us, the Egyptian king, convinced that such amazing
good fortune would sooner or later incur the envy of the gods, wrote to
Polycrates, advising him to throw away one of his most valuable
possessions and thus inflict some injury upon himself. Thinking the
advice to be good, Polycrates threw into the sea a favourite ring of
matchless price and beauty; but unfortunately it was found a few days
afterwards in the belly of a fine fish which a fisherman had sent him
as a present. Amasis now foresaw that the ruin of Polycrates was
inevitable, and sent a herald to Samos to renounce his alliance. The
gloomy anticipations of the Egyptian monarch proved well founded. In
the midst of all his prosperity Polycrates fell by a most ignominious
fate. Oroetes, the satrap of Sardis, had for some unknown cause
conceived a deadly hatred against the Samian despot. By a cunning
stratagem the satrap allured him to the mainland, where he was
immediately arrested and hanged upon a cross (B.C. 522).

The reign of Darius, the third king of Persia. (B.C. 521-485), is
memorable in Grecian history. In his invasion of Scythia, his fleet,
which was furnished by the Asiatic Greeks, was ordered to sail up the
Danube and throw a bridge of boats across the river. The King himself,
with his land forces, marched through Thrace; and, crossing the bridge,
placed it under the care of the Greeks, telling them that, if he did
not return within sixty days, they might break it down, and sail home.
He then left them, and penetrated into the Scythian territory. The
sixty days had already passed away, and there was yet no sign of the
Persian army; but shortly afterwards the Greeks were astonished by the
appearance of a body of Scythians, who informed them that Darius was in
full retreat, pursued by the whole Scythian nation, and that his only
hope of safety depended upon that bridge. They urged the Greeks to
seize this opportunity of destroying the Persian army, and of
recovering their own liberty, by breaking down the bridge. Their
exhortations were warmly seconded by the Athenian Miltiades, the tyrant
of the Thracian Chersonesus, and the future conqueror of Marathon. The
other rulers of the Ionian cities were at first disposed to follow his
suggestion; but as soon as Histiaeus of Miletus reminded them that
their sovereignty depended upon the support of the Persian king, and
that his ruin would involve their own, they changed their minds and
resolved to aw