ἱστορίαι Historiai
Hdt. 5.33 The Histories, Herodotus; served verbatim
Then Megabates, bringing Aristagoras from Miletus, the Ionian army, and the Naxians, pretended to be sailing to the Hellespont, but when he came to Chios, he put in with his ships at Caucasa so that he might cross with a north wind to Naxos. Since it was not fated that the Naxians were to be destroyed by this force, the following things took place. As Megabates was making his rounds among the ships' watches, it chanced that there was no watch on the ship of Myndus. Megabates, very angry at this, ordered his guards to find the captain of this ship, whose name was Scylax, and thrust him partly through an oar-hole of the ship and bound him there so that his head was outside the ship and his body inside. When Scylax had been bound, someone brought word to Aristagoras, that his Myndian friend was bound and being disgracefully treated by Megabates. Aristagoras then went and pleaded with the Persian for Scylax, but since he obtained nothing that he requested, he went and released the man himself. When Megabates learned this, he took it very badly and was angry at Aristagoras. Aristagoras, however, said, “But you, what have you to do with these matters? Did not Artaphrenes send you to obey me and to sail wherever I bid you? Why are you so meddlesome?” This response on the part of Aristagoras enraged Megabates, who, went night fell, sent men in a boat to Naxos to tell the Naxians of the trouble in store for them.

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

← Hdt. 5.32 contents Hdt. 5.34 →

Filed here — the addresses this episode attests; counted by the house’s first pass
fall of Miletus — a deed sea-fight at Naxos — a candidate entry taking of Miletus — a candidate entry Aristagoras — a life Artaphrenes — a candidate entry Megabates — a candidate entry

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