τὸ μέντοι περὶ τῶν χρημάτων ὁμολογούμενόν ἐστιν ὅτι δωρεὰν αὐτῷ κατέπεμψεν ἑκατὸν τάλαντα, τούτων κομισθέντων εἰς Ἀθήνας, ἠρώτησεν ὁ Φωκίων τοὺς φέροντας τί δή ποτε πολλῶν ὄντων Ἀθηναίων αὐτῷ μόνῳ τοσαῦτα δίδωσιν Ἀλέξανδρος, εἰπόντων δὲ ἐκείνων, ὅτι σὲ κρίνει μόνον ἄνδρα καλὸν καὶ ἀγαθόν οὐκοῦν, εἶπεν ὁ Φωκίων, ἐασάτω με καὶ δοκεῖν ἀεὶ καὶ εἶναι τοιοῦτον.
The story about the money, indeed, is generally admitted, namely, that Alexander sent him a present of a hundred talents. When this was brought to Athens, Phocion asked the bearers why in the world, when there were so many Athenians, Alexander offered such a sum to him alone. They replied: Because Alexander judges that thou alone art a man of honour and worth. In that case, said Phocion, let him suffer me to be and be thought such always.
ὡς δὲ ἀκολουθήσαντες εἰς οἶκον αὐτῷ πολλὴν ἑώρων εὐτέλειαν, τὴν μὲν γυναῖκα μάττουσαν, ὁ δὲ Φωκίων αὐτὸς ἀνιμήσας ὕδωρ ἐκ τοῦ φρέατος ἀπενίπτετο τοὺς πόδας, ἔτι μᾶλλον ἐνέκειντο καὶ ἠγανάκτουν, δεινὸν εἶναι λέγοντες εἰ φίλος ὢν τοῦ βασιλέως οὕτω διαιτήσεται πονηρῶς. ἰδὼν οὖν ὁ Φωκίων πένητα πρεσβύτην ἐν τριβωνίῳ ῥυπαρῷ πορευόμενον, ἠρώτησεν εἰ τούτου χείρονα νομίζουσιν αὐτόν.
But when the messengers accompanied him to his home and saw there a great simplicity,—his wife kneading bread, while Phocion with his own hands drew water from the well and washed his feet,—they were indignant, and pressed the money upon him still more urgently, declaring it an intolerable thing that he, though a friend of the king, should live in such poverty. Phocion, accordingly, seeing a poor old man walking the street in a dirty cloak, asked them if they considered him inferior to this man.
εὐφημεῖν δὲ ἐκείνων δεομένων, καὶ μὴν οὗτος, εἶπεν, ἀπʼ ἐλαττόνων ἐμοῦ ζῇ καὶ ἀρκεῖται, τὸ δὲ ὅλον ἢ μὴ χρώμενος, ἔφη, μάτην ἕξω τοσοῦτον χρυσίον, ἢ χρώμενος ἐμαυτὸν ἅμα κἀκεῖνον διαβαλῶ πρὸς τὴν πόλιν. οὕτω μὲν ἐπανῆλθε πάλιν τὰ χρήματα ἐξ Ἀθηνῶν, ἐπιδείξαντα τοῖς Ἕλλησι πλουσιώτερον τοῦ διδόντος τοσαῦτα τὸν μὴ δεόμενον.
Heaven forbid! they cried. And yet this man, said Phocion, has less to live upon than I, and finds it sufficient. And, in a word, said he, if I make no use of this great sum of money, it will do me no good to have it; or, if I use it, I shall bring myself, and the king as well, under the calumnies of the citizens. So the treasure went back again from Athens, after it had showed the Greeks that the man who did not want so great a sum was richer than the man who offered it.
ἐπεὶ δὲ Ἀλέξανδρος ἠγανάκτησε καὶ πάλιν ἔγραψε τῷ Φωκίωνι φίλους μὴ νομίζειν τοὺς μηδὲν αὐτοῦ δεομένους, χρήματα μὲν οὐδʼ ὣς Φωκίων ἔλαβεν, ἀφεθῆναι δὲ ἠξίωσε τὸν σοφιστὴν Ἐχεκρατίδην καὶ τὸν Ἴμβριον Ἀθηνόδωρον καὶ Ῥοδίους δύο, Δημάρατον καὶ Σπάρτωνα, συνειλημμένους ἐπʼ αἰτίαις τισὶ καὶ καθειργμένους ἐν Σάρδεσι.
Alexander was vexed and wrote back to Phocion that he could not regard as his friends those who wanted nothing of him. But not even then would Phocion take the money; he did, however, ask for the release of Echecratides the sophist, Athenodorus of Imbros, and two men of Rhodes, Demaratus and Sparton, who had been arrested upon sundry charges and imprisoned in Sardis.
τούτους μὲν οὖν εὐθὺς ἀπέλυσεν ὁ Ἀλέξανδρος, Κρατερὸν δὲ ἀποστέλλων εἰς Μακεδονίαν ἐκέλευσε τεττάρων πόλεων ἐν Ἀσίᾳ, Κίου, Γεργίθου, Μυλάσων, Ἐλαίας, μίαν, ἣν ἂν αἱρῆται, παραδοῦναι τῷ Φωκίωνι, διατεινάμενος ἔτι μᾶλλον ὡς χαλεπανεῖ μὴ λαβόντος. ἀλλʼ οὔτε Φωκίων ἔλαβεν, ὅ τε Ἀλέξανδρος ταχέως ἀπέθανεν. ἡ δὲ οἰκία τοῦ Φωκίωνος ἔτι νῦν ἐν Μελίτῃ δείκνυται, χαλκαῖς λεπίσι κεκοσμημένη, τὰ δὲ ἄλλα λιτὴ καὶ ἀφελής.
These men, then, Alexander set free at once, and at a later time, when he sent Craterus back into Macedonia, he ordered him to turn over to Phocion the revenues from whichever one of four cities in Asia he might select,—either Cius, Gergithus, Mylasa, or Elaea,—insisting still more strongly than before that he would be angry if Phocion did not take them. But Phocion would not take them, and very soon Alexander died. And even to the present day Phocion’s house is pointed out in Melité, adorned with bronze disks, but otherwise plain and simple.
τῶν δὲ γυναικῶν ἃς ἔγημε, περὶ τῆς προτέρας οὐθὲν ἱστορεῖται, πλὴν ὅτι Κηφισόδοτος ἦν ὁ πλάστης ἀδελφὸς αὐτῆς, τῆς δὲ δευτέρας οὐκ ἐλάττων ἐπὶ σωφροσύνῃ καί ἀφελείᾳ λόγος ἦν παρὰ τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις ἢ Φωκίωνος ἐπὶ χρηστότητι.
As for his wives, nothing is told us about the first, except that she was a sister of Cephisodotus the sculptor; but the reputation which the second had among the Athenians for sobriety and simplicity was not less than that of Phocion for probity.
καί ποτε θεωμένων καινοὺς τραγῳδοὺς Ἀθηναίων, ὁ μὲν τραγῳδὸς εἰσιέναι μέλλων βασιλίδος πρόσωπον ᾔτει κεκοσμημένας πολλὰς ὀπαδοὺς πολυτελῶς τὸν χορηγόν καί μὴ παρέχοντος ἠγανάκτει καί κατεῖχε τὸ θέατρον οὐ βουλόμενος προελθεῖν. ὁ δὲ χορηγὸς Μελάνθιος ὠθῶν αὐτὸν εἰς τὸ μέσον ἐβόα· τὴν Φωκίωνος οὐχ ὁρᾷς γυναῖκα προϊοῦσαν ἀεὶ μετὰ μιᾶς θεραπαινίδος, ἀλλʼ ἀλαζονεύῃ καί διαφθείρεις τὴν γυναικωνῖτιν;
And once when the Athenians were witnessing an exhibition of new tragedies, the actor who was to take the part of a queen asked the choregus to furnish him with a great number of attendant women in expensive array; and when he could not get them, he was indignant, and kept the audience waiting by his refusal to come out. But the choregus, Melanthius, pushed him before the spectators, crying: Dost thou not see that Phocion’s wife always goes out with one maid-servant? Thy vanity will be the undoing of our women-folk.
ἐξακούστου δὲ τῆς φωνῆς γενομένης ἐδέξατο κρότῳ πολλῷ καί θορύβῳ τὸ θέατρον. αὐτὴ δὲ ἡ γυνή, ξένης τινὸς Ἰωνικῆς ἐπιδειξαμένης χρυσοῦν καί λιθοκόλλητον κόσμον ἐν πλοκίοις καί περιδεραίοις, ἐμοὶ δέ, ἔφη, κόσμος ἐστὶ Φωκίων εἰκοστὸν ἔτος ἤδη στρατηγῶν Ἀθηναίων.
His words were plainly heard by the audience, and were received with tumultuous applause. And this very wife, when an Ionian woman who was her guest displayed ornaments of gold and precious stones worked into collars and necklaces, said: My ornament is Phocion, who is now for the twentieth year a general of Athens.
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