Pittaci epistula is a letter to Croesus in Hercher, Epistolographi Graeci p. 491. Croesus has asked him to come to Lydia to see his olbos. Pittacus answers that even without seeing he is persuaded Alyattes’s son is the most gold-rich of kings; coming to Sardis would add nothing, because he and his companions do not lack gold — they already have enough. All the same he will come, so as to be a guest-companion to a foreigner.
The dating of the letter is uncertain. The Seven Sage of Mytilene is the persona of a later letter-book, not an empty sage-name.
The Greek is that refusal of Lydian gold and the offer of xenia.
Available Works
Letter to Croesus
Ἐπιστολή
2 passages
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