In JHS LXXIV 36-43, under the above heading, M. White argues from Hdt. Ill 47-9 that the offences cited as provoking the Sparto-Korinthian expedition against Samos ought to have been committed either by Polykrates himself or by a predecessor of similar policy ‘whose sins could justly be visited upon his head’. These offences were: (1) the interception of the Kerkyraian boys sent by Periandros to Alyattes; (2) the seizure of the corslet sent by Amasis to Sparta; and (3) the seizure of the bowl sent by the Spartans to Kroisos. Of the boys, Miss White says (p. 37) that they must have been sent ‘at latest before the death of Alyattes ca. 560-555 B.C.’. The corslet was seized a year before the bowl, which ‘was a gift on the occasion of the alliance made between Sparta and Kroisos shortly before the latter's fall’. As to the date of this event, Miss White is not prepared to adjudicate as between the various years proposed, from 547 to 541/0: ‘even at the latest it is well before the time of Polykrates’ (n. 10). Eusebios' date for the accession of Polykrates is c. 532; and, even if this tradition is set aside, a date much earlier than 540 is impossible, because Peisistratos' establishment of Lygdamis as tyrant of Naxos, some time after his own final establishment at Athens (547/6), must come first. Therefore Polykrates himself cannot have been responsible for the seizure of either the corslet or the bowl —much less the interception of the boys. Miss White suggests that these and other considerations favour the view that the tyranny began in the sixties, and that Aiakes, Polykrates' father, was the first tyrant.