Phocion

And once when the Athenians were witnessing an exhibition of new tragedies, the actor who was to take the part of a queen asked the choregus to furnish him with a great number of attendant women in expensive array; and when he could not get them, he was indignant, and kept the audience waiting by his refusal to come out. But the choregus, Melanthius, pushed him before the spectators, crying: Dost thou not see that Phocion’s wife always goes out with one maid-servant? Thy vanity will be the undoing of our women-folk.

His words were plainly heard by the audience, and were received with tumultuous applause. And this very wife, when an Ionian woman who was her guest displayed ornaments of gold and precious stones worked into collars and necklaces, said: My ornament is Phocion, who is now for the twentieth year a general of Athens.