o made the shoe, and
Aristagoras has put it on." Finding himself unsafe at Sardis, he
escaped to the island of Chios; but he was regarded with suspicion by
all parties. At length he obtained eight galleys from Lesbos, with
which he sailed towards Byzantium, and carried on piracies as well
against the Grecian as the barbarian vessels. This unprincipled
adventurer met with a traitor's death. Having landed on the coast of
Mysia, he was surprised by a Persian force and made prisoner. Being
carried to Sardis, Artaphernes at once caused him to be crucified, and
sent his head to Darius, who ordered it to be honourably buried,
condemning the ignominious execution of the man who had once saved the
life of the Great King.

In the sixth year of the revolt (B.C. 495), when several Grecian cities
had already been taken by the Persians, Artaphernes laid siege to
Miletus by sea and by land. A naval engagement took place at Lade a
small island off Miletus, which decided the fate of the war. The
Samians deserted at the commencement of the battle, and the Ionian
fleet was completely defeated. Miletus was soon afterwards taken, and
was treated with signal severity. Most of the males were slain; and the
few who escaped the sword were carried with the women and children into
captivity (B.C. 494). The other Greek cities in Asia and the
neighbouring islands were treated with the same cruelty. The islands
of Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos were swept of their inhabitants; and the
Persian fleet sailed up to the Hellespont and Propontis, carrying with
it fire and sword. The Athenian Miltiades only escaped falling into
the power of the Persians by a rapid flight to Athens.

The subjugation of Ionia was now complete. This was the third time
that the Asiatic Greeks had been conquered by a foreign power: first
by the Lydian Croesus; secondly by the generals of Cyrus; and lastly by
those of Darius. It was from the last that they suffered most, and
they never fully recovered their former prosperity.

Darius was now at liberty to take vengeance upon the Athenians. He
appointed Mardonius to succeed Artaphernes as satrap in western Asia,
and he placed under his command a large armament, with injunctions to
bring to Susa those Athenians and Eretrians who had insulted the
authority of the Great King. Mardonius, after crossing the Hellespont,
commenced his march through Thrace and Macedonia, subduing, as he went
along, the tribes which had not