/battle, the soldiers of Xerxes are still skillful archers and terrific riders who strike horror in the enemy with their bravery:

'For the whole populace of the Asian nation has come and murmurs against its youthful King, nor does any courier or horseman arrive at the city of the Persians, who left behind them the walled defence of Susa and Ecbatana and Cissa's ancient ramparts, and went forth, some on horseback, some in galleys, others on foot presenting a dense array of war.

Such are Amistres and Artaphrenes and Megabates and Astaspes, marshals of the Persians; kings themselves, yet vassals of the Great King, they press on, commanders of an enormous host, skilled in archery and horsemanship, formidable to look upon and fearful in battle through the valiant resolve of their souls.'
-The Persians, 11-29, (transl. Smyth)

25 centuries afterwards, in our times, these same soldiers are regarded as nothing but 'a flock of Asians whose backs have been bent under the whip.':

'Herodotus finishes his Histories after the battles of Platea and Mycale. The play has ended; the Greek has defeated the Barbarian... When the book finishes, a picture is illustrated in one's mind where one heavily-armed Greek hoplite makes battle with a flock of Asians whose backs have been bent under the whip.'
-Henri Berguin, L'Enquête de Hérodote d' Halicarnasse, Paris (1934), Vol. I, XIII

It can be said that the difference observed between these two remarks is the difference between historical reality and written 'historiography.'

—Amir Mahdi Badi' (1916-1994), late Iranian historian and researcher, "Et Grecs et les Barbares - Tome I, Une erreur de l'histoire", Paris (1963)

Perse/pol/is

/battle, the soldiers of Xerxes are still skillful archers and terrific riders who strike horror in the enemy with their bravery:

'For the whole populace of the Asian nation has come and murmurs against its youthful King, nor does any courier or horseman arrive at the city of the Persians, who left behind them the walled defence of Susa and Ecbatana and Cissa's ancient ramparts, and went forth, some on horseback, some in galleys, others on foot presenting a dense array of war.

Such are Amistres and Artaphrenes and Megabates and Astaspes, marshals of the Persians; kings themselves, yet vassals of the Great King, they press on, commanders of an enormous host, skilled in archery and horsemanship, formidable to look upon and fearful in battle through the valiant resolve of their souls.'
-The Persians, 11-29, (transl. Smyth)

25 centuries afterwards, in our times, these same soldiers are regarded as nothing but 'a flock of Asians whose backs have been bent under the whip.':

'Herodotus finishes his Histories after the battles of Platea and Mycale. The play has ended; the Greek has defeated the Barbarian... When the book finishes, a picture is illustrated in one's mind where one heavily-armed Greek hoplite makes battle with a flock of Asians whose backs have been bent under the whip.'
-Henri Berguin, L'Enquête de Hérodote d' Halicarnasse, Paris (1934), Vol. I, XIII

It can be said that the difference observed between these two remarks is the difference between historical reality and written 'historiography.'

—Amir Mahdi Badi' (1916-1994), late Iranian historian and researcher, "Et Grecs et les Barbares - Tome I, Une erreur de l'histoire", Paris (1963)

hottg.com/perse_pol_is/543

380 viewsAug 28, 2021 at 15:35