[281] Herod. 4, 143, 144.

[282] Herod. 5, 12.

[283] Herod. 5, 26, 27.

[284] Herod. 5, 12, 23, 25. The chronology which Herodotus thus gives to the campaign of Otanes, representing it as subsequent to that of Megabyzus, is impossible. He himself represents Otanes as nominated general of the forces on sea, and only subsequently as a successor of Megabyzus. The subjugation of the cities belongs to his first command.

[285] Herod. 6, 40, 84.

[286] It is self-evident that Miltiades did not wait for the arrival of Darius on the Danube.

[287] According to Polyaenus, Chalcedon was taken by a mine, which was carried from a hill 15 stades from the city under the market-place.

"Strateg." 7, 2, 5. It is obvious that we must read [Greek: Kalchedon]

here, and not [Greek: Karchedon]. The altar of Zeus Diabaterius which, according to Ctesias, Darius erects, and the Chalcedonians subsequently pull down, is certainly identical with the two monuments which, according to Herodotus, Darius set up at Byzantium (above, p. 269).

Herodotus also speaks of the destruction of the monuments, but ascribes it to the Byzantines. This was done obviously in the time after the battle of Mycale; if previously destroyed they would have been restored by Megabyzus and Otanes when they subjugated the h.e.l.lespont. Of the later destruction Herodotus relates that the Byzantines conveyed the stones into the city, and used them in building the altar of Artemis Orthosia; one stone only, covered with a.s.syrian letters, was left at the temple of Dionysus: Herod. 4, 87.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE CONQUESTS IN AFRICA AND EUROPE.

Like Bactria and Arachosia, Asia Minor and Egypt had remained loyal, when the natives in the centre of the kingdom, the Semites and Arians, and even the Persians, had revolted against Darius. In Egypt Aryandes, who had been appointed satrap by Cambyses, still held his office.

Uzahorsun, the Egyptian whom Cambyses had placed in his retinue and taken into his service (p. 171), tells us, "that his holiness, the king of upper and lower Egypt, Darius (Ntariush), the ever-living, had commanded him to go to Egypt, when his holiness was in Elam, when he became lord of the whole world, the great king of Egypt." According to the commands of his holiness he (Uzahorsun) had restored order in Egypt and had received contributions from all. No one had spoken evil of him, for he had given to every one what was justly his; he had restored all men to their rights, and had placed them in the boundaries of their property as it had been marked out; the worship of the G.o.ds and their habitations had been restored according to the will of his holiness; the offerings had been brought, the festivals had been celebrated.[288] In addition to the toleration which the Achaemenids always extended to the religion of the nations subject to them, though it was not their own religion, and the care which they took of their places of worship, Darius seems to have been at especial pains to win the affections of the Egyptians. His intention was, no doubt, to make Egypt the starting-point for further enterprise in Africa, and the support of the conquests which he had in contemplation. Herodotus tells us that when Darius determined to erect his statue before the temple of Ptah at Memphis, he gave way before the opposition of the priest of the temple. Diodorus tells us that the Egyptians consider Darius as their sixth law-giver, after Menes, Sasychis, Sesosis, Bocchoris, and Amasis. Darius had mixed with the Egyptian priests, and had thus become acquainted with their theology, and the magnanimity and devotion of their ancient kings. He set them before him as a pattern, and for this reason he was so highly honoured among the Egyptians that even in his life-time he was considered a G.o.d, and after his death he received the honours which in ancient days had been given to the kings of Egypt, whose reigns had been most in accordance with law. The name of Darius meets us frequently on the buildings of Egypt. A long inscription in the stone quarries at Hamamat informs us that an Egyptian architect, Chnum-ab-rha, who had already been in the service of Amasis, was in the service of Darius from the 26th to the 30th year of his reign, and carried out his various buildings.[289] The Apis which had appeared in the fifth year of Cambyses (p. 171), died in the fourth year of Darius (518 B.C.), and was buried in the necropolis of Memphis, in the sanctuary of Osiris-Apis, in the front s.p.a.ce of the gallery of the tombs of Apis, which Psammetichus had added to the gallery of Ramses II.[290] Another great work which Darius undertook in connection with the monuments of the ancient Pharaohs, besides the advantages which it conferred on the trade of the whole kingdom and the intercourse between the parts of it, must have been of the very greatest value to Egypt.[291]

From the valley of the Nile, to which Darius devoted such attention, in the autumn of the same year in which he marched to the Danube, a second Persian expedition set forth, comprising both an army and a fleet--a great armament, as Herodotus says, which was intended to establish and extend the dominion of the Persian kingdom on the north coast of Africa.[292] The Libyan tribes which inhabited these deserts on the borders of Egypt, like the great cities Cyrene and Barca, had paid homage to Cambyses, had sent presents, and agreed to pay tribute.[293]

Barca had been founded by Cyrene about 30 years before the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses, and was governed by a branch of the Battiadae, the royal house of Cyrene. The daughter of the prince of Barca, whom Herodotus, following no doubt the Libyan name for the royal t.i.tle, calls Alazeir, was the wife of Archelaus III. of Cyrene, who for reasons known to us had submitted to Cambyses. More than ten years afterwards, Archelaus repaired to his father-in-law at Barca; during his absence his mother Pheretima was to govern Cyrene. While at Barca, he was murdered together with his father-in-law Alazeir by certain Cyrenaeans who had fled to that city to escape the cruelty with which he had re-established his sway in Cyrene (p. 153), and by the people of Barca.[294] His mother, who was no longer in any position to maintain her power in Cyrene, fled to Egypt and besought a.s.sistance from Aryandes; "in return for her fidelity to Persia, her son had been slain." Aryandes sympathised with her distress, so Herodotus tells us, and put at her disposal the whole force in Egypt, both the army and the fleet; sympathy with Pheretima was the reason of the campaign of the Persians against Barca. He adds that in his own opinion this was merely a pretext; the real object was the subjugation of the Libyans, of whom a few only were the subjects of Darius.[295]

By the a.s.sa.s.sination of the two princes who had submitted to Persia the word for revolt was given, and the more plainly because the Barcaeans, according to Herodotus, refused to give up the murderers. The land round Cyrene was extraordinarily fertile, and the district of Barca reached on the west to the great Syrtis. The army which set out to reduce a city, 600 miles distant from Memphis, was led by a Persian, Amasis of the tribe of the Maraphians. (V. 323). This march along the north coast through regions partly desert and partly inhabited by nomads, was to be supported by a fleet formed no doubt of Phenician and Egyptian ships, under the command of Badres of the tribe of the Pasargadae. The Persians reached the extensive and well-watered mountain plain which formed the territory of Barca. The city was invested, but the Barcaeans made a vigorous resistance. Furious attacks of the Persians were repulsed, and even their attempt to carry mines under the city miscarried. A smith in Barca, according to Herodotus, discovered the direction of the mines by placing a brazen shield upon the ground, inside the wall, and striking it,--the soil being hollow, wherever the shield resounded. Then the Barcaeans dug shafts and killed the workmen of the enemy in their pa.s.sages. After nine months of fruitless efforts Amasis was convinced that he could not take the place by storm. He offered to abandon the siege if the Barcaeans would pay a suitable tribute to the king; so long as they fulfilled this condition the Persians would not take up arms against them. The conditions were sworn to on both sides, as Herodotus tells us, in the form that they "should be kept so long as the earth remained." But on the previous night Amasis had excavated the place on which the oath was sworn, had covered the excavation with wood, and placed earth upon the wood. When the Barcaeans, in reliance on the truce, opened the gates, came out of their city and permitted the Persians to enter it, Amasis caused the earth to fall in by removing the wood-work, in order to make the treaty invalid. Being masters of the city the Persians gave up to Pheretima those who were chiefly implicated in the murder of Archelaus. She caused them to be crucified round the walls of Barca, and at the same time cut off the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of their wives and affixed them to the walls. The Persians also carried away a large number of prisoners, in order to weaken the city, and so to retain it in subjection with less effort. Only the Battiadae and a remnant of the population were left. After thus reducing the city, the Persians marched through the fruitful plain, which stretches to the west of Barca between the table-land and the sea, towards the west. At Euhesperides on the great Syrtis they reached the extreme point in the west of Africa to which the Persians ever penetrated.[296]

"When the army reached Cyrene on its return," so Herodotus tells us, "the Cyrenaeans in obedience to an oracle allowed it to pa.s.s through the city. While pa.s.sing through, Badres, the commander of the fleet, bade them take the city, but Amasis prevented this, saying that he was sent out against Barca, and no other city. When they had marched through, and the army was encamped on the hill of Zeus Lycaeus, they repented that they had not seized Carthage, and attempted to enter the city a second time. But this the Cyrenaeans would not allow. Then the Persians, though no one was fighting against them, were seized with a panic; they ran away about sixty stades and there encamped till a messenger of Aryandes called them back. At their request they received provisions for the journey from the Cyrenaeans and returned to Egypt. But those who remained behind and delayed their march were cut down by the Libyans for the sake of their clothes and armour, till they reached Egypt. The captive Barcaeans were sent to the king, and Darius gave them a village in Bactria for a habitation to which they gave the name Barca. This village was inhabited in Bactria down to my time."[297]

According to this narrative the expedition to Barca, which set out in the autumn of 513 B.C. and returned home at the earliest towards the end of 512 B.C. (the siege of Barca occupied nine months), did not turn out prosperously for the Persians. The contrary was the case. Herodotus repeats a legend of the Cyrenaeans, which was intended to put their courage in a clear light, and according to which an entrance into the city when demanded for the third time was refused to the Persian army which had marched through Cyrene on its advance and return. Further, an attempted attack of the Persians failed though there was no resistance, and Cyrene magnanimously furnished the Persians with provisions for their journey. The army and fleet of the Persians, when quartered in the fertile district of Cyrene, were in a position to supply themselves abundantly at the cost of the city. Moreover, we subsequently find a fourth Battus at the head of Cyrene and Barca, and after him a fourth Arcesilaus.[298] After the murder of Arcesilaus III. a Battiad would have been the less likely to ascend the throne of Cyrene without the aid of the Persians, owing to the cruel punishment which Pheretima had inflicted on her opponents. Moreover, Herodotus tells us himself that Darius included the Libyans adjacent to Egypt as well as Cyrene and Barca in the sixth satrapy, _i.e._ the satrapy of Egypt, and imposed upon the two a yearly tribute of 700 talents.[299] From other accounts it is clear that the Libyans of this district, and with them the inhabitants of the oasis of Ammon, had to contribute salt to the Persians, and Herodotus tells us that these Libyans of the north coast, clad in the skins of animals and armed with poles hardened in the fire, served in the army of the Persian kings along with the curly-haired negroes living beyond Egypt.[300] Monuments and inscriptions also prove that not Cyrene and Barca only, but even the Libyan tribes of the north coast as far as the great Syrtis, _i.e._ the Adyrmachidae, Giligammae, and Asbystae were subdued at that time, and that the dominion of Darius extended as far as the oases on the northern edge of the desert.

Herodotus has already told us of the oasis Polis, which was situated seven days' journey from Thebes in the sand (p. 165),--the modern Oasis el Charigeh. The inscriptions of the great temple, the walls of which still exist at this place in tolerable preservation, tell us that Darius "S-tut-Ra,"[301] _i.e._ rival of the sun, dedicated this temple to Ammon Ra of Thebes, the lord of Hib (which is the name of this oasis among the Egyptians). In the colossal picture on the exterior wall at the back, Darius offers sacrifice to this G.o.d and the G.o.ddess Mut, who stands behind him; behind the king we also see the G.o.ddess Hathor.[302] At a later time Darius Ochus added to this temple. The inscription of Naksh-i-Rustem, which distinguishes the tomb of Darius, quotes among the nations who were his subjects the _Putiya_, _Machiya_, and _Kushiya_. By the Putiya (Puta in the Babylonian translation of the inscription) we must understand beyond doubt the Put of the Hebrews, _i.e._ the Libyans; the Machiya may be the Maxyes of Herodotus, to the west of Cyrene, the Mashawasha of the Egyptians; the Kushiya are the Cus.h.i.tes of the Egyptians, Hebrews, and a.s.syrians, the Ethiopians of the Greeks, _i.e._ the Nubians and negroes beyond Egypt.[303]

Justin's excerpt from Pompeius Trogus tells us that Darius sent an emba.s.sy to Carthage with the command that the Carthaginians must abstain from human sacrifices and the use of dogs' flesh, burn their corpses instead of burying them; and at the same time he bade them furnish auxiliary troops against the Greeks, whom he intended to attack. The Carthaginians refused the auxiliary troops because they were frequently at war with their neighbours; to the rest of his commands they readily submitted that they might not seem to be obstinate.[304] Both the objects mentioned for the emba.s.sy are fictions, though they show an acquaintance with the Arian religion and the views of Darius, but there is no reason to doubt that Darius entered into negotiations with Carthage. Cambyses had already fixed his eye on Carthage, and Darius by the expedition to Barca and Euhesperides, had become the neighbour of the city, the territory of which reached as far to the east as the Great Syrtis. In common opposition to the Greeks the interests of Carthage and Darius were united, for the Greek navy was the rival of the Phenicians and Carthaginians, and the Carthaginians were in conflict with the Greek cities in Sicily. In Justin's account the emba.s.sy of Darius came to Carthage at the time when the Carthaginians in Sicily were in conflict with Dorieus. Their struggle to prevent the settlement on Eryx fell between the years 510 and 508 B.C. The expedition against Barca came to an end as we saw in the year 512 B.C. Hence the negotiations between Persia and Carthage must have followed upon this expedition.[305]

While the Persians in the south of the Mediterranean were advancing to the west along the coast of Africa, the army of Megabyzus moved along the north in the same direction (512 B.C.). Perinthus and the cities on the northern sh.o.r.e of the Propontis were reduced and punished, and then Darius gave orders, according to Herodotus, for the reduction of Thrace.

"And Megabyzus marched through Thrace, and reduced every nation and every city into submission to the king. The nation of the Thracians is the greatest after the Indians, and if it were united or governed by one man, it would be invincible, and in my opinion the strongest of all nations. But as this is impossible, and can never be brought about, they are weak. They buy their wives at a high price from their parents and sell the children into foreign countries. They regard it as the greatest degradation to till the field, as most honourable to do nothing, as most n.o.ble to live by war and plunder. It is a mark of birth to be tatooed, and of low origin to have no print upon the skin. The rich lay out their dead for three days; first they mourn for them, then they slay victims of every kind and make a feast, burn the corpse or bury it, heap up a mound, and celebrate games of all kinds, in which, as is right, the greatest prizes are put up for the victors. They worship only Ares, Dionysus, and Artemis; but their kings also specially worship Hermes from whom they claim to be descended. Of this territory Megabyzus subjugated the whole strip, which lay on the sea, to Darius." The Paeonians, who were settled on the Strymon and round Lake Prasias, a.s.sembled on their coast to await the attack. But Megabyzus turned into the inland region to the north of Mount Pangaeum, and from that direction fell unexpectedly upon the cities of the Paeonians, which were undefended. Then each of the Paeonians hastened back to his family and they submitted to the Persians, and Megabyzus caused the Paeonians on the Siris, and the Paeoplians, who were situated to the north of Pangaeum, on the Strymon, to be carried captive to Sardis to the king.

"But the Paeonians who dwelt on Mount Pangaeum, and on piles in Lake Prasias, were not at first subjugated by Megabyzus, though he made the attempt."[306]

Together with the tribes of the Thracians, the numerous cities of the Greeks on this coast became subjects of Darius.[307] Doriscus on the mouth of the Hebrus received a Persian garrison.[308] In vain the inhabitants of Teos, more than thirty years previously, had emigrated before the siege of Harpagus, and founded Abdera on this coast--they now became subjects of the Persians. In return for the great service which he had rendered at the bridge on the Danube, Histiaeus the prince of Miletus received permission to found a colony on the Strymon, where it leaves Lake Prasias, in the land of the Edonians, near Myrcinus, on the north-west spur of Pangaeum, which is here clothed with magnificent forests, and possessed fruitful veins of silver.[309] Histiaeus began at once to build the walls which were to protect the new settlement.

With the subjugation of the Paeonians and the crossing of the Strymon, Megabyzus reached the border of an empire, the Macedonian kingdom, the central district of which lay between the Axius and the Haliaemon.

Amyntas, the son of Alcetas,[310] the king of Macedonia, was requested by Megabyzus through an emba.s.sy of seven Persians to send earth and water as tokens of submission to Darius. Amyntas was in great terror of the Persians, as Herodotus tells us;[311] he did not refuse the request, and thus acknowledged the sovereignty of the Persians. In order to do honour to his envoys, they were hospitably entertained. But when in their intoxication they laid hands on the women of the royal house, Alexander the young son of Amyntas caused them to be cut down with their train. As they did not return, Megabyzus sent his son Bubares, the brother of the Zopyrus who had done good service before Babylon, and was now viceroy there, with an armed force.[312] Amyntas was prepared to pay a large sum as a fine, and to receive the son of Megabyzus at his royal house; he gave his own daughter Gygaea, the sister of Alexander, in marriage to Bubares.[313]

While Megabyzus subjugated the Thracian coast with its harbours and trading-places to the west as far as the Strymon, Otanes had completed the reduction of the rebellious Greek towns to the south of the straits, on the sh.o.r.es of Asia Minor. Not only Lamponium and Antandrus, opposite Lesbos, but also Abydus, Chalcedon, and Byzantium were punished. Coes, who had led the ships from Lesbos to the Danube, had been rewarded for his services to Darius by the government of the island. He was not required to furnish ships to Otanes for the conquest of Lemnos and Imbros. The Lemnians resisted bravely. When they had been conquered, Otanes made Lycaretus, a brother of Maeandrius of Samos (p. 261), tyrant of the island, and he governed it till his death (towards 500 B.C.[314]). With the conquest of Lemnos and Imbros, two large and important islands in the aegean Sea, in addition to Samos, Chios and Lesbos were gained for the Persian kingdom.

After the expedition across the Danube, Darius intended to carry his conquests to the west of Europe, not to the north. The cantons of h.e.l.las were the aim towards the attainment of which Megabyzus and Otanes prepared the way. The co-operation of the marine appeared indispensable for further enterprises in this direction. The events at the bridge over the Danube had shown Darius that it was extremely rash to leave in the hands of the tyrants of the Greeks the command of the fleet formed out of the vessels from their cities. The Phenicians he could certainly trust, if he led them against the Greeks, but the navigation of the Greeks had long ago driven the trade of the Phenicians from the Greek coasts. In any case it was advisable that a number of leading Persians should be acquainted with the Greek waters, that they might be entrusted with the command of squadrons. That Persians were equal to such an office had been shown in Africa. Darius commanded fifteen Persians selected by himself to go on board Phenician ships in order to visit and investigate the coasts of h.e.l.las and Sicily. The expedition embarked on two Sidonian ships of the line, which were accompanied by a transport vessel, and set sail from Sidon. On board was a Greek physician as interpreter and guide--Democedes of Croton, who had previously been physician to Polycrates of Samos. He had accompanied his master on his unfortunate voyage to Magnesia (p. 261). After the execution of Polycrates, Oroetes had released the Samians in his company, and retained the rest as slaves in his house. When Bagaeus had caused Oroetes to be slain he sent his property and slaves to the court of the king, where Democedes was kept in rags and chains along with his companions in misfortune. It happened that Darius, in leaping from his horse when hunting, dislocated his ancle. The Egyptian physicians, who were in the greatest repute in the east, and had already been retained since the time of Cyrus at the Persian court (p. 134), could not cure the mischief. At last some one remembered to have heard of the fame of Democedes among the Greeks. Darius caused him to be summoned, and was healed by him. Soon after Democedes cured Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, the first wife of Darius, of a dangerous tumour in the breast. In return for his successful treatment Darius presented him with two pairs of golden chains; and when receiving them Democedes, according to the Greeks, inquired: Whether the king desired to double his misery in return for the cure? From that time he was in high favour with the king, and was appointed a companion of his table, one of the greatest and rarest distinctions in Persia; it was said to be his intercession which rescued the Egyptian physicians who were about to be crucified because they were unable to heal Darius. He now accompanied the expedition, as a man acquainted with the localities, to h.e.l.las and Sicily, in the year 512 B.C. The king bade the Persians keep watch upon Democedes, and not suffer him to escape to the h.e.l.lenes. The expedition sailed round h.e.l.las; it kept close to the sh.o.r.e, and sketched the coast; as Herodotus remarks, these were the first Persians who had come to Greece. From h.e.l.las they directed their course to lower Italy. When the Persians were at Tarentum Democedes succeeded in escaping. When it was discovered that he had gone to Crotona, his native city, the Persians sailed thither and requested the inhabitants to give him up, but in vain. Then they experienced a further disaster; they were driven to Iapygia; the crew were captured and enslaved; only after some time had pa.s.sed were the Persians ransomed by Gillus, a Tarentine exile, and carried back to Persia.[315] However vexatious the loss of his physician might be to Darius, this expedition enabled him to prepare for the enterprise in the Greek waters which he had in view. The main object was attained; a number of Persians had been made acquainted with the sea and the coasts.

FOOTNOTES:

[288] De Rouge, "Revue Archeolog." 8, 51, 52. De Rouge has Aram, Brugsch now reads Elam ("Hist. of Egypt," 2, 297), and translates: "For he also was the great lord of all lands and a great king of Egypt,--in order that I might reinstate the number of the sacred scribes of the temples, and revive whatever had fallen into ruin. The foreigners escorted me from land to land, and brought me safe to Egypt, according to the command of the lord of the land. I did according to what he had commanded. I chose them from all their (?) of the sons of the inhabitants--to the great sorrow of those who were childless--and I placed them under expert masters, the skilful in all kinds of learning, that they might perform all their works. The king did all this--in order to uphold the name of all the G.o.ds, their temples, their revenues, and the ordinances of their feasts for ever."

[289] Herod. 2, 110; Diod. 1, 50, 95. For _Rach-num-hat_ which he read previously Brugsch now reads _Chnum-ab-rha_. "Hist. of Egypt," 2, 299.

[290] Mariette, "Athen. Franc." 1855; Mai, p. 48.

[291] The remark in Polyaenus; Darius marching through Arabia against the Egyptians who rebelled against the tyranny of Aryandes, had again gained their affection by offering a prize of 100 talents of gold to the discoverer of a new Apis in the place of that which had just died, cannot be referred to the Apis which died in the year 518 B.C. In that year Darius was fighting in Media against Phraortes, Aryandes was satrap in the year 512 B.C. and long after. Hence it must refer to the second Apis, which appeared in 491 B.C., the thirty-first year of Darius, for which Darius caused a sepulchre to be built. That the first rebellion of the Egyptians against Darius took place about this time follows from a chapter in Aristotle's "Rhetoric," 2, 20, where we are told that Darius did not cross over to h.e.l.las before he had reduced Egypt; and in like manner Xerxes reduced Egypt before crossing over to h.e.l.las. The "crossing over" can only refer to the campaign of Datis and Artaphernes; the first rebellion of Egypt against Darius therefore took place just when the rebellion of the Ionians had been crushed, _i.e._ 492, 491 B.C.; the second occurred in 486 B.C.

[292] Herod. 4, 145 says, "at the same time when Megabyzus subjugated the inhabitants of the h.e.l.lespont." This subjugation would begin in the autumn and pa.s.s over into the next spring.

[293] Herod. 4, 167. Above, p. 152.

[294] Herod. 4, 164, 200.

[295] Herod. 4, 165, 167, 197.

[296] Herod. 4, 200-204; Heracl. Pont. fragm. 4, ed. Muller.

[297] Herod. 4, 203, 204.

[298] Herod. 4, 163; Heracl. Pont. Fragm. 8, ed. Muller; Pindar, "Pyth."

4, 5 and the Scholia.

[299] Herod. 3, 91.

[300] Herod. 7, 71.

[301] In Brugsch, "Hist. of Egypt," 2, 297, Settu-Ra.

[302] Lepsius, "Inschriften von Charigeh und Dachileh, Z. f. Aeg. Spr."

1874, s. 75, 78.

[303] It seems to me rash to find Carthage in _Karka_ (so also in the Babylonian version) with Oppert ("Journal Asiatique," 1872, p. 163 ff.), and Mordtmann ("Z. D. M. G." 16, 110).

[304] Justin, 19, 1.

[305] Though I admit that negotiations may have taken place between Darius and the Carthaginians, I do not at the same time allow the accuracy of the statement in Diodorus about the league of Xerxes and the Carthaginians against the Greeks: a Sicilian may be suspected of ascribing to his countrymen as large a share as possible in the glory of the Persian war.

[306] Herod. 5, 16.

[307] Herod. 5, 26.

[308] Herod. 7, 59.