Polycrates

The offerings in Samos were dedicated because of the friendship between Amasis and Polycrates, son of Aeaces;

“Amasis addresses Polycrates as follows.

then he made a treaty with Amasis king of

Then it was that Polycrates, an Athenian captain, asked to be detached from his division;

Go and say to them, Polycrates, that I direct them to leave their arms behind, and do you yourself leave your sabre out there before coming back again.

Well, then, said Xenophon, at this moment I am here myself, along with Phryniscus here, one of the generals, and Polycrates yonder, one of the captains, and outside are representatives of the other generals except Neon the Laconian, in each case the man most trusted by each general.

You may hear her blamed by farmers and merchants, and by the rich on the score of their money, and by the beautiful on the score of their bodies, and by Pantheia on the score of her husband, and by Croesus on the score of his son, and by Astyages when he was conquered, and by Polycrates when he was taken.

And Polycrates, they say, so long as he ruled Samos alone, was the most fortunate of all men;

Polycrates also, tyrant of Samos, in the time of Cambyses, having a strong fleet, both made some other of the islands subject to him, and took Rhenea and dedicated it to the Delian Apollo.

(This Rhenea is so short a distance from Delos, that Polycrates the tyrant of Samos, after being powerful at sea for a considerable time, and ruling over the rest of the islands, and taking Rhenea, dedicated it to the Delian Apollo, by connecting it with Delos by a chain.

Polycrates of Samos they called happy.

Our mutual hostility has become so acute that, when I wanted to convey my fleet to the Hellespont, I was compelled to escort it with my army through the Chersonese, because your settlers there were at war with us in accordance with the decree of Polycrates, backed up by your resolutions, and your general was inciting the Byzantines and publicly announcing that your orders were to make war on me, if he got the chance.

I have learned of your fairmindedness, Polycrates, and of the reversal in your life, through information from others;

For, when you wished to praise Busiris, you chose to say that he forced the Nile to break into branches and surround the land, and that he sacrificed and ate strangers who came to his country;

And you, Polycrates, assume that you will make men better even if they are not related to you, provided that they become your pupils, yet believe that the gods have no care for the virtue of their own children!

How many better men, nevertheless, have you left in the lower world!

as when his daughter foresaw a cross for Polycrates of Samos, from the anointing of the sun and the washing of Jupiter.