a second messenger was despatched to Melissa, who now vouchsafed to say where the thing required might be found. Such, oh men of Sparta, is a tyrannical government, and such its effects. Much, therefore, were we Corinthians astonished, when we learned that you had sent for Hippias; but the declaration of your sentiments surprises us still more. We adjure you therefore, in the names of the divinities of Greece, not to establish tyranny in our cities. But if you are determined in your purpose, and are resolved in opposition to what is just, to restore Hippias, be assured that the Corinthians will not second you."

XCIII. Sosicles, the deputy of the Corinthians, having delivered his sentiments, was answered by Hippias. He having adjured the same divinities, declared, that the Corinthians would most of all have occasion to regret the Pisistratidæ, when the destined hour should arrive, and they should groan under the oppression of the Athenians. Hippias spoke with the greater confidence, because he was best acquainted with the declarations of the oracles. The rest of the confederates, who had hitherto been silent, hearing the generous sentiments of Sosicles, declared themselves the friends of freedom, and favourers of the opinions of the Corinthians. They then conjured the Lacedæmonians, to introduce no innovations which might affect the liberties of a Grecian city.

XCIV. When Hippias departed from Sparta, Amyntas the Macedonian prince offered him for a residence, Anthemos, as did the Thessalians, Ioclos; but he would accept of neither, and returned to Sigeum, which Pisistratus had taken by force from the people of Mitylene. He had appointed Hegesistratus, his natural son by a woman of Argos, governor of the place, who did not retain his situation without much and violent contest. The people of Mitylene and of Athens issuing, the one from the city of Achillea, the other from Sigeum, were long engaged in hostilities. They of Mitylene insisted on the restoration of what had been violently taken from them; but it was answered, that the Eolians had no stronger claims upon the territories of Troy, than the Athenians themVOL. II.

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selves, and the rest of the Greeks, who had assisted Menelaus in avenging the rape of Helen.

XCV. Among their various encounters it happened that in a severe engagement, in which the Athenians had the advantage, the poet Alcæus fled from the field. The Athenians obtained his arms, and suspended them at Sigeum, in the temple of Minerva. Alcæus recorded the event in a poem which he sent to Mitylene, explaining to a friend named Melanippus, the particulars of his misfortune. Periander the son of Cypselus at length re-united the contending nations: he being chosen arbiter, determined that each party should retain what they possessed. Sigeum thus devolved to the Athenians.

XCVI. Hippias, when he left Sparta, went to Asia, where he used every effort to render the Athenians odious to Artaphernes, and to prevail on him to make them subject to him and to Darius. As soon as the intrigues of Hippias were known at Athens, the Athenians despatched emissaries to Sardis, entreating the Persians to place no confidence in men whom they had driven into exile. Artaphernes informed them in reply, that if they wished for peace, they must recall Hippias. Rather than accede to these conditions, the Athenians chose to be considered as the enemies of Persia.

XCVII. Whilst they were resolving on these measures, in consequence of the impression which had been made to their prejudice in Persia, Aristagoras the Milesian, being driven by Cleomenes from Sparta, arrived at Athens, which city was then powerful beyond the rest of its neighbours. When Aristagoras appeared in the public assembly, he enumerated, as he had done in Sparta, the riches which Asia possessed, and recommended a Persian war, in which they would be easily successful against a people using neither spear nor shield. In addition to this, he remarked that Miletus was an Athenian colony, and that consequently it became the Athenians to exert the great power they possessed, in favour of the Milesians. He proceeded to make use of the most earnest entreaties and lavish promises, till they finally acced

ed to his views. He thought, and as it appeared with justice, that it was far easier to delude a great multitude than a single individual; he was unable to prevail upon Cleomenes, but he won to his purpose no less than thirty thousand Athenians. The people of Athens accordingly agreed to send to the assistance of the Ionians, twenty vessels of war, of which Melanthius, a very amiable and popular character, was to have the command. This fleet was the source of the calamities which afterwards ensued to the Greeks and Barbarians.

XCVIII. Before their departure, Aristagoras returned to Miletus, where he contrived a measure from which no advantage could possibly result to the Ionians. Indeed his principal motive was to distress Darius. He despatched a messenger into Phrygia, to those Pæonians who from the banks of the Strymon had been led away captive by Megabyzus, and who inhabited a district appropriated to them. His emissaries thus addressed them: "Men of Pæonia, I am commissioned by Aristagoras, prince of Miletus, to say, that if you will follow his counsel, you may be free. The whole of Ionia has revolted from Persia, and it becomes you to seize this opportunity of returning to your native country. You have only to appear on the banks of the ocean; we will provide for the rest." The Pæonians received this information with great satisfaction, and with their wives and children fled towards the sea. Some, however, yielding to their fears, remained behind. From the sea-coast they passed over to Chios: here they had scarcely disembarked, before a large body of Persian cavalry, sent in pursuit of them, appeared on the opposite shore. Unable to overtake them, they sent over to them at Chios, soliciting their return. This however had no effect: from Chios they were transported to Lesbos, from Lesbos to Doriscus, and from hence they proceeded by land to Pæonia.

XCIX. At this juncture, Aristagoras was joined by the Athenians in twenty vessels, who were also accompanied by five triremes of Eretrians. These latter did not engage in the contest from any regard for

the Athenians, but to discharge a similar debt of friendship to the Milesians. The Milesians had formerly assisted the Eretrians against the Chalcidians, when the Samians had united with them against the Eretrians and Milesians. When these and the rest of his confederates were assembled, Aristagoras commenced an expedition against Sardis: he himself continued at Miletus, whilst his brother Charopinus commanded the Milesians, and Hermophantus had the conduct of the allies.

C. The Ionians arriving with their fleet at Ephesus, disembarked at Coressus, a place in its vicinity. Taking some Ephesians for their guides, they advanced with a formidable force, directing their march towards the Cayster. Passing over mount Tmolus, they arrived at Sardis, where meeting no resistance, they made themselves masters of the whole of the city, except the citadel. This was defended by Artaphernes himself, with a large body of troops.

CI. The following incident preserved the city from plunder the houses of Sardis were in general constructed of reeds; the few which were of brick, had reed coverings. One of these being set on fire by a soldier, the flames spread from house to house, till the whole city was consumed. In the midst of the conflagration, the Lydians, and such Persians as were in the city, seeing themselves surrounded by the flames, and without the possibility of escape, rushed in crowds to the forum, through the centre of which flows the Pactolus. This river brings, in its descent from mount Tmolus, a quantity of gold-dust; passing, as we have described, through Sardis, it mixes with the Hermus, till both are finally lost in the sea. The Persians and Lydians, thus reduced to the last extremity, were compelled to act on the defensive. The Ionians seeing some of the enemy prepared to defend themselves, others advancing to attack them, were seized with a panic, and retired to mount Tmolus, from whence, under favour of the night, they retreated to their ships.

CII. In the burning of Sardis, the temple of Cybele, the tutelar goddess of the country, was totally de

stroyed, which was afterwards made a pretence by the Persians, for burning the temples of the Greeks. When the Persians, who dwell on this side the Halys, were acquainted with the above invasion, they determined to assist the Lydians. Following the Ionians regularly from Sardis, they came up with them at Ephesus. A general engagement ensued, in which the Ionians were defeated with great slaughter. Among others of distinction who fell, was Eualcis, chief of the Eretrians: he had frequently been victorious in many contests, of which a garland was the reward, and had been particularly celebrated by Simonides of Ceos. They who escaped from this battle, took refuge in the different cities.

The

CIII. After the event of the above expedition, the Athenians withdrew themselves entirely from the lonians, and refused all the solicitations of Aristagoras by his ambassadors, to repeat their assistance. Ionians, though deprived of this resource, continued with no less alacrity to persevere in the hostilities they had commenced against Darius. They sailed to the Hellespont, and reduced Byzantium, with the neighbouring cities: quitting that part again, and advancing to Caria, the greater part of the inhabitants joined them in their offensive operations. The city of Caunus, which at first had refused their alliance, after the burning of Sardis, added itself to their forces.

CIV. The confederacy was also farther strengthened by the voluntary accessions of all the Cyprians, except the Amathusians. The following was the occasion of the revolt of the Cyprians from the Medes: Gorgus, prince of Salamis, son of Chersis, grandson of Siromus, great grandson of Euelthon, had a younger brother, whose name was Onesilus; this man had repeatedly solicited Gorgus to revolt from the Persians; and on hearing of the secession of the Ionians, he urged him with still greater importunity. Finding all his efforts ineffectual, assisted by his party, he took an opportunity of his brother's making his excursion from Salamis, to shut the gates against him: Gorgus, thus deprived of his city, took refuge among the Medes. Onesilus usurped his station, and