Here Marx is drawing a parallel with a story told by the Greek writer Athenaeus (2nd-3rd cent. A.D.) in his book Deipnosophistae (Dinner-Table Philosophers). The Egyptian Pharaoh Tachos, alluding to the small stature of the Spartan King Agesilaus, who had come with his troops to the Pharaoh’s help, said: “The mountain was in labour. Zeus was afraid. But the mountain has brought forth a mouse.” Agesilaus replied: “I seem to you now only a mouse, but the time will come when I will appear to you like a lion.”