Theophrastus · Fragments §86.1

The Extreme Luxury of the Ionians and the Golden Proverb

Passage 88 of 196 · Greek

Summary

Theophrastus, in his work On Pleasure, mentions the extreme luxury of the Ionians and the golden proverb that still remains concerning them.

§86.1Fr. 86 Θ. ἐν τῷ περὶ Ἡδονῆς καὶ δὴ καὶ τοὺς Ἴωνας, φησὶ, διὰ τὴν ὑπερβολὴν τῆς τρυφῆς έτι *** καὶ νῦν ἡ χρυσῆ παροιμία διαμεμένηκε.

Theophrastus, in his On Pleasure, says that indeed, because of the excess of luxury of the Ionians, even now *** the golden proverb has remained.

Fr. 86τοὺς Ἴωνας — The accusative τοὺς Ἴωνας cannot be directly governed by the intransitive verb διαμεμένηκε ("has remained"). It is highly probable that the lacuna *** contained an infinitive (e.g., expressing their luxurious living) forming an accusative-with-infinitive construction, or another verb that governed this accusative.
Fr. 86ἔτι *** καὶ νῦν — The asterisks *** indicate a lacuna in the text. It is conjectured that some words (likely a verb phrase governing τοὺς Ἴωνας) were originally inserted between the common phrase ἔτι καὶ νῦν ("even now").

Theophrastus, Fragments §86.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0093.tlg010x09.humanitext-grc1:86.1

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