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,