Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/134

106 the next or following day, no attempt to blockade or to land was made. One story is that Datis was killed and that Artaphernes was unwilling to act on his own responsibility. A still stronger reason is that they found an unresisted landing no longer possible. The victorious Athenian army had marched home on the morning after the battle and was in waiting to receive them. Their partisans in the city, therefore, could not venture to invite them to land. Whatever the motive, they turned homewards, only stopping to take the Eretrians from Styra.

The battle of Marathon was only the first act in the struggle, but its moral effect in Greece was very great. It taught the Greeks that the forces of the king were not invincible in spite of their numbers, and it filled them with national pride and a sanguine patriotism. Above all, it raised Athens in public estimation and gave the Athenians high ideas as to their power and destiny. Sentiment counts for much in national life, and the heroes of Marathon were not only a pride but an inspiration. The victory was wholly Athenian. The Spartans had been slow to send aid, and their men only arrived on the day after the battle and could claim no part in it, and something of their acknowledged primacy passed to the Athenians.

The ten years of freedom from Persian attack which followed were years of steady growth for Athens, especially as a sea-power. There was more than one reason for this. Events made it evident that ships of war were a necessity to the state; in Themistocles it had a far seeing statesman