The Good Book (39 page)

21. The islanders also had as yet nothing to fear, since Phoenicia was still independent of Persia, and the Persians themselves were not a seafaring people.

22. The Milesians had separated from the common cause solely on account of the extreme weakness of the Ionians:

23. For, feeble as the power of the entire Hellenic race was at that time, of all its tribes the Ionic was by far the feeblest and least esteemed, not possessing a single state of any mark except Athens.

24. The Athenians and most of the other Ionic States went so far in disliking the name ‘Ionia’ as not to use it.

25. But the twelve cities in Asia always gloried in the name; thus they gave the civic hall which they built for themselves the name of the Panionium.

26. The Ionians founded twelve cities in Asia, and refused to enlarge the number,

27. On account of their having been divided into twelve States when they lived in the Peloponnese before being driven out by the Achaeans.

28. It is incorrect to maintain that these Ionians are more Ionian than the rest, since the truth is that no small portion of them were Abantians from Euboea, who are not even Ionians in name;

29. And, besides, there were mixed up with the emigration of Minyae from Orchomenus, Cadmeians, Dryopians, Phocians from the several cities of Phocis, Molossians, Arcadian Pelasgi, Dorians from Epidaurus, and many other distinct tribes.

30. Even those who came from the Prytaneum of Athens, and reckon themselves the purest Ionians of all, brought no wives with them to the new country,

31. But married Carian girls, whose fathers they had slain. Hence these women made a law, which they bound themselves to observe,

32. And which they handed down to their daughters after them, ‘That none should ever sit at table with her husband, or call him by his name’;

33. Because the invaders slew their fathers, their husbands and their sons, and then forced them to become their wives. It was at Miletus that these events took place.

34. The kings, too, whom they set over themselves, were either Lycians, of the blood of Glaucus, son of Hippolochus, or Pylian Caucons of the blood of Codrus, son of Melanthus; or else from both those families.

35. But since these Ionians valued their name more than any of the others did, let them pass for pure-bred Ionians; though truly all are Ionians who have their origin from Athens.

Chapter 15

  1. Originally the Aeolians had twelve cities upon the mainland, like the Ionians, but the Ionians deprived them of Smyrna in the following way:

  2. Certain men of Colophon had been engaged in a sedition there, and being the weaker party, were driven into banishment.

  3. The Smyrnaeans received the fugitives, who, after a time, watching their opportunity, while the inhabitants were celebrating a feast outside the walls, shut the gates, and so captured the town.

  4. The Aeolians of the other States came to their aid, and terms were agreed between the parties,

  5. The Ionians consenting to give up all the moveables, and the Aeolians making a surrender of the place.

  6. The expelled Smyrnaeans were distributed among the other States of the Aeolians, and were everywhere admitted to citizenship.

  7. Of the Aeolian islands, Lesbos contains five cities. Arisba, the sixth, was taken by the Methymnaeans, their kinsmen, and the inhabitants reduced to slavery.

  8. Tenedos contains one city, and there is another on the Hundred Isles.

  9. The Aeolians of Lesbos and Tenedos, like the Ionian islanders, had at this time nothing to fear from Persia.

10. The other Aeolians decided in their common assembly to follow the Ionians, whatever course they should pursue.

11. When the deputies of the Ionians and Aeolians, who had journeyed with all speed to Sparta, reached the city, they chose one of their number, Pythermus, a Phocaean, to be their spokesman.

12. In order to draw together as large an audience as possible, he clothed himself in a purple garment, and so attired stood up to speak.

13. In a long discourse he besought the Spartans to come to the assistance of his countrymen, but they were not to be persuaded, and voted against sending help.

14. The deputies accordingly went their way. But the Lacedaemonians, notwithstanding their refusal,

15. Dispatched a penteconter to the Asiatic coast with certain Spartans on board, for the purpose of observing what Cyrus might do to Ionia.

16. On their arrival these Spartans sent the most distinguished of their number, one Lacrines, to Sardis with a message to warn Cyrus, in the name of the Lacedaemonians, against molesting any city of Greece.

17. On hearing the herald, Cyrus asked some Greeks who were standing by, ‘Who are these Lacedaemonians, and how numerous are they, that they dare to send me such a message?’

18. When he had heard their reply, he turned to Lacrines and said, ‘I have never yet been afraid of any men, who have a set place in the middle of their city where they come together to cheat and lie.

19. ‘If I live, the Spartans shall have troubles enough of their own, without concerning themselves about the Ionians.’

20. Cyrus intended these words as a reproach against all Greeks because of the marketplaces in their cities where they buy and sell,

21. Which was a custom unknown to the Persians, who did not have a single marketplace in their whole country.

22. After this interview Cyrus left Sardis, putting Tabalus, a Persian, in charge of the city, but appointing Pactyas, a native Lydian, to collect the treasure belonging to Croesus and other Lydians.

23. Cyrus himself proceeded towards Ecbatana, taking Croesus with him, not regarding the Ionians as important enough to be his immediate object.

24. Larger designs were in his mind. He wished to war in person against Babylon, the Bactrians, the Sacae and Egypt; he therefore determined to assign to one of his generals the task of conquering the Ionians.

25. No sooner, however, was Cyrus gone from Sardis than Pactyas induced his Lydian countrymen to rise in revolt against him and his deputy Tabalus.

26. With the vast treasures at his disposal Pactyas went down to the sea, and employed them in hiring mercenary troops,

27. While at the same time he engaged the coastal people to join his army. He then marched on Sardis, where he besieged Tabalus.

28. When Cyrus, on his way to Ecbatana, received this news, he said to Croesus, ‘Where will all this end? It seems that Lydians will not cease to trouble both themselves and others.

29. ‘It might be best to sell them all for slaves. What I have done is as if I had killed the father but spared the child.

30. ‘You, who were more than a father to your people, I have carried off, and to that people I have entrusted their city. Can I be surprised at their rebellion?’

31. Alarmed at the thought that Cyrus would lay Sardis in ruins, Croesus replied: ‘O king, your words are reasonable;

32. ‘But do not, I beseech you, give vent to your anger and destroy an ancient city, guiltless alike of the past and the present trouble.

33. ‘I caused the one, and in my own person now pay for it.   Pactyas has caused the other; let him bear the punishment.

34. ‘Grant forgiveness to the Lydians, and to make sure of their never troubling you more, forbid them to keep any weapons of war,

35. ‘Command them to wear tunics under their cloaks, and to put buskins on their legs,

36. ‘And make them bring up their sons to playing musical instruments and shopkeeping.

37. ‘So will you soon see them become women instead of men, and there will be no more fear of their rebelling.’

38. Croesus thought this a better fate for the Lydians than being sold into slavery, and for this reason gave such advice to Cyrus, in a desperate attempt to save his people.

39. The advice pleased Cyrus, who consented. Thereupon he summoned a Mede called Mazares and charged him to issue orders to the Lydians in accordance with Croesus’ advice.

40. Further, he commanded him to sell as slaves all who had joined the Lydians in their attack on Sardis,

41. And above all to bring Pactyas with him alive on his return. Having given these orders Cyrus continued his journey back to Persia.

Chapter 16

  1. Pactyas, when news came of the approach of the Persian army, fled in terror to Cyme.

  2. The Median general Mazares, who had marched on Sardis with a detachment of the army of Cyrus, finding on his arrival that Pactyas and his troops were gone, immediately entered the town.

  3. And first of all he forced the Lydians to obey the orders of his master, and change (as they did from that time) their entire manner of living.

  4. Next, he dispatched messengers to Cyme, commanding Pactyas to be handed to him.

  5. Although some of the Greeks tried to hide Pactyas, he was at length betrayed to the Persians by the citizens of Chios,

  6. Who as their reward were given a tract of land in Mysia opposite Lesbos.

  7. Meanwhile Mazares, after he received Pactyas from the Chians, made war on those who had taken part in the attack on Tabalus,

  8. And in the first place took Priene and sold the inhabitants into slavery, after which he overran the whole plain of the Maeander and the district of Magnesia,

  9. Both of which he gave up for pillage to the soldiery. He then suddenly sickened and died.

10. Upon his death Harpagus, the Mede who had served and then betrayed king Astyages, and helped place Cyrus on the throne, was sent to the coast to assume the command.

11. He entered Ionia, and took the cities by means of a clever tactic:

12. Forcing the enemy to hide within their defences, he heaped mounds of earth against their walls, and thus captured the towns. Phocaea was the first city he took.

13. Now the Phocaeans were the first Greeks who made long sea voyages, and it was they who made the Greeks acquainted with the Adriatic and with Tyrrhenia, with Iberia, and the city of Tartessus.

14. The vessel they used in their voyages was not the round-built merchant ship, but the long penteconter.

15. On the Phocaeans’ arrival at Tartessus, the king there, Arganthonius, took a liking to them. This monarch reigned over the Tartessians for eighty years.

16. He regarded the Phocaeans with so much favour as, at first, to beg them to quit Ionia and settle in whatever part of his country they liked.

17. When he found that he could not prevail upon them to agree to this, and hearing that the Mede was growing great in their neighbourhood,

18. He gave them money to build a wall about their town, and certainly he must have been generous,

19. For the town wall was many furlongs in circuit, built of great blocks of stone skilfully joined.

20. Harpagus, having advanced against the Phocaeans, laid siege to them. Instead of attacking he first offered terms.

21. ‘It would content me,’ he said, ‘if the Phocaeans would agree to throw down one of their battlements, and dedicate one dwelling house to the king.’

22. The Phocaeans, vexed at the thought of becoming slaves, asked a single day to think about the offer, and asked Harpagus during that day to withdraw his forces from the walls.

23. Harpagus replied that he understood well enough what they intended, but nevertheless he granted their request.

24. Accordingly the Persian troops withdrew, and the Phocaeans immediately took the chance to launch their penteconters, and put on board their families and household goods,

25. Leaving only the paintings and works in stone or brass that could not be carried easily; and sailed for Chios. The Persians, on their return, took possession of an empty town.

26. Arrived at Chios, the Phocaeans made offers for the purchase of the islands called the Oenussae,

27. But the Chians refused, fearing that the Phocaeans would establish a trading centre there, and exclude the Chian merchants from the commerce of those seas.

28. So the Phocaeans, as Arganthonius of Tartessus was now dead, resolved to sail to Cyrnus (Corsica), where, twenty years earlier they had founded a colony called Alalia.

29. Before they set out, however, they sailed once more to Phocaea, and surprising the Persian troops left by Harpagus to garrison the town, killed them all.

30. After this they dropped a heavy mass of iron into the sea, and promised themselves never to return to Phocaea till that mass reappeared on the surface.

31. But as they were preparing to depart for Cyrnus, more than half their number were seized with such sadness and longing to see their city and homes once more, that they decided not to go, and sailed back to Phocaea.

32. The rest of the Phocaeans, who kept their resolve, proceeded without stopping on their voyage,

33. And when they came to Cyrnus they established themselves along with the earlier settlers at Alalia.

34. For five years they annoyed their neighbours by plundering and pillaging on all sides, until the Carthaginians and Tyrrhenians leagued against them, and each sent a fleet of sixty ships to attack them.