And in the same way you eat a great deal and eat very fast; when it is in your power, according to the words of the same poet which he uses in the Thombycius, "to buy for a single drachma food well suited to you, such as garlic, cheese, onions, and capers; for all these only cost a drachma." And Aristophanes says, in his Pythagoreans—

What? do we think, I ask you in God's name,
That these philosophers of olden time,
The pupils of Pythagoras, went thus
In dirt and rags all of their own accord?
I don't believe one word of such a thing.
No; they were forced to do so, as they had not
A single farthing to buy clothes or soap.
And then they made a merit of economy,
And laid down rules, most splendid rules for beggars.
But only put before them fish or meat;
And if they do not their own fingers bite
For very eagerness, I will be bound
To let you hang me ten times over.

And it is not foreign to the present discussion to mention an epigram which was made with reference to you, which Hegesander the Delphian has quoted, in the sixth book of his Commentaries—

Men drawing up your eyebrows, and depressing
Your scornful nostrils till they reach the chin,
Wearing your beards in sacks, strippers of dishes,
Wearing your cloak outside, with unshod feet
Looking like oil, and eating stealthily
Like hungry vagrants 'neath night's friendly cover,
Cheaters of youth, spouters of syllables,
Pretenders to vain wisdom, but pretending
To make your only object Virtue's self.

54. But Archestratus of Gela, in his treatise on Gastronomy, (which is the only poetical composition which you wise men admire; following Pythagoras in this doctrine alone, namely silence, and doing this only because of your want of words; and besides that, you profess to think well of the Art of Love of Sphodrias the Cynic, and the Amatory Conversation of Protagorides, and the Convivial Dialogues of that beautiful

[[261]]philosopher Persæus, compiled out of the Commentaries of Stilpon and Zeno, in which he inquires, How one may guard against guests at a banquet going to sleep; and, How one ought to use drinking of healths; and, When one ought to introduce beautiful boys and girls into a banquet; and when one ought to treat them well as if they were admired, and when one ought to send them away as disregarding them; and also, concerning various kinds of cookery, and concerning loaves, and other things; and all the over-subtle discussions in which the son of Sophroniscus has indulged concerning kissing. A philosopher who was continually exercising his intellect on such investigations as these, being entrusted, as Hermippus relates, with the citadel of Corinth by Antigonus, got drunk and lost even Corinth itself, being outwitted and defeated by Aratus the Sicyonian; who formerly had argued in his Dialogues against Zeno the philosopher, contending that a wise man would in every respect be a good general; and this excellent pupil of Zeno proved this especial point admirably by his own achievements. For it was a witty saying of Bion the Borysthenite, when he saw a brazen statue of his, on which was the inscription, Persæus of Citium, the Pupil of Zeno, that the man who engraved the inscription had made a blunder, for that it ought to have been, Persæus the servant (οἰκιτίεα not κιτίεα) of Zeno; for he had been born a slave of Zeno, as Nicias of Nicæa relates, in his History of Philosophers; and this is confirmed by Sotion the Alexandrian, in his Successions. And I have met with two books of that admirable work of Persæus, which have this title, "Convivial Dialogues."

55. But Ctesibius the Chalcidian, the friend of Menedemus, as Antigonus the Carystian relates in his Lives, being asked by somebody, What he had ever got by philosophy? replied, The power of getting a supper without contributing to it himself. On which account Timon somewhere or other said to him—

Oh you mad dinner hunter, with the eyes
Of a dead corpse, and heart both bold and shameless.

And Ctesibius was a man who made very good guesses, and was a very witty man, and a sayer of amusing things; on which account every one used to invite him to their parties; he was not a man like you, you Cynic, who never sacrificed to the Graces, nor even to the Muses. And therefore Virtue

[[262]]avoiding you, and all like you, sits by Pleasure, as Mnasalces, the Sicyonian says, in his Epigrams—