Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.3, 1865).djvu/302

249 hazardous to carry on. He maintained there a multitude of slaves, and his wealth consisted chiefly in silver. Hence he had many hangers-on about him, begging and obtaining. For he gave to those who could do him mischief, no less than to those who deserved well. In short, his timidity was a revenue to rogues, and his humanity to honest men. We find testimony in the comic writers, as when Teleclides, speaking of one of the professed informers, says:—

So, also, the informer whom Eupolis introduces in his Maricas, attacking a good, simple, poor man:—

Cleon, in Aristophanes, makes it one of his threats:—

Phrynichus also implies his want of spirit, and his easiness to be intimidated in the verses,