Thalia   

of insolence. He wished to enter the palace and transact a certain
business with the king. Now the law was that all those who had taken
part in the rising against the Magus might enter unannounced into
the king's presence, unless he happened to be in private with his
wife. So Intaphernes would not have any one announce him, but, as he
belonged to the seven, claimed it as his right to go in. The
doorkeeper, however, and the chief usher forbade his entrance, since
the king, they said, was with his wife. But Intaphernes thought they
told lies; so, drawing his scymitar, he cut off their noses and
their ears, and, hanging them on the bridle of his horse, put the
bridle round their necks, and so let them go.
Then these two men went and showed themselves to the king, and
told him how it had come to pass that they were thus treated. Darius
trembled lest it was by the common consent of the six that the deed
had been done; he therefore sent for them all in turn, and sounded
them to know if they approved the conduct of Intaphernes. When he
found by their answers that there had been no concert between him
and them, he laid hands on Intaphernes, his children, and all his near
kindred; strongly suspecting that he and his friends were about to
raise a revolt. When all had been seized and put in chains, as
malefactors condemned to death, the wife of Intaphernes came and stood
continually at the palace-gates, weeping and wailing sore. So Darius
after a while, seeing that she never ceased to stand and weep, was
touched with pity for her, and bade a messenger go to her and say,
"Lady, king Darius gives thee as a boon the life of one of thy
kinsmen- choose which thou wilt of the prisoners." Then she pondered
awhile before she answered, "If the king grants me the life of one
alone, I make choice of my brother." Darius, when he heard the
reply, was astonished, and sent again, saying, "Lady, the king bids
thee tell him why it is that thou passest by thy husband and thy
children, and preferrest to have the life of thy brother spared. He is
not so near to thee as thy children, nor so dear as thy husband."
She answered, "O king, if the gods will, I may have another husband
and other children when these are gone. But as my father and my mother
are no more, it is impossible that I should have another brother. This
was my thought when I asked to have my brother spared." Then it seemed
to Darius that the lady spoke well, and he gave her, besides the
life that she had asked, the life also of her eldest son, because he
was greatly pleased with her. But he slew all the rest. Thus one of
the seven died, in the way I have described, very shortly after the
insurrection.
About the time of Cambyses' last sickness, the following events
happened. There was a certain Oroetes, a Persian, whom Cyrus had
made governor of Sardis. This man conceived a most unholy wish. He had
never suffered wrong or had an ill word from Polycrates the Samian-
nay, he had not so much as seen him in all his life; yet,
notwithstanding, he conceived the wish to seize him and put him to
death. This wish, according to the account which the most part give,
arose from what happened one day as he was sitting with another
Persian in the gate of the king's palace. The man's name was
Mitrobates, and he was ruler of the satrapy of Dascyleium. He and
Oroetes had been talking together, and from talking they fell to
quarrelling and comparing their merits; whereupon Mitrobates said to
Oroetes reproachfully, "Art thou worthy to be called a man, when, near
as Samos lies to thy government, and easy as it is to conquer, thou
hast omitted to bring it under the dominion of the king? Easy to
conquer, said I? Why, a mere common citizen, with the help of
fifteen men-at-arms, mastered the island, and is still king of it."
Oroetes, they say, took this reproach greatly to heart; but, instead
of seeking to revenge himself on the man by whom it was uttered, he
conceived the desire of destroying Polycrates, since it was on
Polycrates' account that the reproach had fallen on him.
Another less common version of the story is that Oroetes sent a
herald to Samos to make a request, the nature of which is not