herodotus

99. Aristagoras meanwhile, when the Athenians had arrived with twentyships, bringing with them also five triremes of the Eretrians, hejoined the expedition not for the sake of the Athenians but of theMilesians themselves, to repay them a debt which they owed (for theMilesians in former times had borne with the Eretrians the burden ofall that war which they had with the Chalkidians at the time when theChalkidians on their side were helped by the Samians against theEretrians and Milesians),--when these, I say, had arrived and theother allies were on the spot, Aristagoras proceeded to make a marchupon Sardis. On this march he did not go himself, but remained atMiletos and appointed others to be in command of the Milesians, namelyhis brother Charopinos and of the other citizens oneHermophantos.[87a] 100. With this force then the Ionians came toEphesos, and leaving their ships at Coresos in the land of Ephesos,went up themselves in a large body, taking Ephesians to guide them intheir march. So they marched along by the river Caÿster, and then whenthey arrived after crossing the range of Tmolos, they took Sardiswithout any resistance, all except the citadel, but the citadelArtaphrenes himself saved from capture, having with him a considerableforce of men. 101. From plundering this city after they had taken itthey were prevented by this:--the houses in Sardis were mostly builtof reeds, and even those of them which were of brick had their roofsthatched with reeds: of these houses one was set on fire by a soldier,and forthwith the fire going on from house to house began to spreadover the whole town. So then as the town was on fire, the Lydians andall the Persians who were in the city being cut off from escape, sincethe fire was prevailing in the extremities round about them, and nothaving any way out of the town, flowed together to the market-placeand to the river Pactolos, which brings down gold-dust for them fromTmolos, flowing through the middle of their market-place, and thenruns out into the river Hermos, and this into the sea;--to thisPactolos, I say, and to the market-place the Lydians and Persiansgathered themselves together, and were compelled to defend themselves.The Ionians then, seeing some of the enemy standing on their defenceand others in great numbers coming on to the attack, were struck withfear and retired to the mountain called Tmolos, and after that atnightfall departed to go to their ships.102. Sardis was then destroyed by fire, and in it also the temple ofthe native goddess Hybebe; which the Persians alleged afterwards as areason for setting on fire in return the temples in the land of theHellenes. However at the time of which I speak the Persians whooccupied districts within the river Halys, informed beforehand of thismovement, were gathering together and coming to the help of theLydians; and, as it chanced, they found when they came that theIonians no longer were in Sardis; but they followed closely in their