And Duris says, in the twenty-third volume of his History, that in ancient times the nobles had a positive fondness for getting drunk. On which account Homer represents Achilles as reproaching Agamemnon, and saying—
And when he is describing the death of the king, he makes Agamemnon say—Thou dog in forehead.O thou whose senses are all dimm'd with wine,
Iliad, i. 225.
pointing out that his death was partly caused by his fondness for drunkenness. Speusippus also, the relation of Plato, and his successor in his school, was a man very fond of pleasure. At all events Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, in his letter to him blaming him for his fondness for pleasure, reproaches him also for his covetousness, and for his love of Lasthenea the Arcadian, who had been a pupil of Plato.E'en in my mirth, and at the friendly feast,
O'er the full bowl the traitor stabb'd his guest;Odyss. ii. 418.