Herodotus on Histiaeus and Aristagoras, The Clever and Self-Serving Ionian Greeks:Tyranny and Democracy.
D.B. Levine. March 10, 2021
Thesis: Herodotus’ account of the Ionian Revolt is filled with examples of the plusses and minuses of TYRANNY and DEMOCRACY, and he comes out in favor of the latter.
Background.
In books 3 and 4, Herodotus tells how Cambyses went mad and died as a result of his foolish actions in Egypt, and how Darius came to be the Persian king after Cambyses, and how he embarked on a military expedition against Scythia (513 BCE), including an account of the Amazons (4.110-117).
On his way back from Scythia, the Greeks guarding the bridge over the Danube River debated about whether or not to leave the bridge intact and allow the Persians to retreat safely, or whether to dismantle the bridge and leave Darius and his army at the mercy of the enemy. The Scythians ask these Ionian Greeks to dismantle the bridge: “Your sixty days are up, Ionians, so it’s wrong of you to be here still. Previously it was fear that kept you here, but if you dismantle the bridge now, you can leave straight away without any worries, with the gods and the Scythians to thank you for your freedom. As for you former master, we will inflict such a defeat on him that he will never again make war on anyone” (4.136).
One of the Greeks, Miltiades of Athens (tyrant of Hellespontine Chersonese), was in favor of the Scythian proposal, and said it was a good way to “free Ionia from Persian rule” (4.137). But Histiaeus of Miletus said that all the Ionian tyrants owe their position to the Persian king Darius, and “if Darius were to fall, he would not be able to rule Miletus and none of them would remain in power either, because there was not one of their communities which would not prefer democracy to tyranny” (4.137). Everyone agreed with Histiaeus. So Histiaeus was acting in self-interest, and so were all the other Greeks, except for Miltiades. And in order to have it both ways, they took up a bow-shot’s length of the bridge from the Scythian side, so that it looked like they were agreeing with them, and told them that they were taking down the bridge (4.139), but the Ionians were lying. When the Scythians found out that the Ionians were lying to them and that they acted to help the Persian king, they said that the Ionians “make the worst and most cowardly free people in the world, but that if they were to think of them as slaves, they would have to say that no master could hope to find more loyal and submissive captives. This is the kind of insult Scythians have hurled at Ionians” (4.142).
Bottom line: Histiaeus and the other Greek rulers of Ionia were more interested in saving their own positions of power than they were interested in “freeing” the Greeks under Persian rule.
Histiaeus after the Scythian Expedition (Herodotus 5 and 6)
Hisitaeus of Miletus got credit for preserving the bridge and allowing Darius a safe retreat. For this, Darius rewarded him by giving him some land in Myrcinus in Edonia (near the Strymon River, in Northern Greek Macedonia: Hist. 5.11), but when the Persian satrap Megabazus saw Histiaeus’ strengthening of the place, he became suspicious, and advised Darius to take Histiaeus with him back to Susa, which he did. This begins a theme in the story of Histiaeus: The Persian King Darius was blind to Histiaeus’ treachery, but the Persian governors (satraps) saw through his lies and realized the danger he posed.
Megabazus:
My lord, what have you done? You have allowed a Greek – and a cunning and clever Greek at that (δεινῷ τε καὶ σοφῷ) – to found a settlement in Thrace, where there is a limitless supply of timber for shipbuilding, where there are plenty of spars for oars, and where there are silver mines too. Moreover, now that the local population there, which consists of huge numbers of Greeks as well as non-Greeks, have found a leader, they will do whatever he commands them to do, day and night. I think you should put an end to Histiaeus’ enterprise now, if you want to avoid getting embroiled in a war in your own territory send for him – but tactfully – and then restrain him. Once you have him here in your control, make sure that he never goes anywhere there are Greeks. (5.23)
Megabazus rightfully recognizes Histiaeus’ ambition to get power for himself.
Histiaeus Sets the Revolt in Motion, so He can Get Back Home.
Histiaeus “hated being kept oin Susa; he expected to be let go and sent to the coast in the event of a rebellion by Miletus, but he reckoned that unless the city created rouble he would never again get to see it” (5.55). Histiaeus, according to Herodotus, begins the Ionian revolt because he is homesick. From Susa, the Persian capital, Hisitaeus sendt the tattooed slave to his son-in-law Aristagoras in Miletus to urge him to lead the Ionians to revolt against Persian rule (5.35), which he plans carefully. And Herodotus says that Aristagoras agrees to join the revolt — not because he wants to free the Greeks from Persian rule, but because he got the message from Histiaeus when he was facing debt and afraid that he would lose his rulership of Miletus (5.35). And part of his preparation was to turn the government of Miletus to a democracy, so that he would have the majority of the people behind him (5.37). Note: it was not because he believed that the people should rule, but that he wanted their support.
Parallel with Book 1, Story of Croesus. Seeking Athens and Sparta for Help.
Remember that in book 1, Herodotus writes about King Croesus of Lydia, who consulted the Delphic Oracle about making war on Persia, and on which Greeks to make his allies. When the oracle told him to make an alliance with the most powerful Greek state (1.53), and he found that Athens and Sparta were the strongest at the time (1. 56), he looked into making allies of Spartans and Athenians in his planning for war against Persia. This gave Herodotus an excellent excuse for a digression on recent Athenian and Spartan history, in which he tells of the recently-established tyranny of Pisistratus, a fact that led Croesus to the realization that the Athenians “were currently in this state of oppression” (1.65). As far as the Lacedaemonians, Herodotus tells about their constitution that Lysander created for them, and how they had recently overcome the Arcadian Tegeans, and so were in a strong position. On the basis of this information, Croesus asked for and received a promise of alliance from the Spartans (1.69). However, the Persian king Cyrus took Sardis and captured Croesus before the Spartans could be of any help to him (1.83).
That was in book 1.
In book 5, there is a parallel story about getting Greek allies to oppose the Persians. When Aristagoras of Miletus decides to raise the Ionian Greeks to revolt from the Persians, he also focuses on Sparta and Athens, as Croesus had, because they were the strongest Greek states. First, however, Aristagoras gave up his tyranny and established Miletus as a democracy (which Herodotus calls ΙΣΟΝΟΜΙΗ ‘equality under the law’), and tries to put down tyrannies in Ionia, “because he wanted to get on good terms with the people in those places” (5.37). He does not believe in democracy because it is good for the people, but because it will help him politically.
Aristagoras first went to Lacedaemon (Sparta), “because he needed to find some powerful military support” (5.38). This gives Herodotus the chance to digress on recent Spartan history, telling how the Spartan king Anaxandridas had a barren wife, and took another woman to bear children, and ended up having sons from both women, and how one, Dorieus, went on various expeditions to Africa and Italy, and to Sicily, where he died in battle against the Phoenicians and the Segestans (5.47). Herodotus tells this story to show how the Spartan Cleomenes eventually became king, and then returns to his main story about Aristagoras. Aristagoras showed Cleomenes a map of the Persian empire (5.49), told him that the Persians would be easily conquered, and asked for his help. When Cleomenes demurred, Aristagoras offered Cleomenes a huge bribe, whereupon Cleomenes’ daughter Gorgo told her father to send the Ionian away before he could corrupts the austere Spartan (5.51). And Herodotus says that Aristagoras’ big mistake was not lying to the Spartan king. He should never have told him the truth… namely that the Persian capital was a 3-month trip from the Aegean Sea. “Up to then he had been so clever (σοφός), [and] he should not have told the truth, but he did” (5.50).
Herodotus on Athenian Democracy and its Strength.
When giving the background for Athens to give context to Aristagoras’ visit, Herodotus details how the Athenians had recently thrown off the yoke of the tyrants, with the help of the Alcmaeonidae family (who had bribed the Delphic Oracle to get the Spartans to overthrow the Pisistratids (5.62-63), and how, under Cleisthenes’ leadership, they had established democracy and defeated almost simultaneous attacks from enemies on all sides (Boeotia, Chalkis, and Sparta). He concludes,
“So Athens flourished. Now, the advantages of everyone having a voice in the political procedure (ΙΣΗΓΟΡΙΗ) are not restricted just to single instances, but are plain to see wherever one looks. For instance, while the Athenians were ruled by tyrants, they were no better at warfare than any of their neighbours, but once they had got rid of the tyrants they became vastly superior. This goes to show that while they were under an oppressive regime they fought below their best because they were working for a master, whereas as free men each individual wanted to achieve something for himself.” (5.78)
Herodotus here reinforces Aristagoras’ idea: a democracy is more powerful than a tyranny, because the people(δῆμος) have a say about their own destiny.
Herodotus on a Drawback to Democracy.
After failing at Sparta, when Aristagoras made his appeal to the Athenians, they accepted his arguments that the rich Persians will be easy to defeat. He appealed to their kinship, since Miletus was an Athenian colony, and thus the Milesians considered Athens their mother city, or ‘metropolis’. He made extravagant promises, and, Herodotus says “It seems to be easier to fool a crowd than a single person, since Aristagoras could not persuade Cleomenes of Lacedaemon, who was all alone, but he succeeded with thirty thousand Athenians,” who sent a small fleet of twenty ships to Ionia (5.97). This points out an actual flaw in democracy: the masses can get caught up by an idea that is not necessarily a sound one. We will see more of this when we read Thucydides.
Tyrants Care About Themselves, Not the People.
Herodotus shows that Histiaeus and Aristagoras, the main leaders of the Ionian revolt, were interested in their own agendas more than they were interested in saving Greeks from barbarian rule, or bringing freedom to their people.
The Corinthians tell how awful tyranny is, and refuse to help destroy the young alliance of Greek states to help destroy the Athenian democracy right after it was formed, the Spartans wanted to bring Hippias, the former tyrant of Athens, back to rule as tyrant again. In an impassioned speech, the Corinthian Socleas tells he assembled Greeks about the bloodthirsty nature of tyranny, “It’s a topsy-turvy world if you Lacedaemonians are really planning to abolish equal rights and restore tyrants to their states, when there is nothing known to man that is more unjust or bloodthirsty than tyranny” (5.92). The result of this speech was that Hippias was sent away from Sparta, because the plan to put him back in charge at Athens was rejected by the would-be allies of Sparta.
How the Revolt Caused Darius to Hate the Athenians.
The result of the Ionian Revolt was that the Athenians joined the Ionians in attacking and burning the city of Sardis in Lydia, which enraged the Persian king Darius who “is said to have asked for his bow; he took hold of it, notched an arrow, and shot it p towards the sky. And as he fired it into the air, he said, ‘Lord Zeus, make it possible for me to punish the Athenians.’ Then he ordered one of his attendants to repeat to him three times, every time a meal was being served, ‘Master, remember the Athenians’” (5. 105).
Histiaeus’ Further Deception of Darius.
King Darius suspected Histiaeus of having a part in the rebellion, and when he mentions it to him, Histiaeus lies and claims that he is loyal to Darius, and tells him another lie, “If I had been in Ionia, not a single state would have rebelled” (5.106). And he asks Darius to send him to quell the rebellion, while intending to support it.
The End of Aristagoras.
As the Persians put down the rebellion throughout Asia Minor and Cyprus, Herodotus says, “Aristagoras of Miletus proved himself to be somewhat of a coward. He had caused all the commotion in Ionia, and had stirred up a great deal of trouble, but seeing the current situation, and because he now despaired of ever defeating King Darius, he began to contemplate flight” (5.124). He acted against the advice of the writer Hecataeus, which was to hide out on the island of Leros, and tried to go back to the place which Histiaeaus had begun to fortify in Thrace, and was killed by Thracians when he besieged one of their towns (5.126). Herodotus considers Aristagoras’ death to have been cowardly.
The End of Histiaeus.
When the Persian satrap Artaphrenes saw him back in Lydia, he said, “I’ll tell you what actually happened in this business, Histiaeus: it was you who stitched the shoe, while Aristagoras merely put it on” (6.1). When Histiaeus fled to Chios, and the Greeks there asked him why he told Aristagoras to begin the Ionian Revolt against the Persians, he lied, and told them that the Persians had planned to move all the Greeks to Phoenicia, and bring the Phoenicians to live in Ionia (6. 3). He lied to his fellow Greeks, in order to save his own skin. Histiaeus is no hero; he is no champion of Greek freedom. He is out for himself, but his own people don’t want him any more, either.
When Histiaeus’ intercepted letter revealed his intentions to the Persians (6.4), he wanted to go back to being tyrant of Miletus, but Herodotus says, “The Milesians, however, were glad to have got rid of Aristagoras, and now that they had tasted independence, they were in no great hurry to welcome another tyrant into their land. In fact, when Histiaeus tried to bring about his restoration by force and under the cover of darkness, he was wounded in the thigh by one of thee Milesians” (6.5). He eventually got some people from Lesbos to give him some ships and crews, and he went to Byzantium and set up a base in order “to seize all ships sailing out of the Euxine Sea, unless the crews promised to recognize Histiaeus as their leader” (6.5). Since he was not able to take over Miletus by force and re-establish his tyranny, he essentially became a criminal extortionist and pirate.
And what finally became of Histiaeus? After the Persians took Miletus, he went to Lesbos, and then crossed to the coast of Asia Minor, where he was captured while running away from the battlefield, showing cowardice at the end, like Aristagoras had (6.28). Histiaeus had hoped to get back to Susa, where he was sure that Darius would forgive him, but the Persian satrap Artaphrenes knew that would happen, so he had Histiaeus impaled at Sardis and sent his embalmed head to the Persian king. “They did this because they wanted to make sure that he did not survive and become influential with the king again” (6.30). When Darius saw Histiaeus’ head, he ordered an honorable burial for it, and upbraided his men for not bringing him back alive. The deluded king still believed that Histiaeus had been “a major benefactor of himself and Persia” (6.30). Herodotus depicts Darius as deluded by the wily Histiaeus.
Histiaeus had indeed been a clever, but reckless Greek: out of his own self-interest he had saved the life of the Persian king, and later fooled him, and along the way had caused widespread calamity among his own people, and had seen his own city (and others) destroyed – all in the quest for power.
Solon as the “Anti-Tyrant”
Solon’s laws and reforms were meant to benefit the people, and in fact his laws laid the groundwork for Cleisthenes’ democratic reforms eighty years later.
Solon told Croesus that the happiest men he knew were the Athenian Tellus and the Argives Cleobis and Biton, all of whom cared for family, country, and the gods more than they cared about their own lives… the opposite of tyrants. And Solon’s contrast with Croesus served as another anti-tyrant idea: Croesus cared only about himself and his possessions, just like the stereotypical tyrant (1.29-33). Herodotus continues by saying that Croesus did not believe what Solon told him, and later faced retribution for his selfish narcissism and his stubbornness: he lost his son and his kingdom.
Other Tyrants in Herodotus.
Pisistratus. He was born to be trouble. Herodotus tells a story that upholds the idea that he shouldn’t have been born. When his father was at Olympia, the Spartan wise man Chilon saw a portent: Hippocrates’ pots boiled and overflowed without a fire. So Chilon advised the Athenian Hippocrates to have no children, but Hippocrates ignored the advice, and his wife gave birth to Pisistratus (1.59) Pisistratus wanted to take over Athens, and made three attempts (beating himself up and lying about it; bringing a fake “Athena” in a chariot; defeating the Athenians in battle) until he solidified his tyranny by military means and held children hostage by sending them away to the island of Naxos, where his fellow Tyrant buddy Lygdamis kept them as hostages (1. 59-64).
Hippias, son of Pisistratus. Kleisthenes and the Athenians threw this tyrant out of Athens in order to establish the democracy. The Spartans wanted to reinstate him by military means, but the Corinthian warning about the dangers of tyranny dissuaded the allies, and Hippias was again rejected. He appealed to the Persians for his own benefit (5.96): “He started to do everything he could to blacken the Athenians in the eyes of Artaphrenes, and to try to find a way to get Athens within his and Darius’ control.” To the Athenians, Artaphrenes said that “their future security depended on their taking Hippias back” (5.96). And in fact, nine years later (490 BCE), Hippias, as very old man, guided the Persian forces to Marathon (where his father had fought the Athenians) for an attack on Athens. Herodotus tells how the night before the battle he dreamed that he slept with his own mother (6.107), and thought that this portended his successful return to his motherland. While he was helping to muster the Persian troops to fight against his own people, he sneezed, and a loose tooth fell into the sand, making him realize “This land is not ours. We will never be able to conquer it. The only bit of it that belonged to me has been claimed by my tooth. So Hippias concluded that this incident was the fulfillment of his dream” (6.107-8). Hippias did not want to rule Athens to make it better or to help the people; he wanted power.
Cleisthenes of Sicyon. (5.67-69). This tyrant hated the people of Argos so much that he banished the Argive hero Adrastus from worship in Sicyon, and changed the names of the Sicyonian tribes in such a way that “he made the people of Sicyon laughing-stocks, because he changed the tribal names to ‘Swine’, ‘Donkey’, and ‘Pig’… The only exception was his own tribe, which he named ‘Rulers of the People, after his own rule” (1.68). Herodotus says that sixty years after the tyrant’s death, the Sicyonians changed these ridiculous names. Cleisthenes of Sicyon is another example in Herodotus of a tyrant whose sympathy for his own people was dwarfed by his own sense of self-importance.
Cleisthenes was Not such a Terrible Tyrant, and Makes a Good Story. His offspring turn out to be good Athenian Democrats.
Herodotus tells another story about this tyrant, showing his riches and generosity (6.126-131). Cleisthenes was an Olympic chariot-race victor, and also very rich. He invited noble Greeks to woo his daughter Agariste, and entertained them for a year, making a great show of his riches and hospitality. “The most important tests used to take place when they met together to eat [in a symposium]. Herodotus gives this story a humorous ending, after the tyrant made a magnificent sacrifice of a hecatomb (100 oxen), at the banquet the Athenian suitor Hippocleides gets drunk and makes a spectacle of himself by dancing with his legs in the air and exposing his genitals in a most undignified way. The tyrant gave his daughter to the Athenian Megacles, who eventually became the father of the Athenian Cleisthenes who helped to establish democracy in Athens. Another one of his descendants was Pericles of Athens, who was the most influential Athenian leader in the second half of the 5th century BCE. Herodotus also shows the generosity of Cleisthenes of Sicyon, who gives lavish gifts to all the suitors: a talent of silver (= 57.31 pounds) to each of the noble Greeks he had just entertained for a year.
I think that Herodotus paints this tyrant in a good light here, because his descendants were such important Athenians: Cleisthenes, the founder of Athenian Democracy, and Pericles, who was the greatest champion of Athenian Democracy in the Classical Period.
We should remember that the Athenians glorified the killers of Hipparchus (son of Pisistratus) as “Tyrant Slayers” (Tyrannicides). Harmodius and Aristogeiton became heroes of the Athenian Democracy, and Cleisthenes of Athens, the founder of democracy, commissioned the sculptor Antenor to set up bronze statues of them (perhaps in the Athenian Kerameikos, or Agora).
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