Book 13
3.6
Cyme is the largest and best of the Aeolian cities. This and Lesbos may be considered the capitals of the other cities, about 30 in number, of which not a few exist no longer. The inhabitants of Cyme are ridiculed for their stupidity, for, according to some writers, it is said of them that they only began to let the tolls of the harbour three hundred years after the foundation of their city, and that before this time the town had never received any revenue of the kind; hence the report that it was late before they perceived that they inhabited a city lying on the sea.
3.6
There is another story, that, having borrowed money in the name of the state, they pledged their porticos as security for the payment of it. Afterwards, the money not having been repaid on the appointed day, they were prohibited from walking in them. The creditors, through shame, gave notice by the crier whenever it rained, that the inhabitants might take shelter under the porticos. As the crier called out, Go under the porticos, a report prevailed that the Cymaeans did not perceive that they were to go under the porticos when it rained unless they had notice from the public crier.In spite of the improbability of these anecdotes, there must have been something real in the dulness of the Cymaeans; for Cymaean was employed by the Greeks as a word synonymous with stupid. Caesar, among the Romans, (Plutarch, Caesar,) adopted this name in the same sense. This stupidity gave occasion to a proverb, ὄνος εἰς κυμαίους, an ass among the Cymaeans, which was founded on the following story. The first time an ass appeared among the Cymaeans, the inhabitants, who were unacquainted with the beast, deserted the town with such precipitation that it might be said they were escaping from an earthquake.
3.6
Ephorus, a man indisputably of high repute, a disciple of Isocrates the orator, was a native of this city. He was an historian, and wrote the book on Inventions.
