After fixing the amount of the taxes which his subjects were to pay, he sent for the leading men of the provinces, and asked them if the taxes were not perhaps heavy; and when the men said that the taxes were moderate, he ordered that each should pay only half as much. 1 [p. 15]
1 The same story with variations may be found in Polyaenus, Strategemata, vii. 11. 3. Nothing to this effect is to be found in Herodotus's account of Darius's taxation, iii. 86-95.