herodotus

his livelihood by the most impious practices; for whenever he obtainedboys who possessed some beauty, he would make eunuchs of them, andthen taking them to Sardis or Ephesos sold them for large sums ofmoney, since with the Barbarians eunuchs are held to be of more valuefor all matters of trust than those who are not eunuchs. Panioniosthen, I say, made eunuchs of many others, since by this he got hislivelihood, and also of this man about whom I speak: and Hermotimos,being not in everything unfortunate, was sent from Sardis to the kingwith other gifts, and as time went on he came to be honoured more thanall the other eunuchs in the sight of Xerxes. 106. And when the king,being at that time in Sardis, was setting the Persian army in motionto march against Athens, then Hermotimos, having gone down for somebusiness to that part of Mysia which the Chians occupy and which iscalled Atarneus, found there Panionios: and having recognised him hespoke to him many friendly words, first recounting to him all the goodthings which he had by his means, and next making promises in returnfor this, and saying how many good things he would do for him, if hewould bring his household and dwell in that land; so that Panioniosgladly accepting his proposals brought his children and his wife.Then, when he had caught him together with his whole house, Hermotimosspoke as follows: "O thou, who of all men that ever lived up to thistime didst gain thy substance by the most impious deeds, what evil dideither I myself or any of my forefathers do either to thee or to anyof thine, that thou didst make me to be that which is nought insteadof a man? Didst thou suppose that thou wouldest escape the notice ofthe gods for such things as then thou didst devise? They howeverfollowing the rule of justice delivered[71] thee into my hands, sincethou hadst done impious deeds; so that thou shalt not have reason tofind fault with the penalty which shall be inflicted upon thee by me."When he had thus reproached him, the man's sons were brought into hispresence and Panionios was compelled to make eunuchs of his own sons,who were four in number, and being compelled he did so; and then whenhe had so done, the sons were compelled to do the same thing to him.Thus vengeance by the hands of Hermotimos[72] overtook Panionios.107. When Xerxes had entrusted his sons to Artemisia to carry themback to Ephesos, he called Mardonios and bade him choose of the armywhom he would, and make his deeds, if possible, correspond to hiswords. During this day then things went so far; and in the night onthe command of the king the leaders of the fleet began to withdrawtheir ships from Phaleron to the Hellespont, as quickly as they mighteach one, to guard the bridges for the king to pass over. And when theBarbarians were near Zoster as they sailed, then seeing the smallpoints of rock which stretch out to sea from this part of themainland, they thought that these were ships and fled for a gooddistance. In time however, perceiving that they were not ships but