Περὶ στίχων εὐκαίρως ἀναπεφωνημένων καὶ ἀκαίρως.

[1] 5 Ἀμμώνιος Ἀθήνησι στρατηγῶν ἀπόδειξιν ἔλαβεν ἐν¹ τῷ Διογενείῳ² τῶν γράμματα, καὶ γεωμετρίαν καὶ τὰ ῥητορικὰ καὶ μουσικὴν μανθανόντων, καὶ τοὺς; εὐδοκιμήσαντας τῶν διδασκάλων ἐπὶ 10 δεῖπνον ἐκάλεσε. παρῆσαν δὲ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων φιλολόγων συχνοὶ καὶ πάντες ἐπιεικῶς οἱ συνήθεις. ὁ μὲν οὖν Ἀχιλλεὺς³ μόνοις τῶν ἀγωνισαμένων τοῖς μονομαχήσασι δεῖπνον κατήγγειλε, βουλόμενος; ὥς 736e φασιν εἴ τις ἐν τοῖς ὅπλοις ὀργὴ πρὸς ἀλλήλους 15 καὶ χαλεπότης γένοιτο, ταύτην ἀφεῖναι καὶ καταθέσθαι τοὺς ἄνδρας ἑστιάσεως κοινῆς καὶ τραπέζης μετασχόντας τῷ δʼ Ἀμμωνίῳ συνέβαινε τοὐναντίον ἀκμὴν γὰρ ἡ τῶν διδασκάλων ἅμιλλα καὶ φιλονεικία⁴ σφοδροτέραν ἔλαβεν ἐν ταῖς κύλιξι γενομένων· 20 ἤδη δὲ καὶ προτάσεις καὶ προκλήσεις ἦσαν ἄκριτοι καὶ ἄτακτοι.

[2] διὸ πρῶτον μὲν ἐκέλευσεν ᾆσαι τὸν Ἐράτωνα πρὸς τὴν λύραν· ᾄσαντος δὲ τὰ πρῶτα τῶν Ἔργων

οὐκ ἄρα μοῦνον ἔην ἐρίδων γένος,

⁵ 736f ἐπῄνεσεν⁶ ὡς τῷ καιρῷ πρεπόντως ἁρμοσάμενον 5 ἔπειτα περὶ στίχων εὐκαιρίας ἐνέβαλε λόγον, ὡς μὴ μόνον χάριν ἀλλὰ καὶ χρείαν ἔστιν ὅτε μεγάλην ἐχούσης. καὶ ὁ μὲν ῥαψῳδὸς εὐθὺς ἦν διὰ στόματος πᾶσιν, ἐν τοῖς Πτολεμαίου γάμοις ἀγομένου⁷ τὴν ἀδελφὴν καὶ πρᾶγμα δρᾶν ἀλλόκοτον νομιζομένου 10 καὶ ἄθεσμον⁸ ἀρξάμενος ἀπὸ τῶν ἐπῶν ἐκείνων

Ζεὺς δʼ Ἥρην ἐκάλεσσε⁹ κασιγνήτην ἄλοχόν τε·

¹⁰ καὶ ὁ παρὰ Δημητρίῳ τῷ βασιλεῖ ἀπρόθυμος¹¹ ὢν¹² ᾄδειν μετὰ τὸ δεῖπνον, ὥς τε¹³ προσέπεμψεν αὐτῷ τὸν υἱὸν 15 ἔτι παιδάριον ὄντα, τὸν Φίλιππον, ἐπιβαλὼν εὐθὺς

τὸν παῖδά μοι τόνδʼ ἀξίως Ἡρακλέους

¹⁴

ἡμῶν τε θρέψαι·

737a καὶ Ἀνάξαρχος ὑπʼ Ἀλεξάνδρου μήλοις βαλλόμενος¹⁵ παρὰ δεῖπνον, ἐπαναστὰς¹⁶ καὶ εἰπών 20

βεβλήσεταί τις θεῶν βροτησίᾳ χερί.

¹⁷ πάντων δʼ ἄριστος¹⁸ Κορίνθιος παῖς αἰχμάλωτος, ὅθʼ¹⁹ ἡ πόλις ἀπώλετο καὶ Μόμμιος ἐκ τῶν ἐλευθέρων τοὺς ἐπισταμένους γράμματα παῖδας εὐσυσκοπῶν²⁰ ἐκέλευσε γράψαι στίχον, ἔγραψε

τρὶς μάκαρες Δαναοὶ καὶ τετράκις, οἳ τότʼ ὄλοντο·

²¹ 5 καὶ γὰρ παθεῖν τι τὸν Μόμμιόν φασι καὶ δακρῦσαι καὶ πάντας ἀφεῖναι ἐλευθέρους²² τοὺς τῷ παιδὶ προσήκοντας. ἐμνήσθη τε καὶ²³ τῆς Θεοδώρου τοῦ²⁴ 737b τραγῳδοῦ γυναικὸς οὐ προσδεξαμένης αὐτὸν ἐν τῷ συγκαθεύδειν, ὑπογύου τοῦ ἀγῶνος ὄντος· ἐπεὶ δὲ 10 νικήσας εἰσῆλθε πρὸς αὐτήν, ἀσπασαμένης καὶ εἰπούσης

Ἀγαμέμνονος παῖ, νῦν ἐκεῖνʼ ἔξεστί σοι.

²⁵

[3] ἐκ δὲ τούτου πολλὰ καὶ τῶν ἀκαίρων ἐνίοις ἐπῄει λέγειν, ὡς οὐκ ἄχρηστον εἰδέναι καὶ φυλάττεσθαι· 15 οἷον Πομπηίῳ Μάγνῳ φασὶν ἀπὸ τῆς μεγάλης ἐπανήκοντι στρατείας²⁶ τὸν διδάσκαλον τῆς θυγατρὸς ἀπόδειξιν διδόντα, βιβλίου κομισθέντος ἐνδοῦναι τῇ παιδὶ τοιαύτην ἀρχήν,

ἤλυθες ἐκ πολέμου· ὡς ὤφελες αὐτόθʼ ὀλέσθαι.

20 Κασσίῳ δὲ Λογγίνῳ λόγου προσπεσόντος ἀδεσπότου, 737c τὸν υἱὸν ἐπὶ ξένης τεθνάναι, καὶ τἀληθὲς²⁷ ἔχοντος εἰπεῖν οὐδενὸς²⁸ οὐδʼ ἀνελεῖν τὸ ὕποπτον, εἰσελθὼν συγκλητικὸς ἀνὴρ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἤδη πρεσβύτερος οὐ καταφρονήσεις²⁹ ἔφη Λογγῖνε, λαλιᾶς ἀπίστου καὶ κακοήθους φήμης, ὥσπερ οὐκ εἰδὼς οὐδʼ ἀνεγνωκὼς³⁰ τὸ

φήμη δʼ οὔ τις πάμπαν ἀπόλλυται³¹

³² 5 ὁ δʼ ἐν Ῥόδῳ στίχον αἰτήσαντι γραμματικῷ ποιουμένῳ δεῖξιν³³ ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ προτείνας

ἔρρʼ ἐκ νήσου θᾶσσον, ἐλέγχιστε ζωόντων

³⁴ ἄδηλον εἴτε παίζων ἐφύβρισεν εἴτʼ ἄκων ἠστόχησε. 10 ταῦτα μὲν οὖν παρηγόρησεν ἀστείως τὸν θόρυβον. 737d

Question I.
CONCERNING VERSES SEASONABLY AND UNSEASONABLY APPLIED.
AMMONIUS, PLUTARCH, ERATO, CERTAIN SCHOOLMASTERS, AND FRIENDS OF AMMONIUS.

[1] AMMONIUS, captain of the militia at Athens, would show Diogenianus the proficiency of those youths that learned grammar, geometry, rhetoric, and music; and invited the chief masters of the town to supper. There were a great many scholars at the feast, and almost all his acquaintance. Achilles invited only the single combatants to his feast, intending (as the story goes) that, if in the heat of the encounter they had conceived any anger or ill-will against one another, they might then lay it aside, being made partakers of one common entertainment. But the contrary happened to Ammonius, for the contentions of the masters increased and grew more sharp midst their cups and merriment; and all was disorder and confused babbling.

[2] Therefore Ammonius commanded Erato to sing to his harp, and he sang some part of Hesiod’s Works beginning thus,

Contention to one sort is not confined;¹

and I commended him for choosing so apposite a song. Then he began to discourse about the seasonable use of verse, that it was not only pleasant but profitable. And straight every one’s mouth was full of that poet who began Ptolemy’s epithalamium (when he married his sister, a wicked and abominable match) thus,

Jove Juno called his sister and his wife;²

and another, who was unwilling to sing after supper to Demetrius the king, but when he sent him his young son Philip to be educated sang thus,

Breed thou the boy as doth become

Both Hercules’s race and us;

and Anaxarchus who, being pelted with apples by Alexander at supper, rose up and said,

Some God shall wounded be by mortal hand.³

But that Corinthian captive boy excelled all, who, when the city was destroyed, and Mummius, taking a survey of all the free-born children that understood letters, commanded each to write a verse, wrote thus:

Thrice, four times blest, the happy Greeks that fell.⁴

For they say that Mummius was affected with it, wept, and gave all the free-born children that were allied to the boy their liberty. And some mentioned the wife of Theodorus the tragedian, who refused his embraces a little before he contended for the prize; but, when he was conqueror and came in unto her, clasped him and said,

Now, Agamemnon’s son, you freely may.⁵

[3] After this a great many sayings were mentioned as unseasonably spoken, it being fit that we should know such and avoid them;—as that to Pompey the Great, to whom, upon his return from a dangerous war, the schoolmaster brought his little daughter, and, to show him what a proficient she was, called for a book, and bade her begin at this line,

Returned from war; but hadst thou there been slain,

My wish had been complete;

⁶

and that to Cassius Longinus, to whom a flying report of his son’s dying abroad being brought, and he no ways appearing either to know the certain truth or to clear the doubt, an old senator came and said: Longinus, will you not despise the flying uncertain rumor, as if you neither knew nor had read this line,

For no report is wholly false?⁷

And he that at Rhodes, to a grammarian demanding a line upon which he might show his skill in the theatre, proposed this,

Fly from the island, worst of all mankind,⁸

either slyly put a trick upon him, or unwittingly blundered. And this discourse quieted the tumult.

Plutarch Quaestiones Convivales 9.1

ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs

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Περὶ στίχων εὐκαίρως ἀναπεφωνημένων καὶ ἀκαίρως.

Current edition Perseus

Question I.
CONCERNING VERSES SEASONABLY AND UNSEASONABLY APPLIED.
AMMONIUS, PLUTARCH, ERATO, CERTAIN SCHOOLMASTERS, AND FRIENDS OF AMMONIUS.

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Περὶ στίχων εὐκαίρως ἀναπεφωνημένων καὶ ἀκαίρως.

Current edition Perseus

Question I. CONCERNING VERSES SEASONABLY AND UNSEASONABLY APPLIED. AMMONIUS, PLUTARCH, ERATO, CERTAIN SCHOOLMASTERS, AND FRIENDS OF AMMONIUS.

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers

Question I.
CONCERNING VERSES SEASONABLY AND UNSEASONABLY APPLIED.
AMMONIUS, PLUTARCH, ERATO, CERTAIN SCHOOLMASTERS, AND FRIENDS OF AMMONIUS.