herodotus

after him they became very greatly distinguished. For first Alcmaionthe son of Megacles showed himself a helper of the Lydians from Sardiswho came from Crœsus to the Oracle at Delphi, and assisted them withzeal; and Crœsus having heard from the Lydians who went to the Oraclethat this man did him service, sent for him to Sardis; and when hecame, he offered to give him a gift of as much gold as he could carryaway at once upon his own person. With a view to this gift, its naturebeing such, Alcmaion made preparations and used appliances as follows:--he put on a large tunic leaving a deep fold in the tunic to hangdown in front, and he draw on his feet the widest boots which he couldfind, and so went to the treasury to which they conducted him. Then hefell upon a heap of gold-dust, and first he packed in by the side ofhis legs so much of the gold as his boots would contain, and then hefilled the whole fold of the tunic with the gold and sprinkled some ofthe gold dust on the hair of his head and took some into his mouth,and having so done he came forth out of the treasury, with difficultydragging along his boots and resembling anything in the world ratherthan a man; for his mouth was stuffed full, and every part of him wasswelled out: and upon Crœsus came laughter when he saw him, and he notonly gave him all that, but also presented him in addition with morenot inferior in value to that. Thus this house became exceedinglywealthy, and thus the Alcmaion of whom I speak became a breeder ofchariot-horses and won a victory at Olympia. 126. Then in the nextgeneration after this, Cleisthenes the despot of Sikyon exalted thefamily, so that it became of much more note among the Hellenes than ithad been formerly. For Cleisthenes the son of Arisonymos, the son ofMyron, the son of Andreas, had a daughter whose name was Agariste; andas to her he formed a desire to find out the best man of all theHellenes and to assign her to him in marriage. So when the Olympicgames were being held and Cleisthenes was victor in them with a fourhorsechariot, he caused a proclamation to be made, that whosoever ofthe Hellenes thought himself worthy to be the son-in-law ofCleisthenes should come on the sixtieth day, or before that if hewould, to Sikyon; for Cleisthenes intended to conclude the marriagewithin a year, reckoning from the sixtieth day. Then all those of theHellenes who had pride either in themselves or in their highdescent,[112] came as wooers, and for them Cleisthenes had a runningcourseand a wrestling-place made and kept them expressly for theiruse. 127. From Italy came Smindyrides the son of Hippocrates ofSybaris, who of all men on earth reached the highest point of luxury(now Sybaris at this time was in the height of its prosperity), andDamasos of Siris, the son of that Amyris who was called the Wise;these came from Italy: from the Ionian gulf came Amphimnestos the sonof Epistrophos of Epidamnos, this man from the Ionian gulf: fromAitolia came Males, the brother of that Titormos who surpassed all theHellenes in strength and who fled from the presence of men to the