JESTERS.
- wards went and dug together to no purpose, and then found
out that they had been all deceived."
6. And our party was not deficient in men fond of raising a laugh by bitter speeches. And respecting a man of this kind, Chrysippus subsequently, in the same book, writes as follows:—"Once when a man fond of saying bitter things was about to be put to death by the executioner, he said that he wished to die like the swan, singing a song; and when he gave him leave, he ridiculed him." And Myrtilus having had a good many jokes cut on him by people of this sort, got angry, and said that Lysimachus the king had done a very sensible thing; for he, hearing Telesphorus, one of his lieutenants, at an entertainment, ridiculing Arsinoe (and she was the wife of Lysimachus), as being a woman in the habit of vomiting, in the following line—
You begin ill, introducing [Greek: têndemousan],[1]—
ordered him to be put in a cage ([Greek: galeagra]) and carried about like a wild beast, and fed; and he punished him in this way till he died. But if you, O Ulpian, raise a question about the word [Greek: galeagra], it occurs in Hyperides the orator; and the passage you may find out for yourself.
And Tachaos the king of Egypt ridiculed Agesilaus king of Lacedæmon, when he came to him as an ally (for he was a very short man), and lost his kingdom in consequence, as Agesilaus abandoned his alliance. And the expression of Tachaos was as follows:—
The mountain was in labour; Jupiter
Was greatly frighten'd: lo! a mouse was born.
And Agesilaus hearing of this, and being indignant at it, said, "I will prove a lion to you." So afterwards, when the Egyptians revolted (as Theopompus relates, and Lyceas of Naucratis confirms the statement in his History of Egypt), Agesilaus refused to cooperate with him, and, in consequence, Tachaos lost his kingdom, and fled to the Persians.
7. So as there was a great deal of music introduced, and not always the same instruments, and as there was a good deal of discussion and conversation about them, (without always giving the names of those who took part in it,) I will enumerate the chief things which were said. For concerning, this Muse; [Greek: tênd' emousan], this woman vomiting.]
- ↑ [Greek: Tênde mousan
