Histories by Herodotus — Read

1. After Babylon had been taken, the march of Darius himself [540] against the Scythians took place: for now that Asia was flourishing in respect of population, and large sums were being gathered in as revenue, Darius formed the desire to take vengeance upon the Scythians, because they had first invaded the Median land and had overcome in fight those who opposed them; and thus they had been the beginners of wrong. The Scythians in truth, as I have before said, [541] had ruled over Upper Asia [542] for eight-and-twenty years; for they had invaded Asia in their pursuit of the Cimmerians, and they had deposed [543] the Medes from their rule, who had rule over Asia before the Scythians came. Now when the Scythians had been absent from their own land for eight-and-twenty years, as they were returning to it after that interval of time, they were met by a contest [544] not less severe than that which they had had with the Medes, since they found an army of no mean size opposing them. For the wives of the Scythians, because their husbands were absent from them for a long time, had associated with the slaves.

[540]: Some enterprises had been entrusted to others, e.g. the attack on Samos; but this had not been the case with the capture of Babylon, therefore some Editors have proposed corrections, e.g. αὖ τοῦ (Schweighäuser), and αὐτίκα (Stein). ↩︎