Histories

Herodotus

Herodotus. Godley, Alfred Denis, translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd., 1920-1925 (printing).

After the Bactrians he set the Indians, opposite the men of +Hermione [23.2583,37.3833] (Perseus) Hermione and +Eretria [23.8083,38.3917] (Perseus) Eretria and +Styra [24.2167,38.1833] (Perseus) Styra and +Chalcis [23.6083,38.4667] (Perseus) Chalcis. Next to the Indians he posted the Sacae, opposite the Ampraciots, Anactorians, Leucadians, Paleans, and Aeginetans;

next to the Sacae, and opposite the Athenians, Plataeans, Megarians, the Boeotians, Locrians, Malians, Thessalians, and the thousand that came from +Phocis (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Phocis; for not all the Phocians took the Persian side, but some of them gave their aid to the Greek cause; these had been besieged on +Parnassus (mountain), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Parnassus, and issued out from there to harry Mardonius' army and the Greeks who were with him. Beside these, he arrayed the Macedonians also and those who lived in the area of +Thessaly [22.25,39.5] (region), Greece, Europe Thessaly opposite the Athenians.

These which I have named were the greatest of the nations set in array by Mardonius, but there was also in the army a mixture of Phrygians, Thracians, Mysians, Paeonians, and the rest, besides Ethiopians and the Egyptian swordsmen called Hermotybies and Calasiries,[*](The Egyptian military classes mentioned in Hdt. 2.164.) who are the only fighting men in Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt.

These had been fighters on shipboard, till Mardonius while yet at Phalerum disembarked them from their ships; for the Egyptians were not appointed to serve in the land army which Xerxes led to Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens. Of the barbarians, then, there were three hundred thousand, as I have already shown. As for the Greek allies of Mardonius, no one knows the number of them (for they were not counted), I suppose them to have been mustered to the number of fifty thousand. These were the footmen that were set in array; the cavalry were separately ordered.

On the second day after they had all been arrayed according to their nations and their battalions, both armies offered sacrifice. It was Tisamenus who sacrificed for the Greeks, for he was with their army as a diviner; he was an Elean by birth, a Clytiad of the Iamid clan,[*](The Iamidae were a priestly family, the members of which were found in all parts of Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas. The Clytiadae were also Elean priests, but quite separate from the Iamidae; so Stein is probably right in bracketing *klutia/dhn.) and the Lacedaemonians gave him the freedom of their city.

This they did, for when Tisamenus was inquiring of the oracle at Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi concerning offspring, the priestess prophesied to him that he should win five great victories. Not understanding that oracle, he engaged in bodily exercise, thinking that he would then be able to win in similar sports. When he had trained himself for the Five Contests,[*](The five events of the Pentathlum were running, jumping, wrestling, and throwing of the spear and the discus.) he came within one wrestling bout of winning the Olympic prize, in a match with Hieronymus of +Andros [24.9,37.816] (inhabited place), Nisos Andros, Cyclades, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Andros.