 volume 2 part 11 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 David Leeson. Histories volume 2 by Herodotus of Halecarnassus translated by A. D. Godly. Volume 2 part 11 paragraphs 52 through 78. Now the nature of this road is as I will show. All along it are the king's road stations and very good resting places, and the whole of it passes through country that is inhabited and safe. Its course through Lydia and Phrygia is of the length of twenty stages and ninety-four and a half parasigns. Next after Phrygia it comes to the river Halec, where there is both a defile which must be passed before the river can be crossed and a great fortress to guard it. After the passage into Cappadocia, the road in that land as far as the borders of Cilicia is of twenty-eight stages and one hundred and four parasangs. On this frontier you must ride through two defiles and pass two fortresses. Ride past these and you will have a journey through Cilicia of three stages and fifteen and a half parasangs. The boundary of Cilicia and Armenia is a navigable river, the name of which is the Euphrates. In Armenia there are fifteen resting stages and fifty-six and a half parasangs. Here, too, there is a fortress. From Armenia the road enters the Matianian land, in which there are thirty-four stages and one hundred and thirty-seven parasangs. Through this land flow four navigable rivers which must be passed by pharies, first the Tigris, then a second and a third of the same name, yet not the same stream nor flowing from the same source. The first mentioned of them flows from the Armenians and the second from the Matiani. The fourth river is called Gindies, that Gindies which Cyrus parted once into three hundred and sixty channels. When this country is passed the road is in the Cisian land, where there are eleven stages and forty-two and a half parasangs, as far as yet another navigable river, the Coaspis, on the banks of which stands the city of Susa. Thus the sum total of stages is one hundred and eleven. So many resting stages, then, are there in the journey up from Sardis to Susa. If I have accurately counted the parasangs of the royal road, and the parasang is of thirty furlongs length, which assuredly it is, then between Sardis and the kings of Bode called Memnonian there are thirteen thousand and five hundred furlongs, the number of parasangs being four hundred and fifty. If each day's journey is one hundred and fifty furlongs, then the sum of days spent is ninety, neither more nor less. Aristogorus of Miletus accordingly spoke the truth to Cleomanes the Lacedemonian when he said that the journey inland was three months long. If anyone should desire a more exact measurement I will give him that too, for the journey from Ephesus to Sardis must be added to the rest. So then, from the Greek sea to Susa, which is the city called Memnonian, it is a journey of fourteen thousand and forty stages, for there are five hundred and forty furlongs from Ephesus to Sardis. The three months journey is accordingly made longer by three days. When he was forced to leave Sparta, Aristogorus went to Athens, which had been freed from its ruling tyrants in the manner that I will show. First Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus, and brother of the Tyrant Hippias, had been slain by Aristogaton and Harmonius, men of Geferian descent. This was in fact an evil of which he had received a premonition in a dream. After this the Athenians were subject for four years to a tyranny not less, but even more absolute than before. Now this was the vision which Hipparchus saw in a dream. In the night before the Panathania he thought that a tall and handsome man stood over him uttering these riddling verses, O lion, endure the unendurable with a lion's heart, no man on earth does wrong without paying the penalty. As soon as it was day he imparted this to the interpreters of dreams, and presently putting the vision from his mind he led the procession in which he met his death. Now the Geferian clan of which the slayers of Hipparchus were members claimed to have come at first from Eretria, but my own inquiry shows that they were among the Phoenicians who came with Cadmus to the country now called Biosia. In that country the lands of Tanagra were allotted to them, and this is where they settled. The Cadmians had first been expelled from there by the Argives, and these Geferians were forced to go to Athens after being expelled in turn by the Biosians. The Athenians received them as citizens of their own on set terms, debarring them from many practices not deserving of mention here. These Phoenicians who came with Cadmus and of whom the Geferians were apart brought with them to Helus, among other kinds of learning, the alphabet, which had been unknown before this, I think, to the Greeks. As time went on the sound and the form of the letters were changed. At this time the Greeks who were settled around them were for the most part Ionians, and after being taught the letters by the Phoenicians they used them with a few changes of form. In so doing they gave to these characters the name of Phoenician, as was quite fair seeing that the Phoenicians had brought them into Greece. The Ionians have also from ancient times called sheets of papyrus skins, since they formerly used the skins of sheep and goats due to the lack of papyrus. Even to this day there are many foreigners who write on such skins. I have myself seen Cadmian writing in the temple of Ismenian Apollo at Thebes of Biosia engraved on certain tripods and for the most part looking like Ionian letters. On one of the tripods there is this inscription, Amphitrion dedicated me from the spoils of Teloboe. This would date from about the time of Lyus the son of Labdicus, grandson of Polydorus and great-grandson of Cadmus. A second tripod says in Hexameter verse, Sias the Boxer, victorious in the contest, gave me to Apollo, the archer god, a lovely offering. Sias, the son of Hippocon, if he is indeed the dedicator and not another of the same name, would have lived at the time of Oedipus, son of Lyus. The third tripod says in Hexameter verse again, Leodamus, while he reigned, dedicated this cauldron to Apollo, the shore of Aime, as a lovely offering. During the rule of this Leodamus, son of Aetaeocles, the Cadmians were expelled by the Argyves and went away to the Ancoleus. The Geferians were left behind but were later compelled by the Biosians to withdraw to Athens. They have certain set forms of worship at Athens in which the rest of the Athenians take no part, particularly the rites and mysteries of Achaean Demeter. I have told both of the vision of Hipparchus' dream and of the first origin of the Geferians, to whom the slayers of Hipparchus belonged. Now I must go further and return to the story which I began to tell, namely how the Athenians were freed from their tyrants. Hipeus, their tyrant, was growing ever more bitter in enmity against the Athenians because of Hipparchus' death, and the Alcmaeonidae, a family of Athenian stock banished by the sons of Pisistratus, attempted with the rest of the exiled Athenians to make their way back by force and free Athens. They were not successful in their return, and suffered instead a great reverse. After fortifying Lipsidrium, north of Pionia, they, in their desire to use all devices against the sons of Pisistratus, hired themselves to the Amphicteons for the building of the temple at Delphi, which exists now but was not there yet then. Since they were wealthy and liked their father's men of reputation, they made the temple more beautiful than the model showed. In particular, whereas they had agreed to build the temple of Tufa, they made its front of Parian marble. These men, as the Athenians say, established themselves at Delphi and bribed the Pythian priestess to bid any Spartans who should come to inquire of her on a private or a public account to set Athens free. Then the Lacedaemonians, when the same command was ever revealed to them, sent Anchemolius, the son of Aster, a citizen of Repute, to drive out the sons of Pisistratus with an army despite the fact that the Pisistratidae were their close friends, for the gods will wade with them more than the will of man. They sent these men by sea on shipboard. Anchemolius put in at Phalarum and disembarked his army there. The sons of Pisistratus, however, had received word of the plan already and sent to ask help from the Thessalians with whom they had an alliance. The Thessalians, at their entreaty, joined together and sent their own king, Seneas of Conyum, with a thousand horsemen. When the Pisistratidae got these allies, they devised the following plan. First they laid waste the plain of Phalarum so that all that land could be ridden over and then launched their cavalry against the enemy's army. Then the horsemen charged and slew Anchemolius and many more of the Lacedaemonians and drove those that survived to their ships. Accordingly, the first Lacedaemonian army drew off and Anchemolius' tomb is at Allopachy in Attica, near to the Heracleum in Sinosargis. After this the Lacedaemonians sent out a greater army to attack Athens, appointing as its general their king Cleomenes, son of Anaxandrides. This army they sent not by sea but by land. When they broke into Attica, the Thessalian horsemen were the first to meet them. They were routed after only a short time, and more than forty men were slain. Those who were left alive made off for Thessaly by the nearest way they could. Then Cleomenes, when he and the Athenians who desired freedom came into the city, drove the tyrant's family within the plastic wall and besieged them there. The Lacedaemonians would never have taken the Pisistratid stronghold. First of all they had no intention to blockade it, and secondly the Pisistratidae were well furnished with food and drink. The Lacedaemonians would only have besieged the place for a few days and then returned to Sparta. As it was, however, there was a turn of fortune which harmed the one party and helped the other, for the sons of the Pisistratid family were taken as they were being secretly carried out of the country. When this happened, all their plans were confounded, and they agreed to depart from Attica within five days on the terms prescribed to them by the Athenians in return for the recovery of their children. Afterwards they departed to Segeum on the Scamander. They had ruled the Athenians for thirty-six years and were in lineage of the House of Pylos and Nelaus, born of the same ancestors as the families of Codris and Melanthus, who had formerly come from foreign parts to be kings of Athens. It was for this reason that Hippocrates gave his son the name Pisistratus as a remembrance, calling him after Pisistratus the son of Nestor. This is the way, then, that the Athenians got rid of their tyrants, as regards all the noteworthy things which they did or endured after they were freed, and before Ionia revolted from Darius and Aristogorus of Miletus came to Athens to ask help of its people, of these I will first give an account. Athens, which had been great before, now grew even greater when her tyrants had been removed. The two principal holders of powers were Cleistanes and Alchmionid, who was reputed to have bribed the Pythian priestess and Isogorus, son of Tizandris, a man of a notable house, but his lineage I cannot say. His kinfolk, at any rate, sacrificed to Zeus of Caria. These men with their factions fell to contending for power, Cleistanes was getting the worst of it in this dispute, and took the commons into his party. Presently he divided the Athenians into ten tribes instead of four as formerly. He called none after the names of the sons of Ion, Galeon, Egicorys, Argotys, and Hoplis, but invented for them names taken from other heroes, all native to the country except Aeus. Him he added despite the fact that he was a stranger because he was a neighbor and an ally. In doing this, to my thinking, this Cleistanes was imitating his own mother's father, Cleistanes the Tyrant of Sikion, for Cleistanes, after going to war with the Argives, made an end of Menstrual's contest at Sikion by reason of the Homeric poems, in which it is the Argives and Argos which are primarily the theme of the songs. Furthermore he conceived the desire to cast out from the land a drastis son of Talaeus, the hero whose shrine stood then as now in the very marketplace of Sikion because he was an Argive. He went then to Delphi and asked the Oracle if he should cast a drastis out, but the priestess said in response, A drastis is king of Sikion, and you but a stone-thrower. When the god would not permit him to do as he wished in this matter, he returned home and attempted to devise some plan which might rid him of a drastis. When he thought he had found one, he sent to be ocean thebes, saying that he would gladly bring Melanippus son of Astakus into his country, and the Thebans handed him over. When Cleistanes had brought him in, he consecrated a sanctuary for him in the government house itself, where he was established in the greatest possible security. Now the reason why Cleistanes brought in Melanippus, a thing which I must relate, was that Melanippus was a drastis deadliest enemy, for a drastis had slain his brother Mesistius and his son-in-law Tidius. Having then designated the precinct for him, Cleistanes took away all a drastis sacrifices and festivals and gave them to Melanippus. The Sikionians had been accustomed to pay very great honor to a drastis because the country had once belonged to Pallibus, his maternal grandfather, who died without an heir and bequeathed the kingship to him. Besides other honors paid to a drastis by the Sikionians, they celebrated his lamentable fate with tragic choruses in honor not of Dionysus, but of a drastis. Cleistanes, however, gave the choruses back to Dionysus and the rest of the worship to Melanippus. This, then, is what he did regarding a drastis, but for the tribes of the Dorians he changed their names so that these tribes should not be shared by Sikionians and Argyves. In this especially he made a laughingstock of the Sikionians, for he gave the tribes names derived from the words donkey and pig, changing only the endings. The name of his own tribe, however, he did not change in this way, but rather gave it a name indicating his own rule, calling it Arkeleoi, rulers of the people. The rest were swineites, asites, and porcites. These were the names of the tribes which the Sikionians used under Cleistanes' rule and for sixty years more after his death. Afterwards, however, they took counsel together and both changed the names of the three to Helaus, Pampholi, and Dimanati, and added a fourth which they called Egeleus, after Egeleus, son of a drastis. This is what the Sikionian-Cleistanes had done, and the Athenian-Cleistanes following the lead of his grandfather and namesake, decided out of contempt, I imagine, for the Ionians, that his tribes should not be the same as theirs. When he had drawn into his own party the Athenian people, which was then debarred from all rights, he gave the tribes new names and increased their number, making ten tribe wardens in place of four, and assigning ten districts to each tribe. When he had won over the people, he was stronger by far than the rival faction. Isagoras, who was on the losing side, devised a counter-plot, and invited the aid of Cleomanes, who had been his friend since the besieging of the Pisistratidae. It was even said of Cleomanes that he regularly went to see Isagoras's wife. Then Cleomanes first sent a herald to Athens demanding the banishment of Cleistanes, and many other Athenians with him, the Acursid, as he called them. This he said in his message by Isagoras' instruction, for the Alcmaeonidae and their faction were held to be guilty of that bloody deed while Isagoras and his friends had no part in it. How the Acursid at Athens had received their name I will now relate. There was an Athenian named Cylon, who had been a winner at Olympia. This man put on the heir of one who aimed at tyranny, and gathering a company of men of like age, he attempted to seize the citadel. When he could not win it, he took sanctuary by the goddess's statue. He and his men were then removed from their position by the presidents of the naval boards, the rulers of Athens, at that time. Although they were subject to any penalty-saved death, they were slain, and their death was attributed to the Alcmaeonidae. All this took place before the time of Pisistratus. When Cleomenes had sent for and demanded the banishment of Cleisthenes and the Acursid, Cleisthenes himself secretly departed. Afterwards, however, Cleomenes appeared in Athens with no great force. Upon his arrival, he, in order to take away the curse, banished seven hundred Athenian families named for him by Isagoras. Having so done, he next attempted to dissolve the council, entrusting the offices of government to Isagoras's faction. The council, however, resisted him, whereupon Cleomenes and Isagoras and his partisans seized the Acropolis. The rest of the Athenians united and besieged them for two days. On the third day, as many of them as were Lacedemonians left the country under truce. The prophetic voice that Cleomenes heard accordingly had its fulfillment, for when he went up to the Acropolis with the intention of taking possession of it, he approached the shrine of the goddess to address himself to her. The priestess rose up from her seat, and before he had passed through the doorway, she said, Go back, Lacedemonians stranger, and do not enter the holy place, since it is not lawful that Dorians should pass in here. My lady, he answered, I am not a Dorian, but a Nechaean. So without taking heed of the omen, he tried to do as he pleased, and was, as I have said, then again cast out together with his Lacedemonians. As for the rest, the Athenians imprisoned them under sentence of death. Among the prisoners was Timmysithaeus, the Delphian, whose achievements of strength and courage were quite formidable. These men, then, were bound and put to death. After that the Athenians sent to bring back Cleisthenes and the seven hundred households banished by Cleomenes. Then, desiring to make an alliance with the Persians, they dispatched envoys to Sardis, for they knew that they had provoked the Lacedemonians and Cleomenes to war. When the envoys came to Sardis and spoke as they had been bidden, Artaphronese son of Histaspis, viceroy of Sardis, asked them, What men are you, and where do you live, who desire alliance with the Persians? When he had received the information he wanted from the envoys, he gave them an answer, the substance of which was, that if the Athenians gave King Darius earth and water, then he would make an alliance with them. But, if not, his command was that they should depart. The envoys consulted together, and in their desire to make the alliance, they consented to give what was asked. They then returned to their own country and were there greatly blamed for what they had done. Cleomenes, however, fully aware that the Athenians had done him wrong in word and deed, mustered an army from the whole of the Peloponnesus. He did not declare the purpose for which he mustered it, namely, to avenge himself on the Athenian people and set up by Sagerus, who had come with him out of the Acropolis as tyrant. Cleomenes broke in as far as Elucis, with a great host, and the Biosians, by a concerted plan, took Oinoy and Hissyi, districts on the borders of Attica, while the Calcidians attacked on another side and raided lands in Attica. The Athenians, who were now caught in a ring of foes, decided to oppose the Spartans at Elucis and to deal with the Biosians and Calcidians later. When the armies were about to join battle, the Corinthians, coming to the conclusion that they were acting wrongly, changed their minds and departed. Later, Demaratus, son of Aristan, the other king of Sparta, did likewise, despite the fact that he had come with Cleomenes from Lassa-Demen in joint command of the army, and had not till now been at variance with him. As a result of this dissension, a law was made at Sparta that when an army was dispatched, both kings would not be permitted to go with it. Until that time they had both gone together. But now one of the kings was released from service and one of the sons of Tindaris too could be left at home. Before that time both of these also were asked to give aid and went with the army. So now at Elucis, when the rest of the allies saw that the Lassa-Demonian kings were not of one mind and that the Corinthians had left their host, they too went off. This was the fourth time that Dorians had come into Attica. They had come twice as invaders in war and twice as helpers of the Athenian people. The first time was when they planted a settlement at Megara. This expedition may rightly be said to have been in the reign of Codris. The second and third when they set out from Sparta to drive out the sons of Pisistratus. And the fourth was now, when Cleomenes broke in as far as Elucis with his following of Peloponnesians. This was accordingly the fourth Dorian invasion of Athens. When this force then had been ingloriously scattered, the Athenians first marched against the Calcidians to punish them. The Beotians came to the Europus to help the Calcidians, and as soon as the Athenians saw these allies, they resolved to attack the Beotians before the Calcidians. When they met the Beotians in battle, they won a great victory, slaying very many and taking seven hundred of them prisoner. On that same day the Athenians crossed to Euboea, where they met the Calcidians too in battle, and after overcoming them as well they left four thousand tenant farmers on the lands of the horse-breeders. Horse-breeders was the name given to the men of substance among the Calcidians. They fettered as many of these as they took alive and kept them imprisoned with the captive Beotians. In time, however, they set them free, each for an assessed ransom of too many. The fetters in which the prisoners had been bound, they hung up in the Acropolis, where they could still be seen in my time hanging from walls which the Persian's fire had charred, opposite the temple which faces west. Moreover they made a dedication of a tenth part of the ransom, and this money was used for the making of a four-horse chariot which stands on the left hand of the entrance into the outer porch of the Acropolis and bears this inscription. Evidence with Calcis and Beotia fought, bound them in chains and brought their pride to naught. Prison was grief and ransom cost them dear. One tenth to Pallas raised this chariot here. So the Athenians grew in power and proved, not in one respect only but in all, that equality is a good thing. Evidence for this is the fact that while they were under tyrannical rulers the Athenians were no better in war than any of their neighbors, yet once they got rid of their tyrants they were by far the best of all. This then shows that while they were oppressed, they were, as men working for a master, cowardly, but when they were freed each one was eager to achieve for himself. End of Volume 2, Part 11. Volume 2, Part 12 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 David Leeson. Histories, Volume 2 by Herodotus of Halecarnassus, translated by A.D. Godly. Volume 2, Part 12. This, then, is the course of action which the Athenians took, and the Thebans, desiring vengeance on Athens, afterwards appealed to Delphi for advice. The Pythian priestess said that the Thebans themselves would not be able to obtain the vengeance they wanted, and that they should lay the matter before the many voiced and entreat their nearest. Upon the return of the envoys, an assembly was called and the oracle put before it. When the Thebans heard that they must entreat their nearest, they said, if this is so, our nearest neighbors are the men of Tanagra and Coronia and Tespi. These are always our comrades in battle and zealously wage our wars. What need, then, is there to entreat them? Perhaps this is the meaning of the oracle. They reasoned in this way, till at last one understood, and said, I think that I perceive what the oracle is trying to tell us. Thebe and Igaina, it is said, were daughters of Asopas and sisters. The God's answer is, I think, that we should ask the Igainatans to be our avengers. Seeing that there seemed to be no better option before them than this, they sent straight away to entreat the Igainatans and invite their aid, since this was the oracle's bidding, and the Igainatans were their nearest. These replied to their demand that they were sending the sons of Iacus in aid. The Thebans took the field on the strength of their alliance with that family, but were soundly beaten by the Athenians. Thereupon they sent a second message to Igaina, giving back the sons of Iacus and asking for some men instead. The Igainatans, who were enjoying great prosperity and remembered their old feud with Athens, accordingly made war on the Athenians at the entreaty of the Thebans without sending a herald. While the Athenians were busy with the Beotians, they descended on Attica in ships of war, and ravaged Farelon and many other seaboard townships. By so doing they dealt the Athenians a very shrewd blow. This was the beginning of the Igainatans' longstanding debt of enmity against the Athenians, the Epidorians' land bore no produce. For this reason they inquired at Delphi concerning this calamity, and the priestess bade them set up images of Damia and Auxesia, saying that if they did so their luck would be better. The Epidorians then asked in addition whether they should make the images of bronze or of stone, and the priestess bade them do neither, but make them of the wood of the cultivated olive. So the men of Epidorus asked the Athenians to permit them to cut down some olive trees, supposing the olives there to be the holiest. Indeed it is said that at that time there were no olives anywhere save at Athens. The Athenians consented to give the trees if the Epidorians would pay yearly sacred dues to Athena, the city's goddess, and to Erechtheus. The Epidorians agreed to this condition, and their request was granted. When they set up images made of these olive trees their land brought forth fruit, and they fulfilled their agreement with the Athenians. Now at this time as before it the Igainatans were in all matters still subject to the Epidorians and even crossed to Epidorus for the hearing of their own private lawsuits. From this time, however, they began to build ships and stubbornly revolted from the Epidorians. In the course of this struggle they did the Epidorians much damage and stole their images of Damia and Auxesia. These they took away and set them up in the middle of their own country at a place called Oia, about twenty furlongs distant from their city. Having set them up in this place they sought their favor with sacrifices and female choruses in the satirical and abusive mode. Ten men were appointed providers of a chorus for each of the deities, and the choruses aimed their railery not at any men but at the women of the country. The Epidorians too had the same rights, and they have certain secret rights as well. When these images were stolen, the Epidorians ceased from fulfilling their agreement with the Athenians. Then the Athenians sent an angry message to the Epidorians who pleaded in turn that they were doing no wrong. For as long, they said, as we had the images in our country, we fulfilled our agreement. Now that we are deprived of them, it is not just that we should still be paying. Ask your dues of the men of Aegina who have the images. The Athenians therefore sent to Aegina and demanded that the images be restored, but the Aeginatins answered that they had nothing to do with the Athenians. The Athenians report that after making this demand they dispatched one trireme with certain of their citizens who, coming in the name of the whole people to Aegina, attempted to tear the images as being made of attic wood from their bases so that they might carry them away. When they could not obtain possession of them in this manner, they tied cords around the images with which they could be dragged. While they were attempting to drag them off, they were overtaken both by a thunderstorm and an earthquake. This drove the triremes' crew to such utter madness that they began to slay each other as if they were enemies. At last only one of all was left who returned by himself to Falerum. This is the Athenian version of the matter, but the Aeginatins say that the Athenians came not in one ship only, for they could easily have kept off a single ship, or several for that matter, even if they had no navy themselves. The truth was, they said, that the Athenians descended upon their coasts with many ships, and that they yielded to them without making a fight of it at sea. They are not able to determine clearly whether it was because they admitted to being weaker at sea fighting that they yielded, or because they were planning what they then actually did. When, as the Aeginatins say, no man came out to fight with them, the Athenians disembarked from their ships and turned their attention to the images. Unable to drag them from the bases, they fastened cords on them and dragged them until they both, this I cannot believe, but another might, fell on their knees. Both have remained in this position ever since. This is what the Athenians did, but the Aeginatins say that they discovered that the Athenians were about to make war upon them, and therefore assured themselves of help from the Argives. So when the Athenians disembarked on the land of Aegina, the Argives came to aid the Aeginatins, crossing over from Epidaurus to the island secretly. They then fell upon the Athenians unaware and cut them off from their ships. It was at this moment that the thunderstorm and earthquake came upon them. This, then, is the story told by the Argives and the Aeginatins, and the Athenians too acknowledged that only one man of their number returned safely to Attica. The Argives, however, say that he escaped after they had destroyed the rest of the Athenian force, while the Athenians claimed that the whole thing was to be attributed to divine power. This one man did not survive but perished in the following manner. It would seem that he made his way to Athens and told of the mishap. When the wives of the men who had gone to attack Aegina heard this, they were very angry that he alone should be safe. They gathered round him and stabbed him with the broochpins of their garments, each asking him where her husband was. This is how the man met his end, and the Athenians found the action of their women to be more dreadful than their own misfortune. They could find, it is said, no other way to punish the women than changing their dress to the Ionian fashion. Until then the Athenian women had worn Dorian dress, which is very like the Corinthian. It was changed, therefore, to the linen tunic, so that they might have no broochpins to use. The truth of the matter, however, is that this form of dress is not in its origin Ionian, but Carian, for in ancient times all women in Greece wore the costume now known as Dorian, as for the Argives and Aeginotins, this was the reason of their passing a law in both their countries that broochpins should be made half as long as they used to be, and that brooches should be the principal things offered by women in the shrines of these two goddesses. Furthermore, nothing else attic should be brought to the temple, not even pottery, and from that time on only drinking vessels made in the country should be used. Ever since that day, even to my time, the women of Argos and Aegina wore broochpins longer than before by reason of the feud with the Athenians. The enmity of the Athenians against the Aeginotins began, as I have told, and now at the Theven's call the Aeginotins came readily to the aid of the Beotians, remembering the matter of the images. While the Aeginotins were laying waste to the seaboard of Attica, the Athenians were setting out to march against them, but an oracle from Delphi came to them bidding them to restrain themselves for thirty years after the wrongdoing of the Aeginotins, and in the thirty-first to mark out a precinct for Iacus and begin the war with Aegina. In this way their purpose would prosper. If, however, they sent an army against their enemies straight away, they would indeed subdue them in the end, but would in the meantime both suffer and do many things. When the Athenians heard this reported to them, they marked out for Iacus that precinct which is now set in their market place, but they could not stomach the order that they must hold their hand for thirty years, seeing that the Aeginotins had dealt them a fowl blow. As they were making ready for vengeance, a matter which took its rise and Lassa-demon hindered them, for when the Lassa-demonians heard of the plot of the Alchmionids with the Pythian Priestess and of her plot against themselves and the Pisistratidae, they were very angry for two reasons, namely that they had driven their own guests and friends from the country they dwelt in, and that the Athenians showed them no gratitude for their doing so. Furthermore, they were spurred on by the Oracles which foretold that many deeds of enmity would be perpetrated against them by the Athenians. Previously they had had no knowledge of these Oracles, but now Cleomenes brought them to Sparta, and the Lassa-demonians learned their contents. It was from the Athenian Acropolis that Cleomenes took the Oracles, which had been in the possession of the Pisistratidae earlier. When they were exiled, they left them in the temple from where they were retrieved by Cleomenes. Now the Lassa-demonians, when they regained the Oracles and saw the Athenians increasing in power and in no way inclined to obey them, realized that if the Athenians remained free, they would be equal in power with themselves, but that if they were held down under tyranny, they would be weak and ready to serve a master. Perceiving all this, they sent to bring Pisistratus' son Hippias, from Sigeum on the Hellespont, the Pisistratidae's place of refuge. When Hippias arrived, the Spartans sent for envoys from the rest of their allies and spoke to them as follows. Surs, our allies, we do acknowledge that we have acted wrongly. For, let astray by lying divinations, we drove from their native land men who were our close friends and promised to make Athens subject to us. Then we handed that city over to a thankless people which had no sooner lifted up its head in the freedom which we gave it than it insolently cast out us and our king. Now it has bred such a spirit of pride and is growing so much in power that its neighbors in Beotia and Causus have really noticed it, and others too will soon recognize their error. Since we erred in doing what we did, we will now attempt with your aid to avenge ourselves on them. It is on this account and no other that we have sent for Hippias, whom you see, and have brought you from your cities, namely that uniting our councils and our power, we may bring him to Athens and restore that which we took away. These were the words of the Lacedemonians, but their words were ill-received by the greater part of their allies. The rest then keeping silence, so close a Corinthian said, in truth heaven will be beneath the earth and the earth aloft above the heaven and men will dwell in the sea and fishes where men dwelt before, now that you Lacedemonians are destroying the rule of equals and making ready to bring back tyranny into the cities, tyranny, a thing more unrighteous and blood thirsty than anything else on this earth. If indeed it seems to you to be a good thing that the cities be ruled by tyrants, set up a tyrant among yourselves first and then seek to set up such for the rest. As it is, however, you who have never made trial of tyrants and take the greatest precautions that none will arise at Sparta, deal wrongfully with your allies. If you had such experience of that thing as we have, you would be more prudent advisors concerning it than you are now. The Corinthian state was ordered in such manner as I will show. There was an oligarchy, and this group of men, called the Bacaidi, held sway in the city, marrying and giving in marriage among themselves. Now Amtheon, one of these men, had a crippled daughter whose name was Labda. Since none of the Bacaidi would marry her, she was wedded to Etion, son of Ikecrates, of the township of Petra, a lapith by lineage and of the posterity of Senius. When no sons were born to him by this wife or any other, he set out to Delphi to inquire concerning the matter of acquiring offspring. As soon as he entered, the Pythian priestess spoke these verses to him, Etion worthy of honor, no man honors you. Labda is with child, and her child will be a millstone which will fall upon the rulers and will bring justice to Corinth. This oracle which was given to Etion was in some way made known to the Bacaidi. The earlier oracles sent to Corinth had not been understood by them, despite the fact that its meaning was the same as the meaning of the oracle of Etion, and it read as follows, An eagle in the rocks has conceived and will bring forth a lion, strong and fierce. The knees of many will it loose. This consider well, Corinthians, you who dwell by lovely pirani and the overhanging heights of Corinth. This earlier prophecy had been unintelligible to the Bacaidi, but as soon as they heard the one which was given to Etion, they understood it at once, recognizing its similarity with the oracle of Etion. Now understanding both oracles, they kept quiet, but resolved to do away with the offspring of Etion. Then, as soon as his wife had given birth, they sent ten men of their clan to the township where Etion dwelt to kill the child. These men came to Petra and passing into Etion's court-guard asked for the child. Labda, knowing nothing of the purpose of their coming and thinking that they wished to see the baby out of affection for its father, brought it and placed it into the hands of one of them. Now they had planned on their way that the first of them who received the child should dash it to the ground. When, however, Labda brought and handed over the child, by divine chance it smiled at the man who took it. This he saw, and compassion prevented him from killing it. Filled with pity, he handed it to a second, and this man again to a third. In fact, it passed from hand to hand to each of the ten, for none would make an end of it. They then gave the child back to its mother, and after going out, they stood before the door, reproaching and upgrading one another, but chiefly him who had first received it since he had not acted in accordance with their agreement. Finally they resolved to go in again, and all have a hand in the killing. Fate, however, had decreed that Etion's offspring should be the source of ills for Corinth, for Labda, standing close to this door, heard all this. Fearing that they would change their minds and that they would take and actually kill the child, she took it away and hid it where she thought it would be hardest to find, in a chest, for she knew that if they returned and set about searching they would seek in every place, which in fact they did. They came and searched, but when they did not find it, they resolved to go off and say to those who had sent them that they had carried out their orders. They then went away and said this. Etion's son, however, grew up, and because of his escape from that danger, he was called Sipcellus after the chest. When he had reached manhood and was seeking a divination, an oracle of double meaning was given him at Delphi. Putting faith in this, he made an attempt on Corinth and won it. The oracle was as follows. That man is fortunate who steps into my house. Sipcellus, son of Etion, the king of noble Corinth. He himself and his children, but not the sons of his sons. Such was the oracle. Sipcellus, however, when he had gained the tyranny, conducted himself in this way. Many of the Corinthians he drove into exile, many he deprived of their wealth, and by far the most he had killed. After a reign of thirty years he died in the height of prosperity, and was succeeded by his son Periander. Now Periander was to begin with milder than his father, but after he had held converse by messenger with Thresscibalus, the tyrant of Miletus, he became much more bloodthirsty than Sipcellus. He had sent a herald to Thresscibalus and inquired in what way he would best and most safely govern his city. Thresscibalus led the man who had come from Periander outside the town, and entered into a sown field. As he walked through the corn, continually asking why the messenger had come to him from Corinth, he kept cutting off all the tallest ears of wheat which he could see, and throwing them away until he had destroyed the best and richest part of the crop. Then, after passing through the place and speaking no word of counsel, he sent the herald away. When the herald returned to Corinth, Periander desired to hear what counsel he brought, but the man said that Thresscibalus had given him none. The herald added that it was a strange man to whom he had been sent, a madman and a destroyer of his own possessions, telling Periander what he had seen Thresscibalus do. Periander, however, understood what had been done, and perceived that Thresscibalus had counseled him to slay those of his townsmen who were outstanding in influence or ability. With that he began to deal with his citizens in an evil manner. Whatever act of slaughter or banishment Cipcellus had let undone, that Periander brought to accomplishment. In a single day he stripped all the women of Corinth naked, because of his own wife Melissa. Periander had sent messengers to the Oracle of the Dead on the river Acheron in Thesprotia to inquire concerning a deposit that a friend had left, but Melissa, in an apparition, said that she would tell him nothing, nor reveal where the deposit lay, for she was cold and naked. The garments she said, with which Periander had buried with her, had never been burnt, and were of no use to her. Then, as evidence for her husband that she spoke the truth, she added that Periander had put his loaves into a cold oven. When this message was brought back to Periander, for he had had intercourse with the dead body of Melissa and knew her token for true, immediately after the message he made a proclamation that all the Corinthian women should come out into the Temple of Hera. They then came out as to a festival, wearing their most beautiful garments, and Periander set his guards there and stripped them all alike, ladies and serving women, and heaped all the clothes in a pit where, as he prayed to Melissa, he burnt them. When he had done this and sent a second message, the ghost of Melissa told him where the deposit of the friend had been laid. This, then, Lacedemonians is the nature of tyranny, and such are its deeds. We Corinthians marveled greatly when we saw that you were sending for Hippias, and now we marvel yet more at your words to us. We entreat you earnestly in the name of the gods of Hellas, not to establish tyranny in the cities, but if you do not cease from so doing and unrighteously attempt to bring Hippias back, be assured that you are proceeding without the Corinthian's consent. End of Volume 2, Part 12. Volume 2, Part 13 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 2 by Herodotus of Halachinarsis. Translated by Ed Godly. Volume 2, Part 13. These were the words of Socles, the envoy from Corinth, and Hippias answered, calling the same gods as Socles had invoked to witness, that the Corinthians would be the first to wish the Pisistrate back, when the time appointed should come for them to be vexed by the Athenians. Hippias made this answer inasmuch as he had more exact knowledge of the oracles than any man. But the rest of the allies, who had till now kept silence, spoke out when they heard the free speech of Socles, and sided with the opinion of the Corinthians, in treating the Lachodemonians not to harm a Greek city. His plan then came to nothing, and Hippias was forced to depart. Amintus, king of the Macedonians, offered him Anthemus, and the Thessalonians Iocus, but he would have neither. He withdrew to Sigeum, which Pisistratus had taken at the Spears Point, from the Mytileneans, and where he then established as Tyrant Hegasistratus, his own bastard son by an Argyve woman. Hegasistratus, however, could not keep what Pisistratus had given him without fighting, for there was a constant war over a long period of time between the Athenians at Sigeum and the Mytileneans at Achilleum. The Mytileneans were demanding the place back, and the Athenians, bringing proof to show that the Aeolians had no more part or lot in the land of Ilium than they themselves and all the other Greeks who had aided Menelaus to avenge the rape of Helen, would not consent. Among the various incidents of this war, one in particular is worth mentioning. In the course of a battle in which the Athenians had the upper hand, Achaus, the poet, took to flight and escaped, but his armor was taken by the Athenians and hung up in the Temple of Athena at Sigeum. Alchaus wrote a poem about this, and sent it to Mytilena. In it he relates his own misfortunes to his friend Melanippus. As for the Mytileneans and Athenians, however, peace was made by them between Periander, son of Cipcellus, to whose arbitration they committed the matter, and the terms of peace were that each party should keep what it had. It was in this way, then, that Sigeum came to be under Athenian rule, but Hippias, having come from Lachodemon into Asia, left no stone unturned, maligning the Athenians to Artafrenus and doing all he could to bring Athens into subjection to himself Andarius. While Hippias was engaged in these activities, the Athenians heard of it and sent messengers to Sardis, warning the Persians not to believe banished Athenians. Artafrenus, however, bade them receive Hippias back if they wanted to be safe. When his words were brought back to the Athenians, they would not consent to them, and since they would not consent, it was resolved that they should be openly at war with Persia. It was when the Athenians had made their decision, and were already on bad terms with Persia, that Aristogorus, the Malaysian, driven from Sparta by Cleomenes the Lachodemonian, came to Athens, since that city was more powerful than any of the rest. Coming before the people, Aristogorus spoke to the same effect as at Sparta, of the good things of Asia, and how the Persians carried neither shield nor spear in war, and could easily be overcome. This he said, adding that the Malaysians were settlers from Athens, whom it was only right to save, seeing that they themselves were a very powerful people. There was nothing which he did not promise in the earnestness of his entreaty, till at last he prevailed upon them. It seems, then, that it is easier to deceive many than one, for he could not deceive Cleomenes of Lachodemon, one single man, but thirty thousand Athenians he could. The Athenians, now persuaded, voted to send twenty ships to aid the Ionians, appointing for their admiral Melentheus a citizen of Athens who had an unblemished reputation. These ships were the beginning of troubles for both Greeks and foreigners. Aristogorus sailed before the rest, and when he came to Miletus he devised a plan from which no advantage was to accrue to the Ionians, nor, indeed, was that the purpose of his plan, but rather to vex King Darius. He sent a man to Phrygia, to the Paeonians who had been led captive from the Strimmen by Megabazes, and now dwelt in a Phrygian territory and village by themselves. When the man came to the Paeonians he spoke as follows. Men of Paeonia, I have been sent by Aristogorus, tyrant of Meletus, to show you the way to deliverance if you are disposed to obey. All Ionia is now in revolt against the King, and it is possible for you to win your own way back safely to your own land, but afterwards we will take care of you. The Paeonians were very glad when they heard that, and although some of them remained where they were for fear of danger, the rest took their children and women and fled to the sea. After arriving there the Paeonians crossed over to Chios. They were already in Chios when a great host of Persian horsemen came after them in pursuit. Unable to overtake them the Persian sent to Chios commanding the Paeonians to go back. The Paeonians would not consent to this, but were brought from Chios by the Chians to Lesbos and carried by the Lesbians to Doriscus, from where they made their way by land to Paeonia. The Athenians came with their twenty ships as well as five tri-reins of the Etreans who came to the war to please not the Athenians but the Melesians themselves, thereby repaying their debt, for the Melesians had once been the allies of the Eritreans in the war against Chiosus when the Sammians came to aid the Chiosedians against the Eritreans and Melesians. When these then and the rest of the allies had arrived Aristogorus planned a march against Sardis. He himself did not go with the army but remained at Miletus and appointed others to be generals of the Melesians, namely his own brother Cheropenus and another citizen named Hermaphentus. When the Ionians had come to Ephesus with this force they left their ships at Choresus in the Ephesian territory and marched inland with a great host, taking Ephesians to guide them on their way. They made their way along the river Caicos and after crossing the Timolus they came to Sardis and captured it without any resistance. They took all of it except the citadel which was held by Artifrenus himself with a great force of men. They were prevented from plundering the city by the fact that most of the houses in Sardis were made of reeds and those made of brick had roofs of reeds. Accordingly, when one of these was set on fire by a soldier the flames spread from house to house all over the whole city. While the city was burning the Lydians and all the Persians who were in the citadel, being hemmed in on every side since the fire was consuming the outer parts and having no exit from the city, came thronging into the marketplace and to the river Pactolus which flows through the marketplace carrying down gold dust from Timolus and issues into the river Hermes which in turn issues into the sea. They assembled in the marketplace by this Pactolus and were forced to defend themselves there. When the Ionian saw some of their enemies defending themselves and a great multitude of others approaching they were afraid and withdrew to the mountain called Timolus from where they departed to their ships at Nightfall. In the fire at Sardis a temple of Sebebi the goddess of that country was burnt and the Persians afterwards made this their pretext for burning the temples of Helus. At this time the Persians of the provinces, this side of the Halis, on hearing of these matters, gathered together and came to aid of the Lydians. It chanced that they found the Ionians no longer at Sardis but following on their tracks they caught them at Ephesus. There the Ionians stood arrayed to meet them but were utterly routed in the battle. The Persians put to the sword many men of the Ionians, however now, including Yulcides the general of the Eritreans, who had won crowns as victor in the games and been greatly praised by Simonides of Seos. Those of the Ionians who escaped from the battle fled each to his city. This then is how they fared in their fighting. Presently however the Athenians wholly separated themselves from the Ionians and refused to aid them, although Aristogoras sent messages of earnest entreaty. Despite the fact that they had been deprived of their Athenian allies, the Ionians fervently continued their war against the king, for they remained committed by what they had done to Darius. They sailed to the Helispont and made Byzantium and all the other cities of that region subject to themselves. Then sailing out from the Helispont they gained to their cause the greater part of Keria, for even Canis, which till then had not wanted to be their ally, now joined itself to them after the burning of Sardis. The Cyprians did likewise of their own free will all save the people of Amanthus, for those two revolted from the Medes in such a manner as I will show. There was a certain Anacilus, a younger brother of Gorgas, king of the Salaminians, son of Chersis, whose father was Ceromus and grandson of Ulthon. This man had often before advised Gorgas to revolt from Darius, and now when he heard that the Ionians too had revolted he was insistent in striving to move him. When, however, he could not persuade Gorgas, he in his faction waited till his brother had gone out of the city of Salamis, and shut him out of the gates. Gorgas, after having lost his city, took refuge with the Medes, and Anacilus, now king of Salamis, persuaded all Cyprus to revolt with him, all save the Amalthusians who will not consent. He accordingly stationed his forces in front of their city and besieged it. Anacilus then besieged Amalthus. When it was reported to Darius that Sardis had been taken and burnt by the Athenians and Ionians, and that Aristogorus the Malesian had been leader of the conspiracy for the making of this plan, he at first, it is said, took no account of the Ionians since he was sure that they would not go unpunished for their rebellion. Darius did, however, ask who the Athenians were, and after receiving the answer he called for his bow. This he took, and placing an arrow on it, and shot it into the sky, praying as he sent it aloft, O Zeus, grant me vengeance on the Athenians. Then he ordered one of his servants to say to him three times whenever dinner was sent before him, Master, remember the Athenians. After giving this order he called before him Hestaeus the Malesian, whom Darius had kept with him for a long time now, and said, I hear, Hestaeus, that the vice regent whom you put in charge of Miletus has done me wrong. He has brought men from the mainland overseas, and persuaded certain Ionians, who shall yet pay me the penalty for their deeds, to follow them, and has robbed me of sardis. Now, then, I ask you, do you think that this state of affairs is good? How did such things come to pass without any advice from your side? See to it that you do not have cause to blame yourself hereafter. To this Hestaeus answered, My Lord, what is this you say, that I and none other should devise a plan as a result of which any harm, greater, small, was likely to come to you? What desire or feeling of deprivation would prompt me to do such a thing? All that you have is mine, and I am regarded worthy of hearing all your deliberations. If my vice regent is indeed doing what you say, be assured that he is acted of his own accord. For myself I cannot even go so far as to believe the report that the Malesians and my vice regent were doing you some dreadful wrong. If, however, it is true that they are engaged in such activities, and what you, O king, have heard has a basis in fact, then you can see how unwisely you acted when you forced me to leave the coast. It would seem, then, that as soon as I was out of sight the Ionians did exactly what their hearts had long been set on. If I had been in Ionia no city would have stirred. Now send me off to Ionia right away so that I may restore that country to peace, and deliver into your hands that vice regent of Maledis who has devised all this. Then, when I have done this to your satisfaction, I swear by the gods of your royal house that I will not take off the tunic I am wearing on my arrival in Ionia, until I have made Sardo the largest of the island's tributary to you. With these words Histaeus successfully deceived Darius, who gave his consent and let him go, charging Histaeus to appear before him at Sousa when he had achieved what he promised. Now, while the message concerning Sardis was making its way to the king, and Darius, having done, as I said, with his bow, held converse with Histaeus and permitted him to go to the sea, the following events took place. When Anacilus of Salamis was besieging the Amathesians, news was brought him that Artibius, a Persian, was thought to be coming to Cyprus with a great Persian host. Upon hearing this, Anacilus sent heralds all through Ionia to summon the people, and the Ionians, after no long deliberation, came with a great force. So the Ionians were in Cyprus when the Persians, crossing from Cilicia, marched to Salamis by land, and the Phoenicians were sailing around the headland which is called the Keys of Cyprus. In this turn of affairs, the tyrants of Cyprus called together the generals of the Ionians and said to them, Ionians, we Cypriots offer you the choice of engaging either the Persians or the Phoenicians. If you want to draw up your army on land and try your strength against the Persians, then it is time for you to disembark and array yourselves on land, and for us to embark in your ships to contend with the Phoenicians. If, however, you desire rather to engage the Phoenicians, do so, but whichever you choose, see to it that Ionia and Cyprus become free. To this the Ionians answered, we were sent by the common voice of Ionia to guard the seas, not to deliver our ships to men of Cyprus and encounter the Persians on land. We will attempt then to bear ourselves bravely in the task which was given us. It is for you to prove yourselves valiant men, remembering what you suffered when you were enslaved by the Medians. This was the Ionians' response, and when the Persian army afterwards arrived on the plain of Salamis, the Cyprian kings ordered their battle-line. They drew up the best of the Salaminians and Solians against the Persians, leaving the remaining Cyprians to face the rest of the enemy's army. Anacillus placed himself opposite Artibius, the Persian general. Now the horse which Artibius rode was trained to fight with infantrymen by rearing up. Hearing this, Anacillus said to his attendant, a carrion of great renown and war and a valiant man, I learned that Artibius' horse rears up and kicks and bites to death whomever he encounters. In light of this decide and tell me straightway which you will watch and strike down, Artibius himself or his horse. To this his henchmen answered, my king, ready I am to do either or both whatever you desire. Nevertheless I will tell you what I think is in your best interest. To my mind a king and a general should be met in battle by a king and a general, for if you lay low a man who is a general you have achieved a great feat. Failing that, if he lays you low, as I pray he may not, it is but half the misfortune to be slain by a noble enemy. For us servants it is fitting that we fight with servants like ourselves and with that horse. Do not fear his tricks, for I promise that he will never again do battle with any man. This then was his response, and immediately afterwards war broke out on land and sea. The Ionians in their ships, displaying surpassing excellence that day, overcame the Phoenicians, and it was the Samnians who were most brave. On land when the armies met they charged and fought. As for the two generals, Artibius rode against Onosilus, who as he had agreed with his attendant, dealt Artibius a blow as he bore down upon him. When the horse struck his hooves on Onosilus's shield the carrion shore away the horse's legs with a stroke of his curved sword. It was in this way that Artibius the Persian general, together with his horse, fell. While the rest were still fighting, Stesinor, the ruler of Caryum, allegedly an archived settlement, played the traitor with a great company of men under him. The war- chariots of the Salamanians immediately followed their lead, and the Persians accordingly gained the upper hand over the Salamanians. So the army was routed, and many were slain, among them Onosilus, son of Chersus, who had contrived the Cyprian revolt, as well as the king of the Solians, Aristosipris, son of Phelosipris, that Phelosipris whom Solon of Athens, when he came to Cyprus, extolled in a poem above all other tyrants. As for Onosilus, the Amethusians cut off his head and brought it to Amethus, where they hung it above their gates, because he had besieged their city. When this had become hollow, a swarm of bees entered it and filled it with their honeycomb. In consequence of this, the Amethusians, who had inquired concerning the matter, received an oracle which stated that they should take the head down and bury it, and offer yearly sacrifice to Onosilus as a hero. If they did this, things would go better for them. This the Amethusians did, and have done to this day. When, however, the Ionians engaged in the sea battle of Cyprus, learned that Onosilus's cause was lost, and that the cities of Cyprus, with the exception of Salamis, which the Salaminians had handed over to their former king Gorgus, were besieged, they sailed off to Ionia without delay. Soli was the Cyprian city which withstood siege longest, the Persians took it in the fifth month by digging a mine under its walls. So the Cyprians, after winning freedom for a year, were enslaved once more. Darisces, Hameis, and Atenis, all of them Persian generals and married to daughters of Darius, pursued those Ionians who had marched to Sardis and drove them to their ships. After this victory they divided the cities among themselves and sacked them. Darisces made for the cities of the Hellespond and took Dardanus, Abidus, Percote, Lemsacus, and Pesis each in a single day. Then as he marched from Pesis against Perius, news came to him that the Carians had made common cause with the Ionians and revolted from the Persians. For this reason he turned aside from the Hellespond and marched his army to Caria. It so happened that news of this was brought to the Carians before Darisces's coming, and when the Carians heard, they mustered at the place called the White Pillars by the river Marceus, which flows from the region of Idria and issues into the Meander. When they had gathered together many plans were laid before them, the best of which in my judgment was that of Pixodaris of Cyndia, the son of Maesolus and husband of the daughter of Cyanises, king of Cilicia. He proposed that the Carians should cross the Meander and fight with the river at their back, so that being unable to flee and compel to stand their ground they might prove themselves even braver than nature made them. This opinion, however, did not prevail, and it was decided instead that the Persians and not the Cilicians should have the Meander at their back, the intent being that if the Persians were overcome in the battle and put to flight they would not escape but be hurled into the river. Presently when the Persians had come and had crossed the Meander, they and the Carians joined battle by the river Marceus. The Carians fought obstinately for a long time, but at last they were overcome by the odds. Of the Persians as many as two thousand men fell, and of the Carians ten thousand. Those of them who escaped were driven into the precinct of Zeus at Armies at Lombrata, a large and holy grove of plain trees. The Carians are the only people whom we know who offer sacrifices to Zeus by this name. When they had been driven there they deliberated how best to save themselves, whether it would be better for them to surrender to the Persians or to depart from Asia. While they took counsel the Malaysians and their allies came to their aid, whereupon the Carians put aside their former plans and prepared to wage a new war over again. They met the Persian attack and offered a heavier defeat in the battle than the first. Many of their whole army fell, but the Malaysians were hardest stricken. The Carians, however, rallied and fought again after this disaster, for learning that the Persians had set forth to march against their cities, they beset the road with an ambush at Padasus. The Persians fell into this by night and perished, they and their generals, Doricis and Amurgis and Sysimacis. With these fell also Mirsis, son of Gijis. The leader of this ambush was Heracletes of Milasus, son of Ibn al-Is. This, then, is how the Persians perished. Himais, who had been one of those who went in pursuit of the Ionians who marched on Sardis, now turned towards the Propontis, and there took Sias in Misia. When he had taken this place and heard that Doricis had left the Hellespont and was marching towards Caria, he left the Propontis and led his army to the Hellespont, making himself master of all the Iolians who dwell in the territory of Ilium, and of the Gergithae, a remnant of the ancient Trojans. While he was conquering these nations, however, Himais himself died of a sickness in the Troad. This is how he met his end, and Artifrinis, Viceroy of Sardis, and Autonies, the Third General, were appointed to lead the army against Ionia and the Aeolian territory on its borders. They took Clasimene in Ionia and Cime in Aeolia. Aristogorus the Malaysian, as he clearly demonstrated, was a man of little courage, for after he had disturbed Ionia and thrown all into utter confusion, he, perceiving what he had done, began to deliberate flight. Moreover, it seemed him to be impossible to overcome Darius. While the cities were being taken, he accordingly called his fellow rebels together and took counsel with them, saying that it was best for them to have some place of refuge in case they should be thrown out of Meletus. He also asked them whether he should lead them from there to a settlement in Sardo, or Mersinus in Ionia, which Hestaeus had received as a gift from Darius and fortified. Hecateus, the historian, son of Hegasander, was of the opinion that they should set forth to neither of these places, but that Aristogorus should build a fortress in the island of Leros and reside there, if he were driven from Meletus. Afterwards, with this as a base, he could return to Meletus. Such was the advice of Hecateus, but Aristogorus himself thought it best to depart from Mersinus. He accordingly entrusted Meletus to Pythagoras, a citizen of Repute, and himself sailed to Thrace with any that would follow him, and then took possession of the place to which he had come. After this he was put to the sword by the Thracians, he and his army, as he was besieging a town, even though the Thracians were ready to depart from it under treaty. Volume 2, Part XIV This was the end of Aristogorus, after he had brought about the Ionian revolt. Histiaeus, the tyrant of Meletus, arrived in Sardis after he was let go by Darius. When he came there from Susa, Artefrennes, the governor of Sardis, asked him for what reason he supposed the Ionians had rebelled. Histiaeus said that he did not know and marveled at what had happened, pretending to have no knowledge of the present troubles. But Artefrennes saw that he dissembled, and knowing the exact story of the revolt he said, I will tell you, Histiaeus, the truth of this business, it was you who stitched the shoe and Aristogorus who put it on. Thus spoke Artefrennes regarding the revolt. Histiaeus was frightened by Artefrennes' understanding of the matter and fled the next night to the sea, for he had deceived Darius by promising to subdue Sardo, the greatest of the islands, while secretly intending to make himself leader of the Ionians in their war against Darius. Crossing over to Chios, he was taken and bound by the Chians, because they judged him to have been sent by Darius to make trouble for them. But when they learned the whole story of his hostility to the king, they set him free. Then Histiaeus was asked by the Ionians why he had so zealously ordered Aristogorus to revolt from the king and done the Ionians such great harm. He did not at all reveal the true reason to them, telling them instead that King Darius had planned to remove the Phoenicians and settle them in Ionia, and the Ionians in Phoenicia. For this reason, he said, he had sent the order. The king had made no such plan, but Histiaeus wanted to frighten the Ionians. Then Histiaeus, using Hermipus, a man of Artenaeus as messenger, sent letters to the Persians at Sardis, because they had previously talked with him about revolt. But Hermipus did not give the letters to the men whom he was sent, and went and delivered them to Artefrennes instead. Artefrennes, learning all that was afoot, bet Hermipus carried Histiaeus's letters to those for whom he was bringing them, and give them those which the Persians sent in answer to Histiaeus. Thus these men became known, and then Artefrennes put many Persians to death. So troubles arose in Sardis. Since he failed in his hope, the Chians brought Histiaeus back to Meletus at his own request. But the Melisians were glad enough to be fed of Aristagorus himself, and they had no wish to receive another tyrant into their country, now that they had tasted freedom. When Histiaeus tried to force his way into Meletus by night, he was wounded in the thigh by a Melisian. Since he was thrust out from his own city, he went back to Chios. When he could not persuade the Chians to give him ships, he then crossed over to Militine and persuaded the Lesbians to give him ships. They manned eight triremes and sailed with Histiaeus to Byzantium. There they encamped and seized all the ships that were sailing out of the Eucsene, except when the crews consented to serve Histiaeus. Such were the doings of Histiaeus and the Militineans. Against Meletus itself a great fleet and army were expected, for the Persian generals had joined their power together in made one army, which they led against Meletus, taking less account of their other fortresses. Of the fleet the Phoenicians were the most eager to fight, and there came with them to the war the newly subdued Cyprians and the Silicians and Egyptians. These were coming to attack Meletus and the rest of Ionia. When the Ionians learned of it they sent deputies to take counsel for them in the Panionium. When they came to that place and consulted they resolved not to collect a land army to meet the Persians, but to leave the Melisians to defend their walls themselves, and to man their fleet to the last ship and gather as quickly as possible at Lod to fight for Meletus at sea. This Lod is a small island lying off the coast of Meletus. The Ionians then came there with their ships manned, and with them the Aeolians who dwell in Lesbos. This was their order of battle. The Melisians themselves had the eastern wing, bringing eighty ships. Next to them were the Pranaeans with twelve ships, and the Meletians with three. Next to the Maetians were the Teans with seventeen ships. Next to these the Keans with a hundred. Near these in the line were the Erythraeans bringing eight ships, and the Phocaeans with three. And next to these the Lesbians with seventy. Last of all in the line were the Sammians holding the western wing with sixty ships. The total number of all these together was three hundred and fifty-three triremes. These were the Ionian ships. The ships of the foreigners were six hundred. When these two reached the Melisian shore and all their land power was present, the Persian generals, learning the number of the Ionian ships, feared they would be too weak to overcome the Greeks. If they did not have a mastery of the sea they would not be able to take Meletus, and would be in danger of some evil treatment by Darius. With this in mind they gathered the tyrants of the Ionians who had been deposed from their governments by Aristogorus of Meletus, and had fled to the Medides, and who now were with the army that was led against Meletus. They gathered as many of these men as were with them and said to them, Men of Ionia, let each one of you now show that he has done good service to the king's house. Let each one of you try to separate your own countrymen from the rest of the allied power. Set this promise before them. They will suffer no harm for their rebellion. Neither their temples nor their houses will be burnt. Nor will they in any way be treated more violently than before. But if they will not do so and are set on fighting, then utter a threat that will restrain them. If they are defeated in battle they will be enslaved. We will make eunuchs of their boys and carry their maidens captive to Bactra and hand over their land to others. So they spoke. The Ionian tyrants sent their messages by night, each to his own countrymen. But the Ionians to whom these messages came were stubborn and would have no part of the treachery, each thinking that the Persians made this offer to them alone. This happened immediately after the Persians arrived at Meletus. Then the Ionians who had gathered bit-lad held assemblies among those whom I supposed to have addressed them was Dionysius, the Phocian general, who spoke thus. Our affairs, men of Ionia, stand on the edge of a razor, whether to be free men or slaves, and runaway slaves at that. If you now consent to endure hardships you will have toil for the present time, but it will be in your power to overcome your enemies and gain your freedom. But if you will be weakened disorderly I see nothing that can save you from paying the penalty to the king for your rebellion. Believe me and entrust yourself to me. I promise you that, if the gods deal fairly with us, either our enemies shall not meet us in battle, or if they do they shall be utterly vanquished. When the Ionians heard this they put themselves in Dionysius's hands. He then each day put out to sea with ships in column, using the rowers to pierce each other's line of ships, and arming the fighting men on board, for the rest of that day he kept the fleet at anchor. All day he made the Ionians work. For seven days they obeyed him and did his bidding, but on the next day, untried as they were in such labour and worn out by hard work in the sun, the Ionians began to say to each other, Against what god have we sinned that we have to fulfill this task? We have lost our minds and launched out into folly, committing ourselves into the hands of this focian braggart who brings but three ships, and having got us he afflicts us with afflictions incurable. Many of us have fallen sick already, and many are likely to suffer the same thing. Instead of these ills it would be better for us to suffer anything and endure this coming slavery, whatever it will be, rather than be oppressed by that which is now upon us. Come, let us obey him no longer. So they spoke, and from then on no man would obey. As if they were an army they raised tents on the island where they stayed in the shade, and they were unwilling to embark upon their ships or continue their services. When the generals of the Sammians learned what the Ionians were doing, they recalled that message which Asius, son of Solison, had already sent them at the Persian's bidding, and treating them to desert the Ionian alliance. Seeing great disorder on the Ionian side, they consented to the message. Moreover it seemed impossible to them to overcome the king's power, and they were well assured that if they overcame Darius's present fleet, another one five times as large would come. Therefore, as soon as they saw the Ionians refusing to be useful, they took up that for a pretext, considering it advantageous to save their own temples and houses. This Achus, from whom they received the message, was the son of Solison, the son of Achus, and had been tyrant of Samos until he was deposed from his rule by Aristogorus of Meletus, just like the other Ionian tyrants. Now, when the Phoenician fleet came sailing against them, the Ionians put out to see against them with their ships in column. When they drew near and met each other in battle, which of the Ionians were brave men or cowards, then in that sea-fight I cannot exactly say, for they all blame each other. The Samians are said, according to their agreement with Asus, to have raised their sails and gone off to Samos, leaving their post all except eleven ships. The captains of these stood their ground and fought, disobeying their admirals. For this deed the Samian people granted that their names and patrimonics should be engraved on a pillar as brave men. This pillar now stands in their marketplace. But the lesbians, seeing their neighbors fleeing, did the same as the Samians, and most of the Ionians did likewise. The most roughly handled of those that stood their ground in the sea-fight were the Chians, since they refused to be cowards and achieved deeds of renown. They brought a hundred ships to the fleet, as was mentioned above, and on each ship were forty-picked men of their citizens. Seeing themselves betrayed by the greater part of their allies, they did not think it right to act like the worst among them. With only a few allies to aid them they fought on and bravely broke the enemy's line, until they had taken many ships, but lost most of their own. The Chians escaped their own country with their remaining ships, but the crews of the Chians' ships that were damaged and disabled were pursued and took refuge in Mikayla. There the men beached and left their ships, and made their way across the mainland. But when the Chians entered the lands of Ephesus on their march, they came by night while the women were celebrating the Thesmaphoria. When the Ephesians, never having heard the story of the Chians and seeing an army invading their country, were fully persuaded that these were robbers come after their women, so they mustered all their force and killed the Chians. So these men met with such a fate. As for Dionysius the Phocian, when he saw that the Ionian cause was lost, he sailed away with the three enemy ships that he had captured, but not to Phocaea. Now that he knew well it would be enslaved with the rest of Ionia. He right away sailed straight to Finnishien instead, sunk some merchant ships, took a lot of money, and sailed to Sicily. From this base he set himself up as a pirate, robbing Carthaginians and Tyranians, but no Greeks. When the Persians had conquered the Ionians by sea, they laid siege to Miletus by sea and land, mining the walls and using every device against it, until they utterly captured it in the sixth year after the revolt of Aristagoras. They enslaved the city, and thus the Calamity agreed with the oracle concerning Miletus. When the Argives inquired at Delphi about the safety of their city, a common response was given, one part regarding the Argives themselves, but there was an additional response for the Militians. I will mention the part concerning the Argives when I come to that part of my history. This was the prophecy given to the Militians in their absence. Then, Miletus, contriver of evil deeds, for many you will become a banquet and glorious gifts. Your wives will wash the feet of many long-haired men. Other ministers will tend my didmin shrine. All this now came upon the Militians, since most of their men were slain by the Persians, who wore long hair, and their women and children were accounted as slaves, and the temple at Didma, with its shrine and its place of divination was plundered and burnt. Of the wealth that was in this temple I have often spoken elsewhere in my history. After that the captive Militians were brought to Sousa. King Darius did them no further harm, settling them by the sea called Red, in the city of Ampe, by which the river Tigris flows as it issues into the sea. Of the Militian land the Persians themselves held what was nearest to the city, and the plain, giving the hill country into the possession of carrions from Pedasa. Now when the Militians suffered all this at the hands of the Persians, the Siborites, who had lost their city and dwelt in Laos and Skidris, did not give them equal return for what they had done. When Siborus was taken by the Crotiniates, the people of Miletus, young and old, shaved their heads and made great public lamentation. No cities which we know were ever so closely joined in friendship is these. The Athenians acted very differently. The Athenians made clear their deep grief for the taking of Miletus in many ways, but especially in When Frenicus wrote a play entitled The Fall of Miletus and produced it, the whole theatre fell to weeping. They find Frenicus a thousand drachmas for bringing to mind a calamity that affected them so personally, and forbade the performance of the play forever. Miletus was then left empty of Militians. The men of property among the Sammians were displeased by the dealings of their generals with the Medes, so after the sea-fight they took counsel immediately and resolved that before Asus the tyrant came to their country they would sail to a colony rather than remain and be slaves of the Medes and Acus. The people of Xenocle in Sicily about this time sent messengers to Ionia inviting the Ionians to the Fair Coast, desiring there to found an Ionian city. This Fair Coast, as it is called, is in Sicily, in that part which looks toward Terenia. At this invitation the Sammians alone of the Ionians with those Militians who had escaped set forth. In their journey a thing happened to them such as I will show. As they voyaged to Sicily the Sammians came to the country of the Epheseverian Locrians at a time when the people of Xanclay and their king, whose name was Scythes, were besieging a Sicilian town desiring to take it. Learning this, Anixilus the tyrant of Regium, being then in a feud with the Xenocleans, joined forces with the Sammians and persuaded them to leave off their voyage to the Fair Coast and seize Xanclay while it was deserted by its men. The Sammians consented and seized Xanclay when they learned that their city was taken, the Xanclayans came to deliver it, calling to their aid Hippocrates the tyrant of Gela, who was their ally. But Hippocrates, when he came bringing his army to aid them, put Scythes the monarch of Xanclay and his brother Pythogenes in chains for losing the city, and sent them away to the city of Anix. He betrayed the rest of the Xanocleans to the Sammians, with whom he had made an agreement and exchanged oaths. The price which the Sammians agreed to give him was that Hippocrates should take for his share half of the movable goods and slaves in the city, and all that was in the country. Most of the Xanclans were kept in chains as slaves by Hippocrates himself. He gave three hundred chiefmen to the Sammians to be put to death, but the Sammians did not do so. Scythes, the monarch of Xanclay, escaped from Anix to Himera, and from there he came to Asia and went up-country to King Darius. Darius considered him the most honest man of all who had come up to him from Hellas, for he returned by the king's permission to Sicily, and from Sicily back again to Darius, until, in an old age, he ended his life in Persia in great wealth. Without trouble the Sammians planted themselves in that most excellent city of Xanclay after they had escaped from the Medes. After the fight at sea for Miletus, the Phoenicians at the Persian's bidding brought Acus, son of Solosan, back to Samos, for the high worth of his service to them and for his great achievements. Because of the desertion of their ships in the sea-fight, the Sammians were the only rebel people whose city and temples were not burnt. After Miletus was captured, the Persians at once gained possession of Keria. Some of the towns submitted voluntarily, others were brought over by force. All this happened so. Histiaeus the Malaysian was at Byzantium, using the Ionian merchant ships as they sailed out of the Yuxin, when he had news of the business of Miletus. Leaving all matters concerning the Hellespont in charge of Bissaltis of Abidos, son of Apollophonis, he himself sailed with the lesbians to Kios, and when the Kian guarded ships would not receive him, fought in the hollows of Kios, as they are called. Many of their crews he killed, the rest of the people of the country, since they were crippled by the sea-fight, were mastered by Histiaeus with his lesbians, setting out from Palikni in Kios. It is common for some sign to be given when great ills threaten cities or nations, for before all this plain signs had been sent to the Kians. Of a band of a hundred youths whom they had sent to Delphi only two returned, ninety-eight being caught and carried off by pestilence. Moreover, at about this same time, a little before the sea-fight, the roof fell in on boys learning their letters, of one hundred and twenty of them, one alone escaped. These signs a God showed to them. Then the sea-fight broke upon them and beat the city to its knees. On top of the sea-fight came Histiaeus and the lesbians. Since the Kians were in such a bad state he easily subdued them. End of Volume 2, Part 14 Volume 2, Part 15 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 2 by Herodotus of Halecanarsis. Translated by E. D. Godly. Volume 2, Part 15 Then Histiaeus brought a great force of Ionians and Aeolians against Thessos. While he was besieging Thessos, a message came that the Phoenicians were putting out to sea for Miletus to attack the rest of Ionia. When he learned this, he left Thessos unsacked and hastened instead with all his army to Lesbos. From there, since his army suffered from hunger, he crossed over to Reap from Artenius, the corn there, and the Mesian corn of the Caecas plain. Now it chanced that in the region was Harpagus, a Persian, with no small force under him. When Histiaeus landed, Harpagus met him in battle and took Histiaeus himself alive and killed most of his army. Histiaeus was taken prisoner in this way. The Greeks fought with the Persians at Maline in the country of Artenius. The armies fought for a long time until the Persian cavalry charged and fell upon the Greeks. So this was the accomplishment of the cavalry. When the Greeks were routed, Histiaeus, supposing that the king would not put him to death for his present transgression, did what showed he loved his life too well. He was overtaken in his flight by a Persian, and when he was caught and about to be stabbed, he cried out in the Persian language and revealed himself to be Histiaeus the Malician. Now if he had been taken prisoner and brought to King Darius, he would have suffered no harm to my thinking, and the king would have forgiven his guilt. But as it was, when Histiaeus was brought to Sardis, both because of what he had done and for fear that he might escape and again win power at the court, Artefrenes, governor of Sardis and Harpagus, who had captured him, impaled his body on the spot and sent his head embalmed to King Darius at Sousa. When Darius learned of this, he blamed those who had done it because they had not brought Histiaeus before him alive, and he commanded that the head should be washed and buried with due ceremony as of a man who had done great good to Darius himself and to Persia. Thus it fared with Histiaeus. The Persian fleet wintered at Maledis and, putting out to sea in the next year, easily subdued the islands that lie off the mainland, Chios and Lesbos and Tenedos. Whenever they took an island, the foreigners would net the people. This is the matter of their doing it. The men link hands and make a line reaching from the northern sea to the southern, and then advance over the whole island, hunting the people down. They also captured the Ionian cities of the mainland in the same way, but not by netting the people, for that was not possible. Then the Persian generals were not false to the threats they had made against the Ionians when they were in camp to opposite them. When they had gained mastery over the cities, they chose out the most handsome boys and castrated them, making them eunuchs instead of men, and they carried the fairest maidens away to the king. They did all this, and they burnt the cities with their temples. Thus three times had the Ionians been enslaved, first by the Lydians, and now twice in a row by the Persians. Then the fleet departed from Ionia and captured everything which lies to the left of one sailing up the Hell's Pond. The right side had been subdued by the Persians themselves from the mainland. These are the regions of Europe that belong to the Hell's Pond, the Chersonese in which there are many cities, Perinthus and the Forts that lie towards Thrace, and Celembria and Byzantium. The Byzantines and the Calcadonians, beyond them, did not even wait for the attacks of the Phoenotians, but left their land and fled away into the Eucsene, and there settled in the city of Messembria. The Phoenicians burnt the aforementioned places and turned against Procannesus and Artais. After giving these also to the flames, they sailed back to the Chersonese to finish off the remaining cities, as many they had not destroyed at their former landing. But they did not sail against Cisacus at all. The Cisacines had already made themselves the king's subjects before the Phoenician expedition, by an agreement with the governor at Descaleum, Oberus, son of Megabasis. The Phoenicians subdued all the cities in the Chersonese except Cardia. Miltiades, son of Simon, son of Stessagoras, was tyrant there. Miltiades, son of Cipillus, had gained the rule earlier in the following manner. The Thracian Delancey held possession of this Chersonese. They were crushed in war by the absenteeans, so they sent their kings to Delphi to inquire about the war. The Pythia answered that they should bring to their land as founder the first man who offered them hospitality after they left the sacred precinct. But as the Delancey passed through Focus and Biosha, going along the sacred way, no one invited them, so they turned towards Athens. At that time in Athens Pysistratus held all power, but Miltiades, son of Cipillus, also had great influence. His household was rich enough to maintain a four-horse chariot, and he traced his earliest descent to Achus and Aegina, though his later ancestry was Athenian. Phalaeus, son of Iax, was the first of that house to be an Athenian. Miltiades was sitting on his porch when he saw the Delancey go by with their foreign clothing and spears, so he called out to them, and when they came over he invited them in for lodging and hospitality. They accepted, and after he entertained them they revealed the whole story of the Oracle to him and asked him to obey the god. He was persuaded as soon as he heard their speech, for he was tired of Pysistratus' rule and wanted to be away from it. He immediately set out for Delphi to ask the Oracle if he should do what the Delancey asked of him. The Pythia also bade him do so. Then Miltiades, son of Cipillus, previously an Olympic victor in the four-horse chariot, recruited any Athenian who wanted to take part in the expedition, sailed off with the Delancey, and took possession of their land. Those who brought him appointed him tyrant. His first act was to wall off the isthmus of the Chersines from the city of Cardia across to the Pacti, so that the Absinians would not be able to harm them by invading their land. The isthmus is thirty-six stadia across, and to the south of the isthmus the Chersines is four hundred and twenty stadia in length. After Miltiades had pushed away the Absinians by walling off the neck of the Chersines, he made war first on the people of Lampsacus, but the Lamps Saxines laid an ambush and took him prisoner. However, Miltiades stood high in the opinion of Croesus the Lydian, and when Croesus heard what had happened he sent to the Lamps Saxines and commanded them to release Miltiades. If they did not do so he threatened to cut them down like a pine tree. The Lampsacines went astray in their councils as to what the utterance meant, which Croesus had threatened them with, saying he would devastate them like a pine tree until at last one of the elders understood and said what it was. The pine is the only tree that once cut down never sends out any shoots, it is utterly destroyed. So out of fear of Croesus the Lampsacines released Miltiades and let him go. So he escaped by the intervention of Croesus, but he later died childless and left his rule and possessions to Stezagoras, the son of his half brother Simon. Since his death the people of the Chersines offer sacrifices to him as their founder in the customary manner, instituting a contest of horse races and gymnastics. No one from Lampascus is allowed to compete. But in the war against the Lampsacines Stezagoras too met his end and died childless. He was struck on the head with an axe in the town hall by a man who pretended to be a deserter, but in truth was an enemy and a man of violence. Stezagoras met his end in this way. The sons of Pisistratus sent Miltiades, son of Simon and brother of the dead Stezagoras, in a tri-ring to the Chersines to take control of the country. They had already treated him well at Athens, feigning that they had not been accessory to the death of Simon his father, which I will relate in another place. Reaching the Chersines, Miltiades kept himself within his house, professing thus to honor the memory of his brother Stezagoras. When the people of the Chersines learned this, their ruling men gathered together from the cities on all sides and came together in a group to show fellow feeling with his mourning. But he put them in bonds. So Miltiades made himself master of the Chersines. There he maintained a guard of five hundred men and married Hegasipil, the daughter of Eloris, king of Thrace. But not long after this Miltiades, son of Simon, had come through the Chersines, greater difficulties than the present afflictions overtook him. He had been driven from the country three years before this by the Scythians. The nomadic Scythians, provoked by Darius, gathered themselves together and rode as far as the Chersines. Miltiades did not await their attack and fled from the Chersines till the Scythians departed and the Delance brought him back again. All this happened three years before the matters that now engaged him. But now, learning that the Phoenicians were in Tenedos, he sailed away to Athens with five triremes loaded with the possessions that he had nearby. He set out from Cardia and crossed the Black Bay, and as he was sailing along the Chersines the Phoenicians fell upon him with their ships. Miltiades himself escaped with four of his ships to Imbras, but the fifth was pursued and overtaken by the Phoenicians. It happened that the captain of this ship was Metiochus, the eldest son of Miltiades by another wife, not the daughter of Oralus the Thracian. The Phoenicians took this man captive with his ship, and when they heard that he was Miltiades' son they brought him up to the king, thinking that this would be a very favourable service, because Miltiades had declared his opinion among the Ionians that they should obey the Scythians and their demand to break the bridge of boats and sail away to their homes. But when the Phoenicians brought Miltiades' son Metiochus before him, Darius did him no harm but much good, giving him a house and possessions and a Persian wife, who bore him children who were reckoned as Persians. Miltiades made his way from Imbras to Athens. In this year the Persians caused no further trouble for the Ionians, and at this same time certain things happened which greatly benefited the Ionians. Artifrenis, governor of Sardis, summoned ambassadors from the cities and compelled the Ionians to make agreements among themselves that they would abide by the law and not rob and plunder each other. He compelled them to do this, and he measured their lands by parasongs, which is the Persian name for a distance of thirty stadia, and he ordered that each people should, according to this measurement, pay a tribute, which has remained fixed as asserted by Artifrenis ever since that time up to this day. The sum appointed was about the same as that which they had rendered before. This then kept them peaceable. But at the beginning of spring the other generals were deposed by the king from their offices, and Mardonius, son of Gobrius, a man young in years and recently married to Darius's daughter, Artizostra, came down to the coast at the head of a very great army and fleet. When Mardonius reached Cilicia at the head of his army, he himself embarked on ship-board and sailed with the rest of his ships, while other captains led the land army to the hell's pond. When Mardonius arrived in Ionia, in his voyage along the coast of Asia, he did a thing which I hear sat down for the wonder of those Greeks who will not believe Atenis to have declared his opinion among the seven that democracy was best for Persia. Mardonius deposed all the Ionian tyrants and set up democracies in their cities. He did this and hurried to the hell's pond. When a great multitude of ships and a great army were assembled, the Persians crossed the hell's pond on their ship-board and marched through Europe, with Eritrea and Athens as their goal. This was the stated end of their expedition, but they intended to subdue as many of the Greek cities as they could. Their fleet subdued the Thracians, who did not so much as lift up their hands against it. Their land army added the Macedonians to the slaves that they had already, for the nations nearer to them than Macedonia had been made subject to the Persians before this. Crossing over from Thrasos, they traveled near the land as far as Acanthus, and putting out from there they tried to rand Athens. But a great and irresistible north wind fell upon them as they sailed past and dealt very roughly with them, driving many of their ships upon Athos. It is said that about three hundred ships were lost, and more than twenty thousand men. Since the coasts of Athos abound in wild beasts, some men were carried off by beasts and so perished. Others were dashed against the rocks, those who could not swim perished because of that, and still others by the cold. Thus it fared with the fleet, for as Mardanius and his land army, while they were in Campton Macedonia, the bridgey of Thraces attacked them by night and killed many of them, wounding Mardanius himself. But not even these could escape being enslaved by the Persians. Mardanius did not depart from those lands before he had subjugated them. After conquering them he led his army away homewards, since the bridgey had dealt a heavy blow to his army and Athos an even heavier blow to his fleet. This expedition, after an inglorious adventure, returned back to Asia. In the next year after this Darius first sent a message bidding the Thracians, who were falsely reported by their neighbors to be planning rebellion, to destroy their walls and bring their ships to Abdera. Since they had been besieged by Histiaeus of Miletus and had great revenues, the Thracians had used their wealth to build ships of war and surround themselves with stronger walls. Their revenue came from the mainland from the mines. Their revenue came from the mainland and from the mines. About eighty talents on average came in from the gold mines of the dug forest, and less from the mines of Thresos itself, yet so much that the Thasians, paying no tax on their crops, drew a yearly revenue from the mainland and the mines of two hundred talents on average, and three hundred when the revenue was greatest. I myself have seen these mines, by far the most marvelous were those that were founded by the Phoenicians who with Thessos colonized this land, which is now called after that Phoenician Thessos. These Phoenician mines are between the place called Enira and Conira in Thessos opposite Samothrace. They are in a great hill that has been dug up in the searching, so much for that. The Thasians at the king's command destroyed their walls and brought all their ships to Abdera. Then Darius attempted to learn whether the Greeks intended to wage war against him or to surrender themselves. He sent heralds this way and that through Helus, bidding them demand a gift of earth and water for the king. He dispatched some to Helus and sent others to his own tributary cities of the coast, commanding that ships of war and transports for horses be built. So the city set about these preparations. The heralds who went to Helus received what the king's proclamation demanded from many of those dwelling on the mainland and from all the islanders to whom they came with the demand. Among the islanders who gave earth and water to Darius were the Agenitans. The Athenians immediately came down upon them for doing this, for they supposed the Agenitans to have given the gift out of enmity for Athens, so they might join with the Persians in attacking the Athenians. Gladly laying hold of this pretext, they went to Sparta and there accused the Agenitans of acting to betray Helus. Regarding this accusation, Cleo Menes, son of Anoxandrides, king of Sparta, crossed over to Agena, intending to arrest the most culpable of its people. But when he attempted to make the arrest, the Agenitans opposed him, especially Crius, son of Polycritus, who told him he would not take away any Agenetan with impunity, for he had no authority from the Spartans for what he was doing. Instead he had been bribed by the Athenians, otherwise he would have come to make the arrest with the other king. He said this because of a letter from Demoratus. Driven from Agena, Cleo Menes asked Crius his name, and when Crius told him what it was, Cleo Menes said to him, Now is the time to put bronze on your horns, Mr. Ram, for great calamity will confront you. All this time Demoratus, son of Aristan, remained at Sparta and spread evil reports of Cleo Menes. This Demoratus was also king of Sparta, but of the inferior house, not indeed inferior in any other regard, for they have a common ancestor, but the house of Eurusthenes has, in some sort, the greater honor by the rite of Premogenetor. The Lachodemonians say, but no poet agrees, that it was Aristodemus' son of Aristachemus, son of Cleodus, son of Hillus, not his sons, who led them to the land which they now possess. After no long time Aristodemus' wife, whose name was Argia, Boehrm Opspring, of Autusian, son of Tisemenes, son of their Sander, son of Polyneses, she bore him twins. Aristodemus lived to see his children, then died of a sickness. The Lachodemonians of that day planned to follow their custom and make the eldest of the children king. But the children were identical in all respects, so the Lachodemonians did not know which to choose, when they could not judge between them, or perhaps even before this, they asked his mother. She said she knew no better than the Lachodemonians which was the elder. She knew perfectly well, but she said this because she desired that by some means both might be made kings. The Lachodemonians were at a loss, so they sent to Delphi to inquire how they should deal with the matter. The priestess vad them make both children kings, but give greater honor to the elder. When the priestess gave this response, the Lachodemonians knew no better than before how to discover the elder child, and a man of Messenia, whose name was Pinatis, gave them advice. He advised them to watch the mother and see which of the children she washed and fed before the other. If she was seen to do this always in the same mortar, they would then have all that they sought and desired to discover. But if she changed her practice haphazardly, then it would be manifest to the Lachodemonians that she knew no more than they did, and they must have recourse to some other means. Then the Spartans did as the Messenian advised. As they watched the mother of Aristodemus's children, they found her always preferring the elder when she fed and watched them, since she did not know why she was being watched. So they took the child that was preferred by its mother and brought it up at public expense as the first born, and they called it Eurysthanes and the other Procles. They say that when these two brothers grew to manhood, they feuded with each other as long as they lived, and their descendants continued to do likewise.