64 THALIA.

men. Darius was, therefore, induced to adopt thii
mode of proceeding: he assembled the noblest of the
Persians, and thus addressed them: " Which of you,
O Persians! will undertake for me the accomplish-
* ment of a project which requires sagacity alone, with­
out military aid, or any kind of violence ? for where
wisdom is required, force is of little avail;—which of
you will bring me the body of Orates, alive or dead'.
He has never deserved well of the Persians; and, in
addition to his numerous crimes, he has killed two
of our countrymen, Mitrobates and his son. He has
also, with intolerable insolence, put a messenger of
mine to death: we must prevent, therefore, his per­
petrating any greater evils against us, by putting him
to death."

CXXVIII. When Darius had thus spoken, thirty
Persians offered to accomplish what he wished. As
they were disputing on the subject, the king ordered
the decision to be made by lot; wliich fell upon Ba-
gteus, the son of Artontos. To attain the end which
he proposed, he caused a number of letters to be writ­
ten on a variety of subjects, and sealing them with
the seal of Darius, he proceeded with them to Sardis.
As soon as he came to the presence of Orates, he de­
livered the letters one by one to the king's secretary;
one of whom is regularly attendant upon the govern­
ors of provinces. The motive of Bagrcus in deliver­
ing the letters separately was to observe the disposition
of the guards, and how far they might be inclined to
revolt from Orates. When he saw that they treated
the letters with great respect, and their contents with
still greater, he delivered one to this effect: "Per­
sians, king Darius forbids you serving any longer
Orates as guards:" in a moment they threw down
their arms. Bagteus, observing their prompt obedi­
ence in this instance, assumed still greater confidence;
he delivered the last of his letters, of which those
were the contents: " King Darius commands the Per­
sians who are at Sardis to put Orates to death:"
without hesitation they drew their swords and killed
him. In this manner was the death of Polycrates of
Samos revenged on Orates the Persian.