Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/307

THE ATHENIANS ASSIST IONIA. 289 Rejected at Sparta, Aristagoras proceeded to Athens, now de- cidedly the second power in Greece. And here he found ac easier task, not only as it was the metropolis, or mother-city, of Asiatic Ionia, but also as it had already incurred the pro- nounced hostility of the Persian satrap, and might look to be attacked as soon as the project came to suit his convenience, under the instigation of Hippias : whereas the Spartans had not only no kindred with Ionia, beyond that of common Hellenism, but were in no hostile relations with Persia, and would have been provoking a new eno-ny by meddling in the Asiatic war. The promises and representations of Aristagoras were accordingly received with great favor by the Athenians : who, over and above the claims of sympathy, had a powerful interest in sus- taining the Ionic revolt as an indirect protection to themselves, and to whom the abstraction of the Ionic fleet from the Per- sians afforded a conspicuous and important relief. The Athe- nians at once resolved to send a fleet of twenty ships, under Melanthius, as an aid to the revolted lonians, ships which are 6t) led by Herodotus, " the beginning of the mischiefs between Gi-teks and barbarians," as the ships in which Paris crossed l-he -<Egean had before been called in the Iliad of Homer. He- rodotus farther remarks that it seems easier to deceive many men togetuer than one, since Aristagoras, after having failed with Kleomenes, thus imposed upon the thirty thousand citizens of Athens. 1 But on this remark two comments suggest themselves. First, the circumstances of Athens and Sparta were not the f$ame in regard to the Ionic quarrel, an observation which Herodotus himself had made a little while before : the Athe- nians had a material interest in the quarrel, political as well as aurolai ))filv, (Ti tie TUV MtiriJv v/tlv, offu Trpoeore'are r?}f 'EAAudof (Herod otus, v, 49). In reference to the earlier incident (Herodot. i, 70) Tov- TSUV TS uv elvEKEt oi a.Kedai/j.6vioi TTJV avfj.fia^irjv idegavTO, Kat OTI e/c TTUV- TUV atyi'af irpoKpiva 'E%.Ar/vuv, atpeero <iu^.ovf (Croesus). An interval of rather more than forty years separates the two events, daring which both the feelings of the Spartans, and the feelings of others towar Is them, had undergone a material change. 1 IL.rodot. v, 99. rroA.Acwf yap OIKE eivai evrreTeaTepoi' 6ia/3a^iv r) $va, ei K.Aeo/j.evea uev rbv Aatcfdaipoviov fioiivov oi'K Oi6f re eyevero 6ia3a/.ceiv TIMC. db /uiptada? 'A^ijvaiuv knoirjie TOVTO. vc*. >v. 13