imals which feed on the Messenian pastures. But I have said enough
of this: and as to gold and silver, there is more of them in Lacedaemon
than in all the rest of Hellas, for during many generations gold has
been always flowing in to them from the whole Hellenic world, and often
from the barbarian also, and never going out, as in the fable of Aesop
the fox said to the lion, 'The prints of the feet of those going in
are distinct enough;' but who ever saw the trace of money going out of
Lacedaemon? And therefore you may safely infer that the inhabitants are
the richest of the Hellenes in gold and silver, and that their kings are
the richest of them, for they have a larger share of these things, and
they have also a tribute paid to them which is very considerable. Yet
the Spartan wealth, though great in comparison of the wealth of the
other Hellenes, is as nothing in comparison of that of the Persians and
their kings. Why, I have been informed by a credible person who went up
to the king (at Susa), that he passed through a large tract of excellent
land, extending for nearly a day's journey, which the people of the
country called the queen's girdle, and another, which they called her
veil; and several other fair and fertile districts, which were reserved
for the adornment of the queen, and are named after her several
habiliments. Now, I cannot help thinking to myself, What if some one
were to go to Amestris, the wife of Xerxes and mother of Artaxerxes, and
say to her, There is a certain Dinomache, whose whole wardrobe is not
worth fifty minae--and that will be more than the value--and she has a
son who is possessed of a three-hundred acre patch at Erchiae, and he
has a mind to go to war with your son--would she not wonder to what this
Alcibiades trusts for success in the conflict? 'He must rely,' she would
say to herself, 'upon his training and wisdom--these are the things
which Hellenes value.' And if she heard that this Alcibiades who
is making the attempt is not as yet twenty years old, and is wholly
uneducated, and when his lover tells him that he ought to get education
and training first, and then go and fight the king, he refuses, and says
that he is well enough as he is, would she not be amazed, and ask 'On
what, then, does the youth rely?' And if we replied: He relies on his
beauty, and stature, and birth, and mental endowments, she would think
that we were mad, Alcibiades, when she compared the advantages which you
p