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2.19 Carystius
2.19: Carystius of Pergamum, Fr. 10 FHG
Carystius, a historian writing near the end of the second century BCE, describes events in Athens at the end of the fourth century, after the fall of the democracy to Alexander the Great's successors.
After his brother Himeraeus had been killed by Antipater,49 Demetrius of Phalerum50 went to live with Nicanor;51 he had been accused of offering sacrifice to his brother’s divine manifestation.52 Then he became a friend of Cassander,53 and gained great power. At first his only lunch had been a bowl of vinegar with miscellaneous olives in it, and island cheese. Once he was rich he bought Moschion, the best cook and caterer of his time, and so numerous were the dishes prepared daily for his dinners that Moschion himself, who was given the left-overs, within two years had bought three tenement blocks and was abusing free-born boys and women of noble families. All the boys were jealous of Demetrius’ boy friend Diognis, and so keen were they to meet Demetrius that when he had strolled about The Tripods54 after lunch, all the most beautiful boys gathered there on the following days so as to be seen by him. |
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