OPSOPHAaT. 515 



frain ; nor were philosophers and sages a ■vrhit wiser or 

 better in this matter than the world at large ; many of 

 the wise men of those days teaching as well by precept 

 as in practice, that pleasant living and gluttony were 

 inseparably connected. 'Let us eat and drink, for 

 tomorrow we die;' ^v icrrl ro roiovff, m? "Ker/ovavv ol 

 a-o(f)ol. There were however some pleasing exceptions : 

 Pythagoras was frugal ia the use of flesh, and only gave 

 great orders to the butcher on one memorable occasion 

 worthy of it, viz. when he had proved to the latest pos- 

 terity the 47th proposition of the first book of Euclid.* 

 Plato, barring his addiction to figs, which was reported 

 quite to equal his love for philosophy, was ' temperate in 

 aU things.' ' Oh ! Plato, you sup for tomorrow's enjoy- 

 ment rather than today's,' says Timotheus. ' Lupins for 

 food and chit-chat for side-dishes,' stand recommended 

 on Lycophron's authority: and it is the sentiment of 

 some one in Alexis's Lady Lover {(jiiKova-a) that enough 

 was better than a feast j 



'AXX' eyayye tov rh deovr' e;(€ti' 

 Ta irepiTTa /iktSi' 



and Pyrrho the Elean tells a friend that he positively 

 must decline dining with him unless the entertainment 

 be simple and the dishes few, as all that is superfluous, 

 says he, goes only to the servants' halLf But temperate 

 eaters in those days were very rare, and sometimes whole 

 states distinguished themselves for gluttony in a world 

 of gluttons : amongst these the Boeotians were conspi- 

 cuous; so that the phrase, 'to eat like a Boeotian,' was 



* 'HvUa Ilv6ay6pris rA irepiieKees cvparo ypafifia 



kKcivos, iff)' a KKeiVTjV ^yaye ^ovdvirirjv. — Apollodor. Arith. 



■f MaKKov, yap fi/ias rfi p,eff iavrmv avvovfria 7rpoaflK6v eVrii/ 

 €vepyeTtiv, fj ™ jrX^flet tS>v wapaTi6ep,evav, hv ot hiaKovovvrts to. 

 TrXeiora hairavtixTi. 



