Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

As he was sailing away from Sicily after his failure there, [*](In 276 B.C.) he turned to look back, and said to his friends, What a field of conflict are we leaving behind us for the Romans and Carthaginians to wrestle in! [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Pyrrhus, chap. xxiii. (398 F).)

When the soldiers addressed him as Eagle, he said, Why not an eagle, when I am borne aloft on the swift wings of your weapons ? [*](Ibid. chap. x. (388 B).)

Hearing that some young men had made many defamatory remarks about him while in their cups, he ordered that they should all be brought before him the next day. When they were brought, he asked the first whether they had said these things about him. And the young man replied, Yes, Your Majesty; and we should have said more than that if we had had more wine. [*](Told with more details by Plutarch in his Life of Pyrrhus, chap. viii. (387 F), and Valerius Maximus, v. 1. ext. 3. Cf. also Quintilian, vi. 3. 10.)

Antiochus, who made his next [*](The first campaign was against Jerusalem in 133 B.C.) campaign against the Parthians, in a hunt and chase wandered away from his friends and servants, and unrecognized entered the hut of some poor people. At dinner he brought in the subject of the king, and heard that, in general, he was a decent man, but that he entrusted most matters to friends who were scurvy fellows, and overlooked and often disregarded matters that were imperative through being too fond of hunting. At the time he said nothing; but at daybreak some of his bodyguards arrived at the hut, and his identity was disclosed when the purple and the crown were brought to him. Howbeit, said he, since the day when I donned you, yesterday was the first time that I heard true words about myself.

The Jews, when he was besieging Jerusalem, asked for an armistice of seven days for their most important festival, and he not only granted this, but he also made ready bulls with gilded horns, and a great quantity of incense and spices, and brought all these in solemn procession as far as the gates. Then, having transferred the offering to the hands of their priests, he returned to his camp. The Jews were amazed, and immediately after the festival placed themselves in his hands.[*](The same facts are narrated by Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, xiii. 8. 2.)

Themistocles while yet in his youth abandoned himself to wine and women.[*](Cf. Moralia, 552 B; Athenaeus, pp. 533 D and 576 C.) But after Miltiades,

Being asked whether he would rather have been Achilles or Homer, he said, How about you yourself ? Would you rather be the victor at the Olympic games or the announcer of the victor ? [*](The remark is attributed to Alexander by Dio Chrysostom, Oration, ii. (22 M., 79 R.).)

When Xerxes was descending upon Greece with his mighty armament, Themistocles was afraid of Epicydes the popular leader, unscrupulous and cowardly, lest possibly he might, by being elected general, bring about the ruin of the State; and so he bribed Epicydes to withdraw from his attempt to gain the command. [*](The story is told more fully in Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, chap. vi. (114 D).)

When Adeimantus lacked the courage to risk a naval battle, and said to Themistocles, who was exhorting and urging on the Greeks, Themistocles, in the games they always scourge the runners who start before the signal is given, Themistocles replied, Yes, Adeimantus, but they do not crown those who are left behind in the race. [*](Adeimantus is the speaker here, as in Herodotus, viii. 59; but in Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, chap. xi. (117 D), the remark is attributed not to the Corinthian Adeimantus, but to Eurybiades the Spartan, who was in command of the fleet.)

When Eurybiades lifted his cane as though to strike him, he said, Strike but listen. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, chap. xi. (117 E); Aelian, Varia Historia, xiii. 40; Diogenes Laertius, vi. 21.)

Unable to persuade Eurybiades to engage the enemy’s ships in the narrows, he sent a secret message to the barbarian telling him not to be afraid of the Greeks, who were running away. And when the barbarian, by taking this advice, was vanquished in the battle because he fought where the Greeks had the advantage, Themistocles again sent a message to him, bidding him flee to the Hellespont by the speediest route, since the Greeks were minded to destroy the bridge. In this his purpose was, while saving the Greeks, to give the king the impression that he was saving him. [*](The details may be found in Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, chaps. xiii.-xvi. (118 B-120 C). The story comes from Herodotus, viii. 75 and 110. Cf. also Polyaenus, Strategemata, i. 30. 3 and 4.)

When the man from Seriphus said to him that it was not because of himself but because of his country that he was famous, Themistocles remarked, What you say is true enough; but if I were from Seriphus, I should not have become famous, nor would you if you were from Athens. [*](In almost the same words in Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, chap. xviii. (121 B), but the story goes back to Herodotus, viii. 125, where Timodemus is the speaker, and Themistocles names the island of Belbina. The man from Seriphus is found first in Plato, Republic, 329 E and persists thereafter, as in Plutarch and in Cicero, De senectute, 3 (8), and in Origen, Against Celsus, i. 29 (347 E).)

Antiphates, the handsome youth of whom Themistocles was enamoured, avoided him in the earlier days, and looked down upon him, but, after Themistocles had acquired great repute and power, kept coming to him and trying to flatter him. My boy, said Themistocles, it has taken time, but now we have both come to have sense. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, chap. xviii. (121 A).)

To Simonides, who petitioned for a legal decision which was not just, he said that Simonides would not be a good poet if he sang out of tune, nor should he himself be a useful official if he gave a decision out of tune with the law. [*](Cf. Moralia, 534 E and 807 B.)

Of his son, who was pert towards his mother, he said that the boy wielded more power than anybody else in Greece; for the Athenians ruled the Greeks, he himself ruled the Athenians, the boy’s mother ruled himself, and the boy ruled the mother. [*](Cf. Moralia, 1 C; Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, chap. xviii. (121 B); and Life of Cato Major, chap. viii. (340 B).)

Of the suitors for his daughter’s hand he esteemed the man of promise higher than the man of wealth, saying that he was looking for a man that was in need of money rather than for money that was in need of a man.[*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, chap. xviii. (121 c); Cicero, De officiis, ii. 20 (71); Valerius Maximus, vii. 2, ext. 9. A somewhat similar remark is attributed to Pericles by Stobaeus, Florilegium, lxx. 17, and to a Spartan (on the authority of Serenus), lxxii. 15.)

When he offered a plot of land for sale, he ordered the announcement to be made that it also had a good neighbour. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, chap. xviii. (121 C).)

When the Athenians treated him with contumely, he said, Why do you grow tired of being well served many times by the same men ? He also likened himself to the plane-trees, beneath which men hasten when overtaken by a storm, but, when fair weather comes, they pluck the leaves as they pass by and break off the branches. [*](Life of Themistocles, chap. xviii. (121 A), and chap. xxii. (123 A); Cf. also Aelian, Varia Historia, ix. 18.)