herodotus

slight regard for us, and I perceive now that Gobryas spoke rightlyabout the Scythian gifts. Seeing then that now I myself too think thatthings are so, we have need of good counsel, in order that our retreathomewards may be safely made." To this replied Gobryas and said: "Oking, even by report I was almost assured of the difficulty of dealingwith these men; and when I came I learnt it still more thoroughly,since I saw that they were mocking us. Now therefore my opinion is,that as soon as night comes on, we kindle the camp-fires as we arewont to do at other times also, and deceive with a false tale those ofour men who are weakest to endure hardships, and tie up all the assesand get us away, before either the Scythians make for the Ister todestroy the bridge or something be resolved by the Ionians which maybe our ruin." 135. Thus Gobryas advised; and after this, when nightcame on, Dareios acted on this opinion. Those of his men who wereweakened by fatigue and whose loss was of least account, these he leftbehind in the camp, and the asses also tied up: and for the followingreasons he left behind the asses and the weaker men of his army,--theasses in order that they might make a noise which should be heard, andthe men really because of their weakness, but on a pretence statedopenly that he was about to attack the Scythians with the effectivepart of the army, and that they meanwhile were to be defenders of thecamp. Having thus instructed those who were left behind, and havingkindled camp-fires, Dareios hastened by the quickest way towards theIster: and the asses, having no longer about them the usualthrong,[120] very much more for that reason caused their voice to beheard;[121] so the Scythians, hearing the asses, supposed surely thatthe Persians were remaining in their former place. 136. But when itwas day, those who were left behind perceived that they had beenbetrayed by Dareios, and they held out their hands in submission tothe Scythians, telling them what their case was; and the Scythians,when they heard this, joined together as quickly as possible, that isto say the two combined divisions of the Scythians and the singledivision, and also the Sauromatai,[122] Budinoi, and Gelonians, andbegan to pursue the Persians, making straight for the Ister: but asthe Persian army for the most part consisted of men on foot, and wasnot acquainted with the roads (the roads not being marked withtracks), while the Scythian army consisted of horsemen and wasacquainted with the shortest cuts along the way, they missed oneanother and the Scythians arrived at the bridge much before thePersians. Then having learnt that the Persians had not yet arrived,they said to the Ionians who were in the ships: "Ionians, the days ofyour number are past, and ye are not acting uprightly in that ye yetremain waiting: but as ye stayed before from fear, so now break up thepassage as quickly as ye may, and depart free and unhurt,[123] feelingthankfulness both to the gods and to the Scythians: and him who wasformerly your master we will so convince, that he shall never again