Book 6
But when the Aeginetans were about to carry Leutychides away, a man of repute at Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta, Theasides son of Leoprepes, said to them, “Men of +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina, what are you planning to do? To have the king of the Spartans given up to you by the citizens and carry him away? If the Spartans have now so judged in their anger, see that they do not bring utter destruction upon your country if you do this.”
The Aeginetans heard this and refrained from carrying the king away, and made an agreement that Leutychides should go with them to Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens and restore the men to the Aeginetans.
When Leutychides came to Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens and demanded back the hostages, the Athenians were unwilling to give them back and made excuses, saying that two kings had given them the trust and they deemed it wrong to restore it to one without the other.
When the Athenians refused to give them back, Leutychides said to them: “Men of Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens, do whichever thing you desire. If you give them back, you do righteously; if you do not give them back, you do the opposite. But I want to tell you the story of what happened at Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta in the matter of a trust.
We Spartans say that three generations ago there was at Sparta [22.416,37.83] (inhabited place), Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece, Europe Lacedaemon one Glaucus, the son of Epicydes. We say that this man added to his other excellences a reputation for justice above all men who at that time dwelt in Sparta [22.416,37.83] (inhabited place), Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece, Europe Lacedaemon.
But we say that at the fitting time this befell him: There came to Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta a certain man of Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus, who desired to have a talk with Glaucus and made him this offer: ‘I am a Milesian, and I have come to have the benefit of your justice, Glaucus.
Since there is much talk about your justice throughout all the rest of Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas, and even in Ionia (region (general)), Europe Ionia, I considered the fact that Ionia (region (general)), Europe Ionia is always in danger while the +Peloponnese [22,37.5] (region), Greece, Europe Peloponnese is securely established, and nowhere in Ionia (region (general)), Europe Ionia are the same men seen continuing in possession of wealth.
Considering and taking counsel concerning these matters, I resolved to turn half of my property into silver and deposit it with you, being well assured that it will lie safe for me in your keeping. Accept the money for me, and take and keep these tokens; restore the money to whoever comes with the same tokens and demands it back.’
Thus spoke the stranger who had come from Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus, and Glaucus received the trust according to the agreement. After a long time had passed, the sons of the man who had deposited the money came to Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta; they spoke with Glaucus, showing him the tokens and demanding the money back.
But Glaucus put them off and answered in turn: ‘I do not remember the matter, and nothing of what you say carries my mind back. Let me think; I wish to do all that is just. If I took the money, I will duly restore it; if I never took it at all, I will deal with you according to the customs of the Greeks. I will put off making my decision for you until the fourth month from this day.’
So the Milesians went away in sorrow, as men robbed of their possessions; but Glaucus journeyed to Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi to question the oracle. When he asked the oracle whether he should seize the money under oath, the Pythian priestess threatened him in these verses:
Glaucus son of Epicydes, it is more profitable now To prevail by your oath and seize the money. Swear, for death awaits even the man who swears true. But Oath has a son, nameless; he is without hands Or feet, but he pursues swiftly, until he catches And destroys all the family and the entire house. The line of a man who swears true is better later on. When Glaucus heard this, he entreated the god to pardon him for what he had said. The priestess answered that to tempt the god and to do the deed had the same effect.
So Glaucus summoned the Milesian strangers and gave them back their money. But hear now, Athenians, why I began to tell you this story: there is today no descendant of Glaucus, nor any household that bears Glaucus' name; he has been utterly rooted out of Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta. So good is it not even to think anything concerning a trust except giving it back on demand!”
Thus spoke Leutychides; but even so the Athenians would not listen to him, and he departed. The Aeginetans, before paying the penalty for the violence they had done to the Athenians to please the Thebans, acted as follows: blaming the Athenians and deeming themselves wronged, they prepared to take vengeance on the Athenians, who were now celebrating a quinquennial festival at Sunium. The Aeginetans set an ambush and captured the sacred ship, with many leading Athenians on board, and put in prison the men they seized.
Suffering this from the Aeginetans, the Athenians no longer put off devising all mischief against +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina. There was a notable man in +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina, Nicodromus son of Cnoethus by name, who held a grudge against the Aeginetans for his former banishment from the island. When he learned that the Athenians were now set upon harming the Aeginetans, he agreed to betray +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina to the Athenians, naming the day when he would make the attempt and when they must come to aid him.
Later Nicodromus, according to his agreement with the Athenians, took possession of the Old City, as it was called; but the Athenians were not there at the right time, for they did not have ships worthy to fight the Aeginetans. While they were asking the Corinthians to lend them ships, the affair was ruined. The Corinthians at that time were their close friends, so they consented to the Athenians' plea and gave them twenty ships, at a price of five drachmas apiece; by their law they could not make a free gift of them. Taking these ships and their own, the Athenians manned seventy in all and sailed for +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina, but they came a day later than the time agreed.
When the Athenians did not show up at the right time, Nicodromus took ship and escaped from +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina. Other Aeginetans followed him, and the Athenians gave them Sunium to dwell in; setting out from there they harried the Aeginetans of the island.
But this happened later.That is, it was done between 490 and 480. The rich men of +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina gained mastery over the people, who had risen against them with Nicodromus, then made them captive and led them out to be killed. Because of this a curse fell upon them, which despite all their efforts they could not get rid of by sacrifice, and they were driven out of their island before the goddess would be merciful to them.
They had taken seven hundred of the people alive; as they led these out for slaughter one of them escaped from his bonds and fled to the temple gate of Demeter the Lawgiver, where he laid hold of the door-handles and clung to them. They could not tear him away by force, so they cut off his hands and carried him off, and those hands were left clinging fast to the door-handles.
Thus the Aeginetans dealt with each other. When the Athenians came, they fought them at sea with seventy ships; the Aeginetans were defeated in the sea-fight and asked for help from the Argives, as they had done before. But this time the Argives would not aid them, holding a grudge because ships of +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina had been taken by force by Cleomenes and put in on the +Nomos Argolidhos [22.833,37.666] (department), Peloponnese, Greece, Europe Argolid coast, where their crews landed with the Lacedaemonians; men from ships of Sikyon [22.725,37.9833] (Perseus)Sicyon also took part in the same invasion.
The Argives laid on them the payment of a fine of a thousand talents, five hundred each. The Sicyonians confessed that they had done wrong and agreed to go free with a payment of a hundred talents, but the Aeginetans made no such confession and remained stubborn. For this cause the Argive state sent no one to aid them at their request, but about a thousand came voluntarily, led by a captain whose name was Eurybates, a man who practiced the pentathlon.The ‘Pentathlon’ consisted of jumping, discus-throwing, spear-throwing, running, and wrestling.
Most of these never returned, meeting their death at the hands of the Athenians in +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina; Eurybates himself, their captain, fought in single combat and thus killed three men, but was slain by the fourth, Sophanes the son of Deceles.
The Aeginetan ships found the Athenians in disarray and attacked and overcame them, taking four Athenian ships and their crews.
Thus Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens and +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina grappled together in war. The Persian was going about his own business, for his servant was constantly reminding him to remember the Athenians,Cp. Hdt. 5.105. and the Pisistratidae were at his elbow maligning the Athenians; moreover, Darius desired to take this pretext for subduing all the men of Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas who had not given him earth and water.
He dismissed from command Mardonius, who had fared so badly on his expedition, and appointed other generals to lead his armies against Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens and +Eretria [23.8083,38.3917] (Perseus) Eretria, Datis, a Mede by birth, and his own nephew Artaphrenes son of Artaphrenes; the order he gave them at their departure was to enslave Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens and +Eretria [23.8083,38.3917] (Perseus) Eretria and bring the slaves into his presence.
When these appointed generals on their way from the king reached the Aleian plain in Cilicia [34.333,36.666] (region (general)), Turkey, AsiaCilicia, bringing with them a great and well-furnished army, they camped there and were overtaken by all the fleet that was assigned to each; there also arrived the transports for horses, which in the previous year Darius had bidden his tributary subjects to make ready.
Having loaded the horses into these, and embarked the land army in the ships, they sailed to Ionia (region (general)), Europe Ionia with six hundred triremes. From there they held their course not by the mainland and straight towards the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont and Thrace (region (general)), EuropeThrace, but setting forth from +Nisos Samos [26.8,37.75] (island), Samos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Samos they sailed by the Icarian sea and from island to island; this, to my thinking, was because they feared above all the voyage around +Mount Athos [24.316,40.166] (inhabited place), Pangaion Oros, Macedonia, Greece, Europe Athos, seeing that in the previous year they had come to great disaster by holding their course that way; moreover, +Nisos Naxos [25.583,32.33] (island), Cyclades, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Naxos was still unconquered and constrained them.
When they approached +Naxos [15.283,37.816] (deserted settlement), Messina, Sicily, Italy, Europe Naxos from the Icarian sea and came to land (for it was +Naxos [15.283,37.816] (deserted settlement), Messina, Sicily, Italy, Europe Naxos which the Persians intended to attack first), the Naxians, remembering what had happened before,This probably refers to the Persian treatment of rebels, described in Hdt. 6.31 and 32. fled away to the mountains instead of waiting for them. The Persians enslaved all of them that they caught, and burnt their temples and their city. After doing this, they set sail for the other islands.
While they did this, the Delians also left Delos [25.2833,37.4] (Perseus)Delos and fled away to +Nisos Tinos [25.166,37.583] (island), Cyclades, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Tenos. As his expedition was sailing landwards, Datis went on ahead and bade his fleet anchor not off Delos [25.2833,37.4] (Perseus)Delos, but across the water off Rhenaea. Learning where the Delians were, he sent a herald to them with this proclamation:
“Holy men, why have you fled away, and so misjudged my intent? It is my own desire, and the king's command to me, to do no harm to the land where the two gods Apollo and Artemis. were born, neither to the land itself nor to its inhabitants. So return now to your homes and dwell on your island.” He made this proclamation to the Delians, and then piled up three hundred talents of frankincense on the altar and burnt it.
After doing this, Datis sailed with his army against +Eretria [23.8083,38.3917] (Perseus) Eretria first, taking with him Ionians and Aeolians; and after he had put out from there, Delos [25.2833,37.4] (Perseus)Delos was shaken by an earthquake, the first and last, as the Delians say, before my time. This portent was sent by heaven, as I suppose, to be an omen of the ills that were coming on the world.
For in three generations, that is, in the time of Darius son of Hystaspes and Xerxes son of Darius and Artaxerxes son of Xerxes,522-424. more ills happened to Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas than in twenty generations before Darius; some coming from the Persians, some from the wars for preeminence among the chief of the nations themselves.
Thus it was no marvel that there should be an earthquake in Delos [25.2833,37.4] (Perseus)Delos when there had been none before. Also there was an oracle concerning Delos [25.2833,37.4] (Perseus)Delos, where it was written: I will shake Delos [25.2833,37.4] (Perseus)Delos, though unshaken before. In the Greek language these names have the following meanings: Darius is the Doer, Xerxes the Warrior, Artaxerxes the Great Warrior. The Greeks would rightly call the kings thus in their language.
Launching out to sea from Delos [25.2833,37.4] (Perseus)Delos, the foreigners put in at the islands and gathered an army from there, taking the sons of the islanders for hostages.
When in their voyage about the islands they put in at Carystos, the Carystians gave them no hostages and refused to join them against neighboring cities, meaning +Eretria [23.8083,38.3917] (Perseus) Eretria and Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens; the Persians besieged them and laid waste their land, until the Carystians too came over to their side.
When the Eretrians learned that the Persian expedition was sailing to attack them, they asked for help from the Athenians. The Athenians did not refuse the aid, but gave them for defenders the four thousand tenant farmers who held the land of the Chalcidian horse-breeders.Cp. Hdt. 5.77. But it seems that all the plans of the Eretrians were unsound; they sent to the Athenians for aid, but their counsels were divided.
Some of them planned to leave the city and make for the heights of +Euboea [23.833,38.566] (island), Nomos Evvoias, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Euboea; others plotted treason in hope of winning advantages from the Persians.
When Aeschines son of Nothon, a leading man in +Eretria [23.8083,38.3917] (Perseus) Eretria, learned of both designs, he told the Athenians who had come how matters stood, and asked them to depart to their own country so they would not perish like the rest. The Athenians followed Aeschines' advice.
So they saved themselves by crossing over to Oropus; the Persians sailed holding their course for Temenos and Choereae and Aegilea, all in Eretrian territory. Landing at these places, they immediately unloaded their horses and made preparation to attack their enemies.
The Eretrians had no intention of coming out and fighting; all their care was to guard their walls if they could, since it was the prevailing counsel not to leave the city. The walls were strongly attacked, and for six days many fell on both sides; but on the seventh two Eretrians of repute, Euphorbus son of Alcimachus and Philagrus son of Cineas, betrayed the city to the Persians.