Timoleon

Once, namely, when he landed at Leucadia,[*](On his voyage from Syracuse to Corinth.) a city which had been colonized by Corinthians, just like Syracuse, he said he had the same feelings as young men who have been guilty of misdemeanours;

for just as these pass their time merrily with their brothers, but shun their fathers from a feeling of shame, so he was ashamed to live in their common mother-city, and would gladly dwell there with them.

And again, in Corinth, when a stranger somewhat rudely derided him about his associations with philosophers, in which he used to take delight when he was a tyrant, and finally asked him what good Plato’s wisdom did him now, Dost thou think, said he, that I have had no help from Plato, when I bear my change of fortune as I do?

Further, when Aristoxenus the musician and certain others inquired what his complaint against Plato was and what its origin, he told them that of the many ills with which tyranny abounded there was none so great as this, that not one of those reputed to be friends speaks frankly with the tyrant; for indeed it was by such friends that he himself had been deprived of Plato’s good will.

Again, when one of those who wish to be witty, in mockery of Dionysius shook out his robe on coming into his presence,[*](To show that no weapon was concealed there.) as if into the presence of a tyrant, Dionysius turned the jest upon him by bidding him do so when he went out from his presence, that he might not take anything in the house away with him.

And when Philip of Macedon, at a banquet, began to talk in banter about the lyric poems and tragedies which Dionysius the Elder had left behind him, and pretended to wonder when that monarch found time for these compositions, Dionysius not inaptly replied by saying: When thou and I and all those whom men call happy are busy at the bowl.