bruising barley to extract a drink from it; and on this account Alexis, in his treatise on Contentment, says that Bocchoris and his father Neochabis were contented with a moderate quantity of food; as Lycon of Iasus relates in his treatise on Pythagoras. But he did not abstain from animal food, as Aristoxenus tells us; and Apollodorus the Arithmetician says, that he even sacrificed a hecatomb when he found out that in a right-angled triangle, the square of the side subtending the right angle is equal to the squares of the two sides containing it—
When the illustrious Pythagoras
Discover'd that renowned problem which
He celebrated with a hecatomb.
But Pythagoras was a very sparing drinker, and lived in a most frugal manner, so that he often contented himself with honey by itself. And nearly the same thing is told us of Aristides, and of Epaminondas, and of Phocion, and of Phormio, the generals. But Manius Curius, the Roman general, lived on turnips all his life; and once, when the Sabines sent him a large sum of gold, he said he had no need of gold while he ate such food as that. And this story is recorded by Megacles in his treatise on Illustrious Men.
14. And there are many people who approve of moderate meals, as Alexis tells us in his Woman in Love—
But I am content with what is necessary,
And hate superfluous things; for in excess
There is not pleasure, but extravagance.
And in his Liar he says—
I hate excess; for those who practise it
Have only more expense, but not more pleasure.
And in his Foster Brothers he says—
How sweet all kinds of moderation are!
I now am going away, not empty, but
In a most comfortable state,—for wise
Mnesitheus tells us that 'tis always right
T' avoid extravagance in everything.
And Ariston the philosopher, in the second book of his Amatory Similitudes, says that Polemo, the Academic philosopher, used to exhort those who were going to a supper, to consider how they might make their party pleasant, not only for the present evening, but also for the morrow. And Timotheus, the son of Conon, being once taken by Plato from
