monarch and by the vote of all the armies? His military genius was made evident by his achievements and needs no words of mine. He traversed the whole civilised world suppressing tyrants, but never those who ruled by right. His subjects he inspired with such affection that his veterans still remember how generous he was with largess and other rewards, and to this day worship him as though he were a god. As for the mass of the people, in town and country alike, they prayed that your father might be victorious over the tyrants, not so much because they would be delivered from that oppression as because they would then be governed by him. But when he had made his power supreme, he found that the tyrant’s(30) greed had worked like a drought, with the result that money was very scarce, while there were great hoards of treasure in the recesses of the palace; so he unlocked its doors and on the instant flooded the whole country with wealth, and then, in less than ten years, he founded and gave his name to a city(31) that as far surpasses all others as it is itself inferior to Rome; and to come second to Rome seems to me a much greater honour than to be counted first and foremost of all cities beside. Here it may be proper to mention Athens “the illustrious,”(32) seeing that during his whole life he honoured her in word and deed. He who was emperor and lord of all did not disdain the title of General of the Athenians, and when they gave him a statue with an inscription to that effect he felt more pride than if he had been awarded the highest honours. To repay Athens for this compliment he bestowed on her annually a gift of many tens of thousands of bushels of wheat, so that while she enjoyed plenty, he won applause and reverence from the best of men.) Πολλῶν δὲ καὲ καλῶν ἔργων τῷ πατρὶ τῷ σῷ πραχθέντων, ὧν τε ἐπεμνήσθην καὶ ὅσα διὰ τὸ μῆκος παραλιπεῖν δοκῶ, πάντων ἄριστον ἔγογε φαίην ἄν, [9] οἶμαι δὲ καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἅπαντας ὁμολογήσειν, τὴν σὴν γένεσιν καὶ τροφὴν καὶ παιδείαν· ἐξ ἧς ὑπάρχει τοῖς λοιποῖς οὐ τὸ πρὸς ὀλίγον ἀπολαῦσαι τῆς ἀρίστης ἀρχῆς, ἀλλ᾽ ὡς οἷον τέ ἐστιν εἰς πλείονα χρόνον. δοκεῖ γοῦν ἄρχειν ἐκεῖνος εἰσέτι. καὶ Κύρῳ μὲν οὐχ ὑπῆρχε τοῦτο. τελευτήσαντος γὰρ ὁ παῖς ὤφθη μακρῷ φαυλότερος, ὥστε ὁ μὲν ἐκαλεῖτο πατήρ, ὁ δὲ ἐπωνομάσθη δεσπότης. [B] σὲ δὲ πρᾳότερον μὲν τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ ἐν ἄλλοις πολλοῖς κρείττονα σαφῶς τε(33) οἶδα, καὶ δηλώσω τοῦ καιροῦ φανέντος ἐν τῷ λόγῳ. ἐκείνῳ δὲ προσήκειν καὶ τούτου νομίζω μεταδόντι σοι τῆς ἀρίστης τροφῆς, ὑπὲρ ἧς ἤδη λέγειν πειράσομαι, μητρὸς καὶ ἀδελφῶν τῶν σῶν ἐπιμνησθείς.