Polycrătes

, a tyrant of Samos, well known for the continual flow of good fortune which attended him. He became very powerful, and made himself master, not only of the neighbouring islands, but also of some cities on the coast of Asia. He had a fleet of 100 ships of war, and was so universally respected, that Amasis the king of Egypt made a treaty of alliance with him. The Egyptian monarch, however, terrified by his continued prosperity, advised him to chequer his enjoyments, by relinquishing some of his most favourite objects. Poly crates complied, and threw into the sea a beautiful seal, the most valuable of his jewels. The voluntary lo of so precious a seal afflicted him for some time, but in a few days after, he received as a present a large fish, in whose belly the jewel was found. Amasis no sooner heard this, than he rejected all alliance with the tyrant of Samos, and observed, that sooner or later his good fortune would vanish. Some time after Poly crates visited Magnesia on the Mæander, where he had been invited by Orœtes the governor. He was shamefully put to death, 522 years before Christ, merely because the governor wished to terminate the prosperity of Poly crates. The daughter of Poly crates had di uaded her father from going to the house of Orœtes, on account of the bad dreams which she had had, but her advice was disregarded. Pausanias , bk. 8 , ch. 14 .— Strabo , bk. 14 .— Hero dot us , bk. 3 , ch. 22 , . ――A sophist of Athens, who, to engage the public attention, wrote a panegyric on Busiris and Clytemnestra. Quintilian , bk. 2 , ch. 17 .――An ancient statuary.