Book 10
11
And very likely it is because of all this that Eratosthenes, in his Epistles, says, that Pempelus, when he was asked, What sort of people the Bœotians appeared to him? answered, That they only spoke just as vessels might be expected to speak, if they had a voice, of how much each of them could hold. And Polybius of Megalopolis, in the twentieth book of his Histories, says that the Bœotians, having gained great glory at the battle of Leuctra, after that relaxed their courage again, and turned to feasting and drunkenness, and to making parties for eating among friends; and many of them, even of those who had children, spent the greater part of their substance on their feasts so that there were a great number of Bœotians who had more invitations to supper than there were days in the month. On which account the Megarians, hating such a system as that, abandoned their alliance, and joined themselves to the Achæans.
