Kitap 7
The leaders of each nation are not worthy of mention, and every city of each nation had a leader of its own. These came not as generals but as slaves, like the rest of the expedition; I have already said who were the generals of supreme authority and the Persian commanders of each nation.
The admirals of the navy were Ariabignes son of Darius, Prexaspes son of Aspathines, Megabazus son of Megabates, and Achaemenes son of Darius. Ariabignes, son of Darius and Gobryas' daughter, was admiral of the Ionian and Carian fleet; the admiral of the Egyptians was Achaemenes, full brother of Xerxes; and the two others were admirals of the rest. The ships of thirty and of fifty oars, the light galleys, and the great transports for horses came to a total of three thousand all together.
After the admirals, the most famous of those on board were these: from +Sidon [35.366,33.55] (inhabited place), Al-Janub, Lebanon, Asia Sidon, Tetramnestus son of Anysus; from +Tyre [35.183,33.266] (inhabited place), Al-Janub, Lebanon, Asia Tyre, Matten son of Siromus; from +Jazirat Arwad (island), Tartus, Syria, Asia Aradus, Merbalus son of Agbalus; from Cilicia [34.333,36.666] (region (general)), Turkey, AsiaCilicia, Syennesis son of Oromedon; from +Lycia (region (general)), Turkey, Asia Lycia, Cyberniscus son of Sicas; from Cyprus [33,35] (island), AsiaCyprus, Gorgus son of Chersis and Timonax son of Timagoras; and from +Caria [28,37.5] (region (general)), Turkey, Asia Caria, Histiaeus son of Tymnes, Pigres son of Hysseldomus, and Damasithymus son of Candaules.
I see no need to mention any of the other captains except Artemisia. I find it a great marvel that a woman went on the expedition against Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas: after her husband died, she took over his tyranny, though she had a young son, and followed the army from youthful spirits and manliness, under no compulsion.
Artemisia was her name, and she was the daughter of Lygdamis; on her fathers' side she was of Halicarnassian lineage, and on her mothers' Cretan. She was the leader of the men of Bodrum [27.466,37.5] (inhabited place), Mugla Ili, Ege kiyilari, Turkey, Asia Halicarnassus and Kos City [27.3,36.8917] (Perseus)Cos and Nisyrus and Calydnos, and provided five ships.
Her ships were reputed to be the best in the whole fleet after the ships of +Sidon [35.366,33.55] (inhabited place), Al-Janub, Lebanon, Asia Sidon, and she gave the king the best advice of all his allies. The cities that I said she was the leader of are all of Dorian stock, as I can show, since the Halicarnassians are from Troizen [23.375,37.5] (Perseus)Troezen, and the rest are from Epidauros [23.0917,37.6] (Perseus)Epidaurus.
Here ends what I have said of the fleet. When his army had been numbered and marshalled, Xerxes desired to ride through and view it. Then he did this; as he rode in a chariot past the men of each nation, he questioned them while his scribes wrote it all down, until he had gone from one end to the other of the cavalry and infantry.
After he had done this, the ships were drawn down and launched into the sea. Xerxes alighted from his chariot into a Sidonian ship and sat under a golden canopy while he was carried past the prows of the ships, questioning the men in the same way as the army and having the answers written down.
The captains put out and anchored in line four hundred feet from the shore, with their prows turned landward and the marines armed for war; Xerxes viewed them by passing between the prows and the land.
After he passed by all his fleet and disembarked from the ship, he sent for Demaratus The exiled king of Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta; see Hdt. 7.3. son of Ariston, who was on the expedition with him against Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas. He summoned him and said, “Demaratus, it is now my pleasure to ask you what I wish to know. You are a Greek, and, as I am told both by you and by the other Greeks whom I have talked to, a man from neither the least nor the weakest of Greek cities.
So tell me: will the Greeks offer battle and oppose me? I think that even if all the Greeks and all the men of the western lands were assembled together, they are not powerful enough to withstand my attack, unless they are united.
Still I want to hear from you what you say of them.” To this question Demaratus answered, “O king, should I speak the truth or try to please you?” Xerxes bade him speak the truth and said that it would be no more unpleasant for him than before.
Demaratus heard this and said, “O King, since you bid me by all means to speak the whole truth, and to say what you will not later prove to be false, in Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas poverty is always endemic, but courage is acquired as the fruit of wisdom and strong law; by use of this courage Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas defends herself from poverty and tyranny.
Now I praise all the Greeks who dwell in those Dorian lands, yet I am not going to speak these words about all of them, but only about the Lacedaemonians. First, they will never accept conditions from you that bring slavery upon Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas; and second, they will meet you in battle even if all the other Greeks are on your side.
Do not ask me how many these men are who can do this; they will fight with you whether they have an army of a thousand men, or more than that, or less.”
When he heard this, Xerxes smiled and said, “What a strange thing to say, Demaratus, that a thousand men would fight with so great an army! Come now, tell me this: you say that you were king of these men. Are you willing right now to fight with ten men? Yet if your state is entirely as you define it,This no doubt alludes to the double portion given to a Spartan king at feasts; cp. Hdt. 6.57. you as their king should by right encounter twice as many according to your laws.
If each of them is a match for ten men of my army, then it is plain to me that you must be a match for twenty; in this way you would prove that what you say is true. But if you Greeks who so exalt yourselves are just like you and the others who come to speak with me, and are also the same size, then beware lest the words you have spoken be only idle boasting.
Let us look at it with all reasonableness: how could a thousand, or ten thousand, or even fifty thousand men, if they are all equally free and not under the rule of one man, withstand so great an army as mine? If you Greeks are five thousand, we still would be more than a thousand to one.
If they were under the rule of one man according to our custom, they might out of fear of him become better than they naturally are, and under compulsion of the lash they might go against greater numbers of inferior men; but if they are allowed to go free they would do neither. I myself think that even if they were equal in numbers it would be hard for the Greeks to fight just against the Persians.
What you are talking about is found among us alone, and even then it is not common but rare; there are some among my Persian spearmen who will gladly fight with three Greeks at once. You have no knowledge of this and are spouting a lot of nonsense.”
To this Demaratus answered, “O king I knew from the first that the truth would be unwelcome to you. But since you compelled me to speak as truly as I could, I have told you how it stands with the Spartans.
You yourself best know what love I bear them: they have robbed me of my office and the privileges of my house, and made me a cityless exile; your father received me and gave me a house and the means to live on. It is not reasonable for a sensible man to reject goodwill when it appears; rather he will hold it in great affection.
I myself do not promise that I can fight with ten men or with two, and I would not even willingly fight with one; yet if it were necessary, or if some great contest spurred me, I would most gladly fight with one of those men who claim to be each a match for three Greeks.
So is it with the Lacedaemonians; fighting singly they are as brave as any man living, and together they are the best warriors on earth. They are free, yet not wholly free: law is their master, whom they fear much more than your men fear you.
They do whatever it bids; and its bidding is always the same, that they must never flee from the battle before any multitude of men, but must abide at their post and there conquer or die. If I seem to you to speak foolishness when I say this, then let me hereafter hold my peace; it is under constraint that I have now spoken. But may your wish be fulfilled, King.”
Thus Demaratus answered. Xerxes made a joke of the matter and showed no anger, but sent him away kindly. After he had conversed with Demaratus, and appointed Mascames son of Megadostes governor of this Doriscus, deposing the governor Darius had appointed, Xerxes marched his army through Thrace (region (general)), EuropeThrace towards Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas.
Xerxes left behind this Mascames, who so conducted himself that to him alone Xerxes always sent gifts, as being the most valiant of all the governors that he or Darius appointed; he sent these gifts every year, and so did Artaxerxes son of Xerxes to Mascames' descendants. Before this march, governors had been appointed everywhere in Thrace (region (general)), EuropeThrace and on the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont.
All of these in Thrace (region (general)), EuropeThrace and the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont, except the governor of Doriscus, were after this expedition captured by the Greeks; but no one could ever drive out Mascames in Doriscus, though many tried. For this reason gifts are sent by the successive kings of Iran [53,32] (nation), AsiaPersia.
The only one of those who were driven out by the Greeks whom king Xerxes considered a valiant man was Boges, from whom they took +Eion [23.8833,40.7333] (Perseus) Eion. He never ceased praising this man, and gave very great honor to his sons who were left alive in Iran [53,32] (nation), AsiaPersia; indeed Boges proved himself worthy of all praise. When he was besieged by the Athenians under Cimon son of Miltiades, he could have departed under treaty from +Eion [23.8833,40.7333] (Perseus) Eion and returned to Asia (continent)Asia, but he refused, lest the king think that he had saved his life out of cowardice; instead he resisted to the last.
When there was no food left within his walls, he piled up a great pyre and slew his children and wife and concubines and servants and cast them into the fire; after that, he took all the gold and silver from the city and scattered it from the walls into the Strymon; after he had done this, he cast himself into the fire. Thus he is justly praised by the Persians to this day.
From Doriscus Xerxes went on his way towards Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas, compelling all that he met to go with his army. As I have shown earlier, all the country as far as +Thessaly [22.25,39.5] (region), Greece, Europe Thessaly had been enslaved and was tributary to the king, by the conquests of Megabazus and Mardonius after him.
On his road from Doriscus he first passed the Samothracian fortresses;Erected doubtless by the Samothracians to protect their possessions on the mainland. of these, the city built farthest to the west is called Mesambria. Next to it is the Thasian city of +Stryme [25.6167,40.8833] (Perseus) Stryme; between them runs the river Lisus, which now could not furnish water enough for Xerxes' army, but was exhausted.
All this region was once called Gallaic, but it is now called Briantic; however, by rights it also belongs to the Ciconians.
After he had crossed the dried-up bed of the river Lisus, he passed by the Greek cities of Maronea, Dicaea, and +Abdera [24.9667,40.9833] (Perseus) Abdera. He passed by these, and along certain well-known lakes near them: the Ismarid lake that lies between Maronea and +Stryme [25.6167,40.8833] (Perseus) Stryme, and near Dicaea the Bistonian lake, into which the rivers Travus and Compsantus discharge. Near Abdera Xerxes passed no well-known lake, but crossed the river Nestus where it flows into the sea.
From these regions he passed by the cities of the mainland, one of which has near it a lake of about thirty stadia in circuit, full of fish and very salty; this was drained dry by watering the beasts of burden alone. This city is called Pistyrus.
Xerxes marched past these Greek cities of the coast, keeping them on his left. The Thracian tribes through whose lands he journeyed were the Paeti, Cicones, Bistones, Sapaei, Dersaei, Edoni, and Satrae.All these are tribes of the Nestus and Strymon valleys or the intervening hill country. Of these, the ones who dwelt by the sea followed his army on shipboard; the ones living inland, whose names I have recorded, were forced to join with his land army, all of them except the Satrae.
The Satrae, as far as we know, have never yet been subject to any man; they alone of the Thracians have continued living in freedom to this day; they dwell on high mountains covered with forests of all kinds and snow, and they are excellent warriors.
It is they who possess the place of divination sacred to Dionysus. This place is in their highest mountains; the Bessi, a clan of the Satrae, are the prophets of the shrine; there is a priestess who utters the oracle, as at Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi; it is no more complicated here than there. Hdt. appears to mean that the method of divination is the “usual” one, as at Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi; perhaps there were exaggerated accounts of the mysterious rites of the Bessi.
After passing through the aforementioned land, Xerxes next passed the fortresses of the Pierians, one called Phagres and the other +Bergama [27.166,39.133] (inhabited place), Izmir Ili, Ege kiyilari, Turkey, Asia Pergamus. By going this way he marched right under their walls, keeping on his right the great and high Pangaean range, where the Pierians and Odomanti and especially the Satrae have gold and silver mines.
Marching past the Paeonians, Doberes, and Paeoplae, who dwell beyond and northward of the Pangaean mountains,In Hdt. 7.112 Xerxes was marching along the coast; here he is far inland. Doubtless the explanation lies in the division of his army into three parallel columns (Hdt. 7.121). he kept going westwards, until he came to the river Strymon and the city of +Eion [23.8833,40.7333] (Perseus) Eion; its governor was that Boges, then still alive, whom I mentioned just before this.