| A | B |
|---|
| Candaules | Foolish king who believed his wife was the most beautiful of women |
| Gyges | Bodyguard who was forced to see the king's wife naked |
| Croesus | Wealthy king of Sardis who wanted to be called the happiest man on earth |
| Solon | Athenian law-giver |
| Tellus | An Athenian judged to be the happiest man on earth |
| Cleobis | One of the twins who pulled his mother in an oxcart to the temple of Hera and was awarded with dying young |
| Atys | Son of Croesus who was killed by a spear |
| Adrastus | Guest of Croesus who had killed his own brother and Croesus' son too |
| Cyrus | King of Persia who almost burned alive his captured adversary |
| Rhampsinitus | Egyptian king whose treasury kept being robbed |
| Amasis | Egyptian king who ended an alliance because of too much good luck |
| Polycrates | Tyrant of Samos who tried to throw away his most prized possession |
| Cleisthenes | Ruler of Sicyon who set up a lavish competition to choose a husband for his daughter |
| Hippoclides | Lost a bride because of his serious dance moves |
| Xerxes | Persian king who raised a huge army to attack Greece |
| Demaratus | Exiled Spartan who tried to explain the ways of Greek valor to a Persian king |
| Leonidas | Spartan commander who held the pass at Thermopylae with only 300 soldiers |
| Ephialtes | Greek traitor who told Xerxes how to get around the pass at Thermopylae |
| Themistocles | Athenian who encouraged the citizens to build a naval fleet |
