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V.97‑126

This webpage reproduces a section of
Herodotus
published in Vol. III
of the Loeb Classical Library edition,
1922

The text is in the public domain.

This page has been carefully proofread
and I believe it to be free of errors.
If you find a mistake though,
please let me know!

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VI.43‑93

(Vol. III) Herodotus

 p149  Book VI: chapters 1‑42

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. III, 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] 1 Rawlinson p413 H & W This was the end of Aristagoras, after he had brought about the Ionian revolt. But Histiaeus, the despot of Miletus, being let go by Darius, arrived in Sardis. When he came thither from Susa, Artaphrenes the governor of Sardis asked him for what reason he supposed the Ionians to have rebelled; Histiaeus said that he did not know, and that he marvelled at what had happened; pretending to have no knowledge of the present troubles. But Artaphrenes saw that he dissembled, and said, speaking out of his exact knowledge of the story of the revolt: "I will tell you, Histiaeus, the truth of this business: it was you that stitched this shoe, and Aristagoras that put it on."

[link to original Greek text] 2 Thus said Artaphrenes regarding the revolt; and Histiaeus, affrighted by Artaphrenes' understanding of the matter, fled at the next nightfall to the sea; for he had deceived Darius, promising to subdue Sardo, the greatest of the islands, with secret intent to make himself leader of the Ionians in their war against Darius. Crossing over to Chios, he was taken and bound by the Chians, they judging him to be sent by Darius to do them some mischief; howbeit when they learnt the whole story of his enmity to the king they set him free.

 p151  3 Rawlinson p414 Then Histiaeus was asked by the Ionians, why he had so zealously charged Aristagoras to revolt from the king and done the Ionians so great harm; the true reason he did by no means reveal to them, but told them instead that king Darius had planned to remove the Phoenicians and settle them in Ionia, and the Ionians in Phoenice; for this reason, he said, he had sent the charge. No such plan had the king made; but Histiaeus would affright the Ionians.

[link to original Greek text] 4 Presently Histiaeus, using for messenger Hermippus, a man of Atarneus, sent letters to the Persians at Sardis; this he did, because they had ere now held converse with him about revolt. But Hermippus gave not these letters to those to whom he was sent, and carried and delivered them to Artaphrenes instead. 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 to Artaphrenes, and he put many Persians there and then to death.

[link to original Greek text] 5 So troubles arose in Sardis. Histiaeus being disappointed of this hope, the Chians brought him back to Miletus, at his own entreaty. But the Milesians were glad enough to be rid of Aristagoras himself, and had no wish to receive another despot into their country, now that they had tasted of freedom; and when Histiaeus essayed by night to force his way into Miletus, he was wounded by a Milesian in the thigh. So, being thrust out from  p153 his own city, he went back to Chios; and there, when he could not persuade the Chians to give him ships, he crossed over to Mytilene and strove to persuade the Lesbians to give him ships. 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, save when the crews consented to serve Histiaeus.

[link to original Greek text] 6 Such were the doings of Histiaeus and the Mytilenaeans. As regards Miletus itself, there was expectation of a great fleet and army coming against it; for the Persian generals had joined their power together and made one host, 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.

[link to original Greek text] 7 Rawlinson p416 These then coming to attack Miletus and the rest of Ionia, the Ionians, when they had word of it, sent men of their own to take counsel for them in the Panionium.​1 These, when they came to that place and there consulted, resolved to raise no land army to meet the Persians, but to leave the Milesians themselves to defend their walls, and to man their fleet to the last ship and muster with all speed at Lade, there to fight for Miletus at sea. This Lade is an islet lying off the city of Miletus.


[image ALT: A flat landscape, with a loose ridge of three low hills on the distant horizon; in the foreground, a wooded area and a pair of small roads, but otherwise the countryside is mostly treeless. It is the area near Lade in Turkey, as further captioned in the text of this webpage.]

The low range of hills above is the isle of Lade, now part of the mainland.


[image ALT: A large plowed field, and in the distance, a ridge of five or six low hills, gradually getting lower as we look to our left. It is a view of the hills on which is found the remains of the old town of Miletus in Turkey, as further captioned in the text of this webpage.]

Old Miletus is perched on these similar-looking hills.

Photos © Livius.Org | Jona Lendering, by kind permission.

[link to original Greek text] 8 The Ionians came presently thither with their ships manned, and as many Aeolians with them as dwell in Lesbos. And this was their order of  p155 battle: — The Milesians themselves had the eastern wing, bringing eighty ships; next to them were the men of Priene with twelve ships, and they of Myus with three; next to the men of Myus were the men of Teos of 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. All these together attained to the number of three hundred and fifty-three triremes.

[link to original Greek text] 9 H & W These were the Ionian ships; the ships of the foreigners were six hundred. Now these, too, being come to the Milesian shore, and all their land power being there, the Persian generals, when they learnt the number of the Ionian ships, began to fear lest they should be too weak to overcome the Greeks, and thereby, if they had not the mastery of the sea, should fail of taking Miletus and peradventure be evilly entreated by Darius. Having this in mind, they assembled the despots of the Ionians, who had been deposed from their governments by Aristagoras of Miletus and had fled to the Medes, and were now as it chanced with the army that was led against Miletus; they assembled, I say, as many of these as were with them, and thus they addressed them: "Men of Ionia, let each one of you now show that he has done good service to the king's house; let every one of you essay severally to separate his own countrymen from the rest of the allied power. Set this before them, and promise withal, that they shall suffer no hurt for their rebellion, and that neither  p157 their temples shall be burnt nor their houses, nor shall they in any regard be more violently used than aforetime. But if they will not be so guided, and nothing will serve them but fighting, then utter a threat that shall put constraint upon them, and tell them that if they are worsted in battle they shall be enslaved; we will make eunuchs of their boys, and carry their maidens captive to Bactra, and deliver their land to others."

[link to original Greek text] 10 Rawlinson p418 Thus said the generals; the Ionian despots sent their messages by night, each to his own countrymen; but the Ionians to whom these messages did indeed come were stubborn and would have none of the treachery, each part thinking that the Persians made this offer to it alone.

[link to original Greek text] 11 This befel immediately after the Persians' coming to Miletus. Presently, the Ionians being gathered at Lade, assemblies of them were held; among those whom I suppose to have addressed them were Dionysius the Phocaean general, who spoke thus: "Our cause, Ionians, stands on the very razor-edge of decision whether we be freemen or slaves, yea, runaway slaves; now therefore if you consent to endure hardness, 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 still be slothful and disorderly, I see nothing that can save you from being punished by the king for your rebellion. Nay, do you take my word, and entrust yourselves to me; and I promise you that (if heaven deal fairly with us) either our enemies  p159 shall not meet us in battle, or if they so do they will be utterly vanquished."

[link to original Greek text] 12 When the Ionians heard this, they put themselves in Dionysius' hands. He then ever put out to sea with ships in column, and having used the rowers to pierce each other's line of ships,​2 and armed the fighting men on board, he would for the rest of the day keep the fleet at anchor; all day he made the Ionians work. For seven days they obeyed him and did his bidding; but on the next day, untried as they were in such labour and worn out by hard work and the sun's heat, the Ionians began to say to each other, "Against what god have we sinned that we fulfil this hard measure? We have gone clean daft 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, whereby many of us have fallen sick already and many are like so to do; better than these ills it were for us to endure any and every lot, and abide this coming slavery whatsoever it be, rather than be oppressed by that which is now upon us; Marry, let us obey him no longer!" Thus they said; and from that day no man would obey: they built them booths on the island (as though they had been an army) wherein they lived sheltered from the sun, and never would embark in their ships nor exercise them therein.

[link to original Greek text] 13 Rawlinson p420 But when the generals of the Samians learnt of this that the Ionians did, they bethought them of  p161 that message which Aeaces son of Syloson had already sent them at the Persians' bidding, entreating them to desert the Ionian alliance; now therefore, when they saw much disorder on the Ionian side, they consented to the message; moreover, it seemed to them to be a thing impossible to overcome the king's power, and they were well assured that if they overcame Darius' present fleet they would have another fivefold greater on their hands. Therefore as soon as they saw that the Ionians would not be serviceable, they laid hold on that for a pretext, thinking themselves in luck's way so to save their temples and their own houses. This Aeaces, to whose message the Samians consented, was son of Syloson the son of Aeaces, and had been despot of Samos, till he was deposed from his government by Aristagoras of Miletus, even as the other Ionian despots.

[link to original Greek text] 14 Now therefore, when the Phoenician fleet came sailing against them, the Ionians for their part put out to sea with their ships in column. When they drew near together and met in battle, which of the Ionians did thereafter quit themselves ill or well in that sea‑fight my history cannot with exactness record; for they all blame each other. But this is said, that the Samians, according to their compact with Aeaces, did then make all sail for Samos, leaving their post, all save eleven ships, the captains whereof stood their ground and go up, disobeying their admirals; and by reason of this deed the Samian people granted them for their valour that their names and their fathers' should be engraved on a pillar, which pillar now stands in their  p163 market-place. But the Lesbians, seeing their neighbours fly, did even as the Samians; and so, too, the greater part of the Ionians did likewise.

[link to original Greek text] 15 Rawlinson p422 Of those that stood their ground in the sea‑fight, most roughly handled were the Chians, for they would not be cravens but achieved deeds of renown. They brought an hundred ships, as I have before told, to the fleet, and on each ship were forty picked men of their citizens; and seeing themselves betrayed be by the greater part of their allies they thought shame to bear themselves like the baser sort of the rest, but albeit with none but a few allies to aid them they fought on and broke the enemy's line, till they had taken many of his ships but lost the greater part of their own.

[link to original Greek text] 16 H & W So with the remnant of their ships the Chians fled to their own country; but the crews of the Chian ships that were crippled by hurts fled before the pursuit to Mycale. There the men beached and left their ships, and made their way thence across the mainland. But when the Chians entered the lands of Ephesus on their march, it chanced that they came by night and the women were keeping their Thesmophoria; and the Ephesians thereupon, 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 slew the Chians.

[link to original Greek text] 17 They, then, met with such fate as I have said. As for Dionysius the Phocaean, when he saw that  p165 the Ionian cause was lost, he sailed away with three enemy ships that he had taken; but not to Phocaea, now that he knew well that it would be enslaved with the rest of Ionia; he sailed then and there with a straight course to Phoenice instead, and having sunk there certain galleons and taken much substance he made sail to Sicily, making which his station he set up for a pirate, robbing Carchedonians and Tyrrhenians,​a but no Greeks.

[link to original Greek text] 18 When the Persians had vanquished the Ionians by sea, they laid siege to Miletus by sea and land, mining the walls and using every device against it, till in the sixth year after the revolt of Aristagoras they took the city high and low and enslaved it.​3 Thus did this calamity accord with the oracle concerning Miletus.


[image ALT: An ancient Greek votive offering in the shape of a knucklebone, as further captioned in the text of this webpage.]

Mute witness to the sack of Miletus, this votive offering from the oracle of the Branchidae in Miletus was found at Susa in 1901, in one of the residences of the Persian kings. In the shape of an astragalos or knucklebone, it is a weight — one of a pair dating to the middle of the 6c B.C. — and bears an inscription reading

"These handsome objects, the produce of the tithe on the harvest, Aristolochus and Thrason consecrated to Apollo. Pasicles son of Cydimeneus cast them."

Louvre, Paris (see their site for details).
Photo © Livius.Org | Jona Lendering, by kind permission.

[link to original Greek text] 19 Rawlinson p424 For when the Argives enquired at Delphi of the safety of their city, there was given them an oracle of twofold import, part of it regarding the Argives themselves, but there was an oracle add thereto for the Milesians. Of that which concerned the Argives I will then make mention when I come to that part of my history; but this was the prophecy given to the Milesians, they not then being present:

In that day, Miletus, thou planner of works that are evil,

Thou for a banquet shalt serve and a guerdon rich of the spoiler;

Many the long-locked gallants whose feet shall be washed by thy women;

Woe for my Didyman​4 shrine! no more shall its ministers tend it.

 p167  All this now came upon the Milesians; for the most part of their men were slain by the long-haired Persians, 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.​b

[link to original Greek text] 20 After that, the captive Milesians were brought to Susa. King Darius did them no further hurt, but settled themα by the sea called Red, in the city called Ampe, whereby flows the river Tigris 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.

[link to original Greek text] 21 Now when the Milesians suffered all this at the hands of the Persians, the men of Sybaris (who had lost their city and dwelt in Laüs and Scidrus) gave them no just requital for what they had done; for when Sybaris was taken by the men of Croton, all the people of Miletus, young and old, shaved their heads and made great public lamentation; no cities within my knowledge were ever so closely joined in friendship as these. The Sybarites did nothing after the Athenian manner. For the Athenians, besides that they signified in many other ways their deep grief for the taking of Miletus, did this in especial: — Phrynichus having written a play entitled "The Fall of Miletus" and set it on the stage, the whole theatre brake into weeping; and they fined Phrynichus a thousand drachmae for bringing to mind a calamity that touched them so nearly, and forbade for ever the acting of that play.

[link to original Greek text] 22 Rawlinson p426 H & W Miletus then was left empty of its people.  p169 But as regards the Samians, their men of substance were ill‑pleased by the dealings of their generals with the Medes; after the sea‑fight they took counsel straightway and resolved that before Aeaces the despot came to their country they would sail away to a colony, rather than remain and be slaves to the Medes and Aeaces. For the people of Zancle​5 in Sicily about this time sent messengers to Ionia inviting the Ionians to the Fair Coast, as it is called, 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, then, the Samians alone of the Ionians, with those Milesians who had escaped, set forth; and in their journey a thing befel them such as I will show.

[link to original Greek text] 23 As they voyaged to Sicily the Samians came to the country of the Epizephyrian​6 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. Learning this, Anaxilaus the despot of Rhegium, being then at feud with the Zanclaeans, consorted with the Samians and persuaded them from their purpose; they had best, he said, leave off their voyage to the Fair Coast, and seize Zancle while it was deserted by its men. To this the Samians consented and seized Zancle; whereat the Zanclaeans, when they learnt of the taking of their city, came to deliver it, calling to their aid Hippocrates the despot of Gela, who was their ally. But Hippocrates, when he came bringing his army to aid them, put Scythes the monarch of Zancle and  p171 his brother Pythogenes in chains for Scythes' losing of the city, and sent them away to the town of Inyx; and for the rest of the people of Zancle, he betrayed them into the hands of the Samians, with whom he had taken counsel and exchanged oaths of agreement. The price which the Samians covenanted to give him was, that Hippocrates should take for his share half of the movable goods and of the slaves in the city, and all that was in the country. The greater number of the Zanclaeans were kept in chains as slaves by Hippocrates himself; three hundred, that were their chief men, he delivered to the Samians to be put to death; but the Samians did not so with them.

[link to original Greek text] 24 Rawlinson p428 Scythes the monarch of Zancle escaped from Inyx to Himera, and thence being arrived in Asia went up the country to king Darius. He was esteemed by Darius the most honest man of all who had come up to him from Hellas; for he returned by the king's permission to Sicily and from Sicily back again to Darius; at the last he ended his life in Persia, full of years and of great possessions. Thus lightly did the Samians plant themselves in that most excellent city of Zancle, when they had escaped from the Medes.

[link to original Greek text] 25 H & W 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 his great achievements; and by reason of the desertion of their ships in the sea‑fight the Samians were the only rebel people whose city was not burnt, nor their temples. Miletus being taken, the Persians thereby at once gained possession of Caria, some of the towns submitting  p173 themselves of their own accord and others being subdued perforce.

[link to original Greek text] 26 All this fell out as I have said. But 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. Thereupon, leaving all matters concerning the Hellespont in charge of Bisaltes of Abydos, son of Apollophanes, he himself sailed with Lesbians to Chios, and there did battle in the Hollows of Chios (as they are called) with Chian guardships that would not receive him. Many of their crews he slew; the rest of the people of the country (so crippled were they by the sea‑fight) Histiaeus with his Lesbians subdued to his will, coming out from Polichne in Chios.

[link to original Greek text] 27 Rawlinson p430 Ever is some warning given by heaven, when great ills threaten cities or nations; for before all this plain signs had been sent to the Chians. Of a band of a hundred youths whom they had sent to Delphi two only 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 at school, insomuch that of a hundred and twenty of them one alone escaped. These signs had been shown to them by heaven; thereafter the sea‑fight brake upon them and beat the city to its knees, and with that came Histiaeus and the Lesbians to end what the sea‑fight began; and the Chians being in so evil a case, he easily subdued them.

[link to original Greek text] 28 Thence Histiaeus brought a great force of Ionians and Aeolians against Thasos. But while he  p175 beleaguered Thasos there came to him a message that the Phoenicians were putting out to sea from Miletus to attack the rest of Ionia; learning which he left Thasos unsacked, and made haste instead with all his army to Lesbos. Thence, for his men were anhungered, he crossed over with intent to reap from Atarneus the cornº of that place and the Mysian corn of the Caïcus plain. Now there is chanced that in that region was Harpagus, a Persian, having no small force under him; who, when Histiaeus landed, met him in battle and took Histiaeus himself alive and slew the greater part of his army.

[link to original Greek text] 29 Histiaeus was taken prisoner after this wise: the Greeks fought with the Persians at Malene in the country of Atarneus, and for a long time the armies battled foot to foot, till the Persian horse charged and fell upon the Greeks; thus it was they that achieved the victory; then, the Greeks being routed, Histiaeus, supposing that the king would not put him to death for his late transgression, did what showed him to love his life too well. Being overtaken in his flight by a Persian, and so caught and like to be stabbed, he cried out in the Persian language and discovered himself for Histiaeus of Miletus.

[link to original Greek text] 30 Now had he been taken prisoner and brought on his way to king Darius, no harm had been done him (to my thinking) and the king had forgiven his guilt; but as it was, Histiaeus being brought to Sardis, there both by reason of what he had done, and for fear that he might escape and again win power at the court, Artaphrenes, viceroy of Sardis,  p177 and Harpagus who had taken Histiaeus, impaled his body on the spot, and sent his head embalmed to king Darius at Susa. When Darius learnt of this he blamed those who had so done, because they had not brought Histiaeus before him alive; for the head, he gave command that it should be washed and buried with full observance, as the head of one that had done great good to Darius himself and to Persia.

[link to original Greek text] 31 Rawlinson p432 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" each severally. 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 took likewise also the Ionian cities of the mainland, albeit not by netting the people; for that was not possible.

[link to original Greek text] 32 There the Persian generals failed not to fulfil the threats which they had uttered against the Ionians when they were encamped over against them; for when they had gained the mastery over the cities, they chose out the comeliest boys and castrated them, making them eunuchs instead of men, and they carried the fairest maidens away to the king; this they did, and burnt the cities, yea, and their temples. Thus thrice had the Ionians  p179 been enslaved, first by the Lydians and then once and now yet again by the Persians.

[link to original Greek text] 33 Then the fleet departed from Ionia and took all that lay on the left hand of the entrance of the Hellespont; for what was to the right had been subdued by the Persians themselves from the side of the land. These are the regions of Europe that belong to the Hellespont, — the Chersonese, wherein are many towns; Perinthus, and the forts that lie towards Thrace, and Selymbria and Byzantium. The people of Byzantium, and they of Calchedon beyond, did not even await the onfall of the Phoenicians, but left their own land and fled away within the Euxine, and there settled in the town Mesambria. The Phoenicians, having burnt these places aforesaid, turned against Proconnesus and Artace, and having given these also to the flames sailed back to the Chersonese to make an end of the remnant of the towns, as many as they had not destroyed at their former landing. But against Cyzicus they did not so much as sail at all; for the Cyzicenes had before this visitation of the fleet already made themselves the king's subjects, by an agreement which they made with the viceroy at Dascyleum, Oebares son of Megabazus.

[link to original Greek text] 34 Rawlinson p434 H & W As for the Chersonese, the Phoenicians subdued all the towns in it, save only Cardia. These had been ruled till then by Miltiades son of Cimon who was the son of Stesagoras. This sovereignty had been formerly won by Miltiades son of Cypselus in such manner as I will now show. The Dolonci, who were Thracians, possessed this Chersonese; they then, being hard pressed in war by the Apsinthians, sent their princes to Delphi to ask  p181 an oracle concerning the war; and the priestess in her reply bade them bring him in to found their state who should first offer them hospitality when they departed from the temple. Then the Dolonci followed the Sacred Way​7 and journeyed through Phocis and Boeotia; and when none invited them in they turned aside towards Athens.

[link to original Greek text] 35 Now at this time the supreme ruler of Athens was Pisistratus, but Miltiades also, son of Cypselus, was a man of power; he was of a house that kept four-horse chariots, tracing his earliest descent from Aeacus and Aegina, but by later lineage Athenian; the first Athenian of that house was Philaeus son of Aias. This Miltiades, as he sat in his porch, saw the Dolonci pass by with raiment and spears of foreign fashion, and he hailed them, and when they approached offered them lodging and hospitality. They consented thereto; and when he had received them as guests they laid before him all the words of the oracle, and entreated him to obey the god. Hearing this, Miltiades was persuaded by what they said; for he was impatient of the rule of Pisistratus and desired to be away from it. Forthwith he set out for Delphi, to enquire of the oracle if he should do as the Dolonci entreated him.

[link to original Greek text] 36 Rawlinson p436 The priestess too bidding him consent, thereupon Miltiades son of Cypselus, that Miltiades who had ere now won a race of four-horse chariots at Olympia, took with him all Athenians who desired to share his enterprise, and sailing with the Dolonci  p183 gained possession of their country; and they who had brought him in made him their despot. First he built a wall across the isthmus of the Chersonese from the town Cardia to Pactye,​8 that so the Apsinthians might not be able to harm them by invading the country. The breadth of the isthmus is six-and‑thirty furlongs; and the length of the Chersonese on the hither side of that isthmus is four hundred and twenty furlongs.

[link to original Greek text] 37 Having then built a wall across the neck of the Chersonese, and thus thrust the Apsinthians back, Miltiades made war upon the Lampsacenes first of all the rest; and they lay in ambush and took him captive. But Miltiades was well known to Croesus the Lydian; wherefore Croesus, learning of what had been done, warned the men of Lampsacus to let Miltiades go; "or," he threatened, "I will raze you from the earth like a pine-tree." The men of Lampsacus were all astray in their counsels as to what this threat of Croesus to them (that he would raze them like a pine-tree) might mean, till after much seeking one of their elders at last told them the truth, to wit, that the pine is the only tree that sends forth no shoots after it is cut down, but perishes utterly; wherefore in fear of Croesus they freed Miltiades and let him go.

[link to original Greek text] 38 Rawlinson p438 So Miltiades was saved by Croesus; but afterwards he died childless, leaving his government and his possessions to Stesagoras, the son of his full brother Cimon; and since his death the men of the Chersonese have ever offered him such sacrifice as is a founder's right, ordaining days for horse-races and feats of strength, wherein no man of Lampsacus  p185 is suffered to contend. But in the war against the Lampsacenes Stesagoras too met his end and died childless; he was smitten on the head with an axe in the town-hall but one that feigned to be a deserter but in truth was an enemy and a man of violence.

[link to original Greek text] 39 H & W Such having been the end of Stesagoras, Miltiades son of Cimon and brother of the dead Stesagoras was sent in a trireme to the Chersonese, there to take control of the country, by the sons of Pisistratus; these had already used him well at Athens, feigning that they had not been accessory to the death of Cimon his father, the manner whereof I will relate in another place. Being come to the Chersonese, Miltiades kept himself within his house, professing thus to honour the memory of his brother Stesagoras. When this was known to the people of the Chersonese, the ruling men gathered together from all their cities on every side, and came in a body, as with intent 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.

[link to original Greek text] 40 But not long after this Miltiades, son of Cimon, had come to the Chersonese, he was overtaken by a visitation heavier than the former. For he had been driven from the country three years ere this​9 by the Scythians, their nomad tribes, provoked by Darius, having gathered themselves together and ridden as far as the Chersonese aforesaid. Not abiding their onset, Miltiades fled from the Chersonese,  p187 till the Scythians departed and the Dolonci brought him back again. All this had happened three years before the matters that now engaged him.

[link to original Greek text] 41 Rawlinson p440 But now, learning that the Phoenicians were in Tenedos, he sailed away at once Athens with five triremes laden with the possessions that he had by him. Setting sail from Cardia he crossed the Black Bay, and as he sailed past the Chersonese the Phoenician ships fell in with him. Miltiades himself escaped with four of his ships to Imbros, but the fifth was pursued and overtaken by the Phoenicians. Now, it chanced that the captain of this ship was Metiochus, the eldest son of Miltiades by another wife, not the daughter of Olorus the Thracian; this man the Phoenicians took captive with his ship, and hearing that he was Miltiades' son brought him up to the king; they thought that this would be a very thankworthy service, seeing that Miltiades had given his voice among the Ionians for obeying the Scythians when they demanded of the Ionians that they should break the bridge of boats and sail away to their homes. But when the Phoenicians brought Miltiades' son Metiochus before him, Darius did him no hurt but much good, giving him a house, and substance, and a Persian wife, who bore him children that were reckoned as Persians. As for Miltiades, he made his way from Imbros to Athens.

[link to original Greek text] 42 In this year​10 no further deed of enmity was done by the Persians against the Ionians; but at this same time certain things happened which greatly benefited them. Artaphrenes viceroy of  p189 Sardis summoned to him ambassadors from the cities and compelled the Ionians to make agreements among themselves, that they might submit to redress at law and not harry and plunder each other. This he compelled them to do; and he measured their lands by parasangs, which is the Persian name for a distance of thirty furlongs, and appointed that each people should according to this measurement pay a tribute which has remained fixed ever since that time to this day, even as it was ordained by Artaphrenes; the sum appointed was about the same as that which they had rendered heretofore. This then tended to their peace.


The Loeb Editor's Notes:

1 Cp. I.148.

2 This manoeuvre consisted in forcing a way through the enemy's line and attacking the broadside or stern of his ships.

Lendering's Note: Though Herodotus does not use the term here, the maneuver is known as diekplous.

3 In 494.

4 Didyma (oftener called Branchidae), was near Miletus; the temple was of Apollo Διδυμεύς. Cp. I.46.

5 Zancle is the later Messene, modern Messina.

6 "The epithet distinguishes the Italiot colony from the Locrians of the mother country" (How and Wells).

7 "The Sacred Way seems to have led E. by Daulis, Panopeus, and Chaeronea, then S. E. by Coronea, Haliartus, and Thebes, then S. over Cithaeron to Eleusis, whence it was continued to Athens by the best-known ὁδὸς ἱερά." (How and Wells.)

8 Across the isthmus of the peninsula of Gallipoli, near Bulair; a distance of about four and a half miles.

9 In 493. τρίτῳ μὲν γάρ, κ. τ. λ., explains how it was that Miltiades had been till now absent from the Chersonese.

10 493.


Thayer's Notes:

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.

b I.92, II.159, V.36.


Lendering's Note:

α Cuneiform sources document the existence of colonies of deported people in Babylonia.


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