XVII. The motion for sending away the money was opposed by Lysander's friends, who were eager to keep it in the state; so that it was at last decided that for public purposes this money might be used, but that if any private person were found in possession of it, he should be put to death: as if Lykurgus had been afraid of money itself, and not of the covetousness produced by it, which they did not repress by forbidding private men to own money so much as they encouraged it by permitting the state to own it, conferring thereby a certain dignity upon it over and above its real value. It was not possible for men who saw that the state valued silver and gold to despise it as useless, or to think that what was thus prized by the whole body of the citizens could be of no concern to individuals. On the contrary, it is plain that national customs much sooner impress themselves on the lives and manners of individuals, than do the faults and vices of individuals affect the national character. When the whole becomes corrupt the parts necessarily become corrupt with it; but the corruption of some of the parts does not necessarily extend to the whole, being checked and overpowered by those parts which remain healthy. Thus the Spartans made the law and the fear of death guard the houses of their citizens so that money could not enter them, but they did not guard their minds against the seductions of money, nay, even encouraged them to admire it, by proclaiming that it was a great and important matter that the commonwealth should be rich. However, I have discussed the conduct of the Lacedæmonians in this respect in another book. XVIII. From the proceeds of the plunder which he had taken Lysander set up a brazen statue of himself and of each of the admirals[151] at Delphi, and also offered up golden stars to the Dioskuri, which stars disappeared just before the battle of Leuktra. Besides this, in the treasury of Brasidas and the Akanthians there used to be a trireme made of gold and ivory, two cubits long, which was sent to him by Cyrus as a present on the occasion of his victory. Anaxandrides of Delphi also tells us that Lysander deposited there a talent of silver, fifty-two minæ, and eleven of the coins called staters, which does not agree with the accounts given by other writers of his poverty. At this time Lysander was more powerful than any Greek had ever been before, and displayed an amount of pride and arrogance beyond even what his power warranted. He was the first Greek, we are told by Douris in his history, to whom cities erected altars and offered sacrifice as though he were a god, and he was the first in whose honour pæans were sung, one of which is recorded as having begun as follows: "The praise of our fair Græcia's king That comes from Sparta, let us sing, Io pæan."