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“What end to this business, Croesus? It seems that the Lydians will never stop making trouble for me and for themselves. It occurs to me that it may be best to make slaves of them; for it seems I have acted like one who slays the father and spares the children. So likewise I have taken with me you who were more than a father to the Lydians, and handed the city over to the Lydians themselves; and then indeed I marvel that they revolt!”
HERODOTUS, HISTORIES, BOOK 1.155; A. D. GODLEY TRANSLATION
Summary
After Herodotus gives his account of how Cyrus came into power over the Median empire (turning it into the Persian empire), he begins to explain some of the customs of the Persians. The most notable customs were that Persians did not set up statues and temples because they worshipped the heavenly bodies and the elements, their most valued day was their birthday, they were very hierarchical, they loved everything foreign and often adopted dress and practices from other nations, they considered valor in battle to be the most noble trait of men with second being fathering many sons, and held lying to be the most disgraceful trait while having debt was the second most disgraceful.
Herodotus then returns to the point of his narrative where Cyrus had just conquered the Lydians and made Croesus his slave and advisor. The Ionians and Aeolians, the Greeks who colonized part of Asia, sent messengers to Cyrus telling him they would submit to his rule under the same conditions as the Lydians. Cyrus, however, rejected them angrily because he had tried to get them under his rule before he conquered the Lydians but they ignored him. The only colony that had submitted was the Ionian colony Miletus. In response to this rejection, the Ionians and Aeolians began fortifying their cities and sent messengers to Sparta to ask for help.
The spokesman for the Ionians and Aeolians pleaded with Sparta for help in a long speech, but the Spartans rejected them so they went home. The Spartans then sent a group out to see what the situation was like for themselves. One of them went to Sardis and proclaimed to Cyrus that if he attacked any Greek territory the Spartans would punish him.
Cyrus was unimpressed. He left Sardis in the charge of one of his fellow Persians, Tabalus, and marched back to Ecbatana, the Persian capital, to make preparations to invade Babylon, Egypt, and other territories.
A man named Pactyes, a Lydian who was put in charge of Croesus’ gold and all the remaining Lydians, immediately fostered a revolt against Tabalus and laid siege to Sardis, using the gold to hire mercenaries. When Cyrus found out, he wondered out loud to Croesus if he should just enslave the Lydian people and be done with them. Croesus, fearful of this outcome, advised Cyrus to instead order the Lydians to give up their weapons of war and instead become poets, musicians, dancers, and shopkeepers. This would effectively make them useless and never think of revolting.
Cyrus thought favorably of this advice and made it so. He also sent one of his commanders, a Mede named Mazares, to crush the revolt, enslave those involved, and bring Pactyes back to him alive. When Pactyes found out Mazares was coming, he fled in fright and took refuge in the Aeolian city of Cyme.
Mazares went to Sardis first, gave Cyrus’ commands to the Lydians, then sent messengers to Cyme demanding they give up Pactyes. The Cymaeans wanted to consult their god first and so went to his oracle. The oracle told them to give up Pactyes. Just as the Cymaeans were about to do this, a prominent man named Aristodicus told them to stop, thinking that the oracle was false. He personally led a second group to the oracle and asked again about what to do with Pactyes. The oracle gave the same answer it did to the first group. Aristodicus, thinking something was not right, decided to test the oracle. He walked around the temple and began gathering up the birds and their nests. The voice of the god himself then raged against Aristodicus for his insolence. Aristodicus responded, “Will you save your own suppliants, yet tell the men of Cyme to deliver up theirs?” The god responded, “Yes, I do command them, so that you may perish all the sooner for your impiety, and never again come to inquire of my oracle about giving up those that seek refuge with you.”
When the Cymaeans learned of this, they decided to send Pactyes to Mytilene. However, when they found out the Mytlilenaeans were going to bargain with Mazares over Pactyes, they got Pactyes and sent him to Chios. However, the Chians dragged Pactyes out of the temple of Athena (where suppliants went) and handed him over to Mazares. For a long time after that, anything a certain territory that the Chians had been awarded became unfit for any sacred rites.
Mazares then attacked and enslaved those who had besieged Sardis, as well as pillaged some of their lands, but died shortly after that of illness.
Herodotus the Sociologist
Just like he did with the Lydians, Herodotus took the opportunity in his account to talk about Persian customs and practices. What he did primarily was compare and contrast Persian customs with Greek. He pointed out the oddity that the Persians didn’t build statues and temples and explained how different their rituals for sacrifice were. He pointed out how differently they treated the dead. He even explains briefly how the Persian magi were different from Egyptian priests.
Herodotus also praised a law the Persians had:
This is a law which I praise; and it is a praiseworthy law, too, which does not allow the king himself to slay any one for a single offense, or any other Persian to do incurable harm to one of his servants for one offense. Not until an accounting shows that the offender’s wrongful acts are more and greater than his services may a man give rein to his anger.
Herodotus, Histories, Book 1.137; A. D. Godley translation
I can see something like being good when it comes to making mistakes or causing an accident. However, for actual crimes, that’s harder to justify. How much good do you need to do to get away with murder, robbery, sexual assault, or intentionally maiming a rival? Or, do crimes like that not apply to the law?
Anyway, this is another interesting habit of Herodotus in his historical account. He was observing cultures and comparing them with others (or his own) long before anthropology and sociology were official branches of knowledge.
Cyrus the Storyteller
After Cyrus conquered the Lydians, the Ionians and Aeolians sent messengers to him saying they’ll submit to his rule under the same conditions as he gave the Lydians. Cyrus, however, was angry at this response because he had given them a chance earlier and they ignored it. He responded to the Ionians and Aeolians with this story:
“Once, there was a fluteplayer who saw fish in the sea and played upon his flute, thinking that they would come out on to the land. Disappointed of his hope, he cast a net and gathered it in and took out a great multitude of fish; and seeing them leaping, ‘You had best,’ he said, ‘stop your dancing now; you would not come out and dance before, when I played for you.’”
Herodotus, Histories, Book 1.141; A. D. Godley translation
What’s interesting is that this is actually one of Aesop’s fables! Aesop was believed to have been a contemporary of Solon the Athenian and Croesus—which would make him a near contemporary of Cyrus. Here’s Aesop’s version of the story:
A fisherman skilled in music took his flute and his nets to the seashore. Standing on a projecting rock, he played several tunes in the hope that the fish, attracted by his melody, would of their own accord dance into his net, which he had placed below. At last, having long waited in vain, he laid aside his flute, and casting his net into the sea, made an excellent haul of fish. When he saw them leaping about in the net upon the rock he said: “O you most perverse creatures, when I piped you would not dance, but now that I have ceased you do so merrily.”
George Fyler Townsend translation
As you can see, Cyrus’ (Herodotus’) version is shorter and more direct. It also has a more political message: “I first gave you the carrot (a chance to surrender on more favorable terms; the flute), now I’m going to give you the stick (conquest; the net).”
How to Make a People Weak
The epigraph for this post is Cyrus’ immediate reaction to the news that the Lydians had revolted as soon as he left Sardis, their capital. Croesus’ response to Cyrus is both interesting and shocking. Not wanting the Lydians to be made into slaves, Croesus gives this advice:
“But pardon the Lydians, and give them this command so that they not revolt or pose a danger to you: send and forbid them to possess weapons of war, and order them to wear tunics under their cloaks and knee-boots on their feet, and to teach their sons lyre-playing and song and dance and shop-keeping. And quickly, O king, you shall see them become women instead of men, so that you need not fear them, that they might revolt.”
Herodotus, Histories, Book 1.155; A. D. Godley translation
In other words, take away the Lydians’ means of self-defense, wipe away their warrior spirit, and inundate them with entertainment. Recall that Herodotus said they were a warring people:
Now at this time there was no nation in Asia more valiant or warlike than the Lydians. It was their custom to fight on horseback, carrying long spears, and they were skillful at managing horses.
Herodotus, Histories, Book 1.79; A. D. Godley translation
And then, when their cavalry was rendered useless against Cyrus:
Nevertheless the Lydians were no cowards; when they saw what was happening, they leaped from their horses and fought the Persians on foot.
Herodotus, Histories, Book 1.80; A. D. Godley translation
And then, under Cyrus, they were reduced to being musicians, poets, dancers, and merchants. Their fighting spirit stamped out (or “channeled” into “more productive” pursuits).
Is it better to be enslaved, or to be made weak and powerless?
Were the Lydians given freedom? Or, were they just subjected to a different kind of slavery?
It looks like even the ancients knew that if you disarmed a people and distracted them from reality, you could subjugate them without fear of reprisal.
Trying to find that balance between relaxing with something enjoyable (like song, dance, and literature) and not losing your awareness of what’s going on outside is something I think about a lot.
That's all for the Histories, Book 1.131-61.
May your days be filled with grace.
-Andronikos
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Thumbnail: Croesus Vanquished, Standing in Front of Cyrus. From Cassell’s Illustrated Universal History by Edmund Ollier, 1882. Public domain.