Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Plutarch

Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).

He said that he felt very grateful to the popular leaders of the Athenians, because by maligning him they made him better both in speech and in character, For I try both by my words and by my deeds to prove that they are liars.

When all the Athenians who had been taken

captive at Chaeroneia were set free by him without ransom, [*](Cf. Polybius, v. 10, and Diodorus, xvi. 87.) but asked for the return of their clothing and bedding besides, and complained against the Macedonians, Philip laughed and said to his men, Does it not seem to you that the Athenians think they have been beaten by us in a game of knucklebones ?

When the keybone of his shoulder had been broken in battle, [*](Cf. Demosthenes, Oration xviii. (De Corona), 67 (p. 247), and Aulus Gellius, ii. 27.) and the attending physician insistently demanded a fee every day, he said, Take as much as you wish; for you have the key in your charge ! [*](The pun depends on the fact that κλείς means both key and collar-bone. )

Of two brothers, Both and Each, he observed that Each was sensible and practical, and Both was silly and foolish, and he remarked that Each was both and Both was neither!

Those who counselled him to treat the Athen ians harshly he said were silly in urging a man who did everything and underwent everything for the sake of repute to throw away his chance to exhibit it.

Being called upon to decide a suit between two knaves, he ordered the one to flee from Macedonia, and the other to pursue him.