Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Plutarch

Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).

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,

commanding the Athenian army, had overcome the barbarians at Marathon, never again was it possible to encounter Themistocles misconducting himself. To those who expressed their amazement at the change in him, he said that the trophy of Miltiades does not allow me to sleep or to be indolent. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, chap. iii. (113 B); Moralia, 84 B, 92 C, 800 B; Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, iv. 19 (44): and Valerius Maximus, viii. 14, ext. 1.)

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.).)