Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Darius, the father of Xerxes, said in praise of himself that in battles and in the face of formidable dangers he became more cool and collected. [*](Cf. Moralia, 792 C.)

After fixing the amount of the taxes which his subjects were to pay, he sent for the leading men of the provinces, and asked them if the taxes were not perhaps heavy; and when the men said that the taxes were moderate, he ordered that each should pay only half as much. [*](The same story with variations may be found in Polyaenus, Strategemata, vii. 11. 3. Nothing to this effect is to be found in Herodotus’s account of Darius’s taxation, iii. 86-95.)

As Darius was opening a big pomegranate, someone inquired what there was of which he would like to have as many in number as the multitude of seeds in the pomegranate, and he replied, Men like Zopyrus. [*](The same story is found in Herodotus, iv. 143, but with the name of Megabazus instead of Zopyrus.) Zopyrus was a brave man and a friend of his.

Zopyrus, by disfiguring himself with his own hands and cutting off his nose and ears, tricked the Babylonians, and by winning their confidence succeeded in handing over the city to Darius. Many a time Darius said that he would not take an hundred Babylons as the price of not having Zopyrus unscathed. [*](Herodotus, iii. 154-160; cf. Polyaenus, Strategemata, vii. 13.)