Erato   

While the Persians were thus employed, the Delians likewise
quitted Delos, and took refuge in Tenos. And now the expedition drew
near, when Datis sailed forward in advance of the other ships;
commanding them, instead of anchoring at Delos, to rendezvous at
Rhenea, over against Delos, while he himself proceeded to discover
whither the Delians had fled; after which he sent a herald to them
with this message:
"Why are ye fled, O holy men? Why have ye judged me so harshly and
so wrongfully? I have surely sense enough, even had not the king so
ordered, to spare the country which gave birth to the two gods- to
spare, I say, both the country and its inhabitants. Come back
therefore to your dwellings; and once more inhabit your island."
Such was the message which Datis sent by his herald to the
Delians. He likewise placed upon the altar three hundred talents'
weight of frankincense, and offered it.
After this he sailed with his whole host against Eretria, taking
with him both Ionians and Aeolians. When he was departed, Delos (as
the Delians told me) was shaken by an earthquake, the first and last
shock that has been felt to this day. And truly this was a prodigy
whereby the god warned men of the evils that were coming upon them.
For in the three following generations of Darius the son of Hystaspes,
Xerxes the son of Darius, and Artaxerxes the son of Xerxes, more
woes befell Greece than in the twenty generations preceding Darius-
woes caused in part by the Persians, but in part arising from the
contentions among their own chief men respecting the supreme power.
Wherefore it is not surprising that Delos, though it had never
before been shaken, should at that time have felt the shock of an
earthquake. And indeed there was an oracle, which said of Delos-

Delo's self will I shake, which never yet has been
shaken

Of the above names Darius may be rendered "Worker," Xerxes
"Warrior," and Artaxerxes "Great Warrior." And so might we call
these kings in our own language with propriety.
The barbarians, after loosing from Delos, proceeded to touch at
the other islands, and took troops from each, and likewise carried off
a number of the children as hostages. Going thus from one to
another, they came at last to Carystus; but here the hostages were
refused by the Carystians, who said they would neither give any, nor
consent to bear arms against the cities of their neighbours, meaning
Athens and Eretria. Hereupon the Persians laid siege to Carystus,
and wasted the country round, until at length the inhabitants were
brought over and agreed to do what was required of them.
Meanwhile the Eretrians, understanding that the Persian armament
was coming against them, besought the Athenians for assistance. Nor
did the Athenians refuse their aid, but assigned to them as
auxiliaries the four thousand landholders to whom they had allotted
the estates of the Chalcidean Hippobatae. At Eretria, however,
things were in no healthy state; for though they had called in the aid
of the Athenians, yet they were not agreed among themselves how they
should act; some of them were minded to leave the city and to take
refuge in the heights of Euboea, while others, who looked to receiving
a reward from the Persians, were making ready to betray their country.
So when these things came to the ears of Aeschines, the son of Nothon,
one of the first men in Eretria, he made known the whole state of
affairs to the Athenians who were already arrived, and besought them
to return home to their own land, and not perish with his
countrymen. And the Athenians hearkened to his counsel, and,
crossing over to Oropus, in this way escaped the danger.
The Persian fleet now drew near and anchored at Tamynae, Choereae,
and Aegilia, three places in the territory of Eretria. Once masters of
these posts, they proceeded forthwith to disembark their horses, and
made ready to attack the enemy. But the Eretrians were not minded to