Book 4
Then some Scythian saw him doing this and told the king, Saulius; who, coming to the place himself and seeing Anacharsis performing these rites, shot an arrow at him and killed him. And now the Scythians, if they are asked about Anacharsis, say they have no knowledge of him; this is because he left his country for Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas and followed the customs of strangers.
But according to what I heard from Tymnes, the deputy for Ariapithes, Anacharsis was an uncle of Idanthyrsus king of Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia, and he was the son of Gnurus, son of Lycus, son of Spargapithes. Now if Anacharsis was truly of this family, then let him know he was slain by his own brother; for Idanthyrsus was the son of Saulius, and it was Saulius who killed Anacharsis.
It is true that I have heard another story told by the Peloponnesians; namely, that Anacharsis had been sent by the king of Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia and had been a student of the ways of Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas, and after his return told the king who sent him that all Greeks were keen for every kind of learning, except the Lacedaemonians; but that these were the only Greeks who spoke and listened with discretion.
But this is a tale pointlessly invented by the Greeks themselves; and be this as it may, the man was put to death as I have said.
This, then, was how Anacharsis fared, owing to his foreign ways and consorting with Greeks; and a great many years afterward, Scyles, son of Ariapithes, suffered a like fate. Scyles was one of the sons born to Ariapithes, king of Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia; but his mother was of +Istra [14,45.25] (region (general)), Croatia, Europe Istria,In what is now the +Dobruja (region (general)), Europe Dobrudja. and not native-born; and she taught him to speak and read Greek.
As time passed, Ariapithes was treacherously killed by Spargapithes, king of the Agathyrsi, and Scyles inherited the kingship and his father's wife, a Scythian woman whose name was Opoea, and she bore Scyles a son, Oricus.
So Scyles was king of Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia; but he was in no way content with the Scythian way of life, and was much more inclined to Greek ways, from the upbringing that he had received. So this is what he would do: he would lead the Scythian army to the city of the Borysthenites (who say that they are Milesians), and when he arrived there would leave his army in the suburb of the city,
while he himself, entering within the walls and shutting the gates, would take off his Scythian apparel and put on Greek dress; and in it he would go among the townsfolk unattended by spearmen or any others (who would guard the gates, lest any Scythian see him wearing this apparel), and in every way follow the Greek manner of life, and worship the gods according to Greek usage.
When he had spent a month or more like this, he would put on Scythian dress and leave the city. He did this often; and he built a house in +Dnepr (river), Europe Borysthenes, and married a wife of the people of the country and brought her there.
But when things had to turn out badly for him, they did so for this reason: he conceived a desire to be initiated into the rites of the Bacchic Dionysus; and when he was about to begin the sacred mysteries, he saw the greatest vision.
He had in the city of the Borysthenites a spacious house, grand and costly (the same house I just mentioned), all surrounded by sphinxes and griffins worked in white marble; this house was struck by a thunderbolt. And though the house burnt to the ground, Scyles none the less performed the rite to the end.
Now the Scythians reproach the Greeks for this Bacchic revelling, saying that it is not reasonable to set up a god who leads men to madness.
So when Scyles had been initiated into the Bacchic rite, some one of the Borysthenites scoffed at the Scythians: “You laugh at us, Scythians, because we play the Bacchant and the god possesses us; but now this deity has possessed your own king, so that he plays the Bacchant and is maddened by the god. If you will not believe me, follow me now and I will show him to you.”
The leading men among the Scythians followed him, and the Borysthenite brought them up secretly onto a tower; from which, when Scyles passed by with his company of worshippers, they saw him playing the Bacchant; thinking it a great misfortune, they left the city and told the whole army what they had seen.
After this Scyles rode off to his own place; but the Scythians rebelled against him, setting up his brother Octamasades, son of the daughter of Teres, for their king.
Scyles, learning what had happened concerning him and the reason why it had happened, fled into Thrace (region (general)), EuropeThrace; and when Octamasades heard this he led his army there. But when he was beside the Ister, the Thracians barred his way; and when the armies were about to engage, Sitalces sent this message to Octamasades:
“Why should we try each other's strength? You are my sister's son, and you have my brother with you; give him back to me, and I will give up your Scyles to you; and let us not endanger our armies.”
Such was the offer Sitalces sent to him; for Sitalces' brother had fled from him and was with Octamasades. The Scythian agreed to this, and took his brother Scyles, giving up his own uncle to Sitalces.
Sitalces then took his brother and carried him away, but Octamasades beheaded Scyles on the spot. This is how closely the Scythians guard their customs, and these are the penalties they inflict on those who add foreign customs to their own.
How numerous the Scythians are, I was not able to learn exactly, and the accounts that I heard did not tally, some saying that they are very numerous, and some that they are few, so far as they are true Scythians.
But this much they let me see for myself: there is a region between the +Dnepr (river), Europe Borysthenes and Hypanis rivers, whose name is Exampaeus; this is the land that I mentioned when I said that there is a spring of salt water in it, whose water makes the Hypanis unfit to drink.
In this region is a bronze vessel, as much as six times greater than the cauldron dedicated by Pausanias son of Cleombrotus at the entrance of the +Black Sea [38,42] (sea) Pontus. Pausanias, the victor of Plataea [23.2667,38.2] (Perseus) Plataea, set up this cauldron in 477 B.C. to commemorate the taking of +Byzantium [28.95,41.0333] (Perseus) Byzantium.
For anyone who has not yet seen the latter, I will make my meaning plain: the Scythian bronze vessel easily contains five thousand four hundred gallons, and it is of six fingers' thickness. This vessel (so the people of the country said) was made out of arrowheads.
For their king, whose name was Ariantas, desiring to know the census of the Scythians, commanded every Scythian to bring him the point from an arrow, threatening death to all who did not.
So a vast number of arrow-heads was brought, and he decided to make and leave a memorial out of them; and he made of these this bronze vessel, and set it up in this country Exampaeus. This much I heard about the number of the Scythians.
As for marvels, there are none in the land, except that it has by far the greatest and the most numerous rivers in the world; and over and above the rivers and the great extent of the plains there is one most marvellous thing for me to mention: they show a footprint of Heracles by the Tyras river stamped on rock, like the mark of a man's foot, but forty inches in length. Having described this, I will now return to the story which I began to tell.In Hdt. 4.1.
While Darius was making preparationsThe date of Darius' expedition is uncertain. Grote thinks it probable that it took place before 514 B.C. against the Scythians, and sending messengers to direct some to furnish infantry and some to furnish ships, and others again to bridge the Karadeniz Bogazi (strait), Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaThracian Bosporus, Artabanus, son of Hystaspes and Darius' brother, by no means wanted him to make an expedition against the Scythians, telling him how hard that people were to deal with.
But when, for all his good advice, he could not deter the king, Artabanus ceased to advise, and Darius, all his preparations made, led his army from Shush [48.333,32.2] (inhabited place), Khuzestan, Iran, AsiaSusa.
Then the Persian Oeobazus, who had three sons, all with the army, asked Darius that one be left behind. “You are my friend,” said the king, “and your request is reasonable; I will leave all your sons.”
Oeobazus was very happy, supposing his sons released from service; but Darius told those whose job it was to execute all of Oeobazus' sons. So their throats were cut, and they were left there.
But Darius, when he came to that place in his march from Shush [48.333,32.2] (inhabited place), Khuzestan, Iran, AsiaSusa where the Karadeniz Bogazi (strait), Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaBosporus was bridged in the territory of Calchedon, went aboard ship and sailed to the Dark Rocks Rocks (the “Wandering” or “Clashing” Rocks of Greek legend) off the northern end of the Karadeniz Bogazi (strait), Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaBosporus. (as they are called), which the Greeks say formerly moved; there, he sat on a headland and viewed the +Black Sea [38,42] (sea) Pontus, a marvellous sight.
For it is the most wonderful sea of all. Its length is eleven thousand one hundred stades, and its breadth three thousand three hundred stades at the place where it is widest. Herodotus is wrong. The Black Sea is 720 miles long (about 6280 stades), and, at the point of Herodotus' measurement, about 270 miles broad; its greatest breadth is 380 miles. His estimates for the Propontis and Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont are also in excess, though not by much; the Karadeniz Bogazi (strait), Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaBosporus is a little longer than he says, but its breadth is correctly given.
The channel at the entrance of this sea is four stades across; the narrow neck of the channel, called Karadeniz Bogazi (strait), Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaBosporus, across which the bridge was thrown, is about one hundred and twenty stades long. The Karadeniz Bogazi (strait), Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaBosporus reaches as far as to the Propontis;
and the Propontis is five hundred stades wide and one thousand four hundred long; its outlet is the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont, which is no wider than seven stades and four hundred long. The Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont empties into a gulf of the sea which we call +Aegean Sea [25,38.5] (sea) Aegean.
These measurements have been made in this way: a ship will generally accomplish seventy thousand orguiae The Greek ὀργυιά was the length of the outstretched arms, about six feet. in a long day's voyage, and sixty thousand by night.
This being granted, seeing that from the +Black Sea [38,42] (sea) Pontus' mouth to the +Poti [41.683,42.183] (inhabited place), regions under republican jurisdiction, Georgia, Asia Phasis (which is the greatest length of the sea) it is a voyage of nine days and eight nights, the length of it will be one million one hundred and ten thousand orguiai, which make eleven thousand stades.
From the Sindic region to Themiscura on the Thermodon river (the greatest width of the +Black Sea [38,42] (sea) Pontus) it is a voyage of three days and two nights; that is, of three hundred and thirty thousand orguiai, or three thousand three hundred stades.
Thus have I measured the +Black Sea [38,42] (sea) Pontus and the Karadeniz Bogazi (strait), Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaBosporus and Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont, and they are as I have said. Furthermore, a lake is seen issuing into the +Black Sea [38,42] (sea) Pontus and not much smaller than the sea itself; it is called the Maeetian lake, and the mother of the +Black Sea [38,42] (sea) Pontus.
After having viewed the +Black Sea [38,42] (sea) Pontus, Darius sailed back to the bridge, whose architect was Mandrocles of +Nisos Samos [26.8,37.75] (island), Samos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Samos; and when he had viewed the Karadeniz Bogazi (strait), Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaBosporus also, he set up two pillars of white marble by it, engraving on the one in Assyrian and on the other in Greek characters the names of all the nations that were in his army: all the nations subject to him. The full census of these, over and above the fleet, was seven hundred thousand men, including horsemen, and the number of ships assembled was six hundred.
These pillars were afterward carried by the Byzantines into their city and there used to build the altar of Orthosian A deity worshipped especially at Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta; the meaning of the epithet is uncertain. Artemis, except for one column covered with Assyrian writing that was left beside the temple of Dionysus at +Byzantium [28.95,41.0333] (Perseus) Byzantium. Now if my reckoning is correct, the place where king Darius bridged the Karadeniz Bogazi (strait), Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaBosporus was midway between +Byzantium [28.95,41.0333] (Perseus) Byzantium and the temple at the entrance of the sea.