And Diogenes the Cynic, having eaten a polypus raw, died of a swelling in the belly. But concerning Philoxenus, Sopater the parodist also speaks, saying— For, between two rich courses of fine fish, He pleased himself by looking down the centre Of Ætna's crater. 27. And Hyperides the orator was an epicure in fish; as Timocles the comic writer tells us, in his Delos, where he enumerates all the people who had taken bribes from Harpalus: and he writes thus— _A._ Demosthenes has half-a-hundred talents. _B._ A lucky man, if no one shares with him. _A._ And Moerocles has got a mighty sum. _B._ He was a fool who gave them; lucky he Who got them. _A._ Demon and Callisthenes Have also got large sums. _B._ Well, they were poor, So that we well may pardon them for taking them. _A._ And that great orator Hyperides. _B._ Why, he will all our fishmongers enrich; An epicure! Gulls are mere Syrians, Compared to him. And in the Icarians, the same poet says— Then cross Hyperides, that fishy river, Which with a gentle sound, bubbling with boasts Of prudent speeches, with mild repetitions * * * * * And hired, bedews the plain of him who gave it. And Philetærus, in his Æsculapius, says that Hyperides, besides being a glutton, was also a gambler. As also Axionicus, in his Lover of Euripides, says that Callias the orator was; and his words are—"A man of the name of Glaucus came to this place, bringing from Pontus a kind of shark, a fish of extraordinary magnitude,—a great dainty for epicures in fish, and, in fact, for all men who are devoted to the pleasures of the table. And he brought it on his shoulders, and said, 'Whom shall I instruct how to dress it, and how shall it be dressed? Will you have it soaked in a sauce of green herbs, or shall I baste its body with basting of warm brine, and then dress it on a fierce fire? And a man named Moschio, a great flute-player, cried out that he should like to eat it boiled in warm pickle-juice. And this was meant as a reproof for you, O Calaides! for you are very fond of figs and cured fish; and yet you will not taste a most exquisite fish which you have served up to you in pickle." Reproaching him with the figs as if he were a sycophant; and perhaps concealing under the mention of the cured fish, some intimation of his having been implicated in discreditable conduct. And Hermippus says, in the third book of his treatise on the Pupils of Isocrates, that Hyperides was in the habit of taking a walk, the first thing in the morning, in the fish-market. 28. And Timæus of Tauromenium says that Aristotle the philosopher was a great epicure in respect of fish. Matron the sophist, also, was a great fish-eater: and Antiphanes, in his Harp-player, intimates this; for that play begins thus—