Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/164

 142 HISTORY OF GREECE. at a banquet ; after which Cyrus, drinking to the health of. L/ sander, desired him to declare what favor he could do to gratify him most. " To grant an additional obolus per head for each seaman's pay," replied Lysander. Cyrus immediately complied, having personally bound himself by his manner of putting the question. But the answer impressed him both with astonishment and admiration ; for he had expected that Lysander would ask some favor or present for himself, judging him not only according to the analogy of most Persians, but also of Astyochus and the offi- cers of the Peloponnesian armament at Miletus, whose corrupt subservience to Tissaphernes had probably been made known to him. From such corruption, as well as from the mean carelessness of Theramenes, the Spartan, respecting the condition of the sea- men, 1 Lysander's conduct stood out in pointed and honorable contrast. The incident here described not only procured for the seamen of the Peloponnesian fleet the daily pay of four oboli, instead of three, per man, but also insured to Lysander himself a degree of esteem and confidence from Cyrus which he knew well how to turn to account. I have already remarked, 2 in reference to Peri- kles and Nikias, that an established reputation for personal in- corruptibility, rare as that quality vas among Grecian leading politicians, was among the most precious items in the capital stock of an ambitious man, even if looked at only in regard to the durability of his own influence. If the proof of such dis- interestedness was of so much value in the eyes of the Athenian people, yet more powerfully did it work upon the mind of Cyrus. With his Persian and princely ideas of winning adherents by munificence, 3 a man who despised presents was a phenomenon consider three oboli as the half of a drachma (Hist. Greece, ch. xx, sect. i. vol. iv, p. 317, oct. ed. 1814). That a drachma was equivalent to six oboli, that is, an JEginajan drachma to six JEginaean oboli, and an Attic drachma to six Attic oboli, is so familiarly known, that I should almost have imagined the word eigJu, in the first sentence here cited, to be a misprint for six, if the sentence cited next had not clearly demonstrated that Mr. Mitford really believed a drachma to be equal to eight oboli. It is certainly a mistake surprising to find. 1 Thucyd. viii, 29. * See the former volume vi, ch. li, p. 287. aais of Xenophon, i, 9, 22-28
 * See the remarkable character of Cyrus the younger, given in the An&b