The names of Darius' confederates are given as follows:
| Herodotus | Darius (B. I. iv. 68) | Ctesias (14, p. 67) |
| Otanes | Intaphrenes the son of Veispares | Onophas. |
| Aspathines | Otanes son of Socris | Idernes. |
| Gobryas | Gobryas son of Mardonius | Norondabates. |
| Intaphrenes | Hydarnes son of Megabignes | Mardonius. |
| Megabyzus | Megabyzus son of Dadoes | Barisses. |
| Hydarnes | Ardomanes son of Basuces | Ataphernes. |
As to the list it should be noted (1) that H. gives all the names
right except Aspathines, who seems to be Aspachana, the quiverbearer
of Darius (cf. Nakhsh-I-Rustam Inscrip.); (2) that Ctesias
has only one right, Hydarnes, and that in two cases (Onophas and
Mardonius) he gives the names of their sons (cf. Gilmore, Ctes. p. 148
for an attempted explanation); (3) that the families of all the conspirators
except Intaphrenes (for obvious reasons) are prominent
in the later history.
Some have maintained (e.g. Niebuhr) that H. is wrong in making
the number seven an accident; the Seven were the heads of the
great Persian families, who naturally took the lead in a ‘national
movement’. So later we have the ‘seven counsellors’ (Ezra vii. 14),
and the seven princes of Persia who ‘saw the king's face’ (Esther i.
14). But the coincidence of the number ‘seven’ is probably an
accident (cf. for other ‘sevens’ iii. 14 n. and Esther i. 10, the ‘seven
chamberlains’), for
(1) It is hard to see how the number of the ‘counsellors’ could
have been maintained when one of the conspirators (Darius) had
been raised to the throne, and another (Intaphrenes, iii. 119) attainted.
(2) Plutarch (Praec. Reip. Ger. c. 27, Mor. 820) says the conspirators'
descendants had the right to wear the upright tiara, the
royal badge; but he attributes this to their part in the conspiracy.
(3) Darius in the B. I. seems to imply that the number was
fortuitous. He adds ‘a Persian’ to the name of each conspirator;
but this is to lay stress on the national character of the movement,
not to show that the men were especially privileged.
H. therefore is probably right on this point, though the ‘seven
counsellors’ may well be a real institution, and though the descendants
of the conspirators were rewarded with great privileges
(84 n.).
