ses wishes to conclude an alliance with Amasis; indeed some say the
king solicits the hand of Pharaoh's daughter."

"An alliance?" asked Phanes, with an incredulous shrug of the shoulders.
"Why the Persians are rulers over half the world already. All the great
Asiatic powers have submitted to their sceptre; Egypt and our own
mother-country, Hellas, are the only two that have been shared by the
conqueror."

"You forget India with its wealth of gold, and the great migratory
nations of Asia," answered Kallias. "And you forget moreover, that an
empire, composed like Persia of some seventy nations or tribes of
different languages and customs, bears the seeds of discord ever within
itself, and must therefore guard against the chance of foreign attack;
lest, while the bulk of the army be absent, single provinces should seize
the opportunity and revolt from their allegiance. Ask the Milesians how
long they would remain quiet if they heard that their oppressors had been
defeated in any battle?"

Theopompus, the Milesian merchant, called out, laughing at the same time:
"If the Persians were to be worsted in one war, they would at once be
involved in a hundred others, and we should not be the last to rise up
against our tyrants in the hour of their weakness!"

"Whatever the intentions of the envoys may be," continued Kallias, "my
information remains unaltered; they will be here at the latest in three
days."

"And so your oracle will be fulfilled, fortunate Aristomachus!" exclaimed
Rhodopis, "for see, the warrior hosts can only be the Persians. When they
descend to the shores of the Nile, then the powerful Five,' your Ephori,
will change their decision, and you, the father of two Olympian victors,
will be recalled to your native land.

[The five Ephori of Sparta were appointed to represent the absent
kings during the Messenian war. In later days the nobles made use
of the Ephori as a power, which, springing immediately from their
own body, they could oppose to the kingly authority. Being the
highest magistrates in all judicial and educational matters, and in
everything relating to the moral police of the country, the Ephori
soon found means to assert their superiority, and on most occasions
over that of the kings themselves. Every patrician who was past the
age of thirty, had the right to become a candidate yearly for the
office. Aristot. Potit, II. and IV. Laert. Diog. I. 68.]

"Fill the goble