164 plint's UATUBAL HISTOET. [Book VII. 



CHAP. 23. (23.) INSTANCES OF ENDTTRANCE OF PAIN. 



Of patience in enduring pain, that being too frequently the 

 lot of our calamitous fate, we have innumerable instances re- 

 lated. One of the most remarkable instances among the female 

 sex is that of the courtesan Lesena, who, although put to the 

 torture, refused to betray the tyrant- slayers, Harmodius and 

 Aristogiton.* Among those of men, we have that of Anax- 

 archus, who, when put to the torture for a similar reason, bit 

 off his tongue and spit it into the face of the tyrant, thus 

 destroying the only hope'" of his making any betrayal. 



CHAP. 24. (24.) MEMOKT. 



It would be far from easy to pronounce what person has been 

 the most remarkable for the excellence of his memory, that 

 blessing so essential for the enjoyment of life, there having 

 been so many who have been celebrated for it. King Cyrus 

 knew all the soldiers of his army by name -.^ L. Scipio the 

 names of aU the Eoman people. Cineas, the ambassador of 

 king Pyrrhus, knew by name all the members of the senate 

 and the equestrian order, the day after his arrival at Kome. 



's This circumstance is mentioned by Pausanias, in his Attica. She was 

 ail Athenian hetsera, or courtesan, beloved by Aristogiton, or, according to 

 Athenseus, by Harmodius. On the murder of Hipparchns, the son of Pis- 

 istratus, she was put to the torture, being supposed to have been privy 

 to the conspiracy ; but she died under her sufferings -without making any 

 disclosure, and, according to one account, bit off her tongue, that no secret 

 might be betrayed by heri The Athenians erected in her honour a bronze 

 statue of a lioness (in reference to her name), ■without a tongue, in the 

 vestibule of the Acropolis. 



" This story is related by Val. Jfaximus, B. iii. c. 3, it is also alluded 

 to by Cicero, Tus. Quffist. B. ii. c. 22, and De Nat. Deor. IJ. ii. c. 33 ; but 

 he only speaks of his tortures, without mentioning what Pliny states of his 

 biting oft' his tongue. — B. He was a philosopher of Abdera, of the school 

 of Demooritus, and flourished about e.g. 340. Towards Alexander the 

 Greats whom he accompanied into Asia, he acted the part of a base 

 flatterer. He was pounded to death in a mortar, by order of Nicocreon, 

 king of Cyprus. 



^ This statement is also made by Val. Maximns, B. viii. c. 7. Xeno- 

 I)hon, Cyropaedia, B, v., speaks of the retentive memory of Cyrus, but con- 

 siderably qualifies the account here given : he says that Cyrus knew the 

 names of all his commanders or prefects, and of all those to whom he had 

 occasion to give particular orders. — B. 



