Athenaeus - Deipnosophists Book V
Book V. 206 d - e
With regard to the construction of the ship built by Hieron of Syracuse, which was superintended by the mathematician Archimedes, I hold it not right to be silent, since a certain Moschion has published a treatise on it which I have recently read with care. Moschion, then, writes as follows: “Diocleides of Abdera is admired for his descriptions of the siege engine which was brought to bear against the walls of the city of Rhodes by Demetrius; Timaeus, for his description of the funeral pyre built for Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily; Hieronymus, for his account of the carriage built to convey the body of Alexander; Polycleitus, for the description of the chandelier made for the Persian king.
Book V. 218 f – 219 a
(On Bactrian camels.)
And what was the use in Chaerephon’s bothering the god by his question about Socrates? For Socrates was himself entitled to credence when he said on his own behalf that he was not wise. “A fool, indeed, was he who asked such questions of the god” – as foolish as if he asked , for instance: “What other wool is softer than the Attic?” “Are there any camels stronger than the Bactrian?” “Is there anybody with a flatter nose than Socrates’s?” For persons who put such questions to the god are appropriately rebuked by him; like the man (whether the fable-maker Aesop or someone else) who inquired: “How may I get rich, son of Zeus and Leto?” The god mockingly replied: “By acquiring what lies between Corinth and Sicyon.”