Brown, Truesdell S._Aeneas Tacticus, Herodotus and the Ionian Revolt_Historia, 30, 4_1981_385-393.pdf

8/9/2019 Brown, Truesdell S._Aeneas Tacticus, Herodotus and the Ionian Revolt_Historia, 30, 4_1981_385-393.pdf

1/10

Aeneas Tacticus, Herodotus and the Ionian Revolt

Author(s): Truesdell S. BrownSource: Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Bd. 30, H. 4 (4th Qtr., 1981), pp. 385-393Published by: Franz Steiner VerlagStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4435775 .

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2/10

ABHANDLUNGEN

AENEAS

TACTICVS, HERODOTVS

AND

THE

IONIAN

REVOLT

While

reading

Aeneas

Tacticus

recently

I was

struck

by

a

passage

in

that

author's

chapter

on

Secret

Messages

that seemed

vaguely

familiar

(xxxi

9-9a).1

A

city (unnamed) is under

siege.

A

messenger

arrives

carrying

letters he

is

to

deliver

to

"a

traitor and

those

to

whom he

was

bringing

them"

(Tn

[iEv

3IQO6t6OVTL

xatLoLs

EqEQEV).

The

messenger is not

named. Instead of

delivering

the

letters to

their

intended

recipients

he

approaches

the

military

commander of the

city (also

unnamed)

and turns the

letters

over

to

him.

The

commander

orders

him

to

deliver the letters,

to

see whether his

accusations

are

justified

(EL

&XiE' TL

TI>ViEL).

This

leaves

no

doubt that

the

messenger

has

turned

informer. Any replies he may

receive he is told to

bring back

to the

commander

unopened.

The

plan worked well. When the

letters

were

brought

to

him the

commander

summoned the traitors,

and then forced each

man to

acknowledge

the seal with which he

had sealed the letter

as his

own. (Ta'

>l?th

TE

6ELXVUEV

oV &zxTUXL(v,

&ieL

60ioXyouv

CrUT6v

?EvaL).

Then

only did the

commander

open the letters and

denounce the

men as traitors.

l The

chief

authorities

used

on

Aeneas

Tacticus are the

following: H.

Kochly

and W.

Rustow,

Aeneias

von

Vertheidigung der

Stadte, in

Part

1

of their

Griechische

Kriegsschriftsteller

text

with

German

translation and

notes),

Leipzig

1853,

1-183;

R.

Schoene, Aeneae

Tactici de

obsidione

toleranda

commentarius

(text,

fragmenta,

testimonia),

Leipzig

1911,

xxxiv

+

205;

W.

A.

Old-

father

and

other

members

of the

Illinois Greek

Club,

Aeneas

Tacticus,

Asclepiodotus,

Onasander

(with

text,

fragments,

introduction

and

English

translation),

Loeb

Classical

Library,

London

and

New York 1923, 1-225; L. W. Hunter and S. A. Handford, AINEIOY rOAIOPKHTIKA,

Aeneas

on

Siegecraft,

Oxford 1927

(text,

introduction,

commentary,

fragments and

English

translation),

lxxxii

+

266;

D.

Barends,

Lexicon

Aeneium,

A

lexicon and

index to

Aeneas

Tacticus'

military

manual

"On

the

defence

of

fortified

positions",

Assen,

Netherlands

1955

(with

bibliography),

174.

Barends

frequently

marks

words

with

an

asterisk,

indicating

that in

particular

passages:

"Aen.

Tact.

has

[evidently

or

possibly]

borrowed

the

word

from

another

author."

But

he

offers

no

explanation

why

some

words

would

be

borrowed

and

others

not,

nor

where

Aeneas

borrowed

them.

More

recently two

important

volumes

have

appeared

n

France.

1)

A.

Dain

and

A.-M.

Bonn,

tnie

le

Tacticien.

Collection

des

Universites

de

France,

ed. "Les

Belles

Lettres,"

Paris

1967

(with

text

and a translation). See esp. vii-xxx (L'Homme et L'Oeuvre), and 70 n.l., where

it

is said with

reference

to the

passage

discussed

in

this

paper:

"II

est

impossible

de

chercher,

pour ce

chapitre,

des

references

precises

la oii

elles

manquent .

.

."

2)

Yvon

Garlan,

Recherches

de

poliorcitique

grecque,

Bibliotheque des

l-coles

Franqaises

d'Athenes

et de

Rome,

Paris 1974.

See

esp.

169-184

(La

poliorcetique

grecque

au

temps

d'lnee le

Tacticien).

Historia, Band

XXX/4

(1981)

?

Franz

Steiner

Verlag

GmbH,

D-6200

Wiesbaden


http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/10

386

TRUESDELL

S.

BROWN

Aeneas ends

by expressing

his admirationfor the sagacity of

the commander

(9b). Had he opened the letters in private the traitors might have been able to

escape punishment by claiming

that the evidence against them

had been forged.

By waiting the

commander made it

impossible for them to deny their guilt.

Although there is a

resemblance between this episode and

the betrayal of

Otanes to the

younger Cyrus

(Anab.

I

6,3),

the

situation there

is different in

that it

occurs

in

camp, while Aeneas

is

more

interested

in

the defense of

fortified places against attack

from within.

Herodotus (VI 4) offers a closer

parallel. He tells us that

during the Ionian Revolt letters

were entrusted by

Histiaeus of

Miletus to a certain Hermippus

of Atarneus to

deliver to Persian

traitors in Sardis. The city was then under the control of the satrap

Artaphrenes, halfbrother to

King Darius (V 25).

Despite

leaving

out all the

historical

details,

in

one

respect Aeneas tells

us

more than

Herodotus does, for the latter says

nothing about the personal seals

(Ta

oiLtEW

. . 6v

aXTUkL6ctx

a&rrc

6'ioX6youv atuTwv

EvaL),

which are

so

important to Aeneas. How

is

it

possible, then,

to

argue that Aeneas borrowed

this episode from

Herodotus? Can the borrower

copy more than

he

finds in

his source?

Fortunately

there

are four

other instances where

scholars

are in

agreement

that Aeneas borrowed from Herodotus, and three of these come from the

chapter on Secret

Messages (xxxi).

Herodotus describes how

Demaratus, deposed as

a

Spartan

king,

took

refuge

in

the court of Xerxes.

When

he

learned of

the

planned

invasion of

Greece

he

wished to

get

word

through

to

the

Spartans.

This he

did

by carving

the

message on the

wood of a writing tablet, after first

removing

the

wax. Then

fresh wax

was

put

on the

tablet

which was sent to

Sparta,apparently

blank.

The

Spartans were puzzled at

first,

but

Gorgo,

that enfant

terrible,

found

the

message and

the

Spartans

were

warned

(VII 239).

Aeneas alludes

to this

method in these terms (xxxi 14): "There was an instance where someone wrote

a

message on

a

wooden tablet,

then

covered

it with wax

and wrote

something

else

on

the

wax.

Then when it

reached

the

person

for whom

it

was

intended,

he

scraped

off

the wax

and read

the

message,

and then

was

in

a

position

to

send

back

another

message

in

the same

way."

Despite

the added

refinement of

writing an

innocuous message

on the

wax

itself,

and

also

of

using

the

same

tablet for a return

message,

modern

editors have had no reluctance

in

asserting

that

Aeneas borrowed this from

Herodotus.'

The same method of

sending

a

secret

message

is

repeated by Justin,

who

says

it

was

the

sister

of Leonidas

who

discovered the secret writing (II 13-17).

2

Cf.

Kochly

&, op. cit.

176;

Schoene, op.

cit. 85,

ap.

crit.,

Oldfather,

op. cit.

163 n.l.

However,

Hunter

&

Handford

note correctly

that

the

wording

is not

close

to that in

Herodotus,

op.

cit.

207.

In Herodotus

Gorgo

is

Leonidas'

wife and the daughter

of Cleomenes.

Justin

also

writes

about

a

certain

Amilcar

Rodanus,

who pretended

he

had been

driven out by

the

Carthaginians.

He




4/10

Aeneas Tacticus, Herodotus and the lonian Revolt 387

Another and clearerexample of Aeneas' borrowing

is

found

a

little

later

on

(xxxi 25-27), being based on Herodotus VIII 128. Herodotus tells us that the

Persian Artabazus was

besieging Potidaea,

but that he

hoped

to take the

city

by

means of the

treachery

of one of

the

generals,

Timoxenus

of Scione.

He

managed to keep

in

touch with Timoxenus

by shooting

an

arrow,

with a

message attached to

it, into a designated place

in the

city. However, on one

occasion

the arrow went

astray

and struck one

of the citizens. As a result the

message was

intercepted and the plot discovered. But Aeneas again adds

touches of his own. He

gives two

reasons

why Artabazus' arrow missed its

target: 1)

the wind was

blowing

and

2)

the arrow was not

properly

feathered.

Otherwise he follows Herodotus quite closely.4

In the very next

paragraph(xxxi 28) Aeneas mentions Histiaeus of Miletus,

and how he sent a

message by tattooing

it on the

head of

a slave. This time he

does not add

anything, though he does leave something out.5

The fourth

example is taken from the siege of Barca

by a Persian general

named Amasis

(Aen. xxxvii 6-7), which everyone recognizes as borrowed

from

Herodotus (IV 200). A coppersmith took the

bronze outer part of a

shield and

carried it

around, pressing it close to the ground. Whenever the

arrives in Alexander's camp, and Parmenion introduces him to the Macedonian king. Justin goes

on

to say

(XXI

6);

Atque ita

consiliis

eius

exploratis

in

tabellis

ligneis

vacua

desuper

cera

inducta

avibus

suis omnia

perseribebat. This

looks like an

adaptation

of the

story

in

Herodotus,

with the

added

feature

that,

unlike

Demaratus,

Hamilcar

only

pretended to be

rejected

by his

compatriots.

Justin

does not

add

the

message

written on the

fresh

wax,

like

Aeneas. We

find the same

device in

Aulus

Gellius, who

claims

to have

read

about

it in some

old historia

rerum

Punicarum,

though he

is

not sure

about

the man

who

sent

the

message (sive

ille

Hasdrubal,

sive quis

alius

est non

retineo).

Elsewhere Gellius

tells us

something of the

haphazard

way

he

acquired

antiquated

books from

which

he drew

his

material

(see N. A.

XVII 9; and IX

4, 1-3).

For

other

classical

parallels

see

Hunter

and

Handford,

op. cit.

207.

4

This

is

discussed

at

some

length

by

Hunter &

Handford, ibid.

213f.

They

list

five

alterations

made by Aeneas. Other examples of the use of arrows for sending messages arecited; Plut. Cimon

12,4;

Polyaen.

II

29,1;

Caes.

B. G. V

48,5;

Bell.

Hisp.

xiii 3.

'

See

Hdt.

V

35.

Hunter &

Handford, op. cit.

215,

note that

Aeneas

omits the

message

itself.

Herodotus tells

us

indirectly (Tl

bf

;yUtCvtXa #0iLaMve

.

.&'t6ocaoLv &not

IaoLkXwg),

while

Polyaenus

puts

this into

direct

discourse (I

24):

'Iotxtiog

'AQtLaayoyQg

'Iwv(acv

&atonorJov.

Aulus

Gellius,

on the

other

hand,

adds a

new

detail, when he

says

that

Histiaeus'

slave

had

been

suffering from an

eye

irritation,

and

that

his master

used this as a

pretext

for

shaving

off his hair

(XVII 9

adfin.).

Gellius

does not

mention

Herodotus, and

considering

the

differences it

is

evident

he

gets

his

information at

second

hand.

On

only

one

occasion

does he

cite

Herodotus

(III 10),

when he

writes:

Herodotus,

homo

fabulator,

in

primo

histornarum,

nventum esse

sub

terra

scripsit

Oresti

corpus cubita

longitudinis habens

septem. And that

is

accurate

(H.

I

68). But here

he

follows

some intermediate source. The entire chapter deals with secret messages, beginning with the code

Caesar used in

writing

to

Oppius and

Balbus,

which

Gellius found

explained

by

the

grammarian

Probus.

Perhaps

he also

explained

the

use of

the

oxuEdXlr,

which

Gellius

comes

to

next.

But he

introduces

the

Histiaeus

stratagem

differently:

alia

in

monumentis

rerum

Graecarum

profunda

quaedam

et

inopinabilis

latebra etc.

-

which

suggests another of

the old

books he had

picked

up

(see

n. 3

above).

Had he

known

it came

from

Herodotus he

would

probably

have said

so.




5/10

388

TRUESDELL

S. BROWN

metal

resounded

t showed

that there

was a mine

underneath.

By detecting

these mines

the defenders

of Barca

were able to digcountermines ndto reach

and destroy

the

enemy sappers.6

These four examples

how

how AeneasTacticus

madeuse of earlier

writers.

He nevercites

his source,

whichaccounts

or

the fact that only

one

historian

besides

Herodotus

has

been identified

with

any certainty,

and that

is

Thucydides,

whose account

of the

way the Plataeans

ecovered

heircity

from

the Thebans

at the

outbreak

f

the Peloponnesian

War IL

2ff.)is the

source

or

Aeneas

ii

3-6.

Another possible

borrowing is

suspected,

this time

from

Xenophon.

Aeneas describesa panic

that broke

out in camp

at night.

The

heraldproclaimedhata rewardwould begivento anyonewho named heman

who had turned

oose a

horseand

created he

nocturnal

onfusion

xxvii

11).

This reminded

editorsof

the episode

in

the Anabasis

II

2,20)

-

although

Xenophon

speaks

of

an ass that

had

supposedly

been turned

loose in

the

armory

at

night.

Clearchusoffered

a reward

of one talent.'

The

difference

between

an ass and

a

horse

would

not seem to be especially

important,

especially

considering

hat both

animals

were

imaginary.

Of

the

four

passages

already

ecognized

as

coming

rom

Herodotus,

here

s

one

(xxxi

14),

which like the

passage

we

arediscussing

containsno names,

not

even that of Demaratus.The identificationhas been madesolely because he

messageswere sent

in the sameway.

Also,

as

in

our passage,

Aeneas

has added

a

contribution

f his

own

to what

we find

in Herodotus.

Therefore,

here s

no

valid

reasonto

deny that

Aeneas

xxxi

9-9a comes

from

Herodotus

VI 4.

Furthermore,

ince Histiaeus'

attooed

messenger

s cited

by

Aeneas xxxi 28)

he must

have been familiar

with Herodotus'

accountof the Ionian

Revolt.

The

only

alternative

would be to posit

an intermediate

ourcecontaining

xcerpts

from earlier

historians.But such compendia

are

not knownuntilafter

he

time

of

Aeneas

Tacticus,

whose

manual was

probably

written

just before

the

PhocianWar,say between358 and357

B.C.8

6

See

Hunter &

Handford, op.

cit. 229 for comments.

Aeneas fails

to

mention the

stratagem by

which

Amasis

finally took the

city. This consisted

in an equivocation

-

a

promise to observe

the

peace

as long as the land

on

which

it

was sworn

endured. The ground

had

been undermined

by

Amasis in advance of

the

exchange

of oaths. Aeneas

had no need

to go back into earlier times

for

examples of

sharp practice.

7

Kochly

& Rustow accept

the identification

(op. cit.

173),

but

Oldfather

thinks this may

have

been

used on

many occasions,

giving

one or two examples (op.

cit. 143 n.

1).

8

Oldfather

says

the

last

event referred

to

by

Aeneas

Tacticus occurs in

360 - and

that is the

capture of Ilium by Charidemus (op.

cit.

5). He argues that the book was written before 346,

because that

was the year the Locrians stopped sending

maidens

to

Troy (see

T. S. Brown,

Timaeus of Tauromenium,

Berkeley and Los Angeles

1958, 58).

According to

Hunter &

Handford

the 360 date is guaranteed

'within narrow limits' by

Demosthenes' speech against

Aristocrates

(XXIII

154), op. cit.

182. The fact

that no events

in the

Phocian

War are mentioned suggests

to

Oldfather

that Aeneas wrote his treatise

in

357/356.




6/10

Aeneas

Tacticus,

Herodotus and the

lonian

Revolt

389

It is going

too far to claim that Aeneas

was

so well

acquainted

with

Herodotus and

Thucydides

that

he,

"had

them

by

his side

while he was

writing."9 Had

that been so he would

probably

have made

more

use

of them,

and

also have

reproduced

them

more

accurately.

So

far

as

we

know,

he

only

used

four books

of

Herodotus

(IV 200;

V

35;

VII

239;

and VIII

128)

in

addition to Book VI. Had he read

Book One,

how

could he

have

resisted

the

account

of a

letter sent to

Cyrus

the Elder

sewed

up

in

the

belly

of

a hare

(I

123f.) ?10

The two excerpts from the

history of the Ionian

Revolt

are

a useful link in

our

tradition about that

struggle. Ultimately Herodotus'

version of what

happened during the Revolt would prevail,"1but at the time the father

of

history

wrote

and even much later

-

many conflicting

stories

must have

been in

circulation. What Herodotus did

in

providing us with a coherent

pattern

of events

was a great

achievement

in

itself.12

And

now

let

us look more

closely at his account of the

episode in Sardis.

Doubts have

been

expressed about the

traitors

inside

the city.

Were they really

Persians? It

has been

suggested

that

instead

they were Lydians."3

However,

it

must be

remembered that Darius was a

usurper,

who

would

therefore have

had

enemies

among the Persians as well as

outside their ranks.

True, such men are

not mentioned in the Behistun inscription, but that inscription was written

even

before

the

Scythian

expedition,14

the results of which would

have

encouraged

potential enemies to think that

the king was not invulnerable.

As

van

Groningen says, the

Ionian

Revolt

seems to have been part of a

larger

See

Hunter

& Handford,

xxxv.

1? A man who wrote such

a series of

books

on

military subjects (see

ibid. xii-xiii) cannot have

been without books of

his own, and no doubt he made use

of

them

in his other treatises. But the

logical place

for the letter to Cyrus would be in chapter xxxi of the work we still

have.

"

See e. g. Paus. X 33,2, where the periegete accurately summarizes the salient points in

Herodotus' account of Histiaeus, including

the same unfavorable

judgment

of his character.

Pausanias compares

him with Paris, who likewise brought about the destruction

of his native city

for selfish reasons. For a needed corrective

of the

view

that Herodotus' History was

an immediate

best-seller, see S. Flory, "Who read

Herodotus?"

AJPh.

101

(1980), 12-28, though

he

probably

exaggerates the boredom

that would be caused by "Herodotus' ungainly book" (ibid.

28). It was

not necessary to

read it at one sitting

12

See Jacoby,

RE

Supp. 2,

384.

Herodotus'

chronology presents difficulties. These

have been

examined by

N.

G. L.

Hammond,

Historia 4

(1955), 371-411. He dates Histiaeus'

departure from

Susa for

the coast

in

498/7 (see esp. 386 with notes

2 &

3).

'3

See

W.

W. How

& J. Wells,

A

Commentary

on Herodotus,

vol.

2, Oxford 1912 (corrected

1928), 67: "These Persian traitors in Sardis are a puzzle. Could they be Lydians who still

nourished national aspirations?"

See also Ph. Legrand,

Herodote,

Histoires Livre

VI, Paris 1948, 8

n.

3: "Peut etre ces pretendus

Perses etaient des Lydiens soi-disant rallies au gouvernement

de

Darius,

mais

qui

revaient

d'une restauration du royaume de Cresus."

14 The

events

described there

by

Darius run only

from

the

fall of 522

to the

spring of 520,

according

to G.

B. Gray.

See CAH vol. 4, 662f., n.

3.




7/10

390

TRUESDELL

S.

BROWN

movement within the Persian empire.15 And if he is right,

it

follows

that

Histiaeus had a hand in this larger movement, and also that Darius must have

had suspicions of his own. Considering the rivalries that always existed among

Persians close to the

throne,

he

may not

have been

completely

sure of the

loyalty of his half-brother Artaphrenes.'6 We are told that later on, when

Histiaeus was captured in Atarneus and turned over to Artaphrenes,the latter

put him to death for fear he might talk his way back into Darius' favor, and

Herodotus expresses the view that these fears

were justified (VI 28-30).l7

It seems

likely

that the

episode

in

Sardis as

well

as the account of the

adventures

of Histiaeus from

beginning

to end stem from a source

(or sources)

friendly to Persia, but whether Dionysius of Miletus was one of these cannot

be determined

in

the present state of

our

knowledge.18

But this

pro-Persian,

anti-Ionian

view of the revolt which

Herodotus

gives

us survives

other,

probably

less biased accounts. At one time Histiaeus was very likely a popular

hero to the Asiatic Greeks, long after

the revolt had been

suppressed,

and

they

remembered him for his

exploits

rather

than

for his

having

once ruled Miletus

as a

tyrant

with Persian

backing.19

But

in

Herodotus

the

emphasis

is different.

Histiaeus comes off second best

in his initial encounter

with

Artaphrenes

in

Sardis

on his

way

to the coast. He is forced to leave the

city

under cover

of

night after the Persian satrap bluntly charged him with fomenting the revolt.

Then when he

does get down to

the coast

Histiaeus finds himself in trouble

with the Chians, who blamed

him

for stirring up

the rebellion in the first

place.

He extricates himself neatly from

this

predicament by telling

them the Persians

5 See

B.

A.

van

Groningen, Herodotus' Historien,

met

irleiding en

Commentaar, vierde deel,

Commentaar

op

Boek

IV-VI, 2nd, ed., Leyden 1966, 139.

rIHELEQWV.

e thinks it is unlikely

they

were Lydians seeking independence from Persia. Instead he believes the

Ionian

Revolt was part

of

a much broader conspiracy, which included high-ranking Persians.

16

We need only look to Cambyses' distrust of his brother Smerdis for an

example. The custom

to which Herodotus refers, that the king should name his successor before going off on a

campaign,

reflects traditional

harem conspiracies (VII 2);

see

also

I

208, where Cyrus designates

Cambyses

as his

successor

on

a similar occasion.

17

In

Herodotus,

Darius'

generosity

to Greeks who had been useful to him is almost

unbounded: Syloson received the island of Samos in return for the gift of a

cloak to Darius before

he

had any prospect of becoming king (III 139-141). Democedes the physician is another good

example. Despite the reward given him by Darius

he still

chose

to

escape to his native Croton,

but

he feels Darius still had a

friendly

interest in him

(despite

his

escape)

and will be

pleased

to learn he

married well on his return home

(III 137).

18 Jacoby

writes with some

exasperation (RE Supp. 2, 405):

"Wenn

Dionysios von Milet

wieder ein grofere Rolle spielt, so liegt das wohl hauptsachlich daran, dag wir von ihm so gut wie

nichts wissen".

19

E.

g.,

see

Legrand,Herodote

Hist.

V., 64,

where he writes:

". . . a

l'epoqued'Herodote,

Histiee etait, je pense,

en

passe de devenir,

en

Ionie,

un

heros

de contes

populaires."

He

goes

on

to

say

that Herodotus

draws primarily

on oral tradition

-

deriving only

the details about

his

last

activities at a distance from Ionia, from a

written source

(ibid. 65).

This is even more

likely

when it

comes to

Aristagoras.




8/10

Aeneas Tacticus, Herodotus and the Ionian Revolt

391

had

it

in mind to move the lonians to Phoenicia

and

bring

the Phoenicians

into

Ionia (VI 1-3). And this is not implausible, when we read how later Darius

forced

the

Milesians who

survived

to move to the Persian

Gulf

(VI 20);

but

transporting

the Phoenicians to Ionia

would have been unthinkable.

Then

comes

the

episode

in

Sardis

where Histiaeus is

betrayed by Hermippus.

Rejected by

his fellowcitizens

after

this fiasco he

finished

his

days

as an

adventurer. Unluckier

than

Themistocles,

even his

knowledge

of

Persian

did

not save him,

though Darius arranged

for

an

honorable burial of

his remains

(VI 26-30).

The

one-time

folk

hero

has

become the central

figure

in

a

picaresque novel.

Exactly why

Histiaeus

has been

so

unfavorably

treated

by

Herodotus is hard for us to say, perhaps partly because of that historian's

paranoia about

lonians in

general, and

also

because

in the

light given

after the

event

Herodotus

felt that the movement

never had

any

chance of

succeeding.

But

it is not

unlikely that Herodotus

obtained some

of his information

from a

Persian whom

he

met

on

his

travels.

Zopyrus whom

he

may have

met in

Athens, is one possibility, while Artabazus is

another.20Such a Persian might

well take a very

jaundiced view of Histiaeus

-

or of Aristagoras.

Herodotus

needed a history of

the

Ionian Revolt to help bridge

the

gap

between a Persian

logos and his new theme

of the

Persian war against

Greece.21

Presumably, when he set out from Asia on his travels, he had already

accumulated some notes he had made with

the idea of writing a new, fuller and

more accurate

rhpfobo;

r1g,

but they

need not have included any

special

inquiries

into the

Ionian Revolt (or the

Scythian Expedition). It is

regrettable

that Diodorus

Siculus' account has been lost,

except that is for a single excerpt,

on

the terms

granted the Ionians by Artaphrenes (X 25,4), because

he (or

rather

Ephorus) is at variance with

Herodotus. Now Ephorus may possibly

have

used

the

Persica of his compatriot

Heraclides of Cyme, whose dates,

however,

are

by no means certain. If he

did so, then the excerpt may reflect

Heraclides.22Heraclides, whenever he lived, would have read Herodotus, but

20

On Herodotus'

Persian 'friends'

see

J. L.

Myres, Herodotus

father of

history,

Oxford

1953,

159; also see

Legrand

H&rod. Hist.

III,

185

n.

3.

21

See

Jacoby,

RE

Supp. 2,

352,

where

he calls this

transitional

stage,

"eine

nEQo060o

rilS

gekleidet in die augere

Form

der Persika."

See

also

col.

346,

29f.

for the

place

of the

Ionian

Revolt

in

Herodotus'

plan.

22

Jacoby

does not

believe this

(FGrH Ia,

317

-

on No.

I,

T

7),

but

says

Ephorus

made it

up

independently on

the

basis of

Hdt. VI

42-43.

Nevertheless,

Ephorus

would

certainly

be

interested

in

any

Persica by

a

historian from

Cyme.

Jacoby dates

Heraclides in

about

350

B. C.

(FGrH

No.

689,

see also

his

Abhandlungen zur

griechischen

Geschichtsschreibung,

Leyden

1956,

32), but

since his commentary has never appeared we do not know his reasons for opposing Muller, who

dates Heraclides as later

than

Dinon,

and

even later than

Clitarchus

(FHG

II, 95a), on

the basis

of

Plut.

Them. 27. See

also

Eduard

Meyer,

G. d.

Alt., IV

14

84

and 85 n.

1. As to

Ephorus'

possible

use

of

Heraclides, E.

Schwartz

pointed out

long ago

that

nothing

is

known about

Ephorus'

life,

but that his

History

breaks off

in 356/5

(RE

VI

1

=

Griechische

Geschtchtsschreiber,

3). Therefore

the bare

possibility

of

borrowing does

exist. His

Persica

was

in

5

books

(Diog. Laert.

V

94).




9/10

392

TRUESDELL. BROWN

as an

Asiatic

Greek he was probably

aware of

more than

one version of

what

happened

-

the same

thing might be

true of Ephorus

if we only knew how

long

he lived in Asia.

This also

applies to Hellanicus

of Lesbos,

who was

contemporary

with

Herodotus,

and who

wrote a Persica

of his own.23 Although

no

fragmentsof

Hellanicus on

the

Ionian

Revolt survive,

he is cited by a

scholiast on Aeschylus

for calling

Artaphrenes,

Daphernes.24

This shows

that he

described the

overthrow of

the

Magi,

and it may

be presumed that his

Persica

continued on

down

at least to the

death

of Darius.

If

that is true,

then

he would have been

bound

to

say

something

about

the

Ionian Revolt,

in

which another

(but

surely

related) Artaphrenes plays a-major role.

It is

also

likely

that Herodotus picked

up

some

more information

by talking

to

Athenians. Where

else would

he

have

been

likely to hear of Phrynichus'

Fall

of

Miletus,

and

the

fact that

the Athenians

fined

the dramatic

poet

for

reminding them

of their misfortunes

(VI 21)?

There

is

one

more

writer who

deserves

to

be mentioned

here,

and

that

is

Lysanias

of Mallus.

Only

a single fragment

remains

and that

comes to

us

through

Plutarch, who

uses him

in an attempt

to refute

Herodotus

(de

malign.

Herod.

24).

Lysanias

says that

the Greek

attack

on Sardis

was made in order

to

end the Persian siege of Miletus. There is nothing to prove when he lived or

where he got

his information,

but that

has not prevented

scholars

from arguing

vigorously

either for

or against the

validity of

his

conclusions.25

23

Here, Jacoby

admits that

while Hellanicus

did

not

practice

itaoLtOQ

ike

Herodotus

he

may

have

absorbed

some

local stories.

And

he adds rather arbitrarily

that he was unlikely

to

have

had

any

effect

on later

tradition

(RE VIII,

"Hellanikos"

7), cols.

130-131.

24

See

FGrH

No.

4

(Hellanicus)

F

181

=

No. 687a

F 9. Although

line

778 of Aeschylus'

Persiansis usually regardedas spurious, 'AQtTaT(ET; also appears in line 776 as the man who slew

Mardus (i.

e. the false Smerdis)

by

guile.

In Herodotus

Artaphrenes

is not one of

the

Seven,

but

Intaphrenes,

not mentioned

by Aeschylus,

is. The

wQ&Vr

ending

is not

as close to

the

Persian as

tp vq;,

which

represents farnah

or 'glory'

in Persian. DE'vrS may

have slipped

in

because

of

the

Greek

word

WQpV

(see Legrand,

Herodote

Index

analytique,

17f.). Perhaps

the

Aaq#Qvfv

of

Hellanicus

represents

Vindafarna

(Intaphrenes)

on

the

Behistun

inscription

c.

68. See

A. T. Olm-

stead,

History

of the Persian

Empire, University

of

Chicago

Press

1948,

108.

In

Ctesias

he

becomes

'ATa#pvqS

(Phot.

Bibl.

Cod.

72 p. 38a

22).

25

Cf.

G.

Grote,

History

of

Greece

(12

vol.

ed.),

vol.

4,

London 1869,

216

n.

2;

and M.

Cary

in

CAH 4,

221. However, K.

J. Beloch

rejected

it

(Griechische Geschichte,

2, 12,

10

n.

3),

as do

N. G. L.

Hammond (History

of Greece

to 322

B.

C.,

Oxford

1959,

205 n. 3)

and H.

Bengtson

(Griechische Geschichte, 2nd. ed., Munich 1960, 152 n. 3).

The best discussion

in Jacoby (FGrH

III

b,

Kommentar

(Text)

Leyden

1955,

250. He notes

that

Plutarch

cites diXOt

te

xai

Avoaviac.

What these

'others'

have

in common is

an interest

in giving

more credit

to Eretria

than

Herodotus

does. By

the

time

Lysanias

wrote his

book on

Eretria

he

had a

number of post-Herodotean

accounts

of the

events available

to him. But,

when did

Lysanias

write

?




10/10

Aeneas

Tacticus,

Herodotus

and the

Ionian

Revolt

393

Until

and

unless more is recovered

from

these

alternative

accounts

we

shall

have to content

ourselves

with

Herodotus,

and that is

too bad. But at

least

there

is no

reason

to believe

that

if all these

other

written accounts

had

survived

and Herodotus

had not

we should

be

any

better

off.

Los Angeles

Truesdell

S.

Brown

Documents

Brown, Truesdell S._Aeneas Tacticus, Herodotus and the Ionian Revolt_Historia, 30, 4_1981_385-393.pdf