Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

When he offered a plot of land for sale, he ordered the announcement to be made that it also had a good neighbour. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, chap. xviii. (121 C).)

When the Athenians treated him with contumely, he said, Why do you grow tired of being well served many times by the same men ? He also likened himself to the plane-trees, beneath which men hasten when overtaken by a storm, but, when fair weather comes, they pluck the leaves as they pass by and break off the branches. [*](Life of Themistocles, chap. xviii. (121 A), and chap. xxii. (123 A); Cf. also Aelian, Varia Historia, ix. 18.)

The Eretrians, he said humorously, were like cuttle-fish in having a sword [*](The bone of the cuttle-fish; Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animalium, iv. 1. 12.) but no heart.[*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, chap. xi. (118 A).)

After his banishment from Athens first, and later from Greece, he went to the Persian king, and, when he was bidden to speak, he said that speech is like rugs woven with patterns and figures; for speech, like the rugs, when it is extended, displays its figures, but, when it is rolled into a small compass,

He asked for time so that, when he should have learned the Persian tongue, he might conduct his interview through his own self and not through another. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, chap. xxix. (126 C); Thucydides, i. 137.)

Being held deserving of many gifts, and speedily becoming rich, [*](Cf. ibid. i. 138.) he said to his sons, Boys, we should be ruined now if we had not been ruined before! [*](Cf. Moralia, 328 F and 602 A; Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, chap. xxix. (p. 126 F); Polybius, xxxix. 11 (-xl. 5).)

Myronides, conducting a campaign against the Boeotians, gave orders to the Athenians for an invasion of the enemy’s territory. When the hour was near, and the captains said that not all were present as yet, he said, All are present that intend to fight. And, leading them into battle before their ardour had cooled, he won a victory over the enemy. [*](At Oenophyta in Boeotia, 457 (?) B.C. (Thucydides, i. 108). Cf. also Moralia, 345 D; Diodorus, xi. 31. A simliar remark is attributed to Leonidas by Plutarch, Moralia, 225 D, and to Timotheus by Polyaenus, Strategemata, iii. 10. 3.)

Aristeides the Just was always an independent in politics, and avoided political parties, on the ground that influence derived from friends encourages wrongdoing. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Aristeides, chap. ii. (319 F).)

At one time when the Athenians had impetuously determined to vote on ostracism, an ignorant country fellow, holding his potsherd, approached him and bade him write on it the name of Aristeides. Why, said he, do you know Aristeides ? And

He was hostile to Themistocles, [*](Herodotus, viii. 79; Plutarch’s Life of Aristeides, chap. viii. (323 C).) and once, when he was sent as ambassador in his company, he said, Are you willing, Themistocles, that we should leave our hostility behind us at the boundaries ? And then, if it be agreeable, we will take it up again on our return. [*](Cf. Moralia 809 B; Polyaenus, Strategemata, i. 31; and the following (from a newspaper in 1929): Paying a tribute to Senator Robinson, the Democratic member of the conference delegation, Senator Reed said: I can say for him that when his ship sails from New York he quits being a Democrat, just as I quit becoming a Republican, leaving politics behind us at the American shore. )

When he had fixed the contributions that the Greeks were to pay, he returned poorer by exactly as much as he spent on his journey.[*](In 478-477 B.C. Aristeides, because of his reputation for fairness, was chosen to determine the initial contribution which each member of the confederacy of Delos should make to the common cause. Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Aristeides, chap. xxiv. (333 C); Aelian, Varia Historia, xi. 9.)

Aeschylus [*](Aeschylus, Seven against Thebes, 592; Plutarch quotes the lines also in whole or in part in Moralia, 32 D, and 88 B, and Life of Aristeides, chap. iii. (320 B).) wrote referring to Amphiaraus,

His wish is not to seem, but be, the best,[*](On account of the reading δίκαιος in the Life of Aristeides it has been thought that the actor who spoke the words may have substituted the Just for the best when he saw Aristeides in the audience.) Reaping the deep-sown furrow of his mind In which all goodly counsels have their root.

Whenever Pericles was about to take command of the army, as he was donning his general’s cloak, he used to say to himself, Take care, Pericles; you

He bade the Athenians remove Aegina, that sore on the eye of the Piraeus. [*](Ibid. 803 A; Plutarch’s Life of Pericles, chap. viii. (156 D) and Life of Demosthenes, chap. i. (846 C): Aristotle, Rhetoric, iii. 10. Athenaeus (99 D) attributes the expression to Demades, an Athenian orator. The people of Aegina, who were Dorian, had been hostile towards the Athenians even before the Persian wars, and in the early years of the Peloponnesian war (431 B.C.) they were forcibly removed from the island by the Athenians.)

To a friend who wanted him to bear false witness, which included also an oath, he answered that he was a friend as far as the altar. [*](Cf. Moralia, 531 C and 808 A, and Aulus Gellius, i. 3.)

On his death-bed he accounted himself happy in that no Athenian, because of him, had ever put on a black garment.[*](Given with more details in Moralia, 543 C, and Plutarch’s Life of Pericles, chap. xxxviii. (173 c), and Julian, Oration iii. 128 D.)

Alcibiades, while still a boy, was caught in a fast hold in a wrestling-school, and, not being able to get away, he bit the arm of the boy who had him down. The other boy said, You bite like a woman. No indeed, said Alcibiades, but like a lion. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Alcibiades chap. i. (192 C). The same story is told of a Spartan in Moralia, 234 E.)

He owned a very beautiful dog, for which he had paid two hundred and seventy-five pounds, and he cut off its tail, so that, as he said, the Athenians may tell this about me, and may not concern themselves too much with anything else. [*](In quite different words in Plutarch’s Life of Alcibiades, chap. ix. (195 D).)

Coming upon a schoolroom, he asked for a book of the Iliad, and when the teacher said that