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Was there an Ionian Revolt?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

J. Neville
J. Neville
Affiliation:
St. Albans
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Extract

The events in Ionia during the first decade of the fifth century have been the subject of perennial controversy, largely because of the deficiencies of the account Herodotus gives us. The nature of these deficiencies, however, has for the most part been ignored, and the debate has centred itself on what we should add to and subtract from the account of Herodotus. Such an approach is dangerously subjective, and tends to produce an account of the ‘Revolt’ untenable in the light of our evidence. It would be very satisfying to prove that ‘widespread hatred of a despotic constitution’ indicates that ‘Ionia was seething with discontent’, causing ‘the Ionians’ great struggle for freedom, undertaken of their own free will'; can we justify such conclusions from the evidence?

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , December 1979 , pp. 268 - 275
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1979

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References

1 Quotations from Bury, J. B., History of Greece 7 (London, 1951), p. 243;Google ScholarBurn, A. R., Persia and the Greeks (London, 1962), p. 193;Google Scholar and How and Wells: Commentary on Hdt.2 (Oxford, 1928), on 6.3.Google Scholar

2 e.g. Cook, J. M., The Greeks in Ionia (Thames & Hudson, 1962);Google ScholarSakellariou, O., La Migration grecque en Ionia (1958).Google Scholar

3 The statement in How and Wells (on 1.148) is quite untrue: ‘We have instances of united action in 1.141, 5.108.2, 6.7.’ Not one helps their argument: in 1.141, Miletus is outside the terms of reference, having made her private peace with Cyrus; and in both 5.108 and 6.7, the issue is the ‘Revolt’ itself, which we shall see to have had no unity of aim or action. Attempts to prove greater unity from electrum coins (Gardner, P.: JHS 31, 1911Google Scholar) cannot prove unity (see Myres, : Hdt., Father of History (Oxford, 1953), p. 197Google Scholar). On the other hand, Lieselotte Solmsen (AJPh 64 (1943), 194–207Google Scholar) concluded from a careful study of the speeches in this section that ‘the Ionians’ lack of judgment, training and unity—defects which not even the greatest heroism could offset—caused the rebellion's failure.’ Not, of course, that any of the states displayed ‘the greatest heroism’—so far as we can prove.

4 Immerwahr, H. R., Form and Thought in Hdt. (Cleveland, 1966), p. 233.Google Scholar

5 Mitchell, B. M., ‘Hdt. and Samos’ (JHS 95 (1975), 89 n. 65);CrossRefGoogle Scholarcf. Myres, (op. cit., pp. 181–2Google Scholar) who makes Hdt. ‘deliberately ironical’ with ‘more than Sophoclean irony’, and Fornara, C. W. (Hdt., An interpretative Essay (Oxford, 1971), p. 55Google Scholar) who describes Hdt. as being ‘irreverent … and, by implication, cynical’.

6 The nearest Hdt. comes to referring to an Ionian ‘Revolt’ is 9.105: implying an earlier I am indebted to Professor A. A. Long for pointing this out.

7 Fornara, , op. cit., p. 54; actually on Hdt. on Periclean Athens, but equally relevant here.Google Scholar

8 e.g. Basch, L. (in JHS 97 (1977), 7CrossRefGoogle Scholar): ‘… même en tenant compte de la malignitas d'Hérodote à l'égard des loniens’.

9 Fornara, , op. cit., pp. 76 n. 4 and 50.Google Scholar

10 Strasburger, H., ‘Herodotund das perikleische Athen’ (Historia 4 (1955), 1–25Google Scholar); Harvey, F. D., ‘The Political Sympathies Of Hdt.’ (Historia 15 (1966), 254–5).Google Scholar

8 e.g. Chapman, G. A., ‘Hdt. and Histiaeus’ role in the Ionian Revolt’ (Historia 21 (1972), 567Google Scholar); Andrewes, A., The Greek Tyrants (London, 1956), p. 124;Google ScholarManville, P. B., ‘Aristagoras and Histiaeus’ (CQ (1977), 91Google Scholar). Also Forrest, W. G., ‘Motivation in Hdt.’ (PCPS, forthcoming 1979). I am very grateful to Professor Forrest for allowing me to see this article before its publication.Google Scholar

12 As Waters, K. H., ‘Hdt. on tyrants and Despots’ (Historia Einzelschr. 15 (1971), 35–6).Google Scholar

13 Andrewes, A., op. cit., p. 124.Google Scholar

14 Beloch, (GG II ii (1916), 81 ff.Google Scholar) accepted the evidence of the Lindian Temple Chronicle as proving a siege of Lindos in 494, which must have been part of the Persian counter-measures to the ‘Revolt’. Cary, (CAH iv. 225Google Scholar) also accepted the earlier date; others (notably Meyer, , GdA IV i (1916), 306 n. 1)Google Scholar prefer a later date of 490-dismissed by Burn, (Persia and the Greeks, p. 218Google Scholar) as impossible. Hdt. himself seems to have had no authorities for the history of Rhodes: his three references (1.174, 2.178, and 7.153) tell us nothing about its history.

15 e.g. on 8.30: Wells (Introd., p. 40 n. 1) —‘severe on Phocis’, cf. How (ad loc.) ‘this judicious remark’, echoed by Hignett, (Xerxes' Invasion of Greece (Oxford, 1963), p. 100)Google Scholar as ‘this sensible observation’. A. R. Burn finds the same phrase ‘wantonly catty’ (Introd. to Penguin translation, p. 33) but accepts without comment elsewhere (Persia and the Greeks, pp. 347, 425Google Scholar). In the same Introduction, Burn carefully establishes that Hdt, did not see various states as ‘Goodies’ and ‘Baddies’ (p. 15)-before going on to list which states Hdt. regarded as ‘Goodies’ and which as ‘Baddies’ (pp. 32 f.).

16 e.g. ‘I cannot discover’, 1.47, 4.32,187, 6.14, 7.26,60, 8.87. Sometimes Hdt. admits ignorance but offers surmises (e.g. 4.87, 8.133, 9.81); sometimes he records his conjectures (stating them as such) without explicit admissions to inability to discov facts (e.g. 7.185, 186, 187; 9.32).

17 Forrest, W. G.: Introd. to (abridge Rawlinson translation (Washington Square Press (1963), p. xxxi).Google Scholar

18 Hignett, , op. cit., p. 86.Google Scholar

19 Some of the ideas in this article formed part of a thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham in 1976, and I must record my indebtedness to my tutors, Professor E. A. Thompson and Mr. J. A. Rich. I must also express my sincere gratitude to Professor W. G. Forrest, who most kindly read a draft of this and offered most valuable advice.