Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Ptolemy, son of Lagus, used, as a rule, to dine and sleep at his friends’ houses; and if ever he gave a dinner, he would send for their dishes and linen and tables, and use them for the occasion. He himself owned no more than were required for everyday use; and he used to say that it was more kingly to enrich than to be rich. [*](Cf. Aelian, Varia Historia, xiii. 13.)

Antigonus was persistent in his demands for money, and when somebody said, But Alexander was not like this, he replied, Very naturally; for he reaped Asia, and I am picking up the straws.

Seeing some of his soldiers playing ball in their breastplates and helmets, he was much pleased and sent for their officers, wishing to commend them. But when he heard that they were engaged in drinking, he gave their positions to their soldiers.

When all were astonished because, after he had grown old, he handled matters with mildness and gentleness, he said, Time was when I craved power, but now I crave repute and goodwill among men.

To his son Philip, who inquired in the presence

When the young man was determined to take up his quarters at the house of a widow who had three handsome daughters, he called the quartermaster and said, Will you not get my son out of his crowded quarters ? [*](Repeated by Plutarch in his Life of Demetrius, chap. xxiii. (899 C), and more fully by Frontinus), Strategemata, iv. 1. 10.

He suffered a long illness, and when he had recovered his strength he said, ’twas nothing so very bad; for the illness has reminded us not to feel too proud, since we are but mortal [*](Attributed to Alexander by Stobaeus, Florilegium, xxi. 15.)

When Hermodotus in his poems wrote of him as The Offspring of the Sun, he said, The slave who attends to my chamber-pot is not conscious of that! [*](Cf. Moralia, 360 C.)

When somebody remarked that all things are honourable and righteous for kings, he said, Yes indeed, for kings of the barbarians; but for me only the honourable things are honourable and the righteous righteous.

When Marsyas his brother had a lawsuit, and claimed the right to have the trial held at his house, Antigonus said, It shall be in the Forum and with everybody listening to see whether we do any injustice.

Once upon a time in the winter when he had forced a halt in regions lacking provisions, and some of the soldiers were cursing him, not knowing that he was near, he poked open his tent with his stick,

When Aristodemus, [*](Possibly the son of Eutropion, Moralia, 11 A.) one of his friends, who, it was whispered, was the son of a cook, advised him to curtail his expenditures and his giving of presents, he said, Aristodemus, your words have the stink of a kitchen apron.

When the Athenians admitted to citizenship a slave of his, held in much esteem, and enrolled him as a free man, he said, I could wish that one Athenian had not been flogged by me !

A young man, one of the pupils of Anaximenes the orator, pronounced before him a very carefully prepared oration, and he, wishing to gain some further information, asked a question. But when the young man relapsed into silence, he remarked, What is your answer ? Or

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