Note 300 — Chapter II · Athens
Reading edition
Plut. Apophth. Lac., Agesilaus, 40 (Moral. 211); cp. the proverb τὰν ἀρετὰν καὶ τὰν σοφίαν νικᾶντι χελῶναι (virtue and wisdom are vanquished by tortoises), alluding to the famous coins of Aegina; cp. too βοῦς ἐπὶ γλώσσῃ (there’s an ox on my tongue), Theognis 815, Aesch. Agam. 35, Pollux IX. 61, which, whether the ox meant is a gold stater, on which the ox was one of the commonest types, or, as P. Gardner suggests, a leather gag, Num. Chron. 1881, p. 289, is an instance of a similar jeu de mot dating from the actual epoch of Peisistratus.