The
Pisidians meanwhile came up to the camp with drawn swords, and, not
clearly distinguishing in the moonlight the things hung out to dry,
thought that they must be the tent of Themistokles, and that they would
find him asleep within it. When they came close to it and raised the
hangings, the servants who were on the watch fell upon them and seized
them. Having thus escaped from danger, he built a temple to Dindymene at
Magnesia to commemorate the appearance of the goddess, and appointed
his daughter Mnesiptolema to be its priestess.
XXXI. When he came to Sardis, he leisurely examined the temples and the
offerings which they contained, and in the temple of the mother of the
gods, he found a bronze female figure called the Water-carrier, about
two cubits high, which he himself, when overseer of the water supply of
Athens, had made out of the fines imposed upon those who took water
illegally.
Either feeling touched at the statue being a captive, or else willing to
show the Athenians how much power he possessed in Persia, he proposed to
the Satrap of Lydia to send it back to Athens. This man became angry at
his demand, and said that he should write to the king, and tell him of
it. Themistokles in terror applied himself to the harem of the Satrap,
and by bribing the ladies there induced them to pacify him, while he
himself took care to be more cautious in future, as he saw that he had
to fear the enmity of the native Persians.
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