Justin: HISTORIARVM PHILIPPICARVM T. POMPEII TROGI LIBRI XLIV IN EPITOMEN REDACTI

[I] In relatione rerum ab Scythis gestarum, quae satis amplae magnificaeque fuerunt, principium ab origine repetendum est. Non enim minus inlustria initia quam imperium habuere, nec virorum magis quam feminarum virtutibus claruere, quippe cum ipsi Parthos Bactrianosque, feminae autem eorum Amazonum regna condiderint, prorsus ut res gestas virorum mulierumque considerantibus incertum sit, uter apud eos sexus inlustrior fuerit. Scytharum gens antiquissima semper habita, quamquam inter Scythas et Aegyptios diu contentio de generis vetustate fuerit Aegyptiis praedicantibus, initio rerum cum aliae terrae nimio fervore solis arderent, aliae rigerent frigoris inmanitate, ita ut non modo primae generare homines, sed ne advenas quidem recipere ac tueri possent, priusquam adversus calorem vel frigus velamenta corporis invenirentur vel locorum vitia quaesitis arte remediis mollirentur, Aegyptum ita temperatam semper fuisse, ut neque hiberna frigora nec aestivi solis ardores incolas eius premerent, solum ita fecundum, ut alimentorum usum hominum nulla terra feracior fuerit.

[1] In the relation of the deeds done by the Scythians, which were quite ample and magnificent, the beginning must be taken back to the origin. For they had beginnings no less illustrious than their empire, nor were they more renowned for the virtues of their men than of their women, since the men themselves founded the kingdoms of the Parthians and the Bactrians, while their women founded the realms of the Amazons, so that, for those considering the exploits of men and women, it is altogether uncertain which sex among them was more illustrious. The nation of the Scythians has always been held most ancient, although between the Scythians and the Egyptians there was long a contention about the antiquity of their race, the Egyptians proclaiming that, at the beginning of things, while some lands burned with the excessive fervor of the sun and others stiffened with the enormity of cold, such that they could not only not be the first to beget humans, but could not even receive and protect newcomers, before coverings of the body were discovered against heat or cold or the defects of places were softened by remedies sought out by art, Egypt had always been so temperate that neither winter colds nor the ardors of the summer sun pressed upon its inhabitants, and the soil so fecund that for the aliment of men no land was more fertile.

Iure igitur ibi primum homines natos videri debere, ubi educari facillime possent. Contra Scythae caeli temperamentum nullum esse vetustatis argumentum putabant. Quippe naturam, cum primum incrementa caloris ac frigoris distinxit, statim ad locorum patientiam animalia quoque generasse;sed et arborum ac frugum pro regionum condicione apte genera variata.

Therefore, by right, human beings ought to seem to have been born there first, where they could most easily be reared. By contrast, the Scythians thought the temperament of the sky to be no argument of antiquity. For nature, when it first distinguished the increments of heat and of cold, immediately also generated animals to the endurance of places;but also aptly varied the kinds of trees and of crops according to the condition of the regions.

Et quanto Scythis sit caelum asperius quam Aegyptiis, tanto et corpora et ingenia esse duriora. Ceterum si mundi, quae nunc partes sunt, aliquando unitas fuit, sive inluvies aquarum principio rerum terras obrutas tenuit, sive ignis, qui et mundum genuit, cuncta possedit, utriusque primordii Scythas origine praestare. Nam si ignis prima possessio rerum fuit, qui paulatim extinctus sedem terris dedit, nullam prius quam septemtrionalem partem hiemis rigore sub igne secretam, adeo ut nunc quoque nulla magis rigeat frigoribus; Aegyptum vero et totum Orientem tardissime temperatum, quippe qui etiam nunc torrenti calore solis exaestuet.

And by how much the sky is harsher for the Scythians than for the Egyptians, by so much both bodies and natures are tougher. But if the world, which now is divided into parts, was once a unity, whether at the beginning of things a deluge of waters held the lands overwhelmed, or whether fire, which also engendered the world, possessed all things, in the origin of either beginning the Scythians excel in origin. For if fire was the first possession of things, which, gradually extinguished, gave a seat to the lands, it gave place to no region earlier than the septentrional part, kept apart from the fire by the rigour of winter, to such a degree that even now none is more rigid with frosts; whereas Egypt and the whole Orient were tempered very latest, since even now it seethes with the torrential heat of the sun.

Quodsi omnes quondam terrae submersae profundo fuerunt, profecto editissimam quamque partem decurrentibus aquis primum detectam, humillimo autem solo eandem aquam diutissime inmoratam; et quanto prior quaeque pars terrarum siccata sit, tanto prius animalia generare coepisse. Porro Scythiam adeo editiorem omnibus terris esse, ut cuncta flumina ibi natam in Maeotim, tum deinde in Ponticum et Aegyptium mare decurrant; Aegyptum autem, quae tot regum, tot saeculorum cura inpensaque munita sit et adversum vim incurrentium aquarum tantis structa molibus, tot fossis concisa, ut, cum his arceantur, illis recipiantur aquae, nihilo minus coli nisi excluso Nilo non potuerit, nec possit videri hominum vetustate ultima, quae aggerationibus regum sive Nili trahentis limum terrarum recentissima videatur. His igitur argumentis superatis Aegyptiis antiquiores semper Scythae visi.

If, however, once all lands were submerged in the deep, assuredly each loftiest part, as the waters ran down, was first laid bare, but on the very lowest ground that same water lingered for the longest time; and the earlier any part of the earth was dried, by so much the earlier it began to generate animals. Moreover, Scythia is so much more elevated than all lands, that all the rivers born there run down into the Maeotis, then thence into the Pontic and Egyptian sea; but Egypt, which has been fortified by the care and expense of so many kings and so many ages, and built with such great moles against the force of inrushing waters, cut up by so many ditches, so that by these they may be warded off and by those the waters received, nevertheless could not be cultivated unless the Nile were shut out, nor can it seem the utmost in the antiquity of men, which appears the most recent of lands either from the embankments of kings or from the Nile drawing down its silt. Therefore, with these arguments, the Scythians have always seemed more ancient than the Egyptians.

[II] Scythia autem in orientem porrecta includitur ab uno latere Ponto, ab altero montibus Riphaeis, a tergo Asia et Phasi flumine. Multum in longitudinem et latitudinem patet. Hominibus inter se nulli fines.

[2] Scythia, however, stretched out toward the Orient, is enclosed on one side by the Pontus, on the other by the Riphaean Mountains, and at the back by Asia and the river Phasis. It extends greatly in length and in breadth. Among the people themselves, there are no boundaries.

Neque enim agrum exercent, nec domus illis ulla aut tectum aut sedes est, armenta et pecora semper pascentibus et per incultas solitudines errare solitis. Uxores liberosque secum in plaustris vehunt, quibus coriis imbrium hiemisque causa tectis pro domibus utuntur. Iustitia gentis ingeniis culta, non legibus.

Nor indeed do they cultivate the land, nor is there to them any house or roof or settled abode, as they always feed herds and flocks and are accustomed to wander through uncultivated solitudes. They carry their wives and children with them in wagons, which, covered with hides for the sake of rains and winter, they use as houses. Justice of the nation is cultivated by dispositions, not by laws.

Nullum scelus apud eos furto gravius: quippe sine tecti munimento pecora et armenta habentibus quid inter silvas superesset, si furari liceret? Aurum et argentum non perinde ac reliqui mortales adpetunt. Lacte et melle vescuntur.

No crime among them is more grave than theft: indeed, for those who have flocks and herds without the muniment of a roof, what would be left among the woods, if it were permitted to steal? They do not have an appetite for gold and silver in the same way as the rest of mortals. They feed on milk and honey.

Lanae his usus ac vestium ignotus et quamquam continuis frigoribus urantur, pellibus tamen ferinis ac murinis utuntur. Haec continentia illis morum quoque iustitiam edidit, nihil alienum concupiscentibus; quippe ibidem divitiarum cupido est, ubi et usus. Atque utinam reliquis mortalibus similis moderatio abstinentiaque alieni foret; profecto non tantum bellorum per omnia saecula terris omnibus continuaretur, neque plus hominum ferrum et arma quam naturalis fatorum condicio raperet, prorsus ut admirabile videatur, hoc illis naturam dare, quod Graeci longa sapientium doctrina praeceptisque philosophorum coonsequi nequeunt, cultosque mores incultae barbariae conlatione superari.

The use of wool and of garments is unknown to them, and although they are seared by continual cold, nevertheless they use ferine and murine skins. This self-restraint has also produced for them a justice of morals, as they covet nothing of another’s; for the desire for riches is in the same place where there is use. And would that for the rest of mortals there were a like moderation and an abstinence from what is another’s; assuredly not so many wars would be continued through all ages over all the lands, nor would iron and arms carry off more of mankind than the natural condition of fates would snatch away, so that it seems altogether admirable that nature gives to them this: that which the Greeks cannot attain by the long doctrine of wise men and the precepts of philosophers, and that cultivated manners are overcome by comparison with uncultivated barbarism.

Tanto plus in illis proficit vitiorum ignoratio quam in his cognitio virtutis.

So much more does ignorance of vices benefit them than knowledge of virtue benefits these.

[III] Imperium Asiae ter quaesivere; ipsi perpetuo ab alieno imperio aut intacti aut invicti mansere. Darium, regem Persarum, turpi ab Scythia submoverunt fuga, Cyrum cum omni exercitu trucidaverunt, Alexandri Magni ducem Zopyriona pari ratione cum copiis universis deleverunt. Romanorum audivere, non sensere arma.

[3] The empire of Asia they sought three times; they themselves remained perpetually either untouched or unconquered by foreign rule. They drove Darius, king of the Persians, from Scythia in shameful flight; they slaughtered Cyrus with his entire army; in the same manner they destroyed Zopyrion, a commander of Alexander the Great, with all his forces. The arms of the Romans they heard of, they did not feel.

Parthicum et Bactrianum imperium ipsi condiderunt. Gens laboribus et bellis aspera, vires corporum inmensae; nihil parare, quod amittere timeant, nihil victores praeter gloriam concupiscunt. Primus Scythis bellum indixit Vezosis, rex Aegyptius, missis prius legationibus, qui hostibus parendi legem dicerent.

They themselves founded the Parthian and Bactrian empires. A nation rough in labors and wars, with immense strengths of body; they prepare nothing which they fear to lose, and as victors desire nothing except glory. The first to declare war on the Scythians was Vezosis, an Egyptian king, after first sending legations to declare to the enemies a law of obeying.

Sed Scythae iam ante de adventu regis a finitimis certiores facti legatis respondent: tam opulenti populi ducem stolide adversus inopes occupasse bellum, quod magis domi fuerit illi timendum, quod belli certamen anceps, praemia victoriae nulla, damna manifesta sint. Igitur non exspectaturos Scythas, dum ad se veniatur, cum tanto sibi plura in hoste concupiscenda sint, ultroque praedae ituros obviam. Nec dicta res morata.

But the Scythians, already earlier made certain of the king’s advent by their neighbors, answer the envoys: that the leader of so opulent a people has stupidly taken up war against the indigent, that he had more to fear at home, that the contest of war is doubtful, the prizes of victory none, the losses manifest. Therefore the Scythians would not wait until one should come to them, since for themselves there are far more things to be coveted in the enemy, and that they would go of their own accord to meet him for booty. Nor did the thing said tarry.

Quos cum tanta celeritate advenire rex didicisset, in fugam vertitur exercituque cum omni apparatu belli relicto in regnum trepidus se recepit. Scythas ab Aegypto paludes prohibuere. Inde reversi Asiam perdomitam vectigalem fecere, modico tributo magis in titulum imperii quam in victoriae praemium inposito.

When the king learned that they were arriving with such celerity, he turned to flight and, leaving his army with all the apparatus of war, he withdrew in trepidation into his kingdom. Marshes barred the Scythians from Egypt. Thence, returning, they made Asia, thoroughly subdued, tributary, imposing a moderate tribute more as a title of empire than as a prize of victory.

XV annis pacandae Asiae inmorati uxorum flagitatione revocantur, per legatos denuntiantibus, ni redeant, subolem se ex finitimis quaesituras nec passuras, ut in posteritatem Scytharum genus per feminas intercidat. His igitur Asia per mille quingentos annos vectigalis fuit. Pendendi tributi finem Ninus, rex Assyriorum, inposuit.

After lingering for 15 years in the pacification of Asia, they were recalled by the importunate demand of their wives, who, through envoys, gave notice that, unless they returned, they would seek offspring from the neighbors and would not allow the race of the Scythians to perish for posterity through the females. To these, therefore, Asia was tributary for 1,500 years. Ninus, king of the Assyrians, imposed an end to the paying of the tribute.

[IV] Sed apud Scythas medio tempore duo regii iuvenes, Plynos et Scolopitus, per facionem optimatum domo pulsi ingentem iuventutem secum traxere et in Cappadociae ora iuxta amnem Thermodonta consederunt subiectosque Themiscyrios campos occupavere. Ibi per multos annos spoliare finitimos adsueti conspiratione populorum per insidias trucidantur. Horum uxores cum viderent exsilio additam orbitatem, arma sumunt finesque suos submoventes primo, mox etiam inferentes bellum defendunt.

[4] But among the Scythians in the meantime two royal youths, Plynos and Scolopitus, driven from home by the faction of the Optimates, drew a huge band of youth with them and settled on the coast of Cappadocia near the river Thermodon, and occupied the Themiscyrian fields lying below. There, for many years accustomed to despoil their neighbors, they are slaughtered by ambush through a conspiracy of the peoples. Their wives, when they saw bereavement added to exile, take up arms and, at first driving off foes from their borders, soon even carrying war to them, they defend themselves.

Nubendi quoque finitimis animum omisere, servitutem, non matrimonium appellantes. Singulare omnium saeculorum exemplum, ausae rem publicam augere sine viris; iam etiam cum contemptu virorum tuentur. Et ne feliciores aliae aliis viderentur, viros, qui domi remanserant, interficiunt.

They also abandoned the intention of marrying their neighbors, calling it servitude, not matrimony. A singular example of all ages, having dared to augment the republic without men; now even they protect it with contempt for men. And lest some might seem more fortunate than others, they kill the men, who had remained at home.

Ultionem quoque caesorum coniugum excidio finitimorum consequuntur. Tum pace armis quaesita, ne genus interiret, concubitus finitimorum ineunt. Si qui mares nescerentur, interficiebant.

They also obtain vengeance for their slain husbands by the destruction of the neighboring peoples. Then, with peace sought by arms, lest their race perish, they enter into intercourse with their neighbors. If any males were born, they killed them.

Virgines in eundem ipsis morem, non otio neque lanificio, sed armis, equis, venationibus exercebant, inustis infantum dexterioribus mammis, ne sagittarum iactus impediantur; unde dictae Amazones. Duae his reginae fuere, Martesia et Lampeto, quae in duas partes agmine diviso, inclitae iam opibus, vicibus gerebant bella, soli terminos alternis defendentes, et ne successibus deesset auctoritas, genitas se Marte praedicabant. Itaque maiore parte Europae subacta Asiae quoque nonnullas civitates occupavere.

Virgins in the same manner for themselves, not in idleness nor in wool-working, but with arms, horses, hunts they exercised, with the right breasts of infants branded, lest the casting of arrows be impeded; whence they are called Amazons. Two queens were theirs, Martesia and Lampeto, who, with the host divided into two parts, already renowned in resources, waged wars by turns, defending the borders of the soil in alternation, and, lest authority be lacking to their successes, they proclaimed themselves begotten by Mars they declared. And so, with the greater part of Europe subdued, they also occupied several cities of Asia.

Ibi Epheso multisque aliis urbibus conditis partem exercitus cum ingenti praeda domum dimittunt. Reliquae, quae ad tuendum Asiae imperium remanserant, concursu barbarorum cum Martesia regina interficiuntur. In huius locum filia eius Orithyia regno succedit, cui praeter singularem belli scientiam eximia servatae in omne aevum virginitatis admiratio fuit.

There, with Ephesus and many other cities founded, they send home part of the army with immense booty. The rest, who had remained to guard the imperium of Asia, are slain by the onrush of the barbarians together with Queen Martesia. In her place her daughter Orithyia succeeds to the kingdom, for whom, besides a singular science of war, there was exceptional admiration for virginity preserved for all time.

Huius virtute tantum additum gloriae et famae Amazonum est, ut Herculi rex, cui duodecim stipendia debebat, quasi inpossibile imperaverit, ut arma reginae Amazonum sibi adferret. Eo igitur profectus longis novem navibus comitante principum Graeciae iuventute inopinantes adgreditur. Duae tum sorores Amazonum regna tractabant, Antiope et Orithyia; sed Orithyia foris bellum gerebat.

By her virtue so much was added to the glory and fame of the Amazons, that the king gave Hercules— to whom he owed twelve terms of service—an order, as if impossible, to bring to himself the arms of the queen of the Amazons. Therefore setting out thither with nine long ships, the youth of the princes of Greece accompanying, he attacks them unawares. At that time two sisters were administering the realms of the Amazons, Antiope and Orithyia; but Orithyia was waging war abroad.

Igitur cum Hercules ad litus Amazonum adplicuit, infrequens multitudo cum Antiope regina nihil hostile metuente erat. Qua re effectum est, ut paucae repentino tumultu excitae arma sumerent facilemque victoriam hostibus darent. Multae itaque caesae captaeque, in his duae Antiopae sorores, Melanippe ab Hercule, Hippolyte a Theseo.

Therefore, when Hercules made landfall at the shore of the Amazons, there was a thinly gathered multitude with Queen Antiope, fearing nothing hostile. By which circumstance it came about that the few, roused by sudden tumult, took up arms and gave the enemies an easy victory. Many, accordingly, were cut down and captured; among these, two sisters of Antiope—Melanippe by Hercules, Hippolyte by Theseus.

Sed Theseus obtenta in praemium captiva eandem in matrimonium adsumpsit et ex ea genuit Hippolytum. Hercules post victoriam Melanippen captivam sorori reddidit et pretium arma reginae accepit. Atque ita functus imperio ad regem revertitur.

But Theseus, the captive obtained as a prize, took the same into matrimony and from her begot Hippolytus. Hercules, after the victory, returned Melanippe the captive to her sister and the price the queen’s arms he received. And thus, having fulfilled the command, he returns to the king.

Sed Orithyia, ubi conperit bellum sororibus inlatum ac raptorem esse Atheniensium principem, hortatur comites in ultionem frustraque et Ponti sinum et Asiam edomitam esse dicit, si Graecorum non tam bellis quam rapinis pateant. Auxilium deinde a Sagylo, rege Scythiae, petit: genus Scytharum esse, cladem virorum, necessitatem armorum, belli causas ostendit, adsecutasque virtute, ne segniores viris feminas habere Scythae viderentur. Motus ille domestica gloria mittit cum ingenti equitatu filium Panasagorum in auxilium.

But Orithyia, when she learned that war had been brought upon her sisters and that the ravisher was the leader of the Athenians, urges her companions to vengeance, and says that both the Pontic Gulf and Asia have been subdued in vain, if they lie open to the Greeks not so much to wars as to rapines. Then she seeks aid from Sagylus, king of Scythia: that the Scythian race is concerned, the slaughter of men, the necessity of arms, the causes of the war she sets forth, and the achievements won by valor, lest the Scythians seem to have women more sluggish than the men. Moved by domestic glory, he sends with a huge cavalry force his son Panasagoras to their aid.

Et ante proelium dissensione orta ab auxiliis desertae bello ab Atheniensibus vincuntur. Receptaculum tamen habuere castra sociorum, quorum auxilio intactae ab aliis gentibus in regnum revertuntur. Post Orithyiam Penthesilea regno potita est, cuius Troiano bello inter fortissimos viros, cum auxilium adversus Graecos ferret, magna virtutis documenta exstitere.

And before the battle, with a dissension having arisen, deserted by their auxiliaries they are defeated in war by the Athenians. Nevertheless they had the camp of their allies as a refuge, by whose aid, untouched by other nations, they return to their kingdom . After Orithyia, Penthesilea gained possession of the kingdom, in the Trojan War among the bravest of men, as she brought aid against the Greeks, there appeared great proofs of valor.

Interfecta deinde Penthesilea exercitumque eius absumpto paucae, quae in regno remanserant, aegre se adversus finitimos defendentes usque tempora Alexandri Magni duraverunt. Harum Minithyia sive Thalestris regina, concubitu Alexandri per dies tredecim ad subolem ex eo generandum obtento, reversa in regnum brevi tempore cum omni Amazonum nomine intercidit.

Then, with Penthesilea slain and her army consumed, the few who had remained in the kingdom, scarcely defending themselves against their neighbors, endured down to the times of Alexander the Great. Of these, Minithyia, or Thalestris, the queen, having obtained sexual congress with Alexander for thirteen days to beget progeny from him, returned to her kingdom and, in a short time, together with the entire name of the Amazons, was cut off.

[V] Scythae autem tertia expeditione Asiana cum annis octo a coniugibus ac liberis afuissent, servili bello domi excipiuntur. Quippe coniuges eorum longa exspectatione virorum fessae nec iam teneri bello, sed deletos ratae servis ad custodiam pecorum relictis nubunt, qui reversos cum victoria dominos velut advenas armati finibus prohibent. Quibus cum varia victoria fuisset, admonentur Scythae mutare genus pugnae, memores non cum hostibus, sed cum servis proeliandum, nec armorum, sed dominorum iure vincendos, verbera in aciem, non tela adferenda, omissoque ferro virgas et flagella ceteraque servilis metus paranda instrumenta.

[5] But the Scythians, on their third Asiatic expedition, when they had been away from their spouses and children for eight years, are met at home by a servile war. For their wives, wearied by the long expectation of their men and thinking them no longer detained by war, but destroyed, marry the slaves left for the custody of the herds; who, armed, keep from their borders the masters returning with victory, as if they were strangers. And when victory had been various with them, the Scythians are admonished to change the kind of fighting, remembering that it is to be fought not with enemies but with slaves, and that they must conquer not by the right of arms but by the right of masters: lashes are to be brought into the battle-line, not missiles; and, iron set aside, rods and whips and the other instruments of servile fear are to be prepared.

Probato omnes consilio instructi, sicut praeceptum erat, postquam ad hostem accessere, inopinantibus verbera intenta; adeoque illos perculerunt, ut quos ferro non poterant, metu verberum vincerent, fugamque non ut hostes victi, sed ut fugitivi servi capesserent. Quicumque capi potuerunt, supplicia crucibus luerunt. Mulieres quoque male sibi consciae partim ferro, partim suspendio vitam finierunt.

All, the counsel having been approved, instructed as had been prescribed, after they approached the enemy, with lashes poised against the unsuspecting; and they so thoroughly dismayed them that those whom they could not with iron overcome they conquered by the fear of lashes, and they took to flight not as enemies vanquished, but as fugitive slaves. Whoever could be captured were punished by crucifixion. The women too, conscious of their own guilt, some by the sword, some by hanging, ended their life.

Post haec pax apud Scythas fuit usque tempora Ianthyri regis. Huic Darius, rex Persarum, sicut supra dictum est, cum filiae eius nuptias non obtinuisset, bellum intulit et armatis septingentis milibus hominum Scythiam ingressus, non facientibus hostibus pugnae potestatem metuens, ne interrupto ponte Histri reditus sibi intercluderetur, amissis LXXX milibus hominum trepidus refugit; quae iactura abundante multitudine inter damna numerata non est. Inde Asiam et Macedoniam domuit; Ionas quoque navali proelio superat.

After these things there was peace among the Scythians up to the times of King Ianthyras. Against him Darius, king of the Persians, as was said above, since he had not obtained the nuptials of his daughter, brought war and, entering Scythia with 700,000 armed men, as the enemies did not grant the opportunity of battle, fearing lest, if the bridge of the Ister were broken, his return be cut off, after losing 80,000 men he fled back in alarm; which loss, in view of the abundant multitude, was not counted among the damages. Thence he subdued Asia and Macedonia; he also defeats the Ionians in a naval battle.

Dein cognito quod Athenienses Ionis contra se auxilium tulissent, omnem impetum belli in eos convertit.

Then, having learned that the Athenians, descendants of Ion, had brought aid against him, he turned the whole impetus of the war upon them.

[VI] Nunc quoniam ad bella Atheniensium ventum est, quae non modo ultra spem gerendi, verum etiam ultra gesti fidem peracta sunt, operaque Atheniensium effectu maiora quam voto fuere, paucis urbis origo repetenda est, et quia non, ut ceterae gentes, a sordidis initiis ad summa cervere. Soli enim praeterquam incremento etiam origine gloriantur; quippe non advenae neque passim collecta populi conluvies originem urbi dedit, sed eodem innati solo, quod incolunt, et quae illis sedes, eadem origo est. Primi lanificii et olei et vini usum docuere.

[6] Now, since we have come to the wars of the Athenians, which were carried through not only beyond the hope of being undertaken, but even beyond the credence of what had been achieved, and since the works of the Athenians were greater in effect than in wish, the origin of the city must be briefly recapitulated, and because they did not, as the other nations, climb from sordid beginnings to the heights. For they alone glory not only in their increase but even in their origin; indeed it was not newcomers nor a rabble of people gathered at random that gave the city its origin, but they were born in the very same soil which they inhabit, and the seat they possess is the same as their origin. They were the first to teach the use of wool-working, and of oil and wine.

Arare quoque ac serere frumenta glandem vescentibus monstrarunt. Litterae certe ac facundia et hic civilis disciplinae ordo veluti templum Athenas habent. Ante Deucalionis tempora regem habuere Cecropem, quem, ut omnis antiquitas fabulosa est, biformem tradidere, quia primus marem feminae matrimonio iunxit.

They also demonstrated to those feeding on acorn how to plough and to sow grain. Letters, to be sure, and eloquence, and this order of civil discipline have Athens as, as it were, their temple. Before the times of Deucalion they had Cecrops as king, whom—since all antiquity is fabulous—they have handed down as biform, because he first joined a male to a female in matrimony.

Huic successit Cranaus, cuius filia Atthis nomen regioni dedit. Post hunc Amphictyonides regnavit, qui primus Minervae urbem sacravit et nomen civitati Athenas dedit. Huius temporibus aquarum inluvies maiorem partem populorum Graeciae absumpsit.

To him succeeded Cranaus, whose daughter Atthis gave the region its name. After him Amphictyonides reigned, who first consecrated the city to Minerva and gave the city the name Athens. In his times a deluge of waters consumed the greater part of the peoples of Greece.

Superfuerunt, quos refugia montium receperunt, aut ad regem Thessaliae Deucalionem retibus evecti sunt, a quo propterea genus hominum conditum dicitur. Per ordinem deinde successionis regnum ad Erechtheum descendit, sub quo frumenti satio est Eleusinae a Triptolemo reperta, in cuius muneris honorem noctes initiorum sacratae. Tenuit et Aegeus, Thesei pater, Athenis regnum, a quo per divortium discedens Medea propter adultam privigni aetatem Colchos cum Medo filio ex Aegeo suscepto concessit.

Those survived whom the refuges of the mountains received, or were carried by rafts to Deucalion, king of Thessaly, from whom therefore the race of humankind is said to have been founded. Then in due order of succession the kingdom descended to Erechtheus, under whom the sowing of grain was discovered at Eleusis by Triptolemus, in honor of which benefaction the nights of the Mysteries were consecrated. Aegeus also, father of Theseus, held the kingship at Athens, from whom, departing by divorce, Medea, on account of her stepson’s having reached adulthood, withdrew to Colchis with Medus, her son begotten from Aegeus.

Post Aegeum Theseus ac deinceps Thesei filius Demophoon, qui auxilium Graecis adversus Troianos tulit, regnum possedit. Erant initer Athenienses et Dorienses simultatium veteres offensae, quas vindicaturi bello Dorienses de eventu proelii oracula cunsuluerunt. Responsum superiores fore, ni regem Atheniensium occidissent.

After Aegeus, Theseus, and thereafter Demophoon, son of Theseus, who brought aid to the Greeks against the Trojans, possessed the kingdom. There were between the Athenians and the Dorians old enmities, which the Dorians, being about to avenge by war, consulted the oracles about the event of the battle. The response was that they would be superior, unless they had killed the king of the Athenians.

Cum ventum esset in bellum, militibus ante omnia custodia regis praecipitur. Atheniensibus eo tempore rex Codrus erat, qui et responso dei et praeceptis hostium cognitis permutato regis habitu pannosus, sarmenta collo gerens castra hostium ingreditur. Ibi in turba obsistentium a milite, quem falce astu convulneraverat, interficitur.

When it had come to war, the custody of the king is prescribed to the soldiers before all. Among the Athenians at that time the king was Codrus, who, both the response of the god and the precepts of the enemies having been learned, with the king’s garb changed, ragged, carrying brushwood on his neck, enters the enemies’ camp. There, in the throng of those standing in the way, he is killed by a soldier whom, by craft, he had wounded with a sickle.

Cognito regis corpore Dorienses sine proelio discedunt. Atque ita Athenienses virtute ducis pro salute patriae morti se offerentis bello liberantur.

With the king’s body recognized, the Dorians depart without battle. And thus the Athenians, by the virtue of a leader offering himself to death for the safety of the fatherland, are liberated from war.

[VII] Post Codrum nemo Athenis regnavit, quod memoriae nominis eius tributum est. Administratio rei publicae annua magistratibus permissa. Sed civitati nullae tunc leges erant, quia libido regum pro legibus habebatur.

[7] After Codrus no one reigned at Athens, which was rendered as a tribute to the memory of his name. The administration of the republic was entrusted to annual magistrates. But the city then had no laws, because the caprice of kings was held in place of laws.

Legitur itaque Solon, vir iustitiae insignis, qui velut novam civitaatem legibus conderet. Qui tanto temperamento inter plebem senatumque egit (cum, si quid pro altero ordine tulisset, alteri displiciturum videretur), ut ab utrisque parem gratiam traheret. Huius viri inter multa egregia illud memorabile fuit.

Accordingly, Solon is recorded, a man distinguished for justice, who, as though he were founding a new commonwealth by laws, established it. He conducted himself with such moderation between the plebs and the senate (since, if he had carried anything for the one order, it seemed it would displease the other), that he drew equal favor from both. Of this man, among many outstanding things, this was memorable.

Inter Athenienses et Megarenses de proprietate Salaminae insulae prope usque interitum armis dimicatum fuerat. Post multas clades capital esse apud Athenienses coepit, si quis legem de vindicanda insula tulisset. Sollicitus igitur Solon, ne aut tacendo parum rei publicae consuleret aut censendo sibi, subitam dementiam simulat, cuius venia non dicturus modo prohibita, sed et facturus erat.

Between the Athenians and the Megarians, over the proprietorship of the island of Salamis, fighting with arms had been carried on almost to extinction. After many calamities, it began to be a capital matter among the Athenians if anyone should have proposed a law for vindicating (reclaiming) the island. Therefore Solon, anxious lest either by keeping silence he should consult too little for the commonwealth, or by giving his opinion he must consider his own safety, simulates sudden dementia, under the indulgence of which he would not only say the prohibited things, but also do them.

Deformis habitu more vaecordium in publicum evolat factoque concursu hominum, quo magis consilium dissimulet, insolitis sibi versibus suadere populo coepit, quod vetabatur, omniumque animos ita cepit, ut extemplo bellum adversus Megarenses decerneretur insulaque devictis hostibus Atheniensium fieret.

Deformed in appearance, in the manner of the insane, he rushes out into public; and when a crowd of men had assembled, in order the more to disguise his plan, he began with verses unusual to himself to persuade the people of what was forbidden, and he so seized the minds of all that forthwith war against the Megarians was decreed and the island, the enemies having been vanquished, became the Athenians’.

[VIII] Interea Megarenses memores inlati Atheniensibus belli et deserti, ne frustra arma movisse viderentur, matronas Atheniensium in Eleusinis sacris noctu oppressuri naves conscendunt. Qua re cognita dux Atheniensium Pisistratus iuventutem in insidiis locat, iussis matronis solito clamore ac strepitu etiam in accessu hostium, ne intellectos se sentiant, sacra celebrare; egressosque navibus Megarenses inopinantes adgressus delevit ac protinus classe captiva intermixtis [inter milites] muliebribus, ut speciem captarum matronarum praeberent, Megara contendit. Illi cum et navium formam et petitam praedam cognoscerent, obvii ad portum procedunt, quibus caesis Pisistratus paulum a capienda urbe afuit.

[8] Meanwhile the Megarians, mindful of the war brought upon the Athenians and of their abandonment, lest they should seem to have moved arms in vain, embark on ships to overtake by night the matrons of the Athenians at the Eleusinian rites. With this learned, Pisistratus, leader of the Athenians, stations the youth in ambush, ordering the matrons, with the customary shouting and din even at the approach of the enemy, so that they may not realize they have been detected, to celebrate the rites; and, having unexpectedly attacked the Megarians who had disembarked from their ships, he destroyed them, and straightway, with the captured fleet and with women intermingled [among the soldiers], so as to present the appearance of captured matrons, he hastened to Megara. They, since they recognized both the look of the ships and the prey aimed at, came out to meet them at the harbor; these being cut down, Pisistratus was a little short of capturing the city.

Ita Dorienses suis dolis hosti victoriam dedere. Sed Pisistratus, quasi sibi, non patriae vicisset, tyrannidem per dolum occupat. Quippe voluntariis verberibus domi adfectus laceratoque corpore in publicum degreditur, advocata contione vulnera populo ostendit, de crudelitate principum, a quibus haec se passum simulabat, queritur; adduntur vocibus lacrimae et invidiosa oratione multitudo credula accenditur: amore plebis invisum se senatui simulat.

Thus the Dorians by their own tricks gave the enemy the victory. But Pisistratus, as if for himself, not for the fatherland, he had conquered, seizes tyranny by deceit. Indeed, at home having subjected himself to voluntary beatings and, his body lacerated, he goes out into the public; with the assembly convened he shows the wounds to the people, he complains of the cruelty of the principals, by whom he pretended he had suffered these things; tears are added to his words, and by an invidious oration the credulous multitude is inflamed: by the love of the plebs he feigns himself hateful to the senate.

Obtinet ad custodiam corporis sui satellitum auxilium, per quos occupata tyrannide per annos XXXIII regnavit.

He obtains, for the custody of his person, the aid of satellites, by whose means, the tyranny having been seized, he reigned for 33 years.

[IX] Post huius mortem Diocles, alter ex filiis, per vim stuprata virgine a fratre puellae interficitur. Alter, Hippias nomine, cum imperium paternum teneret, interfectorem fratris conprehendi iubet, qui cum per tormenta conscios caedis nominare cogeretur, omnes amicos tyranni nominavit, quibus interfectis quaerenti tyranno, an adhuc aliqui conscii essent, neminem ait superesse, quem amplius mori gestiat quam ipsum tyrannum. Qua voce eiusdem se tyranni victorem post vindictam pudicitiae sororis ostendit.

[9] After his death, Diocles, one of the sons, the maiden having been ravished by force, is slain by the girl’s brother. The other, Hippias by name, while he held his father’s imperium, orders the slayer of his brother to be apprehended; and when he was compelled by tortures to name the accomplices of the killing, he named all the tyrant’s friends; and when these had been put to death, the tyrant asking whether there were still any accomplices, he says that none survive whom he more eagerly desires to die than the tyrant himself. By this utterance he showed himself the victor over that same tyrant, after the avenging of his sister’s chastity.

Huius virtute cum admonita civitas libertatis esset, tandem Hippias regno pulsus in exsilium agitur, qui profectus in Persas ducem se Dario inferenti Atheniensibus bellum, sicut supra significatum est, adversus patriam suam offert. Igitur Athenienses audito Darii adventu auxilium a Lacedaemoniis, socia tum civitate, petiverunt, quos ubi viderunt quadridui teneri religione, non exspectato auxilio instructis decem milibus civium et Plataeensibus auxiliaribus mille adversus sescenta milia hostium in campis Marathoniis in proelium egrediuntur. Miltiades et dux belli erat et auctor non exspectandi auxilii; quem tanta fiducia ceperat, ut plus praesidii in celeritate quam in sociis duceret.

By this man’s virtue, when the city had been reminded of liberty, at last Hippias, driven from the kingship, is forced into exile; and he, having set out to the Persians, offers himself to Darius, who was bringing war upon the Athenians, as was indicated above, against his own fatherland. Therefore the Athenians, on hearing of Darius’s approach, sought aid from the Lacedaemonians, then an allied city; but when they saw them held for four days by a religious observance, not waiting for the aid, with 10,000 citizens drawn up and 1,000 Plataean auxiliaries, against 600,000 of the enemy, they go forth into battle on the Marathonian plains. Miltiades was both the leader of the war and the author of not waiting for aid; such confidence had seized him that he reckoned more protection in speed than in allies.

Magna igitur in pugnam euntibus animorum alacritas fuit, adeo ut, cum mille passus inter duas acies essent, citato cursu ante iactum sagittarum ad hostem venerint. Nec audaciae eius eventus defuit. Pugnatum est enim tanta virtute, ut hinc viros, inde pecudes putares.

Therefore there was great alacrity of spirits in those going into the fight, to such a degree that, when a thousand paces lay between the two battle lines, at a quickened run they reached the enemy before the cast of the arrows. Nor did the event fail to match that audacity. For it was fought with such virtue that on this side you would have thought them men, on that side beasts.

Victi Persae in naves confugerunt, ex quibus multae suppressae, multae captae sunt. In eo proelio tanta virtus singulorum fuit, ut, cuius laus prima esset, difficile iudicium videretur. Inter ceteros tamen Themistoclis adulescentis gloria emicuit, in quo iam tum indoles futurae imperatoriae dignitatis apparuit.

The defeated Persians fled into their ships, of which many were sunk, many were captured. In that battle such was the valor of individuals that it seemed a difficult judgment whose praise should be first. Among the rest, however, the glory of the young Themistocles shone forth, in whom even then the innate disposition of a future imperatorial dignity appeared.

Cynegiri quoque, militis Atheniensis, gloria magnis scriptorum laudibus celebraata est, qui post proelii innumeras caedes, cum fugientes hostes ad naves egisset, onustam navem dextra manu tenuit nec prius dimisit, quam manum amitteret; tum quoque amputata dextera navem sinistra conprehendit, quam et ipsam cum amisisset, ad postremum morsu navem detinuit. Tantam in eo virtutem fuisse, ut non tot caedibus fatigatus, non duabus manibus amissis, victus, truncus ad postremum et velut rabida fera dentibus dimicaverit. Ducenta milia Persae eo proelio sive naufragio amisere.

Cynegirus also, an Athenian soldier, had his glory celebrated with great praises of writers, who, after the battle’s countless slaughters, when he had driven the fleeing enemies to the ships, held a laden ship with his right hand and did not let go before he lost the hand; then too, with the right cut off, he grasped the ship with his left, and when he had lost that as well, at the last he held the ship fast with his bite. So great was the valor in him, that, not wearied by so many slaughters, not conquered even with both hands lost, a stump at the end and, like a rabid beast, he fought with his teeth. The Persians lost two hundred thousand in that battle or shipwreck.

Cecidit et Hippias, tyrannus Atheniensis, autor et concitor eius belli, diis patriae ultoribus poenas repetentibus.

Hippias also fell, the Athenian tyrant, the author and instigator of that war, with the gods of the fatherland as avengers exacting penalties.

[X] Interea et Darius, cum bellum restauraret, in ipso apparatu decedit, relictis multis filiis et in regno et ante regnum susceptis. Ex his Ariamenes maximus natu aetatis privilegio regnum sibi vindicabat, quod ius et ordo nascendi et natura ipsa gentibus dedit. Porro Xerxes controversiam non de ordine, sed de nascendi felicitate referebat; nam Ariamenen primum quidem Dario, sed privato provenisse; se regi primum natum.

[10] Meanwhile also Darius, when he was renewing the war, died in the very preparation, leaving many sons, both begotten in the kingdom and before the kingdom. Among these Ariamenes, eldest by birth, was claiming the kingdom for himself by the privilege of age, which right both the order of birth and nature itself has given to nations. Moreover Xerxes was referring the controversy not to order, but to the felicity of birth; for that Ariamenes had indeed come first to Darius, but when a private man; that he himself was born first to a king.

Fratres itaque suos, qui ante geniti essent, privatum patrimonium, quod eo tempore Darius habuisset, non regnum vindicare sibi posse; se esse, quem primum in regno iam rex pater sustulerit. Huc accedere, quod Ariamenes non patre antum, sed e matre privatae adhuc fortunae, avo quoque materno privato procreatus sit; se vero et matre regina natum et patrem non nisi regem vidisse, avum quoque maternum Cyrum se regem habuisse, non heredem, sed conditorem tanti regni. Ita etsi in aequo iure utrumque fratrem pater reliquisset, materno tamen se iure et avito vincere.

Therefore his brothers, who had been begotten earlier, could vindicate for themselves the private patrimony which Darius had held at that time, not the kingdom; whereas he was the one whom his father, already a king, had first lifted up in the kingdom. To this he added that Ariamenes had been procreated not only by a father of private status, but from a mother still of private fortune, with a maternal grandfather likewise a private man; while he himself had been born of a queen as mother, had seen his father as nothing but a king, and had had as his maternal grandfather Cyrus, a king—not an heir, but the founder of so great a kingdom. Thus, even if their father had left the two brothers with equal right, nevertheless he prevailed by maternal and avital (grandpaternal) right.

Hoc certamen concordi animo ad patruum suum Artaphernen veluti ad domesticum iudicem deferunt, qui domi cognita causa Xerxen praeposuit; adeoque fraterna contentio fuit, ut nec victor insultaverit nec victus doluerit ipsoque litis tempore munera invicem miserint, iucunda quoque inter se, non solum credula convivia habuerint, iudicium quoque ipsum sine arbitris, sine convicio fuerit. Tanto moderatius tum fratres inter se maxima regna dividebant, quam nunc exigua patrimonia partiuntur.

They refer this contest with a concordant spirit to their uncle Artaphernes, as to a domestic judge, who, the cause having been examined at home, preferred Xerxes; and the fraternal contention was to such a degree that neither did the victor insult nor the vanquished grieve, and even at the very time of the litigation they sent gifts to one another, and they held banquets between themselves not only trustful but also delightful, and the judgment itself was without arbiters, without reviling. So much more moderately then did brothers divide among themselves the greatest kingdoms than now they partition paltry patrimonies.

Igitur Xerxes bellum a patre coeptum adversus Graeciam quinquennium instruxit. Quod ubi primum didicit Demaratus, rex Lacedaemoniorum, qui apud Xerxen exsulabat, amicior patriae post fugam, quam regi post beneficia, ne inopinato bello opprimerentur, omnia in tabellis ligneis magistratibus praescribit easdemque cera superinducta delet, ne aut scriptura sine tegmine indicium daret aut recens cera dolum proderet, fido deinde servo perferendas tradit iusso magistratibus Spartanorum tradere. Quibus perlatis Lacedaemone quaestioni res diu fuit, quod neque scriptum aliquid viderent nec frustra missas suspicarentur, tantoque rem maiorem, quanto esset occultior putabant.

Igitur Xerxes prepared for five years the war against Greece begun by his father. As soon as Demaratus, king of the Lacedaemonians, who was living in exile with Xerxes, learned this—more a friend to his fatherland after his flight than to the king after his benefactions—so that they might not be overwhelmed by an unexpected war, he writes everything on wooden tablets in advance for the magistrates, and, with wax laid over them, effaces the same, lest either the writing without a covering give an indication or the fresh wax betray the stratagem; then he entrusts them to a faithful slave to be carried, having ordered him to deliver them to the magistrates of the Spartans. When these were delivered in Lacedaemon, the matter was for a long time a subject of inquiry, because they saw nothing written nor suspected that they had been sent in vain, and they thought the matter all the greater, the more hidden it was.

Haerentibus in coniectura viris soror regis Leonidae consilium scribentis invenit. Erasa igitur cera belli consilia deteguntur. Iam Xerxes septingenta milia de regno armaverat et trecenta milia de auxiliis, ut non inmerito proditum sit, flumina ab exercitu eius siccata Graeciamque omnem vix capere exercitum eius potuisse.

As the men were stuck in conjecture, the sister of King Leonidas discovered the plan of the writer. The wax, therefore, having been scraped off, the war counsels are revealed. By now Xerxes had armed 700,000 from the kingdom and 300,000 from the auxiliaries, so that it has not without cause been handed down that rivers were dried up by his army and that all Greece could scarcely contain his army.

Naves quoque rostratas mille ducentas, onerarias autem tria milia numero habuisse dicitur. Huic tanto agmini dux defuit. Ceterum si regem spectes, divitias, non ducem laudes; quarum tanta copia in regno eius fuit, ut, cum flumina multitudine consumerentur, opes tamen regiae superessent.

He is said to have had also 1,200 rostrate ships, and transport vessels to the number of 3,000. For so great a host a leader was lacking. But if you look at the king, you would praise his riches, not his leadership; of these there was such a copiousness in his realm that, though rivers were drained by the multitude, yet the royal resources remained in surplus.

Ipse autem primus in fuga, postremus in proelio semper visus est, in periculis timidus, sicubi metus abesset, inflatus; denique ante experimentum belli fiducia virium veluti naturae ipsius dominus et montes in planum deducebat et convexa vallium aequabat et quaedam maria pontibus sternebat, quaedam ad navigationis commodum per conpendium ducebat.

He himself, however, was always seen first in flight, last in battle, timid in dangers, but wherever fear was absent, inflated; and, finally, before any experiment of war, in confidence of his forces as though the lord of nature itself, he would bring mountains down into a plain and level the convexities of valleys, and he would pave certain seas with bridges, and divert others, for the convenience of navigation, by a shortcut.

[XI] Cuius introitus in Graeciam quam terribilis, tam turpis ac foedus discessus fuit. Namque cum Leonida, rex Spartanorum, cum IV milibus militum angustias Thermopylarum occupasset, Xerxes contenptu paucitatis eos pugnam capessere iubet, quorum cognati Marathonia pugna interfecti fuerant. Qui dum ulcisci suos quaerunt, principium cladis fuere; succedente dein inutili turba maior caedes editur.

[11] His entrance into Greece was as terrible as his departure was disgraceful and foul. For when Leonidas, king of the Spartans, with 4 thousand soldiers had occupied the narrows of Thermopylae, Xerxes, in contempt of their paucity, orders those to enter upon battle whose kinsmen had been slain in the Marathonian battle. Who, while seeking to avenge their own, were the beginning of the calamity; then, as a useless crowd succeeded, a greater carnage is wrought.

Triduo ibi cum dolore et indignatione Persarum dimicatum. Quarta die cum nuntiatum esset Leonidae a XX milibus hostium summum cacumen teneri, tum hortatur socios, recedant et se ad meliora patriae tempora reservent, sibi cum Spartanis fortunam experiendam; plura patriae quam vitae debere, ceteros ad praesidia Graeciae servandos. Audito regis imperio discessere ceteri, soli Lacedaemonii remanserunt.

For three days there it was fought, to the grief and indignation of the Persians. On the fourth day, when it had been reported to Leonidas that the topmost summit was held by 20,000 of the enemy, then he exhorts his comrades, that they withdraw and reserve themselves for better times of the fatherland, for himself with the Spartans to try fortune; that they owe more to the fatherland than to life, that the rest are to be preserved for the defenses of Greece. On hearing the king’s command the others departed, only the Lacedaemonians remained.

Initio huius belli sciscitantibus Delphis oracula responsum fuerat, aut regi Spartanorum aut urbi cadendum. Et idcirco rex Leonidas, cum in bellum proficisceretur, ita suos firmaverat, ut ire se parato ad moriendum animo scirent angustiasque propterea occupaverat, ut cum paucis aut maiore gloria vinceret aut minore damno rei publicae caderet. Dimissis igitur sociis hortatur Spartanos, meminerint qualitercumque proeliatis cadendum esse; caverent, ne fortius mansisse quam dimicasse videantur; nec exspectandum, ut ab hoste circumvenirentur, sed dum nox occasionem daret, securis et laetis superveniendum; nusquam victores honestius quam in castris hostium perituros.

At the beginning of this war, to those inquiring at Delphi the oracle had given the response that either the king of the Spartans or the city must fall. And therefore King Leonidas, when he set out into the war, had thus fortified his men, that they should know he was going with a mind prepared for dying, and for that reason he had occupied the narrows, so that with a few he might either conquer with greater glory or fall with less damage to the commonwealth. The allies therefore having been dismissed, he exhorts the Spartans to remember that, however the battle is fought, it must be fallen; let them beware lest they seem to have stood their ground more bravely than to have fought; nor must they wait to be surrounded by the enemy, but while night afforded an opportunity, they must come upon them, secure and glad; nowhere would victors perish more honorably than in the enemy’s camp.

Nihil erat difficile persuadere persuasis mori: statim arma capiunt et sescenti viri castra quingentorum milium inrumpunt statimque regis praetorium petunt, aut cum illo aut, si ipsi oppressi essent, in ipsius potissimum sede morituri. Tumultus totis castris oritur. Spartani, postquam regem non inveniunt, per omnia castra victores vagantur; caedunt sternuntque omnia, ut qui sciunt se pugnare non spe victoriae, sed in mortis ultionem.

Nothing was difficult to persuade to men already persuaded to die: at once they seize arms, and six hundred men burst into the camp of five hundred thousand, and forthwith they make for the king’s praetorium, resolved either to die with him or, if they themselves were overborne, to die in his very seat. A tumult arises in the whole camp. The Spartans, after they do not find the king, roam as victors through all the camp; they cut down and lay low everything, as men who know that they fight not in hope of victory, but in vengeance for death.

Proelium a principiio noctis in maiorem partem diei tractum. Ad postremum non victi, sed vincendo fatigati inter ingentes stratorum hostium catervas occiderunt. Xerxes duobus vulneribus terrestri proelio acceptis experiri maris fortunam statuit.

The battle, from the beginning of the night, was prolonged into the greater part of the day. At last, not vanquished, but wearied by conquering, they fell amid vast masses of fallen enemies. Xerxes, having received two wounds in the land battle, resolved to try the fortune of the sea.

[XII] Sed Atheniensium dux Themistocles cum animadvertisset Ionas, propter quos bellum Persarum susceperunt, in auxilium regis classe venisse, sollicitare eos in partes suas statuit, et cum conloquendi copiam non haberet, quo applicituri erant, symbolos proponi et saxis proscribi curat: "Quae vos, Iones, dementia tenet? Quod facinus agitatis? Bellum inferre olim conditoribus vestris, nuper etiam vindicibus cogitatis?

[12] But Themistocles, the leader of the Athenians, when he had noticed that the Ionians, on account of whom they had undertaken the Persian war, had come with a fleet to the king’s aid, resolved to solicit them into his own party; and since he did not have the opportunity of conversing, where they were going to put in, he sees to it that watchwords be posted up and inscribed on rocks: "What madness holds you, Ionians? What crime are you driving on? Do you intend to bring war upon your former founders, and quite recently even your avengers?"

An ideo moenia vestra condidimus, ut essent qui nostra delerent? Quid si non haec et Dario prius et nunc Xerxi belli causa nobiscum foret, quod vos in haec castra vestra ex ista obsidione transitis? Aut si hoc parum tutum est, at vos commisso proelio ite cessim, inhibite remis et a bello discedite". Ante navalis proelii congressionem miserat Xerxes IV milia armatorum Delphos ad templum Apollinis diripiendum, prorsus quasi non cum Graecis tantum, sed et cum diis inmortalibus bellumm gereret; quae manus tota imbribus et fulminibus deleta est, ut intellegeret, quam nullae essent hominum adversum deos vires.

Was it for this reason that we founded your walls, that there might be those who would destroy ours? What if this has been, both formerly for Darius and now for Xerxes, the cause of war with us—that you cross over into these, your camps, from that blockade? Or if this is not safe enough, then, when battle has been joined, go by slow steps, check your oars, and withdraw from the war." Before the meeting of the naval battle Xerxes had sent 4 thousand armed men to Delphi to plunder the temple of Apollo, exactly as though he were waging war not only with the Greeks but also with the immortal gods; which band was entirely destroyed by rains and lightning, that he might understand how no forces of men are against the gods.

Post haec Thespiades et Plataeas et Athenas vacuas hominibus incendit, et quoniam ferro in homines non poterat, in aedificia igne grassatur. Namque Athenienses post pugnam Marathoniam praemonente Themistocle, victoriam illam de Persis non finem, sed causam maioris belli fore, CC naves fabricaverunt. Adventante igitur Xerxe consulentibus Delphis oraculum responsum fuerat, salutem muris ligneis tuerentur.

After these things he set Thespiae and Plataea and Athens, empty of men, ablaze, and since he could not with iron against men, he made an advance with fire against buildings. For the Athenians, after the Marathonian battle, with Themistocles forewarning that that victory over the Persians would be not an end but the cause of a greater war, fabricated 200 ships. Therefore, with Xerxes approaching, to those consulting at Delphi the oracle had given the response, that they should guard their safety by wooden walls.

Themistocles navium praesidium demonstratum ratus persuadet omnibus, patriam municipes esse, non moenia, civitatemque non in aedificiis, sed in civibus positam; melius itaque salutem navibus quam urbi commissuros; huius sententiae etiam deum auctorem esse. Probato consilio coniuges liberosque cum pretiosissimis rebus abditis insulis relicta urbe demandant; ipsi naves armati conscendunt. Exemplum Atheniensium et aliae urbes imitatae.

Themistocles, thinking the naval safeguard to have been pointed out, persuades everyone that the fatherland is the fellow-citizens, not the walls, and that the commonwealth is placed not in buildings but in citizens; that therefore they will entrust their safety to the ships rather than to the city; that even a god is the author of this opinion. The counsel being approved, they consign their wives and children, together with their most precious possessions, to the hidden islands, the city having been abandoned; they themselves, armed, embark upon the ships. Other cities imitated the example of the Athenians.

Itaque cum adunata omnis sociorum classis et intenta in bellum navale esset angustiasque Salaminii freti, ne circumveniri a multitudine posset, occupassent, dissensio inter civitatum principes oritur. Qui cum deserto bello ad sua tuenda dilabi vellent, timens Themistocles, ne discessu sociorum vires minuerentur, per servum fidum Xerxi nuntiat, uno in loco eum contractam Graeciam capere facillime posse. Quodsi civitates, quae iam abire vellent, dissipentur, maiore labore ei singulas consectandas.

Therefore, when the whole fleet of the allies had been assembled and was intent on a naval war, and they had occupied the narrows of the Salaminian strait, lest they be surrounded by the multitude, dissension arises among the leaders of the states. As they wished, with the war abandoned, to slip away to secure their own interests, Themistocles, fearing that by the departure of the allies their forces would be diminished, through a faithful servant sends word to Xerxes that he can most easily seize Greece, contracted into one place. But if the states, which already wished to depart, are scattered, with greater labor will it be for him to pursue them singly.

Hoc dolo inpellit regem signum pugnae dare. Graeci quoque adventu hostium occupati proelium conlatis viribus capessunt. Interea rex velut spectator pugnae cum parte navium in litore remanet.

By this stratagem he impels the king to give the signal of battle. The Greeks too, occupied by the advent of the enemies, take up the combat with forces brought together. Meanwhile the king, as a spectator of the battle, remains on the shore with a part of the ships.

Artemisia autem, regina Halicarnasi, quae in auxilium Xerxi venerat, inter primos duces bellum acerrime ciebat, quippe ut in viro muliebrem timorem, ita in muliere virilem audaciam cerneres. Cum anceps proelium esset, Iones iiuxta praeceptum Themistoclis pugnae se paulatim subtrahere coeperunt; quorum defectio animos ceterorum fregit. Itaque circumspicientes fugam pelluntur Persae et mox proelio victi in fugam vertuntur.

Artemisia, however, queen of Halicarnassus, who had come in aid to Xerxes, among the foremost leaders was most keenly stirring the war, indeed, just as in a man you might see womanly fear, so in a woman you might discern manly audacity. When the battle was in the balance, the Ionians, according to the precept of Themistocles, began gradually to withdraw themselves from the fight; whose defection broke the spirits of the rest. And so, looking around for flight, the Persians were driven back, and soon, defeated in the battle, they turned to flight.

In qua trepidatione multae captae naves, multae mersae; plures tamen non minus saevitiam regis, quam hostem timentes domum dilabuntur.

In that trepidation many ships were captured, many were sunk; more, however, fearing no less the savagery of the king than the enemy, slip away homeward.

[XIII] Hac clade perculsum et dubium consilii Xerxen Mardonius adgreditur. Hortatur ut in regnum abeat, ne quid seditionis moveat fama adversi belli et in maius, sicuti mos est, omnia extollens;; sibi CCC milia armatorum lecta ex omnibus copiis relinquat, qua manu aut cum gloria eius perdomiturum se Graeciam aut, si aliter eventus ferat, sine eiusdem infamia hostibus cessurum. Probato consilio Mardonio exercitus traditur; reliquas copias rex ipse deducere in regnum parat.

[13] Mardonius approaches Xerxes, struck by this disaster and doubtful in counsel. He urges him to go back to the kingdom, lest the report of an adverse war—which, as is the custom, amplifies everything into something greater—stir up any sedition; that he leave to himself 300,000 armed men, chosen out of all the forces, with which force he would either thoroughly subdue Greece to the enhancement of his glory, or, if the outcome should turn otherwise, yield to the enemies without that same man’s infamy. The plan having been approved, the army is handed over to Mardonius; the king himself prepares to lead the remaining forces back into the kingdom.

Sed Graeci audita regis fuga consilium ineunt pontis interrumpendi, quem ille Abydo veluti victor maris fecerat, ut intercluso reditu aut cum exercitu deleretur aut desperatione rerum pacem victus petere cogeretur. Sed Themistocles timens, ne interclusi hostes desperationem in virtutem verterent et iter, quod aliter non pateret, ferro patefacerent (satis multos hostes in Graecia remanere dictitans, nec augeri numerum retinendo oportere) cum vincere consilio ceteros non posset, eundem servum ad Xerxen mittit certioremque consilii facit et occupare transitum maturata fuga iubet. Ille perculsus nuntio tradit ducibus milites perducendos; ipse cum paucis Abydum contendit.

But the Greeks, on hearing of the king’s flight, take counsel for interrupting the bridge which he had made at Abydus as though a victor of the sea, so that, his return cut off, he might either be destroyed with his army, or, by desperation of affairs, be compelled, conquered, to seek peace. But Themistocles, fearing lest the enemies, shut in, should turn desperation into virtue and open by the sword a route which otherwise would not lie open (insisting that enough enemies remained in Greece, and that it was not fitting to increase their number by detaining them), since he could not prevail in counsel over the rest, sends the same slave to Xerxes and makes him more certain of the plan, and bids him seize the passage by a hastened flight. He, smitten by the message, entrusts to the commanders the soldiers to be led through; he himself with a few hastens to Abydus.

Ubi cum solutum pontem hibernis tempestatibus offendisset, piscatoria scapha trepidus traiecit. Erat res spectaculo digna et aestimatione sortis humanae, rerum varietate miranda in exiguo latentem videre navigio, quem paulo ante vix aequor omne capiebat, carentem omni etiam servorum ministerio, cuius exercitus propter multitudinem terris graves erant. Nec pedestribus copiis, quas ducibus adsignaverat, felicius iter fuit, siquidem cotidiano labori (neque enim ulla est metuentibus quies) etiam fames accesserat.

When he found the bridge undone by winter storms, in alarm he crossed in a fishing skiff. It was a sight worthy of spectacle and of estimation of the human lot, marvelous for the variety of things, to see hidden in a tiny vessel the man whom a little before scarcely the whole sea could contain, lacking every attendance even of slaves, whose armies by their multitude were burdensome to the lands. Nor was the journey happier for the foot forces, which he had assigned to the commanders, felicius iter fuit, siquidem cotidiano labori (for there is no rest for the fearful) hunger too had been added.

Multorum deinde dierum inopia contraxerat et pestem, tantaque foeditas morientium fuit, ut viae cadaveribus implerentur alitesque et bestiae escae inlecebris sollicitae exercitum sequerentur.

Then the want of many days had even contracted a pestilence, and so great was the foulness of the dying that the roads were filled with corpses, and birds and beasts, stirred by the allurements of food, followed the army.

[XIV] Interim Mardonius in Graecia Olynthum expugnat. Athenienses quoque in spem pacis amicitiamque regis sollicitat, spondens incensae eorum urbis etiam in maius restitutionem. Postquam nullo pretio libertatem his venalem videt, incensis quae aedificare coeperat, copias in Boeotiam transfert.

[14] Meanwhile Mardonius in Greece storms Olynthus. He also solicits the Athenians into a hope of peace and the king’s amity, pledging the restitution of their burned city even on a greater scale. After he sees that their liberty is not for sale at any price, having burned what he had begun to build, he transfers his forces into Boeotia.

Eo et Graecorum exercitus, qui centum milium fuit, secutus est ibique proelium commissum. Sed fortuna regis cum duce mutata non est. Nam victus Mardonius veluti ex naufragio cum paucis profugit.

Thither also the army of the Greeks, which was of a hundred thousand, followed, and there a battle was joined. But the fortune of the king was not changed with his commander. For Mardonius, defeated, fled with a few, as if from a shipwreck.

Castra referta regalis opulentiae capta. Unde primum Graecos diviso inter se auro Persico divitiarum luxuria coepit. Eodem forte die, quo Mardonii copiae deletae sunt, etiam navali proelio in Asia sub monte Mycale adversus Persas dimicatum est.

The camp, packed with royal opulence, was captured. Whence, first among the Greeks, with Persian gold divided among themselves, the luxury of riches began. By chance on the same day on which the forces of Mardonius were destroyed, there was also fighting in a naval battle in Asia beneath Mount Mycale against the Persians.

Ibi ante congressionem, cum classes ex adverso starent, fama ad utrumque exercitum venit, vicisse Graecos et Mardonii copias occidione cecidisse. Tantam famae velocitatem fuisse, ut, cum matutino tempore proelium in Boeotia commissum sit, meridianis horis in Asiam per tot maria et tantum spatii tam brevi horarum momento de victoria nuntiatum sit. Confecto bello, cum de praemiis civitatium ageretur, omnium iudicio Atheniensium virtus ceteris praelata.

There, before the engagement, when the fleets stood opposite, a report came to both armies that the Greeks had won and that the forces of Mardonius had fallen by slaughter. So great was the speed of the rumor, that, although in the morning the battle in Boeotia had been joined, at the midday hours in Asia, across so many seas and so much distance, in so brief a moment of hours, the victory was announced. With the war completed, when the rewards of the cities were being discussed, by the judgment of all the valor of the Athenians was preferred above the rest.

Inter duces quoque Themistocles princeps civitatum testimonio iudicatus gloriam patriae suae auxit.

Among the leaders as well, Themistocles, judged by the testimony of the city-states to be foremost, augmented the glory of his fatherland.

[XV] Igitur Athenienses aucti et praemiis belli et gloria urbem ex integro condere moliuntur. Cum moenia maiora conplexi fuissent, suspecti esse Lacedaemoniis coepere reputantibus, quibus ruina urbis tantum incrementi dedisset, quantum sit datura munita civitas. Mittunt ergo legatos, qui monerent, ne munimenta hostibus et receptacula futuri belli exstruant.

[15] Therefore the Athenians, increased both by the rewards of war and by glory, set about to found the city anew from the beginning. When they had encompassed larger walls, they began to be suspect to the Lacedaemonians, reckoning that the ruin of the city had given them as much increment as a fortified state was going to give; therefore they send envoys to warn them not to build fortifications for the enemy and refuges of a future war.

Themistocles ut vidit spei urbis invideri, non existimans abrupte agendum, respondit legatis, ituros Lacedaemonem, qui de ea re pariter cum illis consulant. Sic dimissis Spartanis hortatur suos, opus maturent. Dein ipse interiecto tempore in legatione proficiscitur, et nunc in itinere infirmitate simulata, nunc tarditatem collegarum accusans, sine quibus agi iure nihil posset, diem de die proferendo spatium consummando operi quaerebat; cum interim nuntiatur Spartanis opus Athenis maturari, propter quod denuo legatos mittunt ad inspiciendam rem.

Themistocles, when he saw that the city’s hope was being begrudged, not thinking that one should act abruptly, replied to the legates that they would go to Lacedaemon, to consult about that matter together with them. Thus, the Spartans having been dismissed, he urges his own people to hasten the work. Then he himself, after an interval, sets out on the embassy, and now on the journey with a feigned infirmity, now accusing the slowness of his colleagues, without whom nothing could be done by right, by putting off day after day he was seeking time for the work to be completed; meanwhile it is reported to the Spartans that the work at Athens is being expedited, on account of which they send legates again to inspect the matter.

Tum Themistocles per servum magistratibus scribit Atheniensium, legatos vinciant pignusque teneant, ne in se gravius consulatur. Adiit deinde contionem Lacedaemoniorum, indicat permunitas Athenas esse et posse iam inlatum bellum non armis tantum, sed etiam muris sustinere; si quid ob eam rem de se crudelius statuerent, legatos eorum in hoc pignus Athenis retentos. Graviter deinde castigavit eos, quod non virtute, sed imbecillitate sociorum potentiam quaererent.

Then Themistocles, through a slave, writes to the magistrates of the Athenians to bind the envoys and hold them as a pledge, lest a more severe deliberation be taken concerning himself. He then approached the assembly of the Lacedaemonians, declares that Athens is thoroughly fortified and that a war now brought against it can be sustained not only by arms but also by walls; and if they should decree anything more cruel against him on account of this matter, their envoys have been kept at Athens as a pledge for this purpose. Then he sharply chastised them, because they were seeking power not by virtue but by the weakness of their allies.

Sic dimissus veluti triumphatis Spartanis a civibus excipitur.

Thus dismissed, as though the Spartans had been triumphed over, he is received by the citizens.

Post haec Spartani, ne vires otio corrumperent et ut bis inlatum a Persis Graeciae bellum ulciscerentur, ultro fines eorum populantur. Ducem suo sociorumque exercitui deligunt Pausaniam, qui pro ducatu regnum Graeciae adfectans proditionis praemium cum Xerxe nuptias filiae eius paciscitur redditis captivis, ut fides regis aliquo beneficio obstringeretur. Scribit praeterea Xerxi, quoscumque ad se nuntios misisset, interficeret, ne res loquacitate hominum proderetur.

After these things, the Spartans, lest they corrupt their strength by leisure and in order to avenge the war twice brought upon Greece by the Persians, of their own accord ravage their borders. They choose Pausanias as leader for their own army and that of the allies; he, aspiring to the kingship of Greece in place of the command, bargains with Xerxes for nuptials with his daughter as the premium of treason, the captives having been returned, so that the king’s fidelity might be bound by some benefaction. Moreover, he writes to Xerxes that whomever he had sent to him as messengers he should put to death, lest the affair be betrayed by the loquacity of men.

Sed dux Atheniensium Aristides, belli socius, collegae conatibus obviam eundo, simul et in rem sapienter consulendo proditionis consilia discussit. Nec multo post accusatus Pausanias damnatur. Igitur Xerxes, cum proditionis dolum publicatum videret, ex integro bellum instituit.

But Aristides, leader of the Athenians, a comrade in the war, by meeting his colleague’s attempts head-on and at the same time by consulting wisely for the affair, dispelled the counsels of treason. Nor much later, Pausanias, having been accused, is condemned. Therefore Xerxes, when he saw the deceit of treason publicized, instituted the war afresh.

Graeci quoque ducem constituunt Cimona Atheniensium, filium Miltiadis, quo duce apud Marathonem pugnatum est, iuvenem, cuius magnitudinem futuram pietatis documenta prodiderunt; quippe patrem ob crimen peculatus in carcerem coniectum ibique defunctum translatis in se vinculis ad sepulturam redemit. Nec in bello iudicium deligentium fefellit, siquidem non inferior virtutibus patris Xerxen, terrestri navalique bello superatum, trepidum recipere se in regnum coegit.

Likewise the Greeks appoint as leader Cimon of the Athenians, son of Miltiades, under whose leadership at Marathon it was fought, a young man, whose future greatness proofs of piety (pietas) disclosed; indeed, his father, thrown into prison on a charge of peculation (embezzlement) and there deceased, he redeemed for burial by transferring the chains onto himself. Nor in war did the judgment of those choosing disappoint, since, being no inferior to the virtues of his father, he forced Xerxes, overcome in terrestrial and naval war, panic-stricken, to withdraw back into his kingdom, he compelled.