 Book 1, Part 9 of Herodotus' Histories This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Graham Redman. Histories, Volume 1, by Herodotus of Helicarnassus, translated by A. D. Godly. Book 1, Part 9, paragraphs 164 to 185. In such a manner the Phocians' wall was built. Harpagus marched against the city and besieged it, but he made overtures and said that it would suffice him if the Phocians would demolish one rampart of the wall and dedicate one house. But the Phocians, very indignant at the thought of slavery, said they wanted to deliberate for a day and then they would answer, but while they were deliberating Harpagus must withdraw his army from the walls, they said. Harpagus said that he well knew what they intended to do, but that nevertheless he would allow them to deliberate. So when Harpagus withdrew his army from the walls, the Phocians launched their fifty-odd ships, embarked their children and women and all their movable goods, besides the statues from the temples and everything dedicated in them except bronze or stonework or painting, and then embarked themselves and set sail for Kios, and the Persians took Phocia, left thus uninhabited. The Phocians would have bought the islands called Inusii from the Chians, but the Chians would not sell them because they feared that the islands would become a market, and so their own island be cut off from trade. So the Phocians prepared to sail to Sionus, where at the command of an oracle they had built a city called Alalia twenty years before. Arganthonius was by this time dead. While getting ready for their voyage they first sailed to Phocia where they destroyed the Persian guard to whom Harpagus had entrusted the defense of the city, and when this was done they called down mighty curses on any one of them who should stay behind when the rest sailed. Not only this, but they sank a mass of iron in the sea, and swore never to return to Phocia before the iron should appear again. But while they prepared to sail to Sionus, more than half of the citizens were overcome with longing and pitiful sorrow for the city and the life of their land, and they broke their oath and sailed back to Phocia. Those of them who kept the oath put out to sea from the Inusii, and when they came to Sionus they lived there for five years as one community with those who had come first, and they founded temples there. But they harassed and plundered all their neighbours as a result of which the Tyranians and Carthaginians made common cause against them and sailed to attack them with sixty ships each. The Phocians also manned their ships, sixty in number, and met the enemy in the sea called Sardonian. They engaged, and the Phocians won, yet it was only a kind of Cadmian victory, for they lost forty of their ships, and the twenty that remained were useless, their rams twisted awry. Then sailing to Alalia, they took their children and women and all of their possessions that their ships could hold on board, and leaving Sionus they sailed to Regium. As for the crews of the disabled ships, the Carthaginians and Tyranians drew lots for them, and of the Tyranians the Agilioi were allotted by far the majority, and these they led out and stoned to death. But afterwards everything from Agila that passed the place where the stone Phocians lay, whether sheep or beasts of burden or men, became distorted and crippled and palsied. The Agileans sent to Delphi wanting to mend their offence, and the Pythian priestess told them to do what the people of Agila do to this day, for they pay great honours to the Phocians with religious rites and games and horse races. Such was the end of this part of the Phocians. Those of them who fled to Regium set out from there and gained possession of that city in the Inotrian country, which is now called Haileli. They founded this because they learned from a man of Poseidonia that the Sionus whose establishment the Pythian priestess ordained was the hero, and not the island. Thus then it went with the Ionian Phocia. The Tyans did the same things as the Phocians. When Harpeges had taken their walled city by building an earthwork they all embarked aboard ship and sailed away for Thrace. There they founded a city, Abdera, which before this had been founded by Thymesius of Cladzomini, yet he got no profit of it but was driven out by the Thracians. This Thymesius is now honoured as a hero by the Tyans of Abdera. These were the only Ionians who left their native lands unable to endure slavery. The rest of the Ionians, except the Milesians, though they faced Harpeges in battle as did the exiles and conducted themselves well, each fighting for his own country, yet when they were defeated and their cities taken they remained where they were and did as they were told. The Milesians, as I have already said, made a treaty with Cyrus himself and struck no blow. Thus Ionia was enslaved for the second time, and when Harpeges had conquered the Ionians of the mainland the Ionians of the islands, fearing the same fate, surrendered to Cyrus. When the Ionians, despite their evil plight, nonetheless assembled at the Pan-Ionian, Bias of Pryini, I have learned, gave them very useful advice, and had they followed it they might have been the most prosperous of all Greeks, for he advised them to put out to sea and sail altogether to Sado, and then found one city for all Ionians. Thus possessing the greatest island in the world and ruling others they would be rid of slavery and have prosperity. But if they stayed in Ionia he could see, he said, no hope of freedom for them. This was the advice which Bias of Pryini gave after the destruction of the Ionians, and that given before the destruction by Thales of Miletus, a Phoenician by descent, was good too. He advised that the Ionians have one place of deliberation and that it be in Teos, for that was the center of Ionia, and that the other cities be considered no more than deems. Harpigus, after subjugating Ionia, made an expedition against the Carians, Cornians and Lycians, taking Ionians and Iolians with him. Of these the Carians have come to the mainland from the islands, for in the past they were islanders called Lelegies and under the rule of Minos, not as far as I can learn by report paying tribute, but manning ships for him when he needed them. Since Minos had subjected a good deal of territory for himself and was victorious in war, this made the Carians too at that time by far the most respected of all nations. They invented three things in which they were followed by the Greeks. It was the Carians who originated wearing crests on their helmets and devices on their shields, and who first made grips for their shields. Until then all who used shields carried them without these grips and guided them with leather belts which they slung round the neck and over the left shoulder. Then a long time afterwards the Carians were driven from the islands by Dorians and Ionians and so came to the mainland. This is the Cretan story about the Carians, but the Carians themselves do not subscribe to it, but believe that they are aboriginal inhabitants of the mainland and always bore the name which they bear now, and they point to an ancient shrine of Carians use at Mylasa to which Mizzians and Lydians, as brethren of the Carians, for Lydus and Mizes they say were brothers of care, are admitted, but not those who spoke the same language as the Carians but were of another people. I think the Cornians are aborigines of the soil, but they say that they came from Crete. Their speech has become like the Carian or the Carian like theirs, for I cannot clearly decide, but in their customs they diverge widely from the Carians as from all other men. Their chief pleasure is to assemble for drinking bouts in groups according to their ages and friendships, men, women, and children. Certain foreign rites of worship were established among them, but afterwards when they were inclined otherwise and wanted to worship only the gods of their fathers, all Cornian men of full age put on their armor and went together as far as the boundaries of Kalinda, striking the air with their spears and saying that they were casting out the alien gods. Such are their ways. The Lysians were from Crete in ancient times, for in the past none that lived on Crete were Greek. Now there was a dispute in Crete about the royal power between Sarpidon and Minos, sons of Europa. Minos prevailed in this dispute and drove out Sarpidon and his partisans, who after being driven out came to the Malian land in Asia. What is now possessed by the Lysians was in the past Malian, and the Malians were then called Solemai. For a while Sarpidon ruled them and the people were called Tirmuli, which was the name that they had brought with them and that is still given to the Lysians by their neighbours. But after Lycus, son of Pandion came from Athens, banished as well by his brother Egeus, to join Sarpidon in the land of the Tirmuli, they came in time to be called Lysians after Lycus. Their customs are partly Cretan and partly Caryon, but they have one which is their own and shared by no other men. They take their names not from their fathers but from their mothers, and when one is asked by his neighbour who he is, he will say that he is the son of such a mother, and rehearse the mothers of his mother. Indeed if a female citizen marries a slave, her children are considered pure-blooded, but if a male citizen, even the most prominent of them, takes an alien wife or concubine, the children are dishonoured. Neither the Caryons nor any Greeks who dwell in this country did anything notable before they were all enslaved by Harpigus. Among those who inhabited are certain Cynidians, colonists from Lassidemon. Their country, it is called the Triopian, lies between the sea and that part of the peninsula which belongs to Bubasus, and all but a small part of the Cynidian territory is washed by the sea, for it is bounded on the north by the gulf of Ceremicus and on the south by the sea of Sime and Rhodes. Now while Harpigus was conquering Ionia, the Cynidians dug a trench across this little space, which is about two-thirds of a mile wide, in order that their country might be an island. So they brought it all within the entrenchment, for the frontier between the Cynidian country and the mainland is on the Isthmus across which they dug. Many of them were at this work, and seeing that the workers were injured when breaking stones more often and less naturally than usual, some in other ways but most in the eyes, the Cynidians sent envoys to Delphi to inquire what it was that opposed them. Then, as they themselves say, the priestess gave them this answer in Iambic verse. Do not wall or trench the Isthmus, Zeus would have given you an island if he had wanted to. At this answer from the priestess the Cynidians stopped their digging, and when Harpigus came against them with his army they surrendered to him without resistance. There were pedicians dwelling inland above Halicarnassus, when any misfortune was approaching them or their neighbours, the priestess of Athena grew a long beard. This had happened to them thrice. These were the only men near Carrier who held out for long against Harpigus, and they gave him the most trouble. They fortified a hill called Lydie. The pedicians were at length taken, and when Harpigus led his army into the plain of Xanthus, the Lycians came out to meet him and showed themselves courageous fighting few against many. But being beaten and driven into the city, they gathered their wives and children and goods and servants into the Acropolis and then set the whole Acropolis on fire. Then they swore great oaths to each other, and selling out fell fighting all the men of Xanthus. Of the Xanthians who claim now to be Lycians, the greater number, all except eighty households, are of foreign descent. These eighty families, as it happened, were away from the city at that time and thus survived. So Harpigus gained Xanthus, and Cornus too in a somewhat similar manner, the Cornians following for the most part the example of the Lycians. Harpigus then made havoc of lower Asia. In the upper country Cyrus himself vanquished every nation, leaving none untouched. Of the greater part of these I will say nothing, but will speak only of those which gave Cyrus the most trouble and are most worthy of being described. When Cyrus had made all the mainland submit to him, he attacked the Assyrians. In Assyria there are many other great cities, but the most famous and the strongest was Babylon, where the royal dwelling had been established after the destruction of Ninus. Babylon was a city such as I will now describe. It lies in a great plain, and is in shape a square, each side fifteen miles in length. Thus sixty miles make the complete circuit of the city. Such is the size of the city of Babylon, and it was planned like no other city of which we know. Around it runs first a moat deep and wide and full of water, and then a wall eighty-three feet thick and three hundred thirty-three feet high. The royal measure is greater by three fingers breadth than the common measure. Further I must relate where the earth was used as it was dug from the moat, and how the wall was constructed. As they dug the moat they made bricks of the earth which was carried out of the place they dug, and when they had moulded bricks enough they baked them in ovens. Then using hot bitumen for cement and interposing layers of waddled reeds at every thirtieth course of bricks, they built first the border of the moat and then the wall itself in the same fashion. On the top, along the edges of the wall, they built houses of a single room facing each other, with space enough between to drive a four-horse chariot. There are a hundred gates in the circuit of the wall, all of bronze with posts and lintels of the same. There is another city called Is, eight days journey from Babylon, where there is a little river, also named Is, a tributary of the Euphrates River. From the source of this river Is, many lumps of bitumen rise with the water, and from there the bitumen was brought for the wall of Babylon. Thus then this wall was built. The city is divided into two parts, for it is cut in half by a river named Euphrates, a wide, deep and swift river flowing from Armenia and issuing into the Red Sea. The angles of the wall then on either side are built quite down to the river. Here they turn, and from here a fence of baked bricks runs along each bank of the stream. The city itself is full of houses three and four storeys high, and the ways that traverse it, those that run crosswise towards the river and the rest, are all straight. Further at the end of each road there was a gate in the riverside fence, one gate for each alley. These gates also were of bronze, and these two opened on the river. These walls are the city's outer armor. Within them there is another encircling wall, nearly as strong as the other, but narrower. In the middle of one division of the city stands the royal palace, surrounded by a high and strong wall, and in the middle of the other is still to this day the sacred enclosure of Zeus Bielus, a square of 440 yards each way with gates of bronze. In the centre of this sacred enclosure a solid tower has been built, 220 yards long and broad. A second tower rises from this, and from it yet another, until at last there are eight. The way up them mounts spirally outside the height of the towers. About half way up is a resting place, with seats for repose, where those who ascend sit down and rest. In the last tower there is a great shrine, and in it stands a great and well covered couch, and a golden table nearby. But no image has been set up in the shrine, nor does any human creature lie there for the night, except one native woman chosen from all women by the God, as the Chaldeans say, who are priests of this God. These same Chaldeans say, though I do not believe them, that the God himself is accustomed to visit the shrine and rest on the couch, as in Thebes of Egypt, as the Egyptians say. For there too a woman sleeps in the temple of Theban Zeus, and neither the Egyptian nor the Babylonian woman, it is said, has intercourse with men, and as does the prophetess of the God at Patera in Lycia, whenever she is appointed. For there is not always a place of divination there, but when she is appointed she is shut up in the temple during the night. In the Babylonian temple there is another shrine below, where there is a great golden image of Zeus sitting at a great golden table, and the footstool and the chair are also gold. The gold of the hole was said by the Chaldeans to be 800 talents' weight. Outside the temple is a golden altar. There is also another great altar, on which are sacrificed the full-grown of the flocks. Only nurslings may be sacrificed on the golden altar, but on the greater altar the Chaldeans even offer a thousand talents' weight of frankincense yearly when they keep the festival of this God, and in the days of Cyrus there was still in this sacred enclosure a statue of solid gold twenty feet high. I myself have not seen it, but I relate what is told by the Chaldeans. Darius, son of High Staspis, proposed to take this statue, but dared not. Xerxes, his son, took it, and killed the priest who warned him not to move the statue. Such is the furniture of this temple, and there are many private offerings besides. Now among the many rulers of this city of Babylon, whom I shall mention in my Assyrian history, who finished the building of the walls and the temples, there were two that were women. The first of these lived five generations earlier than the second, and her name was Semiramis. It was she who built dikes on the plain, a notable work. Before that the whole plain used to be flooded by the river. The second queen, whose name was Nytocris, was a wiser woman than the first. She left such monuments, as I shall record, and moreover seeing that the kingdom of media was great and restless, and Ninus itself, among other cities, had fallen to it, she took such precautions as she could for her protection. First she dealt with the river Euphrates, which flows through the middle of her city. This had been straight before, but by digging canals higher up she made the river so crooked that its course now passes one of the Assyrian villages three times. The village which is so approached by the Euphrates is called Arderica, and now those who travel from our sea to Babylon must spend three days as they float down the Euphrates, coming three times to the same village. Such was this work, and she built an embankment along either shore of the river, marvellous for its greatness and height. Then, a long way above Babylon, she dug the reservoir of a lake, a little way off from the river, always digging deep enough to find water, and making the circumference a distance of 52 miles. What was dug out of this hole she used to embank either edge of the river, and when she had it all dug she brought stones and made a key all around the lake. Her purpose in making the river wind and turning the hole into marsh was this, that the current might be slower because of the many windings that broke its force, and that the passages to Babylon might be crooked, and that right after them should come also the long circuit of the lake. All this work was done in that part of the country where the passes are and the shortest road from Medea so that the Medes might not mix with her people and learn of her affairs. End of book 1 part 9 Recording by Graham Redman Book 1 part 10 of Herodotus Histories This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Graham Redman Histories volume 1 by Herodotus of Halecarnassus translated by A. D. Godley Book 1 part 10 paragraphs 186 to 216 So she made the deep river her protection, and this work led to another which she added to it. Her city was divided into two parts by the river that flowed through the middle. In the days of the former rulers, when one wanted to go from one part to the other, one had to cross in a boat, and this I suppose was a nuisance. But the queen also provided for this. She made another monument of her reign out of this same work when the digging of the basin of the lake was done. She had very long blocks of stone cut, and when these were ready and the place was dug, she turned the course of the river into it, and while it was filling, the former channel now being dry, she bricked the borders of the river in the city and the descent from the gate leading down to the river with baked bricks like those of the wall. And near the middle of the city she built a bridge with the stones that had been dug up, binding them together with iron and lead. Each morning she laid square hewn logs across it, on which the Babylonians crossed. But these logs were removed at night, lest folk always be crossing over and stealing from one another. Then when the basin she had made for a lake was filled by the river and the bridge was finished, Nytocris brought the Euphrates back to its former channel out of the lake. Thus she had served her purpose, as she thought, by making a swamp of the basin, and her citizens had a bridge made for them. There was a trick, too, that this same queen contrived. She had a tomb made for herself, and set high over the very gate of that entrance of the city which was used most, with writing engraved on the tomb, which read, If any king of Babylon in the future is in need of money, let him open this tomb and take as much as he likes. But let him not open it unless he is in need, for it will be the worse for him. This tomb remained untouched until the kingship fell to Darius. He thought it a very strange thing that he should never use this gate, or take the money when it lay there, and the writing itself invited him to. The reason he did not use the gate was that the dead body would be over his head as he passed through. After opening the tomb, he found no money there, only the dead body, with writing which read, If you were ever satisfied with what you had, and did not disgrace yourself seeking more, you would not have opened the coffins of the dead. Such a woman, it is recorded, was this queen. Cyrus then marched against Nytocris's son, who inherited the name of his father, Labinetus, and the sovereignty of Assyria. Now, when the great king campaigns, he marches well provided with food and flocks from home, and water from the Coaspi's river that flows past Sousa is carried with him, the only river from which the king will drink. This water of the Coaspi's is boiled, and very many four-field wagons drawn by mules carry it in silver vessels, following the king wherever he goes at any time. When Cyrus reached the Jindes river on his march to Babylon, which rises in the mountains of the Mati'inae, and flows through the Dardanian country into another river, the Tigris, that again passes the city of Opus and empties into the Red Sea, when, I say, Cyrus tried to cross the Jindes, which was navigable there, one of his sacred white horses dashed recklessly into the river trying to get through it, but the current overwhelmed him and swept him under and away. At this violence of the river Cyrus was very angry, and he threatened to make it so feeble that women could ever after cross it easily without wetting their knees. After uttering this threat, he paused in his march against Babylon and, dividing his army into two parts, drew lines planning out a hundred and eighty canals running every way from either bank of the Jindes. Then he organized his army along the lines and made them dig. Since a great multitude was at work, it went quickly, but they spent the whole summer there before it was finished. Then, at the beginning of the following spring, when Cyrus had punished the Jindes by dividing it among the three hundred and sixty canals, he marched against Babylon at last. The Babylonians saluted out and awaited him, and when he came near their city in his march, they engaged him, but they were beaten and driven inside the city. There they had stored provisions enough for very many years, because they knew already that Cyrus was not a man of no ambition and saw that he attacked all nations alike. So now they were indifferent to the siege, and Cyrus did not know what to do, being so long delayed and gaining no advantage. Whether someone advised him in his difficulty, or whether he perceived for himself what to do, I do not know, but he did the following. He posted his army at the place where the river goes into the city, and another part of it behind the city where the river comes out of the city, and told his men to enter the city by the channel of the Euphrates when they saw it to be affordable. Having disposed them and given this command, he himself marched away with those of his army who could not fight, and when he came to the lake, Cyrus dealt with it and with the river just as had the Babylonian Queen. Drawing off the river by a canal into the lake, which was a marsh, he made the stream sink until its former channel could be forwarded. When this happened, the Persians who were posted with this objective made their way into Babylon by the channel of the Euphrates, which had now sunk to a depth of about the middle of a man's thigh. Now, if the Babylonians had known beforehand or learned what Cyrus was up to, they would have let the Persians enter the city and have destroyed them utterly, for then they would have shut all the gates that opened on the river and mounted the walls that ran along the river banks, and so caught their enemies in a trap. But as it was, the Persians took them unawares, and because of the great size of the city, those who dwell there, say, those in the outer parts of it were overcome, but the inhabitants of the middle part knew nothing of it. All this time they were dancing and celebrating a holiday which happened to fall then, until they learned the truth only too well. And Babylon then for the first time was taken in this way. I shall show how great the power of Babylon is by many other means, but particularly by this. All the land that the great king rules is parceled out to provision him and his army and pays tribute besides. Now the territory of Babylon feeds him for four of the twelve months in the year, the whole of the rest of Asia providing for the other eight. Thus the wealth of Assyria is one-third of the entire wealth of Asia. The governorship of this land, which the Persians call Satrapi, is by far the most powerful of all the governorships, since the daily income of Tritantikmes, son of Artebazus, who governed this province by the king's will, was an artaba full of silver. The artaba is a Persian measure containing more than an attic but dimless by three attic kineses, and besides warhorses he had eight hundred stallions in his stables and sixteen thousand brood mares, each stallion servicing twenty mares. Moreover he kept so great a number of Indian dogs that four great villages of the plain were appointed to provide food for the dogs and exempted from all other burdens. Such were the riches of the governor of Babylon. There is little rain in Assyria. This nourishes the roots of the grain, but it is irrigation from the river that ripens the crop and brings the grain to fullness. In Egypt the river itself rises and floods the fields. In Assyria they are watered by hand and by swinging beams, for the whole land of Babylon, like Egypt, is cut across by canals. The greatest of these is navigable. It runs towards where the sun rises in winter from the Euphrates to another river, the Tigris, on which stood the city of Ninus. This land is by far the most fertile in grain which we know. It does not even try to bear trees, fig, vine or olive, but Demeter's grain is so abundant there that it yields for the most part two hundredfold, and even three hundredfold when the harvest is best. The blades of the wheat and barley there are easily four fingers broad, and for millet and sesame I will not say to what height they grow, though it is known to me, for I am well aware that even what I have said regarding grain is wholly disbelieved by those who have never visited Babylonia. They use no oil except what they make from sesame. There are palm trees there growing all over the plain, most of them yielding fruit, from which food is made and wine and honey. The Assyrians tend these like figs, and chiefly in this respect, that they tie the fruit of the palm, called male by the Greeks, to the date-bearing palm, so that the gallfly may enter the dates and cause them to ripen, and that the fruit of the palm may not fall, for the male palms, like unripened figs, have gallflies in their fruit. I am going to indicate what seems to me to be the most marvellous thing in the country next to the city itself. Their boats, which ply the river and go to Babylon, are all of skins and round. They make these in Armenia higher up the stream than Assyria. First they cut frames of willow, then they stretch hides over these for recovering, making, as it were, a hold. They neither broaden the stern nor narrow the prow, but the boat is round, like a shield. They then fill it with reeds and send it floating down the river with a cargo, and it is for the most part palm wood casks of wine that they carry down. Two men standing upright steer the boat, each with a paddle, one drawing it to him, the other thrusting it from him. These boats are of all sizes, some small, some very large. The largest of them are of as much as 5,000 talents burden. There is a live-ass in each boat, or more than one in the larger. So when they have floated down to Babylon and disposed of their cargo, they sell the framework of the boat and all the reeds. The hides are set on the backs of asses which are then driven back to Armenia, for it is not by any means possible to go upstream by water because of the swiftness of the current. It is for this reason that they make their boats of hides and not of wood. When they have driven their asses back into Armenia, they make more boats in the same way. Such then are their boats. For clothing they wear a linen tunic reaching to the feet. Over this the Babylonian puts on another tunic of wool and wraps himself in a white mantle. He wears the shoes of his country which are like the ocean sandals. Their hair is worn long and covered by caps. The whole body is perfumed. Every man has a seal and a carved staff, and on every staff is some image such as that of an apple or a rose or a lily or an eagle. No one carries a staff without an image. This is the equipment of their persons. I will now speak of their established customs. The wisest of these in our judgment is one which I have learned by inquiry is also a custom of the Enetai in Illyria. It is this. Once a year in every village all the maidens as they attained marriageable age were collected and brought together into one place with a crowd of men standing around. Then a crier would display and offer them for sale one by one first the fairest of all, and then when she had fetched a great price he put up for sale the next most attractive, selling all the maidens as lawful wives. Rich men of Assyria who desired to marry would outbid each other for the fairest. The ordinary people who desired to marry and had no use for beauty could take the ugly ones and money besides, for when the crier had sold all the most attractive he would put up the one that was least beautiful or crippled and offer her to whoever would take her to wife for the least amount, until she fell to one who promised to accept least. The money came from the sale of the attractive ones who thus paid the dowry of the ugly and the crippled. But a man could not give his daughter in marriage to whomever he liked, nor could one that bought a girl take her away without giving security that he would in fact make her his wife, and if the couple could not agree it was a law that the money be returned. Men might also come from other villages to buy if they so desired. This then was their best custom, but it does not continue at this time. They have invented a new one lately, so that the women be not wronged or taken to another city. Since the conquest of Babylon made them afflicted and poor, every one of the people that lacks a livelihood prostitutes his daughters. I come now to the next wisest of their customs. Having no use for physicians they carry the sick into the marketplace. Then those who have been afflicted themselves by the same illness as the sick man's, or seen others in like case, come near and advise him about his disease and comfort him, telling him by what means they have themselves recovered from it or seen others recover. No one may pass by the sick man without speaking and asking after his sickness. The dead are embalmed in honey for burial, and their dirges are like the dirges of Egypt. Whenever a Babylonian has had intercourse with his wife, they both sit before a burnt offering of incense, and at dawn they wash themselves. They will touch no vessel before this is done. This is the custom in Arabia also. The foulest Babylonian custom is that which compels every woman of the land to sit in the temple of Aphrodite and have intercourse with some stranger once in her life. Many women who are rich and proud, and disdain to mingle with the rest, drive to the temple in covered carriages drawn by teams, and stand there with a great retinue of attendance. But most sit down in the sacred plot of Aphrodite with crowns of cord on their heads. There is a great multitude of women coming and going. Passages marked by line run every way through the crowd, by which the men pass and make their choice. Once a woman has taken her place there, she does not go away to her home before some stranger has cast money into her lap and had intercourse with her outside the temple. But while he casts the money, he must say, I invite you in the name of my litter. That is the Assyrian name for Aphrodite. It does not matter what some the money is, the woman will never refuse, for that would be a sin the money being by this act made sacred. So she follows the first man who casts it and rejects no one. After their intercourse, having discharged her sacred duty to the goddess, she goes away to her home, and thereafter there is no bribe however great that will get her. So then the women that are fair and tall are soon free to depart. But the uncomly have long to wait because they cannot fulfil the law, for some of them remain for three years or four. There is a custom like this in some parts of Cyprus. These are established customs among the Babylonians. Furthermore there are three tribes in the country that eat nothing but fish which they catch and dry in the sun. Then after throwing it into a mortar they pound it with pestles and strain everything through linen. Then whoever desires needs as it were a cake of it and eats it. Others bake it like bread. When Cyprus had conquered this nation too, he wanted to subject the Masergeti. These are said to be a great and powerful people dwelling towards the east and the sunrise beyond the Araxes and opposite the Iscidenes, and some say that they are Assythian people. The Araxes is said by some to be greater and by some to be less than the Ishtar. It is reported that there are many islands in it as big as Lesbos and men on them who in summer live on roots of all kinds that they dig up, and in winter on fruit that they have got from trees when it was ripe and stored for food. And they know it is said of trees bearing a fruit whose effect is this. Gathering in groups and kindling a fire the people sit around it and throw the fruit into the flames. Then the fumes of it as it burns make them drunk as the Greeks are with wine, and more and more drunk as more fruit is thrown on the fire until at last they rise up to dance and even sing. Such is said to be their way of life. The Araxes flows from the country of the Metaenai as does the Jindies which Cyrus divided into the 360 channels and empties itself through forty mouths of which all except one is due into bogs and swamps where men are said to live whose food is raw fish and their customary dress seal skins. The one remaining stream of the Araxes flows in a clear channel into the Caspian Sea. Now the Caspian Sea is a part by itself not having connection with the other sea. For all that sea which the Hellenes navigate and the sea beyond the pillars which is called Atlantis and the Erythrian Sea are in fact all one but the Caspian is separate and lies apart by itself. In length it is a voyage of fifteen days if one uses oars and in breadth where it is broadest a voyage of eight days. On the side towards the west of this sea the Caucasus runs along by it which is of all mountain ranges both the greatest in extent and the loftiest and the Caucasus has many various races of men dwelling in it living for the most part on the wild produce of the forests and among them there are said to be trees which produce leaves of such a kind that by pounding them and mixing water with them they paint figures upon their garments and the figures do not wash out but grow old with the woolen stuff as if they had been woven into it at the first and men say that the sexual intercourse of these people is open like that of cattle. This sea called Caspian is hemmed into the west by the Caucasus. Towards the east and the sunrise their stretches from its shores a boundless plane as far as the eye can see. The greater part of this wide plane is the country of the Mesa Jetty against whom Cyrus was eager to lead his army for there were many weighty reasons that impelled and encouraged him to do so first his birth because of which he seemed to be something more than mortal and next his victories in his wars for no nation that Cyrus undertook to attack could escape from him. Now at this time the Mesa Jetty were ruled by a queen called Tomyrus whose husband was dead. Cyrus sent a message with the pretense of wanting her for his wife but Tomyrus would have none of his advances well understanding that he wanted not her but the kingdom of the Mesa Jetty. So when Gile was of no avail Cyrus marched to the Araxes and openly prepared to attack the Mesa Jetty. He bridged the river for his army to cross and built towers on the pontoons bridging the river but while he was busy at this Tomyrus sent a herald to him with this message Oh King of the Meads stop hurrying on what you are hurrying on for you cannot know whether the completion of this work will be for your advantage. Stop and be king of your own country and endure seeing us ruling those whom we rule but if you will not take this advice and will do anything rather than remain at peace then if you so greatly desire to try the strength of the Mesa Jetty stop your present work of bridging the river and let us withdraw three days journey from the Araxes and when that is done cross into our country or if you prefer to receive us into your country then withdraw yourself as I have said hearing this Cyrus called together the leading Persians and laid the matter before them asking them to advise him which he should do they all spoke to the same end urging him to let Tomyrus and her army enter his country but Cresus the Lydian who was present was displeased by their advice and spoke against it Oh King he said you have before now heard from me that since Zeus has given me to you I will turn aside to the best of my ability whatever misadventure I see threatening your house and disaster has been my teacher now if you think that you and the army that you lead are immortal I have no business giving you advice but if you know that you and those whom you rule are only men then I must first teach you this men's fortunes are on a wheel which in its turning does not allow the same man to prosper forever so if that is the case I am not of the same opinion about the business in hand as these other councillors of yours this is the danger if we agree to let the enemy enter your country if you lose the battle you lose your empire also for it is plain that if the Masergeti win they will not retreat but will march against your provinces and if you conquer them it is a lesser victory than if you crossed into their country and routed the Masergeti and pursued them for I weigh your chances against theirs and suppose that when you have beaten your adversaries you will march for the seat of Tomyrus's power and besides what I have shown it would be a shameful thing and not to be endured if Cyrus the son of Cambyses should yield and give ground before a woman now then it occurs to me that we should cross and go forward as far as they draw back and that then we should endeavor to overcome them by doing as I shall show as I understand the Masergeti have no experience of the good things of Persia and have never fared well as to what is greatly desirable therefore I advise you to cut up the meat of many of your sheep and goats into generous portions for these men and to cook it and serve it as a feast in our camp providing many bowls of unmixed wine and all kinds of food then let your army withdraw to the river again leaving behind that part of it which is of least value for if I am not mistaken in my judgment when the Masergeti see so many good things they will give themselves over to feasting on them and it will be up to us then to accomplish great things so these opinions clashed and Cyrus set aside his former plan and chose that of Cresus consequently he told Tomyrus to draw her army off for he would cross, he said, and attack her so she withdrew as she had promised before then he entrusted Cresus to the care of his own son Cambyses to whom he would leave his sovereignty telling Cambyses to honor Cresus and treat him well if the crossing of the river against the Masergeti should not go well with these instructions he sent the two back to Persia and he and his army crossed the river after he had crossed the Araxes he dreamed that night while sleeping in the country of the Masergeti that he saw the eldest of Hystaspi's sons with wings on his shoulders the one wing overshadowing Asia and the other Europe Hystaspi's son of Arsemis was an Achaemenid and Darius was the eldest of his sons then about twenty years old this Darius had been left behind in Persia not yet being of an age to go on campaign so when Cyrus awoke he considered his vision and because it seemed to him to be of great importance he sent for Hystaspi's and said to him privately Hystaspi's I have caught your son plotting against me and my sovereignty and I will tell you how I know this for certain the gods care for me and show me beforehand all that is coming now then I have seen in a dream in the past night your eldest son with wings on his shoulders overshadowing Asia with the one and Europe with the other from this vision there is no way that he is not plotting against me therefore hurry back to Persia and see that when I come back after subjecting this country you bring your son before me to be questioned about this Cyrus said this thinking that Darius was plotting against him but in fact heaven was showing him that he himself was to die in the land where he was and Darius inherit his kingdom so then Hystaspi's replied with this oh king may there not be any Persian born who would plot against you but if there is may he perish suddenly for you have made the Persians free men instead of slaves and rulers of all instead of subjects of any but if your vision does indeed signify that my son is planning revolution I give him to you to treat as you like after having given this answer and crossed the Araxes Hystaspi's went to Persia to watch his son for Cyrus and Cyrus advancing a day's journey from the Araxes acted according to Cresus advice Cyrus and the sound portion of the Persian army marched back to the Araxes leaving behind those that were useless a third of the Masergeti forces attacked those of the army who were left behind and destroyed them despite resistance then when they had overcome their enemies seeing the banquet spread they sat down and feasted and after they had had their fill of food and wine they fell asleep then the Persians attacked them killing many and taking many more alive among whom was the son of Tomyrus the queen Sparga Pisces by name the leader of the Masergeti when Tomyrus heard what had happened to her army and her son she sent a herald to Cyrus with this message Cyrus who can never get enough blood do not be elated by what you have done it is nothing to be proud of if by the fruit of the vine with which you Persians fill yourselves and rage so violently that evil words rise in a flood to your lips when the wine enters your bodies if by tricking him with this drug you got the better of my son and not by force of arms in battle now then take a word of good advice from me give me back my son and leave this country unpunished even though you have savaged a third of the Masergeti army but if you will not then I swear to you by the son Lord of the Masergeti that I shall give even you who can never get enough of it your fill of blood Cyrus dismissed this warning when it was repeated to him but Sparga Pisces the son of the queen Tomyrus after the wine war off and he recognized his evil plight asked Cyrus to be freed from his bonds and this was granted him but as soon as he was freed and had the use of his hands he did away with himself such was the end of Sparga Pisces Tomyrus when Cyrus would not listen to her collected all her forces and engaged him this fight I judged to have been the fiercest ever fought by men that were not Greek and indeed I have learned that this was so for first it is said they shot arrows at each other from a distance then when their arrows were all spent they rushed at each other and fought with their spears and swords and for a long time they stood fighting and neither would give ground but at last the Masergeti got the upper hand the greater part of the Persian army was destroyed there on the spot and Cyrus himself fell there after having reigned for one year short of 30 years Tomyrus filled a skin with human blood and searched among the Persian dead for Cyrus body and when she found it she pushed his head into the skin and insulted the dead man in these words though I am alive and have defeated you in battle you have destroyed me taking my son by guile but just as I threatened I give you your fill of blood many stories are told of Cyrus death this that I have told is the most credible these Masergeti are like the Scythians in their dress and way of life they are both cavalry and infantry having some of each kind and spearmen and archers and it is their custom to carry battle axes they always use gold and bronze all their spear points and arrowheads and battle axes are bronze and the adornment of their headgear and belts and girdles is gold they equip their horses similarly protecting their chests with bronze breast plates and putting gold on reins bits and cheek plates but they never use iron and silver for there is none at all in their country but gold and bronze abound now for their customs each man marries a wife but the wives are common to all the Greeks say this is a Scythian custom it is not but a custom of the Masergeti there when a man desires a woman he hangs his quiver before her wagon and has intercourse with her without fear though they fix no certain term to life yet when a man is very old all his family meet together and kill him with beasts of the flock besides then boil the flesh and feast on it this is held to be the happiest death when a man dies of an illness they do not eat him but bury him in the earth and lament that he did not live to be killed they never plant seed their fair is their livestock and the fish which they take in abundance from the Araxes their drink is milk the sun is the only god whom they worship they sacrifice horses to him the reasoning is that he is the swiftest of the gods and therefore they give him the swiftest of mortal things end of book one recording by Graham Redman book two part one of Herodotus histories this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org histories volume one by Herodotus of Halicannassus translated by A.D. Godly book two part one paragraphs one through 23 after the death of Cyrus Cambyses inherited his throne he was the son of Cyrus and Cassande the daughter of Pharnapses for whom Cyrus mourned deeply when she died before him and had all his subjects mourned also was the son of this woman and of Cyrus he considered the Ionians and Iolians slaves inherited from his father and prepared for an expedition against Egypt taking with him some of these Greek subjects besides others whom he ruled now before Semiticus became king of Egypt the Egyptians believed that they were the oldest people on earth but ever since Semiticus became king and wished to find out which people were the oldest they have believed that the Phrygians were older than they and they than everybody else Semiticus when he was in no way able to learn by inquiry which people had first come into being devised a plan by which he took two newborn children of the common people and gave them to a shepherd to bring up among his flocks he gave instructions that no one was to speak a word in their hearing they were to stay by themselves in a lonely hut and in due time the shepherd was to bring goats and give the children these instructions because he wanted to hear what speech would first come and in due time the shepherd was to bring goats and give the children their milk and do everything else necessary Semiticus did this and gave these instructions because he wanted to hear what speech would first come from the children when they were past the age of indistinct babbling and he had his wish for one day when the shepherd had done as he was told for two years both the children ran to him Bekos as he opened the door and entered when he first heard this he kept quiet about it but when coming often and paying careful attention he kept hearing this same word he told his master at last and brought the children into the king's presence as required Semiticus then heard them himself and asked what language the word Bekos belonged he found it to be a Phrygian word signifying bread reasoning from this the Egyptians acknowledged that the Phrygians were older than they this is the story which I heard from the priests at Hephaestius temple at Memphis the Greeks say among many foolish things that Semiticus had the children reared by women whose tongues he had cut out besides this story of the rearing of the children I also heard other things at Memphis in conversation with the priests of Hephaestus and I visited Thebes and Heliopolis too for this very purpose I wanted to know if the people of those places would tell me the same story as the priests at Memphis for the people of Heliopolis are said to be the most learned of the Egyptians now such stories as I heard about the gods I am not ready to relate except their names for I believe that all men are equally knowledgeable about them and I shall say about them what I am constrained to say by the course of my history but as to human affairs this was the account in which they all agreed the Egyptians they said were the first men who reckoned by years and made the year consist of 12 divisions of the seasons they discovered this from the stars so they said and their reckoning is to my mind a juster one than that of the Greeks for the Greeks add an intercalary month every other year so that the seasons agree but the Egyptians reckoning 30 days to each of the 12 months add 5 days in every year and above the total thus the completed circle of seasons is made to agree with the calendar furthermore the Egyptians they said first used the names of the 12 gods whom the Greeks afterwards borrowed from them and it was they who first assigned to the several gods their altars and images and temples and the first carved figures on stone most of this they showed me in fact to be the case the first human king of Egypt they said was Min in all his time all of Egypt except for the thebiac district the country that we now see was then covered by water north of Lake Moeris which is 7 days journey up the river from the sea and I think that their account of the country was true for even if a man has not heard it before he can readily see if he has sense that that Egypt to which the Greek sail is land deposited for the Egyptians the river's gift not only the lower country but even the land as far as 3 days journey above the lake for this is the nature of the land of Egypt in the first place when you approach it from the sea and are still a days journey from land if you lay down a sounding line you will bring up mud from a depth of 11 fathoms this shows that the deposit from the land reaches this far further the length of the sea coast of Egypt is itself 60 skone of Egypt that is if we judge it to be reaching from the planithi gulf which is under the Cassian mountain between these there is the length of 60 skone men that have scant land measure by feet those who have more by miles those who have much land by parasites those who have great abundance of it by skone the parasang is 3 and 3 quarter miles and the skonus which is an Egyptian measure is twice that by this reckoning then the seaboard of Egypt will be 450 miles in length and from the sea as far as Heliopolis Egypt is a wide land all flat and watery and marshy from the sea up to Heliopolis is a journey about as long as the way from the altar of the 12 gods at Athens to the temple of Olympian Zeus at Pisa if a reckoning is made only a little difference of length not more than 2 miles will be found between these two journeys for the journey from Athens to Pisa is 2 miles short of 200 which is the number of miles beyond and above Heliopolis Egypt is a narrow land for it is bounded on one side by the mountains of Arabia which run north to south always running south towards the sea called the Red Sea and these mountains are the quarries that were hewn out for making the pyramids at Memphis this way then the mountains run and end in the places of which I have spoken the greatest width from east to west as I learned by inquiry and their eastermost boundaries yield frankincense such are these mountains on the side of Libya Egypt is bounded by another range of rocky mountains along which are the pyramids these are all covered with sand and run in the same direction as those of the Arabian hills that run southward beyond Heliopolis there is no great distance in Egypt that is the narrow land has a length and mountain ranges the land is level and where the plain is narrowest it seemed to me that there were no more than 30 miles between the Arabian mountains and those that are called Libyan beyond this Egypt is a wide land again such is the nature of this country from Heliopolis to Thebes is nine days journey by river and the distance is 608 miles or 81 skony this then is a full statement of all the distances in Egypt and I will now declare the distance inland from the sea to Thebes it is 765 miles and between Thebes and the city called Elephantine there are 225 miles the greater portion then of this country of which I have spoken was land deposited for the Egyptians as the priests told me and I myself formed the same judgment all that lies between the ranges of the mountains above Memphis to which I have referred seemed to me to have once been a gulf of the sea just as the country above Ileon and Toethrania and Ephesus and the plain of the meander to compare these small things with great four of the rivers that brought down the stuff to make these lands there was none worthy to be compared for greatness with even one of the mouths of the Nile and the Nile has five mouths there are also other rivers not so great as the Nile that have had great effects but principle among them is Ecolos which flowing through Arcania and emptying into the sea has already made half of the Icanades Islands mainland now in Arabia not far from Egypt there is a gulf extending inland from the sea called red whose length and width are such as I shall show and length from its inner end out to the wide sea it is a 40 days journey for a ship rowed by oars it is half a days journey at the widest every day the tides ebb and flow in it I believe that where Egypt is now there was once another such gulf this extended from the northern sea towards Ethiopia and the other the Arabian gulf of which I shall speak extended from the south towards Syria and the ends of these gulfs penetrated into the country near each other but by a little space of land separated them now if the Nile inclined to direct to the latter not be silted up by it inside of 20,000 years in fact I expect it would be silted up inside of 10,000 years is it to be doubted then that in the ages before my birth a gulf even much greater than this should have been silted up by a river so great and so busy as for Egypt then I credit those who say it and myself very much believe it to be the case for I have seen that Egypt projects into the sea and land and shells are exposed to view on the mountains and things are coated with salt so that even the pyramid show it and the only sandy mountain in Egypt is that which is above Memphis besides Egypt is like neither the neighboring land of Arabia nor Libya not even like Syria for Syrians inhabit the seaboard of Arabia it is a land of black and crumbling earth as if it were alluvial weather and somewhat sandy and Arabia and Syria are the lands of clay and stones this too that the priest told me about Egypt is a strong proof when Maoris was king if the river rose as butch is 13 feet it watered all of Egypt below Memphis Maoris had not been dead 900 years when I heard this from the priests but now if the river does not rise at least 26 or 25 feet and in my opinion the Egyptians who inhabit the lands lower down the river than Lake Maoris especially what is called the delta if this land of theirs rises in the same proportion and broadens likewise an extent and the Nile no longer floods it will forever after be in the same straits as they themselves once said the Greeks would be for after learning that all the Greek land is watered by rain but not by river water like theirs they said that one day the Greeks would not necessarily starve meaning that if heaven sent no rain for the Greeks and afflicted them with drought the Greeks will be overtaken by famine for there was no other source of water for them except Zeus alone and this prediction of the Egyptians about the Greeks was true enough but now let me show the prospect for the Egyptians themselves if as I have already said the country below Memphis for it is this which rises should increase in height as there is no rain in their country and the river will be unable to inundate their fields at present of course there are no people either in the rest of Egypt or in the whole world who live from the soil with so little labor they do not have to break the land up with the plow or hoe or do any other work that any other man do to get a crop the river rises of itself and waters the fields and then sinks back again to the field and sends swine into it to tread down the seed and waits for the harvest then he has the swine thresh the grain and so garners it now if we agree with the opinion of the Ionians who say that only the delta is Egypt and that its seaboard reaches from the so-called watchtower of Perseus 40 scoy-knife from the salters of Pelusium and the rest of Egypt is partly Libya and partly Arabia if we follow this account we can show that there was once no land for the Egyptians for we have seen that as the Egyptians themselves say and I myself judge the delta is alluvial land and but lately so to speak came into being now if there was once no land for them it was an idle notion that I first speak I maintain rather that the Egyptians did not come into existence together with what the Ionians call the delta but have existed since the human race came into being and as the land grew in extent there were many of them who stayed behind and many who spread down over it be that as it may the Thebian district a land of 765 miles in circumference concerning Egypt but if their opinion is right then it is the plane that they and the rest of the Greeks cannot truly reckon when they divide the whole of the earth into three parts Europe, Asia and Libya they must add to these a fourth part the delta of Egypt if it belongs neither to Asia nor to Libya for by showing the Nile is not the river that separates Asia and Libya we leave the Ionians opinion aside and our own judgment about the matter is this Egypt is all that country which is inhabited by Egyptians such as Cilicia and Assyria are the countries inhabited by Cilicians and Assyrians and we know of no boundary line rightly so called below Asia and Libya except the borders of the Egyptians but if we follow the belief that we are advancing from the cataracts and the city of Elephantine to be divided into two parts and to claim both names the one a part of Libya the other a part of Asia for the Nile beginning from the cataracts divides Egypt into two parts as it flows to the sea now as far as the city of Cricoceros the Nile flows in one channel but after that it parts into three one of these which is called the Pelusian mouth flows east and is called the Canobic mouth but the direct channel of the Nile when the river in its downward course reaches the apex of the delta flows thereafter clean through the middle of the delta into the sea and this is seen the greatest and most famous part of its waters and it is called the subbenetic mouth there are also two channels which separate themselves from the subbenetic and so flow into the sea and it is called the Nazian the bulbatine and bucolic mouths are not natural but excavated channels the response of the oracle of Aman in fact bears witness to my opinion that Egypt is of such an extent as I have argued I learned this by inquiry after my judgment was already formed about Egypt the men of the cities of Mariah and Apis in the part of Egypt bordering on Libya believing themselves to be Libyans of the religious laws that forbade them to eat cow's meat sent to Aman saying that they had no part of or lot with Egypt for they lived they said outside the delta and did not consent to the ways of its people and they wished to be allowed to eat all foods but the God forbade them all the land he said watered by the Nile in its course was Egypt and all who lived lower down from the city of Elephantine such was the oracle given to them when the Nile is in flood it overflows not only the delta but also the lands called Libyan and Arabian as far as two days journey from either bank in places and sometimes more than this sometimes less concerning its nature I could not learn anything either from the priests or from any others yet I was anxious to learn from them and when this number of days is passed syncs again with the diminishing stream so that the river is low for the whole winter until the summer solstice again I was not able to get any information from any of the Egyptians regarding this when I asked them what power the Nile has to be contrary in nature to all other rivers I wished to know this and asked also why no breezes blew from it as from every other river but some of the Greeks wishing to be notable for cleverness but some of the Egyptians about this river two of whom I would not even mention except just to show what they are one of them maintains that the Estian winds are the cause of the river being in flood because they hinder the Nile from entering into the sea but there are many times when the Estian winds do not blow yet the Nile does the same as before and further if the Estian winds were the cause then the other rivers are much smaller they have a weaker current yet there are many rivers in Syria and many in Libya and they behave nothing like the Nile the second opinion is less grounded on knowledge than the previous though it is more marvelous to the ear according to it the river affects what it does because it flows from the ocean which flows around the whole world the second opinion is by far the most plausible yet the most erroneous of all it has no more truth in it it flows from where snows melt but it flows from Libya through the mists of Ethiopia and comes out into Egypt how can it flow from snow then seeing that it comes from the hottest places to the lands which are for the most part cooler in fact for a man who can reason about such things the principle and strongest evidence that the river is unlikely to flow from snows is that the winds blowing from Libya and Ethiopia are hot in the second place but after snow has fallen it has to rain within five days so that if it snowed it would rain in these lands and thirdly the men of the country are black because of the heat moreover kites and swallows live there all year round and cranes come every year to those places to winter there flying from the wintery weather of Syria now we're there but the least fall of snow in this country through which the Nile flows and where it rises the opinion about ocean is grounded in obscurity and needs no disproof for I know of no ocean river and I suppose that Homer or some older poet invented this name and brought it into his poetry end of book two part one book two part two of Herodotus Histories this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer visit LibriVox.org Histories volume one by Herodotus of Hala Karnassus translated by A.D. Godly book two part two paragraphs 24 through 41 if after having condemned the opinions proposed I must indicate what I myself think about these obscure matters I shall say why I think the Nile floods in the summer during the winter the sun is driven by storms over the inland parts of Libya for the briefest demonstration everything has been said for whatever country this God is nearest or over it is likely that the land is very thirsty for water and that the local rivers are dried up a lengthier demonstration goes as follows in his passage over the inland parts of Libya the sun does this as the air is always clear in that region the land warm and the winds cool in the southern it draws the water to itself and having done so expels it away to the inland regions and the winds catch it and scatter it and dissolve it and as is to be expected those that blow from that country the south and the southwest are the most rainy of all winds yet I think that the sun never lets go of all the water that it draws up from the Nile yearly they keep some back near itself then as the winter becomes milder the sun and after that draws from all rivers alike meanwhile the other rivers are swollen to high flood by the quantity of water that falls into them from the sun because the country is rained on and cut into gullies but in the summer they are low lacking the rain and being drawn up too by the sun but the Nile being fed by no rain and being the only river drawn up by the sun in winter at this time falls far short for in summer all other waters too and not it alone are attracted to the sun but in winter it alone is afflicted I am convinced therefore that the sun is the cause of this phenomena the dryness of the air in these parts is also caused by the sun in my opinion because it burns its way through it hence it is always summer in the inland part of Libya but where the stations of the seasons changed so that the south wind and the summer had their station and the north wind was where the south wind is now if this were so the sun when driven from mid-heaven by the winter and the north wind would pass over the inland parts of Europe as it now passes over Libya and I think that in its passage over all Europe it would have the same effect on the Easter as it now does on the Nile and as to why no breeze blows from the river this is my opinion it is not natural that any breeze blow from very hot places breezes always come from that which is very cool let this be then as it is and as it was in the beginning but as to the sources of the Nile no one that conversed with me Egyptian, Libyan or Greek professed to know them except the recorder of the sacred treasures of Athena in the Egyptian city of Sais I thought he was joking when he said he had exact knowledge but this was his story between the city of Saini in the Thebaid and Elephantine there are two hills with sharp peaks one called Krofi the other Mofi the springs of the Nile which are bottomless rise between these hills half the water flows north towards Egypt the other half south towards Ethiopia he said that Cimetus, king of Egypt had put this to the test whether the springs are bottomless for he had a rope of many thousand and let down into the spring but he could not reach to the bottom this recorder then if he spoke the truth showed I think that there are strong eddies and an upward flow of water such that with the stream rushing against the hills the sounding line when let down cannot reach bottom I was unable to learn anything from anyone else but this much further I did learn by the most extensive investigation that I could make with the question in hearsay beyond Elephantine is one travels inland the land rises here one must pass with the boat roped on both sides as men harness an ox and if the rope breaks the boat will be carried away by the strength of the current this part of the river is a four days journey by boat and the Nile here is twisty just as the meander a distance of 12 Skoni of the island in the Nile called Tak Homsul the country above Elephantine now begins to be inhabited by Ethiopians half the people of the island are Ethiopians and half Egyptians near the island is a great lake on whose shores live nomadic Ethiopians after crossing this you come to the stream of the Nile which empties into this lake then you disembark and journey along the river bank for 40 days and no boat can pass having traversed this part in 40 days as I have said you take boat again and so travel for 12 days until you come to a great city called Meroi which is said to be the capital of all Ethiopia the people of the place worship no other gods but Zeus and Dionysus these they greatly honor and they have a place on the journey by water equal in distance to that by which you came from Elephantine to the capital city of Ethiopia and you come to the land of the desiters these desiters are called Asmak which translates in Greek as those who stand at the left hand of the king these once revolted and joined themselves to the Ethiopians 240,000 Egyptians are fighting age the reason was as follows there were watch posts at Elephantine facing Ethiopia at Daphnei of Pelusium facing Arabia and Assyria and Amaria facing Libya and still in my time the Persians hold those posts as they were held in the days of Sematicus there are Persian guards at Elephantine and at Daphnei now the Egyptians have been on guard for three years while organizing and making common cause they revolted from Sematicus and went to Ethiopia Sematicus heard of it and pursued them and when he overtook them he asked them in a long speech not to desert their children and wives and the gods of their fathers then one of them the story goes pointed to his genitals and said that wherever that was they would have wives and children so they came to Ethiopia and left in return told them to dispossess certain Ethiopians with whom he was feuding and occupy their land these Ethiopians then learned Egyptian customs and had become milder mannered by inner mixture with the Egyptians to a distance of four months travel by land and water then there is the knowledge of the Nile besides the part of that which is in Egypt so many months as reckoning shows are found to be spent on the waters the river flows from the west and the sun setting beyond this no one has clear information to declare for all that country is desolate because of the heat I heard this from some men of Cyrene who told me that they had gone to the oracle of Amman and conversed there with Etyrcus king of the Ammonians and that from other subjects the conversation turned to the Nile how no one knows the source of it by some Nassimonians these are Libyan people inhabiting the country of the Sirtis in a little way to the east of the Sirtis when these Nassimonians were asked on their arrival if they brought any news concerning the Libyan desert they told Etyrcus that some sons of their leading men proud and violent youths when they came to manhood besides planning other wild adventures had chosen by lot five of their company and see whether they could see further than those who had seen the farthest it must be known that the whole northern sea coast of Libya from Egypt as far is the prementory of Soliasis which is the end of Libya is inhabited throughout its length by Libyans many tribes of them except the part held by Greeks and Phoenicians the region of Libya that is above the sea and the inhabitants of the coast are infested by wild beasts and further inland than the wild beast country everything is sand, waterless and desolate when the young men left their companions being well supplied with water and provisions they journeyed first through the inhabited country and after passing this came to the region of wild beasts after this they traveled over the desert towards the west and crossed a wide sandy region until after many days they saw trees growing in a plain when they came to these little men of less than common stature who took them and led them away the Nazimonians did not know these men's language nor did the escort know the language of the Nazimonians the men led them across great marshes after crossing which they came to a city where all the people were of a stature like that of the guides and black a great river ran past the city from the west towards the rising sun crocodiles could be seen in it this is enough of the story told by Itericus the Ammonian except that he said that the Nazimonians returned as the men of Cyrene told me and that the people to whose country they came were all wizards as to the river which ran past the city Itericus guessed it to be the Nile and reason proves as much for the Nile flows from Libya right through the middle of it and as I guess reasoning about things unknown from visible signs it rises proportionally as far away as does the Easter flows from the land of the Celts and the city of Pirini through the very middle of Europe now the Celts live beyond the pillar of Hercules being the neighbors of the Canissi who are the western most of all people inhabiting Europe the Easter then flows clean across Europe and ends its course in the Uxan Sea at Istria which is inhabited by Melisian colonists the Easter since it flows through inhabited country is known to speak of the source of the Nile for Libya through which it runs is uninhabited and desert regarding its course I have related everything I could learn by inquiry and it issues into Egypt now Egypt lies about opposite to the mountainous region of Cilicia from there it is a straight five days journey for an unencumbered man to Sinopi on the Euxan and Sinopi lies opposite the place where the Easter thus I suppose the course of the Nile in its passage through Libya to be like the course of the Easter it is sufficient to say this much concerning the Nile but concerning Egypt I am going to speak at length because it has the most wonders and everywhere presents works beyond description therefore I shall say the more concerning Egypt just as the Egyptians have a climate peculiar to themselves and their river is different in its nature from all other rivers and it has limited customs and laws contrary for the most part to those of the rest of mankind among them the women buy and sell the men stay at home and weave and whereas in weaving all others push the wolf upwards the Egyptians push it downwards men carry burdens on their heads women on their shoulders women pass water standing men sitting they ease their bowels indoors and eat out of doors in the streets explaining that things unseemly but necessary should be done in private things not unseemly should be done openly no woman is dedicated to the service of any god or goddess men are dedicated to all deities male or female sons are not compelled against their will to support their parents but daughters must do so though they be unwilling everywhere else the priests of the gods wear their hair long in Egypt they are shaven and the reason for the dead is that those most nearly concerned have their head shaven Egyptians are shaven at other times but after a death they let their hair and beard grow the Egyptians are the only people who keep their animals with them in the house whereas all others live on wheat and barley it is the greatest disgrace for the Egyptians to live so they make food from a coarse grain which they call spelt and the only people who have learned it from them are the only people who practice circumcision every man has two garments every woman only one the rings and sheets of sails are made fast outside the boat elsewhere but inside it in Egypt the Greeks write and calculate from left to right the Egyptians do the opposite yet they say that their way of writing is towards the right the Greek way towards the left they employ two kinds of writing they are religious beyond measure more than any other people and the following are among their customs they drink from cups of bronze which are always clean out daily this is not done by some but by all they are especially careful always to wear newly washed linen they practice circumcision for cleanliness sake for they would rather be clean than more becoming their priests shave their whole body as foul may infest them as they attend upon the gods the priests wear a single linen garment and sandals of papyrus they have no other kind of clothing or footwear twice a day and twice every night they wash in cold water their religious observances are one may say innumerable but they also receive many benefits for they do not consume or spend anything of their own sacred food is cooked for them every day and the wine of grapes is given to them too they may not eat fish the Egyptians sow no beans in their country if any grow they will not eat them either raw or cooked the priests cannot endure even to see them considering beans and unclean kind of legume many, not only one are dedicated to the service of each god one of these is the high priests and when a high priest dies they believe that bulls belong to Epaphis and for this reason scrutinize them as follows if they see even one black hair on them the bull is considered impure one of the priests appointed to the task examines the beast making it stand and lie and drawing out its tongue to determine whether it is clean of the stated signs which I shall indicate hereafter he looks also to the hairs of the tail to see if they grow naturally by wrapping papyrus around the horns then smears it with sealing earth and stamps it with his ring after this they lead the bull away but the penalty is death for sacrificing a bull that the priest is not marked such is the manner of approving the beast I will now describe how it is sacrificed after leading the marked beast to the altar where they will sacrifice it they kindle a fire then pour wine on the altar then they cut its throat and having done so sever the head from the body they flay the carcass of the victim they invoke many curses on its head which they carry away where there is a market and Greek traders in it the head is taken to the market and sold where there are no Greeks they throw it into the river the implication which they utter over the heads is that whatever ill threatens to sacrifice beasts and the libation of wine the practice of all Egyptians is the same in all sacrifices and from this ordinance no Egyptian will taste the head of anything that had life but in regard to the disemboweling and burning of the victims there is a different way for each sacrifice I shall now however speak of that goddess whom they consider the greatest and in whose honor they fill the carcass and cut off the legs and the end of the loin the shoulders and the neck having done this they fill what remains of the carcass with pure bread honey, raisins, figs frankincense, myrrh and other kinds of incense and then burn it pouring a lot of oil on it they fast before the sacrifice and while it is burning they make all lamentation for all Egyptians sacrifice unblemished bowls and bowl calves they may not sacrifice cows these are sacred to Isis for the images of Isis are in women's form horned like a cow exactly as the Greeks picture Io and the cows are held by far the most sacred of all beasts of the herd of all Egyptians alike for this reason there is an unblemished bowl that has been cut with a Greek knife cattle that die are dealt with in the following way cows are cast into the river bowls are buried by each city in its suburbs with one or two horns uncovered for a sign then when the carcass is decomposed and the time appointed is at hand a boat comes to each city from the island called prosopetus an island in the delta the one from which the boats come to gather the bones of the bowls is called Artebecus a temple of Aphrodite stands in it of great sanctity from this town many go out some to one town and some to another to dig up the bones which they then carry away and all bury in one place as they bury the cattle so they do all other beasts at death such as their ordinance respecting these also part two