[sc. A proverbial phrase] in reference to those being badly plundered.[1] For at that time[2] their neighbours used to plunder the Mysians.
*musw=n lei/a: e)pi\ tw=n kakw=s diarpazome/nwn: oi( ga\r peri/oikoi kat' e)kei=non to\n xro/non tou\s *musou\s e)lhi/+zonto.
Diogenianus 6.42. See also, and more fully,
mu 1478.
[1] cf. 'like candy from a baby' -- the Mysians of NW Asia Minor being (in Greek eyes) proverbially weak fighters. The phrase is used e.g. by
Demosthenes 18.72 (web address 1), of the danger that Hellas would be easy prey for Philip II of Macedon. It is also used by
Aristotle (
Rhetoric 1.12.20): "and those who have often been wronged but have not prosecuted, being, as the proverb says, 'Mysians' booty'."
[2] It is not clear what events are referred to; the writer may have had
Demosthenes' speech in mind, or the myth of Telephos (cf.
mu 1478). The phrase was also used by the fifth-century comic playwright
Strattis (fr.35 Kock = 36 K.-A.) and by
Simonides (fr. 37 West).
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