THE ATHENIANS AT MARATHON. 129

To this demand some of the cities cowardly yielded ;
but Athens, Sparta, and others sent back the heralds
with no more earth than clung to the soles of their
shoes. And so, a8 Greece was not to be subdued
through terror of his name, the great king prepared
to make it feel his power and wrath, incited thereto
by his hatred of Athens, which Hippias took care to
keep alive. Another expedition was prepared, and
put under the command of another general, Datis by
name.

The army was now sent by a new route. Darius
himself had led his army across the Bosphorus,
where Constantinople now stands, and where By-
zantium then stood. Mardonius conveyed his across
the southern strait, the Hellespont. The third expe-
dition was sent on shipboard directly across the sea,
landing and capturing the islands of the Aigean as it
advanced. Landing at length on the large island of
Bubeea, near the coast of Attica, Datis stormed and
captured the city of Eretria, burnt its temples, and
dragged its people into captivity. Then, putting his
army on shipboard again, he sailed across the narrow
strait between Bubcea and Attica, and landed on Attic
soil, in the ever-memorable Bay of Marathon.

It seemed now, truly, as if Darius was about to
gain his wish and revenge himself on Athens. The
plain of Marathon, where the great Persian army had:
landed and lay encamped, is but twenty-two miles
from Athens by the nearest road,—scarcely a day’s
march. The plain is about six miles long, and from
a mile and a half to three miles in width, extending
back from the sca-shore to the rugged hills and

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