in his account of him, he declined the kingship when it was offered to him, obviously because lie preferred a frugal life. With this Timaeus agrees, at the same time giving the reason why Empedocles favoured democracy, namely, that, having been invited to dine with one of the magistrates, when the dinner had gone on some time and no wine was put on the table, though the other guests kept quiet, he, becoming indignant, ordered wine to be brought. Then the host confessed that he was waiting for the servant of the senate to appear. When he came he was made master of the revels, clearly by the arrangement of the host, whose design of making himself tyrant was but thinly veiled, for he ordered the guests either to drink wine or have it poured over their heads. For the time being Empedocles was reduced to silence ; the next day he impeached both of them, the host and the master of the revels, and secured their condemnation and execution. This, then, was the beginning of his political career. Again, when Acron the physician asked the council for a site on which to build a monument to his father, who had been eminent among physicians, Empedocles came forward and forbade it in a speech where he enlarged upon equality and in particular put the following question : " But what inscription shall we put upon it ? Shall it be this ? Acron the eminent physician of Agrigentum, son of Acros, is buried beneath the steep eminence of his most eminent native city ? " a Others give as the second line : Is laid in an exalted tomb on a most exalted peak. Some attribute this couplet to Simonides.