hlS'6' If S ^' CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY The original of this book is in the Corneii University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://archive.org/details/cu31924088051697 THE HISTORY HERODOTUS. A NEW ENGLISH VERSION, EDITED WITH COPIOUS NOTES AND APPENDICES, ILLUSTRATING THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF HERODOTUS, FROM THE MOST RECENT SOURCES OF INFORMATION; AND EMBODYING THE CHIEF RESULTS, HISTORICAL AND ETHNOGRAPHICAJ,, WHICH HAVE BEEN OBTAINED IN THE PEOGEESS OF CUNEIFORM AND HIEROGLYPHICAL DISCOVERY. BY GEOEGE EAWLINSON, M.A., LATE FELLOW AND TDTOE OF EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD. ASSISTED BY COL. SIE HENRY KAWLINSON, K.C.B., and SIR J. G. AVILKINSON, F.R.S. IN FOUR VOLUMES.— Vol. IV. WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. LONDON: JOHN MUEEAY, ALBEMAELE STEEBT. 1860. The right of Translation is reserved. 2' LONDOiN : PRINTED BY WIIXIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET, AND CUAniNO CnOBS. CONTENTS OF VOL. IV. HISTOEY OF HEEODOTUS. THE SEVENTH BOOK, ENTITLED POLYMNIA. Preparations of Darius against Greece (1). His sons dispute the succession (2). Appointment of Xerxes (3). Deatli of Darius (4). Xerxes urged to attack Greece (5). Influence of Onomacritus (6). Eeduetionof Egypt (7). Xerxes assembles a council — his speech (8). Address of Mardonius (9). Speech of Artabanus (10). Replyof Xerxes (11). Xerxes' vision (12-14). Colloquy with Artabanus (16). *The vision appears to Artabanus (17-18). Preparations of Xerxes (19). Magnitude of the expedition (20-21). Canal of Athos — skill of the Phcenioians (22-24). Collection of stores (25). Xerxes' march from Critalla (26). Story of Pythius the Lydian (27-29). Route of the army (30). Xerxes reaches Sardis (31). Heralds sent off (32). Bridge at Abydos (33-34). Xerxes lashes the Hellespont (35). Construction of the Bridge (36). The army leaves Sardis (37). Treatment of Pythius' son (38-39). Order of the march (40-41). Route through Mysia (42). Xerxes at Troy (43). Xerxes views his armament (44). Dialogue with Artabanus (46-52). Xerxes' address to the chief Persians (53). Libation and prayer of Xerxes (54). Passage of the Hellespont (55-56). Prodigies (57). March from Sestos to Doriscus (58-59). Numbering of the army (60). Nations enumerated — the Persians — their dress and armature (61). The Medes, Cissians, and Hyroanians (62). The Assyrians and Chaldasans (63). The Bactrians and Sacse (64). The Indians (65). The Arians, Parthians, &o. (66). The Caspians, Sarangians, &c. (67). The Utians, &c. (68). The Arabians and the Ethiopians of Libya (69). The Ethiopians of Asia (70). The Libyans (71). The Paphlagonians, Phrygians and Armenians (72-73). The Lydians and Thracians (74-75). The Chalybians, Cabalians, &o. (76-77). The Moschians, Mares, Colohiana, &o. (78-79). The Islanders (80). Ofaoers and Commanders in chief (81-82). " Immortals " (83). Nations which fur- nished cavalry (84-88). Contingents to the fleet — (i.) Phoenicians — (ii.) Egyptians (89). (ui.) Cyprians (90). (iv.) Cilicians and (v.) Pamphylians (91). (vi.) Lycians, (vii.) Dorians, and (viii.)Carians (92-93). (ix.) lonians, (x.) iEolians, and (xi.) Hellespontians (94). Marines (96). Commanders of the naval force (97-98). Artemisia (99). Xerxes reviews his forces (100). Consults Demaratus (101). Speech of Demaratus (102). Reply of Xerxes (103). Demaratus' opinion of the Spartans (104). Xerxes leaves Doriscus (105). Mascames and Boges (106-107). Xerxes' march from Doriscus (108). Pass- age of the Nestus (109). Thracian tribes along the route (110-112). March through Pasonia (113). Passage of the Strymon (114). March to Acanthus (115-116). Death and funeral of Ai-tacheees (117). Preparations for feeding the army (118-1 19). Witty remark of Megacreon (120). Order of the march (121). Passage through the Canal (122). Courseof the fleet (123). Arrival a 2 iv CONTENTS OF VOL. IV. THE SEVENTH BOOK— continued. in the Thermaio Gulf (124). The camels attacked by liona (125-126). Xerxes reaches Therma (127). Two entrances into Theasaly (128). Description of Thessaly— the Peneua and its tributaries (129). The way to submerge Thessaly (130). Stay of Xerxes in Pieria (131). Treatment of Persian heralds (132-133). Story of Sperthias and Bulls (134-137). Alarm of the Greeks (jlSS). Patriotic conduct of the Athenians — the Athenians, the Saviours of Greece (139). Warning of the oracle (140). The second oracle (141-142). Themistocles (143). Proposal of Themistocles to baild a fleet (144). The Greeks make up their quarrels (145). Xerxes' treatment of the Greek spies (146-147). Greek embassy to Argos— reply of the Argive council (148). Sparta rejects their offer (149). Alliance between Persia and Argos (150-152). Greek embassy to Sicily— ancestry of Gelo (153). History of Gela (154). Gelo becomes king of Gela (155). Makes Syracuse his capital (156). Speech of the Greek envoys (157). Gelo's answer (158). Indigna- tion of Syagrua (159). Gelo's reply to him (160). Address of the Athenian envoy (161). Gelo's final answer (162). Cadmus sent by Gelo to Delphi (163-164). Intention of Gelo to help the Greeks— Carthaginians invade Sicily (165). Defeat and disappearance of Hamilcar (166-167). Promises of the Coroyraeans — their actual conduct (168). Embassy to Crete (169). Mythic history of Minos — greatest known slaughter of Greeks (170). Mis- fortunes of Crete (171). Greeks occupy the defilS of Tempe (172). Reason of their leaving the pass (173-174). Greeks resolve to defend Artemisium and Thermopylae — description of these places (175-177). Greeks advised to pray to the winds (178). Advance of the Persian fleet (179). First encounter (180-182). Stele placed on the "Ant" (183). Estimate of the Persian forces (184-185). Number of the host altogether (186). Rivers insufScient for the supply (187). First storm — loss to the Persian fleet (188-189). Enrichment of Ameinocles (190). The storm ceases (191). Thanksgiving to Neptune "the Saviour" (192). Persians advance to Aphetas (193). Greeks take fifteen ships (194). Fate of Aridolis (195). Xerxes' advance through Thessaly (196). Temple of Laphystian Jupiter (197). Description of Malis (198). Pass of Thermopylae (199-200). Position of the two armies (201). Enumeration of the Greek troops (202-203). Descent of Leonidas (204). The three hundred (205). Spartans keep the Carneia (206). Panic (207). Mounted spy sent by Xerxes (208). Xerxes questions Demaratus (209). First attack by the Medes (210). Second attack, by the "Immortals" (211). Alarm of Xerxes (212). Ephialtes tells of the mountain-path (213-214). Hydarnes sent with Ephialtes (215). The path described (216). Passage of the Persians (217-218). Leonidas dismisses the allies (219). Reasons for Leonidas remaining (220). Conduct of the Thespians and Thebans (222). Last conflict — death of Leonidas (223-224). Struggle over his body (225). Remark of Dieneces (226). Alpheus and Maro (227). Inscriptions (228)' Story of Aristodemus (229-231). Conduct and fate of the Thebans (233) Xerxes' colloquy with Demaratus (234-235). Objection of AchEemenes f236) Reply of Xerxes (237). His treatment of Leonidas' bodv f2 TrXrjpei avOpwnav eKacTov TO eSvos inopeveTo) ; and see also Anian (Bxped. Alex. iii. 11). " The NisEean breed of horses con- tinued in repute down to the times of Ammianus Maroellinus (xxiii. 6). They excelled all others in size and speed (Strab. aplarois Km jnyia-Tois ; Suid. ad voc. aKia-Toi), and were generally the property of the Persian kings or nobles of the highest rank. The situation of the Nisasan plain, from which they were said to derive their name, is uncertain. According to Strabo, some placed it in Armenia (xii. p. 763, 769). Others, accord- ing to Suidas (ad voc. NiVaio)/), in Persia. The general consent, however, of the best writers assigns it to Media, where we know from the Behistun inscription, that there was a district NisEea or Nisaya (Ool. I. Par. 3, § 11). As Alexander visited it on his way from Opis to Ecbatana (Arrian. Exp. Alex. vii. 13), it may probably have been the tract of ex- cellent pasture land which lies be- tween Behistun and Khorram-Abad, known now as the plains of Khawah and Alistar. (See Col. Rawlinson's march from Zohab to Khuzistan, in the Geographical Society's Journal, vol. ix. p. 100.) ' The sacred chariot of Jupiter (Ormuzd) is mentioned by Xenophon in his description of the train of Cyrus (Cyrop. VIII. iii. 12). The white horses had golden yokes, and were adorned with garlands. It was fol- lowed, he says, by the chariot of the Sun (Mithras), and by another chariot, sacred apparently to the element of fire. Does this mark the progress in corruption of the Persian religion between the date of Xerxes, and that of Artaxerxes Mnemon, with the customs of whose time Xenophon was alone acquainted ? 42 OEDBB OF THE MARCH. Book VH. Nissean horses, with his charioteer, Patiramphes, the son of Otanes, a Persian, standing by his side,' 41. Thus rode forth Xerxes from Sardis — but he was accustomed every now and then, when the fancy took him, to ahght from his chariot and travel in a Utter. Immediately behind the king there followed a body of a thousand spearmen, the noblest and bravest of the Persians, holding their lances in the usual manner' — then came a thousand Persian horse, picked men — then ten thousand, picked also after the rest, and serving on foot.^ Of these last one thousand carried spears with golden pomegranates at their lower end instead of spikes ; and these encircled the other nine thousand, who bore on their spears pomegranates of silver. The spearmen ° The Persian monarchs fought from chariots down to the era of the Macedonian conquest. This is plain from Arrian (Exp. Alex, ii. 11, iii. 15) and other writers (Q. Curt. iv. i. § 1 and 15, § 24 ; Diod. Sic. xvii. 34). Herein they followed the practice of the Assyrian kings, as appears from the sculptures recently excavated. The chariot used seems to have been (like those of the Greeks and Romans) light and small, affording barely room for three men to stand in it. In battle and in hunting, the king and his cha- rioteer were the only occupants, and stood side by side ; on occasions of state there was a third person in the car, an attendant who bore the royal parasol. The following representa- tion, taken from Ker Porter, will fur- nish a tolerably correct notion of the chariots of the Persian kings. " That is, with the point upward. ' These were probably the Immor- tals, who are spoken of in ch. 83, and are there said to have served on foot. Persian Chariot (from Pereepolis). Chap. 41, 42. ROUTE THROUGH MYSIA. 43 too who pointed their lances towards the ground, had golden pomegranates ; and the thousand Persians who followed close after Xerxes, had golden apples.^ Behind the ten thousand footmen came a body of Persian cavalry, likewise ten thousand ; after which there was again a void space for as much as two furlongs ; and then the rest of the army followed in a confused crowd. 42. The march of the army, after leaving Lydia, was directed upon the river Oaicus and the land of Mysia. Beyond the Caicus the road, leaving Mount Cana upon the left, passed through the Atarnean plain,^ to the city of Carina.^ Quitting this, the troops advanced across the plain of Thebe,^ passing Adramyttium,® and Antan- * See Athen. Deipn. xii. p. 514, B. In the sculptures at Persepolis, the spearmen, who evidently repre- sent the body-guard of the king. have the lower extremity of their spears ornamented with a hall, which may be either an apple or a pome- granate. They hear their spears erect. ^ The route of Xerxes from. Sardis to the Caicus is uncertain. He may cither have descended the valley of the Hermus, and then followed the coast road by Cyme, Myrina, Gry- neum, and ElaBa ; or he may have crossed the hill by lake Gygsea, and entered the upper valley of the Caicus, where moderns reach it on their way from Thyatira (^Ah-Jiissar) to Pergamos (Bergma). The latter is the shorter, hut the former the easier route. With respect to the situation of the Atarnean plain, vide supra, i. 160, and vi. 28-9. The geography of this tract is still very partially known. By Mount Cana, Herodotus appears to mean the modern Mount Karada, op- posite the south-eastern extremity of Mytilene. The army would naturally leave this mountain to the left before entering the Atarnean plain, which was on the coast near Deheli Kieui. In after times the name of Cana or Canse was applied to a much larger district (Strab. xiii. p. 883). * The situation of Carina can only be conjectured. It appears from this passage to have lain on a ridge sepa- rating the Atarnean plain from that of Theb^. This district is still un- explored, I believe. Carina was a city of some consequence at the time of the Ionian colonisation, and fur- nished colonists to Bphesus (Ephor. ap. Steph. Byz. ad voc. BeVra). After the time of Herodotus it disappears from history, being only mentioned by Pliny, and then as a place that had ceased to exist (H. N. v. 30). * The plain of Thebe was so called from an ancient town of that name in the northern part of the plain, at the foot of Mount Ida. Ruins of this town, celebrated as being the native city of Andromache (Horn. II. vi. 395 ; xxii. 479), remained to the time of Strabo (xiii. p. 879). The plain, in the centre of which the city of Adramyti (Adramyttium) now stands, is one of great beauty and fertility (Fellows, Asia Minor, p. 42 ; cf. Liv. xxxvii. 19 ; Polyh. xvi. 1), and was in ancient times a constant object of contention, first between the Mysians and Lydians, and afterwards between them and the Greeks (Strab. 1. s. c). ° Adramyttium is said to have been founded by Adramytes, or 44 XBEXES AT TROY. Book VII. drus,' the Pelasgic city ; then, holding Mount Ida upon the left hand,' it entered the Trojan territory. On this march the Persians suffered some loss ; for as they bivou- acked during the night at the foot of Ida, a storm of thunder and lightning burst upon them, and killed no small number. 43. On reaching the Scamander, which was the first stream, of all that they had crossed since they left Sardis, whose water failed them and did not suffice to satisfy the thirst of men and cattle,'' Xerxes ascended- into the Pergamus of Priam,^ since he had a longing to behold the place. When he had seen everything, and Adramys, son of one of the Lydian kings (cf. Aristot. ap. Steph. Byz. sub voc. 'AbpafivrTelov, and Nic. Dam. Fr. 63). It was given to the ejected Delians by Pharnaces, in the tenth year of the Peloponnesian war (Thuoyd v. 1; cf. viii. 108); and from that time seems to have been reckoned a G-reek city (Seylax, Peripl. pp. 87, 88). The modern town of Adramyti, which retains both the name and site, boasts but few re- mains of the ancient city (Fellows, ut supra). ' For the situation of Antandrus, vide supra, v. 26. The march of Xe- nophon from Troy to Pergamus may conveniently he compared with this portion of the route of Xerxes (eV- Tev6ev enopevovTO 6ta t^s Tpoias, Ka\ vnepjBdvTes Trjv ' Id-qv, els " Avravhpov a^iKvovvrai Tvpairov' etra Tvapa OdXar- rav nopevopevoi ttjs Avfitas, els Qr][37js ttcSlov. 'EvTivdfV 8l 'ArpapVTTiov Kal KeprovLOV Trap' ^Arapvea els KaiKov Trediov i\06vTcs, Uepyapiov KaraXap,- ^dvova-L T^s Mva-ias. Anab. VII. viii. §§ 7, 8). " The true Ida must have been left considerably to the right, the army crossing the ridge which extends from it westward, and terminates in Cape Bala. Herodotus appears to have given the name of Ida to the high- lands which close in the valley of the Scamander on the left, lying west and south of Bunarhashi. (See the Chart on the opposite page.) " Though the Scamander of Hero- dotus (the modern Mendere) has a bed from 200 to 300 feet broad, yet the stream in the dry season is re- duced to a slender brook not more than three feet deep(Geograph. Joum. vol. xii. p. 34). It may therefore easily Tiave proved insufficient to afford good water for the entire host. See the remarks of Mr. Grote (Hist, of Greece, vol. v. p. 37). ' By the " Pergamus of Priam" is to be understood the acropolis of New Ilium, which claimed, and was be- lieved till after the time of Alexander, to stand upon the site of the ancient city (Strab. xiii. p. 855). Hither Alexander also ascended, and sacri- ficed to Minerva (Arrian. Exp. Alex. i. 11 ; Strab. 1. s. c). The ruins near Kum-hieui, 5 miles to the south- east of Kum-haleh, or the lower castle of the Dardanelles, mark the situation of New Ilium. (See Leake's Asia Minor, p. 275.) The question of the situation of the Homeric Ilium scarcely comes within the province of a commentator on Herodotus. I may however be al- lowed to express an opinion in favour of the views of those who distinguish between Old and New Ilium, and jjlaoe the former at Bunarhashi, on the left bank of the river. (See the ■ accompanying map.) ,Chap. 43. PLAN OP THE COUNTRY NEAR TROY. 45 46 XERXES VIEWS HIS ARMAMENT. Book VII. inquired into all particulars, lie made an offering of a thousand oxen to the Trojan Minerva, while the Magians poured libations to the heroes who were slain at Troy.^ The night after, a panic fell upon the camp : but in the morning they set off with daylight, and skirting on the left hand the towns Ehoeteum, Ophryneum, and Dar- danus* (which borders on Abydos), on the right the Teucrians of Gergis,* so reached Abydos.^ 44. Arrived here, Xerxes wished to look upon all his host ; so, as there was a throne of white marble upon a hill near the city,* which they of Abydos had prepared beforehand, by the king's bidding, for his especial use, Xerxes took his seat on it, and, gazing thence upon the shore below, beheld at one view all his land forces and all his ships. "While thus employed, he felt a desire to behold a sailing-match among his ships, which accordingly took place, and was won by the Phoenicians of Sidon, much to the joy of Xerxes, ' These acts are " strange if true." They may have been done to conci- liate the Asiatic Greeks, whose defec- tion was feared (infra, chs. 51, 52). Or they may have been acts of wor- ship, of which the Greeks misunder- stood, or misrepresented, the true character. The Magi would be as little likely as the Achajmenian Per- sians, to sacrifice to the heroes who fell at Troy and the Trojan Minerva. " These were all places of small importance on or near the coast. Rhoeteum, according to Strabo, was 7 miles from Sigeum, at the mouth of the Hellespont (Strab. xiii. p. 859). It was situated near the barrow of Ajax, which is still a marked feature on the eastern edge of the Trojan plain. Col. Leake identifies Rhosteum with the ruins (Paled- Kastro) near It-Olielmes, which stand on an emi- nence overlooking the strait (Leake's Asia Minor, p. 275) ; but these are most probably the remains of Ophry- neum (see Geog. Journ. vol. xii. p. 39), which was said to have been the burial-place of Hector (Aristodem. Theb. Fr. 6). Rhoeteum may have occupied the hill immediately oppo- site the tomb -of Ajfix, where there are traces of a town. Concerning the site of Dardanus, vide supra, v. 117. " Supra, V. 122. ' The remains of Abydos lie a little north of the upper castle of the Dar- danelles {Sultanieh-Kalessi), between the fort and the extremity of the pro- montory facing Sestos. They are so slight that Sir C. Fellows passed them once without perceiving them (Asia Minor, p. 80). " " It may be questioned whether by " 7rpoe|e8pt; \i6ov \evKOV " a throne is intended, and not rather an elevated platform whereon the king's throne, which he carried with him (infra, viii. 90), was to be placed. Such artificial platforms are found in the Assyrian sculptures (Layard's Nine- veh and Babylon, p. 150). Thrones of white marble were not, however, unknown to the Greeks. (See Wal- pole's Turkey, vol. i. p. 310.) Chap. 44-47. DIALOGUE WITH ARTABANUS. 47 who was delighted alike with the race and with his army. 45. And now, as he looked and saw the whole Hellespont covered with the vessels of his fleet, and all the shore and every plain about Abydos as full as could be of men, Xerxes congratulated himself on his good fortune ; but after a little while, he wept. 46. Then Artabanus, the king's uncle (the same who at the first so freely spake his mind to the king, and advised him not to lead his army against Grreece), when he heard that Xerxes was in tears, went to him, and said — " How diiferent, sire, is what thou art now doing, from what thou didst a little while ago ! Then thou didst congratulate thyself, and now, behold ! thou weepest." " There came upon me," replied he, " a sudden pity, when I thought of the shortness of man's life, and con- sidered that of all this host, so numerous as it is, not one will be alive when a hundred years are gone by." " And yet there are sadder things in life than that," returned the other. " Short as our time is, there is no man, whether it be here among this multitude or else- where, who is so happy, as not to have felt the wish — I will not say once, but full many a time — that he were dead rather than alive. Calamities fall upon us, sicknesses vex and harass us, and make life, short though it be, to appear long. So death, through the wretchedness of our life, is a most sweet refuge to our race : and God, who gives us the tastes that we enjoy of pleasant timesfis seen, in his very gift, to be envious." 47. " True," said Xerxes ; " human life is even such as thou hast painted it, Artabanus. But for this very reason let us turn our thoughts from it, and not dwell on what is so sad, when pleasant things are in hand. Tell me rather, if the vision which we saw had 48 DIALOGUE WITH AETABANUS. Book VII. not appeared so plainly to thyself, wouldst thou have been still of the same mind as formerly, and have con- tinued to dissuade me from warring against Greece, or wouldst thou at this time think differently ? Come now, tell me this honestly." " King," replied the other, " may the dream which hath appeared to us have such issue as we both desire ! For my own part, I am still full of fear, and have scarcely power to control myself, when I consider all our dangers, and especially when I see that the two things which are of most consequence are alike opposed to thee." 48. " Thou strange man," said Xerxes in reply — " what, I pray thee, are the two things thou speakest of? Does my land army seem to thee too small in number, and will the Grreeks, thinkest thou, bring into the field a more numerous host? Or is it our fleet which thou deemest weaker than theirs ? Or art thou fearful on both accounts ? If in thy judgment we fall short in either respect, it were easy to bring together with all speed another armament." 49. "0 king," said Artabanus, " it is not possible that a man of understanding should find fault with the size of thy army or the number of thy ships. The more thou addest to these, the more hostile will those two things, whereof I spake, become. Those two things are the land and the sea. In all the wide sea there is not, I imagine, anywhere a harbour large enough to receive thy vessels, in case a storm arise, and afford them a sure protection. And yet thou wilt want, not one such harbour only, but mSny in succession, along the entire coast by which thou art about to make thy advance. In default then of such harbours, it is well to bear in mind thatC chances rule men, and not men chances. } Such is the first of the two dangers, and now I will speak to thee of the second. The land will also be thine enemy ; for if no one resists thy advance, as Chap. 48-50. DIALOGUE AVITH ARTABANUS. 49 thou proceedest further and further, insensibly allured onwards (for who is ever sated with success?), thou wilt find it more and more hostile. I mean this, that, should nothing else withstand thee, yet the mere distance, becoming greater as time goes on, will at last produce a famine. Methinks it is best for men, when they take counsel, to be timorous, and imagine all possible cala- mities, but when the time for action comes, then to deal boldly." 50. Whereto Xerxes answered — " There is reason, Artabanus, in everything which thou hast said ; but I pray thee, fear not all things alike, nor count up every risk. For if in each matter that comes before us thou wilt look to all possible chances, never wilt thou achieve anything. Far better is it to have a stout heart always, and suffer one's share of evils, than to be ever fearing what may happen, and never incur a mis- chance. Moreover, if thou wilt oppose whatever is said by others, without thyself showing us the sure course which we ought to take, thou art as likely to lead us into failure as they who advise differently ; for thou art but on a par with them. And as for that sure course, how canst thou show it us when thou art but a man ? I do not believe thou canst. Success for the most part attends those who act boldly, not those who weigh everything, and are slack to venture. Thou seest to how great a height the power of Persia has now reached — never would it have grown to this point if they who sate upon the throne before me had been like-minded with thee, or even, though not like-minded, had listened to councillors of such a spirit. 'Twas by brave ventures that they extended their sway ; for great empires can only be conquered by great risks. "We follow then the example of our fathers in making this march, and we set forward at the best season of the year ; and when we have brought Europe under us, we shall return, without suffering from want or expe^ VOL. iV. E 50 DIALOGUE WITH ARTABANUS. Book VII. riencing any other calamity. For while on the one hand we carry vast stores of provisions with us, on the other we shall have the grain of all the countries and nations that we attack ; since our march is not directed against a pastoral people, but against men who are tillers of the ground." 51. Then said Artabanus — " If, sire, thou art deter- mined that we shall not fear anything, at least hearken to a counsel which I wish to offer ; for when the mat- ters in hand are so many, one cannot but have much to say. Thou knowest that Gyrus the son of Cambyses reduced and made tributary to the Persians all the race of the lonians, except only those of Attica.' Now my advice is, that thou on no account lead forth these men against their fathers f since we are well able to overcome them without such aid. Their choice, if we take them with us to the war, lies between showing themselves the most wicked of men by helping to enslave their fatherland, or the most righteous by joining in the struggle to keep it free. If then they choose the side of injustice, they will do us but scant good ; while if they determine to act justly, they may greatly injure our host. Lay thou to heart the old proverb, which says truly, ' The beginning and end of a matter are not always seen at once.' " 52. " Artabanus," answered Xerxes, "there is nothing in all that thou hast said, wherein thou art so wholly wrong as in this, that thou suspectest the faith of the lonians. Have they not given us the surest proof of their attachment, — a proof which thou didst thyself witness, and likewise all those who fought with Darius against the Scythians ? When it lay wholly with them to save or to destroy the entire Persian army, they ' This, of course, was not true; but the Persians might not unna- turally he supposed Ignorant of all the lonians of Europe except the Athenians. " Vide infra, viii. 22, where The- mistocles makes use of the same argument. Ch. 51-54. XERXES' ADDRKSS TO THE CHIEF PERSIANS. 51 dealt by us honourably and with good faith, and did us no hurt at all. Besides, they will leave behind them in our country their wives, their children, and their pro- perties — can it then be conceived that they will attempt rebellion ? Have no fear, therefore, on this score ; but keep a brave heart and uphold my house and empire. To thee, and thee only, do I intrust my sovereignty." 53. After Xerxes had thus spoken, and had sent Artabanus away to return to Susa, he summoned before him all the Persians of most repute, and when they appeared, addressed them in these words : — " Persians, I have brought you together because I wished to exhort you to behave bravely, and not to sully with disgrace the former achievements of the Per- sian people, which are very great and famous. Rather let us one and all, singly and jointly, exert ourselves to "the uttermost ; for the matter wherein we are engaged concerns the common weal. Strain every nerve, then, I beseech you, in this war. Brave warriors are the men we march against, if report says true ; and such that, if we conquer them, there is not a people in all the world which will venture thereafter to withstand our arms. And now let us offer prayers to the gods * who watch over the welfare of Persia, and then cross the channel." 54. All that day the preparations for the passage continued ; and on the morrow they burnt all kinds of spices upon the bridges, and strewed the way with myrtle-boughs, while they waited anxiously for the sun, which they hoped to see as he rose. And now the sun appeared ; and Xerxes took a golden goblet and poured from it a libation into the sea, praying the while with ' Ormuzd is spoken of throughout the inscriptions as " the chief of the gods" (mathista Bdgdnam), or " the yreat God " (Baga vazarha) ; and the " otlier gods" (aniyd bagdha) are often associated with Mm. The represent- ation of Herodotus is therefore so far correct; but it is questionable whether the Persians had the notion ascribed to them in this place, of a special superintendence of different countries by distinct deities. Gods whose busi- ness it is to guard the king's house (yithiya lagdha) are mentioned, but national deities are nowhere indi- cated. E 2 52 LIBATION AND PRAYER OF XERXES. Book Vll. his face turned to the sun,' " that no misfortune might befal him such as to hinder his conquest of Europe, until he had penetrated to its uttermost boundaries." After he had prayed, he cast the golden cup into the Hellespont, and with it a golden bowl, and a Persian sword of the kind which they call acinaces?' I cannot say for certain whether it was as an offering to the sun-god that he threw these things into the deep, or whether he had repented of having scourged the Hellespont, and thought by his gifts to make amends to the sea for what he had done. 55. When, however, his offerings were made, the army began to cross ; and the foot-soldiers, with the horsemen, passed over by one of the bridges — that (namely) which lay towards the Euxine — ^while the sumpter-beasts and the camp-followers passed by the other, which looked on the Egean. Foremost went the Ten Thousand Persians, all wearing garlands upon ' No indication of the worsliip of Mithra has yet teen found in the inscriptions of Xerxes, — none indeed until the time of Artaxerxes Ochus, the fourth in descent from that monarch. The records however of the intervening period are almost a blank ; and on the whole it is not improbable that, so early as the reign of Xerxes, the cultus was fully esta- blished. A reverential regard for Mithra seems to have been a part of the religion brought by the Arians from their primitive country. (See vol. i. Essay v. p. 430.) ^ The Persian acinaces was a short sword, not a soymitar. It was straight, not curved, as Josephus expressly de- clares (Ant. Jud. XX. 7, § 10). Repre- sentations of it abound in the Perse- politau and other sculptures. It is seen hanging in its sheath, at the wearer's right side (Amm. Marc. xvii. 4), in the figures of attendants, while in those supposed to represent Mithra (see the woodcut on the next page, and compare P. Lajard's Culte de Mi- thras, a magnificent work !), it a,ppears out of its scabbard. A similar poiniard is worn commonly by the Persians of the present day. Chap. 55-56. PASSAGE OF THE HELLESPONT. 53 their heads ; and after them a mixed multitude of many nations. These crossed upon the first day. On the next day the horsemen began the passage ; and with them went the soldiers who carried their spears with the point downwards, garlanded like the Ten Thousand ; — then came the sacred horses and the sacred chariot ; next Xerxes with his lancers and the thousand horse ; then the rest of the army. At the same time the ships sailed over to the opposite shore. According, however, to another account which I have heard, the king crossed the last. 56. As soon as Xerxes had reached the European side, he stood to contemplate his army as they crossed under the lash.^ And the crossing continued during seven days and seven nights, without rest or pause. 'Tis said that here, after Xerxes had made the passage, a Hellespontian exclaimed — " Why, Jove, dost thou, in the likeness of a Per- sian man, and with the name of Xerxes instead of thine own, lead the whole race of mankind to the destruction Supra, ch, 22, note ' 54 PRODIGIES. Book VII. of Grreece ? It would have been as easy for thee to destroy it without their aid ! " 57. When the whole army had crossed, and the troops were now upon their march, a strange prodigy appeared to them, whereof the king made no account, though its meaning was not difficult to conjecture. Now the prodigy was this : — a mare brought forth a hare. Hereby it was shown plainly enough, that Xerxes would lead forth his host against Greece with mighty pomp and splendour, but, in order to reach again the spot from which he set out, would have to run for his life. There had also been another portent, while Xerxes was still at Sardis — a mule dropped a foal, neither male nor female ;* but this likewise was dis- regarded. 58. So Xerxes, despising the omens, marched for- wards ; and his land army accompanied him. But the fleet held an opposite course, and, sailing to the mouth of the Hellespont, made its way along the shore. Thus the fleet proceeded westward, making for Cape Sar- pedon,^ where the orders were that it should await the coming up of the troops ; but the land army marched eastward along the Chersonese, leaving on the right the tomb of Helle,* the daughter of Athamas, and on the left the city of Cardia. Having passed through the ■* " Mulus milium peperit genitalia habentem turn maris tum feminEe; superiora autem masoulina erant." The credulity of Herodotus with re- spect to portents is certainly great. He relates these without the slightest doubt of their reality. His know- ledge of the wonderful things that do occur, and his belief in the frequent active interposition of Divine Provi- dence in the affairs of men, are the cause of his ready faith. ' This passage alone sufBciently determines the position of Cape Sarpe- don. The point where the fleet and army would naturally reunite, and the only important promontory be- tween the Hellespont and Doriscus, is the modern Cape Cfremea. The Scho- liast on Apollonius Ehodius (i. 922) indicates this site. " The more general tradition was that HelW fell into the sea to which she gave her name (ApoUod. i. ix. § 5); but according to some, she arrived in the Chersonese, and died there; — Hellanicus (Fr. 88) says at Pactya. We may conclude that the,, tomb shown as hers was near this city, which was on the east coast^ and so to the right of the army. Chap. 57-59. MARCH PEOM SBSTOS TO DOEISCUS. 55 town which is called Agora/ they skirted the shores of the Grulf of Melas, and then crossed the river Melas, whence the gulf takes its name,* the waters of which they found too scanty to supply the host. From this point their march was to the west ; and after passing jS]nos,^ an jEolian settlement, and likewise lake Sten- toris,* they came to Doriscus.^ 59. The name Doriscus is given to a beach and a vast plain upon the coast of Thrace, through the middle of which flows the strong stream of the Hebrus. Here was the royal fort which is likewise called Doriscus, where Darius had maintained a Persian garrison ever since the time when he attacked the Scythians. This place seemed to Xerxes a convenient spot for reviewing and numbering his soldiers ; which things accordingly he proceeded to do. The sea-captains, who had brought the fleet to Doriscus, were ordered to take the vessels to the beach adjoining, where Sale stands, a city of the Samothracians, and Zone, another city.^ The beach ' This place is mentioned by Scylax (Peripl. p. 68) as lying between Pac- tya and Cardia ; and by Demosthenes as marking, in the opinion of some, the boundary of the Chersonese to the north (de Halones. § 40, p. 93). Appa- rently therefore it occupied the site of Lysimachia, which became Hexa- milium (Ptol. Geogr. iii. 11), and is now Eexamili (vide supra, vi. 33, note "). = Supra, vi. 41, note '. ^ Mnos retains its name almost un- changed in the modem Enos (lat. 40° 45', long. 26° 4'). It was a place of considerable strength (Liv. xxx. 16). According to Stephen (ad voc.) it was once called Apsynthus, and was a colony from Cuma. Ephorus however asserted that the first settle- ment was made from Alopeconnesus in the Chersonese, colonists being after- ward added from Cuma and Mitylene (Fr. 75). The ancient name of ^Bnos was Poltyobria (Strab. vii. p. 462; Steph. Byz. sub voc), from which arose the stories ofKing Poltys (Apol- lod. II. V. § 9 ; Plutarch, Apophtheg. ii. p. 174, C). ' Phny seems to have read Xt/ueVa for Xi/ivriv in this passage — at least he speaks of a " partus Stentoris " be- tween the mouth of the Hebrus and ^nos (H. N. iv. 11) ; but Herodotus appears to intend the vast lake or marsh on the left bank of the Hebrus (Maritza), near its mouth, which is one of the most remarkable features of this district. So Kiepert rightly judges (Karte von Hellas, Blatt. v.). ^ Supra, V. 98, note ". ' Zon^ is mentioned by several an- cient writers, from Hecatasus down- wards (Hecat. Pr. 132; Scyl. Peripl. p. 65 ; Plin. H. N. 1. s. c. ; Pomp. Mela. ii. 2; ApoU. Ehod. i. 29); but the name of SaW is not found elsewhere. This latter city had pro- bably perished before the time of Alexander. Zon^ was not a place of any consequence, but it acquired some celebrity from the tradition which 56 NATIONS ENUMERATED — THE PERSIANS. Book VII. extends to Serrh^um,* tlie well-known promontory ; the whole district in former times was inhabited by the Ciconiaus.' Here then the captains were to bring their ships, and to haul them ashore for refitting, while Xerxes at Doriscus was employed in numbering the soldiers. 60. AVhat the exact number of the troops of each nation was T cannot say with certainty — for it is not mentioned by any one— but the whole land army together was found to amount to one milKon seven hundred thousand men. The manner in which the numbering took place was the following. A body of ten thousand men was brought to a certain place, and the men were made to stand as close together as pos- sible ; after which a circle was drawn around them, and the men were let go : then where the circle had been, a fence was built about the height of a man's middle ; and the enclosure was filled continually with fresh troops, till the whole army had in this way been num- bered. When the numbering was over, the troops were drawn up according to their several nations. 61. Now these were the nations that took part in this expedition." The Persians, who wore on their made it the scene of the famous miracle of Orpheus (see Apollonius and Mela, 1. s. c. ; compare also the Scholiast on Nicander, p. 23). ■* Serrh6um is undoubtedly Cape Makri. It lay east of Mesambria, as is apparent both from the present pas- sage and from another further on (infra, oh. 108). Pliny (H. N. iv. 11) and Appian (de Bell. Civ. iv. p. 648) give the name of Serrheum to the mountain, which causes the coast to project at this point; and Livy (xxxi. 16) applies it to a fortified post built here to command the coast-road. This last is the 2€ppeIoi' -reixos of Stephen (sub voc. Se^^eioz/). ' The Ciconians were among the most celebrated of the early Thracian tribes. Homer represents them as in- habiting this same tract at the time of the Trojan war (Odyss. ix. 39-59). According to Herodotus, when Xerxes made his expedition, they were still masters of a portion of the country near this coast (infra, chs. 108 and 110). At one time their limits seem to have extended eastward even be- yond the Hebrus (see Plin. H. N. iv. 11, " Os Hebri ; portus Stentoris ; Oppidum iEnos . . . Ciconum quon- dam regio ;" and' compare Virg. Georg. iv. 520-5). After the expedition of Xerxes they disappear from history. " Many people of Asia and Africa are represented in the Egyptian sculp- tures ; and as some of them were doubtless in the army of Xerxes, it will be interesting to compare their armature with that mentioned by Herodotus (see pp. 58-9, and compare vol. ii. p. 236). There is no appear- Chap. 60, 61. THEIR DRESS AND ARMATURE. 57 heads the soft hat called the tiara,' and about their bodies, tunics with sleeves, of divers colours, having iron scales upon them like the scales of a fish.* Their legs were protected by trousers ; and they bore wicker shields for bucklers ; their quivers hanging at their backs," and their arms being a short spear, a bow of and arrows of reed. They had like- uncommon size. ance of the amentum {ayKvXrj), or thong for throwing the spear, in any of those suhjects ; though there is a kind of thong which fitted into a notch at the end of the fishing-spears of the Egyptians ; hut the amentum passed round the shaft ahout half way down, and was sometimes left on it when thrown ; as when Philopcemen was wounded hy a javelin that passed through both his thighs. Those in No. I. are — 1. the Shaire- tana ; 2. the Toliari ; 3. the Sh .. .. ; 4. the Rebo. In No. II. are — 5. a man of Fount ; 6. Chiefs of Shari ; 7. the Rot-ii-no, and one of their women. In No. III. — 1. a man of Kufa ; 2. to 5. some of the Khita (Hittites ?). In No. IV. are — 5. a man of As- maor (Samaria ?) ; 6. of Lemnn (Le- banon ?) ; 7. of Kanana or Kanaan (Canaan) ; 8, 9, Blacks of Dar-sus and Dar-Ao.?; and 10, 11. Chiefs of Cush (Ethiopia).— [G. W.] ' The hat or cap here described, and called hy Herodotus indifferently Kvp^aa-la (v. 49) and riapa, seems to be the same with the plain " round- topped cap, projecting at the top a little over the brows," which is the ordinary head-dress of those who wear the Persian costume in the sculptures of Persepolis. A representation has been already given (vol. i. p. 276). In other respects the description of Hero- dotus does not show any great corre- spondence with the Persepolitan re- presentations. The weapons indeed are the same. The spear, the bow, the quiver pendant at the back, and the dagger hanging from the girdle on the right side, are all found. The spears however are not remarkably short, being little less than the length of the Greek, i. e. about seven feet ; nor are the bows long, but what we should call very short, namely about three feet. Coats of scale armour, common in the Assyrian sculptures, are nowhere found. Trousers are worn, but no shield resembling our author's description of the ye^^ou (infra, ix. 62). The only shield found is very like the Boeotian. Herodotus probably describes the Persian cos- tume of his (mm day, as does Xeno- phon that of his (Cyrop. vii. i. § 2 ; compare Anab. i. viii. § 6). The subjoined figures, which are Persepo- litan, will illustrate this note. ' Compare infra, ix. 22. ' See Schweighjeuser's Lex. Herod, sub voc. vTTo. 58 COSTUMES OF ASIATIC Book VII. Chap. 61. AND AFRICAN NATIONS. 59 60 THE MEDBS. Book VII. wise daggers suspended from their girdles along their right thighs. Otanes, the father of Xerxes' wife, Amestris,^ was their leader. This people was known to the G-reeks in ancient times by the name of Oephe- nians ; but they called themselves and were called by their neighbours, Artaeans.^ It was not till Perseus, the son of Jove and Danae, visited Cepheus the son of Belus, and, marrying his daughter Andromeda, had by her a son called Perses (whom he left behind him in the country because Cepheus had no male offspring), that the nation took from this Perses the name of Persians.^ 62. The Medes had exactly the same equipment as the Persians ; and indeed the dress common to both is not so much Persian as Median.* They had for com- ' Ctesias says (Bxc. Pers. § 20) tliat Amestris "was the daughter of Onophas, or Anaphes, who was the son of Otanes the conspirator (infra, ch. 62). He however names the con- spirator Onophas (§ 14), so that he really agrees with Herodotus in every- thing except the name. ^ Stephen of Byzantium gives se- veral accounts of this word. Artaja, he says, was, according to Hellanicus, the name of the region inhabited by the Persians, who were called Artajans on that account — an explanation which leaves the real origin and import of the term untouched (cf. Steph. Byz. sub voc. 'ApToia), Again, he says, the Persians called "men" in old times Artcei, as the Greeks called them " heroes," where Artcei seems confounded with Arii. Finally he connects the prefix dpra in Arta- xerxes, Artabazus, &c., with Artsean, which would give the meaning of " great " (see above, vol. iii. p. 552, ad voc. Abt^us). Lassen agrees with this (Keilinscriften, p. 162). Perhaps the most probable accoimt that can be given of the name " Artceans " is the following. It stands for the Afarti of the Scythic tablets, which is not an Arian name at all, but the old Scythic title for the ancient inha- bitants of Susiana, and (probably) of Persia Proper — which appears in later times under the forms of Iberi, per- haps of Albanians, and again of Avars or Abars — all Turanian races. (See As. Soc. Journ. vol. xv. part i. p. 4 ; and part ii. pp. 234-6.) The Persians were thus Artseans only in the same sense that we are Britons ; the title was first ethnic ; then territorial, as Hellanicus said ; it belonged really to the inhabitants of the region in ques- tion before the Persians invaded it. " Vide infra, ch. 150. I can dis- cern no ray of truth in the fables respecting Perseus. Belus, ting of Egypt (!), Cepheus his son, king of Ethiopia (!), and Perses, the grand- son of the latter, who proceeds from Ethiopia to Persia, and there becomes the progenitor of the Persian kings (!), contradict all that is known of these countries, either historically or ethno- logically (see Apollod. ii. i. § 4 ; and iv. § 3 ; compare above, vi. 54, note " ; and see also Sir G. Wilkinson's note ' on Book ii. ch. 91). * Compare Book i. ch. 135, where the adoption by the Persians of the ordinary Median costume is men- tioned. It appears by this passage that they likewise adopted their mili- tary equipment. Chap. 62, 63. THE OISSIANS AND HYECANIANS. 61 mander Tigranes, of the race of the Achgemenids. These Medes were called anciently by all people Arians ; ° but when Med^a, the Oolchian, came to them from Athens, they changed their name. Such is the account which they themselves give/ The Oissians were equipped in the Persian fashion, except in one respect : — they wore on their heads, instead of hats, fillets.' Anaphes, the son of Otanes, commanded them. The Hyrcanians* were likewise armed in the same way as the Persians. Their leader was Megapanus, the same who was afterwards satrap of Babylon. 63. The Assyrians went to the war with helmets upon their heads made of brass, and plaited in a strange fashion which is not easy to describe. They carried shields, lances, and daggers very like the Egyptian ; * ^ See Appendix to Book i, iii. § 1. ° It is evident that the Oriental nations in the time of Herodotus were not unwilling to claim a con- nexion with the flourishing and powerful Greek people, with whom they had recently made acquaintance. The Egyptians accepted the story of Danaus (ii. 91), and maintained that they conferred favours on Menelaus at the time of the Trojan war (ii. 118-9). The Persians declared they got their name from Perseus (vi. 54), and the Medes theirs fronx Medea ! I doubt if truth of any hind is hidden imder these fictions, which seem to me rather the produce of unscrupu- lous servility. ' The livrpa, which was worn also by the Cyprian princes in the fleet of Xerxes (infra, ch. 90), and by the Babylonians as part of their ordinary costume (supra, i. 195), was regarded both by Greeks and Romans as a token of effeminacy (Aristoph. Thesm. 898, ed. Bothe ; Virg. ^n. iv. 216). It is generally thought to have been a sort of turban (see Diet. of Antiq. s. v. Gakmtica : Scott and Liddell, Lex. s. v. fiiTpa) ; but this is uncertain. It may perhaps have been a mere hand or fillet, such as the Assyrian sculptures assign to the people in question. Susianian Head-dress. ' On the Hjrrcanians, and the other obscure tribes here mentioned, see the Appendix, Essay i. pp. 197 et seqq. ° The Assyrians do not appear from the monuments to have been armed like the Egyptians. The " spears and daggers" (see woodcuts in n. on Bk. ix. ch. 32) may have been similar, but the " shields" of the Egyptians were of peculiar shape, and remarkable for a small circular depression instead of a boss (No. 1). They were a wooden frame, sometimes covered with bull's 62 THE ASSYRIANS. Book VIT. but in addition, they had wooden clubs knotted with iron, and linen corselets,^" This people, whom the hide, and bound round the rim with metal. Their form, round at the sum- Tnit, and squared at the base (Nos. I. and II.), is still retained in that used at the present day by the people of Bornou. (See Denham and Clapper- ton, p. 166.) The dagger was some- times used for stabbing downwards. (No. III.) The hair, in a mass at the back of the head, and bound by a fillet, as worn by the Assyrians, is commonly given to Asiatics on the Egyptian monuments. — [G. W.] '" This description agrees tolerably, but not quite exactly, with the cos- tume seen in the sculptures. The dif- ference is not surprising, as the latest sculptures are at least two centuries earlier than the time of Xerxes. The warriors wear, for the most part, metal helmets, some of which have been found entire. They are made of iron, not of brass or copper (Lay- ard's Nineveh, vol. ii. p. 339), and have no appearance about them of any twisted or plaited work. The wood- cuts (p. 64:) give the chief varieties. Their ordinary offensive weapons No. I. No. II. Ohap. 63. THE CHALDEANS. 63 Greeks call Syrians, are called Assyrians by the barba- rians.^ The Chaldseans^ served in their ranks, and they had for commander Otaspes, the son of Artach^us. aro the spear, the bow, the sword, the battle - axe, and the dagger. The is taken by a sort of mace, not unlike the Egyp- tian. (See overleaf.) It is not very clear whether they have corselets, but their shields, which are generally round, but sometimes ob- long, and of a great size, are very conspicuous. One of the latter is given (infra, ix. 62) as an illustration of the Persian yeppov. See p. 64 for some of the most common forms. ' "Syrian" and "Assy- rian " are in reality two entirely different words. " Syrian " is nothing but a variant of " Tyrian." The Greeks when they first became acquainted with the country between Asia Minor and Egypt, found the people of Tyre ( Tzur) predominant there, and from them called the country in which they dwelt Syria (for Tsyria, which was beyond their powers of articulation). Afterwards, when they heard of the Assyrians, they supposed the name to be the same, though it had really a very different sound and origin. Hence the use of the term ^vptrfyeves by the Delphic oracle (vii. 140), and of 'S.vpiov by ^schylus (Pers. 86), where " Assyrian " is plainly in- tended. Herodotus seems to have been the first writer who took notice of the fact, that the great people of Upper Mesopotamia called them- selves, not Syrians, but Assyrians. The confusion however continued after his time. Xenophon, though sometimes drawing the distinction, which Herodotus practically makes, between the two terms (see note * on Book i. ch. 6), as for instance in the Cyropsedia (i. i. 4, and i. v. 2), yet in many places carelessly uses " Syrian" for "Assyrian" (Cyrop. v. iv. 51 ; VI. ii. 19 ; vili. vii. 20, &o.). club, such as Herodotus describes it, nowhere appears, but its place No. HI. Scylax, on the other hand, calls the Cappadocians " Assyrians " (p. 80), an epithet to which they could not possibly be entitled ; yet in this he is followed by Dionysius Periegetes (1. 772), Arrian (Fr. 48), and others. "Syrian" again is used for "As- syrian " by the Latin writers, Pliny (H. N. V. 12), Mela (i. 11), &o. The difference between the two words will be seen most plainly by reference to the original languages. The root of " Syrian " is in Hebrew "l-IV {Tzur) ; the root of " Assyrian " is ^IB'X {Asshur). A still greater distinction is found in the Assyrian inscriptions, where Assyria is called As-sur, while the Tyrians are the Tsur-ra-ya, the characters used being entirely different. With respect to original meaning, Tzur seems to be rightly explained as so called from the rock (l-IV) on which the town was built ; Asshur is perhaps to be con- nected with IBJK " happiness " ; at any rate it can have no connexion with tzur. ^ Herodotus seems here to use the 64 THE BACTRIANS AND SACM. Book VII. 64. The Bactrians went to the war wearing a head- dress very like the Median, but armed with bows of cane, after the custom of their country, and with short spears. The Sacse, or Scyths, were clad in trousers, and had on their heads tall stiff caps rising to a point.^ Assyrian Helmets. Q \3 Assyrian Maces {Layard> word " ChaldEean " in an ethnic sense, and to designate, not the priest-caste of his first Book (chs. 181-3), hut the inhabitants of lower Babylonia. (Of. Strab. xvi. p. 1050 ; ?o-ti 8c cjtSXdv ri Twv XdKSatmv, Koi X">P°- T^f Ba(3ii- \a>vias vir eKfivav ohovfievrj, iv\r)(Tia- m mn Assyrian Shields (Layard). foDira Tois" Pi-pai^i, KolTrj Kiira Ufpcras Xeyo/jfvi; BakoTTri ; and see above, vol. i. p. 571.) " Pointed caps and helmets of a peculiar kind are common in the ancient sculptures of Asia. The Scythian captive in the Behistun Ohap. 64, 65. THE ^ACM AND INDIANS. 65 They bore the bow of their country and the dagger ; besides which they carried the battle-axe, or sagaris.*' They were in truth Amyrgian^ Scythians, but the Per- sians called them Sacse, since that is the name which they give to all Scythians.* The Bactrians and the Sacse had for leader Hystaspes. the son of Darius and of Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus. 65. The Indians wore cotton dresses, and carried bows of cane, and arrows also of cane, with iron at the point. Such was the equipment of the Indians, and they marched under the command of Pharnazathres the son of Artabates. sculpture, bears on his head a most remarkable cap of this character. It is more than one-third of the height of the man, and must, therefore, if drawn in proportion, have been about two feet long. There is a slight bend in it towards the point, which seems to indicate that it was made of felt, No. 1. No. 2. Scythian Peaked Caps. not of metal. The Assyrian pointed helmet (page 64, No. 4), which in some respects resembled it, was of metal (Layard's Nineveh, vol. ii. p. 341), and not more than half the height. Of the accompanying wood- cuts, No. 1 is from the Behistun sculpture, while No. 2 is from a very archaic tablet in Cappadocia (figured by Texier). * The warriors who wear the head- Scythian Battle- Axe. VOL. TV. dress (No. 2) in the last note, bear a battle-axe, of which the preceding is a representation. It is probable' that this is' the Saoau nagaris. ' In the inscription on the tomb of Darius at Nakhsh-i-Eustam, the Asiatic Scythians under Persian rule are distinguished as " Saka Euma- varga" and " Saka Tiffrakhuda," the former apparently designating the eastern Scythians on the confines of India ; the latter, those scattered through the empire, who are known simply as " bowmen." According to Hellanicus, the word " Amyrgian " was strictly a geographical title, Amyrgium being the name of the plain in which these Scythians dwelt. (Steph. Byz. ad voo. 'Afi. 'Kfxipyiov, TreSioj/ 'SaKwv " 'EXXai/iKor Sxij^ats .) ' " Saka" is the word used through- out the Persian inscriptions. It may perhaps be the true national appel- lative, whence the other names by which the Greeks knew the race were derived. Compare Sowa — SoKa-rai (^='S.Kv9ai) 2aKa-A.0L — 2aKa-Xt-Tai C=2KoAoTai ) with Ap. or Op. — Opi-sci (=Osci) Apu-li— Apu-li-sci (= Volsci.) Later writers distinguish the Saca3 as a particular tribe of the Scytha? (Strab. xi. p. 744 ; Q. Curt. vii. 8, and viii. 4 ; Plin. H. N. vi. 17 ; Ptol. vi. 13 ; &c.). r 66 THE AEIANS, PARTHIANS, ETC. Book VII. 66. The Arians carried Median bows, but in other respects were equipped like the Bactrians. Their com- mander was Sisamnes the son of Hydarnes. The Parthians and Chorasmians, with the Sogdians, the Grandarians, and the Dadicse, had the Bactrian equipment in all respects. The Parthians and Choras- mians were commanded by Artabazus the son of Phar- naces, the Sogdians by Azanes the son of Artseus, and the Grandarians and Dadicse by Artyphius the son of Artabanus. 67. The Oaspians were clad in cloaks of skin, and carried the cane bow of their country, and the scy- mitar. So equipped they went to the war, and they had for commander Ariomardus the brother of Artyphius. The Sarangians had dyed garments which showed brightly, and buskins which reached to the knee : they bore Median bows, and lances. Their leader was Phe- rendates, the son of Megabazus. The Pactyans wore cloaks of skin, and carried the bow of their country and the dagger. Their com- mander was Artyntes, the son of Ithamatres. 68. The Utians, the Mycians, and the Paricanians were all equipped like the Pactyans. They had for leaders, Arsamenes the son of Darius, who commanded the Utians and Mycians ; and Siromitres, the son of CEobazus, who commanded the Paricanians. 69. The Arabians wore the zeira,'' or long cloak, fastened about them with a girdle ; and carried at their right side long bows, which when unstrung bent backwards.* ' The flowing dress or petticoat called zeira (zira), supported by, a girdle, is very similar to their present costniae. ZiiTa, "tassel," is said by Eeiske (in Golins) to signify also a " night dress," though it is not found in any Arabic lexicon ; and the only word like it is zirah, " a coat of mail " in Persian, answering to the Arabic sera.— [G. W.] " Bows of this kind were not usual among either the Greeks or the ori- ental nations. They are said to have been borne by the Scythians (Athen. X. p. 454, D), and are sometimes depicted in the hands of Asiatics on Chap. 66-69. THE ETHIOPIANS OF LIBYA. 67 The Ethiopians were clothed in the skins of leo- pards and lions,' and had long bows made of the stem of the palm-leaf, not less than four cubits in length. On these they laid short arrows made of reed,^ and armed at the tip, not with iron, but with a piece of stone,^ sharpened to a point, of the kind used in en- ancient vases. (See the subjoined woodcut.) Sophocles, in the Trachi- Ancient Bow (from a Greek vase). niae (1. 511), ascribes a bow of this character to Hercules. [" A small bow, ' bent back,' is carried by the Assyrian captives of Sheshonk (Shi- shak) at Karnak."— G. W.] " One of the Caryatides at Persepo- lis, whose features prove him to be an Ethiopian, has an upper garment made of the skin of an animal, as the accompanying representation clearly shows. Prisoners girt with skins likewise appear in some of the Nubian temples, where the conquest of Ethi- opia by Egypt seems to be comme- morated (see Heeren's African Na- tions, i. pp. 357-8, B. T.). Ethiopian (PersepoliB). ' These wei'e sometimes used by the Egyptians also, mostly in the chase, and many have been found at Thebes. (No. I.) The stone "of which they make seals" was an agate, the so- called Egyptian pebble, or some other of the silicious stones so common in Ethiopia. The hard wooden clubs, poTToXa TvKara, were the same the Ethiopians now use (made of acacia, or of ebony, and called lissdn, from the supposed resemblance to a "tongue"), and were also adopted by the Egyp- tian infantry. Their dress, of bull's, or other hide, is often represented on the Egyptian monuments. (See n. on Bk. ii. ch. 104, and Bk. iii. ch. 97.) Their bows, not less than 4 cubits, or 6 feet in length, were very like the military long-bow of Egypt ; but though probably longer, they do not appear to have exceeded 5 feet. They were of a similar kind of wood ; and those of the palm-branch must have been used by inferior tribes (see wood- cut No. II. in n. •*, Bk. iii. ch. 97), as well as their spears, tipped with the oryx-horn instead of iron. Neither this long-bow, nor that emblematic of Tosh, could have been of palm-branch. — [G. W.] * The long black flints found at Marathon have been supposed to be these Ethiopian arrow-heads (Thirl- F 2 68 EGYPTIAN LONG-BOW. Book VII. ==^' _^' No. II. 1 7 . , o No. III. Chap. 70, 71. THE ETHIOPIANS OF ASIA. 69 graving seals. They carried likewise spears, the head of which was the sharpened horn of an antelope, and in addition they had knotted clubs. "When they went into battle they painted their bodies, half with chalk, and half with vermilion. The Arabians,^ and the Ethi- opians who came from the region above Egypt, were commanded by Arsames,* the son of Darius and of Artystone daughter of Cyrus. This Artystone was the best-beloved of all the wives of Darius, and it was she whose statue he caused to be made of gold wrought with the hammer. Her son Arsames commanded these two nations. 70. The eastern Ethiopians — for two nations of this name served in the army — were marshalled with the Indians. They differed in nothing from the other Ethiopians, save in their language, and the character of their hair. For the eastern Ethiopians have straight hair, while they of Libya are more woolly-haired than any other people in the world.^ Their equipment was in most points like that of the Indians, but they wore upon their heads the scalps of horses,® with the ears and mane attached ; the ears, were made to stand upright, and the mane served as a crest. For shields this people made use of the skins of cranes. 71. The Libyans wore a dress of leather,' and car- wall, Hist, of Greece, vol. li. p. 242, Bahr ad loo.). But the discovery of similar stones in great abundance on a vast number of ancient Attic sites makes it impossible to regard them, in any place where they occur, as tokens of Persian invasion. It has even been questioned whether they are arrow-heads at all, and not rather natural productions (see Col. Leake's Demi of Attica, p. 101, note of 1837). 3 The Arabians here spoken of, who served under the same commander as the Ethiopians, were probably those of Africa, who occupied the tract between the valley of the Nile and the Bed Sea. Vide supra, ii. 8, and compare Juba ap. Plin. (H. N. vi. 29, p. 374) and Strabo (xvii. p. 1143). The Asiatic Arabs were not subject to, Persia (iii. 88). ■* This is one of the few places where there is a close agreement between Herodotus and ^schylus. ^schylus makes Arsames — " great Arsames,". as he calls him — governor of Egypt (Pers. 37), which would be quite in accordance with the position here assigned him. * Vide supra, ii. 104, note *. ' Some Greek bronze helmets had horse's ears of metal, as well as the mane.— [G. W.] '' On the manufacture of leather 70 THE PAPHLAGONIANS AND PHRYGIANS. Book VH. ried javelins made hard in the fire. They had for commander Massages, the son of Oarizus. 72. The Paphlagonians went to the war with plaited helmets^ upon their heads, and carrying small shields and spears of no great size. They had also javelins and daggers, and wore on their feet the buskin of their country, which reached half way up the shank. In the same fashion were equipped the Ligyans, the Mati- enians, the Mariandynians, and the Syrians (or Cappa- docians, as they are called by the Persians °). The Paphlagonians and Matienians were under the com- mand of Dotus the son of Megasidrus ; while the Mari- andynians, the Ligyans, and the Syrians had for leader Grobryas, the son of Darius and Artystone. 73. The dress of the Phrygians closely resembled the Paphlagonian, only in a very few points differing from it. According to the Macedonian account, the Phrygians, during the time that they had their abode in Europe and dwelt with them in Macedonia, bore the name of Brigians ; but on their removal to Asia they changed their designation at the same time with their djvelling-place."' and use of leather dresses among the native Africans, vide supra, iv. 189, notes " and °. " The Paphlagonian helmets were of leather (Xen. Anah. v. iv. § 13), pro- bably of plaited thongs. « Supra, i. 72, and v. 49. On the name " Cappadocia," see note ' oh the former passage. '" It is quite possible that the Briges or Bryges, who were from very ancient times the immediate neighbours of the Macedonians (see Miiller's Dorians, i. p. 500, B. T., and the authorities there cited), and of whom a remnant continued to exist in these regions long after the time of Herodotus (vide supra, vi. 45, note ■*), may have been connected ethnically with the Phry- gians of the opposite continent. But it is not at all likely that the entire Phry- ■ gian nation, as Herodotus and Xanthus (Fr. 5) seem to have thought, pro- ceeded from them. Bather, they must be regarded as colonists of the Phry- gians, the stream of Indo-European colonisation having set westward, from Armenia into Phrygia, and from Phry- gia across the straits into Europe. Of course, it is compatible with this view, and highly probable, that the Briges in large numbers, when compelled to yield to the attacks of Macedonian or Illyrian enemies, re-crossed the straits into Asia, and sought a refuge (like the Tyrrhenian Pelasgi) among their kindred. The word " Bryges " in Macedonian would be identical with " Phryges ;" for the Macedonians could not sound the letter'^, but said BiXhtjtos, Bept- vUr], ficiXaKpos, for 4>iXi7r!ros, ^fpcviKr), (pakaKpos (see Steph. Byz. ad voc. Bpiycs). Chap. 72-75. THE ARMENIANS, LYDIANS, AND THEACIANS. 71 The Armenians, who are Phrygian colonists,' were armed in the Phrygian fashion. Both nations were under the command of Artochmes, who was married to one of the daughters of Darius. 74. The Lydians were armed very nearly in the G-recian manner. These Lydians in ancient times were called Mseonians,^ but changed their name, and took their present title from Lydus the son of Atys. The Mysians wore upon their heads a helmet made after the fashion of their country, and carried a small buckler ; they used as javelins staves with one end hardened in the fire. The Mysians are Lydian colo- nists,^ and from the mountain-chain of Olympus,* are called Olympieni. Both the Lydians and the Mysians were under the command of Artaphernes, the son of that Artaphernes who, with Datis, made the landing at Marathon. 75. The Thracians went to the war wearing the skins of foxes upon their heads, and about their bodies tunics, over which was thrown a long cloak of many colours.^ Their legs and feet were clad in buskins made from the skins of fawns ; and they had for arms javelins, with light targes, and short dirks. This people, after crossing into Asia, took the name of Bithynians ; ® ' The modem Armenian language is allied to the most ancient dialects of the Arian race (supra, vol. i. p. 652). It does not seem, however, notwithstanding the remark of Ste- phen (tt) (pavf iroXXa (j)pvyi^ov(ri), to he particularly near to the ancient Plirygian, — so far as the few traces remaining of that language enable us to judge. Nevertheless, the geo- gi'aphical position of the two coun- tries, and their common Indo-Eu- ropean character, make it probable that one was peopled from the other. Herodotus, and Stephen (ad voo. 'Ap- lifvla), who follows him, derive the Armenians from the Phrygians. The modern ethnologist would invert this theory (see Appendix to Book i. Essay xi., p. 663). ^ Supra, i. 7. And see Appendix to Book i. Essay i. pp. 360-1. ^ Compare i. 171, where the Lydian and Mysian are represented, probably with more truth, as sister races. ' On the Mysian Olympus see Book i. ch. 36 ; and compare vol. i. Essay ii. p. 388. * The Thracians of Europe wore exactly the same costume, as appears from a passage in Xenophon (Anab. vn. iv. § 4, 01 BpaKcs oKanrfKibas inl Tols K€(jia\a1s fpopovai Kol toIs ajo-i, KaL ^^LTtavas ov jiaifov nepl Tois (Trepvois aWa Kal irepl tols pr]poLs' Km ^ftpas (TLv, dXX' ov x^apvdas). It was neces- sary to guard against the extreme rigour of the climate in those regions. « Supra, i. 28. 72 THE CHALYBIANS, CABALIANS, ETC. Book VU. before, they had been called Strymonians, while they dwelt upon the Strymon ; whence, according to their own account, they had been driven out by the Mysians and Teucrians.' The commander of these Asiatic Thracians was Bassaces the son of Artabanus. 76. [The Chalybians^] had small shields made of the hide of the ox, and carried each of them two spears such as are used in wolf-hunting. Brazen helmets protected their heads, and above these they wore the ears and horns of an ox fashioned in brass. They had also crests on their helms ; and their legs were bound round with purple bands. There is an oracle of Mars in the country of this people. 77. The Cabalians, who are M^onians, but are called Lasonians, had the same equipment as the Cilicians — an equipment which I shall describe when I come in due course to the Oilician contingent.' The Milyans bore short spears, and had their gar- ments fastened with buckles. Some of their number carried Lycian bows." They wore about their heads skull-caps made of leather. Badres the son of Hy- stanes led both nations to battle. 78. The Moschians wore helmets made of wood, and carried shields and spears of a small size : their spear- heads, however, were long. The Moschian equipment was that likewise of the Tibarenians, the Macronians, and the Mosynoecians.^ The leaders of these nations ^ Compare ch. 20 sub fin. and note * ad loo. " There is a defect here in the text of Herodotus ; the name of the nation has been lost. Wesseling was the first to conjecture " Chalybians," which later editors have adopted. Certainly the Chalybians, who are of sufficient importance to occur in the ennmeratiuii of the nations of Asia Minor, not only in Herodotus (i. 28) but in Ephorua (Fr. 80), might be expected to receive a distinct mention in this place, especially since all the other nations mentioned in the list of Herodotus are spoken of as contri- buting either to the fleet or to the land army. And further, the Chalybians, if really Scythians (^schyl. Sept. o. Th. 729), might be likely to have an oracle of Mars in their country (supra, iv. 62). The description of the arms, however, is unlike that of the more eastern Chalybes in Xenophon (Anab. IV. vii. § 15). ° Infra, ch. 91. '° That is, bows o/'ooTOeZ-iDood Vide infra, ch. 92. ' These thr^e nations had become independent of Persia by the time of Chap. 76-81. THE MAKES, COLCHIANS, ETC. 73 were the following : the Moschians and Tibarenians were under the command of Ariomardus, who was the son of Darius and of Parmys, daughter of Smerdis son of Cyrus ; while the Macronians and Mosynoecians had for leader Artayctes, the son of Cherasmis, the governor of Sestos upon the Hellespont. 79. The Mares wore on their heads the plaited helmet peculiar to their country, and used small leathern bucklers, and javelins. The Oolchians wore wooden helmets, and carried small shields of raw hide, and short spears ; besides which they had swords. Both Mares and Oolchians were under the command of Pharandates, the son of Teaspes. The Alarodians and Saspirians were armed like the Oolchians ; their leader was Masistes, the son of Siromitras. - 80. The Islanders who came from the Erythrsean sea, where they inhabited the islands to which the king sends those whom he banishes,^ wore a dress and arms almost exactly like the Median. Their leader was Mardontes the son of Bag^us, who the year after perished in the battle of Mycale, where he was one of the captains.^ 81. Such were the nations who fought upon the dry land, and made up the infantry of the Persians. And they were commanded by the captains whose names have been above recorded. The marshalling and num- bering of the troops had been committed to them, and by them were appointed the captains over a thousand, and the captains over ten thousand ; but the Xenophon (Anab. vii. viii. § 25). They were also better armed. They had substituted the ye^fiov for the light targe ; their spears, at least those of the Mosynceci, were nine feet long ; their helmets were of leather ; and they had steel battle-axes (Anab. iv. viii. § 3 ; v. iv. § 12-3). '■' Supra, iii. 93. Ctesias mentions the banishment of Megabyzus to Cyr- tae in the Erythrasan sea by the com- mand of Artaxerxes (Exc. Pers. § 40). ° Infra, ix. 102. 74 THE "IMMORTALS." Book VII. leaders of ten men, or a hundred, were named by the captains over ten thousand. There were other officers also, who gave the orders to the various ranks and nations ; but those whom I have mentioned above were the commanders. 82. Over these commanders themselves, and over the whole of the infantry, there were set six generals, — ■ namely, Mardonius, son of Grobryas; Tritant^chmes, son of the Artabanus who gave his advice against the war with Grreece ; Smerdomenes son of Otanes— these two were the sons of Darius' brothers, and thus were cousins of Xerxes — Masistes, son of Darius and Atossa ; Grergis son of Arizus ; and Megabyzus son of Zopyrus. 83. The whole of the infantry was under the com- mand of these generals, excepting the Ten Thousand. The Ten Thousand, who were all Persians and all picked men, were led by Hydarnes, the son of Hydarnes. They were called "the Immortals," for the following reason. If one of their body failed either by the stroke of death or of disease, forthwith his place was filled up by another man, so that their number was at no time either greater or less than 10,000. Of all the troops the Persians were adorned with the greatest magnificence, and they were likewise the most valiant. Besides their , arms, which have been already described, they glittered all over with gold, vast quantities of which they wore about their persons.* They were followed by litters, wherein rode their con- cubines, and by a numerous train of attendants hand- somely dressed. Camels and sumpter-beasts carried their provision, apart from that of the other soldiers. * All accounts agree in representing the use of ornaments in pure gold as common among the Persians (see Ion, Pr. 4 ; Xen. Anab. i. ii. § 27 ; viii. § 29, &c. ; Quint. Curt. iii. iii. § 13; Justin, xi. 9 ; Aristid. Panath. p. 210 ; Dio Chrysost. Orat. ii. p. 29, B, &c.). That there was no mistake about the matter seems evident from what is related concerning the spoils gained at Platsea, and the great wealth which thereby accrued to the Eginetans (in- fra, ix. 80). CHAr. 82-86. NATIONS WHICH FURNISHED CAVALRY. 75 84. All these various nations jBght on horseback ; they did not, however, at this time all furnish horse- men, but only the following : — (i.) The Persians, who were armed in the same way as their own footmen, excepting that some of them wore upon their heads devices fashioned with the ham- mer in brass or steel. 85. (ii.) The wandering tribe known by the name of Sagartians — a people Persian in language, and in dress half Persian, half Pactyan, who furnished to the army as many as eight thousand horse. It is not the wont of this people to carry arms, either of bronze or steel, except only a dirk ; but they use lassoes made of thongs plaited together, and trust to these whenever they go to the wars. Now the manner in which they fight is the following : when they meet their enemy, straightway they discharge their lassoes, which end in a noose ; then, whatever the noose encircles, be it man or be it horse, they drag towards them, and the foe, entangled in the toils, is forthwith slain.° Such is the manner in which this people fight, and now their horsemen were drawn up with the Persians. 86. (iii.) The Medes, and Cissians, who had the same equipment as their foot-soldiers. (iv.) The Indians, equipped as their footmen, but some on horseback and some in chariots, — the chariots drawn either by horses, or by wild asses.^ * The use of tlie lasso was common in ancient times to many of the na- tions of Western Asia. It is seen in the Assyrian sculptures from the palace of Asshur-bani-pal, son of Esarhaddon, which are now in the British Museum. Pausanias men- tions it as a custom of the Sarma- tians (i. xxi. § 8), Suidas as in use among the Parthians (ad voc. trfipd). It was also practised by the Huns, the Alani, and many other barha- rous nations (see the observations of Kuster on Suidas, vol. iii. p. 303, and those of Lipsius in his treatise De Milit. Roman, vol. iii. p. 443), as it is at the present day by the inha- bitants of the Pampas. The scarcity of metals, or want of the means of work- ing them, gave rise to such a con- trivance (cf. Pausan. 1. s. c). ° The wild ass must not be con- founded (as it has been by Larcher) with the zebra. It is an entirely different animal. Ker Porter (Tra- vels, vol. i. p. 460) has described one 76 NATIONS WHICH PUENISHED CAVALRY. Book VII. (v.) The Bactrians and Oaspians, arrayed as their foot-soldiers. (vi.) The Libyans, equipped as their foot-soldiers, like the rest ; but all riding in chariots.' (vii.) The Caspeirians* and Paricanians, equipped as their foot-soldiers. which he saw at a short distance very accurately. "He appeared to me," he says, " about ten or twelve hands high, the skin smooth like a deer's, and of a reddish colour, the belly and hinder parts partaking of a silvery grey ; his neck was finer than that of a common ass, being longer, and bending like a stag's, and his legs beautifully slender ; the head and ears seemed large in proportion. . . The mane was short and black, as also was a tuft which terminated his tail. No line whatever ran along his back or crossed his shoulders, as are seen in the tame species." A repre- sentation appears among the presents brought to the Persian king as tribute at Persepolis. See the subjoined woodcut. Wild asses of this species are common in the desert between India and Affghanistan (see Elphin- stone's Cabul, and compare Ctes. Indie. § 25). - They are naturally very wild, but are sometimes tamed. ' Supra, iv. 170 and 189. "Wild Ass (Persepolia). » The MSS. give " Oaspians," who have been already mentioned, in a proper connexion, with the Bactrians. Eeize conjectured, and the later editors have given, " Caspeirians " from Ste- phen of Byzantium, who quotes the name "Oaspeirus" as from Herodotus. (He refers however to Book iii. instead of Book vii., and his " Oaspeirus " clearly represents the Caspatyrus of iii. 102.) The Caspeirians were a people on the borders of India (Steph. Byz. jTpoa-fxfis tJ 'IvSik^. Dionys. ap. Steph. Nonn. Dionys. xxii., and per- haps Ptolem. vii. 1, p. 201-2). They seem to have been the inhabitants of Cashmeer. (See Appendix, Essay i. p. 219.) Chap. 87-89. CONTINGENTS TO THE FLEET— PH(ENICIANS. 77 (viii.) The Arabians, in the same array as their foot- men, but all riding on camels, not inferior in fleetness to horses.® 87. These nations and these only furnished horse to the army : and the number of the horse was eighty thousand, without counting camels or chariots. All were marshalled in squadrons, excepting the Arabians ; who were placed last, to avoid frightening the horses, which cannot endure the sight of the camel." 88. The horse was commanded by Armamithras and Tithseus, sons of Datis. The other commander, Phar- nuches, who was to have been their colleague, had been left sick at Sardis ; since at the moment that he was leaving the city, a sad mischance befell him : — a dog ran under the feet of the horse upon which he was mounted, and the horse, not seeing it coming, was startled, and, rearing bolt upright, threw his rider. After this fall Pharnuches spat blood, and fell into a consumption. As for the horse, he was treated at once as Pharnuches ordered : the attendants took him to the spot where he had thrown his master, and there cut off his four legs at the hough. Thus Pharnuches lost his command. 89. The triremes amounted in all to twelve hun- dred and seven ; and were furnished by the following nations : — (i.) The Phoenicians, with the Syrians of Palestine, furnished three hundred vessels, the crews of which were thus accoutred : upon their heads they wore helmets » The speed of the dromedary being equal to that of a horse is an error ; it scarcely exceeds nine miles an hour. The camel answers to the cart-horse, the dromedary to the saddle-horse. Bach has one hump; the Bactrian camel has two. It is singular that the camel is not represented m the Egyptian sculptures. An instance is only found of late time. But this does not prove its non-existence in Egypt, as it was there in the age of Abraham. Poultry are also un- noticed on the monuments ; and it is possible that they were rare in Egypt in early times. They appear to have come originally from Asia, where alone they are still found wild on the main- land and its islands.— [G-. W.] '» Supra, i. 80. 78 EGYPTIANS. Book VII. made nearly in the Grrecian manner ; about their bodies they had breastplates of linen •/ they carried shields without rims ;^ and were armed with javelins. This nation, according to their own account, dwelt anciently upon the Erythraean sea,^ but crossing thence, fixed them- selves on the sea-coast of Syria, where they still inhabit. This part of Syria, and all the region extending from hence to Egypt, is known by the name of Palestine.* (ii.) The Egyptians furnished two hundred ships.' Their crews had plaited helmets upon their heads, and bore concave shields with rims of unusual size.* They ' For a description of these corse- lets, see Book ii. ch. 182, note '. They were worn also by the Assyrians (supra, ch. 63.) 2 This was the characteristic of the pelta, or light targe, introdvtced among the Greeks by Iphicrates (Com. Nep. Iphicr. i. 3; Diod. Sic. xv. 44; He- sych. ad voc, &c.). It consisted of a framework of wood or wickerwork, over which was stretched a covering of raw hide or leather (see Diet, of Antiq. p. 882). ^ See Appendix, Essay ii. ■< The name Palestine is beyond a doubt the Greek form of the Hebrew riB'PS, Philistia, or the country of the Philistines (compare note " on ii. 128). And the persons here indi- cated are the inhabitants of the sea- board between Phoenicia and Egypt, which is the proper Supt'a noKaitrrivrj or Syria of the Philistines. It has been assumed by Rennell (Geography of Herod, pp. 245-7) and others that the inhabitants of this tract in the time of Xerxes were the Jews. But this seems to be incorrect. The coast tract, commanded by the three towns of Gaza, Ashdod, and Ascalon, which was conquered at the first entrance of the Jews into the land of Canaan (Judges i. 18), was afterwards re- covered by the Philistines (Judges xiii. 1 et seq.), and continued in their possession, with only temporary and occasional exceptions (2 Ohron. xxvi. 6), till the Macedonian conquest (cf. Jerem. xlvii. ; Zephan. ii. 4-7 ; Zech. ix. 5-6 ; Nehem. xiii. 23 ; Judith ii. 28, et seq.). This tract, with Gaza (Cadytis) for its chief town, is the only portion of Herodotus's Palestine Syria, which reached the coast, and its inha- bitants are Canaanites, the descend- ants of the ancient Philistines. The Jews dwelt inland, and if they served at all in the army of Xerxes, must have been enrolled among his land forces. But in the time between Ze- rubbabel and Ezra they were too weak to be of any account. * Of the Egyptians as sailors, see notes on Bk. viii. ch. 17, and Bk. ix. ch. 32. ' These concave shields, with large rims, are more like Greek than No. I. Egyptian, unless Herodotus means that they were edged with metal (as in woodcut No. II. in n. on Bk. vii. Chap. 89. EGYPTIANS. 79 were armed with spears suited for a sea-fight, and with ch. 63). There is, however, an in- stance (No. I.) of concave Egyptian shields. Their trowel-shaped dag- gers, or swords (No. II.), were not uncommon ; and ship-spears, or hoard- ing pikes, are represented in the sea- fight at Medeenet Haboo, as well as large swords. A quilted thorax. No. II. iiWa A'l\l\ vilqiiijLi'Vu No. III. 80 CYPRIANS. Book VII. huge pole-axes. The greater part of them wore breast- plates, and all had long cutlasses. 90. (ifi.) The Cyprians furnished a hundred and fifty ships, and were equipped in the following fashion. Their kings had turbans bound about their heads, while the sometimes covered with small metal plates (No. III.), was commonly worn by soldiers and sailors. (See figs. 14, 15, in No. V. woodcut in n. on Bk. ix. ch. 32.) Scale and chain- armour were used by many people, and even in the Eoman army, as the monu- ments of the empire, and Latin writers sufficiently prove, whence Virgil speaks of " Loricam consertam hamis auroque trilicem" (JEn. iii. 467), and " thoraca indutus ahenis horrebat squamis." (^n. xi. 467, comp. 771.) They were also adopted by the Assy- rians (as shown by Mr. Layard), and by the Persians. Herodotus, vii. 61, "XcTriSoff o-idrjperjs oyj^iv i;^^Doet6coff ;" and ix. 22, " dmp-qxa Kpvireou XfTri- Sr 5, tOTOV. In Egypt scale-armour is repr-e- sented at a much earlier period in the tomb of Eemeses III. at Thebes (see At. Eg. vol. i. p. 331, and plate III.), and in Dr. Abbott's collection is part of a cuirass formed of plates sewed upon a leather doublet. The plates are of bronze, in form imitative of the Egyptian shield, with the round No. lY. end downwards^ and on two of them is the name of Sheshonk, Shishak, to whom the cuirass probably belonged. The Sarmatians and others wore scale- armour, made of pieces of horn, or horse-hoofs, cut and sewn in the form of feathers, upon a linen doublet (Pausan. i. 21). The huge shields mentioned by Xenophon (Cyroped. VII. i. § 33), which (according to him) the Egyptian phalanx had in the army of Croesus, are represented at Siodt. These, he says, covered their bodies far more than the Persian yeppov and the thorax. They were No. V. ■ of wood (Xen. Anab. i. and ii.), and reached to their feet, and being sup- ported by a thong over the shoulder, gave them a power of pushing in a charge (one of the great uses of a shield often represented in Greek sculpture), which the Persians, hold- ing their gerra in the hand at arm's length, could not withstand. The gerra used by the Persians at Plafcea and Mycale appear to have resembled the shield adopted by the Egyptians at sieges, which were supported by a crutch (woodcut No. VI., figs, a, h, c, d), or rather those in the Nineveh sculp- Chap. 90. CYPRIANS. 81 people wore tunics ; in other respects they were clad like the Greeks. They are of various races ;' some are No. VI. tures (see Layard, vol. ii. p. 348) where they are also represented in sieges, illustrating the expression in Isa. XXX vii. 33: "nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it (the city) with shields, nor cast a bank against it,"— [G. W.] ' The mixed character of the popu- lation of Cyprus has been already noticed (supra, v. 104, note '). The VOL. TV. island appears to have been originally colonised from Phoenicia, as the names of its most ancient towns, and the testimonies of early writers, suflS- ciently indicate (see Bochart's Geo- graph. Sac. in. ch. 3). The traditions with respect to Cinyras (Apollod. in. xiv. § 3 ; Theopomp. Fr. Ill ; Ister. Fr. 39), and Belus (Virg. Mn. i. 621 ; Step. Byz. ad voc. Aanrjdos'), the early 82 CILICIANS AND PAMPHYLIANS. Book Vll. sprung from Athens and Salamis, some from Arcadia, some fi-om Cythnus,* some from Phoenicia, and a por- tion, according to their own account, from Ethiopia. 91. (iv.) The Cilicians frirnished a hundred ships. The crews wore upon their heads the helmet of their country, and carried instead of shields light targes made oi raw hide ; they were clad in woollen tunics, and were each armed with two javelins, and a sword closely resemhling the cutlass of the Egyptians. This people bore anciently the name of Hypachaeans," hut took their present title from Cilix, the son of Agenor, a Phoenician. (v.) The Pamphylians furnished thirty ships, the crews of which were armed exactly as the Greeks. This nation is descended from those who on the coins, inscriptions, and other remains, the language so far as known (Hesych. ad voc. MiiXiKa, &c.), are in accordance with the direct testimony of Scylax (l^eripl. p. 98, 'Ajjiadois, avTox6oves ela-iv : compare Theopomp. 1. s. c.) and Stephen (ad voc. 'AfiaBovs) ; and all point to a Phcenician occupation of the country at a very remote era, probably before it had received inha- bitants from any other quarter. The first Greek immigrants found the Phoenicians established. They are said to have arrived under Teucer, soon after the Trojan war (supra, V. 110, note ^), and to have settled at Salamis, which they so called after the name of the island they had left. About the same time the Athenians are reported to have colo- nised Soli, called at first (we are told) ^peia (supra, v. 110, note ''). A large influx of Greek settlers must have soon followed ; for Cyprus is re- presented in the early Assyrian in- scriptions as the land of the Yavnan ('IdFoves), and in the time of Esar- haddon Citinm, Idaliiim, Curium, Ammochosta, Limenia, and Aphrodi- sias, as well as Salamis and Soli, seem to have been governed by Greek kin?s (see vol. i. Essay vii. p. 483, note 'j. Subsequently there must have been a reaction. Scylax (Peripl. pp. 97-8) appears only to have regarded Salamis and Marium as Greek cities. All the towns of the interior he expressly calls "barbarian." When the Arca- dians and Cythnians anived is imcer- tain. The Ethiopian Cyprians may have been a remnant of the Egyptian conquest (supra, ii. ad fin.). " Cythnus was one of the Cyclades (Artemid. ap. Strab. x. p. 708 ; Plin. H. N. iv. 12 ; Steph. Byz. ad voc). It lay between Ceos and Seriphus (Strab. 1. s. c). The modern name is Thermia (Boss's Inselreise, Pref. to vol. iii. p. xi.). " No other ancient writer mentions this name, which is seemingly of Hellenic origin. The Cilicians were undoubtedly a kindred race to the Phcenicians. Their arms and equip- ment are almost identical (supra, ch. 89), and traditions as to their origin, however they differed in detail, were unanimous in this respect (compare with the present passage ApoUod. iii. i. § 1, and xiv. § 3). The Greek colonies upon the coast were not nu- merous. Scylax mentions but two, Holmi and Soli (Peripl. p. 96). The latter was founded by the Acha?ans and Ehodians (Strab. xiv. p. 958). Chap. 91-93. LYCIANS, DORIANS, AND CARIANS. 83 return from Troy were dispersed witli Archilochus and Calchas/ 92. (vi.) The Lycians furnished fifty ships. Their crews wore greaves and breastplates, while for arms they had bows of cornel wood, reed arrows without feathers, and javelins. Their outer garment was the skin of a goat, which hung from their shoulders ; their head-dress a hat encircled with plumes ; and besides their other weapons they carried daggers and falchions.^ This people came from Crete, and were once called Termil^ ; they got the name which they now bear from Lycus, the son of Pandion, an Athenian.^ 93. (vii.) The Dorians of Asia furnished thirty ships. They were armed in the Grecian fashion^ inasmuch as their forefathers came from the Peloponnese. (viii.) The Carians furnished seventy ships, and were equipped like the Greeks, but carried, in addition, falchions and daggers. What name the Carians bore anciently was declared in the first part of this history.* ' Pami)hylia seems to have "been Hellenised at a much earlier period than either Lycia or Cihcia. The tradition here recorded by Herodotus, and in part repeated by Pausanias (vii. iii. § 4), however little credit it may deserve as a matter of fact, yet indicates the early and complete Hel- lenisation of the people of this region. It derives the Pampbylians generally from the Greeks (cf. Theopomp. Fr. Ill, v(j)' 'EWrjvav r/ HafK^uXia Kara- KitrBr)). No doubt the Greek was iri- termingled here with Lycian and Ci- lician, perhaps also with Phrygian and Pisidian blood, whence probably the name of nd/^e^uXoi, but the Greek race was the predominant one, as the adoption of the Hellenic costume would alone imply. Various stories were told of the wanderings of Calchas and Amphi- lochus. They were said to have left Troy on foot (Theopomp. Fr. 112 ; Strab. xiv. p. '921), and proceeded to Clarus near Colophon, where, accord- ina)(os is explained as 6 ctkSKo'^ 6 clkuv- Chap. 142, 143. THEMISTOCLBS. 121 the "wooden wall" meant the fleet, were perplexed by the last two lines of the oracle — . " Holy Salamis, thou slialt destroy the offspring of women, When men scatter the seed, or when they gather the harvest." These words caused great disturbance among those who took the wooden wall to be the ships ; since the inter- preters understood them to mean, that, if they made preparations for a sea-fight, they would suffer a defeat off Salamis. 143. Now there was at Athens a man who had lately made his way into the first rank of citizens f his true name was Themistocles, but he was known more generally as the son of Neocles.* This man came for- ward and said, that the interpreters had not explained the oracle altogether aright — " for if," he argued, " the clause in question had really respected the Athenians, it would not have been expressed so mildly ; the phrase used would have been ' Luckless Salamis,' rather than ' Holy Salamis,' had those to whom the island belonged been about to perish in its neighbourhood. Rightly taken, the response of the god threatened the enemy, much more than the Athenians." He therefore coun- selled his countrymen to make ready to fight on board their ships, since thei/ were the wooden wall in which the god told them to trust.^ "When Themistocles had 3 According to Plutarch (Vit. Them. c. 1), Themistocles, though not abso- lutely of low origin, owed little to birth and parentage. His father, Neocles, did not belong to the most illustrious class of citizens (oi rwv ayav cTrifpavav ' Adjinia-i-), and his mother was a Thracian or a Halicar- nassian woman. Themistocles would thus only have obtained citizenship through the enfi'anchisement made by Clisthenes (supra, vol. iii. pp. 405-6), and would have had many prejudices to contend against before he could become a leading statesman. The fortune left him by his father was said to have been three talents, or about 7201. (Grit. Fr. 8). * The practice of addressing per- sons by their father's names was common in Greece. 'Q ttoI KXfivi'ou, & TToi 'lepcoi'Vfiov, Si nai 'hnrovLKOVj &c., are usual forms in Plato, especially in addresses to the young. ° It has been with reason suspected that the ingenuity of Themistocles was less shown in expounding these oracles than in contriving them. He had probably " himself prepared the crisis which lie now slept forward to 122 PEOPOSAL OF THBMISTOCLES TO BUILD A FLEET. Book VII. tlnis cleared the matter, the Athenians embraced his view, preferring it to that of the interpreters. The advice of these last had been against engaging in a sea-fight ; " all the Athenians could do," they said, " was, without lifting a hand in their defence, to quit Attica, and make a settlement in some other country."^ 144. Themistocles had before this given a counsel which prevailed very seasonably. The Athenians, having a large sum of money in their treasury, the produce of the mines at Laureium,' were about to share it among the full-grown citizens, who would have received ten drachmas apiece,^ when Themistocles per- deoide" (Thirlwall, vol. ii. p. 296). The oracle would be open to influence (supra, V. 63 ; vi. 66), and Themis- tocles would not be lifcely to neglect such an engine. It was his object to overcome the natural clinging to home of his countrymen, and to drive them by sheer terror to their ships. Thence the threats of the oracles. His "keen eye" may also well have "caught a prophetic glimpse of the events that were to hallow the shores of Salamis ;" i. e. he saw the importance of the po- sition, and determined that there the great battle must and should take place. Does Mr. Grote intend by his silence to oppose this view, which met with acceptance even among the an- cients (see Plut. Them. c. 10) ? ^ This plan appears to have been seriously entertained; and Siris in Italy was even fixed upon as the best locality (infra, viii. 62). It must be remembered that it had been adopted with success by the PhocEcans and Teians (supra, i. 165-8) ? ' Laureium or Laurion was the name of the mountainous country immediately above Cape Oolonna (Sunimn), reaching northwards to Anaphlystus andThoricus. Legrcma, a small place in this district, is a cor- ruption of the ancient word (Aaiptov, pronounced Lavrion, Aaypiov, Le- grana). The silver-mines, with which the whole tract abounded, had been worked from time immemorial (Xen. de Veot. iv. § 2). The wealth of Pisistratus seems to have been in great part derived from them (supra, i. 64), as was afterwards that of Mcias and Hipponious (Xen. de Vect. iv. § 14 ; comp. Memorab. Soor. ii. v. § 2). They were regarded as the property of the state ; but private individuals, even foreigners (ib. § 12), were al- lowed to work them on payment to the state of one twenty-fourth of the produce (Suidas, ad voc. dypdcpov /icraXXow StKr). Compare Hyperid. Orat. pro Buxenipp. Col. 43). Dur- ing the Peloponnesian war they con- tinued to be of importance (Thucyd. vi. 91) ; but in the time of Xenophon the proceeds had fallen off (Mem. Socr. III. vi. § 12), though he is far fi'om thinking them exhausted (Veot. iv. § 3, 26). However they seem gradually to have declined, and, after an attempt to work the old scorice, which did not answer long (Strab. ix. p. 580), they were finally aban- doned by the time of Augustus (ib. compare Pausan. i. i. § 1). Numerous traces still remain of the old scorise and pits (Leake's Demi, p. 66). " If the number of citizens at this time was, according to the estimate already made, 30,000 (supra, v. 97), the entire sum which they were about to have shaved among them must have been 50 talents, or rather more than 12,000Z. We cannot however con- clude from this, as Boeokh does (Pub- Chap.144, 145. ATHENS A GREAT MARITIME POWER. 123 suaded them, to forbear the distribution, and build with the money two hundred ships,' to help them in their war against the Eginetans. It was the breaking out of the Eginetan war which was at this time the saving of Greece, for hereby were the Athenians forced to become a maritime power. The new ships were not used for the purpose for which they had been built, but became a help to Grreece in her hour of need. And the Athenians had not only these vessels ready before the war, but they likewise set to work to build more ; while they determined, in' a council which was held after the debate upon the oracle, that, according to the advice of the god, they would embark their whole force aboard their ships, and with such Grreeks as chose to join them, give battle to the barbarian invader. Such, then, were the oracles which had been received by the Athenians. 145. The Grreeks who were well affected to the Grre- cian cause, having assembled in one place, and there consulted together, and interchanged pledges with each other, agreed that, before any other step was taken, the feuds and enmities which existed between the different nations should first of all be appeased. Many such there were ; but one was of more importance than the rest, namely, the war which was still going on be- lie Economy of Athens, App. to vol. ii. pp. 462-3, E. T.), that the annual proceeds of the mines were of this amoimt, for the fifty talents may have been the produce of an accumulation. 8 This is what Herodotus says, hut perhaps not what he meant to say. It seems certain that the real deter- mination was to raise their navy to the number of 200 vessels. This was the number actually employed both at Artemisium Hnfra, viii. 1 and 14) and at Salamis (ib. 44 and 46). Ac- cordingly Plutarch (Them. c. 4), Po- lyjenus (i. xxx. § 5), and Cornelms Nejios (Them. c. ii.) report, that me hundred ships only were voted, im- plying that the Athenians already possessed at the time of the vote one hundred triremes. This is possible, though a few years earlier (e.g. 491) they had but fifty (supra, vi. 89). Again, it is evident that fifty talents would have been too little for the purpose indicated, even if we limit the new ships to one hundred (Boeckh, ii. p. 464). We may therefore con- clude that the vote assigned over the produce of the mines for a number of years. On the fact that Themistooles gave the advice, compare Thuoyd. i. 14. 124 XBHXES' TREATMENT OF THE GEBEK SPIES. Book VII. tween the Athenians and the Eginetans.^" When this business was concluded, understanding that Xerxes had reached Sardis with his army, they resolved to despatch spies into Asia to take note of the king's affairs. At the same time they determined to send ambassadors to the Argives, and conclude a league with them against the Persians ; while they likewise despatched messengers to Grelo, the son of Deinomenes, in Sicily, to the people of Oorcyra, and to those of Crete, exhorting them to send help to Grreece. Their wish was to unite, if possible, the entire Greek name in one, and so to bring all to join in the samB plan of defence, inasmuch as the approaching dangers threat- ened all alike. Now the power of Grelo was said to be very great, far greater than that of any single Grrecian people. 146, So when these resolutions had been agreed upon, and the quarrels between the states made up, first of all they sent into Asia three men as spies. These men reached Sardis, and took note of the king's forces, but, being discovered, were examined by order of the generals who commanded the land army, and, having been condemned to suffer death, were led out to execution. Xerxes, however, when the news reached him, disapproving the sentence of the generals, sent some of his body-guard with instructions, if they found the spies still alive, to bring them into his presence. The messengers found the spies alive, and brought them before the king, who, when he heard the purpose for which they had come, gave orders to his guards to take them round the camp, and show them all the footmen and all the horse, letting them gaze at everything to their heart's content ; then, when they were satisfied, to send them away unharmed to whatever country they desired. 1" Supra, V. 81, 89 ; vi. 87-93. The I the Isthmus (infra, oh. 172). council appears to have assembled at Chap. 146-148. GREEK EMBASSY TO ARGOS. 1-25 147. For these orders Xerxes gave afterwards the following reasons. " Had the spies been put to death," he said, " the Grreeks would have continued ignorant of the vastness of his army, which surpassed the common report of it •, while he would have done them a very small injury by killing three of their men. On the other hand, by the return of the spies to Greece, his power would become known ; and the Grreeks," he ex- pected, "would make surrender of their freedom before he began his march, by which means his troops would be saved all the trouble of an expedition." This rea- soning was like to that which he used upon another oc- casion. While he was staying at Abydos, he saw some corn-ships, which were passing through the Hellespont from the Euxine,' on their way to Egina and the Pelo- ponnese. His attendants, hearing that they were the enemy's, were ready to capture them, and looked to see when Xerxes would give the signal. He, however, merely asked, " Whither the ships were bound ?" and when they answered, " For thy foes, master, with corn on board," — " We too are bound thither," he rejoined, " laden, among other things, with corn. What harm is it, if they carry our provisions for us ?"^ So the spies, when they had seen everything, were dismissed, and came back to Europe. 148. The Greeks who had banded themselves together against the Persian king, after despatching the spies into Asia, sent next ambassadors to Argos. The account which the Argives give of their own proceedings is the following. They say that they had information ' The com-growing countries upon the Black Sea, in ancient as in modem times, supplied the commercial nations with their chief article of food. The importance of this trade to Athens has heen well stated hy Boeckh (Pol. Bcom. of Athens, vol. i. pp. 107-8). We see here that other Greek states were engaged in it. Connect with this subject the following passages, iv. 17 {^Kv6ai dporrjpcs, oi ovk eVt o'tTtjO'et cnreipuvtrt tov (tItov, dW eirl Trprjo-ei), V. 5 and 26. ^ That Xerxes was not altogether devoid of magnanimity is plain from these anecdotes as well as from his conduct towards the heralds Sperthias and Bulls (supra, ch. 136). 126 REPLY OF THE ARGIVE COUNCIL." Book VII. from the very first of the preparations which the barharians were making against Grreece. So, as they expected that the Greeks would come upon them for aid against the assailant, they sent envoys to Delphi to inquire of the god, what it would be best for them to do in the matter. They had lost, not long before, six thousand citizens, who had been slain by the Lacedae- monians under Cleomenes the son of Anaxandridas f which was the reason why they now sent to Delphi, When the Pythoness heard their question, she replied — " Hated of all thy neighbours, beloved of the blessed Immortals, Sit thou still, with thy lance drawn inward, patiently watching ; "Warily guard thine head, and the head will take care of the body;" This prophecy had been given them some time before the envoys came ; but still, when they afterwards arrived, it was permitted them to enter the council- house, and there deliver their message. And this answer was returned to their demands — " Argos is ready to do as ye require, if the Lacedemonians will first make a truce for thirty years,* and will further divide with Argos the leadership of the allied army. Although in strict right the whole command should be hers,° she will be content to have the leadership divided equally." ° We have here an estimate of the Argive loss in the battle and massacre of which an account was' given above (see vi. 78-80). If, as is probable, the number of citizens was not greater than at Sparta (about 10,000), the blow was certainly tremendous. "We have already seen to what unusual steps it led (ibid. 83, note ^). Perhaps the last line of the oracle refers to the expediency of preserving what re- mained of the Doric blood, the top- most rank in the state. * In the Peloponnesian war the position of the two nations was so far changed that Sparta pressed and Argos refused such a truce (Thucyd. V. 14, 76, 82). ° Argos never forgot her claim or relinquished her hopes of the hege- mony. The claim rested in part on the fact that Argos was the seat of government under the Achaaan kings, in part on the supposed choice of Argolis for his kingdom by Temenus, the eldest of the Heraclidaj (see Her- mann's Pol. Ant. § 33 ; and supra, vol. iii. p. 332). The hope determined the policy of Argos at all periods of her history. It induced her to stand aloof from great struggles — from the Peloponnesian as well as from this — in order to nurse her strength. And it caused her in critical times to in- cline always towards alliance with the enemi(is of Sparta, as with the Mes- Chap. 149, 150. SPAETA REJECTS THEIR OPPER. 127 149. Such, they say, was the reply made by the council, in spite of the oracle which forbade thein to enter into a league with the Grreeks. For, while not without fear of disobeying the oracle, they were greatly desirous of obtaining a thirty years' truce, to give time for their sons to grow to man's estate. They reflected, that if no such truce were concluded, and it should be their lot to suffer a second calamity at the hands of the Persians, it was likely they would fall hopelessly under the power of Sparta. But to the demands of the Argive council the Lacedemonian envoys made answer — " They -vi^ould bring before the people the question of concluding a truce.* With re- gard to the leadership, they had received orders what to say, and the reply was, that Sparta had two kings, Argos but one — it was not possible that either of the two Spartans should be stripped of' his dignity — but they did not oppose the Argive king having one vote like each of them." The Argives say, that they could not brook this arrogance on the part of Sparta, and rather than yield one jot to it, they preferred to be under the rule of the barbarians. So they told the envoys to begone, before sunset, from their territory, or they should be treated as enemies. 150. Such is the account which is given of these matters by the Argives themselves. There is another story, which is told generally through G-reece, of a dif- ferent tenor. Xerxes, it is said, before he set forth on his expedition against G-reece, sent a herald to Argos, who on his arrival spoke as follows : — senians in their early wars (Pausan. iv. 10-11 ; 15, § 1, 4) ; with Athens in B.C. 461 (Thuoyd. i. 102), and ao-ain in b.o. 420 (ib. v. 44-7) ; with the Corinthians in B.C. 421_(ib. v. 27-8. Note the words 'hpydoi Ikiri- a-avres rrjs UfKoTTovvrjo-ov fjyrja-ea-Bat), and with the Thehans in B.C. 369 (Diod. Bic. XV. 68). ' Muller (Dorians, ii. p. 91, note ') has carefully collected the passages which prove that questions of peace and war were always decided hy the eKKXrjcrla at Sparta. They are, besides the present, Thuoyd. i. 67, 72 ; v. 77 ; vi. 88 ; Xen. Hell. in. ii. § 23 ; iv. vi. § 3 ; V. ii. § 23 ; vi. iv. § 2 ; Plut. Ages. c. 6. 128 ALLIANCE BETWEEN PERSIA AND ARGOS. Book VII. " Men of Argos, King Xerxes speaks thus to you. We Persians deem that the Perses from whom we descend was the child of Perseus the son of Danae, and of Andromeda the daughter of Oepheus.' Hereby it would seem that we come of your stock and lineage. So then it neither befits us to make war upon those from whom we spring ; nor can it be right for you to fight, on behalf of others, against us. Your place is to keep quiet and hold yourselves aloof. Only let matters proceed as I wish, and there is no people whom I shall have in higher esteem than you." This address, says the story, was highly valued by the Argives, who therefore at the first neither gave a promise to the Greeks nor yet put forward a demand. Afterwards, however, when the Greeks called upon them to give their aid, they made the claim which has been mentioned, because they knew -well that the Lace- dsemonians would never yield it, and so they would have a pretext for taking no part in the war. 151. Some of the Greeks say that this account agrees remarkably with what happened many years afterwards. Oallias, the son of Hipponicus, and certain others with him, had gone up to Susa, the city of Memnon,^ as ambassadors of the Athenians, upon a business quite distinct from this.® While they were there, it happened^ that the Argives likewise sent ambassadors to Susa,'° to ask Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes, " if the friendship which they had formed with his father still continued. ^ Vide supra, oh. 61. note ^ and compare vi. 54. " Supra, ii. 106, and v. 53-4. " Dahlmann (Life of Herod, p. 30, E. T.) is of opinion that this embassy- was sent from Athens in the first year of the Peloponnesian war, or at any rate, between that date and B.C. 425, the year of the death of Artax- erxes. Bahr (ad loc.) adopts his view. But there seems to be no sufficient grounds for impugning the account given by Diodorus (xii. 3-4), that Callias was sent up to Susa after the victories at Cyprus (b.c. 449), and negotiated the so-called "peace of Cimon." (See Mr. Grote's remarks, Hist, of Greece, v. pp. 452-7.) "• An Argive ambassador, not how- ever accredited by his government, was . on his way to Susa in the year B.C. 430, and was involved in the fate of Nicolaus and Aneristus (Thuc. ii. 67, and compare supra, ch. 137). Chap. 151-153. GREEI EMBASSY TO SICILY. 129 or if he looked upon them as his enemies ?"— to which King Artaserxes replied, "Most certainly it continues ; and there is no city which I reckon more my friend than Argos." 152. For my own part I cannot positively say whether Xerxes did send the herald to Argos or not ; nor whether Argive ambassadors at Susa did really put this question to Artaxerxes about the friendship between them and him ; neither do I deliver any opinion here- upon other than that of the Argives themselves. This, however, I know — that if every nation were to bring all its evil deeds to a given place, in order to make an exchange with some other nation, when they had all looked carefully at their neighbours' faults, they would be truly glad to carry their own back again. So, after all, the conduct of the Argives was not perhaps more disgraceful than that of others. For myself, my duty is to report all that is said, but I am not obliged to believe it all alike — a remark which may be understood to apply to my whole History. Some even go so far as to say, that the Argives first invited the Persians to invade Greece, because of their ill success in the war with Lacedaemon, since they preferred anything to the smart of their actual sufferings. Thus much concerning the Argives.^ 153. Other ambassadors, among whom was Syagrus from Laeedsemon, were sent by the allies into Sicilj'-, with instructions to confer with Gelo. The ancestor of this Grelo, who first settled at Grela, was a native of the isle of Telos, which lies oif Trio- pium.^ When Grela was colonised by Antiphemus and ' The comments of the Pseudo-Plu- tarch on this passage (De MaUgn. Herod, ii. p. 863) are particularly unfair. Herodotus had evidently foi-med, and probably on good grounds, an opinion decidedly unfavourable to the Argives (vide infra, viii. 73). VOL. IV. This opinion he is partly afraid, partly unwilling, to make too apparent. The only faults of which he can fairly be accused are timidity and over-tender- ness towards a guilty nation. ^ Telos, still known by its old name, but more commonly called 130 ANOBSTEY OF GBIO. Book VII. the Lindians of Ehodes,^ he likewise took part in the expedition. In course of time his descendants hecame the high-priests of the gods who dwell below — an office which they held continiaally, from the time that Telines, one of G-elo's ancestors, obtained it in the way which I will now mention. Certain citizens of Glela, worsted in a sedition, had found a refuge at Mact6rium, a town situ- ated on the heights above Grela.* Telines reinstated these men, without any human help, solely by means of the sacred rites of these deities. From whom he received them, or how he himself acquired them, I cannot say ; but certain it is, that relying on their power he brought the exiles back. For this his reward was to be, the office of high-priest of those gods for himself and his seed for ever. It surprises me especially that such a feat should have been performed by Telines ; for I have always looked upon acts of this nature as beyond the abilities of common men, and only to be achieved by such as are of a bold and manly spirit; whereas Telines is said by those who dwell about Sicily to have Piscopi, lies due south of the Triopian promontory (near Cape Orio, supra, i. 174), at the distance of about twenty- miles. It is very incorrectly described by Strabo (x. p. 713), who however marks its position with sufficient ac- curacy by placing it between Chalcia (Karki) and Nisyros (Nisyro). It belonged to the islands called the Sporades (ibid.), not, as Stephen says (ad voc), to the Cyclades. ^ Gela, like most of the Sicilian towns (Steph. Byz. ad voc. 'Axpa- yavTEs), derived its name from the stream on whose banks it was built. That stream (the modern Fiume di Terra Nuova) is said to have got its name from the white frosts which it created along its banks (ibid, ad voc. TeXa), the Sicilian and Oscan gela representing the Latin gelu. The colonisation of G-ela is declared by Thucydidea to have taken place forty- five years after that of Syracuse, or about B.C. 690. According to him the colony consisted of Cretans as well as Rhodians (vi. 4; compare Arte- mon, ¥r. 5). Still the Ehodians preponderated, and the settlement was at first called lAndii (ib. com- pare Pausan. viii. xlvi. § 2 ; Schol. ad Find. 01. ii. 16 ; Athenaaus, vii. p. 297, f.; Steph. Byz. ad voc. TeXa; Etym. Magn. ad voc. eand.). Some authors made Dinomenes — beyond a doubt the ancestor of Gelo who is here spoken of (of. Schol. ad Find.) — actual founder of the city (see Etym. Magn.). ■* The only other notice of Macto- rium is that in Stephen, where we find that it was mentioned by Phi- listus of Syracuse, an eye-witness of the Athenian defeat, B.C. 415. Its exact site cannot be fixed. Terra- Nmma seems to occupy the position of Gela, though the ancient remains found there are very trifling (Smyth's Sicily, ch. v. pp. 196-7). Chap. 154. HISTOEY OF GELA. 131 been a soft-hearted and womanisli person. He however obtained this office in the manner above described. 154. Afterwards, on the death of Oleander the son of Pantares/ who was slain by Sabyllus, a citizen of Gela, after he had held the tyranny for seven years, Hippo- crates, Oleander's brother, mounted the throne. During his reign, Grelo, a descendant of the high-priest Telines, served with many others — of whom ^nesid^mus, son of Pata'icus,* was one — in the king's body-guard. Within a little time his merit caused him to be raised to the command of all the horse. For when Hippocrates laid siege to Oallipolis,' and afterwards to Naxos,* to Zancle,' to Leontini,^ and moreover to Syracuse, and many cities of the barbarians, Glelo in every war distinguished him- self above all the combatants. Of the various cities ° Oleander was the first tyrant. Before his time the government, as in other Doric states, had been an oligarchy (Arist. Pol. v. 10). Oleander probably mounted the throne in B.C. 505 (Clinton's F. H. vol. ii. App. 10 ; Hermann's Pol. Ant. § 85, note ".) " ^nesidemus was the father of Theron, tyrant of Agrigentum not long afterwards (infra, ch. 165 ; comp. Pind. 01. iii. 9, Dissen). He was descended from Telemachus, the de- stroyer of Phalaris, and belonged to the noble family of the Emmenidffi (Schol. ad Pind. 01. iii. 38 ; comp. Schol. ad Pyth. vi. 4). ' Callipolis was a Naxian settle- ment, and lay at no great distance from Naxos (Seym. Oh. 1. 285 ; Strab. vi. p. 394). Its exact site is not known, but cannot have been far from Mascali. Already in the time of Strabo it bad ceased to be a city. ' Naxos, according to Thucydides (vi. 3), the first of the Greek settle- ments in Sicily, was founded about the year B.C. 735 (see Clinton). It was a colony from Chalois in Eubcea. Dionysius the tyrant razed it to the ground, and the very name had dis- appeared in the time of Strabo, who seems to have quite mistaken as to its site (vi. p. 385). It lay on the east coast, a little south of Tau- romenium {Tam-mina), with which it was sometimes confounded (Plin. H. N. iii. 8). Soylax (Peripl. p. 9), however, and other writers, distin- guish the two. Naxos seems to have occupied the small promontory imme- diately north of the river Alcantara, which is the Acesines of Thucydides (iv. 25) and the Asines of Pliny (l. .s. c). A broad stream of lava has overspread the site since the destruc- tion of the city (Smyth's Sicily, p. 130). 9 Supra, vi. 23. ' Leontini was founded from Naxos, six years after the arrival of the Ohal- cideans in Sicily (Thtioyd. vi. 4). It lay some distance up the Terias, which seems to be the river by which the superfluous waters of Lake Biviere are carried to the sea (Scyl. Peripl. p. 9 ; comp. Thucyd. vi. 50). The name remains in the modern Lentini, which however, since the earthquake of 1693, has been moved from the an- cient site. Euins still cover the " cleft hill " (compare the description of Polybius, vii. 6) on which the town originally stood. Remains of anti- quity are here occasionally discovered (Smyth, p. 157). K 2 132 GELO BECOMES KING OP GBLA. Book VII. above named, there was none but Syracuse whicb was not reduced to slavery. The Syracusans were saved from this fate, after they had suffered defeat on the river Elorus,^ by the Corinthians and Corcyrseans, who made peace between them and Hippocrates, on condi- tion of their ceding Camarina^ to him; for that city anciently belonged to Syracuse. 155. When, however, Hippocrates, after a reign of the same length as that of Oleander his brother, perished near the city Hybla,* as he was warring with the native Sicilians, then Glelo, pretending to espouse the cause of the two sons of Hippocrates, Eucleides and Oleander, defeated the citizens who were seeking to recover their freedom, and having so done, set aside the chil- dren, and himself took the kingly power. After this piece of good fortime, Glelo likewise became master of Syracuse, in the following manner. The Syracusan landholders,' as they were called, had been driven from their city by the common people assisted by their own slaves, the Oyllyrians,' and had fled to ^ The river Elorus, or Helorus, gave its name to the principal town of the south-eastern corner of Sicily (Apol- lod. Fr. 47), to which led the Via Elorina of Thucydides (vi. 70 ; vii. 80). It is now the Ahysso (Smyth, p. 178). Pindar alludes to the hattle here mentioned (Nem. ix. 40). " Camarina was founded from Syra- cuse about the year B.C. 599 (Clinton). It lay on the south coast, between Gela and Cape Pachynus(PassaTO), at the mouth of the Hipparis (comp. Soyl. Peripl. p. 9 ; Virg. iEn. iii. 699- 701 ; Find. 01. v. 12 ; Plin. H. N. iii. 8). This appears to be the stream which reaches the sea be- tween Scoglie.tti and Santa Croce. The marsh still exists which Pindar and Servius (ad jEn.) mention, but there are scarcely any vestiges of the ancient town (Smyth, 195), which had gone to decay as early as Strabo's time (vi. p. 392). The event in the history of Cama- rina to which Herodotus here alludes is related at greater length by Thu- cydides (vi. 5 ; see also Philist. Fr. 17). * There were three cities of this name in Sicily (Steph. Byz.). The most famous, called also Megara Hyblasa, seems to have been known to Herodotus as Megara (see the next chapter). The two others were native Sicel towns in the interior. The Hybla here intended is probably that which lay on the route from Agri- gentum to Syracuse (Antonin. Itin. p. 6). ' In Syracuse as in Samos (Thucyd. viii. 21), the highest rank of citizens seems to have borne this title (Marm. Par. 36), property in land being per- haps confined to them. At Athens the Geomori were a middle class (supra, vol. iii. p. 382). " Other wiiters call these slaves Callicyrians, or Cillicyrians (Phot. Suid. Phavor. ad voc. ; Plutarch, Chap. 155, 156. MAKES SYRACUSE HIS CAPITAL. 133 Oasmenas.' Gelo brouglit them back to Syracuse, and so got possession of the town ; for the people sur- rendered themselves, and gave up their city on his approach. 156. Beng now master of Syracuse, Grelo cared less to govern Grela, which he therefore entrusted to his brother Hiero, while he strengthened the defences of his new city, which indeed was now all in all to him. And Syracuse sprang up rapidly to power and became a flourishing place. For Grelo razed Camarina to the ground,* and brought all the inhabitants to Syracuse, and made them citizens ; he also brought thither more than half the citizens of Grela, and gave them the same rights as the Camarinasans. So likewise with the Me- gareans of Sicily* — after besieging their town and forcing them to surrender, he took the rich men, who having made the war, looked now for nothing less than death at his hands, and carrying them to Syracuse, established them there as citizens ; while the common Prov. 10 ; Eustath. ad Horn. II. p. 295, &c.). They were undoubtedly native Sioels, and their name must have belonged to the Sicel language. It is customary to compare them to the Penestee in Thessaly, and the Helots in Lacedaamon (Phot, ad voc. KiXXi- Kvpioi ; Suidas, &c.). On the consti- tution of Syracuse at this time, see MUUer's Dorians (ii. p. 61, B. T.). ' Oasmenas was a colony of Syra- cuse. It was founded about the year B.C. 644 (Thuoyd. vi. 5 ; see Clinton, P. H. vol. i. p. 200). There are no means of fixing its site, since it is omitted by all the geogi-aphers. " The first destruction of Camarina took place within 46 years of its foundation, B.C. 553 (Seym. Oh. 294- 6 ; Schol. ad Pind. 01. v. 8). It had revolted from Syracuse, and on bemg reduced was razed to the ground (Thucyd, vi. 5). On the cession of the site to the Geloans (supra, ch. 154), Hippocrates rebuilt the town (Thucyd. 1. s. c. Philist. Fr. 17), which was a second time destroyed by Gelo, about B.C. 484. The date and cir- cumstances of its later re-establish- ment are uncertain (compare Thnoyd. vi. 5, with Diod. Sic. xi. 76 ; and see the Scholiast on Pind. 01. v. 16, Dis- sen.). They fall, however, into the time of Pindar, who speaks of Cama- rina as newly founded (vioiKov eSpav'). " Megara Hyblasa was founded by Megarians from Thapsus, 245 years before the event here commemorated, probably about B.C. 728 (Thucyd. vi. 4; see Clinton, vol. i. p. 166 ; vol. ii. p. 264). It lay on the east coast, a little to the north of Syracuse (Scyl. Peripl. p. 9 ; Thucyd. vi. 94 ; Strab. vi. p. 385). The exact site seems to be the plain west of Agosta, which is covered with ruins (Smyth, p. 161 ; oomp. Kiepert, Blatt xxiv. where the mistake of Cramer and others is reme- died). Megara partially recovered from the loss of its inhabitants at this pe- riod, but it had entirely disappeared in Strabo's time (1. s. c). 134 SPEECH OP THE GEEBK ENVOYS. Book VII. people, who, as they had not taken any share in the struggle, felt secure that no harm would he done to them, he carried likewise to Syracuse, where he sold them all as slaves to he conveyed ahroad. He did the like also hy the Euboeans of Sicily," making the same difference. His conduct towards both nations arose from his belief, that a " people " was a most unpleasant companion.' In this way Gelo became a great king.^ 157. When the Grreek envoys reached Syracuse, and were admitted to an audience, they spoke as follows — " We have been sent hither by the Lacedemonians and Athenians, with their respective allies, to ask thee to join us against the barbarian. Doubtless thou hast heard of his invasion, and art aware that a Persian is about to throw a bridge over the Hellespont, and bringing with him out of Asia all the forces of the Bast, to carry war into Grreece, — professing indeed that he only seeks to attack Athens, but really bent on bringing all the Greeks into subjection. Do thou therefore, we beseech thee, aid those who would main- tain the freedom of Greece, and thyself assist to free ^^ Euboea seems never to have re- covered this blow. It was a colony from Leontini (Strah. vi. p. 394), and probably situated at no great distance from that city. Strabo, the only writer who mentions it after Hero- dotus, speaks of it as completely de- stroyed. ' Mr. Blakesley supposes (note 432, ad loo.) that the object of Gelo was " to get rid as much as possible of the Chalcidean (or Ionic) element in the population, and to foster the Pelo- ponnesian, derived from Corinth and Megara." But this object does not appear. Euboea, which was Chalci- dean, appears to have been treated exactly as Megara, which was Pelo- ponnesian. The object seems to have been simply the increasing the size and prosperity of the city by a a-vvoiKLins of well-to-do persons. ^ Aristotle relates (Polit. v. 2) that the democracy in Syracuse had pre- pared the way for Gelo's tyranny by its own misconduct, having plunged into anarchy and disorder. Mr. Grote (Hist, of Greece, v. p. 286, note ^) vainly endeavours to discredit this statement. He says there had not been time for the democracy to con- stitute itself, since the restoration, " according to the narrative of Hero- dotus" took place almost immediately after the expulsion. But the time between the two events cannot pos- sibly be estimated from Herodotus. He says also that the superior force which Gelo brought with him suffi- ciently explains the submission of the Syracusans. But the ready submis- sion of the greatest city in Sicily (He- cata3us, Pr. 45) may well be taken to indicate dissatisfaction with their government (see Muller's Dorians, vol. ii. p. 164, E. T.). Chap. 157, 158. GELO'S ANSWER. 135 her ; since the power which thou wieldest is great, and thy portion in Grreece, as lord of Sicily, is no small one. For if all Greece join together in one, there will be a mighty host collected, and we shall be a match for our assailants ; but if some turn traitors, and others refuse their aid, and only a small part of the whole body remains sound, then there is reason to fear that all Grreece may perish. For do not thou cherish a hope that the Persian, when he has conquered our country, will be content and not advance against thee. Rather take thy measures beforehand ; and consider that thou defendest thyself when thou givest aid to us. Wise coun- sels, be sure, for the most part have prosperous issues." 158. Thus spake the envoys; and Grelo replied with vehemence — " Grreeks, ye have had the face to come here with selfish words, and exhort me to join in league with you against the barbarian. Yet when I erewhile asked you to join with me in fighting barbarians, what time the quarrel broke out between me and Carthage ; ^ and when I earnestly besought you to revenge on the men of Egesta their murder of Dorieus, the son of Anax- andridas, promising to assist you in setting free the trading-places from which you receive great profits and advantages, you neither came hither to give me succour, nor yet to revenge Dorieus ; but, for any efforts on your part to hinder it, these countries might at this time have been entirely under the barbarians. Now, however, that matters have prospered and gone well ^ No particulars are known of this war. It may be conjectured that Gelo had sought a quarrel with the Carthaginians, wishing to expel them from Sicily, and had made the death of Dorieus in battle with the Eges- taBans, assisted ly Carthage (supra, v. 46), his pretext. The trading places mentioned below may be the points upon the Sicilian coast, and the islets off it, which the Carthaginians had occupied from very early times for commercial purposes (tijmoplas tvcKev TTJs npos Tovs StKeXouf. Thucyd. vi. 2). Grelo appears to have been success- ful, and to have driven the Carthagi- nians from the island. His state- ment of the great benefits therefrom accruing to the Peloponnesians is a natural exaggeration. 136 INDIGNATION OF STAG BUS. Book VII. with me, while the danger has shifted its ground and at present threatens yourselves, lo ! you call Grelo to mind. But though ye slighted me then, I will not imitate you now : I am ready to give you aid, and to furnish as my contribution two hundred triremes, twenty thousand men-at-arms, two thousand cavalry, and an equal number of archers, slingers, and light horsemen,* together with corn for the whole Grrecian army so long as the war shall last. These services^ however, I pro- mise on one condition — that ye appoint me chief captain and commander of the Grecian forces during the war with the barbarian. Unless ye agree to this, I will neither send succours, nor come myself." 159. Syagrus, when he heard these words, was unable to contain himself, and exclaimed — " Surely a groan would burst from Pelops' son, Aga- memnon,^ did he hear that her leadership was snatched from Sparta by Grelo and the men of Syracuse. Sioeak then no more of any such condition, as that we should yield thee the chief command ; but if thou art minded to come to the aid of Grreece, prepare to serve under Lacedasmonian generals. Wilt thou not serve under a leader ? — then, prithee, withhold thy succours." 160. Hereupon Gelo, seeing the indignation which showed itself in the words of Syagrus, delivered to the envoys his final offer : — " Spartan stranger," he said, " reproaches cast forth against a man are wont to pro- voke him to anger : but the insults which thou hast uttered in thy speech shall not persuade me to outstep good breeding in my answer. Surely if you maintain so * I do not know why these numbevs should be considered incredible, as they are by Mr. Grote (vol. v. p. 290). He- rodotus at Thurii had good means of accurately estimating the power of the Sicilian Greeks ; and they were the numbers given by the native histo- rian, Timajus (Fr. 87). Diodorus too, it is to be observed, assigns Gelo a far larger army (50,000 foot and 5000 horse), when he marched from Syra- cuse to fight the battle of Himera (xi. 21). ' These words in the original are nearly a hexarheter line. They are an adaptation of the exclamation of Nestor (II. vii. 125) :— Ohap. 159-161. ADDRESS OF THE ATHENIAN ENVOY. 137 stoutly your right to the command, it is reasonable that I should be still more stiff in maintaining mine, foras- much as I am at the head of a far larger fleet and army. Since, however, the claim which I ' have put forward is so displeasing to you, I will yield, and be content with less. Take, if it please you, the command of the land- force, and I will be admiral of the fleet ; or assume, if you prefer it, the command by sea, and I will be leader upon the land. Unless you are satisfied with these terms, you must return home by yourselves, and lose this great alliance." Such was the offer which Grelo made. 161. Hereat broke in the Athenian envoy, before the Spartan could answer, and thus addressed Grelo — " King of the Syracusans, Grreece sent us here to thee to ask for an army, and not to ask for a general. Thou, however, dost not promise to send us any army at all, if thou art not made leader of the Grreeks ; and this command is what alone thou stickiest for. Now when thy request was to have the whole command, we were content to keep silence, for well we knew that we might trust the Spartan envoy to make answer for us both. But since, after failing in thy claim to lead the whole armament, thou hast now put forward a request to have the command of the fleet, know that, even should the Spartan envoy consent to this, we will not consent. The command by sea, if the Lacedaemonians do not wish for it, belongs to us. While they like to keep this com- mand, we shall raise no dispute ; but we will not yield our right to it in favour of any one else. Where would be the advantage of our having raised up a naval force greater than that of any other Grreek people, if never- theless we should suffer Syracusans to take the com- mand away from us ? — from us, I say, who are Athe- nians, the most ancient nation in Grreece,* the only " The Athenians claimed to be avToxdoves and yriyev^ls (Plat. Menex. p. 237, 0. ; Isocrat. Pan. iv. p. 166 ; Dem. de P. L. p. 424). The claim, however, did not exclusively belong to them, but extended at least to the 138 CADMUS SENT BY GBLO TO DELPHI. Book VII. Grreeks who have never changed their abode — the people who are said by the poet Homer to have sent to Troy the man best able of all the Grreeks to array and marshal an army^ — so that we may be allowed to boast some- what." 162. Gelo replied — "Athenian stranger, ye have, it seems, no lack of commanders ; but ye are likely to lack men to receive their orders. As ye are resolved to yield nothing and claim everything, ye had best make haste back to Grreece, and say, that the spring of her year is lost to her."^ The meaning of this expression was the following : as the spring is manifestly the finest season of the year, so (he meant to say) were his troops the finest of the Glreek army — Greece, therefore, de- prived of his alliance, would be like a year with the spring taken from it, 163. Then the Greek envoys, without having any further dealings with Gelo, sailed away home. And Gelo, who feared that the Greeks would be too weak to withstand the barbarians, and yet could not any how bring himself to go to the Peloponnese, and there, though king of Sicily,* serve under the Lacedaemonians, left off altogether to contemplate that course of action, and betook himself to quite a different plan. As soon as ever tidings reached him of the passage of the Helles- pont by the Persians, he sent off three penteconters, under the command of Cadmus, the son of Scythas, a native of Cos ; who was to go to Delphi, taking with him Arcadians and Cyniirians (infra, viii. 73). Its real tasis was simply that alluded to in the next clause ; they had never left Attica. (See on this point, Thuoyd. i. 2 ; ii. 36 ; Plat. Menex. 1. s. c. ; Burip. ap. Plut. de Exil. p. 604, E. ; and supra, i. 56.) ' See II. ii. 552 :— T«S ovnto Tis ojuoio? eTTix96vios yeVer' ayi}p KOfTfirjO-ai tjTTTOus re (cat avepas aoTTifitwra?. " A similar expression is said by Aristotle (Rhet. i. 7 ; iii. 10) to have been introduced into the funeral ora- tion of Pericles ; hut it does not occur in the report left by Thucydides of that speech. Did any other version exist of the \6yos eVirat^ios ? " This title is remarkable, but scarcely seems too strong when we consider the extent of Gelo's power. CH.a62-165. INTENTION OF GELO TO HELP THE GREEKS. 139 a large sum of money and a stock of friendly words : there lie was to watch the war, and see what turn it would take : if the barbarians prevailed, he was to give Xerxes the treasure, and with it earth and water for the lands which Glelo ruled — if the Grreeks won the day, he was to convey the treasure back. 164. This Cadmus had at an earlier time received from his father the kingly power at Cos'" in a right good condition, and had of his own free will and without the approach of any danger, from pure love of justice, given up his power into the hands of the people at large, and departed to Sicily ; where he assisted in the Samian seizure and settlement of Zancle,^ or Messana, as it was afterwards called. Upon this occasion Glelo chose him to send into Grreece, because he was ac- quainted with the proofs of honesty which he had given. And now he added to his former honourable deeds an action which is not the least of his merits. "With a vast sum entrusted to him and completely in his power, so that he might have kept it for his own use if he had liked, he did not touch it ; but when the Greeks gained the sea-fight and Xerxes fled away with his army, he brought the whole treasure back with him to Sicily. 165. They, however, who dwell in Sicily say, that Grelo, though he knew that he must serve under the Lacedaemonians, woiild nevertheless have come to the aid of the Glreeks,^ had not it been for Terillus, the 1° It has been suspected (Perizonius, Valckenaer, Larcher) that Cadmus was the SOD or nephew of that Scythas, king of Zancle, whom the Samians ousted, and who fled to the court of Darius (supra, vi. 24). Scythas might, it is thought, have been presented by Darius with the sovereignty of Cos, as Goes was with that of MitylSn^ ; but had this been so, Herodotus would scarcely have failed to notice it ; nor would Scythas then have died at an advanced age in Persia (eV Hepa-tjcn). Besides, Cadmus was clearly among the original settlers who dispossessed Scythas. The identity of name is therefore a mere coincidence. 1 See above, vi. 23 ; and for the change of name, cf. Thuoyd. vi. 5, where we find that Anaxilaus made the alteration. Anaxilaus is said to have belonged to the Messenian ele- ment in the population of Rhegium (Strab. vi. p. 370). ^ Bphorus said that Gelo was on the point of despatching 200 ships, 140 CARTHAGINIANS INVADE SICILY. Book VII. son of Crinippus, king of Himera;^ who, driven from his city by Thero, the son of ^nesidemus,* king of Agrigentum/ brought into Sicily at this very time" an army of three hundred thousand men, Phoenicians, Li- byans, Iberians, Ligurians, Helisycians, Sardinians, and Corsicans,* under the command of Hamilcar the son of 10,000 foot, and 2000 horse, to the assistance of the Greeks, when he heard of the approach of the Car- thaginians (Frag. 111). ^ For particulars of this place, see above, vi. 24, note ". ' The descent of Thero from Tele- machus, the deposer of Phalaris, has been already mentioned (supra, ch. 154, note >•). Pindar traces him to Ther- sander, the son of Polynices (01. ii. 43 ; cf. Herod, iv. 147), and Diodorus calls him the noblest of the Sicilian Greeks (x. p. 66, ed. Bipont). Theron is said to have married a niece of Gelo's, while Gelo married his daugh- ter Damareta (Schol. ad Find. OL ii. p. 18) ; the two were undoubtedly close allies, and had most likely ex- ecuted their schemes in concert. " Agi-igentum was founded from Gela, about B.C., 582 (Thucyd. vi. 4 ; see Clinton, vol. ii. p. 322). It lay on the south coast, at some little distance from the shore, midway between Gela and Selinus (Scylax, Peripl. p. 9 ; Pliu. H. N. iii. 8 ; Strab. vi. p. 392\ The description in Polybius (ix. 27), the modern narae {Girghenti), and the magnificent remains of temples and other buildings (Smyth, pp. 206-213), sufficiently indicate the position of the ancient town, which is said ro have contained at one time nearly a million inhabitants (Diog. Laert. Vit. Bmpedocl. viii. 63 ; compare Diod. Sic. xiii. 84). ° According to Ephorus (1. s. c.) and Diodorus (xi. 1), this attack was con- certed between the Carthaginians and the Persians, who purposely fell upon the opposite ends of Greece at the same moment. I cannot see that there is any improbability in such a combination, as Dahlman argues (Life of Herod, p. 137, E. T.) ; but the fact that Herodotus was ignorant of the pretended alliance is certainly a grave argument against its reality. To ac- count for the coincidence in point of time of the two attacks, no alliance is needed, since the Carthaginians would gladly take advantage of a season when the states of Greece Proper were too much engaged with their own affairs to send succours to their Sici- lian brethren. ^ This is the first instance of the mixed mercenary armies of Carthage, by which her conquests were ordi- narily efl'eoted (Polyb. i. 17, 67, &c.). As her own Phoenician population was small, it was her policy to spare it, and to hire soldiers from the coun- tries to which she had the readiest access. The native African races al- ways furnished her with the greatest number of troops (to fi-cyio-TOv jaepoy rjv Aleves. — ^Polyb. i. 67) ; after them she drew her supplies from the various maritime nations bordering upon the western Mediterranean. It is instruc- tive to find no mention of Celts in this place. If we cannot say with Niebuhr (Rom. Hist. ii. p. 509, E. T.) that the Celts had not yet reached the sea, and the mention of Narbonne by Heoataius (Fr. 19) as " a Celtic har- bour and trading-place," disproves this assertion, yet still we may be quite sure that hitherto they occupied no considerable extent of coast — a view which Heoata3US, who assigns Mar- seilles to Liguria (Fr. 22), decidedly confirms. The south of Prance, ex- cepting a small corner near the Py^ renees, was now Liguria — a country which extended to the Arno (Scylax, Peripl. p. 4). Spain was of course, as always to the Greeks (Polyb. passim), Iberia. The only people here named, who cause a difficulty, are the Heli- Ch. 166, 167. DEFEAT AND DISAPPEARANCE OF HAMILOAR. 141 Hanno, king^ of the Carthaginians. Terillus prevailed upon Hamilcar, partly as his sworn friend, but more through the zealous aid of Anaxilaiis the son of Cre- tines, king of Rhegium ; ^ who, by giving his own sons to Hamilcar as hostages, induced him to make the expe- dition. Anaxilaiis herein served his father-in-law, for he was married to a daughter of Terillus, by name Cydippe. So as Gelo could not give the Greeks any aid, he sent (they say) the sum of money to Delphi. 166. They say too, that the victory of Gelo and Thero in Sicily over Hamilcar the Carthaginian, fell out upon the very day that the Greeks defeated the Per- sians at Salamis.' Hamilcar, who was a Carthaginian on his father's side only, but on his mother's a Syra- cusan, and who had been raised by his merit to the throne of Carthage, after the battle and the defeat, as I am informed, disappeared from sight : Gelo made the strictest search for him, but he could not be found any- where, either dead or alive. 167. The Carthaginians, who take probability for their guide, give the following account of this matter : — syci. Niebuhr conjectures them to "be the Volscians, which is possible etymologioally, and agreeable to their position in the list of Herodotus ; but it must not be forgotten that Hecatajus spoke of the Helisyci as a Ligurian tribe (Fr. 20). The Carthaginians formed their armies of mixed mercenaries to pre- vent mutinies (Polyb. 1. 67). The number on this occasion is probably exaggerated, but it is given by Diodorus (xi. 20) as well as by He- rodotus. • « That is, Suffes (t3DB'). The Greek writers always speak of the Sufletes as "kings" (jSao-iXeZs). (See Arist. Pol. ii. 8 ; Diod. Sic. xiv. 53 ; Polyb. vi. 51.) Heeren (Afr. Nat. i. p. 132, E. T.) has shown satisfacto- rily that the Carthaginian Suffes was elected for life. " Supra, vi. 23. ' Diodorus says the battle was fought on the same day with the final struggle at Thermopylre (xi. 24). His description of the fight (xi. 21-2) is probably taken from Timjeus, the native historian. According to this account the victory was gained chiefly through a stratagem of Gelo's, who hearing that succours were expected by Hamilcar from Selinus, sent a body of his own troops to personate them. These troops raised a tumult in the Carthaginian camp, slew Hamil- car as he was sacrificing, and set fire to the fleet ; while Gelo with all his forces sallied from Himera, and fell upon the army in front. The only important discrepancy between this account and that heard by our author, is that the death of Hamilcar is placed by Diodorus early in the day. 142 PROMISES OF THE COECYE^ANS. Book VII.- Hamilcar, they say, during all the time that the battle raged between the Greeks and the barbarians, which was from early dawn till evening, remained in the camp, sacrificing^ and seeking favourable omens, while he burned on a huge pyre the entire bodies of the victims which he offered. Here, as he poured libations upon the sacrifices, he saw the rout of his army ; whereupon he cast himself headlong into the flames, and so was consumed and disappeared. But whether Hamilcar 's disappearance was, as the Phoenicians tell us, in this way, or, as the Syracusans maintain, in some other, certain it is that the Carthaginians offer him sacrifice, and in all their colonies have monuments erected in. his honour, as well as one, which is the grandest of all, at Carthage. Thus much concerning the affairs of Sicily. 168. As for the Oorcyrseans, whom the envoys that visited Sicily took in their vfaj, and to whom they delivered the same message as to Gelo, — their answers and actions were the following. With great readiness they promised to come and give their help to the Grreeks ; declaring that " the ruin of Grreece was a thing which they could not tamely stand by and see ; for should she fall, they must the very next day submit to slavery ; so that they were bound to assist her to the very uttermost of their power." But notwithstand- ing that they answered so smoothly, yet when the time came for the succours to be sent, they were of quite a different mind ; and though they manned sixty ships, it was long ere they put to sea with them ; and when they had so done, they went no further than the Pelo- ponnese, where they lay to with their fleet, off the ^ To Neptune, according to Diodorus (1. s. c). The practice of burning the entire body of the victim, instead of certain sacrificial parts, was originally coramon to the Phoenicians with the Jews (Porphyr. de Abstinent, iv. 15 ; Lev. vi. 23). In later times it was reserved for great occasions (Movers, Das Opferwesen der Karthager, p. 71, &c.). Chap. 168. THEIR ACTUAL CONDUCT. 143 Laceda3nioniaii coast, about Pylos,' and T^narum,* — like Grelo, watching to see what turn the war would take. For they despaired altogether of the Grreeks gaining the day, and expected that the Persians would win a great battle, and then be masters oi the whole of Greece. They therefore acted as I have said, in order that they might be able to address Xerxes in words like these : "0 King, though the Grreeks sought to obtain our aid in their war with thee, and though we had a force of no small size, and could have furnished a greater number of ships than any G-reek state except Athens,' yet we refused, since we would not fight against thee, or do aught to cause thee annoyance." The Oorcyr^ans hoped that a speech like this would gain them better treatment from the Persians than the rest of the Greeks ; and it would have done so, in my judgment. At the same time, they had an excuse ready to give their countrymen, which they used when the time came. Reproached by them for sending no succours, they replied, " that they had fitted out a fleet of sixty tri- remes, but that the Etesian winds did not allow them to double Cape Malea, and this hindered them from reaching Salamis — -it was not from any bad motive that ' Pylos, celebrated in poetry as the abode of Nestor (II. ii. 591-602), and in history as the scene of the first important defeat suffered by the Spartans (Thucyd. iv. 32-40), was situated on the west coast of the Pelo- ponnese, near the site of the modem Navarino. The only remains at pre- sent existing of the ancient town are the caves of which there is mention in Pausanias (iv. xxxvi. § 3). See Leake's Morea, vol. i. pp. 416-425. ■* Tsenarum was the ancient name of the promontory now called Cape Matapan. It was a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a narrow isthmus, and had on each side a good harbour (Scylax, Peripl. p. 37 ; Pausan. iii. XXV. § 4). Of the famous temple of Neptune, which stood on its summit (supra, i. 24), the foundation is thought still to remain in the modem Greek church of Asomato (Leake's Morea, vol. i. pp. 297-8). ' Thuoydides confirms the flourish- ing condition of the Corcyrean navy at this date (i. 14), Corcyra continued to be the second naval power in Greece down to B.C. 435 (see Thucyd. i. 33 : vavTiKov TE KiKTrifieda ttXtji/ roO Trap' v^lv TrXeicrroj/.) At that time they were able to man a fleet of 110 tri- remes (ib. 47). 144 EMBASSY TO CRETE. Book VII. they had missed the sea-fight." In this way the Corcy- raeans eluded the reproaches of the Greeks.^ 169. The Cretans, when the envoys sent to ask aid from them, came and made their request, acted as fol- lows. They despatched messengers in the name of their state to Delphi, and asked the god, whether it would make for their welfare if they should lend succour to Grreece. " Pools !" replied the Pythoness, " do ye not still complain of the woes which the assisting of Mene- laiis cost you at the hands of angry Minos ? How wroth was he, when, in spite of their having lent you no aid towards avenging his death at Camicus, you helped them to avenge the carrying off by a barbarian of a woman from Sparta !" When this answer was brought from Delphi to the Cretans, they thought no more of assisting the Grreeks. 170. Minos, according to tradition, went to Sicania, or Sicily,' as it is now called, in search of Dasdalus, and there perished by a violent death.^ After a while the " The Solioliast on Thuoydides (i. 136) asserts that it was at one time the intention of the confederated Greeks to punish the Coroyreans for their neutrality, hut that Themistocles interposed in their favour, and suc- ceeded in preventing the expedition. ' Thuoydides tells us how the Siceli from Italy attacked the Sicani, who were the first inhabitants of Sicily, and forcing them to the western parts of the island, changed its name from Sicania into Sicily (vi. 2). He adds that the Sicani were Iberians driven from Spain (where they had dwelt upon the river Sicanus) by the attacks of the Ligurians. In these statements he was followed by Philistus (ap. Diod. V. 6), and apparently by Bphorus (Fr. 51). Niebuhr remarks (Hist, of Rome, i. p. 166, note 508, B. T.), that were it not for this weight of autho- rity, " it would be difficult for the moat cautious not to count it clear that the name of the Sicanians is one and the same with that of the Sicu- lians, just as the same people were called both JEquani and JEquuli." Is it not possible that the Sicani of Spain, whose city Sicani was men- tioned by Hecatajus (Pr. 15), may have been only locally, not ethnically, Iberians? It is worthy of notice that Hecatasus calls the city iroKis 'I^rjpias, not tt6\is 'I/Sijptoy. ° This part of the mythic history of Minos is given most fully by Dio- dorus (iv. 79). It was the subject of a tragedy of Sophocles, called Minos, or the Camicii, of which a few frag- ments remain. Pausanias (vir. iv. § 5) and the Scholiast on Pindar (Nem. iv. 95) give the same general outline of events with Diodorus, but differ from him in some of the details. All agree that Cocalus, with whom Dsedalus had taken refuge, caused Minos to be put to death while at the bath. [The baths of the modern Sciacca, Chap. 169, 170. MYTHIC HISTORY OP MINOS. 145 Cretans, warned by some god or other, made a great expedition into Sicania, all except tlie Polichnites* and the Prgesians,^ and besieged Camicus^ (which in my time belonged to Agrigentum) by the space of five years. At last, however, failing in their efforts to take the place, and unable to carry on the siege any longer from the pressure of hunger, they departed and went their way. Yoyaging homewards they had reached lapygia,^ when a furious storm arose and threw them upon the coast. All their vessels were broken in pieces ; and so, as they saw no means of returning to Crete, they founded the town of Hyria,* where they the ThemiK SelmtmtinEe, are shown as those in which Minos was suffocated. But it appears, from what Diodorus says (iv. 79), that those baths were not at the Thermse Selinuntinaj, but at Agrigentum. — Gr. W.] ' The town Polichna is mentioned, I believe, only by Stephen. It seems to have been in the near neighbourhood of Cydonia, to which its territory was certainly contiguous (Thucyd. ii. 85). ' Prwsus or Prasus (Strab.), which is still called Prcesiis (Pashley's Crete, vol. i. p. 290), is a place of more note than Polichna. It was situated towards the eastern extremity of Crete, at the distance of seven miles from the shore (Strab. x. p. 698), and in the time of Scylax possessed a territory extending from sea to sea (Peripl. p. 42). It seems to have been the chief city of the Bteocretes (true Cretans), who were not of Grecian blood, but a remnant of the pre-Hellenic population (see Hom. Od. xix. 176; Strab. x. p. 693; Diod. Sic. V. 64). Perhaps the Po- lichnites were of the same race, as they adjoined on Cydonia, which also belonged to the old inhabitants (Strab. I.e.; compare Hom. Od. 1. c). These cities of the primitive population, which had successfully defended themselves against the Dorian immi- grants, would of course not own the sway of Minos (see Miiller's Dorians, vol. i. p. 38-9, B. T.). VOL. IV. ^ Diodorus says in one place (iv. 70) that Camions occupied the rock on which the citadel of Agrigentum was afterwards built, but in another he shows that Camicus existed together with Agrigentum, and was distinct from it (xxiii. p. 321). This is oon- iirmed by the Sohohast on Pindar (Pyth. vi. 4), and to some extent by Strabo (vi. p. 394) and Stephen (ad voc. 'Aurpdyan-f s). It is probable that the city lay on the modern Fiume (telle Canne (the ancient river Cami- cus), not far from Siculiana (see Mr. Bunbury's remarks in Smith's Geo- graph. Diet, ad voc. camicus). ^ lapygia coincides generally with the Terra di Otranto of our maps, extending, however, somewhat further round the Gulf of Taranto (Scylax. Peripl. p. 10). Storms were common upon this coast (supra, iii. 138, and note ^ ad loc). * Hyria is probably the town known as Uria to the Romans (Plin. H. N. iii. 11 ; Liv. xlii. 48), which lay on the road between Tarentum and Brun- dusium (Strab. vi. p. 405-6). It is now Oria, which is described as " a city romantically situated on three hills in the centre of the plains " (S^^dnburne's Travels, vol. i. p. 218). Some coins of a Hyria remain, which have on one side the Minotaur ; but it is doubted whether they belong to this city. 146 GEEATBST KNOWN SLAUGHTEE OF GREEKS. Book VII. took up their abode, changing their name from Cretans to Messapian lapygians/ and at the same time becoming inhabitants of the mainland instead of islanders. From Hyria they afterwards foimded those other towns which the Tarentines at a much later period endeavoured to take, but could not, being defeated signally." Indeed so dreadful a slaughter of Glreeks never happened at any other time, so far as my knowledge extends : nor was it only the Tarentines who suffered ; but the men of Ehegium too, who had been forced to go to the aid of the Tarentines by Micythus the son of Ohoerus, lost here three thousand of their citizens ; while the number of the Tarentines who fell was beyond all count. This Micythus had been a household slave of Anaxilaiis, and was by him left in charge of Rhegium :' he is the same man who was afterwards forced to leave Rhegium, when he settled at Tegea in Arcadia, from which place he made his many offerings of statues to the shrine at Olympia.^ ^ Under the general name of lapygians were commonly included three distinct tribes, the Messapians, the Peuoetians, and the Daunians. The first-named are spoken of as the inhabitants of the lapygian peninsula, eastward of Tarentum and Brun- dusium (Strab. vi. p. 401). They were generally derived from Crete, strange as it may appear (Strab. vi. p. 405 ; Athen. xii, p. 522, P. ; Plut. Thes. 0. 16 ; Pestns ad voc. Salentini, &c.). Probably they came in reality, like the other inhabitants of southern Italy, from the Peloponnese, where there was a place called Messape» (Theopomp. Er. 274). " Diodorns places this war in the year b.o. 473 (xi. 52). The Messar plans appear to have been at that time very powerful, and to have aroused the jealousy of all their neighbours against them. I'hey were attacked not only by the Tarentines and Rhegines, but by the Daunians and Peucetians (Strab. vi. p. 405). Their sway must have extended west- ward as far as the neighbourhood of Siris, where they disputed with Ta- rentum the possession of her colony Heraclea (ih.). After the victory here recorded, one would have expected them to make further progress. The reverse, however, is the case. They decrease in strength as Tarentum in- creases ; and during the Peloponnesian war they seem to have been glad to avail themselves of the protection of Athens against that state (Thuoyd. vii. 33). ' Anaxilaus had probably trans- ferred his abode to ZancM (see Thucyd. vi. 4). ' These details are remarkably con- firmed by Pausanias (v. xxvi. § 3-4). He found at Olympia no fewer than seventeen stfitues inscribed with the name of Micythus (or, as he writes it, Smicythus), the son of Chcerus. The inscriptions of some gave Ehegium as the country of Micythus, while those of others gave Messen^, or ZancW. Chap. 171, 172. MISFORTUNES OF CEBTB. 147 171. This account of the Rhegians and the Taren- tines is a digression from the story which I was relating. To return — the Prsesians say that men of various nations now flocked to Crete,' which was stript of its inhabitants ; but none came in such numbers as the Grecians. Three generations after the death of Minos the Trojan war took place ;^ and the Cretans were not the least distinguished among the helpers of Menelatis. But on this account, when they came back from Troy, famine and pestilence fell upon them, and destroyed both the men and the cattle. Crete was a second time stript of its inhabitants, a remnant only being left ; who form, together with fresh settlers, the third "Cretan" people by whom the island has been inhabited. These were the events of which the Pythoness now reminded the men of Crete, and thereby she prevented them from giving the Greeks aid, though they wished to have gone to their assistance. 172. The Thessalians did not embrace the cause of the Medes until they were forced to do so ; for they gave plain proof that the intrigues of the Aleuadse^ were not at all to their liking. No sooner did they hear that the Persian was about to cross over into Europe than they despatched envoys to the Greeks who were met to consult together at the Isthmus, whither all the states which were well inclined to the Grecian cause Occasionally lie was mentioned as living at Tegea. Besides the statues which Pausanias saw, there were others which had been carried off by Nero. The story in Diodorus (xi. 66) is incompatible with the expression of Herodotus, that Mioythus " was forced to leave (eKirea-e) Ehegium." ' Homer thus describes the in- habitants shortly after the Trojan Kp^TTj Tts var eoTt, jLte'o-o) hi otvoTTt TrovTt^, Ka\i} Koi meipa., irepippvTOS' ev 6' avdpiaiTot. iroAAot, aTretpeVtot, koI evv^KOVTa ttoAtjc?- oAAt) S' oAAwr yKCiaaa /ie^ty^e'to) ■ ev /xev ev 8' 'EreoKpijTe? jHevoA^TOpe?, h Se Kv'SwFes, Awpteeff re rpixaiKes, 6tot re IleAatryoi. Od. xix. 112-1. ' So Homer (Od. xix. 178-181 ; II. xiii. 451-2) and ApoUodorus (in. i. § 2, and iii. § 1). The words which follow have special reference to the exploits of Idomeneus and Meriones (Horn. II. xiii. 329-539). ' Supra, ch. 6. Compare ch. 140, ad fin. I. 2 148 GREEKS OCCUPY THE DEFILE OP TEMPE. Book VII. had sent their delegates. These envoys on their arrival thus addressed their countrymen : — " Men of Greece, it behoves yon to guard the pass of Olympus ; for thus will Thessaly be placed in safety, as well as the rest of Grreece. We for our parts are quite ready to take our share in this work, but you must likewise send us a strong force ; otherwise we give you fair warning that we shall make terms with the Per- sians. For we ought not to be left, exposed as we are in front of all the rest of Greece, to die in your defence alone and unassisted. If however you do not choose to send us aid, you cannot force us to resist the enemy ; for there is no force so strong as inability. We shall there- fore do our best to secure our own safety." Such was the declaration of the Thessalians. 173. Hereupon the Greeks determined to send a body of foot to Thessaly by sea, which should defend the pass of Olympus. Accordingly a force was col- lected, which passed up the Euripus, and disembarking at Alus/ on the coast of Ach^a, left the ships there, and marched by land into Thessaly. Here they oc- cupied the defile of Tempe ; which leads from Lower Macedonia into Thessaly along the course of the Peneus, having the range of Olympus on the one hand and Ossa upon the other. In this place the Grreek force that had been collected, amounting to about 10,000 heavy-armed men, pitched their camp; and here they were joined by the Thessalian cavalry. The " I see no grounds for supposing, witli Bahr (ad loo.) and others, that there were really two places of this name. The notion arose from the grammarians, who finding the word made sometimes masculine, sometimes feminine, imagined two different cities (see Eustath. ad Hom. II. ii. 682). Strabo clearly identifies the Alus of Homer with that of Herodotus (ix. p. 627; vide infra, oh. 197) by the mention of Athamas ; and the situation which he assigns to it suits both the passages of Herodotus in which it is mentioned. It lay on the skirts of Othrys, not far from the shore, 13 miles from Pteleum, and seven from Itonus. Colonel Leake found in this situation the remains of a Hellenic town (Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 336). The spot is now called Kefdlmi. Chap. 173. REASON OP THEIR LEAVING THE PASS. 149 commanders were, on the part of tlie Lacedsemonians, Evsenetus, the son of Carenus, who had been chosen out of the Polemarchs,* but did not belong to the blood royal ; and on the part of the Athenians, Themistocles, the son of Neocles. They did not however maintain their station for more than a few days ; since envoys came from Alexander, the son of Amyntas, the Mace- donian, and counselled them to decamp from Tempe, telling them that if they remained in the pass they would be trodden under foot by the invading army, whose numbers they recounted, and likewise the multi- tude of their ships. So when the envoys thus coun- selled them, and the counsel seemed to be good, and the Macedonian who sent it friendly, they did even as he advised. In my opinion what chiefly wrought on them was the fear that the Persians might enter by another pass,^ whereof they now heard, which led from Upper Macedonia^ into Thessaly through the territory of the Perrhaabi, and by the town of Gronnus, — the pass by * The Spartan Polemarchs are men- tioned both by Thncydides and Xeno- phon. They were the highest officers in the army nest to the king (Thuoyd. iv. 66; Xen. Hell. vi. iv. § 15). Each commanded a division (ij,6pa=iio'tpa), of which in the time of Xenophon there were six (Rep. Lac. xi. § 4). They had also magisterial powers in the syssitia and elsewhere (Pint. Lye. c. 12 ; Apophth. Lao. vol. ii. p. 221). It seems, by this passage of Herodotus, that they were usually of the royal house. * Vide supra, ch. 128. The pass intended is probably that which crossed the Olympic range by the town of Petra, whence it descended to Pythium at the western base of the mountain. This pass was known to the Romans as " Perrhajbias saltus " (Liv. xliv. 27), and was the only route which led from Pieria, where the army of Xerxes now was (supra, ch. 131), into PerrhaBbia. It runs from Katerina by Patra (which retains its ancient name) and Aio Dhimitri to Duklista (Doliohe), whence the passage is easy by £fasona(01o6sson) to Lyhostmio (Gonnus) (see Leake's Northern Greece, vol. iii. pp. 327-343 ; and compare Liv. xliv. 32, 35, xlv. 41 ; Diod. Sic. xiv. 83). Mr. Grote suggests that the Greeks should havei defended both passes (Hist, of Greece, V. p. 31). But the heights about Petra, where alone a stand could have been made with a fair prospect of success, were in the hands of the Macedonians, Persian tributaries; and, the low ground on the west once gained, Thessaly may be entered by a number of routes. " By "Upper Macedonia" Herodotus appears to mean the upper portion of Pieria, where it approaches the Per- rhfebian frontier. This follows from ch. 131. Otherwise we might have been led to imagine that Xerxes ascended the valley of the Haliacmon, and entered PerrhaBbia by the pass of Volustana, or Servia. 150 GREEKS RESOLVE TO DEPEND ARTEMISIUM Book VII. which soon after the army of Xerxes actually made its entrance. The Grreeks therefore went back to their ships and sailed away to the Isthmus. 174. Such were the circumstances of the expedition into Thessaly ; which took place when the king was at Abydos, preparing to pass from Asia into Europe. The Thessalians, when their allies forsook them, no longer wavered, but warmly espoused the side of the Medes ; and afterwards, in the course of the war, they were of the very greatest service to Xerxes. 175. The G-reeks, on their return to the Isthmus, took counsel together concerning the words of Alex- ander, and considered where they should fix the war, and what places they shoiild occupy. The opinion which prevailed was, that they should guard the pass of Thermopylae ; since it was narrower than the Thes- salian defile, and at the same time nearer to them. Of the pathway, by which the Greeks who fell at Ther- mopyl^ were intercepted, they had no knowledge, until, on their arrival at Thermopylse, it was discovered to them by the Trachinians. This pass then it was deter- mined that they should guard, in order to prevent the Barbarians from penetrating into Greece through it ; and at the same time it was resolved that the fleet should proceed to Artemisium, in the region of His- tiseotis ; ' for as those places are near to one another, it would be easy for the fleet and army to hold com- munication. The two places may be thus described. 176. Artemisium is where the sea of Thrace* con- tracts into a narrow channel, running between the isle of Sciathus' and the mainland of Magnesia. When ' The northern tract of Eu'ba3a was called Histiteotis, from the town His- tisoa, which afterwards became Oreus (vide infra, viii. 23). ° The northern portion of the Egean, extending from Magnesia to the Thracian Chersonese, and bounded on the south by the islands of Sciathus, Halonnesus, Peparethus, Lemnos, and Imbrus, is here called " the Thracian Sea." Strabo uses the expression nearly in the same sense (i. p. 41). But the QprjKLos ickvbav of Sophocles ((Ed. T. 197) is the Euxine. ' Sciathus retains its name wholly unaltered (Leake, vol. iii. p. 111). It Chap. 174-176. AND THERMOPYL^. 151 this narrow strait is passed you come to the hne of coast called Artemisium ;^ which is a portion of Euhcea, and contains a temple of Artemis (Diana). As for the entrance into Grreece hy Trachis,^ it is, at its narrowest point, about fifty feet wide. This however is not the place where the passage is most contracted ; for it is still narrower a little above and a little below Thermopylae. At Alpeni,^ which is lower down than that place, it is only wide enough for a single carriage ; and up above, at the river Phoenix, near the tovsra called Anth^la, it is the same. West of Thermopylae* rises a lofty and pre- cipitous hill, impossible to climb, which runs up into the chain of CEta ; while to the east the road is shut in is the island immediately off Cape St. George (Cape Sepias). ' The temple of Artemis, from which the piece of coast received its name, appears to have been situated, as temples so often were, at the ex- treme point of the island, the promon- tory now called Cape Amoni. The celebrity of this temple caused the poets to represent all the seas and shores of these parts as under the protection of the goddess (Soph. Trach. 638 ; Apoll. Ehod. i. 571, &c.). Was there really any city Artemisium ? (Plin. H. N. iv. 12 ; Steph. Byz. ad voc). ^ Trachis was one of the chief cities of the Malians (infra, ohs. 198-9 ; Scylax. Peripl. p. 54). It aftenvards became Heraclea, on being colonised by the Laced£emonians (Thucyd. iii. 92; compare Strab. ix. p. 621), and under this name was known as a place of great strength and import- ance (Thucyd. 1. s. c, and v. 51 ; Polyb. X. xlii. § 4 ; Liv. xxxvi. 22-24). There is some doubt whether the two towns occupied exactly the same site. Col. Leake's theory seems probable, that the original city of Heraclea was identical with Trachis (see Thucyd. ereL^io-av rrjv -jroKiv €K Kaivrjsjt and was situated at the foot of the rocks between the Asopiis (or Karvunarid) and the Melas {Maura Neria), but that the citadel, which was on the heights above, was a distinct place. This came afterwards to be the only part of the town inhabited, and so Heraclea was said to be six stades from the ancient Trachis (Strab. 1. s. c). The only fact which at all militates against this view is the mention by Scylax (1. s. c.) of both cities. The pass by Trachis, which was " not more than fifty feet wide," must have lain between the walls of the city and the marshes of this part of the plain (see Livy, 1. s. c. ; " Ager Heraclajensis paluster omnis." " A sinu Maliaco aditum baud facilem [Heraclea] habebat"). Some cata- combs are all that remain of the an- cient settlement on the plain. Ruins of a Hellenic fortress still occupy the height above (Leake, vol. iii. pp. 26- 30). ^ Infra, ch. 216. ■* Herodotus supposes the general bearing of the coast at this point to have been north and south, as it is generally on this side of Greece, whereas in reality the coast runs from west to east. This is a strange mis- take for one who had visited the spot. The mountain-range is in fact south, and the sea north of the pass (see the plan, infra, p. 171). 152 EBPAIB OF THE PHOCIAN WALL. Book VII. by the sea and by marshes.^ In this place are the warm springs, which the natives call " The Cauldrons ;" ^ and above them stands an altar sacred to Hercules.^ A wall had once been carried across the opening f and in this there had of old times been a gateway. These works were made by the Phocians, through fear of the Thessalians, at the time when the latter came from Thesprotia to establish themselves in the land of tBoHs, which they still occupy." As the Thessalians strove to reduce Phocis, the Phocians raised the wall to protect themselves, and likewise turned the hot springs upon the pass, that so the ground might be broken up by watercourses, using thus all possible means to hinder the Thessalians from invading their country. The old wall had been built in very remote times ; and the greater part of it had gone to decay through age. Now however the Grreeks resolved to repair its breaches, and here make their stand against the Barbarian. At this point there is a village very nigh the road, Alpeni by name, from which the Grreeks reckoned on getting corn for their troops. 177. These places, therefore, seemed to the Grreeks fit for their purpose. Weighing well all that was likely * This is the only mention which Hevodotus makes of the marshes, which must at all times have foiTned so important a feature of the pass (vide infra, oh. 201, note °). * So Pausanias (iv. xxxv. § 6). The springs at Thermopj'te are hot (about 100° Fahrenheit) and salt. There are two of them, which seem anciently to have been devoted re- spectively to male and female bathers (Pausan.). They are enclosed vnthin receptacles of masonry, about two feet in depth, from which in cool weather a strong vapour rises. The name "Cauldron" in thus very expressive (see Leake, vol. iii. pp. 34-38). ' The whole district was regarded as ennobled by the sufferings of Her- cules, and as sacred to him (see ch. 198, and cf. Sophocl. Trachin. passim). Hence the name of Heracleia, which the Spartans gave to Trachis. " Vide infra, chs. 208, 223, 225. For a full consideration of the various localities see the notes on chs. 198- 200. ° The reference is to the original immigration of the Thessalians (Illy- rians ?) into the country afterwards called by their name, when they drove out the Bceotians, and other .ffiolic tribes (compare Thucyd. i. 12 ; Veil. Pat. i. 3; Diod. Sic. iv. 67, &o.). This was supposed to have taken place sixty years after the Trojan war. Chap. 177-179. GREEKS ADVISED TO PRAY TO THE WINDS. 153 to happen, and considering that in this region the bar- barians could make no use of their vast numbers, nor of their cavalry, they resolved to await here the invader of Grreece. And when news reached them of the Per- sians being in Pieria, straightway they broke up from the Isthmus, and proceeded, some on foot to Thermo- pylae, others by sea to Artemisium. 178. The Grreeks now made all speed to reach the two stations ;" and about the same time the Delphians, alarmed both for themselves and for their country, consulted the god, and received for answer a com- mand to " pray to the winds ; for the winds would do Grreece good service." ^ So when this answer was given them, forthwith the Delphians sent word of the pro- phecy to the Grreeks who were zealous for freedom, and cheering them thereby amid the fears which they enter- tained with respect to the Barbarian, earned their ever- lasting gratitude. This done, they raised an altar to the winds at Thyia^ (where Thyia, the daughter of Oephissus, from whom the region takes its name, has a precinct), and worshipped them with sacrifices. And even to the present day the Delphians sacrifice to the winds, because of this oracle. 179. The fleet of Xerxes now departed from Therma ; and ten of the swiftest sailing ships ventured to stretch across direct for Sciathus, at which place there were upon the look-out three vessels belonging to the Grreeks, one a ship of Troezen,^ another of ^gina, and the third from Athens. These vessels no sooner saw from a dis- 10 Thermopyte and Artemishim. ' Clemens Alexandrinus (Strom, vi. p. 753) professes to report the exact words of the oracle, but they do not seem to be those which Herodotus had heard. According to him the words were — 'n AeXi^ol, AiVo-eo-fl' ii/eVovs, Kol Kd'iov eurai. Similar advice was given to the Athenians (infra, ch. 189). The mis- fortune of Mardonius (supra, vi. 44) had shown what good service the winds might do. ^ The site of Thyia, which no other author mentions, is unknown. Thyia herself was, according to others, a daughter of Castalius. She was the eponymus of the Thyiades (Pausan. X. vi. § 2). ' Supra, ch. 99. 154 ADVANCE OP THE PERSIAN FLEET. Book VII. tance the barbarians approaching than they all hurriedly took to flight. 180. The barbarians at once pursued, and the Troe- zenian ship, which was commanded by Prexlnus, fell into their hands. Hereupon the Persians took the handsomest of the men-at-arms, and drew him to the prow of the vessel, where they sacrificed him ;* for they thought the man a good omen to their cause, seeing that he was at once so beautiful, and likewise the first captive they had made. The man who was slain in this way was called Leo ; and it may be that the name he bore helped him to his fate in some measure.'* 181. The Eginetan trireme, under its captain, Aso- nides, gave the Persians no little trouble, one of the men-at-arms, Pythes, the son of Ischenoiis, distinguish- ing himself beyond all the others who fought on that day. After the ship was taken this man continued to resist, and did not cease fighting till he fell quite covered with woimds. The Persians who served as men-at- arms in the squadron, finding that he was not dead, but still breathed, and being very anxious to save his life, since he had behaved so valiantly, dressed his wounds with myrrh, and bound them up with bandages of cotton. Then, when they were returned to their own station, they displayed their prisoner admiringly to the whole host, and behaved towards him with much kind- ness ; but all the rest of the ship's crew were treated merely as slaves. ■* The custom of sacrificing their first prisoner is ascribed by Procopins to the Thulitaj or Scandinavians (Bell. Goth. ii. 15). The G-ernians made their first captive contend with a champion of their own race, and took the result as an omen of success or failure (Tacit. Germ. 10). ° Instances of attention to the mean- ing of names are found, supra, vi. 50, and infra, ix. 91. The Romans were systematically superstitious upon the point (see Cio. de Div. i. 45 : " In lustranda oolonia ab eo qui earn de- duceret, et cum imperator exeroitum, censor populum lustraret, bonis no- minibu* qui hostias ducerent elige- bantur; quod idem in delectu con- sules observant, ut primus miles fiat bono nomine :" and compare Plin. H. N. xxviii. 2 ; Tacit. Hist. iv. 53). Chap. 180-183. STELE PLACED ON THE " ANT." 155 182. Thus did the Persians succeed in taking two of the vessels. The third, a trireme commanded by Phormus of Athens, took to flight and ran aground at the mouth of the fiver Peneus. The barbarians got possession of the bark, but not of the men. For the Athenians had no sooner run their vessel aground than they leapt out, and made their way through Thessaly back to Athens. When the Grreeks stationed at Artemisium learnt what had happened by fire-signals^ from Sciathus, so terrified were they, that, quitting their anchorage- ground at Artemisium, and leaving scouts to watch the foe on the high lands of Euboea, they removed to Chalcis, intending to guard the Euripus. 183. Meantime three of the ten vessels sent forward by the barbarians, advanced as far as the sunken rock between Sciathus and Magnesia, which is called " The Ant,"' and there set up a stone pillar which they had brought with them for that purpose. After this, their course being now clear, the barbarians set sail with all their ships from Therma, eleven days from the time that the king quitted the town. The rock, which lay directly in their course, had been made known to them by Pam- mon of Scyros.* A day's voyage without a stop brought " The employment of fire-signals among tlie Greeks was very common, ^schylus represents it as known to them at the time of the Trojan war (Agam. 29-32, 272-307). Sophocles did the same in his Nauplius (Pr. V. ed. Valpy), asorihing the invention to Palamedes at that period. The prac- tice was certainly very usnal in his- torical times (Thucyd. ii. 94 ; iii. 22, 80 ; Polyb. viii. xxx. § 1 ; x. xlii. § 7, &c.). Details of the science may be found in ^neas Tactions and Polybins. 7 This seems to he the rock known to the Greek sailors as Leftari, which lies exactly midway between the coast of Magnesia and the south- western promontory of the island. The precaution taken exhibits the skill and forethought of the Phoe- nician navigators, who had the chief direction of the fleet, in a favourable hght. ^ Scyros, still called BJcyro, lay off the east coast of Eubcea, at the dis- tance of about 23 miles (lat. 38° 55', long. 24° 30'). It had, like most of the Egeaa islands, a capital city of the same name (Horn. II. v. 664), which was strongly situated on a rocky height, and of which consider- able traces are still to be found in the neighbourhood of St. George (see Leake, iii. p. 108-9). 156 ESTIMATE OP THE PERSIAN FORCES. Book VII. tHem to Sepias in Magnesia,* and to the strip of coast whicli lies between tlie town of Oasthanaea and the pro- montory of Sepias." 184. As far as this point then, and on land, as far as Thermopyl^, the armament of Xerxes had been free from mischance ; and the numbers were still, according to my reckoning, of the following amount. First there was the ancient complement of the twelve hundred and seven vessels which came with, the king from Asia — the contingents of the nations severally — amounting, if we allow to each ship a crew of two hundred men,^ to 241,400. Each of these vessels had on board, besides native soldiers, thirty fighting men, who were either Persians, Medes, or Sacans f which gives an addition of 36,210. To these two numbers I shall further add the crews of the penteconters ; which may be reckoned, one with another, at fourscore men each. Of such vessels there were (as I said before^) three ° The distance is calculated to be about 900 stades or 103 miles. This would considerably exceed the average day's voyage of a merchant vessel in Herodotus's time (supra, iv. 85, note ^), but it was quite within the powers of a trireme. (See Smith's Diet, of Antiq. p. 785, B, where the rate of a trireme is compared to that of " an ordinary steamboat.") "• Cape Sepias (for aKTr] in Hero- dotus is not " shore," but " promon- tory" — " a land," in Niebuhr's words, " which juts out to a considerable distance into the sea, and has only one side adjoining the mainland") is undoubtedly the modern promontory of St. Oeorge. Strabo described it as terminating the Thermajan gulf, and as looking towards the north (vii. p. 480). There was a town of the same name, according to this author (ix. p. 632), which was afterwards swal- lowed up in Demetrias. It probably lay west of the cape, where it would have been somewhat sheltered. Castanea, from which the chestnut- tree (still abundant in these parts) derived its Latin name (Etym. Mag. ad voc), lay on the eastern coast (Pomp. Mel. ii. 3) of Magnesia, almost at the foot of Pelion (Strab. ix. p. 641, KaflT) VTTO TM njjXiM Kiijievrj). Col. Leake identifies it with some ruins near Tamukhari (vol. iv. p. 383). ' The crew of a Oreeh trireme seems always to have been 200 (vide infra, viii. 17) ; and we have here an evidence that Ilerodotus knew of no difference in this respect between the Greek vessels and the Persian. The proportion between the sailors and Epihatce, or men-at-arms, is not un- like that which obtains in our own navy. ^ Vide supra, ch. 96. These troops were regarded as the best (see viii. 113). " Supra, ch. 97. It appears from that passage that in these 3000 ves- sels are included, besides penteconters, various other craft of a much smaller Chap. 184, 185. ESTIMATE OF THE PERSIAN FORCES. 157 thousand ; and the men on board them accordingly would he 240,000. This was the sea force brought by the king from Asia ; and it amounted in all to 517,610 men. The number of the foot soldiers was 1,700,000;* that of the horsemen 80,000;^ to which must be added the. Arabs who rode on camels, and the Libyans who fought in chariots, whom I reckon at 20,000. The whole number, therefore, of the land and sea forces added together amounts to 2,317,610 men. Such was the force brought from Asia, without including the camp followers, or taking any account of the provi- sion-ships and the men whom they had on board. 185. To the amount thus reached we have still to add the forces gathered in Europe, concerning which I can only speak from conjecture. The Grreeks dwelling in Thrace, and in the islands off the coast of Thrace,^ furnished to the fleet one hundred and twenty ships ; the crews of which would amount to 24,000 men. Besides these, footmen were furnished by the Thracians, the Peeonians, the Eordians,' the Botti^ans, by the Chalcidean tribes, by the Brygians, the Pierians, the Macedonians, the Perrhsebians, the Enianians, the Dolopians, the Magnesians, the Achseans, and by all the dwellers upon the Thracian sea-board ; and the ^ Supra, ch. 60. 5 See ch. 87. ° Thasos is the only one of these which has a name ; but there are many small islands, just off the coast. ' The Eordians, who are the only people here named that have not been mentioned before, are the ancient inhabitants of the district known aftei-wards as Eordasa, which was cele- brated in Roman times (see Liv. xxxi. 39, 40, xlii. 53 ; Polyb. xviii. vi. § 3). This tract, which lay between Pella and Lyncestis (Strab. vii. p. 468), and also between Pella and Blimaja (Liv. 1. s. c), must have corresponded with the upper valley of the Lydias, the country now known as Sarighidl (Leake, iii. p. 316). The Macedonians, however, had expelled the Eordians (who were a Pseonian tribe, Plin. iv. 10) from their ancient abodes (Thucyd. ii. 99), and they had sought a refuge elsewhere, but in what exact locality is uncertain. Thucydides says " near Physoa ;" but of Physca nothing is known except that it was in Myg- donia (Ptol. iii. 13 ; compare Steph. Byz. ad voo. 'EopSalai), probably upon the borders of Chalcidic^. When we hear of the Amyrians having been anciently Eordi (Suid. Fr. 7), we learn that the primitive settlements of this race, as of so many others, were scat- tered and separate. Amyrus was near Lake Boebeis in Thessaly. 158 NUMBER OF THE HOST ALTOGETHER. Book VII. forces of these nations amounted, I believe, to three hundred thousand men. These numbers, added to those of the force which came out of Asia, make the sum of the fighting men 2,641,610. 186. Such then being the number of the fighting men, it is my belief that the attendants who followed the camp, together with the crews of the corn-barks, and of the other craft accompanying the army, made up an amount rather above than below that of the fighting However I will not reckon them as either fewer men. or more, but take them at an equal number. We have therefore to add to the sum already reached an exactly equal amount. This will give 5,283,220 as the whole number of men brought by Xerxes, the son of Darius, as far as Sepias and Thermopyl^.' " It can scarcely be doubted that this amount is considerably beyond the truth. It would have been the object of the several officers of Xerxes to exaggerate the numbers under their command, for their oven credit in having brought so many men into the field ; and Xerxes himself might have been content to have such ex- aggerations made, both as adding to his glory and as tending to alarm the Greeks. After the failure of the ex- pedition it was equally an object with the Greeks to magnify its greatness, since they thus increased the merit of their own success. Still portions of the details of the estimate seem to be altogether trustworthy ; and it is pos- sible to point out the chief places where exaggeration has crept in. The estimate of Herodotus will be best exhibited in a tabular form : — Forces from Asia . Forces from Europe Quality of troops. Number. Infantry .... Cavalry .... i.too.ooo 80,000 Arabs and Libyans . Crews of the triremes 20,000 241,400 Armed force on board them. CrewB of the smaller vessels. 36,210 240,000 Land army . . . 300,000 Crews of triremes . 24,000 Ground of the Estimate. The measurement at Doriscus. Common report — nxmiber proba- bly counted at Doriscus. Rough guess. Calculated from the known num- ber of the triremes (120Y). Ditto. Rough guess from the supposed number of such vessels (3000), and the presumed average crew (ao). Rough guess, based on the num- ber of troops they might be supposed capable of furnishing. Calculated from the number of triremes, which "was likely to be known. Total of the military force . ■ 2, 64], 610 Attendants 2,641,610 estimated at an equal number. Of Chap. 186, 187. NUMBER OF THE HOST ALTOGETHER. 159 187. Such then was the amount of the entire host of Xerxes. As for the number of the women who ground Of these numbers the following ap- pear beyond suspicion. The crews of the triretaes, Asiatic and European, 241,400 and 24,000— the armed force on board the former, 36,210 — and the Asiatic cavalry (a low estimate), 80,000. The following are open to question from the evident want of sufSoient data, and from other causes. 1. The crews of the penteconters and smaller vessels, which are guessed at 3000 in number, with a supposed average crew of 80, giving a total of 240,000 men. The average of 80 seems very unduly large ; since it is difBcult to suppose that even the crew of a penteoonter much exceeded that number, and the smaller vessels must have carried very many less. Perhaps 40 or 50 would be a fairer average. And the number of th'ee thousand might safely be reduced to one, for the trireme had now become the ordi- nary ship of war. These reductions would strike off 200,000 men. 2. The Arabs and Libyans seem overrated at 20,000. If the entire cavalry, to which so many of the chief nations contributed (ohs. 84-86), was no more than 80,000, the camels and chariots are not likely to have reached 10,000. It must be doubted too whether the Arabian camel-riders, who were sta- tioned in the rear (ch. 87), did not really belong to the baggage-train, in which case Herodotus would have counted them twice. 3. The land force which joined the expedition on its march through Europe fell pro- bably far short of 300,000. That number would seem to be a high estimate for the greatest military force wliich the countries named could anyhow furnish. The levies hastily raised on the line of march of the Persian army are not likely to have reached one-third of the amount. Further, it is worth notice what a great disproportion there is between the triremes furnished (120), which could have been easily counted, and the land force, which could only be guessed. 4. The Asiatic infantry was no doubt purposely exaggerated by its commanders, who would order their men, when they entered the enclosure (supra, ch. 60), not to stand close together. The amount of this exag- geration it is almost impossible to estimate, but it can scarcely have amounted to so much as one-half. If the naval and military force be reduced in accordance with the above suggestions, it will still consist of about a million and a half of combat- ants : viz. — Asiatic infantry, ab. . . 1,000,000 Asiatic cavalry, ab. . . 80,000 Libyans in chariots, &c. . 10,000 European land force, ab. 100,000 Crews of Asiatic triremes 241,400 Armed force on ditto , . 36,210 Crews of smaller vessels, ab. 40,000 Crews of Em-opean triremes 24,000 = 1,190,000 land force. = 341,610 sea force. 1,531,610 With respect to the non-combatants, Mr. Grote's remark (Hist, of Greece, vol. V. p. 48) is most sound, that Herodotus has applied a Greek stand- ard to a case where such application is wholly unwarranted. The crews of the vessels would decidedly have had no attendants — and the " great mass of the army " would likewise have been without them. "A few grandees might be richly provided," yet even their attendants would mostly have carried arms, and been counted among the infantry. It was therefore scarcely necessary for Hero- dotus to have made any addition at all to his estimate, on the score of attendants ; and if he made any, it should have been very trifling. The estimates furnished by other writers have little importance, the only original statements being those of iEsohylus and Ctesias. The former, as we have seen (supra, ch. 100, note ^), 160 RIVERS INSUFFICIENT FOR THE SUPPLY. Book VII. the corn, of the conciibines, and the eunnchs, no one can give any sure account of it ; nor can the baggage- horses and other sumpter-beasts, nor the Indian hounds which followed the army, be calculated, by reason of their multitude. Hence I am not at all surprised that the water of the rivers was found too scant for the army in some instances ; rather it is a marvel to me how the provisions did not fail, when the numbers were so great. For I find on calculation that if each man consumed no more than a choenix of corn a-day, there must have been used daily by the army 110,340 medimni," and this without counting what was eaten by the women, the eunuchs, the sumpter-beasts, and the hounds. Among all this multitude of men there was not one who, for beauty and stature, deserved more than Xerxes himself to wield so vast a power. 188. The fleet then, as I said, on leaving Therma, sailed to the Magnesian territory, and there occupied the strip of coast between the city of Casthansea and Cape Sepias. The ships of the first row were moored corroborates Herodotus as to the exact number of Persian triremes, with the exception that he applies the number to the fleet at Salamis. Reasons have already been given (supra, loc. cit.) for preferring, on this head, the statement of Herodotus. The latter gives the number of the fleet at 1000, that of the land force at 800,000, ex- clusive of chariots (Persic. Exc. § 23). But Ctesias is an utterly vforthless authority, as this part of his history (§ 25-6) most plainly shows. Dio- dorus (xi. 3) 'has however followed him, as has Miian, except that he has made a further deduction of 100,000 for the sake of greater probability (V. H. xiii. 3). ^schylus does not give the amount of the land force ; but his expressions agree rather with the vast numbers of Herodotus, than with the more moderate total of Ctesias (Pers. 56-64, 122-144, 724, 735-8). The popular belief of the time was that Xerxes brought a land- force of 3,000,000 to Thermopylas (see the inscription, infra, ch. 228). ^ This is a miscalculation. The actual amount, according to the num- ber at which Herodotus reckons the host, would be 110,067-^ medimni. The medimnus contained about 12 gallons English. With respect to the mode in which the immense host was actually sup- plied, we must bear in mind, 1. that Asiatics are accustomed to live upon a very scanty diet. 2. that commis- sariat preparations on the largest scale had been made for several years (vii. 20). Magazines of stoi-es had been laid up on the line of march (ch. 25), and the natives had been stimulated to prepafe supplies of food of all kinds (oh. 119). 3. that a vast number of transports laden with corn (o-n-a-ymya TrXoIa) accompanied the host along shore (oh. 186, 191). And 4. that notwithstanding all these precau- tions, the expedition did suffer from want (^schyl. Pers. 797-9). Chap. 188, 189. FIRST STORM— LOSS TO THE PERSIAN FLEET. 161 to the land, while the remainder swung at anchor further off. The beach extended but a very little way, so that they had to anchor oif the shore, row upon row, eight deep. In this manner they passed the night. But at dawn of day calm and stillness gave place to a raging sea, and a violent storm, which fell upon them with a strong gale from the east — a wind which the people in those parts call Hellespontias. Such of them as perceived the wind rising, and were so moored as to allow of it, forestalled the tempest by dragging their ships up on the beach, and in this way saved both ^themselves -andriiLeirve^els. But the ships which the storm caught out at sea were driven ashore, some of them near the place called Ipni, or "the Ovens,"'" at the foot of Pelion ; others on the strand itself ; others again about Cape Sepias ; while a portion were dashed to pieces near the cities of Melibcea ' and Oasthansea. There was no resisting the tempest. 189. It is said that the Athenians had called upon Boreas^ to aid the Grreeks, on account of a fresh oracle which had reached them, commanding them to " seek help from their son-in-law." For Boreas, according to the tradition of the Greeks, took to wife a woman of Attica, viz., Orithyia, the daughter of Erechtheus.^ So the Athenians, as the tale goes, considering that 1" Colonel Leake (ii. p. 383) places Ipni at Zagord, directly nnder Pelium, which agrees well enough with this passage, and with the notice in Straho (ix. p. 641, 'YiTvovvTa tottov rpaxvv tS>v Trepi JXrjXiov). The name, which means " the Ovens," was not very uncommon (see Steph. Byz. ad voc. "iTn/or et 'IffvoCs). ' Melihoea was one of the chief cities of these parts (Horn. II. ii. 717 ; Scyl. Peripl. p. 60 ; Liv. xliv. 13 ; Plin. H. N. iv. 9 ; ApoU. Rhod. i. 592). It was situated at the foot of Ossa (Liv. 1. c), in a shallow bay to which it gave name (Strabo, ix. p. VOL. IV. 642). Colonel Leake places it, on good grounds, at a place called Kastri near Dhematd (N. G. vol. iv. p. 414) ; Kiepert, wrongly, puts it on the flanks of Pelion (Blatt. xvi.). ^ The name Bora is still retained in the Adriatic for the N. B. wind. — [G. W.] ^ This fable is found with few variations in Plato (Phtedr. p. 229 B.), in the fragments of Acusilaus (Fr. 23), in ApoUodorus (ill. xv. § 1-2), and in Pausanias (i. xix. § 6). Plato laughingly suggests a rational ex- planation. 162 ENRICHMENT OP AMEINOCLES. Book VII. this marriage made Boreas their son-in-law, and per- ceiving, while they lay with their ships at Chalcis of Euboea,* that the wind was rising, or, it may be, even before it freshened, offered sacrifice both to Boreas and likewise to Orithyia, entreating them to come to their aid and to destroy the ships of the bar- barians, as they did once before off Mount Athos. Whether it was owing to this that Boreas'* fell with violence on the barbarians at their anchorage I cannot say ; but the Athenians declare that they had received aid from Boreas before, and that it was he who now caused all these disasters. They therefore, on their return home, built a temple to this god on the banks of the Ilissus.^ 190. Such as put the loss of the Persian fleet in this storm at the lowest say, that four hundred of their ships were destroyed, that a countless multitude of men were slain, and a vast treasure engulfed. Ameinocles, the son of Cretines, a Magnesian, who farmed land near Cape Sepias, found the wreck of these vessels a source of great gain to him; many were the gold and silver drinking-cups, cast up long afterwards by the surf, which he gathered ; while treasure-boxes too which had belonged to the Persians, and golden articles of all kinds and beyond count, came into his possession. Ameinocles grew to be a man of great wealth in this ' Supra, ch. 182. ° It is evident that the points of the compass were not fixed in the time of Herodotus with the precision which had been attained when Pliny wrote (H. N. xviii. 34). Herodotus calls the same wind indifferently Boveaii and Apeliotes (north-east and east, according to Pliny's explana- tion). If the wind really blew from the Hellespont, its direction would have been north-east by east. " The myth said that Orithyia had been carried off from the banks of the Ilissus. The temple appears to have been built on the supposed site of the ravishment, where in Plato's time aa altar only existed (Pheedr. ut supra), the temple having probably gone to decay. When Pausanias wrote, there seems to have been neither temple nor altar. The exact site of the build- ing can almost be fixed from Plato and Strabo (ix. p. 576, 581). It was on the right bank of the Ilissus, pro- bably about opposite the modern church of St. Peter the Martyr (Petros Stavromenos ; see Leake's Athens, pp. 279-280). Chap! 190-192. THANKSGIVING TO NEPTUNE "THE SAVIOUB." 163 way, but in other respects things did not go over well with him ; he too, like other men, had his own grief — the calamity of losing his offspring. 191. As for the number of the provision craft and other merchant ships which perished, it was beyond count. Indeed, such was the loss, that the commanders of the sea force, fearing lest in their shattered con- dition the Thessalians should venture on an attack, raised a lofty barricade around their station out of the wreck of the vessels cast ashore. The storm lasted three days. At length the Magians, by offering victims to the Winds, and charming them with the help of conjurers, while at the same time they sacrificed to Thetis and the Nereids, succeeded in laying the storm four days after it first began ; or perhaps it ceased of itself. The reason of their offering sacrifice to Thetis was this : they were told by the lonians that here was the place whence Peleus carried her off, and that the whole promontory was sacred to her and to her sister Nereids.' So the storm lulled upon the fourth day. 192. The scouts left by the Greeks about the high- lands of Euboea hastened down from their stations on the day following that whereon the storm began, and acquainted their countrymen with all that had befallen the Persian fleet. These no sooner heard what had hap- pened than straightway they returned thanks to Nep- tune the Saviour, and poured libations in his honour ; after which they hastened back with all speed to Arte- misium, expecting to find a very few ships left to oppose them, and arriving there for the second time, took up their station on that strip of coast : nor from that day to the present have they ceased to address Neptune by the name then given him, of " Saviour." ' It is unnecessary to repeat tlie well- known tale of the seizure of Thetis by Peleus. The tale is given briefly by Apollodorus (iii. xiii. § 4), more at length by Ovid (Metamorph. xi.). According to the Scholiast upon Apollonius Ehodius (i. 582), Thetis, among her other transformations, be- came a cuttle-fish {(rrprta), and thence the promontoj'y derived its name. 164 PERSIANS ADVANCE TO APHET^. Book VIT/ 193. The barbarians, when the wind lulled and the sea grew smooth, drew their ships down to the water, and proceeded to coast along the mainland. Having then rounded the extreme point of Magnesia,^ they sailed straight into the bay that runs up to Pagasae." There is a place in this bay, belonging to Magnesia, where Hercules is said to have been put ashore to fetch water by Jason ^ and his companions ; who then de- serted him and went on their way to iBa in Colchis, on board the ship Argo, in quest of the golden fleece. From the circumstance that they intended, after water- ing their vessel at this place, to quit the shore and launch forth into the deep, it received the name of Aphetse.^ Here then it was that the fleet of Xerxes came to an anchor. 194. Fifteen ships, which had lagged greatly behind the rest, happening to catch sight of the Greek fleet at Artemisium, mistook it for their own, and sailing down 3 Mr. Grote supposes this to be " the south-eastern comer of Mag- nesia" (Hist of Greece, -vol. v. p. 112 note). I think it was the south- western. The fleet proceeded from Sepias along shore to this " point of Magnesia," and doubling it, sailed straight into the Pagasean Gulf, within ■which (Jv Ta koXttw) was Aphetaj. Ptolemy distinguishes Cape Magnesia from Cape Sepias, exactly in the same way as Herodotus (Geogr. iii. 13, p. 92). Pliny calls the Magnesian pro- montory, Cape ^anteum (H. N. iv. 9). " This is undoubtedly the modem Gulf of Volo. It is well described by Scylax (Peripl. p. 60). Pagasie it- self lay in the innermost recess of the bay, about two miles from lolcus. and ten from Pheraa (Strab. ix. p, 632). It belonged to Thessaly, which had onlytwo small strips of sea-board, one here, and one at the mouth of the Peneus (Scylax, ut supra ; compare Strab. 1. c. and Plin. H. N. iv. 8-9). Colonel Leake found considerable remains of the town a little to the west of Volo (iv. p. 368-370). ' The many forms which the myth took may be seen in ApoUodorus (i. ix. § 10). According to that which ]jredominated, Hercules was left in Mysia (ApoU. Ehod. i. 1276-1283). Pherecydes however maintained the version of Herodotus (Fr. 67), adding that Hercules was left behind, because the Argo declared she could not bear his weight. * The same derivation of the name Aphetaj from a