ἱστορίαι Historiai
Hdt. 4.162 The Histories, Herodotus; served verbatim
During the life of this Battus, these ordinances held good, but in the time of his son Arcesilaus much contention arose about the king's rights. Arcesilaus, son of the lame Battus and Pheretime, would not abide by the ordinances of Demonax, but demanded back the prerogatives of his forefathers, and made himself head of a faction; but he was defeated and banished to Samos, and his mother fled to Salamis in Cyprus. Now Salamis at this time was ruled by Evelthon, who dedicated that marvellous censer at Delphi which stands in the treasury of the Corinthians. Pheretime came to him, asking him for an army to bring her and her son back to Cyrene; Evelthon was willing to give her everything else, only not an army, and when she accepted what he gave her, she said that it was fine, but it would be better to give her an army as she asked. This she said whatever the gift, until at last Evelthon sent her a golden spindle and distaff, and wool, and when Pheretime uttered the same words as before, he answered that these, and not armies, were gifts for women.

The Greek stands ready in the workroom; the English is served. Both faces will read together.

← Hdt. 4.161 contents Hdt. 4.163 →

Filed here — the addresses this episode attests; counted by the house’s first pass
sea-fight at Salamis — a deed siege of Samos — a candidate entry Arcesilaus — a candidate entry Battus — a candidate entry Pheretime — a life

The Histories, Herodotus — translated by A. D. Godley, 1920–25
Perseus Digital Library — Herodotus, The Histories (Godley translation) · A. D. Godley, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press / William Heinemann, 1920–25
license: public-domain (US: pre-1930 publication); Perseus digital edition CC BY-SA 4.0, attribution recorded in ops/corpus-staging/SOURCES.md