herodotus

him a large force of Ionians and Aiolians; and while he was encampedabout the town of Thasos, a report came to him that the Phenicianswere sailing up from Miletos to conquer the rest of Ionia. Beinginformed of this he left Thasos unconquered and himself hastened toLesbos, taking with him his whole army. Then, as his army was in wantof food,[16] he crossed over from Lesbos to reap the corn in Atarneusand also that in the plain of the Caïcos, which belonged to theMysians. In these parts there chanced to be a Persian named Harpagoscommanding a considerable force; and this man fought a battle with himafter he had landed, and he took Histiaios himself prisoner anddestroyed the greater part of his army. 29. And Histiaios was takenprisoner in the following manner:--As the Hellenes were fighting withthe Persians at Malene in the district of Atarneus, after they hadbeen engaged in close combat for a long time, the cavalry at lengthcharged and fell upon the Hellenes; and the cavalry in fact decidedthe battle.[17] So when the Hellenes had been turned to flight,Histiaios trusting that he would not be put to death by the king onaccount of his present fault, conceived a love of life, so that whenhe was being caught in his flight by a Persian and was about to be runthrough by him in the moment of his capture, he spoke in Persian andmade himself known, saying that he was Histiaios the Milesian. 30. Ifthen upon being taken prisoner he had been brought to king Dareios, hewould not, as I think, have suffered any harm, but Dareios would haveforgiven the crime with which he was charged; as it was, however, forthis very reason and in order that he might not escape from punishmentand again become powerful with the king, Artaphrenes the governor ofSardis and Harpagos who had captured him, when he had reached Sardison his way to the king, put him to death there and then, and his bodythey impaled, but embalmed his head and brought it up to Dareios atSusa. Dareios having been informed of this, found fault with those whohad done so, because they had not brought him up to his presencealive; and he bade wash the head of Histiaios and bestow upon itproper care, and then bury it, as that of one who had been greatly abenefactor both of the king himself and of the Persians.31. Thus it happened about Histiaios; and meanwhile the Persian fleet,after wintering near Miletos, when it put to sea again in thefollowing year conquered without difficulty the islands lying near themainland, Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos; and whenever they took one ofthe islands, the Barbarians, as each was conquered, swept theinhabitants off it;[18] and this they do in the following manner:--they extend themselves from the sea on the North to the sea on theSouth, each man having hold of the hand of the next, and then theypass through the whole island hunting the people out of it. They tookalso the Ionian cities on the mainland in the same manner, except thatthey did not sweep off the inhabitants thus, for it was not possible.