and this comprised his whole force.  The leaders of the movement did not hesitate to assume the offensive with these slender resources.  As early as the spring of 498, before Artaphernes had received reinforcements, they marched suddenly on Sardes.  They burnt the lower town, but, as on many previous occasions, the citadel held out; after having encamped for several days at the foot of its rock, they returned to Ephesus laden with the spoil.**

     * Aristagoras had with him a map of the world engraved on a
     bronze plate, which was probably a copy of the chart drawn
     up by Hecatseus of Miletus.

** Herodotus says that the Ionians on their return suffered a serious reverse near Ephesus.  The author seems to have adopted some Lydian or Persian tradition hostile to the Ionians, for Charon of Lampsacus, who lived nearer to the time of these events, mentions only the retreat, and hints at no defeat.  If the expedition had really ended in this disaster, it is not at all likely that the revolt would have attained the dimensions it did immediately afterwards.

This indeed was a check to their hostilities, and such an abortive attempt was calculated to convince them of their powerlessness against the foreign rule.  None the less, however, when it was generally known that they had burnt the capital of Asia Minor, and had with impunity made the representative of the great king feel in his palace the smoke of the conflagration, the impression was such as actual victory could have produced.  The cities which had hitherto hesitated to join them, now espoused their cause—­the ports of the Troad and the Hellespont, Lycia, the Carians, and Cyprus—­and their triumph would possibly have been secured had Greece beyond the AEgean followed the general movement and joined the coalition.  Sparta, however, persisted in her indifference, and Athens took the opportunity of withdrawing from the struggle.  The Asiatic Greeks made as good a defence as they could, but their resources fell far short of those of the enemy, and they could do no more than delay the catastrophe and save their honour by their bravery.  Cyprus was the first to yield during the winter of 498-497.  Its vessels, in conjunction with those of the Ionians, dispersed the fleet of the Phoenicians off Salamis, but the troops of their princes, still imbued with the old system of military tactics, could not sustain the charge of the Persian battalions; they gave way under the walls of Salamis, and their chief, Onesilus, was killed in a final charge of his chariotry.*

* The movement in Cyprus must have begun in the winter of 499-498, for Onesilus was already in the field when Darius heard of the burning of Sardes; and as it lasted for a year, it must have been quelled in the winter of 498-497.

His death effected the ruin of the Ionian cause in Cyprus, which on the continent suffered at the same time no less serious reverses.  The towns of the