to make all manner of preparations to put them in execution. The Tyrians, after the taking of their city by Nebuchadnezzar, having been reduced to a state of servitude, continued under the pressure of it full seventy years but these being now expired, they were again, according to the P prophecy of Isaiah, restored to their former privileges, and were allowed to have a king again of their own; and accordingly had so till the time of Alexander. This favour seems to have been granted them by Darius, in consideration of their usefulness to him in his naval wars, and especially at this time when he needed them and their shipping so much for the reducing of the Ionians again to their obedience to him. Hereon they soon recovered their former prosperity, and, by the means of their traffic, whereby they had made their city the chief mart of all the East, they soon grew to that greatness, both of power and riches, as enabled them, on Alexander's invading the East, to make a greater stand against him than all the Persian empire besides; for they stopped the progress of his whole army full seven months, before they could be reduced, as will be hereafter shewn. This grant was made them by Darius in the nineteenth year of his reign. The next year after, Aristagoras, to engage the Ionians the more firmly to stick to him, & An. 502. restored to them all their liberties: for, beDarius 20. ginning first with himself at Miletus, he there abolished his own authority, and reinstated the people in the government; and then, going round Ionia, forced all the other tyrants (as the Greeks then called them) in every city to do the same; by which, having united them into one common league, and gotten himself to be made the head of it, he openly declared his revolt from the king, and armed both by sea and land to make war against him. This was done in the twentieth year of the reign of Darius. Aristagoras, to strengthen himself the more against the Persians in this war, which he had begun against g Herodotus, lib. 5. p Isa. xxiii, 15, 17. An. 501. Darius 21. them, went in the beginning of the following year to Lacedæmon, to engage that city in his interest, and gain their assistance. But being there rejected, he came to Athens, where he had a much more favourable reception: for he had the good fortune to come thither at a time when he found the Athenians in a thorough disposition to close with any proposal against the Persians that should be offered to them, they being then in the highest degree exasperated against them on this occasion. Hippias, the son of Pisistratus, tyrant of Athens, having been expelled thence about ten years before, after he had in vain tried several other ways for his restoration, at length applied himself to Artaphernes at Sardis; and, having there insinuated himself a great way into his favour, was well heard in all that he had to say against the Athenians, and he spared not to do all that he could to set Artaphernes against them; which the Athenians having advice of, sent an embassy to Sardis, to make friendship with Artaphernes, and to desire him not to give ear to their exiles against them. The answer which Artaphernes gave them was, that they must reeeive Hippias again, if they would be safe. Which haughty message being brought back to Athens, did set the whole city into a rage against the Persians; and in this juncture Aristagoras coming thither, easily obtained from them all that he desired; and accordingly they ordered a fleet of twenty ships for his assistance. Darius 22. In the third year of the war," the Ionians having gotten all their forces together, and being assisted with twenty ships from Athens, and Anno. 500. five from Eretria, a city in the island of Euboea, they sailed to Ephesus; and, having there laid up their ships, resolved on an attempt upon Sardis ; and accordingly marched thither, and took the place. But Sardis being built most of cane, and their houses being therefore very combustible, one of them being accidentally set on fire, did spread the flame to all the rest, and the whole city was burned down, excepting r Herodotus, lib. 5: 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 bad therein, from that time resolved 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, army, resolving to strike at the very heart of the confederacy, fell into Ionia and Eolia, where the chief of their strength Jay, and took Clazomenæ in Ionia, and Cyma in Æolia; 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. |