The first gift Darius gave this man was two pairs of fetters made of gold.

The man had just healed the king's foot. Holding the golden fetters, he asked one question, and the king, of all things, was pleased.

To feel the weight of that question, you must first know how he came into the palace dragging iron chains.

I. The Man Forgotten Among the Slaves

His name was Democedes, son of Calliphon, of Croton in Italy. In his time no physician was more skilled.

In an earlier story I told of Polycrates of Samos: the man whose ring, thrown into the sea, came back to him, and who at last ignored his daughter's warnings, sailed in his fifty-oared ship to Magnesia, and was killed by Oroetes, governor of Sardis, and crucified.

Polycrates went with a great retinue, and Democedes was among them.

Oroetes let the Samians go, telling them to thank him for their freedom. Those who were not Samians, and the servants of the followers, he kept as slaves. So Democedes of Croton became the slave of a Persian governor.

Before long Oroetes met his own punishment. Darius, now king, sent Bagaeus to Sardis with roll after roll of letters under the royal seal, and had them read one by one before the governor's guards. The last roll said: "King Darius instructs the Persians in Sardis to kill Oroetes." The guards drew their blades and killed him on the spot.

Oroetes' slaves and goods were all carried off to Susa.

Democedes went with them. No one remembered him.

II. The Eighth Day

Not long after, Darius, leaping from his horse while hunting, twisted his foot so badly that the ankle bone slipped out of its socket.

He had long kept beside him the best physicians of Egypt, men reputed to be the first in medicine anywhere. They came and wrenched the foot with force, and made it worse. For seven days and seven nights the king could not sleep for pain.

On the eighth day, when the king was in a bad way, someone spoke up: in Sardis he had heard of the skill of Democedes of Croton.

Darius ordered him brought as quickly as possible.

They found him among Oroetes' slaves, left there and long neglected. And so they brought him before the king, dragging his fetters and dressed in rags.

III. He Would Not Admit It

He was set in the midst of them, and Darius asked whether he knew the art of medicine.

He would not admit it.

What he feared was this: once he revealed his skill, he would be cut off from Greece forever.

But Darius could see that the man knew how to dissemble. He told those who had brought him to fetch whips and goads into the middle of the room.

Only then did Democedes give way. He said he had no exact knowledge of the art; he had kept company with a physician and had picked up a poor smattering of it.

The king put himself in his hands. Democedes used Greek remedies, and after the Egyptians' force he applied gentle treatment. He let the king sleep, and in a short time made him well, though Darius had given up hope of ever having a sound foot again.

IV. Two Pairs of Golden Fetters

The king rewarded him. The reward was two pairs of fetters made of gold.

Democedes asked: "Are you deliberately giving me double the misery, because I made you well?"

Darius liked the remark and sent him to his wives.

The eunuchs who led him in told the women: this is the man who gave the king back his life.

Each woman took a bowl, dipped it into a chest full of gold, and gave it to Democedes. The gift was so lavish that the servant following him, a man named Sciton, gathered a great heap of gold just by picking up the staters that fell from the bowls.

I must pause here and tell how this man came to such a place.

V. Leaving Croton

In Croton, Democedes lived under a father of harsh temper. He could not bear him, so he left and went to Aegina.

In his first year there he surpassed all the other physicians, though he had no equipment and none of the instruments of his craft. In the second year the Aeginetans hired him at public expense for a talent; in the third year the Athenians hired him for a hundred minae; in the fourth year Polycrates hired him for two talents and brought him to Samos.

It was not least because of this man that the physicians of Croton grew famous. In those days people said the best physicians in Greece came from Croton, and the next best from Cyrene.

A young man who had fallen out with his father and left home alone was bid for by one city after another at ever higher prices, until a tyrant took him, with the rest of his retinue, to Magnesia.

From there on, his price was no longer his to set.

VI. The Great House at Susa

Now he had a very grand house at Susa and ate at the king's table.

He had everything except one thing: leave to go back to Greece.

The Egyptian physicians who had attended the king were about to be impaled for being less skilled than a Greek. Democedes begged the king for their lives and saved them. He also saved a seer from Elis, once a follower of Polycrates, who had likewise been forgotten among the slaves.

Democedes was a man of great weight with the king.

But the more weight he had, the more closely the king kept him.

VII. Atossa's Oath

A little later something else happened.

Atossa, daughter of Cyrus and wife of Darius, had a growth on her breast. It broke open and kept spreading.

While it was small she hid it out of shame and told no one. When it grew bad, she sent for Democedes and showed it to him.

Democedes said he could cure her. But he made her swear that she would grant him whatever he asked in return. He added that he would ask nothing shameful.

He cured her.

Then, in their chamber, Atossa spoke to Darius in the words Democedes had taught her:

"O King, you have so much power, yet you sit idle, winning no new people and no new strength for the Persians. A man who is young and master of great wealth should be seen doing great deeds, so that the Persians know they are ruled by a man."

There were two gains in it, she said: the Persians would know their leader was a man, and, busy with war, they would have no leisure to plot against him. He should act while he was young. The mind grows with the body, and ages with it too, until it is dull for everything.

Darius answered: "Woman, what you say is exactly what I meant to do. I have planned to bridge this continent to the other and march against the Scythians. It will be done soon."

Atossa said: "Let the Scythians wait; you can have them whenever you wish. I tell you, march against Greece. I have heard of the women of Laconia, Argos, Attica, and Corinth, and I want them as my servants. And you have a man fitter than anyone to show you everything about Greece: the physician who healed your foot."

A Greek doctor who wanted to go home had hidden his road home inside a queen's wish for maids.

Darius said: since you think we should try Greece first, it seems best to send Persian spies first, together with the man you mention, to report everything they see and learn. When I know it all, I will move against them.

VIII. A Ship Full of Good Things

No sooner said than done. At dawn the next day he summoned fifteen prominent Persians and ordered them to go with Democedes along the coasts of Greece, and by all means to bring the physician back and not let him escape.

Then he sent for Democedes and asked him to come back once he had shown and explained all of Greece to the Persians. He told him to take all his movable goods as gifts for his father and brothers, promising to repay him many times over, and to send with him a ship laden with all good things.

I think Darius made these promises without any intent to trap him.

But Democedes feared the king was testing him. So he was in no hurry to accept everything offered. He said he would leave his own property where it was, to have it when he returned; the ship the king promised for the gifts to his brothers he accepted.

Darius gave him the same instructions as the others, and sent them all down to the coast.

IX. The Rudders Taken Off

They came to Sidon in Phoenicia and fitted out two triremes and a great merchant ship laden with all good things. When everything was ready they sailed for Greece.

Wherever they touched the coast, they viewed it and wrote it down. Having seen the greatest and most famous parts of Greece, they came to Taras in Italy.

There Aristophilides, king of the Tarentines, out of sympathy for Democedes, took the rudders off the Median ships and put the Persians under guard as spies.

While they were stuck there, Democedes reached Croton.

Only when the physician was safely home did Aristophilides free the Persians and return what he had taken from their ships.

X. Sticks in the Marketplace

The Persians sailed from Taras in pursuit and came to Croton. They found Democedes in the marketplace and laid hands on him.

Some Crotoniates, fearing Persian power, were ready to give him up. Others seized the Persians in turn and beat them with sticks.

The Persians shouted: "Men of Croton, look at what you are doing! You are taking from us a runaway slave of the king. How will King Darius like being insulted like this? What good will come to you if you rob us of him? Which city here shall we march on first? Which shall we try first to enslave?"

The Crotoniates paid no heed.

The Persians lost Democedes, and the merchant ship they had brought with them was taken too. They turned back for Asia. With their guide gone, they made no further attempt to learn about the farther parts of Greece.

As they were putting out to sea, Democedes gave them a message for Darius: Democedes was betrothed to the daughter of Milo.

Milo was the wrestler. His name carried great weight with Darius.

In my opinion, Democedes paid a large sum to hurry this marriage along so that Darius would see he was a man of standing in his own country, just as he had been in Persia.

XI. The First Persians in Greece

The Persians sailed from Croton but were wrecked on the coast of Iapygia and made slaves there.

Later Gillus, an exile from Taras, ransomed them and brought them back to Darius. Darius was ready to give him whatever he wanted in return.

Gillus asked only to be restored to Taras. He told the story of his misfortune, but, fearing that his case might stir up Greece and bring a great expedition against Italy, he said it would be enough for the Cnidians alone to take him home, since they were friends of the Tarentines.

Darius kept his word and sent a messenger to Cnidus telling them to bring Gillus back to Taras. The Cnidians obeyed, but they could not persuade the Tarentines and had no power to force them.

That is what happened.

These were the first Persians who came from Asia to Greece. They came to view the land, and this is why.

Later Persians would come to Greece with fleets and armies. The very first of them came following a doctor who wanted to go home.

He had come into the palace dragging iron chains, held up golden ones, and asked the king whether he meant to double his misery. What he took home in the end was a shipload of the king's good things, and a marriage that would tell the king exactly who he was.

Sources, versions, and editorial boundaries

1. Core narrative: Herodotus, Histories 3.125 (Democedes of Croton, son of Calliphon, in Polycrates' retinue at Magnesia; Oroetes freed the Samians and enslaved the other followers and servants); 3.126–128 (Oroetes' crimes and his killing by his own guards after Bagaeus read Darius' letters); 3.129–138 (Oroetes' slaves taken to Susa; Darius' sprained foot, the failed Egyptian doctors, seven sleepless days and nights; Democedes brought in fetters; whips and goads; Greek treatment; two pairs of golden fetters; the wives' gold and the servant Sciton; his fees at Aegina, Athens and Samos; the Egyptian doctors and the Elean seer saved; Atossa's illness, oath and speech; the fifteen Persians, ships fitted out at Sidon, the coastal survey; King Aristophilides of Taras removing the rudders; the struggle in the Croton marketplace; Milo's daughter; the wreck in Iapygia, Gillus and the Cnidians; "the first Persians who came from Asia into Greece"). Read in A. D. Godley's public-domain 1920 translation (PerseusDL canonical-greekLit TEI file tlg0016.tlg001.perseus-eng2), with the Greek of 3.130, 3.131 and 3.137 checked in the same repository (tlg0016.tlg001.perseus-grc2).

2. Version note: the English e-text used omits, at 3.130, the whips and goads and Democedes' claim that he knew the art only poorly from keeping company with a physician; at 3.131 it merges the Aeginetan and Athenian fees and drops the one talent. These are restored here from the Greek ("μάστιγάς τε καὶ κέντρα"; "ὁμιλήσας δὲ ἰητρῷ φλαύρως ἔχειν τὴν τέχνην"; "ταλάντου Αἰγινῆται δημοσίῃ μισθοῦνται, τρίτῳ δὲ ἔτεϊ Ἀθηναῖοι ἑκατὸν μνέων"). "After the Egyptians' force he applied gentle treatment" follows the Greek "ἤπια μετὰ τὰ ἰσχυρὰ προσάγων." The translation's note puts the Aeginetan talent at about 82 Attic minae. Only these passages were checked in Greek; the rest is a paraphrase and partial translation from the English, not a word-for-word rendering.

3. Herodotus' own judgments: that Darius made his promises without treacherous intent (3.135) and that Democedes hurried the marriage to show his standing at home (3.137) are given in the Histories as Herodotus' opinion, and are marked that way here. Democedes' fear of never returning to Greece (3.130) and of being tested (3.135) are Herodotus' explanations of his motives; no further inner life is added. That Atossa spoke "as Democedes had instructed her" (3.134) is also Herodotus' statement.

4. Dates: Polycrates died while Cambyses was ill (3.120), around 522 BCE, consistent with stories 023–025 of this column; the map uses "c. 522 BCE." For Darius' injury, the mission and the escape to Croton, Herodotus says only "not long after" Oroetes' death and gives no year. The Susa point uses only the span of Darius' reign (522–486 BCE) as an outer bound, not a date. No year is assigned to the Scythian expedition Darius mentions.

5. Places: Magnesia on the Maeander uses the coordinates of the English Wikipedia article "Magnesia on the Maeander" (37.8528 N, 27.5272 E), standing for the ancient site; Susa uses the English Wikipedia "Susa" coordinates (32.1906 N, 48.2578 E), standing for the ancient city. Croton (modern Crotone), Taras (modern Taranto), Sidon, Aegina, Sardis, Iapygia and Cnidus are not mapped, since no reliable year attaches to those events.

6. Fact and literary boundaries: all speech has a matching passage in the Histories and is paraphrased from the English (in a few places from the Greek). No weather, facial expressions, unsupported thoughts or new dialogue are added. The echo between the iron chains, the golden fetters and the "ship full of good things," and lines such as "his price was no longer his to set," "the more weight he had, the more closely the king kept him," "hidden his road home inside a queen's wish for maids" and "the very first of them came following a doctor who wanted to go home," are the narrator's comments. "An earlier story" refers to story 023 of this column. Democedes' later life in Croton and later traditions linking him with the Pythagoreans there are not used.

7. Rights: the ancient work and Godley's 1920 translation are in the public domain; the Chinese and English stories are original contemporary retellings by Clio Walker. Wikipedia pages are used only for coordinates.