ch every movement
of the Persians on the plain below, while they were enabled completely
to mask their own. Miltiades also had, from, his position, the power of
giving battle whenever he pleased, or of delaying it at his discretion,
unless Datis were to attempt the perilous operation of storming the
heights.

If we turn to the map of the Old World, to test the comparative
territorial resources of the two states whose armies were now about to
come into conflict, the immense preponderance of the material power of
the Persian king over that of the Athenian republic is more striking
than any similar contrast which history can supply. It has been truly
remarked that, in estimating mere areas Attica, containing on its whole
surface only seven hundred square miles, shrinks into insignificance if
compared with many a baronial fief of the Middle Ages, or many a
colonial allotment of modern times. Its antagonist, the Persian, empire,
comprised the whole of modern Asiatic and much of modern European
Turkey, the modern kingdom of Persia and the countries of modern
Georgia, Armenia, Balkh, the Punjaub, Afghanistan, Beloochistan, Egypt
and Tripoli.

Nor could a European, in the beginning of the fifth century before our
era, look upon this huge accumulation of power beneath the sceptre of a
single Asiatic ruler with the indifference with which we now observe on
the map the extensive dominions of modern Oriental sovereigns; for, as
has been already remarked, before Marathon was fought, the prestige of
success and of supposed superiority of race was on the side of the
Asiatic against the European. Asia was the original seat of human
societies, and long before any trace can be found of the inhabitants of
the rest of the world having emerged from the rudest barbarism, we can
perceive that mighty and brilliant empires flourished in the Asiatic
continent. They appear before us through the twilight of primeval
history, dim and indistinct, but massive and majestic, like mountains in
the early dawn.

Instead, however, of the infinite variety and restless change which has
characterized the institutions and fortunes of European states ever
since the commencement of the civilization of our continent, a
monotonous uniformity pervades the histories of nearly all Oriental
empires, from the most ancient down to the most recent times. They are
characterized by the rapidity of their early conquests, by the immense
extent of the dominions comprised