48 THALIA.
wards folded it up in his vest, and that in the morning,
as the horses were about to depart, he drew it out from
his garment, and touched the nostrils of the horse of
Darius, and that this scent instantly made him snort
and neigh.
LXXXVIII. Darius the son of Hystaspes was thus
proclaimed king; and, except the Arabians, all the
nations of Asia who had been subdued first by Cyrus,
and afterwards by Cambyses, acknowledged his au
thority. The Arabians were never reduced to the
subjection of Persia, but were in its alliance : they
afforded Cambyses the means of penetrating into
Egypt, without which he could never have accom
plished his purpose. Darius first of all married two
women of Persia, both of them daughters of Cyrus,
Atossa who had first been married to Cambyses, and
afterwards to the magus, and Antystone a virgin. He
then married Parmys, daughter of Smerdis, son of
Cyrus, and also that daughter of Otanes who had
been the instrument in discovering the magus. Being
firmly established on the throne, his first work was
the erection of an equestrian statue, with this inscrip
tion : " Darius, son of Hystaspes, obtained the sove
reignty of Persia by the sagacity of his horse, and
the ingenuity of CEbares his groom." The name of
the horse was also inserted.
LXXXIX. The next act of his authority was to
divide Persia into twenty provinces, which they call
satrapies, to each of which a governor was appointed.
He then ascertained the tribute they were severally to
pay, connecting sometimes many nations together,
which were near each other, under one district; and
sometimes he passed over many which were adjacent,
forming one department of various remote and scat
tered nations. His particular division of the provin
ces, and the mode fixed for the payment of their an
nual tribute, was this: They whose payment was to
be made in silver, were to take the Babylonian talent
for their standard; the Euboic talent was to regulate
those who made .their payment in gold; the Babylo
nian talent, it is to be observed, is equal to seventy
Euboic minte. During the reign of Cyrus, and indeed