The History of Antiquity, Vol. 6 (of 6)Duncker, Max
History
The History of Antiquity, Vol. 6 (of 6)
Duncker, Max
History, Ancient
[262] "Anapl. P. E." frag. 35. Choerilus, in Strabo, p. 303.
[263] Herod. 4, 88.
[264] The chronology of the conquests of Darius is not easy to fix. In
Herodotus the campaign against Samos is contemporaneous with the
rebellion of the Babylonians (3, 150). If Darius had had armies at his
disposal from Samos there, he would not have needed to send Bagaeus. The
expedition to Samos must be placed after the end of the rebellion,
_i.e._ at the earliest in the year 517, and it cannot be put later than
a year at the least before the Scythian expedition, since the ships of
Samos, led by Syloson's son, take part in that expedition, and in
addition to Samos the cities of the Bosphorus are in the hands of the
Persians before that event. The expedition to investigate the shores of
Greece, in which Democedes took part, is placed by Herodotus before the
attack upon Scythia. This is improbable, because the experience which
Darius gained in the Scythian expedition, and which made it seem
desirable to put the command in Persian hands, preceded this expedition.
There is nothing to point to it before the expedition; it first becomes
intelligible when Darius had resolved to change his plan of conquests in
the north for conquests in the west, and had given Megabyzus orders to
subjugate the coasts of Thracia on the Ægean,--when Megabyzus had
advanced to the Strymon and Macedonia had recognised the sovereignty of
Persia. On the other hand, the investigation of the Greek coasts cannot
be put much later than 512, since Milo of Crotona, who is still of great
influence in that region, as Herodotus himself remarks (3, 137),
betroths his daughter to Democedes. This influence Milo retained only as
far as the year 510 or 509; for soon after the victory over Sybaris and
the destruction of the city, which took place 511 or 510 B.C., the
rising against Pythagoras and the aristocracy took place; they were
overthrown and expelled. In Herodotus the Scythian expedition comes
after the capture of Babylon (4, 1). We have seen from the inscriptions
(p. 254), that there were two rebellions of Babylon, and that they
cannot have come to an end before the close of the year 517. Now Samos
was subjugated before this Scythian expedition; moreover Byzantium and
the Chersonese must have been in the hands of the Persians; at least a
year must have been occupied with the preparations required to bring
700,000 men to the Bosphorus, and with the preparations for building the
bridge (Herod. 3, 83). Hence the campaign cannot have commenced before
the year 515 B.C. and it cannot be put later than 510 B.C. Miltiades is
already master of the Chersonese when Darius crosses the Danube;
according to Herodotus it is the Pisistratids (not Hippias) who sent him
there. Hence Miltiades was master of the Chersonese before 514 B.C., the
year in which Hipparchus was murdered. Again, when Miltiades has to
retire from the Chersonese before the return of Darius, he does not go
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