herodotus

upwards towards heaven, and as he shot into the air he said: "Zeus,that it may be granted me to take vengeance upon the Athenians!"Having so said he charged one of his attendants, that when dinner wasset before the king he should say always three times: "Master,remember the Athenians." 106. When he had given this charge, he calledinto his presence Histiaios the Milesian, whom Dareios had now beenkeeping with him for a long time, and said: "I am informed, Histiaios,that thy deputy, to whom thou didst depute the government of Miletos,has made rebellion against me; for he brought in men against me fromthe other continent and persuaded the Ionians also,--who shall pay thepenalty to me for that which they did,--these, I say, he persuaded togo together with them, and thus he robbed me of Sardis. Now thereforehow thinkest thou that this is well? and how without thy counsels wasanything of this kind done? Take heed lest thou afterwards find reasonto blame thyself for this." Histiaios replied: "O king, what manner ofspeech is this that thou hast uttered, saying that I counselled amatter from which it was likely that any vexation would grow for thee,either great or small? What have I to seek for in addition to thatwhich I have, that I should do these things; and of what am I in want?for I have everything that thou hast, and I am thought worthy by theeto hear all thy counsels. Nay, but if my deputy is indeed acting inany such manner as thou hast said, be assured that he has done itmerely on his own account. I however, for my part, do not even admitthe report to be true, that the Milesians and my deputy are acting inany rebellious fashion against thy power: but if it prove that theyare indeed doing anything of that kind, and if that which thou hastheard, O king, be the truth, learn then what a thing thou didst inremoving me away from the sea-coast; for it seems that the Ionians,when I had gone out of the sight of their eyes, did that which theyhad long had a desire to do; whereas if I had been in Ionia, not acity would have made the least movement. Now therefore as quickly aspossible let me set forth to go to Ionia, that I may order all thesematters for thee as they were before, and deliver into thy hands thisdeputy of Miletos who contrived these things: and when I have donethis after thy mind, I swear by the gods of the royal house that Iwill not put off from me the tunic which I wear when I go down toIonia, until I have made Sardinia tributary to thee, which is thelargest of all islands." 107. Thus saying Histiaios endeavoured todeceive the king, and Dareios was persuaded and let him go, charginghim, when he should have accomplished that which he had promised, toreturn to him again at Susa.108. In the meantime, while the news about Sardis was going up to theking, and while Dareios, after doing that which he did with the bow,came to speech with Histiaios, and Histiaios having been let go byDareios was making his journey to the sea-coast,--during all that time