Erato   

than he loaded five triremes with his goods and chattels, and set sail
for Athens. Cardia was the point from which he took his departure; and
as he sailed down the gulf of Melas, along the shore of the
Chersonese, he came suddenly upon the whole Phoenician fleet.
However he himself escaped, with four of his vessels, and got into
Imbrus, one trireme only falling into the hands of his pursuers.
This vessel was under the command of his eldest son Metiochus, whose
mother was not the daughter of the Thracian king Olorus, but a
different woman. Metiochus and his ship were taken; and when the
Phoenicians found out that he was a son of Miltiades they resolved
to convey him to the king, expecting thereby to rise high in the royal
favour. For they remembered that it was Miltiades who counselled the
Ionians to hearken when the Scyths prayed them to break up the
bridge and return home. Darius, however, when the Phoenicians
brought Metiochus into his presence, was so far from doing him any
hurt, that he loaded him with benefits. He gave him a house and
estate, and also a Persian wife, by whom there were children born to
him who were accounted Persians. As for Miltiades himself, from Imbrus
he made his way in safety to Athens.
At this time the Persians did no more hurt to the Ionians; but
on the contrary, before the year was out, they carried into effect the
following measures, which were greatly to their advantage.
Artaphernes, satrap of Sardis, summoned deputies from all the Ionian
cities, and forced them to enter into agreements with one another, not
to harass each other by force of arms, but to settle their disputes by
reference. He likewise took the measurement of their whole country
in parasangs- such is the name which the Persians give to a distance
of thirty furlongs- and settled the tributes which the several
cities were to pay, at a rate that has continued unaltered from the
time when Artaphernes fixed it down to the present day. The rate was
very nearly the same as that which had been paid before the revolt.
Such were the peaceful dealings of the Persians with the Ionians.
The next spring Darius superseded all the other generals, and sent
down Mardonius, the son of Gobryas, to the coast, and with him a
vast body of men, some fit for sea, others for land service. Mardonius
was a youth at this time, and had only lately married Artazostra,
the king's daughter. When Mardonius, accompanied by this numerous
host, reached Cilicia, he took ship and proceeded along shore with his
fleet, while the land army marched under other leaders towards the
Hellespont. In the course of his voyage along the coast of Asia he
came to Ionia; and here I have a marvel to relate which will greatly
surprise those Greeks who cannot believe that Otanes advised the seven
conspirators to make Persia a commonwealth. Mardonius put down all the
despots throughout Ionia, and in lieu of them established democracies.
Having so done, he hastened to the Hellespont, and when a vast
multitude of ships had been brought together, and likewise a
powerful land force, he conveyed his troops across the strait by means
of his vessels, and proceeded through Europe against Eretria and
Athens.
At least these towns served as a pretext for the expedition, the
real purpose of which was to subjugate as great a number as possible
of the Grecian cities; and this became plain when the Thasians, who
did not even lift a hand in their defence, were reduced by the sea
force, while the land army added the Macedonians to the former
slaves of the king. All the tribes on the hither side of Macedonia had
been reduced previously. From Thasos the fleet stood across to the
mainland, and sailed along shore to Acanthus, whence an attempt was
made to double Mount Athos. But here a violent north wind sprang up,
against which nothing could contend, and handled a large number of the
ships with much rudeness, shattering them and driving them aground
upon Athos. 'Tis said the number of the ships destroyed was little
short of three hundred; and the men who perished were more than twenty
thousand. For the sea about Athos abounds in monsters beyond all
others; and so a portion were seized and devoured by these animals,