And when all laughed at this, Ulpian said, Whence do the voluptuaries who talk so loosely get all their elegance of expression? And Cynulcus replied, But, O you well-seasoned little pig, Phrynichus the Cynic poet, in his Ephiates, mentions “the elegant speaker” in these terms:—
Is is the hardest work of all to guard against such men;And the word χαριτογλωσσεῖν (to speak so as to please) is used by Aeschylus in the Prometheus Vinctus—
For they do carry always at their finger's end a sting,
The misanthropic flower of youth; and then they fawn on all
With carefully selected sweetness of expression,
Always the forum haunting when the citizens are seated;
And then they lacerate with wounds severe and unexpected
Those whom they have been fawning on, and hide themselves and laugh.
You shall know this for true; nor is it mineAnd when Ulpian said again, But what, my friends, is meant by cooks' instruments? for these things were mentioned, and were thought worthy of being enumerated in the Arcadian banquets: and also where is the word ἀσώτιον (abode of luxury) to be found? For I know that the adjective ἄσωτος is common enough. And Alexis speaks of a luxurious extravagant man in his Cnidia, saying—
χαριτογλωσσεῖν.
Diodorus, most extravagant of men,And again, in the Phædrus, he says—
In two brief years did make his patrimony
Into a football, with such headlong speed
Did he devour everything.
You tell me of a very slow proceeding;
For in five days the little Epicharides
Made ducks and drakes of all his father's property,
So quickly and entirely did he swallow it.