Herodotus' HISTORY BOOK 6 (ERATO) Complete

Translated by G. Macaulay.

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98. Datis having done these things sailed away with his army to fight against Eretria first, taking with him both Ionians and Aiolians; and after he had put out to sea from thence, Delos was moved, not having been shaken (as the Delians reported to me) either before that time or since that down to my own time; and this no doubt the god[86a] manifested as a portent to men of the evils that were about to be; for in the time of Dareios the son of Hystaspes and Xerxes the son of Dareios and Artoxerxes the son of Xerxes, three generations following upon one another, there happened more evils to Hellas than during the twenty other generations which came before Dareios, some of the evils coming to it from the Persians, and others from the leaders themselves of Hellas warring together for supremacy. Thus it was not unreasonable that Delos should be moved, which was before unmoved. [And in an oracle it was thus written about it:

"Delos too will I move, unmoved though it hath been aforetime."][87]

Now in the Hellenic tongue the names which have been mentioned have this meaning--Dareios means "compeller,"[88] Xerxes "warrior,"[89] Artoxerxes "great warrior."[90] Thus then might the Hellenes rightly call these kings in their own tongue.

86a. i.e. Apollo: or perhaps more generally, "God," as in ch. 27.

87. This in brackets is probably an interpolation. It is omitted by some of the best MSS. Some Editors suspect the genuineness of the next four lines also, on internal grounds.

88. {erxies}, perhaps meaning "worker."

89. {areios}.

90. {megas areios}.

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