The Boys' and Girls' Herodotus · Herodotus
EXPEDITIONS OF CAMBYSES.
Thus madly did Cambyses behave toward his own family; whether on account of Apis, or from some other cause, from which, in many ways, misfortunes are wont to befall mankind. For Cambyses is said, even from infancy, to have been afflicted with a certain severe malady, which some called the sacred disease.[17] In that case, it was not at all surprising that, when his body was so diseased, his mind should not be sound. And toward the other Persians he behaved madly in the following instances: for it is reported that he said to Prexaspes, whom he highly honored, and whose office it was to bring messages to him, whose son was cupbearer to Cambyses, no trifling honor by any means, he is reported to have said: "Prexaspes, what sort of a man do the Persians think me? and what remarks do they make about me?" He answered: "Sir, you are highly extolled in every other respect, but they say you are too much addicted to wine." The king enraged cried out: "Do the Persians indeed say that, by being addicted to wine, I am beside myself, and am not in my senses? then their former words were not true."
For, on a former occasion, when the Persians and Crœsus were sitting with him, Cambyses asked, what sort of a man he appeared to be in comparison with his father Cyrus; they answered, that he was superior to his father, because he held all that Cyrus possessed, and had acquired besides Egypt and the empire of the sea. Crœsus, who was not pleased with this decision, spoke thus to Cambyses: "To me, O son of Cyrus, you do not appear comparable to your father, for you have not yet such a son as he left behind him." Cambyses was delighted at hearing this, and commended the judgment of Crœsus. So, remembering this, he said in anger to Prexaspes: "Observe now yourself, whether the Persians have spoken the truth, or whether they who say such things are not out of their senses: for if I shoot that son of yours who stands under the portico, and hit him in the heart, the Persians will appear to have said nothing to the purpose; but if I miss, then say that the Persians have spoken the truth, and that I am not of sound mind."
Having said this, and bent his bow, he hit the boy; and when the boy had fallen, he ordered them to open him and examine the wound; and when the arrow was found in the heart, he said to the boy's father, laughing: "Prexaspes, it has been clearly shown to you that I am not mad, but that the Persians are out of their senses. Now tell me, did you ever see a man take so true an aim?" But Prexaspes, perceiving him to be out of his mind, and being in fear for his own life, said: "Sir, I believe that a god himself could not have shot so well." At another time, having, without any just cause, seized twelve Persians of the first rank, he had them buried alive up to the head.
While he was acting in this manner, Crœsus the Lydian thought fit to admonish him in the following terms: "O king, do not yield entirely to your youthful impulses and anger, but possess and restrain yourself. It is a good thing to be provident, and wise to have forethought. You put men to death who are your own subjects, having seized them without any just cause; and you slay their children. If you persist in such a course, beware lest the Persians revolt from you. Your father Cyrus strictly charged me to admonish you, and suggest whatever I might discover for your good." He thus manifested his good-will, in giving this advice; but Cambyses answered: "Do you presume to give me advice, you, who so wisely managed your own country; and so well advised my father, when you persuaded him to pass the river Araxes, and advance against the Massagetæ, when they were willing to cross over into our territory? You have first ruined yourself by badly governing your own country, and then ruined Cyrus, who was persuaded by your advice. But you shall have no reason to rejoice; for I have long wanted to find a pretext against you." So saying, he took up his bow for the purpose of shooting him; but Crœsus jumped up and ran out. Cambyses, unable to shoot him, commanded his attendants to seize him, and put him to death. But the attendants, knowing his temper, concealed Crœsus for the following reason, that if Cambyses should repent, and inquire for Crœsus, they, by producing him, might receive rewards for preserving him alive; or if he should not repent, or sorrow for him, then they would put him to death. Not long afterward Cambyses did regret the loss of Crœsus, whereupon the attendants acquainted him that he was still living; on which Cambyses said: "I am rejoiced that Crœsus is still alive; they, however, who disobeyed my orders and saved him, shall not escape with impunity, but I will have them put to death." And he made good his word.
He committed many such mad actions, both against the Persians and his allies, while he stayed at Memphis opening ancient sepulchres, and examining the dead bodies; he also entered the temple of Vulcan, and derided the image, for the image of Vulcan is very much like the Phœnician Pataici, which the Phœnicians place at the prows of their triremes, and is a representation of a pigmy. He likewise entered the temple of the Cabeiri, (into which it is unlawful for any one except the priest to enter) and these images he burnt, after he had ridiculed them in various ways: these also are like that of Vulcan; and they say that they are the sons of this latter. It is in every way clear to me that Cambyses was outrageously mad; otherwise he would not have attempted to deride sacred things and established customs. For if any one should propose to all men, to select the best institutions of all that exist, each, after considering them all, would choose his own; so certain is it that each thinks his own institutions by far the best. It is not therefore probable, that any but a madman would make such things the subject of ridicule. That all men are of this mind respecting their own institutions may be inferred from many proofs, but is well illustrated by the following incident: Darius once summoned some Greeks under his sway, and asked them "for what sum they would feed upon the dead bodies of their parents." They answered, that they would not do it for any sum. Then Darius called to him some of the Indians called Callatians, who are accustomed to eat their parents, and asked them, in the presence of the Greeks, "for what sum they would consent to burn their fathers when they die." But they made loud exclamations and begged he would speak words of good omen. Such then is the effect of custom: and Pindar appears to me to have said rightly "that custom is the king of all men."
Whilst Cambyses was invading Egypt, the Lacedæmonians made an expedition against Polycrates, who had made an insurrection and seized on Samos. At first, having divided the state into three parts, he had shared it with his brothers Pantagnotus and Syloson; but afterward, having put one of them to death, and expelled Syloson, the younger, he held the whole of Samos, and made a treaty of friendship with Amasis, King of Egypt, sending presents, and receiving others from him in return. In a very short time the power of Polycrates increased, and was noised abroad throughout Ionia and the rest of Greece; for wherever he turned his arms, everything turned out prosperously. He had a hundred fifty-oared galleys, and a thousand archers. And he plundered all without distinction; for he said that he gratified a friend more by restoring what he had seized, than by taking nothing at all. He accordingly took many of the islands, and many cities on the continent; he moreover overcame in a sea-fight, and took prisoners, the Lesbians, who came to assist the Milesians with all their forces; these, being put in chains, dug the whole trench that surrounds the walls of Samos. The Lacedæmonians, arriving with a great armament, besieged Samos, attacked the fortifications, and passed beyond the tower that faced the sea near the suburbs; but afterward, when Polycrates himself advanced with a large force, they were driven back, and after forty days had been spent in besieging Samos, finding their affairs were not at all advanced, they returned to Peloponnesus; though a groundless report got abroad, that Polycrates coined a large quantity of the money of the country in lead, had it gilt, and gave it to them; whereupon they took their departure. This was the first expedition that the Lacedæmonian Dorians undertook against Asia.
Those of the Samians who had fomented the war against Polycrates set sail for Siphnus when the Lacedæmonians were about to abandon them, for they were in want of money. The Siphnians were at that time the richest of all the islanders, having such gold and silver mines, that from the tenth of the money accruing from them, a treasure was laid up at Delphi equal to the richest; and they used every year to divide the product of the mines. When they established this treasure, they asked the oracle, whether their present prosperity would continue with them for a long time; but the Pythian answered as follows: "When the Prytaneum in Siphnus shall be white, and the market white-fronted, then shall there be need of a prudent man to guard against a wooden ambush and a crimson herald." The market and Prytaneum of the Siphnians were then adorned with Parian marble. As soon as the Samians reached Siphnus, they sent ambassadors to the city in a ship which, like all ships at that time, was painted red. And this was what the Pythian meant by a wooden ambush and a crimson herald. These ambassadors requested the Siphnians to lend them ten talents; the Siphnians refused the loan, and the Samians proceeded to ravage their territory. The Siphnians were beaten, and compelled to give a hundred talents.
I have dwelt longer on the affairs of the Samians, because they have the three greatest works that have been accomplished by all the Greeks. The first is a mountain, one hundred and fifty orgyæ in height, in which is dug a tunnel, beginning from the base, with an opening at each side. The length of the excavation is seven stades, and the height and breadth eight feet each; through the whole length of it is dug another excavation twenty cubits deep, and three feet broad, through which the water conveyed by pipes reaches the city, drawn from a copious fountain. The architect of this excavation was a Megarian, Eupalinus, son of Naustrophus. The second work is a mound in the sea round the harbor, in depth about one hundred orgyæ; and in length more than two stades. The third is a temple, the largest of all we have ever seen; of this, the architect was Rhœcus, son of Phileus, a native.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.