only the castle; where Artaphernes retired, and defended himself. But, after this accident, the Persians and Lydians gathering together for their defence, and other forces coming in to their assistance from the adjacent parts, the Ionians saw it was time for them to retreat; and therefore marched back to their ships at Ephesus, with all the speed they were able; but, before they could reach the place, they were overtaken, fought with, and overthrown with a great slaughter. Whereon the Athenians going on board their ships, hoisted their sails, and returned home, and would not after this be any farther concerned in this war, notwithstanding all the most earnest entreaties with which they were solicited to it by Aristagoras. However, their having engaged thus far, gave rise to that war between the Persians and the Greeks; which, being carried on for several generations after between these two nations, caused infinite calamities to both, and at last ended in the utter destruction of the Persian empire; for Darius on his hearing of the burning of Sardis, and the part which the Athenians had therein, from that time re solved on a war against Greece; and that he might be sure not to forget it, he caused one of his attendants every day, when he was set at dinner, to say aloud unto him three times, Sir, remember the Athenians. In the burning of Sardis, it happened, that the temple of Cybele, the goddess of the country, took fire, and was consumed with the rest of the city; which afterwards served the Persians for a pretence to set on fire all the temples of the Grecians which came in their way, though in truth that proceeded from another cause, which shall be hereafter related. On the departure of the Athenians," the rest of the confederate fleet sailed to the Hellespont, and the Propontis, and reduced the Byzantines, and most of the other Grecian cities in those parts under their power: and then, sailing back again, brought in the Carians to join with them in this war, and also the Cypriots, who all (excepting the Amathusians) entered into the same Herodotus, lib. 5. Cornelius Nepos in Miltiade. u Herodotus, ibid. confederacy against Darius, and revolted from him; which drawing upon them all the forces that the Persians had in Cilicia, and the other neighbouring provinces, and also a great fleet from Phoenicia, the Ionians sailed thither to their assistance; and engaging the Phoenician fleet, gave them a great overthrow. But, at the same time, the Cypriots being vanquished in a battle at land, and the head of that conspiracy slain in it, the Ionians lost the whole fruit of their victory at sea, and were forced to return, without having at all benefited either themselves or their allies by it: for, after this defeat at land, the whole island was again reduced; and, within three years after, the same persons whom they had now assisted came against them with their ships, in conjunction with the rest of the Persian fleet, to complete their utter destruction. An. 499. Darius 23. The next year after, being the twenty-third of Darius, Daurises, Hymees, and Otanes, three Persian generals, and all sons-in-law of Darius by the marriage of his daughters, having divided the Persian forces between them, marched three several ways to attack the revolters. Daurises with his army directed his course to the Hellespont; but, after having there reduced several of the revolted cities, on his hearing that the Carians had also joined the confederates, he left those parts, and marched with all his forces against them. Whereon Hymees, who was first sent to the Propontis, after having taken the city of Cyus in Mysia, marched thence to supply his place on the Hellespont, where there was much more need of him, and there reduced all the Ilian coast; but falling sick at Troas, he there died the next year after. Artaphernes and Otanes, with the third army, resolving to strike at the very heart of the confederacy, fell into Ionia and Æolia, where the chief of their strength lay, and took Clazomenæ in Ionia, and Cyma in Eolia; which was such a blow to the whole confederacy, that Aristagoras hereon, despairing of his cause, resolved to leave Miletus, and shift elsewhere for his safety; and therefore, getting together all that were willing to accompany him, he went on shipboard, and set sail for the river Strymon in Thrace, and there seized on the territory of Myrcinus, which Darius had formerly given to Hestiæus; but the next year after, while he besieged the city, he was there slain by the Thracians, and all his army cut in pieces. An. 498. Darius 25. In the twenty-fourth year of Darius, Daurises having fallen into the country of the Carians, overthrew them in two battles with a very great slaughter; but, in a third battle, being drawn into an ambush, he was slain, with several other eminent Persians, and his whole army cut off and destroyed. Artaphernes, with Otanes, and the rest of the Persian generals, seeing that Miletus was the An. 497. head and chief strength of the Ionian confederacy, resolved to bend all their force against it, reckoning, that, if they could make themselves masters of this city, all the rest would fall of course. The Ionians, being informed of this, agreed, in their general council, to bring no army into the field, but provide and strengthen Miletus as well as they could for a siege, and to draw all their forces to fight the Persians by sea; in which sort of fighting they thought themselves, by reason of their skill in maritime affairs, most likely to prevail in order whereto, they appointed Lada, a small island before Miletus, for their rendezvous; and thither they came, to the number of three hundred and fifty-three ships at the sight of which, the Persians, though their fleet was double the number, fearing the event, come not to a battle with them, till they had, by their emissaries sent among them, corrupted the major part to desert the cause; so that, when they came to engage, the Samians, Lesbians, and several others, hoisting their sails, and departing home, there were not above one hundred ships left to bear the whole brunt of the day; who being soon overborne by the number of the enemy, were almost all lost and destroyed. After this Miletus, being besieged both by sea and land, soon fell a prey into the hands of the victors, who absolutely destroyed the place; which happened in the sixth year after the revolt of Aristagoras. From y Herodotus, lib. 5. z Herodotus, lib. 6. Miletus the Persians marched into Caria, and having there taken some cities by force, and received others by voluntary submission, in a short time reduced all that country again under their former yoke. The Milesians who were saved from the sword in the taking of the city, being sent captives to Darius to Susa, he did them no farther harm, but sent them to inhabit the city of Ampha, which was situated at the mouth of the Tigris, where, in conjunction with the Euphrates, it falls into the Persian gulf, not far from the place where now the city Balsora stands; and there they continued a Grecian colony for many ages after. An. 496. Darius 26. After the taking of Miletus, the Persian fleet, which mostly consisted of Phoenicians, Cypriots, and Egyptians, having wintered on the coasts thereabout, the next year took in Samos, Chius, Lesbus, and the rest of the islands; and, while they were thus employed at sea, the armies at land fell on the cities of the continent; and, having brought them all again under their power, they treated them as they had afore threatened, that is, they made all the beautifulest of their youths eunuchs, sent all their virgins into Persia, and burned all their cities, with their temples; into so grievous a calamity were they brought by this revolt, which the self-designs of one enterprising busy-headed man, Hestiæus, the Milesian, led them into; and he himself had his share in it; for this very year, being taken prisoner by the Persians, he was carried to Sardis, and there crucified, by the order of Artaphernes. He hastened his execution, without consulting, Darius about it, lest his kindness for him might extend to the granting him his pardon, and thereby a dangerous enemy to the Persians be again let loose to embarrass their affairs. And that it would have so happened as they conjectured, did afterwards appear: for when his head was brought to Darius, he expressed great displeasure against the authors of his death, and caused his head to be honourably buried, as the remains of a man that had much merited from him. How a Herodotus, lib. 6. he was the cause of the Ionian war, and what was his aim herein, hath been above related. On the breaking out of that revolt, and the burning of Sardis, Darius understanding that Aristagoras, the deputy of Hestiaus, was at the head of it, doubted not but that Hestius himself was at the bottom of the whole contrivance, and therefore sent for him, and charged him with it: but he managed the matter so craftily with Darius, as to make him believe, not only that he was innocent, but that the whole cause of this revolt was, that he was not there to have hindered it: for he told him, that the matter appeared plainly to have been long a brewing; that they had waited only for his absence to put it in execution; that, if he had con‐ tinued at Miletus, it could never have happened; and that the only way to restore his affairs in those parts was to send him thither to appease these combustions; which he promised not only to do, but to deliver Aristagoras into his hands, and make the great island of Sardinia to become tributary to him; swearing, that, if he were sent on this voyage, he would not change his garments till all were effected that he had said. By which fair speech Darius being deceived, gave him permission to return into Ionia. On his arrival at Sardis, his busy head set him at work to contrive a plot against the government there, and he had drawn several of the Persians into it: but, in some discourse which he had with Artaphernes, finding that he was no stranger to the part which he had acted in the Ionian revolt, he thought it not safe for him any longer to tarry at Sardis; and therefore, the next night after getting privately away, he fled to the sea coast, and got over to the island of Chius. But the Chians, mistrusting that his coming thither was to act some part for the interest of Darius among them, seized on his person, and put him in prison; but afterwards, being satisfied how he was engaged to the contrary, they set him again at liberty. Hereon he sent one whom he had confidence in, with letters to Sardis, to those Persians whom he had corrupted while he was there; c Herodotus, lib. 6. Herodotus, lib. 5. |