164 
pltnt's natural histout. 
[Book VII. 
CHAP. 23. (23.) — ^INSTANCES OF ENDUEAI^CE 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.) MEMOKY. 
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 all the Roman 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 Eome. 
This circumstance is mentioned by Pausanias, in his Attica. She was 
an Athenian hetsera, or courtesan, beloved by Aristogiton, or, according to 
AthenfBUs, by Harmodius. On the murder of Hipparchus, 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 her. 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. Maximus, B. iii. c. 3, it is also alluded 
to by Cicero, Tus. Qusest. B. ii. c. 22, and De Nat. Deor. B. ii. c. 33 ; but 
he only speaks of his tortures, without mentioning what Pliny states of his 
biting off his tongue. — B. He was a philosopher of Abdera, of the school 
of Deraocritus, and flourished about B.C. 340. ToAvards Alexander the 
Greatj whom he accompanied into Asia, he acted the part of a base 
flatterer. He was pounded to death in a mortar, by order of Meocreon, 
king of Cyprus. 
5^ This statement is also made by Val, Maximus, B. viii. c. 7. Xeno- 
phon, Cyropsedia, 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. 
