enemy’s position, and he had opened negotiations with the republics of Greece proper.  Several of them had consented to tender him earth and water, among them being AEgina,* and besides this, the state of the various factions in Athens was such, that he had every reason to believe that he could count on the support of a large section of the population when the day came for him to disembark his force on the shores of Attica.

* Herodotus states that all the island-dwelling Greeks submitted to the great king.  But Herodotus himself says later on that the people of Naxos, at all events, proved refractory.

[Illustration:  212a.jpg ALEXANDER I. OF MACEDON]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the Cabinet des
     Medailles.

[Illustration:  212b.jpg A PHOENICIAN GALLEY]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin of Byblos in the
     Cabinet des Medailles.

He therefore decided to direct his next expedition against Athens itself, and he employed the year 491 in concentrating his troops and triremes in Cilicia, at a sufficient distance from the European coast to ensure their safety from any sudden attack.  In the spring of 490 the army recruited from among the most warlike nations of the empire—­the Persians, Medes, and Sakse—­went aboard the Phoenician fleet, while galleys built on a special model were used as transports for the cavalry.  The entire convoy sailed safely out of the mouth of the Pyramos to the port of Samos, coasting the shores of Asia Minor, and then passing through the Cyclades, from Samos to Naxos, where they met with no opposition from the inhabitants, headed for Delos, where Datis offered a sacrifice to Apollo, whom he confounded with his god Mithra; finally they reached Eubaea, where Eretria and Carystos vainly endeavoured to hold their own against them.  Eretria was reduced to ashes, as Sardes had been, and such of its citizens as had not fled into the mountains at the enemy’s approach were sent into exile among the Kissians in the township of Arderikka.  Hippias meanwhile had joined the Persians and had been taken into their confidence.  While awaiting the result of the intrigues of his partisans in Athens, he had advised Datis to land on the eastern coast of Attica, in the neighbourhood of Marathon, at the very place from whence his father Pisistratus had set out forty years before to return to his country after his first exile.  The position was well chosen for the expected engagement.

[Illustration:  214.jpg MAP OF MARATHON]

The bay and the strand which bordered it afforded an excellent station for the fleet, and the plain, in spite of its marshes and brushwood, was one of those rare spots where cavalry might be called into play without serious drawbacks.  A few hours on foot would bring the bulk of the infantry up to the Acropolis by a fairly good road, while by the same time the fleet would be able to reach the roadstead