by Herodotus
200. When the Persians sent from Egypt by Aryandes to help Pheretima reached Barca, they laid siege to the town, calling on those within to give up the men who had been guilty of the murder of Arcesilaüs. The townspeople, however, as they had one and all taken part in the deed, refused to entertain the proposition. So the Persians beleaguered Barca for nine months, in the course of which they dug several mines from their own lines to the walls, and likewise made a number of vigorous assaults. But their mines were discovered by a man who was a worker in brass, who went with a brazen shield all round the fortress, and laid it on the ground inside the city. In other places the shield, when he laid it down, was quite dumb; but where the ground was undermined, there the brass of the shield rang. Here, therefore, the Barcaeans countermined, and slew the Persian diggers. Such was the way in which the mines were discovered; as for the assaults, the Barcaeans beat them back.
201. When much time had been consumed, and great numbers had fallen on both sides, nor had the Persians lost fewer than their adversaries, Amasis, the leader of the land-army, perceiving that, although the Barcaeans would never be conquered by force, they might be overcome by fraud, contrived as follows. One night he dug a wide trench, and laid light planks of wood across the opening, after which he brought mould and placed it upon the planks, taking care to make the place level with the surrounding ground. At dawn of day he summoned the Barcaeans to a parley: and they gladly hearkening, the terms were at length agreed upon. Oaths were interchanged upon the ground over the hidden trench, and the agreement ran thus – ‘So long as the ground beneath our feet stands firm, the oath shall abide unchanged; the people of Barca agree to pay a fair sum to the king, and the Persians promise to cause no further trouble to the people of Barca.’ After the oath, the Barcaeans, relying upon its terms, threw open all their gates, went out themselves beyond the walls, and allowed as many of the enemy as chose to enter. Then the Persians broke down their secret bridge, and rushed at speed into the town – their reason for breaking the bridge being, that so they might observe what they had sworn; for they had promised the Barcaeans that the oath should continue ‘so long as the ground whereon they stood was firm.’ When, therefore, the bridge was once broken down, the oath ceased to hold.
202. Such of the Barcaeans as were most guilty the Persians gave up to Pheretima, who nailed them to crosses all round the walls of the city. [233] She also cut off the breasts of their wives, and fastened them likewise about the walls. The remainder of the people she gave as booty to the Persians, except only the Battiadae, and those who had taken no part in the murder, to whom she handed over the possession of the town.
203. The Persians now set out on their return home, carrying with them the rest of the Barcaeans, whom they had made their slaves. On their way they came to Cyrene; and the Cyrenaeans, out of regard for an oracle, let them pass through the town. During the passage, Bares, the commander of the fleet, advised to seize the place; but Amasis, the leader of the land-force, would not consent; ‘because,’ he said, ‘they had only been charged to attack the one Greek city of Barca.’ [234] When, however, they had passed through the town, and were encamped upon the hill of Lycaean Zeus, it repented them that they had not seized Cyrene, and they endeavoured to enter it a second time. The Cyrenaeans, however, would not suffer this; whereupon, though no one appeared to offer them battle, yet a panic came upon the Persians, and they ran a distance of full sixty furlongs before they pitched their camp. Here as they lay, a messenger came to them from Aryandes, ordering them home. Then the Persians besought the men of Cyrene to give them provisions for the way, and, these consenting, they set off on their return to Egypt. But the Libyans now beset them, and, for the sake of their clothes and harness, slew all who dropped behind and straggled, during the whole march homewards.
204. The furthest point of Libya reached by this Persian host was the city of Euesperides. The Barcaeans carried into slavery were sent from Egypt to the king; and Darius assigned them a village in Bactria for their dwelling-place. To this village they gave the name of Barca, and it was to my time an inhabited place in Bactria.
205. Nor did Pheretima herself end her days happily. For on her return to Egypt from Libya, directly after taking vengeance on the people of Barca, she was overtaken by a most horrid death. Her body swarmed with worms, which ate her flesh while she was still alive. [235] Thus do men, by over-harsh punishments, draw down upon themselves the anger of the gods. Such then, and so fierce, was the vengeance which Pheretima, daughter of Battus, took upon the Barcaeans.
Notes to Book Four
1. See i, 103-6.
2. Mare’s milk constituted the chief food of the ancient Scythians. It is still the principal support of the Calmuck hordes which wander over the vast steppes north and west of the Caspian.
3. It is apparent from this circumstance that it was koumiss, and not cream, on which the Scythians lived. Koumiss is still prepared from mares’ milk by the Calmuks.
4. On the position of this dyke, see ch. 20.
5. The spear and the bow were the national weapons of the European Scyths, the bow on the whole being regarded as the more essential. The spear used was short, apparently not more than five feet in length.
6. The ancient Scythian whip seems to have closely resembled the nogaik of the modern Cossacks.
7. We must understand by the Scyths of Herodotus in this place, the single nation of European Scyths with which the Greeks of the Pontus were acquainted.
8. See ch. 31, where Herodotus explains that the so-called feathers are snow-flakes.
9. Cadiz.
10. By the Pillars of Heracles we must understand the Straits of Gibraltar.
11. It seems impossible that the Araxes can here represent any river but the Volga.
12. Their name is still found in the modern name, Crimea.
13. Proconnesus is the island now called Marmora, which gives its modern appellation to the Propontis (Sea of Marmora).
14. See iii, 116.
15. That is, the Euxine.
16. The poem of Aristeas indicated an important general fact, viz., the perpetual pressure on one another of the nomadic hordes which from time immemorial have occupied the vast steppes of Central and Northern Asia and of Eastern Europe.
17. The name remains in the modern Erdek, which has taken the place of Cyzicus (Bal Kiz), now in ruins, and is the see of an archbishop.
18. This date must certainly be wrong. The date usually assigned to Aristeas is about BC 580.
19. Metapontum (the modern Basiento), was distant about 50 miles from Thurii, where Herodotus lived during his later years.
20. Natural superstition first regarded the croak of the crow or raven as an omen; after which it was natural to attach the bird to the god of prophecy. The crow is often called the companion or attendant of Apollo.
21. Millet is still largely cultivated in these regions. It forms almost the only cereal food of the Nogais.
22. The corn-trade of the Scythians appears to have been chiefly, if not exclusively, with the Greeks.
23. See ch. 105.
24. The modern Bug or Boug.
25. The modern Dnieper.
26. Portions of this country are still thickly wooded, and contrast remarkably with the general bare and arid character of the steppe.
27. Here the description of Herodotus, which has been hitherto excellent, begins to fail. There is at present no river which at all corresponds with his Panticapes. Either the face of the country must have greatly altered since his time or he must have obtained a confused and incorrect account.
28. The general treeless character of the steppes is noticed by all travellers.
29. Rennell proposed to read ‘four days’ journey’ – and indeed without some such alteration the geography of this part of Scythia is utterly inexplicable.
30. See ch. 56.
31. The analogous case of the Golden Horde among the Mongols has been adduced by many writers.
32. Taurica appears here to be nothing but the high tract along the southern coast of the Crimea.
33. Now the Don.
34. See ch. 107.
35. See ch. 110.
36. The ancient country of the Sauromatae or Sarmatae (Sarmatians) appears to have been nearly identical with that of the modern Don Cossacks.
37. See ch. 108.
38. The chain of the Ural.
39. A species of cherry, which is eaten by the Calmucks of the present day in almost the same manner.
40. Heeren considers the mountains here spoken of to be the Altai; but to me it seems that Herodotus in these chapters speaks only of a single mountain-chain, and that is the Ural.
41. Compare the Scythian custom with respect to the skulls of enemies (ch. 65). A similar practice to theirs is ascribed by Livy to the Boii, a tribe of Gauls (xxiii, 24).
42. And among the Nairs of Malabar the institutions all incline to a gynocracy, each woman having several husbands, and property passing through the female line in preference to the male.
43. The clearing of forests and the spread of agriculture have tended to render the climate of these regions less severe than in the time of Herodotus. Still, even at the present day, the south of Russia has a six months’ winter, lasting from October to April. From November to March the cold is, ordinarily, very intense. The summer is now intensely hot.
44. Odyssey iv, 85.
45. According to Plutarch, Oenomaüs, king of Elis, out of his love for horses, laid heavy curses on the breeding of mules in that country.
46. See ch. 7, ad fin.
47. An epic poem, in hexameter verse, on the subject of the second siege of Thebes by the sons of those killed in the first siege. It was a sequel to another very ancient epic, the Thebaïs, which was upon the first Theban war.
48. Very elaborate accounts have been given of the Hyperboreans both in ancient and modern times. They are, however, in reality not an historical, but an ideal nation. The north wind being given a local seat in certain mountains called Rhipaean, it was supposed there must be a country above the north wind, which would not be cold, and which would have inhabitants. Ideal perfections were gradually ascribed to this region.
49. Apollo and Artemis.
50. The belief which Herodotus ridicules is not that of the world’s spherical form, which had not yet been suspected by the Greeks, but a false notion of the configuration of the land on the earth’s surface.
51. Or Bay of Issus [a city in the south-east extremity of Cilicia, in Asia Minor – E.H.B.].
52. Since Egypt adjoins Arabia.
53. This was the completion of the canal which Neco found it prudent to desist from re-opening, through fear of the growing power of Babylon. It was originally a canal of Rameses II, which had been filled up by the sand.
54. The Mediterranean. (See Book i, ch. 185.)
55. The Assyrians (among whom the Palestine Syrians were included), the Arabians, and the Phoenicians.
56. Modern surveys show that the direct distance across the isthmus is not so much as 80 miles.
57. We may infer, from Neco’s ordering the Phoenicians to come round by the ‘Pillars of Heracles’, that the form of Africa was already known, and that this was not the first expedition which had gone round it.
58. See ii, 158.
59. They were so called, not from the Greek hero, but from the Tyrian deity, whose worship was always introduced by the Phoenicians in their settlements.
60. Here the faithful reporting of what he did not himself imagine true has stood our author in good stead. Few would have believed the Phoenician circumnavigation of Africa had it not been vouched for by this discovery. When Herodotus is blamed for repeating the absurd stories which he had been told, it should be considered what we must have lost had he made it a rule to reject from his History all that he thought unlikely.
61. See iii, 160.
62. The modern Cape Spartel.
63. This is the second mention of a dwarfish race in Africa (see ii, 32)
64. The fate of Sir Walter Raleigh furnishes a curious parallel to this.
65. That is, the Nile. See ii, 67.
66. Caryanda was a place on or near the Carian coast.
67. See iii, 102.
68. The real course of the Indus is somewhat west of south. The error of Herodotus arose perhaps from the Cabul river being mistaken for the true Indus.
69. See ch. 42.
70. The conquest of the Indians, by which we are to understand the reduction of the Punjab, and perhaps (though this is not certain) of Scinde, preceded (as may be proved by the inscriptions) the Scythian expedition.
71. Limited, that is, and circumscribed by fixed boundaries.
72. See Book iii, ch. 115, sub. fin.
73. The earliest Greek geographers divided the world into two portions only, Europe and Asia, in the latter of which they included Libya.
74. There are grounds for believing Europe and Asia to have originally signified ‘the west’ and ‘the east’ respectively. Both are Semitic terms, and probably passed to the Greeks from the Phoenicians.
75. Concerning Anacharsis, see ch. 76.
76. It was a fashion among the Greeks to praise the simplicity and honesty of the nomad races, who were less civilised than themselves. Herodotus intends to mark his dissent from such views.
77. It may be doubted whether the ancient Scythians really lived entirely in their waggons. More probably their waggons carried a tent, consisting of a light framework of wood covered with felt or matting, which could be readily transferred from the wheels to the ground and vice versa.
78. The pasture is now not good, excepting in the immediate vicinity of the rivers; otherwise the picture drawn of the country accords exactly with the accounts given by modern travellers.
79. This is untrue. No stream forces its way through this chain.
80. The Angrus is either the western Morava or the Ibar, most probably the latter. The Brongus is the eastern or Bulgarian Morava. The Triballian plain is thus the modern Servia.
81. As Herodotus plunges deeper into the European continent, his knowledge is less exact. He knows the fact that the Danube receives two great tributaries from the south (the Drave and the Save) in the upper part of its course, but he does not any longer know the true direction of the streams.
82. It is interesting to find in Herodotus this first trace of the word Alp, by which, from the time of Polybius, the great European chain has been known.
83. The lengths of the two rivers are – of the Nile, 4,000 miles; of the Danube, 1760 miles.
84. The ‘balance’ of which Herodotus speaks is caused by the increased volume of the southern tributaries during the summer (which is caused by the melting of the snows along the range of the Alps), being just sufficient to compensate for the diminished volume of the northern tributaries, which in winter are swelled by the rains.
85. The Hypanis is undoubtedly a main tributary of the Dnieper.
86. Compare ch. 86.
87. That is, between the 47th and 48th parallels. The fact here noticed by Herodotus strongly proves his actual knowledge of the geography of these countries.
88. The Borysthenes is the Dnieper.
89. The salines of Kinburn, at the extremity of the promontory which forms the southern shore of the liman of the Dnieper, are still of the greatest importance to Russia, and supply vast tracts of the interior.
90. The sturgeon of the Dnieper have to this day a great reputation.
91. This is the modern Kosa Tendra and Kosa Djarilgatch, a long and narrow strip of sandy beach extending about 80 miles from nearly opposite Kalantchak to a point abou
t 12 miles south of the promontory of Kinburn, and attached to the continent only in the middle by an isthmus about 12 miles across.
92. The Tanais (the modern Don) rises from a small lake, the lake of Ivan-Ozero, in lat. 54° 2’, long. 38° 3’. The Volga flows in part from the great lake of Onega.
93. Dean Blakesley regards it as the Seviersky, in which he finds ‘some vestige of the ancient title’.
94. It may be gathered from Ezekiel (xxiv, 5) that a similar custom prevailed among the Jews.
95. See ch. i, 216, where the same is related of the Massagetae. Horses have always abounded in the steppes, and perhaps in ancient times were more common than any other animal.
96. These measures are utterly incredible.
97. It was not, however, confined to Scythia. There is distinct allusion to such a mode of divination in Hosea (ii, 12): ‘My people ask counsel of their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them.’
98. We learn from this that the ancient Scythians, like the modern Calmucks and Nogais, used oxen and not horses to draw their waggons.
99. Modified forms of the same ceremony are ascribed to the Lydians and Assyrians by Herodotus (i, 74), and to the Armenians and Iberians by Tacitus (Annals xii, 47). The Arab practice (iii, 8) is somewhat different. In southern Africa a custom very like the Scythian prevails to this day.
100. The practice of impaling horses seems to have ceased in these regions. It was found, however, among the Tatars so late as the fourteenth century.
101. Here we see tent-making in its infancy. The tents of the wandering tribes of the steppes are now of a much more elaborate construction.
102. Hemp is not now cultivated in these regions. It forms, however, an item of some importance among the exports of Southern Russia.