a demand
for earth and water, the symbols, according to Persian custom, of
submission. Amyntas, the Macedonian king, consented, to the demand
at once; and though, owing to insolent conduct on the part of the
ambassadors, they were massacred with their whole retinue, yet this
circumstance did not prevent the completion of Macedonian vassalage.
When a second embassy was sent to inquire into the fate of the first,
Alexander, the son of Amyntas, who had arranged the massacre, contrived
to have the matter hushed up by bribing one of the envoys with a large
sum of money and the hand of his sister, Gygsea. Macedonia took up the
position of a subject kingdom, and owned for her true lord the great
monarch of Western Asia.

Megabazus, having accomplished the task assigned him, proceeded to
Sardis, where Darius had remained almost, if not quite, a full year His
place was taken by Otanes, the son of Sisamnes, a different person from
the conspirator, who rounded off the Persian conquests in these parts
by reducing, probably in B.C. 505, the cities of Byzantium, Chalcedon,
Antandrus, and Lamponium, with the two adjacent islands of Letnnos and
Imbrus. The inhabitants of all were, it appears, taxable, either with
having failed to give contingents towards the Scythian expedition,
or with having molested it on its return--crimes these, which Otanes
thought it right to punish by their general enslavement.

Darius, meanwhile, had proceeded to the seat of government, which
appears at this time to have been Susa. He had perhaps already built
there the great palace, whose remains have been recently disinterred
by English enterprise; or he may have wished to superintend the work of
construction. Susa, which was certainly from henceforth the main Persian
capital, possessed advantages over almost any other site. Its climate
was softer than that of Ecbatana and Persepolis, less sultry than that
of Babylon. Its position was convenient for communicating both with
the East and with the West. Its people were plastic, and probably
more yielding and submissive than the Medes or the Persians. The king,
fatigued with his warlike exertions, was glad for a while to rest and
recruit himself at Susa, in the tranquil life of the Court. For some
years he appears to have conceived no new aggressive project; and he
might perhaps have forgotten his designs upon Greece altogether, had not
his memory been stirred by a signal and extraordinary provocation.

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