ltiades had no longer any doubt that treachery was
at work, and returned to Athens by forced marches. Datis, on entering
the roads of Phalerum, found the shore defended, and the army that he
had left at Marathon encamped upon the Cynosarge. He cruised about for
a few hours in sight of the shore, and finding no movement made to
encourage him to land, he turned his vessels about and set sail for
Ionia.

The material loss to the Persians was inconsiderable, for even the
Cyclades remained under their authority; Miltiades, who endeavoured
to retake them, met with a reverse before Paros, and the Athenians,
disappointed by his unsuccessful attempt, made no further efforts to
regain them. The moral effect of the victory on Greece and the empire
was extraordinary. Up till then the Median soldiers had been believed
to be the only invincible troops in the world; the sight of them
alone excited dread in the bravest hearts, and their name was received
everywhere with reverential awe. But now a handful of hoplites from one
of the towns of the continent, and that not the most renowned for its
prowess, without cavalry or bowmen, had rushed upon and overthrown the
most terrible of all Oriental battalions, the Persians and the Sakae.
Darius could not put up with such an affront without incurring the risk
of losing his prestige with the people of Asia and Europe, who up till
then had believed him all-powerful, and of thus exposing himself to the
possibility of revolutions in recently subdued countries, such as Egypt,
which had always retained the memory of her past greatness. In the
interest of his own power, as well as to soothe his wounded pride, a
renewed attack was imperative, and this time it must be launched with
such dash and vigour that all resistance would be at once swept before
it. Events had shown him that the influence of the Pisistratidae had not
been strong enough to secure for him the opening of the gates of Athens,
and that the sea route did not permit of his concentrating an adequate
force of cavalry and infantry on the field of battle; he therefore
reverted to the project of an expedition by the overland route, skirting
the coasts of Thrace and Macedonia. During three years he collected
arms, provisions, horses, men, and vessels, and was ready to commence
hostilities in the spring of 487, when affairs in Egypt prevented him.
This country had undeniably prospered under his suzerainty. It formed,
with Cyrene and the coast