Installment 29

Now, that the Sicyonian Cleisthenes had done and indeed the Athenian Cleisthenes, being that Sicyonian’s daughter’s son and having his name after him, as far as it seems to me, that one also looked contemptuously over at the Ionians and, in order that indeed their tribes might not be the same as the Ionians’, imitated the similarly named Cleisthenes. For when indeed the Athenians’ people, previously thrust away, then by all means to his own party he had gained over for himself, he changed the name of their tribes and made more from fewer. Indeed ten tribal rulers instead of four he made and by tens also the demes he distributed to the tribes. In short, he was by gaining over the people for himself far above the men of the opposed faction.

Then in his turn Isagores, since he was being worsted, contrived in opposition this: he called to himself Cleomenes the Lacedemonian, because he had become his foreign friend in consequence of the sons of Peisistratus’ siege. And blame had Cleomenes for going frequently to Isagores’ wife. At the first indeed Cleomenes was sending to Athens a herald and trying to have Cleisthenes banished and with him many others among the Athenians by picking those under a curse. And that in his sending he spoke of on the basis of an instruction of Isagores; for the Alcmeonids and the men joined in the faction of them had blame for that killing, but he himself had not a share and not his friends.

So those among the Athenians this way were named under a curse: there was a Cylon, a man among the Athenians, an Olympic winner. That one plumed himself for tyranny and, after he had won over a company of his contemporaries, tried to take complete hold of the acropolis, but since he was not able to gain mastery, he sat a suppliant at the image. Those the presidents of the naucraries stood up, the very ones who were governing Athens then, as liable to any punishment except death, and for the killing of them blame had the Alcmeonids. That before Peisistratus’ age happened.

So when Cleomenes was sending and trying to have Cleisthenes and those under a curse banished, Cleisthenes himself secretly got out and afterwards nonetheless there was present at Athens Cleomenes with no large band and on his coming he drove out as accursed seven hundred families among the Athenians that Isagores had suggested to him. Then having done that, second he tried to dissolve the council and in the hand of three hundred men of Isagores’ faction was attempting to put the offices of rule. But when the council resisted and wanted not to obey, Cleomenes and Isagores and the men of his faction took complete hold of the acropolis and among the Athenians those left with the same thought were besieging them two days and on the third under a truce there went out from the country all of them who were Lacedemonians. So there was brought to completion for Cleomenes the prophetic utterance; for when he had stepped up to the acropolis and was indeed to get complete hold of it, he went to sanctuary of the goddess with the intention that he would make an address, but the priestess stood up from her chair before he passed the doors and said, “O Lacedemonian stranger, move back and go not into the shrine: for it’s not lawful for Dorians to go in thither”. And he said, “O woman, well I am not a Dorian, but an Achaean”. He indeed, making no use of the omen, laid hands on and then was thrown back out with the Lacedemonians and all the others the Athenians tied down for the way to death and among them also Timesitheus the Delphian, the works of whose hands and courage I would be able to describe as the greatest.

Now, those, bound, met their end and the Athenians after that sent for Cleisthenes and the seven hundred families banished by Cleomenes and sent messengers to Sardis, because they wanted to form an alliance with the Persians: for they knew that against them the Lacedemonians and Cleomenes had been stirred up to war. Then, the messengers having come to Sardis and saying what had been enjoined, Artaphrenes, the son of Hystaspes, Sardis’ subordinate ruler, asked being which human beings and having been settled where on earth did they request to become the Persians’ allies and, when he had learned by inquiry from the messengers, he gave them this summary answer: if the Athenians gave King Darius earth and water, then he would make an agreement for an alliance with them, but if they gave it not, them depart he bade. So the messengers threw it on themselves and asserted they would perform the giving, because they wanted to make the alliance.

Those indeed went away to their own land and had great blames and Cleomenes, knowing he had been treated very insolently with words and deeds by the Athenians, was gathering together from all the Peloponnesus an army, although he was not pointing out that for which he was performing the gathering together, because he desired to punish the people of the Athenians and wanted to establish Isagores as tyrant; for that one had gone out with him from the acropolis. Cleomenes indeed with a large expedition made an invasion into Eleusis and the Boeotians from an agreement took Oenoe and Hysiae, the farthest peoples in the Attic land, and the Chalcidians on the other side were harming by going against places in the Attic land. Then the Athenians, although they were held by an attack on both sides, of the Boeotians and the Chalcidians at a later time were to have remembrance and to the Peloponnesians who were in Eleusis they put for themselves their arms in opposition.

So when they were to join their camps in battle, the Corinthians were the first, after they had given an account to themselves that they were not doing what was just, to change themselves and depart and afterwards Demaretus, the son of Ariston, that one also being king of the Spartiates, even though he had joined in leading out the host from Lacedemon and was not differing in the former time with Cleomenes. (And in consequence of that dissension there was laid down a law in Sparta that it was not permitted for both kings to follow, the host going out—for thitherto both followed—and, one of those being discharged, there should be left behind also one of the Tyndaridae—for indeed before then both those too, being called in by them, followed.) Then indeed in Eleusis those of the allies left, seeing that the kings of the Lacedemonians were not agreeing and the Corinthians had abandoned their post, themselves too departed and were gone, Dorians who had performed that coming to the Attic land as the fourth indeed, as twice they had made an invasion for war and twice for the good of the multitude of the Athenians, the first time when they had made a settling down in Megara (that expedition would be correctly called in the time when Codrus was king of the Athenians), the second and third time when for the Peisistratids’ driving out they had set off from Sparta and come and the fourth time then when to Eleusis Cleomenes, leading Peloponnesians, had made an invasion; thus a fourth time then Dorians had made an invasion into Athens.

Accordingly, that expedition having dispersed ingloriously, thereupon the Athenians, wanting to punish, first acted with a host against the Chalcidians. Then the Boeotians came to the rescue of the Chalcidians to Euripus and to the Athenians, when they had seen the rescuers, it seemed good on the Boeotians earlier than on the Chalcidians to lay hands. Indeed the Athenians gave battle to the Boeotians and by much prevailed and they killed very many and seven hundred of them captured alive. Then that same day the Athenians, having stepped across to Euboea, gave battle also to the Chalcidians and, after they had defeated those too, four thousand cleruchs on the horse-rearers’ country they left (and “the horse-rearers” the rich among the Chalcidians were called). Moreover, all of those too that they had captured alive, together with those of the Boeotians captured alive they held under guard, after they had bound them in fetters and in time they released them, after they had priced them at two minae. And their fetters, in which they had been bound, they hung up in the acropolis, the very that still even to my time were surviving and hanging from walls scorched with fire by the Mede and opposite the hall turned to the west. And the ransom’s tithe they dedicated after they had made for themselves a bronze four-horse chariot, and it stands on the left hand first for one who goes into the gateway in the acropolis and this has been written on it:

Nations of Boeotians and Chalcidians tamed
The sons of Athenians in deeds of war
And in dismal iron bond did quench insolence.
Their tithe, these mares here, for Pallas they put up.

Now, the Athenians were increased, and this makes clear not in accordance with one matter alone but in every way that equal voice is an excellent thing, if in fact the Athenians, when they were being ruled by tyrants, than none who were settled round them were better in respect to the affairs of war, but set free from tyrants proved far the first. Accordingly that makes clear that, when they were repressed, they were willingly bad on the ground that they were working for a master, but when they were freed, each himself for himself was eager to perform complete work.

Now, those did that and the Thebans after that sent to a god, because they wanted to punish the Athenians. And Pythia asserted that retribution would not be theirs from themselves and bade make a declaration to a many-voiced one and make a request of those nearest. Accordingly, when the messengers sent to the god had gone back, they declared the oracle, after they had gathered an assembly. Then when they were learning by inquiry from them who were saying they should make a request of those nearest, the Thebans said after they had heard those, ”Are not then nearest us settled Tanagrians, Coronians and Thespians? And those at any rate together with us fight on each and every occasion and eagerly join in bearing war completely. Why must we make a request of those at any rate? But rather perhaps the oracle may not be that.”

When they were having considerations like that, at last one spoke after he had come to learn, “I seem to myself to understand what the prophecy wants to say to us. Of Asopus are said to have been born daughters, Thebe and Aegina; those being sisters, I think for us the god proclaimed that we should request of the Aeginetians to become helpers.” And since not any opinion seemed to appear better than that, immediately they sent and were making a request of the Aeginetians by summoning in accordance with the oracle them to come to their rescue, on the ground that they were nearest kin, and they asserted that they were sending with them who were demanding aid the Aeacidae.

Then, when the Thebans had made their attempt in accordance with their alliance with the Aeacidae and been treated harshly by the Athenians, again the Thebans, having sent, were giving them back the Aeacidae and requesting the men. So the Aeginetians, encouraged by great happiness and reminded of an ancient enmity that pertained to the Athenians, at that time, after the Thebans had made their request, an unheralded war against the Athenians brought. For while those were applying themselves to the Boeotians, they sailed with large ships on against the Attic land and they ruined Phaleron utterly and on the rest of the sea-coast many peoples utterly and by doing that greatly were harming the Athenians.

Now, the enmity that was owed previously to the Athenians by the Aeginetians came about from a beginning like this: for the Epidaurians the earth would give up no produce. Accordingly concerning that calamity the Epidaurians were consulting the oracle in Delphi, and Pythia bade them set up images of Damie and Auxesie and for them, after they had performed the setting up, it would turn out better. Accordingly the Epidaurians then asked whether they should have the images made of bronze or stone and Pythia allowed neither of those, but material of a cultivated olive-tree’s wood. Accordingly the Epidaurians made a request of the Athenians to give them olive-tree to cut for themselves, because they believed those there to be quite the holiest. And it is also said that olive-trees were nowhere else on earth during that time than at Athens. Then they asserted that they would make the offering on this condition, on the condition that they would lead away each year sacred offerings for Athena of the City and for Erechtheus, and the Epidaurians, having given their consent on that condition, obtained what they were requesting and, after they had had images made out of those olive-trees, set them up. And the earth was bearing for them and they were bringing to completion what they had agreed on.

Moreover, still during that time and before then the Aeginetians were listening to the Epidaurians in all the other respects and the Aeginetians were stepping across to Epidaurus and giving and taking from one another lawsuits. But from then on having fit together ships for themselves and made use of wilfulness, they stood away from the Epidaurians. And seeing that they were hostile, they were injuring them, inasmuch as indeed they were masters of the sea, and, in particular, those images of Damie and Auxesie of theirs they took for themselves underhandedly and conveyed and set them up in their own country in the inland part. whose name is Oee and it is somewhere approximately about twenty stades distant from the city. Then having performed the setting up in that place, they propitiated them with sacrifices and ribald female choruses, as promoters of a chorus being appointed for each of the divinities ten men, and the choruses were speaking badly of no man, but of the native women. And the Epidaurians’ were also the same sacred rites and theirs are also unspoken of sacred rites.

So, these images having been stolen, the Epidaurians were not bringing to completion for the Athenians what they had agreed on. Then the Athenians sent and were angry at the Epidaurians, and they were bringing forth to light by speech that they were not acting unjustly, because all the time that they had the images in their country, they were bringing to completion what they had agreed on, but since they had been deprived of them, it was not just for them to perform a bringing forth of offerings any longer, but they bade them make an exaction for themselves from the Aeginetians who had them. Thereupon the Athenians, having sent to Aegina, were demanding back the images, and the Aeginetians asserted for themselves and the Athenians there was no business.

Now, the Athenians say that after their demanding back there was dispatched away with one trireme those of their townsmen who, sent from the commonwealth and having come to Aegina, those images, on the ground that they were of their pieces of wood, were trying to draw up from their bases, that they might convey them back for themselves. And when they were not able in that manner to gain mastery over them, they put ropes round and were dragging the images and for them, as they were dragging, thunder and together with the thunder an earthquake supervened and the men of the trireme who were doing the dragging became crazy through the agency of those things and, after they had suffered that, were killing each other, as if enemies, until out of all one was left and was conveyed back by himself to Phalerum.

Now, the Athenians say that it happened thus and the Aeginetians that not with one ship the Athenians came, because one or a little more than one, even if in fact theirs had been no ships, they would have warded off from themselves easily, but with many ships they were sailing against their country and they themselves yielded to them and fought no naval battle—however, they are not able to indicate completely that exactly, neither whether because they were admitting for themselves that they were inferior in fighting naval battles, in accordance with that, they yielded nor whether because they wanted to perform a kind of act that in fact they did—and now, the Athenians, since no one was established for war with them, having stepped out of their ships, turned themselves to the images and, when they were not able to draw them from their bases, thus indeed put rope round for themselves and were performing a dragging, until both the images, being dragged, did the same (and they are giving accounts not credible to me, but some other), as they fell on their knees, and through the time after that they continued to be thus. The Athenians indeed did that and the Aeginetians say they, when they had learned by inquiry about the Athenians, that they were to advance with an army against them, had the Argives made ready, and the Athenians indeed were stepped off on Aegina and there were present and coming to their rescue the Argives and they escaped notice in their stepping across from Epidaurus to the island and on the Athenians, who had had no hearing before, fell and performed for themselves a cutting off of the path from the ships, while at the same time in that moment the thunder came about and the earthquake for them.

Now, this is said by the Argives and the Aeginetians and it is agreed also by the Athenians that who of them was brought to safety to the Attic land proved only one, but the Argives say that, when they had destroyed the Attic camp, that one survived and contrarily the Athenians that it was of the divine; however not that one did not actually survive, but perished in a manner like this: after all, conveyed to Athens, he announced forth the suffering. Then after the wives of those men who had advanced with the army against Aegina had learned by inquiry, since they considered something awful that he alone out of all had been brought to safety, as round about they took hold of that man and were stabbing him with the pins of their clothes, each of them asked where was her husband. And that one was destroyed thus and to the Athenians something still more awful than their suffering seemed to be the work of the women. They indeed knew not with what else they should punish the women, but changed their clothing to Ionian; for indeed the women of the Athenians were wearing before then Dorian clothing, most near to Corinthian. Accordingly they changed to the linen tunic, that indeed they might make no use of pins.

Now, for those who make use of a true account that clothing anciently is not Ionian, but Carian, since at any rate all the ancient Greek clothing of the women was the same that we now call Dorian. And the Argives and the Aeginetians in fact thereupon besides made the following to be law, that among each of them the pins should be made half as long as the established measure then and at the shrine of those goddesses the women should dedicate pins most of all and they should bring forth nothing else Attic to the shrine nor earthenware, but from native basins, as a law, for the future in that very place drinking should be. Now, the women of the Argives and the Aeginetians ever since so long a time in accordance with their dispute with the Athenians customarily were wearers still even to my time of longer pins than before then.

So the beginning of the enmity that came about for the Athenians against the Aeginetians came about in accordance with what has been said. At that time indeed at the Thebans’ summoning eagerly the Aeginetians, remembering what had happened concerning the images, came to the rescue of the Boeotians. The Aeginetians indeed were devastating in the Attic land the places by the sea and to the Athenians minded to advance with an army against the Aeginetians came a prophecy from Delphi that they should hold back after the injustice of the Aeginetians thirty years and the thirty first, after they appointed a sacred precinct for Aeacus, they should begin for themselves the war against the Aeginetians and for them would be successful what they wanted, but if they advanced on with an army immediately, they would undergo many sufferings in the intervening space of time and would also perform many deeds, but finally bring about subjection. When the Athenians had heard that had been brought back, they appointed that sacred precinct for Aeacus that now is set up in the public square and thirty years they did not hold up under hearing how they had to hold off, since they had undergone untoward sufferings at the Aeginetians’ hands.

So for them, when they were preparing themselves for revenge, from the Lacedemonians a matter arose and proved before their feet. For when the Lacedemonians had learned by inquiry of what had been contrived by the Alcmeonidae in reference to Pythia and what by Pythia against them and the sons of Peisistratus, they considered it a double calamity, in that they had driven out men who were their foreign friends from the land of them and in that for them, when they had done that, no gratitude appeared from the Athenians. And besides in addition to that the oracles were leading them on, as they were saying that many untoward things would be from the Athenians, of which previously they were ignorant, but at that time at Cleomenes’ conveying them to Sparta they learned completely. And Cleomenes acquired the oracles from the Athenians’ acropolis, which the sons of Peisistratus had previously possessed and, when they were being driven out, had left in the shrine and, after they had been left behind, Cleomenes took up.

So at that time when the Lacedemonians took up the oracles and saw that the Athenians were growing and in no way were ready to obey them, having grasped in mind that, should the Attic race be free, it would prove evenly balanced with their own, but should it be held down by tyranny, lacking in strength and ready to obey rulers, having learned each of those things, they sent for Hippies, the son of Peisistratus, from Sigeium on the Hellespont, in which the sons of Peisistratus had taken refuge. And when for them Hippies on being called had come, the Spartiates, having sent also for all the other allies’ messengers, said to them this: “Allied men, we admit in regard to ourselves that we did not act correctly; for because we were encouraged by deceptive prophecies, men who were our foreign friends in the highest degree and were undertaking to render the Athenians under our hand, those we drove out of their fatherland and thereafter, when we had done that, we gave over the city to an ungrateful people, which, when it had been freed on account of us and raised its head, treated insolently and threw out us and our king, and having grown pride, increases so that those settled round them, the Boeotians and the Chalcidians, especially have completely understood their lesson and soon some other too will learn completely his erring. So since we erred in doing that, now we will try remedying it together with you, as for that very reason we sent for Hippies here and you from the cities, that with a common speech and a common expedition we might bring him to Athens and give back what in fact we took away”.

They said that and the allies’ multitude would not consent to the speeches. Now, all the others were maintaining silence, but a Corinthian, Soclees, said this: “Verily indeed the sky will be below the earth and the earth in mid air over the sky and human beings will have a district in the sea and fishes that which previously human beings had, since at any rate you, O Lacedemonians, dissolve equalities of power and prepare for yourselves to bring tyrannies down to the cities, than which nothing is either more unjust among human beings or more stained with killing. For if that at any rate seems to you to be good so as for the cities to be ruled by tyranny, you yourselves, first having established yourselves a tyrant, among those themselves thus and all the others seek to establish one, but as it is, you yourselves, being without experience of tyrants and being on guard that that in a most awful way not come about in Sparta, make ill use of your allies; if however you were experienced in it just as we, you would be able to contribute better opinions about it than now. For the Corinthians’ city’s constitution was like this: it was an oligarchy and the Bacchiadae, so-called, were governing the city and they were giving and leading away for themselves from each other wives. Then to Amphion, who was among those men, was born a lame daughter and her name was Labda. Because no one of the Bacchiadae was willing to marry that one, Eetion, the son of Echecrates, had her as wife, he being from the deme Petre, but by descent a Lapith and a son of Caeneus. Then to him not from that wife or from another were born sons. Therefore he was dispatched to Delphi concerning begetting and him, when he was going in, straightaway Pythia addressed with these verses:

Eetion, none prize you, who are prizable.
Labda’s big and will bring boulder forth, and it will
Fall on men who’re monarchs and will make Corinth just.

"That, given as an oracle to Eetion, was announced back somehow to the Bacchiadae, to whom the oracle that had come to be previously in Corinth was unintelligible, although it was referring to the same thing as that of Eetion’s and was speaking this way:

An eagle’s big in rocks and will bring lion forth,
Strong, savage, and it will loose below many’s knees.
Now, that mind well, Corinthians, who round lovely
Peirene are settled and Corinth on rock’s brow.

"That oracle indeed for the Bacchiadae, when it had come to be previously, was insoluble, but at that time regarding the one that had come to be for Eetion, when they had learned it by inquiry, immediately also that earlier they understood was consonant with that of Eetion’s. And having understood that one too they kept in a state of silence, although they desired to destroy the offspring that was to be born to Eetion. So as soon as the woman had brought forth, they sent ten from among themselves to the deme, in which Eetion had settled himself down, to kill the small child. Then those, having come to Petre and having gone to the court of Eetion, were demanding the small child, and Labda, knowing nothing of that for the sake of which those had come and thinking they were making the demand because of friendliness for its father, brought and put it in the the hands of one of them. Now, by them then counsel had been taken on the way that the one of them that was the first to take hold of it should perform a dashing on the ground. Accordingly, when Labda had brought and given it, at the one who had taken hold by divine chance the small child smiled and him, after he had pointed that out to himself, a feeling of pity restrained from killing and, after he had felt pity, he gave it over to a second, and he to a third; in short thus it went through all the ten and out in its being given over, because no one wanted to do it to death. Therefore having given back the small child to her who had brought it forth and having gone away outside, standing at the doors, they upbraided each other and were blaming in fact most the first to have taken hold, because he had not acted in accordance with what had been thought good, until indeed to them, time passing by, it seemed good to go in again and for all to have a share in the killing. Now, evils for Corinth had to spring up from the offspring of Eetion. For Labda was hearing all that while she was standing near the very doors and in fear lest there should be a change of mind for them and they, having taken hold the small child the second time, should kill it she brought and concealed it in the spot that appeared to her to be most unlikely to be thought of, in a box, because she knew that, if they turned back and came for searching, they were to look through all things, which in fact actually happened. So to them, after they had gone in and were searching, when it appeared not, it seemed good to depart and say to those who had sent them off that they had done everything that those had enjoined. They indeed went away and said that, and for Eetion after that his son grew and to him, because he had escaped that danger, after the kypsele, the box, in respect to appellation Cypselus as a name was given. Then for Cypselus, after he had become a man and was making a consultation for prophecy, there came about an ambiguous oracle in Delphi, having become trusting in which he made an attempt and got hold of Corinth. And this oracle was:

Blessed is that man who steps down into my house,
Cypselus Eetion’s son, famed Corinth’s king,
He himself and sons, but no longer his sons’ sons.

"Indeed that was the oracle, and Cypselus, when he had become tyrant, proved a man of just that following kind: many of the Corinthians he banished and many of money he deprived and somewhat far the most of their soul. Then when that one had ruled for thirty years and woven his life to its end well, his son, Periander, became his successor in the tyranny. Now, Periander originally was gentler than his father, but when he had associated through messengers with Thrasyboulus, the tyrant of Miletus, he proved by far still more stained with killing than Cypselus. For having sent to Thrasyboulus a herald, he was inquiring by establishing for himself what most safe manner of his affairs most beautifully he would be guardian of the city. So Thrasyboulus led away him who had gone from Periander outside the town and, after he had stepped into a sown field, at the same time as he went through and out the standing corn while he was questioning and cross-examining the herald concerning his coming from Corinth, on each and every occasion, whenever he saw any of the ears was projecting, he was docking it and, as he docked it, he cast it away, until the standing corn’s most beautiful and tallest part he destroyed in a manner like that. Then having gone through and out the spot and having made no word of suggestion, he sent away the herald and, when the herald had returned to Corinth, Periander was eager to learn by inquiry the suggestion, but the other asserted that Thrasyboulus had made no suggestion to him and he was marvelling at him, to what kind of man he had sent him away, on the ground that he was crazed and destructive of his own things. And he was describing the very things that he had seen from Thrasuboulus. Periander, however, having understood what had been done and gotten by mind that Thrasyboulus was suggesting to him that he should kill the prominent among his townsmen, right thereupon he was showing forth every kind of badness to his fellow-citizens. For all those acts that Cypselus had left over in his killing and banishing, Periander brought them away to completion and in one day he stripped completely all the women among the Corinthians on account of his own wife, Melissa. For to him, when he had sent to the Thesprotians to the Acheron river messengers to the dead’s place of prophecy concerning a foreign friend’s deposit, Melissa, having made an appearance up, asserted that she would neither indicate nor disclose the place in which the deposited was placed, because she was cold and was naked—for of the clothes that he had buried down with her there was no use, because they had not been entirely burnt—and a piece of evidence for him, that she gave that as a true account, was the fact that on the cold oven Periander threw his loaves. Then, when that had been announced away back to Periander, because the sign was credible to him who had had intercourse with Melissa, when she was a corpse, right straightaway after the announcement he had a proclamation made that to the temple of Hera should go out all the women among the Corinthians. They indeed as for a festival went and made use of the most beautiful adornment and he placed in ambush his lance-bearers and stripped them all entirely alike, the free and the serving maids, and, having brought together the collection into a hole, he called on Melissa in prayer and burned it completely. So to him, after he had done that and for the second time had sent, the ghost of Melissa pointed out the place, at which she had put down the foreign friend’s deposit. A thing like that for you is tyranny, O Lacedemonians, and of deeds like that, and us, the Corinthians, not only immediately great wonder held when we saw that you were sending for Hippies, but also now indeed we wonder more greatly that you were giving that account just then and we pronounce an adjurement for ourselves by calling on the Greek gods for ourselves not to establish tyrannies in the cities. Therefore you will not cease, but will try contrary to the just to bring Hippies back down? Know that to you the Corinthians at least refuse to give their assent.”