(26) πολὺ δ´ ἂν ἔργον εἴη πάντας  ἐπεξιέναι τοὺς διὰ τρυφὴν ἀπολωλότας, 
Λυδοὺς πάλαι, Μήδους,  Ἀσσυρίους πρότερον, τὰ τελευταῖα Μακεδόνας· οἳ 
νεωστὶ μὲν τὰ ῥάκη περιῃρημένοι καὶ ποιμένες ἀκούοντες καὶ τοῖς Θρᾳξὶ
 περὶ τῶν μελινῶν μαχόμενοι τοὺς Ἕλληνας ἐκράτησαν, εἰς τὴν Ἀσίαν
 διέβησαν, ἄχρις Ἰνδῶν ἦρξαν. ἐπεὶ δὲ τὰ ἀγαθὰ τὰ Περσῶν ἔλαβον,
(27) τούτοις ἐπηκολούθησε καὶ τὰ κακά. τοιγαροῦν ἅμα σκῆπτρα καὶ ἁλουργίδες 
καὶ Μηδικὴ τράπεζα * καὶ τὸ γένος αὐτῶν ἐξέλιπεν· ὥστε νῦν εἴ τις διέρχοιτο 
Πέλλαν, οὐδὲ σημεῖον ὄψεται πόλεως  οὐδέν, δίχα τοῦ πολὺν κέραμον εἶναι 
συντετριμμένον ἐν τῷ τόπῳ.

(26) But it would be a vast undertaking to attempt to catalogue all who through 
luxury have suffered ruin : the Lydians long ago, the Medes, the Assyrians who 
preceded them, and lastly the Macedonians. For the Macedonians, although they had 
but lately shed their rags and were known as shepherds, men who used to fight the 
Thracians for possession of the millet-fields, vanquished the Greeks, crossed over 
into Asia and gained an empire reaching to the Indians ; yet when the good things of 
the Persians came into their possession, the bad things also followed in their train. 
Accordingly both sceptre and royal purple and Median cookery and the very race 
itself came to an end, so that to-day, if you should pass through Pella, you would see 
no sign of a city at all, apart from the presence of a mass of shattered pottery on the 
site.

Trad. anglaise : J.W. COHOON - H. Lamar CROSBY, Dio Chrysostom.  
Vol. III. London, Heinemann, 1940