The Good Book (64 page)

  7. Envy, however, hindered the chiefs from coming to a decision, and they all sailed away to their homes without making any award.

  8. Nevertheless Themistocles was regarded everywhere as by far the wisest man of all the Greeks; and the whole country rang with his fame.

  9. As the chiefs who fought at Salamis, notwithstanding that he was entitled to the prize, had withheld the honour from him,

10. Themistocles went without delay to Lacedaemon, in the hope that he would be honoured there.

11. And the Lacedaemonians received him handsomely, and paid him great respect.

12. The prize of valour, which was a crown of olive, they gave to Eurybiades;

13. But Themistocles was given a crown of olive too, as the prize of wisdom and dexterity.

14. He was likewise presented with the most beautiful chariot that could be found in Sparta;

15. And after receiving abundant praises, he was, upon his departure, escorted as far as the borders of Tegea by the three hundred picked Spartans who are called the Knights.

16. Never was it known, either before or since, that the Spartans escorted a man out of their city.

 

Chapter 91

  1. Meanwhile hostilities were still taking place in the north.

  2. Artabazus, the son of Pharnaces, a man always held in high esteem by the Persians, but who, after the affair of Plataea, rose still higher in their opinion,

  3. Escorted King Xerxes as far as the Hellespont, with sixty thousand of the chosen troops of Mardonius.

  4. When the king was safe in Asia, Artabazus set out upon his return;

  5. And on arriving near Palline, and finding that Mardonius had gone into winter quarters in Thessaly, and was in no hurry for him to rejoin the camp,

  6. He thought it his bounden duty, as the Potidaeans had just revolted, to occupy himself in reducing them to slavery.

  7. For as soon as the king had passed their territory, and the Persian fleet had retreated from Salamis, the Potidaeans revolted from the barbarians openly;

  8. As likewise did all the other inhabitants of that peninsula.

  9. Artabazus therefore laid siege to Potidaea; and having a suspicion that the Olynthians were likely to revolt shortly, he besieged their city also.

10. Now Olynthus was at that time held by the Bottiaeans, who had been driven from the parts about the Thermaic Gulf by the Macedonians.

11. Artabazus captured the city and led out all the inhabitants to a marsh in the neighbourhood, and there killed them.

12. After this he delivered the place into the hands of the people called Chalcideans, having first appointed Critobulus of Torone to be governor.

13. Such was the way in which the Chalcideans got Olynthus.

14. When Olynthus had fallen, Artabazus pressed the siege of Potidaea even more vigorously; and was aided by one Timoxenus, captain of the Scionaeans, who entered into a plot to betray the town to him.

15. Whenever Timoxenus wished to send a letter to Artabazus, or Artabazus to send one to Timoxenus, the letter was written on a strip of paper,

16. And rolled round the notched end of an arrow-shaft; the feathers were then put on over the paper, and the arrow shot to some agreed place.

17. But after a while the plot was discovered, in this way: Artabazus shot an arrow, intending to send it to the accustomed place, but, missing his mark, hit one of the Potidaeans in the shoulder.

18. A crowd gathered about the wounded man, as commonly happens in war; and when the arrow was pulled out, they noticed the paper,

19. And straightway carried it to the captains who were present from the various cities of the peninsula.

20. The captains read the letter, and, finding who the traitor was, nevertheless resolved, out of regard for the city of Scione, that as they did not wish the Scionaeans to be thenceforth branded with the name of traitors, they would not bring any charge of treachery against him.

21. After Artabazus had continued the siege for three months, it happened that there was an unusual ebb of the tide, which lasted a long time.

22. When the barbarians saw that what had been sea was now no more than a swamp, they determined to push across it into Palline.

23. When the troops had already made two-fifths of their passage, and three-fifths still remained before they could reach Palline, the tide came in with a very high flood.

24. All who were not able to swim perished immediately; the rest were slain by the Potidaeans, who bore down on them in their ships.

 

Chapter 92

  1. As for that part of the Persian fleet which had survived Salamis and reached the coast of Asia,

  2. After it had taken the king and his army across the Hellespont to Abydos, it passed the winter at Cyme.

  3. On the first approach of spring, there was an early muster of the ships at Samos, where some of them had remained throughout the winter.

  4. Most of the men-at-arms who served on board were Persians or Medes,

  5. And the command of the fleet had been taken by Mardontes, son of Bagaeus, and Artayntes son of Artachaeus;

  6. While there was likewise a third commander, Ithamitres, the nephew of Artayntes, whom his uncle had appointed to the post.

  7. They did not dare to venture further west than Samos, however, remembering what a defeat they had suffered,

  8. And there was no one to compel them to approach any nearer to Greece.

  9. They therefore remained at Samos, and kept watch over Ionia, to hinder it from breaking into revolt.

10. The whole number of their ships, including those furnished by the Ionians, was three hundred.

11. It did not enter into their thoughts that the Greeks would attack Ionia;

12. On the contrary, they supposed that Salamis would content the Greeks, more especially as they had not pursued the Persian fleet when it fled that battle.

13. The Persian sailors despaired, however, of gaining any success by sea themselves, though by land they thought that Mardonius was sure of victory.

14. So they remained at Samos, and discussed how they might harass the enemy, at the same time as they eagerly waited to hear how Mardonius fared.

15. As for the Greeks, the approach of spring, and the knowledge that Mardonius was in Thessaly, roused them.

16. Their land force was not yet come together, but their fleet, consisting of one hundred and ten ships, proceeded to Egina, under the command of Leotychides.

17. This Leotychides, who was both general and admiral, was the son of Menares, the son of Agesilaus, the son of Hippocratides, the son of Leotychides, the son of Anaxilaus, the son of Archidamus, the son of Anaxandrides, the son of Theopompus, the son of Nicander, the son of Charillus, the son of Eunomus, the son of Polydectes, the son of Prytanis, the son of Euryphon, the son of Procles, the son of Aristodemus, the son of Aristomachus, the son of Cleodaeus, the son of Hyllus, the son of Hercules.

18. He belonged to the younger branch of the royal house. All his ancestors, except the two next in the above list to himself, had been kings of Sparta.

19. The Athenian vessels were commanded by Xanthippus, the son of Ariphron.

20. When the whole fleet was gathered at Egina, ambassadors from Ionia arrived at the Greek station;

21. They had just come from visiting Sparta, where they had been entreating the Lacedaemonians to liberate their native land.

22. One of these ambassadors was Herodotus, the son of Basileides. Originally they were seven in number; and the whole seven had conspired to slay Strattis, the tyrant of Chios;

23. One, however, of those engaged in the plot betrayed the enterprise; and the conspiracy being in this way discovered, Herodotus and the remaining five left Chios,

24. And went straight to Sparta, whence they had now proceeded to Egina, their object being to beseech the Greeks to liberate Ionia.

25. It was not, however, without difficulty that they were induced to advance even so far as Delos.

26. All beyond that region seemed to the Greeks full of danger; the places were quite unknown to them, and to their fancy swarmed with Persian troops;

27. As for Samos, it appeared to them as far off as the Pillars of Hercules. So it came to pass that at the very same time that the barbarians were hindered by their fears from venturing any further west than Samos,

28. The urgings of the Chians failed to induce the Greeks to advance any further east than Delos. Terror guarded the mid region.

 

Chapter 93

  1. Mardonius now sent an envoy to Athens, to propose peace to them, and a league with them against the Peloponnese.

  2. Hearing this, the Spartans lost no time in sending envoys to Athens also; and it so happened that these envoys were given their audience at the same time as Mardonius' envoy:

  3. For the Athenians had waited and made delays, because they felt sure that the Lacedaemonians would hear that an ambassador had arrived from the Persians.

  4. They contrived this on purpose, so that the Lacedaemonians might hear them deliver their sentiments to the Persians.

  5. The Spartan ambassadors said, ‘We are sent here by all Lacedaemonia to entreat that you will not do a new thing in Greece, nor agree to the terms which are offered you by the barbarian.

  6. ‘Such conduct on the part of any of the Greeks would be alike unjust and dishonourable; but in you it would be worse than in others.

  7. ‘For it would surely be an intolerable thing that the Athenians, who have always hitherto been known as a nation to which many men owed their freedom,

  8. ‘Should ever become the means of bringing all other Greeks into slavery.

  9. ‘We feel, however, for the heavy calamities which press on you – the loss of your harvest these last two years, and the ruin in which your homes have lain for so long a time.

10. ‘We offer you, therefore, on the part of the Lacedaemonians and the allies, sustenance for your women and for the unwarlike portion of your households, so long as the war endures.

11. ‘Do not be seduced by Mardonius. He does as is natural for him to do; a tyrant himself, he helps forward a tyrant's cause.

12. ‘You Athenians should know that with barbarians there is neither trustworthiness nor truth.'

13. At this the Athenians turned to the ambassadors of Mardonius and said, ‘We know, as well as you do, that the power of the Persian is many times greater than our own:

14. ‘Nevertheless we so firmly cling to freedom that we shall always offer what resistance we may to tyranny, and would rather die than be slaves.

15. ‘Do not seek to persuade us into making terms with Xerxes or his servant Mardonius – say what you will, you will never gain our assent.

16. ‘Return at once, and tell Mardonius that our answer to him is this: “So long as the sun keeps his present course, we will never join alliance with Xerxes.

17. ‘“Nay, we shall oppose him unceasingly, and never yield.”'

18. To the Spartan ambassadors the Athenians said, ‘It was natural no doubt that the Lacedaemonians should be afraid we might make terms with the barbarian;

19. ‘But nevertheless it was a base fear in men who knew so well of what temper and heart we are.

20. ‘Not all the gold that the whole earth contains – not the fairest and most fertile of all lands – would bribe us to side with the Persians and help them enslave our countrymen.

21. ‘Even if we could have brought ourselves to such a thing, there are many powerful motives which would now make it impossible.

22. ‘The chief of these is the burning and destruction of our city, which forces us to make no terms with its destroyer,

23. ‘But rather to pursue him with our resentment to the uttermost.

24. ‘Again, there is our common brotherhood with the Greeks: our common language, the shared history, the common character which we bear;

25. ‘If the Athenians betray these, it would not be well. Know then now, if you did not know it before, that while one Athenian remains alive, we will never join alliance with Xerxes.

26. ‘We thank you, however, for your forethought on our behalf, and for your wish to give our families sustenance, now that ruin has fallen on us; the kindness is complete on your part;

27. ‘But for ourselves, we will endure as we may, and not be a burden to you. Such is our resolve.

28. ‘Be it your care now to lead out your troops with all speed; for if we guess rightly, the barbarian will not wait long before he invades our territory again, but will set out so soon as he hears our answer.

29. ‘Now then is the time for us, before he enters Attica, to go forward ourselves into Boeotia, and give him battle.'

30. When the Athenians had thus spoken, the ambassadors from Sparta returned in good heart to their own country.