That a new logos begins at 5.11 is clear. At 4.143–4 Darius left Megabazus in Thrace, reached Sestos and crossed the Hellespont. Megabazus went into action against those who did not medize. And then we moved to Libya. At 5.1 we rejoined Megabazus but not Darius. Now at 5.11 we rejoin Darius. There is no messing about here: in a familiar enough Herodotean technique, a new section begins with the name, no article, of the prime protagonist. We know from this first word what we are in for: Darius resumes control. If the reader thought that Megabazus had been left to determine for himself the precise contours of a mission that was only generally defined and that Darius had no further personal interest west of the Hellespont, s/he is about to discover otherwise. If Darius has scurried off extremely fast (tachista) that is not so much to get out of it, as to get back into it, to pick up the reins of power.

The opening chapters of Book 5 have highlighted a number of issues about power. A concern with the nature of power, with what makes one city powerful and another weak, with how and why cities and peoples that were once powerful cease to be powerful, and those who were not previously powerful become powerful, is central to the whole Herodotean endeavour, from the proem to the final sentence.