consequence of this victory the Mitylenæans held Pittacus in the greatest honour, and committed the supreme power into his hands. And he held it for ten years, and then, when he had brought the city and constitution into good order, he resigned the government. And he lived ten years after that, and the Mitylenæans assigned him an estate, which he consecrated to the God, and to this day it is called the Pittacian land. But Sosicrates says that he cut off a small portion of it, saying that half was more than the whole; and when Crœsus offered him some money he would not accept it, as he said that he had already twice as much as he wanted; for that he had succeeded to the inheritance of his brother, who had died without children.
III. But Pamphila says, in the second book of her Commentaries, that he had a son named Tyrrhæus, who was killed while sitting in a barber’s shop, at Cyma, by a brazier, who threw an axe at him; and that the Cymæans sent the murderer to Pittacus, who when he had learnt what had been done, dismissed the man, saying, “Pardon is better than repentance.” But Heraclitus says that the true story is, that he had got Alcæus into his power, and that he released him, saying, “Pardon is better than punishment.” He was also a lawgiver; and he made a law that if a man committed a crime while drunk, he should have double punishment; in the hope of deterring men from getting drunk, as wine was very plentiful in the island.
IV. It was a saying of his that it was a hard thing to be good, and this apophthegm is quoted by Simonides, who says, “It was a saying of Pittacus, that it is a hard thing to be really a good man.” Plato also mentions it in his Protagoras. Another of his sayings was, “Even the Gods