Thalia   

best-skilled physicians in all the world; to their aid, therefore,
he had recourse; but they twisted the foot so clumsily, and used
such violence, that they only made the mischief greater. For seven
days and seven nights the king lay without sleep, so grievous was
the pain he suffered. On the eighth day of his indisposition, one
who had heard before leaving Sardis of the skill of Democedes the
Crotoniat, told Darius, who commanded that he should be brought with
all speed into his presence. When, therefore, they had found him among
the slaves of Oroetes, quite uncared for by any one, they brought
him just as he was, clanking his fetters, and all clothed in rags,
before the king.
As soon as he was entered into the presence, Darius asked him if
he knew medicine- to which he answered "No," for he feared that if
he made himself known he would lose all chance of ever again beholding
Greece. Darius, however, perceiving that he dealt deceitfully, and
really understood the art, bade those who had brought him to the
presence go fetch the scourges and the pricking-irons. Upon this
Democedes made confession, but at the same time said, that he had no
thorough knowledge of medicine- he had but lived some time with a
physician, and in this way had gained a slight smattering of the
art. However, Darius put himself under his care, and Democedes, by
using the remedies customary among the Greeks, and exchanging the
violent treatment of the Egyptians for milder means, first enabled him
to get some sleep, and then in a very little time restored him
altogether, after he had quite lost the hope of ever having the use of
his foot. Hereupon the king presented Democedes with two sets of
fetters wrought in gold; so Democedes asked if he meant to double
his sufferings because he had brought him back to health? Darius was
pleased at the speech, and bade the eunuchs take Democedes to see
his wives, which they did accordingly, telling them all that this
was the man who had saved the king's life. Then each of the wives
dipped with a saucer into a chest of gold, and gave so bountifully
to Democedes, that a slave named Sciton, who followed him, and
picked up the staters which fell from the saucers, gathered together a
great heap of gold.
This Democedes left his country and became attached to
Polycrates in the following way:- His father, who dwelt at Crotona,
was a man of a savage temper, and treated him cruelly. When,
therefore, he could no longer bear such constant ill-usage,
Democedes left his home, and sailed away to Egina. There he set up
in business, and succeeded the first year in surpassing all the
best-skilled physicians of the place, notwithstanding that he was
without instruments, and had with him none of the appliances needful
for the practice of his art. In the second year the state of Egina
hired his services at the price of a talent; in the third the
Athenians engaged him at a hundred minae; and in the fourth Polycrates
at two talents. So he went to Samos, and there took up his abode. It
was in no small measure from his success that the Crotoniats came to
be reckoned such good physicians; for about this period the physicians
of Crotona had the name of being the best, and those of Cyrene the
second best, in all Greece. The Argives, about the same time, were
thought to be the first musicians in Greece.
After Democedes had cured Darius at Susa, he dwelt there in a
large house, and feasted daily at the king's table, nor did he lack
anything that his heart desired, excepting liberty to return to his
country. By interceding for them with Darius, he saved the lives of
the Egyptian physicians who had had the care of the king before he
came, when they were about to be impaled because they had been
surpassed by a Greek; and further, he succeeded in rescuing an Elean
soothsayer, who had followed the fortunes of Polycrates, and was lying
in utter neglect among his slaves. In short there was no one who stood
so high as Democedes in the favour of the king.
Moreover, within a little while it happened that Atossa, the
daughter of Cyrus, who was married to Darius, had a boil form upon her