The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [123]
2. And not only made himself master of Epidaurus, but also took Procles himself, and carried him into captivity.
3. As time went by, and Periander grew old, he found himself no longer equal to the management of affairs.
4. Knowing his eldest son to be dull and blockish, he sent to Corcyra and recalled Lycophron to take the kingdom.
5. Lycophron, however, did not even deign to ask the bearer of this message a question.
6. But Periander’s heart was set upon the youth, so he sent again to him, this time by his own daughter, the sister of Lycophron, who would, he thought, more than any other person be able to persuade him.
7. When she reached Corcyra, she said to her brother, ‘Do you wish the kingdom to pass into strange hands,
8. ‘And our father’s wealth to be made a prey, rather than yourself return to enjoy it? Come back with me, and cease to punish yourself. It is scant gain, this obstinacy.
9. ‘Why seek to cure evil by evil? Mercy, remember, is by many set above justice. Many, also, while pushing their mother’s claims, have forfeited their father’s fortune.
10. ‘Power is a slippery thing; it has many suitors; and he is old and stricken in years. Do not let your own inheritance go to another.’
11. Thus did the sister, who had been tutored by Periander what to say, urge all the arguments most likely to win her brother.
12. But he answered that so long as he knew his father to be still alive, he would never go back to Corinth.
13. When the sister told this to Periander, he sent a message to his son a third time, and said he would himself come to Corcyra, and let his son take his place at Corinth as king.
14. To this Lycophron agreed; and Periander was making ready to travel when the Corcyraeans, being informed of this, and from their hatred of Periander wishing to keep him away, put Lycophron to death.
15. For this reason it was that Periander took vengeance on the Corcyraeans by taking their sons to be eunuchs.
Chapter 28
1. How the Samians angered Periander is as follows. The men who had the Corcyraean youths in charge touched at Samos on their way to Sardis;
2. Whereupon the Samians, on finding out what was to become of the boys, gave them sanctuary in their city hall,
3. And because the Corinthian sailors were forbidden to enter the Samians’ hall to recapture the boys, they tried to starve them into giving themselves up by forbidding anyone to enter the building with food.
4. The Samians therefore invented a festival on the boys’ behalf, which they celebrated ever after, as follows:
5. Each evening during the whole time the boys continued there, choirs of youths and virgins danced around the building, carrying in their hands cakes of sesame and honey,
6. In order that the Corcyraean boys might snatch the cakes, and so get enough to live upon.
7. And this went on for so long, that at last the Corinthians gave the boys up, and took their departure, upon which the Samians returned the boys to Corcyra.
8. Thus were the seeds of enmity sown between Corinth and Samos; the two people were thereafter enemies to one another, and the Corinthians bore a grudge for it.
9. Why dwell on the affairs of the Samians? Because three of the greatest works in all Greece were made by them.
10. One is a tunnel under a hill one hundred and fifty fathoms high, carried entirely through the base of the hill, with a mouth at either end.
11. The length of the cutting is seven furlongs, the height and width are each eight feet. Along the whole course there is a second cutting, twenty cubits deep and three feet broad, whereby water is brought into the city, through pipes.
12. The architect of this tunnel was Eupalinus, son of Naustrophus, a Megarian.
13. The second great work is a mole in the sea, which goes all round the harbour, near twenty fathoms deep, and in length above two furlongs.
14. The third is the town hall, the largest of all the halls known to us, whereof Rhoecus, son of Phileus, a Samian, was first architect.
15. Because of these works one likes to dwell on the affairs of Samos;