Book 11
85
These are the observations of that admirable solver of difficulties, Sosibius. But Ptolemy Philadelphus the king jested upon him with some wit, on account of this and other much talked-of solutions. For as Sosibius received a royal stipend, Ptolemy, sending for his treasurers, desired them, when Sosibius came to demand his stipend, to tell him that he had received it already. And when, not long after, he did come and ask for his money, they said they had given it to him already, and said no more. But he, going to the king, accused the treasurers. And Ptolemy sent for them, and ordered them to come with their books, in which were the lists of those who received those stipends. And when they had arrived, the king took the books into his hands and looking into them himself, also asserted that Sosibius had received his money; making it out in this way:—These names were set down,—Soter, Sosigenes, Bion, Apollon, Dion; and the king, looking on these names, said—My excellent solver of difficulties, if you take σω from σωτὴρ, and σι from σωσιγένης, and the first syllable βι from βίων and the last syllable from Ἀʼπόλλωνος, you will find, on your own principles, that you have received your stipend. And you are caught in this way, not owing to the actions of others, but by your own feathers, as the incomparable Aeschylus says, since you yourself are always occupied about solutions of difficulties which are foreign to the subject in hand.
86
There is the holmus also. This, too, is a drinking-cup, made in the fashion of a horn. Menesthenes, in the fourth book of his Politics, writes thus—A twisted albatanes and a golden holmus. But the holmus is a cup wrought after the fashion of a horn, about a cubit in height.
