14-i? Accumulatimis in Syria and Persia. 



stamped on it, which gave rise to an ancient witticism, that may 

 be worth relating. 



Agesilaus, king of Sparta, received from Darius a bribe of 

 30,000 darics to withdraw from the other Grecian states with 

 whom he was in alHance. Being reproached for his treachery, he 

 defended himself, by asserting that his operations had been sus- 

 pended, owing to his having been defeated by 30,000 archers. 



Greece. — The wealth of Croesus, king of Lydia, who lived 

 about 540 years before Christ, has become proverbial ; and, 

 though no precise communication of the extent of it has been 

 handed down, we may form some estimate of it, by the munifi- 

 cent present he made to the temple of Delphi, as related by 

 Herodotus *, and Diodorus f, amounting to 4000 talents of sil- 

 ver, and 270 talents of gold, or near L. 3,000,000 in value of 

 our money. 



We find in Herodotus a story illustrative both of the wealth 

 of this king, and of the manners of his time. When Crcesus 

 sent his Lydians from Sardis to consult the oracle at Delphi, 

 they were received with hospitality by the family of the Alc- 

 maeonidae at Athens, and, on their return, acquainted their 

 master with the kindness they had experienced. A member of 

 that family received an invitation to visit Croesus, and on his 

 arrival was presented with as much gold as he was able to car- 

 ry J. " To improve the value of the gift, Alcmaeon made use 

 of the following artifice : Providing himself with a large tunic, 

 in which were many folds, and with the most capacious buskins 

 he could procure, he followed his guide to the royal treasury ; 

 there rolling himself among the golden ingots, he first stuffed 

 his buskins as full of gold as he possibly could ; he then filled all 

 the folds of his robes, his hair, and even his mouth, with gold 

 dust. This done, with extreme difficulty he staggered from the 

 place ; and from swelling mouth, and projections all around 

 him, resembling any thing rather than a man. When Croesus 

 saw him he burst into laughter, and not only suffered him to 

 carry away all that he had got, but added to it other presents 

 equally valuable. The family from this circumstance became 

 exceedingly affluent, and Alcmaeon was enabled to procure and 



• B. i. c. 50. f Diodorus, b. xvi. c. 56. $ Herodotus, b. vi. c. 105. 



