[1.0] This [is] a setting forth
of the historia
of Herodotus of Halicarnassus,
thereby preserving from decay
the remembrance of what men
have done,
and so that the great and
wonderful actions
displayed both among Greeks and
among Barbarians
not go un-famed
and in addition
the circumstances of their
warring with each other.
[1.1]
According to the Persians best informed in history, the Phoenicians began
to quarrel. This people, who had formerly dwelt on the shores of the
Erythraean Sea, having migrated to the Mediterranean and settled in the
parts which they now inhabit, began at once, they say, to adventure on
long voyages, freighting their vessels with the wares of Egypt and
Assyria. They landed at many places on the coast, and among the rest at
Argos, which was then preeminent above all the states included now under
the common name of Hellas. Here they exposed their merchandise, and traded
with the natives for five or six days; at the end of which time, when
almost everything was sold, there came down to the beach a number of
women, and among them the daughter of the king, who was, they say,
agreeing in this with the Greeks, Io, the child of Inachus. The women were
standing by the stern of the ship intent upon their purchases, when the
Phoenicians, with a general shout, rushed upon them. The greater part made
their escape, but some were seized and carried off. Io herself was among
the captives. The Phoenicians put the women on board their vessel, and set
sail for Egypt. Thus did Io pass into Egypt, according to the Persian
story, which differs widely from the Phoenician: and thus commenced,
according to their authors, the series of outrages.
[1.2] At
a later period, certain Greeks, with whose name they are unacquainted, but
who would probably be Cretans, made a landing at Tyre, on the Phoenician
coast, and bore off the king's daughter, Europe. In this they only
retaliated; but afterwards the Greeks, they say, were guilty of a second
violence. They manned a ship of war, and sailed to Aea, a city of Colchis,
on the river Phasis; from whence, after despatching the rest of the
business on which they had come, they carried off Medea, the daughter of
the king of the land. The monarch sent a herald into Greece to demand
reparation of the wrong, and the restitution of his child; but the Greeks
made answer that, having received no reparation of the wrong done them in
the seizure of Io the Argive, they should give none in this instance.
[1.3] In
the next generation afterwards, according to the same authorities,
Alexander the son of Priam, bearing these events in mind, resolved to
procure himself a wife out of Greece by violence, fully persuaded, that as
the Greeks had not given satisfaction for their outrages, so neither would
he be forced to make any for his. Accordingly he made prize of Helen; upon
which the Greeks decided that, before resorting to other measures, they
would send envoys to reclaim the princess and require reparation of the
wrong. Their demands were met by a reference to the violence which had
been offered to Medea, and they were asked with what face they could now
require satisfaction, when they had formerly rejected all demands for
either reparation or restitution addressed to them.
[1.4]
Hitherto the injuries on either side had been mere acts of common
violence; but in what followed the Persians consider that the Greeks were
greatly to blame, since before any attack had been made on Europe, they
led an army into Asia. Now as for the carrying off of women, it is the
deed, they say, of a rogue: but to make a stir about such as are carried
off, argues a man a fool. Men of sense care nothing for such women, since
it is plain that without their own consent they would never be forced
away. The Asiatics, when the Greeks ran off with their women, never
troubled themselves about the matter; but the Greeks, for the sake of a
single Lacedaemonian girl, collected a vast armament, invaded Asia, and
destroyed the kingdom of Priam. Henceforth they ever looked upon the
Greeks as their open enemies. For Asia, with all the various tribes of
barbarians that inhabit it, is regarded by the Persians as their own; but
Europe and the Greek race they look on as distinct and separate.
[1.5]
Such is the account which the Persians give of these matters. They trace
to the attack upon Troy their ancient enmity towards the Greeks. The
Phoenicians, however, as regards Io, vary from the Persian statements.
They deny that they used any violence to remove her into Egypt; she
herself, they say, having formed an intimacy with the captain, while his
vessel lay at Argos, and perceiving herself to be with child, of her own
free will accompanied the Phoenicians on their leaving the shore, to
escape the shame of detection and the reproaches of her parents. Whether
this latter account be true, or whether the matter happened otherwise, I
shall not discuss further. I shall proceed at once to point out the person
who first within my own knowledge inflicted injury on the Greeks, after
which I shall go forward with my history, describing equally the greater
and the lesser cities. For the cities which were formerly great have most
of them become insignificant; and such as are at present powerful, were
weak in the olden time. I shall therefore discourse equally of both,
convinced that human happiness never continues long in one stay.
[1.6]
Croesus, son of Alyattes, by birth a Lydian, was lord of all the nations
to the west of the river Halys. This stream, which separates Syria from
Paphlagonia, runs with a course from south to north, and finally falls
into the Euxine. So far as our knowledge goes, he was the first of the
barbarians who had dealings with the Greeks, forcing some of them to
become his tributaries, and entering into alliance with others. He
conquered the Aeolians, Ionians, and Dorians of Asia, and made a treaty
with the Lacedaemonians. Up to that time all Greeks had been free. For the
Cimmerian attack upon Ionia, which was earlier than Croesus, was not a
conquest of the cities, but only an inroad for plundering.