Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/373

CHANGE OF FEELING TOWARDS THE PERSIANS. 353 Greeks. To this must be added the successes of Datis him- self. and the calamities of Eretria, coming with all the freshness of novelty as an apparent sentence of death to Athens. The extreme effort of courage required in the Athenians, to encoun- ter such invaders, is attested by the division of opinion among the ten generals. Putting all the circumstances together, it is without a parallel in Grecian history, surpassing even the combat of Thermopylae, as will appear when I come to describe that memorable event. And the admirable conduct of the five dis- sentient generals, when outvoted by the decision of the pole- march against them, in cooperating heartily for the success of a pclicy which they deprecated, proves how much the feelings of a constitutional democracy, and that entire acceptance of the pronounced decision of the majority on which it rests, had worked themselves into tha Athenian mind. The combat of Marathon was by no means a very decisive defeat, but it was a defeat, and the first which the Persians had ever received from Greeks in the field. If the battle of Salamis, ten years afterwards, could be treated by Themistokles as a hair-breadth escape for Greece, much more is this true of the battle of Mara- thon ; ' which first afforded reasonable proof, even to discerning and resolute Greeks, that the Persians might be effectually repelled, and the independence of European Greece maintained against them, a conviction of incalculable value in reference to the formidable trials destined to follow. Upon the Athenians themselves, the first to face in the field successfully the terrific look of a Persian army, the effect of the victory was yet more stirring and profound.' 2 It supplied them with resolution for 1 Herodot. viii, 108. fifisif <5e, evprifia yap evp7jK.au.ev rj[i.t-ae re icai T^V EA/laJa, ve<l>of TOGOVTOV uvfipuKoiv avuadfievoi. 8 Pausanias, i, 14,4; Thucyd. i, 73. fa/iev yilp Mapaduvi re fiovoi jrocKivdvveviai r> /3a/i3upy, etc. Herodot. vi, 112. irpurti re uverrxovro ka&r)Tu re MrjfiiKT/v dpeovrec. ai TavTrjv ea^ijfj.evovf reuf 6e TJV roiai 'E^/irjai nal TO ovvopa rb M>/(5uv It is not unworthy of remark, that the memorable oath in the oration of Demosthenes, de Coron&, wherein he adjures the warriors of Marathon, copies the phrase of Thucydides, ov fia roi)f kv MapadiJvi irpoicivAv vtve&vrac TUV npoyovuv, etc ( Demo sthen. de Corona, c. 60.)