CHAPTER III.

EXPEDITION OF DATIS AND ARTAPHERNES; THE BATTLE OF MARATHON.

War was accordingly kindled between the Athenians and Æginetæ. But the Persian pursued his own design, for the servant continually reminded him to remember the Athenians, and the Pisistratidæ constantly importuned him and accused the Athenians; and at the same time Darius was desirous of subduing those people of Greece who had refused to give him earth and water. He therefore dismissed Mardonius from his command, because he had succeeded ill in his expedition; and appointed other generals, whom he sent against Eretria and Athens, namely, Datis, who was a Mede by birth, and Artaphernes, son of Artaphernes, his own nephew; and he despatched them with strict orders to enslave Athens and Eretria, and bring the bondsmen into his presence. When these generals who were appointed left the king, and reached the Aleian plain of Cilicia, bringing with them a numerous and well-equipped army, they encamped there until the whole naval force required from each people came up: the horse-transports were also present, which Darius in the preceding year had commanded his tributaries to prepare. They put the horses on board of these, and embarked the land-forces in the ships, and sailed for Ionia with six hundred triremes. From there they did not steer their ships along the continent direct to the Hellespont and Thrace; but parting from Samos they bent their course across the Icarian sea, and through the islands, dreading the circumnavigation of Athos, because in the preceding year, in attempting a passage that way, they had sustained great loss.

While they were doing this, the Delians also, abandoning Delos, fled to Tenos; but as the fleet was sailing down toward it, Datis would not permit the ships to anchor near the island, but further on, off Rhenea; and he, having ascertained where the Delians were, sent a herald and addressed them as follows: "Sacred men, why have you fled, forming an unfavorable opinion of me? For both I myself have so much wisdom, and am so ordered by the king, that in the region where the two deities[25] were born, no harm should be done either to the country itself or its inhabitants. Return, therefore, to your houses, and resume possession of the island." This message he sent to the Delians by means of a herald; and afterward heaped up three hundred talents of frankincense upon the altar, and burnt it. Then Datis sailed with the army first against Eretria, taking with him both Ionians and Æolians. But after he had put out to sea from there, Delos was shaken by an earthquake, as the Delians say, the first and last time that it was ever so affected. And the deity assuredly by this portent intimated to men the evils that were about to befall them. For during the three successive reigns of Darius, son of Hystaspes, of Xerxes, son of Darius, and of Artaxerxes, son of Xerxes, more disasters befell Greece than during the twenty generations that preceded the time of Darius, partly brought upon it by the Persians, and partly by the chief men amongst them contending for power. So that it is not at all improbable that Delos should be moved at that time, though until then unmoved; and in an oracle respecting it, it had been thus written: "I will move even Delos, although hitherto unmoved." And in the Greek language these names mean: Darius, "one who restrains"; Xerxes, "a warrior"; and Artaxerxes, "a mighty warrior."

After the barbarians had parted from Delos, and touched at the islands, they took with them men to serve in the army, and carried away the sons of the islanders for hostages. Having subdued Eretria, and rested a few days, they sailed to Attica, pressing the inhabitants very close, and expecting to treat them in the same way as they had the Eretrians. Now as Marathon was the spot in Attica best adapted for cavalry, and nearest to Eretria, they gathered their forces there. When the Athenians heard of this, they also sent their forces to Marathon: and ten generals led them, of whom the tenth was Miltiades, whose father, Cimon, had been banished from Athens by Pisistratus. During his exile, it was his good fortune to obtain the Olympic prize in the four-horse chariot race, the honor of which victory he transferred to Miltiades, his brother by the same mother; afterward, in the next Olympiad, being victorious with the same mares, he permitted Pisistratus to be proclaimed victor, and returned home under terms. But after he had gained a third Olympic prize with the same mares, it happened that he died by the hands of the sons of Pisistratus, when Pisistratus himself was no longer alive; they slew him near the Prytaneum, having placed men to waylay him by night. Cimon was buried in front of the city, beyond that which is called the road to Cœla, and opposite him these same mares were buried, which won the three Olympic prizes. Stesagoras, the elder son of Cimon, was at that time being educated by his uncle in the Chersonese, but the younger by Cimon himself at Athens, and he had the name of Miltiades, from Miltiades, the founder of the Chersonese. At that time, then, this Miltiades, coming from the Chersonese, and having escaped a twofold death, became general of the Athenians; for in the first place, the Phœnicians pursued him as far as Imbros, exceedingly desirous of seizing him and carrying him up to the king; and in the next, when he had escaped them, and had returned to his own country, and thought himself in safety, his enemies attacked him, and brought him before a court of justice, to prosecute him for tyranny in the Chersonese. These also he escaped, and was at length appointed general of the Athenians by the choice of the people.

And first, while the generals were yet in the city, they despatched a herald to Sparta, one Phidippides, an Athenian, a courier by profession, who arrived in Sparta on the following day after his departure from the city of the Athenians, and on coming in presence of the magistrates, said: "Lacedæmonians, the Athenians entreat you to assist them, and not to suffer the most ancient city among the Greeks to fall into bondage to barbarians; for Eretria is already reduced to slavery, and Greece has become weaker by the loss of a renowned city." He delivered the message according to his instructions, and they resolved to assist the Athenians; but it was out of their power to do so immediately, as they were unwilling to violate the law; for it was the ninth day of the current month; and they said they could not march out until the moon's circle should be full.

Meanwhile the traitor Hippias, son of Pisistratus, had guided the barbarians to Marathon. He first of all landed the slaves from Eretria on the island of the Styreans, called Ægilia; and next he moored the ships as they came to Marathon, and drew up the barbarians as they disembarked on land. But as he was busied in doing this, it happened that he sneezed and coughed more violently than he was accustomed; and as he was far advanced in years, several of his teeth were loose, so that through the violence of his cough he threw out one of these teeth. It fell on the sand, and he used every endeavor to find it; but when the tooth could nowhere be found, he drew a deep sigh, and said to the bystanders: "This country is not ours, nor shall we be able to subdue it; whatever share belongeth to me, my tooth possesses."

When the Athenians were drawn up in a place sacred to Hercules, the Platæans came to their assistance with all their forces. For the Platæans had given themselves up to the Athenians, as the Athenians had already undergone many toils on their account.

The opinions of the Athenian generals were divided: one party not consenting to engage, "because they were too few to engage with the army of the Medes"; and the others, among whom was Miltiades, urging them to give battle. There was an eleventh voter who was appointed minister of war among the Athenians, who had an equal vote with the generals, and at that time Callimachus of Aphidnæ was minister of war. To him Miltiades came and spoke as follows: "It now depends on you, Callimachus, either to enslave Athens, or, by preserving its liberty, to leave a memorial of yourself to every age, such as not even Harmodius and Aristogeiton have left. For the Athenians were never in so great danger from the time they were first a people. If they succumb to the Medes, it has been determined what they are to suffer when delivered up to Hippias; but if the city survives, it will become the first of the Greek cities. How, then, this can be brought to pass, and how the power of deciding the matter depends on you, I will now proceed to explain. The opinions of us generals, who are ten, are equally divided; the one party urging that we should engage, the other that we should not. Now, if we do not engage, I expect that some great dissension arising amongst us will shake the minds of the Athenians so as to induce them to a compliance with the Medes. But if we engage before any dastardly thought arises in the minds of some of the Athenians, if the gods are impartial, we shall be able to get the better in the engagement. All these things now entirely depend on you. For if you will support my opinion, your country will be free, and the city the first in Greece; but if you join with those who would dissuade us from an engagement, the contrary of the advantages I have enumerated will fall to your lot." Miltiades, by these words, gained over Callimachus, and it was determined to engage. Afterward the generals whose opinions had been given to engage, as the command for the day devolved upon each of them, gave it up to Miltiades; but though he accepted it, he would not come to an engagement before his own turn to command came.

The war-minister, Callimachus, commanded the right wing, for the law at that time was so settled among the Athenians; the Platæans were drawn out last of all, occupying the left wing. Now, ever since that battle, when the Athenians offer sacrifices and celebrate the public festivals which take place every five years, the Athenian herald prays, saying: "May blessings attend both the Athenians and the Platæans." Their line was equal in extent to the Medic line, but the middle of it was but few deep, and there the line was weakest, while each wing was strong in numbers. When they were drawn up, and the victims were favorable, the Athenians, at the order to charge, advanced against the barbarians in double-quick time; and the space between them was not less than eight stades. The Persians, seeing them charging at full speed, prepared to receive them, laughing at their madness when they saw that they were so few in number, and that they rushed on at full speed without cavalry or archers. The Athenians, however, when they engaged in close ranks with the barbarians, fought in a manner worthy of record. For they, the first of all the Greeks whom we know of, charged the enemy at full speed, and first endured the sight of the Medic garb and the men that wore it; for until that time the very name of the Medes was a terror to the Greeks. The battle at Marathon lasted a long time: and in the middle of the line, where the Persians themselves and the Sacæ were arrayed, the barbarians were victorious, and having broken the line, pursued to the interior; but in both wings the Athenians and the Platæans were victorious. Here they allowed the defeated portion of the barbarians to flee; and having united both wings, they fought with those who had broken their centre until at last the Athenians were victorious. They followed the Persians in their flight, cutting them to pieces, till, reaching the shore, they called for fire and attacked the ships.

In this battle the brave war-minister, Callimachus, was killed, and among the generals, Stesilaus, son of Thrasylas, perished; Cynægeirus, son of Euphorion, laid hold of a ship's stern and had his hand severed by an axe and fell; and besides, many other distinguished Athenians were slain. In this manner the Athenians made themselves masters of seven ships: but with the rest the barbarians rowed rapidly back, and after taking off the Eretrian slaves from the island in which they had left them, sailed round Sunium, wishing to anticipate the Athenians in reaching the city. But the Athenians marched with all speed to the assistance of the city, and reached it before the barbarians arrived; and as they had come from the precinct of Hercules at Marathon, they took up their station in another precinct of Hercules at Cynosarges. The barbarians, having laid to with their fleet off Phalerum for a time, soon sailed away for Asia. In this battle at Marathon there died of the barbarians about six thousand four hundred men; and of the Athenians, one hundred and ninety-two. An Athenian, Epizelus, son of Cuphagoras, while fighting in the medley, and behaving valiantly, was deprived of sight, though wounded in no part of his body, nor struck from a distance; and he continued to be blind from that time for the remainder of his life. I have heard that he used to give the following account of his loss. He thought that a large heavy-armed man stood before him, whose beard shaded the whole of his shield; that this spectre passed by him, and killed the man that stood by his side, smiting him with this loss as it passed.

King Darius, before the Eretrians were made captive, harbored a deep resentment against them, as the Eretrians had been the first to begin acts of injustice: but when he saw them brought into his presence, and subject to his power, he did them no other harm, but settled them in the Cissian territory at a station of his own, the name of which is Ardericca; it is two hundred and ten stades distant from Susa, and forty from the well which produces three different substances; for asphalt, salt, and oil are drawn up from it, in the following manner. It is pumped up by means of a swipe, and, instead of a bucket, half of a wine-skin is attached to it; having dipped down with this, a man draws it up and then pours the contents into a receiver; and being poured from this into another, it assumes three different forms: the asphalt and the salt immediately become solid, but the oil they collect, and the Persians call it rhadinace; it is black and emits a strong odor. Here king Darius settled the Eretrians; who, even to my time, occupied this territory, retaining their ancient language. Two thousand of the Lacedæmonians came to Athens after the full moon, making such haste to be in time, that they arrived in Attica on the third day after leaving Sparta. Too late for the battle, they, nevertheless, proceeded to Marathon, saw the slain, commended the Athenians and their achievement, and returned home.

After the defeat of the Persians at Marathon, Miltiades, asked of the Athenians seventy ships, and troops, and money, without telling them what country he purposed to invade, but saying that he would make them rich if they would follow him, for he would take them to a country, from which they would easily bring an abundance of gold, and the Athenians, elated by these hopes, granted the ships. Miltiades, accordingly took the troops and sailed against Paros, alleging as a pretext, that the Parians had first begun hostilities by sending a trireme with the Persians to Marathon. But his real reason was that he had a grudge against the Parians on account of Lysagoras, son of Tisias, who was a Parian by birth and who had calumniated him to Hydarnes the Persian. Miltiades arrived with his forces and besieged the Parians, who were driven within their walls; and sent a herald to them to demand a hundred talents, saying, that if they did not furnish him that sum, he would not draw off his army until he had destroyed them. The Parians never entertained the thought of giving Miltiades any money; but devised means by which they might defend the city; and in several parts where the wall was most exposed to attack, they raised it, during the night, to double its former height. Up to this point of the story all the Greeks agree; but after this the Parians themselves say that it happened as follows. That when Miltiades was in a state of perplexity, a captive woman, by birth a Parian, and named Timo, conferred with him; she was an inferior priestess of the infernal goddesses. When she came into the presence of Miltiades, she advised him, if he deemed it of great consequence to take Paros, to act as she should suggest. Following out her suggestions he came to the mound before the city and leaped over the fence of Ceres Thesmophora, as he was unable to open the door; and went to the temple, for the purpose either to move some of the things that may not be moved, or to do something or other, I know not what. He was just at the door, when suddenly a thrill of horror came over him, and he went back by the same way; and in leaping over the fence his thigh was dislocated, or his knee was hurt. Miltiades, in a bad plight, sailed back home, neither bringing money to the Athenians, nor having reduced Paros, but having besieged it for six and twenty days, and ravaged the island. When the Parians were informed that Timo, the priestess of the goddesses, had directed Miltiades, they desired to punish her, and sent deputies to the oracle at Delphi, as soon as they were relieved from the siege, to inquire whether they should put to death the priestess of the goddesses, for having made known to the enemy the means of capturing the country, and for having discovered to Miltiades sacred things, which ought not to be revealed to the male sex. But the Pythian did not allow them, but said, "that Timo was not to blame for this, but that it was fated Miltiades should come to a miserable end, and she had appeared to him as a guide to misfortune." When Miltiades returned from Paros, the Athenians were loud in their complaints against him, especially Xanthippus, son of Ariphron, who brought a capital charge against Miltiades before the people, and prosecuted him for deception. Miltiades, though present in person, made no defence, through inability, as his thigh had begun to mortify. But while he lay on a couch his friends made a defence for him, dwelling much on the battle that had been fought at Marathon, and on the capture of Lemnos; since he had taken Lemnos, and inflicted vengeance on the Pelasgians, and had given it up to the Athenians. The people so far favored him as to acquit him of the capital offence, but fined him fifty talents for the injury he had done. Miltiades soon after ended his life by the mortification of his thigh, and his son Cimon paid the fifty talents.

[22] The Greek words, literally translated, mean "on a razor's edge."

[23] There is very good reason to believe that this fine was really imposed for the adoption of a modern theme by Phrynichus, when hitherto only the gods and heroes had been permissible subjects.

[24] The "Theoris" was a vessel which was sent every year to Delos to offer sacrifice to Apollo.

[25] Apollo and Diana.

_BOOK VII. POLYMNIA._