Ephorus

How can it then be other than an absurd thing for the Greeks to be so proud and to vaunt themselves to be the only people that are acquainted with antiquity, and that have delivered the true accounts of those early times after an accurate manner? Nay, who is there that cannot easily gather from the Greek writers themselves that they knew but little on any good foundation when they set to write, but rather wrote their histories from their own conjectures? Accordingly, they confute one another in their own books to purpose, and are not ashamed to give us the most contradictory accounts of the same things, and I should spend my time to little purpose if I should pretend to teach the Greeks that which they know better than I already.

What a great disagreement there is between Hellenicus and Acusilaus about their genealogies, in how many cases Acusilaus corrects Hesiod, or after what manner Ephorus demonstrates Hellenicus to have told lies in the greatest part of his history, as does Timaeus in like manner as to Ephorus, and the succeeding writers do to Timaeus, and all the later writers do to Herodotus.

Nor could Timaeus agree with Antiochus and Philistius, or with Callias about the Sicilian history, no more than do the several writers of the Atheidae follow one another about the Athenian affairs, nor do the historians the like that wrote the Argolics about the affairs of the Argives.

And now what need I say any more about particular cities and smaller places, while in the most approved writers of the expedition of the Persians, and of the actions which were therein performed, there are so great differences.

And I should spend my time to little purpose if I should pretend to teach the Greeks that which they know better than I already.

What a great disagreement there is between Hellenicus and Acusilaus about their genealogies, in how many cases Acusilaus corrects Hesiod, or after what manner Ephorus demonstrates Hellenicus to have told lies in the greatest part of his history, as does Timaeus in like manner as to Ephorus, and the succeeding writers do to Timaeus, and all the later writers do to Herodotus.

Nor could Timaeus agree with Antiochus and Philistius, or with Callias about the Sicilian history, no more than do the several writers of the Atheidae follow one another about the Athenian affairs, nor do the historians the like that wrote the Argolics about the affairs of the Argives.

And now what need I say any more about particular cities and smaller places, while in the most approved writers of the expedition of the Persians, and of the actions which were therein performed, there are so great differences.

And this is the reason, as they say, why those who have had a gay and festive time call it a white day, from the white bean.

Ephorus says that Pericles actually employed siege engines.

in his admiration of their novelty, and that Artemon the engineer was with him there, who since he was lame, and so had to be brought on a stretcher to the works which demanded his instant attention, was dubbed Periphoratus.

Heracleides, Ponticus, however, refutes this story out of the poems of Anacreon.

On this account he was called Periphoratus.

After eight months the Samians surrendered, and Pericles tore down their walls, took away their ships of war, and laid a heavy fine upon them, part of which they paid at once, and part they agreed to pay at a fixed time, giving hostages therefore.

To these details Duras the Samian adds stuff for tragedy, accusing the Athenians and Pericles of great brutality, which is recorded neither by Thucydides, nor Ephorus, nor Aristotle.

but he appears not to speak the truth when he says, forsooth, that Pericles had the Samian triarchs and marines brought into the market-place of Miletus and crucified there, and that then, when they had already suffered grievously for ten days, he gave orders to break their heads in with clubs and make an end of them, and then east their bodies forth without burial rites.

For the two cities were waging their war for the possession of Priene.

and the Samians were getting the better of it and when the Athenians ordered them to stop the contest and submit the case to arbitration at Athens they would not obey so Pericles set sail and broke up the oligarchical government which Samos had and then took fifty of the foremost men of the state with as many of their children as hostages and sent them off to Lemnos and yet they say that every one of these hostages offered him a talent on his own account and that the opponents of democracy in the city offered him many talents besides and still further Pissalthnus the Persian satrap who had much good will towards the Samians sent him ten thousand gold staters and interceded for the city however Pericles took none of these bribes but treated the Samians just as he had determined set up a democracy and sailed back to Athens then the Samians at once revolted after Pissalthnus had stolen away their hostages from Lemnos for them and in other ways equipped them for the war once more therefore Pericles set sail against them they were not victims of sloth nor yet of abject terror but full of exceeding zeal in their determination to contest the supremacy of the sea in a fierce sea-fight which came off near an island called Tragia Pericles won a brilliant victory with four and forty ships out-fighting seventy twenty of which were infantry transports close on the heels of his victorious pursuit came his seizure of the harbour and then he laid formal siege to the Samians who somehow or other still had the daring to sally forth and fight with him before their walls but soon a second and a larger armament came from Athens and the Samians were completely beleaguered and shut in then Pericles took sixty triremes and sailed out into the main sea as most authorities say because he wished to meet a fleet of Phoenician ships which was coming to the aid of the Samians and fight it at as great a distance from Samos as possible but according to Sesambrotus because he had designs on Cyprus which seems incredible but in any case whichever design he cherished he seems to have made a mistake for no sooner had he sailed off than Melissus the son of Ithagenes a philosopher who was then acting as general at Samos despising either the small number of ships that were left or the inexperience of the generals in charge of them persuaded his fellow-citizens to make an attack upon the Athenians in the battle that ensued the Samians were victorious taking many of their enemy captive and destroying many of their ships so that they commanded the sea and laid in large store of such necessaries for the war as they did not have before and Aristotle says that Pericles was himself also defeated by Melissus in the sea-fight which preceded this the Samians retaliated upon the Athenians by branding their prisoners in the forehead with owls for the Athenians had once branded some of them with the Samina now the Samina is a ship of war with a boar's head design for prow and ram but more capacious than usual and paunch-like so that it is a good deep-sea traveller and a swift sailor too it got this name because it made its first appearance in Samos where Polycrates the tyrant had some built to these brand-marks they say the verse of Aristophanes made rilling reference for oh how lettered is the folk of the Samians be that true or not when Pericles learned of the disaster which had befallen his fleet he came speedily to its aid and though Melissus arrayed his forces against him he conquered and routed the enemy and at once walled their city in preferring to get the upper hand and capture it at the price of money and time rather than of the wounds and deadly perils of his fellow-citizens and since it was a hard task for him to restrain the Athenians in their impatience of delay and eagerness to fight he separated his whole force into eight divisions had them draw lots and allowed the division which got the white bean to feast and take their ease while the others did the fighting and this is the reason as they say why those who have had a gay and festive time call it a white day from the white bean Ephorus says that Pericles actually employed siege engines in his admiration of their novelty and that Artemon the engineer was with him there who since he was lame and so had to be brought on a stretcher to the works which demanded his instant attention was dumbed Periphoritus Heracleides Ponticus however refutes this story out of the poems of Anacreon in which Artemon Periphoritus is mentioned many generations before the Samian war and its events and he says that Artemon was very luxurious in his life as well as weak and panic-stricken in the presence of his fears and therefore for the most part sat still at home while two servants held a bronze shield over his head to keep anything from falling down upon it whenever he was forced to go abroad he had himself carried in a little hammock which was borne along just above the surface of the ground on this account he was called Periphoritus after eight months the Samians surrendered and Pericles tore down their walls took away their ships of war and laid a heavy fine upon them part of which they paid at once and part they agreed to pay at a fixed time giving hostages therefor to these details Duris the Samian adds stuff for tragedy accusing the Athenians and Pericles of great brutality which is recorded neither by Thucydides nor Ephorus nor Aristotle but he appears not to speak the truth when he says forsooth that Pericles had the Samian triarchs and marines brought into the marketplace of Miletus and crucified there and that then when they had already suffered grievously for ten days he gave orders to break their heads in with clubs and make an end of them and then east their bodies forth without burial rites at all events since it is not the want of Duris even in cases where he has no private and personal interest to hold his narrative down to the fundamental truth it is all the more likely that here in this instance he has given a dreadful portrayal of the calamities of his country that he might calumniate the Athenians When Pericles, after his subjection of Samos, had returned to Athens, he gave honorable burial to those who had fallen in the war.

And for the oration which he made, according to the custom, over their tombs, he won the greatest admiration.

But as he came down from the Bema, while the rest of the women clasped his hand and fastened wreaths and fillets on his head, as though he were some victorious athlete, Elpinice drew nigh and said, This is admirable in thee, Pericles, and deserving of wreaths, in that thou hast lost us many brave citizens, not in a war with Phoenicians or Medes, like my brother Simon, but in the subversion of an allied and kindred city.

Now Thucydides and Charon of Lampsacus relate that Xerxes was dead, and that it was his son Artaxerxes with whom Themistocles had his interview.

But Ephorus and Dinon and Cleitharchus, and Heraclitus, and yet more besides, have it that it was Xerxes to whom he came.

With the chronological data Thucydides seems to be more in accord, although these are by no means securely established.

Be that as it may, Themistocles, thus at the threshold of the dreadful ordeal, had audience first with Artabanus the Chiliarch, or Grand Vizier, and said that he was a Hellene, and that he desired to have an audience with the king on matters which were of the highest importance, and for which the monarch entertained the most lively concern.

Moreover, it was about full moon of the same month that the Athenians won their sea-fight off Naxos, under the command of Cabrius, and about the twentieth that at Salamis, as has been set forth in my treatise On Days.

Further, the month of Thargelion has clearly been a disastrous one for the barbarians; for in that month the generals of the king were conquered by Alexander at the Granicus, and on the twenty-fourth of the month the Carthaginians were roasted by Timoleon of Sicily.

On this day, too, of Thargelion, it appears that Ilium was taken, as Ephorus, Callisthenes, Damastes, and Phylarchus have stated.

Contrarywise, the month of Metageitnion, which the Boeotians call Panemos, has not been favourable to the Greeks.