Now this is that _Darius_ who coined a great number of pieces of pure gold called _Darics_, or _Stateres Darici:_ for _Suidas_, _Harpocration_, and the Scholiast of _Aristophanes_> [415] tell us, that these were coined not by the father of _Xerxes_, but by an earlier _Darius_, by _Darius_ the first, by the first King of the _Medes_ and _Persians_ who coined gold money. They were stamped on one side with the effigies of an Archer, who was crowned with a spiked crown, had a bow in his left hand, and an arrow in his right, and was cloathed with a long robe; I have seen one of them in gold, and another in silver: they were of the same weight and value with the _Attic Stater_ or piece of gold money weighing two _Attic_ drachms. _Darius_ seems to have learnt the art and use of money from the conquered Kingdom of the _Lydians_, and to have recoined their gold: for the _Medes_, before they conquered the _Lydians_, had no money. _Herodotus_ [416] tells us, that _when_ Crœsus _was preparing to invade_ Cyrus, _a certain _Lydian_ called _Sandanis_ advised him, that he was preparing an expedition against a nation who were cloathed with leathern breeches, who eat not such victuals as they would, but such as their barren country afforded; who drank no wine, but water only, who eat no figs nor other good meat, who had nothing to lose, but might get much from the _Lydians__: _for the _Persians__, saith _Herodotus_, _before they conquered the _Lydians_, had nothing rich or valuable_: and [417] _Isaiah_ tells us, that _the _Medes_ regarded not silver, nor delighted in gold_; but the _Lydians_ and _Phrygians_ were exceeding rich, even to a proverb: _Midas & Crœsus_, saith [418] _Pliny, infinitum possederant. Jam Cyrus devicta Asia_ [auri] _pondo xxxiv millia invenerat, præter vasa aurea aurumque factum, & in eo folia ac platanum vitemque. Qua victoria argenti quingenta millia talentorum reportavit, & craterem Semiramidis cujus pondus quindecim talentorum colligebat. Talentum autem Ægyptium pondo octoginta capere Varro tradit._ What the conqueror did with all this gold and silver appears by the _Darics_. The _Lydians_, according to [419] _Herodotus_, were the first who coined gold and silver, and _Crœsus_ coined gold monies in plenty, called _Crœsei_; and it was not reasonable that the monies of the Kings of _Lydia_ should continue current after the overthrow of their Kingdom, and therefore _Darius_ recoined it with his own effigies, but without altering the current weight and value: he Reigned then from before the conquest of _Sardes_ 'till after the conquest of _Babylon_. And since the cup of _Semiramis_ was preserved 'till the conquest of _Crœsus_ by _Darius_, it is not probable that she could be older than is represented by _Herodotus_. This conquest of the Kingdom of _Lydia_ put the _Greeks_ into fear of the _Medes_: for _Theognis_, who lived at _Megara_ in the very times of these wars, writes thus, [420]