Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

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.)

When Demetrius was besieging the Rhodians [*](In 305-304 B.C.) he seized in one of the suburbs a painting of the

The Athenians revolted, and when he had taken their city, which was already in serious straits from lack of food, an assembly of the people was immediof grain. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Demetrius, chap. xxxiv. (905 B).)In speaking about this before them he lapsed into a barbarism. One of those sitting there repeated the phrase as it should have been spoken, and he said, For this correction, then, I give you eight thousand bushels more.

When Demetrius, the father of Antigonus the Second, had been taken captive, he sent one of his friends and urged Antigonus to pay no attention if he should write anything under compulsion of Seleucus, and not to withdraw from the cities; but Antigonus of his own accord wrote to Seleucus resigning to him his whole kingdom and offering to surrender himself as a hostage on condition that his father Demetrius be released. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Demetrius, chap. li. (914 D).)

When Antigonus was about to engage in a naval battle against Ptolemy’s generals, the pilot said that the ships of the enemy far outnumbered their own. But, said Antigonus, how many ships do you think my own presence here is equivalent to ? [*](Cf. Moralia, 545 B, and Plutarch’s Life of Pelopidas, chap. ii. (278 D), both showing variation in wording and details; also Athenaeus, 209 E, and Gulick’s note in the L.C.L., vol. ii. p. 447.)

Once when he was withdrawing before the advance of the enemy, he said that he was not fleeing, but was following up his advantage, which lay in the rear.

When a young man, son of a brave father, but not himself having any reputation for being a good soldier, suggested the propriety of his receiving his father’s emoluments, Antigonus said, My boy, I give pay and presents for the excellence of a man, not for the excellence of his father.