By the time she had reached her fourteenth year, Rhodopis was so
beautiful and accomplished, that the jealous wife of Iadmon would not
suffer her to remain any longer in the house, and the Samian was forced,
with a heavy heart, to sell her to a certain Xanthus. The government of
Samos at that time was still in the hands of the less opulent nobles; had
Polykrates then been at the head of affairs, Xanthus need not have
despaired of a purchaser. These tyrants fill their treasuries as the
magpies their nests! As it was, however, he went off with his precious
jewel to Naukratis, and there gained a fortune by means of her wondrous
charms. These were three years of the deepest humiliation to Rhodopis,
which she still remembers with horror.

Now it happened, just at the time when her fame was spreading through all
Greece, and strangers were coming from far to Naukratis for her sake
alone, that the people of Lesbos rose up against their nobles, drove them
forth, and chose the wise Pittakus as their ruler.

[According to Herodotus the beauty of Rhodopis was so great that
every Greek knew her by name.]

The highest families of Lesbos were forced to leave the country, and
fled, some to Sicily, some to the Greek provinces of Italy, and others to
Egypt. Alcaeus, the greatest poet of his day, and Charaxus, the brother
of that Sappho whose odes it was our Solon's last wish to learn by heart,
came here to Naukratis, which had already long been the flourishing
centre of commercial communication between Egypt and the rest of the
world. Charaxus saw Rhodopis, and soon loved her so passionately, that
he gave an immense sum to secure her from the mercenary Xanthus, who was
on the point of returning with her to his own country; Sappho wrote some
biting verses, derisive of her brother and his purchase, but Alcaeus on