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İngilizce İngilizce Yunanca

2 Not for this alone, said Neiloxenus, but he does not try to avoid, as the rest of you do, being a friend of kings and being called such. In your case, for instance, the king finds much to admire in you, and in particular he was immensely pleased with your method of measuring the pyramid, because, without making any ado or asking for any instrument, you simply set your walking-stick upright at the edge of the shadow which the pyramid cast, and, two triangles being formed by the intercepting of the sun’s rays, you demonstrated that the height of the pyramid bore the same relation to the length of the stick as the one shadow to the other. Cf. Pliny, Natural History, xxxvi. 17 (82). But, as I said, you have been unjustly accused of having an animosity against kings, and certain offensive pronouncements of yours regarding despots have been reported to him. For example, he was told that, when you were asked by Molpagoras the Ionian what was the most paradoxical thing you had ever seen, you replied, A despot that lived to be old.Specifically ascribed to Thales by Plutarch, Moralia, 578 D; cf. also infra, 152 A. And again he was told that on a certain convivial occasion there was a discussion about animals, and you maintained that of the wild animals the worst was the despot, and of the tame the flatterer.Ascribed to Bias by Plutarch, Moralia, 61 C. Now kings, although they would make out that they are altogether different from despots, do not take kindly to such remarks.