FOUR FAMOUS MEN OF ATHENS. 179

was going or what he was expected to do. Miltia-
des was in command, and where Miltiades chose to
lead who could hesitate to follow?

The purpose of the admiral of the fleet was soon
revealed. -He sailed to the island of Paros, besieged
the capital, and demanded a tribute of one hundred
talents. He based this claim on the pretence that
the Parians had furnished a ship to the Persian fleet,
but it is known that his real motive was hatred of a
citizen of Paros.

As it happened, the Parians were not the sort of
people to submit easily to a piratical demand. They
kept their foe amused by cunning diplomacy till
they had repaired the city walls, then openly defied
him to do his worst. Miltiades at once began the
assault, and kept it up for twenty-six days in vain.
The island was ravaged, but the town stood intact.
Despairing of winning by force, he next attempted
to win by fraud. A woman of Paros promised to
reveal to him a secret which would place the town in
his power, and induced him to visit her at night in a
temple to which only women were admitted. Milti-
ades accepted the offer, leaped over the outer fence,
and approached the temple. But at that moment a
panic of superstitious fear overcame him. Doubtless
fancying that the deity of the temple would punish
him terribly for this desecration, he ran away in the
wildest terror, and sprang back over the fence in such
haste that he badly sprained his thigh. In this state
he was found and carried on board ship, and, the
siege being raised, the fleet returned to Athens.

Here Miltiades found the late favor of the citizens