that if ye give them up, ye do that which religion commands, and if ye
refuse to give them up, ye do the opposite of this: but I desire to tell
you what kind of a thing came to pass once in Sparta about a deposit. We
Spartans report that there was in Lacedemon about two generations before
my time on Glaucos the son of Epikydes. This man we say attained the
highest merit in all things besides, and especially he was well reported
of by all who at that time dwelt in Lacedemon for his uprightness: and
we relate that in due time 75 it happened to him thus:--a man of Miletos
came to Sparta and desired to have speech with him, alleging the reasons
which follow: 'I am a Milesian,' he said, 'and I am come hither desiring
to have benefit from thy uprightness, Glaucos; for as there was much
report of thy uprightness throughout all the rest of Hellas and also in
Ionia, I considered with myself that Ionia is ever in danger, whereas
Peloponnesus is safely established, and also that we never see wealth
continue in the possession of the same persons long;--reflecting, I say,
on these things and taking counsel with myself, I resolved to turn into
money the half of my possessions, and to place it with thee, being well
assured that if it were placed with thee I should have it safe. Do
thou therefore, I pray thee, receive the money, and take and keep these
tallies; and whosoever shall ask for the money back having the tokens
answering to these, to him do thou restore it.' (b) The stranger who had
come from Miletos said so much; and Glaucos accepted the deposit on the
terms proposed. Then after a long time had gone by, there came to Sparta
the sons of him who had deposited the money with Glaucos; and they came
to speech with Glaucos, and producing the tokens asked for the money to
be given back: but he repulsed them answering them again thus: 'I do not
remember the matter, nor does my mind bring back to me any knowledge of
those things whereof ye speak; but I desire to recollect and do all that
is just; for if I received it, I desire to restore it honestly; and if
on the other hand I did not receive it at all, I will act towards you
in accordance with the customs of the Hellenes: 76 therefore I defer
the settling of the matter with you for three months from now.' (c) The
Milesians accordingly went away grieved, for they supposed that they had
been robbed of the money; but Glaucos set forth to Delphi to consult the
Oracle: and when he inquired of the Oracle whether he should rob them
of the money by an oath, the Pythian prophetess rebuked him with these
lines:
"'Glaucos, thou, Epikydes' son, yea, this for the moment,
This, to conquer their word by an oath and to rob, is more gainful.
Swear, since the lot of death waits also for him who swears truly.
But know thou that Oath has a son, one nameless and handless and
footless, Yet without feet he pursues, without hands he seizes, and
wholly He shall destroy the race and the house of the man who offendeth.
But for the man who swears truly his race is the better hereafter.'
Having heard this Glaucos entreated that the god would pardon him for
that which he had said, but the prophetess said that to make trial of
the god and to do the deed were things equivalent. (d) Glaucos then,
having sent for the Milesians, gave back to them the money: but the
reason for which, O Athenians, I set forth to relate to you this story,
shall now be told. At the present time there is no descendant of Glaucos
existing, nor any hearth which is esteemed to be that of Glaucos, but he
has been utterly destroyed and rooted up out of Sparta. Thus it is
good not even to entertain a thought about a deposit other than that of
restoring it, when they who made it ask for it again."
87. When Leotychides had thus spoken, since not even so were the
Athenians willing to listen to him, he departed back; and the Eginetans,
before paying the penalty for their former wrongs wherein they
did outrage to the Athenians to please the Thebans, 77 acted as
follows:--complaining of the conduct of the Athenians and thinking that
they were being wronged, they made preparations to avenge themselves
upon the Athenians; and since the Athenians were celebrating a
four-yearly festival 78 at Sunion, they lay in wait for the sacred ship
which was sent to it and took it, the vessel being full of men who were
the first among the Athenians; and having taken it they laid the men in
bonds..
88. The Athenians after they had suffered this wrong from the Eginetans
no longer delayed to contrive all things possible to their hurt.
And there was 79 in Egina a man of repute, one Nicodromos the son of
Cnithos: 80 this man had cause of complaint against the Eginetans for
having before this driven him forth out of the island; and hearing now
that the Athenians had resolved to do mischief to the Eginetans, he
agreed with the Athenians to deliver up Egina to them, telling them on
what day he would make his attempt and by what day it would be necessary
for them to come to his assistance..
89. After this Nicodromos, according as he had agreed with the
Athenians, seized that which is called the old city, but the Athenians
did not come to his support at the proper time; for, as it chanced, they
had not ships sufficient to fight with the Eginetans; so while they were
asking the Corinthians to lend them ships, during this time their cause
went to ruin. The Corinthians however, being at this time exceedingly
friendly with them, gave the Athenians twenty ships at their request;
and these they gave by selling them at five drachmas apiece, for by the
law it was not permitted to give them as a free gift. Having taken these
ships of which I speak and also their own, the Athenians with seventy
ships manned in all sailed to Egina, and they were later by one day than
the time agreed..
90. Nicodromos meanwhile, as the Athenians did not come to his support
at the proper time, embarked in a ship and escaped from Egina, and
with him also went others of the Eginetans; and the Athenians gave them
Sunion to dwell in, starting from whence these men continued to plunder
the Eginetans who were in the island..
91. This happened afterwards: but at the time of which we speak the
well-to-do class among the Eginetans prevailed over the men of the
people, who had risen against them in combination with Nicodromos, and
then having got them into their power they were bringing their prisoners
forth to execution. From this there came upon them a curse which they
were not able to expiate by sacrifice, though they devised against it
all they could; but they were driven forth from the island before the
goddess became propitious to them. For they had taken as prisoners
seven hundred of the men of the people and were bringing them forth to
execution, when one of them escaped from his bonds and fled for refuge
to the entrance of the temple of Demeter the Giver of Laws, 81 and he
took hold of the latch of the door and clung to it; and when they found
that they could not drag him from it by pulling him away, they cut off
his hands and so carried him off, and those hands remained clinging to
the latch of the door..
92. Thus did the Eginetans to one another: and when the Athenians came,
they fought against them with seventy ships, and being worsted in
the sea-fight they called to their assistance the same whom they had
summoned before, namely the Argives. These would no longer come to their
help, having cause of complaint because the ships of Egina compelled
by Cleomenes had put in to the land of Argos and their crews had landed
with the Lacedemonians; with whom also had landed men from ships of
Sikyon in this same invasion: and as a penalty for this there was laid
upon them by the Argives a fine of a thousand talents, five hundred
for each State. The Sikyonians accordingly, acknowledging that they had
committed a wrong, had made an agreement to pay a hundred talents and be
free from the penalty; the Eginetans however did not acknowledge their
wrong, but were more stubborn. For this reason then, when they made
request, none of the Argives now came to their help at the charge of the
State, but volunteers came to the number of a thousand; and their
leader was a commander named Eurybates, a man who had practised the five
contests. 82 Of these men the greater number never returned back,
but were slain by the Athenians in Egina; and the commander himself,
Eurybates, fighting in single combat 83 killed in this manner three men
and was himself slain by the fourth, Sophanes namely of Dekeleia.
93. The Eginetans however engaged in contest with the Athenians in
ships, when these were in disorder, and defeated them; and they took of
them four ships together with their crews.
94. So the Athenians were at war with the Eginetans; and meanwhile the
Persian was carrying forward his design, since he was put in mind ever
by his servant to remember the Athenians, and also because of the
sons of Peisistratos were near at hand and brought charges continually
against the Athenians, while at the same time Dareios himself wished to
take hold of this pretext and subdue those nations of Hellas which
had not given him earth and water. Mardonios then, since he had fared
miserably in his expedition, he removed from his command; and appointing
other generals to command he despatched them against Eretria and
Athens, namely Datis, who was a Mede by race, and Artaphrenes the son
of Artaphrenes, a nephew of the king: and he sent them forth with the
charge to reduce Athens and Eretria to slavery and to bring the slaves
back into his presence..
95. When these who had been appointed to command came in their march
from the king to the Aleïan plain in Kilikia, taking with them a large
and well-equipped land-army, then while they were encamping there,
the whole naval armament came up, which had been appointed for several
nations to furnish; and there came to them also the ships for carrying
horses, which in the year before Dareios had ordered his tributaries to
make ready. In these they placed their horses, and having embarked the
land-army in the ships they sailed for Ionia with six hundred triremes.
After this they did not keep their ships coasting along the mainland
towards the Hellespont and Thrace, but they started from Samos and made
their voyage by the Icarian Sea 84 and between the islands; because, as
I think, they feared more than all else the voyage round Athos, seeing
that in the former year 85 while making the passage by this way they had
come to great disaster. Moreover also Naxos compelled them, since it had
not been conquered at the former time. 86.
96. And when they had arrived at Naxos, coming against it from the
Icarian Sea (for it was against Naxos first that the Persians intended
to make expedition, remembering the former events), the Naxians departed
forthwith fleeing to the mountains, and did not await their attack; but
the Persians made slaves of those of them whom they caught and set fire
to both the temples and the town. Having so done they put out to sea to
attack the other islands.
97. While these were doing thus, the Delians also had left Delos and
fled away to Tenos; and when the armament was sailing in thither, Datis
sailed on before and did not allow the ships to anchor at the island of
Delos, but at Rhenaia on the other side of the channel; and he himself,
having found out by inquiry where the men of Delos were, sent a herald
and addressed them thus: "Holy men, why are ye fled away and departed,
having judged of me that which is not convenient? for even I of myself
have wisdom at least so far, and moreover it has been thus commanded me
by the king, not to harm at all that land in which the two divinities
were born, neither the land itself nor the inhabitants of it. Now
therefore return to your own possessions and dwell in your island." Thus
he proclaimed by a herald to the Delians; and after this he piled up and
burned upon the altar three hundred talents' weight of frankincense.
98. Datis having done these things sailed away with his army to fight
against Eretria first, taking with him both Ionians and Aiolians; and
after he had put out to sea from thence, Delos was moved, not having
been shaken (as the Delians reported to me) either before that time
or since that down to my own time; and this no doubt the god 8601
manifested as a portent to men of the evils that were about to be;
for in the time of Dareios the son of Hystaspes and Xerxes the son of
Dareios and Artoxerxes the son of Xerxes, three generations following
upon one another, there happened more evils to Hellas than during the
twenty other generations which came before Dareios, some of the evils
coming to it from the Persians, and others from the leaders themselves
of Hellas warring together for supremacy. Thus it was not unreasonable
that Delos should be moved, which was before unmoved. [And in an oracle
it was thus written about it: 87
"Delos too will I move, unmoved though it hath been aforetime."]
Now in the Hellenic tongue the names which have been mentioned have this
meaning--Dareios means "compeller," 88 Xerxes "warrior," 89 Artoxerxes
"great warrior." 90 Thus then might the Hellenes rightly call these
kings in their own tongue.
99. The Barbarians then, when they had departed from Delos, touched at
the islands as they went, and from them received additional forces and
took sons of the islanders as hostages: and when in sailing round about
the islands they put in also to Carystos, seeing that the Carystians
would neither give them hostages nor consent to join in an expedition
against cities that were their neighbours, meaning Eretria and Athens,
they began to besiege them and to ravage their land; until at last the
Carystians also came over to the will of the Persians..
100. The Eretrians meanwhile being informed that the armament of the
Persians was sailing to attack them, requested the Athenians to help
them; and the Athenians did not refuse their support, but gave as
helpers those four thousand to whom had been allotted the land of the
wealthy 91 Chalkidians. The Eretrians however, as it turned out, had no
sound plan of action, for while they sent for the Athenians, they had
in their minds two different designs: some of them, that is, proposed
to leave the city and go to the heights of Euboea; while others of them,
expecting to win gain for themselves from the Persian, were preparing to
surrender the place. Having got knowledge of how things were as regards
both these plans, Aischines the son of Nothon, one of the leaders of
the Eretrians, told the whole condition of their affairs to those of the
Athenians who had come, and entreated them to depart and go to their own
land, that they might not also perish. So the Athenians did according to
this counsel given to them by Aischines..
101. And while these passed over to Oropos and saved themselves, the
Persians sailed on and brought their ships to land about Temenos
and Chioreai and Aigilea in the Eretrian territory; and having taken
possession of these places, 9101 forthwith they began to disembark their
horses and prepared to advance against the enemy. The Eretrians however
did not intend to come forth against them and fight; but their endeavour
was if possible to hold out by defending their walls, since the counsel
prevailed not to leave the city. Then a violent assault was made upon
the wall, and for six days there fell many on both sides; but on the
seventh day Euphorbos the son of Alkimachos and Philagros the son
of Kyneos, men of repute among the citizens, gave up the city to the
Persians. These having entered the city plundered and set fire to the
temples in retribution for the temples which were burned at Sardis, and
also reduced the people to slavery according to the commands of Dareios.
102. Having got Eretria into their power, they stayed a few days and
then sailed for the land of Attica, pressing on 92 hard and supposing
that the Athenians would do the same as the Eretrians had done. And
since Marathon was the most convenient place in Attica for horsemen
to act and was also very near to Eretria, therefore Hippias the son of
Peisistratos was guiding them thither..
103. When the Athenians had information of this, they too went to
Marathon to the rescue of their land; and they were led by ten generals,
of whom the tenth was Miltiades, whose father Kimon of Stesagoras had
been compelled to go into exile from Athens because of Peisistratos the
son of Hippocrates: and while he was in exile it was his fortune to win
a victory at the Olympic games with a four-horse chariot, wherein, as
it happened, he did the same thing as his half-brother Miltiades 93
had done, who had the same mother as he. Then afterwards in the next
succeeding Olympic games he gained a victory with the same mares and
allowed Peisistratos to be proclaimed as victor; and having resigned to
him the victory he returned to his own native land under an agreement
for peace. Then after he had won with the same mares at another Olympic
festival, it was his hap to be slain by the sons of Peisistratos,
Peisistratos himself being no longer alive. These killed him near the
City Hall, having set men to lie in wait for him by night; and the
burial-place of Kimon is in the outskirts of the city, on the other side
of the road which is called the way through Coile, and just opposite him
those mares are buried which won in three Olympic games. This same
thing was done also by the mares belonging to Euagoras the Laconian,
but besides these by none others. Now the elder of the sons of Kimon,
Stesagoras, was at that time being brought up in the house of his
father's brother Miltiades in the Chersonese, while the younger son
was being brought up at Athens with Kimon himself, having been named
Miltiades after Miltiades the settler of the Chersonese..
104. This Miltiades then at the time of which we speak had come from the
Chersonese and was a general of the Athenians, after escaping death in
two forms; for not only did the Phenicians, who had pursued after him as
far as Imbros, endeavour earnestly to take him and bring him up to the
presence of the king, but also after this, when he had escaped from
these and had come to his own native land and seemed to be in safety
from that time forth, his opponents, who had laid wait for him there,
brought him up before a court and prosecuted him for his despotism in
the Chersonese. Having escaped these also, he had then been appointed a
general of the Athenians, being elected by the people.
105. First of all, while they were still in the city, the generals sent
off to Sparta a herald, namely Pheidippides 94 an Athenian and for the
rest a runner of long day-courses and one who practised this as his
profession. With this man, as Pheidippides himself said and as he made
report to the Athenians, Pan chanced to meet by mount Parthenion, which
is above Tegea; and calling aloud the name of Pheidippides, Pan bade him
report to the Athenians and ask for what reason they had no care of him,
though he was well disposed to the Athenians and had been serviceable to
them on many occasions before that time, and would be so also yet again.
Believing that this tale was true, the Athenians, when their affairs had
been now prosperously settled, established under the Acropolis a temple
of Pan; and in consequence of this message they propitiate him with
sacrifice offered every year and with a torch-race..
106. However at that time, the time namely when he said that Pan
appeared to him, this Pheidippides having been sent by the generals was
in Sparta on the next day after that on which he left the city of
the Athenians; and when he had come to the magistrates he said:
"Lacedemonians, the Athenians make request of you to come to their help
and not to allow a city most anciently established among the Hellenes to
fall into slavery by the means of Barbarians; for even now Eretria has
been enslaved, and Hellas has become the weaker by a city of renown."
He, as I say, reported to them that with which he had been charged,
and it pleased them well to come to help the Athenians; but it was
impossible for them to do so at once, since they did not desire to break
their law; for it was the ninth day of the month, and on the ninth day
they said they would not go forth, nor until the circle of the moon
should be full. 95
107. These men were waiting for the full moon: and meanwhile Hippias
the son of Peisistratos was guiding the Barbarians in to Marathon, after
having seen on the night that was just past a vision in his sleep of
this kind,--it seemed to Hippias that he lay with his own mother. He
conjectured then from the dream that he should return to Athens and
recover his rule, and then bring his life to an end in old age in his
own land. From the dream, I say, he conjectured this; and after this, as
he guided them in, first he disembarked the slaves from Eretria on the
island belonging to the Styrians, called Aigleia; 96 and then, as the
ships came in to shore at Marathon, he moored them there, and after
the Barbarians had come from their ships to land, he was engaged in
disposing them in their places. While he was ordering these things, it
came upon him to sneeze and cough more violently than was his wont. Then
since he was advanced in years, most of his teeth were shaken thereby,
and one of these teeth he cast forth by the violence of the cough: 97
and the tooth having fallen from him upon the sand, he was very
desirous to find it; since however the tooth was not to be found when he
searched, he groaned aloud and said to those who were by him: "This land
is not ours, nor shall we be able to make it subject to us; but so much
part in it as belonged to me the tooth possesses."
108. Hippias then conjectured that his vision had been thus fulfilled:
and meanwhile, after the Athenians had been drawn up in the sacred
enclosure of Heracles, there joined them the Plataians coming to their
help in a body: for the Plataians had given themselves to the Athenians,
and the Athenians before this time undertook many toils on behalf of
them; and this was the manner in which they gave themselves:--Being
oppressed by the Thebans, the Plataians at first desired to
give themselves to Cleomenes the son of Anaxandrides and to the
Lacedemonians, who chanced to come thither; but these did not accept
them, and said to them as follows: "We dwell too far off, and such
support as ours would be to you but cold comfort; for ye might many
times be reduced to slavery before any of us had information of it: but
we counsel you rather to give yourselves to the Athenians, who are both
neighbours and also not bad helpers." Thus the Lacedemonians counselled,
not so much on account of their goodwill to the Plataians as because
they desired that the Athenians should have trouble by being involved in
a conflict with the Boetians. The Lacedemonians, I say, thus counselled
the men of Plataia; and they did not fail to follow their counsel, but
when the Athenians were doing sacrifice to the twelve gods, they sat
down as suppliants at the altar and so gave themselves. Then the Thebans
having been informed of these things marched against the Plataians, and
the Athenians came to their assistance: and as they were about to join
battle, the Corinthians did not permit them to do so, but being by
chance there, they reconciled their strife; and both parties having put
the matter into their hands, they laid down boundaries for the land,
with the condition that the Thebans should leave those of the Boeotians
alone who did not desire to be reckoned with the other Boeotians. The
Corinthians having given this decision departed; but as the Athenians
were going back, the Boeotians attacked them, and having attacked them
they were worsted in the fight. Upon that the Athenians passed beyond
the boundaries which the Corinthians had set to be for the Plataians,
and they made the river Asopos itself to be the boundary of the Thebans
towards the land of Plataia and towards the district of Hysiai. The
Plataians then had given themselves to the Athenians in the manner which
has been said, and at this time they came to Marathon to bring them
help.
109. Now the opinions of the generals of the Athenians were divided,
and the one party urged that they should not fight a battle, seeing that
they were too few to fight with the army of the Medes, while the others,
and among them Miltiades, advised that they should do so: and when they
were divided and the worse opinion was like to prevail, then, since he
who had been chosen by lot 98 to be polemarch of the Athenians had a
vote in addition to the ten (for in old times the Athenians gave
the polemarch an equal vote with the generals) and at that time the
polemarch was Callimachos of the deme of Aphidnai, to him came Miltiades
and said as follows: "With thee now it rests, Callimachos, either to
bring Athens under slavery, or by making her free to leave behind
thee for all the time that men shall live a memorial such as not even
Harmodios and Aristogeiton have left. For now the Athenians have come
to a danger the greatest to which they have ever come since they were
a people; and on the one hand, if they submit to the Medes, it is
determined what they shall suffer, being delivered over to Hippias,
while on the other hand, if this city shall gain the victory, it may
become the first of the cities of Hellas. How this may happen and how it
comes to thee of all men 99 to have the decision of these matters, I
am now about to tell. Of us the generals, who are ten in number, the
opinions are divided, the one party urging that we fight a battle and
the others that we do not fight. Now if we do not, I expect that some
great spirit of discord will fall upon the minds of the Athenians and
so shake them that they shall go over to the Medes; but if we fight a
battle before any unsoundness appear in any part of the Athenian people,
then we are able to gain the victory in the fight, if the gods grant
equal conditions. These things then all belong to thee and depend
on thee; for if thou attach thyself to my opinions, thou hast both a
fatherland which is free and a native city which shall be the first
among the cities of Hellas; but if thou choose the opinion of those who
are earnest against fighting, thou shalt have the opposite of those good
things of which I told thee.".
110. Thus speaking Miltiades gained Callimachos to his side; and the
opinion of the polemarch being added, it was thus determined to fight
a battle. After this, those generals whose opinion was in favour of
fighting, as the turn of each one of them to command for the day 100
came round, gave over their command to Miltiades; and he, accepting
it, would not however yet bring about a battle, until his own turn to
command had come..