[sect. 2]
dw=ra. 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.
