g ninety-eight of them having been seized by
a plague and carried off; and then secondly in their city about the same
time, that is shortly before the sea-fight, as some children were being
taught 15 in school the roof fell in upon them, so that of a hundred
and twenty children only one escaped. These signs God showed to them
beforehand; and after this the sea-fight came upon them and brought
their State down upon its knees; and as the Chians had suffered great
loss, he without difficulty effected the conquest of them.

28. Thence Histiaios made an expedition against Thasos, taking with him
a large force of Ionians and Aiolians; and while he was encamped about
the town of Thasos, a report came to him that the Phenicians were
sailing up from Miletos to conquer the rest of Ionia. Being informed of
this he left Thasos unconquered and himself hastened to Lesbos, taking
with him his whole army. Then, as his army was in want of food, 16 he
crossed over from Lesbos to reap the corn in Atarneus and also that in
the plain of the Caicos, which belonged to the Mysians. In these parts
there chanced to be a Persian named Harpagos commanding a considerable
force; and this man fought a battle with him after he had landed, and
he took Histiaios himself prisoner and destroyed the greater part of his
army..

29. And Histiaios was taken prisoner in the following manner:--As the
Hellenes were fighting with the Persians at Malene in the district of
Atarneus, after they had been engaged in close combat for a long time,
the cavalry at length charged and fell upon the Hellenes; and the
cavalry in fact decided the battle. 17 So when the Hellenes had been
turned to flight, Histiaios trusting that he would not be put to death
by the king on account of his present fault, conceived a love of life,
so that when he was being caught in his flight by a Persian and was
about to be run through by him in the moment of his capture, he spoke
in Persian and made himself known, saying that he was Histiaios the
Milesian..

30. If then upon being taken prisoner he had been brought to king
Dareios, he would not, as I think, have suffered any harm, but Dareios
would have forgiven the crime with which he was charged; as it was,
however, for this very reason and in order that he might not escape
from punishment and again become powerful with the king, Artaphrenes
the governor of Sardis and Harpagos who had captured him, when he had
reached Sardis on his way to t