Mosaics of Grecian History Part 27

II. THE FIRST PERSIAN WAR.

Darius, having renewed his preparations for the conquest of Greece, sent heralds through the Grecian cities, demanding earth and water as tokens of submission. Some of the smaller states, intimidated by his power, submitted; but Athens and Sparta haughtily rejected the demands of the Eastern monarch, and put his heralds to death with cruel mockery, throwing one into a pit and another into a well, and bidding them take thence their earth and water.

In the spring of 490 B.C. a Persian fleet of six hundred ships, conveying an army of 120,000 men, and guided by the aged tyrant Hippias, directed its course toward the sh.o.r.es of Greece. Several islands of the aegean submitted without a struggle. Euboea was severely punished; and with but little opposition the Persian host landed and advanced to the plains of Marathon, within twenty miles of Athens. The Athenians called on the Plataeans and the Spartans for aid, and the former sent their entire force of one thousand men; but the Spartans refused to give the much-needed help, because it lacked a few days of the full moon, and it was contrary to their religious customs to begin a march during this interval. Meantime the Athenians had marched to Marathon, and were encamped on the hills that surrounded the plain. Their army numbered ten thousand men, and was commanded by Callim'achus, the Pol'emarch or third Archon, and ten generals, among whom were Milti'ades, Themis'tocles, and Aristi'des, who subsequently acquired immortal fame. Five of the ten generals were afraid to hazard a battle without the aid of the Spartans; but the arguments of Miltiades finally prevailed upon Callimachus to give his casting vote in favor of immediate action. Although the ten generals were to command the whole army successively, each for one day, it was agreed to invest Miltiades with the command at once, and intrust to his military skill the fortunes of Athens. He immediately drew up the little army in order of battle.

THE BATTLE OF MARATHON.

The Persians were extended in a line across the middle of the plain, having their best troops in the center, while their fleet was ranged behind them along the beach. The Athenians were drawn up in a line opposite, but having their main strength in the extreme wings of their army. Miltiades quickly advanced his force across the mile of plain that separated it from the foe, and fell upon the immense army of the Persians. As he had foreseen, the center of his line was soon broken, while the extremities of the enemy's line, made up of motley and undisciplined bands of all nations, were routed and driven toward the sh.o.r.e, and into the adjoining mora.s.ses. Miltiades now hastily concentrated his two wings and directed their united force against the Persian center, which, deeming itself victorious, was taken completely by surprise. The Persians, defeated, fled in disorder to their ships, but many perished in the marshes; the sh.o.r.e was strewn with their dead, and seven of their ships were destroyed. Their loss was six thousand four hundred; that of the Athenians, not including the Plataeans, only one hundred and ninety two. Such, in brief, was the famous battle of Marathon. The Persians were strong in the terror of their name, and in the renown of their conquests; and it required a most heroic resolution in the Athenians to face a danger that they had not yet learned to despise.

LEGENDS OF THE BATTLE.

The victory at Marathon was viewed by the people as a deliverance by the G.o.ds themselves. It is fabled that before the battle the voice of the G.o.d Pan was heard in the mountains, uttering warnings and threatenings to the Persians, and inspiring the Greeks with courage. Hence the wonderful legends of the battle, in which Theseus, Hercules, and other local heroes are represented as engaging in the combat, and dealing death among the flying barbarians. In the following lines MRS. HEMANS has embraced the description which the Greeks gave of the appearance and deeds of Theseus on that occasion:

There was one, a leader crowned, And armed for Greece that day; But the falchions made no sound On his gleaming war array.

In the battle's front he stood, With his tall and shadowy crest; But the arrows drew no blood, Though their path was through his vest.

His sword was seen to flash Where the boldest deeds were done; But it smote without a clash; The stroke was heard by none!

His voice was not of those Who swelled the rolling blast, And his steps fell hushed like snows-- 'Twas the shade of Theseus pa.s.sed!

Far sweeping through the foe With a fiery charge he bore; And the Mede left many a bow On the sounding ocean-sh.o.r.e.

And the foaming waves grew red, And the sails were crowded fast, When the sons of Asia fled, As the shade of Theseus pa.s.sed!

When banners caught the breeze, When helms in sunlight shone, When masts were on the seas, And spears on Marathon.

It is said that to this day the peasant believes the field of Marathon to be haunted with spectral warriors, whose shouts are heard at midnight, borne on the wind, and rising above the din of battle. Viewed in the light of such legends, the following poem on Marathon, by PROFESSOR BLACKIE, is full of interest and poetic beauty:

From Pentel'icus' pine-clad height [Footnote: Pentelicus overhangs the south side of the plain of Marathon.]

A voice of warning came, That shook the silent autumn night With fear to Media's name.

[Footnote: After the absorption of the Median kingdom into that of Persia, the terms Mede and Persian were interchangeably used, with little distinction.]

Pan, from his Marathonian cave, [Footnote: Pan was said to have a famous cave near Marathon. For the somewhat prominent part which Pan played in the great Persian war, see Herodotus, vi. p.105.]

Sent screams of midnight terror.

And darkling horror curled the wave On the broad sea's moonlit mirror.

Woe, Persia, woe! thou liest low--low!

Let the golden palaces groan!

Ye mothers weep for sons that shall sleep In gore on Marathon.

Where Indus and Hydaspes roll, Where treeless deserts glow, Where Scythians roam beneath the pole, O'er hills of hardened snow, The great Darius rules: and now, Thou little Greece, to thee He comes: thou thin-soiled Athens, how Shalt thou dare to be free?

There is a G.o.d that wields the rod Above: by him alone The Greek shall be free, when the Mede shall flee In shame from Marathon.

He comes; and o'er the bright aegean, Where his masted army came, The subject isles uplift the paean Of glory to his name.

Strong Naxos, strong Ere'tria yield; His captains near the sh.o.r.e Of Marathon's fair and fateful field, Where a tyrant marched before.

And a traitor guide, the sea beside, Now marks the land for his own, Where the marshes red shall soon be the bed Of the Mede in Marathon.

Who shall number the host of the Mede?

Their high-tiered galleys ride, Like locust-bands with darkening speed, Across the groaning tide.

Who shall tell the many hoofed tramp That shakes the dusty plain?

Where the pride of his horse is the strength of his camp, Shall the Mede forget to gain?

O fair is the pride of the cohorts that ride, To the eye of the morning shown!

But a G.o.d in the sky hath doomed them to lie In dust on Marathon.

Dauntless, beside the sounding sea, The Athenian men reveal Their steady strength. That they are free They know; and inly feel Their high election, on that day, In foremost fight to stand, And dash the enslaving yoke away From all the Grecian land.

Their praise shall sound the world around, Who shook the Persian throne, When the shout of the free travelled over the sea From famous Marathon.

From dark Cithae'ron's sacred slope The small Plataean band Bring hearts that swell with patriot hope, To wield a common brand With Theseus' sons, at danger's gates, While spellbound Sparta stands, And for the pale moon's changes waits With stiff and stolid hands; And hath no share in the glory rare, That Athens shall make her own, When the long-haired Mede with fearful speed Falls back from Marathon.

"On, sons of the Greeks!" the war-cry rolls; "The land that gave you birth, Your wives, and all the dearest souls That circle round each hearth; The shrines upon a thousand hills, The memory of your sires, Nerve now with bra.s.s your resolute wills, And fan your valorous fires!"

And on like a wave came the rush of the brave-- "Ye sons of the Greeks, on, on!"

And the Mede stepped back from the eager attack Of the Greek in Marathon.

Hear'st thou the rattling of spears on the right?

Seest thou the gleam in the sky?

The G.o.ds come to aid the Greeks in the fight, And the favoring heroes are nigh.

The lion's hide I see in the sky, And the knotted club so fell, And kingly Theseus's conquering eye, And Maca'ria, nymph of the well.

[Footnote: The nymph Macaria, daughter of Hercules, was said to have a fountain on the field of Marathon. There is a well near the north end of the plain, where the fountain is supposed to have been.]

Purely, purely, the fount did flow, When the morn's first radiance shone; But eve shall know the crimson flow Of its wave, by Marathon.

On, son of Cimon, bravely on!

[Footnote: Milti'ades, the general in command, whose father's name was Cimon.]

And Aristides the just!

Your names have made the field your own, Your foes are in the dust!

The Lydian satrap spurs his steed, The Persian's bow is broken: His purple pales; the vanquished Mede Beholds the angry token Of thundering Jove, who rules above; And the bubbling marshes moan [Footnote: There are two extensive marshes on the plain of Marathon, one at each extremity. The Persians were driven back into the marsh at the north end.]

With the trampled dead that have found their bed In gore, at Marathon.

The ships have sailed from Marathon On swift disaster's wings; And an evil dream hath fetched a groan From the heart of the king of kings.

An eagle he saw, in the shades of night, With a dove that bloodily strove; And the weak hath vanquished the strong in fight, The eagle hath fled from the dove.

[Footnote: Reference is here made to A-tos'sa's dream, as given by aeschylus in his tragedy of The Persians.]

Great Jove, that reigns in the starry plains, To the heart of the king hath shown That the boastful parade of his pride was laid In dust at Marathon.

But through Pentelicus' winding vales The hymn triumphal runs, And high-shrined Athens proudly hails Her free-returning sons.

And Pallas, from her ancient rock, [Footnote: Pallas, or Minerva.]

With her shield's refulgent round, Blazes; her frequent worshippers flock, And high the paeans sound, How in deathless glory the famous story Shall on the winds be blown, That the long-haired Mede was driven with speed By the Greeks, from Marathon.

And Greece shall be a hallowed name, While the sun shall climb the pole, And Marathon fan strong freedom's flame In many a pilgrim soul.

And o'er that mound where heroes sleep, [Footnote: This famous mound is still to be seen on the battle-field.]

By the waste and reedy sh.o.r.e, Full many a patriot eye shall weep, Till Time shall be no more.

And the bard shall brim with a holier hymn, When he stands by that mound alone, And feel no shrine on earth more divine Than the dust of Marathon.

THE DEATH OF MILTIADES.

Soon after the Persian defeat, Miltiades, who at first received all the honors that a grateful people could bestow, met a fate that casts a melancholy gloom over his history, and that has often been cited in proof of the a.s.sertion that "republics are fickle and ungrateful." History shows, however, that the Athenians were not greatly in the wrong in their treatment of Miltiades. He obtained of them the command of an expedition whose destination was known to himself alone; a.s.suring them of the honorableness and the success of the enterprise. But much treasure was spent, many lives were lost, and through the seeming treachery of Miltiades the expedition terminated in disaster and disgrace.

It was found, upon investigation, that the motive of the expedition was private resentment against a prominent citizen of Paros.

Miltiades was therefore condemned to death; but grat.i.tude for his previous valuable services mitigated the penalty to a fine of fifty talents. His death occurred soon after, from a wound that he received in a fall while at Paros, and the fine was paid by his son Cimon.

As GROTE well observes, "The fate of Miltiades, so far from ill.u.s.trating either the fickleness or the ingrat.i.tude of his countrymen, attests their just appreciation of deserts. It also ill.u.s.trates another moral of no small importance to the right comprehension of Grecian affairs; it teaches us the painful lesson how perfectly maddening were the effects of a copious draught of glory on the temperament of an enterprising and ambitious Greek.

There can be no doubt that the rapid transition, in the course of about one week, from Athenian terror before the battle to Athenian exultation after it, must have produced demonstrations toward Miltiades such as were never paid to any other man in the whole history of the commonwealth. Such unmeasured admiration unseated his rational judgment, so that his mind became abandoned to the reckless impulses of insolence, antipathy, and rapacity-- that distempered state for which (according to Grecian morality) the retributive Nemesis was ever on the watch, and which, in his case, she visited with a judgment startling in its rapidity, as well as terrible in its amount." [Footnote: "History of Greece,"

Chap. x.x.xvi.]