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117.
There is a plain in Asia shut in on all sides by mountains through which there are five passes.1 This plain was once the Chorasmians', being at the boundaries of the Chorasmians, the Hyrcanians, Parthians, Sarangians, and Thamanaei, but since the Persians have held power it has been the king's.
[2]
Now from the encircling mountains flows a great river whose name is the Aces. Its stream divides into five channels and formerly watered the lands of the above-mentioned peoples, going to each through a different pass, but since the beginning of the Persian rule
[3]
the king has blocked the mountain passes, and closed each passage with a gate; with the water barred from outlet, the plain within the mountains becomes a lake, seeing that the river pours into it and finds no way out.
[4]
Those therefore who before were accustomed to use the water endure great hardship in not being able to use it; for during the winter, god rains for them just as for the rest of mankind, but in the summer they are in need of the water for their sown millet and sesame.
[5]
So whenever no water is given to them, they come into Persia with their women, and cry and howl before the door of the king's palace, until the king commands that the river-gate should be opened for those whose need is greatest;
[6]
then, when this land has drunk its fill of water, that gate is shut, and the king has another opened for those of the rest who most require it. I know by hearsay that he gets a lot of money, over and above the tribute, for opening the gates. So much for these matters.
1 All this description appears to be purely imaginative. But “the idea of the chapter” (say How and Wells) “is quite correct; the control of irrigation is in the East one of the prerogatives of government, and great sums are charged for the use of water.”
Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.
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References (32 total)
- Commentary references to this page
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- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannus, 1110-1185
- Cross-references to this page
(8):
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, THE CASES
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, THE VERB: VOICES
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.3.1
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ACES
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), DRANGIA´NA
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), OXUS
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), THAMANAEI
- Basil L. Gildersleeve, Syntax of Classical Greek, Omission of parts of the simple sentence
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (23):
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