Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

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

He came to Pericles’ door, and upon learning that Pericles was not at liberty, but was considering how to render his accounting to the Athenians, he said, Were it not better that he should consider how not to render it ? [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Alcibiades, chap. vii. (194 E); Diodorus, xii. 38; Valerius Maximus, iii. 1, ext. 1.)

Summoned from Sicily by the Athenians to be tried for his life, he went into hiding, saying that it is silly for a man under indictment to seek a way to get off when he can get away. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Alcibiades, chap. xxi. (202 C); Aelian, Varia Historia, xiii. 38.)

When somebody said, Don’t you trust your fatherland to decide about you ?he replied, Not I; nor would I trust even my mother, lest in a moment of thoughtlessness she unwittingly cast a black ballot instead of a white one. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Alcibiades, chap. xxii. (202 D) and Aelian, xiii. 38.)

Hearing that sentence of death had been passed upon him and his companions, he said, Let us show them, then, that we are alive, and turning to the Spartan side he started the Decelean war against the Athenians. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Alcibiades, chap. xxii. (202 D) and Aelian, xiii. 38; cf. also Polyaenus, Strategemata, i. 40. 6.)