Thalia   

leading citizens. Maeandrius, therefore, feeling sure that if he
laid down the sovereign power some one else would become tyrant in his
room, gave up the thought of relinquishing it. Withdrawing to the
citadel, he sent for the chief men one by one, under pretence of
showing them his accounts, and as fast as they came arrested them
and put them in irons. So these men were bound; and Maeandrius
within a short time fell sick: whereupon Lycaretus, one of his
brothers, thinking that he was going to die, and wishing to make his
own accession to the throne the easier, slew all the prisoners. It
seemed that the Samians did not choose to be a free people.
When the Persians whose business it was to restore Syloson reached
Samos, not a man was found to lift up his hand against them.
Maeandrius and his partisans expressed themselves willing to quit
the island upon certain terms, and these terms were agreed to by
Otanes. After the treaty was made, the most distinguished of the
Persians had their thrones brought, and seated themselves over against
the citadel.
Now the king Maeandrius had a lightheaded brother- Charilaus by
name- whom for some offence or other he had shut up in prison: this
man heard what was going on, and peering through his bars, saw the
Persians sitting peacefully upon their seats, whereupon he exclaimed
aloud, and said he must speak with Maeandrius. When this was
reported to him, Maeandrius gave orders that Charilaus should be
released from prison and brought into his presence. No sooner did he
arrive than he began reviling and abusing his brother, and strove to
persuade him to attack the Persians. "Thou meanest-spirited of men,"
he said, "thou canst keep me, thy brother, chained in a dungeon,
notwithstanding that I have done nothing worthy of bonds; but when the
Persians come and drive thee forth a houseless wanderer from thy
native land, thou lookest on, and hast not the heart to seek
revenge, though they might so easily be subdued. If thou, however, art
afraid, lend me thy soldiers, and I will make them pay dearly for
their coming here. I engage too to send thee first safe out of the
island."
So spake Charilaus, and Maeandrius gave consent; not (I believe)
that he was so void of sense as to imagine that his own forces could
overcome those of the king, but because he was jealous of Syloson, and
did not wish him to get so quietly an unharmed city. He desired
therefore to rouse the anger of the Persians against Samos, that so he
might deliver it up to Syloson with its power at the lowest possible
ebb; for he knew well that if the Persians met with a disaster they
would be furious against the Samians, while he himself felt secure
of a retreat at any time that he liked, since he had a secret
passage under ground leading from the citadel to the sea. Maeandrius
accordingly took ship and sailed away from Samos; and Charilaus,
having armed all the mercenaries, threw open the gates, and fell
upon the Persians, who looked for nothing less, since they supposed
that the whole matter had been arranged by treaty. At the first
onslaught therefore all the Persians of most note, men who were in the
habit of using litters, were slain by the mercenaries; the rest of the
army, however, came to the rescue, defeated the mercenaries, and drove
them back into the citadel.
Then Otanes, the general, when he saw the great calamity which had
befallen the Persians, made up his mind to forget the orders which
Darius had given him, "not to kill or enslave a single Samian, but
to deliver up the island unharmed to Syloson," and gave the word to
his army that they should slay the Samians, both men and boys,
wherever they could find them. Upon this some of his troops laid siege
to the citadel, while others began the massacre, killing all they met,
some outside, some inside the temples.
Maeandrius fled from Samos to Lacedaemon, and conveyed thither all
the riches which he had brought away from the island, after which he
acted as follows. Having placed upon his board all the gold and silver
vessels that he had, and bade his servants employ themselves in