6

dwellings and no tillage. The king, following his advice, commanded the Ionians to guard the bridge for sixty days, and, if he should not by that time have come back, then to break it up and sail away. The story of the campaign which follows is told with an abundance of detail illustrating the plan of the Scythians to entice the Persians continually further from their base of supplies, if they thought of having any, through the countries of those nations who would not take part with them in the war. Accordingly they wander on until Dareios in sheer weariness sends a herald to the Scythian king to beg him either to come forward and fight like a man or to give earth and water as a slave. Tell your master,' said the wandering chief, 'that he is quite mistaken if he thinks that we are running away from him. The fact is that we are only doing now what we always do, for it is our way to move about. If he wants to fight us, let him find out the tombs of our forefathers; and if he lay hands on them, he shall soon know how the Scythians can strike.' The monotony of his course was at last broken by the arrival of a Scythian herald who brought as gifts for the king not earth and water but a bird and a mouse, a frog and five arrows, and, having left them, went his way. Summoning his chief men, Dareios expressed his opinion that by these gifts the Scythians meant that they yielded up themselves, their land, and their water, because the mouse lives on the land and the frog in the water, and the bird signified the horses of warriors, and the arrows showed that they gave up their power. But Gobryas, one of his generals, gave another interpretation and warned the Persians that, unless they could become birds and fly up into heaven, or go down like mice beneath the earth, or becoming frogs leap into the lake, they would be shot to death by the Scythian arrows. His words struck a chill into the heart of Dareios; but while he with his bulky army made what speed he could to reach the bridge on the Danube, a body of Scythians, taking a shorter road, hastened to the Ionians who were guarding it, and urged them to abandon their trust. The advice of Miltiades, the future victor of Marathon, was that they should do as the Scythians wished. But although the other despots there present gave at first an eager assent, they at once changed their minds when Histiaios of Miletos warned them that without the help of Dareios they could not possibly hope to retain their power. Still it was necessary to do something to get rid of the

F

Scythian army on the banks of the river.

The Ionians therefore

pretended to accept their proposal, and urged them to go in search of the Persian host and destroy it. The Scythians accordingly hurried off, but were as unsuccessful now in finding the Persians as the Persians had been in tracking them. Meanwhile Dareios was hurrying to the Istros. It was night when they reached the bridge: and when they found that the boats were unloosed, they feared greatly that the Ionians had left them to perish. But Dareios commanded an Egyptian in his army who had a very loud voice to call Histiaios of Miletos; and at the first cry Histiaios had the bridge fastened again, and the Persians got over in safety.

We may smile at such details; but only by a summary of the whole narrative can it be shown that no one part of the story is really more trustworthy than any other. It is quite true that the record of all that takes place on the Scythian side of the Danube is like a bewildering dream. The great rivers which water the vast regions on the north of the Black Sea are forgotten by the historian in his description of the wanderings of a million of men through a country which is said to have yielded no food and in many places no water. The tale is incredible from beginning to end; but there is nothing to justify the belief that we enter the world of reality on the Thrakian bank of the Istros. The incidents in the guarding of the bridge are even more bewildering than any which were supposed to have taken place in the rugged deserts of Scythia. Even under the circumstances as they are given in the narrative, there is no need to suppose a haste to cross the river so pressing as to make it impossible to wait till the day had dawned. Still more absurd is it, with the noise of a vast army in disorderly retreat, to introduce the Egyptian herald with his Stentorian voice to rouse the attention of Histiaios. As to the debates which are said to have taken place among the guardians of the bridge, the matter is speedily brought to an issue. Either the Ionians were faithful to Dareios, or they were not. Either the Scythians were in earnest in their efforts to defend their country and to defeat the invaders, or they were not. Under either alternative it is impossible to give any credit to the story of the incidents which are supposed to have taken place at the bridge. Whether the Greeks wished to abandon Dareios or to save him, they would in either case have urged the Scythians to remain on the bank,

-in the one case that these Scythians might destroy the Persian army in the desperate confusion caused by the efforts of an unwieldy multitude caught in a deadly snare,-in the other that they might fall victims to the Persian host. On the other hand, whatever may be the stupidity of wandering tribes, the folly attributed to the Scythians exceeds that which might well be ascribed to Australian savages. They are represented as knowing perfectly well the position of the Persian army at every stage of their march; and therefore, as knowing that Dareios was in full retreat for the bridge, they knew that he and his army must cross it or speedily perish. Yet they are infatuated enough to depart at the bidding of the Ionians to go and look for an enemy whom, if only they remained where they were, they might assuredly slaughter at their ease. The folly which could forego so sure and easy a means of vengeance is so stupendous that we are driven to dismiss the details of the Scythian campaign of Dareios as altogether unhistorical. But it is perfectly natural that the Hellenic tradition should represent the defeat of the Persian king as more disastrous than it really was; and we have to note the significant circumstance that with the passage of the Danube on his return all the difficulties of Dareios disappear. It was his wish that the Thrakians should be made his subjects; and his general Megabazos bears down all opposition with a vigour which the incapacity of the Persians on the northern side of the Danube would not lead us to expect, and to which we might suppose that Scythian revenge would offer some hindrance. But from the Scythians Megabazos encounters no resistance; and his course to the Strymon is one of uninterrupted conquest. Near the mouth of this river was the Edonian town of Myrkinos, in a neighbourhood rich in forests and cornland as well as in mines of gold and silver. Here, when the great king announced his wish to reward his benefactors, Histiaios begged that he might be suffered to take up his abode, while Kôês contented himself with asking that he might be made despot of Mytilene.

CHAPTER III.

THE IONIC REVOLT.

WHEN after the outbreak of the Ionic revolt a joint expedition of Athenians and Ionians under the Milesian Aristagoras led to the accidental burning of Sardeis, Dareios, we are told, on hearing the tidings, asked who the Athenians might be, and, on being informed, shot an arrow into the air, praying Zeus to suffer him to take vengeance on this folk. About the Ionians and their share in the matter he said nothing. These he knew that he might punish when he chose: but so careful was he not to forget the foreigners who had done him wrong, that an attendant received orders to bid his master before every meal to remember the Athenians. If the chronology of this period may at all be trusted, some eight years had gone by since Hippias, expelled from Athens, departed to Sigeion with the definite purpose of stirring up the Persian king against his countrymen. His intrigues were probably not less active than those of James II. at St. Germain's: and his disappointment at the congress in Sparta probably sent him back to the Hellespont even more determined to regain his power by fair means or by foul (p. 47); nor need we doubt the words of Herodotos that from the moment of his return from Sparta he left not a stone unturned to provoke Artaphernes, the Sardian satrap, to the conquest of Athens, in order that he might hold it as a tributary of Dareios. The conclusion seems to follow irresistibly that Dareios had heard the whole story of the expulsion of the Peisistratids, and that he gave no such answer to their prayers as effectually to discourage their importunities. The acts, of which we have here a significant glimpse, were not done in a The Athenians were perfectly aware of the way in which Hippias was employing himself at Sardeis; and their ambassadors, appearing before Artaphernes, laid before him the whole state of the case, and urged every available argument to dissuade the Persian king from interfering in the affairs of the Western Greeks. The answer of Artaphernes charged the Athenians, if they valued their safety, to receive Hippias again as their tyrant. The Athenians retorted by a flat refusal, and interpreting the words of Artaphernes as a virtual declaration

corner.

of war, were induced to aid Aristagoras with a force of twenty ships. Yet these are the people of whom Dareios, on hearing of the burning of Sardeis with the temple of Kybêbê, speaks as though he had never so much as heard their name. This is a sample of the details which form the greater part of the narrative of the Ionic revolt, and which are essentially dramatic, not historical.

The story of the Ionic revolt takes us back to the time when Dareios, having recrossed the Danube, rewarded his supposed benefactors Kôês and Histiaios. When Megabazos found his way from Thrace to Sardeis, he carried with him the tidings that Histiaios was busily occupied in fortifying Myrkinos, and warned Dareios of the great imprudence of allowing him to establish there a power which might become formidable even to the great king. A messenger was therefore sent to Myrkinos with a letter in which Dareios told him that he needed the help of his counsel forthwith at Sardeis. Thither Histiaios hastened, and was received by Dareios with the bland assurance that there is nothing more precious than a wise and kind friend. But although Histiaios was thus carried into splendid captivity, the causes of disquiet were not removed, for either he or the king had placed the government of Miletos in the hands of Aristagoras, a nephew of Histiaios; and the help of Aristagoras was now sought by some oligarchic exiles from Naxos. But Aristagoras felt that his own power alone could not restore them to their country, and he told them that they must have the help of Artaphernes, the brother of the great king. The exiles in their turn besought him to stint nothing in promises. They would pay him well for his aid, and would further take on themselves the cost of the expedition. To Artaphernes, therefore, Aristagoras held out, with these inducements, the further bait that the conquest of Naxos would bring with it the possession of the neighbouring islands, and probably of Euboia, which would give him the command of a large portion of the Attic coast. One hundred ships, he said, would amply suffice for the enterprise. Artaphernes promised him two hundred, while Dareios, when the report of Artaphernes was laid before him, expressed his full approval of the scheme. The general appointed to command the expedition was Megabates, a cousin of Dareios and Artaphernes. But it had been destined, adds the historian, that the Naxians should not be destroyed by the army under Megabates