Book 8
45
And when he had conquered his competitors at Sicyon, he set up a trophy in the temple of Aesculapius, and wrote upon it, Stratonicus, conqueror of those who played badly on the harp. And when some one had sung, he asked what tune he had been singing; and when he said that it was an air of Carcinus, καρκῖνος is also Greek for a crab. More like that, said he, than the air of a man. He also said, on another occasion, that there was no spring at Maronea, only heat. And once at Phaselis, when the bathing-man was wrangling with his boy about the money, (for the law was that foreigners should pay more for bathing than natives,) Oh, you wretched boy! said he, you have almost made me a citizen of Phaselis, to save a halfpenny. And once, when a person was praising him in hopes to get something by it, he said, that he himself was a greater beggar. And once, when he was teaching in a small town, he said, This is not a city (πόλις), but hardly one (μόλις). And once, when he was at Pella, he came to a well, and asked whether it was fit to drink; and when those who were drawing water from it said, At all events we drink it; Then, said he, I am sure it is not fit to drink: for the men happened to be very sallow-looking. And when he had heard the poem of Timotheus, on the subject of Semele in Labour, he said, But if she had brought forth an artisan, and not a god, what sounds would she have uttered!
