The
History
By
Herodotus
Translated
by George Rawlinson
CONTENTS:
The
Second Book, Entitled EUTERPE
The
Third Book, Entitled THALIA
The
Fourth Book, Entitled MELPOMENE
The
Fifth Book, Entitled TERPSICHORE
The
Sixth Book, Entitled ERATO
The
Seventh Book, Entitled POLYMNIA
The
Eighth Book, Entitled URANIA
The
Ninth Book, Entitled CALLIOPE
THESE are the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, which he publishes, in the hope of thereby preserving from decay the remembrance of what men have done, and of preventing the great and wonderful actions of the Greeks and the Barbarians from losing their due meed of glory; and withal to put on record what were their grounds of feuds.
According to the Persians best informed in history, the
Phoenicians began to quarrel. This people, who had formerly dwelt on the shores
of the
At a later period, certain Greeks, with whose name they are
unacquainted, but who would probably be Cretans, made a landing at
In the next generation afterwards, according to the same authorities, Alexander the son of Priam, bearing these events in mind, resolved to procure himself a wife out of Greece by violence, fully persuaded, that as the Greeks had not given satisfaction for their outrages, so neither would he be forced to make any for his. Accordingly he made prize of Helen; upon which the Greeks decided that, before resorting to other measures, they would send envoys to reclaim the princess and require reparation of the wrong. Their demands were met by a reference to the violence which had been offered to Medea, and they were asked with what face they could now require satisfaction, when they had formerly rejected all demands for either reparation or restitution addressed to them.
Hitherto the injuries on either side had been mere acts of
common violence; but in what followed the Persians consider that the Greeks
were greatly to blame, since before any attack had been made on Europe, they
led an army into
Such is the account which the Persians give of these
matters. They trace to the attack upon
Croesus, son of Alyattes, by birth a Lydian, was lord of all
the nations to the west of the river Halys. This stream, which separates
The sovereignty of
Now it happened that this Candaules was in love with his own wife; and not only so, but thought her the fairest woman in the whole world. This fancy had strange consequences. There was in his bodyguard a man whom he specially favoured, Gyges, the son of Dascylus. All affairs of greatest moment were entrusted by Candaules to this person, and to him he was wont to extol the surpassing beauty of his wife. So matters went on for a while. At length, one day, Candaules, who was fated to end ill, thus addressed his follower: “I see thou dost not credit what I tell thee of my lady’s loveliness; but come now, since men’s ears are less credulous than their eyes, contrive some means whereby thou mayst behold her naked.” At this the other loudly exclaimed, saying, “What most unwise speech is this, master, which thou hast uttered? Wouldst thou have me behold my mistress when she is naked? Bethink thee that a woman, with her clothes, puts off her bashfulness. Our fathers, in time past, distinguished right and wrong plainly enough, and it is our wisdom to submit to be taught by them. There is an old saying, ‘Let each look on his own.’ I hold thy wife for the fairest of all womankind. Only, I beseech thee, ask me not to do wickedly.”
Gyges thus endeavoured to decline the king’s proposal, trembling lest some dreadful evil should befall him through it. But the king replied to him, “Courage, friend; suspect me not of the design to prove thee by this discourse; nor dread thy mistress, lest mischief be. thee at her hands. Be sure I will so manage that she shall not even know that thou hast looked upon her. I will place thee behind the open door of the chamber in which we sleep. When I enter to go to rest she will follow me. There stands a chair close to the entrance, on which she will lay her clothes one by one as she takes them off. Thou wilt be able thus at thy leisure to peruse her person. Then, when she is moving from the chair toward the bed, and her back is turned on thee, be it thy care that she see thee not as thou passest through the doorway.”
Gyges, unable to escape, could but declare his readiness. Then Candaules, when bedtime came, led Gyges into his sleeping-chamber, and a moment after the queen followed. She entered, and laid her garments on the chair, and Gyges gazed on her. After a while she moved toward the bed, and her back being then turned, he glided stealthily from the apartment. As he was passing out, however, she saw him, and instantly divining what had happened, she neither screamed as her shame impelled her, nor even appeared to have noticed aught, purposing to take vengeance upon the husband who had so affronted her. For among the Lydians, and indeed among the barbarians generally, it is reckoned a deep disgrace, even to a man, to be seen naked.
No sound or sign of intelligence escaped her at the time. But in the morning, as soon as day broke, she hastened to choose from among her retinue such as she knew to be most faithful to her, and preparing them for what was to ensue, summoned Gyges into her presence. Now it had often happened before that the queen had desired to confer with him, and he was accustomed to come to her at her call. He therefore obeyed the summons, not suspecting that she knew aught of what had occurred. Then she addressed these words to him: “Take thy choice, Gyges, of two courses which are open to thee. Slay Candaules, and thereby become my lord, and obtain the Lydian throne, or die this moment in his room. So wilt thou not again, obeying all behests of thy master, behold what is not lawful for thee. It must needs be that either he perish by whose counsel this thing was done, or thou, who sawest me naked, and so didst break our usages.” At these words Gyges stood awhile in mute astonishment; recovering after a time, he earnestly besought the queen that she would not compel him to so hard a choice. But finding he implored in vain, and that necessity was indeed laid on him to kill or to be killed, he made choice of life for himself, and replied by this inquiry: “If it must be so, and thou compellest me against my will to put my lord to death, come, let me hear how thou wilt have me set on him.” “Let him be attacked,” she answered, “on the spot where I was by him shown naked to you, and let the assault be made when he is asleep.”
All was then prepared for the attack, and when night fell, Gyges, seeing that he had no retreat or escape, but must absolutely either slay Candaules, or himself be slain, followed his mistress into the sleeping-room. She placed a dagger in his hand and hid him carefully behind the self-same door. Then Gyges, when the king was fallen asleep, entered privily into the chamber and struck him dead. Thus did the wife and kingdom of Candaules pass into the possession of Gyges, of whom Archilochus the Parian, who lived about the same time, made mention in a poem written in iambic trimeter verse.
Gyges was afterwards confirmed in the possession of the throne by an answer of the Delphic oracle. Enraged at the murder of their king, the people flew to arms, but after a while the partisans of Gyges came to terms with them, and it was agreed that if the Delphic oracle declared him king of the Lydians, he should reign; if otherwise, he should yield the throne to the Heraclides. As the oracle was given in his favour he became king. The Pythoness, however, added that, in the fifth generation from Gyges, vengeance should come for the Heraclides; a prophecy of which neither the Lydians nor their princes took any account till it was fulfilled. Such was the way in which the Mermnadae deposed the Heraclides, and themselves obtained the sovereignty.
When Gyges was established on the throne, he sent no small
presents to
As soon as Gyges was king he made an in-road on
Ardys took Priene and made war upon
This prince waged war with the Medes under Cyaxares, the grandson of Deioces, drove the Cimmerians out of Asia, conquered Smyrna, the Colophonian colony, and invaded Clazomenae. From this last contest he did not come off as he could have wished, but met with a sore defeat; still, however, in the course of his reign, he performed other actions very worthy of note, of which I will now proceed to give an account.
Inheriting from his father a war with the Milesians, he pressed the siege against the city by attacking it in the following manner. When the harvest was ripe on the ground he marched his army into Milesia to the sound of pipes and harps, and flutes masculine and feminine. The buildings that were scattered over the country he neither pulled down nor burnt, nor did he even tear away the doors, but left them standing as they were. He cut down, however, and utterly destroyed all the trees and all the corn throughout the land, and then returned to his own dominions. It was idle for his army to sit down before the place, as the Milesians were masters of the sea. The reason that he did not demolish their buildings was that the inhabitants might be tempted to use them as homesteads from which to go forth to sow and till their lands; and so each time that he invaded the country he might find something to plunder.
In this way he carried on the war with the Milesians for
eleven years, in the course of which he inflicted on them two terrible blows;
one in their own country in the district of Limeneium, the other in the plain
of the Maeander. During six of these eleven years, Sadyattes, the son of Ardys
who first lighted the flames of this war, was king of
It was in the twelfth year of the war that the following
mischance occurred from the firing of the harvest-fields. Scarcely had the corn
been set alight by the soldiers when a violent wind carried the flames against
the
Thus much I know from information given me by the Delphians; the remainder of the story the Milesians add.
The answer made by the oracle came to the ears of Periander,
son of Cypselus, who was a very close friend to Thrasybulus, tyrant of
Alyattes, the moment that the words of the oracle were
reported to him, sent a herald to
The purpose for which he gave these orders was the
following. He hoped that the Sardian herald, seeing so great store of corn upon
the ground, and all the city given up to festivity, would inform Alyattes of
it, which fell out as he anticipated. The herald observed the whole, and when
he had delivered his message, went back to
This Periander, who apprised Thrasybulus of the oracle, was
son of Cypselus, and tyrant of
He had lived for many years at the court of Periander, when
a longing came upon him to sail across to
Having brought the war with the Milesians to a close, and
reigned over the
On the death of Alyattes, Croesus, his son, who was
thirty-five years old, succeeded to the throne. Of the Greek cities,
In this way he made himself master of all the Greek cities
in
Croesus afterwards, in the course of many years, brought under his sway almost all the nations to the west of the Halys. The Lycians and Cilicians alone continued free; all the other tribes he reduced and held in subjection. They were the following: the Lydians, Phrygians, Mysians, Mariandynians, Chalybians, Paphlagonians, Thynian and Bithynian Thracians, Carians, Ionians, Dorians, Aeolians and Pamphylians.
When all these conquests had been added to the Lydian
empire, and the prosperity of Sardis was now at its height, there came thither,
one after another, all the sages of Greece living at the time, and among them
Solon, the Athenian. He was on his travels, having left
On this account, as well as to see the world, Solon set out
upon his travels, in the course of which he went to
Thus did Solon admonish Croesus by the example of Tellus,
enumerating the manifold particulars of his happiness. When he had ended,
Croesus inquired a second time, who after Tellus seemed to him the happiest,
expecting that at any rate, he would be given the second place. “Cleobis and
Bito,” Solon answered; “they were of Argive race; their fortune was enough for
their wants, and they were besides endowed with so much bodily strength that
they had both gained prizes at the Games. Also this tale is told of them:—There
was a great festival in honour of the goddess Juno at
When Solon had thus assigned these youths the second place,
Croesus broke in angrily, “What, stranger of
“Oh! Croesus,” replied the other, “thou askedst a question concerning the condition of man, of one who knows that the power above us is full of jealousy, and fond of troubling our lot. A long life gives one to witness much, and experience much oneself, that one would not choose. Seventy years I regard as the limit of the life of man. In these seventy years are contained, without reckoning intercalary months, twenty-five thousand and two hundred days. Add an intercalary month to every other year, that the seasons may come round at the right time, and there will be, besides the seventy years, thirty-five such months, making an addition of one thousand and fifty days. The whole number of the days contained in the seventy years will thus be twenty-six thousand two hundred and fifty, whereof not one but will produce events unlike the rest. Hence man is wholly accident. For thyself, oh! Croesus, I see that thou art wonderfully rich, and art the lord of many nations; but with respect to that whereon thou questionest me, I have no answer to give, until I hear that thou hast closed thy life happily. For assuredly he who possesses great store of riches is no nearer happiness than he who has what suffices for his daily needs, unless it so hap that luck attend upon him, and so he continue in the enjoyment of all his good things to the end of life. For many of the wealthiest men have been unfavoured of fortune, and many whose means were moderate have had excellent luck. Men of the former class excel those of the latter but in two respects; these last excel the former in many. The wealthy man is better able to content his desires, and to bear up against a sudden buffet of calamity. The other has less ability to withstand these evils (from which, however, his good luck keeps him clear), but he enjoys all these following blessings: he is whole of limb, a stranger to disease, free from misfortune, happy in his children, and comely to look upon. If, in addition to all this, he end his life well, he is of a truth the man of whom thou art in search, the man who may rightly be termed happy. Call him, however, until he die, not happy but fortunate. Scarcely, indeed, can any man unite all these advantages: as there is no country which contains within it all that it needs, but each, while it possesses some things, lacks others, and the best country is that which contains the most; so no single human being is complete in every respect—something is always lacking. He who unites the greatest number of advantages, and retaining them to the day of his death, then dies peaceably, that man alone, sire, is, in my judgment, entitled to bear the name of ‘happy.’ But in every matter it behoves us to mark well the end: for oftentimes God gives men a gleam of happiness, and then plunges them into ruin.”
Such was the speech which Solon addressed to Croesus, a speech which brought him neither largess nor honour. The king saw him depart with much indifference, since he thought that a man must be an arrant fool who made no account of present good, but bade men always wait and mark the end.
After Solon had gone away a dreadful vengeance, sent of God, came upon Croesus, to punish him, it is likely, for deeming himself the happiest of men. First he had a dream in the night, which foreshowed him truly the evils that were about to befall him in the person of his son. For Croesus had two sons, one blasted by a natural defect, being deaf and dumb; the other, distinguished far above all his co-mates in every pursuit. The name of the last was Atys. It was this son concerning whom he dreamt a dream that he would die by the blow of an iron weapon. When he woke, he considered earnestly with himself, and, greatly alarmed at the dream, instantly made his son take a wife, and whereas in former years the youth had been wont to command the Lydian forces in the field, he now would not suffer him to accompany them. All the spears and javelins, and weapons used in the wars, he removed out of the male apartments, and laid them in heaps in the chambers of the women, fearing lest perhaps one of the weapons that hung against the wall might fall and strike him.
Now it chanced that while he was making arrangements for the
wedding, there came to
It chanced that at this very same time there was in the Mysian Olympus a huge monster of a boar, which went forth often from this mountain country, and wasted the corn-fields of the Mysians. Many a time had the Mysians collected to hunt the beast, but instead of doing him any hurt, they came off always with some loss to themselves. At length they sent ambassadors to Croesus, who delivered their message to him in these words: “Oh! king, a mighty monster of a boar has appeared in our parts, and destroys the labour of our hands. We do our best to take him, but in vain. Now therefore we beseech thee to let thy son accompany us back, with some chosen youths and hounds, that we may rid our country of the animal.” Such was the tenor of their prayer.
But Croesus bethought him of his dream, and answered, “Say no more of my son going with you; that may not be in any wise. He is but just joined in wedlock, and is busy enough with that. I will grant you a picked band of Lydians, and all my huntsmen and hounds; and I will charge those whom I send to use all zeal in aiding you to rid your country of the brute.”
With this reply the Mysians were content; but the king’s son, hearing what the prayer of the Mysians was, came suddenly in, and on the refusal of Croesus to let him go with them, thus addressed his father: “Formerly, my father, it was deemed the noblest and most suitable thing for me to frequent the wars and hunting-parties, and win myself glory in them; but now thou keepest me away from both, although thou hast never beheld in me either cowardice or lack of spirit. What face meanwhile must I wear as I walk to the forum or return from it? What must the citizens, what must my young bride think of me? What sort of man will she suppose her husband to be? Either, therefore, let me go to the chase of this boar, or give me a reason why it is best for me to do according to thy wishes.”
Then Croesus answered, “My son, it is not because I have seen in thee either cowardice or aught else which has displeased me that I keep thee back; but because a vision which came before me in a dream as I slept, warned me that thou wert doomed to die young, pierced by an iron weapon. It was this which first led me to hasten on thy wedding, and now it hinders me from sending thee upon this enterprise. Fain would I keep watch over thee, if by any means I may cheat fate of thee during my own lifetime. For thou art the one and only son that I possess; the other, whose hearing is destroyed, I regard as if he were not.”
“Ah! father,” returned the youth, “I blame thee not for keeping watch over me after a dream so terrible; but if thou mistakest, if thou dost not apprehend the dream aright, ‘tis no blame for me to show thee wherein thou errest. Now the dream, thou saidst thyself, foretold that I should die stricken by an iron weapon. But what hands has a boar to strike with? What iron weapon does he wield? Yet this is what thou fearest for me. Had the dream said that I should die pierced by a tusk, then thou hadst done well to keep me away; but it said a weapon. Now here we do not combat men, but a wild animal. I pray thee, therefore, let me go with them.”
“There thou hast me, my son,” said Croesus, “thy interpretation is better than mine. I yield to it, and change my mind, and consent to let thee go.”
Then the king sent for Adrastus, the Phrygian, and said to him, “Adrastus, when thou wert smitten with the rod of affliction—no reproach, my friend—I purified thee, and have taken thee to live with me in my palace, and have been at every charge. Now, therefore, it behoves thee to requite the good offices which thou hast received at my hands by consenting to go with my son on this hunting party, and to watch over him, if perchance you should be attacked upon the road by some band of daring robbers. Even apart from this, it were right for thee to go where thou mayest make thyself famous by noble deeds. They are the heritage of thy family, and thou too art so stalwart and strong.”
Adrastus answered, “Except for thy request, Oh! king, I would rather have kept away from this hunt; for methinks it ill beseems a man under a misfortune such as mine to consort with his happier compeers; and besides, I have no heart to it. On many grounds I had stayed behind; but, as thou urgest it, and I am bound to pleasure thee (for truly it does behove me to requite thy good offices), I am content to do as thou wishest. For thy son, whom thou givest into my charge, be sure thou shalt receive him back safe and sound, so far as depends upon a guardian’s carefulness.”
Thus assured, Croesus let them depart, accompanied by a band
of picked youths, and well provided with dogs of chase. When they reached
If it was a heavy blow to the father to learn that his child was dead, it yet more strongly affected him to think that the very man whom he himself once purified had done the deed. In the violence of his grief he called aloud on Jupiter Catharsius to be a witness of what he had suffered at the stranger’s hands. Afterwards he invoked the same god as Jupiter Ephistius and Hetaereus—using the one term because he had unwittingly harboured in his house the man who had now slain his son; and the other, because the stranger, who had been sent as his child’s guardian, had turned out his most cruel enemy.
Presently the Lydians arrived, bearing the body of the youth, and behind them followed the homicide. He took his stand in front of the corse, and, stretching forth his hands to Croesus, delivered himself into his power with earnest entreaties that he would sacrifice him upon the body of his son—“his former misfortune was burthen enough; now that he had added to it a second, and had brought ruin on the man who purified him, he could not bear to live.” Then Croesus, when he heard these words, was moved with pity towards Adrastus, notwithstanding the bitterness of his own calamity; and so he answered, “Enough, my friend; I have all the revenge that I require, since thou givest sentence of death against thyself. But in sooth it is not thou who hast injured me, except so far as thou hast unwittingly dealt the blow. Some god is the author of my misfortune, and I was forewarned of it a long time ago.” Croesus after this buried the body of his son, with such honours as befitted the occasion. Adrastus, son of Gordias, son of Midas, the destroyer of his brother in time past, the destroyer now of his purifier, regarding himself as the most unfortunate wretch whom he had ever known, so soon as all was quiet about the place, slew himself upon the tomb. Croesus, bereft of his son, gave himself up to mourning for two full years.
At the end of this time the grief of Croesus was interrupted
by intelligence from abroad. He learnt that Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, had
destroyed the empire of Astyages, the son of Cyaxares; and that the Persians
were becoming daily more powerful. This led him to consider with himself
whether it were possible to check the growing power of that people before it
came to a head. With this design he resolved to make instant trial of the
several oracles in
The messengers who were despatched to make trial of the
oracles were given the following instructions: they were to keep count of the
days from the time of their leaving Sardis, and, reckoning from that date, on
the hundredth day they were to consult the oracles, and to inquire of them what
Croesus the son of Alyattes, king of Lydia, was doing at that moment. The
answers given them were to be taken down in writing, and brought back to him.
None of the replies remain on record except that of the oracle at
I can count the sands, and I can measure the ocean;
I have ears for the silent, and know what the dumb man meaneth;
Lo! on my sense there striketh the smell of a shell-covered
tortoise,
Boiling now on a fire, with the flesh of a lamb, in a cauldron-
Brass is the vessel below, and brass the cover above it.
These words the Lydians wrote down at the mouth of the
Pythoness as she prophesied, and then set off on their return to
Such then was the answer returned to Croesus from
After this Croesus, having resolved to propitiate the
Delphic god with a magnificent sacrifice, offered up three thousand of every
kind of sacrificial beast, and besides made a huge pile, and placed upon it
couches coated with silver and with gold, and golden goblets, and robes and
vests of purple; all which he burnt in the hope of thereby making himself more
secure of the favour of the god. Further he issued his orders to all the people
of the land to offer a sacrifice according to their means. When the sacrifice
was ended, the king melted down a vast quantity of gold, and ran it into
ingots, making them six palms long, three palms broad, and one palm in
thickness. The number of ingots was a hundred and seventeen, four being of
refined gold, in weight two talents and a half; the others of pale gold, and in
weight two talents. He also caused a statue of a lion to be made in refined
gold, the weight of which was ten talents. At the time when the
On the completion of these works Croesus sent them away to Delphi, and with them two bowls of an enormous size, one of gold, the other of silver, which used to stand, the latter upon the right, the former upon the left, as one entered the temple. They too were moved at the time of the fire; and now the golden one is in the Clazomenian treasury, and weighs eight talents and forty-two minae; the silver one stands in the corner of the ante-chapel, and holds six hundred amphorae. This is known because the Delphians fill it at the time of the Theophania. It is said by the Delphians to be a work of Theodore the Samian, and I think that they say true, for assuredly it is the work of no common artist. Croesus sent also four silver casks, which are in the Corinthian treasury, and two lustral vases, a golden and a silver one. On the former is inscribed the name of the Lacedaemonians, and they claim it as a gift of theirs, but wrongly, since it was really given by Croesus. The inscription upon it was cut by a Delphian, who wished to pleasure the Lacedaemonians. His name is known to me, but I forbear to mention it. The boy, through whose hand the water runs, is (I confess) a Lacedaemonian gift, but they did not give either of the lustral vases. Besides these various offerings, Croesus sent to Delphi many others of less account, among the rest a number of round silver basins. Also he dedicated a female figure in gold, three cubits high, which is said by the Delphians to be the statue of his baking-woman; and further, he presented the necklace and the girdles of his wife.
These were the offerings sent by Croesus to
The messengers who had the charge of conveying these treasures to the shrines, received instructions to ask the oracles whether Croesus should go to war with the Persians and if so, whether he should strengthen himself by the forces of an ally. Accordingly, when they had reached their destinations and presented the gifts, they proceeded to consult the oracles in the following terms:—“Croesus, of Lydia and other countries, believing that these are the only real oracles in all the world, has sent you such presents as your discoveries deserved, and now inquires of you whether he shall go to war with the Persians, and if so, whether he shall strengthen himself by the forces of a confederate.” Both the oracles agreed in the tenor of their reply, which was in each case a prophecy that if Croesus attacked the Persians, he would destroy a mighty empire, and a recommendation to him to look and see who were the most powerful of the Greeks, and to make alliance with them.
At the receipt of these oracular replies Croesus was overjoyed, and feeling sure now that he would destroy the empire of the Persians, he sent once more to Pytho, and presented to the Delphians, the number of whom he had ascertained, two gold staters apiece. In return for this the Delphians granted to Croesus and the Lydians the privilege of precedency in consulting the oracle, exemption from all charges, the most honourable seat at the festivals, and the perpetual right of becoming at pleasure citizens of their town.
After sending these presents to the Delphians, Croesus a third time consulted the oracle, for having once proved its truthfulness, he wished to make constant use of it. The question whereto he now desired an answer was—“Whether his kingdom would be of long duration?” The following was the reply of the Pythoness:—
Wait till the time shall come when a mule is monarch of Media;
Then, thou delicate Lydian, away to the pebbles of Hermus;
Haste, oh! haste thee away, nor blush to behave like a coward.
Of all the answers that had reached him, this pleased him
far the best, for it seemed incredible that a mule should ever come to be king
of the Medes, and so he concluded that the sovereignty would never depart from
himself or his seed after him. Afterwards he turned his thoughts to the
alliance which he had been recommended to contract, and sought to ascertain by
inquiry which was the most powerful of the Grecian states. His inquiries
pointed out to him two states as pre-eminent above the rest. These were the
Lacedaemonians and the Athenians, the former of Doric, the latter of Ionic
blood. And indeed these two nations had held from very, early times the most
distinguished place in Greece, the being a Pelasgic, the other a Hellenic
people, and the one having never quitted its original seats, while the other
had been excessively migratory; for during the reign of Deucalion, Phthiotis
was the country in which the Hellenes dwelt, but under Dorus, the son of
Hellen, they moved to the tract at the base of Ossa and Olympus, which is
called Histiaeotis; forced to retire from that region by the Cadmeians, they
settled, under the name of Macedni, in the chain of Pindus. Hence they once
more removed and came to Dryopis; and from Dryopis having entered the
What the language of the Pelasgi was I cannot say with any certainty. If, however, we may form a conjecture from the tongue spoken by the Pelasgi of the present day—those, for instance, who live at Creston above the Tyrrhenians, who formerly dwelt in the district named Thessaliotis, and were neighbours of the people now called the Dorians—or those again who founded Placia and Scylace upon the Hellespont, who had previously dwelt for some time with the Athenians—or those, in short, of any other of the cities which have dropped the name but are in fact Pelasgian; if, I say, we are to form a conjecture from any of these, we must pronounce that the Pelasgi spoke a barbarous language. If this were really so, and the entire Pelasgic race spoke the same tongue, the Athenians, who were certainly Pelasgi, must have changed their language at the same time that they passed into the Hellenic body; for it is a certain fact that the people of Creston speak a language unlike any of their neighbours, and the same is true of the Placianians, while the language spoken by these two people is the same; which shows that they both retain the idiom which they brought with them into the countries where they are now settled.
The Hellenic race has never, since its first origin, changed its speech. This at least seems evident to me. It was a branch of the Pelasgic, which separated from the main body, and at first was scanty in numbers and of little power; but it gradually spread and increased to a multitude of nations, chiefly by the voluntary entrance into its ranks of numerous tribes of barbarians. The Pelasgi, on the other hand, were, as I think, a barbarian race which never greatly multiplied.
On inquiring into the condition of these two nations,
Croesus found that one, the Athenian, was in a state of grievous oppression and
distraction under Pisistratus, the son of Hippocrates, who was at that time
tyrant of Athens. Hippocrates, when he was a private citizen, is said to have
gone once upon a time to
However, after a little time, the partisans of Megacles and
those of Lycurgus agreed to forget their differences, and united to drive him
out. So Pisistratus, having by the means described first made himself master of
Pisistratus, having thus recovered the sovereignty, married,
according to agreement, the daughter of Megacles. As, however, he had already a
family of grown up sons, and the Alcmaeonidae were supposed to be under a
curse, he determined that there should be no issue of the marriage. His wife at
first kept this matter to herself, but after a time, either her mother
questioned her, or it may be that she told it of her own accord. At any rate,
she informed her mother, and so it reached her father’s ears. Megacles,
indignant at receiving an affront from such a quarter, in his anger instantly
made up his differences with the opposite faction, on which Pisistratus, aware
of what was planning against him, took himself out of the country. Arrived at
In the eleventh year of their exile the family of
Pisistratus set sail from
Now has the cast been made, the net is out-spread in the water,
Through the moonshiny night the tunnies will enter the meshes.
Such was the prophecy uttered under a divine inspiration.
Pisistratus, apprehending its meaning, declared that he accepted the oracle,
and instantly led on his army. The Athenians from the city had just finished
their midday meal, after which they had betaken themselves, some to dice,
others to sleep, when Pisistratus with his troops fell upon them and put them
to the rout. As soon as the flight began, Pisistratus bethought himself of a
most wise contrivance, whereby the might be induced to disperse and not unite
in a body any more. He mounted his sons on horseback and sent them on in front
to overtake the fugitives, and exhort them to be of good cheer, and return each
man to his home. The Athenians took the advice, and Pisistratus became for the
third time master of
Upon this he set himself to root his power more firmly, by
the aid of a numerous body of mercenaries, and by keeping up a full exchequer,
partly supplied from native sources, partly from the countries about the river
Strymon. He also demanded hostages from many of the Athenians who had remained
at home, and not left
Such was the condition of the Athenians when Croesus made
inquiry concerning them. Proceeding to seek information concerning the
Lacedaemonians, he learnt that, after passing through a period of great
depression, they had lately been victorious in a war with the people of Tegea;
for, during the joint reign of Leo and Agasicles, kings of Sparta, the
Lacedaemonians, successful in all their other wars, suffered continual defeat
at the hands of the Tegeans. At a still earlier period they had been the very
worst governed people in
Oh! thou great Lycurgus, that com’st to my beautiful dwelling,
Dear to love, and
to all who sit in the halls of
Whether to hail thee a god I know not, or only a mortal,
But my hope is strong that a god thou wilt prove, Lycurgus.
Some report besides, that the Pythoness delivered to him the
entire system of laws which are still observed by the Spartans. The
Lacedaemonians, however. themselves assert that Lycurgus, when he was guardian
of his nephew, Labotas, king of
On the death of Lycurgus they built him a temple, and ever
since they have worshipped him with the utmost reverence. Their soil being good
and the population numerous, they sprang up rapidly to power, and became a
flourishing people. In consequence they soon ceased to be satisfied to stay
quiet; and, regarding the Arcadians as very much their inferiors, they sent to
consult the oracle about conquering the whole of
Cravest thou
Many the men that
in
They will never allow thee. It is not I that am niggard.
I will give thee to dance in Tegea, with noisy foot-fall,
And with the measuring line mete out the glorious champaign.
When the Lacedaemonians received this reply, leaving the
rest of Arcadia untouched, they marched against the Tegeans, carrying with them
fetters, so confident had this oracle (which was, in truth, but of base metal)
made them that they would enslave the Tegeans. The battle, however, went
against them, and many fell into the enemy’s hands. Then these persons, wearing
the fetters which they had themselves brought, and fastened together in a
string, measured the Tegean plain as they executed their labours. The fetters
in which they worked were still, in my day, preserved at Tegea where they hung
round the walls of the
Throughout the whole of this early contest with the Tegeans,
the Lacedaemonians met with nothing but defeats; but in the time of Croesus,
under the kings Anaxandrides and Aristo, fortune had turned in their favour, in
the manner which I will now relate. Having been worsted in every engagement by
their enemy, they sent to
Level and smooth is the plain where Arcadian Tegea standeth;
There two winds are ever, by strong necessity, blowing,
Counter-stroke answers stroke, and evil lies upon evil.
There all-teeming Earth doth harbour the son of Atrides;
Bring thou him to thy city, and then be Tegea’s master.
After this reply, the Lacedaemonians were no nearer discovering the burial-place than before, though they continued to search for it diligently; until at last a man named Lichas, one of the Spartans called Agathoergi, found it. The Agathoergi are citizens who have just served their time among the knights. The five eldest of the knights go out every year, and are bound during the year after their discharge to go wherever the State sends them, and actively employ themselves in its service.
Lichas was one of this body when, partly by good luck, partly by his own wisdom, he discovered the burial-place. Intercourse between the two States existing just at this time, he went to Tegea, and, happening to enter into the workshop of a smith, he saw him forging some iron. As he stood marvelling at what he beheld, he was observed by the smith who, leaving off his work, went up to him and said,
“Certainly, then, you Spartan stranger, you would have been wonderfully surprised if you had seen what I have, since you make a marvel even of the working in iron. I wanted to make myself a well in this room, and began to dig it, when what think you? I came upon a coffin seven cubits long. I had never believed that men were taller in the olden times than they are now, so I opened the coffin. The body inside was of the same length: I measured it, and filled up the hole again.”
Such was the man’s account of what he had seen. The other,
on turning the matter over in his mind, conjectured that this was the body of
Orestes, of which the oracle had spoken. He guessed so, because he observed
that the smithy had two bellows, which he understood to be the two winds, and
the hammer and anvil would do for the stroke and the counterstroke, and the
iron that was being wrought for the evil lying upon evil. This he imagined
might be so because iron had been discovered to the hurt of man. Full of these
conjectures, he sped back to
Croesus, informed of all these circumstances, sent
messengers to
“Croesus, king of the Lydians and of other nations, has sent us to speak thus to you: ‘Oh Lacedaemonians, the god has bidden me to make the Greek my friend; I therefore apply to you, in conformity with the oracle, knowing that you hold the first rank in Greece, and desire to become your friend and ally in all true faith and honesty.’”
Such was the message which Croesus sent by his heralds. The Lacedaemonians, who were aware beforehand of the reply given him by the oracle, were full of joy at the coming of the messengers, and at once took the oaths of friendship and alliance: this they did the more readily as they had previously contracted certain obligations towards him. They had sent to Sardis on one occasion to purchase some gold, intending to use it on a statue of Apollo—the statue, namely, which remains to this day at Thornax in Laconia, when Croesus, hearing of the matter, gave them as a gift the gold which they wanted.
This was one reason why the Lacedaemonians were so willing
to make the alliance: another was, because Croesus had chosen them for his
friends in preference to all the other Greeks. They therefore held themselves
in readiness to come at his summons, and not content with so doing, they
further had a huge vase made in bronze, covered with figures of animals all
round the outside of the rim, and large enough to contain three hundred
amphorae, which they sent to Croesus as a return for his presents to them. The
vase, however, never reached
Meanwhile Croesus, taking the oracle in a wrong sense, led
his forces into
“Thou art about, oh! king, to make war against men who wear
leathern trousers, and have all their other garments of leather; who feed not
on what they like, but on what they can get from a soil that is sterile and
unkindly; who do not indulge in wine, but drink water; who possess no figs nor
anything else that is good to eat. If, then, thou conquerest them, what canst
thou get from them, seeing that they have nothing at all? But if they conquer
thee, consider how much that is precious thou wilt lose: if they once get a
taste of our pleasant things, they will keep such hold of them that we shall
never be able to make them loose their grasp. For my part, I am thankful to the
gods that they have not put it into the hearts of the Persians to invade
Croesus was not persuaded by this speech, though it was true
enough; for before the conquest of
The Cappadocians are known to the Greeks by the name of Syrians. Before the rise of the Persian power, they had been subject to the Medes; but at the present time they were within the empire of Cyrus, for the boundary between the Median and the Lydian empires was the river Halys. This stream, which rises in the mountain country of Armenia, runs first through Cilicia; afterwards it flows for a while with the Matieni on the right, and the Phrygians on the left: then, when they are passed, it proceeds with a northern course, separating the Cappadocian Syrians from the Paphlagonians, who occupy the left bank, thus forming the boundary of almost the whole of Lower Asia, from the sea opposite Cyprus to the Euxine. Just there is the neck of the peninsula, a journey of five days across for an active walker.
There were two motives which led Croesus to attack Cappadocia: firstly, he coveted the land, which he wished to add to his own dominions; but the chief reason was that he wanted to revenge on Cyrus the wrongs of Astyages, and was made confident by the oracle of being able so to do: for Astyages, son of Cyaxares and king of the Medes, who had been dethroned by Cyrus, son of Cambyses, was Croesus’ brother by marriage. This marriage had taken place under circumstances which I will now relate. A band of Scythian nomads, who had left their own land on occasion of some disturbance, had taken refuge in Media. Cyaxares, son of Phraortes, and grandson of Deioces, was at that time king of the country. Recognising them as suppliants, he began by treating them with kindness, and coming presently to esteem them highly, he intrusted to their care a number of boys, whom they were to teach their language and to instruct in the use of the bow. Time passed, and the Scythians employed themselves, day after day, in hunting, and always brought home some game; but at last it chanced that one day they took nothing. On their return to Cyaxares with empty hands, that monarch, who was hot-tempered, as he showed upon the occasion, received them very rudely and insultingly. In consequence of this treatment, which they did not conceive themselves to have deserved, the Scythians determined to take one of the boys whom they had in charge, cut him in pieces, and then dressing the flesh as they were wont to dress that of the wild animals, serve it up to Cyaxares as game: after which they resolved to convey themselves with all speed to Sardis, to the court of Alyattes, the son of Sadyattes. The plan was carried out: Cyaxares and his guests ate of the flesh prepared by the Scythians, and they themselves, having accomplished their purpose, fled to Alyattes in the guise of suppliants.
Afterwards, on the refusal of Alyattes to give up his suppliants when Cyaxares sent to demand them of him, war broke out between the Lydians and the Medes, and continued for five years, with various success. In the course of it the Medes gained many victories over the Lydians, and the Lydians also gained many victories over the Medes. Among their other battles there was one night engagement. As, however, the balance had not inclined in favour of either nation, another combat took place in the sixth year, in the course of which, just as the battle was growing warm, day was on a sudden changed into night. This event had been foretold by Thales, the Milesian, who forewarned the Ionians of it, fixing for it the very year in which it actually took place. The Medes and Lydians, when they observed the change, ceased fighting, and were alike anxious to have terms of peace agreed on. Syennesis of Cilicia, and Labynetus of Babylon, were the persons who mediated between the parties, who hastened the taking of the oaths, and brought about the exchange of espousals. It was they who advised that Alyattes should give his daughter Aryenis in marriage to Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, knowing, as they did, that without some sure bond of strong necessity, there is wont to be but little security in men’s covenants. Oaths are taken by these people in the same way as by the Greeks, except that they make a slight flesh wound in their arms, from which each sucks a portion of the other’s blood.
Cyrus had captured this Astyages, who was his mother’s father, and kept him prisoner, for a reason which I shall bring forward in another of my history. This capture formed the ground of quarrel between Cyrus and Croesus, in consequence of which Croesus sent his servants to ask the oracle if he should attack the Persians; and when an evasive answer came, fancying it to be in his favour, carried his arms into the Persian territory. When he reached the river Halys, he transported his army across it, as I maintain, by the bridges which exist there at the present day; but, according to the general belief of the Greeks, by the aid of Thales the Milesian. The tale is that Croesus was in doubt how he should get his army across, as the bridges were not made at that time, and that Thales, who happened to be in the camp, divided the stream and caused it to flow on both sides of the army instead of on the left only. This he effected thus:—Beginning some distance above the camp, he dug a deep channel, which he brought round in a semicircle, so that it might pass to rearward of the camp; and that thus the river, diverted from its natural course into the new channel at the point where this left the stream, might flow by the station of the army, and afterwards fall again into the ancient bed. In this way the river was split into two streams, which were both easily fordable. It is said by some that the water was entirely drained off from the natural bed of the river. But I am of a different opinion; for I do not see how, in that case, they could have crossed it on their return.
Having passed the Halys with the forces under his command,
Croesus entered the district of Cappadocia which is called Pteria. It lies in
the neighbourhood of the city of
Croesus laid the blame of his ill success on the number of
his troops, which fell very short of the enemy; and as on the next day Cyrus
did not repeat the attack, he set off on his return to
While Croesus was still in this mind, all the suburbs of
Cyrus, however, when Croesus broke up so suddenly from his
quarters after the battle at Pteria, conceiving that he had marched away with
the intention of disbanding his army, considered a little, and soon saw that it
was advisable for him to advance upon Sardis with all haste, before the Lydians
could get their forces together a second time. Having thus determined, he lost
no time in carrying out his plan. He marched forward with such speed that he
was himself the first to announce his coming to the Lydian king. That monarch,
placed in the utmost difficulty by the turn of events which had gone so
entirely against all his calculations, nevertheless led out the Lydians to
battle. In all
The two armies met in the plain before
When Cyrus beheld the Lydians arranging themselves in order
of battle on this plain, fearful of the strength of their cavalry, he adopted a
device which Harpagus, one of the Medes, suggested to him. He collected
together all the camels that had come in the train of his army to carry the
provisions and the baggage, and taking off their loads, he mounted riders upon
them accoutred as horsemen. These he commanded to advance in front of his other
troops against the Lydian horse; behind them were to follow the foot soldiers,
and last of all the cavalry. When his arrangements were complete, he gave his
troops orders to slay all the other Lydians who came in their way without
mercy, but to spare Croesus and not kill him, even if he should be seized and
offer resistance. The reason why Cyrus opposed his camels to the enemy’s horse
was because the horse has a natural dread of the camel, and cannot abide either
the sight or the smell of that animal. By this stratagem he hoped to make Croesus’s
horse useless to him, the horse being what he chiefly depended on for victory.
The two armies then joined battle, and immediately the Lydian war-horses,
seeing and smelling the camels, turned round and galloped off; and so it came
to pass that all Croesus’s hopes withered away. The Lydians, however, behaved
manfully. As soon as they understood what was happening, they leaped off their
horses, and engaged with the Persians on foot. The combat was long; but at
last, after a great slaughter on both sides, the Lydians turned and fled. They
were driven within their walls and the Persians laid siege to
Thus the siege began. Meanwhile Croesus, thinking that the
place would hold out no inconsiderable time, sent off fresh heralds to his
allies from the beleaguered town. His former messengers had been charged to bid
them assemble at Sardis in the course of the fifth month; they whom he now sent
were to say that he was already besieged, and to beseech them to come to his
aid with all possible speed. Among his other allies Croesus did not omit to
send to
It chanced, however, that the Spartans were themselves just
at this time engaged in a quarrel with the Argives about a place called Thyrea,
which was within the limits of
Although the Spartans were engaged with these matters when
the herald arrived from
The following is the way in which
With respect to Croesus himself, this is what befell him at
the taking of the town. He had a son, of whom I made mention above, a worthy
youth, whose only defect was that he was deaf and dumb. In the days of his
prosperity Croesus had done the utmost that be could for him, and among other
plans which he had devised, had sent to
Lydian, wide-ruling monarch, thou wondrous simple Croesus,
Wish not ever to hear in thy palace the voice thou hast prayed for
Uttering intelligent sounds. Far better thy son should be silent!
Ah! woe worth the day when thine car shall first list to his
accents.
When the town was taken, one of the Persians was just going to kill Croesus, not knowing who he was. Croesus saw the man coming, but under the pressure of his affliction, did not care to avoid the blow, not minding whether or no he died beneath the stroke. Then this son of his, who was voiceless, beholding the Persian as he rushed towards Croesus, in the agony of his fear and grief burst into speech, and said, “Man, do not kill Croesus.” This was the first time that he had ever spoken a word, but afterwards he retained the power of speech for the remainder of his life.
Thus was Sardis taken by the Persians, and Croesus himself fell into their hands, after having reigned fourteen years, and been besieged in his capital fourteen days; thus too did Croesus fulfill the oracle, which said that he should destroy a mighty empire by destroying his own. Then the