the Egean Sea.

It remained, however, to take vengeance upon the foreigners who had
dared to lend their aid to the king's revolted subjects, and had borne
a part in the burning of Sardis. The pride of the Persians felt such
interference as an insult of the grossest kind: and the tale may well be
true that Darius, from the time that he first heard the news, employed
an officer to bid him daily "remember Athens." The schemes which he had
formerly entertained with respect to the reduction of Greece recurred
with fresh force to his mind; and the task of crushing the revolt was no
sooner completed than he proceeded to attempt their execution.
Selecting Mardonius, son of Gobryas the conspirator, and one of his
own sons-in-law, for general, he gave him the command of a powerful
expedition, which was to advance by way of Thrace, Macedonia, and
Thessaly, against Eretria and Athens. At the same time, with a wisdom
which we should scarcely have expected in an Oriental, he commissioned
him, ere he quitted Asia, to depose the tyrants who bore rule in the
Greek cities, and to allow the establishment of democracies in their
stead. Such a measure was excellently calculated to preserve the
fidelity of the Hellenic population and to prevent any renewal of
disturbance. It gave ample employment to unquiet spirits by opening to
them a career in their own states--and it removed the grievance which,
more than anything else, had produced the recent rebellion.

Mardonius having effected this change proceeded into Europe. He had a
large land force and a powerful navy, and at first was successful both
by land and sea. The fleet took Thasos, an island valuable for its
mines; and the army forced the Macedonians to exchange their position
of semi-independence for that of full Persian subjects, liable to both
tribute and military service. But this fair dawn was soon overcast. As
the fleet was rounding Athos a terrible tempest arose which, destroyed
300 triremes and more than 20,000 men, some of whom were devoured by
sea-monsters, while the remainder perished by drowning. On shore,
a night attack of the Brygi, a Thracian tribe dwelling in the tract
between the Strymon and the Axius, brought disaster upon the land force,
numbers of which were slain, while Mardonius himself received a wound.
This disgrace, indeed, was retrieved by subsequent operations, which
forced the Brygi to make their submission; but the expedition found
itself in no condition to