SAYINGS OF KINGS AND COMMANDERS
BY PLUTARCH
Βασιλέων ἀποφθέγματα καὶ στρατηγών meaning Sayings of Kings and Commanders by the Boiotian Greek historian and philosopher Plutarch Πλούταρχος of Chaironeia (ca. AD 46-120) who won Roman imperial favour and rose to become procurator of Achaia, was one of the essays (covering 172a-194e) in his eclectic Moralia, written around AD 100.
The translation is by Frank Cole Babbitt Plutarch, Moralia, Volume III, Loeb Classical Library Volume 245, London: William Heinemann, 1931. His Romanisations of Greek names have been replaced by transliterations of the Greek.
180f Alexander Ἀλέξανδρος xx
Amongst the sayings of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC):
| On another occasion Kasandros forced Python, beloved by Evios the flute-player, to kiss him, and Alexander, seeing that Evios was vexed, leapt up in anger against Kasandros, exclaiming “It isn’t allowable even to fall in love with anybody, because of you and people like you.”[1] | Πάλιν δὲ Πύθωνα τὸν Εὐίου τοῦ αὐλητοῦ ἐρώμενον Κάσανδρος ἐβιάζετο φιλῆσαι· τὸν οὖν Εὔιον ὁρῶν ἀχθόμενον ἀνεπήδησε μετ᾿ ὀργῆς ἐπὶ τὸν Κάσανδρον, κεκραγώς, “ἀλλ᾿ οὐδ᾿ ἐρασθῆναί τινος ἔξεστι δι᾿ ὑμᾶς.” |
185c Themistokles Θεμιστοκλῆς viii
Amongst the sayings of the Athenian general Themistokles (ca. 524-ca. 459 BC):
| 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. “My boy,” said Themistokles, “it has taken time, but now we have both come to have sense.”[2] | Ἀντιφάτου δὲ τοῦ καλοῦ πρότερον μὲν ἐρῶντα τὸν Θεμιστοκλέα φεύγοντος καὶ καταφρονοῦντος, ἐπεὶ δὲ δόξαν ἔσχε μεγάλην καὶ δύναμιν, προσερχομένου καὶ κολακεύοντος, “ὦ μειράκιον,” εἶπεν, “ὀψὲ μὲν ἀμφότεροι ἀλλὰ1 νοῦν ἐσχήκαμεν.” |
191a Agesilaos Ἀγησίλαος 4
Amongst the sayings of Agesilaos II (ca. 445-360/1 BC) King of the Spartans:
| When he was about to break camp in haste by night to leave the enemy’s country, and saw his favourite youth, owing to illness, being left behind all in tears, he said, “It is hard to be merciful and sensible at the same time.”[3] | Νυκτὸς δὲ μέλλων κατὰ τάχος ἀναζευγνύειν ἐκ τῆς πολεμίας καὶ τὸν ἐρώμενον ὁρῶν ἀπολειπόμενον δι᾿ ἀσθένειαν καὶ δακρύοντα, “χαλεπόν,” εἶπεν, “ἅμα ἐλεεῖν καὶ φρονεῖν.” |
[1] This incident can only have happened in Babylon, just before Alexander’s death there in June 323 BC. Kassandros had been sent to Alexander by his father, Antipatros, who was the regent of Macedon. It should be born in mind that there was intense mutual dislike between Alexander and Kassandros, who went on to become King of the Macedonians after murdering Alexander’s mother, widow and son. For the rest of his life, Kassandros shuddered whenever he encountered a statue of Alexander.
This Evios was also mentioned by Plutarch in his Life of Eumenes 2, which recounts how a bitter enmity had sprung up in the preceding year between Alexander’s secretary Eumenes and his best friend Hephaistion, after the latter assigned to Evios quarters which Eumenes’s servants had already chosen for their master.
[2] This anecdote was recounted almost identically by Plutarch in his Life of Themistokles 18 ii.
[3] This anecdote was recounted almost identically by Plutarch in his Life of Agesilaos 13 iv (where it was attributed to “Hieronymos the philosopher”) and in the “Sayings of Spartans” section of his Moralia, 209f.
Note that the Greek word here translated as ”favourite youth” is ἐρώμενον, usually translated less euphemistically as “beloved” [boy].
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