Kitap 5
When no sons were born to him by this wife or any other, he set out to Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi to enquire concerning the matter of acquiring offspring. As soon as he entered, the Pythian priestess spoke these verses to him: Eetion,worthy of honor, no man honors you. Labda is with child, and her child will be a millstone Which will fall upon the rulers and will bring justice to Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth.
This oracle which was given to Eetion was in some way made known to the Bacchiadae. The earlier oracle sent to Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth had not been understood by them, despite the fact that its meaning was the same as the meaning of the oracle of Eetion, and it read as follows: An eagle in the rocks has conceived, and will bring forth a lion, Strong and fierce. The knees of many will it loose. This consider well, Corinthians, You who dwell by lovely Pirene and the overhanging heights of Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth.
This earlier prophecy had been unintelligible to the Bacchiadae, but as soon as they heard the one which was given to Eetion, they understood it at once, recognizing its similarity with the oracle of Eetion. Now understanding both oracles, they kept quiet but resolved to do away with the offspring of Eetion. Then, as soon as his wife had given birth, they sent ten men of their clan to the township where Eetion dwelt to kill the child.
These men came to +Petra [22.7083,39.4917] (Perseus) Petra and passing into Eetion's courtyard, asked for the child. Labda, knowing nothing of the purpose of their coming and thinking that they wished to see the baby out of affection for its father, brought it and placed it into the hands of one of them. Now they had planned on their way that the first of them who received the child should dash it to the ground.
When, however, Labda brought and handed over the child, by divine chance it smiled at the man who took it. This he saw, and compassion prevented him from killing it. Filled with pity, he handed it to a second, and this man again to a third.In fact it passed from hand to hand to each of the ten, for none would make an end of it.
They then gave the child back to its mother, and after going out, they stood before the door reproaching and upbraiding one another, but chiefly him who had first received it since he had not acted in accordance with their agreement. Finally they resolved to go in again and all have a hand in the killing.
Fate, however, had decreed that Eetion's offspring should be the source of ills for Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth, for Labda, standing close to this door, heard all this. Fearing that they would change their minds and that they would take and actually kill the child, she took it away and hid it where she thought it would be hardest to find, in a chest, for she knew that if they returned and set about searching they would seek in every place—which in fact they did.
They came and searched, but when they did not find it, they resolved to go off and say to those who had sent them that they had carried out their orders. They then went away and said this.
Eetion's son, however, grew up, and because of his escape from that danger, he was called Cypselus, after the chest. When he had reached manhood and was seeking a divination, an oracle of double meaning was given him at Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi. Putting faith in this, he made an attempt on Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth and won it.
The oracle was as follows: That man is fortunate who steps into my house, Cypselus, son of Eetion, the king of noble Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth, He himself and his children, but not the sons of his sons. Such was the oracle. Cypselus, however, when he had gained the tyranny, conducted himself in this way: many of the Corinthians he drove into exile, many he deprived of their wealth, and by far the most he had killed.
After a reign of thirty years,655 to 625. he died in the height of prosperity, and was succeeded by his son Periander. Now Periander was to begin with milder than his father, but after he had held converse by messenger with Thrasybulus the tyrant of Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus, he became much more bloodthirsty than Cypselus.
He had sent a herald to Thrasybulus and inquired in what way he would best and most safely govern his city. Thrasybulus led the man who had come from Periander outside the town, and entered into a sown field. As he walked through the corn, continually asking why the messenger had come to him from Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth, he kept cutting off all the tallest ears of wheat which he could see, and throwing them away, until he had destroyed the best and richest part of the crop.
Then, after passing through the place and speaking no word of counsel, he sent the herald away. When the herald returned to Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth, Periander desired to hear what counsel he brought, but the man said that Thrasybulus had given him none. The herald added that it was a strange man to whom he had been sent, a madman and a destroyer of his own possessions, telling Periander what he had seen Thrasybulus do.
Periander, however, understood what had been done, and perceived that Thrasybulus had counselled him to slay those of his townsmen who were outstanding in influence or ability; with that he began to deal with his citizens in an evil manner. Whatever act of slaughter or banishment Cypselus had left undone, that Periander brought to accomplishment. In a single day he stripped all the women of Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth naked, because of his own wife +Melissa [17.0333,39.3] (Perseus) Melissa.Killed by her husband, perhaps accidentally; cp. Hdt. 3.50.
Periander had sent messengers to the Oracle of the Dead on the river +Acheron (river), South Island, New Zealand, Oceania Acheron in +Nomo Thesprotias [20.333,39.5] (department), Epirus, Greece, Europe Thesprotia to enquire concerning a deposit that a friend had left, but +Melissa [17.0333,39.3] (Perseus) Melissa, in an apparition, said that she would tell him nothing, nor reveal where the deposit lay, for she was cold and naked. The garments, she said, with which Periander had buried with her had never been burnt, and were of no use to her. Then, as evidence for her husband that she spoke the truth, she added that Periander had put his loaves into a cold oven.
When this message was brought back to Periander (for he had had intercourse with the dead body of +Melissa [17.0333,39.3] (Perseus) Melissa and knew her token for true), immediately after the message he made a proclamation that all the Corinthian women should come out into the temple of Hera. They then came out as to a festival, wearing their most beautiful garments, and Periander set his guards there and stripped them all alike, ladies and serving-women, and heaped all the clothes in a pit, where, as he prayed to +Melissa [17.0333,39.3] (Perseus) Melissa, he burnt them.
When he had done this and sent a second message, the ghost of +Melissa [17.0333,39.3] (Perseus) Melissa told him where the deposit of the friend had been laid. “This, then, Lacedaimonians, is the nature of tyranny, and such are its deeds.
We Corinthians marvelled greatly when we saw that you were sending for Hippias, and now we marvel yet more at your words to us. We entreat you earnestly in the name of the gods of Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas not to establish tyranny in the cities, but if you do not cease from so doing and unrighteously attempt to bring Hippias back, be assured that you are proceeding without the Corinthians' consent.”
These were the words of Socles, the envoy from Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth, and Hippias answered, calling the same gods as Socles had invoked to witness, that the Corinthians would be the first to wish the Pisistratidae back, when the time appointed should come for them to be vexed by the Athenians.
Hippias made this answer, inasmuch as he had more exact knowledge of the oracles than any man, but the rest of the allies, who had till now kept silence, spoke out when they heard the free speech of Socles and sided with the opinion of the Corinthians, entreating the Lacedaemonians not to harm a Greek city.
His plan, then, came to nothing, and Hippias was forced to depart. Amyntas king of the Macedonians offered him Anthemus, and the Thessalians Iolcus, but he would have neither. He withdrew to Sigeum, which Pisistratus had taken at the spear's point from the Mytilenaeans and where he then established as tyrant Hegesistratus, his own bastard son by an Argive woman. Hegesistratus, however, could not keep what Pisistratus had given him without fighting,
for there was constant war over a long period of time Herodotus, whose sixth-century chronology is often inaccurate, appears to be wrong in assigning this war to the period of Pisistratus; its date cannot be later than 600. between the Athenians at Sigeum and the Mytilenaeans at Achilleum. The Mytilenaeans were demanding the place back, and the Athenians, bringing proof to show that the Aeolians had no more part or lot in the land of Troy [26.25,39.95] (deserted settlement), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaIlium than they themselves and all the other Greeks who had aided Menelaus to avenge the rape of Helen, would not consent.
Among the various incidents of this war, one in particular is worth mention; In the course of a battle in which the Athenians had the upper hand, Alcaeus the poet took to flight and escaped, but his armor was taken by the Athenians and hung up in the temple of Athena at Sigeum.
Alcaeus wrote a poem about this and sent it to Mytilene [26.55,39.1] (Perseus) Mytilene. In it he relates his own misfortune to his friend Melanippus. As for the Mytilenaeans and Athenians, however, peace was made between them by Periander son of Cypselus, to whose arbitration they committed the matter, and the terms of peace were that each party should keep what it had.
It was in this way, then, that Sigeum came to be under Athenian rule, but Hippias, having come from Sparta [22.416,37.83] (inhabited place), Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece, Europe Lacedaemon into Asia (continent)Asia, left no stone unturned, maligning the Athenians to Artaphrenes, and doing all he could to bring Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens into subjection to himself and Darius.
While Hippias was engaged in these activities, the Athenians heard of it and sent messengers to Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis, warning the Persians not to believe banished Athenians. Artaphrenes, however, bade them receive Hippias back, if they wanted to be safe.When his words were brought back to the Athenians, they would not consent to them, and since they would not consent, it was resolved that they should be openly at war with Iran [53,32] (nation), AsiaPersia.
It was when the Athenians had made their decision and were already on bad terms with Iran [53,32] (nation), AsiaPersia, that Aristagoras the Milesian, driven from Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta by Cleomenes the Lacedaemonian, came to Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens, since that city was more powerful than any of the rest. Coming before the people, Aristagoras spoke to the same effect as at Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta, of the good things of Asia (continent)Asia, and how the Persians carried neither shield nor spear in war and could easily be overcome.
This he said adding that the Milesians were settlers from Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens, whom it was only right to save seeing that they themselves were a very powerful people. There was nothing which he did not promise in the earnestness of his entreaty, till at last he prevailed upon them. It seems, then, that it is easier to deceive many than one, for he could not deceive Cleomenes of Sparta [22.416,37.83] (inhabited place), Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece, Europe Lacedaemon, one single man, but thirty thousandBut even in the palmiest days of Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens the number of voters did not exceed 20,000. Athenians he could.
The Athenians, now persuaded, voted to send twenty ships to aid the Ionians, appointing for their admiral Melanthius, a citizen of Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens who had an unblemished reputation. These ships were the beginning of troubles for both Greeks and foreigners.
Aristagoras sailed before the rest, and when he came to Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus, he devised a plan from which no advantage was to accrue to the Ionians (nor indeed was that the purpose of his plan, but rather to vex king Darius). He sent a man into Phrygia (region (general)), Turkey, Asia Phrygia, to the Paeonians who had been led captive from the Strymon by Megabazus, and now dwelt in a Phrygian territory and village by themselves. When the man came to the Paeonians, he spoke as follows:
“Men of Paeonia, I have been sent by Aristagoras, tyrant of Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus, to show you the way to deliverance, if you are disposed to obey. All Ionia (region (general)), Europe Ionia is now in revolt against the king, and it is possible for you to win your own way back safely to your own land, but afterwards we will take care of you.”
The Paeonians were very glad when they heard that, and although some of them remained where they were for fear of danger, the rest took their children and women and fled to the sea. After arriving there, the Paeonians crossed over to +Khios [26.116,38.383] (inhabited place), Chios, Khios, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Chios.
They were already in +Khios [26.116,38.383] (inhabited place), Chios, Khios, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Chios, when a great host of Persian horsemen came after them in pursuit. Unable to overtake them, the Persians sent to +Khios [26.116,38.383] (inhabited place), Chios, Khios, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Chios, commanding the Paeonians to go back. The Paeonians would not consent to this, but were brought from +Khios [26.116,38.383] (inhabited place), Chios, Khios, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Chios by the Chians to +Lesbos [26.333,39.166] (island), Lesvos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Lesbos and carried by the Lesbians to Doriscus, from where they made their way by land to Paeonia.
The Athenians came with their twenty ships as well as five triremes of the Eretrians who came to the war to please not the Athenians but the Milesians themselves, thereby repaying their debt (for the Milesians had once been the allies of the Eretrians in the war against +Chalcis [23.6083,38.4667] (Perseus) Chalcis, when the Samians came to aid the Chalcidians against the Eretrians and Milesians). When these, then, and the rest of the allies had arrived, Aristagoras planned a march against Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis.
He himself did not go with the army but remained at Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus, and appointed others to be generals of the Milesians, namely his own brother Charopinus and another citizen named Hermophantus.
When the Ionians had come to +Ephesus [27.316,37.916] (deserted settlement), Izmir Ili, Ege kiyilari, Turkey, Asia Ephesus with this force, they left their ships at Coresus A hill (or a part of the town of +Ephesus [27.316,37.916] (deserted settlement), Izmir Ili, Ege kiyilari, Turkey, Asia Ephesus built thereon) south of the Cayster. in the Ephesian territory and marched inland with a great host, taking Ephesians to guide them on their way. They made their way along the river Bakir Cayi [27,38.916] (river), Turkey, AsiaCaicus, and after crossing the Tmolus, they came to Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis and captured it without any resistance. They took all of it except the citadel, which was held by Artaphrenes himself with a great force of men.
They were prevented from plundering the city by the fact that most of the houses in Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis were made of reeds, and those made of brick had roofs of reeds. Accordingly, when one of these was seton fire by a soldier, the flames spread from house to house all over the whole city.
While the city was burning, the Lydians and all the Persians who were in the citadel, being hemmed in on every side since the fire was consuming the outer parts and having no exit from the city, came thronging into the marketplace and to the river Pactolus, which flows through the marketplace carrying down gold dust from Tmolus and issues into the river Hermus, which in turn issues into the sea. They assembled in the marketplace by this Pactolus and were forced to defend themselves there.
When the Ionians saw some of their enemies defending themselves and a great multitude of others approaching, they were afraid and withdrew to the mountain called Tmolus, from where they departed to their ships at nightfall.
In the fire at Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis,In 498. a temple of Cybebe,Or Cybele, the great goddess of the Phrygians and Lydians. the goddess of that country, was burnt, and the Persians afterwards made this their pretext for burning the temples of Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas. At this time, the Persians of the provinces this sideLit. “within”; that is, from the Greek point of view, and so west of the Halys River (river), Turkey, Asia Halys. of the Halys River (river), Turkey, Asia Halys, on hearing of these matters, gathered together and came to aid the Lydians.