And Poseidonius of Apameia, who was afterwards surnamed Rhodian, in the fourth book of his Histories [ Fr_4 ], says that Hierax of Antioch, who used formerly to accompany the singers called Lysiodi on the flute, afterwards became a terrible flatterer of Ptolemy, seventh king of Egypt of that name, who was also surnamed Euergetes; and that he had the very greatest
influence
over him, as also he had with Ptolemy Philometor, though he was afterwards put to death by him.
Athenaeus - Deipnosophists
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And Menander calls a man who is useless, and who lives to no purpose, ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , in his Thrasyleon, saying -
A lazy over-procrastinating fellow,
A ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , miserable, useless,
Owning himself a burden on the earth.
And in his Venal People he says -
Wretch, you were standing at the door the while,
Having laid down your burden; while, for us,
We took the wretched ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? in.
And Crobylus used the word ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? (bringing one's own provisions), in The Man hanged -
A parasite ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , feeding himself,
You do contribute much to aid your master.
And Eubulus has the word ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? (eating badly, having no appetite), in his Ganymedes -
Sleep nourishes him since he's no appetite (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ).
And the word ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? (a sparing eater) occurs in Phrynichus in his The solitary Man -
What does that sparing eater (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) Heracles there?
And Pherecrates, or Strattis, in his Good Men -
How sparingly you eat, who in one day
Swallow the food of an entire trireme.
? Following pages (248-262)
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Athenaeus: The Deipnosophists
BOOK 6, Pages 248-262
Translated by C. D. Yonge (1854). A few words and spellings have been changed.
See key to translations for an explanation of the format. The page numbers in the Greek text are shown in red. The chapter numbers in the translation are shown in green.
<< Previous pages (234-248)
[53. ] G [248] When Plutarchus had said all this about parasites, Democritus, taking up the discourse, said, And I myself, 'like wood well-glued to wood,' as the Theban poet has it, will say a word about flatterers.
For of all men the flatterer fares best,
as the excellent Menander says. And there is no great difference between calling a man a flatterer and a parasite. Accordingly, Lynceus the Samian, in his Commentaries, gives the name of parasite to Cleisophus, the man who is universally described as the flatterer of Philippus, the king of the Macedonians (but he was an Athenian by birth, as Satyrus the Peripatetic affirms, in his Life of Philippus). And Lynceus says - "Cleisophus, the parasite of Philippus, when Philippus rebuked him for being continually asking for something, replied, 'I am very forgetful. ' Afterwards, when Philippus had given him a wounded horse, he sold him; and when, after a time, the king asked him what had become of him, he answered, 'He was sold by that wound of his. ' And when Philippus laughed at him, and took it good-humouredly, he said, 'Is it not then worth my while to keep you? '" And Hegesander the Delphian, in his Commentaries, makes this mention of Cleisophus:- "When Philippus the king said that writings had been brought to him from Cotys, king of Thrace, Cleisophus, who was present, said, 'It is well, by the gods. ' And when Philippus said, 'But what do you know of the subjects mentioned in these writings? ' he said, 'By the great Zeus, you have reproved me with admirable judgement. '"
[54. ] G But Satyrus, in his Life of Philippus, says, "When Philippus lost his eye, Cleisophus came forth with him, with bandages on the same eye as the king; and again, when his leg was hurt, he came out limping, along with the king. And if ever Philippus ate any harsh or sour food, [249] he would contract his features, as if he, too, had the same taste in his mouth. But in the country of the Arabs they used to do these things, not out of flattery, but in obedience to some law; so that whenever the king had anything the matter with any one of his limbs, the courtiers pretended to be suffering the same inconvenience: for they think it ridiculous to be willing to be buried with him when be dies, but not to pay him the compliment of appearing to be subject to the same sufferings as he is while alive, if he sustains any injury. " # But Nicolaus of Damascus,- and he was one of the Peripatetic school,- in his very voluminous history (for it consisted of a hundred and forty-four books), in the hundred and eleventh book says, that Adiatomus the king of the Sotiani (and that is a Celtic tribe) had six hundred picked men about him, who were called by the Gauls, in their national language, Siloduri - which word means in Greek, Bound under a vow. "And the king has them as companions, to live with him and to die with him; as that is the vow which they all take. In return for which, they also share his power, and wear the same dress, and cut the same food; and they die when he dies, as a matter of absolute necessity, if the king dies of any disease; or if he dies in war, or in any other manner. And no one can even say that any of them has shown any fear of death, or has in the least sought to evade it when the king is dead. "
[55. ] G But Theopompus says, in the forty-fourth book of his Histories, that Philippus appointed Thrasydaeus the Thessalian tyrant over all those of his nation, though a man who had but little intellect, but who was an egregious flatterer. But Arcadion the Achaean was not a flatterer, who is mentioned by the same Theopompus, and also by Duris in the fifth book of his History of Macedonian Affairs. Now this Arcadion hated Philippus, and on account of this hatred voluntarily banished himself from his country. And he was a man of the most admirable natural abilities, and numbers of clever sayings of his are related. It happened then once, when Philippus was sojourning at Delphi, that Arcadion also was there; and the Macedonian beheld him and called him to him, and said, How much further, O Arcadion, do you mean to go by way of banishment? And he replied -
Until I meet with men who know not Philippus. [ Hom:Od_11'122 ]
But Phylarchus, in the twenty-first book of his History [ Fr_37 ], says that Philippus laughed at this, and invited Arcadion to supper, and that in that way he got rid of his enmity. But of Nicesias the flatterer of Alexander, Hegesander gives the following account:- "When Alexander complained of being bitten by the flies and was eagerly brushing them off, a man of the name of Nicesias, one of his flatterers who happened to be present, said,- Beyond all doubt those flies will be far superior to all other flies, now that they have tasted your blood. " And the same man says that Cheirisophus also, the flatterer of Dionysius, when he saw Dionysius laughing with some of his acquaintances, (but he was some way off himself, so that he could not hear what they were laughing at,) laughed also. And when Dionysius asked him on what account he, who could not possibly hear what was said, laughed, said - I feel that confidence in you that I am quite sure that, what has been said is worth laughing at.
[56. ] G His son also, the second Dionysius, had numerous flatterers, who were called by the common people Dionysiocolaces. And they, because Dionysius himself was not very sharp sighted, used to pretend while at supper not to be able to see very far, but they would touch whatever was near them as if they could not see it, until Dionysius himself guided their hands to the dishes. And when Dionysius spat, they would often put out their own faces for him to spit upon: [250] and then licking off the spittle and even his vomit, they declared that it was sweeter than honey. And Timaeus, in the twenty-second book of his Histories, says that Democles the flatterer of the younger Dionysius, as it was customary in Sicily to make a sacrifice from house to house in honour of the nymphs, and for men to spend the night around their statues when quite drunk, and to dance around the goddesses - Democles neglecting the nymphs, and saying that there was no use in attending to lifeless deities, went and danced before Dionysius. And at a subsequent time being once sent on an embassy with some colleagues to Dion, when they were all proceeding in a trireme, he being accused by the rest of behaving in a seditious manner in respect of this journey, and of having injured the general interests of Dionysius, when Dionysius was very indignant, he said that differences had arisen between himself and his colleagues, because after supper they took a paean of Phrynichus or Stesichorus, and some of them took one of Pindarus' and sang it; but he, with those who agreed with him, went entirely through the hymns which had been composed by Dionysius himself. And he undertook to bring forward undeniable proof of this assertion. For that his accusers were not acquainted with the modulation of those songs, but that he on the contrary was ready to sing them all through one after the other. And so, when Dionysius was pacified, Democles continued, and said, "But you would do me a great favour, O Dionysius, if you were to order any one of those who knows it to teach me the paean which you composed in honour of Asclepius; for I hear that you have taken great pains with that. "
And once, when some friends were invited to supper by Dionysius, Dionysius coming into the room, said, "O, my friends, letters have been sent to us from the generals who have been despatched to Neapolis;" and Democles interrupting him, said, "By the gods, they have done well, O Dionysius. " And he, looking upon him, said, "But how do you know whether what they have written is in accordance with my expectation or the contrary? " And Democles replied, "By the gods, you have properly rebuked me, O Dionysius. " Timaeus also affirms that there was a man named Satyrus who was a flatterer of both the Dionysii.
[57. ] G # And Hegesander relates that Hieron the tyrant was also rather weak in his eyes; and that his friends who supped with him made mistakes in the dishes on purpose, in order to let him set them right, and to give him an opportunity of appearing clearer-sighted than the rest. And Hegesander says that Eucelides, who was surnamed Seutlus, (and he too was a parasite,) once when a great quantity of sow-thistles (? ? ? ? ? ? ) was set before him at a banquet, said, "Capaneus who is introduced by Euripides in his Suppliant Women [ 864 ], was a very witty man -
Detesting tables where there was too much pride (? ? ? ? ? ).
# But those who were the leaders of the people at Athens, says he, in the Chremonidean war, flattered the Athenians, and said, "that everything else was common to all the Greeks; but that the Athenians were the only men who knew the road which leads to heaven. " And Satyrus, in his Lives, says that Anaxarchus, the Eudaemonist philosopher, was one of the flatterers of Alexander; and that he once, when on a journey in company with the king, when a violent and terrible thunderstorm took place, so as to frighten everybody, said - "Was it you, O Alexander, son of Zeus, who caused this? " [251] And that he laughed and said - "Not I; for I do not wish to be formidable, as you make me out; you also desire me to have brought to me at supper the heads of satraps and kings. " And Aristobulus of Cassandreia says that Dioxippus the Athenian, a pancratiast, once when Alexander was wounded and when the blood flowed, said [ Hom:Il_5'340 ]-
'Tis ichor, such as flows from the blessed gods.
[58. ] G And Epicrates the Athenian, having gone on an embassy to the [Persian] king, according to the statement of Hegesander, and having received many presents from him, was not ashamed to flatter the king openly and boldly, so as even to say that the best way was not to choose nine archons every year, but nine ambassadors to the king. But I wonder at the Athenians, how they allowed him to make such a speech without bringing him to trial, and yet fined Demades ten talents, because he thought Alexander a god; and they put Evagoras to death, because when he went as ambassador to the king he prostrated himself before him. And Timon of Phlius, in the third book of his Silli, says that Ariston the Chian, an acquaintance and pupil of Zenon of Citium, was a flatterer of Persaeus the philosopher, because he was a companion of Antigonus the king. But Phylarchus, in the sixth book of his Histories [ Fr_11 ], says that Nicesias the flatterer of Alexander, when he saw the king in convulsions from some medicine which he had taken, said - "O king, what must we do, when even you gods suffer in this manner? " and that Alexander, scarcely looking up, said - "What sort of gods? I am afraid rather we are hated by the gods. " And in his twenty-eighth book the same Phylarchus says [ Fr_46 ] that Apollophanes was a flatterer of Antigonus who was surnamed Epitropus ['Guardian'], who took Lacedaemon, and he used to say that the fortune of Antigonus Alexandrized.
[59. ] G But Euphantus, in the fourth book of his Histories, says that Callicrates was a flatterer of Ptolemy, the third king of Egypt, and was so clever that he not only bore an image of Odysseus on his seal, but that he also gave his children the names of Telegonus and Anticleia. # And Polybius, in the thirteenth book of his Histories [ 13. 4 ], says that Heracleides of Tarentum was a flatterer of the Philippus whose power was destroyed by the Romans; and that it was he who overturned his whole kingdom. And in his fourteenth book [ 14. 11 ], he says that Philon was a flatterer of Agathocles the son of Oenanthe, and the companion of the king Ptolemy Philopator. And Baton of Sinope relates, in his book about the tyranny of Hieronymus, that Thrason, who was surnamed Carcharus, was the flatterer of Hieronymus the tyrant of Syracuse, saying that he every day used to drink a great quantity of unmixed wine. But another flatterer, by name Osis, caused Thrason to be put to death by Hieronymus; and he persuaded Hieronymus himself to assume the diadem, and the purple and all the rest of the royal apparel, which Dionysius the tyrant was accustomed to wear. And Agatharchides, in the thirtieth book of his Histories, says - "Haeresippus the Spartan was a great rascal, not even putting on any appearance of goodness; but having very persuasive flattering language, and being a very clever man at paying court to the rich as long as their fortune lasted. " [252] Such also was Heracleides of Maroneia, the flatterer of Seuthes the king of the Thracians, who is mentioned by Xenophon in the seventh book of the Anabasis [ 7. 3'16 ].
[60. ] G But Theopompus, in the eighteenth book of his Histories, speaking of Nicostratus the Argive, and saying how he flattered the Persian king, writes as follows - "But how can we think Nicostratus the Argive anything but a wicked man? who, when he was president of the city of Argos, and when he had received all the distinctions of family, and riches, and large estates from his ancestors, surpassed all men in his flatteries and attentions to the king, outrunning not only those who bore a part in that expedition, but even all who had lived before; for in the first place, he was so anxious for honours from the barbarian, that, wishing to please him more and to be more trusted by him, he brought his son to the king, a thing which no one else will ever be found to have done. And then, every day when he was about to go to supper he had a table set apart, to which he gave the name of the Table of the King's Deity, loading it with meat and all other requisites; hearing that those who live at the doors of the royal palace among the Persians do the same thing, and thinking that by this courtier-like attention he should get more from the king. For he was exceedingly covetous, and not scrupulous as to the means he employed for getting money, so that indeed no one was over less so. " And Lysimachus was a flatterer and the tutor of Attalus the king, a man whom Callimachus sets down as a pupil of Theodorus, but Hermippus sets him down in the list of the disciples of Theophrastus. And this man wrote books also about the education of Attalus, full of every kind of adulation imaginable. But Polybius, in the eighth book of his Histories [ 8. 22 ], says, "Cavarus the Gaul, who was in other respects a good man, was depraved by Sostratus the flatterer, who was a native of Chalcedon. "
[61. ] G Nicolaus, in the hundred and fourteenth book of his Histories, says that Andromachus of Carrhae was a flatterer of Licinius Crassus, who commanded the expedition against the Parthians; and that Crassus communicated all his designs to him, and was, in consequence, betrayed to the Parthians by him, and so destroyed. But Andromachus was not allowed by the deity to escape unpunished. For having obtained, as the reward of his conduct, the sovereignty over his native place Carrhae, he behaved with such cruelty and violence that he was burnt with his whole family by the inhabitants of Carrhae.
And Poseidonius of Apameia, who was afterwards surnamed Rhodian, in the fourth book of his Histories [ Fr_4 ], says that Hierax of Antioch, who used formerly to accompany the singers called Lysiodi on the flute, afterwards became a terrible flatterer of Ptolemy, seventh king of Egypt of that name, who was also surnamed Euergetes; and that he had the very greatest influence over him, as also he had with Ptolemy Philometor, though he was afterwards put to death by him. And Nicolaus the Peripatetic states that Sosipater, who was by trade a juggler, was a flatterer of Mithridates. And Theopompus, in the ninth book of his History of Greek Affairs, says that Athenaeus the Eretrian was a flatterer and servant of Sisyphus the tyrant of Pharsalus.
[62. ] G # The whole populace of the Athenians, too, was very notorious for the height to which it pushed its flattery; accordingly, Demochares the cousin of Demosthenes the orator, in the twentieth book of his histories, speaking of the flattery practised by the Athenians towards Demetrius Poliorcetes, [253] and saying that he himself did not at all like it, writes as follows- "And some of these things annoyed him greatly, as they well might. And, indeed, other parts of their conduct were utterly mean and disgraceful. They consecrated temples to Leaena Aphrodite and Lamia Aphrodite, and they erected altars and shrines as if to heroes, and instituted libations in honour of Burichus, and Adeimantus, and Oxythemis, his flatterers. And poems were sung in honour of all these people, so that even Demetrius himself was astonished at what they did, and said that in his time there was not one Athenian of a great or vigorous mind. " The Thebans also flattered Demetrius, as Polemon relates in the treatise on the Ornamented Portico at Sicyon; and they, too, erected a temple to Lamia Aphrodite. But she was one of Demetrius' mistresses, as also was Leaena. So that why should we wonder at the Athenians, who stooped even to become flatterers of flatterers, singing paeans and hymns to Demetrius himself?
Accordingly Demochares, in the twenty-first book of his Histories, says- "And the Athenians received Demetrius when he came from Leucas and Corcyra to Athens, not only with frankincense, and crowns, and libations of wine, but they even went out to meet him with hymns, and choruses, and ithyphallic mummers, and dancing and singing, and they stood in front of him in multitudes, dancing and singing, and saying that he was the only true god, and that all the rest of the gods were either asleep, or gone away to a distance, or were no gods at all. And they called him the son of Poseidon and Aphrodite, for he was eminent for beauty, and affable to all men with a natural courtesy and gentleness of manner. And they fell at his feet and addressed supplications and prayers to him. "
[63. ] G Demochares, then, has said all this about the adulatory spirit and conduct of the Athenians. And Duris the Samian, in the twenty-second book of his Histories, has given the very ithyphallic hymn which they addressed to him -
Behold the greatest of the gods and dearest
Are come to this city,
For here Demeter and Demetrius are
Present in season.
She indeed comes to duly celebrate
The sacred mysteries
Of her most holy daughter - he is present
Joyful and beautiful,
As a god ought to be, with smiling face
Showering his blessings round.
How noble does he look! his friends around,
Himself the centre.
His friends resemble the bright lesser stars,
Himself is the sun.
Hail, ever-mighty Poseidon's mightier son;
Hail, son of Aphrodite.
For other gods do at a distance keep,
Or have no ears,
Or no existence; and they heed not us -
But you are present,
Not made of wood or stone, a genuine god.
We pray to you.
First of all give us peace, O dearest god -
For you are lord of peace -
And crush for us yourself, for you've the power,
This odious Sphinx;
Which now destroys not Thebes alone, but Greece -
The whole of Greece -
I mean the Aetolian, who, like her of old,
Sits on a rock,
And tears and crushes all our wretched bodies.
Nor can we him resist.
For the Aetolians plunder all their neighbours;
And now they stretch afar
Their lion hands; but crush them, mighty lord,
Or send some Oedipus
Who shall this Sphinx hurl down from off his precipice,
Or starve him justly.
[64. ] G This is what was sung by the nation which once fought at Marathon, and they sang it not only in public, but in their private houses - men who had once put a man to death for prostrating himself before the king of Persia, and who had slain countless myriads of barbarians. [254] Therefore, Alexis, in his Apothecary, or Crateuas, introduces a person pledging one of the guests in a cup of wine, and represents him as saying -
Boy, give a larger cup, and pour therein
Four cyathi of strong and friendly drink,
In honour of all present. Then you shall add
Three more for love; one for the victory,
The glorious victory of King Antigonus,
Another for the young Demetrius.
* * * * *
And presently he adds -
Bring a third cup in honour now
Of Phila Aphrodite. Hail, my friends and guests;
I drink the cup to the success of all of you.
[65. ] G Such were the Athenians, at that time, after flattery, that worst of wild beasts, had inspired their city with frenzy, that city which once the Pythia entitled the Hearth of Greece, and which Theopompus, who hated them, called the prytaneium of Greece; he who said in other places that Athens was fall of drunken flatterers, and sailors, and pickpockets, and also of false witnesses, sycophants, and false accusers. And it is my opinion that it was they who introduced all the flattery which we have been speaking of, like a storm, or other infliction, sent on men by the gods; concerning which Diogenes said, very elegantly- "That it was much better to go ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ['to the crows'] than ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ['to the flatterers'], who eat up all the good men while they are still alive;" and, accordingly, Anaxilas says, in his Young Woman -
The flatterers are worms which prey upon
All who have money; for they make an entrance
Into the heart of a good guileless man.
And take their seat there, and devour it.
Till they have drained it like the husk of wheat,
And leave the shell; and then attack some other.
And Plato says, in his Phaedrus [ 240'b ] - "Nature has mingled some pleasure which is not entirely inelegant in its character of a flatterer, though he is an odious beast, and a great injury to a state. " And Theophrastus, in his treatise on Flattery, says that Myrtis the priest, the Argive, taking by the ear Cleonymus (who was a dancer and also a flatterer, and who often used to come and sit by him and his fellow-judges, and who was anxious to be seen in company with those who were thought of consideration in the city), and dragging him out of the assembly, said to him in the hearing of many people, You shall not dance here, and you shall not hear us. And Diphilus, in his Marriage, says -
A flatterer destroys
By his pernicious speeches
Both general and prince,
Both private friends and states;
He pleases for a while,
But causes lasting ruin.
And now this evil habit
Has spread among the people,
Our courts are all diseased,
And all is done by favour.
So that the Thessalians did well who razed the city which was called Colaceia (Flattery), which the Melians used to inhabit, as Theopompus relates in the thirtieth book of his History.
[66. ] G # But Phylarchus says [ Fr_29 ], that those Athenians who settled in Lemnos were great flatterers, mentioning them as such in the thirteenth book of his History. For that they, wishing to display their gratitude to the descendants of Seleucus and Antiochus, [255] because Seleucus not only delivered them when they were severely oppressed by Lysimachus but also restored both their cities to them,- they, I say, the Athenians in Lemnos, not only erected temples to Seleucus, but also to his son Antiochus; and they have named the cup, which at their feasts is offered at the end of the banquet, the cup of Seleucus the Saviour.
Now some people, perverting the proper name, call this flattery ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , complaisance; as Anaxandrides does in his Samian, where he says -
For flattery is now complaisance called.
But those who devote themselves to flattery are not aware that that art is one which flourishes only a short time. Accordingly, Alexis says in his Liar -
A flatterer's life but a brief space endures,
For no one likes a hoary parasite.
And Clearchus of Soli, in the first book of his Amatory treatises, says- "No flatterer is constant in his friendship. For time destroys the falsehood of his pretences, and a lover is only a flatterer and a pretended friend on account of youth or beauty. " One of the flatterers of Demetrius the king was Adeimantus of Lampsacus, who having built a temple at Thria, and placed statues in it, called it the temple of Phila Aphrodite, and called the place itself Philaeum, from Phila the (? ) wife of Demetrius; as we are told by Dionysius the son of Tryphon, in the tenth book of his treatise on Names.
[67. ] G But Clearchus of Soli, in his book which is inscribed Gergithius, tells us whence the origin of the name flatterer is derived and mentioning Gergithius himself, from whom the treatise has its name, he says that he was one of Alexander's flatterers; and he tells the story thus- "That flattery debases the characters of the flatterers, making them apt to despise whoever they associate with; and a proof of this is, that they endure everything, well knowing what they dare do. And those who are flattered by them, being puffed up by their adulation, they make foolish and empty-headed, and cause them to believe that they, and everything belonging to them, are of a higher order than other people. " And then proceeding to mention a certain young man, a Paphian by birth, but a king by the caprice of fortune, he says- "This young man (and he does not mention his name) used out of his preposterous luxury to lie on a couch with silver feet, with a smooth Sardian carpet spread under it of the most expensive description. And over him was thrown a piece of purple cloth, edged with a scarlet fringe; and he had three pillows under his head made of the finest linen, and of purple colour, by which he kept himself cool. And under his feet he had two pillows of the kind called Dorian, of a bright crimson colour; and on all this he lay himself, clad in a white robe.
[68. ] G "And all the monarchs who have at any time reigned in Cyprus have encouraged a race of nobly-born flatterers as useful to them; for they are a possession very appropriate to tyrants. And no one ever knows them (any more than they do the judges of the Areopagus), either how many they are, or who they are, except that perhaps some of the most eminent may be known or suspected. And the flatterers at Salamis are divided into two classes with reference to their families; and it is from the flatterers in Salamis that all the rest of the flatterers in the other parts of Cyprus are derived; and one of these two classes is called the Gergini, and the other the Promalanges. [256] Of which, the Gergini mingle with the people in the city and go about as eavesdroppers and spies in the workshops and the market-places; and whatever they hear, they report every day to those who are called their Principles. But the Promalanges, being a sort of superior investigators, inquire more particularly into all that is reported by the Gergini which appears worthy of being investigated; and the way in which they conduct themselves towards every one is so artificial and gentle, that, as it seems to me, and as they themselves allege, the very seed of notable flatterers has been spread by them over all the places at a distance. They take much pride in their skill, because they are greatly honoured by the kings; and they say that one of the Gergini, being a descendant of those Trojans whom Teucer took as slaves, having selected them from the captives, and then brought and settled in Cyprus, going along the sea coast with a few companions, sailed towards Aeolis, in order to seek out and re-establish the country of his ancestors; and that he, taking some Mysians to himself, inhabited a city near the Trojan Ida, which was formerly called Gergina, from the name of the inhabitants, but is now called Gergitha. For some of the party being, as it seems, separated from this expedition, stopped in Cumae, being by birth a Cyprian race, and not from the Thessalian Tricca, as some have affirmed, - men whose ignorance I take to be beyond the skill of all the descendants of Asclepius to cure.
[69. ] G "There were also in this country, in the time of Glus the Carian, women attaching themselves to the Queens, who were called flatterers; and a few of them who were left crossed the sea, and were sent for to the wives of Artabazus and Mentor, and instead of ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ['flatterers'] were called ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? from the following circumstance. By way of making themselves agreeable to those who had sent for them, they made a ladder [? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ] of themselves, in such a manner that there was a way of ascending over their backs, and also a way of descending, for their mistresses when they drove out in chariots: to such a pitch of luxury, not to say of miserable helplessness, did they bring those silly women by their contrivance. Therefore, they themselves, when they were compelled by fortune to quit that very luxurious way of living, lived with great hardship in their old age. And the others who had received these habits from us, when they were deprived of their authority came to Macedonia; and the customs which they taught to the wives and princesses of the great men in that country by their association with them, it is not decent even to mention further than this, that practising magic arts themselves, and being the objects of them when practised by others, they did not spare even the places of the greatest resort, but they became complete vagabonds, and the very scum of the streets, polluted with all sorts of abominations. Such and so great are the evils which seen to be engendered by flattery in the case of all people who admit from their own inclination and predisposition to be flattered. "
[70. ] G And a little further Clearchus goes on as follows- "But still a man may have a right to find fault with that young man for the way in which he used those things, as I have said before. For his slaves stood in short tunics a little behind the couch: and as there are now three men on whose account all this discussion has been originated, and as all these men are men who have separate names among us, the one sat on the couch close to his feet, letting the feet of the young man rest upon his knees, and covering them with a thin cloth; [257] and what he did further is plain enough, even if I do not mention it. And this servant is called by the natives Parabystus ['stuffed in'], because he works his way into the company of those men even who do not willingly receive him, by the very skilful character of his flatteries. The second was one sitting on a certain chair which was placed close to the couch; and he, holding by the hand of the young man, as he let it almost drop and clinging to it, kept on rubbing it, and taking each of his fingers in turn be rubbed it and stretched it, so that the man appeared to have said a very witty thing who first gave that officer the name of Sicya ['cucumber']. The third, however, was the most noble of all, and was called Ther ['the wild beast'], who was indeed the principal of the whole body, and who stood at his master's head, and shared his linen pillows, lying upon them in a most friendly manner. And with his left hand be kept smoothing the hair of the young man, and with his right hand he kept moving up and down a Phocaean fan, so as to please him while waving it, without force enough to brush anything away. On which account, it appears to me, that some high-born god must have been angry with him and have sent a fly to attack the young man, a fly like that with whose audacity Homer says [ Il_17'570 ] that Athene inspired Menelaus, so vigorous and fearless was it in disposition.
"So when the young man was stung, this man uttered such a loud scream in his behalf and was so indignant, that on account of his hatred to one fly he banished the whole tribe of flies from his house: from which it is quite plain that he appointed this servant for this especial purpose. "
[71. ] G But Leucon, the tyrant of Pontus, was a different kind of man, who when he knew that many of his friends had been plundered by one of the flatterers whom he had about him, perceiving that the man was calumniating some one of his remaining friends, said, "I swear by the gods that I would kill you if a tyrannical government did not stand in need of bad men. " And Antiphanes the comic writer, in his Soldier, gives a similar account of the luxury of the kings in Cyprus. And he represents one of them as asking a soldier these questions -
(A) Tell me now, you had lived some time in Cyprus?
Say you not so?
(B) Yes, all the time of the war.
(A) In what part most especially? tell me that.
(B) In Paphos, where you should have seen the luxury
That did exist, or you could not believe it.
(A) What kind of luxury?
(B) The king was fanned
While at his supper by young turtle-doves
And by nought else.
(A) How mean you? never mind
My own affairs, but let me ask you this.
(B) He was anointed with a luscious ointment
Brought up from Syria, made of some rich fruit
Which they do say doves love to feed upon.
They were attracted by the scent and flew
Around the royal temples: and had dared
To seat themselves upon the monarch's head,
But that the boys who sat around with sticks
Did keep them at a slight and easy distance.
And so they did not perch, but hovered round,
Neither too far nor yet too near, still fluttering,
So that they raised a gentle breeze to blow
Not harshly on the forehead of the king.
[72. ] G [258] The flatterer (? ? ? ? ? ) of that young man whom we have been speaking of must have been a ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? (a soft flatterer), as Clearchus says. For besides flattering such a man as that, he invents a regular gait and dress harmonizing with that of those who receive the flattery, folding his arms and wrapping himself up in a small cloak; on which account some men call him Arm-crosser, and some call him a Repository of Attitudes. For really a flatterer does seem to be the very same person with Proteus himself. Accordingly he changes into nearly every sort of person, not only in form, but also in his discourse, so very varied in voice he is.
But Androcydes the physician said that flattery had its name (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) from becoming glued (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) to men's acquaintance. But it appears to me that they were named from their facility (?
And Menander calls a man who is useless, and who lives to no purpose, ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , in his Thrasyleon, saying -
A lazy over-procrastinating fellow,
A ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , miserable, useless,
Owning himself a burden on the earth.
And in his Venal People he says -
Wretch, you were standing at the door the while,
Having laid down your burden; while, for us,
We took the wretched ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? in.
And Crobylus used the word ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? (bringing one's own provisions), in The Man hanged -
A parasite ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , feeding himself,
You do contribute much to aid your master.
And Eubulus has the word ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? (eating badly, having no appetite), in his Ganymedes -
Sleep nourishes him since he's no appetite (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ).
And the word ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? (a sparing eater) occurs in Phrynichus in his The solitary Man -
What does that sparing eater (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) Heracles there?
And Pherecrates, or Strattis, in his Good Men -
How sparingly you eat, who in one day
Swallow the food of an entire trireme.
? Following pages (248-262)
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Athenaeus: The Deipnosophists
BOOK 6, Pages 248-262
Translated by C. D. Yonge (1854). A few words and spellings have been changed.
See key to translations for an explanation of the format. The page numbers in the Greek text are shown in red. The chapter numbers in the translation are shown in green.
<< Previous pages (234-248)
[53. ] G [248] When Plutarchus had said all this about parasites, Democritus, taking up the discourse, said, And I myself, 'like wood well-glued to wood,' as the Theban poet has it, will say a word about flatterers.
For of all men the flatterer fares best,
as the excellent Menander says. And there is no great difference between calling a man a flatterer and a parasite. Accordingly, Lynceus the Samian, in his Commentaries, gives the name of parasite to Cleisophus, the man who is universally described as the flatterer of Philippus, the king of the Macedonians (but he was an Athenian by birth, as Satyrus the Peripatetic affirms, in his Life of Philippus). And Lynceus says - "Cleisophus, the parasite of Philippus, when Philippus rebuked him for being continually asking for something, replied, 'I am very forgetful. ' Afterwards, when Philippus had given him a wounded horse, he sold him; and when, after a time, the king asked him what had become of him, he answered, 'He was sold by that wound of his. ' And when Philippus laughed at him, and took it good-humouredly, he said, 'Is it not then worth my while to keep you? '" And Hegesander the Delphian, in his Commentaries, makes this mention of Cleisophus:- "When Philippus the king said that writings had been brought to him from Cotys, king of Thrace, Cleisophus, who was present, said, 'It is well, by the gods. ' And when Philippus said, 'But what do you know of the subjects mentioned in these writings? ' he said, 'By the great Zeus, you have reproved me with admirable judgement. '"
[54. ] G But Satyrus, in his Life of Philippus, says, "When Philippus lost his eye, Cleisophus came forth with him, with bandages on the same eye as the king; and again, when his leg was hurt, he came out limping, along with the king. And if ever Philippus ate any harsh or sour food, [249] he would contract his features, as if he, too, had the same taste in his mouth. But in the country of the Arabs they used to do these things, not out of flattery, but in obedience to some law; so that whenever the king had anything the matter with any one of his limbs, the courtiers pretended to be suffering the same inconvenience: for they think it ridiculous to be willing to be buried with him when be dies, but not to pay him the compliment of appearing to be subject to the same sufferings as he is while alive, if he sustains any injury. " # But Nicolaus of Damascus,- and he was one of the Peripatetic school,- in his very voluminous history (for it consisted of a hundred and forty-four books), in the hundred and eleventh book says, that Adiatomus the king of the Sotiani (and that is a Celtic tribe) had six hundred picked men about him, who were called by the Gauls, in their national language, Siloduri - which word means in Greek, Bound under a vow. "And the king has them as companions, to live with him and to die with him; as that is the vow which they all take. In return for which, they also share his power, and wear the same dress, and cut the same food; and they die when he dies, as a matter of absolute necessity, if the king dies of any disease; or if he dies in war, or in any other manner. And no one can even say that any of them has shown any fear of death, or has in the least sought to evade it when the king is dead. "
[55. ] G But Theopompus says, in the forty-fourth book of his Histories, that Philippus appointed Thrasydaeus the Thessalian tyrant over all those of his nation, though a man who had but little intellect, but who was an egregious flatterer. But Arcadion the Achaean was not a flatterer, who is mentioned by the same Theopompus, and also by Duris in the fifth book of his History of Macedonian Affairs. Now this Arcadion hated Philippus, and on account of this hatred voluntarily banished himself from his country. And he was a man of the most admirable natural abilities, and numbers of clever sayings of his are related. It happened then once, when Philippus was sojourning at Delphi, that Arcadion also was there; and the Macedonian beheld him and called him to him, and said, How much further, O Arcadion, do you mean to go by way of banishment? And he replied -
Until I meet with men who know not Philippus. [ Hom:Od_11'122 ]
But Phylarchus, in the twenty-first book of his History [ Fr_37 ], says that Philippus laughed at this, and invited Arcadion to supper, and that in that way he got rid of his enmity. But of Nicesias the flatterer of Alexander, Hegesander gives the following account:- "When Alexander complained of being bitten by the flies and was eagerly brushing them off, a man of the name of Nicesias, one of his flatterers who happened to be present, said,- Beyond all doubt those flies will be far superior to all other flies, now that they have tasted your blood. " And the same man says that Cheirisophus also, the flatterer of Dionysius, when he saw Dionysius laughing with some of his acquaintances, (but he was some way off himself, so that he could not hear what they were laughing at,) laughed also. And when Dionysius asked him on what account he, who could not possibly hear what was said, laughed, said - I feel that confidence in you that I am quite sure that, what has been said is worth laughing at.
[56. ] G His son also, the second Dionysius, had numerous flatterers, who were called by the common people Dionysiocolaces. And they, because Dionysius himself was not very sharp sighted, used to pretend while at supper not to be able to see very far, but they would touch whatever was near them as if they could not see it, until Dionysius himself guided their hands to the dishes. And when Dionysius spat, they would often put out their own faces for him to spit upon: [250] and then licking off the spittle and even his vomit, they declared that it was sweeter than honey. And Timaeus, in the twenty-second book of his Histories, says that Democles the flatterer of the younger Dionysius, as it was customary in Sicily to make a sacrifice from house to house in honour of the nymphs, and for men to spend the night around their statues when quite drunk, and to dance around the goddesses - Democles neglecting the nymphs, and saying that there was no use in attending to lifeless deities, went and danced before Dionysius. And at a subsequent time being once sent on an embassy with some colleagues to Dion, when they were all proceeding in a trireme, he being accused by the rest of behaving in a seditious manner in respect of this journey, and of having injured the general interests of Dionysius, when Dionysius was very indignant, he said that differences had arisen between himself and his colleagues, because after supper they took a paean of Phrynichus or Stesichorus, and some of them took one of Pindarus' and sang it; but he, with those who agreed with him, went entirely through the hymns which had been composed by Dionysius himself. And he undertook to bring forward undeniable proof of this assertion. For that his accusers were not acquainted with the modulation of those songs, but that he on the contrary was ready to sing them all through one after the other. And so, when Dionysius was pacified, Democles continued, and said, "But you would do me a great favour, O Dionysius, if you were to order any one of those who knows it to teach me the paean which you composed in honour of Asclepius; for I hear that you have taken great pains with that. "
And once, when some friends were invited to supper by Dionysius, Dionysius coming into the room, said, "O, my friends, letters have been sent to us from the generals who have been despatched to Neapolis;" and Democles interrupting him, said, "By the gods, they have done well, O Dionysius. " And he, looking upon him, said, "But how do you know whether what they have written is in accordance with my expectation or the contrary? " And Democles replied, "By the gods, you have properly rebuked me, O Dionysius. " Timaeus also affirms that there was a man named Satyrus who was a flatterer of both the Dionysii.
[57. ] G # And Hegesander relates that Hieron the tyrant was also rather weak in his eyes; and that his friends who supped with him made mistakes in the dishes on purpose, in order to let him set them right, and to give him an opportunity of appearing clearer-sighted than the rest. And Hegesander says that Eucelides, who was surnamed Seutlus, (and he too was a parasite,) once when a great quantity of sow-thistles (? ? ? ? ? ? ) was set before him at a banquet, said, "Capaneus who is introduced by Euripides in his Suppliant Women [ 864 ], was a very witty man -
Detesting tables where there was too much pride (? ? ? ? ? ).
# But those who were the leaders of the people at Athens, says he, in the Chremonidean war, flattered the Athenians, and said, "that everything else was common to all the Greeks; but that the Athenians were the only men who knew the road which leads to heaven. " And Satyrus, in his Lives, says that Anaxarchus, the Eudaemonist philosopher, was one of the flatterers of Alexander; and that he once, when on a journey in company with the king, when a violent and terrible thunderstorm took place, so as to frighten everybody, said - "Was it you, O Alexander, son of Zeus, who caused this? " [251] And that he laughed and said - "Not I; for I do not wish to be formidable, as you make me out; you also desire me to have brought to me at supper the heads of satraps and kings. " And Aristobulus of Cassandreia says that Dioxippus the Athenian, a pancratiast, once when Alexander was wounded and when the blood flowed, said [ Hom:Il_5'340 ]-
'Tis ichor, such as flows from the blessed gods.
[58. ] G And Epicrates the Athenian, having gone on an embassy to the [Persian] king, according to the statement of Hegesander, and having received many presents from him, was not ashamed to flatter the king openly and boldly, so as even to say that the best way was not to choose nine archons every year, but nine ambassadors to the king. But I wonder at the Athenians, how they allowed him to make such a speech without bringing him to trial, and yet fined Demades ten talents, because he thought Alexander a god; and they put Evagoras to death, because when he went as ambassador to the king he prostrated himself before him. And Timon of Phlius, in the third book of his Silli, says that Ariston the Chian, an acquaintance and pupil of Zenon of Citium, was a flatterer of Persaeus the philosopher, because he was a companion of Antigonus the king. But Phylarchus, in the sixth book of his Histories [ Fr_11 ], says that Nicesias the flatterer of Alexander, when he saw the king in convulsions from some medicine which he had taken, said - "O king, what must we do, when even you gods suffer in this manner? " and that Alexander, scarcely looking up, said - "What sort of gods? I am afraid rather we are hated by the gods. " And in his twenty-eighth book the same Phylarchus says [ Fr_46 ] that Apollophanes was a flatterer of Antigonus who was surnamed Epitropus ['Guardian'], who took Lacedaemon, and he used to say that the fortune of Antigonus Alexandrized.
[59. ] G But Euphantus, in the fourth book of his Histories, says that Callicrates was a flatterer of Ptolemy, the third king of Egypt, and was so clever that he not only bore an image of Odysseus on his seal, but that he also gave his children the names of Telegonus and Anticleia. # And Polybius, in the thirteenth book of his Histories [ 13. 4 ], says that Heracleides of Tarentum was a flatterer of the Philippus whose power was destroyed by the Romans; and that it was he who overturned his whole kingdom. And in his fourteenth book [ 14. 11 ], he says that Philon was a flatterer of Agathocles the son of Oenanthe, and the companion of the king Ptolemy Philopator. And Baton of Sinope relates, in his book about the tyranny of Hieronymus, that Thrason, who was surnamed Carcharus, was the flatterer of Hieronymus the tyrant of Syracuse, saying that he every day used to drink a great quantity of unmixed wine. But another flatterer, by name Osis, caused Thrason to be put to death by Hieronymus; and he persuaded Hieronymus himself to assume the diadem, and the purple and all the rest of the royal apparel, which Dionysius the tyrant was accustomed to wear. And Agatharchides, in the thirtieth book of his Histories, says - "Haeresippus the Spartan was a great rascal, not even putting on any appearance of goodness; but having very persuasive flattering language, and being a very clever man at paying court to the rich as long as their fortune lasted. " [252] Such also was Heracleides of Maroneia, the flatterer of Seuthes the king of the Thracians, who is mentioned by Xenophon in the seventh book of the Anabasis [ 7. 3'16 ].
[60. ] G But Theopompus, in the eighteenth book of his Histories, speaking of Nicostratus the Argive, and saying how he flattered the Persian king, writes as follows - "But how can we think Nicostratus the Argive anything but a wicked man? who, when he was president of the city of Argos, and when he had received all the distinctions of family, and riches, and large estates from his ancestors, surpassed all men in his flatteries and attentions to the king, outrunning not only those who bore a part in that expedition, but even all who had lived before; for in the first place, he was so anxious for honours from the barbarian, that, wishing to please him more and to be more trusted by him, he brought his son to the king, a thing which no one else will ever be found to have done. And then, every day when he was about to go to supper he had a table set apart, to which he gave the name of the Table of the King's Deity, loading it with meat and all other requisites; hearing that those who live at the doors of the royal palace among the Persians do the same thing, and thinking that by this courtier-like attention he should get more from the king. For he was exceedingly covetous, and not scrupulous as to the means he employed for getting money, so that indeed no one was over less so. " And Lysimachus was a flatterer and the tutor of Attalus the king, a man whom Callimachus sets down as a pupil of Theodorus, but Hermippus sets him down in the list of the disciples of Theophrastus. And this man wrote books also about the education of Attalus, full of every kind of adulation imaginable. But Polybius, in the eighth book of his Histories [ 8. 22 ], says, "Cavarus the Gaul, who was in other respects a good man, was depraved by Sostratus the flatterer, who was a native of Chalcedon. "
[61. ] G Nicolaus, in the hundred and fourteenth book of his Histories, says that Andromachus of Carrhae was a flatterer of Licinius Crassus, who commanded the expedition against the Parthians; and that Crassus communicated all his designs to him, and was, in consequence, betrayed to the Parthians by him, and so destroyed. But Andromachus was not allowed by the deity to escape unpunished. For having obtained, as the reward of his conduct, the sovereignty over his native place Carrhae, he behaved with such cruelty and violence that he was burnt with his whole family by the inhabitants of Carrhae.
And Poseidonius of Apameia, who was afterwards surnamed Rhodian, in the fourth book of his Histories [ Fr_4 ], says that Hierax of Antioch, who used formerly to accompany the singers called Lysiodi on the flute, afterwards became a terrible flatterer of Ptolemy, seventh king of Egypt of that name, who was also surnamed Euergetes; and that he had the very greatest influence over him, as also he had with Ptolemy Philometor, though he was afterwards put to death by him. And Nicolaus the Peripatetic states that Sosipater, who was by trade a juggler, was a flatterer of Mithridates. And Theopompus, in the ninth book of his History of Greek Affairs, says that Athenaeus the Eretrian was a flatterer and servant of Sisyphus the tyrant of Pharsalus.
[62. ] G # The whole populace of the Athenians, too, was very notorious for the height to which it pushed its flattery; accordingly, Demochares the cousin of Demosthenes the orator, in the twentieth book of his histories, speaking of the flattery practised by the Athenians towards Demetrius Poliorcetes, [253] and saying that he himself did not at all like it, writes as follows- "And some of these things annoyed him greatly, as they well might. And, indeed, other parts of their conduct were utterly mean and disgraceful. They consecrated temples to Leaena Aphrodite and Lamia Aphrodite, and they erected altars and shrines as if to heroes, and instituted libations in honour of Burichus, and Adeimantus, and Oxythemis, his flatterers. And poems were sung in honour of all these people, so that even Demetrius himself was astonished at what they did, and said that in his time there was not one Athenian of a great or vigorous mind. " The Thebans also flattered Demetrius, as Polemon relates in the treatise on the Ornamented Portico at Sicyon; and they, too, erected a temple to Lamia Aphrodite. But she was one of Demetrius' mistresses, as also was Leaena. So that why should we wonder at the Athenians, who stooped even to become flatterers of flatterers, singing paeans and hymns to Demetrius himself?
Accordingly Demochares, in the twenty-first book of his Histories, says- "And the Athenians received Demetrius when he came from Leucas and Corcyra to Athens, not only with frankincense, and crowns, and libations of wine, but they even went out to meet him with hymns, and choruses, and ithyphallic mummers, and dancing and singing, and they stood in front of him in multitudes, dancing and singing, and saying that he was the only true god, and that all the rest of the gods were either asleep, or gone away to a distance, or were no gods at all. And they called him the son of Poseidon and Aphrodite, for he was eminent for beauty, and affable to all men with a natural courtesy and gentleness of manner. And they fell at his feet and addressed supplications and prayers to him. "
[63. ] G Demochares, then, has said all this about the adulatory spirit and conduct of the Athenians. And Duris the Samian, in the twenty-second book of his Histories, has given the very ithyphallic hymn which they addressed to him -
Behold the greatest of the gods and dearest
Are come to this city,
For here Demeter and Demetrius are
Present in season.
She indeed comes to duly celebrate
The sacred mysteries
Of her most holy daughter - he is present
Joyful and beautiful,
As a god ought to be, with smiling face
Showering his blessings round.
How noble does he look! his friends around,
Himself the centre.
His friends resemble the bright lesser stars,
Himself is the sun.
Hail, ever-mighty Poseidon's mightier son;
Hail, son of Aphrodite.
For other gods do at a distance keep,
Or have no ears,
Or no existence; and they heed not us -
But you are present,
Not made of wood or stone, a genuine god.
We pray to you.
First of all give us peace, O dearest god -
For you are lord of peace -
And crush for us yourself, for you've the power,
This odious Sphinx;
Which now destroys not Thebes alone, but Greece -
The whole of Greece -
I mean the Aetolian, who, like her of old,
Sits on a rock,
And tears and crushes all our wretched bodies.
Nor can we him resist.
For the Aetolians plunder all their neighbours;
And now they stretch afar
Their lion hands; but crush them, mighty lord,
Or send some Oedipus
Who shall this Sphinx hurl down from off his precipice,
Or starve him justly.
[64. ] G This is what was sung by the nation which once fought at Marathon, and they sang it not only in public, but in their private houses - men who had once put a man to death for prostrating himself before the king of Persia, and who had slain countless myriads of barbarians. [254] Therefore, Alexis, in his Apothecary, or Crateuas, introduces a person pledging one of the guests in a cup of wine, and represents him as saying -
Boy, give a larger cup, and pour therein
Four cyathi of strong and friendly drink,
In honour of all present. Then you shall add
Three more for love; one for the victory,
The glorious victory of King Antigonus,
Another for the young Demetrius.
* * * * *
And presently he adds -
Bring a third cup in honour now
Of Phila Aphrodite. Hail, my friends and guests;
I drink the cup to the success of all of you.
[65. ] G Such were the Athenians, at that time, after flattery, that worst of wild beasts, had inspired their city with frenzy, that city which once the Pythia entitled the Hearth of Greece, and which Theopompus, who hated them, called the prytaneium of Greece; he who said in other places that Athens was fall of drunken flatterers, and sailors, and pickpockets, and also of false witnesses, sycophants, and false accusers. And it is my opinion that it was they who introduced all the flattery which we have been speaking of, like a storm, or other infliction, sent on men by the gods; concerning which Diogenes said, very elegantly- "That it was much better to go ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ['to the crows'] than ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ['to the flatterers'], who eat up all the good men while they are still alive;" and, accordingly, Anaxilas says, in his Young Woman -
The flatterers are worms which prey upon
All who have money; for they make an entrance
Into the heart of a good guileless man.
And take their seat there, and devour it.
Till they have drained it like the husk of wheat,
And leave the shell; and then attack some other.
And Plato says, in his Phaedrus [ 240'b ] - "Nature has mingled some pleasure which is not entirely inelegant in its character of a flatterer, though he is an odious beast, and a great injury to a state. " And Theophrastus, in his treatise on Flattery, says that Myrtis the priest, the Argive, taking by the ear Cleonymus (who was a dancer and also a flatterer, and who often used to come and sit by him and his fellow-judges, and who was anxious to be seen in company with those who were thought of consideration in the city), and dragging him out of the assembly, said to him in the hearing of many people, You shall not dance here, and you shall not hear us. And Diphilus, in his Marriage, says -
A flatterer destroys
By his pernicious speeches
Both general and prince,
Both private friends and states;
He pleases for a while,
But causes lasting ruin.
And now this evil habit
Has spread among the people,
Our courts are all diseased,
And all is done by favour.
So that the Thessalians did well who razed the city which was called Colaceia (Flattery), which the Melians used to inhabit, as Theopompus relates in the thirtieth book of his History.
[66. ] G # But Phylarchus says [ Fr_29 ], that those Athenians who settled in Lemnos were great flatterers, mentioning them as such in the thirteenth book of his History. For that they, wishing to display their gratitude to the descendants of Seleucus and Antiochus, [255] because Seleucus not only delivered them when they were severely oppressed by Lysimachus but also restored both their cities to them,- they, I say, the Athenians in Lemnos, not only erected temples to Seleucus, but also to his son Antiochus; and they have named the cup, which at their feasts is offered at the end of the banquet, the cup of Seleucus the Saviour.
Now some people, perverting the proper name, call this flattery ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , complaisance; as Anaxandrides does in his Samian, where he says -
For flattery is now complaisance called.
But those who devote themselves to flattery are not aware that that art is one which flourishes only a short time. Accordingly, Alexis says in his Liar -
A flatterer's life but a brief space endures,
For no one likes a hoary parasite.
And Clearchus of Soli, in the first book of his Amatory treatises, says- "No flatterer is constant in his friendship. For time destroys the falsehood of his pretences, and a lover is only a flatterer and a pretended friend on account of youth or beauty. " One of the flatterers of Demetrius the king was Adeimantus of Lampsacus, who having built a temple at Thria, and placed statues in it, called it the temple of Phila Aphrodite, and called the place itself Philaeum, from Phila the (? ) wife of Demetrius; as we are told by Dionysius the son of Tryphon, in the tenth book of his treatise on Names.
[67. ] G But Clearchus of Soli, in his book which is inscribed Gergithius, tells us whence the origin of the name flatterer is derived and mentioning Gergithius himself, from whom the treatise has its name, he says that he was one of Alexander's flatterers; and he tells the story thus- "That flattery debases the characters of the flatterers, making them apt to despise whoever they associate with; and a proof of this is, that they endure everything, well knowing what they dare do. And those who are flattered by them, being puffed up by their adulation, they make foolish and empty-headed, and cause them to believe that they, and everything belonging to them, are of a higher order than other people. " And then proceeding to mention a certain young man, a Paphian by birth, but a king by the caprice of fortune, he says- "This young man (and he does not mention his name) used out of his preposterous luxury to lie on a couch with silver feet, with a smooth Sardian carpet spread under it of the most expensive description. And over him was thrown a piece of purple cloth, edged with a scarlet fringe; and he had three pillows under his head made of the finest linen, and of purple colour, by which he kept himself cool. And under his feet he had two pillows of the kind called Dorian, of a bright crimson colour; and on all this he lay himself, clad in a white robe.
[68. ] G "And all the monarchs who have at any time reigned in Cyprus have encouraged a race of nobly-born flatterers as useful to them; for they are a possession very appropriate to tyrants. And no one ever knows them (any more than they do the judges of the Areopagus), either how many they are, or who they are, except that perhaps some of the most eminent may be known or suspected. And the flatterers at Salamis are divided into two classes with reference to their families; and it is from the flatterers in Salamis that all the rest of the flatterers in the other parts of Cyprus are derived; and one of these two classes is called the Gergini, and the other the Promalanges. [256] Of which, the Gergini mingle with the people in the city and go about as eavesdroppers and spies in the workshops and the market-places; and whatever they hear, they report every day to those who are called their Principles. But the Promalanges, being a sort of superior investigators, inquire more particularly into all that is reported by the Gergini which appears worthy of being investigated; and the way in which they conduct themselves towards every one is so artificial and gentle, that, as it seems to me, and as they themselves allege, the very seed of notable flatterers has been spread by them over all the places at a distance. They take much pride in their skill, because they are greatly honoured by the kings; and they say that one of the Gergini, being a descendant of those Trojans whom Teucer took as slaves, having selected them from the captives, and then brought and settled in Cyprus, going along the sea coast with a few companions, sailed towards Aeolis, in order to seek out and re-establish the country of his ancestors; and that he, taking some Mysians to himself, inhabited a city near the Trojan Ida, which was formerly called Gergina, from the name of the inhabitants, but is now called Gergitha. For some of the party being, as it seems, separated from this expedition, stopped in Cumae, being by birth a Cyprian race, and not from the Thessalian Tricca, as some have affirmed, - men whose ignorance I take to be beyond the skill of all the descendants of Asclepius to cure.
[69. ] G "There were also in this country, in the time of Glus the Carian, women attaching themselves to the Queens, who were called flatterers; and a few of them who were left crossed the sea, and were sent for to the wives of Artabazus and Mentor, and instead of ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ['flatterers'] were called ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? from the following circumstance. By way of making themselves agreeable to those who had sent for them, they made a ladder [? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ] of themselves, in such a manner that there was a way of ascending over their backs, and also a way of descending, for their mistresses when they drove out in chariots: to such a pitch of luxury, not to say of miserable helplessness, did they bring those silly women by their contrivance. Therefore, they themselves, when they were compelled by fortune to quit that very luxurious way of living, lived with great hardship in their old age. And the others who had received these habits from us, when they were deprived of their authority came to Macedonia; and the customs which they taught to the wives and princesses of the great men in that country by their association with them, it is not decent even to mention further than this, that practising magic arts themselves, and being the objects of them when practised by others, they did not spare even the places of the greatest resort, but they became complete vagabonds, and the very scum of the streets, polluted with all sorts of abominations. Such and so great are the evils which seen to be engendered by flattery in the case of all people who admit from their own inclination and predisposition to be flattered. "
[70. ] G And a little further Clearchus goes on as follows- "But still a man may have a right to find fault with that young man for the way in which he used those things, as I have said before. For his slaves stood in short tunics a little behind the couch: and as there are now three men on whose account all this discussion has been originated, and as all these men are men who have separate names among us, the one sat on the couch close to his feet, letting the feet of the young man rest upon his knees, and covering them with a thin cloth; [257] and what he did further is plain enough, even if I do not mention it. And this servant is called by the natives Parabystus ['stuffed in'], because he works his way into the company of those men even who do not willingly receive him, by the very skilful character of his flatteries. The second was one sitting on a certain chair which was placed close to the couch; and he, holding by the hand of the young man, as he let it almost drop and clinging to it, kept on rubbing it, and taking each of his fingers in turn be rubbed it and stretched it, so that the man appeared to have said a very witty thing who first gave that officer the name of Sicya ['cucumber']. The third, however, was the most noble of all, and was called Ther ['the wild beast'], who was indeed the principal of the whole body, and who stood at his master's head, and shared his linen pillows, lying upon them in a most friendly manner. And with his left hand be kept smoothing the hair of the young man, and with his right hand he kept moving up and down a Phocaean fan, so as to please him while waving it, without force enough to brush anything away. On which account, it appears to me, that some high-born god must have been angry with him and have sent a fly to attack the young man, a fly like that with whose audacity Homer says [ Il_17'570 ] that Athene inspired Menelaus, so vigorous and fearless was it in disposition.
"So when the young man was stung, this man uttered such a loud scream in his behalf and was so indignant, that on account of his hatred to one fly he banished the whole tribe of flies from his house: from which it is quite plain that he appointed this servant for this especial purpose. "
[71. ] G But Leucon, the tyrant of Pontus, was a different kind of man, who when he knew that many of his friends had been plundered by one of the flatterers whom he had about him, perceiving that the man was calumniating some one of his remaining friends, said, "I swear by the gods that I would kill you if a tyrannical government did not stand in need of bad men. " And Antiphanes the comic writer, in his Soldier, gives a similar account of the luxury of the kings in Cyprus. And he represents one of them as asking a soldier these questions -
(A) Tell me now, you had lived some time in Cyprus?
Say you not so?
(B) Yes, all the time of the war.
(A) In what part most especially? tell me that.
(B) In Paphos, where you should have seen the luxury
That did exist, or you could not believe it.
(A) What kind of luxury?
(B) The king was fanned
While at his supper by young turtle-doves
And by nought else.
(A) How mean you? never mind
My own affairs, but let me ask you this.
(B) He was anointed with a luscious ointment
Brought up from Syria, made of some rich fruit
Which they do say doves love to feed upon.
They were attracted by the scent and flew
Around the royal temples: and had dared
To seat themselves upon the monarch's head,
But that the boys who sat around with sticks
Did keep them at a slight and easy distance.
And so they did not perch, but hovered round,
Neither too far nor yet too near, still fluttering,
So that they raised a gentle breeze to blow
Not harshly on the forehead of the king.
[72. ] G [258] The flatterer (? ? ? ? ? ) of that young man whom we have been speaking of must have been a ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? (a soft flatterer), as Clearchus says. For besides flattering such a man as that, he invents a regular gait and dress harmonizing with that of those who receive the flattery, folding his arms and wrapping himself up in a small cloak; on which account some men call him Arm-crosser, and some call him a Repository of Attitudes. For really a flatterer does seem to be the very same person with Proteus himself. Accordingly he changes into nearly every sort of person, not only in form, but also in his discourse, so very varied in voice he is.
But Androcydes the physician said that flattery had its name (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) from becoming glued (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) to men's acquaintance. But it appears to me that they were named from their facility (?
