Selecta ex Aeliano

XIX. (Book 3, 2, 3, 4, 5.)

Someone approached Anaxagoras of Clazomenae while he was busy with his associates and told him that his two sons had died, the only ones Anaxagoras had. He, not at all disturbed, said: "I knew that I had fathered mortals."

A messenger came to Xenophon from Mantinea while he was offering a sacrifice, saying that his son, Gryllus, had died. He set aside the wreath but continued the sacrifice. When the messenger added that he had died in victory, Xenophon put the wreath back on. These things are common knowledge and have reached many people.

Dion, son of Hipparinus and a student of Plato, happened to be conducting business regarding certain public and common affairs when his son fell from the roof into the courtyard and ended his life. Dion did not change anything because of this, but continued doing exactly what he had been doing from the beginning.

They say that Antigonus the Second, when some brought his son to him dead from the battlefield, looked at him, did not change his complexion, did not shed a tear, but praised him as a good soldier and ordered him to be buried.

XX. (Book 3, 22.)

When Ilium Troy was captured, the Achaeans, pitying the fortunes of the conquered, very generously proclaimed that each of the free people could carry away one of their belongings, whatever they wished. Aeneas therefore picked up and carried his ancestral gods, disregarding all other things. Pleased by the man’s piety, the Greeks allowed him to take a second possession. He then hoisted his father, who was very elderly, onto his shoulders and carried him. The Greeks, amazed by this not least of all, allowed him to take all his possessions, acknowledging that even natural enemies become gentle toward those who are pious and who hold both the gods and their parents in reverence.