Question:

- How reliable is Herodotus as a historian in modern terms?

A. Herodotus 6.135.1-136.3. Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge.

Harvard University Press. 1920.

Context: The Athenian Assembly had granted ships to Miltiades, the hero of the Battle of Marathon,

with the promise that he would make them rich. However, he went out to attack the island of Paros and

came home empty-handed. Timo, mentioned here, was the under-priestess of Apollo at the oracle at

Delphi.

6.135.1 So Miltiades sailed back home in a sorry condition, neither bringing money for the Athenians nor

having won Paros; he had besieged the town for twenty-six days and ravaged the island.

6.135.2 The Parians learned that Timo the under-priestess of the goddesses had been Miltiades' guide

and desired to punish her for this. Since they now had respite from the siege, they sent messengers to

Delphi to ask if they should put the under-priestess to death for guiding their enemies to the capture of

her native country, and for revealing to Miltiades the rites that no male should know.

6.135.3 But the Pythian priestess forbade them, saying that Timo was not responsible: Miltiades was

doomed to make a bad end, and an apparition had led him in these evils.

6.136.1 Such was the priestess' reply to the Parians. The Athenians had much to say about Miltiades on

his return from Paros, especially Xanthippus son of Ariphron, who prosecuted Miltiades before the

people for deceiving the Athenians and called for the death penalty.
6.136.2 Miltiades was present but could not speak in his own defense, since his thigh was festering; he

was laid before the court on a couch, and his friends spoke for him, often mentioning the fight at

Marathon and the conquest of Lemnos: how Miltiades had punished the Pelasgians and taken Lemnos,

delivering it to the Athenians.

6.136.3 he people took his side as far as not condemning him to death, but they fined him fifty talents

for his wrongdoing. Miltiades later died of gangrene and rot in his thigh, and the fifty talents were paid

by his son Cimon.