herodotus

of explaining any further about the way up from the sea to theresidence of the king.52. As regards this road the truth is as follows.--Everywhere thereare royal stages[39] and excellent resting-places, and the whole roadruns through country which is inhabited and safe. Through Lydia andPhrygia there extend twenty stages, amounting to ninety-four and ahalf leagues;[40] and after Phrygia succeeds the river Halys, at whichthere is a gate[40a] which one must needs pass through in order tocross the river, and a strong guard-post is established there. Thenafter crossing over into Cappadokia it is twenty-eight stages, being ahundred and four leagues, by this way to the borders of Kilikia; andon the borders of the Kilikians you will pass through two severalgates and go by two several guard-posts: then after passing throughthese it is three stages, amounting to fifteen and a half leagues, tojourney through Kilikia; and the boundary of Kilikia and Armenia is anavigable river called Euphrates. In Armenia the number of stages withresting-places is fifteen, and of leagues fifty-six and a half, andthere is a guard-post on the way: then from Armenia, when one entersthe land of Matiene,[41] there are thirty-four stages, amounting to ahundred and thirty-seven leagues; and through this land flow fournavigable rivers, which cannot be crossed but by ferries, first theTigris, then a second and third called both by the same name,[42]though they are not the same river nor do they flow from the sameregion (for the first-mentioned of them flows from the Armenian landand the other[43] from that of the Matienians), and the fourth of therivers is called Gyndes, the same which once Cyrus divided into threehundred and sixty channels.[44] Passing thence into the Kissian land,there are eleven stages, forty-two and a half leagues, to the riverChoaspes, which is also a navigable stream; and upon this is built thecity of Susa. The number of these stages amounts in all to one hundredand eleven. 53. This is the number of stages with resting-places, asone goes up from Sardis to Susa: and if the royal road has beenrightly measured as regards leagues, and if the league[45] is equal tothirty furlongs,[46] (as undoubtedly it is), the number of furlongsfrom Sardis to that which is called the palace of Memnon is thirteenthousand five hundred, the number of leagues being four hundred andfifty. So if one travels a hundred and fifty furlongs each day, justninety days are spent on the journey.[47] 54. Thus the MilesianAristagoras, when he told Cleomenes the Lacedemonian that the journeyup from the sea to the residence of the king was one of three months,spoke correctly: but if any one demands a more exact statement yetthan this, I will give him that also: for we ought to reckon inaddition to this the length of the road from Ephesos to Sardis; and Isay accordingly that the whole number of furlongs from the sea ofHellas to Susa (for by that name the city of Memnon is known) is