Alexander the Oracle-monger (52-53)

urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0062.tlg038.perseus-eng4:52-53

Refs	`{'start': {'reference': '52', 'human_reference': 'Section 52'}, 'end': {'reference': '53', 'human_reference': 'Section 53'}}`
Ancestors	`[]`
Children	`[]`

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Another oracle to some one who neither came nor existed was in prose. ‘Return the way thou camest,’ it ran; ‘for he that sent thee hath this day been slain by his neighbour Diocles, with aid of the robbers Magnus, Celer, and Bubalus, who are taken and in chains.’

I must give you one or two of the answers that fell to my share. I asked whether Alexander was bald, and having sealed it publicly with great care, got a night oracle in reply:

Sabardalachu malach Attis was not he.

Another time I did up the same question—What was Homer’s birthplace?—in two packets given in under different names.

My servant misled him by saying, when asked what he came for, a cure for lung trouble; so the answer to one packet was:

Cytmide and foam of steed the liniment give.

As for the other packet, he got the information that the sender was inquiring whether the land or the sea route to Italy was preferable. So he answered, without much reference to Homer:

Fare not by sea; land-travel meets thy need.

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