smell of asphalt, but is in other respects better than the pitch of Pieria. They pour it into a cistern dug near the lake, and when they have collected a sufficient quantity, they pour it off from the cistern into jars. All that falls into the lake passes under ground, and appears again upon the surface of the sea, which is about four stades distant from the lake. Thus, then, the account given of the island that lies off Libya may probably be true. 196. The Carthaginians farther say that beyond the pillars of Hercules there is a region of Libya and men who inhabit it: when they arrive among these people and have unloaded their merchandise, they set it in order on the shore, go on board their ships, and make a great smoke: that the inhabitants, seeing the smoke, come down to the sea, and then deposit gold in exchange for the merchandise, and withdraw to some distance from the merchandise; that the Carthaginians then, going ashore, examine the gold, and if the quantity seems sufficient for the merchandise, they take it up and sail away; but if it is not sufficient, they go on board their ships again and wait; the natives then approach and deposit more gold, until they have satisfied them: neither party ever wrongs the other; for they do not touch the gold before it is made adequate to the value of the merchandise, nor do the natives touch the merchandise before the other party has taken the gold.

197. Such are the Libyans, whose names I have been able to mention; and most of these neither now nor at that time paid any regard to the king of the Medes. But I have still this much to say about this country, that four distinct races inhabit it, and no more, as far as we know: two of these races are indigenous, and two not. The Libyans and Ethiopians are indigenous, the one inhabiting the northern, the other the southern parts of Libya; but the Phoenicians and Greeks are foreigners. 198. No part of Libya appears to me so good in fertility as to be compared with Asia or Europe, except only the district of Cinyps; for the land bears the same name as the river, and is equal to the best land in the production of corn; nor is it at all like the rest of Libya; for the soil is black, and well watered with springs; and it is neither affected at all by drought, nor is it injured by imbibing too much rain; for rain falls in this part of Libya. The proportion of the produce of this land equals that of

Babylon. The land also which the Euesperides occupy is good, for when it yields its best, it produces a hundred-fold, but that in Cinyps three hundred-fold. 199. The district of Cyrene, which is the highest of that part of Libya which the nomades occupy, has three seasons, a circumstance worthy of admiration; for the first fruits near the sea swell so as to be ready for the harvest and vintage; and when these are gathered in, the fruits of the middle region, away from the sea, swell so as to be gathered in, these they call uplands; and when this middle harvest has been gathered in, that in the highest part becomes ripe and swells. So that when the first crop has been drunk and eaten, the last comes in. Thus harvest occupies the Cyrenæans during eight months. This may be sufficient to say concerning these things.

200. The Persians sent to avenge Pheretime, when, having been dispatched from Egypt by Aryandes, they arrived at Barce, laid siege to the city, demanding the surrender of the persons concerned in the death of Arcesilaus; but as the whole people were implicated, they did not listen to the proposal. Thereupon they besieged Barce for nine months, digging passages under ground that reached to the walls, and making vigorous assaults. Now the excavations a worker of brass discovered by means of a brazen shield, having recourse to the following expedient: carrying it round within the wall, he applied it to the ground within the city; in other places to which he applied it, it made no noise, but at the parts that were excavated, the brass of the shield sounded. The Barcæans, therefore, countermining them in that part, slew the Persians who were employed in the excavation; thus, then, this was discovered; but the assaults the Barcæans repulsed. 201. When much time had been spent, and many had fallen on both sides, and not the fewest on the side of the Persians, Amasis, general of the land forces, had recourse to the following stratagem: finding that the Barcæans could not be taken by force, but might be by artifice, he did thus: having dug a wide pit by night, he laid weak planks of wood over it, and on the surface over the planks he spread a heap of earth, making it level with the rest of the ground. At daybreak he invited the Barcæans to a conference, but they gladly assented, so that at last they were pleased to come to terms; and they made an agreement of the following nature, concluding the

treaty over the concealed pit: "That as long as this earth shall remain as it is, the treaty should continue in force; and that the Barcæans should pay a reasonable tribute to the king, and that the Persians should form no new designs against the Barcæans." After the treaty, the Barcæans, confiding in the Persians, both themselves went out of the city, and allowed any one of the Persians who chose to pass within the wall, having thrown open all the gates. But the Persians having broken down the concealed bridge, rushed within the wall; and they broke down the bridge that they had made for the following reason, that they might keep their oath, having made a compact with the Barcæans that the treaty should continue so long as the earth should remain as it then was; but when they had broken down the bridge, the treaty no longer remained in force.

202. Those of the Barcæans who were most to blame Pheretime impaled round the walls when they had been delivered up to her by the Persians, and having cut off the breasts of their wives, she also studded the wall with them. The rest of the Barcæans she gave up as booty to the Persians, except such as were Battiadæ, and had not participated in the murder; to these Pheretime intrusted the city. 203. The Persians, therefore, having reduced the rest of the Barcæans to slavery, took their departure; and when they halted at the city of the Cyrenæans, the Cyrenæans, to absolve themselves from obedience to some oracle, permitted them to pass through the city; but as the army was going through, Bares, the commander of the naval forces, urged them to take the city, but Amasis, the commander of the land forces, would not allow it, "for that he was sent against no other Grecian city than that of Barce." However, when they had passed through, and encamped on the hill of the Lycæan Jupiter, they began to repent that they had not possessed themselves of Cyrene, and attempted to enter it a second time. But the Cyrenæans would not suffer them, and a panic struck the Persians, although no one attacked them; and having run away for a distance of sixty stades, they pitched their camp. When the army was encamped here, a messenger came from Aryandes to recall them. The Persians, having requested the Cyrenæans to give them provisions for their march, obtained their request, and having received them, marched away toward Egypt; and from thence the Libyans, laying wait for them, put to death those that

strayed and loitered behind, for the sake of their dress and baggage, until they reached Egypt. 204. The farthest point of Africa to which this Persian army penetrated was the country of the Euesperides. The Barcæans, whom they had enslaved, they transported from Egypt to the king, and king Darius gave them a village in the district of Bactria to dwell in. They gave, then, the name of Barce to this village, which was still inhabited in my time, in the Bactrian territory. 205. Pheretime, however, did not close her life happily; for immediately after she returned from Libya to Egypt, having avenged herself on the Barcæans, she died miserably, for even while alive she swarmed with maggots. So odious to the gods are the excesses of human vengeance. Such and so great was the vengeance of Pheretime, wife of Battus, on the Barcæans.

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BOOK V.

TERPSICHORE.

THE Persians, left in Europe by Darius under the command of Megabazus,' subdued the Perinthians first of the Hellespontines, who were unwilling to submit to Darius, and had been before roughly handled by the Pæonians. For the Pæonians from the Strymon, an oracle having admonished them to invade the Perinthians, and if the Perinthians, when encamped over against them, should challenge them, shouting to them by name, then to attack, but if they should not shout out to them, not to attack; the Pæonians did accordingly. The Perinthians having encamped opposite to them in the suburbs, a threefold single combat there took place according to a challenge; for they matched a man with a man, a horse with a horse, and a dog with a dog. But the Perinthians being victorious in two of these combats, when through excess of joy they sang the Pæon, the Pæonians conjectured that this was the meaning of the oracle, and said among themselves, "Now surely the oracle must be accomplished; now it is our part to act." Thus the Pæonians attacked the Perinthians as they were singing the Pæon, and gained a complete victory, and left but few of them alive. 2. Such, then, had formerly been the achievements of the Pæonians; but at that time, though the Perinthians proved themselves valiant in defense of their liberty, the Persians and Megabazus overcame them by numbers. When Perinthus was subdued, Megabazus marched his army through Thrace, subjecting to the king every city and every nation of those dwelling in that country; for this command had been given him by Darius, to subdue Thrace.

3. The nation of the Thracians is the greatest of any among

1 See B. IV. chap. 144.