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ἀγαθοεργίην. Xenophon (Cyr. i. 2. 1) for once is right in describing the Persian esteem for Cyrus, who ᾁδεται ἔτι καὶ νῦν εἶδος κάλλιστος, ψυχὴν φιλανθρωπότατος, φιλομαθέστατος, φιλοτιμότατος. Cf. also c. 75. εἲκοσι. Plutarch (Reg. Apoph. s.v. Δαρείου; Mor. 173) characteristically exaggerates this to ‘100’. Cf. iv. 143 for a similar compliment to Megabyzus.
δῶρα. For royal gifts cf. 84. 1. As Babylon paid 1,000 talents a year (92. 1), this grant can hardly refer to the whole tribute. For Megabyzus' success in Egypt cf. Thuc. i. 109; he afterwards quarrelled with the king, because the safe-conduct he had given to Inaros was violated; cf. 15 n. and Ctesias (34 seq., p. 72 seq.), who goes on to describe, in an important passage too long to quote, his subsequent relations with the king, the desertion of Zopyrus to Athens, and his death at Caunus. For the story of Ctesias, and especially for the phil-Hellenic leanings of the family of Megabyzus and the date of the desertion of Zopyrus, cf. J. H. S. xxvii. 57 seq., ‘The Persian friends of Herodotus,’ where an attempt is made (1) to connect the desertion of Zopyrus with the Samian War of 440-439 B. C. (cf. Thuc. i. 115, and Introd. p. 8); (2) to show that H. probably met him in Athens in 440 and derived from him such passages as iii. 80 seq., 90 seq., v. 52 seq.; (3) to date H.'s departure for the West 440 B. C., which would account for the fact that he says nothing of the death of Zopyrus. This took place (Ctes. 43, p. 74) when the Athenians were besieging Caunus in Caria (probably in 439 B. C.; cf. Busolt, iii. 554-5 for the relations of Athens and Persia at this time). This date would be important if it could be accepted. Kirchhoff, however (cf. Introd. p. 10 f.), dates Zopyrus' desertion ‘438 or probably later’. Rawlinson is certainly wrong in placing it in 426 or 425 B. C., as ‘probably the latest event recorded by H.’
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