Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/282

264 HISTORY OF OKEECE. mer. He crossed this greatest of all earthly rivers, 1 for sc tha Danube was imagined to be in the fifth century B.C., and di- rected his march into Scythia. As far as the point now attained, our narrative runs smoothly and intelligibly : we know that Darius marched his army into Scythia, and that he came back with ignominy and severe loss. But as to all which happened between his crossing and recrossing the Danube, we find nothing approaching to authentic statement, nothing even which we can set forth as the probable basis of truth on which exaggerating fancy has been at work. All is in- explicable mystery. Ktesias indeed says that Darius marched for fifteen days into the Scythian territory, that he then exchanged bows with the king of Scythia, and discovered the Scythian bow to be the largest, and that, being intimidated by such discovery, he fled back to the bridge by which he had crossed the Danube, and recrossed the river with the loss of one-tenth part of his army ,2 being compelled to break down the bridge before all had passed. The length of march is here the only thing distinctly stated ; about the direction nothing is said. But the narrative of Ktesias, defective as it is, is much less perplexing than that of Herodotus, who conducts the immense host of Darius as it were through fairy -land, heedless of distance, large intervening rivers, want of all cultivation or supplies, destruction of the coun- try in so far as it could be destroyed by the retreating Scyth- ians, etc. He tells us that the Persian army consisted chiefly of foot, that there were no roads nor agriculture ; yet his nar- rative carries it over about twelve degrees of longitude from the Danube to the country east of the Tanais, across the rivers Tyras 1 Herod. iv, 48-50. 'Jorpof fie-yiorof irorupuv TTUVTUV TUV r//ze/f Idfiev, etc. Ktesias, Persica, c. 17. Justin (ii, 5 compare also xxxviii, 7) seems to follow the narrative of Ktesias. JEschylus (Pcrsae. 864), who presents the deceased Darius as a glorioas contrast with the living Xerxes, talks of the splendid conquests which he made by means of others, "without crossing the Halys himself, nor leav- ing his home." We are led to suppose, by the language which JEschylua pits into the mouth of the Eidolon of Darius (v, 720-745), that he had for- gotten, or had never heard of the bridge thrown across the Bosphorus by order of Darius ; for the latter is made to condemn severely the impiooi insolence of Xerxes in bridging over the Hellespont.