The Good Book (50 page)

  4. The Persians would make a foray, and take the beasts, whereupon they would be highly elated.

  5. They did this several times, until at last Darius was at his wits' end;

  6. And then the Scythian princes, understanding how matters stood, dispatched a herald to the Persian camp with presents for the king,

  7. Which were eight things: a bird, a mouse, a frog and five arrows.

  8. The Persians asked the bearer to tell them what these gifts might mean, but he made answer that he had no orders except to deliver them, and return again with all speed.

  9. If the Persians were wise, he added, they would find out the meaning for themselves. So when they heard this, they held a council to consider the matter.

10. Darius gave it as his opinion that the Scythians intended a surrender of themselves and their country, both land and water, into his hands.

11. This he conceived to be the meaning of the gifts, because the mouse is an inhabitant of the earth, and eats the same food as man,

12. While the frog passes his life in the water; the bird is as swift and proud as a horse, and the arrows might signify the surrender of all their power.

13. Gobryas, one of the seven conspirators against the Magus, offered a different explanation.

14. ‘These tokens say: “Unless, Persians, you can turn into birds and fly into the sky, or become mice and burrow under the ground,

15. ‘“Or make yourselves frogs, and take refuge in the fens, you will never escape from this land, but die pierced by our arrows.”'

16. The single division of the Scythians, which in the early part of the war had been appointed to guard the Palus Maeotis, and had now been sent to parlay with the Ionians stationed at the Ister, addressed them, on reaching the bridge, in these words:

17. ‘Men of Ionia, we bring you freedom, if you will only do as we recommend.

18. ‘Darius, we understand, enjoined you to keep your guard here at this bridge just sixty days; then, if he did not appear, you were to return home.

19. ‘Now, therefore, act so as to be free from blame, alike in his sight, and in ours.

20. ‘Tarry here the appointed time, and at the end go your ways.' Having said this, and received a promise from the Ionians to do as they desired, the Scythians hastened back.

21. After sending the tokens to Darius, the Scythian army drew out in battle array against the Persians, and seemed about to come to an engagement.

22. But as they stood in battle array, it chanced that a hare started up between them and the Persians, and set to running;

23. When immediately all the Scythians who saw it rushed off in pursuit, with great confusion and loud cries and shouts.

24. Darius, hearing the noise, enquired the cause of it, and was told that the Scythians were all engaged in hunting a hare.

25. At this he said, ‘These men do indeed despise us utterly: and now I see that Gobryas was right about the Scythian gifts.

26. ‘As, therefore, his opinion is now mine likewise, it is time we form some wise plan to secure ourselves a safe return home.'

27. ‘Sir,' Gobryas rejoined, ‘I was sure, before we came here, that this was an impracticable race; since our coming I am yet more convinced of it, especially now that I see them making game of us.

28. ‘My advice is, therefore, that, when night falls, we light our fires as we are wont to do at other times,

29. ‘And leaving behind us on some pretext that portion of our army which is weak and unequal to hardship, taking care also to leave our asses tethered,

30. ‘Let us retreat from Scythia, before our foes march forward to the Ister and destroy the bridge, or the Ionians come to any resolution which may lead to our ruin.'

31. When night came Darius followed Gobryas' counsel, and leaving his sick soldiers, and those whose loss would be of least account, with the asses also tethered about the camp, he marched away.

32. The asses were left that their noise might be heard: the men, really because they were sick and useless,

33. But under the pretence that he was about to fall upon the Scythians with the flower of his troops, and that they meanwhile were to guard his camp for him.

34.   Having thus declared his plans to the men he was deserting, and having caused the fires to be lighted, Darius set forth, and marched hastily towards the Ister.

35. The asses, aware of the departure of the host, brayed louder than ever; and the Scythians, hearing the sound, believed that the Persians were still in the same place.

 

Chapter 47

  1. When day dawned, the men who had been left behind, perceiving that they were betrayed by Darius, stretched out their hands towards the Scythians, and spoke as befitted their situation.

  2. The Scythians no sooner heard, than they quickly combined their troops in one, and set off in pursuit, straight for the Ister.

  3. As, however, the Persian army was chiefly foot, and had no know­ledge of the routes, which are not cut out in Scythia;

  4. While the Scythians were all horsemen and well acquainted with the shortest way; it so happened that the two armies missed one another,

  5. And the Scythians, getting far ahead of their adversaries, came first to the bridge.

  6. Finding that the Persians were not yet arrived, they addressed the Ionians, who were aboard their ships, in these words:

  7. ‘Men of Ionia, the number of your days is out, and you do wrong to remain. Fear doubtless has kept you here until now:

  8. ‘Now, however, you may safely break the bridge, and hasten back to your homes, rejoicing that you are free.

  9. ‘Your former lord we undertake so to handle, that he will never again make war on anyone.'

10. The Ionians now held a council. Miltiades the Athenian, who was king of the Chersonesites of the Hellespont, and their commander at the Ister,

11. Recommended the other generals to do as the Scythians wished, and restore freedom to Ionia.

But Histiaeus the Milesian opposed this advice. ‘It is through Darius,' he said, ‘that we enjoy our thrones in our several states.

12. ‘If his power be overturned, I cannot continue lord of Miletus, nor you of your cities. For there is not one of them which will not prefer democracy to kingly rule.'

13. Then the other captains, who, till Histiaeus spoke, were about to vote with Miltiades, changed their minds, and declared in favour of Histiaeus.

14. Having resolved to stay, the Greek leaders further determined to appear to the Scythians to be doing something, when in fact they were doing nothing of consequence.

15. They resolved to break up the Scythian end of the bridge, to the distance of a bowshot from the bank;

16. And to assure the Scythians, while the demolition was proceeding, that there was nothing they would not do to please them.

17. Such were the additions made to the resolution of Histiaeus; who further addressed the Scythians, saying,

18. ‘While we demolish the bridge, why do you not go and seek out Darius, and take your revenge on him?'

19. The Scythians put faith in the promises of the Ionian chiefs, and retraced their steps, hoping to fall in with the Persians.

20. But they missed their enemy's line of march entirely; their own former acts being to blame for it.

21. Had they not ravaged all the pasturages of that region, and filled in the wells, they would have easily found the Persians whenever they chose.

22. But, as it turned out, the measures which seemed to them so wisely planned were exactly what caused their failure.

23. They took a route where water was to be found and fodder could be got for their horses, and on this track sought their adversaries,

24. Expecting that they too would retreat through regions where these things were to be obtained.

25. The Persians, however, kept strictly to the line of their former march, never for a moment departing from it;

26. But even so they only gained the bridge with difficulty.  

27. It was night when they arrived, and their terror, when they found the bridge broken up, was great; for they thought the Ionians had deserted them.

28. Now there was in the army of Darius an Egyptian who had a louder voice than any other man in the world.

29. This person was told by Darius to stand at the water's edge, and call Histiaeus the Milesian.

30. Histiaeus, hearing him at the first summons, brought the fleet to make good the bridge once more and convey the army across.

31. By these means the Persians escaped from Scythia, while the Scythians sought for them in vain, again missing their track.

32. And hence the Scythians are accustomed to say of the Ionians, by way of reproach, that, if they be looked upon as freemen,

33. They are the basest and most dastardly of all mankind; but if they be considered as under servitude,

34. They are the most faithful of slaves, and the most fondly attached to their lords.

 

Chapter 48

  1. But this failed venture of Darius into Europe was the cause of reflection among many,

  2. Who saw it as a sign that the power of the great king was not unlimited, as all had feared;

  3. And it gave rise to ambition and emulation in the hearts of some, while among Persians it made the desire to conquer Europe greater.

  4. And now truly the main chapter began in the struggle between Persia and Greece, east and west, and the place it began was Miletus, subject to Darius and ruled by Histiaeus.

  5. To him the king granted a favour for his service in Scythia, which was to give him the best architect of the time to come to Miletus and embellish it;

  6. But when Darius saw that Histiaeus had begun to build walls round Miletus, he reflected,

  7. And decided to summon Histiaeus to be his counsellor at Susa, thus preventing him from growing powerful and insubordinate in his own city.

  8. Histiaeus gave the deputy governership of Miletus to his nephew Aristagoras,

  9. An ambitious man who sought by several means to increase his own consequence, including a failed expedition against Naxos and the Cyclades, which were not under Persian sway.

10. When the Naxian expedition failed, Aristagoras, fearing the displeasure of Darius, decided to seek Greek help in a rebellion of Miletus against Persian rule.

11. He went first to Sparta and attempted to persuade its king Cleomenes to the venture,

12. Showing him an engraved map of the Persian empire and describing the great riches that the Spartans would acquire if they conquered Darius.

13. And as he spoke he offered Cleomenes more and more money to undertake the venture;

14. But Gorgo, the eight-year-old daughter of Cleomenes, said, ‘Father, come away before this man corrupts you and your kingdom.'

15. Then Aristagoras went to Athens, which after Sparta was the most powerful of the Greek states;

16. And there proved that it is easier to persuade a multitude than a single man;

17. For whereas in Sparta he had to deal with Cleomenes, here he had to deal with the Athenian people as a whole: and this proved the simpler task.

18. Accordingly he appeared before them, and, as he had done at Sparta, spoke to them of the good things there were in Asia,

19. And of the Persian mode of fight, how they used neither shield nor spear, and were very easy to conquer.

20. All this he urged, and reminded them also that Miletus was a colony from Athens, and therefore ought to receive their help, since they were so powerful;

21. And in the earnestness of his entreaties he cared little what he promised, till at last he won them over.

22. The Athenians voted that twenty ships should be sent to help Ionia, under the command of Melanthius, a man of mark in every way.

23. These ships were the beginning of mischief both to the Greeks and to the barbarians.

24. When the Athenian fleet joined Aristagoras at Miletus, he assembled his allies and proceeded to attack Sardis,

25. Not however leading the army himself, but appointing as commanders Hermophantus and his own brother Charopinus. He himself remained in Miletus.

26. The Ionians sailed to Ephesus, and, leaving their ships at Coressus, took guides and went up country with a great host.

27. They marched along the River Cayster, and, crossing over the ridge of Timolus, fell on Sardis and took it, no man opposing them;

28. The whole city fell to them, except the citadel, which Artaphernes defended in person with a large force.

29. But though they took the city, they did not succeed in plundering it; for, as the houses in Sardis were built of reeds,

30. And even the few of brick had reed thatching for their roofs, one of them was no sooner fired by a soldier than the flames ran speedily from house to house.