not at all. Then Polycletus said, ‘For your information, the one you praise so highly, I made; the one you find fault with, you made.’ The one he had made to please the people was, he said, made by the people. Yet the sight of true art had swung their judgment, unforewarned ***** 2 Ie Castor and Pollux, twin sons of Tyndarus 536 (xliii) Plutarch Moralia 636c (Table-talk 2). In margin ‘philosophy an art‘ 1 Erasmus has misinterpreted this saying out of context. Polycletus said ‘The hardest part of the work is when the clay gets under the nails.’ Polycletus was a sculptor in bronze, and in context this seems to refer to the crucial first stage when the sculptor fashions the firm lump of clay into the initial model which will determine the shape of the final creation. 537 (xliv) There is a version of this story in Aelian Varia historia 14.8. See Introduction xx n14 above. In margin ‘popular judgment‘

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as they were. If they had been alerted as to which one he had made to please them, they would have preferred that. 538 When Aratus was intending, out of his general hatred of tyrants, to destroy a painting by a famous artist depicting Aristratus standing triumphant in his chariot, Nealces intervened, begging him to preserve it, saying that the conflict should be with tyrants, not with pictures of tyrants.1 539 Philip had occupied a place called Ithome, which, if a garrison were introduced, would be as impregnable as the citadel of Corinth. After the sacrifice had been performed, the priest brought him the entrails, which he took and showed to Aratus and Demetrius of Pharos. Being undecided himself, he asked them what the entrails indicated; should he return the place to the Messenians or retain it? Demetrius laughed and said, ‘If you have the mind of a priest, you will let the place go; if of a king, you will grasp the ox by both horns.’ The riddling word ‘ox’ meant the Peloponnese, which Philip could easily defend if he garrisoned the two citadels.1 But when Philip asked Aratus for his opinion, after a long silence, he replied to this effect: ‘There are many mountains, Philip, in Crete, and many places among the Boeotians and Phocians where the ground rises into a rocky outcrop, and again among the Acarnanians, some inland, some close to the sea, all of them made safe against attack by their natural features. You have captured none of these, yet they all freely do what you command. It is robbers that occupy cliffs and crags. A king finds his best protection and safeguard in the goodwill of the people.’ 540 Philip had Aratus poisoned with a substance which would not kill instantly but cause him to die a slow and wasting death. When Aratus realized what ***** 538 (xlv) Plutarch Life of Aratus 13.2–4. In margin ‘art honoured‘ In 251 bc Aratus expelled the tyrant Nicocles from Sicyon in the northern Peloponnese and thereafter was a leading political figure and military commander. 1 Nealces was himself a painter. 539 (xlvi) Plutarch Life of Aratus 50.3–6. In margin ‘divination‘ This is Philip v of Macedon. Demetrius of Pharos had fought as a mercenary on behalf of the Macedonians for several years, and offered Philip (bad) advice on a number of occasions. 1 Ie Corinth and Ithome, one in the north of the Peloponnese, one in the south. 540 (xlvii) Plutarch Life of Aratus 52.3–4. In margin ‘friendship with kings‘

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was happening and no remedy could be found, he concealed the truth of the matter, went into his bedroom and said to just one of his close associates, ‘Cephalus, this is the reward one gets for being a king’s friend.’ It is not always safe to give kings good advice. 541 One of the Athenian allies asked a captive Spartan, in order to taunt him, whether those who had fallen in battle had been fine valiant men. The Spartan replied, ‘A spindle, by which he meant an arrow, would be very valuable if it could make a distinction between a resolute man and a coward.’1 When the action is carried out with arrows or rocks, there is no distinction between brave and coward. When the fighting is hand to hand, then it appears who are true men and who not. 542 Turbo, one of the Emperor Hadrian’s prefects, was urged by him to take more care of his health and give himself a break from his duties. He replied, ‘It is not right for the emperor’s prefects to die except on their feet.’1 He thought it feeble to die in his bed. 543 This same Turbo,1 while still nothing more than a centurion, was summoned to a conference by the emperor in preference to his prefects. ‘Caesar,’ he said, ‘it is shocking to exclude your prefects and have dealings with a centurion.’ 544 When he was old, the athlete Milo of Croton1 saw other athletes training ***** 541 (xlviii) Thucydides 4.40 1 Cf 1.155, 1.280, 2.43 above for the humiliation of being killed by a missile. Atraktos ‘spindle’ seems also to be the word for ‘arrow’ in the Spartan dialect. 542 (xlix) Dio Cassius 69.18.4, via Merula. On Merula see 6.91n above. In margin ‘time off‘ 1 Cf 6.83 (Vespasian) above. 543 (l) Dio Cassius 69.19.1, via Merula. In margin ‘self-effacing‘ 1 Erasmus has made a slip – the incident concerns one Similis, a contemporary and equal of Turbo. Erasmus has been misled by the name (similis could be an adjective meaning ‘the same.’) 544 (li) Cicero De senectute 9.27. In margin ‘mental gifts‘ 1 This famous weight-lifter and Olympic athlete, in his younger days, trained by carrying a calf every day until it had become a bull, an exploit often mentioned: Cicero De senectute 33, Quintilian 1.9.5, Athenaeus 10.412; Adagia i ii 51: Taurum tollet qui vitulum sustulerit ‘He may bear a bull that hath borne a

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on the racetrack, and, looking at his own muscles, is said to have remarked with tears, ‘But these are already dead.’ He had good reason to weep, if he measured happiness by bodily strength. The vigour of the mind decays much later, if it ever does. 545 Philippides was called h¯emerodromos because he covered fifteen hundred stades in one day to reach Sparta.1 It was the same man,1 I think, who brought to the council, when they were anxiously waiting to hear the outcome of the battle, the news that the Athenians had defeated the Medes at Marathon. ‘Great news,’ he said, ‘we are victorious.’ He then dropped dead. 546 When Persaeus was lending some money to someone he knew, he arranged a written guarantee with the banker in the business quarter. His friend was surprised at his being so meticulous, and said, ‘Do we have to be so legalistic, Persaeus?’ ‘Yes indeed,’ he replied, ‘so that I can get it back in friendly fashion and not have to demand it back by process of law.’ Indeed it often happens that those who make a business arrangement with a friend in good faith without witnesses or any written documents are often forced to take him to law later on. The remark sounds better in the Greek original, where we have the assonance of nomik¯os, ‘in a legal way,’ and philik¯os, ‘in a friendly way.’ 547 Timon of Athens, the so-called ‘Misanthrope,’ was asked why he regarded all men with hatred. ‘I hate the wicked with good reason,’ he replied, ‘and I hate the rest for not hating the wicked.’ ***** calf’; ii iii 10: Bovem in faucibus portat ‘He carries an ox in his mouth.’ The story was identified as a chreia in Quintilian 1.9.5. 545 (lii) Herodotus 6.105–6 and Plutarch Moralia 347c (Glory of the Athenians). In margin ‘faithful messenger‘ 1 The Greek h¯emerodromos means ‘day-sprinter.’ 1 Herodotus calls the first man Pheidippides. Plutarch Moralia 862a (On the malice of Herodotus) calls him Philippides. The second man is usually Eucles (an Olympic victor), but Thersippus in Heraclides Ponticus (Plutarch Moralia 347c). 546 (liii) Plutarch Moralia 533a–b (On compliancy). In margin ‘safest to be cautious‘ 547 (liv) Saying not found. For Timon see 5.192n.

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People, he implied, were not really good when they did not abominate the bad.1 548 Tradition has it that one of Timon’s favourite remarks was that ‘there are two main components in all evils, avarice and ambition.’ Ambition squanders in evil ways what avarice has piled up by evil means. 549 As he walked about, the sophist Alexinus1 made a lot of disparaging comments about Stilpon of Megara, but when one of the company remarked, ‘But he praised you not long ago,’ Alexinus exclaimed, ‘By Jove, he’s a fine and noble fellow.’ He was so easily changed from blaming to praising, for no other reason than that the other man had praised him. 550 When Gorgias of Leontini, the sophist, was nearly one hundred and seven years old, he was asked why he was prepared to go on living for so long. He replied, ‘I have no reason to find fault with old age.’ 551 It is said that Socrates used to express his detestation of the man who first separated the advantageous from what was natural. By ‘natural’ he meant the understanding of the right and decent which is naturally inherent in man. 552 A patient showed a suppurating finger to Philotimus the doctor, but he could tell from the patient’s colour that he had a disease of the liver. ‘My good fellow,’ he said, ‘your whitlow is not the problem.’ That’s what people ***** 1 Cf 1.138 (Archidamus) above. 548 (lv) Stobaeus 10.54 (Meineke i 239). In margin ‘source of evils‘ 549 (lvi) Plutarch Moralia 536a–b On compliancy). In margin ‘praise wins friends‘ 1 Cf 6.555 below. The two stories occur together in Plutarch. 550 (lvii) Cicero De senectute 13. In margin ‘virile old age‘ 551 (lviii) No source identified. 552 (lix) Plutarch Moralia 73b (How to tell a flatterer), 43a–b (On listening to lectures). In margin ‘an ill concealed‘

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usually do. They complain of minor ills while concealing more serious ones.1 553 Archytas of Tarentum, the Pythagorean, said the most deadly destructive force inflicted by nature on man was pleasure. Every kind of wicked deed and misfortune in human life springs from that source. 554 Prodicus used to say that the best seasoning was the actual fire, meaning that for a good appetite it was enough for the dish to be cooked, without any fancy additions. 555 When Menedemus was told that Alexinus1 often praised him, he retorted, ‘But I always speak ill of him.’ He thus made it plain that he could not be bribed by praise to stop finding fault with someone who deserved censure. 556 Some person was strolling about in the Roman forum wearing a breastplate, giving out that he was doing so because he feared for his life. Vibius Crispus made the smart comment, ‘Who gave you permission to be so fearful?’ The joke here depends on the unexpected. One would have expected him to take the man to task for appearing in armour contrary to accepted Roman practice. But he took him to task for being afraid, since he could have stayed home, if he was really afraid of something.1 557 A man had fallen into a deep well, and someone who saw him, taking pity ***** 1 Adagia iv ix 21: De reduvia queritur ‘He complains of a whitlow’ 553 (lx) Cicero De senectute 12.39. In margin ‘pleasure‘ 554 (lxi) Plutarch Moralia 126c (Advice about keeping well). In margin ‘abstemious‘ 555 (lxii) Plutarch Moralia 536b (On compliancy). In margin ‘uninfluenced by praise‘ 1 Contrast 6.549 above. 556 (lxiii) Quintilian 8.5.15. In margin ‘joke based on the unexpected‘ 1 See General Index: replies, unexpected. 557 (lxiv) Augustine Epistle 167.1.2. In margin ‘sympathy in misfortune‘

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on him, exclaimed, ‘You poor fellow, how did you come to fall into the well?’ To which he replied, ‘What does it matter how I got in – the thing is to get me out.’ This comes from St Augustine.1 558 A doctor prescribed a medicine for a sick man, who took it and got better. Some time later the same illness recurred, so the patient had recourse to the medicine which had cured him previously, but he didn’t feel any better. So he sent for the doctor, puzzled as to how it had come about that the same medicine which had cured his illness on the previous occasion made it worse the next time. When he asked the doctor why this should be so, the doctor wittily replied, ‘It’s the same medicine, to be sure, but it did you no good because I didn’t give it to you.’ He meant that it is the doctor’s job to give medicines, as they know when and how much to give. What does a young person good is bad for an old one, and vice versa. Things that help in warm weather are harmful when it’s cold. This too comes from St Augustine.1 559 Euclides was at odds with his brother, and when the brother said, ‘Damn me if I don’t have my revenge on you,’ Euclides retorted, ‘Damn me if I don’t persuade you.’1 This resolved the disagreement and they were reconciled. 560 Ariston used to say that ‘the nastiest winds are the ones that strip our wraps off.’ Cloaks protect us from the wind. Those friends do us most harm who fish out our innermost secrets. ***** 1 Erasmus’ edition of the works of St Augustine (Froben) had appeared recently, in 1529. 558 (lxv) Augustine Epistle 138.1.3 1 Erasmus’ comment is based on Augustine’s interpretation. Neither of them see the remark as a simple joke. 559 (lxvi) Plutarch Moralia 462c (On the control of anger). In margin ‘reconciliation‘ 1 The fuller version in Plutarch Moralia 489d (On brotherly love) has ‘. . . if I don’t persuade you to stop being angry and love me as you once did.’ 560 (lxvii) Plutarch Moralia 516f (On curiosity)

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561 The philosopher Stilpon took the courtesan Gnathaena to task for corrupting young men. She replied, ‘You are as much to blame as I, Stilpon, for you teach the young men associated with you useless sophistries about love,1 so that it makes no difference whether they waste their time with the philosopher or with the courtesan.’ 562 The same Gnathaena said to a plump young man kept by an old woman, ‘Young man, you’re in fine condition.’ To which he replied, ‘So what do you think would have happened if I didn’t have a bed-fellow?’ Gnathaena retorted, ‘ You would have died of hunger.’ She implied that sleeping with the old hag satisfied his hunger. This joke depends on the unexpectedness of the retort.1 563 When a certain Pausanias, surnamed Laccus, was dancing about and fell into a wine cask, she quipped, ‘The tank has fallen into the cask.’ The Greek word laccus means the same as Latin lacus, ‘tank, reservoir.’ Casks do indeed fall into tanks, but the idea of a tank falling into a cask is absurd. 564 When somebody poured a small quantity of wine into the psycterium (that’s a sort of container designed to cool the wine) and said, ‘This wine is sixteen years old,’ Gnathaena commented, ‘It’s very small for its age.’ The same remark is ascribed to Phryne.1 ***** 561 (lxviii) Athenaeus 13.584a. In margin ‘the philosopher no better than the courtesan‘ 1 Erasmus is translating the text as found in the first edition of Athenaeus, which reads \rvtik‡ here; he then fails to translate ‘and I do the same.’ Modern texts read \ristik‡ ‘disputatious (sophistries),’ with \rvtik‡ coming later: ‘You teach them eristics, I teach them erotics.’ 562 (lxix) Athenaeus 13.584b. In margin ‘joke depending on unexpected reply‘ 1 This last sentence is found in 1532, bas, and lb. Erasmus frequently identifies jokes dependent on the unexpectedness of the retort; see General Index: replies, unexpected. 563 (lxx) Athenaeus 13.584b. In margin ‘joke based on a name‘ 564 (lxxi) Athenaeus 13.584c. In margin ‘parsimony‘ 1 See Athenaeus 585e, which Erasmus does not translate.

6 . 569

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565 Gnathaena again, when two young men were fighting over her at a party, consoled the loser with the words, ‘Cheer up, my boy. The outcome of this contest isn’t a crown but cash.’ She was telling him that in other contests the winner gets a crown, but the winner in this one has to pay out money, so that the loser is in better case than the winner. 566 A young man gave a mina to Gnathaena’s daughter and nothing ever again to Gnathaena herself, though he kept on visiting as he had always done. ‘Look here, young man,’ she said. ‘You don’t imagine, do you, that you can pay a mina once and then keep coming to me for ever, like going to the gymnastics trainer Hippomachus?’1 567 A young man came to the party uninvited and Gnathaena toasted him with these words, ‘Drink up, you arrogant fellow.’ He was rather put out by these words and said, ‘What do you mean, “arrogant”?’ ‘Of course you are arrogant,’ said she. ‘Who can be more arrogant, seeing that you don’t come invited?’ The joke here depends on taking what’s said in two ways. ‘You don’t come invited’ could mean ‘you come uninvited,’ which is brazen, or ‘you don’t come when invited,’ which is arrogant. 568 This same Gnathaena was hired by two men, one a soldier, the other a scoundrel of a slave. The soldier rudely called her a pit, so she remarked, ‘Is that because two rivers pour into me, the Lycus and the Eleutherus?’ Lycus and Eleutherus are the names of rivers, but she was referring to her two lovers, the slave and the free man. ‘Lycus’ means wolf and the wolf is insatiable. ‘Eleutherus’ means free and the free man is insolent. 569 The courtesan Nico, nicknamed ‘Goat,’ by chance met a sponger who had ***** 565 (lxxii) Athenaeus 584c. In margin ‘a fight about cash‘ 566 (lxxiii) Athenaeus 13.584c. In margin ‘a grasping courtesan‘ 1 For Hippomachus see 6.375–6 above. 567 (lxxiv) Athenaeus 13.584c. In margin ‘uninvited guest‘ 568 (lxxv) Athenaeus 13.585a. Erasmus mistakenly assumes that mastigias ‘scoundrel’ (man deserving a whipping) means ‘slave.’ 569 (lxxvi) Athenaeus 13.584f. In margin ‘joke depending on unexpected reply‘

6 . 569

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wasted away because he was ill. ‘How thin you are!’ she cried. ‘What do you think I’ve eaten in the last three days?’ he replied. ‘Either your leather bottle or your sandals,’ came the answer. The sponger meant that he had eaten next to nothing. She pretended that the question was about what he had actually eaten.1 570 Callistion, nicknamed Ptochelena, was hired by a villainous slave who took all his clothes off because it was hot summer weather, revealing whip marks on his body. ‘How did you get those, you poor fellow?’ she asked. When he explained that he had been scalded by soup when he was a boy, she commented, ‘It must have been veal soup.’ She knew they were the marks of a flogging. Cooks make a broth from veal, and whips are made of calf skin. 571 One of Thais’1 lovers was a boastful fellow who had borrowed a lot of cups, and he said he wanted to break them all up and make new ones. She commented, ‘You will destroy the property of each.’ This ambiguous remark showed that she knew that they were borrowed, but could also be taken to mean that if they were melted down, the individual character of each cup would be lost. 572 Lais of Corinth1 said to one of her lovers who sent his seal and told her to come, ‘I can’t, because of the clay.’ In olden days they made seals out of a type of earth. But she said ‘clay’ as if meaning she couldn’t come because of clay on the roads. She had no ***** 1 See General Index: replies, unexpected. 570 (lxxvii) Athenaeus 13.585c. For ‘slave’ see 6.568n above. 571 (lxxviii) Athenaeus 5855c–d. In margin ‘two meanings‘ 1 Thais was famously at one time the mistress of Alexander the Great, whom she is supposed to have incited to burn the palace of the Persian kings at Persepolis. 572 (lxxix) Athenaeus 13.585d–e 1 This is the elder Lais, of the fifth century bc, the earlier of two famous courtesans of that name. She was celebrated as the most beautiful woman of her time, but notorious for her avarice and caprice. For the younger Lais, see 6.527 n1 above.

6 . 574

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time for a seal made of terra-cotta – she wanted silver. 573 This same Lais rejected Myron with a witty comment. But it’s best to let Ausonius tell the story: Myron with his snow-white hair begged Lais for a date But ‘You get lost!’ she promptly said. He knew why, and so with blackest soot he stained The thatch of snow upon his head. With face the same but now with different hair he came The same request to try once more. But she compared the features with the hair and thought Him like, but not the same man as before. And yet perhaps . . . and so to have a little fun She thus addressed the artful lad: ‘You fool, why ask for what I once refused. I’ve just denied it to your dad.’

The emperor seems to have copied Lais.1 When Leontium was having a meal with a lover, Glycera came in and the lover transferred his attentions to her. Leontium was sitting there glumly, and an acquaintance asked her, ‘What’s wrong, Leontium?’ ‘Belly hurts me,’ she replied. We have here the Greek word hystera, which means ‘womb, belly’ but can also be the feminine of the adjective hysteros, meaning ‘later, coming after.’ So she meant that the ‘later’ arrival Glycera had displaced her in the lover’s affections and this hurt.2 574 A young man in Egypt passionately desired the courtesan Theonis but she demanded an enormous fee. Eventually the young man dreamed that he had sex with her and this freed him from his passion. Theonis still demanded the fee and, when he refused to pay, took him to ***** 573 (lxxx) Ausonius Epigrams 38. Added in 1532. 1 See 6.100 (on Hadrian) above 2 Erasmus does not attempt to reproduce in Latin the pun in the Greek word ¿stŽra but simply explains it. It does not transfer to English either. 574 (lxxxi) Plutarch Life of Demetrius 27.12–14. Added in 1532.

6 . 574

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law. The judgment of Bocchoris was that the young man should bring the sum she had demanded in a container, and he told the courtesan to be present and enjoy the vision of the money as it was carried round. Lamia1 said that this judgment was not fair. ‘The young man was delivered from his desire for her by the apparition,’ she said, ‘but the vision of the money did not release Theoris from her desire for it.’ 575 When Phryne1 was old she said that ‘the dregs were bought by many2 because the wine had been superlative.’ Many men still sought her company so that they could boast that they had had an assignation with Phryne. In the same way, even the dregs of a fine vintage are bought so that people can boast that they have such a wine in their house. 576 Once when Phryne was still in her prime, at a party where many women were present, they played a game where everyone had to follow what one person did. Phryne dipped her hand twice in water and pressed it on her brow, and they followed suit. Since all the other women were wearing cosmetics, the water ran down over their made-up faces and, creating trickles that looked like wrinkles, made them all look hideous. Phryne, whose beauty depended entirely on nature, looked even lovelier after wetting her face. 577 Some clients came with mattocks, poles, and battering rams to break into her ***** 1 Lamia was a famous courtesan of the fourth century bc, who, in her later years, captivated young King Demetrius Poliorketes. She was very generous in spending her wealth. See 582–3 below. 575 (lxxxii) Plutarch Moralia 125b (Advice about keeping well). In margin ‘an old woman desired‘ 1 Phryne was one of the most famous of ancient Greek courtesans, who had many of the distinguished figures of the fourth century bc as her lovers, including Praxiteles the sculptor (see 6.578 and 6.580 below). 2 Erasmus’ text presumably read ple’onaw ‘more people,’ rather than the modern reading of ple’onow ‘for more’ (ie she sold it for more). Cf Adagia iv viii 62: Lecythum habet in malis ‘She has the bottle by her chops.’ 576 (lxxxiii) Galen Protrepticus 10.26. In margin ‘counterfeit‘ 577 (lxxxiv) Athenaeus 13.585a. In margin ‘money breaks down doors‘

6 . 580

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daughter’s house because she would not let them in for nothing. Phryne1 came out and said. ‘Since you had all these things at home, why didn’t you [pawn them and]2 bring the proceeds?’ She meant that it was easier to get into a courtesan’s house by paying than by breaking and entering. 578 Phryne asked Praxiteles, who was passionately attached to her,1 to give her the best of the works he had in his studio. The lover did indeed promise to do so, but she guessed that the sculptor was not being honest about which work was the best. So she bribed a slave to go up to Praxiteles when he was selling his creations in the market-place and tell him that his work-shop had gone on fire and that nearly everything had been destroyed, but not all. Praxiteles cried out, ‘There’s nothing left if the fire’s destroyed my Satyr and my Cupid.’ Phryne ran up to him and told him to stop worrying – nothing terrible had happened. But by this ruse she found out on what work he had lavished the most skill, and she took away the Cupid. 579 Phryne had a lover who boasted, as young men do, of his many entanglements, so she deliberately put on a sad expression and when he asked what was wrong, ‘I’m upset,’ she said, ‘because you’ve been so often smitten.’ She was referring to the scars from flogging which she had seen on his body, for he was a slave. But he was boasting of the girls he had enjoyed. 580 Phryne had a lover who didn’t like parting with his money and he was wheedling her and saying, ‘You’re Praxiteles’ darling little Venus.’1 ‘And you,’ she replied, ‘are Phidias’ Cupid.’ Apparently one endearment for another, but also a slap at the fellow’s ***** 1 A mistake. The story is told of Gnathaena (6.561–8 above). 2 The words ‘pawn them and’ (inserted by bik) are implied by the Greek. 578 (lxxxv) Pausanias 6.596. In margin ‘cunning‘ 1 See 6.580 n1 below. 579 (lxxxvi) Athenaeus 585e–f. For ‘slave’ see 6.568n above. 580 (lxxxvii) Diogenes Laertius 4.2 (Xenocrates) and Athenaeus 13.585f. In margin ‘a wheedling lover‘ 1 Praxiteles is supposed to have used Phryne as the model for his Cnidian Venus, as did Apelles for his Venus Anadyomene.

6 . 580

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cupidity, for Phidias seems to have had a reputation for closeness.2 581 Phryne set out to overcome the virtue of Xenocrates.1 When he let her into the house she eventually persuaded him to let her share the only little couch in the place. When she returned to those who had put her up to this and they asked her how she had got on, ‘I’ve left a statue, ‘she said, ‘not a man.’ Valerius Maximus gives a version with rather more punch. Phryne had a wager with some young men that she would get Xenocrates to have sex with her, so she got into his bed when he was very drunk. The next day, the young men taunted her that a beautiful young girl hadn’t been able to seduce a drunk old man and demanded the money for winning the bet, but she tricked them out of it by wittily saying that the wager had been about a man, not a statue. 582 King Demetrius loved the courtesan Lamia beyond all reason. She was in her later years, and after she had played the pipes at a party, Demetrius asked Demon (also called Mania) what she thought of her. ‘She’s an old woman,’ she replied. This is not the answer the king expected – he was asking how well she thought Lamia played.1 583 Again, when some luxury foods were put on the table, Demetrius remarked, ‘Do you see what a lot of things Lamia1 sends me?’ Demon replied, ‘My ***** 2 There is a pun on the name Phidias and Greek feid—w [pheidos] ‘thrifty.’ Phidias is the celebrated fifth-century bc sculptor. The ‘Cupid / cupidity’ pun is Erasmus’ addition. In the Greek text the deity is called Eros. 581 (lxxxviii) Diogenes Laertius 4.7 and Valerius Maximus 4.3 ext. 3. Added in 1532. 1 Xenocrates was the head in 339–314 bc of the Plato’s Academy. In the dedicatory epistle to 1531, Erasmus characterizes him as a dour man (16 above). See Plutarch Moralia 769d (On love). 582 (lxxxix) Plutarch Life of Demetrius 27.10. In margin ‘joke based on unexpected reply‘ 1 See General Index: replies, unexpected 583 (xc) Plutarch Life of Demetrius 27.8–9. Added in 1532. 1 For Lamia see 6.574 n1 and 6.582 above.

6 . 587

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mother will send you more, if you sleep with her.’ Old women pay those who have sex with them. 584 An old woman said to Theophrastus who was haggling for something in excellent Attic, ‘Foreigner, I’m not selling for that.’ She marked him out as not being a true-born Athenian because of his over-correct Athenian accent.1 Strangers tend to do this when trying to appear fluent in a foreign tongue. 585 The wife of Phocion nicknamed ‘the Upright’ used to say that her adornments were her husband’s splendid achievements.1 This was how she excused her sober dress to the other married women, who upbraided her for not dressing to suit her rank. 586 The Cyperii had fought unsuccessfully against Astyages, king of the Medes,1 and when they fled back to the city, they were met by the women who bared their bellies2 and said, ‘Cowards, where do you think you are going? Don’t you realize that you cannot enter again into that place from which you once emerged by the law of nature?’ It’s a reversal of the usual order of things to have the men being inspired by the women, who usually tell them not to go into danger. 587 Poppaea, who was previously Nero’s mistress and then, after his divorce of Octavia, achieved marriage with him, bribed one of Octavia’s attendants to ***** 584 (xci) Cicero Brutus 46.172 with Quintilian 8.1.2. In margin ‘trying too hard‘ 1 Theophrastus came from Lesbos and would originally speak a different dialect of Greek. 585 (xvii) Plutarch Moralia 1131b (On music). In margin ‘a married woman’s adornment‘ 1 A type of saying attributed to various virtuous women. See 6.594 below. For Phocion’s modest way of life see 4.264 and 6.379. 586 (xciii) Plutarch Moralia 246a (Bravery of women). In margin ‘spirited‘ 1 In Plutarch the defeated are Persians fighting for Cyrus. These names may lie behind the strange ‘Cyperii’ perpetuated in the text of lb, but corrected in a footnote to ’Persians.’ 2 Cf 2.130 above 587 (xciv) Tacitus Annals 14.60.2–4. In margin ‘spirited‘

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accuse her of having intercourse with a slave. Octavia’s maidservants were put to the torture and a few of them, unable to withstand the torment, admitted to the false accusations, but others held out, proclaiming their mistress’s unsullied virtue. One of them, being hard pressed by Tigellinus, declared, ‘Octavia’s private parts are purer than your mouth.’ This meant that he practised fellatio and cunnilingus. 588 Chiomara, wife of Ortiagon, was being taken back to her people after they had paid the ransom, and when the Roman officer accompanied her to the river as a mark of respect, she secretly told one of her servants to kill the Roman who was escorting her.1 When she brought the severed head, concealed under her cloak, to her husband and threw it down at his feet, her husband was taken aback and asked whether she thought it a fine thing to keep one’s word. ‘A fine thing, ‘ she replied, ‘but it is even finer that only one man of those who have lain with me should be alive.’ She was much more sensible than Lucretia, in that she proclaimed her chastity by killing not herself but the man who had raped her.2 589 Camma was married to Sinoritus, a Galatian. A young ruler called Synorix desired her and, having had Sinoritus secretly murdered, began to approach her on the subject of marriage. In order to avenge her husband’s murder, she concealed her grief and gave him to hope that she would become his wife. Eventually she asked Synorix to meet her in the temple of Diana to whose service she was dedicated, giving him to understand that she wanted Diana to witness their union. Standing beside the altar as if to make a libation to the goddess, she drank from a poisoned cup which she then handed to Synorix. As soon as he had drunk the rest, she offered worship to the goddess, saying, ‘Most mighty goddess, I call you to witness that I have gone on living after the death of Sinoritus for the sake of this day alone.’1 ***** 588 (xcv) Plutarch Moralia 258e–f (Bravery of women). In margin ‘a wife’s chastity‘ 1 In abbreviating Plutarch’s circumstantial account, Erasmus has obscured the narrative: the Roman raped his prisoner but also became quite fond of her and agreed to release her for a ransom. He was killed while kissing her goodbye. 2 See 6.282 above. 589 (xcvi) Plutarch Moralia 257e–258c (Bravery of women). In margin ‘a chaste wife‘ 1 Once again, Erasmus has considerably abbreviated Plutarch’s dramatic narrative.

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590 Olympias, the mother of Alexander, was furious that Alexander allowed himself to be called the son of Jove. ‘Is Alexander never going to stop making Juno hate me?’ she said. Wives feel the bitterest hatred towards the women their husbands have affairs with. 591 When she heard that her son Alexander (or according to other accounts, her husband Philip)1 was in love with a woman who was supposed to have poisoned him with a love philtre, she sent for the woman. When she discovered that she was not only very beautiful but had civilized manners and a lively intellect, she said, ‘Away with those who accuse you of poisoning. You have poison and philtre enough in yourself.’ 592 When Olympias heard that a young courtier had married a woman with good looks but a dubious reputation, she remarked, ‘He’s a fool, He has chosen a wife with his eyes, not his ears.’ The eyes see the figure, ears hear what is said. Some people choose a wife neither with ears nor with eyes but with fingers, with no thought of anything but the dowry. 593 The wife of Intaphernes was permitted by Darius to choose one of her family whose life she would wish him to spare. When she chose her brother, the king was very surprised and asked her why she had chosen him. ‘I can get another husband,’ she said, ‘and other children, if God wills. But now my parents are dead, I have no hope of getting another brother.’1 ***** 590 (xcvii) Aulus Gellius 13.4.2. Theon Progymnasmata 5.207 (Spengel ii 99) gives this as a chreia, classified as ‘jesting.’ In margin ‘the son of Jove‘ 591 (xcviii) Plutarch Moralia 141b (Advice to bride and groom) and Jerome Adversus Iovinianum 1.46. In margin ‘character, not poison‘ 1 Philip is the name given in the passage of Plutarch which Erasmus seems to be translating here. 592 (xcix) Plutarch Moralia 141c (Advice to bride and groom) and Jerome Adversus Iovinianum 1.46. In margin ‘a good reputation‘ 593 (c) Herodotus, 3.119.3–6. In margin ‘brother preferable to husband‘ 1 Darius i executed Intaphernes and most of his family on suspicion of conspiracy.

6 . 594

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594 A woman from Campania was visiting Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, and showed her her jewellery which was the finest known at that period. Cornelia delayed her with conversation until her children came home from school. Then she said, ‘And these are my jewels.’1 Nothing, she meant, is lovelier or more precious in the eyes of a mother than well-brought up children. 595 While everyone else was calling down destruction on the head of the tyrant Dionysius, one old woman used to pray to the gods at dawn every morning that he would be safe and survive her. The ruler sent for the woman and asked her why she had such concern for him. ‘When I was a girl,’ she replied, ‘we had a cruel tyrant and I used to pray for his death. After he was assassinated, an even worse one occupied the citadel. I prayed for his death too. Now that we have you, even more oppressive than your predecessors, I am afraid that if you perish an even worse one will succeed you. That’s why I dedicate my life for the preservation of yours.’ Dionysius didn’t have the temerity to punish such witty outspokenness. 596 When the cuckoo asked the little birds why they all fled from him, ‘Because we have the idea,’ they replied, ‘that one day you will turn into a hawk.’1 The cuckoo is very like a hawk in appearance. One must beware of those whose behaviour has the look of tyranny. Plutarch applied this to Lydiades in his Life of Aratus.

***** 594 (ci) Valerius Maximus 4.4. In margin ‘a married woman’s jewels‘ 1 Cf 6.585 above; also 2.135 above. 595 (i) Valerius Maximus 6.2 ext. 2. In margin ‘everything getting worse‘ This is probably Dionysius i. 596 (ii) Plutarch Life of Aratus 30.8. In margin ‘the look of tyranny‘ 1 For the cuckoo supposedly turning into a hawk see Aesop 198 Halm; Pliny Naturalis historia 10.9.25.

DEDICATORY EPISTLE

t o t h e i l l us t ri ous p ri n ce w i l l i a m t h e y o u n g e r , duke of cl e ve s - j ul ¨ ich-berg, coun t of m ark an d rav e n s b e r g , e t c f rom d. e ras m us of r o t t e r d a m , gre e t i n g

Your Royal Highness, Those ancient Greeks, and the Romans too, used to allocate to counsel and pleaders in the law-courts a prescribed measure of water poured into a water-clock, the intention being to preclude an unnecessarily copious flood of words which would bore the jury, actually damage the case, and finally remove any chance of speaking from others who wished to do so. It is not the same with philosophical discourse. There the talking should continue as long as the listener is still eagerly taking in what is being said, especially if the content contributes to a liberal education or to the living of a virtuous and happy life. This is why Plato reproved Antisthenes, who was going on far too long in his exposition, with the neat comment, ‘You don’t seem to realize that the proper measure of a discourse is to be found not in the speaker but in the listener.’1 Likewise, Carneades, who tended to shout when he was addressing an audience, was requested by the head of the gymnasium to moderate his voice. When he asked the man to tell him how loud he should speak, he got the apposite reply, ‘You will get the answer to that not from me but from your audience.’2 We see that some people use clocks based on sand rather than water to time a dinner-party. I accept that this has its uses in teaching restraint and might even be necessary, at least for those people who only know how to leave the table when they are gorged like leeches, so that they almost burst apart with a great crack. But in my opinion it would not be appropriate for someone who wants to provide an enjoyable occasion for civilized and cultivated guests. Such a man should measure the extent of his provision by the appetite of those he has invited. ***** 1 See 7.168 below. 2 Diogenes Laertius 4.63, repeated below at 7.217.

d e di cat ory e p i s t l e e p 2 7 1 1

764

In writing this work, I took on the character of the host at a dinnerparty. My dinner had as many main courses as the number of acts permitted in a comedy,3 and to these I added a sufficiently generous dessert.4 In this I considered I had so played my part as to seem, if not a Lucullus,5 at least a man who provided for his guests in a decent and civilized fashion. In fact, I was afraid I would be blamed by the lovers of restraint rather for extravagance than for meanness. However, as soon as the book appeared, it was seized upon with such enthusiasm that a second edition was immediately demanded of the printers,6 whether it was due to the genius of the work, or – something I consider much more likely – your own genius,7 most accomplished prince, which I trust will prove of happy omen not only for your future realm but also for all studious pursuits. Accordingly, after revising and enlarging the first six books, I have added two more, which, to keep up the ‘dinner’ metaphor, you may call the savoury, the after dinner sweets, or if you will, the epidorpismata ‘things coming after dinner.’8 Farewell.

***** 3 According to Horace Ars poetica 189–90, five was the appointed number of acts for a comedy. 4 The first edition of Apophthegmata (1531) contained six books, ie five ‘main courses’ and a ‘dessert.’ For the metaphor of a book as a meal, see Erasmus’ comment at the end of book two with 220 n1 above. 5 For Lucius Licinius Lucullus see 5.434 above. 6 Second edition 1532 printed, like the first, by Froben (Basel). 7 The first six books of Apophthegmata were, like seven and eight, dedicated to the young prince of Cleves. 8 For the word, see Athenaeus 640a, 664f; Erasmus had made much use of Athenaeus as a source in book six. Erasmus offers two new Latin equivalents of the word: pomenta, possibly suggesting ‘fruit’ as in pometum ‘orchard,’ and postcoenium, which translates \pidorp’smata.

BOOK VII

Thales of Miletus 1 The following sayings are especially celebrated: first: ‘Many words do not necessarily indicate a wise understanding.’1 The Greeks took this to be a line from a song. A wise man speaks only when occasion demands and does not employ more words than necessary. Likewise God, who is of all things most wise, is sparing of utterance. ***** In book 7, Erasmus returns to sayings of Greek philosophers, which were the subject of book 3 in the first edition of Apophthegmata. As in much of that book, his source is again Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers, but now he has access to a Greek text. See Introduction xvi–xvii above. The first section covers sayings of the Seven Sages of Greece. Although the catalogue of The Seven Sages was never finally fixed (see Adagia i viii 90: Sapientum octavus ‘Eighth of the Sages’), the usual list, which was probably being established in the fifth century bc, comprises Thales of Miletus, Bias of Priene, Cleobulus of Rhodes, Pittacus of Mitylene, Solon of Athens, Chilon of Sparta, and Periander of Corinth, a tyrant for whom Anacharsis, the Scythian sage, or Myson was sometimes substituted. Diogenes Laertius follows this list in his sections 1–108. These same sages appear, with other speakers, in Plutarch’s Dinner of the seven wise men (Moralia 146b–164d), with Anacharsis taking the place of Periander (see 7.38 n1 below). Plato had earlier given a list (Protagoras 343a) with Myson instead of Periander. The various sayings were attributed now to this sage, now to that, just as the sayings of philosophers varied in attribution. 1

(i) Diogenes Laertius 1.35. In margin ‘saying little‘ 1 Erasmus gives the Greek: Oáti tˆ pollˆ Áph fron’mhn

úpef}nato d—jan.

7.2

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2 ‘Search out but one fine thing; choose but one worthwhile thing. So shall you undo the tongues of chattering men, gabbling without end.’ ‘Gabbling without end’ is in the Greek aperantilogoi. I am puzzled as to why the translator1 rendered this as ‘not a few.’ To acquire a respectable name for oneself it is preferable to make one significant statement rather than to make wild guesses about silly rubbish or anything you fancy. The wise man is the best of inspired spokesmen. And it is better to win a reputation for learning by publishing one excellent work than to write about several topics without adequate preparation. 3 When Thales was asked what was the oldest thing of all, he replied, ‘God.’ Why so? Because he has no beginning. What is the loveliest? The universe, for it is the workmanship of God (and nothing is lovelier than God). What is the greatest? Space, because it contains everything. What is the swiftest? Mind, because the thought of man ranges over all there is. What is the strongest? Necessity or Fate, for it overcomes all. What is the wisest? Time, for it brings everything to light. These are in the form of riddles.1 4 Thales used to say that ‘there was no difference between life and death’ (because, I presume, each was according to nature, and death was no more an evil than birth). When someone cavilled at this, saying, ‘Why don’t you die then?’ he smartly replied, ‘For the very reason that there is no difference.’ Something one actively pursues is considered ‘preferable.’1 ***** 2

(ii) Diogenes Laertius 1.35. In margin ‘one outstanding thing‘ 1 Ambrogio Traversari; see Introduction xvi–xvii above.

3

(iii) Diogenes Laertius 1.35. In margin ‘riddles‘ 1 Ie a question or statement intentionally worded in a dark or puzzling manner and propounded that it may be guessed at or answered. In Diogenes Laertius (and in Traversari’s Latin version) they are given as statements, but Erasmus has taken them as questions.

4

(iv) Diogenes Laertius 1.35. In margin ‘neat‘ 1 While many ancient philosophers held that that everything except the absolutes, good and evil, was ‘indifferent,’ according to some schools, among ‘indifferents’ some things were ‘preferable,’ eg good health, and these (if not inconsistent with virtue) could be actively pursued. This is especially the developed Stoic doctrine and Erasmus may be thinking of this in his comment.

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5 When someone asked him which came first, night or day, Thales replied, ‘Night came first by one day.’ So he parried the stupid question. If night preceded day by one day, then day came before night, for night is the end of day. 6 When Thales was asked whether a man could hide an evil deed from the gods, he replied, ‘Not even his thinking about it.’1 He meant that absolutely nothing is hidden from God, though ordinary people think God does not know their secret desires. 7 A man who had committed adultery asked him whether he should deny his adultery on oath. He answered, ‘Perjury is no worse than adultery.’ He considered that it was foolish to have scruples about committing perjury when the man had had no hesitation in committing a deed that was just as bad as perjury. An oath carries no weight in serious crimes. Anyone who dares to poison someone will also be bold enough to deny it on oath. 8 Thales was asked what was difficult. ‘To know oneself,’ he replied.1 Yet people think this very easy. We make more accurate judgments about others than about ourselves, and everyone flatters himself. 9 When he was asked what was easy, he replied, ‘Giving advice to someone else.’ We all give good advice to people who are ill. The translator1 has wrongly rendered this as ‘to receive advice from someone else,’ but the Greek is Äll~ ¿pot’yesyai, which means ‘to counsel ***** 5 6

7

(v) Diogenes Laertius 1.36. In margin ‘smart‘ (vi) Diogenes Laertius 1.36. In margin ‘God omniscient‘ 1 This was a very popular chreia, often discussed by the rhetoricians, who usually ascribed it to Pittacus. In literary texts, it is ascribed both to Thales and to Zeno. See Theon Progymnasmata 5.203 (Spengel ii 97), Introduction xxiv–xxvii. (vii) Diogenes Laertius 1.36. In margin ‘serious‘

8

(viii) Diogenes Laertius 1.36. In margin ‘wise‘ 1 Adagia i vi 95: Nosce teipsum ‘Know thyself’

9

(ix) Diogenes Laertius 1.36. In margin ‘easy to give advice‘ 1 Ambrogio Traversari; see Introduction xvi–xvii above.

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another.’ Is there anyone so stupid that he doesn’t tell others what to do? Few however counsel themselves. 10 Someone asked Thales what was the pleasantest thing. ‘Gaining one’s end,’ he replied. The things that really delight us are the ones we succeed in getting after setting out to achieve them. Anything that just comes our way doesn’t give us the same pleasure. 11 When Thales was asked how a man could bear misfortune easily, ‘By seeing his enemies suffering worse evils,’ he replied. Some people make their own calamities worse by looking at other people’s good fortune. 12 Asked how a man could live virtuously and justly, he answered, ‘By not himself doing what he censures in others.’ We are very clear-sighted in the case of others’ errors, but every one of us is blind to his own faults. 13 Someone asked Thales to define a happy man. ‘One who is healthy in body,’ he replied, ‘and instructed, or corrected, in mind.’1 For desires are the sickness of the mind. 14 Thales used to say that one should keep absent friends in mind as much as present ones. ***** 10

(x) Diogenes Laertius 1.36. In margin ‘nice to achieve‘

11

(xi) Diogenes Laertius 1.36. In margin ‘endurance‘

12

(xii) Diogenes Laertius 1.36. In margin ‘wise‘

13

14

(xiii) Diogenes Laertius 1.37. In margin ‘true happiness‘ 1 Erasmus has accidentally omitted a few words. The full text reads: t˜ mn s™ma ¿gi}w, t|n d cux|n eáporow, t|n d fœsin e[pa’deutow ‘healthy in body, resourceful in mind, disciplined in character.’ This is the reading in Froben’s 1533 edition of Diogenes Laertius and Traversari’s version (see Introduction xvi–xvii above) is of the full text. Traversari likewise offers two versions of the last phrase, but different from Erasmus’. (xiv) Diogenes Laertius 1.37. In margin ‘friendship‘

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Friendship is a conjunction of minds, which are not separated by distance. Yet many love only while the other is before their eyes. 15 Do not beautify your face but make your mind lovely by honourable pursuits. It is the beauty of the mind that wins you true and lasting friendships. 16 Thales said ‘not to make money by wrongdoing.’ Money acquired by fraud is loss, not gain.1 17

M| diaballŽtv se l—gow pr˜w tow p’stevw kekoinvnhk—taw.

This appears in the translation1 as, ‘Don’t let something said against your associates and partners take you to law.’ I rather think Thales means we should not share any information with friends we trust which would damage our reputation if they let it out. 18 Expect from your children the same recompense as you have shown your own parents. 19 He said ‘it was very easy for a philosopher to become rich if he wanted,’ and he demonstrated this in the following way: he bought up every olive tree in the territory of Miletus before the trees blossomed. He had observed by some kind of prescience that there was going to be an abundance of olives. This closed the mouths of those who kept reiterating that poverty in philosophers was a matter of necessity rather than virtue. Cicero records this in the first book of On Divination. ***** 15

(xv) Diogenes Laertius 1.37. In margin ‘adornment of the mind‘

16

(xvi) Diogenes Laertius 1.37. In margin ‘ruinous gain‘ 1 Adagia iii iii 52: Lucrum malum aequale dispendio ‘Gain ill-gotten is as bad as loss’

17

(xvii) Diogenes Laertius 1.37. In margin ‘don’t commit your secrets to anyone‘ 1 By Ambrogio Traversari; see Introduction xvi–xvii above.

18

(xviii) Diogenes Laertius 1.37. In margin ‘proper feeling towards parents‘

19

(xix) Cicero De divinatione 1.49.111; cf Diogenes Laertius 1.26 (oil-presses, not olive trees). In margin ‘foresight‘

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Solon of Salamis 20 After Pisistratus had seized power and things were clearly moving towards tyranny, yet no one dared to resist his designs, Solon brought out his weapons, laid them before his house and began to appeal to the citizens. When Pisistratus sent to enquire of him what made him so bold as to act like this, he replied, ‘Advanced years.’1 Old age makes other people timid, but for him it was a source of boldness, because he did not have much life left even if no one killed him. This is Plutarch’s version of the incident in his essay ‘Old Men in Public Affairs.’ Diogenes Laertius has a more extended account. 21 When Solon saw that Pisistratus had got all power into his own hands, he laid his weapons down before the council building and said, ‘My country, I have lent you my aid by word and by deed.’ Having thus testified that he had not lost his desire to serve his country, he sailed to Egypt. 22 When Croesus1 asked him if he had ever seen anyone more prosperous than himself, Solon named one Telus, an Athenian, an ordinary person, but one who had died peacefully, leaving behind well set up children and grandchildren. So Croesus then asked to whom he would next award the accolade of happiness. Solon named Cleobis and Biton, the two brothers from Argos who had died in the full glory of their pious deed.2 The king became ***** 20

21 22

(i) Plutarch Moralia 794e–f (Old men in public affairs); Diogenes Laertius 1.49. In margin ‘advanced years embolden‘ Solon was credited with giving Athens a new legal code and introducing social reforms in the sixth century bc. See 7.32 n1. 1 For Pisistratus see 5.212–16. (ii) Diogenes Laertius 1.50. In margin ‘loyalty to one’s country‘ (iii) Herodotus 1.30.2–32.5, abbreviated. In margin ‘no one to be thought happy until dead‘ 1 Croesus, king of Lydia, became a by-word for wealth and prosperity until he met a miserable end, being captured by Cyrus and stripped of his kingdom. See Adagia i vi 74: Croeso, Crasso ditior ‘As rich as Crassus or Croesus.’ See also Plutarch Solon 27. 2 The story of Cleobis and Biton is told in the section of Herodotus that Erasmus is using here. These two young men dragged their mother, the priestess of Hera, to the temple for the festival of the goddess in an ox-

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indignant and said, ‘So you don’t put me anywhere?’ ‘For my part,’ said Solon, ‘I am quite prepared to acknowledge you as a king richly endowed with wealth and power, but I would not call you happy until you have come to the end of your life without disaster.’3 This is from Herodotus book one. 23 Solon reduced the rewards given to victors in the Olympic and Nemean Games, and decreed greater ones for those who died bravely fighting for their country in battle. He said that while the athletes were training, it cost a great deal of money, and if they won, the crown they got was for victory over their country rather than over the enemy, and when they got old, they finished up good for nothing like worn-out cloaks, being neither any use in war nor fit to take part in government. 24 Solon is also credited with that famous saying, ‘Laws are like spider’s webs,’ though it’s ascribed to others too, for example Anacharsis.1 25 He also made the telling remark that the friends of tyrants are like the little stones used for calculating. These are arranged as the one doing the calculating chooses and sometimes are worth many thousands, sometimes very little, and sometimes nothing at all.1 ***** cart, as the oxen were not available and time was running out. Everyone praised them for their strength and devotion to their mother. She then prayed the goddess to grant her sons the greatest blessing possible. That night they fell asleep in the temple and died in their sleep (Herodotus 1.31.1–5). 3 Cf Adagia i iii 37: Finem vitae specta ‘Look to the end of life.’ 23

(iv) Diogenes Laertius 1.55–6, abbreviated. In margin ‘useless expense‘

24

(v) Diogenes Laertius 1.58. In margin ‘laws‘ 1 Anacharsis was often numbered among the Sages of Greece (see introductory note 765 above). Some of his sayings are given at 7.101–23 below. For an explanation of the saying, see Plutarch Solon 5.4: spiders’ webs hold only the weak, the strong break free. It occurs again at 7.122 below, attributed to Anacharsis, and is there explained. Tilley i 116: Laws catch little flies but let great flies go free.

25

(vi) Diogenes Laertius 1.59. In margin ‘friendship with princes‘ 1 See also Plutarch Moralia 174b and 5.31 (Orontes) above.

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26 When Solon was asked why he had passed no law against parricide, he replied, ‘I didn’t expect this crime ever to be committed in this state.’ Monstrous deeds such as that only arise where excess holds sway and there is no respect for the law. This saying is reported in Cicero’s speech For Roscius of Ameria.1 27 When someone asked him how to ensure that injustices be reduced to a minimum, he replied, ‘If those not affected by the injustice resent it as much as those who are.’ Anyone who violates the laws injures not just one citizen but the whole state, in so far as in him lies. As it is, we acquiesce or even rejoice in the hurt done to others, leaving the perpetrators to go unpunished and this encourages them to extend their brazen attacks to more and more victims. 28 He used to say that ‘wealth bred surfeit and surfeit bred savage and violent behaviour.’1 In the train of riches comes extravagant self-indulgence, indulgence leads to overbearing conduct, and hay gets on the horn.2 Pittacus of Mitylene 29 It is Pittacus who is credited with originating that old saw, ‘The half is more than the whole.’ I have written at some length about this in my Adages. ***** 26

27

(vii) Cicero Pro Roscio Amerino 70; cf Diogenes Laertius 1.59. In margin ‘solemn‘ 1 An addition of 1535. (viii) Diogenes Laertius 1.59. In margin ‘fellow-feeling‘

28

(ix) Diogenes Laertius 1.59. In margin ‘riches‘ 1 Cf 7.358 below for a similar saying attributed to Pythagoras. See Plutarch Moralia 280f (Roman Questions): ‘bulls, horses, donkeys, and men grow insolent and fierce from being too well-fed’; cf Adagia iii vii 53: Satietas ferociam parit ‘Satiety breeds insolence.’ 2 See Horace Satires 1.4.34 and Adagia i i 81: Foenum habet in cornu ‘He has hay on his horn.’ Hay was fixed to the horns of a savage bull to show that he was dangerous and the saying was applied to angry and abusive men.

29

(i) Diogenes Laertius 1.75. In margin ‘the golden mean‘; to explain the marginal heading see Adagia i ix 95: Dimidium plus toto ‘The half is more than

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30 There is also an almost unbelievable tale told of Pittacus exemplifying mercy. When his son Tyrrheus was at the barber’s in Cumae, a man who worked as a coppersmith killed him with a blow from an axe. The citizens of Cumae sent the murderer in chains to Pittacus for him to exact punishment, but he, after hearing the case, sent him away free, saying, ‘Forgiveness is better than regret.’ He meant that it is more beneficial to forgive than to brood over the injury and exact vengeance. Another version of the story says the murderer was released by Alcaeus1 with the valedictory: ‘Better it is to forgive than to avenge.’ 31 Pittacus passed a law to the effect that ‘anyone who committed a crime under the influence of alcohol should pay double the penalty.’ (The common run of men think that the plea of drunkenness makes the crime less heinous.) They say that Pittacus did this because the island abounded in wine.1 32 When Croesus asked Pittacus where sovereignty chiefly lay, he said, ‘in painted wood.’ By this he meant ‘the laws,’ for in olden times laws were recorded on wooden tablets.1 It follows that where law holds sway, there tyranny is minimized. 33 He approved of ‘victories gained without bloodshed.’ ***** the whole,’ where Erasmus puts the saying in context: Pittacus accepted only a portion of the land granted him by the city of Mitylene, and declined money offered him by Croesus, saying he had twice as much as he needed. 30

(ii) Diogenes Laertius 1.76. In margin ‘mercy‘ 1 The Greek could mean ‘it was Alcaeus whom Pittacus released.’

31

(iii) Diogenes Laertius 1.76. In margin ‘drunkenness‘ 1 Mitylene, Pittacus’ home town, was on the island of Lesbos.

32

(iv) Diogenes Laertius 1.77. In margin ‘the authority of the law‘ 1 Solon’s laws for Athens were inscribed on four-sided revolving wooden blocks. Horace Ars poetica 399 leges incidere ligno ‘inscribe laws on wood’ refers to such early law-codes as a stage in the development of civilized life.

33

(v) Diogenes Laertius 1.77. In margin ‘bloodless victory‘

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He thought victories bought at the cost of much citizen blood (Cadmean victories as they are called)1 were not truly victories. 34 Pittacus was also the originator of that polythryll¯eton,1 ‘Marry a woman who is your equal.’2 He had a rather rich wife at home, who was accordingly difficult and domineering. I have written more about this in my Adages.3 Bias of Priene 35 When Bias had delivered his city from the siege by his ingenuity, King Alyattes, learning of the man’s wisdom, immediately sent for him. Bias replied, ‘I say to Alyattes, go and eat onions.’ This is the same as telling him to go and weep, showing his utter contempt for the king. I’ve dealt with this too in my Adages.1 36 On one occasion he was travelling by ship in the company of some wicked and godless men, when such a storm arose that they were in danger of their lives. The men began to call on the gods to help them, but Bias said, ‘Keep quiet, or the gods will realize that you’re in the ship here.’ The prayers of the wicked rouse God to punish rather than move him to help. 37 Some godless fellow questioned Bias as to what true religion was, but he gave no answer. When the man then asked why he said nothing, he replied, ‘Because you are asking about things that have nothing to do with you.’ ***** 1 Adagia ii viii 34: Cadmea victoria ‘A Cadmean victory,’ ie one where the winner comes off as badly as the loser. 34

(vi) Diogenes Laertius 1.80–81. In margin ‘an equal marriage‘ 1 ‘Much bandied-about’ saying; Erasmus knows this word, which he does not translate, from eg Plato Republic 566b, Phaedo 100b. 2 The saying is attributed to Cleobulus in Diogenes Laertius 1.93. Pittacus does not say it in so many words here. 3 Adagia i viii 1: Aequalem uxorem quaere ‘Seek a wife of our own sort’

35 1

(i) Diogenes Laertius 1.83 (shortened). In margin ‘outspoken‘ &EgW &Alu‡tth keleœv kr—mmua \sy’ein. See Adagia iii ii 38: Cepas edere aut olfacere ‘To eat, or to sniff onions’

36

(ii) Diogenes Laertius 1.86. In margin ‘outspoken‘

37

(iii) Diogenes Laertius 1.86. In margin ‘pointed‘

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38 When he was asked what was the most dangerous animal of all, he said, ‘of fierce beasts, a tyrant; of tame ones, a flatterer.’ I think this is enough from the sayings of the Seven Sages, either because their sayings can easily be found, or because many of them are apocryphal, or because most of them are of such a nature that they could be said by anybody. Anyway, what has Cleobulus got that makes him fit to be numbered among the Sages?1 Antisthenes of Athens 39 Antisthenes used to laugh at the Athenians for constantly boasting that they were autochthonous, that is, indigenous, since they had never migrated to Athens from anywhere else nor ever changed the place where they lived. He said that ‘they shared this glory with tortoises and snails.’1 True, for these creatures never change the house in which they are born. 40 He used to tell his disciples that ‘they should all become disciples of Socrates like himself.’ ***** 38

(iv) Plutarch Moralia 61c (How to tell a flatterer). Cf 3.372 above. In margin ‘flattery‘ 1 Erasmus omits sayings of both Cleobulus and Periander who come next in Diogenes Laertius, presumably on the authority of Plutarch who, in Dinner of the seven wise men, gives them a minor role and rejects them outright as Sages in the The E at Delphi (Moralia 385e) on account of their tyranny. Erasmus treats Anacharsis and (very briefly) and Myson, who sometimes replaced them, later on in Apophthegmata (7.101–24 below). See introductory note to this book 765 above.

39

(i) Diogenes Laertius 6.1. In margin ‘witty‘ Antisthenes was a follower of Socrates, founder of the Cynic tradition in philosophy, a forerunner of Stoicism and a professional teacher. See 7.43, 7.48–9 1 Erasmus gives ‘tortoises’ for Diogenes Laertius’ úttŽleboi ‘wingless locusts’ or ‘crickets’; see Pliny Naturalis historia 29.4.92: attelebi locustarum minumae ‘attelebi, the smallest of the locusts.’ Locusts, grasshoppers, and snails all lay eggs underground (Pliny Naturalis historia 11.102.93) and so appear to emerge from the earth. The Athenians claimed to be sprung from the earth and took the grasshopper as their symbol. Erasmus was well aware of this; see Adagia iii iii 95: Cicadis pleni ‘Full of grasshoppers.’ He may have translated úttelŽboi as ‘tortoises’ because he thought it went better with ‘snails,’ or maybe he was not sure of the meaning, especially as Traversari (see Introduction xvi–xvii above) did not translate it.

40

(ii) Diogenes Laertius 6.2. In margin ‘modest‘

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This showed how free he was of vainglory. 41 He so abominated pleasure that he used to say he would rather go mad than feel physical pleasure. A doctor can treat madness. Pleasure takes away a man’s wits just as much as madness, but it is a sickness that can hardly be cured. 42 Antisthenes said men should consort with the kind of women who would repay good with good, the ones ‘who will respond with gratitude.’ They should keep away from women who provide dishonourable pleasure for money, who do not bear a child, and do not love in return, also from sickly or deformed women, or women of bad character, who produce children one will regret.1 43 A lad from Pontus wanted to enrol in his school and his father asked what he would need. Antisthenes replied, ‘A new book, a new pen, and a new jotter.’1 He meant by this a mind cleared of faults, a lively application, and a good memory. Youngsters often bring to their instructor a head crammed with pleasures and distractions, which is often the reason why they do not progress in their studies. Philosophy demands the mind in its totality. 44 When a young man asked Antisthenes’ advice on what sort of wife was best, he replied, ‘Marry a beautiful one, and you’ll have to share her; marry an ugly one, and you’ll have to bear her.’ ***** 41

(iii) Diogenes Laertius 6.3. In margin ‘controlled‘

42

(iv) Diogenes Laertius 6.3. In margin ‘marriage‘ 1 Cf 7.87 below.

43

(v) Diogenes Laertius 6.3. In margin ‘teachable‘ 1 This is a chreia; see Theon Progymnasmata 5.209 (Spengel ii 100), where it is classified as ‘depending on ambiguity’ and ascribed to Isocrates. See Introduction xxiv–xxvii. There is here the same pun as in Diogenes Laertius 2.188 (7.137 below), ascribed to Stilpon. The point is that the Greek kainož [kainou] can be read as two words, ka“ nož [kai nou] ‘and brains,’ ie ‘a book – and brains, a pen – and brains, a jotter – and brains.’ In spite of the fact that he spells it out in 7.137, Erasmus seems to have missed the pun here, and misinterpreted the rather cryptic hint in Diogenes Laertius’ words, ‘emphasizing mind.’

44

(vi) Diogenes Laertius 6.3; Aulus Gellius 5.11. In margin ‘wedlock‘

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His answer was neater in the original Greek, for in Greek there is not much difference between the actual words koine ‘shared, in common’ and poine ‘pain, suffering,’ though there is a vast difference in substance. So his advice was to marry a woman of middling good looks, stata ‘normal,’ as they say, one who would neither repel her husband by her ugliness nor attract adulterers by her beauty.1 Aulus Gellius attributes this saying to Bias.2 45 When Antisthenes heard that Plato was speaking ill of him, quite unperturbed, he said, ‘It is a royal privilege to do well and be ill spoken of.’ Though this too is ascribed to others.1 It is the mark of a noble mind not to be deterred by men’s ingratitude from the pursuit of doing good to all. 46 When Antisthenes was being initiated into the Orphic mysteries, the priest told him that he would enjoy many blessings in the afterlife. ‘Well then,’ he asked him, ‘why don’t you end your life right now?’ He was pointing out that a blessed existence after the funeral pyre was prepared not for those who have been initiated but for those who have lived ***** 1 This is another chreia (see 6.43 n1 above). Literally the Greek means ‘you will have her in common . . . you will pay the penalty.’ The saying is repeated below at 7.190, attributed to Bion the Borysthenite. The famous words are indeed attributed to Bias in Aulus Gellius 5.11, but they are not there quoted as a ‘saying.’ They are part of a discussion of a type of syllogism in which the argument can be inverted (úntistrŽfon); ie whether you marry a beautiful or an ugly wife you will suffer one way or another, so don’t marry; or, if you marry a beautiful wife she herself will be a good thing, and if an ugly one you will have her to yourself, so do marry. Gellius then introduces the sophist Favorinus who rejects the validity of the whole argument on the grounds that there is a third choice: the wife need not be either beautiful or ugly but of ordinary middling good looks. Erasmus, with his eye for the interesting or archaic word, takes up stata ‘normal’ from Gellius, where it is quoted in passing from the early poet Ennius’ Melanippa (253 Ribbeck). Out of all this Erasmus has, possibly from memory, constructed a more extended reply from Antisthenes. 2 Philosophers were often asked about the advisability of marriage; see General Index: marriage. 45

46

(vii) Diogenes Laertius 6.3. In margin ‘noble‘ 1 Eg Alexander in Plutarch Alexander 41.2 (4.67 above), Marcus Aurelius in Commentaries 7.36 (viii) Diogenes Laertius 6.4. In margin ‘initiation‘

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god-fearing holy lives. This too, or something very like it, is attributed to others.1 47 When someone taunted him with not being born of two free persons, that is, being of mixed origins, having an Athenian father and a Phrygian mother,1 Antisthenes retorted, ‘I wasn’t born of two wrestlers either, but I’m still a wrestler.’ It doesn’t matter so much, he implied, what your origins are but who you are. The truly free man is the man set free by philosophy and the true Greek is the one educated in Greek disciplines. 48 When Antisthenes was asked why he had so few pupils, he replied, ‘Because I drive them away with a rod of silver.’ He meant that few joined him because he charged a great deal for his instruction. The general run of people values money more highly than wisdom. 49 When Antisthenes was asked why he was so harsh in censuring his students, he replied, ‘So are doctors harsh with their patients.’ He raged against the failings, he implied, not against the person, and faults are not healed by soft words. 50 When he saw an adulterer running away, pursued by those trying to catch him, ‘Poor fellow,’ he said, ‘what a nasty situation you could have avoided for a penny or two.’ He could have satisfied his lust by using a courtesan, whereas he was now in danger of his life. 51 Antisthenes used to say that, if necessity forced one or the other on him, ***** 1 Eg Leontychidas (ii) at 1.238 above and Diogenes at 3.219 above 47

(ix) Diogenes Laertius 6.4, with information from Diogenes Laertius 6.1 and Plutarch Moralia 607b (On exile). In margin ‘race‘ 1 See also 7.76 below.

48

(x) Diogenes Laertius 6.4. In margin ‘witty‘

49

(xi) Diogenes Laertius 6.4. In margin ‘strictness‘

50

(xii) Diogenes Laertius 6.4. In margin ‘adultery‘

51

(xiii) Diogenes Laertius 6.4. In margin ‘flattery‘

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he would rather fall in with crows than with flatterers: korakas rather than kolakas.1 Crows eat only the dead, whereas the flatterer battens even on the living.2 This saying too is attributed to another.3 52 When Antisthenes was asked what was the pinnacle of human happiness, he replied, ‘To die free from misfortune.’ This agrees with the famous words of Solon: ‘If a man reaches the end of his life without disaster, nothing bad can then happen to him to mar his happiness with some grief.’1 Those for whom things are going well are the ones who desire nothing more than length of life. 53 When a friend was grumbling that he had lost his notes, ‘You should have written them on your mind,’ he commented, ‘rather than on paper.’ Our reliance on books is often the reason why we do not exercise our memories enough. What is inscribed on the mind is safe. We can carry it round with us, and it’s always ready to hand. 54 Antisthenes used to say ‘that the envious are eaten away by their own defect, just as iron is consumed by rust.’ Iron generates from within the cause of its rusting, even without being damaged. 55 The general run of men promise themselves immortality through buildings, statues, memorials and books. ***** 1 Adagia ii i 96: Ad corvos ‘Off with you to the crows.’ ‘Go to the crows,’ meant ‘Go to the devil.’ 2 Erasmus has it seems used Athenaeus 6.254c for the second part, where Diogenes (not Antisthenes, see n3) says ‘flatterers eat good men even while they are still alive.’ 3 The saying is ascribed to the Cynic philosopher Diogenes at 3.320 above. 52

(xiv) Diogenes Laertius 6.5. In margin ‘true happiness‘ 1 See Plutarch Solon 27.9; see 7.22 above.

53

(xv) Diogenes Laertius 6.5. In margin ‘memory‘

54

(xvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.5. In margin ‘envy‘

55

(xvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.5. In margin ‘immortality through reputation‘

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Antisthenes showed to those desiring immortality the one and only way to it: living a just and godly life. 56 Asked what spelled destruction for states, Antisthenes said, ‘When they cannot make any distinction between good men and evil ones.’ A state cannot stand firm where there is neither honour for virtue nor punishment for wickedness. Achilles expresses his resentment about this in Homer: ‘In equal honour [are both brave men and cowards].1 57 He was told that certain bad characters had praised him. ‘I fear,’ he said, ‘that I’ve accidentally done something wrong.’1 No one, he felt, would be praised by such persons except for evil deeds. 58 Antisthenes remarked that ‘concord between brothers was a stronger defence than any wall.’ That applies to concord between citizens as well. 59 His advice was to take as luggage only what would float out together with the traveller in case of shipwreck. Education is everywhere appreciated and cannot be snatched away by fortune. This saying is ascribed to Aristippus also.1 60 Antisthenes was taken to task for associating with bad characters. ‘Doctors too,’ he retorted, ‘spend time with the sick, but they do not become sick themselves.’1 A philosopher associates with the wicked in order to improve them. ***** 56

(xviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.5. In margin ‘honour for virtue‘ 1 Homer Iliad 9.319: &En d' _ tim_ . . .. Cf 1.299 (Lysander) above.

57

(xix) Diogenes Laertius 6.5. In margin ‘praise from the praiseworthy‘ 1 Contrast 7.69 below and cf 4.259 above.

58

(xx) Diogenes Laertius 6.6. In margin ‘concord‘

59

(xxi) Diogenes Laertius 6.6. In margin ‘the possessions of the mind‘ 1 See Vitruvius De architectura introduction 1; also 3.162 (Aristippus) above and 7.245 (Aristotle) below.

60

(xxii) Diogenes Laertius 6.6. In margin ‘smart‘ 1 Cf 1.319 (Pausanias) above.

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61 ‘It is foolish,’ he used to say, ‘to weed the tares out of the wheat-field and the useless soldier out of the fight, and not to exclude from politics those of evil disposition.’ Those of evil disposition are as useless to the state as thistles to wheat and the coward to the fight. 62 When someone asked Antisthenes what advantage he had gained from philosophy,1 he replied, ‘Being able to talk (or live) with myself.’ The educated man, even if he is alone, is not bored by solitude, but thinks about noble subjects and, so to speak, converses with himself. For the ignorant, solitude is wearisome and, indeed, profitless.2 63 At a dinner, someone said to Antisthenes ‘Sing to the pipes.’ ‘Then you play for me,’ he replied. He was not refusing to oblige if the other person would oblige in return, but he hinted that it was not appropriate for a philosopher to sing to the pipes. 64 Diogenes asked Antisthenes to give him a tunic. Antisthenes told him to fold his cloak in two and make it look like a tunic. He was telling him that one should be content to live as frugally as possible.1 65 When Antisthenes was asked what was the essential thing to learn, ‘Unlearning what is bad,’ was his reply. This is not only of first importance but also very difficult. ***** 61 62

63 64

65

(xxiii) Diogenes Laertius 6.6. In margin ‘serious‘ (xxiv) Diogenes Laertius 6.6. In margin ‘solitude‘ 1 This was a question often put to philosophers; see General Index: philosophy, benefits of. 2 Cf 7.343 and 7.383 below (xxv) Diogenes Laertius 6. In margin ‘unsuitable‘ (xxvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.6. In margin ‘frugal‘ 1 This was Antisthenes’ own practice; see the account in Diogenes Laertius 6.13. Erasmus does not treat Diogenes the Cynic at length in this book, as he had dealt with him in book 3 (3.164–188 above). He is mentioned at 7.67, 7.229–30, 7.233 below. (xxvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.7. In margin ‘unlearning‘

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66 ‘We should more readily put up with those who assail us with words,’ he used to say, ‘than we put up with those who attack us with stones.’ Words do not hurt if one treats them with contempt. Possibly the meaning of the Greek is that those who bear insults with patience have more ability to endure than somebody who puts up with being pelted with stones. If it is unfitting for a serious and dignified person to throw stones back at his attacker, it is just as unfitting for him to return insult for insult. 67 Antisthenes went to visit Plato when he was ill and observed the bowl into which Plato had been sick. ‘I see Plato’s bile,’ he commented, ‘but not his conceit.’ He used to find fault with Plato’s arrogance, as Diogenes also did.1 At a ride past, one of the horses showed his fiery spirit by neighing and prancing, and when Plato commented favourably on this, Antisthenes remarked, ‘It seems to me that you would make a fine horse.’ 68 Antisthenes told the Athenians to use asses for cultivating the fields as well as horses. When they objected that this animal was quite unsuited to ploughing, ‘What does that matter?’ he replied. ‘In your state you have generals who have never learned the basic principles of administration. It is enough that you have appointed them.’1 He was showing them that it is far more ridiculous to entrust the country to someone who does not know anything about governing than to put an ass to the plough instead of a horse. 69 When someone told him he was being praised by everyone, ‘What have I done wrong?’1 was his response. This means that what is right has always pleased only a few. ***** 66

(xxviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.7. In margin ‘self-control‘

67

(xxix) Diogenes Laertius 6.7. In margin ‘conceit‘ 1 See Diogenes Laertius 6.26.

68

(xxx) Diogenes Laertius 6.8. In margin ‘choice of magistrates‘ 1 Erasmus has elaborated the first part of the original – there is nothing there about putting asses to the plough but only Antisthenes’ suggestion that the Athenians vote that asses be horses.

69

(xxxi) Diogenes Laertius 6.8. In margin ‘popular judgment‘ 1 Cf 7.57 above.

7 . 73

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783

70 Antisthenes was asked by someone what he should do to become a good and honourable man. He replied, ‘By learning from men who know what they are talking about that you must get rid of the faults you have.’ He well knew that the essential in virtue is to be free from vice.1 This is to be learnt not from anybody but from those only who know what is truly bad and truly good. 71 When someone was speaking in favour of luxury, he retorted, ‘I hope the sons of our enemies live in luxury.’1 He abhorred as something destructive a thing that most people receive with open arms as a supreme good. 72 A certain youth had commissioned a bronze of himself and kept arranging himself in the same pose as the statue.1 Antisthenes asked him, ‘If the bronze could speak, of what particularly would it boast? ‘Its beauty,’ the other replied. ‘Aren’t you ashamed,’ Antisthenes then said, ‘to boast about the same thing as an inanimate object?’ He meant that he should be proud of qualities of the mind rather than the physical beauty that he had in common with the statue. 73 Some young men from Pontus came to Athens for the sole purpose of seeing Socrates. Antisthenes took them to the house of Anytus and told them that ‘Anytus was much wiser than Socrates, inasmuch as he had brought the charges against him.’ This remark rekindled among the population of Athens their longing to have back the Socrates whom they had killed and they drove Anytus out. ***** 70

(xxxii) Diogenes Laertius 6.8. In margin ‘unlearning the bad‘ 1 See Horace Epistles 1.1.41 virtus est vitium fugere ‘Virtue starts with shunning vice’; Quintilian 8.3.41 prima virtus est vitio carere ‘The first virtue is the avoidance of faults.’

71

(xxxiii) Diogenes Laertius 6.8. In margin ‘luxuries‘ 1 Cf 7.77 below.

72

(xxxiv) Diogenes Laertius 9. In margin ‘beauty‘ 1 He was possibly posing as an athlete.

73

(xxxv) Diogenes Laertius 6.10, expanded. In margin ‘clever‘

7 . 74

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784

74 A young man from Pontus promised Antisthenes that he would settle his account when his ship came in with a cargo of dried fish. Antisthenes took a new jar1 and went with the young man to a woman who sold meal, and when he had filled his jar, made off with his load. When the woman demanded payment, he pointed to the young man and said, ‘He will pay you, when his ship with the cargo of dried fish comes in.’ This demonstrated the uselessness of promises for the future when flour has to be bought every day with ready cash. 75 Antisthenes was carrying dried fish through the market-place, and when people wondered that a philosopher should perform such a menial task, and in public at that, instead of delegating it to a slave, he retorted, ‘What are you surprised at? I’m carrying this for myself, not for anyone else.’ He meant that no service is demeaning if one performs it for oneself, and furthermore, it is not inappropriate for a person who eats dried fish to carry it. 76 When someone threw up at him the fact that his mother was a Phrygian, Antisthenes retorted, ‘So is the Mother of the Gods.’1 He thought it stupid to scoff at someone because of their place of birth, when the most benighted regions sometimes produce brilliant intellects. 77 Antisthenes used to say that ‘one should pray the gods to grant every good gift to one’s enemies,1 except valour, for all those good gifts would one day belong not to their original owners but to the people who had the valour.’ Those possessors cannot preserve their possessions because of their ***** 74

75

(xxxvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.9. In margin ‘promises‘ 1 Erasmus (like Traversari, see Introduction xvi–xvii above) presumably read kain—n ‘new,’ rather than the better ken—n ‘empty.’ (xxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 811b (Precepts of statecraft). In margin ‘sharp‘

76

(xxxvii) Plutarch Moralia 607b (On exile). In margin ‘neat‘ 1 The alien and ecstatic worship of Cybele, ‘the Great Mother of the Gods,’ was introduced to Greece and Italy from Phrygia; cf 7.47 above.

77

(xxxix) Plutarch Moralia 336a (On the fortune of Alexander). In margin ‘valour‘ 1 Cf 7.71 above.

7 . 81

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785

lack of spirit. It is of no use to acquire good things if the one who acquires them doesn’t know how to preserve them. 78 If Antisthenes saw a woman finely dressed, he used to go to the house and ask her husband to produce his weapons and his horse. If these were satisfactory, he allowed the woman to enjoy her finery, as there was someone to protect her. If not, he urged her to lay aside her ornaments, so that she would not be the victim of robbery.1 79 Antisthenes wrote many books. Accordingly, Timon1 called him ‘a brilliant scribbler of rubbish.’ He didn’t just call him ‘clever,’ but ‘totally clever,’ because his highly versatile intellect enabled him to treat a variety of topics including some not worthy of a philosopher.2 80 Antisthenes had many favourite sayings worthy of being remembered.1 One of them was ‘virtue can be taught.’2 This contradicts those who think virtue is born with the person, or that the natural passions cannot be overcome by study and application. 81 The noble and the virtuous are one and the same. For the virtuous have within themselves the source of true nobility, unlike those who measure nobility by ancestry and wealth. ***** 78

(xl) Diogenes Laertius 6.10, altered. In margin ‘bravery‘ 1 Cf 7.265 (Crates) below.

79

(xli) Diogenes Laertius 6.18. In margin ‘having a lot to say‘ 1 Possibly Timon of Phlius, Sceptic philosopher, fourth to third century bc, who ridiculed all other philosophers, past and present. 2 Diogenes Laertius 6.15–19 lists ten volumes of his writings. Possibly titles such as On drunkenness and On Circe suggested Erasmus’ criticism. Only fragments of his writings survive.

80

(xlii) Diogenes Laertius 6.10. In margin ‘study‘ 1 7.80–98 consist mostly of bare quotations from, rather than anecdotes about, Antisthenes. 2 See Diogenes Laertius 7.91: ‘Chrysippus, Cleanthes, and Poseidonius said that virtue can be taught.’ This view was also held by Socrates.

81

(xliii) Diogenes Laertius 6.10. In margin ‘nobility‘

7 . 82

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786

82 Virtue alone is sufficient for happiness and has no need of anything1 – except the strength of Socrates. Socrates had hardened himself to endure anything.2 Bodily weakness often impedes the practice of virtue. 83 Virtue is a thing of action, and has no need of much speaking or much learning. This contradicts those who make the practice of law or theology and holy living long drawn out and difficult through study, and throughout their whole lives do nothing but discuss virtue. As Horace says, ‘You think virtue is just words, as the forest is logs.’1 84 The wise man is self-sufficient, because he possesses everything that belongs to others. This is because he is friends with all, and friendship has all things in common.1 85 Obscurity is a blessing equal to suffering. This contradicts Epicurus’ famous saying: ‘Live your life unnoticed.’ Many wish to be unknown so that they can live an untroubled life. But the life of unimportance lays one open to contempt and so brings as much ***** 82

(xliv) Diogenes Laertius 6.11. In margin ‘endurance‘ 1 A famous Stoic tenet. See eg Zeno at Diogenes Laertius 7.127 ‘Virtue is in itself sufficient for well-being’; Cicero, quoting Zeno, De finibus 5.27, 79 ut virtus sola, si adsit, vitam efficiat beatam ‘that Virtue alone, if present, suffices for a happy life’; also Cicero Tusculan Disputations 37; Plutarch Moralia 1033 (On Stoic self-contradictions 7.4). 2 See Diogenes Laertius 2.27; Xenophon Memorabilia 1.2.1–2, 1.6; Plato Symposium 219e–220b; Aulus Gellius 2.1. This however often refers not to bodily strength but to the stamina of the disciplined and healthy soul.

83

(xlv) Diogenes Laertius 6.11. In margin ‘virtue lies in action‘ 1 Horace Epistles 1.6.31

84

(xlvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.11 1 A saying attributed to Bion (Diogenes Laertius 4.53) and to Pythagoras, who is said to have been the first to utter it (Diogenes Laertius 8.10). See Adagia i i 1: Amicorum communia omnia ‘Between friends all is common.’

85

(xlvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.11. In margin ‘an untroubled life‘

7 . 89

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787

trouble as fame – though this too is a heavy burden. 86 Antisthenes said that the wise man did not live according to laws made by men but according to the standard of virtue. One must not do something or refrain from doing something because the law enjoins it or forbids it, but because reason itself declares that the one is good, the other bad. The law does not cover everything, but the standard of virtue tells one in every situation what is good, what is bad. Virtue which is the result of compulsion is no true virtue. 87 Someone voiced the opinion that the wise man should not marry.1 Antisthenes on the contrary considered that the wise man should marry, not however for the purposes of pleasure but to father children, for this is required by nature and his country. He will associate with women of noblest character, so that good parents may beget good children. Furthermore, he will even love his wife, not however like the common herd, but in a considered way. The man who loves with discernment loves genuinely and with constancy. It is the wise man who discerns the things that are worthy of love.2 All this in opposition to those who boast that they treat their wives like chamber-pots. 88 Nothing can come upon the wise man as new or unexpected. This is because he has already considered in advance any possible contingency, so that he will never say ‘I wouldn’t have thought . . .’1 89 The good man is worthy to be loved. The only true and sincere love is a love inspired by virtue. ***** 86

(xlviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.11. In margin ‘virtue does not need laws‘

87

(xlix) Diogenes Laertius 6.11, expanded. In margin ‘marriage‘ 1 Cf 7.44 n2 above. 2 Cf 7.42 above.

88

(l) Diogenes Laertius 6.12. In margin ‘foresight‘ 1 Cf Iphicrates at 5.196 and Scipio Africanus at 5.306 above.

89

(li) Diogenes Laertius 6.12. In margin ‘love‘

7 . 90

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788

90 Men endowed with virtue get themselves defenders who are strong and just.1 This is because they do not wish to be defended if they do something wrong. The wicked on the other hand want to have strong defenders, but not just ones. 91 Virtue is armour which can never be lost. Sword and shield can be wrenched from one’s grasp. The wise man is never without his armour and so can never be conquered. 92 Antisthenes used to say that ‘it was better to fight with a few good men against all the bad ones than with many bad men against a few good ones.’ This is either because in war it is not the number but the quality of men and generals that wins the victory, or, alternatively, that it is more commendable to be numbered among the good who are always few in number, than be found amongst the common herd of evil fellows of whom there are crowds in every place. 93 We must pay attention to our enemies, because these are the first to know if we have done anything wrong. In this they are more useful to us than our friends in helping us to recognize our errors and once we have recognized them, to put them right.1 94 A just man is to be valued more highly than a kinsman. The bonds of virtue are tighter than the bonds of blood relationship, ***** 90

(lii) Diogenes Laertius 6.12. In margin ‘just behaviour‘ 1 Either Erasmus has misread his Greek text or it omitted a word and combined two originally separate aphorisms: ‘Men endowed with virtue are friends’ and ‘Make allies of men who are strong and just.’ Traversari’s translation (see Introduction xvi–xvii above) is of the full reading.

91

(liii) Diogenes Laertius 6.12. In margin ‘virtue as armour‘

92

(liv) Diogenes Laertius 6.12. In margin ‘scarcity of good men‘

93

(lv) Diogenes Laertius 6.12. In margin ‘profit from an enemy‘ 1 See Plutarch Moralia 87b–88a (How to profit by one’s enemies).

94

(lvi) Diogenes Laertius 6.12. In margin ‘kinship of virtue‘

7 . 98

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789

and every good man is closely related to every other good man because of the similitude of their minds. 95 Virtue is the same in both men and women.1 Socrates thought so too, saying that the female sex is as open to instruction in all the duties of virtue as the male sex, provided they are trained in identical fashion.2 The generality of people accuse women of being incapable of profiting from ethical instruction. 96 What is honourable (or beautiful) consists in the good, what is shameful, in evil. The Stoics teach that nothing is to be desired but virtue, nothing to be shunned but vice.1 For the common man, poverty is a disgrace and glory is to enjoy huge riches acquired by fair means or foul. The judgment of the crowd is equally topsy-turvy in other matters. 97 All evil practices should be treated as foreign. The ordinary man approves only of what he is used to. He hates what is foreign, not because it is intrinsically bad, but because it is not native. For the wise man, nothing should be foreign unless it is bound up with vice. Drunkenness is not to be abhorred because there is some place where it’s not normal behaviour, but because it is essentially disgraceful. As it is, people’s judgment is coloured by local custom. 98 The safest stronghold is wisdom, which neither collapses nor is betrayed. No walls are so strongly built that they cannot be taken by siegeengines or tunnelling, or, if these are absent, by treachery. The resolve of a wise man resists all assault. ***** 95

(lvii) Diogenes Laertius 6.12. In margin ‘gender‘ 1 Cleanthes (see 7.330–46 below) wrote a treatise on the subject (Diogenes Laertius 7.175). 2 See Plato Republic 451c–457b for a general discussion of this thesis.

96

(lviii) Diogenes Laertius 6.12. In margin ‘the truly beautiful‘ 1 This is the fundamental tenet of Stoicism from which all their ethical system developed. See Cicero Tusculan Disputations 5.27 and 33 (Zeno and Ariston).

97

(lix) Diogenes Laertius 6.12. In margin ‘habit‘

98

(lx) Diogenes Laertius 6.13. In margin ‘virtue secure‘

7 . 99

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790

99 The Athenians applauded wildly in the theatre at the line ‘Nothing is shameful but thinking makes it so.’ Antisthenes replaced it with ‘Shameful is shameful, whether you think it so or not.’ This was a neat correction of a stupid sentiment. The story is in Plutarch.1 100 Certain people were expressing their admiration for Ismenias, the famous player on the pipes. ‘He must be a worthless fellow,’ Antisthenes commented, ‘for if he were any good, he wouldn’t be a famous pipe-player.’1 He was of the opinion that people who expended so much effort on such Bacchic skills could not possibly develop into good men. Anacharsis the Scythian 101 Hermippus tells us that as soon as Anacharsis arrived in Athens, he went to Solon’s house.1 When the servant asked him who he was and where he had come from, he told the servant to tell his master that Anacharsis had arrived and that he would like to see Solon and, if possible, be received as his guest. Solon sent back the reply that ‘that relationship was established in a person’s native land’ (meaning that there was no right of hospitality between Greeks and Scythians). Treating this rebuff as an invitation to enter, Anacharsis went in to Solon, saying ‘he already was in his native land and accordingly it was quite proper for him to be accepted as a guest.’ This smart reply pleased Solon and he gladly accepted him into his inner circle. Solon immediately detected the philosophical mind which regards as its native land anywhere where conditions are good for human beings. We are indeed all citizens of the world. ***** 99

(lxi) Plutarch Moralia 33c (How to study poetry). In margin ‘virtue essentially honourable‘ 1 Stobaeus 5.82 (Meineke i 132), citing this incident, identifies the author of the line as Euripides (Aiolos Nauck fr 19) and says that it was Plato (alternative reading, Diogenes), meeting Euripides later by chance, who offered the correction.

100 (lxii) Plutarch Life of Pericles 1.5, 52f. Added in 1535. In margin ‘a pipe-player a bad man‘ 1 See a similar story at 8.215 below. See also 5.42 above where Ismenias is criticized by King Atheas, and General Index: trivial pursuits. 101 (i) Diogenes Laertius 1.101–2. In margin ‘simplicity‘ 1 Hermippus of Smyrna was a third-century bc philosopher whose writings were very influential. Among other works, he wrote ‘On the seven wise men.’

7 . 105

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791

102 When he returned to his native land, Anacharsis endeavoured to reform Scythian law to match Greek practice. On account of this, his brother shot him with an arrow while they were out hunting. His dying words were that ‘the Greeks had sent him safe home because of his learning, but in his native land he perished because of spite.’ It sounds better in Greek: ton logon ‘learning’ and ton phthonon ‘spite.’ 103 Anacharsis used to say that the vine bore three bunches of grapes: one, pleasure; two, drunkenness; three, trouble.’ A moderate use of wine is pleasurable because it settles thirst, a more generous use produces drunkenness, overindulgence generates quarrels, murders, and bodily ills. Similar to this is that other saying of his, recorded elsewhere: ‘the first jug goes along with thirst, the second with pleasure, the third with drunkenness, the fourth with madness.’ Anacharsis’ saying is more amusing if you recall that the vine does not grow in Scythia. 104 Anacharsis used to wonder how it came about that in Greece skilled practitioners used to compete with one another but were judged by people who knew nothing of the skill in question. He meant that only an expert can rightly judge an expert. In the theatre, actors, mime-artists, singers, sophists1 all competed, poets would present their works, and though the people knew nothing of the arts those persons practised, they would applaud some and boo the others off. 105 Being asked how a man could avoid becoming a drunk, Anacharsis replied, ‘by always keeping before his eyes the shaming behaviour of the drunk.’ Nothing more resembles a madman than a drunk, though the drunk thinks that everything he does is perfectly decent. One should observe via other people what a disgusting thing drunkenness is.1 ***** 102 (ii) Diogenes Laertius 1.102. In margin ‘native land brings destruction‘ 103 (iii) Diogenes Laertius 1.103 and Stobaeus 18.26 (Meineke i 295). In margin ‘wine to be drunk sparingly‘ 104 (iv) Diogenes Laertius 1.103. In margin ‘popular judgment‘ 1 Sophists would give demonstrations of rhetorical skill. 105 (v) Diogenes Laertius 1.103. In margin ‘an example to be found in others‘ 1 Cf 2.107 above and 7.158 below.

7 . 106

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792

106 Anacharsis used to say he was puzzled as to how the Greeks, who had laws to punish violence and assault, could honour athletes precisely for beating each other up. This was a neat criticism of the Greeks’ pleasure in cruelty and their moral inconsistency. What is wrong is always wrong.1 I am sorry to say we still have a lot of pagan relics in our own Christian behaviour, though we have through Christ been delivered from the horrendous pleasures of the gladiatorial show and dreadful delights of boxing and athletics.2 107 Anacharsis asked someone how thick were the planks in a ship. The other replied, ‘Four fingers.’ ‘That’s all there is,’ he commented, ‘between those who sail and death.’ This was a criticism of the greed of merchants, who for the sake of gain voluntarily put themselves in manifest danger of death. Scythians know nothing of trade by sea; they live by pasturage and hunting. 108 He used to say that ‘oil was a poison that brought on madness,’ because he saw ‘athletes oiling themselves and then attacking each other like madmen.’ The Scythians, I think, didn’t use oil, because it was not a local product and was not imported from anywhere. Athletes compete only after oiling themselves – they think it hardens the body. The Scythian pretended to believe that the oil was the cause of their going mad. 109 Anacharsis used to say that he wondered how it came about that the Athenians, who banned lying, nonetheless openly told lies in their shops. Buyers and sellers of goods deceive anyone they can in order to make a profit, as if something shameful in private life becomes respectable if you do it in public in the market-place. Dishonesty is particularly to be avoided in business deals. But men lie most just when they are particularly asserting that they are not lying. The Athenians had a law, ‘No deception in the market-place.’1 ***** 106 (vi) Diogenes Laertius 1.103. In margin ‘smart‘ 1 See 7.99 above. 2 Greek boxing and the pancration were particularly brutal. See 7.108 below. 107 (vii) Diogenes Laertius 1.103. In margin ‘taking to the seas‘ 108 (viii) Diogenes Laertius 1.104. In margin ‘athletes mad‘ 109 (ix) Diogenes Laertius 1.104. In margin ‘dishonesty in business deals‘ 1 Cf 7.119 below, and also Adagia iv x 24: In foro veritas ‘No deception in the market-place.’ This last sentence was added in 1535.

7 . 114

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793

110 Another source of wonder to him was that the Greeks used small cups at the beginning of a dinner and bigger ones when they were ‘sozzled.’ His opinion was that the only purpose of drinking was to satisfy thirst, so that it was silly to drink more once thirst had been quenched.1 111 On statues and paintings representing Anacharsis they inscribed the words: ‘Control tongue, belly, privy parts.’ An unbridled tongue is the cause of great evils, nothing is more disgraceful than overindulgence, lust turns a man into a beast. 112 When Anacharsis was asked whether they had pipes in Scythia, he replied, ‘We haven’t even got vines.’ He meant that dancing and other suchlike pleasures were created and nourished by addiction to drinking. 113 When someone asked Anacharsis what sort of ships were the safest, he replied, ‘The ones hauled up on dry land.’ At one time, during the months when the sea was not navigable, ships were drawn up onto dry land by machines. Anacharsis meant that all sea voyages were dangerous, though he was actually being asked about types of ship – there are fast war galleys, cargo vessels, passenger ships, and other types, of which some are better equipped to withstand bad weather than others. 114 He used to say the most surprising thing he had seen among the Greeks was that they left the smoke in the hills and carried the wood to the city. He was thinking, I imagine, of smokeless fuel which is dried in the hills by sun or fire so that it then burns without smoke.1 ***** 110 (x) Diogenes Laertius 1.104. In margin ‘a back-to-front custom‘ 1 For bigger cups cf 6.486 above. 111 (xi) Diogenes Laertius 1.104. In margin ‘self-control‘ 112 (xii) Diogenes Laertius 1.104. In margin ‘tipsiness‘ 113 (xiii) Diogenes Laertius 1.104. In margin ‘sailing the seas, attributed to Stratonicus earlier‘ (at 6.452 above) 114 (xiv) Diogenes Laertius 1.104. In margin ‘smokeless‘ 1 Presumably referring to charcoal.

7 . 115

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794

115 When someone asked Anacharsis whether he thought the dead or the living were more numerous, he asked, ‘Do you put those who go to sea in either group?’ He expressed his doubts as to whether one should class among the living those who entrusted their lives to the caprice of winds and waves.1 116 When a native Athenian taunted Anacharsis with being born in Scythia, he retorted, ‘My country is my shame, you are your country’s shame.’1 What a blameless man, if the only fault people can find in him is his place of birth! It’s a credit to a man born among barbarians if he acquires Greek culture and it’s a disgrace when a man born among Greeks sinks to behaving like a barbarian. 117 When he was asked what was the worst feature in man and what the best, he replied, ‘The tongue.’ This member of the body can be of great benefit if governed by reason, but if not, it is utterly destructive. 118 One of Anacharsis’ sayings was that it was better to have ‘only one friend of great worth than many friends worth nothing at all.’ This sounds better in the original Greek: hena pollou axion / pollous m¯edenos axious. 119 He used to say that the market square was the designated place where men could mutually trick and rob each other.1 ***** 115 (xv) Diogenes Laertius 1.104. In margin ‘sailing the seas‘ 1 Cf 2.45 above. The saying is attributed to Bias at [Plato] Axiochus 368b. 116 (xvi) Diogenes Laertius 1.104. In margin ‘sharp‘ 1 Cf the similar remark attributed to Socrates: ‘My family is my shame, you are your family’s shame.’ Stobaeus 90.12 (Meineke iii 171). 117 (xvii) Diogenes Laertius 1.105. In margin ‘the tongue‘ 118 (xviii) Diogenes Laertius 1.105. In margin ‘a friend of outstanding character‘ 119 (xix) Diogenes Laertius 1.105. In margin ‘the market square‘ 1 Cf 7.109 above.

7 . 123

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795

Here he was censuring the behaviour of traders, chasers of profit by fair means or foul. 120 A young man assaulted Anacharsis at a party. ‘Young man,’ he said. ‘If you can’t carry your wine now, when you are old you will carry water.’ He showed self-restraint in being prepared to attribute the young man’s insolence to wine. Those who drink wine to excess, especially at an age when water is more appropriate, often, when they are old, are compelled by poverty to drink water (hydrophorein ‘carry water,’ ie ‘be a water-carrier’) when that age actually needs to drink wine. 121 When someone taunted him with being a barbarian, he replied, ‘Anacharsis is a barbarian among the Athenians, but the Athenians in their turn are barbarians among the Scythians.’ Because they enjoyed a high standard of culture and had cities run by law, the Greeks, especially the Athenians, showed their contempt for the rest of the world by calling them barbarian, meaning by this anything foreign and different. Nowadays, the Greeks themselves are totally barbarous, and their self-satisfied attitude has migrated to a new home among certain Italians who consider all other nations barbarous. 122 He is also credited with that much quoted saying, that laws are like spiders’ webs – weaker creatures get caught in them, stronger ones break through.1 The law constrains the humble and insignificant; it is flouted with impunity by the powerful. This is in Valerius Maximus. 123 Someone saw Anacharsis’ wife at a dinner-party and said, ‘You have married a very plain woman, Anacharsis.’ ‘I think so too,’ he replied, ‘but, hey boy! pour me a drink with less water in it and I’ll make her beautiful!’ He meant by this that wine takes away a man’s sense of judgment. This is in Athenaeus, book nine. ***** 120 (xx) Diogenes Laertius 1.105. In margin ‘even temper‘ 121 (xxi) pseudo-Plutarch On good birth 12 (Moralia vii 234 [Teubner 1896]). In margin ‘being a barbarian‘ 122 (xxii) Valerius Maximus 7.2 ext. 14. Added in 1535. In margin ‘laws‘ 1 Cf 7.24 above where the saying is attributed to Solon. 123 (xxiii) Athenaeus 10.445f (not book 9)

7 . 124

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Myson 124 Myson, whose place of birth is not established,1 is said to have been a misanthrope, very like Timon of Athens. Somebody came across him one day laughing to himself in a lonely place. When he asked him what he was laughing about when he was all alone, he replied, ‘Precisely because I’m alone.’ He meant that being alone was what he really enjoyed. Anaxagoras of Clazomene 125 The Athenians sent Anaxagoras into exile, and when someone remarked to him, ‘You haven’t got the Athenians any more,’ he retorted, ‘No, they haven’t got me.’ He meant that the Athenians had more need of Anaxagoras than Anaxagoras had of them. Those who drive fine men out of the country do more harm to the state than they do to those they expel. 126 When he was in exile, news was brought to him of the death of his sons. ‘I knew,’ he replied, ‘that I had fathered mortals.’ This same remark is attributed to Xenophon.1 127 Anaxagoras was condemned to death in his absence. He said to the person ***** 124 (i) Diogenes Laertius 1.107–8. In margin ‘being alone‘ Myson was one the Sages who sometimes replaced Periander the tyrant in the list of Sages (see introductory note to book 7, 765 above). Diogenes Laertius devotes a little more space to him than does Erasmus. 1 See Diogenes Laertius 1.106 and 1.107, where his birthplace is variously given as Laconia, Crete, or Arcadia. 125 (ii) Diogenes Laertius 2.10. In margin ‘spirited‘ Anaxagoras was an Athenian philosopher in the mid-fifth century bc who believed in Mind (nous) as a governing principle; he was defended by his patron Pericles at his trial for impiety which led to his exile. 126 (iii) Diogenes Laertius 2.13. In margin ‘resolute‘ 1 This was a much quoted remark: see Valerius Maximus 5.10 ext. 3; Plutarch Moralia 118d (Consolation to Apollonius) and Moralia 474d (On tranquillity of mind); Cicero Tusculan Disputations 3.30 and 58. A similar saying was attributed to Lochadas (Lochagus) Plutarch Moralia 225f; see 1.257 above. Cf 6.171 above. 127 (iv) Diogenes Laertius 2.13 and Diogenes Laertius 2.11. In margin ‘profound / the place where one dies‘

7 . 130

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who brought the news, ‘Nature passed that sentence long ago on them as much as on me.’ The Athenians were condemned to death, just as much as the person they sentenced. People die in different ways, but all have equally to die. To someone who was upset because he was dying in a foreign country rather than at home, ‘Cheer up,’ he said. ‘It’s the same path down to the Underworld, wherever you are.’ 128 We are told that Anaxagoras was Pericles’ preceptor and was a great help to him in governing the city. But after Pericles became totally absorbed in political affairs, he ceased to give any thought to Anaxagoras, and so Anaxagoras, being now of very advanced years, decided to starve himself to death. When this news was brought to Pericles, he hurried there in great concern and endeavoured by reasoning, entreaties, and tears to dissuade him from this intention of bringing about his own death, more for his own sake than the philosopher’s. Anaxagoras, who was already close to death, merely uncovered his face and said, ‘Pericles, even people who need a lamp put oil in it.’ So he reproached him with the neglect of a friend from he could have derived so much benefit. People tend a lamp for everyday purposes, and such a counsellor perished because he was not looked after.1 129 After a long time spent abroad, he returned home to find his possessions laid waste. His comment on this was, ‘If those things hadn’t been lost, I wouldn’t have been saved.’ The disaster had driven him towards philosophy. If everything had been untouched, he would have stayed within his own four walls. It often happens that what seems a huge loss is actually a great gain.1 Stilpon of Megara 130 Stilpon had a daughter with a bad reputation. When someone remarked to ***** 128 (v) Plutarch Life of Pericles 16.7. In margin ‘solemn‘ 1 See Adagia iv vii 62: Qui lucerna egent infundunt oleum ‘Those who need a lamp put oil in it.’ 129 (vi) Valerius Maximus 8.7 ext. 6. In margin ‘gain out of loss‘ 1 Cf 7.293 (Zeno) below. For the benefits of philosophy see General Index: philosophy, benefits of. 130 (i) Plutarch Moralia 468a (On tranquillity of mind). In margin ‘astute‘ Stilpon, philosopher (4th–3rd century bc), was a teacher of Zeno of Citium.

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him, ‘Your daughter is a disgrace to you,’ his reply was, ‘No more than I am a credit to her.’ What he meant by this was that no one is disgraced by another’s actions, but everyone has to be assessed according to his own behaviour. Her father’s celebrity would not add to her respectability unless she copied her father’s virtues. In his treatise, On Tranquillity of Mind, Plutarch has a longer version of this incident. When Metrocles reproached him with having a shameless daughter, Stilpon replied, ‘Is this offence mine or my daughter’s?’ Metrocles replied, ‘Her offence, but your misery.’ Stilpon took him up on this, saying, ‘What do you mean? Aren’t offences also failures?’ Metrocles agreed to that. ‘But if people have failures, don’t they also have disappointments?’ Metrocles conceded that too. ‘And, following on from that, it’s those with the disappointments who have the miseries.’ These calm and philosophical words demonstrated that the misery belonged to the daughter who was guilty of the offence, and that the Cynic’s censure was nothing but the barking of a dog.1 131 Stilpon had a dream in which Neptune came to him, very angry because he had not offered the customary sacrificial bull. Quite unperturbed by this sight, the philosopher replied, ‘Tell me, Neptune, have you come here snivelling like a child, because I didn’t borrow a lot of money and fill the town with the smell of cooking meat? I did what my financial resources allowed – I sacrificed a few whitebait to you.’ In the dream Neptune laughed at this, gave him his right hand, and said, ‘In thanks for that, I will bestow upon the city of Megara a huge catch of whitebait.’ Which, according to the story, did indeed happen. 132 When Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, captured the city of Megara, he ordered Stilpon’s house to be left undamaged. Stilpon was asked to provide a list of everything he had lost, but he responded by saying, ‘I have lost none of my real possessions, for my learning and my eloquence are untouched.’ ***** 1 Metrocles was a Cynic. For Cynics as dogs see 3.192 n1 above. 131 (ii) Plutarch Moralia 83c (Progress in virtue). In margin ‘unperturbed‘ 132 (iii) Diogenes Laertius 2.115. In margin ‘honour paid to virtue‘

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These things are truly oikeia,1 that is, personal and private possessions. We had the same idea above in different words.2 133 Stilpon had great skill in logical disputation, but one of his arguments had an unhappy consequence for him. Referring to the statue of Minerva made by Phidias, he asked someone, ‘Is Jove’s Minerva a goddess?’ When the other replied, ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘But this Minerva is not Jove’s, she’s Phidias’.’ The other man agreed to that, so he then drew his conclusion, ‘So this one is not a goddess.’ For saying this he was arraigned before the Areopagus for impiety. He tried to wriggle out of it by saying, ‘he hadn’t said she wasn’t a goddess, but that she wasn’t a god.’ (The noun theos ‘god’ in Attic Greek can be masculine or feminine.) All the same, he was ordered to go into exile. On hearing this tale, Theodorus, nicknamed ‘the Atheist,’ commented, ‘How did Stilpon know that, unless he lifted Minerva’s dress and had a look?’ 134 When Crates asked Stilpon whether the gods took pleasure in worship and prayers, ‘You fool,’ he replied, ‘don’t ask that question in the street, but ask me when we are alone.’ This answer suggests that his opinion was either that there are no gods or that they are not concerned with human affairs, but that it is not advisable to let such remarks out in the hearing of ordinary folk, who need to be kept in check by fear of the gods. There’s something very similar in the reply attributed to Bion1 who, in response to someone who asked him the same thing, quoted a line, from Homer,2 if I’m not mistaken: ‘Will you not drive the common crowd far from me, you pitiable old man?’ ***** 1 oikeia is the word used by Stilpon in the Greek version of the story. 2 See 5.99 above. Cf Adagia iv v 9: Sapiens sua bona secum fert ‘The wise man carries his resources with him.’ 133 (iv) Diogenes Laertius 2.116. For his argumentation cf 7.130 above. In margin ‘clever but with an unfortunate outcome‘ 134 (v) Diogenes Laertius 2.117. In margin ‘not everything to be made known to the common crowd‘ 1 Presumably Bion the Borysthenite, for whom see 7.187–215 below. 2 o[k úp' \mož sked‡seiw »xlon, talape’rie prŽsbu;. Apparently not Homer. For Crates see also 7.265–284 below.

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135 When the question was put to Crates the Cynic, he did not reply in words but let out a fart. Whereupon Stilpon remarked, ‘I knew you would make any sound rather than the proper one.’ 136 Stilpon offered Crates a fig, at the same time putting a query to him. Crates gobbled the fruit and Stilpon commented, ‘I’ve lost my fig.’ Crates retorted, ‘Not just your fig, but your question too, on which the fig was the down payment.’ He meant that it was no use trying to inveigle him into giving a response with a little present. 137 Seeing Crates all reddened with cold during the winter months, Stilpon joked, Dokeis moi chreian echein himatiou kainou. This joke, which depends on the actual words in the Greek, can’t be represented in Latin. The whole word kainou means ‘new,’ but if you divide it, kai nou, it means ‘and nous.’ In speech the difference is scarcely detectable, but it can be spelled out in writing. So it means ‘I think you need a new cloak,’ or, ‘I think you need a cloak and nous.’ The cold demanded a new cloak; his Cynic folly, because of which he would not adapt what he was wearing to fit the temperature, demanded some nous or gumption.1 138 When everyone’s eyes were turned on Stilpon, someone commented, ‘They are all marvelling at you like a strange wild animal.’ ‘Not at all,’ he retorted, ‘but like a true man.’ Animals from foreign lands are produced as a spectacle. No one marvels at ordinary people, but many turned their eyes on the philosopher, not as any run-of-the-mill fellow but as a true man. That is a very rare spectacle. He was in passing marking down the one who had accosted him as not being a true man and so not worth a second glance. ***** 135 (vi) Diogenes Laertius 2.117. In margin ‘a restrained reply‘ For the uninhibited behaviour of Cynics see 3.142 n1 and 3.248 above. 136 (vii) Diogenes Laertius 2.118. In margin ‘like a Cynic‘ 137 (viii) Diogenes Laertius 2.118. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 Cf the similar joke at 7.43 above. Cynics were proud of wearing just one shabby garment. 138 (ix) Diogenes Laertius 2.119. In margin ‘criticism rebutted‘

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Simon of Athens 139 Pericles invited Simon to join him, promising that he would provide everything he needed. But Simon replied that ‘he would not sell his liberty.’ He sided with the country mouse in the parable with his frugal way of life rather than with the town mouse who enjoyed all kinds of delicacies but lived in perpetual anxiety.1 Menedemus of Eretria 140 Once, when Menedemus had put a proposal before the people, somebody made a dig at him, saying that it was not a philosopher’ job either to sew a tent or to frame a decree, referring to the fact that his father was a leather worker and he himself had at one time followed that trade. In olden days tents were made of goat-skins sewn together. 141 When someone asked him whether the wise man should take a wife, Menedemus replied, ‘Now, do you take me for a wise man, or don’t you?’ The other answered that he did, so Menedemus said, ‘Well, I took a wife.’ It was pointless having scruples about something that he could see had been done by a man he considered wise. 142 When Antigonus asked Menedemus’ advice as to whether he should go to some riotous party, he said nothing for a while and then merely remarked, ‘You are a king’s son.’ This subtly suggested that wild behaviour was improper for one born to rule, or else that men in positions of power may do whatever they want. ***** 139 (i) Diogenes Laertius 2.123. In margin ‘liberty‘ Simon was a cobbler with whom Socrates used to converse. 1 See Horace Satires 2.6.79–117 for an extended version of the fable of the town and country mouse. 140 (i) Diogenes Laertius 2.125. In margin ‘artisan magistrates‘ Menedemus was a philosopher at Athens, a younger contemporary and pupil of Stilpon, fourth to third centuries bc. He later held high office in his native Eretria, but was forced into exile and took refuge with Antigonus (ii Gonatas); see 7.142 below. 141 (ii) Diogenes Laertius 2.128. In margin ‘the example of the sage‘ 142 (iii) Diogenes Laertius 2.128. In margin ‘improper conduct‘ This is Antigonus ii Gonatas, son of Demetrius Poliorketes.

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143 When someone kept making himself a nuisance with silly remarks, Menedemus asked him whether he had a farm. When the other said he had extensive possessions, ‘Then go away,’ he said, ‘and look after them, or else you will find you have lost them and ruined a decent private individual as well.’ He was implying that the man was not suited for public speaking1 but rather for farming. 144 Nicocreon, the autocratic ruler of Cyprus, invited Menedemus to a regularly occurring ceremonial feast, together with his friend Asclepiades and other philosophers. Menedemus remarked, ‘If it’s a good thing to gather such a group of men together, you should have done it every day; if not, there is no point in doing it now.’ The ruler replied that the day was one he kept as a holiday occasion, which meant he was free to listen to philosophers once in every month. Menedemus answered with great outspokenness that a real sacrifice to the gods requires a person to listen to wise men all the time. To cut a long story short, he went so far with his uninhibited remarks that if they had not been summoned away by some flute-player, they would have lost their lives. When they were later on a boat and in danger of death, Asclepiades commented. ‘The playing of the flute-player saved us, Menedemus’ free speech ruined us.’1 145 When one Alexinus asked Menedemus if he had stopped beating his father, he replied, ‘I neither beat him nor have I stopped beating him.’ The other retorted that he must resolve the ambiguity with a straight ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ but he replied, ‘It would be ridiculous to go along with your rules when I can block you at the gates.’ The other was trying to catch him out with a trick question: whether he said ‘I have stopped’ or ‘I haven’t stopped,’ he would admit to the charge. ***** 143 (iv) Diogenes Laertius 2.128. In margin ‘talking too much‘ 1 ad dicendum: should this be ad discendum ‘for learning?’ 144 (v) Diogenes Laertius 2.129–30. In margin ‘free speech has its dangers‘ 1 Erasmus has paraphrased this passage quite freely. It is not totally clear in the original, and Traversari’s version (see Introduction xvi–xvii above) with expansions suggests that he too was puzzled by it. Possibly the flute-player began to play for the religious ceremony to commence, so that they had to stop arguing and attend to the ceremony, which is what Traversari reads into the passage. 145 (vi) Diogenes Laertius 2.135. In margin ‘sophistic tricks‘

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Menedemus however saw this coming and gave no opening for the sophistic quibbling. Similarly in Plato the sophists find fault with Socrates for answering questions in a way that didn’t suit their argument.1 146 When Bion bitterly attacked soothsayers, Menedemus said ‘he was slaying the dead,’ because he fought so determinedly against people who had long since been booed off and buried. 147 When someone made the remark that the greatest good was to attain to everything one desired, Menedemus retorted, ‘But a much better good is only to desire what is right.’ 148 Menedemus used to say that many travelled to Athens to study and at the start they were wise men, then they became philosophers, that is, just ‘lovers of wisdom.’ Then they became rhetoricians, and as time went on finished up as ordinary individuals.1 This is in Plutarch. A man has made great progress when he has learned that he knows nothing. ‘Progress’ has an unhappy outcome if it means moving towards what is worse. Plato of Athens 149 Plato was all ready to compete for the prize in tragic drama, but after hearing Socrates, he changed his mind and burnt his poetry, first reciting a line parodying Homer: ‘O Hephaestus! Hither come, Plato now has need of thee.’1 ***** 1 Socrates accuses the Sophists of not answering the question in Gorgias 448, 462. 146 (vii) Diogenes Laertius 2.135. In margin ‘murdering the dead‘ 147 (viii) Diogenes Laertius 2.136 148 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 81e (Progress in virtue). In margin ‘degeneration‘ 1 Erasmus has inserted rhetores ‘rhetoricians.’ The point being made in Plutarch is that contact with philosophy steadily reduces a person’s excessively high opinion of himself. 149 (i) Diogenes Laertius 3.5. In margin ‘pursue what is better‘ This is the famous Plato who, according to tradition, wrote plays before converting to philosophy. There was a slightly older Plato who wrote comedies. 1 Homer Iliad 18.392: %Hfaiste, pr—mol' @de, Pl‡tvn nœ ti se”o xat’zei, substituting ‘Plato’ for ‘Thetis’ of the original. Hephaestus (Vulcan) was the god of fire.

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150 Plato was discussing tyranny with Dionysius, son of Hermocrates,1 and said, ‘A thing is not necessarily the best if it benefits one man only, unless that man surpasses all others in virtue.’ The tyrant took offence at this and said, ‘You talk like silly old man,’ but Plato replied, ‘And you talk like a tyrant.’ 151 There was a law among the people of Aegina that any Athenian who came there should be subject to the death penalty. When Plato was brought there to be sold as a slave, Carmendius, who had passed that law, demanded his execution, but he escaped through someone’s timely intervention. The man quipped that ‘the law said “If any man . . .,” but this was a philosopher.’1 152 We are told that Plato sailed to Sicily three times. This not only put him in physical danger but occasioned violent criticism. Molon, who was extremely hostile to Plato, remarked that the surprising thing was not to find ‘Dionysius in Corinth’ but to find Plato in Sicily.1 For the tyrant had been forced out of Sicily, whereas Plato’s visits were motivated by ambition, at least as far as general opinion went. All the same, Dionysius’ presence in Corinth excited so much wonder that it gave rise to this proverbial expression for anything unexpected and incredible. ***** 150 (ii) Diogenes Laertius 3.18. In margin ‘outspoken‘ 1 This is Dionysius i, autocratic ruler of Syracuse. Plato spent some time at his court. See 3.110, 3.149, 3.157. 151 (iii) Diogenes Laertius 3.19 1 This follows on from the previous anecdote. Dionysius’ first reaction was to put Plato to death, but instead sent him to the island of Aegina to be sold as a slave. The inhabitants were Dorians, hostile to Athens. 152 (iv) Diogenes Laertius 3.34. In margin ‘sharp‘ 1 This is Dionysius ii, tyrant of Syracuse (367–357 bc), son of the above. Plato had hoped to convert both Dionysius i and Dionysius ii to philosophy. After Dionysius ii’s expulsion by force of arms, he retired to Corinth, where, according to some accounts, he became a schoolmaster. He was a great drinker and eventually sank into a debauched and degraded way of life, even becoming a mendicant priest of the Great Mother. (These priests were generally regarded with great contempt.) See Cicero Tusculan Disputations 3.12.27; Valerius Maximus 6.9 ext. 6; Athenaeus 10.47, 435d–e and 12.58, 541e; and for the proverb Adagia ii 83: Dionysius Corinthi ‘Dionysius in Corinth.’ See 3.381 above.

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153 Plato rebuked a young man severely for playing dice. When he protested, ‘Are you reprimanding me over such a little thing?,’ Plato replied, ‘Getting into the habit is not a little thing.’ Demea in Terence’s play the Brothers says something along the same lines: ‘I don’t care about the money, it’s their habits.’1 154 When Plato was asked if there would be any memorial of him as there were of his predecessors, he replied, ‘First one must make one’s name. Then there will be plenty of memorials.’ He knew well that the memory of a person is best preserved in the minds of men and spread abroad through the works of eloquent writers. 155 He was about to beat a slave with whom he was angry when Xenocrates happened to come in. ‘Whip this boy,’ he said, ‘because I’m angry.’1 As a philosopher, he didn’t trust himself, being only too aware of his disturbed mental state. The ordinary run of men punish most of all when they are furious. 156 On another occasion, Plato threatened one of his slaves by saying, ‘I would give you a whipping if I weren’t so angry.’ Beware of anger. Syrus in Terence’s play was very sensible when ‘he went off to a quiet corner to sleep off his booze.’1 Anger destroys a man’s self-control even more than drunkenness.2 157 Plato once got on a horse, but dismounted very quickly, saying he was afraid ‘he would have an attack of horse-pride.’ ***** 153 (v) Diogenes Laertius 3.38. In margin ‘bad habits‘ 1 Terence Adelphi 820 154 (vi) Diogenes Laertius 3.38. In margin ‘immortality‘ 155 (vii) Diogenes Laertius 3.38. In margin ‘control‘ 1 See Valerius Maximus 4.1 ext. 2, where Plato delegates the punishment to Speusippus. See 1.345 and n1 above where Erasmus tells the story of Charillus, king of Sparta, and 8.85 below where it is told of the Pythagorean, Archytas. 156 (viii) Diogenes Laertius 3.39. In margin ‘control‘ 1 Terence Adelphi 786 2 It was a philosophical commonplace that anger was a temporary madness. 157 (ix) Diogenes Laertius 3.39. Cf 7.67 above. In margin ‘keeping oneself humble‘

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The horse is a proud animal and riding one has something rather lordly about it which is not really suitable for a philosopher. 158 Plato used to tell habitual drunkards that they should look at themselves in a mirror when they were tipsy. They would give up that vice when they saw how disgusting it made them look.1 159 Plato said one should never get drunk except at those festivals where the god himself was the provider of the wine.1 Making merry is appropriate to days of celebration, but drunkenness is always vile. 160 Plato disapproved of spending too much time asleep, so he wrote in his Laws, ‘no sleepyhead is good for anything.’1 161 When he was shunned by Dionysius,1 Plato asked for an interview and when this was granted, the conversation went as follows: Plato said, ‘If you knew that someone had come to Sicily with the intention of doing you harm but had failed to do so through lack of opportunity, would you let him go unharmed?’ Dionysius replied, ‘Certainly not, Plato. One must punish not only what an enemy actually does but what he intends to do.’ Plato then said, ‘So if someone who wished you well came to Sicily to do you some service but couldn’t do so because he was never given a chance, would it be fair to send him away humiliated and unthanked?’ When Dionysius asked who that might be, Plato replied, ‘Aeschines, a man whose integrity makes him the equal of any of Socrates’ associates, and a person whose conversation ***** 158 (x) Diogenes Laertius 3.39. In margin ‘drunkenness‘ 1 Cf 7.105 above. 159 (xi) Diogenes Laertius 3.39. In margin ‘making merry at festivals‘ 1 Ie at various festivals in honour of the god Dionysus, discoverer of wine. 160 (xii) Diogenes Laertius 3.39. In margin ‘vigilance‘ 1 Plato Laws 7.808c. See Adagia ii vii 95: Non decet principem solidam dormire noctem ‘A ruler should not sleep the whole night through.’ Cf Homer Iliad 2.24 for the same sentiment. 161 (xiii) Plutarch Moralia 67c–e (How to tell a flatterer). In margin ‘a word in time‘ 1 Plato spent time at the court of both Dionysius i and Dionysius ii. This is the latter. Aeschines was an impoverished disciple of Socrates, who was accused of going to Syracuse in the hope of getting money. See 3.51 and 3.100.

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will bring moral improvement to any who share his company. He endured a long sea journey to come here and share his philosophy with you and so far has been totally disregarded.’ As a result of this timely intervention, the king embraced Plato to whom he had been so antagonistic and also treated Aeschines with considerable honour. 162 Dion was much admired by all on account of his good looks and great achievements. Plato however warned him to beware of and indeed fear insolence which brings with it loneliness. For friends abandon a man who becomes overbearing in prosperity. 163 If ever he came across people behaving in a disgraceful way, Plato would go away and ask himself, ‘Have I ever behaved like that?’ No one is aware of his own failings but rather approves of himself. So one has to learn from others how unbecoming are the acts that fall short of moral rectitude. 164 After a lecture, Plato would tell his students, ‘Make sure, my lads, that you spend your leisure time in some worthwhile pursuit,’ indicating that idleness teaches the young all manner of evils. 165 He used to urge people not to exercise the body without exercising the mind nor the mind without the body, so that both were cared for equally.1 The first is what athletes do, the second is the mark of the lazy. 166 The people of Cyrene asked Plato to write a legal code and draw up a con***** 162 (xiv) Plutarch Life of Dion 8.4. In margin ‘domineering‘ For Dion see 5.85n. 163 (xv) Plutarch Moralia 88e (How to profit by one’s enemies). In margin ‘finding an example in others‘ 164 (xvi) Plutarch Moralia 135d (Advice about keeping well). In margin ‘leisure‘ 165 (xvii) Plutarch Moralia 137e (Advice about keeping well). In margin ‘exercise‘ 1 This seems to be a commonplace. A similar remark is attributed to Antisthenes in Stobaeus (Meineke iv 198) and to Diogenes in Diogenes Laertius 6.70. Plato expresses similar sentiments in eg Republic 411a–412a, Timaeus 88b–c. 166 (xviii) Plutarch Moralia 779d (On ignorance in a ruler). In margin ‘prosperity not easily controlled‘

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stitution for them, but he refused, saying that ‘it was extremely difficult to institute laws for people who were so prosperous.’ He meant that people who were perfectly content with their situation because their prosperity made them think well of themselves would not find it easy to follow recommendations that would be salutary for them. 167 The sophist Polus is said to have devised certain fancy modes of expression, such as antithesis, balancing phrases, and final assonance, and these he was considered to use to excess. Plato took him to task for his ostentatious play with these devices, addressing him with the words ‘O Polus, so to address you and speak to you as you do.’1 Polus in Greek means ‘a young horse,’ so the very use of the name immediately pointed to the man’s self-conceit,2 and Plato imitated his use of homoeoptoton by saying ‘you . . . you . . . you do.’ 168 Plato told Antisthenes, who tended to go on too long when speaking, ‘You don’t realize that the length of a speech is determined not by the speaker but by the listener.’1 169 He used to say that one must quietly accept the death of friends. This is partly because it is not at the time clear whether what has happened is good or bad, partly because bitter grief does no good to the mourner. Grief is diminished if one considers the true nature of what has happened. ***** 167 (xix) Philostratus Lives of the Sophists 13.497. In margin ‘affected way of speaking‘ 1 Philostratus is quoting Plato Gorgias 467b. Polus is a major speaker in the dialogue. Erasmus omits another alliterative word in the Greek text: ‘O peerless Polus . . .’ Plato probably quotes a specimen of Polus’ style earlier at Gorgias 448c. See also Plato Phaedrus 267c for a parody of Polus’ style. 2 Erasmus is perhaps remembering Plato’s criticism of Aristotle (Diogenes Laertius 5.2) as being like a foal that kicks its mother once it is weaned. 168 (xx) Stobaeus 36.22 (Meineke ii 40). In margin ‘keeping it short‘ 1 Erasmus has already quoted this in the dedicatory epistle to book 7 (763 above). 169 (xxi) See in general Plato Republic 387d–e. It seems to have been a commonplace. In margin ‘grief‘

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170 Plato said in criticism of Aristippus1 that ‘he was the only one with the gift of wearing either rags or robes.’ This was because Aristippus danced before Dionysius wearing a purple dress.2 Horace referred to this when he said, ‘Every colour suited Aristippus.’3 Some people ascribe Plato’s remark to Straton.4 Xenocrates of Chalcedon 171 When Alexander the Great sent him a huge sum of money, Xenocrates accepted just three minae out of it. The rest he sent back, saying that ‘Alexander had greater need, because he had a greater number of people to keep.’1 172 A sparrow which was fleeing a hawk flew into Xenocrates’ bosom. He concealed and protected it, and then stroked it and let it go, saying ‘a suppliant must not be betrayed.’ 173 When Bion poked fun at Xenocrates, he retorted, ‘I am not going to answer you. Neither does tragedy, when derided by comedy, condescend to reply.’ The freedom of ancient comedy is notorious. In it both the dramatists themselves and the characters in their plays are constantly being jeered at. But tragedy does not demean itself by mentioning low-class characters in retaliation. ***** (xxii) Diogenes Laertius 2.67. Aristippus is treated at length in 3.102–63 above. For the incident see 3.149 above; quoted also in Stobaeus 5.46 (Meineke i 117). Horace Epistles 1.17.23. Cf Plutarch Moralia 330c (Fortune of Alexander): ‘Aristippus looked good in a rough cloak or a fine wool robe from Miletus.’ Adagia i iii 86: Omnium horarum homo ‘A man for all hours.’ 4 Diogenes Laertius 2.67

170 1 2 3

171 (i) Diogenes Laertius 4.8. In margin ‘contempt for money‘ Xenocrates of Chalcedon was a student of Plato and was head of the Platonic Academy 339–314 bc. 1 Cf 7.177 below. There are other stories of Alexander sending large sums of money to various people, including philosophers. See eg 4.41–2 and 4.80 above; Plutarch Moralia 332e (The fortune of Alexander). 172 (ii) Diogenes Laertius 4.10. In margin ‘harmless‘ 173 (iii) Diogenes Laertius 4.10. Erasmus is probably thinking especially of Aristophanes’ Frogs, which mocks Euripides and Aeschylus as well as Dionysus and Hercules (see 7.340 n2 below). In margin ‘spirited‘

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174 Someone frequented Xenocrates’ school who was totally ignorant in geometry, music, and astrology. ‘Go away,’ he said. ‘You offer philosophy no handle.’ This meant, ‘You have no aptitude for philosophy, as you have not acquired the basic disciplines.’ Others report that he said, ‘I am not in the business of dressing fleeces.’ Raw wool does not go straight to the clothes manufacturers, but first to the fuller. 175 When Dionysius said to Plato, ‘Someone will take off your head,’ Xenocrates, who was present with his teacher, retorted, ‘Not before this one,’ pointing to his own head. 176 At a party, everyone else was chattering away but Xenocrates alone was silent. When someone asked him why he was the only one with nothing to say, he replied, ‘that one is sometimes sorry to have spoken but never to have held one’s tongue.’1 Plutarch attributes this remark to Simonides in Advice about keeping well.2 177 Alexander sent a delegation to Xenocrates bringing several talents of money. They were taken to the Academy where Xenocrates entertained them to a very frugal meal. The next day they asked him to whom he would like them to pay over the money. ‘What?’ he said. ‘Did you completely fail to understand from yesterday’s dinner that I have no need of money?’1 This pagan philosopher rejected a huge sum of money offered unasked ***** 174 (iv) Diogenes Laertius 4.10. In margin ‘teachability‘ 175 (v) Diogenes Laertius 4.11. In margin ‘friendship‘ This is Dionysius ii. 176 (vi) Valerius Maximus 7.2 ext. 6. In margin ‘saying nothing‘ 1 See Adagia iii v 3: Silentii tutum pretium ‘Safety is silence’s reward.’ See also General Index: mouth, keeping shut. 2 Plutarch Moralia 125d (Advice about keeping well), also Moralia 515a (On talkativeness). 177 (vii) Valerius Maximus 4.3 ext. 3. In margin ‘contempt for money‘ 1 Cf 7.171 n1 above. For Xenocrates’ frugality and meanness, see Adagia iii v 33: Xenocratis caseolus ‘Xenocrates’ scrap of cheese.’

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by a wealthy and generous king, whereas nowadays there are those who expect to be regarded as holy when they profess such utter poverty that they shrink from even touching coins as if they were poisonous snakes, yet use unspeakable means to attract the generosity of rich and poor alike.2 178 He said ‘it made no difference whether you turned your feet or your eyes into another’s house,’ meaning that we should avoid all curiosity about things that have nothing to do with us. 179 Xenocrates said that boys’ ears needed to be protected with leather earmuffs more than athletes’ ears did, because it was more dangerous to have boys’ ears filled with harmful talk than to have athletes’ ears open to blows. As the Satirist says, ‘Great is the reverence owing to a boy.’1 Crantor of Soli 180 Crantor very much approved of this line out of Euripides’ Bellerophon: ‘O grief! Why grief? We have but suffered what befalls mankind.’1 He was well aware that what happens to one individual can happen to anyone at all. So nothing should be seen as unexpected or unbearable. Arcesilaus 181 If ever he approved some statement, Arcesilaus used to say ‘It seems to me,’ or ‘I accept.’ If he disagreed, he would say ‘So-and-so will not accept that,’ naming someone or other. ***** 2 Presumably a hit at mendicant friars. Cf 7.265 n2 below. 178 (viii) Plutarch Moralia 521a (On curiosity). In margin ‘curiosity‘ 179 (ix) Plutarch Moralia 38b, (On listening to lectures). In margin ‘reverence owing to a boy‘ 1 Juvenal 14.47 180 (x) Diogenes Laertius 4.26. In margin ‘resolute‘ Crantor of Soli was an academic philosopher (c. 335–321 bc), a pupil of Xenocrates. 1 Euripides (Bellerophontes) fr 300 Nauck: Oæmoi. T’ d'oæmoi; ynht‡ toi pep—nyamen. 181 (i) Diogenes Laertius 4.36. In margin ‘modest‘ Arcesilaus (316/5–242/1 bc) was a friend of Crantor. He became head of the Academy in its middle period, and introduced some principles of scepticism to its teachings. See 7.336 below.

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He thus displayed modesty when making his own assertions and avoided antagonizing people when rejecting their ideas.1 182 When someone asked him how it came about that many defected from other schools of philosophy to the Epicureans,1 but none abandoned the Epicureans for other groups, Arcesilaus replied, ‘Men can become Galli, but Galli can never become men.’ By this he meant that people were more inclined to pleasure than to virtue. Galli were the eunuch priests of Cybele. Besides, to pursue pleasure is characteristic of women rather than men. 183 Arcesilaus invited a number of visitors to dinner together with his friends. The meal was brought in, but there was no bread because the servants had forgotten to buy any. He laughed and said, ‘Being a philosopher is so helpful when arranging a dinner!’1 He meant that in the everyday things of life a philosopher has less sense than any ordinary fellow, but in passing he also demonstrated philosophical self-control, for would any other person not have been furiously angry in such circumstances? 184 Arcesilaus compared poverty to Ulysses’ home country of Ithaca, for (according to Homer), it was a harsh land, but ‘a nurse of young men.’1 Poverty accustoms young men to live in a frugal and controlled manner and trains them for the performance of every virtuous act. ***** 1 The very compressed original which Erasmus has expanded seems to suggest that Arcesilaus was on occasion dogmatic rather than undogmatic as his philosophical principle of suspension of judgment demanded, but the import of the passage is not clear. 182 (ii) Diogenes Laertius 4.43. In margin ‘tendency towards what is worse‘ 1 In his ethical teaching, Epicurus propounded the easily misunderstood doctrine that the goal of life was pleasure. 183 (iii) Plutarch Moralia 461d (On the control of anger). In margin ‘self-control‘ 1 The Greek possibly means, ‘What a good thing that the wise man is more interested in the drinking,’ ie in the symposium and discussion that come after the food. See Plutarque Œuvres Morales viii 297 (Bud´e). 184 (iv) Plutarch Against wealth fragment 4; Stobaeus 95.17 (Meineke iii 200). In margin ‘poverty‘ 1 Homer Odyssey 9.25–7

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185 Arcesilaus used to say that just as there were many diseases where there were many doctors, so where there were too many laws, there was a plethora of wrongdoing. 186 There was a certain rich person who was very dissolute in his appearance. His hair was artfully arranged and his eyes darted here and there with suggestive glances, though he was generally considered to be free of any sexual misconduct. Arcesilaus took him to task, saying, ‘It makes no difference whether you are debauched front or back.’1 He meant that if your mind is untarnished, the dress and appearance of the body should match it. Bion the Borysthenite 187 Antigonus addressed Bion with this line from Homer: ‘Whence comest thou? Who art thou? Where lies thy city, where thy parents?’1 Bion was well aware that he was being ridiculed on account of his nationality and low birth and replied quite openly, ‘My father was a freedman and wiped his nose on his arm,’ meaning that he was a salt-fish seller.2 He added, ‘My father was a native of Borysthenes.3 His features did not show it but he ***** 185 (v) Stobaeus 43.91 (Meineke ii 98). In margin ‘a multitude of laws‘ 186 (vi) Aulus Gellius 3.5. In margin ‘effeminacy‘ 1 Erasmus seems to be using the version of the story in Aulus Gellius; the saying alone occurs in Plutarch Moralia 126a (Advice about keeping well), Moralia 705e (Table-talk 7.5.3), and Cicero De oratore 2.256. 187 (i) Diogenes Laertius 4.46. In margin ‘an origin to be ashamed of‘ Bion was a Cynic philosopher of the late third to second centuries bc. He travelled about the Greek world teaching and giving public addresses satirizing human foolishness. He is thought to be the originator of the diatribe which contributed to the literary satirical tradition. In late life he became court philosopher to Antigonus ii Gonatas. 1 Homer Odyssey 10.325: T’w p—yen e w úndr™n; p—yi toi p—liw Òd tokew; 2 An example of consequentia – ie naming accompanying features in order to suggest the thing they are associated with, which is not named. A salt-fish seller does not use his hand to wipe his nose in order not to get salt on his face; accordingly, to say a man uses his arm implies that he is a salt-fish seller. See [Cicero] Rhetorica ad Herennium 4.67. To call someone’s father ‘a man who wipes his nose on his arm’ was a common jibe; Adagia ii iv 8: ‘To wipe one’s nose on one’s forearm.’ 3 Bion came from Olbia on the Black Sea, near the mouth of the river Borysthenes (the Dnieper).

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carried on his brow the signature of a harsh master. My mother was a prostitute.’ He added a few more details with equal bluntness, and then quoted the Homeric line: ‘Such my descent, from such a sire it is my boast to come.’4 188 Someone found fault with Bion for not trying to attract a certain young man. He replied, ‘A soft cheese cannot be drawn on a hook.’ He meant that pretty boys were not suited to philosophy. 189 When someone else asked him who suffered most from anxiety, he replied, ‘The man who desires success at the highest level.’ This sort of man will suffer a thousand miseries in order to achieve something hard to get and once he has got it will be tormented no less in case he lose it. 190 When asked whether a man should marry, Bion replied, ‘If you marry an ugly wife, you’ll have to bear her; if a beautiful one, you’ll have to share her.’ There’s a nice touch in the original Greek where we have the words poin¯e ‘pain, suffering’ and koin¯e ‘in common, shared.’ This is attributed to Antisthenes. Aulus Gellius attributes the saying to Bias in book five, chapter eleven.1 191 ‘Old age,’ Bion used to say, ‘is the harbour of misfortunes, for everyone takes refuge there.’1 They are hoping for an end to their miseries. Now death lies within the power of each one of us and the pagans, at any rate, thought that ending one’s life was a splendid deed, but Christian piety teaches that it is a grievous sin. ***** 4 Homer Iliad 6.211:

Taœthw tw genetw, toœtou patr˜w eáxomai nai.

188 (ii) Diogenes Laertius 4.47. In margin ‘teachability‘ 189 (iii) Diogenes Laertius 4.47. In margin ‘peace of mind‘ 190 (iv) Diogenes Laertius 4.48. In margin ‘marriage‘ 1 Cf 7.44 above, where it is attributed to Antisthenes and Bias; see n1 there. 191 (v) Diogenes Laertius 4.48. In margin ‘old age‘ 1 Erasmus seems to have read pant‡w ‘all men, everyone’ rather than pant‡ ‘all ills,’ and this has affected his explanation. Cf 7.210 below. Bion seems to have meant that misfortunes pile up in old age.

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192 ‘Glory,’ Bion used to say, ‘is the mother of years.’1 He meant, I presume, that though the life of man is brief, an honourable memory extends over the centuries. 193 ‘Beauty,’ Bion used to say, ‘is a gift that is not our own,’ meaning that it lies outside man and he can neither give it to himself nor preserve it if it is given. It is the gifts of mind that are truly ours.1 194 ‘Riches,’ Bion used to say, ‘are the sinews of action,’ for without them nothing is achieved. Somebody else called them ‘the sinews of war.’1 195 Of someone who had consumed all his estates, Bion said, ‘The earth swallowed Amphiaraus; you’ve swallowed the earth.’ 1 196 One of Bion’s sayings was that ‘it’s a great misfortune not to be able to bear misfortune.’ Without this no man can find life sweet. 197 He condemned those who burned men whole as if they had no sensation and singed them as if they had. The reason is, I suppose, that in war everything is totally burned up, whereas, if people are lightly touched by fire they feel pain.1 That’s what he means by ‘singe.’ ***** 192 (vi) Diogenes Laertius 4.48. In margin ‘immortality‘ 1 Erasmus’ text of Diogenes Laertius read \t™n ‘years,’ as did Traversari’s (see Introduction xvi–xvii above). A modern emendation is úret™n ‘virtues.’ 193 (vii) Diogenes Laertius 4.48. In margin ‘beauty‘ 1 Bion may have meant that it was something intended to give pleasure to others rather than the possessor. 194 (viii) Diogenes Laertius 4.48. In margin ‘riches‘ 1 Cicero Philippics 5.5 195 (ix) Diogenes Laertius 4.48. In margin ‘squandering‘ 1 Amphiaraus, when fleeing from Thebes, was swallowed up alive with his chariot and horses when a thunderbolt from Zeus cleft the earth open. 196 (x) Diogenes Laertius 4.48. In margin ‘endurance‘ 197 (xi) Diogenes Laertius 4.48. In margin ‘witty‘ 1 Possibly a reference to branding or torture.

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198 Bion used to say that it was preferable to bestow one’s own fruits on another than to pluck the fruits of others. He knew that it was more blessed to give than to receive.1 199 He used to say that the road to the Underworld was easy – men went there with their eyes shut. People close the eyes of the dying. 200 Bion censured Alcibiades with the following epigrammatic remark: ‘When he was a lad, he drew the men from their wives, and when he was a bit older he drew the wives from their men.’ 201 In Rhodes the Athenians were devoted to the study of rhetoric but Bion offered philosophy. People found fault with him for this, but he replied, ‘I have brought wheat and you expect me to sell barley?’ He meant that it was stupid to ask him for the less good when he had brought what was better; for philosophy is like wheat, a food for men, whereas barley is for horses. There is also the suggestion that only the philosopher truly speaks, rhetoricians neigh. 202 There is a story that the daughters of Danaus were condemned in the Underworld by way of punishment to carry water in leaky containers and pour it into a storage jar with holes in it. Bion used to comment, ‘The punishment would have been worse if they had carried the water in sound containers and not leaky ones,’ as then their burden would have been heavier.1 ***** 198 (xii) Diogenes Laertius 4.49. In margin ‘generosity‘ 1 Acts 20:35; but the next few lines in the Greek text suggest an obscene interpretation, and question Socrates’ relationship with Alcibiades. Erasmus omits this. Cf 3.72 above. 199 (xiii) Diogenes Laertius 4.49. In margin ‘death is easy‘ 200 (xiv) Diogenes Laertius 4.49. In margin ‘outspoken‘ 201 (xv) Diogenes Laertius 4.49. In margin ‘philosophy better than rhetoric‘ 202 (xvi) Diogenes Laertius 4.50. In margin ‘correction‘ 1 Erasmus has prefaced the saying with the necessary reference to the daughters of Danaus who were so punished. See Horace Odes 3.11.25–7; Adagia i iv 60: Cribro aquam haurire ‘To draw water in a sieve’;i x 33: Inexplebile dolium ‘A great jar full of holes.’

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203 A very talkative person begged for his help. Bion replied, ‘I will certainly do as you ask, provided you send other people to plead your cause and don’t come yourself.’ 204 It so happened that Bion found himself on a boat with some villainous fellow passengers. They fell in with pirates and the others said, ‘It’s all up with us if we are recognized.’ ‘And with me too,’ said Bion, ‘unless we are recognized.’1 Being recognized means safety for good men. 205 ‘Arrogance,’ Bion used to say, ‘is an obstacle to progress.’ Anyone who wants to appear learned rather than be learned is incapable of receiving instruction. 206 Bion said in criticism of a rich miser, ‘He does not own his wealth; his wealth owns him.’ 207 Misers, he said, took care of their wealth is if it were their own, but got no more use from it than if it belonged to others. 208 He said that young men should display bravery, but that old men excel in wisdom. Experience has bestowed wisdom on the old. 209 Bion used to say that wisdom excelled the other virtues in the same way as sight took first place among the senses. ***** 203 (xvii) Diogenes Laertius 4.50. In margin ‘talking too much‘ 204 (xviii) Diogenes Laertius 4.50. In margin ‘innocence is safe‘ 1 Erasmus’ text read gnvsyQmen ‘unless we are recognized’; modern texts have gnwsy™ ‘unless I am recognized.’ 205 (xix) Diogenes Laertius 4.50. In margin ‘unteachable‘ 206 (xx) Diogenes Laertius 4.50. In margin ‘miser‘ 207 (xxi) Diogenes Laertius 4.50 208 (xxii) Diogenes Laertius 4.50. In margin ‘wisdom belongs to the old‘ 209 (xxiii) Diogenes Laertius 4.51

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The eyes give light to the whole body,1 and without wisdom no other virtue can exist. How can the just man give to each his due unless wisdom first shows what is due to each? 210 Bion used to tell people not to mock others for being old since everyone desires to reach old age. It’s ridiculous to taunt someone for something which everyone hopes he will himself attain one day. 211 Seeing a fellow who was thought to be of a mean disposition looking very gloomy, ‘I don’t know,’ Bion commented, ‘ whether something bad has happened to you or something good to somebody else.’1 The envious man is tortured just as much by others’ felicity as by his own misfortune. 212 ‘Impiety,’ Bion said, ‘is a bad partner for confidence.’ He added a line from Euripides, ‘It enslaves a man, however fierce of spirit he may be.’1 He was well aware that there is no freedom where there is a guilty conscience, nor can a man speak freely where he is, with good reason, open to a charge of impiety, nor can he enjoy peace of mind if he has angered the divine. 213 Bion said we should keep our friends,1 whatever they were like, so that we ***** 1 Cf Matt 6.22 Lucerna corporis tui est oculus tuus. 210 (xxiv) Diogenes Laertius 4.51. In margin ‘old age‘ 211 (xxv) Diogenes Laertius 4.51. In margin ‘envy‘ 1 Cf 6.194 above, where the remark is attributed to Scipio Aemilianus. 212 (xxvi) Diogenes Laertius 4.51. In margin ‘peace of mind‘ 1 Euripides Hippolytus 424: Doulo” g‡r Ändra, k©n yrasœstom—w tiw Ó. Erasmus’ text of Diogenes Laertius must have read dussebe”a ‘impiety,’ as did Traversari’s text (see Introduction xvi–xvii above) as his translation impietas ‘impiety’ shows. Erasmus’ comments are based on this version, which is more appropriate to Bion; see 7.187 above. 213 (xxvii) Diogenes Laertius 4.51. In margin ‘wise‘ 1 Erasmus seems to have misinterpreted sunthre’n as ‘keep’ rather than ‘keep an eye one.’

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are not found to have welcomed bad characters into intimacy or rejected good ones. 214 He often remarked that, just as Penelope’s suitors took up with Penelope’s maid-servants when they couldn’t bed Penelope herself, likewise those who could not get anywhere with philosophy disported themselves in various lightweight disciplines. 215 Bion used to tell his associates that they could tell whether they had made any progress in philosophy if they could listen to people attacking and insulting them in the same way as they would if they were reciting these lines from Homer: ‘Friend, since thou seemest neither fool nor villain, hail and a mighty welcome to thee; may the gods grant thee all prosperity.’1 Lacydes of Cyrene 216 When King Attalus1 sent for him, Lacydes replied that ‘statues should be viewed from a distance.’ This suggested that close and constant familiarity often diminished one’s admiration for virtue. Carneades 217 We are told that Carneades had a very loud voice. So on one occasion the gymnasiarch, that is, the director of the athletics stadium, sent someone to tell him not to shout so loud. He replied, ‘Then give me something to ***** 214 (xxviii) Plutarch Moralia 7d (The education of children). In margin ‘a serious remark‘ 215 (xxix) Plutarch Moralia 82e (Progress in virtue). In margin ‘an even temper‘ 1 A combination of Homer Odyssey 6.187 and 24.402: )V jŽn', \pe“ oát' Äfroni

fvt“ Áoikaw, o{lŽ te ka“ m‡la xa”re, yeo“ nœ toi »lbia do”en.

216 (xxx) Diogenes Laertius 4.60. Lacydes of Cyrene was a philosopher at Athens in the third century bc, head of the Middle Academy in succession to Arcesilaus (see 2.81 and 7.181 above). 1 This seems to be Attalus i, king of Pergamum 217 (xxxi) Diogenes Laertius 4.63. For Carneades, a second-century Greek philosopher at Athens, see 2.82 n1 above.

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measure my voice by,’ to which the director neatly responded, ‘You have a measure in your audience.’1 To be sure, one has to pitch one’s voice according to the size of one’s audience. 218 Carneades used to say that the only thing the sons of wealthy men and of kings learnt properly was to ride a horse. This is because everyone else flatters them, but the horse alone, not caring whether he carries king or commoner, throws anyone who is not a skilled horseman. Aristotle of Stagira 219 When Aristotle began giving lectures in competition with Xenocrates, he misquoted the following verse: ‘Shame to keep silent and leave Xenocrates to speak.’1 Other versions have Isocrates here, not Xenocrates.2 220 When his pupil Callisthenes spoke far too freely in the presence of Alexander, he quoted the following line of Homer by way of warning him: ***** 1 This has already been quoted in dedicatory epistle (763 above). The gymnasium or athletics stadium was also a social and meeting centre and some philosophers and rhetoricians held classes there. See Adagia v ii 19: Discum quam philosophum audire malunt ‘They would rather hear the discus than a philosopher.’ 218 (xxxii) Plutarch Moralia 58f (How to tell a flatterer). In margin ‘education of princes‘ 219 (i) Diogenes Laertius 5.3. In margin ‘rivalry‘ This is the famous Aristotle. He studied under Plato at the Academy for about 20 years. In 342 bc Philip ii appointed him tutor to Alexander at Pella in Macedonia. In 335 bc he returned to Athens and founded his own school of philosophy, the Lyceum. He was driven from Athens for political reasons, and died in 322. 1 &Aisxr˜n sivp‰n, Jenokr‡thn d'\‰n lŽgein. Aristotle is misquoting a line, possibly from the lost Philoctetes of Euripides (Nauck fr 796), substituting ‘Xenocrates’ for ‘barbarians.’ For Xenocrates see 7.171 above. 2 In the version given by Cicero in De oratore 3.35.141, as also in the version of Quintilian 3.1 14, the rival is Isocrates, the famous rhetorician. See Adagia ii vii 4: Turpe silere ‘Shame to be mute.’ This last sentence was an addition of 1535. 220 (ii) Diogenes Laertius 5.5. In margin ‘untimely free speech‘

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‘Doomed to an early death shalt thou be, my son, with such words upon thy lips.’1 Nor was his foreboding mistaken, for Callisthenes’ freedom of speech caused his death.2 221 Aristotle was prosecuted for writing a hymn in honour of Hermia, a woman he loved, extolling her like a goddess, and right at the beginning of his defence he quoted a line from Homer, showing how he resented the false accusation: ‘Pear ripens after pear, fig after fig.’1 222 When he was asked what benefit people got from lying, ‘When they tell the truth,’ he replied, ‘people don’t believe them.’1 223 When someone censured Aristotle for giving alms to a bad character, he replied, ‘I took pity not on the way he lives, but on the man.’1 ***** 1 Homer Iliad 18.95: &Vkœmorow d} moi, tŽkow, Ásseai, o