Herodotus The Histories Book 6 This was the end of Aristagoras, after he had brought about the Ionian revolt. Histiaeus, the tyrant of Miletus, arrived in Sardis after he was let go by Darius. When he came there from Susa, Artaphrenes, the governor of Sardis, asked him for what reason he supposed the Ionians had rebelled; Histiaeus said that he did not know and marvelled at what had happened, pretending to have no knowledge of the present troubles. [2] But Artaphrenes saw that he dissembled and, knowing the exact story of the revolt, said: “I will tell you, Histiaeus, the truth of this business: it was you who stitched this shoe, and Aristagoras who put it on.” 2. Thus spoke Artaphrenes regarding the revolt. Histiaeus was frightened by Artaphrenes' understanding of the matter and fled the next night to the sea, for he had deceived Darius by promising to subdue Sardo, the greatest of the islands, while secretly intending to make himself leader of the Ionians in their war against Darius. [2] Crossing over to Chios, he was taken and bound by the Chians, because they judged him to have been sent by Darius to make trouble for them. But when they learned the whole story of his hostility to the king, they set him free. 3. Then Histiaeus was asked by the Ionians why he had so zealously ordered Aristagoras to revolt from the king and done the Ionians such great harm. He did not at all reveal the true reason to them, telling them instead that king Darius had planned to remove the Phoenicians and settle them in Ionia, and the Ionians in Phoenicia; for this reason, he said, he had sent the order. The king had made no such plan, but Histiaeus wanted to frighten the Ionians. 4. Then Histiaeus, using Hermippus, a man of Atarneus, as messenger, sent letters to the Persians at Sardis, because they had previously talked with him about revolt. But Hermippus did not give the letters to the men to whom he was sent, and went and delivered them to Artaphrenes instead. [2] Artaphrenes, learning all that was afoot, bade Hermippus carry Histiaeus' letters to those for whom he was bringing them, and give him those which the Persians sent in answer to Histiaeus. Thus these men became known, and then Artaphrenes put many Persians to death. 5. So troubles arose in Sardis. Since he failed in this hope, the Chians brought Histiaeus back to Miletus at his own request. But the Milesians were glad enough to be rid of Aristagoras himself, and they had no wish to receive another tyrant into their country now that they had tasted freedom. [2] When Histiaeus tried to force his way into Miletus by night, he was wounded in the thigh by a Milesian. Since he was thrust out from his own city, he went back to Chios; when he could not persuade the Chians to give him ships, he then crossed over to Mytilene and persuaded the Lesbians to give him ships. [3] They manned eight triremes, and sailed with Histiaeus to Byzantium; there they encamped, and seized all the ships that were sailing out of the Euxine, except when the crews consented to serve Histiaeus. 6. Such were the doings of Histiaeus and the Mytilenaeans. Against Miletus itself a great fleet and army were expected, for the Persian generals had joined their power together and made one army, which they led against Miletus, taking less account of the other fortresses. Of the fleet, the Phoenicians were the most eager to fight, and there came with them to the war the newly subdued Cyprians, and the Cilicians and Egyptians. 7. These were coming to attack Miletus and the rest of Ionia. When the Ionians learned of it, they sent deputies to take counsel for them in the Panionium.1 When they came to that place and consulted, they resolved not to collect a land army to meet the Persians, but to leave the Milesians to defend their walls themselves, and to man their fleet to the last ship and gather as quickly as possible at Lade to fight for Miletus at sea. This Lade is a small island lying off the city of Miletus. 8. The Ionians then came there with their ships manned, and with them the Aeolians who dwell in Lesbos. This was their order of battle: The Milesians themselves had the eastern wing, bringing eighty ships; next to them were the Prieneans with twelve ships, and the Myesians with three; next to the Myesians were the Teians with seventeen ships; next to these the Chians with a hundred; near these in the line were the Erythraeans, bringing eight ships, and the Phocaeans with three, and next to these the Lesbians with seventy; last of all in the line were the Samians, holding the western wing with sixty ships. [2] The total number of all these together was three hundred and fifty-three triremes. 9. These were the Ionian ships; the ships of the foreigners were six hundred. When these, too, reached the Milesian shore, and all their land power was present, the Persian generals, learning the number of the Ionian ships, feared they would be too weak to overcome the Greeks. If they did not have mastery of the sea, they would not be able to take Miletus, and would be in danger of some evil treatment by Darius. [2] With this in mind, they gathered the tyrants of the Ionians who had been deposed from their governments by Aristagoras of Miletus and had fled to the Medes, and who now were with the army that was led against Miletus. They gathered as many of these men as were with them and said to them: [3] “Men of Ionia, let each one of you now show that he has done good service to the king's house; let each one of you try to separate your own countrymen from the rest of the allied power. Set this promise before them: they will suffer no harm for their rebellion, neither their temples nor their houses will be burnt, nor will they in any way be treated more violently than before. [4] But if they will not do so and are set on fighting, then utter a threat that will restrain them: if they are defeated in battle, they will be enslaved; we will make eunuchs of their boys, and carry their maidens captive to Bactra, and hand over their land to others.” 10. So they spoke; the Ionian tyrants sent their messages by night, each to his own countrymen. But the Ionians to whom these messages came were stubborn and would have no part of the treachery, each thinking that the Persians made this offer to them alone. This happened immediately after the Persians arrived at Miletus. 11. Then the Ionians who had gathered at Lade held assemblies; among those whom I suppose to have addressed them was Dionysius, the Phocaean general, who spoke thus: [2] “Our affairs, men of Ionia, stand on the edge of a razor, whether to be free men or slaves, and runaway slaves at that. If you now consent to endure hardships, you will have toil for the present time, but it will be in your power to overcome your enemies and gain freedom; but if you will be weak and disorderly, I see nothing that can save you from paying the penalty to the king for your rebellion. [4] Believe me and entrust yourselves to me; I promise you that (if the gods deal fairly with us) either our enemies shall not meet us in battle, or if they do they shall be utterly vanquished.” 12. When the Ionians heard this, they put themselves in Dionysius' hands. He then each day put out to sea with ships in column, using the rowers to pierce each other's line of ships,2 and arming the fighting men on board; for the rest of the day he kept the fleet at anchor; all day he made the Ionians work. [2] For seven days they obeyed him and did his bidding; but on the next day, untried as they were in such labor and worn out by hard work and by the sun, the Ionians began to say each to other: [3] “Against what god have we sinned that we have to fulfill this task? We have lost our minds and launched out into folly, committing ourselves into the hands of this Phocaean braggart, who brings but three ships; and having got us he afflicts us with afflictions incurable. Many of us have fallen sick already, and many are likely to suffer the same thing; instead of these ills, it would be better for us to suffer anything, and endure this coming slavery, whatever it will be, rather than be oppressed by that which is now upon us. Come, let us obey him no longer!” [4] So they spoke, and from then on no man would obey. As if they were an army, they raised tents on the island where they stayed in the shade, and they were unwilling to embark upon their ships or to continue their exercises. 13. When the generals of the Samians learned what the Ionians were doing, they recalled that message which Aeaces son of Syloson had already sent them at the Persians' bidding, entreating them to desert the Ionian alliance; seeing great disorder on the Ionian side, they consented to the message; moreover, it seemed impossible to them to overcome the king's power, and they were well assured that if they overcame Darius' present fleet, another one five times as large would come. [2] Therefore, as soon as they saw the Ionians refusing to be useful, they took up that for a pretext, considering it advantageous to save their own temples and houses. This Aeaces, from whom they received the message, was the son of Syloson son of Aeaces, and had been tyrant of Samos until he was deposed from his rule by Aristagoras of Miletus, just like the other Ionian tyrants. 14. Now when the Phoenician fleet came sailing against them, the Ionians put out to sea against them with their ships in column. When they drew near and met each other in battle, which of the Ionians were brave men or cowards then in that sea-fight I cannot exactly say; for they all blame each other. [2] The Samians are said, according to their agreement with Aeaces, to have raised their sails and gone off to Samos, leaving their post, all except eleven ships. [3] The captains of these stood their ground and fought, disobeying their admirals. For this deed the Samian people granted that their names and patronymics should be engraved on a pillar as brave men; this pillar now stands in their market-place. But the Lesbians, seeing their neighbors fleeing, did the same as the Samians; and most of the Ionians did likewise. 15. The most roughly handled of those that stood their ground in the sea-fight were the Chians, since they refused to be cowards and achieved deeds of renown. They brought a hundred ships to the fleet, as was mentioned above, and on each ship were forty picked men of their citizens. [2] Seeing themselves betrayed by the greater part of their allies, they did not think it right to act like the worst among them; with only a few allies to aid them they fought on and broke the enemy's line, until they had taken many ships but lost most of their own. 16. The Chians escaped to their own country with their remaining ships, but the crews of the Chian ships that were damaged and disabled were pursued and took refuge in Mykale. There the men beached and left their ships, and made their way across the mainland. [2] But when the Chians entered the lands of Ephesus on their march, they came by night while the women were celebrating the Thesmophoria; then the Ephesians, never having heard the story of the Chians and seeing an army invading their country, were fully persuaded that these were robbers come after their women; so they mustered all their force and killed the Chians. 17. So these men met with such a fate. As for Dionysius the Phocaean, when he saw that the Ionian cause was lost, he sailed away with the three enemy ships that he had captured; but not to Phocaea, now that he knew well that it would be enslaved with the rest of Ionia; he right away sailed straight to Phoenicia instead, sunk some merchant ships, took a lot of money, and sailed to Sicily; from this base he set himself up as a pirate, robbing Carthaginians and Tyrrhenians, but no Greeks. 18. When the Persians had conquered the Ionians by sea, they laid siege to Miletus by sea and land, mining the walls and using every device against it, until they utterly captured it in the sixth year after the revolt of Aristagoras.3 They enslaved the city, and thus the calamity agreed with the oracle concerning Miletus. 19. When the Argives inquired at Delphi about the safety of their city, a common response was given, one part regarding the Argives themselves, but there was an additional response for the Milesians. [2] I will mention the part concerning the Argives when I come to that part of my history; this was the prophecy given to the Milesians in their absence: “Then, Miletus, contriver of evil deeds, For many will you become a banquet and glorious gifts; Your wives will wash the feet of many long-haired men; Other ministers will tend my Didyman4 shrine! ” [3] All this now came upon the Milesians, since most of their men were slain by the Persians, who wore long hair, and their women and children were accounted as slaves, and the temple at Didyma with its shrine and place of divination was plundered and burnt. Of the wealth that was in this temple I have often spoken elsewhere in my history. 20. After that, the captive Milesians were brought to Susa. King Darius did them no further harm, settling them by the sea called Red, in the city of Ampe, by which the river Tigris flows as it issues into the sea. Of the Milesian land the Persians themselves held what was nearest to the city, and the plain, giving the hill country into the possession of Carians from Pedasa. 21. Now when the Milesians suffered all this at the hands of the Persians, the Sybarites (who had lost their city and dwelt in Laus and Scidrus) did not give them equal return for what they had done. When Sybaris was taken by the Crotoniates, all the people of Miletus, young and old, shaved their heads and made great public lamentation; no cities which we know were ever so closely joined in friendship as these. [2] The Athenians acted very differently. The Athenians made clear their deep grief for the taking of Miletus in many ways, but especially in this: when Phrynichus wrote a play entitled “The Fall of Miletus” and produced it, the whole theater fell to weeping; they fined Phrynichus a thousand drachmas for bringing to mind a calamity that affected them so personally, and forbade the performance of that play forever. 22. Miletus then was left empty of Milesians. The men of property among the Samians were displeased by the dealings of their generals with the Medes, so after the sea-fight they took counsel immediately and resolved that before Aeaces the tyrant came to their country they would sail to a colony, rather than remain and be slaves of the Medes and Aeaces. [2] The people of Zancle5 in Sicily about this time sent messengers to Ionia inviting the Ionians to the Fair Coast, desiring there to found an Ionian city. This Fair Coast, as it is called, is in Sicily, in that part which looks towards Tyrrhenia. At this invitation, the Samians alone of the Ionians, with those Milesians who had escaped, set forth. 23. In their journey a thing happened to them such as I will show. As they voyaged to Sicily, the Samians came to the country of the Epizephyrian6 Locrians at a time when the people of Zancle and their king (whose name was Scythes) were besieging a Sicilian town desiring to take it. [2] Learning this, Anaxilaus the tyrant of Rhegium, being then in a feud with the Zanclaeans, joined forces with the Samians and persuaded them to leave off their voyage to the Fair Coast and seize Zancle while it was deserted by its men. [3] The Samians consented and seized Zancle; when they learned that their city was taken, the Zanclaeans came to deliver it, calling to their aid Hippocrates the tyrant of Gela, who was their ally. [4] But Hippocrates, when he came bringing his army to aid them, put Scythes the monarch of Zancle and his brother Pythogenes in chains for losing the city, and sent them away to the city of Inyx. He betrayed the rest of the Zanclaeans to the Samians, with whom he had made an agreement and exchanged oaths. [5] The price which the Samians agreed to give him was that Hippocrates should take for his share half of the movable goods and slaves in the city, and all that was in the country. [6] Most of the Zanclaeans were kept in chains as slaves by Hippocrates himself; he gave three hundred chief men to the Samians to be put to death, but the Samians did not do so. 24. Scythes the monarch of Zancle escaped from Inyx to Himera, and from there he came to Asia and went up country to king Darius. Darius considered him the most honest man of all who had come up to him from Hellas; [2] for he returned by the king's permission to Sicily and from Sicily back again to Darius, until in old age he ended his life in Persia in great wealth. Without trouble the Samians planted themselves in that most excellent city of Zancle, after they had escaped from the Medes. 25. After the fight at sea for Miletus, the Phoenicians at the Persians' bidding brought Aeaces son of Syloson back to Samos, for the high worth of his service to them and for his great achievements. Because of the desertion of their ships in the sea-fight, the Samians were the only rebel people whose city and temples were not burnt. [2] After Miletus was captured, the Persians at once gained possession of Caria. Some of the towns submitted voluntarily; others were brought over by force. 26. All this happened so. Histiaeus the Milesian was at Byzantium, seizing the Ionian merchant ships as they sailed out of the Euxine, when he had news of the business of Miletus. Leaving all matters concerning the Hellespont in charge of Bisaltes of Abydos, son of Apollophanes, he himself sailed with the Lesbians to Chios and, when the Chian guardships would not receive him, fought in the Hollows of Chios (as they are called). [2] Many of their crews he killed; the rest of the people of the country, since they were crippled by the sea-fight, were mastered by Histiaeus with his Lesbians, setting out from Polichne in Chios. 27. It is common for some sign to be given when great ills threaten cities or nations; for before all this plain signs had been sent to the Chians. [2] Of a band of a hundred youths whom they had sent to Delphi only two returned, ninety-eight being caught and carried off by pestilence; moreover, at about this same time, a little before the sea-fight, the roof fell in on boys learning their letters: of one hundred and twenty of them one alone escaped. [3] These signs a god showed to them; then the sea-fight broke upon them and beat the city to its knees; on top of the sea-fight came Histiaeus and the Lesbians. Since the Chians were in such a bad state, he easily subdued them. 28. Then Histiaeus brought a great force of Ionians and Aeolians against Thasos. While he was besieging Thasos a message came that the Phoenicians were putting out to sea from Miletus to attack the rest of Ionia. When he learned this, he left Thasos unsacked, and hastened instead with all his army to Lesbos. [2] From there, since his army suffered from hunger, he crossed over to reap from Atarneus the corn there and the Mysian corn of the Caicus plain. Now it chanced that in that region was Harpagus, a Persian, with no small force under him; when Histiaeus landed, Harpagus met him in battle and took Histiaeus himself alive and killed most of his army. 29. Histiaeus was taken prisoner in this way: the Greeks fought with the Persians at Malene in the country of Atarneus; the armies fought for a long time, until the Persian cavalry charged and fell upon the Greeks. So this was the accomplishment of the cavalry; when the Greeks were routed, Histiaeus, supposing that the king would not put him to death for his present transgression, did what showed that he loved his life too well. [2] He was overtaken in his flight by a Persian, and when he was caught and about to be stabbed, he cried out in the Persian language and revealed himself to be Histiaeus the Milesian. 30. Now if he had been taken prisoner and brought to king Darius, he would have suffered no harm (to my thinking) and the king would have forgiven his guilt; but as it was, when Histiaeus was brought to Sardis, both because of what he had done, and for fear that he might escape and again win power at the court, Artaphrenes, governor of Sardis, and Harpagus, who had captured him, impaled his body on the spot, and sent his head embalmed to king Darius at Susa. [2] When Darius learned of this, he blamed those who had done it because they had not brought Histiaeus before him alive, and he commanded that the head should be washed and buried with due ceremony, as of a man who had done great good to Darius himself and to Persia. 31. Thus it fared with Histiaeus. The Persian fleet wintered at Miletus, and putting out to sea in the next year easily subdued the islands that lie off the mainland, Chios and Lesbos and Tenedos. Whenever they took an island, the foreigners would (net) the people. [2] This is the manner of their doing it: the men link hands and make a line reaching from the northern sea to the southern, and then advance over the whole island hunting the people down. They also captured the Ionian cities of the mainland in the same way, but not by netting the people; for that was not possible. 32. Then the Persian generals were not false to the threats they had made against the Ionians when they were encamped opposite them. When they had gained mastery over the cities, they chose out the most handsome boys and castrated them, making them eunuchs instead of men, and they carried the fairest maidens away to the king; they did all this, and they burnt the cities with their temples. Thus three times had the Ionians been enslaved, first by the Lydians and now twice in a row by the Persians. 33. Then the fleet departed from Ionia and captured everything which lies to the left of one sailing up the Hellespont; the right side had been subdued by the Persians themselves from the mainland. These are the regions of Europe that belong to the Hellespont: the Chersonese, in which there are many cities; Perinthus, and the forts that lie towards Thrace, and Selymbria and Byzantium. [2] The Byzantines and the Calchedonians beyond them did not even wait for the attack of the Phoenicians, but left their own land and fled away into the Euxine, and there settled in the city of Mesambria. The Phoenicians burnt the aforementioned places and turned against Proconnesus and Artace; after giving these also to the flames they sailed back to the Chersonese to finish off the remaining cities, as many as they had not destroyed at their former landing. [3] But they did not sail against Cyzicus at all; the Cyzicenes had already made themselves the king's subjects before the Phoenician expedition, by an agreement with the governor at Dascyleum, Oebares son of Megabazus. 34. The Phoenicians subdued all the cities in the Chersonese except Cardia. Miltiades son of Cimon son of Stesagoras was tyrant there. Miltiades son of Cypselus had gained the rule earlier in the following manner: the Thracian Dolonci held possession of this Chersonese. They were crushed in war by the Apsinthians, so they sent their kings to Delphi to inquire about the war. [2] The Pythia answered that they should bring to their land as founder the first man who offered them hospitality after they left the sacred precinct. But as the Dolonci passed through Phocis and Boeotia, going along the Sacred Way,7 no one invited them, so they turned toward Athens. 35. At that time in Athens, Pisistratus held all power, but Miltiades son of Cypselus also had great influence. His household was rich enough to maintain a four-horse chariot, and he traced his earliest descent to Aeacus and Aegina, though his later ancestry was Athenian. Philaeus son of Ajax was the first of that house to be an Athenian. [2] Miltiades was sitting on his porch when he saw the Dolonci go by with their foreign clothing and spears, so he called out to them, and when they came over, he invited them in for lodging and hospitality. They accepted, and after he entertained them, they revealed the whole story of the oracle to him and asked him to obey the god. [3] He was persuaded as soon as he heard their speech, for he was tired of Pisistratus' rule and wanted to be away from it. He immediately set out for Delphi to ask the oracle if he should do what the Dolonci asked of him. 36. The Pythia also bade him do so. Then Miltiades son of Cypselus, previously an Olympic victor in the four-horse chariot, recruited any Athenian who wanted to take part in the expedition, sailed off with the Dolonci, and took possession of their land. Those who brought him appointed him tyrant. [2] His first act was to wall off the isthmus of the Chersonese from the city of Cardia across to Pactye,8 so that the Apsinthians would not be able to harm them by invading their land. The isthmus is thirty-six stadia across, and to the south of the isthmus the Chersonese is four hundred and twenty stadia in length. 37. After Miltiades had pushed away the Apsinthians by walling off the neck of the Chersonese, he made war first on the people of Lampsacus, but the Lampsacenes laid an ambush and took him prisoner. However, Miltiades stood high in the opinion of Croesus the Lydian, and when Croesus heard what had happened, he sent to the Lampsacenes and commanded them to release Miltiades. If they did not do so, he threatened to cut them down like a pine tree. [2] The Lampsacenes went astray in their counsels as to what the utterance meant which Croesus had threatened them with, saying he would devastate them like a pine tree, until at last one of the elders understood and said what it was: the pine is the only tree that once cut down never sends out any shoots; it is utterly destroyed. So out of fear of Croesus the Lampsacenes released Miltiades and let him go. 38. So he escaped by the intervention of Croesus, but he later died childless and left his rule and possessions to Stesagoras, the son of his half-brother Cimon. Since his death, the people of the Chersonese offer sacrifices to him as their founder in the customary manner, instituting a contest of horse races and gymnastics. No one from Lampsacus is allowed to compete. [2] But in the war against the Lampsacenes Stesagoras too met his end and died childless; he was struck on the head with an axe in the town-hall by a man who pretended to be a deserter but in truth was an enemy and a man of violence. 39. Stesagoras met his end in this way. The sons of Pisistratus sent Miltiades, son of Cimon and brother of the dead Stesagoras, in a trireme to the Chersonese to take control of the country; they had already treated him well at Athens, feigning that they had not been accessory to the death of Cimon his father, which I will relate in another place. [2] Reaching the Chersonese, Miltiades kept himself within his house, professing thus to honor the memory of his brother Stesagoras. When the people of the Chersonese learned this, their ruling men gathered together from all the cities on every side, and came together in a group to show fellow-feeling with his mourning; but he put them in bonds. So Miltiades made himself master of the Chersonese; there he maintained a guard of five hundred men, and married Hegesipyle the daughter of Olorus, king of Thrace. 40. But not long after this Miltiades son of Cimon had come to the Chersonese, greater difficulties than the present afflictions overtook him. He had been driven from the country three years before this9 by the Scythians. The nomadic Scythians, provoked by Darius, gathered themselves together and rode as far as the Chersonese. [2] Miltiades did not await their attack and fled from the Chersonese, until the Scythians departed and the Dolonci brought him back again. All this had happened three years before the matters that now engaged him. 41. But now, learning that the Phoenicians were in Tenedos, he sailed away to Athens with five triremes loaded with the possessions that he had nearby. He set out from Cardia and crossed the Black Bay, and as he was sailing along the Chersonese the Phoenicians fell upon him with their ships. [2] Miltiades himself escaped with four of his ships to Imbros, but the fifth was pursued and overtaken by the Phoenicians. It happened that the captain of this ship was Metiochus, the eldest son of Miltiades by another wife, not the daughter of Olorus the Thracian. [3] The Phoenicians took this man captive with his ship; and when they heard that he was Miltiades' son, they brought him up to the king, thinking that this would be a very favorable service, because Miltiades had declared his opinion among the Ionians that they should obey the Scythians in their demand to break the bridge of boats and sail away to their homes. [4] But when the Phoenicians brought Miltiades' son Metiochus before him, Darius did him no harm but much good, giving him a house and possessions and a Persian wife, who bore him children who were reckoned as Persians. Miltiades made his way from Imbros to Athens. 42. In this year10 the Persians caused no further trouble for the Ionians, and at this same time certain things happened which greatly benefited the Ionians. Artaphrenes governor of Sardis summoned ambassadors from the cities and compelled the Ionians to make agreements among themselves that they would abide by the law and not rob and plunder each other. [2] He compelled them to do this, and he measured their lands by parasangs, which is the Persian name for a distance of thirty stadia, and ordered that each people should according to this measurement pay a tribute which has remained fixed as assessed by Artaphrenes ever since that time up to this day; the sum appointed was about the same as that which they had rendered before. This then kept them peaceable. 43. But at the beginning of spring11 the other generals were deposed by the king from their offices, and Mardonius son of Gobryas, a man young in years and recently married to Darius' daughter Artozostre, came down to the coast at the head of a very great army and fleet. [2] When Mardonius reached Cilicia at the head of this army, he himself embarked on shipboard and sailed with the rest of his ships, while other captains led the land army to the Hellespont. [3] When Mardonius arrived in Ionia in his voyage along the coast of Asia, he did a thing which I here set down for the wonder of those Greeks who will not believe Otanes to have declared his opinion among the Seven that democracy was best for Persia:12 Mardonius deposed all the Ionian tyrants and set up democracies in their cities. [4] He did this and hurried to the Hellespont. When a great multitude of ships and a great army were assembled, the Persians crossed the Hellespont on shipboard and marched through Europe, with Eretria and Athens as their goal. 44. This was the stated end of their expedition, but they intended to subdue as many of the Greek cities as they could. Their fleet subdued the Thasians, who did not so much as lift up their hands against it; their land army added the Macedonians to the slaves that they had already, for all the nations nearer to them than Macedonia had been made subject to the Persians before this. [2] Crossing over from Thasos they travelled near the land as far as Acanthus, and putting out from there they tried to round Athos. But a great and irresistible north wind fell upon them as they sailed past and dealt very roughly with them, driving many of their ships upon Athos. [3] It is said that about three hundred ships were lost, and more than twenty thousand men. Since the coasts of Athos abound in wild beasts, some men were carried off by beasts and so perished; others were dashed against the rocks; those who could not swim perished because of that, and still others by the cold. 45. Thus it fared with the fleet; as for Mardonius and his land army, while they were encamped in Macedonia, the Brygi of Thrace attacked them by night and killed many of them, wounding Mardonius himself. But not even these could escape being enslaved by the Persians; Mardonius did not depart from those lands before he had subjugated them. [2] After conquering them, he led his army away homewards, since the Brygi had dealt a heavy blow to his army and Athos an even heavier blow to his fleet. This expedition after an inglorious adventure returned back to Asia. 46. In the next year after this,13 Darius first sent a message bidding the Thasians, who were falsely reported by their neighbors to be planning rebellion, to destroy their walls and bring their ships to Abdera. [2] Since they had been besieged by Histiaeus of Miletus and had great revenues, the Thasians had used their wealth to build ships of war and surround themselves with stronger walls. [3] Their revenue came from the mainland and from the mines. About eighty talents on average came in from the gold-mines of the “Dug Forest”,14 and less from the mines of Thasos itself, yet so much that the Thasians, paying no tax on their crops, drew a yearly revenue from the mainland and the mines of two hundred talents on average, and three hundred when the revenue was greatest. 47. I myself have seen these mines; by far the most marvellous were those that were found by the Phoenicians who with Thasos colonized this island, which is now called after that Phoenician Thasos. [2] These Phoenician mines are between the place called Aenyra and Coenyra in Thasos, opposite Samothrace; they are in a great hill that has been dug up in the searching. So much for that. The Thasians at the king's command destroyed their walls and brought all their ships to Abdera. 48. Then Darius attempted to learn whether the Greeks intended to wage war against him or to surrender themselves. He sent heralds this way and that throughout Hellas, bidding them demand a gift of earth and water for the king. [2] He despatched some to Hellas, and he sent others to his own tributary cities of the coast, commanding that ships of war and transports for horses be built. 49. So the cities set about these preparations. The heralds who went to Hellas received what the king's proclamation demanded from many of those dwelling on the mainland and from all the islanders to whom they came with the demand. Among the islanders who gave earth and water to Darius were the Aeginetans. [3] The Athenians immediately came down upon them for doing this, for they supposed the Aeginetans to have given the gift out of enmity for Athens, so they might join with the Persians in attacking the Athenians. Gladly laying hold of this pretext, they went to Sparta and there accused the Aeginetans of acting to betray Hellas. 50. Regarding this accusation, Cleomenes son of Anaxandrides, king of Sparta, crossed over to Aegina intending to arrest the most culpable of its people. [2] But when he attempted to make the arrests, the Aeginetans opposed him, especially Crius son of Polycritus, who told him he would not take away any Aeginetan with impunity, for he had no authority from the Spartans for what he was doing; instead he had been bribed by the Athenians; otherwise he would have come to make the arrests with the other king. He said this because of a letter from Demaratus. [3] Driven from Aegina, Cleomenes asked Crius his name; and when Crius told him what it was, Cleomenes said to him, “Now is the time to put bronze on your horns, Mr. Ram,15 for great calamity will confront you.” 51. All this time Demaratus son of Ariston remained at Sparta and spread evil reports of Cleomenes. This Demaratus was also king of Sparta, but of the inferior house; not indeed inferior in any other regard (for they have a common ancestor), but the house of Eurysthenes has in some sort the greater honor by right of primogeniture.16 52. The Lacedaemonians say (but no poet agrees) that it was Aristodemus son of Aristomachus son of Cleodaeus son of Hyllus, and not his sons, who led them to that land which they now possess. [2] After no long time Aristodemus' wife, whose name was Argeia, bore him offspring; they say she was daughter of Autesion son of Tisamenus son of Thersander son of Polynices; she bore him twins; Aristodemus lived to see the children, then died of a sickness. [3] The Lacedaemonians of that day planned to follow their custom and make the eldest of the children king. But the children were identical in all respects, so the Lacedaemonians did not know which to choose; when they could not judge between them, or perhaps even before this, they asked the mother. [4] She said she knew no better than the Lacedaemonians which was the elder; she knew perfectly well, but she said this because she desired that by some means both might be made kings. The Lacedaemonians were at a loss, so they sent to Delphi to inquire how they should deal with the matter. [5] The priestess bade them make both children kings but give greater honor to the elder. When the priestess gave this response, the Lacedaemonians knew no better than before how to discover the elder child, and a man of Messenia, whose name was Panites, gave them advice: [6] he advised them to watch the mother and see which of the children she washed and fed before the other; if she was seen to do this always in the same order, they would then have all that they sought and desired to discover; but if she changed her practice haphazardly, then it would be manifest to the Lacedaemonians that she know no more than they did, and they must have recourse to some other means. [7] Then the Spartans did as the Messenian advised; as they watched the mother of Aristodemus' children, they found her always preferring the elder when she fed and washed them, since she did not know why she was being watched. So they took the child that was preferred by its mother and brought it up at public expense as the first-born; and they called it Eurysthenes, and the other Procles. [8] They say that when these two brothers grew to manhood, they feuded with each other as long as they lived, and their descendants continued to do likewise. 53. The Lacedaemonians are the only Greeks who tell this story. But in what I write I follow the Greek report, and hold that the Greeks correctly recount these kings of the Dorians as far back as Perseus son of Danae—they make no mention of the god17 —and prove these kings to be Greek; for by that time they had come to be classified as Greeks. [2] I said as far back as Perseus, and I took the matter no further than that, because no one is named as the mortal father of Perseus, as Amphitryon is named father of Heracles. So I used correct reasoning when I said that the Greek record is correct as far back as Perseus; farther back than that, if the king's ancestors in each generation, from Danae daughter of Acrisius upward, be reckoned, then the leaders of the Dorians will be shown to be true-born Egyptians. 54. Thus have I traced their lineage according to the Greek story; but the Persian tale is that Perseus himself was an Assyrian, and became a Greek, which his forebears had not been; the Persians say that the ancestors of Acrisius18 had no bond of kinship with Perseus, and they indeed were, as the Greeks say, Egyptians. 55. Enough of these matters. Why and for what achievements these men, being Egyptian, won the kingship of the Dorians has been told by others, so I will let it go, and will make mention of matters which others have not touched. 56. These privileges the Spartans have given to their kings: two priesthoods, of Zeus called Lacedaemon19 and of Zeus of Heaven; they wage war against whatever land they wish, and no Spartan can hinder them in this on peril of being put under a curse; when the armies go forth the kings go out first and return last; one hundred chosen men guard them in their campaigns; they sacrifice as many sheep and goats as they wish at the start of their expeditions, and take the hides and backs of all sacrificed beasts. 57. Such are their rights in war; in peace the powers given them are as follows: at all public sacrifices the kings first sit down to the banquet and are first served, each of them receiving a portion double of what is given to the rest of the company; they make the first libations, and the hides of the sacrificed beasts are theirs. [2] At each new moon and each seventh day of the first part of the month, a full-grown victim for Apollo's temple, a bushel of barley-meal, and a Laconian quart20 of wine are given to each from the public store, and chief seats are set apart for them at the games. [3] It is their right to appoint whatever citizens they wish to be protectors of foreigners;21 and they each choose two Pythians. (The Pythians are the ambassadors to Delphi and eat with the kings at the public expense.) If the kings do not come to the public dinner, two choenixes of barley-meal and half a pint of wine are sent to their houses, but when they come, they receive a double share of everything; and the same honor shall be theirs when they are invited by private citizens to dinner. [4] They keep all oracles that are given, though the Pythians also know them. The kings alone judge cases concerning the rightful possessor of an unwedded heiress, if her father has not betrothed her, and cases concerning public roads. [5] If a man desires to adopt a son, it is done in the presence of the kings. They sit with the twenty-eight elders in council; if they do not come, the elders most closely related to them hold the king's privilege, giving two votes over and above the third which is their own.22 58. The kings are granted these rights from the Spartan commonwealth while they live; when they die, their rights are as follows: Horsemen proclaim their death in all parts of Laconia, and in the city women go about beating on cauldrons. When this happens, two free persons from each house, a man and a woman, are required to wear mourning, or incur heavy penalties if they fail to do so. [2] The Lacedaemonians have the same custom at the deaths of their kings as the foreigners in Asia; most foreigners use the same custom at their kings' deaths. When a king of the Lacedaemonians dies, a fixed number of their subject neighbors must come to the funeral from all Lacedaemon, besides the Spartans. [6] When these and the helots and the Spartans themselves have assembled in one place to the number of many thousands, together with the women, they zealously beat their foreheads and make long and loud lamentation, calling that king that is most recently dead the best of all their kings. Whenever a king dies in war, they make an image of him and carry it out on a well-spread bier. For ten days after the burial there are no assemblies or elections, and they mourn during these days. 59. The Lacedaemonians also resemble the Persians in this: when one king is dead and another takes his office, this successor releases from debt any Spartan who owes a debt to the king or to the commonwealth. Among the Persians the king at the beginning of his reign forgives all cities their arrears of tribute. 60. The Lacedaemonians resemble the Egyptians in that their heralds and flute-players and cooks inherit the craft from their fathers, a flute-player's son being a flute-player, and a cook's son a cook, and a herald's son a herald; no others usurp their places, making themselves heralds by loudness of voice; they ply their craft by right of birth. Such is the way of these matters. 61. While Cleomenes was in Aegina working for the common good of Hellas, Demaratus slandered him, not out of care for the Aeginetans, but out of jealousy and envy. Once Cleomenes returned home from Aegina, he planned to remove Demaratus from his kingship, using the following affair as a pretext against him: Ariston, king of Sparta, had married twice but had no children. [2] He did not admit that he himself was responsible, so he married a third time. This is how it came about: he had among the Spartans a friend to whom he was especially attached. This man's wife was by far the most beautiful woman in Sparta, but she who was now most beautiful had once been the ugliest. [3] Her nurse considered her inferior looks and how she was of wealthy people yet unattractive, and, seeing how the parents felt her appearance to be a great misfortune, she contrived to carry the child every day to the sacred precinct of Helen, which is in the place called Therapne,23 beyond the sacred precinct of Phoebus. Every time the nurse carried the child there, she set her beside the image and beseeched the goddess to release the child from her ugliness. [4] Once as she was leaving the sacred precinct, it is said that a woman appeared to her and asked her what she was carrying in her arms. The nurse said she was carrying a child and the woman bade her show it to her, but she refused, saying that the parents had forbidden her to show it to anyone. But the woman strongly bade her show it to her, [5] and when the nurse saw how important it was to her, she showed her the child. The woman stroked the child's head and said that she would be the most beautiful woman in all Sparta. From that day her looks changed, and when she reached the time for marriage, Agetus son of Alcidas married her. This man was Ariston's friend. 62. So love for this woman pricked Ariston, and he contrived as follows: He promised to give to his comrade any one thing out of all he owned, whatever Agetus might choose, and he bade his comrade make him the same promise. Agetus had no fear about his wife, seeing that Ariston was already married, so he agreed and they took oaths on these terms. [2] Ariston gave Agetus whatever it was that he chose out of all his treasures, and then, seeking equal recompense from him, tried to take the wife of his comrade. Agetus said that he had agreed to anything but that, but he was forced by his oath and by the deceitful trick to let his wife be taken. 63. In this way Ariston married his third wife, after divorcing the second one. But his new wife gave birth to Demaratus too soon, before ten lunar months had passed. [2] When one of his servants announced to him as he sat in council with the ephors that he had a son, Ariston, knowing the time of the marriage, counted up the months on his fingers and swore on oath, “It's not mine.” The ephors heard this but did not make anything of it. When the boy grew up, Ariston regretted having said that, for he firmly believed Demaratus to be his own son. [3] He named him Demaratus because before his birth all the Spartan populace had prayed that Ariston, the man most highly esteemed out of all the kings of Sparta, might have a son. Thus he was named Demaratus, which means “answer to the people's prayer.” 64. Time passed and Ariston died, so Demaratus held the kingship. But it seems that these matters had to become known and cause Demaratus to lose his kingship. He had already fallen out with Cleomenes when he had brought the army back from Eleusis, and now they were even more at odds when Cleomenes crossed over after the Aeginetans who were Medizing. 65. Cleomenes wanted revenge, so he made a deal with Leotychides son of Menares son of Agis, of the same family as Demaratus. The deal was that Leotychides would go with Cleomenes against the Aeginetans if he became king. [2] Leotychides had already become strongly hostile to Demaratus for the following reason: Leotychides was betrothed to Percalus, daughter of Demarmenus, but Demaratus plotted and robbed him of his marriage, stealing Percalus and marrying her first. [3] From this affair Leotychides was hostile toward Demaratus, so at Cleomenes' instigation he took an oath against him, saying that he was not king of the Spartans by right, since he was not Ariston's son. After making this oath, he prosecuted him, recalling that utterance which Ariston had made when the servant told him he had a son, and he counted up the months and swore that it was not his. [4] Taking his stand on this remark, Leotychides declared that Demaratus was not Ariston's son and that he was not rightly king of Sparta, bringing as witnesses the ephors who had been sitting beside Ariston and heard him say this. 66. Disputes arose over it, so the Spartans resolved to ask the oracle at Delphi if Demaratus was the son of Ariston. [2] At Cleomenes' instigation this was revealed to the Pythia. He had won over a man of great influence among the Delphians, Cobon son of Aristophantus, and Cobon persuaded the priestess, Periallus, to say what Cleomenes wanted her to. [3] When the ambassadors asked if Demaratus was the son of Ariston, the Pythia gave judgment that he was not. All this came to light later; Cobon was exiled from Delphi, and Periallus was deposed from her position. 67. So it was concerning Demaratus' loss of the kingship, and from Sparta he went into exile among the Medes because of the following reproach: after he was deposed from the kingship, he was elected to office. [2] When it was the time of the Gymnopaidia,24 Leotychides, now king in his place, saw him in the audience and, as a joke and an insult, sent a messenger to him to ask what it was like to hold office after being king. [3] He was grieved by the question and said that he had experience of both, while Leotychides did not, and that this question would be the beginning for Sparta of either immense evil or immense good fortune. He said this, covered his head, left the theater, and went home, where he immediately made preparations and sacrificed an ox to Zeus. Then he summoned his mother. 68. When she came in, he put some of the entrails in her hands and entreated her, saying, “Mother, appealing to Zeus of the household and to all the other gods, I beseech you to tell me the truth. Who is my father? Tell me truly. [2] Leotychides said in the disputes that you were already pregnant by your former husband when you came to Ariston. Others say more foolishly that you approached to one of the servants, the ass-keeper, and that I am his son. [3] I adjure you by the gods to speak what is true. If you have done anything of what they say, you are not the only one; you are in company with many women. There is much talk at Sparta that Ariston did not have child-bearing seed in him, or his former wives would have given him children.” 69. Thus he spoke. His mother answered, “My son, since you adjure me by entreaties to speak the truth, I will speak out to you all that is true. On the third night after Ariston brought me to his house, a phantom resembling him came to me. It came and lay with me and then put on me the garlands which it had. [2] It went away, and when Ariston came in later and saw me with the garlands, he asked who gave them to me. I said he did, but he denied it. I swore an oath that just a little while before he had come in and lain with me and given me the garlands, and I said it was not good of him to deny it. [3] When he saw me swearing, he perceived that this was some divine affair. For the garlands had clearly come from the hero's precinct which is established at the courtyard doors, which they call the precinct of Astrabacus, and the seers responded that this was the same hero who had come to me. Thus, my son, you have all you want to know. [4] Either you are from this hero and Astrabacus the hero is your father, or Ariston is, for I conceived you that night. As for how your enemies chiefly attack you, saying that Ariston himself, when your birth was announced, denied in front of a large audience that you were his because the ten months had not yet been completed, he spoke an idle word, out of ignorance of such things. [5] Some women give birth after nine months or seven months; not all complete the ten months. I gave birth to you, my son, after seven months. A little later Ariston himself recognized that he had blurted out that speech because of foolishness. Do not believe other stories about your manner of birth. You have heard the whole truth. May the wife of Leotychides himself, and the wives of the others who say these things, give birth to children fathered by ass-keepers.” 70. Thus his mother spoke. After learning what he desired, Demaratus took provisions and travelled to Elis, pretending that he was going to Delphi to inquire of the oracle. But the Lacedaemonians suspected that he planned to escape and went in pursuit. [2] Demaratus somehow went across to Zacynthus from Elis before them; the Lacedaemonians crossed over after him and laid hands on him, carrying off his servants. But the Zacynthians refused to give him up, and later he crossed from there to Asia and went to king Darius, who received him in grand style and gave him lands and cities. [3] So Demaratus reached Asia through such chances, a man who had gained much renown in Lacedaemon by his many achievements and his wisdom, and by conferring on the state the victory in a chariot-race he had won at Olympia; he was the only king of Sparta who did this. 71. Leutychides son of Menares succeeded to the kingship after Demaratus was deposed. A son was born to him, Zeuxidemus, called by some of the Spartans Cyniscus. This Zeuxidemus never became king of Sparta, for he died before Leutychides, leaving his son Archidemus. [2] After the loss of Zeuxidemus, Leutychides married a second wife, Eurydame, sister of Menius and daughter of Diactorides; by her he had no male offspring, but a daughter, Lampito, to whom Archidemus son of Zeuxidemus was married by Leutychides. 72. But Leutychides also did not come to old age in Sparta; he was punished for his dealings with Demaratus as I will show. He led a Lacedaemonian army to Thessaly,25 and when he could have subdued all the country he took a great bribe. [2] After being caught in the act of hoarding a sleeve full of silver there in the camp, he was brought before a court and banished from Sparta, and his house was destroyed. He went into exile at Tegea and died in that country. 73. This happened long afterwards. When Cleomenes' dealings with Demaratus came off successfully, he immediately took Leutychides with him and went to punish the Aeginetans, with whom he was terribly angry because of their insulting behavior. [2] When the Aeginetans saw that both kings had come after them, they now deemed it best to offer no further resistance; the kings chose ten men of Aegina who were most honored for wealth and lineage, among them Crius son of Polycritus and Casambus son of Aristocrates, the two most powerful men in Aegina; they carried them to Attica and gave them into the keeping of the Athenians, the bitterest foes of the Aeginetans. 74. Later Cleomenes' treacherous plot against Demaratus became known; he was seized with fear of the Spartans and secretly fled to Thessaly. From there he came to Arcadia and stirred up disorder, uniting the Arcadians against Sparta; among his methods of binding them by oath to follow him wherever he led was his zeal to bring the chief men of Arcadia to the city of Nonacris and make them swear by the water of the Styx.26 [2] Near this city is said to be the Arcadian water of the Styx, and this is its nature: it is a stream of small appearance, dropping from a cliff into a pool; a wall of stones runs round the pool. Nonacris, where this spring rises, is a city of Arcadia near Pheneus. 75. When the Lacedaemonians learned that Cleomenes was doing this, they took fright and brought him back to Sparta to rule on the same terms as before. Cleomenes had already been not entirely in his right mind, and on his return from exile a mad sickness fell upon him: any Spartan that he happened to meet he would hit in the face with his staff. [2] For doing this, and because he was out of his mind, his relatives bound him in the stocks. When he was in the stocks and saw that his guard was left alone, he demanded a dagger; the guard at first refused to give it, but Cleomenes threatened what he would do to him when he was freed, until the guard, who was a helot, was frightened by the threats and gave him the dagger. [3] Cleomenes took the weapon and set about slashing himself from his shins upwards; from the shin to the thigh he cut his flesh lengthways, then from the thigh to the hip and the sides, until he reached the belly, and cut it into strips; thus he died, as most of the Greeks say, because he persuaded the Pythian priestess to tell the tale of Demaratus. The Athenians alone say it was because he invaded Eleusis and laid waste the precinct of the gods. The Argives say it was because when Argives had taken refuge after the battle in their temple of Argus27 he brought them out and cut them down, then paid no heed to the sacred grove and set it on fire. 76. As Cleomenes was seeking divination at Delphi, the oracle responded that he would take Argos. When he came with Spartans to the river Erasinus, which is said to flow from the Stymphalian28 lake (this lake issues into a cleft out of sight and reappears at Argos, and from that place onwards the stream is called by the Argives Erasinus）—when Cleomenes came to this river he offered sacrifices to it. [2] The omens were in no way favorable for his crossing, so he said that he honored the Erasinus for not betraying its countrymen, but even so the Argives would not go unscathed. Then he withdrew and led his army seaward to Thyrea, where he sacrificed a bull to the sea and carried his men on shipboard to the region of Tiryns and to Nauplia. 77. The Argives heard of this and came to the coast to do battle with him. When they had come near Tiryns and were at the place called Hesipeia, they encamped opposite the Lacedaemonians, leaving only a little space between the armies. There the Argives had no fear of fair fighting, but rather of being captured by a trick. [2] This was the affair referred to by that oracle which the Pythian priestess gave to the Argives and Milesians in common, which ran thus: “When the female defeats the male29 And drives him away, winning glory in Argos, She will make many Argive women tear their cheeks. As someday one of men to come will say: The dread thrice-coiled serpent died tamed by the spear. ” [3] All these things coming together spread fear among the Argives. Therefore they resolved to defend themselves by making use of the enemies' herald, and they performed their resolve in this way: whenever the Spartan herald signalled anything to the Lacedaemonians, the Argives did the same thing. 78. When Cleomenes saw that the Argives did whatever was signalled by his herald, he commanded that when the herald cried the signal for breakfast, they should then put on their armor and attack the Argives. [2] The Lacedaemonians performed this command, and when they assaulted the Argives they caught them at breakfast in obedience to the herald's signal; they killed many of them, and far more fled for refuge into the grove of Argus, which the Lacedaemonians encamped around and guarded. 79. Then Cleomenes' plan was this: He had with him some deserters from whom he learned the names, then he sent a herald calling by name the Argives that were shut up in the sacred precinct and inviting them to come out, saying that he had their ransom. (Among the Peloponnesians there is a fixed ransom of two minae to be paid for every prisoner.) So Cleomenes invited about fifty Argives to come out one after another and murdered them. [2] Somehow the rest of the men in the temple precinct did not know this was happening, for the grove was thick and those inside could not see how those outside were faring, until one of them climbed a tree and saw what was being done. Thereafter they would not come out at the herald's call. 80. Then Cleomenes bade all the helots pile wood about the grove; they obeyed, and he burnt the grove. When the fire was now burning, he asked of one of the deserters to what god the grove belonged; the man said it was of Argos. When he heard that, he groaned aloud, “Apollo, god of oracles, you have gravely deceived me by saying that I would take Argos; this, I guess, is the fulfillment of that prophecy.” 81. Then Cleomenes sent most of his army back to Sparta, while he himself took a thousand of the best warriors and went to the temple of Hera30 to sacrifice. When he wished to sacrifice at the altar the priest forbade him, saying that it was not holy for a stranger to sacrifice there. Cleomenes ordered the helots to carry the priest away from the altar and whip him, and he performed the sacrifice. After doing this, he returned to Sparta. 82. But after his return his enemies brought him before the ephors, saying that he had been bribed not to take Argos when he might have easily taken it. Cleomenes alleged (whether falsely or truly, I cannot rightly say; but this he alleged in his speech) that he had supposed the god's oracle to be fulfilled by his taking of the temple of Argus; therefore he had thought it best not to make any attempt on the city before he had learned from the sacrifices whether the god would deliver it to him or withstand him; [2] when he was taking omens in Hera's temple a flame of fire had shone forth from the breast of the image, and so he learned the truth of the matter, that he would not take Argos. If the flame had come out of the head of the image, he would have taken the city from head to foot utterly; but its coming from the breast signified that he had done as much as the god willed to happen. This plea of his seemed to the Spartans to be credible and reasonable, and he far outdistanced the pursuit of his accusers. 83. But Argos was so wholly deprived of men that their slaves took possession of all affairs, ruling and governing until the sons of the slain men grew up. Then they recovered Argos for themselves and cast out the slaves; when they were driven out, the slaves took possession of Tiryns by force. [2] For a while they were at peace with each other; but then there came to the slaves a prophet, Cleander, a man of Phigalea in Arcadia by birth; he persuaded the slaves to attack their masters. From that time there was a long-lasting war between them, until with difficulty the Argives got the upper hand.31 84. The Argives say this was the reason Cleomenes went mad and met an evil end; the Spartans themselves say that Cleomenes' madness arose from no divine agent, but that by consorting with Scythians he became a drinker of strong wine, and the madness came from this. [2] The nomadic Scythians, after Darius had invaded their land, were eager for revenge, so they sent to Sparta and made an alliance. They agreed that the Scythians would attempt to invade Media by way of the river Phasis, and they urged the Spartans to set out and march inland from Ephesus and meet the Scythians. [3] They say that when the Scythians had come for this purpose, Cleomenes kept rather close company with them, and by consorting with them more than was fitting he learned from them to drink strong wine. The Spartans consider him to have gone mad from this. Ever since, as they themselves say, whenever they desire a strong drink they call for “a Scythian cup.” Such is the Spartan story of Cleomenes; but to my thinking it was for what he did to Demaratus that he was punished thus. 85. When the Aeginetans heard that Cleomenes was dead, they sent messengers to Sparta to cry out against Leutychides concerning the hostages that were held at Athens. The Lacedaemonians then assembled a court and gave judgment that Leutychides had done violence to the Aeginetans; and they condemned him to be given up and carried to Aegina in requital for the men that were held at Athens. [2] But when the Aeginetans were about to carry Leutychides away, a man of repute at Sparta, Theasides son of Leoprepes, said to them, “Men of Aegina, what are you planning to do? To have the king of the Spartans given up to you by the citizens and carry him away? If the Spartans have now so judged in their anger, see that they do not bring utter destruction upon your country if you do this.” [3] The Aeginetans heard this and refrained from carrying the king away, and made an agreement that Leutychides should go with them to Athens and restore the men to the Aeginetans. 86. When Leutychides came to Athens and demanded back the hostages, the Athenians were unwilling to give them back and made excuses, saying that two kings had given them the trust and they deemed it wrong to restore it to one without the other. 86A. When the Athenians refused to give them back, Leutychides said to them: “Men of Athens, do whichever thing you desire. If you give them back, you do righteously; if you do not give them back, you do the opposite. But I want to tell you the story of what happened at Sparta in the matter of a trust. [2] We Spartans say that three generations ago there was at Lacedaemon one Glaucus, the son of Epicydes. We say that this man added to his other excellences a reputation for justice above all men who at that time dwelt in Lacedaemon. [3] But we say that at the fitting time this befell him: There came to Sparta a certain man of Miletus, who desired to have a talk with Glaucus and made him this offer: ‘I am a Milesian, and I have come to have the benefit of your justice, Glaucus. [4] Since there is much talk about your justice throughout all the rest of Hellas, and even in Ionia, I considered the fact that Ionia is always in danger while the Peloponnese is securely established, and nowhere in Ionia are the same men seen continuing in possession of wealth. [5] Considering and taking counsel concerning these matters, I resolved to turn half of my property into silver and deposit it with you, being well assured that it will lie safe for me in your keeping. Accept the money for me, and take and keep these tokens; restore the money to whoever comes with the same tokens and demands it back.’ 86B. Thus spoke the stranger who had come from Miletus, and Glaucus received the trust according to the agreement. After a long time had passed, the sons of the man who had deposited the money came to Sparta; they spoke with Glaucus, showing him the tokens and demanding the money back. [2] But Glaucus put them off and answered in turn: ‘I do not remember the matter, and nothing of what you say carries my mind back. Let me think; I wish to do all that is just. If I took the money, I will duly restore it; if I never took it at all, I will deal with you according to the customs of the Greeks. I will put off making my decision for you until the fourth month from this day.’ 86C. So the Milesians went away in sorrow, as men robbed of their possessions; but Glaucus journeyed to Delphi to question the oracle. When he asked the oracle whether he should seize the money under oath, the Pythian priestess threatened him in these verses: [2] “Glaucus son of Epicydes, it is more profitable now To prevail by your oath and seize the money. Swear, for death awaits even the man who swears true. But Oath has a son, nameless; he is without hands Or feet, but he pursues swiftly, until he catches And destroys all the family and the entire house. The line of a man who swears true is better later on. ” When Glaucus heard this, he entreated the god to pardon him for what he had said. The priestess answered that to tempt the god and to do the deed had the same effect. 86D. So Glaucus summoned the Milesian strangers and gave them back their money. But hear now, Athenians, why I began to tell you this story: there is today no descendant of Glaucus, nor any household that bears Glaucus' name; he has been utterly rooted out of Sparta. So good is it not even to think anything concerning a trust except giving it back on demand!” 87. Thus spoke Leutychides; but even so the Athenians would not listen to him, and he departed. The Aeginetans, before paying the penalty for the violence they had done to the Athenians to please the Thebans, acted as follows: blaming the Athenians and deeming themselves wronged, they prepared to take vengeance on the Athenians, who were now celebrating a quinquennial festival at Sunium. The Aeginetans set an ambush and captured the sacred ship, with many leading Athenians on board, and put in prison the men they seized. 88. Suffering this from the Aeginetans, the Athenians no longer put off devising all mischief against Aegina. There was a notable man in Aegina, Nicodromus son of Cnoethus by name, who held a grudge against the Aeginetans for his former banishment from the island. When he learned that the Athenians were now set upon harming the Aeginetans, he agreed to betray Aegina to the Athenians, naming the day when he would make the attempt and when they must come to aid him. 89. Later Nicodromus, according to his agreement with the Athenians, took possession of the Old City, as it was called; but the Athenians were not there at the right time, for they did not have ships worthy to fight the Aeginetans. While they were asking the Corinthians to lend them ships, the affair was ruined. The Corinthians at that time were their close friends, so they consented to the Athenians' plea and gave them twenty ships, at a price of five drachmas apiece; by their law they could not make a free gift of them. Taking these ships and their own, the Athenians manned seventy in all and sailed for Aegina, but they came a day later than the time agreed. 90. When the Athenians did not show up at the right time, Nicodromus took ship and escaped from Aegina. Other Aeginetans followed him, and the Athenians gave them Sunium to dwell in; setting out from there they harried the Aeginetans of the island. 91. But this happened later.32 The rich men of Aegina gained mastery over the people, who had risen against them with Nicodromus, then made them captive and led them out to be killed. Because of this a curse fell upon them, which despite all their efforts they could not get rid of by sacrifice, and they were driven out of their island before the goddess would be merciful to them. [2] They had taken seven hundred of the people alive; as they led these out for slaughter one of them escaped from his bonds and fled to the temple gate of Demeter the Lawgiver, where he laid hold of the door-handles and clung to them. They could not tear him away by force, so they cut off his hands and carried him off, and those hands were left clinging fast to the door-handles. 92. Thus the Aeginetans dealt with each other. When the Athenians came, they fought them at sea with seventy ships; the Aeginetans were defeated in the sea-fight and asked for help from the Argives, as they had done before. But this time the Argives would not aid them, holding a grudge because ships of Aegina had been taken by force by Cleomenes and put in on the Argolid coast, where their crews landed with the Lacedaemonians; men from ships of Sicyon also took part in the same invasion. [2] The Argives laid on them the payment of a fine of a thousand talents, five hundred each. The Sicyonians confessed that they had done wrong and agreed to go free with a payment of a hundred talents, but the Aeginetans made no such confession and remained stubborn. For this cause the Argive state sent no one to aid them at their request, but about a thousand came voluntarily, led by a captain whose name was Eurybates, a man who practiced the pentathlon.33 [3] Most of these never returned, meeting their death at the hands of the Athenians in Aegina; Eurybates himself, their captain, fought in single combat and thus killed three men, but was slain by the fourth, Sophanes the son of Deceles. 93. The Aeginetan ships found the Athenians in disarray and attacked and overcame them, taking four Athenian ships and their crews. 94. Thus Athens and Aegina grappled together in war. The Persian was going about his own business, for his servant was constantly reminding him to remember the Athenians,34 and the Pisistratidae were at his elbow maligning the Athenians; moreover, Darius desired to take this pretext for subduing all the men of Hellas who had not given him earth and water. [2] He dismissed from command Mardonius, who had fared so badly on his expedition, and appointed other generals to lead his armies against Athens and Eretria, Datis, a Mede by birth, and his own nephew Artaphrenes son of Artaphrenes; the order he gave them at their departure was to enslave Athens and Eretria and bring the slaves into his presence. 95. When these appointed generals on their way from the king reached the Aleian plain in Cilicia, bringing with them a great and well-furnished army, they camped there and were overtaken by all the fleet that was assigned to each; there also arrived the transports for horses, which in the previous year Darius had bidden his tributary subjects to make ready. [2] Having loaded the horses into these, and embarked the land army in the ships, they sailed to Ionia with six hundred triremes. From there they held their course not by the mainland and straight towards the Hellespont and Thrace, but setting forth from Samos they sailed by the Icarian sea and from island to island; this, to my thinking, was because they feared above all the voyage around Athos, seeing that in the previous year they had come to great disaster by holding their course that way; moreover, Naxos was still unconquered and constrained them. 96. When they approached Naxos from the Icarian sea and came to land (for it was Naxos which the Persians intended to attack first), the Naxians, remembering what had happened before,35 fled away to the mountains instead of waiting for them. The Persians enslaved all of them that they caught, and burnt their temples and their city. After doing this, they set sail for the other islands. 97. While they did this, the Delians also left Delos and fled away to Tenos. As his expedition was sailing landwards, Datis went on ahead and bade his fleet anchor not off Delos, but across the water off Rhenaea. Learning where the Delians were, he sent a herald to them with this proclamation: [2] “Holy men, why have you fled away, and so misjudged my intent? It is my own desire, and the king's command to me, to do no harm to the land where the two gods36 were born, neither to the land itself nor to its inhabitants. So return now to your homes and dwell on your island.” He made this proclamation to the Delians, and then piled up three hundred talents of frankincense on the altar and burnt it. 98. After doing this, Datis sailed with his army against Eretria first, taking with him Ionians and Aeolians; and after he had put out from there, Delos was shaken by an earthquake, the first and last, as the Delians say, before my time. This portent was sent by heaven, as I suppose, to be an omen of the ills that were coming on the world. [2] For in three generations, that is, in the time of Darius son of Hystaspes and Xerxes son of Darius and Artaxerxes son of Xerxes,37 more ills happened to Hellas than in twenty generations before Darius; some coming from the Persians, some from the wars for preeminence among the chief of the nations themselves. [3] Thus it was no marvel that there should be an earthquake in Delos when there had been none before. Also there was an oracle concerning Delos, where it was written: “I will shake Delos, though unshaken before. ” In the Greek language these names have the following meanings: Darius is the Doer, Xerxes the Warrior, Artaxerxes the Great Warrior. The Greeks would rightly call the kings thus in their language. 99. Launching out to sea from Delos, the foreigners put in at the islands and gathered an army from there, taking the sons of the islanders for hostages. [2] When in their voyage about the islands they put in at Carystos, the Carystians gave them no hostages and refused to join them against neighboring cities, meaning Eretria and Athens; the Persians besieged them and laid waste their land, until the Carystians too came over to their side. 100. When the Eretrians learned that the Persian expedition was sailing to attack them, they asked for help from the Athenians. The Athenians did not refuse the aid, but gave them for defenders the four thousand tenant farmers who held the land of the Chalcidian horse-breeders.38 But it seems that all the plans of the Eretrians were unsound; they sent to the Athenians for aid, but their counsels were divided. [2] Some of them planned to leave the city and make for the heights of Euboea; others plotted treason in hope of winning advantages from the Persians. [3] When Aeschines son of Nothon, a leading man in Eretria, learned of both designs, he told the Athenians who had come how matters stood, and asked them to depart to their own country so they would not perish like the rest. The Athenians followed Aeschines' advice. 101. So they saved themselves by crossing over to Oropus; the Persians sailed holding their course for Temenos and Choereae and Aegilea, all in Eretrian territory. Landing at these places, they immediately unloaded their horses and made preparation to attack their enemies. [2] The Eretrians had no intention of coming out and fighting; all their care was to guard their walls if they could, since it was the prevailing counsel not to leave the city. The walls were strongly attacked, and for six days many fell on both sides; but on the seventh two Eretrians of repute, Euphorbus son of Alcimachus and Philagrus son of Cineas, betrayed the city to the Persians. [3] They entered the city and plundered and burnt the temples, in revenge for the temples that were burnt at Sardis; moreover, they enslaved the townspeople, according to Darius' command. 102. After subduing Eretria, the Persians waited a few days and then sailed away to the land of Attica, pressing ahead in expectation of doing to the Athenians exactly what they had done to the Eretrians. Marathon39 was the place in Attica most suitable for riding horses and closest to Eretria, so Hippias son of Pisistratus led them there. 103. When the Athenians learned this, they too marched out to Marathon, with ten generals leading them. The tenth was Miltiades, and it had befallen his father Cimon son of Stesagoras to be banished from Athens by Pisistratus son of Hippocrates. [2] While in exile he happened to take the Olympic prize in the four-horse chariot, and by taking this victory he won the same prize as his half-brother Miltiades. At the next Olympic games he won with the same horses but permitted Pisistratus to be proclaimed victor, and by resigning the victory to him he came back from exile to his own property under truce. [3] After taking yet another Olympic prize with the same horses, he happened to be murdered by Pisistratus' sons, since Pisistratus was no longer living. They murdered him by placing men in ambush at night near the town-hall. Cimon was buried in front of the city, across the road called “Through the Hollow”, and buried opposite him are the mares who won the three Olympic prizes. [4] The mares of Evagoras the Laconian did the same as these, but none others. Stesagoras, the elder of Cimon's sons, was then being brought up with his uncle Miltiades in the Chersonese. The younger was with Cimon at Athens, and he took the name Miltiades from Miltiades the founder of the Chersonese. 104. It was this Miltiades who was now the Athenian general, after coming from the Chersonese and escaping a two-fold death. The Phoenicians pursued him as far as Imbros, considering it of great importance to catch him and bring him to the king. [2] He escaped from them, but when he reached his own country and thought he was safe, then his enemies met him. They brought him to court and prosecuted him for tyranny in the Chersonese, but he was acquitted and appointed Athenian general, chosen by the people. 105. While still in the city, the generals first sent to Sparta the herald Philippides, an Athenian and a long-distance runner who made that his calling. As Philippides himself said when he brought the message to the Athenians, when he was in the Parthenian mountain above Tegea he encountered Pan. [2] Pan called out Philippides' name and bade him ask the Athenians why they paid him no attention, though he was of goodwill to the Athenians, had often been of service to them, and would be in the future. [3] The Athenians believed that these things were true, and when they became prosperous they established a sacred precinct of Pan beneath the Acropolis. Ever since that message they propitiate him with annual sacrifices and a torch-race. 106. This Philippides was in Sparta on the day after leaving the city of Athens,40 that time when he was sent by the generals and said that Pan had appeared to him. He came to the magistrates and said, [2] “Lacedaemonians, the Athenians ask you to come to their aid and not allow the most ancient city among the Hellenes to fall into slavery at the hands of the foreigners. Even now Eretria has been enslaved, and Hellas has become weaker by an important city.” [3] He told them what he had been ordered to say, and they resolved to send help to the Athenians, but they could not do this immediately, for they were unwilling to break the law. It was the ninth day of the rising month, and they said that on the ninth they could not go out to war until the moon's circle was full.41 107. So they waited for the full moon, while the foreigners were guided to Marathon by Hippias son of Pisistratus. The previous night Hippias had a dream in which he slept with his mother. [2] He supposed from the dream that he would return from exile to Athens, recover his rule, and end his days an old man in his own country. Thus he reckoned from the dream. Then as guide he unloaded the slaves from Eretria onto the island of the Styrians called Aegilia, and brought to anchor the ships that had put ashore at Marathon, then marshalled the foreigners who had disembarked onto land. [3] As he was tending to this, he happened to sneeze and cough more violently than usual. Since he was an elderly man, most of his teeth were loose, and he lost one of them by the force of his cough. It fell into the sand and he expended much effort in looking for it, but the tooth could not be found. [4] He groaned aloud and said to those standing by him: “This land is not ours and we will not be able to subdue it. My tooth holds whatever share of it was mine.” 108. Hippias supposed that the dream had in this way come true. As the Athenians were marshalled in the precinct of Heracles, the Plataeans came to help them in full force. The Plataeans had put themselves under the protection of the Athenians,42 and the Athenians had undergone many labors on their behalf. This is how they did it: [2] when the Plataeans were pressed by the Thebans, they first tried to put themselves under the protection of Cleomenes son of Anaxandrides and the Lacedaemonians, who happened to be there. But they did not accept them, saying, “We live too far away, and our help would be cold comfort to you. You could be enslaved many times over before any of us heard about it. [3] We advise you to put yourselves under the protection of the Athenians, since they are your neighbors and not bad men at giving help.” The Lacedaemonians gave this advice not so much out of goodwill toward the Plataeans as wishing to cause trouble for the Athenians with the Boeotians. [4] So the Lacedaemonians gave this advice to the Plataeans, who did not disobey it. When the Athenians were making sacrifices to the twelve gods,43 they sat at the altar as suppliants and put themselves under protection. When the Thebans heard this, they marched against the Plataeans, but the Athenians came to their aid. [5] As they were about to join battle, the Corinthians, who happened to be there, prevented them and brought about a reconciliation. Since both sides desired them to arbitrate, they fixed the boundaries of the country on condition that the Thebans leave alone those Boeotians who were unwilling to be enrolled as Boeotian. After rendering this decision, the Corinthians departed. The Boeotians attacked the Athenians as they were leaving but were defeated in battle. [6] The Athenians went beyond the boundaries the Corinthians had made for the Plataeans, fixing the Asopus river as the boundary for the Thebans in the direction of Plataea and Hysiae. So the Plataeans had put themselves under the protection of the Athenians in the aforesaid manner, and now came to help at Marathon. 109. The Athenian generals were of divided opinion, some advocating not fighting because they were too few to attack the army of the Medes; others, including Miltiades, advocating fighting. [2] Thus they were at odds, and the inferior plan prevailed. An eleventh man had a vote, chosen by lot to be polemarch44 of Athens, and by ancient custom the Athenians had made his vote of equal weight with the generals. Callimachus of Aphidnae was polemarch at this time. Miltiades approached him and said, [3] “Callimachus, it is now in your hands to enslave Athens or make her free, and thereby leave behind for all posterity a memorial such as not even Harmodius and Aristogeiton left. Now the Athenians have come to their greatest danger since they first came into being, and, if we surrender, it is clear what we will suffer when handed over to Hippias. But if the city prevails, it will take first place among Hellenic cities. [4] I will tell you how this can happen, and how the deciding voice on these matters has devolved upon you. The ten generals are of divided opinion, some urging to attack, others urging not to. [5] If we do not attack now, I expect that great strife will fall upon and shake the spirit of the Athenians, leading them to medize. But if we attack now, before anything unsound corrupts the Athenians, we can win the battle, if the gods are fair. [6] All this concerns and depends on you in this way: if you vote with me, your country will be free and your city the first in Hellas. But if you side with those eager to avoid battle, you will have the opposite to all the good things I enumerated.” 110. By saying this Miltiades won over Callimachus. The polemarch's vote was counted in, and the decision to attack was resolved upon. Thereafter the generals who had voted to fight turned the presidency over to Miltiades as each one's day came in turn.45 He accepted the office but did not make an attack until it was his own day to preside. 111. When the presidency came round to him, he arrayed the Athenians for battle, with the polemarch Callimachus commanding the right wing, since it was then the Athenian custom for the polemarch to hold the right wing. He led, and the other tribes were numbered out in succession next to each other.46 The Plataeans were marshalled last, holding the left wing. [2] Ever since that battle, when the Athenians are conducting sacrifices at the festivals every fourth year,47 the Athenian herald prays for good things for the Athenians and Plataeans together. [3] As the Athenians were marshalled at Marathon, it happened that their line of battle was as long as the line of the Medes. The center, where the line was weakest, was only a few ranks deep, but each wing was strong in numbers. 112. When they had been set in order and the sacrifices were favorable, the Athenians were sent forth and charged the foreigners at a run. The space between the armies was no less than eight stadia. [2] The Persians saw them running to attack and prepared to receive them, thinking the Athenians absolutely crazy, since they saw how few of them there were and that they ran up so fast without either cavalry or archers. [3] So the foreigners imagined, but when the Athenians all together fell upon the foreigners they fought in a way worthy of record. These are the first Hellenes whom we know of to use running against the enemy. They are also the first to endure looking at Median dress and men wearing it, for up until then just hearing the name of the Medes caused the Hellenes to panic. 113. They fought a long time at Marathon. In the center of the line the foreigners prevailed, where the Persians and Sacae were arrayed. The foreigners prevailed there and broke through in pursuit inland, but on each wing the Athenians and Plataeans prevailed. [2] In victory they let the routed foreigners flee, and brought the wings together to fight those who had broken through the center. The Athenians prevailed, then followed the fleeing Persians and struck them down. When they reached the sea they demanded fire and laid hold of the Persian ships. 114. In this labor Callimachus the polemarch was slain, a brave man, and of the generals Stesilaus son of Thrasylaus died. Cynegirus48 son of Euphorion fell there, his hand cut off with an ax as he grabbed a ship's figurehead. Many other famous Athenians also fell there. 115. In this way the Athenians overpowered seven ships. The foreigners pushed off with the rest, picked up the Eretrian slaves from the island where they had left them, and sailed around Sunium hoping to reach the city before the Athenians. There was an accusation at Athens that they devised this by a plan of the Alcmaeonidae, who were said to have arranged to hold up a shield as a signal once the Persians were in their ships. 116. They sailed around Sunium, but the Athenians marched back to defend the city as fast as their feet could carry them and got there ahead of the foreigners. Coming from the sacred precinct of Heracles in Marathon, they pitched camp in the sacred precinct of Heracles in Cynosarges. The foreigners lay at anchor off Phalerum, the Athenian naval port at that time. After riding anchor there, they sailed their ships back to Asia. 117. In the battle at Marathon about six thousand four hundred men of the foreigners were killed, and one hundred and ninety-two Athenians; that many fell on each side. [2] The following marvel happened there: an Athenian, Epizelus son of Couphagoras, was fighting as a brave man in the battle when he was deprived of his sight, though struck or hit nowhere on his body, and from that time on he spent the rest of his life in blindness. [3] I have heard that he tells this story about his misfortune: he saw opposing him a tall armed man, whose beard overshadowed his shield, but the phantom passed him by and killed the man next to him. I learned by inquiry that this is the story Epizelus tells. 118. Datis journeyed with his army to Asia, and when he arrived at Myconos he saw a vision in his sleep. What that vision was is not told, but as soon as day broke Datis made a search of his ships. He found in a Phoenician ship a gilded image of Apollo, and asked where this plunder had been taken. Learning from what temple it had come, he sailed in his own ship to Delos. [2] The Delians had now returned to their island, and Datis set the image in the temple, instructing the Delians to carry it away to Theban Delium, on the coast opposite Chalcis. [3] Datis gave this order and sailed away, but the Delians never carried that statue away; twenty years later the Thebans brought it to Delium by command of an oracle. 119. When Datis and Artaphrenes reached Asia in their voyage, they carried the enslaved Eretrians inland to Susa. [2] Before the Eretrians were taken captive, king Darius had been terribly angry with them for doing him unprovoked wrong; but when he saw them brought before him and subject to him, he did them no harm, but settled them in a domain of his own called Ardericca in the Cissian land; this place is two hundred and ten stadia distant from Susa, and forty from the well that is of three kinds. [3] Asphalt and salt and oil are drawn from it in the following way: a windlass is used in the drawing, with half a skin tied to it in place of a bucket; this is dipped into the well and then poured into a tank; then what is drawn is poured into another tank and goes three ways: the asphalt and the salt congeal immediately; the oil,49 which the Persians call rhadinace, is dark and evil-smelling. [4] There king Darius settled the Eretrians, and they dwelt in that place until my time, keeping their ancient language. Such was the fate of the Eretrians. 120. After the full moon two thousand Lacedaemonians came to Athens, making such great haste to reach it that they were in Attica on the third day after leaving Sparta. Although they came too late for the battle, they desired to see the Medes, so they went to Marathon and saw them. Then they departed again, praising the Athenians and their achievement. 121. It is a wonder to me, and I do not believe the story, that the Alcmeonidae would ever have agreed to hold up a shield as a sign for the Persians out of a desire to make Athens subject to foreigners and to Hippias; for it is plain to see that they were tyrant-haters as much as Callias (son of Phaenippus and father of Hipponicus), or even more so. [2] Callias was the only Athenian who dared to buy Pisistratus' possessions when they were put up for sale by the state after Pisistratus' banishment from Athens; and he devised other acts of bitter hatred against him. 122. 50 [This Callias is worthy of all men's remembrance for many reasons: first, because he so excellently freed his country, as I have said; second, for what he did at Olympia, where he won a horserace, and was second in a four-horse chariot, after already winning a Pythian prize, and was the cynosure of all Hellas for the lavishness of his spending; [2] and third, for his behavior regarding his three daughters. When they were of marriageable age, he gave them a most splendid gift and one very pleasant to them, promising that each would wed that man whom she chose for herself from all the Athenians.] 123. The Alcmeonidae were tyrant-haters as much as Callias, or not less so. Therefore I find it a strange and unbelievable accusation that they of all men should have held up a shield; at all times they shunned tyrants, and it was by their contrivance that the sons of Pisistratus were deposed from their tyranny. [2] Thus in my judgment it was they who freed Athens much more than did Harmodius and Aristogeiton. These only enraged the remaining sons of Pisistratus by killing Hipparchus, and did nothing to end the tyranny of the rest of them; but the Alcmeonidae plainly liberated their country, if they truly were the ones who persuaded the Pythian priestess to signify to the Lacedaemonians that they should free Athens, as I have previously shown. 124. Perhaps out of some grudge against the Athenian people they betrayed their country. But there were no others at Athens more esteemed or more honored than they; [2] therefore plain reason forbids believing that they of all men could have held up the shield for any such cause. A shield was held up; this cannot be denied, for it happened; but who did it I do not know, and I can say no further. 125. The Alcmeonidae had been men of renown at Athens even in the old days, and from the time of Alcmeon51 and then Megacles their renown increased. [2] When the Lydians from Sardis came from Croesus to the Delphic oracle, Alcmeon son of Megacles worked with them and zealously aided them; when Croesus heard from the Lydians who visited the oracle of Alcmeon's benefits to him, he summoned Alcmeon to Sardis, and there made him a gift of as much gold as he could carry away at one time on his person. [3] Considering the nature of the gift, Alcmeon planned and employed this device: he donned a wide tunic, leaving a deep fold in it, and put on the most spacious boots that he could find, then went into the treasury to which they led him. [4] Falling upon a heap of gold-dust, first he packed next to his legs as much gold as his boots would contain; then he filled all the fold of his tunic with gold and strewed the dust among the hair of his head, and took more of it into his mouth; when he came out of the treasury, hardly dragging the weight of his boots, he was like anything rather than a human being, with his mouth crammed full and all his body swollen. [5] Croesus burst out laughing at the sight and gave him all the gold he already had and that much more again. Thus the family grew very rich; Alcmeon came to keep four-horse chariots and won with them at Olympia. 126. In the next generation Cleisthenes52 the tyrant of Sicyon raised that house still higher, so that it grew much more famous in Hellas than it had formerly been. Cleisthenes son of Aristonymus son of Myron son of Andreas had one daughter, whose name was Agariste. He desired to wed her to the best man he could find in Hellas. [2] It was the time of the Olympian games, and when he was victor there with a four-horse chariot, Cleisthenes made a proclamation that whichever Greek thought himself worthy to be his son-in-law should come on the sixtieth day from then or earlier to Sicyon, and Cleisthenes would make good his promise of marriage in a year from that sixtieth day. [3] Then all the Greeks who were proud of themselves and their country came as suitors, and to that end Cleisthenes had them compete in running and wrestling contests. 127. From Italy came Smindyrides of Sybaris, son of Hippocrates, the most luxurious liver of his day (and Sybaris was then at the height of its prosperity), and Damasus of Siris, son of that Amyris who was called the Wise. [2] These came from Italy; from the Ionian Gulf, Amphimnestus son of Epistrophus, an Epidamnian; he was from the Ionian Gulf. From Aetolia came Males, the brother of that Titormus who surpassed all the Greeks in strength, and fled from the sight of men to the farthest parts of the Aetolian land. [3] From the Peloponnese came Leocedes, son of Phidon the tyrant of Argos, that Phidon who made weights and measures for the Peloponnesians53 and acted more arrogantly than any other Greek; he drove out the Elean contest-directors and held the contests at Olympia himself. This man's son now came, and Amiantus, an Arcadian from Trapezus, son of Lycurgus; and an Azenian from the town of Paeus, Laphanes, son of that Euphorion who, as the Arcadian tale relates, gave lodging to the Dioscuri, and ever since kept open house for all men; and Onomastus from Elis, son of Agaeus. [4] These came from the Peloponnese itself; from Athens Megacles, son of that Alcmeon who visited Croesus, and also Hippocleides son of Tisandrus, who surpassed the Athenians in wealth and looks. From Eretria, which at that time was prosperous, came Lysanias; he was the only man from Euboea. From Thessaly came a Scopad, Diactorides of Crannon; and from the Molossians, Alcon. 128. These were the suitors. When they arrived on the appointed day, Cleisthenes first inquired the country and lineage of each; then he kept them with him for a year, testing their manliness and temper and upbringing and manner of life; this he did by consorting with them alone and in company, putting the younger of them to contests of strength, but especially watching their demeanor at the common meal; for as long as he kept them with him, he did everything for them and entertained them with magnificence. [2] The suitors that most pleased him were the ones who had come from Athens, and of these Hippocleides son of Tisandrus was judged foremost, both for his manliness and because in ancestry he was related to the Cypselids of Corinth. 129. When the appointed day came for the marriage feast and for Cleisthenes' declaration of whom he had chosen out of them all, Cleisthenes sacrificed a hundred oxen and gave a feast to the suitors and to the whole of Sicyon. [2] After dinner the suitors vied with each other in music and in anecdotes for all to hear. As they sat late drinking, Hippocleides, now far outdoing the rest, ordered the flute-player to play him a dance-tune; the flute-player obeyed and he began to dance. I suppose he pleased himself with his dancing, but Cleisthenes saw the whole business with much disfavor. [3] Hippocleides then stopped for a while and ordered a table to be brought in; when the table arrived, he danced Laconian figures on it first, and then Attic; last of all he rested his head on the table and made gestures with his legs in the air. [4] Now Cleisthenes at the first and the second bout of dancing could no more bear to think of Hippocleides as his son-in-law, because of his dancing and his shamelessness, but he had held himself in check, not wanting to explode at Hippocleides; but when he saw him making gestures with his legs, he could no longer keep silence and said, “son of Tisandrus, you have danced away your marriage.” Hippocleides said in answer, “It does not matter to Hippocleides!” Since then this is proverbial. 130. Then Cleisthenes bade them all be silent and spoke to the company at large: “Suitors for my daughter's hand, I thank you one and all; if it were possible I would grant each of you his wish, neither choosing out one to set him above another nor disparaging the rest. [2] But since I have but one maiden to plan for and so cannot please all of you, to those of you whose suit is rejected I make a gift of a talent of silver to each, for his desire to take a wife from my house and for his sojourn away from his home; and to Megacles son of Alcmeon do I betroth my daughter Agariste, by the laws of the Athenians.” Megacles accepted the betrothal, and Cleisthenes brought the marriage to pass. 131. Such is the tale of the choice among the suitors; and thus the fame of the Alcmeonidae resounded throughout Hellas. From this marriage was born that Cleisthenes, named after his mother's father from Sicyon, who gave the Athenians their tribes and their democracy; [2] he and Hippocrates were born to Megacles; Hippocrates was father of another Megacles and another Agariste, called after Agariste who was Cleisthenes' daughter. She was married to Xanthippus son of Ariphron, and when she was pregnant she saw in her sleep a vision in which she thought she gave birth to a lion. In a few days she bore Xanthippus a son, Pericles. 132. After the Persian disaster at Marathon, the reputation of Miltiades, already great at Athens, very much increased. He asked the Athenians for seventy ships, an army, and money, not revealing against what country he would lead them, but saying that he would make them rich if they followed him; he would bring them to a country from which they could easily carry away an abundance of gold; so he said when he asked for the ships. The Athenians were induced by these promises and granted his request. 133. Miltiades took his army and sailed for Paros, on the pretext that the Parians had brought this on themselves by first sending triremes with the Persian fleet to Marathon. Such was the pretext of his argument, but he had a grudge against the Parians because Lysagoras son of Tisias, a man of Parian descent, had slandered him to Hydarnes the Persian. [2] When he reached his voyage's destination, Miltiades with his army drove the Parians inside their walls and besieged them; he sent in a herald and demanded a hundred talents, saying that if they did not give it to him, his army would not return home before it had stormed their city. [3] The Parians had no intention of giving Miltiades any money at all, and they contrived how to defend their city. They did this by building their wall at night to double its former height where it was most assailable, and also by other devices. 134. All the Greeks tell the same story up to this point; after this the Parians themselves say that the following happened: as Miltiades was in a quandary, a captive woman named Timo, Parian by birth and an under-priestess of the goddesses of the dead, came to talk with him. [2] Coming before Miltiades, she advised him, if taking Paros was very important to him, to do whatever she suggested. Then, following her advice, he passed through to the hill in front of the city and jumped over the fence of the precinct of Demeter the Lawgiver, since he was unable to open the door. After leaping over, he went to the shrine, whether to move something that should not be moved, or with some other intention. When he was right at the doors, he was immediately seized with panic and hurried back by the same route; leaping down from the wall he twisted his thigh, but some say he hit his knee. 135. So Miltiades sailed back home in a sorry condition, neither bringing money for the Athenians nor having won Paros; he had besieged the town for twenty-six days and ravaged the island. [2] The Parians learned that Timo the under-priestess of the goddesses had been Miltiades' guide and desired to punish her for this. Since they now had respite from the siege, they sent messengers to Delphi to ask if they should put the under-priestess to death for guiding their enemies to the capture of her native country, and for revealing to Miltiades the rites that no male should know. [3] But the Pythian priestess forbade them, saying that Timo was not responsible: Miltiades was doomed to make a bad end, and an apparition had led him in these evils. 136. Such was the priestess' reply to the Parians. The Athenians had much to say about Miltiades on his return from Paros, especially Xanthippus son of Ariphron, who prosecuted Miltiades before the people for deceiving the Athenians and called for the death penalty. [2] Miltiades was present but could not speak in his own defense, since his thigh was festering; he was laid before the court on a couch, and his friends spoke for him, often mentioning the fight at Marathon and the conquest of Lemnos: how Miltiades had punished the Pelasgians and taken Lemnos, delivering it to the Athenians. [3] The people took his side as far as not condemning him to death, but they fined him fifty talents for his wrongdoing. Miltiades later died of gangrene and rot in his thigh, and the fifty talents were paid by his son Cimon. 137. Miltiades son of Cimon took possession of Lemnos in this way: When the Pelasgians54 were driven out of Attica by the Athenians, whether justly or unjustly I cannot say, beyond what is told; namely, that Hecataeus the son of Hegesandrus declares in his history that the act was unjust; [2] for when the Athenians saw the land under Hymettus, formerly theirs, which they had given to the Pelasgians as a dwelling-place in reward for the wall that had once been built around the acropolis—when the Athenians saw how well this place was tilled which previously had been bad and worthless, they were envious and coveted the land, and so drove the Pelasgians out on this and no other pretext. But the Athenians themselves say that their reason for expelling the Pelasgians was just. [3] The Pelasgians set out from their settlement at the foot of Hymettus and wronged the Athenians in this way: Neither the Athenians nor any other Hellenes had servants yet at that time, and their sons and daughters used to go to the Nine Wells55 for water; and whenever they came, the Pelasgians maltreated them out of mere arrogance and pride. And this was not enough for them; finally they were caught in the act of planning to attack Athens. [4] The Athenians were much better men than the Pelasgians, since when they could have killed them, caught plotting as they were, they would not so do, but ordered them out of the country. The Pelasgians departed and took possession of Lemnos, besides other places. This is the Athenian story; the other is told by Hecataeus. 138. These Pelasgians dwelt at that time in Lemnos and desired vengeance on the Athenians. Since they well knew the time of the Athenian festivals, they acquired fifty-oared ships and set an ambush for the Athenian women celebrating the festival of Artemis at Brauron. They seized many of the women, then sailed away with them and brought them to Lemnos to be their concubines. [2] These women bore more and more children, and they taught their sons the speech of Attica and Athenian manners. These boys would not mix with the sons of the Pelasgian women; if one of them was beaten by one of the others, they would all run to his aid and help each other; these boys even claimed to rule the others, and were much stronger. [3] When the Pelasgians perceived this, they took counsel together; it troubled them much in their deliberations to think what the boys would do when they grew to manhood, if they were resolved to help each other against the sons of the lawful wives and attempted to rule them already. [4] Thereupon the Pelasgians resolved to kill the sons of the Attic women; they did this, and then killed the boys' mothers also. From this deed and the earlier one which was done by the women when they killed their own husbands who were Thoas' companions, a “Lemnian crime” has been a proverb in Hellas for any deed of cruelty. 139. But when the Pelasgians had murdered their own sons and women, their land brought forth no fruit, nor did their wives and their flocks and herds bear offspring as before. Crushed by hunger and childlessness, they sent to Delphi to ask for some release from their present ills. [2] The Pythian priestess ordered them to pay the Athenians whatever penalty the Athenians themselves judged. The Pelasgians went to Athens and offered to pay the penalty for all their wrongdoing. [3] The Athenians set in their town-hall a couch adorned as finely as possible, and placed beside it a table covered with all manner of good things, then ordered the Pelasgians to deliver their land to them in the same condition. [4] The Pelasgians answered, “We will deliver it when a ship with a north wind accomplishes the voyage from your country to ours in one day”; they supposed that this was impossible, since Attica is far to the south of Lemnos. 140. At the time that was all. But a great many years later, when the Chersonese on the Hellespont was made subject to Athens, Miltiades son of Cimon accomplished the voyage from Elaeus on the Chersonese to Lemnos with the Etesian56 winds then constantly blowing; he proclaimed that the Pelasgians must leave their island, reminding them of the oracle which the Pelasgians thought would never be fulfilled. [2] The Hephaestians obeyed, but the Myrinaeans would not agree that the Chersonese was Attica and were besieged, until they too submitted. Thus did Miltiades and the Athenians take possession of Lemnos.