Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Plutarch

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

Ariamenes, the brother of Xerxes son of Darius, was on his way down from the Bactrian country to contest Xerxes’ right to the kingdom. Xerxes accordingly sent him gifts, bidding those who offered them to say, With these gifts Xerxes your brother now honours you; and if he be proclaimed king, you

shall be the highest at his court. When Xerxes was designated as the king, Ariamenes at once paid homage to him, and placed the crown upon his brother’s head, and Xerxes gave him a rank second only to himself. [*](Plutarch tells the story with more details in Moralia, 488 D-F. The tradition which Plutarch follows is quite different from that of Herodotus, vii. 1-4.)

Angered at the Babylonians, who had revolted, [*](The usual tradition is that Babylong revolted from Darius; Herodotus, iii. 150.) he overpowered them, and then ordained that henceforth they should not bear arms, but should play the i lyre and flute, keep public prostitutes, engage in I petty trade, and wear long flowing garments.[*](Cyrus is said to have employed this device against the Lydians; Herodotus, i. 156; Polyaenus, Strategemata, vii. 6. 4; Justin, Hist. Philip, i. 7. For two other instances cf. the scholia on Sophocles, Oedipus Col. 329, and Dionysius Hal. Antiq. Rom. vii. 9. )

He said he would not eat figs from Attica which had been imported for sale, but would eat them when he had obtained possession of the land that bore them. [*](Cf.Athenaeus, p. 652 B.)

When he caught Greek spies in his camp, he did them no injury, but, after bidding them observe his army freely, let them go. [*](The story is told in Herodotus, vii. 146-147.)