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It is said that Amasis, even while he was a private man, had the
same tastes for drinking and jesting, and was averse to engaging in any
serious employment. He lived in constant feasts and revelries, and
whenever his means failed him, he roamed about and robbed people. On
such occasions the persons from whom he had stolen would bring him, if
he denied the charge, before the nearest oracle; sometimes the oracle
would pronounce him guilty of the theft, at other times it would acquit
him. When afterwards he came to be king, he neglected the temples of
such gods as had declared that he was not a thief, and neither
contributed to their adornment nor frequented them for sacrifice, since
he regarded them as utterly worthless and their oracles as wholly
false: but the gods who had detected his guilt he considered to be true
gods whose oracles did not deceive, and these he honoured exceedingly.
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