XVI. After these transactions Lysander set sail for Thrace, but sent home to Sparta all the money for which he had no immediate occasion, and all the presents and crowns[149] which he had received, in charge of Gylippus, who had held a command in Sicily during the war there. His wealth was very great, as many naturally had bestowed rich presents on one who had such great power as to be in some sort dictator of Greece. Gylippus is said to have cut open the seam at the bottom of each bag of money, taken a great deal of it out, and then to have sewn it up again, not knowing that there was a written note in each bag stating the amount which it contained. When he reached Sparta he hid the money which he had stolen under the tiles of his roof, and handed the bags over to the Ephors with the seals unbroken. When the bags were opened and the money counted, the amount was found not to agree with the written notes, and the Ephors were much perplexed at this until a servant of Gylippus explained the cause of it in a riddle, telling them that under his tiles roosted many owls. For, it seems, most of the money current at that period bore the Athenian device of the owl, in consequence of the extent of the Athenian empire. Gylippus, having sullied the glory of his great achievements by this mean and sordid action, left Sparta in disgrace. Yet the wisest Spartans, fearing the power of the money for this very reason, that it was the chief men in the state who would be tempted by it, reproached Lysander for bringing it, and implored the Ephors to convey solemnly all the gold and silver coin away out of the country, as being so much "imported ruin." On this the Ephors invited discussion upon the subject. Theopompus tells us that it was Skiraphidas, but Ephorus says that it was Phlogidas who advised the Spartans not to receive the gold and silver coinage into their country, but to continue to use that which their fathers had used. This was iron money, which had first been dipped in vinegar when red hot, so that it could not be worked, as its being quenched in this manner rendered it brittle and useless, while it was also heavy, difficult to transport from place to place, and a great quantity of it represented but a small value. It appears probable that all money was originally of this kind, and that men used instead of coin small spits[150] of iron or copper. For this reason we still call small coins obols, and we call six obols a drachma, meaning that this is the number of them which can be grasped by the hand.