The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [204]
44. Intending to stir up revolt in that province, and hoping to do great hurt to Xerxes:
45. Which he would have accomplished, if he had reached the Bactrian and Sacan people, for he was loved by them both,
46. And was moreover satrap of Bactria. But Xerxes, hearing of his designs, sent an armed force on his track,
47. Which killed him on the road, with his sons and followers.
Chapter 113
1. Meanwhile the Greeks, who had left Mycale and sailed for the Hellespont,
2. Were forced by contrary winds to anchor near Lectum, from where they afterwards sailed to Abydos.
3. On arriving they discovered that the Hellespont bridges, which they had thought were still standing, were destroyed.
4. Leotychides and the Peloponnesians under him were keen to return home; but the Athenians under their captain Xanthippus wished to remain to make an attempt on the Chersonese.
5. So, while the Peloponnesians sailed home, the Athenians crossed from Abydos to the Chersonese, and laid siege to Sestos.
6. Now, as Sestos was the strongest fortress in that region, the news had no sooner gone abroad that the Greeks were at the Hellespont,
7. Than great numbers of people flocked in panic to Sestos from the neighbouring towns.
8. Among them came a certain Oeobazus, a Persian from the city of Cardia,
9. Where he had kept the shore cables which had been used in the construction of the bridges.
10. Sestos was guarded by its own Aeolian inhabitants, but contained also some Persians and a great multitude of their allies.
11. The whole district was ruled by the satrap Artayctes, a Persian, but a cruel and wicked man.
12. When Xerxes was marching against Athens, Artayctes had craftily possessed himself of the treasures belonging to Protesilaus, the son of Iphiclus, which were at Elaesus in the Chersonese.
13. For at this place is the tomb of Protesilaus, with a great store of wealth, vases of gold and silver, works in brass, garments and other treasures,
14. All which Artayctes made his prey, having got the king’s consent by saying to him,
15. ‘Master, in this region there is the house of a Greek, who, when he attacked your territory, was killed.
16. ‘Give me his house, so that hereafter men will fear to carry arms against you.’
17. He easily persuaded Xerxes to agree, for there was no suspicion in the king’s mind.
18. And Artayctes could say in a certain sense that Protesilaus had borne arms against the land of the king,
19. Because the Persians considered all Asia to belong to them, and to their king for the time being.
20. So when Xerxes allowed his request, Artayctes brought all the treasures from Elaesus to Sestos, and made the forfeit land into cornfields and pasture.
21. It was this Artayctes who was now besieged by the Athenians.
22. He was ill prepared for defence, because had he not in the least expected the Greeks’ coming.
23. When it was now late in the autumn, and the siege continued, the Athenians began to murmur that they were kept abroad too long;
24. And, seeing that they were not able to take the place, urged Xanthippus to lead them back to their own country.
25. But he refused to move until either the city fell or the Athenian people ordered them home. So the soldiers patiently endured.
26. Meanwhile those within the walls were reduced to the last straits, forced to boil the very thongs of their beds for food.
27. At last, when these too were finished, Artayctes and Oeobazus, with the native Persians, fled away from the place by night,
28. Having let themselves down from the wall at the back of the town, where the blockading force was scantiest.
29. As soon as day dawned, the Chersonese signalled the Greeks from the walls, and let them know what had happened, at the same time opening the city gates.
30. Some of the Greeks entered the town, while a more numerous body of them set out in pursuit of the enemy.
31. Oeobazus fled into Thrace; but there the Apsinthian Thracians seized and killed him.
32. As for Artayctes and the troops