Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/324

 298 HISTORY OF GREECE. (by some called brother) of Onomarchus, put himself again in a condition of defence. He had recourse a third time to that yet unexhausted store the Delphian treasures and valuables. He despoiled the temple to a greater extent than Philomclus, and not less than Onomarchus ; incurring aggravated odium from the fact, that he could not now supply himself without laying hands on offerings of conspicuous magnificence and antiquity, which his two predecessors had spared. It was thus that the splendid golden donatives of the Lydian king Krcesus were now melted down and turned into money ; one hundred and seventeen bricks or ingots of gold, most of them weighing two talents each ; three hundred and sixty golden goblets, together with a female statue three cu- bits high, and a lion, of the same metal said to have weighed in the aggregate thirty talents. 1 The abstraction of such orna- ments, striking and venerable in the eyes of the numerous visit- ors of the temple, was doubtless deeply felt among the Grecian public. And the indignation was aggravated by the fact that beautiful youths or women, favorites of Onomarchus or Phayllus, received some of the most precious gifts, and wore the most noted ornaments, which had decorated the temple even the necklaces of Helen and Eriphyle. One woman, a flute-player named Bro- mias, not only received from Phayllus a silver cup and a golden wreath (the former dedicated in the temple by the Phokrcans, the latter by the Peparethians), but was also introduced by him, in his capacity of superintendent of the Pythian festival, to contend for the prize in playing the sacred Hymn. As the competitora for such prize had always been men, the assembled crowd so loud- ly resented the novelty, that Bromias was obliged to withdraw. 9 Moreover profuse largesses, and flagrant malversation, became more notorious than ever. 3 The Phokian leaders displayed with 1 Diodor. xvi, 56. The account of these donatives of Kroesus may be read in Herodotus (i. 50, 51), who saw them at Delphi. As to the exact weight and number, there is some discrepancy between him and Diodorus ; moreover the text of Herodotus himself is not free from obscurity. 8 Theopomp. Fragm. 182, 183; Phylarchus, Frag. 60, ed. Didot; Anaxi* menes and Ephorus ap. Athenreum, vi. p. 231, 232. The Pythian games here alluded to must have been those celebrated in August or September 350 B. c. It would seem therefore that Phayllus survived over that period. ? Dip.dor.xvi. 56, 57. The story annexed about Iphikrates and the ship*