The histories of Herodotus;

THE
BOOK V
TERPSICHORE
Persians, left in Europe by Darius under the command
of Megabyzus, subdued the Perinthians first of
the Hellespontines, who were unwilling to submit to
Darius, and had been before roughly handled by the
Paeonians. For the Paeonians from the Strymon, an oracle
having admonished them to invade the Perinthians, and if
the Perinthians, when encamped over against them, should
challenge them, shouting to them by name, then to attack,
but if they should not shout out to them, not to attack; the
Paeonians did accordingly. The Perinthians having encamped
opposite to them in the suburbs, a threefold single combat
there took place according to a challenge ; for they matched a
man with a man, a horse with a horse, and a dog with a dog.
But the Perinthians being victorious in two of these combats,
when through excess of joy they sang the Paeon, the Paeonians
conjectured that this was the meaning of the oracle, and said
" Now surely the oracle must be accom-
among themselves :
plished ; now it is our part to act." Thus the Paeonians attacked
the Perinthians as they were singing the Paeon, and
gained a complete victory, and left but few of them alive.
Such, then, had formerly been the achievements of the Paeonians
; but at that time, though the Perinthians proved them-
selves valiant in defence of their liberty, the Persians and
Megabyzus overcame them by numbers. When Perinthus
was subdued, Megabyzus marched his army through Thrace,
subjecting to the king every city and every nation of those
dwelling in that country; for this command had been given
him by Darius to subdue Thrace.
The nation of the Thracians is the greatest of any among
men, at least except the Indians ; and if they were governed
by one man, or acted in concert, they would, in my opinion,
be invincible, and by far the most powerful of all nations. But
as this is impracticable, and it is impossible that they should
ever be united, they are therefore weak. They have various
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