Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Cotys was once presented with a leopard, and he presented the donor with a lion in return. He was by nature very irascible and prone to punish severely any lapses in service. On a time when a friend from abroad brought him some vessels of earthenwrare, very fragile and delicate, wrought with figures in relief in a realistic and highly artistic manner, he gave presents to the friend, but broke all the vessels in pieces, so that I, as he said, may not in anger punish too severely those that break them.

Idanthyrsus, the king of the Scythians, against whom Darius crossed the Danube, tried to persuade the despots of the lonians to break up the bridge that spanned the river, and then withdraw. But when they were not willing to do so because of their plighted word to Darius, he called them good slaves who would never run away. [*](Cf. Herodotus, iv. 142.)

Ateas wrote to Philip: You are the ruler of the Macedonians who have learned to fight against men; but I am ruler of the Scythians who are able to fight against both hunger and thirst.

While he was engaged in currying his horse he asked the ambassadors who had come from Philip whether Philip did this.

Having captured in battle Ismenias, the very best of flute-players, he bade him play a tune. Everybody else was filled with admiration, but Ateas swore

Scilurus, who left eighty sons surviving him, when he was at the point of death handed a bundle of javelins to each son in turn and bade him break it. After they had all given up, he took out the javelins one by one and easily broke them all, thereby teaching the young men that, if they stood together, they would continue strong, but that they would be weak if they fell out and quarrelled. [*](Cf. Moralia, 511 C.)

Gelon, the despot, after vanquishing the Carthaginians off Himera, forced them, when he made peace with them, to include in the treaty an agreement to stop sacrificing their children to Cronus, [*](Cf. Moralia, 171 (and the note), and 552 A. According to Diodorus, xx. 14, the practice was revived in 310 B.C., even if it had not persisted during the intervening years. Cf. G.F. Moore in the Journal of Biblical Literature, xvi. (1897), p. 161. Cronus is the Semitic El, Moloch, or Baal.)

He often led out the Syracusans to plant their fields, as if it had been for a campaign, so that the land should be improved by being worked, and the men should not deteriorate by being idle.

He asked for money from the citizens, and, when they began to murmur, he said that he was asking for it with the intent to repay, and he did repay it when the war was over.

At a party a lyre was passed around, and the

Hiero, who succeeded Gelo as despot, used to say that not one of the persons who spoke frankly to him chose the wrong time.

He felt that those who divulged a secret committed a serious offence also against those to whom they divulged it; for we hate, not only those who divulge such things, but also those who hear what we do not wish them to hear.

On being reviled by someone for his offensive breath, he blamed his wife for never having told him about this; but she said, I supposed that all men smelled so. [*](Cf. Moralia 90 B, and Lucian, Hermotimus, 34. Aristotle tells the same story of Gelon according to Stobaeus, Florilegium, v. 83.)

In answer to Xenophanes of Colophon, who had said that he could hardly maintain two servants, Hiero said, But Homer, whom you disparage, maintains more than ten thousand, although he is dead.

He caused Epieharmus the comic poet to be punished because he made an indecent remark in the presence of his wife.