Asia

But Cyrus, finding the nations in Asia also independent in exactly the same way, started out with a little band of Persians and became the leader of the Medes by their full consent and of the Hyrcanians by theirs;

As for the Greeks who dwell in Asia, however, no definite information is as yet received whether they are in the coalition or not.

And they had selected for Cyrus the most splendid tent and the lady of Susa, who was said to be the most beautiful woman in Asia, and two of the most accomplished music-girls;

yet the Lydians claim a share in the latter name, saying that Asia was not named after Prometheus ' wife Asia, but after Asies, the son of Cotys, who was the son of Manes, and that from him the Asiad clan at Sardis also takes its name.

But west of this region two peninsulas stretch out from it into the sea, which I will now describe.

On the north side one of the peninsulas begins at the Phasis and stretches seaward along the Pontus and the Hellespont, as far as Sigeum in the Troad;

For what words can match the measure of such men, who so far surpassed the members of the expedition against Troy that, whereas the latter consumed ten years beleaguering a single city they, in a short space of time, completely defeated the forces that had been collected from all Asia, and not only saved their own countries but liberated the whole of Hellas as well?

he had left his royal residence, boldly taken command as general in the field, and collected about him all the hosts of Asia.

Asia has been conceded both by us and by the Lacedaemonians to belong to the King;

The share which belonged to Artemis of the Ephesians he left behind, at the time when he was returning from Asia with Agesilaus to take part in the campaign against Boeotia, in charge of Megabyzus, the sacristan of Artemis, for the reason that his own journey seemed likely to be a dangerous one;

and the soldiers received him with pleasure, and were glad to follow his lead at once, with the idea of crossing over from Thrace to Asia.

But meantime Aristarchus, the governor at Byzantium, arrived with two triremes and, having been persuaded to this course by Pharnabazus, not only forbade the shipmasters to carry the army across, but came to the camp and told the soldiers not to pass over into Asia.

Asia I admired, but I was hurrying toward the mother-city of the fine things in it.

But since it has seemed good to some in Asia, for the sake of managing the multitude, to accept their baptism, let it be accepted.

But opinions, worthy only of the despotism of Asia, and passions armed with power and authority, have, generally by insensible and sometimes by violent impressions on the timid credulity of men, effaced those simple ideas which perhaps constituted the first philosophy of infant society.

and until tyranny shall be confined to the plains of Asia, and Europe acknowledge the universal empire of reason, by which the interests of sovereigns and subjects are best united.

and Hector and Agamemnon and the powerful of the rest swore to one another that neither should the Greeks ever campaign into Asia, while the race of Priam ruled, nor the sons of Priam into the Peloponnese or Boeotia or Crete or Ithaca or Phthia or Euboea.

And himself having reigned many years and subdued most of Asia, he dies in old age, and is buried before the city.

For it is not sweet, even for free women, to abandon an ordinary lover once they have one—much less the most illustrious and wealthy of men, king of all the Greeks, holding the greatest power among the men of that time, master not only of her but also of her father and her fatherland, and expecting to subdue Asia too within a short time (for Ilium had long been in a sorry state, and they barely ke …

Well then, does not the city which made the nobler and prouder covenants with the Persian king, which brought to pass the most and the greatest injuries to the barbarians and benefits to the Hellenes, which, furthermore, seized from her foes the sea-coast of Asia and much other territory besides and appropriated it to her allies, which put an end to the insolence of the barbarians and the poverty …

And so it resulted from the policy which we pursued that Hellas waxed great, Europe became stronger than Asia, and, furthermore, the Hellenes who were in straitened circumstances received cities and lands, while the barbarians who were wont to be insolent were expelled from their own territory and humbled in their pride;

Who does not know that the Spartans, notwithstanding that they and we harbor in common a feeling of hatred towards the barbarians and their kings, and notwithstanding that the Athenians, although beset by many wars and involved at times in great disasters, their territory being often ravaged and cut off by the enemy, never once turned their eyes towards friendship and alliance with the barbarians, …

But as to the expedition against Asia, we shall urge upon the cities which I have called upon you to reconcile that it is their duty to go to war with the barbarians, only when we see that they have ceased from discord.

Then again, Cyrus (that we may take account of the barbarians also), not withstanding the fact that as a child he was exposed by his mother on the public highway and was picked up by a Persian woman, so completely reversed his fortunes that he became master of all Asia.

But learning that Agesilaus had crossed over into Asia with a large force and was ravaging the country, he was so dauntless of spirit that, although he possessed no resource whatever save his body and his wits, he was yet confident that he could conquer the Lacedaemonians, albeit they were the first power in Hellas on both land and sea;

banished by the Thirty, he served as a soldier in Asia, and in danger he showed himself a man;

After two years of practice he left Rome to travel in Greece and Asia, taking all the opportunities that offered to study his art under distinguished masters.

then, having gone out to Asia as quaestor, he governed that province for very many years with a quite remarkable renown;

In the same man there was such prudence in establishing and ordering states, such fairness, that to this day Asia stands by observing Lucullus's institutions and following, as it were, in his footsteps.

But if they take thought for those who dwell, as it were, in a kind of great island which we call the orb of the earth, they take thought also for those who hold the parts of that island, Europe, Asia, Africa.

The men who built the Propylaea and the Parthenon, and decked our other temples with the spoils of Asia, trophies in which we take a natural pride,—you know of course from tradition that after they abandoned the city and shut themselves up in Salamis, it was because they had the war galleys that they won the sea-fight and saved the city and all their belongings, and made themselves the authors for …

For I say that with good reason those men might be judged so far superior to those who campaigned against Troy, that the latter, the foremost princes out of the whole of Greece, with difficulty captured a single stronghold of Asia after besieging it for ten years, whereas those men single-handed not only repulsed a host assembled from an entire continent, which had already subdued all other lands, …

for they shall dwell upon the shores of two continents, of Europe and of Asia, on either side the strait;

Personally I believe that even in the past everyone knew that you acted in this way over the Thebans, and over all the rest, and that you appropriated money, which was sent from Asia to buy help, for your own personal use, spending most of it;

Is it not shameful that, when we fought for others, we filled Europe and Asia with trophies, but now, when our own country is so openly outraged, we cannot show that we have fought in her behalf a single battle worthy of note?

Even more should we deserve the ridicule of men if, having before us the example of the Phocaeans who, to escape the tyranny of the Great King, left Asia and founded a new settlement at Massilia, we should sink into such abjectness of spirit as to submit to the dictates of those whose masters we have always been throughout our history.

For I declare that we must send our parents and our wives and children and the mass of the people away from Sparta, some to Sicily, some to Cyrene, others to the mainland of Asia, where the inhabitants will all gladly welcome them with gifts of ample lands and of the other means of livelihood as well, partly in gratitude for favors which they have received and partly in expectation of the return o …

and when he was the ally of the king, he made himself so much more serviceable than the others that, in the opinion of all, the forces he contributed to the naval battle at Cnidus were the largest, and as the result of this battle, while the king became master of all Asia, the Lacedaemonians instead of ravaging the continent were compelled to fight for their own land, and the Greeks, in place of s …

For they, in company with all Hellas, captured Troy only, but Evagoras, although he possessed but one city, waged war against all Asia.

Conon and Evagoras seized this opportunity, and, as the generals of the Persian king were at a loss to know how to handle the situation, these two advised them to wage war against the Lacedaemonians, not upon land but upon the sea, their opinion being that if the Persians should organize an army on land and with this should gain a victory, the mainland alone would profit, whereas, if they should b …

For not much later when strife arose among the goddesses for the prize of beauty, and Alexander, son of Priam, was appointed judge and when Hera offered him sovereignty over all Asia, Athena victory in war, and Aphrodite Helen as his wife, finding himself unable to make a distinction regarding the charms of their persons, but overwhelmed by the sight of the goddesses, Alexander, compelled to make …

nay, the Trojans were upholding the cause of Asia, the Greeks of Europe, in the belief that the land in which Helen in person resided would be the more favored of Fortune.

However, they were not satisfied with perpetrating these crimes, but about the same time were ravaging the Asiatic coast, committing outrages against the islands, subverting the free governments in Italy and Sicily, setting up despotisms in their stead, overrunning the Peloponnesus and filling it with seditions and wars.

For while all other trophies have been erected by one city victorious over another, those were in commemoration of the victory of all Greece pitted against all the power of Asia.

This experience Diodotus has met with in his relations with some of the potentates of Asia, to whom he had often been of service, not only in offering counsel, but also in venturing upon dangerous deeds;

but when they reflect on their fears and their dangers, and when, as they review the history of monarchs, they see instances where they have been slain by those from whom they least deserved that fate, other instances where they have been constrained to sin against those nearest and dearest to them, and still others where they have experienced both of these calamities, then they reverse their judg …