herodotus

march with an army upon any nation." 137. Upon this the Ionians tookcounsel together; and Miltiades the Athenian on the one hand, who wascommander and despot of the men of the Chersonese in Hellespont, wasof opinion that they should follow the advice of the Scythians and setIonia free: but Histiaios the Milesian was of the opposite opinion tothis; for he said that at the present time it was by means of Dareiosthat each one of them was ruling as despot over a city; and if thepower of Dareios should be destroyed, neither he himself would be ableto bear rule over the Milesians, nor would any other of them be ableto bear rule over any other city; for each of the cities would chooseto have popular rather than despotic rule. When Histiaios declared hisopinion thus, forthwith all turned to this opinion, whereas at thefirst they were adopting that of Miltiades. 138. Now these were theywho gave the vote between the two opinions, and were men ofconsequence in the eyes of the king,[124]--first the despots of theHellespontians, Daphnis of Abydos, Hippoclos of Lampsacos, Herophantosof Parion, Metrodoros of Proconnesos, Aristagoras of Kyzicos, andAriston of Byzantion, these were those from the Hellespont; and fromIonia, Strattis of Chios, Aiakes of Samos, Laodamas of Phocaia, andHistiaios of Miletos, whose opinion had been proposed in opposition tothat of Miltiades; and of the Aiolians the only man of consequencethere present was Aristagoras of Kyme. 139. When these adopted theopinion of Histiaios, they resolved to add to it deeds and words asfollows, namely to break up that part of the bridge which was on theside towards the Scythians, to break it up, I say, for a distanceequal to the range of an arrow, both in order that they might bethought to be doing something, though in fact they were doing nothing,and for fear that the Scythians might make an attempt using force anddesiring to cross the Ister by the bridge: and in breaking up thatpart of the bridge which was towards Scythia they resolved to say thatthey would do all that which the Scythians desired. This they added tothe opinion proposed, and then Histiaios coming forth from among themmade answer to the Scythians as follows: "Scythians, ye are comebringing good news, and it is a timely haste that ye make to bring it;and ye on your part give us good guidance, while we on ours render toyou suitable service. For, as ye see, we are breaking up the passage,and we shall show all zeal in our desire to be free: and while we arebreaking up the bridge, it is fitting that ye should be seeking forthose of whom ye speak, and when ye have found them, that ye shouldtake vengeance on them on behalf of us as well as of yourselves insuch manner as they deserve."140. The Scythians then, believing for the second time that theIonians were speaking the truth, turned back to make search for thePersians, but they missed altogether their line of march through theland. Of this the Scythians themselves were the cause, since they had