СПАР. 98-100.

SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF CARYSTUS.

399

it had never before been shaken, should at that time have felt the shock of an earthquake. And indeed there was an oracle, which said of Delos

"Delos self will I shake, which never yet has been shaken."

Of the above names Darius may be rendered "Worker," Xerxes "Warrior," and Artaxerxes "Great Warrior." And so we might call these kings in our own language with propriety.'

99. The barbarians, after loosing from Delos, proceeded to touch at the other islands, and took troops from each,2 and likewise carried off a number of the children as hostages. Going thus from one to another, they came at last to Carystus; but here the hostages were refused by the Carystians, who said they would neither give any, nor consent to bear arms against the cities of their neighbours, meaning Athens and Eretria. Hereupon the Persians laid siege to Carystus, and wasted the country round, until at last the inhabitants were brought over and agreed to do what was required of them.

4

100. Meanwhile the Eretrians, understanding that the Persian armament was coming against them, besought the Athenians for assistance. Nor did the Athenians refuse their aid, but assigned to them as auxiliaries the four thousand landholders to whom they had allotted the estates of the Chalcidean Hippobatæ. At Eretria, however, things were in no healthy state; for though they had called in the aid of the Athenians, yet they were not agreed among themselves how they should act; some of them being minded to leave the city and to take refuge in the heights of Euboea, while others, who looked to receiving a reward from the Persians, were making ready to betray their country. So when these things came to the ears of Eschines,

5

On these and other Persian and Median names, see Appendix, note A.

2 Vide infra, ch. 133.

3

Carystus was one of the four principal cities of the ancient Euboea (the Egripo of our maps). These were Chalcis, Eretria, Carystus, and Histima (Scylax. Peripl. p. 50; cf. Strab. x. pp. 649–652). Carystus lay at the further end of a deep bay, with which the southern coast of the island is indented. It was celebrated for its marble quarries, and its temple of Apollo Marmoreus (Plin. H. N. iv. 12, p. 215; Strab. x. p. 650). The name Karysto still attaches to the village which occupies its site (Leake's Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 254). Supra, v. 77.

4

A high mountain chain traverses Euboea from its northern to its southern extremity, leaving in the whole island only three plains of any considerable extent. One of these is on the northern coast, near Histiæa and Artemisium, another opens out on the eastern near port Mandhuvi, the harbor of Cerinthus, while the third is that which has been already mentioned (supra, v. 77, note 1) between the cities of Chalcis and Eretria. The highest part of the mountain tract is near the centre of the island, between Chalcis aud the nearest part of the opposite coast. The summits here attain an elevation of above 5000 feet.

400

SIEGE OF ERETRIA.

Book VI.

the son of Nothon, one of the first men in Eretria, he made known the whole state of affairs to the Athenians who were already arrived, and besought them to return home to their own land, and not perish with his countrymen. And the Athenians hearkened to his counsel, and crossing over to Orôpus," in this way escaped the danger.

8

101. The Persian fleet now drew near and anchored at Tamynæ, Choreæ, and Ægilia, three places in the territory of Eretria. Once masters of these posts, they proceeded forthwith to disembark their horses, and made ready to attack the enemy. But the Eretrians were not minded to sally forth and offer battle; their only care, after it had been resolved not to quit the city, was, if possible, to defend their walls. And now

the fortress was assaulted in good earnest, and for six days there fell on both sides vast numbers, but on the seventh day Euphorbus, the son of Alcimachus, and Philagrus, the son of Cyneas, who were both citizens of good repute, betrayed the place to the Persians.9 These were no sooner entered within the walls

There has been some doubt about the exact site of Oropus. Col. Leake was formerly inclined to place it at the modern Oropó, a small inland village situated on the right bank of the Asopus, at its issue from the rocky gorges of the hills which separate the plain of Oropus from that of Tanagra, where are the remains of a town of considerable antiquity (Demi of Attica, 1st edition; Northern Greece, ii. p. 446). More recently, however, (Demi of Attica, p. 116, 2nd edit.) he has admitted the weight of Mr. Finlay's arguments (Topography of Oropia, pp. 4-7) against this site. It seems certain that Oropus was anciently upon the coast. The present passage of Herodotus, several in Thucydides (iii. 91, viii. 60, 95), one in Strabo (ix. p. 585), one in Pausanias (I. xxxiv. § 1), and one in Diodorus (xiv. 77) indicate this. The last two passages are conclusive upon the point (compare also Ptolem. Geograph. iii. 15, p. 97, where Oropus is enumerated among the maritime cities of Attica). The true site then would seem to be not the modern Oropó, but the place called "the Holy Apostles," which is on the coast about two miles from Oropó. Oropó may have arisen from the later Oropus, the place to which the Thebans in B. C. 402 removed the inhabitants (Diod. 1. s. c.).

Oropus had originally belonged to Boeotia (Pausan. 1. s. c.; Steph. Byz. 'Opwπós, TÓMIS BOWTías). We do not know at what time Athens got possession of it. It was for many years a perpetual bone of contention between the two states (Thucyd. viii. 60; Xen. Hell. VII. iv. § 1; Pausan. 1. s. c.; Strab. i. p. 98), till at last Philip formally assigned it to Attica (Pausan. 1. s. c.; Demad. Frag. iii. p. 488, Bekker.).

Tamynæ or Tamyna is mentioned by Demosthenes (cont. Meid. p. 567, Reiske), by Eschines (c. Ctes. p. 480, Reiske), Strabo (x. p. 653), and Steph. (ad voc. Táμvva). No materials exist for fixing its site.

• Neither Chæres nor Egilia are mentioned by any other author. The geographical notices of Euboea, left us by ancient writers, are very scanty. Egilia, the seaport town, must not be confounded with Egileia the island, mentioned below (ch. 107).

9

Xenophon, when giving an account of the expedition of Thimbron, speaks of a person named Gongylus as the only Eretrian who medised (μόνος Ερετριέων μηδίσας puyev, Hellen. III. i. § 6). This person received as a reward from the Persians a district in Æolis containing four cities; but his medism cannot possibly have been at this time, since he was alive in B. c. 399, and joined in Thimbron's expedition. Pausanias (VII. x. § 1) and Plutarch (ii. p. 510, B), agree with Herodotus.

CHAP. 101, 102.

MARATHON.

401

than they plundered and burnt all the temples that there were in the town, in revenge for the burning of their own temples at Sardis; moreover, they did according to the orders of Darius, and carried away captive all the inhabitants.'

102. The Persians, having thus brought Eretria into subjection after waiting a few days, made sail for Attica, greatly straitening the Athenians as they approached, and thinking to deal with them as they had dealt with the people of Eretria. And because there was no place in all Attica so convenient for their horse as Marathon, and it lay moreover quite close to Eretria, therefore Hippias, the son of Pisistratus, conducted them thither.

3

2

1 Some writers (Plato, Menex. p. 191, ed. Tauchn. Leg. iii. p. 104; Strabo x. p. 653; Diog. Laert. iii. 33), declare that the territory of Eretria was swept clean of its inhabitants by the process called "netting," which has been already spoken of (supra, iii. 149, vi. 131). But this process would have been futile unless applied to the whole of Euboea, which is not pretended; and the whole story is discredited by the silence of Herodotus. No doubt a considerable number of the Eretrians escaped, and returning to their city after Marathon, raised it up once more from its ruins. Hence, in the war of Xerxes, Eretria was able to furnish seven ships to the Grecian fleet (infra, viii. 1, 46), and with its dependency Syria, 600 hoplites to the army (ix. 28). In former times, her hoplites had been at least 3000, and she had possessed 600 cavalry (Strab. x. p. 653).

Attica has but three maritime plains of any extent, the Athenian, the Thriasian, and the plain of Marathon. The last of these is the clearest of trees, and the fittest for the movements of cavalry. Mr. Finlay's description of it is perhaps the best which has been given:

"The plain of Marathon," he says, "extends in a perfect level along this fine bay, and is in length about six miles, its breadth never less than a mile and a half. Two marshes bound the extremities of the plain: the southern is not very large, and is almost dry at the conclusion of the great heats; but the northern, which generally covers considerably more than a square mile, offers several parts which are at all seasons impassable. Both, however, leave a broad, firm, sandy beach between them and the sea. The uninterrupted flatness of the plain is hardly relieved by a single tree; and an amphitheatre of rocky hills and rugged mountains separate it from the rest of Attica, over the lower ridges of which some steep and difficult paths communicate with the districts of the interior." (Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, iii. p. 364.)

Col. Leake (Demi of Attica, § 4, pp. 84-5) remarks, that "as to the plain itself, the circumstances of the battle incline one to believe that it was anciently as destitute of trees as it is at the present day; " and relates, that "as he rode across the plain with a peasant of Vraná, he remarked that it was a fine place for cavalry to fight in. He had heard that a great battle was once fought here, but this was all he knew" (ib. App. i. page 205, note):

3 Much closer, that is, than either of the other plains upon the coast. The distance by sea between the bay of Marathon and Eretria, is not less than five and thirty or forty miles. Hippias probably thought that valuable time would have been lost by rounding Sunium, and that Marathon united, more than any other place, the requisite advantages for a landing. The large bay was capable of sheltering the entire fleet, the extensive beach allowed a rapid disembarkation, the rich plain afforded excellent pasture for horses, and its open character was most favourable for the operations of a cavalry force. Besides, he had himself already landed once upon this spot from Eretria, and made a successful march upon Athens (supra, i. 62), which he no doubt thought it would be easy to repeat with his hundred thou sand or two hundred thousand Persians.

VOL. III.-26

402

PLAIN OF MARATHON.

Book VI.

103. When intelligence of this reached the Athenians, they likewise marched their troops to Marathon, and there stood on the defensive, having at their head ten generals, of whom one was Miltiades.5

The Ten Generals (Strategi) are a part of the constitution of Clisthenes, who modelled the Athenian army upon the political division of the tribes, as Servius Tullius did the Roman upon the centuries. Each tribe annually elected its Phylarch to command its contingent of cavalry, its Taxiarch to command its infantry, and its

6

403

Now this man's father, Cimon, the son of Stesagoras, was banished from Athens by Pisistratus, the son of Hippocrates. In his banishment it was his fortune to win the four-horse chariot-race at Olympia, whereby he gained the very same honour which had before been carried off by Miltiades, his halfbrother on the mother's side. At the next Olympiad he won the prize again with the same mares, upon which he caused Pisistratus to be proclaimed the winner, having made an agreement with him that on yielding him this honour he should be allowed to come back to his country, Afterwards, still with the same mares, he won the prize a third time, whereupon he was put to death by the sons of Pisistratus, whose father was no longer living. They set men to lie in wait for him secretly, and these men slew him near the government-house in the nighttime. He was buried outside the city,' beyond what is called the Valley Road, and right opposite his tomb were buried the mares which had won the three prizes. The same success had likewise been achieved once previously, to wit, by the mares of Evagoras the Lacedæmonian, but never except by them. At the time of Cimon's death, Stesagoras, the elder of his two sons, was in the Chersonese, where he lived with Miltiades his uncle; the younger, who was called Miltiades after the founder of the Chersonesite colony, was with his father in Athens.

9

104. It was this Miltiades who now commanded the Athenians, after escaping from the Chersonese, and twice nearly losing his life. First he was chased as far as Imbrus by the

Strategus to direct both. Hence the ten Strategi, who seem immediately to have claimed equality with the Polemarch or War-Archon.

The steps by which the Strategi became civil officers, no less than military, and the real directors of the whole policy of Athens, are well traced by Mr. Grote (Hist. of Greece, iv. pp. 180-1, and 189-197). As representatives of the new system, they were able to encroach upon the Archons' office, which sinking in importance, was first thrown open to all the citizens, and then determined by lot. This last step necessarily threw all matters of importance upon the Strategi, who were chosen for their personal merit by the free voice of the citizens.

Aristides was another, and perhaps Themistocles a third (Plut. Aristid. c. 5). Miltiades, the son of Cypselus, the first king of the Chersonese. His Olympic victory is mentioned in ch. 36.

The tomb of Cimon was outside the gate of Melité, on the road leading through the demus Colé, north of the city. The place was known under the name of "the Cimonian monuments" (rà Kiμúvia μvhuara). Here Thucydides, whose connexion with the family of Cimon has been already mentioned (supra, ch. 39, note) was said to have been buried (Marcellin. Vit. Thucyd. p. xi., and p. xv.; Anon. Vit. p. p. xviii. Bekker).

" Or "the road through Colé." Colé appears appears to have been the name of one of the Attic demes (Boeckh, Corp. Inscr. 158, 275, &c.; Esch. contr Ctes. p. 584, Reiske).

Compare Elian (Hist. An. xii. 40) who mentions this fact, and likewise the honourable burial which Evagoras gave his mares.