128 HISTORICAL TALES,

first was defeated by nature, the second by man.
A land expedition, led by the Persian general Mar-
donius, crossed the Hellespont in the year 493 B.c.,
proposing to march to Athens along the coast, and
with orders to bring all that were left alive of its in-
habitants as captives to the great king. On marched
the great host, nothing doubting that Greece would
fallan easy prey to their arms. Andas they marched
along the land, the fleet followed them along the ad-
joining sea, until the stormy and perilous promontory
of Mount Athos was reached.

No doubt the Greeks viewed with deep alarm this
formidable progress. They had never yet directly
measured arms with the Persians, and dreaded them
more than, as was afterwards shown, they had
reason to. But at Mount Athos the deities of the
winds came to their aid. As the fleet was rounding
that promontory, often fatal to mariners, a frightful
hurricane swooped upon it, and destroyed three hun-
dred of its ships, while no less than twenty thousand
men became victims of the waves. Some of the
crews reached the shores, but of these many died of
cold, and others were slain and devoured by wild
beasts, which roamed in numbers on that uninhabited
point of land. The land army, too, lost heavily from
the hurricane; and Mardonius, fearing to advance
farther after this disaster, ingloriously made his way
back to the Hellespont. So ended the first invasion
of Greece.

Three years afterwards another was made. Da-
rius, indeed, first sent heralds to Grecce, demanding
earth and water in token of submission to his will.