Zopyrus, by disfiguring himself with his own hands and cutting off his nose and ears, tricked the Babylonians, and by winning their confidence succeeded in handing over the city to Darius. Many a time Darius said that he would not take an hundred Babylons as the price of not having Zopyrus unscathed. 1
1 Herodotus, iii. 154-160; cf. Polyaenus, Strategemata, vii. 13.