Kitap 5
Moreover, they made a dedication of a tenth part of the ransom, and this money was used for the making of a four-horse chariot which stands on the left hand of the entrance into the outer porch of the acropolis andProbably in the open space in front of the old Propylon; there would not have been room for this monument in the new Propylaea, finished in 432 B.C. bears this inscription: Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens with +Chalcis [23.6083,38.4667] (Perseus) Chalcis and Boeotia (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Boeotia fought, Bound them in chains and brought their pride to naught. Prison was grief, and ransom cost them dear- One tenth to Pallas raised this chariot here.
So the Athenians grew in power and proved, not in one respect only but in all, that equality is a good thing. Evidence for this is the fact that while they were under tyrannical rulers, the Athenians were no better in war than any of their neighbors, yet once they got rid of their tyrants, they were by far the best of all. This, then, shows that while they were oppressed, they were, as men working for a master, cowardly, but when they were freed, each one was eager to achieve for himself.
This, then, is the course of action which the Athenians took, and the Thebans, desiring vengeance on Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens, afterwards appealed to Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi for advice. The Pythian priestess said that the Thebans themselves would not be able to obtain the vengeance they wanted and that they should lay the matter before the “many-voiced” and entreat their “nearest.”
Upon the return of the envoys, an assembly was called and the oracle put before it. When the Thebans heard that they must entreat their “nearest,” they said, “If this is so, our nearest neighbors are the men of +Tanagra [23.6,38.3083] (Perseus) Tanagra and +Koroneia (deserted settlement), Boeotia, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Coronea and +Thespiai [23.166,38.283] (inhabited place), Boeotia, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Thespiae. These are always our comrades in battle and zealously wage our wars. What need, then, is there to entreat them? Perhaps this is the meaning of the oracle.”
They reasoned in this way, till at last one understood, and said: “I think that I perceive what the oracle is trying to tell us. Thebe and Aegina, it is said, were daughters of Asopus and sisters. The god's answer is, I think, that we should ask the Aeginetans to be our avengers.”
Seeing that there seemed to be no better opinion before them than this, they sent straightaway to entreat the Aeginetans and invite their aid, since this was the oracle's bidding, and the Aeginetans were their nearest. These replied to their demand that they were sending the Sons of Aeacus in aid.
The Thebans took the field on the strength of their alliance with that family but were soundly beaten by the Athenians. Thereupon they sent a second message to +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina, giving back the sons of Aeacus and asking for some men instead.
The Aeginetans, who were enjoying great prosperity and remembered their old feud with Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens, accordingly made war on the Athenians at the entreaty of the Thebans without sending a herald.
While the Athenians were busy with the Boeotians, they descended on Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica in ships of war, and ravaged +Phaleron [23.7083,37.9333] (Perseus) Phaleron and many other seaboard townships. By so doing they dealt the Athenians a very shrewd blow.
This was the beginning of the Aeginetans' long-standing debt of enmity against the Athenians. The Epidaurians' land bore no produce. For this reason they inquired at Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi concerning this calamity, and the priestess bade them set up images of Damia and Auxesia,The name Damia is probably connected with δᾶ (=γῆ), Earth; Auxesia clearly with αὐξάνω. They were goddesses of increase and fertility. saying that if they so did their luck would be better. The Epidaurians then asked in addition whether they should make the images of bronze or of stone, and the priestess bade them do neither, but make them of the wood of the cultivated olive.
So the men of Epidauros [23.0917,37.6] (Perseus)Epidaurus asked the Athenians to permit them to cut down some olive trees, supposing the olives there to be the holiest. Indeed it is said that at that time there were no olives anywhere save at Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens.
The Athenians consented to give the trees, if the Epidaurians would pay yearly sacred dues to Athena, the city's goddess, and to Erechtheus. The Epidaurians agreed to this condition, and their request was granted. When they set up images made of these olive trees, their land brought forth fruit, and they fulfilled their agreement with the Athenians.
Now at this time, as before it, the Aeginetans were in all matters still subject to the Epidaurians and even crossed to Epidauros [23.0917,37.6] (Perseus)Epidaurus for the hearing of their own private lawsuits. From this time, however, they began to build ships, and stubbornly revolted from the Epidaurians.
In the course of this struggle, they did the Epidaurians much damage and stole their images of Damia and Auxesia. These they took away and set them up in the middle of their own country at a place called Oea, about twenty furlongs distant from their city.
Having set them up in this place they sought their favor with sacrifices and female choruses in the satirical and abusive mode. Ten men were appointed providers of a chorus for each of the deities, and the choruses aimed their raillery not at any men but at the women of the country. The Epidaurians too had the same rites, and they have certain secret rites as well.
When these images were stolen, the Epidaurians ceased from fulfilling their agreement with the Athenians. Then the Athenians sent an angry message to the Epidaurians who pleaded in turn that they were doing no wrong. “For as long,” they said, “as we had the images in our country, we fulfilled our agreement. Now that we are deprived of them, it is not just that we should still be paying. Ask your dues of the men of +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina, who have the images.”
The Athenians therefore sent to +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina and demanded that the images be restored, but the Aeginetans answered that they had nothing to do with the Athenians.
The Athenians report that after making this demand, they despatched one trireme with certain of their citizens who, coming in the name of the whole people to +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina, attempted to tear the images, as being made of Attic wood, from their bases so that they might carry them away.
When they could not obtain possession of them in this manner, they tied cords around the images with which they could be dragged. While they were attempting to drag them off, they were overtaken both by a thunderstorm and an earthquake. This drove the trireme's crew to such utter madness that they began to slay each other as if they were enemies. At last only one of all was left, who returned by himself to Phalerum.
This is the Athenian version of the matter, but the Aeginetans say that the Athenians came not in one ship only, for they could easily have kept off a single ship, or several, for that matter, even if they had no navy themselves. The truth was, they said, that the Athenians descended upon their coasts with many ships and that they yielded to them without making a fight of it at sea.
They are not able to determine clearly whether it was because they admitted to being weaker at sea-fighting that they yielded, or because they were planning what they then actually did.
When, as the Aeginetans say, no man came out to fight with them, the Athenians disembarked from their ships and turned their attention to the images. Unable to drag them from the bases, they fastened cords on them and dragged them until they both—this I cannot believe, but another might—fell on their knees. Both have remained in this position ever since.
This is what the Athenians did, but the Aeginetans say that they discovered that the Athenians were about to make war upon them and therefore assured themselves of help from the Argives. So when the Athenians disembarked on the land of +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina, the Argives came to aid the Aeginetans, crossing over from Epidauros [23.0917,37.6] (Perseus)Epidaurus to the island secretly. They then fell upon the Athenians unaware and cut them off from their ships. It was at this moment that the thunderstorm and earthquake came upon them
This, then, is the story told by the Argives and Aeginetans, and the Athenians too acknowledge that only one man of their number returned safely to Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica.
The Argives, however, say that he escaped after they had destroyed the rest of the Athenian force, while the Athenians claim that the whole thing was to be attributed to divine power. This one man did not survive but perished in the following manner. It would seem that he made his way to Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens and told of the mishap. When the wives of the men who had gone to attack +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina heard this, they were very angry that he alone should be safe. They gathered round him and stabbed him with the brooch-pins of their garments, each asking him where her husband was.
This is how this man met his end, and the Athenians found the action of their women to be more dreadful than their own misfortune. They could find, it is said, no other way to punish the women than changing their dress to the Ionian fashion. Until then the Athenian women had worn Dorian dress, which is very like the Corinthian. It was changed, therefore, to the linen tunic, so that they might have no brooch-pins to use.
The truth of the matter, however, is that this form of dress is not in its origin Ionian, but Carian, for in ancient times all women in Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeGreece wore the costume now known as Dorian.
As for the Argives and Aeginetans, this was the reason of their passing a law in both their countries that brooch-pins should be made half as long as they used to be and that brooches should be the principal things offered by women in the shrines of these two goddesses. Furthermore, nothing else Attic should be brought to the temple, not even pottery, and from that time on only drinking vessels made in the country should be used.
Ever since that day even to my time the women of Argos [22.7333,37.6417] (Perseus) Argos and +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina wore brooch-pins longer than before, by reason of the feud with the Athenians. The enmity of the Athenians against the Aeginetans began as I have told, and now at the Thebans' call the Aeginetans came readily to the aid of the Boeotians, remembering the matter of the images.
While the Aeginetans were laying waste to the seaboard of Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica, the Athenians were setting out to march against them, but an oracle from Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi came to them bidding them to restrain themselves for thirty years after the wrongdoing of the Aeginetans, and in the thirty-first to mark out a precinct for Aeacus and begin the war with +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina. In this way their purpose would prosper. If, however, they sent an army against their enemies straightaway, they would indeed subdue them in the end but would in the meantime both suffer and do many things.
When the Athenians heard this reported to them, they marked out for Aeacus that precinct which is now set in their marketplace, but they could not stomach the order that they must hold their hand for thirty years, seeing that the Aeginetans had dealt them a foul blow.
As they were making ready for vengeance, a matter which took its rise in Sparta [22.416,37.83] (inhabited place), Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece, Europe Lacedaemon hindered them, for when the Lacedaemonians learned of the plot of the Alcmaeonids with the Pythian priestessCp. Hdt. 5.63. and of her plot against themselves and the Pisistratidae, they were very angry for two reasons, namely that they had driven their own guests and friends from the country they dwelt in, and that the Athenians showed them no gratitude for their doing so.
Furthermore, they were spurred on by the oraclesThe Pisistratid family appears to have had a special knowledge of current oracles: cp. Hdt. 5.93, and Hdt. 7.6. which foretold that many deeds of enmity would be perpetrated against them by the Athenians. Previously they had had no knowledge of these oracles but now Cleomenes brought them to Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta, and the Lacedaemonians learned their contents. It was from the Athenian acropolis that Cleomenes took the oracles, which had been in the possession of the Pisistratidae earlier. When they were exiled, they left them in the temple from where they were retrieved by Cleomenes.
Now the Lacedaemonians, when they regained the oracles and saw the Athenians increasing in power and in no way inclined to obey them, realized that if the Athenians remained free, they would be equal in power with themselves, but that if they were held down under tyranny, they would be weak and ready to serve a master. Perceiving all this, they sent to bring Pisistratus' son Hippias from Sigeum on the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont, the Pisistratidae's place of refuge.
When Hippias arrived, the Spartans sent for envoys from the rest of their allies and spoke to them as follows: “Sirs, our allies, we do acknowledge that we have acted wrongly, for, led astray by lying divinations, we drove from their native land men who were our close friends and promised to make Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens subject to us. Then we handed that city over to a thankless people which had no sooner lifted up its head in the freedom which we gave it, than it insolently cast out us and our king. Now it has bred such a spirit of pride and is growing so much in power, that its neighbors in Boeotia (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Boeotia and +Chalcis [23.6083,38.4667] (Perseus) Chalcis have really noticed it, and others too will soon recognize their error.
Since we erred in doing what we did, we will now attempt with your aid to avenge ourselves on them. It is on this account and no other that we have sent for Hippias, whom you see, and have brought you from your cities, namely that uniting our counsels and our power, we may bring him to Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens and restore that which we took away.”
These were the words of the Lacedaemonians, but their words were ill-received by the greater part of their allies. The rest then keeping silence, Socles, a Corinthian, said,
“In truth heaven will be beneath the earth and the earth aloft above the heaven, and men will dwell in the sea and fishes where men dwelt before, now that you, Lacedaemonians, are destroying the rule of equals and making ready to bring back tyranny into the cities, tyranny, a thing more unrighteous and bloodthirsty than anything else on this earth.
If indeed it seems to you to be a good thing that the cities be ruled by tyrants, set up a tyrant among yourselves first and then seek to set up such for the rest. As it is, however, you, who have never made trial of tyrants and take the greatest precautions that none will arise at Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta, deal wrongfully with your allies. If you had such experience of that thing as we have, you would be more prudent advisers concerning it than you are now.”
The Corinthian state was ordered in such manner as I will show.There was an oligarchy, and this group of men, called the Bacchiadae, held sway in the city, marrying and giving in marriage among themselves. Now Amphion, one of these men, had a crippled daughter, whose name was Labda.Because (according to the Etymologicum Magnum) the “outward distortion of the feet” resembled the letter Λ. Since none of the Bacchiadae would marry her, she was wedded to Eetion son of Echecrates, of the township of +Petra [22.7083,39.4917] (Perseus) Petra, a Lapith by lineage and of the posterity of Caeneus.