Calliope Herodotus

Calliope

BOOK IXMardonius, when Alexander upon his return made known to him theanswer of the Athenians, forthwith broke up from Thessaly, and led hisarmy with all speed against Athens; forcing the several nations throughwhose land he passed to furnish him with additional troops. The chief menof Thessaly, far from repenting of the part which they had taken in thewar hitherto, urged on the Persians to the attack more earnestly thanever. Thorax of Larissa in particular, who had helped to escort Xerxes onhis flight to Asia, now openly encouraged Mardonius in his march uponGreece. When the army reached Boeotia, the Thebans sought to induceMardonius to make a halt: "He would not," they told him, "find anywherea more convenient place in which to pitch his camp; and their advice tohim was, that he should go no further, but fix himself there, and thencetake measures to subdue all Greece without striking a blow. If the Greeks,who had held together hitherto, still continued united among themselves,it would be difficult for the whole world to overcome them by force of arms. But if thou wilt do as we advise," they went on to say, "thou mayesteasily obtain the direction of all their counsels. Send presents to the menof most weight in the several states, and by so doing thou wilt sowdivision among them. After that, it will be a light task, with the help of such as side with thee, to bring under all thy adversaries." Such was theadvice of the Thebans: but Mardonius did not follow it. A strong desire of taking Athens a second time possessed him, in part arising from his

inborn stubbornness, in part from a wish to inform the king at Sardis, byfire-signals along the islands, that he was master of the place. However,he did not on his arrival in Attica find the Athenians in their country- theyhad again withdrawn, some to their ships, but the greater part to Salamis-and he only gained possession of a deserted town. It was ten monthsafter the taking of the city by the king that Mardonius came against it forthe second490time. Mardonius, being now in Athens, sent an envoy to Salamis, oneMurychides, a Hellespontine Greek, to offer the Athenians once more thesame terms which had been conveyed to them by Alexander. The reasonfor his sending a second time, though he knew beforehand their unfriendlyfeelings towards him, was,- that he hoped, when they saw the whole landof Attica conquered and in his power, their stubbornness would begin togive way. On this account, therefore, he dispatched Murychides toSalamis. Now, when Murychides came before the council, and deliveredhis message, one of the councillors, named Lycidas, gave it as his opinion-"that the best course would be, to admit the proposals brought byMurychides, and lay them before the assembly of the people." This hestated to be his opinion, perhaps because he had been bribed byMardonius, or it may be because that course really appeared to him themost expedient. However, the Athenians- both those in the council, andthose who stood without, when they heard of the advice- were full of wrath, and forthwith surrounded Lycidas, and stoned him to death. As forMurychides, the Hellespontine Greek, him they sent away unharmed. Nowthere was a stir in the island about Lycidas, and the Athenian womenlearnt what had happened. Then each exhorted her fellow, and onebrought another to take part in the deed; and they all flocked of their ownaccord to the house of Lycidas, and stoned to death his wife and hischildren. The circumstances under which the Athenians had sought refugein Salamis were the following. So long as any hope remained that aPeloponnesian army would come to give them aid, they abode still inAttica; but when it appeared that the allies were slack and slow to move,while the invader was reported to be pressing forward and to have alreadyentered Boeotia, then they proceeded to remove their goods and chattelsfrom the mainland, and themselves again crossed the strait to Salamis. Atthe same time they sent ambassadors to Lacedaemon, who were toreproach the Lacedaemonians for having allowed the barbarian to advanceinto Attica, instead of joining them and going out to meet him in Boeotia.They were likewise to remind the Lacedaemonians of the offers by whichthe Persian had sought to win Athens over to his side, and to warn them,that no aid came from Sparta, the Athenians must consult for their own

safety. The truth was, the Lacedaemonians were keeping holiday at thattime; for it was the feast of the Hyacinthia, and they thought nothing of so much moment as to perform the service of the god. They were alsoengaged in building their wall across the Isthmus, which was now so faradvanced that the battlements had begun to be placed upon it.491When the envoys of the Athenians, accompanied by ambassadors fromMegara and Plataea, reached Lacedaemon, they came before the Ephors,and spoke as follows:"The Athenians have sent us to you to say,- the kingof the Medes offers to give us back our country, and wishes to concludean alliance with us on fair and equal terms, without fraud or deceit. He iswilling likewise to bestow on us another country besides our own, and bidsus choose any land that we like. But we, because we reverenced HellenicJupiter, and thought it a shameful act to betray Greece, instead of consenting to these terms, refused them; notwithstanding that we havebeen wronged and deserted by the other Greeks, and are fully aware thatit is far more for our advantage to make peace with the Persian than toprolong the war with him. Still we shall not, of our own free will, consentto any terms of peace. Thus do we, in all our dealings with the Greeks,avoid what is base and counterfeit: while contrariwise, ye, who were butnow so full of fear least we should make terms with the enemy, havinglearnt of what temper we are, and assured yourselves that we shall notprove traitors to our country- having brought moreover your wall acrossthe Isthmus to an advanced state- cease altogether to have any care forus. Ye covenanted with us to go out and meet the Persian in Boeotia; butwhen the time came, ye were false to your word, and looked on while thebarbarian host advanced into Attica. At this time, therefore, the Atheniansare angered with you; and justly,for ye have not done what was right.They bid you, however, make haste to send forth your army, that we mayeven yet meet Mardonius in Attica. Now that Boeotia is lost to us, the bestplace for the fight within our country, will be the plain of Thria." TheEphors, when they had heard this speech, delayed their answer till themorrow; and when the morrow came, till the day following. And thus theyacted for ten days, continually putting off the ambassadors from one dayto the next. Meanwhile the Peloponnesians generally were labouring withgreat zeal at the wall, and the work nearly approached completion. I cangive no other reason for the conduct of the Lacedaemonians in showingthemselves so anxious, at the time when Alexander came, that theAthenians should not join the Medes, and now being quite careless aboutit, except that at the former time the wall across the Isthmus was notcomplete, and they worked at it in great fear of the Persians, whereasnow the bulwark had been raised, and so they imagined that they had no