by Herodotus
119. The Persians soon afterwards approached, and, crossing the Maeander, engaged the Carians upon the banks of the Marsyas; where for a long time the battle was stoutly contested, but at last the Carians were defeated, being overpowered by numbers. On the side of the Persians there fell 2000, while the Carians had not fewer than 10,000 slain. Such as escaped from the field of battle collected together at Labranda, in the vast precinct of Zeus Stratius – a deity worshipped only by the Carians – and in the sacred grove of plane-trees. Here they deliberated as to the best means of saving themselves, doubting whether they would fare better if they gave themselves up to the Persians, or if they abandoned Asia for ever.
120. As they were debating these matters a body of Milesians and allies came to their assistance; whereupon the Carians, dismissing their former thoughts, prepared themselves afresh for war, and on the approach of the Persians gave them battle a second time. They were defeated, however, with still greater loss than before; and while all the troops engaged suffered severely, the blow fell with most force on the Milesians.
121. The Carians, some while after, repaired their ill fortune in another action. Understanding that the Persians were about to attack their cities, they laid an ambush for them on the road which leads to Pedasus; the Persians, who were making a night-march, fell into the trap, and the whole army was destroyed, together with the generals, Daurises, Amorges, and Sisimaces: Myrsus too, the son of Gyges, was killed at the same time. The leader of the ambush was Heraclides, the son of Ibanolis, a man of Mylasa. Such was the way in which these Persians perished.
122. In the meantime Hymeas, who was likewise one of those by whom the Ionians were pursued after their attack on Sardis, directing his course towards the Propontis, took Cius, [151] a city of Mysia. Learning, however, that Daurises had left the Hellespont, and was gone into Caria, he in his turn quitted the Propontis, and marching with the army under his command to the Hellespont, reduced all the Aeolians of the Troad, and likewise conquered the Gergithae, a remnant of the ancient Teucrians. He did not, however, quit the Troad, but, after gaining these successes, was himself carried off by disease.
123. After his death, which happened as I have related, Artaphernes, the satrap of Sardis, and Otanes, the third general, [152] were directed to undertake the conduct of the war against Ionia and the neighbouring Aeolis. By them Clazomenae in the former, [153] and Cyme in the latter, [154] were recovered.
124. As the cities fell one after another, Aristagoras the Milesian (who was in truth, as he now plainly showed, a man of but little courage), notwithstanding that it was he who had caused the disturbances in Ionia and made so great a commotion, began, seeing his danger, to look about for means of escape. Being convinced that it was in vain to endeavour to overcome King Darius, he called his brothers-in-arms together, and laid before them the following project: ‘ ’Twould be well,’ he said, ‘to have some place of refuge, in case they were driven out of Miletus. Should he go out at the head of a colony to Sardinia, [155] or should he sail to Myrcinus in Edonia, which Histiaeus had received as a gift from King Darius, and had begun to fortify?’
125. To this question of Aristagoras, Hecataeus, the historian, son of Hegesander, made answer, that in his judgment neither place was suitable. ‘Aristagoras should build a fort,’ he said, ‘in the island of Leros, [156] and, if driven from Miletus, should go there and bide his time; from Leros attacks might readily be made, and he might re-establish himself in Miletus.’ Such was the advice given by Hecataeus.
126. Aristagoras, however, was bent on retiring to Myrcinus. Accordingly, he put the government of Miletus into the hands of one of the chief citizens, named Pythagoras, and, taking with him all who liked to go, sailed to Thrace, and there made himself master of the place in question. From thence he proceeded to attack the Thracians; but here he was cut off with his whole army, while besieging a city whose defenders were anxious to accept terms of surrender.
Notes to Book Five
1. See iv, 143.
2. The modern Erekli, a place of some consequence on the sea of Marmora.
3. The conquests of Megabazus were confined to the tracts along the coast.
4. Alluding to what he had said before (iii, 94).
5. Concerning the Getae, see ix, 93.
6. Concerning Creston, see i, 57.
7. See iv, 94.
8. [Analogous to this custom is the Indian suttee, in which two distinct motives were combined: Lyall, Asiatic Studies, vol. ii, p. 313 – E.H.B.]
9. War, drinking, and the chase– the principal delights of a nation in the condition of the Thracians – had, it would seem, their respective deities, which the Greeks identified with their Ares, Dionysus, and Artemis.
10. Cremation was the mode in which the Indo-European nations most usually disposed of their dead. [So in Homer; but inhumation was normal in the Mycenaean age in Greece. – E.H.B.]
11. Hungary and Austria.
12. The modern Marseilles..
13. Mosquitoes.
14. See iv, 137..
15. See iv, 97.
16. See iv, 143; and v, 1.
17. The range which runs parallel to the coast between the valley of the Anghista and the high road from Orfano to Pravista.
18. Discoveries in the lakes of central Europe, particularly those of Switzerland, have confirmed in the most remarkable way this whole description of Herodotus. A similar mode of life to that here described and apparently practised by the early inhabitants of Switzerland, is found among the natives of New Guinea. [Borneo, Celebes, and among the Ainus of Japan – E.H.B.]
19. Paeonia in ancient times appears to have consisted of two distinct tracts. Herodotus seems to have known only of the Strymonic Paeonia.
20. The seclusion of the women was as much practised by the Persians as by any other Orientals.
21. See viii, 136.
22. Bubares was the son of Megabazus. He was afterwards overseer of the workmen at Athos (see vii, 22).
23. See viii, 137.
24. Histiaeus showed excellent judgment in selecting this site. The vicinity of the rich and extensive Strymonic plain, the abundance of timber, the neighbourhood of gold and silver mines, the ready access to the sea, were all points of the utmost importance to a new settlement.
25. Compare, for this Oriental practice, 2 Sam. ix, 7 and 11; xix, 33; 1 Kings ii, 7.
26. Not the conspirator, who was Otanes, son of Pharnaspes (iii, 68).
27. In later times the Persians seem to have flayed their criminals alive.
28. See iv, 144.
29. Antandrus lay on the sea-coast of the Gulf of Adramyti, a short distance west of Adramyttium. The name remains in the Antandro of the present day.
30. See iv, 145.
31. See iii, 142–8.
32. Perhaps Clinton is not far wrong in reckoning it ‘a tranquillity of two years’.
33. The fertility of Naxos was proverbial in ancient times.
34. Concerning the practice of calling in foreigners to settle the domestic differences of a state, see iv, 161.
35. This is evidently an exaggeration.
36. Naxos would appear by this to have exercised a species of sovereignty over some of the other Cyclades.
37. Naxos is considerably larger than Jersey, but not more than half the size of the Isle of Wight.
38. Naxos is distant from the Ionian coast at least 80 miles. From Samos, however, which was now in the possession of the Persians, it is not more than 65 miles, and in clear weather is visible.
39. Cyprus is really more than twice the size of Euboea (Negropont).
40. For the true account of these proceedings of Pausanias, cf. Thucydides i, 128–30.
41. The ‘holes in the side’ of a Greek vessel were, of course, for the oars.
42. [For a not
e on the Temple of Apollo at Branchidae (near Miletus), see Frazer’s Pausanias, vol. iv, pp. 125, 126. – E.H.B.]
43. See i, 92.
44. Myus was one of the twelve cities of Ionia (see i, 142).
45. Mylasa or Mylassa was, like Termera, a town of Caria.
46. This Histiaeus afterwards accompanied the expedition of Xerxes (vii, 98).
47. See ch. 11.
48. Marriages of this kind were common at Sparta. Leonidas married his niece, Gorgo (vii, 239), Archidamus his aunt, Lampito (vi, 71).
49. Concerning the Ephors at Sparta, see i, 65. This passage is very important, as marking their power over the kings.
50. The council of twenty-eight, mentioned, with the Ephors, in Book i, ch. 65, and again spoken of in Book vi, ch. 57. It seems that, when the Ephors and the Elders agreed together, the king had no power to withstand them.
51. Compare with this, the practice in our own country of summoning the great officers of state to the queen’s apartments at the birth of a prince or princess. With the Spartans there was a religious motive at work, in addition to the political one which alone obtains with ourselves. It was necessary for them, in a religious point of view, to preserve the purity of the blood of Heracles.
52. The sanction of some oracle or other was required for every colony; the sanction of the oracle at Delphi, when the colony was Dorian.
53. The connection of Thera with Cyrene (iv, 150–9) would explain the choice of Cinyps as a settlement.
54. This place, which Herodotus regarded as the most fertile spot in Africa, has been already described (iv, 195; compare ch. 175).
55. We may understand ‘oracles given to Laïs’.
56. It lay at the western point of the island, a little to the north of Drepanum, the modern Trapani.
57. Sybaris was one of the most important towns of Magna Graecia. Its luxury is proverbial (cf. vi, 127). It was taken (BC 510) after a siege of 70 days by the Crotoniats: who turned the river upon the town, and so destroyed it.
58. That is, ‘Protector of the Forum’. It probably stood in the market-place.
59. She became the wife of Leonidas, her uncle, according to a usual Spartan custom (see vii, 239).
60. See vii, 61.
61. The high table-land of Phrygia is especially adapted for pasturage.
62. See iii, 90.
63. Susa had by this time certainly become the Persian capital. The Choaspes is at present a mile and a half to the west of the town. The magnificent palace of Susa had a great fame in antiquity (ch. 53).
64. When Susa was entered by Alexander the Great, the silver captured amounted to 50,000 talents.
65. Cf. i, 66–8, and 82.
66. By ‘royal stations’ are to be understood the abodes of the king’s ‘couriers’ - who conveyed despatches from their own station to the next, and then returned (see viii, 98).
67. Undoubtedly the two Zabs, the Greater and the Lesser.
68. What Herodotus here states is exactly true of the two Zabs.
69. See ii, 6. This was the ordinary estimate of the Greeks. Strabo, however, tells us that it was not universally agreed upon, since there were some who considered the parasang to equal 40, and others 60 stades. The truth is, that the ancient parasang, like the modern farsakh, was originally a measure of time (an hour), not a measure of distance. In passing from the one meaning to the other, it came to mark a different length in different places, according to the nature of the country traversed.
70. Herodotus takes here the rate at which an army would be likely to move. Elsewhere (iv, 101) he reckons the journey of the ordinary pedestrian at 200 stades (about 23 miles).
71. The fable of Memnon is one of those in which it is difficult to discover any germs of truth. The earliest author who is known to have connected Memnon with Susa is Aeschylus, who made his mother a Cissian woman. It is clear, however, that by the time of Herodotus, the story that he built Susa, or its great palace, was generally accepted in Greece. Perhaps the adoption of this account may be regarded as indicating some knowledge of the ethnic connection which really existed between Ethiopia and Susiana.
72. From BC 514 to BC 510.
73. Herodotus alludes here to the legend of the Epigoni.
74. Homer (Iliad vi, 168) shows that in his time the Greeks wrote on folding wooden tablets.
75. This is a remarkable statement. Among the ‘barbarians’ alluded to we may assume the Persians to be included. Stone and clay seem to have been the common material in Assyria and Babylonia; wood, leather, and paper in Egypt; the bark of trees and linen in Italy; stone, wood, and metal among the Jews. Parchment seems never to have been much used even by the Greeks till the time of Eumenes II (BC 197–159).
76. The old Greek letters, like the Phoenician, were written from right to left. They continued to be so written till a late time on vases; but this appears to have been then merely the imitation of an old fashion, for already, in the age of Psammetichus, the seventh century BC, inscriptions were written from left to right.
77. Cf. i, 52.
78. Boeotian Thebes is here distinguished from Egyptian.
79. Hippocoön was the brother of Tyndareus and Icarion. Assisted by his twelve sons, he drove his two brothers from Lacedaemon. Afterwards Heracles slew him and his sons, and restored Tyndareus.
80. Laödamas succeeded his father Eteocles upon the throne of Thebes.
81. The Encheleans were an Illyrian tribe.
82. See vi, 125–31, where the earlier history of the Alcmaeonidae is given.
83. That is, by Pisistratus himself, who is included among the Pisistratidae (i, 64).
84. The old temple had been burnt (ii, 180).
85. The Delphic oracle is again bribed by Cleomenes in vi, 66.
86. Phalerum is the most ancient, as it is the most natural, harbour of Athens. It is nearer than Piraeus to the city. The Piraeus seems not to have been used as a port until the time of Pericles.
87. As Boeotia is found generally on the Spartan, so Thessaly appears on the Athenian side. Mutual jealousy of Boeotia would appear to be the chief ground of the alliance.
88. The country was favourable for pasturage, and Thessalian horses were of special excellency (see vii, 196).
89. See vi, 116.
90. That is, the Acropolis.
91. Aware, apparently, of their inability to conduct sieges (see ix, 70). That the acropolis was not at this time very strong appears from the account of its siege by Xerxes (viii, 52, 53). It was afterwards fortified by Cimon.
92. See ch. 94, 95.
93. The tale went, that Melanthus (the fifth in descent from the Homeric Nector, son of Neleus, and king of Pylos), was king of Messenia at the time of the return of the Heraclidae. Being expelled, he sought a refuge in Attica, where he was kindly received, and even placed upon the throne – Thymoetes, the existing monarch, being forced to abdicate in his favour. This will explain the terms ‘Pylians’ and ‘Neleids’.
94. See i, 59.
95. See ch. 62.
96. That is, the ancient hereditary tribes of Attica.
97. Ajax was the tutelary hero of Salamis (see viii, 64 and 121).
98. Concerning this king, see vi, 126.
99. Adrastus, king of Argos, and leader of the first (mythic) attack upon Thebes, was worshipped as a hero in several places.
100. A statue of Melanippus is probably intended. See ch. 80.
101. Melanippus, the son of Astacus, is mentioned among the defenders of Thebes by Pherecydes (Fr. 51) and Apollodorus. He is said to have lost his own life at the siege, being slain by Amphiaraus.
102. Polybus was king of Corinth, and Sicyon was included in his dominions.
103. Aegialeans was the ancient name of the primitive Ionians of this tract.<
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104. Cleisthenes was the youngest of three brothers, and had therefore, in the natural course of things, little hope of the succession. Myron, however, his eldest brother, having been guilty of adultery with the wife of Isodemus the second brother, Cleisthenes persuaded the latter to revenge himself by slaying the adulterer. He then represented to him that be could not reign alone, as it was impossible for him to offer the sacrifices; and was admitted as joint king on this account. Finally, he had Isodemus persuaded to go into voluntary exile for a year, in order to purge his pollution; and during his absence made himself sole king.
105. The Heraclidae were, according to the unanimous tradition, the old royal family of the Peloponnese.
106. The Athenians always cherished a lively recollection of this triumph over their great rivals. [Cf. Aristoph. Lysistrita 271 sqq. – E.H.B.]
107. See i, 153, and ch. 105 of this Book.
108. Disguised, probably as a Spartan.
109. Eleusis was the key to Attica on the south.
110. Hysiae lay on the north side of Cithaeron, in the plain of the Asopus.
111. Chalcis had been one of the most important cities in Greece. It was said to have been originally a colony from Athens.
112. Literally ‘allotment-holders’. These allotment-holders are to be carefully distinguished from the ordinary colonists, who went out to find themselves a home wherever they might be able to settle and who retained but a very slight connection with the mother country. The cleruchs were a military garrison planted in a conquered territory, the best portions of which were given to them. They continued Athenian subjects, and retained their full rights as Athenian citizens, occupying a position closely analogous to that of the Roman coloni in the earlier times.
113. The Chalcidean Hippobotae, or ‘horse-keepers’, were a wealthy aristocracy and correspond to the knights of most Grecian states, and the equites, or celeres, of the Romans. In early times wealth is measured by the ability to maintain a horse, or horses.