§ 8. The death of Histiæus happened after the subjection of the Ionians; and their fall now claims our attention. In the sixth year of the revolt (B. c. 495), when several Grecian cities had already been taken by the Persians, Artaphernes resolved to besiege Miletus by sea and by land, since the capture of this city was sure to be followed by the submission of all the others. For this purpose he concentrated near Miletus all his land forces, and ordered the Phoenician fleet to sail towards the city. While he was making these preparations, the Pan-Ionic council assembled to deliberate upon the best means of meeting the threatening danger. As they had not sufficient strength to meet the Persian army in the field, it was resolved to leave Miletus to its own defences on the land side, and to embark all their forces on board their ships. The fleet was ordered to assemble at Ladé, then a small island near Miletus, but now joined to the coast by the alluvial deposits of the Mæander. It consisted of three hundred and fifty-three ships, while the Phoenician fleet numbered six hundred sail. But notwithstanding their numerical superiority, the Persian generals were afraid to risk an engagement with the combined fleet of the Ionians, whose nautical skill was well known to them. They therefore ordered the despots, who had been driven out of the Grecian cities at the commencement of the revolt, and were now serving in the Persian fleet, to endeavor to persuade their countrymen to desert the common cause. Each of them accordingly made secret overtures to his fellow-citizens, promising them pardon if they submitted, and threatening them with the severest punishment in case of refusal. But these proposals were all unanimously rejected.

Meantime great want of discipline prevailed in the Ionian fleet. There was no general commander of the whole armament; the men, though eager for liberty, were impatient of restraint, and spent the greater part of the day in unprofitable talk under the tents they had erected on the shore. In a council of the commanders, Dionysius of Phocæa, a man of energy and ability, pointed out the perils which they ran, and promised them certain victory if they would place themselves under his guidance. Being intrusted with the supreme command, Dionysius ordered the men on board the ships, and kept them constantly engaged in practising all kinds of nautical manœuvres. For seven days in succession they endured this unwonted work beneath the burning heat of a summer's sun; but on the eighth they broke out into open mutiny, and asked, why they should any longer obey a Phocæan braggart, who had brought only three ships to the common cause. Leaving their ships, they again dispersed over the island and sought the shade of their pleasant tents. There was now less order and discipline than before. The Samian leaders became alarmed at the prospect before them; and, repenting that they had rejected the proposals made to them by their exiled des pot, they reopened communications with him, and agreed to desert during the battle.

The Persian commanders, confident of victory, no longer hesitated to attack the Ionian fleet. The Greeks, not suspecting treachery, drew up their ships in order of battle; but just as the two fleets were ready to engage, the Samian ships sailed away. Their example was followed by the Lesbians, and, as the panic spread, by the greater part of the fleet. There was, however, one brilliant exception. The hundred ships of the Chians, though left almost alone, refused to fly, and fought with distinguished bravery against the enemy, till they were overpowered by superior numbers.

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§ 9. The defeat of the Ionian fleet at Ladé decided the fate of the The city of Miletus was soon afterwards taken by storm, and was treated with signal severity. Most of the males were slain; and the few who escaped the sword were carried with the women and children into captivity, and were finally settled at Ampé, a town near the mouth of the Tigris. The fall of this great Ionic city excited the liveliest sympathy at Athens. In the following year the poet Phrynichus, who had made the capture of Miletus the subject of a tragedy, and brought it upon the stage, was sentenced by the Athenians to pay a fine of a thousand drachmæ "for having recalled to them their own misfortunes."

The other Greek cities in Asia and the neighboring islands, which had not yet fallen into the hands of the Persians, were treated with equal severity. The islands of Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos were swept of their inhabitants; and the Persian fleet sailed up the Hellespont and Propontis, carrying with it fire and sword. The inhabitants of Byzantium and Chalcedon did not await its arrival, but sailed away to Mesembria; and the Athenian Miltiades only escaped falling into the power of the Persians by a rapid flight to Athens.

The subjugation of Ionia was now complete. This was the third time that the Asiatic Greeks had been conquered by a foreign power; first, by the Lydian Croesus; secondly, by the generals of Cyrus; and lastly, by those of Darius. It was from the last that they suffered most; and they never fully recovered their former prosperity. As soon as the Persians had satiated their vengeance, Artaphernes introduced various regulations for the government of their country. Thus, he caused a new survey of the country to be made, and fixed the amount of tribute which each district was to pay to the Persian government; and his other measures were calculated to heal the wounds which had lately been inflicted with such barbarity upon the Greeks.

1. Expedition of Mardonius into Greece. § 2. Preparations of Darius for a second Inva sion of Greece. Heralds sent to the leading Grecian States to demand Earth and Water. 8. Invasion of Greece by the Persians under Datis and Artaphernes. Conquest of the Cyclades and Eretria. 4. Preparations at Athens to resist the Persians. History of Miltiades. § 5. Debate among the Ten Athenian Generals. Resolution to give Battle to the Persians. § 6. Battle of Marathon. § 7. Movements of the Persians after the Battle. § 8. Effect of the Battle of Marathon upon the Athenians. 9. Glory of Miltiades. § 10. His unsuccessful Expedition to Paros. § 11. His Trial, Condemnation, and Death. 12. History of Egina. 13. War between Athens and Ægina. § 14. Athens becomes a Maritime Power. § 15. Rivalry of Themistocles and Aristeides. Ostracism of the latter.

§.1. DARIUS had not forgotten his vow to take vengeance upon Athens. Shortly after the suppression of the Ionic revolt, he appointed Mardonius to succeed Artaphernes in the government of the Persian provinces bordering upon the Egean. Mardonius was a Persian noble of high rank, who had lately married the king's daughter, and was distinguished by a love of glory. Darius placed at his command a large armament, with injunctions to bring to Susa those Athenians and Eretrians who had insulted the authority of the Great King. Mardonius lost no time in crossing the Hellespont, and commenced his march through Thrace and Macedonia, subduing, as he went along, the tribes which had not yet submitted to the Persian power. Meanwhile he ordered the fleet to double the promontory of Mount Athos, and join the land forces at the head of the Gulf of Therma. But one of the hurricanes, which frequently blow

off this dangerous coast, overtook the Persian fleet, destroyed three hundred vessels, and drowned or dashed upon the rocks twenty thousand men. Mardonius himself was not much more fortunate. In his passage through Macedonia, he was attacked at night by the Brygians, an independent Thracian tribe, who slaughtered a great portion of his army. He remained in the country long enough to reduce this people to submission; but his forces were so weakened, that he could not proceed farther. He led his army back across the Hellespont, and returned to the Persian court, covered with shame and grief. Thus ended the first expedition of the Persians against the Grecian states in Europe (B. c. 492).

§ 2. The failure of this expedition did not shake the resolution of Darius. On the contrary, it only made him the more anxious for the conquest of Greece; and Hippias was constantly near him to keep alive his resentment against Athens. He began to make preparations for another attempt on a still larger scale, and meantime sent heralds to most of the Grecian states to demand from each earth and water as the symbol of submission. This he probably did in order to ascertain the amount of resistance he was likely to experience. Such terror had the Persians inspired by their recent conquest of Ionia, that a large number of the Grecian cities at once complied with the demand. But at Athens and at Sparta the heralds met with a very different reception. So indignant were the citizens of these states at the insolent demand, that the Athenians cast the herald into a deep pit, and the Spartans threw him into a well, bidding him take earth and water from thence.

§ 3. Meanwhile Darius had completed his preparations for the invasion of Greece. In the spring of B. C. 490, a vast army was assembled in Cilicia, and a fleet of six hundred galleys, together with many transports for horses, was ready to receive them on board. The command was given to Datis, a Median, and Artaphernes, son of the satrap of Sardis of that name, and a nephew of Darius. Their instructions were generally to reduce to subjection all the Greek cities which had not already given earth and water; but more particularly to burn to the ground the cities of Athens and Eretria, and to carry away the inhabitants as slaves. They were furnished with fetters for binding the Grecian prisoners; and before the end of the year Darius fully expected to see at his feet the men who had dared to burn the city of Sardis. The possibility of failure probably never occurred either to the king himself, or to any of the soidiers engaged in the expedition.

Having taken their men on board, Datis and Artaphernes first sailed to Samos; and, warned by the recent disaster of Mardonius in doubling the promontory of Mount Athos, they resolved to sail straight across the Egean to Euboea, subduing on their way the Cyclades. They first resolved to attack Naxos, which ten years before had gallantly repelled a large Persian force commanded by Megabates and Aristagoras of Miletus.

But the Naxians did not now even venture to wait the arrival of the Persians, but fled to the mountains, abandoning their town to the invaders, who burnt it to the ground. The other islands of the Cyclades yielded a ready submission; and it was not till Datis reached Euboea that he encountered any resistance. Eretria defended itself gallantly for six days, and repulsed the Persians with loss; but on the seventh the gates were opened to the beseigers by the treachery of two of its leading citizens. The city was razed to the ground, and the inhabitants were put in chains, according to the command of the Persian monarch.

Datis had thus easily accomplished one of the two great objects for which he had been sent into Greece. He now proceeded to execute his second order. After remaining a few days at Eretria, he crossed over to Attica, and landed on the ever memorable plain of Marathon, a spot which had been pointed out to him by the despot Hippias, who accompanied the Persian army.

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§ 4. It is now time to turn to Athens, and see what preparations had there been made to meet the threatening danger. While the Persian army was on its passage across the Ægean, ten generals had been elected for the year, according to the regular custom, one for each tribe. Among these generals were three men whose names have acquired immortal fame,— Miltiades, Themistocles, and Aristeides. Of the two latter we shall have occasion to speak more fully presently; but Miltiades claims our immediate attention. Miltiades had been the despot of the Chersonesus, whither he had been sent from Athens by Hippias about the year 516 B. C., to take possession of the inheritance of his uncle, who bore the same As ruler of the Chersonesus, he had distinguished himself by his bravery and decision of character. We have already seen that he accompanied Darius in his invasion of Scythia, and recommended the Ionian despots to break down the bridge of boats across the Danube and leave Darius to his fate. While the Persian generals were engaged in suppressing the Ionic revolt, he took possession of Lemnos and Imbros, expelled the Persian garrisons and Pelasgian inhabitants, and handed over these islands to the Athenians. He had thus committed two great offences against the Persian monarch; and accordingly, when the Phoenician fleet appeared in the Hellespont after the extinction of the Ionic revolt, he sought safety in flight, and hastily sailed away to Athens with a small squadron of five ships. He was hotly pursued by the Phoenicians, who were most eager to secure his person as an acceptable offering to Darius. They succeeded in taking one of his ships, commanded by his son Metiochus, but Miltiades himself reached Athens in safety. Soon after his arrival, he was brought to trial on account of his despotism in the CherNot only was he honorably acquitted at the time, probably on account of the recent service he had rendered to Athens by the conquest of Lemnos and Imbros, but such confidence did his abilities inspire, that

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