Hide browse bar Your current position in the text is marked in blue. Click anywhere in the line to jump to another position:
book:
chapter:
chapter 1chapter 2chapter 3chapter 4chapter 5chapter 6chapter 7chapter 8chapter 9chapter 10chapter 11chapter 12chapter 13chapter 14chapter 15chapter 16chapter 17chapter 18chapter 19chapter 20chapter 21chapter 22chapter 23chapter 24chapter 25chapter 26chapter 27chapter 28chapter 29chapter 30chapter 31chapter 32chapter 33chapter 34
This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
When men make definite pronouncements on
certain matters, saying that they can never possibly be brought to pass, their words usually
are followed by a kind of retribution which exposes the weakness which is the lot of
mankind.1
[2]
When Megabyzus, who was also
called Zopyrus and was a friend of King Darius, had scourged himself and mutilated his
countenance,2 because he had resolved to become
a deserter3 and
betray Babylon to the Persians, we are told that
Darius was deeply moved and declared that he would rather have Megabyzus whole again, if it
were possible, than bring ten Babylons under his power, although his wish could not be
achieved.
[3]
The Babylonians chose
Megabyzus to be their general, being unaware that the benefaction he would render them would be
a kind of bait to entice them to the destruction which was soon to follow.
[4]
The successful turn of events constitutes
a sufficient proof of what has been predicted.4
[5]
After Darius had made himself
master of practically the whole of Asia, he desired to
subdue Europe.5 For since the desires he entertained for further possessions were boundless
and he had confidence in the greatness of the power of Persia, he was set upon embracing in his power the inhabited world, thinking it to
be a disgraceful thing that the kings before his time, though possessing inferior resources,
had reduced in war the greatest nations, whereas he, who had forces greater than any man before
him had ever acquired, had accomplished no deed worthy of mention.
[6]
When the Tyrrhenians6 were
leaving Lemnos, because of their fear of the Persians,
they claimed that they were doing so because of certain oracles, and they gave the island over
to Miltiades.7 The leader of the Tyrrhenians in this affair was Hermon,
and as a result presents of this kind have from that time been called "gifts of Hermon."8Const. Exc. 4, pp. 297-298.
1 The passage probably refers to the remark of a Babylonian that Darius would take Babylon when mules bear offspring. See Hdt. 3.151 and passim for details of the account of the taking of Babylon.
2 Literally, "cut off the extremities of his face," i.e. the nose and ears; the story is given by Hdt. 3.153 ff., who calls Zopyrus the son of Megabyzus. 520-519 B.C.
3 In order to trick the Babylonians.
4 This probably refers to the boast of the Babylonians (Hdt. 3.151) that the Persians would only take Babylon "when mules bear offspring." A little later one of Zopyrus' mules foaled.
5 519 B.C.
6 c. 520 B.C. Not to be confused with the Tyrrhenians (Etruscans) of Italy. These Tyrrhenians came to Lemnos in all probability from Asia Minor c. 700 B.C.
7 The famous hero of Marathon, 490 B.C.
8 These are presumably presents made out of dire necessity. Modern historians say that Miltiades "conquered" Lemnos c. 510 or c. 493 B.C.; see Hdt. 6.140.
Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.
show
Browse Bar
hide
Places (automatically extracted)
View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.
Sort places
alphabetically,
as they appear on the page,
by frequency
Click on a place to search for it in this document.
Babylon (Iraq) (4)Click on a place to search for it in this document.
Lemnos (Greece) (3)
Persia (Iran) (1)
Italy (Italy) (1)
Europe (1)
Asia Minor (Turkey) (1)
Asia (1)
Download Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text.
hide
Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates
alphabetically,
as they appear on the page,
by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
700 BC (1)Click on a date to search for it in this document.
520 BC (1)
519 BC (1)
493 BC (1)
490 BC (1)
hide
References (3 total)
hide
Search
hideStable Identifiers
hide
Display Preferences