124 HISTORICAL TALES.

joined in the revolt. At the appointed time all the
coast region of Asia Minor suddenly burst into a
flame of war.

Aristagoras hurried to Greece for aid, seeking it
first at Sparta. Finding no help there, he went to
Athens, which city lent him twenty ships,—a gift
for which it was to pay dearly in later years. Hur-
rying back with this small reinforcement, he quickly
organized an expedition to assail the Persians at the
centre of their power.

Marching hastily to Sardis, the capital of Asia
Minor, the revolted Ionians took and burned that
city. But the Persians, gathering in numbers, de-
feated and drove them back to the coast, where the
Athenians, weary of the enterprise, took to their
ships and hastened home.

When word of this raid, and the burning of
Sardis by the Athenians and Jonians, came to the
ears of Darius at his far-off capital city, he asked
in wonder, “The Athenians!—who are they?” The
name of this distant and insignificant Greek city
had not yet reached his kingly ears.

He was told who the Athenians were, and, calling
for his bow, he shot an arrow high into the air, at
the same time calling to the Greek deity, “Grant
me, Zeus, to revenge myself on those Athenians.”

And he bade one of his servants to repeat to him
three times daily, when he sat down to his mid-day
meal, “ Master, remember the Athenians!”

The invaders had been easily repulsed from Sardis,
but the revolt continued, and proved a serious and
stubborn one, which it took the Persians years to