revolt from Croesus, while now
when the conquest had been made they were ready to submit to Cyrus. Thus
he said to them in anger, and the Ionians, when they heard this answer
brought back to their cities, put walls round about them severally, and
gathered together to the Panionion, all except the men of Miletos, for
with these alone Cyrus had sworn an agreement on the same terms as the
Lydians had granted. The rest of the Ionians resolved by common consent
to send messengers to Sparta, to ask the Spartans to help the Ionians.

142. These Ionians to whom belongs the Panionion had the fortune to
build their cities in the most favourable position for climate and
seasons of any men whom we know: for neither the regions above Ionia nor
those below, neither those towards the East nor those towards the West,
146 produce the same results as Ionia itself, the regions in the one
direction being oppressed by cold and moisture, and those in the other
by heat and drought. And these do not use all the same speech, but have
four different variations of language. 147 First of their cities on the
side of the South lies Miletos, and next to it Myus and Priene. These
are settlements made in Caria, and speak the same language with one
another; and the following are in Lydia,--Ephesos, Colophon, Lebedos,
Teos, Clazomenai, Phocaia: these cities resemble not at all those
mentioned before in the speech which they use, but they agree one with
another. There remain besides three Ionian cities, of which two are
established in the islands of Samos and Chios, and one is built upon the
mainland, namely Erythrai: now the men of Chios and of Erythrai use the
same form of language, but the Samians have one for themselves alone.
Thus there result four separate forms of language.

143. Of these Ionians then those of Miletos were sheltered from danger,
since they had sworn an agreement; and those of them who lived in
islands had no cause for fear, for the Phenicians were not yet subjects
of the Persians and the Persians themselves were not sea-men. Now these
148 were parted off from the other Ionians for no other reason than
this:--The whole Hellenic nation was at that time weak, but of all its
races the Ionian was much the weakest and of least account: except
Athens, indeed, it had no considerable city. Now the other Ionians, and
among them the Athenians, avoided the name, not wishing to be called
Ionians, nay even now I perceive that the greater number