The Histories Book 6: Erato

Herodotus

• Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781625580450
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia del mundo

Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who lived in the fifth century BC (c.484 - 425 BC). He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a well-constructed and vivid narrative. The Histories-his masterpiece and the only work he is known to have produced-is a record of his "inquiry", being an investigation of the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars and including a wealth of geographical and ethnographical information. The Histories, were divided into nine books, named after the nine Muses: the "Muse of History", Clio, representing the first book, then Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polymnia, Ourania and Calliope for books 2 to 9, respectively.

The Histories Book 6: Erato

1. Aristagoras accordingly, after having caused Ionia to revolt, thus brought his life to an end; and meanwhile Histiaios the despot of Miletos, having been let go by Darius had arrived at Sardis: and when he came from Susa, Artaphrenes the governor of Sardis asked him for what reason he supposed the Ionians had revolted; and he said that he could not tell, and moreover he expressed wonder at that which had happened, pretending that he knew nothing of the state of affairs. Then Artaphrenes seeing that he was using dissimulation said, having knowledge of the truth about the revolt: “Thus it is with thee, Histiaios, about these matters,—this shoe was stitched by thee, and put on by Aristagoras.”

2. Thus said Artaphrenes with reference to the revolt; and Histiaios fearing Artaphrenes because he understood the matter, ran away the next night at nightfall and went to the sea-coast, having deceived king Darius, seeing that he had engaged to subdue Sardinia the largest of islands, and instead of that he was endeavouring to take upon himself leadership of the Ionians in the war against Darius. Then having crossed over to Chios he was put in bonds by the Chians, being accused by them of working for a change of their State by suggestion of Darius. When however the Chians learnt the whole story and heard that he was an enemy to the king, they released him.

3. Then Histiaios, being asked by the Ionians for what reason he had so urgently charged Aristagoras to revolt from the king and had wrought so great an evil for the Ionians, did not by any means declare to them that which had been in truth the cause, but reported to them that king Darius had resolved to remove the Phoenicians from their land and to settle them in Ionia, and the Ionians in Phoenicia; and for this reason, he said, he had given the charge. Thus he attempted to alarm the Ionians, although the king had never resolved to do so at all.

4. After this Histiaios acting through a messenger, namely Hermippos a man of Atarneus, sent papers to the Persians who were at Sardis, implying that he had already talked matters over with them about a revolt: and Hermippos did not deliver them to those to whom he was sent, but bore the papers and put them into the hands of Artaphrenes. He then, perceiving all that was being done, bade Hermippos bear the papers sent by Histiaios and deliver them to those to whom he was sent to bear them, and to deliver to him the replies sent back by the Persians to Histiaios. These things having been discovered, Artaphrenes upon that put to death many of the Persians.

5. As regards Sardis therefore there was confusion of the design; and when Histiaios had been disappointed of this hope, the Chians attempted to restore him to Miletos at the request of Histiaios himself. The Milesians, however, who had been rejoiced before to be rid of Aristagoras, were by no means eager to receive another despot into their land, seeing that they had tasted of liberty: and in fact Histiaios, attempting to return to Miletos by force and under cover of night, was wounded in the thigh by one of the Milesians. He then, being repulsed from his own city, returned to Chios; and thence, as he could not persuade the Chians to give him ships, he crossed over to Mytilene and endeavoured to persuade the Lesbians to give him ships. So they manned eight triremes and sailed with Histiaios to Byzantion, and stationing themselves there they captured the ships which sailed out of the Pontus, excepting where the crews of them said that they were ready to do the bidding of Histiaios.

6. While Histiaios and the men of Mytilene were acting thus, a large army both of sea and land forces was threatening to attack Miletos itself; for the commanders of the Persians had joined together to form one single army and were marching upon Miletos, considering the other towns of less account. Of their naval force the most zealous were the Phoenicians, and with them also served the Cyprians, who had just been subdued, and the Cilicians and Egyptians.

7. These, I say, were advancing upon Miletos and the rest of Ionia; and meanwhile the Ionians being informed of this were sending deputies chosen from themselves to the Panionion. When these had arrived at that place and took counsel together, they resolved not to gather a land-army to oppose the Persians, but that the Milesians should defend their walls by themselves, and that the Ionians should man their fleet, leaving out not one of their ships, and having done so should assemble as soon as possible at Lade, to fight a sea-battle in defence of Miletos. Now Lade is a small island lying opposite the city of the Milesians.

8. Then the Ionians manned their ships and came thither, and with them also those Aiolians who inhabit Lesbos; and they were drawn up in order thus:—the extremity of the line towards the East was held by the Milesians themselves, who furnished eighty ships; next to them were the Prienians with twelve ships and the men of Myus with three; next to those of Myus were the Teians with seventeen ships, and after the Teians the Chians with a hundred; after these were stationed the men of Erythrai and of Phocaia, the former furnishing eight ships and the latter three; next to the Phocaians were the Lesbians with seventy ships, and last, holding the extremity of the line towards the West, were stationed the Samians with sixty ships. Of all these the total number proved to be three hundred and fifty-three triremes.

9. These were the ships of the Ionians; and of the Barbarians the number of ships was six hundred. When these too were come to the Milesian coast and their whole land-army was also there, then the commanders of the Persians, being informed of the number of the Ionian ships, were struck with fear lest they should be unable to overcome them, and thus on the one hand should not be able to conquer Miletos from not having command of the sea, and at the same time should run a risk of being punished by Darius. Reflecting upon these things they gathered together the despots of the Ionians who were exiles with the Medes, having been deposed from their governments by Aristagoras the Milesian, and who chanced to be then joining in the expedition against Miletos,—of these men they called together those who were present and spoke to them as follows: “Ionians, now let each one of you show himself a benefactor of the king’s house, that is to say, let each one of you endeavour to detach his own countrymen from the body of the alliance: and make your proposals promising at the same time that they shall suffer nothing unpleasant on account of the revolt, and neither their temples nor their private houses shall be burnt, nor shall they have any worse treatment than they had before this; but if they will not do so, but will by all means enter into a contest with us, threaten them and tell them this, which in truth shall happen to them, namely that if they are worsted in the fight they shall be reduced to slavery, and we shall make their sons eunuchs, and their maidens we shall remove to Bactria, and deliver their land to others.”

10. They thus spoke; and the despots of Ionia sent each one by night to his own people announcing to them this. The Ionians however, that is those to whom these messages came, continued obstinate and would not accept the thought of treason to their cause; and each people thought that to them alone the Persians were sending this message.

11. This happened as soon as the Persians came to Miletos; and after this the Ionians being gathered together at Lade held meetings; and others no doubt also made speeches to them, but especially the Phocaian commander Dionysios, who said as follows: “Seeing that our affairs are set upon the razor’s edge, Ionians, whether we shall be free or slaves, and slaves too to be dealt with as runaways, now therefore if ye shall be willing to take upon yourselves hardships, ye will have labour for the time being, but ye will be able to overcome the enemy and be free; whereas if ye continue to be self-indulgent and without discipline, I have no hope for you that ye will not pay the penalty to the king for your revolt. Nay, but do as I say, and deliver yourselves over to me; and I engage, if the gods grant equal conditions, that either the enemy will not fight with us, or that fighting he shall be greatly discomfited.”

12. Hearing this the Ionians delivered themselves to Dionysios; and he used to bring the ships out every day in single file, that he might practise the rowers by making the ships break through one another’s line, and that he might get the fighting-men in the ships under arms; an then for the rest of the day he would keep the ships at anchor; and thus he gave the Ionians work to do during the whole day. For seven days then they submitted and did that which he commanded; but on the day after these the Ionians, being unaccustomed to such toils and being exhausted with hard work and hot sun, spoke to one another thus: “Against which of the deities have we offended, that we thus fill up the measure of evil? for surely we have delivered ourselves to a Phocaian, an impostor, who furnishes but three ships: and he has taken us into his hands and maltreats us with evil dealing from which we can never recover; and many of us in fact have fallen into sicknesses, and many others, it may be expected, will suffer the same thing shortly; and for us it is better to endure anything else in the world rather than these ills, and to undergo the slavery which will come upon us, whatever that shall be, rather than to be oppressed by that which we have now. Come, let us not obey him after this any more.” So they said, and forthwith after this every one refused to obey him, and they pitched their tents in the island like an army, and kept in the shade, and would not go on board their ships or practise any exercises.

13. Perceiving this which was being done by the Ionians, the commanders of the Samians then at length accepted from Aiakes the son of Syloson those proposals which Aiakes sent before at the bidding of the Persians, asking them to leave the alliance of the Ionians; the Samians, I say, accepted these proposals, perceiving that there was great want of discipline on the part of the Ionians, while at the same time it was clear to them that it was impossible to overcome the power of the king; and they well knew also that even if they should overcome the present naval force of Darius, another would be upon them five times as large. Having found an occasion then, so soon as they saw that the Ionians refused to be serviceable, they counted it gain for themselves to save their temples and their private property. Now Aiakes, from whom the Samians accepted the proposals, was the son of Syloson, the son of Aiakes, and being despot of Samos he had been deprived of his rule by Aristagoras the Milesian, like the other despots of Ionia.

14. So when the Phoenicians sailed to the attack, the Ionians also put out their ships from shore against them, sailing in single file: and when they came near and engaged battle with one another, as regards what followed I am not able exactly to record which of the Ionians showed themselves cowards or good men in this sea-fight, for they throw blame upon one another. The Samians however, it is said, according to their agreement with Aiakes put up their sails then and set forth from their place in the line to sail back to Samos, excepting only eleven ships: of these the captains stayed in their places and took part in the sea-fight, refusing to obey the commanders of their division; and the public authority of the Samians granted them on account of this to have their names written up on a pillar with their fathers’ names also, as having proved themselves good men; and this pillar exists still in the market-place. Then the Lesbians also, when they saw that those next them in order were taking to flight, did the same things as the Samians had done, and so also most of the Ionians did the very same thing.

15. Of those which remained in their places in the sea-fight the Chians suffered very severely, since they displayed brilliant deeds of valour and refused to play the coward. These furnished, as was before said, a hundred ships and in each of them forty picked men of their citizens served as fighting-men; and when they saw the greater number of their allies deserting them, they did not think fit to behave like the cowards among them, but left along with a few only of their allies they continued to fight and kept breaking through the enemy’s line; until at last, after they had conquered many ships of the enemy, they lost the greater number of their own.

16. The Chians then with the remainder of their ships fled away to their own land; but those of the Chians whose ships were disabled by the damage which they had received, being pursued fled for refuge to Mycale; and their ships they ran ashore there and left them behind, while the men proceeded over the mainland on foot: and when the Chians had entered the Ephesian territory on their way, then since they came into it by night and at a time when a festival of Thesmophoria was being celebrated by the women of the place, the Ephesians, not having heard beforehand how it was with the Chians and seeing that an armed body had entered their land, supposed certainly that they were robbers and had a design upon the women; so they came out to the r...