Great Books Ep 108. Herodotus - The History - Book 1 (Clio), Part 3. The Persian Expansion and Fall of Cyrus
The Persian Empire under Cyrus conquers Greek cities, Babylon, and numerous kingdoms across Asia.
“While the lower parts of Asia were in this way brought under by Harpagus, Cyrus in person subjected the upper regions, conquering every nation, and not suffering one to escape.”
~ ‘The History’ by Herodotus (George Rawlinson translation. GB6 - p. 40)
Apologies for the long gap. It has been a couple of months since the last post. But it feels as though it were yesterday that I started reading Herodotus. I’ve just read Book 1, and it seems like an epic that has been condensed. There is so much information that makes one think about it long after reading. I read it in parts - around 12-14 pages per week, making it three parts. The first part mainly focused on the rise and fall of Croesus, the second on the birth and rise of Cyrus, and the final part on the expansion of Cyrus’ Persian Empire and his subsequent downfall.
Brief Summary - The History - Book 1 (Clio) - Sections 141-216 (Final Part)
1 - Ionian & Aeolian plea to Cyrus
Soon after Cyrus conquers Lydia, Ionian and Aeolian Greeks send their ambassadors to Cyrus with a plea to consider them as his lieges, similar to the terms they had with Croesus. Cyrus responds with a famous piper fable where a piper asks fish to dance to his music, and they refuse. So he captures them in a net. Once they are in captivity, they dance, but the musician says they should have danced when he asked. Cyrus means that the Greeks should have joined forces with him against Croesus. The Greek cities other than Miletus begin fortifying and send word to Sparta for help.
Herodotus then spends some time talking about the Ionians. They were displaced by the Achaeans, and many took refuge in Asia and set up 12 cities there. The Ionians there are proud to be Ionians but the Ionians left behind in Athens and nearby places are not.
2 - Spartan response to Cyrus
The Spartans (Lacedaemonians) send a message to Cyrus, demanding that he not attack any Greek city, as they would not permit it. Cyrus is surprised at the boastful message from a small place that he thinks is of no consequence. He also has contempt for the Greeks in general, mocking them as people “who have a set place in the middle of their city, where they come together to cheat each other”.
3 - Lydian Revolt & Cyrus’s response
Cyrus does not consider the Greeks important enough for him to personally go to war and plans to appoint one of his generals to conquer them. He has Babylon and Egypt in his sight, and they are much larger kingdoms. So he sets out from Sardis, appointing Tabalus, a Persian, as the governor and Pactyas, a native, in charge of collecting treasures. Pactyas uses the money to hire mercenaries and launch an attack on Tabalus. When Cyrus hears about this, he wants to suppress the rebellion and enslave all Lydians. But before taking action, he consults Croesus, who advises him against cruel punishment. He tells Cyrus to forbid them weapons, make them wear soft clothing and focus them on music and arts so that they become womanly and there would be no revolt in the future.
4 - Harpagus’ Conquest of Greek Cities
Cyrus appoints Mazares to take back Lydia and conquer lands to the west while he marches towards Babylon. Pactyas flees Sardis before Mazares and his army reach the city. Mazares immediately put into effect the rules laid out by Cyrus to forbid the Lydians from using weapons and to change their lifestyle to one focused on music and trade. He then dispatches envoys to countries that gave refuge to Pactyas to hand them over. Though he goes from one country to another, Pactyas is finally handed over to Mazares. When Mazares passes away due to illness, Cyrus sends Harpagus to take over. Harpagus systematically conquers all the Ionian cities. Some cities like Phoecia choose exile over slavery. After all the conquests, when Harpagus tries to take Xanthus, the Lycians of Xanthus offer fierce resistance, though their army is small. On the brink of defeat, the Lycians burn all their women and children and kill themselves.
Herodotus then provides detailed accounts of Carians (inventors of helmet crests, shield devices, and handles), Caunians (consider drinking wine honorable - men, women and children meet together to drink, they continue to worship their ancestral gods), Lycians (the world’s only matrilineal society where children take mothers’ names and citizenship laws favor women) and Cnidians (they try to cut a canal to make their territory an island but stop after an oracle warns them to not go against Zeus).
5 - The Conquest of Babylon
Herodotus writes about the splendor of Babylon in detail, their impenetrable fortress, the engineering feat to divert the river Euphrates to create a moat around the fort, the wealth of the city, the greatness of Queen Nitocris, who led the country efficiently, etc. Cyrus gains access to the city by using similar technques to divert the river and attacks when the Babylonians are celebrating a festival. The city is so large that even when the outer walls are breached, the people in the inner walls don’t realize that they are being attacked.
6 - The Fall of Cyrus
After conquering Babylon, Cyrus targets Massagetae, a Scythian kingdom beyond the Araxes River ruled by Queen Tomyris. He initially proposes marriage, but the queen refuses. The queen tells Cyrus not to cross the river and proposes that they fight on either side. When Cyrus asks his ministers for counsel, they tell him to let Queen Tomyris and army cross the river and fight them. But Croesus advises against the disgrace of yielding to a woman and says it is better to cross over to the other side and defeat them by using trickery - let a small part of the army cross and set up a feast. When the Scythians attack and defeat them, they would be tempted by the feast, and once they are drunk, the rest of the army would cross over and attack them.
Cyrus sees a dream of Darius with wings shadowing Asia and Europe. Darius was the son of Hystaspes, one of his generals. Interpreting this as a sign of a plot, he calls Hystaspes, who responds with complete loyalty. Hystaspes immediately leaves to go to watch over his son, Darius.
Croesus’ strategy works perfectly. The Massagetae army attacks and then indulges in drinking and eating when they see the feast. While they were drunk and sleeping, Cyrus attacks them and captures the prince, Spargapises. The queen sends a herald demanding her son’s return. Cyrus unties the prince, but he commits suicide due to shame. Tomyris gathers all her forces and engages in a deadly battle, the fiercest combat the Persians experienced till then. Cyrus is killed in the fight. Queen Tomyris finds his corpse, fills a bag with blood and thrusts his head into it, saying that she is giving him his fill of blood.
My Thoughts
I went through some of the passages that I had underlined in the book, and there were so many interesting and thought-provoking passages. Here are some thoughts and quotes -
1 - Cultural differences within a country/kingdom
An outsider could view all the Greeks as one group of people, but if you go a little deeper, you see that there are distinct groups with different histories - Ionians, Aeolians, Dorians, and Achaeans, among others. Even among Ionians, some consider themselves as pure and original Ionians, some who originated from Ionia and establish Ionian cities in the new places they inhabit, some are not even Ionians but call themselves Ionians, some like the Carians who marry Ionians after they conquered them but never speak to their husbands since Ionians had originally killed their fathers and husbands, and so forth. It goes without saying that only insiders know the nuances, and outsiders tend to generalize.
2 - Is ‘downtown’ a Greek concept?
“Cyrus intended these words as a reproach against all the Greeks, because of their having market-places where they buy and sell, which is a custom unknown to the Persians, who never make purchases in open marts, and indeed have not in their whole country a single market-place.” (Page 35)
One would think that having a central marketplace is a natural way for a city to grow, but that's probably not the case. Something to think about.
3 - Lifestyle influences behavior
“forbid them to keep any weapons of war, command them to wear tunics under their cloaks, and to put buskins upon their legs, and make them bring up their sons to cithern-playing, harping, and shop-keeping. So wilt thou soon see them become women instead of men, and there will be no more fear of their revolting from thee.” (Page 35)
The choice of clothing and daily activities has an influence on whether a place is peaceful or not. I guess some people are automatically peace-loving by being in a specific religion or a place.
4 - Invention of handles
“they were the first to fasten crests on helmets and to put devices on shields, and they also invented handles for shields.” (page 38)
It was interesting to think that people used shields without handles.
5 - Priestess with a beard
“Above Halicarnassus, and further from the coast, were the Pedasians. With this people, when any evil is about to befall either themselves or their neighbours, the priestess of Minerva grows an ample beard.” (page 39)
I wonder what people thought when they saw women with a beard or any facial hair. When did the custom of plucking, threading, etc., start? There was a passage in an Aristophanes’ play (probably Lysistrata) where women let the hair on their legs grow so that they could masquerade as men.
6 - Babylonians - Diverting water from a river
“For the river does not, as in Egypt, overflow the corn-lands of its own accord, but is spread over them by the hand, or by the help of engines.” (page 43)
I wondered what engine meant here. Not IC engines but some mechanical devices to divert water. Very clever.
7 - Babylonians - Marriage by auction
“Once a year in each village the maidens of age to marry were collected all together into one place; while the men stood round them in a circle. Then a herald called up the damsels one by one, and offered them for sale. He began with the most beautiful. … No one was allowed to give his daughter in marriage to the man of his choice.” (page 44)
Herodotus calls it a great custom that was corrupted when outsiders came. He probably thought that auction is fairer than taking a woman by force or by always marrying off to a known relative. This way more people stand to get a chance. Unfortunately the woman or the parents didn’t have a choice.
8 - Babylonians - Treating the sick
“They have no physicians, but when a man is ill, they lay him in the public square, and the passers-by come up to him, and if they have ever had his disease themselves or have known any one who has suffered from it, they give him advice, recommending him to do whatever they found good in their own case, or in the case known to them.” (page 44)
This is a very interesting way to cure a person! Very much similar to someone getting sick and posting on Reddit and many people responding with their thoughts.
9 - Babylonians - Sex with a stranger to appease a god
“The Babylonians have one most shameful custom. Every woman born in the country must once in her life go and sit down in the precinct of Venus, and there consort with a stranger.” (page 45)
This must have been a very harrowing experience for a woman, especially after the conquest. I’m sure many have contracted fatal diseases. Herodotus was right to call it a shameful custom. I wonder how such a thing even came about.
10 - Cannibalism of old people
“Human life does not come to its natural close with this people; but when a man grows very old, all his kinsfolk collect together and offer him up in sacrifice; offering at the same time some cattle also. After the sacrifice they boil the flesh and feast on it; and those who thus end their days are reckoned the happiest.” (page 48)
This was hard to read and imagine. I wonder what the definition of very old was.
Key Takeaways
The drive to succeed is more important - Cyrus didn’t get defeated by the mighty and advanced Babylonians but by a smaller kingdom whose main force to fight was the rage of a mother who lost her son. In the modern world, the fierce drive to succeed can make a smaller company overpower a larger one.
Technology can be copied - The Persians used the same engineering mechanism that the Babylonians used, to cross the river Euphrates. Incumbents can beat established players by copying technology and doing it better.
The corruption of good systems by external forces - Herodotus says that before the Persian conquest Babylonians had the best customs but they got corrupted after foreigners came. The marriage auction concept was good when all the prospective grooms where known people in the city and it was a good wealth distribution mechanism but when the wealthy were strangers, the custom disappeared. The consorting with a stranger was ok when it was all the people in the city but was probably scary with a lot of strangers in town.