fatigued with holding out their hands too long. But Eumelus receives a breastplate after having run a course with great danger, and having been torn, the breastplate being a serviceable piece of defensive armour.
THIRST. 43. But there is nothing more covetous than thirst; on which account the poet has called Argos thirsty, or rather causing great thirst, as having been much desired on account of the length of time the person of whom he is speaking had been absent from it. For thirst engenders in all men a violent desire for abundant enjoyment; on which account Sophocles says—
Though you were to unfold unnumber'd treasures
Of wisdom to a thirsty man, you'd find
You pleased him less than if you gave him drink.
And Archilochus says—
I wish to fight with you, as much as e'er
A thirsty man desired to quench his thirst.
And one of the tragic poets has said—
I bid you check your hand which thirsts for blood.
And Anacreon says—
For you are kind to every stranger,
So let me drink and quench my thirst.
And Xenophon, in the third book of his Cyropædia, represents Cyrus as speaking in this manner:—"I thirst to gratify you." And Plato, in his Polity, says—"But if, as I imagine, any city which is governed by a democracy, thirsting for its liberty, should have evil-disposed cupbearers to wait upon it, and should be intoxicated to an improper degree with unmixed wine. . . ."
44. Proteas the Macedonian was also a very great drinker, as Ephippus tells us in his treatise on the Funeral of Alexander and Hephæstion: and he had an admirable constitution, and he had practised drinking to a great degree. Accordingly, Alexander, having once asked for a cup containing two choes, and having drank from it, pledged Proteas; and he, having taken it, and having sung the praises of the king a great deal, drank it in such a manner as to be applauded by every one. And presently Proteas asked for the same cup again, and again he drank and pledged the king. And Alexander, having taken the cup, drank it off in a princely manner, but he could not stand it, but leaned back on the
