ssary ships to carry
them to Europe. It was the year 492 before the birth of Christ, and Asia
made ready to destroy the rising power of Europe.

As a final warning the King of Persia sent messengers to the Greeks
asking for "earth and water" as a token of their submission. The Greeks
promptly threw the messengers into the nearest well where they would
find both "earth and water" in large abundance and thereafter of course
peace was impossible.

But the Gods of High Olympus watched over their children and when the
Phoenician fleet carrying the Persian troops was near Mount Athos, the
Storm-God blew his cheeks until he almost burst the veins of his brow,
and the fleet was destroyed by a terrible hurricane and the Persians
were all drowned.

Two years later they returned. This time they sailed straight across
the AEgean Sea and landed near the village of Marathon. As soon as the
Athenians heard this they sent their army of ten thousand men to guard
the hills that surrounded the Marathonian plain. At the same time they
despatched a fast runner to Sparta to ask for help. But Sparta was
envious of the fame of Athens and refused to come to her assistance.
The other Greek cities followed her example with the exception of tiny
Plataea which sent a thousand men. On the twelfth of September of the
year 490, Miltiades, the Athenian commander, threw this little army
against the hordes of the Persians. The Greeks broke through the Persian
barrage of arrows and their spears caused terrible havoc among the
disorganised Asiatic troops who had never been called upon to resist
such an enemy.

That night the people of Athens watched the sky grow red with the flames
of burning ships. Anxiously they waited for news. At last a little
cloud of dust appeared upon the road that led to the North. It was
Pheidippides, the runner. He stumbled and gasped for his end was near.
Only a few days before had he returned from his errand to Sparta. He had
hastened to join Miltiades. That morning he had taken part in the attack
and later he had volunteered to carry the news of victory to his beloved
city. The people saw him fall and they rushed forward to support him.
"We have won," he whispered and then he died, a glorious death which
made him envied of all men.

As for the Persians, they tried, after this defeat, to land near Athens
but they found the coast guarded and disappeared, and once more the land
of Hellas was at peace.

Eight years they wa