BOOK VII Now When Tidings of The

Polymnia

BOOK VIINow when tidings of the battle that had been fought at Marathon reachedthe ears of King Darius, the son of Hystaspes, his anger against theAthenians, which had been already roused by their attack upon Sardis,waxed still fiercer, and he became more than ever eager to lead an armyagainst Greece. Instantly he sent off messengers to make proclamationthrough the several states that fresh levies were to be raised, and theseat an increased rate; while ships, horses, provisions, and transports werelikewise to be furnished. So the men published his commands; and now allAsia was in commotion by the space of three years, while everywhere, asGreece was to be attacked, the best and bravest were enrolled for theservice, and had to make their preparations accordingly. After this, in thefourth year, the Egyptians whom Cambyses had enslaved revolted fromthe Persians; whereupon Darius was more hot for war than ever, andearnestly desired to march an army against both adversaries. Now, as hewas about to lead forth his levies against Egypt and Athens, a fiercecontention for the sovereign power arose among his sons; since the law of the Persians was that a king must not go out with his army, until he hasappointed one to succeed him upon the throne. Darius, before he obtainedthe kingdom, had had three sons born to him from his former wife, whowas a daughter of Gobryas; while, since he began to reign, Atossa, thedaughter of Cyrus, had borne him four. Artabazanes was the eldest of thefirst family, and Xerxes of the second. These two, therefore, being thesons of different mothers, were now at variance. Artabazanes claimed thecrown as the eldest of all the children, because it was an establishedcustom all over the world for the eldest to have the pre-eminence; whileXerxes, on the other hand, urged that he was sprung from Atossa, thedaughter of Cyrus, and that it was Cyrus who had won the Persians their

freedom. Before Darius had pronounced on the matter, it happened thatDemaratus, the son of Ariston, who had been deprived of his crown atSparta, and had afterwards, of his own accord, gone into banishment,came up to Susa, and there heard of the quarrel of the princes. Hereupon,as report says, he went to Xerxes, and advised him, in addition to all thathe had urged before, to plead- that at the time when he was born Dariuswas already king, and bore rule over the Persians; but when Artabazanescame into the world, he was a mere private person. It would therefore beneither right nor seemly that the crown should362go to another in preference to himself. "For at Sparta," said Demaratus,byway of suggestion, "the law is that if a king has sons before he comesto the throne, and another son is born to him afterwards, the child soborn is heir to his father's kingdom." Xerxes followed this counsel, andDarius, persuaded that he had justice on his side, appointed him hissuccessor. For my own part I believe that, even without this, the crownwould have gone to Xerxes; for Atossa was all-powerful. Darius, when hehad thus appointed Xerxes his heir, was minded to lead forth his armies;but he was prevented by death while his preparations were stillproceeding. He died in the year following the revolt of Egypt and thematters here related, after having reigned in all six-and-thirty years,leaving the revolted Egyptians and the Athenians alike unpunished. At hisdeath the kingdom passed to his son Xerxes. Now Xerxes, on firstmounting the throne, was coldly disposed towards the Grecian war, andmade it his business to collect an army against Egypt. But Mardonius, theson of Gobryas, who was at the court, and had more influence with himthan any of the other Persians, being his own cousin, the child of a sisterof Darius, plied him with discourses like the following:"Master, it is notfitting that they of Athens escape scot-free, after doing the Persians suchgreat injury. Complete the work which thou hast now in hand, and then,when the pride of Egypt is brought low, lead an army against Athens. Soshalt thou thyself have good report among men, and others shall fearhereafter to attack thy country." Thus far it was of vengeance that hespoke; but sometimes he would vary the theme, and observe by the way,"that Europe was a wondrous beautiful region, rich in all kinds of cultivated trees, and the soil excellent: no one, save the king, was worthyto own such a land." All this he said, because he longed for adventures,and hoped to become satrap of Greece under the king; and after a whilehe had his way, and persuaded Xerxes to do according to his desires.Other things, however, occurring about the same time, helped hispersuasions. For, in the first place, it chanced that messengers arrivedfrom Thessaly, sent by the Aleuadae, Thessalian kings, to invite Xerxes

into Greece, and to promise him all the assistance which it was in theirpower to give. And further, the Pisistratidae, who had come up to Susa,held the same language as the Aleuadae, and worked upon him evenmore than they, by means of Onomacritus of Athens, an oracle-monger,and the same who set forth the prophecies of Musaeus in their order. ThePisistratidae had previously been at enmity with this man, but made upthe quarrel before they removed to Susa. He was banished from Athens363by Hipparchus, the son of Pisistratus, because he foisted into the writingsof Musaeus a prophecy that the islands which lie off Lemnos would oneday disappear in the sea. Lasus of Hermione caught him in the act of sodoing. For this cause Hipparchus banished him, though till then they hadbeen the closest of friends. Now, however, he went up to Susa with thesons of Pisistratus, and they talked very grandly of him to the king; whilehe, for his part, whenever he was in the king's company, repeated to himcertain of the oracles; and while he took care to pass over all that spokeof disaster to the barbarians, brought forward the passages whichpromised them the greatest success. "'Twas fated," he told Xerxes, "that aPersian should bridge the Hellespont, and march an army from Asia intoGreece." While Onomacritus thus plied Xerxes with his oracles, thePisistratidae and Aleuadae did not cease to press on him their advice, tillat last the king yielded, and agreed to lead forth an expedition. First,however, in the year following the death of Darius, he marched againstthose who had revolted from him; and having reduced them, and laid allEgypt under a far harder yoke than ever his father had put upon it, hegave the government to Achaeamenes, who was his own brother, and sonto Darius. This Achaeamenes was afterwards slain in his government byInaros, the son of Psammetichus, a Libyan. (SS 1.) After Egypt wassubdued, Xerxes, being about to take in hand the expedition againstAthens, called together an assembly of the noblest Persians to learn theiropinions, and to lay before them his own designs. So, when the men weremet, the king spake thus to them:"Persians, I shall not be the first tobring in among you a new customI shall but follow one which has comedown to us from our forefathers. Never yet, as our old men assure me,has our race reposed itself, since the time when Cyrus overcameAstyages, and so we Persians wrested the sceptre from the Medes. Now inall this God guides us; and we, obeying his guidance, prosper greatly.What need have I to tell you of the deeds of Cyrus and Cambyses, and myown father Darius, how many nations they conquered, and added to ourdominions? Ye know right well what great things they achieved. But formyself, I will say that, from the day on which I mounted the throne, Ihave not ceased to consider by what means I may rival those who have