Key to Easy Latin Stories for beginners/Part IV/XVII
XVII.THE LAST DAYS OF MILTIADES.
Miltiades attacks Paros.
205.After the defeat inflicted on the Persians at Marathon, Miltiades, although he was already highly esteemed among the Athenians, was even more powerful (lit. was of even greater authority). So, after demanding seventy ships and an army, though he was unwilling to say against what country he intended to lead them, yet said that he would enrich them if they followed him, the Athenians, excited by this hope, gave him the vessels equipped. Then Miltiades, having received the army, sailed to Faros; for he was hostile to the Parians on account of one Lysagoras, who had formerly made an accusation against him. When he had arrived at the island, he drove back the Parians within their walls, and blockaded them: and having sent a herald to the city demanded a hundred talents, saying, that unless they gave them to him he would not withdraw his army till he had taken the city by storm. But the Parians paid attention in every way to the defence of (lit. that they might defend) the city. To which end they both planned other (devices) and wherever a part of the wall seemed easier (than the rest) to be taken by storm, there they proceeded to build it by night, twice as high as it was before.
He meets with an accident.
206.Now they relate that a captive woman, whose name was Timo, and who was the attendant of the temple of the goddesses below the earth, came to a conference with Miltiades, who was in doubt as to the result of the enterprise That she, after coming into the presence of Miltiades, advised him to do whatever she pointed out to him, if he valued the taking of Paros highly. That Miltiades then, after heanng the advice of this woman, betook himself to a mound which was in front of the city, and crossed a wall drawn round the temple of Ceres, since he was unable to open the gate; that he then approached the very temple of the goddess. But when he was at the gate that he returned by the same way as he came, being seized with a sudden panic, and dislocated his thigh in jumping down from the walL
The voice of Apollo.
207.Accordingly Miltiades sailed back without either bringing riches for the Athenians or subduing Paros. But the Parians on being freed from the blockade, when they had understood that &e attendant of the goddess had pointed out to Miltiades what ought to be done, desired to take vengeance (on her) for this reason. Therefore they sent ambassadors to Delphi to consult the oracle whether they should visit with the heaviest (lit. last) punishment the attendant of the goddesses who had pointed out to the foe the way to take their country, and had opened to Miltiades sacred things, which it was not right to be shown to men. But the priestess of Apollo said ‘no,’ saying, that Timo herself was not the cause of this thing: but that, since it was fated that Miltiades should end his life badly, this woman had been sent by the gods as a guide for him to evil. This indeed was the answer of the priestess to the Parians.
Disgrace and death of Miltiades.
208.But on his return from Paros, both all other Athenians began to accuse Miltiades, and especially (lit. compared with the rest) Xanthippus, son of Ariphron, who brought him before the people as a criminal on a capital charge, as having (lit. in that he) had deceived the Athenians by an evil trick. And Miltiades himself, although he was present, made no answer to this accusation, nor was he able, as his thigh was already mortifying. But while he lay on a couch in the midst, his friends pleaded his case for him, making frequent mention of the battle of Marathon. But, while the people favoured him so far as to set him free from the capital charge, yet as to fine him (in the sum of) 500 talents on account of the loss inflicted on the state, Miltiades, indeed, died not long after, his thigh having become rotten by the corruption of the bone; however, his son Cimon paid the 500 talents.