Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

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

Is this the content of the written page ?

Hearing another orator say that the season had been snowy [*](This could hardly refer (as some think) to the unseasonably cold weather in the spring (of 307 B.C.?) recorded in Plutarch’s Life of Demetrius, chap. xii. (894 C).) and so had caused a lack of herbage in the land, he said, Please stop treating me as you treat a common crowd.

When Thrasyllus the Cynic asked him for a shilling, he said That is not a fit gift for a king to give. And when Thrasyllus said, Then give me two hundred pounds, he retorted, But that is not a fit gift for a Cynic to receive. [*](The story ist old more fully in Moralia, 551 E, and by Seneca, De beneficiis, ii. 17. 1.)

When he sent Demetrius his son, with many

While Antagoras the poet was cooking a congereel, and was shaking the skillet with his own hand, Antigonus stepped up behind him and said, Antagoras, do you imagine that Homer cooked a conger while he was writing of the exploits of Agamemnon ? To which Antagoras retorted. And do you, Your Majesty, believe that Agamemnon, while he was performing those exploits, was overmuch concerned if anybody in the army cooked a conger ? [*](Cf. Moralia, 668 C, and Athenaeus, 240 F, who quotes as his authority Hegesander.)

In a dream he saw Mithradates reaping a golden harvest, and thereupon planned to kill him. He told Demetrius his son, and bound him by an oath to silence. But Demetrius took Mithridates to walk with him beside the sea, and with the butt of his spear wrote in the sand, Flee, Mithridates. And Mithridates, understanding the purport, fled to Pontus and reigned there until his end. [*](Plutarch tells the story at length in his Life of Demetrius, chap. iv. (890 C); cf. also Appian, Roman History, Mithridatic Wars, 9. Mithridates became the founder of the line of Pontic kings, which lasted until 63 B.C. when Mithridates VI. was conquered by Pompey.)