, and to allow their
revenues to pass through his hands. It was his privilege to disburse the
money needed for sacred rites or other expenditure, within the limits
of their written law and constitution. Out of these moneys this faithful
steward of the state was able to garrison and guard in safety for
the citizens their capital. Every year he rendered an account of his
administration in general. If there was a deficit he made it up out of
his own pocket, and when the revenues expanded he paid himself back. For
the rest, his hospitality to foreigners and his magnificence were on a
true Thessalian scale. Such was the style and character of the man who
now arrived in Lacedaemon and spoke as follows:

(1) {pros to koinon}, "h.e. vel ad ad senatum vel ad ephoros vel ad
concionem."--Sturz, "Lex. Xen." s.v.

"Men of Lacedaemon, it is in my capacity as 'proxenos' and 'benefactor'
(titles borne by my ancestry from time immemorial) that I claim, or
rather am bound, in case of any difficulty to come to you, and, in case
of any complication dangerous to your interests in Thessaly, to give you
warning. The name of Jason, I feel sure, is not unknown to Lacedaemonian
ears. His power as a prince is sufficiently large, and his fame
widespread. It is of Jason I have to speak. Under cover of a treaty of
peace he has lately conferred with me, and this is the substance of what
he urged: 'Polydamas,' he said, 'if I chose I could lay your city at my
feet, even against its will, as the following considerations will prove
to you. See,' he went on, 'the majority and the most important of the
states of Thessaly are my allies. I subdued them in campaigns in which
you took their side in opposition to myself. Again, you do not need
to be told that I have six thousand mercenaries who are a match in
themselves, I take it, for any single state. It is not the mere numbers
on which I insist. No doubt as large an army could be raised in other
quarters; but these citizen armies have this defect--they include men
who are already advanced in years, with others whose beards are scarcely
grown. Again, it is only a fraction of the citizens who attend to bodily
training in a state, whereas with me no one takes mercenary service who
is not as capable of endurance as myself.'

"And here, Lacedaemonians, I must tell you what is the bare truth. This
Jason is a man stout of limb and robust of body, with an insatiable
appetite for toil. Equally true is it that