The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [147]
33. ‘Have no fear of the horse’s tricks,’ said the Carian. ‘This is the last time he will perform them.’
34. The two hosts then joined battle both by sea and by land. The Ionians, who that day fought as they have never done before or since, defeated the Phoenicians.
35. Meanwhile as the two armies engaged in a sharp struggle on land, Artybius charged his horse at Onesilus;
36. The horse reared and kicked, but as he did so the Carian cut at him with a reaping hook, severing the front legs from the body.
37. The horse fell upon the spot, and Onesilus killed Artybius as he fell with him.
38. In the thick of the fight Stesanor, tyrant of Curium, who commanded a large body of troops, defected to the Persians.
39. At this the Curians also defected; whereupon victory went to the Persians.
40. The Cyprian army was routed, vast numbers were slain, among them Onesilus, and Aristocyprus, king of the Solians, son of Philocyprus whom Solon the Athenian, when he visited Cyprus, praised in his poems beyond all other sovereigns.
41. Thus, after enjoying a short period of freedom, the Cyprians were again enslaved.
42. As for the Ionians who had won the sea fight, when they found that Onesilus had lost they left Cyprus, and sailed home.
43. But Daurises, who was married to one of the daughters of Darius, together with Hymeas, Otanes and other Persian captains, who were likewise married to daughters of the king,
44. Pursued the Ionian fleet, defeated them, and by forcing them to divide their efforts among their various cities, proceeded in succession to take and sack each one of them.
Chapter 50
1. As the cities fell one after another, Aristagoras the Milesian, in truth a man of little courage, began to seek ways to escape.
2. Now convinced that it was vain to fight Darius, he called his comrades together, and with them made a plan to conquer Thrace and there make a refuge.
3. They set out to do so, but were killed in the attempt. So ended the life of Aristagoras.
4. Meanwhile Histiaeus, tyrant of Miletus, who had been allowed by Darius to leave Susa, arrived at Sardis.
5. The Sardian satrap Artaphernes asked him why Ionia had rebelled; he answered that he did not know,
6. And that it had astonished him greatly, pretending to be unaware of the whole business.
7. Artaphernes, however, who saw that he was dealing dishonestly, and who had in fact full knowledge of the outbreak, said to him,
8. ‘Histiaeus: this shoe is of your stitching; Aristagoras has merely been the wearer.’
9. Histiaeus, alarmed at this, fled away to the coast as soon as night fell.
10. Thus he forfeited his word to Darius, and betrayed his deceit.
11. Crossing to Chios, he was there arrested by the inhabitants, who accused him of intending some mischief against them on Darius’ behalf.
12. But when the truth was laid before them, and they found that Histiaeus was in reality Darius’ foe, they set him free again.
13. But his efforts were to no avail. He was rejected by the people of Miletus, who had tasted their freedom by the revolt, and did not want a tyrant back again.
14. Histiaeus therefore went to the Hellespont, and began gathering an army and a fleet, principally of men of Lesbos,
15. Together with those he impressed into service who sailed from the Euxine and fell into his hands.
16. But though he captured Chios and made it his headquarters, and even before he met his end in battle with the Persian general Harpagus, his cause was already hopeless,
17. For the Ionians had once again been defeated and enslaved by Persia, after Darius sent a great army and fleet against Miletus.
18. At the battle for Miletus the Ionians assembled a fleet of many ships from their allies, under the command of a Phocaean named Dionysius.
19. He attempted to drill and train the sailors to make them effective for battle, but they complained under the work he imposed,
20. And when the Phoenicians sailed against them in the seas around Miletus, the Samians sailed away rather than fight, and the Lesbians also, and after them the