The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [142]
2. And dispatched the division under Scopasis to which the Sauromatae were joined,
3. With orders that they should seek a conference with the Ionians, who had been left at the Ister to guard the bridge.
4. Meanwhile the Scythians who remained behind resolved no longer to lead the Persians hither and thither about their country,
5. But to fall upon them whenever they should be at their meals.
6. So they waited till such times, and then did as they had determined.
7. In these combats the Scythian horse always put to flight the horse of the Persians;
8. These last, however, when routed, fell back upon their infantry, who never failed to afford them support;
9. While the Scythians, on their side, as soon as they had driven the horse in, retired again, for fear of the Persian infantry.
10. By night too the Scythians made many similar attacks.
11. A strange thing that greatly advantaged the Persians, and equally disadvantaged the Scythians in their assaults, was the braying of the asses and the appearance of the mules.
12. For the land of the Scythians produced neither ass nor mule, by reason of the cold.
13. So, when the asses brayed, they frightened the Scythian cavalry; and often, in the middle of a charge, the horses would take fright at the noise made by the asses and wheel round, pricking up their ears, and showing astonishment.
14. And thus for a time a stalemate ensued, except that the Persian host suffered attrition, being in a foreign land whose rulers had made waste before them.
15. And little by little the Persians grew worried at their vulnerable position, with dwindling supplies;
16. And they began to take counsel with themselves what they should do.
Chapter 46
1. The Scythians, when they perceived signs that the Persians were becoming alarmed, took steps to induce them not to quit Scythia,
2. In the hope, if they stayed, of inflicting on them the greater injury, when their supplies should altogether fail.
3. To effect this, they would leave some of their cattle exposed with the herdsmen, while they themselves moved away to a distance.
4. The Persians would make a foray, and take the beasts, whereupon they would be highly elated.
5. They did this several times, until at last Darius was at his wits’ end;
6. And then the Scythian princes, understanding how matters stood, dispatched a herald to the Persian camp with presents for the king,
7. Which were eight things: a bird, a mouse, a frog and five arrows.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. Darius gave it as his opinion that the Scythians intended a surrender of themselves and their country, both land and water, into his hands.
11. 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,
12. While the frog passes his life in the water; the bird is as swift and proud as a horse, and the arrows might signify the surrender of all their power.
13. Gobryas, one of the seven conspirators against the Magus, offered a different explanation.
14. ‘These tokens say: “Unless, Persians, you can turn into birds and fly into the sky, or become mice and burrow under the ground,
15. ‘“Or make yourselves frogs, and take refuge in the fens, you will never escape from this land, but die pierced by our arrows.”’
16. The single division of the Scythians, which in the early part of the war had been appointed to guard the Palus Maeotis, and had now been sent to parlay with the Ionians stationed at the Ister, addressed them, on reaching the bridge, in these words:
17. ‘Men of Ionia, we bring you freedom, if you will only do as we recommend.
18. ‘Darius, we understand, enjoined you to keep your guard here at this bridge just sixty days; then,