Aphthonius next defines the Chreia as a pointed saying, applied to some person or thing. It is so called because it is ‘useful’ for moral and intellectual lessons. There are three general classes: (1) the _Word-Chreia_, found only in speech; (2) the _Act-Chreia_ (e.g. Pythagoras, on being asked how long a man’s life was, answered by appearing for a short time and then disappearing. A scholiast adds the example of Tarquin and the poppies); (3) the _Mixed Chreia_. The divisions of every Chreia are: (1) _praise_, (2) _paraphrase_, (3) _cause_, (4) _the contrary_ (i.e. the pupil states what would happen if the opposite were true), (5) _simile_ (the same sort of thing in other spheres), (6) _example_ (instances of the same thing in recorded history—generally in the poets), (7) _testimony of the ancients_ (appeal to similar teaching in older writers like Hesiod), (8) _short epilogue_ (a summary of the argument). Then follows an example of the Word-Chreia, illustrating all the divisions. The saying of Isocrates that the roots of education are bitter, but its fruits sweet, is worked up into a little essay. The mediaeval scholiasts go copiously into all the minor points raised by the various Chreiae, and give biblical examples from Genesis and Ecclesiastes in which Juvenal, Hesiod, and Menander curiously intermingle. Next comes Sententia (γνώμη), an aphoristic saying of a hortatory or enunciatory kind. Unlike the Chreia, it is found only in speech. Examples are: εἷς οἰωνὸσ ἄριστος ἀμύνεσθαι περὶ πάτρης (Dulce et decorum est ...) and οὐδὲν ἀκιδνότερον γαῖα τρέφει ἀνθρώποιο. (Of all things Man most wretched is on earth.) There are three kinds: hortatory (προτρεπτικόν), dehortatory (ἀποτρεπτικόν), enunciatory (ἀποφαντικόν). Further divisions are: simple and composite, or probable, true, and hyperbolical. All of these are amply illustrated. The same divisions hold as for the Chreia, and they are exemplified by developing the protreptic gnomê that death is better than poverty: χρὴ πενίην φεύγοντα καὶ ἐς μεγακήτεα πόντον ῥίπτειν καὶ πετρῶν, Κύρνε, κατ’ ἠλιβάτων.