IONIC REVOLT.
Hitherto, the history of the Asiatic Greeks has flowed in a stream
distinct from that of the European Greeks. The present chapter will
mark the period of confluence between the two.
At the time when Darius quitted Sardis on his return to Susa,
carrying with him the Milesian Histiæus, he left Artaphernês, his
brother, as satrap of Sardis, invested with the supreme command of
Western Asia Minor. The Grecian cities on the coast, comprehended
under his satrapy, appear to have been chiefly governed by native
despots in each; and Milêtus especially, in the absence of Histiæus,
was ruled by his son-in-law Aristagoras. That city was now in the
height of power and prosperity,—in every respect the leading city of
Ionia. The return of Darius to Susa may be placed seemingly about 512
B. C., from which time forward the state of things above described
continued, without disturbance, for eight or ten years,—“a respite
from suffering,” to use the significant phrase of the historian.[520]
[520] Herodot. v, 28. Μετὰ δὲ οὐ πολλὸν χρόνον, ἄνεως κακῶν ἦν—or
ἄνεσις κακῶν—if the conjecture of some critics be adopted. Mr.
Clinton, with Larcher and others (see Fasti Hellen. App. 18, p.
314), construe this passage as if the comma were to be placed
after μετὰ δὲ, so that the historian would be made to affirm that
the period of repose lasted only a short time. It appears to me
that the comma ought rather to be placed after χρόνον, and that
the “short time” refers to those evils which the historian had
been describing before. There must have been an interval of eight
years at least, if not of ten years, between the events which the
historian had been describing—the evils inflicted by the attacks
of Otanês—and the breaking out of the Ionic revolt; which latter
event no one places earlier than 504 B. C., though some prefer
502 B. C., others even 500 B. C.
If, indeed, we admitted with Wesseling (ad Herodot. vi, 40; and
Mr. Clinton seems inclined towards the same opinion, see p.
314, _ut sup._) that the Scythian expedition is to be placed in
508-507 B. C., then indeed the interval between the campaign of
Otanês and the Ionic revolt would be contracted into one or two
years. But I have already observed that I cannot think 508 B. C.
a correct date for the Scythian expedition: it seems to me to
belong to about 515 B. C. Nor do I know what reason there is for
determining the date as Wesseling does, except this very phrase
οὐ πολλὸν χρόνον, which is on every supposition exceedingly
vague, and which he appears to me not to have construed in the
best way.
It was about the year 506 B. C., that the exiled Athenian despot
Hippias, after having been repelled from Sparta by the unanimous
refusal of the Lacedæmonian allies to take part in his cause,
presented himself from Sigeium as a petitioner to Artaphernês at
Sardis. He now, doubtless, found the benefit of the alliance which he
had formed for his daughter with the despot Æantidês of Lampsakus,
whose favor with Darius would stand him in good stead. He made
pressing representations to the satrap, with a view of procuring
restoration to Athens, on condition of holding it under Persian
dominion; and Artaphernês was prepared, if an opportunity offered,
to aid him in his design. So thoroughly had he resolved on espousing
actively the cause of Hippias, that when the Athenians despatched
envoys to Sardis, to set forth the case of the city against its
exiled pretender, he returned to them an answer not merely of denial,
but of menace,—bidding them receive Hippias back again, if they
looked for safety.[521] Such a reply was equivalent to a declaration
of war, and so it was construed at Athens. It leads us to infer that
he was even then revolving in his mind an expedition against Attica,
in conjunction with Hippias; but, fortunately for the Athenians,
other projects and necessities intervened to postpone for several
years the execution of the scheme.
[521] Herodot. v, 96. Ὁ δὲ Ἀρταφέρνης ἐκέλευέ σφεας εἰ βουλοίατο
σόοι εἶναι, καταδέκεσθαι ὀπίσω τὸν Ἱππίην.
Of these new projects, the first was that of conquering the island of
Naxos. Here, too, as in the case of Hippias, the instigation arose
from Naxian exiles,—a rich oligarchy which had been expelled by a
rising of the people. This island, like all the rest of the Cyclades,
was as yet independent of the Persians.[522] It was wealthy,
prosperous, possessing a large population both of freemen and slaves,
and defended as well by armed ships as by a force of eight thousand
heavy-armed infantry. The exiles applied for aid to Aristagoras,
who saw that he could turn them into instruments of dominion for
himself in the island, provided he could induce Artaphernês to embark
in the project along with him,—his own force not being adequate by
itself. Accordingly, he went to Sardis, and laid his project before
the satrap, intimating that as soon as the exiles should land with
a powerful support, Naxos would be reduced with little trouble:
that the neighboring islands of Paros, Andros, Tênos, and the other
Cyclades, could not long hold out after the conquest of Naxos, nor
even the large and valuable island of Eubœa. He himself engaged,
if a fleet of one hundred ships were granted to him, to accomplish
all these conquests for the Great King, and to bear the expenses of
the armament besides. Artaphernês warmly entered into the scheme,
loaded him with praise, and promised him in the ensuing spring two
hundred ships instead of one hundred. A messenger despatched to Susa,
having brought back the ready consent of Darius, a large armament was
forthwith equipped, under the command of the Persian Megabatês, to be
placed at the disposal of Aristagoras,—composed both of Persians and
of all the tributaries near the coast.[523]
[522] Herodot. v, 31. Plutarch says that Lygdamis, established as
despot at Naxos by Peisistratus (Herodot. i, 64), was expelled
from this post by the Lacedæmonians (De Herodot. Malignitat. c.
21, p. 859). I confess that I do not place much confidence in the
statements of that treatise, as to the many despots expelled by
Sparta: we neither know the source from whence Plutarch borrowed
them, nor any of the circumstances connected with them.
[523] Herodot. v, 30, 31.
With this force Aristagoras and the Naxian exiles set sail from
Milêtus, giving out that they were going to the Hellespont. On
reaching Chios, they waited in its western harbor of Kaukasa for
a fair wind to carry them straight across to Naxos. No suspicion
was entertained in that island of its real purpose, nor was any
preparation made for resistance, and the success of Aristagoras
would have been complete, had it not been defeated by an untoward
incident ending in dispute. Megabatês, with a solicitude which we
are surprised to discern in a Persian general, personally made the
tour of his fleet, to see that every ship was under proper watch,
and discovered a ship from Myndus (an Asiatic Dorian city near
Halikarnassus), left without a single man on board. Incensed at this
neglect, he called before him Skylax, the commander of the ship, and
ordered him to be put in chains, with his head projecting outwards
through one of the apertures for oars in the ship’s side. Skylax
was a guest and friend of Aristagoras, who, on hearing of this
punishment, interceded with Megabatês for his release; but finding
the request refused, took upon him to release the prisoner himself.
He even went so far as to treat the remonstrance of Megabatês with
disdain, reminding him that, according to the instructions of
Artaphernês, he was only second and himself (Aristagoras) first. The
pride of Megabatês could not endure such treatment: as soon as night
arrived, he sent a private intimation to Naxos of the coming of the
fleet, warning the islanders to be on their guard. The warning thus
fortunately received was turned by the Naxians to the best account.
They carried in their property, laid up stores, and made every
preparation for a siege, so that when the fleet, probably delayed by
the dispute between its leaders, at length arrived, it was met by a
stout resistance, remained on the shore of the island for four months
in prosecution of an unavailing siege, and was obliged to retire
without accomplishing anything beyond the erection of a fort, as
lodgment for the Naxian exiles. After a large cost incurred, not only
by the Persians, but also by Aristagoras himself, the unsuccessful
armament was brought back to the coast of Ionia.[524]
[524] Herodot. v, 34, 35.
The failure of this expedition threatened Aristagoras with entire
ruin. He had incensed Megabatês, deceived Artaphernês, and incurred
an obligation, which he knew not how to discharge, of indemnifying
the latter for the costs of the fleet. He began to revolve in his
mind the scheme of revolting from Persia, when it so happened
that there arrived nearly at the same moment a messenger from his
father-in-law, Histiæus, who was detained at the court of Susa,
secretly instigating him to this very resolution. Not knowing whom
to trust with this dangerous message, Histiæus had caused the
head of a faithful slave to be shaved,—branded upon it the words
necessary,—and then despatched him, so soon as his hair had grown,
to Milêtus, with a verbal intimation to Aristagoras that his head
was to be again shaved and examined.[525] Histiæus sought to provoke
this perilous rising, simply as a means of procuring his own release
from Susa, and in the calculation that Darius would send him down to
the coast to reëstablish order. His message, arriving at so critical
a moment, determined the faltering resolution of Aristagoras, who
convened his principal partisans at Milêtus, and laid before them
the formidable project of revolt. All of them approved it, with one
remarkable exception,—the historian Hekatæus of Milêtus; who opposed
it as altogether ruinous, and contended that the power of Darius
was too vast to leave them any prospect of success. When he found
direct opposition fruitless, he next insisted upon the necessity of
at once seizing the large treasures in the neighboring temple of
Apollo, at Branchidæ, for the purpose of carrying on the revolt. By
this means alone, he said, could the Milesians, too feeble to carry
on the contest with their own force alone, hope to become masters at
sea,—while, if _they_ did not take these treasures, the victorious
enemy surely would. Neither of these recommendations, both of them
indicating sagacity and foresight in the proposer, were listened to.
Probably the seizure of the treasures,—though highly useful for the
impending struggle, and though in the end they fell into the hands
of the enemy, as Hekatæus anticipated,—would have been insupportable
to the pious feelings of the people, and would thus have proved more
injurious than beneficial:[526] perhaps, indeed, Hekatæus himself may
have urged it with the indirect view of stifling the whole project.
We may remark that he seems to have urged the question as if Milêtus
were to stand alone in the revolt; not anticipating, as indeed no
prudent man could then anticipate, that the Ionic cities generally
would follow the example.
[525] Herodot. v, 35: compare Polyæn. i, 24, and Aulus Gellius,
N. A. xvii, 9.
[526] Herodot. v, 36.
Aristagoras and his friends resolved forthwith to revolt, and their
first step was to conciliate popular favor throughout Asiatic
Greece by putting down the despots in all the various cities,—the
instruments not less than the supports of Persian ascendency, as
Histiæus had well urged at the bridge of the Danube. The opportunity
was favorable for striking this blow at once on a considerable scale.
The fleet, recently employed at Naxos, had not yet dispersed, but
was still assembled at Myus, with many of the despots present at
the head of their ships. Iatragoras was despatched from Milêtus,
at once to seize as many of them as he could, and to stir up the
soldiers to revolt. This decisive proceeding was the first manifesto
against Darius. Iatragoras was successful: the fleet went along
with him, and many of the despots fell into his hands,—among them
Histiæus (a second person so named) of Termera, Oliatus of Mylasa
(both Karians),[527] Kôês of Mitylênê, and Aristagoras (also a
second person so named) of Kymê. At the same time the Milesian
Aristagoras himself, while he formally proclaimed revolt against
Darius, and invited the Milesians to follow him, laid down his own
authority, and affected to place the government in the hands of the
people. Throughout most of the towns of Asiatic Greece, insular and
continental, a similar revolution was brought about; the despots
were expelled, and the feelings of the citizens were thus warmly
interested in the revolt. Such of these despots as fell into the
hands of Aristagoras were surrendered into the hands of their former
subjects, by whom they were for the most part quietly dismissed, and
we shall find them hereafter active auxiliaries to the Persians. To
this treatment the only exception mentioned is Kôês, who was stoned
to death by the Mitylenæans.[528]
[527] Compare Herodotus, v, 121, and vii, 98. Oliatus was son of
Ibanôlis, as was also the Mylasian Herakleidês mentioned in v,
121.
[528] Herodot. v, 36, 37; vi, 9.
By these first successful steps the Ionic revolt was made to assume
an extensive and formidable character; much more so, probably, than
the prudent Hekatæus had anticipated as practicable. The naval force
of the Persians in the Ægean was at once taken away from them, and
passed to their opponents, who were thus completely masters of the
sea; and would in fact have remained so, if a second naval force had
not been brought up against them from Phenicia,—a proceeding never
before resorted to, and perhaps at that time not looked for.
Having exhorted all the revolted towns to name their generals, and
to put themselves in a state of defence, Aristagoras crossed the
Ægean to obtain assistance from Sparta, then under the government of
king Kleomenês; to whom he addressed himself, “holding in his hand a
brazen tablet, wherein was engraved the circuit of the entire earth,
with the whole sea and all the rivers.” Probably this was the first
map or plan which had ever been seen at Sparta, and so profound was
the impression which it made, that it was remembered there even
in the time of Herodotus.[529] Having emphatically entreated the
Spartans to step forth in aid of their Ionic brethren, now engaged
in a desperate struggle for freedom,—he proceeded to describe the
wealth and abundance (gold, silver, brass, vestments, cattle,
and slaves), together with the ineffective weapons and warfare of
the Asiatics. The latter, he said, could be at once put down, and
the former appropriated, by military training such as that of the
Spartans,—whose long spear, brazen helmet and breastplate, and ample
shield, enabled them to despise the bow, the short javelin, the
light wicker target, the turban and trowsers, of a Persian.[530] He
then traced out on his brazen plan the road from Ephesus to Susa,
indicating the intervening nations, all of them affording a booty
more or less rich; but he magnified especially the vast treasures at
Susa: “Instead of fighting your neighbors, he concluded, Argeians,
Arcadians, and Messenians, from whom you get hard blows and small
reward, why do you not make yourself ruler of all Asia,[531] a prize
not less easy than lucrative?” Kleomenês replied to these seductive
instigations by desiring him to come for an answer on the third day.
When that day arrived, he put to him the simple question, how far it
was from Susa to the sea? To which Aristagoras answered, with more
frankness than dexterity, that it was a three months’ journey; and
he was proceeding to enlarge upon the facilities of the road when
Kleomenês interrupted him: “Quit Sparta before sunset, Milesian
stranger; you are no friend to the Lacedæmonians, if you want to
carry them a three months’ journey from the sea.” In spite of this
peremptory mandate, Aristagoras tried a last resource: he took in
his hand the bough of supplication, and again went to the house of
Kleomenês, who was sitting with his daughter Gorgô, a girl of eight
years old. He requested Kleomenês to send away the child, but this
was refused, and he was desired to proceed; upon which he began to
offer to the Spartan king a bribe for compliance, bidding continually
higher and higher from ten talents up to fifty. At length, the little
girl suddenly exclaimed, “Father, the stranger will corrupt you, if
you do not at once go away.” The exclamation so struck Kleomenês,
that he broke up the interview, and Aristagoras forthwith quitted
Sparta.[532]
[529] Herodot. v, 49. Τῷ δὴ (Κλεομένεϊ) ἐς λόγους ἤϊε, ~ὡς
Λακεδαιμόνιοι λέγουσι~, ἔχων χάλκεον πίνακα, ἐν τῷ γῆς ἁπάσης
περίοδος ἐνετέτμητο, καὶ θάλασσά τε πᾶσα καὶ ποταμοὶ πάντες.
The earliest map of which mention is made was prepared by
Anaximander in Ionia, apparently not long before this period: see
Strabo, i, p. 7; Agathemerus, 1, c. 1; Diogen. Laërt. ii, 1.
Grosskurd, in his note on the above passage of Strabo, as well
as Larcher and other critics, appear to think, that though this
tablet or chart of Anaximander was the earliest which embraced
the whole known earth, there were among the Greeks others still
earlier, which described particular countries. There is no proof
of this, nor can I think it probable: the passage of Apollonius
Rhodius (iv, 279) with the Scholia to it, which is cited as
evidence, appears to me unworthy of attention.
Among the Roman Agrimensores, it was the ancient practice to
engrave their plans, of land surveyed, upon tablets of brass,
which were deposited in the public archives, and of which copies
were made for private use, though the original was referred
to in case of legal dispute (Siculus Flaccus ap. Rei Agrariæ
Scriptores, p. 16, ed. Goes: compare Giraud, Recherches sur le
Droit de Propriété, p. 116, Aix, 1838).
[530] Herodot. v, 49. δεικνὺς δὲ ταῦτα ἔλεγε ἐς τὴν τῆς γῆς
περίοδον, τὴν ἐφέρετο ἐν τῷ πίνακι ἐντετμημένην.
[531] Herodot. v, 49. πάρεχον δὲ τῆς Ἀσίης πάσης ἄρχειν εὐπετέως,
ἄλλο τι αἱρήσεσθε;
[532] Herodot. v, 49, 50, 51. Compare Plutarch, Apophthegm.
Laconic. p. 240.
We may remark, both in this instance and throughout all the life
and time of Kleomenês, that the Spartan king has the active
management and direction of foreign affairs,—subject, however,
to trial and punishment by the ephors in case of misbehavior
(Herodot. vi, 82). We shall hereafter find the ephors gradually
taking into their own hands, more and more, the actual management.
Doubtless Herodotus heard the account of this interview from
Lacedæmonian informants. But we may be permitted to doubt, whether
any such suggestions were really made, or any such hopes held out,
as those which he places in the mouth of Aristagoras,—suggestions
and hopes which might well be conceived in 450-440 B. C., after
a generation of victories over the Persians, but which have no
pertinence in the year 502 B. C. Down even to the battle of Marathon,
the name of the Medes was a terror to the Greeks, and the Athenians
are highly and justly extolled as the first who dared to look them
in the face.[533] To talk about an easy march up to the treasures of
Susa and the empire of all Asia, at the time of the Ionic revolt,
would have been considered as a proof of insanity. Aristagoras may
very probably have represented, that the Spartans were more than a
match for Persians in the field; but even thus much would have been
considered, in 502 B. C., rather as the sanguine hope of a petitioner
than as the estimate of a sober looker-on.
[533] Herodot. vi, 112. πρῶτοί τε ἀνέσχοντο ἐσθῆτά τε Μηδικὴν
ὁρέοντες, καὶ ἄνδρας ταύτην ἐσθημένους· τέως δὲ ἦν τοῖσι Ἕλλησι
καὶ τὸ οὔνομα τὸ Μήδων φόβος ἀκοῦσαι.
The Milesian chief had made application to Sparta, as the presiding
power of Hellas,—a character which we thus find more and more
recognized and passing into the habitual feeling of the Greeks.
Fifty years previously to this, the Spartans had been flattered by
the circumstance, that Crœsus singled them out from all other Greeks
to invite as allies: now they accepted such priority as a matter of
course.[534]
[534] Aristagoras says to the Spartans (v, 49)—τὰ κατήκοντα γάρ
ἐστι ταῦτα· Ἰώνων παῖδας δούλους εἶναι ἀντ᾽ ἐλευθέρων, ὄνειδος
καὶ ἄλγος μέγιστον μὲν αὐτοῖσι ἡμῖν, ἔτι δὲ τῶν λοιπῶν ὑμῖν,
ὅσῳ προεστέατε τῆς Ἑλλάδος (Herodotus, v, 49). In reference to
the earlier incident (Herodot. i, 70)—Τουτέων τε ὦν εἵνεκεν οἱ
Λακεδαιμόνιοι τὴν συμμαχίην ἐδέξαντο, καὶ ὅτι ἐκ πάντων σφέας
προκρίνας Ἑλλήνων, αἱρέετο φίλους (Crœsus).
An interval of rather more than forty years separates the two
events, during which both the feelings of the Spartans, and the
feelings of others towards them, had undergone a material change.
Rejected at Sparta, Aristagoras proceeded to Athens, now decidedly
the second power in Greece. And here he found an easier task, not
only as it was the metropolis, or mother-city, of Asiatic Ionia,
but also as it had already incurred the pronounced hostility of the
Persian satrap, and might look to be attacked as soon as the project
came to suit his convenience, under the instigation of Hippias:
whereas the Spartans had not only no kindred with Ionia, beyond
that of common Hellenism, but were in no hostile relations with
Persia, and would have been provoking a new enemy by meddling in the
Asiatic war. The promises and representations of Aristagoras were
accordingly received with great favor by the Athenians: who, over and
above the claims of sympathy, had a powerful interest in sustaining
the Ionic revolt as an indirect protection to themselves,—and to
whom the abstraction of the Ionic fleet from the Persians afforded
a conspicuous and important relief. The Athenians at once resolved
to send a fleet of twenty ships, under Melanthius, as an aid to the
revolted Ionians,—ships which are styled by Herodotus, “the beginning
of the mischiefs between Greeks and barbarians,”—as the ships in
which Paris crossed the Ægean had before been called in the Iliad
of Homer. Herodotus farther remarks that it seems easier to deceive
many men together than one,—since Aristagoras, after having failed
with Kleomenês, thus imposed upon the thirty thousand citizens of
Athens.[535] But on this remark two comments suggest themselves.
First, the circumstances of Athens and Sparta were not the same in
regard to the Ionic quarrel,—an observation which Herodotus himself
had made a little while before: the Athenians had a material interest
in the quarrel, political as well as sympathetic, while the Spartans
had none. Secondly, the ultimate result of their interference,
as it stood in the time of Herodotus, though purchased by severe
intermediate hardship, was one eminently gainful and glorifying, not
less to Athens than to Greece.[536]
[535] Herodot. v, 97. πολλοὺς γὰρ οἶκε εἶναι εὐπετέστερον
διαβάλλειν ἢ ἕνα, εἰ Κλεομένεα μὲν τὸν Λακεδαιμόνιον μοῦνον οὐκ
οἷός τε ἐγένετο διαβαλέειν, τρεῖς δὲ μυριάδας Ἀθηναίων ἐποίησε
τοῦτο.
[536] Herodot. v, 98; Homer, Iliad, v, 62. The criticism of
Plutarch (De Malignitat. Herodot. p. 861) on this passage, is
rather more pertinent than the criticisms in that ill-tempered
composition generally are.
When Aristagoras returned, he seems to have found the Persians
engaged in the siege of Milêtus. The twenty Athenian ships soon
crossed the Ægean, and found there five Eretrian ships which had also
come to the succor of the Ionians; the Eretrians generously taking
this opportunity to repay assistance formerly rendered to them by
the Milesians in their ancient war with Chalkis. On the arrival of
these allies, Aristagoras organized an expedition from Ephesus up to
Sardis, under the command of his brother Charopinus, with others. The
ships were left at Korêssus,[537] a mountain and seaport five miles
from Ephesus, while the troops marched up under Ephesian guides,
first, along the river Kayster, next, across the mountain range of
Tmôlus to Sardis. Artaphernês had not troops enough to do more than
hold the strong citadel, so that the assailants possessed themselves
of the town without opposition. But he immediately recalled his
force near Miletus,[538] and summoned Persians and Lydians from
all the neighboring districts, thus becoming more than a match
for Charopinus; who found himself, moreover, obliged to evacuate
Sardis, owing to an accidental conflagration. Most of the houses in
that city were built in great part with reeds or straw, and all of
them had thatched roofs; hence it happened that a spark touching
one of them set the whole city in flame. Obliged to abandon their
dwellings by this accident, the population of the town congregated
in the market-place,—and as reinforcements were hourly crowding
in, the position of the Ionians and Athenians became precarious:
they evacuated the town, took up a position on Mount Tmôlus, and,
when night came, made the best of their way to the sea-coast. The
troops of Artaphernês pursued, overtook them near Ephesus, and
defeated them completely. Eualkidês, the Eretrian general, a man of
eminence and a celebrated victor at the solemn games, perished in the
action, together with a considerable number of troops. After this
unsuccessful commencement, the Athenians betook themselves to their
vessels and sailed home, in spite of pressing instances on the part
of Aristagoras to induce them to stay. They took no farther part in
the struggle;[539] a retirement at once so sudden and so complete,
that they must probably have experienced some glaring desertion on
the part of their Asiatic allies, similar to that which brought so
much danger upon the Spartan general Derkyllidas, in 396 B. C. Unless
such was the case, they seem open to censure rather for having too
soon withdrawn their aid, than for having originally lent it.[540]
[537] About Korêssus, see Diodor. xiv, 99, and Xenophon, Hellen.
i, 2, 7.
[538] Charôn of Lampsakus, and Lysanias in his history of
Eretria, seem to have mentioned this first siege of Milêtus, and
the fact of its being raised in consequence of the expedition to
Sardis; see Plutarch, de Herodot. Malignit. p. 861,—though the
citation is given there confusedly, so that we cannot make much
out of it.
[539] Herodot. v, 102, 103. It is a curious fact that Charôn of
Lampsakus made no mention of this defeat of the united Athenian
and Ionian force: see Plutarch, de Herodot. Malign. _ut sup._
[540] About Derkyllidas, see Xenophon, Hellen. iii, 2, 17-19.
The burning of a place so important as Sardis, however, including
the temples of the local goddess Kybêbê, which perished with
the remaining buildings, produced a powerful effect on both
sides,—encouraging the revolters, as well as incensing the Persians.
Aristagoras despatched ships along the coast, northward as far as
Byzantium, and southward as far as Cyprus. The Greek cities near
the Hellespont and the Propontis were induced, either by force or
by inclination, to take part with him: the Karians embraced his
cause warmly; even the Kaunians, who had not declared themselves
before, joined him as soon as they heard of the capture of Sardis;
while the Greeks in Cyprus, with the single exception of the town of
Amathûs, at once renounced the authority of Darius, and prepared for
a strenuous contest. Onesilus of Salamis, the most considerable city
in the island,—finding the population willing, but his brother, the
despot Gorgus, reluctant,—shut the latter out of the gates, took the
command of the united forces of Salamis and other revolting cities,
and laid siege to Amathûs. These towns of Cyprus were then, and seem
always afterwards to have continued, under the government of despots;
who, however, unlike the despots in Ionia generally, took part along
with their subjects in the revolt against Persia.[541]
[541] Herodot. v, 103, 104, 108. Compare the proceedings in
Cyprus against Artaxerxês Mnêmon, under the energetic Evagoras of
Salamis (Diodor. xiv, 98, xv, 2), about 386 B. C.: most of the
petty princes of the island became for the time his subjects,
but in 351 B. C. there were nine of them independent (Diodor.
xvi, 42), and seemingly quite as many at the time when Alexander
besieged Tyre (Arrian, ii, 20, 8).
The rebellion had now assumed a character more serious than ever, and
the Persians were compelled to put forth their strongest efforts to
subdue it. From the number of different nations comprised in their
empire, they were enabled to make use of the antipathies of one
against the other; and the old adverse feeling of Phenicians against
Greeks was now found extremely serviceable. After a year spent in
getting together forces,[542] the Phenician fleet was employed to
transport into Cyprus the Persian general Artybius with a Kilikian
and Egyptian army,[543]—while the force under Artaphernês at Sardis
was so strengthened as to enable him to act at once against all the
coast of Asia Minor, from the Propontis to the Triopian promontory.
On the other side, the common danger had for the moment brought the
Ionians into a state of union foreign to their usual habit, and we
hear now, for the first and the last time, of a tolerably efficient
Pan-Ionic authority.[544]
[542] Herodot. v, 116. Κύπριοι μὲν δὴ, ἐνιαυτὸν ἐλεύθεροι
γενόμενοι, αὖτις ἐκ νέης κατεδεδούλωντο.
[543] Herodot. vi, 6. Κίλικες καὶ Αἰγύπτιοι.
[544] Herodot. v, 109. Ἡμέας δὲ ἀπέπεμψε ~τὸ κοινὸν τῶν Ἰώνων~
φυλάξοντας τὴν θάλασσαν, etc.: compare vi, 7.
Apprized of the coming of Artybius with the Phenician fleet, Onesilus
and his Cyprian supporters solicited the aid of the Ionic fleet,
which arrived shortly after the disembarkation of the Persian force
in the island. Onesilus offered to the Ionians their choice, whether
they would fight the Phenicians at sea or the Persians on land. Their
natural determination was in favor of the seafight, and they engaged
with a degree of courage and unanimity which procured for them a
brilliant victory; the Samians being especially distinguished.[545]
But the combat on land, carried on at the same time, took a different
turn. Onesilus and the Salaminians brought into the field, after
the fashion of Orientals rather than of Greeks, a number of scythed
chariots, destined to break the enemy’s ranks; while on the other
hand the Persian general Artybius was mounted on a horse, trained to
rise on his hind legs and strike out with his fore legs against an
opponent on foot. In the thick of the fight, Onesilus and his Karian
shield-bearer came into personal conflict with this general and his
horse; and by previous concert, when the horse so reared as to get
his fore legs over the shield of Onesilus, the Karian with a scythe
severed the legs from his body, while Onesilus with his own hand
slew Artybius. But the personal bravery of the Cypriots was rendered
useless by treachery in their own ranks. Stêsênor, despot of Kurium,
deserted in the midst of the battle, and even the scythed chariots
of Salamis followed his example. The brave Onesilus, thus weakened,
perished in the total rout of his army, along with Aristokyprus
despot of Soli, on the north coast of the island: this latter being
son of that Philokyprus who had been immortalized more than sixty
years before, in the poems of Solon. No farther hopes now remained
for the revolters, and the victorious Ionian fleet returned home.
Salamis relapsed under the sway of its former despot Gorgus, while
the remaining cities in Cyprus were successively besieged and taken:
not without a resolute defence, however, since Soli alone held out
five months.[546]
[545] Herodot. v, 112.
[546] Herodot. v, 112-115. It is not uninteresting to compare,
with this reconquest of Cyprus by the Persians, the conquest of
the same island by the Turks in 1570, when they expelled from it
the Venetians. See the narrative of that conquest (effected in
the reign of Selim the Second by the Seraskier Mustapha-Pasha),
in Von Hammer, Geschichte des Osmannischen Reichs, book xxxvi,
vol. iii, pp. 578-589. Of the two principal towns, Nikosia in
the centre of the island, and Famagusta on the north-eastern
coast, the first, after a long siege, was taken by storm, and the
inhabitants of every sex and age either put to death or carried
into slavery; while the second, after a most gallant defence, was
allowed to capitulate. But the terms of the capitulation were
violated in the most flagitious manner by the Seraskier, who
treated the brave Venetian governor, Bragadino, with frightful
cruelty, cutting off his nose and ears, exposing him to all sorts
of insults, and ultimately causing him to be flayed alive. The
skin of this unfortunate general was conveyed to Constantinople
as a trophy, but in after-times found its way to Venice.
We read of nothing like this treatment of Bragadino in the
Persian reconquest of Cyprus, though it was a subjugation after
revolt; indeed, nothing like it in all Persian warfare.
Von Hammer gives a short sketch (not always very accurate as to
ancient times) of the condition of Cyprus under its successive
masters,—Persians, Græco-Egyptians, Romans, Arabians, the dynasty
of Lusignan, Venetians, and Turks,—the last seems decidedly the
worst of all.
In reference to the above-mentioned piece of cruelty, I may
mention that the Persian king Kambysês caused one of the royal
judges (according to Herodotus v, 25), who had taken a bribe
to render an iniquitous judgment, to be flayed alive, and his
skin to be stretched upon the seat on which his son was placed
to succeed him; as a lesson of justice to the latter. A similar
story is told respecting the Persian king Artaxerxês Mnêmon; and
what is still more remarkable, the same story is also recounted
in the Turkish history, as an act of Mohammed the Second (Von
Hammer, Geschichte des Osmannisch. Reichs, book xvii, vol. ii, p.
209; Diodorus, xv, 10). Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii, 6) had good
reason to treat the reality of the fact as problematical.
Meanwhile the principal force of Darius having been assembled
at Sardis,—Daurisês, Hymeas, and other generals who had married
daughters of the Great King, distributed their efforts against
different parts of the western coast. Daurisês attacked the
towns near the Hellespont,[547]—Abydus, Perkôtê, Lampsakus, and
Pæsus,—which made little resistance. He was then ordered southward
into Karia, while Hymeas, who, with another division, had taken Kios
on the Propontis, marched down to the Hellespont and completed the
conquest of the Troad as well as of the Æolic Greeks in the region
of Ida. Artaphernês and Otanês attacked the Ionic and Æolic towns on
the coast,—the former taking Klazomenæ,[548] the latter Kymê. There
remained Karia, which, with Milêtus in its neighborhood, offered
a determined resistance to Daurisês. Forewarned of his approach,
the Karians assembled at a spot called the White Pillars, near the
confluence of the rivers Mæander and Marsyas. Pixodarus, one of their
chiefs, recommended the desperate expedient of fighting with the
river at their back, so that all chance of flight might be cut off;
but most of the chiefs decided in favor of a contrary policy,[549]—to
let the Persians pass the river, in hopes of driving them back into
it and thus rendering their defeat total. Victory, however, after a
sharp contest, declared in favor of Daurisês, chiefly in consequence
of his superior numbers: two thousand Persians, and not less than
ten thousand Karians, are said to have perished in the battle. The
Karian fugitives, reunited after the flight, in the grove of noble
plane-trees consecrated to Zeus Stratius, near Labranda,[550] were
deliberating whether they should now submit to the Persians or
emigrate forever, when the appearance of a Milesian reinforcement
restored their courage. A second battle was fought, and a second
time they were defeated, the loss on this occasion falling chiefly
on the Milesians.[551] The victorious Persians now proceeded to
assault Karian cities, but Herakleidês of Mylasa laid an ambuscade
for them with so much skill and good fortune, that their army was
nearly destroyed, and Daurisês with other Persian generals perished.
This successful effort, following upon two severe defeats, does honor
to the constancy of the Karians, upon whom Greek proverbs generally
fasten a mean reputation. It saved for the time the Karian towns,
which the Persians did not succeed in reducing until after the
capture of Milêtus.[552]
[547] Herodot. v, 117.
[548] Herodot. v, 122-124.
[549] Herodot. v, 118. On the topography of this spot, as
described in Herodotus, see a good note in Weissenborn, Beyträge
zur genaueren Erforschung der alt. Griechischen Geschichte, p.
116, Jena, 1844.
He thinks, with much reason, that the river Marsyas here
mentioned cannot be that which flows through Kelænæ, but another
of the same name which flows into the Mæander from the southwest.
[550] About the village of Labranda and the temple of Zeus
Stratius, see Strabo, xiv, p. 659. Labranda was a village in
the territory of, and seven miles distant from, the inland town
of Mylasa; it was Karian at the time of the Ionic revolt, but
partially Hellenized before the year 350 B. C. About this latter
epoch, three rural tribes of Mylasa—constituting along with the
citizens of the town, the Mylasene community—were, Ταρκόνδαρα,
Ὀτώρκονδα, Λάβρανδα,—see the Inscription in Boeckh’s Collection,
No. 2695, and in Franz, Epigraphicê Græca, No. 73, p. 191. In
the Lydian language, λάβρυς is said to have signified a hatchet
(Plutarch, Quæst. Gr. c. 45, p. 314).
[551] Herodot. v, 118, 119.
[552] Herodot. v, 120, 121; vi, 25.
On land, the revolters were thus everywhere worsted, though at sea
the Ionians still remained masters. But the unwarlike Aristagoras
began to despair of success, and to meditate a mean desertion of
the companions and countrymen whom he had himself betrayed into
danger. Assembling his chief advisers, he represented to them the
unpromising state of affairs, and the necessity of securing some
place of refuge, in case they were expelled from Milêtus. He then put
the question to them, whether the island of Sardinia, or Myrkinus in
Thrace, near the Strymon (which Histiæus had begun some time before
to fortify, as I have mentioned in the preceding chapter), appeared
to them best adapted to the purpose. Among the persons consulted
was Hekatæus the historian, who approved neither the one nor the
other scheme, but suggested the erection of a fortified post in the
neighboring island of Leros; a Milesian colony, wherein a temporary
retirement might be sought, should it prove impossible to hold
Milêtus, but which permitted an easy return to that city, so soon
as opportunity offered.[553] Such an opinion must doubtless have
been founded on the assumption, that they would be able to maintain
superiority at sea. And it is important to note such confident
reliance upon this superiority in the mind of a sagacious man, not
given to sanguine hopes, like Hekatæus,—even under circumstances
very unprosperous on land. Emigration to Myrkinus, as proposed by
Aristagoras, presented no hope of refuge at all; since the Persians,
if they regained their authority in Asia Minor, would not fail again
to extend it to the Strymon. Nevertheless, the consultation ended
by adopting this scheme, since, probably, no Ionians could endure
the immeasurable distance of Sardinia as a new home. Aristagoras
set sail for Myrkinus, taking with him all who chose to bear him
company; but he perished not long after landing, together with nearly
all his company, in the siege of a neighboring Thracian town.[554]
Though making profession to lay down his supreme authority at the
commencement of the revolt, he had still contrived to retain it in
great measure; and on departing for Myrkinus, he devolved it on
Pythagoras, a citizen in high esteem. It appears however that the
Milesians, glad to get rid of a leader who had brought them nothing
but mischief,[555] paid little obedience to his successor, and made
their government from this period popular in reality as well as in
profession. The desertion of Aristagoras, with the citizens whom
he carried away, must have seriously damped the spirits of those
who remained: nevertheless, it seems that the cause of the Ionic
revolters was quite as well conducted without him.
[553] Herodot. v, 125; Strabo, xiv, p. 635.
[554] Herodot. v, 126.
[555] Herodot. vi, 5. Οἱ δὲ Μιλήσιοι, ἄσμενοι ἀπαλλαχθέντες καὶ
Ἀρισταγόρεῳ, οὐδαμῶς ἕτοιμοι ἔσαν ἄλλον τύραννον δέκεσθαι ἐς τὴν
χώρην, οἷά τε ἐλευθερίης γευσάμενοι.
Not long after his departure, another despot—Histiæus of Milêtus,
his father-in-law, and jointly with him the fomenter of the
revolt—presented himself at the gates of Milêtus for admission. The
outbreak of the revolt had enabled him, as he had calculated, to
procure leave of departure from Darius. That prince had been thrown
into violent indignation by the attack and burning of Sardis, and
by the general revolt of Ionia, headed (so the news reached him)
by the Milesian Aristagoras, but carried into effect by the active
coöperation of the Athenians. “The Athenians (exclaimed Darius),
who are _they_?” On receiving the answer, he asked for his bow,
placed an arrow on the string, and shot as high as he could towards
the heavens, saying: “Grant me, Zeus, to revenge myself on the
Athenians.” He at the same time desired an attendant to remind him
thrice every day at dinner: “Master, remember the Athenians;” for as
to the Ionians, he felt assured that their hour of retribution would
come speedily and easily enough.[556]
[556] Herodot. v, 105. Ὦ Ζεῦ, ἐκγενέσθαί μοι Ἀθηναίους τίσασθαι.
Compare the Thracian practice of communicating with the gods by
shooting arrows high up into the air (Herodot. iv, 94).
This Homeric incident deserves notice as illustrating the epical
handling of Herodotus. His theme is, the invasions of Greece by
Persia: he has now arrived at the first eruption, in the bosom of
Darius, of that passion which impelled the Persian forces towards
Marathon and Salamis,—and he marks the beginning of the new phase
by act and word both alike significant. It may be compared to the
libation and prayer addressed by Achilles in the Iliad to Zeus, at
the moment when he is sending forth Patroklus and the Myrmidons to
the rescue of the despairing Greeks.
At first, Darius had been inclined to ascribe the movement in Ionia
to the secret instigation of Histiæus, whom he called into his
presence and questioned. But the latter found means to satisfy him,
and even to make out that no such mischief would have occurred, if
he, Histiæus, had been at Milêtus instead of being detained at Susa.
“Send me down to the spot, he asseverated, and I engage not merely
to quell the revolt, and put into your hands the traitor who heads
it, but also, not to take off this tunic from my body, before I
shall have added to your empire the great island of Sardinia.” An
expedition to Sardinia, though never realized, appears to have been
among the favorite fancies of the Ionic Greeks of that day.[557] By
such boasts and assurances he obtained his liberty, and went down to
Sardis, promising to return as soon as he should have accomplished
them.[558]
[557] Herodot. v, 107, vi, 2. Compare the advice of Bias of
Priênê to the Ionians, when the Persian conqueror Cyrus was
approaching, to found a Pan-Ionic colony in Sardinia (Herodot. i,
170): the idea started by Aristagoras has been alluded to just
above (Herodot. v, 124).
Pausanias (iv, 23, 2) puts into the mouth of Mantiklus, son of
Aristomenês, a recommendation to the Messenians, when conquered a
second time by the Spartans, to migrate to Sardinia.
[558] Herodot. v, 106, 107.
But on reaching Sardis he found the satrap Artaphernês better
informed than the Great King at Susa. Though Histiæus, when
questioned as to the causes which had brought on the outbreak,
affected nothing but ignorance and astonishment, Artaphernês detected
his evasions, and said: “I will tell you how the facts stand,
Histiæus: it is you that have stitched this shoe, and Aristagoras
has put it on.”[559] Such a declaration promised little security
to the suspected Milesian who heard it; and accordingly, as soon
as night arrived, he took to flight, went down to the coast, and
from thence passed over to Chios. Here he found himself seized on
the opposite count, as the confidant of Darius and the enemy of
Ionia: he was released, however, on proclaiming himself not merely a
fugitive escaping from Persian custody, but also as the prime author
of the Ionic revolt. And he farther added, in order to increase
his popularity, that Darius had contemplated the translation of the
Ionian population to Phenicia, as well as that of the Phenician
population to Ionia,—to prevent which translation he, Histiæus, had
instigated the revolt. This allegation, though nothing better than
a pure fabrication, obtained for him the good-will of the Chians,
who carried him back to Milêtus. But before he departed, he avenged
himself on Artaphernês by despatching to Sardis some false letters,
implicating many distinguished Persians in a conspiracy jointly with
himself: these letters were so managed as to fall into the hands
of the satrap himself, who became full of suspicion, and put to
death several of the parties, to the great uneasiness of all around
him.[560]
[559] Herodot. vi, 1. Οὕτω τοι, Ἱστίαιε, ἔχει κατὰ ταῦτα
τὰ πρήγματα· τοῦτο τὸ ὑπόδημα ἔῤῥαψας μὲν σὺ, ὑπεδήσατο δὲ
Ἀρισταγόρης.
[560] Herodot. vi, 2-5.
On arriving at Milêtus, Histiæus found Aristagoras no longer present,
and the citizens altogether adverse to the return of their old
despot. Nevertheless, he tried to force his way by night into the
town, but was repulsed and even wounded in the thigh. He returned
to Chios, but the Chians refused him the aid of any of their ships:
he next passed to Lesbos, from the inhabitants of which island he
obtained eight triremes, and employed them to occupy Byzantium,
pillaging and detaining the Ionian merchant-ships as they passed
into or out of the Euxine.[561] The few remaining piracies of this
worthless traitor, mischievous to his countrymen down to the day of
his death, hardly deserve our notice, amidst the last struggles and
sufferings of the subjugated Ionians, to which we are now hastening.
[561] Herodot. vi, 5-26.
A vast Persian force, both military and naval, was gradually
concentrating itself near Milêtus, against which city Artaphernês had
determined to direct his principal efforts. Not only the whole army
of Asia Minor, but also the Kilikian and Egyptian troops fresh from
the conquest of Cyprus, and even the conquered Cypriots themselves,
were brought up as reinforcements; while the entire Phenician fleet,
no less than six hundred ships strong, coöperated on the coast.[562]
To meet such a land-force in the field, being far beyond the strength
of the Ionians, the joint Pan-Ionic council resolved that the
Milesians should be left to defend their own fortifications, while
the entire force of the confederate cities should be mustered on
board the ships. At sea they had as yet no reason to despair, having
been victorious over the Phenicians near Cyprus, and having sustained
no defeat. The combined Ionic fleet, including the Æolic Lesbians,
amounting in all to the number of three hundred and fifty-three
ships, was accordingly mustered at Ladê,—then a little island near
Milêtus, but now joined on to the coast, by the gradual accumulation
of land in the bay at the mouth of the Mæander. Eighty Milesian ships
formed the right wing, one hundred Chian ships the centre, and sixty
Samian ships the left wing; while the space between the Milesians and
the Chians was occupied by twelve ships from Priênê, three from Myus,
and seventeen from Teôs,—the space between the Chians and Samians was
filled by eight ships from Erythræ, three from Phôkæa, and seventy
from Lesbos.[563]
[562] Herodot. vi, 6-9.
[563] Herodot. vi, 8.
The total armament thus made up was hardly inferior in number to that
which, fifteen years afterwards, gained the battle of Salamis against
a far larger Persian fleet than the present. Moreover, the courage of
the Ionians, on ship-board, was equal to that of their contemporaries
on the other side of the Ægean; while in respect of disagreement
among the allies, we shall hereafter find the circumstances preceding
the battle of Salamis still more menacing than those before the
coming battle of Ladê. The chances of success, therefore, were at
least equal between the two; and indeed the anticipations of the
Persians and Phenicians on the present occasion were full of doubt,
so that they thought it necessary to set on foot express means for
disuniting the Ionians,—it was fortunate for the Greeks that Xerxês
at Salamis could not be made to conceive the prudence of aiming at
the same object. There were now in the Persian camp all those various
despots whom Aristagoras, at the beginning of the revolt, had driven
out of their respective cities. At the instigation of Artaphernês,
each of these men despatched secret communications to their citizens
in the allied fleet, endeavoring to detach them severally from
the general body, by promises of gentle treatment in the event of
compliance, and by threats of extreme infliction from the Persians
if they persisted in armed efforts. Though these communications were
sent to each without the knowledge of the rest, yet the answer from
all was one unanimous negative.[564] And the confederates at Ladê
seemed more one, in heart and spirit, than the Athenians, Spartans,
and Corinthians will hereafter prove to be at Salamis.
[564] Herodot. vi, 9-10.
But there was one grand difference which turned the scale,—the
superior energy and ability of the Athenian leaders at Salamis,
coupled with the fact that they _were_ Athenians,—that is, in command
of the largest and most important contingent throughout the fleet.
At Ladê, unfortunately, this was quite otherwise: each separate
contingent had its own commander, but we hear of no joint commander
at all. Nor were the chiefs who came from the larger cities—Milesian,
Chian, Samian, or Lesbian—men like Themistoklês, competent and
willing to stand forward as self-created leaders, and to usurp for
the moment, with the general consent and for the general benefit, a
privilege not intended for them. The only man of sufficient energy
and forwardness to do this, was the Phôkæan Dionysius,—unfortunately,
the captain of the smallest contingent of the fleet, and therefore
enjoying the least respect. For Phôkæa, once the daring explorer of
the western waters, had so dwindled down since the Persian conquest
of Ionia, that she could now furnish no more than three ships;
and her ancient maritime spirit survived only in the bosom of her
captain. When Dionysius saw the Ionians assembled at Ladê, willing,
eager, full of talk and mutual encouragement, but untrained and
taking no thought of discipline, or nautical practice, or coöperation
in the hour of battle,—he saw the risk which they ran for want of
these precautions, and strenuously remonstrated with them: “Our fate
hangs on the razor’s edge, men of Ionia: either to be freemen or
slaves,—and slaves too, caught after running away. Set yourself at
once to work and duty,—you will then have trouble indeed at first,
with certain victory and freedom afterwards. But if you persist
in this carelessness and disorder, there is no hope for you to
escape the king’s revenge for your revolt. Be persuaded and commit
yourself to me; and I pledge myself, if the gods only hold an equal
balance, that your enemies either will not fight, or will be severely
beaten.”[565]
[565] Herodot. vi, 11. Ἐπὶ ξυροῦ γὰρ ἀκμῆς ἔχεται ἡμῖν τὰ
πρήγματα, ἄνδρες Ἴωνες, ἢ εἶναι ἐλευθέροισι ἢ δούλοισι, καὶ
τούτοισι ὡς δρηπέτῃσι· νῦν ὦν ὑμέες, ἢν μὲν βούλησθε ταλαιπωρίας
ἐνδέκεσθαι, τὸ παραχρῆμα μὲν πόνος ὑμῖν ἔσται, οἷοί τε δὲ ἔσεσθε,
ὑπερβαλλόμενοι τοὺς ἐναντίους, εἶναι ἐλεύθεροι, etc.
The wisdom of this advice was so apparent, that the Ionians, quitting
their comfortable tents on the shore of Ladê and going on board
their ships, submitted themselves to the continuous nautical labors
and manœuvres imposed upon them by Dionysius. The rowers, and the
hoplites on the deck, were exercised in their separate functions, and
even when they were not so employed, the ships were kept at anchor,
and the crews on board, instead of on shore; so that the work lasted
all day long, under a hot summer’s sun. Such labor, new to the Ionian
crews, was endured for seven successive days, after which they broke
out with one accord into resolute mutiny and refusal: “Which of the
gods have we offended, to bring upon ourselves such a retribution
as this? madmen as we are, to put ourselves into the hands of this
Phôkæan braggart, who has furnished only three ships![566] He has
now got us, and is ruining us without remedy: many of us are already
sick, many others are sickening; we had better make up our minds to
Persian slavery, or any other mischiefs, rather than go on with these
present sufferings. Come, we will not obey this man any longer.” And
they forthwith refused to execute his orders, resuming their tents
on shore, with the enjoyments of shade, rest, and inactive talk, as
before.
[566] Herodot. vi, 12. Οἱ Ἴωνες, οἷα ἀπαθέες ἐόντες πόνων
τοιούτων, τετρυμένοι τε ταλαιπωρίῃσί τε καὶ ἡελίῳ, ἔλεξαν πρὸς
ἑωϋτοὺς τάδε—Τίνα δαιμόνων παραβάντες, τάδε ἀναπίμπλαμεν, οἵτινες
παραφρονήσαντες, καὶ ἐκπλώσαντες ἐκ τοῦ νόου, ἀνδρὶ Φωκαέει
ἀλαζόνι, παρεχομένῳ νέας τρεῖς, ἐπιτρέψαντες ἡμέας αὐτοὺς ἔχομεν,
etc.
I have not chosen to divest this instructive scene of the dramatic
liveliness with which it is given in Herodotus,—the more so as it
has all the air of reality, and as Hekatæus, the historian, was
probably present in the island of Ladê, and may have described
what he actually saw and heard. When we see the intolerable
hardship which these nautical manœuvres and labors imposed upon the
Ionians, though men not unaccustomed to ordinary ship-work,—and
when we witness their perfect incapacity to submit themselves to
such a discipline, even with extreme danger staring them in the
face,—we shall be able to appreciate the severe and unremitting toil
whereby the Athenian seaman afterwards purchased that perfection
of nautical discipline which characterized him at the beginning
of the Peloponnesian war. It will appear, as we proceed with this
history, that the full development of the Athenian democracy worked
a revolution in Grecian military marine, chiefly by enforcing upon
the citizen seaman a strict continuous training, such as was only
surpassed by the Lacedæmonian drill on land,—and by thus rendering
practicable a species of nautical manœuvring which was unknown even
at the time of the battle of Salamis. I shall show this more fully
hereafter: at present, I contrast it briefly with the incapacity of
the Ionians at Ladê, in order that it may be understood how painful
such training really was. The reader of Grecian history is usually
taught to associate only ideas of turbulence and anarchy with the
Athenian democracy; but the Athenian navy, the child and champion
of that democracy, will be found to display an indefatigable labor
and obedience nowhere else witnessed in Greece, and of which even
the first lessons, as in the case now before us, prove to others so
irksome as to outweigh the prospect of extreme and imminent peril.
The same impatience of steady toil and discipline, which the Ionians
displayed to their own ruin before the battle of Ladê, will be found
to characterize them fifty years afterwards as allies of Athens, as
I shall have occasion to show when I come to describe the Athenian
empire.
Ending in this abrupt and mutinous manner, the judicious suggestions
of the Phôkæan leader did more harm than good. Perhaps his manner of
dealing may have been unadvisedly rude, but we are surprised to see
that no one among the leaders of the larger contingents had the good
sense to avail himself of the first readiness of the Ionians, and to
employ his superior influence in securing the continuance of a good
practice once begun. Not one such superior man did this Ionic revolt
throw up. From the day on which the Ionians discarded Dionysius,
their camp became a scene of disunion and mistrust. Some of them
grew so reckless and unmanageable, that the better portion despaired
of maintaining any orderly battle; and the Samians in particular
now repented that they had declined the secret offers made to them
by their expelled despot,[567]—Æakês, son of Sylosôn. They sent
privately to renew the negotiation, received a fresh promise of the
same indulgence, and agreed to desert when the occasion arrived. On
the day of battle, when the two fleets were on the point of coming
to action, the sixty Samian ships all sailed off, except eleven,
whose captains disdained such treachery. Other Ionians followed their
example; yet amidst the reciprocal crimination which Herodotus had
heard, he finds it difficult to determine who was most to blame,
though he names the Lesbians as among the earliest deserters.[568]
The hundred ships from Chios, constituting the centre of the
fleet—each ship carrying forty chosen soldiers fully armed—formed
a brilliant exception to the rest; they fought with the greatest
fidelity and resolution, inflicting upon the enemy, and themselves
sustaining, heavy loss. Dionysius, the Phôkæan, also behaved in a
manner worthy of his previous language,—capturing with his three
ships the like number of Phenicians. But these examples of bravery
did not compensate the treachery or cowardice of the rest, and the
defeat of the Ionians at Ladê was complete as well as irrecoverable.
To the faithful Chians, the loss was terrible, both in the battle and
after it. For though some of their vessels escaped from the defeat
safely to Chios, others were so damaged as to be obliged to run
ashore close at hand on the promontory of Mykalê, where the crews
quitted them, with the intention of marching northward, through the
Ephesian territory, to the continent opposite their own island. We
hear with astonishment that, at that critical moment, the Ephesian
women were engaged in solemnizing the Thesmophoria,—a festival
celebrated at night, in the open air, in some uninhabited portion of
the territory, and without the presence of any male person. As the
Chian fugitives entered the Ephesian territory by night, their coming
being neither known nor anticipated,—it was believed that they were
thieves or pirates coming to seize the women, and under this error
they were attacked by the Ephesians and slain.[569] It would seem
from this incident that the Ephesians had taken no part in the Ionic
revolt, nor are they mentioned amidst the various contingents. Nor is
anything said either of Kolophon, or Lebedus, or Eræ.[570]
[567] Herodot. vi, 13.
[568] Herodot. vi, 14, 15.
[569] Herodot. vi, 16.
[570] Thucyd. viii, 14.
The Phôkæan Dionysius, perceiving that the defeat of Ladê was the
ruin of the Ionic cause, and that his native city was again doomed
to Persian subjection, did not think it prudent even to return home.
Immediately after the battle he set sail, not for Phôkæa, but for the
Phenician coast, at this moment stripped of its protecting cruisers.
He seized several Phenician merchantmen, out of which considerable
profit was obtained: then setting sail for Sicily, he undertook the
occupation of a privateer against the Carthaginians and Tyrrhenians,
abstaining from injury towards Greeks.[571] Such an employment seems
then to have been perfectly admissible. A considerable body of
Samians also migrated to Sicily, indignant at the treachery of their
admirals in the battle, and yet more indignant at the approaching
restoration of their despot Æakês. How these Samian emigrants became
established in the Sicilian town of Zanklê,[572] I shall mention as a
part of the course of Sicilian events, which will come hereafter.
[571] Herodot. vi, 17. ληϊστὴς κατεστήκεε Ἑλλήνων μὲν οὐδενὸς,
Καρχηδονίων δὲ καὶ Τυρσηνῶν.
[572] Herodot. vi, 22-25.
The victory of Ladê enabled the Persians to attack Milêtus by sea as
well as by land; they prosecuted the siege with the utmost vigor, by
undermining the walls, and by various engines of attack: in which
department their resources seem to have been enlarged since the
days of Harpagus. In no long time the city was taken by storm, and
miserable was the fate reserved to it. The adult male population was
chiefly slain; while such of them as were preserved, together with
the women and children, were sent in a body to Susa, to await the
orders of Darius,—who assigned to them a residence at Ampê, not far
from the mouth of the Tigris. The temple at Branchidæ was burned and
pillaged, as Hekatæus had predicted at the beginning of the revolt:
the large treasures therein contained must have gone far to defray
the costs of the Persian army. The Milesian territory is said to
have been altogether denuded of its former inhabitants,—the Persians
retaining for themselves the city with the plain adjoining to it,
and making over the mountainous portions to the Karians of Pedasa.
Some few of the Milesians found a place among the Samian emigrants
to Sicily.[573] It is certain, however, that new Grecian inhabitants
must have been subsequently admitted into Milêtus; for it appears
ever afterwards as a Grecian town, though with diminished power and
importance.
[573] Herodot. vi, 18, 19, 20, 22.
Μίλητος μέν νυν Μιλησίων ἠρήμωτο.
The capture of Milêtus, in the sixth year from the commencement
of the revolt,[574] carried with it the rapid submission of the
neighboring towns in Karia.[575] During the next summer,—the
Phenician fleet having wintered at Milêtus,—the Persian forces
by sea and land reconquered all the Asiatic Greeks, insular as
well as continental. Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos,—the towns in the
Chersonese,—Selymbria and Perinthus in Thrace,—Prokonnêsus and Artakê
in the Propontis,—all these towns were taken or sacked by the Persian
and Phenician fleet.[576] The inhabitants of Byzantium and Chalkêdôn
fled for the most part, without even awaiting its arrival, to
Mesembria, and the Athenian Miltiadês only escaped Persian captivity
by a rapid flight from his abode in the Chersonese to Athens. His
pursuers were indeed so close upon him, that one of his ships, with
his son Metiochus on board, fell into their hands. As Miltiadês had
been strenuous in urging the destruction of the bridge over the
Danube, on the occasion of the Scythian expedition, the Phenicians
were particularly anxious to get possession of his person, as the
most acceptable of all Greek prisoners to the Persian king; who,
however, when Metiochus the son of Miltiadês was brought to Susa, not
only did him no harm, but treated him with great kindness, and gave
him a Persian wife with a comfortable maintenance.[577]
[574] Herodot. vi, 18, αἱρέουσι κατ᾽ ἄκρης, ἐν τῷ ἑκτῷ ἔτεϊ ἀπὸ
τῆς ἀποστάσιος τῆς Ἀρισταγόρεω. This is almost the only distinct
chronological statement which we find in Herodotus respecting the
Ionic revolt. The other evidences of time in his chapters are
more or less equivocal: nor is there sufficient testimony before
us to enable us to arrange the events, between the commencement
of the Ionic revolt, and the battle of Marathon, into the precise
years to which they belong. The battle of Marathon stands fixed
for August or September, 490 B. C.: the siege of Milêtus may
probably have been finished in 496-495 B. C., and the Ionic
revolt may have begun in 502-501 B. C. Such are the dates which,
on the whole, appear to me most probable, though I am far from
considering them as certain.
Chronological critics differ considerably in their arrangement of
the events here alluded to among particular years. See Appendix,
No. 5, p. 244, in Mr. Clinton’s Fasti Hellenici; Professor
Schultz, Beyträge zu genaueren Zeitbestimmungen von der 63n zur
72n Olympiade, pp. 177-183, in the Kieler Philologische Studien;
and Weissenborn, Beyträge zur genaueren Erforschung der alten
Griechischen Geschichte, Jena, 1844, p. 87, _seqq._: not to
mention Reiz and Larcher. Mr. Clinton reckons only ten years from
the beginning of the Ionic revolt to the battle of Marathon;
which appears to me too short; though, on the other hand,
the fourteen years reckoned by Larcher—much more the sixteen
years reckoned by Reiz—are too long. Mr. Clinton compresses
inconveniently the latter portion of the interval,—that portion
which elapsed between the siege of Milêtus and the battle of
Marathon. And the very improbable supposition to which he is
obliged to resort,—of a confusion in the language of Herodotus
between Attic and Olympic years,—indicates that he is pressing
the text of the historian too closely, when he states, “that
Herodotus specifies a term of three years between the capture of
Milêtus, and the expedition of Datis:” see F. H. ad ann. 499. He
places the capture of Milêtus in 494 B. C.; which I am inclined
to believe a year later—if not two years later—than the reality.
Indeed, as Mr. Clinton places the expedition of Aristagoras
against Naxos (which was _immediately before_ the breaking out of
the revolt, since Aristagoras seized the Ionic despots while that
fleet yet remained congregated immediately at the close of the
expedition) in 501 B. C., and as Herodotus expressly says that
Milêtus was taken in the sixth year after the revolt, it would
follow that this capture ought to belong to 495, and not to 494
B. C. I incline to place it either in 496, or in 495; and the
Naxian expedition in 502 or 501, leaning towards the earlier of
the two dates: Schultz agrees with Larcher in placing the Naxian
expedition in 504 B. C., yet he assigns the capture of Milêtus
to 496 B. C.,—whereas, Herodotus states that the last of these
two events was in the sixth year after the revolt, which revolt
immediately succeeded on the first of the two, within the same
summer. Weissenborn places the capture of Milêtus in 496 B. C.,
and the expedition to Naxos in 499,—suspecting that the text in
Herodotus—ἑκτῷ ἔτεϊ—is incorrect, and that it ought to be τετάρτῳ
ἔτεϊ, the fourth year (p. 125: compare the chronological table
in his work, p. 222). He attempts to show that the particular
incidents composing the Ionic revolt, as Herodotus recounts
it, cannot be made to occupy more than four years; but his
reasoning is, in my judgment, unsatisfactory, and the conjecture
inadmissible. The distinct affirmation of the historian, as to
the entire interval between the two events, is of much more
evidentiary value than our conjectural summing up of the details.
It is vain, I think, to try to arrange these details according to
precise years: this can only be done very loosely.
[575] Herodot. vi, 25.
[576] Herodot. vi, 31-33. It may perhaps be to this burning and
sacking of the cities in the Propontis, and on the Asiatic side
of the Hellespont, that Strabo (xiii, p. 591) makes allusion;
though he ascribes the proceeding to a different cause,—to the
fear of Darius that the Scythians would cross into Asia to avenge
themselves upon him for attacking them, and that the towns on the
coast would furnish them with vessels for the passage.
[577] Herodot. vi, 41.
Far otherwise did the Persian generals deal with the reconquered
cities on and near the coast. The threats which had been held out
before the battle of Ladê were realized to the full. The most
beautiful Greek youths and virgins were picked out, to be distributed
among the Persian grandees as eunuchs, or inmates of the harems; the
cities with their edifices, sacred as well as profane, were made
a prey to the flames; and in the case of the islands, Herodotus
even tells us, that a line of Persians was formed from shore to
shore, which swept each territory from north to south, and drove
the inhabitants out of it.[578] That much of this hard treatment is
well founded, there can be no doubt. But it must be exaggerated as
to extent of depopulation and destruction, for these islands and
cities appear ever afterwards as occupied by a Grecian population,
and even as in a tolerable, though reduced, condition. Samos was made
an exception to the rest, and completely spared by the Persians, as
a reward to its captains for setting the example of desertion at the
battle of Ladê; at the same time, Æakês the despot of that island
was reinstated in his government.[579] It appears that several other
despots were also replaced in their respective cities, though we are
not told which.
[578] Herodot. vi, 31, 32, 33.
[579] Herodot. vi, 25.
Amidst the sufferings endured by so many innocent persons, of
every age and of both sexes, the fate of Histiæus excites but
little sympathy. Having learned, while carrying on his piracies at
Byzantium, the surrender of Milêtus, he thought it expedient to sail
with his Lesbian vessels to Chios, where admittance was refused to
him. But the Chians, weakened as they had been by the late battle,
were in little condition to resist, so that he defeated their troops
and despoiled the island. During the present break-up of the Asiatic
Greeks, there were doubtless many who, like the Phôkæan Dionysius,
did not choose to return home to an enslaved city, yet had no fixed
plan for a new abode: of these exiles, a considerable number put
themselves under the temporary command of Histiæus, and accompanied
him to the plunder of Thasos.[580] While besieging that town, he
learned the news that the Phenician fleet had quitted Milêtus to
attack the remaining Ionic towns; and he left his designs on Thasos
unfinished, in order to go and defend Lesbos. But in this latter
island the dearth of provisions was such, that he was forced to cross
over to the continent to reap the standing corn around Atarneus and
in the fertile plain of Mysia near the river Kaïkus. Here he fell
in with a considerable Persian force under Harpagus,—was beaten,
compelled to flee, and taken prisoner. On his being carried to
Sardis, Artaphernês the satrap caused him to be at once crucified:
partly, no doubt, from genuine hatred, but partly also under the
persuasion that, if he were sent up as a prisoner to Susa, he might
again become dangerous,—since Darius would even now spare his life,
under an indelible sentiment of gratitude for the maintenance of
the bridge over the Danube. The head of Histiæus was embalmed and
sent up to Susa, where Darius caused it to be honorably buried,
condemning this precipitate execution of a man who had once been his
preserver.[581]
[580] Herodot. vi, 26-28. ἄγων Ἰώνων καὶ Αἰολέων συχνούς.
[581] Herodot. vi, 28, 29, 30.
We need not wonder that the capture of Milêtus excited the strongest
feeling, of mixed sympathy and consternation, among the Athenians.
In the succeeding year (so at least we are led to think, though
the date cannot be positively determined), it was selected as the
subject of a tragedy,—The Capture of Milêtus,—by the dramatic poet
Phrynichus; which, when performed, so painfully wrung the feelings
of the Athenian audience, that they burst into tears in the theatre,
and the poet was condemned to pay a fine of one thousand drachmæ, as
“having recalled to them their own misfortunes.”[582] The piece was
forbidden to be afterwards acted, and has not come down to us. Some
critics have supposed that Herodotus has not correctly assigned the
real motive which determined the Athenians to impose this fine.[583]
For it is certain that the subjects usually selected for tragedy were
portions of heroic legend, and not matters of recent history; so that
the Athenians might complain of Phrynichus on the double ground,—for
having violated an established canon of propriety, as well as for
touching their sensibilities too deeply. Still, I see no reason
for doubting that the cause assigned by Herodotus is substantially
the true one; but it is very possible that Phrynichus, at an age
when tragic poetry had not yet reached its full development, might
touch this very tender subject with a rough and offensive hand,
before a people who had fair reason to dread the like cruel fate for
themselves. Æschylus, in his Persæ, would naturally carry with him
the full tide of Athenian sympathy, while dwelling on the victories
of Salamis and Platæa. But to interest the audience in Persian
success and Grecian suffering, was a task in which much greater poets
than Phrynichus would have failed,—and which no judicious poet would
have undertaken. The sack of Magdeburg, by Count Tilly, in the Thirty
Years’ war, was not likely to be endured as the subject of dramatic
representation in any Protestant town of Germany.
[582] Herodot. vi, 21, ὡς ἀναμνήσαντα οἰκηΐα κακὰ: compare vii,
152; also, Kallisthenês ap. Strabo, xiv, p. 635, and Plutarch,
Præcept. Reipubl. Gerend. p. 814.
[583] See Welcker Griechische Tragödien, vol. i, p. 25.