Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/119

Rh were transferred bodily to Asia; and Otanes, the successor of Megabazus, extended these conquests to Antandros, Lemnos, Imbros, Calchedon, and Byzantium. Tokens of submission were then demanded from the King of Macedonia, and, though the Persian envoys behaved with such insolence that they were assassinated by order of the king's son, these tokens were given.

The operations thus briefly noticed seem to have occupied several years, during most of which Darius was far away at Susa, while his half-brother Artaphernes was the Satrap at Sardis in charge of all that concerned the Greek towns. The supremacy of Persia does not seem to have been exercised with harshness, and accordingly there was a brief period of comparative repose.

Nevertheless the position of the Persians in the North, and especially their command of the Hellespont and Bosporus, must have seemed a menace to Greek freedom, and was especially annoying to Athens, which depended greatly for its supply of corn upon the trade from the coasts of the Propontis and Black Sea. Accordingly we find that the Athenians, after trying to make terms with Artaphernes, made up their minds to adopt a steadily hostile attitude to Persia. Their first attempts at negotiation were met by the rigid demand for "earth and water," as a necessary condition of any alliance. Though the recent expulsion of Hippias (B.C. 510) had involved them in conflicts with Sparta, the Athenians would not purchase the Satrap's assistance at this price. Later on (B.C. 505) they were further angered by a direct