Kitap 3
Some say that these Samians who were sent never came to Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , but that when they had sailed as far as +Carpathos [27.166,35.666] (island), Sporades, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Carpathus discussed the matter among themselves and decided to sail no further; others say that they did come to Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt and there escaped from the guard that was set over them.
But as they sailed back to +Nisos Samos [26.8,37.75] (island), Samos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Samos , Polycrates' ships met and engaged them; and the returning Samians were victorious and landed on the island, but were there beaten in a land battle, and so sailed to Sparta [22.416,37.83] (inhabited place), Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece, Europe Lacedaemon .
There are those who say that the Samians from Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt defeated Polycrates; but to my thinking this is untrue; for they need not have invited the Lacedaemonians if in fact they had been able to master Polycrates by themselves. Besides, it is not even reasonable to suppose that he, who had a great army of hired soldiers and bowmen of his own, was beaten by a few men like the returning Samians.
Polycrates took the children and wives of the townsmen who were subject to him and shut them up in the boathouses, with intent to burn them and the boathouses too if their men should desert to the returned Samians.
When the Samians who were expelled by Polycrates came to Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta , they came before the ruling men and made a long speech to show the greatness of their need. But the Spartans at their first sitting answered that they had forgotten the beginning of the speech and could not understand its end.
After this the Samians came a second time with a sack, and said nothing but this: “The sack wants flour.” To this the Spartans replied that they were over-wordy with “the sack”;It would have been enough (the Lacedaemonians meant) to say ἀλφίτων δέεται, without using the word θύλακος. but they did resolve to help them.
The Lacedaemonians then equipped and sent an army to +Nisos Samos [26.8,37.75] (island), Samos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Samos , returning a favor, as the Samians say, because they first sent a fleet to help the Lacedaemonians against +Nomos Messinias [21.833,37.25] (department), Peloponnese, Greece, Europe Messenia ; but the Lacedaemonians say that they sent this army less to aid the Samians in their need than to avenge the robbery of the bowl which they had been carrying to Croesus and the breastplate which Amasis King of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt had sent them as a gift.
This breastplate had been stolen by the Samians in the year before they took the bowl; it was of linen, decked with gold and cotton embroidery, and embroidered with many figures;
but what makes it worthy of wonder is that each thread of the breastplate, fine as each is, is made up of three hundred and sixty strands, each plainly seen. It is the exact counterpart of that one which Amasis dedicated to Athena in Lindos [28.1083,36.0833] (Perseus) Lindus .
The Corinthians also enthusiastically helped to further the expedition against Nisos Samos [26.8,37.75] (island), Samos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Samos . For an outrage had been done them by the Samians a generation before this expedition, about the time of the robbery of the bowl.
Periander son of Cypselus sent to Alyattes at Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis three hundred boys, sons of notable men in +Corfu [19.916,39.633] (inhabited place), Corfu, Kerkira, Ionian Islands, Greece, Europe Corcyra , to be made eunuchs. The Corinthians who brought the boys put in at Nisos Samos [26.8,37.75] (island), Samos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Samos ; and when the Samians heard why the boys were brought, first they instructed them to take sanctuary in the temple of Artemis,
then they would not allow the suppliants to be dragged from the temple; and when the Corinthians tried to starve the boys out, the Samians held a festival which they still celebrate in the same fashion; throughout the time that the boys were seeking asylum, they held nightly dances of young men and women to which it was made a custom to bring cakes of sesame and honey, so that the Corcyraean boys might snatch these and have food.
This continued to be done until the Corinthian guards left their charge and departed; then the Samians took the boys back to +Corfu [19.916,39.633] (inhabited place), Corfu, Kerkira, Ionian Islands, Greece, Europe Corcyra .
If after the death of Periander, the Corinthians had been friendly towards the Corcyraeans, they would not have taken part in the expedition against Nisos Samos [26.8,37.75] (island), Samos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Samos for this reason. But as it was, ever since the island was colonized, they have been at odds with each other, despite their kinship.
For these reasons then the Corinthians bore a grudge against the Samians. Periander chose the sons of the notable Corcyraeans and sent them to Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis to be made eunuchs as an act of vengeance; for the Corcyraeans had first begun the quarrel by committing a terrible crime against him.
For after killing his own wife +Melissa [17.0333,39.3] (Perseus) Melissa , Periander suffered yet another calamity on top of what he had already suffered. He had two sons by +Melissa [17.0333,39.3] (Perseus) Melissa , one seventeen and one eighteen years old.
Their mother's father, Procles, the sovereign of Epidauros [23.0917,37.6] (Perseus) Epidaurus , sent for the boys and treated them affectionately, as was natural, seeing that they were his own daughter's sons. When they left him, he said as he sent them forth:
“Do you know, boys, who killed your mother?” The elder of them paid no attention to these words; but the younger, whose name was Lycophron, was struck with such horror when he heard them that when he came to Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth he would not speak to his father, his mother's murderer, nor would he answer him when addressed nor reply to his questions. At last Periander was so angry that he drove the boy from his house.
Having driven this one away, he asked the elder son what their grandfather had said to them. The boy told him that Procles had treated them kindly, but did not mention what he had said at parting; for he had paid no attention. Periander said that by no means could Procles not have dropped some hint, and interrogated him persistently;
until the boy remembered, and told him. And Periander, comprehending, and wishing to show no weakness, sent a message to those with whom his banished son was living and forbade them to keep him.
So when the boy, driven out, would go to another house, he would be driven from this also, since Periander threatened all who received him and ordered them to shut him out; so when driven forth, he would go to some other house of his friends, and they, although he was the son of Periander, and although they were afraid, nonetheless took him in.
In the end Periander made a proclamation, that whoever sheltered the boy in his house or spoke to him, would owe a fine to Apollo, and he set the amount.
In view of this proclamation no one wished to address or receive the boy into his house; and besides, the boy himself did not think it right to attempt what was forbidden, but accepting it slept in the open.
On the fourth day, when Periander saw him starved and unwashed, he took pity on him, and his anger being softened, he came near and said: “My son, which is preferable—to follow your present way of life, or by being well-disposed toward your father to inherit my power and the goods which I now possess?
Though my son and a prince of prosperous Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth , you prefer the life of a vagrant, by opposing and being angry with me with whom you least ought to be. For if something has happened as a result of which you have a suspicion about me, it has happened to my disadvantage and I bear the brunt of it, inasmuch as I am the cause.
But bearing in mind how much better it is to be envied than to be pitied, and at the same time what sort of thing it is to be angry with your parents and with those that are stronger than you, come back to the house.”
With these words Periander tried to move his son, but he said nothing else to his father, only told him that because he had conversed with him he owed the fine to Apollo. When Periander saw that his son's stubbornness could not be got around or overcome, he sent him away out of his sight in a ship to +Corfu [19.916,39.633] (inhabited place), Corfu, Kerkira, Ionian Islands, Greece, Europe Corcyra ; for +Corfu [19.916,39.633] (inhabited place), Corfu, Kerkira, Ionian Islands, Greece, Europe Corcyra too was subject to him.
And when he had sent him away, he sent an army against Procles his father-in-law, since he was most to blame for his present troubles; and he took Epidauros [23.0917,37.6] (Perseus) Epidaurus , captured Procles, and imprisoned him.
As time went on, Periander, now grown past his prime and aware that he could no longer oversee and direct all his affairs, sent to +Corfu [19.916,39.633] (inhabited place), Corfu, Kerkira, Ionian Islands, Greece, Europe Corcyra inviting Lycophron to be sovereign; for he saw no hope in his eldest son, who seemed to him to be slow-witted.
Lycophron did not dignify the invitation with a reply. Then Periander, pressing the young man, sent to him (as the next best way) his daughter, the boy's sister, thinking that he would listen to her.
She came and said, “Child, would you want the power to fall to others, and our father's house destroyed, rather than to return and have it yourself? Come home and stop punishing yourself.
Pride is an unhappy possession. Do not cure evil by evil. Many place the more becoming thing before the just; and many pursuing their mother's business have lost their father's. Power is a slippery thing; many want it, and our father is now old and past his prime; do not lose what is yours to others.”
So she spoke communicating their father's inducements. But he answered that he would never come to Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth as long as he knew his father was alive.
When she brought this answer back, Periander sent a third messenger, through whom he proposed that he should go to +Corfu [19.916,39.633] (inhabited place), Corfu, Kerkira, Ionian Islands, Greece, Europe Corcyra , and that the boy should return to Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth and be the heir of his power.
The son consented to this; Periander got ready to go to +Corfu [19.916,39.633] (inhabited place), Corfu, Kerkira, Ionian Islands, Greece, Europe Corcyra and Lycophron to go to Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth ; but when the Corcyraeans learned of all these matters, they put the young man to death so that Periander would not come to their country. It was for this that Periander desired vengeance on the Corcyraeans.
The Lacedaemonians then came with a great army, and besieged +Nisos Samos [26.8,37.75] (island), Samos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Samos . They advanced to the wall and entered the tower that stands by the seaside in the outer part of the city; but then Polycrates himself attacked them with a great force and drove them out.
The mercenaries and many of the Samians themselves sallied out near the upper tower on the ridge of the hill and withstood the Lacedaemonian advance for a little while; then they fled back, with the Lacedaemonians pursuing and destroying them.
Had all the Lacedaemonians there that day been like Archias and Lycopas, +Nisos Samos [26.8,37.75] (island), Samos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Samos would have been taken. These two alone entered the fortress along with the fleeing crowd of Samians, and were cut off and killed in the city of +Nisos Samos [26.8,37.75] (island), Samos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Samos .
I myself have met in his native town of Pitana A part of the town of Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta ; Herodotus calls it by the Attic name of δῆμος; the Peloponnesian word would be κώμα. another Archias son of Samius, and grandson of the Archias mentioned above, who honored the Samians more than any other of his guest-friends, and told me that his father had borne the name Samius because he was the son of that Archias who was killed fighting bravely at +Nisos Samos [26.8,37.75] (island), Samos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Samos . The reason that he honored the Samians, he said, was that they had given his grandfather a public funeral.
So when the Lacedaemonians had besieged +Nisos Samos [26.8,37.75] (island), Samos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Samos for forty days with no success, they went away to the +Peloponnese [22,37.5] (region), Greece, Europe Peloponnesus .