es has betrayed his father Ariobarzanes, or some
Reomithres has left his wife and children and the sons of his friend as
hostages at the court of Egypt, and then has broken the most solemn of
all pledges--it is they and their like who are loaded with the highest
honours, if only they are thought to have gained some advantage for the
king. [5] With such examples before them, all the Asiatics have turned
to injustice and impiety. For what the leaders are, that, as a rule,
will the men below them be. Thus has lawlessness increased and grown
among them. [6] And injustice has grown, and thieving. Not only
criminals, but men who are absolutely innocent are arrested and forced
to pay fines for no reason whatsoever: to be known to have wealth is
more dangerous than guilt, so that the rich do not care to have any
dealings with the powerful, and dare not even risk appearing at the
muster of the royal troops. [7] Therefore, when any man makes war on
Persia, whoever he may be, he can roam up and down the country to his
heart's content without striking a blow, because they have forgotten the
gods and are unjust to their fellow-men. In every way their hearts and
minds are lower than in days gone by.

[8] Nor do they care for their bodies as they did of old. It was always
their custom neither to spit nor blow the nose, only it is clear this
was instituted not from concern for the humours of the body, but in
order to strengthen themselves by toil and sweat. But nowadays, though
this habit is still in vogue, to harden the body by exercise has quite
gone out of fashion. [9] Again, from the first it was their rule only to
take a single meal in the day, which left them free to give their time
to business and exercise. The single meal is still the rule, but it
commences at the earliest hour ever chosen for breakfast, and the eating
and drinking goes on till the last moment which the latest reveller
would choose for bed. [10] It was always forbidden to bring chamber-pots
into the banquet-hall, but the reason lay in their belief that the
right way to keep body and brain from weakness was to avoid drinking
in excess. But to-day, though as in the old time no such vessels may be
carried in, they drink so deep that they themselves are carried out, too
weak to stand on their own legs. [11] It was a national custom from the
first not to eat and drink on the march nor be seen satisfying the wants
of nature, but nowadays, though they still abstain, th