The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [110]
34. ‘Grant forgiveness to the Lydians, and to make sure of their never troubling you more, forbid them to keep any weapons of war,
35. ‘Command them to wear tunics under their cloaks, and to put buskins on their legs,
36. ‘And make them bring up their sons to playing musical instruments and shopkeeping.
37. ‘So will you soon see them become women instead of men, and there will be no more fear of their rebelling.’
38. Croesus thought this a better fate for the Lydians than being sold into slavery, and for this reason gave such advice to Cyrus, in a desperate attempt to save his people.
39. The advice pleased Cyrus, who consented. Thereupon he summoned a Mede called Mazares and charged him to issue orders to the Lydians in accordance with Croesus’ advice.
40. Further, he commanded him to sell as slaves all who had joined the Lydians in their attack on Sardis,
41. And above all to bring Pactyas with him alive on his return. Having given these orders Cyrus continued his journey back to Persia.
Chapter 16
1. Pactyas, when news came of the approach of the Persian army, fled in terror to Cyme.
2. The Median general Mazares, who had marched on Sardis with a detachment of the army of Cyrus, finding on his arrival that Pactyas and his troops were gone, immediately entered the town.
3. And first of all he forced the Lydians to obey the orders of his master, and change (as they did from that time) their entire manner of living.
4. Next, he dispatched messengers to Cyme, commanding Pactyas to be handed to him.
5. Although some of the Greeks tried to hide Pactyas, he was at length betrayed to the Persians by the citizens of Chios,
6. Who as their reward were given a tract of land in Mysia opposite Lesbos.
7. Meanwhile Mazares, after he received Pactyas from the Chians, made war on those who had taken part in the attack on Tabalus,
8. And in the first place took Priene and sold the inhabitants into slavery, after which he overran the whole plain of the Maeander and the district of Magnesia,
9. Both of which he gave up for pillage to the soldiery. He then suddenly sickened and died.
10. Upon his death Harpagus, the Mede who had served and then betrayed king Astyages, and helped place Cyrus on the throne, was sent to the coast to assume the command.
11. He entered Ionia, and took the cities by means of a clever tactic:
12. Forcing the enemy to hide within their defences, he heaped mounds of earth against their walls, and thus captured the towns. Phocaea was the first city he took.
13. Now the Phocaeans were the first Greeks who made long sea voyages, and it was they who made the Greeks acquainted with the Adriatic and with Tyrrhenia, with Iberia, and the city of Tartessus.
14. The vessel they used in their voyages was not the round-built merchant ship, but the long penteconter.
15. On the Phocaeans’ arrival at Tartessus, the king there, Arganthonius, took a liking to them. This monarch reigned over the Tartessians for eighty years.
16. He regarded the Phocaeans with so much favour as, at first, to beg them to quit Ionia and settle in whatever part of his country they liked.
17. When he found that he could not prevail upon them to agree to this, and hearing that the Mede was growing great in their neighbourhood,
18. He gave them money to build a wall about their town, and certainly he must have been generous,
19. For the town wall was many furlongs in circuit, built of great blocks of stone skilfully joined.
20. Harpagus, having advanced against the Phocaeans, laid siege to them. Instead of attacking he first offered terms.
21. ‘It would content me,’ he said, ‘if the Phocaeans would agree to throw down one of their battlements, and dedicate one dwelling house to the king.’
22. The Phocaeans, vexed at the thought of becoming slaves, asked a single day to think about the offer, and asked Harpagus during that day to withdraw his forces from the walls.
23. Harpagus replied that he understood well enough what they intended, but nevertheless he granted their request.
24. Accordingly the Persian troops withdrew,