Herodotus, Histories 1.88.2 · 1.88.2
Speak, or stay silent?
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μετὰ δὲ ἐπιστραφείς τε καὶ ἰδόμενος τοὺς Πέρσας τὸ τῶν Λυδῶν ἄστυ κεραΐζοντας εἶπε
Croesus — ὦ βασιλεῦ, κότερον λέγειν πρὸς σὲ τὰ νοέων τυγχάνω ἢ σιγᾶν ἐν τῷ παρεόντι χρή; Κῦρος δέ μιν θαρσέοντα ἐκέλευε λέγειν ὅ τι βούλοιτο. ὃ δὲ αὐτὸν εἰρώτα λέγων
Afterward, turning around and seeing the Persians sacking the city of the Lydians, he said, "O king, am I to say to you what I have in mind, or must I be silent for now?" Cyrus told him to take heart and say whatever he wished. So he questioned him, saying:
Word by word
The setting
Croesus, still seated beside Cyrus, turns and watches the Persians sacking Sardis below.
A note on this passage
Herodotus lets Croesus see the sack of his own city before he lets him speak about it: idomenos tous Persas... keraïzontas, "seeing the Persians ravaging" it. The verb keraïzō is a brutal one, closer to "butcher" or "despoil" than any neutral word for taking; Herodotus does not soften what is happening below the citadel while Croesus sits in honour above it. The question Croesus asks is oddly formal for the circumstances, koteron... ē... chrē, "whether... or... is it right," the grammar of a man asking permission rather than a king, which is exactly what he has just become.
Cyrus answers with a single compound, tharseonta, "taking heart," before he even reaches the content of his permission: speak legein ho ti bouloito, "whatever he wished." It is an open invitation, no conditions attached, from a conqueror who not long ago was ready to burn this man alive. What Croesus does with that freedom, asking rather than simply complaining, will matter to Cyrus's own empire more than either man yet knows.
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