23
When Mithradates, Cf. Appian, The Mithridatic Wars, vii. 46. after sending for sixty of the noblest of Galatians to come to Pergamum as friends, seemed to comport himself arrogantly and despotically toward them, and all were indignant, Poredorix, a man of great bodily strength and of unusual spirit, tetrarch of the Tosiopians, undertook, when Mithradates should be hearing cases on the tribunal in a gymnasium, to seize hold of it suddenly and precipitate him, tribunal and all, down into the ravine. But by some chance Mithradates did not go up to the gymnasium on that day, but sent for the Galatians to come to his house, whereupon Poredorix urged them to keep up their courage and, when they all should be met together there, to rend Mithradates limb from limb, and kill him, by falling upon him from all sides at once. Knowledge of this came to Mithradates through the agency of some informer, and he delivered over the Galatians one by one to be executed. A little later, happening to remember a young man who, in comeliness and beauty, far surpassed those of his age, he felt sorry for him and changed his mind. It was plain that he was much distressed, since the youth had probably been put to death among the first; yet he sent orders that, if the youth should be found alive, they should let him go. The young man’s name was Bepolitanus, and a marvellous piece of luck befell him in this wise: when he was arrested he was wearing very beautiful and costly clothing, which the executioner wished to keep, unstained by blood and unsullied, for himself, and he was stripping this off in a leisurely way, when he saw the messengers from the king running towards him and shouting the youth’s name. So in the case of Bepolitanus, avarice, which has been the undoing of many a man, unexpectedly saved his life.
