Kitap 5
Those Persians whom Darius had left in Europe (continent)Europe under the command of Megabazus, finding the Perinthians unwilling to be Darius' subjects, subdued them before any others of the people of the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont. These Perinthians had already been roughly handled by the Paeonians.
For the oracle of the god ordered the Paeonians from the Strymon to march against Perinthus, and if the Perinthians, who were encamped opposite them, should call to them, crying out their name, then to attack them. If, however, there were no such call, they were not to attack. The Paeonians acted accordingly. When the Perinthians set up camp in front of their city, the armies then challenged each other to a threefold duel, in which man was matched against man, horse against horse, and dog against dog.
The Perinthians were victorious in two of the combats and raised the cry of “Paean” in their joy. The Paeonians reasoned that this was what the oracle had spoken of and must have said to each other, “This is surely the fulfillment of the prophecy; now it is time for us to act.” Accordingly, the Paeonians set upon the Perinthians and won a great victory, leaving few of their enemies alive.
This, then, is what the Perinthians had previously suffered at the hands of the Paeonians. Now they fought like brave men for their liberty, but Megabazus and the Persians overcame them by weight of numbers.
When Perinthus had been taken, Megabazus marched his army through Thrace (region (general)), EuropeThrace, subduing to the king's will every city and every people of that region. For this, the conquest of Thrace (region (general)), EuropeThrace, was the charge given him by Darius.
The Thracians are the biggest nation in the world, next to the Indians. If they were under one ruler, or united, they would, in my judgment, be invincible and the strongest nation on earth. Since, however, there is no way or means to bring this about, they are weak.
The Thracians have many names, each tribe according to its region, but they are very similar in all their customs, save the Getae, the Trausi, and those who dwell above the Crestonaeans.
As for the Getae, who claim to be immortal, I have already given an account of their practices. Hdt. 4.94 The Trausi, who in all else conform to the customs of other Thracians, do as I will show at the times of birth and death.
When a child is born, the kinsmen sit around it and lament all the ills that it must endure from its birth onward, recounting all the sorrows of men. The dead, however, they bury with celebration and gladness, asserting that he is rid of so many ills and has achieved a state of complete blessedness.
Those who dwell above the Crestonaeans have yet other practices. Each man has many wives, and at his death there is both great rivalry among his wives and eager contention on their friends' part to prove which wife was best loved by her husband. She to whom the honor is adjudged is praised by men and women alike and then slain over the tomb by her nearest of kin. After the slaying she is buried with the husband. The rest of the wives are greatly displeased by this, believing themselves to be deeply dishonored.
Among the rest of the Thracians, it is the custom to sell their children for export and to take no care of their maidens, allowing them to have intercourse with any man they wish. Their wives, however, they strictly guard, and buy them for a price from the parents.
To be tattooed is a sign of noble birth, while to bear no such marks is for the baser sort. The idler is most honored, the tiller of the soil most scorned; he is held in highest honor who lives by war and robbery.
These are most notable of their usages. They worship no gods but Ares, Dionysus, and Artemis. Herodotus as usual identifies foreign with Greek deities: v. How and Wells ad loc. Their princes, however, unlike the rest of their countrymen, worship Hermes above all gods and swear only by him, claiming him for their ancestor.
The wealthy have the following funeral practices. First they lay out the dead for three days, and after killing all kinds of victims and making lamentation, they feast. After that they do away with the body either by fire or else by burial in the earth, and when they have built a barrow, they initiate all kinds of contests, in which the greatest prizes are offered for the hardest type of single combat. Such are the Thracian funeral rites.
As for the region which lies north of this country, none can tell with certainty what men dwell there, but what lies beyond the Ister is a desolate and infinitely large tract of land. I can learn of no men dwelling beyond the Ister save certain that are called Sigynnae and wear Median dress.
Their horses are said to be covered all over with shaggy hair Strabo says much the same of the Sigynni, according to him a Caucasian tribe. five fingers' breadth long, and to be small, blunt-nosed, and unable to bear men on their backs, but very swift when yoked to chariots. It is for this reason that driving chariots is the usage of the country. These men's borders, it is said, reach almost as far as the Eneti on the +Adriatic Sea [16,43] (sea), Europe Adriatic Sea.
They call themselves colonists from Media. How this has come about I myself cannot understand, but all is possible in the long passage of time. However that may be, we know that the Ligyes who dwell inland of +Marseilles [5.366,43.3] (inhabited place), Bouches-du-Rhone, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, France, Europe Massalia use the word “sigynnae” for hucksters, and the Cyprians use it for spears.
According to the Thracians, all the land beyond the Ister is full of bees, and that by reason of these none can travel there. This, to my mind, is not a credible tale, for those creatures are ill able to bear cold. It appears to me rather that it is by reason of the cold that the northern lands are not inhabited. Such, then, are the stories about this region. Whatever the truth may be, Megabazus made its coastal area subject to the Persians.
As soon as Darius had crossed the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont and come to Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis,Cp. Hdt. 4.143. he remembered the good service done him by Histiaeus of Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus and the counsel of Coes the Mytilenaean, and after sending for them to come to Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis, he offered them a choice of whatever they wanted.
Histiaeus, seeing that he was tyrant of Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus, desired no further sovereignty than that, but asked for Myrcinus A district rich in timber and precious metals; cp. Hdt. 5.23. in the Edonian land so that he might build a city there. This, then, was Histiaeus' choice, but Coes, inasmuch as he was no tyrant but a plain citizen, asked that he might be made tyrant of Mytilene [26.55,39.1] (Perseus) Mytilene.
When the wishes of each had been granted, they made their way to the places of their choice, but Darius, as it fell out, saw a sight which put it in his mind to bid Megabazus take the Paeonians and take them from their homes out of Europe (continent)Europe into Asia (continent)Asia. There were two Paeonians, Pigres and Mantyes, who themselves desired to be rulers of their countrymen. When Darius had crossed into Asia (continent)Asia, they came to Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis, bringing with them their sister, a tall and beautiful woman.
There, waiting till Darius should be sitting in state in the suburb of the Lydian city, they put on their sister the best adornment they had, and sent her to draw water, bearing a vessel on her head, leading a horse by the bridle and spinning flax at the same time.
Darius took note of the woman as she passed by him, for what she did was not in the manner of the Persians or Lydians or any of the peoples of Asia (continent)Asia. Having taken note of this, he sent some of his guards, bidding them watch what the woman would do with the horse.
They, accordingly, followed behind her, and she, coming to the river, watered the horse. When she had done this and had filled her vessel with water, she passed back again by the same way, bearing the water on her head, leading the horse on her arm, and plying her distaff.
Marvelling at what he heard from his watchers and what he saw for himself, Darius bade the woman be brought before him. When she had been brought, her brothers, who watched all this from a place nearby, came too. Darius asked of what nation she was, and the young man told him that they were Paeonians and that she was their sister.
“But who,” he answered, “are the Paeonians, and where do they dwell, and with what intent have you come to Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis?” They told him, that they had come to be his men, that the towns of Paeonia lay on the Strymon, a river not far from the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont, and that they were colonists from the Teucrians of +Troy [26.2833,39.9167] (Perseus) Troy.
So they told him all this, and the king asked them if all the women of their country were so industrious. To this too they very readily answered (for it was for this very purpose that they had come), that it was indeed so.
Then Darius wrote a letter to Megabazus, whom he had left as his general in Thrace (region (general)), EuropeThrace, bidding him take the Paeonians from their houses, and bring them to him, men, women, and children.
Immediately a horseman sped with this message to the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont, and upon crossing it, gave the letter to Megabazus, who, after reading it, took guides from Thrace (region (general)), EuropeThrace and led his army to Paeonia.
When the Paeonians learned that the Persians were coming against them, they gathered together and marched away to the sea, thinking that the Persians would attempt to attack them by that way.
So the Paeonians were ready to withstand the onset of Megabazus' army, but the Persians, learning that the Paeonians had gathered their forces and were guarding the coast route into their country, got guides and marched instead by the highland road. They accordingly took the Paeonians unaware and won entrance into their cities, which were left without men, and finding these empty at their attack, they easily gained them.
The Paeonians, learning that their towns had been taken, straightway disbanded, each going his own way, and surrendered themselves to the Persians. Thus of the Paeonians the Siriopaeones and Paeoplae and all who lived as far as the Prasiad lake were taken away from their homes and led into Asia (continent)Asia.
But those near the PangaeanEast of the Strymon. mountains and the country of the Doberes and the Agrianes and the Odomanti and the Prasiad lake itself were never subdued at all by Megabazus. He did in fact try to take the lake-dwellersDwellings of a similar kind have been found in North Italy [12.833,42.833] (nation), Europe Italy, +Ireland (island), British Isles, Europe Ireland, and other parts of Western Europe (continent)Europe. and did so in the following manner. There is set in the midst of the lake a platform made fast on tall piles, to which one bridge gives a narrow passage from the land.
In olden times all the people working together set the piles which support the platform there, but they later developed another method of setting them. The men bring the piles from a mountain called Orbelus,Between the Strymon and the Nestus. and every man plants three for each of the three women that he weds.
Each man has both a hut on the platform and a trap-door in the platform leading down into the lake. They make a cord fast to the feet of their little children out of fear that they will fall into the water.
They give fish as fodder to their horses and beasts of burden, and there is such an abundance of fish that a man can open his trap-door, let down an empty basket by a line into the lake, and draw it up after a short time full of fish. There are two kinds of these, some called “paprakes,” some “tilones.”
So those of the Paeonians who had been captured were taken into Asia (continent)Asia. Then Megabazus, having made the Paeonians captive, sent as messengers into Macedonia (region (general)), EuropeMacedonia i.e. the country as extended by Alexander I east of the +Vardar [22.833,40.583] (river), Europe Axius to the Strymon. the seven Persians who (after himself) were the most honorable in his army. These were sent to Amyntas to demand earth and water for Darius the king.
Now there is a very straight way from the Prasiad lake to Macedonia (region (general)), EuropeMacedonia. First there is near the lake that mine from which Alexander later drew a daily revenue of a talent of silver, and when a person has passed the mine, he need only cross the mountain called Dysorum Apparently not far from the lower Strymon. to be in Macedonia (region (general)), EuropeMacedonia.
The Persians who had been sent as envoys came to Amyntas and demanded earth and water for Darius the king. He readily gave to them what they asked and invited them to be his guests, preparing a dinner of great splendor and receiving them hospitably.
After dinner, the Persians said to Amyntas as they sat drinking together, “Macedonian, our host, it is our custom in Iran [53,32] (nation), AsiaPersia to bring in also the concubines and wedded wives to sit by the men after the giving of any great banquet. We ask you, then, (since you have received us heartily, are entertaining us nobly and are giving Darius our king earth and water) to follow our custom.”