The Conqueror Unmasked

The Double Description of the Royal Road in the Embassy of Aristagoras (Hdt. 5.49–54)

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between the two descriptions of the Royal Road contained within the account of Aristagoras’ embassy to Sparta (Hdt. 5.49–54). The second description, put forward by the narrator of the Histories, aims at unmasking the issues raised by the first, which the tyrant of Miletus presented to the King of Sparta. The relationship between these two descriptions cannot be explained simply in terms of an opposition between the perspective of a conqueror and the perspective of an enquirer, but rather depends on a more complex change of role. Aristagoras the conqueror makes his description appear to be like that of an enquirer. In response, Herodotus the enquirer uses his tools and method to produce a description from the point of view of an anti-conqueror, which underlines the impossibility of conquest.