Herodotus Tweets - Book 8

8.144 They assured the Spartans they would not prove traitor, declined their offer to take people in, and urged them to send an army ASAP.

8.143 The Athenians told Alexander they would never come to terms with Xerxes, and that he should not come to them with such advice again.

8.142 The Spartans urged the Athenians to reject Alex's advice, & they offered to take in Athens' women & kids for the duration of the war.

8.141 The Spartans had heard Alexander was in Athens and sent envoys themselves, as they were worried the Athenians would ally with Xerxes.

8.140 Alexander delivered Mardonius' msg, asking the Athenians to ally w/Persia on good terms, and he urged them himself to accept the deal.

8.139 So the line of descent was this: Perdiccas > Argaeus > Philippus > Aeropus > Alcetes > Amyntas > Alexander.

8.138 The king sent the brothers away, then tried to have them killed, but the boys escaped and ultimately subdued all of Macedon.

8.137 Alex was descended from Perdiccas, the 1st king of Macedon. P & his bros, exiles from Argos, worked for a time for the king of Lebaea.

8.136 After reading the oracles Mys had collected, Mardonius sent Alexander of Macedon to Athens to ask the Athenians for an alliance.

8.135 At the sanctuary of Ptoan Apollo, the god prophesied in a language the locals didn't know. Mys recognized it as Carian & recorded it.

8.134 Mys went around to various oracles, consulting them himself or, where necessary, having someone else do so on his behalf.

8.133 They sailed to Delos. Meanwhile, Mardonius, in Thessaly, sent a guy named Mys out to consult the oracles.

8.132 Messengers came to Aegina hoping to persuade the Greeks to sail to Ionia. But the Greeks were afraid to sail farther east than Delos.

8.131 110 Greek ships gathered at Aegina in the spring. The Spartan Leotychides was in command. Xanthippus led the Athenian contingent.

8.130 Xerxes' fleet had fled to Asia. In the spring 300 Persian ships gathered at Samos, where they watched lest the Ionians revolt.

8.129 3 months into the siege the H2O around Potidaea receded. Many Persians were drowned when it returned. The rest went back to Thessaly.

8.128 Artabazus was working w/a traitor inside Potidaea. They communicated by wrapping messages around arrows & shooting at an agreed spot.

8.127 He laid siege to Potidaea and nearby Olynthus. After taking Olynthus, he slit the inhabitants' throats.

8.126 Artabazus had escorted Xerxes to the Hellespont w/60,000 men. On his way back to Greece he learned Potidaea had revolted from Persia.

8.125 Someone later said Themistocles had only been honored bc of Athens. Okay, T. said, but you, tho Athenian, wouldn’t be honored at all.

8.124 They disbanded w/o naming a victor. Themistocles was lauded as the cleverest man in Greece. He visited Sparta & was honored big time.

8.123 The Greeks next went to the Isthmus to award prizes for valor. Each commander voted for himself 1st & thought Themistocles 2nd best.

8.122 The Greeks sent stuff to Delphi, but the god demanded a greater prize from the Aeginetans. Hearing this, they dedicated 3 gold stars.

8.121 The Greeks couldn't take Andros. They attacked Carystus, then returned to Salamis, divided the spoils, & made dedications to the gods.

8.120 Also, Xerxes definitely stopped at Abdera en route, and it's closer to the Hellespont than the city from which he allegedly took ship.

8.119 I don't believe it. For one thing, if Xerxes had made anyone jump overboard, it would've been the Phoenician rowers, not Persians.

8.118 Some say Xerxes traveled from Thrace to Asia by sea & that he forced many Persians to jump overboard to lighten the boat in a storm.

8.117 When the Persians got to the Hellespont, they found that their bridges had been wrecked (by a storm). They crossed the strait by boat.

8.116 A Thracian king had forbidden his six sons to march against Greece. They went anyway. When they got back, dad gouged their eyes out.

8.115 Xerxes marched with an army overland from Thrace to the Hellespont, his men starving and sick en route. Some had to be left behind.

8.114 Per the advice of an oracle, the Spartans sent a herald to Xerxes demanding retribution for the death of Leonidas. Xerxes laughed.

8.113 Mardonius took his picked army to winter in Thessaly. He had all together 300,000 men, including cavalry.

8.112 Themistocles also threatened other islands w/a siege if they didn't pay. Carystus & Paros paid, seeing Andros besieged for medizing.

8.111 The Greeks, no longer pursuing the Persians, laid siege to Andros. Themistocles demanded the Andrians fork over $$$, but they refused.

8.110 The Athenians thought Themistocles wise. Meanwhile, he sent a messenger to tell Xerxes he'd kept the Greeks from wrecking the bridges.

8.109 Themistocles wanted to destroy the bridges, but in public he supported E's position: best not to prevent Xerxes from leaving Europe.

8.108 The next day the Greeks sailed after the Persians. They debated going to the Hellespont to wreck the bridges. Eurybiades was opposed.

8.107 After sending his kids off, Xerxes told Mardonius to pick his troops. That night, his ships left Phalerum, bound for the Hellespont.

8.106 H ran into Panionius, tricked him into bringing his family to him, then forced him to castrate his 4 sons, & the sons to castrate dad.

8.105 Hermotimus achieved the greatest vengeance I know of. As a boy, he'd been captured, castrated, and sold as a eunuch by one Panionius.

8.104 He sent his favorite eunuch, Hermotimus, off w/them too. H. was from Pedasa. The priestess of Athena there occasionally grows a beard.

8.103 Xerxes was delighted since that's what he wanted to do anyway. He sent her off & had her take some of his kids back to Ephesus w/her.

8.102 She suggested he withdraw and leave Mardonius to it. If M. succeeded, Xerxes would get the credit. If he failed, it wasn't a big deal.

8.101 Xerxes asked his Persian peeps for advice, then threw them out and asked Artemisia what he should do.

8.100 Mardonius, worried he’d pay a price for favoring war, suggested that Xerxes withdraw and leave it to him to take Greece.

8.99 Xerxes had sent them good news earlier, after he'd sacked Athens. Now the Persians lamented over this defeat, & they blamed Mardonius.

8.98 He sent news of the defeat to Persia. The message was conveyed by mounted couriers who weren’t deterred by snow, rain, heat, or night.

8.97 Xerxes was worried the Greeks would sail to the Hellespont, destroy his bridges, & trap him in Europe. He secretly planned to run away.

8.96 When the battle was over, the Greeks towed in what wrecks remained (the wind carried many toward Attica) and prepared to fight again.

8.95 Aristides led a bunch of armed Athenians to the island of Psyttaleia. They killed the Persians stationed there.

8.94 The Athenians say the Corinthians fled the battle (until a god convinced them to return). But the other Greeks attest to their bravery.

8.93 The Aeginetans earned the greatest repute in the battle, and after them the Athenians. Artemisia escaped safely to Phalerum.

8.92 An Aeginetan mocked Themistocles, ship to ship, for questioning Aegina's allegiance. Meanwhile the Persians who could fled to Phalerum.

8.91The Athenians wrecked many enemy ships both in the fight & as they fled. The Aeginetans got them when they tried to leave the strait.

8.90 Xerxes watched the fight from Mt. Aegaleos. When he saw one of his ships perform well, he had his clerks record the trierarch's name.

8.89 More Persians died than Greeks, chiefly because they couldn't swim. The Persians' many ships fell foul of one another in the fight.

8.88 Xerxes happened to see this and was pleased, thinking she'd rammed an enemy ship. "My women have become men and my men women!" he said.

8.87 Artemisia rammed an allied vessel while trying to lose an Athenian tail. That trireme left off pursuit, thinking she'd switched sides.

8.86 The Persians fought better than they had at Artemisium but they were less disciplined than the Greeks. Most of their fleet was damaged.

8.85 The Athenians were opposite the Phoenicians, and the Lacedaemonians faced the Ionians. Most of the Ionians remained loyal to Xerxes.

8.84 The Greeks launched their ships & the Persians attacked. The battle began when an Athenian trireme rammed & got stuck in an enemy ship.

8.83 So the Greeks prepared to fight. In the A.M. Themistocles urged them to always choose their better natures and to board their ships.

8.82 Now a Tenian ship deserted to the Greeks, & its commander verified Aristides’ news. This & another desertion gave the Greeks 380 ships.

8.81 Aristides accordingly told them how he'd come from Aegina and slipped thru the enemy's blockade. Still, most of them didn't believe it.

8.80 Themistocles was pleased as the Greeks wd now be forced to fight at Salamis. He asked that Aristides be the one to give them the news.

8.79 Aristides arrived during the meeting--the justest man in Athens, IMHO. He told Themistocles privately that the Greeks were surrounded.

8.78 The Greek generals, meanwhile, were still debating at Salamis, unaware that the Persians had encircled them.

8.77 I can't rebut the truth of oracles when I consider how clearly Apollo foretold Greece's day of freedom & the sea stained red w/blood.

8.76 The Persians responded by posting men on the island of Psyttaleia and positioning their ships so as to prevent the Greeks from leaving.

8.75 While the Greeks debated, Themistocles secretly sent a messenger to Xerxes to tell him the Greeks were planning on leaving Salamis.

8.74 Many of the Greeks at Salamis were still for withdrawing to the Peloponnese. This disagreement resulted finally in another meeting.

8.73 Seven peoples inhabit the Peloponnese, but most of their cities sent no help. To my mind, those who remained neutral sided w/Persia.

8.72 Among the Peloponnesians who came to the Isthmus to fight were the Lacedaemonians & Corinthians, but there were others who didn't show.

8.71 The Greeks, however, had thousands of men at the Isthmus building a wall under the supervision of Leonidas' brother Cleombrotus.

8.70 Xerxes' fleet drew up for battle, but there wasn't much daylight left. Meanwhile, his army began marching toward the Peloponnese.

8.69 The others thought Xerxes would punish her for speaking her mind, but in fact he admired her for it. Still, he decided to fight at sea.

8.68 Everyone said he should except Artemisia. She urged him not to meet the Greeks at sea but to either stay put or go to the Peloponnese.

8.67 Xerxes went down to the fleet at Phalerum and had Mardonius ask the various commanders assembled there whether he should fight at sea.

8.66 The Persians now had as many men and ships as they’d ever had: they’d made up their losses with Greek conscripts.

8.65 While Attica was being ravaged a huge dust cloud floated from Eleusis toward Salamis, presaging the destruction of the Persian fleet.

8.64 The next A.M. an earthquake prompted the Greeks to seek help from Ajax & Telamon. They sent men to Aegina to get the heroes’ images.

8.63 Eurybiades decided, then, that they would fight at Salamis, probably because he was afraid the Athenians would desert the Greek cause.

8.62 Finally, Themistocles said that if Eurybiades withdrew from Salamis the Athenians would sail off & make a home for themselves in Italy.

8.61 Adeimantus again rebuked Themistocles--he was a "cityless man"--but Them. noted that the Athenians still had 200 fully manned ships.

8.60 Themistocles explained why fighting off of Salamis was best: e.g., the Greeks' smaller fleet would fare better in the confined space.

8.59 At the conference Themistocles started speaking before Eurybiades. He was chided for doing so by the Corinthian Adeimantus.

8.58 Themistocles went off to talk to Eurybiades. He persuaded him to get off his ship and summon the generals to a conference.

8.57 Now an Athenian, Mnesiphilus, privately urged Themistocles to make Eurybiades change his mind: if they left Salamis the war was lost.

8.56 When the Greeks heard what had happened on the Acropolis, they resolved to fight for the Isthmus, and they repaired to their ships.

8.55 There's a sacred olive tree on the Acropolis. The Persians burned it, but by the next day it had grown a new, 1.5-foot shoot.

8.54 Having taken Athens, Xerxes sent a man to Susa with the news. He also bid some Athenian exiles to perform sacrifices on the Acropolis.

8.53 Finally some of the Persians climbed the Acropolis and let the rest in. They butchered the Athenians and set the Acropolis on fire.

8.52 The Persians besieged the Acropolis, shooting flaming arrows at the Athenians' wooden defenses. The defenders launched stones at them.

8.51 The Persians had taken 4 months to get from the Hellespont to Attica. They found it deserted except for a few men on the Acropolis.

8.50 While they were debating, news came that the Persians were in Attica, having burned Thespia and Plataea on their way through Boeotia.

8.49 The Greeks debated where they should meet the Persians at sea. Most wanted to sail to the Isthmus & fight off the Peloponnesian coast.

8.48 The Greeks had 378 triremes in all plus four penteconters (which the Melians, Siphnians, and Seriphians supplied).

8.47 All these came from south of the river Acheron in NW Greece. Of those farther away, only the people of Croton helped, with one ship.

8.46 Aegina had 30 ships at Salamis, and Chalcis 20. The Eretrians, Ceans, and Naxians were among the others who fought on the Greek side.

8.45 The Megarians had 20 ships, the Ambraciots 7, and the Leucadians 3.

8.44 The Athenians had 180 ships. The Plataeans weren't serving with them as they had at Artemisium: they were busy evacuating their city.

8.43 The Peloponnesians together contributed 89 ships. Of these, 16 were Spartan and 40 were Corinthian.

8.42 Meanwhile, more ships joined the Greek fleet gathered at Salamis. Eurybiades was in command, but the Athenians provided the most ships.

8.41 The Athenians were told to save their households as best they could. They sent their families off to Troezen, Aegina, and Salamis.

8.40 After leaving Artemisium the Greek fleet stopped at Salamis, per the Athenians' request: they needed to evacuate Attica.

8.39 The Delphians said these were their heroes Phylacus & Autonous. The 2 boulders are still there now, in the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia.

8.38 The Persians fled, terrified by this & other signs. They were chased & killed by the Delphians &, reportedly, by 2 inhumanly large men.

8.37 When the Persians marched on Delphi, lightning struck. 2 boulders broke off from the mountain & fell on the Persians, killing many men.

8.36 The Delphians, instructed by Apollo to leave the holy stuff where it was (as he'd take care of it), fled Delphi, leaving 61 men behind.

8.35 The other part of the army marched off toward Delphi to plunder the shrine. They marauded and pillaged the cities they passed en route.

8.34 The Persian army then split up. The larger part, with Xerxes, invaded Boeotia on their way to Athens. The Boeotians all medized.

8.33 They marched down the Cephisus, burning city after city. They caught some of the Phocians and gang raped the women, some of whom died.

8.32 The Persians invaded Phocis & ravaged the country, burning cities & sanctuaries. But they didn’t catch the Phocians, who had retreated.

8.31 The Thessalians were angry at this response and led the Persians to Phocis.

8.30 The Phocians refused to give them any money, & they said they would not medize. They were the only ones in that area who did not do so.

8.29 The Thessalians, who had medized, said via messenger that if the Phocians paid them 50 talents they'd keep Xerxes away from Phocis.

8.28 The Phocians had also defeated their cavalry. They put jars in covered pits. When the horses charged they fell and broke their legs.

8.27 After Thermopylae the Thessalians sent a herald to the Phocians, who had defeated their infantry in battle not long before.

8.26 Some deserters from Arcadia came to Xerxes. He asked what the Greeks were up to. They told him the Olympics were being celebrated.

8.25 So many men went to see the corpses it was hard to find a boat. But Xerxes' trick didn't fool them: 1000 Persian dead vs. 4000 Greeks.

8.24 Meanwhile Xerxes had hidden 19,000 of the 20,000 Persian dead at Thermopylae. Then he invited his sailors to come view the battlefield.

8.23 When the Persians heard the Greeks had pulled out, they sailed across to Euboea and captured towns in the northern part of the island.

8.22 But Themistocles went around to places where there was drinkable water and left messages urging the Ionians in Xerxes' fleet to desert.

8.21 A messenger came from Thermopylae and told the Greeks the army had perished. The fleet now retreated by contingent, the Athenians last.

8.20 The Euboeans had ignored an oracle warning them to evacuate their flocks when a foreigner yoked the sea. Now they were in trouble.

8.19 Themistocles had a plan to get some of X’s allies to desert. 1st he bid the Greeks kill/cook lots of sheep lest the Persians get them.

8.18 In the end, the Greeks had possession of the dead and the wrecks, but many of their ships were disabled. They resolved to retreat.

8.17 On Xerxes’ side, the Egyptians fought best. The Athenians were the best of the Greeks, and of them Clinias, who served on his own ship.

8.16 In the battle that ensued the Persian ships fell foul of one another due to their number. The Persians lost more ships than the Greeks.

8.15 On the 3rd day at Artemisium--the 3 days of fighting at sea coincided w/the battles at Thermopylae--the Persians sailed out first.

8.14 The next day 53 Attic ships brought this news to the Greeks. They put to sea against a squadron of the Persian fleet & destroyed them.

8.13 Meanwhile the ships tasked w/sailing around Euboea were driven against rocks by the storm. The god did this to level the playing field.

8.12 That night there was a violent rainstorm. The corpses & wreckage from the battle drifted toward Aphetae and fouled the Persians' oars.

8.11 But on a 1st signal the Greeks formed into a circle, rams out, & on a 2nd they attacked, taking 30 enemy ships before the battle ended.

8.10 The Persians, seeing how few ships the Greeks had, were contemptuous. They sailed out and encircled the Greeks.

8.9 That afternoon the Greeks at Artemisium put to sea against the Persians, wanting to see how they fought and handled tactical maneuvers.

8.8 A diver named Scyllias deserted from the Persians. He made his way to Artemisium and told the Greeks about the ships sent around Euboea.

8.7 They sent 200 ships to sail clockwise around Euboea & block the Greeks from escaping to the south. The rest would attack from the front.

8.6 So the Greeks stayed at Artemisium. The Persians wanted to fight, but they didn't want to give the Greeks a chance to flee to safety.

8.5 Themistocles in turn used 8 of the 30 talents he'd been given to bribe Eurybiades and the Corinthian Adeimantus. He kept the rest.

8.4 When the Greeks saw the no. of Persian ships at Aphetae they wanted to withdraw. The locals bribed Themistocles to make the Greeks stay.

8.3 Early on there'd been talk of the Athenians commanding by sea, but they withdrew any claim to leadership when the allies balked.

8.2 The Greeks had 271 triremes at Artemisium. Their leader was the Spartan Eurybiades: the allies refused to follow anyone but a Spartan.

8.1 The Athenians contributed 127 ships to the allied Greek fleet. (The Plataeans joined their crews.) Corinth contributed 40, Sparta 10.