96.
[264] Aulus Gellius, who relates this anecdote with more detail than Herodotus, asserts that the slave himself was ignorant of the characters written on his scull, that Histiaeus selected a domestic who had a disease in his eyes--shaved him, punctured the skin, and sending him to Miletus when the hair was grown, assured the credulous patient that Aristagoras would complete the cure by shaving him a second time.

According to this story we must rather admire the simplicity of the slave than the ingenuity of Histiaeus.
[265] Rather a hyperbolical expression--the total number of free Athenians did not exceed twenty thousand.
[266] The Paeonians.
[267] Hecataeus, the historian of Miletus, opposed the retreat to Myrcinus, advising his countrymen rather to fortify themselves in the Isle of Leros, and await the occasion to return to Miletus.

This early writer seems to have been one of those sagacious men who rarely obtain their proper influence in public affairs, because they address the reason in opposition to the passions of those they desire to lead.
Unsuccessful in this proposition, Hecataeus had equally failed on two former occasions;--first, when he attempted to dissuade the Milesians from the revolt of Aristagoras: secondly, when, finding them bent upon it, he advised them to appropriate the sacred treasures in the temple at Branchidae to the maintenance of a naval force.

On each occasion his advice failed precisely because given without prejudice or passion.

The successful adviser must appear to sympathize even with the errors of his audience.
[268] The humane Darius--whose virtues were his own, his faults of his station--treated the son of Miltiades with kindness and respect, married him to a Persian woman, and endowed him with an estate.