39.12
When he offered a plot of land for sale, he ordered the announcement to be made that it also had a good neighbour. Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, chap. xviii. (121 C).
39.13
When the Athenians treated him with contumely, he said, Why do you grow tired of being well served many times by the same men ? He also likened himself to the plane-trees, beneath which men hasten when overtaken by a storm, but, when fair weather comes, they pluck the leaves as they pass by and break off the branches. Life of Themistocles, chap. xviii. (121 A), and chap. xxii. (123 A); Cf. also Aelian, Varia Historia, ix. 18.
39.14
The Eretrians, he said humorously, were like cuttle-fish in having a sword The bone of the cuttle-fish; Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animalium, iv. 1. 12. but no heart. Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, chap. xi. (118 A).
39.15
After his banishment from Athens first, and later from Greece, he went to the Persian king, and, when he was bidden to speak, he said that speech is like rugs woven with patterns and figures; for speech, like the rugs, when it is extended, displays its figures, but, when it is rolled into a small compass, it conceals and spoils them.
39.16
He asked for time so that, when he should have learned the Persian tongue, he might conduct his interview through his own self and not through another. Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, chap. xxix. (126 C); Thucydides, i. 137.