Plutarch, De Garrulitate, William Clark Helmbold (Translator), 15

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[15] Now if anyone were to ask,

Who is the most wicked and the most abandoned man,¹

no one would pass the traitor by and name anyone else. So Euthycrates² roofed his house with the timber he got from Macedon,³ as Demosthenes⁴ says, and Philocrates⁵ received much money and bought strumpets and fish; and to Euphorbus and Philagrus, who betrayed Eretria, the king⁶ gave land. But the babbler is a traitor who volunteers his services without pay: he does not betray horses⁷ or city-walls, but divulges secrets connected with lawsuits, party strife, and political manoeuvres. No one thanks him, but he himself, if he can win a hearing, must owe thanks. The result is that the verse directed at the man who recklessly and injudiciously pours forth and squanders his own possessions,

You are not generous: it’s your disease,

You love to give,⁸

fits the foolish talker also: You are no friend or well-wisher in revealing this: it’s your disease, you love to be babbling and prating.

De Garrulitate. Plutarch. William Clark Helmbold (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1939.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Concerning Talkativeness (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. VI. Helmbold, William Clark, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1939 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Περὶ ἀδολεσχίας Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol IΙI. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1891.) — 15 focus

[15] εἰ τοίνυν ἔροιτό τις

τὸν κάκιστον ὅστις ἐστὶ καὶ τὸν ἐξωλέστατον,ʼ

¹ οὐδεὶς ἂν ἄλλον εἴποι τὸν προδότην παρελθών. Εὐθυκράτης² μὲν οὖν ἤρεψε τὴν οἰκίαν τοῖς ἐκ Μακεδονίας ξύλοις³ ὥς φησι Δημοσθένης· Φιλοκράτης δὲ 10 χρυσίον πολὺ λαβὼν πόρνας καὶ ἰχθῦς ἠγόραζεν· Εὐφόρβῳ δὲ καὶ Φιλάγρῳ τοῖς Ἐρέτριαν προδοῦσι χώραν ὁ βασιλεὺς ἔδωκεν. ὁ δʼ ἀδόλεσχος ἄμισθός 510c ἐστι προδότης; καὶ αὐτεπάγγελτος, οὐχ ἵππους οὐδὲ τείχη προδιδούς, ἀλλὰ λόγους ἐκφέρων ἀπορρήτους 15 ἐν δίκαις ἐν στάσεσιν ἐν διαπολιτείαις, μηδενὸς αὐτῷ χάριν ἔχοντος· ἀλλʼ ἂν αὐτός ἀκούηται, προσοφείλων χάριν. ὥστε τὸ λελεγμένον πρὸς τὸν εἰκῆ καὶ ἀκρίτως ἐκχέοντα τὰ ἑαυτοῦ καὶ καταχαριζόμενον

οὐ φιλάνθρωπος σὺ γʼ⁴ ἐσσʼ·⁵ ἔχεις νόσον, χαίρεις⁶ 20 διδούς

ἐναρμόττει καὶ πρὸς τὸν φλύαρον· οὐ φίλος εἶ σὺ ταῦτα μηνύων οὐδʼ εὔνους· ἔχεις νόσον, χαίρεις λαλῶν καὶ φλυαρῶν.

Translations (1)

Of Garrulity, or Talkativeness Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. IV. Goodwin, William W., editor; Philips, John, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 15 focus

[15] Now then if the question should be asked, Which are the worst and most pernicious sort of people? I do not believe there is any man that would omit to name a traitor. By treason it was that Euthycrates covered the uppermost story of his house with Macedonian timber, according to the report of Demosthenes; that Philocrates, having received a good sum of money, spent it upon whores and fish; and that Euphorbus and Philagrus, who betrayed Eretria, were so well rewarded by the king with ample Possessions. But a prattler is a sort of traitor that no man needs to hire, for that he offers himself officiously and of his own accord. Nor does he betray to the enemy either horse or walls; but whatever he knows of public or private concerns requiring the greatest secrecy, that he discloses, whether it be in courts of judicature, in conspiracies, or management of state affairs, ’tis all one; he expects not so much as the reward of being thanked for his pains; nay, rather he will return thanks to them that give him audience. And therefore what was said upon a certain spendthrift that rashly and without any discretion wasted his own estate by his lavish prodigality to others,

Thou art not liberal; ’tis a disease

Of vainly giving, which does thee possess;

’Tis all to please thyself, what thou dost give,

may well be retorted upon a common prattler:

Thou art no friend, nor dost to me impart,

For friendship’s sake, the secrets of thy heart;

But as thy tongue has neither bolt nor lock,

’Tis thy disease, that thou delight’st to talk.

Notes on the current edition

Concerning Talkativeness

1. Kock, Com. Att. Frag., iii. p. 544, ades. 774.

2. An error for Lasthenes; Plutarch mentions both traitors together in Moralia, 97 d.

3. For Macedonia as the source of timber supply, cf. Inscr. Graec., i 2. 105.

4. De Falsa Legatione, 265.

5. Ibid. 229; Cf. Moralia, 668 a, 97 d.

6. Darius I; Cf. Herodotus, vi. 101; Pausanias, vii. 10. 2.

7. Perhaps an allusion to Dolon’s betrayal of the horses of Rhesus; cf. Il., x. 436 ff.

8. Epicharmus, Frag. 274: Kaibel, Com. Graec. Frag., i. p. 142.

Plutarch De Garrulitate 15

William Clark Helmbold (Translator)

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