mmediate circumstances which led to the Ionian Revolt belong to
Greek rather than to Persian history, and have been so fully treated of
by the historians of the Hellenic race that a knowledge of them may be
assumed as already possessed by the reader. What is chiefly remarkable
about them is, that they are so purely private and personal. A chance
quarrel between Aristagoras of Miletus and the Persian Megabates,
pecuniary difficulties pressing on the former, and the natural desire
of Histiseus, father-in-law of Aristagoras, to revisit his native place,
were undoubtedly the direct and immediate causes of what became a
great national outbreak. That there must have been other and wider
predisposing causes can scarcely be doubted. Among them two may be
suggested. The presence of Darius in Asia Minor, and his friendliness
towards the tyrants who bore sway in most of the Greek cities, were
calculated to elate those persons in their own esteem, and to encourage
in them habits and acts injurious or offensive to their subjects. Their
tyranny under these circumstances would become more oppressive and
galling. At the same time the popular mind could not fail to associate
together the native despot and the foreign lord, who (it was clear to
all) supported and befriended each other. If the Greeks of Asia, like so
many of their brethren in Europe, had grown weary of their tyrants
and were desirous of rising against them, they would be compelled to
contemplate the chances of a successful resistance to the Persians.
And here there were circumstances in the recent history calculated
to inspirit them and give them hopes. Six hundred Greek ships, manned
probably by 120,000 men, had been lately brought together, and had
formed a united fleet. The fate of the Persian land-army had depended
on their fidelity. It is not surprising that a sense of strength should
have been developed, and something like a national spirit should have
grown up in such a condition of things.

If this were the state of feeling among the Greeks, the merit of
Aristagoras would be, that he perceived it, and, regardless of all class
prejudices, determined to take advantage of the chance which it gave
him of rising superior to his embarrassments. Throwing himself on the
popular feeling, the strength of which he had estimated aright, he by
the same act gave freedom to the cities, and plunged his nation into
a rebellion against Persia. It was easy for reason to show, when th