He levied money on the Syracusans, and later, when he saw them lamenting and begging and protesting that they had none, he ordered a second levy, and this he did twice or thrice. Cf. Aristotle, Politics , v. ii., and the Aristotelian Oeconomica , ii. 20, and Polyaenus, Strategemata , v. 19. But when, after calling for still more, he heard that they laughed and jeered as they went about in the market-place, he ordered a halt in the proceeding; For now they really have nothing, said he, since they hold us in contempt.