Thalia   

From Babylonia, and the rest of Assyria, were drawn a thousand
talents of silver, and five hundred boy-eunuchs. This was the ninth
satrapy.
Agbatana, and the other parts of Media, together with the
Paricanians and Orthocorybantes, paid in all four hundred and fifty
talents. This was the tenth satrapy.
The Caspians, Pausicae, Pantimathi, and Daritae, were joined in
one government, and paid the sum of two hundred talents. This was
the eleventh satrapy.
From the Bactrian tribes as far as the Aegli the tribute
received was three hundred and sixty talents. This was the twelfth
satrapy.
From Pactyica, Armenia, and the countries reaching thence to the
Euxine, the sum drawn was four hundred talents. This was the
thirteenth satrapy.
The Sagartians, Sarangians, Thamanaeans, Utians, and Mycians,
together with the inhabitants of the islands in the Erythraean sea,
where the king sends those whom he banishes, furnished altogether a
tribute of six hundred talents. This was the fourteenth satrapy.
The Sacans and Caspians gave two hundred and fifty talents. This
was the fifteenth satrapy.
The Parthians, Chorasmians, Sogdians, and Arians, gave three
hundred. This was the sixteenth satrapy.
The Paricanians and Ethiopians of Asia furnished a tribute of four
hundred talents. This was the seventeenth satrapy.
The Matienians, Saspeires, and Alarodians were rated to pay two
hundred talents. This was the eighteenth satrapy.
The Moschi, Tibareni, Macrones, Mosynoeci, and Mares had to pay
three hundred talents. This was the nineteenth satrapy.
The Indians, who are more numerous than any other nation with
which we are acquainted, paid a tribute exceeding that of every
other people, to wit, three hundred and sixty talents of gold-dust.
This was the twentieth satrapy.
If the Babylonian money here spoken of be reduced to the Euboic
scale, it will make nine thousand five hundred and forty such talents;
and if the gold be reckoned at thirteen times the worth of silver, the
Indian gold-dust will come to four thousand six hundred and eighty
talents. Add these two amounts together and the whole revenue which
came in to Darius year by year will be found to be in Euboic money
fourteen thousand five hundred and sixty talents, not to mention parts
of a talent.
Such was the revenue which Darius derived from Asia and a small
part of Libya. Later in his reign the sum was increased by the tribute
of the islands, and of the nations of Europe as far as Thessaly. The
Great King stores away the tribute which he receives after this
fashion- he melts it down, and, while it is in a liquid state, runs it
into earthen vessels, which are afterwards removed, leaving the
metal in a solid mass. When money is wanted, he coins as much of
this bullion as the occasion requires.
Such then were the governments, and such the amounts of tribute at
which they were assessed respectively. Persia alone has not been
reckoned among the tributaries- and for this reason, because the
country of the Persians is altogether exempt from tax. The following
peoples paid no settled tribute, but brought gifts to the king: first,
the Ethiopians bordering upon Egypt, who were reduced by Cambyses when
he made war on the long-lived Ethiopians, and who dwell about the
sacred city of Nysa, and have festivals in honour of Bacchus. The
grain on which they and their next neighbours feed is the same as that
used by the Calantian Indians. Their dwelling-houses are under ground.
Every third year these two nations brought- and they still bring to my
day- two choenices of virgin gold, two hundred logs of ebony, five
Ethiopian boys, and twenty elephant tusks. The Colchians, and the
neighbouring tribes who dwell between them and the Caucasus- for so
far the Persian rule reaches, while north of the Caucasus no one fears