CHAP. 47. (46.)—MEN WHOM THE GODS HAVE PRONOUNCED TO BE THE MOST HAPPY.
In reference to this point, two oracles of Delphi may come
under our consideration, which would appear to have been
pronounced as though in order to chastise the vanity of man.
These oracles were the following: by the first, Pedius was
pronounced to be the most happy of men, who had just before
fallen in defence of his country. [Note] On the second occasion,
when it had been consulted by Gyges, at that time the most
powerful king in the world, it declared that Aglaiis of
Psophis [Note] was a more happy man than himself. [Note] This Aglaiis
was an old man, who lived in a poor petty nook of Arcadia,
and cultivated a small farm, though quite sufficient for the
supply of his yearly wants; [Note] he had never so much as left it,
and, as was quite evident from his mode of living, his desires
being of the most limited kind, he had experienced but an extremely small share of the miseries of life.