herodotus

should be impregnable, and supposed that this was in fact the saferefuge according to the oracle, and not the ships. 52. So the Persianstaking their post upon the rising ground opposite the Acropolis, whichthe Athenians call the Hill of Ares,[32] proceeded to besiege them inthis fashion, that is they put tow round about their arrows andlighted it, and then shot them against the palisade. The Athenians whowere besieged continued to defend themselves nevertheless, althoughthey had come to the extremity of distress and their palisade hadplayed them false; nor would they accept proposals for surrender, whenthe sons of Peisistratos brought them forward: but endeavouring todefend themselves they contrived several contrivances against theenemy, and among the rest they rolled down large stones when theBarbarians approached the gates; so that for a long time Xerxes was ina difficulty, not being able to capture them. 53. In time howeverthere appeared for the Barbarians a way of approach after theirdifficulties, since by the oracle it was destined that all of Atticawhich is on the mainland should come to be under the Persians. Thusthen it happened that on the front side[33] of the Acropolis behindthe gates and the way up to the entrance, in a place where no one waskeeping guard, nor would one have supposed that any man could ascendby this way, here men ascended by the temple of Aglauros the daughterof Kecrops, although indeed the place is precipitous: and when theAthenians saw that they had ascended up to the Acropolis, some of themthrew themselves down from the wall and perished, while others tookrefuge in the sanctuary[34] of the temple. Then those of the Persianswho had ascended went first to the gates, and after opening these theyproceeded to kill the suppliants; and when all had been slain by them,they plundered the temple and set fire to the whole of the Acropolis.54. Then Xerxes, having fully taken possession of Athens, sent to Susaa mounted messenger to report to Artabanos the good success which theyhad. And on the next day after sending the herald he called togetherthe exiles of the Athenians who were accompanying him, and bade themgo up to the Acropolis and sacrifice the victims after their ownmanner; whether it was that he had seen some vision of a dream whichcaused him to give this command, or whether perchance he had a scruplein his mind because he had set fire to the temple. The Athenian exilesdid accordingly that which was commanded them: 55, and the reason whyI made mention of this I will here declare:--there is in thisAcropolis a temple[35] of Erechtheus, who is said to have been born ofthe Earth, and in this there is an olive-tree and a sea, which(according to the story told by the Athenians) Poseidon and Athene,when they contended for the land, set as witnesses of themselves. Nowit happened to this olive-tree to be set on fire with the rest of thetemple by the Barbarians; and on the next day after the conflagrationthose of the Athenians who were commanded by the king to offer