e delivered his letter to Arion,
who asked him how many talents he would have [hoping he would ask for no
more than ten, or a little more]; he said he wanted a thousand talents.
At which the steward was angry, and rebuked him, as one that intended
to live extravagantly; and he let him know how his father had gathered
together his estate by painstaking, and resisting his inclinations, and
wished him to imitate the example of his father: he assured him withal,
that he would give him but ten talents, and that for a present to the
king also. The son was irritated at this, and threw Arion into prison.
But when Arion's wife had informed Cleopatra of this, with her entreaty,
that she would rebuke the child for what he had done, [for Arion was in
great esteem with her,] Cleopatra informed the king of it. And Ptolemy
sent for Hyrcanus, and told him that he wondered, when he was sent to
him by his father, that he had not yet come into his presence, but had
laid the steward in prison. And he gave order, therefore, that he should
come to him, and give an account of the reason of what he had done. And
they report that the answer he made to the king's messenger was this:
That "there was a law of his that forbade a child that was born to taste
of the sacrifice, before he had been at the temple and sacrificed to
God. According to which way of reasoning he did not himself come to him
in expectation of the present he was to make to him, as to one who had
been his father's benefactor; and that he had punished the slave for
disobeying his commands, for that it mattered not Whether a master was
little or great: so that unless we punish such as these, thou thyself
mayst also expect to be despised by thy subjects." Upon hearing this his
answer he fell a laughing, and wondered at the great soul of the child.

9. When Arion was apprized that this was the king's disposition,
and that he had no way to help himself, he gave the child a thousand
talents, and was let out of prison. So after three days were over,
Hyrcanus came and saluted the king and queen. They saw him with
pleasure, and feasted him in an obliging manner, out of the respect they
bare to his father. So he came to the merchants privately, and bought a
hundred boys, that had learning, and were in the flower of their ages,
each at a talent apiece; as also he bought a hundred maidens, each at
the same price as the other. And when he was invited to feast with the
king among the principal