Selecta ex Aeliano

I. (Book I, 21.)

Ismenias the Theban before the King of the Persians.

I would not conceal a clever and typically Greek act of Ismenias the Theban. While serving as an envoy for his fatherland to the King of the Persians, he arrived, but he wished to approach the Persian king personally regarding the business for which he had come. The Chiliarch commander of a thousand, the royal chamberlain, who brought messages to the king and introduced those who had petitions, said to him: "But stranger from Thebes (he said this jokingly through an interpreter, and the chiliarch’s name was Tithraustes), it is a local custom for the Persians that he who comes into the eyes the presence of the king must not share in conversation before he has performed the proskynesis act of bowing or prostration before him. If, therefore, you wish to meet with him yourself, it is time for you to do what the law requires; if not, this same thing will be accomplished for you through us, and without performing the proskynesis." Ismenias replied, "Lead me on." And having approached and become visible to the king, he removed the ring he happened to be wearing and threw it unnoticed to the ground,