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 And well, therefore, did Aristophanes term wine the milk of Venus, saying—

And wine, the milk of Venus, sweet to drink;

because men, after having drunk too much of it, have often conceived a desire for illicit amours.

63. But Hegesander the Delphian speaks of some men as [Greek: exoinoi]; by which term he means, overtaken with wine; speaking thus:—"Comeon and Rhodophon being two of the ministers who managed the affairs of Rhodes, were both drunk; and Comeon attacking Rhodophon as a gambler, said—

O you old man, the crew of youthful gamblers Beyond a doubt are pressing hard upon you.

And Rhodophon reproached him with his passion for women, and with his incontinence, abstaining from no sort of abuse." And Theopompus, in the sixteenth book of his Histories, speaking of another Rhodian, says—"When Hegesilochus had become perfectly useless, partly from drunkenness and gambling, and when he had utterly lost all credit among the Rhodians, and when instead his whole course of life was found fault with by his own companions and by the rest of the citizens." Then he goes on to speak of the oligarchy which he established with his friends, saying—"And they violated a great number of nobly-born women, wives of the first men in the state; and they corrupted no small number of boys and young men; and they carried their profligacy to such a height that they even ventured to play with one another at dice for the free-born women, and they made a bargain which of the nobly-born matrons he who threw the lowest number on the dice should bring to the winner for the purpose of being ravished; allowing no exception at all; but the loser was bound to bring her to the place appointed, in whatever way he could, using persuasion, or even force if that was necessary. And some of the other Rhodians also played at dice in this fashion; but the most frequent and open of all the players in this way was Hegesilochus, who aspired to become the governor of the city."

And Antheas the Lindian, who claimed to be considered a relation of Cleobulus the philosopher, as Philodemus reports, in his treatise on the Sminthians in Rhodes, being an oldish man, and very rich, and being also an accomplished poet,