There is, however, a tale in Herodotus, the very telling of which by that historian argues strongly for its general truth. It is the story of Demokedes, the famous physician of Kroton, who, having been in the service of Polykrates of Samos, was captured by the Persians at the time of his murder, and after a series of adventures became court physician at Susa. PERSIANS EXPLORE THE GREEK COAST. About the time when Darius was starting for the Scythian expedition, this Demokedes had rendered a great service to Atossa, the wife of Darius, who, instructed by him, persuaded Darius to send him with an expedition to explore the coasts of Greece, with a view to the subsequent invasion of the country. H. iii. 136. Accompanied by some prominent Persians, Demokedes went down to Sidon in Phœnicia, where the expedition embarked on two triremes and set sail for Greece. They circumnavigated the land, keeping close to the shore, surveying the coasts, and making notes thereof in writing. “At length, having examined the greatest part of it, they proceeded to Tarentum in Italy.” What happened thereafter is not so important. Suffice it to say that, with the aid of the tyrant of Tarentum, Demokedes made his escape, and went to Kroton, whither the Persians followed. The Krotonians refused to surrender him. The Persians accordingly sailed back to Asia, but, “not having their guide, they did not attempt to explore Greece any further.” It is not necessary to recount the rest of their adventures. H. iii. 129–138. Herodotus closes the tale by remarking that they were the first Persians who came from Asia to Greece, and that they were spies.

This tale, like other tales of the time, did not lose in the telling. It manifestly contains fanciful elements. But there do not, on the other hand, exist any grounds whatever for disbelieving its main details,—namely, that such an expedition was actually sent with a view to explore the lands of Greece, and in accordance with an intention to invade the country when the necessary steps for such an invasion had been taken.

Megabazos’ campaign in Thrace was such a step. But when this is said, it must not be supposed that the remark is intended to convey the impression that this was the sole or even the main motive of that campaign. Sole motives are, as it has been said, rare in the history of policies. The design on Greece was the corollary to the problem to be solved in Thrace. It was not necessarily regarded as either superior or inferior in importance to the Thracian problem.

It is possible that the designs on both Thrace and Greece were parts of a larger design which aimed at a simultaneous advance of the Persian frontier along both sides of the Mediterranean. It is, at any rate, noticeable that at the time of these operations in Europe, if Herodotus’ rough chronology is to be accepted, Aryandes, the Persian satrap in Egypt, was engaged in a campaign in Cyrene. H. iii. 13; iv. 165. Cyrene had been tributary to Persia for some time past; but troubles had arisen there which called for Persian interference; and this resulted in the Persian frontier being advanced as far as Euesperides.

There still remains what is, owing to the lack of evidence, the very difficult question as to the reasons which prevented or dissuaded Darius from carrying out his designs on Greece in the years which intervened between the campaign of Megabazos and the outbreak of the Ionian revolt. That may be calculated to have actually broken out in 499. But what is the date of the end of Megabazos’ campaign?

It certainly took place some time before Darius left Sardes. Megabazos finds him there on his return; and Histiæus is subsequently recalled to Sardes before Darius leaves the place.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to fix the date of Darius’ departure from Sardes.

He had certainly gone to Susa before the arrival of the Athenian embassy which appealed to Persia for aid against Spartan aggression, because it is to Artaphernes that the appeal is addressed. But even if the date of Hippias’ expulsion be taken as fixed, who is to say what time elapsed between that and the sending of this embassy? H. v. 66, 70, 72, 73. Much happened at Athens during the interval—the political struggle between Kleisthenes and Isagoras; the demand of Kleomenes of Sparta for the expulsion of Kleisthenes; the retirement of Kleisthenes; the disastrous expedition of Kleomenes, ending in his own defeat, and in disaster to the party of Isagoras; the return of Kleisthenes, and the carrying out of the reforms which bear his name.

All these things must have taken a considerable time; but in so far as the history of Persian affairs in Asia is concerned, the conclusion to be drawn from them is but vague. POSTPONEMENT OF DESIGNS ON GREECE. It comes to no more than this,—that Artaphernes was acting alone in Sardes some years after the expulsion of Hippias, at a date which can hardly be later than B.C. 507, and that therefore Darius had gone up to Susa before that time; but, on the other hand, it is quite impossible to say how long before that time his departure had taken place.

Darius’ departure seems to indicate clearly that he had for the time being given up all idea of the immediate prosecution of large designs in the West.

There are several reasons which may be suggested for the temporary abandonment of his plans.

There can, in the first place, be little doubt that the campaign in Thrace had not ended in anything resembling the complete subjugation of that difficult country. Disaster in the Scythian expedition had seriously shaken Persian prestige, not merely on the European, but also on the Asiatic side of the Propontis; and though Megabazos’ campaign may have staved off actual danger, its positive results appear to have been but partial, and not such as to warrant further advance.

By the time that campaign came to an end Darius must have been absent from Susa for a space of well-nigh two years; and so prolonged an absence in one remote corner of the empire, far away from the real centre of government, must have had its inconveniences, if not its dangers, in a dominion so wide and so recently reduced to obedience.

The postponement of success in Thrace was the first cause of the postponement of the designs on Greece.

During the years between the departure of Darius from Sardes and the occurrence of those incidents which led to the outbreak of the Ionian revolt Persian history is almost a blank. Darius, the central figure of the whole drama, vanishes from the stage for a long interval of years. Had he, like the Nebuchadnezzar of the Book of Daniel, been driven forth among the beasts of the field, his effacement from written record could hardly have been more complete. H. ii. 110. There is an incidental tale in Herodotus’ Egyptian history which refers to a visit of Darius to Egypt, made possibly during this time. If the tale be true, the incident certainly occurred after the Scythian expedition; and the campaign in Cyrene, or the settlement of affairs after it, may have called for his presence in that part of the empire.

Otherwise, in so far as is known, he spent these years at Susa, where he appears to have been at the time of the outbreak of the Ionian revolt.

Otanes, Megabazos’ successor, is engaged in a campaign against the revolted Greek cities of the Hellespontine region, which are once more brought into subjection; but there is no means of judging how long the campaign lasted.

Did he carry on the operations in Thrace? Probable though the conjecture may be, there is no evidence that he did so, H. v. 116. save the very indecisive fact that he is still in Asia Minor at the time of the revolt.

Artaphernes is satrap at Sardes throughout the interval, and during his tenure of office there is a distinct and striking development of the relations between Persia and European Greece. It is remarkable that it is from the side of Greece,—from Athens, above all,—that the first advances are made.

That state had been for some years past in the throes of a revolution, in which the Spartan king, Kleomenes, had played various parts. After being instrumental in expelling Hippias in 511 B.C., he had discovered that by so doing he had placed the power in the hands of the democratic party at Athens. He sought to remedy the mistake by espousing the cause of Isagoras and the oligarchs. His interference was disastrous to himself and fatal to them. In spite of his failure, his action caused great alarm at Athens, and an idea sprang up there that he aimed at making the country subservient to Sparta. There was no power in Greece itself to which Athens could turn for protection against Sparta, H. v. 73. and in her perplexity she cast her eyes over sea to the great empire on the eastern side of the Ægean, and sent an embassy to Artaphernes asking for his assistance.

It is on the face of it a very remarkable fact that Artaphernes abstained from making full use of the opportunity thus offered him for interference in the affairs of Greece; but the fact, remarkable as it is, is in accord with such other indications as exist of the position of affairs at this time in the West Asian satrapies. It is probable that Artaphernes had his hands full with the maintenance of the dominion which Persia had won in that region, and that he had at the time neither the will nor the power to spare such resources as he had at his disposal on the direct acquisition of further territory. He made a pretence,—his ignorance can hardly have been real,—of not knowing who the Athenians were. On being informed, he offered them alliance on condition they gave earth and water, an offer which the Athenian ambassadors took upon themselves to accept. When, however, they returned to Athens their conduct in so doing was strongly condemned, and the terms were repudiated.

Shortly after this the storm which the Athenians had foreseen broke upon them. H. v. 74. Kleomenes collected a formidable army from Peloponnesus and invaded Attica, while the Bœotians and the Chalkidians of Eubœa prepared to attack from the north. The main danger was averted by the disruption of Kleomenes’ army. The defection not merely of the Corinthians, but also of Demaratos, Kleomenes’ partner in the dual kingship of Sparta, brought the expedition to a premature close after it had actually entered upon Attic territory. This was disastrous for the northern allies. The Bœotians and the Chalkidians were both defeated. In the case of the latter the disaster was irreparable. Their great city, foremost in early Greek trade and colonization, lost its independence, and its lands were occupied by Athenian settlers. Athens had acquired one of the great strategic positions of Greece; and Corinth had made the first of those fatal mistakes of policy which were to have such momentous consequences in the next century.

The Bœotians did not accept defeat. Left in the lurch by their Peloponnesian allies, H. v. 89. they sought and obtained aid from Ægina, which great trading state seized the opportunity of inflicting damage on an old enemy and growing rival in commerce, and harried the Attic coast with piratical raids.

Meanwhile events were preparing for a second interference of Persia in Athenian affairs. H. v. 90. The Lacedæmonians had discovered the fact that they had been tricked by the Delphic Oracle, which, bribed by the Alkmæonidæ, had urged them to aid in the expulsion of Hippias from Athens. Seeking to amend this mistake, they recalled Hippias from Sigeon in the Troad, to which principality he had retired after his expulsion, and where he must have been living for some years as a vassal prince of Persia. Their intention was to reinstate him in the tyranny at Athens. It was again the Corinthians who wrecked the plan. At a conference of the Peloponnesian League called to consider the question, they bitterly opposed the proposal, and carried the other allies with them. Hippias, having had his journey for nothing, returned to Asia more than ever embittered in feeling against Athens and Greece alike; and he seems to have moved heaven and earth to induce Artaphernes to reinstate him in his tyranny. In the end he prevailed so far that Artaphernes called upon the Athenians to receive him back. Whether he intended to take action in case of their refusal will never be known, but events were imminent in Asia, even if they had not already occurred, which rendered all idea of his active interference out of the question; for, if Herodotus’ chronology be correct, this demand was made by him either immediately before or after the first actual step had been taken in the great revolt. H. v. 96, 97. The demand, says Herodotus, convinced the Athenians that thereafter there could only be open enmity with Persia; and while they were in this mind Aristagoras came to Athens.