cuted his friends and foes together. When any
protested their innocence, he put them to the torture to make them
confess their guilt. Such indiscriminate cruelty only had the effect
to league the whole population of Athens against the perpetrator of
it. There was at length a general insurrection against him, and he was
dethroned. He made his escape to Sardis, and there tendered his
services to Artaphernes, offering to conduct the Persian armies to
Greece, and aid them in getting possession of the country, on
condition that, if they succeeded, the Persians would make him the
governor of Athens. Artaphernes made known these offers to Darius, and
they were eagerly accepted. It was, however, very impolitic to accept
them. The aid which the invaders could derive from the services of
such a guide, were far more than counterbalanced by the influence
which his defection and the espousal of his cause by the Persians
would produce in Greece. It banded the Athenians and their allies
together in the most enthusiastic and determined spirit of resistance,
against a man who had now added the baseness of treason to the wanton
wickedness of tyranny.

Besides these internal dissensions between the people of the several
Grecian states and their kings, there were contests between one state
and another, which Darius proposed to take advantage of in his
attempts to conquer the country. There was one such war in particular,
between Athens and the island of AEgina, on the effects of which, in
aiding him in his operations against the Athenians, Darius placed
great reliance. AEgina was a large and populous island not far from
Athens. In accounting for the origin of the quarrel between the two
states, the Greek historians relate the following marvelous story:

AEgina, as will be seen from the map, was situated in the middle of a
bay, southwest from Athens. On the other side of the bay, opposite
from Athens, there was a city, near the shore, called Epidaurus. It
happened that the people of Epidaurus were at one time suffering from
famine, and they sent a messenger to the oracle at Delphi to inquire
what they should do to obtain relief. The Pythian answered that they
must erect two statues to certain goddesses, named Damia and Auxesia,
and that then the famine would abate. They asked whether they were to
make the statues of brass or of marble. The priestess replied, "Of
neither, but of wood." They were, she said, to use for the purpose the
wood o