lared enemies. At
this very crisis the Ionian Greeks implored the assistance of their
European brethren, to enable them to recover their independence from
Persia. Athens, and the city of Eretria in Euboea, alone consented.
Twenty Athenian galleys, and five Eretrian, crossed the AEgean Sea, and
by a bold and sudden march upon Sardis, the Athenians and their allies
succeeded in capturing the capital city of the haughty satrap who had
recently menaced them with servitude or destruction. They were pursued,
and defeated on their return to the coast, and Athens took no further
part in the Ionian war; but the insult that she had put upon the Persian
power was speedily made known throughout that empire, and was never to
be forgiven or forgotten.

In the emphatic simplicity of the narrative of Herodotus, the wrath of
the Great King is thus described: "Now when it was told to King Darius
that Sardis had been taken and burned by the Athenians and Ionians, he
took small heed of the Ionians, well knowing who they were, and that
their revolt would soon be put down; but he asked who, and what manner
of men, the Athenians were. And when he had been told, he called for his
bow; and, having taken it, and placed an arrow on the string, he let the
arrow fly toward heaven; and as he shot it into the air, he said, 'Oh!
supreme God, grant me that I may avenge myself on the Athenians,' And
when he had said this, he appointed one of his servants to say to him
every day as he sat at meat, 'Sire, remember the Athenians.'"

Some years were occupied in the complete reduction of Ionia. But when
this was effected, Darius ordered his victorious forces to proceed to
punish Athens and Eretria, and to conquer European Greece, The first
armament sent for this purpose was shattered by shipwreck, and nearly
destroyed off Mount Athos. But the purpose of King Darius was not easily
shaken, A larger army was ordered to be collected in Cilicia, and
requisitions were sent to all the maritime cities of the Persian empire
for ships of war, and for transports of sufficient size for carrying
cavalry as well as infantry across the AEgean. While these preparations
were being made, Darius sent heralds round to the Grecian cities
demanding their submission to Persia. It was proclaimed in the
market-place of each little Hellenic state--some with territories not
larger than the Isle of Wight--that King Darius, the lord of all men,
from the rising to the setting sun,[44] r