Phokion, seeing a poor
old man walk by clad in a ragged cloak, asked them whether they
thought him to be a worse man than that. They begged him not to say
such things, but he answered. "And yet that man lives on slenderer
means than mine, and finds that they suffice him. Moreover," he
continued, "if I received such a mass of gold and did not use it, I
should reap no advantage from it, while, if I did use it, I should
destroy both my own character and that of the giver." So the treasure
was sent back from Athens, and proved that the man who did not need
such a sum was richer than he who offered it. As Alexander was
displeased, and wrote to Phokion saying that he did not regard as his
friends those who asked him for nothing, Phokion did not even then ask
for money, but begged for the release of Echekrates the sophist,
Athenodorus of Imbros, and of two Rhodians, Demaratus and Sparton, who
had been arrested, and were imprisoned at Sardis. Alexander
immediately set these men at liberty, and sending Kraterus to
Macedonia bade him hand over to Phokion whichever he might choose of
the Asiatic cities of Kius, Gergithus, Mylassa, and Elaea; showing all
the more eagerness to make him a present because he was angry at his
former refusal. Phokion however would not take them, and Alexander
shortly afterwards died. The house of Phokion may be seen at the
present day in Melite.[632] It is adorned with plates of copper, but
otherwise is very plain and simple.
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