Eademque erat hæc disciplina olim, cum tu adolescens eras? Nego tibi hoc annis viginti fuisse primis copiæ, Digitum longe a pædagogo pedem ut efferres ædibus, Ante solem exorientem nisi in palæstram veneras, Gymnasii præfecto haud mediocres pœnas penderes. Idque ubi obtigerat, hoc etiam ad malum arcessabatur malum Et discipulus et magister perhibebantur improbi. Ubi cursu, luctando, hasta, disco, pugillatu, pila, Saliendo sese exercebant magis, quam, scorto aut saviis: Ibi suam ætatem extendebant, non in latebrosis locis. Inde de hippodromo et palæstra ubi revenisses domum, Cincticulo præcinctus in sella apud magistrum assideres: Cum librum legeres. Si unam peccavisses syllabam, Fieret corium tam maculosum quam est nutricis pallium * * * * * Id equidem ego certo scio. Nam olim populi prius honorem capiebat suffragio, Quam magistri desinebat esse dicto obediens.[557] Footnote 556: Athen. xiii. 61. 63. Footnote 557: Plaut. Bacchid. Act iii. Sc. 3. Lucian, too, speaking of the attendants of youths in the better times of the republic, describes them as an honourable company who followed their young masters to the schools, not with combs and looking-glasses like the attendants of ladies, but with the venerable instruments of wisdom in their hands, many-leaved tablets or books recording the glorious deeds of their ancestors, or if proceeding to the music master bearing, instead of these, the melodious lyre.[558] Footnote 558: Amor. §. 44. In fact the fortunes of war often in those days reduced men of virtue and ability to the condition of slaves, when they would naturally be chosen as the governors of youth. Thus we find Diogenes the Cynic purchased by a rich Corinthian, who intrusted to him the education of his sons. The account which antiquity has left us of his sale, reception by his master, and manner of teaching, being extremely brief, we shall here give it entire. Hermippos[559] who wrote a small treatise called the Sale of Diogenes, observes that when the philosopher was exposed in the slave-market and interrogated respecting his qualifications, he replied that “He could command men;” and then addressing himself to the herald, bade him inquire whether there was any one present who wanted a master. Being forbidden to sit down, he said “This matters nothing, for fish are bought in whatever way they may lie.” He remarked also, that he wondered that when people were buying a pot or a dish they examined it on all sides, whereas when they purchased a man they were contented with simply looking at him. Afterwards, when he had become the slave of Xeniades, he informed his owner that he expected the same obedience to be paid to him as men yield to a pilot or a physician. Footnote 559: Diog. Laert. Vit. Diog. vi. ii. 4. sqq. with the observation of Menage, t. ii. p. 138.