20. The captains read the letter, and, finding who the traitor was, nevertheless resolved, out of regard for the city of Scione, that as they did not wish the Scionaeans to be thenceforth branded with the name of traitors, they would not bring any charge of treachery against him.
21. After Artabazus had continued the siege for three months, it happened that there was an unusual ebb of the tide, which lasted a long time.
22. When the barbarians saw that what had been sea was now no more than a swamp, they determined to push across it into Palline.
23. When the troops had already made two-fifths of their passage, and three-fifths still remained before they could reach Palline, the tide came in with a very high flood.
24. All who were not able to swim perished immediately; the rest were slain by the Potidaeans, who bore down on them in their ships.
Chapter 92
1. As for that part of the Persian fleet which had survived Salamis and reached the coast of Asia,
2. After it had taken the king and his army across the Hellespont to Abydos, it passed the winter at Cyme.
3. On the first approach of spring, there was an early muster of the ships at Samos, where some of them had remained throughout the winter.
4. Most of the men-at-arms who served on board were Persians or Medes,
5. And the command of the fleet had been taken by Mardontes, son of Bagaeus, and Artayntes son of Artachaeus;
6. While there was likewise a third commander, Ithamitres, the nephew of Artayntes, whom his uncle had appointed to the post.
7. They did not dare to venture further west than Samos, however, remembering what a defeat they had suffered,
8. And there was no one to compel them to approach any nearer to Greece.
9. They therefore remained at Samos, and kept watch over Ionia, to hinder it from breaking into revolt.
10. The whole number of their ships, including those furnished by the Ionians, was three hundred.
11. It did not enter into their thoughts that the Greeks would attack Ionia;
12. On the contrary, they supposed that Salamis would content the Greeks, more especially as they had not pursued the Persian fleet when it fled that battle.
13. The Persian sailors despaired, however, of gaining any success by sea themselves, though by land they thought that Mardonius was sure of victory.
14. So they remained at Samos, and discussed how they might harass the enemy, at the same time as they eagerly waited to hear how Mardonius fared.
15. As for the Greeks, the approach of spring, and the knowledge that Mardonius was in Thessaly, roused them.
16. Their land force was not yet come together, but their fleet, consisting of one hundred and ten ships, proceeded to Egina, under the command of Leotychides.
17. This Leotychides, who was both general and admiral, was the son of Menares, the son of Agesilaus, the son of Hippocratides, the son of Leotychides, the son of Anaxilaus, the son of Archidamus, the son of Anaxandrides, the son of Theopompus, the son of Nicander, the son of Charillus, the son of Eunomus, the son of Polydectes, the son of Prytanis, the son of Euryphon, the son of Procles, the son of Aristodemus, the son of Aristomachus, the son of Cleodaeus, the son of Hyllus, the son of Hercules.
18. He belonged to the younger branch of the royal house. All his ancestors, except the two next in the above list to himself, had been kings of Sparta.
19. The Athenian vessels were commanded by Xanthippus, the son of Ariphron.
20. When the whole fleet was gathered at Egina, ambassadors from Ionia arrived at the Greek station;
21. They had just come from visiting Sparta, where they had been entreating the Lacedaemonians to liberate their native land.
22. One of these ambassadors was Herodotus, the son of Basileides. Originally they were seven in number; and the whole seven had conspired to slay Strattis, the tyrant of Chios;
23. One, however, of those engaged in the plot betrayed the enterprise; and the conspiracy being in this way discovered, Herodotus and the remaining five left Chios,
24. And went straight to Sparta, whence they had now proceeded to Egina, their object being to beseech the Greeks to liberate Ionia.
25. It was not, however, without difficulty that they were induced to advance even so far as Delos.
26. All beyond that region seemed to the Greeks full of danger; the places were quite unknown to them, and to their fancy swarmed with Persian troops;
27. As for Samos, it appeared to them as far off as the Pillars of Hercules. So it came to pass that at the very same time that the barbarians were hindered by their fears from venturing any further west than Samos,
28. The urgings of the Chians failed to induce the Greeks to advance any further east than Delos. Terror guarded the mid region.
Chapter 93
1. Mardonius now sent an envoy to Athens, to propose peace to them, and a league with them against the Peloponnese.
2. Hearing this, the Spartans lost no time in sending envoys to Athens also; and it so happened that these envoys were given their audience at the same time as Mardonius’ envoy:
3. For the Athenians had waited and made delays, because they felt sure that the Lacedaemonians would hear that an ambassador had arrived from the Persians.
4. They contrived this on purpose, so that the Lacedaemonians might hear them deliver their sentiments to the Persians.
5. The Spartan ambassadors said, ‘We are sent here by all Lacedaemonia to entreat that you will not do a new thing in Greece, nor agree to the terms which are offered you by the barbarian.
6. ‘Such conduct on the part of any of the Greeks would be alike unjust and dishonourable; but in you it would be worse than in others.
7. ‘For it would surely be an intolerable thing that the Athenians, who have always hitherto been known as a nation to which many men owed their freedom,
8. ‘Should ever become the means of bringing all other Greeks into slavery.
9. ‘We feel, however, for the heavy calamities which press on you – the loss of your harvest these last two years, and the ruin in which your homes have lain for so long a time.
10. ‘We offer you, therefore, on the part of the Lacedaemonians and the allies, sustenance for your women and for the unwarlike portion of your households, so long as the war endures.
11. ‘Do not be seduced by Mardonius. He does as is natural for him to do; a tyrant himself, he helps forward a tyrant’s cause.
12. ‘You Athenians should know that with barbarians there is neither trustworthiness nor truth.’
13. At this the Athenians turned to the ambassadors of Mardonius and said, ‘We know, as well as you do, that the power of the Persian is many times greater than our own:
14. ‘Nevertheless we so firmly cling to freedom that we shall always offer what resistance we may to tyranny, and would rather die than be slaves.
15. ‘Do not seek to persuade us into making terms with Xerxes or his servant Mardonius – say what you will, you will never gain our assent.
16. ‘Return at once, and tell Mardonius that our answer to him is this: “So long as the sun keeps his present course, we will never join alliance with Xerxes.
17. ‘“Nay, we shall oppose him unceasingly, and never yield.”’
18. To the Spartan ambassadors the Athenians said, ‘It was natural no doubt that the Lacedaemonians should be afraid we might make terms with the barbarian;
19. ‘But nevertheless it was a base fear in men who knew so well of what temper and heart we are.
20. ‘Not all the gold that the whole earth contains – not the fairest and most fertile of all lands – would bribe us to side with the Persians and help them enslave our countrymen.
21. ‘Even if we could have brought ourselves to such a thing, there are many powerful motives which would now make it impossible.
22. ‘The chief of these is the burning and destruction of our city, which forces us to make no terms with its destroyer,
23. ‘
But rather to pursue him with our resentment to the uttermost.
24. ‘Again, there is our common brotherhood with the Greeks: our common language, the shared history, the common character which we bear;
25. ‘If the Athenians betray these, it would not be well. Know then now, if you did not know it before, that while one Athenian remains alive, we will never join alliance with Xerxes.
26. ‘We thank you, however, for your forethought on our behalf, and for your wish to give our families sustenance, now that ruin has fallen on us; the kindness is complete on your part;
27. ‘But for ourselves, we will endure as we may, and not be a burden to you. Such is our resolve.
28. ‘Be it your care now to lead out your troops with all speed; for if we guess rightly, the barbarian will not wait long before he invades our territory again, but will set out so soon as he hears our answer.
29. ‘Now then is the time for us, before he enters Attica, to go forward ourselves into Boeotia, and give him battle.’
30. When the Athenians had thus spoken, the ambassadors from Sparta returned in good heart to their own country.
Chapter 94
1. When Mardonius heard the Athenians’ answer he immediately broke camp and led his army with all speed from Thessaly towards Athens,
2. Forcing the several nations through whose land he passed to furnish him with additional troops.
3. The chief men of Thessaly, far from repenting of the part they had taken in the war hitherto, urged on the Persians more earnestly than ever.
4. Thorax of Larissa in particular, who had helped to escort Xerxes on his flight to Asia, now openly encouraged Mardonius in his march towards Attica.
5. When the army reached Boeotia the Thebans advised Mardonius to stop,
6. And by sending gifts to various of the great men of Greece, to sow division among them, making it easier to conquer them.
7. But Mardonius had too strong a desire to take Athens a second time,
8. Not least so that by fire-signals along the islands he could tell Xerxes in Sardis that he was once again master of that city, ten months after it had first fallen to the Persians.
9. So he pressed forward; and the Athenians, as before withdrawing all their families and goods to Salamis, left a deserted and still ruined city to him.
10. On reaching the city Mardonius again sent a message offering the Athenians terms, hoping that now that they saw all Attica under Persian sway, their stubbornness would yield.
11. When Mardonius’ message was delivered to the Athenians at Salamis, one of their councillors, Lycidas, gave it as his opinion that the proposal ought to be put before the assembly of the people.
12. When they heard this the other councillors and the body of Athenians waiting outside were exceedingly angry, and immediately surrounded Lycidas, and stoned him to death.
13. When the Athenian women heard of what he said, they hastened to the house of his wife and children, and stoned them to death too.
14. Meanwhile the Athenians had sent messengers to Sparta,
15. To reproach the Lacedaemonians for being too slow to send troops to oppose the Persian advance, so that the Athenians had had to abandon their city a second time.
16. Now, the Lacedaemonians had been celebrating a festival, and placing battlements on the wall across the Isthmus, which is why they had not yet mustered to aid Athens.
17. The messengers said, ‘Xerxes again offers to give us our country back, and to conclude an alliance with us on fair and equal terms, and to bestow on us any other land we like.
18. ‘But although we are fully aware that it is far more to our advantage to make peace with the Persian than to continue fighting him, we shall not, of our own free will, consent to any terms of peace.
19. ‘Thus do we, in all our dealings with the Greeks, avoid what is base and counterfeit:
20. ‘But you, who were so lately full of fear lest we made terms with the Persian, having learnt of what temper we are, and assured yourselves that we would not prove traitors,
21. ‘And moreover having brought your wall across the Isthmus to an advanced state, cease altogether to care about us.
22. ‘You agreed with us to go out and meet the Persian in Boeotia; but when the time came, you were false to your word, and looked on while the barbarian host advanced into Attica.
23. ‘We Athenians are angered with you therefore; and justly, for you have not done what is right.
24. ‘But we urge you to make haste to send your army, that we may even yet meet Mardonius in Attica.
25. ‘Now that Boeotia is lost to us, the best place for the fight within our country will be the plain of Thria.’
26. Although the ephors delayed for ten days to give an answer to the Athenian ambassadors,
27. Either out of shame or because the wall across the Isthmus was not yet quite finished, they at length sent the army.
28. This was after Chileus the Tegean urged them that if the Athenians were conquered by the Persians, no wall would save the Peloponnese, because the way would be open all round its coasts for an invasion.
29. So a body of five thousand Spartans, each accompanied by seven helots, was dispatched under the command of Pausanias, the son of Cleombrotus.
30. The chief power belonged of right at this time to Pleistarchus, the son of Leonidas; but as he was still a child, Pausanias, his cousin, was regent in his place.
Chapter 95
1. When Mardonius learnt that the Spartans were on their march, he no longer cared to remain in Attica.
2. Hitherto he had kept quiet, wishing to see what the Athenians would do, and had neither ravaged their territory, nor done it any harm;
3. For he continued to hope that the Athenians would come to terms.
4. As, however, he found that his persuasions were of no avail, he determined to withdraw from Attica before Pausanias reached the Isthmus.
5. First, however, he burned Athens, and cast down level with the ground whatever remained standing of the walls and other buildings.
6. His reason for retreating was that Attica is not a country where horse can act with advantage;
7. And further, that if he suffered defeat in a battle, no escape was open to him, except through defiles in the hills, where a handful of troops might stop all his army.
8. So he determined to withdraw to Thebes, and give the Greeks battle in the neighbourhood of a friendly city, and on ground well suited for cavalry.
9. After he had quitted Attica and was already on his march, Mardonius heard that a body of a thousand Lacedaemonians, distinct from the army of Pausanias, and sent on in advance, had arrived in the Megarid.
10. When he heard it, wishing, if possible, to destroy this detachment first, Mardonius considered with himself how he might do so.
11. With a sudden change of march he made for Megara, while his cavalry, pushing on in advance, entered and ravaged the Megarid.
12. This was the westernmost point in Europe to which this Persian army ever penetrated.
13. Then Mardonius received another message, by which he learnt that the forces of the Greeks were collected together at the Isthmus;
14. Which news caused him to draw back, and leave Attica for the territory of the Thebans.
15. And now, although the Thebans had espoused the cause of Persia, yet Mardonius cut down all the trees in these parts;
16. Not from any enmity towards the Thebans, but on account of his own urgent need,
17. For he required a rampart to protect his army, and a refuge in case the battle should go against him.
18. His army at this time lay on the Asopus, and stretched from Erythrae, along by Hysiae, to the territory of the Plataeans.
19. The rampart, however, was not made to extend so far, but formed a square of about ten furlongs each way.
20. While the barbarians were employed in this work, a certain citizen of Thebes, Attaginus, the son of Phrynon, gave a banquet, and invited Mardonius, together
with fifty of the noblest Persians.
21. Fifty noble Thebans also were asked; and the two nations were not arranged separately, but a Persian and a Theban were set side by side upon each couch.
22. After the feast was ended, and the drinking had begun, the Persian who shared Thersander’s couch addressed him in the Greek tongue,
23. And enquired of him from what city he came.
24. He answered, that he was of Orchomenus; whereupon the other said,
25. ‘Since we have eaten at one table, and drunk from one cup, I will tell you what I think, and perhaps this will be a useful warning for you:
26. ‘Of these Persians you see here feasting, and the army in the camp nearby, in a little while, hardly any of these men will still be alive.’
27. As he spoke, the Persian wept; at which the Theban said, ‘Surely you should tell your fear of this to Mardonius, and the Persians who are next him in honour?’
28. But the other replied, ‘Dear friend, no one believes warnings, however true.
29. ‘Many of us Persians know our danger, but we are constrained by necessity to do as our leader bids us.
30. ‘In truth it is the worst of human ills, to abound in knowledge and yet have no power over action.’
Chapter 96
1. When Mardonius had held his camp in Boeotia during the first invasion of Greece a year beforehand,
2. All the Greeks of those parts who were friendly to the Persians sent troops to join his army, and these troops accompanied him in his attack upon Athens.
3. The Phocians alone abstained, and took no part in the invasion;
4. For, though they had espoused the Persian cause, it was much against their will, and only because they were compelled to do so.
5. However, a few days after the arrival of the Persian army at Thebes on this second occasion,
6. A thousand of their heavy-armed soldiers came up, under the command of Harmocydes, one of their most distinguished citizens.
7. No sooner had these troops reached Thebes, than some horsemen came to them from Mardonius, with orders that they should take up a position upon the plain, away from the rest of the army.
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