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which was at that time preeminent in every way among the people of what is
now called
On the fifth or sixth day after their arrival, when their wares were almost
all sold, many women came to the shore and among them especially the
daughter of the king, whose name was
As these stood about the stern of the ship bargaining for the wares they
liked, the
They sailed in a long ship to
When the
So he carried off
“We think,” they say, “that it is unjust to carry women off. But to be anxious to avenge rape is foolish: wise men take no notice of such things. For plainly the women would never have been carried away, had they not wanted it themselves.
We of
Ever since then we have regarded
But the
For many states that were once great have now become small; and those that were great in my time were small before. Knowing therefore that human prosperity never continues in the same place, I shall mention both alike.
This
Before the reign of
The kings of this country before
The
After a little while,
“Master,” he said, “what an unsound suggestion, that I should see my mistress naked! When a woman's clothes come off, she dispenses with her modesty, too.
Men have long ago made wise rules from which one ought to learn; one of these is that one should mind one's own business. As for me, I believe that your queen is the most beautiful of all women, and I ask you not to ask of me what is lawless.”
I will bring you into the chamber where she and I lie and conceal you behind the open door; and after I have entered, my wife too will come to bed. There is a chair standing near the entrance of the room: on this she will lay each article of her clothing as she takes it off, and you will be able to look upon her at your leisure.
Then, when she moves from the chair to the bed, turning her back on you, be careful she does not see you going out through the doorway.”
when she turned her back upon him to go to bed, he slipped from the room.
The woman glimpsed him as he went out, and perceived what her husband had
done. But though shamed, she did not cry out or let it be seen that she had
perceived anything, for she meant to punish
since among the
When
One of you must die: either he, the contriver of this plot, or you, who have
outraged all custom by looking on me uncovered.”
But when he could not deter her, and saw that dire necessity was truly upon him either to kill his master or himself be killed by others, he chose his own life. Then he asked: “Since you force me against my will to kill my master, I would like to know how we are to lay our hands on him.”
She replied, “You shall come at him from the same place where he made you view me naked: attack him in his sleep.”
and presently he stole out and killed
The oracle did so ordain, and
These weigh thirty talents
For
who waged war against
and whenever he came to the
for as the
For six of these eleven years
None of the
For the present no notice was taken of this. But after the army had returned
to
But when the messengers came to
he brought together into the marketplace all the food in the city, from
private stores and his own, and told the men of
and so it happened. The herald saw all this, gave
For
so presently the
Trusting none more than the
But the crew would not listen to him, and told him either to kill himself and so receive burial on land or else to jump into the sea at once.
Abandoned to this extremity,
The men, pleased at the thought of hearing the best singer in the world,
drew away toward the waist of the vessel from the stern.
So the crew sailed away to
This is what the
He was the second of his family to make an offering to
These, besieged by him, dedicated their city to
These were the first whom
but when his preparations for shipbuilding were underway, either
“O King, the islanders are buying ten thousand horse, intending to march to
“O King, you appear to me earnestly to wish to catch the islanders riding
horses on the mainland, a natural wish. And what else do you suppose the
islanders wished, as soon as they heard that you were building ships to
attack them, than to catch
since the
After
when the
They were of
When they had done this and had been seen by the entire gathering, their
lives came to an excellent end, and in their case the god made clear that
for human beings it is a better thing to die than to live. The
She was overjoyed at the feat and at the praise, so she stood before the
image and prayed that the goddess might grant the best thing for man to her
children
After this prayer they sacrificed and feasted. The youths then lay down in
the temple and went to sleep and never rose again; death held them there.
The
In a long span of time it is possible to see many things that you do not want to, and to suffer them, too. I set the limit of a man's life at seventy years;
these seventy years have twenty-five thousand, two hundred days, leaving
out the intercalary month.
Out of all these days in the seventy years, all twenty-six thousand, two
hundred and fifty of them, not one brings anything at all like another. So,
To me you seem to be very rich and to be king of many people, but I cannot answer your question before I learn that you ended your life well. The very rich man is not more fortunate than the man who has only his daily needs, unless he chances to end his life with all well. Many very rich men are unfortunate, many of moderate means are lucky.
The man who is very rich but unfortunate surpasses the lucky man in only two ways, while the lucky surpasses the rich but unfortunate in many. The rich man is more capable of fulfilling his appetites and of bearing a great disaster that falls upon him, and it is in these ways that he surpasses the other. The lucky man is not so able to support disaster or appetite as is the rich man, but his luck keeps these things away from him, and he is free from deformity and disease, has no experience of evils, and has fine children and good looks.
If besides all this he ends his life well, then he is the one whom you seek, the one worthy to be called fortunate. But refrain from calling him fortunate before he dies; call him lucky.
It is impossible for one who is only human to obtain all these things at the same time, just as no land is self-sufficient in what it produces. Each country has one thing but lacks another; whichever has the most is the best. Just so no human being is self-sufficient; each person has one thing but lacks another.
Whoever passes through life with the most and then dies agreeably is the one who, in my opinion, O King, deserves to bear this name. It is necessary to see how the end of every affair turns out, for the god promises fortune to many people and then utterly ruins them.”
He had two sons, one of whom was ruined, for he was mute, but the other,
whose name was
So
the
“Friend,” he said, “who are you, and from what place in
At last they sent messengers to
Such was their request, but
“Father, it was once thought very fine and noble for us to go to war and the chase and win renown; but now you have barred me from both of these, although you have seen neither cowardice nor lack of spirit in me. With what face can I now show myself whenever I go to and from the market-place?
What will the men of the city think of me, and what my newly wedded wife? With what kind of man will she think that she lives? So either let me go to the hunt, or show me by reasoning that what you are doing is best for me.”
It is because of that vision that I hurried your marriage and do not send you on any enterprise that I have in hand, but keep guard over you, so that perhaps I may rob death of you during my lifetime. You are my only son: for that other, since he is ruined, he doesn't exist for me.”
You say that the dream told you that I should be killed by a spear of iron? But has a boar hands? Has it that iron spear which you dread? Had the dream said I should be killed by a tusk or some other thing proper to a boar, you would be right in acting as you act; but no, it was to be by a spear. Therefore, since it is not against men that we are to fight, let me go.”
Now then, as you owe me a return of good service for the good which I have done you, I ask that you watch over my son as he goes out to the chase. See that no thieving criminals meet you on the way, to do you harm.
Besides, it is only right that you too should go where you can win renown by your deeds. That is fitting for your father's son; and you are strong enough besides.”
But now, since you urge it and I must please you (since I owe you a return of good service), I am ready to do this; and as for your son, in so far as I can protect him, look for him to come back unharmed.”
then the guest called
So
and in his great and terrible grief at this mischance he called on
On hearing this,
So
Having thus determined, he at once made inquiries of the
These are the
Now none relate what answer was given by the rest of the oracles. But at
For after sending his envoys to the oracles, he had thought up something which no conjecture could discover, and carried it out on the appointed day: namely, he had cut up a tortoise and a lamb, and then boiled them in a cauldron of bronze covered with a lid of the same.
When the sacrifice was over, he melted down a vast store of gold and made ingots of it, the longer sides of which were of six and the shorter of three palms' length, and the height was one palm. There were a hundred and seventeen of these. Four of them were of refined gold, each weighing two talents and a half; the rest were of gold with silver alloy, each of two talents' weight.
He also had a figure of a lion made of refined gold, weighing ten talents.
When the temple of
These too were removed about the time of the temple's burning, and now the
golden bowl, which weighs eight and a half talents and twelve minae,
It is said by the
for this, too, is
Along with these
When the
Such was their inquiry; and the judgment given to
The
He found by inquiry that the chief peoples were the
For in the days of king
and of the
If, then, all the
Wounding himself and his mules, he drove his wagon into the marketplace,
with a story that he had escaped from his enemies, who would have killed him
(so he said) as he was driving into the country. So he implored the people
to give him a guard: and indeed he had won a reputation in his command of
the army against the
Taken in, the
These rose with
Then
When this offer was accepted by
There was in the
“
At first the woman hid the fact: presently she told her mother (whether
interrogated or not, I do not know) and the mother told her husband.
The opinion of
and in course of time, not to make a long story, everything was ready for
their return: for they brought
but the
They came out with all their force to meet the returning exiles.
There (by the providence of heaven)
So they fled, and
(He had conquered
So
Before this they had been the worst-governed of nearly all the
Some say that the
Once he became guardian, he changed all the laws and took care that no one
transgressed the new ones.
She replied in hexameter:
When the
Those taken alive were bound in the very chains they had brought with them,
and they measured the
when they kept being defeated by the
When they were unable to discover
When the
The smith perceived that he was amazed, so he stopped what he was doing and
said, “My
I wanted to dig a well in the courtyard here, and in my digging I hit upon a
coffin twelve feet long. I could not believe that there had ever been men
taller than now, so I opened it and saw that the corpse was just as long as
the coffin. I measured it and then reburied it.” So the smith told what he
had seen, and
In the smith's two bellows he found the winds, hammer and anvil were blow upon blow, and the forging of iron was woe upon woe, since he figured that iron was discovered as an evil for the human race.
After reasoning this out, he went back to
Finally he persuaded him and set up residence there. He dug up the grave and
collected the bones, then hurried off to
“
For the
This bowl never reached
but the
But while he was preparing to march against the
Further, they do not use wine, but drink water, have no figs to eat, or anything else that is good. Now if you conquer them, of what will you deprive them, since they have nothing? But if on the other hand you are conquered, then look how many good things you will lose; for once they have tasted of our blessings they will cling so tightly to them that nothing will pry them away.
For myself, then, I thank the gods that they do not put it in the heads of
the
For the boundary of the Median and
Thus the
Now
A tribe of wandering
As time went on, it happened that the
The
They were still warring with equal success, when it happened, at an
encounter which occurred in the sixth year, that during the battle the day
was suddenly turned to night.
So when the
they brought it about that there should be a sworn agreement and a compact
of marriage between them: they judged that
These nations make sworn compacts as do the
Having this reason to quarrel with
When he came to the river
The story is that, as
Starting from a point on the river upstream from the camp, he dug a deep semi-circular trench, so that the stream, turned from its ancient course, would flow in the trench to the rear of the camp and, passing it, would issue into its former bed, with the result that as soon as the river was thus divided into two, both channels could be forded.
Some even say that the ancient channel dried up altogether. But I do not believe this; for in that case, how did they pass the river when they were returning?
and he took and enslaved the city of the
But before beginning his march, he sent heralds to the
The fighting was fierce, many on both sides fell, and at nightfall they disengaged with neither side victorious. The two sides contended thus.
(for before making an alliance with the
and to summon the
With such an intention, as soon as he returned to
He at once sent to the homes of the
Nonetheless, this was the judgment of the
This he decided, and this he did immediately; he marched his army into
Now at this time there was no nation in
When
When they were all in order, he commanded them to kill all the other
Such was his command. The reason for his posting the camels to face the
cavalry was this: horses fear camels and can endure neither the sight nor
the smell of them; this then was the intention of his maneuver, that
So when battle was joined, as soon as the horses smelled and saw the camels
they turned to flight, and all
Nevertheless the
for this was a part of the
The
Having agreed, the armies drew off, and picked men of each side remained and
fought. Neither could gain advantage in the battle; at last, only three out
of the six hundred were left,
Then the two
For a while both claimed the victory, the
At last from arguing they fell to fighting; many of both sides fell, but the
and the
After this the army made an assault, but with no success. Then, when all the
others were stopped, a certain
For here the height on which the acropolis stood is sheer and unlikely to be
assaulted; this was the only place where
The day before, then,
And now he climbed up himself, and other
The
So at the taking of the fortification a certain
But this mute son, when he saw the
who erected a pyre and mounted
So
persistently harassing him. He explained that first
When
Thus he in tears invoked the god, and suddenly out of a clear and windless
sky clouds gathered, a storm broke, and it rained violently, extinguishing
the pyre. Thus
“
No one is so foolish as to choose war over peace. In peace sons bury their fathers, in war fathers bury their sons. But I suppose it was dear to the divinity that this be so.”
Presently he turned and said (for he saw the
“The multitude there, what is it at which they are so busily engaged?”
“They are plundering your city,” said
The
Have men of your guard watch all the gates; let them take the spoil from
those who are carrying it out, and say that it must be paid as a tithe to
“Master,” said
When
And it was the wish of
Yet as far as they gave in, he did accomplish his wish and favor
But as to the oracle that was given to him,
When he asked that last question of the oracle and
for she was a
And the offerings of
This
So when
But there is one building to be seen there which is much the greatest of
all, except those of
There survived until my time five corner-stones set on the top of the tomb, and in these was cut the record of the work done by each group: and measurement showed that the prostitutes' share of the work was the greatest.
All the daughters of the common people of
Now this tomb has a circumference of thirteen hundred and ninety yards, and
its breadth is above four hundred and forty yards; and there is a great lake
hard by the tomb, which, the
And, according to what they themselves say, the games now in use among them
and the
In the reign of
Then, using their discovery to lighten the famine, every other day they would play for the whole day, so that they would not have to look for food, and the next day they quit their play and ate. This was their way of life for eighteen years.
But the famine did not cease to trouble them, and instead afflicted them
even more. At last their king divided the people into two groups, and made
them draw lots, so that the one group should remain and the other leave the
country; he himself was to be the head of those who drew the lot to remain
there, and his son, whose name was
Then the one group, having drawn the lot, left the country and came down to
They no longer called themselves
By acting so, he won no small praise from his fellow townsmen, to such an
extent that when the men of the other towns learned that
This caused robbery and lawlessness to increase greatly in the towns; and,
gathering together, the
“Since we cannot go on living in the present way in the land, come, let us set up a king over us; in this way the land will be well governed, and we ourselves shall attend to our business and not be routed by lawlessness.” With such words they persuaded themselves to be ruled by a king.
He ordered them to build him houses worthy of his royal power, and
strengthen him with a bodyguard. The
And having obtained power, he forced the
This fortress is so designed that each circle of walls is higher than the next outer circle by no more than the height of its battlements; to which plan the site itself, on a hill in the plain, contributes somewhat, but chiefly it was accomplished by skill.
There are seven circles in all; within the innermost circle are the palace
and the treasuries; and the longest wall is about the length of the wall
that surrounds the city of
thus the battlements of five circles are painted with colors; and the battlements of the last two circles are coated, the one with silver and the other with gold.
He was careful to hedge himself with all this so that the men of his own age
(who had been brought up with him and were as nobly born as he and his
equals in courage), instead of seeing him and being upset and perhaps moved
to plot against him, might by reason of not seeing him believe him to be
different.
This was his manner of deciding cases at law, and he had other arrangements too; for when he heard that a man was doing violence he would send for him and punish him as each offense deserved: and he had spies and eavesdroppers everywhere in his domain.
Then, with these two strong nations at his back, he subjugated one nation of
This was the king who fought against the
He defeated the
Nevertheless, it was not by this way that the
So they turned back, and when they came on their way to the city of
This temple, I discover from making inquiry, is the oldest of all the
temples of the goddess, for the temple in
But the
Most of them were entertained and made drunk and then slain by
and presently, when
Having seen this vision, and communicated it to the interpreters of dreams,
he sent to the
Anxious to prevent this,
“
“O King,”
“Now, then,” she said to him, “what do you propose to do?” “Not to obey
There are many reasons why I will not kill him: because the child is related
to me, and because
Now if the sovereignty passes to this daughter of his after his death, whose
son he is now killing by means of me, what is left for me but the gravest of
all dangers? For the sake of my safety this child has to die; but one of
The foothills of the mountains where this cowherd pastured his cattle are
north of
So when the cowherd came in haste at the summons,
So when he returned and stood before her, she was startled by the unexpected
sight and asked him before he could speak why
and immediately I saw a child lying there struggling and crying, adorned in
gold and embroidered clothing. And when
So I took him and brought him away, supposing him to be the child of one of
the servants; for I could never have guessed whose he was. But I was amazed
at seeing him adorned with gold and clothing, and at hearing, too, the
evident sound of weeping in the house of
Very soon on the way I learned the whole story from the servant who brought
me out of the city and gave the child into my custody: namely, that it was
the son of
Being unable to move her husband, the woman then said: “Since I cannot convince you not to expose it, then, if a child has to be seen exposed, do this: I too have borne a child, but I bore it dead.
Take this one and put it out, but the child of the daughter of
and dressed it with all the other child's finery and left it out in the
most desolate part of the mountains. Then on the third day after leaving the
child out, the cowherd left one of his herdsmen to watch it and went to the
city, where he went to
Then he assigned some of them to the building of houses, some to be his
bodyguard, one doubtless to be the
Now one of these boys playing with him was the son of
As soon as he was let go, very upset about the indignity he had suffered, he
went down to his father in the city and complained of what he had received
at the hands of the son of
“Is it you, then, the child of one such as this, who have dared to lay
hands on the son of the greatest of my courtiers?”
The other boys then did as assigned: but this one was disobedient and cared nothing for me, for which he got what he deserved. Now, if I deserve punishment for this, here I am to take it.”
Astonished at this, he sat a while silent; but when at last with difficulty
he could collect his wits, he said (for he wanted to be rid of
So he sent
The cowherd answered that
Then, under stress of necessity, the cowherd disclosed to him the whole story, telling everything exactly as it had happened from the beginning, and at the end fell to entreaty and urged the king to pardon him.
“O King,” he said,” when I took the boy, I thought and considered how to do what you wanted and not be held a murderer by your daughter or by you even though I was blameless toward you.
So I did this: I summoned this cowherd here, and gave the child to him, telling him that it was you who gave the command to kill it. And that was the truth; for such was your command. But I gave the child with the instructions that the cowherd was to lay it on a desolate mountainside and wait there and watch until it was dead; and I threatened all sorts of things if he did not accomplish this.
Then, when he had done what he was told, and the child was dead, I sent the most trusted of my eunuchs and had the body viewed and buried. This, O king, is the story, and such was the end of the boy.”
“For,” he said, “I was greatly afflicted by what had been done to this boy, and it weighed heavily on me that I was estranged from my daughter. Now, then, in this good turn of fortune, send your own son to this boy newly come, and (since I am about to sacrifice for the boy's safety to the gods to whom this honor is due) come here to dine with me.”
Coming in, he told his only son, a boy of about thirteen years of age, to go
to
But when
So when the hour for dinner came and the rest of the guests and
And when
“I know,” he said, “and all that the king does is pleasing.” With that answer he took the remains of the meat and went home. There he meant, I suppose, after collecting everything, to bury it.
Then
“If the boy is alive,” said the
“I too,
The
Thus, then, we ought by all means to watch out for you and for your
sovereignty. And if at the present time we saw any danger we would declare
everything to you: but now the dream has had a trifling conclusion, and we
ourselves are confident and advise you to be so also. As for this boy, send
him out of your sight to the
Then he told them, and said that until now he had known nothing but been
very deceived, but that on the way he had heard the whole story of his
misfortune; for he had thought, he said, that
And he had been raised, he said, by the cowherd's wife, and he was full of
her praises, and in his tale he was constantly speaking of
Even before this the following had been done by him: since
So much being ready and done,
he carefully slit the belly of a hare, and then leaving it as it was
without further harm he put into it a paper on which he wrote what he
thought best. Then he sewed up the hare's belly, and sent it to
for thanks to his intention you are dead, while thanks to the gods, and me,
you live. I expect that long ago you heard the story of what was done
concerning you and how
then you have your wish, whether I am appointed to command the army against
you or some other notable man among the
writing what he liked on a paper, he assembled the
Now there are many tribes in
The other
The
When the
They answered that the difference was great: all yesterday they had had
nothing but evil, to-day nothing but good. Then, taking up their word,
“This is your situation, men of
Now, then, do as I tell you, and win your freedom. For I think that I myself
was born by a divine chance to undertake this work; and I hold you fully as
good men as the
So when the
and with that he took the
Leading these out, and engaging the
Fixing his gaze on
“Then,” said
For if in any event another and not you had to possess the royal power, then
in justice some
At a later time they repented of what they now did, and rebelled against
As for
but they call the whole circuit of heaven
From the beginning, these are the only gods to whom they have ever
sacrificed; they learned later to sacrifice to the “heavenly”
To pray for blessings for himself alone is not lawful for the sacrificer;
rather, he prays that the king and all the
When he has so arranged it, a
Their courses are few, the dainties that follow many, and not all served
together. This is why the
They are very partial to wine. No one may vomit or urinate in another's presence: this is prohibited among them. Moreover, it is their custom to deliberate about the gravest matters when they are drunk;
and what they approve in their deliberations is proposed to them the next day, when they are sober, by the master of the house where they deliberate; and if, being sober, they still approve it, they act on it, but if not, they drop it. And if they have deliberated about a matter when sober, they decide upon it when they are drunk.
They honor most of all those who live nearest them, next those who are next nearest, and so going ever onwards they assign honor by this rule: those who dwell farthest off they hold least honorable of all; for they think that they are themselves in all regards by far the best of all men, that the rest have only a proportionate claim to merit, until those who live farthest away have least merit of all.
Under the rule of the
They educate their boys from five to twenty years old, and teach them only three things: riding and archery and honesty. A boy is not seen by his father before he is five years old, but lives with the women: the point of this is that, if the boy should die in the interval of his rearing, the father would suffer no grief.
They say that no one has ever yet killed his father or mother; when such a thing has been done, it always turns out on inquest that the doer is shown to be a changeling or the fruit of adultery; for it is not to be believed (say they) that a son should kill his true parent.
Every stranger who gets such a disease, many drive out of the country; and they do the same to white doves, for the reason given. Rivers they especially revere; they will neither urinate nor spit nor wash their hands in them, nor let anyone else do so.
That this is the way of the
for the priests consider it sacrilege to kill anything that lives, except
what they sacrifice; but the
Disappointed of his hope, he cast a net and gathered it in and took out a great multitude of fish; and seeing them leaping, “You had best,” he said, “stop your dancing now; you would not come out and dance before, when I played to you.”
The reason why
So he answered them in anger. But when the message came to the
For neither to the north of them nor to the south does the land effect the
same thing as in
They do not all have the same speech but four different dialects.
have a language in common which is wholly different from the speech of the
three former cities. There are yet three
But those of
Now the
For long ago, in the games in honor of
Now when a man of
and as for those who came from the very town-hall of
For this slaughter, these women made a custom and bound themselves by oath
(and enjoined it on their daughters) that no one would sit at table with her
husband or call him by his name, because the men had married them after
slaying their fathers and husbands and sons. This happened at
and all are
Not only the
These
Then all the
Among those on the islands, five divide
The men of
But the
These, after coming to
He uttered this threat against all the
Presently, entrusting
For he had
So likewise I have taken with me you who were more than a father to the
“O King, what you say is reasonable. But do not ever yield to anger, or
destroy an ancient city that is innocent both of the former and of the
present offense. For the former I am responsible, and bear the punishment on
my head; while
But pardon the
After this, he sent messengers to
When this answer came back to them, they set about surrendering him. But
while the greater part were in favor of doing this,
But we, as much as we fear the
With that
Then
Then
for when the
who received in return
and for a long time no one would use barley meal from this land of
This man was now made general by
not sailing in round freightships but in fifty-oared vessels. When they
came to
The
He gave it generously: for the circuit of the wall is of not a few stades, and all this is made of great stones well fitted together.
But the
So when
Not only this, but they sank a mass of iron in the sea, and swore never to
return to
The
Then sailing to
The
Such was the end of this part of the
they founded this because they learned from a man of
The
for he advised them to put out to sea and sail all together to
This was the advice which
Of these, the
Since
They invented three things in which they were followed by the
Then, a long time afterwards, the
and they point to an ancient shrine of
Certain foreign rites of worship were established among them; but
afterwards, when they were inclined otherwise, and wanted to worship only
the gods of their fathers, all
Now there was a dispute in
For a while
Their customs are partly
and when one is asked by his neighbor who he is, he will say that he is the son of such a mother, and rehearse the mothers of his mother. Indeed, if a female citizen marries a slave, her children are considered pure-blooded; but if a male citizen, even the most prominent of them, takes an alien wife or concubine, the children are dishonored.
Among those who inhabit it are certain
(for it is bounded on the north by the gulf of
Many of them were at this work; and seeing that the workers were injured
when breaking stones more often and less naturally than usual, some in other
ways, but most in the eyes, the
Then, as they themselves say, the priestess gave them this answer in iambic
verse:
At this answer from the priestess, the
Then they swore great oaths to each other, and sallying out fell fighting,
all the men of
Of the
It lies in a great plain, and is in shape a square, each side fifteen miles
in length; thus sixty miles make the complete circuit of the city. Such is
the size of the city of
Around it runs first a moat deep and wide and full of water, and then a wall
eighty three feet thick and three hundred thirty three feet high. The royal
measure is greater by three fingers' breadth than the common measure.
then using hot bitumen for cement and interposing layers of wattled reeds at every thirtieth course of bricks, they built first the border of the moat and then the wall itself in the same fashion.
On the top, along the edges of the wall, they built houses of a single room, facing each other, with space enough between to drive a four-horse chariot. There are a hundred gates in the circuit of the wall, all of bronze, with posts and lintels of the same.
There is another city, called
The angles of the wall, then, on either side are built quite down to the river; here they turn, and from here a fence of baked bricks runs along each bank of the stream.
The city itself is full of houses three and four stories high; and the ways that traverse it, those that run crosswise towards the river and the rest, are all straight.
Further, at the end of each road there was a gate in the riverside fence, one gate for each alley; these gates also were of bronze, and these too opened on the river.
In the middle of one division of the city stands the royal palace,
surrounded by a high and strong wall; and in the middle of the other is
still to this day the sacred enclosure of
In the center of this sacred enclosure a solid tower has been built, two hundred and twenty yards long and broad; a second tower rises from this and from it yet another, until at last there are eight.
The way up them mounts spirally outside the height of the towers; about halfway up is a resting place, with seats for repose, where those who ascend sit down and rest.
In the last tower there is a great shrine; and in it stands a great and
well-covered couch, and a golden table nearby. But no image has been set up
in the shrine, nor does any human creature lie there for the night, except
one native woman, chosen from all women by the god, as the
(for there too a woman sleeps in the temple of
Outside the temple is a golden altar. There is also another great altar, on
which are sacrificed the full-grown of the flocks; only nurslings may be
sacrificed on the golden altar, but on the greater altar the
I myself have not seen it, but I relate what is told by the
First she dealt with the river
Such was this work; and she built an embankment along either shore of the river, marvellous for its greatness and height.
Then a long way above
and when she had it all dug, she brought stones and made a quay all around the lake.
Her purpose in making the river wind and turning the hole into marsh was
this: that the current might be slower because of the many windings that
broke its force, and that the passages to
All this work was done in that part of the country where the passes are and
the shortest road from Media, so that the
She had very long blocks of stone cut; and when these were ready and the place was dug, she turned the course of the river into it, and while it was filling, the former channel now being dry, she bricked the borders of the river in the city and the descent from the gate leading down to the river with baked bricks, like those of the wall; and near the middle of the city she built a bridge with the stones that had been dug up, binding them together with iron and lead.
Each morning, she laid square-hewn logs across it, on which the
Then, when the basin she had made for a lake was filled by the river and the
bridge was finished,
“If any king of
This tomb remained untouched until the kingship fell to
The reason he did not use the gate was that the dead body would be over his head as he passed through.
After opening the tomb, he found no money there, only the dead body, with writing which read: “If you were ever satisfied with what you had and did not disgrace yourself seeking more, you would not have opened the coffins of the dead.” Such a woman, it is recorded, was this queen.
This water of the
At this violence of the river
After uttering this threat, he paused in his march against
Since a great multitude was at work, it went quickly; but they spent the whole summer there before it was finished.
There they had stored provisions enough for very many years, because they
knew already that
He posted his army at the place where the river goes into the city, and
another part of it behind the city, where the river comes out of the city,
and told his men to enter the city by the channel of the
and when he came to the lake,
When this happened, the
Now if the
But as it was, the
Thus the wealth of
(the artaba is a
Moreover he kept so great a number of
For the whole land of
It does not even try to bear trees, fig, vine, or olive, but
and for millet and sesame, I will not say to what height they grow, though
it is known to me; for I am well aware that even what I have said regarding
grain is wholly disbelieved by those who have never visited
The
They make these in
Two men standing upright steer the boat, each with a paddle, one drawing it
to him, the other thrusting it from him. These boats are of all sizes, some
small, some very large; the largest of them are of as much as five thousand
talents
So when they have floated down to
for it is not by any means possible to go upstream by water, because of the
swiftness of the current; it is for this reason that they make their boats
of hides and not of wood. When they have driven their asses back into
Every man has a seal and a carved staff, and on every staff is some image, such as that of an apple or a rose or a lily or an eagle: no one carries a staff without an image.
Then a crier would display and offer them for sale one by one, first the
fairest of all; and then, when she had fetched a great price, he put up for
sale the next most attractive, selling all the maidens as lawful wives. Rich
men of
for when the crier had sold all the most attractive, he would put up the one that was least beautiful, or crippled, and offer her to whoever would take her to wife for the least amount, until she fell to one who promised to accept least; the money came from the sale of the attractive ones, who thus paid the dowry of the ugly and the crippled. But a man could not give his daughter in marriage to whomever he liked, nor could one that bought a girl take her away without giving security that he would in fact make her his wife.
And if the couple could not agree, it was a law that the money be returned. Men might also come from other villages to buy if they so desired.
This, then, was their best custom; but it does not continue at this time;
they have invented a new one lately [so that the women not be wronged or
taken to another city]; since the conquest of
But most sit down in the sacred plot of
Once a woman has taken her place there, she does not go away to her home
before some stranger has cast money into her lap, and had intercourse with
her outside the temple; but while he casts the money, he must say, “I invite
you in the name of
It does not matter what sum the money is; the woman will never refuse, for that would be a sin, the money being by this act made sacred. So she follows the first man who casts it and rejects no one. After their intercourse, having discharged her sacred duty to the goddess, she goes away to her home; and thereafter there is no bribe however great that will get her.
So then the women that are fair and tall are soon free to depart, but the
uncomely have long to wait because they cannot fulfill the law; for some of
them remain for three years, or four. There is a custom like this in some
parts of
and they know (it is said) of trees bearing a fruit whose effect is this:
gathering in groups and kindling a fire, the people sit around it and throw
the fruit into the flames; then the fumes of it as it burns make them drunk
as the
The
The one remaining stream of the
but the
Here, it is said, are trees growing leaves that men crush and mix with water and use for painting figures on their clothing; these figures cannot be washed out, but last as long as the wool, as if they had been woven into it from the first. Men and women here (they say) have intercourse openly, like beasts of the flock.
For there were many weighty reasons that impelled and encouraged him to do
so: first, his birth, because of which he seemed to be something more than
mortal; and next, his victories in his wars: for no nation that
So when guile was of no avail,
But if you will not take this advice, and will do anything rather than
remain at peace, then if you so greatly desire to try the strength of the
Or if you prefer to receive us into your country, then withdraw yourself as
I have said.” Hearing this,
Now, if you think that you and the army that you lead are immortal, I have no business giving you advice; but if you know that you and those whom you rule are only men, then I must first teach you this: men's fortunes are on a wheel, which in its turning does not allow the same man to prosper forever.
So, if that is the case, I am not of the same opinion about the business in
hand as these other counsellors of yours. This is the danger if we agree to
let the enemy enter your country: if you lose the battle, you lose your
empire also, for it is plain that if the
And if you conquer them, it is a lesser victory than if you crossed into
their country and routed the
And besides what I have shown, it would be a shameful thing and not to be
endured if
As I understand, the
Then let your army withdraw to the river again, leaving behind that part of
it which is of least value. For if I am not mistaken in my judgment, when
the
So when
The gods care for me and show me beforehand all that is coming. Now then, I
have seen in a dream in the past night your eldest son with wings on his
shoulders, overshadowing
From this vision, there is no way that he is not plotting against me.
Therefore hurry back to
So then
But if your vision does indeed signify that my son is planning revolution, I give him to you to treat as you like.”
Then the
“
Now, then, take a word of good advice from me: give me back my son and leave
this country unpunished, even though you have savaged a third of the
For first (it is said) they shot arrows at each other from a distance; then,
when their arrows were all spent, they rushed at each other and fought with
their spears and swords; and for a long time they stood fighting and neither
would give ground; but at last the
The greater part of the
“Though I am alive and have defeated you in battle, you have destroyed me,
taking my son by guile; but just as I threatened, I give you your fill of
blood.” Many stories are told of
They equip their horses similarly, protecting their chests with bronze breastplates and putting gold on reins, bits, and cheekplates. But they never use iron and silver, for there is none at all in their country, but gold and bronze abound.
Though they fix no certain term to life, yet when a man is very old all his family meet together and kill him, with beasts of the flock besides, then boil the flesh and feast on it.
This is held to be the happiest death; when a man dies of an illness, they
do not eat him, but bury him in the earth, and lament that he did not live
to be killed. They never plant seed; their fare is their livestock and the
fish which they take in abundance from the
Their drink is milk. The sun is the only god whom they worship; they sacrifice horses to him; the reasoning is that he is the swiftest of the gods, and therefore they give him the swiftest of mortal things.
When he first heard this, he kept quiet about it; but when, coming often and
paying careful attention, he kept hearing this same word, he told his master
at last and brought the children into the king's presence as required.
Reasoning from this, the
Now, such stories as I heard about the gods I am not ready to relate, except their names, for I believe that all men are equally knowledgeable about them; and I shall say about them what I am constrained to say by the course of my history.
Furthermore, the
In his time all of
For this is the nature of the land of
Men that have scant land measure by feet; those that have more, by miles; those that have much land, by parasangs; and those who have great abundance of it, by schoeni.
The parasang is three and three quarters miles, and the schoenus, which is
an
If a reckoning is made, only a little difference of length, not more than
two miles, will be found between these two journeys; for the journey from
Such are these mountains. On the side of
Beyond
This, then, is a full statement of all the distances in
For of the rivers that brought down the stuff to make these lands, there is
none worthy to be compared for greatness with even one of the mouths of the
There are also other rivers, not so great as the
in length, from its inner end out to the wide sea, it is a forty days' voyage for a ship rowed by oars; and in breadth, it is half a day's voyage at the widest. Every day the tides ebb and flow in it.
I believe that where
Now, if the
besides,
but we know that the soil of
And, in my opinion, the
for, learning that all the
At present, of course, there are no people, either in the rest of
for we have seen that (as the
I maintain, rather, that the
they must add to these a fourth part, the Delta of
But if we follow the belief of the
For the
One of these, which is called the
There are also two channels which separate themselves from the
The
The men of the cities of
But the god forbade them: all the land, he said, watered by the
Yet I was anxious to learn from them why the
I was not able to get any information from any of the
One of them maintains that the
And further, if the
How can it flow from snow, then, seeing that it comes from the hottest
places to lands that are for the most part cooler? In fact, for a man who
can reason about such things, the principal and strongest evidence that the
river is unlikely to flow from snows is that the winds blowing from
In the second place, the country is rainless and frostless; but after snow
has fallen, it has to rain within five days
Moreover, kites and swallows live there all year round, and cranes come
every year to these places to winter there, flying from the wintry weather
of
For the briefest demonstration, everything has been said; for whatever country this god is nearest, or over, it is likely that that land is very thirsty for water and that the local rivers are dried up.
it draws the water to itself, and having done so, expels it away to the inland regions, and the winds catch it and scatter and dissolve it; and, as is to be expected, those that blow from that country, the south and the southwest, are the most rainy of all winds.
Yet I think that the sun never lets go of all of the water that it draws up
from the
Meanwhile, the other rivers are swollen to high flood by the quantity of water that falls into them from the sky, because the country is rained on and cut into gullies; but in the summer they are low, lacking the rain and being drawn up too by the sun.
But the
But were the stations of the seasons changed, so that the south wind and the
summer had their station where the north wind and winter are now set, and
the north wind was where the south wind is now—if this were so, the sun,
when driven from mid-heaven by the winter and the north wind, would pass
over the inland parts of
I thought he was joking when he said that he had exact knowledge, but this
was his story. Between the city of
The springs of the
He said that
This recorder, then, if he spoke the truth, showed, I think, that there are strong eddies and an upward flow of water, such that with the stream rushing against the hills the sounding-line when let down cannot reach bottom.
Beyond
This part of the river is a four days' journey by boat, and the
The country above
Then you disembark and journey along the river bank for forty days; for
there are sharp projecting rocks in the
Having traversed this part in forty days as I have said, you take boat again
and so travel for twelve days until you come to a great city called
The people of the place worship no other gods but
These once revolted and joined themselves to the
And still in my time the
So they came to
These are a
When these
It must be known that the whole northern seacoast of
When the young men left their companions, being well supplied with water and provisions, they journeyed first through the inhabited country, and after passing this they came to the region of wild beasts.
After this, they travelled over the desert, towards the west, and crossed a
wide sandy region, until after many days they saw trees growing in a plain;
when they came to these and were picking the fruit of the trees, they were
met by little men of less than common stature, who took them and led them
away. The
The men led them across great marshes, after crossing which they came to a city where all the people were of a stature like that of the guides, and black. A great river ran past this city, from the west towards the rising sun; crocodiles could be seen in it.
as to the river that ran past the city,
For the
The
from there, it is a straight five days' journey for an unencumbered man to
Men carry burdens on their heads, women on their shoulders. Women pass water standing, men sitting. They ease their bowels indoors, and eat out of doors in the streets, explaining that things unseemly but necessary should be done alone in private, things not unseemly should be done openly.
No woman is dedicated to the service of any god or goddess; men are dedicated to all deities male or female. Sons are not compelled against their will to support their parents, but daughters must do so though they be unwilling.
The
They knead dough with their feet, and gather mud and dung with their hands.
The
The rings and sheets of sails are made fast outside the boat elsewhere, but
inside it in
They are especially careful always to wear newly-washed linen. They practise circumcision for cleanliness' sake; for they would rather be clean than more becoming. Their priests shave the whole body every other day, so that no lice or anything else foul may infest them as they attend upon the gods.
The priests wear a single linen garment and sandals of papyrus:
But also they receive many benefits: they do not consume or spend anything of their own; sacred food is cooked for them, beef and goose are brought in great abundance to each man every day, and wine of grapes is given to them, too. They may not eat fish.
The
One of the priests, appointed to the task, examines the beast, making it
stand and lie, and drawing out its tongue, to determine whether it is clean
of the stated signs which I shall indicate hereafter.
If it is clean in all these respects, the priest marks it by wrapping papyrus around the horns, then smears it with sealing-earth and stamps it with his ring; and after this they lead the bull away. But the penalty is death for sacrificing a bull that the priest has not marked. Such is the manner of approving the beast; I will now describe how it is sacrificed.
They flay the carcass of the victim, then invoke many curses on its head,
which they carry away. Where there is a market, and
The imprecation which they utter over the heads is that whatever ill
threatens those who sacrifice, or the whole of
In respect of the heads of sacrificed beasts and the libation of wine, the
practice of all
After praying in the foregoing way, they take the whole stomach out of the flayed bull, leaving the entrails and the fat in the carcass, and cut off the legs, the end of the loin, the shoulders, and the neck.
Having done this, they fill what remains of the carcass with pure bread, honey, raisins, figs, frankincense, myrrh, and other kinds of incense, and then burn it, pouring a lot of oil on it.
They fast before the sacrifice, and while it is burning, they all make lamentation; and when their lamentation is over, they set out a meal of what is left of the victim.
For the images of
For this reason, no
Cattle that die are dealt with in the following way. Cows are cast into the
river, bulls are buried by each city in its suburbs, with one or both horns
uncovered for a sign; then, when the carcass is decomposed, and the time
appointed is at hand, a boat comes to each city from the island called
an island in the Delta, nine schoeni in circumference. There are many other
towns on
From this town many go out, some to one town and some to another, to dig up the bones, which they then carry away and all bury in one place. As they bury the cattle, so do they all other beasts at death. Such is their ordinance respecting these also; for they, too, may not be killed.
For no gods are worshipped by all
The
to show himself displaying the head and wearing the fleece of a ram which
he had flayed and beheaded. It is from this that the
It was from this, I think, that the
But one day a year, at the festival of
I have indeed a lot of other evidence that the name of
Yet if they got the name of any deity from the
But
There I saw it, richly equipped with many other offerings, besides two pillars, one of refined gold, one of emerald: a great pillar that shone at night; and in conversation with the priests, I asked how long it was since their temple was built.
I found that their account did not tally with the belief of the
Then I went to
Therefore, what I have discovered by inquiry plainly shows that
Now it seems to me that by this story the
And furthermore, as
Now in their painting and sculpture, the image of Pan is made with the head
and the legs of a goat, as among the
The
In the
Nor do the
But this is how they sacrifice swine to the Moon: the sacrificer lays the end of the tail and the spleen and the caul together and covers them up with all the fat that he finds around the belly, then consigns it all to the fire; as for the rest of the flesh, they eat it at the time of full moon when they sacrifice the victim; but they will not taste it on any other day. Poor men, with but slender means, mold swine out of dough, which they then take and sacrifice.
The rest of the festival of
Why the male member is so large and is the only part of the body that moves, there is a sacred legend that explains.
I say, then, that
Nor again will I say that the
Except the names of
Alone of all nations the
For the
The
Then, after a long while, first they learned the names of the rest of the
gods, which came to them from
When the
for I suppose
But the poets who are said to have been earlier than these men were, in my
opinion, later. The earlier part of all this is what the priestesses of
When I asked them how it was that they could speak with such certain knowledge, they said in reply that their people had sought diligently for these women, and had never been able to find them, but had learned later the story which they were telling me.
the latter settled on an oak tree, and there uttered human speech,
declaring that a place of divination from
The dove which came to
and then, being a slave there, she established a shrine of
After this, as soon as she understood the
then the woman spoke what they could understand, and that is why they say
that the dove uttered human speech; as long as she spoke in a foreign
tongue, they thought her voice was like the voice of a bird. For how could a
dove utter the speech of men? The tale that the dove was black signifies
that the woman was
It would seem, too, that the
This town is in the middle of the
The third greatest festival is at
As they travel by river to
But when they have reached
The image of the god, in a little gilded wooden shrine, they carry away on the day before this to another sacred building. The few who are left with the image draw a four-wheeled wagon conveying the shrine and the image that is in the shrine; the others stand in the space before the doors and do not let them enter, while the vow-keepers, taking the side of the god, strike them, who defend themselves.
A fierce fight with clubs breaks out there, and they are hit on their heads,
and many, I expect, even die from their wounds; although the
The natives say that they made this assembly a custom from the following
incident: the mother of
for beasts and birds (they say) are seen to mate both in the temples and in the sacred precincts; now were this displeasing to the god, the beasts would not do so. This is the reason given by others for practices which I, for my part, dislike;
but the
But I will indicate how it is customary to deal with the animals. Men and women are appointed guardians to provide nourishment for each kind respectively; a son inherits this office from his father.
Townsfolk in each place, when they pay their vows, pray to the god to whom the animal is dedicated, shaving all or one half or one third of their children's heads, and weighing the hair in a balance against a sum of silver; then the weight in silver of the hair is given to the female guardian of the creatures, who buys fish with it and feeds them.
Thus, food is provided for them. Whoever kills one of these creatures intentionally is punished with death; if he kills accidentally, he pays whatever penalty the priests appoint. Whoever kills an ibis or a hawk, intentionally or not, must die for it.
so their recourse is to steal and carry off and kill the kittens (but they do not eat what they have killed). The mothers, deprived of their young and desiring to have more, will then approach the males; for they are creatures that love offspring.
And when a fire breaks out, very strange things happen among the cats. The
When this happens, there is great mourning in
There are few bears, and the wolves are little bigger than foxes; both these are buried wherever they are found lying.
No mortal creature of all which we know grows from so small a beginning to such greatness; for its eggs are not much bigger than goose eggs, and the young crocodile is of a proportional size, but it grows to a length of twenty-eight feet and more.
It has eyes like pigs' eyes, and long, protruding teeth. It is the only animal that has no tongue. It does not move the lower jaw, but brings the upper jaw down upon the lower, uniquely among beasts.
It also has strong claws, and a scaly, impenetrable hide on its back. It is
blind in the water, but very keen of sight in the air. Since it lives in the
water, its mouth is all full of leeches. All birds and beasts flee from it,
except the sandpiper
for whenever the crocodile comes ashore out of the water and then opens its mouth (and it does this mostly to catch the west wind), the sandpiper goes into its mouth and eats the leeches; the crocodile is pleased by this service and does the sandpiper no harm.
Every household raises one crocodile, trained to be tame; they put ornaments of glass and gold on its ears and bracelets on its forefeet, provide special food and offerings for it, and give the creatures the best of treatment while they live; after death, the crocodiles are embalmed and buried in sacred coffins.
But around
Hearing the squeals of the pig, the crocodile goes after the sound, and meets the bait, which it swallows; then the hunters pull the line. When the crocodile is drawn ashore, first of all the hunter smears its eyes over with mud; when this is done, the quarry is very easily mastered—no light matter, without that.
It is said that the phoenix comes when his father dies. If the picture truly shows his size and appearance, his plumage is partly golden and partly red. He is most like an eagle in shape and size.
What they say this bird manages to do is incredible to me. Flying from
This is how he conveys him: he first molds an egg of myrrh as heavy as he
can carry, then tries lifting it, and when he has tried it, he then hollows
out the egg and puts his father into it, and plasters over with more myrrh
the hollow of the egg into which he has put his father, which is the same in
weight with his father lying in it, and he conveys him encased to the temple
of the Sun in
This place, where the backbones lay scattered, is where a narrow mountain
pass opens into a great plain, which adjoins the plain of
Winged serpents are said to fly from
The
have the whole head and neck bare of feathers; their plumage is white, except the head and neck and wingtips and tail (these being quite black); the legs and beak of the bird are like those of the other ibis. The serpents are like water-snakes.
Their wings are not feathered but very like the wings of a bat.
They practice the following way of life. For three consecutive days in every month they purge themselves, pursuing health by means of emetics and drenches; for they think that it is from the food they eat that all sicknesses come to men.
Even without this, the
They eat bread, making loaves which they call “cyllestis,”
Quails and ducks and small birds are salted and eaten raw; all other kinds
of birds, as well as fish (except those that the
but it happens to be the same song that the
The
But they are like none of the
They agree in this with practices called Orphic and Bacchic, but in fact
More portents have been discovered by them than by all other peoples; when a portent occurs, they take note of the outcome and write it down; and if something of a like kind happens again, they think it will have a like result.
elsewhere, the men lament, with garments girt likewise. When this is done, they take the dead body to be embalmed.
When a dead body is brought to them, they show those who brought it wooden models of corpses, painted likenesses; the most perfect way of embalming belongs, they say, to One whose name it would be impious for me to mention in treating such a matter; the second way, which they show, is less perfect than the first, and cheaper; and the third is the least costly of all. Having shown these, they ask those who brought the body in which way they desire to have it prepared.
Having agreed on a price, the bearers go away, and the workmen, left alone in their place, embalm the body. If they do this in the most perfect way, they first draw out part of the brain through the nostrils with an iron hook, and inject certain drugs into the rest.
Then, making a cut near the flank with a sharp knife of
they sew it up again after filling the belly with pure ground myrrh and casia and any other spices, except frankincense. After doing this, they conceal the body for seventy days, embalmed in saltpetre; no longer time is allowed for the embalming;
and when the seventy days have passed, they wash the body and wrap the
whole of it in bandages of fine linen cloth, anointed with gum, which the
then they give the dead man back to his friends. These make a hollow wooden figure like a man, in which they enclose the corpse, shut it up, and keep it safe in a coffin-chamber, placed erect against a wall.
The embalmers charge their syringes with cedar oil and fill the belly of the dead man with it, without making a cut or removing the intestines, but injecting the fluid through the anus and preventing it from running out; then they embalm the body for the appointed days; on the last day they drain the belly of the cedar oil which they put in before.
It has such great power as to bring out with it the internal organs and intestines all dissolved; meanwhile, the flesh is eaten away by the saltpetre, and in the end nothing is left of the body but hide and bones. Then the embalmers give back the dead body with no more ado.
this is done to deter the embalmers from having intercourse with the women. For it is said that one was caught having intercourse with the fresh corpse of a woman, and was denounced by his fellow-workman.
none of his relatives or friends may touch him, but his body is considered
something more than human, and is handled and buried by the priests of the
In this city is a square temple of
The people of this
This is what they say; and their doings in honor of
When I asked why
They told how he came to
When the river is in flood and flows over the plains, many lilies, which the
The root of this lotus is edible also, and of a sweetish taste; it is round, and the size of an apple.
Other lilies grow in the river, too, that are like roses; the fruit of these is found in a calyx springing from the root by a separate stalk, and is most like a comb made by wasps; this produces many edible seeds as big as olive pits, which are eaten both fresh and dried.
They also use the byblus which grows annually: it is gathered from the marshes, the top of it cut off and put to other uses, and the lower part, about twenty inches long, eaten or sold. Those who wish to use the byblus at its very best, roast it before eating in a red-hot oven. Some live on fish alone. They catch the fish, take out the intestines, then dry them in the sun and eat them dried.
When the females have grown heavy in the sea, then all the fish swim back to their own haunts. But the same no longer lead; now the leadership goes to the females. They go before in a school as the males had, and now and then throw off some of their eggs (which are like millet-seeds), which the males devour as they follow. These millet-seeds, or eggs, are fish.
The fish that are reared come from the eggs that survive and are not devoured. Those fish that are caught while swimming seawards show bruises on the left side of their heads; those that are caught returning, on the right side.
This happens because they keep close to the left bank as they swim seawards, and keep to the same bank also on their return, grazing it and keeping in contact with it as well as they can, I suppose lest the current make them miss their way.
When the
Where these probably come from, I believe that I can guess. When the
sown in
those living about the marshes have a different recourse, instead of the towers. Every one of them has a net, with which he catches fish by day, and at night he sets it around the bed where he rests, then creeps under it and sleeps.
If he sleeps wrapped in a garment or cloth, the mosquitos bite through it; but through the net they absolutely do not even venture.
by fastening these four foot logs to long and close-set stakes; and having done so, they set crossbeams athwart and on the logs. They use no ribs. They caulk the seams within with byblus.
There is one rudder, passing through a hole in the boat's keel. The mast is of acacia-wood and the sails of byblus. These boats cannot move upstream unless a brisk breeze continues; they are towed from the bank; but downstream they are managed thus:
they have a raft made of tamarisk wood, fastened together with matting of reeds, and a pierced stone of about two talents' weight; the raft is let go to float down ahead of the boat, connected to it by a rope, and the stone is connected by a rope to the after part of the boat.
So, driven by the current, the raft floats swiftly and tows the “baris” (which is the name of these boats,) and the stone dragging behind on the river bottom keeps the boat's course straight. There are many of these boats; some are of many thousand talents' burden.
Indeed, the boat going up from
The other town, I think, is named after
The priests told me that
And to this day the
Then, when this first king
The name of the queen was the same as that of the
She built a spacious underground chamber; then, with the pretence of
inaugurating it, but with quite another intent in her mind, she gave a great
feast, inviting to it those
This was all that the priests told of her, except that when she had done this she cast herself into a chamber full of hot ashes, to escape vengeance.
This
This king, the priests said, set out with a fleet of long ships
After returning from there back to
When those that he met were valiant men and strove hard for freedom, he set up pillars in their land, the inscription on which showed his own name and his country's, and how he had overcome them with his own power;
but when the cities had made no resistance and been easily taken, then he put an inscription on the pillars just as he had done where the nations were brave; but he also drew on them the private parts of a woman, wishing to show clearly that the people were cowardly.
From there, he turned around and went back home; and when he came to the
the
The
But as to the
Also, there are in
In both places, the figure is over twenty feet high, with a spear in his
right hand and a bow in his left, and the rest of his equipment
proportional; for it is both
and right across the breast from one shoulder to the other a text is cut in
the
Some of those who have seen these figures guess they are
When
It was these who dragged the great and long blocks of stone which were
brought in this king's reign to the temple of
For from this time
those
And any man who was robbed by the river of part of his land could come to
From this, in my opinion, the
Long afterwards,
therefore, it was not just that
then, it is said, the king was so audacious as to seize a spear and hurl it
into the midst of the river eddies. Right after this, he came down with a
disease of the eyes, and became blind. When he had been blind for ten years,
an oracle from the city of
but the woman by whose means he had recovered his sight, he married. Most worthy of mention among the many offerings which he dedicated in all the noteworthy temples for his deliverance from blindness are the two marvellous stone obelisks which he set up in the temple of the Sun. Each of these is made of a single block, and is over one hundred and sixty-six feet high and thirteen feet thick.
Around the precinct live
Now there was (and still is) on the coast a temple of
Hearing of the temple law, some of
“A stranger has come, a
When all had arrived,
Then
Finally,
And as if this were not enough, you got her to fly with you and went off with her. And not just with her, either, but you plundered your guest-friend's wealth and brought it, too.
Now, then, since I make it a point not to kill strangers, I shall not let
you take away this woman and the wealth, but I shall watch them for the
This is apparent from the passage in the
This is in the story of the Prowess of
[He mentions it in the
The daughter of Zeus had such ingenious drugs,Good ones, which she had from Thon 's wife,Polydamna , anEgyptian ,Whose country's fertile plains bear the most drugs, Many mixed for good, many for harm:
and again
After the rape of
When these were let inside the city walls, they demanded the restitution of
But the
Yet, although getting this,
taking two native children and sacrificing them. When it became known that
he had done this, he fled with his ships straight to
For surely
Even if it were conceded that they were so inclined in the first days, yet
when not only many of the
But since they did not have
This king (they told me) had great wealth in silver, so great that none of the succeeding kings could surpass or come near it. To store his treasure safely, he had a stone chamber built, one of its walls abutting on the outer side of his palace. But the builder of it shrewdly provided that one stone be so placed as to be easily removed by two men or even by one.
So when the chamber was finished, the king stored his treasure in it, and as time went on, the builder, drawing near the end of his life, summoned his sons (he had two) and told them how he had provided for them, that they have an ample livelihood, by the art with which he had built the king's treasure-house; explaining clearly to them how to remove the stone, he gave the coordinates of it, and told them that if they kept these in mind, they would be the custodians of the king's riches.
So when he was dead, his sons got to work at once: coming to the palace by night, they readily found and managed the stone in the building, and took away much of the treasure.
When the king opened the building, he was amazed to see the containers lacking their treasure; yet he did not know whom to accuse, seeing that the seals were unbroken and the building shut fast. But when less treasure appeared the second and third times he opened the building (for the thieves did not stop plundering), he had traps made and placed around the containers in which his riches were stored.
The thieves came just as before, and one of them crept in; when he came near the container, right away he was caught in the trap. When he saw the trouble he was in, he called to his brother right away and explained to him the problem, and told him to come in quickly and cut off his head, lest he be seen and recognized and destroy him, too. He seemed to have spoken rightly to the other, who did as he was persuaded and then, replacing the stone, went home, carrying his brother's head.
When day came, the king went to the building, and was amazed to see in the trap the thief's body without a head, yet the building intact, with no way in or out. At a loss, he did as follows: he suspended the thief's body from the wall and set guards over it, instructing them to seize and bring to him any whom they saw weeping or making lamentation.
So when his mother bitterly reproached the surviving son and for all that he said he could not dissuade her, he devised a plan: he harnessed asses and put skins full of wine on the asses, then set out driving them; and when he was near those who were guarding the hanging body, he pulled at the feet of two or three of the skins and loosed their fastenings;
and as the wine ran out, he beat his head and cried aloud like one who did not know to which ass he should turn first, while the guards, when they saw the wine flowing freely, ran out into the road with cups and caught what was pouring out, thinking themselves in luck;
feigning anger, the man cursed all; but as the guards addressed him peaceably, he pretended to be soothed and to relent in his anger, and finally drove his asses out of the road and put his harness in order.
And after more words passed and one joked with him and got him to laugh, he gave them one of the skins: and they lay down there just as they were, disposed to drink, and included him and told him to stay and drink with them; and he consented and stayed.
When they cheerily saluted him in their drinking, he gave them yet another of the skins; and the guards grew very drunk with the abundance of liquor, and lay down right there where they were drinking, overpowered by sleep;
but he, when it was late at night, cut down the body of his brother and shaved the right cheek of each of the guards for the indignity, and loading the body on his asses, drove home, fulfilling his mother's commands.
He put his own daughter in a brothel, instructing her to accept all alike and, before having intercourse, to make each tell her the shrewdest and most impious thing he had done in his life; whoever told her the story of the thief, she was to seize and not let get out.
The girl did as her father told her, and the thief, learning why she was doing this, did as follows, wanting to get the better of the king by craft.
He cut the arm off a fresh corpse at the shoulder, and went to the king's daughter, carrying it under his cloak, and when asked the same question as the rest, he said that his most impious act had been when he had cut the head off his brother who was caught in a trap in the king's treasury; and his shrewdest, that after making the guards drunk he had cut down his brother's hanging body.
When she heard this, the princess grabbed for him; but in the darkness the thief let her have the arm of the corpse; and clutching it, she held on, believing that she had the arm of the other; but the thief, after giving it to her, was gone in a flash out the door.
The thief trusted the king and came before him;
From the descent of
On the day of the festival, the priests weave a cloth and bind it as a
headband on the eyes of one of their number, whom they then lead, wearing
the cloth, into a road that goes to the temple of
The
There are
To some, he assigned the task of dragging stones from the quarries in the
They worked in gangs of a hundred thousand men, each gang for three months.
For ten years the people wore themselves out building the road over which
the stones were dragged, work which was in my opinion not much lighter at
all than the building of the pyramid
(for the road is nearly a mile long and twenty yards wide, and elevated at
its highest to a height of sixteen yards, and it is all of stone polished
and carved with figures). The aforesaid ten years went to the building of
this road and of the underground chambers in the hill where the pyramids
stand; these, the king meant to be burial-places for himself, and surrounded
them with water, bringing in a channel from the
The pyramid itself was twenty years in the making. Its base is square, each side eight hundred feet long, and its height is the same; the whole is of stone polished and most exactly fitted; there is no block of less than thirty feet in length.
When this, its first form, was completed, the workmen used short wooden logs
as levers to raise the rest of the stones
when the stone had been raised, it was set on another lever that stood on the first tier, and the lever again used to lift it from this tier to the next.
It may be that there was a new lever on each tier of steps, or perhaps there was only one lever, quite portable, which they carried up to each tier in turn; I leave this uncertain, as both possibilities were mentioned.
But this is certain, that the upper part of the pyramid was finished off first, then the next below it, and last of all the base and the lowest part.
There are writings on
Now if that is so, how much must have been spent on the iron with which they worked, and the workmen's food and clothing, considering that the time aforesaid was spent in building, while hewing and carrying the stone and digging out the underground parts was, as I suppose, a business of long duration.
and of these stones they said the pyramid was built that stands midmost of the three, over against the great pyramid; each side of it measures one hundred and fifty feet.
It has no underground chambers, nor is it entered like the other by a canal
from the
This pyramid was built on the same scale as the other, except that it falls
forty feet short of it in height; it stands near the great pyramid; the
lowest layer of it is of variegated
This is why he is praised above all the rulers of
Though mild toward his people and conducting himself as he did, yet he suffered calamities, the first of which was the death of his daughter, the only child of his household. Deeply grieved over this misfortune, he wanted to give her a burial somewhat more sumptuous than ordinary; he therefore made a hollow cow's image of gilded wood and placed the body of his dead daughter therein.
Near this cow in another chamber statues of
and they say that afterwards the girl strangled herself for grief, and that he buried her in this cow, but that her mother cut off the hands of the attendants who had betrayed the daughter to her father, and that now their statues are in the same condition as the living women were.
But this I believe to be a silly story, especially about the hands of the figures. For in fact we ourselves saw that the hands have fallen off through age, and were lying at their feet even in my day.
It does not stand, but kneels; it is as big as a live cow of great size.
This image is carried out of the chamber once every year, whenever the
then the cow is brought out into the light; for they say that before she
died she asked her father,
The king took this badly, and sent back to the oracle a message of reproach, blaming the god that his father and his uncle, though they had shut up the temples, and disregarded the gods, and destroyed men, had lived for a long time, but that he who was pious was going to die so soon.
But a second oracle came announcing that for this very reason his life was
hastening to a close: he had done what was contrary to fate;
Hearing this,
This was his recourse, so that by turning night into day he might make his six years into twelve and so prove the oracle false.
indeed, it is clear to me that they say this without even knowing who
for very many years later than these kings who left the pyramids came
when the
Thus
Seeing that to this day anyone who likes can calculate what one tenth of her
worth was, she cannot be credited with great wealth. For
so she spent one tenth of her substance on the manufacture of a great
number of iron beef spits, as many as the tenth would pay for, and sent them
to
The courtesans of
As not much money was in circulation during this king's reign, they told me,
a law was made for the
Furthermore, in his desire to excel all who ruled
“Do not think me less than pyramids of stone; for I excel them as much as
The blind man fled to the marshes, and the
he would never put to death any
for after first being built on embankments made by the excavators of the
canals in the reign of
Of the towns in
The outer court is sixty feet high, adorned with notable figures ten feet high. The whole circumference of the city commands a view down into the temple in its midst; for the city's level has been raised, but that of the temple has been left as it was from the first, so that it can be seen into from above.
A stone wall, cut with figures, runs around it; within is a grove of very tall trees growing around a great shrine where the image of the goddess is; the temple is a square, each side measuring an eighth of a mile.
A road, paved with stone, about three eighths of a mile long leads to the
entrance, running eastward through the marketplace, towards the temple of
Seeing this vision, he said, he supposed it to be a manifestation sent to
him by the gods, so that he might commit sacrilege and so be punished by
gods or men; he would not (he said) do so, but otherwise, for the time
foretold for his rule over
for when he was still in
This island was never discovered before the time of
So when presently king
The priest, in this quandary, went into the temple shrine and there before
the god's image bitterly lamented over what he expected to suffer. Sleep
came on him while he was lamenting, and it seemed to him the god stood over
him and told him to take heart, that he would come to no harm encountering
the power of
So he trusted the vision, and together with those
Their enemies came there, too, and during the night were overrun by a horde
of field mice
And to this day a stone statue of the
Now three hundred generations are ten thousand years, three generations being equal to a hundred. And over and above the three hundred, the remaining forty-one cover thirteen hundred and forty years.
Thus the whole period is eleven thousand three hundred and forty years; in
all of which time (they said) they had had no king who was a god in human
form, nor had there been any such either before or after those years among
the rest of the kings of
Four times in this period (so they told me) the sun rose contrary to
experience; twice he came up where he now goes down, and twice went down
where he now comes up; yet
They brought me into the great inner court of the temple and showed me wooden figures there which they counted to the total they had already given, for every high priest sets up a statue of himself there during his lifetime;
pointing to these and counting, the priests showed me that each succeeded his father; they went through the whole line of figures, back to the earliest from that of the man who had most recently died.
Thus, when
Before these men, they said, the rulers of
How many years there were between
The
Now the
but as it is, the
These kings intermarried, and agreed to be close friends, no one deposing another or seeking to possess more than another.
The reason for this agreement, which they scrupulously kept, was this: no
sooner were they established in their districts than an oracle was given
them that whichever of them poured a libation from a bronze vessel in the
temple of
if one were to collect the walls and evidence of other efforts of the
Though the pyramids beggar description and each one of them is a match for
many great monuments built by
It has twelve roofed courts with doors facing each other: six face north and six south, in two continuous lines, all within one outer wall. There are also double sets of chambers, three thousand altogether, fifteen hundred above and the same number under ground.
We ourselves viewed those that are above ground, and speak of what we have
seen, but we learned through conversation about the underground chambers;
the
Thus we can only speak from hearsay of the lower chambers; the upper we saw for ourselves, and they are creations greater than human. The exits of the chambers and the mazy passages hither and thither through the courts were an unending marvel to us as we passed from court to apartment and from apartment to colonnade, from colonnades again to more chambers and then into yet more courts.
Over all this is a roof, made of stone like the walls, and the walls are covered with cut figures, and every court is set around with pillars of white stone very precisely fitted together. Near the corner where the labyrinth ends stands a pyramid two hundred and forty feet high, on which great figures are cut. A passage to this has been made underground.
That it has been dug out and made by men's hands the lake shows for itself; for almost in the middle of it stand two pyramids, so built that fifty fathoms of each are below and fifty above the water; atop each is a colossal stone figure seated on a throne.
Thus these pyramids are a hundred fathoms high; and a hundred fathoms equal a furlong of six hundred feet, the fathom measuring six feet or four cubits, the foot four spans and the cubit six spans.
The water of the lake is not natural (for the country here is exceedingly
arid) but brought by a channel from the
For the six months that it flows out of the lake, the daily take of fish brings a silver talent into the royal treasury, and twenty minae for each day of the flow into the lake.
When I could not see anywhere the earth taken from the digging of this lake,
since this was curious to me, I asked those who live nearest the lake where
the stuff was that had been dug out. They told me where it had been carried,
and I readily believed them, for I had heard of a similar thing happening in
the
This, I was told, had happened when the
So the last in line,
it was not in guile, then, that
Believing, therefore, that he had been abused by them, he meant to be
avenged on those who had expelled him. He sent to inquire in the town of
Moreover, he put
The
It is a result of our communication with these settlers in
There still remained in my day, in the places out of which the
But what caused me the most wonder among the things apparent there I shall
mention. In this precinct is the shrine of
This lies in a deep and wide lake near the temple at
However that may be, there is a great shrine of
This is the story that the
It was from this legend and no other that
It is fed by the
the canal is led along the foothills of these mountains in a long reach
from west to east; passing then into a ravine, it bears southward out of the
hill country towards the
Now the shortest and most direct passage from the northern to the southern
or
this is the most direct route, but the canal is far longer, inasmuch as it
is more crooked. In
He used these ships when needed, and with his land army met and defeated the
He sent to
When the
The
Then the
He was more fortunate than any former king (except his great-grandfather
But when it was fated that evil should overtake him, the cause of it was
something that I will now deal with briefly, and at greater length in the
And
When
But when in spite of this
Hearing this,
The rest of the
The warriors are divided into
from all of these; their number, at its greatest, attained to two hundred and fifty thousand men. These too may practise no trade but war, which is their hereditary calling.
This much is certain: that this opinion, which is held by all
These lands were set apart for all; it was never the same men who cultivated
them, but each in turn.
There, he was kept alive for a while in the palace and well treated by
This is in the temple of
The tomb of
Moreover, great stone obelisks stand in the precinct; and there is a lake
nearby, adorned with a stone margin and made in a complete circle; it is, as
it seemed to me, the size of the lake at
Let me preserve a discreet silence, too, concerning that rite of
The daughters of
Now at first he was scorned and held in low regard by the
He had among his countless treasures a golden washbowl, in which he and all
those who ate with him were accustomed to clean their feet. This he broke in
pieces and out of it made a god's image, which he set in a most conspicuous
spot in the city; and the
When
“Now then,” he said, “I have fared like the washbowl, since if before I was a common man, still, I am your king now.” And he told them to honor and show respect for him.
But this displeased his friends, who admonished him thus: “O King, you do
not conduct yourself well by indulging too much in vulgarity. You, a
celebrated man, ought to conduct your business throughout the day, sitting
on a celebrated throne; and thus the
But he answered them like this: “Men that have bows string them when they must use them, and unstring them when they have used them; were bows kept strung forever, they would break, and so could not be used when needed.
Such, too, is the nature of man. Were one to be always at serious work and not permit oneself a bit of relaxation, he would go mad or idiotic before he knew it; I am well aware of that, and give each of the two its turn.” Such was his answer to his friends.
When he became king, he did not take care of the shrines of the gods who had acquitted him of theft, or give them anything for maintenance, or make it his practice to sacrifice there, for he knew them to be worthless and their oracles false; but he took scrupulous care of the gods who had declared his guilt, considering them to be gods in very deed and their oracles infallible.
Some of these he brought from the stone quarries of
But what I admire most of his works is this: he brought from
These are the external dimensions of the chamber which is made of one block; its internal dimensions are: thirty-one feet long, twenty feet wide, eight feet high. It stands at the entrance of the temple;
it was not dragged within (so they say) because while it was being drawn
the chief builder complained aloud of the great expense of time and his
loathing of the work, and
There is at
It was
Of these the greatest and most famous and most visited precinct is that
which is called the
It is to these that the precinct belongs, and these are the cities that
furnish overseers of the trading port; if any other cities advance claims,
they claim what does not belong to them. The
They went about from city to city collecting gifts, and got most from
in any case, he married a certain
and when this happened repeatedly,
So
The offerings in
Out of resentment, the
After considering the matter, he did as follows. There was a daughter of the
former king
But after a time, as he embraced her addressing her as the daughter of
This speech and this crime that occurred turned
But what they say is false. They are certainly not unaware (for if any
understand the customs of the
“Although I am the mother of such children,
“Then, mother, when I am grown up, I will turn all
This
He made his guards drunk and so escaped to
From
from this
What then (one may ask) becomes of them? I shall explain this too. Each
governor of a district must gather in all the earthen pots from his own
township and take them to
But at this time there was as yet no ready supply of water; and so
after this is done, the one who has given his pledge commends the stranger (or his countryman if the other be one) to his friends, and his friends hold themselves bound to honor the pledge.
They believe in no other gods except
This is the most credible of the stories told; but I must relate the less
credible tale also, since they tell it. There is a great river in
From this river (it is said) the king of the
It is a twelve days' journey from the river to that desert. By three aqueducts (they say) he brought the water to three different places.
For when
While his son
When all the sons had been slaughtered, they poured wine and water into the
bowl, and the mercenaries drank this and then gave battle. The fighting was
fierce, and many of both armies fell; but at last the
And this, the people said (which for my own part I readily believed), is the
explanation of it: the
This also is the reason why they do not grow bald; for nowhere can one see
so few bald heads as in
Their skulls then are strong for this reason; while the
But when they saw the boat coming to
So the
He dressed the daughter of the king as a slave and sent her out with a pitcher to fetch water, together with other girls from the families of the leading men, dressed like the daughter of the king.
So when the girls went out before their fathers' eyes crying and lamenting,
all the rest answered with cries and weeping, seeing their children abused;
but
After the water-carriers had passed by,
they were led out to be punished for those
When
After these too had gone out, it happened that there was one of his
companions, a man past his prime, who had lost all his possessions, and had
only what a poor man might have, and begged of the army; this man now went
out before
Now there were men set to watch
“
“Son of
And, the
And if he had known how to mind his own business, he would have regained
There are many instances showing that it is their custom so to do, and
notably the giving back of his father's sovereign power to
But as it was,
When they were weary of doing this (for the body, being embalmed, remained
whole and did not fall to pieces),
therefore neither nation thinks it right to burn the dead, the
Now it is by no means their custom to give the dead to beasts; and this is
why they embalm the corpse, that it may not lie and feed worms. Thus what
The
For their story is that
I think that these commands of
He decided after consideration to send his fleet against the
While they were fetching them, he ordered his fleet to sail against
Thus the
Their way of choosing kings is different from that of all others, as (it is said) are all their laws; they consider that man worthy to be their king whom they judge to be tallest and to have strength proportional to his stature.
But the
‘The King of the
Next he inquired about the twisted gold necklace and the bracelets; and when
the
Thirdly he inquired about the incense; and when they described making and
applying it, he made the same reply as about the cloak. But when he came to
the wine and asked about its making, he was vastly pleased with the drink,
and asked further what food their king ate, and what was the greatest age to
which a
They told him their king ate bread, showing him how wheat grew; and said
that the full age to which a man might hope to live was eighty years. Then,
said the
The spies showed wonder at the tale of years; whereupon he led them, it is said, to a spring, by washing in which they grew sleeker, as though it were of oil; and it smelled of violets.
So light, the spies said, was this water, that nothing would float on it, neither wood nor anything lighter than wood, but all sank to the bottom. If this water is truly such as they say, it is likely that their constant use of it makes the people long-lived.
When they left the spring, the king led them to a prison where all the men
were bound with fetters of gold. Among these
Last after this they viewed the
they cause the dead body to shrink, either as the
then they set it within a hollow pillar of alabaster, which they dig in abundance from the ground, and it is easily worked; the body can be seen in the pillar through the alabaster, no evil stench nor anything unpleasant proceeding from it, and showing clearly all its parts, as if it were the man himself.
The nearest of kin keep the pillar in their house for a year, giving it of the first-fruits and offering it sacrifices; after which they bring the pillars out and set them round about the city.
being not in his right mind but mad, however, he marched at once on hearing
from the
When he came in his march to
But before his army had accomplished the fifth part of their journey they had come to an end of all there was in the way of provision, and after the food was gone, they ate the beasts of burden until there was none of these left either.
Now had
While his soldiers could get anything from the earth, they kept themselves alive by eating grass; but when they came to the sandy desert, some did a terrible thing, taking by lot one man out of ten and eating him.
Hearing this,
Thus far, it is said, the army came; after that, except for the
But this is what the
Seeing the
The rulers told him that a god, wont to appear after long intervals of time,
had now appeared to them; and that all
This
The marks of this calf called
“Simpletons, are these your gods, creatures of flesh and blood that can
feel weapons of iron? That is a god worthy of the
So the
Fearing therefore for himself, lest his brother might slay him and so be
king, he sent
He married her in this way (for before this, it had by no means been
customary for
These royal judges are men chosen out from the
These then replied to
Thus, although they feared
So
For saying this, according to the
“Yet you have stripped
“What manner of man,
So he reported of the
For it is said that before this, while some
So said the
Yonder stands your son in the porch; now if I shoot and pierce his heart,
that will prove the
So saying, he strung his bow and hit the boy, and gave orders to open the
fallen body and examine the wound: and the arrow being found in the heart,
“It is plain,
Thus did
If you do so often, beware lest the
“It is very well that you should even dare to counsel me; you, who governed
your own country so well, and gave fine advice to my father—telling him,
when the
With that
They, knowing
Not long after this
Thus too he entered the temple of
Also he entered the temple of the
It is not therefore to be supposed that anyone, except a madman, would turn such things to ridicule. I will give this one proof among many from which it may be inferred that all men hold this belief about their customs.
When
Then
While
And first, dividing the city into three parts, he gave a share in the
government to his brothers
Very soon after this,
And he pillaged every place, indiscriminately; for he said that he would get
more thanks if he gave a friend back what he had taken than if he never took
it at all. He had taken many of the islands, and many of the mainland
cities. Among others, he conquered the
It is pleasant to learn that a friend and ally is doing well. But I do not like these great successes of yours; for I know the gods, how jealous they are, and I desire somehow that both I and those for whom I care succeed in some affairs, fail in others, and thus pass life faring differently by turns, rather than succeed at everything.
For from all I have heard I know of no man whom continual good fortune did not bring in the end to evil, and utter destruction. Therefore if you will be ruled by me do this regarding your successes:
consider what you hold most precious and what you will be sorriest to lose, and cast it away so that it shall never again be seen among men; then, if after this the successes that come to you are not mixed with mischances, strive to mend the matter as I have counselled you.”
being resolved to cast this away, he embarked in a fifty-oared ship with its crew, and told them to put out to sea; and when he was far from the island, he took off the seal-ring in sight of all that were on the ship and cast it into the sea. This done, he sailed back and went to his house, where he grieved for the loss.
“O King, when I caught this fish, I thought best not to take it to market,
although I am a man who lives by his hands, but it seemed to me worthy of
you and your greatness; and so I bring and offer it to you.”
Proud of this honor, the fisherman went home; but the servants, cutting up
the fish, found in its belly
As soon as they saw and seized it, they brought it with joy to
So he sent a herald to
At this message
But as they sailed back to
There are those who say that the
After this the
This breastplate had been stolen by the
but what makes it worthy of wonder is that each thread of the breastplate,
fine as each is, is made up of three hundred and sixty strands, each plainly
seen. It is the exact counterpart of that one which
then they would not allow the suppliants to be dragged from the temple; and
when the
This continued to be done until the
For these reasons then the
Their mother's father,
“Do you know, boys, who killed your mother?” The elder of them paid no
attention to these words; but the younger, whose name was
until the boy remembered, and told him. And
So when the boy, driven out, would go to another house, he would be driven
from this also, since
In view of this proclamation no one wished to address or receive the boy into his house; and besides, the boy himself did not think it right to attempt what was forbidden, but accepting it slept in the open.
On the fourth day, when
Though my son and a prince of prosperous
But bearing in mind how much better it is to be envied than to be pitied, and at the same time what sort of thing it is to be angry with your parents and with those that are stronger than you, come back to the house.”
With these words
And when he had sent him away, he sent an army against
She came and said, “Child, would you want the power to fall to others, and our father's house destroyed, rather than to return and have it yourself? Come home and stop punishing yourself.
Pride is an unhappy possession. Do not cure evil by evil. Many place the more becoming thing before the just; and many pursuing their mother's business have lost their father's. Power is a slippery thing; many want it, and our father is now old and past his prime; do not lose what is yours to others.”
So she spoke communicating their father's inducements. But he answered that
he would never come to
When she brought this answer back,
The son consented to this;
The mercenaries and many of the
I myself have met in his native town of
So when the
There is a foolish tale abroad that
for they were in need of money; and the
Now when they were putting together the treasure they inquired of the oracle if their present prosperity was likely to last long; whereupon the priestess gave them this answer:
At this time the market-place and town-hall of
They could not understand this oracle either when it was spoken or at the
time of the
now in ancient times all ships were painted with vermilion;
The messengers, then, demanded from the
Hearing this the
Here they stayed and prospered for five years; indeed, the temples now at
but in the sixth year
The
the whole tunnel is forty-two hundred feet long,
The designer of this work was
The third
Therefore he plotted to gain the royal power: he had a brother, his partner,
as I said, in rebellion; this brother was in appearance very like
When
“No,” said
If then the dead can rise, you may expect to see
“Since
So spoke the herald, telling the whole truth; and
and perceiving that he had killed his brother without cause, he wept
bitterly for
As he sprang upon his horse, the cap fell off the sheath of his sword, and
the naked blade pierced his thigh, wounding him in the same place where he
had once wounded the
They told him it was
So when he now inquired and learned the name of the town, the shock of his
wound, and of the misfortune that came to him from the
When I was in
Then I feared that my brother would take away my sovereignty from me, and I
acted with more haste than wisdom; for it is not in the power of human
nature to run away from what is to be; but I, blind as I was, sent
But I mistook altogether what was to be; I have killed my brother when there
was no need, and I have lost my kingdom none the less; for it was the
Now he has been done for by me, and I would have you believe that
and as he is no longer alive, necessity constrains me to charge you, men of
And if you do this, may your land bring forth fruit, and your women and your
flocks and herds be blessed with offspring, remaining free for all time; but
if you do not get the kingdom back or attempt to get it back, then I pray
things turn out the opposite for you, and on top of this, that every
But when after this the bone rotted and the thigh rapidly putrefied, it
carried off
To the
In this time he benefitted all his subjects to such an extent that after his
death all the
This
She sent back a message that she did not know; for (she said) she had never
seen
To this his daughter replied: “I cannot communicate with
“Daughter, your noble birth obliges you to run any risk that your father
commands you to face. If this man is not
Now, then, when he lies with you and you see that he is sleeping, feel his
ears; if he has ears, rest assured that you are living with
So she promised to do this for her father.
So
They resolved that each should take into his confidence that
When they were six,
“I thought that I alone knew that it was the
To this
You ought to have done it by yourselves; but since you decided to confide in
others and have included me, let us either act today or else understand that
if the present day passes, nobody else will betray you before I do, for I
shall myself betray you to the
To this
“
There is no one who will not allow us to pass, from respect or from fear,
because of who we are; and further, I have myself the best pretext for
entering, for I shall say that I have just arrived from
When it is necessary to lie, lie. For we want the same thing, liars and those who tell the truth; some lie to win credence and advantage by lies, while others tell the truth in order to obtain some advantage by the truth and to be more trusted; thus we approach the same ends by different means.
If the hope of advantage were taken away, the truth-teller would be as ready to lie as the liar to tell the truth. Now if any of the watchmen willingly let us pass, it will be better for him later. But if any tries to withstand us, let us note him as an enemy, and so thrust ourselves in and begin our work.”
Those of you that were with
Now therefore my vote is that we follow
For these reasons they summoned him and tried to make him a friend, having
bound him by tokens of good faith and oaths to keep to himself and betray to
no one their deception of the
When
They gave him this charge, because they thought him to be the man most
trusted by the
and after he had narrated this, he revealed the truth, saying that he had
concealed it before, as it had not been safe for him to tell what had
happened, but at the present time necessity forced him to reveal it: and he
said that he himself, forced by
Then, invoking a terrible curse on the
But when they had gone half way they learned what had happened to
While they were arguing, they saw seven pairs of hawks chase and slash and
tear to bits two pairs of vultures. And seeing this all seven consented to
And when they came to the court, they met the eunuchs that carry messages, who asked the seven why they had come; and while they were questioning these, they were threatening the watchmen for letting them pass, and restraining the seven who wanted to go on.
These gave each other the word, drew their knives, and stabbing the eunuchs who barred their way, went forward at a run to the men's apartment.
One rushed to take down a bow, the other went for a spear. Then the fighting
started. The one that had caught up the bow found it was no use to him, as
the antagonists were close and jostling one another; but the other defended
himself with his spear, wounding
So one of the
Two of the seven flung into the room with him,
The
This day is the greatest holy day that all
How can monarchy be a fit thing, when the ruler can do what he wants with impunity? Give this power to the best man on earth, and it would stir him to unaccustomed thoughts. Insolence is created in him by the good things to hand, while from birth envy is rooted in man.
Acquiring the two he possesses complete evil; for being satiated he does many reckless things, some from insolence, some from envy. And yet an absolute ruler ought to be free of envy, having all good things; but he becomes the opposite of this towards his citizens; he envies the best who thrive and live, and is pleased by the worst of his fellows; and he is the best confidant of slander.
Of all men he is the most inconsistent; for if you admire him modestly he is angry that you do not give him excessive attention, but if one gives him excessive attention he is angry because one is a flatter. But I have yet worse to say of him than that; he upsets the ancestral ways and rapes women and kills indiscriminately.
But the rule of the multitude has in the first place the loveliest name of all, equality, and does in the second place none of the things that a monarch does. It determines offices by lot, and holds power accountable, and conducts all deliberating publicly. Therefore I give my opinion that we make an end of monarchy and exalt the multitude, for all things are possible for the majority.”
for men fleeing the insolence of a tyrant to fall victim to the insolence of the unguided populace is by no means to be tolerated. Whatever the one does, he does with knowledge, but for the other knowledge is impossible; how can they have knowledge who have not learned or seen for themselves what is best, but always rush headlong and drive blindly onward, like a river in flood?
Let those like democracy who wish ill to
One could describe nothing better than the rule of the one best man; using the best judgment, he will govern the multitude with perfect wisdom, and best conceal plans made for the defeat of enemies.
But in an oligarchy, the desire of many to do the state good service often produces bitter hate among them; for because each one wishes to be first and to make his opinions prevail, violent hate is the outcome, from which comes faction and from faction killing, and from killing it reverts to monarchy, and by this is shown how much better monarchy is.
Then again, when the people rule it is impossible that wickedness will not occur; and when wickedness towards the state occurs, hatred does not result among the wicked, but strong alliances; for those that want to do the state harm conspire to do it together. This goes on until one of the people rises to stop such men. He therefore becomes the people's idol, and being their idol is made their monarch; and thus he also proves that monarchy is best.
But (to conclude the whole matter in one word) tell me, where did freedom come from for us and who gave it, from the people or an oligarchy or a single ruler? I believe, therefore, that we who were liberated through one man should maintain such a government, and, besides this, that we should not alter our ancestral ways that are good; that would not be better.”
“Fellow partisans, it is plain that one of us must be made king (whether by
lot, or entrusted with the office by the choice of the
To these terms the six others agreed;
For
As for the making of a king, they decided that he should be elected whose horse, after they were all in their saddles in the suburb of the city, should first be heard to neigh at sunrise.
“Master,”
When
and as he so did there came lightning and thunder out of a clear sky. These
signs given to
He also married a daughter of
I will now show how he divided his provinces and the tributes which were
paid him yearly. Those that paid in silver were required to render the
weight of a
In the reigns of
The third comprised the
The fourth province was
The sixth province was
besides that silver and the assessment of grain that was given also, seven
hundred talents were paid; for a hundred and twenty thousand bushels of
grain were also assigned to the
The
The eleventh comprised the
The fourteenth province was made up of the
The
The
and the gold coin being thirteen times the value of the silver, the
gold-dust is found to be worth four thousand six hundred and eighty
The tribute is stored by the king in this fashion: he melts it down and pours it into earthen vessels; when the vessel is full he breaks the earthenware away, and when he needs money coins as much as serves his purpose.
As for those on whom no tribute was laid, but who rendered gifts instead,
they were, firstly, the
These together brought every other year and still bring a gift of two
choenixes
Gifts were also required of the
The
To the east of the
There are many
These
When a woman is sick, she is put to death like the men by the women who are her close acquaintances. As for one that has come to old age, they sacrifice him and feast on his flesh; but not many reach this reckoning, for before that everyone who falls ill they kill.
Their semen too, which they ejaculate into the women, is not white like
other men's, but black like their skin, and resembles in this respect that
of the
In this sandy desert are ants,
It is for this sand that the
Now in these parts the sun is hottest in the morning, not at midday as
elsewhere, but from sunrise to the hour of market-closing. Through these
hours it is much hotter than in
At midday the sun's heat is nearly the same in
They cut loose the male trace-camels, which are slower than the females, as
they begin to lag, one at a time; the mares never tire, for they remember
the young that they have left. Such is the tale. Most of the gold (say the
As I have lately said,
There, too, wool more beautiful and excellent than the wool of sheep grows
on wild trees; these trees supply the
They gather frankincense by burning that storax
Somehow the forethought of God (just as is reasonable) being wise has made all creatures prolific that are timid and edible, so that they do not become extinct through being eaten, whereas few young are born to hardy and vexatious creatures.
On the one hand, because the hare is hunted by every beast and bird and man, therefore it is quite prolific; alone of all creatures it conceives during pregnancy; some of the unborn young are hairy, some still naked, some are still forming in the womb while others are just conceived.
On the one hand there is this sort of thing, but on the other hand the lioness, that is so powerful and so bold, once in her life bears one cub; for in the act of bearing she casts her uterus out with her cub. The explanation of this is that when the cub first begins to stir in the mother, its claws, much sharper than those of any other creature, tear the uterus, and the more it grows the more it scratches and tears, so that when the hour of birth is near seldom is any of the uterus left intact.
The male dies in the way described, but the female suffers in return for the male the following punishment: avenging their father, the young while they are still within the womb gnaw at their mother and eating through her bowels thus make their way out.
Other snakes, that do no harm to men, lay eggs and hatch out a vast number
of young. The
There are great birds, it is said, that take these dry sticks which we have
learned from the
The
but every shepherd there knows enough of carpentry to make little carts which they fix under the tails, binding the tail of each sheep on its own cart. The other kind of sheep has a tail a full three feet broad.
The very name
But I do not believe this, that there are one-eyed men who have a nature otherwise the same as other men.
The most outlying lands, though, as they enclose and wholly surround all the rest of the world, are likely to have those things which we think the finest and the rarest.
Now from the encircling mountains flows a great river whose name is the
Aces. Its stream divides into five channels and formerly watered the lands
of the above-mentioned peoples, going to each through a different pass, but
since the beginning of the
the king has blocked the mountain passes, and closed each passage with a gate; with the water barred from outlet, the plain within the mountains becomes a lake, seeing that the river pours into it and finds no way out.
Those therefore who before were accustomed to use the water endure great hardship in not being able to use it; for during the winter, god rains for them just as for the rest of mankind, but in the summer they are in need of the water for their sown millet and sesame.
So whenever no water is given to them, they come into
then, when this land has drunk its fill of water, that gate is shut, and the king has another opened for those of the rest who most require it. I know by hearsay that he gets a lot of money, over and above the tribute, for opening the gates. So much for these matters.
and being assured that they had no part in it, he seized
Then
After considering she answered, “If indeed the king gives me the life of one, I chose from them all my brother.”
“O King,” she answered, “I may have another husband, if a god is willing, and other children, if I lose these; but since my father and mother are no longer living, there is no way that I can have another brother; I said what I did with that in mind.”
As
“You are not to be reckoned a man; the island of
Some say that
and, whether on purpose to show contempt for
for
Learning then that he had this intention,
Now if you will transport me and my money, you may take some yourself and
let me keep the rest; thus you shall have wealth enough to rule all
When
after this vision she used all means to persuade him not to go on this
journey to
But no sooner had
Having killed him in some way not fit to be told,
And
but, to the contrary, in this confusion killed two prominent
He had recourse, then, to the following expedient: having summoned an
assembly of the most prominent
So then, which of you would either bring me
When he got there and came into
Seeing that they were greatly affected by the rolls and yet more by what was
written in them, he gave another, in which were these words: “
When
so violently that the ball of the ankle joint was dislocated from its
socket.
and for seven days and nights the king could not sleep because of the pain.
On the eighth day, when he was doing poorly, someone who had heard in
It was clear to
But when
After this,
Each of them took a bowl and dipped it in a chest full of gold, so richly
rewarding
In his second year the
for at this time the best physicians in
When the
He said he would cure her, but made her swear that she would repay him by granting whatever he asked of her, and said that he would ask nothing shameful.
The right thing for a man who is both young and the master of great wealth
is to be seen aggrandizing himself, so that the
You should show some industry now, while you are still young: for sense grows with the growing body, but grows old too with the aging body and loses its edge for all purposes.”
She said this as instructed, but he replied with this: “Woman, what you have
said is exactly what I had in mind to do. For I have planned to make a
bridge from this continent to the other continent and lead an army against
the
“Look,”
Having given these instructions to them, he then sent for
There
Some
How do you think
But the men of
But
This is what happened, and these
This
When
When the doorkeeper brought word of this to the king,
The doorkeeper brought
“Most generous man,” said
For when he learned of
“To me, as you know, have come
Only I claim for my own privilege that six talents of
Such was
So they were imprisoned, and afterwards
whereupon he cried with a loud voice that he wanted to talk to
If you are yourself afraid of them, give me your foreign guards, and I will punish them for coming here; as for you, I will give you safe conduct out of the island.”
He wanted therefore by provoking the
They were engaged in this when the rest of the
Then, while some of the
At last they revolted openly and did this:—sending away all the mothers, each chose one woman, whomever he liked of his domestics, as a bread-maker; as for the rest, they gathered them together and strangled them so they would not consume their bread.
“Why loiter there,
then reflecting he recalled the
He could think of no other way to bring the city down than to mutilate
himself and then desert to the
“There is no man,” he said, “except you, who has enough power to do this to
me, and no one but I myself did this, O King, because I felt it terribly
that
“Had I told you,” said
Now, on the tenth day after I enter the city, take a thousand men from the
part of your army about which you will least care if it is lost, and post
them before the gate called the gate of
But immediately after the twentieth day command the rest of your army to
assault the whole circuit of the walls, and post the
When they heard this, the gatekeepers brought him before the general
assembly of the
“Now,” he said in his speech to them, “I come as a great boon to you, men
of
When he got this from them, he did exactly as he had arranged with
Seeing that he produced works equal to his words, the
When the
Those
Further, as the
He honored him very much; every year he sent him such gifts as the
For the
But when the
When done milking, they pour the milk into deep wooden buckets, and make
their slaves stand around the buckets and shake the milk; they draw off what
stands on the surface and value this most; what lies at the bottom is less
valued. This is why the
First they barred the way to their country by digging a wide trench from the
There were many fights, and the
Now, then, my opinion is that we should drop our spears and bows, and meet them with horsewhips in our hands. As long as they see us armed, they imagine that they are our equals and the sons of our equals; let them see us with whips and no weapons, and they will perceive that they are our slaves; and taking this to heart they will not face our attack.”
Such was
In the time of their rule (the story goes) certain implements—namely, a
plough, a yoke, a sword, and a flask, all of gold—fell down from the sky
into
Then the second approached, and the gold did as before. When these two had been driven back by the burning gold, the youngest brother approached and the burning stopped, and he took the gold to his own house. In view of this, the elder brothers agreed to give all the royal power to the youngest.
All these together bear the name of
Whoever falls asleep at this festival in the open air, having the sacred
gold with him, is said by the
Above and north of the neighbors of their country no one (they say) can see
or travel further, because of showers of feathers;
When he saw her he was astonished, and asked her if she had seen his mares
straying; she said that she had them, and would not return them to him
before he had intercourse with her;
But though he was anxious to take the horses and go, she delayed returning
them, so that she might have
Now tell me what I am to do when they are grown up: shall I keep them here
(since I am queen of this country), or shall I send them away to you?” Thus
she inquired, and then (it is said)
“When you see the boys are grown up, do as follows and you will do rightly: whichever of them you see bending this bow and wearing this belt so, make him an inhabitant of this land; but whoever falls short of these accomplishments that I require, send him away out of the country. Do so and you shall yourself have comfort, and my will shall be done.”
Two of her sons,
and the
Neither side could persuade the other, neither the people the princes nor the princes the people; the one party planned to depart without fighting and leave the country to their enemies, but the princes were determined to lie dead in their own country and not to flee with the people, for they considered how happy their situation had been and what ills were likely to come upon them if they fled from their native land.
Having made up their minds, the princes separated into two equal bands and
fought with each other until they were all killed by each other's hands;
then the
Furthermore, it is evident that the
for the
Except for the
and the report of
but when the place was opened, there was no
After saying this, he vanished. The
They did as instructed. And now there stands beside the image of
But all that we have been able to learn for certain by report of the farthest lands shall be told.
Above the
These farming
after the desolation is the country of the
North of the Royal
Adjoining these and in the same country live the people called
Beyond these and somewhat to the east live
After a long journey through this rough country, there are men inhabiting
the foothills of high mountains, who are said to be bald from birth (male
and female alike) and snub-nosed and with long beards; they speak their own
language, and wear
The tree by which they live is called “
They have few cattle, for the pasture in their land is not good. They each live under a tree, covering it in winter with a white felt cloth, but using no felt in summer.
These people are wronged by no man, for they are said to be sacred; nor have
they any weapon of war. They judge the quarrels between their neighbors;
furthermore, whatever banished man has taken refuge with them is wronged by
no one. They are called
But the country east of the bald-heads is known for certain to be inhabited
by the
As for his head, they strip it bare and clean and gild it, and keep it for a
sacred relic, to which they offer solemn sacrifice yearly. Every son does
this for his father, just like the
So it is winter for eight months, and cold in that country for the four that remain. Here, there is a different sort of winter than the winters in other lands: for in the season for rain scarcely any falls, but all summer it rains unceasingly;
and when there are thunderstorms in other lands, here there are none, but
in summer there are plenty of them; if there is a thunderstorm in winter
they are apt to wonder at it as at a portent. And so, too, if there is an
earthquake summer or winter, it is considered a portent in
Horses have the endurance to bear the
“ , the land where lambs are born with horns on their foreheads,” Libya [17,25] (nation), Africa Libya
but whenever the season is at hand for the mares to conceive, they drive them into the countries of their neighbors, and then send the asses after them, until the mares are pregnant, and then they drive them home again.
Whoever has seen snow falling thickly near him knows himself my meaning; for
snow is like feathers; and because of the winter, which is as I have said,
the regions to the north of this continent are uninhabited. I think
therefore that in this story of feathers the
from there, they are brought on to the south, the people of
Thus (they say) these offerings come to
But when those whom they sent never returned, they took it amiss that they should be condemned always to be sending people and not getting them back, and so they carry the offerings, wrapped in straw, to their borders, and tell their neighbors to send them on from their own country to the next;
and the offerings, it is said, come by this conveyance to
(this tomb is at the foot of an olive-tree, on the left hand of the
entrance of the temple of
these latter came to bring to
For the women collected gifts for them, calling upon their names in the hymn
made for them by
Furthermore, they say that when the thighbones are burnt in sacrifice on the
altar, the ashes are all cast on the burial-place of
And I laugh to see how many have before now drawn maps of the world, not one
of them reasonably; for they draw the world as round as if fashioned by
compasses, encircled by the
On the north side one of the peninsulas begins at the
Now from the
As far as
For
So the
then, having gathered the crop, they sailed on, so that after two years had
passed, it was in the third that they rounded the pillars of
For he had raped the virgin daughter of
for he would be compelled to sail around
Having sailed out beyond them, and rounded the
Coming to
As to his not sailing completely around
This
these set out from the city of
After this circumnavigation,
I cannot guess for what reason the earth, which is one, has three names, all
women's, and why the boundary lines set for it are the
For
But as for
But it is plain that this woman was of
But the
For when men have no established cities or forts, but are all nomads and mounted archers, not living by tilling the soil but by raising cattle and carrying their dwellings on wagons, how can they not be invincible and unapproachable?
As many of them as are famous and can be entered from the sea, I shall name.
There is the
Those that make it great, five flowing through the
The first-named of these rivers is a great stream flowing east and uniting
its waters with the
The
for the
But the
In the summer, the abundant snow that has fallen in winter melts and pours
from all sides into the
And in proportion as the sun draws to itself more water in summer than in
winter, the water that commingles with the
Here, then, the
for a spring runs into it so bitter that although its volume is small its
admixture taints the
The
But of the rest, the
and self-formed crusts of salt abound at its mouth; it provides great spineless fish, called sturgeons, for salting, and many other wonderful things besides.
Its course is from the north, and it is known as far as the
This is the only river, besides the
the land between these rivers, where the land projects like a ship's beak,
is called
In the
as the victim falls, he invokes whatever god it is to whom he sacrifices. Then, throwing a noose around the beast's neck, he thrusts in a stick and twists it and so strangles the victim, lighting no fire nor offering the first-fruits, nor pouring any libation; and having strangled and skinned the beast, he sets about cooking it.
which burn nicely; the stomachs easily hold the meat when it is stripped from the bones; thus a steer serves to cook itself, and every other victim does likewise. When the flesh is cooked, the sacrificer takes the first-fruits of the flesh and the entrails and casts them before him. They use all grazing animals for sacrifice, but mainly horses.
Every year a hundred and fifty wagon-loads of sticks are heaped upon this;
for the storms of winter always make it sink down. On this sacred pile an
ancient scimitar of iron is set for each people: their image of
Of enemies that they take alive, they sacrifice one man in every hundred, not as they sacrifice sheep and goats, but differently. They pour wine on the men's heads and cut their throats over a bowl; then they carry the blood up on to the pile of sticks and pour it on the scimitar.
They carry the blood up above, but down below by the sacred pile they cut off all the slain men's right arms and hands and throw these into the air, and depart when they have sacrificed the rest of the victims; the arm lies where it has fallen, and the body apart from it.
He scalps the head by making a cut around it by the ears, then grasping the scalp and shaking the head off. Then he scrapes out the flesh with the rib of a steer, and kneads the skin with his hands, and having made it supple he keeps it for a hand towel, fastening it to the bridle of the horse which he himself rides, and taking pride in it; for he who has most scalps for hand towels is judged the best man.
Many
Many flay the skin from the whole body, too, and carry it about on horseback stretched on a wooden frame.
Such a cup a man also makes out of the head of his own kinsman with whom he has been feuding, and whom he has defeated in single combat before the king; and if guests whom he honors visit him he will serve them with these heads, and show how the dead were his kinsfolk who fought him and were beaten by him; this they call manly valor.
this manner of divination is hereditary among them. The
for when the
When he denies it, the king sends for twice as many diviners: and if they too, consulting their art, prove him guilty of perjury, then he is instantly beheaded, and his goods are divided among the first diviners;
but if the later diviners acquit him, then other diviners come, and yet again others. If the greater number of them acquit the man, it is decreed that the first diviners themselves be put to death.
Often the oxen are burnt to death with the diviners, and often the yoke-pole of their wagon is burnt through and the oxen escape with a scorching. They burn their diviners for other reasons, too, in the way described, calling them false prophets.
When the king puts them to death, he does not leave the sons alive either, but kills all the males of the family; the females he does not harm.
Then those who receive the dead man on his arrival do the same as do the
Royal
From there, the escorts transport the king's body on the wagon to another of
the tribes that they rule, and those to whom they have already come follow
them; and having carried the dead man to all in turn, they are at the place
of burial, in the country of the
Then, having laid the body on a couch in the tomb, they plant spears on each
side of the body and lay wooden planks across them, which they then roof
over with braided osiers; in the open space which is left in the tomb they
bury one of the king's concubines, his cupbearer, his cook, his groom, his
squire, and his messenger, after strangling them, besides horses, and
first-fruits of everything else, and golden cups; for the
Having done this, they all build a great barrow of earth, vying eagerly with one another to make this as great as possible.
and strangle fifty of these and fifty of their best horses and empty and clean the bellies of them all, fill them with chaff, and sew them up again.
Then they fasten half of a wheel to two posts, the hollow upward, and the other half to another pair of posts, until many posts thus prepared are planted in the ground, and, after driving thick stakes lengthways through the horses' bodies to their necks, they place the horses up on the wheels
so that the wheel in front supports the horse's forequarters and the wheel behind takes the weight of the belly by the hindquarters, and the forelegs and hindlegs hang free; and putting bridles and bits in the horses' mouths, they stretch the bridles to the front and fasten them with pegs.
Then they take each one of the fifty strangled young men and mount him on the horse; their way of doing it is to drive an upright stake through each body passing up alongside the spine to the neck leaving enough of the stake projecting below to be fixed in a hole made in the other stake, which passes through the horse. So having set horsemen of this fashion around the tomb, they ride away.
After the burial the
The
But their women pound cypress and cedar and frankincense wood on a rough stone, adding water also, and with the thick stuff thus pounded they anoint their bodies and faces, as a result of which not only does a fragrant scent come from them, but when on the second day they take off the ointment, their skin becomes clear and shining.
For when
where, finding the
So when he came to
Then some
But according to what I heard from
But this is a tale pointlessly invented by the
As time passed,
So
while he himself, entering within the walls and shutting the gates, would
take off his
When he had spent a month or more like this, he would put on
He had in the city of the
Now the
So when
The leading men among the
“Why should we try each other's strength? You are my sister's son, and you
have my brother with you; give him back to me, and I will give up your
Such was the offer
But this much they let me see for myself: there is a region between the
In this region is a bronze vessel, as much as six times greater than the
cauldron dedicated by
For anyone who has not yet seen the latter, I will make my meaning plain:
the
For their king, whose name was
So a vast number of arrow-heads was brought, and he decided to make and
leave a memorial out of them; and he made of these this bronze vessel, and
set it up in this country
But when, for all his good advice, he could not deter the king,
For it is the most wonderful sea of all. Its length is eleven thousand one
hundred stades, and its breadth three thousand three hundred stades at the
place where it is widest.
The channel at the entrance of this sea is four stades across; the narrow
neck of the channel, called
and the
This being granted, seeing that from the
From the
Thus have I measured the
These pillars were afterward carried by the
This memorialized the builder of the bridge.
So the fleet passed between the
But
There are two roads to the place, one from the town of
“From the headwaters of the river
Once every five years they choose one of their people by lot and send him as
a messenger to
If he is killed by the toss, they believe that the god regards them with favor; but if he is not killed, they blame the messenger himself, considering him a bad man, and send another messenger in place of him. It is while the man still lives that they give him the message.
Furthermore, when there is thunder and lightning these same
then, after being freed and gaining great wealth, he returned to his own
country. Now the
therefore he made a hall, where he entertained and fed the leaders among his countrymen, and taught them that neither he nor his guests nor any of their descendants would ever die, but that they would go to a place where they would live forever and have all good things.
While he was doing as I have said and teaching this doctrine, he was
meanwhile making an underground chamber. When this was finished, he vanished
from the sight of the
while the
and as to whether there was a man called
So the
“Since, O King, you are about to march against a country where you will not find tilled lands or inhabited cities, let this bridge stay where it is, leaving those who made it to guard it.
Thus, if we find the
Now it may perhaps be said that I say this for my own sake, because I want to remain behind; but it is not so; I only declare publicly the opinion that I think best for you, and I will follow you and do not want to be left here.”
“Gentlemen of
But until then, since the plan is changed, guard the bridge, making every
effort to keep and watch it. You will please me very much if you do this.”
Having said this,
Now I am going to describe the coast of the true
Beyond this place, the country fronting the same sea is hilly and projects
into the
For the sea to the south and the sea to the east are two of the four
boundary lines of
I mean, so to speak, to compare small things with great. Such a land is the
Now it has been seen that on its northern and inland side, running from the
for it is a ten days' journey from the
Now, as I reckon a day's journey at two hundred stades, the
cross-measurement of
The assembled kings were those of the
according to some, they then place the head on a pole and throw the body
off the cliff on which their temple stands; others agree as to the head, but
say that the body is buried, not thrown off the cliff. The
As for enemies whom they defeat, each cuts his enemy's head off and carries
it away to his house, where he places it on a tall pole and stands it high
above the dwelling, above the smoke-vent for the most part. These heads,
they say, are set up to guard the whole house. The
for the
for there are temples of
Their whole country is thickly wooded with every kind of tree; in the depth of the forest there is a great, wide lake and a marsh surrounded by reeds; otter is trapped in it, and beaver, besides certain square-faced creatures whose skins are used to trim mantles, and their testicles are used by the people to heal sicknesses of the womb.
But they knew nothing about ships, or how to use rudder or sail or oar; and
with the men dead, they were at the mercy of waves and winds, until they
came to the Cliffs by the
Therefore, after deliberation they resolved by no means to slay them as
before, but to send their youngest men to them, of a number corresponding
(as they guessed) to the number of the women. They directed these youths to
camp near the
and since they did not understand each other's speech and she could not speak to him, she signed with her hand that he should come the next day to the same place and bring another youth with him (showing by signs that there should be two), and she would bring another woman with her.
The youth went away and told his comrades; and the next day he came himself
with another to the place, where he found the
and when they understood each other, the men said to the
“We could not live with your women; for we and they do not have the same customs. We shoot the bow and throw the javelin and ride, but have never learned women's work; and your women do none of the things of which we speak, but stay in their wagons and do women's work, and do not go out hunting or anywhere else.
So we could never agree with them. If you want to keep us for wives and to have the name of fair men, go to your parents and let them give you the allotted share of their possessions, and after that let us go and live by ourselves.” The young men agreed and did this.
“We are worried and frightened how we are to live in this country after depriving you of your fathers and doing a lot of harm to your land.
Since you propose to have us for wives, do this with us: come, let us leave
this country and live across the
Ever since then the women of the
“By no means stand aside and let us be destroyed,” they said; “rather, let us unite and oppose this invader. If you will not, then we shall either be driven out of our country or stay and make terms.
For what is to become of us if you will not help us? And afterward it will
not be easy for you, either; for the
We will give you a convincing proof of what we say: if indeed the
But as it is, from the day he crossed over to this continent, he has been
taming all that come in his way, and he holds in subjection not only the
rest of
“Had it not been you who wronged the
But as it is, you invaded their land without us and ruled the
But we did these men no wrong at that former time, nor do we intend now to
wrong them first; but if the
It was their decision that to one of their divisions, which
their two other divisions, namely, the greater whose ruler was
First, then, they were to retreat in a straight line toward the countries
which refused their alliance, so as to involve these, too, in the war; for
if they did not of their own accord support the war against the
When the
when the horsemen crossed this, the
Then going forward still on the horsemen's track, they passed through this
country into desolation, which is inhabited by no one; it lies to the north
of the
Beyond this desolation live the
While he was occupied with these, the
and because
The
But the
With this warning, the
But warned off by the
As to why I do not fight with you at once, I will tell you why. We
Come on, find these and try to destroy them: you shall know then whether we will fight you for the graves or whether we will not fight. Until then, unless we have reason, we will not engage with you.
As to fighting, enough; as to masters, I acknowledge
They then sent the division of the
The
For, as I have before indicated,
and often, when they were in the act of charging the
The
This was the opinion declared by
“Unless you become birds,
“
Now then, do what will leave you guiltless in his eyes as in ours: stay here
for the time appointed; and after that, leave.” So the
“These men hold us in deep contempt; and I think now that
Now then, my advice is that at nightfall we kindle our campfires in the
usual way, deceive those in our army who are least fit to endure hardship,
and tether all our asses here, and ourselves depart, before the
His reasons for leaving the asses, and the infirm among his soldiers, were
the following: the asses, so that they would bray; the men, who were left
because of their infirmity, he pretended were to guard the camp while he
attacked the
Giving this order to those who were left behind, and lighting campfires,
And as the
There, perceiving that the
Since it was fear that kept you here, now break the bridge in haste and go,
free and happy men, thanking the gods and the
But
When
all from the
This was the plan they adopted; and then
But while we are breaking the bridge, this is your opportunity to go and
find the
Had they not done, they could, if they had wished, easily have found the
So the
But as they arrived at night and found the bridge broken, they were in great
alarm lest the
By speaking thus among
when he was told at
This
The descendants of the crew of the
Seeing it, the
Hearing the story of the lineage of the
The
hence the
Now when they were about to kill the prisoners, the wives of the
But when the wives came into the prison, they gave their husbands all their
own garments, and themselves put on the men's clothing; so the
This
but when his nephews grew up and became kings, then
On the island now called
These dwelt on the island of
So when the
The
for the greater part of them made their way to the lands of the
The men of this clan, finding that none of their children lived, set up a
temple of the avenging spirits of
When
No more was said then. But when they departed, they neglected to obey the
oracle, since they did not know where
So, since there was no remedy for their ills, they sent messengers to
They hired this man to come with them to
they then put out to sea from the island and would have sailed to
Now this was at that time an untapped
The
What the
When the second wife came into his house, she thought fit to be the
proverbial stepmother to
There was at
But
and changed it to
For when he grew to adulthood, he went to
just as if she addressed him using the
But he answered: “Lord, I came to you to ask about my speech; but you talk
of other matters, things impossible to do; you tell me to plant a colony in
the priestess declared that they would fare better if they helped
There, the
Then the priestess gave them this reply:
and having come to the island and taken aboard the one whom they had left
there, they made a settlement at a place in
and they brought the
Then they brought the
But in the time of the third ruler,
and this was the oracle:
So a great multitude gathered at
for the
Then
After this disaster,
the priestess told them bring a mediator from
When this man came to
Now
This she said whatever the gift, until at last
The priestess gave him this answer: “For the lifetimes
of four
But you, return to your country and live there in peace. But if you
find the oven full of amphora, do not bake the amphora, but let them go
unscathed. And if you bake them in the oven, do not go into the tidal
place; for if you do, then you shall be killed yourself, and also the
bull that is fairest of the herd.”
This was the oracle given by
the priestess to
Some of these left the country altogether; others,
Then, perceiving too late that this was the meaning of the
Now he had a wife who was a relation of his, a daughter of
But when she learned of her son's death at
So, on her arrival in
for
But before despatching the troops,
This was the pretext; but I myself think that the troops were sent to
subjugate
They are the only
which reaches from the island of
It is their custom for every man to have many wives; their intercourse with
women is promiscuous, as among the
As for their manner of swearing and divination, they lay their hands on the graves of the men reputed to have been the most just and good among them, and by these men they swear; their practice of divination is to go to the tombs of their ancestors, where after making prayers they lie down to sleep, and take for oracles whatever dreams come to them.
They give and receive pledges by each drinking from the hand of the other party; and if they have nothing liquid, they take the dust of the earth and lick it up.
The
But when he was off
They celebrate a yearly festival of
Before the girls are set fighting, the whole people choose the fairest maid,
and arm her with a
With what armor they equipped their maidens before
As for
When a woman's child is well grown, the men assemble within three months and the child is adjudged to be that man's whom it is most like.
At intervals of about ten days' journey along this ridge there are masses of
great lumps of salt in hills; on the top of every hill, a fountain of cold
sweet water shoots up from the midst of the salt; men live around it who are
farthest away toward the desert and inland from the wild beasts' country.
The first on the journey from
They have another spring of water besides, which is warm at dawn, and colder at market-time, and very cold at noon;
and it is then that they water their gardens; as the day declines, the coldness abates, until at sunset the water grows warm. It becomes ever hotter and hotter until midnight, and then it boils and bubbles; after midnight it becomes ever cooler until dawn. This spring is called the Spring of the Sun.
The shortest way to the
therefore, not being able to go forward, since the horns would stick in the ground, they walk backward grazing. Otherwise, they are like other cattle, except that their hide is thicker and harder to the touch.
These
When the sun is high, they curse and very foully revile him, because his burning heat afflicts their people and their land.
After another ten days' journey there is again a hill of salt, and water, and men living there. Near to this salt is a mountain called Atlas, whose shape is slender and conical; and it is said to be so high that its heights cannot be seen, for clouds are always on them winter and summer. The people of the country call it the pillar of heaven.
These men get their name, which is
There is a mine of salt on it every ten days' journey, and men live there.
Their houses are all built of blocks of the salt; for these are parts of
The salt there is both white and purple. Beyond this ridge, the southern and
inland parts of
The women of
For the practice of many
They say that this makes their children quite healthy. In fact, the
And in fact, the very name betrays that the attire of the statues of
Furthermore, in my opinion the ceremonial chant
These claim descent from the men who came from
For the eastern region of
In that country are the huge snakes and the lions, and the elephants and
bears and asps, the horned asses, the dog-headed and the headless men that
have their eyes in their chests, as the
foxes, hyenas, porcupines, wild rams, the dictys, jackals, panthers, the
borys,
There are in this country three kinds of mice, the two-footed,
It is said that there is a lake on this island from which the maidens of the
country draw gold-dust out of the mud on feathers smeared with pitch. I do
not know whether this is true; I just write what is said. But all things are
possible; for I myself saw pitch drawn from the water of a pool in
The pools there are numerous; the greatest of them is seventy feet long and
broad, and twelve feet deep. Into this they drop a pole with a myrtle branch
fastened to its end, and bring up pitch on the myrtle, smelling like
asphalt, and for the rest better than the pitch of
Whatever falls into the pool is carried under the ground and appears again
in the sea, which is about a half a mile distant from the pool. So, then,
the story that comes from the island lying off the
Then the
In this transaction, it is said, neither party defrauds the other: the
I have this much further to say of this country: four nations and no more,
as far as we know, inhabit it, two of which are aboriginal and two not; the
But this region is a match for the most fertile farmland in the world, nor
is it at all like to the rest of
The land inhabited by the
and no sooner has this yield of the middle country been gathered than the
highest-lying crops are mellow and ripe, so that the latest fruits of the
earth are coming in when the earliest are already spent by way of food and
drink. Thus the
The
all the other places which he struck returned a dull sound; but where there
were tunnels, the bronze of the shield rang clear. Here the
Then when day came, he invited the
When the sworn agreement was made, the townsfolk, trusting in it and opening
all their gates, themselves came out of the city, and let all their enemies
who so desired enter within the walls. But the
As for the rest of the
As the army was passing through,
Then, although no one attacked them, panic seized the
but then they fell into the hands of the
For the oracle of the god ordered the
The
When
The
When a child is born, the kinsmen sit around it and lament all the ills that it must endure from its birth onward, recounting all the sorrows of men. The dead, however, they bury with celebration and gladness, asserting that he is rid of so many ills and has achieved a state of complete blessedness.
To be tattooed is a sign of noble birth, while to bear no such marks is for the baser sort. The idler is most honored, the tiller of the soil most scorned; he is held in highest honor who lives by war and robbery.
Their horses are said to be covered all over with shaggy hair
They call themselves colonists from Media. How this has come about I myself
cannot understand, but all is possible in the long passage of time. However
that may be, we know that the
There, waiting till
They, accordingly, followed behind her, and she, coming to the river, watered the horse. When she had done this and had filled her vessel with water, she passed back again by the same way, bearing the water on her head, leading the horse on her arm, and plying her distaff.
“But who,” he answered, “are the
So they told him all this, and the king asked them if all the women of their country were so industrious. To this too they very readily answered (for it was for this very purpose that they had come), that it was indeed so.
Immediately a horseman sped with this message to the
So the
The
In olden times all the people working together set the piles which support
the platform there, but they later developed another method of setting them.
The men bring the piles from a mountain called
Each man has both a hut on the platform and a trap-door in the platform leading down into the lake. They make a cord fast to the feet of their little children out of fear that they will fall into the water.
They give fish as fodder to their horses and beasts of burden, and there is such an abundance of fish that a man can open his trap-door, let down an empty basket by a line into the lake, and draw it up after a short time full of fish. There are two kinds of these, some called “paprakes,” some “tilones.”
Now there is a very straight way from the
After dinner, the
To this
Then the
At this
As to that, you may make your own decision, but now, since the hour of your rest is drawing near and I see that you are all completely drunk, allow these women to depart and wash, if this is your desire. When they have washed, wait for them to come to you again.”
When he had said this and the
“I believe, men of
With that,
No long time afterwards the
for when
” Sire, what is this that you have done? You have permitted a clever and
cunning
Stop this man, then, from doing these things so that you will not be
entangled in a war with your own subjects, but use gentle means to do so.
When you have him in your grasp, see to it that he never returns to
Now, therefore, let nothing prevent you from coming to me so that I may
inform you of certain great purposes which I have in mind.” Trusting these
words, and proud, moreover, that he would be the king's counsellor,
When he had come,
Now, since you have done well in coming here, I make you this proposal.
Leave
After doing this,
This
After travelling over the whole country and finding only a few such men,
they assembled the people immediately upon their return to the city and
appointed as rulers of the state those whose lands they had found well
tilled. This they did in the belief that these men were likely to take as
good care of public affairs as they had of their own, and they ordained that
the rest of the
Now it chanced that the deputy ruling
When the
“I myself do not have the authority to give you such power as will restore
you against the will of the
This is my plan.
Hearing this, the
If you so do, I have a great sum of money at your disposal, over and above
the costs of the force, for it is only fair that we, who bring you, should
furnish that. Furthermore, you will win new dominions for the king,
Making these your starting point, you will easily attack
“This plan which you set forth,”
Since it was not fated that the
When
The
When the
With all these fears in his mind, he began to plan revolt, for it chanced
that at that very time there came from
Since
This
All the rest spoke their minds to the same effect, favoring revolt, with the
exception of
This, he said, could only be accomplished in one way (
The treasure was very great, as I have shown in the beginning of my account.
This plan was not approved, and they resolved that they would revolt. One
out of their number was to sail to
First he made pretence of giving up his tyranny and gave
In this way, then, an end was made of tyrants in the cities. After doing
away with the tyrants,
Since this was the case, the
As for the wife that you have, we do not ask that you send her away. Keep
providing her with all that you give her now and marry another woman in
addition who can give you children.” So they spoke, and
When the friends of the new wife learned that the other woman was pregnant,
they began to make trouble for her. They said that she was making an empty
boast, so that she might substitute a child. The
She gave birth first to
Since he was of this opinion,
When he arrived there, he settled by the
This is the story which the
The
He mustered the remnant of his army and took
For his physical beauty he received from the
Having been admitted to converse with
Now, therefore, we entreat you by the gods of
Accordingly, they are easy to overcome. Furthermore, the inhabitants of that continent have more good things than all other men together, gold first but also silver, bronze, colored cloth, beasts of burden, and slaves. All this you can have to your heart's desire.
The lands in which they dwell lie next to each other, as I shall show: next
to the
Close by them are the
Adjoining these you see the
You should suspend your war, then, for strips of land of no great worth—for
that fight with with
Thus spoke
Till now,
At that,
Then
Next after
Ride past these, and you will have a journey through
Through this land flow four navigable rivers which must be passed by
ferries, first the
The fourth river is called
When this country is passed, the road is in the
So, then, from the
The
At this time the
The
Since they were wealthy and like their fathers men of reputation, they made
the temple more beautiful than the model showed. In particular, whereas they
had agreed to build the temple of tufa, they made its front of
Then the
They sent these men by sea on shipboard.
First they laid waste the plain of
When they broke into
When this happened, all their plans were confounded, and they agreed to
depart from
Afterwards they departed to
It was for this reason that
This is the way, then, that the
These men with their factions fell to contending for power,
He went then to
When
Having then designated the precinct for him,
Besides other honors paid to
These were the names of the tribes which the
When he had drawn into his own party the
Then
He and his men were then removed from their position by the presidents of
the naval boards,
The Council, however, resisted him, whereupon
The prophetic voice that
So without taking heed of the omen, he tried to do as he pleased and was, as
I have said, then again cast out together with his
When the envoys came to
The envoys consulted together, and in their desire to make the alliance, they consented to give what was asked. They then returned to their own country and were there greatly blamed for what they had done.
As a result of this dissension, a law was made at
So now at
When they met the
Horse-breeders was the name given to the men of substance among the
Moreover, they made a dedication of a tenth part of the ransom, and this
money was used for the making of a four-horse chariot which stands on the
left hand of the entrance into the outer porch of the acropolis and
Upon the return of the envoys, an assembly was called and the oracle put
before it. When the
Seeing that there seemed to be no better opinion before them than this,
they sent straightaway to entreat the
The
While the
So the men of
The
In the course of this struggle, they did the
Having set them up in this place they sought their favor with sacrifices and
female choruses in the satirical and abusive mode. Ten men were appointed
providers of a chorus for each of the deities, and the choruses aimed their
raillery not at any men but at the women of the country. The
The
When they could not obtain possession of them in this manner, they tied
cords around the images with which they could be dragged. While they were
attempting to drag them off, they were overtaken both by a thunderstorm and
an earthquake. This drove the trireme's crew to such utter madness that they
began to slay each other as if they were enemies. At last only one of all
was left, who returned by himself to
They are not able to determine clearly whether it was because they admitted to being weaker at sea-fighting that they yielded, or because they were planning what they then actually did.
When, as the
This is what the
The
This is how this man met his end, and the
As for the
While the
When the
Furthermore, they were spurred on by the oracles
When
Since we erred in doing what we did, we will now attempt with your aid to
avenge ourselves on them. It is on this account and no other that we have
sent for
“In truth heaven will be beneath the earth and the earth aloft above the
heaven, and men will dwell in the sea and fishes where men dwelt before, now
that you,
If indeed it seems to you to be a good thing that the cities be ruled by
tyrants, set up a tyrant among yourselves first and then seek to set up such
for the rest. As it is, however, you, who have never made trial of tyrants
and take the greatest precautions that none will arise at
The
When no sons were born to him by this wife or any other, he set out to
This oracle which was given to
These men came to
When, however,
They then gave the child back to its mother, and after going out, they stood before the door reproaching and upbraiding one another, but chiefly him who had first received it since he had not acted in accordance with their agreement. Finally they resolved to go in again and all have a hand in the killing.
Fate, however, had decreed that
They came and searched, but when they did not find it, they resolved to go off and say to those who had sent them that they had carried out their orders. They then went away and said this.
The oracle was as follows:
After a reign of thirty years,
He had sent a herald to
Then, after passing through the place and speaking no word of counsel, he
sent the herald away. When the herald returned to
When this message was brought back to
When he had done this and sent a second message, the ghost of
We
for there was constant war over a long period of time
While
This he said adding that the
The
“Men of
The
They were already in
He himself did not go with the army but remained at
While the city was burning, the
When the
It chanced that they found the
The
They sailed to the
This man had often before advised
“O
Now then, I ask you, do you think that this state of affairs is good? How did such things come to pass without any advice from your side? See to it that you do not have cause to blame yourself hereafter.”
To this
If my vicegerent is indeed doing what you say, be assured that he has acted
of his own accord. For myself, I cannot even go so far as to believe the
report that the
It would seem, then, that as soon as I was out of sight, the
Then, when I have done this to your satisfaction, I swear by the gods of
your royal house
Upon hearing this,
If you want to draw up your army on land and try your strength against the
To this the
“I learn that
To this his henchman answered, “My King, ready am I to do either or both, whatever you desire. Nevertheless, I will tell you what I think is in your best interest.
To my mind, a king and general should be met in battle by a king and general (For if you lay low a man who is a general, you have achieved a great feat. Failing that, if he lays you low, as I pray he may not, it is but half the misfortune to be slain by a noble enemy). For us servants it is fitting that we fight with servants like ourselves and with that horse. Do not fear his tricks, for I promise that he will never again do battle with any man.”
As for the two generals,
So the army was routed, and many were slain, among them
In consequence of this the
When they had gathered together, many plans were laid before them, the best
of which, in my judgment, was that of
This opinion, however, did not prevail, and it was decided instead that the
Those of them who escaped were driven into the precinct of
When he had taken this place and heard that
While the cities were being taken, he accordingly called his fellow-rebels
together and took counsel with them, saying that it was best for them to
have some place of refuge in case they should be thrown out of
After this he was put to the sword by the
But
Crossing over to
When
They manned eight triremes, and sailed with
The total number of all these together was three hundred and fifty-three triremes.
With this in mind, they gathered the tyrants of the
“Men of
But if they will not do so and are set on fighting, then utter a threat that
will restrain them: if they are defeated in battle, they will be enslaved;
we will make eunuchs of their boys, and carry their maidens captive to
“Our affairs, men of
Believe me and entrust yourselves to me; I promise you that (if the gods deal fairly with us) either our enemies shall not meet us in battle, or if they do they shall be utterly vanquished.”
For seven days they obeyed him and did his bidding; but on the next day,
untried as they were in such labor and worn out by hard work and by the sun,
the
“Against what god have we sinned that we have to fulfill this task? We have
lost our minds and launched out into folly, committing ourselves into the
hands of this
So they spoke, and from then on no man would obey. As if they were an army, they raised tents on the island where they stayed in the shade, and they were unwilling to embark upon their ships or to continue their exercises.
Therefore, as soon as they saw the
The
The captains of these stood their ground and fought, disobeying their
admirals. For this deed the
Seeing themselves betrayed by the greater part of their allies, they did not think it right to act like the worst among them; with only a few allies to aid them they fought on and broke the enemy's line, until they had taken many ships but lost most of their own.
But when the
I will mention the part concerning the
All this now came upon the
The
The people of
Learning this,
The
But
The price which the
Most of the
for he returned by the king's permission to
After
Many of their crews he killed; the rest of the people of the country, since
they were crippled by the sea-fight, were mastered by
Of a band of a hundred youths whom they had sent to
These signs a god showed to them; then the sea-fight broke upon them and
beat the city to its knees; on top of the sea-fight came
From there, since his army suffered from hunger, he crossed over to reap
from
He was overtaken in his flight by a
When
This is the manner of their doing it: the men link hands and make a line
reaching from the northern sea to the southern, and then advance over the
whole island hunting the people down. They also captured the
The
But they did not sail against
The
He was persuaded as soon as he heard their speech, for he was tired of
His first act was to wall off the isthmus of the
The
But in the war against the
Reaching the
The
But when the
He compelled them to do this, and he measured their lands by parasangs,
which is the
When
When
He did this and hurried to the
Crossing over from
It is said that about three hundred ships were lost, and more than twenty
thousand men. Since the coasts of
After conquering them, he led his army away homewards, since the
Since they had been besieged by
Their revenue came from the mainland and from the mines. About eighty
talents on average came in from the gold-mines of the “
These
He despatched some to
The
But when he attempted to make the arrests, the
Driven from
After no long time
The
She said she knew no better than the
The priestess bade them make both children kings but give greater honor to
the elder. When the priestess gave this response, the
he advised them to watch the mother and see which of the children she
washed and fed before the other; if she was seen to do this always in the
same order, they would then have all that they sought and desired to
discover; but if she changed her practice haphazardly, then it would be
manifest to the
Then the
They say that when these two brothers grew to manhood, they feuded with each other as long as they lived, and their descendants continued to do likewise.
I said as far back as
At each new moon and each seventh day of the first part of the month, a
full-grown victim for
It is their right to appoint whatever citizens they wish to be protectors of
foreigners;
They keep all oracles that are given, though the
If a man desires to adopt a son, it is done in the presence of the kings.
They sit with the twenty-eight elders in council; if they do not come, the
elders most closely related to them hold the king's privilege, giving two
votes over and above the third which is their own.
The
When these and the helots and the
He did not admit that he himself was responsible, so he married a third
time. This is how it came about: he had among the
Her nurse considered her inferior looks and how she was of wealthy people
yet unattractive, and, seeing how the parents felt her appearance to be a
great misfortune, she contrived to carry the child every day to the sacred
precinct of
Once as she was leaving the sacred precinct, it is said that a woman appeared to her and asked her what she was carrying in her arms. The nurse said she was carrying a child and the woman bade her show it to her, but she refused, saying that the parents had forbidden her to show it to anyone. But the woman strongly bade her show it to her,
and when the nurse saw how important it was to her, she showed her the
child. The woman stroked the child's head and said that she would be the
most beautiful woman in all
When one of his servants announced to him as he sat in council with the
ephors that he had a son,
He named him
From this affair
Taking his stand on this remark,
At
When the ambassadors asked if
When it was the time of the
He was grieved by the question and said that he had experience of both,
while
I adjure you by the gods to speak what is true. If you have done anything of
what they say, you are not the only one; you are in company with many women.
There is much talk at
It went away, and when
When he saw me swearing, he perceived that this was some divine affair. For
the garlands had clearly come from the hero's precinct which is established
at the courtyard doors, which they call the precinct of
Either you are from this hero and
Some women give birth after nine months or seven months; not all complete
the ten months. I gave birth to you, my son, after seven months. A little
later
So
After the loss of
After being caught in the act of hoarding a sleeve full of silver there in
the camp, he was brought before a court and banished from
When the
Near this city is said to be the
For doing this, and because he was out of his mind, his relatives bound him
in the stocks. When he was in the stocks and saw that his guard was left
alone, he demanded a dagger; the guard at first refused to give it, but
The omens were in no way favorable for his crossing, so he said that he
honored the
This was the affair referred to by that oracle which the
All these things coming together spread fear among the
The
Somehow the rest of the men in the temple precinct did not know this was happening, for the grove was thick and those inside could not see how those outside were faring, until one of them climbed a tree and saw what was being done. Thereafter they would not come out at the herald's call.
when he was taking omens in
For a while they were at peace with each other; but then there came to the
slaves a prophet,
The nomadic
They say that when the
But when the
The
When the
We
But we say that at the fitting time this befell him: There came to
Since there is much talk about your justice throughout all the rest of
Considering and taking counsel concerning these matters, I resolved to turn half of my property into silver and deposit it with you, being well assured that it will lie safe for me in your keeping. Accept the money for me, and take and keep these tokens; restore the money to whoever comes with the same tokens and demands it back.’
Thus spoke the stranger who had come from
But
So the
When
So
They had taken seven hundred of the people alive; as they led these out for
slaughter one of them escaped from his bonds and fled to the temple gate of
The
Most of these never returned, meeting their death at the hands of the
He dismissed from command
Having loaded the horses into these, and embarked the land army in the
ships, they sailed to
“Holy men, why have you fled away, and so misjudged my intent? It is my own
desire, and the king's command to me, to do no harm to the land where the
two gods
For in three generations, that is, in the time of
Thus it was no marvel that there should be an earthquake in
In the
When in their voyage about the islands they put in at
Some of them planned to leave the city and make for the heights of
When
The
They entered the city and plundered and burnt the temples, in revenge for
the temples that were burnt at
While in exile he happened to take the
After taking yet another
The mares of
He escaped from them, but when he reached his own country and thought he was
safe, then his enemies met him. They brought him to court and prosecuted him
for tyranny in the
Pan called out
The
“
He told them what he had been ordered to say, and they resolved to send help
to the
He supposed from the dream that he would return from exile to
As he was tending to this, he happened to sneeze and cough more violently than usual. Since he was an elderly man, most of his teeth were loose, and he lost one of them by the force of his cough. It fell into the sand and he expended much effort in looking for it, but the tooth could not be found.
He groaned aloud and said to those standing by him: “This land is not ours and we will not be able to subdue it. My tooth holds whatever share of it was mine.”
when the
We advise you to put yourselves under the protection of the
So the
As they were about to join battle, the
The
Thus they were at odds, and the inferior plan prevailed. An eleventh man had
a vote, chosen by lot to be polemarch
“
I will tell you how this can happen, and how the deciding voice on these matters has devolved upon you. The ten generals are of divided opinion, some urging to attack, others urging not to.
If we do not attack now, I expect that great strife will fall upon and shake
the spirit of the
All this concerns and depends on you in this way: if you vote with me, your
country will be free and your city the first in
Ever since that battle, when the
As the
The
So the foreigners imagined, but when the
In victory they let the routed foreigners flee, and brought the wings
together to fight those who had broken through the center. The
The following marvel happened there: an
I have heard that he tells this story about his misfortune: he saw opposing
him a tall armed man, whose beard overshadowed his shield, but the phantom
passed him by and killed the man next to him. I learned by inquiry that this
is the story
The
Before the
Asphalt and salt and oil are drawn from it in the following way: a windlass
is used in the drawing, with half a skin tied to it in place of a bucket;
this is dipped into the well and then poured into a tank; then what is drawn
is poured into another tank and goes three ways: the asphalt and the salt
congeal immediately; the oil,
There king
and third, for his behavior regarding his three daughters. When they were
of marriageable age, he gave them a most splendid gift and one very pleasant
to them, promising that each would wed that man whom she chose for herself
from all the
Thus in my judgment it was they who freed
therefore plain reason forbids believing that they of all men could have held up the shield for any such cause. A shield was held up; this cannot be denied, for it happened; but who did it I do not know, and I can say no further.
When the
Considering the nature of the gift,
Falling upon a heap of gold-dust, first he packed next to his legs as much gold as his boots would contain; then he filled all the fold of his tunic with gold and strewed the dust among the hair of his head, and took more of it into his mouth; when he came out of the treasury, hardly dragging the weight of his boots, he was like anything rather than a human being, with his mouth crammed full and all his body swollen.
It was the time of the
Then all the
These came from
From the
These came from the
The suitors that most pleased him were the ones who had come from
After dinner the suitors vied with each other in music and in anecdotes for
all to hear. As they sat late drinking,
Now
But since I have but one maiden to plan for and so cannot please all of you,
to those of you whose suit is rejected I make a gift of a talent of silver
to each, for his desire to take a wife from my house and for his sojourn
away from his home; and to
he and
When he reached his voyage's destination,
The
Coming before
The
But the
The people took his side as far as not condemning him to death, but they
fined him fifty talents for his wrongdoing.
for when the
The
The
These women bore more and more children, and they taught their sons the
speech of
When the
Thereupon the
The
The
The
The
Immediately he sent messengers to all the cities and commanded them to equip
an army, instructing each to provide many more ships and horses and
provisions and transport vessels than they had before.
In the fourth year the
Three sons had been born to
and as sons of different mothers they were rivals.
Learning of the contention between the sons of
therefore it was neither reasonable nor just that anyone should have the
royal privilege before him. At
For now you should do what you have in hand; then, when you have tamed the
insolence of
This argument was for vengeance,
Messengers came from
They had come up to
Because of this
So he brought his oracles to bear, while the
“Men of
Ever since I came to this throne, I have considered how I might not fall
short of my predecessors in this honor, and not add less power to the
It is my intent to bridge the
You saw that
First they came to
For these reasons I am resolved to send an army against them; and I reckon
that we will find the following benefits among them: if we subdue those men,
and their neighbors who dwell in the land of
No land that the sun beholds will border ours, but I will make all into one
country, when I have passed over the whole of
I learn that this is the situation: no city of men or any human nation which is able to meet us in battle will be left, if those of whom I speak are taken out of our way. Thus the guilty and the innocent will alike bear the yoke of slavery.
This is how you would best please me: when I declare the time for your coming, every one of you must eagerly appear; and whoever comes with his army best equipped will receive from me such gifts as are reckoned most precious among us.
Thus it must be done; but so that I not seem to you to have my own way, I
lay the matter before you all, and bid whoever wishes to declare his
opinion.” So spoke
It would be strange indeed if we who have subdued and made slaves of
What have we to fear from them? Have they a massive population or abundance
of wealth? Their manner of fighting we know, and we know how weak their
power is; we have conquered and hold their sons, those who dwell in our land
and are called
I myself have made trial of these men, when by your father's command I
marched against them. I marched as far as
Yet the
Since they speak the same language, they should end their disputes by means
of heralds or messengers, or by any way rather than fighting; if they must
make war upon each other, they should each discover where they are in the
strongest position and make the attempt there. The
But against you, O king, who shall make war? You will bring the multitudes
of
“O king, if opposite opinions are not uttered, it is impossible for someone
to choose the better; the one which has been spoken must be followed. If
they are spoken, the better can be found; just as the purity of gold cannot
be determined by itself, but when gold is compared with gold by
rubbing,
Now I advised
You, O king, are proposing to lead your armies against far better men than
the
You say that you will bridge the
Suppose they do not succeed in both ways; but if they attack with their
ships and prevail in a sea-fight, and then sail to the
It is from no wisdom of my own that I thus conjecture; it is because I know
what disaster once almost overtook us, when your father, making a highway
over the
If
So do not plan to run the risk of any such danger when there is no need for it. Listen to me instead: for now dismiss this assembly; consider the matter by yourself and, whenever you so please, declare what seems best to you.
A well-laid plan is always to my mind most profitable; even if it is thwarted later, the plan was no less good, and it is only chance that has baffled the design; but if fortune favor one who has planned poorly, then he has gotten only a prize of chance, and his plan was no less bad.
You see how the god smites with his thunderbolt creatures of greatness and does not suffer them to display their pride, while little ones do not move him to anger; and you see how it is always on the tallest buildings and trees that his bolts fall; for the god loves to bring low all things of surpassing greatness. Thus a large army is destroyed by a smaller, when the jealous god sends panic or the thunderbolt among them, and they perish unworthily; for the god suffers pride in none but himself.
Now haste is always the parent of failure, and great damages are likely to arise; but in waiting there is good, and in time this becomes clear, even though it does not seem so in the present.
This, O king, is my advice to you. But you,
Slander is a terrible business; there are two in it who do wrong and one who suffers wrong. The slanderer wrongs another by accusing an absent man, and the other does wrong in that he is persuaded before he has learned the whole truth; the absent man does not hear what is said of him and suffers wrong in the matter, being maligned by the one and condemned by the other.
If an army must by all means be sent against these
If the king's fortunes fare as you say, let my sons be slain, and myself with them; but if it turns out as I foretell, let your sons be so treated, and you likewise, if you return.
But if you are unwilling to submit to this and will at all hazards lead your
army overseas to
May I not be the son of
It is not possible for either of us to turn back: to do or to suffer is our
task, so that what is ours be under the
Honor then demands that we avenge ourselves for what has been done to us;
thus will I learn what is this evil that will befall me when I march against
these
“Are you then changing your mind,
“
Be at peace, since I have changed my mind about marching against
Yet, though I desire to, I cannot do it; ever since I turned back and repented, a vision keeps coming to haunt my sight, and it will not allow me to do as you advise; just now it has threatened me and gone.
Now if a god is sending the vision, and it is his full pleasure that there
this expedition against
“O king, I judge it of equal worth whether a man is wise or is willing to obey good advice; to both of these you have attained, but the company of bad men trips you up; just as they say that sea, of all things the most serviceable to men, is hindered from following its nature by the blasts of winds that fall upon it.
It was not that I heard harsh words from you that stung me so much as that,
when two opinions were laid before the
Now when you have turned to the better opinion, you say that, while
intending to abandon the expedition against the
But this is none of heaven's working, my son. The roving dreams that visit men are of such nature as I shall teach you, since I am many years older than you. Those visions that rove about us in dreams are for the most part the thoughts of the day; and in these recent days we have been very busy with this expedition.
But if this is not as I determine and it has something divine to it, then you have spoken the conclusion of the matter; let it appear to me just as it has to you, and utter its command. If it really wishes to appear, it should do so to me no more by virtue of my wearing your dress instead of mine, and my sleeping in your bed rather than in my own.
Whatever it is that appears to you in your sleep, surely it has not come to such folly as to infer from your dress that I am you when it sees me. We now must learn if it will take no account of me and not deign to appear and haunt me, whether I am wearing your robes or my own, but will come to you; if it comes continually, I myself would say that it is something divine.
If you are determined that this must be done and there is no averting it, and I must lie down to sleep in your bed, so be it; this duty I will fulfill, and let the vision appear also to me. But until then I will keep my present opinion.”
“Are you the one who dissuades
“O King, since I have seen, as much as a man may, how the greater has often
been brought low by the lesser, I forbade you to always give rein to your
youthful spirit, knowing how evil a thing it is to have many desires, and
remembering the end of
Knowing this, I judged that you had only to remain in peace for all men to
deem you fortunate. But since there is some divine motivation, and it seems
that the gods mark
After this was said, they were incited by the vision, and when daylight came
The
This was by far the greatest of all expeditions that we know of. The one
that
Some people supplied him with ships, some were enrolled in his infantry, some were assigned the provision of horsemen, others of horse-bearing transports to follow the army, and others again of warships for the bridges, or of food and ships.
On this isthmus which is at the end of
For all except the
But the
There is a meadow there, where they made a place for buying and marketing;
much ground grain frequently came to them from
After making inquiry, he ordered them to store it in the most fitting
places, carrying it to the various places from all parts of
Now which of his governors received the promised gifts from the king for bringing the best-equipped army, I cannot say; I do not even know if the matter was ever determined.
When they had crossed the river
When
As soon as I learned that you were coming down to the
All this I freely give to you; for myself, I have a sufficient livelihood from my slaves and my farms.”
But you have entertained my army nobly and offer me great sums. In return for this I give you these privileges: I make you my friend, and out of my own wealth I give you the seven thousand staters which will complete your total of four million, so that your four million not lack the seven thousand and the even number be reached by my completing it.
Remain in possession of what you now possess, and be mindful to be always such as you are; neither for the present nor in time will you regret what you now do.”
From
He commanded them while they whipped to utter words outlandish and
presumptuous, “Bitter water, our master thus punishes you, because you did
him wrong though he had done you none.
He commanded that the sea receive these punishments and that the overseers
of the bridge over the
After putting the ships together they let down very great anchors, both from
the end of the ships on the
After doing this, they stretched the cables from the land, twisting them taut with wooden windlasses; they did not as before keep the two kinds apart, but assigned for each bridge two cables of flax and four of papyrus.
All these had the same thickness and fine appearance, but the flaxen were
heavier in proportion, for a cubit of them weighed a talent.
When the strait was thus bridged, they sawed logs of wood to a length equal
to the breadth of the floating supports,
As it was setting out, the sun left his place in the heaven and was
invisible, although the sky was without clouds and very clear, and the day
turned into night. When
They declared to him that the god was showing the
I pray you, O king, take pity on me in my advanced age, and release one of my sons, the eldest, from service, so that he may take care of me and of my possessions; take the four others with you, and may you return back with all your plans accomplished.”
When you did me good service and promised more, you will never boast that you outdid your king in the matter of benefits; and now that you have turned aside to the way of shamelessness, you will receive a lesser requital than you merit. You and four of your sons are saved by your hospitality; but you shall be punished by the life of that one you most desire to keep.”
With that reply, he immediately ordered those who were assigned to do these
things to find the eldest of
After that, first came a thousand horsemen, chosen out of all
The horses are called
Behind these ten horses was the place of the sacred chariot of
One thousand of these had golden pomegranates on their spear-shafts instead
of a spike, and surrounded the rest; the nine thousand who were inside them
had silver pomegranates. Those who held their spears reversed also carried
golden pomegranates, and those following nearest to
Then they came into the territory of
After he saw it and asked about everything there, he sacrificed a thousand
cattle to
Life is so miserable a thing that death has become the most desirable refuge for humans; the god is found to be envious in this, giving us only a taste of the sweetness of living.”
The sea has nowhere any harbor, as I conjecture, that will be able to receive this navy and save your ships if a storm arise. Yet there has to be not just one such harbor, but many of them all along the land you are sailing by.
Since there are no harbors able to receive you, understand that men are the subjects and not the rulers of their accidents. I have spoken of one of the two, and now I will tell you of the other.
The land is your enemy in this way: if nothing is going to stand in your way and hinder you, the land becomes more your enemy the further you advance, constantly unaware of what lies beyond; no man is ever satisfied with success.
So I say that if no one opposes you, the increase of your territory and the time passed in getting it will breed famine. The best man is one who is timid while making plans because he takes into account all that may happen to him, but is bold in action.”
But if you quarrel with whatever is said yet cannot put forth a secure position, you must be proved as wrong on your part as he who holds the contrary opinion. In this both are alike: how can someone who is only human know where there is security? I think it is impossible. Those who have the will to act most often win the rewards, not those who hesitate and take account of all chances.
You see what power
Great successes are not won except by great risks. So we will do as they
did; we are travelling in the fairest season of the year, and we will return
home the conquerors of all
If they deal very unjustly they bring us no great advantage, but by dealing very justly they may well do great harm to your army. Take to heart the truth of that ancient saying, that the end of every matter is not revealed at its beginning.”
Moreover, since they have left their children and wives and possessions in our country, we need not consider it even possible that they will make any violent change. So be rid of that fear; keep a stout heart and guard my household and tyranny; to you alone I entrust the symbols of my kingship.”
For these reasons I bid you set your hands to the war strenuously; I know
that we march against valiant men, and if we overcome them it is certain
that no other human army will ever withstand us. Let us now cross over,
after praying to the gods who hold
At sunrise
As for these, I cannot rightly determine whether he cast them into the sea
for offerings to the sun, or repented having whipped the
The ten thousand
After them came the sacred horses and the sacred chariot, then
It is said that when
There was another portent that was shown to him at
The ships sailed westwards, laying their course for the headland of
From there they rounded the head of the
It seemed to
To this beach they brought in their ships and hauled them up for rest.
Meanwhile
They were counted in this way: ten thousand men were collected in one place, and when they were packed together as closely as could be a line was drawn around them; when this was drawn, the ten thousand were sent away and a wall of stones was built on the line reaching up to a man's navel;
when this was done, others were brought into the walled space, until in this way all were numbered. When they had been numbered, they were marshalled by nations.
Their commander was
When
The
The
The
The
When they went into battle they painted half their bodies with gypsum and
the other half with vermilion. The
These
They are settlers from
They took the name of
The
They go to battle relying on these. This is the manner of fighting of these
men: when they are at close quarters with their enemy, they throw their
ropes, which have a noose at the end; whatever he catches, horse or man,
each man drags to himself, and the enemy is entangled in the coils and
slain. Such is their manner of fighting; they were marshalled with the
The
The horse was immediately dealt with according to
These
The
Of the people of the
The leaders of each nation are not worthy of mention, and every city of each
nation had a leader of its own. These came not as generals but as slaves,
like the rest of the expedition; I have already said who were the generals
of supreme authority and the
Her ships were reputed to be the best in the whole fleet after the ships of
After he had done this, the ships were drawn down and launched into the sea.
The captains put out and anchored in line four hundred feet from the shore,
with their prows turned landward and the marines armed for war;
So tell me: will the
Still I want to hear from you what you say of them.” To this question
Now I praise all the
Do not ask me how many these men are who can do this; they will fight with you whether they have an army of a thousand men, or more than that, or less.”
If each of them is a match for ten men of my army, then it is plain to me
that you must be a match for twenty; in this way you would prove that what
you say is true. But if you
Let us look at it with all reasonableness: how could a thousand, or ten
thousand, or even fifty thousand men, if they are all equally free and not
under the rule of one man, withstand so great an army as mine? If you
If they were under the rule of one man according to our custom, they might
out of fear of him become better than they naturally are, and under
compulsion of the lash they might go against greater numbers of inferior
men; but if they are allowed to go free they would do neither. I myself
think that even if they were equal in numbers it would be hard for the
What you are talking about is found among us alone, and even then it is not
common but rare; there are some among my
You yourself best know what love I bear them: they have robbed me of my office and the privileges of my house, and made me a cityless exile; your father received me and gave me a house and the means to live on. It is not reasonable for a sensible man to reject goodwill when it appears; rather he will hold it in great affection.
I myself do not promise that I can fight with ten men or with two, and I
would not even willingly fight with one; yet if it were necessary, or if
some great contest spurred me, I would most gladly fight with one of those
men who claim to be each a match for three
So is it with the
They do whatever it bids; and its bidding is always the same, that they must never flee from the battle before any multitude of men, but must abide at their post and there conquer or die. If I seem to you to speak foolishness when I say this, then let me hereafter hold my peace; it is under constraint that I have now spoken. But may your wish be fulfilled, King.”
All of these in
When there was no food left within his walls, he piled up a great pyre and
slew his children and wife and concubines and servants and cast them into
the fire; after that, he took all the gold and silver from the city and
scattered it from the walls into the
On his road from
All this region was once called
From these regions he passed by the cities of the mainland, one of which has
near it a lake of about thirty stadia in circuit, full of fish and very
salty; this was drained dry by watering the beasts of burden alone. This
city is called
It is they who possess the place of divination sacred to
All this region about the
To bury people alive is a
From there, keeping on his left hand the gulf off
The entire road along which king
The
As soon as the townsmen had word from the herald's proclamation, they divided corn among themselves in their cities and all of them for many months ground it to wheat and barley meal; moreover, they fed the finest beasts that money could buy, and kept landfowl and waterfowl in cages and ponds, for the entertaining of the army. They also made gold and silver cups and bowls and all manner of service for the table.
These things were provided for the king himself and those that ate with him.
For the rest of the army they provided only food. At the coming of the army,
there was always a tent ready for
When the hour came for dinner, the real trouble for the hosts began. When they had eaten their fill and passed the night there, the army tore down the tent on the next day and marched off with all the movables, leaving nothing but carrying all with them.
The people of
The order of the army's march, from
Sailing along this coast they made for the appointed place, taking troops
from the towns adjacent to
From
In this place the foreigners lay encamped; of the rivers just mentioned,
the
He did exactly as he desired. He embarked on a
A number of rivers pour into this vale, the most notable of which are
As soon as they are united, the name of the
Now the
this, then, was the primary reason for their precaution long before
This he said with regard in particular to the sons of
Against all of these the
What calamity befell the
Now there was a long period after the incident I have mentioned above during
which the
Thereupon the
“
To this the
“The
It was just that the wrath of
These two had been sent by the
Those of them who had paid the tribute of earth and water to the
Had the
Although the
Such would have been their fate. Perhaps, however, when they saw the rest of
As it is, to say that the
Nor were they moved to desert
The
which, by their interpretation, was the wooden wall. But others supposed
that the god was referring to their ships, and they were for doing nothing
but equipping these. Those who believed their ships to be the wooden wall
were disabled by the two last verses of the oracle:
These verses confounded the opinion of those who said that their ships were
the wooden wall, for the readers of oracles took the verses to mean that
they should offer battle by sea near
Correctly understood, the gods' oracle was spoken not of the
When
This was in fact the war the outbreak of which saved
In their debate after the giving of the oracle they accordingly resolved
that they would put their trust in the god and meet the foreign invader of
Presently, learning that
They were condemned to die, but when
They were found still living and brought into the king's presence; then
This was like that other saying of
Now this is what the
The priestess gave this answer to their question:
Then the
Then those of the envoys who were
At that, say the
“Men of
The
This, however, I know full well, namely if all men should carry their own
private troubles to market for barter with their neighbors, there would not
be a single one who, when he had looked into the troubles of other men,
would not be glad to carry home again what he had brought.
The conduct of the
His descendants in time became and continue to be priests of the goddesses
of the underworld;
These men
Now it makes me marvel that
In no long time he was appointed for his worth to be captain of the entire
cavalry, for his performance had been preeminent while he served under
They were, however, rescued by the
After this stroke of good fortune,
Straightway that city grew and became great, for not only did
He dealt in a similar way with the
Now you are rich in power, and as lord of
Do not for a moment think that if the
When I was at odds with the
Let that be; for all ended well, and our state was improved. But now that
the war has come round to you in your turn, it is time for remembering
Despite the fact that you slighted me, I will not make an example of you; I
am ready to send to your aid two hundred triremes, twenty thousand
men-at-arms, two thousand horsemen, two thousand archers, two thousand
slingers, and two thousand light-armed men to run with horsemen.
All this, however, I promise on one condition, that I shall be general and
leader of the
When you set such store by the command, it is but reasonable that it should be still more important to me since I am the leader of an army many times greater than yours and more ships by far. But seeing that your response to me is so haughty, we will make some concession in our original condition. It might be that you should command the army, and I the fleet; or if it is your pleasure to lead by sea, then I am ready to take charge of the army. With that you will surely be content, unless you want depart from here without such allies as we are.”
Now as long as you sought the leadership of the whole force, we
It would be for nothing, then, that we possess the greatest number of
seafaring men in
The significance of this statement was that
As soon as he was informed that the
This is how
Whether he vanished as the
Now this answer seemed fair enough, but when the time came for sending help,
their minds changed. They manned sixty ships and put out to sea, making for
the coast of the
Their course of action, therefore, had been planned with a view to being
able to say to the
They were, however, also ready with an excuse which they could make to the
The
Presently, since they could neither take it nor remain there because of the
famine which afflicted them, they departed. However, when they were at sea
off
From
After this, when they returned from
To these the
If you will not send help, there is nothing you can do to constrain us, for
no necessity can prevail over lack of ability. As for us, we will attempt to
find some means of deliverance for ourselves.” These are the words of the
men of
There the
They remained there for only a few days, for messengers came from
To my thinking, however, what persuaded them was fear, since they had found
out that there was another pass leading into
The pass, then, which brought about the fall of those
The pass through
To the west
It was the
The ancient wall had been built long ago and most of it lay in ruins; those
who built it up again thought that they would in this way bar the
foreigner's way into
When they had received the oracle, the
When he finally did fall, he still had life in him, and the
Upon returning to their own station, they showed him to the whole host, and made much of him and treated him with kindness. The rest of those whom they took in that ship, however, they used as slaves.
Three of the ten barbarian ships ran aground on the reef called the Ant,
which lies between
It was
To this and to the first number I add the crews of the ships of fifty oars,
calculating eighty men for each, whether there were actually more or fewer.
Now seeing that, as has already been said,
These, then, were the ships' companies from
The forces of sea and land added together would consist of two million,
three hundred and seventeen thousand, six hundred and ten men. So far I have
spoken of the force which came from
As regards the land army supplied by all the nations—
When these numbers are added to the numbers from
Suppose, however, that they were equal in number, neither more nor fewer. If
they were equal to the fighting contingent, they made up as many tens of
thousands as the others. The number, then, of those whom
for calculation shows me, that if each man received one choenix of wheat a
day and no more, eleven hundred thousand and three hundred and forty bushels
would be required every day.
They spent the night in this way, but at dawn a storm descended upon them
out of a clear and windless sky, and the sea began to boil. A strong east
wind blew, which the people living in those parts call
Those who felt the wind rising or had proper mooring dragged their ships up
on shore ahead of the storm and so survived with their ships. The wind did,
however, carry those ships caught out in the open sea against the rocks
called the Ovens at
Because of this connection, so the tale goes, the
I cannot say whether this was the cause of
The storm lasted three days. Finally the
After hearing this they prayed to
There is a place on this gulf in
When
In this way he escaped from being put to death by
They order the eldest of that family not to enter their town-hall (which the
It is the descendants of
Hearing all this,
Now the first town by the gulf on the way from
Between the river and
The invader of
He now came to
The rest of the allies planned to do likewise, for the
Riding up to the camp, the horseman watched and spied out the place. He
could, however, not see the whole camp, for it was impossible to see those
posted inside the wall which they had rebuilt and were guarding. He did take
note of those outside, whose arms lay in front of the wall, and it chanced
that at that time the
He saw some of the men exercising naked and others combing their hair. He
marvelled at the sight and took note of their numbers. When he had observed
it all carefully, he rode back in leisure, since no one pursued him or paid
him any attention at all. So he returned and told
When this man arrived, he asked him about each of these matters, wanting to
understand what it was that the
So hear me now. These men have come to fight us for the pass, and it for this that they are preparing. This is their custom: when they are about to risk their lives, they arrange their hair.
Rest assured that if you overcome these men and those remaining behind at
What he said seemed completely incredible to
The
When they joined battle with the
The
The
Later he fled into
One must judge by the fact that the
In this part of the mountain one thousand armed men of the
When they saw the men arming themselves, they were amazed, for they had
supposed that no opposition would appear, but they had now met with an army.
The
The
I, however, tend to believe that when
When the
Now, however, they joined battle outside the narrows and many of the barbarians fell, for the leaders of the companies beat everyone with whips from behind, urging them ever forward. Many of them were pushed into the sea and drowned; far more were trampled alive by each other, with no regard for who perished.
Since the
Many famous
When the
In that place they defended themselves with swords, if they still had them, and with hands and teeth. The barbarians buried them with missiles, some attacking from the front and throwing down the defensive wall, others surrounding them on all sides.
He was not at all disturbed by this and made light of the multitude of the
Now if
By this plea they saved their lives, and the
“My king,” said
“And how,
There is an island lying off their coasts called
Let them then make that island their station and set out from there to
strike fear into the
If, however, you do not do this, then expect what I will now tell you: a
narrow isthmus leads to the
No, if after the recent calamity which has wrecked four hundred of your
ships you send away three hundred more from your fleet to sail round the
My counsel is rather that you make your own plans well, and take no account
of the business of your adversaries, what battlefields they will choose,
what they will do, and how many they are. They are able enough to think for
themselves, and we similarly for ourselves. As for the
for assuredly I will never believe that he is no friend to my cause. I believe this of him because of all that he has already said and by what is the truth, namely, that if one citizen prospers, another citizen is jealous of him and shows his enmity by silence, and no one, (except if he has attained the height of excellence; and such are seldom seen) if his own townsman asks for counsel, will give him what he thinks to be the best advice.
If one stranger prospers, however, another stranger is beyond all men his
well-wisher and will, if he is asked, impart to him the best counsel he has.
It is for this reason that I bid you all to refrain from maligning
It is plain to me by this piece of evidence among many others, that while
He, however, feared detection and had no other way of informing them than this trick:—taking a double tablet, he scraped away the wax from it, and then wrote the king's plan on the wood. Next he melted the wax back again over the writing, so that the bearer of this seemingly blank tablet might not be troubled by the way-wardens.
When the tablet came to
the
The
Knowing that, they gave ground and waived their claim, but only so long as
they had great need of the others. This is clear, for when they had driven
the
Then the
“No, you of all men will not desert us, for I will give you a greater gift
than the king of the
These two, then, were won over by gifts, the
They were not prepared to make a head-on attack since they feared that the
Upon making these plans they sent the appointed ships on their way,
intending not to make an attack upon the
By what means he did at last make his way to the
There are many tales about this man, some similar to lies and some true, but
as regards the present business it is my opinion that he came to
Now all the
Those who were glad about the business, however, vied each with each that he
might be the first to take an Attic ship and receive gifts from the king,
for it was the
There they took thirty of the foreigners ships as well as the brother of
They fought that sea-fight with doubtful issue, and nightfall ended the
battle; the
The ships crews who were there were dismayed by the noise of this, and
considering their present bad state, expected utter destruction; for before
they had recovered from the shipwreck and the storm off
who were encouraged both by the ships coming and by the news that the
barbarians sailing round
the seamen's whole endeavor was to hold the
Many were the
So much he revealed for the moment, but merely advised them to let everyone
slay as many from the
for
So this
It would best for you to join yourselves to us, but if that should be
impossible for you, then at least now withdraw from the war, and entreat the
To my thinking
When the herald had crossed over to
For all that, however, those who crossed over were not deceived by what
All that day they spent in observation, and on the next the shipmen returned
to their fleet at
When the
when he heard that the prize was not money but a crown, he could not hold
his peace, but cried, “Good heavens,
Now a few years before the king's expedition, the
When the
The
A tithe of what they won in that fight went to the making of the great
statues that stand around the tripod in front of the shrine at
We were even formerly preferred to you by the
Had the
but most of them made their way out of the country to the
The purpose of their parting from the rest of the army and marching this way
was that they might plunder the temple at
Upon hearing that, the
So he went to tell the
When the barbarians were near to the temple of
The rocks that fell from
They expected to find the entire population of the
They were anxious to get everything out safely because they wished to obey
the oracle, and also not least because of this: the
In all the time before this the honey-cake had been consumed, but this time
it was untouched. When the priestess interpreted the significance of this,
the
The admiral was the same as at
The
After the
The
The
The consensus of most of the speakers was to sail to the Isthmus and fight
at sea for the
The army with
When they took the town it was deserted, but in the sacred precinct they
found a few
When the
When the
“If they depart from
“It is in your hands to save
But if you do what I say, you will find it useful in these ways: first, by
engaging many ships with our few in the strait, we shall win a great
victory, if the war turns out reasonably, for it is to our advantage to
fight in a strait and to their advantage to fight in a wide area. Second,
If what I expect happens and we win the victory with our ships, you will not
have the barbarians upon you at the Isthmus. They will advance no further
than
This time
If you do not do this, we will immediately gather up our households and
travel to
and they resolved to pray to the gods and summon the sons of
and when
If it descends upon the
Every year the
If these words of yours are reported to the king, you will lose your head, and neither I nor any other man will be able to save you, so be silent. The gods will see to the army.”
Thus he advised, and after the dust and the cry came a cloud, which rose
aloft and floated away towards
Those killed by the storm, at
He came and sat on his throne, and present at his summons were the tyrants
of all the peoples and the company leaders from the fleet. They sat
according to the honor which the king had granted each of them, first the
king of
“Tell the king,
Why is it so necessary for you to risk everything by fighting at sea? Do you
not possess
I will tell you how I think the affairs of your enemies will turn out: If
you do not hurry to fight at sea, but keep your ships here and stay near
land, or even advance into the
The
But if you hurry to fight at sea immediately, I fear that your fleet if
reduced to cowardice may also injure your army on land. In addition, my
King, take this to heart: Good people's slaves tend to be base, and the
slaves of the base tend to be good. You, who are best among men, have base
slaves, who are accounted your allies, the
But when the counsels were reported to
Fear and dread possessed the
When they were in position at the Isthmus, they demolished the
The four remaining nations of the seven are immigrants, the
The
For a time each man talked quietly to his neighbor, wondering at
He now came by boat and said to the generals of the barbarians, “The
They do not all have the same intent, and they will no longer oppose you. Instead you will see them fighting against themselves, those who are on your side against those who are not.” After indicating this to them he departed.
They launched their ships in this way so that the
They did this in silence for fear that their enemies hear, making their preparations at night without sleep.
This man stood at the assembly and called
so when
I say that it is all the same for the
If I say these things, they will think I invented it, and they will not believe that the barbarians are doing this. Go in yourself and let them know how it stands. It would be best if they believe you when you tell them, but if they find these things incredible it is all the same to us. They will not be able to run away, if indeed we are surrounded on all sides as you say.”
With this ship that deserted at
He concluded his speech by advising them to choose the better of these, then
gave the command to mount the ships. Just as they embarked, the trireme
which had gone after the sons of
The
I can list the names of many captains who captured
I mention only these because
When the king's side was all in commotion, at that time
I cannot say if she had some quarrel with him while they were still at the
But when she rammed and sank it, she had the luck of gaining two advantages.
When the captain of the Attic ship saw her ram a ship with a barbarian crew,
he decided that
It is said that the king, as he watched the battle, saw her ship ram the
other, and one of the bystanders said, “Master, do you see how well
As I have said, all this happened to bring her luck, and also that no one
from the
but many of the barbarians drowned in the sea since they did not know how to swim. Most of the ships were sunk when those in the front turned to flee, since those marshalled in the rear, as they tried to go forward with their ships so they too could display some feat to the king, ran afoul of their own side's ships in flight.
While they were still speaking, a
This saved the
Whenever
When
Such were the orders given to the
but when in their flight they were opposite the sacred precinct of
“
So he and the others turned their ships around and came to the fleet, but it
was all over. The
A west wind had caught many of the wrecks and carried them to the shore in
All who saw him doing this confidently supposed that he fully intended to
stay and fight there, but none of this eluded
The first rider delivers his charge to the second, the second to the third,
and thence it passes on from hand to hand, even as in the
The second, however, coming on the heels of the first, so confounded them
that they all tore their tunics, and cried and lamented without ceasing,
holding
“Sire, be not grieved nor greatly distressed because of what has befallen us. It is not on things of wood that the issue hangs for us, but on men and horses; furthermore, there is no one among these men, who thinks that he has now won a crowning victory and will disembark from his ship in an attempt to withstand you, no, nor anyone from this mainland. Those who have withstood us have paid the penalty.
If then you so desire, let us straightway attack the
Do not, O king, make the
Therefore, since the
When
Therefore he advises me to do this, or else he offers to choose three
hundred thousand men of the army and deliver
Now I ask of you, seeing that you correctly advised me against the late sea-fight, counsel me as to which of these two things would be best for me to do.”
For if he subdues all that he offers to subdue and prospers in his design,
the achievement, Sire, is yours since it will be your servants who have
accomplished it. If, on the other hand, the issue is contrary to
for while you and the members of your household are safe, many a time will
the
for the barbarians value eunuchs more than perfect men, by reason of the
full trust that they have in them. Now among the many whom
Perceiving who he was, he held long and friendly converse with him, telling
him that it was to him that he owed all this prosperity and promising that
he would make him prosperous in return if he were to bring his household and
dwell there.
When
With these words of reproach, he brought
When the barbarians came near to the “Girdle” in their course, they thought that certain little headlands, which here jut out from the mainland, were ships, and they fled for a long way. When they learned at last that they were no ships but headlands, they drew together and went on their way.
“For,” said he, “if the
But, as I think that the
“This I have often seen with my eyes and heard yet more often, namely that
beaten men, when they be driven to bay, will rally and retrieve their former
mishap. Therefore I say to you,—as it is to a fortunate chance that we owe
ourselves and
for it is not we who have won this victory, but the gods and the heroes,
who deemed
But as it is well with us for the moment, let us abide now in
This he said with intent to have something to his credit with the
Having won them over,
“
for the men of that place, the first islanders of whom
As for us
Thereby he collected great sums from the
Nevertheless, the
When they had arrived in
These nations he chose in their entirety; of the rest of his allies he
picked out a few from each people, the best men and those whom he knew to
have done some good service. The
“The
Wherever and to whatever people they came, they seized and devoured its produce. If they found none, they would eat the grass of the field and strip the bark and pluck the leaves of the trees, garden and wild alike, leaving nothing—such was the degree of their starvation.
Moreover, pestilence and dysentery broke out among them on their way, from
which they died. Some who were sick
In
but they took no account of that; they had always wanted to see the war,
and they followed the
Then by reason of their immoderate gorging and the change of the water which
they drank, many of the army that had survived died. The rest came with
In the course of this voyage he was caught by a strong wind called the
“Sire, there is none, if we do not rid ourselves of these many who are on
board.” Hearing that, it is said,
At this they bowed and leapt into the sea. The ship, now much lighter, came
by these means safe to
After that, they divided the spoils and sent the first-fruits of it to
But when the admirals came and at the altar of
However, because he had not received from those that fought at
and with many words of praise, they sent him home with the three hundred
picked men of
This he kept saying until
When the king had marched away past the town and the
The generals read the letter and perceived who was the traitor, but they
resolved for
When they had made their way over two-fifths of it, however, and three yet
remained to cross before they could be in
The
In truth they did not expect that the
So they were at
Their general and admiral was
All the aforesaid had been kings of
One of these was
The
No
When the man called Mys entered into this temple together with three men of the town who were chosen on the state's behalf to write down the oracles that should be given, straightway the diviner prophesied in a foreign tongue.
The
It was thus that he supposed he could best gain the
If he gained their friendship he thought he would easily become master of
the seas, as truly he would have been. On land he supposed himself to be by
much the stronger, and he accordingly reckoned that thus he would have the
upper hand of the
There they served for wages as thetes in the king's household, one tending
horses and another oxen.
Whenever she baked bread, the loaf of the thete
They said it was only just that they should have their wages before they departed. When they spoke of wages, the king was moved to foolishness and said, “That is the wage you merit, and it is that I give you,” pointing to the sunlight that shone down the smoke vent into the house.
This river, when the sons of
In this garden, according to the
and now,
This too I say to you:—Why are you so insane as to wage war against the
king? You cannot overcome him, nor can you resist him forever. As for the
multitude of
Be not then minded to match yourselves against the king, and thereby lose your land and always be yourselves in jeopardy, but make peace. This you can most honorably do since the king is that way inclined. Keep your freedom, and agree to be our brothers in arms in all faith and honesty.—
This
Well I see that you will not have power to wage war against
If, therefore, you will not straightway agree with them, when the conditions which they offer you are so great, I fear what may befall you. For of all the allies you dwell most in the very path of the war, and you alone will never escape destruction, your country being marked out for a battlefield.
No, rather follow his counsel, for it is not to be lightly regarded by you
who are the only men in
Moreover, it so fell out for both that they made their entry at one and the
same time, for the
That would be unjust and dishonorable for any
Apart from that, it is unbearable that not all this alone but slavery too
should be brought upon the
In requital for this the
for as he is a tyrant so must he be the tyrant's fellow-worker; it is not your business, if you are men rightly minded, for you know that in foreigners there is no faith nor truth.” These are the words of the envoys.
Now carry this answer back to
Come no more to
For there are many great reasons why we should not do this, even if we so
desired; first and foremost, the burning and destruction of the adornments
and temples of our gods, whom we are constrained to avenge to the utmost
rather than make pacts with the perpetrator of these things, and next the
kinship of all
Know this now, if you knew it not before, that as long as one
For your part, you have given us full measure of kindness, yet for ourselves, we will make shift to endure as best we may, and not be burdensome to you. But now, seeing that this is so, send your army with all speed,
for as we guess, the barbarian will be upon us and invade our country in no
long time as soon as the message comes to him that we will do nothing that
he requires of us; therefore, before he comes into
As long as the
Send money to the men who have power in their cities, and thereby you will
divide
When he came to
He sent this for the second time because although he already knew the
This was the opinion which he declared, either because he had been bribed by
There was much noise at
“The
But we, since we do not want to sin against
but what of you, who once were in great dread lest we should make terms
with the
For the present, then, the
I cannot say for certain why it was that when
Upon hearing this he, as the tale goes, said to the ephors, “Sirs, if the
The leader's place rightfully belonged to
After he led the army which had built the wall away from the Isthmus, he
lived but a little while before his death. The reason for
and thereafter, in so far as we will be king's allies, we will march with
him against whatever land his men lead us. Then will you learn what the
issue of this matter will be for you.” In response to this the ephors swore
to them that they believed their army to be even now at
Having no knowledge of this, the envoys questioned them further as to the
meaning of this and thereby learned the whole truth; they marvelled at this
and hastened with all speed after the army. With them went five thousand
men-at-arms of the
When he came to
But when he could not prevail upon them and learned the truth of the matter,
he withdrew before
The reason for his marching away was that
Here he camped for the night, and on the next day he turned from there to
His army, stationed along the
Now as they were drinking together after dinner, the
Do you see these
Marvelling at these words,
What I have said is known to many of us
A few days after the
When they had done so, the whole of the
Then their general
Now I cannot with exactness say whether they came at the
When the horsemen had ridden away,
Accordingly, they all marched from the Isthmus (the omens of sacrifice being
favorable) and came to
When they came (as it is said) to
“From the men of
This the herald reported, and
who when he fell, was straightaway set upon by the
But as chance would have it, the rest of the horsemen knew nothing of this, for they had not seen him fall from his horse, or die. They wheeled about and rode back without perceiving what was done. As soon as they halted, however, they saw what they were missing since there was no one to give them orders. Then when they perceived what had occurred, they gave each other the word, and all rode together to recover the dead body.
As long as the three hundred stood alone, they had the worst of the battle
by far, and were ready to leave the dead man. When the main body came to
their aid, then it was the horsemen who could no longer hold their ground,
nor help to recover the dead man, but rather lost others of their comrades
in addition to
Presently they resolved that they would march down to
They took up their arms and marched along the lower slopes of
First the
We gained because of the achievement which we will relate. When we marched
out at the Isthmus for war, along with the
The
Then our general and king
Now with you, men of
for we have fought many battles which turned out favorably for you, men of
Now when those same
Furthermore, when the
We also have on record our great victory against the
enough of the past. Supposing that we were known for no achievement
(although the fact is that we have done more than any other of the
Is it not then our right to hold this post, for that one feat alone? Yet
seeing that this is no time for wrangling about our place in the battle, we
are ready to obey you, men of
This was the
The
Next to these were six hundred
Next to the men of
after them in the array, five hundred
The light-armed from the rest of
Seeing that the
Next to the
After the
next to the
These had been fighters on shipboard, till
This they did, for when
The
When he saw that the
Hearing that, the
This the
Now the five victories were these: one, the first, this victory at
Being in such bad shape inasmuch as he was in peril of his life and was likely to be very grievously maltreated before his death, he did something which was almost beyond belief; made fast in iron-bound stocks, he got an iron weapon which was brought in some way into his prison, and straightway conceived a plan of such courage as we have never known; reckoning how best the rest of it might get free, he cut off his own foot at the instep.
This done, he tunneled through the wall out of the way of the guards who
kept watch over him, and so escaped to
This, then, is the way in which he escaped the
When no favorable omens for battle could be won either by the
for they caught both five hundred beasts of burden which were going into
the low country, bringing provisions from the
Their opinions in council were as I will show.
they could take the great store they had of gold, minted and other, and
silver drinking-cups, and send all this to all places in
This opinion of his was the same as the
Those who were summoned said nothing, some not knowing the prophecies, and
some knowing them but thinking it perilous to speak, and then
There is an oracle that
Therefore, as many of you as wish the
I know that these verses and others very similar to them from
The greater part of the sentries remained where they were, but the rest ran
to their generals and told them that a horseman had ridden in from the
I myself am by ancient descent a
If, however, this war ends as you wish, then must you take thought how to
save me too from slavery, who have done so desperate a deed as this for the
sake of
“Since, therefore, the battle is to begin at dawn, it is best that you
No, rather let us take up our equipment and change places, you to this wing
and we to the left.” “We, too,” the
for before we could attack and fight hand to hand, we saw you even now
fleeing and leaving your station, using
This is not the action of brave men. No, we have been grievously mistaken
about you, for in accordance with what we heard about you, we expected that
you would send us a herald challenging the
What is there to prevent us from fighting with equal numbers on both sides,
you for the
The horsemen rode at them and shot arrows and javelins among the whole
None indeed but the
It is like an island on dry land because the river in its course down from
To that place then they planned to go so that they might have plenty of
water for their use and not be harmed by the horsemen, as now when they were
face to face with them; and they resolved to change places in the second
watch of the night, lest the
Furthermore, they resolved that when they had come to that place, which is
encircled by the divided channels of
Thereupon, all the rest of the captains being ready to obey
Bearing this in mind, they kept the
But when the army left its station, they sent a horseman of their own to see
whether the
In this wrangling
The
which after going a distance of ten furlongs, was waiting for
No sooner had
“What will you say now, sons of
Now you, for your part, were strangers to the
Now we must not permit our enemies to do as they want; they must be pursued
till they are overtaken and pay the penalty for all the harm they have done
the
Seeing the
I have accordingly now resolved what we must do; we must protect each other
by fighting as best we can. If the cavalry had attacked you first, it would
have been the duty of both ourselves and the
But if, as may be, anything has befallen you which makes it impossible for you to aid us, do us the service of sending us your archers. We are sure that you will obey us, as knowing that you have been by far more zealous than all others in this present war.”
The
They could get no favorable omen from their sacrifices, and in the meanwhile
many of them were killed and by far more wounded (for the
First they fought by the fence of shields, and when that was down, there was
a fierce and long fight around the temple of
Now the
When, however,
(I have named the rest of
It is indeed a marvel that although the battle was right by the grove of
He had with him a great army, as many as forty thousand men. He knew full
well what the outcome of the battle would be, and no sooner had the
With that command he pretended to lead them into battle. As he came farther
on his way, he saw the
However, when the
For as long as the
the first to enter were the
As for the barbarians, they did not form a unified body again once the wall was down, nor did anyone think of defense because the terrified men in the tiny space and the many myriads herded together were in great distress.
Such a slaughter were the
Of this my only clear proof is (for all these conquered the foes opposed to
them) the fact that the
Nevertheless, when there was a general discussion about who had borne
himself most bravely, those
This they may have said merely out of jealousy, but all the aforesaid who
were killed in that fight received honor, save
While his comrades were fighting, he was carried out of the battle and died
a lingering death, saying to
For in the past when the sons of
For that deed the
So runs this tale. The second which contradicts with the first and relates that he wore no iron anchor attached to his cuirass, but that his shield, which he constantly whirled round and never held still, had on it an anchor as a device.
“Save me, your suppliant, O king of
“Take heart, lady,”
When they heard that those
So when they returned to their own land, the
“son of
When
No, as for myself, I would prefer to find no favor either with the people of
and sacks they found on wagons, in which were seen cauldrons of gold and silver. They stripped from the dead who lay there their armlets and torques, and golden daggers; as for the embroidered clothing, it was disregarded.
Much of all this the helots showed, as much as they could not conceal, but
much they stole and sold to the
How much was set apart and given to those who had fought best at
They did his bidding, but
When these had assembled,
Moreover, when their bodies (which the
Which of them it was that stole and buried the body of
In one of the tombs, then, were the “irens,” in the second the rest of the
All the tombs of these peoples were filled with dead; but as for the rest of
the states whose tombs are to be seen at
They came with this purpose on the eleventh day after the battle and laid
siege to the
No, rather if it is money they desire and their demand for our surrender is
but a pretext, let us give them money out of our common treasury (for it was
by the common will and not ours alone that we took the
“I myself, men of
So saying, he used all diligence to lead his army away straight towards
When they came before the generals,
That, he said, would be an easy matter for them, “for the
Then
This done, the rest sailed away, but
Now at the time of which I speak,
This matter was not, however, hidden from the people of
Furthermore, a declaration was given to them at
He, knowing nothing of the oracle, said he would choose for a gift the lands
of certain named townsmen whom he thought to have the two fairest estates in
So he said this, and those who were sitting beside him said in reply: “
for they thought themselves overmatched; the reason of their making for the
mainland was that they might be under the shelter of their army at
It was the design of the
Equipping themselves for this with gangways and everything else necessary
for a sea-fight, they held their course for
“Men of
The purpose of this act was the same as
for indeed when the barbarian's ships brought certain
Furthermore, they appointed the
Now there are many clear indications of the divine ordering of things,
seeing that a message, which greatly heartened the army and made it ready to
face danger, arrived amongst the
It happened that the rumor of a victory won by the
Now before this rumor came they had been faint-hearted, fearing less for
themselves than for the
As long as the
Breaking down the shields they charged all together into the midst of the
who gathered into bands of a few men and fought with whatever
As for the
When they had arrived at
In this matter the
It accordingly came about that they admitted to their alliance the
These many insults angered
By doing so
So he betrothed them with all due ceremony and rode away to
Being pleased with her too, he asked her what she wanted in return for her
favors, for he would deny nothing at her asking. Thereupon—for she and all
her house were doomed to evil—she said to
She waited therefore till
“
At that
Truly, O king, I consider it a great honor to be accounted worthy of your daughter, but I will do neither the one nor the other. No, rather, do not force me to consent to such a desire. You will find another husband for your daughter as good as I, but permit me to keep my own wife.”
This was
This he would have done, to my thinking, had he escaped to the country of
the
The
This was the way of it; there is at
“Sire,” he said deceitfully to
When morning came, the people of the
The rest gathered around, amazed at the sight, but when
Now therefore I offer a ransom, the sum of one hundred talents to the god
for the treasure that I took from his temple. I will also pay to the
But
“Seeing that
The