Klearchos says[1] that Kallikrates was a very rich man in
Karystos.[2] So if ever the Karystians were marvelling at someone for his wealth and wanted to exaggerate, they used to say "beyond those of Kallikrates". But
Aristotle in the
Constitution of the Athenians says that a certain Kallikrates was the first to increase jury pay[3] excessively.[4] And from this the proverb was coined.
*(upe\r ta\ *kallikra/tous: fhsi\ *kle/arxos, o(/ti *kallikra/ths tis e)ge/neto e)n *karustw=| plousiw/tatos. ei)/ pote ou)=n e)qau/mazo/n tina oi( *karu/stioi e)pi\ plou/tw| u(perbolikw=s, e)/legon u(pe\r ta\ *kallikra/tous. *)aristote/lhs de/ fhsin e)n th=| *)aqhnai/wn politei/a| *kallikra/thn tina\ prw=ton tou\s dikastikou\s mu/qous ei)s u(perbolh\n au)ch=sai. o(/qen kai\ th\n paroimi/an ei)rh=sqai.
Likewise in
Photius,
Lexicon upsilon137 Theodoridis, from
Pausanias the Atticist; and cf.
Zenobius 6.29 and other paroemiographers.
[1] Klearchos of
Soloi [in brief
kappa 1714] fr. 77 Wehrli.
[2] A city at the southern tip of the Greek island of Euboia.
[3] The transmitted text (which Adler prints) has
dikastikou\s mu/qous, "jury stories", but for sense one should obviously follow Kuster in reading
misqou/s (from
Zenobius 6.29).
[4] The passage in question is ?
Aristotle,
Athenaion Politeia 28.3, though it does not warrant this summary. It says, rather, that in the latter part of the C5 BCE Kallikrates of Paiania -- otherwise unknown, but clearly an Athenian, unlike Kallikrates of
Karystos -- promised to increase the (mysterious) diobelia payments in
Athens from two obols to three but then, on the contrary, abolished them (and was eventually executed).
No. of records found: 1
Page 1
