Kitap 8
for Bacis' oracle concerning this matter runs as follows When a strange-tongued man casts a yoke of papyrus on the waves, Then take care to keep bleating goats far from the coasts of +Euboea [23.833,38.566] (island), Nomos Evvoias, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Euboea To these verses the Euboeans gave no heed; but in the evils then present and soon to come they suffered the greatest calamity.
While the Greeks were doing as I have said, there came to them their lookout from +Trachis [22.55,38.8] (Perseus) Trachis. There was a scout at +Artemisium [23.2417,39.0083] (Perseus) Artemisium, one Polyas, a native of Anticyra, who was charged (and had a rowing boat standing ready for it), if the fleet should suffer a reverse to declare it to the men at +Thermopylae [22.5583,38.8] (Perseus) Thermopylae. Similarly, if any ill should befall the land army, Abronichus son of Lysicles, an Athenian, was with Leonidas, ready for his part to bring the news in a thirty-oared bark to the Greeks at +Artemisium [23.2417,39.0083] (Perseus) Artemisium.
So this Abronichus came and declared to them the fate of Leonidas and his army. When the Greeks learned this, they no longer delayed their departure but went their ways in their appointed order, the Corinthians first and last of all the Athenians.
Themistocles, however, picked out the seaworthiest Athenian ships and made his way to the places where drinking water could be found. Here he engraved on the rocks words which the Ionians read on the next day when they came to +Artemisium [23.2417,39.0083] (Perseus) Artemisium. This was what the writing said: “Men of Ionia (region (general)), Europe Ionia, you do wrongly to fight against the land of your fathers and bring slavery upon Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas.
It would best for you to join yourselves to us, but if that should be impossible for you, then at least now withdraw from the war, and entreat the Carians to do the same as you. If neither of these things may be and you are fast bound by such constraint that you cannot rebel, yet we ask you not to use your full strength in the day of battle. Remember that you are our sons and that our quarrel with the barbarian was of your making in the beginning.”
To my thinking Themistocles wrote this with a double intent, namely that if the king knew nothing of the writing, it might induce the Ionians to change sides and join with the Greeks, while if the writing were maliciously reported to Xerxes, he might thereby be led to mistrust the Ionians and keep them out of the sea-fights.
Such was Themistocles' writing. Immediately after this there came to the barbarians a man of Histiaea in a boat, telling them of the flight of the Greeks from +Artemisium [23.2417,39.0083] (Perseus) Artemisium. Not believing this, they kept the bringer of the news in confinement and sent swift ships to spy out the matter. When the crews of these brought word of the truth, the whole armada sailed all together to +Artemisium [23.2417,39.0083] (Perseus) Artemisium at the crack of dawn. Here they waited till midday and then sailed to Histiaea. Upon their arrival they took possession of the Histiaeans' city and overran all the villages on the seaboard of the Ellopian region, which is a district belonging to Histiaea.
While they were there, Xerxes sent a herald to the fleet. Before sending him, Xerxes had made the following preparations: of all his own soldiers who had fallen at +Thermopylae [22.5583,38.8] (Perseus) Thermopylae (that is, as many as twenty thousand) he left about a thousand, and the rest he buried in trenches, which he covered with leaves and heaped earth so that the men of the fleet might not see them.
When the herald had crossed over to Histiaea, he assembled all the men of the fleet and said: “Men of our allies, King Xerxes permits any one of you who should so desire to leave his place and come to see how he fights against those foolish men who thought they could overcome the king's power.”
After this proclamation, there was nothing so hard to get as a boat, so many were they who wanted to see this. They crossed over and went about viewing the dead. All of them supposed that the fallen Greeks were all Lacedaemonians and Thespians, though helots were also there for them to see.
For all that, however, those who crossed over were not deceived by what Xerxes had done with his own dead, for the thing was truly ridiculous; of the Persians a thousand lay dead before their eyes, but the Greeks lay all together assembled in one place, to the number of four thousand.
All that day they spent in observation, and on the next the shipmen returned to their fleet at Histiaea while Xerxes' army set forth on its march.
There had come to them a few deserters, men of +Arcadia [22.25,37.583] (department), Peloponnese, Greece, Europe Arcadia, lacking a livelihood and desirous to find some service. Bringing these men into the king's presence, the Persians inquired of them what the Greeks were doing, there being one who put this question in the name of all.
When the Arcadians told them that the Greeks were holding the Olympic festival and viewing sports and horseraces, the Persian asked what was the prize offered, for which they contended. They told him of the crown of olive that was given to the victor. Then Tigranes son of Artabanus uttered a most noble saying (but the king deemed him a coward for it);
when he heard that the prize was not money but a crown, he could not hold his peace, but cried, “Good heavens, Mardonius, what kind of men are these that you have pitted us against? It is not for money they contend but for glory of achievement!” Such was Tigranes' saying.
In the meantime, immediately after the misfortune at +Thermopylae [22.5583,38.8] (Perseus) Thermopylae, the Thessalians sent a herald to the Phocians, because they bore an old grudge against them and still more because of their latest disaster.
Now a few years before the king's expedition, the Thessalians and their allies had invaded +Phocis (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Phocis with their whole army but had been worsted and roughly handled by the Phocians.
When the Phocians were besieged on +Parnassus (mountain), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Parnassus, they had with them the diviner Tellias of +Elis [21.4,37.8833] (Perseus) Elis; Tellias devised a stratagem for them: he covered six hundred of the bravest Phocians with gypsum, themselves and their armor, and led them to attack the Thessalians by night, bidding them slay whomever they should see not whitened.
The Thessalian sentinels were the first to see these men and to flee for fear, supposing falsely that it was something supernatural, and after the sentinels the whole army fled as well. The Phocians made themselves masters of four thousand dead, and their shields, of which they dedicated half at Abai [22.9583,38.5917] (Perseus)Abae and the rest at Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi.
A tithe of what they won in that fight went to the making of the great statues that stand around the tripod in front of the shrine at Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi, and there are others like them dedicated at Abai [22.9583,38.5917] (Perseus)Abae.
This is what the besieged Phocians did with the Thessalian footsoldiers. When the Thessalian horsemen rode into their country, the Phocians did them mortal harm; they dug a great pit in the pass near +Hyampolis [22.9,38.6] (Perseus) Hyampolis and put empty jars inside it. They then covered it with earth till all was like the rest of the ground and awaited the onset of the Thessalians. These rode on intending to sweep the Phocians before them, and fell in among the jars, whereby their horses' legs were broken.
These two deeds had never been forgiven by the Thessalians, and now they sent a herald with this message: “Men of +Phocis (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Phocis, it is time now that you confess yourselves to be no match for us.
We were even formerly preferred to you by the Greeks, as long as we were on their side, and now we bear such weight with the foreigner that it lies in our power to have you deprived of your lands and to have you enslaved. Nevertheless, although we could easily do these things, we bear you no ill-will for the past. Pay us fifty talents of silver for what you did, and we promise to turn aside what threatens your land.”
This was the Thessalians' offer. The Phocians alone of all that region would not take the Persians' side, and that for no other reason (if I argue correctly) than their hatred of the Thessalians.
Had the Thessalians aided the Greek side, then the Phocians would certainly have stood for the Persians. They replied to the offer of the Thessalians that they would give no money; they could do as the Thessalians did and take the Persian part, if for any cause they so wished, but they would not willingly betray the cause of Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas.
When this answer was returned to them, the Thessalians in their wrath against the Phocians began to guide the barbarian on his march. From the lands of +Trachis [22.55,38.8] (Perseus) Trachis they broke into Doris; there is a narrow tongue of Dorian land stretching that way, about thirty furlongs wide, between the Malian territory and the Phocian, which in old time was Dryopian. This region is the motherland of the Dorians of the +Peloponnese [22,37.5] (region), Greece, Europe Peloponnese. To this Dorian territory the barbarians did no harm at their invasion, for the people took the Persian side, and the Thessalians would not have them harmed.
When they entered +Phocis (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Phocis from Doris, they could not take the Phocians themselves, for some of the Phocians ascended to the heights of +Parnassus (mountain), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Parnassus. The peak of +Parnassus (mountain), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Parnassus called +Tithorea [22.6833,38.5833] (Perseus) Tithorea, which rises by itself near the town Neon, has room enough for a multitude of people. It was there that they carried their goods and themselves ascended to it,
but most of them made their way out of the country to the Ozolian Locrians, where the town of +Amphissa [22.3833,38.525] (Perseus) Amphissa lies above the Crisaean plain. The barbarians, while the Thessalians so guided their army, overran the whole of +Phocis (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Phocis. All that came within their power they laid waste to and burnt, setting fire to towns and temples.
Marching this way down the river Cephisus, they ravaged everything that lay in their way, burning the towns of Drymus, +Charadra [20.9917,39.1667] (Perseus) Charadra, Erochus, Tethronium, Amphicaea, Neon, Pediea, Tritea, Elatea, +Hyampolis [22.9,38.6] (Perseus) Hyampolis, Parapotamii, and Abai [22.9583,38.5917] (Perseus)Abae, where there was a richly endowed temple of Apollo, provided with wealth of treasure and offerings. There was also then as now a place of divination at this place. This temple, too, they plundered and burnt, and they pursued and caught some of the Phocians near the mountains. Certain women too perished because of the multitude of their violators.
Passing Parapotamii, the foreigners came to Panopea. There their army parted into two companies. The greater and stronger part of the host marched with Xerxes himself towards Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens and broke into the territory of Orkhomenos (deserted settlement), Boeotia, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, EuropeOrchomenus in Boeotia (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Boeotia. Now the whole population of Boeotia (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Boeotia took the Persian side, and men of Macedonia (region (general)), EuropeMacedonia sent by Alexander safeguarded their towns, each in his appointed place; the reason of the safeguarding was that Xerxes should see that the Boeotians were on the Persian side.
So this part of the barbarian army marched as I have said, and others set forth with guides for the temple at Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi, keeping +Parnassus (mountain), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Parnassus on their right. These, too, laid waste to every part of +Phocis (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Phocis which they occupied, burning the towns of the Panopeans and Daulii and Aeolidae.
The purpose of their parting from the rest of the army and marching this way was that they might plunder the temple at Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi and lay its wealth before Xerxes, who (as I have been told) had better knowledge of the most notable possessions in the temple than of what he had left in his own palace, chiefly the offerings of Croesus son of Alyattes; so many had always spoken of them.
When the Delphians learned all this, they were very much afraid, and in their great fear they inquired of the oracle whether they should bury the sacred treasure in the ground or take it away to another country. The god told them to move nothing, saying that he was able to protect what belonged to him.
Upon hearing that, the Delphians took thought for themselves. They sent their children and women overseas to +Achaea [21.75,38.25] (department), Peloponnese, Greece, Europe Achaia. Most of the men went up to the peaks of +Parnassus (mountain), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Parnassus and carried their goods into the Corycian cave, but some escaped to +Amphissa [22.3833,38.525] (Perseus) Amphissa in +Lokris (region (general)), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Locris. In short, all the Delphians left the town save sixty men and the prophet.
Now when the barbarians drew near and could see the temple, the prophet, whose name was Aceratus, saw certain sacred arms, which no man might touch without sacrilege, brought out of the chamber within and laid before the shrine.
So he went to tell the Delphians of this miracle, but when the barbarians came with all speed near to the temple of Athena Pronaea, they were visited by miracles yet greater than the aforesaid. Marvellous indeed it is, that weapons of war should of their own motion appear lying outside in front of the shrine, but the visitation which followed was more wondrous than anything else ever seen.
When the barbarians were near to the temple of Athena Pronaea, they were struck by thunderbolts from the sky, and two peaks broken off from +Parnassus (mountain), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Parnassus came rushing among them with a mighty noise and overwhelmed many of them. In addition to this a shout and a cry of triumph were heard from the temple of Athena.
All of this together struck panic into the barbarians, and the Delphians, perceiving that they fled, descended upon them and killed a great number. The survivors fled straight to Boeotia (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Boeotia. Those of the barbarians who returned said (as I have been told) that they had seen other divine signs besides what I have just described: two men-at-arms of stature greater than human,they said, had come after them, slaying and pursuing.
These two, say the Delphians, were the native heroes Phylacus and Autonous, whose precincts are near the temple, Phylacus' by the road itself above the shrine of Athena Pronaea, and Autonous' near the Castalian spring, under the Hyarapean Peak.
The rocks that fell from +Parnassus (mountain), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Parnassus were yet to be seen in my day, lying in the precinct of Athena Pronaea, from where their descent through the foreigners' ranks had hurled them. Such, then, was the manner of those men's departure from the temple.