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Zeitschrift fr Alte Geschichte.
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ABHANDLUNGEN
AENEAS TACTICVS, HERODOTVS AND THE IONIAN REVOLT
While reading Aeneas Tacticus recently I was struck by a passage in that
author's chapter on Secret Messages that seemed vaguely familiar (xxxi 9-9a).1
A city (unnamed) is under siege. A messenger arrives carrying letters he is to
deliver to "a traitor and those to whom he was bringing them" (Tn [iEv
3IQO6t6OVTL xatLoLs EqEQEV).The messenger is not named. Instead of
delivering the letters to their intended recipients he approaches the military
commander of the city (also unnamed) and turns the letters over to him. The
commander orders him to deliver the letters, to see whether his accusations are
justified (ELa&XiE' TL TI>ViEL). This leaves no doubt that the messenger has
turned informer. Any replies he may receive he is told to bring back to the
commander unopened. The plan worked well. When the letters were brought
to him the commander summoned the traitors, and then forced each man to
acknowledge the seal with which he had sealed the letter as his own. (Ta'
>l?th
TE 6ELXVUEV
ToV &zxTUXL(v, &ieL 60ioXyouv CrUT6v?EvaL). Then
only did the commander open the letters and denounce the men as traitors.
l The chief authorities used on Aeneas Tacticus are the following: H. Kochly and W. Rustow,
Aeneias von Vertheidigung der Stadte, in Part 1 of their Griechische Kriegsschriftsteller(text with
German translation and notes), Leipzig 1853, 1-183; R. Schoene, Aeneae Tactici de obsidione
toleranda commentarius (text, fragmenta, testimonia), Leipzig 1911, xxxiv + 205; W. A. Oldfather and other members of the Illinois Greek Club, Aeneas Tacticus,Asclepiodotus, Onasander
(with text, fragments, introduction and English translation), Loeb Classical Library, London and
New York 1923, 1-225; L. W. Hunter and S. A. Handford, AINEIOY rOAIOPKHTIKA,
Aeneas on Siegecraft, Oxford 1927 (text, introduction, commentary, fragments and English
translation), lxxxii + 266; D. Barends, Lexicon Aeneium, A lexicon and index to Aeneas Tacticus'
military manual "On the defence of fortified positions", Assen, Netherlands 1955 (with
bibliography), 174.
Barends frequently marks words with an asterisk, indicating that in particular passages: "Aen.
Tact. has [evidently or possibly] borrowed the word from another author." But he offers no
explanation why some words would be borrowed and others not, nor where Aeneas borrowed
them.
More recently two important volumes have appearedin France. 1)A. Dain and A.-M. Bonn, tnie
le Tacticien. Collection des Universites de France, ed. "Les Belles Lettres," Paris 1967 (with text
and a translation). See esp. vii-xxx (L'Homme et L'Oeuvre), and 70 n.l., where it is said with
reference to the passage discussed in this paper: "II est impossible de chercher, pour ce chapitre,
des references precises la oii elles manquent . . ." 2) Yvon Garlan, Recherches de poliorcitique
grecque, Bibliotheque des l-coles Franqaisesd'Athenes et de Rome, Paris 1974. See esp. 169-184
(La poliorcetique grecque au temps d'lnee le Tacticien).
Historia, Band XXX/4 (1981) ? Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH, D-6200 Wiesbaden
386
TRUESDELLS. BROWN
Aeneas ends by expressing his admiration for the sagacity of the commander
(9b). Had he opened the letters in private the traitors might have been able to
escape punishment by claiming that the evidence against them had been forged.
By waiting the commander made it impossible for them to deny their guilt.
Although there is a resemblance between this episode and the betrayal of
Otanes to the younger Cyrus (Anab. I 6,3), the situation there is different in
that it occurs in camp, while Aeneas is more interested in the defense of
fortified places against attack from within. Herodotus (VI 4) offers a closer
parallel. He tells us that during the Ionian Revolt letters were entrusted by
Histiaeus of Miletus to a certain Hermippus of Atarneus to deliver to Persian
traitors in Sardis. The city was then under the control of the satrap
Artaphrenes, halfbrother to King Darius (V 25).
Despite leaving out all the historical details, in one respect Aeneas tells us
more than Herodotus does, for the latter says nothing about the personal seals
6v aXTUkL6ctxv a&rrc 6'ioX6youv atuTwvEvaL), which are so
(Ta oiLtEW . .
important to Aeneas. How is it possible, then, to argue that Aeneas borrowed
this episode from Herodotus? Can the borrower copy more than he finds in
his source?
Fortunately there are four other instances where scholars are in agreement
that Aeneas borrowed from Herodotus, and three of these come from the
chapter on Secret Messages (xxxi).
Herodotus describes how Demaratus, deposed as a Spartan king, took
refuge in the court of Xerxes. When he learned of the planned invasion of
Greece he wished to get word through to the Spartans. This he did by carving
the message on the wood of a writing tablet, after first removing the wax. Then
fresh wax was put on the tablet which was sent to Sparta, apparently blank.
The Spartans were puzzled at first, but Gorgo, that enfant terrible, found the
message and the Spartans were warned (VII 239). Aeneas alludes to this
method in these terms (xxxi 14): "There was an instance where someone wrote
a message on a wooden tablet, then covered it with wax and wrote something
else on the wax. Then when it reached the person for whom it was intended, he
scraped off the wax and read the message, and then was in a position to send
back another message in the same way." Despite the added refinement of
writing an innocuous message on the wax itself, and also of using the same
tablet for a return message, modern editors have had no reluctance in asserting
that Aeneas borrowed this from Herodotus.' The same method of sending a
secret message is repeated by Justin, who says it was the sister of Leonidas who
discovered the secret writing (II 13-17).
2 Cf. Kochly &, op. cit. 176; Schoene, op. cit. 85, ap. crit., Oldfather, op. cit. 163 n.l. However,
Hunter & Handford note correctly that the wording is not close to that in Herodotus, op. cit. 207.
In Herodotus Gorgo is Leonidas' wife and the daughter of Cleomenes. Justin also writes
about a certain Amilcar Rodanus, who pretended he had been driven out by the Carthaginians. He
387
388
TRUESDELLS. BROWN
389
It is going too far to claim that Aeneas was so well acquainted with
Herodotus and Thucydides that he, "had them by his side while he was
writing."9 Had that been so he would probably have made more use of them,
and also have reproduced them more accurately. So far as we know, he only
used four books of Herodotus (IV 200; V 35; VII 239; and VIII 128) in
addition to Book VI. Had he read Book One, how could he have resisted the
account of a letter sent to Cyrus the Elder sewed up in the belly of a hare (I
123f.) ?10
The two excerpts from the history of the Ionian Revolt are a useful link in
our tradition about that struggle. Ultimately Herodotus' version of what
happened during the Revolt would prevail,"1but at the time the father of
and even much later - many conflicting stories must have
history wrote
been in circulation. What Herodotus did in providing us with a coherent
pattern of events was a great achievement in itself.12
And now let us look more closely at his account of the episode in Sardis.
Doubts have been expressed about the traitors inside the city. Were they really
Persians? It has been suggested that instead they were Lydians."3However, it
must be remembered that Darius was a usurper, who would therefore have had
enemies among the Persians as well as outside their ranks. True, such men are
not mentioned in the Behistun inscription, but that inscription was written
even before the Scythian expedition,14 the results of which would have
encouraged potential enemies to think that the king was not invulnerable. As
van Groningen says, the Ionian Revolt seems to have been part of a larger
See Hunter & Handford, xxxv.
1? A man who wrote such a series of books on military subjects (see ibid. xii-xiii) cannot have
been without books of his own, and no doubt he made use of them in his other treatises. But the
logical place for the letter to Cyrus would be in chapter xxxi of the work we still have.
" See e. g. Paus. X 33,2, where the periegete accurately summarizes the salient points in
Herodotus' account of Histiaeus, including the same unfavorable judgment of his character.
Pausanias compares him with Paris, who likewise brought about the destruction of his native city
for selfish reasons. For a needed corrective of the view that Herodotus' History was an immediate
best-seller, see S. Flory, "Who read Herodotus?" AJPh. 101 (1980), 12-28, though he probably
exaggerates the boredom that would be caused by "Herodotus' ungainly book" (ibid. 28). It was
not necessary to read it at one sitting!
12 See Jacoby, RE Supp. 2, 384. Herodotus' chronology presents difficulties. These have been
examined by N. G. L. Hammond, Historia 4 (1955), 371-411. He dates Histiaeus' departure from
Susa for the coast in 498/7 (see esp. 386 with notes 2 & 3).
'3 See W. W. How & J. Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus, vol. 2, Oxford 1912 (corrected
1928), 67: "These Persian traitors in Sardis are a puzzle. Could they be Lydians who still
nourished national aspirations?" See also Ph. Legrand, Herodote, Histoires Livre VI, Paris 1948, 8
n. 3: "Peut etre ces pretendus Perses etaient des Lydiens soi-disant rallies au gouvernement de
Darius, mais qui revaient d'une restauration du royaume de Cresus."
14 The events described there by Darius run only from the fall of 522 to the spring of 520,
according to G. B. Gray. See CAH vol. 4, 662f., n. 3.
390
TRUESDELLS. BROWN
391
had it in mind to move the lonians to Phoenicia and bring the Phoenicians into
Ionia (VI 1-3). And this is not implausible, when we read how later Darius
forced the Milesians who survived to move to the Persian Gulf (VI 20); but
transporting the Phoenicians to Ionia would have been unthinkable. Then
comes the episode in Sardis where Histiaeus is betrayed by Hermippus.
Rejected by his fellowcitizens after this fiasco he finished his days as an
adventurer. Unluckier than Themistocles, even his knowledge of Persian did
not save him, though Darius arranged for an honorable burial of his remains
(VI 26-30). The one-time folk hero has become the central figure in a
picaresque novel. Exactly why Histiaeus has been so unfavorably treated by
Herodotus is hard for us to say, perhaps partly because of that historian's
paranoia about lonians in general, and also because in the light given after the
event Herodotus felt that the movement never had any chance of succeeding.
But it is not unlikely that Herodotus obtained some of his information from a
Persian whom he met on his travels. Zopyrus whom he may have met in
Athens, is one possibility, while Artabazus is another.20Such a Persian might
well take a very jaundiced view of Histiaeus - or of Aristagoras.
Herodotus needed a history of the Ionian Revolt to help bridge the gap
between a Persian logos and his new theme of the Persian war against Greece.21
Presumably, when he set out from Asia on his travels, he had already
accumulated some notes he had made with the idea of writing a new, fuller and
more accurate rhpfobo; r1g, but they need not have included any special
inquiries into the Ionian Revolt (or the Scythian Expedition). It is regrettable
that Diodorus Siculus' account has been lost, except that is for a single excerpt,
on the terms granted the Ionians by Artaphrenes (X 25,4), because he (or
rather Ephorus) is at variance with Herodotus. Now Ephorus may possibly
have used the Persica of his compatriot Heraclides of Cyme, whose dates,
however, are by no means certain. If he did so, then the excerpt may reflect
Heraclides.22Heraclides, whenever he lived, would have read Herodotus, but
20 On Herodotus' Persian 'friends' see J. L. Myres, Herodotus father
of history, Oxford 1953,
159; also see Legrand H&rod.Hist. III, 185 n. 3.
21 See Jacoby, RE Supp. 2, 352, where he calls this
transitional stage, "eine nEQo060o rilS
gekleidet in die augere Form der Persika." See also col. 346, 29f. for the place of the Ionian Revolt
in Herodotus' plan.
22
Jacoby does not believe this (FGrH Ia, 317 - on No. I, T 7), but says Ephorus made it up
independently on the basis of Hdt. VI 42-43. Nevertheless, Ephorus would certainly be interested
in any Persica by a historian from Cyme. Jacoby dates Heraclides in about 350 B. C. (FGrH
No. 689, see also his Abhandlungen zur griechischen Geschichtsschreibung,Leyden 1956, 32), but
since his commentary has never appeared we do not know his reasons for opposing Muller, who
dates Heraclides as later than Dinon, and even later than Clitarchus (FHG II, 95a), on the basis of
Plut. Them. 27. See also Eduard Meyer, G. d. Alt., IV 14 84 and 85 n. 1. As to Ephorus' possible
use of Heraclides, E. Schwartz pointed out long ago that nothing is known about Ephorus' life,
but that his History breaks off in 356/5 (RE VI 1 = Griechische Geschtchtsschreiber,3). Therefore
the bare possibility of borrowing does exist. His Persica was in 5 books (Diog. Laert. V 94).
392
S. BROWN
TRUESDELL
as an Asiatic Greek he was probably aware of more than one version of what
happened - the same thing might be true of Ephorus if we only knew how
long he lived in Asia.
This also applies to Hellanicus of Lesbos, who was contemporary with
Herodotus, and who wrote a Persica of his own.23 Although no fragments of
Hellanicus on the Ionian Revolt survive, he is cited by a scholiast on Aeschylus
for calling Artaphrenes, Daphernes.24 This shows that he described the
overthrow of the Magi, and it may be presumed that his Persica continued on
down at least to the death of Darius. If that is true, then he would have been
bound to say something about the Ionian Revolt, in which another (but surely
related) Artaphrenes plays a-major role.
It is also likely that Herodotus picked up some more information by talking
to Athenians. Where else would he have been likely to hear of Phrynichus' Fall
of Miletus, and the fact that the Athenians fined the dramatic poet for
reminding them of their misfortunes (VI 21)?
There is one more writer who deserves to be mentioned here, and that is
Lysanias of Mallus. Only a single fragment remains and that comes to us
through Plutarch, who uses him in an attempt to refute Herodotus (de malign.
Herod. 24). Lysanias says that the Greek attack on Sardis was made in order to
end the Persian siege of Miletus. There is nothing to prove when he lived or
where he got his information, but that has not prevented scholars from arguing
vigorously either for or against the validity of his conclusions.25
393
Until and unless more is recovered from these alternative accounts we shall
have to content ourselves with Herodotus, and that is too bad. But at least
there is no reason to believe that if all these other written accounts had
survived and Herodotus had not we should be any better off.
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Truesdell S. Brown