herodotus

to stay in their place and be guards of the bridges), the rest, I say,of those who served in the expedition from the Pontus furnished ahundred ships, and were equipped like Hellenes: these are colonists ofthe Ionians and Dorians.96. In all the ships there served as fighting-men Persians, Medes, orSacans;: and of the ships, those which sailed best were furnished bythe Phenicians, and of the Phenicians the best by the men of Sidon.Over all these men and also over those of them who were appointed toserve in the land-army, there were for each tribe native chieftains,of whom, since I am not compelled by the course of the inquiry,[89a] Imake no mention by the way; for in the first place the chieftains ofeach separate nation were not persons worthy of mention, and thenmoreover within each nation there were as many chieftains as therewere cities. These went with the expedition too not as commanders, butlike the others serving as slaves; for the generals who had theabsolute power and commanded the various nations, that is to say thosewho were Persians, having already been mentioned by me. 97. Of thenaval force the following were commanders,--Ariabignes the son ofDareios, Prexaspes the son of Aspathines, Megabazos the son ofMegabates, and Achaimenes the son of Dareios; that is to say, of theIonian and Carian force Ariabignes, who was the son of Dareios and ofthe daughter of Gobryas; of the Egyptians Achaimenes was commander,being brother of Xerxes by both parents; and of the rest of thearmament the other two were in command: and galleys of thirty oars andof fifty oars, and light vessels,[90] and long[91] ships to carryhorses had been assembled together, as it proved, to the number ofthree thousand. 98. Of those who sailed in the ships the men of mostnote after the commanders were these,--of Sidon, Tetramnestos son ofAnysos; of Tyre, Matten[92] son of Siromos; or Arados, Merbalos son ofAgbalos; of Kilikia, Syennesis son of Oromedon; of Lykia, Kyberniscosson of Sicas; of Cyprus, Gorgos son of Chersis and Timonax son ofTimagoras; of Caria, Histiaios son of Tymnes, Pigres son ofHysseldomos,[93] and Damasithymos son of Candaules. 99. Of the rest ofthe officers I make no mention by the way (since I am not bound to doso), but only of Artemisia, at whom I marvel most that she joined theexpedition against Hellas, being a woman; for after her husband died,she holding the power herself, although she had a son who was a youngman, went on the expedition impelled by high spirit and manly courage,no necessity being laid upon her. Now her name, as I said, wasArtemisia and she was the daughter of Lygdamis, and by descent she wasof Halicarnassos on the side of her father, but of Crete by hermother. She was ruler of the men of Halicarnassos and Cos and Nisyrosand Calydna, furnishing five ships; and she furnished ships which wereof all the fleet reputed the best after those of the Sidonians, and ofall his allies she set forth the best counsels to the king. Of the