Alcibiades

Plutarch

Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. IV. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1916.

Possessing a dog of wonderful size and beauty, which had cost him seventy minas,[*](i.e. 7000 drachmas, or francs.) he had its tail cut off, and a beautiful tail it was, too. His comrades chid him for this, and declared that everybody was furious about the dog and abusive of its owner. But Alcibiades burst out laughing and said: That’s just what I want; I want Athens to talk about this, that it may say nothing worse about me.