of Persia, so long a dread and a menace, lost much of its terrors.

[Illustration: _Acropolis at Athens_]

15. But the battle of Marathon, and the victory of Miltiades, had a
wider significance than could enter into the imaginations of then
living man. It was a conflict between the barbarism of Asia and the
dawning civilization of Europe, between Oriental despotism and human
liberty. The victory rendered normal human growth possible, and, to
use the expressive phrase of the modern poet--

"Henceforth to the sunset, unchecked on its way,
Shall liberty follow the march of the day."

It was not for the Greeks alone, but for all ages and all peoples; and
in this Western World, when we celebrate the birth of our own country,
we should ever keep in mind the desperate struggle at Marathon, and
the valor of Miltiades and his Greek soldiery.

16. But the war was not yet over. A single defeat did not extinguish
the hopes of the Persian monarch, nor exhaust the resources of his
empire. Herodotus says: "Now Darius was very bitter against the
Athenians, and when he heard the tale of the battle of Marathon he was
much more wroth, and desired much more eagerly to march against
Hellas. Straightway he sent heralds to all the cities, and bade them
make ready an army, and to furnish much more than they had done
before, both ships, and horses, and corn; and while the heralds were
going round, all Asia was shaken for three years; but in the fourth
year the Egyptians, who had been made slaves by Cambyses, rebelled
against the Persians, and then the king sought only the more