Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

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.)

Semiramis [*](Herodotus, i. 187, says that Nitocris built the tomb above the gates of Babylon. Stobaeus, x. 53, copies Plutarch word for word.) caused a great tomb to be prepared for herself, and on it this inscription: Whatsoever king finds himself in need of money may break into this monument and take as much as he wishes. Darius accordingly broke into it, but found no money; he did, however, come upon another inscription reading as follows: If you were not a wicked man with an insatiate greed for money, you would not be disturbing the places where the dead are laid.