by Herodotus
26. See i, 56.
27. The Ozolian Locrians dwelt on the shores of the Corinthian Gulf.
28. The Cephissus rises from the base of Parnassus.
29. The Persians were determined, however, in true iconoclastic spirit, to destroy, if possible, all the principal Greek temples.
30. Orchomenus, the most famous of the Boeotian cities next to Thebes.
31. See i, 50, 51.
32. The two peaks rising immediately above Delphi (Kastri), are probably intended.
33. The Corycian cave, sacred to Pan and the Nymphs.
34. Whither the other Phocians had already fled (ch. 32).
35. Delphi stood on the side of a rocky hill in the form of a theatre, to which a succession of terraces gave it a still greater resemblance. The Temple of Apollo was about the centre of the curve.
36. The Castalian spring may be distinctly recognised in the modern fountain of Aio Jánni. It lies at the base of the precipices of Parnassus.
37. The Athenian who, without such proclamation, left his country at a time of danger, was considered guilty of a capital offence.
38. The Troezenians received them with much kindness, and voted them sustenance-money at the rate of two obols a day for each person.
39. See vii, 141.
40. See i, 56.
41. See v, 83.
42. Two triremes and two penteconters (ch. 1).
43. Seriphos, Siphnos, and Melos form, together with Ceos and Cythnus, the western Cyclades, which were now especially threatened by the advance of the Persian fleet. Their remoteness from Asia had emboldened them to refuse submission; their danger now induced them to appear in arms.
44. See iii, 116.
45. The actual number of the Greek ships engaged is variously stated. Aeschylus, who was one of the combatants, makes them 300, or 310; Thucydides, 400, or according to some manuscripts, 300.
46. The temple of Athene Polias in the Acropolis.
47. The keepers of the sacred treasures of Athene were ten in number.
48. The Athenian citadel or Acropolis.
49. See vii, 141.
50. Ares’ Hill, the seat of the celebrated court of the Areopagus, made still more famous by the preaching of St Paul (Acts xvii, 22), is one of the features of Athenian topography which cannot be mistaken.
51. Aglaurus, the daughter of Cecrops, was said to have thrown herself over the precipices of the Acropolis.
52. The traces of this destruction may still be seen, though the structures have been rebuilt.
53. Pausanias tells us that this ‘sea’ was a well of salt water.
54. The myth is given more fully by Apollodorus than by any other writer. ‘The gods,’ he says, ‘were minded to choose themselves cities where they should be specially worshipped. Poseidon was the first to reach Attica, where he smote with his trident, and made a sea spring up in the midst of the Acropolis, where it remains to this day, and is called the Sea of Erechtheus. Athene followed, and calling Cecrops to be witness that she took the land in possession, planted the olive which still grows in the temple of Pandrosus. Then a strife arose concerning the country: so Zeus, to reconcile the rivals, appointed judges, who were not Cecrops and Cranaus, as some say, nor yet Erechtheus, but the twelve deities. Their decision adjudged the land to Athene, upon the witness of Cecrops; and so Athens gained its name, being called after the goddess.’
55. See vii, 141.
56. Two hundred ships would imply at least 40,000 men, a force greater (probably) than that which any Greek state, except Sparta, could have brought into the field.
57. The chief details concerning the greater Eleusinia, of which the mystic hymn to Dionysus was a part, are carefully collected in Smith’s Dictionary of Antiquities.
58. Demeter and Persephone.
59. See ch. 25.
60. The name Euripus applies, strictly speaking, only to the very narrowest part of the channel between Euboea and the mainland.
61. Naxos, Cythnos, Seriphos, Siphnos, and Melos (ch. 46).
62. Compare vii, 98.
63. See vii, 8, §2.
64. The Scironian Way led from Megara to Corinth, along the eastern shore of the Isthmus.
65. The Isthmus is about four miles across at its narrowest point, and nearly five where the wall was built.
66. See vii, 206.
67. That the Arcadians were aboriginal inhabitants of the Peloponnese was the unanimous tradition of antiquity.
68. Cynuria, or Cynosuria, was the border territory between Sparta and Argos upon the coast.
69. See vii, 94; compare i, 145.
70. Sparta, Argos, Mycenae, Troezen, Epidaurus, Corinth, and Sicyon.
71. Cardamyle was on the opposite side of the Coronaean Gulf to Asine. It was an old Achaean settlement, and important enough to be mentioned by Homer (Iliad ix, 150).
72. See iv, 148.
73. Themistocles is said to have had five sons.
74. Psyttaleia is the small island now called Lipsokutáli, which lies between the Piraeus and the eastern extremity of Salamis.
75. The Marathonian promontory of the name.
76. ‘Brilliant’ or ‘fruitful’ Athens would be a closer translation. The epithet liparai is a favourite one in this connection.
77. See ch. 20.
78. After a long struggle, Aristides had been ostracised through the influence of Themistocles, three years earlier, BC 483. The stories told in connection with his ostracism are well known, and will be found in Plutarch.
79. See ch. 11. The calculation here made confirms the total in ch. 48.
80. The Epibatae, or armed portion of the crew of a trireme, corresponding to our marines, varied in amount at different periods of Greek history. The greatest number ever found is forty.
81. See ch. 64.
82. Pallene was one of the most famous of the Athenian provincial towns.
83. [The harbour of Athens. – E.H.B.]
84. See ch. 69, and ch. 90. The anger of Xerxes, as we see in the latter passage, led to very serious consequences.
85. See vii, 100.
86. He was probably one of the royal house.
87. Crius had been mentioned as one of the chief men in Aegina (vi, 73).
88. See vii, 181.
89. Anagyrus was one of the maritime demes [or parishes] between the Piraeus and Sunium.
90. Ten thousand drachmas would be equal to £400 of our money. [1996 note: see also Book ii, note 333.]
91. There can be no doubt that the tale was altogether false.
92. The description of the battle of Salamis in Aeschylus (Persae 359–438), as the account of an eye-witness and combatant, must always hold a primary place among the records of the time. It does not appear to have been known to Herodotus, yet it confirms his account in all the principal features.
93. Concerning these poets; see vii, 6, and viii, 20.
94. Probably in the time of Herodotus swift camels were employed in the postal service of the Persian Empire.
95. See ch. 68, §1.
96. We have here the first instance in authentic Persian history of the influence of the eunuchs, which afterwards became so great an evil.
97. See i, 160; vi, 28 and 29.
98. See ch. 103.
99. Cape Zoster is undoubtedly the modern Cape Lumbardha.
100. See vii, 10, §5.
101. See vii, 35.
102. See ch. 75.
103. See ch. 4.
104. See vi, 99.
105. See vii, 83, 211 and 215.
106. Troops especially attached to the king’s person (vii, 40).
107. At Siris, not in Macedonia.
108. Rhodope proper appears
to have been the chain now called Despoto Dagh.
109. Xerxes remained at Sardis the whole of the winter and during a considerable portion of the next year (ix, 107).
110. The Epibatae, or ‘marines’, of which each trireme in the Persian fleet carried thirty (vii,184).
111. See ch. 93.
112. See i, 51. The silver bowl of Croesus is intended, which stood ‘in the corner of the ante-chapel.’
113. Aphidnae, or Aphidna, was one of the most ancient of the Attic demes.
114. An island at the mouth of the Saronic Gulf.
115. Artabazus had previously commanded the Parthians and Chorasmians (vii, 66). His prudent conduct at Plataea is noticed (ix, 66).
116. See i, 149.
117. See ix, 102.
118. See vi, 71.
119. See vi, 52.
120. See vi, 131. That Xanthippus had succeeded Themistocles in the command of the fleet, does not imply that the latter had ceased to be a strategos.
121. Rhetorical exaggeration. The passage from Europe to Asia, through the islands, must have been thoroughly familiar to the Greeks of this period. Even the Spartans were accustomed to make it.
122. One of the most flourishing towns of Northern Greece,
123. The cave of Trophonius was situated at a little distance from the city.
124. Prophetic dreams were supposed to visit those who slept in this temple on the fleece of a ram which they had first offered to the god.
125. Alabanda is said above (vii, 195) to have belonged to Caria.
126. The tale went that Midas, one day when he was hunting, caught Silenus, and forced him to answer a number of questions.
127. Mount Bermius is undoubtedly the range which shuts in the Macedonian maritime plain upon the west.
128. See vii, 173.
129. Alexander was not a tyrant (turannos) in any proper acceptation of the word. He was a king (basileus) as truly as Xerxes or Leonidas.
Book Nine
1. Mardonius, when Alexander upon his return made known to him the answer of the Athenians, forthwith broke up from Thessaly, [1] and led his army with all speed against Athens; forcing the several nations through whose land he passed to furnish him with additional troops. The chief men of Thessaly, far from repenting of the part which they had taken in the war hitherto, urged on the Persians to the attack more earnestly than ever. Thorax of Larissa in particular, who had helped to escort Xerxes on his flight to Asia, now openly encouraged Mardonius in his march upon Greece.
2. When the army reached Boeotia, the Thebans sought to induce Mardonius to make a halt: ‘He would not,’ they told him, ‘find anywhere a more convenient place in which to pitch his camp; and their advice to him was, that he should go no further, but fix himself there, and thence take measures to subdue all Greece without striking a blow. If the Greeks, who had held together hitherto, still continued united among themselves, it would be difficult for the whole world to overcome them by force of arms. But if thou wilt do as we advise,’ they went on to say, ‘thou mayest easily obtain the direction of all their counsels. Send presents to the men of most weight in the several states, and by so doing thou wilt sow division among them. After that, it will be a light task, with the help of such as side with thee, to bring under all thy adversaries.’
3. Such was the advice of the Thebans: but Mardonius did not follow it. A strong desire of taking Athens a second time possessed him, in part arising from his inborn stubbornness, in part from a wish to inform the king at Sardis, by fire-signals along the islands, that he was master of the place. However, he did not on his arrival in Attica find the Athenians in their country – they had again withdrawn, some to their ships, but the greater part to Salamis – and he only gained possession of a deserted town. It was ten months after the taking of the city by the king that Mardonius came against it for the second time.
4. Mardonius, being now in Athens, sent an envoy to Salamis, one Murychides, a Hellespontine Greek, to offer the Athenians once more the same terms which had been conveyed to them by Alexander. The reason for his sending a second time, though he knew beforehand their unfriendly feelings towards him, was – that he hoped, when they saw the whole land of Attica conquered and in his power, their stubbornness would begin to give way. On this account, therefore, he dispatched Murychides to Salamis.
5. Now, when Murychides came before the council, and delivered his message, one of the councillors, named Lycidas, gave it as his opinion – ‘that the best course would be, to admit the proposals brought by Murychides, and lay them before the assembly of the people.’ This he stated to be his opinion, perhaps because he had been bribed by Mardonius, or it may be because that course really appeared to him the most expedient. However, the Athenians – both those in the council, and those who stood without, when they heard of the advice – were full of wrath and forthwith surrounded Lycidas, and stoned him to death. As for Murychides, the Hellespontine Greek, him they sent away unharmed. Now there was a stir in the island about Lycidas, and the Athenian women learnt what had happened. Then each exhorted her fellow, and one brought another to take part in the deed; and they all flocked of their own accord to the house of Lycidas, and stoned to death his wife and his children.
6. The circumstances under which the Athenians had sought refuge in Salamis were the following. So long as any hope remained that a Peloponnesian army would come to give them aid, they abode still in Attica; but when it appeared that the allies were slack and slow to move, while the invader was reported to be pressing forward and to have already entered Boeotia, then they proceeded to remove their goods and chattels from the mainland, and themselves again crossed the strait to Salamis. At the same time they sent ambassadors to Lacedaemon, who were to reproach the Lacedaemonians for having allowed the barbarian to advance into Attica, instead of joining them and going out to meet him in Boeotia. They were likewise to remind the Lacedaemonians of the offers by which the Persian had sought to win Athens over to his side, [2] and to warn them, that if no aid came from Sparta, the Athenians must consult for their own safety.
7. The truth was, the Lacedaemonians were keeping holiday at that time; for it was the feast of the Hyacinthia, [3] and they thought nothing of so much moment as to perform the service of the god. They were also engaged in building their wall across the Isthmus, which was now so far advanced that the battlements had begun to be placed upon it.
When the envoys of the Athenians, accompanied by ambassadors from Megara and Plataea, reached Lacedaemon, they came before the Ephors, and spoke as follows:
‘The Athenians have sent us to you to say – the king of the Medes offers to give us back our country, and wishes to conclude an alliance with us on fair and equal terms, without fraud or deceit. He is willing likewise to bestow on us another country besides our own, and bids us choose any land that we like. But we, because we reverenced Hellenic Zeus, and thought it a shameful act to betray Greece, instead of consenting to these terms, refused them; notwithstanding that we have been wronged and deserted by the other Greeks, and are fully aware that it is far more for our advantage to make peace with the Persian than to prolong the war with him. Still we shall not, of our own free will, consent to any terms of peace. Thus do we, in all our dealings with the Greeks, avoid what is base and counterfeit: while contrariwise, ye, who were but now so full of fear least we should make terms with the enemy, [4] having learnt of what temper we are, and assured yourselves that we shall not prove traitors to our country – having brought moreover your wall across the Isthmus to an advanced state – cease altogether to have any care for us. Ye covenanted with us to go out and meet the Persian in Boeotia; but when the time came, ye were false to your word, and looked on while the barbarian host advanced into Attica. At this time, therefore, the Athenians are angered with you; and justly – for ye have not done what was right. They bid you, however, make haste to s
end forth your army, that we may even yet meet Mardonius in Attica. Now that Boeotia is lost to us, the best place for the fight within our country, will be the plain of Thria.’
8. The Ephors, when they had heard this speech, delayed their answer till the morrow; and when the morrow came, till the day following. And thus they acted for ten days, continually putting off the ambassadors from one day to the next. Meanwhile the Peloponnesians generally were labouring with great zeal at the wall, and the work nearly approached completion. I can give no other reason for the conduct of the Lacedaemonians in showing themselves so anxious, at the time when Alexander came, that the Athenians should not join the Medes, and now being quite careless about it, except that at the former time the wall across the Isthmus was not complete, and they worked at it in great fear of the Persians, whereas now the bulwark had been raised, and so they imagined that they had no further need of the Athenians.
9. At last the ambassadors got an answer, and the troops marched forth from Sparta, under the following circumstances. The last audience had been fixed for the ambassadors, when, the very day before it was to be given, a certain Tegean, named Chileüs, a man who had more influence at Sparta than any other foreigner, learning from the Ephors exactly what the Athenians had said, addressed these words to them – ‘The case stands thus, O ye Ephors! If the Athenians are not our friends, but league themselves with the barbarians, however strong our wall across the Isthmus may be, there will be doors enough, and wide enough open too, by which the Persian may gain entrance to the Peloponnese. [5] Grant their request then, before they make any fresh resolve, which may bring Greece to ruin.’
10. Such was the counsel which Chileüs gave: and the Ephors, taking the advice into consideration, determined forthwith, without speaking a word to the ambassadors from the three cities, to despatch to the Isthmus a body of five thousand Spartans; and accordingly they sent them forth the same night, appointing to each Spartan a retinue of seven Helots, and giving the command of the expedition to Pausanias the son of Cleombrotus. 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 room. For the father of Pausanias, Cleombrotus, the son of Anaxandridas, no longer lived; he had died a short time after bringing back from the Isthmus the troops who had been employed in building the wall. A prodigy had caused him to bring his army home; for while he was offering sacrifice to know if he should march out against the Persian, the sun was suddenly darkened in mid sky. Pausanias took with him, as joint-leader of the army, Euryanax, the son of Dorieus, a member of his own family.