Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

When his friends advised him to banish from his court a man who maligned him, he said he would not, so that the man should not go about speaking ill of him among more people. [*](A similar story is told of Pyrrhus in Plutarch’s Life of Pyrrhus, chap. viii. (387 E).)

When Smicythus remarked maliciously of Nicanor that he was always speaking ill of Philip, and Philip’s companions thought that he ought to send for Nicanor and punish him, Philip said, But really Nicanor is not the worst of the Macedonians. We must investigate therefore whether something is not happening for which we are responsible. When he learned therefore that Nicanor was hard pressed by poverty, and had been neglected by him he directed that a present be given to the man. So when again Smicythus said that Nicanor was continually sounding the praises of Philip to everybody in a surprising way, Philip said, You all see that we ourselves are responsible for the good and the ill that is said of us. [*](Cf. Themistius, Oration, vii. 95 B, and Frontinus, Strategemata, iv. 7. 37.)