The Boys' and Girls' Herodotus / Being Parts of the History of Herodotus, Edited for Boys and Girls

by Herodotus

Aristagoras thus induced the Ionians to revolt, and died; and Histiæus, tyrant of Miletus, repaired to Sardis. When he arrived from Susa, Artaphernes, Governor of Sardis, asked him for what reason he supposed the Ionians had revolted. Histiæus said he did not know, and seemed surprised at what had happened, as if he knew nothing of the present state of affairs. But Artaphernes saw that he was dissembling, and being aware of the exact truth as to the revolt, said: "Histiæus, the state of the case is this: you made the shoe and Aristagoras has put it on." Histiæus in alarm fled to the coast as soon as night came on, and although he had promised to reduce the great island of Sardinia for Darius, he insinuated himself into the command of the Ionians in the war against him. At Chios he was taken and put in chains, being suspected by the Chians of planning some new design against them in favor of Darius. However, the Chians, being assured that he was an enemy to the king, released him, and conveyed him to Miletus, at his own request; but the Milesians, delighted at being rid of Aristagoras, were by no means desirous to receive another tyrant into their country, as they had tasted of freedom. Thereupon Histiæus, going down to Miletus by night, endeavored to enter it by force, but was wounded in the thigh by one of the Milesians. When he was repulsed from his own country, he went back to Chios, and from there, since he could not persuade the Chians to help him, he crossed over to Mitylene, and prevailed with the Lesbians to furnish him with ships; they manned eight triremes, and sailed with Histiæus to Byzantium. There taking up their station, they took all the ships that sailed out of the Pontus, except such of them as said they were ready to submit to Histiæus.

But a large naval and land-force was expected against Miletus itself. For the Persian generals had united their forces and formed one camp to march to Miletus, deeming the other cities of less consequence. The Ionians, hearing of this, sent their respective deputies to the Panionium, and determined not to assemble any land-forces to oppose the Persians; but bade the Milesians themselves defend their walls, while they should man their navy, without leaving a single ship behind, and assemble as soon as possible at Lade, to fight in defence of Miletus. Lade is a small island lying off the city of the Milesians. Soon the Ionians came up with their ships manned, and formed their line, a fleet three hundred and fifty-three triremes strong. On the side of the barbarians the number of ships amounted to six hundred, and when they arrived on the Milesian coast, and all their land-forces had come up, the Persian generals began to fear they should not be strong enough to overcome them, and so should be also unable to take Miletus, since they were not masters at sea, and then might be in danger of receiving punishment at the hands of Darius. Taking these things into consideration, they summoned the tyrants of the Ionians, who had been deprived of their governments by Aristagoras, and had fled to the Medes, and who happened at that time to be serving in the army against Miletus. "Men of Ionia," they said, "let each of you now show his zeal for the king's house. For let each of you endeavor to detach his own countrymen from the rest of the confederacy, and proclaim this, that they shall suffer no hurt on account of their rebellion, nor shall their buildings, whether sacred or profane, be burnt, nor shall they be treated with more severity than they were before. But if they do not do this, and will at all events come to the hazard of a battle, threaten that, when conquered in battle, they shall all be enslaved." And the tyrants of the Ionians sent each by night to his own countrymen, to make known the warning. But the Ionians to whom these messages came, continued firm to their purpose and would not listen to treachery; for each thought that the Persians had sent this message.

When the Ionians had assembled at Lade, a council was held, and the Phocæan general Dionysius spoke as follows: "Our affairs are in a critical[22] state, O Ionians; we are to be freemen or slaves, and that too run-away slaves. But if you are willing to undergo hardships, for the present you will have to toil, but will be enabled, by overcoming your enemies, to be free; on the other hand, if you abandon yourselves to ease and disorder, I have no hope that you will escape punishment at the hands of the king for your revolt. But be persuaded by me, and entrust yourselves to my guidance, and I promise you, that if the gods are impartial, either our enemies will not fight us at all, or if they do fight with us, they will be completely beaten." The Ionians intrusted themselves to the guidance of Dionysius without hesitation who daily led out the ships into a line, exercised the rowers, by practising the manœuvre of cutting through one another's line, put the marines under arms, and kept the ships at anchor for the rest of the day. For seven days they continued to obey, but on the eighth the Ionians, unaccustomed to such toil, and worn down by hardships and the heat of the sun, grumbled to each other in such terms as these: "What deity have we offended to fill up this measure of affliction? we who were so beside ourselves, as to have intrusted ourselves to the guidance of a presumptuous Phocæan, who, all told, contributed only three ships, but having got us under his control, afflicts us with intolerable hardships. Many of us have already fallen into distempers, and many more must expect to meet with the same fate. Instead of these evils, it would be better for us to suffer anything else, and to endure the impending servitude, be it what it may, than be oppressed by the present, Come, let us no longer obey him." And from that moment no one would obey; but, pitching their tents on the island, they continued under the shade, and would not go on board the ships, or perform their exercise. When the generals of the Samians observed what was passing among the Ionians, and saw great disorder among them, they accepted the proposal of Æaces, son of Syloson, which he had before sent them at the desire of the Persians, exhorting them to abandon the confederacy of the Ionians. Besides, it was clearly impossible for them to overcome the power of the king, because they were convinced, that if they should overcome Darius with his present fleet, another five times as large would come against them. So laying hold of this pretext, as soon as they saw the Ionians refusing to behave well, they deemed it for their advantage to preserve their own buildings, sacred and profane.

When therefore the Phœnicians sailed against them, the Ionians drew out their ships in line to oppose them; but when they came near and opposed each other, I am unable to affirm with certainty who of the Ionians proved themselves cowards, or brave men, in this sea-fight; for they mutually accuse each other. The Samians however are said at that moment to have hoisted sail, in pursuance of their agreement with Æaces, and steered out of the line to Samos, with the exception of eleven ships; the captains of which stayed and fought, refusing to obey their commanders; and for this action the commonwealth of the Samians conferred upon them the honor of having their names and ancestry engraved on a column, as those who had proved themselves valiant men; and this column now stands in the forum. The Lesbians also, seeing those stationed next them flee, did the same as the Samians; and most of the Ionians followed their example. Of those that persisted in the battle, the Chians were most roughly handled, as they displayed signal proofs of valor, and would not act as cowards. They had contributed one hundred ships, and on board each of them forty chosen citizens served as marines; and though they saw most of the confederates abandoning the common cause, they disdained to follow the example of their treachery; but choosing rather to remain with the few allies, they continued the fight, cutting through the enemies' line, until, after they had taken many of the enemies' ships, they lost most of their own. The Chians then fled to their own country with the remainder of their fleet. Those Chians whose ships were disabled in the fight, took refuge in Mycale, ran their ships aground, and left them there, and marched over-land across the continent. On their return they entered the territory of Ephesus, and arrived near the city by night, at a time when the women were celebrating the Thesmophoria; thereupon, the Ephesians, not having before heard how it had fared with the Chians, and seeing an army enter their territory, thinking they were certainly robbers, and had come to seize their women, rushed out in a body, and slew the Chians. When Dionysius the Phocæan perceived that the affairs of the Ionians were utterly ruined, he took three of the enemies' ships and sailed away, not indeed to Phocæa, well knowing that it would be enslaved with the rest of Ionia, but directly to Phœnicia; and there having disabled some merchantmen, and obtained great wealth, he sailed to Sicily, where he established himself as a pirate, attacking none of the Greeks, but only Carthaginians and Tyrrhenians.

When the Persians had conquered the Ionians in the sea-fight they besieged Miletus by land and sea, undermined the walls, and bringing up all kinds of military engines against it, took it completely, in the sixth year after the revolt of Aristagoras. They reduced the city to slavery, so that the event coincided with the oracle delivered concerning Miletus. For when the Argives consulted the oracle at Delphi respecting the preservation of their city, a double answer was given; part concerning themselves, and the addition concerning the Milesians. The part relating to the Argives I will mention when I come to that part of the history; the words the Pythian uttered relative to the Milesians, who were not present, were these: "Then Miletus, contriver of wicked deeds, thou shalt become a feast and a rich gift to many: thy wives shall wash the feet of many long-haired masters, and our temple at Didymi shall be tended by others." These things befell the Milesians at that time; for most of the men were killed by the Persians, who wear long hair, their women and children were treated as slaves, and the sacred enclosure at Didymi, both the temple and the shrine, were pillaged and burnt. Of the riches in this temple I have frequently made mention in other parts of my history. Such of the Milesians as were taken alive were afterward conveyed to Susa; and King Darius did them no harm, but settled them on the Red Sea, in the city of Ampe, near by which the Tigris falls into the sea. Of the Milesian territory, the Persians themselves retained the parts round the city and the plain; the mountainous parts they gave to the Carians of Pedasus to occupy. When the Milesians suffered this at the hands of the Persians, the Sybarites, who inhabited Laos and Scydrus, did not show equal sympathy. But when Sybaris was taken by the Crotonians, all the Milesians of every age had shaved their heads and displayed marks of deep mourning: for these two cities had been more strictly united in friendship than any others we are acquainted with. The Athenians behaved in a very different manner; for the Athenians made it evident that they were excessively grieved at the capture of Miletus, both in many other ways, and more particularly when Phrynichus had composed a drama of the capture of Miletus, and represented it, the whole theatre burst into tears, and fined him a thousand drachmas[23] for renewing the memory of their domestic misfortunes; and they gave order that henceforth no one should act this drama.

AMPHITHEATRE AT POLA.

While Histiæus the Milesian was near Byzantium, intercepting the trading ships of the Ionians that sailed out of the Pontus, news was brought him of what had taken place at Miletus; he therefore intrusted his affairs on the Hellespont to Bisaltes, son of Apollophanes, of Abydos, and with the Lesbians sailed to Chios, and engaged with a garrison of Chians, that would not admit him, at a place called Cœli in the Chian territory, and killed great numbers of them. The deity is wont to give some previous warning when any great calamities are about to befall city or nation, and before these misfortunes great warnings happened to the Chians. For in the first place, when they sent to Delphi a band of one hundred youths, two only of them returned home, for a pestilence seized and carried off the remaining ninety-eight. In the next place, a little before the sea-fight, a house in the city fell in upon some boys, as they were learning to read, so that of one hundred and twenty boys one only escaped. After this, the sea-fight following, threw the city prostrate; and after the sea-fight Histiæus with the Lesbians came upon them; and as the Chians had been much shattered, he easily reduced them to subjection. From there Histiæus proceeded to attack Thasus with a large body of Ionians and Æolians; and while he was besieging Thasus, Harpagus, the Persian, general of a considerable army, who, happening to be in those parts, engaged with him after his landing, took Histiæus himself prisoner, and destroyed the greater part of his army.

Now if, when Histiæus was taken prisoner, he had been conducted to king Darius, in my opinion, he would have suffered no punishment, and the king would have forgiven him his fault. But for this very reason, lest by escaping he should again regain his influence with the king, Artaphernes, Governor of Sardis, and Harpagus, who received him as soon as he was conducted to Sardis, impaled his body on the spot, and embalmed the head and sent it to Darius at Susa. Darius blamed those that had done it, because they had not brought him alive into his presence, and gave orders that they should wash and adorn the head of Histiæus, and inter it honorably, as the remains of a man who had been a great benefactor to himself and the Persians.

The naval force of the Persians wintered near Miletus. In the second year it set sail for the islands lying near the continent, Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos, which it easily subdued. When they took any one of these islands, the barbarians netted the inhabitants in this manner: Taking one another by the hand, they would extend from the northern to the southern sea, and so march over the island, hunting out the inhabitants. They also took the Ionian cities on the continent with the same ease; but did not net the inhabitants, for that was impossible. Thus the Ionians were for the third time reduced to slavery; first by the Lydians, then twice successively by the Persians. The naval force, departing from Ionia, reduced all the places on the left of the Hellespont as one sails in; and all the cities of the Chersonese, except Cardia, they subdued.