Herodotus

“ The king was greatly moved at the sight of so notable a man thus mishandled. Leaping up with a cry from where he sat he asked Zopyrus who had done him this outrage and why. “There is no man,” answered Zopyrus, “save yourself, who could bring me to this plight; this, O King! is the work of none other but myself; for I could not bear that Persians should be mocked by Assyrians.” Darius answered, “Hard-hearted man; if you say that it is to win the city that you have maltreated yourself past cure, you do but give a fair name to a foul deed. ”

“ His remedies having made her whole, Atossa at Democedes’ prompting thus addressed Darius in their chamber: “Sire, you are a mighty ruler; why sit you idle, winning neither new dominions nor new power for your Persians? If you would have them know that they have a man for their king, it is right and fitting for one of your youth and your wealth to let them see you achieving some great enterprise. Thereby will you gain a double advantage: the Persians will know that their king is truly a man; and in the stress of war they will have no leisure for conspiring against you. ”

“ You have seen to what lengths went the insolence of Cambyses, and you have borne your share of the insolence of the Magian. What right order is there to be found in monarchy, when the ruler can do what he will, nor be held to account for it? Give this power to the best man on earth, and it would stir him to unwonted thoughts. The advantage which he holds breeds insolence, and nature makes all men jealous. This double cause is the root of all evil in him; sated with power he will do many reckless deeds, some from insolence, some from jealousy. ”

“ Now Amasis was in some wise aware and took good heed of Polycrates’ great good fortune; and this continuing to increase greatly, he wrote this letter and sent it to Samos: “From Amasis to Polycrates, these. It is pleasant to learn of the well-being of a friend and ally. But I like not these great successes of yours; for I know how jealous are the gods; and I do in some sort desire for myself and my friends a mingling of prosperity and mishap, and a life of weal and woe thus chequered, rather than unbroken good fortune. ”

“ For if it were proposed to all nations to choose which seemed best of all customs, each, after examination made, would place its own first; so well is each persuaded that its own are by far the best. It is not therefore to be supposed that any, save a madman, would turn such things to ridicule. I will give this one proof among many from which it may be inferred that all men hold this belief about their customs:—When Darius was king, he summoned the Greeks who were with him and asked them what price would persuade them to eat their fathers’ dead bodies. ”

“ But Polycrates would listen to no counsel. He sailed to meet Oroetes, with a great retinue of followers, among whom was Democedes, son of Calliphon, a man of Crotona and the most skilful physician of his time. But no sooner had Polycrates come to Magnesia than he was foully murdered, making an end which ill beseemed himself and his pride; for, saving only the despots of Syracuse, there is no despot of Greek race to be compared with Polycrates for magnificence. ”

“ When Amasis had read Polycrates’ letter, he perceived that no man could save another from his destiny, and that Polycrates, being so continually fortunate that he even found what he cast away, must come to an evil end. So he sent a herald to Samos to renounce his friendship, with this intent, that when some great and terrible mishap overtook Polycrates, he himself might not have to grieve his heart for a friend. ”

“ Learning then that such was his intent, Oroetes sent him this message: “These from Oroetes to Polycrates:—I learn that you plan great enterprises, and that you have not money sufficient for your purpose. Do then as I counsel and you will make yourself to prosper and me to be safe. King Cambyses designs my death; of this I have clear intelligence. Now if you will bring me away with my money, you may take part of it for yourself and leave the rest with me; thus shall you have wealth enough to rule all Hellas. ”

“ Then Cassandane, Cyrus’ wife, said, “Ay, yet though I be the mother of such children Cyrus dishonours me and honours this newcomer from Egypt.” So she spoke in her bitterness against Nitetis; and Cambyses, the eldest of her sons, said, “Then, mother, when I am grown a man, I will turn all Egypt upside down.” When he said this he was about ten years old, and the women marvelled at him; but he kept it in mind, and it was thus that when he grew up and became king, he made the expedition against Egypt. ”

“ The seven then met and gave each other pledges and spoke together; and when it was Darius’ turn to declare his mind, he spoke as follows: “I supposed that I alone knew that it was the Magian who is king and that Smerdis son of Cyrus is dead; and it is for this cause that I have made haste to come, that I might compass the Magian’s death; but since it has so fallen out that you too and not I alone know the truth, my counsel is for action forthwith, no delay; for evil will come of delay.” ”

“ Brother, would you see the sovereignty pass to others, and our father’s house despoiled, rather than come hence and have it for your own? Nay, come away home and cease from punishing yourself. Pride is the possession of fools. Seek not to cure one ill by another. There be many that set reason before righteousness; and many that by zeal for their mother’s cause have lost their father’s possessions. ”

“ Many times Darius is said to have declared that he would rather have Zopyrus whole and not foully mishandled than twenty more Babylons. Very greatly the king honoured him; every year he sent Zopyrus such gifts as the Persians hold most precious, and suffered him to govern Babylon for all his life with no tribute to pay, giving him many other things besides. This Zopyrus was father of Megabyzus, who was general of an army in Egypt against the Athenians and their allies; and Megabyzus’ son was that Zopyrus who deserted from the Persians to Athens. ”

“ It is not because he sets great store by my friendship that the Persian King sends you with gifts, nor do you speak the truth (for you have come to spy out my dominions) , nor is your king a righteous man; for were he such, he would not have coveted any country other than his own, nor would he now try to enslave men who have done him no wrong. Now, give him this bow, and this message: ‘The King of the Ethiopians counsels the King of the Persians, when the Persians can draw a bow of this greatness as easily as I do, then to bring overwhelming odds to attack the long-lived Ethiopians ”

“ When they were weary of doing this (for the body, being embalmed, remained whole and did not fall to pieces) , Cambyses commanded to burn it, a sacrilegious command; for the Persians hold fire to be a god; therefore neither nation deems it right to burn the dead, the Persians for the reason assigned, as they say it is wrong to give the dead body of a man to a god; while the Egyptians believe fire to be a living beast that devours all that it catches, and when sated with its meal dies together with that whereon it feeds. Now it is by no means their custom to give the dead to beasts ”

“ These ants make their dwellings underground, digging out the sand in the same manner as do the ants in Greece, to which they are very like in shape, and the sand which they carry forth from the holes is full of gold. It is for this sand that the Indians set forth into the desert. They harness three camels apiece, a male led camel on either side to help in draught, and a female in the middle: the man himself rides on the female, careful that when harnessed she has been taken away from as young an offspring as may be. ”

“ For we being such as we are, there is none who will not grant us admittance, partly from reverence and partly too from fear; and further, I have myself the fairest pretext for entering, for I will say that I am lately come from Persia and have a message for the king from my father. Let lies be told where they are needful. All of us aim at the like end, whether we lie or speak truth; he that lies does it to win credence and so advantage by his deceit, and he that speaks truth hopes that truth will get him profit and greater trust ”

“ Prexaspes, it is said, replied (for he saw that Cambyses was mad, and he feared for his own life) , “Master, I think that not even the god himself could shoot so true.” Thus did Cambyses then; at another time he took twelve Persians, equal to the noblest in the land, proved them guilty of some petty offence, and buried them alive up to the neck.
36. For these acts Croesus the Lydian thought fit to take him to task, and thus addressed him: “Sire, do not ever let youth and passion have their way; put some curb and check on yourself; prudence is a good thing, forethought is wisdom. ”

“ The Persian country is the only one which I have not recorded as tributary; for the Persians dwell free from all taxes. As for those on whom no tribute was laid, but who rendered gifts instead, they were, firstly, the Ethiopians nearest to Egypt, whom Cambyses subdued in his march towards the long-lived Ethiopians; and also those who dwell about the holy Nysa, where Dionysus is the god of their festivals. [The seed of these Ethiopians and their neighbours is like the seed of the Indian Callantiae; they live underground.] ”

“ Again, Arabia is the most distant to the south of all inhabited countries: and this is the only country which yields frankincense and myrrh and casia and cinnamon and gum-mastich. All these but myrrh are difficult for the Arabians to get. They gather frankincense by burning that storax which Phoenicians carry to Hellas; this they burn and so get the frankincense; for the spice-bearing trees are guarded by small winged snakes of varied colour, many round each tree; these are the snakes that attack Egypt. Nothing save the smoke of storax will drive them away from the trees. ”

“ But the Egyptians claim Cambyses for their own; they say that he was the son of this daughter of Apries, and that it was Cyrus, not Cambyses, who sent to Amasis for his daughter. But this tale is false. Nay, they are well aware (for the Egyptians have a truer knowledge than any man of the Persian laws) firstly, that no bastard may be king of Persia if there be a son born in lawful wedlock; and secondly, that Cambyses was born not of the Egyptian woman but of Cassandane, daughter of Pharnaspes, an Achaemenid. But they so twist the story because they would claim kinship with the house of Cyrus. ”

“ Those that paid in silver were appointed to render the weight of a Babylonian talent; those that paid in gold, an Euboïc talent; the Babylonian talent being equal to seventy-eight Euboïc minae. In the reigns of Cyrus and Cambyses after him there was no fixed tribute, but payment was made in gifts. It is by reason of this fixing of tribute, and other like ordinances, that the Persians called Darius the huckster, Cambyses the master, and Cyrus the father; for Darius made petty profit out of everything, Cambyses was harsh and arrogant, Cyrus was merciful and ever wrought for their well-being. ”

“ Being then persuaded that Babylon was fated to fall, he came and inquired of Darius if he set great store by the taking of the city; and when he was assured that this was so, he next looked about for a plan whereby the city’s fall should be wrought by himself alone; for good service among the Persians is much honoured, and rewarded by high preferment. He could think of no way of mastering the city but to do violence to himself and then desert to the Babylonians ”

“ They told him their king ate bread, showing him how wheat grew; and said that the full age to which a man might hope to live was eighty years. Then said the Ethiopian, it was no wonder that their lives were so short, if they ate dung; they would never attain even to that age were it not for the strengthening power of the draught,—whereby he signified to the Fish-eaters the wine,—for in this, he said, the Persians excelled the Ethiopians. ”

“ There is another story, that the Samians from Egypt defeated Polycrates; but to my thinking this is untrue; for if they were able to master Polycrates by themselves, they had no need of inviting the Lacedaemonians. Nay, moreover, it is not even reasonable to suppose that he, who had a great army of hired soldiers and bowmen of his own, was worsted by a few men like the returning Samians. Polycrates took the children and wives of the townsmen who were subject to him and shut them up in the arsenal, with intent to burn them and the arsenal too if their men should desert to the returned Samians. ”

“ Let those stand for democracy who wish ill to Persia; but let us choose a company of the best men and invest these with the power. For we ourselves shall be of that company; and where we have the best men, there ’tis like that we shall have the best counsels. ”

“ Now is your time for achieving great deeds, while you are still young: for as a man’s mind grows with his body’s growth, so as the body ages the mind too grows older and duller for all uses.” Thus she spoke, being so prompted. “Lady,” said Darius, “what you say I am already minded to do. I am resolved to make a bridge from this to the other continent and so lead an army against the Scythians; and in a little while we will set about accomplishing this.” “See now,” Atossa answered, “forbear for the nonce to attack the Scythians; you will find them whenever you so desire ”