Secondly, when a writer, catching hold of a fault
which has no reference to his story, shall draw it into the
relation of such affairs as need it not, extending his narrative with circumlocutions, only that he may insert a man's
misfortune, offence, or discommendable action, it is manifest that he delights in speaking evil. Therefore Thucydides would not clearly relate the faults of Cleon, which
were very numerous; and as for Hyperbolus the orator,
having touched at him in a word and called him an ill
man, he let him go. Philistus also passed over all those
outrages committed by Dionysius on the barbarians which
had no connection with the Grecian affairs. For the excursions and digressions of history are principally allowed
for fables and antiquities, and sometimes also for encomiums. But he who makes reproaches and detractions an
addition to his discourse seems to incur the tragedian's
curse on the ‘collector of men's calamities.’
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