29. But Antiphanes, in his Rich Man, gives us a catalogue of epicures, in the following lines:—
Euthymus too was there, with sandals on,
A ring upon his finger, well perfumed,
Silently pondering on I know not what.
EPICURES.
Phœnicides too, and my friend Taureas,
Such great inveterate epicures that they
Would swallow all the remnants in the market;
They at this sight seem'd almost like to die.
And bore the scarcity with small good-humour;
But gather'd crowds and made this speech to them:—
"What an intolerable thing it is
That any of you men should claim the sea,
And spend much money in marine pursuits,
While not one fin of fish comes to this market!
What is the use of all our governors
Who sway the islands? We must make a law
That there should be copious importation
Of every kind of fish. But Matron now
Has carried off the fishermen; and then
There's Diogeiton, who, by Jove, has brought
The hucksters over to keep back for him
All the best fish; and he's not popular
For doing this, for there is mighty waste
In marriage-feasts and youthful luxury."
But Euphron, in his Muses, says,—
But when at some fine banquet of young men
Phœnicides perceived a smoking dish
Full of the sons of Nereus, he held back
His hands, with rage excited. Thus he spoke:—
"Who boasts himself a clever parasite
At eating at the public cost? who thinks
To filch the dainty dishes from the middle?
Where's Corydus, or Phyromachus, or Nillus?
Let them come here, they shall get nought of this."
30. But Melanthus the tragic poet was a person of the same sort; and he also wrote elegies. But Leucon, in his Men of the same Tribe, cuts his jokes upon him in the fashion of the comic writers, on account of his gluttony; and so does Aristophanes in the Peace, and Pherecrates in his Petale. But Archippus, in his play called The Fishes, having put him in chains as an epicure, gives him up to the fishes, to be eaten by them in retaliation. And, indeed, even Aristippus, the pupil of Socrates, was a great epicure,—a man who was once reproached by Plato for his gluttony, as Sotion and Hegesander relate. And the Delphian writes thus:—"Aristippus, when Plato reproached him for having bought a number of fish, said that he had bought them for two obols; and when Plato said, 'I myself would have bought them at that price,' 'You see, then,' said he, 'O Plato! that it is not I who am an epicure, but you who are a miser.'" And Antiphanes, in his Female Flute-player, or the Female Twins, laughing at a man named Phœnicides for his gluttony, says—
Menelaus warr'd for ten whole years against
The Trojan nation for one lovely woman.
Phœnicides, too, attacks Taureas
For one fine eel.
31. But Demosthenes the orator reproaches Pherecrates, because, with the gold which he received for his treason, he bought himself courtesans and fish, and charges him with debauchery and gluttony. But Diocles the epicure, as Hegesander says, when a man once asked him which of the two fish was the best, the conger or the pike, said—"The one when it is boiled, and the other when it is roasted." And Leonteus the Argive also was an epicure: he was a tragedian, and a pupil of Athenion, and a slave of Juba, king of Mauritania; as Amarantus relates, in his treatise on the Stage, saying that Juba wrote this epigram on him, because he had acted the character of Hypsipyle very badly:—
If you should wish to see the genius
Of that devoted artichoke-devourer
Leonteus the tragedian, don't regard
The sorrow-stricken heart of Hypsipyle.
I once was dear to Bacchus, and his taste
Is ne'er perverted by base bribes t'approve
Untuneful sounds. But now the pots and pans,
And well-fill'd dishes have destroyed my voice,
While I've been anxious to indulge my stomach.