could not have had them both by the same husband; for Cimon and Thucydides, and consequently Olorus, were of two different tribes, and therefore they could not be both descended from Miltiades. An. 494. Darius, recalling all his other generals, f sent Mardonius, the son of Gobrias, a young Persian nobleman, who had lately married one of his daughters, to be the chief commander in all the maritime parts of Asia, with orders to invade Greece, and revenge him on the Athenians and Eretrians for the burning of Sardis. On his arrival at the Hellespont, all his forces being there rendezvoused for the execution of these orders, he marched with his land forces through Thrace into Macedonia, ordering his fleet first to take in Thasus, and then follow after him, and coast it by sea, as he marched by land, that each might be at hand to act in concert with each other, for the prosecuting of the end proposed by this war. On his arrival in Macedonia, all that country dreading so great a power, submitted to him. But the fleet, after they had subdued Thasus, as they were passing farther on towards the coasts of Macedonia, on their doubling of the cape of Mount Athos, now called Capo Santo, met there with a terrible storm, which destroyed three hundred of their ships, and above twenty thousand of their men. And at the same time Mardonius fell into no less a misfortune by land: for lying with his army in an encampment not sufficiently secured, the Thracians took the advantage of it, and, falling on him in the night, broke into his camp, and slew a great number of his men, and wounded Mardonius himself; by which losses being disabled for any farther action either by sea or land, he was forced to march back again into Asia, without gaining any honour or advantage, either to himself, or the king's affairs, by this expedition. Darius, before he would make any further attempt upon the Grecians, 5 to make trial which of Darius 29. them would submit to him, and which would not, sent heralds to all their cities, to demand An. 493. F Herodotus, lib. 6. g Herodotus, lib. Y. earth and water; which was the form whereby the Persians used to require the submission of those whom they would have yield to them. On the arrival of these heralds, several of the Grecian cities, dreading the power of the Persians, did as was required of them. But when those who were sent to Athens and Lacedæmon came thither with this commission, they flung them, the one into a well, and the other into a deep pit, and bid them fetch earth and water thence. But this being done in the heat of their rage, they repented of it, when come to a cooler temper: for thus to put heralds to death, was a violation of the law of nations, for which they were afterwards condemned even by themselves, as well as all their neighbours, and would gladly have made any satisfaction for the wrong, that would have been accepted of; and the Lacedæmonians sent a person of purpose to Susa to make an offer hereof. An. 492. Darius 30. Darius, on the hearing of the ill success of Mardonius, suspecting the sufficiency of his conduct, recalled him from his command, and sent two other generals in his stead to prosecute the war against the Grecians, Datis a Median, and Artaphernes a Persian, the son of that Artaphernes' brother, who was lately governour at Sardis, and gave them particularly in charge not to fail of executing his revenge oreshe Athenians, and the Eretrians, whom he could never forgive for the part which they had in the burning of Sardis. On their arrival on the coasts of Ionia, they there drew together an army of three hundred thousand men, and a fleet of six hundred ships, and made the best preparations they could for this expedition against the Grecians. An. 491. Darius 31. In the beginning of the next spring, the two Persian generals having shipped their army, rendezvoused their whole fleet at Samos, and from thence sailed to Naxus; and, baving there burned the chief city of the island, and all their temples, and taken in all the other islands in those h Herodotus, lib. 6. Plutarchus in Aristide Cornelius Nepos in Miltiade. i Herodotus, lib. 6. Plutarchus, in Aristide et Themistocle. Cornelius seas, they shaped their course directly for Eretria; and, after a siege of seven days, took the city by the treachery of some of its chief inhabitants, and burned it to the ground, making all that they found in it captives. And then, passing over into Attica, they were led, by the guidance of Hippias, the late tyrant of Athens, into the plain of Marathon; where being met and fought with by ten thousand Athenians, and one thousand Plateans, under the leading of Miltiades, who was lately prince of the Thracian Chersonesus, they were there overthrown by this small number with a great slaughter, and forced to retreat to their ships, and sail back again into Asia with baffle and disgrace, having lost in this expedition, saith Trogus, by the sword, shipwreck, and other ways, two hundred thousand men. But Herodotus tells us, they were no more than six thousand four hundred that were slain in the field of battle; of which Hippias was one, who was the chief exciter and conductor of this war. Datis and Artaphernes, on their return into Asia," that they might shew some fruit of this expedition, sent the Eretrians they had taken to Darius to Susa; who, without doing them any farther harm, sent them to dwell in a village of the region of Cissia, which was at the distance of about a day's journey from Susa, " where Apollonius Tyaneus fund their descendants still remaining a great many agar after. Darius on his hearing of the unsuccessful return of An. 490. his forces from Attica, instead of being disDarius 32. couraged by that or the other disasters that had happened unto him in his attempts upon the Grecians, added the defeat of Marathon to the burning of Sardis as a new cause to excite him with the greater vigour to carry on the war against them. And therefore, resolving in person to make an invasion upon them with all his power, he sent orders through all the provinces, to arm the whole empire for it. But, after three years had been spent in making these preparations, a k Justin, lib. 2, c. 9. I Herodotus, lib. 6: m lbid. n Philostratus, lib. 1, c. 17. o Herodotus, lib. 7. An. 487. Darius 35. new war broke out in the fourth by the revolt of the Egyptians. But Darius' heart was so earnestly set against the Grecians, that resolving his new rebels should not divert him from executing his wrath upon his old enemies, he determined to make war against them both at the same time; and that, while part of his forces were sent to reduce Egypt, he would in person with the rest fall upon Greece. But he being now an old man, and there being a controversy between two of his sons, to which of them two the succession did belong, it was thought convenient, that the matter should be determined before he did set out on this expedition, lest otherwise, on his death, it might cause a civil war in the empire; for the preventing of which it was an ancient usage among the Persians, that, before their king went out to any dangerous war, his successor should be declared. The matter in dispute Pstood thus. Darius had three sons by his first wife, the daughter of Gobrias, all born before his advancement to the throne, and four others by Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, who were all born after it. Of the first Artabasanes (who is by some called Artemines, and by others Ariamenes) was the eldest, and of the latter Xerxes. Artabasanes urged that he was the eldest son; and therefore, according to the usage and custom of all nations, he ought to be preferred in the succession before the younger. To this Xerxes replied, that he was the son of Darius by Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, who was the first founder of the Persian empire; and therefore claimed in her right to succeed his father in it; and that it was much more agreeable to justice, that the crown of Cyrus should come to a descendant of Cyrus, than to one who was not. And he farther added, that it was true, Artabasanes was the eldest son of Darius; but that he was the eldest son of the king: for Artabasanes was born while his father was only a private person, and therefore by that primogeniture could claim no more than to be heir to his private fortunes: but as to him, he was the first-born after his father was king, and p Herodotus, lib. 7. Justin, lib. 2, c. 10. Plutarchus in Artaxerxe et in Apophthegm, περὶ φιλαδελφίας» therefore had the best right to succeed him in the kingdom. And for this he had an instance from the Lacedæmonians, with whom it was the usage, that the sons of their kings, who were born after their advancement to the throne, should succeed before those who were born before it. And this last argument he was helped to by Damaratus, formerly king of Lacedæmon, who, having been unjustly deposed by his subjects, was then an exile in the Persian court. Hereupon Xerxes was declared the successor, though not so much by the strength of his plea, as by the influence which his mother Atossa had over the inclinations of Darius, who was absolutely governed in this matter by the authority she had with him. That which was most remarkable in this contest was, the friendly and amicable manner with which it was managed: for, during the whole time that it lasted, all the marks of a most entire fraternal affection passed between the two brothers; and, when it was decided, as the one did not insult, so neither did the other repine, or express any anger or discontent on the judgment given; and although the elder brother lost the cause, yet he cheerfully submitted to the determination, wished his brother joy, and, without diminishing his friendship or affection to him, ever after adhered to his interest, and at last died in his service, being slain fighting for him in the Grecian war; which is an example very rarely to be met with, where so great a prize is at stake, as that of a crown; the ambitious desire of which is usually of that force with the most of mankind, as to make them break through all other considerations whatsoever, where there is any the least pretence to it, to reach the attainment. After the succession was thus settled, and all were ready to set out both for the Egyptian, as well as the Grecian war, Darius fell sick and died, in the second year after the Egyptian revolt, having then Aarius 36. reigned thirty-six years; and Xerxes, according to the late determination, quietly n. 486. q Herodotus, lib. 7. Ptolm. in Canone, Africanus, Euseb. &c. |