Spiegel, "Keilinschriften," s. 7, "to say;" so Oppert ("Peuple des Mèdes," p. 110) after the Turanian version; on the other hand Mordtmann in "Z. D. M. G." 16, 37 gives, "to undertake."
204
Spiegel, "Keilinschriften," s. 81 ff.; Oppert, loc. cit. p. 121.
205
Herodotus gives Aspathines or Aspathenes; the inscription on the tomb of Darius mentions Açpachana as holding an honourable office near the person of the king.
206
Herod. 3, 67.
207
Herod. 3, 139, 126, 127.
208
See below, p. 229.
209
Plutarch, "Praec. gerend. reip." c. 27; Polyaen. "Strateg." 7, 12.
210
Herod. 7, 2; Behist. 4, 84; 5, 7, 9. N. R. c.
211
G. Rawlinson's view, which he gives in an excursus to his Herodotus (2, 548 ff.) – that the Magian was not a Mede, I accept, as I have observed, p. 191. Darius says in the inscription of Behistun that neither a Persian nor a "Mede" had risen against Gaumata, and moreover, that he had recovered the dominion which had been taken "from his tribe" and "race." But in no case was it a question of a religious conflict, but rather to avoid a new struggle between Media and Persia. On the passage 3, 14 in the inscription all that need be said has been given already (p. 216).
212
Herod. 3, 80-88.
213
Justin. 1, 10.
214
Ctes. "Pers." 14.
215
Sext. Empir. "Adv. Rhet." 33 in Stein, Herod. 3, 80.
216
Herod. 6, 43.
217
The evidence in support of this will be found in the Greek History.
218
Above, p. 195, n.
219
Herod. 3, 67, 126, 150.
220
He was, according to Herodotus, twenty years old at the death of Cyrus. Herod. 1, 209; 3, 139. Ctesias ("Pers." 19) gives Darius a reign of thirty-one years and a life of seventy-two. That the reign of Darius lasted thirty-six years is fixed both by the astronomical canon and Egyptian inscriptions, which mention the thirty-sixth year of Darius; and lastly by the Egibi-tablets of Babylon, which give dates out of thirty-five years (with the single exception of the seventh year). "Transact. Bibl. Arch." 6, 69 ff. According to Ctesias, Darius would be thirty-six years old in the year 521 B.C.
221
Herod. (3, 118, 119) puts this event; αὐτίκα μετὰ τὴν ἐπανάστασιν.
222
Herod. 1, 130.
223
Justin repeats the narrative of Herodotus in a rhetorical form; he incorrectly regards Zopyrus as one of the seven. Diodorus attempts to unite the statements of Herodotus and Ctesias, by maintaining that Zopyrus was also called Megabyzus; the "twenty Babylons" are reduced to ten. (Exc. Vat. p. 34, 35 = 10, 19.) In Herod. (4, 143) Darius wishes when he opens the finest pomegranate that he had as many Megabyzuses (the father of Zopyrus is meant) as the fruit had seeds. Plutarch transfers this to Zopyrus, and represents Darius as saying that he would rather have Zopyrus uninjured than 100 Babylons; "Reg. Apophthegm." 3. In Polyaenus (7, 12), Zopyrus imitates the device which Sirakes, a Sacian, had previously employed against Darius, and opens the gates of Babylon to the Persians by night.
224
Thucyd. 1, 104, 109, 110; Diod. 11, 71, 74, 75, 77; 12, 3; Isocr. "De Pace," 82.
225
Ctes. "Pers." 44. The paidagogos of Alcibiades was no doubt named after this Zopyrus. Plutarch, "Lycurg." c. 16; Alcib. c. 1; Kirchhoff, "Enstehungszeit," s. 15.
226
E. g. Ménant, "Babylon," p. 204; Oppert. "Expéd." 1, 187, 223.
227
So according to the Babylonian text in Schrader, "Keilinschriften," s. 345.
228