Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Plutarch

Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).

The kings of the Egyptians, in accordance with a rule of their own, used to require their judges to swear that, even if the king should direct them to decide any case unfairly, they would not do so. [*](Cf. Diodorus, i. 71.)

Poltys, king of the Thracians at the time of the Trojan war, when once both the Trojans and the Greeks sent deputations to him at the same time, bade Alexander restore Helen and accept a couple of beautiful women from him,

Teres, the father of Sitalces, used to say that whenever he had nothing to do and was not in the field with his army he felt that there was no difference between himself and his grooms. [*](In Moralia, 729 C, this remark is attributed to Ateas, king of the Scythians.)