KING DARIUS GAVE MYRCINUS that is on the river Strymon, in the land of Thrace, to Histiæus, lord of Miletus, for a reward; for Histiæus had done him good service in his warfare against the Scythians. But when the man began to build a wall about the place, one said to the King, “O King, what is this that thou hast done, giving this city in Thrace to a man that is a Greek, and wise moreover and crafty? For in that country is great store of timber for ship-building, and mines also of silver and there are many inhabitants, both Greeks and barbarians, who will take this fellow for a leader, and will do what he shall bid them, working day and night. Do thou therefore stay him in this work; but stay him with soft words. Bid him come to thee, and when he is come, take good care that he never go among the Greeks any more.” This counsel seemed good to the King. Wherefore he sent a messenger to Histiæus, saying, “Thus saith the King, I am persuaded that there is no better man disposed to me and to my kingdom than thou. Come therefore to me, for I have great matters in hand and would fain ask thy counsel about them.” So Histiæus, taking these words to be true, and counting it a great thing to be the King’s counselor, came to Sardis to Darius. And when he was come, Darius said to him, “Hear now the cause wherefore I have sent for thee. Since the day that thou didst depart from me I have desired nothing so much as to see thee and talk with thee; for in my judgment there is nothing so precious as a friend that is both faithful and wise; and this I know thee to be. Leave now thy city of Miletus, and that also which thou art building in Thrace, and come with me to Susa, for all that I have is thine, and thou shalt live with me, and be my counselor.”
After this the King went up to Susa, taking Histiæus with him. And he left Otanes to be captain of them that dwell by the sea. This Otanes was the son of a certain Sisamnes whom, being one of the royal judges, and having given unrighteous judgment for money, King Cambyses slew; and having slain him, he flayed off his skin, and cutting it into strips stretched them on the judgment-seat. And making the son of Sisamnes to be judge in his father’s room, he bade him remember on what manner of seat he sat.
In these days Miletus was the most prosperous of all the cities of Ionia, though it had been brought very low in the second generation before by strife among its citizens. This strife was healed after this fashion by the Parians, whom the men of Miletus chose out of all the Greeks to be judges in their case. These Parians went through the land of Miletus, and wheresoever they saw in the country, which was for the most part desolate, any field well tilled, they wrote down the name of the master of the field. And when they had traversed the whole, and found not many such, so soon as they were come back to the city, they called an assembly, and made this award, that the men whose fields they had seen to be well tilled should bear rule, for they judged that such as managed well their own affairs would manage well the affairs of the State also. But now from this city of Miletus, and from the island of Naxos, which was the richest of all the islands, there came great damage to the men of Ionia. It happened on this wise. Certain of the rich men of Naxos, being banished by the commons, fled to Miletus, of which city one Aristagoras was lord in those days, being son-in-law to Histiæus. And when the exiles prayed him for help that they might come back to their own country, Aristagoras, thinking that if they should come back by his help, he should be lord of Naxos, said to them (and he had this pretext for helping them that they had been long time friends of his father-in-law), “I cannot bring you back to Naxos against the will of the city, for I hear that they have eight thousand men at arms, and many ships of war. But I have a friendship with Otanes, that is brother to King Darius, and captain of them that dwell by the sea, and has many soldiers and ships. I will work with him that he shall do what ye wish.” To this the exiles agreed, saying that they would find pay for the army. Then went Aristagoras to Otanes and said to him, “There is a certain island of Naxos, not very great, but a good land and fair, and near to Ionia, and having in it much wealth and many slaves. If thou wilt make war upon this island, bringing back to it certain men that have been banished, thou shalt receive much wealth from me, over and above the cost of the war, for this it is just that we who desire it should pay; also thou wilt win for the King Naxos and the islands that are subject to it, and from thence thou wilt be able to make war on Eubœa, a great island and a rich, being not less than Cyprus, and easy to be subdued. For all this a hundred ships will be sufficient.” To this Otanes made answer, “Truly thou bringest a matter that may advantage the house of the King, and thy counsel is good, save as to the number of the ships. There shall be ready not one hundred but two hundred in the spring season. Only the King must approve of the undertaking.” And when he had sent to the King and had his assent, he made ready two hundred ships of war, putting on them a great multitude of Persians and allies, and setting Megabates, that was nephew to him and to the King, to command them. (It was the daughter of this Megabates that Pausanias the Spartan would have taken to wife, if indeed the story be true, when he sought to make himself lord of Greece.) Megabates took with him Aristagoras, and many soldiers from Miletus, and the exiles, and sailed towards the Hellespont. But when he came to Chios he cast anchor, waiting for a north wind that he might sail to Naxos. And here—for it was not to be that Naxos should perish at this time—there befell this thing.
As Megabates went about visiting the watches of the fleet, he found a ship of Myndus in Caria, that had no watch set. Being very wroth at this, he bade his guards find the captain of the ship (the man’s name was Scylax,) and bind him in one of the tholes of the oars, so that his head should be without the ship and his body within. When the man had been so bound, there came one to Aristagoras saying that Megabates had bound Scylax of Myndus in a shameful fashion. Then Aristagoras entreated of Megabates that he would loose him; but, as he could not prevail, he loosed the man himself. When Megabates heard it he was very wroth with Aristagoras, who said to him, “What hast thou to do with these things? Wast thou not sent to do my pleasure, and to sail whithersoever I should bid thee? Meddle not then with other men’s matters.” Then Megabates, in his anger, sent a messenger to the Naxians, so soon as it was night, telling them what was preparing against them. Now these had not thought of any such thing; but when they heard it, forthwith they carried their goods from out of the fields into the city, and prepared themselves for a siege, making provision of food and drink. When therefore the Persians were come from Chios, they found the city of the Naxians defended against them; and having besieged it to no purpose for four months, when now all the money they had brought with them was spent, and much also that Aristagoras had furnished, they departed, having first built forts for the exiles. Then Aristagoras was in a great strait, for he could not fulfill the promise that he had made to the servants of the King, neither could he pay the money that had been spent upon the war, and he feared lest, falling into ill-favor with the Persians, being already at enmity with Megabates, he should lose the lordship of Miletus. For these causes he had it in his mind to revolt from the King. And while he thought thereon there came to him the man with the branded head from Histiæus at Susa, with a message that he should do this very thing. For Histiæus, seeking to send word to Aristagoras, yet not being able to send it safely, because the roads were guarded, devised this thing. He took the most faithful of his slaves and, shaving the man’s head, branded on it certain letters. And when the hair was grown again he sent him to Aristagoras with a message, “Look on this man’s head when thou hast shaven it.” Now the marks signified that he should revolt. And this Histiæus did, counting it a grievous thing that he was constrained to tarry at Susa; for he said to himself, “If there be rebellion at Miletus, doubtless I shall be sent down to the sea; but if not, I shall go there no more.” Then Aristagoras took counsel with his fellows, declaring to them his own judgment and the message that had come to him from Susa. To them spake Hecatæus, the writer of chronicles. First he counseled them not to make war against the King, telling them of all the nations that he ruled and of his might. And when he could not persuade them, he said that they should certainly make themselves masters of the sea, and that this they could do only by laying hands on the treasures that had been given by Crœsus the Lydian to the temple of Apollo at Branchidæ, for these were very great, “since I have good hope,” said he, “that by help of these ye may have the upper hand at sea; any how, ye will have the using of them, and they will not be a spoil to the enemy.” But neither in this could he prevail. Nevertheless they made ready to revolt. And first of all they sent and laid hands by guile on the captains of the ships that had sailed against Naxos. Such of these men as were lords of their cities Aristagoras gave into the hands of their citizens to do with them as they would. And he gave up his own lordship at Miletus. Thus lordship ceased out of all the cities of Ionia.
After this Aristagoras sailed to Sparta, for he had need to make alliance with some city that could help him. Now Cleomenes was King at Sparta in those days; to him therefore Aristagoras opened the matter, saying, “Marvel not, Cleomenes, that I have been at the pain to come hither. That we men of Ionia should be slaves and not free is a shame and grief, first indeed to us, but next to you more than all others, seeing that ye have the pre-eminence in Greece. Do ye therefore deliver us from slavery, seeing that we are of the same blood with you. And this ye can easily do, for these barbarians have but small courage, in which ye, I know, excel. Their manner of fighting is this. They have bows and short spears, and for clothing they have loose tunics and turbans on their heads. Think then how easily ye can subdue them.” After this Aristagoras showed to the King the divers nations and countries that were obedient to the Persians, for he had a tablet of brass on which was engraven the whole compass of the world, with the sea and all the rivers. And he set forth to him in what things each was excellent, till he came at the last to the city of Susa. “Here,” he said, “is the river Choaspes with the great city of Susa, where the King has his palace. Here also are his treasures, on which if ye can lay your hands ye may without fear compare yourselves for riches to Zeus himself. What profit is there to fight, and that many times, for a few furlongs of barren land, with Messenians, men that are your match, or with Arcadians or Argives that have not gold or silver or any such thing, for the getting of which a man might willingly go in peril of his life, and this when ye might be lords of all Asia?” Then said Cleomenes, “Man of Miletus, I will give thee an answer in this matter on the third day.” And on the third, when they came together as had been appointed, the King said, “Tell me, Aristagoras, of how many days is the journey from the sea to this city of Susa?” Now in every thing else Aristagoras had answered him craftily; but in this he was taken unawares. For if he would have had the Spartans come to Asia, he should not have told the truth; but this he did tell, for he said, “It is a journey of three months.” But when the King heard this he would not suffer Aristagoras to say what he would have told about the journey, but cried, “Man of Miletus, depart from Sparta before the setting of the sun; for thou hast nothing to say that can profit the Spartans if thou wouldst take them a journey of three months from the sea.” When he had said this, the King departed to his house. Then Aristagoras, taking the garb of a suppliant, went to him and besought him, as he had regard to a suppliant, to listen to him. “But first,” he said, “send away the child;” for there stood by the King his little daughter, whose name was Gorgo. This Gorgo was his only child, being now of eight or nine years. But Cleomenes bade him say what he would, and stay not for the child. Then Aristagoras began with ten talents, promising that he would give him so much if he would help him to that which he desired. And when Cleomenes would not, he promised yet more, till he came to fifty talents. Then the child spake, “Father, this stranger will corrupt thee unless thou rise up and depart.” This counsel of the child greatly pleased Cleomenes, so that he rose up from his place and went into another chamber. After this Aristagoras departed from Sparta, and came to Athens, knowing that this city held the next place for power.
THE CITY OF ATHENS had greatly increased in might since it was rid of its lords. The manner of the riddance was this. For a while after Hipparchus had been slain—this Hipparchus, with Hippias his brother, had received the lordship from Pisistratus his father, and he had been slain at the festival of Athene—the tyranny was more grievous than before. Now there was in Athens a great house, the sons of Alcmæon, and these had been banished by the children of Pisistratus. At the first indeed joining with others who were in like case, they sought to obtain their return by force, building a fort on Mount Parnes, whence they might attack the city; but they accomplished nothing. Then they devised this device. They made a covenant with the council of the Amphictyons that they would build the temple of Apollo that is in Delphi for a certain sum of money. But in the building they made all things fairer than according to the letter of the covenant—and this they could do by reason of their great wealth—and especially, when it had been agreed that they should use common stone in the building of the temple, they used for the front thereof marble of Paros. After this they persuaded the Pythia with a sum of money that whenever any men from Sparta came to ask counsel of the oracle, whether they came on their own affairs or the affairs of the State, she should bid them set free the city of Athens. When this message had come to the Lacedæmonians many times, they sent one of their chief citizens with an army to drive out the children of Pisistratus from Athens. And this they did, though the men were dear friends to them, for they judged it well to prefer the bidding of the Gods to the friendship of men. This army came by sea and landed at Phalerus. And when the sons of Pisistratus heard of it, they sent for help to Thessaly, with which country they had alliance, and there came to them from Thessaly a thousand horsemen, under Cineas, King of Thessaly. With them they assailed the camp of the Lacedæmonians, and slew not a few of them, among whom was the captain of the army, and drove such as were left into their ships. After this the Lacedæmonians sent another army, greater than before, under King Cleomenes, sending them not in ships but by land. These also, so soon as they had crossed the borders, the horsemen of the Thessalians attacked, but could not stand before them, but fled back without delay into their own land. Then Cleomenes, coming to the city and taking to him such as were minded to drive out from Athens its lords, besieged the sons of Pisistratus in the Pelasgian fort; but they would not have accomplished their purpose—for they had no mind to make a long siege of the fort, and the sons of Pisistratus had meat and drink in abundance—but would have tarried a few days, and so departed, but for this chance. The sons of Pisistratus sought to send their children out of the country secretly; but the children were taken. Then they made a covenant with the Athenians that, if the children should be given back to them, they would depart out of the country within the space of five days. And this they did, their house having had the lordship for thirty years and six. Thus was Athens rid of its lords.
Aristagoras then coming to this city of Athens presented himself before the people, and said the same words that he had said before in Sparta, about the good things in Asia, and about the manner of fighting of the Persians, how they had neither spear nor shield, and were therefore easily to be conquered. Also he said that the Milesians were colonists from Athens, and that it was just that the Athenians, being so mighty, should deliver them from slavery. And because his need was great, there was nothing that he did not promise, till at the last he persuaded them. For it is easier, it seems, to deceive a multitude than to deceive one man. Cleomenes the Spartan, being but one man, Aristagoras could not deceive; but he brought over to his purpose the people of Athens, being thirty thousand. So the Athenians, being persuaded, made a decree to send twenty ships to help the men of Ionia, and appointed one Melanthius, a man of reputation among them, to be captain. These ships were the beginning of trouble both to the Greeks and the barbarians.
After this Aristagoras sailed to Miletus; and so soon as he was gone there he did a thing which could be of no profit to the men of Ionia, but vexed King Darius. He sent a messenger to the Pæonians, whom Megabazus had carried away captive from the river Strymon and set down in Phrygia, saying, “Thus saith Aristagoras, lord of Miletus, If ye will obey him, ye shall have deliverance. All Ionia hath rebelled against the King. Now therefore ye can depart in safety to your own land. How ye shall get to the sea ye must order for yourselves; but when ye are come thither, we will see to the matter.” The Pæonians heard this with great gladness; and taking with them their wives and their children, they fled to the sea. Yet some of them were afraid and remained behind. And when they had come to the sea, they crossed over to Chios. And when they were already in Chios there came a multitude of the horsemen of the Persians, pursuing them, who, as they had not been able to overtake them, sent messengers to them in Chios, bidding them return to the land of Phrygia. But the Pæonians would not hearken to them. And the people of Chios carried them thence to Lesbos, and the Lesbians carried them to Doriscus; and from Doriscus they returned on foot to their own land of Pæonia.
When the twenty ships of the Athenians were arrived, and with them five ships of the Eretrians, which came, not for any love of the Athenians, but because the Milesians had helped them in old time against the men of Chalcis, Aristagoras sent an army against Sardis, but he himself abode in Miletus. This army, crossing Mount Tmolus, took the city of Sardis without any hindrance; but the citadel they took not, for Artaphernes held it with a great force of soldiers. But though they took the city they had not the plunder of it, and for this reason. The houses in Sardis were for the most part built of reeds, and such as were built of bricks had their roofs of reeds; and when a certain soldier set fire to one of these houses, the fire ran quickly from house to house till the whole city was consumed. And while the city was burning, such Lydians and Persians as were in it, seeing that they were cut off from escape (for the fire was in all the outskirts of the city), gathered together in haste to the market-place. Through this market-place flows the river Pactolus, which comes down from Mount Tmolus, having gold in its sands, and when it has passed out of the city it flows into the Hermus which flows into the sea. Here then the Lydians and Persians were gathered together, being constrained to defend themselves. And when the men of Ionia saw their enemies how many they were, and that these were preparing to give battle, they were stricken with fear, and fled out of the city to Mount Tmolus, and thence, when it was night, they went back to the sea. In this manner was burned the city of Sardis, and in it the great temple of the goddess Cybele, the burning of which temple was the cause, as said the Persians, for which afterward they burned the temples in Greece. Not long after came a host of Persians from beyond the river Halys; and when they found that the men of Ionia had departed from Sardis, they followed hard upon their track, and came up with them at Ephesus. And when the battle was joined, the men of Ionia fled before them. Many indeed were slain, and such as escaped were scattered, every man to his own city.
After this the ships of the Athenians departed and would not help the men of Ionia any more, though Aristagoras besought them to stay. Nevertheless the Ionians ceased not from making preparations of war against the King, making to themselves allies, some by force and some by persuasion, as the cities of the Hellespont and many of the Carians and the island of Cyprus. For all Cyprus, save Amathus only, revolted from the King under Onesilus, brother of King Gorgus.
When King Darius heard that Sardis had been taken and burned with fire by the Ionians and the Athenians, with Aristagoras for leader, at the first he took no heed of the Ionians, as knowing that they would surely suffer for their deed, but he asked, “Who are these Athenians?” And when they told him he took a bow and shot an arrow into the air, saying, “O Zeus, grant that I may avenge myself on these Athenians.” And he commanded his servant that every day, when his dinner was served, he should say three times, “Master, remember the Athenians.” After this he called for Histiæus of Miletus, and said to him, “Histiæus, I hear that thy deputy to whom thou gavest over Miletus has rebelled, and has brought men from over the sea to help him, and, taking with him also certain of the Ionians (who verily shall suffer for their wrong-doing), has taken from me the city of Sardis. How can this have been done without thy counsel? Take heed lest the blame fall on thee.” Then answered Histiæus, “What is this that thou hast said, that I should devise any evil against thee? For what do I lack being here with thee? If my deputy has done such things, he has done them of his own counsel. Yet do I scarce believe that he has done them. But if so, see what a thing thou hast done in taking me away from the coast country. Surely had I been yet there, no city had been troubled. But now send me as speedily as may be to the land of the Ionians, that I may set all things in order as they were aforetime, and also deliver up this deputy, if he has so done, into thy hands. Verily, I swear by thy Gods, O King, that I will not put off the tunic which I shall wear on the day when I go down to the land of the Ionians, before I make the great island of Sardinia tributary to thee.” So Darius let him go, commanding him when he had accomplished these things to come back to him at Susa.
Meanwhile the Persians took not a few cities of the Ionians and Æolians. But while they were busy about these, the Carians revolted from the King; whereupon the captains of the Persians led their army into Caria, and the men of Caria came out to meet them; and they met them at a certain place which is called the White Pillars, near to the river Mæander. Then there were many counsels among the Carians whereof the best was this, that they should cross the river and so contend with the Persians, having the river behind them, that so there being no escape for them if they fled, they might surpass themselves in courage. But this counsel did not prevail. Nevertheless, when the Persians had crossed the Mæander, the Carians fought against them, and the battle was exceedingly long and fierce. But at the last the Carians were vanquished, being overborne by numbers, so that there fell of them ten thousand. And when they that escaped—for many had fled to Labranda, where there is a great temple of Zeus and a grove of plane trees—were doubting whether they should yield themselves to the King or depart altogether from Asia, there came to their help the men of Miletus with their allies. Thereupon the Carians, putting away their doubts altogether, fought with the Persians a second time, and were vanquished yet more grievously than before. But on this day the men of Miletus suffered the chief damage. And the Carians fought with the Persians yet again a third time; for, hearing that these were about to attack their cities one by one, they laid an ambush for them on the road to Pedasus. And the Persians, marching by night, fell into the ambush, and were utterly destroyed, they and their captains.
After these things, Aristagoras, seeing the power of the Persians, and having no more any hope to prevail over them—and indeed, for all that he had brought about so much trouble, he was of a poor spirit—called together his friends and said to them, “We must needs have some place of refuge, if we be driven out of Miletus. Shall we therefore go to Sardinia, or to Myrcinus on the river Strymon, which King Darius gave to Histiæus?”
To this Hecateus, the writer of chronicles, made answer, “Let Aristagoras build a fort in Leros (this Leros is an island thirty miles distant from Miletus) and dwell there quietly, if he be driven from Miletus. And hereafter he can come from Leros and set himself up again in Miletus.”
But Aristagoras went to Myrcinus, and not long afterwards was slain while he besieged a certain city of the Thracians.
And now Histiæus came down from Susa to Sardis. When he was come to Sardis, Artaphernes the governor inquired of him the cause why the Ionians had rebelled, and when Histiæus said that he could not tell, Artaphernes said, for indeed he knew the whole matter, “The matter stands thus, Histiæus. Thou hast stitched the shoe and Aristagoras has put it on.” When Histiæus heard this, and perceived that the thing was known, he fled to the coast. And first he went to Chios, where the people cast him into prison, but finding that he had rebelled against the King set him at liberty; and from Chios he went to Miletus; but the men of Miletus, being rid of one lord, even Aristagoras, were not minded to take to themselves another, and when he sought to make an entrance by night, they fought against him and wounded him in the thigh. After this, having got ships from the Lesbians, he laid wait at the Hellespont and seized all the ships that came forth from the Black Sea unless they would take service with him.
Now the Persians had gathered together a great host and a fleet also against Miletus; and the men of Miletus sent deputies to the Great Ionian Council. And the council resolved that they would not send an army to fight against the Persians, but that the cities should send all their ships, not leaving one behind, and that they should be assembled at Lade, which is an island near Miletus. So all the Ionians sent their ships, a hundred coming from Chios, and eighty from Miletus, and sixty from Lesbos. The number of the whole was three hundred and fifty and three. But the number of the ships of the barbarians was six hundred.
First the Persian captains sent for the lords of the Ionian cities whom Aristagoras had driven out, and said to them, “Now can ye do good service to the house of the King. Let each seek to draw away his own countrymen from the alliance of the Ionians; and let him tell them that they shall suffer no harm by reason of their revolt, but shall be in all points even as they were in former days. But if they be stubborn then shall they and their children be sold into slavery, and their land shall be given unto strangers.” Then the lords sent messengers to tell these words to their countrymen; but these would not hearken or betray their allies. And each people thought that these promises were made to them only and not to the others.
Afterward divers councils were held by the captains of the fleet, in which, after others had set forth their opinions, Dionysius of Phocæa thus spake, “Ye men of Ionia, now are our fortunes on the razor’s edge, whether we shall be free men or slaves, and slaves that are also runaways. If ye will endure for the time some hardness, ye will be able to prevail over your enemies and so be free forever; but if ye continue in your present slothfulness and disorder, there is no hope but that ye will suffer the wrath of the King when he shall avenge himself on you for your revolt. Be therefore persuaded by me and yield yourselves to my commands; for if ye fulfill these faithfully either will the Persians fly before us, or if they fight, will be utterly vanquished.”