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[1]
Thus spoke Artabanus. Xerxes answered angrily, “ Artabanus, you are my father's brother; that will save you from receiving the fitting reward of foolish words. But for your cowardly lack of spirit I lay upon you this disgrace, that you will not go with me and my army against Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas, but will stay here with the women; I myself will accomplish all that I have said, with no help from you.
Thus spoke Artabanus. Xerxes answered angrily, “ Artabanus, you are my father's brother; that will save you from receiving the fitting reward of foolish words. But for your cowardly lack of spirit I lay upon you this disgrace, that you will not go with me and my army against Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas, but will stay here with the women; I myself will accomplish all that I have said, with no help from you.
[2] May I not be the son of
Darius son of
Hystaspes son of
Arsames son of
Ariaramnes son of
Teispes son of
Cyrus son of
Cambyses son of
Teispes son of
Achaemenes,
1
if I do not have vengeance on the
Athenians; I well know that if we remain at peace they will not; they will assuredly invade our country, if we may infer from what they have done already, for they burnt
Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis and marched into
Asia (continent)Asia.
[3] It is not possible for either of us to turn back: to do or to suffer is our task, so that what is ours be under the
Greeks, or what is theirs under the
Persians; there is no middle way in our quarrel.
[4] Honor then demands that we avenge ourselves for what has been done to us; thus will I learn what is this evil that will befall me when I march against these
Greeks—men that even
Pelops the
Phrygian, the slave of my forefathers, did so utterly subdue that to this day they and their country are called by the name of their conqueror.”
Histories. Herodotus. ed. A.D. Godley. Cambridge. 1920-1925.
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