Polyaenus

Plato, Aristotle, and the whole throng of sages who were destined to go each his different way derived more benefit from the character than from the words of Socrates.

It was not the classroom of Epicurus, but living together under the same roof that made great men of Metrodorus, Hermarchus, and Polyaenus.

Therefore I summon you, not merely that you may derive benefit, but that you may confer benefit.

For we can assist each other greatly.

Even Epicurus, the teacher of pleasure, used to observe stated intervals during which he satisfied his hunger in niggardly fashion.

He wished to see whether he thereby fell short of full and complete happiness, and if so, by what amount he fell short, and whether this amount was worth purchasing at the price of great effort.

At any rate, he makes such a statement in the well-known letter written to Polyaenus in the archonship of Corinus.

Indeed, he boasts that he himself lived on less than a penny, but that Metrodorus, whose progress was not yet so great, needed a whole penny.

So there is that example of signal jamming.

There's also, that's recorded more succinctly by Polyaenus of Macedon in his Stratagems, Book 6, Chapter 19, Section 2.

When the Plataeans were besieged by the Lacedaemonians, they sallied out at night and attacked the Spartan camp.

The Lacedaemonians raised a hostile torch, which is fascinating because it's a fire signal with a very brief message rather than a more complicated message.

Mm-hmm.

And there are, there's one wonderful precedent for that described by a later historian, Polyaenus, saying that in one battle between the Spartans and Athenians in, I think it was the 360s, the festival Scira, the Scira festival was taking place on the same day of battle.

And so the general garlanded the ships when they were w- when they went out.

And p- according to Polyaenus, they fought really confidently because they felt they had the goddess's protection 'cause they knew their wives were praying at the altars on that day.

Now, is this historically accurate, or is it a legend? ...

isn't really the point.

The point is that we're seeing how that symmetry is understood in the mind of the historian who's telling it.

Mm-hmm.