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He was sent out by the Senate a third time for the purpose, as Cleitomachus 1 says, of
Looking upon men's arrogant acts and their acts of good order,2
that is, as an inspector of cities, peoples, and kings; and when he arrived at Alexandria and, after disembarking, was walking with his toga covering his head, the Alexandrians quickly surrounded him, and insisted that he uncover and show his face to their yearning eyes. And so he uncovered amid shouting and applause. The king could hardly keep up with [p. 193] them in walking because of his inactive life and his pampering of his body, 3 and Scipio whispered softly to Panaetius, ‘Already the Alexandrians have received some benefit from our visit. For it is owing to us that they have seen their king walk.’ 4

1 Poseidonius (instead of Cleitomachus) is found in Moralia, 777 A, and is also suggested by Athenaeus, 549 D.

2 Homer, Od. xvii. 487. Scipio's journeyings, beginning in 141 B.C., took him over most of the countries around the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.

3 Ptolemy Vii., called 'Physcon' by the Alexandrians because of his fat and unwieldy body.

4 Cf. Moralia, 777 A; Diodorus, xxxiii. 28a; Athenaeus, 549 D; Cicero, Academics, ii. 2 (5); Justin, Historiae Philippicae, xxxviii. 8. 8.

Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1931. 3.

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