- The History of
Herodotus IV
By Herodotus
Written 440 B.C.E
Translated by George Rawlinson
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- After the taking of
Babylon, an expedition was led by Darius into
Scythia. Asia abounding in men, and vast sums
flowing into the treasury, the desire seized him
to exact vengeance from the Scyths, who had once
in days gone by invaded Media, defeated those who
met them in the field, and so begun the quarrel.
During the space of eight-and-twenty years, as I
have before mentioned, the Scyths continued lords of the whole of
Upper Asia. They entered Asia in pursuit of the
Cimmerians, and overthrew the empire of the
Medes, who till they came possessed the sovereignty. On their
return to their homes after the long absence of
twenty-eight years, a task awaited them little
less troublesome than their struggle with the Medes.
They found an army of no small size prepared to
oppose their entrance. For the Scythian women,
when they saw that time went on, and their husbands
did not come back, had intermarried with their
slaves.
Now the Scythians blind all their slaves, to use them in preparing
their milk. The plan they follow is to
thrust tubes made of
bone, not unlike
our musical pipes, up the vulva of the mare, and then to blow into
the tubes with their mouths, some milking while
the others blow. They say that they do this
because when the veins of the animal are full of air, the
udder is forced down. The milk thus obtained is
poured into deep wooden casks, about which the
blind slaves are placed, and then the milk is stirred
round. That which rises to the top is drawn off,
and considered the best part; the under portion
is of less account. Such is the reason why the
Scythians blind all those whom they take in war;
it arises from their not being tillers of the
ground, but a pastoral race.
-
- When therefore the
children sprung from these slaves and the Scythian
women grew to manhood, and understood the
circumstances of their birth, they resolved to
oppose the army which was returning from Media. And, first
of all, they cut off a tract of country from the
rest of Scythia by digging a broad dyke from the
Tauric mountains to the vast lake of the Maeotis.
Afterwards, when the Scythians tried to force an
entrance, they marched out and engaged them. Many
battles were fought, and the Scythians gained no
advantage, until at last one of them thus addressed the remainder:
"What are we doing, Scythians? We are fighting
our slaves, diminishing our own number when we
fall, and the number of those that belong to us when they
fall by our hands. Take my advice- lay spear and
bow aside, and let each man fetch his horsewhip,
and go boldly up to them. So long as they see us
with arms in our hands, they imagine themselves our equals in
birth and bravery; but let them behold us with no
other weapon but the whip, and they will feel
that they are our slaves, and flee before us."
The Scythians followed this counsel, and the slaves were so
astounded, that they forgot to fight, and
immediately ran away. Such was the mode in which
the Scythians, after being for a time the lords of Asia, and being
forced to quit it by the Medes, returned and
settled in their own country. This inroad of
theirs it was that Darius was anxious to avenge, and such
was the purpose for which he was now collecting
an army to invade them.
According to the account which the Scythians themselves give, they
are the youngest of all nations. Their tradition
is as follows. A certain Targitaus was the first
man who ever lived in their country, which before
his time was a desert without inhabitants. He was
a child- I do not believe the tale, but it is
told nevertheless- of Jove and a daughter of the Borysthenes.
Targitaus, thus descended, begat three sons,
Leipoxais, Arpoxais, and Colaxais, who was the
youngest born of the three. While they still ruled the land,
there fell from the sky four implements, all of
gold- a plough, a yoke, a battle-axe, and a
drinking-cup. The eldest of the brothers perceived
them first, and approached to pick them up; when
lo! as he came near, the gold took fire, and
blazed. He therefore went his way, and the second coming
forward made the attempt, but the same thing
happened again. The gold rejected both the eldest
and the second brother. Last of all the youngest brother
approached, and immediately the flames were
extinguished; so he picked up the gold, and
carried it to his home. Then the two elder agreed together,
and made the whole kingdom over to the youngest
born.
From Leipoxais sprang the Scythians of the race called Auchatae;
from Arpoxais, the middle brother, those known as
the Catiari and Traspians; from Colaxais, the
youngest, the Royal Scythians, or Paralatae. All together
they are named Scoloti, after one of their kings:
the Greeks, however, call them Scythians.
Such is the account which the Scythians give of their origin. They
add that from the time of Targitaus, their first
king, to the invasion of their country by Darius,
is a period of one thousand years, neither less
nor more. The Royal Scythians guard the sacred gold with most
especial care, and year by year offer great
sacrifices in its honour. At this feast, if the
man who has the custody of the gold should fall asleep in the open
air, he is sure (the Scythians say) not to
outlive the year. His pay therefore is as much
land as he can ride round on horseback in a day. As the extent
of Scythia is very great, Colaxais gave each of
his three sons a separate kingdom, one of which
was of ampler size than the other two: in this the
gold was preserved. Above, to the northward of
the farthest dwellers in Scythia, the country is
said to be concealed from sight and made impassable
by reason of the feathers which are shed abroad
abundantly. The earth and air are alike full of
them, and this it is which prevents the eye from
obtaining any view of the region.
Such is the account which the Scythians give of themselves, and
of the country which lies above them. The Greeks
who dwell about the Pontus tell a different
story. According to Hercules, when he was carrying off
the cows of Geryon, arrived in the region which
is now inhabited by the Scyths, but which was
then a desert. Geryon lived outside the Pontus, in
an island called by the Greeks Erytheia, near
Gades, which is beyond the Pillars of Hercules
upon the Ocean. Now some say that the Ocean begins
in the east, and runs the whole way round the
world; but they give no proof that this is
really so. Hercules came from thence into the region now called
Scythia, and, being overtaken by storm and
frost, drew his lion's skin about him, and fell
fast asleep. While he slept, his mares, which he had
loosed from his chariot to graze, by some
wonderful chance disappeared.
On waking, he went in quest of them, and, after wandering over
the whole country, came at last to the district
called "the Woodland," where he found in a cave
a strange being, between a maiden and a serpent,
whose form from the waist upwards was like that
of a woman, while all below was like a snake. He
looked at her wonderingly; but nevertheless inquired,
whether she had chanced to see his strayed mares
anywhere. She answered him, "Yes, and they were
now in her keeping; but never would she consent
to give them back, unless he took her for his
mistress." So Hercules, to get his mares back,
agreed; but afterwards she put him off and delayed
restoring the mares, since she wished to keep
him with her as long as possible. He, on the
other hand, was only anxious to secure them and to get away.
At last, when she gave them up, she said to him,
"When thy mares strayed hither, it was I who
saved them for thee: now thou hast paid their salvage;
for lo! I bear in my womb three sons of thine.
Tell me therefore when thy sons grow up, what
must I do with them? Wouldst thou wish that I should
settle them here in this land, whereof I am
mistress, or shall I send them to thee?" Thus
questioned, they say, Hercules answered, "When the lads
have grown to manhood, do thus, and assuredly
thou wilt not err. Watch them, and when thou
seest one of them bend this bow as I now bend it, and
gird himself with this girdle thus, choose him
to remain in the land. Those who fail in the
trial, send away. Thus wilt thou at once please thyself
and obey me."
Hereupon he strung one of his bows- up to that time he had carried
two- and showed her how to fasten the belt. Then
he gave both bow and belt into her hands. Now
the belt had a golden goblet attached to its clasp.
So after he had given them to her, he went his
way; and the woman, when her children grew to
manhood, first gave them severally their names. One
she called Agathyrsus, one Gelonus, and the
other, who was the youngest, Scythes. Then she
remembered the instructions she had received from Hercules,
and, in obedience to his orders, she put her
sons to the test. Two of them, Agathyrsus and
Gelonus, proving unequal to the task enjoined, their mother
sent them out of the land; Scythes, the
youngest, succeeded, and so he was allowed to
remain. From Scythes, the son of Hercules, were descended
the after kings of Scythia; and from the
circumstance of the goblet which hung from the
belt, the Scythians to this day wear goblets at their girdles.
This was the only thing which the mother of
Scythes did for him. Such is the tale told by
the Greeks who dwell around the Pontus.
There is also another different story, now to be related, in which
I am more inclined to put faith than in any
other. It is that the wandering Scythians once
dwelt in Asia, and there warred with the Massagetae, but
with ill success; they therefore quitted their
homes, crossed the Araxes, and entered the land
of Cimmeria. For the land which is now inhabited by
the Scyths was formerly the country of the
Cimmerians. On their coming, the natives, who
heard how numerous the invading army was, held a council.
At this meeting opinion was divided, and both
parties stiffly maintained their own view; but
the counsel of the Royal tribe was the braver. For
the others urged that the best thing to be done
was to leave the country, and avoid a contest
with so vast a host; but the Royal tribe advised remaining
and fighting for the soil to the last. As
neither party chose to give way, the one
determined to retire without a blow and yield their lands to the
invaders; but the other, remembering the good
things which they had enjoyed in their homes,
and picturing to themselves the evils which they had to
expect if they gave them up, resolved not to
flee, but rather to die and at least be buried
in their fatherland. Having thus decided, they drew
apart in two bodies, the one as numerous as the
other, and fought together. All of the Royal
tribe were slain, and the people buried them near the
river Tyras, where their grave is still to be
seen. Then the rest of the Cimmerians departed,
and the Scythians, on their coming, took possession
of a deserted land.
Scythia still retains traces of the Cimmerians; there are
Cimmerian castles, and a Cimmerian ferry, also a
tract called Cimmeria, and a Cimmerian
Bosphorus. It appears likewise that the
Cimmerians, when they fled into Asia to escape
the Scyths, made a settlement in the peninsula where the
Greek city of Sinope was afterwards built. The
Scyths, it is plain, pursued them, and missing
their road, poured into Media. For the Cimmerians kept
the line which led along the sea-shore, but the
Scyths in their pursuit held the Caucasus upon
their right, thus proceeding inland, and falling
upon Media. This account is one which is common
both to Greeks and barbarians.
Aristeas also, son of Caystrobius, a native of Proconnesus, says
in the course of his poem that wrapt in Bacchic
fury he went as far as the Issedones. Above them
dwelt the Arimaspi, men with one eye; still further,
the gold-guarding griffins; and beyond these,
the Hyperboreans, who extended to the sea.
Except the Hyperboreans, all these nations, beginning with
the Arimaspi, were continually encroaching upon
their neighbours. Hence it came to pass that the
Arimaspi drove the Issedonians from their country,
while the Issedonians dispossessed the Scyths;
and the Scyths, pressing upon the Cimmerians,
who dwelt on the shores of the Southern Sea, forced
them to leave their land. Thus even Aristeas
does not agree in his account of this region
with the Scythians.
The birthplace of Aristeas, the poet who sung of these things,
I have already mentioned. I will now relate a
tale which I heard concerning him both at
Proconnesus and at Cyzicus. Aristeas, they said, who belonged
to one of the noblest families in the island,
had entered one day into a fuller's shop, when
he suddenly dropt down dead. Hereupon the fuller
shut up his shop, and went to tell Aristeas'
kindred what had happened. The report of the
death had just spread through the town, when a certain
Cyzicenian, lately arrived from Artaca,
contradicted the rumour, affirming that he had
met Aristeas on his road to Cyzicus, and had spoken with him.
This man, therefore, strenuously denied the
rumour; the relations, however, proceeded to the
fuller's shop with all things necessary for the funeral,
intending to carry the body away. But on the
shop being opened, no Aristeas was found, either
dead or alive. Seven years afterwards he reappeared,
they told me, in Proconnesus, and wrote the poem
called by the Greeks The Arimaspeia, after which
he disappeared a second time. This is the tale
current in the two cities above-mentioned.
What follows I know to have happened to the Metapontines of Italy,
three hundred and forty years after the second
disappearance of Aristeas, as I collect by
comparing the accounts given me at Proconnesus and Metapontum.
Aristeas then, as the Metapontines affirm,
appeared to them in their own country, and
ordered them to set up an altar in honour of Apollo, and to
place near it a statue to be called that of
Aristeas the Proconnesian. "Apollo," he told
them, "had come to their country once, though he had
visited no other Italiots; and he had been with
Apollo at the time, not however in his present
form, but in the shape of a crow." Having said so
much, he vanished. Then the Metapontines, as
they relate, sent to Delphi, and inquired of the
god in what light they were to regard the appearance
of this ghost of a man. The Pythoness, in reply,
bade them attend to what the spectre said, "for
so it would go best with them." Thus advised, they
did as they had been directed: and there is now
a statue bearing the name of Aristeas, close by
the image of Apollo in the market-place of Metapontum,
with bay-trees standing around it. But enough
has been said concerning Aristeas.
With regard to the regions which lie above the country whereof
this portion of my history treats, there is no
one who possesses any exact knowledge. Not a
single person can I find who professes to be acquainted
with them by actual observation. Even Aristeas,
the traveller of whom I lately spoke, does not
claim- and he is writing poetry- to have reached
any farther than the Issedonians. What he
relates concerning the regions beyond is, he
confesses, mere hearsay, being the account which the Issedonians
gave him of those countries. However, I shall
proceed to mention all that I have learnt of
these parts by the most exact inquiries which I have been
able to make concerning them.
Above the mart of the Borysthenites, which is situated in the very
centre of the whole sea-coast of Scythia, the
first people who inhabit the land are the
Callipedae, a Greco-Scythic race. Next to them, as you
go inland, dwell the people called the
Alazonians. These two nations in other respects
resemble the Scythians in their usages, but sow and eat
corn, also onions, garlic, lentils, and millet.
Beyond the Alazonians reside Scythian
cultivators, who grow corn, not for their own use, but for sale.
Still higher up are the Neuri. Northwards of the
Neuri the continent, as far as it is known to
us, is uninhabited. These are the nations along the
course of the river Hypanis, west of the
Borysthenes.
Across the Borysthenes, the first country after you leave the
coast is Hylaea (the Woodland). Above this dwell
the Scythian Husbandmen, whom the Greeks living
near the Hypanis call Borysthenites, while they call
themselves Olbiopolites. These Husbandmen extend
eastward a distance of three days' journey to a
river bearing the name of Panticapes, while northward
the country is theirs for eleven days' sail up
the course of the Borysthenes. Further inland
there is a vast tract which is uninhabited. Above this desolate
region dwell the Cannibals, who are a people
apart, much unlike the Scythians. Above them the
country becomes an utter desert; not a single tribe, so
far as we know, inhabits it.
Crossing the Panticapes, and proceeding eastward of the
Husbandmen, we come upon the wandering
Scythians, who neither plough nor sow. Their
country, and the whole of this region, except
Hylaea, is quite bare of trees. They extend
towards the east a distance of fourteen' days' journey,
occupying a tract which reaches to the river
Gerrhus.
On the opposite side of the Gerrhus is the Royal district, as it
is called: here dwells the largest and bravest
of the Scythian tribes, which looks upon all the
other tribes in the light of slaves. Its country
reaches on the south to Taurica, on the east to
the trench dug by the sons of the blind slaves,
the mart upon the Palus Maeotis, called Cremni (the
Cliffs), and in part to the river Tanais. North
of the country of the Royal Scythians are the
Melanchaeni (Black-Robes), a people of quite a different
race from the Scythians. Beyond them lie marshes
and a region without inhabitants, so far as our
knowledge reaches.
When one crosses the Tanais, one is no longer in Scythia; the
first region on crossing is that of the
Sauromatae, who, beginning at the upper end of
the Palus Maeotis, stretch northward a distance of fifteen days'
journey, inhabiting a country which is entirely
bare of trees, whether wild or cultivated. Above
them, possessing the second region, dwell the
Budini, whose territory is thickly wooded with
trees of every kind.
Beyond the Budini, as one goes northward, first there is a desert,
seven days' journey across; after which, if one
inclines somewhat to the east, the Thyssagetae
are reached, a numerous nation quite distinct from
any other, and living by the chase. Adjoining
them, and within the limits of the same region,
are the people who bear the name of Iyrcae; they also
support themselves by hunting, which they
practise in the following manner. The hunter
climbs a tree, the whole country abounding in wood, and there
sets himself in ambush; he has a dog at hand,
and a horse, trained to lie down upon its belly,
and thus make itself low; the hunter keeps watch,
and when he sees his game, lets fly an arrow;
then mounting his horse, he gives the beast
chase, his dog following hard all the while. Beyond
these people, a little to the east, dwells a
distinct tribe of Scyths, who revolted once from
the Royal Scythians, and migrated into these
parts.
As far as their country, the tract of land whereof I have been
speaking is all a smooth plain, and the soil
deep; beyond you enter on a region which is
rugged and stony. Passing over a great extent of this
rough country, you come to a people dwelling at
the foot of lofty mountains, who are said to be
all- both men and women- bald from their birth, to have
flat noses, and very long chins. These people
speak a language of their own,. the dress which
they wear is the same as the Scythian. They live
on the fruit of a certain tree, the name of
which is Ponticum; in size it is about equal to
our fig-tree, and it bears a fruit like a bean, with
a stone inside. When the fruit is ripe, they
strain it through cloths; the juice which runs
off is black and thick, and is called by the natives
"aschy." They lap this up with their tongues,
and also mix it with milk for a drink; while
they make the lees, which are solid, into cakes, and
eat them instead of meat; for they have but few
sheep in their country, in which there is no
good pasturage. Each of them dwells under a tree,
and they cover the tree in winter with a cloth
of thick white felt, but take off the covering
in the summer-time. No one harms these people, for
they are looked upon as sacred- they do not even
possess any warlike weapons. When their
neighbours fall out, they make up the quarrel; and when one
flies to them for refuge, he is safe from all
hurt. They are called the Argippaeans.
Up to this point the territory of which we are speaking is very
completely explored, and all the nations between
the coast and the bald-headed men are well known
to us. For some of the Scythians are accustomed to penetrate
as far, of whom inquiry may easily be made, and
Greeks also go there from the mart on the
Borysthenes, and from the other marts along the Euxine.
The Scythians who make this journey communicate
with the inhabitants by means of seven
interpreters and seven languages.
Thus far, therefore, the land is known; but beyond the bald-headed
men lies a region of which no one can give any
exact account. Lofty and precipitous mountains,
which are never crossed, bar further progress. The
bald men say, but it does not seem to me
credible, that the people who live in these
mountains have feet like goats; and that after passing them
you find another race of men, who sleep during
one half of the year. This latter statement
appears to me quite unworthy of credit. The region east
of the bald-headed men is well known to be
inhabited by the Issedonians, but the tract that
lies to the north of these two nations is entirely unknown,
except by the accounts which they give of it.
The Issedonians are said to have the following customs. When a
man's father dies, all the near relatives bring
sheep to the house; which are sacrificed, and
their flesh cut in pieces, while at the same time the
dead body undergoes the like treatment. The two
sorts of flesh are afterwards mixed together,
and the whole is served up at a banquet. The head of the
dead man is treated differently: it is stripped
bare, cleansed, and set in gold. It then becomes
an ornament on which they pride themselves, and
is brought out year by year at the great
festival which sons keep in honour of their
fathers' death, just as the Greeks keep their Genesia. In other
respects the Issedonians are reputed to be
observers of justice: and it is to be remarked
that their women have equal authority with the men. Thus
our knowledge extends as far as this nation.
The regions beyond are known only from the accounts of the
Issedonians, by whom the stories are told of the
one-eyed race of men and the gold-guarding
griffins. These stories are received by the
Scythians from the Issedonians, and by them
passed on to us Greeks: whence it arises that we give the one-eyed
race the Scythian name of Arimaspi, "arima"
being the Scythic word for "one," and "spu" for
"the eye."
The whole district whereof we have here discoursed has winters
of exceeding rigour. During eight months the
frost is so intense that water poured upon the
ground does not form mud, but if a fire be lighted on it
mud is produced. The sea freezes, and the
Cimmerian Bosphorus is frozen over. At that
season the Scythians who dwell inside the trench make warlike
expeditions upon the ice, and even drive their
waggons across to the country of the Sindians.
Such is the intensity of the cold during eight months
out of the twelve; and even in the remaining
four the climate is still cool. The character of
the winter likewise is unlike that of the same season
in any other country; for at that time, when the
rains ought to fall in Scythia, there is
scarcely any rain worth mentioning, while in summer it
never gives over raining; and thunder, which
elsewhere is frequent then, in Scythia is
unknown in that part of the year, coming only in summer,
when it is very heavy. Thunder in the
winter-time is there accounted a prodigy; as
also are earthquakes, whether they happen in winter or summer.
Horses bear the winter well, cold as it is, but
mules and asses are quite unable to bear it;
whereas in other countries mules and asses are found
to endure the cold, while horses, if they stand
still, are frost-bitten.
To me it seems that the cold may likewise be the cause which
prevents the oxen in Scythia from having horns.
There is a line of Homer's in the Odyssey which
gives a support to my opinion:-
Libya too, where horns hud quick on the foreheads of lambkins.
He means to say what is quite true, that in warm
countries the horns come early. So too in
countries where the cold is severe animals either have
no horns, or grow them with difficulty- the cold
being the cause in this instance.
Here I must express my wonder- additions being what my work always
from the very first affected- that in Elis,
where the cold is not remarkable, and there is
nothing else to account for it, mules are never produced.
The Eleans say it is in consequence of a curse;
and their habit is, when the breeding-time
comes, to take their mares into one of the adjoining
countries, and there keep them till they are in
foal, when they bring them back again into Elis.
With respect to the feathers which are said by the Scythians to
fill the air, and to prevent persons from
penetrating into the remoter parts of the
continent, even having any view of those regions, my opinion
is that in the countries above Scythia it always
snows- less, of course, in the summer than in
the wintertime. Now snow when it falls looks like
feathers, as every one is aware who has seen it
come down close to him. These northern regions,
therefore, are uninhabitable by reason of the severity
of the winter; and the Scythians, with their
neighbours, call the snow-flakes feathers
because, I think, of the likeness which they bear to them. I have
now related what is said of the most distant
parts of this continent whereof any account is
given.
Of the Hyperboreans nothing is said either by the Scythians or
by any of the other dwellers in these regions,
unless it be the Issedonians. But in my opinion,
even the Issedonians are silent concerning them; otherwise
the Scythians would have repeated their
statements, as they do those concerning the
one-eyed men. Hesiod, however, mentions them, and Homer also in
the Epigoni, if that be really a work of his.
But the persons who have by far the most to say on this subject
are the Delians. They declare that certain
offerings, packed in wheaten straw, were brought
from the country of the Hyperboreans into Scythia,
and that the Scythians received them and passed
them on to their neighbours upon the west, who
continued to pass them on until at last they reached
the Adriatic. From hence they were sent
southward, and when they came to Greece, were
received first of all by the Dodonaeans. Thence they descended
to the Maliac Gulf, from which they were carried
across into Euboea, where the people handed them
on from city to city, till they came at length to
Carystus. The Carystians took them over to
Tenos, without stopping at Andros; and the
Tenians brought them finally to Delos. Such, according to their
own account, was the road by which the offerings
reached the Delians. Two damsels, they say,
named Hyperoche and Laodice, brought the first offerings
from the Hyperboreans; and with them the
Hyperboreans sent five men to keep them from all
harm by the way; these are the persons whom the Delians
call "Perpherees," and to whom great honours are
paid at Delos. Afterwards the Hyperboreans, when
they found that their messengers did not return,
thinking it would be a grievous thing always to
be liable to lose the envoys they should send,
adopted the following plan:- they wrapped their offerings
in the wheaten straw, and bearing them to their
borders, charged their neighbours to send them
forward from one nation to another, which was done
accordingly, and in this way the offerings
reached Delos. I myself know of a practice like
this, which obtains with the women of Thrace and Paeonia.
They in their sacrifices to the queenly Diana
bring wheaten straw always with their offerings.
Of my own knowledge I can testify that this is
so.
The damsels sent by the Hyperboreans died in Delos; and in their
honour all the Delian girls and youths are wont
to cut off their hair. The girls, before their
marriage-day, cut off a curl, and twining it round
a distaff, lay it upon the grave of the
strangers. This grave is on the left as one
enters the precinct of Diana, and has an olive-tree growing
on it. The youths wind some of their hair round
a kind of grass, and, like the girls, place it
upon the tomb. Such are the honours paid to these damsels
by the Delians.
They add that, once before, there came to Delos by the same road
as Hyperoche and Laodice, two other virgins from
the Hyperboreans, whose names were Arge and
Opis. Hyperoche and Laodice came to bring to Ilithyia
the offering which they had laid upon
themselves, in acknowledgment of their quick
labours; but Arge and Opis came at the same time as the gods
of Delos,' and are honoured by the Delians in a
different way. For the Delian women make
collections in these maidens' names, and invoke them
in the hymn which Olen, a Lycian, composed for
them; and the rest of the islanders, and even
the Ionians, have been taught by the Delians to do
the like. This Olen, who came from Lycia, made
the other old hymns also which are sung in
Delos. The Delians add that the ashes from the thigh-bones
burnt upon the altar are scattered over the tomb
of Opis and Arge. Their tomb lies behind the
temple of Diana, facing the east, near the banqueting-hall
of the Ceians. Thus much then, and no more,
concerning the Hyperboreans.
As for the tale of Abaris, who is said to have been a Hyperborean,
and to have gone with his arrow all round the
world without once eating, I shall pass it by in
silence. Thus much, however, is clear: if there are
Hyperboreans, there must also be Hypernotians.
For my part, I cannot but laugh when I see
numbers of persons drawing maps of the world without having
any reason to guide them; making, as they do,
the ocean-stream to run all round the earth, and
the earth itself to be an exact circle, as if described
by a pair of compasses, with Europe and Asia
just of the same size. The truth in this matter
I will now proceed to explain in a very few words,
making it clear what the real size of each
region is, and what shape should be given them.
The Persians inhabit a country upon the southern or Erythraean
sea; above them, to the north, are the Medes;
beyond the Medes, the Saspirians; beyond them,
the Colchians, reaching to the northern sea, into which the
Phasis empties itself. These four nations fill
the whole space from one sea to the other.
West of these nations there project into the sea two tracts which
I will now describe; one, beginning at the river
Phasis on the north, stretches along the Euxine
and the Hellespont to Sigeum in the Troas; while on the
south it reaches from the Myriandrian gulf,
which adjoins Phoenicia, to the Triopic
promontory. This is one of the tracts, and is inhabited by
thirty different nations.
The other starts from the country of the Persians, and stretches
into the Erythraean sea, containing first
Persia, then Assyria, and after Assyria, Arabia.
It ends, that is to say, it is considered to end, though
it does not really come to a termination, at the
Arabian gulf- the gulf whereinto Darius
conducted the canal which he made from the Nile. Between
Persia and Phoenicia lies a broad and ample
tract of country, after which the region I am
describing skirts our sea, stretching from Phoenicia along
the coast of Palestine-Syria till it comes to
Egypt, where it terminates. This entire tract
contains but three nations. The whole of Asia west of
the country of the Persians is comprised in
these two regions.
Beyond the tract occupied by the Persians, Medes, Saspirians, and
Colchians, towards the east and the region of
the sunrise, Asia is bounded on the south by the
Erythraean sea, and on the north by the Caspian and
the river Araxes, which flows towards the rising
sun. Till you reach India the country is
peopled; but further east it is void of inhabitants, and
no one can say what sort of region it is. Such
then is the shape, and such the size of Asia.
Libya belongs to one of the above-mentioned tracts, for it adjoins
on Egypt. In Egypt the tract is at first a
narrow neck, the distance from our sea to the
Erythraean not exceeding a hundred thousand fathoms, in
other words, a thousand furlongs; but from the
point where the neck ends, the tract which bears
the name of Libya is of very great breadth.
For my part I am astonished that men should ever have divided
Libya, Asia, and Europe as they have, for they
are exceedingly unequal. Europe extends the
entire length of the other two, and for breadth will not even
(as I think) bear to be compared to them. As for
Libya, we know it to be washed on all sides by
the sea, except where it is attached to Asia. This
discovery was first made by Necos, the Egyptian
king, who on desisting from the canal which he
had begun between the Nile and the Arabian gulf,
sent to sea a number of ships manned by
Phoenicians, with orders to make for the Pillars
of Hercules, and return to Egypt through them, and by the
Mediterranean. The Phoenicians took their
departure from Egypt by way of the Erythraean
sea, and so sailed into the southern ocean. When autumn
came, they went ashore, wherever they might
happen to be, and having sown a tract of land
with corn, waited until the grain was fit to cut. Having
reaped it, they again set sail; and thus it came
to pass that two whole years went by, and it was
not till the third year that they doubled the
Pillars of Hercules, and made good their voyage
home. On their return, they declared- I for my
part do not believe them, but perhaps others may-
that in sailing round Libya they had the sun
upon their right hand. In this way was the
extent of Libya first discovered.
Next to these Phoenicians the Carthaginians, according to their
own accounts, made the voyage. For Sataspes, son
of Teaspes the Achaemenian, did not
circumnavigate Libya, though he was sent to do so; but, fearing
the length and desolateness of the journey, he
turned back and left unaccomplished the task
which had been set him by his mother. This man had used violence
towards a maiden, the daughter of Zopyrus, son
of Megabyzus, and King Xerxes was about to
impale him for the offence, when his mother, who was a sister
of Darius, begged him off, undertaking to punish
his crime more heavily than the king himself had
designed. She would force him, she said, to sail
round Libya and return to Egypt by the Arabian
gulf. Xerxes gave his consent; and Sataspes went
down to Egypt, and there got a ship and crew, with which
he set sail for the Pillars of Hercules. Having
passed the Straits, he doubled the Libyan
headland, known as Cape Soloeis, and proceeded southward.
Following this course for many months over a
vast stretch of sea, and finding that more water
than he had crossed still lay ever before him, he put about,
and came back to Egypt. Thence proceeding to the
court, he made report to Xerxes, that at the
farthest point to which he had reached, the coast
was occupied by a dwarfish race, who wore a
dress made from the palm tree. These people,
whenever he landed, left their towns and fled away to the
mountains; his men, however, did them no wrong,
only entering into their cities and taking some
of their cattle. The reason why he had not sailed
quite round Libya was, he said, because the ship
stopped, and would no go any further. Xerxes,
however, did not accept this account for true;
and so Sataspes, as he had failed to accomplish
the task set him, was impaled by the king's
orders in accordance with the former sentence. One of his
eunuchs, on hearing of his death, ran away with
a great portion of his wealth, and reached
Samos, where a certain Samian seized the whole. I know
the man's name well, but I shall willingly
forget it here.
Of the greater part of Asia Darius was the discoverer. Wishing
to know where the Indus (which is the only river
save one that produces crocodiles) emptied
itself into the sea, he sent a number of men, on whose
truthfulness he could rely, and among them
Scylax of Caryanda, to sail down the river. They
started from the city of Caspatyrus, in the region
called Pactyica, and sailed down the stream in
an easterly direction to the sea. Here they
turned westward, and, after a voyage of thirty months,
reached the place from which the Egyptian king,
of whom I spoke above, sent the Phoenicians to
sail round Libya. After this voyage was completed,
Darius conquered the Indians, and made use of
the sea in those parts. Thus all Asia, except
the eastern portion, has been found to be similarly circumstanced
with Libya.
But the boundaries of Europe are quite unknown, and there is not
a man who can say whether any sea girds it round
either on the north or on the east, while in
length it undoubtedly extends as far as both the
other two. For my part I cannot conceive why
three names, and women's names especially,
should ever have been given to a tract which is in reality
one, nor why the Egyptian Nile and the Colchian
Phasis (or according to others the Maeotic
Tanais and Cimmerian ferry) should have been fixed upon
for the boundary lines; nor can I even say who
gave the three tracts their names, or whence
they took the epithets. According to the Greeks in general,
Libya was so called after a certain Libya, a
native woman, and Asia after the wife of
Prometheus. The Lydians, however, put in a claim to the latter
name, which, they declare, was not derived from
Asia the wife of Prometheus, but from Asies, the
son of Cotys, and grandson of Manes, who also gave
name to the tribe Asias at Sardis. As for
Europe, no one can say whether it is surrounded
by the sea or not, neither is it known whence the name
of Europe was derived, nor who gave it name,
unless we say that Europe was so called after
the Tyrian Europe, and before her time was nameless,
like the other divisions. But it is certain that
Europe was an Asiatic, and never even set foot
on the land which the Greeks now call Europe, only
sailing from Phoenicia to Crete, and from Crete
to Lycia. However let us quit these matters. We
shall ourselves continue to use the names which
custom sanctions.
The Euxine sea, where Darius now went to war, has nations dwelling
around it, with the one exception of the
Scythians, more unpolished than those of any
other region that we know of. For, setting aside Anacharsis
and the Scythian people, there is not within
this region a single nation which can be put
forward as having any claims to wisdom, or which has produced
a single person of any high repute. The
Scythians indeed have in one respect, and that
the very most important of all those that fall under man's
control, shown themselves wiser than any nation
upon the face of the earth. Their customs
otherwise are not such as I admire. The one thing of which I speak
is the contrivance whereby they make it
impossible for the enemy who invades them to
escape destruction, while they themselves are entirely out of his
reach, unless it please them to engage with him.
Having neither cities nor forts, and carrying
their dwellings with them wherever they go; accustomed,
moreover, one and all of them, to shoot from
horseback; and living not by husbandry but on
their cattle, their waggons the only houses that they
possess, how can they fail of being
unconquerable, and unassailable even?
The nature of their country, and the rivers by which it is
intersected, greatly favour this mode of
resisting attacks. For the land is level, well
watered, and abounding in pasture; while the
rivers which traverse it are almost equal in
number to the canals of Egypt. Of these I shall only mention
the most famous and such as are navigable to
some distance from the sea. They are, the Ister,
which has five mouths; the Tyras, the Hypanis, the
Borysthenes, the Panticapes, the Hypacyris, the
Gerrhus, and the Tanais. The courses of these
streams I shall now proceed to describe.
The Ister is of all the rivers with which we are acquainted the
mightiest. It never varies in height, but
continues at the same level summer and winter.
Counting from the west it is the first of the Scythian rivers,
and the reason of its being the greatest is that
it receives the water of several tributaries.
Now the tributaries which swell its flood are the
following: first, on the side of Scythia, these
five- the stream called by the Scythians Porata,
and by the Greeks Pyretus, the Tiarantus, the
Ararus, the Naparis, and the Ordessus. The first
mentioned is a great stream, and is the
easternmost of the tributaries. The Tiarantus is of less volume,
and more to the west. The Ararus, Naparis, and
Ordessus fall into the Ister between these two.
All the above mentioned are genuine Scythian rivers,
and go to swell the current of the Ister.
From the country of the Agathyrsi comes down another river, the
Maris, which empties itself into the same; and
from the heights of Haemus descend with a
northern course three mighty streams, the Atlas, the Auras,
and the Tibisis, and pour their waters into it.
Thrace gives it three tributaries, the Athrys,
the Noes, and the Artanes, which all pass through the country
of the Crobyzian Thracians. Another tributary is
furnished by Paeonia, namely, the Scius; this
river, rising near Mount Rhodope, forces its way
through the chain of Haemus, and so reaches the
Ister. From Illyria comes another stream, the
Angrus, which has a course from south to north, and
after watering the Triballian plain, falls into
the Brongus, which falls into the Ister. So the
Ister is augmented by these two streams, both considerable.
Besides all these, the Ister receives also the
waters of the Carpis and the Alpis, two rivers
running in a northerly direction from the country
above the Umbrians. For the Ister flows through
the whole extent of Europe, rising in the
country of the Celts (the most westerly of all the nations
of Europe, excepting the Cynetians), and thence
running across the continent till it reaches
Scythia, whereof it washes the flanks.
All these streams, then, and many others, add their waters to
swell the flood of the Ister, which thus
increased becomes the mightiest of rivers; for
undoubtedly if we compare the stream of the Nile with the single
stream of the Ister, we must give the preference
to the Nile, of which no tributary river, nor
even rivulet, augments the volume. The Ister remains at the
same level both summer and winter- owing to the
following reasons, as I believe. During the
winter it runs at its natural height, or a very little
higher, because in those countries there is
scarcely any rain in winter, but constant snow.
When summer comes, this snow, which is of great depth,
begins to melt, and flows into the Ister, which
is swelled at that season, not only by this
cause but also by the rains, which are heavy and frequent
at that part of the year. Thus the various
streams which go to form the Ister are higher in
summer than in winter, and just so much higher as the
sun's power and attraction are greater; so that
these two causes counteract each other, and the
effect is to produce a balance, whereby the Ister remains
always at the same level.
This, then, is one of the great Scythian rivers; the next to it
is the Tyras, which rises from a great lake
separating Scythia from the land of the Neuri,
and runs with a southerly course to the sea. Greeks
dwell at the mouth of the river, who are called
Tyritae.
The third river is the Hypanis. This stream rises within the
limits of Scythia, and has its source in another
vast lake, around which wild white horses graze.
The lake is called, properly enough, the Mother of
the Hypanis. The Hypanis, rising here, during
the distance of five days' navigation is a
shallow stream, and the water sweet and pure; thence, however,
to the sea, which is a distance of four days, it
is exceedingly bitter. This change is caused by
its receiving into it at that point a brook the
waters of which are so bitter that, although it
is but a tiny rivulet, it nevertheless taints
the entire Hypanis, which is a large stream among
those of the second order. The source of this
bitter spring is on the borders of the Scythian
Husbandmen, where they adjoin upon the Alazonians; and
the place where it rises is called in the
Scythic tongue Exampaeus, which means in our
language, "The Sacred Ways." The spring itself bears the same
name. The Tyras and the Hypanis approach each
other in the country of the Alazonians, but
afterwards separate, and leave a wide space between their
streams.
The fourth of the Scythian rivers is the Borysthenes. Next to the
Ister, it is the greatest of them all; and, in
my judgment, it is the most productive river,
not merely in Scythia, but in the whole world, excepting
only the Nile, with which no stream can possibly
compare. It has upon its banks the loveliest and
most excellent pasturages for cattle; it contains
abundance of the most delicious fish; its water
is most pleasant to the taste; its stream is
limpid, while all the other rivers near it are muddy;
the richest harvests spring up along its course,
and where the ground is not sown, the heaviest
crops of grass; while salt forms in great plenty
about its mouth without human aid, and large
fish are taken in it of the sort called
Antacaei, without any prickly bones, and good for pickling.
Nor are these the whole of its marvels. As far
inland as the place named Gerrhus, which is
distant forty days' voyage from the sea, its course is
known, and its direction is from north to south;
but above this no one has traced it, so as to
say through what countries it flows. It enters
the territory of the Scythian Husbandmen after
running for some time across a desert region,
and continues for ten days' navigation to pass through
the land which they inhabit. It is the only
river besides the Nile the sources of which are
unknown to me, as they are also (I believe) to all
the other Greeks. Not long before it reaches the
sea, the Borysthenes is joined by the Hypanis,
which pours its waters into the same lake. The land
that lies between them, a narrow point like the
beak of a ship, is called Cape Hippolaus. Here
is a temple dedicated to Ceres, and opposite the temple
upon the Hypanis is the dwelling-place of the
Borysthenites. But enough has been said of these
streams.
Next in succession comes the fifth river, called the Panticapes,
which has, like the Borysthenes, a course from
north to south, and rises from a lake. The space
between this river and the Borysthenes is occupied
by the Scythians who are engaged in husbandry.
After watering their country, the Panticapes
flows through Hylaea, and empties itself into the
Borysthenes.
The sixth stream is the Hypacyris, a river rising from a lake,
and running directly through the middle of the
Nomadic Scythians. It falls into the sea near
the city of Carcinitis, leaving Hylaea and the course
of Achilles to the right.
The seventh river is the Gerrhus, which is a branch thrown out
by the Borysthenes at the point where the course
of that stream first begins to be known, to wit,
the region called by the same name as the stream itself,
viz. Gerrhus. This river on its passage towards
the sea divides the country of the Nomadic from
that of the Royal Scyths. It runs into the
Hypacyris.
The eighth river is the Tanais, a stream which has its source,
far up the country, in a lake of vast size, and
which empties itself into another still larger
lake, the Palus Maeotis, whereby the country of the
Royal Scythians is divided from that of the
Sauromatae. The Tanais receives the waters of a
tributary stream, called the Hyrgis.
Such then are the rivers of chief note in Scythia. The grass which
the land produces is more apt to generate gall
in the beasts that feed on it than any other
grass which is known to us, as plainly appears on
the opening of their carcases.
Thus abundantly are the Scythians provided with the most important
necessaries. Their manners and customs come now
to be described. They worship only the following
gods, namely, Vesta, whom they reverence beyond all
the rest, Jupiter, and Tellus, whom they
consider to be the wife of Jupiter; and after
these Apollo, Celestial Venus, Hercules, and Mars. These gods
are worshipped by the whole nation: the Royal
Scythians offer sacrifice likewise to Neptune.
In the Scythic tongue Vesta is called Tabiti, Jupiter
(very properly, in my judgment) Papaeus, Tellus
Apia, Apollo Oetosyrus, Celestial Venus
Artimpasa, and Neptune Thamimasadas. They use no images,
altars, or temples, except in the worship of
Mars; but in his worship they do use them.
The manner of their sacrifices is everywhere and in every case
the same; the victim stands with its two
fore-feet bound together by a cord, and the
person who is about to offer, taking his station behind the
victim, gives the rope a pull, and thereby
throws the animal down; as it falls he invokes
the god to whom he is offering; after which he puts a
noose round the animal's neck, and, inserting a
small stick, twists it round, and so strangles
him. No fire is lighted, there is no consecration,
and no pouring out of drink-offerings; but
directly that the beast is strangled the
sacrificer flays him, and then sets to work to boil the
flesh.
As Scythia, however, is utterly barren of firewood, a plan has
had to be contrived for boiling the flesh, which
is the following. After flaying the beasts, they
take out all the bones, and (if they possess such
gear) put the flesh into boilers made in the
country, which are very like the cauldrons of
the Lesbians, except that they are of a much larger size;
then placing the bones of the animals beneath
the cauldron, they set them alight, and so boil
the meat. If they do not happen to possess a cauldron,
they make the animal's paunch hold the flesh,
and pouring in at the same time a little water,
lay the bones under and light them. The bones burn
beautifully; and the paunch easily contains all
the flesh when it is stript from the bones, so
that by this plan your ox is made to boil himself, and
other victims also to do the like. When the meat
is all cooked, the sacrificer offers a portion
of the flesh and of the entrails, by casting it on the
ground before him. They sacrifice all sorts of
cattle, but most commonly horses.
Such are the victims offered to the other gods, and such is the
mode in which they are sacrificed; but the rites
paid to Mars are different. In every district,
at the seat of government, there stands a temple of
this god, whereof the following is a
description. It is a pile of brushwood, made of
a vast quantity of fagots, in length and breadth three furlongs;
in height somewhat less, having a square
platform upon the top, three sides of which are
precipitous, while the fourth slopes so that men may walk
up it. Each year a hundred and fifty
waggon-loads of brushwood are added to the pile,
which sinks continually by reason of the rains. An antique
iron sword is planted on the top of every such
mound, and serves as the image of Mars: yearly
sacrifices of cattle and of horses are made to it,
and more victims are offered thus than to all
the rest of their gods. When prisoners are taken
in war, out of every hundred men they sacrifice one,
not however with the same rites as the cattle,
but with different. Libations of wine are first
poured upon their heads, after which they are slaughtered
over a vessel; the vessel is then carried up to
the top of the pile, and the blood poured upon
the scymitar. While this takes place at the top of
the mound, below, by the side of the temple, the
right hands and arms of the slaughtered
prisoners are cut off, and tossed on high into the air.
Then the other victims are slain, and those who
have offered the sacrifice depart, leaving the
hands and arms where they may chance to have fallen,
and the bodies also, separate.
Such are the observances of the Scythians with respect to
sacrifice. They never use swine for the purpose,
nor indeed is it their wont to breed them in any
part of their country.
In what concerns war, their customs are the following. The
Scythian soldier drinks the blood of the first
man he overthrows in battle. Whatever number he
slays, he cuts off all their heads, and carries them to the king;
since he is thus entitled to a share of the
booty, whereto he forfeits all claim if he does
not produce a head. In order to strip the skull of
its covering, he makes a cut round the head
above the ears, and, laying hold of the scalp,
shakes the skull out; then with the rib of an ox he
scrapes the scalp clean of flesh, and softening
it by rubbing between the hands, uses it
thenceforth as a napkin. The Scyth is proud of these scalps,
and hangs them from his bridle-rein; the greater
the number of such napkins that a man can show,
the more highly is he esteemed among them. Many make
themselves cloaks, like the capotes of our
peasants, by sewing a quantity of these scalps
together. Others flay the right arms of their dead enemies,
and make of the skin, which stripped off with
the nails hanging to it, a covering for their
quivers. Now the skin of a man is thick and glossy,
and would in whiteness surpass almost all other
hides. Some even flay the entire body of their
enemy, and stretching it upon a frame carry it about
with them wherever they ride. Such are the
Scythian customs with respect to scalps and
skins.
The skulls of their enemies, not indeed of all, but of those whom
they most detest, they treat as follows. Having
sawn off the portion below the eyebrows, and
cleaned out the inside, they cover the outside with leather.
When a man is poor, this is all that he does;
but if he is rich, he also lines the inside with
gold: in either case the skull is used as a drinking-cup.
They do the same with the skulls of their own
kith and kin if they have been at feud with
them, and have vanquished them in the presence of the
king. When strangers whom they deem of any
account come to visit them, these skulls are
handed round, and the host tells how that these were his
relations who made war upon him, and how that he
got the better of them; all this being looked
upon as proof of bravery.
Once a year the governor of each district, at a set place in his
own province, mingles a bowl of wine, of which
all Scythians have a right to drink by whom foes
have been slain; while they who have slain no enemy
are not allowed to taste of the bowl, but sit
aloof in disgrace. No greater shame than this
can happen to them. Such as have slain a very large number
of foes, have two cups instead of one, and drink
from both.
Scythia has an abundance of soothsayers, who foretell the future
by means of a number of willow wands. A large
bundle of these wands is brought and laid on the
ground. The soothsayer unties the bundle, and places
each wand by itself, at the same time uttering
his prophecy: then, while he is still speaking,
he gathers the rods together again, and makes them
up once more into a bundle. This mode of
divination is of home growth in Scythia. The
Enarees, or woman-like men, have another method, which they
say Venus taught them. It is done with the inner
bark of the linden-tree. They take a piece of
this bark, and, splitting it into three strips, keep
twining the strips about their fingers, and
untwining them, while they prophesy.
Whenever the Scythian king falls sick, he sends for the three
soothsayers of most renown at the time, who come
and make trial of their art in the mode above
described. Generally they say that the king is ill because such
or such a person, mentioning his name, has sworn
falsely by the royal hearth. This is the usual
oath among the Scythians, when they wish to swear with
very great solemnity. Then the man accused of
having foresworn himself is arrested and brought
before the king. The soothsayers tell him that
by their art it is clear he has sworn a false
oath by the royal hearth, and so caused the
illness of the king- he denies the charge, protests that
he has sworn no false oath, and loudly complains
of the wrong done to him. Upon this the king
sends for six new soothsayers, who try the matter by
soothsaying. If they too find the man guilty of
the offence, straightway he is beheaded by those
who first accused him, and his goods are parted
among them: if, on the contrary, they acquit
him, other soothsayers, and again others, are
sent for, to try the case. Should the greater number
decide in favour of the man's innocence, then
they who first accused him forfeit their lives.
The mode of their execution is the following: a waggon is loaded
with brushwood, and oxen are harnessed to it;
the soothsayers, with their feet tied together,
their hands bound behind their backs, and their mouths
gagged, are thrust into the midst of the
brushwood; finally the wood is set alight, and
the oxen, being startled, are made to rush off with the
waggon. It often happens that the oxen and the
soothsayers are both consumed together, but
sometimes the pole of the waggon is burnt through, and the
oxen escape with a scorching. Diviners- lying
diviners, they call them- are burnt in the way
described, for other causes besides the one here spoken
of. When the king puts one of them to death, he
takes care not to let any of his sons survive:
all the male offspring are slain with the father,
only the females being allowed to live.
Oaths among the Scyths are accompanied with the following
ceremonies: a large earthern bowl is filled with
wine, and the parties to the oath, wounding
themselves slightly with a knife or an awl, drop some of their
blood into the wine; then they plunge into the
mixture a scymitar, some arrows, a battle-axe,
and a javelin, all the while repeating prayers; lastly
the two contracting parties drink each a draught
from the bowl, as do also the chief men among
their followers.
The tombs of their kings are in the land of the Gerrhi, who dwell
at the point where the Borysthenes is first
navigable. Here, when the king dies, they dig a
grave, which is square in shape, and of great size. When
it is ready, they take the king's corpse, and,
having opened the belly, and cleaned out the
inside, fill the cavity with a preparation of chopped
cypress, frankincense, parsley-seed, and
anise-seed, after which they sew up the opening,
enclose the body in wax, and, placing it on a waggon, carry
it about through all the different tribes. On
this procession each tribe, when it receives the
corpse, imitates the example which is first set by
the Royal Scythians; every man chops off a piece
of his ear, crops his hair close, and makes a
cut all round his arm, lacerates his forehead and
his nose, and thrusts an arrow through his left
hand. Then they who have the care of the corpse
carry it with them to another of the tribes which
are under the Scythian rule, followed by those
whom they first visited. On completing the
circuit of all the tribes under their sway, they find
themselves in the country of the Gerrhi, who are
the most remote of all, and so they come to the
tombs of the kings. There the body of the dead
king is laid in the grave prepared for it,
stretched upon a mattress; spears are fixed in
the ground on either side of the corpse, and beams stretched
across above it to form a roof, which is covered
with a thatching of osier twigs. In the open
space around the body of the king they bury one of his
concubines, first killing her by strangling, and
also his cup-bearer, his cook, his groom, his
lacquey, his messenger, some of his horses, firstlings
of all his other possessions, and some golden
cups; for they use neither silver nor brass.
After this they set to work, and raise a vast mound above
the grave, all of them vying with each other and
seeking to make it as tall as possible.
When a year is gone by, further ceremonies take place. Fifty of
the best of the late king's attendants are
taken, all native Scythians- for, as bought
slaves are unknown in the country, the Scythian kings choose
any of their subjects that they like, to wait on
them- fifty of these are taken and strangled,
with fifty of the most beautiful horses. When they
are dead, their bowels are taken out, and the
cavity cleaned, filled full of chaff, and
straightway sewn up again. This done, a number of posts are
driven into the ground, in sets of two pairs
each, and on every pair half the felly of a
wheel is placed archwise; then strong stakes are run lengthways
through the bodies of the horses from tail to
neck, and they are mounted up upon the fellies,
so that the felly in front supports the shoulders
of the horse, while that behind sustains the
belly and quarters, the legs dangling in
mid-air; each horse is furnished with a bit and bridle, which
latter is stretched out in front of the horse,
and fastened to a peg. The fifty strangled
youths are then mounted severally on the fifty horses.
To effect this, a second stake is passed through
their bodies along the course of the spine to
the neck; the lower end of which projects from the
body, and is fixed into a socket, made in the
stake that runs lengthwise down the horse. The
fifty riders are thus ranged in a circle round the
tomb, and so left.
Such, then, is the mode in which the kings are buried: as for the
people, when any one dies, his nearest of kin
lay him upon a waggon and take him round to all
his friends in succession: each receives them in
turn and entertains them with a banquet, whereat
the dead man is served with a portion of all
that is set before the others; this is done for forty
days, at the end of which time the burial takes
place. After the burial, those engaged in it
have to purify themselves, which they do in the following
way. First they well soap and wash their heads;
then, in order to cleanse their bodies, they act
as follows: they make a booth by fixing in the ground
three sticks inclined towards one another, and
stretching around them woollen felts, which they
arrange so as to fit as close as possible: inside the
booth a dish is placed upon the ground, into
which they put a number of red-hot stones, and
then add some hemp-seed.
Hemp grows in Scythia: it is very like flax; only that it is a
much coarser and taller plant: some grows wild
about the country, some is produced by
cultivation: the Thracians make garments of it which closely
resemble linen; so much so, indeed, that if a
person has never seen hemp he is sure to think
they are linen, and if he has, unless he is very experienced
in such matters, he will not know of which
material they are.
The Scythians, as I said, take some of this hemp-seed, and,
creeping under the felt coverings, throw it upon
the red-hot stones; immediately it smokes, and
gives out such a vapour as no Grecian vapour-bath can exceed;
the Scyths, delighted, shout for joy, and this
vapour serves them instead of a water-bath; for
they never by any chance wash their bodies with water.
Their women make a mixture of cypress, cedar,
and frankincense wood, which they pound into a
paste upon a rough piece of stone, adding a little water
to it. With this substance, which is of a thick
consistency, they plaster their faces all over,
and indeed their whole bodies. A sweet odour is thereby
imparted to them, and when they take off the
plaster on the day following, their skin is
clean and glossy.
The Scythians have an extreme hatred of all foreign customs,
particularly of those in use among the Greeks,
as the instances of Anacharsis, and, more
lately, of Scylas, have fully shown. The former, after he had
travelled over a great portion of the world, and
displayed wherever he went many proofs of
wisdom, as he sailed through the Hellespont on his return to
Scythia touched at Cyzicus. There he found the
inhabitants celebrating with much pomp and
magnificence a festival to the Mother of the Gods, and
was himself induced to make a vow to the
goddess, whereby he engaged, if he got back safe
and sound to his home, that he would give her a festival
and a night-procession in all respects like
those which he had seen in Cyzicus. When,
therefore, he arrived in Scythia, he betook himself to the
district called the Woodland, which lies
opposite the course of Achilles, and is covered
with trees of all manner of different kinds, and there went
through all the sacred rites with the tabour in
his hand, and the images tied to him. While thus
employed, he was noticed by one of the Scythians,
who went and told king Saulius what he had seen.
Then king Saulius came in person, and when he
perceived what Anacharsis was about, he shot at
him with an arrow and killed him. To this day,
if you ask the Scyths about Anacharsis, they
pretend ignorance of him, because of his Grecian travels
and adoption of the customs of foreigners. I
learnt, however, from Timnes, the steward of
Ariapithes, that Anacharsis was paternal uncle to the Scythian
king Idanthyrsus, being the son of Gnurus, who
was the son of Lycus and the grandson of
Spargapithes. If Anacharsis were really of this house,
it must have been by his own brother that he was
slain, for Idanthyrsus was a son of the Saulius
who put Anacharsis to death.
I have heard, however, another tale, very different from this,
which is told by the Peloponnesians: they say,
that Anacharsis was sent by the king of the
Scyths to make acquaintance with Greece- that he went,
and on his return home reported that the Greeks
were all occupied in the pursuit of every kind
of knowledge, except the Lacedaemonians; who, however,
alone knew how to converse sensibly. A silly
tale this, which the Greeks have invented for
their amusement! There is no doubt that Anacharsis suffered
death in the mode already related, on account of
his attachment to foreign customs, and the
intercourse which he held with the Greeks.
Scylas, likewise, the son of Ariapithes, many years later, met
with almost the very same fate. Ariapithes, the
Scythian king, had several sons, among them this
Scylas, who was the child, not of a native Scyth,
but of a woman of Istria. Bred up by her, Scylas
gained an acquaintance with the Greek language
and letters. Some time afterwards, Ariapithes was
treacherously slain by Spargapithes, king of the
Agathyrsi; whereupon Scylas succeeded to the
throne, and married one of his father's wives, a woman
named Opoea. This Opoea was a Scythian by birth,
and had brought Ariapithes a son called Oricus.
Now when Scylas found himself king of Scythia, as
he disliked the Scythic mode of life, and was
attached, by his bringing up, to the manners of
the Greeks, he made it his usual practice, whenever
he came with his army to the town of the
Borysthenites, who, according to their own
account, are colonists of the Milesians- he made it his practice,
I say, to leave the army before the city, and,
having entered within the walls by himself, and
carefully closed the gates, to exchange his Scythian
dress for Grecian garments, and in this attire
to walk about the forum, without guards or
retinue. The Borysthenites kept watch at the gates, that
no Scythian might see the king thus apparelled.
Scylas, meanwhile, lived exactly as the Greeks,
and even offered sacrifices to the gods according
to the Grecian rites. In this way he would pass
a month, or more, with the Borysthenites, after
which he would clothe himself again in his Scythian
dress, and so take his departure. This he did
repeatedly, and even built himself a house in
Borysthenes, and married a wife there who was a native
of the place.
But when the time came that was ordained to bring him woe, the
occasion of his ruin was the following. He
wanted to be initiated in the Bacchic mysteries,
and was on the point of obtaining admission to the rites,
when a most strange prodigy occurred to him. The
house which he possessed, as I mentioned a short
time back, in the city of the Borysthenites, a building
of great extent and erected at a vast cost,
round which there stood a number of sphinxes and
griffins carved in white marble, was struck by lightning
from on high, and burnt to the ground. Scylas,
nevertheless, went on and received the
initiation. Now the Scythians are wont to reproach the Greeks
with their Bacchanal rage, and to say that it
is not reasonable to imagine there is a god who
impels men to madness. No sooner, therefore, was Scylas
initiated in the Bacchic mysteries than one of
the Borysthenites went and carried the news to
the Scythians "You Scyths laugh at us" he said, "because
we rave when the god seizes us. But now our god
has seized upon your king, who raves like us,
and is maddened by the influence. If you think I do
not tell you true, come with me, and I will
show him to you." The chiefs of the Scythians
went with the man accordingly, and the Borysthenite, conducting
them into the city, placed them secretly on one
of the towers. Presently Scylas passed by with
the band of revellers, raving like the rest, and
was seen by the watchers. Regarding the matter
as a very great misfortune they instantly
departed, and came and told the army what they had
witnessed.
When, therefore, Scylas, after leaving Borysthenes, was about
returning home, the Scythians broke out into
revolt. They put at their head Octamasadas,
grandson (on the mother's side) of Teres. Then
Scylas, when he learned the danger with which
he was threatened, and the reason of the disturbance,
made his escape to Thrace. Octamasadas,
discovering whither he had fled, marched after
him, and had reached the Ister, when he was met by the forces
of the Thracians. The two armies were about to
engage, but before they joined battle, Sitalces
sent a message to Octamasadas to this effect- "Why
should there be trial of arms betwixt thee and
me? Thou art my own sister's son, and thou hast
in thy keeping my brother. Surrender him into my hands,
and I will give thy Scylas back to thee. So
neither thou nor I will risk our armies."
Sitalces sent this message to Octamasadas, by a herald, and
Octamasadas, with whom a brother of Sitalces
had formerly taken refuge, accepted the terms.
He surrendered his own uncle to Sitalces, and obtained
in exchange his brother Scylas. Sitalces took
his brother with him and withdrew; but
Octamasadas beheaded Scylas upon the spot. Thus rigidly do
the Scythians maintain their own customs, and
thus severely do they punish such as adopt
foreign usages.
What the population of Scythia is I was not able to learn with
certainty; the accounts which I received varied
from one another. I heard from some that they
were very numerous indeed; others made their numbers
but scanty for such a nation as the Scyths.
Thus much, however, I witnessed with my own
eyes. There is a tract called Exampaeus between the Borysthenes
and the Hypanis. I made some mention of it in a
former place, where I spoke of the bitter
stream which rising there flows into the Hypanis, and renders
the water of that river undrinkable. Here then
stands a brazen bowl, six times as big as that
at the entrance of the Euxine, which Pausanias, the
son of Cleombrotus, set up. Such as have never
seen that vessel may understand me better if I
say that the Scythian bowl holds with ease six hundred amphorae,
and is of the thickness of six fingers'
breadth. The natives gave me the following
account of the manner in which it was made. One of their kings,
by name Ariantas, wishing to know the number of
his subjects, ordered them all to bring him, on
pain of death, the point off one of their arrows.
They obeyed; and he collected thereby a vast
heap of arrow-heads, which he resolved to form
into a memorial that might go down to posterity. Accordingly
he made of them this bowl, and dedicated it at
Exampaeus. This was all that I could learn
concerning the number of the Scythians.
The country has no marvels except its rivers, which are larger
and more numerous than those of any other land.
These, and the vastness of the great plain, are
worthy of note, and one thing besides, which I
am about to mention. They show a footmark of
Hercules, impressed on a rock, in shape like
the print of a man's foot, but two cubits in length. It is
in the neighbourhood of the Tyras. Having
described this, I return to the subject on
which I originally proposed to discourse.
The preparations of Darius against the Scythians had begun,
messengers had been despatched on all sides
with the king's commands, some being required
to furnish troops, others to supply ships,
others again to bridge the Thracian Bosphorus,
when Artabanus, son of Hystaspes and brother of Darius, entreated
the king to desist from his expedition, urging
on him the great difficulty of attacking
Scythia. Good, however, as the advice of Artabanus was, it
failed to persuade Darius. He therefore ceased
his reasonings; and Darius, when his
preparations were complete, led his army forth from
Susa.
It was then that a certain Persian, by name Oeobazus, the father
of three sons, all of whom were to accompany
the army, came and prayed the king that he
would allow one of his sons to remain with him. Darius
made answer, as if he regarded him in the light
of a friend who had urged a moderate request,
"that he would allow them all to remain." Oeobazus
was overjoyed, expecting that all his children
would be excused from serving; the king,
however, bade his attendants take the three sons of Oeobazus
and forthwith put them to death. Thus they were
all left behind, but not till they had been
deprived of life.
When Darius, on his march from Susa, reached the territory of
Chalcedon on the shores of the Bosphorus, where
the bridge had been made, he took ship and
sailed thence to the Cyanean islands, which, according to the
Greeks, once floated. He took his seat also in
the temple and surveyed the Pontus, which is
indeed well worthy of consideration. There is not
in the world any other sea so wonderful: it
extends in length eleven thousand one hundred
furlongs, and its breadth, at the widest part, is three thousand
three hundred. The mouth is but four furlongs
wide; and this strait, called the Bosphorus,
and across which the bridge of Darius had been thrown, is
a hundred and twenty furlongs in length,
reaching from the Euxine to the Propontis. The
Propontis is five hundred furlongs across, and fourteen
hundred long. Its waters flow into the
Hellespont, the length of which is four hundred
furlongs, and the width no more than seven. The Hellespont
opens into the wide sea called the Egean.
The mode in which these distances have been measured is the
following. In a long day a vessel generally
accomplishes about seventy thousand fathoms, in
the night sixty thousand. Now from the mouth of the Pontus to the
river Phasis, which is the extreme length of
this sea, is a voyage of nine days and eight
nights, which makes the distance one million one hundred and
ten thousand fathoms, or eleven thousand one
hundred furlongs. Again, from Sindica, to
Themiscyra on the river Thermodon, where the Pontus is wider
than at any other place, is a sail of three
days and two nights; which makes three hundred
and thirty thousand fathoms, or three thousand three
hundred furlongs. Such is the plan on which I
have measured the Pontus, the Bosphorus, and
the Hellespont, and such is the account which I have
to give of them. The Pontus has also a lake
belonging to it, not very much inferior to
itself in size. The waters of this lake run into the Pontus:
it is called the Maeotis, and also the Mother
of the Pontus.
Darius, after he had finished his survey, sailed back to the
bridge, which had been constructed for him by
Mandrocles a Samian. He likewise surveyed the
Bosphorus, and erected upon its shores two pillars of white
marble, whereupon he inscribed the names of all
the nations which formed his army- on the one
pillar in Greek, on the other in Assyrian characters.
Now his army was drawn from all the nations
under his sway; and the whole amount, without
reckoning the naval forces, was seven hundred thousand
men, including cavalry. The fleet consisted of
six hundred ships. Some time afterwards the
Byzantines removed these pillars to their own city,
and used them for an altar which they erected
to Orthosian Diana. One block remained behind:
it lay near the temple of Bacchus at Byzantium, and was
covered with Assyrian writing. The spot where
Darius bridged the Bosphorus was, I think, but
I speak only from conjecture, half-way between the city
of Byzantium and the temple at the mouth of the
strait.
Darius was so pleased with the bridge thrown across the strait
by the Samain Mandrocles, that he not only
bestowed upon him all the customary presents,
but gave him ten of every kind. Mandrocles, by the way of offering
first-fruits from these presents, caused a
picture to be painted which showed the whole of
the bridge, with King Darius sitting in a seat of honour,
and his army engaged in the passage. This
painting he dedicated in the temple of Juno at
Samos, attaching to it the inscription
following:-
The fish-fraught Bosphorus bridged, to Juno's
fane
Did Mandrocles this proud memorial bring;
When for himself a crown he'd skill to gain,
For Samos praise, contenting the Great King. Such was the memorial
of his work which was left by the architect of
the bridge.
Darius, after rewarding Mandrocles, passed into Europe, while he
ordered the Ionians to enter the Pontus, and
sail to the mouth of the Ister. There he bade
them throw a bridge across the stream and await his coming.
The Ionians, Aeolians, and Hellespontians were
the nations which furnished the chief strength
of his navy. So the fleet, threading the Cyanean Isles,
proceeded straight to the Ister, and, mounting
the river to the point where its channels
separate, a distance of two days' voyage from the sea, yoked
the neck of the stream. Meantime Darius, who
had crossed the Bosphorus by the bridge over
it, marched through Thrace; and happening upon the sources
of the Tearus, pitched his camp and made a stay
of three days.
Now the Tearus is said by those who dwell near it, to be the most
healthful of all streams, and to cure, among
other diseases, the scab either in man or
beast. Its sources, which are eight and thirty in number, all
flowing from the same rock, are in part cold,
in part hot. They lie at an equal distance from
the town of Heraeum near Perinthus, and Apollonia
on the Euxine, a two days' journey from each.
This river, the Tearus, is a tributary of the
Contadesdus, which runs into the Agrianes, and that
into the Hebrus. The Hebrus empties itself into
the sea near the city of Aenus.
Here then, on the banks of the Tearus, Darius stopped and pitched
his camp. The river charmed him so, that he
caused a pillar to be erected in this place
also, with an inscription to the following effect: "The fountains
of the Tearus afford the best and most
beautiful water of all rivers: they were
visited, on his march into Scythia, by the best and most beautiful
of men, Darius, son of Hystaspes, king of the
Persians, and of the whole continent." Such was
the inscription which he set up at this place.
Marching thence, he came to a second river, called the Artiscus,
which flows through the country of the
Odrysians. Here he fixed upon a certain spot,
where every one of his soldiers should throw a stone as he
passed by. When his orders were obeyed, Darius
continued his march, leaving behind him great
hills formed of the stones cast by his troops.
Before arriving at the Ister, the first people whom he subdued
were the Getae, who believe in their
immortality. The Thracians of Salmydessus, and
those who dwelt above the cities of Apollonia and Mesembria- the
Scyrmiadae and Nipsaeans, as they are called-
gave themselves up to Darius without a
struggle; but the Getae obstinately defending themselves, were
forthwith enslaved, notwithstanding that they
are the noblest as well as the most just of all
the Thracian tribes.
The belief of the Getae in respect of immortality is the
following. They think that they do not really
die, but that when they depart this life they
go to Zalmoxis, who is called also Gebeleizis by some among them.
To this god every five years they send a
messenger, who is chosen by lot out of the
whole nation, and charged to bear him their several requests.
Their mode of sending him is this. A number of
them stand in order, each holding in his hand
three darts; others take the man who is to be sent
to Zalmoxis, and swinging him by his hands and
feet, toss him into the air so that he falls
upon the points of the weapons. If he is pierced and
dies, they think that the god is propitious to
them; but if not, they lay the fault on the
messenger, who (they say) is a wicked man: and so they
choose another to send away. The messages are
given while the man is still alive. This same
people, when it lightens and thunders, aim their arrows
at the sky, uttering threats against the god;
and they do not believe that there is any god
but their own.
I am told by the Greeks who dwell on the shores of the Hellespont
and the Pontus, that this Zalmoxis was in
reality a man, that he lived at Samos, and
while there was the slave of Pythagoras son of Mnesarchus.
After obtaining his freedom he grew rich, and
leaving Samos, returned to his own country. The
Thracians at that time lived in a wretched way, and
were a poor ignorant race; Zalmoxis, therefore,
who by his commerce with the Greeks, and
especially with one who was by no means their most contemptible
philosopher, Pythagoras to wit, was acquainted
with the Ionic mode of life and with manners
more refined than those current among his countrymen,
had a chamber built, in which from time to time
he received and feasted all the principal
Thracians, using the occasion to teach them that neither
he, nor they, his boon companions, nor any of
their posterity would ever perish, but that
they would all go to a place where they would live for
aye in the enjoyment of every conceivable good.
While he was acting in this way, and holding
this kind of discourse, he was constructing an apartment
underground, into which, when it was completed,
he withdrew, vanishing suddenly from the eyes
of the Thracians, who greatly regretted his loss,
and mourned over him as one dead. He meanwhile
abode in his secret chamber three full years,
after which he came forth from his concealment, and showed
himself once more to his countrymen, who were
thus brought to believe in the truth of what he
had taught them. Such is the account of the
Greeks.
I for my part neither put entire faith in this story of Zalmoxis
and his underground chamber, nor do I
altogether discredit it: but I believe Zalmoxis
to have lived long before the time of Pythagoras. Whether there
was ever really a man of the name, or whether
Zalmoxis is nothing but a native god of the
Getae, I now bid him farewell. As for the Getae themselves,
the people who observe the practices described
above, they were now reduced by the Persians,
and accompanied the army of Darius.
When Darius, with his land forces, reached the Ister, he made his
troops cross the stream, and after all were
gone over gave orders to the Ionians to break
the bridge, and follow him with the whole naval force
in his land march. They were about to obey his
command, when the general of the Mytilenaeans,
Coes son of Erxander, having first asked whether it
was agreeable to the king to listen to one who
wished to speak his mind, addressed him in the
words following:- "Thou art about, Sire, to attack
a country no part of which is cultivated, and
wherein there is not a single inhabited city.
Keep this bridge, then, as it is, and leave those who built
it to watch over it. So if we come up with the
Scythians and succeed against them as we could
wish, we may return by this route; or if we fail of finding
them, our retreat will still be secure. For I
have no fear lest the Scythians defeat us in
battle, but my dread is lest we be unable to discover them,
and suffer loss while we wander about their
territory. And now, mayhap, it will be said, I
advise thee thus in the hope of being myself allowed
to remain behind; but in truth I have no other
design than to recommend the course which seems
to me the best; nor will I consent to be among those
left behind, but my resolve is, in any case, to
follow thee." The advice of Coes pleased Darius
highly, who thus replied to him:- "Dear Lesbian,
when I am safe home again in my palace, be sure
thou come to me, and with good deeds will I
recompense thy good words of to-day."
Having so said, the king took a leathern thong, and tying sixty
knots in it, called together the Ionian
tyrants, and spoke thus to them:- "Men of
Ionia, my former commands to you concerning the bridge are now
withdrawn. See, here is a thong: take it, and
observe my bidding with respect to it. From the
time that I leave you to march forward into Scythia, untie
every day one of the knots. If I do not return
before the last day to which the knots will
hold out, then leave your station, and sail to your several
homes. Meanwhile, understand that my resolve is
changed, and that you are to guard the bridge
with all care, and watch over its safety and preservation.
By so doing ye will oblige me greatly." When
Darius had thus spoken, he set out on his march
with all speed.
Before you come to Scythia, on the sea coast, lies Thrace. The
land here makes a sweep, and then Scythia
begins, the Ister falling into the sea at this
point with its mouth facing the east. Starting from the
Ister I shall now describe the measurements of
the seashore of Scythia. Immediately that the
Ister is crossed, Old Scythia begins, and continues
as far as the city called Carcinitis, fronting
towards the south wind and the mid-day. Here
upon the same sea, there lies a mountainous tract projecting
into the Pontus, which is inhabited by the
Tauri, as far as what is called the Rugged
Chersonese, which runs out into the sea upon the east. For the
boundaries of Scythia extend on two sides to
two different seas, one upon the south, and the
other towards the east, as is also the case with Attica.
And the Tauri occupy a position in Scythia like
that which a people would hold in Attica, who,
being foreigners and not Athenians, should inhabit
the high land of Sunium, from Thoricus to the
township of Anaphlystus, if this tract
projected into the sea somewhat further than it does. Such,
to compare great things with small, is the
Tauric territory. For the sake of those who may
not have made the voyage round these parts of Attica,
I will illustrate in another way. It is as if
in Iapygia a line were drawn from Port
Brundusium to Tarentum, and a people different from the Iapygians
inhabited the promontory. These two instances
may suggest a number of others where the shape
of the land closely resembles that of Taurica.
Beyond this tract, we find the Scythians again in possession of
the country above the Tauri and the parts
bordering on the eastern sea, as also of the
whole district lying west of the Cimmerian Bosphorus and
the Palus Maeotis, as far as the river Tanais,
which empties itself into that lake at its
upper end. As for the inland boundaries of Scythia, if
we start from the Ister, we find it enclosed by
the following tribes, first the Agathyrsi, next
the Neuri, then the Androphagi, and last of all, the
Melanchaeni.
Scythia then, which is square in shape, and has two of its sides
reaching down to the sea, extends inland to the
same distance that it stretches along the
coast, and is equal every way. For it is a ten days' journey
from the Ister to the Borysthenes, and ten more
from the Borysthenes to the Palus Maeotis,
while the distance from the coast inland to the country
of the Melanchaeni, who dwell above Scythia, is
a journey of twenty days. I reckon the day's
journey at two hundred furlongs. Thus the two sides
which run straight inland are four thousand
furlongs each, and the transverse sides at
right angles to these are also of the same length, which gives
the full size of Scythia.
The Scythians, reflecting on their situation, perceived that they
were not strong enough by themselves to contend
with the army of Darius in open fight. They,
therefore, sent envoys to the neighbouring nations,
whose kings had already met, and were in
consultation upon the advance of so vast a
host. Now they who had come together were the kings of the
Tauri, the Agathyrsi, the Neuri, the
Androphagi, the Melanchaeni, the Geloni, the
Budini, and the Sauromatae.
The Tauri have the following customs. They offer in sacrifice to
the Virgin all shipwrecked persons, and all
Greeks compelled to put into their ports by
stress of weather. The mode of sacrifice is this. After
the preparatory ceremonies, they strike the
victim on the head with a club. Then, according
to some accounts, they hurl the trunk from the precipice
whereon the temple stands, and nail the head to
a cross. Others grant that the head is treated
in this way, but deny that the body is thrown down
the cliff- on the contrary, they say, it is
buried. The goddess to whom these sacrifices
are offered the Tauri themselves declare to be Iphigenia
the daughter of Agamemnon. When they take
prisoners in war they treat them in the
following way. The man who has taken a captive cuts off his head,
and carrying it to his home, fixes it upon a
tall pole, which he elevates above his house,
most commonly over the chimney. The reason that the heads
are set up so high, is (it is said) in order
that the whole house may be under their
protection. These people live entirely by war and
plundering.
The Agathyrsi are a race of men very luxurious, and very fond of
wearing gold on their persons. They have wives
in common, that so they may be all brothers,
and, as members of one family, may neither envy nor
hate one another. In other respects their
customs approach nearly to those of the
Thracians.
The Neurian customs are like the Scythian. One generation before
the attack of Darius they were driven from
their land by a huge multitude of serpents
which invaded them. Of these some were produced in their own
country, while others, and those by far the
greater number, came in from the deserts on the
north. Suffering grievously beneath this scourge, they
quitted their homes, and took refuge with the
Budini. It seems that these people are
conjurers: for both the Scythians and the Greeks who dwell in
Scythia say that every Neurian once a year
becomes a wolf for a few days, at the end of
which time he is restored to his proper shape. Not that I
believe this, but they constantly affirm it to
be true, and are even ready to back their
assertion with an oath.
The manners of the Androphagi are more savage than those of any
other race. They neither observe justice, nor
are governed, by any laws. They are nomads, and
their dress is Scythian; but the language which they
speak is peculiar to themselves. Unlike any
other nation in these parts, they are
cannibals.
The Melanchaeni wear, all of them, black cloaks, and from this
derive the name which they bear. Their customs
are Scythic.
The Budini are a large and powerful nation: they have all deep
blue eyes, and bright red hair. There is a city
in their territory, called Gelonus, which is
surrounded with a lofty wall, thirty furlongs each way,
built entirely of wood. All the houses in the
place and all the temples are of the same
material. Here are temples built in honour of the Grecian
gods, and adorned after the Greek fashion with
images, altars, and shrines, all in wood. There
is even a festival, held every third year in honour
of Bacchus, at which the natives fall into the
Bacchic fury. For the fact is that the Geloni
were anciently Greeks, who, being driven out of the
factories along the coast, fled to the Budini
and took up their abode with them. They still
speak a language half Greek, half Scythian.
The Budini, however, do not speak the same language as the Geloni,
nor is their mode of life the same. They are
the aboriginal people of the country, and are
nomads; unlike any of the neighbouring races, they eat
lice. The Geloni on the contrary, are tillers
of the soil, eat bread, have gardens, and both
in shape and complexion are quite different from the
Budini. The Greeks notwithstanding call these
latter Geloni; but it is a mistake to give them
the name. Their country is thickly planted with
trees of all manner of kinds. In the very
woodiest part is a broad deep lake, surrounded
by marshy ground with reeds growing on it. Here otters
are caught, and beavers, with another sort of
animal which has a square face. With the skins
of this last the natives border their capotes: and
they also get from them a remedy, which is of
virtue in diseases of the womb.
It is reported of the Sauromatae, that when the Greeks fought with
the Amazons, whom the Scythians call Oior-pata
or "man-slayers," as it may be rendered, Oior
being Scythic for "man," and pata for "to slay"-
It is reported, I say, that the Greeks after
gaining the battle of the Thermodon, put to
sea, taking with them on board three of their vessels
all the Amazons whom they had made prisoners;
and that these women upon the voyage rose up
against the crews, and massacred them to a man. As however
they were quite strange to ships, and did not
know how to use either rudder, sails, or oars,
they were carried, after the death of the men, where the
winds and the waves listed. At last they
reached the shores of the Palus Maeotis and
came to a place called Cremni or "the Cliffs," which is in
the country of the free Scythians. Here they
went ashore, and proceeded by land towards the
inhabited regions; the first herd of horses which they
fell in with they seized, and mounting upon
their backs, fell to plundering the Scythian
territory.
The Scyths could not tell what to make of the attack upon them-
the dress, the language, the nation itself,
were alike unknown whence the enemy had come
even, was a marvel. Imagining, however, that they were all
men of about the same age, they went out
against them, and fought a battle. Some of the
bodies of the slain fell into their hands, whereby they discovered
the truth. Hereupon they deliberated, and made
a resolve to kill no more of them, but to send
against them a detachment of their youngest men, as
near as they could guess equal to the women in
number, with orders to encamp in their
neighbourhood, and do as they saw them do- when the Amazons
advanced against them, they were to retire, and
avoid a fight- when they halted, the young men
were to approach and pitch their camp near the camp of the
enemy. All this they did on account of their
strong desire to obtain children from so
notable a race.
So the youths departed, and obeyed the orders which had been given
them. The Amazons soon found out that they had
not come to do them any harm; and so they on
their part ceased to offer the Scythians any molestation.
And now day after day the camps approached
nearer to one another; both parties led the
same life, neither having anything but their arms and horses,
so that they were forced to support themselves
by hunting and pillage.
At last an incident brought two of them together- the man easily
gained the good graces of the woman, who bade
him by signs (for they did not understand each
other's language) to bring a friend the next day to
the spot where they had met- promising on her
part to bring with her another woman. He did
so, and the woman kept her word. When the rest of the youths
heard what had taken place, they also sought
and gained the favour of the other Amazons.
The two camps were then joined in one, the Scythians living with
the Amazons as their wives; and the men were
unable to learn the tongue of the women, but
the women soon caught up the tongue of the men. When
they could thus understand one another, the
Scyths addressed the Amazons in these words-
"We have parents, and properties, let us therefore give
up this mode of life, and return to our nation,
and live with them. You shall be our wives
there no less than here, and we promise you to have
no others." But the Amazons said- "We could not
live with your women- our customs are quite
different from theirs. To draw the bow, to hurl the javelin,
to bestride the horse, these are our arts of
womanly employments we know nothing. Your
women, on the contrary, do none of these things; but stay
at home in their waggons, engaged in womanish
tasks, and never go out to hunt, or to do
anything. We should never agree together. But if you truly
wish to keep us as your wives, and would
conduct yourselves with strict justice towards
us, go you home to your parents, bid them give you your
inheritance, and then come back to us, and let
us and you live together by ourselves."
The youths approved of the advice, and followed it. They went and
got the portion of goods which fell to them,
returned with it, and rejoined their wives, who
then addressed them in these words following:- "We are
ashamed, and afraid to live in the country
where we now are. Not only have we stolen you
from your fathers, but we have done great damage to Scythia
by our ravages. As you like us for wives, grant
the request we make of you. Let us leave this
country together, and go and dwell beyond the Tanais."
Again the youths complied.
Crossing the Tanais they journeyed eastward a distance of three
days' march from that stream, and again
northward a distance of three days' march from
the Palus Maeotis. Here they came to the country where they
now live, and took up their abode in it. The
women of the Sauromatae have continued from
that day to the present to observe their ancient customs,
frequently hunting on horseback with their
husbands, sometimes even unaccompanied; in war
taking the field; and wearing the very same dress as the
men.
The Sauromatae speak the language of Scythia, but have never
talked it correctly, because the Amazons learnt
it imperfectly at the first. Their marriage-law
lays it down that no girl shall wed till she has killed a
man in battle. Sometimes it happens that a
woman dies unmarried at an advanced age, having
never been able in her whole lifetime to fulfil the
condition.
The envoys of the Scythians, on being introduced into the presence
of the kings of these nations, who were
assembled to deliberate, made it known to them
that the Persian, after subduing the whole of the other continent,
had thrown a bridge over the strait of the
Bosphorus, and crossed into the continent of
Europe, where he had reduced the Thracians, and was now
making a bridge over the Ister, his aim being
to bring under his sway all Europe also. "Stand
ye not aloof then from this contest," they went on
to say, "look not on tamely while we are
perishing- but make common cause with us, and
together let us meet the enemy. If ye refuse, we must yield
to the pressure, and either quit our country,
or make terms with the invaders. For what else
is left for us to do, if your aid be withheld from us? The
blow, be sure, will not light on you more
gently upon this account. The Persian comes
against you no less than against us: and will not be content,
after we are conquered, to leave you in peace.
We can bring strong proof of what we here
advance. Had the Persian leader indeed come to avenge the
wrongs which he suffered at our hands when we
enslaved his people, and to war on us only, he
would have been bound to march straight upon Scythia,
without molesting any nation by the way. Then
it would have been plain to all that Scythia
alone was aimed at. But now, what has his conduct been?
From the moment of his entrance into Europe, he
has subjugated without exception every nation
that lay in his path. All the tribes of the Thracians
have been brought under his sway, and among
them even our next neighbours, the Getae."
The assembled princes of the nations, after hearing all that the
Scythians had to say, deliberated. At the end
opinion was divided- the kings of the Geloni,
Budini, and Sauromatae were of accord, and pledged
themselves to give assistance to the Scythians;
but the Agathyrsian and Neurian princes,
together with the sovereigns of the Androphagi, the Melanchaeni,
and the Tauri, replied to their request as
follows:- "If you had not been the first to
wrong the Persians, and begin the war, we should have thought
the request you make just;- we should then have
complied with your wishes, and joined our arms
with yours. Now, however, the case stands thus- you,
independently of us, invaded the land of the
Persians, and so long as God gave you the
power, lorded it over them: raised up now by the same God,
they are come to do to you the like. We, on our
part, did no wrong to these men in the former
war, and will not be the first to commit wrong now. If
they invade our land, and begin aggressions
upon us, we will not suffer them; but, till we
see this come to pass, we will remain at home. For we
believe that the Persians are not come to
attack us, but to punish those who are guilty
of first injuring them."
When this reply reached the Scythians, they resolved, as the
neighbouring nations refused their alliance,
that they would not openly venture on any
pitched battle with the enemy, but would retire
before them, driving off their herds, choking
up all the wells and springs as they retreated, and
leaving the whole country bare of forage. They
divided themselves into three bands, one of
which, namely, that commanded by Scopasis, it was agreed
should be joined by the Sauromatae, and if the
Persians advanced in the direction of the
Tanais, should retreat along the shores of the Palus Maeotis
and make for that river; while if the Persians
retired, they should at once pursue and harass
them. The two other divisions, the principal one
under the command of Idanthyrsus, and the
third, of which Taxacis was king, were to unite
in one, and, joined by the detachments of the Geloni and
Budini, were, like the others, to keep at the
distance of a day's march from the Persians,
falling back as they advanced, and doing the same as
the others. And first, they were to take the
direction of the nations which had refused to
join the alliance, and were to draw the war upon them: that
so, if they would not of their own free will
engage in the contest, they might by these
means be forced into it. Afterwards, it was agreed that
they should retire into their own land, and,
should it on deliberation appear to them
expedient, join battle with the enemy.
When these measures had been determined on, the Scythians went
out to meet the army of Darius, sending on in
front as scouts the fleetest of their horsemen.
Their waggons wherein their women and their children
lived, and all their cattle, except such a
number as was wanted for food, which they kept
with them, were made to precede them in their retreat,
and departed, with orders to keep marching,
without change of course, to the north.
The scouts of the Scythians found the Persian host advanced three
days' march from the Ister, and immediately
took the lead of them at the distance of a
day's march, encamping from time to time, and destroying
all that grow on the ground. The Persians no
sooner caught sight of the Scythian horse than
they pursued upon their track, while the enemy retired
before them. The pursuit of the Persians was
directed towards the single division of the
Scythian army, and thus their line of march was eastward
toward the Tanais. The Scyths crossed the river
and the Persians after them, still in pursuit.
in this way they passed through the country of
the Sauromatae, and entered that of the Budini.
As long as the march of the Persian army lay through the countries
of the Scythians and Sauromatae, there was
nothing which they could damage, the land being
waste and barren; but on entering the territories of the
Budini, they came upon the wooden fortress
above mentioned, which was deserted by its
inhabitants and left quite empty of everything. This place they
burnt to the ground; and having so done, again
pressed forward on the track of the retreating
Scythians, till, having passed through the entire country
of the Budini, they reached the desert, which
has no inhabitants, and extends a distance of
seven days' journey above the Budinian territory. Beyond
this desert dwell the Thyssagetae, out of whose
land four great streams flow. These rivers all
traverse the country of the Maeotians, and fall
into the Palus Maeotis. Their names are the
Lycus, the Oarus, the Tanais, and the Syrgis.
When Darius reached the desert, he paused from his pursuit, and
halted his army upon the Oarus. Here he built
eight large forts, at an equal distance from
one another, sixty furlongs apart or thereabouts, the
ruins of which were still remaining in my day.
During the time that he was so occupied, the
Scythians whom he had been following made a circuit
by the higher regions, and re-entered Scythia.
On their complete disappearance, Darius, seeing
nothing more of them, left his forts half finished, and
returned towards the west. He imagined that the
Scythians whom he had seen were the entire
nation, and that they had fled in that
direction.
He now quickened his march, and entering Scythia, fell in with
the two combined divisions of the Scythian
army, and instantly gave them chase. They kept
to their plan of retreating before him at the distance
of a day's march; and, he still following them
hotly, they led him, as had been previously
settled, into the territories of the nations that had
refused to become their allies, and first of
all into the country of the Melanchaeni. Great
disturbance was caused among this people by the invasion
of the Scyths first, and then of the Persians.
So, having harassed them after this sort, the
Scythians led the way into the land of the Androphagi,
with the same result as before; and thence
passed onwards into Neuris, where their coming
likewise spread dismay among the inhabitants. Still
retreating they approached the Agathyrsi; but
this people, which had witnessed the flight and
terror of their neighbours, did not wait for the Scyths
to invade them, but sent a herald to forbid
them to cross their borders, and to forewarn
them, that, if they made the attempt, it would be resisted
by force of arms. The Agathyrsi then proceeded
to the frontier, to defend their country
against the invaders. As for the other nations, the Melanchaeni,
the Androphagi, and the Neuri, instead of
defending themselves, when the Scyths and
Persians overran their lands, they forgot their threats and
fled away in confusion to the deserts lying
towards the north. The Scythians, when the
Agathyrsi forbade them to enter their country, refrained; and
led the Persians back from the Neurian district
into their own land.
This had gone on so long, and seemed so interminable, that Darius
at last sent a horseman to Idanthyrsus, the
Scythian king, with the following message:-
"Thou strange man, why dost thou keep on flying before me, when
there are two things thou mightest do so
easily? If thou deemest thyself able to resist
my arms, cease thy wanderings and come, let us engage in
battle. Or if thou art conscious that my
strength is greater than thine- even so thou
shouldest cease to run away- thou hast but to bring thy lord
earth and water, and to come at once to a
conference."
To this message Idanthyrsus, the Scythian king, replied:- "This
is my way, Persian. I never fear men or fly
from them. I have not done so in times past,
nor do I now fly from thee. There is nothing new or strange
in what I do; I only follow my common mode of
life in peaceful years. Now I will tell thee
why I do not at once join battle with thee. We Scythians
have neither towns nor cultivated lands, which
might induce us, through fear of their being
taken or ravaged, to be in any hurry to fight with
you. If, however, you must needs come to blows
with us speedily, look you now, there are our
fathers' tombs- seek them out, and attempt to meddle
with them- then ye shall see whether or no we
will fight with you. Till ye do this, be sure
we shall not join battle, unless it pleases us. This
is my answer to the challenge to fight. As for
lords, I acknowledge only Jove my ancestor, and
Vesta, the Scythian queen. Earth and water, the tribute
thou askedst, I do not send, but thou shalt
soon receive more suitable gifts. Last of all,
in return for thy calling thyself my lord, I say to
thee, 'Go weep.'" (This is what men mean by the
Scythian mode of speech.) So the herald
departed, bearing this message to Darius.
When the Scythian kings heard the name of slavery they were filled
with rage, and despatched the division under
Scopasis to which the Sauromatae were joined,
with orders that they should seek a conference with the Ionians,
who had been left at the Ister to guard the
bridge. Meanwhile the Scythians who remained
behind resolved no longer to lead the Persians hither and
thither about their country, but to fall upon
them whenever they should be at their meals. So
they waited till such times, and then did as they
had determined. In these combats the Scythian
horse always put to flight the horse of the
enemy; these last, however, when routed, fell back upon
their foot, who never failed to afford them
support; while the Scythians, on their side, as
soon as they had driven the horse in, retired again,
for fear of the foot. By night too the
Scythians made many similar attacks.
There was one very strange thing which greatly advantaged the
Persians, and was of equal disservice to the
Scyths, in these assaults on the Persian camp.
This was the braying of the asses and the appearance of the mules.
For, as I observed before, the land of the
Scythians produces neither ass nor mule, and
contains no single specimen of either animal, by reason of
the cold. So, when the asses brayed, they
frightened the Scythian cavalry; and often, in
the middle of a charge, the horses, hearing the noise made
by the asses, would take fright and wheel
round, pricking up their ears, and showing
astonishment. This was owing to their having never heard the
noise, or seen the form, of the animal before:
and it was not without some little influence on
the progress of the war.
The Scythians, when they perceived signs that the Persians were
becoming alarmed, took steps to induce them not
to quit Scythia, in the hope, if they stayed,
of inflicting on them the greater injury, when their
supplies should altogether fail. To effect
this, they would leave some of their cattle
exposed with the herdsmen, while they themselves moved
away to a distance: the Persians would make a
foray, and take the beasts, whereupon they
would be highly elated.
This they did several times, until at last Darius was at his wits'
end; hereon the Scythian princes, understanding
how matters stood, despatched a herald to the
Persian camp with presents for the king: these were, a
bird, a mouse, a frog, and five arrows. The
Persians asked the bearer to tell them what
these gifts might mean, but he made answer that he had no
orders except to deliver them, and return again
with all speed. If the Persians were wise, he
added, they would find out the meaning for themselves.
So when they heard this, they held a council to
consider the matter.
Darius gave it as his opinion that the Scyths intended a surrender
of themselves and their country, both land and
water, into his hands. This he conceived to be
the meaning of the gifts, because the mouse is an inhabitant
of the earth, and eats the same food as man,
while the frog passes his life in the water;
the bird bears a great resemblance to the horse, and
the arrows might signify the surrender of all
their power. To the explanation of Darius,
Gobryas, one of the seven conspirators against the Magus, opposed
another which was as follows:- "Unless,
Persians, ye can turn into birds and fly up
into the sky, or become mice and burrow under the ground, or
make yourselves frogs, and take refuge in the
fens, ye will never make escape from this land,
but die pierced by our arrows. Such were meanings
which the Persians assigned to the gifts.
The single division of the Scyths, which in the early part of the
war had been appointed to keep guard about the
Palus Maeotis, and had now been sent to get
speech of the Ionians stationed at the Ister, addressed
them, on reaching the bridge, in these words-
"Men of Ionia, we bring you freedom, if ye will
only do as we recommend. Darius, we understand, enjoined
you to keep your guard here at this bridge just
sixty days; then, if he did not appear, you
were to return home. Now, therefore, act so as to be
free from blame, alike in his sight, and in
ours. Tarry here the appointed time, and at the
end go your ways." Having said this, and received a promise
from the Ionians to do as they desired, the
Scythians hastened back with all possible
speed.
After the sending of the gifts to Darius, the part of the Scythian
army which had not marched to the Ister, drew
out in battle array horse and foot against the
Persians, and seemed about to come to an engagement.
But as they stood in battle array, it chanced
that a hare started up between them and the
Persians, and set to running; when immediately all the Scyths
who saw it, rushed off in pursuit, with great
confusion and loud cries and shouts. Darius,
hearing the noise, inquired the cause of it, and was
told that the Scythians were all engaged in
hunting a hare. On this he turned to those with
whom he was wont to converse, and said:- "These men
do indeed despise us utterly: and now I see
that Gobryas was right about the Scythian
gifts. As, therefore, his opinion is now mine likewise, it
is time we form some wise plan whereby we may
secure ourselves a safe return to our homes."
"Ah! sire," Gobryas rejoined, "I was well nigh sure, ere
I came here, that this was an impracticable
race- since our coming I am yet more convinced
of it, especially now that I see them making game of
us. My advice is, therefore, that, when night
falls, we light our fires as we are wont to do
at other times, and leaving behind us on some pretext
that portion of our army which is weak and
unequal to hardship, taking care also to leave
our asses tethered, retreat from Scythia, before our
foes march forward to the Ister and destroy the
bridge, or the Ionians come to any resolution
which may lead to our ruin."
So Gobryas advised; and when night came, Darius followed his
counsel, and leaving his sick soldiers, and
those whose loss would be of least account,
with the asses also tethered about the camp,
marched away. The asses were left that their
noise might be heard: the men, really because they were
sick and useless, but under the pretence that
he was about to fall upon the Scythians with
the flower of his troops, and that they meanwhile were
to guard his camp for him. Having thus declared
his plans to the men whom he was deserting, and
having caused the fires to be lighted, Darius set
forth, and marched hastily towards the Ister.
The asses, aware of the departure of the host,
brayed louder than ever; and the Scythians, hearing the sound,
entertained no doubt of the Persians being
still in the same place.
When day dawned, the men who had been left behind, perceiving that
they were betrayed by Darius, stretched out
their hands towards the Scythians, and spoke
as. befitted their situation. The enemy no sooner heard, than
they quickly joined all their troops in one,
and both portions of the Scythian army- alike
that which consisted of a single division, and that made up
of two- accompanied by all their allies, the
Sauromatae, the Budini, and the Geloni, set off
in pursuit, and made straight for the Ister. As, however,
the Persian army was chiefly foot, and had no
knowledge of the routes, which are not cut out
in Scythia; while the Scyths were all horsemen and
well acquainted with the shortest way; it so
happened that the two armies missed one
another, and the Scythians, getting far ahead of their
adversaries, came first to the bridge. Finding
that the Persians were not yet arrived, they
addressed the Ionians, who were aboard their ships, in these
words:- "Men of Ionia, the number of your days
is out, and ye do wrong to remain. Fear
doubtless has kept you here hitherto: now, however, you may safely
break the bridge, and hasten back to your
homes, rejoicing that you are free, and
thanking for it the gods and the Scythians. Your former lord
and master we undertake so to handle, that he
will never again make war upon any one."
The Ionians now held a council. Miltiades the Athenian, who was
king of the Chersonesites upon the Hellespont,
and their commander at the Ister, recommended
the other generals to do as the Scythians wished, and
restore freedom to Ionia. But Histiaeus the
Milesian opposed this advice. "It is through
Darius," he said, "that we enjoy our thrones in our several
states. If his power be overturned, I cannot
continue lord of Miletus, nor ye of your
cities. For there is not one of them which will not prefer
democracy to kingly rule." Then the other
captains, who, till Histiaeus spoke, were about
to vote with Miltiades, changed their minds, and declared
in favour of the last speaker.
The following were the voters on this occasion- all of them men
who stood high in the esteem of the Persian
king: the tyrants of the Hellespont- Daphnis of
Abydos, Hippoclus of Lampsacus, Herophantus of Parium, Metrodorus
of Proconnesus, Aristagoras of Cyzicus, and
Ariston of Byzantium; the Ionian princes-
Strattis of Chios, Aeaces of Samos, Laodamas of Phocaea, and
Histiaeus of Miletus, the man who had opposed
Miltiades. Only one Aeolian of note was
present, to wit, Aristagoras of Cyme.
Having resolved to follow the advice of Histiaeus, the Greek
leaders further determined to speak and act as
follows. In order to appear to the Scythians to
be doing something, when in fact they were doing nothing of
consequence, and likewise to prevent them from
forcing a passage across the Ister by the
bridge, they resolved to break up the part of the bridge
which abutted on Scythia, to the distance of a
bowshot from the river bank; and to assure the
Scythians, while the demolition was proceeding, that
there was nothing which they would not do to
pleasure them. Such were the additions made to
the resolution of Histiaeus; and then Histiaeus himself
stood forth and made answer to the Scyths in
the name of all the Greeks.- "Good is the
advice which ye have brought us, Scythians, and well have
ye done to come here with such speed. Your
efforts have now put us into the right path;
and our efforts shall not be wanting to advance your cause.
Your own eyes see that we are engaged in
breaking the bridge; and, believe us, we will
work zealously to procure our own freedom. Meantime, while
we labour here at our task, be it your business
to seek them out, and, when found, for our
sakes, as well as your own, to visit them with the
vengeance which they so well deserve."
Again the Scyths put faith in the promises of the Ionian chiefs,
and retraced their steps, hoping to fall in
with the Persians. They missed, however, the
enemy's whole line of march; their own former acts being to
blame for it. Had they not ravaged all the
pasturages of that region, and filled in all
the wells, they would have easily found the Persians whenever
they chose. But, as it turned out, the measures
which seemed to them so wisely planned were
exactly what caused their failure. They took a route
where water was to be found and fodder could be
got for their horses, and on this track sought
their adversaries, expecting that they too would retreat
through regions where these things were to be
obtained. The Persians, however, kept strictly
to the line of their former march, never for a moment departing
from it; and even so gained the bridge with
difficulty. It was night when they arrived, and
their terror, when they found the bridge broken up, was
great; for they thought that perhaps the
Ionians had deserted them.
Now there was in the army of Darius a certain man, an Egyptian,
who had a louder voice than any other man in
the world. This person was bid by Darius to
stand at the water's edge, and call Histiaeus the Milesian.
The fellow did as he was bid; and Histiaeus,
hearing him at the very first summons, brought
the fleet to assist in conveying the army across, and
once more made good the bridge.
By these means the Persians escaped from Scythia, while the Scyths
sought for them in vain, again missing their
track. And hence the Scythians are accustomed
to say of the Ionians, by way of reproach, that, if they
be looked upon as freemen, they are the basest
and most dastardly of all mankind- but if they
be considered as under servitude, they are the faithfullest
of slaves, and the most fondly at. to their
lords.
Darius, having passed through Thrace, reached Sestos in the
Chersonese, whence he crossed by the help of
his fleet into Asia, leaving a Persian, named
Megabazus, commander on the European side. This was the man on
whom Darius once conferred special honour by a
compliment which he paid him before all the
Persians. was about to eat some pomegranates, and had opened
the first, when his brother Artabanus asked him
"what he would like to have in as great plenty
as the seeds of the pomegranate?" Darius answered-
"Had I as many men like Megabazus as there are
seeds here, it would please me better than to
be lord of Greece." Such was the compliment wherewith
Darius honoured the general to whom at this
time he gave the command of the troops left in
Europe, amounting in all to some eighty thousand
men.
This same Megabazus got himself an undying remembrance among the
Hellespontians, by a certain speech which he
made. It came to his knowledge, while he was
staying at Byzantium, that the Chalcedonians made their settlement
seventeen years earlier than the Byzantines.
"Then," said he, "the Chalcedonians must at
that time have been labouring under blindness- otherwise, when
so far more excellent a site was open to them,
they would never have chosen one so greatly
inferior." Megabazus now, having been appointed to take
the command upon the Hellespont, employed
himself in the reduction of all those states
which had not of their own accord joined the
Medes.
About this very time another great expedition was undertaken
against Libya, on a pretext which I will relate
when I have premised certain particulars. The
descendants of the Argonauts in the third generation, driven out
of Lemnos by the Pelasgi who carried off the
Athenian women from Brauron, took ship and went
to Lacedaemon, where, seating themselves on Mount Taygetum,
they proceeded to kindle their fires. The
Lacedaemonians, seeing this, sent a herald to
inquire of them "who they were, and from what region they
had come"; whereupon they made answer, "that
they were Minyae, sons of the heroes by whom
the ship Argo was manned; for these persons had stayed
awhile in Lemnos, and had there become their
progenitors." On hearing this account of their
descent, the Lacedaemonians sent to them a second time,
and asked "what was their object in coming to
Lacedaemon, and there kindling their fires?"
They answered, "that, driven from their own land by the Pelasgi,
they had come, as was most reasonable, to their
fathers; and their wish was to dwell with them
in their country, partake their privileges, and
obtain allotments of land. It seemed good to
the Lacedaemonians to receive the Minyae among
them on their own terms; to assign them lands, and enrol
them in their tribes. What chiefly moved them
to this was the consideration that the sons of
Tyndarus had sailed on board the Argo. The Minyae, on
their part, forthwith married Spartan wives,
and gave the wives, whom they had married in
Lemnos, to Spartan husbands.
However, before much time had elapsed, the Minyae began to wax
wanton, demanded to share the throne, and
committed other impieties: whereupon the
Lacedaemonians passed on them sentence of death, and, seizing
them, cast them into prison. Now the
Lacedaemonians never put criminals to death in
the daytime, but always at night. When the Minyae, accordingly,
were about to suffer, their wives, who were not
only citizens, but daughters of the chief men
among the Spartans, entreated to be allowed to enter the
prison, and have some talk with their lords;
and the Spartans, not expecting any fraud from
such a quarter, granted their request. The women entered
the prison. gave their own clothes to their
husbands, and received theirs in exchange:
after which the Minyae, dressed in their wives' garments,
and thus passing for women, went forth. Having
effected their escape in this manner, they
seated themselves once more upon Taygetum.own
land
It happened that at this very time Theras, son of Autesion (whose
father Tisamenus was the son of Thersander, and
grandson of Polynices), was about to lead out a
colony from Lacedaemon This Theras, by birth a
Cadmeian, was uncle on the mother's side to the
two sons of Aristodemus, Procles and
Eurysthenes, and, during their infancy, administered in their
right the royal power. When his nephews,
however, on attaining to man's estate, took the
government, Theras, who could not bear to be under the
authority of others after he had wielded
authority so long himself, resolved to leave
Sparta and cross the sea to join his kindred. There were in the
island now called Thera, but at that time
Calliste, certain descendants of Membliarus,
the son of Poeciles, a Phoenician. (For Cadmus, the son
of Agenor, when he was sailing in search of
Europe, made a landing on this island; and,
either because the country pleased him, or because he had
a purpose in so doing, left there a number of
Phoenicians, and with them his own kinsman
Membliarus. Calliste had been inhabited by this race for
eight generations of men, before the arrival of
Theras from Lacedaemon.)
Theras now, having with him a certain number of men from each of
the tribes, was setting forth on his expedition
hitherward. Far from intending to drive out the
former inhabitants, he regarded them as his near kin,
and meant to settle among them. It happened
that just at this time the Minyae, having
escaped from their prison, had taken up their station upon
Mount Taygetum; and the Lacedaemonians, wishing
to destroy them, were considering what was best
to be done, when Theras begged their lives, undertaking to
remove them from the territory. His prayer
being granted, he took ship, and sailed, with
three triaconters, to join the descendants of Membliarus.
He was not, however, accompanied by all the
Minyae, but only by some few of them. The
greater number fled to the land of the Paroreats and Caucons,
whom they drove out, themselves occupying the
region in six bodies, by which were afterwards
built the towns of Lepreum, Macistus, Phryxae, Pyrgus,
Epium, and Nudium; whereof the greater part
were in my day demolished by the Eleans.
The island was called Thera after the name of its founder. This
same Theras had a son, who refused to cross the
sea with him; Theras therefore left him behind,
"a sheep," as he said, "among wolves." From this speech
his son came to be called Oeolycus, a name
which afterwards grew to be the only one by
which he was known. This Oeolycus was the father of Aegeus,
from whom sprang the Aegidae, a great tribe in
Sparta. The men of this tribe lost at one time
all their children, whereupon they were bidden by
an oracle to build a temple to the furies of
Laius and Oedipus; they complied, and the
mortality ceased. The same thing happened in Thera to the
descendants of these men.
Thus far the history is delivered without variation both by the
Theraeans and the Lacedaemonians; but from this
point we have only the Theraean narrative.
Grinus (they say), the son of Aesanius, a descendant
of Theras, and king of the island of Thera,
went to Delphi to offer a hecatomb on behalf of
his native city. He was accompanied by a large number of the
citizens, and among the rest by Battus, the son
of Polymnestus, who belonged to the Minyan
family of the Euphemidae. On Grinus consulting the oracle
about sundry matters, the Pythoness gave him
for answer, "that he should found a city in
Libya." Grinus replied to this: "I, O king! am too far
advanced in years, and too inactive, for such a
work. Bid one of these youngsters undertake
it." As he spoke, he pointed towards Battus; and thus
the matter rested for that time. When the
embassy returned to Thera, small account was
taken of the oracle by the Theraeans, as they were quite ignorant
where Libya was, and were not so venturesome as
to send out a colony in the dark.
Seven years passed from the utterance of the oracle, and not a
drop of rain fell in Thera: all the trees in
the island, except one, were killed with the
drought. The Theraeans upon this sent to Delphi, and were
reminded reproachfully that they had never
colonised Libya. So, as there was no help for
it, they sent messengers to Crete, to inquire whether any
of the Cretans, or of the strangers sojourning
among them, had ever travelled as far as Libya:
and these messengers of theirs, in their wanderings about
the island, among other places visited Itanus,
where they fell in with a man, whose name was
Corobius, a dealer in purple. In answer to their
inquiries, he told them that contrary winds had
once carried him to Libya, where he had gone
ashore on a certain island which was named Platea. So
they hired this man's services, and took him
back with them to Thera. A few persons then
sailed from Thera to reconnoitre. Guided by Corobius to
the island of Platea, they left him there with
provisions for a certain number of months, and
returned home with all speed to give their countrymen
an account of the island.
During their absence, which was prolonged beyond the time that
had been agreed upon, Corobius provisions
failed him. He was relieved, however, after a
while by a Samian vessel, under the command of a man named
Colaeus, which, on its way to Egypt, was forced
to put in at Platea. The crew, informed by
Corobius of all the circumstances, left him sufficient
food for a year. They themselves quitted the
island; and, anxious to reach Egypt, made sail
in that direction, but were carried out of their course
by a gale of wind from the east. The storm not
abating, they were driven past the Pillars of
Hercules, and at last, by some special guiding providence,
reached Tartessus. This trading town was in
those days a virgin port, unfrequented by the
merchants. The Samians, in consequence, made by the return voyage
a profit greater than any Greeks before their
day, excepting Sostratus, son of Laodamas, an
Eginetan, with whom no one else can compare. From the
tenth part of their gains, amounting to six
talents, the Samians made a brazen vessel, in
shape like an Argive wine-bowl, adorned with the heads
of griffins standing out in high relief. This
bowl, supported by three kneeling colossal
figures in bronze, of the height of seven cubits, was
placed as an offering in the temple of Juno at
Samos. The aid given to Corobius was the
original cause of that close friendship which afterwards
united the Cyrenaeans and Theraeans with the
Samians.
The Theraeans who had left Corobius at Platea, when they reached
Thera, told their countrymen that they had
colonised an island on the coast of Libya. They
of Thera, upon this, resolved that men should be sent to
join the colony from each of their seven
districts, and that the brothers in every
family should draw lots to determine who were to go. Battus was
chosen to be king and leader of the colony. So
these men departed for Platea on board of two
penteconters.
Such is the account which the Theraeans give. In the sequel of
the history their accounts tally with those of
the people of Cyrene; but in what they relate
of Battus these two nations differ most widely. The
following is the Cyrenaic story. There was once
a king named Etearchus, who ruled over Axus, a
city in Crete, and had a daughter named Phronima.
This girl's mother having died, Etearchus
married a second wife; who no sooner took up
her abode in his house than she proved a true step-mother
to poor Phronima, always vexing her, and
contriving against her every sort of mischief.
At last she taxed her with light conduct; and Etearchus, persuaded
by his wife that the charge was true, bethought
himself of a most barbarous mode of punishment.
There was a certain Theraean, named Themison, a merchant,
living at Axus. This man Etearchus invited to
be his friend and guest, and then induced him
to swear that he would do him any service he might
require. No sooner had he given the promise,
than the king fetched Phronima, and, delivering
her into his hands, told him to carry her away and throw
her into the sea. Hereupon Themison, full of
indignation at the fraud whereby his oath had
been procured, dissolved forthwith the friendship, and, taking
the girl with him, sailed away from Crete.
Having reached the open main, to acquit himself
of the obligation under which he was laid by his oath
to Etearchus, he fastened ropes about the
damsel, and, letting her down into the sea,
drew her up again, and so made sail for Thera.
At Thera, Polymnestus, one of the chief citizens of the place,
took Phronima to be his concubine. The fruit of
this union was a son, who stammered and had a
lisp in his speech. According to the Cyrenaeans and
Theraeans the name given to the boy was Battus:
in my opinion, however, he was called at the
first something else, and only got the name of Battus
after his arrival in Libya, assuming it either
in consequence of the words addressed to him by
the Delphian oracle, or on account of the office which
he held. For, in the Libyan tongue, the word
"Battus" means "a king." And this, I think, was
the reason the Pythoness addressed him as she did: she
said he was to be a king in Libya, and so she
used the Libyan word in speaking to him. For
after he had grown to man's estate, he made a journey to Delphi,
to consult the oracle about his voice; when,
upon his putting his question, the Pythoness
thus replied to him:-
Battus, thou camest to ask of thy voice; but Phoebus
Apollo
Bids thee establish a city in Libya, abounding in fleeces; which
was as if she had said in her own tongue,
"King, thou camest to ask of thy voice." Then
he replied, "Mighty lord, I did indeed come hither to consult
thee about my voice, but thou speakest to me of
quite other matters, bidding me colonise Libya-
an impossible thing! what power have I? what followers?"
Thus he spake, but he did not persuade the
Pythoness to give him any other response; so,
when he found that she persisted in her former answer, he
left her speaking, and set out on his return to
Thera.
After a while, everything began to go wrong both with Battus and
with the rest of the Theraeans, whereupon these
last, ignorant of the cause of their
sufferings, sent to Delphi to inquire for what reason they were
afflicted. The Pythoness in reply told them
"that if they and Battus would make a
settlement at Cyrene in Libya, things would go better with them."
Upon this the Theraeans sent out Battus with
two penteconters, and with these he proceeded
to Libya, but within a little time, not knowing what
else to do, the men returned and arrived off
Thera. The Theraeans, when they saw the vessels
approaching, received them with showers of missiles,
would not allow them to come near the shore,
and ordered the men to sail back from whence
they came. Thus compelled to return, they settled on an
island near the Libyan coast, which (as I have
already said) was called Platea. In size it is
reported to have been about equal to the city of
Cyrene, as it now stands.
In this place they continued two years, but at the end of that
time, as their ill luck still followed them,
they left the island to the care of one of
their number, and went in a body to Delphi, where they made
complaint at the shrine to the effect that,
notwithstanding they had colonised Libya, they
prospered as poorly as before. Hereon the Pythoness made them
the following answer:-
Knowest thou better than I, fair Libya abounding in
fleeces?
Better the stranger than he who has trod it? Oh! clever Theraeans!
Battus and his friends, when they heard this,
sailed back to Platea: it was plain the god
would not hold them acquitted of the colony till they
were absolutely in Libya. So, taking with them
the man whom they had left upon the island,
they made a settlement on the mainland directly opposite
Platea, fixing themselves at a place called
Aziris, which is closed in on both sides by the
most beautiful hills, and on one side is washed by
a river.
Here they remained six years, at the end of which time the Libyans
induced them to move, promising that they would
lead them to a better situation. So the Greeks
left Aziris and were conducted by the Libyans towards the
west, their journey being so arranged, by the
calculation of their guides, that they passed
in the night the most beautiful district of that whole
country, which is the region called Irasa. The
Libyans brought them to a spring, which goes by
the name of Apollo's fountain, and told them- "Here,
Grecians, is the proper place for you to
settle; for here the sky leaks."
During the lifetime of Battus, the founder of the colony, who
reigned forty years, and during that of his son
Arcesilaus, who reigned sixteen, the Cyrenaeans
continued at the same level, neither more nor fewer in number
than they were at the first. But in the reign
of the third king, Battus, surnamed the Happy,
the advice of the Pythoness brought Greeks from every
quarter into Libya, to join the settlement. The
Cyrenaeans had offered to all comers a share in
their lands; and the oracle had spoken as
follows:-
He that is backward to share in the pleasant Libyan
acres,
Sooner or later, I warn him, will feel regret at his folly. Thus a
great multitude were collected together to
Cyrene, and the Libyans of the neighbourhood
found themselves stripped of large portions of their lands.
So they, and their king Adicran, being robbed
and insulted by the Cyrenaeans, sent messengers
to Egypt, and put themselves under the rule of Apries,
the Egyptian monarch; who, upon this, levied a
vast army of Egyptians, and sent them against
Cyrene. The inhabitants of that place left their
walls and marched out in force to the district
of Irasa, where, near the spring called Theste,
they engaged the Egyptian host, and defeated it.
The Egyptians, who had never before made trial
of the prowess of the Greeks, and so thought
but meanly of them, were routed with such slaughter that
but a very few of them ever got back home. For
this reason, the subjects of Apries, who laid
the blame of the defeat on him, revolted from his
authority.
This Battus left a son called Arcesilaus, who, when he came to
the throne, had dissensions with his brothers,
which ended in their quitting him and departing
to another region of Libya, where, after consulting among
themselves, they founded the city, which is
still called by the name then given to it,
Barca. At the same time they endeavoured to induce the Libyans
to revolt from Cyrene. Not long afterwards
Arcesilaus made an expedition against the
Libyans who had received his brothers and been prevailed upon
to revolt; and they, fearing his power, fled to
their countrymen who dwelt towards the east.
Arcesilaus pursued, and chased them to a place called
Leucon, which is in Libya, where the Libyans
resolved to risk a battle. Accordingly they
engaged the Cyrenaeans, and defeated them so entirely
that as many as seven thousand of their
heavy-armed were slain in the fight.
Arcesilaus, after this blow, fell sick, and,
whilst he was under the influence of a draught
which he had taken, was strangled by Learchus, one of his
brothers. This Learchus was afterwards
entrapped by Eryxo, the widow of Arcesilaus,
and put to death.
Battus, Arcesilaus' son, succeeded to the kingdom, a lame man,
who limped in his walk. Their late calamities
now induced the Cyrenaeans to send to Delphi
and inquire of the god what form of government they had
best set up to secure themselves prosperity.
The Pythoness answered by recommending them to
fetch an arbitrator from Mantinea in Arcadia. Accordingly
they sent; and the Mantineans gave them a man
named Demonax, a person of high repute among
the citizens; who, on his arrival at Cyrene, having first
made himself acquainted with all the
circumstances, proceeded to enrol the people in
three tribes. One he made to consist of the Theraeans and
their vassals; another of the Peloponnesians
and Cretans; and a third of the various
islanders. Besides this, he deprived the king Battus of his
former privileges, only reserving for him
certain sacred lands and offices; while, with
respect to the powers which had hitherto been exercised by
the king, he gave them all into the hands of
the people.
Thus matters rested during the lifetime of this Battus, but when
his son Arcesilaus came to the throne, great
disturbance arose about the privileges. For
Arcesilaus, son of Battus the lame and Pheretima, refused
to submit to the arrangements of Demonax the
Mantinean, and claimed all the powers of his
forefathers. In the contention which followed Arcesilaus
was worsted, whereupon he fled to Samos, while
his mother took refuge at Salamis in the island
of Cyprus. Salamis was at that time ruled by Evelthon,
the same who offered at Delphi the censer which
is in the treasury of the Corinthians, a work
deserving of admiration. Of him Pheretima made request
that he would give her an army whereby she and
her son might regain Cyrene. But Evelthon,
preferring to give her anything rather than an army, made
her various presents. Pheretima accepted them
all, saying, as she took them: "Good is this
too, O king! but better were it to give me the army
which I crave at thy hands." Finding that she
repeated these words each time that he
presented her with a gift, Evelthon at last sent her a golden
spindle and distaff, with the wool ready for
spinning. Again she uttered the same speech as
before, whereupon Evelthon rejoined-"These are the gifts
I present to women, not armies."
At Samos, meanwhile, Arcesilaus was collecting troops by the
promise of granting them lands. Having in this
way drawn together a vast host, he sent to
Delphi to consult the oracle about his restoration. The answer
of the Pythoness was this: "Loxias grants thy
race to rule over Cyrene, till four kings
Battus, four Arcesilaus by name, have passed away. Beyond
this term of eight generations of men, he warns
you not to seek to extend your reign. Thou, for
thy part, be gentle, when thou art restored. If thou
findest the oven full of jars, bake not the
jars; but be sure to speed them on their way.
If, however, thou heatest the oven, then avoid the island
else thou wilt die thyself, and with thee the
most beautiful bull."
So spake the Pythoness. Arcesilaus upon this returned to Cyrene,
taking with him the troops which he had raised
in Samos. There he obtained possession of the
supreme power; whereupon, forgetful of the oracle, he
took proceedings against those who had driven
him into banishment. Some of them fled from him
and quitted the country for good; others fell into
his hands and were sent to suffer death in
Cyprus. These last happening on their passage
to put in through stress of weather at Cnidus, the Cnidians
rescued them, and sent them off to Thera.
Another body found a refuge in the great tower
of Aglomachus, a private edifice, and were there destroyed
by Arcesilaus, who heaped wood around the
place, and burnt them to death. Aware, after
the deed was done, that this was what the Pythoness meant
when she warned him, if he found the jars in
the oven, not to bake them, he withdrew himself
of his own accord from the city of Cyrene, believing
that to be the island of the oracle, and
fearing to die as had been prophesied. Being
married to a relation of his own, a daughter of Alazir, at that
time king of the Barcaeans, he took up his
abode with him. At Barca, however, certain of
the citizens, together with a number of Cyrenaean exiles,
recognising him as he walked in the forum,
killed him; they slew also at the same time
Alazir, his father-in-law. So Arcesilaus,
wittingly or unwittingly, disobeyed the oracle,
and thereby fulfilled his destiny.
Pheretima, the mother of Arcesilaus, during the time that her son,
after working his own ruin, dwelt at Barca,
continued to enjoy all his privileges at
Cyrene, managing the government, and taking her seat at the
council-board. No sooner, however, did she hear
of the death of her son at Barca, than leaving
Cyrene, she fled in haste to Egypt. Arcesilaus had
claims for service done to Cambyses, son of
Cyrus; since it was by him that Cyrene was put
under the Persian yoke, and a rate of tribute agreed
upon. Pheretima therefore went straight to
Egypt, and presenting herself as a suppliant
before Aryandes, entreated him to avenge her wrongs. Her
son, she said, had met his death on account of
his being so well affected towards the Medes.
Now Aryandes had been made governor of Egypt by Cambyses. He it
was who in after times was punished with death
by Darius for seeking to rival him. Aware, by
report and also by his own eyesight, that Darius wished
to leave a memorial of himself, such as no king
had ever left before, Aryandes resolved to
follow his example, and did so, till he got his reward. Darius
had refined gold to the last perfection of
purity in order to have coins struck of it:
Aryandes, in his Egyptian government, did the very same with
silver, so that to this day there is no such
pure silver anywhere as the Aryandic. Darius,
when this came to his ears, brought another charge, a
charge of rebellion, against Aryandes, and put
him to death.
At the time of which we are speaking Aryandes, moved with
compassion for Pheretima, granted her all the
forces which there were in Egypt, both land and
sea. The command of the army he gave to Amasis, a Maraphian; while
Badres, one of the tribe of the Pasargadae, was
appointed to lead the fleet. Before the
expedition, however, left Egypt, he sent a herald to Barca to
inquire who it was that had slain king
Arcesilaus. The Barcaeans replied "that they,
one and all, acknowledged the deed- Arcesilaus had done them
many and great injuries." After receiving this
reply, Aryandes gave the troops orders to march
with Pheretima. Such was the cause which served
as a pretext for this expedition: its real
object was, I believe, the subjugation of
Libya. For Libya is inhabited by many and various races, and of
these but very few were subjects of the Persian
king, while by far the larger number held
Darius in no manner of respect.
The Libyans dwell in the order which I will now describe.
Beginning on the side of Egypt, the first
Libyans are the Adyrmachidae These people have,
in most points, the same customs as the Egyptians, but use the
costume of the Libyans. Their women wear on
each leg a ring made of bronze; they let their
hair grow long, and when they catch any vermin on their persons,
bite it and throw it away. In this they differ
from all the other Libyans. They are also the
only tribe with whom the custom obtains of bringing all
women about to become brides before the king,
that he may choose such as are agreeable to
him. The Adyrmachidae extend from the borders of Egypt
to the harbour called Port Plynus.
Next to the Adyrmachidae are the Gilligammae, who inhabit the
country westward as far as the island of
Aphrodisias. Off this tract is the island of
Platea, which the Cyrenaeans colonised. Here too, upon the
mainland, are Port Menelaus, and Aziris, where
the Cyrenaeans once lived. The Silphium begins
to grow in this region, extending from the island of Platea on the
one side to the mouth of the Syrtis on the
other. The customs of the Gilligammae are like
those of the rest of their countrymen.
The Asbystae adjoin the Gilligammae upon the west. They inhabit
the regions above Cyrene, but do not reach to
the coast, which belongs to the Cyrenaeans.
Four-horse chariots are in more common use among them
than among any other Libyans. In most of their
customs they ape the manners of the Cyrenaeans.
Westward of the Asbystae dwell the Auschisae, who possess the
country above Barca, reaching, however, to the
sea at the place called Euesperides. In the
middle of their territory is the little tribe of the Cabalians,
which touches the coast near Tauchira, a city
of the Barcaeans. Their customs are like those
of the Libyans above Cyrene.
The Nasamonians, a numerous people, are the western neighbours
of the Auschisae. In summer they leave their
flocks and herds upon the sea-shore, and go up
the country to a place called Augila, where they gather
the dates from the palms, which in those parts
grow thickly, and are of great size, all of
them being of the fruit-bearing kind. They also chase
the locusts, and, when caught, dry them in the
sun, after which they grind them to powder,
and, sprinkling this upon their milk, so drink it. Each
man among them has several wives, in their
intercourse with whom they resemble the
Massagetae. The following are their customs in the swearing of
oaths and the practice of augury. The man, as
he swears, lays his hand upon the tomb of some
one considered to have been pre-eminently just and good, and
so doing swears by his name. For divination
they betake themselves to the sepulchres of
their own ancestors, and, after praying, lie down to sleep
upon their graves; by the dreams which then
come to them they guide their conduct. When
they pledge their faith to one another, each gives the other
to drink out of his hand; if there be no liquid
to be had, they take up dust from the ground,
and put their tongues to it.
On the country of the Nasamonians borders that of the Psylli, who
were swept away under the following
circumstances. The south-wind had blown for a
long time and dried up all the tanks in which their water was
stored. Now the whole region within the Syrtis
is utterly devoid of springs. Accordingly the
Psylli took counsel among themselves, and by common consent made
war upon the southwind- so at least the Libyans
say, I do but repeat their words- they went
forth and reached the desert; but there the south-wind
rose and buried them under heaps of sand:
whereupon, the Psylli being destroyed, their
lands passed to the Nasamonians.
Above the Nasamonians, towards the south, in the district where
the wild beasts abound, dwell the Garamantians,
who avoid all society or intercourse with their
fellow-men, have no weapon of war, and do not know
how to defend themselves.
These border the Nasamonians on the south: westward along the
sea-shore their neighbours are the Macea, who,
by letting the locks about the crown of their
head grow long, while they clip them close everywhere else, make
their hair resemble a crest. In war these
people use the skins of ostriches for shields.
The river Cinyps rises among them from the height called "the
Hill of the Graces," and runs from thence
through their country to the sea. The Hill of
the Graces is thickly covered with wood, and is thus very
unlike the rest of Libya, which is bare. It is
distant two hundred furlongs from the sea.
Adjoining the Macae are the Gindanes, whose women wear on their
legs anklets of leather. Each lover that a
woman has gives her one; and she who can show
the most is the best esteemed, as she appears to have
been loved by the greatest number of men.
A promontory jutting out into the sea from the country of the
Gindanes is inhabited by the Lotophagi, who
live entirely on the fruit of the lotus-tree.
The lotus fruit is about the size of the
lentisk berry, and in sweetness resembles the
date. The Lotophagi even succeed in obtaining from it a sort
of wine.
The sea-coast beyond the Lotophagi is occupied by the Machlyans,
who use the lotus to some extent, though not so
much as the people of whom we last spoke. The
Machlyans reach as far as the great river called the
Triton, which empties itself into the great
lake Tritonis. Here, in this lake, is an island
called Phla, which it is said the Lacedaemonians were
to have colonised, according to an oracle.
The following is the story as it is commonly told. When Jason had
finished building the Argo at the foot of Mount
Pelion, he took on board the usual hecatomb,
and moreover a brazen tripod. Thus equipped, he set
sail, intending to coast round the Peloponnese,
and so to reach Delphi. The voyage was
prosperous as far as Malea; but at that point a gale of
wind from the north came on suddenly, and
carried him out of his course to the coast of
Libya; where, before he discovered the land, he got among
the shallows of Lake Tritonis. As he was
turning it in his mind how he should find his
way out, Triton (they say) appeared to him, and offered
to show him the channel, and secure him a safe
retreat, if he would give him the tripod. Jason
complying, was shown by Triton the passage through
the shallows; after which the god took the
tripod, and, carrying it to his own temple,
seated himself upon it, and, filled with prophetic fury,
delivered to Jason and his companions a long
prediction. "When a descendant," he said, "of
one of the Argo's crew should seize and carry off the brazen
tripod, then by inevitable fate would a hundred
Grecian cities be built around Lake Tritonis."
The Libyans of that region, when they heard the
words of this prophecy, took away the tripod
and hid it.
The next tribe beyond the Machlyans is the tribe of the Auseans.
Both these nations inhabit the borders of Lake
Tritonis, being separated from one another by
the river Triton. Both also wear their hair long, but
the Machlyans let it grow at the back of the
head, while the Auseans have it long in front.
The Ausean maidens keep year by year a feast in honour
of Minerva, whereat their custom is to draw up
in two bodies, and fight with stones and clubs.
They say that these are rites which have come down
to them from their fathers, and that they
honour with them their native goddess, who is
the same as the Minerva (Athene) of the Grecians. If any
of the maidens die of the wounds they receive,
the Auseans declare that such are false
maidens. Before the fight is suffered to begin, they have
another ceremony. One of the virgins, the
loveliest of the number, is selected from the
rest; a Corinthian helmet and a complete suit of Greek armour
are publicly put upon her; and, thus adorned,
she is made to mount into a chariot, and led
around the whole lake in a procession. What arms they
used for the adornment of their damsels before
the Greeks came to live in their country, I
cannot say. I imagine they dressed them in Egyptian
armour, for I maintain that both the shield and
the helmet came into Greece from Egypt. The
Auseans declare that Minerva is the daughter of Neptune
and the Lake Tritonis- they say she quarrelled
with her father, and applied to Jupiter, who
consented to let her be his child; and so she became his
adopted daughter. These people do not marry or
live in families, but dwell together like the
gregarious beasts. When their children are full-grown,
they are brought before the assembly of the
men, which is held every third month, and
assigned to those whom they most resemble.
Such are the tribes of wandering Libyans dwelling upon the
sea-coast. Above them inland is the wild-beast
tract: and beyond that, a ridge of sand,
reaching from Egyptian Thebes to the Pillars of Hercules.
Throughout this ridge, at the distance of about
ten days' journey from one another, heaps of
salt in large lumps lie upon hills. At the top of every hill there
gushes forth from the middle of the salt a
stream of water, which is both cold and sweet.
Around dwell men who are the last inhabitants of Libya
on the side of the desert, living, as they do,
more inland than the wild-beast district. Of
these nations the first is that of the Ammonians, who dwell
at a distance of ten days' from Thebes, and
have a temple derived from that of the Theban
Jupiter. For at Thebes likewise, as I mentioned above,
the image of Jupiter has a face like that of a
ram. The Ammonians have another spring besides
that which rises from the salt. The water of this
stream is lukewarm at early dawn; at the time
when the market fills it is much cooler; by
noon it has grown quite cold; at this time, therefore,
they water their gardens. As the afternoon
advances the coldness goes off, till, about
sunset, the water is once more lukewarm; still the heat increases,
and at midnight it boils furiously. After this
time it again begins to cool, and grows less
and less hot till morning comes. This spring is called
"the Fountain of the Sun."
Next to the Ammonians, at the distance of ten days' journey along
the ridge of sand, there is a second salt-hill
like the Ammonian, and a second spring. The
country round is inhabited, and the place bears the
name of Augila. Hither it is that the
Nasamonians come to gather in the dates.
Ten days' journey from Augila there is again a salt-hill and a
spring; palms of the fruitful kind grow here
abundantly, as they do also at the other
salt-hills. This region is inhabited by a nation called the
Garamantians, a very powerful people, who cover
the salt with mould, and then sow their crops.
From thence is the shortest road to the Lutophagi,
a journey of thirty days. In the Garamantian
country are found the oxen which, as they
graze, walk backwards. This they do because their horns
curve outwards in front of their heads, so that
it is not possible for them when grazing to
move forwards, since in that case their horns would
become fixed in the ground. Only herein do they
differ from other oxen, and further in the
thickness and hardness of their hides. The Garamantians
have four-horse chariots, in which they chase
the Troglodyte Ethiopians, who of all the
nations whereof any account has reached our ears are by
far the swiftest of foot. The Troglodytes feed
on serpents, lizards, and other similar
reptiles. Their language is unlike that of any other people;
it sounds like the screeching of bats.
At the distance of ten days' journey from the Garamantians there
is again another salt-hill and spring of water;
around which dwell a people, called the
Atarantians, who alone of all known nations are destitute of
names. The title of Atarantians is borne by the
whole race in common; but the men have no
particular names of their own. The Atarantians, when the
sun rises high in the heaven, curse him, and
load him with reproaches, because (they say) he
burns and wastes both their country and themselves.
Once more at the distance of ten days' there is
a salt-hill, a spring, and an inhabited tract.
Near the salt is a mountain called Atlas, very
taper and round; so lofty, moreover, that the
top (it is said) cannot be seen, the clouds
never quitting it either summer or winter. The natives
call this mountain "the Pillar of Heaven"; and
they themselves take their name from it, being
called Atlantes. They are reported not to eat any living
thing, and never to have any dreams.
As far as the Atlantes the names of the nations inhabiting the
sandy ridge are known to me; but beyond them my
knowledge fails. The ridge itself extends as
far as the Pillars of Hercules, and even further than
these; and throughout the whole distance, at
the end of every ten days' there is a
salt-mine, with people dwelling round it who all of them build
their houses with blocks of the salt. No rain
falls in these parts of Libya; if it were
otherwise, the walls of these houses could not stand. The salt
quarried is of two colours, white and purple.
Beyond the ridge, southwards, in the direction
of the interior, the country is a desert, with no springs,
no beasts, no rain, no wood, and altogether
destitute of moisture.
Thus from Egypt as far as Lake Tritonis Libya is inhabited by
wandering tribes, whose drink is milk and their
food the flesh of animals. Cow's flesh,
however, none of these tribes ever taste, but abstain from it for
the same reason as the Egyptians, neither do
they any of them breed swine. Even at Cyrene,
the women think it wrong to eat the flesh of the cow, honouring
in this Isis, the Egyptian goddess, whom they
worship both with fasts and festivals. The
Barcaean women abstain, not from cow's flesh only, but also
from the flesh of swine.
West of Lake Tritonis the Libyans are no longer wanderers, nor
do they practise the same customs as the
wandering people, or treat their children in
the same way. For the wandering Libyans, many of them at any
rate, if not all- concerning which I cannot
speak with certainty- when their children come
to the age of four years, burn the veins at the top
of their heads with a flock from the fleece of
a sheep: others burn the veins about the
temples. This they do to prevent them from being plagued
in their after lives by a flow of rheum from
the head; and such they declare is the reason
why they are so much more healthy than other men. Certainly
the Libyans are the healthiest men that I know;
but whether this is what makes them so, or not,
I cannot positively say- the healthiest certainly
they are. If when the children are being burnt
convulsions come on, there is a remedy of which
they have made discovery. It is to sprinkle goat's
water upon the child, who thus treated, is sure
to recover. In all this I only repeat what is
said by the Libyans.
The rites which the wandering Libyans use in sacrificing are the
following. They begin with the ear of the
victim, which they cut off and throw over their
house: this done, they kill the animal by twisting the
neck. They sacrifice to the Sun and Moon, but
not to any other god. This worship is common to
all the Libyans. The inhabitants of the parts about
Lake Tritonis worship in addition Triton,
Neptune, and Minerva, the last especially.
The dress wherewith Minerva's statues are adorned, and her Aegis,
were derived by the Greeks from the women of
Libya. For, except that the garments of the
Libyan women are of leather, and their fringes made of
leathern thongs instead of serpents, in all
else the dress of both is exactly alike. The
name too itself shows that the mode of dressing the Pallas-statues
came from Libya. For the Libyan women wear over
their dress stript of the hair, fringed at
their edges, and coloured with vermilion; and from these
goat-skins the Greeks get their word Aegis
(goat-harness). I think for my part that the
loud cries uttered in our sacred rites came also from
thence; for the Libyan women are greatly given
to such cries and utter them very sweetly.
Likewise the Greeks learnt from the Libyans to yoke
four horses to a chariot.
All the wandering tribes bury their dead according to the fashion
of the Greeks, except the Nasamonians. They
bury them sitting, and are right careful when
the sick man is at the point of giving up the ghost,
to make him sit and not let him die lying down.
The dwellings of these people are made of the
stems of the asphodel, and of rushes wattled together.
They can be carried from place to place. Such
are the customs of the afore-mentioned tribes.
Westward of the river Triton and adjoining upon the Auseans, are
other Libyans who till the ground, and live in
houses: these people are named the Maxyans.
They let the hair grow long on the right side of their
heads, and shave it close on the left; they
besmear their bodies with red paint; and they
say that they are descended from the men of Troy. Their
country and the remainder of Libya towards the
west is far fuller of wild beasts and of wood
than the country of the wandering people. For the eastern
side of Libya, where the wanderers dwell, is
low and sandy, as far as the river Triton; but
westward of that the land of the husbandmen is very hilly,
and abounds with forests and wild beasts. For
this is the tract in which the huge serpents
are found, and the lions, the elephants, the bears, the
aspicks, and the horned asses. Here too are the
dog-faced creatures, and the creatures without
heads, whom the Libyans declare to have their eyes
in their breasts; and also the wild men, and
wild women, and many other far less fabulous
beasts.
Among the wanderers are none of these, but quite other animals;
as antelopes, gazelles, buffaloes, and asses,
not of the horned sort, but of a kind which
does not need to drink; also oryxes, whose horns are used
for the curved sides of citherns, and whose
size is about that of the ox; foxes, hyaenas
porcupines, wild rams, dictyes, jackals, panthers, boryes,
land-crocodiles about three cubits in length,
very like lizards, ostriches, and little
snakes, each with a single horn. All these animals are found
here, and likewise those belonging to other
countries, except the stag and the wild boar;
but neither stag nor wild-boar are found in any part
of Libya. There are, however, three sorts of
mice in these parts; the first are called
two-footed; the next, zegeries, which is a Libyan word meaning
"hills"; and the third, urchins. Weasels also
are found in the Silphium region, much like the
Tartessian. So many, therefore, are the animals belonging
to the land of the wandering Libyans, in so far
at least as my researches have been able to
reach.
Next to the Maxyan Libyans are the Zavecians, whose wives drive
their chariots to battle.
On them border the Gyzantians; in whose country a vast deal of
honey is made by bees; very much more, however,
by the skill of men. The people all paint
themselves red, and eat monkeys, whereof there is inexhaustible
store in the hills.
Off their coast, as the Carthaginians report, lies an island, by
name Cyraunis, the length of which is two
hundred furlongs, its breadth not great, and
which is soon reached from the mainland. Vines and olive
trees cover the whole of it, and there is in
the island a lake, from which the young maidens
of the country draw up gold-dust, by dipping into the
mud birds' feathers smeared with pitch. If this
be true, I know not; I but write what is said.
It may be even so, however; since I myself have
seen pitch drawn up out of the water from a
lake in Zacynthus. At the place I speak of
there are a number of lakes; but one is larger than the rest,
being seventy feet every way, and two fathoms
in depth. Here they let down a pole into the
water, with a bunch of myrtle tied to one end, and when
they raise it again, there is pitch sticking to
the myrtle, which in smell is like to bitumen,
but in all else is better than the pitch of Pieria.
This they pour into a trench dug by the lake's
side; and when a good deal has thus been got
together, they draw it off and put it up in jars. Whatever
falls into the lake passes underground, and
comes up in the sea, which is no less than four
furlongs distant. So then what is said of the island
off the Libyan coast is not without likelihood.
The Carthaginians also relate the following:- There is a country
in Libya, and a nation, beyond the Pillars of
Hercules, which they are wont to visit, where
they no sooner arrive but forthwith they unlade their
wares, and, having disposed them after an
orderly fashion along the beach, leave them,
and, returning aboard their ships, raise a great smoke. The
natives, when they see the smoke, come down to
the shore, and, laying out to view so much gold
as they think the worth of the wares, withdraw to
a distance. The Carthaginians upon this come
ashore and look. If they think the gold enough,
they take it and go their way; but if it does not seem
to them sufficient, they go aboard ship once
more, and wait patiently. Then the others
approach and add to their gold, till the Carthaginians
are content. Neither party deals unfairly by
the other: for they themselves never touch the
gold till it comes up to the worth of their goods, nor
do the natives ever carry off the goods till
the gold is taken away.
These be the Libyan tribes whereof I am able to give the names;
and most of these cared little then, and indeed
care little now, for the king of the Medes. One
thing more also I can add concerning this region,
namely, that, so far as our knowledge reaches,
four nations, and no more, inhabit it; and two
of these nations are indigenous, while two are not.
The two indigenous are the Libyans and
Ethiopians, who dwell respectively in the north
and the south of Libya. The Phoenicians and the Greek are
in-comers.
It seems to me that Libya is not to compare for goodness of soil
with either Asia or Europe, except the Cinyps
region, which is named after the river that
waters it. This piece of land is equal to any country in
the world for cereal crops, and is in nothing
like the rest of Libya. For the soil here is
black, and springs of water abound; so that there is nothing
to fear from drought; nor do heavy rains (and
it rains in that part of Libya) do any harm
when they soak the ground. The returns of the harvest
come up to the measure which prevails in
Babylonia. The soil is likewise good in the
country of the Euesperites; for there the land brings forth
in the best years a hundred-fold. But the
Cinyps region yields three hundred-fold.
The country of the Cyrenaeans, which is the highest tract within
the part of Libya inhabited by the wandering
tribes, has three seasons that deserve remark.
First the crops along the sea-coast begin to ripen,
and are ready for the harvest and the vintage;
after they have been gathered in, the crops of
the middle tract above the coast region (the hill-country,
as they call it) need harvesting; while about
the time when this middle crop is housed, the
fruits ripen and are fit for cutting in the highest
tract of all. So that the produce of the first
tract has been all eaten and drunk by the time
that the last harvest comes in. And the harvest-time
of the Cyrenaeans continues thus for eight full
months. So much concerning these matters.
When the Persians sent from Egypt by Aryandes to help Pheretima
reached Barca, they laid siege to the town,
calling on those within to give up the men who
had been guilty of the murder of Arcesilaus. The townspeople,
however, as they had one and all taken part in
the deed, refused to entertain the proposition.
So the Persians beleaguered Barca for nine months, in
the course of which they dug several mines from
their own lines to the walls, and likewise made
a number of vigorous assaults. But their mines
were discovered by a man who was a worker in
brass, who went with a brazen shield all round
the fortress, and laid it on the ground inside the city.
In other Places the shield, when he laid it
down, was quite dumb; but where the ground was
undermined, there the brass of the shield rang. Here, therefore,
the Barcaeans countermined, and slew the
Persian diggers. Such was the way in which the
mines were discovered; as for the assaults, the Barcaeans
beat them back.
When much time had been consumed, and great numbers had fallen
on both sides, nor had the Persians lost fewer
than their adversaries, Amasis, the leader of
the land-army, perceiving that, although the Barcaeans
would never be conquered by force, they might
be overcome by fraud, contrived as follows One
night he dug a wide trench, and laid light planks of wood
across the opening, after which he brought
mould and placed it upon the planks, taking
care to make the place level with the surrounding ground.
At dawn of day he summoned the Barcaeans to a
parley: and they gladly hearkening, the terms
were at length agreed upon. Oaths were interchanged upon the
ground over the hidden trench, and the
agreement ran thus- "So long as the ground
beneath our feet stands firm, the oath shall abide unchanged;
the people of Barca agree to pay a fair sum to
the king, and the Persians promise to cause no
further trouble to the people of Barca." After the
oath, the Barcaeans, relying upon its terms,
threw open all their gates, went out themselves
beyond the walls, and allowed as many of the enemy
as chose to enter. Then the Persians broke down
their secret bridge, and rushed at speed into
the town- their reason for breaking the bridge being
that so they might observe what they had sworn;
for they had promised the Barcaeans that the
oath should continue "so long as the ground whereon
they stood was firm." When, therefore, the
bridge was once broken down, the oath ceased to
hold.
Such of the Barcaeans as were most guilty the Persians gave up
to Pheretima, who nailed them to crosses all
round the walls of the city. She also cut off
the breasts of their wives, and fastened them likewise
about the walls. The remainder of the people
she gave as booty to the Persians, except only
the Battiadae and those who had taken no part in the murder,
to whom she handed over the possession of the
town.
The Persians now set out on their return home, carrying with them
the rest of the Barcaeans, whom they had made
their slaves. On their way they came to Cyrene;
and the Cyrenaeans, out of regard for an oracle, let
them pass through the town. During the passage,
Bares, the commander of the fleet, advised to
seize the place; but Amasis, the leader of the land-force,
would not consent; "because," he said, "they
had only been charged to attack the one Greek
city of Barca." When, however, they had passed through the
town, and were encamped upon the hill of
Lycaean Jove, it repented them that they had
not seized Cyrene, and they endeavoured to enter it a second
time. The Cyrenaeans, however, would not suffer
this; whereupon, though no one appeared to
offer them battle, yet a panic came upon the Persians,
and they ran a distance of full sixty furlongs
before they pitched their camp. Here as they
lay, a messenger came to them from Aryandes, ordering
them home. Then the Persians besought the men
of Cyrene to give them provisions for the way,
and, these consenting, they set off on their return to Egypt.
But the Libyans now beset them, and, for the
sake of their clothes and harness, slew all who
dropped behind and straggled, during the whole march
homewards.
The furthest point of Libya reached by this Persian host was the
city of Euesperides. The Barcaeans carried into
slavery were sent from Egypt to the king; and
Darius assigned them a village in Bactria for their
dwelling-place. To this village they gave the
name of Barca, and it was to my time an
inhabited place in Bactria.
Nor did Pheretima herself end her days happily. For on her return
to Egypt from Libya, directly after taking
vengeance on the people of Barca, she was
overtaken by a most horrid death. Her body swarmed with worms,
which ate her flesh while she was still alive.
Thus do men, by over-harsh punishments, draw
down upon themselves the anger of the gods. Such then,
and so fierce, was the vengeance which
Pheretima, daughter of Battus, took upon the
Barcaeans.