Lemnos:--After the Pelasgians had been cast out of Attica by the
Athenians, whether justly or unjustly,--for about this I cannot tell
except the things reported, which are these:--Hecataois on the one hand,
the son of Hegesander, said in his history that it was done unjustly;
for he said that when the Athenians saw the land which extends below
Hymettos, which they had themselves given them 121 to dwell in, as
payment for the wall built round the Acropolis in former times, when the
Athenians, I say, saw that this land was made good by cultivation, which
before was bad and worthless, they were seized with jealousy and with
longing to possess the land, and so drove them out, not alleging any
other pretext: but according to the report of the Athenians themselves
they drove them out justly; for the Pelasgians being settled under
Hymettos made this a starting-point and committed wrong against them as
follows:--the daughters and sons of the Athenians were wont ever to go
for water to the spring of Enneacrunos; for at that time neither they
nor the other Hellenes as yet had household servants; and when these
girls came, the Pelasgians in wantonness and contempt of the Athenians
would offer them violence; and it was not enough for them even to do
this, but at last they were found in the act of plotting an attack
upon the city: and the narrators say that they herein proved themselves
better men than the Pelasgians, inasmuch as when they might have slain
the Pelasgians, who had been caught plotting against them, they did not
choose to do so, but ordered them merely to depart out of the land: and
thus having departed out of the land, the Pelasgians took possession of
several older places and especially of Lemnos. The former story is that
which was reported by Hecataios, while the latter is that which is told
by the Athenians..
138. These Pelasgians then, dwelling after that in Lemnos, desired to
take vengeance on the Athenians; and having full knowledge also of the
festivals of the Athenians, they got 122 fifty-oared galleys and laid
wait for the women of the Athenians when they were keeping festival to
Artemis in Brauron; and having carried off a number of them from thence,
they departed and sailed away home, and taking the women to Lemnos they
kept them as concubines. Now when these women had children gradually
more and more, they made it their practice to teach their sons both
the Attic tongue and the manners of the Athenians. And these were not
willing to associate with the sons of the Pelasgian women, and moreover
if any of them were struck by any one of those, they all in a body came
to the rescue and helped one another. Moreover the boys claimed to
have authority over the other boys and got the better of them easily.
Perceiving these things the Pelasgians considered the matter; and when
they took counsel together, a fear came over them and they thought, if
the boys were indeed resolved now to help one another against the sons
of the legitimate wives, and were endeavouring already from the first to
have authority over them, what would they do when they were grown up to
be men? Then they determined to put to death the sons of the Athenian
women, and this they actually did; and in addition to them they slew
their mothers also. From this deed and from that which was done before
this, which the women did when they killed Thoas and the rest, who were
their own husbands, it has become a custom in Hellas that all deeds of
great cruelty should be called "Lemnian deeds.".
139. After the Pelasgians had killed their own sons and wives, the earth
did not bear fruit for them, nor did their women or their cattle bring
forth young as they did before; and being hard pressed by famine and by
childlessness, they sent to Delphi to ask for a release from the evils
which were upon them; and the Pythian prophetess bade them pay such
penalty to the Athenians as the Athenians themselves should appoint.
The Pelasgians came accordingly to Athens and professed that they were
willing to pay the penalty for all the wrong which they had done: and
the Athenians laid a couch in the fairest possible manner in the City
Hall, and having set by it a table covered with all good things, they
bade the Pelasgians deliver up to them their land in that condition.
Then the Pelasgians answered and said: "When with a North Wind in one
single day a ship shall accomplish the voyage from your land to ours,
then we will deliver it up," feeling assured that it was impossible for
this to happen, since Attica lies far away to the South of Lemnos..
140. Such were the events which happened then: and very many years
later, after the Chersonese which is by the Hellespont had come to be
under the Athenians, Miltiades the son of Kimon, when the Etesian Winds
blew steadily, accomplished the voyage in a ship from Elaius in the
Chersonese to Lemnos, and proclaimed to the Pelasgians that they should
depart out of the island, reminding them of the oracle, which the
Pelasgians had never expected would be accomplished for them. The men of
Hephaistia accordingly obeyed; but those of Myrina, not admitting that
the Chersonese was Attica, suffered a siege, until at last these also
submitted. Thus it was that the Athenians and Miltiades took possession
of Lemnos.
NOTES TO BOOK VI.
1 [ {proboulous}.]
2 [ See i. 148.]
3 [ {epi keras}.]
4 [ {diekploon poieumenos tesi neusi di alleleon}.]
5 [ {tou Dareiou}: a conjecture based upon Valla's translation. The MSS.
have {ton Dareion}.]
6 [ {prophasios epilabomenoi}.]
601 [ {en stele anagraphenai patrothen}.]
7 [ "were very roughly handled."]
8 [ {epibateuontas}.]
801 [ {nuktos te gar}: so Stein for {nuktos te}.]
9 [ {kat akres}, lit. "from the top downwards," i.e. town and citadel
both.]
10 [ See ch. 77.]
11 [ See i. 92 and v. 36.]
1101 [ {Kalen akten}.]
12 [ Possibly the reading should be {Inuka}, "Inyx."]
13 [ {ton en te naumakhie}: perhaps we should read {ten en te
naumakhin}, "which took place in the sea-fight."]
14 [ {en Koiloisi kaleomenoisi}.]
15 [ {grammata didaskomenoisi}.]
16 [ {limainouses}: a conjectural reading for {deimainouses}.]
17 [ Lit. "and it became in fact the work of the cavalry."]
18 [ {esagenouon}.]
19 [ Or (according to some good MSS.) "Thelymbri01."]
20 [ Cp. iii. 120.]
21 [ {stadioi}: the distances here mentioned are equal to a little more
than four and a little less than fifty miles respectively.]
22 [ {en gnome gegonos}.]
23 [ {pituos tropon}: the old name of the town was Pityuss01.]
24 [ That is to say, Kimon was his half-brother, and Stesagoras and the
younger Miltiades his nephews.]
25 [ See ch. 103.]
26 [ {delade}.]
27 [ {eleluthee}, but the meaning must be this, and it is explained by
the clause, {trito men gar etei k.t.l.}]
28 [ {stadia}: see v. 52, note 40.]
29 [ See iii. 80.]
30 [ {entos Makedonon}, "on their side of the Macedonians."]
3001 [ Or (according to some MSS.) "about three hundred."]
31 [ Or "Scaptesyle." (The Medicean MS. however has {skaptes ules}, not
{skaptesules}, as reported by Stein.)]
32 [ {ta proiskheto aiteon}, "that which he put forward demanding it."]
33 [ i.e. "ram."]
34 [ {ton geraiteron}.]
35 [ {en to demosio}.]
36 [ This is commonly understood to mean, leaving out of account the god
who was father of Perseus; but the reason for stopping short at Perseus
is given afterwards, and the expression {tou theou apeontos} refers
perhaps rather to the case of Heracles, the legend of whose birth is
rejected by Herodotus (see ii. 43), and rejected also by this genealogy,
which passes through Amphitryon up to Perseus. I take it that {tou theou
apeontos} means "reckoning Heracles" (who is mentioned by name just
below in this connexion) "as the son of Amphitryon and not of Zeus."]
37 [ i.e. "of heaven."]
38 [ {medimnon}, the Lacedemonian {medimnos} being equal to rather more
than two bushels.]
39 [ {tetarten Lakomiken}, quantity uncertain.]
40 [ {proxeinous}.]
41 [ {khoinikas}. There were 48 {khoinikes} in the {medimnos}.]
42 [ {kotulen}.]
4201 [ The loose manner in which this is expressed, leaving it uncertain
whether each king was supposed by the writer to have two votes given for
him (cp. Thuc. i. 20), or whether the double vote was one for each king,
must of course be reproduced in the translation.]
43 [ {perioikon}.]
44 [ See ch. 51.]
45 [ {proergazomenon}: a conjectural emendation of {prosergazomenon}.]
46 [ {tes apates te paragoge}, "by the misleading of the deception."]
47 [ i.e. lunar months.]
48 [ {en thoko katemeno}.]
49 [ {pandemei}.]
50 [ {aren}.]
51 [ i.e. "prayed for by the people."]
52 [ {di a}: a conjectural emendation of {dia ta}. Some Editors suppose
that other words have dropped out.]
53 [ {promantin}: cp. vii. III.]
54 [ {ton splagkhnon}.]
55 [ {tou erkeiou}.]
56 [ {ton mataioteron logon legontes}.]
57 [ Lit. "on the third night after the first," but the meaning is as
given.]
58 [ Most of the MSS. have "Astrobacos," which may be right.]
59 [ Or "to the honour of the Lacedemonians."]
60 [ i.e. any more than his predecessor.]
61 [ See ch. 50.]
62 [ {neotera epresse pregmata}.]
63 [ {up Arkadon}: several good MSS. have {ton Arkadon}, which is
adopted by some Editors. The meaning would be "near this city it is said
that there is the Styx water of the Arcadians."]
64 [ {upomargoteron}.]
65 [ Demeter and Core.]
66 [ The MSS. give also "Sepeia" and "Sipei01." The place is not
elsewhere mentioned.]
67 [ See ch. 19.]
68 [ {duo mneai}: cp. v. 77.]
69 [ {o theos}, i.e. Hera: cp. i. 105.]
70 [ {kalliereumeno}.]
71 [ {kat akres}: cp. ch. 18.]
72 [ i.e. was acquitted of the charge brought against him.]
73 [ {episkuthison}.]
74 [ {bouleuesthe}: some MSS. and editions have {boulesthe},
"desiring."]
75 [ {en khrono ikneumeno}.]
76 [ i.e. take an oath to that effect.]
77 [ See v. 80.]
78 [ {penteteris}. The reading {penteres}, which is given by most of the
MSS. and by several Editors, can hardly be defended.]
79 [ {kai en gar}, "and since there was."]
80 [ {Knoithou kaleomenos}: cp. vii. 143.]
81 [ {thesmophorou}.]
82 [ {pentaethlon epaskesas}.]
83 [ {mounomakhien epaskeon}, "practising single combat," as if training
for the games.]
84 [ {para te Ikarion}: the use of {para} and the absence of the article
may justify the conjecture {para te Ikarion} (or {Ikaron}) "by Icaria"
(or "Icaros"), the island from which the Icarian Sea had its name.]
85 [ This perhaps should be emended, for the event referred to occurred
two years before, cp. ch. 46 and 48: The reading {trito proteron etei}
has been proposed.]
86 [ See v. 33 ff.]
8601 [ i.e. Apollo: or perhaps more generally, "God," as in ch. 27.]
87 [ This in brackets is probably an interpolation. It is omitted by
some of the best MSS. Some Editors suspect the genuineness of the next
four lines also, on internal grounds.]
88 [ {erxies}, perhaps meaning "worker."]
89 [ {areios}.]
90 [ {megas areios}.]
91 [ {ippoboteon}, lit. "horse-breeding": see v. 77.]
9101 [ Or (according to some MSS.), "having come to shore at these
places."]
92 [ {katergontes}: the word is not elsewhere found intransitive, yet it
is rather difficult to supply {tous Athenaious}. Some alterations have
been proposed, but none probable.]
93 [ Lit. "and it happened that in winning this victory he won the same
victory as his half-brother Miltiades." See ch. 36.]
94 [ Or, according to some authorities, "Philippides."]
95 [ Lit. "except the circle were full."]
96 [ Or "Aigilei01."]
97 [ Lit. "by violence, having coughed."]
98 [ "by the bean."]
99 [ {es se toi}, a conjectural emendation of {es se ti}.]
100 [ {prutaneie tes emeres}.]
101 [ Some Editors propose to omit {gar} or alter it. If it be allowed
to stand, the meaning must be that the importance of the place is
testified by the commemoration mentioned.]
102 [ {es tas panegurias}, some MSS. have {kai panegurias}, "hold
sacrifices and solemn assemblies."]
103 [ {penteterisi}.]
104 [ Lit. "the good things."]
105 [ {stadioi}: the distance would be rather over 1600 yards.]
106 [ Whether this is thrown in here by the historian as an explanation
of the rapid advance, or as an additional source of wonder on the part
of the Persians at the boldness of the Athenians, is not clear.]
107 [ Or (according to some MSS.) "having taken hold."]
108 [ The account of how the oil was dealt with has perhaps dropt out:
one MS. and the Aldine edition have "the oil they collect in vessels,
and this," etc.]
109 [ This chapter is omitted by several of the best MSS., and is almost
certainly an interpolation. (In the Medicean MS. it has been added in
the margin by a later hand.)]
110 [ Answering to "Callias for his part" at the end of ch. 121, the
connexion being broken by the interpolated passage.]
111 [ {ouden esson}.]
112 [ {patre}, "family," or possibly "country," as in ch. 128.]
113 [ {to legomeno es to meson}: perhaps only "general conversation."]
114 [ {katekhon pollon tous allous}.]
115 [ i.e. "though the dancing may be good."]
116 [ {aponostesein}: some MSS. have {apanastesein}, "he would not take
away his army thence."]
117 [ {upozakoron}.]
118 [ {ton khthonion theon}, i.e. Demeter and Persephone: cp. vii. 153.]
119 [ {thesmophorou}.]
120 [ {to megaron}.]
121 [ {sphi autoi}: a conjectural rendering of {sphisi autoisi}, which
can only be taken with {eousan}, meaning "belonging to them" i.e. the
Athenians, and involves the insertion of {Pelasgoisi} or something
equivalent with {edosan}.]
122 [ {ktesamenoi}: some MSS. and editions have {stesamenoi}, "set
fifty-oared galleys in place."]
BOOK VII. THE SEVENTH BOOK OF THE HISTORIES, CALLED POLYMNIA
1. Now when the report came to Dareios the son of Hystaspes of the
battle which was fought at Marathon, the king, who even before this had
been greatly exasperated with the Athenians on account of the attack
made upon Sardis, then far more than before displayed indignation, and
was far more desirous of making a march against Hellas. Accordingly
at once he sent messengers to the various cities and ordered that they
should get ready a force, appointing to each people to supply much more
than at the former time, and not only ships of war, but also horses and
provisions and transport vessels; 1 and when these commands were carried
round, all Asia was moved for three years, for all the best men were
being enlisted for the expedition against Hellas, and were making
preparations. In the fourth year however the Egyptians, who had been
reduced to subjection by Cambyses, revolted from the Persians; and then
he was even more desirous of marching against both these nations.
2. While Dareios was thus preparing to set out against Egypt and against
Athens, there arose a great strife among his sons about the supreme
power; and they said that he must not make his expeditions until he
had designated one of them to be king, according to the custom of the
Persians. For to Dareios already before he became king three sons had
been born of his former wife the daughter of Gobryas, and after he
became king four other sons of Atossa the daughter of Cyrus: of the
first the eldest was Artobazanes, and of those who had been born later,
Xerxes. These being not of the same mother were at strife with one
another, Artobazanes contending that he was the eldest of all the sons,
and that it was a custom maintained by all men that the eldest should
have the rule, and Xerxes arguing that he was the son of Atossa the
daughter of Cyrus, and that Cyrus was he who had won for the Persians
their freedom.
3. Now while Dareios did not as yet declare his judgment, it chanced
that Demaratos also, the son of Ariston, had come up to Susa at this
very same time, having been deprived of the kingdom in Sparta and having
laid upon himself a sentence of exile from Lacedemon. This man, hearing
of the difference between the sons of Dareios, came (as it is reported
of him) and counselled Xerxes to say in addition to those things which
he was wont to say, that he had been born to Dareios at the time when he
was already reigning as king and was holding the supreme power over the
Persians, while Artobazanes had been born while Dareios was still in
a private station: it was not fitting therefore nor just that another
should have the honour before him; for even in Sparta, suggested
Demaratos, this was the custom, that is to say, if some of the sons had
been born first, before their father began to reign, and another came
after, born later while he was reigning, the succession of the kingdom
belonged to him who had been born later. Xerxes accordingly made use of
the suggestion of Demaratos; and Dareios perceiving that he spoke that
which was just, designated him to be king. It is my opinion however that
even without this suggestion Xerxes would have become king, for Atossa
was all-powerful.
4. Then having designated Xerxes to the Persians as their king, Dareios
wished to go on his expeditions. However in the next year after this and
after the revolt of Egypt, it came to pass that Dareios himself died,
having been king in all six-and-thirty years; and thus he did not
succeed in taking vengeance either upon the revolted Egyptians or upon
the Athenians.
5. Dareios being dead the kingdom passed to his son Xerxes. Now Xerxes
at the first was by no means anxious to make a march against Hellas, but
against Egypt he continued to gather a force. Mardonios however, the son
of Gobryas, who was a cousin of Xerxes, being sister's son to Dareios,
was ever at his side, and having power with him more than any other
of the Persians, he kept continually to such discourse as this which
follows, saying: "Master, it is not fitting that the Athenians, after
having done to the Persians very great evil, should not pay the penalty
for that which they have done. What if thou shouldest 2 at this present
time do that which thou hast in thy hands to do; and when thou hast
tamed the land of Egypt, which has broken out insolently against us,
then do thou march an army against Athens, that a good report may be
made of thee by men, and that in future every one may beware of making
expeditions against thy land." Thus far his speech had to do with
vengeance, 3 and to this he would make addition as follows, saying
that Europe was a very fair land and bore all kinds of trees that are
cultivated for fruit, and was of excellent fertility, and such that the
king alone of all mortals was worthy to possess it.
6. These things he was wont to say, since he was one who had a desire
for perilous enterprise and wished to be himself the governor of Hellas
under the king. So in time he prevailed upon Xerxes and persuaded him to
do this; for other things also assisted him and proved helpful to him
in persuading Xerxes. In the first place there had come from Thessaly
messengers sent by the Aleuadai, who were inviting the king to come
against Hellas and were showing great zeal in his cause, (now these
Aleuadai were kings of Thessaly): and then secondly those of the sons of
Peisistratos who had come up to Susa were inviting him also, holding to
the same arguments as the Aleuadai; and moreover they offered him yet
more inducement in addition to these; for there was one Onomacritos an
Athenian, who both uttered oracles and also had collected and arranged
the oracles of Musaios; 4 and with this man they had come up, after they
had first reconciled the enmity between them. For Onomacritos had been
driven forth from Athens by Hipparchos the son of Peisistratos, having
been caught by Lasos of Hermion interpolating in the works of Musaios
an oracle to the effect that the islands which lie off Lemnos should
disappear 5 under the sea. For this reason Hipparchos drove him forth,
having before this time been very much wont to consult him. Now however
he had gone up with them; and when he had come into the presence of the
king, the sons of Peisistratos spoke of him in magnificent terms, and
he repeated some of the oracles; and if there was in them anything
which imported disaster to the Barbarians, of this he said nothing;
but choosing out of them the most fortunate things he told how it was
destined that the Hellespont should be yoked with a bridge by a Persian,
and he set forth the manner of the march. He then thus urged Xerxes with
oracles, while the sons of Peisistratos and the Aleuadai pressed him
with their advice.
7. So when Xerxes had been persuaded to make an expedition against
Hellas, then in the next year after the death of Dareios he made a march
first against those who had revolted. Having subdued these and having
reduced all Egypt to slavery much greater than it had suffered in the
reign of Dareios, he entrusted the government of it to Achaimenes his
own brother, a son of Dareios. Now this Achaimenes being a governor of
Egypt was slain afterwards by Inaros the son of Psammetichos, a Libyan.
8. Xerxes then after the conquest of Egypt, being about to take in hand
the expedition against Athens, summoned a chosen assembly of the best
men among the Persians, that he might both learn their opinions and
himself in the presence of all declare that which he intended to do;
and when they were assembled, Xerxes spoke to them as follows: (a)
"Persians, I shall not be the first to establish this custom in your
nation, but having received it from others I shall follow it: for as I
am informed by those who are older than myself, we never yet have kept
quiet since we received this supremacy in succession to the Medes, when
Cyrus overthrew Astyages; but God thus leads us, and for ourselves tends
to good that we are busied about many things. Now about the nations
which Cyrus and Cambyses and my father Dareios subdued and added to
their possessions there is no need for me to speak, since ye know well:
and as for me, from the day when I received by inheritance this throne
upon which I sit 6 I carefully considered always how in this honourable
place I might not fall short of those who have been before me, nor
add less power to the dominion of the Persians: and thus carefully
considering I find a way by which not only glory may be won by us,
together with a land not less in extent nor worse than that which we now
possess, (and indeed more varied in its productions), but also vengeance
and retribution may be brought about. Wherefore I have assembled you
together now, in order that I may communicate to you that which I have
it in my mind to do. (b) I design to yoke the Hellespont with a bridge,
and to march an army through Europe against Hellas, in order that I may
take vengeance on the Athenians for all the things which they have done
both to the Persians and to my father. Ye saw how my father Dareios also
was purposing to make an expedition against these men; but he has ended
his life and did not succeed in taking vengeance upon them. I however,
on behalf of him and also of the other Persians, will not cease until I
have conquered Athens and burnt it with fire; seeing that they did wrong
unprovoked to me and to my father. First they went to Sardis, having
come with Aristagoras the Milesian our slave, and they set fire to the
sacred groves and the temples; and then secondly, what things they did
to us when we disembarked in their land, at the time when Datis and
Artaphrenes were commanders of our army, ye all know well, as I think.
7 (c) For these reasons 8 I have resolved to make an expedition against
them, and reckoning I find in the matter so many good things as ye shall
hear:--if we shall subdue these and the neighbours of these, who dwell
in the land of Pelops the Phrygian, we shall cause the Persian land to
have the same boundaries as the heaven of Zeus; since in truth upon no
land will the sun look down which borders ours, but I with your help
shall make all the lands into one land, having passed through the whole
extent of Europe. For I am informed that things are so, namely that
there is no city of men nor any race of human beings remaining, which
will be able to come to a contest with us, when those whom I just now
mentioned have been removed out of the way. Thus both those who have
committed wrong against us will have the yoke of slavery, and also those
who have not committed wrong. (d) And ye will please me best if ye do
this:--whensoever I shall signify to you the time at which ye ought to
come, ye must appear every one of you with zeal for the service; and
whosoever shall come with a force best equipped, to him I will give
gifts such as are accounted in our land to be the most honourable.
Thus must these things be done: but that I may not seem to you to be
following my own counsel alone, I propose the matter for discussion,
bidding any one of you who desires it, declare his opinion."