herodotus

making his expedition against us alone, because he desired to takevengeance for the former servitude, he ought to have abstained fromall the rest and to have come at once to invade our land, and he wouldthus have made it clear to all that he was marching to fight againstthe Scythians and not against the rest. In fact however, ever since hecrossed over to this continent, he has compelled all who came in hisway to submit to him, and he holds under him now not only the otherThracians but also the Getai, who are our nearest neighbours." 119.When the Scythians proposed this, the kings who had come from thevarious nations took counsel together, and their opinions weredivided. The kings of the Gelonians, of the Budinoi and of theSauromatai agreed together and accepted the proposal that they shouldhelp the Scythians, but those of the Agathyrsians, Neuroi,Androphagoi, Melanchlainoi and Tauroi returned answer to the Scythiansas follows: "If ye had not been the first to do wrong to the Persiansand to begin war, then we should have surely thought that ye werespeaking justly in asking for those things for which ye now ask, andwe should have yielded to your request and shared your fortunes. As itis however, ye on the one hand made invasion without us into theirland, and bare rule over the Persians for so long a time as Godpermitted you; and they in their turn, since the same God stirs themup, are repaying you with the like. As for us however, neither at thattime did we do any wrong to these men nor now shall we attempt to doany wrong to them unprovoked: if however the Persians shall comeagainst our land also, and do wrong first to us, we also shall refuseto submit[111]: but until we shall see this, we shall remain byourselves, for we are of opinion that the Persians have come notagainst us, but against those who were the authors of the wrong." 120.When the Scythians heard this answer reported, they planned not tofight a pitched battle openly, since these did not join them asallies, but to retire before the Persians and to drive away theircattle from before them, choking up with earth the wells and thesprings of water by which they passed and destroying the grass fromoff the ground, having parted themselves for this into two bodies; andthey resolved that the Sauromatai should be added to one of theirdivisions, namely that over which Scopasis was king, and that theseshould move on, if the Persians turned in that direction, straighttowards the river Tanaïs, retreating before him by the shore of theMaiotian lake; and when the Persian marched back again, they shouldcome after and pursue him. This was one division of their kingdom,appointed to go by the way which has been said; and the other two ofthe kingdoms, the large one over which Idanthyrsos was king, and thethird of which Taxakis was king, were to join together in one, withthe Gelonians and the Budinoi added to them, and they also were toretire before the Persians one day's march in front of them, going onout of their way and doing that which had been planned. First they