22
DIONYSIUS THE YOUNGER said that he maintained many Sophists; not that he admired them, but that he might be admired for their sake. When Polyxenus the logician told him he had baffled him; Yes, said he, in words, but I have caught you in deeds; for you, leaving your own fortune, attend me and mine. When he was deposed from his government, and one asked him what he got by Plato and philosophy, he answered, That I may bear so great a change of fortune patiently. Being asked how it came to pass that his father, a private and poor man, obtained the government of Syracuse, and he already possessed of it, and the son of a tyrant, lost it,—My father, said he, entered upon affairs when the democracy was hated, but I, when tyranny was become odious. To another that asked him the same question, he replied: My father bequeathed to me his government, but not his fortune.
23
AGATHOCLES was the son of a potter. When he became lord and was proclaimed king of Sicily, he was wont to place earthen and golden vessels together, and show them to young men, telling them, Those I made first, but now I make these by my valor and industry. As he was besieging a city, some from the walls reviling him, saying, Do you hear, potter, where will you have money to pay your soldiers—he gently answered, I’ll tell you, if I take this city. And having taken it by storm, he sold the prisoners, telling them, If you reproach me again, I will complain to your masters. Some inhabitants of Ithaca complained of his mariners, that making a descent on the island they had taken away some cattle; But your king, said he, came to Sicily, and did not only take away sheep, but put out the shepherd’s eyes, and went his way.
