In the reign of Darius, the son of Hystaspcs, the power of the Persian arms was extended on every side of that vast empire. All was subdued to the west, as far as Ma cedonia. Anginas, the king of that country, acknowledg ed subjection •to the Persian monarch ; and the Grecian islands soon began to feel his ambitious and overwhelming influence. Cyprus, Samos, Lesbios, Chios, and most other islands on the Asiatic coast, were either persuaded or com pelled to admit his supremacy. Most of them, according to the uniform policy of the Persians, were nevertheless allowed to retain their own magistrates and laws. One of their own nation was appointed to preside as governor ; and this person, whatever was his personal character, was always, from his official situation, denominated Tyrant by the Greeks. Athens itself, hard pressed by the powerful alliance which the Lacedemonians had formed against them, had begun to solicit the protecting aid of Persia ; but Artaphernes, satrap at Sardis, having patronised the pretensions of the tyrant Hippias, whom they had driven from his power, they were filled with detestation of the Persian name, and the more readily consented to assist the Ionians in Asia, who had revolted against the authority of Darius. These, however, were speedily reduced ; and the Persian monarch, in order to punish Athens and Ere tria, who had given aid.to the states of Asia, or rather in prosecution of his ambitious views for the en largement of his dominions, sent a powerful army into Greece, under the command of his son-in-law Mardonius. Darius had previously dispatched heralds to each of the Grecian states, demanding earth and water as an acknow ledgment of his supremacy ; and, if wholly independent of each Other, the greater part would probably have soon submitted to the Asiatic yoke. But, happily for Greece, its little commonwealths were at that period so united to gether by reciprocal treaties and obligations, and especial ly by a formal confederacy under the Lacedemonians, that a kind of general tribunal existed for the punishment of treachery or cowardice, which enabled them, in a great measure, to act as one nation. Macedonia, which had formerly paid homage, was more effectually subdued, and compelled to pay tribute to the Persian king. Thebes, by the influence of a faction, and a few other cities, particu larly ./E.gina, made submission to his demands; but the Lacedemonians and Athenians were so indignant at the requisition of Persia, that, forgetting the law of nations and of humanity, they put the heralds to death with the utmost ignominy and barbarity. The Athenians, who had been at war with the iEginetx, and were thus the more excited to adopt opposite measures to their hostile neigh bours, accused them at Sparta of desertion from the com mon cause of Greece ; and the chief persons of that state instantly ordered to be seized as traitors to their country. Little progress was made by the invading army. The Persian fleet lost nearly three hundred vessels by a storm in doubling the promontory of Athos ; and the land foices suffered so severely from the Brygians, a people of Thrace, that the season for military operations was lost, and the whole armament was led back to winter in Asia. A second army, under the command of Artaphernes, son of the late Satrap of that name, and of Dads, a Median nobleman, avoiding the circuitous march by Thrace and Macedonia, sailed from Cilicia in a numerous fleet, re duced every island and appurtenance of Greece in their way, and approached the frontiers of Attica, with the ex iled tyrant Hippias as their guide, before any measures had been concerted by the Greeks for the general security. A messenger was now dispatched from the Athenians to Sparta, with the intelligence of the capture of Et etria, and, at the same time, with a request for assistance to them selves. The Lacedemonians readily promised their utmost aid ; but, in conformity to a superstitious law, unworthy of their boasted political wisdom, declared that they could not take the field before the full moon, of which it then wanted five (lays. immediate assistance from Sparta be ing thus denied, it became a question with the ten gene rals, whom the Athenians had chosen to command their army, whether they should venture to meet the enemy in the field, or apply their whole exertions to prepare for a siege. Opinions were equally divided, and the decision was, by ancient custom, referred to the polemarch Archon, who was persuaded by Miltiades to recommend an imme diate engagement;. a measure obviously' contrary to all principles of defensive war, but rendered necessary by the dread of internal factions in the city. The Persian army, amounting, according to the lowest calculation, (though even that is probably overrated) to 100,000 infantry, and 10,000 cavalry, accustomed to conquer, and having fre quently engaged the Greeks of Asia and Cyprus, ad vanced with confidence as to certain victory. The amount of the Athenian force has been stated as low as 9,000 heavy armed infantry, and 1,000 Platxans, who had bravely hastened to share the desperate struggle for the freedom of their country. Various considei ations,* however, make it probable, that the regular Grecian troops, now opposed to the Persians, were not much less than 20,000, with about an equal number of armed slaves. With this army, still fearfully inferior to the invading host, the genius of Miltiades, who was well acquainted with the nature of the Persian troops, seconded by the determined bravery of his soldiers, gained, on the plain of Marathon, a most de cisive victory, and drove the routed Persians to their ships with great slaughter. But this distinguished commander,
having failed in a subsequent expedition against the JEgean islands, which had subrnittcd to the Persians, was, by the base machinations of party spirit, condemned to pay a fine of 50 talents, and died in prison of the wounds which lie had received.
The death of Darius, the revolt of Egypt, and the dis putes which arose about the right of succession to the throne of Persia, procured to the Greeks a respite of se veral years from any farther attempts against their inde pendence. But Xerxes, the young Persian monarch, was sufficiently ardent to revenge the disgrace which the arms of his nation had sustained, and to prosecute those schemes of conquest which his predecessors had planned. Four years are said to have been employed in preparations for the punishment of Athens, and the reduction of Greece ; and an army was collected, more numerous than had ever before, or than has ever since, been known in the annals of the world. To prevent the disasters, which might attend the conveyance of the armament by sea, as well as to pro vide for the future security of the intended conquest, a ca n:11, navigable for the largest gallics, was, (according to the united testimony of all the Greek historians and geo graphers.) actually formed across the isthmus, which joins mount Athos to the continent of Thrace. Two bridges of boats also, the one to withstand the winds and the other the current, were extended across the Hellespont nearly between Abydos and Scstos, where the street is about se ven furlongs in breadth. Early in the spring, the army moved from Sardis, the principal place of rendezvous ; and seven days and nights are said to have been occupied in passing the bridges of the Hellespont. The land and sea forces met at Doriscus, near the mouth of the Hcbrus, where, according to Herodotus, the Persian monarch re viewed his enormous 'army, which is said to have been composed of twenty-nine different nations. This historian (whose testimony, as he lived so near the time oh the ex pedition, ought to be most worthy of credit,. hut whose detail of many incredible concomitant circumstances casts a doubt over his whole narration) estimates the effective strength of the infantry at 1,700 000 fighting men, and the cavalry at 80,000, exclusive of attendants and followers, whose number defied calculation. The fleet consisted of 1207 galleys of war, carrying about .277.600 men ; besides transports, store-ships, and a variety of smaller vessels, amounting. at a gross calculation, to 3000,, and their crews to 240,000. The land forces marched from Doriscus in three columns, every where adding to their numbers, by compelling the youth of the countries through which they passed, to follow their standards. They met again at Acanthus, where they were joined by the fleet, which then proceeded through the canal of Athos, into the bay of Therme, where the whole army coming up, formed an en campment, extending from Therme and the borders of Ttiygdonia to the river Haliacmon, near the confines of Thessaly. The Greeks, in the mean time, were slow in concerting any measures for their common defence ; and many of the smaller republics readily made the required submission to the Persian monarch, whose sway had been experienced by many Grecian states to be much less op piessive than that of the domineering rule of the Spartan oligarchy, to which the greater part of them had long been subjected. The determined resistance of the Athenian people first arrested the progress of the Asiatic host ; and to them chiefly belongs the honour of having preserved Greece from a foreign yoke. To this daring resolution they were prompted, not entirely by the love of freedom, but by the dread of certain punishment. The whole armament was ostensively prepared for their destruction, and their cou rage therefdre was neat ly that of despair. Their success at Marathon may have thrown a t ay of hopethrough the gloomy prospect before them ; and, at this critical moment, they hap pily possessed in Thentistocles a leader of extraordinary ta lents, peculiarly fitted for conducting the arduous contest. Deputies from the confederated states at length assembled at Corinth, to consult respecting the conduct of the war ; and an attempt was at first made to defend the passes into Thes saly. An army of 10,000 men from the different states, joined by all the Thessalian cavalry, was actually sent to occupy the vale of Tempe ; and was competent to have defended the pass against any number of assailants. But the Grecian leaders, alarmed by the accounts which they received of the multitude of their invaders, and under standing that there was another opening into Thessaly, which they did not think themselves strong enough to oc cupy, were struck with a sudden panic, and, embarking their troops, I cturncd to the Corinthian isthmus ; while the Thessalians, now left to their fate, made an immediate sub mission to the demands of Xerxes. It was next resolved to make a stand at the pass of Thermopylx, which afford ed every possible advantage to an inferior force ; hut their jealousies ealousies and selfish anxiety to reserve their strength for their proper defence, prevented the assem bling of a sufficient body of troops ; and not more than 4000 men, most of them Arcadian mountaineers, were collected to dispute the passage with the whole Persian army.