herodotus

my estates of land." 29. Thus he said; and Xerxes was pleased by thethings which he had spoken, and replied: "Lydian host, ever since Iwent forth from the Persian land I have encountered no man up to thistime who was desirous to entertain my army, or who came into mypresence and made offer of his own free will to contribute money to mefor the war, except only thee: and thou not only didst entertain myarmy magnificently, but also now dost make offer of great sums ofmoney. To thee therefore in return I give these rewards,--I make theemy guest-friend, and I will complete for thee the four hundred myriadsof staters by giving from myself the seven thousand, in order that thyfour hundred myriads may not fall short by seven thousand, but thoumayest have a full sum in thy reckoning, completed thus by me. Keeppossession of that which thou hast got for thyself, and be sure to actalways thus; for if thou doest so, thou wilt have no cause to repenteither at the time or afterwards."30. Having thus said and having accomplished his promise, he continuedhis march onwards; and passing by a city of the Phrygians called Anauaand a lake whence salt is obtained, he came to Colossai, a great cityof Phrygia, where the river Lycos falls into an opening of the earthand disappears from view, and then after an interval of about fivefurlongs it comes up to view again, and this river also flows into theMaiander. Setting forth from Colossai towards the boundaries of thePhrygians and Lydians, the army arrived at the city of Kydrara, wherea pillar[30a] is fixed, set up by Crœsus, which declares by aninscription that the boundaries are there. 31. From Phrygia then heentered Lydia; and here the road parts into two, and that which goesto the left leads towards Caria, while that which goes to the rightleads to Sardis; and travelling by this latter road one must needscross the river Maiander and pass by the city of Callatebos, where menlive whose trade it is to make honey of the tamarisk-tree and ofwheat-flour. By this road went Xerxes and found a plane-tree, to whichfor its beauty he gave an adornment of gold, and appointed that someone should have charge of it always in undying succession;[31] and onthe next day he came to the city of the Lydians. 32. Having come toSardis he proceeded first to send heralds to Hellas, to ask for earthand water, and also to give notice beforehand to prepare meals for theking; except that he sent neither to Athens nor Lacedemon to ask forearth, but to all the other States: and the reason why he sent thesecond time to ask for earth and water was this,--as many as had notgiven at the former time to Dareios when he sent, these he thoughtwould certainly give now by reason of their fear: this matter it wasabout which he desired to have certain knowledge, and he sentaccordingly.33. After this he made his preparations intending to march to Abydos: