Book 4
After this, being pleased with his bridge of boats, Darius made a gift of ten of everythingApparently a proverbial expression for great abundance; cp. a similar phrase in Hdt. 9.81. to Mandrocles the Samian, the architect of it; Mandrocles took the first-fruits of these and had a picture made with them, showing the whole bridge of the Karadeniz Bogazi (strait), Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaBosporus, and Darius sitting aloft on his throne and his army crossing; he set this up in the temple of Hera, with this inscription:
“After bridging the Karadeniz Bogazi (strait), Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaBosporus that teems with fish, Mandrocles dedicated a memorial of the floating bridge to Hera, Having won a crown for himself, and fame for the Samians, Doing the will of King Darius.” This memorialized the builder of the bridge.
Darius, after rewarding Mandrocles, crossed over to Europe (continent)Europe; he had told the Ionians to sail into the +Black Sea [38,42] (sea) Pontus as far as the Ister river, and when they got to the Ister, to wait there for him, bridging the river meanwhile; for the fleet was led by Ionians and Aeolians and men of the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont.
So the fleet passed between the Dark Rocks and sailed straight for the Ister and, after a two days' voyage up the river from the sea, set about bridging the narrow channel of the river where its various mouths separate.
But Darius, passing over the Karadeniz Bogazi (strait), Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaBosporus on the floating bridge of ships, journeyed through Thrace (region (general)), EuropeThrace to the sources of the Tearus river, where he camped for three days.
The Tearus is said by those living on it to be the best river of all for purposes of healing, especially for healing mange in men and horses. Its springs are thirty-eight in number, some cold and some hot, all flowing from the same rock.
There are two roads to the place, one from the town of Heraeum near Perinthus, one from +Apollonia [14.5833,38.0167] (Perseus) Apollonia on the Black Sea [38,42] (sea)Euxine sea; each is a two days' journey. This Tearus is a tributary of the Contadesdus river, and that of the Agrianes, and that of the +Maritsa [26.2,40.866] (river), Europe Hebrus, which empties into the sea near the city of Enez [26.83,40.733] (inhabited place), Edirne, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaAenus.
Having come to this river and camped there, then, Darius was pleased with the sight of it, and set up yet another pillar there, cut with this inscription:
“From the headwaters of the river Tearus flows the best and finest water of all; and to them came, leading an army against the Scythians, the best and finest man of all, Darius son of Hystaspes, king of Iran [53,32] (nation), AsiaPersia and all the continent.” Such was the inscription.
From there, Darius set out and came to another river called Artescus, which flows through the country of the Odrysae; and having reached this river, he pointed out a spot to the army, and told every man to lay one stone as he passed in this spot that he pointed out. After his army did this, he led it away, leaving behind there great piles of stones.
But before he came to the Ister, he first took the Getae, who pretend to be immortal. The Thracians of Salmydessus and of the country above the towns of +Apollonia [14.5833,38.0167] (Perseus) Apollonia and Mesambria, who are called Cyrmianae and Nipsaei, surrendered without a fight to Darius; but the Getae resisted stubbornly, and were enslaved at once, the bravest and most just Thracians of all.
Their belief in their immortality is as follows: they believe that they do not die, but that one who perishes goes to the deity Salmoxis, or Gebeleïzis, as some of them call him.
Once every five years they choose one of their people by lot and send him as a messenger to Salmoxis, with instructions to report their needs; and this is how they send him: three lances are held by designated men; others seize the messenger to Salmoxis by his hands and feet, and swing and toss him up on to the spear-points.
If he is killed by the toss, they believe that the god regards them with favor; but if he is not killed, they blame the messenger himself, considering him a bad man, and send another messenger in place of him. It is while the man still lives that they give him the message.
Furthermore, when there is thunder and lightning these same Thracians shoot arrows skyward as a threat to the god, believing in no other god but their own.
I understand from the Greeks who live beside the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont and +Black Sea [38,42] (sea) Pontus, that this Salmoxis was a man who was once a slave in +Nisos Samos [26.8,37.75] (island), Samos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Samos, his master being Pythagoras son of Mnesarchus;
then, after being freed and gaining great wealth, he returned to his own country. Now the Thracians were a poor and backward people, but this Salmoxis knew Ionian ways and a more advanced way of life than the Thracian; for he had consorted with Greeks, and moreover with one of the greatest Greek teachers, Pythagoras;
therefore he made a hall, where he entertained and fed the leaders among his countrymen, and taught them that neither he nor his guests nor any of their descendants would ever die, but that they would go to a place where they would live forever and have all good things.
While he was doing as I have said and teaching this doctrine, he was meanwhile making an underground chamber. When this was finished, he vanished from the sight of the Thracians, and went down into the underground chamber, where he lived for three years,
while the Thracians wished him back and mourned him for dead; then in the fourth year he appeared to the Thracians, and thus they came to believe what Salmoxis had told them. Such is the Greek story about him.
Now I neither disbelieve nor entirely believe the tale about Salmoxis and his underground chamber; but I think that he lived many years before Pythagoras;
and as to whether there was a man called Salmoxis or this is some deity native to the Getae, let the question be dismissed.
Such were the ways of the Getae, who were subdued by the Persians and followed their army. When Darius and the land army with him had come to the Ister, and all had crossed, he had the Ionians break the bridge and follow him in his march across the mainland, together with the men of the fleet.
So the Ionians were preparing to break the bridge and do Darius' bidding; but Cöes son of Erxander, the general of the Mytilenaeans, after first asking if Darius were willing to listen to advice from one who wanted to give it, said,
“Since, O King, you are about to march against a country where you will not find tilled lands or inhabited cities, let this bridge stay where it is, leaving those who made it to guard it.
Thus, if we find the Scythians and do what we want, we have a way of return; and even if we do not find them, at least our way back is safe; for my fear has never been that we shall be overcome by the Scythians in the field, but rather that we may not be able to find them, and so go astray to our harm.
Now it may perhaps be said that I say this for my own sake, because I want to remain behind; but it is not so; I only declare publicly the opinion that I think best for you, and I will follow you and do not want to be left here.”
Darius was very pleased with this advice, and he answered Cöes thus: “My friend from +Lesbos [26.333,39.166] (island), Lesvos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Lesbos, do not fail to show yourself to me when I return to my house safe, so that I may make you a good return for your good advice.”
After saying this, he tied sixty knots in a thong, and summoning the Ionian sovereigns to an audience said to them:
“Gentlemen of Ionia (region (general)), Europe Ionia, I take back the decision which I delivered before about the bridge; now, take this thong and do as follows. Begin to reckon from the day when you see me march away against the Scythians, and untie one knot each day: and if the days marked by the knots have all passed and I have not returned, embark for your own homes.
But until then, since the plan is changed, guard the bridge, making every effort to keep and watch it. You will please me very much if you do this.” Having said this, Darius hastened to march further.
Thrace (region (general)), EuropeThrace runs farther out into the sea than Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia; and Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia begins where a bay is formed in its coast, and the mouth of the Ister, facing southeast, is in that country.
Now I am going to describe the coast of the true Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia from the Ister, and give its measurements. The ancient Scythian land begins at the Ister and faces south and the south wind, as far as the city called Carcinitis.
Beyond this place, the country fronting the same sea is hilly and projects into the +Black Sea [38,42] (sea) Pontus; it is inhabited by the Tauric nation as far as what is called the Rough Peninsula; and this ends in the eastern sea.Here = the Sea of +Azov [39.433,47.1] (inhabited place), Rostov, Rossiya, Russia, Asia Azov.
For the sea to the south and the sea to the east are two of the four boundary lines of Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia, just as seas are boundaries of Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica; and the Tauri inhabit a part of Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia like Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica, as though some other people, not Attic, were to inhabit the heights of Sunium from Thoricus to the town of Anaphlystus, if Sunium jutted farther out into the sea.
I mean, so to speak, to compare small things with great. Such a land is the Tauric country. But those who have not sailed along that part of Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica may understand from this other analogy: it is as though in +Calabria [16.5,39] (region), Italy, Europe Calabria some other people, not Calabrian, were to live on the promontory within a line drawn from the harbor of +Brindisi [17.95,40.616] (inhabited place), Brindisi, Apulia, Italy, Europe Brundisium to +Taranto [17.216,40.466] (inhabited place), Taranto, Apulia, Italy, Europe Tarentum. I am speaking of these two countries, but there are many others of a similar kind that +Crimea (region (general)), Krym, Ukraine, Europe Tauris resembles.All this is no more than to say that the Tauri live on a promontory (the Tauric Chersonese), which is like the south-eastern promontory of Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica (Sunium) or the “heel” of Italy [12.833,42.833] (nation), Europe Italy, i.e. the country east of a line drawn between the modern +Brindisi [17.95,40.616] (inhabited place), Brindisi, Apulia, Italy, Europe Brindisi and +Taranto [17.216,40.466] (inhabited place), Taranto, Apulia, Italy, Europe Taranto. The only difference is, says Herodotus, that the Tauri inhabit a part of Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia yet are not Scythians, while the inhabitants of the Attic and Italian promontories are of the same stock as their neighbors.
Beyond the Tauric country the Scythians begin, living north of the Tauri and beside the eastern sea, west of the Kerchenskiy Proliv [36.650,45.250] (strait), EuropeCimmerian Bosporus and the Maeetian lake, as far as the +Azov [39.433,47.1] (inhabited place), Rostov, Rossiya, Russia, Asia Tanaïs river, which empties into the end of that lake.
Now it has been seen that on its northern and inland side, running from the Ister, Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia is bounded first by the Agathyrsi, next by the Neuri, next by the Man-eaters, and last by the Black-cloaks.
Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia, then, is a four-sided country, two of whose sides are coastline, the frontiers running inland and those that are by the sea making it a perfect square;
for it is a ten days' journey from the Ister to the +Dnepr (river), Europe Borysthenes, and the same from the +Dnepr (river), Europe Borysthenes to the Maeetian lake; and it is a twenty days' journey from the sea inland to the country of the Black-cloaks who live north of Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia.