[329e]
Cephalus, that most people, when they hear you
talk in this way, are not convinced but think that you bear old age lightly
not because of your character but because of your wealth. ‘For the
rich,’ they say, ‘have many
consolations.’”1“You are right,” he said. “They
don't accept my view and there is something in their objection, though not
so much as they suppose. But the retort of Themistocles comes in pat here,
who, when a man from the little island of Seriphus2 grew abusive and told him that he owed his fame
not to himself
1 Cf. Teles. (Hense, pp.9-10), Philemon in Plutarch p. 358, Musonius, Stobaeus 117. 8. A fragment of Anaxandrides in Stobaeus Florileg. 68. 1 is almost a paraphrase of this passage. Thucydides ii. 44 says that honour, not money, is the consolation of old age.
2 Lit. “the” Seriphean of the anecdote, which, however, Herodotus (viii. 125) tells of another. Cicero Cato M. 8 “Seriphio cuidam.”
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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