Histories

Now I neither disbelieve nor entirely believe the tale about Salmoxis and his underground chamber; but I think that he lived many years before Pythagoras;

and as to whether there was a man called Salmoxis or this is some deity native to the Getae, let the question be dismissed.

Such were the ways of the Getae, who were subdued by the Persians and followed their army. When Darius and the land army with him had come to the Ister, and all had crossed, he had the Ionians break the bridge and follow him in his march across the mainland, together with the men of the fleet.

So the Ionians were preparing to break the bridge and do Darius' bidding; but Cöes son of Erxander, the general of the Mytilenaeans, after first asking if Darius were willing to listen to advice from one who wanted to give it, said,

“Since, O King, you are about to march against a country where you will not find tilled lands or inhabited cities, let this bridge stay where it is, leaving those who made it to guard it.