The Persian Wars by Herodotus
Translated by: George Rawlinson 1942
Edited by: Bruce J. Butterfield
Book 4 - MELPOMENE
[4.1] After the taking of Babylon,
an expedition was led by Darius into Scythia. Asia abounding in men, and
vast sums flowing into the treasury, the desire seized him to exact vengeance
from the Scyths, who had once in days gone by invaded Media, defeated those
who met them in the field, and so begun the quarrel. During the space of
eight-and-twenty years, as I have before mentioned, the Scyths continued
lords of the whole of Upper Asia. They entered Asia in pursuit of the Cimmerians,
and overthrew the empire of the Medes, who till they came possessed the
sovereignty. On their return to their homes after the long absence of twenty-eight
years, a task awaited them little less troublesome than their struggle
with the Medes. They found an army of no small size prepared to oppose
their entrance. For the Scythian women, when they saw that time went on,
and their husbands did not come back, had intermarried with their slaves.
[4.2] Now the Scythians blind all their
slaves, to use them in preparing their milk. The plan they follow is to
thrust tubes made of bone, not unlike our musical pipes, up the vulva of
the mare, and then to blow into the tubes with their mouths, some milking
while the others blow. They say that they do this because when the veins
of the animal are full of air, the udder is forced down. The milk thus
obtained is poured into deep wooden casks, about which the blind slaves
are placed, and then the milk is stirred round. That which rises to the
top is drawn off, and considered the best part; the under portion is of
less account. Such is the reason why the Scythians blind all those whom
they take in war; it arises from their not being tillers of the ground,
but a pastoral race.
[4.3] When therefore the children sprung
from these slaves and the Scythian women grew to manhood, and understood
the circumstances of their birth, they resolved to oppose the army which
was returning from Media. And, first of all, they cut off a tract of country
from the rest of Scythia by digging a broad dyke from the Tauric mountains
to the vast lake of the Maeotis. Afterwards, when the Scythians tried to
force an entrance, they marched out and engaged them. Many battles were
fought, and the Scythians gained no advantage, until at last one of them
thus addressed the remainder: "What are we doing, Scythians? We are
fighting our slaves, diminishing our own number when we fall, and the number
of those that belong to us when they fall by our hands. Take my advice
- lay spear and bow aside, and let each man fetch his horsewhip, and go
boldly up to them. So long as they see us with arms in our hands, they
imagine themselves our equals in birth and bravery; but let them behold
us with no other weapon but the whip, and they will feel that they are
our slaves, and flee before us."
[4.4] The Scythians followed this counsel,
and the slaves were so astounded, that they forgot to fight, and immediately
ran away. Such was the mode in which the Scythians, after being for a time
the lords of Asia, and being forced to quit it by the Medes, returned and
settled in their own country. This inroad of theirs it was that Darius
was anxious to avenge, and such was the purpose for which he was now collecting
an army to invade them.
[4.5] According to the account which
the Scythians themselves give, they are the youngest of all nations. Their
tradition is as follows. A certain Targitaus was the first man who ever
lived in their country, which before his time was a desert without inhabitants.
He was a child - I do not believe the tale, but it is told nevertheless
- of Jove and a daughter of the Borysthenes. Targitaus, thus descended,
begat three sons, Leipoxais, Arpoxais, and Colaxais, who was the youngest
born of the three. While they still ruled the land, there fell from the
sky four implements, all of gold - a plough, a yoke, a battle-axe, and
a drinking-cup. The eldest of the brothers perceived them first, and approached
to pick them up; when lo! as he came near, the gold took fire, and blazed.
He therefore went his way, and the second coming forward made the attempt,
but the same thing happened again. The gold rejected both the eldest and
the second brother. Last of all the youngest brother approached, and immediately
the flames were extinguished; so he picked up the gold, and carried it
to his home. Then the two elder agreed together, and made the whole kingdom
over to the youngest born.
[4.6] From Leipoxais sprang the Scythians
of the race called Auchatae; from Arpoxais, the middle brother, those known
as the Catiari and Traspians; from Colaxais, the youngest, the Royal Scythians,
or Paralatae. All together they are named Scoloti, after one of their kings:
the Greeks, however, call them Scythians.
[4.7] Such is the account which the
Scythians give of their origin. They add that from the time of Targitaus,
their first king, to the invasion of their country by Darius, is a period
of one thousand years, neither less nor more. The Royal Scythians guard
the sacred gold with most especial care, and year by year offer great sacrifices
in its honour. At this feast, if the man who has the custody of the gold
should fall asleep in the open air, he is sure (the Scythians say) not
to outlive the year. His pay therefore is as much land as he can ride round
on horseback in a day. As the extent of Scythia is very great, Colaxais
gave each of his three sons a separate kingdom, one of which was of ampler
size than the other two: in this the gold was preserved. Above, to the
northward of the farthest dwellers in Scythia, the country is said to be
concealed from sight and made impassable by reason of the feathers which
are shed abroad abundantly. The earth and air are alike full of them, and
this it is which prevents the eye from obtaining any view of the region.
[4.8] Such is the account which the
Scythians give of themselves, and of the country which lies above them.
The Greeks who dwell about the Pontus tell a different story. According
to Hercules, when he was carrying off the cows of Geryon, arrived in the
region which is now inhabited by the Scyths, but which was then a desert.
Geryon lived outside the Pontus, in an island called by the Greeks Erytheia,
near Gades, which is beyond the Pillars of Hercules upon the Ocean. Now
some say that the Ocean begins in the east, and runs the whole way round
the world; but they give no proof that this is really so. Hercules came
from thence into the region now called Scythia, and, being overtaken by
storm and frost, drew his lion's skin about him, and fell fast asleep.
While he slept, his mares, which he had loosed from his chariot to graze,
by some wonderful chance disappeared.
[4.9] On waking, he went in quest of
them, and, after wandering over the whole country, came at last to the
district called "the Woodland," where he found in a cave a strange
being, between a maiden and a serpent, whose form from the waist upwards
was like that of a woman, while all below was like a snake. He looked at
her wonderingly; but nevertheless inquired, whether she had chanced to
see his strayed mares anywhere. She answered him, "Yes, and they were
now in her keeping; but never would she consent to give them back, unless
he took her for his mistress." So Hercules, to get his mares back,
agreed; but afterwards she put him off and delayed restoring the mares,
since she wished to keep him with her as long as possible. He, on the other
hand, was only anxious to secure them and to get away. At last, when she
gave them up, she said to him, "When thy mares strayed hither, it
was I who saved them for thee: now thou hast paid their salvage; for lo!
I bear in my womb three sons of thine. Tell me therefore when thy sons
grow up, what must I do with them? Wouldst thou wish that I should settle
them here in this land, whereof I am mistress, or shall I send them to
thee?" Thus questioned, they say, Hercules answered, "When the
lads have grown to manhood, do thus, and assuredly thou wilt not err. Watch
them, and when thou seest one of them bend this bow as I now bend it, and
gird himself with this girdle thus, choose him to remain in the land. Those
who fail in the trial, send away. Thus wilt thou at once please thyself
and obey me."
[4.10] Hereupon he strung one of his
bows - up to that time he had carried two - and showed her how to fasten
the belt. Then he gave both bow and belt into her hands. Now the belt had
a golden goblet attached to its clasp. So after he had given them to her,
he went his way; and the woman, when her children grew to manhood, first
gave them severally their names. One she called Agathyrsus, one Gelonus,
and the other, who was the youngest, Scythes. Then she remembered the instructions
she had received from Hercules, and, in obedience to his orders, she put
her sons to the test. Two of them, Agathyrsus and Gelonus, proving unequal
to the task enjoined, their mother sent them out of the land; Scythes,
the youngest, succeeded, and so he was allowed to remain. From Scythes,
the son of Hercules, were descended the after kings of Scythia; and from
the circumstance of the goblet which hung from the belt, the Scythians
to this day wear goblets at their girdles. This was the only thing which
the mother of Scythes did for him. Such is the tale told by the Greeks
who dwell around the Pontus.
[4.11] There is also another different
story, now to be related, in which I am more inclined to put faith than
in any other. It is that the wandering Scythians once dwelt in Asia, and
there warred with the Massagetae, but with ill success; they therefore
quitted their homes, crossed the Araxes, and entered the land of Cimmeria.
For the land which is now inhabited by the Scyths was formerly the country
of the Cimmerians. On their coming, the natives, who heard how numerous
the invading army was, held a council. At this meeting opinion was divided,
and both parties stiffly maintained their own view; but the counsel of
the Royal tribe was the braver. For the others urged that the best thing
to be done was to leave the country, and avoid a contest with so vast a
host; but the Royal tribe advised remaining and fighting for the soil to
the last. As neither party chose to give way, the one determined to retire
without a blow and yield their lands to the invaders; but the other, remembering
the good things which they had enjoyed in their homes, and picturing to
themselves the evils which they had to expect if they gave them up, resolved
not to flee, but rather to die and at least be buried in their fatherland.
Having thus decided, they drew apart in two bodies, the one as numerous
as the other, and fought together. All of the Royal tribe were slain, and
the people buried them near the river Tyras, where their grave is still
to be seen. Then the rest of the Cimmerians departed, and the Scythians,
on their coming, took possession of a deserted land.
[4.12] Scythia still retains traces
of the Cimmerians; there are Cimmerian castles, and a Cimmerian ferry,
also a tract called Cimmeria, and a Cimmerian Bosphorus. It appears likewise
that the Cimmerians, when they fled into Asia to escape the Scyths, made
a settlement in the peninsula where the Greek city of Sinope was afterwards
built. The Scyths, it is plain, pursued them, and missing their road, poured
into Media. For the Cimmerians kept the line which led along the sea-shore,
but the Scyths in their pursuit held the Caucasus upon their right, thus
proceeding inland, and falling upon Media. This account is one which is
common both to Greeks and barbarians.
[4.13] Aristeas also, son of Caystrobius,
a native of Proconnesus, says in the course of his poem that wrapt in Bacchic
fury he went as far as the Issedones. Above them dwelt the Arimaspi, men
with one eye; still further, the gold-guarding griffins; and beyond these,
the Hyperboreans, who extended to the sea. Except the Hyperboreans, all
these nations, beginning with the Arimaspi, were continually encroaching
upon their neighbours. Hence it came to pass that the Arimaspi drove the
Issedonians from their country, while the Issedonians dispossessed the
Scyths; and the Scyths, pressing upon the Cimmerians, who dwelt on the
shores of the Southern Sea, forced them to leave their land. Thus even
Aristeas does not agree in his account of this region with the Scythians.
[4.14] The birthplace of Aristeas,
the poet who sung of these things, I have already mentioned. I will now
relate a tale which I heard concerning him both at Proconnesus and at Cyzicus.
Aristeas, they said, who belonged to one of the noblest families in the
island, had entered one day into a fuller's shop, when he suddenly dropt
down dead. Hereupon the fuller shut up his shop, and went to tell Aristeas'
kindred what had happened. The report of the death had just spread through
the town, when a certain Cyzicenian, lately arrived from Artaca, contradicted
the rumour, affirming that he had met Aristeas on his road to Cyzicus,
and had spoken with him. This man, therefore, strenuously denied the rumour;
the relations, however, proceeded to the fuller's shop with all things
necessary for the funeral, intending to carry the body away. But on the
shop being opened, no Aristeas was found, either dead or alive. Seven years
afterwards he reappeared, they told me, in Proconnesus, and wrote the poem
called by the Greeks The Arimaspeia, after which he disappeared a second
time. This is the tale current in the two cities above-mentioned.
[4.15] What follows I know to have
happened to the Metapontines of Italy, three hundred and forty years after
the second disappearance of Aristeas, as I collect by comparing the accounts
given me at Proconnesus and Metapontum. Aristeas then, as the Metapontines
affirm, appeared to them in their own country, and ordered them to set
up an altar in honour of Apollo, and to place near it a statue to be called
that of Aristeas the Proconnesian. "Apollo," he told them, "had
come to their country once, though he had visited no other Italiots; and
he had been with Apollo at the time, not however in his present form, but
in the shape of a crow." Having said so much, he vanished. Then the
Metapontines, as they relate, sent to Delphi, and inquired of the god in
what light they were to regard the appearance of this ghost of a man. The
Pythoness, in reply, bade them attend to what the spectre said, "for
so it would go best with them." Thus advised, they did as they had
been directed: and there is now a statue bearing the name of Aristeas,
close by the image of Apollo in the market-place of Metapontum, with bay-trees
standing around it. But enough has been said concerning Aristeas.
[4.16] With regard to the regions
which lie above the country whereof this portion of my history treats,
there is no one who possesses any exact knowledge. Not a single person
can I find who professes to be acquainted with them by actual observation.
Even Aristeas, the traveller of whom I lately spoke, does not claim - and
he is writing poetry - to have reached any farther than the Issedonians.
What he relates concerning the regions beyond is, he confesses, mere hearsay,
being the account which the Issedonians gave him of those countries. However,
I shall proceed to mention all that I have learnt of these parts by the
most exact inquiries which I have been able to make concerning them.
[4.17] Above the mart of the Borysthenites,
which is situated in the very centre of the whole sea-coast of Scythia,
the first people who inhabit the land are the Callipedae, a Greco-Scythic
race. Next to them, as you go inland, dwell the people called the Alazonians.
These two nations in other respects resemble the Scythians in their usages,
but sow and eat corn, also onions, garlic, lentils, and millet. Beyond
the Alazonians reside Scythian cultivators, who grow corn, not for their
own use, but for sale. Still higher up are the Neuri. Northwards of the
Neuri the continent, as far as it is known to us, is uninhabited. These
are the nations along the course of the river Hypanis, west of the Borysthenes.
[4.18] Across the Borysthenes, the
first country after you leave the coast is Hylaea (the Woodland). Above
this dwell the Scythian Husbandmen, whom the Greeks living near the Hypanis
call Borysthenites, while they call themselves Olbiopolites. These Husbandmen
extend eastward a distance of three days' journey to a river bearing the
name of Panticapes, while northward the country is theirs for eleven days'
sail up the course of the Borysthenes. Further inland there is a vast tract
which is uninhabited. Above this desolate region dwell the Cannibals, who
are a people apart, much unlike the Scythians. Above them the country becomes
an utter desert; not a single tribe, so far as we know, inhabits it.
[4.19] Crossing the Panticapes, and
proceeding eastward of the Husbandmen, we come upon the wandering Scythians,
who neither plough nor sow. Their country, and the whole of this region,
except Hylaea, is quite bare of trees. They extend towards the east a distance
of fourteen' days' journey, occupying a tract which reaches to the river
Gerrhus.
[4.20] On the opposite side of the
Gerrhus is the Royal district, as it is called: here dwells the largest
and bravest of the Scythian tribes, which looks upon all the other tribes
in the light of slaves. Its country reaches on the south to Taurica, on
the east to the trench dug by the sons of the blind slaves, the mart upon
the Palus Maeotis, called Cremni (the Cliffs), and in part to the river
Tanais. North of the country of the Royal Scythians are the Melanchaeni
(Black-Robes), a people of quite a different race from the Scythians. Beyond
them lie marshes and a region without inhabitants, so far as our knowledge
reaches.
[4.21] When one crosses the Tanais,
one is no longer in Scythia; the first region on crossing is that of the
Sauromatae, who, beginning at the upper end of the Palus Maeotis, stretch
northward a distance of fifteen days' journey, inhabiting a country which
is entirely bare of trees, whether wild or cultivated. Above them, possessing
the second region, dwell the Budini, whose territory is thickly wooded
with trees of every kind.
[4.22] Beyond the Budini, as one goes
northward, first there is a desert, seven days' journey across; after which,
if one inclines somewhat to the east, the Thyssagetae are reached, a numerous
nation quite distinct from any other, and living by the chase. Adjoining
them, and within the limits of the same region, are the people who bear
the name of Iyrcae; they also support themselves by hunting, which they
practise in the following manner. The hunter climbs a tree, the whole country
abounding in wood, and there sets himself in ambush; he has a dog at hand,
and a horse, trained to lie down upon its belly, and thus make itself low;
the hunter keeps watch, and when he sees his game, lets fly an arrow; then
mounting his horse, he gives the beast chase, his dog following hard all
the while. Beyond these people, a little to the east, dwells a distinct
tribe of Scyths, who revolted once from the Royal Scythians, and migrated
into these parts.
[4.23] As far as their country, the
tract of land whereof I have been speaking is all a smooth plain, and the
soil deep; beyond you enter on a region which is rugged and stony. Passing
over a great extent of this rough country, you come to a people dwelling
at the foot of lofty mountains, who are said to be all - both men and women
- bald from their birth, to have flat noses, and very long chins. These
people speak a language of their own,. the dress which they wear is the
same as the Scythian. They live on the fruit of a certain tree, the name
of which is Ponticum; in size it is about equal to our fig-tree, and it
bears a fruit like a bean, with a stone inside. When the fruit is ripe,
they strain it through cloths; the juice which runs off is black and thick,
and is called by the natives "aschy." They lap this up with their
tongues, and also mix it with milk for a drink; while they make the lees,
which are solid, into cakes, and eat them instead of meat; for they have
but few sheep in their country, in which there is no good pasturage. Each
of them dwells under a tree, and they cover the tree in winter with a cloth
of thick white felt, but take off the covering in the summer-time. No one
harms these people, for they are looked upon as sacred - they do not even
possess any warlike weapons. When their neighbours fall out, they make
up the quarrel; and when one flies to them for refuge, he is safe from
all hurt. They are called the Argippaeans.
[4.24] Up to this point the territory
of which we are speaking is very completely explored, and all the nations
between the coast and the bald-headed men are well known to us. For some
of the Scythians are accustomed to penetrate as far, of whom inquiry may
easily be made, and Greeks also go there from the mart on the Borysthenes,
and from the other marts along the Euxine. The Scythians who make this
journey communicate with the inhabitants by means of seven interpreters
and seven languages.
[4.25] Thus far, therefore, the land
is known; but beyond the bald-headed men lies a region of which no one
can give any exact account. Lofty and precipitous mountains, which are
never crossed, bar further progress. The bald men say, but it does not
seem to me credible, that the people who live in these mountains have feet
like goats; and that after passing them you find another race of men, who
sleep during one half of the year. This latter statement appears to me
quite unworthy of credit. The region east of the bald-headed men is well
known to be inhabited by the Issedonians, but the tract that lies to the
north of these two nations is entirely unknown, except by the accounts
which they give of it.
[4.26] The Issedonians are said to
have the following customs. When a man's father dies, all the near relatives
bring sheep to the house; which are sacrificed, and their flesh cut in
pieces, while at the same time the dead body undergoes the like treatment.
The two sorts of flesh are afterwards mixed together, and the whole is
served up at a banquet. The head of the dead man is treated differently:
it is stripped bare, cleansed, and set in gold. It then becomes an ornament
on which they pride themselves, and is brought out year by year at the
great festival which sons keep in honour of their fathers' death, just
as the Greeks keep their Genesia. In other respects the Issedonians are
reputed to be observers of justice: and it is to be remarked that their
women have equal authority with the men. Thus our knowledge extends as
far as this nation.
[4.27] The regions beyond are known
only from the accounts of the Issedonians, by whom the stories are told
of the one-eyed race of men and the gold-guarding griffins. These stories
are received by the Scythians from the Issedonians, and by them passed
on to us Greeks: whence it arises that we give the one-eyed race the Scythian
name of Arimaspi, "arima" being the Scythic word for "one,"
and "spu" for "the eye."
[4.28] The whole district whereof
we have here discoursed has winters of exceeding rigour. During eight months
the frost is so intense that water poured upon the ground does not form
mud, but if a fire be lighted on it mud is produced. The sea freezes, and
the Cimmerian Bosphorus is frozen over. At that season the Scythians who
dwell inside the trench make warlike expeditions upon the ice, and even
drive their waggons across to the country of the Sindians. Such is the
intensity of the cold during eight months out of the twelve; and even in
the remaining four the climate is still cool. The character of the winter
likewise is unlike that of the same season in any other country; for at
that time, when the rains ought to fall in Scythia, there is scarcely any
rain worth mentioning, while in summer it never gives over raining; and
thunder, which elsewhere is frequent then, in Scythia is unknown in that
part of the year, coming only in summer, when it is very heavy. Thunder
in the winter-time is there accounted a prodigy; as also are earthquakes,
whether they happen in winter or summer. Horses bear the winter well, cold
as it is, but mules and asses are quite unable to bear it; whereas in other
countries mules and asses are found to endure the cold, while horses, if
they stand still, are frost-bitten.
[4.29] To me it seems that the cold
may likewise be the cause which prevents the oxen in Scythia from having
horns. There is a line of Homer's in the Odyssey which gives a support
to my opinion:-
Libya too, where horns hud quick on the foreheads of lambkins.
He means to say what is quite true, that in warm countries the horns
come early. So too in countries where the cold is severe animals either
have no horns, or grow them with difficulty - the cold being the cause
in this instance.
[4.30] Here I must express my wonder
- additions being what my work always from the very first affected - that
in Elis, where the cold is not remarkable, and there is nothing else to
account for it, mules are never produced. The Eleans say it is in consequence
of a curse; and their habit is, when the breeding-time comes, to take their
mares into one of the adjoining countries, and there keep them till they
are in foal, when they bring them back again into Elis.
[4.31] With respect to the feathers
which are said by the Scythians to fill the air, and to prevent persons
from penetrating into the remoter parts of the continent, even having any
view of those regions, my opinion is that in the countries above Scythia
it always snows - less, of course, in the summer than in the wintertime.
Now snow when it falls looks like feathers, as every one is aware who has
seen it come down close to him. These northern regions, therefore, are
uninhabitable by reason of the severity of the winter; and the Scythians,
with their neighbours, call the snow-flakes feathers because, I think,
of the likeness which they bear to them. I have now related what is said
of the most distant parts of this continent whereof any account is given.
[4.32] Of the Hyperboreans nothing
is said either by the Scythians or by any of the other dwellers in these
regions, unless it be the Issedonians. But in my opinion, even the Issedonians
are silent concerning them; otherwise the Scythians would have repeated
their statements, as they do those concerning the one-eyed men. Hesiod,
however, mentions them, and Homer also in the Epigoni, if that be really
a work of his.
[4.33] But the persons who have by
far the most to say on this subject are the Delians. They declare that
certain offerings, packed in wheaten straw, were brought from the country
of the Hyperboreans into Scythia, and that the Scythians received them
and passed them on to their neighbours upon the west, who continued to
pass them on until at last they reached the Adriatic. From hence they were
sent southward, and when they came to Greece, were received first of all
by the Dodonaeans. Thence they descended to the Maliac Gulf, from which
they were carried across into Euboea, where the people handed them on from
city to city, till they came at length to Carystus. The Carystians took
them over to Tenos, without stopping at Andros; and the Tenians brought
them finally to Delos. Such, according to their own account, was the road
by which the offerings reached the Delians. Two damsels, they say, named
Hyperoche and Laodice, brought the first offerings from the Hyperboreans;
and with them the Hyperboreans sent five men to keep them from all harm
by the way; these are the persons whom the Delians call "Perpherees,"
and to whom great honours are paid at Delos. Afterwards the Hyperboreans,
when they found that their messengers did not return, thinking it would
be a grievous thing always to be liable to lose the envoys they should
send, adopted the following plan:- they wrapped their offerings in the
wheaten straw, and bearing them to their borders, charged their neighbours
to send them forward from one nation to another, which was done accordingly,
and in this way the offerings reached Delos. I myself know of a practice
like this, which obtains with the women of Thrace and Paeonia. They in
their sacrifices to the queenly Diana bring wheaten straw always with their
offerings. Of my own knowledge I can testify that this is so.
[4.34] The damsels sent by the Hyperboreans
died in Delos; and in their honour all the Delian girls and youths are
wont to cut off their hair. The girls, before their marriage-day, cut off
a curl, and twining it round a distaff, lay it upon the grave of the strangers.
This grave is on the left as one enters the precinct of Diana, and has
an olive-tree growing on it. The youths wind some of their hair round a
kind of grass, and, like the girls, place it upon the tomb. Such are the
honours paid to these damsels by the Delians.
[4.35] They add that, once before,
there came to Delos by the same road as Hyperoche and Laodice, two other
virgins from the Hyperboreans, whose names were Arge and Opis. Hyperoche
and Laodice came to bring to Ilithyia the offering which they had laid
upon themselves, in acknowledgment of their quick labours; but Arge and
Opis came at the same time as the gods of Delos,' and are honoured by the
Delians in a different way. For the Delian women make collections in these
maidens' names, and invoke them in the hymn which Olen, a Lycian, composed
for them; and the rest of the islanders, and even the Ionians, have been
taught by the Delians to do the like. This Olen, who came from Lycia, made
the other old hymns also which are sung in Delos. The Delians add that
the ashes from the thigh-bones burnt upon the altar are scattered over
the tomb of Opis and Arge. Their tomb lies behind the temple of Diana,
facing the east, near the banqueting-hall of the Ceians. Thus much then,
and no more, concerning the Hyperboreans.
[4.36] As for the tale of Abaris,
who is said to have been a Hyperborean, and to have gone with his arrow
all round the world without once eating, I shall pass it by in silence.
Thus much, however, is clear: if there are Hyperboreans, there must also
be Hypernotians. For my part, I cannot but laugh when I see numbers of
persons drawing maps of the world without having any reason to guide them;
making, as they do, the ocean-stream to run all round the earth, and the
earth itself to be an exact circle, as if described by a pair of compasses,
with Europe and Asia just of the same size. The truth in this matter I
will now proceed to explain in a very few words, making it clear what the
real size of each region is, and what shape should be given them.
[4.37] The Persians inhabit a country
upon the southern or Erythraean sea; above them, to the north, are the
Medes; beyond the Medes, the Saspirians; beyond them, the Colchians, reaching
to the northern sea, into which the Phasis empties itself. These four nations
fill the whole space from one sea to the other.
[4.38] West of these nations there
project into the sea two tracts which I will now describe; one, beginning
at the river Phasis on the north, stretches along the Euxine and the Hellespont
to Sigeum in the Troas; while on the south it reaches from the Myriandrian
gulf, which adjoins Phoenicia, to the Triopic promontory. This is one of
the tracts, and is inhabited by thirty different nations.
[4.39] The other starts from the country
of the Persians, and stretches into the Erythraean sea, containing first
Persia, then Assyria, and after Assyria, Arabia. It ends, that is to say,
it is considered to end, though it does not really come to a termination,
at the Arabian gulf - the gulf whereinto Darius conducted the canal which
he made from the Nile. Between Persia and Phoenicia lies a broad and ample
tract of country, after which the region I am describing skirts our sea,
stretching from Phoenicia along the coast of Palestine-Syria till it comes
to Egypt, where it terminates. This entire tract contains but three nations.
The whole of Asia west of the country of the Persians is comprised in these
two regions.
[4.40] Beyond the tract occupied by
the Persians, Medes, Saspirians, and Colchians, towards the east and the
region of the sunrise, Asia is bounded on the south by the Erythraean sea,
and on the north by the Caspian and the river Araxes, which flows towards
the rising sun. Till you reach India the country is peopled; but further
east it is void of inhabitants, and no one can say what sort of region
it is. Such then is the shape, and such the size of Asia.
[4.41] Libya belongs to one of the
above-mentioned tracts, for it adjoins on Egypt. In Egypt the tract is
at first a narrow neck, the distance from our sea to the Erythraean not
exceeding a hundred thousand fathoms, in other words, a thousand furlongs;
but from the point where the neck ends, the tract which bears the name
of Libya is of very great breadth.
[4.42] For my part I am astonished
that men should ever have divided Libya, Asia, and Europe as they have,
for they are exceedingly unequal. Europe extends the entire length of the
other two, and for breadth will not even (as I think) bear to be compared
to them. As for Libya, we know it to be washed on all sides by the sea,
except where it is attached to Asia. This discovery was first made by Necos,
the Egyptian king, who on desisting from the canal which he had begun between
the Nile and the Arabian gulf, sent to sea a number of ships manned by
Phoenicians, with orders to make for the Pillars of Hercules, and return
to Egypt through them, and by the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians took their
departure from Egypt by way of the Erythraean sea, and so sailed into the
southern ocean. When autumn came, they went ashore, wherever they might
happen to be, and having sown a tract of land with corn, waited until the
grain was fit to cut. Having reaped it, they again set sail; and thus it
came to pass that two whole years went by, and it was not till the third
year that they doubled the Pillars of Hercules, and made good their voyage
home. On their return, they declared - I for my part do not believe them,
but perhaps others may - that in sailing round Libya they had the sun upon
their right hand. In this way was the extent of Libya first discovered.
[4.43] Next to these Phoenicians the
Carthaginians, according to their own accounts, made the voyage. For Sataspes,
son of Teaspes the Achaemenian, did not circumnavigate Libya, though he
was sent to do so; but, fearing the length and desolateness of the journey,
he turned back and left unaccomplished the task which had been set him
by his mother. This man had used violence towards a maiden, the daughter
of Zopyrus, son of Megabyzus, and King Xerxes was about to impale him for
the offence, when his mother, who was a sister of Darius, begged him off,
undertaking to punish his crime more heavily than the king himself had
designed. She would force him, she said, to sail round Libya and return
to Egypt by the Arabian gulf. Xerxes gave his consent; and Sataspes went
down to Egypt, and there got a ship and crew, with which he set sail for
the Pillars of Hercules. Having passed the Straits, he doubled the Libyan
headland, known as Cape Soloeis, and proceeded southward. Following this
course for many months over a vast stretch of sea, and finding that more
water than he had crossed still lay ever before him, he put about, and
came back to Egypt. Thence proceeding to the court, he made report to Xerxes,
that at the farthest point to which he had reached, the coast was occupied
by a dwarfish race, who wore a dress made from the palm tree. These people,
whenever he landed, left their towns and fled away to the mountains; his
men, however, did them no wrong, only entering into their cities and taking
some of their cattle. The reason why he had not sailed quite round Libya
was, he said, because the ship stopped, and would no go any further. Xerxes,
however, did not accept this account for true; and so Sataspes, as he had
failed to accomplish the task set him, was impaled by the king's orders
in accordance with the former sentence. One of his eunuchs, on hearing
of his death, ran away with a great portion of his wealth, and reached
Samos, where a certain Samian seized the whole. I know the man's name well,
but I shall willingly forget it here.
[4.44] Of the greater part of Asia
Darius was the discoverer. Wishing to know where the Indus (which is the
only river save one that produces crocodiles) emptied itself into the sea,
he sent a number of men, on whose truthfulness he could rely, and among
them Scylax of Caryanda, to sail down the river. They started from the
city of Caspatyrus, in the region called Pactyica, and sailed down the
stream in an easterly direction to the sea. Here they turned westward,
and, after a voyage of thirty months, reached the place from which the
Egyptian king, of whom I spoke above, sent the Phoenicians to sail round
Libya. After this voyage was completed, Darius conquered the Indians, and
made use of the sea in those parts. Thus all Asia, except the eastern portion,
has been found to be similarly circumstanced with Libya.
[4.45] But the boundaries of Europe
are quite unknown, and there is not a man who can say whether any sea girds
it round either on the north or on the east, while in length it undoubtedly
extends as far as both the other two. For my part I cannot conceive why
three names, and women's names especially, should ever have been given
to a tract which is in reality one, nor why the Egyptian Nile and the Colchian
Phasis (or according to others the Maeotic Tanais and Cimmerian ferry)
should have been fixed upon for the boundary lines; nor can I even say
who gave the three tracts their names, or whence they took the epithets.
According to the Greeks in general, Libya was so called after a certain
Libya, a native woman, and Asia after the wife of Prometheus. The Lydians,
however, put in a claim to the latter name, which, they declare, was not
derived from Asia the wife of Prometheus, but from Asies, the son of Cotys,
and grandson of Manes, who also gave name to the tribe Asias at Sardis.
As for Europe, no one can say whether it is surrounded by the sea or not,
neither is it known whence the name of Europe was derived, nor who gave
it name, unless we say that Europe was so called after the Tyrian Europe,
and before her time was nameless, like the other divisions. But it is certain
that Europe was an Asiatic, and never even set foot on the land which the
Greeks now call Europe, only sailing from Phoenicia to Crete, and from
Crete to Lycia. However let us quit these matters. We shall ourselves continue
to use the names which custom sanctions.
[4.46] The Euxine sea, where Darius
now went to war, has nations dwelling around it, with the one exception
of the Scythians, more unpolished than those of any other region that we
know of. For, setting aside Anacharsis and the Scythian people, there is
not within this region a single nation which can be put forward as having
any claims to wisdom, or which has produced a single person of any high
repute. The Scythians indeed have in one respect, and that the very most
important of all those that fall under man's control, shown themselves
wiser than any nation upon the face of the earth. Their customs otherwise
are not such as I admire. The one thing of which I speak is the contrivance
whereby they make it impossible for the enemy who invades them to escape
destruction, while they themselves are entirely out of his reach, unless
it please them to engage with him. Having neither cities nor forts, and
carrying their dwellings with them wherever they go; accustomed, moreover,
one and all of them, to shoot from horseback; and living not by husbandry
but on their cattle, their waggons the only houses that they possess, how
can they fail of being unconquerable, and unassailable even?
[4.47] The nature of their country,
and the rivers by which it is intersected, greatly favour this mode of
resisting attacks. For the land is level, well watered, and abounding in
pasture; while the rivers which traverse it are almost equal in number
to the canals of Egypt. Of these I shall only mention the most famous and
such as are navigable to some distance from the sea. They are, the Ister,
which has five mouths; the Tyras, the Hypanis, the Borysthenes, the Panticapes,
the Hypacyris, the Gerrhus, and the Tanais. The courses of these streams
I shall now proceed to describe.
[4.48] The Ister is of all the rivers
with which we are acquainted the mightiest. It never varies in height,
but continues at the same level summer and winter. Counting from the west
it is the first of the Scythian rivers, and the reason of its being the
greatest is that it receives the water of several tributaries. Now the
tributaries which swell its flood are the following: first, on the side
of Scythia, these five - the stream called by the Scythians Porata, and
by the Greeks Pyretus, the Tiarantus, the Ararus, the Naparis, and the
Ordessus. The first mentioned is a great stream, and is the easternmost
of the tributaries. The Tiarantus is of less volume, and more to the west.
The Ararus, Naparis, and Ordessus fall into the Ister between these two.
All the above mentioned are genuine Scythian rivers, and go to swell the
current of the Ister.
[4.49] From the country of the Agathyrsi
comes down another river, the Maris, which empties itself into the same;
and from the heights of Haemus descend with a northern course three mighty
streams, the Atlas, the Auras, and the Tibisis, and pour their waters into
it. Thrace gives it three tributaries, the Athrys, the Noes, and the Artanes,
which all pass through the country of the Crobyzian Thracians. Another
tributary is furnished by Paeonia, namely, the Scius; this river, rising
near Mount Rhodope, forces its way through the chain of Haemus, and so
reaches the Ister. From Illyria comes another stream, the Angrus, which
has a course from south to north, and after watering the Triballian plain,
falls into the Brongus, which falls into the Ister. So the Ister is augmented
by these two streams, both considerable. Besides all these, the Ister receives
also the waters of the Carpis and the Alpis, two rivers running in a northerly
direction from the country above the Umbrians. For the Ister flows through
the whole extent of Europe, rising in the country of the Celts (the most
westerly of all the nations of Europe, excepting the Cynetians), and thence
running across the continent till it reaches Scythia, whereof it washes
the flanks.
[4.50] All these streams, then, and
many others, add their waters to swell the flood of the Ister, which thus
increased becomes the mightiest of rivers; for undoubtedly if we compare
the stream of the Nile with the single stream of the Ister, we must give
the preference to the Nile, of which no tributary river, nor even rivulet,
augments the volume. The Ister remains at the same level both summer and
winter - owing to the following reasons, as I believe. During the winter
it runs at its natural height, or a very little higher, because in those
countries there is scarcely any rain in winter, but constant snow. When
summer comes, this snow, which is of great depth, begins to melt, and flows
into the Ister, which is swelled at that season, not only by this cause
but also by the rains, which are heavy and frequent at that part of the
year. Thus the various streams which go to form the Ister are higher in
summer than in winter, and just so much higher as the sun's power and attraction
are greater; so that these two causes counteract each other, and the effect
is to produce a balance, whereby the Ister remains always at the same level.
[4.51] This, then, is one of the great
Scythian rivers; the next to it is the Tyras, which rises from a great
lake separating Scythia from the land of the Neuri, and runs with a southerly
course to the sea. Greeks dwell at the mouth of the river, who are called
Tyritae.
[4.52] The third river is the Hypanis.
This stream rises within the limits of Scythia, and has its source in another
vast lake, around which wild white horses graze. The lake is called, properly
enough, the Mother of the Hypanis. The Hypanis, rising here, during the
distance of five days' navigation is a shallow stream, and the water sweet
and pure; thence, however, to the sea, which is a distance of four days,
it is exceedingly bitter. This change is caused by its receiving into it
at that point a brook the waters of which are so bitter that, although
it is but a tiny rivulet, it nevertheless taints the entire Hypanis, which
is a large stream among those of the second order. The source of this bitter
spring is on the borders of the Scythian Husbandmen, where they adjoin
upon the Alazonians; and the place where it rises is called in the Scythic
tongue Exampaeus, which means in our language, "The Sacred Ways."
The spring itself bears the same name. The Tyras and the Hypanis approach
each other in the country of the Alazonians, but afterwards separate, and
leave a wide space between their streams.
[4.53] The fourth of the Scythian
rivers is the Borysthenes. Next to the Ister, it is the greatest of them
all; and, in my judgment, it is the most productive river, not merely in
Scythia, but in the whole world, excepting only the Nile, with which no
stream can possibly compare. It has upon its banks the loveliest and most
excellent pasturages for cattle; it contains abundance of the most delicious
fish; its water is most pleasant to the taste; its stream is limpid, while
all the other rivers near it are muddy; the richest harvests spring up
along its course, and where the ground is not sown, the heaviest crops
of grass; while salt forms in great plenty about its mouth without human
aid, and large fish are taken in it of the sort called Antacaei, without
any prickly bones, and good for pickling. Nor are these the whole of its
marvels. As far inland as the place named Gerrhus, which is distant forty
days' voyage from the sea, its course is known, and its direction is from
north to south; but above this no one has traced it, so as to say through
what countries it flows. It enters the territory of the Scythian Husbandmen
after running for some time across a desert region, and continues for ten
days' navigation to pass through the land which they inhabit. It is the
only river besides the Nile the sources of which are unknown to me, as
they are also (I believe) to all the other Greeks. Not long before it reaches
the sea, the Borysthenes is joined by the Hypanis, which pours its waters
into the same lake. The land that lies between them, a narrow point like
the beak of a ship, is called Cape Hippolaus. Here is a temple dedicated
to Ceres, and opposite the temple upon the Hypanis is the dwelling-place
of the Borysthenites. But enough has been said of these streams.
[4.54] Next in succession comes the
fifth river, called the Panticapes, which has, like the Borysthenes, a
course from north to south, and rises from a lake. The space between this
river and the Borysthenes is occupied by the Scythians who are engaged
in husbandry. After watering their country, the Panticapes flows through
Hylaea, and empties itself into the Borysthenes.
[4.55] The sixth stream is the Hypacyris,
a river rising from a lake, and running directly through the middle of
the Nomadic Scythians. It falls into the sea near the city of Carcinitis,
leaving Hylaea and the course of Achilles to the right.
[4.56] The seventh river is the Gerrhus,
which is a branch thrown out by the Borysthenes at the point where the
course of that stream first begins to be known, to wit, the region called
by the same name as the stream itself, viz. Gerrhus. This river on its
passage towards the sea divides the country of the Nomadic from that of
the Royal Scyths. It runs into the Hypacyris.
[4.57] The eighth river is the Tanais,
a stream which has its source, far up the country, in a lake of vast size,
and which empties itself into another still larger lake, the Palus Maeotis,
whereby the country of the Royal Scythians is divided from that of the
Sauromatae. The Tanais receives the waters of a tributary stream, called
the Hyrgis.
[4.58] Such then are the rivers of
chief note in Scythia. The grass which the land produces is more apt to
generate gall in the beasts that feed on it than any other grass which
is known to us, as plainly appears on the opening of their carcases.
[4.59] Thus abundantly are the Scythians
provided with the most important necessaries. Their manners and customs
come now to be described. They worship only the following gods, namely,
Vesta, whom they reverence beyond all the rest, Jupiter, and Tellus, whom
they consider to be the wife of Jupiter; and after these Apollo, Celestial
Venus, Hercules, and Mars. These gods are worshipped by the whole nation:
the Royal Scythians offer sacrifice likewise to Neptune. In the Scythic
tongue Vesta is called Tabiti, Jupiter (very properly, in my judgment)
Papaeus, Tellus Apia, Apollo Oetosyrus, Celestial Venus Artimpasa, and
Neptune Thamimasadas. They use no images, altars, or temples, except in
the worship of Mars; but in his worship they do use them.
[4.60] The manner of their sacrifices
is everywhere and in every case the same; the victim stands with its two
fore-feet bound together by a cord, and the person who is about to offer,
taking his station behind the victim, gives the rope a pull, and thereby
throws the animal down; as it falls he invokes the god to whom he is offering;
after which he puts a noose round the animal's neck, and, inserting a small
stick, twists it round, and so strangles him. No fire is lighted, there
is no consecration, and no pouring out of drink-offerings; but directly
that the beast is strangled the sacrificer flays him, and then sets to
work to boil the flesh.
[4.61] As Scythia, however, is utterly
barren of firewood, a plan has had to be contrived for boiling the flesh,
which is the following. After flaying the beasts, they take out all the
bones, and (if they possess such gear) put the flesh into boilers made
in the country, which are very like the cauldrons of the Lesbians, except
that they are of a much larger size; then placing the bones of the animals
beneath the cauldron, they set them alight, and so boil the meat. If they
do not happen to possess a cauldron, they make the animal's paunch hold
the flesh, and pouring in at the same time a little water, lay the bones
under and light them. The bones burn beautifully; and the paunch easily
contains all the flesh when it is stript from the bones, so that by this
plan your ox is made to boil himself, and other victims also to do the
like. When the meat is all cooked, the sacrificer offers a portion of the
flesh and of the entrails, by casting it on the ground before him. They
sacrifice all sorts of cattle, but most commonly horses.
[4.62] Such are the victims offered
to the other gods, and such is the mode in which they are sacrificed; but
the rites paid to Mars are different. In every district, at the seat of
government, there stands a temple of this god, whereof the following is
a description. It is a pile of brushwood, made of a vast quantity of fagots,
in length and breadth three furlongs; in height somewhat less, having a
square platform upon the top, three sides of which are precipitous, while
the fourth slopes so that men may walk up it. Each year a hundred and fifty
waggon-loads of brushwood are added to the pile, which sinks continually
by reason of the rains. An antique iron sword is planted on the top of
every such mound, and serves as the image of Mars: yearly sacrifices of
cattle and of horses are made to it, and more victims are offered thus
than to all the rest of their gods. When prisoners are taken in war, out
of every hundred men they sacrifice one, not however with the same rites
as the cattle, but with different. Libations of wine are first poured upon
their heads, after which they are slaughtered over a vessel; the vessel
is then carried up to the top of the pile, and the blood poured upon the
scymitar. While this takes place at the top of the mound, below, by the
side of the temple, the right hands and arms of the slaughtered prisoners
are cut off, and tossed on high into the air. Then the other victims are
slain, and those who have offered the sacrifice depart, leaving the hands
and arms where they may chance to have fallen, and the bodies also, separate.
[4.63] Such are the observances of
the Scythians with respect to sacrifice. They never use swine for the purpose,
nor indeed is it their wont to breed them in any part of their country.
[4.64] In what concerns war, their
customs are the following. The Scythian soldier drinks the blood of the
first man he overthrows in battle. Whatever number he slays, he cuts off
all their heads, and carries them to the king; since he is thus entitled
to a share of the booty, whereto he forfeits all claim if he does not produce
a head. In order to strip the skull of its covering, he makes a cut round
the head above the ears, and, laying hold of the scalp, shakes the skull
out; then with the rib of an ox he scrapes the scalp clean of flesh, and
softening it by rubbing between the hands, uses it thenceforth as a napkin.
The Scyth is proud of these scalps, and hangs them from his bridle-rein;
the greater the number of such napkins that a man can show, the more highly
is he esteemed among them. Many make themselves cloaks, like the capotes
of our peasants, by sewing a quantity of these scalps together. Others
flay the right arms of their dead enemies, and make of the skin, which
stripped off with the nails hanging to it, a covering for their quivers.
Now the skin of a man is thick and glossy, and would in whiteness surpass
almost all other hides. Some even flay the entire body of their enemy,
and stretching it upon a frame carry it about with them wherever they ride.
Such are the Scythian customs with respect to scalps and skins.
[4.65] The skulls of their enemies,
not indeed of all, but of those whom they most detest, they treat as follows.
Having sawn off the portion below the eyebrows, and cleaned out the inside,
they cover the outside with leather. When a man is poor, this is all that
he does; but if he is rich, he also lines the inside with gold: in either
case the skull is used as a drinking-cup. They do the same with the skulls
of their own kith and kin if they have been at feud with them, and have
vanquished them in the presence of the king. When strangers whom they deem
of any account come to visit them, these skulls are handed round, and the
host tells how that these were his relations who made war upon him, and
how that he got the better of them; all this being looked upon as proof
of bravery.
[4.66] Once a year the governor of
each district, at a set place in his own province, mingles a bowl of wine,
of which all Scythians have a right to drink by whom foes have been slain;
while they who have slain no enemy are not allowed to taste of the bowl,
but sit aloof in disgrace. No greater shame than this can happen to them.
Such as have slain a very large number of foes, have two cups instead of
one, and drink from both.
[4.67] Scythia has an abundance of
soothsayers, who foretell the future by means of a number of willow wands.
A large bundle of these wands is brought and laid on the ground. The soothsayer
unties the bundle, and places each wand by itself, at the same time uttering
his prophecy: then, while he is still speaking, he gathers the rods together
again, and makes them up once more into a bundle. This mode of divination
is of home growth in Scythia. The Enarees, or woman-like men, have another
method, which they say Venus taught them. It is done with the inner bark
of the linden-tree. They take a piece of this bark, and, splitting it into
three strips, keep twining the strips about their fingers, and untwining
them, while they prophesy.
[4.68] Whenever the Scythian king
falls sick, he sends for the three soothsayers of most renown at the time,
who come and make trial of their art in the mode above described. Generally
they say that the king is ill because such or such a person, mentioning
his name, has sworn falsely by the royal hearth. This is the usual oath
among the Scythians, when they wish to swear with very great solemnity.
Then the man accused of having foresworn himself is arrested and brought
before the king. The soothsayers tell him that by their art it is clear
he has sworn a false oath by the royal hearth, and so caused the illness
of the king - he denies the charge, protests that he has sworn no false
oath, and loudly complains of the wrong done to him. Upon this the king
sends for six new soothsayers, who try the matter by soothsaying. If they
too find the man guilty of the offence, straightway he is beheaded by those
who first accused him, and his goods are parted among them: if, on the
contrary, they acquit him, other soothsayers, and again others, are sent
for, to try the case. Should the greater number decide in favour of the
man's innocence, then they who first accused him forfeit their lives.
[4.69] The mode of their execution
is the following: a waggon is loaded with brushwood, and oxen are harnessed
to it; the soothsayers, with their feet tied together, their hands bound
behind their backs, and their mouths gagged, are thrust into the midst
of the brushwood; finally the wood is set alight, and the oxen, being startled,
are made to rush off with the waggon. It often happens that the oxen and
the soothsayers are both consumed together, but sometimes the pole of the
waggon is burnt through, and the oxen escape with a scorching. Diviners
- lying diviners, they call them - are burnt in the way described, for
other causes besides the one here spoken of. When the king puts one of
them to death, he takes care not to let any of his sons survive: all the
male offspring are slain with the father, only the females being allowed
to live.
[4.70] Oaths among the Scyths are
accompanied with the following ceremonies: a large earthern bowl is filled
with wine, and the parties to the oath, wounding themselves slightly with
a knife or an awl, drop some of their blood into the wine; then they plunge
into the mixture a scymitar, some arrows, a battle-axe, and a javelin,
all the while repeating prayers; lastly the two contracting parties drink
each a draught from the bowl, as do also the chief men among their followers.
[4.71] The tombs of their kings are
in the land of the Gerrhi, who dwell at the point where the Borysthenes
is first navigable. Here, when the king dies, they dig a grave, which is
square in shape, and of great size. When it is ready, they take the king's
corpse, and, having opened the belly, and cleaned out the inside, fill
the cavity with a preparation of chopped cypress, frankincense, parsley-seed,
and anise-seed, after which they sew up the opening, enclose the body in
wax, and, placing it on a waggon, carry it about through all the different
tribes. On this procession each tribe, when it receives the corpse, imitates
the example which is first set by the Royal Scythians; every man chops
off a piece of his ear, crops his hair close, and makes a cut all round
his arm, lacerates his forehead and his nose, and thrusts an arrow through
his left hand. Then they who have the care of the corpse carry it with
them to another of the tribes which are under the Scythian rule, followed
by those whom they first visited. On completing the circuit of all the
tribes under their sway, they find themselves in the country of the Gerrhi,
who are the most remote of all, and so they come to the tombs of the kings.
There the body of the dead king is laid in the grave prepared for it, stretched
upon a mattress; spears are fixed in the ground on either side of the corpse,
and beams stretched across above it to form a roof, which is covered with
a thatching of osier twigs. In the open space around the body of the king
they bury one of his concubines, first killing her by strangling, and also
his cup-bearer, his cook, his groom, his lacquey, his messenger, some of
his horses, firstlings of all his other possessions, and some golden cups;
for they use neither silver nor brass. After this they set to work, and
raise a vast mound above the grave, all of them vying with each other and
seeking to make it as tall as possible.
[4.72] When a year is gone by, further
ceremonies take place. Fifty of the best of the late king's attendants
are taken, all native Scythians - for, as bought slaves are unknown in
the country, the Scythian kings choose any of their subjects that they
like, to wait on them - fifty of these are taken and strangled, with fifty
of the most beautiful horses. When they are dead, their bowels are taken
out, and the cavity cleaned, filled full of chaff, and straightway sewn
up again. This done, a number of posts are driven into the ground, in sets
of two pairs each, and on every pair half the felly of a wheel is placed
archwise; then strong stakes are run lengthways through the bodies of the
horses from tail to neck, and they are mounted up upon the fellies, so
that the felly in front supports the shoulders of the horse, while that
behind sustains the belly and quarters, the legs dangling in mid-air; each
horse is furnished with a bit and bridle, which latter is stretched out
in front of the horse, and fastened to a peg. The fifty strangled youths
are then mounted severally on the fifty horses. To effect this, a second
stake is passed through their bodies along the course of the spine to the
neck; the lower end of which projects from the body, and is fixed into
a socket, made in the stake that runs lengthwise down the horse. The fifty
riders are thus ranged in a circle round the tomb, and so left.
[4.73] Such, then, is the mode in
which the kings are buried: as for the people, when any one dies, his nearest
of kin lay him upon a waggon and take him round to all his friends in succession:
each receives them in turn and entertains them with a banquet, whereat
the dead man is served with a portion of all that is set before the others;
this is done for forty days, at the end of which time the burial takes
place. After the burial, those engaged in it have to purify themselves,
which they do in the following way. First they well soap and wash their
heads; then, in order to cleanse their bodies, they act as follows: they
make a booth by fixing in the ground three sticks inclined towards one
another, and stretching around them woollen felts, which they arrange so
as to fit as close as possible: inside the booth a dish is placed upon
the ground, into which they put a number of red-hot stones, and then add
some hemp-seed.
[4.74] Hemp grows in Scythia: it is
very like flax; only that it is a much coarser and taller plant: some grows
wild about the country, some is produced by cultivation: the Thracians
make garments of it which closely resemble linen; so much so, indeed, that
if a person has never seen hemp he is sure to think they are linen, and
if he has, unless he is very experienced in such matters, he will not know
of which material they are.
[4.75] The Scythians, as I said, take
some of this hemp-seed, and, creeping under the felt coverings, throw it
upon the red-hot stones; immediately it smokes, and gives out such a vapour
as no Grecian vapour-bath can exceed; the Scyths, delighted, shout for
joy, and this vapour serves them instead of a water-bath; for they never
by any chance wash their bodies with water. Their women make a mixture
of cypress, cedar, and frankincense wood, which they pound into a paste
upon a rough piece of stone, adding a little water to it. With this substance,
which is of a thick consistency, they plaster their faces all over, and
indeed their whole bodies. A sweet odour is thereby imparted to them, and
when they take off the plaster on the day following, their skin is clean
and glossy.
[4.76] The Scythians have an extreme
hatred of all foreign customs, particularly of those in use among the Greeks,
as the instances of Anacharsis, and, more lately, of Scylas, have fully
shown. The former, after he had travelled over a great portion of the world,
and displayed wherever he went many proofs of wisdom, as he sailed through
the Hellespont on his return to Scythia touched at Cyzicus. There he found
the inhabitants celebrating with much pomp and magnificence a festival
to the Mother of the Gods, and was himself induced to make a vow to the
goddess, whereby he engaged, if he got back safe and sound to his home,
that he would give her a festival and a night-procession in all respects
like those which he had seen in Cyzicus. When, therefore, he arrived in
Scythia, he betook himself to the district called the Woodland, which lies
opposite the course of Achilles, and is covered with trees of all manner
of different kinds, and there went through all the sacred rites with the
tabour in his hand, and the images tied to him. While thus employed, he
was noticed by one of the Scythians, who went and told king Saulius what
he had seen. Then king Saulius came in person, and when he perceived what
Anacharsis was about, he shot at him with an arrow and killed him. To this
day, if you ask the Scyths about Anacharsis, they pretend ignorance of
him, because of his Grecian travels and adoption of the customs of foreigners.
I learnt, however, from Timnes, the steward of Ariapithes, that Anacharsis
was paternal uncle to the Scythian king Idanthyrsus, being the son of Gnurus,
who was the son of Lycus and the grandson of Spargapithes. If Anacharsis
were really of this house, it must have been by his own brother that he
was slain, for Idanthyrsus was a son of the Saulius who put Anacharsis
to death.
[4.77] I have heard, however, another
tale, very different from this, which is told by the Peloponnesians: they
say, that Anacharsis was sent by the king of the Scyths to make acquaintance
with Greece - that he went, and on his return home reported that the Greeks
were all occupied in the pursuit of every kind of knowledge, except the
Lacedaemonians; who, however, alone knew how to converse sensibly. A silly
tale this, which the Greeks have invented for their amusement! There is
no doubt that Anacharsis suffered death in the mode already related, on
account of his attachment to foreign customs, and the intercourse which
he held with the Greeks.
[4.78] Scylas, likewise, the son of
Ariapithes, many years later, met with almost the very same fate. Ariapithes,
the Scythian king, had several sons, among them this Scylas, who was the
child, not of a native Scyth, but of a woman of Istria. Bred up by her,
Scylas gained an acquaintance with the Greek language and letters. Some
time afterwards, Ariapithes was treacherously slain by Spargapithes, king
of the Agathyrsi; whereupon Scylas succeeded to the throne, and married
one of his father's wives, a woman named Opoea. This Opoea was a Scythian
by birth, and had brought Ariapithes a son called Oricus. Now when Scylas
found himself king of Scythia, as he disliked the Scythic mode of life,
and was attached, by his bringing up, to the manners of the Greeks, he
made it his usual practice, whenever he came with his army to the town
of the Borysthenites, who, according to their own account, are colonists
of the Milesians - he made it his practice, I say, to leave the army before
the city, and, having entered within the walls by himself, and carefully
closed the gates, to exchange his Scythian dress for Grecian garments,
and in this attire to walk about the forum, without guards or retinue.
The Borysthenites kept watch at the gates, that no Scythian might see the
king thus apparelled. Scylas, meanwhile, lived exactly as the Greeks, and
even offered sacrifices to the gods according to the Grecian rites. In
this way he would pass a month, or more, with the Borysthenites, after
which he would clothe himself again in his Scythian dress, and so take
his departure. This he did repeatedly, and even built himself a house in
Borysthenes, and married a wife there who was a native of the place.
[4.79] But when the time came that
was ordained to bring him woe, the occasion of his ruin was the following.
He wanted to be initiated in the Bacchic mysteries, and was on the point
of obtaining admission to the rites, when a most strange prodigy occurred
to him. The house which he possessed, as I mentioned a short time back,
in the city of the Borysthenites, a building of great extent and erected
at a vast cost, round which there stood a number of sphinxes and griffins
carved in white marble, was struck by lightning from on high, and burnt
to the ground. Scylas, nevertheless, went on and received the initiation.
Now the Scythians are wont to reproach the Greeks with their Bacchanal
rage, and to say that it is not reasonable to imagine there is a god who
impels men to madness. No sooner, therefore, was Scylas initiated in the
Bacchic mysteries than one of the Borysthenites went and carried the news
to the Scythians "You Scyths laugh at us" he said, "because
we rave when the god seizes us. But now our god has seized upon your king,
who raves like us, and is maddened by the influence. If you think I do
not tell you true, come with me, and I will show him to you." The
chiefs of the Scythians went with the man accordingly, and the Borysthenite,
conducting them into the city, placed them secretly on one of the towers.
Presently Scylas passed by with the band of revellers, raving like the
rest, and was seen by the watchers. Regarding the matter as a very great
misfortune they instantly departed, and came and told the army what they
had witnessed.
[4.80] When, therefore, Scylas, after
leaving Borysthenes, was about returning home, the Scythians broke out
into revolt. They put at their head Octamasadas, grandson (on the mother's
side) of Teres. Then Scylas, when he learned the danger with which he was
threatened, and the reason of the disturbance, made his escape to Thrace.
Octamasadas, discovering whither he had fled, marched after him, and had
reached the Ister, when he was met by the forces of the Thracians. The
two armies were about to engage, but before they joined battle, Sitalces
sent a message to Octamasadas to this effect - "Why should there be
trial of arms betwixt thee and me? Thou art my own sister's son, and thou
hast in thy keeping my brother. Surrender him into my hands, and I will
give thy Scylas back to thee. So neither thou nor I will risk our armies."
Sitalces sent this message to Octamasadas, by a herald, and Octamasadas,
with whom a brother of Sitalces had formerly taken refuge, accepted the
terms. He surrendered his own uncle to Sitalces, and obtained in exchange
his brother Scylas. Sitalces took his brother with him and withdrew; but
Octamasadas beheaded Scylas upon the spot. Thus rigidly do the Scythians
maintain their own customs, and thus severely do they punish such as adopt
foreign usages.
[4.81] What the population of Scythia
is I was not able to learn with certainty; the accounts which I received
varied from one another. I heard from some that they were very numerous
indeed; others made their numbers but scanty for such a nation as the Scyths.
Thus much, however, I witnessed with my own eyes. There is a tract called
Exampaeus between the Borysthenes and the Hypanis. I made some mention
of it in a former place, where I spoke of the bitter stream which rising
there flows into the Hypanis, and renders the water of that river undrinkable.
Here then stands a brazen bowl, six times as big as that at the entrance
of the Euxine, which Pausanias, the son of Cleombrotus, set up. Such as
have never seen that vessel may understand me better if I say that the
Scythian bowl holds with ease six hundred amphorae, and is of the thickness
of six fingers' breadth. The natives gave me the following account of the
manner in which it was made. One of their kings, by name Ariantas, wishing
to know the number of his subjects, ordered them all to bring him, on pain
of death, the point off one of their arrows. They obeyed; and he collected
thereby a vast heap of arrow-heads, which he resolved to form into a memorial
that might go down to posterity. Accordingly he made of them this bowl,
and dedicated it at Exampaeus. This was all that I could learn concerning
the number of the Scythians.
[4.82] The country has no marvels
except its rivers, which are larger and more numerous than those of any
other land. These, and the vastness of the great plain, are worthy of note,
and one thing besides, which I am about to mention. They show a footmark
of Hercules, impressed on a rock, in shape like the print of a man's foot,
but two cubits in length. It is in the neighbourhood of the Tyras. Having
described this, I return to the subject on which I originally proposed
to discourse.
[4.83] The preparations of Darius
against the Scythians had begun, messengers had been despatched on all
sides with the king's commands, some being required to furnish troops,
others to supply ships, others again to bridge the Thracian Bosphorus,
when Artabanus, son of Hystaspes and brother of Darius, entreated the king
to desist from his expedition, urging on him the great difficulty of attacking
Scythia. Good, however, as the advice of Artabanus was, it failed to persuade
Darius. He therefore ceased his reasonings; and Darius, when his preparations
were complete, led his army forth from Susa.
[4.84] It was then that a certain
Persian, by name Oeobazus, the father of three sons, all of whom were to
accompany the army, came and prayed the king that he would allow one of
his sons to remain with him. Darius made answer, as if he regarded him
in the light of a friend who had urged a moderate request, "that he
would allow them all to remain." Oeobazus was overjoyed, expecting
that all his children would be excused from serving; the king, however,
bade his attendants take the three sons of Oeobazus and forthwith put them
to death. Thus they were all left behind, but not till they had been deprived
of life.
[4.85] When Darius, on his march from
Susa, reached the territory of Chalcedon on the shores of the Bosphorus,
where the bridge had been made, he took ship and sailed thence to the Cyanean
islands, which, according to the Greeks, once floated. He took his seat
also in the temple and surveyed the Pontus, which is indeed well worthy
of consideration. There is not in the world any other sea so wonderful:
it extends in length eleven thousand one hundred furlongs, and its breadth,
at the widest part, is three thousand three hundred. The mouth is but four
furlongs wide; and this strait, called the Bosphorus, and across which
the bridge of Darius had been thrown, is a hundred and twenty furlongs
in length, reaching from the Euxine to the Propontis. The Propontis is
five hundred furlongs across, and fourteen hundred long. Its waters flow
into the Hellespont, the length of which is four hundred furlongs, and
the width no more than seven. The Hellespont opens into the wide sea called
the Egean.
[4.86] The mode in which these distances
have been measured is the following. In a long day a vessel generally accomplishes
about seventy thousand fathoms, in the night sixty thousand. Now from the
mouth of the Pontus to the river Phasis, which is the extreme length of
this sea, is a voyage of nine days and eight nights, which makes the distance
one million one hundred and ten thousand fathoms, or eleven thousand one
hundred furlongs. Again, from Sindica, to Themiscyra on the river Thermodon,
where the Pontus is wider than at any other place, is a sail of three days
and two nights; which makes three hundred and thirty thousand fathoms,
or three thousand three hundred furlongs. Such is the plan on which I have
measured the Pontus, the Bosphorus, and the Hellespont, and such is the
account which I have to give of them. The Pontus has also a lake belonging
to it, not very much inferior to itself in size. The waters of this lake
run into the Pontus: it is called the Maeotis, and also the Mother of the
Pontus.
[4.87] Darius, after he had finished
his survey, sailed back to the bridge, which had been constructed for him
by Mandrocles a Samian. He likewise surveyed the Bosphorus, and erected
upon its shores two pillars of white marble, whereupon he inscribed the
names of all the nations which formed his army - on the one pillar in Greek,
on the other in Assyrian characters. Now his army was drawn from all the
nations under his sway; and the whole amount, without reckoning the naval
forces, was seven hundred thousand men, including cavalry. The fleet consisted
of six hundred ships. Some time afterwards the Byzantines removed these
pillars to their own city, and used them for an altar which they erected
to Orthosian Diana. One block remained behind: it lay near the temple of
Bacchus at Byzantium, and was covered with Assyrian writing. The spot where
Darius bridged the Bosphorus was, I think, but I speak only from conjecture,
half-way between the city of Byzantium and the temple at the mouth of the
strait.
[4.88] Darius was so pleased with
the bridge thrown across the strait by the Samain Mandrocles, that he not
only bestowed upon him all the customary presents, but gave him ten of
every kind. Mandrocles, by the way of offering first-fruits from these
presents, caused a picture to be painted which showed the whole of the
bridge, with King Darius sitting in a seat of honour, and his army engaged
in the passage. This painting he dedicated in the temple of Juno at Samos,
attaching to it the inscription following:-
The fish-fraught Bosphorus bridged, to Juno's fane
Did Mandrocles this proud memorial bring;
When for himself a crown he'd skill to gain,
For Samos praise, contenting the Great King.
Such was the memorial of his work which was left by the architect of
the bridge.
[4.89] Darius, after rewarding Mandrocles,
passed into Europe, while he ordered the Ionians to enter the Pontus, and
sail to the mouth of the Ister. There he bade them throw a bridge across
the stream and await his coming. The Ionians, Aeolians, and Hellespontians
were the nations which furnished the chief strength of his navy. So the
fleet, threading the Cyanean Isles, proceeded straight to the Ister, and,
mounting the river to the point where its channels separate, a distance
of two days' voyage from the sea, yoked the neck of the stream. Meantime
Darius, who had crossed the Bosphorus by the bridge over it, marched through
Thrace; and happening upon the sources of the Tearus, pitched his camp
and made a stay of three days.
[4.90] Now the Tearus is said by those
who dwell near it, to be the most healthful of all streams, and to cure,
among other diseases, the scab either in man or beast. Its sources, which
are eight and thirty in number, all flowing from the same rock, are in
part cold, in part hot. They lie at an equal distance from the town of
Heraeum near Perinthus, and Apollonia on the Euxine, a two days' journey
from each. This river, the Tearus, is a tributary of the Contadesdus, which
runs into the Agrianes, and that into the Hebrus. The Hebrus empties itself
into the sea near the city of Aenus.
[4.91] Here then, on the banks of
the Tearus, Darius stopped and pitched his camp. The river charmed him
so, that he caused a pillar to be erected in this place also, with an inscription
to the following effect: "The fountains of the Tearus afford the best
and most beautiful water of all rivers: they were visited, on his march
into Scythia, by the best and most beautiful of men, Darius, son of Hystaspes,
king of the Persians, and of the whole continent." Such was the inscription
which he set up at this place.
[4.92] Marching thence, he came to
a second river, called the Artiscus, which flows through the country of
the Odrysians. Here he fixed upon a certain spot, where every one of his
soldiers should throw a stone as he passed by. When his orders were obeyed,
Darius continued his march, leaving behind him great hills formed of the
stones cast by his troops.
[4.93] Before arriving at the Ister,
the first people whom he subdued were the Getae, who believe in their immortality.
The Thracians of Salmydessus, and those who dwelt above the cities of Apollonia
and Mesembria - the Scyrmiadae and Nipsaeans, as they are called - gave
themselves up to Darius without a struggle; but the Getae obstinately defending
themselves, were forthwith enslaved, notwithstanding that they are the
noblest as well as the most just of all the Thracian tribes.
[4.94] The belief of the Getae in
respect of immortality is the following. They think that they do not really
die, but that when they depart this life they go to Zalmoxis, who is called
also Gebeleizis by some among them. To this god every five years they send
a messenger, who is chosen by lot out of the whole nation, and charged
to bear him their several requests. Their mode of sending him is this.
A number of them stand in order, each holding in his hand three darts;
others take the man who is to be sent to Zalmoxis, and swinging him by
his hands and feet, toss him into the air so that he falls upon the points
of the weapons. If he is pierced and dies, they think that the god is propitious
to them; but if not, they lay the fault on the messenger, who (they say)
is a wicked man: and so they choose another to send away. The messages
are given while the man is still alive. This same people, when it lightens
and thunders, aim their arrows at the sky, uttering threats against the
god; and they do not believe that there is any god but their own.
[4.95] I am told by the Greeks who
dwell on the shores of the Hellespont and the Pontus, that this Zalmoxis
was in reality a man, that he lived at Samos, and while there was the slave
of Pythagoras son of Mnesarchus. After obtaining his freedom he grew rich,
and leaving Samos, returned to his own country. The Thracians at that time
lived in a wretched way, and were a poor ignorant race; Zalmoxis, therefore,
who by his commerce with the Greeks, and especially with one who was by
no means their most contemptible philosopher, Pythagoras to wit, was acquainted
with the Ionic mode of life and with manners more refined than those current
among his countrymen, had a chamber built, in which from time to time he
received and feasted all the principal Thracians, using the occasion to
teach them that neither he, nor they, his boon companions, nor any of their
posterity would ever perish, but that they would all go to a place where
they would live for aye in the enjoyment of every conceivable good. While
he was acting in this way, and holding this kind of discourse, he was constructing
an apartment underground, into which, when it was completed, he withdrew,
vanishing suddenly from the eyes of the Thracians, who greatly regretted
his loss, and mourned over him as one dead. He meanwhile abode in his secret
chamber three full years, after which he came forth from his concealment,
and showed himself once more to his countrymen, who were thus brought to
believe in the truth of what he had taught them. Such is the account of
the Greeks.
[4.96] I for my part neither put entire
faith in this story of Zalmoxis and his underground chamber, nor do I altogether
discredit it: but I believe Zalmoxis to have lived long before the time
of Pythagoras. Whether there was ever really a man of the name, or whether
Zalmoxis is nothing but a native god of the Getae, I now bid him farewell.
As for the Getae themselves, the people who observe the practices described
above, they were now reduced by the Persians, and accompanied the army
of Darius.
[4.97] When Darius, with his land
forces, reached the Ister, he made his troops cross the stream, and after
all were gone over gave orders to the Ionians to break the bridge, and
follow him with the whole naval force in his land march. They were about
to obey his command, when the general of the Mytilenaeans, Coes son of
Erxander, having first asked whether it was agreeable to the king to listen
to one who wished to speak his mind, addressed him in the words following:-
"Thou art about, Sire, to attack a country no part of which is cultivated,
and wherein there is not a single inhabited city. Keep this bridge, then,
as it is, and leave those who built it to watch over it. So if we come
up with the Scythians and succeed against them as we could wish, we may
return by this route; or if we fail of finding them, our retreat will still
be secure. For I have no fear lest the Scythians defeat us in battle, but
my dread is lest we be unable to discover them, and suffer loss while we
wander about their territory. And now, mayhap, it will be said, I advise
thee thus in the hope of being myself allowed to remain behind; but in
truth I have no other design than to recommend the course which seems to
me the best; nor will I consent to be among those left behind, but my resolve
is, in any case, to follow thee." The advice of Coes pleased Darius
highly, who thus replied to him:- "Dear Lesbian, when I am safe home
again in my palace, be sure thou come to me, and with good deeds will I
recompense thy good words of to-day."
[4.98] Having so said, the king took
a leathern thong, and tying sixty knots in it, called together the Ionian
tyrants, and spoke thus to them:- "Men of Ionia, my former commands
to you concerning the bridge are now withdrawn. See, here is a thong: take
it, and observe my bidding with respect to it. From the time that I leave
you to march forward into Scythia, untie every day one of the knots. If
I do not return before the last day to which the knots will hold out, then
leave your station, and sail to your several homes. Meanwhile, understand
that my resolve is changed, and that you are to guard the bridge with all
care, and watch over its safety and preservation. By so doing ye will oblige
me greatly." When Darius had thus spoken, he set out on his march
with all speed.
[4.99] Before you come to Scythia,
on the sea coast, lies Thrace. The land here makes a sweep, and then Scythia
begins, the Ister falling into the sea at this point with its mouth facing
the east. Starting from the Ister I shall now describe the measurements
of the seashore of Scythia. Immediately that the Ister is crossed, Old
Scythia begins, and continues as far as the city called Carcinitis, fronting
towards the south wind and the mid-day. Here upon the same sea, there lies
a mountainous tract projecting into the Pontus, which is inhabited by the
Tauri, as far as what is called the Rugged Chersonese, which runs out into
the sea upon the east. For the boundaries of Scythia extend on two sides
to two different seas, one upon the south, and the other towards the east,
as is also the case with Attica. And the Tauri occupy a position in Scythia
like that which a people would hold in Attica, who, being foreigners and
not Athenians, should inhabit the high land of Sunium, from Thoricus to
the township of Anaphlystus, if this tract projected into the sea somewhat
further than it does. Such, to compare great things with small, is the
Tauric territory. For the sake of those who may not have made the voyage
round these parts of Attica, I will illustrate in another way. It is as
if in Iapygia a line were drawn from Port Brundusium to Tarentum, and a
people different from the Iapygians inhabited the promontory. These two
instances may suggest a number of others where the shape of the land closely
resembles that of Taurica.
[4.100] Beyond this tract, we find
the Scythians again in possession of the country above the Tauri and the
parts bordering on the eastern sea, as also of the whole district lying
west of the Cimmerian Bosphorus and the Palus Maeotis, as far as the river
Tanais, which empties itself into that lake at its upper end. As for the
inland boundaries of Scythia, if we start from the Ister, we find it enclosed
by the following tribes, first the Agathyrsi, next the Neuri, then the
Androphagi, and last of all, the Melanchaeni.
[4.101] Scythia then, which is square
in shape, and has two of its sides reaching down to the sea, extends inland
to the same distance that it stretches along the coast, and is equal every
way. For it is a ten days' journey from the Ister to the Borysthenes, and
ten more from the Borysthenes to the Palus Maeotis, while the distance
from the coast inland to the country of the Melanchaeni, who dwell above
Scythia, is a journey of twenty days. I reckon the day's journey at two
hundred furlongs. Thus the two sides which run straight inland are four
thousand furlongs each, and the transverse sides at right angles to these
are also of the same length, which gives the full size of Scythia.
[4.102] The Scythians, reflecting
on their situation, perceived that they were not strong enough by themselves
to contend with the army of Darius in open fight. They, therefore, sent
envoys to the neighbouring nations, whose kings had already met, and were
in consultation upon the advance of so vast a host. Now they who had come
together were the kings of the Tauri, the Agathyrsi, the Neuri, the Androphagi,
the Melanchaeni, the Geloni, the Budini, and the Sauromatae.
[4.103] The Tauri have the following
customs. They offer in sacrifice to the Virgin all shipwrecked persons,
and all Greeks compelled to put into their ports by stress of weather.
The mode of sacrifice is this. After the preparatory ceremonies, they strike
the victim on the head with a club. Then, according to some accounts, they
hurl the trunk from the precipice whereon the temple stands, and nail the
head to a cross. Others grant that the head is treated in this way, but
deny that the body is thrown down the cliff - on the contrary, they say,
it is buried. The goddess to whom these sacrifices are offered the Tauri
themselves declare to be Iphigenia the daughter of Agamemnon. When they
take prisoners in war they treat them in the following way. The man who
has taken a captive cuts off his head, and carrying it to his home, fixes
it upon a tall pole, which he elevates above his house, most commonly over
the chimney. The reason that the heads are set up so high, is (it is said)
in order that the whole house may be under their protection. These people
live entirely by war and plundering.
[4.104] The Agathyrsi are a race
of men very luxurious, and very fond of wearing gold on their persons.
They have wives in common, that so they may be all brothers, and, as members
of one family, may neither envy nor hate one another. In other respects
their customs approach nearly to those of the Thracians.
[4.105] The Neurian customs are like
the Scythian. One generation before the attack of Darius they were driven
from their land by a huge multitude of serpents which invaded them. Of
these some were produced in their own country, while others, and those
by far the greater number, came in from the deserts on the north. Suffering
grievously beneath this scourge, they quitted their homes, and took refuge
with the Budini. It seems that these people are conjurers: for both the
Scythians and the Greeks who dwell in Scythia say that every Neurian once
a year becomes a wolf for a few days, at the end of which time he is restored
to his proper shape. Not that I believe this, but they constantly affirm
it to be true, and are even ready to back their assertion with an oath.
[4.106] The manners of the Androphagi
are more savage than those of any other race. They neither observe justice,
nor are governed, by any laws. They are nomads, and their dress is Scythian;
but the language which they speak is peculiar to themselves. Unlike any
other nation in these parts, they are cannibals.
[4.107] The Melanchaeni wear, all
of them, black cloaks, and from this derive the name which they bear. Their
customs are Scythic.
[4.108] The Budini are a large and
powerful nation: they have all deep blue eyes, and bright red hair. There
is a city in their territory, called Gelonus, which is surrounded with
a lofty wall, thirty furlongs each way, built entirely of wood. All the
houses in the place and all the temples are of the same material. Here
are temples built in honour of the Grecian gods, and adorned after the
Greek fashion with images, altars, and shrines, all in wood. There is even
a festival, held every third year in honour of Bacchus, at which the natives
fall into the Bacchic fury. For the fact is that the Geloni were anciently
Greeks, who, being driven out of the factories along the coast, fled to
the Budini and took up their abode with them. They still speak a language
half Greek, half Scythian.
[4.109] The Budini, however, do not
speak the same language as the Geloni, nor is their mode of life the same.
They are the aboriginal people of the country, and are nomads; unlike any
of the neighbouring races, they eat lice. The Geloni on the contrary, are
tillers of the soil, eat bread, have gardens, and both in shape and complexion
are quite different from the Budini. The Greeks notwithstanding call these
latter Geloni; but it is a mistake to give them the name. Their country
is thickly planted with trees of all manner of kinds. In the very woodiest
part is a broad deep lake, surrounded by marshy ground with reeds growing
on it. Here otters are caught, and beavers, with another sort of animal
which has a square face. With the skins of this last the natives border
their capotes: and they also get from them a remedy, which is of virtue
in diseases of the womb.
[4.110] It is reported of the Sauromatae,
that when the Greeks fought with the Amazons, whom the Scythians call Oior-pata
or "man-slayers," as it may be rendered, Oior being Scythic
for "man," and pata for "to slay" - It is reported,
I say, that the Greeks after gaining the battle of the Thermodon, put to
sea, taking with them on board three of their vessels all the Amazons whom
they had made prisoners; and that these women upon the voyage rose up against
the crews, and massacred them to a man. As however they were quite strange
to ships, and did not know how to use either rudder, sails, or oars, they
were carried, after the death of the men, where the winds and the waves
listed. At last they reached the shores of the Palus Maeotis and came to
a place called Cremni or "the Cliffs," which is in the country
of the free Scythians. Here they went ashore, and proceeded by land towards
the inhabited regions; the first herd of horses which they fell in with
they seized, and mounting upon their backs, fell to plundering the Scythian
territory.
[4.111] The Scyths could not tell
what to make of the attack upon them - the dress, the language, the nation
itself, were alike unknown whence the enemy had come even, was a marvel.
Imagining, however, that they were all men of about the same age, they
went out against them, and fought a battle. Some of the bodies of the slain
fell into their hands, whereby they discovered the truth. Hereupon they
deliberated, and made a resolve to kill no more of them, but to send against
them a detachment of their youngest men, as near as they could guess equal
to the women in number, with orders to encamp in their neighbourhood, and
do as they saw them do - when the Amazons advanced against them, they were
to retire, and avoid a fight - when they halted, the young men were to
approach and pitch their camp near the camp of the enemy. All this they
did on account of their strong desire to obtain children from so notable
a race.
[4.112] So the youths departed, and
obeyed the orders which had been given them. The Amazons soon found out
that they had not come to do them any harm; and so they on their part ceased
to offer the Scythians any molestation. And now day after day the camps
approached nearer to one another; both parties led the same life, neither
having anything but their arms and horses, so that they were forced to
support themselves by hunting and pillage.
[4.113] At last an incident brought
two of them together - the man easily gained the good graces of the woman,
who bade him by signs (for they did not understand each other's language)
to bring a friend the next day to the spot where they had met - promising
on her part to bring with her another woman. He did so, and the woman kept
her word. When the rest of the youths heard what had taken place, they
also sought and gained the favour of the other Amazons.
[4.114] The two camps were then joined
in one, the Scythians living with the Amazons as their wives; and the men
were unable to learn the tongue of the women, but the women soon caught
up the tongue of the men. When they could thus understand one another,
the Scyths addressed the Amazons in these words - "We have parents,
and properties, let us therefore give up this mode of life, and return
to our nation, and live with them. You shall be our wives there no less
than here, and we promise you to have no others." But the Amazons
said - "We could not live with your women - our customs are quite
different from theirs. To draw the bow, to hurl the javelin, to bestride
the horse, these are our arts of womanly employments we know nothing. Your
women, on the contrary, do none of these things; but stay at home in their
waggons, engaged in womanish tasks, and never go out to hunt, or to do
anything. We should never agree together. But if you truly wish to keep
us as your wives, and would conduct yourselves with strict justice towards
us, go you home to your parents, bid them give you your inheritance, and
then come back to us, and let us and you live together by ourselves."
[4.115] The youths approved of the
advice, and followed it. They went and got the portion of goods which fell
to them, returned with it, and rejoined their wives, who then addressed
them in these words following:- "We are ashamed, and afraid to live
in the country where we now are. Not only have we stolen you from your
fathers, but we have done great damage to Scythia by our ravages. As you
like us for wives, grant the request we make of you. Let us leave this
country together, and go and dwell beyond the Tanais." Again the youths
complied.
[4.116] Crossing the Tanais they
journeyed eastward a distance of three days' march from that stream, and
again northward a distance of three days' march from the Palus Maeotis.
Here they came to the country where they now live, and took up their abode
in it. The women of the Sauromatae have continued from that day to the
present to observe their ancient customs, frequently hunting on horseback
with their husbands, sometimes even unaccompanied; in war taking the field;
and wearing the very same dress as the men.
[4.117] The Sauromatae speak the
language of Scythia, but have never talked it correctly, because the Amazons
learnt it imperfectly at the first. Their marriage-law lays it down that
no girl shall wed till she has killed a man in battle. Sometimes it happens
that a woman dies unmarried at an advanced age, having never been able
in her whole lifetime to fulfil the condition.
[4.118] The envoys of the Scythians,
on being introduced into the presence of the kings of these nations, who
were assembled to deliberate, made it known to them that the Persian, after
subduing the whole of the other continent, had thrown a bridge over the
strait of the Bosphorus, and crossed into the continent of Europe, where
he had reduced the Thracians, and was now making a bridge over the Ister,
his aim being to bring under his sway all Europe also. "Stand ye not
aloof then from this contest," they went on to say, "look not
on tamely while we are perishing - but make common cause with us, and together
let us meet the enemy. If ye refuse, we must yield to the pressure, and
either quit our country, or make terms with the invaders. For what else
is left for us to do, if your aid be withheld from us? The blow, be sure,
will not light on you more gently upon this account. The Persian comes
against you no less than against us: and will not be content, after we
are conquered, to leave you in peace. We can bring strong proof of what
we here advance. Had the Persian leader indeed come to avenge the wrongs
which he suffered at our hands when we enslaved his people, and to war
on us only, he would have been bound to march straight upon Scythia, without
molesting any nation by the way. Then it would have been plain to all that
Scythia alone was aimed at. But now, what has his conduct been? From the
moment of his entrance into Europe, he has subjugated without exception
every nation that lay in his path. All the tribes of the Thracians have
been brought under his sway, and among them even our next neighbours, the
Getae."
[4.119] The assembled princes of
the nations, after hearing all that the Scythians had to say, deliberated.
At the end opinion was divided - the kings of the Geloni, Budini, and Sauromatae
were of accord, and pledged themselves to give assistance to the Scythians;
but the Agathyrsian and Neurian princes, together with the sovereigns of
the Androphagi, the Melanchaeni, and the Tauri, replied to their request
as follows:- "If you had not been the first to wrong the Persians,
and begin the war, we should have thought the request you make just; -
we should then have complied with your wishes, and joined our arms with
yours. Now, however, the case stands thus - you, independently of us, invaded
the land of the Persians, and so long as God gave you the power, lorded
it over them: raised up now by the same God, they are come to do to you
the like. We, on our part, did no wrong to these men in the former war,
and will not be the first to commit wrong now. If they invade our land,
and begin aggressions upon us, we will not suffer them; but, till we see
this come to pass, we will remain at home. For we believe that the Persians
are not come to attack us, but to punish those who are guilty of first
injuring them."
[4.120] When this reply reached the
Scythians, they resolved, as the neighbouring nations refused their alliance,
that they would not openly venture on any pitched battle with the enemy,
but would retire before them, driving off their herds, choking up all the
wells and springs as they retreated, and leaving the whole country bare
of forage. They divided themselves into three bands, one of which, namely,
that commanded by Scopasis, it was agreed should be joined by the Sauromatae,
and if the Persians advanced in the direction of the Tanais, should retreat
along the shores of the Palus Maeotis and make for that river; while if
the Persians retired, they should at once pursue and harass them. The two
other divisions, the principal one under the command of Idanthyrsus, and
the third, of which Taxacis was king, were to unite in one, and, joined
by the detachments of the Geloni and Budini, were, like the others, to
keep at the distance of a day's march from the Persians, falling back as
they advanced, and doing the same as the others. And first, they were to
take the direction of the nations which had refused to join the alliance,
and were to draw the war upon them: that so, if they would not of their
own free will engage in the contest, they might by these means be forced
into it. Afterwards, it was agreed that they should retire into their own
land, and, should it on deliberation appear to them expedient, join battle
with the enemy.
[4.121] When these measures had been
determined on, the Scythians went out to meet the army of Darius, sending
on in front as scouts the fleetest of their horsemen. Their waggons wherein
their women and their children lived, and all their cattle, except such
a number as was wanted for food, which they kept with them, were made to
precede them in their retreat, and departed, with orders to keep marching,
without change of course, to the north.
[4.122] The scouts of the Scythians
found the Persian host advanced three days' march from the Ister, and immediately
took the lead of them at the distance of a day's march, encamping from
time to time, and destroying all that grow on the ground. The Persians
no sooner caught sight of the Scythian horse than they pursued upon their
track, while the enemy retired before them. The pursuit of the Persians
was directed towards the single division of the Scythian army, and thus
their line of march was eastward toward the Tanais. The Scyths crossed
the river and the Persians after them, still in pursuit. in this way they
passed through the country of the Sauromatae, and entered that of the Budini.
[4.123] As long as the march of the
Persian army lay through the countries of the Scythians and Sauromatae,
there was nothing which they could damage, the land being waste and barren;
but on entering the territories of the Budini, they came upon the wooden
fortress above mentioned, which was deserted by its inhabitants and left
quite empty of everything. This place they burnt to the ground; and having
so done, again pressed forward on the track of the retreating Scythians,
till, having passed through the entire country of the Budini, they reached
the desert, which has no inhabitants, and extends a distance of seven days'
journey above the Budinian territory. Beyond this desert dwell the Thyssagetae,
out of whose land four great streams flow. These rivers all traverse the
country of the Maeotians, and fall into the Palus Maeotis. Their names
are the Lycus, the Oarus, the Tanais, and the Syrgis.
[4.124] When Darius reached the desert,
he paused from his pursuit, and halted his army upon the Oarus. Here he
built eight large forts, at an equal distance from one another, sixty furlongs
apart or thereabouts, the ruins of which were still remaining in my day.
During the time that he was so occupied, the Scythians whom he had been
following made a circuit by the higher regions, and re-entered Scythia.
On their complete disappearance, Darius, seeing nothing more of them, left
his forts half finished, and returned towards the west. He imagined that
the Scythians whom he had seen were the entire nation, and that they had
fled in that direction.
[4.125] He now quickened his march,
and entering Scythia, fell in with the two combined divisions of the Scythian
army, and instantly gave them chase. They kept to their plan of retreating
before him at the distance of a day's march; and, he still following them
hotly, they led him, as had been previously settled, into the territories
of the nations that had refused to become their allies, and first of all
into the country of the Melanchaeni. Great disturbance was caused among
this people by the invasion of the Scyths first, and then of the Persians.
So, having harassed them after this sort, the Scythians led the way into
the land of the Androphagi, with the same result as before; and thence
passed onwards into Neuris, where their coming likewise spread dismay among
the inhabitants. Still retreating they approached the Agathyrsi; but this
people, which had witnessed the flight and terror of their neighbours,
did not wait for the Scyths to invade them, but sent a herald to forbid
them to cross their borders, and to forewarn them, that, if they made the
attempt, it would be resisted by force of arms. The Agathyrsi then proceeded
to the frontier, to defend their country against the invaders. As for the
other nations, the Melanchaeni, the Androphagi, and the Neuri, instead
of defending themselves, when the Scyths and Persians overran their lands,
they forgot their threats and fled away in confusion to the deserts lying
towards the north. The Scythians, when the Agathyrsi forbade them to enter
their country, refrained; and led the Persians back from the Neurian district
into their own land.
[4.126] This had gone on so long,
and seemed so interminable, that Darius at last sent a horseman to Idanthyrsus,
the Scythian king, with the following message:- "Thou strange man,
why dost thou keep on flying before me, when there are two things thou
mightest do so easily? If thou deemest thyself able to resist my arms,
cease thy wanderings and come, let us engage in battle. Or if thou art
conscious that my strength is greater than thine - even so thou shouldest
cease to run away - thou hast but to bring thy lord earth and water, and
to come at once to a conference."
[4.127] To this message Idanthyrsus,
the Scythian king, replied:- "This is my way, Persian. I never fear
men or fly from them. I have not done so in times past, nor do I now fly
from thee. There is nothing new or strange in what I do; I only follow
my common mode of life in peaceful years. Now I will tell thee why I do
not at once join battle with thee. We Scythians have neither towns nor
cultivated lands, which might induce us, through fear of their being taken
or ravaged, to be in any hurry to fight with you. If, however, you must
needs come to blows with us speedily, look you now, there are our fathers'
tombs - seek them out, and attempt to meddle with them - then ye shall
see whether or no we will fight with you. Till ye do this, be sure we shall
not join battle, unless it pleases us. This is my answer to the challenge
to fight. As for lords, I acknowledge only Jove my ancestor, and Vesta,
the Scythian queen. Earth and water, the tribute thou askedst, I do not
send, but thou shalt soon receive more suitable gifts. Last of all, in
return for thy calling thyself my lord, I say to thee, 'Go weep.'"
(This is what men mean by the Scythian mode of speech.) So the herald departed,
bearing this message to Darius.
[4.128] When the Scythian kings heard
the name of slavery they were filled with rage, and despatched the division
under Scopasis to which the Sauromatae were joined, with orders that they
should seek a conference with the Ionians, who had been left at the Ister
to guard the bridge. Meanwhile the Scythians who remained behind resolved
no longer to lead the Persians hither and thither about their country,
but to fall upon them whenever they should be at their meals. So they waited
till such times, and then did as they had determined. In these combats
the Scythian horse always put to flight the horse of the enemy; these last,
however, when routed, fell back upon their foot, who never failed to afford
them support; while the Scythians, on their side, as soon as they had driven
the horse in, retired again, for fear of the foot. By night too the Scythians
made many similar attacks.
[4.129] There was one very strange
thing which greatly advantaged the Persians, and was of equal disservice
to the Scyths, in these assaults on the Persian camp. This was the braying
of the asses and the appearance of the mules. For, as I observed before,
the land of the Scythians produces neither ass nor mule, and contains no
single specimen of either animal, by reason of the cold. So, when the asses
brayed, they frightened the Scythian cavalry; and often, in the middle
of a charge, the horses, hearing the noise made by the asses, would take
fright and wheel round, pricking up their ears, and showing astonishment.
This was owing to their having never heard the noise, or seen the form,
of the animal before: and it was not without some little influence on the
progress of the war.
[4.130] The Scythians, when they
perceived signs that the Persians were becoming alarmed, took steps to
induce them not to quit Scythia, in the hope, if they stayed, of inflicting
on them the greater injury, when their supplies should altogether fail.
To effect this, they would leave some of their cattle exposed with the
herdsmen, while they themselves moved away to a distance: the Persians
would make a foray, and take the beasts, whereupon they would be highly
elated.
[4.131] This they did several times,
until at last Darius was at his wits' end; hereon the Scythian princes,
understanding how matters stood, despatched a herald to the Persian camp
with presents for the king: these were, a bird, a mouse, a frog, and five
arrows. The Persians asked the bearer to tell them what these gifts might
mean, but he made answer that he had no orders except to deliver them,
and return again with all speed. If the Persians were wise, he added, they
would find out the meaning for themselves. So when they heard this, they
held a council to consider the matter.
[4.132] Darius gave it as his opinion
that the Scyths intended a surrender of themselves and their country, both
land and water, into his hands. This he conceived to be the meaning of
the gifts, because the mouse is an inhabitant of the earth, and eats the
same food as man, while the frog passes his life in the water; the bird
bears a great resemblance to the horse, and the arrows might signify the
surrender of all their power. To the explanation of Darius, Gobryas, one
of the seven conspirators against the Magus, opposed another which was
as follows:- "Unless, Persians, ye can turn into birds and fly up
into the sky, or become mice and burrow under the ground, or make yourselves
frogs, and take refuge in the fens, ye will never make escape from this
land, but die pierced by our arrows. Such were meanings which the Persians
assigned to the gifts.
[4.133] The single division of the
Scyths, which in the early part of the war had been appointed to keep guard
about the Palus Maeotis, and had now been sent to get speech of the Ionians
stationed at the Ister, addressed them, on reaching the bridge, in these
words - "Men of Ionia, we bring you freedom, if ye will only do as
we recommend. Darius, we understand, enjoined you to keep your guard here
at this bridge just sixty days; then, if he did not appear, you were to
return home. Now, therefore, act so as to be free from blame, alike in
his sight, and in ours. Tarry here the appointed time, and at the end go
your ways." Having said this, and received a promise from the Ionians
to do as they desired, the Scythians hastened back with all possible speed.
[4.134] After the sending of the
gifts to Darius, the part of the Scythian army which had not marched to
the Ister, drew out in battle array horse and foot against the Persians,
and seemed about to come to an engagement. But as they stood in battle
array, it chanced that a hare started up between them and the Persians,
and set to running; when immediately all the Scyths who saw it, rushed
off in pursuit, with great confusion and loud cries and shouts. Darius,
hearing the noise, inquired the cause of it, and was told that the Scythians
were all engaged in hunting a hare. On this he turned to those with whom
he was wont to converse, and said:- "These men do indeed despise us
utterly: and now I see that Gobryas was right about the Scythian gifts.
As, therefore, his opinion is now mine likewise, it is time we form some
wise plan whereby we may secure ourselves a safe return to our homes."
"Ah! sire," Gobryas rejoined, "I was well nigh sure, ere
I came here, that this was an impracticable race - since our coming I am
yet more convinced of it, especially now that I see them making game of
us. My advice is, therefore, that, when night falls, we light our fires
as we are wont to do at other times, and leaving behind us on some pretext
that portion of our army which is weak and unequal to hardship, taking
care also to leave our asses tethered, retreat from Scythia, before our
foes march forward to the Ister and destroy the bridge, or the Ionians
come to any resolution which may lead to our ruin."
[4.135] So Gobryas advised; and when
night came, Darius followed his counsel, and leaving his sick soldiers,
and those whose loss would be of least account, with the asses also tethered
about the camp, marched away. The asses were left that their noise might
be heard: the men, really because they were sick and useless, but under
the pretence that he was about to fall upon the Scythians with the flower
of his troops, and that they meanwhile were to guard his camp for him.
Having thus declared his plans to the men whom he was deserting, and having
caused the fires to be lighted, Darius set forth, and marched hastily towards
the Ister. The asses, aware of the departure of the host, brayed louder
than ever; and the Scythians, hearing the sound, entertained no doubt of
the Persians being still in the same place.
[4.136] When day dawned, the men
who had been left behind, perceiving that they were betrayed by Darius,
stretched out their hands towards the Scythians, and spoke as. befitted
their situation. The enemy no sooner heard, than they quickly joined all
their troops in one, and both portions of the Scythian army - alike that
which consisted of a single division, and that made up of two - accompanied
by all their allies, the Sauromatae, the Budini, and the Geloni, set off
in pursuit, and made straight for the Ister. As, however, the Persian army
was chiefly foot, and had no knowledge of the routes, which are not cut
out in Scythia; while the Scyths were all horsemen and well acquainted
with the shortest way; it so happened that the two armies missed one another,
and the Scythians, getting far ahead of their adversaries, came first to
the bridge. Finding that the Persians were not yet arrived, they addressed
the Ionians, who were aboard their ships, in these words:- "Men of
Ionia, the number of your days is out, and ye do wrong to remain. Fear
doubtless has kept you here hitherto: now, however, you may safely break
the bridge, and hasten back to your homes, rejoicing that you are free,
and thanking for it the gods and the Scythians. Your former lord and master
we undertake so to handle, that he will never again make war upon any one."
[4.137] The Ionians now held a council.
Miltiades the Athenian, who was king of the Chersonesites upon the Hellespont,
and their commander at the Ister, recommended the other generals to do
as the Scythians wished, and restore freedom to Ionia. But Histiaeus the
Milesian opposed this advice. "It is through Darius," he said,
"that we enjoy our thrones in our several states. If his power be
overturned, I cannot continue lord of Miletus, nor ye of your cities. For
there is not one of them which will not prefer democracy to kingly rule."
Then the other captains, who, till Histiaeus spoke, were about to vote
with Miltiades, changed their minds, and declared in favour of the last
speaker.
[4.138] The following were the voters
on this occasion - all of them men who stood high in the esteem of the
Persian king: the tyrants of the Hellespont - Daphnis of Abydos, Hippoclus
of Lampsacus, Herophantus of Parium, Metrodorus of Proconnesus, Aristagoras
of Cyzicus, and Ariston of Byzantium; the Ionian princes - Strattis of
Chios, Aeaces of Samos, Laodamas of Phocaea, and Histiaeus of Miletus,
the man who had opposed Miltiades. Only one Aeolian of note was present,
to wit, Aristagoras of Cyme.
[4.139] Having resolved to follow
the advice of Histiaeus, the Greek leaders further determined to speak
and act as follows. In order to appear to the Scythians to be doing something,
when in fact they were doing nothing of consequence, and likewise to prevent
them from forcing a passage across the Ister by the bridge, they resolved
to break up the part of the bridge which abutted on Scythia, to the distance
of a bowshot from the river bank; and to assure the Scythians, while the
demolition was proceeding, that there was nothing which they would not
do to pleasure them. Such were the additions made to the resolution of
Histiaeus; and then Histiaeus himself stood forth and made answer to the
Scyths in the name of all the Greeks:- "Good is the advice which ye
have brought us, Scythians, and well have ye done to come here with such
speed. Your efforts have now put us into the right path; and our efforts
shall not be wanting to advance your cause. Your own eyes see that we are
engaged in breaking the bridge; and, believe us, we will work zealously
to procure our own freedom. Meantime, while we labour here at our task,
be it your business to seek them out, and, when found, for our sakes, as
well as your own, to visit them with the vengeance which they so well deserve."
[4.140] Again the Scyths put faith
in the promises of the Ionian chiefs, and retraced their steps, hoping
to fall in with the Persians. They missed, however, the enemy's whole line
of march; their own former acts being to blame for it. Had they not ravaged
all the pasturages of that region, and filled in all the wells, they would
have easily found the Persians whenever they chose. But, as it turned out,
the measures which seemed to them so wisely planned were exactly what caused
their failure. They took a route where water was to be found and fodder
could be got for their horses, and on this track sought their adversaries,
expecting that they too would retreat through regions where these things
were to be obtained. The Persians, however, kept strictly to the line of
their former march, never for a moment departing from it; and even so gained
the bridge with difficulty. It was night when they arrived, and their terror,
when they found the bridge broken up, was great; for they thought that
perhaps the Ionians had deserted them.
[4.141] Now there was in the army
of Darius a certain man, an Egyptian, who had a louder voice than any other
man in the world. This person was bid by Darius to stand at the water's
edge, and call Histiaeus the Milesian. The fellow did as he was bid; and
Histiaeus, hearing him at the very first summons, brought the fleet to
assist in conveying the army across, and once more made good the bridge.
[4.142] By these means the Persians
escaped from Scythia, while the Scyths sought for them in vain, again missing
their track. And hence the Scythians are accustomed to say of the Ionians,
by way of reproach, that, if they be looked upon as freemen, they are the
basest and most dastardly of all mankind - but if they be considered as
under servitude, they are the faithfullest of slaves, and the most fondly
at. to their lords.
[4.143] Darius, having passed through
Thrace, reached Sestos in the Chersonese, whence he crossed by the help
of his fleet into Asia, leaving a Persian, named Megabazus, commander on
the European side. This was the man on whom Darius once conferred special
honour by a compliment which he paid him before all the Persians. was about
to eat some pomegranates, and had opened the first, when his brother Artabanus
asked him "what he would like to have in as great plenty as the seeds
of the pomegranate?" Darius answered - "Had I as many men like
Megabazus as there are seeds here, it would please me better than to be
lord of Greece." Such was the compliment wherewith Darius honoured
the general to whom at this time he gave the command of the troops left
in Europe, amounting in all to some eighty thousand men.
[4.144] This same Megabazus got himself
an undying remembrance among the Hellespontians, by a certain speech which
he made. It came to his knowledge, while he was staying at Byzantium, that
the Chalcedonians made their settlement seventeen years earlier than the
Byzantines. "Then," said he, "the Chalcedonians must at
that time have been labouring under blindness - otherwise, when so far
more excellent a site was open to them, they would never have chosen one
so greatly inferior." Megabazus now, having been appointed to take
the command upon the Hellespont, employed himself in the reduction of all
those states which had not of their own accord joined the Medes.
[4.145] About this very time another
great expedition was undertaken against Libya, on a pretext which I will
relate when I have premised certain particulars. The descendants of the
Argonauts in the third generation, driven out of Lemnos by the Pelasgi
who carried off the Athenian women from Brauron, took ship and went to
Lacedaemon, where, seating themselves on Mount Taygetum, they proceeded
to kindle their fires. The Lacedaemonians, seeing this, sent a herald to
inquire of them "who they were, and from what region they had come";
whereupon they made answer, "that they were Minyae, sons of the heroes
by whom the ship Argo was manned; for these persons had stayed awhile in
Lemnos, and had there become their progenitors." On hearing this account
of their descent, the Lacedaemonians sent to them a second time, and asked
"what was their object in coming to Lacedaemon, and there kindling
their fires?" They answered, "that, driven from their own land
by the Pelasgi, they had come, as was most reasonable, to their fathers;
and their wish was to dwell with them in their country, partake their privileges,
and obtain allotments of land. It seemed good to the Lacedaemonians to
receive the Minyae among them on their own terms; to assign them lands,
and enrol them in their tribes. What chiefly moved them to this was the
consideration that the sons of Tyndarus had sailed on board the Argo. The
Minyae, on their part, forthwith married Spartan wives, and gave the wives,
whom they had married in Lemnos, to Spartan husbands.
[4.146] However, before much time
had elapsed, the Minyae began to wax wanton, demanded to share the throne,
and committed other impieties: whereupon the Lacedaemonians passed on them
sentence of death, and, seizing them, cast them into prison. Now the Lacedaemonians
never put criminals to death in the daytime, but always at night. When
the Minyae, accordingly, were about to suffer, their wives, who were not
only citizens, but daughters of the chief men among the Spartans, entreated
to be allowed to enter the prison, and have some talk with their lords;
and the Spartans, not expecting any fraud from such a quarter, granted
their request. The women entered the prison. gave their own clothes to
their husbands, and received theirs in exchange: after which the Minyae,
dressed in their wives' garments, and thus passing for women, went forth.
Having effected their escape in this manner, they seated themselves once
more upon Taygetum.own land
[4.147] It happened that at this
very time Theras, son of Autesion (whose father Tisamenus was the son of
Thersander, and grandson of Polynices), was about to lead out a colony
from Lacedaemon This Theras, by birth a Cadmeian, was uncle on the mother's
side to the two sons of Aristodemus, Procles and Eurysthenes, and, during
their infancy, administered in their right the royal power. When his nephews,
however, on attaining to man's estate, took the government, Theras, who
could not bear to be under the authority of others after he had wielded
authority so long himself, resolved to leave Sparta and cross the sea to
join his kindred. There were in the island now called Thera, but at that
time Calliste, certain descendants of Membliarus, the son of Poeciles,
a Phoenician. (For Cadmus, the son of Agenor, when he was sailing in search
of Europe, made a landing on this island; and, either because the country
pleased him, or because he had a purpose in so doing, left there a number
of Phoenicians, and with them his own kinsman Membliarus. Calliste had
been inhabited by this race for eight generations of men, before the arrival
of Theras from Lacedaemon.)
[4.148] Theras now, having with him
a certain number of men from each of the tribes, was setting forth on his
expedition hitherward. Far from intending to drive out the former inhabitants,
he regarded them as his near kin, and meant to settle among them. It happened
that just at this time the Minyae, having escaped from their prison, had
taken up their station upon Mount Taygetum; and the Lacedaemonians, wishing
to destroy them, were considering what was best to be done, when Theras
begged their lives, undertaking to remove them from the territory. His
prayer being granted, he took ship, and sailed, with three triaconters,
to join the descendants of Membliarus. He was not, however, accompanied
by all the Minyae, but only by some few of them. The greater number fled
to the land of the Paroreats and Caucons, whom they drove out, themselves
occupying the region in six bodies, by which were afterwards built the
towns of Lepreum, Macistus, Phryxae, Pyrgus, Epium, and Nudium; whereof
the greater part were in my day demolished by the Eleans.
[4.149] The island was called Thera
after the name of its founder. This same Theras had a son, who refused
to cross the sea with him; Theras therefore left him behind, "a sheep,"
as he said, "among wolves." From this speech his son came to
be called Oeolycus, a name which afterwards grew to be the only one by
which he was known. This Oeolycus was the father of Aegeus, from whom sprang
the Aegidae, a great tribe in Sparta. The men of this tribe lost at one
time all their children, whereupon they were bidden by an oracle to build
a temple to the furies of Laius and Oedipus; they complied, and the mortality
ceased. The same thing happened in Thera to the descendants of these men.
[4.150] Thus far the history is delivered
without variation both by the Theraeans and the Lacedaemonians; but from
this point we have only the Theraean narrative. Grinus (they say), the
son of Aesanius, a descendant of Theras, and king of the island of Thera,
went to Delphi to offer a hecatomb on behalf of his native city. He was
accompanied by a large number of the citizens, and among the rest by Battus,
the son of Polymnestus, who belonged to the Minyan family of the Euphemidae.
On Grinus consulting the oracle about sundry matters, the Pythoness gave
him for answer, "that he should found a city in Libya." Grinus
replied to this: "I, O king! am too far advanced in years, and too
inactive, for such a work. Bid one of these youngsters undertake it."
As he spoke, he pointed towards Battus; and thus the matter rested for
that time. When the embassy returned to Thera, small account was taken
of the oracle by the Theraeans, as they were quite ignorant where Libya
was, and were not so venturesome as to send out a colony in the dark.
[4.151] Seven years passed from the
utterance of the oracle, and not a drop of rain fell in Thera: all the
trees in the island, except one, were killed with the drought. The Theraeans
upon this sent to Delphi, and were reminded reproachfully that they had
never colonised Libya. So, as there was no help for it, they sent messengers
to Crete, to inquire whether any of the Cretans, or of the strangers sojourning
among them, had ever travelled as far as Libya: and these messengers of
theirs, in their wanderings about the island, among other places visited
Itanus, where they fell in with a man, whose name was Corobius, a dealer
in purple. In answer to their inquiries, he told them that contrary winds
had once carried him to Libya, where he had gone ashore on a certain island
which was named Platea. So they hired this man's services, and took him
back with them to Thera. A few persons then sailed from Thera to reconnoitre.
Guided by Corobius to the island of Platea, they left him there with provisions
for a certain number of months, and returned home with all speed to give
their countrymen an account of the island.
[4.152] During their absence, which
was prolonged beyond the time that had been agreed upon, Corobius provisions
failed him. He was relieved, however, after a while by a Samian vessel,
under the command of a man named Colaeus, which, on its way to Egypt, was
forced to put in at Platea. The crew, informed by Corobius of all the circumstances,
left him sufficient food for a year. They themselves quitted the island;
and, anxious to reach Egypt, made sail in that direction, but were carried
out of their course by a gale of wind from the east. The storm not abating,
they were driven past the Pillars of Hercules, and at last, by some special
guiding providence, reached Tartessus. This trading town was in those days
a virgin port, unfrequented by the merchants. The Samians, in consequence,
made by the return voyage a profit greater than any Greeks before their
day, excepting Sostratus, son of Laodamas, an Eginetan, with whom no one
else can compare. From the tenth part of their gains, amounting to six
talents, the Samians made a brazen vessel, in shape like an Argive wine-bowl,
adorned with the heads of griffins standing out in high relief. This bowl,
supported by three kneeling colossal figures in bronze, of the height of
seven cubits, was placed as an offering in the temple of Juno at Samos.
The aid given to Corobius was the original cause of that close friendship
which afterwards united the Cyrenaeans and Theraeans with the Samians.
[4.153] The Theraeans who had left
Corobius at Platea, when they reached Thera, told their countrymen that
they had colonised an island on the coast of Libya. They of Thera, upon
this, resolved that men should be sent to join the colony from each of
their seven districts, and that the brothers in every family should draw
lots to determine who were to go. Battus was chosen to be king and leader
of the colony. So these men departed for Platea on board of two penteconters.
[4.154] Such is the account which
the Theraeans give. In the sequel of the history their accounts tally with
those of the people of Cyrene; but in what they relate of Battus these
two nations differ most widely. The following is the Cyrenaic story. There
was once a king named Etearchus, who ruled over Axus, a city in Crete,
and had a daughter named Phronima. This girl's mother having died, Etearchus
married a second wife; who no sooner took up her abode in his house than
she proved a true step-mother to poor Phronima, always vexing her, and
contriving against her every sort of mischief. At last she taxed her with
light conduct; and Etearchus, persuaded by his wife that the charge was
true, bethought himself of a most barbarous mode of punishment. There was
a certain Theraean, named Themison, a merchant, living at Axus. This man
Etearchus invited to be his friend and guest, and then induced him to swear
that he would do him any service he might require. No sooner had he given
the promise, than the king fetched Phronima, and, delivering her into his
hands, told him to carry her away and throw her into the sea. Hereupon
Themison, full of indignation at the fraud whereby his oath had been procured,
dissolved forthwith the friendship, and, taking the girl with him, sailed
away from Crete. Having reached the open main, to acquit himself of the
obligation under which he was laid by his oath to Etearchus, he fastened
ropes about the damsel, and, letting her down into the sea, drew her up
again, and so made sail for Thera.
[4.155] At Thera, Polymnestus, one
of the chief citizens of the place, took Phronima to be his concubine.
The fruit of this union was a son, who stammered and had a lisp in his
speech. According to the Cyrenaeans and Theraeans the name given to the
boy was Battus: in my opinion, however, he was called at the first something
else, and only got the name of Battus after his arrival in Libya, assuming
it either in consequence of the words addressed to him by the Delphian
oracle, or on account of the office which he held. For, in the Libyan tongue,
the word "Battus" means "a king." And this, I think,
was the reason the Pythoness addressed him as she did: she he was to be
a king in Libya, and so she used the Libyan word in speaking to him. For
after he had grown to man's estate, he made a journey to Delphi, to consult
the oracle about his voice; when, upon his putting his question, the Pythoness
thus replied to him:-
Battus, thou camest to ask of thy voice; but Phoebus Apollo
Bids thee establish a city in Libya, abounding in fleeces;
which was as if she had said in her own tongue, "King, thou camest
to ask of thy voice." Then he replied, "Mighty lord, I did indeed
come hither to consult thee about my voice, but thou speakest to me of
quite other matters, bidding me colonise Libya - an impossible thing! what
power have I? what followers?" Thus he spake, but he did not persuade
the Pythoness to give him any other response; so, when he found that she
persisted in her former answer, he left her speaking, and set out on his
return to Thera.
[4.156] After a while, everything
began to go wrong both with Battus and with the rest of the Theraeans,
whereupon these last, ignorant of the cause of their sufferings, sent to
Delphi to inquire for what reason they were afflicted. The Pythoness in
reply told them "that if they and Battus would make a settlement at
Cyrene in Libya, things would go better with them." Upon this the
Theraeans sent out Battus with two penteconters, and with these he proceeded
to Libya, but within a little time, not knowing what else to do, the men
returned and arrived off Thera. The Theraeans, when they saw the vessels
approaching, received them with showers of missiles, would not allow them
to come near the shore, and ordered the men to sail back from whence they
came. Thus compelled to return, they settled on an island near the Libyan
coast, which (as I have already said) was called Platea. In size it is
reported to have been about equal to the city of Cyrene, as it now stands.
[4.157] In this place they continued
two years, but at the end of that time, as their ill luck still followed
them, they left the island to the care of one of their number, and went
in a body to Delphi, where they made complaint at the shrine to the effect
that, notwithstanding they had colonised Libya, they prospered as poorly
as before. Hereon the Pythoness made them the following answer:-
Knowest thou better than I, fair Libya abounding in fleeces?
Better the stranger than he who has trod it? Oh! Clever Theraeans!
Battus and his friends, when they heard this, sailed back to Platea:
it was plain the god would not hold them acquitted of the colony till they
were absolutely in Libya. So, taking with them the man whom they had left
upon the island, they made a settlement on the mainland directly opposite
Platea, fixing themselves at a place called Aziris, which is closed in
on both sides by the most beautiful hills, and on one side is washed by
a river.
[4.158] Here they remained six years,
at the end of which time the Libyans induced them to move, promising that
they would lead them to a better situation. So the Greeks left Aziris and
were conducted by the Libyans towards the west, their journey being so
arranged, by the calculation of their guides, that they passed in the night
the most beautiful district of that whole country, which is the region
called Irasa. The Libyans brought them to a spring, which goes by the name
of Apollo's fountain, and told them - "Here, Grecians, is the proper
place for you to settle; for here the sky leaks."
[4.159] During the lifetime of Battus,
the founder of the colony, who reigned forty years, and during that of
his son Arcesilaus, who reigned sixteen, the Cyrenaeans continued at the
same level, neither more nor fewer in number than they were at the first.
But in the reign of the third king, Battus, surnamed the Happy, the advice
of the Pythoness brought Greeks from every quarter into Libya, to join
the settlement. The Cyrenaeans had offered to all comers a share in their
lands; and the oracle had spoken as follows:-
He that is backward to share in the pleasant Libyan acres,
Sooner or later, I warn him, will feel regret at his folly.
Thus a great multitude were collected together to Cyrene, and the Libyans
of the neighbourhood found themselves stripped of large portions of their
lands. So they, and their king Adicran, being robbed and insulted by the
Cyrenaeans, sent messengers to Egypt, and put themselves under the rule
of Apries, the Egyptian monarch; who, upon this, levied a vast army of
Egyptians, and sent them against Cyrene. The inhabitants of that place
left their walls and marched out in force to the district of Irasa, where,
near the spring called Theste, they engaged the Egyptian host, and defeated
it. The Egyptians, who had never before made trial of the prowess of the
Greeks, and so thought but meanly of them, were routed with such slaughter
that but a very few of them ever got back home. For this reason, the subjects
of Apries, who laid the blame of the defeat on him, revolted from his authority.
[4.160] This Battus left a son called
Arcesilaus, who, when he came to the throne, had dissensions with his brothers,
which ended in their quitting him and departing to another region of Libya,
where, after consulting among themselves, they founded the city, which
is still called by the name then given to it, Barca. At the same time they
endeavoured to induce the Libyans to revolt from Cyrene. Not long afterwards
Arcesilaus made an expedition against the Libyans who had received his
brothers and been prevailed upon to revolt; and they, fearing his power,
fled to their countrymen who dwelt towards the east. Arcesilaus pursued,
and chased them to a place called Leucon, which is in Libya, where the
Libyans resolved to risk a battle. Accordingly they engaged the Cyrenaeans,
and defeated them so entirely that as many as seven thousand of their heavy-armed
were slain in the fight. Arcesilaus, after this blow, fell sick, and, whilst
he was under the influence of a draught which he had taken, was strangled
by Learchus, one of his brothers. This Learchus was afterwards entrapped
by Eryxo, the widow of Arcesilaus, and put to death.
[4.161] Battus, Arcesilaus' son,
succeeded to the kingdom, a lame man, who limped in his walk. Their late
calamities now induced the Cyrenaeans to send to Delphi and inquire of
the god what form of government they had best set up to secure themselves
prosperity. The Pythoness answered by recommending them to fetch an arbitrator
from Mantinea in Arcadia. Accordingly they sent; and the Mantineans gave
them a man named Demonax, a person of high repute among the citizens; who,
on his arrival at Cyrene, having first made himself acquainted with all
the circumstances, proceeded to enrol the people in three tribes. One he
made to consist of the Theraeans and their vassals; another of the Peloponnesians
and Cretans; and a third of the various islanders. Besides this, he deprived
the king Battus of his former privileges, only reserving for him certain
sacred lands and offices; while, with respect to the powers which had hitherto
been exercised by the king, he gave them all into the hands of the people.
[4.162] Thus matters rested during
the lifetime of this Battus, but when his son Arcesilaus came to the throne,
great disturbance arose about the privileges. For Arcesilaus, son of Battus
the lame and Pheretima, refused to submit to the arrangements of Demonax
the Mantinean, and claimed all the powers of his forefathers. In the contention
which followed Arcesilaus was worsted, whereupon he fled to Samos, while
his mother took refuge at Salamis in the island of Cyprus. Salamis was
at that time ruled by Evelthon, the same who offered at Delphi the censer
which is in the treasury of the Corinthians, a work deserving of admiration.
Of him Pheretima made request that he would give her an army whereby she
and her son might regain Cyrene. But Evelthon, preferring to give her anything
rather than an army, made her various presents. Pheretima accepted them
all, saying, as she took them: "Good is this too, O king! but better
were it to give me the army which I crave at thy hands." Finding that
she repeated these words each time that he presented her with a gift, Evelthon
at last sent her a golden spindle and distaff, with the wool ready for
spinning. Again she uttered the same speech as before, whereupon Evelthon
rejoined - "These are the gifts I present to women, not armies."
[4.163] At Samos, meanwhile, Arcesilaus
was collecting troops by the promise of granting them lands. Having in
this way drawn together a vast host, he sent to Delphi to consult the oracle
about his restoration. The answer of the Pythoness was this: "Loxias
grants thy race to rule over Cyrene, till four kings Battus, four Arcesilaus
by name, have passed away. Beyond this term of eight generations of men,
he warns you not to seek to extend your reign. Thou, for thy part, be gentle,
when thou art restored. If thou findest the oven full of jars, bake not
the jars; but be sure to speed them on their way. If, however, thou heatest
the oven, then avoid the island else thou wilt die thyself, and with thee
the most beautiful bull."
[4.164] So spake the Pythoness. Arcesilaus
upon this returned to Cyrene, taking with him the troops which he had raised
in Samos. There he obtained possession of the supreme power; whereupon,
forgetful of the oracle, he took proceedings against those who had driven
him into banishment. Some of them fled from him and quitted the country
for good; others fell into his hands and were sent to suffer death in Cyprus.
These last happening on their passage to put in through stress of weather
at Cnidus, the Cnidians rescued them, and sent them off to Thera. Another
body found a refuge in the great tower of Aglomachus, a private edifice,
and were there destroyed by Arcesilaus, who heaped wood around the place,
and burnt them to death. Aware, after the deed was done, that this was
what the Pythoness meant when she warned him, if he found the jars in the
oven, not to bake them, he withdrew himself of his own accord from the
city of Cyrene, believing that to be the island of the oracle, and fearing
to die as had been prophesied. Being married to a relation of his own,
a daughter of Alazir, at that time king of the Barcaeans, he took up his
abode with him. At Barca, however, certain of the citizens, together with
a number of Cyrenaean exiles, recognising him as he walked in the forum,
killed him; they slew also at the same time Alazir, his father-in-law.
So Arcesilaus, wittingly or unwittingly, disobeyed the oracle, and thereby
fulfilled his destiny.
[4.165] Pheretima, the mother of
Arcesilaus, during the time that her son, after working his own ruin, dwelt
at Barca, continued to enjoy all his privileges at Cyrene, managing the
government, and taking her seat at the council-board. No sooner, however,
did she hear of the death of her son at Barca, than leaving Cyrene, she
fled in haste to Egypt. Arcesilaus had claims for service done to Cambyses,
son of Cyrus; since it was by him that Cyrene was put under the Persian
yoke, and a rate of tribute agreed upon. Pheretima therefore went straight
to Egypt, and presenting herself as a suppliant before Aryandes, entreated
him to avenge her wrongs. Her son, she said, had met his death on account
of his being so well affected towards the Medes.
[4.166] Now Aryandes had been made
governor of Egypt by Cambyses. He it was who in after times was punished
with death by Darius for seeking to rival him. Aware, by report and also
by his own eyesight, that Darius wished to leave a memorial of himself,
such as no king had ever left before, Aryandes resolved to follow his example,
and did so, till he got his reward. Darius had refined gold to the last
perfection of purity in order to have coins struck of it: Aryandes, in
his Egyptian government, did the very same with silver, so that to this
day there is no such pure silver anywhere as the Aryandic. Darius, when
this came to his ears, brought another charge, a charge of rebellion, against
Aryandes, and put him to death.
[4.167] At the time of which we are
speaking Aryandes, moved with compassion for Pheretima, granted her all
the forces which there were in Egypt, both land and sea. The command of
the army he gave to Amasis, a Maraphian; while Badres, one of the tribe
of the Pasargadae, was appointed to lead the fleet. Before the expedition,
however, left Egypt, he sent a herald to Barca to inquire who it was that
had slain king Arcesilaus. The Barcaeans replied "that they, one and
all, acknowledged the deed - Arcesilaus had done them many and great injuries."
After receiving this reply, Aryandes gave the troops orders to march with
Pheretima. Such was the cause which served as a pretext for this expedition:
its real object was, I believe, the subjugation of Libya. For Libya is
inhabited by many and various races, and of these but very few were subjects
of the Persian king, while by far the larger number held Darius in no manner
of respect.
[4.168] The Libyans dwell in the
order which I will now describe. Beginning on the side of Egypt, the first
Libyans are the Adyrmachidae These people have, in most points, the same
customs as the Egyptians, but use the costume of the Libyans. Their women
wear on each leg a ring made of bronze; they let their hair grow long,
and when they catch any vermin on their persons, bite it and throw it away.
In this they differ from all the other Libyans. They are also the only
tribe with whom the custom obtains of bringing all women about to become
brides before the king, that he may choose such as are agreeable to him.
The Adyrmachidae extend from the borders of Egypt to the harbour called
Port Plynus.
[4.169] Next to the Adyrmachidae
are the Gilligammae, who inhabit the country westward as far as the island
of Aphrodisias. Off this tract is the island of Platea, which the Cyrenaeans
colonised. Here too, upon the mainland, are Port Menelaus, and Aziris,
where the Cyrenaeans once lived. The Silphium begins to grow in this region,
extending from the island of Platea on the one side to the mouth of the
Syrtis on the other. The customs of the Gilligammae are like those of the
rest of their countrymen.
[4.170] The Asbystae adjoin the Gilligammae
upon the west. They inhabit the regions above Cyrene, but do not reach
to the coast, which belongs to the Cyrenaeans. Four-horse chariots are
in more common use among them than among any other Libyans. In most of
their customs they ape the manners of the Cyrenaeans.
[4.171] Westward of the Asbystae
dwell the Auschisae, who possess the country above Barca, reaching, however,
to the sea at the place called Euesperides. In the middle of their territory
is the little tribe of the Cabalians, which touches the coast near Tauchira,
a city of the Barcaeans. Their customs are like those of the Libyans above
Cyrene.
[4.172] The Nasamonians, a numerous
people, are the western neighbours of the Auschisae. In summer they leave
their flocks and herds upon the sea-shore, and go up the country to a place
called Augila, where they gather the dates from the palms, which in those
parts grow thickly, and are of great size, all of them being of the fruit-bearing
kind. They also chase the locusts, and, when caught, dry them in the sun,
after which they grind them to powder, and, sprinkling this upon their
milk, so drink it. Each man among them has several wives, in their intercourse
with whom they resemble the Massagetae. The following are their customs
in the swearing of oaths and the practice of augury. The man, as he swears,
lays his hand upon the tomb of some one considered to have been pre-eminently
just and good, and so doing swears by his name. For divination they betake
themselves to the sepulchres of their own ancestors, and, after praying,
lie down to sleep upon their graves; by the dreams which then come to them
they guide their conduct. When they pledge their faith to one another,
each gives the other to drink out of his hand; if there be no liquid to
be had, they take up dust from the ground, and put their tongues to it.
[4.173] On the country of the Nasamonians
borders that of the Psylli, who were swept away under the following circumstances.
The south-wind had blown for a long time and dried up all the tanks in
which their water was stored. Now the whole region within the Syrtis is
utterly devoid of springs. Accordingly the Psylli took counsel among themselves,
and by common consent made war upon the southwind - so at least the Libyans
say, I do but repeat their words - they went forth and reached the desert;
but there the south-wind rose and buried them under heaps of sand: whereupon,
the Psylli being destroyed, their lands passed to the Nasamonians.
[4.174] Above the Nasamonians, towards
the south, in the district where the wild beasts abound, dwell the Garamantians,
who avoid all society or intercourse with their fellow-men, have no weapon
of war, and do not know how to defend themselves.
[4.175] These border the Nasamonians
on the south: westward along the sea-shore their neighbours are the Macea,
who, by letting the locks about the crown of their head grow long, while
they clip them close everywhere else, make their hair resemble a crest.
In war these people use the skins of ostriches for shields. The river Cinyps
rises among them from the height called "the Hill of the Graces,"
and runs from thence through their country to the sea. The Hill of the
Graces is thickly covered with wood, and is thus very unlike the rest of
Libya, which is bare. It is distant two hundred furlongs from the sea.
[4.176] Adjoining the Macae are the
Gindanes, whose women wear on their legs anklets of leather. Each lover
that a woman has gives her one; and she who can show the most is the best
esteemed, as she appears to have been loved by the greatest number of men.
[4.177] A promontory jutting out
into the sea from the country of the Gindanes is inhabited by the Lotophagi,
who live entirely on the fruit of the lotus-tree. The lotus fruit is about
the size of the lentisk berry, and in sweetness resembles the date. The
Lotophagi even succeed in obtaining from it a sort of wine.
[4.178] The sea-coast beyond the
Lotophagi is occupied by the Machlyans, who use the lotus to some extent,
though not so much as the people of whom we last spoke. The Machlyans reach
as far as the great river called the Triton, which empties itself into
the great lake Tritonis. Here, in this lake, is an island called Phla,
which it is said the Lacedaemonians were to have colonised, according to
an oracle.
[4.179] The following is the story
as it is commonly told. When Jason had finished building the Argo at the
foot of Mount Pelion, he took on board the usual hecatomb, and moreover
a brazen tripod. Thus equipped, he set sail, intending to coast round the
Peloponnese, and so to reach Delphi. The voyage was prosperous as far as
Malea; but at that point a gale of wind from the north came on suddenly,
and carried him out of his course to the coast of Libya; where, before
he discovered the land, he got among the shallows of Lake Tritonis. As
he was turning it in his mind how he should find his way out, Triton (they
say) appeared to him, and offered to show him the channel, and secure him
a safe retreat, if he would give him the tripod. Jason complying, was shown
by Triton the passage through the shallows; after which the god took the
tripod, and, carrying it to his own temple, seated himself upon it, and,
filled with prophetic fury, delivered to Jason and his companions a long
prediction. "When a descendant," he said, "of one of the
Argo's crew should seize and carry off the brazen tripod, then by inevitable
fate would a hundred Grecian cities be built around Lake Tritonis."
The Libyans of that region, when they heard the words of this prophecy,
took away the tripod and hid it.
[4.180] The next tribe beyond the
Machlyans is the tribe of the Auseans. Both these nations inhabit the borders
of Lake Tritonis, being separated from one another by the river Triton.
Both also wear their hair long, but the Machlyans let it grow at the back
of the head, while the Auseans have it long in front. The Ausean maidens
keep year by year a feast in honour of Minerva, whereat their custom is
to draw up in two bodies, and fight with stones and clubs. They say that
these are rites which have come down to them from their fathers, and that
they honour with them their native goddess, who is the same as the Minerva
(Athene) of the Grecians. If any of the maidens die of the wounds they
receive, the Auseans declare that such are false maidens. Before the fight
is suffered to begin, they have another ceremony. One of the virgins, the
loveliest of the number, is selected from the rest; a Corinthian helmet
and a complete suit of Greek armour are publicly put upon her; and, thus
adorned, she is made to mount into a chariot, and led around the whole
lake in a procession. What arms they used for the adornment of their damsels
before the Greeks came to live in their country, I cannot say. I imagine
they dressed them in Egyptian armour, for I maintain that both the shield
and the helmet came into Greece from Egypt. The Auseans declare that Minerva
is the daughter of Neptune and the Lake Tritonis - they say she quarrelled
with her father, and applied to Jupiter, who consented to let her be his
child; and so she became his adopted daughter. These people do not marry
or live in families, but dwell together like the gregarious beasts. When
their children are full-grown, they are brought before the assembly of
the men, which is held every third month, and assigned to those whom they
most resemble.
[4.181] Such are the tribes of wandering
Libyans dwelling upon the sea-coast. Above them inland is the wild-beast
tract: and beyond that, a ridge of sand, reaching from Egyptian Thebes
to the Pillars of Hercules. Throughout this ridge, at the distance of about
ten days' journey from one another, heaps of salt in large lumps lie upon
hills. At the top of every hill there gushes forth from the middle of the
salt a stream of water, which is both cold and sweet. Around dwell men
who are the last inhabitants of Libya on the side of the desert, living,
as they do, more inland than the wild-beast district. Of these nations
the first is that of the Ammonians, who dwell at a distance of ten days'
from Thebes, and have a temple derived from that of the Theban Jupiter.
For at Thebes likewise, as I mentioned above, the image of Jupiter has
a face like that of a ram. The Ammonians have another spring besides that
which rises from the salt. The water of this stream is lukewarm at early
dawn; at the time when the market fills it is much cooler; by noon it has
grown quite cold; at this time, therefore, they water their gardens. As
the afternoon advances the coldness goes off, till, about sunset, the water
is once more lukewarm; still the heat increases, and at midnight it boils
furiously. After this time it again begins to cool, and grows less and
less hot till morning comes. This spring is called "the Fountain of
the Sun."
[4.182] Next to the Ammonians, at
the distance of ten days' journey along the ridge of sand, there is a second
salt-hill like the Ammonian, and a second spring. The country round is
inhabited, and the place bears the name of Augila. Hither it is that the
Nasamonians come to gather in the dates.
[4.183] Ten days' journey from Augila
there is again a salt-hill and a spring; palms of the fruitful kind grow
here abundantly, as they do also at the other salt-hills. This region is
inhabited by a nation called the Garamantians, a very powerful people,
who cover the salt with mould, and then sow their crops. From thence is
the shortest road to the Lutophagi, a journey of thirty days. In the Garamantian
country are found the oxen which, as they graze, walk backwards. This they
do because their horns curve outwards in front of their heads, so that
it is not possible for them when grazing to move forwards, since in that
case their horns would become fixed in the ground. Only herein do they
differ from other oxen, and further in the thickness and hardness of their
hides. The Garamantians have four-horse chariots, in which they chase the
Troglodyte Ethiopians, who of all the nations whereof any account has reached
our ears are by far the swiftest of foot. The Troglodytes feed on serpents,
lizards, and other similar reptiles. Their language is unlike that of any
other people; it sounds like the screeching of bats.
[4.184] At the distance of ten days'
journey from the Garamantians there is again another salt-hill and spring
of water; around which dwell a people, called the Atarantians, who alone
of all known nations are destitute of names. The title of Atarantians is
borne by the whole race in common; but the men have no particular names
of their own. The Atarantians, when the sun rises high in the heaven, curse
him, and load him with reproaches, because (they say) he burns and wastes
both their country and themselves. Once more at the distance of ten days'
there is a salt-hill, a spring, and an inhabited tract. Near the salt is
a mountain called Atlas, very taper and round; so lofty, moreover, that
the top (it is said) cannot be seen, the clouds never quitting it either
summer or winter. The natives call this mountain "the Pillar of Heaven";
and they themselves take their name from it, being called Atlantes. They
are reported not to eat any living thing, and never to have any dreams.
[4.185] As far as the Atlantes the
names of the nations inhabiting the sandy ridge are known to me; but beyond
them my knowledge fails. The ridge itself extends as far as the Pillars
of Hercules, and even further than these; and throughout the whole distance,
at the end of every ten days' there is a salt-mine, with people dwelling
round it who all of them build their houses with blocks of the salt. No
rain falls in these parts of Libya; if it were otherwise, the walls of
these houses could not stand. The salt quarried is of two colours, white
and purple. Beyond the ridge, southwards, in the direction of the interior,
the country is a desert, with no springs, no beasts, no rain, no wood,
and altogether destitute of moisture.
[4.186] Thus from Egypt as far as
Lake Tritonis Libya is inhabited by wandering tribes, whose drink is milk
and their food the flesh of animals. Cow's flesh, however, none of these
tribes ever taste, but abstain from it for the same reason as the Egyptians,
neither do they any of them breed swine. Even at Cyrene, the women think
it wrong to eat the flesh of the cow, honouring in this Isis, the Egyptian
goddess, whom they worship both with fasts and festivals. The Barcaean
women abstain, not from cow's flesh only, but also from the flesh of swine.
[4.187] West of Lake Tritonis the
Libyans are no longer wanderers, nor do they practise the same customs
as the wandering people, or treat their children in the same way. For the
wandering Libyans, many of them at any rate, if not all - concerning which
I cannot speak with certainty - when their children come to the age of
four years, burn the veins at the top of their heads with a flock from
the fleece of a sheep: others burn the veins about the temples. This they
do to prevent them from being plagued in their after lives by a flow of
rheum from the head; and such they declare is the reason why they are so
much more healthy than other men. Certainly the Libyans are the healthiest
men that I know; but whether this is what makes them so, or not, I cannot
positively say - the healthiest certainly they are. If when the children
are being burnt convulsions come on, there is a remedy of which they have
made discovery. It is to sprinkle goat's water upon the child, who thus
treated, is sure to recover. In all this I only repeat what is said by
the Libyans.
[4.188] The rites which the wandering
Libyans use in sacrificing are the following. They begin with the ear of
the victim, which they cut off and throw over their house: this done, they
kill the animal by twisting the neck. They sacrifice to the Sun and Moon,
but not to any other god. This worship is common to all the Libyans. The
inhabitants of the parts about Lake Tritonis worship in addition Triton,
Neptune, and Minerva, the last especially.
[4.189] The dress wherewith Minerva's
statues are adorned, and her Aegis, were derived by the Greeks from the
women of Libya. For, except that the garments of the Libyan women are of
leather, and their fringes made of leathern thongs instead of serpents,
in all else the dress of both is exactly alike. The name too itself shows
that the mode of dressing the Pallas-statues came from Libya. For the Libyan
women wear over their dress stript of the hair, fringed at their edges,
and coloured with vermilion; and from these goat-skins the Greeks get their
word Aegis (goat-harness). I think for my part that the loud cries uttered
in our sacred rites came also from thence; for the Libyan women are greatly
given to such cries and utter them very sweetly. Likewise the Greeks learnt
from the Libyans to yoke four horses to a chariot.
[4.190] All the wandering tribes
bury their dead according to the fashion of the Greeks, except the Nasamonians.
They bury them sitting, and are right careful when the sick man is at the
point of giving up the ghost, to make him sit and not let him die lying
down. The dwellings of these people are made of the stems of the asphodel,
and of rushes wattled together. They can be carried from place to place.
Such are the customs of the afore-mentioned tribes.
[4.191] Westward of the river Triton
and adjoining upon the Auseans, are other Libyans who till the ground,
and live in houses: these people are named the Maxyans. They let the hair
grow long on the right side of their heads, and shave it close on the left;
they besmear their bodies with red paint; and they say that they are descended
from the men of Troy. Their country and the remainder of Libya towards
the west is far fuller of wild beasts and of wood than the country of the
wandering people. For the eastern side of Libya, where the wanderers dwell,
is low and sandy, as far as the river Triton; but westward of that the
land of the husbandmen is very hilly, and abounds with forests and wild
beasts. For this is the tract in which the huge serpents are found, and
the lions, the elephants, the bears, the aspicks, and the horned asses.
Here too are the dog-faced creatures, and the creatures without heads,
whom the Libyans declare to have their eyes in their breasts; and also
the wild men, and wild women, and many other far less fabulous beasts.
[4.192] Among the wanderers are none
of these, but quite other animals; as antelopes, gazelles, buffaloes, and
asses, not of the horned sort, but of a kind which does not need to drink;
also oryxes, whose horns are used for the curved sides of citherns, and
whose size is about that of the ox; foxes, hyaenas porcupines, wild rams,
dictyes, jackals, panthers, boryes, land-crocodiles about three cubits
in length, very like lizards, ostriches, and little snakes, each with a
single horn. All these animals are found here, and likewise those belonging
to other countries, except the stag and the wild boar; but neither stag
nor wild-boar are found in any part of Libya. There are, however, three
sorts of mice in these parts; the first are called two-footed; the next,
zegeries, which is a Libyan word meaning "hills"; and the third,
urchins. Weasels also are found in the Silphium region, much like the Tartessian.
So many, therefore, are the animals belonging to the land of the wandering
Libyans, in so far at least as my researches have been able to reach.
[4.193] Next to the Maxyan Libyans
are the Zavecians, whose wives drive their chariots to battle.
[4.194] On them border the Gyzantians;
in whose country a vast deal of honey is made by bees; very much more,
however, by the skill of men. The people all paint themselves red, and
eat monkeys, whereof there is inexhaustible store in the hills.
[4.195] Off their coast, as the Carthaginians
report, lies an island, by name Cyraunis, the length of which is two hundred
furlongs, its breadth not great, and which is soon reached from the mainland.
Vines and olive trees cover the whole of it, and there is in the island
a lake, from which the young maidens of the country draw up gold-dust,
by dipping into the mud birds' feathers smeared with pitch. If this be
true, I know not; I but write what is said. It may be even so, however;
since I myself have seen pitch drawn up out of the water from a lake in
Zacynthus. At the place I speak of there are a number of lakes; but one
is larger than the rest, being seventy feet every way, and two fathoms
in depth. Here they let down a pole into the water, with a bunch of myrtle
tied to one end, and when they raise it again, there is pitch sticking
to the myrtle, which in smell is like to bitumen, but in all else is better
than the pitch of Pieria. This they pour into a trench dug by the lake's
side; and when a good deal has thus been got together, they draw it off
and put it up in jars. Whatever falls into the lake passes underground,
and comes up in the sea, which is no less than four furlongs distant. So
then what is said of the island off the Libyan coast is not without likelihood.
[4.196] The Carthaginians also relate
the following:- There is a country in Libya, and a nation, beyond the Pillars
of Hercules, which they are wont to visit, where they no sooner arrive
but forthwith they unlade their wares, and, having disposed them after
an orderly fashion along the beach, leave them, and, returning aboard their
ships, raise a great smoke. The natives, when they see the smoke, come
down to the shore, and, laying out to view so much gold as they think the
worth of the wares, withdraw to a distance. The Carthaginians upon this
come ashore and look. If they think the gold enough, they take it and go
their way; but if it does not seem to them sufficient, they go aboard ship
once more, and wait patiently. Then the others approach and add to their
gold, till the Carthaginians are content. Neither party deals unfairly
by the other: for they themselves never touch the gold till it comes up
to the worth of their goods, nor do the natives ever carry off the goods
till the gold is taken away.
[4.197] These be the Libyan tribes
whereof I am able to give the names; and most of these cared little then,
and indeed care little now, for the king of the Medes. One thing more also
I can add concerning this region, namely, that, so far as our knowledge
reaches, four nations, and no more, inhabit it; and two of these nations
are indigenous, while two are not. The two indigenous are the Libyans and
Ethiopians, who dwell respectively in the north and the south of Libya.
The Phoenicians and the Greek are in-comers.
[4.198] It seems to me that Libya
is not to compare for goodness of soil with either Asia or Europe, except
the Cinyps region, which is named after the river that waters it. This
piece of land is equal to any country in the world for cereal crops, and
is in nothing like the rest of Libya. For the soil here is black, and springs
of water abound; so that there is nothing to fear from drought; nor do
heavy rains (and it rains in that part of Libya) do any harm when they
soak the ground. The returns of the harvest come up to the measure which
prevails in Babylonia. The soil is likewise good in the country of the
Euesperites; for there the land brings forth in the best years a hundred-fold.
But the Cinyps region yields three hundred-fold.
[4.199] The country of the Cyrenaeans,
which is the highest tract within the part of Libya inhabited by the wandering
tribes, has three seasons that deserve remark. First the crops along the
sea-coast begin to ripen, and are ready for the harvest and the vintage;
after they have been gathered in, the crops of the middle tract above the
coast region (the hill-country, as they call it) need harvesting; while
about the time when this middle crop is housed, the fruits ripen and are
fit for cutting in the highest tract of all. So that the produce of the
first tract has been all eaten and drunk by the time that the last harvest
comes in. And the harvest-time of the Cyrenaeans continues thus for eight
full months. So much concerning these matters.
[4.200] When the Persians sent from
Egypt by Aryandes to help Pheretima reached Barca, they laid siege to the
town, calling on those within to give up the men who had been guilty of
the murder of Arcesilaus. The townspeople, however, as they had one and
all taken part in the deed, refused to entertain the proposition. So the
Persians beleaguered Barca for nine months, in the course of which they
dug several mines from their own lines to the walls, and likewise made
a number of vigorous assaults. But their mines were discovered by a man
who was a worker in brass, who went with a brazen shield all round the
fortress, and laid it on the ground inside the city. In other Places the
shield, when he laid it down, was quite dumb; but where the ground was
undermined, there the brass of the shield rang. Here, therefore, the Barcaeans
countermined, and slew the Persian diggers. Such was the way in which the
mines were discovered; as for the assaults, the Barcaeans beat them back.
[4.201] When much time had been consumed,
and great numbers had fallen on both sides, nor had the Persians lost fewer
than their adversaries, Amasis, the leader of the land-army, perceiving
that, although the Barcaeans would never be conquered by force, they might
be overcome by fraud, contrived as follows One night he dug a wide trench,
and laid light planks of wood across the opening, after which he brought
mould and placed it upon the planks, taking care to make the place level
with the surrounding ground. At dawn of day he summoned the Barcaeans to
a parley: and they gladly hearkening, the terms were at length agreed upon.
Oaths were interchanged upon the ground over the hidden trench, and the
agreement ran thus - "So long as the ground beneath our feet stands
firm, the oath shall abide unchanged; the people of Barca agree to pay
a fair sum to the king, and the Persians promise to cause no further trouble
to the people of Barca." After the oath, the Barcaeans, relying upon
its terms, threw open all their gates, went out themselves beyond the walls,
and allowed as many of the enemy as chose to enter. Then the Persians broke
down their secret bridge, and rushed at speed into the town - their reason
for breaking the bridge being that so they might observe what they had
sworn; for they had promised the Barcaeans that the oath should continue
"so long as the ground whereon they stood was firm." When, therefore,
the bridge was once broken down, the oath ceased to hold.
[4.202] Such of the Barcaeans as
were most guilty the Persians gave up to Pheretima, who nailed them to
crosses all round the walls of the city. She also cut off the breasts of
their wives, and fastened them likewise about the walls. The remainder
of the people she gave as booty to the Persians, except only the Battiadae
and those who had taken no part in the murder, to whom she handed over
the possession of the town.
[4.203] The Persians now set out
on their return home, carrying with them the rest of the Barcaeans, whom
they had made their slaves. On their way they came to Cyrene; and the Cyrenaeans,
out of regard for an oracle, let them pass through the town. During the
passage, Bares, the commander of the fleet, advised to seize the place;
but Amasis, the leader of the land-force, would not consent; "because,"
he said, "they had only been charged to attack the one Greek city
of Barca." When, however, they had passed through the town, and were
encamped upon the hill of Lycaean Jove, it repented them that they had
not seized Cyrene, and they endeavoured to enter it a second time. The
Cyrenaeans, however, would not suffer this; whereupon, though no one appeared
to offer them battle, yet a panic came upon the Persians, and they ran
a distance of full sixty furlongs before they pitched their camp. Here
as they lay, a messenger came to them from Aryandes, ordering them home.
Then the Persians besought the men of Cyrene to give them provisions for
the way, and, these consenting, they set off on their return to Egypt.
But the Libyans now beset them, and, for the sake of their clothes and
harness, slew all who dropped behind and straggled, during the whole march
homewards.
[4.204] The furthest point of Libya
reached by this Persian host was the city of Euesperides. The Barcaeans
carried into slavery were sent from Egypt to the king; and Darius assigned
them a village in Bactria for their dwelling-place. To this village they
gave the name of Barca, and it was to my time an inhabited place in Bactria.
[4.205] Nor did Pheretima herself
end her days happily. For on her return to Egypt from Libya, directly after
taking vengeance on the people of Barca, she was overtaken by a most horrid
death. Her body swarmed with worms, which ate her flesh while she was still
alive. Thus do men, by over-harsh punishments, draw down upon themselves
the anger of the gods. Such then, and so fierce, was the vengeance which
Pheretima, daughter of Battus, took upon the Barcaeans.
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