The Persian Wars
by
Herodotus
Written 440 BC
Translated by George Rawlinson
Book 4 – MELPOMENE
[4.1] After the taking of Babylon, an expedition was led by
Darius into Scythia. Asia abounding in men, and vast sums flowing into the
treasury, the desire seized him to exact vengeance from the Scyths, who had once
in days gone by invaded Media, defeated those who met them in the field, and so
begun the quarrel. During the space of eight-and-twenty years, as I have before
mentioned, the Scyths continued lords of the whole of Upper Asia. They entered
Asia in pursuit of the Cimmerians, and overthrew the empire of the Medes, who
till they came possessed the sovereignty. On their return to their homes after
the long absence of twenty-eight years, a task awaited them little less
troublesome than their struggle with the Medes. They found an army of no small
size prepared to oppose their entrance. For the Scythian women, when they saw
that time went on, and their husbands did not come back, had intermarried with
their slaves.
[4.2] Now the Scythians blind all their slaves, to use them
in preparing their milk. The plan they follow is to thrust tubes made of bone,
not unlike our musical pipes, up the vulva of the mare, and then to blow into
the tubes with their mouths, some milking while the others blow. They say that
they do this because when the veins of the animal are full of air, the udder is
forced down. The milk thus obtained is poured into deep wooden casks, about
which the blind slaves are placed, and then the milk is stirred round. That
which rises to the top is drawn off, and considered the best part; the under
portion is of less account. Such is the reason why the Scythians blind all those
whom they take in war; it arises from their not being tillers of the ground, but
a pastoral race.
[4.3] When therefore the children sprung from these slaves
and the Scythian women grew to manhood, and understood the circumstances of
their birth, they resolved to oppose the army which was returning from Media.
And, first of all, they cut off a tract of country from the rest of Scythia by
digging a broad dyke from the Tauric mountains to the vast lake of the Maeotis.
Afterwards, when the Scythians tried to force an entrance, they marched out and
engaged them. Many battles were fought, and the Scythians gained no advantage,
until at last one of them thus addressed the remainder: “What are we doing,
Scythians? We are fighting our slaves, diminishing our own number when we fall,
and the number of those that belong to us when they fall by our hands. Take my
advice – lay spear and bow aside, and let each man fetch his horsewhip, and go
boldly up to them. So long as they see us with arms in our hands, they imagine
themselves our equals in birth and bravery; but let them behold us with no other
weapon but the whip, and they will feel that they are our slaves, and flee
before us.”
[4.4] The Scythians followed this counsel, and the slaves
were so astounded, that they forgot to fight, and immediately ran away. Such was
the mode in which the Scythians, after being for a time the lords of Asia, and
being forced to quit it by the Medes, returned and settled in their own country.
This inroad of theirs it was that Darius was anxious to avenge, and such was the
purpose for which he was now collecting an army to invade them.
[4.5] According to the account which the Scythians
themselves give, they are the youngest of all nations. Their tradition is as
follows. A certain Targitaus was the first man who ever lived in their country,
which before his time was a desert without inhabitants. He was a child – I do
not believe the tale, but it is told nevertheless – of Jove and a daughter of
the Borysthenes. Targitaus, thus descended, begat three sons, Leipoxais,
Arpoxais, and Colaxais, who was the youngest born of the three. While they still
ruled the land, there fell from the sky four implements, all of gold – a plough,
a yoke, a battle-axe, and a drinking-cup. The eldest of the brothers perceived
them first, and approached to pick them up; when lo! as he came near, the gold
took fire, and blazed. He therefore went his way, and the second coming forward
made the attempt, but the same thing happened again. The gold rejected both the
eldest and the second brother. Last of all the youngest brother approached, and
immediately the flames were extinguished; so he picked up the gold, and carried
it to his home. Then the two elder agreed together, and made the whole kingdom
over to the youngest born.
[4.6] From Leipoxais sprang the Scythians of the race
called Auchatae; from Arpoxais, the middle brother, those known as the Catiari
and Traspians; from Colaxais, the youngest, the Royal Scythians, or Paralatae.
All together they are named Scoloti, after one of their kings: the Greeks,
however, call them Scythians.
[4.7] Such is the account which the Scythians give of their
origin. They add that from the time of Targitaus, their first king, to the
invasion of their country by Darius, is a period of one thousand years, neither
less nor more. The Royal Scythians guard the sacred gold with most especial
care, and year by year offer great sacrifices in its honour. At this feast, if
the man who has the custody of the gold should fall asleep in the open air, he
is sure (the Scythians say) not to outlive the year. His pay therefore is as
much land as he can ride round on horseback in a day. As the extent of Scythia
is very great, Colaxais gave each of his three sons a separate kingdom, one of
which was of ampler size than the other two: in this the gold was preserved.
Above, to the northward of the farthest dwellers in Scythia, the country is said
to be concealed from sight and made impassable by reason of the feathers which
are shed abroad abundantly. The earth and air are alike full of them, and this
it is which prevents the eye from obtaining any view of the region.
[4.8] Such is the account which the Scythians give of
themselves, and of the country which lies above them. The Greeks who dwell about
the Pontus tell a different story. According to Hercules, when he was carrying
off the cows of Geryon, arrived in the region which is now inhabited by the
Scyths, but which was then a desert. Geryon lived outside the Pontus, in an
island called by the Greeks Erytheia, near Gades, which is beyond the Pillars of
Hercules upon the Ocean. Now some say that the Ocean begins in the east, and
runs the whole way round the world; but they give no proof that this is really
so. Hercules came from thence into the region now called Scythia, and, being
overtaken by storm and frost, drew his lion’s skin about him, and fell fast
asleep. While he slept, his mares, which he had loosed from his chariot to
graze, by some wonderful chance disappeared.
[4.9] On waking, he went in quest of them, and, after
wandering over the whole country, came at last to the district called “the
Woodland,” where he found in a cave a strange being, between a maiden and a
serpent, whose form from the waist upwards was like that of a woman, while all
below was like a snake. He looked at her wonderingly; but nevertheless inquired,
whether she had chanced to see his strayed mares anywhere. She answered him,
“Yes, and they were now in her keeping; but never would she consent to give them
back, unless he took her for his mistress.” So Hercules, to get his mares back,
agreed; but afterwards she put him off and delayed restoring the mares, since
she wished to keep him with her as long as possible. He, on the other hand, was
only anxious to secure them and to get away. At last, when she gave them up, she
said to him, “When thy mares strayed hither, it was I who saved them for thee:
now thou hast paid their salvage; for lo! I bear in my womb three sons of thine.
Tell me therefore when thy sons grow up, what must I do with them? Wouldst thou
wish that I should settle them here in this land, whereof I am mistress, or
shall I send them to thee?” Thus questioned, they say, Hercules answered, “When
the lads have grown to manhood, do thus, and assuredly thou wilt not err. Watch
them, and when thou seest one of them bend this bow as I now bend it, and gird
himself with this girdle thus, choose him to remain in the land. Those who fail
in the trial, send away. Thus wilt thou at once please thyself and obey me.”
[4.10] Hereupon he strung one of his bows – up to that time
he had carried two – and showed her how to fasten the belt. Then he gave both
bow and belt into her hands. Now the belt had a golden goblet attached to its
clasp. So after he had given them to her, he went his way; and the woman, when
her children grew to manhood, first gave them severally their names. One she
called Agathyrsus, one Gelonus, and the other, who was the youngest, Scythes.
Then she remembered the instructions she had received from Hercules, and, in
obedience to his orders, she put her sons to the test. Two of them, Agathyrsus
and Gelonus, proving unequal to the task enjoined, their mother sent them out of
the land; Scythes, the youngest, succeeded, and so he was allowed to remain.
From Scythes, the son of Hercules, were descended the after kings of Scythia;
and from the circumstance of the goblet which hung from the belt, the Scythians
to this day wear goblets at their girdles. This was the only thing which the
mother of Scythes did for him. Such is the tale told by the Greeks who dwell
around the Pontus.
[4.11] There is also another different story, now to be
related, in which I am more inclined to put faith than in any other. It is that
the wandering Scythians once dwelt in Asia, and there warred with the Massagetae,
but with ill success; they therefore quitted their homes, crossed the Araxes,
and entered the land of Cimmeria. For the land which is now inhabited by the
Scyths was formerly the country of the Cimmerians. On their coming, the natives,
who heard how numerous the invading army was, held a council. At this meeting
opinion was divided, and both parties stiffly maintained their own view; but the
counsel of the Royal tribe was the braver. For the others urged that the best
thing to be done was to leave the country, and avoid a contest with so vast a
host; but the Royal tribe advised remaining and fighting for the soil to the
last. As neither party chose to give way, the one determined to retire without a
blow and yield their lands to the invaders; but the other, remembering the good
things which they had enjoyed in their homes, and picturing to themselves the
evils which they had to expect if they gave them up, resolved not to flee, but
rather to die and at least be buried in their fatherland. Having thus decided,
they drew apart in two bodies, the one as numerous as the other, and fought
together. All of the Royal tribe were slain, and the people buried them near the
river Tyras, where their grave is still to be seen. Then the rest of the
Cimmerians departed, and the Scythians, on their coming, took possession of a
deserted land.
[4.12] Scythia still retains traces of the Cimmerians;
there are Cimmerian castles, and a Cimmerian ferry, also a tract called Cimmeria,
and a Cimmerian Bosphorus. It appears likewise that the Cimmerians, when they
fled into Asia to escape the Scyths, made a settlement in the peninsula where
the Greek city of Sinope was afterwards built. The Scyths, it is plain, pursued
them, and missing their road, poured into Media. For the Cimmerians kept the
line which led along the sea-shore, but the Scyths in their pursuit held the
Caucasus upon their right, thus proceeding inland, and falling upon Media. This
account is one which is common both to Greeks and barbarians.
[4.13] Aristeas also, son of Caystrobius, a native of
Proconnesus, says in the course of his poem that wrapt in Bacchic fury he went
as far as the Issedones. Above them dwelt the Arimaspi, men with one eye; still
further, the gold-guarding griffins; and beyond these, the Hyperboreans, who
extended to the sea. Except the Hyperboreans, all these nations, beginning with
the Arimaspi, were continually encroaching upon their neighbours. Hence it came
to pass that the Arimaspi drove the Issedonians from their country, while the
Issedonians dispossessed the Scyths; and the Scyths, pressing upon the
Cimmerians, who dwelt on the shores of the Southern Sea, forced them to leave
their land. Thus even Aristeas does not agree in his account of this region with
the Scythians.
[4.14] The birthplace of Aristeas, the poet who sung of
these things, I have already mentioned. I will now relate a tale which I heard
concerning him both at Proconnesus and at Cyzicus. Aristeas, they said, who
belonged to one of the noblest families in the island, had entered one day into
a fuller’s shop, when he suddenly dropt down dead. Hereupon the fuller shut up
his shop, and went to tell Aristeas’ kindred what had happened. The report of
the death had just spread through the town, when a certain Cyzicenian, lately
arrived from Artaca, contradicted the rumour, affirming that he had met Aristeas
on his road to Cyzicus, and had spoken with him. This man, therefore,
strenuously denied the rumour; the relations, however, proceeded to the fuller’s
shop with all things necessary for the funeral, intending to carry the body
away. But on the shop being opened, no Aristeas was found, either dead or alive.
Seven years afterwards he reappeared, they told me, in Proconnesus, and wrote
the poem called by the Greeks The Arimaspeia, after which he disappeared a
second time. This is the tale current in the two cities above-mentioned.
[4.15] What follows I know to have happened to the
Metapontines of Italy, three hundred and forty years after the second
disappearance of Aristeas, as I collect by comparing the accounts given me at
Proconnesus and Metapontum. Aristeas then, as the Metapontines affirm, appeared
to them in their own country, and ordered them to set up an altar in honour of
Apollo, and to place near it a statue to be called that of Aristeas the
Proconnesian. “Apollo,” he told them, “had come to their country once, though he
had visited no other Italiots; and he had been with Apollo at the time, not
however in his present form, but in the shape of a crow.” Having said so much,
he vanished. Then the Metapontines, as they relate, sent to Delphi, and inquired
of the god in what light they were to regard the appearance of this ghost of a
man. The Pythoness, in reply, bade them attend to what the spectre said, “for so
it would go best with them.” Thus advised, they did as they had been directed:
and there is now a statue bearing the name of Aristeas, close by the image of
Apollo in the market-place of Metapontum, with bay-trees standing around it. But
enough has been said concerning Aristeas.
[4.16] With regard to the regions which lie above the
country whereof this portion of my history treats, there is no one who possesses
any exact knowledge. Not a single person can I find who professes to be
acquainted with them by actual observation. Even Aristeas, the traveller of whom
I lately spoke, does not claim – and he is writing poetry – to have reached any
farther than the Issedonians. What he relates concerning the regions beyond is,
he confesses, mere hearsay, being the account which the Issedonians gave him of
those countries. However, I shall proceed to mention all that I have learnt of
these parts by the most exact inquiries which I have been able to make
concerning them.
[4.17] Above the mart of the Borysthenites, which is
situated in the very centre of the whole sea-coast of Scythia, the first people
who inhabit the land are the Callipedae, a Greco-Scythic race. Next to them, as
you go inland, dwell the people called the Alazonians. These two nations in
other respects resemble the Scythians in their usages, but sow and eat corn,
also onions, garlic, lentils, and millet. Beyond the Alazonians reside Scythian
cultivators, who grow corn, not for their own use, but for sale. Still higher up
are the Neuri. Northwards of the Neuri the continent, as far as it is known to
us, is uninhabited. These are the nations along the course of the river Hypanis,
west of the Borysthenes.
[4.18] Across the Borysthenes, the first country after you
leave the coast is Hylaea (the Woodland). Above this dwell the Scythian
Husbandmen, whom the Greeks living near the Hypanis call Borysthenites, while
they call themselves Olbiopolites. These Husbandmen extend eastward a distance
of three days’ journey to a river bearing the name of Panticapes, while
northward the country is theirs for eleven days’ sail up the course of the
Borysthenes. Further inland there is a vast tract which is uninhabited. Above
this desolate region dwell the Cannibals, who are a people apart, much unlike
the Scythians. Above them the country becomes an utter desert; not a single
tribe, so far as we know, inhabits it.
[4.19] Crossing the Panticapes, and proceeding eastward of
the Husbandmen, we come upon the wandering Scythians, who neither plough nor
sow. Their country, and the whole of this region, except Hylaea, is quite bare
of trees. They extend towards the east a distance of fourteen’ days’ journey,
occupying a tract which reaches to the river Gerrhus.
[4.20] On the opposite side of the Gerrhus is the Royal
district, as it is called: here dwells the largest and bravest of the Scythian
tribes, which looks upon all the other tribes in the light of slaves. Its
country reaches on the south to Taurica, on the east to the trench dug by the
sons of the blind slaves, the mart upon the Palus Maeotis, called Cremni (the
Cliffs), and in part to the river Tanais. North of the country of the Royal
Scythians are the Melanchaeni (Black-Robes), a people of quite a different race
from the Scythians. Beyond them lie marshes and a region without inhabitants, so
far as our knowledge reaches.
[4.21] When one crosses the Tanais, one is no longer in
Scythia; the first region on crossing is that of the Sauromatae, who, beginning
at the upper end of the Palus Maeotis, stretch northward a distance of fifteen
days’ journey, inhabiting a country which is entirely bare of trees, whether
wild or cultivated. Above them, possessing the second region, dwell the Budini,
whose territory is thickly wooded with trees of every kind.
[4.22] Beyond the Budini, as one goes northward, first
there is a desert, seven days’ journey across; after which, if one inclines
somewhat to the east, the Thyssagetae are reached, a numerous nation quite
distinct from any other, and living by the chase. Adjoining them, and within the
limits of the same region, are the people who bear the name of Iyrcae; they also
support themselves by hunting, which they practise in the following manner. The
hunter climbs a tree, the whole country abounding in wood, and there sets
himself in ambush; he has a dog at hand, and a horse, trained to lie down upon
its belly, and thus make itself low; the hunter keeps watch, and when he sees
his game, lets fly an arrow; then mounting his horse, he gives the beast chase,
his dog following hard all the while. Beyond these people, a little to the east,
dwells a distinct tribe of Scyths, who revolted once from the Royal Scythians,
and migrated into these parts.
[4.23] As far as their country, the tract of land whereof I
have been speaking is all a smooth plain, and the soil deep; beyond you enter on
a region which is rugged and stony. Passing over a great extent of this rough
country, you come to a people dwelling at the foot of lofty mountains, who are
said to be all – both men and women – bald from their birth, to have flat noses,
and very long chins. These people speak a language of their own,. the dress
which they wear is the same as the Scythian. They live on the fruit of a certain
tree, the name of which is Ponticum; in size it is about equal to our fig-tree,
and it bears a fruit like a bean, with a stone inside. When the fruit is ripe,
they strain it through cloths; the juice which runs off is black and thick, and
is called by the natives “aschy.” They lap this up with their tongues, and also
mix it with milk for a drink; while they make the lees, which are solid, into
cakes, and eat them instead of meat; for they have but few sheep in their
country, in which there is no good pasturage. Each of them dwells under a tree,
and they cover the tree in winter with a cloth of thick white felt, but take off
the covering in the summer-time. No one harms these people, for they are looked
upon as sacred – they do not even possess any warlike weapons. When their
neighbours fall out, they make up the quarrel; and when one flies to them for
refuge, he is safe from all hurt. They are called the Argippaeans.
[4.24] Up to this point the territory of which we are
speaking is very completely explored, and all the nations between the coast and
the bald-headed men are well known to us. For some of the Scythians are
accustomed to penetrate as far, of whom inquiry may easily be made, and Greeks
also go there from the mart on the Borysthenes, and from the other marts along
the Euxine. The Scythians who make this journey communicate with the inhabitants
by means of seven interpreters and seven languages.
[4.25] Thus far, therefore, the land is known; but beyond
the bald-headed men lies a region of which no one can give any exact account.
Lofty and precipitous mountains, which are never crossed, bar further progress.
The bald men say, but it does not seem to me credible, that the people who live
in these mountains have feet like goats; and that after passing them you find
another race of men, who sleep during one half of the year. This latter
statement appears to me quite unworthy of credit. The region east of the
bald-headed men is well known to be inhabited by the Issedonians, but the tract
that lies to the north of these two nations is entirely unknown, except by the
accounts which they give of it.
[4.26] The Issedonians are said to have the following
customs. When a man’s father dies, all the near relatives bring sheep to the
house; which are sacrificed, and their flesh cut in pieces, while at the same
time the dead body undergoes the like treatment. The two sorts of flesh are
afterwards mixed together, and the whole is served up at a banquet. The head of
the dead man is treated differently: it is stripped bare, cleansed, and set in
gold. It then becomes an ornament on which they pride themselves, and is brought
out year by year at the great festival which sons keep in honour of their
fathers’ death, just as the Greeks keep their Genesia. In other respects the
Issedonians are reputed to be observers of justice: and it is to be remarked
that their women have equal authority with the men. Thus our knowledge extends
as far as this nation.
[4.27] The regions beyond are known only from the accounts
of the Issedonians, by whom the stories are told of the one-eyed race of men and
the gold-guarding griffins. These stories are received by the Scythians from the
Issedonians, and by them passed on to us Greeks: whence it arises that we give
the one-eyed race the Scythian name of Arimaspi, “arima” being the Scythic word
for “one,” and “spu” for “the eye.”
[4.28] The whole district whereof we have here discoursed
has winters of exceeding rigour. During eight months the frost is so intense
that water poured upon the ground does not form mud, but if a fire be lighted on
it mud is produced. The sea freezes, and the Cimmerian Bosphorus is frozen over.
At that season the Scythians who dwell inside the trench make warlike
expeditions upon the ice, and even drive their waggons across to the country of
the Sindians. Such is the intensity of the cold during eight months out of the
twelve; and even in the remaining four the climate is still cool. The character
of the winter likewise is unlike that of the same season in any other country;
for at that time, when the rains ought to fall in Scythia, there is scarcely any
rain worth mentioning, while in summer it never gives over raining; and thunder,
which elsewhere is frequent then, in Scythia is unknown in that part of the
year, coming only in summer, when it is very heavy. Thunder in the winter-time
is there accounted a prodigy; as also are earthquakes, whether they happen in
winter or summer. Horses bear the winter well, cold as it is, but mules and
asses are quite unable to bear it; whereas in other countries mules and asses
are found to endure the cold, while horses, if they stand still, are
frost-bitten.
[4.29] To me it seems that the cold may likewise be the
cause which prevents the oxen in Scythia from having horns. There is a line of
Homer’s in the Odyssey which gives a support to my opinion:-
Libya too, where horns hud quick on the foreheads of
lambkins.
He means to say what is quite true, that in warm countries
the horns come early. So too in countries where the cold is severe animals
either have no horns, or grow them with difficulty – the cold being the cause in
this instance.
[4.30] Here I must express my wonder – additions being what
my work always from the very first affected – that in Elis, where the cold is
not remarkable, and there is nothing else to account for it, mules are never
produced. The Eleans say it is in consequence of a curse; and their habit is,
when the breeding-time comes, to take their mares into one of the adjoining
countries, and there keep them till they are in foal, when they bring them back
again into Elis.
[4.31] With respect to the feathers which are said by the
Scythians to fill the air, and to prevent persons from penetrating into the
remoter parts of the continent, even having any view of those regions, my
opinion is that in the countries above Scythia it always snows – less, of
course, in the summer than in the wintertime. Now snow when it falls looks like
feathers, as every one is aware who has seen it come down close to him. These
northern regions, therefore, are uninhabitable by reason of the severity of the
winter; and the Scythians, with their neighbours, call the snow-flakes feathers
because, I think, of the likeness which they bear to them. I have now related
what is said of the most distant parts of this continent whereof any account is
given.
[4.32] Of the Hyperboreans nothing is said either by the
Scythians or by any of the other dwellers in these regions, unless it be the
Issedonians. But in my opinion, even the Issedonians are silent concerning them;
otherwise the Scythians would have repeated their statements, as they do those
concerning the one-eyed men. Hesiod, however, mentions them, and Homer also in
the Epigoni, if that be really a work of his.
[4.33] But the persons who have by far the most to say on
this subject are the Delians. They declare that certain offerings, packed in
wheaten straw, were brought from the country of the Hyperboreans into Scythia,
and that the Scythians received them and passed them on to their neighbours upon
the west, who continued to pass them on until at last they reached the Adriatic.
From hence they were sent southward, and when they came to Greece, were received
first of all by the Dodonaeans. Thence they descended to the Maliac Gulf, from
which they were carried across into Euboea, where the people handed them on from
city to city, till they came at length to Carystus. The Carystians took them
over to Tenos, without stopping at Andros; and the Tenians brought them finally
to Delos. Such, according to their own account, was the road by which the
offerings reached the Delians. Two damsels, they say, named Hyperoche and
Laodice, brought the first offerings from the Hyperboreans; and with them the
Hyperboreans sent five men to keep them from all harm by the way; these are the
persons whom the Delians call “Perpherees,” and to whom great honours are paid
at Delos. Afterwards the Hyperboreans, when they found that their messengers did
not return, thinking it would be a grievous thing always to be liable to lose
the envoys they should send, adopted the following plan:- they wrapped their
offerings in the wheaten straw, and bearing them to their borders, charged their
neighbours to send them forward from one nation to another, which was done
accordingly, and in this way the offerings reached Delos. I myself know of a
practice like this, which obtains with the women of Thrace and Paeonia. They in
their sacrifices to the queenly Diana bring wheaten straw always with their
offerings. Of my own knowledge I can testify that this is so.
[4.34] The damsels sent by the Hyperboreans died in Delos;
and in their honour all the Delian girls and youths are wont to cut off their
hair. The girls, before their marriage-day, cut off a curl, and twining it round
a distaff, lay it upon the grave of the strangers. This grave is on the left as
one enters the precinct of Diana, and has an olive-tree growing on it. The
youths wind some of their hair round a kind of grass, and, like the girls, place
it upon the tomb. Such are the honours paid to these damsels by the Delians.
[4.35] They add that, once before, there came to Delos by
the same road as Hyperoche and Laodice, two other virgins from the Hyperboreans,
whose names were Arge and Opis. Hyperoche and Laodice came to bring to Ilithyia
the offering which they had laid upon themselves, in acknowledgment of their
quick labours; but Arge and Opis came at the same time as the gods of Delos,’
and are honoured by the Delians in a different way. For the Delian women make
collections in these maidens’ names, and invoke them in the hymn which Olen, a
Lycian, composed for them; and the rest of the islanders, and even the Ionians,
have been taught by the Delians to do the like. This Olen, who came from Lycia,
made the other old hymns also which are sung in Delos. The Delians add that the
ashes from the thigh-bones burnt upon the altar are scattered over the tomb of
Opis and Arge. Their tomb lies behind the temple of Diana, facing the east, near
the banqueting-hall of the Ceians. Thus much then, and no more, concerning the
Hyperboreans.
[4.36] As for the tale of Abaris, who is said to have been
a Hyperborean, and to have gone with his arrow all round the world without once
eating, I shall pass it by in silence. Thus much, however, is clear: if there
are Hyperboreans, there must also be Hypernotians. For my part, I cannot but
laugh when I see numbers of persons drawing maps of the world without having any
reason to guide them; making, as they do, the ocean-stream to run all round the
earth, and the earth itself to be an exact circle, as if described by a pair of
compasses, with Europe and Asia just of the same size. The truth in this matter
I will now proceed to explain in a very few words, making it clear what the real
size of each region is, and what shape should be given them.
[4.37] The Persians inhabit a country upon the southern or
Erythraean sea; above them, to the north, are the Medes; beyond the Medes, the
Saspirians; beyond them, the Colchians, reaching to the northern sea, into which
the Phasis empties itself. These four nations fill the whole space from one sea
to the other.
[4.38] West of these nations there project into the sea two
tracts which I will now describe; one, beginning at the river Phasis on the
north, stretches along the Euxine and the Hellespont to Sigeum in the Troas;
while on the south it reaches from the Myriandrian gulf, which adjoins
Phoenicia, to the Triopic promontory. This is one of the tracts, and is
inhabited by thirty different nations.
[4.39] The other starts from the country of the Persians,
and stretches into the Erythraean sea, containing first Persia, then Assyria,
and after Assyria, Arabia. It ends, that is to say, it is considered to end,
though it does not really come to a termination, at the Arabian gulf – the gulf
whereinto Darius conducted the canal which he made from the Nile. Between Persia
and Phoenicia lies a broad and ample tract of country, after which the region I
am describing skirts our sea, stretching from Phoenicia along the coast of
Palestine-Syria till it comes to Egypt, where it terminates. This entire tract
contains but three nations. The whole of Asia west of the country of the
Persians is comprised in these two regions.
[4.40] Beyond the tract occupied by the Persians, Medes,
Saspirians, and Colchians, towards the east and the region of the sunrise, Asia
is bounded on the south by the Erythraean sea, and on the north by the Caspian
and the river Araxes, which flows towards the rising sun. Till you reach India
the country is peopled; but further east it is void of inhabitants, and no one
can say what sort of region it is. Such then is the shape, and such the size of
Asia.
[4.41] Libya belongs to one of the above-mentioned tracts,
for it adjoins on Egypt. In Egypt the tract is at first a narrow neck, the
distance from our sea to the Erythraean not exceeding a hundred thousand
fathoms, in other words, a thousand furlongs; but from the point where the neck
ends, the tract which bears the name of Libya is of very great breadth.
[4.42] For my part I am astonished that men should ever
have divided Libya, Asia, and Europe as they have, for they are exceedingly
unequal. Europe extends the entire length of the other two, and for breadth will
not even (as I think) bear to be compared to them. As for Libya, we know it to
be washed on all sides by the sea, except where it is attached to Asia. This
discovery was first made by Necos, the Egyptian king, who on desisting from the
canal which he had begun between the Nile and the Arabian gulf, sent to sea a
number of ships manned by Phoenicians, with orders to make for the Pillars of
Hercules, and return to Egypt through them, and by the Mediterranean. The
Phoenicians took their departure from Egypt by way of the Erythraean sea, and so
sailed into the southern ocean. When autumn came, they went ashore, wherever
they might happen to be, and having sown a tract of land with corn, waited until
the grain was fit to cut. Having reaped it, they again set sail; and thus it
came to pass that two whole years went by, and it was not till the third year
that they doubled the Pillars of Hercules, and made good their voyage home. On
their return, they declared – I for my part do not believe them, but perhaps
others may – that in sailing round Libya they had the sun upon their right hand.
In this way was the extent of Libya first discovered.
[4.43] Next to these Phoenicians the Carthaginians,
according to their own accounts, made the voyage. For Sataspes, son of Teaspes
the Achaemenian, did not circumnavigate Libya, though he was sent to do so; but,
fearing the length and desolateness of the journey, he turned back and left
unaccomplished the task which had been set him by his mother. This man had used
violence towards a maiden, the daughter of Zopyrus, son of Megabyzus, and King
Xerxes was about to impale him for the offence, when his mother, who was a
sister of Darius, begged him off, undertaking to punish his crime more heavily
than the king himself had designed. She would force him, she said, to sail round
Libya and return to Egypt by the Arabian gulf. Xerxes gave his consent; and
Sataspes went down to Egypt, and there got a ship and crew, with which he set
sail for the Pillars of Hercules. Having passed the Straits, he doubled the
Libyan headland, known as Cape Soloeis, and proceeded southward. Following this
course for many months over a vast stretch of sea, and finding that more water
than he had crossed still lay ever before him, he put about, and came back to
Egypt. Thence proceeding to the court, he made report to Xerxes, that at the
farthest point to which he had reached, the coast was occupied by a dwarfish
race, who wore a dress made from the palm tree. These people, whenever he
landed, left their towns and fled away to the mountains; his men, however, did
them no wrong, only entering into their cities and taking some of their cattle.
The reason why he had not sailed quite round Libya was, he said, because the
ship stopped, and would no go any further. Xerxes, however, did not accept this
account for true; and so Sataspes, as he had failed to accomplish the task set
him, was impaled by the king’s orders in accordance with the former sentence.
One of his eunuchs, on hearing of his death, ran away with a great portion of
his wealth, and reached Samos, where a certain Samian seized the whole. I know
the man’s name well, but I shall willingly forget it here.
[4.44] Of the greater part of Asia Darius was the
discoverer. Wishing to know where the Indus (which is the only river save one
that produces crocodiles) emptied itself into the sea, he sent a number of men,
on whose truthfulness he could rely, and among them Scylax of Caryanda, to sail
down the river. They started from the city of Caspatyrus, in the region called
Pactyica, and sailed down the stream in an easterly direction to the sea. Here
they turned westward, and, after a voyage of thirty months, reached the place
from which the Egyptian king, of whom I spoke above, sent the Phoenicians to
sail round Libya. After this voyage was completed, Darius conquered the Indians,
and made use of the sea in those parts. Thus all Asia, except the eastern
portion, has been found to be similarly circumstanced with Libya.
[4.45] But the boundaries of Europe are quite unknown, and
there is not a man who can say whether any sea girds it round either on the
north or on the east, while in length it undoubtedly extends as far as both the
other two. For my part I cannot conceive why three names, and women’s names
especially, should ever have been given to a tract which is in reality one, nor
why the Egyptian Nile and the Colchian Phasis (or according to others the
Maeotic Tanais and Cimmerian ferry) should have been fixed upon for the boundary
lines; nor can I even say who gave the three tracts their names, or whence they
took the epithets. According to the Greeks in general, Libya was so called after
a certain Libya, a native woman, and Asia after the wife of Prometheus. The
Lydians, however, put in a claim to the latter name, which, they declare, was
not derived from Asia the wife of Prometheus, but from Asies, the son of Cotys,
and grandson of Manes, who also gave name to the tribe Asias at Sardis. As for
Europe, no one can say whether it is surrounded by the sea or not, neither is it
known whence the name of Europe was derived, nor who gave it name, unless we say
that Europe was so called after the Tyrian Europe, and before her time was
nameless, like the other divisions. But it is certain that Europe was an
Asiatic, and never even set foot on the land which the Greeks now call Europe,
only sailing from Phoenicia to Crete, and from Crete to Lycia. However let us
quit these matters. We shall ourselves continue to use the names which custom
sanctions.
[4.46] The Euxine sea, where Darius now went to war, has
nations dwelling around it, with the one exception of the Scythians, more
unpolished than those of any other region that we know of. For, setting aside
Anacharsis and the Scythian people, there is not within this region a single
nation which can be put forward as having any claims to wisdom, or which has
produced a single person of any high repute. The Scythians indeed have in one
respect, and that the very most important of all those that fall under man’s
control, shown themselves wiser than any nation upon the face of the earth.
Their customs otherwise are not such as I admire. The one thing of which I speak
is the contrivance whereby they make it impossible for the enemy who invades
them to escape destruction, while they themselves are entirely out of his reach,
unless it please them to engage with him. Having neither cities nor forts, and
carrying their dwellings with them wherever they go; accustomed, moreover, one
and all of them, to shoot from horseback; and living not by husbandry but on
their cattle, their waggons the only houses that they possess, how can they fail
of being unconquerable, and unassailable even?
[4.47] The nature of their country, and the rivers by which
it is intersected, greatly favour this mode of resisting attacks. For the land
is level, well watered, and abounding in pasture; while the rivers which
traverse it are almost equal in number to the canals of Egypt. Of these I shall
only mention the most famous and such as are navigable to some distance from the
sea. They are, the Ister, which has five mouths; the Tyras, the Hypanis, the
Borysthenes, the Panticapes, the Hypacyris, the Gerrhus, and the Tanais. The
courses of these streams I shall now proceed to describe.
[4.48] The Ister is of all the rivers with which we are
acquainted the mightiest. It never varies in height, but continues at the same
level summer and winter. Counting from the west it is the first of the Scythian
rivers, and the reason of its being the greatest is that it receives the water
of several tributaries. Now the tributaries which swell its flood are the
following: first, on the side of Scythia, these five – the stream called by the
Scythians Porata, and by the Greeks Pyretus, the Tiarantus, the Ararus, the
Naparis, and the Ordessus. The first mentioned is a great stream, and is the
easternmost of the tributaries. The Tiarantus is of less volume, and more to the
west. The Ararus, Naparis, and Ordessus fall into the Ister between these two.
All the above mentioned are genuine Scythian rivers, and go to swell the current
of the Ister.
[4.49] From the country of the Agathyrsi comes down another
river, the Maris, which empties itself into the same; and from the heights of
Haemus descend with a northern course three mighty streams, the Atlas, the
Auras, and the Tibisis, and pour their waters into it. Thrace gives it three
tributaries, the Athrys, the Noes, and the Artanes, which all pass through the
country of the Crobyzian Thracians. Another tributary is furnished by Paeonia,
namely, the Scius; this river, rising near Mount Rhodope, forces its way through
the chain of Haemus, and so reaches the Ister. From Illyria comes another
stream, the Angrus, which has a course from south to north, and after watering
the Triballian plain, falls into the Brongus, which falls into the Ister. So the
Ister is augmented by these two streams, both considerable. Besides all these,
the Ister receives also the waters of the Carpis and the Alpis, two rivers
running in a northerly direction from the country above the Umbrians. For the
Ister flows through the whole extent of Europe, rising in the country of the
Celts (the most westerly of all the nations of Europe, excepting the Cynetians),
and thence running across the continent till it reaches Scythia, whereof it
washes the flanks.
[4.50] All these streams, then, and many others, add their
waters to swell the flood of the Ister, which thus increased becomes the
mightiest of rivers; for undoubtedly if we compare the stream of the Nile with
the single stream of the Ister, we must give the preference to the Nile, of
which no tributary river, nor even rivulet, augments the volume. The Ister
remains at the same level both summer and winter – owing to the following
reasons, as I believe. During the winter it runs at its natural height, or a
very little higher, because in those countries there is scarcely any rain in
winter, but constant snow. When summer comes, this snow, which is of great
depth, begins to melt, and flows into the Ister, which is swelled at that
season, not only by this cause but also by the rains, which are heavy and
frequent at that part of the year. Thus the various streams which go to form the
Ister are higher in summer than in winter, and just so much higher as the sun’s
power and attraction are greater; so that these two causes counteract each
other, and the effect is to produce a balance, whereby the Ister remains always
at the same level.
[4.51] This, then, is one of the great Scythian rivers; the
next to it is the Tyras, which rises from a great lake separating Scythia from
the land of the Neuri, and runs with a southerly course to the sea. Greeks dwell
at the mouth of the river, who are called Tyritae.
[4.52] The third river is the Hypanis. This stream rises
within the limits of Scythia, and has its source in another vast lake, around
which wild white horses graze. The lake is called, properly enough, the Mother
of the Hypanis. The Hypanis, rising here, during the distance of five days’
navigation is a shallow stream, and the water sweet and pure; thence, however,
to the sea, which is a distance of four days, it is exceedingly bitter. This
change is caused by its receiving into it at that point a brook the waters of
which are so bitter that, although it is but a tiny rivulet, it nevertheless
taints the entire Hypanis, which is a large stream among those of the second
order. The source of this bitter spring is on the borders of the Scythian
Husbandmen, where they adjoin upon the Alazonians; and the place where it rises
is called in the Scythic tongue Exampaeus, which means in our language, “The
Sacred Ways.” The spring itself bears the same name. The Tyras and the Hypanis
approach each other in the country of the Alazonians, but afterwards separate,
and leave a wide space between their streams.
[4.53] The fourth of the Scythian rivers is the Borysthenes.
Next to the Ister, it is the greatest of them all; and, in my judgment, it is
the most productive river, not merely in Scythia, but in the whole world,
excepting only the Nile, with which no stream can possibly compare. It has upon
its banks the loveliest and most excellent pasturages for cattle; it contains
abundance of the most delicious fish; its water is most pleasant to the taste;
its stream is limpid, while all the other rivers near it are muddy; the richest
harvests spring up along its course, and where the ground is not sown, the
heaviest crops of grass; while salt forms in great plenty about its mouth
without human aid, and large fish are taken in it of the sort called Antacaei,
without any prickly bones, and good for pickling. Nor are these the whole of its
marvels. As far inland as the place named Gerrhus, which is distant forty days’
voyage from the sea, its course is known, and its direction is from north to
south; but above this no one has traced it, so as to say through what countries
it flows. It enters the territory of the Scythian Husbandmen after running for
some time across a desert region, and continues for ten days’ navigation to pass
through the land which they inhabit. It is the only river besides the Nile the
sources of which are unknown to me, as they are also (I believe) to all the
other Greeks. Not long before it reaches the sea, the Borysthenes is joined by
the Hypanis, which pours its waters into the same lake. The land that lies
between them, a narrow point like the beak of a ship, is called Cape Hippolaus.
Here is a temple dedicated to Ceres, and opposite the temple upon the Hypanis is
the dwelling-place of the Borysthenites. But enough has been said of these
streams.
[4.54] Next in succession comes the fifth river, called the
Panticapes, which has, like the Borysthenes, a course from north to south, and
rises from a lake. The space between this river and the Borysthenes is occupied
by the Scythians who are engaged in husbandry. After watering their country, the
Panticapes flows through Hylaea, and empties itself into the Borysthenes.
[4.55] The sixth stream is the Hypacyris, a river rising
from a lake, and running directly through the middle of the Nomadic Scythians.
It falls into the sea near the city of Carcinitis, leaving Hylaea and the course
of Achilles to the right.
[4.56] The seventh river is the Gerrhus, which is a branch
thrown out by the Borysthenes at the point where the course of that stream first
begins to be known, to wit, the region called by the same name as the stream
itself, viz. Gerrhus. This river on its passage towards the sea divides the
country of the Nomadic from that of the Royal Scyths. It runs into the Hypacyris.
[4.57] The eighth river is the Tanais, a stream which has
its source, far up the country, in a lake of vast size, and which empties itself
into another still larger lake, the Palus Maeotis, whereby the country of the
Royal Scythians is divided from that of the Sauromatae. The Tanais receives the
waters of a tributary stream, called the Hyrgis.
[4.58] Such then are the rivers of chief note in Scythia.
The grass which the land produces is more apt to generate gall in the beasts
that feed on it than any other grass which is known to us, as plainly appears on
the opening of their carcases.
[4.59] Thus abundantly are the Scythians provided with the
most important necessaries. Their manners and customs come now to be described.
They worship only the following gods, namely, Vesta, whom they reverence beyond
all the rest, Jupiter, and Tellus, whom they consider to be the wife of Jupiter;
and after these Apollo, Celestial Venus, Hercules, and Mars. These gods are
worshipped by the whole nation: the Royal Scythians offer sacrifice likewise to
Neptune. In the Scythic tongue Vesta is called Tabiti, Jupiter (very properly,
in my judgment) Papaeus, Tellus Apia, Apollo Oetosyrus, Celestial Venus
Artimpasa, and Neptune Thamimasadas. They use no images, altars, or temples,
except in the worship of Mars; but in his worship they do use them.
[4.60] The manner of their sacrifices is everywhere and in
every case the same; the victim stands with its two fore-feet bound together by
a cord, and the person who is about to offer, taking his station behind the
victim, gives the rope a pull, and thereby throws the animal down; as it falls
he invokes the god to whom he is offering; after which he puts a noose round the
animal’s neck, and, inserting a small stick, twists it round, and so strangles
him. No fire is lighted, there is no consecration, and no pouring out of
drink-offerings; but directly that the beast is strangled the sacrificer flays
him, and then sets to work to boil the flesh.
[4.61] As Scythia, however, is utterly barren of firewood,
a plan has had to be contrived for boiling the flesh, which is the following.
After flaying the beasts, they take out all the bones, and (if they possess such
gear) put the flesh into boilers made in the country, which are very like the
cauldrons of the Lesbians, except that they are of a much larger size; then
placing the bones of the animals beneath the cauldron, they set them alight, and
so boil the meat. If they do not happen to possess a cauldron, they make the
animal’s paunch hold the flesh, and pouring in at the same time a little water,
lay the bones under and light them. The bones burn beautifully; and the paunch
easily contains all the flesh when it is stript from the bones, so that by this
plan your ox is made to boil himself, and other victims also to do the like.
When the meat is all cooked, the sacrificer offers a portion of the flesh and of
the entrails, by casting it on the ground before him. They sacrifice all sorts
of cattle, but most commonly horses.
[4.62] Such are the victims offered to the other gods, and
such is the mode in which they are sacrificed; but the rites paid to Mars are
different. In every district, at the seat of government, there stands a temple
of this god, whereof the following is a description. It is a pile of brushwood,
made of a vast quantity of fagots, in length and breadth three furlongs; in
height somewhat less, having a square platform upon the top, three sides of
which are precipitous, while the fourth slopes so that men may walk up it. Each
year a hundred and fifty waggon-loads of brushwood are added to the pile, which
sinks continually by reason of the rains. An antique iron sword is planted on
the top of every such mound, and serves as the image of Mars: yearly sacrifices
of cattle and of horses are made to it, and more victims are offered thus than
to all the rest of their gods. When prisoners are taken in war, out of every
hundred men they sacrifice one, not however with the same rites as the cattle,
but with different. Libations of wine are first poured upon their heads, after
which they are slaughtered over a vessel; the vessel is then carried up to the
top of the pile, and the blood poured upon the scymitar. While this takes place
at the top of the mound, below, by the side of the temple, the right hands and
arms of the slaughtered prisoners are cut off, and tossed on high into the air.
Then the other victims are slain, and those who have offered the sacrifice
depart, leaving the hands and arms where they may chance to have fallen, and the
bodies also, separate.
[4.63] Such are the observances of the Scythians with
respect to sacrifice. They never use swine for the purpose, nor indeed is it
their wont to breed them in any part of their country.
[4.64] In what concerns war, their customs are the
following. The Scythian soldier drinks the blood of the first man he overthrows
in battle. Whatever number he slays, he cuts off all their heads, and carries
them to the king; since he is thus entitled to a share of the booty, whereto he
forfeits all claim if he does not produce a head. In order to strip the skull of
its covering, he makes a cut round the head above the ears, and, laying hold of
the scalp, shakes the skull out; then with the rib of an ox he scrapes the scalp
clean of flesh, and softening it by rubbing between the hands, uses it
thenceforth as a napkin. The Scyth is proud of these scalps, and hangs them from
his bridle-rein; the greater the number of such napkins that a man can show, the
more highly is he esteemed among them. Many make themselves cloaks, like the
capotes of our peasants, by sewing a quantity of these scalps together. Others
flay the right arms of their dead enemies, and make of the skin, which stripped
off with the nails hanging to it, a covering for their quivers. Now the skin of
a man is thick and glossy, and would in whiteness surpass almost all other
hides. Some even flay the entire body of their enemy, and stretching it upon a
frame carry it about with them wherever they ride. Such are the Scythian customs
with respect to scalps and skins.
[4.65] The skulls of their enemies, not indeed of all, but
of those whom they most detest, they treat as follows. Having sawn off the
portion below the eyebrows, and cleaned out the inside, they cover the outside
with leather. When a man is poor, this is all that he does; but if he is rich,
he also lines the inside with gold: in either case the skull is used as a
drinking-cup. They do the same with the skulls of their own kith and kin if they
have been at feud with them, and have vanquished them in the presence of the
king. When strangers whom they deem of any account come to visit them, these
skulls are handed round, and the host tells how that these were his relations
who made war upon him, and how that he got the better of them; all this being
looked upon as proof of bravery.
[4.66] Once a year the governor of each district, at a set
place in his own province, mingles a bowl of wine, of which all Scythians have a
right to drink by whom foes have been slain; while they who have slain no enemy
are not allowed to taste of the bowl, but sit aloof in disgrace. No greater
shame than this can happen to them. Such as have slain a very large number of
foes, have two cups instead of one, and drink from both.
[4.67] Scythia has an abundance of soothsayers, who
foretell the future by means of a number of willow wands. A large bundle of
these wands is brought and laid on the ground. The soothsayer unties the bundle,
and places each wand by itself, at the same time uttering his prophecy: then,
while he is still speaking, he gathers the rods together again, and makes them
up once more into a bundle. This mode of divination is of home growth in
Scythia. The Enarees, or woman-like men, have another method, which they say
Venus taught them. It is done with the inner bark of the linden-tree. They take
a piece of this bark, and, splitting it into three strips, keep twining the
strips about their fingers, and untwining them, while they prophesy.
[4.68] Whenever the Scythian king falls sick, he sends for
the three soothsayers of most renown at the time, who come and make trial of
their art in the mode above described. Generally they say that the king is ill
because such or such a person, mentioning his name, has sworn falsely by the
royal hearth. This is the usual oath among the Scythians, when they wish to
swear with very great solemnity. Then the man accused of having foresworn
himself is arrested and brought before the king. The soothsayers tell him that
by their art it is clear he has sworn a false oath by the royal hearth, and so
caused the illness of the king – he denies the charge, protests that he has
sworn no false oath, and loudly complains of the wrong done to him. Upon this
the king sends for six new soothsayers, who try the matter by soothsaying. If
they too find the man guilty of the offence, straightway he is beheaded by those
who first accused him, and his goods are parted among them: if, on the contrary,
they acquit him, other soothsayers, and again others, are sent for, to try the
case. Should the greater number decide in favour of the man’s innocence, then
they who first accused him forfeit their lives.
[4.69] The mode of their execution is the following: a
waggon is loaded with brushwood, and oxen are harnessed to it; the soothsayers,
with their feet tied together, their hands bound behind their backs, and their
mouths gagged, are thrust into the midst of the brushwood; finally the wood is
set alight, and the oxen, being startled, are made to rush off with the waggon.
It often happens that the oxen and the soothsayers are both consumed together,
but sometimes the pole of the waggon is burnt through, and the oxen escape with
a scorching. Diviners – lying diviners, they call them – are burnt in the way
described, for other causes besides the one here spoken of. When the king puts
one of them to death, he takes care not to let any of his sons survive: all the
male offspring are slain with the father, only the females being allowed to
live.
[4.70] Oaths among the Scyths are accompanied with the
following ceremonies: a large earthern bowl is filled with wine, and the parties
to the oath, wounding themselves slightly with a knife or an awl, drop some of
their blood into the wine; then they plunge into the mixture a scymitar, some
arrows, a battle-axe, and a javelin, all the while repeating prayers; lastly the
two contracting parties drink each a draught from the bowl, as do also the chief
men among their followers.
[4.71] The tombs of their kings are in the land of the
Gerrhi, who dwell at the point where the Borysthenes is first navigable. Here,
when the king dies, they dig a grave, which is square in shape, and of great
size. When it is ready, they take the king’s corpse, and, having opened the
belly, and cleaned out the inside, fill the cavity with a preparation of chopped
cypress, frankincense, parsley-seed, and anise-seed, after which they sew up the
opening, enclose the body in wax, and, placing it on a waggon, carry it about
through all the different tribes. On this procession each tribe, when it
receives the corpse, imitates the example which is first set by the Royal
Scythians; every man chops off a piece of his ear, crops his hair close, and
makes a cut all round his arm, lacerates his forehead and his nose, and thrusts
an arrow through his left hand. Then they who have the care of the corpse carry
it with them to another of the tribes which are under the Scythian rule,
followed by those whom they first visited. On completing the circuit of all the
tribes under their sway, they find themselves in the country of the Gerrhi, who
are the most remote of all, and so they come to the tombs of the kings. There
the body of the dead king is laid in the grave prepared for it, stretched upon a
mattress; spears are fixed in the ground on either side of the corpse, and beams
stretched across above it to form a roof, which is covered with a thatching of
osier twigs. In the open space around the body of the king they bury one of his
concubines, first killing her by strangling, and also his cup-bearer, his cook,
his groom, his lacquey, his messenger, some of his horses, firstlings of all his
other possessions, and some golden cups; for they use neither silver nor brass.
After this they set to work, and raise a vast mound above the grave, all of them
vying with each other and seeking to make it as tall as possible.
[4.72] When a year is gone by, further ceremonies take
place. Fifty of the best of the late king’s attendants are taken, all native
Scythians – for, as bought slaves are unknown in the country, the Scythian kings
choose any of their subjects that they like, to wait on them – fifty of these
are taken and strangled, with fifty of the most beautiful horses. When they are
dead, their bowels are taken out, and the cavity cleaned, filled full of chaff,
and straightway sewn up again. This done, a number of posts are driven into the
ground, in sets of two pairs each, and on every pair half the felly of a wheel
is placed archwise; then strong stakes are run lengthways through the bodies of
the horses from tail to neck, and they are mounted up upon the fellies, so that
the felly in front supports the shoulders of the horse, while that behind
sustains the belly and quarters, the legs dangling in mid-air; each horse is
furnished with a bit and bridle, which latter is stretched out in front of the
horse, and fastened to a peg. The fifty strangled youths are then mounted
severally on the fifty horses. To effect this, a second stake is passed through
their bodies along the course of the spine to the neck; the lower end of which
projects from the body, and is fixed into a socket, made in the stake that runs
lengthwise down the horse. The fifty riders are thus ranged in a circle round
the tomb, and so left.
[4.73] Such, then, is the mode in which the kings are
buried: as for the people, when any one dies, his nearest of kin lay him upon a
waggon and take him round to all his friends in succession: each receives them
in turn and entertains them with a banquet, whereat the dead man is served with
a portion of all that is set before the others; this is done for forty days, at
the end of which time the burial takes place. After the burial, those engaged in
it have to purify themselves, which they do in the following way. First they
well soap and wash their heads; then, in order to cleanse their bodies, they act
as follows: they make a booth by fixing in the ground three sticks inclined
towards one another, and stretching around them woollen felts, which they
arrange so as to fit as close as possible: inside the booth a dish is placed
upon the ground, into which they put a number of red-hot stones, and then add
some hemp-seed.
[4.74] Hemp grows in Scythia: it is very like flax; only
that it is a much coarser and taller plant: some grows wild about the country,
some is produced by cultivation: the Thracians make garments of it which closely
resemble linen; so much so, indeed, that if a person has never seen hemp he is
sure to think they are linen, and if he has, unless he is very experienced in
such matters, he will not know of which material they are.
[4.75] The Scythians, as I said, take some of this
hemp-seed, and, creeping under the felt coverings, throw it upon the red-hot
stones; immediately it smokes, and gives out such a vapour as no Grecian
vapour-bath can exceed; the Scyths, delighted, shout for joy, and this vapour
serves them instead of a water-bath; for they never by any chance wash their
bodies with water. Their women make a mixture of cypress, cedar, and
frankincense wood, which they pound into a paste upon a rough piece of stone,
adding a little water to it. With this substance, which is of a thick
consistency, they plaster their faces all over, and indeed their whole bodies. A
sweet odour is thereby imparted to them, and when they take off the plaster on
the day following, their skin is clean and glossy.
[4.76] The Scythians have an extreme hatred of all foreign
customs, particularly of those in use among the Greeks, as the instances of
Anacharsis, and, more lately, of Scylas, have fully shown. The former, after he
had travelled over a great portion of the world, and displayed wherever he went
many proofs of wisdom, as he sailed through the Hellespont on his return to
Scythia touched at Cyzicus. There he found the inhabitants celebrating with much
pomp and magnificence a festival to the Mother of the Gods, and was himself
induced to make a vow to the goddess, whereby he engaged, if he got back safe
and sound to his home, that he would give her a festival and a night-procession
in all respects like those which he had seen in Cyzicus. When, therefore, he
arrived in Scythia, he betook himself to the district called the Woodland, which
lies opposite the course of Achilles, and is covered with trees of all manner of
different kinds, and there went through all the sacred rites with the tabour in
his hand, and the images tied to him. While thus employed, he was noticed by one
of the Scythians, who went and told king Saulius what he had seen. Then king
Saulius came in person, and when he perceived what Anacharsis was about, he shot
at him with an arrow and killed him. To this day, if you ask the Scyths about
Anacharsis, they pretend ignorance of him, because of his Grecian travels and
adoption of the customs of foreigners. I learnt, however, from Timnes, the
steward of Ariapithes, that Anacharsis was paternal uncle to the Scythian king
Idanthyrsus, being the son of Gnurus, who was the son of Lycus and the grandson
of Spargapithes. If Anacharsis were really of this house, it must have been by
his own brother that he was slain, for Idanthyrsus was a son of the Saulius who
put Anacharsis to death.
[4.77] I have heard, however, another tale, very different
from this, which is told by the Peloponnesians: they say, that Anacharsis was
sent by the king of the Scyths to make acquaintance with Greece – that he went,
and on his return home reported that the Greeks were all occupied in the pursuit
of every kind of knowledge, except the Lacedaemonians; who, however, alone knew
how to converse sensibly. A silly tale this, which the Greeks have invented for
their amusement! There is no doubt that Anacharsis suffered death in the mode
already related, on account of his attachment to foreign customs, and the
intercourse which he held with the Greeks.
[4.78] Scylas, likewise, the son of Ariapithes, many years
later, met with almost the very same fate. Ariapithes, the Scythian king, had
several sons, among them this Scylas, who was the child, not of a native Scyth,
but of a woman of Istria. Bred up by her, Scylas gained an acquaintance with the
Greek language and letters. Some time afterwards, Ariapithes was treacherously
slain by Spargapithes, king of the Agathyrsi; whereupon Scylas succeeded to the
throne, and married one of his father’s wives, a woman named Opoea. This Opoea
was a Scythian by birth, and had brought Ariapithes a son called Oricus. Now
when Scylas found himself king of Scythia, as he disliked the Scythic mode of
life, and was attached, by his bringing up, to the manners of the Greeks, he
made it his usual practice, whenever he came with his army to the town of the
Borysthenites, who, according to their own account, are colonists of the
Milesians – he made it his practice, I say, to leave the army before the city,
and, having entered within the walls by himself, and carefully closed the gates,
to exchange his Scythian dress for Grecian garments, and in this attire to walk
about the forum, without guards or retinue. The Borysthenites kept watch at the
gates, that no Scythian might see the king thus apparelled. Scylas, meanwhile,
lived exactly as the Greeks, and even offered sacrifices to the gods according
to the Grecian rites. In this way he would pass a month, or more, with the
Borysthenites, after which he would clothe himself again in his Scythian dress,
and so take his departure. This he did repeatedly, and even built himself a
house in Borysthenes, and married a wife there who was a native of the place.
[4.79] But when the time came that was ordained to bring
him woe, the occasion of his ruin was the following. He wanted to be initiated
in the Bacchic mysteries, and was on the point of obtaining admission to the
rites, when a most strange prodigy occurred to him. The house which he
possessed, as I mentioned a short time back, in the city of the Borysthenites, a
building of great extent and erected at a vast cost, round which there stood a
number of sphinxes and griffins carved in white marble, was struck by lightning
from on high, and burnt to the ground. Scylas, nevertheless, went on and
received the initiation. Now the Scythians are wont to reproach the Greeks with
their Bacchanal rage, and to say that it is not reasonable to imagine there is a
god who impels men to madness. No sooner, therefore, was Scylas initiated in the
Bacchic mysteries than one of the Borysthenites went and carried the news to the
Scythians “You Scyths laugh at us” he said, “because we rave when the god seizes
us. But now our god has seized upon your king, who raves like us, and is
maddened by the influence. If you think I do not tell you true, come with me,
and I will show him to you.” The chiefs of the Scythians went with the man
accordingly, and the Borysthenite, conducting them into the city, placed them
secretly on one of the towers. Presently Scylas passed by with the band of
revellers, raving like the rest, and was seen by the watchers. Regarding the
matter as a very great misfortune they instantly departed, and came and told the
army what they had witnessed.
[4.80] When, therefore, Scylas, after leaving Borysthenes,
was about returning home, the Scythians broke out into revolt. They put at their
head Octamasadas, grandson (on the mother’s side) of Teres. Then Scylas, when he
learned the danger with which he was threatened, and the reason of the
disturbance, made his escape to Thrace. Octamasadas, discovering whither he had
fled, marched after him, and had reached the Ister, when he was met by the
forces of the Thracians. The two armies were about to engage, but before they
joined battle, Sitalces sent a message to Octamasadas to this effect – “Why
should there be trial of arms betwixt thee and me? Thou art my own sister’s son,
and thou hast in thy keeping my brother. Surrender him into my hands, and I will
give thy Scylas back to thee. So neither thou nor I will risk our armies.”
Sitalces sent this message to Octamasadas, by a herald, and Octamasadas, with
whom a brother of Sitalces had formerly taken refuge, accepted the terms. He
surrendered his own uncle to Sitalces, and obtained in exchange his brother
Scylas. Sitalces took his brother with him and withdrew; but Octamasadas
beheaded Scylas upon the spot. Thus rigidly do the Scythians maintain their own
customs, and thus severely do they punish such as adopt foreign usages.
[4.81] What the population of Scythia is I was not able to
learn with certainty; the accounts which I received varied from one another. I
heard from some that they were very numerous indeed; others made their numbers
but scanty for such a nation as the Scyths. Thus much, however, I witnessed with
my own eyes. There is a tract called Exampaeus between the Borysthenes and the
Hypanis. I made some mention of it in a former place, where I spoke of the
bitter stream which rising there flows into the Hypanis, and renders the water
of that river undrinkable. Here then stands a brazen bowl, six times as big as
that at the entrance of the Euxine, which Pausanias, the son of Cleombrotus, set
up. Such as have never seen that vessel may understand me better if I say that
the Scythian bowl holds with ease six hundred amphorae, and is of the thickness
of six fingers’ breadth. The natives gave me the following account of the manner
in which it was made. One of their kings, by name Ariantas, wishing to know the
number of his subjects, ordered them all to bring him, on pain of death, the
point off one of their arrows. They obeyed; and he collected thereby a vast heap
of arrow-heads, which he resolved to form into a memorial that might go down to
posterity. Accordingly he made of them this bowl, and dedicated it at Exampaeus.
This was all that I could learn concerning the number of the Scythians.
[4.82] The country has no marvels except its rivers, which
are larger and more numerous than those of any other land. These, and the
vastness of the great plain, are worthy of note, and one thing besides, which I
am about to mention. They show a footmark of Hercules, impressed on a rock, in
shape like the print of a man’s foot, but two cubits in length. It is in the
neighbourhood of the Tyras. Having described this, I return to the subject on
which I originally proposed to discourse.
[4.83] The preparations of Darius against the Scythians had
begun, messengers had been despatched on all sides with the king’s commands,
some being required to furnish troops, others to supply ships, others again to
bridge the Thracian Bosphorus, when Artabanus, son of Hystaspes and brother of
Darius, entreated the king to desist from his expedition, urging on him the
great difficulty of attacking Scythia. Good, however, as the advice of Artabanus
was, it failed to persuade Darius. He therefore ceased his reasonings; and
Darius, when his preparations were complete, led his army forth from Susa.
[4.84] It was then that a certain Persian, by name Oeobazus,
the father of three sons, all of whom were to accompany the army, came and
prayed the king that he would allow one of his sons to remain with him. Darius
made answer, as if he regarded him in the light of a friend who had urged a
moderate request, “that he would allow them all to remain.” Oeobazus was
overjoyed, expecting that all his children would be excused from serving; the
king, however, bade his attendants take the three sons of Oeobazus and forthwith
put them to death. Thus they were all left behind, but not till they had been
deprived of life.
[4.85] When Darius, on his march from Susa, reached the
territory of Chalcedon on the shores of the Bosphorus, where the bridge had been
made, he took ship and sailed thence to the Cyanean islands, which, according to
the Greeks, once floated. He took his seat also in the temple and surveyed the
Pontus, which is indeed well worthy of consideration. There is not in the world
any other sea so wonderful: it extends in length eleven thousand one hundred
furlongs, and its breadth, at the widest part, is three thousand three hundred.
The mouth is but four furlongs wide; and this strait, called the Bosphorus, and
across which the bridge of Darius had been thrown, is a hundred and twenty
furlongs in length, reaching from the Euxine to the Propontis. The Propontis is
five hundred furlongs across, and fourteen hundred long. Its waters flow into
the Hellespont, the length of which is four hundred furlongs, and the width no
more than seven. The Hellespont opens into the wide sea called the Egean.
[4.86] The mode in which these distances have been measured
is the following. In a long day a vessel generally accomplishes about seventy
thousand fathoms, in the night sixty thousand. Now from the mouth of the Pontus
to the river Phasis, which is the extreme length of this sea, is a voyage of
nine days and eight nights, which makes the distance one million one hundred and
ten thousand fathoms, or eleven thousand one hundred furlongs. Again, from
Sindica, to Themiscyra on the river Thermodon, where the Pontus is wider than at
any other place, is a sail of three days and two nights; which makes three
hundred and thirty thousand fathoms, or three thousand three hundred furlongs.
Such is the plan on which I have measured the Pontus, the Bosphorus, and the
Hellespont, and such is the account which I have to give of them. The Pontus has
also a lake belonging to it, not very much inferior to itself in size. The
waters of this lake run into the Pontus: it is called the Maeotis, and also the
Mother of the Pontus.
[4.87] Darius, after he had finished his survey, sailed
back to the bridge, which had been constructed for him by Mandrocles a Samian.
He likewise surveyed the Bosphorus, and erected upon its shores two pillars of
white marble, whereupon he inscribed the names of all the nations which formed
his army – on the one pillar in Greek, on the other in Assyrian characters. Now
his army was drawn from all the nations under his sway; and the whole amount,
without reckoning the naval forces, was seven hundred thousand men, including
cavalry. The fleet consisted of six hundred ships. Some time afterwards the
Byzantines removed these pillars to their own city, and used them for an altar
which they erected to Orthosian Diana. One block remained behind: it lay near
the temple of Bacchus at Byzantium, and was covered with Assyrian writing. The
spot where Darius bridged the Bosphorus was, I think, but I speak only from
conjecture, half-way between the city of Byzantium and the temple at the mouth
of the strait.
[4.88] Darius was so pleased with the bridge thrown across
the strait by the Samain Mandrocles, that he not only bestowed upon him all the
customary presents, but gave him ten of every kind. Mandrocles, by the way of
offering first-fruits from these presents, caused a picture to be painted which
showed the whole of the bridge, with King Darius sitting in a seat of honour,
and his army engaged in the passage. This painting he dedicated in the temple of
Juno at Samos, attaching to it the inscription following:-
The fish-fraught Bosphorus bridged, to Juno’s fane
Did Mandrocles this proud memorial bring;
When for himself a crown he’d skill to gain,
For Samos praise, contenting the Great King.
Such was the memorial of his work which was left by the
architect of the bridge.
[4.89] Darius, after rewarding Mandrocles, passed into
Europe, while he ordered the Ionians to enter the Pontus, and sail to the mouth
of the Ister. There he bade them throw a bridge across the stream and await his
coming. The Ionians, Aeolians, and Hellespontians were the nations which
furnished the chief strength of his navy. So the fleet, threading the Cyanean
Isles, proceeded straight to the Ister, and, mounting the river to the point
where its channels separate, a distance of two days’ voyage from the sea, yoked
the neck of the stream. Meantime Darius, who had crossed the Bosphorus by the
bridge over it, marched through Thrace; and happening upon the sources of the
Tearus, pitched his camp and made a stay of three days.
[4.90] Now the Tearus is said by those who dwell near it,
to be the most healthful of all streams, and to cure, among other diseases, the
scab either in man or beast. Its sources, which are eight and thirty in number,
all flowing from the same rock, are in part cold, in part hot. They lie at an
equal distance from the town of Heraeum near Perinthus, and Apollonia on the
Euxine, a two days’ journey from each. This river, the Tearus, is a tributary of
the Contadesdus, which runs into the Agrianes, and that into the Hebrus. The
Hebrus empties itself into the sea near the city of Aenus.
[4.91] Here then, on the banks of the Tearus, Darius
stopped and pitched his camp. The river charmed him so, that he caused a pillar
to be erected in this place also, with an inscription to the following effect:
“The fountains of the Tearus afford the best and most beautiful water of all
rivers: they were visited, on his march into Scythia, by the best and most
beautiful of men, Darius, son of Hystaspes, king of the Persians, and of the
whole continent.” Such was the inscription which he set up at this place.
[4.92] Marching thence, he came to a second river, called
the Artiscus, which flows through the country of the Odrysians. Here he fixed
upon a certain spot, where every one of his soldiers should throw a stone as he
passed by. When his orders were obeyed, Darius continued his march, leaving
behind him great hills formed of the stones cast by his troops.
[4.93] Before arriving at the Ister, the first people whom
he subdued were the Getae, who believe in their immortality. The Thracians of
Salmydessus, and those who dwelt above the cities of Apollonia and Mesembria –
the Scyrmiadae and Nipsaeans, as they are called – gave themselves up to Darius
without a struggle; but the Getae obstinately defending themselves, were
forthwith enslaved, notwithstanding that they are the noblest as well as the
most just of all the Thracian tribes.
[4.94] The belief of the Getae in respect of immortality is
the following. They think that they do not really die, but that when they depart
this life they go to Zalmoxis, who is called also Gebeleizis by some among them.
To this god every five years they send a messenger, who is chosen by lot out of
the whole nation, and charged to bear him their several requests. Their mode of
sending him is this. A number of them stand in order, each holding in his hand
three darts; others take the man who is to be sent to Zalmoxis, and swinging him
by his hands and feet, toss him into the air so that he falls upon the points of
the weapons. If he is pierced and dies, they think that the god is propitious to
them; but if not, they lay the fault on the messenger, who (they say) is a
wicked man: and so they choose another to send away. The messages are given
while the man is still alive. This same people, when it lightens and thunders,
aim their arrows at the sky, uttering threats against the god; and they do not
believe that there is any god but their own.
[4.95] I am told by the Greeks who dwell on the shores of
the Hellespont and the Pontus, that this Zalmoxis was in reality a man, that he
lived at Samos, and while there was the slave of Pythagoras son of Mnesarchus.
After obtaining his freedom he grew rich, and leaving Samos, returned to his own
country. The Thracians at that time lived in a wretched way, and were a poor
ignorant race; Zalmoxis, therefore, who by his commerce with the Greeks, and
especially with one who was by no means their most contemptible philosopher,
Pythagoras to wit, was acquainted with the Ionic mode of life and with manners
more refined than those current among his countrymen, had a chamber built, in
which from time to time he received and feasted all the principal Thracians,
using the occasion to teach them that neither he, nor they, his boon companions,
nor any of their posterity would ever perish, but that they would all go to a
place where they would live for aye in the enjoyment of every conceivable good.
While he was acting in this way, and holding this kind of discourse, he was
constructing an apartment underground, into which, when it was completed, he
withdrew, vanishing suddenly from the eyes of the Thracians, who greatly
regretted his loss, and mourned over him as one dead. He meanwhile abode in his
secret chamber three full years, after which he came forth from his concealment,
and showed himself once more to his countrymen, who were thus brought to believe
in the truth of what he had taught them. Such is the account of the Greeks.
[4.96] I for my part neither put entire faith in this story
of Zalmoxis and his underground chamber, nor do I altogether discredit it: but I
believe Zalmoxis to have lived long before the time of Pythagoras. Whether there
was ever really a man of the name, or whether Zalmoxis is nothing but a native
god of the Getae, I now bid him farewell. As for the Getae themselves, the
people who observe the practices described above, they were now reduced by the
Persians, and accompanied the army of Darius.
[4.97] When Darius, with his land forces, reached the Ister,
he made his troops cross the stream, and after all were gone over gave orders to
the Ionians to break the bridge, and follow him with the whole naval force in
his land march. They were about to obey his command, when the general of the
Mytilenaeans, Coes son of Erxander, having first asked whether it was agreeable
to the king to listen to one who wished to speak his mind, addressed him in the
words following:- “Thou art about, Sire, to attack a country no part of which is
cultivated, and wherein there is not a single inhabited city. Keep this bridge,
then, as it is, and leave those who built it to watch over it. So if we come up
with the Scythians and succeed against them as we could wish, we may return by
this route; or if we fail of finding them, our retreat will still be secure. For
I have no fear lest the Scythians defeat us in battle, but my dread is lest we
be unable to discover them, and suffer loss while we wander about their
territory. And now, mayhap, it will be said, I advise thee thus in the hope of
being myself allowed to remain behind; but in truth I have no other design than
to recommend the course which seems to me the best; nor will I consent to be
among those left behind, but my resolve is, in any case, to follow thee.” The
advice of Coes pleased Darius highly, who thus replied to him:- “Dear Lesbian,
when I am safe home again in my palace, be sure thou come to me, and with good
deeds will I recompense thy good words of to-day.”
[4.98] Having so said, the king took a leathern thong, and
tying sixty knots in it, called together the Ionian tyrants, and spoke thus to
them:- “Men of Ionia, my former commands to you concerning the bridge are now
withdrawn. See, here is a thong: take it, and observe my bidding with respect to
it. From the time that I leave you to march forward into Scythia, untie every
day one of the knots. If I do not return before the last day to which the knots
will hold out, then leave your station, and sail to your several homes.
Meanwhile, understand that my resolve is changed, and that you are to guard the
bridge with all care, and watch over its safety and preservation. By so doing ye
will oblige me greatly.” When Darius had thus spoken, he set out on his march
with all speed.
[4.99] Before you come to Scythia, on the sea coast, lies
Thrace. The land here makes a sweep, and then Scythia begins, the Ister falling
into the sea at this point with its mouth facing the east. Starting from the
Ister I shall now describe the measurements of the seashore of Scythia.
Immediately that the Ister is crossed, Old Scythia begins, and continues as far
as the city called Carcinitis, fronting towards the south wind and the mid-day.
Here upon the same sea, there lies a mountainous tract projecting into the
Pontus, which is inhabited by the Tauri, as far as what is called the Rugged
Chersonese, which runs out into the sea upon the east. For the boundaries of
Scythia extend on two sides to two different seas, one upon the south, and the
other towards the east, as is also the case with Attica. And the Tauri occupy a
position in Scythia like that which a people would hold in Attica, who, being
foreigners and not Athenians, should inhabit the high land of Sunium, from
Thoricus to the township of Anaphlystus, if this tract projected into the sea
somewhat further than it does. Such, to compare great things with small, is the
Tauric territory. For the sake of those who may not have made the voyage round
these parts of Attica, I will illustrate in another way. It is as if in Iapygia
a line were drawn from Port Brundusium to Tarentum, and a people different from
the Iapygians inhabited the promontory. These two instances may suggest a number
of others where the shape of the land closely resembles that of Taurica.
[4.100] Beyond this tract, we find the Scythians again in
possession of the country above the Tauri and the parts bordering on the eastern
sea, as also of the whole district lying west of the Cimmerian Bosphorus and the
Palus Maeotis, as far as the river Tanais, which empties itself into that lake
at its upper end. As for the inland boundaries of Scythia, if we start from the
Ister, we find it enclosed by the following tribes, first the Agathyrsi, next
the Neuri, then the Androphagi, and last of all, the Melanchaeni.
[4.101] Scythia then, which is square in shape, and has two
of its sides reaching down to the sea, extends inland to the same distance that
it stretches along the coast, and is equal every way. For it is a ten days’
journey from the Ister to the Borysthenes, and ten more from the Borysthenes to
the Palus Maeotis, while the distance from the coast inland to the country of
the Melanchaeni, who dwell above Scythia, is a journey of twenty days. I reckon
the day’s journey at two hundred furlongs. Thus the two sides which run straight
inland are four thousand furlongs each, and the transverse sides at right angles
to these are also of the same length, which gives the full size of Scythia.
[4.102] The Scythians, reflecting on their situation,
perceived that they were not strong enough by themselves to contend with the
army of Darius in open fight. They, therefore, sent envoys to the neighbouring
nations, whose kings had already met, and were in consultation upon the advance
of so vast a host. Now they who had come together were the kings of the Tauri,
the Agathyrsi, the Neuri, the Androphagi, the Melanchaeni, the Geloni, the
Budini, and the Sauromatae.
[4.103] The Tauri have the following customs. They offer in
sacrifice to the Virgin all shipwrecked persons, and all Greeks compelled to put
into their ports by stress of weather. The mode of sacrifice is this. After the
preparatory ceremonies, they strike the victim on the head with a club. Then,
according to some accounts, they hurl the trunk from the precipice whereon the
temple stands, and nail the head to a cross. Others grant that the head is
treated in this way, but deny that the body is thrown down the cliff – on the
contrary, they say, it is buried. The goddess to whom these sacrifices are
offered the Tauri themselves declare to be Iphigenia the daughter of Agamemnon.
When they take prisoners in war they treat them in the following way. The man
who has taken a captive cuts off his head, and carrying it to his home, fixes it
upon a tall pole, which he elevates above his house, most commonly over the
chimney. The reason that the heads are set up so high, is (it is said) in order
that the whole house may be under their protection. These people live entirely
by war and plundering.
[4.104] The Agathyrsi are a race of men very luxurious, and
very fond of wearing gold on their persons. They have wives in common, that so
they may be all brothers, and, as members of one family, may neither envy nor
hate one another. In other respects their customs approach nearly to those of
the Thracians.
[4.105] The Neurian customs are like the Scythian. One
generation before the attack of Darius they were driven from their land by a
huge multitude of serpents which invaded them. Of these some were produced in
their own country, while others, and those by far the greater number, came in
from the deserts on the north. Suffering grievously beneath this scourge, they
quitted their homes, and took refuge with the Budini. It seems that these people
are conjurers: for both the Scythians and the Greeks who dwell in Scythia say
that every Neurian once a year becomes a wolf for a few days, at the end of
which time he is restored to his proper shape. Not that I believe this, but they
constantly affirm it to be true, and are even ready to back their assertion with
an oath.
[4.106] The manners of the Androphagi are more savage than
those of any other race. They neither observe justice, nor are governed, by any
laws. They are nomads, and their dress is Scythian; but the language which they
speak is peculiar to themselves. Unlike any other nation in these parts, they
are cannibals.
[4.107] The Melanchaeni wear, all of them, black cloaks,
and from this derive the name which they bear. Their customs are Scythic.
[4.108] The Budini are a large and powerful nation: they
have all deep blue eyes, and bright red hair. There is a city in their
territory, called Gelonus, which is surrounded with a lofty wall, thirty
furlongs each way, built entirely of wood. All the houses in the place and all
the temples are of the same material. Here are temples built in honour of the
Grecian gods, and adorned after the Greek fashion with images, altars, and
shrines, all in wood. There is even a festival, held every third year in honour
of Bacchus, at which the natives fall into the Bacchic fury. For the fact is
that the Geloni were anciently Greeks, who, being driven out of the factories
along the coast, fled to the Budini and took up their abode with them. They
still speak a language half Greek, half Scythian.
[4.109] The Budini, however, do not speak the same language
as the Geloni, nor is their mode of life the same. They are the aboriginal
people of the country, and are nomads; unlike any of the neighbouring races,
they eat lice. The Geloni on the contrary, are tillers of the soil, eat bread,
have gardens, and both in shape and complexion are quite different from the
Budini. The Greeks notwithstanding call these latter Geloni; but it is a mistake
to give them the name. Their country is thickly planted with trees of all manner
of kinds. In the very woodiest part is a broad deep lake, surrounded by marshy
ground with reeds growing on it. Here otters are caught, and beavers, with
another sort of animal which has a square face. With the skins of this last the
natives border their capotes: and they also get from them a remedy, which is of
virtue in diseases of the womb.
[4.110] It is reported of the Sauromatae, that when the
Greeks fought with the Amazons, whom the Scythians call Oior-pata or
“man-slayers,” as it may be rendered, Oior being Scythic for “man,” and
pata for “to slay” – It is reported, I say, that the Greeks after gaining
the battle of the Thermodon, put to sea, taking with them on board three of
their vessels all the Amazons whom they had made prisoners; and that these women
upon the voyage rose up against the crews, and massacred them to a man. As
however they were quite strange to ships, and did not know how to use either
rudder, sails, or oars, they were carried, after the death of the men, where the
winds and the waves listed. At last they reached the shores of the Palus Maeotis
and came to a place called Cremni or “the Cliffs,” which is in the country of
the free Scythians. Here they went ashore, and proceeded by land towards the
inhabited regions; the first herd of horses which they fell in with they seized,
and mounting upon their backs, fell to plundering the Scythian territory.
[4.111] The Scyths could not tell what to make of the
attack upon them – the dress, the language, the nation itself, were alike
unknown whence the enemy had come even, was a marvel. Imagining, however, that
they were all men of about the same age, they went out against them, and fought
a battle. Some of the bodies of the slain fell into their hands, whereby they
discovered the truth. Hereupon they deliberated, and made a resolve to kill no
more of them, but to send against them a detachment of their youngest men, as
near as they could guess equal to the women in number, with orders to encamp in
their neighbourhood, and do as they saw them do – when the Amazons advanced
against them, they were to retire, and avoid a fight – when they halted, the
young men were to approach and pitch their camp near the camp of the enemy. All
this they did on account of their strong desire to obtain children from so
notable a race.
[4.112] So the youths departed, and obeyed the orders which
had been given them. The Amazons soon found out that they had not come to do
them any harm; and so they on their part ceased to offer the Scythians any
molestation. And now day after day the camps approached nearer to one another;
both parties led the same life, neither having anything but their arms and
horses, so that they were forced to support themselves by hunting and pillage.
[4.113] At last an incident brought two of them together –
the man easily gained the good graces of the woman, who bade him by signs (for
they did not understand each other’s language) to bring a friend the next day to
the spot where they had met – promising on her part to bring with her another
woman. He did so, and the woman kept her word. When the rest of the youths heard
what had taken place, they also sought and gained the favour of the other
Amazons.
[4.114] The two camps were then joined in one, the
Scythians living with the Amazons as their wives; and the men were unable to
learn the tongue of the women, but the women soon caught up the tongue of the
men. When they could thus understand one another, the Scyths addressed the
Amazons in these words – “We have parents, and properties, let us therefore give
up this mode of life, and return to our nation, and live with them. You shall be
our wives there no less than here, and we promise you to have no others.” But
the Amazons said – “We could not live with your women – our customs are quite
different from theirs. To draw the bow, to hurl the javelin, to bestride the
horse, these are our arts of womanly employments we know nothing. Your women, on
the contrary, do none of these things; but stay at home in their waggons,
engaged in womanish tasks, and never go out to hunt, or to do anything. We
should never agree together. But if you truly wish to keep us as your wives, and
would conduct yourselves with strict justice towards us, go you home to your
parents, bid them give you your inheritance, and then come back to us, and let
us and you live together by ourselves.”
[4.115] The youths approved of the advice, and followed it.
They went and got the portion of goods which fell to them, returned with it, and
rejoined their wives, who then addressed them in these words following:- “We are
ashamed, and afraid to live in the country where we now are. Not only have we
stolen you from your fathers, but we have done great damage to Scythia by our
ravages. As you like us for wives, grant the request we make of you. Let us
leave this country together, and go and dwell beyond the Tanais.” Again the
youths complied.
[4.116] Crossing the Tanais they journeyed eastward a
distance of three days’ march from that stream, and again northward a distance
of three days’ march from the Palus Maeotis. Here they came to the country where
they now live, and took up their abode in it. The women of the Sauromatae have
continued from that day to the present to observe their ancient customs,
frequently hunting on horseback with their husbands, sometimes even
unaccompanied; in war taking the field; and wearing the very same dress as the
men.
[4.117] The Sauromatae speak the language of Scythia, but
have never talked it correctly, because the Amazons learnt it imperfectly at the
first. Their marriage-law lays it down that no girl shall wed till she has
killed a man in battle. Sometimes it happens that a woman dies unmarried at an
advanced age, having never been able in her whole lifetime to fulfil the
condition.
[4.118] The envoys of the Scythians, on being introduced
into the presence of the kings of these nations, who were assembled to
deliberate, made it known to them that the Persian, after subduing the whole of
the other continent, had thrown a bridge over the strait of the Bosphorus, and
crossed into the continent of Europe, where he had reduced the Thracians, and
was now making a bridge over the Ister, his aim being to bring under his sway
all Europe also. “Stand ye not aloof then from this contest,” they went on to
say, “look not on tamely while we are perishing – but make common cause with us,
and together let us meet the enemy. If ye refuse, we must yield to the pressure,
and either quit our country, or make terms with the invaders. For what else is
left for us to do, if your aid be withheld from us? The blow, be sure, will not
light on you more gently upon this account. The Persian comes against you no
less than against us: and will not be content, after we are conquered, to leave
you in peace. We can bring strong proof of what we here advance. Had the Persian
leader indeed come to avenge the wrongs which he suffered at our hands when we
enslaved his people, and to war on us only, he would have been bound to march
straight upon Scythia, without molesting any nation by the way. Then it would
have been plain to all that Scythia alone was aimed at. But now, what has his
conduct been? From the moment of his entrance into Europe, he has subjugated
without exception every nation that lay in his path. All the tribes of the
Thracians have been brought under his sway, and among them even our next
neighbours, the Getae.”
[4.119] The assembled princes of the nations, after hearing
all that the Scythians had to say, deliberated. At the end opinion was divided –
the kings of the Geloni, Budini, and Sauromatae were of accord, and pledged
themselves to give assistance to the Scythians; but the Agathyrsian and Neurian
princes, together with the sovereigns of the Androphagi, the Melanchaeni, and
the Tauri, replied to their request as follows:- “If you had not been the first
to wrong the Persians, and begin the war, we should have thought the request you
make just; – we should then have complied with your wishes, and joined our arms
with yours. Now, however, the case stands thus – you, independently of us,
invaded the land of the Persians, and so long as God gave you the power, lorded
it over them: raised up now by the same God, they are come to do to you the
like. We, on our part, did no wrong to these men in the former war, and will not
be the first to commit wrong now. If they invade our land, and begin aggressions
upon us, we will not suffer them; but, till we see this come to pass, we will
remain at home. For we believe that the Persians are not come to attack us, but
to punish those who are guilty of first injuring them.”
[4.120] When this reply reached the Scythians, they
resolved, as the neighbouring nations refused their alliance, that they would
not openly venture on any pitched battle with the enemy, but would retire before
them, driving off their herds, choking up all the wells and springs as they
retreated, and leaving the whole country bare of forage. They divided themselves
into three bands, one of which, namely, that commanded by Scopasis, it was
agreed should be joined by the Sauromatae, and if the Persians advanced in the
direction of the Tanais, should retreat along the shores of the Palus Maeotis
and make for that river; while if the Persians retired, they should at once
pursue and harass them. The two other divisions, the principal one under the
command of Idanthyrsus, and the third, of which Taxacis was king, were to unite
in one, and, joined by the detachments of the Geloni and Budini, were, like the
others, to keep at the distance of a day’s march from the Persians, falling back
as they advanced, and doing the same as the others. And first, they were to take
the direction of the nations which had refused to join the alliance, and were to
draw the war upon them: that so, if they would not of their own free will engage
in the contest, they might by these means be forced into it. Afterwards, it was
agreed that they should retire into their own land, and, should it on
deliberation appear to them expedient, join battle with the enemy.
[4.121] When these measures had been determined on, the
Scythians went out to meet the army of Darius, sending on in front as scouts the
fleetest of their horsemen. Their waggons wherein their women and their children
lived, and all their cattle, except such a number as was wanted for food, which
they kept with them, were made to precede them in their retreat, and departed,
with orders to keep marching, without change of course, to the north.
[4.122] The scouts of the Scythians found the Persian host
advanced three days’ march from the Ister, and immediately took the lead of them
at the distance of a day’s march, encamping from time to time, and destroying
all that grow on the ground. The Persians no sooner caught sight of the Scythian
horse than they pursued upon their track, while the enemy retired before them.
The pursuit of the Persians was directed towards the single division of the
Scythian army, and thus their line of march was eastward toward the Tanais. The
Scyths crossed the river and the Persians after them, still in pursuit. in this
way they passed through the country of the Sauromatae, and entered that of the
Budini.
[4.123] As long as the march of the Persian army lay
through the countries of the Scythians and Sauromatae, there was nothing which
they could damage, the land being waste and barren; but on entering the
territories of the Budini, they came upon the wooden fortress above mentioned,
which was deserted by its inhabitants and left quite empty of everything. This
place they burnt to the ground; and having so done, again pressed forward on the
track of the retreating Scythians, till, having passed through the entire
country of the Budini, they reached the desert, which has no inhabitants, and
extends a distance of seven days’ journey above the Budinian territory. Beyond
this desert dwell the Thyssagetae, out of whose land four great streams flow.
These rivers all traverse the country of the Maeotians, and fall into the Palus
Maeotis. Their names are the Lycus, the Oarus, the Tanais, and the Syrgis.
[4.124] When Darius reached the desert, he paused from his
pursuit, and halted his army upon the Oarus. Here he built eight large forts, at
an equal distance from one another, sixty furlongs apart or thereabouts, the
ruins of which were still remaining in my day. During the time that he was so
occupied, the Scythians whom he had been following made a circuit by the higher
regions, and re-entered Scythia. On their complete disappearance, Darius, seeing
nothing more of them, left his forts half finished, and returned towards the
west. He imagined that the Scythians whom he had seen were the entire nation,
and that they had fled in that direction.
[4.125] He now quickened his march, and entering Scythia,
fell in with the two combined divisions of the Scythian army, and instantly gave
them chase. They kept to their plan of retreating before him at the distance of
a day’s march; and, he still following them hotly, they led him, as had been
previously settled, into the territories of the nations that had refused to
become their allies, and first of all into the country of the Melanchaeni. Great
disturbance was caused among this people by the invasion of the Scyths first,
and then of the Persians. So, having harassed them after this sort, the
Scythians led the way into the land of the Androphagi, with the same result as
before; and thence passed onwards into Neuris, where their coming likewise
spread dismay among the inhabitants. Still retreating they approached the
Agathyrsi; but this people, which had witnessed the flight and terror of their
neighbours, did not wait for the Scyths to invade them, but sent a herald to
forbid them to cross their borders, and to forewarn them, that, if they made the
attempt, it would be resisted by force of arms. The Agathyrsi then proceeded to
the frontier, to defend their country against the invaders. As for the other
nations, the Melanchaeni, the Androphagi, and the Neuri, instead of defending
themselves, when the Scyths and Persians overran their lands, they forgot their
threats and fled away in confusion to the deserts lying towards the north. The
Scythians, when the Agathyrsi forbade them to enter their country, refrained;
and led the Persians back from the Neurian district into their own land.
[4.126] This had gone on so long, and seemed so
interminable, that Darius at last sent a horseman to Idanthyrsus, the Scythian
king, with the following message:- “Thou strange man, why dost thou keep on
flying before me, when there are two things thou mightest do so easily? If thou
deemest thyself able to resist my arms, cease thy wanderings and come, let us
engage in battle. Or if thou art conscious that my strength is greater than
thine – even so thou shouldest cease to run away – thou hast but to bring thy
lord earth and water, and to come at once to a conference.”
[4.127] To this message Idanthyrsus, the Scythian king,
replied:- “This is my way, Persian. I never fear men or fly from them. I have
not done so in times past, nor do I now fly from thee. There is nothing new or
strange in what I do; I only follow my common mode of life in peaceful years.
Now I will tell thee why I do not at once join battle with thee. We Scythians
have neither towns nor cultivated lands, which might induce us, through fear of
their being taken or ravaged, to be in any hurry to fight with you. If, however,
you must needs come to blows with us speedily, look you now, there are our
fathers’ tombs – seek them out, and attempt to meddle with them – then ye shall
see whether or no we will fight with you. Till ye do this, be sure we shall not
join battle, unless it pleases us. This is my answer to the challenge to fight.
As for lords, I acknowledge only Jove my ancestor, and Vesta, the Scythian
queen. Earth and water, the tribute thou askedst, I do not send, but thou shalt
soon receive more suitable gifts. Last of all, in return for thy calling thyself
my lord, I say to thee, ‘Go weep.'” (This is what men mean by the Scythian mode
of speech.) So the herald departed, bearing this message to Darius.
[4.128] When the Scythian kings heard the name of slavery
they were filled with rage, and despatched the division under Scopasis to which
the Sauromatae were joined, with orders that they should seek a conference with
the Ionians, who had been left at the Ister to guard the bridge. Meanwhile the
Scythians who remained behind resolved no longer to lead the Persians hither and
thither about their country, but to fall upon them whenever they should be at
their meals. So they waited till such times, and then did as they had
determined. In these combats the Scythian horse always put to flight the horse
of the enemy; these last, however, when routed, fell back upon their foot, who
never failed to afford them support; while the Scythians, on their side, as soon
as they had driven the horse in, retired again, for fear of the foot. By night
too the Scythians made many similar attacks.
[4.129] There was one very strange thing which greatly
advantaged the Persians, and was of equal disservice to the Scyths, in these
assaults on the Persian camp. This was the braying of the asses and the
appearance of the mules. For, as I observed before, the land of the Scythians
produces neither ass nor mule, and contains no single specimen of either animal,
by reason of the cold. So, when the asses brayed, they frightened the Scythian
cavalry; and often, in the middle of a charge, the horses, hearing the noise
made by the asses, would take fright and wheel round, pricking up their ears,
and showing astonishment. This was owing to their having never heard the noise,
or seen the form, of the animal before: and it was not without some little
influence on the progress of the war.
[4.130] The Scythians, when they perceived signs that the
Persians were becoming alarmed, took steps to induce them not to quit Scythia,
in the hope, if they stayed, of inflicting on them the greater injury, when
their supplies should altogether fail. To effect this, they would leave some of
their cattle exposed with the herdsmen, while they themselves moved away to a
distance: the Persians would make a foray, and take the beasts, whereupon they
would be highly elated.
[4.131] This they did several times, until at last Darius
was at his wits’ end; hereon the Scythian princes, understanding how matters
stood, despatched a herald to the Persian camp with presents for the king: these
were, a bird, a mouse, a frog, and five arrows. The Persians asked the bearer to
tell them what these gifts might mean, but he made answer that he had no orders
except to deliver them, and return again with all speed. If the Persians were
wise, he added, they would find out the meaning for themselves. So when they
heard this, they held a council to consider the matter.
[4.132] Darius gave it as his opinion that the Scyths
intended a surrender of themselves and their country, both land and water, into
his hands. This he conceived to be the meaning of the gifts, because the mouse
is an inhabitant of the earth, and eats the same food as man, while the frog
passes his life in the water; the bird bears a great resemblance to the horse,
and the arrows might signify the surrender of all their power. To the
explanation of Darius, Gobryas, one of the seven conspirators against the Magus,
opposed another which was as follows:- “Unless, Persians, ye can turn into birds
and fly up into the sky, or become mice and burrow under the ground, or make
yourselves frogs, and take refuge in the fens, ye will never make escape from
this land, but die pierced by our arrows. Such were meanings which the Persians
assigned to the gifts.
[4.133] The single division of the Scyths, which in the
early part of the war had been appointed to keep guard about the Palus Maeotis,
and had now been sent to get speech of the Ionians stationed at the Ister,
addressed them, on reaching the bridge, in these words – “Men of Ionia, we bring
you freedom, if ye will only do as we recommend. Darius, we understand, enjoined
you to keep your guard here at this bridge just sixty days; then, if he did not
appear, you were to return home. Now, therefore, act so as to be free from
blame, alike in his sight, and in ours. Tarry here the appointed time, and at
the end go your ways.” Having said this, and received a promise from the Ionians
to do as they desired, the Scythians hastened back with all possible speed.
[4.134] After the sending of the gifts to Darius, the part
of the Scythian army which had not marched to the Ister, drew out in battle
array horse and foot against the Persians, and seemed about to come to an
engagement. But as they stood in battle array, it chanced that a hare started up
between them and the Persians, and set to running; when immediately all the
Scyths who saw it, rushed off in pursuit, with great confusion and loud cries
and shouts. Darius, hearing the noise, inquired the cause of it, and was told
that the Scythians were all engaged in hunting a hare. On this he turned to
those with whom he was wont to converse, and said:- “These men do indeed despise
us utterly: and now I see that Gobryas was right about the Scythian gifts. As,
therefore, his opinion is now mine likewise, it is time we form some wise plan
whereby we may secure ourselves a safe return to our homes.” “Ah! sire,” Gobryas
rejoined, “I was well nigh sure, ere I came here, that this was an impracticable
race – since our coming I am yet more convinced of it, especially now that I see
them making game of us. My advice is, therefore, that, when night falls, we
light our fires as we are wont to do at other times, and leaving behind us on
some pretext that portion of our army which is weak and unequal to hardship,
taking care also to leave our asses tethered, retreat from Scythia, before our
foes march forward to the Ister and destroy the bridge, or the Ionians come to
any resolution which may lead to our ruin.”
[4.135] So Gobryas advised; and when night came, Darius
followed his counsel, and leaving his sick soldiers, and those whose loss would
be of least account, with the asses also tethered about the camp, marched away.
The asses were left that their noise might be heard: the men, really because
they were sick and useless, but under the pretence that he was about to fall
upon the Scythians with the flower of his troops, and that they meanwhile were
to guard his camp for him. Having thus declared his plans to the men whom he was
deserting, and having caused the fires to be lighted, Darius set forth, and
marched hastily towards the Ister. The asses, aware of the departure of the
host, brayed louder than ever; and the Scythians, hearing the sound, entertained
no doubt of the Persians being still in the same place.
[4.136] When day dawned, the men who had been left behind,
perceiving that they were betrayed by Darius, stretched out their hands towards
the Scythians, and spoke as. befitted their situation. The enemy no sooner
heard, than they quickly joined all their troops in one, and both portions of
the Scythian army – alike that which consisted of a single division, and that
made up of two – accompanied by all their allies, the Sauromatae, the Budini,
and the Geloni, set off in pursuit, and made straight for the Ister. As,
however, the Persian army was chiefly foot, and had no knowledge of the routes,
which are not cut out in Scythia; while the Scyths were all horsemen and well
acquainted with the shortest way; it so happened that the two armies missed one
another, and the Scythians, getting far ahead of their adversaries, came first
to the bridge. Finding that the Persians were not yet arrived, they addressed
the Ionians, who were aboard their ships, in these words:- “Men of Ionia, the
number of your days is out, and ye do wrong to remain. Fear doubtless has kept
you here hitherto: now, however, you may safely break the bridge, and hasten
back to your homes, rejoicing that you are free, and thanking for it the gods
and the Scythians. Your former lord and master we undertake so to handle, that
he will never again make war upon any one.”
[4.137] The Ionians now held a council. Miltiades the
Athenian, who was king of the Chersonesites upon the Hellespont, and their
commander at the Ister, recommended the other generals to do as the Scythians
wished, and restore freedom to Ionia. But Histiaeus the Milesian opposed this
advice. “It is through Darius,” he said, “that we enjoy our thrones in our
several states. If his power be overturned, I cannot continue lord of Miletus,
nor ye of your cities. For there is not one of them which will not prefer
democracy to kingly rule.” Then the other captains, who, till Histiaeus spoke,
were about to vote with Miltiades, changed their minds, and declared in favour
of the last speaker.
[4.138] The following were the voters on this occasion –
all of them men who stood high in the esteem of the Persian king: the tyrants of
the Hellespont – Daphnis of Abydos, Hippoclus of Lampsacus, Herophantus of
Parium, Metrodorus of Proconnesus, Aristagoras of Cyzicus, and Ariston of
Byzantium; the Ionian princes – Strattis of Chios, Aeaces of Samos, Laodamas of
Phocaea, and Histiaeus of Miletus, the man who had opposed Miltiades. Only one
Aeolian of note was present, to wit, Aristagoras of Cyme.
[4.139] Having resolved to follow the advice of Histiaeus,
the Greek leaders further determined to speak and act as follows. In order to
appear to the Scythians to be doing something, when in fact they were doing
nothing of consequence, and likewise to prevent them from forcing a passage
across the Ister by the bridge, they resolved to break up the part of the bridge
which abutted on Scythia, to the distance of a bowshot from the river bank; and
to assure the Scythians, while the demolition was proceeding, that there was
nothing which they would not do to pleasure them. Such were the additions made
to the resolution of Histiaeus; and then Histiaeus himself stood forth and made
answer to the Scyths in the name of all the Greeks:- “Good is the advice which
ye have brought us, Scythians, and well have ye done to come here with such
speed. Your efforts have now put us into the right path; and our efforts shall
not be wanting to advance your cause. Your own eyes see that we are engaged in
breaking the bridge; and, believe us, we will work zealously to procure our own
freedom. Meantime, while we labour here at our task, be it your business to seek
them out, and, when found, for our sakes, as well as your own, to visit them
with the vengeance which they so well deserve.”
[4.140] Again the Scyths put faith in the promises of the
Ionian chiefs, and retraced their steps, hoping to fall in with the Persians.
They missed, however, the enemy’s whole line of march; their own former acts
being to blame for it. Had they not ravaged all the pasturages of that region,
and filled in all the wells, they would have easily found the Persians whenever
they chose. But, as it turned out, the measures which seemed to them so wisely
planned were exactly what caused their failure. They took a route where water
was to be found and fodder could be got for their horses, and on this track
sought their adversaries, expecting that they too would retreat through regions
where these things were to be obtained. The Persians, however, kept strictly to
the line of their former march, never for a moment departing from it; and even
so gained the bridge with difficulty. It was night when they arrived, and their
terror, when they found the bridge broken up, was great; for they thought that
perhaps the Ionians had deserted them.
[4.141] Now there was in the army of Darius a certain man,
an Egyptian, who had a louder voice than any other man in the world. This person
was bid by Darius to stand at the water’s edge, and call Histiaeus the Milesian.
The fellow did as he was bid; and Histiaeus, hearing him at the very first
summons, brought the fleet to assist in conveying the army across, and once more
made good the bridge.
[4.142] By these means the Persians escaped from Scythia,
while the Scyths sought for them in vain, again missing their track. And hence
the Scythians are accustomed to say of the Ionians, by way of reproach, that, if
they be looked upon as freemen, they are the basest and most dastardly of all
mankind – but if they be considered as under servitude, they are the
faithfullest of slaves, and the most fondly at. to their lords.
[4.143] Darius, having passed through Thrace, reached
Sestos in the Chersonese, whence he crossed by the help of his fleet into Asia,
leaving a Persian, named Megabazus, commander on the European side. This was the
man on whom Darius once conferred special honour by a compliment which he paid
him before all the Persians. was about to eat some pomegranates, and had opened
the first, when his brother Artabanus asked him “what he would like to have in
as great plenty as the seeds of the pomegranate?” Darius answered – “Had I as
many men like Megabazus as there are seeds here, it would please me better than
to be lord of Greece.” Such was the compliment wherewith Darius honoured the
general to whom at this time he gave the command of the troops left in Europe,
amounting in all to some eighty thousand men.
[4.144] This same Megabazus got himself an undying
remembrance among the Hellespontians, by a certain speech which he made. It came
to his knowledge, while he was staying at Byzantium, that the Chalcedonians made
their settlement seventeen years earlier than the Byzantines. “Then,” said he,
“the Chalcedonians must at that time have been labouring under blindness –
otherwise, when so far more excellent a site was open to them, they would never
have chosen one so greatly inferior.” Megabazus now, having been appointed to
take the command upon the Hellespont, employed himself in the reduction of all
those states which had not of their own accord joined the Medes.
[4.145] About this very time another great expedition was
undertaken against Libya, on a pretext which I will relate when I have premised
certain particulars. The descendants of the Argonauts in the third generation,
driven out of Lemnos by the Pelasgi who carried off the Athenian women from
Brauron, took ship and went to Lacedaemon, where, seating themselves on Mount
Taygetum, they proceeded to kindle their fires. The Lacedaemonians, seeing this,
sent a herald to inquire of them “who they were, and from what region they had
come”; whereupon they made answer, “that they were Minyae, sons of the heroes by
whom the ship Argo was manned; for these persons had stayed awhile in Lemnos,
and had there become their progenitors.” On hearing this account of their
descent, the Lacedaemonians sent to them a second time, and asked “what was
their object in coming to Lacedaemon, and there kindling their fires?” They
answered, “that, driven from their own land by the Pelasgi, they had come, as
was most reasonable, to their fathers; and their wish was to dwell with them in
their country, partake their privileges, and obtain allotments of land. It
seemed good to the Lacedaemonians to receive the Minyae among them on their own
terms; to assign them lands, and enrol them in their tribes. What chiefly moved
them to this was the consideration that the sons of Tyndarus had sailed on board
the Argo. The Minyae, on their part, forthwith married Spartan wives, and gave
the wives, whom they had married in Lemnos, to Spartan husbands.
[4.146] However, before much time had elapsed, the Minyae
began to wax wanton, demanded to share the throne, and committed other
impieties: whereupon the Lacedaemonians passed on them sentence of death, and,
seizing them, cast them into prison. Now the Lacedaemonians never put criminals
to death in the daytime, but always at night. When the Minyae, accordingly, were
about to suffer, their wives, who were not only citizens, but daughters of the
chief men among the Spartans, entreated to be allowed to enter the prison, and
have some talk with their lords; and the Spartans, not expecting any fraud from
such a quarter, granted their request. The women entered the prison. gave their
own clothes to their husbands, and received theirs in exchange: after which the
Minyae, dressed in their wives’ garments, and thus passing for women, went
forth. Having effected their escape in this manner, they seated themselves once
more upon Taygetum.own land
[4.147] It happened that at this very time Theras, son of
Autesion (whose father Tisamenus was the son of Thersander, and grandson of
Polynices), was about to lead out a colony from Lacedaemon This Theras, by birth
a Cadmeian, was uncle on the mother’s side to the two sons of Aristodemus,
Procles and Eurysthenes, and, during their infancy, administered in their right
the royal power. When his nephews, however, on attaining to man’s estate, took
the government, Theras, who could not bear to be under the authority of others
after he had wielded authority so long himself, resolved to leave Sparta and
cross the sea to join his kindred. There were in the island now called Thera,
but at that time Calliste, certain descendants of Membliarus, the son of
Poeciles, a Phoenician. (For Cadmus, the son of Agenor, when he was sailing in
search of Europe, made a landing on this island; and, either because the country
pleased him, or because he had a purpose in so doing, left there a number of
Phoenicians, and with them his own kinsman Membliarus. Calliste had been
inhabited by this race for eight generations of men, before the arrival of
Theras from Lacedaemon.)
[4.148] Theras now, having with him a certain number of men
from each of the tribes, was setting forth on his expedition hitherward. Far
from intending to drive out the former inhabitants, he regarded them as his near
kin, and meant to settle among them. It happened that just at this time the
Minyae, having escaped from their prison, had taken up their station upon Mount
Taygetum; and the Lacedaemonians, wishing to destroy them, were considering what
was best to be done, when Theras begged their lives, undertaking to remove them
from the territory. His prayer being granted, he took ship, and sailed, with
three triaconters, to join the descendants of Membliarus. He was not, however,
accompanied by all the Minyae, but only by some few of them. The greater number
fled to the land of the Paroreats and Caucons, whom they drove out, themselves
occupying the region in six bodies, by which were afterwards built the towns of
Lepreum, Macistus, Phryxae, Pyrgus, Epium, and Nudium; whereof the greater part
were in my day demolished by the Eleans.
[4.149] The island was called Thera after the name of its
founder. This same Theras had a son, who refused to cross the sea with him;
Theras therefore left him behind, “a sheep,” as he said, “among wolves.” From
this speech his son came to be called Oeolycus, a name which afterwards grew to
be the only one by which he was known. This Oeolycus was the father of Aegeus,
from whom sprang the Aegidae, a great tribe in Sparta. The men of this tribe
lost at one time all their children, whereupon they were bidden by an oracle to
build a temple to the furies of Laius and Oedipus; they complied, and the
mortality ceased. The same thing happened in Thera to the descendants of these
men.
[4.150] Thus far the history is delivered without variation
both by the Theraeans and the Lacedaemonians; but from this point we have only
the Theraean narrative. Grinus (they say), the son of Aesanius, a descendant of
Theras, and king of the island of Thera, went to Delphi to offer a hecatomb on
behalf of his native city. He was accompanied by a large number of the citizens,
and among the rest by Battus, the son of Polymnestus, who belonged to the Minyan
family of the Euphemidae. On Grinus consulting the oracle about sundry matters,
the Pythoness gave him for answer, “that he should found a city in Libya.”
Grinus replied to this: “I, O king! am too far advanced in years, and too
inactive, for such a work. Bid one of these youngsters undertake it.” As he
spoke, he pointed towards Battus; and thus the matter rested for that time. When
the embassy returned to Thera, small account was taken of the oracle by the
Theraeans, as they were quite ignorant where Libya was, and were not so
venturesome as to send out a colony in the dark.
[4.151] Seven years passed from the utterance of the
oracle, and not a drop of rain fell in Thera: all the trees in the island,
except one, were killed with the drought. The Theraeans upon this sent to
Delphi, and were reminded reproachfully that they had never colonised Libya. So,
as there was no help for it, they sent messengers to Crete, to inquire whether
any of the Cretans, or of the strangers sojourning among them, had ever
travelled as far as Libya: and these messengers of theirs, in their wanderings
about the island, among other places visited Itanus, where they fell in with a
man, whose name was Corobius, a dealer in purple. In answer to their inquiries,
he told them that contrary winds had once carried him to Libya, where he had
gone ashore on a certain island which was named Platea. So they hired this man’s
services, and took him back with them to Thera. A few persons then sailed from
Thera to reconnoitre. Guided by Corobius to the island of Platea, they left him
there with provisions for a certain number of months, and returned home with all
speed to give their countrymen an account of the island.
[4.152] During their absence, which was prolonged beyond
the time that had been agreed upon, Corobius provisions failed him. He was
relieved, however, after a while by a Samian vessel, under the command of a man
named Colaeus, which, on its way to Egypt, was forced to put in at Platea. The
crew, informed by Corobius of all the circumstances, left him sufficient food
for a year. They themselves quitted the island; and, anxious to reach Egypt,
made sail in that direction, but were carried out of their course by a gale of
wind from the east. The storm not abating, they were driven past the Pillars of
Hercules, and at last, by some special guiding providence, reached Tartessus.
This trading town was in those days a virgin port, unfrequented by the
merchants. The Samians, in consequence, made by the return voyage a profit
greater than any Greeks before their day, excepting Sostratus, son of Laodamas,
an Eginetan, with whom no one else can compare. From the tenth part of their
gains, amounting to six talents, the Samians made a brazen vessel, in shape like
an Argive wine-bowl, adorned with the heads of griffins standing out in high
relief. This bowl, supported by three kneeling colossal figures in bronze, of
the height of seven cubits, was placed as an offering in the temple of Juno at
Samos. The aid given to Corobius was the original cause of that close friendship
which afterwards united the Cyrenaeans and Theraeans with the Samians.
[4.153] The Theraeans who had left Corobius at Platea, when
they reached Thera, told their countrymen that they had colonised an island on
the coast of Libya. They of Thera, upon this, resolved that men should be sent
to join the colony from each of their seven districts, and that the brothers in
every family should draw lots to determine who were to go. Battus was chosen to
be king and leader of the colony. So these men departed for Platea on board of
two penteconters.
[4.154] Such is the account which the Theraeans give. In
the sequel of the history their accounts tally with those of the people of
Cyrene; but in what they relate of Battus these two nations differ most widely.
The following is the Cyrenaic story. There was once a king named Etearchus, who
ruled over Axus, a city in Crete, and had a daughter named Phronima. This girl’s
mother having died, Etearchus married a second wife; who no sooner took up her
abode in his house than she proved a true step-mother to poor Phronima, always
vexing her, and contriving against her every sort of mischief. At last she taxed
her with light conduct; and Etearchus, persuaded by his wife that the charge was
true, bethought himself of a most barbarous mode of punishment. There was a
certain Theraean, named Themison, a merchant, living at Axus. This man Etearchus
invited to be his friend and guest, and then induced him to swear that he would
do him any service he might require. No sooner had he given the promise, than
the king fetched Phronima, and, delivering her into his hands, told him to carry
her away and throw her into the sea. Hereupon Themison, full of indignation at
the fraud whereby his oath had been procured, dissolved forthwith the
friendship, and, taking the girl with him, sailed away from Crete. Having
reached the open main, to acquit himself of the obligation under which he was
laid by his oath to Etearchus, he fastened ropes about the damsel, and, letting
her down into the sea, drew her up again, and so made sail for Thera.
[4.155] At Thera, Polymnestus, one of the chief citizens of
the place, took Phronima to be his concubine. The fruit of this union was a son,
who stammered and had a lisp in his speech. According to the Cyrenaeans and
Theraeans the name given to the boy was Battus: in my opinion, however, he was
called at the first something else, and only got the name of Battus after his
arrival in Libya, assuming it either in consequence of the words addressed to
him by the Delphian oracle, or on account of the office which he held. For, in
the Libyan tongue, the word “Battus” means “a king.” And this, I think, was the
reason the Pythoness addressed him as she did: she he was to be a king in Libya,
and so she used the Libyan word in speaking to him. For after he had grown to
man’s estate, he made a journey to Delphi, to consult the oracle about his
voice; when, upon his putting his question, the Pythoness thus replied to him:-
Battus, thou camest to ask of thy voice; but Phoebus
Apollo
Bids thee establish a city in Libya, abounding in fleeces;
which was as if she had said in her own tongue, “King, thou
camest to ask of thy voice.” Then he replied, “Mighty lord, I did indeed come
hither to consult thee about my voice, but thou speakest to me of quite other
matters, bidding me colonise Libya – an impossible thing! what power have I?
what followers?” Thus he spake, but he did not persuade the Pythoness to give
him any other response; so, when he found that she persisted in her former
answer, he left her speaking, and set out on his return to Thera.
[4.156] After a while, everything began to go wrong both
with Battus and with the rest of the Theraeans, whereupon these last, ignorant
of the cause of their sufferings, sent to Delphi to inquire for what reason they
were afflicted. The Pythoness in reply told them “that if they and Battus would
make a settlement at Cyrene in Libya, things would go better with them.” Upon
this the Theraeans sent out Battus with two penteconters, and with these he
proceeded to Libya, but within a little time, not knowing what else to do, the
men returned and arrived off Thera. The Theraeans, when they saw the vessels
approaching, received them with showers of missiles, would not allow them to
come near the shore, and ordered the men to sail back from whence they came.
Thus compelled to return, they settled on an island near the Libyan coast, which
(as I have already said) was called Platea. In size it is reported to have been
about equal to the city of Cyrene, as it now stands.
[4.157] In this place they continued two years, but at the
end of that time, as their ill luck still followed them, they left the island to
the care of one of their number, and went in a body to Delphi, where they made
complaint at the shrine to the effect that, notwithstanding they had colonised
Libya, they prospered as poorly as before. Hereon the Pythoness made them the
following answer:-
Knowest thou better than I, fair Libya abounding in
fleeces?
Better the stranger than he who has trod it? Oh! Clever Theraeans!
Battus and his friends, when they heard this, sailed back
to Platea: it was plain the god would not hold them acquitted of the colony till
they were absolutely in Libya. So, taking with them the man whom they had left
upon the island, they made a settlement on the mainland directly opposite Platea,
fixing themselves at a place called Aziris, which is closed in on both sides by
the most beautiful hills, and on one side is washed by a river.
[4.158] Here they remained six years, at the end of which
time the Libyans induced them to move, promising that they would lead them to a
better situation. So the Greeks left Aziris and were conducted by the Libyans
towards the west, their journey being so arranged, by the calculation of their
guides, that they passed in the night the most beautiful district of that whole
country, which is the region called Irasa. The Libyans brought them to a spring,
which goes by the name of Apollo’s fountain, and told them – “Here, Grecians, is
the proper place for you to settle; for here the sky leaks.”
[4.159] During the lifetime of Battus, the founder of the
colony, who reigned forty years, and during that of his son Arcesilaus, who
reigned sixteen, the Cyrenaeans continued at the same level, neither more nor
fewer in number than they were at the first. But in the reign of the third king,
Battus, surnamed the Happy, the advice of the Pythoness brought Greeks from
every quarter into Libya, to join the settlement. The Cyrenaeans had offered to
all comers a share in their lands; and the oracle had spoken as follows:-
He that is backward to share in the pleasant Libyan
acres,
Sooner or later, I warn him, will feel regret at his folly.
Thus a great multitude were collected together to Cyrene,
and the Libyans of the neighbourhood found themselves stripped of large portions
of their lands. So they, and their king Adicran, being robbed and insulted by
the Cyrenaeans, sent messengers to Egypt, and put themselves under the rule of
Apries, the Egyptian monarch; who, upon this, levied a vast army of Egyptians,
and sent them against Cyrene. The inhabitants of that place left their walls and
marched out in force to the district of Irasa, where, near the spring called
Theste, they engaged the Egyptian host, and defeated it. The Egyptians, who had
never before made trial of the prowess of the Greeks, and so thought but meanly
of them, were routed with such slaughter that but a very few of them ever got
back home. For this reason, the subjects of Apries, who laid the blame of the
defeat on him, revolted from his authority.
[4.160] This Battus left a son called Arcesilaus, who, when
he came to the throne, had dissensions with his brothers, which ended in their
quitting him and departing to another region of Libya, where, after consulting
among themselves, they founded the city, which is still called by the name then
given to it, Barca. At the same time they endeavoured to induce the Libyans to
revolt from Cyrene. Not long afterwards Arcesilaus made an expedition against
the Libyans who had received his brothers and been prevailed upon to revolt; and
they, fearing his power, fled to their countrymen who dwelt towards the east.
Arcesilaus pursued, and chased them to a place called Leucon, which is in Libya,
where the Libyans resolved to risk a battle. Accordingly they engaged the
Cyrenaeans, and defeated them so entirely that as many as seven thousand of
their heavy-armed were slain in the fight. Arcesilaus, after this blow, fell
sick, and, whilst he was under the influence of a draught which he had taken,
was strangled by Learchus, one of his brothers. This Learchus was afterwards
entrapped by Eryxo, the widow of Arcesilaus, and put to death.
[4.161] Battus, Arcesilaus’ son, succeeded to the kingdom,
a lame man, who limped in his walk. Their late calamities now induced the
Cyrenaeans to send to Delphi and inquire of the god what form of government they
had best set up to secure themselves prosperity. The Pythoness answered by
recommending them to fetch an arbitrator from Mantinea in Arcadia. Accordingly
they sent; and the Mantineans gave them a man named Demonax, a person of high
repute among the citizens; who, on his arrival at Cyrene, having first made
himself acquainted with all the circumstances, proceeded to enrol the people in
three tribes. One he made to consist of the Theraeans and their vassals; another
of the Peloponnesians and Cretans; and a third of the various islanders. Besides
this, he deprived the king Battus of his former privileges, only reserving for
him certain sacred lands and offices; while, with respect to the powers which
had hitherto been exercised by the king, he gave them all into the hands of the
people.
[4.162] Thus matters rested during the lifetime of this
Battus, but when his son Arcesilaus came to the throne, great disturbance arose
about the privileges. For Arcesilaus, son of Battus the lame and Pheretima,
refused to submit to the arrangements of Demonax the Mantinean, and claimed all
the powers of his forefathers. In the contention which followed Arcesilaus was
worsted, whereupon he fled to Samos, while his mother took refuge at Salamis in
the island of Cyprus. Salamis was at that time ruled by Evelthon, the same who
offered at Delphi the censer which is in the treasury of the Corinthians, a work
deserving of admiration. Of him Pheretima made request that he would give her an
army whereby she and her son might regain Cyrene. But Evelthon, preferring to
give her anything rather than an army, made her various presents. Pheretima
accepted them all, saying, as she took them: “Good is this too, O king! but
better were it to give me the army which I crave at thy hands.” Finding that she
repeated these words each time that he presented her with a gift, Evelthon at
last sent her a golden spindle and distaff, with the wool ready for spinning.
Again she uttered the same speech as before, whereupon Evelthon rejoined –
“These are the gifts I present to women, not armies.”
[4.163] At Samos, meanwhile, Arcesilaus was collecting
troops by the promise of granting them lands. Having in this way drawn together
a vast host, he sent to Delphi to consult the oracle about his restoration. The
answer of the Pythoness was this: “Loxias grants thy race to rule over Cyrene,
till four kings Battus, four Arcesilaus by name, have passed away. Beyond this
term of eight generations of men, he warns you not to seek to extend your reign.
Thou, for thy part, be gentle, when thou art restored. If thou findest the oven
full of jars, bake not the jars; but be sure to speed them on their way. If,
however, thou heatest the oven, then avoid the island else thou wilt die
thyself, and with thee the most beautiful bull.”
[4.164] So spake the Pythoness. Arcesilaus upon this
returned to Cyrene, taking with him the troops which he had raised in Samos.
There he obtained possession of the supreme power; whereupon, forgetful of the
oracle, he took proceedings against those who had driven him into banishment.
Some of them fled from him and quitted the country for good; others fell into
his hands and were sent to suffer death in Cyprus. These last happening on their
passage to put in through stress of weather at Cnidus, the Cnidians rescued
them, and sent them off to Thera. Another body found a refuge in the great tower
of Aglomachus, a private edifice, and were there destroyed by Arcesilaus, who
heaped wood around the place, and burnt them to death. Aware, after the deed was
done, that this was what the Pythoness meant when she warned him, if he found
the jars in the oven, not to bake them, he withdrew himself of his own accord
from the city of Cyrene, believing that to be the island of the oracle, and
fearing to die as had been prophesied. Being married to a relation of his own, a
daughter of Alazir, at that time king of the Barcaeans, he took up his abode
with him. At Barca, however, certain of the citizens, together with a number of
Cyrenaean exiles, recognising him as he walked in the forum, killed him; they
slew also at the same time Alazir, his father-in-law. So Arcesilaus, wittingly
or unwittingly, disobeyed the oracle, and thereby fulfilled his destiny.
[4.165] Pheretima, the mother of Arcesilaus, during the
time that her son, after working his own ruin, dwelt at Barca, continued to
enjoy all his privileges at Cyrene, managing the government, and taking her seat
at the council-board. No sooner, however, did she hear of the death of her son
at Barca, than leaving Cyrene, she fled in haste to Egypt. Arcesilaus had claims
for service done to Cambyses, son of Cyrus; since it was by him that Cyrene was
put under the Persian yoke, and a rate of tribute agreed upon. Pheretima
therefore went straight to Egypt, and presenting herself as a suppliant before
Aryandes, entreated him to avenge her wrongs. Her son, she said, had met his
death on account of his being so well affected towards the Medes.
[4.166] Now Aryandes had been made governor of Egypt by
Cambyses. He it was who in after times was punished with death by Darius for
seeking to rival him. Aware, by report and also by his own eyesight, that Darius
wished to leave a memorial of himself, such as no king had ever left before,
Aryandes resolved to follow his example, and did so, till he got his reward.
Darius had refined gold to the last perfection of purity in order to have coins
struck of it: Aryandes, in his Egyptian government, did the very same with
silver, so that to this day there is no such pure silver anywhere as the
Aryandic. Darius, when this came to his ears, brought another charge, a charge
of rebellion, against Aryandes, and put him to death.
[4.167] At the time of which we are speaking Aryandes,
moved with compassion for Pheretima, granted her all the forces which there were
in Egypt, both land and sea. The command of the army he gave to Amasis, a
Maraphian; while Badres, one of the tribe of the Pasargadae, was appointed to
lead the fleet. Before the expedition, however, left Egypt, he sent a herald to
Barca to inquire who it was that had slain king Arcesilaus. The Barcaeans
replied “that they, one and all, acknowledged the deed – Arcesilaus had done
them many and great injuries.” After receiving this reply, Aryandes gave the
troops orders to march with Pheretima. Such was the cause which served as a
pretext for this expedition: its real object was, I believe, the subjugation of
Libya. For Libya is inhabited by many and various races, and of these but very
few were subjects of the Persian king, while by far the larger number held
Darius in no manner of respect.
[4.168] The Libyans dwell in the order which I will now
describe. Beginning on the side of Egypt, the first Libyans are the Adyrmachidae
These people have, in most points, the same customs as the Egyptians, but use
the costume of the Libyans. Their women wear on each leg a ring made of bronze;
they let their hair grow long, and when they catch any vermin on their persons,
bite it and throw it away. In this they differ from all the other Libyans. They
are also the only tribe with whom the custom obtains of bringing all women about
to become brides before the king, that he may choose such as are agreeable to
him. The Adyrmachidae extend from the borders of Egypt to the harbour called
Port Plynus.
[4.169] Next to the Adyrmachidae are the Gilligammae, who
inhabit the country westward as far as the island of Aphrodisias. Off this tract
is the island of Platea, which the Cyrenaeans colonised. Here too, upon the
mainland, are Port Menelaus, and Aziris, where the Cyrenaeans once lived. The
Silphium begins to grow in this region, extending from the island of Platea on
the one side to the mouth of the Syrtis on the other. The customs of the
Gilligammae are like those of the rest of their countrymen.
[4.170] The Asbystae adjoin the Gilligammae upon the west.
They inhabit the regions above Cyrene, but do not reach to the coast, which
belongs to the Cyrenaeans. Four-horse chariots are in more common use among them
than among any other Libyans. In most of their customs they ape the manners of
the Cyrenaeans.
[4.171] Westward of the Asbystae dwell the Auschisae, who
possess the country above Barca, reaching, however, to the sea at the place
called Euesperides. In the middle of their territory is the little tribe of the
Cabalians, which touches the coast near Tauchira, a city of the Barcaeans. Their
customs are like those of the Libyans above Cyrene.
[4.172] The Nasamonians, a numerous people, are the western
neighbours of the Auschisae. In summer they leave their flocks and herds upon
the sea-shore, and go up the country to a place called Augila, where they gather
the dates from the palms, which in those parts grow thickly, and are of great
size, all of them being of the fruit-bearing kind. They also chase the locusts,
and, when caught, dry them in the sun, after which they grind them to powder,
and, sprinkling this upon their milk, so drink it. Each man among them has
several wives, in their intercourse with whom they resemble the Massagetae. The
following are their customs in the swearing of oaths and the practice of augury.
The man, as he swears, lays his hand upon the tomb of some one considered to
have been pre-eminently just and good, and so doing swears by his name. For
divination they betake themselves to the sepulchres of their own ancestors, and,
after praying, lie down to sleep upon their graves; by the dreams which then
come to them they guide their conduct. When they pledge their faith to one
another, each gives the other to drink out of his hand; if there be no liquid to
be had, they take up dust from the ground, and put their tongues to it.
[4.173] On the country of the Nasamonians borders that of
the Psylli, who were swept away under the following circumstances. The
south-wind had blown for a long time and dried up all the tanks in which their
water was stored. Now the whole region within the Syrtis is utterly devoid of
springs. Accordingly the Psylli took counsel among themselves, and by common
consent made war upon the southwind – so at least the Libyans say, I do but
repeat their words – they went forth and reached the desert; but there the
south-wind rose and buried them under heaps of sand: whereupon, the Psylli being
destroyed, their lands passed to the Nasamonians.
[4.174] Above the Nasamonians, towards the south, in the
district where the wild beasts abound, dwell the Garamantians, who avoid all
society or intercourse with their fellow-men, have no weapon of war, and do not
know how to defend themselves.
[4.175] These border the Nasamonians on the south: westward
along the sea-shore their neighbours are the Macea, who, by letting the locks
about the crown of their head grow long, while they clip them close everywhere
else, make their hair resemble a crest. In war these people use the skins of
ostriches for shields. The river Cinyps rises among them from the height called
“the Hill of the Graces,” and runs from thence through their country to the sea.
The Hill of the Graces is thickly covered with wood, and is thus very unlike the
rest of Libya, which is bare. It is distant two hundred furlongs from the sea.
[4.176] Adjoining the Macae are the Gindanes, whose women
wear on their legs anklets of leather. Each lover that a woman has gives her
one; and she who can show the most is the best esteemed, as she appears to have
been loved by the greatest number of men.
[4.177] A promontory jutting out into the sea from the
country of the Gindanes is inhabited by the Lotophagi, who live entirely on the
fruit of the lotus-tree. The lotus fruit is about the size of the lentisk berry,
and in sweetness resembles the date. The Lotophagi even succeed in obtaining
from it a sort of wine.
[4.178] The sea-coast beyond the Lotophagi is occupied by
the Machlyans, who use the lotus to some extent, though not so much as the
people of whom we last spoke. The Machlyans reach as far as the great river
called the Triton, which empties itself into the great lake Tritonis. Here, in
this lake, is an island called Phla, which it is said the Lacedaemonians were to
have colonised, according to an oracle.
[4.179] The following is the story as it is commonly told.
When Jason had finished building the Argo at the foot of Mount Pelion, he took
on board the usual hecatomb, and moreover a brazen tripod. Thus equipped, he set
sail, intending to coast round the Peloponnese, and so to reach Delphi. The
voyage was prosperous as far as Malea; but at that point a gale of wind from the
north came on suddenly, and carried him out of his course to the coast of Libya;
where, before he discovered the land, he got among the shallows of Lake Tritonis.
As he was turning it in his mind how he should find his way out, Triton (they
say) appeared to him, and offered to show him the channel, and secure him a safe
retreat, if he would give him the tripod. Jason complying, was shown by Triton
the passage through the shallows; after which the god took the tripod, and,
carrying it to his own temple, seated himself upon it, and, filled with
prophetic fury, delivered to Jason and his companions a long prediction. “When a
descendant,” he said, “of one of the Argo’s crew should seize and carry off the
brazen tripod, then by inevitable fate would a hundred Grecian cities be built
around Lake Tritonis.” The Libyans of that region, when they heard the words of
this prophecy, took away the tripod and hid it.
[4.180] The next tribe beyond the Machlyans is the tribe of
the Auseans. Both these nations inhabit the borders of Lake Tritonis, being
separated from one another by the river Triton. Both also wear their hair long,
but the Machlyans let it grow at the back of the head, while the Auseans have it
long in front. The Ausean maidens keep year by year a feast in honour of
Minerva, whereat their custom is to draw up in two bodies, and fight with stones
and clubs. They say that these are rites which have come down to them from their
fathers, and that they honour with them their native goddess, who is the same as
the Minerva (Athene) of the Grecians. If any of the maidens die of the wounds
they receive, the Auseans declare that such are false maidens. Before the fight
is suffered to begin, they have another ceremony. One of the virgins, the
loveliest of the number, is selected from the rest; a Corinthian helmet and a
complete suit of Greek armour are publicly put upon her; and, thus adorned, she
is made to mount into a chariot, and led around the whole lake in a procession.
What arms they used for the adornment of their damsels before the Greeks came to
live in their country, I cannot say. I imagine they dressed them in Egyptian
armour, for I maintain that both the shield and the helmet came into Greece from
Egypt. The Auseans declare that Minerva is the daughter of Neptune and the Lake
Tritonis – they say she quarrelled with her father, and applied to Jupiter, who
consented to let her be his child; and so she became his adopted daughter. These
people do not marry or live in families, but dwell together like the gregarious
beasts. When their children are full-grown, they are brought before the assembly
of the men, which is held every third month, and assigned to those whom they
most resemble.
[4.181] Such are the tribes of wandering Libyans dwelling
upon the sea-coast. Above them inland is the wild-beast tract: and beyond that,
a ridge of sand, reaching from Egyptian Thebes to the Pillars of Hercules.
Throughout this ridge, at the distance of about ten days’ journey from one
another, heaps of salt in large lumps lie upon hills. At the top of every hill
there gushes forth from the middle of the salt a stream of water, which is both
cold and sweet. Around dwell men who are the last inhabitants of Libya on the
side of the desert, living, as they do, more inland than the wild-beast
district. Of these nations the first is that of the Ammonians, who dwell at a
distance of ten days’ from Thebes, and have a temple derived from that of the
Theban Jupiter. For at Thebes likewise, as I mentioned above, the image of
Jupiter has a face like that of a ram. The Ammonians have another spring besides
that which rises from the salt. The water of this stream is lukewarm at early
dawn; at the time when the market fills it is much cooler; by noon it has grown
quite cold; at this time, therefore, they water their gardens. As the afternoon
advances the coldness goes off, till, about sunset, the water is once more
lukewarm; still the heat increases, and at midnight it boils furiously. After
this time it again begins to cool, and grows less and less hot till morning
comes. This spring is called “the Fountain of the Sun.”
[4.182] Next to the Ammonians, at the distance of ten days’
journey along the ridge of sand, there is a second salt-hill like the Ammonian,
and a second spring. The country round is inhabited, and the place bears the
name of Augila. Hither it is that the Nasamonians come to gather in the dates.
[4.183] Ten days’ journey from Augila there is again a
salt-hill and a spring; palms of the fruitful kind grow here abundantly, as they
do also at the other salt-hills. This region is inhabited by a nation called the
Garamantians, a very powerful people, who cover the salt with mould, and then
sow their crops. From thence is the shortest road to the Lutophagi, a journey of
thirty days. In the Garamantian country are found the oxen which, as they graze,
walk backwards. This they do because their horns curve outwards in front of
their heads, so that it is not possible for them when grazing to move forwards,
since in that case their horns would become fixed in the ground. Only herein do
they differ from other oxen, and further in the thickness and hardness of their
hides. The Garamantians have four-horse chariots, in which they chase the
Troglodyte Ethiopians, who of all the nations whereof any account has reached
our ears are by far the swiftest of foot. The Troglodytes feed on serpents,
lizards, and other similar reptiles. Their language is unlike that of any other
people; it sounds like the screeching of bats.
[4.184] At the distance of ten days’ journey from the
Garamantians there is again another salt-hill and spring of water; around which
dwell a people, called the Atarantians, who alone of all known nations are
destitute of names. The title of Atarantians is borne by the whole race in
common; but the men have no particular names of their own. The Atarantians, when
the sun rises high in the heaven, curse him, and load him with reproaches,
because (they say) he burns and wastes both their country and themselves. Once
more at the distance of ten days’ there is a salt-hill, a spring, and an
inhabited tract. Near the salt is a mountain called Atlas, very taper and round;
so lofty, moreover, that the top (it is said) cannot be seen, the clouds never
quitting it either summer or winter. The natives call this mountain “the Pillar
of Heaven”; and they themselves take their name from it, being called Atlantes.
They are reported not to eat any living thing, and never to have any dreams.
[4.185] As far as the Atlantes the names of the nations
inhabiting the sandy ridge are known to me; but beyond them my knowledge fails.
The ridge itself extends as far as the Pillars of Hercules, and even further
than these; and throughout the whole distance, at the end of every ten days’
there is a salt-mine, with people dwelling round it who all of them build their
houses with blocks of the salt. No rain falls in these parts of Libya; if it
were otherwise, the walls of these houses could not stand. The salt quarried is
of two colours, white and purple. Beyond the ridge, southwards, in the direction
of the interior, the country is a desert, with no springs, no beasts, no rain,
no wood, and altogether destitute of moisture.
[4.186] Thus from Egypt as far as Lake Tritonis Libya is
inhabited by wandering tribes, whose drink is milk and their food the flesh of
animals. Cow’s flesh, however, none of these tribes ever taste, but abstain from
it for the same reason as the Egyptians, neither do they any of them breed
swine. Even at Cyrene, the women think it wrong to eat the flesh of the cow,
honouring in this Isis, the Egyptian goddess, whom they worship both with fasts
and festivals. The Barcaean women abstain, not from cow’s flesh only, but also
from the flesh of swine.
[4.187] West of Lake Tritonis the Libyans are no longer
wanderers, nor do they practise the same customs as the wandering people, or
treat their children in the same way. For the wandering Libyans, many of them at
any rate, if not all – concerning which I cannot speak with certainty – when
their children come to the age of four years, burn the veins at the top of their
heads with a flock from the fleece of a sheep: others burn the veins about the
temples. This they do to prevent them from being plagued in their after lives by
a flow of rheum from the head; and such they declare is the reason why they are
so much more healthy than other men. Certainly the Libyans are the healthiest
men that I know; but whether this is what makes them so, or not, I cannot
positively say – the healthiest certainly they are. If when the children are
being burnt convulsions come on, there is a remedy of which they have made
discovery. It is to sprinkle goat’s water upon the child, who thus treated, is
sure to recover. In all this I only repeat what is said by the Libyans.
[4.188] The rites which the wandering Libyans use in
sacrificing are the following. They begin with the ear of the victim, which they
cut off and throw over their house: this done, they kill the animal by twisting
the neck. They sacrifice to the Sun and Moon, but not to any other god. This
worship is common to all the Libyans. The inhabitants of the parts about Lake
Tritonis worship in addition Triton, Neptune, and Minerva, the last especially.
[4.189] The dress wherewith Minerva’s statues are adorned,
and her Aegis, were derived by the Greeks from the women of Libya. For, except
that the garments of the Libyan women are of leather, and their fringes made of
leathern thongs instead of serpents, in all else the dress of both is exactly
alike. The name too itself shows that the mode of dressing the Pallas-statues
came from Libya. For the Libyan women wear over their dress stript of the hair,
fringed at their edges, and coloured with vermilion; and from these goat-skins
the Greeks get their word Aegis (goat-harness). I think for my part that the
loud cries uttered in our sacred rites came also from thence; for the Libyan
women are greatly given to such cries and utter them very sweetly. Likewise the
Greeks learnt from the Libyans to yoke four horses to a chariot.
[4.190] All the wandering tribes bury their dead according
to the fashion of the Greeks, except the Nasamonians. They bury them sitting,
and are right careful when the sick man is at the point of giving up the ghost,
to make him sit and not let him die lying down. The dwellings of these people
are made of the stems of the asphodel, and of rushes wattled together. They can
be carried from place to place. Such are the customs of the afore-mentioned
tribes.
[4.191] Westward of the river Triton and adjoining upon the
Auseans, are other Libyans who till the ground, and live in houses: these people
are named the Maxyans. They let the hair grow long on the right side of their
heads, and shave it close on the left; they besmear their bodies with red paint;
and they say that they are descended from the men of Troy. Their country and the
remainder of Libya towards the west is far fuller of wild beasts and of wood
than the country of the wandering people. For the eastern side of Libya, where
the wanderers dwell, is low and sandy, as far as the river Triton; but westward
of that the land of the husbandmen is very hilly, and abounds with forests and
wild beasts. For this is the tract in which the huge serpents are found, and the
lions, the elephants, the bears, the aspicks, and the horned asses. Here too are
the dog-faced creatures, and the creatures without heads, whom the Libyans
declare to have their eyes in their breasts; and also the wild men, and wild
women, and many other far less fabulous beasts.
[4.192] Among the wanderers are none of these, but quite
other animals; as antelopes, gazelles, buffaloes, and asses, not of the horned
sort, but of a kind which does not need to drink; also oryxes, whose horns are
used for the curved sides of citherns, and whose size is about that of the ox;
foxes, hyaenas porcupines, wild rams, dictyes, jackals, panthers, boryes,
land-crocodiles about three cubits in length, very like lizards, ostriches, and
little snakes, each with a single horn. All these animals are found here, and
likewise those belonging to other countries, except the stag and the wild boar;
but neither stag nor wild-boar are found in any part of Libya. There are,
however, three sorts of mice in these parts; the first are called two-footed;
the next, zegeries, which is a Libyan word meaning “hills”; and the third,
urchins. Weasels also are found in the Silphium region, much like the Tartessian.
So many, therefore, are the animals belonging to the land of the wandering
Libyans, in so far at least as my researches have been able to reach.
[4.193] Next to the Maxyan Libyans are the Zavecians, whose
wives drive their chariots to battle.
[4.194] On them border the Gyzantians; in whose country a
vast deal of honey is made by bees; very much more, however, by the skill of
men. The people all paint themselves red, and eat monkeys, whereof there is
inexhaustible store in the hills.
[4.195] Off their coast, as the Carthaginians report, lies
an island, by name Cyraunis, the length of which is two hundred furlongs, its
breadth not great, and which is soon reached from the mainland. Vines and olive
trees cover the whole of it, and there is in the island a lake, from which the
young maidens of the country draw up gold-dust, by dipping into the mud birds’
feathers smeared with pitch. If this be true, I know not; I but write what is
said. It may be even so, however; since I myself have seen pitch drawn up out of
the water from a lake in Zacynthus. At the place I speak of there are a number
of lakes; but one is larger than the rest, being seventy feet every way, and two
fathoms in depth. Here they let down a pole into the water, with a bunch of
myrtle tied to one end, and when they raise it again, there is pitch sticking to
the myrtle, which in smell is like to bitumen, but in all else is better than
the pitch of Pieria. This they pour into a trench dug by the lake’s side; and
when a good deal has thus been got together, they draw it off and put it up in
jars. Whatever falls into the lake passes underground, and comes up in the sea,
which is no less than four furlongs distant. So then what is said of the island
off the Libyan coast is not without likelihood.
[4.196] The Carthaginians also relate the following:- There
is a country in Libya, and a nation, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, which they
are wont to visit, where they no sooner arrive but forthwith they unlade their
wares, and, having disposed them after an orderly fashion along the beach, leave
them, and, returning aboard their ships, raise a great smoke. The natives, when
they see the smoke, come down to the shore, and, laying out to view so much gold
as they think the worth of the wares, withdraw to a distance. The Carthaginians
upon this come ashore and look. If they think the gold enough, they take it and
go their way; but if it does not seem to them sufficient, they go aboard ship
once more, and wait patiently. Then the others approach and add to their gold,
till the Carthaginians are content. Neither party deals unfairly by the other:
for they themselves never touch the gold till it comes up to the worth of their
goods, nor do the natives ever carry off the goods till the gold is taken away.
[4.197] These be the Libyan tribes whereof I am able to
give the names; and most of these cared little then, and indeed care little now,
for the king of the Medes. One thing more also I can add concerning this region,
namely, that, so far as our knowledge reaches, four nations, and no more,
inhabit it; and two of these nations are indigenous, while two are not. The two
indigenous are the Libyans and Ethiopians, who dwell respectively in the north
and the south of Libya. The Phoenicians and the Greek are in-comers.
[4.198] It seems to me that Libya is not to compare for
goodness of soil with either Asia or Europe, except the Cinyps region, which is
named after the river that waters it. This piece of land is equal to any country
in the world for cereal crops, and is in nothing like the rest of Libya. For the
soil here is black, and springs of water abound; so that there is nothing to
fear from drought; nor do heavy rains (and it rains in that part of Libya) do
any harm when they soak the ground. The returns of the harvest come up to the
measure which prevails in Babylonia. The soil is likewise good in the country of
the Euesperites; for there the land brings forth in the best years a
hundred-fold. But the Cinyps region yields three hundred-fold.
[4.199] The country of the Cyrenaeans, which is the highest
tract within the part of Libya inhabited by the wandering tribes, has three
seasons that deserve remark. First the crops along the sea-coast begin to ripen,
and are ready for the harvest and the vintage; after they have been gathered in,
the crops of the middle tract above the coast region (the hill-country, as they
call it) need harvesting; while about the time when this middle crop is housed,
the fruits ripen and are fit for cutting in the highest tract of all. So that
the produce of the first tract has been all eaten and drunk by the time that the
last harvest comes in. And the harvest-time of the Cyrenaeans continues thus for
eight full months. So much concerning these matters.
[4.200] When the Persians sent from Egypt by Aryandes to
help Pheretima reached Barca, they laid siege to the town, calling on those
within to give up the men who had been guilty of the murder of Arcesilaus. The
townspeople, however, as they had one and all taken part in the deed, refused to
entertain the proposition. So the Persians beleaguered Barca for nine months, in
the course of which they dug several mines from their own lines to the walls,
and likewise made a number of vigorous assaults. But their mines were discovered
by a man who was a worker in brass, who went with a brazen shield all round the
fortress, and laid it on the ground inside the city. In other Places the shield,
when he laid it down, was quite dumb; but where the ground was undermined, there
the brass of the shield rang. Here, therefore, the Barcaeans countermined, and
slew the Persian diggers. Such was the way in which the mines were discovered;
as for the assaults, the Barcaeans beat them back.
[4.201] When much time had been consumed, and great numbers
had fallen on both sides, nor had the Persians lost fewer than their
adversaries, Amasis, the leader of the land-army, perceiving that, although the
Barcaeans would never be conquered by force, they might be overcome by fraud,
contrived as follows One night he dug a wide trench, and laid light planks of
wood across the opening, after which he brought mould and placed it upon the
planks, taking care to make the place level with the surrounding ground. At dawn
of day he summoned the Barcaeans to a parley: and they gladly hearkening, the
terms were at length agreed upon. Oaths were interchanged upon the ground over
the hidden trench, and the agreement ran thus – “So long as the ground beneath
our feet stands firm, the oath shall abide unchanged; the people of Barca agree
to pay a fair sum to the king, and the Persians promise to cause no further
trouble to the people of Barca.” After the oath, the Barcaeans, relying upon its
terms, threw open all their gates, went out themselves beyond the walls, and
allowed as many of the enemy as chose to enter. Then the Persians broke down
their secret bridge, and rushed at speed into the town – their reason for
breaking the bridge being that so they might observe what they had sworn; for
they had promised the Barcaeans that the oath should continue “so long as the
ground whereon they stood was firm.” When, therefore, the bridge was once broken
down, the oath ceased to hold.
[4.202] Such of the Barcaeans as were most guilty the
Persians gave up to Pheretima, who nailed them to crosses all round the walls of
the city. She also cut off the breasts of their wives, and fastened them
likewise about the walls. The remainder of the people she gave as booty to the
Persians, except only the Battiadae and those who had taken no part in the
murder, to whom she handed over the possession of the town.
[4.203] The Persians now set out on their return home,
carrying with them the rest of the Barcaeans, whom they had made their slaves.
On their way they came to Cyrene; and the Cyrenaeans, out of regard for an
oracle, let them pass through the town. During the passage, Bares, the commander
of the fleet, advised to seize the place; but Amasis, the leader of the
land-force, would not consent; “because,” he said, “they had only been charged
to attack the one Greek city of Barca.” When, however, they had passed through
the town, and were encamped upon the hill of Lycaean Jove, it repented them that
they had not seized Cyrene, and they endeavoured to enter it a second time. The
Cyrenaeans, however, would not suffer this; whereupon, though no one appeared to
offer them battle, yet a panic came upon the Persians, and they ran a distance
of full sixty furlongs before they pitched their camp. Here as they lay, a
messenger came to them from Aryandes, ordering them home. Then the Persians
besought the men of Cyrene to give them provisions for the way, and, these
consenting, they set off on their return to Egypt. But the Libyans now beset
them, and, for the sake of their clothes and harness, slew all who dropped
behind and straggled, during the whole march homewards.
[4.204] The furthest point of Libya reached by this Persian
host was the city of Euesperides. The Barcaeans carried into slavery were sent
from Egypt to the king; and Darius assigned them a village in Bactria for their
dwelling-place. To this village they gave the name of Barca, and it was to my
time an inhabited place in Bactria.
[4.205] Nor did Pheretima herself end her days happily. For
on her return to Egypt from Libya, directly after taking vengeance on the people
of Barca, she was overtaken by a most horrid death. Her body swarmed with worms,
which ate her flesh while she was still alive. Thus do men, by over-harsh
punishments, draw down upon themselves the anger of the gods. Such then, and so
fierce, was the vengeance which Pheretima, daughter of Battus, took upon the
Barcaeans.
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