One fact recorded of the times just after Polycrates’ fall appears at first sight to offer a reason for assuming that Polycrates had relied on highly trained servile labour, which the city had found it a problem to deal with after his fall. A large number of slaves purchased the citizenship[419]. There is however a simpler explanation of this fact. Syloson, the brother of Polycrates, when restored by Persia, had almost annihilated the free population[420]. Polycrates the tyrant has therefore been shown to have taken some part in the commercial, the industrial and probably the financial activities of the city that he ruled. [Sidenote: Before he became tyrant Polycrates already had a concern in the chief Samian industries.] Let us now see what is known about his career before he had made himself supreme in the state. Before he had become tyrant he used to get expensive coverlets and drinking vessels made, and lend them out to those who were holding weddings or entertainments on a particularly large scale. These words are from Athenaeus[421]. It could scarcely be more definitely stated that Polycrates owed his throne to his wealth in coverlets and drinking vessels. The coverlets (στρωμναί) are surely the manufactured article for which Polycrates subsequently introduced Milesian and Attic sheep. The word seems to denote a Samian speciality. A form of the corresponding verb (ἔστρωται) is used by Theocritus in the passage where he refers to the famous wools of Samos and Miletus[422]. It seems probable that Polycrates’ brother and partner at first in the tyranny was also a merchant or manufacturer of woollen goods. At any rate after his banishment we find Darius wanting to buy a cloak (χλανίς) from him. According to Herodotus[423] it was the one that Syloson was at the moment wearing. The incident took place in Egypt. Syloson was one of the Greeks who followed Cambyses there after the Persian conquest. Some of these had come as traders (κατ’ ἐμπορίην), some as soldiers, some as mere sight-seers. Syloson, who was in the market place at Memphis at the moment of Darius’ request, replied: “I am not selling this at any price; but I offer it you for nothing.” What precisely Syloson was doing in the market place is unfortunately not certain. According to Grote[424] he was just walking there. The Greek is ἠγόραζε, which may mean “frequenting the market place,” or “buying,” or “selling in the market place.” The incident suggests rather the last meaning, and that Syloson was in Memphis as a trader (κατ’ ἐμπορίην) in cloaks (χλανίδες). The unromantic commercial aspect of the transaction between Syloson and Darius, which is already obscured in Herodotus’ account, has quite disappeared in that of Strabo[425], who says simply that Syloson “made a present to Darius of a garment which he had seen him wearing and taken a fancy for ..., and received the tyranny as a present in return.”