The Good Book (70 page)

34. ‘In truth, O king! to be accounted worthy to wed your daughter is a great honour;

35. ‘Yet I am wholly unwilling to part with my wife. Do not force me to this.'

36. Xerxes angrily replied, ‘I will tell you what you have gained by these words.

37. ‘I will not give you my daughter; nor will you live any longer with your own wife. So you will learn, in time to come, to take what is offered.'

38. Masistes, when he heard this, withdrew, only saying, ‘Master, you have not yet taken my life.'

39. While these words were passing between Xerxes and his brother, Amestris sent for the spearmen of the royal bodyguard,

40. And caused the wife of Masistes to be mutilated in a horrible fashion.

41. Her two breasts, her nose, ears and lips were cut off and thrown to the dogs; her tongue was torn out by the roots, and thus disfigured, she was sent back to her home.

42. Masistes, who knew nothing of what had happened, but was fearful that some calamity impended, ran hastily to his house.

43. There, finding his wife so savagely used, he took counsel with his sons, and, accompanied by them and certain others, set out to Bactria,

44. Intending to stir up revolt in that province, and hoping to do great hurt to Xerxes:

45. Which he would have accomplished, if he had reached the Bactrian and Sacan people, for he was loved by them both,

46. And was moreover satrap of Bactria. But Xerxes, hearing of his designs, sent an armed force on his track,

47. Which killed him on the road, with his sons and followers.

 

Chapter 113

  1. Meanwhile the Greeks, who had left Mycale and sailed for the Hellespont,

  2. Were forced by contrary winds to anchor near Lectum, from where they afterwards sailed to Abydos.

  3. On arriving they discovered that the Hellespont bridges, which they had thought were still standing, were destroyed.

  4. Leotychides and the Peloponnesians under him were keen to return home; but the Athenians under their captain Xanthippus wished to remain to make an attempt on the Chersonese.

  5. So, while the Peloponnesians sailed home, the Athenians crossed from Abydos to the Chersonese, and laid siege to Sestos.

  6. Now, as Sestos was the strongest fortress in that region, the news had no sooner gone abroad that the Greeks were at the Hellespont,

  7. Than great numbers of people flocked in panic to Sestos from the neighbouring towns.

  8. Among them came a certain Oeobazus, a Persian from the city of Cardia,

  9. Where he had kept the shore cables which had been used in the construction of the bridges.

10. Sestos was guarded by its own Aeolian inhabitants, but contained also some Persians and a great multitude of their allies.

11. The whole district was ruled by the satrap Artayctes, a Persian, but a cruel and wicked man.

12. When Xerxes was marching against Athens, Artayctes had craftily possessed himself of the treasures belonging to Protesilaus, the son of Iphiclus, which were at Elaesus in the Chersonese.

13. For at this place is the tomb of Protesilaus, with a great store of wealth, vases of gold and silver, works in brass, garments and other treasures,

14. All which Artayctes made his prey, having got the king's consent by saying to him,

15. ‘Master, in this region there is the house of a Greek, who, when he attacked your territory, was killed.

16. ‘Give me his house, so that hereafter men will fear to carry arms against you.'

17. He easily persuaded Xerxes to agree, for there was no suspicion in the king's mind.

18. And Artayctes could say in a certain sense that Protesilaus had borne arms against the land of the king,

19. Because the Persians considered all Asia to belong to them, and to their king for the time being.

20. So when Xerxes allowed his request, Artayctes brought all the treasures from Elaesus to Sestos, and made the forfeit land into cornfields and pasture.

21. It was this Artayctes who was now besieged by the Athenians.

22. He was ill prepared for defence, because had he not in the least expected the Greeks' coming.

23. When it was now late in the autumn, and the siege continued, the Athenians began to murmur that they were kept abroad too long;

24. And, seeing that they were not able to take the place, urged Xanthippus to lead them back to their own country.

25. But he refused to move until either the city fell or the Athenian people ordered them home. So the soldiers patiently endured.

26. Meanwhile those within the walls were reduced to the last straits, forced to boil the very thongs of their beds for food.

27. At last, when these too were finished, Artayctes and Oeobazus, with the native Persians, fled away from the place by night,

28. Having let themselves down from the wall at the back of the town, where the blockading force was scantiest.

29. As soon as day dawned, the Chersonese signalled the Greeks from the walls, and let them know what had happened, at the same time opening the city gates.

30. Some of the Greeks entered the town, while a more numerous body of them set out in pursuit of the enemy.

31. Oeobazus fled into Thrace; but there the Apsinthian Thracians seized and killed him.

32. As for Artayctes and the troops with him, who had been the last to leave the town, they were overtaken by the Greeks not far from Aegospotami,

33. And defended themselves stoutly for a time, but were at last either killed or taken prisoner.

34. The prisoners were bound with chains and brought back to Sestos, Artayctes and his son among them.

35. Artayctes offered the Greeks wealth if they would release him and his son, but he failed to persuade Xanthippus,

36. And in any case the men of Elaeus wished to avenge Protesilaus, entreating Xanthippus that Artayctes might be put to death;

37. And Xanthippus himself was of the same mind. So they took Artayctes to the tongue of land where the bridges of Xerxes had been fixed, and there crucified him.

38. As for Artayctes' son, they stoned him to death before his father's eyes as he hung nailed to the cross.

39. This done, the Athenians sailed back to Greece, carrying with them, besides other treasures and mementoes, the shore cables from the bridges of Xerxes.

 

Chapter 114

  1. So Greece expelled the Persians; so the cradle of the West repelled the East, then more powerful and more ambitious;

  2. And which, if it had prevailed, would have commenced a far different history for the world.

  3. Therefore do the Greeks of that time merit gratitude, for they saved the brightest hopes of the human race, which then stood in jeopardy of dying in their infancy.

  4. In the former days of Cyrus an ancestor of Artayctes, one Artembares, had urged the king to conquer the greener and more fertile lands of Europe, saying,

  5. ‘When shall we have a fairer opportunity to do this, now that we are lords of so many nations, and rule all Asia?'

  6. But Cyrus had disdainfully replied, ‘You can do so if you like, but do not expect to remain rulers if you do, and prepare to be ruled by others;

  7. ‘For soft countries give rise to soft men; no country produces delightful fruits, and at the same time warlike men.'

  8. Now the Persians of that day thought Cyrus wise, and they chose to stay in their harsh and churlish land and exercise lordship, rather than to cultivate plains and be the slaves of others.

  9. But in the days of Xerxes it was proved that there were men who did not choose to be slaves of others, yet at the same time cultivated their olives and vines,

10. And speculated on all things under the sun: on the origin and nature of the universe, on the right and the good, and on the mind of man.

11. These were the fathers of the civilisation that sprang from them, which, though the East never ceased to try conquering them either in body or mind or both,

12. And sometimes succeeded for long periods, yet the ideal survived, and through the centuries found continual rebirth,

13. So that as one travels towards the setting sun one finds successors to Athens, none of them perfect, as Athens was never perfect,

14. Yet inspired in the hearts of their better citizens by the hope of becoming more so.

15. For they remember what the inheritors of those who defeated Xerxes' host heard, which were such words as these:

16. ‘Let us take pride in what we are and what we might become, if we value our freedom and the good opinion of those who will come after us.

17. ‘We are free people, or capable of being so, in mind no less than in our institutions.

18. ‘This freedom was hard won, and might easily be lost; but not if we are vigilant.

19. ‘And for the sake of that vigilance, let us remind ourselves what we are.

20. ‘Our affairs are in the hands of the many, not the few.

21. ‘There exists equal justice to all in their private disputes, but the claim of excellence is also recognised;

22. ‘And when a citizen is in any way distinguished, he is appointed to the public service not as a matter of privilege, but as the reward of merit.

23. ‘Neither is poverty an obstacle, but a man may benefit his country whatever the obscurity of his condition.

24. ‘There is no exclusiveness in our public life, and in our private business we are not suspicious of one another, nor angry with our neighbour if he does what he likes;

25. ‘We do not turn sour looks on him, which, though harmless, are not pleasant; for we value tolerance and fairness in all things.

26. ‘While we are thus unconstrained in our private business, let there also be a noble attitude in our public acts,

27. ‘Where we are prevented from doing wrong by respect for the laws, having a particular regard to those which are ordained for the protection of the weak and injured,

28. ‘As well as those unwritten laws which bring upon a transgressor the reprobation of the general sentiment.

29. ‘Nor have we forgotten to provide ourselves many kinds of relaxations from toil; we have our recreations throughout the year;

30. ‘Our homes are comfortable and secure; and the delight we daily feel in all these things brings us cheer.

31. ‘Because of the greatness of our civilisation the fruits of the whole earth flow in upon us; so that we enjoy the goods of other climes as freely as our own.

32. ‘Let us be lovers of the beautiful and the good, and let us recall that our strength lies not only in our powers of deliberation,

33. ‘But in the knowledge which is gained by deliberation preparatory to action.

34. ‘For we have a peculiar power of thinking before we act, and of acting, too,

35. ‘Whereas other men are courageous from ignorance, but hesitate upon reflection.

36. ‘And they are surely to be esteemed the bravest hearts who, having the clearest sense of both the pains and pleasures of life, do not on that account shrink from challenges.

37. ‘In doing good, again, we are unlike others; we make our friends by conferring, not by receiving favours.

38. ‘Now he who confers a favour is the firmer friend, because he would rather by kindness keep alive the memory of an obligation;

39. ‘But the recipient is colder in his feelings, because he knows that in requiting another's generosity he will not be winning gratitude, but only paying a debt.

40. ‘We alone do good to our neighbours not upon a calculation of interest, but in the confidence of freedom and with a frank and fearless heart.

41. ‘Let the individual in his own person have the power of adapting himself to the most varied forms of action with the utmost versatility and grace.

42. ‘This is no passing and idle word, but a counsel of wisdom; and it is supported by the position to which these qualities have raised the state of mankind.

43. ‘For in the hour of trial the best are always superior to the report of them.

44. ‘And the endeavours of the best shall assuredly not be without witnesses; there are mighty monuments of their achievements which make them the wonder of all ages.

45. ‘Of how few can it be said that their deeds, when weighed in the balance, have been found equal to their fame!

46. ‘For even those who come short in other ways may justly plead the efforts they have made for the good; they have blotted out their failures with their successes thereby.

47. ‘Such was the way of all who strove to make, promote or defend something worthwhile, of whatever kind;

48. ‘They merited the name of human being, and of friend. The value of such is not to be expressed in words.

49. ‘Anyone can discourse for ever about the advantages of courage and determination,