Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/170

146 can still see in clearest outline, if not always the actual facts themselves, at least the impression they had left on the mind of the open-eyed Greek of an age when knowledge was not derived from books, but from memory and the spoken word.

But let me conclude this chapter by a rapid glance at a single mighty tyrant, as he lives for ever in the pages of Herodotus. The City- State of Samos, with its territory of the island of the same name, had been ruled by an oligarchy till about the year 537 B.C. "Then Polycrates, son of Æaces, rose up and laid his hand on Samos. At first he shared his power with his two brothers; but soon he slew one and drove out the other. Then he sent gifts to Amasis, king of Egypt, and receiving others in return, became his friend and ally; and to such a pitch of prosperity did he attain that his fame was spread abroad throughout Ionia and the whole of Hellas. Wherever he set out with fleet or army, good luck followed him; he owned a hundred ships of war, and had a thousand archers for a bodyguard. He went about capturing and plundering without respect of persons, for he used to say that he could oblige a friend more by returning what he had taken from him, than by leaving his property wholly untouched. His power extended over many of the islands and over many towns on the coast; and when the Lesbians came to help Miletus in warding off his attack, he beat and captured them with his fleet, and those