herodotus

were to move on straight for the countries which had refused to givetheir alliance, in order that they might involve these also in thewar, and though these had not voluntarily undertaken the war with thePersians, they were to involve them in it nevertheless against theirwill; and after that they were to return to their own land and attackthe enemy, if it should seem good to them in council so to do.121. Having formed this plan the Scythians went to meet the army ofDareios, sending off the best of their horsemen before them as scouts;but all[112] the waggons in which their children and their women livedthey sent on, and with them all their cattle (leaving only so much aswas sufficient to supply them with food), and charged them that theyshould proceed continually towards the North Wind. These, I say, werebeing carried on before: 122, but when the scouts who went in front ofthe Scythians discovered the Persians distant about three days' marchfrom Ister, then the Scythians having discovered them continued topitch their camp one day's march in front, destroying utterly thatwhich grew from the ground: and when the Persians saw that thehorsemen of the Scythians had made their appearance, they came afterthem following in their track, while the Scythians continually movedon. After this, since they had directed their march towards the firstof the divisions, the Persians continued to pursue towards the Eastand the river Tanaïs; and when the Scythians crossed over the riverTanaïs, the Persians crossed over after them and continued still topursue, until they had passed quite through the land of the Sauromataiand had come to that of the Budinoi. 123. Now so long as the Persianswere passing through Scythia and the land of the Sauromatai, they hadnothing to destroy, seeing that the land was bare,[113] but when theyinvaded the land of the Budinoi, then they fell in with the woodenwall, which had been deserted by the Budinoi and left whollyunoccupied, and this they destroyed by fire. Having done so theycontinued to follow on further in the tracks of the enemy, until theyhad passed through the whole of this land and had arrived at thedesert. This desert region is occupied by no men, and it lies abovethe land of the Budinoi, extending for a seven days' journey; andabove this desert dwell the Thyssagetai, and four large rivers flowfrom them through the land of the Maiotians and run into that which iscalled the Maiotian lake, their names being as follows,--Lycos, Oaros,Tanaïs, Syrgis.[114] 124. When therefore Dareios came to the desertregion, he ceased from his course and halted his army upon the riverOaros. Having so done he began to build eight large fortifications atequal distances from one another, that is to say about sixty furlongs,of which the ruins still existed down to my time; and while he wasoccupied in this, the Scythians whom he was pursuing came round by theupper parts and returned back to Scythia. Accordingly, since these hadaltogether disappeared and were no longer seen by the Persians at all,