he Spartans came up just as all was over, and greatly praised
the Athenians, for indeed it was the first time Greeks had beaten
Persians, and it was the battle above all others that saved Europe from
falling under the slavery of the East. The fleet was caught by a storm
as it crossed the AEgean Sea again.
All the Athenians who had been slain were buried under one great mound,
adorned with ten pillars bearing their names; the Plataeans had another
honourable mound, and the Persians a third. All the treasure that was
taken in the camp and ships was honourably brought to the city and
divided. There was only one exception, namely, one Kallias, who wore
long hair bound with a fillet, and was taken for a king by a poor
Persian, who fell on his knees before him, and showed him a well where
was a great deal of gold hidden. Kallias not only took the gold, but
killed the poor stranger, and his family were ever after held as
disgraced, and called by a nickname meaning, "Enriched by the Well."
The Plataeans were rewarded by being made freemen of Athens, as well as
of their own city; and Miltiades, while all his countrymen were full of
joy and exultation, asked of them a fleet of seventy ships, promising to
bring them fame and riches. With it he sailed for the island of Faros,
that which was specially famed for its white marble. He said he meant to
punish the Parians for having joined the Persians, but it really was
because of a quarrel of his own. He landed, and required the Parians to
pay him a hundred talents, and when they refused he besieged the city,
until a woman named Timo, who was priestess at a temple of Ceres near the
gates, promised to tell him a way of taking the city if he would meet her
at night in the temple, where no man was allowed to enter. He came, and
leaped over the outer fence of the temple, but, brave as he was in
battle, terror at treading on forbidden and sacred ground overpowered
him, and, without seeing the priestess, he leaped back again, fell on the
other side, and severely injured his thigh. The siege was given up, and
he was carried back helpless to Athens, where there was no mercy to
failures, and he was arraigned before the Areopagus assembly, by a man
named Xanthippus, for having wasted the money of the State and deceived
the people, and therefore being guilty of death.
It must have been a sad thing to see the great captain, who had saved his
country in that great battle only a year or
|