Histories

​Syloson indeed understood that this was lost to him through his simple-mindedness. But as time went on, Cambyses died, the Seven rebelled against the Magus, and from among the Seven, Darius obtained the kingship; then Syloson learned that the kingship had come round to this man to whom he himself had once given the garment in Egypt when he requested it. And having gone up to Susa, he sat at the gateway of the king’s palace and said that he was a benefactor of Darius.

​The gatekeeper, having heard this, reported it to the king; and he, wondering, said to him: “And who of the Greeks is a benefactor to whom I am under obligation, having only recently obtained the rule? Indeed, either some one or as yet no one of them has come up to us, and I have, I may say, no debt to any Greek man. Nevertheless, bring him inside, so that I may know what he wants by saying this.”

​The gatekeeper brought Syloson in, and when he stood in the midst, the interpreters asked him who he was and what he had done to say that he was a benefactor of the king. So Syloson told them all that had happened concerning the cloak, and how he himself was that man who had given it.

​Darius answered to this: “O most noble of men, you are that man who gave to me, when I as yet had no power, even if it was small; yet the gratitude is just as great as if I were now to receive some great thing from somewhere. In return for which I give you gold and silver beyond measure, so that you may never regret having done good to Darius, son of Hystaspes.” Syloson said to this: ”Do not give me, O king, either gold or silver, but recover and give me my homeland Samos, which, now that my brother Polycrates has been killed by Oroetes, our slave holds; give this to me without slaughter and enslavement.”