The Conquests of Megabazus

Fall of the Perinthians to Megabazus; how the Perinthians had previously been beaten by the Paeonians (1). Megabazus continues into Thrace, conquering all (2). Power of vast Thracian nation limited by disunity (3). Customs of various Thracians, including suttee. Their daughters promiscuous, their wives chaste; their gods (6-7). Their funeral rites (8). Mysterious nature of the region north of Thrace across the Ister and the Sigynnae who live there (9-10). Darius returns to Sardis, rewards Histiaeus of Miletus with Myrcinus (rich country in Thrace, near the Strymon) and Coes of Mytilene with the rule of his city (11). A plot by two men of Paeonia (on the Strymon) to get Darius to attack it: they bring their sister to Sardis and dazzle the king with her looks and ability to do several jobs at once. The plan works; Darius orders Megabazus to bring all Paeonians to Sardis (12-14). Failure of the Paeonian defensive strategy; most of them taken by Megabazus (15). Some Paeonians avoid capture; their curious houses set in the centre of lakes (confirmed by archaeological evidence) (16). Megabazus sends officers to demand surrender of Amyntas, king of Macedonia; he agrees (17). At dinner, the Persians request female company; Amyntas complies, and the drunken officers fondle them; Amyntas' son Alexander, furious at this, sends his father away (18-19). Alexander sends the women away on a pretext, and substitutes men in drag, who then kill the officers and their entire retinue (20). How Alexander prevented reprisals for this: he bribed the Persian general who was investigating the disappearance (21). That the Macedonians are really Greeks proven: they compete at Olympic games (22). Megabazus returns to Sardis and warns Darius that Histiaeus at Myrcinus could prove a dangerous foe (23). Darius is persuaded and summons Histiaeus; he proposes to take him to Susa as his close adviser, and Histiaeus agrees (24). Before leaving, Darius makes Otanes satrap of Ionia. How Otanes' father had been brutally murdered by Cambyses for taking judicial bribes; Cambyses made Otanes sit as judge on a chair made of his father's skin. Conquests of Otanes include Byzantium & Chalcedon; Lemnos and Imbros taken with help of Lesbian navy (25-6). Lycaretus, governor of the Lemnians, and his death at their hands (27). Developments at Miletos and on Naxos; how the Parians had eased civil strife at Miletos by choosing the successful farmers (of whom there were few) to run the gov't (28-9).

Lead-up to the Ionian Revolt

Some rich Naxian exiles at Miletos appeal to Aristagoras, son-in-law of Histiaeus, for help in retaking Naxos; Aristagoras, hoping for dominion over Naxos (as well as Miletos) promises to appeal to Artaphrenes (satrap of Ionia) for miltary aid. As yet no Cycladic islands subject to Darius (30). Aristagoras appeals to Artaphrenes, holding out the prospect of conquest of all the Cyclades (e.g. Paros, Andros) and even Euboia; Artaphrenes promises 200 ships, but must consult Darius (31). Darius agrees, and a large force is dispatched to Miletus, with Megabates (later the father-in-law of Pausanias) in charge (32). The expedition sets out; but a quarrel arises between Megabates and Aristagoras over Scylax the captain, whom Megabates was punishing; Megabates decides to warn the Naxians (33). Preparations at Naxos; after a siege of four months is unsuccessful, the expedition returns to Miletus (34). Aristagoras, now unable to repay Artaphrenes for the cost of the expedition, begins to plan revolt. He is encouraged by secret messages from Histiaeus at Susa (using slaves' heads); Histiaeus, unhappy at Susa, plans to instigate revolt, but play a double game (35). Consultations at Miletus; the advice of Hekataios (the writer) either not to rebel, or to build a big navy by seizing the temple treasures of Croesus at Branchidae, is rejected; men sent to Myos to seize the remnants of the Naxos expeditionary force (36). The Ionian Revolt begins, 499 BC. Aristagoras institutes democracy at Miletus and throughout Ionia to get the people on his side, get rid of Darius' quislings (37). How the cities treated their deposed despots leniently, except Coes; Aristagoras goes to Sparta to seek aid (38).

Digression on Spartan royal family

Cleomenes son of Anaxandrides king at Sparta; how Anaxandrides' first wife had been childless, and his state-sanctioned bigamy after his refusal to divorce her (39-40). The second wife bears Cleomenes; but then the first wife bears surprise triplets: Dorieus, Leonidas, Cleombrotos (41). How Dorieus, in anger at not being king on Anaxandrides' death, tried to found a colony in Libya but failed and returned to Sparta (42). Intending to colonize Heraclea in Sicily, Dorieus goes to Italy, 510 BC. There he helps the Crotonians defeat the Sybarites (though the Crotonians deny this); the various proofs offered by each side recounted, and Hdt. refuses to choose between them (43-45). The defeat and death of various others who sailed with Dorieus, including the handsome Phillipus of Croton, an Olympic victor; Dorieus should've stayed at Sparta (46-48). Aristagoras makes his case to Cleomenes in a long speech, using a map of the world engraved on a bronze tablet to illustrate. His theme: the vast wealth of Asia can be yours; the geographical description sounds as if Hdt was looking at a map as he wrote it (49). Cleomenes, on learning that Susa is three months journey inland, rejects the appeal (50). A further attempt of Aristagoras, this time involving a bribe offered to Cleomenes, fails (51). Digression: a description of the road from Sardis to Susa through Lydia, Phrygia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Armenia, and Iraq (the "land of the Matieni") with calculations of the distances involved (52-4).

Athenian History prior to the Ionian Revolt

Aristagoras goes to Athens, now a democracy; the story of the Peisitratids (55). The dream of Hipparchus presages his death in 514/3 BC (56). Remarks on the Phoenician origins of the clan to which the tyrannicides belonged (57). How the Phoenicians passed their alphabet to the Ionian Greeks; how papyrus replaced vellum (58). Citation of inscrips on tripods in temple of Apollo at Thebes supposed to illustrate similarity of Phoenician and Ionian lettering (59-60). The Eleusinian mysteries have their origin also in this clan of Phoenicians, the Gephyraioi (61). Harshness of Hippias' rule, especially post-513; a failed attempt at return by the exiled Alkmaionids and their partisans; how they (the Alkmaionids) built the temple at Delphi (62). How the Almaionids (esp. Cleisthenes) used the oracle to convince the Spartans to expels the Peisitratids; an initial defeat of the Spartan forces at Phaleron by the Thessalian cavalry, whom the Peisitratids had summoned to their aid (63). How in 509 BC Cleomenes and a larger Spartan force defeated the Thessalian cavalry and besieged the Peisistratids on the Acropolis (64). The surrender of the Peisitratids caused by the accidental capture of some of their children; their exile to Sigeum (on the Hellespont); remarks on their family tree, with links to Codrus the mythical king of Athens (65). With Peisistratids gone, rivals at Athens for power are Cleisthenes and Isagoras son of Tisandrus; Cleisthenes is losing, but bolsters power by becoming democratic; his tribal reforms briefly described (66). The tribal reforms analyzed as imitations of his maternal grandfather, Cleisthenes of Sicyon (ruled 600-570?); how that Cleisthenes (at war with Argos) stopped Homeric recitations as celebrating Argos, and replaced the local cult of Adrastus with one of Melanippus, and transferred tragic choruses from being about/in honor of Adrastus to being in honor of Dionysus (67). Tribal renaming by Cleisthenes of Sicyon to avoid tribal link with Argives: new tribes were Hyatai (Pig-people), Oneatai (Ass-people), and Choireatai (Swine-people); the new names last 60 years (68). Cleisthenes the Athenian's reforms interpreted as a similar attempt, this time to denigrate Ionians at expense of Dorians (69). Isagoras gets Cleomenes to help him in the factional struggle; Cleomenes demands that Athens expel the Accursed (70). Origin of the curse (632 BC): Cylon the Olympic victor tried to be tyrant, but failed and took refuge on the Acropolis; he and his henchmen dragged away by "the prytanies of the naukrariai" and later killed them (71). Cleisthenes flees; Cleomenes invades, but after meeting resistance from the new Cleisthenic Boule of 500 he and Isagoras are besieged on the Acropolis; the Spartans are allowed to depart the city, but Isagoras' Athenian and other partisans are executed (72). Cleisthenes and others recalled; Athenian embassy to Sardis in anticipation of war with Sparta fails when the satrap demands earth and water in return for aid (73). Cleomenes raises an army and invades Attica, reaching Eleusis; at the same time the Boiotians and Chalcidians attack from the north (74). Spartans at Eleusis deserted by Corinthians and Demaratus, the other Spartan king; hence the Spartan rule that only king goes on campaign at a time (75). Survey of prior Dorian incursions: once when Megara was founded, and twice against the Peisistratids (76). Cleomenes' forces scattered; the Boiotians defeated in battle; the Chalcideans beaten on Euboia, and cleruchs settled there; part of ransom for captives used for memorial chariot, whose inscription Hdt quotes (77). Hdt ties military success of Athens to increased personal freedom and pride (78). The Thebans interpret an oracle as instructing them to ask the Aiginetans for aid; the Aiginetans promise to send the Aeacidae to help them (79-80). The Thebans fight again and lose; at the request of the Boiotians (and to vindicate the Aiacidae) the Aiginetans make raids on Phaleron and other Attic ports (81).

Origin of Athenian-Aiginetan enmity

Instructed by Delphi to ease their land's barrenness with olive statues of fertility goddesses, the Epidaurians made a deal with Athens, whereby they got olive wood for the idols and paid yearly taxes to Athena and Erechtheus. Aigina was an Epidaurian settlement and used its legal system; but Aigina revolted from Epidaurus, attacked, and stole the statues; description of Aiginetan rites for these goddesses at Oea (82-84). The Epidaurians now renege on their annual tax; Athens demands Aigina return the statues. Two versions of subsequent events: the Athenians say they went to Aigina with one trireme, and while dragging the statues away suffered a storm and an earthquake, and killed each other in the confusion, all but one man; this man made it back to Phaleron, but there was killed by the wives of those he had left behind, who stabbed him with their dress-pins, which is why the Athenian women now wear dresses without pins (85, 87-88). The Aiginetans say that they enlisted the aid of the Argives, and that the Athenians came not in one trireme but with many, and that the statues, as they were being dragged away, fell to their knees; the Athenians were killed by the Argives before the storm and earthquake hit (86).

Athenian History Resumes

Athens disregards an oracle instructing it to wait thirty years before attacking Aigina, but is hindered by rising Spartan hostility, fueled by knowledge of the misuse of the Delphic oracle by Cleisthenes; new oracles obtained by Cleomenes forecast Athenian misdeeds against Sparta (89-90). The Spartans bring Hippias back from Sigeum, and call on their allies to help restore the Peisistratids (91). Socles, the Corinthian ambassador objects (using the rhetorical device of adynata) on the grounds that tyranny is not a worthy thing to fight for.

Digression on Cypselus and Periander

This point is illustrated by an account of Corinthian political history. A daughter of the Bacchiadae, Corinth's ruling family, was wedded to a commoner, and several oracles predicted that their offspring would oust the Bacchiadae; ten thugs sent to kill the baby boy fail out of pity, but pretend to have succeeded. So Cypselus lived to become tyrant himself; the mild abuses of Cypselus (ruled 655-625) contrasted with the much more severe ones of his son Periander, who obeyed the symbolic advice of his friend Thrasybulus, tyrant of Miletus, and killed all the leading male citizens. Periander also stripped all the women of Corinth naked, claiming that he had to burn their clothes for the restless spirit of his dead wife; these abuses illustrate what an evil thing is a tyrant, and the Corinthians refuse to help restore Hippias (92).

Athenian history resumes

The rest of the allies agree with the Corinthians, despite the objections of Hippias (93). Hippias returns to Sigeum; how the Athenians got Sigeum for their own after a long dispute with the Mytileneans; Hdt wrongly puts this war in the time of Peisitratus, when in fact it was much earlier (94). How the poet Alcaeus lost his shield in this battle, and wrote a poem about it; arbitration between Athens and Mytilene by Periander of Corinth (95). Hippias appeals to Artaphrenes, who commands the Athenians to take Hippias back; they refuse and consider themselves at war with Persia (96).

Early stages of the Ionian Revolt

Aristagoras of Miletus goes from Sparta to Athens, and by citing the status of the Milesians as apoikoi of Athens persuades the assembly (whose number Hdt puts at 30,000) to send 20 ships to Miletus (97). How Aristagoras persuaded the Paeonians to flee from Phyrgia (central Turkey), whither Megabazus had relocated them, back home to Paeonia (north of Macedonia) via Chios and Lesbos (98). Athenians arrive with a contingent from Eretria; how Eretria had been helped by Miletus in their war with Chalcis; Aristagoras plans a march on Sardis (99). The Ionians mass at Ephesus, march to Sardis, and take the city (498 BC); Artaphrenes besieged in the acropolis of Sardis (100). The Ionians prevented from plundering the city by a fire, which drives the Lydians and Persians into the center of town, where they make a stand; the Ionians withdraw, but the city is burnt (101). A temple of Cybele at Sardis burnt, becomes pretext for 480 sacks; a Persian force meets the Ionians at Ephesus and defeats them. Eualkides, an athlete praised by Simonides, is killed (102). The Athenians abandon the Ionians, who continue the revolt, taking Byzantium and nearby cities, and winning over most of Caria (the coastal region south of Lydia) (103). In Cyprus, the king Gorgus is deposed by his brother Onesilus, who joins the revolt against Persia; only Amathus (on the southern coast) remains loyal, and is besieged by Onesilus (104). Darius hears of the revolt, and vows vengeance on the Athenians (105). Darius questions Histiaeus, who denies complicity in the rebellion, ands asked to be sent to Miletus, promising to deliver Aristagoras; Darius agrees (106-107). Meanwhile in Cyprus Onesilus gets major reinforcements from the Ionians, and a Persian force (backed up by Phoenician ships) crosses to Cyprus (108). After consultation, it is decided that the Ionians will face the Phoenicians at sea, while the Cypriots resist the Persians on land (109). The armies line up near the Cyprian city of Salamis (east coast, facing Syria) (110). Onesilus plans to meet the Persian general himself, and plans with his servant to kill the man's horse when it rears up (111). The Ionians win in the sea battle; Onesilus kills the Persian general, but then is killed himself, and the Cypriots are defeated, allegedly because of the treachery of the men of Curium, a city in the south-west (112-113). How Onesilus achieved cult status at Amathus (114). The Ionians sail back to the mainland, and eventually (497 BC) all Cyprus falls (115). Assorted cities of the mainland and the Hellespont fall to Persian generals; Daurises the Persian heads for Caria (116-117). The Carians prepare to meet the onslaught; a proposal to fight with the Maeander river at their backs is rejected, Hdt thinks mistakenly (118). The Carians are beaten by superior numbers; some take refuge at a shrine of Zeus (119). Ionian reinforcements arrive, and another battle takes places, in which the Persians are again victorious (120). Finally the Carians ambush the Persians by night on the road and destroy their force (121). Further successes of the Persians in the north: Cius and Troy fall; Clazomenae and Cyme are next (122-123). Aristagoras consults with the Ionians, wondering whether to stay or migrate en masse to Sardinia or perhaps Myrcinus in Thrace (124). Hecateus suggests he fortify the island of Leros as a possible retreat (125). Aristagoras disregards this and departs for Myrcinus, where he is killed by Thracians (126).