Plutarch, De garrulitate
W. C. Helmbold, Ed.

And Ino in Euripides,¹ speaking out boldly concerning herself, says that she knows how to be

Silent in season, to speak where speech is safe.

For those who have received a noble and truly royal education learn first to be silent, and then to speak. For example, that famous king Antigonus,² when his son asked him at what hour they were to break camp, said, ‘What are you afraid of? That you alone may not hear the trumpet?’ This was not, surely, because he would not entrust a secret to the man to whom he intended to leave his kingdom? No, he was teaching his son to be self-controlled and guarded about such matters. And the old Metellus,³ when on a campaign he was asked some such question, said, ‘If I thought my shirt was privy to that secret, I would have stripped it off and put it in the fire.’ And Eumenes,⁴ when he heard that Cr at erus was advancing, told none of his friends, but pretended that it was Neoptolemi. For his soldiers despised Neoptolemus, but both respected the reputation of Craterus and admired his valour. No one else knew the truth, and they joined battle, won the victory, killed Craterus without knowing it, and only recognized him when he was dead. So successfully did silence manoeuvre the contest and keep hidden so formidable an opponent that his friends admired Eumenes for not forewarning them rather than blamed him. And even if some do blame you, it is better that men should criticize you when they are already saved through mistrust than [p. 423] that they should accuse you when they are being destroyed because you did trust them.