the king. Syloson accordingly told all that
had happened about the mantle, and how he was the man who had given it;
to which Dareios made answer: "O most noble of men, thou art he who
when as yet I had no power gavest me a gift, small it may be, but
nevertheless the kindness is counted with me to be as great as if I
should now receive some great thing from some one. Therefore I will give
thee in return gold and silver in abundance, that thou mayest not
ever repent that thou didst render a service to Dareios the son of
Hystaspes." To this Syloson replied: "To me, O king, give neither gold
nor silver, but recover and give to me my fatherland Samos, which now
that my brother Polycrates has been slain by Oroites is possessed by our
slave. This give to me without bloodshed or selling into slavery."

141. Dareios having heard this prepared to send an expedition with
Otanes as commander of it, who had been one of the seven, charging him
to accomplish for Syloson all that which he had requested. Otanes then
went down to the sea-coast and was preparing the expedition.

142. Now Maiandrios the son of Maiandrios was holding the rule over
Samos, having received the government as a trust from Polycrates; and
he, though desiring to show himself the most righteous of men, did not
succeed in so doing: for when the death of Polycrates was reported to
him, he did as follows:--first he founded an altar to Zeus the Liberator
and marked out a sacred enclosure round it, namely that which exists
still in the suburb of the city: then after he had done this he gathered
together an assembly of all the citizens and spoke these words: "To me,
as ye know as well as I, has been entrusted the sceptre of Polycrates
and all his power; and now it is open to me to be your ruler; but that
for the doing of which I find fault with my neighbour, I will myself
refrain from doing, so far as I may: for as I did not approve of
Polycrates acting as master of men who were not inferior to himself, so
neither do I approve of any other who does such things. Now Polycrates
for his part fulfilled his own appointed destiny, and I now give the
power into the hands of the people, and proclaim to you equality. 125
These privileges however I think it right to have assigned to me, namely
that from the wealth of Polycrates six talents should be taken out and
given to me as a special gift; and in addition to this I choose for
myself and for my descendants in succession the pr