In the meantime, among the Scythians, two young men of royal blood, Plynos and Scolopetius, driven from home by a faction of the nobles, drew a great body of young men after them and settled on the coast of Pontic Cappadocia near the river Thermodon, taking the Themiscyrian plains for themselves. There, after long plundering everything around them, they were slaughtered in an ambush through a conspiracy of their neighbours.
1 Medio autem tempore apud Scythas duo regii iuuenes Plynos et Scolopetius, per factionem optimatium domo pulsi, ingentem iuuentutem secum traxere et in Cappadociae Ponticae ora iuxta amnem Thermodontem consederunt campis Themiscyriis sibi subiectis; ubi diu proxima quaeque populati conspiratione finitimorum per insidias trucidantur.
Their wives, stirred by exile and widowhood, took up arms, and, so that all might be of one mind through a like condition, killed the men who had survived; then, fired against the enemy by the shedding of their own blood, they won vengeance for their slain husbands by destroying their neighbours.
2 horum uxores exilio ac uiduitate permotae arma sumunt et, ut omnibus par ex simili condicione animus fieret, uiros qui superfuerant interficiunt atque accensae in hostem sanguine suo ultionem caesorum coniugum finitimorum excidio consequuntur.
Then, having won peace by arms, they entered into unions with foreigners. The male children born to them they soon killed; the females they reared with care, burning off the right breasts of the infants so that their shooting of arrows might not be hindered; hence they were called Amazons.
3 tunc pace armis quaesita externos concubitus ineunt, editos mares mox enecant, feminas studiose nutriunt inustis infantium dexterioribus mammillis, ne sagittarum iactus impedirentur; unde Amazones dictae.
They had two queens, Marpesia and Lampeto, who divided their host into two parts and took it in turns by lot to conduct the war and to guard the home.
4 harum duae fuere reginae, Marpesia et Lampeto, quae agmine diuiso in duas partes uicissim curam belli et domus custodiam sortiebantur.
So when they had subdued the greater part of Europe and taken a number of cities in Asia, and had themselves founded Ephesus and other cities, they called home the chief part of their army, laden with very rich booty; the rest, left behind to guard their empire in Asia, were slaughtered together with Queen Marpesia in an onslaught of the enemy.
5 igitur cum Europam maxima e parte domuissent, Asiae uero aliquantis ciuitatibus captis, ipsae autem Ephesum aliasque urbes condidissent, praecipuam exercitus sui partem onustam opulentissima praeda domum reuocant, reliquae ad tuendum Asiae imperium relictae cum Marpesia regina concursu hostium trucidantur.
Her place was taken by her daughter Sinope, who crowned her singular glory in valour with perpetual virginity.
6 huius locum Sinope filia capessit, quae singularem uirtutis gloriam perpetua uirginitate cumulauit.
Such wonder and dread had seized the peoples stirred by this fame that Hercules too, when his master had ordered him to bring back the queen’s arms — as though he were being sent into inescapable danger — gathered together all the chosen and noble youth of Greece and made ready nine long ships; and even so, not content with this muster of strength, he preferred to attack without warning and to surround them off their guard.
7 hac fama excitas gentes tanta admiratio et formido inuaserat, ut Hercules quoque cum iussus fuisset a domino suo exhibere arma reginae quasi ad ineuitabile periculum destinatus, uniuersam Graeciae lectam ac nobilem iuuentutem contraxerit, nouem longas naues praepararit, nec tamen contentus examine uirium ex inprouiso adgredi et insperatas circumuenire maluerit.
Two sisters then ruled the kingdom, Antiope and Orithyia. Hercules, carried over by sea, overwhelmed them unprepared and unarmed, grown idle through the carelessness of peace. Among the very many slain and captured, two sisters of Antiope were held back, Melanippe by Hercules and Hippolyta by Theseus.
8 duae tunc sorores regno praeerant, Antiope et Orithyia. Hercules mari aduectus incautas inermesque et pacis incuria desides oppressit. inter caesas captasque complurimas duae sorores Antiopae, Melanippe ab Hercule, Hippolyte a Theseo retentae.
But Theseus took Hippolyta in marriage, while Hercules returned Melanippe to her sister and received the queen’s arms as the price of her ransom.
9 sed Theseus Hippolyten matrimonio adsciuit, Hercules Melanippen sorori reddidit et arma reginae pretio redemptionis accepit.
After Orithyia, Penthesilea held the throne; of her valour among men in the Trojan War we have received the most famous proofs.
10 post Orithyiam Penthesilea regno potita est, cuius Troiano bello clarissima inter uiros documenta uirtutis accepimus.