THE ASIATIC GREEKS AND THE LYDIAN REVOLT.
The Ionians and Æolians, as soon as the Lydians were subdued by the
Persians, sent ambassadors to Cyrus at Sardis, wishing to become subject
to him, on the same terms as they had been to Crœsus. But, when he heard
their proposal, he told them this story: "A piper seeing some fishes in
the sea, began to pipe, expecting that they would come to shore; but
finding his hopes disappointed, he took a casting-net, with which he
caught a great number of fishes, and drew them out. When he saw them
leaping about, he said to the fishes: 'Cease your dancing, since when I
piped you would not come out and dance.'" Cyrus told this story to the
Ionians and Æolians, because the Ionians, when Cyrus pressed them by his
ambassador to revolt from Crœsus, refused to consent, and now, when the
business was done, were ready to listen to him. When the Ionians heard
this message, they severally fortified themselves with walls, and met
together at the Panionium, with the exception of the Milesians; for
Cyrus made an alliance with them on the same terms as the Lydians had
done. The rest of the Ionians resolved unanimously to send ambassadors
to Sparta, to implore them to succor the Ionians. These Ionians, to whom
the Panionium belongs, have built their cities under the finest sky and
climate of the world that we know of; for neither the regions that are
above it, nor those that are below, nor the parts to the east or west,
are at all equal to Ionia; for some of them are oppressed by cold and
rain, others by heat and drought. These Ionians do not all use the same
language, but have four varieties of dialect. Miletus, the first of
them, lies toward the south.
The Milesians were sheltered from danger, as they had made an alliance.
The islanders also had nothing to fear; for the Phœnicians were not yet
subject to the Persians, nor were the Persians themselves at all
acquainted with maritime affairs. Now the Milesians had seceded from the
rest of the Ionians only for this reason, that weak as the Grecian race
then was, the Ionian was weakest of all, and of least account; for
except Athens, there was no other city of note. The other Ionians,
therefore, and the Athenians shunned the name, and would not be called
Ionians; and even now many of them appear to me to be ashamed of the
name. But these twelve cities gloried in the name, and built a temple
for their own use, to which they gave the name of Panionium.
When the ambassadors of the Ionians and Æolians arrived at Sparta, they
made choice of a Phocæan, whose name was Pythermus, to speak in behalf
of all. Putting on a purple robe, in order that as many as possible of
the Spartans might hear of it and assemble, he addressed them at length,
imploring their assistance. But the Lacedæmonians would not listen to
him, and determined not to assist the Ionians: they therefore returned
home. Yet the Lacedæmonians, though they had rejected the Ionian
ambassadors, despatched men in a penteconter, to keep an eye upon the
affairs of Cyrus and Ionia. These men arriving in Phocæa, sent the most
eminent person among them, whose name was Lacrines, to Sardis, to warn
Cyrus in the name of the Lacedæmonians, "not to injure any city on the
Grecian territory, for in that case they would not pass it by
unnoticed." When the herald gave this message, it is related that Cyrus
inquired of the Greeks who were present, who the Lacedæmonians were, and
how many in number, that they sent him such a warning. And when
informed, he said to the Spartan herald, "I was never yet afraid of
those, who in the midst of their city have a place set apart, in which
they collect and cheat one another by false oaths; and if I continue in
health, not the calamities of the Ionians shall be talked about, but
their own." This taunt of Cyrus was levelled at the Greeks in general,
who have markets for the purposes of buying and selling; for the
Persians have no such a thing as a market. After this, Cyrus intrusted
Tabalus a Persian with the government of Sardis, and appointed Pactyas a
Lydian to bring away the gold, both that belonging to Crœsus and to the
other Lydians, and departed with Cyrus for Ecbatana, for from the first
he took no account of the Ionians. But Babylon was an obstacle to him,
as were also the Bactrians, the Sacæ, and the Egyptians; against whom he
resolved to lead an army in person, and to send some other general
against the Ionians. But as soon as Cyrus had marched from Sardis,
Pactyas prevailed on the Lydians to revolt from Tabalus and Cyrus; and
going down to the sea-coast, with all the gold taken from Sardis in his
possession, he hired mercenaries and persuaded the inhabitants of the
coast to join him; and then having marched against Sardis, he besieged
Tabalus, who was shut up in the citadel.
When Cyrus heard this news on his march, he said to Crœsus;
"Crœsus, what will be the end of these things? the Lydians, it seems,
will never cease to give trouble to me, and to themselves. I am in doubt
whether it will not be better to reduce them to slavery; for I appear to
have acted like one who, having killed the father, has spared the
children; so I am carrying away you, who have been something more than a
father to the Lydians, and have intrusted their city to the Lydians
themselves: and then I wonder at their rebellion!" Crœsus, fearing lest
he should utterly destroy Sardis, answered: "Sir, you have but too much
reason for what you say; yet do not give full vent to your anger, nor
utterly destroy an ancient city, which is innocent as well of the former
as of the present offence: for of the former I myself was guilty, and
now bear the punishment on my own head; but in the present instance
Pactyas, to whom you intrusted Sardis, is the culprit; let him therefore
pay the penalty. But pardon the Lydians, and enjoin them to observe the
following regulations, to the end that they may never more revolt, nor
be troublesome to you: send to them and order them to keep no weapons of
war in their possession; and enjoin them to wear tunics under their
cloaks, and buskins on their feet; and require them to teach their sons
to play on the cithara, to strike the guitar, and to sell by retail; and
then you will soon see them becoming women instead of men, so that they
will never give you any apprehensions about their revolting." Crœsus
suggested this plan, thinking it would be more desirable for the
Lydians, than that they should be sold for slaves; and being persuaded,
that unless he could suggest some feasible proposal, he should not
prevail with him to alter his resolution: and he dreaded also, that the
Lydians, if they should escape the present danger, might hereafter
revolt from the Persians, and bring utter ruin on themselves. Cyrus,
pleased with the expedient, laid aside his anger, and said that he would
follow his advice: then having sent for Mazares, a Mede, he commanded
him to order the Lydians to conform themselves to the regulations
proposed by Crœsus, and moreover to enslave all the rest who had joined
the Lydians in the attack on Sardis; but by all means to bring Pactyas
to him alive. Cyrus having given these orders on his way, proceeded to
the settlements of the Persians. But Pactyas heard that the army which
was coming against him was close at hand, and fled in great
consternation to Cyme. Mazares marched against Sardis with an
inconsiderable division of Cyrus's army, but found that Pactyas and his
party were no longer there. He, however, compelled the Lydians to
conform to the injunctions of Cyrus; who, by his order, completely
changed their mode of life: after this Mazares despatched messengers to
Cyme, requiring them to deliver up Pactyas. But the Cymæans, in order to
come to a decision, resolved to refer the matter to the deity at
Branchidæ, for an oracular shrine was there erected in former times,
which all the Ionians and Æolians were in the practice of consulting.
The Cymæans asked the oracle "what course they should pursue respecting
Pactyas, that would be most pleasing to the gods:" the answer to their
question was, that they should deliver up Pactyas to the Persians. When
this answer was reported, they determined to give him up; but,
Aristodicus the son of Heraclides, a man of high repute among the
citizens, distrusting the oracle, and suspecting the sincerity of the
consulters, prevented them from doing so; till at last other messengers,
among whom was Aristodicus, went to inquire a second time concerning
Pactyas. When they arrived at Branchidæ, Aristodicus consulted the
oracle in the name of all, inquiring in these words: "O king, Pactyas, a
Lydian, has come to us as a suppliant, to avoid a violent death at the
hands of the Persians. They now demand him, and require the Cymæans to
give him up. We, however, though we dread the Persian power, have not
yet dared to surrender the suppliant, till it be plainly declared by
thee what we ought to do." The oracle gave the same answer as before.
Upon this Aristodicus deliberately acted as follows; walking round the
temple, he took away all the sparrows and all other kinds of birds that
had built nests in the temple; whereupon a voice issued from the
sanctuary; addressing Aristodicus, it spoke as follows: "O most impious
of men, how darest thou do this? Dost thou tear my suppliants from my
temple?" Aristodicus without hesitation answered, "O king, art thou then
so careful to succor thy suppliants, but biddest the Cymæans to deliver
up theirs?" The oracle again rejoined: "Yes, I bid you do so; that
having acted impiously, ye may the sooner perish, and never more come
and consult the oracle about the delivering up of suppliants." When the
Cymæans heard this latter answer, not wishing to bring destruction on
themselves by surrendering Pactyas, or to subject themselves to a siege
by protecting him, they sent him away to Mitylene. But the Mitylenæans,
when Mazares sent a message to them requiring them to deliver up
Pactyas, were preparing to do so for some remuneration; what, I am
unable to say precisely, for the proposal was never completed. For the
Cymæans, being informed of what was being done by the Mitylenæans,
despatched a vessel to Lesbos, and transported Pactyas to Chios, whence
he was torn by violence from the temple of Minerva Poliuchus by the
Chians, and delivered up. The Chians delivered him up in exchange for
Atarneus, a place situate in Mysia, opposite Lesbos. In this manner
Pactyas fell into the hands of the Persians; who kept him under guard in
order that they might deliver him to Cyrus. For a long time after this,
none of the Chians would offer barley-meal from Atarneus to any of the
gods, or make any cakes of the fruit that came from them; but all the
productions of that country were excluded from the temples. Mazares,
after this, marched against those who had assisted in besieging Tabalus;
and in the first place reduced the Prienians to slavery, and in the next
overran the whole plain of the Mæander, and gave it to his army to
pillage; and he treated Magnesia in the same manner: but shortly
afterward fell sick and died.
On his death Harpagus came down as his successor in the command; he also
was by birth a Mede, the same whom Astyages king of the Medes
entertained at the impious feast, and who assisted Cyrus in ascending
the throne. This man being appointed general by Cyrus, on his arrival in
Ionia, took several cities by means of earth-works; for he forced the
people to retire within their fortifications, and then, having heaped up
mounds against the walls, he carried the cities by storm. Phocæa was the
first place in Ionia that he attacked.
These Phocæans were the first of all the Greeks who undertook long
voyages, and they are the people who discovered the Adriatic and
Tyrrhenian seas, Iberia, and Tartessus.[7] They made their voyages in
fifty-oared galleys, and not in merchant-ships. When they arrived at
Tartessus they were kindly received by the king of the Tartessians,
whose name was Arganthonius; he reigned eighty years over Tartessus, and
lived to the age of one hundred and twenty. The Phocæans became such
great favorites with him, that he at first solicited them to abandon
Ionia, and to settle in any part of his territory they should choose;
but afterward, finding he could not prevail with them to accept his
offer, and hearing from them the increasing power of the Mede, he gave
them money for the purpose of building a wall around their city; he must
have given it unsparingly, for the wall is not a few stades in
circumference, and is entirely built of large and well-compacted stones.
When Harpagus had marched his army against the Phocæans, he besieged
them, but offered these terms: "that he would be content if the Phocæans
would throw down only one of their battlements, and consecrate one house
_to the king's use_." The Phocæans, detesting slavery, said, "that they
wished for one day to deliberate, and would then give their answer"; but
while they were deliberating they required him to draw off his forces
from the wall. Harpagus said, that "though he well knew their design,
yet he would permit them to consult together." In the interval, then,
during which Harpagus withdrew his army from the wall, the Phocæans
launched their fifty-oared galleys, and having put their wives,
children, and goods on board, together with the images from the temples
and other offerings, except works of bronze or stone, or pictures, they
embarked themselves, and set sail for Chios: and the Persians took
possession of Phocæa, abandoned by all its inhabitants. The Phocæans,
when the Chians refused to sell them the Œnyssæ Islands, for fear they
should become the seat of trade, and their own island be thereby
excluded, directed their course to Cyrnus; where, by the admonition of
an oracle, they had twenty years before built a city, named Alalia. But
Arganthonius was at that time dead. On their passage to Cyrnus, having
first sailed down to Phocæa, they put to death the Persian garrison
which had been left by Harpagus to guard the city. Afterward, when this
was accomplished, they pronounced terrible imprecations on any who
should desert the fleet; besides this, they sunk a mass of red-hot iron,
and swore "that they would never return to Phocæa, till this burning
mass should appear again." Nevertheless, as they were on their way
toward Cyrnus, more than one half of the citizens were seized with
regret and yearning for their city and dwellings in the country, and
violating their oaths, sailed back to Phocæa; but such of them as kept
to their oath weighed anchor and sailed from the Œnyssæ Islands. On
their arrival at Cyrnus they lived for five years in common with the
former settlers: but as they ravaged the territories of all their
neighbors, the Tyrrhenians and Carthaginians combined together to make
war against them, each with sixty ships: and the Phocæans, on their
part, having manned their ships, consisting of sixty in number, met them
in the Sardinian Sea; and having engaged, the Phocæans obtained a kind
of Cadmean victory;[8] for forty of their own ships were destroyed, and
the twenty that survived were disabled, for their prows were blunted.
They therefore sailed back to Alalia, took on board their wives and
children, with what property their ships were able to carry, and leaving
Cyrnus, sailed to Rhegium. As to the men belonging to the ships
destroyed, most of them fell into the hands of the Carthaginians and
Tyrrhenians, who took them on shore and stoned them to death. But
afterward all animals belonging to the Argyllæans that passed by the
spot where the Phocæans who had been stoned lay, became distorted,
maimed, and crippled, as well sheep, as beasts of burden and men. The
Argyllæans, therefore, being anxious to expiate the guilt, sent to
Delphi; and the Pythian enjoined them to use those rites which they
still observe; for they commemorate their death with great magnificence,
and have established gymnastic and equestrian contests. This was the
fate of these Phocæans; but the others, who fled to Rhegium, left that
place, and got possession of the town in the territory of Œnotria, which
is now called Hyela, which they colonized by the advice of a certain
Posidonian, who told them the Pythia had directed them to establish
sacred rites to Cyrnus as being a hero, but not to colonize the island
of that name.
The Teians also acted nearly in the same manner as the Phocæans. For
when Harpagus by means of his earth-works had made himself master of
their walls, they all went on board their ships, and sailed away to
Thrace, and there settled in the city of Abdera; which Timesius of
Clazomenæ having formerly founded, did not enjoy, but was driven out by
the Thracians, and is now honored as a hero by the Teians of Abdera.
These were the only Ionians who abandoned their country rather than
submit to servitude. The rest, except the Milesians, gave battle to
Harpagus, and as well as those who abandoned their country, proved
themselves brave men, each fighting for his own; but defeated and
subdued, they remained in their own countries, and submitted to the
commands imposed on them. The Milesians, as I have before mentioned,
having made a league with Cyrus, remained quiet. So was Ionia a second
time enslaved, and the islanders, dreading the same fate, made their
submission to Cyrus. When the Ionians were brought into this wretched
condition, and nevertheless still held assemblies at Panionium, I am
informed that Bias of Priene gave them most salutary advice, which, had
they harkened to him, would have made them the most flourishing of all
the Greeks. He advised, "that the Ionians, should sail in one common
fleet to Sardinia, and there build one city for all the Ionians; thus
being freed from servitude, they would flourish, inhabiting the most
considerable of the islands, and governing the rest; whereas if they
remained in Ionia, he saw no hope of recovering their liberty." But
before Ionia was ruined, the suggestion of Thales, the Milesian, who was
of Phœnician extraction, was also good, who advised that the Ionians
should constitute one general council in Teos, which stands in the
centre of Ionia; and that the rest of the inhabited cities should be
governed as independent states.
Harpagus having subdued Ionia, marched against the Carians, Cannians,
Lycians, Ionians, and Æolians; of whom the Carians were by far the most
famous of all nations in those times. They introduced three inventions
which the Greeks have adopted. For the Carians set the example of
fastening crests upon helmets and of putting devices on shields; they
are also the first who attached handles to shields; until their time all
who used shields carried them without handles, guiding them with
leathern thongs, having them slung round their necks and left shoulders.
The Lycians were originally sprung from Crete, for in ancient time Crete
was entirely in the possession of barbarians. But a dispute having
arisen between Sarpedon and Minos, sons of Europa, respecting the
sovereign power, when Minos got the upper hand in the struggle, he drove
out Sarpedon with his partisans; and they being expelled came to the
land of Milyas in Asia, and were afterwards joined by Lycus son of
Pandion of Athens, who was likewise driven out by his brother Ægeus, and
came to be called Lycians after him. Their customs are partly Cretan and
partly Carian; but they have one peculiar to themselves, in which they
differ from all other nations: they take their name from their mothers
and not from their fathers; so that if any one asks another who he is,
he will describe himself by his mother's side, and reckon his ancestry
in the female line. And if a free-born woman marry a slave, the children
are accounted of pure birth; but if a man though a citizen, and of high
rank, marry a foreigner, the children are considered low born.
All Cnidia, except a small space, is surrounded by water; for the
Ceramic gulf bounds it on the north, and on the south the sea by Syme
and Rhodes: now this small space, which is about five stades in breadth,
the Cnidians, wishing to make their territory insular, designed to dig
through, while Harpagus was subduing Ionia. For the whole of their
dominions were within the isthmus; and where the Cnidian territory
terminates toward the continent, there is the isthmus that they designed
to dig through. But, as they were carrying on the work with great
diligence, the workmen appeared to be wounded to a greater extent and in
a more strange manner than usual, both in other parts of the body, and
particularly in the eyes, by the chipping of the rock; they therefore
sent deputies to Delphi to inquire what was the cause of the
obstruction; and, as the Cnidians say, the Pythia answered as follows in
trimeter verse: "Build not a tower on the isthmus, nor dig it through,
for Jove would have made it an island had he so willed." So the Cnidians
desisted from their work, and surrendered without resistance to
Harpagus, as soon as he approached with his army. The Pedasians were
situated inland above Halicarnassus. When any mischief is about to
befall them or their neighbors, the priestess of Minerva has a long
beard: this has three times occurred. These were the only people about
Caria who opposed Harpagus for any time and gave him much trouble, by
fortifying a mountain called Lyda. After some time, however, they were
subdued. The Lycians, when Harpagus marched his army toward the Xanthian
plain, went out to meet him, and engaging with very inferior numbers,
displayed great feats of valor. But being defeated and shut up within
their city, they collected their wives, children, property, and servants
within the citadel, and then set fire to it and burnt it to the ground.
When they had done this, and engaged themselves by the strongest oaths,
all the Xanthians went out and died fighting. Of the modern Lycians, who
are said to be Xanthians, all, except eighty families, are strangers;
but these eighty families happened at the time to be away from home and
so survived. Thus Harpagus got possession of Xanthus and Caunia almost
in the same manner; for the Caunians generally followed the example of
the Lycians.