INVASION OF GREECE. BATTLE OF MARATHON. ARISTEIDES
AND THEMISTOCLES.
The conquest of Greece was now become the favorite
object of the Persian monarch's ambition. He was prob-
ably well instructed of the state of parties there, and ex-
pected that some states would be induced to yield a volun-
tary submission to his yoke. Accordingly, after the Per-
sian fashion, he sent. (Ol. 71, 4) heralds, demanding earth
and water, which were given by some of the continental
states, and by all the islands, particularly iEgina. The
Athenians, who instantly suspected that the object of the
^Eginetes was to overcome them with Persian aid, sent to
Sparta to complain of this their treachery to Greece. King
Cleomenes forthwith passed over to ^Egina to seize the
guilty persons ; but his colleague Demaratus had secretly
furnished the JEginetes with an excuse for refusing com-
pliance with his demands, and he retired, meditating ven-
geance on Demaratus, which he accomplished in the fol-
lowing manner :
Ariston, the father of Demaratus, had by stratagem ob-
tained for himself the beautiful wife of his friend Agetos
* Herod, vi. 104136.
INVASION OF GREECE. 91
When her first child by him was born, a servant ran to an-
nounce it to him, as he was sitting with the Ephors. Reckon-
ing and finding that her ten months were not accomplished,
he inconsiderately cried out, " Then it is not mine." No
further notice, however, was taken at the time, and Dema-
ratus succeeded him on the throne. But now Cleomenes
incited Leotychides, of the same house with Demaratus, to
call his legitimacy in question. The matter was, as usual,
referred to the Delphian oracle, and Cleomenes induced one
of the principal men at Delphi to use his influence with the
priestess to procure a response such as he desired. Dema-
ratus was accordingly declared not to be of the blood of
Hercules, and was deposed, and his place given to Leotych-
ides. He became a private Spartan ; but fired by an in-
sult offered him by his successor, he left Lacedaemon, and
finding himself still persecuted by the Spartans, he passed
over to Asia, where King Darius received him joyfully, and
gave him lands and towns for his support. (Ol. 72, 1.)
The two kings now went to ^Egina, and caused ten of the
principal people to be surrendered to them. These they gave
to their enemies, the Athenians, to keep in safe custody.
After the death of Cleomenes, the ^Eginetes accused Leo-
tychides before the Spartans, and he was obliged to obtain
the release of the prisoners from the Athenians.
The guilty conspiracy against Demaratus did not pass
unpunished. It came to light; the Delphian was forced to
fly; the priestess was deprived of her office; Cleomenes
fled to Thessaly, and thence to Arcadia, where he sought to
excite war against his country. The Spartans recalled him ;
but ere long he went mad, and having procured a knife
while in confinement, he cut off his own flesh and died.
(Ol. 72, 2.) Leotychides, having been sent with an army
to Thessaly against the Aleuads, was caught in the act of
taking bribes ; and being accused at Sparta, and fearing a
condemnation, he fled to Tegea, where he died.
The Persian monarch had now completed his preparations
for the subjugation of Greece. A large army, under the
92 HISTORY OF GREECE.
command of Datis, a Mede, and Artaphernes, a Persian,
son of the king's brother of the same name, was assembled
in Cilicia. (01. 72, 3.) A fleet of six hundred triremes and
a number of horse-transports, furnished by the maritime
subject states, here took the troops on board. They sailed
along the coast northwards to the Isle of Samos; then,
crossing the Icarian Sea, directed their course to the Isle of
Naxos, where they burned the town and the. temples, and
enslaved such of the inhabitants as they found, the greater
part having fled to the mountains. On coming to Delos,
and finding that the inhabitants had retired to Tenos, Datis
sent to inform them that they need not fear, as the king's
command and his own feelings forbade him to injure the
place " where the two gods were born." * He burned there
three hundred talents of incense on the altar. Having re-
ceived the submission and hostages of the Cyclad Isles, the
Persian commanders steered for Euboea, where they Landed,
and forced the city of Carystus to submit. They then
proceeded to Eretria, whose people, hearing of their ap-
proach, sent to the Athenians for aid. The four thousand
colonists at Chalcis t were ordered to go to their assistance ;
but as they were coming, they were informed by the princi-
pal man of the town that a large party of the Eretrians were
for surrender, and he advised them to reserve themselves for
the defence of their own country. They therefore retired,
and passed over to Oropus.
After a siege of seven days, Eretria was betrayed to the
Persians : its temples were plundered and burnt, and its
inhabitants reduced to slavery.j: By the advice of Hippias,
* Apollo and Artemis, whom he therefore regarded as the gods of the
sun and moon.
t See page 75.
$ Plato (Laws, iii. 14, Menexenus, 10, Bekk.) says the Persians
dragged (ioayijvsvoav) the island. Of this Herodotus says nothing,
and it is not likely. The historian (vi. 31) thus describes the process
of dragging : the soldiers, taking hands, extended themselves in a line
from sea to sea, and thus marched from one end of an island to the
INVASION OF GREECE. 93
who was with them, the Persians then passed over to Mar-
athon, on the coast of Attica, where a plain of some extent
would permit their cavalry to act with advantage.
At Athens, however, all was prepared for a vigorous de-
fence. The command was committed to the ten generals
(one from each phyle) and the Polemarch Archon. A swift
courier, named Pheidippides, was sent to summon aid from
Sparta; and on the second day, though the distance was
more than nine hundred stadia, he reached that town. The
Spartans readily promised their assistance ; but it was only
the ninth day of the month, and it was their custom never
to march from home but at the full of the moon. They
therefore were reluctantly obliged to defer their departure
for five days.
The Athenians, meantime, had advanced to Marathon,
which was two hundred stadia from their city. They halted
at the temple of Hercules, where they were joined by the
whole military population of their faithful allies, the Plataeans.
For this people, who dwelt at the foot of Cithaeron, in Bceo-
tia, being hard pressed by their ambitious neighbors, the
Thebans, had (01. 65, 2) offered King Cleomenes and the
Lacedaemonians to put themselves under their protection;
but they represented to them that, on account of the distance,
they could not always come to their aid, and advised them
to apply to the Athenians ; and this they did, says Herodo-
tus, not out of regard to the Athenians, but that they might
be embroiled with the Thebans. The Plataeans did as
directed, and the friendship and fidelity between them and
their patrons was most enduring and highly honorable to
both.
Among the Athenian generals was Miltiades, who had
been tyrant of the Athenian colony at the Chersonese, and,
as we have seen, advised the Ionians to loosen the bridge on
the Ister. To escape the vengeance of the Persians, he had
fled back to Athens, where his family was of consequence,
other, so that nothing could escape them, and the inhabitants were
taken like wild beasts.
94 HISTORY OF GREECE.
and resumed his rights of citizenship : his enemies accused
him here of having held the tyranny, but the people acquit-
ted him, and now had chosen him one of the ten generals.
His knowledge of the Persians and their tactics and mode
of fighting had, of course, influenced them in their choice.
In the council of war which was held, the opinions were
divided equally; Miltiades and four others being for en-
gaging, the rest for delay. The casting vote lay with the
Polemarch Callimachus. Miltiades urged on him the dan-
ger of delay, as in such case, there could be little doubt that
dissension would break out, and a portion of the people
medise* and then their reduction under the yoke of Hip-
pias would be inevitable. Callimachus was convinced, and
he gave his vote for immediate action. Aristeides and the
other generals who had voted on the same side, when their
day of command (for they took it by turns) came, resigned
it to Miltiades, who, however, would not engage till his own
day was come.
On that day Miltiades drew up his forces in line of battle.
The Polemarch, in virtue of his office, commanded the right
wing ; the Athenians extended thence in order of their phyles ;
and the Plataeans formed the left wing. To give the greater
extent to his front, Miltiades diminished the number of
ranks in the centre, while he increased those of the wings.
The enemy was now also in battle array, the Persians and
Sacians forming the centre. The distance between the ar-
mies was eight stadia. The sacrifices proving favorable,
the Athenians advanced running, probably to give more
force to their charge, or to escape the Persian arrows. The
Persians, deeming them mad, received their charge, and
broke and pursued the Greek centre ; but the Greek wings
were victorious, and, instead of pursuing, they turned, and
engaged and defeated those who had broken their centre.
The Barbarians fled to their ships, abandoning their camp,
* We use this verb and the substantive medism for the act of siding
with the Persians. The Medes seem at this time to have been better
known than the Persians.
BATTLE OF MARATHON. 95
which became the prey of the victors, and seven of the ships
also were taken.* On the side of the Persians, 6400 men
fell; the Athenians are said to have lost but 192 : the Pole-
march Callimachus was among the slain. The Persians,
having taken on board their Eretrian captives, whom they
had left in a small island, sailed round Cape Sunion, in the
hope of surprising Athens ; but when they came to the port
of Phaleron, near the city, they saw that the troops were
prepared to meet them, for the Athenian commanders, sus-
pecting their design, had led back all the phyles but one,
which remained under Aristeides, to guard the booty and
prisoners.! The Persians, thus baffled, returned to Asia.
The Eretrians were sent to Darius, who settled them at a
place named Ardericca, in the land of the Cissians.
After the full moon, 2000 Lacedaemonians came to Athens,
having marched nine hundred stadia in three days. Finding
the battle over, they went to Marathon to look at the bodies
of the Barbarians, and then returned home praising the valor
of the Athenians.
Contrary to the usual custom of the Athenians, those
who fell at Marathon were buried in a mound on the spot,
and pillars were set up, inscribed with their names and their
phyles. Another mound contained the bodies of the Pla-
teeans and the slaves. J Neither mound nor pillar marked
the burial-place of the Persians. In after times, the Mara-
thonians worshipped the slain as heroes, and with them a
hero named Echetlaeos; for it was said, that in the fight
there appeared a man of rustic mien, armed with a plough,
* We have here an instance of the absurd exaggerations in which
the later writers indulged. Herodotus (vi. 114) relates that an Athe-
nian named Cynaegeirus, having laid hold of the stern of one of the
ships, the Persians cut off his hand with an axe. Justin, (ii. 9,) to aug-
ment the marvel, adds, that when his right hand was struck off, he grasped
the ship with his left, and that also being cut off, he seized it with his
teeth !
t Plutarch, Aristeides, 5.
t Pausanias, i. 32, 3. The slaves, if any were there, were probably
a part of the Platcean forces.
96 HISTORY OF GREECE.
with which he did great scathe to the Barbarians. After
the battle, he was seen no more ; and the oracle, being con-
sulted, directed them to honor the hero Echetlaeos. It
was also believed, in after times, that at night might be heard
by wayfarers on the plain of Marathon the neighing of the
Persian war-steeds, and the clash and clang of the arms of
warriors engaged in the fray ; but no visible object met the
eye of the astonished listener.*
It is possible that the details of this memorable battle
may have fallen short of the expectations of the reader.
But its importance must be estimated by its effects : it
taught the Greeks their superiority in the field over the
Orientals, and led to those victories which checked the
westward progress of the Persian arms. The honest histo-
rian whom we have followed does not tell what the numbers
were on each side ; the Latin biographer, Cornelius Nepos,
and other late writers, state the Athenians at 9000, the
Plataeans at 1000 men probably the true number.f These
were all hoplites, for Herodotus asserts that they had neither
horse nor light troops. Cornelius Nepos also gives details
of the battle at variance with the narrative of Herodotus.
He tells us that Miltiades drew up his army at the foot of
* Paus. ut sup. The same is told of the plain of Munda in Spain,
where Julius Csesar defeated the younger Pompeius. See Mendoza,
Guerra de Granada, p. 320. At the present day, the shouting and the
hlows of the warriors at Marathon sound so loud in fancy's ear, that the
shepherds abandon their flocks and seek shelter. See Turner's Tour in
the Levant, i. p. 349.
t Nepos says that the Persians had 200,000 foot and 10,000 horse ;
Pausanias (iv. 25) and Valerius Maximus (v. 3) say 300,000 ; Plato
(Menex. 10) 500,000; Justin, always in extremes, gives the whole
force at 000,000 men, of whom 200,000 perished ! Let us try to approach
the truth. The fleet consisted of GOO triremes , the crew of a trireme
was 200 men, and it carried thirty soldiers. Let us suppose that on the
present occasion there were fifty soldiers on board of each trireme ;
we thus get 120,000 rowers and sailors, and 30,000 soldiers ; and there
is nothing wonderful in 10,000 Greeks defeating 30,000 Asiatics. The
number of horses in a transport was usually thirty ; but we are not told
how many transports there were.
BATTLE OF MARATHON. 97
the mountain, having its flanks, and apparently its front,
protected by felled trees, where he sustained the charge of
the Persians. Now, that the Athenians were the assailants
can hardly be doubted ; and we are not sure that trees fit
for the purpose grew in that part of Attica, a country re-
markably bare of timber. Details given by late writers
must, we warn the reader, be always received with caution.
This important victory of Marathon justly gained Milti-
ades great influence at Athens; and when he asked the
people to give him seventy triremes, with the necessary men
and money, to go on an expedition which would be greatly
for the advantage of the state, they granted them at once.
It was probably his design to make the isles pay for their
submission to the Medes ; private vengeance, it is said,
made him sail first to Paros, where he laid siege to the town,
demanding one hundred talents as the price of safety. Hav-
ing wasted the country and besieged the town in vain dur-
ing twenty-six days, he retired, and on his return to Athens
popular indignation was high against him, and Xanthippus
and others accused him capitally for the deception he had
practised on the people. As he had had the misfortune to
break his thigh during the siege of Paros, he was unable to
defend himself; but he was brought in his bed into the
assembly, and his friends, by reminding the people of the
eminent services he had done the state, caused the capital
charge to be dismissed. He was condemned, however, to
pay the usual fine of fifty talents ; but he died shortly after-
wards, and his son Cimon paid the fine.*
It is usual to regard this conduct of the Athenians as an
* Plutarch (Cimon, 4) and Nepos say that he was cast into prison,
where he died ; Plato (Gorgias, 153, Bekk.) says that the people voted
to cast him into the pit named the Barathron to perish, and that the
sentence would have been executed, had it not been for the Prytanes,
or presidents of the assembly. This last account is not very probable ;
and we doubt if the authority of those two careless biographers be suf-
ficient to justify us in attributing to the Athenians (who were not a
cruel people) the inhumanity of casting a man with a mortified limb
into prison.
9 M
98 HISTORY OF GREECE.
instance of flagrant ingratitude ; but before we condemn, we
should be sure that we know all the circumstances of the
case. Public men are seldom actuated by a pure and dis-
interested love of their country ; and if on one occasion, in
their pursuit of their own glory, they have chanced to ren-
der it some signal service, it is not reasonable to expect
that this should procure indemnity for future transgres-
sions. Public life, like private life, must be pure in its
whole course, or praise and reward will be converted into
blame and punishment.
In the case of Miltiades, we are to recollect that he had
more at stake than any one else at Marathon, for the Per-
sians regarded him as a rebel and a traitor, and would have
dealt with him accordingly. He certainly showed more
military skill than some of his colleagues ; but in true
patriotism he was perhaps exceeded by the Polemarch.
There does not appear any party virulence in the prosecu-
tion of him, which was conducted by one of the leading men
at Athens : he was only treated like any other citizen.
Two rival statesmen now appear on the scene at Athens
Aristeides, the son of Lysimachus, and Themistocles, the son
of Neocles. The former, of noble birth, and the intimate
friend of Cleisthenes, moderate and disinterested in his char-
acter, leaned to the aristocratic principle ; his rival, of in-
ferior birth, (his mother being a foreigner,) courted more
the people ; in integrity and moral dignity of character, he
was as inferior to his rival as in birth ; but his brilliant
qualities gained the people, and his influence soon became
considerable in the state.
Aristeides, who was styled the Just, directed his attention
chiefly to the management of the finances, and was more
than once chosen archon. Themistocles sought the more
showy station of military command. After the death of
Miltiades, he obtained the command of a fleet, and reduced
the Cyclad Isles to submission. While others fondly deemed
that the victory at Marathon had ended the projects of the
Medes against Greece, he, as doubtless did many others,
MARCH OF XERXES. 99
saw in it only the prelude to greater conflicts, for which it
behoved Athens to prepare. Aware that her situation and
character did not qualify her to be a land power, he sought
to turn the thoughts of the people to the augmentation of
the navy. To speak of the distant dangers from Persia he
knew would be idle ; but the enmity to ^Egina might, he
saw, be turned to advantage. In the very year that Mil-
tiades went against Paros, (Ol. 72, 4,) while Aristeides was
archon, he induced the people to consent to the produce
of the silver mines of Laurion, which used to be divided
among them, being devoted to the building of ships of war ;
and they soon had a fleet of two hundred triremes afloat in
their harbors. The influence of Themistocles was ere long
so great, that he was able to turn the weapon of ostracism
against his rival, and Aristeides was obliged to go into
honorable banishment. (Ol. 74, 2.) *
CHAPTER Xl.t
MARCH OF XERXES. PREPARATIONS OF THE GREEKS.
BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE. BATTLE OF THE ARTEMI-
SION. ATTEMPT ON DELPHI.
What Themistocles had foreseen came to pass. It is not
the character of despotic princes to give over a contest be-
cause their arms have received a check. Darius was bent
more than ever on the subjugation of Greece ; and during
three years, troops and ships, stores and corn, were collected
for another and a greater armament against that country.
But when all was nearly ready, a rebellion broke out in
Egypt ; and then a dispute about the succession to the throne
* Plut. Themist. 4.
t Herod, vii. viii. 1 39 ; Diodorus xi. ; Plut. Themist.
100 HISTORY OF GREECE.
between his sons called his thoughts away from Greece.
Having arranged the succession, he was preparing for civil
and foreign wars, when death surprised him in the thirty-
seventh year of his reign. (Ol. 73, 4.)
Xerxes, the son of Darius by Atossa, daughter of Cyrus,
succeeded to the throne of Persia. His first thoughts were
directed to the reduction of Egypt, and he gave but little
heed to the affairs of Greece. But Mardonius, his hot and
ambitious cousin, kept urging him to the subjugation of
Europe ; the Peisistratids were also at the court of Susa,
and showed oracles portending conquests to the arms of
Persia; and envoys from the Aleuads, the princes of
Thessaly, who feared for their own power from the growth
of republican principles in Greece, called on him to come
and receive their submission. The young monarch lent an
ear to these inducements, and in the second year of his
reign, the Egyptians having been reduced to obedience, he
assembled a council to consider of the invasion of Greece.
The king spoke, enumerating the injuries which the realm
had sustained from the Greeks, and drawing a flattering pic-
ture of the extent which a conquest of this people, who were
the only impediment to that of Europe, would give the em-
pire. He was followed by Mardonius, speaking slightingly
of the Greeks, and dwelling on the facility of the enterprise.
But on the other side rose Artabanus, brother of Darius and
uncle of the king, who showed the danger, the difficulty,
and the folly of the expedition. Xerxes kindled in wrath,
and was only withheld from injuring him by respect for his
father's brother. The council broke up ; dreams at night
came to the monarch and to Artabanus, and the latter, con-
vinced that the war was the will of heaven, ceased to op-
pose it.*
Four years were still employed in making preparations
for the conquest of Europe. Provisions of all kinds were
* The whole account of the councils and affairs of Persia given by
Herodotus has such an Oriental air that he must have derived it from
Persian authorities.
MARCH OF XERXES. 101
conveyed by the maritime subjects of the empire to the coast
of Thrace, and laid up in the towns there. A ship-canal,
wide enough to let two triremes go abreast, was cut across
the Isthmus, of seven stadia in width, which connects Mount
Athos with the main land ; cables and all things necessary
for the construction of bridges of boats were brought from
Egypt and Phoenicia.
At length, (01. 74, 4,) the immense army of the lord of
the East was assembled in the plains of Cappadocia. The
monarch set forth from Susa, and at its head crossed the
Halys, marched through Phrygia, and came to Celoenae in
Lydia, where he and his entire army were entertained by
a Lydian, of noble birth, named Pytheas, who offered the
whole of his immense wealth for the war. But Xerxes gen-
erously added to the riches he would not accept. The host
moved thence to Sardes, where the king passed the winter.
While here, he sent heralds to all parts of Greece but Athens
and Lacedsemon, demanding earth and water, and ordering
them to prepare a supper for the king.
Meanwhile, the Egyptians and Phoenicians were bridging
over the Hellespont at Abydos, where the breadth is seven
stadia ; but a tempest came on and broke their work asun-
der. Then, say the Greeks, Xerxes kindled in ire ; he or-
dered the heads of those who were over the work to be cut
off, and he sent persons charged to give three hundred
lashes to the unruly Hellespont, to cast into it a pair of
golden fetters, to rebuke it for its insolence, and to say that
the king would pass whether it would or not. The bridge
was then renewed and completed. It was built in the fol-
lowing manner. On the side next the Propontis (whence
the stream flows) they ranged three hundred and sixty tri-
remes, and fifty-oar vessels, lengthways across the stream,
and three hundred and fourteen on the other side, facing down
it ; all secured by anchors, and cables were stretched along
them. Three narrow passages were left for small vessels.
The whole was made fast to the shore on either side by thick
cables. Pieces of timber, sawn to the due length, were
9*
102 HISTORY OF GREECE.
laid along the cables ; over these were spread branches of
trees and brushwood, which were covered with earth, and
bulwarks were raised along each side, lest the sight of the
sea should terrify the horses and beasts of burden.*