herodotus

he had effected something: for Astyages being harsh towards the Medes,Harpagos communicated severally with the chief men of the Medes, andpersuaded them that they must make Cyrus their leader and causeAstyages to cease from being king. When he had effected this and whenall was ready, then Harpagos wishing to make known his design toCyrus, who lived among the Persians, could do it no other way, seeingthat the roads were watched, but devised a scheme as follows:--he madeready a hare, and having cut open its belly but without pulling offany of the fur, he put into it, just as it was, a piece of paper,having written upon it that which he thought good; and then he sewedup again the belly of the hare, and giving nets as if he were a hunterto that one of his servants whom he trusted most, he sent him away tothe land of the Persians, enjoining him by word of mouth to give thehare to Cyrus, and to tell him at the same time to open it with hisown hands and let no one else be present when he did so. 124. Thisthen was accomplished, and Cyrus having received from him the hare,cut it open; and having found within it the paper he took and read itover. And the writing said this: "Son of Cambyses, over thee the godskeep guard, for otherwise thou wouldst never have come to so much goodfortune. Do thou therefore[133] take vengeance on Astyages who is thymurderer, for so far as his will is concerned thou art dead, but bythe care of the gods and of me thou art still alive; and this I thinkthou hast long ago learnt from first to last, both how it happenedabout thyself, and also what things I have suffered from Astyages,because I did not slay thee but gave thee to the herdsman. Iftherefore thou wilt be guided by me, thou shalt be ruler of all thatland over which now Astyages is ruler. Persuade the Persians torevolt, and march any army against the Medes: and whether I shall beappointed leader of the army against thee, or any other of the Medeswho are in repute, thou hast what thou desirest; for these will be thefirst to attempt to destroy Astyages, revolting from him and comingover to thy party. Consider then that here at least all is ready, andtherefore do this and do it with speed." 125. Cyrus having heard thisbegan to consider in what manner he might most skilfully persuade thePersians to revolt, and on consideration he found that this was themost convenient way, and so in fact he did:--He wrote first on a paperthat which he desired to write, and he made an assembly of thePersians. Then he unfolded the paper and reading from it said thatAstyages appointed him commander of the Persians; "and now, OPersians," he continued, "I give you command to come to me each onewith a reaping-hook." Cyrus then proclaimed this command. (Now thereare of the Persians many tribes, and some of them Cyrus gatheredtogether and persuaded to revolt from the Medes, namely those, uponwhich all the other Persians depend, the Pasargadai, the Maraphiansand the Maspians, and of these the Pasargadai are the most noble, ofwhom also the Achaimenidai are a clan, whence are sprung the