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FUNDANUS. Likewise admirable was the behaviour of Peisistratus Cf. Moralia, 189 c, and Nachstädt ad loc. to Thrasybulus, and of Porsenna Ibid. 305 f; Life of Publicola, xvii. (106 a-d) with Lindskog’s note. to Mucius, and of Magas Cf. 449 f, supra. to Philemon. For when Magas had been publicly ridiculed by Philemon in a comedy at the theatre: A. For you some letters, Magas, from the king. B. Unhappy Magas, who no letters know!Kock, Com. Att. Frag., ii. p. 522, Frag. 144. Magas later captured Philemon, who had been cast ashore by a storm at Paraetonium, and ordered a soldier merely to touch Philemon on the neck with a naked sword and then depart courteously; and Magas sent dice and a ball to Philemon, as to a senseless child, and sent him on his way. So also Ptolemy, when he was jeering at a pedant for his ignorance, asked him who was Peleus’ father; and the pedant replied, I shall tell you if you will first tell me who was the father of Lagus. Officially the father of Ptolemy I, who, however, was commonly thought to have been the bastard son of Philip of Macedon. This was a jest at the dubious birth of the king, and everyone was indignant at its improper and inopportune character; but Ptolemy said, If it is not the part of a king to take a jest, neither is it to make one. But Alexander had behaved more harshly than was his custom toward Callisthenes and Cleitus. Cf. Life of Alexander, lv. (696 d-e); 449 e, supra; Seneca, De Ira, iii. 17. 1. And so Porus, Cf. Moralia, 181 e, 332 e; Life of Alexander, ix. (699 c), and Ziegler’s note. when he was taken captive, requested Alexander to treat him like a king. When Alexander asked, Is there nothing more? In the words like a king, replied Porus, there is everything. For this reason also they call the king of the gods Meilichios, or the Gentle One, while the Athenians, I believe, call him Maimactes, or the BoisterousBut Gentle when propitiated. See Hesychius and Roscher, Lexicon d. gr. u. röm. Mythologie, s.v.; and Hewitt, Harvard Stud. Class. Phil., xix. (1908), 75-78.; but punishment is the work of the Furies and spirits, not of the high gods and Olympian deities.
