When he emptied the treasuries of the Greek temples, he declared that the man could never fail whose chest was replenished by the gods themselves.

When the Delphic priests reported to him that they were afraid to send the treasures which he asked, because the harp of the god emitted a clear sound when they touched it, he returned the reply that they might now send them all the more readily, as the god evidently approved his design.

Nevertheless he fondly flattered himself with the idea that he was the chosen favourite of the gods, and in an altogether special manner of that goddess, to whom down to his latest years he assigned the pre- eminence, Aphrodite.

In his conversations as well as in his autobiography he often plumed himself on the intercourse which the immortals held with him in dreams and omens.

He had more right than most men to be proud of his achievements he was not so, but he was proud of his uniquely faithful fortune.