|
Oeobazus managed to reach Thrace; but there he was caught by the Apsinthian Thracians who offered him, as their manner is, as a sacrifice to Pleistorus, a local deity. The men with him were killed in another way. Those who accompanied Artayctes left the town later, and their small party was overtaken by their pursuers not far from Aegospotami. They made a stout fight of it, but all of them, in the end, were either killed or taken prisoner. The prisoners were tied up and taken back to Sestos, Artayctes and his son amongst them. There is a story current in the Chersonese that one of the prisoners' guards was roasting salt fish when the fish began to jump and struggle on the coals, as if they had been freshly caught. Everyone came crowding round to see this extraordinary sight; but Artayctes called the sentry who was cooking the fish and told him not to be alarmed. "This prodigy,' he said, 'has no reference to you, my Athenian friend. It applies to me: Protesilaus of Elaeus is telling me that though he is as dead as dried fish, he yet has power from the gods to punish the man who wrongs him. Look now; I am willing to pay him a hundred talents in compensation for the treasure i took from the shrine, and i will pay the Athenians two hundred, on condition that they spare my life and the life of my son.'
Such was Artayctes offer; but Xanthippus, the Athenian commander, refused to accept it. The people of Elaeus wanted their revenge for Protesilaus, and urged his death; moreover Xanthippus' own feelings were in sympathy with them. So they took him to the spit of land where Xerxes' bridge had been - or, as some say, to the plank and hung him up. His son was stoned to death before his eyes. This done, the fleet set sail for Greece with all sorts of stuff on board, including the cables of the bridges, which the Athenians proposed to dedicate as an offering in their temples. And that was all that happened during the course of the year.
This Artayctes who suffered death by crucification had an ancestor named Artembares; and he it was who made the Persians a proposal, which they readily accepted and passed on to Cyrus. 'Since,' they said, 'Zeus has given empire to the Persians, and among individuals to you, Cyrus, by your conquest of Astyages, let us leave this small and barren country of ours and take possession of a better. There are plenty to choose from - some near, some further off; if we take one of them, we shall be admired more than ever. It is the natural thing for a sovereign people to do; and when will there be a better opportunity than now, when we are the masters of many nations and all Asia?'
Cyrus did not think much of this suggestion; he replied that they might act upon it if they pleased, but added the warning that, if they did so, they must prepare themselves to rule no longer, but to be ruled by others. 'Soft countries,' he said, 'breed soft men. It is not the property of any one soil to produce fine fruits and good soldiers too.' The Persians had to admit that this was true and that Cyrus was wiser than they; so they left im, and chose rather to live in a rugged land and rule than to cultivate rich plains and be slaves to others.
__________________
Ohayo!!!
|