means of again repassing the river into Thrace, where having left Megaby zus, one of his chief commanders, with part of his army, to finish his conquests in those parts, and thoroughly settle the country in his obedience, he repassed the Bosphorus with the rest, and retired to Sardis, where he staid all the winter, and the most part of the ensuing year, to refresh his broken forces, and resettle his affairs in those parts of his empire, after the shock that had been given them, by the baffle and loss which he had sustained in this ill-advised expedition.

An. 512. Darius 10.

Megabyzus, having reduced most of the nations of Thrace under the Persian yoke, returned to Sardis to Darius, and from thence accompanied him to Susa, whither he marched back about the end of the year, after having appointed Artaphernes, one of his brothers, governour of Sardis, and Otanes chief commander of Thrace, and the maritime parts adjoining, in the place of Megabyzus. This Otanes was the son of Sisamnes, one of the royal judges of Persia, who having been convicted of bribery and corruption by Cambyses, there is related this remarkable instance of that king's justice towards him, that he caused him to be flayed alive, and making with his skin a covering for the seat of the tribunal, made this his son, whom he appointed to succeed him in his office, to sit thereon, that being thus put in mind of his father's punishment, he might thereby be admonished to avoid his crime.

An. 510. Darius 12.

The Scythians, to be revenged on Darius for his invading their country, passed over the Danube, and ravaged all those parts of Thrace, that had submitted to the Persians, as far as the Hellespont; whereon Miltiades, to avoid their rage, fled from the Chersonesus; but, on the retreat of the enemy, he returned, and was again reinstated in his former power by the inhabitants of the country.

h Herodotus, lib. 5.

i Herodotus, lib. 5. Valerius Maximus, lib. 6, c. 3. Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 24.

An. 509.

About this time Darius, being desirous to enlarge his dominions eastward, in order to the conDarius 13. quering of those countries, laid a design of first making a discovery of them;' for which purpose having built a fleet of ships at Caspatyrus, a city on the river Indus, and as far up upon it as the borders of Scythia, he gave the command of it to Scylax a Grecian of Caryandia, a city in Caria, and one well skilled in maritime affairs; and sent him. down the river, to make the best discoveries he could of all the parts which lay on the banks of it on either side; ordering him, for this end, to sail down the current, till he should arrive at the mouth of the river, and that then, passing through it into the Southern ocean, he should shape his course westward, and that way return home: which orders he having exactly executed, he returned by the straits of Babelmandel and the Red sea, and, on the thirtieth month after his first setting out from Caspatyrus, landed in Egypt, at the same place from whence Necho, king of Egypt, formerly sent out his Phoenicians to sail round the coasts of Africa, which it is most likely was the port where now the town of Suez stands, at the hither end of the said Red sea. And from thence he went to Susa, and there gave Darius an account of all the discoveries which he had made. After this Darius entered India with an army, and brought all that large country under him, and made it the twentieth prefecture of his empire; from whence he annually received a tribute of three hundred and sixty talents of gold, according to the number of the days of the then Persian year, appointing a talent to be paid him for every day in it. This payment was made him according to the standard of the Euboic talent, which was near the same with the Attic; and therefore, according to the lowest computation, it" amounted to the value of one million ninety-five thousand pounds of our money.

1 Herodotus, lib. 4.

m Herodotus, lib 3.

n For, according to the lowest valuation, an Attic talent of gold amounts to three thousand pounds of our money.

An. 504.

Darius 18.

A sedition happening in Naxus, the chief island of the Cyclades in the Egean sea, now called the Archipelago, and the better sort being therein overpowered by the greater number, many of the wealthiest of the inhabitants were expelled the island, and driven into banishment; whereon retiring to Miletus, they there begged the assistance of Aristagoras, for the restoring of them again to their country. This Aristagoras then governed that city as deputy to Hestiæus, whose nephew and son-in-law he was; Hestiæus being then absent at Susa in Persia: for Darius, on his return to Sardis, after his unfortunate expedition against the Scythians, being thoroughly informed, that he owed the safety of himself and all his army to Hestiæus, in that he persuaded the Ionians not to desert him at the Danube, sent for him to come to him, and, having acknowledged his service, bid him ask his reward: whereon he desired of him the Edonian Myrcinus, a territory on the river Strymon in Thrace, in order to build a city there; and, having obtained his request, immediately on his return to Miletus, he equipped a fleet, and sailed for Thrace, and, having there taken possession of the territory granted him, did forthwith set himself on the enterprise of building his intended city in the place projected. Megabyzus, being then governour of Thrace for Darius, soon saw what danger this might create to the king's affairs, in those parts: for he considered that the new-built city stood upon a navigable river; that the country thereabout afforded abundance of timber for the building of ships; that it was inhabited by several nations both of Greeks and barbarians, which could furnish a great multitude of men fit for military service both by sea and land; that, if these should get such a crafty and enterprising person as Hestiæus at the head of them, they might soon grow to a power both by sea and land, too hard for the king to master; and that especially since, from their silver and gold mines, of which there were many in that country, they might be furnished with means

Herodotus, lib, 5.

enough to carry on any enterprise they should undertake. All this, on his return to Sardis, he represented unto the king, who being thereby made fully sensible of the error he had committed, for the remedying of it sent a messenger to Myrcinus to call Hestiæus to Sardis to him, under pretence, that having great matters in design, he wanted his counsel and advice concerning them, by which means having gotten him into his power, he carried him with him to Susa, pretending, that he needed such an able counsellor and so faithful a friend to be always about him, to advise with on all occasions that might happen; and that he would make him so far a partaker of his fortunes by his royal bounty to him in Persia, that he should have no reason any more to think either of Myrcinus or Miletus. Hestiæus, hereon seeing himself under a necessity of obeying, accompanied Darius to Susa, and appointed Aristagoras to govern at Miletus in his absence, and to him the banished Naxians applied for relief. As soon as Aristagoras understood from them their case, he entertained a design of improving this opportunity to the making of himself master of Naxus, and therefore readily promised them all the relief and assistance which they desired: but not being strong enough of himself to accomplish what he intended, he went to Sardis, and communicated the matter to Artaphernes, telling him, that this was an opportunity offered for the putting of a rich and fertile island into the king's hands; that, if he had that, all the rest of the Cyclades would of course fall under his power also; and that then Euboea, an island as big as Cyprus, lying next, would be an easy conquest, from whence he would have an open passage into Greece, for the bringing of all that country under his obedience; and that one hundred ships would be sufficient to accomplish this enterprise. Artaphernes, on the hearing of the proposal, was so much pleased with it, that, instead of one hundred ships, which Aristagoras demanded, he promised him two hundred, provided the king liked hereof: and accordingly, on his writing to him, having received his answer of approbation, he sent him the next spring, to Miletus,

An. 503. Darius 19.

the number of ships which he had promised, under the command of Megabates, a noble Persian of the Archæmenian or royal family. But his commission being to obey the orders of Aristagoras, and the haughty Persian not brooking to be under the command of an Ionian, this created a dissension between the two generals, which was carried on so far, that Megabates, to be revenged on Aristagoras, betrayed the design to the Naxians: whereon they provided so fully for their defence, that, after the Persians had, in the siege of the chief city of the island, spent four months, and all their provisions, they were forced to retire, for want wherewith there any longer to subsist, and so the whole plot miscarried; the blame whereof being, by Megabates, all laid upon Aristagoras, and the false accusations of the one being more favourably heard than the just defence of the other, Artaphernes charged on him all the expenses of the expedition: and it was given him to understand, that they would be exacted of him to the utmost penny, which being more than he was able to pay, he foresaw that this must end not only in the loss of his government, but also in his utter ruin; and therefore being driven into extremities by the desperateness of his case, he entertained thoughts of rebelling against the king, as the only way left him for the extricating of himself out of this difficulty; and while he had this under consideration, came a message to him from Hestiæus, which advised the same thing; for Hestiæus after several years continuance at the Persian court, being weary of their manners, and exceeding desirous of being again in his own country, sent this advice unto Aristagoras, as the likeliest means to accomplish his aim herein; for he concluded, that if there were any combustions raised in Ionia, he should easily prevail with Darius to send him thither to appease them, as it accordingly came to pass. Aristagoras therefore finding his own inclinations backed with the order of Hestiæus, communicated the matter to the chief of the Ionians, and finding them all ready to join with him in what he proposed, he fixed his resolutions for a revolt, and immediately set himself