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“So the Athenians grew in power and proved, not in one respect only but in all, that equality is a good thing. Evidence for this is the fact that while they were under tyrannical rulers, the Athenians were no better in war than any of their neighbors, yet once they got rid of their tyrants, they were by far the best of all. This, then, shows that while they were oppressed, they were, as men working for a master, cowardly, but when they were freed, each one was eager to achieve for himself.”
HERODOTUS, HISTORIES, 5.78; A. D. GODLEY TRANSLATION
Summary
Herodotus picks up where he left off from the failed Persian campaign against the Scythians. Darius summoned two Ionian (Greek) leaders, who had been helpful to him during the campaign, to reward them for their service. One of these leaders was Histiaeus (see Book 4.137). Histiaeus was already tyrant of Miletus, so he asked for a land called Myrcinus, which was rich in wood and silver. Darius agreed to give it to him.
Later, however, when Megabazus, a Persian general who was sent to Macedonia to get it under Persian rule, returned to Sardis (the former capital of the Lydian empire), he warned Darius that Histiaeus was gaining a lot of influence and he needed to be put under Darius’ thumb. Darius listened to the advice and summoned Histiaeus. He told Histiaeus to return with him to Susa, the Persian capital, promising him an important position as an advisor and that he would be lavishly taken care of. Histiaeus readily agreed and left his son-in-law Aristagoras in charge of Miletus. However, when he went to Susa, he realized he was actually a prisoner.
Meanwhile, a group of exiled Naxian leaders came to Aristagoras and asked him for help in taking back Naxos for them. Thinking this would be an opportunity to gain rulership over Naxos, and the islands it ruled, Aristagoras told them he might be able to get the Persians to help them out since he was friends with Artaphrenes, the governor of Sardis. The Naxians agreed to let Aristagoras handle the matter, so he went to Sardis and successfully persuaded Artaphrenes to send a fighting force, but only if Darius agreed to it.
Darius agreed with the plan, and so 200 ships were sent in the spring to conquer Naxos and the other islands. However, a dispute between Aristagoras and the Persian general sent, leading to the Persian general’s humiliation, caused the general to send messengers to Naxos, warning them of the invasion. Naxos, who would have been taken by surprised, immediately fortified itself. The Persian force, consisting mainly of Ionians, besieged Naxos for four months, but ran out of resources and was unable to conquer it.
Aristagoras, fearing Darius would depose him of his position as tyrant of Miletus, decided he would have Miletus revolt from the Persians so he could keep his power. This plan was solidified when Histiaeus sent him a secret message telling him to revolt. Histiaeus did not like being detained in Susa and thought if Miletus revolted, Darius would send him to calm things down.
Aristagoras got his faction on his side, then openly revolted against Persia. In the process, he got much of Ionia to revolt with him with promises of freedom. Knowing that he would need more manpower, Aristagoras went to Lacedaemon to ask Sparta to send help. He petitioned Cleomenes, one of the two kings, for help. The plan was for Sparta to help liberate the Ionians from Persian rule, then march of Sardis. However, when Cleomenes learned it was a three month journey from Ionia to Sardis, he told Aristagoras to leave. Aristagoras then made himself a suppliant and pleaded with Cleomenes to send help. Cleomenes refused to listen to him though and left him.
Aristagoras had no choice but to leave Sparta and make his way to Athens next in order to persuade them for their help. Athens had just freed themselves from tyranny and were growing in power and influence. Aristagoras gave the Athenians the same speech and bribes he gave at Sparta and they agreed to help him by sending twenty ships.
Aristagoras returned to Miletus and eventually the Athenian ships arrived. They first went to Ephesus where they kept the boats, then marched on Sardis. They got into Sardis without any trouble, but Artaphrenes and the other Persian and Lydian leaders holed themselves up in the citadel. After a fire broke out and began burning Sardis to the ground though, the leaders left and decided to make a stand. This freaked out the Ionians and Athenians and they returned to Ephesus. While the Ionians remained in Ephesus, the Athenians left and refused to help any more in the revolt. The Persians routed the Ionians at Ephesus and the survivors fled back to Ionia. After this, the Ionians got Caria and Cyprus to join in the revolt.
Meanwhile, Darius summoned Histiaeus and told him about the revolt. Histiaeus played innocent, remarked that it was a bad idea for him to be taken away from Miletus, and promised to bring everything under control if he were sent back. Darius agrees and sends Histiaeus to return to Miletus.
Meanwhile, Cyprus learned that the Persians were heading their way, so they called over the Ionians to help. The Persians ended up attacking on land, whom the Cyprians met, while the Phoenicians who came with the Persians attacked by sea, whom the Ionians met. While the Ionians were successful against the Phoenicians, a betrayal in the ranks of the Cyprians caused them to be routed. The Ionians fled Cyprus.
One Persian general went after the Carians. Although the Carians were losing badly at first, even when the Ionians joined them, they eventually beat the Persians in an ambush and killed three of their generals.
Seeing that the revolt was a lost cause, Aristagoras fled to Myrcinus, but died there in a failed siege.
Even Delphi Can Be Corrupt
There were few stories I remembered from when I read Herodotus the first time a few years ago. This particular story was one of them.
There was a faction in Athens led by a prominent family that tried to take power away from the current ruling family. However, they failed and were exiled.
Refusing to give up, they hired themselves out to Delphi to build their temple and used more expensive materials than was originally planned for it. By doing this, they gained favor with Delphi. Furthermore, they bribed the Pythian priestess so that the next time a Spartan came to her she was to tell them they needed to help set Athens free from the ruling family.
Even though Sparta was friends with the ruling family of Athens, when the priestess told them to help depose the family they obeyed, and eventually the ruling family was removed from power and Athens became a democracy. According to Herodotus, this was the reason Athens rose to power and prominence, eventually becoming a rival of Sparta.
After the Persian War, this rivalry would heat up and lead to the Peloponnesian War (which I’ll talk about more when I get to Thucydides). Weakened by this war, the Macedonians under King Philip and his son Alexander the Great had no problems conquering the Greeks.
On the one hand, it’s alarming to see an institution like the oracle of Delphi being manipulated so easily. It reminds you that, no matter how sacred the institution is, it’s still operated by humans who are corruptible.
On the other hand, I can’t help but (grudgingly) admire the power politics at play. The Athenian faction used the reverence with which Sparta had for the oracle of Delphi to their advantage. The Athenians saw a weakness in the Spartans’ beliefs and exploited it for their purposes.
The biggest reason this story stood out to me, and why it was one of the few I remembered years later, is the fact that this Athenian faction bribed the priestess to begin with. The oracle of Delphi was suppose to be one of the places where the Greeks got messages from the gods. The fact that these Athenians thought they could bribe the priestess, and be successful, makes me question how seriously they took Delphi. For this Athenian faction at least, Delphi was nothing more than a political tool they could use to gain power. They didn’t seem to fear divine retribution for their actions. What does that say about their religious beliefs?
Laws As Knee-Jerk Reactions
Herodotus talks about a time when the Athenians were feuding with another group. They sent a group to resolve the situation, but met such a disaster that all but one person in the group died. When the survivor returned home, the wives of the men who had died got so angry with the survivor they stabbed him to death with their brooch-pins. This was such an alarming event that the Athenians passed a law requiring women to wear a different style of dress that didn’t require brooch-pins. Other Greeks passed laws requiring the brooch-pins women wore to be half as short. The story can be found in 5.82-88.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at this story. One incident and the Athenians transform their laws forever. How many sole survivors came back from Athens, or anywhere else for that matter, and the wives of his compatriots murdered him? I very much doubt this was a constant problem among the Greeks.
It reminds me of the laws that get passed today. Take the laws regarding using your cellphone while driving as an example. We have laws on the books that say you can’t drive distracted. So, why do we need the cellphone laws?
Removing Yourself From Temptation
The episode with Aristagoras trying to convince the Spartan king Cleomenes to aid the Ionian revolt against Persia was a bit more interesting than I let on in the summary. When Aristagoras made himself a suppliant to Cleomenes, he followed him to his house. When they arrived though, Cleomenes’ eight year old daughter was waiting for him. Aristagoras asked Cleomenes to dismiss his daughter, as the conversation was not for her, but Cleomenes refused. Aristagoras then pleaded with Cleomenes to send help and began trying to bribe him. He increased his bribe higher and higher until Cleomenes’ daughter cried out:
“Father, the stranger will corrupt you, unless you leave him and go away.”
Herodotus, Histories, Book 5.51; A. D. Godley translation
Cleomenes appreciated his daughter’s council and simply left the room. It was then that Aristagoras had no choice but to leave and petition the Athenians for help.
It’s uncertain to me whether Cleomenes kept his daughter around to keep himself from giving into the bribes or whether it was the show Aristagoras that even a little girl saw through his nonsense. Regardless, I think it’s important to recognize what Cleomenes did. Rather than staying around to interact Aristagoras further, Cleomenes simply left the room.
He removed himself from the source of the temptation.
This is a good lesson to learn. When you are being influenced, whether by an object or a person, to do something you don’t want to do or know you’re not supposed to do, most of the time it’s better to remove yourself from the situation. Even if it may appear rude to do so.
Aristagoras made himself a suppliant to Cleomenes, yet Cleomenes didn’t use that as an excuse to continue interacting with him. In the same way, we shouldn’t let aspects of a situation be an excuse to stick around. No matter if you have to walk home, or leave someone behind because they refuse to leave with you, or if you make your friend look bad for leaving—it may be better to remove yourself from the situation than stay and succumb to a temptation you shouldn’t partake in.
The Pros and Cons of Tyranny and Democracy
Herodotus makes multiple comments in Book 5 about forms of government (tyranny vs. other forms) and how those forms affect a people. For example, the epigraph for this post. Herodotus comments that the Athenians were weak and cowardly under tyranny. However, when they were freed from it, they prospered and became a power to rival Sparta.
It should be noted that tyranny in the ancient Greek context means a government ruled by someone who usurped power. His descendants would also be referred to as tyrants. For example, the ruling family in Athens I mentioned in the previous section. The founder was a man named Pisistratus (not to be confused with Pisistratus, the son of Nestor, in the Odyssey). While he usurped power, he wasn’t some evil ruler like the word “tyrant” is normally associated with. From the introduction to his page on Wikipedia:
“His legacy lies primarily in his institution of the Panathenaic Games… [His] championing of the lower class of Athens is an early example of populism. While in power, he did not hesitate to confront the aristocracy and greatly reduce their privileges, confiscating their lands and giving them to the poor. Pisistratus funded many religious and artistic programs, in order to improve the economy and spread the wealth more equally among the Athenian people.”
I take back what I said. Maybe he was some evil ruler. His government programs may have been the reason why the Athenians were weak and could only prosper once his family was gone. Although, as I’m going to point out below, maybe Athens’ “freedom” was not entirely good either.
Anyway, after the Spartans found out that the Athenian exiles they helped had bribed Delphi, they were not happy. Immediately, Cleomenes called his allies in the Peloponnese together and asked them for help in restoring the sons of Pisistratus to power in Athens. The Corinthians were shocked to hear this. Book 5.92 is one long speech about the atrocities they experienced under a tyranny in the past. They open up the speech with:
“In truth heaven will be beneath the earth and the earth aloft above the heaven, and men will dwell in the sea and fishes where men dwelt before, now that you, Lacedaemonians, are destroying the rule of equals and making ready to bring back tyranny into the cities, tyranny, a thing more unrighteous and bloodthirsty than anything else on this earth. If indeed it seems to you to be a good thing that the cities be ruled by tyrants, set up a tyrant among yourselves first and then seek to set up such for the rest. As it is, however, you, who have never made trial of tyrants and take the greatest precautions that none will arise at Sparta, deal wrongfully with your allies. If you had such experience of that thing as we have, you would be more prudent advisers concerning it than you are now.”
Needless to say, none of Sparta’s allies were willing to help put the sons of Pisistratus back in power.
However, after all this extolling by Herodotus of Athens’ freedom, he writes later that after Aristagoras failed to convince Sparta to help the Ionians with their revolt against Persia, he next went to Athens and gave them the same speech—complete with the bribes and promises of riches. Athens agreed to help. Herodotus then comments:
It seems, then, that it is easier to deceive many than one, for he could not deceive Cleomenes of Lacedaemon, one single man, but thirty thousand Athenians he could. Herodotus, Histories, Book 5.97; A. D. Godley translation
The second Athens got its freedom from a tyrant, they decided to help a tyrant of another place in securing their power. They allowed themselves to get hoodwinked by an opportunist.
After this, the Athenians help the Ionians in their revolt, but drop out the second it goes south— which was at the beginning when the Persians stood up to defend themselves at Sardis. For the remaining 95% of the revolt, the Athenians were nowhere to be found.
This didn’t matter though. As soon as Darius heard that Athens had help start the revolt, he shot an arrow into the sky praying to the gods for vengeance. Then, he ordered one of his servants to remind him three times during every dinner “Master, remember the Athenians” (5.105).
Athens’ actions were about to bring the full force of the Persian empire onto mainland Greece.
Pisistratus had his government programs, populism, and fanciful ideas about wealth inequality, but would he have been stupid enough to listen to Aristagoras?
Athens became stronger and more prosperous after it deposed its tyrant and implemented something like a representative government. But then, they fell for an opportunist and ticked off the strongest empire in the world at that time… all for money and power. Was Athens really better off without its tyrant?
That's all for the Histories, Book 5.
May your days be filled with grace.
-Andronikos Anodos
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Thumbnail: Aristagoras receiving the secret message from Histiaeus to revolt, which was tattooed to the head of the messenger. His hair grew back before he was sent to Aristagoras with the only message “shave my head.” Lithograph created by Max Wulff, c. 1908.