History of the World/History of the World (Bureau Development, Inc.)(1992).BIN/dp/0184/01848.txt

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$Title{History Of Herodotus, The
Part V}
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$Author{Herodotus}
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$Date{1909}
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Title:       History Of Herodotus, The
Book:        Seventh Book, Entitled Polymnia
Author:      Herodotus
Date:        1909
Translation: Rawlinson, George

Part V

     102. So Demaratus, when he heard the promise, spake as follows: -

     "O king!  since thou biddest me at all risks speak the truth, and not say
what will one day prove me to have lied to thee, thus I answer.  Want has at
all times been a fellow-dweller with us in our land, while Valour is an ally
whom we have gained by dint of wisdom and strict laws.  Her aid enables us to
drive out want and escape thraldom.  Brave are all the Greeks who dwell in any
Dorian land; but what I am about to say does not concern all, but only the
Lacedaemonians.  First then, come what may, they will never accept thy terms,
which would reduce Greece to slavery; and further, they are sure to join
battle with thee, though all the rest of the Greeks should submit to thy will.
As for their numbers, do not ask how many they are, that their resistance
should be a possible thing; for if a thousand of them should take the field,
they will meet thee in battle, and so will any number, be it less than this,
or be it more."

     103. When Xerxes heard this answer of Demaratus, he laughed and
answered, -

     "What wild words, Demaratus!  A thousand men join battle with such an
army as this!  Come then, wilt thou - who wert once, as thou sayest, their
king - engage to fight this very day with ten men?  I trow not.  And yet, if
all thy fellow-citizens be indeed such as thou sayest they are, thou oughtest,
as their king, by thine own country's usages, ^1 to be ready to fight with
twice the number.  If then each one of them be a match for ten of my soldiers,
I may well call upon thee to be a match for twenty.  So wouldest thou assure
the truth of what thou hast now said.  If, however, you Greeks, who vaunt
yourselves so much, are of a truth men like those whom I have seen about my
court, as thyself, Demaratus, and the others with whom I am wont to converse,
- if, I say, you are really men of this sort and size, how is the speech that
thou hast uttered more than a mere empty boast?  For, to go to the very verge
of likelihood, - how could a thousand men, or ten thousand, or even fifty
thousand, particularly if they were all alike free, and not under one lord, -
how could such a force, I say, stand against an army like mine?  Let them be
five thousand, and we shall have more than a thousand men to each one of
theirs. ^1 If, indeed, like our troops, they had a single master, their fear
of him might make them courageous beyond their natural bent; or they might be
urged by lashes against an enemy which far outnumbered them. ^2 But left to
their own free choice, assuredly they will act differently.  For mine own
part, I believe, that if the Greeks had to contend with the Persians only, and
the numbers were equal on both sides, the Greeks would find it hard to stand
their ground.  We too have among us such men as those of whom thou spakest -
not many indeed, but still we possess a few.  For instance, some of my
body-guard would be willing to engage singly with three Greeks.  But this thou
didst not know; and therefore it was thou talkedst so foolishly."

[Footnote 1: The allusion is apparently to the "double portion" whereto the
kings were entitled at banquets.]

[Footnote 1: See below, ch. 186, where the entire Persian host is reckoned to
exceed five millions of men!]

[Footnote 2: Supra, vi. 70.]

     104. Demaratus answered him, - "I knew, O king!  at the outset, that if I
told thee the truth, my speech would displease thine ears.  But as thou didst
require me to answer thee with all possible truthfulness, I informed thee what
the Spartans will do.  And in this I spake not from any love that I bear them
- for none knows better than thou what my love towards them is likely to be at
the present time, when they have robbed me of my rank and my ancestral
honours, and made me a homeless exile, whom thy father did receive, bestowing
on me both shelter and sustenance.  What likelihood is there that a man of
understanding should be unthankful for kindness shown him, and not cherish it
in his heart?  For mine own self, I pretend not to cope with ten men, nor with
two, - nay, had I the choice, I would rather not fight even with one.  But, if
need appeared, or if there were any great cause urging me on, I would contend
with right good will against one of those persons who boast themselves a match
for any three Greeks.  So likewise the Lacedaemonians, when they fight singly,
are as good men as any in the world, and when they fight in a body, are the
bravest of all.  For though they be freemen, they are not in all respects
free; Law is the master whom they own; and this master they fear more than thy
subjects fear thee.  Whatever he commands they do; and his commandment is
always the same: it forbids them to flee in battle, whatever the number of
their foes, and requires them to stand firm, and either to conquer or die.  If
in these words, O king!  I seem to thee to speak foolishly, I am content from
this time forward evermore to hold my peace.  I had not now spoken unless
compelled by thee.  Certes, I pray that all may turn out according to thy
wishes."

     105. Such was the answer of Demaratus; and Xerxes was not angry with him
at all, but only laughed, and sent him away with words of kindness.

     After this interview, and after he had made Mascames the son of
Megadostes governor of Doriscus, setting aside the governor appointed by
Darius, Xerxes started with his army, and marched upon Greece through Thrace.

     106. This man, Mascames, whom he left behind him, was a person of such
merit that gifts were sent him yearly by the king as a special favour, because
he excelled all the other governors that had been appointed either by Xerxes
or by Darius.  In like manner, Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes, sent gifts
yearly to the descendants of Mascames.  Persian governors had been established
in Thrace and about the Hellespont before the march of Xerxes began; but these
persons, after the expedition was over, were all driven from their towns by
the Greeks, except the governor of Doriscus: no one succeeded in driving out
Mascames, though many made the attempt.  For this reason the gifts are sent
him every year by the king who reigns over the Persians.

     107. Of the other governors whom the Greeks drove out, there was not one
who, in the judgment of Xerxes, showed himself a brave man, excepting Boges,
the governor of Eion.  Him Xerxes never could praise enough; and such of his
sons as were left in Persia, and survived their father, he very specially
honoured.  And of a truth this Boges was worthy of great commendation; for
when he was besieged by the Athenians under Cimon, the son of Miltiades, and
it was open to him to retire from the city upon terms, and return to Asia, he
refused, because he feared the king might think he had played the coward to
save his own life, wherefore, instead of surrendering, he held out to the last
extremity.  When all the food in the fortress was gone, he raised a vast
funeral pile, slew his children, his wife, his concubines, and his household
slaves, and cast them all into the flames.  Then, collecting whatever gold and
silver there was in the place, he flung it from the walls into the Strymon;
and, when that was done, to crown all, he himself leaped into the fire.  For
this action Boges is with reason praised by the Persians even at the present
day.

     108. Xerxes, as I have said, pursued his march from Doriscus against
Greece; and on his way he forced all the nations through which he passed to
take part in the expedition.  For the whole country as far as the frontiers of
Thessaly had been (as I have already shown) enslaved and made tributary to the
king by the conquests of Megabazus, and, more lately, of Mardonius. ^1 And
first, after leaving Doriscus, Xerxes passed the Samothracian fortresses,
whereof Mesambria is the furthermost as one goes toward the west.  The next
city is Stryme, which belongs to Thasos. Midway between it and Mesambria flows
the river Lissus, which did not suffice to furnish water for the army, but was
drunk up and failed.  This region was formerly called Gallaica; now it bears
the name of Briantica; but in strict truth it likewise is really Ciconian. ^2

[Footnote 1: Supra, v. 2-18; vi. 44, 45.]

[Footnote 2: See above, ch. 59.]

     109. After crossing the dry channel of the Lissus, Xerxes passed the
Grecian cities of Maroneia, Dicaea, and Abdera, and likewise the famous lakes
which are in their neighbourhood, Lake Ismaris between Maroneia and Stryme,
and Lake Bistonis near Dicaea, which receives the waters of two rivers, the
Travus and the Compsatus.  Near Abdera there was no famous lake for him to
pass; but he crossed the river Nestus, which there reaches the sea.
Proceeding further upon his way, he passed by several continental cities, one
of them possessing a lake nearly thirty furlongs in circuit, full of fish, and
very salt, of which the sumpter-beasts only drank, and which they drained dry.
The name of this city was Pistyrus. All these towns, which were Grecian, and
lay upon the coast, Xerxes kept upon his left hand as he passed along.

     110. The following are the Thracian tribes through whose country he
marched: the Paeti, the Ciconians, the Bistonians, the Sapaeans, the
Dersaeans, the Edonians, and the Satrae.  Some of these dwelt by the sea, and
furnished ships to the king's fleet; while others lived in the more inland
parts, and of these all the tribes which I have mentioned, except the Satrae,
were forced to serve on foot.

     111. The Satrae, so far as our knowledge goes, have never yet been
brought under by any one, but continue to this day a free and unconquered
people, unlike the other Thracians.  They dwell amid lofty mountains clothed
with forests of different trees and capped with snow, and are very valiant in
fight.  They are the Thracians who have an oracle of Bacchus in their country,
which is situated upon their highest mountain-range.  The Bessi, a Satrian
race, deliver the oracles; but the prophet, as at Delphi, is a woman; and her
answers are not harder to read.

     112. When Xerxes had passed through the region mentioned above, he came
next to the Pierian fortresses, one of which is called Phagres, and another
Pergamus. ^1 Here his line of march lay close by the walls, with the long high
range of Pangaeum ^2 upon his right, a tract in which there are mines both of
gold and silver, some worked by the Pierians and Odomantians, but the greater
part by the Satrae.

[Footnote 1: The original Pieria was the district between the Haliacmon and
the Peneus.]

[Footnote 2: Vide supra, v. 16.]

     113. Xerxes then marched through the country of the Paeonian tribes - the
Doberians and the Paeoplae - which lay to the north of Pangaeum, and,
advancing westward, reached the river Strymon and the city Eion, whereof
Boges, of whom I spoke a short time ago, ^3 and who was then still alive, was
governor.  The tract of land lying about Mount Pangaeum, is called Phyllis; on
the west it reaches to the river Angites, which flows into the Strymon, and on
the south to the Strymon itself, where at this time the Magi were sacrificing
white horses to make the stream favourable. ^4

[Footnote 3: Supra, ch. 107.]

[Footnote 4: White horses seem to have been regarded as especially sacred
(supra, ch. 40).]

     114. After propitiating the stream by these and many other magical
ceremonies, the Persians crossed the Strymon, by bridges made before their
arrival, at a place called "The Nine Ways," ^5 which was in the territory of
the Edonians.  And when they learnt that the name of the place was "The Nine
Ways," they took nine of the youths of the land and as many of their maidens,
and buried them alive on the spot.  Burying alive is a Persian custom.  I have
heard that Amestris, the wife of Xerxes, in her old age buried alive seven
pairs of Persian youths, sons of illustrious men, as a thank-offering to the
god who is supposed to dwell underneath the earth.

[Footnote 5: Afterwards Amphipolis.]

     115. From the Strymon the army, proceeding westward, came to a strip of
shore, on which there stands the Grecian town of Argilus.  This shore, and the
whole tract above it, is called Bisaltia. ^1 Passing this, and keeping on the
left hand the Gulf of Posideium, Xerxes crossed the Sylean plain, ^2 as it is
called, and passing by Stagirus, ^3 a Greek city, came to Acanthus.  The
inhabitants of these parts, as well as those who dwelt about Mount Pangaeum,
were forced to join the armament, like those others of whom I spoke before;
the dwellers along the coast being made to serve in the fleet, while those who
lived more inland had to follow with the land forces.  The road which the army
of Xerxes took remains to this day untouched: the Thracians neither plough nor
sow it, but hold it in great honour.

[Footnote 1: The Bisaltae were a brave and powerful Thracian people.]

[Footnote 2: By the Sylean plain, which no other writer mentions, is to be
understood the flat tract, about a mile in width, near the mouth of the river
which drains the lake of Bolbe (Besikia).]

[Footnote 3: Now Stavros.]

     116. On reaching Acanthus, the Persian king, seeing the great zeal of the
Acanthians for his service, and hearing what had been done about the cutting,
took them into the number of his sworn friends, sent them as a present a
Median dress, ^4 and besides commended them highly.

[Footnote 4: Compare iii. 84.]

     117. It was while he remained here that Artachaees, who presided over the
canal, ^5 a man in high repute with Xerxes, and by birth an Achaemenid, who
was moreover the tallest of all the Persians, being only four fingers short of
five cubits, royal measure, ^6 and who had a stronger voice than any other man
in the world, fell sick and died. Xerxes therefore, who was greatly afflicted
at the mischance, carried him to the tomb and buried him with all
magnificence; while the whole army helped to raise a mound over his grave.
The Acanthians, in obedience to an oracle, offer sacrifice to this Artachaees
as a hero, invoking him in their prayers by name.  But King Xerxes sorrowed
greatly over his death.

[Footnote 5: Supra, ch. 21.]

[Footnote 6: That is, about 8 feet 2 inches.]

     118. Now the Greeks who had to feed the army, and to entertain
Xerxes, were brought thereby to the very extremity of distress, insomuch
that some of them were forced even to forsake house and home.  When the
Thasians received and feasted the host, on account of their possessions
upon the mainland, Antipater, the son of Orges, one of the citizens of
best repute, and the man to whom the business was assigned, proved that
the cost of the meal was four hundred talents of silver. ^1

[Footnote 1: Nearly Pounds 100,000 of our money.]

     119. And estimates almost to the same amount were made by the
superintendents in other cities.  For the entertainment, which had been
ordered long beforehand and was reckoned to be of much consequence, was, in
the manner of it, such as I will now describe.  No sooner did the heralds who
brought the orders ^2 give their message, than in every city the inhabitants
made a division of their stores of corn, and proceeded to grind flour of wheat
and of barley for many months together.  Besides this, they purchased the best
cattle that they could find, and fattened them; and fed poultry and water-fowl
in ponds and buildings, to be in readiness for the army; while they likewise
prepared gold and silver vases and drinking-cups, and whatsoever else is
needed for the service of the table.  These last preparations were made for
the king only, and those who sat at meat with him; for the rest of the army
nothing was made ready beyond the food for which orders had been given.  On
the arrival of the Persians, a tent ready pitched for the purpose received
Xerxes, who took his rest therein, while the soldiers remained under the open
heaven.  When the dinner hour came, great was the toil of those who
entertained the army; while the guests ate their fill, and then, after passing
the night at the place, tore down the royal tent next morning, and seizing its
contents, carried them all off, leaving nothing behind.

[Footnote 2: Supra, ch. 32.]

     120. On one of these occasions Megacreon of Abdera wittily recommended
his countrymen "to go to the temples in a body, men and women alike, and there
take their station as suppliants, and beseech the gods that they would in
future always spare them one-half of the woes which might threaten their peace
- thanking them at the same time very warmly for their past goodness in that
they had caused Xerxes to be content with one meal in the day." For had the
order been to provide breakfast for the king as well as dinner, the Abderites
must either have fled before Xerxes came, or, if they awaited his coming, have
been brought to absolute ruin. As it was, the nations, though suffering heavy
pressure, complied nevertheless with the directions that had been given.

     121. At Acanthus Xerxes separated from his fleet, bidding the captains
sail on ahead and await his coming at Therma, on the Thermaic Gulf, the place
from which the bay takes its name.  Through this town lay, he understood, his
shortest road.  Previously, his order of march had been the following: - from
Doriscus to Acanthus his land force had proceeded in three bodies, one of
which took the way along the sea-shore in company with the fleet, and was
commanded by Mardonius and Masistes, while another pursued an inland track
under Tritantaechmes and Gergis; the third, with which was Xerxes himself,
marching midway between the other two, and having for its leaders Smerdomenes
and Megabyzus. ^1

[Footnote 1: See above, ch. 82.]

     122. The fleet, therefore, after leaving the king, sailed through the
channel which had been cut for it by Mount Athos, and came into the bay
whereon lie the cities of Assa, Pilorus, Singus, and Sarta; from all which it
received contingents.  Thence it stood on for the Thermaic Gulf, and rounding
Cape Ampelus, the promontory of the Toronaeans, passed the Grecian cities
Torone, Galepsus, Sermyla, Mecyberna, and Olynthus, receiving from each a
number of ships and men.  This region is called Sithonia. ^2

[Footnote 2: The Sithonians were probably an ancient Thracian people.]

     123. From Cape Ampelus the fleet stretched across by a short course to
Cape Canastraeum, ^3 which is the point of the peninsula of Pallene that runs
out furthest into the sea, ^4 and gathered fresh supplies of ships and men
from Potidaea, Aphytis, Neapolis, Aega, Therambus, Scione, Mende, and Sane. ^5
These are the cities of the tract called anciently Phlegra, but now Pallene.
^6 Hence they again followed the coast, still advancing towards the place
appointed by the king, and had accessions from all the cities that lie near
Pallene, and border on the Thermaic Gulf, whereof the names are Lipaxus,
Combreia, Lisae, Gigonus, Campsa, Smila, and Aenea.  The tract where these
towns lie still retains its old name of Crossaea. ^1 After passing Aenea, the
city which I last named, the fleet found itself arrived in the Thermaic Gulf,
off the land of Mygdonia.  And so at length they reached Therma, the appointed
place, and came likewise to Sindus and Chalestra upon the river Axius, which
separates Bottiaea from Mygdonia.  Bottiaea has a scanty sea-board, which is
occupied by the two cities Ichnae and Pella. ^2

[Footnote 3: It is plain from this that only a portion of the ships made the
circuit of the bay in order to collect ships and men.  The main body of the
fleet sailed across the mouth of the bay.]

[Footnote 4: This description sufficiently identifies the Canastraean
promontory with the modern Cape Paliuri.]

[Footnote 5: The situation and origin of Potidaea are well known from
Thucydides i. 56-65).]

[Footnote 6: Pallene was the name of the peninsula extending from Potidaea to
Cape Canastraeum.]

[Footnote 1: Now called Kalamaria.]

[Footnote 2: Pella (which became under Philip the capital of Macedonia) was
not upon the coast, as we should gather from this passage, but above twenty
miles from the sea, on the borders of a lake.]

     124. So the fleet anchored off the Axius, and off Therma, and the towns
that lay between, waiting the king's coming.  Xerxes meanwhile with his land
force ^3 left Acanthus, and started for Therma, taking his way across the
land.  This road led him through Paeonia and Crestonia to the river
Echeidorus, ^4 which rising in the country of the Crestonians, flows through
Mygdonia, and reaches the sea near the marsh upon the Axius.

[Footnote 3: The bulk of the land force would undoubtedly have kept the direct
road through Apollonia which St. Paul followed (Acts xvii. 1); while Xerxes
with his immediate attendants visited Acanthus, to see the canal, and then
rejoined the main army by a mountain-path which fell into the main road beyond
Apollonia.]

[Footnote 4: The Echeidorus is undoubtedly the Galliko, which flows from the
range of Karadagh (Cercine), and running nearly due south, empties itself into
the Gulf of Saloniki.]

     125. Upon this march the camels that carried the provisions of the army
were set upon by lions, which left their lairs and came down by night, but
spared the men and the sumpter-beasts, while they made the camels their prey.
I marvel what may have been the cause which compelled the lions to leave the
other animals untouched and attack the camels, when they had never seen that
beast before, nor had any experience of it.

     126. That whole region is full of lions, and wild bulls, ^5 with gigantic
horns which are brought into Greece.  The lions are confined within the tract
lying between the river Nestus (which flows through Abdera) on the one side,
and the Achelous (which waters Acarnania) on the other. ^6 No one ever sees a
lion in the fore part of Europe east of the Nestus, nor through the entire
continent west of the Achelous; but in the space between these bounds lions
are found. ^7

[Footnote 5: The bonasus has been thought to be the modern auroch; but Sir G.
C. Lewis regards it as "a species of wild ox, cognate, but not identical, with
the auroch."]

[Footnote 6: Vide supra, ii. 10.]

[Footnote 7: Aristotle, a native of this district, makes the same statement as
Herodotus; and the elder Pliny follows him.]

     127. On reaching Therma Xerxes halted his army, which encamped along the
coast, beginning at the city of Therma in Mygdonia, and stretching out as far
as the rivers Lydias and Haliacmon, two streams which, mingling their waters
in one, form the boundary between Bottiaea and Macedonia. Such was the extent
of country through which the barbarians encamped.  The rivers here mentioned
were all of them sufficient to supply the troops, except the Echeidorus, which
was drunk dry.

     128. From Therma Xerxes beheld the Thessalian mountains, Olympus and
Ossa, ^1 which are of a wonderful height.  Here, learning that there lay
between these mountains a narrow gorge ^2 through which the river Peneus ran,
and where there was a road that gave an entrance into Thessaly, he formed the
wish to go by sea himself, and examine the mouth of the river. His design was
to lead his army by the upper road through the country of the inland
Macedonians, and so to enter Perrhaebia, and come down by the city of Gonnus;
^3 for he was told that that way was the most secure.  No sooner therefore had
he formed this wish than he acted accordingly. Embarking, as was his wont on
all such occasions, aboard a Sidonian vessel, ^4 he gave the signal to the
rest of the fleet to get under weigh, and quitting his land army, set sail and
proceeded to the Peneus.  Here the view of the mouth caused him to wonder
greatly; and sending for his guides, he asked them whether it were possible to
turn the course of the stream, and make it reach the sea at any other point.

[Footnote 1: In clear weather Olympus and Ossa are in full view from Therma
(Saloniki), though the latter is more than seventy miles distant.]

[Footnote 2: This description of the pass of Tempe (vide infra, ch. 173),
though brief, is remarkably accurate.]

[Footnote 3: Gonnus was at the western extremity of the pass of Tempe, near
the modern Dereli.]

[Footnote 4: Supra, ch. 100.]

     129. Now there is a tradition that Thessaly was in ancient times a lake,
shut in on every side by huge hills.  Ossa and Pelion - ranges which join at
the foot ^5 - do in fact inclose it upon the east, while Olympus forms a
barrier upon the north, ^6 Pindus upon the west, ^1 and Othrys towards the
south. ^2 The tract contained within these mountains, which is a deep basin,
is called Thessaly.  Many rivers pour their waters into it; but five of them
are of more note than the rest, namely, the Peneus, the Apidanus, the
Onochonus, the Enipeus, and the Pamisus.  These streams flow down from the
mountains which surround Thessaly, and, meeting in the plain, mingle their
waters together, and discharge themselves into the sea by a single outlet,
which is a gorge of extreme narrowness.  After the junction all the other
names disappear, and the river is known as the Peneus.  It is said that of old
the gorge which allows the waters an outlet did not exist; accordingly the
rivers, which were then, as well as the Lake Boebeis, ^3 without names, but
flowed with as much water as at present, made Thessaly a sea.  The Thessalians
tell us that the gorge through which the water escapes was caused by Neptune;
and this is likely enough; at least any man who believes that Neptune causes
earthquakes, and that chasms so produced are his handiwork, would say, upon
seeing this rent, that Neptune did it.  For it plainly appeared to me that the
hills had been torn asunder by an earthquake. ^4

[Footnote 5: Mount Pelium (the modern Plessidhi) lies south-east of Ossa at a
distance of about 40 miles.  The bases of the two mountains nevertheless join,
as Herodotus states.  The height of Pelium is estimated at 5300 feet.  It is
richly clothed with wood, nearly to the summit.]

[Footnote 6: The name Olympus is here applied to the entire range.]

[Footnote 1: Mount Pindus, the back-bone of Greece, runs in a direction nearly
due north and south.]

[Footnote 2: Othrys, now Mount Ierako, is situated due south of Ossa, and
south-west of Pelion.  Its height is estimated at 5670 feet.]

[Footnote 3: Lake Boebeis, so called from a small town Boebe, at its eastern
extremity, is the modern lake of Karla, a piece of water which has no outlet
to the sea.]

[Footnote 4: Modern science will scarcely quarrel with this description of
Thessaly, which shows Herodotus to have had the eye of a physical geographer
and the imagination of a geologist.]

     130. When Xerxes therefore asked the guides if there were any other
outlet by which the waters could reach the sea, they, being men well
acquainted with the nature of their country, made answer -

     "O king!  there is no other passage by which this stream can empty itself
into the sea save that which thine eye beholds.  For Thessaly is girt about
with a circlet of hills."

     Xerxes is said to have observed upon this -

     "Wise men truly are they of Thessaly, and good reason had they to change
their minds in time and consult for their own safety.  For, to pass by others
matters, they must have felt that they lived in a country which may easily be
brought under and subdued.  Nothing more is needed than to turn the river upon
their lands by an embankment which should fill up the gorge and force the
stream from its present channel, and lo!  all Thessaly, except the mountains,
would at once be laid under water."

     The king aimed in this speech at the sons of Aleuas, who were
Thessalians, and had been the first of all the Greeks to make submission to
him.  He thought that they had made their friendly offers in the name of the
whole people. ^1 So Xerxes, when he had viewed the place, and made the above
speech, went back to Therma.

[Footnote 1: This was not the case.]