The Histories by Herodotus - 6 - Histiaeus Plots Rebellion
Book Five
Quote
"Now, the advantages of everyone having a voice in the political procedure are not restricted just to single instances, but are plain to see wherever one looks. For instance, while the Athenians were ruled by tryants, they were no better at warfare than any of their neighbours, but once they had got rid of the tyrants they became vastly superior."
Notes
- Histiaeus is a tyrant ruler in the Greek city of Miletus and a subject of the Persian empire. (Remember from the last book, he was the one who persuaded his fellow Greek leaders to not join with the Scythians in their fight against Persia, arguing that their own positions of power exist because of Persian rule.)
- One of Darius's officers warns him that Histiaeus is gaining too much power and could pose a threat if he isn't dealt with. Darius agrees. He calls Histiaeus away from Miletus, telling him that he is an "intelligent, loyal friend" who he needs to have by his side as an advisor.
- Hisiaeus leaves Miletus then to be Darius's advisor. However, after a while, he starts hating his new position. He figures that the only way Darius would send him back to Miletus is if they started a rebellion. So he begins a plot to bring that about.
- The roads between Persia and its subject cities are very well guarded, which makes it difficult for anyone to send messages back and forth without Darius knowing about it. So Histiaeus takes one of his slaves, shaves his head, and tattoos a message on his scalp. Then he waits for his hair to grow back and sends him to Miletus with the simple message to shave his head once he gets there.
- It just so happens that the new ruler at Miletus, Aristagorus, is very receptive to the idea of rebellion against Persia. Having just lost a recent battle and being under a lot of pressure for the expenses he incurred from it, he's worried that Persia will find someone else to replace him. He starts thinking his best bet might be to rebel, and then Histiaeus's slave shows up with the message on his scalp saying to do just that.
- Aristagorus goes to Sparta to try and persuade them to fight the Persians. He says Sparta is more powerful than the Persians, and the Persians have lots of wealth for the Spartans to take. At first his message makes some headway, but once he tells them it will take three months to get there the Spartans shut the whole thing down and tell him to leave immediately. So Aristagorus goes to Athens to try them next.
- Before all this was happening, Athens had recently freed themselves from being ruled by tyrants and they'd grown much more powerful as a result. Part of how they did so was by bribing the Oracle at Delphi to get it to tell the Spartans to help liberate Athens from the tyrants, which they then did.
- Sparta eventually found out about this trick and they got pretty pissed off. They were also afraid of Athens' growing power. They went to their neighbours to try get their help to bring back tyranny to Athens to make them weak again. But they did not meet with a positive response. One man, Socleas from Corinth, reprimanded the Spartans for even suggesting such as thing as forcing a tryanny on someone. He explained how horrible it is to be ruled by tyrants, since they exile huge numbers of people, take their property, and destroy their lives. And Corinth had tyranny in its own recent history to back this up. Everyone found Socleas's speech persuasive and so the Spartans' plan was thwarted.
- However, Hippias, the tyrant that Sparta wanted to install in Athens, started making trouble for Athens regardless and he got the Persians involved, too. It was just around this time that Aristagorus arrived in Athens to try and get them to attack Persia. Since Athens saw a fight brewing with Persia anyway, they agreed.
- Athens joins with Miletus and the Ionians in the fight against the Persians, but they don't stick around for very long. Still they do enough damage to get Darius's attention.
- Darius, very upset and suspicious, calls Histiaeus to ask him what's been going on? How could Miletus be plotting rebellion like this without him being involved in it? Histiaeus says he had nothing to do with it and asks Darius to be allowed to go to Miletus so he can personally deal with the situation (exactly what he wanted to have happen). Darius agrees and lets him go.
- Fighting continues and Aristagorus "proves himself to be somewhat of a coward." He runs away from the fighting but soon gets killed by another army.
Thoughts
With Athens entering the picture now, we get to see some of Herodotus's thoughts on democracy versus tyranny or monarchy. He makes it clear that he believes Athens became powerful once they became free from the tyrants who ruled over them. We also see in the Spartan's plot to reinstall a tyrant in Athens the implicit belief that bringing back tryanny to Athens would make them "weak and submissive." There is something in their freedom that makes them powerful.
However, Herodotus makes some less flattering observations about democracy as well. On Aristagorus's attempt to persuade Sparta and Athens to go to war against the Persians, Herodotus writes: "It seems easier to fool a crowd than a single person, since Aristagorus could not persuade Cleomenes of Lacedaemon [Sparta], who was all alone, but he succeeded with thirty thousand Athenians."
While this is by no means enough to prove as an absolute rule, it does show that Herodotus isn't afraid to point out the potential flaws in Athenian democracy as well as its advantages. One of the significant innovations in Greek history is this attempt to be objective, as opposed to twisting any event into a propaganda piece to make the current ruler look good. So here, even though we can see some traces of Herodotus's bias for democracy, he doesn't shy away from making criticisms of it either.