Histories

by Herodotus

  236. Achaemenes, who was present, now took the word, and spoke – he was brother to Xerxes, and, having the command of the fleet, feared lest Xerxes might be prevailed upon to do as Demaratus advised –

  ‘I perceive, O king’ (he said), ‘that thou art listening to the words of a man who is envious of thy good fortune, and seeks to betray thy cause. This is indeed the common temper of the Grecian people – they envy good fortune, and hate power greater than their own. If in this posture of our affairs, after we have lost four hundred vessels by shipwreck, [254] three hundred more be sent away to make a voyage round the Peloponnese, our enemies will become a match for us. But let us keep our whole fleet in one body, and it will be dangerous for them to venture on an attack, as they will certainly be no match for us then. Besides, while our sea and land forces advance together, the fleet and army can each help the other; but if they be parted, no aid will come either from thee to the fleet, or from the fleet to thee. Only order thy own matters well, and trouble not thyself to inquire concerning the enemy – where they will fight, or what they will do, or how many they are. Surely they can manage their own concerns without us, as we can ours without them. If the Lacedaemonians come out against the Persians to battle, they will scarce repair the disaster which has befallen them now.’

  237. Xerxes replied – ‘Achaemenes, thy counsel pleases me well, and I will do as thou sayest. But Demaratus advised what he thought best – only his judgment was not so good as thine. Never will I believe that he does not wish well to my cause; for that is disproved both by his former counsels, and also by the circumstances of the case. A citizen does indeed envy any fellow-citizen who is more lucky than himself, and often hates him secretly; if such a man be called on for counsel, he will not give his best thoughts, unless indeed he be a man of very exalted virtue; and such are but rarely found. But a friend of another country delights in the good fortune of his foreign bond-friend, and will give him, when asked, the best advice in his power. Therefore I warn all men to abstain henceforth from speaking ill of Demaratus, who is my bond-friend.’

  238. When Xerxes had thus spoken, he proceeded to pass through the slain; and finding the body of Leonidas, whom he knew to have been the Lacedaemonian king and captain, he ordered that the head should be struck off, and the trunk fastened to a cross. This proves to me most clearly, what is plain also in many other ways – namely, that King Xerxes was more angry with Leonidas, while he was still in life, than with any other mortal. Certes, he would not else have used his body so shamefully. For the Persians are wont to honour those who show themselves valiant in fight more highly than any nation that I know. They, however, to whom the orders were given, did according to the commands of the king.

  239. I return now to a point in my History, which at the time I left incomplete. The Lacedaemonians were the first of the Greeks to hear of the king’s design against their country; and it was at this time that they sent to consult the Delphic oracle, and received the answer of which I spoke a while ago. [255] The discovery was made to them in a very strange way. Demaratus, the son of Ariston, after he took refuge with the Medes, was not, in my judgment, which is supported by probability, a well-wisher to the Lacedaemonians. It may be questioned, therefore, whether he did what I am about to mention from good-will or from insolent triumph. It happened that he was at Susa at the time when Xerxes determined to lead his army into Greece; and in this way becoming acquainted with his design, he resolved to send tidings of it to Sparta. So as there was no other way of effecting his purpose, since the danger of being discovered was great, Damaratus framed the following contrivance. He took a pair of tablets, and, clearing the wax away from them, wrote what the king was purposing to do upon the wood whereof the tablets were made; having done this, he spread the wax once more over the writing, and so sent it. By these means, the guards placed to watch the roads, observing nothing but a blank tablet, were sure to give no trouble to the bearer. When the tablet reached Lacedaemon, there was no one, I understand, who could find out the secret, till Gorgo, the daughter of Cleomenes and wife of Leonidas, discovered it, and told the others. ‘If they would scrape the wax off the tablet,’ she said, ‘they would be sure to find the writing upon the wood.’ The Lacedaemonians took her advice, found the writing, and read it; [256] after which they sent it round to the other Greeks. Such then is the account which is given of this matter.

  Notes to Book Seven

  1. See v, 100–2.

  2 BC 487. The reckoning is inclusive, as usual.

  3. Probably the revolt of Egypt was attributed to the machinations of the Greeks.

  4. An allusion to this custom is made in the first book (ch. 208), in connection with the expedition of Cyrus against the Massagetae.

  5. This was probably the real right on which the claim of Xerxes rested. Xerxes was of the blood of Cyrus; Artabazanes was not.

  6. See vi, 70.

  7. Though Darius had several wives (iii, 88), it is probable that he had but one queen, namely Atossa. This is the rule wherever there is a seraglio, and was clearly the custom of the Persian court.

  8 BC486.

  9. Of Musaeus, as of Orpheus, with whom his name is commonly joined, scarcely anything is known. All perhaps that can be said with certainty is that poems believed to be ancient were current under his name as early as BC 520.

  10. Lasus of Hermione was a lyric and dithyrambic poet of the highest repute. He was said to have been the instructor of Pindar.

  11 BC 485.

  12. These speeches have scarcely any higher historical character than those of the conspirators in the third book. They must be considered however as embodying Persian as well as Greek views of the circumstances out of which the war arose, and the feelings of those who engaged in it. Oriental respect for royalty strove to exonerate Xerxes from all blame.

  13. See v, 100–2 .

  14. This use of the term ‘Ionian’ for the European Greeks is not casual, but characteristic of the Oriental modes of speech, and marks Herodotus for a keen observer of little peculiarities. Here two Ionians are mentioned, one of which stands clearly for Asiatic, and the other for European Greece.

  15. Apparently Mardonius means the Scythians of Europe, whom he represents as reduced to slavery by the expedition of Darius.

  16. See vi, 44, 45.

  17. See iv, 83.

  18. See iv, 133, 136–9.

  19. The genealogy of himself which Darius caused to be engraved on the rocks of Behistun determines absolutely the number of generations between Xerxes and Achaemenes, proving what had been already surmised, that the names of Cyrus and Cambyses do not belong to the stem of Darius, but are thrown by Xerxes into the list of his ancestors in right of his mother Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus.

  20. Xerxes refers here to the earlier part of the speech of Artabanus, and the perils there put forward (ch. 10, §1–3).

  21. Herodotus tells us at the beginning of his History that the Persians considered Asia and all its nations as their own always.

  22. Putting out the eyes has been in all ages a common Oriental punishment. The earliest instance on record is that of Zedekiah, whose eyes were put out by Nebuchadnezzar (Jerem. xxxix, 7 and lii, 11). Grote sees in this whole narrative nothing but ‘religious imagination’ – a mythus embodying the deep conviction, alike of Greeks and of Persians, that nothing short of a direct divine interposition could have brought about the transcendently great events which were connected with the expedition of Xerxes. I incline, with Bishop Thirlwall, to suspect a foundation in fact for the stories that were told. The weak mind of Xerxes may have been imposed upon by a pretended spectre, and the stronger one of Artabanus may have been subdued by threats.

  23. See i, 108. For the general practice among the Oriental nations to attend to dreams, and to require an interpretation of them from their priests, see Gen. xli, 8; and Dan. ii, 2 and iv, 6.

 
24. Various modes have been adopted of explaining the chronology of the period between the battles of Marathon and Salamis. All accounts agree in stating the interval at ten years. The numbers in Herodotus are with difficulty brought within this interval.

  25. See i, 103–6; iv, 1 and 12.

  26. By the ‘Ionian Sea’ Herodotus means the Adriatic (vi, 7; and ix, 92)

  27. See xi, 44.

  28. Sane was situated on the southern coast of the isthmus, near the mouth of the canal of Xerxes.

  29. Distinct appearances of the ancient cutting have been discovered almost across its whole extent, only failing where the canal approached the sea, and somewhat indistinctly marked in the alluvial plain north of the hills. The canal forms a line of ponds, from two to eight feet deep and from sixty to ninety broad, nearly from one sea to the other.

  30. The light ships of the ancients were easily transported in this way across the land.

  31. The exact site cannot be fixed; but it was probably near the Serrhean promontory of Stephen.

  32. See ch. 59.

  33. See ch, 113.

  34. It is the modern Dinar (lat. 38° 3’, long. 30° 20’). This town, which abounds in remains of high antiquity, is situated near the source of the southern or main stream of the Maeander.

  35. The golden vine was even more famous than the plane tree. The bunches of grapes were imitated by means of the most costly precious stones. It overshadowed the couch on which the kings slept.

  36. The stater was the only gold coin known to the Greeks generally. It was adopted by them from the Asiatics. The Persian Daric was a gold coin very like the stater and did not greatly differ in value from it.

  37. [A town on the Lycus (Churuk Su), a tributary of the Maeander, in that part of the Roman province of Asia called Phrygia by the Greeks – E.H.B.]

  38. The hot springs near Sarai Kieui seem to mark this site.

  39. The tamarisk still grows here in abundance.

  40. The plane trees of this district are magnificent.

  41. See ch. 83.

  42. The reason for this abstinence is given below (ch. 133)

  43. Madytus was one of the less important cities of the Chersonese.

  44. See ix, 116–20.

  45. The remark of Dean Blakesley is just, that ‘the Hellespont, perfectly land-locked, and with a stream running some three knots an hour, presents to a person who is sailing on it altogether the appearance of a river.’

  46. When these breakwaters were allowed to fall into decay, the two ends of the canal would soon be silted up and disappear.

  47. The anecdote is probably apocryphal.

  48. Compare with this the similar story of Oeobazus (iv, 84). The tales are important, as indicating the rigour with which personal service was exacted among the Oriental nations, especially when the monarch was himself going to the field.

  49. It is plain from the whole narrative (see ch. 60–86, 210; and ix, 31) that in the Persian army, as in the Greek, the contingents of the several nations formed distinct and separate corps.

  50. The Persian monarchs fought from chariots down to the era of the Macedonian conquest.

  51. That is, with the point upward.

  52. These were probably the Immortals, who are spoken of in ch. 83, and are there said to have served on foot.

  53. The plain of Thebe was so called from an ancient town of that name in the northern part of the plain at the foot of Mount Ida.

  54. For the situation of Antandrus, see v, 26.

  55. The true Ida must have been left considerably to the right.

  56. Though the Scamander of Herodotus (the modern Mendere) has a bed from 200 to 300 feet broad, yet the stream in the dry season is reduced to a slender brook not more than three feet deep.

  57. By the ‘Pergamus of Priam’ is to be understood the acropolis of New Ilium.

  58. These were all places of small importance on or near the coast.

  59. See v, 122.

  60. The remains of Abydos lie a little north of the upper castle of the Dardanelles.

  61. This, of course, was not true; but the Persians might not unnaturally be supposed ignorant of all the Ionians of Europe except the Athenians.

  62. Compare viii, 22, where Themistocles makes use of the same argument.

  63. Ormuzd is spoken of throughout the Inscriptions as ‘the chief of the gods’.

  64. The Persian acinaces was a short sword, not a scimitar. It was straight, not curved.

  65. The modem Cape Gremea.

  66. Aenos retains its name almost unchanged in the modern Enos (lat. 40° 45’, long. 26° 4’).

  67. Herodotus appears to intend the vast lake or marsh on the left bank of the Hebrus (Maritza), near its mouth, which is one of the most remarkable features of this district.

  68. Serrheum is undoubtedly Cape Makri. It lay east of Mesambria.

  69. The Ciconians were among the most celebrated of the early Thracian tribes. Homer represents them as inhabiting this same tract at the time of the Trojan war (Odyssey ix, 39–59).

  70. See ch. 150.

  71. Compare Book i, ch. 135, where the adoption by the Persians of the ordinary Median costume is mentioned. It appears by this passage that they likewise adopted their military equipment.

  72. The mitra, which was worn also by the Cyprian princes in the fleet of Xerxes (ch. 90), and by the Babylonians as part of their ordinary costume (i, 195), was regarded both by Greeks and Romans as a token of effeminacy. It is generally thought to have been a sort of turban.

  73. This description agrees tolerably, but not quite exactly, with the costume seen in the sculptures. The difference is not surprising, as the latest sculptures are at the least two centuries earlier than the time of Xerxes.

  74. ‘Syrian’ and ‘Assyrian’ are in reality two entirely different words. ‘Syrian’ is nothing but a variant of ‘Tyrian’.

  75. Herodotus seems here to use the word ‘Chaldaean’ in an ethnic sense, and to designate, not the priest-caste of Book i (chs. 181–3) but the inhabitants of lower Babylonia.

  76. According to Hellanicus, the word ‘Amyrgian’ was strictly a geographical title, Amyrgium being the name of the plain in which these Scythians dwelt.

  77. Saka is the word used throughout the Persian inscriptions.

  78. The flowing dress or petticoat called zeira (zira), supported by a girdle, is very similar to their present costume.

  79. Bows of this kind were not usual among either the Greeks or the oriental nations.

  80. The stone used was an agate.

  81. The Arabians here spoken of, who served under the same commander as the Ethiopians, were probably those of Africa, who occupied the tract between the valley of the Nile and the Red Sea.

  82. The word ‘Bryges’ in Macedonian would be identical with ‘Phryges’.

  83. The Thracians of Europe wore exactly the same costume.

  84. See i, 28.

  85. Compare ch. 20.

  86. There is a defect here in the text of Herodotus; the name of the nation has been lost.

  87. See ch. 91.

  88. That is, bows of cornel-wood. See ch. 92.

  89. These three nations had become independent of Persia by the time of Xenophon.

  90. All accounts agree in representing the use of ornaments in pure gold as common among the Persians.

  91. The use of the lasso was common in ancient times to many of the nations of Western Asia. It is seen in the Assyrian sculptures from the palace of Asshur bani-pal.

  92. See iv, 170 and 189.

  93. The speed of the dromedary being equal to that of a horse is an error; it scarcely exceeds nine miles an hour. The camel answers to the carthorse, the dromedary to the saddle-horse. Each has one hump,
the Bactrian camel has two. It is singular that the camel is not represented in the Egyptian sculptures. An instance occurs only of late time. But this does not prove its non-existence in Egypt, as it was there in the age of Abraham.

  94. See i, 80.

  95. For a description of these corselets, see Book ii, ch. 182.

  96. This was the characteristic of the pelta, or light targe. It consisted of a framework of wood or wickerwork, over which was stretched a covering of raw hide or leather.

  97. The name Palestine is beyond a doubt the Greek form of the Hebrew Philistia.

  98. Cythnus was one of the Cyclades.

  99. The Cilicians were undoubtedly a kindred race to the Phoenicians.

  100. See i, 173.

  101. See i, 171. We may conclude from this passage that Herodotus regarded his work as divided into certain definite portions; though of course we are not entitled to identify these with the divisions which have come down to us.