Histories

Through this land flow four navigable rivers which must be passed by ferries, first the Tigris [47.416,31] (river), AsiaTigris, then a second and a third of the same name, yet not the same stream nor flowing from the same source. The first-mentioned of them flows from the Armenians and the second from the Matieni.

The fourth river is called Gyndes, that Gyndes which Cyrus parted once into three hundred and sixty channels.[*](Cp. Hdt. 1.189.)

When this country is passed, the road is in the Cissian land, where there are eleven stages and forty-two and a half parasangs, as far as yet another navigable river, the Choaspes, on the banks of which stands the city of Shush [48.333,32.2] (inhabited place), Khuzestan, Iran, AsiaSusa.

Thus the sum total of stages is one hundred and eleven. So many resting-stages, then, are there in the journey up from Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis to Shush [48.333,32.2] (inhabited place), Khuzestan, Iran, AsiaSusa. If I have accurately counted the parasangs of the royal road, and the parasang is of thirty furlongs' length, which assuredly it is, then between Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis and the king's abode called Memnonian [*](Memnon was the legendary king of the “eastern Ethiopians,” or Assyrians. When tradition began to place the Homeric Ethiopians in Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya, Memnon, the Ethiop king, came to be associated with Thebes [32.666,25.683] (deserted settlement), Qina, Upper Egypt, Egypt, AfricaThebes in Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt.) there are thirteen thousand and five hundred furlongs, the number of parasangs being four hundred and fifty. If each day's journey is one hundred and fifty furlongs, then the sum of days spent is ninety, neither more nor less.

Aristagoras of Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus accordingly spoke the truth to Cleomenes the Lacedaemonian when he said that the journey inland was three months long. If anyone should desire a more exact measurement, I will give him that too, for the journey from +Ephesus [27.316,37.916] (deserted settlement), Izmir Ili, Ege kiyilari, Turkey, Asia Ephesus to Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis must be added to the rest.

So, then, from the Greek sea to Shush [48.333,32.2] (inhabited place), Khuzestan, Iran, AsiaSusa, which is the city called Memnonian, it is a journey of fourteen thousand and forty stages, for there are five hundred and forty furlongs from +Ephesus [27.316,37.916] (deserted settlement), Izmir Ili, Ege kiyilari, Turkey, Asia Ephesus to Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis. The three months' journey is accordingly made longer by three days.

When he was forced to leave Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta, Aristagoras went to Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens, which had been freed from its ruling tyrants in the manner that I will show. First Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus and brother of the tyrant Hippias, had been slain by Aristogiton and Harmodius, men of Gephyraean descent. This was in fact an evil of which he had received a premonition in a dream. After this the Athenians were subject for four years to a tyranny not less but even more absolute than before.

Now this was the vision which Hipparchus saw in a dream: in the night before the Panathenaea he thought that a tall and handsome man stood over him uttering these riddling verses:

1. O lion, endure the unendurable with a lion's heart.
2. No man on earth does wrong without paying the penalty.

As soon as it was day, he imparted this to the interpreters of dreams, and presently putting the vision from his mind, he led the procession in which he met his death.[*](Hipparchus was killed in 513.)