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After his hands were free of this affair and he had settled things in Drangine, Alexander marched with his army against a people who used to be called Arimaspians but are now known as Benefactors for the following reason. That Cyrus who had transferred the rule from the Medes to the Persians was once engaged in a campaign in the desert and running out of provisions was brought into extreme danger, so that for lack of food the soldiers were constrained to eat each other, when the Arimaspians appeared bringing thirty thousand wagons laden with provisions. Saved from utter despair, then, Cyrus gave them exemption from taxation and other marks of honour, and abolishing their former appellation, named them Benefactors.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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