Lucian Symposium 12

Just as Cleodemus said that, Alcidamas the Cynic romped in uninvited, getting off the commonplace joke about Menelaus coming of his own accord. ¹ Most of them thought he had done an impudent thing, and they slyly retorted. with the first thing they could think of, one growling under his breath,

Menelaus, thou’rt a fool!

Iliad 7, 109. another:

But Agamemnon, Atreus’ son, was sorely vexed,

Iliad 1, 24. and others other remarks that, in the circumstances, were to the point and witty. But nobody dared to speak out, for they all feared Alcidamas, who was really “good at the war-cry,” ² and the noisiest of all the Cynic barkers, for which reason he was considered a superior person and was a great terror to everybody.

Just after Cleodemus had said this, in burst Alcidamas the cynic. He had not been asked, but put a good face upon it with the usual ‘No summons Menelaus waits.’ The general opinion clearly was that he was an impudent rogue, and various people struck in with what came to hand: ‘What, Menelaus, art distraught?’ or, ‘It liked not Agamemnon, Atreus’ son,’ and other neat tags suited to the occasion; but these were all asides; no one ventured to make them audible to him. Alcidamas is a man uncommonly ‘good at the war-cry’; he will bark you louder than any dog of them all, literal or metaphorical; my gentlemen all knew he was their better, and lay low.