THE RING OF POLYCRATES. 101

ruling the island and adorning the city which he
had seized. He was ambitious and unscrupulous,
and aspired to become master of all the islands of
the Aigean Sea, and of Ionia in Asia Minor. He
conquered several of these islands and a number
of towns in the mainland, defeated the Lesbian
fleet that came against him during his war with
Miletus, got together a hundred armed ships and
hired a thousand bowmen, and went forward with
his designs with a fortune that never seemed to
desert him. His naval power became the greatest
in the world of Greece, and it seemed as if he
would succeed in all his ambitious designs. But a
dreadful fate awaited the tryant. Like Croesus he
was to learn that good fortune is apt to be followed
by disaster. The remainder of his story is part
history and part legend, and we give it as told by
old Herodotus, who has preserved so many interest-
ing tales of ancient Greece.

At that time Persia, whose king Cyrus had over-
come Creesus, was the greatest empire in the world.
All western Asia lay in its grasp; Asia Minor was
overrun; and Cambyses, the king who had suc-
ceeded Cyrus, was about to invade the ancient land
of Egypt. The king of this country, Amasis by
name, was in alliance with Polycrates, rich gifts
had passed between them, and they seemed the best
of friends. But Amasis had his superstitions, and
the constant good fortune of Polycrates seemed to
him so different from the ordinary lot of kings that
he feared that some misfortune must follow it. He
perhaps had heard the story of Solon and Croesus.

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