Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/126



the great contest of East and West the first struggle had ended in favour of the East. When the Ionian revolt had flickered out the king determined to assert his authority in Greece by inflicting signal punishment upon Eretria and Athens for the aid given to the Ionians. But first he tried to secure the allegiance of the Hellenic towns in Asia. His nephew and son-in-law Mardonius was sent down to Lower Asia in B.C. 492 with a double commission. He was to conciliate the Greek states by deposing the tyrants and establishing democracy as their form of home government; and, secondly, he was to lead an expedi-