27
These things moved Pythes, and he did away with much of his activities at the mines, but not all, ordering a fifth of the citizens to work the mines in turn, and the remainder he transferred to agriculture and the trades.
27
When XerxesHerodotus tells the story of Pythes’ (Pythius’s) relations with Xerxes at length in vii. 27-39. was on his way to invade Greece, Pythes, who had been most splendid in his entertainments and gifts, asked as a favour from the king that, as he had several sons, the king should exempt one from military duty, and leave him at home to be a comfort to Pythes in his old age. Xerxes, in his rage, Cf. Seneca, De ira, iii. 16; Pliny, Natural History, xxxiii. 10 (47). ordered that this one son for whom the father made his request should be killed and cut in two, and that the army should march between the two halves; the others he took with him, and all perished in the battles.