The Histories — Book V, Thrace and Macedon

Book V, Thrace and Macedon

16 min read

Those Persians whom Darius had left in Europe under the command of Megabazus, finding the Perinthians unwilling to be Darius' subjects, subdued them before any others of the people of the Hellespont. These Perinthians had already been roughly handled by the Paeonians. For the oracle of the god ordered the Paeonians from the Strymon to march against Perinthus, and if the Perinthians, who were encamped opposite them, should call to them, crying out their name, then to attack them. If, however, there were no such call, they were not to attack. The Paeonians acted accordingly. When the Perinthians set up camp in front of their city, the armies then challenged each other to a threefold duel, in which man was matched against man, horse against horse, and dog against dog. The Perinthians were victorious in two of the combats and raised the cry of “Paean” in their joy. The Paeonians reasoned that this was what the oracle had spoken of and must have said to each other, “This is surely the fulfillment of the prophecy; now it is time for us to act.” Accordingly, the Paeonians set upon the Perinthians and won a great victory, leaving few of their enemies alive.

This, then, is what the Perinthians had previously suffered at the hands of the Paeonians. Now they fought like brave men for their liberty, but Megabazus and the Persians overcame them by weight of numbers. When Perinthus had been taken, Megabazus marched his army through Thrace, subduing to the king's will every city and every people of that region. For this, the conquest of Thrace, was the charge given him by Darius.

The Thracians are the biggest nation in the world, next to the Indians. If they were under one ruler, or united, they would, in my judgment, be invincible and the strongest nation on earth. Since, however, there is no way or means to bring this about, they are weak. The Thracians have many names, each tribe according to its region, but they are very similar in all their customs, save the Getae, the Trausi, and those who dwell above the Crestonaeans.

As for the Getae, who claim to be immortal, I have already given an account of their practices. The Trausi, who in all else conform to the customs of other Thracians, do as I will show at the times of birth and death. When a child is born, the kinsmen sit around it and lament all the ills that it must endure from its birth onward, recounting all the sorrows of men. The dead, however, they bury with celebration and gladness, asserting that he is rid of so many ills and has achieved a state of complete blessedness.

Those who dwell above the Crestonaeans have yet other practices. Each man has many wives, and at his death there is both great rivalry among his wives and eager contention on their friends' part to prove which wife was best loved by her husband. She to whom the honor is adjudged is praised by men and women alike and then slain over the tomb by her nearest of kin. After the slaying she is buried with the husband. The rest of the wives are greatly displeased by this, believing themselves to be deeply dishonored.

Among the rest of the Thracians, it is the custom to sell their children for export and to take no care of their maidens, allowing them to have intercourse with any man they wish. Their wives, however, they strictly guard, and buy them for a price from the parents. To be tattooed is a sign of noble birth, while to bear no such marks is for the baser sort. The idler is most honored, the tiller of the soil most scorned; he is held in highest honor who lives by war and robbery.

These are most notable of their usages. They worship no gods but Ares, Dionysus, and Artemis. Their princes, however, unlike the rest of their countrymen, worship Hermes above all gods and swear only by him, claiming him for their ancestor.

The wealthy have the following funeral practices. First they lay out the dead for three days, and after killing all kinds of victims and making lamentation, they feast. After that they do away with the body either by fire or else by burial in the earth, and when they have built a barrow, they initiate all kinds of contests, in which the greatest prizes are offered for the hardest type of single combat. Such are the Thracian funeral rites.

As for the region which lies north of this country, none can tell with certainty what men dwell there, but what lies beyond the Ister is a desolate and infinitely large tract of land. I can learn of no men dwelling beyond the Ister save certain that are called Sigynnae and wear Median dress. Their horses are said to be covered all over with shaggy hair five fingers' breadth long, and to be small, blunt-nosed, and unable to bear men on their backs, but very swift when yoked to chariots. It is for this reason that driving chariots is the usage of the country. These men's borders, it is said, reach almost as far as the Eneti on the Adriatic Sea. They call themselves colonists from Media. How this has come about I myself cannot understand, but all is possible in the long passage of time. However that may be, we know that the Ligyes who dwell inland of Massalia use the word “sigynnae” for hucksters, and the Cyprians use it for spears.

According to the Thracians, all the land beyond the Ister is full of bees, and that by reason of these none can travel there. This, to my mind, is not a credible tale, for those creatures are ill able to bear cold. It appears to me rather that it is by reason of the cold that the northern lands are not inhabited. Such, then, are the stories about this region. Whatever the truth may be, Megabazus made its coastal area subject to the Persians.

As soon as Darius had crossed the Hellespont and come to Sardis, he remembered the good service done him by Histiaeus of Miletus and the counsel of Coes the Mytilenaean, and after sending for them to come to Sardis, he offered them a choice of whatever they wanted. Histiaeus, seeing that he was tyrant of Miletus, desired no further sovereignty than that, but asked for Myrcinus in the Edonian land so that he might build a city there. This, then, was Histiaeus' choice, but Coes, inasmuch as he was no tyrant but a plain citizen, asked that he might be made tyrant of Mytilene.

When the wishes of each had been granted, they made their way to the places of their choice, but Darius, as it fell out, saw a sight which put it in his mind to bid Megabazus take the Paeonians and take them from their homes out of Europe into Asia. There were two Paeonians, Pigres and Mantyes, who themselves desired to be rulers of their countrymen. When Darius had crossed into Asia, they came to Sardis, bringing with them their sister, a tall and beautiful woman. There, waiting till Darius should be sitting in state in the suburb of the Lydian city, they put on their sister the best adornment they had, and sent her to draw water, bearing a vessel on her head, leading a horse by the bridle and spinning flax at the same time. Darius took note of the woman as she passed by him, for what she did was not in the manner of the Persians or Lydians or any of the peoples of Asia. Having taken note of this, he sent some of his guards, bidding them watch what the woman would do with the horse. They, accordingly, followed behind her, and she, coming to the river, watered the horse. When she had done this and had filled her vessel with water, she passed back again by the same way, bearing the water on her head, leading the horse on her arm, and plying her distaff.

Marvelling at what he heard from his watchers and what he saw for himself, Darius bade the woman be brought before him. When she had been brought, her brothers, who watched all this from a place nearby, came too. Darius asked of what nation she was, and the young man told him that they were Paeonians and that she was their sister. “But who,” he answered, “are the Paeonians, and where do they dwell, and with what intent have you come to Sardis?” They told him, that they had come to be his men, that the towns of Paeonia lay on the Strymon, a river not far from the Hellespont, and that they were colonists from the Teucrians of Troy. So they told him all this, and the king asked them if all the women of their country were so industrious. To this too they very readily answered (for it was for this very purpose that they had come), that it was indeed so.

Then Darius wrote a letter to Megabazus, whom he had left as his general in Thrace, bidding him take the Paeonians from their houses, and bring them to him, men, women, and children. Immediately a horseman sped with this message to the Hellespont, and upon crossing it, gave the letter to Megabazus, who, after reading it, took guides from Thrace and led his army to Paeonia.

When the Paeonians learned that the Persians were coming against them, they gathered together and marched away to the sea, thinking that the Persians would attempt to attack them by that way. So the Paeonians were ready to withstand the onset of Megabazus' army, but the Persians, learning that the Paeonians had gathered their forces and were guarding the coast route into their country, got guides and marched instead by the highland road. They accordingly took the Paeonians unaware and won entrance into their cities, which were left without men, and finding these empty at their attack, they easily gained them. The Paeonians, learning that their towns had been taken, straightway disbanded, each going his own way, and surrendered themselves to the Persians. Thus of the Paeonians the Siriopaeones and Paeoplae and all who lived as far as the Prasiad lake were taken away from their homes and led into Asia.

But those near the Pangaean mountains and the country of the Doberes and the Agrianes and the Odomanti and the Prasiad lake itself were never subdued at all by Megabazus. He did in fact try to take the lake-dwellers and did so in the following manner. There is set in the midst of the lake a platform made fast on tall piles, to which one bridge gives a narrow passage from the land. In olden times all the people working together set the piles which support the platform there, but they later developed another method of setting them. The men bring the piles from a mountain called Orbelus, and every man plants three for each of the three women that he weds. Each man has both a hut on the platform and a trap-door in the platform leading down into the lake. They make a cord fast to the feet of their little children out of fear that they will fall into the water. They give fish as fodder to their horses and beasts of burden, and there is such an abundance of fish that a man can open his trap-door, let down an empty basket by a line into the lake, and draw it up after a short time full of fish. There are two kinds of these, some called “paprakes,” some “tilones.”

So those of the Paeonians who had been captured were taken into Asia. Then Megabazus, having made the Paeonians captive, sent as messengers into Macedonia the seven Persians who (after himself) were the most honorable in his army. These were sent to Amyntas to demand earth and water for Darius the king. Now there is a very straight way from the Prasiad lake to Macedonia. First there is near the lake that mine from which Alexander later drew a daily revenue of a talent of silver, and when a person has passed the mine, he need only cross the mountain called Dysorum to be in Macedonia.

The Persians who had been sent as envoys came to Amyntas and demanded earth and water for Darius the king. He readily gave to them what they asked and invited them to be his guests, preparing a dinner of great splendor and receiving them hospitably. After dinner, the Persians said to Amyntas as they sat drinking together, “Macedonian, our host, it is our custom in Persia to bring in also the concubines and wedded wives to sit by the men after the giving of any great banquet. We ask you, then, (since you have received us heartily, are entertaining us nobly and are giving Darius our king earth and water) to follow our custom.” To this Amyntas replied, “ We have no such custom, Persians. Among us, men and women sit apart, but since you are our masters and are making this request, it shall be as you desire.” With that, Amyntas sent for the women. Upon being called, the women entered and sat down in a row opposite the Persians. Then the Persians, seeing beautiful women before them, spoke to Amyntas and said that there was no sense in what he had done. It would be better if the women had never come at all than that they should come and not sit beside the men, but sit opposite them to torment their eyes. Amyntas, now feeling compelled to do so, bade the women sit beside them. When the women had done as they were bidden, the Persians, flushed as they were with excess of wine, at once laid hands on the women's breasts, and one or another tried to kiss them.

This Amyntas saw, but held his peace despite his anger because he greatly feared the Persians. Amyntas' son Alexander, however, because of his youth and ignorance of ill deeds, could not bear it longer and said to Amyntas in great wrath, “My father, do as your age demands. Leave us and take your rest; do not continue drinking. I will stay here and give our guests all that is needful.” At this Amyntas saw that Alexander had some wild deed in mind and said, “My son, you are angered, and if I guess your meaning correctly, you are sending me away so that you may do some violent deed. I for my part, for fear that you will bring about our undoing, entreat you not to act rashly against these men, but to bear patiently the sight of what they do. If you want me to leave, to that I consent.”

When Amyntas made this request and had gone his way, Alexander said to the Persians, “Sirs, you have full freedom to deal with these women, and may have intercourse with all or any of them. As to that, you may make your own decision, but now, since the hour of your rest is drawing near and I see that you are all completely drunk, allow these women to depart and wash, if this is your desire. When they have washed, wait for them to come to you again.” When he had said this and the Persians had given their consent, he sent the women out and away to their apartments. Alexander then took as many beardless men as there were women, dressed them in the women's clothes, and gave them daggers. These he brought in, and said to the Persians, “I believe, men of Persia, that you have feasted to your hearts' content. All that we had and all besides that we could find to give you has been set before you, and now we make you a free gift of our best and most valued possession, our own mothers and sisters. Be aware that in so doing we are giving you all the honor that you deserve, and tell your king who sent you how his Greek viceroy of Macedonia has received you hospitably, providing food and bedfellows.” With that, Alexander seated each of his Macedonians next to a Persian, as though they were women, and when the Persians began to lay hands on them, they were killed by the Macedonians.

This was the way in which they perished, they and all their retinue. Carriages too had come with them, and servants, and all the great train they had. The Macedonians made away with all that, as well as with all the envoys themselves. No long time afterwards the Persians made a great search for these men, but Alexander had cunning enough to put an end to it by the gift of a great sum and his own sister Gygaea to Bubares, a Persian and the general of those who were looking for the slain men. It was in this way, then, that the death of these Persians was kept silent.

Now that these descendants of Perdiccas are Greeks, as they themselves say, I myself chance to know and will prove it in the later part of my history. Furthermore, the Hellenodicae who manage the contest at Olympia determined that it is so, for when Alexander chose to contend and entered the lists for that purpose, the Greeks who were to run against him wanted to bar him from the race, saying that the contest should be for Greeks and not for foreigners. Alexander, however, proving himself to be an Argive, was judged to be a Greek. He accordingly competed in the furlong race and tied step for first place. This, then, is approximately what happened.

Megabazus, bringing with him the Paeonians, came to the Hellespont, and after crossing it from there, he came to Sardis. Histiaeus the Milesian was by this time fortifying the place which he hadasked of Darius as his reward for guarding the bridge, a place called Myrcinus by the river Strymon. Megabazus discovered what he was doing, and upon his arrival at Sardis with the Paeonians, he said to Darius, ” Sire, what is this that you have done? You have permitted a clever and cunning Greek to build a city in Thrace, where there are abundant forests for ship-building, much wood for oars, mines of silver, and many people both Greek and foreign dwelling around, who, when they have a champion to lead them, will carry out all his orders by day or by night. Stop this man, then, from doing these things so that you will not be entangled in a war with your own subjects, but use gentle means to do so. When you have him in your grasp, see to it that he never returns to Hellas.”

Megabazus easily persuaded Darius, who believed that his vision of the future was correct. Presently the king sent a message to Myrcinus which read as follows: “ Histiaeus, these are the words of Darius the king: my thoughts can show me no man who is more devoted to me and my affairs. Not words but deeds have proven this to me. Now, therefore, let nothing prevent you from coming to me so that I may inform you of certain great purposes which I have in mind.” Trusting these words, and proud, moreover, that he would be the king's counsellor, Histiaeus came to Sardis. When he had come, Darius said to him, “Histiaeus, I will tell you the reason why I sent for you. As soon as I returned from Scythia and you were gone from my sight, there was nothing which I longed for so much as seeing you and speaking with you, for I knew that the most precious of all possessions is a wise and loyal friend. That you are such I can bear witness to as regards my affairs. Now, since you have done well in coming here, I make you this proposal. Leave Miletus and your newly founded Thracian city and follow me to Susa, where you will have all that is mine, sharing my table and my counsels.”

This, then, is what Darius said, and after appointing Artaphrenes, his father's son, to be viceroy of Sardis, he rode away to Susa, taking Histiaeus with him. First, however, he made Otanes governor of the people on the coast. Otanes' father Sisamnes had been one of the royal judges, and Cambyses had cut his throat and flayed off all his skin because he had been bribed to give an unjust judgment. Then he cut leather strips of the skin which had been torn away and with these he covered the seat upon which Sisamenes had sat to give judgment. After doing this, Cambyses appointed the son of this slain and flayed Sisamnes to be judge in his place, admonishing him to keep in mind the nature of the throne on which he was sitting.

This Otanes, then, who sat upon that seat, was now made successor to Megabazus in his governorship. He captured Byzantium, Calchedon, Antandrus in the Troad, and Lamponium, and with ships he had taken from the Lesbians, he took Lemnos and Imbros, both of which were still inhabited by Pelasgians.

The Lemnians fought well and defended themselves, till at last they were brought to evil plight, and the Persians set as governor over those that were left of them Lycaretus the brother of Maeandrius who had been king of Samos. This Lycaretus met his end while ruling in Lemnos because he tried to enslave and subdue all the people, accusing some of shunning service against the Scythians and others of plundering Darius' army on its way back from Scythia.

Book V, Thrace and Macedon

16 min read