wretched fugitive, growing more and
more distressed and destitute every day. At length, as he was flying
from a battle field, he arrested the arm of a Persian, who was
pursuing him with his weapon upraised, by crying out that he was
Histiaeus the Milesian. The Persian, hearing this, spared his life, but
took him prisoner, and delivered him to Artaphernes. Histiaeus begged
very earnestly that Artaphernes would send him to Darius alive, in
hopes that Darius would pardon him in consideration of his former
services at the bridge of the Danube. This was, however, exactly what
Artaphernes wished to prevent; so he crucified the wretched Histiaeus
at Sardis, and then packed his head in salt and sent it to Darius.

[Illustration: GRECIAN EMPIRE.]

CHAPTER XI.

THE INVASION OF GREECE AND THE BATTLE OF MARATHON.

B.C. 512-490

Great battles.--Progress of the Persian empire.--Condition of
the Persian empire.--Plans of Darius.--Persian power in
Thrace.--Attempted negotiation with Macedon.--The seven
commissioners.--Their rudeness at the feast.--Stratagem of
Amyntas's son.--The commissioners killed.--Artifice of the
prince.--Darius's anger against the Athenians.--Civil dissensions
in Greece.--The tyrants.--Periander.--His message to a neighboring
potentate.--Periander's intolerable tyranny.--His wife
Melissa.--The ghost of Melissa.--A great sacrifice.--The reason
of Periander's rudeness to the assembly of females.--Labda the
cripple.--Prediction in respect to her progeny.--Conspiracy
to destroy Labda's child.--Its failure.--The child
secreted.--Fulfillment of the oracle.--Hippias of Athens.--His
barbarous cruelty.--Hippias among the Persians.--Wars between the
Grecian states.--Quarrel between Athens and AEgina.--The two wooden
statues.--Incursion of the AEginetans.--They carry off the
statues.--Attempt to recover the statues.--They fall upon their
knees.--The Athenian fugitive.--He is murdered by the women.--The
Persian army.--Its commander, Datis.--Sailing of the
fleet.--Various conquests.--Landing of the Persians.--State of
Athens.--The Greek army.--Miltiades and his colleagues.--Position
of the armies.--Miltiades's plan of attack.--Onset of the
Greeks.--Rout of the Persians.--Results of the battle.--Numbers
slain.--The field of Marathon.--The mound.--Song of the Greek.

In the history of a great military conqueror, there seems to be often
some one great battle which in importance and renown eclipses all the
rest.