ut the safety of
their city, there was given to them an oracle which applied to both,
that is to say, part of it had reference to the Argives themselves,
while that which was added afterwards referred to the Milesians. The
part of it which had reference to the Argives I will record when I reach
that place in the history, 10 but that which the Oracle uttered with
reference to the Milesians, who were not there present, is as follows:

"And at that time, O Miletos, of evil deeds the contriver,
Thou shalt be made for many a glorious gift and a banquet:
Then shall thy wives be compelled to wash the feet of the long-haired,
And in Didyma then my shrine shall be tended by others."

At the time of which I speak these things came upon the Milesians, since
most of the men were killed by the Persians, who are long-haired, and
the women and children were dealt with as slaves; and the temple at
Didyma, with the sacred building and the sanctuary of the Oracle, was
first plundered and then burnt. Of the things in this temple I have made
mention frequently in other parts of the history. 11.

20. After this the Milesians who had been taken prisoner were conducted
to Susa; and king Dareios did to them no other evil, but settled them
upon the Sea called Erythraian, in the city of Ampe, by which the Tigris
flows when it runs out into the sea. Of the Milesian land the Persians
themselves kept the surroundings of the city and the plain, but the
heights they gave to the Carians of Pedasa for a possession.

21. When the Milesians suffered this treatment from the Persians, the
men of Sybaris, who were dwelling in Laos and Skidros, being deprived of
their own city, did not repay like with like: for when Sybaris was taken
by the men of Croton, the Milesians all from youth upwards shaved their
heads and put on great mourning: for these cities were more than all
others of which we know bound together by ties of friendship. Not like
the Sybarites were the Athenians; for these made it clear that they were
grieved at the capture of Miletos, both in many other ways and also by
this, that when Phrynichos had composed a drama called the "Capture of
Miletos" and had put it on the stage, the body of spectators fell to
weeping, and the Athenians moreover fined the poet a thousand drachmas
on the ground that he had reminded them of their own calamities; and
they ordered also that no one in future should represent this drama.

22. Miletos then ha