Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Idanthyrsus, the king of the Scythians, against whom Darius crossed the Danube, tried to persuade the despots of the lonians to break up the bridge that spanned the river, and then withdraw. But when they were not willing to do so because of their plighted word to Darius, he called them good slaves who would never run away. [*](Cf. Herodotus, iv. 142.)

Ateas wrote to Philip: You are the ruler of the Macedonians who have learned to fight against men; but I am ruler of the Scythians who are able to fight against both hunger and thirst.

While he was engaged in currying his horse he asked the ambassadors who had come from Philip whether Philip did this.

Having captured in battle Ismenias, the very best of flute-players, he bade him play a tune. Everybody else was filled with admiration, but Ateas swore

Scilurus, who left eighty sons surviving him, when he was at the point of death handed a bundle of javelins to each son in turn and bade him break it. After they had all given up, he took out the javelins one by one and easily broke them all, thereby teaching the young men that, if they stood together, they would continue strong, but that they would be weak if they fell out and quarrelled. [*](Cf. Moralia, 511 C.)

Gelon, the despot, after vanquishing the Carthaginians off Himera, forced them, when he made peace with them, to include in the treaty an agreement to stop sacrificing their children to Cronus, [*](Cf. Moralia, 171 (and the note), and 552 A. According to Diodorus, xx. 14, the practice was revived in 310 B.C., even if it had not persisted during the intervening years. Cf. G.F. Moore in the Journal of Biblical Literature, xvi. (1897), p. 161. Cronus is the Semitic El, Moloch, or Baal.)