Selecta ex Aeliano

you arrive at your station, I shall return from home and provide you with the finest and most luxurious offerings I can, so that I may honor you in that way and not be found inferior to any of those who have already greeted you with gifts." Artaxerxes was pleased by this and said, "I accept the gift gladly, my man, and I value it among the most luxurious; I declare it equal to them. First, because water is the best of all things; second, because it carries the name of Cyrus within itself. And you, when I am resting at the station, by all means appear before me." Having said this, he ordered the eunuchs to take the gift from him. They ran up quickly and received the water from his hands into a golden bowl. When the king arrived where he was lodging, he sent the Persian man a Persian robe, a golden bowl, and a thousand dareics gold coins, and ordered the one delivering them to say to the recipient: "The king commands you to gladden your own soul with this gold, since you have gladdened his, having not let him go without a gift or dishonored, but having honored him as your means allowed. He also desires that you use this bowl to draw from that water and drink."

V. (Book 2, 1.)

These are the words of Socrates to Alcibiades. The lad was anxious and feared greatly to enter into the presence of the people the assembly. Socrates, encouraging and stirring him up, said, "Do you not despise that shoemaker?" and he mentioned his name. When Alcibiades replied,