Persian Fire

Notes

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Unless otherwise stated, author citations refer to the following texts: Aelian, Miscellany; Aeschylus, The Persians; Aristides, Aelius Aristides Orationes, ed. W. Dindorf (Leipzig, 1829); Athenaeus, The Learned Banquet; Cicero, On Divination; Ctesias, Fragments; Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History; Diogenes Laertius, The Lives and Doctrines of Eminent Philosophers; Herodotus, Histories; Pausanias, Description of Greece; Polyaenus, Stratagems; Quintus Curtius, The History of Alexander; Strabo, The Geography; Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War.

Preface

1 From bin Laden’s “Declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places,” quoted by Burke, p. 163.

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2 Gibbon, Vol. 3, p. 1095.

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3 Herodotus, 1.4.

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4 Ibid., 1.5. Literally, “the Persians and the Phoenicians.”

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5 Herodotus has long been derided as a fantasist: the father not of history but of lies. The past few decades have brought about a fundamental reappraisal of his accuracy: again and again, archaeological discoveries have demonstrated the reliability of his claims. A brief but excellent survey can be found in Stephanie Dalley’s article “Why did Herodotus not mention the Hanging Gardens of Babylon?,” in Derow and Parker (eds.), Herodotus and His World. For the counterview, still not entirely routed, that Herodotus invented much of his story, see Fehling.

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6 Herodotus, 1.1.

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7 J. S. Mill, p. 283.

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8 G. W. F. Hegel, The Philosophy of History, 2.2.3.

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9 Herodotus: 7.228.

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10 M. de Montaigne, “On the Cannibals,” in The Complete Essays, p. 238.

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11 Lord Byron, “The Isles of Greece,” l. 7.

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12 W. Golding, “The Hot Gates,” in The Hot Gates, p. 20. It was reading this essay at the impressionable age of twelve that first inspired me with a passion for the story of the Persian Wars.

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13 Quoted by David, p. 208.

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14 Aeschylus, 104–5.

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15 Curzon, Vol. 2, pp. 195–6.

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16 “The historical record of the Imperial visit to India, 1911” (London, 1914), pp. 176–7.

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17 Green, p. xxiii.

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18 Murdoch, p. 171.

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19 Starr (1977), p. 258.

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20 Ehrenberg, p. 389.

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21 Or, to be strictly accurate, since the author, François Ollier, was French, Le Mirage Spartiate.

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22 Plutarch, in his youthful and uncharacteristically splenetic essay “On the malignity of Herodotus.”

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23 Davidson (2003).

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I The Khorasan Highway

1 The annals of Ashurnasirpal, Column 1.53, trans. Budge and King, p. 272. The phrase refers to Ashurnasirpal’s campaigns in the mountains north of Assyria.

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2 Quoted by Kuhrt (1995), p. 518.

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3 That the Aryans arrived in the Zagros from the east is almost universally accepted, although hard proof is hard to come by. A minority view asserts that the Medes and Persians entered the Zagros from the north, over the Caucasus.

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4 From the campaign records of Shalmaneser III (843 BC); see Herzfeld, p. 24.

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5 The precise geographical limits of Media between the ninth and seventh centuries BC are unclear. According to Levine (Iran 12, p. 118), it was most likely “a narrow strip restricted to the Great Khorasan Road.”

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6 Nahum, 3.3.

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7 This account of the Median Empire depends heavily—and inevitably—on the testimony of Herodotus, who wrote more than a century after the events he was describing. The broad outline of his narrative appears to have been confirmed by contemporaneous Babylonian records, which make mention of both Cyaxares (Umakishtar) and Astyages (Ishtuwigu), but nothing is clear cut. The archaeology of key Median sites shows a precipitous drop in living standards following the overthrow of the Assyrian Empire—precisely when the Medes were supposed to have flourished. This seeming discrepancy between written and material evidence has led some scholars (most notably Sancisi-Weerdenburg in Achaemenid History (hereafter Ach. Hist.) 3, pp. 197–212, and Ach. Hist. 8, pp. 39–55) to doubt the existence of a Median Empire at all. Of course, lesser empires built on the ruins of greater ones can often appear impoverished in comparison—the history of Europe in the Dark Ages provides an obvious analogy. All the same, even if one does accept—as most scholars do—that Herodotus got his basic facts right, the details of Median history remain frustratingly vague.

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8 The accounts of the two expeditions are to be found in Xenophon and Ctesias, respectively. While neither historian is renowned for his accuracy, there seems no particular cause to doubt them on this occasion. True, there is a tradition preserved by Aristotle (Politics, 1311b40) that Astyages was soft and self-indulgent, but this is flatly contradicted by all the other sources, to say nothing of the evidence of the length of his reign: weak kings, in the ancient Near East, rarely lasted for long.

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9 The precise date of Ecbatana’s foundation is unknown, but there is no record of it in Assyrian sources. This supports Herodotus’ claim that the city was first established as an expression of Median royal power.

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10 See Herodotus, 1.98.

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11 Diogenes Laertius, 1.6.

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12 The current scholarly consensus is that they were not.

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13 Persian rule over Anshan was established shortly after 650 BC. The last native king of Anshan can be dated to this period, and the first Persian to claim the title did so a generation later. Anshan itself had been shored against the ruin of the even more ancient kingdom of Elam.

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14 The main source for legends about Cyrus’ upbringing is Herodotus, who claimed to have learned them from Persian informants (1.95); variants are recorded by Nicolaus of Damascus—who derived his account from Ctesias—and Justin. It seems probable that the elements of folklore in the story do derive from the Near East: a very similar upbringing is ascribed to Sargon of Akkad, a proto-King of Kings from the third millennium BC (see pp. 42–3). Only the tradition that Cyrus was the grandson of Astyages can really be considered historically reliable: Xenophon and Diodorus Siculus, as well as Herodotus, insist upon it, and we know from Babylonian sources that Astyages was indeed in the habit of marrying off his daughters to the princes of neighboring kingdoms. For the inevitable counterview, however, see Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Ach. Hist. 8, pp. 52–3.

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15 From the so-called “Dream of Nabonidus” (Beaulieu, p. 108). It is from another contemporary source, the Nabonidus Chronicle, that we know it was Astyages—and not, as Herodotus claims, Cyrus—who began the war.

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16 Darius, inscription at Persepolis (DPd 2).

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17 Herodotus, 1.129.

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18 Nabonidus Chronicle, II.17. The applicability of this verse to Lydia is almost certain; damage to the inscription prevents it from being incontrovertible.

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19 Diodorus Siculus, 9.35.

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20 Darius, inscription at Persepolis (DPg).

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21 Herodotus, 1.164.

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22 Xenophanes, Fragment 22.

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23 Our ignorance of the details of Cyrus’ campaigns in the east is almost total. While there is no doubt that a vast swath of provinces to the northeast of Iran were brought under Persian control, the likely dates of these conquests have to be argued for from virtual silence. We do know that Cyrus was in Babylon in 539 BC, but for the eight years preceding that date, and the nine years following it, the records are effectively nonexistent. That said—and although historians have argued for both—an earlier date for Cyrus’ conquest of the east seems more plausible than a later. It certainly makes better strategic sense—and Cyrus was nothing if not a master strategist. Moreover, the apparently successful integration of the eastern provinces into the Persian Empire by the time of Cyrus’ death is more readily explicable if one assumes a longer rather than a shorter period of pacification. Finally, there is the evidence of Herodotus, whose knowledge of eastern affairs was inevitably hazy, but who does state categorically that “While Harapagus was turning upside-down the lower, or western part of Asia, Cyrus was engaged with the north and east, bringing into subjection every nation without exception” (1.117). Berossus, a Babylonian scholar who lived shortly after the reign of Alexander the Great, but who would have had access to records unknown to the Greeks, corroborates this assertion.

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24 Mihr Yasht, 14–15.

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25 Ibid., 13.

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26 Tentatively identified by some scholars as the Volga.

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27 In Persian, “Kurushkath.” The Jaxartes is the river now known as the Syr Darya, which runs through Kazakhstan.

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28 Cyrus Cylinder, 11.

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29 This account of Cyrus’ death derives from Herodotus (1.204–14), and seems to make the best sense of the many different versions of it that have survived. According to Xenophon, for instance, Cyrus did not even die in battle, but in his own bed, back in Persia: such are the contradictions that plague the sources for Persian history. That Cyrus was seventy when he died is recorded by Cicero (On Divination, 1.23)—again, with what accuracy it is impossible to say for sure. Three score years and ten might perhaps be considered a suspiciously rounded age.

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30 Xenophon, Cyropaedia, 1.4–5.

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31 The practice of khvaetvadatha, or endogamous marriage, had been approved by Zoroaster as a positive religious duty, and it is possible—maybe even likely—that Cambyses’ incestuous marriages reflect the influence of the Prophet’s teaching. As with most things Zoroastrian, however, this must be speculation. The philosopher Antisthenes, an associate of Socrates, claimed that a Persian male habitually “enjoyed intercourse with his mother, his sister, and his daughter”—maybe a garbled retelling of a genuine tradition.

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32 Some of the sources appear to contradict this reading. According to Ctesias, Bardiya was summoned twice by his brother to court, but only came on the third command, and even then reluctantly. According to Herodotus, he was briefly present with Cambyses in Egypt, but then sent back to Persia in disgrace. Neither story seems likely. Bearing in mind what happened subsequently, Bardiya must have been in the eastern half of the empire for most—if not all—of the period that Cambyses was in Egypt, and his role there could only have been as his brother’s lieutenant; anything else would have been politically inadmissible. Evidently, Cambyses felt that he had reason enough to trust Bardiya, and for four years, at least, he was not let down.

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33 This story is found in the seventh book of Polyaenus’ Strategies, written in the second century AD—perhaps a suspiciously late date.

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34 The town of Anthylla. See Herodotus, 2.98.

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35 Herodotus, 3.89.

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36 According to Herodotus, it was his ability to draw a bow that no one else in the court had been able to string that had prompted his expulsion from Egypt in disgrace.

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37 Herodotus, 3.20. The Egyptians and Persians knew Ethiopia as Nubia. According to Herodotus, Cambyses’ invasion of Ethiopia was a catastrophe, but this again seems to reflect his reliance upon Egyptian sources. Persian records make it clear that at least northern Nubia had been brought into the empire.

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38 Specifically, in Babylon.

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39 Precisely when is not clear. This is a considerable frustration, for it is possible that Cambyses died before Bardiya proclaimed himself king, in which case it is also possible that there was never, strictly speaking, an attempted usurpation at all. Some of the later sources imply this, but they should probably be discounted. The tradition that labeled Cambyses the victim of an attempted coup is very strong, and it is hard to make sense of the chaos that engulfed the Persian world on Cambyses’ death if one does presume an orderly succession from brother to brother. Also in favor of this argument is the fact that the last known document from Cambyses’ reign is dated April 18, while the earliest known document which mentions “King Bardiya” is dated the 14th of the same month. This may not be conclusive evidence of a coup, but it is suggestive, at the very least.

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40 It is nowhere explicitly stated that Bardiya was in Ecbatana during the summer months, but since it was the favored summer residence of the Persian monarchs, and we know that the king was definitely in Media in September, it seems a safe assumption.

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41 Darius, the Bisitun inscription (DB 14).

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42 Aeschylus, l.774.

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43 One other scrap of evidence—albeit faint—has been used as evidence against Darius. In his own account of the events of the summer of 522, he employs the curious circumlocution “Afterwards, Cambyses by his own death was dead” (DB 11). As Balcer has pointed out, “It may well be that Cambyses had not simply died, but that for a specific reason his death had caused the framers of the Bisitun texts to emphasise that he had ‘died a death of his own’ when perhaps he had not. Thus, the framers may have left us with the hint that something peculiar had happened to cause Cambyses’ death” (Herodotus and Bisitun, p. 98).

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44 For the active presence of foreign merchants and bankers in Iran, see Zadok.

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45 Strabo, 11.13.7.

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46 This account of Bardiya’s murder is a conflation of Darius’ own and those of various Greek authors. Even though he mislocates the site of the assassination, Herodotus appears on this occasion to have had unusually precise information. Historians have long suspected that the source was Zopyros the Younger, the great-grandson of Megabyzos, one of the seven conspirators. In the 440s BC, Zopyros was an exile in Athens, where he may have met Herodotus, and given him a full account of the coup. The details of Bardiya being with a concubine and defending himself with a stool come from Ctesias (14–15)—and are typically tabloid touches. The claim that it was Darius’ brother who slew Bardiya comes from Aeschylus (776), and is altogether more convincing, since Artaphernes would subsequently become a major player in the affairs of Athens, and his biography must have been widely known. Certainly, the presumption of most historians, that “Artaphernes” is a misspelling of “Intaphernes”—listed by Herodotus as one of the seven conspirators—seems mistaken, particularly since Herodotus’ contemporary, the Ionian ethnographer Hellanicus of Lesbos, also fingered Artaphernes as the man who had struck down Bardiya. Sikyavautish, the site of the assassination, has never been precisely identified, but it was somewhere near modern-day Harsin, just to the south of the Khorasan Highway.

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47 DB 11.

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48 DB 55.

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49 Herodotus, 1.136.

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50 Mihr Yasht, 2.

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51 Herodotus, 3.84.

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52 Yasna, 43.4.

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53 Amesha is generally translated as “immortal,” but Spenta is an altogether more untranslatable word: its definitions include “strong,” “sacred,” “possessed of power,” “beneficent” and “bounteous.” See Boyce (1975), 1.196–7.

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54 Yasna, 30.2.

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55 For Persian opinion, we have to rely on the evidence of the Greeks: Zoroaster was dated by Xanthus of Lydia (fifth century BC) to six thousand years before the time of Xerxes, a number which almost certainly reflected Zoroastrian notions of the cycle of world ages. The first Greek to date him to Astyages’ reign was Aristoxenus, in the fourth century BC, who also cast the Prophet as the teacher of Pythagoras. Both traditions appear to be worthless, although the fact that they could coexist suggests the degree to which Zoroaster was a figure of mystery and myth. The confusion has continued to plague contemporary scholarship. The current consensus—arrived at by dating the most ancient Zoroastrian texts—places Zoroaster in or around 1000 BC, but wide divergences of opinion remain. Some (notably Boyce) date him to 1700–1500 BC; others (notably Gnoli) to the end of the seventh century BC. As Gnoli (p. 5) himself ruefully acknowledges, though, arguing about the date of Zoroaster is, for Iranianists, “the favorite pastime of scholars.”

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56 Although the Median city of Ragha, near what is present-day Tehran, would one day promote itself as the birthplace of the Prophet.

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57 The phrase “fire-holder” is Boyce’s (Zoroastrianism, Vol. 2, p. 52), as is the identification of the three Pasargadae structures as such.

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58 Clemen, pp. 30–1.

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59 DB 63.

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60 In Old Persian, Bagastaana.

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II Babylon

1 “Enuma Elish,” 6.5–6.

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2 Jeremiah, 28.14.

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3 Ibid., 5.16–17.

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4 Quoted by Leick, p. 96.

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5 Nabonidus, inscription 15.

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6 Cyrus Cylinder.

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7 George, p. 41.

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8 Herodotus, 1.191.

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9 “Instructions of Shuruppak,” 204–6.

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10 Darius, inscription at Naqsh-i-Rustam (Dna 2).

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11 Cyrus Cylinder.

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12 Haggai, 2.6.

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13 DB 25 (Babylon).

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14 DB 1.

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15 DB 4.

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16 Byron, p. 43.

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17 DB 70.

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18 DB 72.

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19 DB 73.

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20 The origins of this title are obscure. The kings of Urartu, in what is now Armenia, employed it, but quite how, and if, it gravitated from them to the Persian monarchs is a puzzle. The kings of Assyria did sometimes lay claim to it, but only rarely; the kings of Babylon not at all.

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21 Darius, inscription at Persepolis (DPf).

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22 Herodotus, 3.89.

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23 Darius, inscription at Susa (DSf 3e).

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24 Ibid., 3h–i.

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25 Ibid., 3f.

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26 Darius, inscription at Persepolis (Dpg 2).

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27 This is a logical presumption. “The Persian kings,” we are told, “had water fetched from the Nile and the Danube, which they laid up in their treasuries as a sort of testimony of the greatness of their power and universal empire” (Plutarch, Alexander, 36.4). The list of rivers surely reflects the historian’s Greek perspective: it seems improbable that the Indus would not also have been included.

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III Sparta

1 Herodotus, 1.153.

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2 Ibid., 1.4.

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3 The Iliad, 3.171.

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4 Cicero, On Duties, 2.22.77. Hans van Wees, in his essay “Tyrtaeus’ Eunomia,” has conclusively demonstrated the archaic origins of this anonymous proverb. See Hodkinson and Powell, pp. 1–41.

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5 Herodotus, 1.65.

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6 Phocylides, Fragment 4. These lines almost certainly postdate the fall of Nineveh, and probably reflect fears of the growth of Persian power in the 540s BC.

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7 Who precisely the Dorians were is one of the great imponderables of a period known even by ancient historians, who are well used to sifting minute fragments of evidence, as the Dark Ages. As with the migrations of the Medes and the Persians, the precise details of the Dorian invasion are irrecoverable. Inevitably, a minority of historians dispute whether it was ever anything more than a myth.

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8 Plato, Hippias Major, 285d.

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9 Tyrtaeus, 5.2–3.

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10 Ibid., 5.4.

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11 Ibid., 5.10.

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12 Plutarch, Lycurgus, 2.

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13 Herodotus, 1.65.

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14 Plutarch, Lycurgus, 29.

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15 Thucydides, 1.6.

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16 Tyrtaeus, 7.31–2.

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17 Plutarch, Lycurgus, 29.

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18 For the best discussion, see Hodkinson, p. 76.

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19 For instance, Ephorus, quoted by Strabo (8.5.4). An alternative—and etymologically more convincing—theory equated “helot” with a word for “captive.”

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20 Tyrtaeus, 6.1.

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21 Herodotus, 1.66.

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22 Xenophon, Agesilaus, 2.7.

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23 The earliest reference to the Spartans’ scarlet cloaks does not occur until as late as 411 BC—in Aristophanes’ comedy Lysistrata—and there is no way of knowing precisely when they first began to be worn. It seems likeliest, however, that they were introduced as part of the increasing standardization of the Spartan military that was a feature of the mid-sixth century BC. A further complication lies in the ambiguity of the Greek words used to describe the cloak: it may be that the Spartans’ tunics, as well as their cloaks, were scarlet.

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24 Lysias, In Defence of Mantitheus, 16.17.

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25 Thucydides, 1.10.

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26 The Iliad, 21.470. Her shrine by the Eurotas was originally dedicated to an obscure goddess named Ortheia. The Spartans worshipped Artemis there as Artemis Ortheia, probably from the sixth century BC, although the name is not attested before the Roman period.

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27 The masks date from the seventh and particularly the sixth centuries BC.

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28 Pindar, quoted by Plutarch, Lycurgus, 21.

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29 According to Plato, only the elderly were permitted to criticize aspects of the state. See Laws, 634d–e.

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30 Pindar, quoted by Plutarch, Lycurgus, 21.

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31 Xenophon, The Constitution of the Spartans, 10.3.

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32 Plutarch, Lycurgus, 16.

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33 Ibykos, Fragment 58.

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34 Plutarch, Lycurgus, 14.

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35 Herodotus, 6.61.

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36 The king was Charilaus, but since he was supposed to have lived in the eighth century, before the Lycurgan revolution, the saying is surely apocryphal. It was recorded by Plutarch, and is grouped in his Sayings of the Spartans.

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37 Plutarch, Lycurgus, 16.

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38 It is only fair to point out that both these details derive from late sources, Aelian and Athenaeus (both c. second century AD), respectively.

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39 The precise origins of this practice are obscure—some scholars date it to as late as the fifth century BC.

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40 Xenophon, The Constitution of the Spartans, 2.9.

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41 There is an ambiguity here in the sources. It is claimed that Spartans married in secret, but how a bride could keep her new status a secret when she had just been cropped is unclear. In Sparta, it was only married women who were veiled in public.

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42 Critias, 88B37 D-K.

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43 Herodotus, 7.105.

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44 Tyrtaeus, Fragment 2.

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45 Homeric Hymns, 3.214–15.

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46 When precisely this occurred is unclear. The story that the Pythia had originally been a young girl was much repeated, but all the writers of the classical period took it for granted that she was old. The state of our knowledge of the history of archaic Greece being so patchy, it is perfectly possible that she always had been.

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47 Homeric Hymns, 3.538.

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48 The so-called Sacred War is traditionally dated 595–591 BC. There is an eeriness about the details as they are found in the sources that has suggested to some historians that the entire episode may be legendary.

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49 Pausanias, 10.5.

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50 Ibid., 10.4.

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51 Heraclitus, quoted by Plutarch, Why the Pythia No Longer Prophesies in Verse, 404E.

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52 The Odyssey, 17.323–4.

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53 Plutarch, Agis, 11.

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54 Thucydides, 1.70.

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55 The date is approximate. Cleomenes was certainly king by 519 BC, at the latest.

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56 Herodotus, 5.42.

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IV Athens

1 From Pericles’ famous funeral speech (Thucydides, 2.36). The sentiments here derive from the golden age of Athenian self-confidence, in the mid-fifth century BC, but the Athenians’ belief that they were earth-born seems to be genuinely ancient, and can be traced, albeit vaguely, at least as far back as Homer.

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2 From the Acharnes Stele, a copy of the oath sworn by the ephebes, young Athenians who were obliged by the city to undergo two years’ military training. The formal nature of such a program was a fourth-century BC innovation, but the words of the oath are traditional, and date back at least to the time of the Persian Wars.

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3 The precise name of the Athenians’ earliest hero is beset by one of those confusions so typical of archaic Greek history. The Athenians of the late fifth century called him Erichthonius, and identified Erechtheus with his grandson. The close similarity of the two names and the fact that “Erechtheus” is much the older one, however, strongly suggest that grandfather and grandson were originally one and the same. A further layer of confusion comes from the fact that Cecrops, another Athenian king, and sometimes held to be Erechtheus’ son, was also earth-born and snake-tailed. Erechtheus himself long continued to be worshipped as a god on the Acropolis. His legend is a further fragment of evidence that the Athenian belief in their own earth-born status was ancient. As Shapiro (p. 102) has pointed out, “Generally, myths involving the legendary Kings of Attika are genuinely old.”

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4 The Iliad, 2.549–51.

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5 Herodotus, 7.161.

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6 The question of when Attica was formally unified, so that the citizens of communities beyond Athens came to be identified as “Athenian,” has never been answered definitively. Orthodox opinion would accept that the process was completed, at the latest, by the end of the seventh century BC, although Greg Anderson, in a brilliant if controversial book, has argued that it was completed only by 500 BC, as part of the reforms that also helped establish the democracy.

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7 The evidence for the backward-looking nature of Athenian exceptionalism during the seventh century BC derives principally from archaeology. See Morris (1987), in particular.

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8 Sappho, 58.25.

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9 Ibid., 1–13.

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10 Alcaeus, 360. A poet from Lesbos, in the Aegean, he is quoting Aristodemus of Sparta.

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11 The most commonly accepted date. See R. Wallace. Some historians have speculated that Solon’s reforms postdated his archonship.

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12 Solon, 3.

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13 Ibid., 36. It is likely that the lifting of the boundary stones signaled less a straight cancellation of debt than a reform of the system of sharecropping, whereby tenants paid a sixth of their produce to their landlords.

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14 Ibid., 5.

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15 Ibid., 4.

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16 Aristotle, Politics, 1274a16–17.

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17 The Iliad, 6.208.

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18 Pindar, Fifth Isthmian Ode, 12–13. The poem was written in 478 BC, when noblemen could still be described in terms that evoked the gods on Olympus, but only with stern caveats. Pindar’s poem, having described the glory won by a victor in the games at Corinth, next gives him a stark warning: “Do not try to become Zeus.”

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19 Plutarch, Table Talk, 2.5.2.

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20 Although, according to the uncorroborated evidence of Thucydides (1.126), Cylon and his brother managed to escape.

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21 For the dating, see Rhodes (1981), p. 84.

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22 Such, at any rate, is the traditional story. The chronology is a trifle awkward.

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23 Herodotus, 6.125.

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24 Whoever inaugurated the Great Panathenaea, with its grand procession to the summit of the Acropolis, must surely also have been responsible for the construction of the ramp. Other names have been proposed (see Shapiro, pp. 20–1), but Lycurgus, with his responsibilities toward the cult statue of Athena, to say nothing of his clearly attested political dominance in the 560s BC, appears overwhelmingly the likeliest candidate.

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25 This description of Athena’s statue derives from Pausanias (1.26.7), who appears to be implying that the holy image was a meteorite. Confusingly, however, it is also described in a speech by Demosthenes (Against Androtion, 13) as being fashioned out of olive wood. The truth has been lost.

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26 At issue is the question of whether the so-called “Bluebeard Temple”—named after a figure found among the rubble of its pediments—was built as a replacement for the seventh-century temple of Athena Polias or in competition with it. If the former, then the Boutads were probably responsible for its construction; if the latter, the Alcmaeonids. The scholarly consensus, having originally favored the first hypothesis, has now swung in favor of the second. See Dinsmoor, for the archaeological evidence, and Greg Anderson (pp. 70–1), for the part played by the Alcmaeonids.

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27 Such, at any rate, on the principle of cui bono, appears the likeliest explanation of the muddled descriptions of the episode that have survived.

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28 Almost certainly. The epitaph comes from the “Anavyssos Kouros,” a memorial statue raised to a young man named Croisos, who is conventionally assumed to have been an Alcmaeonid killed at Pallene.

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29 Aristotle, The Constitution of the Athenians, 15.5.

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30 Solon, 36.

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31 Aristotle, The Constitution of the Athenians, 16.2.

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32 Ibid., 16.5.

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33 Ibid., 16.7.

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34 The exact date is unknown. It would later please the Alcmaeonids to pretend that they had never reached an accommodation with the tyrants, but had always remained in obdurate and principled exile. Only the discovery in 1938 of an archon list from the late fifth century BC gave the game away.

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35 Plutarch, Solon, 29. He is said to have made the comment to Thespis, who was held by the ancients to have been the inventor of tragedy. Since Solon died around 560 BC, and Thespis was said to have produced the first tragedy in 535, the tradition is clearly unreliable in the extreme.

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36 Herodotus, 5.93.

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37 Thucydides, 6.54.

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38 Ibid., 6.57.

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39 Aristotle, The Constitution of the Athenians, 19.3.

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40 Herodotus, 5.63.

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41 Ibid.

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42 Aristotle, The Constitution of the Athenians, 20.1.

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43 We are nowhere told explicitly that Cleisthenes made his proposals to the Assembly, but such is the almost universal presumption.

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44 Whether Cleisthenes ever used the word “demokratia” is much debated. The consensus is that he didn’t, and that it was not coined until the 470s BC, more than thirty years later. In a sense, however, the argument is sterile: later generations of Athenians certainly recognized the form of government established by Cleisthenes as a democracy, and so too has almost every modern historian. In this book, I will refer to it, and post-Cleisthenic Athens generally, as a democracy. For the reasoning of a classicist who would argue that this is no anachronism, see Hansen (1986).

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45 Herodotus, 5.66.

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46 Aristophanes, Lysistrata, 279.

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47 Such, at any rate, is the implication of a phrase in Herodotus (5.78), where he associates the sudden rise to greatness of democratic Athens with the benefits that derive from “isegoria”—literally, equality in the agora, the place of assembly in a Greek city, but with a specific subsidiary meaning: that of the right of every citizen to address the people. Some scholars argue that isegoria was introduced to Athens by later reformers.

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48 Plato, Protagoras, 9.82.

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49 Herodotus, 5.74.

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50 In Greek, the Eteoboutadai.

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51 Herodotus, 5.78.

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52 Ibid., 5.77.

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53 For the best account of the earlier agora, see Robertson.

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54 Herodotus, 5.73.

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V Singeing the King of Persia’s Beard

1 Xenophon, Cyropaedia, 8.2.11–12.

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2 Darius, inscription at Naqsh-i-Rustam (DNb 8a).

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3 Such, at any rate, is what the archaeology suggests. See Dusinberre, p. 142.

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4 Isaiah, 45.1. “Christ”—“christos”—is the Greek translation.

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5 Ibid., 45.2–3.

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6 Xenophanes, 3d.

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7 Heraclitus. From Diogenes Laertius, 9.6.

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8 Diogenes Laertius, 1.21. The saying was also attributed to Socrates.

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9 Hipponax, 92.

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10 The dating is not absolutely certain.

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11 Herodotus, 4.137.

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12 Ibid., 5.28.

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13 For this interpretation of Herodotus, 5.36, see Wallinga (1984).

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14 Herodotus, 5.49.

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15 Ibid., 5.51.

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16 Ibid., 5.97.

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17 Ibid.

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18 Aelian, 2.12.

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19 Plutarch, Themistocles, 22. Plutarch does not otherwise describe Themistocles, but his assertion that lifelike portrait busts of the great man could still be seen under the Roman Empire makes the survival of exactly such a portrait bust at the Roman port of Ostia all the more intriguing. Conventionally dated to the second century AD, the bust is judged by most—though by no means all—scholars to derive from an original sculpted between 480 and 450 BC, and therefore almost certainly drawn from life.

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20 Thucydides, 1.138.

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21 Herodotus, 6.11.

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22 Precisely when is unclear.

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23 Herodotus, 6.76.

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24 Ibid., 6.21.

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25 Ibid., 6.104.

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26 Ibid., 5.105.

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27 Strabo, 15.3.18.

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28 Herodotus, 5.35.

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29 Ibid., 6.1.

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30 Ibid., 6.42.

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31 Yasna, 30.6.

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32 Ibid., 32.3.

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33 Herodotus, 7.133.

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34 Ibid., 6.61.

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35 Ibid., 6.95. Six hundred triremes were marshaled for the expedition, but Herodotus does not tell us how many troops were sent. Six thousand four hundred Persians were killed at Marathon, mostly from the center. Since the center of an army was conventionally a third of its total, and since not all of the troops sent on the expedition were present for the battle, a total of 25,000 seems a reasonable estimate.

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36 Ibid., 6.94.

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37 Ibid., 6.97.

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38 The chronology has to be worked out from assorted scattered clues. The key question is whether the Battle of Marathon was fought in August or September—nowhere are we specifically told. The balance of probability is overwhelmingly in favor of August: if the battle was fought in September, as some scholars argue, then Datis must have spent an unfeasibly long time in crossing the Aegean.

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39 Pausanias, 7.10.1.

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40 Plutarch, Spartan Sayings. The aphorism is attributed to Demaratus.

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41 Aristotle, Rhetoric, 3.10.

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42 Herodotus, 6. 106.

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43 The tradition that Philippides hurried back to Athens from Sparta was recorded by the second-century AD essayist Lucian in his article “On Mistakes in Greeting” (3). Rationalist that he generally was, Lucian showed himself merciless toward the more far-fetched claims made about Marathon, scoffing, for instance, in another essay, at the very notion that Pan might have taken part in the battle. This surely suggests that Philippides’ return to Athens was taken for granted by the ancients, and although it has been doubted by Lazenby (1993, p. 52), it is hard to see why. The news of Spartan plans was of pressing importance to the Athenians (as it was to the Persians, too, of course), and Philippides would hardly have been in any mood to hang around in Sparta and enjoy the fun of the Carneia. Of course, that the run back to Athens would have been gruelling for the already exhausted runner is not doubted—that he may have pushed himself to the point of hallucinating wildly surely implies that he had his vision of Pan on the return, rather than the outward, leg of his journey.

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44 A phrase so celebrated that it ultimately came to serve the Greeks as a proverb. It was quoted as such in a Byzantine encyclopedia, the so-called Suda, together with an explanation of its origin in the Marathon campaign. Although the Suda was compiled in the tenth century AD, almost 1500 years after Marathon, the fact that it transcribes a saying so obviously traditional and widely known has led most historians to accept its accuracy (although by no means all: see, for instance, Shrimpton). A further clincher—albeit an argument from omission—is the failure of Herodotus to make any mention of cavalry in his account of the famous battle. Clearly, although some horsemen must have been left behind by Datis, there were not enough to influence the result.

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45 An alternative theory, that the cavalry were away on a foraging expedition or being watered, makes little sense. Why would all the cavalry have been sent away on such a mission in the middle of the night?

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46 Herodotus, 6.112.

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47 That Themistocles was one of the ten generals is nowhere directly stated, but it is strongly implied by a passage in Plutarch’s life of Aristeides (5), in which the two men are described as fighting as equals at Marathon—and Aristeides, we know for certain, was the general of his tribe. Since Themistocles was a recent archon, and a man strongly associated with an anti-Persian policy, it is hard to know whom his tribe might have voted for in preference to him.

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48 Aristides, 3.566.

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49 Plutarch, Aristeides, 18. The phrase quoted is a description of the Spartan phalanx at the later Battle of Plataea.

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50 Pausanias, 1.32.6.

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51 Herodotus claims that a shield was used, but since the shields used by the Greeks were convex, and a flat surface is needed to catch the sun, this seems improbable. That the signal was sent from Mount Pentelikon is an assumption based on the local topography.

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52 Herodotus, 6.116.

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53 Ibid., 6.109.

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54 Ibid., 8.105.

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55 Pausanias, 1.29.4.

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VI The Gathering Storm

1 From Plato’s epigram “On the Eretrian Exiles in Persia.”

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2 The exact date of Demaratus’ flight from Sparta is uncertain. It was most likely some time between September 490 BC and the following September, although it could have been later.

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3 Herodotus, 1.136.

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4 Plato, Alcibiades, 121d. Herodotus (1.136) and Strabo (15.3.18) claim that Persian boys began their full-time education at the age of five; Plato, immediately after the passage quoted, says seven.

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5 Ctesias, 54.

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6 Although Herodotus (7.2–5) claims that Xerxes was not proclaimed heir until Darius was preparing to depart for Egypt, a frieze dating from much earlier in his reign (at least before 490 BC) shows Darius with Xerxes as crown prince standing behind him.

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7 Cicero, 1.41.90.

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8 Strabo, 15.3.21.

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9 Herodotus, 7.187.

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10 Xerxes, inscription at Persepolis (XPf).

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11 Plutarch, Artaxerxes, 3.

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12 Xerxes, inscription at Persepolis (XPh).

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13 Ibid. (XPf).

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14 Herodotus, 7.6.

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15 Herodotus, as ever our principal source, gives us a detailed account of the debate, complete with speeches from Xerxes, Mardonius and Xerxes’ uncle Artabanus, a prominent dove—all of which he claims to have derived directly from Persian sources (7.12). Even if the speeches are not the verbatim transcripts that Herodotus implies, the division of opinion which they reflect does seem authentic. The characterization of Mardonius, bearing in mind what would subsequently happen, appears particularly suggestive.

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16 Such, at any rate, is the implication of the comments that Herodotus gives Mardonius after the Battle of Salamis (7.100).

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17 To be specific, the southern end of the so-called Apadana Staircase, the sculptures of which have been dated to the beginning of Xerxes’ reign.

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18 Xenophon, Economics, 4.8.

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19 Aelian, 1.33.

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20 Strabo, 25.3.18.

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21 Herodotus, 7.5.

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22 “Paradaida” is a reconstruction, based on the evidence of the Greek loanword. An exact synonym, the Elamite word “partetash,” has been found in the Persepolis tablets. See Briant (2002), pp. 442–3.

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23 Xenophon, Household Management, 4.21.

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24 Athenaeus, 9.51. The assertion was originally made by Charon of Lampsacus, a contemporary of Herodotus.

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25 An anonymous philosopher of the fifth century—perhaps Democritus. Quoted by Cartledge (1997), p. 12.

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26 Plutarch, Themistocles, 2.

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27 Aristotle, Politics, 1302b15.

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28 Aristotle (The Constitution of the Athenians, 22.1 and 4) specifically states that it was Cleisthenes who was responsible for the law on ostracism. Historians have sometimes doubted whether it would have remained unused for twenty years, but skepticism on the matter ignores the peculiar circumstances of Miltiades’ trial, and its aftermath.

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29 A title not semi-formalized until 478 BC, a year after the end of the Persian Wars, but evidently in the air long before that (cf. Plutarch, Aristeides, 7).

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30 Plutarch, Aristeides, 2.

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31 Pausanias, 1.26.5.

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32 The earliest reference to the contest between Athena and Poseidon occurs in Herodotus (8.55), and this has led some scholars (most notably Shapiro) to suggest that it is a fifth-century invention. Certainty on the matter is impossible, but the confusions and inconsistencies in the various versions of the myth suggest a much older origin.

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33 Homer, Odyssey, 3.278.

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34 Aeschylus, Persians, 238.

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35 Plutarch, Themistocles, 4.

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36 Plutarch, Aristeides, 7.

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37 Plutarch, Cimon, 12.

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38 Xenophon, Household Management, 8.8.

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39 Thucydides, 142.

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40 Plato, Laws, 4.706.

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41 Herodotus, 7.239.

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42 For this explanation of the contradictory stories about Demaratus’ paternity found in Herodotus, see Burkert (1965).

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43 Pausanias, 3.12.6. It has generally been assumed that the meeting took place at Corinth, where all subsequent meetings were held, but since the earliest source for this is a historian of the first century BC, Diodorus Siculus (9.3), who in turn used Herodotus as his ultimate source of information, I see no reason to dismiss the evidence of Pausanias, as most scholars do; indeed, it makes perfect sense, for the reason I give.

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44 Plutarch, Themistocles, 6.

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45 Herodotus, 7.132.

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46 Ezekiel, 27.4.

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47 Plato, The Republic, 4.436a.

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48 The Odyssey, 15.416–17.

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49 Herodotus, 1.1.

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50 Ibid., 3.19.

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51 The figure comes from Herodotus (7.89), and is echoed—with some ambiguity—in Aeschylus’ play The Persians (341–3). The earliness and consistency of the tradition suggest that the Greeks themselves believed it was accurate; but that in itself, of course, is not proof. All the historian can say with any certainty is that the Persian fleet was on a mammoth scale; and that probably—at the outset of its voyage, at any rate—it outnumbered the Greeks by as much as four to one. For the best discussion, see Lazenby (1993), pp. 92–4.

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52 Quintus Curtius, 3.3.8. The description is of the banner of Darius III, the last King of Persia, who was overthrown by Alexander the Great. Veneration of the sun, however, was a constant throughout Persian history, and it seems reasonable to suppose that the Great Kings would have preserved it as an emblem of their might. Xenophon (Anabasis 1.10) records that the imperial battle standards bore eagles. See also Nylander.

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53 Herodotus, 7.83.

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54 See, for instance, Cook (1983, pp. 113-15), who settles on a figure of 300,000 for Xerxes’ land forces; Hammond (Cambridge Ancient History, 1988, p. 534), who goes for 242,000; Green (pp. 58–9), who opts for 210,000; and Lazenby (1993, pp. 90–2), who wavers between 210,000 and 360,000, before finally choosing 90,000. In short, as this range of opinions eloquently suggests, we will never know. The best discussion, although not necessarily the most convincing conclusion, is in Lazenby.

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55 Xerxes, inscription at Persepolis (XPh).

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56 Herodotus, 7.40.

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57 Xenophon, Cyropaedia, 8.2.8.

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58 Xerxes, inscription at Persepolis (XPl).

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59 Herodotus, 7.38.

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60 Ibid., 7.39.

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61 Ibid., 7.40.

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62 Ibid., 7.44–5.

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63 Ibid., 7.56.

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64 Ibid., 9.37.

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65 Ibid., 7.149.

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66 Ibid., 7.148.

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67 Ibid., 7.220. It is conceivable, of course, that the priests at Delphi and the Spartans might have put their heads together after the war and faked this prophecy, but most improbable. Herodotus quotes it from well within living memory; and it might have been expected, had the Spartans faked it, that they would have hyped their own role in the war a good deal more. As Burn puts it, referring not merely to this, but to all the prophecies recorded by Herodotus: “That the oracular responses, and the stories attached to them, may have been ‘improved’ in transmission certainly cannot be excluded; that they were asked for and given, it seems unreasonable to disbelieve.” (pp. 347–8).

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68 Herodotus, 7.162.

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69 The date of late May presumes that Xerxes left Sardis in mid-April: it would have taken him a month to reach the Hellespont.

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70 Herodotus, to whom we owe the two oracular responses given to the Athenians, gives no indication as to when the fateful consultation may have occurred. Since he does tell us that the Spartans obtained their prophecy the previous year (7.220), some scholars have dated the Athenian prophecies to the same period; but this seems improbable. True, the Athenians almost certainly would have visited Delphi in 481 BC; but the record of any early consultations would have been blotted out by the later, and infinitely more sensational, oracles. So explosive was their message and so transformative their influence that it makes most sense to explain the relationship between them and Athenian policy in the summer of 480 BC as one of instantaneous cause and effect. In which case, the Athenian embassy to Delphi in the early summer of 480 BC is most likely to have been prompted by the news of Xerxes’ crossing of the Hellespont—which, as we know from Herodotus (7.147), reached Athens shortly after the return of the expedition to Tempe.

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71 Herodotus, 7.140.

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72 Ibid., 7.141.

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73 From lines 4 and 5 of the so-called “Troezen decree,” a stone stele found in 1959, which appears to provide a third-century BC copy of the motion put forward by Themistocles. Its authenticity has been much debated ever since its discovery. Lazenby, cussedly skeptical as ever, dismisses it as “a patriotic fabrication,” but most other scholars of the Persian Wars—Green, Frost and Podlecki, inter alios—accept that it does indeed, in Green’s words, “give us something very close to Themistocles’ actual proposals, though it may possibly run together several motions passed on different days” (p. 98). The best and most nuanced discussion is in Podlecki, pp. 147–67.

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74 Thucydides, 1.138.

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75 The Troezen decree, 44–5.

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76 Plutarch, Cimon, 5.

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77 Herodotus, 7.178.

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78 Ibid., 8.1.

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79 Ibid., 7.205.

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VII At Bay

1 Tyrtaeus, 12.

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2 The Iliad, 7.59–62.

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3 Herodotus, 7.176.

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4 For the implication that each Spartan brought a single helot with him, see ibid., 7.229.

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5 Diodorus Siculus, 11.4.7.

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6 The Iliad, 7.553-6.

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7 Such, at any rate, seems the only plausible explanation for the fact that the Greek patrol on Sciathos was so comprehensively ambushed. That their assailants were Sidonian is deducible from Herodotus’ description of them as being “the fastest ships” (7.179) in Xerxes’ fleet.

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8 Plutarch, Themistocles, 7.

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9 The Odyssey, 13.296–9.

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10 Quoted by Burkert (1985), p. 141.

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11 Plutarch, Lycurgus, 22.

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12 Diodorus Siculus, 11.5.4.

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13 Plutarch, Spartan Sayings, Leonidas 11.

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14 Herodotus, 7.226.

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15 For this last meteorological detail, see the admittedly contested reference in Polyaenus, 1.32.2.

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16 Herodotus, 7.188.

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17 Ibid., 7.192.

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18 Plutarch, Moralia, 217 E.

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19 Herodotus, 7.211.

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20 The chronology here follows that of Lazenby, whose squaring of the numerous circles in Herodotus’ account of the twin battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium is by far the most cogent of the many attempts that have been made. See The Defence of Greece, pp. 119–23.

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21 Herodotus, 8.9.

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22 Ibid., 8.12.

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23 Ibid., 8.13. The precise location of the shipwreck has resulted in many a scholarly headache. Herodotus says that it took place off the “Hollows,” which later geographers—although not Herodotus himself—place in the south of Euboea. Yet this seems impossible: no fleet setting off from Sciathos in the afternoon could possibly have reached so far before midnight. As Lazenby has pointed out, there is a small island still called “Hollow” (“Koile”) to this day: since it is only halfway down Euboea, this seems by far the likeliest site for the disaster.

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24 Plutarch, Themistocles, 8.

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25 Herodotus, 8.15.

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26 Athenaeus, 2.48d.

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27 Quintus Curtius, 3.4.2.

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28 Herodotus, 7.104.

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29 Ibid., 7.105.

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30 Ibid., 7.236.

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31 Ibid., 7.119.

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32 Ibid., 7.120.

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33 Athenaeus, 14.652b.

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34 Ibid., 4.145e.

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35 Herodotus, 7.213.

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36 Presuming, as most historians now do, that the path taken by the Immortals began at the modern-day village of Ayios Vardates. For the best analysis of the various alternative routes, and the one that I certainly found most helpful during the course of my own walking of them, see Paul Wallace (1980).

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37 Herodotus (7.222) claims that Leonidas kept the Thebans against their will, as hostages, but this is one of those occasions where the bias of his—almost certainly Athenian—sources is palpable. As Plutarch, a proud Boeotian, indignantly pointed out, why, if Leonidas regarded the Thebans as hostages, did he not hand them over to the retreating Peloponnesians? The astounding courage and principle shown by the loyalist Thebans at Thermopylae deserved a better memorial than Athenian calumny.

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38 Three hundred Spartans marched to Thermopylae, along with perhaps 300 helots, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans, making a total of 1700 men. Casualties over the previous two days’ fighting must have reduced the total to nearer 1500.

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39 Diodorus Siculus, 11.9.4.

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40 The Iliad, 4.450.

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41 Herodotus, 8.24.

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42 Ibid., 7.238.

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43 Aristophanes, Acharnians, 1090–3.

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44 See Burkert (1983), p. 226.

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45 Herodotus, 7.99.

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46 Xenophon, Economics, 7.5.

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47 Demosthenes, Against Neaera, 67.

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48 Herodotus, 8.71.

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49 Plutarch, Themistocles, 10.

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50 Plutarch, Themistocles, 10. Pet-lovers may be relieved to know that Xanthippus’ dog was reported by Aelian (12.35) to have survived the crossing.

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51 Plutarch, Themistocles, 11.

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52 Herodotus, 8.49.

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53 The figure is Aeschylus’ (Persians, 339–40). Herodotus (8.48) puts the total of the Greek fleet at 380. On this occasion, Aeschylus is almost certainly more accurate. After all, he fought in the Battle of Salamis.

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54 Herodotus, 8.60.

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55 Ibid. As they appear in Herodotus, these words were spoken in the debate that followed the burning of the Acropolis. They are not, however, a verbatim record of what Themistocles said, but rather expressive of the gist of his general argument, which he pressed from the beginning.

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56 Ibid., 8.50.

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57 Ibid., 8.61.

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58 The Troezen decree, 11–12.

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59 Herodotus, 8.52.

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60 Ibid., 8.54.

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VIII Nemesis

1 From the letter of Darius to Gadatas. See Meiggs and Lewis, p. 20.

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2 Herodotus, 7.235.

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3 Ibid., 8.68β.

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4 Ibid., 8.59.

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5 Ibid., 8.70.

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6 Ibid., 8.70–1.

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7 We know from Herodotus (8.70) that the Persian fleet had put to sea in the late afternoon; we know from Aeschylus (374–6) that it was back in port in time for supper.

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8 Darius, inscription at Naqsh-i-Rustam (Dnb 8c).

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9 Ibid.

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10 According to Plutarch, he was actually a Persian prisoner of war.

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11 Herodotus, 8.75.

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12 Aeschylus, 380–1.

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13 Herodotus, 8.76.

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14 This, at any rate, seems the only explanation for Sicinnus’ release that makes sense. Some historians have proposed that he yelled his message from his boat without ever leaving it, but this is not only inherently implausible—surely the Persians could easily have sent a vessel to capture him—but directly contradicts what Herodotus (8.75) says.

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15 Herodotus, 8.78.

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16 Ibid., 8.80.

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17 Ibid., 8.83.

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18 Ibid., 8.65.

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19 Aeschylus, 369–71.

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20 Since Salamis was not merely the most momentous battle ever fought, but also one perilously difficult to reconstruct from the existing sources, the literature on it is unsurprisingly vast. Indeed, there are almost as many interpretations of what happened as there are historians who have written about it. For the best defense of the orthodoxy that the Persian fleet entered the straits by night, see Lazenby (1993), and his typically trenchant chapter, “Divine Salamis.” The most convincing counterargument can be found in Green’s chapter, “The Wooden Wall,” in The Greco-Persian Wars. The killer detail that surely disproves the theory that the Persians entered the straits by night is the fact that the imperial battle fleet, if it had indeed lined up directly opposite the allied triremes before dawn, would have swooped down on their positions the moment that the light permitted, giving the Greek oarsmen little time to get to their benches, let alone allowing Themistocles to indulge in an oration, as Herodotus clearly tells us he did. The theory also makes a nonsense of the Persians’ attempt to keep their maneuvers a secret.

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21 Aeschylus, 367.

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22 Ibid., 388–90.

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23 Herodotus, 8.84.

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24 Aeschylus, 399–400.

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25 Herodotus, 8.88.

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26 Aeschylus, 415–16.

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27 Ibid., 426–8.

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28 Ibid., 462–4.

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29 Herodotus, 8.100.

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30 Herodotus, 8.100. Literally “300,000 men whom I will personally choose to finish off the job,” but the figure is an obvious exaggeration.

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31 In forty-five days, according to Herodotus (8.115)—although not from Athens, as is generally assumed, but almost certainly from Thessaly.

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32 Ibid., 8.110.

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33 Ibid., 8.114.

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34 Ibid., 8.109.

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35 Ibid., 8.124.

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36 Ibid., 9.12.

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37 It is hard to believe that Themistocles was removed entirely from the board of ten generals, but definite evidence is lacking.

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38 Herodotus, 8.141.

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39 Ibid., 8.142.

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40 Ibid., 8.143.

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41 Ibid., 8.144. That it was Aristeides who spoke this parting injunction is a detail recorded by Plutarch.

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42 Again, according to Plutarch, this embassy was led by Aristeides. Bearing in mind that he was the commander in chief of his city’s land forces, however, and that the Persians were occupying Attica at the time, this seems improbable. Even Plutarch himself admits that his information was dubious.

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43 Herodotus, 9.12.

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44 Ibid., 9.13.

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45 Herodotus (9.29) says that there were seven helots for every Spartan—35,000 in all. This seems excessive.

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46 Xenophon, The Constitution of the Spartans, 9.6

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47 Herodotus, 9.16.

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48 If Herodotus’ figures (9.29) are to be trusted, there were precisely 38,100 hoplites in the allied army. This is certainly more convincing than the total of 69,500 lightly armed troops which he also gives, and which he appears to have arrived at by a series of random calculations. If there were lightly armed troops at Plataea, then their impact on the battle was negligible.

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49 Herodotus (9.32) claims that Mardonius’ army included 300,000 infantry and 50,000 Boeotian and Thessalian hoplites, to say nothing of cavalry. Since these figures are clearly an exaggeration, the only way to estimate the true size of the Persian forces at Plataea is to calculate how many men might have fitted into the stockade, which, Herodotus tells us, was 2000 square meters. Anything between 70,000 and 120,000 might have been possible. See Lazenby (1993), p. 228.

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50 Plutarch, Aristeides, 13. The story is often dismissed as a fabrication, partly because it does not appear in Herodotus, and partly because Plutarch’s chronology is undoubtedly muddled. Yet it is, as one of the rare glimpses we have been afforded into the Persians’ espionage war, an invaluable piece of evidence, and seems convincing when placed in context.

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51 Herodotus, 9.41. A claim to the contrary is made a few paragraphs later (9.45), but it comes as part of a message from the inveterately untrustworthy Alexander of Macedon. The king is supposed to have crossed no man’s land in person, alone and by dead of night, in order to reveal the Persian battle plans to Aristeides: a hugely implausible story. The whiff of self-exculpation from a man who had been a notorious medizer is palpable.

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52 Ibid., 9.39.

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53 Ibid., 9.49.

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54 Plutarch, Aristeides, 17.

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55 Herodotus, 9.62.

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56 Aeschylus, 816–17.

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57 Herodotus, 9.71.

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58 Ibid., 9.82.

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59 Euripides, The Phoenician Women, 184.

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60 Herodotus, 1.34.

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61 Aristotle, Rhetoric, 2.2.6.

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62 Herodotus, 8.109.

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63 As Green (p. 281) points out, this is the only explanation that can make sense of the claim, asserted unequivocally by the ancient sources, that the battles of Plataea and Mycale were fought on the same day.

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64 Herodotus, 9.100.

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65 Ibid. Literally, “. . . which prove the hand of things that are divine.”

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66 Diodorus Siculus, 11.36.

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67 Lycurgus, Against Leocrates, 81.

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68 See Broneer.

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69 Aeschylus, 584–90.

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70 Ibid., 1024.

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71 Xerxes, inscription at Persepolis (XPc).

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72 It is all too depressingly typical of the general murk of Near Eastern history in this period that the revolt has also been dated to 482 BC.

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73 Herodotus, 9.106.

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74 Plutarch, Themistocles, 29.

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75 Pindar, fragment 64.

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76 It is unlikely—although controversy over the matter is endless—that this peace was formalized by treaty: the Great King was not in the habit of signing treaties with foreigners.

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77 For this date, and indeed the authenticity of the whole story, see Stadter, pp. 201–4.

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78 Plutarch, Pericles, 17.

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79 Herodotus, 8.144.

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80 Ibid., 7.228.

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81 Thucydides, 2.41.

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82 Plato, Menexenus, 240e.

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83 Pausanias, 1.33.2.

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Envoi

1 Palatine Anthology, 7.253.

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