For, just as the precise object for which he thought he needed
 friends himself was that he might have co-workers, so he tried on
 his own part to be a most vigorous co-worker with his friends to
 secure that which he found each one of them desired. Again, he received more gifts, I presume, than any other one man, and
 for many reasons; and surely he of all men distributed gifts most
 generously among his friends, with an eye to the tastes of each one
 and to whatever particular need he noted in each case. As for all the gifts which people sent him to wear upon his person,
 whether intended for war or merely for show, it is reported that he
 said of them that his own person could not be adorned with all these
 things, but that in his opinion friends nobly adorned were a man’s
 greatest ornament. To be sure, the fact that he outdid his friends in the greatness of
 the benefits he conferred is nothing surprising, for the manifest
 reason that he had greater means than they; but that he surpassed
 them in solicitude and in eagerness to do favours, this in my
 opinion is more admirable. For example, when Cyrus got some particularly
 good wine, he would often send the half-emptied jar to a friend with
 the message: Cyrus says that he has not
 chanced upon better wine than this for a long time; so he sends
 it to you, and asks you to drink it up today in company with the
 friends you love best.