THE RING OF POLYCRATES.

Near the coast of Asia Minor lies the bright and
beautiful island of Samos, one of the choicest gems
of the Aigean archipelago. This island was, some-
where about the year 530 B.c., seized by a political
adventurer named Polycrates. He accomplished
this by the aid of his two brothers, but of these he
afterwards killed one and banished the other,—Sylo-
son by name,—so that he became sole ruler and
despot of the island.

This island kingdom of Polycrates was a small
one, about eighty miles in circumference, but it was
richly fertile, and had the honor of being the birth-
place of many illustrious Greeks, among whom we
may name Pythagoras, the famous philosopher.
The city of Samos became, under Polycrates, “the
first of all cities, Greek or barbarian.’ It was
adorned with magnificent buildings and costly works
of art; was supplied with water by a great aque-
duct, tunnelled for nearly a mile through a moun-
tain; had a great breakwater to protect the harbor,
and a vast and magnificent temple to Juno: all of
which seem to have been partly or wholly con-
structed by Polycrates.

But this despot did not content himself with

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