Histories

Book 3 resumes the narrative of Persian expansion after the discussion of Egypt in Book 2. In this section, Herodotus describes the Persian king Cambyses’ reign, conquest of Egypt, and descent into madness; the usurpation of the Persian throne by the Magi after Cambyses’ death; and the rise of Darius to power in Persia after a coup d’etat. In two notable digressions, Herodotus recounts the careers of the Greek tyrants Polycrates of Samos and Periander of Corinth. Finally, in a geographical aside, he discusses the natural history and wealth of India, Arabia, and western Europe, arguing that the most distant lands harbor the most valuable and desirable resources.

According to the Persians, Herodotus claims, Cambyses invaded Egypt to punish Amasis for deceiving him. Prompted by an Egyptian physician at his court who was angry with Amasis, Cambyses asked for the hand of Amasis’ daughter. Amasis, suspecting Cambyses intended her as a concubine, sent the daughter of the late pharaoh Apries in her place, which rankled the Persian king. Herodotus recounts two other variants of the story, neither of which provide a political explanation for the invasion but repeat the pattern of personal revenge that often serves as historical causality in the Histories.

The Arabian king granted the Persian army safe passage through Arabia, supplying water to cross the desert. Psammenitus, the son of Amasis, met the Persian host at a mouth of the Nile, where the Egyptian army was routed. Herodotus claims he visited the battlefield and saw the bones of the Persian and Egyptian soldiers lying where they fell. The skulls of the Egyptians were thick but those of the Persians were thin as eggshells. He ascribes the difference to the sun’s effect on the bare heads of the Egyptians and the Persian custom of wearing felt caps.

Cambyses took possession of Memphis after a short siege. He seated Psammenitus and other leading Egyptians in the public square, where he paraded their daughters, dressed as slaves, before them. He then marched Psammenitus’ son with 2,000 other youths, bound in chains and destined for death, before the assembled Egyptians. During the spectacle, the Egyptian nobility wept openly except for Psammenitus, who kept silent. When an elderly man who had once been Psammenitus’ friend but was now a beggar passed before the group, Psammenitus burst into tears, to the surprise of Cambyses. Questioned why he cried at this sight after showing no reaction to the indignities forced upon his own children, Psammenitus answered: “Son of Cyrus, my own suffering was too great for tears, but I could not but weep for the trouble of a friend, who has fallen from great wealth and good fortune and been reduced to beggary on the threshold of old age” (159). Pleased with this response, Cambyses kept Psammenitus at his court where he was well treated. Psammenitus, however, eventually tried to raise a revolt among the Egyptians and was executed.

Cambyses then planned to attack the Carthaginians, the Ammonians of Libya, and the Ethiopians. The Carthaginian venture failed when the Phoenicians refused to assist Cambyses, and the detachment of 50,000 Persian soldiers sent to Ammon entirely disappeared in the desert without word. Cambyses sent spies to the Ethiopian king under the pretense of offering friendship, but they were rebuked by the Ethiopian ruler who saw through the deception. The Ethiopian king gave the Persian delegates an unstrung bow, warning that their emperor was vain to think he could conquer Ethiopia before Persians were capable of easily drawing the enormous bow. Enraged with this response, Cambyses immediately began his march against Ethiopia without securing provisions for his army. Before they had covered a fifth of the distance, food ran out and his soldiers were reduced to cannibalism. Cambyses was forced to order a retreat and the army returned to Memphis.

Cambyses, Herodotus claims, was already unhinged before this disastrous campaign, but now completely lost his reason. After conquering Egypt, he disinterred and abused the corpse of the pharaoh Amasis; now he outlawed the Egyptian feast of Apis, killing the calf which the Egyptians believed embodied the god. He executed his own brother Smerdis, envious that the latter was able to draw the Ethiopian bow slightly and suspecting that he was plotting against him. Enraged by his pregnant wife for lamenting Smerdis’ death, he kicked her, causing a fatal miscarriage.

Herodotus suggests Cambyses’ insanity was caused by epilepsy; at any rate, he is depicted as a maniacally savage despot who exulted in sacrilegious behavior: “I have no doubt whatever that Cambyses was completely out of his mind; it is the only possible explanation of his assault upon, and mockery of, everything which ancient law and custom have made sacred in Egypt” (169). Herodotus concludes by observing that, among human groups, “custom is king,” and that each nation believes its own habits and traditions are natural and correct.

Herodotus then shifts to an account of the Greek tyrant Polycrates of Samos, against whom the Lacedaemonians sent a force while Cambyses was engaged in his Egyptian expedition. Polycrates had seized power on the Ionian island, and with a large fleet, began to amass a string of economic and military successes that made him the most powerful Greek ruler in the East. He concluded a pact of friendship with Amasis, the Egyptian pharaoh, who became concerned about Polycrates’ good fortune. Amasis advised Polycrates to discard his most valuable possession to escape the wrath of the gods lest they grew envious of his prosperity. The tyrant complied, casting his signet-ring into the sea. Several days later a fisherman caught a magnificent fish, which he presented to Polycrates as a gift. When the fish was gutted, the ruler’s signet-ring was found inside. Sensing a divine hand at work, Polycrates informed Amasis of what occurred. Convinced that Polycrates’ fate was sealed because even what he threw away came back to him, Amasis ended their alliance, certain that Polycrates would come to a miserable end.

Eager to ally himself with a stronger power, Polycrates supported Cambyses’ invasion of Egypt with a fleet of 40 ships, the crews of which he wished to get rid of for suspected disloyalty. The exiled Samians instead sailed to Sparta and asked the Lacedaemonians to help them oust Polycrates from power. After their lengthy petition, the Spartans, a people known for few words, replied they had forgotten the beginning of the speech and could not understand the end, so the Samians had to try again. At their second audience, the Samians brought an empty bag and said it needed flour. The Spartans consented to their request and outfitted a force which laid siege to the Samian capital for 40 days. This was the first military expedition to Asia ever undertaken by the Lacedaemonians. The siege was unsuccessful, however, and the Lacedaemonians returned to the Peloponnese.

The Corinthians were also willing to help the exiled Samians to avenge an insult they had suffered a generation earlier during the reign of the Corinthian tyrant Periander. The Samians had rescued 300 boys from Corcyra, a Corinthian colony, whom Periander had kidnapped and was sending to Sardis to be made eunuchs. Corinth and Corcyra had been on hostile terms ever since the Corcyraeans murdered Periander’s son, who had sought refuge in the colony after Periander killed the boy’s mother. Later in life, Periander tried to make amends with his son, hoping he would return to Corinth and become tyrant in his stead. Periander promised to exile himself to Corcyra if the latter would take power in Corinth. To prevent this, the Corcyraeans killed the young man, which inaugurated a long-standing feud between the two cities. The exiled Samians broke off the siege when the Lacedaemonians departed; they established a city in Crete but ultimately were enslaved when they were defeated by a combined force of Cretans and Aeginetans. Herodotus concludes his digression on the history of the Samians by noting that they were responsible for three of the greatest engineering feats in the Greek world.

While Cambyses lingered in Egypt after his military failures, two brothers of the Magi (a priestly caste of Medes) conspired against him in Persia. One of the brothers, whose name was Smerdis—the same name as Cambyses’ brother, whom the Persian king had secretly assassinated—impersonated the dead man and took the throne. He proclaimed that all the Persian troops in the empire should now take orders from him, rather than Cambyses. When Cambyses heard of this, he suspected that his confidant Prexaspes had disobeyed his order to kill Smerdis. Questioning a Persian herald in Egypt, however, Cambyses realized what had happened—namely, that his own steward and that man’s brother had rebelled against him. On his way back to Susa to set matters straight, Cambyses accidentally stabbed himself in the thigh with his own sword, in the same place where he had struck Apis, the sacred Egyptian calf.

Believing the wound fatal, and remorseful for killing his own brother, he confessed the fratricide to the leading Persians in his retinue and begged them to prevent the Medes from taking control of the empire. Cambyses died shortly afterward, without offspring, after a reign of seven years. The false Smerdis continued on the Persian throne for seven months, winning popular favor by suspending tax collection and military service. He was ultimately exposed as an impostor by one of his wives, who informed her father, Otanes, a leading Persian noble. Otanes recruited several other Persian aristocrats, intending to unseat the usurper and return the throne to Persian rule. Among the seven conspirators was Darius, who urged the group to act immediately and decisively. Meanwhile, the two Magi bribed Prexaspes, Cambyses’ close associate, to proclaim before the public that the false Smerdis was indeed the son of Cyrus and legitimately held the throne. Prexaspes, however, declared that he had been forced to kill the true Smerdis by Cambyses and he urged the Persians to punish the Magi usurpers. He then threw himself off the tower from which he addressed the gathering. The seven conspirators rushed the royal palace, killed the brothers, and massacred every Magi they could find in the streets of Susa.

Five days later the conspirators met to decide how to proceed. Herodotus records their speeches as a constitutional debate on the merits of particular forms of government. Otanes argued that Persia should abolish monarchy due to the evils of envy and pride that inevitably corrupt the autocrat and adopt a democratic government. Megabyzus advocated that oligarchy by the select few is superior to rule by the masses, and Darius insisted that monarchy, in the right hands, is better than both democracy and oligarchy. Darius’ argument held sway, and the seven agreed to award the throne to the one among them whose horse neighed first after sunrise; Otanes abstained because he did not want to be king. Darius’ groom devised a plan to ensure his master would prevail. He allowed Darius’ horse to mount his favorite mare that evening along the road at the outskirts of the city; in the morning when the six were riding out, Darius’ horse reared when they reached that spot, and Darius was recognized king of Persia.

Ruler of all Asia except Arabia, Darius married Cyrus’ two daughters, as well as the daughter of Cyrus’ late son Smerdis and the daughter of Otanes. He set up 20 provisional governorships for the empire and established new tax assessments for the provinces. Enumerating the tribute provided to Persia by the Indians and (voluntarily) by the Arabians, Herodotus discusses the ethnography and natural history of these distant countries. The Indians collect gold in the desert, following giant ants whose burrowing unearths gold-rich sands. Herodotus claims that India is the most easterly country of the inhabited world, its animals and birds larger than any elsewhere. Arabia is the southernmost country; when collecting frankincense, the Arabians must drive off hordes of flying snakes by burning storax. The Arabians collect cinnamon by tricking birds who carry the spice to their nests; the sweet-smelling ledanon, which the Arabians use as incense, is found in the malodorous beards of goats. Commenting on the abundance of exotic animals of these regions, Herodotus observes that “it is hard to avoid the belief that divine providence, in the wisdom that one would expect of it, has made prolific every kind of creature which is timid and preyed upon by others, in order to ensure its continuance, while savage and noxious species are comparatively unproductive” (196).

Among the exotic marvels found at the ends of the earth, Herodotus notes that Ethiopia has immense deposits of gold, huge elephants, and the tallest, longest-lived, and most beautiful people in the world. He admits he knows little of northern Europe, where amber and tin are sourced, but believes that the rarest and most prized materials are to be found in the extremities of the world. After this interlude, Herodotus returns to his narrative of Darius’ reign. While Cambyses lay dying of his self-inflicted wound, Oroetes, the Persian governor of Sardis, decided to kill Polycrates of Samos. Oroetes had been insulted by another Persian governor who shamed him for not having brought Samos under Persian rule. Oroetes invited Polycrates to Sardis under false pretenses, claiming that he wished to make an alliance with the powerful Greek tyrant. Polycrates believed that Oroetes was extremely wealthy and would assist him in his own plan to gain control over all of Greece. Dismissing the pleas of his friends and daughter, as well as the advice of soothsayers, he sailed to Sardis where he was butchered by Oroetes and crucified after death.

It was not long, Herodotus says, before Polycrates had his revenge. After Cambyses’ death, Oroetes refused to help overthrow the Magian usurpation. After he killed one of Darius’ couriers, the newly installed Persian king decided to punish Oroetes for his defiance. Darius sent a herald to Sardis, who, through a series of proclamations from the emperor, tested the loyalty of Oroetes’ bodyguard. The final imperial order instructed the Persian guards to kill Oroetes, which they immediately did. Shortly afterwards, Darius dislocated his ankle while dismounting from his horse. The Egyptian physicians who attended him made the matter worse, so he called upon a Greek doctor, Democedes, who had accompanied Polycrates to Sardis and was now a prisoner among Oroetes’ slaves. Democedes cured Darius’ foot and interceded with him on behalf of the Egyptian physicians, whom Darius intended to execute as punishment. Pleased with Democedes’ service, Darius installed him in his court and liberated the Egyptian doctors. Democedes enjoyed every privilege in Susa, except the freedom to return to Greece.

After curing Darius’ wife of an abscess, Democedes made her promise to persuade the king to allow him to travel to Greece, ostensibly as an informant for a campaign that Darius was planning. Darius agreed, with the proviso that Democedes not be allowed to escape at any cost. When the small expedition reached southern Italy, Democedes jumped ship and made his way to Crotona, his native city. The Persians pursued him but were forced to abandon the chase, and returned to Asia.

Polycrates’ brother, Syloson, who had been exiled from Samos while the tyrant was in power, appealed to Darius to help reinstate him. He had met Darius in Egypt during Cambyses’ expedition, while the future king was a member of Cambyses’ guard, and had given Darius a scarlet cloak. Darius agreed to help Syloson and equipped him with a detachment led by Otanes, one of the seven conspirators. The rule of Samos, meanwhile, had passed to Polycrates’ friend Maeandrius after the tyrant’s death. Maeandrius, no lover of autocracy, at first proposed that the Samians form a democracy, but quickly realized that if he surrendered the tyranny, someone else would seize absolute power.

Maeandrius arrested the leading men in the city, and his brother subsequently had them executed. As a result, when the Persians arrived to restore Syloson, the Samians provided no resistance. Maeandrius agreed to abdicate but wanted to inflict as much damage as possible so that Syloson would inherit a weakened populace and chaotic state of affairs. Maeandrius’ brother attacked and killed a group of unsuspecting Persians; in response, Otanes laid siege to the citadel of Samos and massacred all the Samians. The Persians thus presented Syloson with an empty island; this was the first territory, Herodotus reports, that Darius conquered.

While these events were occurring, Babylon revolted. The insurrection had been planned for a long time; when it began, to reduce food consumption, the Babylonians strangled all the women in the city except for their mothers and one other woman each man chose to bake bread for him. Darius laid siege to the city for 19 months without success. Finally, a Persian named Zopyrus was inspired by a prodigy—a mule foaled, fulfilling a Babylonian prophecy concerning the capture of the city. Zopyrus mutilated his body and presented himself to the Babylonians, claiming to seek asylum from the violence of Darius. He had arranged with the Persian king that a detachment of low-level Persian soldiers should be placed at intervals outside several of the main gates of Babylon. At the appointed time, Zopyrus led the Babylonian forces victoriously against these Persian platoons, winning the confidence and praise of the Babylonians, who eventually anointed him the city’s hero and Guardian of the Wall. Finally, at a pre-arranged time, Darius unleashed the entire Persian army against Babylon.

Zopyrus, who had been given keys to the city’s gates, opened them, allowing the Persians to storm the city. Darius executed 3,000 of its leading citizens and destroyed Babylon’s battlements. Afterwards, to repopulate the city, he compelled the surrounding territories to send upwards of 50,000 women to Babylon as breeding stock. Darius lauded Zopyrus as the greatest benefactor of the Persians after Cyrus and rewarded him with the governorship of Babylon.