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After this he sailed with his whole host against Eretria, taking with
him both Ionians and Aeolians. When he was departed, Delos (as
the Delians told me) was shaken by an earthquake, the first and last
shock that has been felt to this day. And truly this was a prodigy
whereby the god warned men of the evils that were coming upon them.
For in the three following generations of Darius the son of
Hystaspes, Xerxes the son of Darius, and Artaxerxes the son of
Xerxes, more woes befell Greece than in the twenty generations
preceding Darius - woes caused in part by the Persians, but in part
arising from the contentions among their own chief men respecting the
supreme power. Wherefore it is not surprising that Delos, though it
had never before been shaken, should at that time have felt the shock
of an earthquake. And indeed there was an oracle, which said of
Delos -
Delos' self will I shake, which never yet has been shaken
Of the above names Darius may be rendered "Worker," Xerxes
"Warrior," and Artaxerxes "Great Warrior." And so might we
call these kings in our own language with propriety.
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