Note 1084 — BOOK VII.835 MAN, HIS BIRTH, HIS ORGANIZATION, AND THE INVENTION OF THE ARTS.
John Bostock translation
This story is related by Val. Maximus, B. iii. c. 3, it is also alluded to by Cicero, Tus. Quæst. B. ii. c. 22, and De Nat. Deor. B. ii. c. 33; but he only speaks of his tortures, without mentioning what Pliny states of his biting off his tongue.—B. He was a philosopher of Abdera, of the school of Democritus, and flourished about B.C. 340. Towards Alexander the Great, whom he accompanied into Asia, he acted the part of a base flatterer. He was pounded to death in a mortar, by order of Nicocreon, king of Cyprus.