Table of Contents Stories of the East from Herodotus (by Alfred Church) Page 3: Chapter 1 King Croesus of Lydia Page 9: Chapter 2 Croesus, wishing to make war against the Persians, Consulteth the Oracles Page 17: Chapter 3: King Croesus is Defeated and the City of Sardis is Taken The Story of the Persian War from Herodotus (by Alfred Church) Page 26: Chapter 3: Of the First War Against Greece Page 33: Chapter 4: Of the Battle of Marathon Page 43: Chapter 6: How Preparation was made for the Second War against the Greeks Page 55: Chapter: 7: Of the Setting Forth of Xerxes Page 62: Chapter 8: Of the March of Xerxes Page 70: Chapter 9: How Xerxes Crossed over into Europe, and of his Army Page 78: Chapter 11: Of the Preparations of the Greeks Page 87: Chapter 12: Of the Army of Xerxes, and of the first fighting with the Greeks Page 92: Chapter 13: Of the Battle of Thermopylae Page 101: Chapter 14: Of the Battle of Thermopylae (continued) Page 109: Chapter 17: Of the Greeks at Salamis and of the City of Athens Page 118: Chapter 18: Of the Battle of Salamis Page 126: Chapter 19: Of the Flight of Xerxes Page 133: Chapter 21: Of the Battle of Plataea The Children’s Plutarch: Tales of the Greeks (by F.J. Gould) Page 149: Chapter 1: The Hardy Men of Sparta (Lycurgus) Page 156: Chapter 2: The Wise Man of Athens (Solon) 1 Page 163: Chapter 3: The Just Man (Aristides) Page 168: Chapter 4: The Savior of Athens (Themistocles) Page 175: Chapter 5: The Admiral of the Fleet (Cimon) Page 181: Chapter 6: The Man who Made Athens Beautiful (Pericles) Page 187: Chapter 7: Three Powers (Lysander and Others) Page 193: Chapter 8: The Man with Many Faces (Alcibiades) Page 199: Chapter 14: The Orator (Demosthenes) Page 206: Chapter 15: The Conqueror (Alexander) The Peloponnesian War (by Thucydides) Page 218: Book I, chapter 5: Pericles’ Speech about submitting to the Spartans (432 BC) Page 227: Book 2: The Plague itself (431 BC) Page 234: Book 2 (continued): Pericles’ Speech after the Plague (still 431 BC) 2 Stories of the East from Herodotus By Alfred Church (chapter 1 adapted by Mr. Smith) Chapter 1: King Croesus (Kree-sus) of Lydia There was once a mighty king in named Croesus. Like most kings, Croesus inherited his position from his father. He was only 35 years old when he took over the rule of a small empire called Lydia. Croesus ruled most of what we would today call Asia Minor from his capital city of Sardis (see map). Although Croesus had inherited power and wealth, he wanted even more. Many Greeks had sailed east from Greece and settled first on islands of the Aegean Sea and then on the coast of Asia Minor (called Ionia). These cities were close to the ocean and were somewhat rich 3 from their seafaring trade. Croesus decided to take over these Ionian Greeks and make them part of his empire. Croesus looked for any opportunity to pick a fight with these cities that he could. If he could find something serious to argue over, he used it gladly, but if no serious matter could be found, any little thing would do. Once he had started an argument with a city it was soon easy to find a reason to go to war. The first Ionian Greek city that he conquered was Ephesus, and in the course of a few years he had subdued all of the Greek speaking cities on the coast of Asia Minor. Once conquered, these once independent cities became part of the Lydian empire and had to pay tribute to Croesus. Not only did he increase the amount of area he ruled over, but because of tribute he gathered enormous wealth into his treasury in Sardis. Even after Croesus had conquered all of the Greek cities on Asia Minor, his ambitions were not yet fulfilled; he hungered for even more wealth and power. He made plans to build ships, sail into the Aegean Sea, and conquer all of the Greeks who lived in the islands there. But just when he had gotten ready to build the ships a wise traveler came through Sardis known for his wisdom. This man was Greek (although we are not sure of his name). This wise Greek saw that Croesus was preparing to build ships so that he could conquer more Greeks, and he determined to do his best to convince Croesus to give up the idea. When Croesus asked the wise Greek if he had any news from Greece, he said to him, “Great King, the Greeks in the islands are buying up ten thousand horses to that they can come over to Sardis and defeat you.” When Croesus heard this news he smiled inwardly, knowing that the Lydians would have an advantage in such a war. He prayed, “O gods, please let the Greek islanders attack us, the men of the plains, with horses!” The visiting Greek heard the 4 words and said to Croesus, “Great King, I see that you are praying for the islanders to come and fight you in the plains with horses. Certainly the Lydians would defeat the islanders with horses! But what do you think the islanders pray for? They are skilled in the art of seafaring warfare. Surely they would like nothing better than to see the Lydians build ships and attack them from the sea. Then they could get revenge for their Greek brothers in Ionia who you have conquered and brought into slavery. King Croesus believed the visiting Greek spoke the truth. Croesus then ceased building ships and instead made an alliance with the Greeks that lived in the islands. After several years had passed and Croesus had continued to increase in wealth, power, and honor, his capital city of Sardis became a place where many wise Greeks came to visit. The wisest and greatest of these Greek visitors was Solon, who came from Athens. Solon had helped avoid a civil war in Athens by writing new laws (a constitution) and establishing Athenian democracy. After doing so he decided to travel for 10 years. He told the Athenians that he did this so that he could see the governments in other countries, but he really did this to avoid the temptation to take power himself or to change the laws he had written (the Athenians themselves had promised not to make any changes for 10 years). When Solon came to Sardis King Croesus was happy to have a visitor famous for such wisdom—even though at this time Athens was poor and weak compared to Sardis and its empire. After Solon had stayed with Croesus for a few days, the king told his servants to take Solon on a tour of all of the royal treasures in Sardis. Hoping to impress Solon, Croesus made sure to allow Solon plenty of time to see his treasury and all of his stored riches. After giving Solon the 5 opportunity to soak it all in King Croesus brought Solon before him and said, “Man of Athens, I have heard much about your great wisdom and of your wanderings. They say you travel to many lands in the search for knowledge. Since you are so wise, I would like to ask one question of you.” Solon bid the king to proceed, and Croesus asked his question: “Of all the men you have ever seen, who do you think is the happiest?” The king asked this question with the expectation that Solon would answer that Croesus was the happiest. But Solon refused to flatter Croesus. Rather, he spoke truthfully: “O King, the happiest man that I have ever seen is Tellus the Athenian.” Croesus was baffled by the answer; he had never heard of Tellus the Athenian! “Why,” King Croesus thundered, do you think Tellus the Athenian is the happiest of men? Solon calmly answered: “Tellus saw his country grow in prosperity. Tellus wasn’t rich, but he was comfortable. He had beautiful and noble children, and each of his children brought him grandchildren. Not one of his children or grandchildren died before him. Even the end of his life was great: Tellus died a heroic death while fighting for Athens. All of Athens came out buried him where he fell and gave him great honors. Tellus was the happiest man because good fortune followed him all the way to his grave. Surprised as he was not to have been chosen the happiest man, King Croesus then asked Solon who would take second place. Solon answered quickly again: “I judge Cleobis and Biton to be second in happiness after Tellus the Athenian.” Croesus had never heard of these people either, and his curiosity showed. Solon continued to tell Kind Croesus that Cleobis and Biton were young men in the city of Argos. They had enough money to live 6 comfortably and they were so athletic that they won many awards in the various games the city put on and earned great honor among their peers. But most importantly, every year the people of Argos put on a great feast to the goddess, Hera, who was the wife of Zeus. The mother of Cleobis and Biton happened to be a priestess to the goddess Hera, and it was custom that a priestess she should be carried in a wagon into the city for the festival. She had a problem, however, in that the oxen who usually pulled the wagon were still out grazing in the fields, far from where the wagon stood.