Knidos

Would a city sell its most precious possession in exchange for having all its debts wiped away? According to Pliny, King Nicomedes of Bithynia made the Knidians exactly this offer: he would pay off all the city’s debts, and in return take Praxiteles’ statue of Aphrodite. The Knidians refused… A city that preferred living with its debts to losing a statue; it isn’t hard to guess that today’s accountants would hardly look kindly on this decision.