Lysias once composed a speech for a litigant and gave it to him. The man read it through a number of times and came to Lysias in despair and said that the first time he read it the speech seemed to him wonderfully good, but on taking it up a second and third time it appeared completely dull and ineffectual. Well, said Lysias laughing, isn’t it only once that you are going to speak it before the jurors? And consider the persuasiveness and charm of Lysias! For he is one who, for my part, I say has a fair portion in the violet-tressed Muses.An anonymous fragment, attribtued to Sappho by Bergk ( , iii. p. 703), to Bacchylides by Diehl (, ii. p. 162); Cf. Edmonds, , iii. p. 429. And of the things said about the Poet this is the truest - that Homer alone has survived the fastidiousness of men,Cf. Pope’s Those oft are stratagems which error seem, Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream, with the judgement of Horace, , 359. since he is ever new and his charm is ever at its best; yet none the less, he spoke and proclaimed that famous remark about himself, I scorn to tell A tale again that’s once been clearly told, xii. 452-453; Cf., 764 a.; and he avoids and fears the satiety which lies in ambush for every tale, leading his hearers from one narrative to another and soothing away the ear’s surfeit by constant novelty. But babblers actually wear out our ears by their repetitions, just as though they were smudging palimpsests.Plutarch probably means that talkers wear out our ears by the repetitions of stale news, just as palimpsests are worn out by constant erasure. But not all points of the comparison are clear; Cf., 779 c; Cicero, , vii. 18. 2.

Let this, then, be the first thing of which we remind them - that just as wine, discovered for the promotion of pleasure and good fellowship, is sometimes misused to produce discomfort and intoxication by thoseProbably referring to the συμποσίαρχος (Cf., for example, , 620 a ff.), or magister bibendi. who compel others to drink it undiluted in large quantities, so speech, which is the most pleasant and human of social ties, is made inhuman and unsocial by those who use it badly and wantonly, because they offend those whom they think they please, are ridiculed for their attempts at gaining admiration, and are disliked because of the very means they employ to gain affection. As, then, he can have no share in Aphrodite who uses her girdle to drive away and alienate those who seek his company, so he who arouses annoyance and hostility with his speech is no friend of the Muses and a stranger to art.

Now of the other affections and maladies some are dangerous, some detestable, some ridiculous; but garrulousness has all these qualities at once; for babblers are derided for telling what everyone knows, they are hated for bearing bad news, they run into danger since they cannot refrain from revealing secrets. So it is that Anacharsis,A Scythian of high rank, who travelled widely in the pursuit of knowledge, and visited Athens in the time of Solon, circa 597 b.c. when he had been entertained and feasted at Solons house and lay down to sleep, was seen to have his left hand placed upon his private parts, but his right hand upon his mouth; for he believed, quite rightly, that the tongue needs the stronger restraint. It would not be easy, for example, to enumerate as many men who have been ruined by incontinent lust as is the number of cities and empires which a secret revealed has brought to destruction. When SullaCf., xiv. (460 c ff.). Athens was captured in 86 b.c. was besieging Athens, he had very little time to waste in the operations Since other labour was pressing,Homer, , xi. 54. Mithridates having ravaged Asia, and the party of Marius being again masters in Rome. But spies heard some old men in a barber’s shop remarking to each other that the HeptachalconThe position of the Heptachalcon is thought to be near the Peiraeic Gate, near which was also the heroön of Chalcodon; see Judeich, 2, p. 368, note 8. was unguarded and that the city was in danger of being captured at that point; and the spies brought word of this to Sulla, who at once brought up his forces at midnight, led in his army, and almost razed the city to the ground, filling it with carnage and corpses so that the Cerameicus ran with blood. And Sulla’s anger with the Athenians was due more to their words than to their deeds; for they used to revile himCf., xiii. (459 f - 460 a). and Metella,Sulla’s wife. leaping upon the walls and jesting, Sulla is a mulberry sprinkled with mealReferring to his complexion: blotches of red interspersed with white; Cf. , ii. (451 f).; and with much similar idle banter they drew upon themselves, as Plato, 935 a and 717 d; Cf. the note on 456 d, supra. says, a very heavy penalty for the lightest of things, words.

The loquacity of one man, again, prevented Rome from becoming free by the removal of Nero.This account differs in every way from the standard version in Tacitus, , xv. 54 ff. For but one night remained, after which the tyrant was to die, and all preparations had been made; but the manPerhaps Subrius Flavus is meant (, xv. 50). who was to kill him saw at the palace gates when on his way to the theatre a prisoner about to be led before Nero and lamenting his evil fortune. He approached the prisoner and whispered to him, Only pray, my good man, that to-day may pass by and to-morrow you will be thankful to me. So the prisoner grasped the intended meaning, and reflecting, I suppose, that He is a fool who leaves things close at hand To follow what is out of reach,Hesiod, Frag. 219 (Frag. 18, p. 278 ed. Evelyn-White in L.C.L.; Frag. 234 ed. Kinkel) from according to von Blumenthal, , xlix. 319. chose the surer rather than the more just way of safety. For he revealed to Nero what had been said to him by the man, who was immediately seized, and tortures and fire and the lash were applied to the conspirator as he denied, in the face of constraint, what he had revealed without constraint.

ZenoOf Elea; Cf., 1126 d, 1051 c; Diels, 5, i. p. 249, A 7; and Dougan’s note on Cicero, , ii. 22. 52. the philosopher, in order that even against his will no secret should be betrayed by his body when under torture, bit his tongue through and spat it out at the despot.Called by Plutarch Demylos of Carystus. And LeaenaCf. Pausanias, i. 23. 1; Athenaeus, 596 f; Leaena means lioness. She was Aristogeiton’s mistress. also has a splendid reward for her self-control. She was a courtesan belonging to the group led by Harmodius and Aristogeiton and shared in the conspiracy against the tyrantsHippias and Hipparchus; Cf. Thucydides, vi. 54-59; Aristotle, , xviii. 2. - with her hopes, all a woman could do; for she also had joined in the revels about that noble mixing-bowl of ErosThe motive of Love runs through the entire story: Thettalus and Harmodius’s sister, Aristogeiton and Harmodius, Leaena and Aristogeiton. This was Eros’s mixing-bowl. and through the god had been initiated into the secrets which might not be revealed. When, therefore, the conspirators failed and were put to death, she was questioned and commanded to reveal those who still escaped detection; but she would not do so and continued steadfast, proving that those men had experienced a passion not unworthy of themselves in loving a woman like her. And the Athenians caused a bronze lionessSee Judeich, op. cit., p. 231. without a tongue to be made and set it up in the gates of the Acropolis, representing by the spirited courage of the animal Leaena’s invincible character, and by its tonguelessness her power of silence in keeping a holy secret.

No spoken word, it is true, has ever done such service as have in many instances words unspokenCf., 10 e-f, 125 d; 515 a, infra.; for it is possible at some later time to tell what you have kept silent, but never to keep silent what once has been spoken - that has been spilled, and has made its way abroad.Cf. Horace, , 390: nescit vox missa reverti. Hence, I think, in speaking we have men as teachers, but in keeping silent we have gods, and we receive from them this lesson of silence at initiations into the Mysteries. And the Poet has made the most eloquent Odysseus the most reticent, and also his son and his wife and his nurse; for you hear the nurse saying,Eurycleia; adapted from , xix. 494. I’ll hold it safe like sturdy oak or iron. And Odysseus himself, as he sat beside Penelope, Did pity in his heart his wife in tears, But kept his eyes firm-fixed within their lids Like horn or iron., xix. 210-212; Cf. 442 d-e, supra. So full of self-control was his body in every limb, and Reason, with all parts in perfect obedience and submission, ordered his eyes not to weep, his tongue not to utter a sound, his heart not to tremble or barkCf., xx. 13, 16.: His heart remained enduring in obedience,, xx. 23; Cf. 453 d, supra. since his reason extended even to his irrational or involuntary movements and made amenable and subservient to itselfCf. 442 e, supra. both his breath and his blood. Of such character were also most of his companions; for even when they were dragged about and dashed upon the ground by the Cyclops,Cf., ix. 289. they would not denounce Odysseus nor show that fire-sharpened instrument prepared against the monster’s eye, but preferred to be eaten raw rather than to tell a single word of the secret-an example of self-control and loyalty which cannot be surpassed. Therefore PittacusCf., 71 (Bernardakis, vol. vii. p. 88); told also of Bias in , 38 b and 146 f. did not do badly, when the king of Egypt sent him a sacrificial animal and bade him cut out the fairest and foulest meat, when he cut out and sent him the tongue, as being the instrument of both the greatest good and the greatest evil.

And Ino in Euripides,Nauck, 2, p. 486, Frag. 413. 2; Cf., 606 a. speaking out boldly concerning herself, says that she knows how to be Silent in season, to speak where speech is safe. For those who have received a noble and truly royal education learn first to be silent, and then to speak. For example, that famous king Antigonus,The One-eyed; Cf. , 182 b; , xxviii. (902 b-c). when his son asked him at what hour they were to break camp, said, What are you afraid of? That you alone may not hear the trumpet? This was not, surely, because he would not entrust a secret to the man to whom he intended to leave his kingdom? No, he was teaching his son to be self-controlled and guarded about such matters. And the old Metellus,Cf., 202 a. when on a campaign he was asked some such question, said, If I thought my shirt was privy to that secret, I would have stripped it off and put it in the fire. And Eumenes,Cf., vi., vii. (586 b ff.). when he heard that Cr at erus was advancing, told none of his friends, but pretended that it was Neoptolemi. For his soldiers despised Neoptolemus, but both respected the reputation of Craterus and admired his valour. No one else knew the truth, and they joined battle, won the victory, killed Craterus without knowing it, and only recognized him when he was dead. So successfully did silence manoeuvre the contest and keep hidden so formidable an opponent that his friends admired Eumenes for not forewarning them rather than blamed him. And even if some do blame you, it is better that men should criticize you when they are already saved through mistrust than that they should accuse you when they are being destroyed because you did trust them.