The History of Herodotus — Volume 2

by Herodotus

38. He then escaped by means of Croesus, but afterwards he brought his life to an end leaving no son to succeed him, but passing over his rule and his possessions to Stesagoras, who was the son of Kimon, his brother on the mother's side: [24] and the people of the Chersonese still offer sacrifices to him after his death as it is usual to do to a founder, and hold in his honour a contest of horse-races and athletic exercises, in which none of the men of Lampsacos are allowed to contend. After this there was war with those of Lampsacos; and it happened to Stesagoras also that he died without leaving a son, having been struck on the head with an axe in the City Hall by a man who pretended to be a deserter, but who proved himself to be in fact an enemy and a rather hot one moreover..

39. Then after Stesagoras also had ended his life in this manner, Miltiades son of Kimon and brother of that Stesagoras who was dead, was sent in a trireme to the Chersonese to take possession of the government by the sons of Peisistratos, who had dealt well with him at Athens also, pretending that they had had no share in the death of his father Kimon, of which in another part of the history I will set forth how it came to pass. [25] Now Miltiades, when he came to the Chersonese, kept himself within his house, paying honours in all appearance [26] to the memory of his brother Stesagoras; and the chief men of the inhabitants of the Chersonese in every place, being informed of this, gathered themselves together from all the cities and came in a body to condole with him, and when they had come they were laid in bonds by him. Miltiades then was in possession of the Chersonese, supporting a body of five hundred mercenary troops; and he married the daughter of Oloros the king of the Thracians, who was named Hegesipyle.

40. Now this Miltiades son of Kimon had at the time of which we speak but lately returned [27] to the Chersonese; and after he had returned, there befell him other misfortunes worse than those which had befallen him already; for two years before this he had been a fugitive out of the land from the Scythians, since the nomad Scythians provoked by king Dareios had joined all in a body and marched as far as this Chersonese, and Miltiades had not awaited their attack but had become a fugitive from the Chersonese, until at last the Scythians departed and the Dolonkians brought him back again. These things happened two years before the calamities which now oppressed him:.

41, and now, being informed that the Phenicians were at Tenedos, he filled five triremes with the property which he had at hand and sailed away for Athens. And having set out from the city of Cardia he was sailing through the gulf of Melas; and as he passed along by the shore of the Chersonese, the Phenicians fell in with his ships, and while Miltiades himself with four of his ships escaped to Imbros, the fifth of his ships was captured in the pursuit by the Phenicians. Of this ship it chanced that Metiochos the eldest of the sons of Miltiades was in command, not born of the daughter of Oloros the Thracian, but of another woman. Him the Phenicians captured together with his ship; and being informed about him, that he was the son of Miltiades, they brought him up to the king, supposing that they would lay up for themselves a great obligation; because it was Miltiades who had declared as his opinion to the Ionians that they should do as the Scythians said, at that time when the Scythians requested them to break up the bridge of boats and sail away to their own land. Dareios however, when the Phenicians brought up to him Metiochos the son of Miltiades, did Metiochos no harm but on the contrary very much good; for he gave him a house and possessions and a Persian wife, by whom he had children born who have been ranked as Persians. Miltiades meanwhile came from Imbros to Athens.

42. In the course of this year there was done by the Persians nothing more which tended to strife with the Ionians, but these things which follow were done in this year very much to their advantage.—Artaphrenes the governor of Sardis sent for envoys from all the cities and compelled the Ionians to make agreements among themselves, so that they might give satisfaction for wrongs and not plunder one another's land. This he compelled them to do, and also he measured their territories by parasangs,—that is the name which the Persians give to the length of thirty furlongs, [28]—he measured, I say, by these, and appointed a certain amount of tribute for each people, which continues still unaltered from that time even to my own days, as it was appointed by Artaphrenes; and the tribute was appointed to be nearly of the same amount for each as it had been before..

43. These were things which tended to peace for the Ionians; but at the beginning of the spring, the other commanders having all been removed by the king, Mardonios the son of Gobryas came down to the sea, bringing with him a very large land-army and a very large naval force, being a young man and lately married to Artozostra daughter of king Dareios. When Mardonios leading this army came to Kilikia, he embarked on board a ship himself and proceeded together with the other ships, while other leaders led the land-army to the Hellespont. Mardonios however sailing along the coast of Asia came to Ionia: and here I shall relate a thing which will be a great marvel to those of the Hellenes who do not believe that to the seven men of the Persians Otanes declared as his opinion that the Persians ought to have popular rule; [29] for Mardonios deposed all the despots of the Ionians and established popular governments in the cities. Having so done he hastened on to the Hellespont; and when there was collected a vast number of ships and a large land-army, they crossed over the Hellespont in the ships and began to make their way through Europe, and their way was directed against Eretria and Athens..

44. These, I say, furnished them the pretence for the expedition, but they had it in their minds to subdue as many as they could of the Hellenic cities; and in the first place they subdued with their ships the Thasians, who did not even raise a hand to defend themselves: then with the land-army they gained the Macedonians to be their servants in addition to those whom they had already; for all the nations on the East of the Macedonians [30] had become subject to them already before this. Crossing over then from Thasos to the opposite coast, they proceeded on their way near the land as far as Acanthos, and then starting from Acanthos they attempted to get round Mount Athos; but as they sailed round, there fell upon them a violent North Wind, against which they could do nothing, and handled them very roughly, casting away very many of their ships on Mount Athos. It is said indeed that the number of the ships destroyed was three hundred, [3001], and more than twenty thousand men; for as this sea which is about Athos is very full of sea monsters, some were seized by these and so perished, while others were dashed against the rocks; and some of them did not know how to swim and perished for that cause, others again by reason of cold..

45. Thus fared the fleet; and meanwhile Mardonios and the land-army while encamping in Macedonia were attacked in the night by the Brygian Thracians, and many of them were slain by the Brygians and Mardonios himself was wounded. However not even these escaped being enslaved by the Persians, for Mardonios did not depart from that region until he had made them subject. But when he had subdued these, he proceeded to lead his army back, since he had suffered great loss with his land-army in fighting against the Brygians and with his fleet in going round Athos. So this expedition departed back to Asia having gained no honour by its contests.

46. In the next year after this Dareios first sent a messenger to the men of Thasos, who had been accused by their neighbours of planning revolt, and bade them take away the wall around their town and bring their ships to Abdera. The Thasians in fact, as they had been besieged by Histiaios the Milesian and at the same time had large revenues coming in, were using their money in building ships of war and in surrounding their city with a stronger wall. Now the revenues came to them from the mainland and from the mines: from the gold-mines in Scapte Hyle [31] there came in generally eighty talents a year, and from those in Thasos itself a smaller amount than this but so much that in general the Thasians, without taxes upon the produce of their soil, had a revenue from the mainland and from the mines amounting yearly to two hundred talents, and when the amount was highest, to three hundred..

47. I myself saw these mines, and by much the most marvellous of them were those which the Phenicians discovered, who made the first settlement in this island in company with Thasos; and the island had the name which it now has from this Thasos the Phenician. These Phenician mines are in that part of Thasos which is between the places called Ainyra and Koinyra and opposite Samothrake, where there is a great mountain which has been all turned up in the search for metal. Thus it is with this matter: and the Thasians on the command of the king both razed their walls and brought all their ships to Abdera.