Book 4
Now then, do what will leave you guiltless in his eyes as in ours: stay here for the time appointed; and after that, leave.” So the Ionians promised to do this, and the Scythians made their way back with all haste.
But after sending the gifts to Darius, the Scythians who had remained there came out with foot and horse and offered battle to the Persians. But when the Scythian ranks were set in order, a rabbit ran out between the armies; and every Scythian that saw it gave chase. So there was confusion and shouting among the Scythians; Darius asked about the clamor among the enemy; and when he heard that they were chasing a rabbit, he said to those with whom he was accustomed to speak,
“These men hold us in deep contempt; and I think now that Gobryas' opinion of the Scythian gifts was true. Since, then, my own judgment agrees with his, we need to consider carefully how we shall return safely.” To this Gobryas said : “O King, I understood almost by reason alone how difficult it would be to deal with these Scythians; but when I came here, I understood even better, watching them toying with us.
Now then, my advice is that at nightfall we kindle our campfires in the usual way, deceive those in our army who are least fit to endure hardship, and tether all our asses here, and ourselves depart, before the Scythians can march straight to the Ister to break up the bridge, or the Ionians take some action by which we may well be ruined.”
This was Gobryas' advice, and at nightfall Darius followed it. He left the men who were worn out, and those whose loss mattered least to him, there in the camp, and all the asses, too, tethered.
His reasons for leaving the asses, and the infirm among his soldiers, were the following: the asses, so that they would bray; the men, who were left because of their infirmity, he pretended were to guard the camp while he attacked the Scythians with the fit part of his army.
Giving this order to those who were left behind, and lighting campfires, Darius made all haste to reach the Ister. When the asses found themselves deserted by the multitude, they brayed the louder for it; and the Scythians heard them and assumed that the Persians were in the place.
But when it was day, the men left behind perceived that Darius had betrayed them, and they held out their hands to the Scythians and explained the circumstances; they, when they heard this, assembled their power in haste, the two divisions of their horde and the one division that was with the Sauromatae and Budini and Geloni, and made straight for the Ister in pursuit of the Persians.
And as the Persian army was for the most part infantry and did not know the roads (which were not marked), while the Scythians were horsemen and knew the short cuts, they went wide of each other, and the Scythians reached the bridge long before the Persians.
There, perceiving that the Persians had not yet come, they said to the Ionians, who were in their ships, “Ionians, the days have exceeded the number, and you are wrong to be here still.
Since it was fear that kept you here, now break the bridge in haste and go, free and happy men, thanking the gods and the Scythians. The one that was your master we shall impress in such a way that he will never lead an army against anyone again.”
Then the Ionians held a council. Miltiades the Athenian, general and sovereign of the Chersonesites of the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont, advised that they do as the Scythians said and set Ionia (region (general)), Europe Ionia free.
But Histiaeus of Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus advised the opposite. He said, “It is owing to Darius that each of us is sovereign of his city; if Darius' power is overthrown, we shall no longer be able to rule, I in Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus or any of you elsewhere; for all the cities will choose democracy rather than despotism.”
When Histiaeus explained this, all of them at once inclined to his view, although they had first sided with Miltiades.
Those high in Darius' favor who gave their vote were Daphnis of Abydus [26.416,40.2] (deserted settlement), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Abydos, Hippoclus of Lapseki [26.7,40.366] (inhabited place), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Lampsacus, Herophantus of Parium, Metrodorus of +Marmara Adasi [27.616,40.633] (island), Balikesir, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Proconnesus, Aristagoras of +Cyzicus [27.9,40.4167] (Perseus) Cyzicus, Ariston of +Byzantium [28.95,41.0333] (Perseus) Byzantium,
all from the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont and sovereigns of cities there; and from Ionia (region (general)), Europe Ionia, Strattis of +Khios [26.116,38.383] (inhabited place), Chios, Khios, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Chios, Aiaces of +Nisos Samos [26.8,37.75] (island), Samos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Samos, Laodamas of +Foca [26.75,38.666] (inhabited place), Izmir Ili, Ege kiyilari, Turkey, Asia Phocaea, and Histiaeus of Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus who opposed the plan of Miltiades. As for the Aeolians, their only notable man present was Aristagoras of Cymae.
When these accepted Histiaeus' view, they decided to act upon it in the following way: to break as much of the bridge on the Scythian side as a bowshot from there carried, so that they seem to be doing something when in fact they were doing nothing, and that the Scythians not try to force their way across the bridge over the Ister; and to say while they were breaking the portion of the bridge on the Scythian side, that they would do all that the Scythians desired.
This was the plan they adopted; and then Histiaeus answered for them all, and said, “You have come with good advice, Scythians, and your urgency is timely: you guide us well and we do you a convenient service; for, as you see, we are breaking the bridge, and will be diligent about it, as we want to be free.
But while we are breaking the bridge, this is your opportunity to go and find the Persians, and when you have found them, punish them as they deserve on our behalf and on your own.”
So the Scythians, trusting the Ionians' word once more, turned back to look for the Persians; but they missed the way by which their enemies returned. The Scythians themselves were to blame for this, because they had destroyed the horses' pasturage in that region and blocked the wells.
Had they not done, they could, if they had wished, easily have found the Persians. But as it was, that part of their plan which they had thought the best was the very cause of their going astray.
So the Scythians went searching for their enemies through the parts of their own country where there was forage for the horses and water, supposing that they, too, were heading for such places in their flight; but the Persians kept to their own former tracks, and so with much trouble they found the crossing.
But as they arrived at night and found the bridge broken, they were in great alarm lest the Ionians had abandoned them.
There was an Egyptian with Darius whose voice was the loudest in the world; Darius had this man stand on the bank of the Ister and call to Histiaeus the Milesian. This the Egyptian did; Histiaeus heard and answered the first shout, and sent all the ships to ferry the army over, and repaired the bridge.
Thus the Persians escaped. The Scythians sought the Persians, but missed them again. Their judgment of the Ionians is that if they are regarded as free men they are the basest and most craven in the world; but if they are reckoned as slaves, none love their masters more, or desire less to escape. Thus have the Scythians taunted the Ionians.
Darius marched through Thrace (region (general)), EuropeThrace to +Sestos [26.4,40.2833] (Perseus) Sestos on the Gelibolu Yarimadasi (peninsula), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaChersonesus; from there, he crossed over with his ships to Asia (continent)Asia, leaving Megabazus as his commander in Europe (continent)Europe, a Persian whom he once honored by saying among the Persians what I note here:
Darius was about to eat pomegranates, and no sooner had he opened the first of them than his brother Artabanus asked him what he would like to have as many of as there were seeds in his pomegranate; then Darius said that he would rather have that many men like Megabazus than make all Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas subject to him.
By speaking thus among Persians, the king honored Megabazus; and now he left him behind as his commander, at the head of eighty thousand of his army.
This Megabazus is forever remembered by the people of the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont for replying,
when he was told at +Byzantium [28.95,41.0333] (Perseus) Byzantium that the people of Calchedon had founded their town seventeen years before the Byzantines had founded theirs, that the Calchedonians must at that time have been blind, for had they not been, they would never have chosen the worse site for their city when they might have had the better.
This Megabazus, left now as commander in the country, subjugated all the people of the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont who did not take the side of the Persians.
At the same time that he was doing this, another great force was sent against Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya, for the reason that I shall give after I finish the story that I am going to tell now.
The descendants of the crew of the Argo were driven out by the Pelasgians who carried off the Athenian women from +Brauron [24.025,37.9167] (Perseus) Brauron; after being driven out of +Lemnos [25.25,39.916] (island), Lesvos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Lemnos by them, they sailed away to Sparta [22.416,37.83] (inhabited place), Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece, Europe Lacedaemon, and there camped on Teügetum and kindled a fire.
Seeing it, the Lacedaemonians sent a messenger to inquire who they were and where they came from. They answered the messenger that they were Minyae, descendants of the heroes who had sailed in the Argo and put in at +Lemnos [25.25,39.916] (island), Lesvos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Lemnos and there begot their race.
Hearing the story of the lineage of the Minyae, the Lacedaemonians sent a second time and asked why they had come into +Laconia [22.583,37] (department), Peloponnese, Greece, Europe Laconia and kindled a fire. They replied that, having been expelled by the Pelasgians, they had come to the land of their fathers, as was most just; and their wish was to live with their fathers' people, sharing in their rights and receiving allotted pieces of land.
The Lacedaemonians were happy to receive the Minyae As descendants of the Argonauts, who were Minyae of +Thessaly [22.25,39.5] (region), Greece, Europe Thessaly, living near the Pagasaean gulf. on the terms which their guests desired; the chief cause of their consenting was that the Tyndaridae Castor and Polydeuces. had been in the ship's company of the Argo; so they received the Minyae and gave them land and distributed them among their own tribes. The Minyae immediately married, and gave in marriage to others the women they had brought from +Lemnos [25.25,39.916] (island), Lesvos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Lemnos.
But in no time these Minyae became imperious, demanding an equal right to the kingship, and doing other impious things;
hence the Lacedaemonians resolved to kill them, and they seized them and cast them into prison. (When the Lacedaemonians execute, they do it by night, never by day.)
Now when they were about to kill the prisoners, the wives of the Minyae, who were natives of the country, daughters of leading Spartans, asked permission to enter the prison and each converse with her husband; the Lacedamonians granted this, not expecting that there would be any treachery from them.
But when the wives came into the prison, they gave their husbands all their own garments, and themselves put on the men's clothing; so the Minyae passed out in the guise of women dressed in women's clothing; and thus escaping, once more camped on Teügetum.