Persian Fire (70 page)

41
Aristotle,
Rhetoric,
3.10.

42
Herodotus, 6. 106.

43
The tradition that Philippides hurried back to Athens from Sparta was recorded by the second-century
ad
essayist Lucian in his article 'On Mistakes in Greeting' (3). Rationalist that he generally was, Lucian showed himself merciless towards the more far-fetched claims made about Marathon, scoffing, for instance, in another essay, at the very notion that Pan might have taken part in the battle. This surely suggests that Philippides' return to Athens was taken for granted by the ancients, and although it has been doubted by Lazenby (1993, p. 52) it is hard to see why. The news of Spartan plans was of pressing importance to the Athenians (as it was to the Persians too, of course), and Philippides would hardly have been in any mood to hang around in Sparta and enjoy the fun of the Carneia. Of course, that the run back to Athens would have been gruelling for the already exhausted runner is not doubted — that he may have pushed himself to the point of hallucinating wildly surely implies that he had his vision of Pan on the return, rather than the outward, leg of his journey.

44
A phrase so celebrated that it ultimately came to serve the Greeks as a proverb. It was quoted as such in a Byzantine encyclopedia, the so-called
Suda,
together with an explanation of its origin in the Marathon campaign. Although the
Suda
was compiled in the tenth century
ad
, almost 1500 years after Marathon, the fact that it transcribes a saying so obviously traditional and widely known has led most historians to accept its accuracy (although by no means all: see, for instance, Shrimpton). A further clincher - albeit an argument from omission — is the failure of Herodotus to make any mention of cavalry in his account of the famous battle. Clearly, although some horsemen must have been left behind by Datis, there were not enough to influence the result.

45
An alternative theory, that the cavalry were away on a foraging expedition or being watered, makes little sense. Why would
all
the cavalry have been sent away on such a mission in the middle of the night?

46
Herodotus, 6.112.

47
That Themistocles was one of the ten generals is nowhere directly stated, but it is strongly implied by a passage in Plutarch's life of Aristeides (5), in which the two men are described as fighting as equals at Marathon - and Aristeides, we know for certain, was the general of his tribe. Since Themistocles was a recent archon, and a man strongly associated with an anti-Persian policy, it is hard to know whom his tribe might have voted for in preference to him.

48
Aristides, 3.566.

49
Plutarch,
Aristeides,
18. The phrase quoted is a description of the Spartan phalanx at the later Battle of Plataea.

50
Pausanias, 1.32.6.

51
Herodotus claims that a shield was used, but since the shields used by the Greeks were convex, and a flat surface is needed to catch the sun, this seems improbable. That the signal was sent from Mount Pentelikon is an assumption based on the local topography.

52
Herodotus, 6.116.

53
Ibid., 6.109.

54
Ibid., 8.105.

55
Pausanias, 1.29.4.

VI The Gathering Storm

1
  
From Plato's epigram 'On the Eretrian Exiles in Persia'.

2
  
The exact date of Demaratus' flight from Sparta is uncertain. It was most likely some time between September 490
BC
and the following September, although it could have been later.

3
  
Herodotus, 1.136.

4
  
Plato,
Alcibiades,
121d. Herodotus (1.136) and Strabo (15.3.18) claim that Persian boys began their full-time education at the age of five; Plato, immediately after the passage quoted, says seven.

5
  
Ctesias, 54.

6
  
Although Herodotus (7.2-5) claims that Xerxes was not proclaimed heir until Darius was preparing to depart for Egypt, a frieze dating from much earlier in his reign (at least before 490
bc
), shows Darius with Xerxes as crown prince standing behind him.

7
  
Cicero, 1.41.90.

8
  
Strabo, 15.3.21.

9
  
Herodotus, 7.187.

10
Xerxes, inscription at Persepolis (XPf).

11
Plutarch,
Artaxerxes,
3.

12
Xerxes, inscription at Persepolis (XPh).

13
Ibid. (XPf).

14
Herodotus, 7.6.

15
Herodotus, as ever our principal source, gives us a detailed account of the debate, complete with speeches from Xerxes, Mardonius and Xerxes' uncle Artabanus, a prominent dove — all of which he claims to have derived directly from Persian sources (7.12). Even if the speeches are not the verbatim transcripts that Herodotus implies, the division of opinion which they reflect does seem authentic. The characterisation of Mardonius,

bearing in mind what would subsequently happen, appears particularly suggestive.

16
Such, at any rate, is the implication of the comments that Herodotus gives Mardonius after the Battle of Salamis (7.100).

17
To be specific, the southern end of the so-called Apadana Staircase, the sculptures of which have been dated to the beginning of Xerxes' reign.

18
Xenophon,
Household Management,
4.8.

19
Aelian, 1.33.

20
Strabo, 25.3.18.

21
Herodotus, 7.5.

22
'Paradaida'
is a reconstruction, based on the evidence of the Greek loanword. An exact synonym, the Elamite word
'partetash',
has been found in the Persepolis tablets. See Briant (2002), pp. 442-3.

23
Xenophon,
Household Management,
4.21.

24
Athenaeus, 9.51. The assertion was originally made by Charon of Lampsacus, a contemporary of Herodotus.

25
An anonymous philosopher of the fifth century - perhaps Democritus. Quoted by Cartledge (1997), p. 12.

26
Plutarch,
Themistodes, 2.

27
Aristotle, Politics, 1302bl5.

28
Aristotle
(The Constitution of the Athenians,
22.1 and 4) specifically states that it was Cleisthenes who was responsible for the law on ostracism. Historians have sometimes doubted whether it would have remained unused for twenty years, but scepticism on the matter ignores the peculiar circumstances of Miltiades' trial, and its aftermath.

29
A title not semi-formalised until 478
bc
, a year after the end of the Persian Wars, but evidently in the air long before that (cf. Plutarch,
Aristeides,
7).

30
Plutarch,
Aristeides,
2.

31
Pausanias, 1.26.5.

32
The earliest reference to the contest between Athena and Poseidon occurs in Herodotus (8.55), and this has led some scholars (most notably Shapiro) to suggest that it is a fifth-century invention. Certainty on the matter is impossible, but the confusions and inconsistencies in the various versions of the myth suggest a much older origin.