Book IX, 367

Thero, the son of Menippus, in his youth wasted his inheritance shamefully on prodigal outlay; but Euctemon, his father’s friend, when he saw that he was already pressed by parching poverty, strove with tears to cheer him, and gave him his daughter to wife with a large dowry. But when wealth got the better of Thero’s wits, he began to live again in the same extravagance, satisfying disgracefully every lust of his vile belly and the parts beneath it. Thus the returning wave of baneful poverty buried Thero the second time, and EKuctemon wept a second time, not for Thero, but for his daughter’s dowry and bed, and learnt that a man who has made ill use of his own substance will not make honest use of another’s.