Histories

for a considerable time and were some of them killed and others taken alive: and the Hellenes had bound these and were bringing them to Sestos, and among them Artaÿctes also in bonds together with his son. 120. Then, it is said by the men of the Chersonese, as one of those who guarded them was frying dried fish, a portent occurred as follows⁠—the dried fish when laid upon the fire began to leap and struggle just as if they were fish newly caught: and the others gathered round and were marvelling at the portent, but Artaÿctes seeing it called to the man who was frying the fish and said: “Stranger of Athens, be not at all afraid of this portent, seeing that it has not appeared for thee but for me. Protesilaos who dwells at Elaius signifies thereby that though he is dead and his body is dried like those fish,1451 yet he has power given him by the gods to exact vengeance from the man who does him wrong. Now therefore I desire to impose this penalty for him,1452⁠—that in place of the things which I took from the temple I should pay down a hundred talents to the god, and moreover as ransom for myself and my son I will pay two hundred talents to the Athenians, if my life be spared.” Thus he engaged to do, but he did not prevail upon the commander Xanthippos; for the people of Elaius desiring to take vengeance for Protesilaos asked that he might be put to death, and the inclination of the commander himself tended to the same conclusion. They brought him therefore to that headland to which Xerxes made the passage across, or as some say to the hill which is over the town of Madytos, and there they nailed him to boards1453 and hung him up; and they stoned his son to death before the eyes of Artaÿctes himself. 121. Having so done, they sailed away to Hellas, taking with them, besides other things, the ropes also of the bridges, in order to dedicate them as offerings in the temples: and for that year nothing happened further than this.

122. Now a forefather of this Artaÿctes who was hung up, was that Artembares who set forth to the Persians a proposal which they took up and brought before Cyrus, being to this effect: “Seeing that Zeus grants to the Persians leadership, and of all men to thee, O Cyrus, by destroying Astyages, come, since the land we possess is small and also rugged, let us change from it and inhabit another which is better: and there are many near at hand, and many also at a greater distance, of which if we take one, we shall have greater reverence and from more men. It is reasonable too that men who are rulers should do such things; for when will there ever be a fairer occasion than now, when we are rulers of many nations and of the whole of Asia?” Cyrus, hearing this and not being surprised at the proposal,1454 bade them do so if they would; but he exhorted them and bade them prepare in that case to be no longer rulers but subjects; “For,” said he, “from lands which are not rugged men who are not rugged are apt to come forth, since it does not belong to the same land to bring forth fruits of the earth which are admirable and also men who are good in war.” So the Persians acknowledged that he was right and departed from his presence, having their opinion defeated by that of Cyrus; and they chose rather to dwell on poor land and be rulers, than to sow crops in a level plain and be slaves to others.

Endnotes

1. See the remarks of P.-L. Courier (on Larcher’s version) in the preface to his specimens of a new translation of Herodotus (Œuvres complètes de P.-L. Courier, Bruxelles, 1828). ↩

2. Mr. Woods, for example, in his edition of the first book (published in 1873) gives a list of readings for the first and second books, in which he almost invariably prefers the authority of Gronovius to that of Stein, where their reports differ. In so doing he is wrong in all cases (I think) except one, namely I. 134 τῷ λεγομένῳ. He is wrong, for examine, in I. 189, where the MS. has τοῦτο, I. 196 ἂν ἄγεσθαι, I. 199 ὁδῶν, II. 15 τῇ δὴ, II. 95 ὑπ’ αὐτò, II. 103 καì προσηώτατα, II. 124 τῷ ἄλλῳ (without λαῷ), II. 181 υῷ. Abicht also has made several inaccurate statements, e.g. I. 185, where the MS. has ἑς τòν Εὐφπήτην, and VII. 133 Ξέρξης. ↩

3. For example in the index of proper names attached to Stein’s annotated edition (Berlin, 1882), to which I am under obligation, having checked my own by it, I find that I have marked upwards of two hundred mistakes or oversights: no doubt I have been saved by it from at least as many. ↩

4. Ἡροδότον Ἁλικαρνησσέος ἀπόδεξις ἥδε, ὡς κ.τ.λ. The meaning of the word ἱστορίη passes gradually from “research” or “inquiry” to “narrative,” “history”; cp. VII. 96. Aristotle in quoting these words writes Θονρίου for Ἁλικαρνησσέος (“Herodotus of Thurii”), and we know from Plutarch that this reading existed in his time as a variation. ↩

5. Probably ἐργα may here mean enduring monuments like the pyramids and the works at Samos, cp.