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I.45‑140

This webpage reproduces a section of
Herodotus
published in Vol. I
of the Loeb Classical Library edition,
1920

The text is in the public domain.

This page has been carefully proofread
and I believe it to be free of errors.
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I.178‑216

(Vol. I) Herodotus

 p181  Book I: chapters 141‑177

The flags in the text are links to the Greek as printed on facing pages in the Loeb edition.
In the left margin, links to Rawlinson's translation (Vol. I, with valuable notes),
and to the running commentary by How and Wells.
Cartouches are links to in‑depth articles at Livius.Org or LacusCurtius.

[link to original Greek text] 141 Rawlinson p280 H & W As soon as the Lydians had been subdued by the Persians, the Ionians and Aeolians sent messengers to Cyrus, offering to be his subjects on the same terms as those which they had under Croesus. Having heard what they proposed, Cyrus told them a story. Once, he said, there was a flute-player who saw fishes in the sea and played upon his flute, thinking that so they would come out on to the land. Being disappointed of his hope, he took a net and gathered in and drew out a great multitude of the fishes; and seeing them leaping, "You had best," said he, "cease from your dancing now; you would not come out and dance then, when I played to you." The reason why Cyrus told the story to the Ionians and Aeolians was that the Ionians, who were ready to obey him when the victory was won, had before refused when he sent a message asking them to revolt from Croesus. So he answered them in his anger. But when the message came to the Ionians in their cities, they fortified themselves severally with walls, and assembled in the Panionion,​1 all except the Milesians, with whom alone Cyrus had made a treaty on the same terms as that which they had with the Lydians. The rest of the Ionians resolved to send envoys in the name of them all to Sparta, to ask help for the Ionians.


[image ALT: missingALT. It is a view of the ziggurat of Choga Zanbil, further captioned in the text of this webpage.]

Ionian subjects of the Persian king, bearing gifts of wool. Relief on the eastern stairs of the Apadana in Persepolis. (Look carefully and you will see that this is a color photograph.)

Photo © Livius.Org | Marco Prins, by kind permission.

 p183  [link to original Greek text] 142 Now these Ionians, who possessed the Panionion, had set their cities in places more favoured by skies and seasons than any country known to us. For neither to the north of them nor to the south nor to the east nor to the west does the land accomplish the same effect as Ionia, being afflicted here by the cold and wet, there by the heat and drought. They use not all the same speech but four different dialects. Miletus lies farthest south of among them, and next to it come Myus and Priene; these are settlements in Caria, and they use a common language; Ephesus, Colophon, Lebedos, Teos, Clazomenae, Phocaea, all of them being in Lydia, have a language in common which is wholly different from the speech of the three cities aforementioned. There are yet three Ionian cities, two of them situate on the islands of Samos and Chios, and one, Erythrae, on the mainland; the Chians and Erythraeans speak alike, but the Samians have a language which is their own and none other's. It is thus seen that there are four fashions of speech.

[link to original Greek text] 143 Rawlinson p282 H & W Among these Ionians, the Milesians were sheltered from the danger (for they had made a treaty), and the islanders among them had nothing to fear; for the Phoenicians were not yet subjects of the Persians, nor were the Persians themselves shipmen. But they of Asia were cut off from the rest of the Ionians in no other way save as I shall show. The whole Hellenic race was then but small,  p185 and the least of all its parts, and the least regarded, was the Ionian stock; for saving Athens it had no considerable city. Now the Athenians and the rest would not be called Ionians, but spurned the name; nay, even now the greater number of them seem to me to be ashamed of it; but the twelve cities aforesaid gloried in this name, and founded a holy place for themselves which they called the Panionion, and agreed among them to allow no other Ionians to use it (nor indeed did any save the men of Smyrna ask to be admitted); Rawlinson p284 [link to original Greek text] 144 even as the Dorians of what is now the country of the "Five Cities" — the same being formerly called the country of the "Six Cities" — forbid the admitting of any of the neighbouring Dorians to the Triopian temple, nay, they barred from sharing the use of it even those of their own body who had broken the temple law. For long ago in the games in honour of Triopian Apollo they offered certain bronze tripods to the victors; and those who won these must not carry them away from the temple but dedicate them there to the god. Now a man of Halicarnassus called Agasicles, being a winner, disregarded this law, and carrying the tripod away nailed it to the wall of his own house. For this offence the five cities, Lindus, Ialysus, Camirus, Cos, and Cnidus, forbade the sixth city, Halicarnassus, to share in the use of the temple. Such was the penalty imposed on the Halicarnassians.

[link to original Greek text] 145 H & W As for the Ionians, the reason why they made twelve cities and would admit no more was in my judgment this, that there were twelve divisions of  p187 them when they dwelt in Peloponnesus, just as there are twelve divisions of the Achaeans who drove the Ionians out, Pellene nearest to Sicyon, then Aegira and Aegae, where is the tenedos-bozcaada river Crathis, from which the river in Italy took its name; Bura and Helice, whither the Ionians fled when they were worsted in battle by the Achaeans; Aegion, Rhype, Patrae, Phareae, and Olenus, where is the great river Pirus; Dyme and Tritaeae, the only inland city of all these; these were the twelve divisions of the Ionians, as they are now of the Achaeans.

[link to original Greek text] 146 Rawlinson p286 For this reason the Ionians too made twelve cities, and for no other; for it were but foolishness to say that these are more truly Ionian or better born than the other Ionians; seeing that not the least part of them are Abantes from Euboea, who are not Ionians even in name, and that there are mingled with them Minyans of Orchomenus, Cadmeans, Dryopians, Phocian seceders from their nation, Molossians, Pelasgian Arcadians, Dorians of Epidaurus, and many other tribes; and as for those who came from the very town hall of Athens and deem themselves the best born of the Ionians, these did not bring wives with them to their settlements, but married Carian women whose parents they had put to death. For this slaughter, these women made a custom and bound themselves by oath (and enjoined the same on their daughters) that none would sit at meat with her husband nor call him by his name, because the men had married  p189 them after slaying their fathers and husbands and sons.

[link to original Greek text] 147 This happened at Miletus. And for kings some of them chose Lycian descendants of Glaucus son of Hippolochus, and some Caucones of Pylus, descendants of Codrus son of Melanthus, and some both. Yet seeing that they set more store by the name than the rest of the Ionians, let it be granted that those of pure birth are Ionians; and all are Ionians who are of Athenian descent and keep the feast Apaturia.​2 All do so keep it, saving the men of Ephesus and Colophon; these are the only Ionians who do not keep it, and these by reason, they say, of a certain deed of blood.

[link to original Greek text] 148 Rawlinson p288 H & W The Panionion is a sacred ground in Mycale, facing the north; it was set apart for Poseidon of Helicon by the joint will of the Ionians. Mycale is a western promontory of the mainland opposite to Samos; the Ionians were wont to assemble there from their cities and keep the festival to which they gave the name of Panionia. [The names of all the Greek festivals, not the Ionian alone, end alike in the same letter, just as do the names of the Persians.]

[link to original Greek text] 149 I have now told of the Ionian cities. The Aeolian cities are these: — Cyme (called "Phriconian"),​3 Lerisae, "the New Fort," Temnos, Cilla,  p191 Notium, Aegiroessa, Pitana, Aegaea, Myrina, Grynea.​4 These are the ancient Aeolian cities, eleven in number; these, too, the mainland cities, were once twelve; but one of them, Smyrna, was taken away by the Ionians. These Aeolians had settled where the land was better than the Ionian territory, but the climate was not so good.

[link to original Greek text] 150 Now this is how the Aeolians lost Smyrna. Certain men of Colophon, worsted in civil strife and banished from their country, had been received by them into the town. These Colophonian exiles waited for the time when the men of Smyrna were holding a festival to Dionysus outside the walls; they then shut the gates and so won the city. Then all the Aeolians came to recover it; and an agreement was made, whereby the Aeolians should receive back their movable goods from the Ionians, and quit the city. This being done, the other eleven cities divided the Smyrnaeans among themselves and made them citizens of their own.

[link to original Greek text] 151 H & W These then are the Aeolian cities of the mainland, besides those that are situate on Ida, and are separate. Among those on the islands, five divide Lesbos among them (there was a sixth on Lesbos, Arisba, but its people were enslaved by their kinsfolk of Methymna); there is one on Tenedos, and one again in the "Hundred isles"​5 as they are called. The men of Lesbos and Tenedos, then, like the Ionian islanders, had nothing to fear. The rest of the cities took counsel together and resolved to follow whither the Ionians should lead.

 p193  [link to original Greek text] 152 Rawlinson p290 So when the envoys of the Ionians and Aeolians came to Sparta (for this was set afoot with all speed) they chose the Phocaean, whose name was Pythermos, to speak for all. He then put on a purple cloak, that as many Spartans as possible might assemble to hear him, and stood up and made a long speech asking aid for his people. But the Lacedaemonians would not listen to him and refused to aid the Ionians. So the Ionians departed; but the Lacedaemonians, though they had rejected their envoys, did nevertheless send men in a ship of fifty oars to see (as I suppose) how it fared with Cyrus and Ionia. These, coming to Phocaea, sent Lacrines, who was the most esteemed among them, to Sardis, to repeat there to Cyrus a proclamation of the Lacedaemonians, that he must harm no city on Greek territory; else the Lacedaemonians would punish him.

[link to original Greek text] 153 When the herald had so spoken, Cyrus (it is said) asked the Greeks that were present who and how many in number were these Lacedaemonians who made him this declaration. When he was told, he said to the Spartan herald, "I never yet feared men who have a place set apart in the midst of their city where they perjure themselves and deceive each other. These, if I keep my health, shall have their own mishaps to talk of, not those of the Ionians." This threat he uttered against the whole Greek nation, because they have market-places and buy and sell there; for the Persians themselves use no market-places, nor have they such at all. Presently,  p195 entrusting Sardis to a Persian called Tabalus, and charging Pactyes, a Lydian, to take charge of the gold of Croesus and the Lydians, he himself marched away to Agbatana, taking with him Croesus, and at first making no account of the Ionians. For he had Babylon on his hands and the Bactrian nation and the Sacae and Egyptians; he was minded to lead an army himself against these and to send another commander against the Ionians.

[link to original Greek text] 154 Rawlinson p292 But no sooner had Cyrus marched away from Sardis than Pactyes made the Lydians to revolt from Tabalus and Cyrus; and he went down to the sea, where, as he had all the gold of Sardis, he hired soldiers and persuaded the men of the coast to join his army. Then marching to Sardis he penned Tabalus in the citadel and besieged him there.

[link to original Greek text] 155 When Cyrus had news of this on his journey, he said to Croesus, "What end am I to make, Croesus, of this business? it seems that the Lydians will never cease making trouble for me and for themselves. It is in my mind that it may be best to make slaves of them; for now methinks I have done like one that should slay the father and spare the children. So likewise I have taken with me you who were more than a father to the Lydians, and handed the city over to the Lydians themselves; and then forsooth I marvel that they revolt!" So Cyrus uttered his thought; but Croesus feared that he would destroy Sardis, and thus answered him: "O King, what you say is but reasonable. Yet do not ever yield to anger, nor destroy an ancient city that is guiltless both of  p197 the former and of the latter offence. For the beginning was my work, and on my head is the penalty; but it is Pactyes, in whose charge you left Sardis, who does this present wrong; let him therefore be punished. But let the Lydians be pardoned; and lay on them this command, that they may not revolt or be dangerous to you; send, I say, and forbid them to possess weapons of war, and command them to wear tunics under their cloaks and buskins on their feet, and to teach their sons lyre-playing and song and dance and huckstering. Then, O king, you will soon see them turned to women instead of men; and thus you need not fear lest they revolt."

[link to original Greek text] 156 Such counsel Croesus gave Cyrus, because he thought this was better for the Lydians than to be sold as slaves; he knew that without some reasonable plea he could not change the king's purpose, and feared that even if the Lydians should now escape they might afterwards revolt and be destroyed by the Persians. Cyrus was pleased by this counsel; he abated his anger and said he would follow Croesus' advice. Then calling Mazares, a Mede, he charged him to give the Lydians the commands which Croesus advised; further, to enslave all the others who had joined the Lydians in attacking Sardis; and as for Pactyes himself, to bring him by whatever means into his presence alive.

[link to original Greek text] 157 Rawlinson p294 Having given these commands on his journey, he marched away into the Persian country. But Pactyes, learning that an army sent against him was drawing near, was affrighted and fled to Cyme.  p199 Mazares the Mede, when he came to Sardis with whatever part he had of Cyrus's army and found Pactyes' followers no longer there, first of all compelled the Lydians to carry out Cyrus' commands; and by his order they changed their whole manner of life. After this, he sent messengers to Cyme demanding that Pactyes be given up. The Cymaeans resolved to make the god at Branchidae their judge as to what counsel they should take; for there was there an ancient place of divination, which all the Ionians and Aeolians were wont to consult; the place is in the land of Miletus, above the harbour of Panormus.

[link to original Greek text] 158 The men of Cyme then sent to Branchidae to inquire of the shrine what they should do in the matter of Pactyes that should be most pleasing to the gods; and the oracle replied that they must give Pactyes up to the Persians. When this answer came back to them, they set about giving him up. But while the greater part were for doing this, Aristodicus son of Heraclides, a notable man among the citizens, stayed the men of Cyme from this deed; for he disbelieved the oracle and thought that those who had inquired of the god spoke untruly; till at last a second band of inquirers was sent to inquire concerning Pactyes, among whom was Aristodicus.

[link to original Greek text] 159 When they came to Branchidae Aristodicus speaking for all put this question to the oracle: "O King, Pactyes the Lydian hath fled to us for refuge to save him from a violent death at the hands of the Persians; and they demand him of us, bidding the men of Cyme to give him up. But we, for all that we fear the Persian power, have not made bold  p201 to give up this our suppliant, until thy will be clearly made known to us, whether we shall do this or not." Thus Aristodicus questioned; and the god gave again the same answer, that Pactyes should be delivered up to the Persians. With that Aristodicus did as he had already purposed; he went round about the temple, and stole away the sparrows and all other families of nesting birds that were in it. But while he so did, a voice (they say) came out of the inner shrine calling to Aristodicus, and saying, "Thou wickedest of men, wherefore darest thou do this? wilt thou rob my temple of those that take refuge with me?" Then Aristodicus had his answer ready: "O King," said he, "wilt thou thus save thine own suppliants, yet bid the men of Cyme deliver up theirs?" But the god made answer, "Yea, I do bid them, that ye may the sooner perish for your impiety, and never again come to inquire of my oracle concerning the giving up of them that seek refuge with you."

[link to original Greek text] 160 Rawlinson p296 When this answer was brought to the hearing of the Cymaeans they sent Pactyes away to Mytilene; for they desired neither to perish for delivering him up nor to be besieged for keeping him with them. Then Mazares sent a message to Mytilene demanding the surrender of Pactyes, and the Mytilenaeans prepared to give him, for a price; I cannot say with exactness how much it was, for the bargain was never fulfilled; for when the Cymaeans learnt that the Mytilenaeans had this in hand, they sent a ship to Lesbos and brought Pactyes away to Chios. Thence he was dragged out of the temple of City-guarding Athene and delivered up by the Chians, they receiving in return Atarneus, which is a district  p203 in Mysia over against Lesbos. The Persians thus received Pactyes and kept him guarded, that they might show him to Cyrus; and for a long time no Chian would offer sacrifice of barley meal from this land of Atarneus to any god, or make sacrificial cakes of what grew there; nothing that came from that country might be used for any sacred rite.

[link to original Greek text] 161 Pactyes being then delivered up by the Chians, Mazares presently led his army against those who had helped to besiege Tabalus, and he enslaved the people of Priene, and overran the plain of the Maeandrus, giving it up to his army to pillage, and Magnesia likewise. Immediately after this he died of a sickness.

[link to original Greek text] 162 H & W After his death Harpagus came down to succeed him in his command, a Median like Mazares; this is that Harpagus who was entertained by Astyages the Median king at that unnatural feast, and who helped win the kingship for Cyrus. When he came to Ionia, he took the cities by building mounds; he would drive the men within their walls and then build mounds against the walls and so take the cities.

[link to original Greek text] 163 Rawlinson p298 Phocaea was the first Ionian town that he assailed. These Phocaeans were the earliest of the Greeks to make long sea‑voyages: it was they who discovered the Adriatic Sea, and Tyrrhenia,​a and Iberia, and Tartessus,​6 not sailing in round freight-ships but in fifty-oared vessels. When they came to Tartessus they made friends with the king of the  p205 Tartessians, whose name was Arganthonius; he ruled Tartessus for eighty years and lived an hundred and twenty.​7 The Phocaeans so won this man's friendship that he first entreated them to leave Ionia and settle in his country where they would; and then, when he could not persuade them to that, and learnt from them how the Median power was increasing, he gave them money to build a wall round their city therewith. Without stint he gave it; for the circuit of the wall is of many furlongs, and all this is made of great stones well fitted together.

[link to original Greek text] 164 In such a manner was the Phocaean's wall fully made. Harpagus marched against the city and besieged it, but he made overtures, and said that it would suffice him if the Phocaeans would demolish one bastion of the wall and dedicate one house. But the Phocaeans, very wroth at the thought of slavery, said they desired to take counsel for one day, and then they would answer; but while they were consulting, Harpagus must, he said, withdraw his army from the walls. Harpagus said that he knew well what they purposed to do, but that nevertheless he would suffer them to take counsel. So while Harpagus withdrew his army from the walls, the Phocaeans launched their fifty-oared ships, placed in them their children and women and all movable goods, besides the statues from the temples and all things therein dedicated save bronze or stonework or painting, and then themselves embarked and set sail for Chios; and the Persians took Phocaea, thus left uninhabited.

 p207  [link to original Greek text] 165 The Phocaeans would have bought of the Chians the islands called Oenussae;​8 but the Chians would not sell them, because they feared that the islands would become a market and so their own island be cut off from its trade; so the Phocaeans made ready to sail to Cyrnus,​9 where at the command of an oracle they had twenty years before this built a city called Alalia. Arganthonius was by this time dead. While making ready for their voyage, they first sailed to Phocaea, where they slew the Persian guard to whom Harpagus had entrusted the defence of the city; and this being done, they called down mighty curses on whosoever of themselves should stay behind when the rest sailed. Not only so, but they sank in the sea a mass of iron, and swore never to return to Phocaea before the iron should again appear. But while they prepared to voyage to Cyrnus, more than half of the citizens were taken with a longing and a piti­ful sorrow for the city and the life of their land, and they broke their oath and sailed back to Phocaea. Those of them who kept the oath set out to sea from the Oenussae.

[link to original Greek text] 166 Rawlinson p300 H & W And when they came to Cyrnus they dwelt there for five years as one body with those who had first come, and they founded temples there. But they harried and plundered all their neighbours: wherefore the Tyrrhenians and Carchedonians made common cause against them, and sailed to attack them each with sixty ships. The Phocaeans also manned their ships, sixty in number, and met the enemy in the sea called Sardonian. They joined  p209 battle, and the Phocaeans won, yet it was but a Cadmean victory;​10 for they lost forty of their ships, and the twenty that remained were useless, their rams being twisted awry. Then sailing to Alalia they took on board their children and women and all of their possessions that their ships could hold, and leaving Cyrnus they sailed to Rhegium.

[link to original Greek text] 167 Rawlinson p302 As for the crews of the destroyed ships, the Carchedonians and Tyrrhenians drew lots for them: and by far the greater share of them falling to the Tyrrhenian city of Agylla,​11 the Agyllaeans led them out and stoned them to death. But after this all from Agylla, whether sheep or beasts of burden or men, that passed the place where the stoned Phocaeans lay, became distorted and crippled and palsied. The Agyllaeans sent to Delphi, desiring to heal their offence; and the Pythian priestess bade them do what the people of Agylla to this day perform: for they pay great honours to the Phocaeans, with religious rites and games, and horse-races. Such was the end of this portion of the Phocaeans. Those of them who fled to Rhegium set out from thence and gained possession of that Oenotrian​12 city which is now called Hyele;​13 this they founded because they learnt from a man of Posidonia that when the Pythian priestess spoke of founding a settlement and of Cyrnus, it was the hero that she signified and not the island.

 p211  [link to original Greek text] 168 Thus, then, it fared with the Ionian Phocaea. The Teians did in like manner with the Phocaeans: when Harpagus had taken their walled city by building a mound, they all embarked on shipboard and sailed away for Thrace. There they founded a city, Abdera, which before this had been founded by Timesius of Clazomenae; yet he got no good of it, but was driven out by the Thracians. This Timesius is now honoured as a hero by the Teians of Abdera.

[link to original Greek text] 169 These were the only Ionians who, being unable to endure slavery, left their native lands. The rest of the Ionians, except the Milesians, though they faced Harpagus in battle as did the exiles, and bore themselves gallantly, each fighting for his own country, yet, when they were worsted and their cities taken, remained each where he was and did as they were commanded. The Milesians, as I have already said, made a treaty with Cyrus himself and struck no blow. Thus was Ionia for the second time enslaved: and when Harpagus had conquered the Ionians of the mainland, the Ionians of the islands, fearing the same fate, surrendered themselves to Cyrus.

[link to original Greek text] 170 Rawlinson p304 When the Ionians, despite their evil plight, did nevertheless assemble at the Panionion, Bias of Priene, as I have heard, gave them very useful advice, which had they followed they might have been the most prosperous of all Greeks: for he counselled them to put out to sea and sail all together to Sardo and then found one city for all Ionians: thus, possessing the greatest island in the world and bearing rule over others, they would be rid of slavery and win prosperity; but if they stayed in Ionia he could see (he  p213 said) no help of freedom for them. Such was the counsel which Bias of Priene gave after the destruction of the Ionians; and good also was that given before the destruction by Thales of Miletus, a Phoenician by descent; he would have had the Ionians make one common place of counsel, which should be in Teos, for that was the centre of Ionia; and the state of the other cities should be held to be no other than if they were but townships. Thus Bias and Thales advised.

[link to original Greek text] 171 H & W Harpagus, after subduing Ionia, made an expedition against the Carians, Caunians, and Lycians, taking with him Ionians and Aeolians. Now among these the Carians were a people who had come to the mainland from the islands; for in old time they were islanders, called Leleges and under the rule of Minos, not (as far as I can learn by hearsay) pay him tribute, but manning ships for him when he needed them. Seeing then that Minos had subdued much territory to himself and was victorious in war, this made the Carians too at that time to be very far the most regarded of all nations. Three things they invented in which they were followed by the Greeks: it was the Carians who first taught the wearing of crests on their helmets and devices on their shields, and who first made for their shields holders; till then all who used shields carried them without these holders, and guided them with leathern baldrics which they slung round  p215 the neck and over the left shoulder.​14 Then, a long time afterwards, the Carians were driven from the islands by Dorians and Ionians and so came to the mainland. This is the Cretan story about the Carians; but they themselves do not consent to it, but hold that they are aboriginal dwellers on the mainland and ever bore the name which they bear now; and they point to an ancient shrine of Carian Zeus at Mylasa, whereto Mysians and Lydians, as brethren of the Carians (for Lydus and Mysus, they say, were brothers of Car), are admitted, but none of any other nation, though they learned to speak the same language as the Carians.

[link to original Greek text] 172 Rawlinson p307 The Caunians, to my mind, are aborigines of the soil; but they themselves say that they came from Crete. Their speech has grown like to the Carian, or the Carian to theirs (for that I cannot clearly determine), but in their customs they are widely severed from the Carians, as from all other men. Their chief pleasure is to assemble for drinking-bouts in such companies as accord with their ages and friendships — men, women, and children. Certain foreign rites of worship were established among them; but presently when they were otherwise minded, and would worship only the gods of their fathers, all Caunian men of full age put on their armour and went together as far as the boundaries of Calynda, smiting the air with their spears and saying that they were casting out the stranger gods.

 p217  [link to original Greek text] 173 Such are their fashions. The Lycians were of Crete in ancient times (for of old none that dwelt in Crete were Greek). Now there was a dispute in Crete about the royal power between Sarpedon and Minos, sons of Europe; Minos prevailed in this division and drove out Sarpedon and his partisans; who, being thrust out, came to the Milyan land in Asia. What is now possessed by the Lycians was of old Milyan, and the Milyans were then called Solymi. For a while Sarpedon ruled them, and the people were called Termilae, which was the name that they had brought with them and that is still given to the Lycians by their neighbours; but after the coming from Athens of Lycus son of Pandion — another exile, banished by his brother Aegeus — to join Sarpedon in the land of the Termilae, they came in time to be called Lycians after Lycus. Their customs are in part Cretan and in part Carian. But they have one which is their own and shared by no other men; they take their names not from their fathers but from their mothers; and when one is asked by his neighbour who he is, he will say that he is the son of such a mother, and recount the mothers of his mother. Nay, if a woman of full rights marry a slave, her children are deemed pure-born; and if a true-born Lycian man take a stranger wife or concubine, the children are dishonoured, though he be the first in the land.

[link to original Greek text] 174 Rawlinson p310 H & W Neither then the Carians nor any Greeks who dwell in this country did any deed of note before they were all enslaved by Harpagus. Among  p219 those who inhabit it are certain Cnidians, colonists from Lacedaemon. Their country (it is called the Triopion) lies between the sea and that part of the peninsula which belongs to Bubassus, and all but a little part of the Cnidian territory is sea‑girt; for it is bounded on the north by the gulf of Ceramicus, and on the south by the sea off Syme and Rhodes. Now while Harpagus was conquering Ionia, the Cnidians dug a trench across this little space, which is about five furlongs wide, in order that soº their country might be an island. So they brought it all within the entrenchment; for the frontier between the Cnidian country and the mainland is on the isthmus across which they dug. Many of them were at this work; and seeing that the workers were more often hurt and less naturally than ordinary, some in other parts, but most in the eyes, by the breaking of stones, the Cnidians sent envoys to Delphi to inquire what it was that so hindered them. Then, as they themselves say, the priestess gave them this answer in iambic verse:

"Nor wall nor dig across your isthmus; long ago

Your land had been an isle, if Zeus had willed it so."

At this answer from the priestess the Cnidians ceased from their digging, and when Harpagus came against them with his army they surrendered to him without resistance.

[link to original Greek text] 175 There were also certain folk of Pedasa, dwelling inland of Halicarnassus; when any misfortune was coming upon them or their neighbours, the priestess of Athene grew a great beard. This had happened to them thrice. These were the only  p221 men near Caria who held out for long against Harpagus, and they gave him the most trouble; they fortified a hill called Lide.

[link to original Greek text] 176 The Pedasian stronghold being at length taken, and Harpagus having led his army into the plain of Xanthus, the Lycians came out to meet him, and did valorous deeds in their battle against odds; but being worsted and driven into the city they gathered into the citadel their wives and children and goods and servants, and then set the whole citadel on fire. Then they swore each other great oaths, and sallying out they fell fighting, all the men of Xanthus. Of the Xanthians who claim now to be Lycians the greater number — all saving eighty households — are of foreign descent; these eighty families as it chanced were at that time away from the city, and thus they survived. Thus Harpagus gained Xanthus, and Caunus too in somewhat like manner, the Caunians following for the most part the example of the Lycians.

[link to original Greek text] 177 Rawlinson p313 Harpagus then made havoc of lower Asia; in the upper country Cyrus himself subdued every nation, leaving none untouched. Of the greater part of these I will say nothing, but will speak only of those which gave Cyrus most trouble and are worthiest to be described.


The Loeb Editor's Notes:

1 See ch. 148.

2 A festival celebrated at Athens and most Ionian cities by the members of each "phratria" or clan, lasting three days; on the last day grown‑up youths were formally admitted as members of the phratria. The festival was held in the month Pyanepsion (late October and early November).

Thayer's Note: For a considerably fuller account of the festival and its history, see the article Apaturia in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.

3 Perhaps so called from a mountain in Aeolis, Phricion, near which the Aeolians had been settled before their migration to Asia.

Thayer's Note: The Phriconian Cyme, to distinguish it from several other Greek cities named Cyme, especially one in Euboea and another in Magna Graecia — the latter better known to the student of history as Cumae.

4 These places lie between Smyrna and Pergamum, on or near the coast. But Aegiroessa has not been exactly identified.

5 A group of small islands between Lesbos and the mainland.

6 The lower valley of the Guadalquivir. Later Tartessus was identified with Gades (Cadiz), which Herodotus (IV.8) calls Gadira.

7 A common Greek tradition, apparently; Anacreon (Fr. 8) says "I would not . . . rule Tartessus for an hundred and fifty years."

8 Between Chios and the mainland.

9 Corsica.

10 Polynices and Eteocles, sons of Oedipus and descendants of Cadmus, fought for the possession of Thebes and killed each other. Hence a Cadmean victory means one where victor and vanquished suffer alike.

11 Later Caere in Etruria.

Thayer's Note: One of the most important Etruscan cities; now Cerveteri, a tourist destination well known for its important archaeological remains.

12 Oenotria corresponds to Southern Italy (the Lucania and Bruttium of Roman history).

13 Later Elea (Velia).

14 This is the management of the Homeric "man‑covering" shield, as shown in the Iliad. The shield is not carried on the arm, but hangs by a belt which passes over the left shoulder and under the right arm‑pit; by a pull on the τελαμών it can be shifted so as to protect breast or back.


Thayer's Note:

a Today the Tyrrhenians are usually referred to as Etruscans. An important nation in north central Italy, they left many interesting and sometimes beautiful monuments and artifacts, mostly funerary, as well as a few fragments of their language, but are still not well understood. The 19c antiquarian George Dennis produced a very readable book on them, with many illustrations and maps, which is onsite: Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria. Dennis's scholar­ship, never cutting-edge even in his own time, has naturally long been superseded though, and today's reader can find a useful updated introduction here: Etruscans.


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Page updated: 27 Nov 21