ntines, and they were not strong enough to apply force.
Thus then it happened with regard to these things; and these were the
first Persians who came from Asia to Hellas, and for the reason which
has been mentioned these were sent as spies.

139. After this king Dareios took Samos before all other cities, whether
of Hellenes or Barbarians, and for a cause which was as follows:--When
Cambyses the son of Cyrus was marching upon Egypt, many Hellenes arrived
in Egypt, some, as might be expected, joining in the campaign to make
profit, 122 and some also coming to see the land itself; and among these
was Syoloson the son of Aiakes and brother of Polycrates, an exile from
Samos. To this Syloson a fortunate chance occurred, which was this:--he
had taken and put upon him a flame-coloured mantle, and was about the
market-place in Memphis; and Dareios, who was then one of the spearmen
of Cambyses and not yet held in any great estimation, seeing him had
a desire for the mantle, and going up to him offered to buy it. Then
Syloson, seeing that Dareios very greatly desired the mantle, by some
divine inspiration said: "I will not sell this for any sum, but I will
give it thee for nothing, if, as it appears, it must be thine at all
costs." To this Dareios agreed and received from him the garment.

140. Now Syloson supposed without any doubt that he had altogether lost
this by easy simplicity; but when in course of time Cambyses was dead,
and the seven Persians had risen up against the Magian, and of the seven
Dareios had obtained the kingdom, Syloson heard that the kingdom had
come about to that man to whom once in Egypt he had given the garment at
his request: accordingly he went up to Susa and sat down at the entrance
123 of the king's palace, and said that he was a benefactor of Dareios.
The keeper of the door hearing this reported it to the king; and
he marvelled at it and said to him: "Who then of the Hellenes is my
benefactor, to whom I am bound by gratitude? seeing that it is now but
a short time that I possess the kingdom, and as yet scarcely one 124 of
them has come up to our court; and I may almost say that I have no debt
owing to a Hellene. Nevertheless bring him in before me, that I may know
what he means when he says these things." Then the keeper of the door
brought Syloson before him, and when he had been set in the midst, the
interpreters asked him who he was and what he had done, that he called
himself the benefactor of