The histories of Herodotus;

:
292 HERODOTUS—BOOK V, TERPSICHORE [51-53
corrupt you unless you quickly depart." Cleomenes, pleased
with the advice of the child, retired to another apartment ; and
Aristagoras left Sparta altogether, nor could he get an opportunity
to give further particulars of the route to the king's
residence.
With respect to this road, the case is as follows : There are
royal stations all along, and excellent inns, and the whole road
is through an inhabited and safe country. There are twenty
stations extending through Lydia and Phrygia, and the distance
is ninety-four parasangs and a half. After Phrygia, the
river Halys is met with, at which there are gates, through
which it is absolutely necessary to pass, and thus to cross the
river : there is also a considerable fort on it. When you cross
over into Cappadocia, and traverse that country to the borders
of Cilicia, there are eight-and-twenty stations, and one
hundred and four parasangs ; and on the borders of these
people you go through two gates, and pass by two forts.
When you have gone through these and made the journey
through Cilicia, there are three stations and fifteen parasangs
and a half. The boundary of Cilicia and Armenia is a river
that is crossed in boats ; it is called the Euphrates. In Armenia
there are fifteen stations for resting places, and fifty-six
parasangs and a half; there is also a fort in the stations.
Four rivers that are crossed in boats flow through this country,
which it is absolutely necessary to ferry over. First, the
Tigris ; then, the second and third have the same name,
though they are not the same river, nor flow from the same
source. For the first mentioned of these flows from the Armenians,
and the latter from the Matienians. The fourth river
is called the Gyndes, which Cyrus once distributed into three
hundred and sixty channels. As you enter from Armenia into
the country of Matiene, there are four stations; and from
thence as you proceed to the Cissian territory there are eleven
stations, and forty-two parasangs and a half, to the river
Choaspes, which also must be crossed in boats : on this Susa
is built. All these stations amount to one hundred and
x
eleven
many as
accordingly, the resting places at the stations are so
you go up from Sardis to Susa. Now if the royal
road has been correctly measured in parasangs, and if the
parasang is equal to thirty stades, as indeed it is, from Sardis
to the royal palace, called Memnonia, is a distance of thirteen
thousand five hundred stades, the parasangs being four hun-
1 The detail of stations above-mentioned gives only eighty-one instead
of one hundred and eleven. The discrepancy can only be accounted for
by a supposed defect in the manuscripts.