Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

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.)