ten years later, after old Darius' death, Xerxes led in person to defeat
at Salamis, and left to meet final rout under his generalissimo at
Plataea. For our purpose it will be enough to note the effects which
this momentous series of events had on the East itself.


SECTION 9. RESULTS OF THE PERSIAN ATTACKS ON GREECE

Obviously the European failure of Persia affected the defeated less than
the victorious party. Except upon the westernmost fringe of the Persian
Empire we have no warrant for saying that it had any serious political
result at all. A revolt of Egypt which broke out in the last year of
Darius, and was easily suppressed by his successor, seems not to have
been connected with the Persian disaster at Marathon; and even when two
more signal defeats had been suffered in Greece, and a fourth off the
shore of Asia itself--the battle of Mycale--upon which followed closely
the loss of Sestus, the European key of the Hellespont, and more
remotely the loss not only of all Persian holdings in the Balkans and
the islands, but also of the Ionian Greek cities and most of the
Aeolian, and at last (after the final naval defeat off the Eurymedon) of
the whole littoral of Anatolia from Pamphylia right round to the
Propontis--not even after all these defeats and losses did the Persian
power suffer diminution in inner Asia or loss of prestige in inland Asia
Minor. Some years, indeed, had still to elapse before the ever-restless
Egyptian province used the opportunity of Xerxes' death to league itself
with the new power and make a fresh attempt to shake off the Persian
yoke; but once more it tried in vain.

When Persia abandoned direct sovereignty over the Anatolian littoral she
suffered little commercial loss and became more secure. It is clear that