Volume 1

The Deipnosophists, or, Banquet of the learned, of Athenæus / literally translated by C.D. Yonge, B.A. ; with an appendix of poetical fragments, rendered into English verse by various authors, and a general index.

Athenaeus

Date:: 1854

Credit: The Deipnosophists, or, Banquet of the learned, of Athenæus / literally translated by C.D. Yonge, B.A. ; with an appendix of poetical fragments, rendered into English verse by various authors, and a general index. Source: Wellcome Collection.

429/468 (page 409)

$THE CONDUCT OF FUILU’. c. 78.] these men were strangei-s, or, what \'irtuous or respectable habits were there which they did not slum % Did they not at all times go about shaven and carefully made smooth, tliough they were men ? And did not they endeavour to misuse one another though they had beards 1 And they used to go about attended by two or three lovers at a time ; and they expected no complaisance from others which they were not prepared to exhibit themselves. On which account a man miglit very reasonably have thought them not eratpot but eraipai, and one might have called tliem not soldiei’s, but prostitutes. For though tiiey were dv8po(f>6voL by jjrofession, they were dvSpoVopvot by practice. And in addition to all this, instead of loving sobriety, they loved drunkenness j and instead of living respectably they sought every opportunity of robbing and murdering ; and as for speaking the truth, and adhering to their agreements, they thought that conduct cpiitc inconsistent with their characters; but to perjure themselves and cheat, they thought the most venerable beha- viour possible. And they disregarded what tliey had, but they longed for what they had not; and this too, though a great part of Europe belonged to them. For I think that the companions of Philip, wlio did not at that time amount to a gi-cater number than eight hundred, had possession so far as to enjoy the fruits of more land than any ten thousand Greeks, who had the most fertile and largo estates.” And he makes a very similar statement about Dionysius, in his twenty-fii-st book, when he says, “ Dionysius tl>o tyrant of Sicily encoui-aged above all others those who squandered their property in drunkenness and gambling and intemper- ance of that sort. For lie wished every one to become ruined and ready for any iniquity, and all such people he treated with favour and distinction.” 78. And Demetrius Poliorcetes was a man very fond of mirth, as Phylarchus relates in the tenth book of his History. But in tlie fourteenth book ho writes as follows :—“ Deme- trius used to allow men to flatter him at his banquets, and to pour libations in his honour, calling him Demetrius the only king, and Ptolemy only the prefect of the fleet, and Lysimachus only a steward, and Seleiicus only a superin- tendent of elephants, and in this way ho incurred no small amount of hatred.” And Herodotus states that Amasis the$