day arrived for the answer, and they had come to the place agreed upon,
Cleomenes asked Aristagoras how many days' journey it was from the sea
of the Ionians to the residence of the king. Now Aristagoras, who in
other respects acted cleverly and imposed upon him well, in this point
made a mistake: for whereas he ought not to have told him the truth, at
least if he desired to bring the Spartans out to Asia, he said in fact
that it was a journey up from the sea of three months: and the other
cutting short the rest of the account which Aristagoras had begun to
give of the way, said: "Guest-friend from Miletos, get thee away from
Sparta before the sun has set; for thou speakest a word which sounds not
well in the ears of the Lacedemonians, desiring to take them a journey
of three months from the sea."
51. Cleomenes accordingly having so said went away to his house:
but Aristagoras took the suppliant's branch and went to the house of
Cleomenes; and having entered in as a suppliant, he bade Cleomenes send
away the child and listen to him; for the daughter of Cleomenes was
standing by him, whose name was Gorgo, and this as it chanced was his
only child, being of the age now of eight or nine years. Cleomenes
however bade him say that which he desired to say, and not to stop on
account of the child. Then Aristagoras proceeded to promise him money,
beginning with ten talents, if he would accomplish for him that for
which he was asking; and when Cleomenes refused, Aristagoras went on
increasing the sums of money offered, until at last he had promised
fifty talents, and at that moment the child cried out: "Father, the
stranger will do thee hurt, 38 if thou do not leave him and go."
Cleomenes, then, pleased by the counsel of the child, departed into
another room, and Aristagoras went away from Sparta altogether, and had
no opportunity of explaining any further about the way up from the sea
to the residence of the king.
52. As regards this road the truth is as follows.--Everywhere there are
royal stages 39 and excellent resting-places, and the whole road runs
through country which is inhabited and safe. Through Lydia and Phrygia
there extend twenty stages, amounting to ninety-four and a half leagues;
40 and after Phrygia succeeds the river Halys, at which there is a gate
4001 which one must needs pass through in order to cross the river, and
a strong guard-post is established there. Then after crossing over into
Cappadokia it is twenty-eight stages, being a hundred and four leagues,
by this way to the borders of Kilikia; and on the borders of the
Kilikians you will pass through two several gates and go by two several
guard-posts: then after passing through these it is three stages,
amounting to fifteen and a half leagues, to journey through Kilikia;
and the boundary of Kilikia and Armenia is a navigable river called
Euphrates. In Armenia the number of stages with resting-places is
fifteen, and of leagues fifty-six and a half, and there is a guard-post
on the way: then from Armenia, when one enters the land of Matiene, 41
there are thirty-four stages, amounting to a hundred and thirty-seven
leagues; and through this land flow four navigable rivers, which cannot
be crossed but by ferries, first the Tigris, then a second and third
called both by the same name, 42 though they are not the same river nor
do they flow from the same region (for the first-mentioned of them flows
from the Armenian land and the other 43 from that of the Matienians),
and the fourth of the rivers is called Gyndes, the same which once Cyrus
divided into three hundred and sixty channels. 44 Passing thence into
the Kissian land, there are eleven stages, forty-two and a half leagues,
to the river Choaspes, which is also a navigable stream; and upon this
is built the city of Susa. The number of these stages amounts in all to
one hundred and eleven.
53. This is the number of stages with resting-places, as one goes up
from Sardis to Susa: and if the royal road has been rightly measured as
regards leagues, and if the league 45 is equal to thirty furlongs, 46
(as undoubtedly it is), the number of furlongs from Sardis to that which
is called the palace of Memnon is thirteen thousand five hundred, the
number of leagues being four hundred and fifty. So if one travels a
hundred and fifty furlongs each day, just ninety days are spent on the
journey. 47
54. Thus the Milesian Aristagoras, when he told Cleomenes the
Lacedemonian that the journey up from the sea to the residence of the
king was one of three months, spoke correctly: but if any one demands
a more exact statement yet than this, I will give him that also: for we
ought to reckon in addition to this the length of the road from Ephesos
to Sardis; and I say accordingly that the whole number of furlongs from
the sea of Hellas to Susa (for by that name the city of Memnon is known)
is fourteen thousand and forty; for the number of furlongs from Ephesos
to Sardis is five hundred and forty: thus the three months' journey is
lengthened by three days added.
55. Aristagoras then being driven out of Sparta proceeded to Athens;
which had been set free from the rule of despots in the way which I
shall tell.--When Hipparchos the son of Peisistratos and brother of the
despot Hippias, after seeing a vision of a dream which signified it to
him plainly, 48 had been slain by Aristogeiton and Harmodios, who were
originally by descent Gephyraians, the Athenians continued for
four years after this to be despotically governed no less than
formerly,--nay, even more.
56. Now the vision of a dream which Hipparchos had was this:--in the
night before the Panathenaia it seemed to Hipparchos that a man came
and stood by him, tall and of fair form, and riddling spoke to him these
verses:
"With enduring soul as a lion endure unendurable evil:
No one of men who doth wrong shall escape from the judgment appointed."
These verses, as soon as it was day, he publicly communicated to the
interpreters of dreams; but afterwards he put away thought of the vision
49 and began to take part in that procession during which he lost his
life.
57. Now the Gephyraians, of whom were those who murdered Hipparchos,
according to their own account were originally descended from Eretria;
but as I find by carrying inquiries back, they were Phenicians of those
who came with Cadmos to the land which is now called Boeotia, and they
dwelt in the district of Tanagra, which they had had allotted to them
in that land. Then after the Cadmeians had first been driven out by the
Argives, these Gephyraians next were driven out by the Boeotians and
turned then towards Athens: and the Athenians received them on certain
fixed conditions to be citizens of their State, laying down rules that
they should be excluded from a number of things not worth mentioning
here.
58. Now these Phenicians who came with Cadmos, of whom were the
Gephyraians, brought in among the Hellenes many arts when they settled
in this land of Boeotia, and especially letters, which did not exist, as
it appears to me, among the Hellenes before this time; and at first they
brought in those which are used by the Phenician race generally, but
afterwards, as time went on, they changed with their speech the form of
the letters also. During this time the Ionians were the race of Hellenes
who dwelt near them in most of the places where they were; and these,
having received letters by instruction of the Phenicians, changed their
form slightly and so made use of them, and in doing so they declared
them to be called "phenicians," as was just, seeing that the Phenicians
had introduced them into Hellas. Also the Ionians from ancient time call
paper "skins," because formerly, paper being scarce, they used skins of
goat and sheep; nay, even in my own time many of the Barbarians write on
such skins.
59. I myself too once saw Cadmeian characters in the temple of Ismenian
Apollo at Thebes of the Boeotians, engraved on certain 4901 tripods, and
in most respects resembling the Ionic letters: one of these tripods has
the inscription,
"Me Amphitryon offered from land Teleboian returning:" 50
this inscription would be of an age contemporary with Laïos
the son of Labdacos, the son of Polydoros, the son of Cadmos.
60. Another tripod says thus in hexameter rhythm:
"Me did Scaios offer to thee, far-darting Apollo,
Victor in contest of boxing, a gift most fair in thine honour:"
now Scaios would be the son of Hippocoön (at least if it were really he
who offered it, and not another with the same name as the son of
Hippocoön), being of an age contemporary with OEdipus the son of Laïos:
61. and the third tripod, also in hexameter rhythm, says:
"Me Laodamas offered to thee, fair-aiming Apollo,
He, of his wealth, 51 being king, as a gift most fair in thine honor:"
now it was in the reign of this very Laodamas the son of Eteocles that
the Cadmeians were driven out by the Argives and turned to go to the
Enchelians; and the Gephyraians being then left behind were afterwards
forced by the Boeotians to retire to Athens. Moreover they have temples
established in Athens, in which the other Athenians have no part, and
besides others which are different from the rest, there is especially a
temple of Demeter Achaia and a celebration of her mysteries.
62. I have told now of the vision of a dream seen by Hipparchos, and
also whence the Gephrynians were descended, of which race were the
murderers of Hipparchos; and in addition to this I must resume and
continue the story which I was about to tell at first, how the Athenians
were freed from despots. When Hippias was despot and was dealing harshly
with the Athenians because of the death of Hipparchos, the Alcmaionidai,
who were of Athenian race and were fugitives from the sons of
Peisistratos, 52 as they did not succeed in their attempt made together
with the other Athenian exiles to return by force, but met with great
disaster when they attempted to return and set Athens free, after they
had fortified Leipsydrion which is above Paionia,--these Alomaionidai
after that, still devising every means against the sons of Peisistratos,
accepted the contract to build and complete the temple at Delphi, that
namely which now exists but then did not as yet: and being wealthy and
men of repute already from ancient time, they completed the temple in
a manner more beautiful than the plan required, and especially in this
respect, that having agreed to make the temple of common limestone, 53
they built the front parts of it in Parian marble.
63. So then, as the Athenians say, these men being settled at Delphi
persuaded the Pythian prophetess by gifts of money, that whenever men of
the Spartans should come to inquire of the Oracle, either privately
or publicly sent, she should propose to them to set Athens free. The
Lacedemonians therefore, since the same utterance was delivered to them
on all occasions, sent Anchimolios the son of Aster, who was of repute
among their citizens, with an army to drive out the sons of Peisistratos
from Athens, although these were very closely connected with them by
guest-friendship; for they held that the concerns of the god 5301 should
be preferred to those of men: and this force they sent by sea in ships.
He therefore, having put in to shore at Phaleron, disembarked his army;
but the sons of Peisistratos being informed of this beforehand called
in to their aid an auxiliary force from Thessaly, for they had made an
alliance with the Thessalians; and the Thessalians at their request
sent by public resolution a body of a thousand horse and also their king
Kineas, a man of Conion. 54 So having obtained these as allies, the sons
of Peisistratos contrived as follows:--they cut down the trees in the
plain of Phaleron and made this district fit for horsemen to ride over,
and after that they sent the cavalry to attack the enemy's camp,
who falling upon it slew (besides many others of the Lacedemonians)
Anchimolios himself also: and the survivors of them they shut up in
their ships. Such was the issue of the first expedition from Lacedemon:
and the burial-place of Anchimolios is at Alopecai in Attica, near the
temple of Heracles which is at Kynosarges.
64. After this the Lacedemonians equipped a larger expedition and sent
it forth against Athens; and they appointed to be commander of the army
their king Cleomenes the son of Anaxandrides, and sent it this time
not by sea but by land. With these, when they had invaded the land of
Attica, first the Thessalian horse engaged battle; and in no long time
they were routed and there fell of them more than forty men; so the
survivors departed without more ado and went straight back to Thessaly.
Then Cleomenes came to the city together with those of the Athenians
who desired to be free, and began to besiege the despots shut up in the
Pelasgian wall.
65. And the Lacedemonians would never have captured the sons of
Peisistratos at all; for they on their side had no design to make a long
blockade, and the others were well provided with food and drink; so that
they would have gone away back to Sparta after besieging them for a few
days only: but as it was, a thing happened just at this time which was
unfortunate for those, and at the same time of assistance to these;
for the children of the sons of Peisistratos were captured, while being
secretly removed out of the country: and when this happened, all their
matters were thereby cast into confusion, and they surrendered receiving
back their children on the terms which the Athenians desired, namely
that they should depart out of Attica within five days. After this they
departed out of the country and went to Sigeion on the Scamander, after
their family had ruled over the Athenians for six-and-thirty years.
These also were originally Pylians and sons of Neleus, descended from
the same ancestors as the family of Codros and Melanthos, who had
formerly become kings of Athens being settlers from abroad. Hence too
Hippocrates had given to his son the name of Peisistratos as a memorial,
calling him after Peisistratos the son of Nestor.
Thus the Athenians were freed from despots; and the things worthy to be
narrated which they did or suffered after they were liberated, up to the
time when Ionia revolted from Dareios and Aristagoras the Milesian
came to Athens and asked them to help him, these I will set forth first
before I proceed further.
66. Athens, which even before that time was great, then, after having
been freed from despots, became gradually yet greater; and in it two men
exercised power, namely Cleisthenes a descendant of Alcmaion, the same
who is reported to have bribed the Pythian prophetess, and Isagoras,
the son of Tisander, of a family which was highly reputed, but of his
original descent I am not able to declare; his kinsmen however offer
sacrifices to the Carian Zeus. These men came to party strife for power;
and then Cleisthenes was being worsted in the struggle, he made common
cause with the people. After this he caused the Athenians to be in ten
tribes, who were formerly in four; and he changed the names by which
they were called after the sons of Ion, namely Geleon, Aigicoreus,
Argades, and Hoples, and invented for them names taken from other
heroes, all native Athenians except Ajax, whom he added as a neighbour
and ally, although he was no Athenian.
67. Now in these things it seems to me that this Cleisthenes was
imitating his mother's father Cleisthenes the despot of Sikyon: for
Cleisthenes when he went to war with Argos first caused to cease in
Sikyon the contests of rhapsodists, which were concerned with the
poems of Homer, because Argives and Argos are celebrated in them almost
everywhere; then secondly, since there was (as still there is) in the
market-place itself of the Sikyonians a hero-temple of Adrastos the son
of Talaos, Cleisthenes had a desire to cast him forth out of the land,
because he was an Argive. So having come to Delphi he consulted the
Oracle as to whether he should cast out Adrastos; and the Pythian
prophetess answered him saying that Adrastos was king of the Sikyonians,
whereas he was a stoner 55 of them. So since the god did not permit him
to do this, he went away home and considered means by which Adrastos
should be brought to depart of his own accord: and when he thought that
he had discovered them, he sent to Thebes in Boeotia and said that he
desired to introduce into his city Melanippos the son of Astacos, and
the Thebans gave him leave. So Cleisthenes introduced Melanippos into
his city, and appointed for him a sacred enclosure within the precincts
of the City Hall 56 itself, and established him there in the strongest
position. Now Cleisthenes introduced Melanippos (for I must relate this
also) because he was the greatest enemy of Adrastos, seeing that he had
killed both his brother Mekisteus and his son-in-law Tydeus: and when he
had appointed the sacred enclosure for him, he took away the sacrifices
and festivals of Adrastos and gave them to Melanippos. Now the
Sikyonians were accustomed to honour Adrastos with very great honours;
for this land was formerly the land of Polybos, and Adrastos was
daughter's son to Polybos, and Polybos dying without sons gave his
kingdom to Adrastos: the Sikyonians then not only gave other honours
to Adrastos, but also with reference to his sufferings they specially
honoured him with tragic choruses, not paying the honour to Dionysos but
to Adrastos. Cleisthenes however gave back the choruses to Dionysos, and
the other rites besides this he gave to Melannipos.
68. Thus he had done to Adrastos; and he also changed the names of the
Dorian tribes, in order that the Sikyonians might not have the same
tribes as the Argives; in which matter he showed great contempt of the
Sikyonians, for the names he gave were taken from the names of a pig
and an ass by changing only the endings, except in the case of his own
tribe, to which he gave a name from his own rule. These last then were
called Archelaoi, 57 while of the rest those of one tribe were called
Hyatai, 58 of another Oneatai, 59 and of the remaining tribe Choireatai.
60 These names of tribes were used by the men of Sikyon not only in the
reign of Cleisthenes, but also beyond that for sixty years after his
death; then however they considered the matter and changed them into
Hylleis, Pamphyloi, and Dymanatai, adding to these a fourth, to which
they gave the name Aigialeis after Aigialeus the son of Adrastos.
69. Thus had the Cleisthenes of Sikyon done: and the Athenian
Cleisthenes, who was his daughter's son and was called after him,
despising, as I suppose, the Ionians, as he the Dorians, imitated his
namesake Cleisthenes in order that the Athenians might not have the same
tribes as the Ionians: for when at the time of which we speak he added
to his own party the whole body of the common people of the Athenians,
which in former time he had despised, 61 he changed the names of the
tribes and made them more in number than they had been; he made in fact
ten rulers of tribes instead of four, and by tens also he distributed
the demes in the tribes; and having added the common people to his party
he was much superior to his opponents.
70. Then Isagoras, as he was being worsted in his turn, contrived a
plan in opposition to him, that is to say, he called in Cleomenes the
Lacedemonian to help him, who had been a guest-friend to himself since
the siege of the sons of Peisistratos; moreover Cleomenes was accused
of being intimate with the wife of Isagoras. First then Cleomenes sent
a herald to Athens demanding the expulsion of Cleisthenes and with him
many others of the Athenians, calling them the men who were under the
curse: 62 this message he sent by instruction of Isagoras, for the
Alcmaionidai and their party were accused of the murder to which
reference was thus made, while he and his friends had no part in it.
71. Now the men of the Athenians who were "under the curse" got this
name as follows:--there was one Kylon among the Athenians, a man who
had gained the victory at the Olympic games: this man behaved with
arrogance, wishing to make himself despot; and having formed for himself
an association of men of his own age, he endeavoured to seize the
Acropolis: but not being able to get possession of it, he sat down as a
suppliant before the image of the goddess. 63 These men were taken from
their place as suppliants by the presidents of the naucraries, who then
administered affairs at Athens, on the condition that they should be
liable to any penalty short of death; and the Alcmaionidai are accused
of having put them to death. This had occurred before the time of
Peisistratos.
72. Now when Cleomenes sent demanding the expulsion of Cleisthenes and
of those under the curse, Cleisthenes himself retired secretly; but
after that nevertheless Cleomenes appeared in Athens with no very
large force, and having arrived he proceeded to expel as accursed seven
hundred Athenian families, of which Isagoras had suggested to him the
names. Having done this he next endeavoured to dissolve the Senate, and
he put the offices of the State into the hands of three hundred, who
were the partisans of Isagoras. The Senate however making opposition,
and not being willing to submit, Cleomenes with Isagoras and his
partisans seized the Acropolis. Then the rest of the Athenians joined
together by common consent and besieged them for two days; and on the
third day so many of them as were Lacedemonians departed out of the
country under a truce. Thus was accomplished for Cleomenes the ominous
saying which was uttered to him: for when he had ascended the Acropolis
with the design of taking possession of it, he was going to the
sanctuary of the goddess, as to address her in prayer; but the priestess
stood up from her seat before he had passed through the door, and said,
"Lacedemonian stranger, go back and enter not into the temple, for it is
not lawful for Dorians to pass in hither." He said: "Woman, I am not
a Dorian, but an Achaian." So then, paying no attention to the ominous
speech, he made his attempt and then was expelled again with the
Lacedemonians; but the rest of the men the Athenians laid in bonds to
be put to death, and among them Timesitheos the Delphian, with regard to
whom I might mention very great deeds of strength and courage which he
performed.
73. These then having been thus laid in bonds were put to death; and the
Athenians after this sent for Cleisthenes to return, and also for the
seven hundred families which had been driven out by Cleomenes: and
then they sent envoys to Sardis, desiring to make an alliance with
the Persians; for they were well assured that the Lacedemonians and
Cleomenes had been utterly made their foes. So when these envoys had
arrived at Sardis and were saying that which they had been commanded
to say, Artaphrenes the son of Hystaspes, the governor of Sardis, asked
what men these were who requested to be allies of the Persians, and
where upon the earth they dwelt; and having heard this from the envoys,
he summed up his answer to them thus, saying that if the Athenians
were willing to give earth and water to Dareios, he was willing to make
alliance with them, but if not, he bade them begone: and the envoys
taking the matter upon themselves said that they were willing to do so,
because they desired to make the alliance.
74. These, when they returned to their own land, were highly censured:
and Cleomenes meanwhile, conceiving that he had been outrageously dealt
with by the Athenians both with words and with deeds, was gathering
together an army from the whole of the Peloponnese, not declaring the
purpose for which he was gathering it, but desiring to take vengeance on
the people of the Athenians, and intending to make Isagoras despot; for
he too had come out of the Acropolis together with Cleomenes. Cleomenes
then with a large army entered Eleusis, while at the same time the
Boeotians by agreement with him captured Oinoe and Hysiai, the demes
which lay upon the extreme borders of Attica, and the Chalkidians on the
other side invaded and began to ravage various districts of Attica. The
Athenians then, though attacked on more sides than one, thought that
they would remember the Boeotians and Chalkidians afterwards, and
arrayed themselves against the Peloponnesians who were in Eleusis.