capital
of Athens--a domain that in its extremest length measured sixty
geographical miles! We may now judge of the condescending wonder with
which the brother of Darius listened to the ambassadors of a people,
by whose glory alone his name is transmitted to posterity. Yet was
there nothing unnatural or unduly arrogant in his reply. "Send
Darius," said the satrap, affably, "earth and water (the accustomed
symbols of homage), and he will accept your alliance." The ambassadors
deliberated, and, impressed by the might of Persia, and the sense of
their own unfriended condition, they accepted the proposals.

If, fresh from our survey of the immeasurable disparity of power
between the two states, we cannot but allow the answer of the satrap
was such as might be expected, it is not without a thrill of sympathy
and admiration we learn, that no sooner had the ambassadors returned
to Athens, than they received from the handful of its citizens a
severe reprimand for their submission. Indignant at the proposal of
the satrap, that brave people recurred no more to the thought of the
alliance. In haughty patience, unassisted and alone, they awaited the
burst of the tempest which they foresaw.

XIV. Meanwhile, Cleomenes, chafed at the failure of his attempt on
the Athenian liberties, and conceiving, in the true spirit of
injustice, that he had been rather the aggrieved than the aggressor,
levied forces in different parts of the Peloponnesus, but without
divulging the object he had in view [254]. That object was twofold--
vengeance upon Athens, and the restoration of Isagoras. At length he
threw off the mask, and at the head of a considerable force seized
upon the holy city of Eleusis. Simultaneously, and in concert with
the Spartan, the Boeotians forcibly took possession of Oenoe and
Hysix--two towns on the extremity of Attica while from Chalcis (the
principal city of the Isle of Euboea which fronted the Attic coast) a
formidable band ravaged the Athenian territories. Threatened by this
threefold invasion, the measures of the Athenians were prompt and
vigorous. They left for the present unavenged the incursions of the
Boeotians and Chalcidians, and marched with all the force they could
collect against Cleomenes at Eleusis. The two armies were prepared
for battle, when a sudden revolution in the Spartan camp delivered the
Athenians from the most powerful of their foes. The Corinthians,
insnared by Cleomenes into measures