δευτέρῳ δὲ ἔτεϊ τούτων ὁ Δαρεῖος πρῶτα μὲν Θασίους διαβληθέντας ὑπὸ τῶν ἀστυγειτόνων ὡς ἀπόστασιν μηχανῴατο, πέμψας ἄγγελον ἐκέλευε σφέας τὸ τεῖχος περιαιρέειν καὶ τὰς νέας ἐς Ἄβδηρα κομίζειν.
οἱ γὰρ δὴ Θάσιοι, οἷα ὑπὸ Ἱστιαίου τε τοῦ Μιλησίου πολιορκηθέντες καὶ προσόδων ἐουσέων μεγαλέων, ἐχρέωντο τοῖσι χρήμασι νέας τε ναυπηγεύμενοι μακρὰς καὶ τεῖχος ἰσχυρότερον περιβαλλόμενοι. ἡ δὲ πρόσοδός σφι ἐγίνετο ἔκ τε τῆς ἠπείρου καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν μετάλλων·
ἐκ μέν γε τῶν ἐκ Σκαπτησύλης τῶν χρυσέων μετάλλων τὸ ἐπίπαν ὀγδώκοντα τάλαντα προσήιε, ἐκ δὲ τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ Θάσῳ ἐλάσσω μὲν τούτων, συχνὰ δὲ οὓτω ὣστε τὸ ἐπίπαν Θασίοισι ἐοῦσι καρπῶν ἀτελέσι προσήιε ἀπό τε τῆς ἠπείρου καὶ τῶν μετάλλων ἔτεος ἑκάστου διηκόσια τάλαντα, ὅτε δὲ τὸ πλεῖστον προσῆλθε, τριηκόσια.
In the next year after this Dareios first sent a messenger to the men of Thasos, who had been accused by their neighbours of planning revolt, and bade them take away the wall around their town and bring their ships to Abdera. The Thasians in fact, as they had been besieged by Histiaios the Milesian and at the same time had large revenues coming in, were using their money in building ships of war and in surrounding their city with a stronger wall. Now the revenues came to them from the mainland and from the mines: from the gold-mines in Scapte Hyle there came in generally eighty talents a year, and from those in Thasos itself a smaller amount than this but so much that in general the Thasians, without taxes upon the produce of their soil, had a revenue from the mainland and from the mines amounting yearly to two hundred talents, and when the amount was highest, to three hundred.
εἶδον δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς τὰ μέταλλα ταῦτα, καὶ μακρῷ ἦν αὐτῶν θωμασιώτατα τὰ οἱ Φοίνικες ἀνεῦρον οἱ μετὰ Θάσου κτίσαντες τὴν νῆσον ταύτην, ἥτις νῦν ἀπὸ τοῦ Θάσου τούτου τοῦ Φοίνικος τὸ οὔνομα ἔσχε.
τὰ δὲ μέταλλα τὰ Φοινικικὰ ταῦτα ἐστὶ τῆς Θάσου μεταξὺ Αἰνύρων τε χώρου καλεομένου καὶ Κοινύρων, ἀντίον δὲ Σαμοθρηίκης, ὄρος μέγα ἀνεστραμμένον ἐν τῇ ζητήσι. τοῦτο μέν νυν ἐστὶ τοιοῦτον. οἱ δὲ Θάσιοι τῷ βασιλέι κελεύσαντι καὶ τὸ τεῖχος τὸ σφέτερον κατεῖλον καὶ τὰς νέας τὰς πάσας ἐκόμισαν ἐς Ἄβδηρα.
I myself saw these mines, and by much the most marvellous of them were those which the Phenicians discovered, who made the first settlement in this island in company with Thasos; and the island had the name which it now has from this Thasos the Phenician. These Phenician mines are in that part of Thasos which is between the places called Ainyra and Koinyra and opposite Samothrake, where there is a great mountain which has been all turned up in the search for metal. Thus it is with this matter: and the Thasians on the command of the king both razed their walls and brought all their ships to Abdera.
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