Greek aggression in the opening of Herodotus’s Histories

Mark Alonge (Boston University)

Herodotus’s Histories begins with what has been widely recognized as a “false start” (Lateiner, Pelliccia, Thomas). The initial Persian explanation of the origins of Greek-Persian hostilities (1.1–1.5), despite Herodotus’s rejection of it, nevertheless anticipates several features of the historian’s own account of the Persian Wars. This paper will focus on one such anticipation, the Persian assignment of blame for the Persian Wars upon Greek aggression. It is likely that Herodotus did not derive the “Persian” narrative of reciprocal kidnappings from a genuine Persian source; its attribution to the Persians, rather, is for the purpose of characterization, as it sets up what will become an oft-repeated Persian justification for invading Greece, avenging Greek injustice against them.

Because of the verbal reminiscence of Herodotus’s proem (di’ hên aitiên, aitious), the first sentence of the Persian account is sometimes read as the Persian attempt to answer Herodotus’s central question, why the Greeks and Persians went to war with each other. However, it is not the first event the Persian logioi narrate, but the last, which they see as the cause (aitiê). A comparison between the narrative trajectory of the Persian account and that of Herodotus’s Histories as a whole shows that they share a similar structure, one built on two events, what we might call an ultimate and a proximate cause. While Herodotus takes Croesus as his starting point (1.6), it is the Athenian contribution of ships to the Ionian Revolt—“the beginning (archê) of evils for both Greeks and barbarians” (5.97)—that is presented as the aitiê of the Persian invasion. Similarly, the Persians start with the Phoenicians, but they are not offered as the cause of Greek-Persian conflict, even if they are responsible for initiating East-West animosity. Rather, the Persians identify the sack of Troy as the proximate cause, as it were, the point of no return after which the Persian Wars were inevitable; it is “the beginning” (archên 1.5), like the contribution of Athenian ships in Herodotus’s version. And as in that case, this beginning, as the Persians emphasize, is also marked by Greek military aggression. Troy proved that the Greeks “were hostile to them” (sphisi einai polemion 1.4). The directionality of polemion is particularly important for understanding how here in the account of the Persian logioi Herodotus is already establishing the standard Persian rationale for their invasion of Greece, revenge for unprovoked Greek aggression.