and from Egypt
they took back to their native country the germs of the arts and sciences
which afterward made Greece so famous.
5. Thence improvements went forward with rapid strides. Hints
received from Egypt were reproduced in higher forms. Massive temples
became light and airy, rude sculpture became beautiful by conforming
to natural forms, and hieroglyphics developed into the letters which
Cadmus invented or improved. Schools were established, athletic sports
were encouraged, aesthetic taste was developed, until in the arts, in
philosophy, in science, and in literature the Greeks took the lead of all
peoples.
6. As population increased, colonies went out, settling upon the
adjacent coasts of Asia and upon the islands farther west. In Asia the
Greek colonists were subject to the Persian Empire, which then
extended its rule over all Western Asia, and claimed dominion over
Africa and Eastern Europe. The Greeks, fresh from the freedom of their
native land, could not patiently endure the extortions of the Persian
government, to which their own people submitted without question;
hence conflicts arose which finally culminated in Persia taking
complete possession of the Asiatic Greek cities.
7. But the ties of kinship were strong, and the people of Greece keenly
resented the tyranny which had been exercised over their countrymen,
and an irrepressible conflict arose between the two nations. The Persian
king, Darius, determined to put an end to all annoyance by invading
and subjugating Greece. Before the final march of his army, Darius sent
heralds throughout Greece demanding soil and water as an
acknowledgment of the supremacy of Persia, but Herodotus says that at
Sparta, when this impudent demand was made, the heralds were thrown
into wells and told to help themselves to all the earth and water they
liked.
8. After a long preparation, in 490 B.C., an army of one hundred
thousand men or more, under the command of Artaphernes, convoyed
by a formidable fleet, invaded Greece. For a long time it met with little
opposition, and city after city submitted to the overwhelming hosts of
the Persian king. The approach to Athens was regarded as the final
turning point of the war.
9. Artaphernes selected the Plains of Marathon, twenty-two miles to the
northeast of Athens, as the place of his final landing. His forces, by the
lowest estimate, consisted of one hundred and fifty thousand men, of
which ten thousand were cavalry. To these were opposed the army of
Athens and its allies, consisting in all of ten thousand men. The
battle-ground forms an irregular crescent, six miles long and two broad
in its widest part. It is bounded on one side by the sea, and on the other
by a rampart of mountains. At the time of the battle the extremities of
the plain were flanked by swamps, diminishing the extent of the front,
and hampering the operations of the larger army. The command of the
Greek army had been intrusted to ten generals, who ruled successively
one day each. Themistocles, one of these generals, resigned his day in
favor of Miltiades, and all the others followed his example. And so the
battle was set, ten thousand Greeks, under Miltiades, against the
overwhelming hosts of the enemy.
10. The Persians, confident in their numbers, erected no intrenchments.
They did not dream of an attack from the little band of Greeks. There is
evidence to believe that they were dissatisfied with the nature of the
battle-field they had chosen, and were upon the point of embarking to
land at some point nearer the city. If this was the case, they were very
rudely awakened from their dream of security by the movement of the
Greeks.
11. On the morning of the tenth day after leaving Athens, Miltiades
drew up his army in order of battle. He was obliged to perilously
weaken his center in order to confront the whole of the Persian army,
so as to avoid the danger of being outflanked and surrounded. The
Greeks began the battle by a furious attack along the whole line,
endeavoring to close in a hand-to-hand conflict as soon as possible, so
as to avoid the deadly arrows of the Persians, and to take the advantage
of their heavier arms. The Persians were greatly astonished when they
saw this little band rushing against them with such a headlong dash,
and thought that the Greeks must have been seized with madness. The
Persian general had concentrated his forces at the center, and at this
part of the battle-field the fiery onset of Greeks was checked by mere
weight of numbers. But at length the mighty Persian force moved
irresistibly forward, forcing the Greeks slowly backward, fighting,
dying, but never yielding. Soon the Greek army were cut in two, and
the Persians marched proudly onward to assured victory.
12. But
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