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

Furthermore, there are three kinds of answers to questions : the barely necessary, the polite, and the superfluous. For example, if someone asks, ‘Is Socrates at home?’ one person may reply, as it were unwillingly and grudgingly, ‘Not at home.’ And if he wishes to adopt the Laconic style, he may omit the ‘At home’ and only utter the bare negative. So the Spartans, when Philip wrote to ask if they would receive him into their city, wrote a large ‘No’ on the paper and sent it back. Another will answer more politely, ‘He is not at home, but at the bank,’ and if he wants to give fuller measure may [p. 457] add, ‘waiting there for some guests.’ But your over-officious and garrulous man, particularly if he happens to have read Antimachus¹ of Colophon, will say, ‘He is not at home, but at the bank, waiting for some Ionian guests on whose behalf he has had a letter from Alcibiades who is near Miletus staying with Tissaphernes,² the satrap of the Great King, who formerly used to help the Spartans, but now is attaching himself to the Athenians because of Alcibiades. For Alcibiades desires to be restored to his native country and therefore is causing Tissaphernes to change sides.’ And he will run on, reciting at full stretch the whole eighth book of Thucydides, and deluge the questioner until, before he has done, Miletus is at war again and Alcibiades exiled for the second time.

Regarding this tendency especially, one must keep talkativeness within bounds by following the question step by step and circumscribing the answer within a circle to which the questioner's need gives the centre and the radius.³ So when Carneades,⁴ who had not yet acquired a great reputation, was disputing in a gymnasium, the director sent and bade him lower his voice, which was a very loud one. And when Carneades said, ‘Give me something to regulate my voice,’ the director aptly rejoined, ‘I am giving you the person conversing with you.’ So, in making an answer, let the wishes of the questioner provide the regulation. [p. 459]