"...indignant at the thought of slavery"
Ancient Greek inspiration
I’ve been reading Herodotus’ The Histories. It’s where I found the quote in the title.
The Phocaeans were Ancient Greeks. Their home city of Phocaea was on the western coast of modern day Turkey.
Great sea farers and traders they founded colonies across the Med including Marseille in about 600 bc.
But at home they ran into trouble…
The rise of the Persian Empire under Cyrus pushed closer and closer. Eventually, the Phocaeans were besieged and told to give in. Their situation was helpless against the much greater forces of Persia.
The General Harpagus, who lead the siege for the Persian army, offered the Phocaeans an easy deal. He said “that he would be satisfied if they consented to pull down a single tower in the fortifications and sacrifice one house.”
The Phocaeans asked for a day to consider it over.
In the next 24 hours they packed up all of their people and all they could carry and left on their boats.
See, the deal would have meant the Phocaeans would now be under the thumb of Persia. They’d be liable for taxes. It’d be the end of their freedom.
And they could never accept that.