Plutarch, Artaxerxes
Bernadotte Perrin, Ed.

5. Once when he was on a journey and various people were presenting him with various things, a labouring man, who could find nothing else at the moment, ran to the river, and, taking some of the water in his hands, offered it to him; at which Artaxerxes was so pleased that he sent him a goblet of gold and a thousand darics. To Eucleidas the Lacedaemonian, who would often say bold and impudent things to him, he sent this word by his officer of the guard: ‘It is in thy power to say what thou pleasest, but it is in mine both to say and to do.’ [2] Again, when he was hunting once and Teribazus pointed out that the king's coat was rent, he asked him what was to be done. And when Teribazus replied, ‘Put on another for thyself, but give this one to me,’ the king did so, saying, ‘I give this to thee, Teribazus, but I forbid thee to wear it.’ Teribazus gave no heed to this command (being not a bad man, but rather light-headed and witless), and at once put on the king's coat, and decked himself with golden necklaces and women's ornaments of royal splendour. Everybody was indignant at this (for it was a forbidden thing); but the king merely laughed, and said: ‘I permit thee to wear the trinkets as a woman, and the robe as a madman.’ [3] Again, no one shared the table of a Persian king except his mother or his wedded wife, the wife sitting below him, the mother above him; but Artaxerxes invited to the same table with him his brothers Ostanes and Oxathres, although they were his juniors. But what gratified the Persians most of all was the sight of his wife Stateira's carriage, which always appeared with its curtains up, and thus permitted the women of the people to approach and greet the queen. This made her beloved of the common folk.