The Persian Wars 6 : Erato

The Persian Wars
by
Herodotus

Written 440 BC

Translated by George Rawlinson

---

Book 6 – ERATO

[6.1] Aristagoras, the author of the Ionian revolt,
perished in the way which I have described. Meanwhile Histiaeus, tyrant of
Miletus, who had been allowed by Darius to leave Susa, came down to Sardis. On
his arrival, being asked by Artaphernes, the Sardian satrap, what he thought was
the reason that the Ionians had rebelled, he made answer that he could not
conceive, and it had astonished him greatly, pretending to be quite unconscious
of the whole business. Artaphernes, however, who perceived that he was dealing
dishonestly, and who had in fact full knowledge of the whole history of the
outbreak, said to him, “I will tell thee how the case stands, Histiaeus: this
shoe is of thy stitching; Aristagoras has but put it on.”

[6.2] Such was the remark made by Artaphernes concerning
the rebellion. Histiaeus, alarmed at the knowledge which he displayed, so soon
as night fell, fled away to the coast. Thus he forfeited his word to Darius; for
though he had pledged himself to bring Sardinia, the biggest island in the whole
world, under the Persian yoke, he in reality sought to obtain the direction of
the war against the king. Crossing over to Chios, he was there laid in bonds by
the inhabitants, who accused him of intending some mischief against them in the
interest of Darius. However, when the whole truth was laid before them, and they
found that Histiaeus was in reality a foe to the king, they forthwith set him at
large again.

[6.3] After this the Ionians inquired of him for what
reason he had so strongly urged Aristagoras to revolt from the king, thereby
doing their nation so ill a service. In reply, he took good care not to disclose
to them the real cause, but told them that King Darius had intended to remove
the Phoenicians from their own country, and place them in Ionia, while he
planted the Ionians in Phoenicia, and that it was for this reason he sent
Aristagoras the order. Now it was not true that the king had entertained any
such intention, but Histiaeus succeeded hereby in arousing the fears of the
Ionians.

[6.4] After this, Histiaeus, by means of a certain
Hermippus, a native of Atarneus, sent letters to many of the Persians in Sardis,
who had before held some discourse with him concerning a revolt. Hermippus,
however, instead of conveying them to the persons to whom they were addressed,
delivered them into the hands of Artaphernes, who, perceiving what was on foot,
commanded Hermippus to deliver the letters according to their addresses, and
then bring him back the answers which were sent to Histiaeus. The traitors being
in this way discovered, Artaphernes put a number of Persians to death, and
caused a commotion in Sardis.

[6.5] As for Histiaeus, when his hopes in this matter were
disappointed, he persuaded the Chians to carry him back to Miletus; but the
Milesians were too well pleased at having got quit of Aristagoras to be anxious
to receive another tyrant into their country; besides which they had now tasted
liberty. They therefore opposed his return; and when he endeavoured to force an
entrance during the night, one of the inhabitants even wounded him in the thigh.
Having been thus rejected from his country, he went back to Chios; whence, after
failing in an attempt to induce the Chians to give him ships, he crossed over to
Mytilene, where he succeeded in obtaining vessels from the Lesbians. They fitted
out a squadron of eight triremes, and sailed with him to the Hellespont, where
they took up their station, and proceeded to seize all the vessels which passed
out from the Euxine, unless the crews declared themselves ready to obey his
orders.

[6.6] While Histiaeus and the Mytilenaeans were thus
employed, Miletus was expecting an attack from a vast armament, which comprised
both a fleet and also a land force. The Persian captains had drawn their several
detachments together, and formed them into a single army; and had resolved to
pass over all the other cities, which they regarded as of lesser account, and to
march straight on Miletus. Of the naval states, Phoenicia showed the greatest
zeal; but the fleet was composed likewise of the Cyprians (who had so lately
been brought under), the Cilicians, and also the Egyptians.

[6.7] While the Persians were thus making preparations
against Miletus and Ionia, the Ionians, informed of their intent, sent their
deputies to the Panionium, and held a council upon the posture of their affairs.
Hereat it was determined that no land force should be collected to oppose the
Persians, but that the Milesians should be left to defend their own walls as
they could; at the same time they agreed that the whole naval force of the
states, not excepting a single ship, should be equipped, and should muster at
Lade, a small island lying off Miletus – to give battle on behalf of the place.

[6.8] Presently the Ionians began to assemble in their
ships, and with them came the Aeolians of Lesbos; and in this way they
marshalled their line:- The wing towards the east was formed of the Milesians
themselves, who furnished eighty ships; next to them came the Prienians with
twelve, and the Myusians with three ships; after the Myusians were stationed the
Teians, whose ships were seventeen; then the Chians, who furnished a hundred.
The Erythraeans and Phocaeans followed, the former with eight, the latter with
three ships; beyond the Phocaeans were the Lesbians, furnishing seventy; last of
all came the Samians, forming the western wing, and furnishing sixty vessels.
The fleet amounted in all to three hundred and fifty-three triremes. Such was
the number on the Ionian side.

[6.9] On the side of the barbarians the number of vessels
was six hundred. These assembled off the coast of Milesia, while the land army
collected upon the shore; but the leaders, learning the strength of the Ionian
fleet, began to fear lest they might fail to defeat them, in which case, not
having the mastery at sea, they would be unable to reduce Miletus, and might in
consequence receive rough treatment at the hands of Darius. So when they thought
of all these things, they resolved on the following course:- Calling together
the Ionian tyrants, who had fled to the Medes for refuge when Aristagoras
deposed them from their governments, and who were now in camp, having joined in
the expedition against Miletus, the Persians addressed them thus: “Men of Ionia,
now is the fit time to show your zeal for the house of the king. Use your best
efforts, every one of you, to detach your fellow-countrymen from the general
body. Hold forth to them the promise that, if they submit, no harm shall happen
to them on account of their rebellion; their temples shall not be burnt, nor any
of their private buildings; neither shall they be treated with greater harshness
than before the outbreak. But if they refuse to yield, and determine to try the
chance of a battle, threaten them with the fate which shall assuredly overtake
them in that case. Tell them, when they are vanquished in fight, they shall be
enslaved; their boys shall be made eunuchs, and their maidens transported to
Bactra; while their country shall be delivered into the hands of foreigners.”

[6.10] Thus spake the Persians. The Ionian tyrants sent
accordingly by night to their respective citizens, and reported the words of the
Persians; but the people were all staunch, and refused to betray their
countrymen, those of each state thinking that they alone had had made to them.
Now these events happened on the first appearance of the Persians before Miletus.

[6.11] Afterwards, while the Ionian fleet was still
assembled at Lade, councils were held, and speeches made by divers persons –
among the rest by Dionysius, the Phocaean captain, who thus expressed himself:-
“Our affairs hang on the razor’s edge, men of Ionia, either to be free or to be
slaves; and slaves, too, who have shown themselves runaways. Now then you have
to choose whether you will endure hardships, and so for the present lead a life
of toil, but thereby gain ability to overcome your enemies and establish your
own freedom; or whether you will persist in this slothfulness and disorder, in
which case I see no hope of your escaping the king’s vengeance for your
rebellion. I beseech you, be persuaded by me, and trust yourselves to my
guidance. Then, if the gods only hold the balance fairly between us, I undertake
to say that our foes will either decline a battle, or, if they fight, suffer
complete discomfiture.”

[6.12] These words prevailed with the Ionians, and
forthwith they committed themselves to Dionysius; whereupon he proceeded every
day to make the ships move in column, and the rowers ply their oars, and
exercise themselves in breaking the line; while the marines were held under
arms, and the vessels were kept, till evening fell, upon their anchors, so that
the men had nothing but toil from morning even to night. Seven days did the
Ionians continue obedient, and do whatsoever he bade them; but on the eighth
day, worn out by the hardness of the work and the heat of the sun, and quite
unaccustomed to such fatigues, they began to confer together, and to say one to
another, “What god have we offended to bring upon ourselves such a punishment as
this? Fools and distracted that we were, to put ourselves into the hands of this
Phocaean braggart, who does but furnish three ships to the fleet! He, now that
he has got us, plagues us in the most desperate fashion; many of us, in
consequence, have fallen sick already – many more expect to follow. We had
better suffer anything rather than these hardships; even the slavery with which
we are threatened, however harsh, can be no worse than our present thraldom.
Come, let us refuse him obedience.” So saying, they forthwith ceased to obey his
orders, and pitched their tents, as if they had been soldiers, upon the island,
where they reposed under the shade all day, and refused to go aboard the ships
and train themselves.

[6.13] Now when the Samian captains perceived what was
taking place, they were more inclined than before to accept the terms which
Aeaces, the son of Syloson, had been authorised by the Persians to offer them,
on condition of their deserting from the confederacy. For they saw that all was
disorder among the Ionians, and they felt also that it was hopeless to contend
with the power of the king; since if they defeated the fleet which had been sent
against them, they knew that another would come five times as great. So they
took advantage of the occasion which now offered, and as soon as ever they saw
the Ionians refuse to work, hastened gladly to provide for the safety of their
temples and their properties. This Aeaces, who made the overtures to the Samians,
was the son of Syloson, and grandson of the earlier Aeaces. He had formerly been
tyrant of Samos, but was ousted from his government by Aristagoras the Milesian,
at the same time with the other tyrants of the Ionians.

[6.14] The Phoenicians soon afterwards sailed to the
attack; and the Ionians likewise put themselves in line, and went out to meet
them. When they had now neared one another, and joined battle, which of the
Ionians fought like brave men and which like cowards, I cannot declare with any
certainty, for charges are brought on all sides; but the tale goes that the
Samians, according to the agreement which they had made with Aeaces, hoisted
sail, and quitting their post bore away for Samos, except eleven ships, whose
captains gave no heed to the orders of the commanders, but remained and took
part in the battle. The state of Samos, in consideration of this action, granted
to these men, as an acknowledgment if their bravery, the honour of having their
names, and the names of their fathers, inscribed upon a pillar, which still
stands in the market-place. The Lesbians also, when they saw the Samians, who
were drawn up next them, begin to flee, themselves did the like; and the
example, once set, was followed by the greater number of the Ionians.

[6.15] Of those who remained and fought, none were so
rudely handled as the Chians, who displayed prodigies of valour, and disdained
to play the part of cowards. They furnished to the common fleet, as I mentioned
above, one hundred ships, having each of them forty armed citizens, and those
picked men, on board; and when they saw the greater portion of the allies
betraying the common cause, they for their part, scorning to imitate the base
conduct of these traitors, although they were left almost alone and unsupported,
a very few friends continuing to stand by them, notwithstanding went on with the
fight, and ofttimes cut the line of the enemy, until at last, after they had
taken very many of their adversaries’ ships, they ended by losing more than half
of their own. Hereupon, with the remainder of their vessels, the Chians fled
away to their own country.

[6.16] As for such of their ships as were damaged and
disabled, these, being pursued by the enemy, made straight for Mycale, where the
crews ran them ashore, and abandoning them began their march along the
continent. Happening in their way upon the territory of Ephesus, they essayed to
cross it; but here a dire misfortune befell them. It was night, and the Ephesian
women chanced to be engaged in celebrating the Thesmophoria – the previous
calamity of the Chians had not been heard of – so when the Ephesians saw their
country invaded by an armed band, they made no question of the new-comers being
robbers who purposed to carry off their women; and accordingly they marched out
against them in full force, and slew them all. Such were the misfortunes which
befell them of Chios.

[6.17] Dionysius, the Phocaean, when he perceived that all
was lost, having first captured three ships from the enemy, himself took to
flight. He would not, however, return to Phocaea, which he well knew must fall
again, like the rest of Ionia, under the Persian yoke; but straightway, as he
was, he set sail for Phoenicia, and there sunk a number of merchantmen, and
gained a great booty; after which he directed his course to Sicily, where he
established himself as a corsair, and plundered the Carthaginians and
Tyrrhenians, but did no harm to the Greeks.

[6.18] The Persians, when they had vanquished the Ionians
in the sea-fight, besieged Miletus both by land and sea, driving mines under the
walls, and making use of every known device, until at length they took both the
citadel and the town, six years from the time when the revolt first broke out
under Aristagoras. All the inhabitants of the city they reduced to slavery, and
thus the event tallied with the announcement which had been made by the oracle.

[6.19] For once upon a time, when the Argives had sent to
Delphi to consult the god about the safety of their own city, a prophecy was
given them, in which others besides themselves were interested; for while it
bore in part upon the fortunes of Argos, it touched in a by-clause the fate of
the men of Miletus. I shall set down the portion which concerned the Argives
when I come to that part of my History, mentioning at present only the passage
in which the absent Milesians were spoken of. This passage was as follows:-

Then shalt thou, Miletus, so oft the contriver of evil,
Be, thyself, to many a least and an excellent booty:
Then shall thy matrons wash the feet of long-haired masters –
Others shall then possess our lov’d Didymian temple.

Such a fate now befell the Milesians; for the Persians, who
wore their hair long, after killing most of the men, made the women and children
slaves; and the sanctuary at Didyma, the oracle no less than the temple was
plundered and burnt; of the riches whereof I have made frequent mention in other
parts of my History.

[6.20] Those of the Milesians whose lives were spared,
being carried prisoners to Susa, received no ill treatment at the hands of King
Darius, but were established by him in Ampe, a city on the shores of the
Erythraean sea, near the spot where the Tigris flows into it. Miletus itself,
and the plain about the city, were kept by the Persians for themselves, while
the hill-country was assigned to the Carians of Pedasus.

[6.21] And now the Sybarites, who after the loss of their
city occupied Laus and Scidrus, failed duly to return the former kindness of the
Milesians. For these last, when Sybaris was taken by the Crotoniats, made a
great mourning, all of them, youths as well as men, shaving their heads; since
Miletus and Sybaris were, of all the cities whereof we have any knowledge, the
two most closely united to one another. The Athenians, on the other hand, showed
themselves beyond measure afflicted at the fall of Miletus, in many ways
expressing their sympathy, and especially by their treatment of Phrynichus. For
when this poet brought out upon the stage his drama of the Capture of Miletus,
the whole theatre burst into tears; and the people sentenced him to pay a fine
of a thousand drachmas, for recalling to them their own misfortunes. They
likewise made a law that no one should ever again exhibit that piece.

[6.22] Thus was Miletus bereft of its inhabitants. In Samos
the people of the richer sort were much displeased with the doings of the
captains, and the dealings they had had the Medes; they therefore held a
council, very shortly after the sea-fight, and resolved that they would not
remain to become the slaves of Aeaces and the Persians, but before the tyrant
set foot in their country, would sail away and found a colony in another land.
Now it chanced that about this time the Zanclaeans of Sicily had sent
ambassadors to the Ionians, and invited them to Kale-Acte where they wished an
Ionian city to be founded. This place, Kale-Acte (or the Fair Strand) as it is
called, is in the country of the Sicilians, and is situated in the part of
Sicily which looks towards Tyrrhenia. The offer thus made to all the Ionians was
embraced only by the Samians, and by such of the Milesians as had contrived to
effect their escape.

[6.23] Hereupon this is what ensued. The Samians on their
voyage reached the country of the Epizephyrian Locrians, at a time when the
Zanclaeans and their king Scythas were engaged in the siege of a Sicilian town
which they hoped to take. Anaxilaus, tyrant of Rhegium, who was on ill terms
with the Zanclaeans knowing how matters stood, made application to the Samians,
and persuaded them to give up the thought of Kale-Acte the place to which they
were bound, and to seize Zancle itself, which was left without men. The Samians
followed this counsel and possessed themselves of the town; which the Zanclaeans
no sooner heard than they hurried to the rescue, calling to their aid
Hippocrates, tyrant of Gela, who was one of their allies. Hippocrates came with
his army to their assistance; but on his arrival he seized Scythas, the
Zanclaean king, who had just lost his city, and sent him away in chains,
together with his brother Pythogenes, to the town of Inycus; after which he came
to an understanding with the Samians, exchanged oaths with them, and agreed to
betray the people of Zancle. The reward of his treachery was to be one-half of
the goods and chattels, including slaves, which the town contained, and all that
he could find in the open country. Upon this Hippocrates seized and bound the
greater number of the Zanclaeans as slaves; delivering, however, into the hands
of the Samians three hundred of the principal citizens, to be slaughtered; but
the Samians spared the lives of these persons.

[6.24] Scythas, the king of the Zanclaeans, made his escape
from Inycus, and fled to Himera; whence he passed into Asia, and went up to the
court of Darius. Darius thought him the most upright of all the Greeks to whom
he afforded a refuge; for with the king’s leave he paid a visit to Sicily, and
thence returned back to Persia, where he lived in great comfort, and died by a
natural death at an advanced age.

[6.25] Thus did the Samians escape the yoke of the Medes,
and possess themselves without any trouble of Zancle, a most beautiful city. At
Samos itself the Phoenicians, after the fight which had Miletus for its prize
was over, re-established Aeaces, the son of Syloson, upon his throne. This they
did by the command of the Persians, who looked upon Aeaces as one who had
rendered them a high service and therefore deserved well at their hands. They
likewise spared the Samians, on account of the desertion of their vessels, and
did not burn either their city or their temples, as they did those of the other
rebels. Immediately after the fall of Miletus the Persians recovered Caria,
bringing some of the cities over by force, while others submitted of their own
accord.

[6.26] Meanwhile tidings of what had befallen Miletus
reached Histiaeus the Milesian, who was still at Byzantium, employed in
intercepting the Ionian merchantmen as they issued from the Euxine. Histiaeus
had no sooner heard the news than he gave the Hellespont in charge to Bisaltes,
son of Apollophanes, a native of Abydos, and himself, at the head of his
Lesbians, set sail for Chios. One of the Chian garrisons which opposed him he
engaged at a place called “The Hollows,” situated in the Chian territory, and of
these he slaughtered a vast number; afterwards, by the help of his Lesbians, he
reduced all the rest of the Chians, who were weakened by their losses in the
sea-fight, Polichne, a city of Chios, serving him as head-quarters.

[6.27] It mostly happens that there is some warning when
great misfortunes are about to befall a state or nation; and so it was in this
instance, for the Chians had previously had some strange tokens sent to them. A
choir of a hundred of their youths had been despatched to Delphi; and of these
only two had returned; the remaining ninety-eight having been carried off by a
pestilence. Likewise, about the same time, and very shortly before the
sea-fight, the roof of a school-house had fallen in upon a number of their boys,
who were at lessons; and out of a hundred and twenty children there was but one
left alive. Such were the signs which God sent to warn them. It was very shortly
afterwards that the sea-fight happened, which brought the city down upon its
knees; and after the sea-fight came the attack of Histiaeus and his Lesbians, to
whom the Chians, weakened as they were, furnished an easy conquest.

[6.28] Histiaeus now led a numerous army, composed of
Ionians and Aelians, against Thasos, and had laid siege to the place when news
arrived that the Phoenicians were about to quit Miletus and attack the other
cities of Ionia. On hearing this, Histiaeus raised the siege of Thasos, and
hastened to Lesbos with all his forces. There his army was in great straits for
want of food; whereupon Histiaeus left Lesbos and went across to the mainland,
intending to cut the crops which were growing in the Atarnean territory, and
likewise in the plain of the Caicus, which belonged to Mysia. Now it chanced
that a certain Persian named Harpagus was in these regions at the head of an
army of no little strength. He, when Histiaeus landed, marched out to meet him,
and engaging with his forces destroyed the greater number of them, and took
Histiaeus himself prisoner.

[6.29] Histiaeus fell into the hands of the Persians in the
following manner. The Greeks and Persians engaged at Malena, in the region of
Atarneus; and the battle was for a long time stoutly contested, till at length
the cavalry came up, and, charging the Greeks, decided the conflict. The Greeks
fled; and Histiaeus, who thought that Darius would not punish his fault with
death, showed how he loved his life by the following conduct. Overtaken in his
flight by one of the Persians, who was about to run him through, he cried aloud
in the Persian tongue that he was Histiaeus the Milesian.

[6.30] Now, had he been taken straightway before King
Darius, I verily believe that he would have received no hurt, but the king would
have freely forgiven him. Artaphernes, however, satrap of Sardis, and his captor
Harpagus, on this very account – because they were afraid that, if he escaped,
he would be again received into high favour by the king – put him to death as
soon as he arrived at Sardis. His body they impaled at that place, while they
embalmed his head and sent it up to Susa to the king. Darius, when he learnt
what had taken place, found great fault with the men engaged in this business
for not bringing Histiaeus alive into his presence, and commanded his servants
to wash and dress the head with all care, and then bury it, as the head of a man
who had been a great benefactor to himself and the Persians. Such was the sequel
of the history of Histiaeus.

[6.31] The naval armament of the Persians wintered at
Miletus, and in the following year proceeded to attack the islands off the
coast, Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos, which were reduced without difficulty.
Whenever they became masters of an island, the barbarians, in every single
instance, netted the inhabitants. Now the mode in which they practise this
netting is the following. Men join hands, so as to form a line across from the
north coast to the south, and then march through the island from end to end and
hunt out the inhabitants. In like manner the Persians took also the Ionian towns
upon the mainland, not however netting the inhabitants, as it was not possible.

[6.32] And now their generals made good all the threats
wherewith they had menaced the Ionians before the battle. For no sooner did they
get possession of the towns than they choose out all the best favoured boys and
made them eunuchs, while the most beautiful of the girls they tore from their
homes and sent as presents to the king, at the same time burning the cities
themselves, with their temples. Thus were the Ionians for the third time reduced
to slavery; once by the Lydians, and a second, and now a third time, by the
Persians.

[6.33] The sea force, after quitting Ionia, proceeded to
the Hellespont, and took all the towns which lie on the left shore as one sails
into the straits. For the cities on the right bank had already been reduced by
the land force of the Persians. Now these are the places which border the
Hellespont on the European side; the Chersonese, which contains a number of
cities, Perinthus, the forts in Thrace, Selybria, and Byzantium. The Byzantines
at this time, and their opposite neighbours, the Chalcedonians, instead of
awaiting the coming of the Phoenicians, quitted their country, and sailing into
the Euxine, took up their abode at the city of Mesembria. The Phoenicians, after
burning all the places above mentioned, proceeded to Proconnresus and Artaca,
which they likewise delivered to the flames; this done, they returned to the
Chersonese, being minded to reduce those cities which they had not ravaged in
their former cruise. Upon Cyzicus they made no attack at all, as before their
coming the inhabitants had made terms with Oebares, the son of Megabazus, and
satrap of Dascyleium, and had submitted themselves to the king. In the
Chersonese the Phoenicians subdued all the cities, excepting Cardia.

[6.34] Up to this time the cities of the Chersonese had
been under the government of Miltiades, the son of Cimon, and grandson of
Stesagoras, to whom they had descended from Miltiades, the son of Cypselus, who
obtained possession of them in the following manner. The Dolonci, a Thracian
tribe, to whom the Chersonese at that time belonged, being harassed by a war in
which they were engaged with the Apsinthians, sent their princes to Delphi to
consult the oracle about the matter. The reply of the Pythoness bade them “take
back with them as a colonist into their country the man who should first offer
them hospitality after they quitted the temple.” The Dolonci, following the
Sacred Road, passed through the regions of Phocis and Boeotia; after which, as
still no one invited them in, they turned aside, and travelled to Athens.

[6.35] Now Pisistratus was at this time sole lord of
Athens; but Miltiades, the son of Cypselus, was likewise a person of much
distinction. He belonged to a family which was wont to contend in the
four-horse-chariot races, and traced its descent to Aeacus and Egina, but which,
from the time of Philaeas, the son of Ajax, who was the first Athenian citizen
of the house, had been naturalised at Athens. It happened that as the Dolonci
passed his door Miltiades was sitting in his vestibule, which caused him to
remark them, dressed as they were in outlandish garments, and armed moreover
with lances. He therefore called to them, and, on their approach, invited them
in, offering them lodging and entertainment. The strangers accepted his
hospitality, and, after the banquet was over, they laid before him in full the
directions of the oracle and besought him on their own part to yield obedience
to the god. Miltiades was persuaded ere they had done speaking; for the
government of Pisistratus was irksome to him, and he wanted to be beyond the
tyrant’s reach. He therefore went straightway to Delphi, and inquired of the
oracle whether he should do as the Dolonci desired.

[6.36] As the Pythoness backed their request, Miltiades,
son of Cypselus who had already won the four-horse chariot-race at Olympia, left
Athens, taking with him as many of the Athenians as liked to join in the
enterprise, and sailed away with the Dolonci. On his arrival at the Chersonese,
he was made king by those who had invited him. After this his first act was to
build a wall across the neck of the Chersonese from the city of Cardia to Pactya,
to protect the country from the incursions and ravages of the Apsinthians. The
breadth of the isthmus at this part is thirty-six furlongs, the whole length of
the peninsula within the isthmus being four hundred and twenty furlongs.

[6.37] When he had finished carrying the wall across the
isthmus, and had thus secured the Chersonese against the Apsinthians, Miltiades
proceeded to engage in other wars, and first of all attacked the Lampsacenians;
but falling into an ambush which they had laid he had the misfortune to be taken
prisoner. Now it happened that Miltiades stood high in the favour of Croesus,
king of Lydia. When Croesus therefore heard of his calamity, he sent and
commanded the men of Lampsacus to give Miltiades his freedom; “if they refused,”
he said, “he would destroy them like a fir.” Then the Lampsacenians were
somewhile in doubt about this speech of Croesus, and could not tell how to
construe his threat “that he would destroy them like a fir”; but at last one of
their elders divined the true sense, and told them that the fir is the only tree
which, when cut down, makes no fresh shoots, but forthwith dies outright. So the
Lampsacenians, being greatly afraid of Croesus, released Miltiades, and let him
go free.

[6.38] Thus did Miltiades, by the help of Croesus, escape
this danger. Some time afterwards he died childless, leaving his kingdom and his
riches to Stesagoras, who was the son of Cimon, his half-brother. Ever since his
death the people of the Chersonese have offered him the customary sacrifices of
a founder; and they have further established in his honour a gymnic contest and
a chariot-race, in neither of which is it lawful for any Lampsacenian to
contend. Before the war with Lampsacus was ended Stesagoras too died childless:
he was sitting in the hall of justice when he was struck upon the head with a
hatchet by a man who pretended to be a deserter, but was in good sooth an enemy,
and a bitter one.

[6.39] Thus died Stesagoras; and upon his death the
Pisistratidae fitted out a trireme, and sent Miltiades, the son of Cimon, and
brother of the deceased, to the Chersonese, that he might undertake the
management of affairs in that quarter. They had already shown him much favour at
Athens, as if, forsooth, they had been no parties to the death of his father
Cimon – a matter whereof I will give an account in another place. He upon his
arrival remained shut up within the house, pretending to do honour to the memory
of his dead brother; whereupon the chief people of the Chersonese gathered
themselves together from all the cities of the land, and came in a procession to
the place where Miltiades was, to condole with him upon his misfortune.
Miltiades commanded them to be seized and thrown into prison; after which he
made himself master of the Chersonese, maintained a body of five hundred
mercenaries, and married Hegesipyla, daughter of the Thracian king Olorus.

[6.40] This Miltiades, the son of Cimon, had not been long
in the country when a calamity befell him yet more grievous than those in which
he was now involved: for three years earlier he had had to fly before an
incursion of the Scyths. These nomads, angered by the attack of Darius,
collected in a body and marched as far as the Chersonese. Miltiades did not
await their coming, but fled, and remained away until the Scyths retired, when
the Dolonci sent and fetched him back. All this happened three years before the
events which befell Miltiades at the present time.

[6.41] He now no sooner heard that the Phoenicians were
attacking Tenedos than he loaded five triremes with his goods and chattels, and
set sail for Athens. Cardia was the point from which he took his departure; and
as he sailed down the gulf of Melas, along the shore of the Chersonese, he came
suddenly upon the whole Phoenician fleet. However he himself escaped, with four
of his vessels, and got into Imbrus, one trireme only falling into the hands of
his pursuers. This vessel was under the command of his eldest son Metiochus,
whose mother was not the daughter of the Thracian king Olorus, but a different
woman. Metiochus and his ship were taken; and when the Phoenicians found out
that he was a son of Miltiades they resolved to convey him to the king,
expecting thereby to rise high in the royal favour. For they remembered that it
was Miltiades who counselled the Ionians to hearken when the Scyths prayed them
to break up the bridge and return home. Darius, however, when the Phoenicians
brought Metiochus into his presence, was so far from doing him any hurt, that he
loaded him with benefits. He gave him a house and estate, and also a Persian
wife, by whom there were children born to him who were accounted Persians. As
for Miltiades himself, from Imbrus he made his way in safety to Athens.

[6.42] At this time the Persians did no more hurt to the
Ionians; but on the contrary, before the year was out, they carried into effect
the following measures, which were greatly to their advantage. Artaphernes,
satrap of Sardis, summoned deputies from all the Ionian cities, and forced them
to enter into agreements with one another, not to harass each other by force of
arms, but to settle their disputes by reference. He likewise took the
measurement of their whole country in parasangs – such is the name which the
Persians give to a distance of thirty furlongs – and settled the tributes which
the several cities were to pay, at a rate that has continued unaltered from the
time when Artaphernes fixed it down to the present day. The rate was very nearly
the same as that which had been paid before the revolt. Such were the peaceful
dealings of the Persians with the Ionians.

[6.43] The next spring Darius superseded all the other
generals, and sent down Mardonius, the son of Gobryas, to the coast, and with
him a vast body of men, some fit for sea, others for land service. Mardonius was
a youth at this time, and had only lately married Artazostra, the king’s
daughter. When Mardonius, accompanied by this numerous host, reached Cilicia, he
took ship and proceeded along shore with his fleet, while the land army marched
under other leaders towards the Hellespont. In the course of his voyage along
the coast of Asia he came to Ionia; and here I have a marvel to relate which
will greatly surprise those Greeks who cannot believe that Otanes advised the
seven conspirators to make Persia a commonwealth. Mardonius put down all the
despots throughout Ionia, and in lieu of them established democracies. Having so
done, he hastened to the Hellespont, and when a vast multitude of ships had been
brought together, and likewise a powerful land force, he conveyed his troops
across the strait by means of his vessels, and proceeded through Europe against
Eretria and Athens.

[6.44] At least these towns served as a pretext for the
expedition, the real purpose of which was to subjugate as great a number as
possible of the Grecian cities; and this became plain when the Thasians, who did
not even lift a hand in their defence, were reduced by the sea force, while the
land army added the Macedonians to the former slaves of the king. All the tribes
on the hither side of Macedonia had been reduced previously. From Thasos the
fleet stood across to the mainland, and sailed along shore to Acanthus, whence
an attempt was made to double Mount Athos. But here a violent north wind sprang
up, against which nothing could contend, and handled a large number of the ships
with much rudeness, shattering them and driving them aground upon Athos. ‘Tis
said the number of the ships destroyed was little short of three hundred; and
the men who perished were more than twenty thousand. For the sea about Athos
abounds in monsters beyond all others; and so a portion were seized and devoured
by these animals, while others were dashed violently against the rocks; some,
who did not know how to swim, were engulfed; and some died of the cold.

[6.45] While thus it fared with the fleet, on land
Mardonius and his army were attacked in their camp during the night by the Brygi,
a tribe of Thracians; and here vast numbers of the Persians were slain, and even
Mardonius himself received a wound. The Brygi, nevertheless, did not succeed in
maintaining their own freedom: for Mardonius would not leave the country till he
had subdued them and made them subjects of Persia. Still, though he brought them
under the yoke, the blow which his land force had received at their hands, and
the great damage done to his fleet off Athos, induced him to set out upon his
retreat; and so this armament, having failed disgracefully, returned to Asia.

[6.46] The year after these events, Darius received
information from certain neighbours of the Thasians that those islanders were
making preparations for revolt; he therefore sent a herald, and bade them
dismantle their walls, and bring all their ships to Abdera. The Thasians, at the
time when Histiaeus the Milesian made his attack upon them, had resolved that,
as their income was very great, they would apply their wealth to building ships
of war, and surrounding their city with another and a stronger wall. Their
revenue was derived partly from their possessions upon the mainland, partly from
the mines which they owned. They were masters of the gold mines at Scapte-Hyle,
the yearly produce of which amounted in all to eighty talents. Their mines in
Thasos yielded less, but still were so far prolific that, besides being entirely
free from land-tax, they had a surplus income, derived from the two sources of
their territory on the main and their mines, in common years of two hundred, and
in the best years of three hundred talents.

[6.47] I myself have seen the mines in question: by far the
most curious of them are those which the Phoenicians discovered at the time when
they went with Thasus and colonised the island, which afterwards took its name
from him. These Phoenician workings are in Thasos itself, between Coenyra and a
place called Aenyra, over against Samothrace: a huge mountain has been turned
upside down in the search for ores. Such then was the source of their wealth. On
this occasion no sooner did the Great King issue his commands than straightway
the Thasians dismantled their wall, and took their whole fleet to Abdera.

[6.48] After this Darius resolved to prove the Greeks, and
try the bent of their minds, whether they were inclined to resist him in arms or
prepared to make their submission. He therefore sent out heralds in divers
directions round about Greece, with orders to demand everywhere earth and water
for the king. At the same time he sent other heralds to the various seaport
towns which paid him tribute, and required them to provide a number of ships of
war and horse-transports.

[6.49] These towns accordingly began their preparations;
and the heralds who had been sent into Greece obtained what the king had bid
them ask from a large number of the states upon the mainland, and likewise from
all the islanders whom they visited. Among these last were included the
Eginetans, who, equally with the rest, consented to give earth and water to the
Persian king.

When the Athenians heard what the Eginetans had done,
believing that it was from enmity to themselves that they had given consent, and
that the Eginetans intended to join the Persian in his attack upon Athens, they
straightway took the matter in hand. In good truth it greatly rejoiced them to
have so fair a pretext; and accordingly they sent frequent embassies to Sparta,
and made it a charge against the Eginetans that their conduct in this matter
proved them to be traitors to Greece.

[6.50] Hereupon Cleomenes, the son of Anaxandridas, who was
then king of the Spartans, went in person to Egina, intending to seize those
whose guilt was the greatest. As soon however as he tried to arrest them, a
number of the Eginetins made resistance; a certain Crius, son of Polycritus,
being the foremost in violence. This person told him “he should not carry off a
single Eginetan without it costing him dear – the Athenians had bribed him to
make this attack, for which he had no warrant from his own government –
otherwise both the kings would have come together to make the seizure.” This he
said in consequence of instructions which he had received from Demaratus.
Hereupon Cleomenes, finding that he must quit Egina, asked Crius his name; and
when Crius told him, “Get thy horns tipped with brass with all speed, O Crius!”
he said, “for thou wilt have to struggle with a great danger.”

[6.51] Meanwhile Demaratus, son of Ariston, was bringing
charges against Cleomenes at Sparta. He too, like Cleomenes, was king of the
Spartans, but he belonged to the lower house – not indeed that his house was of
any lower origin than the other, for both houses are of one blood – but the
house of Eurysthenes is the more honoured of the two, inasmuch as it is the
elder branch.

[6.52] The Lacedaemonians declare, contradicting therein
all the poets, that it was king Aristodemus himself, son of Aristomachus,
grandson of Cleodaeus, and great-grandson of Hyllus, who conducted them to the
land which they now possess, and not the sons of Aristodemus. The wife of
Aristodemus, whose name (they say) was Argeia, and who was daughter of Autesion,
son of Tisamenus, grandson of Thersander, and great-grandson of Polynices,
within a little while after their coming into the country, gave birth to twins.
Aristodemus just lived to see his children, but died soon afterwards of a
disease. The Lacedaemonians of that day determined, according to custom, to take
for their king the elder of the two children; but they were so alike, and so
exactly of one size, that they could not possibly tell which of the two to
choose: so when they found themselves unable to make a choice, or haply even
earlier, they went to the mother and asked her to tell them which was the elder,
whereupon she declared that “she herself did not know the children apart”;
although in good truth she knew them very well, and only feigned ignorance in
order that, if it were possible, both of them might be made kings of Sparta. The
Lacedaemonians were now in a great strait; so they sent to Delphi and inquired
of the oracle how they should deal with the matter. The Pythoness made answer,
“Let both be taken to be kings; but let the elder have the greater honour.” So
the Lacedaemonians were in as great a strait as before, and could not conceive
how they were to discover which was the first-born, till at length a certain
Messenian, by name Panites, suggested to them to watch and see which of the two
the mother washed and fed first; if they found she always gave one the
preference, that fact would tell them all they wanted to know; if, on the
contrary, she herself varied, and sometimes took the one first, sometimes the
other, it would be plain that she knew as little as they; in which case they
must try some other plan. The Lacedaemonians did according to the advice of the
Messenian, and, without letting her know why, kept a watch upon the mother; by
which means they discovered that, whenever she either washed or fed her
children, she always gave the same child the preference. So they took the boy
whom the mother honoured the most, and regarding him as the first-born, brought
him up in the palace; and the name which they gave to the elder boy was
Eurysthenes, while his brother they called Procles. When the brothers grew up,
there was always, so long as they lived, enmity between them; and the houses
sprung from their loins have continued the feud to this day.

[6.53] Thus much is related by the Lacedaemonians, but not
by any of the other Greeks; in what follows I give the tradition of the Greeks
generally. The kings of the Dorians (they say) – counting up to Perseus, son of
Danae, and so omitting the god – are rightly given in the common Greek lists,
and rightly considered to have been Greeks themselves; for even at this early
time they ranked among that people. I say “up to Perseus,” and not further,
because Perseus has no mortal father by whose name he is called, as Hercules has
in Amphitryon; whereby it appears that I have reason on my side, and am right in
saying, “up to Perseus.” If we follow the line of Danad, daughter of Acrisius,
and trace her progenitors, we shall find that the chiefs of the Dorians are
really genuine Egyptians. In the genealogies here given I have followed the
common Greek accounts.

[6.54] According to the Persian story, Perseus was an
Assyrian who became a Greek; his ancestors, therefore, according to them, were
not Greeks. They do not admit that the forefathers of Acrisius were in any way
related to Perseus, but say they were Egyptians, as the Greeks likewise testify.

[6.55] Enough however of this subject. How it came to pass
that Egyptians obtained the kingdoms of the Dorians, and what they did to raise
themselves to such a position, these are questions concerning which, as they
have been treated by others, I shall say nothing. I proceed to speak of points
on which no other writer has touched.

[6.56] The prerogatives which the Spartans have allowed
their kings are the following. In the first place, two priesthoods, those
(namely) of Lacedaemonian and of Celestial Jupiter; also the right of making war
on what country soever they please, without hindrance from any of the other
Spartans, under pain of outlawry; on service the privilege of marching first in
the advance and last in the retreat, and of having a hundred picked men for
their body guard while with the army; likewise the liberty of sacrificing as
many cattle in their expeditions as it seems them good, and the right of having
the skins and the chines of the slaughtered animals for their own use.

[6.57] Such are their privileges in war; in peace their
rights are as follows. When a citizen makes a public sacrifice the kings are
given the first seats at the banquet; they are served before any of the other
guests, and have a double portion of everything; they take the lead in the
libations; and the hides of the sacrificed beasts belong to them. Every month,
on the first day, and again on the seventh of the first decade, each king
receives a beast without blemish at the public cost, which he offers up to
Apollo; likewise a medimnus of meal, and of wine a Laconian quart. In the
contests of the Games they have always the seat of honour; they appoint the
citizens who have to entertain foreigners; they also nominate, each of them, two
of the Pythians, officers whose business it is to consult the oracle at Delphi,
who eat with the kings, and, like them, live at the public charge. If the kings
do not come to the public supper, each of them must have two choenixes of meal
and a cotyle of wine sent home to him at his house; if they come, they are given
a double quantity of each, and the same when any private man invites them to his
table. They have the custody of all the oracles which are pronounced; but the
Pythians must likewise have knowledge of them. They have the whole decision of
certain causes, which are these, and these only:- When a maiden is left the
heiress of her father’s estate, and has not been betrothed by him to any one,
they decide who is to marry her; in all matters concerning the public highways
they judge; and if a person wants to adopt a child, he must do it before the
kings. They likewise have the right of sitting in council with the
eight-and-twenty senators; and if they are not present, then the senators
nearest of kin to them have their privileges, and give two votes as the royal
proxies, besides a third vote, which is their own.

[6.58] Such are the honours which the Spartan people have
allowed their kings during their lifetime; after they are dead other honours
await them. Horsemen carry the news of their death through all Laconia, while in
the city the women go hither and thither drumming upon a kettle. At this signal,
in every house two free persons, a man and a woman, must put on mourning, or
else be subject to a heavy fine. The Lacedaemonians have likewise a custom at
the demise of their kings which is common to them with the barbarians of Asia –
indeed with the greater number of the barbarians everywhere – namely, that when
one of their kings dies, not only the Spartans, but a certain number of the
country people from every part of Laconia are forced, whether they will or no,
to attend the funeral. So these persons and the helots, and likewise the
Spartans themselves, flock together to the number of several thousands, men and
women intermingled; and all of them smite their foreheads violently, and weep
and wall without stint, saying always that their last king was the best. If a
king dies in battle, then they make a statue of him, and placing it upon a couch
right bravely decked, so carry it to the grave. After the burial, by the space
of ten days there is no assembly, nor do they elect magistrates, but continue
mourning the whole time.

[6.59] They hold with the Persians also in another custom.
When a king dies, and another comes to the throne, the newly-made monarch
forgives all the Spartans the debts which they owe either to the king or to the
public treasury. And in like manner among the Persians each king when he begins
to reign remits the tribute due from the provinces.

[6.60] In one respect the Lacedaemonians resemble the
Egyptians. Their heralds and flute-players, and likewise their cooks, take their
trades by succession from their fathers. A flute-player must be the son of a
flute-player, a cook of a cook, a herald of a herald; and other people cannot
take advantage of the loudness of their voice to come into the profession and
shut out the heralds’ sons; but each follows his father’s business. Such are the
customs of the Lacedaemonians.

[6.61] At the time of which we are speaking, while
Cleomenes in Egina was labouring for the general good of Greece, Demaratus at
Sparta continued to bring charges against him, moved not so much by love of the
Eginetans as by jealousy and hatred of his colleague. Cleomenes therefore was no
sooner returned from Egina than he considered with himself how he might deprive
Demaratus of his kingly office; and here the following circumstance furnished a
ground for him to proceed upon. Ariston, king of Sparta, had been married to two
wives, but neither of them had borne him any children; as however he still
thought it was possible he might have offspring, he resolved to wed a third; and
this was how the wedding was brought about. He had a certain friend, a Spartan,
with whom he was more intimate than with any other citizen. This friend was
married to a wife whose beauty far surpassed that of all the other women in
Sparta; and what was still more strange, she had once been as ugly as she now
was beautiful. For her nurse, seeing how ill-favoured she was, and how sadly her
parents, who were wealthy people, took her bad looks to heart, bethought herself
of a plan, which was to carry the child every day to the temple of Helen at
Therapna, which stands above the Phoebeum, and there to place her before the
image, and beseech the goddess to take away the child’s ugliness. One day, as
she left the temple, a woman appeared to her, and begged to know what it was she
held in her arms. The nurse told her it was a child, on which she asked to see
it; but the nurse refused; the parents, she said, had forbidden her to show the
child to any one. However the woman would not take a denial; and the nurse,
seeing how highly she prized a look, at last let her see the child. Then the
woman gently stroked its head, and said, “One day this child shall be the
fairest dame in Sparta.” And her looks began to change from that very day. When
she was of marriageable age, Agetus, son of Alcides, the same whom I have
mentioned above as the friend of Ariston, made her his wife.

[6.62] Now it chanced that Ariston fell in love with this
person; and his love so preyed upon his mind that at last he devised as follows.
He went to his friend, the lady’s husband, and proposed to him that they should
exchange gifts, each taking that which pleased him best out of all the
possessions of the other. His friend, who felt no alarm about his wife, since
Ariston was also married, consented readily; and so the matter was confirmed
between them by an oath. Then Ariston gave Agetus the present, whatever it was,
of which he had made choice, and when it came to his turn to name the present
which he was to receive in exchange, required to be allowed to carry home with
him Agetus’s wife. But the other demurred, and said, “except his wife, he might
have anything else”: however, as he could not resist the oath which he had
sworn, or the trickery which had been practised on him, at last he suffered
Ariston to carry her away to his house.

[6.63] Ariston hereupon put away his second wife and took
for his third this woman; and she, in less than the due time – when she had not
yet reached her full term of ten months – gave birth to a child, the Demaratus
of whom we have spoken. Then one of his servants came and told him the news, as
he sat in council with the Ephors; whereat, remembering when it was that the
woman became his wife, he counted the months upon his fingers, and having so
done, cried out with an oath, “The boy cannot be mine.” This was said in the
hearing of the Ephors; but they made no account of it at the time. The boy grew
up; and Ariston repented of what he had said; for he became altogether convinced
that Demaratus was truly his son. The reason why he named him Demaratus was the
following. Some time before these events the whole Spartan people, looking upon
Ariston as a man of mark beyond all the kings that had reigned at Sparta before
him, had offered up a prayer that he might have a son. On this account,
therefore, the name Demaratus was given.

[6.64] In course of time Ariston died; and Demaratus
received the kingdom: but it was fated, as it seems, that these words, when
bruited abroad, should strip him of his sovereignty. This was brought about by
means of Cleomenes, whom he had twice sorely vexed, once when he led the army
home from Eleusis, and a second time when Cleomenes was gone across to Egina
against such as had espoused the side of the Medes.

[6.65] Cleomenes now, being resolved to have his revenge
upon Demaratus, went to Leotychides, the son of Menares, and grandson of Agis,
who was of the same family as Demaratus, and made agreement with him to this
tenor following. Cleomenes was to lend his aid to make Leotychides king in the
room of Demaratus; and then Leotychides was to take part with Cleomenes against
the Eginetans. Now Leotychides hated Demaratus chiefly on account of Percalus,
the daughter of Chilon, son of Demarmenus: this lady had been betrothed to
Leotychides; but Demaratus laid a plot, and robbed him of his bride,
forestalling him in carrying her off, and marrying her. Such was the origin of
the enmity. At the time of which we speak, Leotychides was prevailed upon by the
earnest desire of Cleomenes to come forward against Demaratus and make oath
“that Demaratus was not rightful king of Sparta, since he was not the true son
of Ariston.” After he had thus sworn, Leotychides sued Demaratus, and brought up
against him the phrase which Ariston had let drop when, on the coming of his
servant to announce to him the birth of his son, he counted the months, and
cried out with an oath that the child was not his. It was on this speech of
Ariston’s that Leotychides relied to prove that Demaratus was not his son, and
therefore not rightful king of Sparta; and he produced as witnesses the Ephors
who were sitting with Ariston at the time and heard what he said.

[6.66] At last, as there came to be much strife concerning
this matter, the Spartans made a decree that the Delphic oracle should be asked
to say whether Demaratus were Ariston’s son or no. Cleomenes set them upon this
plan; and no sooner was the decree passed than he made a friend of Cobon, the
son of Aristophantus, a man of the greatest weight among the Delphians; and this
Cobon prevailed upon Perialla, the prophetess, to give the answer which
Cleomenes wished. Accordingly, when the sacred messengers came and put their
question, the Pythoness returned for answer “that Demaratus was not Ariston’s
son.” Some time afterwards all this became known; and Cobon was forced to fly
from Delphi; while Perialla the prophetess was deprived of her office.

[6.67] Such were the means whereby the deposition of
Demaratus was brought about; but his flying from Sparta to the Medes was by
reason of an affront which was put upon him. On losing his kingdom he had been
made a magistrate; and in that office soon afterwards, when the feast of the
Gymnopaediae came around, he took his station among the lookers-on; whereupon
Leotychides, who was now king in his room, sent a servant to him and asked him,
by way of insult and mockery, “how it felt to be a magistrate after one had been
a king?” Demaratus, who was hurt at the question, made answer – “Tell him I have
tried them both, but he has not. Howbeit this speech will be the cause to Sparta
of infinite blessings or else of infinite woes.” Having thus spoken he wrapped
his head in his robe, and, leaving the theatre, went home to his own house,
where he prepared an ox for sacrifice, and offered it to Jupiter, after which he
called for his mother.

[6.68] When she appeared, he took of the entrails, and
placing them in her hand, besought her in these words following:-

“Dear mother, I beseech you, by all the gods, and chiefly
by our own hearth-god Jupiter, tell me the very truth, who was really my father.
For Leotychides, in the suit which we had together, declared that when thou
becamest Ariston’s wife thou didst already bear in thy womb a child by thy
former husband, and others repeat a yet more disgraceful tale, that our groom
found favour in thine eyes, and that I am his son. I entreat thee therefore by
the gods to tell me the truth. For if thou hast gone astray, thou hast done no
more than many a woman; and the Spartans remark it as strange, if I am Ariston’s
son, that he had no children by his other wives.”

[6.69] Thus spake Demaratus; and his mother replied as
follows: “Dear son, since thou entreatest so earnestly for the truth, it shall
indeed be fully told to thee. When Ariston brought me to his house, on the third
night after my coming, there appeared to me one like to Ariston, who, after
staying with me a while, rose, and taking the garlands from his own brows placed
them upon my head, and so went away. Presently after Ariston entered, and when
he saw the garlands which I still wore, asked me who gave them to me. I said,
’twas he; but this he stoutly denied; whereupon I solemnly swore that it was
none other, and told him he did not do well to dissemble when he had so lately
risen from my side and left the garlands with me. Then Ariston, when he heard my
oath, understood that there was something beyond nature in what had taken place.
And indeed it appeared that the garlands had come from the hero-temple which
stands by our court gates – the temple of him they call Astrabacus – and the
soothsayers, moreover, declared that the apparition was that very person. And
now, my son, I have told thee all thou wouldest fain know. Either thou art the
son of that hero – either thou mayest call Astrabacus sire; or else Ariston was
thy father. As for that matter which they who hate thee urge the most, the words
of Ariston, who, when the messenger told him of thy birth, declared before many
witnesses that ‘thou wert not his son, forasmuch as the ten months were not
fully out,’ it was a random speech, uttered from mere ignorance. The truth is,
children are born not only at ten months, but at nine, and even at seven. Thou
wert thyself, my son, a seven months’ child. Ariston acknowledged, no long time
afterwards, that his speech sprang from thoughtlessness. Hearken not then to
other tales concerning thy birth, my son: for be assured thou hast the whole
truth. As for grooms, pray Heaven Leotychides and all who speak as he does may
suffer wrong from them!” Such was the mother’s answer.

[6.70] Demaratus, having learnt all that he wished to know,
took with him provision for the journey, and went into Elis, pretending that he
purposed to proceed to Delphi, and there consult the oracle. The Lacedaemonians,
however, suspecting that he meant to fly his country, sent men in pursuit of
him; but Demaratus hastened, and leaving Elis before they arrived, sailed across
to Zacynthus. The Lacedaemonians followed, and sought to lay hands upon him, and
to separate him from his retinue; but the Zacynthians would not give him up to
them: so he escaping, made his way afterwards by sea to Asia, and presented
himself before King Darius, who received him generously, and gave him both lands
and cities. Such was the chance which drove Demaratus to Asia, a man
distinguished among the Lacedaemonians for many noble deeds and wise counsels,
and who alone of all the Spartan kings brought honour to his country by winning
at Olympia the prize in the four-horse chariot-race.

[6.71] After Demaratus was deposed, Leotychides, the son of
Menares, received the kingdom. He had a son, Zeuxidamus, called Cyniscus by many
of the Spartans. This Zeuxidamus did not reign at Sparta, but died before his
father, leaving a son, Archidamus. Leotychides, when Zeuxidamus was taken from
him, married a second wife, named Eurydame, the sister of Menius and daughter of
Diactorides. By her he had no male offspring, but only a daughter called Lampito,
whom he gave in marriage to Archidamus, Zeuxidamus’ son.

[6.72] Even Leotychides, however, did not spend his old age
in Sparta, but suffered a punishment whereby Demaratus was fully avenged. He
commanded the Lacedaemonians when they made war against Thessaly, and might have
conquered the whole of it, but was bribed by a large sum of money. It chanced
that he was caught in the fact, being found sitting in his tent on a gauntlet,
quite full of silver. Upon this he was brought to trial and banished from
Sparta; his house was razed to the ground; and he himself fled to Tegea, where
he ended his days. But these events took place long afterwards.

[6.73] At the time of which we are speaking, Cleomenes,
having carried his proceedings in the matter of Demaratus to a prosperous issue,
forthwith took Leotychides with him, and crossed over to attack the Eginetans;
for his anger was hot against them on account of the affront which they had
formerly put upon him. Hereupon the Eginetans, seeing that both the kings were
come against them, thought it best to make no further resistance. So the two
kings picked out from all Egina the ten men who for wealth and birth stood the
highest, among whom were Crius, son of Polycritus, and Casambus, son of
Aristocrates, who wielded the chief power; and these men they carried with them
to Attica, and there deposited them in the hands of the Athenians, the great
enemies of the Eginetans.

[6.74] Afterwards, when it came to be known what evil arts
had been used against Demaratus, Cleomenes was seized with fear of his own
countrymen, and fled into Thessaly. From thence he passed into Arcadia, where he
began to stir up troubles, and endeavoured to unite the Arcadians against
Sparta. He bound them by various oaths to follow him whithersoever he should
lead, and was even desirous of taking their chief leaders with him to the city
of Nonacris, that he might swear them to his cause by the waters of the Styx.
For the waters of Styx, as the Arcadians say, are in that city, and this is the
appearance they present: you see a little water, dripping from a rock into a
basin, which is fenced round by a low wall. Nonacris, where this fountain is to
be seen, is a city of Arcadia near Pheneus.

[6.75] When the Lacedaemonians heard how Cleomenes was
engaged, they were afraid, and agreed with him that he should come back to
Sparta and be king as before. So Cleomenes came back; but had no sooner returned
than he, who had never been altogether of sound mind, was smitten with downright
madness. This he showed by striking every Spartan he met upon the face with his
sceptre. On his behaving thus, and showing that he was gone quite out of his
mind, his kindred imprisoned him, and even put his feet in the stocks. While so
bound, finding himself left alone with a single keeper, he asked the man for a
knife. The keeper at first refused, whereupon Cleomenes began to threaten him,
until at last he was afraid, being only a helot, and gave him what he required.
Cleomenes had no sooner got the steel than, beginning at his legs, he horribly
disfigured himself, cutting gashes in his flesh, along his legs, thighs, hips,
and loins, until at last he reached his belly, which he likewise began to gash,
whereupon in a little time he died. The Greeks generally think that this fate
came upon him because he induced the Pythoness to pronounce against Demaratus;
the Athenians differ from all others in saying that it was because he cut down
the sacred grove of the goddesses when he made his invasion by Eleusis; while
the Argives ascribe it to his having taken from their refuge and cut to pieces
certain argives who had fled from battle into a precinct sacred to Argus, where
Cleomenes slew them, burning likewise at the same time, through irreverence, the
grove itself.

[6.76] For once, when Cleomenes had sent to Delphi to
consult the oracle, it was prophesied to him that he should take Argos; upon
which he went out at the head of the Spartans, and led them to the river
Erasinus. This stream is reported to flow from the Stymphalian lake, the waters
of which empty themselves into a pitch-dark chasm, and then (as they say)
reappear in Argos, where the Argives call them the Erasinus. Cleomenes, having
arrived upon the banks of this river, proceeded to offer sacrifice to it, but,
in spite of all that he could do, the victims were not favourable to his
crossing. So he said that he admired the god for refusing to betray his
countrymen, but still the Argives should not escape him for all that. He then
withdrew his troops, and led them down to Thyrea, where he sacrificed a bull to
the sea, and conveyed his men on shipboard to Nauplia in the Tirynthian
territory.

[6.77] The Argives, when they heard of this, marched down
to the sea to defend their country; and arriving in the neighbourhood of Tiryns,
at the place which bears the name of Sepeia, they pitched their camp opposite to
the Lacedaemonians, leaving no great space between the hosts. And now their fear
was not so much lest they should be worsted in open fight as lest some trick
should be practised on them; for such was the danger which the oracle given to
them in common with the Milesians seemed to intimate. The oracle ran as
follows:-

Time shall be when the female shall conquer the male, and
shall chase him
Far away – gaining so great praise and honour in Argos;
Then full many an Argive woman her cheeks shall mangle
Hence, in the times to come ’twill be said by the men who are unborn,
“Tamed by the spear expired the coiled terrible serpent.”

At the coincidence of all these things the Argives were
greatly cast down; and so they resolved that they would follow the signals of
the enemy’s herald. Having made this resolve, they proceeded to act as follows:
whenever the herald of the Lacedaemonians gave an order to the soldiers of his
own army, the Argives did the like on their side.

[6.78] Now when Cleomenes heard that the Argives were
acting thus, he commanded his troops that, so soon as the herald gave the word
for the soldiers to go to dinner, they should instantly seize their arms and
charge the host of the enemy. Which the Lacedaemonians did accordingly, and fell
upon the Argives just as, following the signal, they had begun their repast;
whereby it came to pass that vast numbers of the Argives were slain, while the
rest, who were more than they which died in the fight, were driven to take
refuge in the grove of Argus hard by, where they were surrounded, and watch kept
upon them.

[6.79] When things were at this pass Cleomenes acted as
follows: Having learnt the names of the Argives who were shut up in the sacred
precinct from certain deserters who had come over to him, he sent a herald to
summon them one by one, on pretence of having received their ransoms. Now the
ransom of prisoners among the Peloponnesians is fixed at two minae the man. So
Cleomenes had these persons called forth severally, to the number of fifty, or
thereabouts, and massacred them. All this while they who remained in the
enclosure knew nothing of what was happening; for the grove was so thick that
the people inside were unable to see what was taking place without. But at last
one of their number climbed up into a tree and spied the treachery; after which
none of those who were summoned would go forth.

[6.80] Then Cleomenes ordered all the helots to bring
brushwood, and heap it around the grove; which was done accordingly; and
Cleomenes set the grove on fire. As the flames spread he asked a deserter “Who
was the god of the grove?” whereto the other made answer, “Argus.” So he, when
he heard that, uttered a loud groan, and said:-

“Greatly hast thou deceived me, Apollo, god of prophecy, in
saying that I should take Argos. I fear me thy oracle has now got its
accomplishment.”

[6.81] Cleomenes now sent home the greater part of his
army, while with a thousand of his best troops he proceeded to the temple of
Juno, to offer sacrifice. When however he would have slain the victim on the
altar himself, the priest forbade him, as it was not lawful (he said) for a
foreigner to sacrifice in that temple. At this Cleomenes ordered his helots to
drag the priest from the altar and scourge him, while he performed the sacrifice
himself, after which he went back to Sparta.

[6.82] Thereupon his enemies brought him up before the
Ephors, and made it a charge against him that he had allowed himself to be
bribed, and on that account had not taken Argos when he might have captured it
easily. To this he answered – whether truly or falsely I cannot say with
certainty – but at any rate his answer to the charge was that “so soon as he
discovered the sacred precinct which he had taken to belong to Argos, he
directly imagined that the oracle had received its accomplishment; he therefore
thought it not good to attempt the town, at the least until he had inquired by
sacrifice, and ascertained if the god meant to grant him the place, or was
determined to oppose his taking it. So he offered in the temple of Juno, and
when the omens were propitious, immediately there flashed forth a flame of fire
from the breast of the image; whereby he knew of a surety that he was not to
take Argos. For if the flash had come from the head, he would have gained the
town, citadel and all; but as it shone from the breast, he had done so much as
the god intended.” And his words seemed to the Spartans so true and reasonable,
that he came clear off from his adversaries.

[6.83] Argos however was left so bare of men that the
slaves managed the state, filled the offices, and administered everything until
the sons of those who were slain by Cleomenes grew up. Then these latter cast
out the slaves, and got the city back under their own rule; while the slaves who
had been driven out fought a battle and won Tiryns. After this for a time there
was peace between the two; but a certain man, a soothsayer, named Cleander, who
was by race a Phigalean from Arcadia, joined himself to the slaves, and stirred
them up to make a fresh attack upon their lords. Then were they at war with one
another by the space of many years; but at length the Argives with much trouble
gained the upper hand.

[6.84] The Argives say that Cleomenes lost his senses, and
died so miserably, on account of these doings. But his own countrymen declare
that his madness proceeded not from any supernatural cause whatever, but only
from the habit of drinking wine unmixed with water, which he learnt of the
Scyths. These nomads, from the time that Darius made his inroad into their
country, had always had a wish for revenge. They therefore sent ambassadors to
Sparta to conclude a league, proposing to endeavour themselves to enter Media by
the Phasis, while the Spartans should march inland from Ephesus, and then the
two armies should join together in one. When the Scyths came to Sparta on this
errand Cleomenes was with them continually; and growing somewhat too familiar,
learnt of them to drink his wine without water, a practice which is thought by
the Spartans to have caused his madness. From this distance of time the
Spartans, according to their own account, have been accustomed, when they want
to drink purer wine than common, to give the order to fill “Scythian fashion.”
The Spartans then speak thus concerning Cleomenes; but for my own part I think
his death was a judgment on him for wronging Demaratus.

[6.85] No sooner did the news of Cleomenes’ death reach
Egina than straightway the Eginetans sent ambassadors to Sparta to complain of
the conduct of Leotychides in respect of their hostages, who were still kept at
Athens. So they of Lacedaemon assembled a court of justice and gave sentence
upon Leotychides, that whereas he had grossly affronted the people of Egina, he
should be given up to the ambassadors, to be led away in place of the men whom
the Athenians had in their keeping. Then the ambassadors were about to lead him
away; but Theasides, the son of Leoprepes, who was a man greatly esteemed in
Sparta, interfered, and said to them:-

“What are ye minded to do, ye men of Egina? To lead away
captive the king of the Spartans, whom his countrymen have given into your
hands? Though now in their anger they have passed this sentence, yet belike the
time will come when they will punish you, if you act thus, by bringing utter
destruction upon your country.”

The Eginetans, when they heard this, changed their plan,
and, instead of leading Leotychides away captive, agreed with him that he should
come with them to Athens, and give them back their men.

[6.86] When however he reached that city, and demanded the
restoration of his pledge, the Athenians, being unwilling to comply, proceeded
to make excuses, saying “that two kings had come and left the men with them, and
they did not think it right to give them back to the one without the other.” So
when the Athenians refused plainly to restore the men, Leotychides said to
them:-

“Men of Athens, act which way you choose – give me up the
hostages, and be righteous, or keep them, and be the contrary. I wish, however,
to tell you what happened once in Sparta about a pledge. The story goes among us
that three generations back there lived in Lacedaemon one Glaucus, the son of
Epicydes, a man who in every other respect was on a par with the first in the
kingdom, and whose character for justice was such as to place him above all the
other Spartans. Now to this man at the appointed season the following events
happened. A certain Milesian came to Sparta and, having desired to speak with
him, said – ‘I am of Miletus, and I have come hither, Glaucus, in the hope of
profiting by thy honesty. For when I heard much talk thereof in Ionia and
through all the rest of Greece, and when I observed that whereas Ionia is always
insecure, the Peloponnese stands firm and unshaken, and noted likewise how
wealth is continually changing hands in our country, I took counsel with myself
and resolved to turn one-half of my substance into money, and place it in thy
hands, since I am well assured that it will be safe in thy keeping. Here then is
the silver – take it – and take likewise these tallies, and be careful of them;
remember thou art to give back the money to the person who shall bring you their
fellows.’ Such were the words of the Milesian stranger; and Glaucus took the
deposit on the terms expressed to him. Many years had gone by when the sons of
the man by whom the money was left came to Sparta, and had an interview with
Glaucus, whereat they produced the tallies, and asked to have the money returned
to them. But Glaucus sought to refuse, and answered them: ‘I have no
recollection of the matter; nor can I bring to mind any of those particulars
whereof ye speak. When I remember, I will certainly do what is just. If I had
the money, you have a right to receive it back; but if it was never given to me,
I shall put the Greek law in force against you. For the present I give you no
answer; but four months hence I will settle the business.’ So the Milesians went
away sorrowful, considering that their money was utterly lost to them. As for
Glaucus, he made a journey to Delphi, and there consulted the oracle. To his
question if he should swear, and so make prize of the money, the Pythoness
returned for answer these lines following:-

Best for the present it were, O Glaucus, to do as thou
wishest,
Swearing an oath to prevail, and so to make prize of the money.
Swear then – death is the lot e’en of those who never swear falsely.
Yet hath the Oath-God a son who is nameless, footless, and handless;
Mighty in strength he approaches to vengeance, and whelms in destruction,
All who belong to the race, or the house of the man who is perjured.
But oath-keeping men leave behind them a flourishing offspring.

Glaucus when he heard these words earnestly besought the
god to pardon his question; but the Pythoness replied that it was as bad to have
tempted the god as it would have been to have done the deed. Glaucus, however,
sent for the Milesian strangers, and gave them back their money. And now I will
tell you, Athenians, what my purpose has been in recounting to you this history.
Glaucus at the present time has not a single descendant; nor is there any family
known as his – root and branch has he been removed from Sparta. It is a good
thing, therefore, when a pledge has been left with one, not even in thought to
doubt about restoring it.”

Thus spake Leotychides; but, as he found that the Athenians
would not hearken to him, he left them and went his way.

[6.87] The Eginetans had never been punished for the wrongs
which, to pleasure the Thebans, they had committed upon Athens. Now, however,
conceiving that they were themselves wronged, and had a fair ground of complaint
against the Athenians, they instantly prepared to revenge themselves. As it
chanced that the Athenian theoris, which was a vessel of five banks of oars, lay
at Sunium, the Eginetans contrived an ambush, and made themselves masters of the
holy vessel, on board of which were a number of Athenians of the highest rank,
whom they took and threw into prison.

[6.88] At this outrage the Athenians no longer delayed, but
set to work to scheme their worst against the Eginetans; and, as there was in
Egina at that time a man of mark, Nicodromus by name, the son of Cnoethus, who
was on ill terms with his countrymen because on a former occasion they had
driven him into banishment, they listened to overtures from this man, who had
heard how determined they were to do the Eginetans a mischief, and agreed with
him that on a certain day he should be ready to betray the island into their
hands, and they would come with a body of troops to his assistance. And
Nicodromus, some time after, holding to the agreement, made himself master of
what is called the old town.

[6.89] The Athenians, however, did not come to the day; for
their own fleet was not of force sufficient to engage the Eginetans, and while
they were begging the Corinthians to lend them some ships, the failure of the
enterprise took place. In those days the Corinthians were on the best of terms
with the Athenians; and accordingly they now yielded to their request, and
furnished them with twenty ships; but, as their law did not allow the ships to
be given for nothing, they sold them to the Athenians for five drachms apiece.
As soon then as the Athenians had obtained this aid, and, by manning also their
own ships, had equipped a fleet of seventy sail, they crossed over to Egina, but
arrived a day later than the time agreed upon.

[6.90] Meanwhile Nicodromus, when he found the Athenians
did not come to the time appointed, took ship and made his escape from the
island. The Eginetans who accompanied him were settled by the Athenians at
Sunium, whence they were wont to issue forth and plunder the Eginetans of the
island. But this took place at a later date.

[6.91] When the wealthier Eginetans had thus obtained the
victory over the common people who had revolted with Nicodromus, they laid hands
on a certain number of them, and led them out to death. But here they were
guilty of a sacrilege, which, notwithstanding all their efforts, they were never
able to atone, being driven from the island before they had appeased the goddess
whom they now provoked. Seven hundred of the common people had fallen alive into
their hands; and they were all being led out to death, when one of them escaped
from his chains, and flying to the gateway of the temple of Ceres the Lawgiver,
laid hold of the doorhandles, and clung to them. The others sought to drag him
from his refuge; but, finding themselves unable to tear him away, they cut off
his hands, and so took him, leaving the hands still tightly grasping the
handles.

[6.92] Such were the doings of the Eginetans among
themselves. When the Athenians arrived, they went out to meet them with seventy
ships; and a battle took place, wherein the Eginetans suffered a defeat.
Hereupon they had recourse again to their old allies, the Argives; but these
latter refused now to lend them any aid, being angry because some Eginetan
ships, which Cleomenes had taken by force, accompanied him in his invasion of
Argolis, and joined in the disembarkation. The same thing had happened at the
same time With certain vessels of the Sicyonians; and the Argives had laid a
fine of a thousand talents upon the misdoers, five hundred upon each: whereupon
they of Sicyon acknowledged themselves to have sinned, and agreed with the
Argives to pay them a hundred talents, and so be quit of the debt; but the
Eginetans would make no acknowledgment at all, and showed themselves proud and
stiffnecked. For this reason, when they now prayed the Argives for aid, the
state refused to send them a single soldier. Notwithstanding, volunteers joined
them from Argos to the number of a thousand, under a captain, Eurybates, a man
skilled in the pentathlic contests. Of these men the greater part never
returned, but were slain by the Athenians in Egina. Eurybates, their captain,
fought a number of single combats, and, after killing three men in this way, was
himself slain by the fourth, who was a Decelean, named Sophanes.

[6.93] Afterwards the Eginetans fell upon the Athenian
fleet when it was in some disorder and beat it, capturing four ships with their
crews.

[6.94] Thus did war rage between the Eginetans and
Athenians. Meantime the Persian pursued his own design, from day to day exhorted
by his servant to “remember the Athenians,” and likewise urged continually by
the Pisistratidae, who were ever accusing their countrymen. Moreover it pleased
him well to have a pretext for carrying war into Greece, that so he might reduce
all those who had refused to give him earth and water. As for Mardonius, since
his expedition had succeeded so ill, Darius took the command of the troops from
him, and appointed other generals in his stead, who were to lead the host
against Eretria and Athens; to wit, Datis, who was by descent a Mede, and
Artaphernes, the son of Artaphernes, his own nephew. These men received orders
to carry Athens and Eretria away captive, and to bring the prisoners into his
presence.

[6.95] So the new commanders took their departure from the
court and went down to Cilicia, to the Aleian plain, having with them a numerous
and wellappointed land army. Encamping here, they were joined by the sea force
which had been required of the several states, and at the same time by the
horsetransports which Darius had, the year before, commanded his tributaries to
make ready. Aboard these the horses were embarked; and the troops were received
by the ships of war; after which the whole fleet, amounting in all to six
hundred triremes, made sail for Ionia. Thence, instead of proceeding with a
straight course along the shore to the Hellespont and to Thrace, they loosed
from Samos and voyaged across the Icarian sea through the midst of the islands;
mainly, as I believe, because they feared the danger of doubling Mount Athos,
where the year before they had suffered so grievously on their passage; but a
constraining cause also was their former failure to take Naxos.

[6.96] When the Persians, therefore, approaching from the
Icarian Sea, cast anchor at Naxos, which, recollecting what there befell them
formerly, they had determined to attack before any other state, the Naxians,
instead of encountering them, took to flight, and hurried off to the hills. The
Persians however succeeded in laying hands on some, and them they carried away
captive, while at the same time they burnt all the temples together with the
town. This done, they left Naxos, and sailed away to the other islands.

[6.97] While the Persians were thus employed, the Delians
likewise quitted Delos, and took refuge in Tenos. And now the expedition drew
near, when Datis sailed forward in advance of the other ships; commanding them,
instead of anchoring at Delos, to rendezvous at Rhenea, over against Delos,
while he himself proceeded to discover whither the Delians had fled; after which
he sent a herald to them with this message:

“Why are ye fled, O holy men? Why have ye judged me so
harshly and so wrongfully? I have surely sense enough, even had not the king so
ordered, to spare the country which gave birth to the two gods – to spare, I
say, both the country and its inhabitants. Come back therefore to your
dwellings; and once more inhabit your island.”

Such was the message which Datis sent by his herald to the
Delians. He likewise placed upon the altar three hundred talents’ weight of
frankincense, and offered it.

[6.98] After this he sailed with his whole host against
Eretria, taking with him both Ionians and Aeolians. When he was departed, Delos
(as the Delians told me) was shaken by an earthquake, the first and last shock
that has been felt to this day. And truly this was a prodigy whereby the god
warned men of the evils that were coming upon them. For in the three following
generations of Darius the son of Hystaspes, Xerxes the son of Darius, and
Artaxerxes the son of Xerxes, more woes befell Greece than in the twenty
generations preceding Darius – woes caused in part by the Persians, but in part
arising from the contentions among their own chief men respecting the supreme
power. Wherefore it is not surprising that Delos, though it had never before
been shaken, should at that time have felt the shock of an earthquake. And
indeed there was an oracle, which said of Delos –

Delos’ self will I shake, which never yet has been shaken

Of the above names Darius may be rendered “Worker,” Xerxes
“Warrior,” and Artaxerxes “Great Warrior.” And so might we call these kings in
our own language with propriety.

[6.99] The barbarians, after loosing from Delos, proceeded
to touch at the other islands, and took troops from each, and likewise carried
off a number of the children as hostages. Going thus from one to another, they
came at last to Carystus; but here the hostages were refused by the Carystians,
who said they would neither give any, nor consent to bear arms against the
cities of their neighbours, meaning Athens and Eretria. Hereupon the Persians
laid siege to Carystus, and wasted the country round, until at length the
inhabitants were brought over and agreed to do what was required of them.

[6.100] Meanwhile the Eretrians, understanding that the
Persian armament was coming against them, besought the Athenians for assistance.
Nor did the Athenians refuse their aid, but assigned to them as auxiliaries the
four thousand landholders to whom they had allotted the estates of the
Chalcidean Hippobatae. At Eretria, however, things were in no healthy state; for
though they had called in the aid of the Athenians, yet they were not agreed
among themselves how they should act; some of them were minded to leave the city
and to take refuge in the heights of Euboea, while others, who looked to
receiving a reward from the Persians, were making ready to betray their country.
So when these things came to the ears of Aeschines, the son of Nothon, one of
the first men in Eretria, he made known the whole state of affairs to the
Athenians who were already arrived, and besought them to return home to their
own land, and not perish with his countrymen. And the Athenians hearkened to his
counsel, and, crossing over to Oropus, in this way escaped the danger.

[6.101] The Persian fleet now drew near and anchored at
Tamynae, Choereae, and Aegilia, three places in the territory of Eretria. Once
masters of these posts, they proceeded forthwith to disembark their horses, and
made ready to attack the enemy. But the Eretrians were not minded to sally forth
and offer battle; their only care, after it had been resolved not to quit the
city, was, if possible, to defend their walls. And now the fortress was
assaulted in good earnest, and for six days there fell on both sides vast
numbers, but on the seventh day Euphorbus, the son of Alcimachus, and Philagrus,
the son of Cyneas, who were both citizens of good repute, betrayed the place to
the Persians. These were no sooner entered within the walls than they plundered
and burnt all the temples that there were in the town, in revenge for the
burning of their own temples at Sardis; moreover, they did according to the
orders of Darius, and carried away captive all the inhabitants.

[6.102] The Persians, having thus brought Eretria into
subjection after waiting a few days, made sail for Attica, greatly straitening
the Athenians as they approached, and thinking to deal with them as they had
dealt with the people of Eretria. And, because there was no Place in all Attica
so convenient for their horse as Marathon, and it lay moreover quite close to
Eretria, therefore Hippias, the son of Pisistratus, conducted them thither.

[6.103] When intelligence of this reached the Athenians,
they likewise marched their troops to Marathon, and there stood on the
defensive, having at their head ten generals, of whom one was Miltiades.

Now this man’s father, Cimon, the son of Stesagoras, was
banished from Athens by Pisistratus, the son of Hippocrates. In his banishment
it was his fortune to win the four-horse chariot-race at Olympia, whereby he
gained the very same honour which had before been carried off by Miltiades, his
half-brother on the mother’s side. At the next Olympiad he won the prize again
with the same mares; upon which he caused Pisistratus to be proclaimed the
winner, having made an agreement with him that on yielding him this honour he
should be allowed to come back to his country. Afterwards, still with the same
mares, he won the prize a third time; whereupon he was put to death by the sons
of Pisistratus, whose father was no longer living. They set men to lie in wait
for him secretly; and these men slew him near the government-house in the
night-time. He was buried outside the city, beyond what is called the Valley
Road; and right opposite his tomb were buried the mares which had won the three
prizes. The same success had likewise been achieved once previously, to wit, by
the mares of Evagoras the Lacedaemonian, but never except by them. At the time
of Cimon’s death Stesagoras, the elder of his two sons, was in the Chersonese,
where he lived with Miltiades his uncle; the younger, who was called Miltiades
after the founder of the Chersonesite colony, was with his father in Athens.

[6.104] It was this Miltiades who now commanded the
Athenians, after escaping from the Chersonese, and twice nearly losing his life.
First he was chased as far as Imbrus by the Phoenicians, who had a great desire
to take him and carry him up to the king; and when he had avoided this danger,
and, having reached his own country, thought himself to be altogether in safety,
he found his enemies waiting for him, and was cited by them before a court and
impeached for his tyranny in the Chersonese. But he came off victorious here
likewise, and was thereupon made general of the Athenians by the free choice of
the people.

[6.105] And first, before they left the city, the generals
sent off to Sparta a herald, one Pheidippides, who was by birth an Athenian, and
by profession and practice a trained runner. This man, according to the account
which he gave to the Athenians on his return, when he was near Mount Parthenium,
above Tegea, fell in with the god Pan, who called him by his name, and bade him
ask the Athenians “wherefore they neglected him so entirely, when he was kindly
disposed towards them, and had often helped them in times past, and would do so
again in time to come?” The Athenians, entirely believing in the truth of this
report, as soon as their affairs were once more in good order, set up a temple
to Pan under the Acropolis, and, in return for the message which I have
recorded, established in his honour yearly sacrifices and a torch-race.

[6.106] On the occasion of which we speak when Pheidippides
was sent by the Athenian generals, and, according to his own account, saw Pan on
his journey, he reached Sparta on the very next day after quitting the city of
Athens – Upon his arrival he went before the rulers, and said to them:-

“Men of Lacedaemon, the Athenians beseech you to hasten to
their aid, and not allow that state, which is the most ancient in all Greece, to
be enslaved by the barbarians. Eretria, look you, is already carried away
captive; and Greece weakened by the loss of no mean city.”

Thus did Pheidippides deliver the message committed to him.
And the Spartans wished to help the Athenians, but were unable to give them any
present succour, as they did not like to break their established law. It was
then the ninth day of the first decade; and they could not march out of Sparta
on the ninth, when the moon had not reached the full. So they waited for the
full of the moon.

[6.107] The barbarians were conducted to Marathon by
Hippias. the son of Pisistratus, who the night before had seen a strange vision
in his sleep. He dreamt of lying in his mother’s arms, and conjectured the dream
to mean that he would be restored to Athens, recover the power which he had
lost, and afterwards live to a good old age in his native country. Such was the
sense in which he interpreted the vision. He now proceeded to act as guide to
the Persians; and, in the first place, he landed the prisoners taken from
Eretria upon the island that is called Aegileia, a tract belonging to the
Styreans, after which he brought the fleet to anchor off Marathon, and
marshalled the bands of the barbarians as they disembarked. As he was thus
employed it chanced that he sneezed and at the same time coughed with more
violence than was his wont. Now, as he was a man advanced in years, and the
greater number of his teeth were loose, it so happened that one of them was
driven out with the force of the cough, and fell down into the sand. Hippias
took all the pains he could to find it; but the tooth was nowhere to be seen:
whereupon he fetched a deep sigh, and said to the bystanders:-

“After all, the land is not ours; and we shall never be
able to bring it under. All my share in it is the portion of which my tooth has
possession.”

So Hippias believed that in this way his dream was
fulfilled.

[6.108] The Athenians were drawn up in order of battle in a
sacred close belonging to Hercules, when they were joined by the Plataeans, who
came in full force to their aid. Some time before, the Plataeans had put
themselves under the rule of the Athenians; and these last had already
undertaken many labours on their behalf. The occasion of the surrender was the
following. The Plataeans suffered grievous things at the hands of the men of
Thebes; so, as it chanced that Cleomenes, the son of Anaxandridas, and the
Lacedaemonians were in their neighbourhood, they first of all offered to
surrender themselves to them. But the Lacedaemonians refused to receive them,
and said:-

“We dwell too far off from you, and ours would be but chill
succour. Ye might oftentimes be carried into slavery before one of us heard of
it. We counsel you rather to give yourselves up to the Athenians, who are your
next neighbours, and well able to shelter you.”

This they said, not so much out of good will towards the
Plataeans as because they wished to involve the Athenians in trouble by engaging
them in wars with the Boeotians. The Plataeans, however, when the Lacedaemonians
gave them this counsel, complied at once; and when the sacrifice to the Twelve
Gods was being offered at Athens, they came and sat as suppliants about the
altar, and gave themselves up to the Athenians. The Thebans no sooner learnt
what the Plataeans had done than instantly they marched out against them, while
the Athenians sent troops to their aid. As the two armies were about to join
battle, the Corinthians, who chanced to be at hand, would not allow them to
engage; both sides consented to take them for arbitrators, whereupon they made
up the quarrel, and fixed the boundary-line between the two states upon this
condition: to wit, that if any of the Boeotians wished no longer to belong to
Boeotia, the Thebans should allow them to follow their own inclinations. The
Corinthians, when they had thus decreed, forthwith departed to their homes: the
Athenians likewise set off on their return; but the Boeotians fell upon them
during the march, and a battle was fought wherein they were worsted by the
Athenians. Hereupon these last would not be bound by the line which the
Corinthians had fixed, but advanced beyond those limits, and made the Asopus the
boundary-line between the country of the Thebans and that of the Plataeans and
Hysians. Under such circumstances did the Plataeans give themselves up to
Athens; and now they were come to Marathon to bear the Athenians aid.

[6.109] The Athenian generals were divided in their
opinions; and some advised not to risk a battle, because they were too few to
engage such a host as that of the Medes, while others were for fighting at once;
and among these last was Miltiades. He therefore, seeing that opinions were thus
divided, and that the less worthy counsel appeared likely to prevail, resolved
to go to the Polemarch, and have a conference with him. For the man on whom the
lot fell to be Polemarch at Athens was entitled to give his vote with the ten
generals, since anciently the Athenians allowed him an equal right of voting
with them. The Polemarch at this juncture was Callimachus of Aphidnae; to him
therefore Miltiades went, and said:-

“With thee it rests, Callimachus, either to bring Athens to
slavery, or, by securing her freedom, to leave behind thee to all future
generations a memory beyond even Harmodius and Aristogeiton. For never since the
time that the Athenians became a people were they in so great a danger as now.
If they bow their necks beneath the yoke of the Medes, the woes which they will
have to suffer when given into the power of Hippias are already determined on;
if, on the other hand, they fight and overcome, Athens may rise to be the very
first city in Greece. How it comes to pass that these things are likely to
happen, and how the determining of them in some sort rests with thee, I will now
proceed to make clear. We generals are ten in number, and our votes are divided;
half of us wish to engage, half to avoid a combat. Now, if we do not fight, I
look to see a great disturbance at Athens which will shake men’s resolutions,
and then I fear they will submit themselves; but if we fight the battle before
any unsoundness show itself among our citizens, let the gods but give us fair
play, and we are well able to overcome the enemy. On thee therefore we depend in
this matter, which lies wholly in thine own power. Thou hast only to add thy
vote to my side and thy country will be free, and not free only, but the first
state in Greece. Or, if thou preferrest to give thy vote to them who would
decline the combat, then the reverse will follow.”

[6.110] Miltiades by these words gained Callimachus; and
the addition of the Polemarch’s vote caused the decision to be in favour of
fighting. Hereupon all those generals who had been desirous of hazarding a
battle, when their turn came to command the army, gave up their right to
Miltiades. He however, though he accepted their offers, nevertheless waited, and
would not fight until his own day of command arrived in due course.

[6.111] Then at length, when his own turn was come, the
Athenian battle was set in array, and this was the order of it. Callimachus the
Polemarch led the right wing; for it was at that time a rule with the Athenians
to give the right wing to the Polemarch. After this followed the tribes,
according as they were numbered, in an unbroken line; while last of all came the
Plataeans, forming the left wing. And ever since that day it has been a custom
with the Athenians, in the sacrifices and assemblies held each fifth year at
Athens, for the Athenian herald to implore the blessing of the gods on the
Plataeans conjointly with the Athenians. Now, as they marshalled the host upon
the field of Marathon, in order that the Athenian front might he of equal length
with the Median, the ranks of the centre were diminished, and it became the
weakest part of the line, while the wings were both made strong with a depth of
many ranks.

[6.112] So when the battle was set in array, and the
victims showed themselves favourable, instantly the Athenians, so soon as they
were let go, charged the barbarians at a run. Now the distance between the two
armies was little short of eight furlongs. The Persians, therefore, when they
saw the Greeks coming on at speed, made ready to receive them, although it
seemed to them that the Athenians were bereft of their senses, and bent upon
their own destruction; for they saw a mere handful of men coming on at a run
without either horsemen or archers. Such was the opinion of the barbarians; but
the Athenians in close array fell upon them, and fought in a manner worthy of
being recorded. They were the first of the Greeks, so far as I know, who
introduced the custom of charging the enemy at a run, and they were likewise the
first who dared to look upon the Median garb, and to face men clad in that
fashion. Until this time the very name of the Medes had been a terror to the
Greeks to hear.

[6.113] The two armies fought together on the plain of
Marathon for a length of time; and in the mid battle, where the Persians
themselves and the Sacae had their place, the barbarians were victorious, and
broke and pursued the Greeks into the inner country; but on the two wings the
Athenians and the Plataeans defeated the enemy. Having so done, they suffered
the routed barbarians to fly at their ease, and joining the two wings in one,
fell upon those who had broken their own centre, and fought and conquered them.
These likewise fled, and now the Athenians hung upon the runaways and cut them
down, chasing them all the way to the shore, on reaching which they laid hold of
the ships and called aloud for fire.

[6.114] It was in the struggle here that Callimachus the
Polemarch, after greatly distinguishing himself, lost his life; Stesilaus too,
the son of Thrasilaus, one of the generals, was slain; and Cynaegirus, the son
of Euphorion, having seized on a vessel of the enemy’s by the ornament at the
stern, had his hand cut off by the blow of an axe, and so perished; as likewise
did many other Athenians of note and name.

[6.115] Nevertheless the Athenians secured in this way
seven of the vessels; while with the remainder the barbarians pushed off, and
taking aboard their Eretrian prisoners from the island where they had left them,
doubled Cape Sunium, hoping to reach Athens before the return of the Athenians.
The Alcmaeonidae were accused by their countrymen of suggesting this course to
them; they had, it was said, an understanding with the Persians, and made a
signal to them, by raising a shield, after they were embarked in their ships.

[6.116] The Persians accordingly sailed round Sunium. But
the Athenians with all possible speed marched away to the defence of their city,
and succeeded in reaching Athens before the appearance of the barbarians: and as
their camp at Marathon had been pitched in a precinct of Hercules, so now they
encamped in another precinct of the same god at Cynosarges. The barbarian fleet
arrived, and lay to off Phalerum, which was at that time the haven of Athens;
but after resting awhile upon their oars, they departed and sailed away to Asia.

[6.117] There fell in this battle of Marathon, on the side
of the barbarians, about six thousand and four hundred men; on that of the
Athenians, one hundred and ninety-two. Such was the number of the slain on the
one side and the other. A strange prodigy likewise happened at this fight.
Epizelus, the son of Cuphagoras, an Athenian, was in the thick of the fray, and
behaving himself as a brave man should, when suddenly he was stricken with
blindness, without blow of sword or dart; and this blindness continued
thenceforth during the whole of his after life. The following is the account
which he himself, as I have heard, gave of the matter: he said that a gigantic
warrior, with a huge beard, which shaded all his shield, stood over against him;
but the ghostly semblance passed him by, and slew the man at his side. Such, as
I understand, was the tale which Epizelus told.

[6.118] Datis meanwhile was on his way back to Asia, and
had reached Myconus, when he saw in his sleep a vision. What it was is not
known; but no sooner was day come than he caused strict search to be made
throughout the whole fleet, and finding on board a Phoenician vessel an image of
Apollo overlaid with gold, he inquired from whence it had been taken, and
learning to what temple it belonged, he took it with him in his own ship to
Delos, and placed it in the temple there, enjoining the Delians, who had now
come back to their island, to restore the image to the Theban Delium, which lies
on the coast over against Chalcis. Having left these injunctions, he sailed
away; but the Delians failed to restore the statue; and it was not till twenty
years afterwards that the Thebans, warned by an oracle, themselves brought it
back to Delium.

[6.119] As for the Eretrians, whom Datis and Artaphernes
had carried away captive, when the fleet reached Asia, they were taken up to
Susa. Now King Darius, before they were made his prisoners, nourished a fierce
anger against these men for having injured him without provocation; but now that
he saw them brought into his presence, and become his subjects, he did them no
other harm, but only settled them at one of his own stations in Cissia – a place
called Ardericea – two hundred and ten furlongs distant from Susa, and forty
from the well which yields produce of three different kinds. For from this well
they get bitumen, salt, and oil, procuring it in the way that I will now
describe: they draw with a swipe, and instead of a bucket make use of the half
of a wine-skin; with this the man dips, and after drawing, pours the liquid into
a reservoir, wherefrom it passes into another, and there takes three different
shapes. The salt and the bitumen forthwith collect and harden, while the oil is
drawn off into casks. It is called by the Persians “rhadinace,” is black, and
has an unpleasant smell. Here then King Darius established the Eretrians; and
here they continued to my time, and still spoke their old language. So thus it
fared with the Eretrians.

[6.120] After the full of the moon two thousand
Lacedaemonians came to Athens. So eager had they been to arrive in time, that
they took but three days to reach Attica from Sparta. They came, however, too
late for the battle; yet, as they had a longing to behold the Medes, they
continued their march to Marathon and there viewed the slain. Then, after giving
the Athenians all praise for their achievement, they departed and returned home.

[6.121] But it fills me with wonderment, and I can in no
wise believe the report, that the Alcmaeonidae had an understanding with the
Persians, and held them up a shield as a signal, wishing Athens to be brought
under the yoke of the barbarians and of Hippias – the Alcmaeonidae, who have
shown themselves at least as bitter haters of tyrants as was Callias, the son of
Phaenippus, and father of Hipponicus. This Callias was the only person at Athens
who, when the Pisistratidae were driven out, and their goods were exposed for
sale by the vote of the people, had the courage to make purchases, and likewise
in many other ways to display the strongest hostility.

[6.122] He was a man very worthy to be had in remembrance
by all, on several accounts. For not only did he thus distinguish himself beyond
others in the cause of his country’s freedom; but likewise, by the honours which
he gained at the Olympic Games, where he carried off the prize in the
horse-race, and was second in the four-horse chariot-race, and by his victory at
an earlier period in the Pythian Games, he showed himself in the eyes of all the
Greeks a man most unsparing in his expenditure. He was remarkable too for his
conduct in respect of his daughters, three in number; for when they came to be
of marriageable age, he gave to each of them a most ample dowry, and placed it
at their own disposal, allowing them to choose their husbands from among all the
citizens of Athens, and giving each in marriage to the man of her own choice.

[6.123] Now the Alcmaeonidae fell not a whit short of this
person in their hatred of tyrants, so that I am astonished at the charge made
against them, and cannot bring myself to believe that they held up a shield; for
they were men who had remained in exile during the whole time that the tyranny
lasted, and they even contrived the trick by which the Pisistratidae were
deprived of their throne. Indeed I look upon them as the persons who in good
truth gave Athens her freedom far more than Harmodius and Aristogeiton. For
these last did but exasperate the other Pisistratidae by slaying Hipparchus, and
were far from doing anything towards putting down the tyranny: whereas the
Alcmaeonidae were manifestly the actual deliverers of Athens, if at least it be
true that the Pythoness was prevailed upon by them to bid the Lacedaemonians set
Athens free, as I have already related.

[6.124] But perhaps they were offended with the people of
Athens; and therefore betrayed their country. Nay, but on the contrary there
were none of the Athenians who were held in such general esteem, or who were so
laden with honours. So that it is not even reasonable to suppose that a shield
was held up by them on this account. A shield was shown, no doubt; that cannot
be gainsaid; but who it was that showed it I cannot any further determine.

[6.125] Now the Alcmaeonidae were, even in days of yore, a
family of note at Athens; but from the time of Alcmaeon, and again of Megacles,
they rose to special eminence. The former of these two personages, to wit,
Alcmaeon, the son of Megacles, when Croesus the Lydian sent men from Sardis to
consult the Delphic oracle, gave aid gladly to his messengers, assisted them to
accomplish their task. Croesus, informed of Alcmaeon’s kindnesses by the Lydians
who from time to time conveyed his messages to the god, sent for him to Sardis,
and when he arrived, made him a present of as much gold as he should be able to
carry at one time about his person. Finding that this was the gift assigned him,
Alcmaeon took his measures, and prepared himself to receive it in the following
way. He clothed himself in a loose tunic, which he made to bag greatly at the
waist, and placing upon his feet the widest buskins that he could anywhere find,
followed his guides into the treasure-house. Here he fell to upon a heap of
gold-dust, and in the first place packed as much as he could inside his buskins,
between them and his legs; after which he filled the breast of his tunic quite
full of gold, and then sprinkling some among his hair, and taking some likewise
in his mouth, he came forth from the treasure-house, scarcely able to drag his
legs along, like anything rather than a man, with his mouth crammed full, and
his bulk increased every way. On seeing him, Croesus burst into a laugh, and not
only let him have all that he had taken, but gave him presents besides of fully
equal worth. Thus this house became one of great wealth; and Alcmaeon was able
to keep horses for the chariot-race, and won the prize at Olympia.

[6.126] Afterwards, in the generation which followed,
Clisthenes, king of Sicyon, raised the family to still greater eminence among
the Greeks than even that to which it had attained before. For this Clisthenes,
who was the son of Aristonymus, the grandson of Myron, and the great-grandson of
Andreas, had a daughter, called Agarista, whom he wished to marry to the best
husband that he could find in the whole of Greece. At the Olympic Games,
therefore, having gained the prize in the chariot race, he caused public
proclamation to be made to the following effect:- “Whoever among the Greeks
deems himself worthy to become the son-in-law of Clisthenes, let him come, sixty
days hence, or, if he will, sooner, to Sicyon; for within a year’s time,
counting from the end of the sixty days, Clisthenes will decide on the man to
whom he shall contract his daughter.” So all the Greeks who were proud of their
own merit or of their country flocked to Sicyon as suitors; and Clisthenes had a
foot-course and a wrestling-ground made ready, to try their powers.

[6.127] From Italy there came Smindyrides, the son of
Hippocrates, a native of Sybaris – which city about that time was at the very
height of its prosperity. He was a man who in luxuriousness of living exceeded
all other persons. Likewise there came Damasus, the son of Amyris, surnamed the
Wise, a native of Siris. These two were the only suitors from Italy. From the
Ionian Gulf appeared Amphimnestus, the son of Epistrophus, an Epidamnian; from
Aetolia, Males, the brother of that Titormus who excelled all the Greeks in
strength, and who wishing to avoid his fellow-men, withdrew himself into the
remotest parts of the Aetolian territory. From the Peloponnese came several –
Leocedes, son of that Pheidon, king of the Argives, who established weights and
measures throughout the Peloponnese, and was the most insolent of all the
Grecians – the same who drove out the Elean directors of the Games, and himself
presided over the contests at Olympia – Leocedes, I say, appeared, this
Pheidon’s son; and likewise Amiantus, son of Lycurgus, an Arcadian of the city
of Trapezus; Laphanes, an Azenian of Paeus, whose father, Euphorion, as the
story goes in Arcadia, entertained the Dioscuri at his residence, and
thenceforth kept open house for all comers; and lastly, Onomastus, the son of
Agaeus, a native of Elis. These four came from the Peloponnese. From Athens
there arrived Megacles, the son of that Alcmaeon who visited Croesus, and
Tisander’s son, Hippoclides, the wealthiest and handsomest of the Athenians.
There was likewise one Euboean, Lysanias, who came from Eretria, then a
flourishing city. From Thessaly came Diactorides, a Cranonian, of the race of
the Scopadae; and Alcon arrived from the Molossians. This was the list of the
suitors.

[6.128] Now when they were all come, and the day appointed
had arrived, Clisthenes first of all inquired of each concerning his country and
his family; after which he kept them with him a year, and made trial of their
manly bearing, their temper, their accomplishments, and their disposition,
sometimes drawing them apart for converse, sometimes bringing them all together.
Such as were still youths he took with him from time to time to the gymnasia;
but the greatest trial of all was at the banquettable. During the whole period
of their stay he lived with them as I have said; and, further, from first to
last he entertained them sumptuously. Somehow or other the suitors who came from
Athens pleased him the best of all; and of these Hippoclides, Tisander’s son,
was specially in favour, partly on account of his manly bearing, and partly also
because his ancestors were of kin to the Corinthian Cypselids.

[6.129] When at length the day arrived which had been fixed
for the espousals, and Clisthenes had to speak out and declare his choice, he
first of all made a sacrifice of a hundred oxen, and held a banquet, whereat he
entertained all the suitors and the whole people of Sicyon. After the feast was
ended, the suitors vied with each other in music and in speaking on a given
subject. Presently, as the drinking advanced, Hippoclides, who quite
dumbfoundered the rest, called aloud to the flute-player, and bade him strike up
a dance; which the man did, and Hippoclides danced to it. And he fancied that he
was dancing excellently well; but Clisthenes, who was observing him, began to
misdoubt the whole business. Then Hippoclides, after a pause, told an attendant
to bring in a table; and when it was brought, he mounted upon it and danced
first of all some Laconian figures, then some Attic ones; after which he stood
on his head upon the table, and began to toss his legs about. Clisthenes,
notwithstanding that he now loathed Hippoclides for a son-in-law, by reason of
his dancing and his shamelessness, still, as he wished to avoid an outbreak, had
restrained himself during the first and likewise during the second dance; when,
however, he saw him tossing his legs in the air, he could no longer contain
himself, but cried out, “Son of Tisander, thou hast danced thy wife away!” “What
does Hippoclides care?” was the other’s answer. And hence the proverb arose.

[6.130] Then Clisthenes commanded silence, and spake thus
before the assembled company:-

“Suitors of my daughter, well pleased am I with you all;
and right willingly, if it were possible, would I content you all, and not by
making choice of one appear to put a slight upon the rest. But as it is out of
my power, seeing that I have but one daughter, to grant to all their wishes, I
will present to each of you whom I must needs dismiss a talent of silver, for
the honour that you have done me in seeking to ally yourselves with my house,
and for your long absence from your homes. But my daughter, Agarista, I betroth
to Megacles, the son of Alcmaeon, to be his wife, according to the usage and
wont of Athens.”

Then Megacles expressed his readiness; and Clisthenes had
the marriage solemnised.

[6.131] Thus ended the affair of the suitors; and thus the
Alcmaeonidae came to be famous throughout the whole of Greece. The issue of this
marriage was the Clisthenes named after his grandfather the Sicyonian – who made
the tribes at Athens, and set up the popular government. Megacles had likewise
another son, called Hippocrates, whose children were a Megacles and an Agarista,
the latter named after Agarista the daughter of Clisthenes. She married
Xanthippus, the son of Ariphron; and when she was with child by him had a dream,
wherein she fancied that she was delivered of a lion; after which, within a few
days, she bore Xanthippus a son, to wit, Pericles.

[6.132] After the blow struck at Marathon, Miltiades, who
was previously held in high esteem by his countrymen, increased yet more in
influence. Hence, when he told them that he wanted a fleet of seventy ships,
with an armed force, and money, without informing them what country he was going
to attack, but only promising to enrich them if they would accompany him, seeing
that it was a right wealthy land, where they might easily get as much gold as
they cared to have – when he told them this, they were quite carried away, and
gave him the whole armament which he required.

[6.133] So Miltiades, having got the armament, sailed
against Paros, with the object, as he alleged, of punishing the Parians for
having gone to war with Athens, inasmuch as a trireme of theirs had come with
the Persian fleet to Marathon. This, however, was a mere pretence; the truth
was, that Miltiades owed the Parians a grudge, because Lysagoras, the son of
Tisias, who was a Parian by birth, had told tales against him to Hydarnes the
Persian. Arrived before the place against which his expedition was designed, he
drove the Parians within their walls, and forthwith laid siege to the city. At
the same time he sent a herald to the inhabitants, and required of them a
hundred talents, threatening that, if they refused, he would press the siege,
and never give it over till the town was taken. But the Parians, without giving
his demand a thought, proceeded to use every means that they could devise for
the defence of their city, and even invented new plans for the purpose, one of
which was, by working at night, to raise such parts of the wall as were likely
to be carried by assault to double their former height.

[6.134] Thus far all the Greeks agree in their accounts of
this business; what follows is related upon the testimony of the Parians only.
Miltiades had come to his wit’s end, when one of the prisoners, a woman named
Timo, who was by birth a Parian, and had held the office of under-priestess in
the temple of the infernal goddesses, came and conferred with him. This woman,
they say, being introduced into the presence of Miltiades, advised him, if he
set great store by the capture of the place, to do something which she could
suggest to him. When therefore she had told him what it was she meant, he betook
himself to the hill which lies in front of the city, and there leapt the fence
enclosing the precinct of Ceres Thesmophorus, since he was not able to open the
door. After leaping into the place he went straight to the sanctuary, intending
to do something within it – either to remove some of the holy things which it
was not lawful to stir, or to perform some act or other, I cannot say what – and
had just reached the door, when suddenly a feeling of horror came upon him, and
he returned back the way he had come; but in jumping down from the outer wall,
he strained his thigh, or, as some say, struck the ground with his knee.

[6.135] So Miltiades returned home sick, without bringing
the Athenians any money, and without conquering Paros, having done no more than
to besiege the town for six-and-twenty days, and ravage the remainder of the
island. The Parians, however, when it came to their knowledge that Timo, the
under-priestess of the goddesses, had advised Miltiades what he should do, were
minded to punish her for her crime; they therefore sent messengers to Delphi, as
soon as the siege was at an end, and asked the god if they should put the
under-priestess to death. “She had discovered,” they said, “to the enemies of
her country how they might bring it into subjection, and had exhibited to
Miltiades mysteries which it was not lawful for a man to know.” But the
Pythoness forbade them, and said, “Timo was not in fault; ’twas decreed that
Miltiades should come to an unhappy end; and she was sent to lure him to his
destruction.” Such was the answer given to the Parians by the Pythoness.

[6.136] The Athenians, upon the return of Miltiades from
Paros, had much debate concerning him; and Xanthippus, the son of Ariphron, who
spoke more freely against him than all the rest, impleaded him before the
people, and brought him to trial for his life, on the charge of having dealt
deceitfully with the Athenians. Miltiades, though he was present in court, did
not speak in his own defence; for his thigh had begun to mortify, and disabled
him from pleading his cause. He was forced to lie on a couch while his defence
was made by his friends, who dwelt at most length on the fight at Marathon,
while they made mention also of the capture of Lemnos, telling how Miltiades
took the island, and, after executing vengeance on the Pelasgians, gave up his
conquest to Athens. The judgment of the people was in his favour so far as to
spare his life; but for the wrong he had done them they fined him fifty talents.
Soon afterwards his thigh completely gangrened and mortified: and so Miltiades
died; and the fifty talents were paid by his son Cimon.

[6.137] Now the way in which Miltiades had made himself
master of Lemnos was the following. There were certain Pelasgians whom the
Athenians once drove out of Attica; whether they did it – justly or unjustly I
cannot say, since I only know what is reported concerning it, which is the
following: Hecataeus, the son of Hegesander, says in his History that it was
unjustly. “The Athenians,” according to him, “had given to the Pelasgi a tract
of land at the foot of Hymettus as payment for the wall with which the
Pelasgians had surrounded their citadel. This land was barren, and little worth
at the time; but the Pelasgians brought it into good condition; whereupon the
Athenians begrudged them the tract, and desired to recover it. And so, without
any better excuse, they took arms and drove out the Pelasgians.” But the
Athenians maintain that they were justified in what they did. “The Pelasgians,”
they say, “while they lived at the foot of Hymettus, were wont to sally forth
from that region and commit outrages on their children. For the Athenians used
at that time to send their sons and daughters to draw water at the fountain
called ‘the Nine Springs,’ inasmuch as neither they nor the other Greeks had any
household slaves in those days; and the maidens, whenever they came, were used
rudely and insolently by the Pelasgians. Nor were they even content thus; but at
the last they laid a plot, and were caught by the Athenians in the act of making
an attempt upon their city. Then did the Athenians give a proof how much better
men they were than the Pelasgians; for whereas they might justly have killed
them all, having caught them in the very act of rebelling, the; spared their
lives, and only required that they should leave the country. Hereupon the
Pelasgians quitted Attica, and settled in Lemnos and other places.” Such are the
accounts respectively of Hecataeus and the Athenians.

[6.138] These same Pelasgians, after they were settled in
Lemnos, conceived the wish to be revenged on the Athenians. So, as they were
well acquainted with the Athenian festivals, they manned some penteconters, and
having laid an ambush to catch the Athenian women as they kept the festival of
Diana at Brauron, they succeeded in carrying off a large number, whom they took
to Lemnos and there kept as concubines. After a while the women bore children,
whom they taught to speak the language of Attica and observe the manners of the
Athenians. These boys refused to have any commerce with the sons of the
Pelasgian women; and if a Pelasgian boy struck one of their number, they all
made common cause, and joined in avenging their comrade; nay, the Greek boys
even set up a claim to exercise lordship over the others, and succeeded in
gaining the upper hand. When these things came to the ears of the Pelasgians,
they took counsel together, and, on considering the matter, they grew
frightened, and said one to another, “If these boys even now are resolved to
make common cause against the sons of our lawful wives, and seek to exercise
lordship over them, what may we expect when they grow up to be men?” Then it
seemed good to the Pelasgians to kill all the sons of the Attic women; which
they did accordingly, and at the same time slew likewise their mothers. From
this deed, and that former crime of the Lemnian women, when they slew their
husbands in the days of Thoas, it has come to be usual throughout Greece to call
wicked actions by the name of “Lemnian deeds.”

[6.139] When the Pelasgians had thus slain their children
and their women, the earth refused to bring forth its fruits for them, and their
wives bore fewer children, and their flocks and herds increased more slowly than
before, till at last, sore pressed by famine and bereavement, they sent men to
Delphi, and begged the god to tell them how they might obtain deliverance from
their sufferings. The Pythoness answered that “they must give the Athenians
whatever satisfaction they might demand.” Then the Pelasgians went to Athens and
declared their wish to give the Athenians satisfaction for the wrong which they
had done to them. So the Athenians had a couch prepared in their townhall, and
adorned it with the fairest coverlets, and set by its side a table laden with
all manner of good things, and then told the Pelasgians they must deliver up
their country to them in a similar condition. The Pelasgians answered and said,
“When a ship comes with a north wind from your country to ours in a single day,
then will we give it up to you.” This they said because they knew that what they
required was impossible, for Attica lies a long way to the south of Lemnos.

[6.140] No more passed at that time. But very many years
afterwards, when the Hellespontian Chersonese had been brought under the power
of Athens, Miltiades, the son of Cimon, sailed, during the prevalence of the
Etesian winds, from Elaeus in the Chersonese to Lemnos, and called on the
Pelasgians to quit their island, reminding them of the prophecy which they had
supposed it impossible to fulfil. The people of Hephaestia obeyed the call; but
they of Myrina, not acknowledging the Chersonese to be any part of Attica,
refused and were besieged and brought over by force. Thus was Lemnos gained by
the Athenians and Miltiades.