Book 14
5
Now when Ulpian had said thus much, and when all were laughing at the idea of this exhibition of Anicius, a discussion arose about the men who are called πλάνοι. And the question was asked, Whether there was any mention of these men in any of the ancient authors? for of the jugglers (θαυματοποιοὶ) we have already spoken: and Magnus said,— Dionysius of Sinope, the comic poet, in his play entitled the Namesakes, mentions Cephisodorus the πλάνος in the following terms:— They say that once there was a man at Athens, A πλάνος, named Cephisodorus, who Devoted all his life to this pursuit; And he, whenever to a hill he came, Ran straight up to the top; but then descending Came slowly down, and leaning on a stick. And Nicostratus also mentions him in his Syrian— They say the πλάνος Cephisodorus once Most wittily station'd in a narrow lane A crowd of men with bundles of large faggots, So that no one else could pass that way at all. There was also a man named Pantaleon, who is mentioned by Theognetus, in his Slave devoted to his Master— Pantaleon himself did none deceive (ἐπλάνα) Save only foreigners, and those, too, such As ne'er had heard of him: and often he, After a drunken revel, would pour forth All sorts of jokes, striving to raise a laugh By his unceasing chattering. And Chrysippus the philosopher, in the fifth book of his treatise on Honour and Pleasure, writes thus of Pantaleon: —But Pantaleon the πλάνος, when he was at the point of death, deceived every one of his sons separately, telling each of them that he was the only one to whom he was revealing the place where he had buried his gold; so that they after- wards went and dug together to no purpose, and then found out that they had been all deceived.
