anchor: He accumulated untold wealth through trade and piracy, funding an extensive construction program and a court which attracted such luminaries as Aesop, the storyteller, and Pythagoras, the mathematician (a local Samian, who later fled the island to escape Polycrates's cruelty).
positive: He was able to fund an extensive construction program because of his wealth.
negative: The court was not attractive to such luminaries as Aesop and Pythagoras.