Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/347

PERSIAN INVASION OF GREECE. 329 avery part of the empire, had assembled in the AleTan plain of Kilikia, near the sea. A fleet of six hundred armed triremes, together with many transports, both of men and horses, waa brought hither for their embarkation : the troops were put on board, and sailed along the coast to Samos in Ionia. The Ionic and ^Eolic Greeks constituted an important part of this arma- ment, and the Athenian exile Hippias was on board as guide and auxiliary in the attack of Attica. The generals were Datis, a Median, 1 and Artaphernes, son of the satrap of Sardis, so named, and nephew of Darius. We may remark that Datis is the first person of Median lineage who is mentioned as appointed to high command after the accession of Darius, which had been preceded and marked, as I have noticed in a former chapter, by an outbreak of hostile nationality between the Medes and Per sians. Their instructions were, generally, to reduce to subjec tion and tribute all such Greeks as had not already given earth and water. But Darius directed them most particularly to con- quer Eretria and Athens, and to bring the inhabitants as slaves into his presence. 2 These orders were literally meant, and prob- ably neither the generals nor the soldiers of this vast armament doubted that they would be literally executed ; and that before the end of the year, the wives, or rather the widows, of men like Themistokles and Aristeides would be seen among a mournful train of Athenian prisoners, on the road from Sardis to Susa, thus accomplishing the wish expressed by queen Atossa at the instance of Demokedes. The recent terrific storm near Mount Athos deterred the Per- sians from following the example of Mardonius, and taking their course by the Hellespont and Thrace. It was resolved to strike straight across the JEgean 3 (the mode of attack which intelligent 1 Herodot. vi, 94. Adn'v re, kovra M^tJov yeVof etc. Cornelius Nepos (Life of Pausanias, c. 1 ) calls Mardonius a Mede ; which cannot be true, since he was the son of Gobryas, one of the seven 1'ei-sian conspirators (Herodot. vi, 43). 9 Ilerodot, vi, 94. ^vra/lu/zevof 6e inreTrefnre, eZavtipaTrodiaavraf 'Eperpiav ml 'i&yvof, uyeiv euvrti ef uipiv ru, uvdpinroda. According to the Menexenus of Plato (c. 17, p. 245), Darius ordered Datis to fulfil this order on peril of his own head ; no such harshness ajr pears in Herodotus. 3 Thucyd. i, 93.