The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 1 (of 3)Athenaeus, of Naucratis
General
The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 1 (of 3)
Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Civilization, Greco-Roman; Dinners and dining -- Greece; Greece -- Social life and customs; Homosexuality -- Greece
62. But concerning the intemperance and general habits and life of
Philip and his companions, Theopompus gives the following account, in
the forty-ninth book of his Histories--"When Philip became master of
great treasures, he did not spend them quickly, but he threw them away
and squandered them; being of all the men that ever lived, not only the
worst manager himself, but all those who were about him were so too. For
absolutely not one of them had any idea of living properly, or of
managing his household with moderation. And of that he himself was the
cause, being a most insatiable and extravagant man, doing everything in
an offhand manner, whether he was acquiring property or giving it away.
For though he was a soldier, he was unable, out of pure laziness, to
count what he had coming in and what he spent. And then his companions
were men collected together from all quarters; for some of them came
from his own country, and some from Thessaly, and some from other parts
of Greece, not being selected with any care; but if among either Greeks
or barbarians there was any lascivious, or impure, or avaricious man, he
had almost every one of the same character assembled in Macedonia, and
they were all called friends of Philip. And even if any one came who was
not entirely of that disposition, still under the influence of the life
and manners of the Macedonians, he very soon became like the rest. For
their wars, and military expeditions, and other great expenses,
encouraged them to be audacious, and to live, not in an orderly manner,
but after a prodigal fashion and like robbers."
63. But Duris, in the seventh book of his History of the Affairs of
Macedonia, speaking of Pasicyprus the king of Cyprus, and of his
intemperate habits, writes as follows--"Alexander, after the siege of
Tyre, dismissed Pnytagoras, and gave him many presents, and among them
he gave him the fortified place which he asked for. And that very place
Pasicyprus the king had previously sold, in a luxurious freak, for fifty
talents, to Pymatus the Cittiæan, selling him both the fortress itself
and his own royal authority over it. And when he had received the money
he grew old in Amathus." Such also was Æthiops the Corinthian, as
Demetrius the Scepsian relates, of whom mention is made by Archilochus;
"for he, out of his love of pleasure and intemperance, sailing with
Archias to Sicily when he was about to found Syracuse, sold to his
messmate for a cake of honey the lot which he had just drawn, and was
about to take possession of in Syracuse."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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