Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng3
39.1
39.1
Themistocles while yet in his youth abandoned himself to wine and women.
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But after Miltiades,
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commanding the Athenian army, had overcome the barbarians at Marathon, never again was it possible to encounter Themistocles misconducting himself. To those who expressed their amazement at the change in him, he said that
39.1
the trophy of Miltiades does not allow me to sleep or to be indolent.
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39.2
39.2
Being asked whether he would rather have been Achilles or Homer, he said,
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How about you yourself ? Would you rather be the victor at the Olympic games or the announcer of the victor ?
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39.3
39.3
When Xerxes was descending upon Greece with his mighty armament, Themistocles was afraid of Epicydes the popular leader, unscrupulous and cowardly, lest possibly he might, by being elected general, bring about the ruin of the State; and so he bribed Epicydes to withdraw from his attempt to gain the command.
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39.4
39.4
When Adeimantus lacked the courage to risk a naval battle, and said to Themistocles, who was exhorting and urging on the Greeks,
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Themistocles, in the games they always scourge the runners who start before the signal is given,
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Themistocles replied,
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Yes, Adeimantus, but they do not crown those who are left behind in the race.
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39.5
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When Eurybiades lifted his cane as though to strike him, he said,
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Strike but listen.
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39.6
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Unable to persuade Eurybiades to engage the enemy’s ships in the narrows, he sent a secret message to the barbarian telling him not to be afraid of the Greeks, who were running away. And when the barbarian, by taking this advice, was vanquished in the battle because he fought where the Greeks had the advantage, Themistocles again sent a message to him, bidding him flee to the Hellespont by the speediest route, since the Greeks were minded to destroy the bridge. In this his purpose was, while saving the Greeks, to give the king the impression that he was saving him.
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39.7
39.7
When the man from Seriphus said to him that it was not because of himself but because of his country that he was famous, Themistocles remarked,
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What you say is true enough; but if I were from Seriphus, I should not have become famous, nor would you if you were from Athens.
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39.8
39.8
Antiphates, the handsome youth of whom Themistocles was enamoured, avoided him in the earlier days, and looked down upon him, but, after Themistocles had acquired great repute and power, kept coming to him and trying to flatter him.
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My boy,
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said Themistocles,
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it has taken time, but now we have both come to have sense.
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39.9
39.9
To Simonides, who petitioned for a legal decision which was not just, he said that Simonides would not be a good poet if he sang out of tune, nor should he himself be a useful official if he gave a decision out of tune with the law.
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39.10
39.10
Of his son, who was pert towards his mother, he said that the boy wielded more power than anybody else in Greece; for the Athenians ruled the Greeks, he himself ruled the Athenians, the boy’s mother ruled himself, and the boy ruled the mother.
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39.11
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Of the suitors for his daughter’s hand he esteemed the man of promise higher than the man of wealth, saying that he was looking for a man that was in need of money rather than for money that was in need of a man.
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39.12
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When he offered a plot of land for sale, he ordered the announcement to be made that it also had a good neighbour.
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39.13
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When the Athenians treated him with contumely, he said,
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Why do you grow tired of being well served many times by the same men ?
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He also likened himself to the plane-trees, beneath which men hasten when overtaken by a storm, but, when fair weather comes, they pluck the leaves as they pass by and break off the branches.
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39.14
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The Eretrians, he said humorously, were like cuttle-fish in having a sword
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but no heart.
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39.15
39.15
After his banishment from Athens first, and later from Greece, he went to the Persian king, and, when he was bidden to speak, he said that speech is like rugs woven with patterns and figures; for speech, like the rugs, when it is extended, displays its figures, but, when it is rolled into a small compass, it conceals and spoils them.
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He asked for time so that, when he should have learned the Persian tongue, he might conduct his interview through his own self and not through another.
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39.17
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Being held deserving of many gifts, and speedily becoming rich,
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he said to his sons,
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Boys, we should be ruined now if we had not been ruined before!
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