The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [187]
18. He belonged to the younger branch of the royal house. All his ancestors, except the two next in the above list to himself, had been kings of Sparta.
19. The Athenian vessels were commanded by Xanthippus, the son of Ariphron.
20. When the whole fleet was gathered at Egina, ambassadors from Ionia arrived at the Greek station;
21. They had just come from visiting Sparta, where they had been entreating the Lacedaemonians to liberate their native land.
22. One of these ambassadors was Herodotus, the son of Basileides. Originally they were seven in number; and the whole seven had conspired to slay Strattis, the tyrant of Chios;
23. One, however, of those engaged in the plot betrayed the enterprise; and the conspiracy being in this way discovered, Herodotus and the remaining five left Chios,
24. And went straight to Sparta, whence they had now proceeded to Egina, their object being to beseech the Greeks to liberate Ionia.
25. It was not, however, without difficulty that they were induced to advance even so far as Delos.
26. All beyond that region seemed to the Greeks full of danger; the places were quite unknown to them, and to their fancy swarmed with Persian troops;
27. As for Samos, it appeared to them as far off as the Pillars of Hercules. So it came to pass that at the very same time that the barbarians were hindered by their fears from venturing any further west than Samos,
28. The urgings of the Chians failed to induce the Greeks to advance any further east than Delos. Terror guarded the mid region.
Chapter 93
1. Mardonius now sent an envoy to Athens, to propose peace to them, and a league with them against the Peloponnese.
2. Hearing this, the Spartans lost no time in sending envoys to Athens also; and it so happened that these envoys were given their audience at the same time as Mardonius’ envoy:
3. For the Athenians had waited and made delays, because they felt sure that the Lacedaemonians would hear that an ambassador had arrived from the Persians.
4. They contrived this on purpose, so that the Lacedaemonians might hear them deliver their sentiments to the Persians.
5. The Spartan ambassadors said, ‘We are sent here by all Lacedaemonia to entreat that you will not do a new thing in Greece, nor agree to the terms which are offered you by the barbarian.
6. ‘Such conduct on the part of any of the Greeks would be alike unjust and dishonourable; but in you it would be worse than in others.
7. ‘For it would surely be an intolerable thing that the Athenians, who have always hitherto been known as a nation to which many men owed their freedom,
8. ‘Should ever become the means of bringing all other Greeks into slavery.
9. ‘We feel, however, for the heavy calamities which press on you – the loss of your harvest these last two years, and the ruin in which your homes have lain for so long a time.
10. ‘We offer you, therefore, on the part of the Lacedaemonians and the allies, sustenance for your women and for the unwarlike portion of your households, so long as the war endures.
11. ‘Do not be seduced by Mardonius. He does as is natural for him to do; a tyrant himself, he helps forward a tyrant’s cause.
12. ‘You Athenians should know that with barbarians there is neither trustworthiness nor truth.’
13. At this the Athenians turned to the ambassadors of Mardonius and said, ‘We know, as well as you do, that the power of the Persian is many times greater than our own:
14. ‘Nevertheless we so firmly cling to freedom that we shall always offer what resistance we may to tyranny, and would rather die than be slaves.
15. ‘Do not seek to persuade us into making terms with Xerxes or his servant Mardonius – say what you