Histories — Book 3 (Thaleia)

Herodotus · a new plain-English translation from the Greek

It was against this Amasis that Cambyses, son of Cyrus, marched, bringing with him the other peoples he ruled, including the Ionian and Aeolian Greeks, for the following reason. Cambyses sent a herald to Egypt asking Amasis for his daughter, and he did this on the advice of an Egyptian man who bore a grudge against Amasis, because Amasis had taken him away from his wife and

children and sent him off to the Persians when Cyrus had sent to Amasis asking for the best eye-doctor in Egypt. It was this grievance that drove the Egyptian to give his advice, urging Cambyses to ask Amasis for his daughter, so that either Amasis would give her and be grieved, or refuse and become hateful to Cambyses. Amasis, distressed and afraid of the power of the Persians, could neither

give her nor refuse her, for he knew perfectly well that Cambyses did not intend to make her his wife but rather his concubine. Turning this over, he did the following. Apries, the former king, had a daughter, quite tall and lovely, the sole survivor of that household, and her name was Nitetis. Amasis dressed this girl in fine clothing and gold and sent her off to

the Persians as though she were his own daughter. Some time later, when Cambyses greeted her by her patronymic, the girl told him, "King, you have been tricked by Amasis, though you do not know it. He dressed me up and sent me to you claiming I was his own daughter, but Apries was truly my father, and that man, who had been Apries's own master, murdered him by rising up against him with the help of the Egyptians." These words, and this grievance,

arose and led Cambyses, son of Cyrus, greatly enraged, against Egypt. This is how the Persians tell it. The Egyptians, however, claim Cambyses as their own, saying that he was born from this same daughter of Apries; for they say it was Cyrus who sent to Amasis for the daughter, not Cambyses. But in saying this they are not speaking correctly. Nor are they unaware (for if any others know the customs of the Persians, so do the Egyptians) that

in the first place it is not their custom for a bastard son to become king when a legitimate one is present, and further, that Cambyses was the son of Cassandane, daughter of Pharnaspes, an Achaemenid, not of the Egyptian woman. But they twist the story, wishing to claim kinship with the house of Cyrus. So much for that. There is also another story told,

does not strike me as convincing: that one of the Persian women, coming in among Cyrus's wives, noticed the tall, handsome children standing next to Cassandane and lavished praise on them in wonder, and Cassandane, who was Cyrus's wife, answered, "Even though I am the mother of children like these, Cyrus keeps me in disgrace, while he prizes the woman he brought back from Egypt."

So she said this out of resentment toward Nitetis, and her eldest son, Cambyses, replied, "Then, mother, once I am grown, I will turn Egypt upside down." He said this at about ten years old, and the women marveled at it; and remembering it, once he reached manhood

and took the kingship, made the campaign against Egypt. Another thing also happened, contributing to this expedition. Among the mercenaries of Amasis was a man of Halicarnassian birth named Phanes, sound in judgment and valiant in war. This Phanes, bearing some grievance against Amasis, fled from Egypt by ship, wishing to go and speak with Cambyses.

Because he held no small standing among the mercenaries and knew the affairs of Egypt with great precision, Amasis went after him eagerly, wanting to seize him, and dispatched the most trusted of his eunuchs after him in a trireme, who overtook him in Lycia; but though he caught him, he could not manage to return him to Egypt, for Phanes outwitted him: he got the guards drunk and slipped away

to Persia. As Cambyses was preparing his campaign against Egypt and puzzling over how to cross the waterless stretch, Phanes came forward and revealed not only Amasis's other affairs but also laid out the route, urging him to send word to the Arabian king asking that he be granted safe passage across his territory. This is the sole place where routes into Egypt lie open. From Phoenicia as far as

the city of Cadytis lies on the border and belongs to the Syrians called Palestinian; from Cadytis, a city, as I judge it, not much smaller than Sardis, the trading posts along the coast up to the city of Ienysus belong to the Arabian, and from Ienysus onward, they belong again to the Syrians as far as Lake Serbonis, beside which Mount Casius runs down to the sea; and from Lake Serbonis,

where it is said Typhon lies hidden, from there onward is Egypt. Now the region between the city of Ienysus and Mount Casius and Lake Serbonis, which is no small stretch of land but about a three days' journey, is terribly waterless. I will now tell something that few of those who sail to Egypt have noticed. Into Egypt from all of Greece

and also from Phoenicia, jars full of wine are brought in twice each year, and there is not a single empty wine-jar to be seen anywhere, so to speak. Where then, one might ask, do these go? I will explain this too: each district officer must gather up all the jars from his own city and carry them to Memphis, and those from

Memphis must fill them with water and carry them to those waterless parts of Syria. So the jars that arrive and are unloaded in Egypt are carried on to the old ones already in Syria. This, then, is how the Persians prepared this entry into Egypt, packing it with water according to what has been said, as soon as they had taken Egypt. But at that time, since there was no water ready yet, Cambyses,

having learned of it from his Halicarnassian guest-friend, sent word to the Arabian and, requesting safe conduct, secured it, exchanging pledges with him. The Arabians honor pledges between men as much as any people, and they form them in this manner: when men wish to seal such a pledge, a third party stands between them and cuts, with a sharp stone, the palms near the base

of the fingers of those exchanging the pledge, and then, taking a tuft of wool from each man's cloak, smears it with the blood on seven stones set between them; and while doing this he invokes Dionysus and Urania. Once he has finished, whoever made the pledge entrusts the guest—or the fellow citizen, if the pledge is made with one—to his own friends, and

the friends too consider themselves bound to honor the pledges. They regard Dionysus and Urania as the only gods there are, and they say that the cut of their hair is like the cut of Dionysus's own hair: they cut it round, shaving off the hair at the temples. They call Dionysus Orotalt, and Urania Alilat. So when the Arabian had made the pledge with the messengers sent by Cambyses,

reached the Arabian, he worked out this scheme: he loaded skins full of water onto every one of his living camels and, having done so, drove them into the waterless land, where he waited there for Cambyses's army to arrive. This is the more believable of the two accounts, but since the less believable one is also told, it must be given too. In Arabia there flows a great river called

the Corys, which empties into the sea called the Red Sea. From this river, it is said, the king of the Arabians sewed together a pipe of ox-hides and other hides reaching in length all the way to the waterless land, and through this brought the water, and in the waterless land dug great cisterns to receive and preserve the water. The journey is

twelve days' journey from the river to this waterless stretch. The water, it is said, was carried through three channels to three separate places. At the mouth of the Nile called Pelusian, Psammenitus, son of Amasis, lay encamped, waiting for Cambyses to arrive. Cambyses had not found Amasis still alive when he marched on Egypt; Amasis had ruled forty-four years and then died, and in all that time nothing

great misfortune had befallen him; and having died and been embalmed, he was buried in the tomb in the temple which he himself had built. During the reign of Psammenitus, son of Amasis, over Egypt, the greatest portent yet occurred for the Egyptians: for it rained upon Thebes in Egypt, a thing that had never happened before nor has happened since, down to my own time, as the Thebans themselves say; for it never rains at all in the upper part of

Egypt. But even then Thebes was rained upon, with a light drizzle. When the Persians, having crossed the waterless land, encamped near the Egyptians so as to give battle, then the mercenaries of the Egyptian, being Greeks and Carians, angry with Phanes for having led a foreign army against Egypt, devised the following against him. Phanes had children left behind in Egypt;

left behind: these the mercenaries led into the camp and, before their father's eyes, set a mixing bowl between the two armies, then brought the children forward one at a time and cut their throats over it; once they had gone through all the children, they poured in wine and water, and every one of the mercenaries drank of the blood before at last joining battle. The fight

the fighting grew fierce, and once many men had fallen on both sides, the Egyptians broke and fled. There I witnessed something remarkable, which I learned about by questioning the local inhabitants: the bones of the men killed in that battle lay scattered on the field in two distinct groups, kept apart from each other (the Persian bones lay on one side, just as they had been separated right after the fight, and the Egyptian bones lay on the other), and if you look at the Persian skulls, they are

so weak that if you want to strike with just a single pebble you would pierce right through, whereas the Egyptians' skulls are so strong that you would struggle to crack them even by hitting them with a stone. This was the reason they gave, and readily persuaded me too: that the Egyptians, beginning right from childhood, shave their heads, and the bone thickens in the sun. This same thing is also the reason they do not

go bald: you would see very few Egyptians bald, fewer than any other people. This, then, is the reason they carry such strong skulls; and for the Persians, the reason they carry weak skulls is this: from the start they have been raised in the shade, wearing felt caps as tiaras. So much for that. I also saw other things like these at Papremis, among the men of Achaemenes son of Darius

who had been destroyed by Inaros the Libyan. When the Egyptians were routed from the battle, they fled in no order; and when they had been penned up in Memphis, Cambyses sent a Mytilenean ship up the river carrying a herald, a Persian man, to invite the Egyptians to come to terms. But when they saw the ship entering Memphis, they poured out together from the wall, destroyed the ship, and tore

the men apart limb from limb like butchered meat and carried them into the wall. After this the Egyptians, under siege, in time surrendered, while the neighboring Libyans, frightened by what had happened concerning Egypt, gave themselves up without a fight, imposed tribute on themselves, and sent gifts. In the same way the Cyrenaeans and Barcaeans, frightened just as the Libyans were, did likewise. Cambyses received

the gifts that came from the Libyans graciously, but he found fault with those that came from the Cyrenaeans, because, it seems to me, they were meager: for the Cyrenaeans had sent five hundred minas of silver, and this Cambyses grabbed with his own hand and scattered among his army. On the tenth day after he took the wall at Memphis, Cambyses set up the king of the Egyptians, Psammenitus, who had reigned six months,

in the suburb for public humiliation, seating him there together with other Egyptians, and tested his spirit by doing the following. He dressed the king's daughter in a slave's clothing and sent her out for water, carrying a water jar, and sent with her other maidens chosen from the leading men, dressed in the same manner as the king's daughter. When the maidens passed, crying out and weeping, before their fathers, all the other fathers cried out and

cried out likewise on seeing their own children abused, yet Psammenitus, who had already noticed and understood what was coming, only lowered his eyes to the ground. Once the water-carriers had gone past, Cambyses next sent the king's son forward, along with two thousand other Egyptian youths of the same age, all with ropes tied around their necks and bits fastened in their mouths; they were being marched off to answer for the Mytilenean crew who had died at Memphis together with their vessel. This was because

the royal judges had ruled that ten leading Egyptians must die for every one of those men. Psammenitus, watching them go by and realizing his own son was being marched toward death while the other Egyptians seated around him wailed and carried on in horror, reacted just as he had when he saw his daughter. Once this group too had gone past, it so happened that one of his old drinking companions, a man well past his prime, who had lost everything he owned

and had nothing left except what a beggar has, and was begging from the soldiers, came past — Psammenitus son of Amasis and the Egyptians sitting in the suburb. When Psammenitus saw him, he cried out loudly, called his companion by name, and struck himself on the head. Now he had guards stationed there, who reported everything he did on each occasion of these processions to Cambyses. Marveling

at what he was doing, Cambyses sent a messenger and questioned him, saying this: 'Your master Cambyses asks you, Psammenitus, why, seeing your daughter mistreated and your son marching to his death, you neither cried out nor wept, and yet you honored the beggar, who, as he learns from others, is nothing to you.' So he asked these things, and the other answered as follows: 'O

son of Cyrus, my own household's misfortunes were too great for weeping, but my companion's grief deserved tears — a man who, fallen from great wealth and prosperity, has come to beggary on the very threshold of old age.' When this was reported back, it seemed to Cambyses and his men that it had been well said; and as the Egyptians tell it, Croesus wept — for he too happened to be present, having accompanied

Cambyses' expedition into Egypt, and the Persians standing nearby wept along with him; Cambyses himself felt a pang of pity, and at once gave orders that the boy be spared from among the condemned, and that Psammenitus be brought in from the outlying district and led into his presence. Yet when the men sent to fetch the son arrived, they discovered he had already died, having been the very first one cut down; Psammenitus, however, they did bring forward and lead before Cambyses, and it was there

from then on he lived, treated with no violence. And if he had also known how not to meddle further, he would have gotten Egypt back to govern as its overseer, since the Persians are accustomed to honor the sons of kings: even when their fathers revolt against them, they still restore the rule to the sons. There is much evidence one could draw on elsewhere to show that this is indeed their established custom, and among it also

the case of Thannyras, son of Inaros, who got back the rule his father had held, and that of Pausiris, son of Amyrtaeus, for he too got back his father's rule — and yet none had done the Persians more harm than Inaros and Amyrtaeus. But as it turned out, Psammenitus, scheming further evil, got his due reward: for he was caught inciting the Egyptians to revolt, and when Cambyses found this out, Psammenitus drank bull's blood

and died on the spot. So this man met his end. Cambyses went on from Memphis to the city of Sais, intending to do what in fact he did. For when he entered the house of Amasis, he immediately ordered Amasis's corpse carried out of its tomb; and when this had been done, he ordered it whipped, and its hair plucked out, and pierced with goads, and

mistreating it in every remaining way. But once they tired of this treatment (since the corpse, being embalmed, resisted and would not break apart), Cambyses commanded that it be burned instead, an order that violated sacred custom: for the Persians regard fire as divine. Burning the dead is a practice neither people accepts as lawful — not the Persians, for the reason already given, since in their view it is wrong to feed a god

any share of a dead man; nor of the Egyptians, who hold it as their belief that fire is a living creature, that it devours everything it seizes, and that once it is glutted with its food, it dies along with what it has eaten. Now it is by no means their custom, either, to give a corpse to wild animals, and it is for this reason that they embalm it, so that it will not lie there and be eaten by worms. Thus Cambyses ordered done what ran contrary to the customs of both peoples. However, as

the Egyptians say, it was not Amasis who suffered this, but some other Egyptian of the same age as Amasis, whom the Persians, in abusing him, thought they were abusing Amasis. For they say that Amasis, having learned from an oracle what was going to happen to him after his death, and so guarding in advance against what was coming, had this man, once he had died from the whipping, buried at the doorway, inside

his own tomb, and instructed his son to place his own body as far as possible in the innermost recess of the tomb. Now these instructions of Amasis, concerning the burial and the substitute man, do not seem to me to have happened at all as claimed; I think the Egyptians simply dress them up with this air of solemnity. After this Cambyses planned three expeditions, against the Carthaginians, and

toward the Ammonians and toward the long-lived Ethiopians, who dwell along Libya's southern shore. Once he had weighed his options, he settled on sending his fleet against Carthage, splitting off part of his infantry to strike the Ammonians, and dispatching scouts ahead of the main force toward the Ethiopians, to find out whether the fabled sun-table said to exist among that people was in fact real, and, beyond that, to

look over everything else there, while pretending the purpose was to deliver gifts to their ruler. As for the table of the sun, the story goes something like this: in the outskirts there lies a meadow heaped with boiled meat from every kind of four-legged animal, and by custom the city magistrates then in office lay the meat out there each night, while by day anyone who wants to may approach and eat his fill. The locals claim

that the earth itself produces this each time. Such, then, is what is said of the so-called table of the sun. When Cambyses decided to send the spies, he immediately sent for men from the city of Elephantine, from among the Fish-eaters, who knew the Ethiopian language. While these were being fetched, in the meantime he ordered the naval force to sail against Carthage. But the Phoenicians said

they would refuse to comply: they were held by weighty oaths and it would be wrong of them to march against their own offspring. With the Phoenicians unwilling, the remaining ships were not strong enough to fight alone. In this way the Carthaginians avoided falling under Persian rule: Cambyses judged it unjust to compel the Phoenicians by force, since they had submitted to Persia willingly, and the entire fleet relied on Phoenician ships.

The Cypriots, too, had given themselves over to the Persians and joined the campaign against Egypt. When the Fish-eaters arrived from Elephantine before Cambyses, he sent them to the Ethiopians, instructing them what they were to say and having them carry gifts: a purple robe, a twisted gold necklace, bracelets, an alabaster jar of myrrh, and a jar of palm wine. These Ethiopians, to whom

sent by Cambyses are reputed to be the tallest and handsomest people anywhere. Their customs, in various respects, set them apart from other nations, and this is especially true of how they choose a king: whichever citizen they judge tallest, and strongest in proportion to his height, that man they deem worthy to rule. So it was among these very people that the Fish-eaters arrived,

Handing over the gifts, they said the following to their king: "The Persian king Cambyses, wishing to become your friend and guest-friend, sent us to come and speak with you, and gives you these gifts, which he himself takes the greatest pleasure in using." The Ethiopian, realizing that they had come as spies, said the following to them: "The Persian king did not send you

who bring gifts because he prizes so highly the chance to make me his friend — neither are you telling the truth (since you have really come to spy on my kingdom), nor is that man honest. Had he been honest, he would never have craved territory beyond his own, nor would he drag off into bondage people who had wronged him not at all. Now hand him this bow and deliver this message: 'The king of the Ethiopians recommends'

to the king of the Persians that once the Persians can draw bows of this very size with such ease, only then should he march with an overwhelming force against the long-lived Ethiopians; but until that day comes, let him thank the gods for not putting into the Ethiopians' minds any wish to seize land beyond what is already theirs.' After saying this and unstringing the bow, he handed it over to the visitors. Then, picking up the purple cloak,

asked what it was and how it was produced. Once the Fish-eaters explained truthfully how the purple dye was made, he replied that the men themselves were deceitful, and so were their garments. Next he inquired about the twisted gold neck-chain and the bracelets; and as the Fish-eaters described these ornaments to him, the king laughed, assuming they were

fetters, said that among his own people they had stronger fetters than these. Third, he asked about the perfume, and when they told him about its making and its use, he gave the same answer he had given about the cloak. When he came to the wine and learned how it was made, he was delighted with the drink and asked what the king ate and what the

greatest lifespan a Persian could reach. They answered that Persians ate bread, and after describing what wheat was, said eighty years marked the furthest limit of a man's life. Hearing this, the Ethiopian remarked that he found it unsurprising men who fed on dung died after so few years; in fact, he added, they could not survive even that long were it not for the drink that revived them, and he pointed out the wine to the Fish-eaters; for by means of it

this, he said, they themselves were surpassed by the Persians. When the Fish-eaters in turn asked the king about life span and diet, he said that most of them reached a hundred and twenty years, and some even exceeded that; their food was boiled meat, and their drink milk. When the spies expressed wonder at the number of years, he led them to a spring from which, when they bathed,

they became more sleek, as if it were oil; and a scent like violets rose from it. The spies said the water of this spring was so weak that nothing at all could float on it, neither wood nor anything lighter than wood, but everything sank to the bottom. If this water

is truly what report makes it out to be, that alone would explain why, relying on it for all their needs, they live so long. Leaving the spring behind, the visitors were led to a prison holding men, all of whom were shackled there in golden chains. Among these Ethiopians, bronze is the scarcest and most costly metal of all. Having taken in the prison as well, they went on to view the so-called Table

of the Sun. Following that, last of all, they examined the coffins, said to be crafted from glass in this fashion: once the body has been dried out, whether by the Egyptian method or some other means, it is coated entirely in gypsum and painted over, made to look as much like the living person as possible, and then a hollow pillar of glass — quarried there in great quantity and easily shaped — is set around it.

Right at the center of the pillar the body can be seen through the glass, giving off no foul odor and showing nothing else offensive, with every detail as clear as the body itself would be. For a full year the closest relatives keep the pillar inside their home, presenting it with the first portion of everything and offering sacrifices before it; afterward they bring it out and set it up somewhere around the city. Having examined all

this, the spies made their way back. When they reported it, Cambyses, in a fit of anger, immediately marched against the Ethiopians, without ordering any provision of food and without considering that he was about to march to the ends of the earth; but being, as it were, mad and out of his senses, as soon as he heard the account of the Fish-eaters he set out on campaign, ordering the Greeks who were with him to remain behind, while

he brought the entire infantry force along with him. Once his march brought him to Thebes, he split off roughly fifty thousand men from the army and instructed them to enslave the Ammonians and set fire to the oracle of Zeus, while he himself pressed on with the remaining troops toward the Ethiopians. But before the army had traveled even a fifth of the distance, every scrap of food they carried

had already run dry, and once the food ran out, the pack animals were eaten as well until none remained. Had Cambyses recognized this and turned the army back, he would still have counted as wise despite the mistake he made at the start; instead, he gave the matter no thought whatsoever and pushed steadily onward. For as long as the men could find anything edible in the ground itself, they kept themselves alive on grass,

but when they reached the sand, some of them did a terrible thing: choosing one man in ten by lot, they ate him. When Cambyses learned of this, fearing that they would turn to eating one another, he abandoned the expedition against the Ethiopians and turned back, reaching Thebes with the loss of a great part of his army; from Thebes he went down to Memphis and let the Greeks sail away. Such

was the outcome of the expedition against the Ethiopians. As for those who had been sent to make war on the Ammonians, when they set out from Thebes and marched on with their guides, they are known to have reached the city of Oasis, held by people said to be Samians of the Aeschrionian tribe, seven days' journey from Thebes through the sand; this place is called, in the Greek tongue, the Isle of the Blessed.

the army is reported to have reached this spot; but concerning what happened afterward, only the Ammonians and those who heard the tale from them can say anything at all, since the soldiers never arrived among the Ammonians nor made their way back. The Ammonians themselves tell it this way: once the men left this Oasis and pushed on across the sand toward them,

and had reached a point roughly halfway between the Ammonians and themselves, just as they sat down for their midday meal, a fierce and violent southern gale swept over them, piling up sand dunes that buried the men where they sat, and that was how they disappeared. Such is the Ammonian account of what became of this army. Once Cambyses reached Memphis, Apis appeared before the Egyptians — the god the Greeks know as Epaphus. When

this appeared, the Egyptians at once put on their finest clothes and held festivities. Seeing the Egyptians doing this, Cambyses, quite convinced that they were holding this rejoicing because of his own misfortune, summoned the officials of Memphis, and when they came before him he asked why the Egyptians had done nothing of the kind before, when he had previously been in Memphis, but did so now, when

he himself was present, having lost a considerable part of his army. They explained that a god had appeared to them, one accustomed to appear only after a long interval, and that whenever he appeared, all the Egyptians rejoiced and held festival. Hearing this, Cambyses said they were lying, and as liars he punished them with death. Having killed these men, he next summoned the priests before him; and when they said the same things

as their officials had, he declared that nothing would get past him if some docile god had truly come among the Egyptians. With that said, he ordered the priests to fetch Apis before him. Off they went to bring him. This creature, Apis or Epaphus, is born from a cow that afterward becomes unable to carry any further calf. According to the Egyptians, a beam of light falls onto the cow from

the sky, and that from this she gives birth to Apis. This calf called Apis has the following markings: it is black, with a white triangle on its forehead, the likeness of an eagle on its back, doubled hairs on its tail, and a beetle under its tongue. When the priests brought Apis, Cambyses,

being somewhat unhinged, drew his dagger, and meaning to strike Apis in the belly, struck him in the thigh instead; and laughing, he said to the priests, "You wretched fools, is this what gods become — creatures of blood and flesh, sensitive to iron? This is indeed a god worthy of the Egyptians; but you, at least, will not enjoy having made me a laughingstock over it." Having said this, he ordered those

whose task it was to whip the priests, and to kill any other Egyptians they found celebrating the festival. So the festival came to an end for the Egyptians, the priests were punished, and Apis, struck in the thigh, lay wasting away in the temple. And when he died of the wound, the priests buried him without Cambyses' knowledge. Cambyses, as the Egyptians say, immediately after

committing that offense he lost his mind, having never been entirely sound to begin with. The very first of his crimes was ridding himself of his own brother Smerdis, born of the same father and mother, whom he had already sent home to Persia out of jealousy while both were still in Egypt — jealous because Smerdis alone among the Persians had drawn the bow the Fish-eaters brought back from the Ethiopian, pulling it some two finger-widths, a feat no other Persian could manage.

Once Smerdis had departed for Persia, Cambyses had this dream while asleep: a messenger, it seemed, arrived from Persia announcing that Smerdis had taken his seat on the royal throne with his head brushing the sky. Alarmed for his own safety, fearing his brother might kill him and seize the throne, he dispatched Prexaspes to Persia — the Persian he trusted above all others,

to kill him. Prexaspes went up to Susa and killed Smerdis, some say by leading him out on a hunt, others that he led him to the Red Sea and drowned him there. This, they say, was the first of the evils Cambyses began; the second thing he brought about was against his sister, who had followed him to Egypt, and with whom he lived as husband, and who was his sister by both parents. He had married her in this way:

since up to that point the Persians had never once made a habit of marrying their own sisters. Cambyses grew infatuated with one of his sisters, and, intending to marry her despite knowing this broke with tradition, he summoned the royal judges and asked them whether any law permitted a man to take his sister as wife. These royal judges are Persians selected for the post, serving until death or until some misconduct is discovered in them, and no further;

such men settle disputes among the Persians and serve as keepers of ancestral custom, with every matter brought before them for judgment. Faced with Cambyses' question, they gave a response both fair and safe: they could locate no statute permitting a brother to wed his sister, yet they had turned up a separate rule stating that the king of Persia may act however he pleases. In this way they avoided breaking the law, out of fear of

Cambyses, and, so that they themselves might not perish by upholding the law, they found another law alongside it, one that supported anyone wishing to marry his sisters. At that time, then, Cambyses married the woman he loved, but not long afterward he took another sister as well. It was the younger of these two whom he killed when she had followed him to Egypt. About her death, as about that of Smerdis, a double account is given. The Greeks say

that Cambyses set a lion cub against a puppy, and that this wife of his was watching too; and when the puppy was losing, another puppy, its brother, broke its leash and came to help it, and the two puppies together got the better of the lion cub. Cambyses was delighted watching this, but the woman sitting by wept. When Cambyses noticed this, he asked why she was weeping,

and she said that seeing the puppy come to its brother's aid had made her weep, remembering Smerdis and realizing that he had no one to avenge him. The Greeks say it was because of this remark that she was put to death by Cambyses; the Egyptians say that as they sat at table the woman took a head of lettuce and stripped it bare, then asked her husband whether the lettuce looked better

stripped bare or full-leaved, and he said full-leaved, and she said, "Yet you have made yourself like this lettuce, having stripped bare the house of Cyrus." At this he flew into a rage and leapt upon her, though she was pregnant, and she miscarried and died. Such were the mad acts Cambyses committed against his own household, whether because of the Apis affair or for some other reason, as many misfortunes are apt to befall men; for indeed

it is said that Cambyses had a great sickness from birth, which some call the sacred disease. It would not be strange, then, if with so great a sickness of body his mind too were not sound. Here is how his madness broke out against the rest of the Persians. It is said that he said to Prexaspes, whom he honored most and who carried his messages, and whose son

was Cambyses' cupbearer, an honor not small in itself: he is said to have spoken as follows. "Prexaspes, what sort of man do the Persians think me, and what do they say about me?" And Prexaspes said, "Master, in all else they praise you greatly, but they say you are given over too much to wine." So he reported what the Persians said, and Cambyses,

furious, he answered in this manner: "So the Persians now claim that wine has driven me out of my senses — that I have lost my judgment. Then their earlier words to me must have been false as well." It seems that earlier, while the Persians sat in council together with Croesus, Cambyses had asked how they rated him next to his father Cyrus, and they replied that he surpassed his father, seeing that

he retained everything his father once held, and had beyond that added Egypt along with mastery of the sea. Such was the Persians' verdict; Croesus, however, who stood there and found their judgment unsatisfying, said to Cambyses: "To my eyes, son of Cyrus, you do not measure up to your father, since you have yet to produce a son to match the one he left in you." Cambyses took delight

to hear this, and praised Croesus's judgment. Remembering this now, he said angrily to Prexaspes, "Now you learn whether the Persians speak the truth, or whether they themselves are out of their minds in saying this: if I shoot your son there standing in the porch and hit him right through the heart, it will be plain that the Persians say nothing true; but if I miss, then say that the Persians

tell the truth, and that my mind has not left me." Having said this he drew the bow and let the arrow fly at the boy; when the boy dropped, he ordered the body opened and the wound examined, and once the arrow was found lodged in the heart, he turned to the boy's father, laughing with evident satisfaction, and said: "Prexaspes, this proves plainly enough that I am not mad, and that it is the Persians"

are out of their minds. Now tell me, have you ever seen anyone else among all men shoot so accurately?" And Prexaspes, seeing that the man was out of his mind and fearing for himself, said, "Master, I do not think even the god himself could have shot so well." That was one thing he did; another time he seized twelve Persians of the first rank, on no adequate charge whatsoever,

and buried them alive head-down. When he did this, Croesus the Lydian thought it right to admonish him with these words: "O king, do not surrender everything to youth and passion, but restrain and control yourself. It is good to look ahead, and forethought is wise. You are killing men who are your own countrymen on no adequate charge, and you are killing children too. If

you do many such things, take care that the Persians do not revolt from you. Your father Cyrus charged me earnestly to advise and counsel you toward whatever good I could find." Thus he counseled him, showing good will; but Cambyses answered as follows. "You dare to counsel even me, you who governed your own country so well and gave such good counsel to my

father, telling him to cross the river Araxes and march against the Massagetae, when they were willing to cross into our land — you destroyed yourself by mismanaging your own country, and you destroyed Cyrus, who trusted you, though not to your own joy, since I have long wanted some pretext to lay hold of you." With these words he took up his bow to shoot him, but Croesus

sprang up and bolted outside. Unable to loose an arrow at him, Cambyses ordered his attendants to catch and kill him. His attendants, however, aware of his moods, hid Croesus away instead, reasoning as follows: should Cambyses have a change of heart and wish for Croesus back, they would produce him and be rewarded for having spared his life; but should Cambyses feel no regret and show no longing for him,

they would kill him then. Not long afterward, Cambyses did indeed long for Croesus, and the servants, learning of this, announced to him that Croesus was alive. Cambyses said he was glad Croesus survived, but that those who had preserved him would not go unpunished — he would put them to death; and he did so. Such were the many mad acts he committed against the Persians and their allies, while he remained in

Memphis, opening ancient tombs and examining the corpses. So too he went into the temple of Hephaestus and mocked the image there a great deal. For the image of Hephaestus closely resembles the Phoenician Pataikoi, which the Phoenicians carry on the prows of their triremes. Anyone who has not seen these, I will describe them: it is the likeness of a pygmy man. He also went

into the temple of the Cabeiri, which it is forbidden for anyone to enter except the priest; these images too he burned, after mocking them a great deal. These images are also like those of Hephaestus, and the Cabeiri are said to be his sons. In every way, then, it is clear to me that Cambyses was thoroughly mad; otherwise he would not have set about mocking

sacred things and customs. For if one were to propose to all mankind that they choose out the best customs from all the customs there are, each people, after examining them, would choose its own; so strongly does each think its own customs by far the best. It is not likely, then, that anyone but a madman would make a mockery of such things. That all people hold this belief about their own customs

can be established by many other evidences, and by this one in particular. Darius, in the course of his reign, summoned the Greeks who were present and asked for what price they would be willing to eat their dead fathers; they said they would not do that for any price. Darius then summoned some Indians called the Callatiae, who eat their parents, and asked them,

in the presence of the Greeks, who understood what was said through an interpreter, for what price they would agree to burn their dead fathers with fire; and they cried out loudly, bidding him say nothing so ill-omened. So firmly are such things established by custom, and Pindar seems to me right in calling custom king of all. While Cambyses was campaigning against Egypt, the Lacedaemonians also made an expedition against Samos and

Polycrates son of Aeaces, who rose to power and took control of Samos, splitting the city at first into three parts and granting shares to his brothers Pantagnotus and Syloson, only to later put one to death and banish the younger brother, Syloson, so that he alone controlled all of Samos; once in full command he struck up a friendly alliance with Amasis, king of Egypt, exchanging gifts with him in both directions. Before long,

the power of Polycrates grew rapidly and became famous throughout Ionia and the rest of Greece; for wherever he turned to make war, everything went well for him. He had acquired a hundred fifty-oared ships and a thousand archers, and he plundered and carried off everyone's goods without distinction; for he said he would please a friend more by giving back what he had taken than by never having taken it at all. He had captured

many of the islands, and many cities on the mainland as well; and among others, when the Lesbians came out in full force to help the Milesians, he defeated them in a sea battle and took them captive, and it was they, bound in chains, who dug the whole ditch around the wall on Samos. Somehow Amasis did not fail to notice how greatly Polycrates was prospering, and it was a matter of concern to him. And when Polycrates' good fortune grew even greater still,

Amasis wrote the following on a sheet and sent it to Samos. "Amasis says this to Polycrates: it is pleasant to learn that a friend and guest-friend is doing well; but your great good fortune does not please me, since I know how jealous the divine is. I wish, both for myself and for those I care about, that in our affairs we should prosper in part and stumble in part, and so pass

our lives alternating between the two rather than having good fortune in everything. For I have never yet heard tell of anyone who, having good fortune in everything, did not in the end come to a bad end and be utterly destroyed. So now, listen to me and do this in response to your good fortunes: think of whatever you find to be most valuable to you, the thing whose loss would grieve your soul the most, and throw that away in such a way that it will never

come again among men. And if from now on your good fortunes do not begin to alternate with misfortunes, then go on curing yourself in the manner I have prescribed." When Polycrates read this and took to heart how well Amasis was advising him, he searched for which of his treasures, if lost, would grieve his soul the most, and in searching he found this: he had a signet ring that he wore, set in gold,

made of emerald, the work of Theodorus son of Telecles of Samos. Since he decided to throw this away, he did as follows: he manned a fifty-oared ship with men and boarded it himself, then ordered it to be put out to sea; and when he was far from the island, he took off the ring, in full view of all his fellow sailors, and threw it into the sea. Having done this he sailed back, and when he arrived

at his house he grieved over what had befallen him. Then, on the fifth or sixth day afterward, this is what happened to him. A fisherman, having caught a fish that was both large and handsome, judged it fit to present as a gift to Polycrates. So he brought it to the palace doors and said he wanted to be admitted into Polycrates' sight; and once he was let in, he spoke as he handed over the fish: "O king, when I took hold of this fish I did not".

think it right to bring it to market, though I live by the work of my hands, but it seemed to me worthy of you and your rule; so I bring it to you and give it to you." Polycrates, pleased with these words, answered thus: "You have done very well, and I owe you double thanks, both for the words and for the gift, and I invite you to dinner." So the fisherman, thinking this a great honor,

went back to his house; but as the servants were cutting the fish open, they discovered inside its stomach the very signet ring belonging to Polycrates. The moment they spotted it and picked it up, they hurried to Polycrates in great delight, and handing him the ring, they explained how it had turned up. It struck him that this was something divine at work, so he wrote down on a scroll every deed he had done and what

had befallen him, and having written it he sent it to Egypt. When Amasis read the letter that had come from Polycrates, he understood that it is impossible for one man to save another from what is destined to happen, and that Polycrates, prospering in everything, even finding again what he threw away, was not destined to end well. So he sent a herald to Samos and said he was dissolving the

guest-friendship. He did this for the following reason: so that when some terrible and great misfortune befell Polycrates, he himself would not have to grieve in his soul as over a guest-friend. It was against this Polycrates, prospering in everything, that the Lacedaemonians made an expedition, called upon by those Samians who later founded Cydonia in Crete. Polycrates, sending a herald secretly, without the knowledge of the Samians, to Cambyses son of Cyrus, who was gathering

an army against Egypt, asked that Cambyses send to him and request troops from Samos as well. When Cambyses heard this he sent eagerly to Samos, asking Polycrates to send a naval force along with him against Egypt. Polycrates picked out those of the citizens he most suspected of wanting to revolt and sent them off with forty triremes, instructing Cambyses not to send them back. Some say that the

Samians sent away by Polycrates never reached Egypt at all, but that when they got as far as Carpathus in their voyage, they took counsel among themselves, and it seemed good to them to sail no further; others say that they did reach Egypt, and being kept under guard there, escaped from it. As they sailed back to Samos, Polycrates met them with ships and gave battle; the returning men won and landed on the island,

but once they fought there on land they were beaten, and thus they sailed back toward Lacedaemon. Some claim instead that the Egyptian forces got the better of Polycrates, though to my mind that account is mistaken: there would have been no reason for them to summon the Spartans if they themselves had been capable of subduing Polycrates. Beyond that, it makes no sense that a man commanding so many paid soldiers and so great a number of native bowmen

would be overcome by the returning Samian exiles, few as they were. Polycrates had rounded up the wives and children of the citizens under his rule and locked them inside the boat-sheds, prepared, should those citizens go over to the returning exiles, to set fire to them together with the sheds. Once the Samians whom Polycrates had banished reached Sparta, they stood before the magistrates and spoke at great length, in the manner of men

in great need would. The magistrates, at that first hearing, answered that they had forgotten what was said at the beginning and did not understand what was said at the end. Afterward, coming before them a second time, the Samians said nothing else, but brought a sack and said that the sack needed meal. The magistrates answered that the word "sack" was superfluous; but they decided to help them nonetheless. And so, after making their preparations, the Lacedaemonians made an expedition against Samos,

as the Samians tell it, out of gratitude, because the Samians had once been the first to send them naval help against the Messenians; the Lacedaemonians, however, tell it differently, claiming they marched not so much to aid the pleading Samians as to punish them for stealing the mixing-bowl meant for Croesus, along with the corselet that Amasis, king of Egypt, had sent them as a present. In fact the Samians had seized the corselet a year before the bowl

they took the bowl. It was made of linen, worked with many woven figures of animals, and adorned with gold and cotton fibers from wood; and what makes it worthy of wonder is that each single thread of the breastplate, though fine, contains within itself three hundred sixty threads, all of them visible. There is another one like it that Amasis dedicated at Lindus to Athena. The Corinthians too eagerly joined in contributing to the expedition against

Samos, and the Corinthians joined in eagerly as well; for they too had been wronged by the Samians a generation earlier, an outrage that happened around the same time as the theft of the mixing-bowl. Periander, son of Cypselus, had shipped three hundred boys, sons of Corcyra's leading families, off to Sardis to Alyattes to be made eunuchs; but when those escorting the boys put in at Samos

the Samians, on hearing why the boys were bound for Sardis, first showed the boys how to cling to the temple of Artemis as suppliants; afterward, refusing to let the Corinthians drag the suppliants from the sanctuary, and with the Corinthians trying to starve the boys into leaving, the Samians set up a festival that they still keep in the same fashion today. For once night fell, for however long the boys stayed as suppliants,

they set up dances of maidens and young men, and in setting up these dances they made it a custom to bring cakes of sesame and honey, so that the Corcyraean boys could snatch them and have food. This went on until the Corinthian guards of the boys gave up and went away; and the Samians led the boys away to Corcyra. Now if, after Periander's death,

the Corinthians had kept friendly relations with the Corcyraeans, and would not have taken part in the campaign against Samos for that reason. As things stand, though, ever since the island was settled the two peoples have never gotten along, and it is for this that the Corinthians held their grudge against the Samians. Periander had sent off the sons of Corcyra's foremost men to Sardis to be made eunuchs, as a means of getting even;

for the Corcyraeans had been the first to begin against him, doing him a reckless wrong. For after Periander killed his own wife Melissa, another misfortune of the following kind happened to befall him in addition to the one already suffered. He had two sons by Melissa, one seventeen and the other eighteen years old. Their maternal grandfather Procles, who was tyrant of Epidaurus, sent for them and treated them kindly, as was natural,

since they were sons of his own daughter. As he sent them off he said to them in parting, "Boys, do you know the one responsible for your mother's death?" The older brother took this remark lightly; but the younger one, named Lycophron, was struck so hard by hearing it that once he reached Corinth he treated his father as his mother's killer and refused

addressed him, and when the old man spoke to him he did not answer, and gave no account of anything he asked. Finally Periander, out of temper with him, drove him out of the house. Having driven him out, he questioned the elder son as to what their grandfather had discussed with them. He told him how kindly he had received them, but of that saying which Procles had spoken as they were leaving, since he had not taken it to heart, he made no mention.

Periander said there was no way that the old man had not given them some counsel, and he pressed him with questions; then, recollecting, he told this too. Periander, taking note of this as well, and wishing to show no softness at all, sent word to those in whose house the son he had driven out was living, forbidding them to receive him in their homes. So whenever, being driven away, he came to

another house, he was driven from that one too, since Periander threatened those who took him in and ordered them to shut him out; and being driven away he would go to another of his companions, and they, since he was Periander's son, though afraid, nevertheless received him. At last Periander made a proclamation that whoever took him into his house or spoke with him would owe a sacred fine to Apollo, of an amount

as he had specified. Because of this proclamation, no one would speak with him or take him under their roof; and he himself judged it wrong to try what had been forbidden, so he stuck it out and lay about under the porticoes. On the fourth day, when Periander saw him worn down from going unwashed and unfed, he felt pity for him; his anger easing, he stepped closer and said, "My boy, which of these two"

is preferable — to go on doing what you are doing now, or to receive the tyranny and the good things I now have, which it is fitting for you, my son and heir of prosperous Corinth, to take up — you who have chosen a wandering life, resisting and giving way to anger against the one man you least ought to? For if some misfortune has occurred among us, from which

you now suspect me of, that same thing befell me too, and I bear a greater share of the blame in it, since I myself brought it to pass. But you, once you understand how much better it is to be envied than pitied, and what it means to rage against one's parents and one's betters alike, should go back home." With such words Periander tried to bring him around; but the son gave no other answer

to his father, except to say that he owed the god a sacred fine for having come into conversation with him. Periander, realizing that his son's affliction was hopeless and beyond remedy, sent him away out of his sight, fitting out a ship to Corcyra; for he ruled over that place as well. Having sent him off, Periander made war on his father-in-law Procles, as being

chiefly to blame for this, and he seized Epidaurus, and captured Procles himself alive. But as time passed, Periander grew old and came to realize he could no longer watch over and run affairs himself, so he sent word to Corcyra recalling Lycophron to take the tyranny; for in his older son he saw no promise at all, but

he appeared to him rather dull-witted. Lycophron did not even think the messenger worth an answer. Periander, clinging to the young man, sent a second envoy after him — his own daughter, the young man's sister — thinking that he would surely be persuaded by her most of all. When she arrived and said, "My son, do you want the tyranny to fall to others and our father's house to be torn apart rather than

to go and possess it yourself? Come home, stop punishing yourself. Pride is a poor possession. Do not cure one evil with another. Many prefer the more reasonable course to the strictly just one, and many, in seeking their mother's inheritance, have lost their father's. Tyranny is a precarious thing, and it has many lovers, and our father is already old and past his prime; do not give away your own good fortune

to any other than these." She, coached by her father in the most persuasive words, repeated them to him; but he replied that he would never set foot in Corinth so long as he learned his father was still living. Once she reported this back, Periander sent a herald a third time, intending to go to Corcyra himself, while bidding Lycophron come to Corinth and take over the tyranny in his place. When the son agreed to

these terms, Periander set out for Corcyra, and his son for Corinth. But when the Corcyraeans learned all this, in order that Periander should not come to their land, they killed the young man. In revenge for this, Periander took vengeance upon the Corcyraeans. The Lacedaemonians, when they arrived with a great fleet, laid siege to Samos; attacking the wall, at the

tower standing near the sea by the suburb of the city, they mounted it, but then, when Polycrates came to its defense with a large force, they were driven back. At the upper tower on the ridge of the mountain, both the mercenaries and a good number of the Samians themselves came out against them; they received the Lacedaemonians and for a short time fled back, and the Lacedaemonians, pursuing, killed them. Now if the

the Lacedaemonians present had matched Archias and Lycopas that day, Samos would have fallen; for Archias and Lycopas, the only two who charged in among the fleeing Samians toward the wall, got cut off from retreat and died there inside the Samian city. In the third generation after this Archias, I myself came to know another man named Archias, son of Samius, son of that Archias, at Pitane (for that was his deme),

and he honored the Samians more than any other guest-friends, and told me that his father had been named Samius because his father Archias had died fighting bravely at Samos; and he said he honored the Samians because his grandfather had been buried at public expense by the Samians. The Lacedaemonians, when forty days had passed while they were besieging Samos and their affairs made no further progress,

withdrew to the Peloponnese. As the more fanciful account has it, it is said that Polycrates struck local coinage, gilding over a great deal of lead, and gave it to them, and that they, having accepted it, departed on that account. This was the first expedition into Asia made by the Dorian Lacedaemonians. Those Samians who had campaigned against Polycrates, when the Lacedaemonians were about to abandon them, themselves also sailed away, to Siphnos, since they were in need of money,

and the affairs of the Siphnians were at their height at that time, and they were the wealthiest of the islanders, since they had gold and silver mines on their island, so much so that from a tenth of the revenue produced there a treasury was dedicated at Delphi to match the wealthiest ones; and they themselves distributed among themselves the money produced each year. Now when they were building the treasury, they consulted

the oracle whether their current good fortune was destined to last a long while; and the Pythia gave them this answer: "But whenever the council-hall in Siphnos turns white, along with the white-browed marketplace, then a shrewd man is needed to watch out for a wooden ambush and a red herald." At that time the marketplace and council-hall of the Siphnians were in fact faced with Parian marble. This

prophecy they were unable to grasp, neither right away nor once the Samians had actually arrived. For as soon as the Samians touched at Siphnos, they sent one of their ships bearing envoys into the city. In earlier days every ship was coated in red ochre, and this was exactly what the Pythia had warned the Siphnians of, telling them to guard against the wooden ambush and a red

herald. So the envoys, on arrival, requested that the Siphnians lend them ten talents; and when the Siphnians declined, the Samians set about pillaging their territory. Hearing of this, the Siphnians rushed out at once to defend themselves, and after joining battle with them they were routed, with many of them shut out of the city by the Samians, who afterward squeezed a hundred talents out of them. From the Hermionians,

in exchange for money, they took the island of Hydrea off the Peloponnese, and deposited it in trust with the Troezenians; and they themselves founded Cydonia in Crete, though they were not sailing there for that purpose but to drive the Zacynthians from the island. They remained there and prospered for five years, so that the temples now standing in Cydonia are the work of these men, as is the temple of Dictyna.

But in the sixth year the Aeginetans, together with the Cretans, defeated them in a sea-battle and enslaved them, and cut off the boars' heads from the prows of their ships and dedicated them in the temple of Athena in Aegina. This the Aeginetans did out of a grudge against the Samians; for earlier the Samians, in the reign of Amphicrates over Samos, had campaigned against Aegina and had done the Aeginetans great harm, and had suffered likewise at their hands. This

was the reason for it. I have dwelt at greater length on the Samians because they have accomplished three of the greatest works of all the Greeks: a mountain a hundred and fifty fathoms high, with a tunnel dug beneath it, open at both ends. The length of this tunnel is seven stadia, and its height and width are each eight feet. Throughout its whole length another channel has been dug, twenty cubits deep and three feet

in width, through which water flows by way of pipes and reaches the city, drawn from a great spring. The engineer behind this tunnel was Eupalinus of Megara, son of Naustrophus. That is one of the three great works; the second is a breakwater around the harbor, set in the sea to a depth of twenty fathoms, running more than two stadia in length. The third piece of work they have

completed is the biggest temple of any we know of; its earliest builder was Rhoecus, son of Philes, a local man. For these reasons I have spent somewhat more space discussing the Samians. Now while Cambyses son of Cyrus was delayed in Egypt and had lost his sanity, two Magian brothers revolted against him; Cambyses had left one of them behind to look after his household. It was this man who rose against him once he learned of Smerdis's death

how he came to be hidden, and how few of the Persians knew of him, while most believed him still alive. Having considered this, he set about the following scheme against the royal house. He had a brother, whom I have said rose up with him, who resembled in appearance Smerdis the son of Cyrus, the very man whom Cambyses had put to death, though he was his own brother. This man was like Smerdis not only in appearance but

carried the same name, Smerdis. The Magus Patizeithes convinced this man that he himself would handle everything, then installed him upon the royal throne. Having done this, he dispatched heralds far and wide, including to Egypt, to announce to the army that from then on they owed obedience to Smerdis son of Cyrus, not Cambyses. The rest of the heralds

made the same announcement, and so did the one assigned to Egypt: finding Cambyses and his army in Syria at Agbatana, he stood before them and delivered the message ordered by the Magus. Cambyses, hearing this from the herald and believing it true — and thinking himself betrayed by Prexaspes, since he had sent that man to kill Smerdis and Prexaspes had not carried it out —

looked at Prexaspes and said, "Prexaspes, is this how you carried out the task I entrusted to you?" And he said, "Master, this is not true, that Smerdis your brother has risen against you, nor that any quarrel, great or small, will come to you from that man. For I myself, doing what you commanded me, buried him with my own hands.

of my own doing. If the dead can indeed rise, then you may as well expect Astyages the Mede to rise up against you too; but if matters stand as before, nothing newer will ever spring from that quarter against you. So it seems best to me now that we chase down the herald and press him, asking on whose authority he came here proclaiming that we must obey King Smerdis." This satisfied Cambyses, and the herald was chased down and brought back at once.

the herald arrived; and once he had come, Prexaspes put this question to him: "Fellow, you claim to have come as messenger from Smerdis son of Cyrus. Tell me the truth now, and you may go free afterward: did Smerdis himself appear before you and give these orders in person, or was it one of his attendants?" He answered, "I have laid eyes on no Smerdis son of Cyrus

since king Cambyses set out for Egypt; it was the Magus whom Cambyses put in charge of his household who gave me these orders, claiming that Smerdis son of Cyrus was the one instructing me to tell you this." He told them the plain truth without any deceit, and Cambyses replied, "Prexaspes, since you acted as a loyal man ought and carried out what was asked of you, you are cleared of blame. But which Persian could this be who has revolted and seized

the name of Smerdis?" And he said, "I think I understand, O king, what has happened. The Magi are the ones who have risen against you—the one you left as caretaker of your household, Patizeithes, and his brother Smerdis." Then, when Cambyses heard the name of Smerdis, the truth of the words struck him, and of the dream too, in which it had seemed to him that someone reported to

him that Smerdis, sitting upon the royal throne, touched the sky with his head. Realizing then that he had killed his brother for nothing, he wept for Smerdis; and having wept and being greatly distressed at the whole misfortune, he leapt onto his horse, intending to march to Susa as quickly as possible against the Magus. And as he leapt onto his horse, the cap of his sword's scabbard

fell off, and the sword, being bared, struck his thigh. Wounded in that same spot where he himself had once struck the Egyptians' god Apis, and since it seemed to him that the blow had struck a vital spot, Cambyses asked what the name of the city was; and they said, "Agbatana." But even before this, it had been prophesied to him from the city of Buto that he would end his life at Agbatana.

He had supposed that he would die an old man at the Median Ecbatana, where all his affairs lay; but the oracle, it turned out, had meant the Ecbatana in Syria. And now, when he inquired and learned the name of the town, struck by the disaster of the Magus and by his wound he came to his senses, and grasping the meaning of the prophecy he said,

"It is fated that Cambyses son of Cyrus will meet his end right here." That was all he said at that time. About twenty days later, he called together the most distinguished Persians in his company and told them the following: "Persians, I find myself forced to disclose to you the matter I have kept most carefully hidden of all. While I was in Egypt I had a dream in my sleep, one I wish I had never had: it seemed to me a messenger

came from home and reported that Smerdis, seated upon the royal throne, touched the sky with his head. Fearing that I would be robbed of my rule by my brother, I acted more hastily than wisely: for it seems that in human nature there is no power to turn aside what is destined to happen. And I, in my folly, sent Prexaspes to Susa to kill Smerdis. When so great a crime had been carried out,

I lived without fear, never once considering that, once Smerdis was removed, someone else might rise up against me. But in failing utterly to foresee what was to come, I have become a needless fratricide, and I am no less deprived of my kingship: for it was Smerdis the Magus whom the god was showing me in my vision would rise up against me. That deed, then, I have already done, and you must reckon that Smerdis son of Cyrus

is gone from among you now. Your royal house is instead controlled by the Magi — the man I left as steward of my household, together with his brother Smerdis — the one man most bound to avenge the shameful wrong the Magi did to me has met an unholy death at the hands of his own closest kin; and now that he too is gone, the next urgent task remaining for you, Persians,

is to charge you with what I wish to happen after my life ends. And so I lay this charge upon you, calling upon the royal gods, upon all of you, and especially upon those of the Achaemenidae who are present: do not allow the rule to pass back again to the Medes. Rather, if they have taken possession of it by trickery, take it back from them by trickery; or if they have seized it by force, recover it by force in return.

And if you do this, may the earth bring forth its fruit for you, and your wives and your flocks bear young, and may you remain free for all time. But if you do not recover the rule, or if you do not even attempt to recover it, then I pray the opposite of all this may befall you, and moreover that each and every Persian may meet the same end that has befallen me." As he said these words Cambyses wept over the whole

his own doing. When the Persians saw the king in tears, they all grabbed hold of whatever clothing they wore and tore it, giving themselves over to boundless wailing. After this, once the bone turned gangrenous and the thigh rotted through in short order, it took the life of Cambyses son of Cyrus, who had reigned in total seven years and five months, leaving behind no offspring at all, male or

female. Among the Persians present there was strong disbelief that the Magi held power, and they supposed that Cambyses had spoken as he did about the death of Smerdis out of malice, so that all Persia would be roused to war against him. So they believed that Smerdis son of Cyrus was established as king; for Prexaspes too strongly denied that he had killed Smerdis, since it was

not safe for him, now that Cambyses was dead, to say that he had destroyed the son of Cyrus with his own hands. The Magus, then, after the death of Cambyses reigned without fear, passing himself off as Smerdis, the namesake son of Cyrus, for the remaining seven months needed to complete Cambyses' eighth year. During this time he conferred great benefits on all his subjects, so that when he died all the peoples of Asia missed him, except

of the Persians themselves. For the Magus sent word to every nation under his rule announcing freedom from military levy and tribute for three years. He issued this announcement right at the start of his reign, but in the eighth month he was found out, in the following way. Otanes was son of Pharnaspes, and in lineage and wealth ranked with the leading men among the Persians. This Otanes was the first to grow suspicious of the

Magus, that he was not Smerdis son of Cyrus but someone else, reasoning it out from the fact that he never went out from the citadel and that he never summoned into his presence any of the eminent Persians. Suspecting this, he did as follows. Cambyses had taken as wife a daughter of his, whose name was Phaedyme; this same woman the Magus now had, and lived with

with her as with all the other wives of Cambyses. So Otanes sent word to this daughter of his, asking whom she was sleeping beside — Smerdis son of Cyrus, or someone else. She sent back an answer saying she could not tell: she had never once set eyes on Smerdis son of Cyrus, nor did she know the identity of the man sharing her bed. Otanes sent a further message,

Otanes said, "If you cannot recognize Smerdis son of Cyrus yourself, then go ask Atossa who this man is that both she and you share a bed with; surely she at least would know her own brother." The daughter sent back this reply: "I am unable to speak with Atossa, nor to catch sight of any other woman kept here alongside us. For as soon as this man"

whoever he really is, took hold of the kingship, he scattered us, assigning each to a separate place." Hearing this, Otanes saw the matter still more clearly. He sent a third message to her, saying this: "Daughter, being well born as you are, you must take on the risk that your father bids you undertake. For if this is not truly Smerdis son of Cyrus but the man I suspect,

he must be stopped from rejoicing, from sleeping at your side while holding mastery over the Persians; he must pay for it. So do as I say: the next time he lies beside you and you can tell he is deep in sleep, feel for his ears. If he turns out to have ears, you may believe you are wedded to Smerdis son of Cyrus; but if he has none, then know your husband is Smerdis the Magus." In answer to this,

Phaedyme replied that she would be taking a great risk in doing this: for if he actually lacked ears and she were caught in the act of feeling for them, she was certain he would put an end to her. All the same, she agreed to try. So she promised her father she would carry it out. As for this Magus, this false Smerdis, Cyrus son of Cambyses, during his reign, had cut off his ears for some serious crime.

So then this Phaedyme, the daughter of Otanes, carrying out everything she had promised her father, when her turn came around to go to the Magus (for the women take turns visiting the Persian king), came to him and lay with him, and when the Magus was sleeping soundly she felt for his ears. Discovering, without difficulty but quite readily, that the man had no

ears, as soon as day came she sent word and informed her father of what had happened. Otanes then took Aspathines and Gobryas, who were among the foremost of the Persians and most trustworthy to himself, and told them the whole matter. They too, it turned out, had themselves suspected that this was so, and when Otanes brought forward his account they accepted it, and it was resolved that each of them should take on as a partner

the Persian each trusted above all others. Otanes accordingly brought Intaphrenes in, Gobryas brought Megabyzus, and Aspathines brought Hydarnes. Once these six were joined, Darius son of Hystaspes reached Susa, having just come from Persia, where his father held the governorship. As soon as he arrived, the six decided to bring Darius into their number as well. Together now numbering seven, they exchanged with one another

pledges and exchanged words. And when it came Darius's turn to declare his opinion, he said to them: "I had supposed that I alone knew this — that it is the Magus who is reigning and that Smerdis son of Cyrus is dead — and it is for this very reason that I have come in haste, so as to bring about the Magus's death. But since it has turned out that you too know it, and not I alone,

it seems to me that we should act at once and not delay; for delay is not better." To this Otanes replied: "Son of Hystaspes, you are the son of a noble father, and you seem to be showing yourself in no way inferior to him. Do not, however, rush this undertaking so recklessly; take it up rather with more prudence. For we must become more numerous before making the attempt." To this Darius said,

"Men here present, if you follow the course Otanes proposes, know that you will perish most wretchedly: for someone will carry word to the Magus, seeking gain for himself alone. You ought, above all, to have done this relying on yourselves alone; but since you saw fit to bring more people into it and you have put it to me as well, either let us act today, or know this: if the present

day passes by, then no one else will accuse me before anyone else can, but I myself will go and denounce you all to the Magus." To this Otanes replied, seeing Darius so pressing, "Since you force us to act in haste and will not allow delay, come, explain yourself by what means we shall enter the palace and make our attempt upon them. You know as well as I do that there are guards posted throughout, even if you know it not by sight

but by report: how shall we get past them?" Darius answered him thus: "Otanes, there are many things that cannot be shown in words but can be in deeds; and there are others that can be told in words, yet from which no brilliant deed results. You should know that the guards now posted are in no way difficult to get past. For, being the men we are,

He will not refuse, partly out of respect for us, partly perhaps out of fear. And I myself have the most fitting pretext by which to gain entry, claiming that I have just arrived from Persia and wish to convey some message from my father to the king. Where a lie is needed, let it be told. For we who lie and those who deal in truth are both after the same thing.

Some lie when they expect to profit by persuading with falsehoods, others speak the truth in order to draw profit by truth and so be trusted the more. Thus though we practice opposite things we aim at the same end. If neither stood to gain anything, the truth-teller would be just as ready to lie as the liar to tell the truth. Now whichever of the gatekeepers lets us pass willingly,

it will go better for him in time to come; but whoever tries to resist, let him then be shown to be our enemy, and after that let us thrust our way in and get to work." After this Gobryas said, "Friends, when will we have a finer occasion to win back our rule, or, if we prove unable to recover it, to die, than now — now that we, Persians, are ruled by a Median man, a Magus, and one who

has no ears at that. Those of you who were present when Cambyses lay dying surely remember what he charged upon the Persians as he ended his life, that they should try to win back the rule: at the time we did not accept it, but thought Cambyses spoke out of malice. Now, then, I cast my vote that we obey Darius and not disband from this gathering, but go straight against the Magus." So spoke

Gobryas, and every one of them agreed with this plan. While they were still working out these details, the following happened by pure coincidence. The Magi, in their own council, decided to draw Prexaspes to their side as a friend, both because he had been wronged terribly by Cambyses (who had shot his son with an arrow and killed him) and because he alone knew the manner of Smerdis son of Cyrus's death, having slain him with his own two hands, and further because Prexaspes stood in the highest regard

among the Persians. It was for these reasons that they called on him, sought his friendship, and bound him with pledges and oaths that he would guard the secret and tell no one of the fraud they had worked upon the Persians, promising in exchange to shower him with every kind of gift. Once Prexaspes agreed to this, and the Magi had won him over, they came to him with a second request: they would gather all the Persians

beneath the palace wall, and they told him to climb a tower and announce to the crowd that Smerdis son of Cyrus, and no other, ruled over them. They gave him this task precisely because he was regarded as the most trustworthy man in Persia, and had many times stated his belief that Smerdis son of Cyrus still lived, denying any part in his murder. When Prexaspes agreed that he was willing to do this as well,

the Magi called the Persians together, brought him up onto the tower, and bade him speak. But of the things they wanted from him, he willingly forgot all of that; instead, beginning from Achaemenes, he traced the lineage of Cyrus's line, and when at last he came down to Cyrus himself, he told all the good things Cyrus had done for the Persians; and having gone through these, he revealed the truth, saying that before he had hidden it (for

it would not be safe for him to reveal the truth), but under his present circumstances he found himself forced to speak plainly. So he declared that he himself, under compulsion from Cambyses, had slain Smerdis son of Cyrus, and that the ones now ruling were the Magi. Then, after invoking many curses upon the Persians should they fail to reclaim their rule and punish the Magi, he let himself fall headlong from the top of the tower.

Prexaspes, then, a man of good repute all his life, ended his life in this way. As for the seven Persians, once they had resolved to attack the Magi at once without delay, they set out after praying to the gods, knowing nothing of what had happened concerning Prexaspes. They were in the middle of their journey when they learned what had befallen Prexaspes. At this they stepped aside from the road and began to confer

among themselves once more: those siding with Otanes insisted firmly that they wait and not strike while things were still unsettled, while those siding with Darius pressed to act right away and carry out their plan without further delay. In the middle of this dispute, seven pairs of hawks appeared, chasing two pairs of vultures and tearing at their feathers. When the seven men saw this, they all

Darius's judgment, and then went on toward the palace, emboldened by the omen of the birds. When they came to the gates, it happened just as Darius's judgment had foretold: the guards, out of respect for these men, who were the foremost among the Persians, and suspecting nothing of the kind from them, let them pass by, as if under divine escort, and no one questioned them at all. When they had passed into the courtyard, they encountered the eunuchs who

carry in messages. These men asked them what they wanted, and while questioning them also threatened the gatekeepers for letting them through, and tried to hold back the seven, who wished to go further in. But the seven, urging one another on and drawing their daggers, cut down on the spot those who were holding them back, and themselves ran at a sprint into the men's hall. The two Magi happened at that moment

to be both inside, taking counsel about what had happened concerning Prexaspes. When they saw the eunuchs in an uproar and shouting, both of them ran back and, once they understood what was happening, turned to defend themselves. One of them managed to snatch up his bow, the other turned to his spear. Then they clashed with one another.

since he had grabbed his bow while the enemy stood close and pressing, it proved worthless to him; but the other man fought back with his spear, striking Aspathines in the thigh and Intaphrenes in the eye. Intaphrenes lost the eye from that wound, though it did not kill him. So it was one of the two Magi who wounded these men;

but the other, when his bow proved of no use to him, since there was a chamber opening off the men's hall, fled into it, wishing to shut the doors against them, and two of the seven burst in with him, Darius and Gobryas. As Gobryas grappled with the Magus, Darius stood over them at a loss, as one would be in the dark, being careful not to strike Gobryas instead.

Gobryas, seeing him stand there doing nothing, asked why he did not use his weapon. Darius replied, "I am watching out for you, so I don't strike you by mistake." Gobryas answered, "Push the blade through us both if you have to." Darius did as told, drove in his dagger, and happened to strike the Magus. After killing the Magi and cutting off their heads, the wounded among the seven were left behind

both from injury and to keep watch over the citadel, while the remaining five carried the heads of the Magi and ran through the streets shouting and raising a clamor, calling out to the rest of the Persians, telling them what had happened and holding up the heads, killing every Magus they came across as they went. Once the Persians understood from the seven what had taken place

and learned of the Magi's deceit, they too judged it right to act the same way, drawing their daggers and killing every Magus they could find; had night not fallen and put a stop to it, not a single Magus would have survived. To this day the Persians hold this date above all others in shared observance, and mark it with a great festival they call the Magophonia [Slaying of the Magi], during which no Magus

is permitted to appear in public, but the Magi keep themselves at home within doors that whole day. When the uproar had settled down, and five days had passed, those who had risen against the Magi took counsel about the whole state of affairs, and speeches were made that are disbelieved by some of the Greeks, but they were made nonetheless. Otanes urged that the government be laid open in common to the Persians, speaking as follows: "It seems to me

that we should no longer have any one man as sole ruler; for that is neither pleasant nor good. You saw how far the insolence of Cambyses went, and you had your share too of the insolence of the Magus. How could monarchy be a well-ordered thing, when it allows a man to do whatever he wishes without being held to account? Even the best of all men, set in that position, would be driven

out of his accustomed way of thinking. For insolence is bred in him by the good things he has at hand, while envy is inborn in man from the beginning. Possessing these two things, he possesses all wickedness: for he does many reckless things, some out of surfeit bred by insolence, others out of envy. And yet a tyrant, of all men, ought to be free of envy, having every good thing. But he is naturally the opposite of this toward his citizens: he envies

the finest citizens who remain and are still living, while favoring the worst sort among the people, and is quick to welcome slander. Nothing about him is more contradictory: show him modest respect and he resents not being flattered enough; lavish praise on him instead and he resents that too, calling it mere flattery. But now I turn to the gravest charge of all: he upends the customs of the ancestors, violates women, and executes men without a trial.

But rule by the many has, first of all, the fairest name of all, equality under the law [isonomia]; and second, it does none of the things a monarch does: offices are assigned by lot, the officeholder is accountable for his conduct, and all deliberations are referred to the common body. I therefore cast my vote that we do away with monarchy and increase the power of the people; for in the many is everything." Such was the opinion Otanes put forward;

but Megabyzus urged that they entrust power to an oligarchy, speaking as follows: "What Otanes said in doing away with tyranny, let it stand as said by me too; but in urging that we hand power over to the many, he has missed the best judgment: for there is nothing so senseless and so insolent as a useless mob. And yet, for men fleeing the insolence of a tyrant to fall into the insolence of an unrestrained populace is in no way to be endured. For if the one, whenever he does anything,

he acts, he acts knowing what he does, but the mob has not even the capacity to know—for how could one know anything, who has neither been taught nor seen for himself anything noble and fitting? It rushes into affairs and pushes them along without judgment, like a river in flood. Let those who wish the Persians harm make use of the people's rule, then; but let us, choosing out a group of the best men, invest these with power—for among them we ourselves will also be. And it stands to reason that the best men produce the best counsels."

we would fall into. It stands to reason that the finest men would produce the finest decisions." This was the view Megabyzus advanced. Darius spoke third, offering his own opinion: "What Megabyzus said about mass rule strikes me as correct, but what he said about oligarchy does not. Of the three systems on the table, granting that each is excellent in its own way—rule by the best of the people, rule by the few, and rule by one—

I say that monarchy far surpasses the rest. For nothing could show itself better than the rule of one man who is the best: exercising judgment of that sort, he would govern the mass of people without fault, and plans against enemies would best be kept secret under such a rule. In an oligarchy, however, among the many who cultivate excellence for the common good, strong private feuds tend to arise: for each man, wanting to be foremost and to have his own counsels prevail,

comes into violent enmity with the others; from which factions arise, and from factions, killing; and from killing the outcome is monarchy, and in this it is shown how much better monarchy is than the rest. Again, when the people rule, it is impossible that corruption not arise; and once corruption arises in public affairs, no enmities arise among the wrongdoers, but rather strong friendships; for those who do wrong to

the common good act in collusion with one another. And this goes on until someone comes forward as champion of the people and puts a stop to such men. As a result of this he is admired by the people, and being admired he is shown to be a monarch; and in this too it is proved that monarchy is the strongest form. To sum up everything in one word: from where did our freedom come,

and who gave it to us? From the people, or from oligarchy, or from a monarch? I hold, then, that we who have been freed through one man ought to preserve such a form of rule, and besides this, not to abolish our ancestral customs when they are good—for that would not be better." These, then, were the three opinions set forth, and four of the seven men sided with this one. When Otanes, who had been urging that the Persians establish equality of rights,

was defeated in his opinion, he said this to them in the midst of the group: "Fellow conspirators, it is clear that one of us must become king, whether chosen by lot, or by entrusting the choice to the mass of the Persians and letting them pick whom they will, or by some other means. I myself will not compete with you for it, for I wish neither to rule nor to be ruled; but I withdraw

of the throne, provided that none of you rules over me, neither I myself nor any descendant of mine, ever." Once he had said this and the six others agreed to his terms, he took no further part in the contest but stepped away from it, and even now his household alone remains free among the Persians, obeying only such laws as it chooses, so long as it does not break

the laws of the Persians. The remaining six of the seven then deliberated how they might most justly set up a king; and it was decided, in the case of Otanes and his descendants forever, that if the kingship should pass to any other of the seven, Otanes and his line should receive as a special privilege a Median robe each year, and every gift that is held in highest honor among the Persians. This privilege they resolved to grant him

these terms, since he had been the one to first devise the plan and bring the group together. Such were Otanes's special privileges; but for the common good they further decided that any of the seven could enter the royal quarters unannounced, except when the king was found asleep beside a wife, and that the king could take a wife only from among the families of the conspirators. As for the kingship itself, they resolved

as follows: that whichever man's horse should neigh first at sunrise, when they were mounted in the suburb, he should have the kingship. Now Darius had a groom, a clever man, whose name was Oebares. To this man, after they had parted, Darius said the following: "Oebares, we have decided to settle the kingship in this way: whoever's horse neighs first at the same moment as the

sun rises, while we are mounted, he is to have the kingship. Now then, if you have any cleverness, contrive some way that we may win this prize, and not someone else." Oebares answered him thus: "Master, if indeed it is on this that it depends whether you become king or not, take courage on this account and keep a good heart, for no other man will be king before

you—I have such devices at my command." Darius said, "If then you have some such trick, it is time to contrive it and not to delay, since tomorrow is the day of our contest." Having heard this, Oebares did as follows: when night came, he took one of the mares, the one which Darius's horse loved most, led her to the suburb and tethered her there, and then brought

Darius's horse up, and led him around near the mare many times, letting him come close to her, and at last let him mount her. At the break of day the six, as they had agreed, appeared on their horses; and as they rode out through the suburb, when they came to the spot where the mare had been tethered the night before, there Darius's horse ran forward

and let out a neigh. At the very instant the horse did this, lightning flashed from a clear sky and thunder rolled. These signs, coming right after what had already happened to Darius, sealed his kingship as though arranged in advance; and the other riders sprang down from their horses and bowed before Darius. Some claim Oebares engineered this trick, while others tell a different story (for the Persians report it both ways): that he had touched

this mare's genitals with his hand and kept it hidden in his trousers; and that when, at sunrise, the horses were about to be released, this Oebares drew out his hand and brought it up to the nostrils of Darius's horse, and the horse, perceiving the scent, snorted and neighed. So Darius, son of Hystaspes, was declared king, and all the peoples of Asia were subject to him,

except the Arabians, since Cyrus had subdued them and later Cambyses again. The Arabians never submitted to slavery under the Persians, but became friends by allowing Cambyses passage against Egypt; for the Persians could not have invaded Egypt against the will of the Arabians. Darius married the foremost marriages among the Persians: two daughters of Cyrus, Atossa and Artystone—Atossa, who had previously been married to Cambyses

first to his brother, and then again to the Magus, while Artystone remained unmarried; he also wed another daughter of Cyrus, this one Smerdis's sister, named Parmys; and he took as well the daughter of Otanes, the woman who had exposed the Magus, so that every form of power was now his in full measure. First he had a stone relief carved and set up, showing the figure of a mounted horseman, and he had letters engraved on it

reading: "Darius son of Hystaspes won the kingship of the Persians through the courage of his horse"—naming the horse—"and of Oebares his groom." After doing this he set up twenty administrative districts across Persia, what the Persians themselves term satrapies; having established these districts and placed governors over them, he fixed the tribute payments owed to him by nation, attaching neighboring peoples to each district,

passing over the nearer ones and assigning peoples that lay farther off to different provinces. He divided the provinces and the yearly income of tribute as follows: those of them who brought silver were ordered to bring it by the Babylonian standard of weight, those who brought gold, by the Euboic standard. The Babylonian talent is equal to seventy-eight Euboic minas. For under the rule of Cyrus and again of Cambyses there had been no fixed

any tribute at all, offering gifts instead. Because of this system of imposed tribute, and other similar practices, the Persians have a saying that likens Darius to a shopkeeper, Cambyses to a master, and Cyrus to a father—the first because he reduced everything to buying and selling, the second because he was harsh and careless, and the third because he was kind and arranged only good things for them.

From the Ionians, the Magnesians of Asia, the Aeolians, the Carians, the Lycians, the Milyans, and the Pamphylians (since a single tribute was assessed across all of them) came four hundred silver talents. This formed the first tax district. From the Mysians, Lydians, Lasonians, Cabalians, and Hytennians came five hundred talents: this was the second district.

From the Hellespontines on the right side going in, the Phrygians, the Thracians of Asia, the Paphlagonians, the Mariandynians, and the Syrians, the tribute amounted to three hundred sixty talents: this was the third district. From the Cilicians came three hundred sixty white horses—one for every day of the year—plus five hundred talents of silver, of which one hundred forty went toward the cavalry

that guarded the land of Cilicia, and the remaining three hundred and sixty went to Darius: this was the fourth province. From the city of Posideium, which Amphilochus son of Amphiaraus founded on the border between the Cilicians and the Syrians, beginning from that city as far as Egypt, excluding the portion belonging to the Arabians (which was exempt from tribute), the tribute was three hundred and fifty talents. In this province is included

all Phoenicia and the part of Syria called Palestine, and Cyprus: this was the fifth province. From Egypt and the Libyans bordering on Egypt, and from Cyrene and Barca (for these were reckoned into the Egyptian province), seven hundred talents came in, apart from the silver that comes from the fishing of Lake Moeris. Apart from this silver,

and grain measured out in addition brought in seven hundred talents; for grain is portioned out to the Persian garrison of two hundred thousand men stationed at the White Fortress in Memphis, along with their auxiliaries. This was the sixth district. The Sattagydae, Gandarians, Dadicae, and Aparytae, taxed together as one, contributed a hundred seventy talents: this was the seventh district.

along with the rest of Cissian territory, three hundred talents: this made the eighth district. From Babylon and the remainder of Assyria came a thousand silver talents plus five hundred boy eunuchs: this was the ninth district. From Ecbatana and the rest of Media, along with the Paricanians and Orthocorybantians, came four hundred fifty talents: this was the tenth district. The Caspians, Pausicae, Pantimathi, and

the Daritae, combining their payments, brought in two hundred talents: this was the eleventh district. From the Bactrians up to the Aeglae the tribute stood at three hundred sixty talents: this was the twelfth district. From Pactyice, the Armenians, and their neighbors as far as the Euxine Sea came four hundred talents: this was the thirteenth district. From the Sagartians, Sarangians, Thamanaeans, Utians, and

the Mycians, together with those living on the islands in the Red Sea where the king resettles the people known as deportees—from all of these combined the tribute amounted to six hundred talents: this was the fourteenth district. The Sacae and Caspians contributed two hundred fifty talents: this was the fifteenth district. The Parthians, Chorasmians, Sogdians, and Arians brought in three hundred

talents; this was the sixteenth province. The Paricanians and the Ethiopians from Asia brought in four hundred talents; this was the seventeenth province. On the Matieni, the Saspires, and the Alarodians two hundred talents were imposed; this was the eighteenth province. On the Moschi, the Tibareni, the Macrones, the Mossynoeci, and the Mares three hundred talents were laid down; this was the nineteenth province. Of the Indians

is by far the largest population of any people known to us, and paid, on top of all others, a tribute of three hundred sixty talents in gold dust: this was the twentieth district. Converting the Babylonian silver talent into Euboic measure gives nine thousand eight hundred eighty talents; and reckoning gold as worth thirteen times as much as silver, the gold dust works out to four thousand six hundred eighty

plus six hundred talents, four thousand in all. Adding together the total of all these sums in Euboic talents, the yearly tribute gathered for Darius came to fourteen thousand five hundred sixty; I leave out anything smaller than this and do not bother listing it. This was the tribute reaching Darius from Asia and a small portion of Libya. As time passed, however, additional tribute began arriving from the islands

and from the peoples settled in Europe up to Thessaly. The king stores this tribute away in the following fashion: he melts the metal and pours it into clay jars, and once a jar is full he breaks away the clay shell around it; then, whenever money is needed, he chips off however much the occasion calls for. Such, then, were the administrative districts and their assigned tributes. Persia itself is the one land I have not listed among the tribute-payers; for the

Persians occupy their land tax-free. The following peoples were assigned to bring no tribute at all, but gifts instead: the Ethiopians bordering on Egypt, whom Cambyses subdued when he marched against the long-lived Ethiopians, and those who dwell around sacred Nysa and hold festivals in honor of Dionysus. These Ethiopians and their neighbors use the same seed as the

Indians of Callantia, who instead live in dwellings dug into the ground. Both these groups together used to bring their gifts every third year, and continue doing so even now, in my own day: two choenixes of unrefined gold, two hundred blocks of ebony, and twenty large elephant tusks, along with five Ethiopian boys. The Colchians fixed their own gift amount, as did their neighbors up to the Caucasus mountains (for Persian rule extends only as far as this mountain

empire extends, but the peoples to the north of the Caucasus pay no further heed to the Persians). These peoples, then, still bring even to my time the gifts they set for themselves, every four years: a hundred boys and a hundred girls. The Arabians brought in a thousand talents of frankincense each year. Such were the gifts these peoples brought the king apart from the tribute. As for this great quantity of gold which the

Indians bring in, from which they carry to the king the gold dust I have mentioned, they acquire it in the following manner. There is in the part of India toward the rising sun a region of sand; for of all the peoples we know, and of whom anything reliable is reported, the Indians dwell farthest toward the dawn and the sunrise among the peoples of Asia; for to the east of the Indians the land is desert because of the

sand. India has many tribes speaking different languages from one another; some are nomadic and some are not, and some live in the marshlands of the river, eating raw fish that they catch from boats built out of reeds—each boat fashioned from a single length of reed. These Indians dress in clothing made of rush fiber; whenever they

harvest reeds from the river and cut them down, they weave the fibers together in the style of a basket and slip it on like body armor. Other Indians, living further east than these, are nomadic and eat their meat raw; these people are called the Padaei, and their customs are reportedly of this sort: when a townsperson falls sick, whether female or male, if it is a man, the men closest to him kill him, claiming that

his flesh would be spoiled by the wasting sickness if he wastes away; he himself denies that he is sick, but they, not believing him, kill him anyway and feast on him. And if a woman falls ill, the women closest to her do likewise, just as the men do. For as for one who reaches old age, they sacrifice him and feast on him; but very few of them reach that point, for before that

they kill anyone who falls into sickness. Other Indians follow yet another custom: they kill no living thing, nor do they sow anything, nor do they think it right to have houses, and they live on plants; and they have a grain the size of millet growing in a husk, which springs up from the earth of its own accord, and which they gather, husk and all, and boil and eat. And whoever among them falls

into sickness goes off into the desert and lies there; no one pays any heed to him, whether he dies or is merely ill. The intercourse of all these Indians whom I have described is open to view, like that of cattle, and they all have skin of the same color, resembling that of the Ethiopians. Their seed, moreover, which they emit into the women, is not white like that of other men, but black,

just as their skin is. Such is the seed which the Ethiopians also emit. These Indians dwell farther from the Persians and to the south, and never came under the rule of King Darius. Other Indians border on the city of Caspatyrus and the land of Pactyice, dwelling to the north of the other Indians, and they follow a way of life similar to that of the Bactrians.

These are also the most warlike of the Indians, and it is they who set out after the gold; for it is in this region that there is desert because of the sand. Now in this desert and in the sand there live ants, smaller in size than dogs but larger than foxes; some of them are kept even at the court of the Persian king, having been caught there. These ants, in making

their dwelling underground, throw up the sand just as the ants among the Greeks do, in the very same manner, and they are also very similar to them in form; and the sand that is thrown up is rich in gold. It is after this sand that the Indians set out into the desert, each yoking together three camels, with a male camel harnessed on either side by a trace, and a female in the middle;

the man himself mounts on this one, taking care to have yoked her after pulling her away from her young while they were as young as possible. For their camels are no slower than horses in speed, and besides are far more capable of carrying loads. As for the appearance of the camel, since the Greeks already know it, I will not describe it; but what they do not know about it I will tell: a camel has

in its hind legs four thighs and four knees, and its genitals, between the hind legs, turned toward the tail. The Indians, then, using this method and this kind of yoking, drive out after the gold, calculating so as to be engaged in the seizure while the heat is at its fiercest; for in the heat the ants become invisible, going underground. Now the sun is hottest

for these people in the morning, not at midday as for others, but from sunrise until the time the marketplace empties. During this time it burns much more fiercely than at midday in Greece, so much so that it is said men soak themselves in water at that hour. At midday the sun burns the Indians about as much as it burns other men. But as

midday declines, the sun becomes for them like the morning sun is for others, and from that point onward, as it departs, it grows ever cooler, until at sunset it is very cold indeed. So when the Indians arrive at the place carrying sacks, they fill these with the sand and drive back as fast as they can; for at once the ants, catching the scent, as indeed it is said

by the Persians, notice and give chase. And their speed, it is said, is unmatched by anything else, so that if the Indians did not get a head start on the road while the ants were gathering, not one of them would escape alive. Now the male camels, since they are slower in running than the females, are said to fall behind, being pulled along, not both together; but the females, remembering the young they left behind, hold back nothing in their effort.

This, then, is how the Indians get most of their gold, according to the Persians. But another kind, scarcer, is dug up in their country. It seems that the outermost regions of the inhabited world happen to have received the finest things, just as Greece has received by far the finest and best-tempered climate. For to the east, the last of the inhabited lands is India, as I said a little earlier.

India's living creatures—both four-footed animals and birds—grow to a far greater size there than anywhere else, with the exception of horses (which are surpassed by the Median breed, known as Nesaean horses); additionally, gold exists there in vast quantity, some dug from mines, some washed down by rivers, and some snatched away by ants, as I already described.

Wild trees growing there produce a fruit resembling wool, finer in appearance and quality than sheep's wool, and the Indians make their garments from this tree-fiber. Moving further south, Arabia marks the edge of the inhabited world, and it alone among all lands produces frankincense, along with myrrh, cassia, cinnamon, and ledanon.

Everything on this list besides myrrh is hard for the Arabians to acquire. They gather frankincense specifically by burning storax—the very storax the Phoenicians ship out to Greek markets; burning it is how they capture the frankincense resin. This is because the trees that bear frankincense are watched over by winged snakes, small in size and dappled in color, clustered in large numbers around every single tree—these are the same creatures that invade Egypt in swarms—and smoke from the burning storax is the only thing that will drive them away from the trees.

The Arabians also say this: that the whole land would be filled with these snakes, if it were not that something happens to them of the sort I understand happens to vipers. And somehow the foresight of the divine, being wise as indeed is fitting, has made all creatures that are cowardly and edible prolific in offspring, so that

they may not be wiped out by being devoured, while creatures that are savage and troublesome it has made to bear few young. For instance, the hare is hunted by every kind of beast, bird, and man, and so it is extremely prolific: alone among all animals it can conceive while already pregnant, and one of the young in the womb is already furred while another is bald, another is just being shaped in the womb, and another is only just conceived. So much for that.

The lioness, though the strongest and boldest of creatures, bears only one cub in her whole life, giving birth once and for all; for in giving birth she expels her womb along with the cub. The reason for this is as follows: when the cub, still in the mother, begins to stir, it has claws far sharper than those of any other animal, and it scratches the womb; and as it grows it tears

deeper still, scoring the womb, and by the time birth is near, nothing whole is left of it. In just the same way, if the vipers and the winged snakes of Arabia were born as their nature intends, life would not be livable for men. But as it is, when they mate in pairs and the male is in the very act of ejaculating,

the female seizes him by the throat, and having clamped on she does not let go until she has bitten right through. So the male dies in the manner described, but the female pays this penalty in turn to the male: in vengeance for the father, the young, while still in the womb, gnaw through their mother, and having eaten through her belly, thus make their way out. The other

snakes, which do no harm to men, lay eggs and hatch a great quantity of young. Now vipers are found over the whole earth, but the winged snakes are found gathered together only in Arabia and nowhere else; that is why they seem to be so numerous. This, then, is how the Arabians obtain their frankincense, and this is how they get their cassia. When they have bound

covering their whole body and face, except for the eyes themselves, in hides and other skins, they set out after the cassia. It grows in a lake that is not deep, and around and within it live winged beasts closely resembling bats, which screech horribly and fight fiercely when threatened; the harvesters must fend these off away from their eyes as they cut the cassia.

The cinnamon they gather in a still more remarkable way. Where it grows and what land nurtures it, they cannot say, except that some, reasoning plausibly, say it grows in the very regions where Dionysus was raised. They say that large birds carry these sticks—the ones we, having learned the word from the Phoenicians, call cinnamon—

and that the birds carry them to nests built of clay and stuck onto sheer cliff faces, where no man can climb. So against this the Arabians have devised the following trick: they cut up the limbs of dead oxen and donkeys and other pack animals into the largest pieces they can, carry them to these places, and having set them down near the nests they withdraw far off; and

the birds, flying down, carry the limbs of the pack animals up to their nests, which cannot bear the weight and break and fall to the ground, and the men then come and gather it up. In this way the cinnamon collected from these places reaches the other countries. As for ledanon, which the Arabians call ladanon, it comes about in a way even more remarkable than this: for it forms in the foulest-smelling place and yet is itself the sweetest-smelling of things. For it is found

forming on the beards of he-goats, like a kind of gum from the brush. It is useful for many kinds of perfume, and the Arabians burn it above all as incense. Let this much be said about spices; and the whole land of Arabia gives off a scent wondrously sweet. They also have two kinds of sheep worthy of wonder, found nowhere else. One of these

these sheep have tails so long—no less than three cubits—that if left to drag along, sores would form where the tails scraped against the ground; but nowadays every shepherd has learned enough woodworking skill to solve this: they build small carts and strap them beneath the tails, binding each animal's tail to its own individual cart. As for the second breed of sheep

has tails that are broad, as much as a cubit wide. As one turns south, toward the setting sun lies Ethiopia, the last of the inhabited countries. This land produces much gold, abundant elephants, every kind of wild tree, ebony, and men who are the tallest, most handsome, and longest-lived. These, then, are the outermost regions of Asia and of

Libya. About the outermost regions of Europe, toward the west, I cannot speak with certainty; for I myself do not accept that there is a river called by the barbarians the Eridanus, flowing out into the sea toward the north wind, from which amber is said to come, nor do I know of any islands called the Cassiterides, from which our tin comes. For in the first place the name Eridanus

itself proclaims that it is Greek and not barbarian, and was coined by some poet; and in the second place, though I have taken pains to inquire, I have never been able to hear from anyone who had actually seen it that there is a sea beyond Europe. In any case, it is from the farthest regions that our tin and amber come to us. To the north of Europe there evidently is a very great quantity of gold; but how

it is produced, I cannot say for certain either. It is said that one-eyed men called Arimaspians steal it from griffins. But I do not believe this either—that there exist one-eyed men who in every other respect have the same nature as other men. In any case, it does seem that the outermost lands, encircling the rest of the world and enclosing it within, possess the things that seem to us the finest and the rarest. There is a plain

in Asia enclosed on every side by a mountain, with five gaps cutting through the mountain. This plain once belonged to the Chorasmians, lying on the border of the Chorasmians themselves, the Hyrcanians, the Parthians, the Sarangians, and the Thamanaeans; but since the Persians have held power, it belongs to the King. From this encircling mountain flows a great river, called

the Akes. This river formerly, divided in five channels, watered the lands of these peoples just named, being led through a gap to each of them separately; but since they have come under the Persian, the following has happened to them: the King, having built gates at each gap in the mountains where it is breached, closed off the water's outlet, so that the plain inside the mountains becomes a sea, since the river

flows in but has no outlet anywhere. So those who formerly were accustomed to use the water, being unable to use it now, suffer a great hardship. In winter, god sends them rain just as he does other men, but in summer, when they sow millet and sesame, they need the water. So whenever none of the water is given over to them, they go to the Persians,

both the men and their wives, and standing at the King's gates they cry out howling; and the King orders the gates that lead to their land opened for whichever of them are most in need. Then, when their land has drunk its fill of water and is sated, these gates are closed again, and he orders other gates opened for whichever of the rest are most in need. As I

gathered from what I have heard, he charges enormous sums for opening them, beyond the standard tribute. So that is how matters stand there. Among the seven men who revolted against the Magus, one of them, Intaphrenes, brought about his own death right after the revolt through an act of arrogance. He wanted to go into the palace and speak with the king on business, since the custom at the time allowed those who had joined the revolt against the Magus to walk in unannounced ahead of

the king without an announcer, unless the king happens to be with a woman. Intaphrenes did not think it right that anyone should announce him, but since he was one of the seven, he wanted to go in. The doorkeeper and the message-bearer would not allow it, saying that the king was with a woman. Intaphrenes, thinking they were lying to him, did the following: drawing his short sword, he cut off their ears and

nose, and looping them onto his horse's bridle, fastened them around their necks, then released the men. They presented themselves before the king and explained why they had been treated this way. Darius, worried the six had acted together in agreement, summoned each one individually and probed his thinking, asking whether he endorsed what had happened. Once he discovered that

Intaphrenes had not done this together with them, he seized the man himself, and his children, and all his household, having strong suspicions that he was plotting rebellion against him together with his kinsmen; and having arrested them he bound them for execution. But the wife of Intaphrenes, coming continually to the king's doors, wept and lamented; and by doing this same thing over and over

she moved Darius to feel pity for her. He dispatched a messenger who delivered this message: "Woman, King Darius offers to free one of your imprisoned relatives, whichever you choose among them all." After thinking it over, she gave this reply: "If indeed the king is offering me one life, out of all of them I choose my brother." Darius, hearing this and struck with wonder at her reasoning, sent word back,

"Woman, the king asks you what thought you had in mind that, abandoning your husband and your children, you chose to save your brother's life instead—a man who is less close to you than your children and less dear to you than your husband." She answered with these words: "O king, I could get another husband, if a god should so wish, and other children too, if I should lose these; but since

my father and mother are no longer living, there is no way I could ever get another brother. It was with this thought in mind that I said what I said." Darius thought the woman had spoken well, and he released for her both the man she had asked for and the eldest of her sons, being pleased with her, but he put all the others to death. So one of the seven perished immediately in the manner described. Now

it was about the time of Cambyses' illness that the following happened. Oroetes, a Persian man, had been established by Cyrus as governor of Sardis. This man conceived a desire for an unholy deed: for though he had suffered no wrong, nor heard any rash word from Polycrates of Samos, nor even seen him before, he desired to seize and destroy him—according to most accounts, for the following reason. As Oroetes was sitting at the king's doors

together with another Persian named Mitrobates, governor of the province at Dascyleium, the two fell from conversation into a quarrel; and as they were disputing about their merits, Mitrobates said to Oroetes, taunting him, "You call yourself a man, when you have not added to the king's realm the island of Samos, which lies right next to your own province—so easy a thing to conquer that one

one of the local men rose up with fifteen armed soldiers, took control, and now governs it as tyrant?" Some claim that on hearing this, stung by the insult, Oroetes became determined not merely to punish the speaker but to destroy Polycrates altogether, since it was because of him that Oroetes had earned such disgrace. Others, a smaller group, report instead that Oroetes dispatched a messenger to Samos requesting some item (exactly what is not

said), and that Polycrates happened to be lying in the men's hall, with Anacreon of Teos present with him; and somehow, whether by design he was disregarding Oroetes' business, or whether it happened by such a chance, the herald of Oroetes came forward and spoke, and Polycrates (who happened to be turned toward the wall) neither turned around nor gave any answer. These are the two

accounts given of the cause of Polycrates' death, and it is open to anyone to believe whichever of the two he wishes. Now Oroetes, settled in Magnesia, which lies above the river Maeander, sent Myrsus son of Gyges, a Lydian man, to Samos bearing a message, having learned Polycrates' intention. For Polycrates was the first of the Greeks we know of who set his mind on ruling the sea, apart

going back to Minos of Cnossus, and to anyone else who may have held mastery of the sea before him; but among what is called the human race, Polycrates was the first, and he harbored great ambitions of ruling over Ionia and the islands. Once Oroetes realized what Polycrates had in mind, he dispatched a message reading: "Oroetes speaks thus to Polycrates: I have learned that you are scheming toward great enterprises, yet your funds do not match

your ambitions. If you do as follows, you will both raise yourself up and save me as well: for King Cambyses is plotting my death, and this has been reported to me clearly. Now if you get me and my money out of here, take some of it yourself and let me keep the rest; for the sake of the money you will rule all of Greece. If you distrust me about the

money, send whoever happens to be most trusted by you, and I will show it to him." Hearing this, Polycrates was delighted and willing; and since he desired money greatly, he first sent Maeandrius son of Maeandrius, one of his citizens, who was his secretary, to look into it; this man not long afterward dedicated all the remarkable furnishings from Polycrates' men's hall to the

temple of Hera. Oroetes, learning that the spy was expected, did as follows: he filled eight chests with stones, except for a very small space near the very rims, and on top of the stones he laid gold, then tied up the chests and kept them ready. Maeandrius came and, having seen them, reported back to Polycrates. And though many of the seers forbade it and many of his friends tried to dissuade him, he set out

there anyway, and moreover, his daughter had seen a dream-vision of this sort: it seemed to her that her father hung suspended in the air, washed clean by Zeus's rain and gleaming under the sun's rays. After this vision, she tried every possible means to stop Polycrates from making the journey to Oroetes, and as he boarded the fifty-oared ship, she continued shouting out bad omens. He warned her that

if he returned safely, she would remain unmarried for a long time. She prayed that this would indeed come to pass, for she said she would rather remain unmarried longer than be deprived of her father. Polycrates, disregarding all advice, sailed to Oroetes, taking with him many of his companions, and among them Democedes son of Calliphon, a man of Croton, a physician who practiced his art better

beyond anyone else of his generation. On reaching Magnesia, Polycrates met a wretched end, one matching neither his own character nor his lofty ambitions: setting aside the tyrants of Syracuse, not a single other Greek tyrant deserves comparison to Polycrates for sheer splendor. Oroetes put him to death in a manner too shameful to recount and had his body impaled; those among his followers who were Samians, Oroetes set free, instructing

them to remember they owed their freedom to him, while the foreigners and slaves among his followers he retained, treating them as captives. Meanwhile Polycrates, hanging there, brought every detail of his daughter's vision to pass: Zeus bathed him whenever rain fell, and the sun anointed him as moisture rose from his own body. Thus did the many strokes of fortune enjoyed by Polycrates come to

such a close, exactly as Amasis, the Egyptian king, had once predicted for him. Some time later, though not much time, retribution for Polycrates caught up with Oroetes too. After Cambyses died and the Magi held the throne, Oroetes stayed put in Sardis and offered the Persians no assistance whatsoever when their rule was stripped away by the Medes; instead, amid that disorder, he killed Mitrobates,

the governor from Dascyleium, who had reproached him over the matter concerning Polycrates, and he also killed Mitrobates' son Cranaspes, both men held in high regard among the Persians; and he committed all sorts of other outrages, and when a messenger came to him from Darius bearing a message that was not to his liking, he killed the man as he was traveling back, setting men to ambush him along the road, and after killing him he made him disappear, horse and all. Darius,

once he had secured the throne, wished to punish Oroetes for all his crimes, and especially for those against Mitrobates and his son. He did not think it wise to send an army against him directly, since affairs were still unsettled, and since he had only recently gained the throne, and since he learned that Oroetes had great power: for a thousand Persians served as his bodyguard, and he held

the province of Phrygia and Lydia and Ionia. To deal with this, then, Darius devised the following scheme. He called together the most eminent of the Persians and said to them: "Persians, which of you would undertake to accomplish this for me by cunning rather than by force and numbers? For where cunning is needed, there is no work for force. Which of you, then, would either bring me Oroetes alive

or put him to death? He has never once benefited the Persians, yet he has committed terrible wrongs: for one, he wiped out two of our own, Mitrobates and his son; for another, he murders the men I send to summon him, displaying insolence beyond what can be endured. Before he inflicts some even worse harm on the Persians, we must see him put to death." Such was Darius's question, and to it

thirty men volunteered, each one willing to do this himself. As they were quarreling among themselves, Darius stopped them and told them to draw lots; and when they drew lots, it fell to Bagaeus son of Artontes out of all of them. Having won the lot, Bagaeus did the following: he wrote up many documents concerning many matters and affixed Darius's seal to them, and then went with these to Sardis. When he arrived and came into Oroetes' presence

When he arrived, he took the letters one by one and gave each to the royal scribe to read aloud — every governor has royal scribes attached to him. Bagaeus, testing the spearmen to see whether they would accept revolt from Oroetes, gave them the letters. Seeing that they showed great reverence for the letters themselves, and still greater reverence for what was read out of them, he handed over another letter, in which was written

the following: "Persians, King Darius forbids you to serve as bodyguard to Oroetes." When they heard this they lowered their spears to him. Seeing that they obeyed the letter, Bagaeus, now emboldened, handed the last of the letters to the scribe, in which was written: "King Darius commands the Persians at Sardis to kill Oroetes." When the spearmen heard this,

they drew their short swords and struck him down right there, and in this way retribution for Polycrates of Samos finally caught up with Oroetes the Persian. Once the wealth of Oroetes had been gathered up and transported to Susa, it happened a short while afterward that King Darius, out hunting game, jumped down from his horse and wrenched his foot. The injury turned out fairly severe, since the anklebone had slipped out of its socket. Believing

he had long kept about him those Egyptians reputed to be foremost in the art of medicine, he made use of them. But by wrenching and forcing the foot they only made the injury worse. For seven days and seven nights Darius was kept sleepless by the pain that afflicted him. On the eighth day, when he was faring badly, someone who had earlier heard, still at Sardis,

of the skill of Democedes of Croton reported it to Darius. He ordered that the man be brought to him as quickly as possible. When they found him, neglected somewhere among the slaves of Oroetes, they led him into the king's presence dragging fetters and clothed in rags. Set before them, Darius asked him whether he understood the art. He would not admit it, fearing that if he

revealed himself he would be cut off entirely from Greece. It was clear to Darius that he was practicing deception though he knew the art, and he ordered those who had brought him to bring out whips and goads before him. At that point he did reveal himself, saying that he did not know it exactly, but that from association with a physician he had a poor grasp of the art. After that, once Darius entrusted himself to him, using Greek remedies and applying gentle treatments after

the harsh ones, he brought it about that Darius could get sleep, and in a short time restored him to health, though Darius had no longer expected to have the use of his foot again. After this Darius gave him two pairs of golden fetters as a gift. Democedes asked him whether he was deliberately doubling his suffering as a reward for having healed him. Darius, pleased with this remark, sent him

to his own wives. The eunuchs, leading him in, told the women that this was the man who had given the king back his life. Each of them, dipping a bowl into a chest of gold, gave Democedes so generous a gift that the servant following him, whose name was Sciton, gathered up the staters that fell from the bowls, and a great quantity of

gold was collected for him. Now this Democedes, having come from Croton, had come to be associated with Polycrates in the following way. In Croton he was afflicted by a harsh-tempered father; unable to bear him, he left and went off to Aegina. Settling there, in his first year he surpassed the other physicians, even though he was without equipment and had none of the instruments that belong to the art. In his second year

for a talent the Aeginetans employed him at public expense, the following year the Athenians paid a hundred minae, and the year after that Polycrates paid two talents. This is how he ended up in Samos, and thanks largely to this man the physicians of Croton built their fame. This took place during the period when Crotonian doctors were said to rank first throughout Greece, with those of Cyrene ranking second. Around this same period

the Argives, too, had a reputation as the leading musicians among the Greeks. It was at this point that Democedes, after curing Darius at Susa, acquired an enormous household and became a dinner companion of the king; apart from a single restriction — leaving for Greece — he had access to everything else. On one occasion he pleaded on behalf of the Egyptian physicians, who had previously treated the king and now faced impalement for having been outperformed by a Greek doctor;

he saved them. In another instance he saved an Elean seer who had accompanied Polycrates and had been left neglected among the slaves. Democedes was a man of the very greatest importance at the king's court. A short time after this, the following also happened. Atossa, daughter of Cyrus and wife of Darius, developed a growth on her breast, which then burst and spread further. As long as it was small,

she concealed it out of shame and told no one; but once her condition worsened, she summoned Democedes and showed it to him. Promising to cure her, he made her swear an oath that she would repay him with whatever favor he might later request of her — provided he would ask nothing that would bring her shame. Once he had subsequently treated her and restored her health, she was then instructed

by Democedes, and Atossa raised this matter with Darius while they lay together at night: "My king, despite holding such great power, you remain seated, neither annexing any nation nor expanding Persian strength. It would suit a man who is young and lord of such wealth to demonstrate some visible achievement, so the Persians themselves may recognize they are governed by a real man. Doing this benefits you in two ways:

so the Persians come to know that their leader is truly a man, and so they stay occupied by warfare rather than having free time to conspire against you. Right now, while you are still young in years, is when you could achieve something notable — for as the body matures, the mind matures alongside it, but as it grows old, the mind grows old along with it and becomes dulled to all affairs." She delivered this speech as she had been coached, and he responded with the following.

"Wife, you have described exactly what I myself already plan to carry out: I have decided to build a bridge spanning from this continent to the other and march against the Scythians, and this will be brought about before long." Atossa answered: "Consider this, though — let the campaign against the Scythians wait for later, since they will be available to you whenever you wish; instead, for my sake march against

against Greece. For I desire, hearing of them by report, to have Spartan handmaidens, and Argive, and Attic, and Corinthian. And you have the man best suited of all men to inform you of everything about Greece and to guide you there — this man who healed your foot." Darius answered, "Wife, since it seems best to you that we make trial of Greece first, it seems to me better first to send

Persian scouts along with the man you speak of, to Greece, who will learn and see and report each thing back to us; and then, once I am fully informed, I will turn against them." He said this and at once matched word with deed. For as soon as day dawned, he called fifteen distinguished Persian men and instructed them to travel with Democedes along the coastal parts of Greece, taking care that

Democedes should not escape from them, but that they should by all means bring him back. Having given them these instructions, he next called Democedes himself and asked him, once he had guided the Persians through the whole of Greece and shown it to them, to return. He ordered him to take all his father's household goods and give them to his father and brothers, saying he would give him back many times as much in return; and further, for the gifts, he said he would contribute a merchant ship

he promised to load it with goods of every kind for him, to travel alongside him. Darius, as far as I can tell, offered all this without any deceptive motive. But Democedes, worried that Darius might be testing him, refrained from eagerly grabbing everything that was offered; instead he said he would leave his belongings behind in place, so he could retrieve them upon returning, but that he would take the merchant vessel Darius had promised

as a gift for his brothers. Having given the same instructions to him as well, Darius sent them off to the sea. Going down to Phoenicia, and from Phoenicia to the city of Sidon, they at once manned two triremes, and along with them a great cargo ship full of all sorts of goods. Having made every preparation, they sailed for Greece, and putting in along its coasts they observed and

made records, until, having viewed most of its notable places, they arrived at Tarentum in Italy. There, out of kindness toward Democedes, Aristophilides, king of the Tarentines, removed the rudders from the Median ships, and moreover detained the Persians themselves as being, supposedly, spies. While they were suffering this, Democedes made his way to Croton.

Only after Democedes had already reached his own city did Aristophilides release the Persians, and give back what he had taken from the ships. Sailing on from there, the Persians pursued Democedes and arrived at Croton, and finding him in the marketplace, they laid hold of him. Some of the Crotoniates, fearing Persian power, were ready to give him up, but others held on to him and struck the Persians with their staffs,

as the Persians pleaded these words: "Men of Croton, see what you are doing: you are taking away a man who is a runaway from the king. How can this fail to be seen as an outrage against King Darius? How can what you are doing turn out well for you, if you take him from us? Against which city shall we march first because of this? Which shall we choose first to enslave?" Saying this they did not persuade the Crotoniates, but

having had Democedes taken from them, and the merchant ship they were bringing with him taken away as well, they sailed back to Asia, and did not even try to learn more of Greece further inland, now that they were deprived of their guide. Democedes, however, as they were setting out, gave them this one instruction: to tell Darius that Democedes had betrothed himself to the daughter of Milo. For the name of Milo the wrestler carried great weight with the king; and it is for this reason, it seems to me,

It appears that Democedes rushed to complete this marriage at enormous cost, so that even back in his homeland he would be seen as a man of standing because of his ties to Darius. After setting sail from Croton, the Persians were shipwrecked on the shores of Iapygia, and while enslaved there, Gillus, an exiled Tarentine, rescued and escorted them back to King Darius. In exchange, Darius stood ready to grant him anything he desired.

Gillus chose to have his return to Tarentum arranged, first explaining his misfortune. But so as not to throw Greece into turmoil, in case a great expedition should sail against Italy on his account, he said it would be enough for the Cnidians alone to bring him back, since they were friends of the Tarentines and he supposed his restoration would come about most readily through them. Darius agreed to this and set about fulfilling it, for he sent a messenger to

Cnidus ordering them to restore Gillus to Tarentum. The Cnidians obeyed Darius but could not persuade the Tarentines, and they were unable to use force. So this affair turned out as it did. These Persians were the first to come from Asia to Greece, and it was for this reason that they became spies. After this, King Darius took Samos, the first of all cities, Greek or barbarian, that he captured,

for the following reason. When Cambyses son of Cyrus was campaigning against Egypt, many Greeks went to Egypt too — some, naturally enough, on campaign for trade, and others simply to see the country itself. Among these was Syloson son of Aeaces, brother of Polycrates and an exile from Samos. This Syloson met with a stroke of good fortune of the following kind. He had put on

a cloak, wrapped himself in a crimson one, and went about selling goods in the marketplace at Memphis. Darius spotted him — at that time merely a bodyguard of Cambyses and not yet a man of much reputation — and, wanting the cloak, approached and offered to purchase it. Syloson, noticing how badly Darius wanted the cloak, and acting under some divine prompting, told him, "I won't sell this garment for any sum, but I'll give it to you at no cost, since it apparently must

be so, entirely for your sake." Darius, praising this, accepted the garment. Syloson supposed he had simply lost it through his own foolishness. But as time went on, and Cambyses died, and the seven rose up against the Magus, and of the seven Darius obtained the kingship, Syloson learned that the kingship had come round to that very man to whom he

he himself had given the garment to a man who requested it in Egypt. So he traveled to Susa, took a seat at the entrance of the royal residence, and declared himself a benefactor of Darius. The gatekeeper heard this and relayed it to the king, who responded in astonishment, "And which Greek benefactor could this be, to whom I owe such gratitude, given how newly I hold the throne? Barely a single one of them has

come to see us until now, and I cannot recall owing any debt to a Greek. Still, escort him inside so I can find out what he means by this claim." The gatekeeper led Syloson in, and once he stood before them, the interpreters questioned him about his identity and what deed made him claim to be a benefactor of the king. Syloson then recounted the whole episode involving the cloak,

and said that he himself was the one who had given it. Darius answered, "Noblest of men, you are the one who, when I had as yet no power at all, gave me something, even if it was small — yet the gratitude is equally great as if I should now receive something great from anyone. In return I give you gold and silver without measure, so that you will never regret having done good to Darius

son of Hystaspes." To this Syloson replied, "Give me neither gold nor silver, O king, but recover for me and give me my homeland, Samos, which our slave Oroetes now holds since my brother Polycrates was killed by him; give it to me without bloodshed or enslavement." Hearing this, Darius sent an army and as its general Otanes, one of the

totaling seven, directing that whatever Syloson had requested be carried out completely. Otanes then made his way down to the coast and prepared the army for departure. Meanwhile Maeandrius, son of Maeandrius, held authority over Samos, having taken up rule as a trustee under Polycrates; though he wished to be counted the most just of men, he failed to achieve it. For as soon as news reached him of Polycrates's death, he took the following steps: first he built an altar to Zeus

the Liberator and marked out around it a precinct, which is now in the suburb of the city. Then, when this had been done, he gathered an assembly of all the citizens and said this: "To me, as you also know, the scepter and all the power of Polycrates has been entrusted, and it is now in my power to rule over you. But as for what I reproach in my neighbor, I myself will not do it as far as I can help;

for I never approved of Polycrates lording it over men who were his equals, nor of anyone else who does such things. Polycrates fulfilled his own destiny, and I now place the rule in the common hands and proclaim equality before the law for you. But I do claim these privileges for myself: that six talents be set aside for me out of the property of Polycrates, and besides this I choose for myself the priesthood

of Zeus the Liberator, for myself and for those who are ever descended from me — for whom I myself established the shrine, and to whom I now grant your freedom." This is what he proclaimed to the Samians. But one of them stood up and said, "But you are not even worthy to rule over us, being base-born and a ruin of a man — rather you should give an account of the money you have handled."

This was said by a man of standing among the citizens named Telesarchus. But Maeandrius, reflecting that if he let go of power, someone else would set himself up as tyrant in his place, no longer had any intention of giving it up. Instead, once he had withdrawn to the acropolis, he summoned each man one by one, ostensibly to render an account of the money, and seized and bound them.

So they were kept in bonds, but afterward sickness overtook Maeandrius. His brother, whose name was Lycaretus, expecting him to die, in order that he might more easily seize control of affairs in Samos, put all the prisoners to death, for it seems they did not wish to remain free. When the Persians arrived at Samos bringing back Syloson, not a single hand was lifted against them, and the partisans of Maeandrius said they were

ready, under truce, to leave the island, and Maeandrius himself also. Otanes agreed to these terms and made a truce, and the most eminent of the Persians set their thrones opposite the acropolis and sat down. Now Maeandrius the tyrant had a brother somewhat weak in mind, named Charilaus; this man, having committed some offense, was bound in the dungeon, and just then, hearing

what was happening and peering out through the dungeon, when he saw the Persians sitting there peacefully, he shouted out and said he wished to come to speech with Maeandrius. Maeandrius, hearing this, ordered him released and brought to him; and as soon as he was brought, reviling and reproaching him, he tried to persuade him to attack the Persians, saying this: "Me, most base of men, though I am

your own brother and have done nothing deserving of bonds, you saw fit to bind in the dungeon; yet seeing the Persians casting you out and making you homeless, you dare not take vengeance, though they are so very easy to overpower. But if you are afraid of them, give me the mercenaries, and I will punish them for coming here; as for you yourself, I am ready to send you out of the island."

This is what Charilaus said. And Maeandrius took up the suggestion — not because, in my view, he was foolish enough to imagine his own power could outmatch the king's, but rather out of envy toward Syloson, that he should recover the city intact without effort. So, by provoking the Persians, he wanted to make the affairs of Samos as weak as possible before handing it over, well knowing that

the Persians, having suffered harm, would then grow still more embittered against the Samians, and knowing that he himself had a secure means of getting off the island whenever he chose; for a secret tunnel had been made for him, leading from the acropolis to the sea. Maeandrius himself sailed out from Samos, but Charilaus armed all the mercenaries, and, throwing open the gates, launched them against

the Persians, who expected nothing of the sort and thought that everything had been settled. The mercenaries fell upon those of the Persians who were carried in litters and were of the highest repute, and killed them. While they were doing this, the rest of the Persian army came to the rescue; the mercenaries, hard pressed, were driven back into the acropolis. Otanes the general, seeing the great disaster the Persians had suffered,

deliberately forgot the instructions Darius had given him when sending him out — neither to kill nor enslave any of the Samians, but to hand the island back to Syloson unharmed — and instead ordered the army to kill everyone they took, man and child alike. At this some of the army besieged the acropolis, while others killed everyone they came across,

alike within the temple and outside it. Maeandrius, having fled from Samos, sailed off to Lacedaemon; and having arrived there and brought up what he had, he did the following: whenever he set out silver and gold cups for display, his servants would polish them, while he, for that time, would be in conversation with Cleomenes son of Anaxandrides, king of Sparta,

and would lead him into the house; and whenever Cleomenes saw the cups, he would be amazed and astonished, and Maeandrius would urge him to take away as many of them as he wished. When Maeandrius had said this two or three times, Cleomenes proved himself the most just of men, for he did not think it right to take what was offered; but realizing that if Maeandrius offered them to other citizens he would find help there, he went to the ephors

it would be better for Sparta if the Samian stranger left the Peloponnese, so that he might not persuade either himself or some other Spartan to come to harm. They took his advice and had Maeandrius proclaimed banished. As for Samos, the Persians dragged the island with a net and handed it over to Syloson stripped of its men. Later, however, the general Otanes helped resettle it, prompted by a dream vision and by an illness that

had afflicted his private parts. While the naval expedition against Samos was under way, the Babylonians revolted, having prepared themselves very thoroughly indeed. For during the whole time that the Magus ruled and the seven rose up against him, throughout all that time and turmoil they had been making ready for the siege. Somehow they managed to do this without being noticed. When they finally revolted openly, they did the following: they picked out their mothers,

and each man selected in addition one wife from his own household, whichever he wished, and gathered together all the rest of the women and strangled them. The one wife each man kept as a baker of bread. They strangled the others so that they would not use up the food supply. When Darius learned of this, he gathered his whole force and marched against them; he advanced on Babylon and laid siege to it, though the Babylonians cared nothing for the siege.

For the Babylonians would climb up onto the battlements of the wall and dance and jeer at Darius and his army, and one of them called out this taunt: "Why are you sitting there, Persians? Why don't you leave? You'll take this city when mules give birth." A Babylonian spoke these words never expecting a mule to bear young. But when a year and seven months had passed,

Darius was by now vexed, and his whole army was unable to take the Babylonians. Yet Darius had tried every trick and every device against them; nothing worked, even though among other stratagems he had also tried the one by which Cyrus had taken the city before. But the Babylonians kept guard with tremendous vigilance, and he was

unable to capture them. Then, in the twentieth month, a portent occurred for Zopyrus son of Megabyzus—this Megabyzus being one of the seven men who had brought down the Magus. To this Zopyrus, son of Megabyzus, this marvel occurred: one of his baggage-carrying mules gave birth. When it was reported to him and, in disbelief, Zopyrus himself saw the newborn, he forbade those who had seen it to tell anyone what had happened, and he pondered the matter.

Recalling the words of that Babylonian, who at the start had said that when mules gave birth the wall would then be taken, in light of this saying it seemed to Zopyrus that Babylon was capturable. For it seemed that it was by divine will both that the man had spoken those words and that his own mule had given birth. Once he had concluded that it was now fated for Babylon to be captured, he went to Darius and asked whether

he set very great store on taking Babylon. Learning that Darius valued it highly indeed, he considered further how he himself might be the one to capture it, so that the achievement would be his own; for among the Persians, great deeds of service are honored in proportion to their magnitude. He could think of no other way by which he could be capable of subduing the city, except by maiming himself and deserting to the enemy.

So, thinking nothing of it, he inflicted upon himself an irreparable mutilation: he cut off his own nose and ears, cropped his hair disgracefully, had himself whipped, and came before Darius. Darius took it very hard indeed when he saw a man of the highest standing so mutilated; leaping up from his throne he cried out and asked him who had done this to him and for what reason. Zopyrus

said, "There is no man who could do this to me except you, to whom belongs such power. No stranger did this deed, O king, but I myself did it to myself, thinking it a terrible thing that Assyrians should mock Persians." Darius answered, "Wretchedest of men, you have given the most beautiful name to the most shameful deed, claiming that on account of the besieged you have ruined yourself beyond repair. What,

you fool, will make the enemy surrender any sooner because you are mutilated? How did you not lose your senses in destroying yourself?" Zopyrus said, "If I had told you beforehand what I intended to do, you would not have allowed it. As it is, I acted on my own account. Now, then, if you play your part, we will take Babylon. I will desert as I am to the wall and say

to them that I suffered this at your hands. I think that once I have persuaded them this is so, I will be given command of troops. Then you, from whatever day I enter the wall, on the tenth day from that day, take a thousand men of your army—men whose loss you will not mind at all—and station them at the gate called after Semiramis. Then again, from the tenth day to

the seventh day after, station for me another two thousand at the gate called after Ninus. Then, from that seventh day, let twenty days pass, and after that lead and station four thousand more at the gate called after the Chaldeans. Let neither the first group nor these have any weapons of defense with them except daggers—let them keep those. Then, after the twentieth day, immediately order the rest of the army

to attack the wall on all sides, and station the Persians for me at the gates called Belid and Cissian. For as I reckon it, once I have displayed great deeds, the Babylonians will entrust everything to me, and in particular the bolts of the gates. From then on it will be my concern and the Persians' to do what needs to be done." Having given these instructions, he went toward the gates,

looking back repeatedly, as if he were truly a deserter. Those stationed to watch from the towers, seeing him, ran down and, opening one of the gates a little, asked who he was and what he wanted. He told them he was Zopyrus and was deserting to their side. The gatekeepers, hearing this, led him before the

public assembly of the Babylonians. Standing before them, he lamented, saying that he had suffered at the hands of Darius what he had in fact done to himself, and that this was the price of having urged Darius to withdraw the army, since no way of capturing the city appeared. "And now," he said, "Babylonians, I have come to you as the greatest good, and to Darius and his army and the Persians as the greatest evil. He will not

get away with mutilating me like this. I know all the ways through his plans." Such were his words. The Babylonians, seeing a man of the highest standing among the Persians deprived of his nose and ears, smeared with blood from the whips, fully believed his story was genuine and that he had arrived to fight on their side, and were ready to entrust to him whatever he asked of them; and what he asked for was troops. Once he had

received this from them, he did as he had agreed with Darius: leading out the Babylonian army on the tenth day, and surrounding the thousand men whom he had instructed Darius to station first, he slaughtered them. The Babylonians, seeing that his deeds matched his words, were overjoyed and altogether ready to serve him in anything. He let the agreed number of days pass, then again choosing men from the

Babylonians, led them out and slaughtered the two thousand of Darius's soldiers. Seeing this deed too, all the Babylonians had Zopyrus's praises on their lips. Again letting the agreed days pass, he led the army out to the appointed place, and surrounding the four thousand, he slaughtered them. When this too had been accomplished, Zopyrus was everything to the Babylonians, and he was appointed their

commander-in-chief and guardian of the wall. When Darius, according to their agreement, made his assault all around the wall, Zopyrus then revealed the whole plot. The Babylonians climbed up onto the wall and defended against Darius's attacking army, but Zopyrus opened the gates called Cissian and Belid and let the Persians into the wall. Of the Babylonians,

those who saw what had been done fled to the temple of Zeus Belus; those who did not see it remained each at his post, until they too learned that they had been betrayed. Thus Babylon was taken for the second time. When Darius had mastered the Babylonians, he tore down their wall and ripped out all the gates

—for when Cyrus had taken Babylon before, he had done neither of these things—and he impaled about three thousand of the ringleaders among the men, and gave back the city to the remaining Babylonians to inhabit. So that the Babylonians might have wives to bear offspring for them, since, as has been shown earlier, they had strangled their own women out of concern for the food supply, Darius, foreseeing this, did the following:

he ordered the neighboring peoples to send women to Babylon, assigning to each a certain number, so that the total tally of women that came together amounted to fifty thousand. It is from these women that the present-day Babylonians are descended. As for Zopyrus, in the judgment of Darius no Persian ever surpassed his service, either of those who came later or of those before him, except Cyrus alone; for with Cyrus

no Persian ever claimed to be worthy of comparison. It is said that Darius often expressed the opinion that he would rather have Zopyrus unharmed by his mutilation than gain twenty more Babylons in addition to the one he had. He honored him greatly: each year he gave him gifts of those things most prized among the Persians, and he gave him Babylon to hold free of tribute for

the rest of his life, and bestowed many other things upon him besides. From this Zopyrus was born Megabyzus, who as general commanded the forces in Egypt that fought the Athenians together with their allies; and from this Megabyzus was born Zopyrus, who deserted to Athens from the Persians.

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