Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/300

 282 HISTORY OF GREECE. and B9 it was construed at Athens. It leads us to infer that lit was even then revolving in his mind an expedition against At tica, in conjunction with Hippias ; but, fortunately for the Athe- nians, other projects and necessities intervened to postpone for several years the execution of the scheme. Of these new projects, the first was that of conquering the island of Naxos. Here, too, as in the case of Hippias, the insti- gation arose from Naxian exiles, a rich oligarchy which had been expelled by a rising of the people. This island, like all the rest of the Cyclades, was as yet independent of the Persians.' It fits wealthy, prosperous, possessing a large population botli of freemen and slaves, and defended as well by armed ships as by a force of eight thousand heavy-armed infantry. The exiles ap- plied for aid to Aristagoras, who saw that he could turn them into instruments of dominion for himself in the island, provided he could induce Artaphernes to embark in the project along with him, his own force not being adequate by itself. Accord- ingly, he went to Sardis, and laid his project before the satrap, intimating that as soon as the exiles should land with a powerful support, Naxos would be reduced with little trouble : that the neighboring islands of Paros, Andros, Tenos, and the other Cy- clades, could not long hold out after the conquest of Naxos, nor even the large and valuable island of Euboea. He himself en- gaged, if a fleet of one hundred ships were granted to him, to accomplish all these conquests for the Great King, and to bear the expenses of the armament besides. Artaphernes warmly en- tered into the scheme, loaded him with praise, and promised him in the ensuing spring two hundred ships instead of one hundred. A messenger despatched to Susa, having brought back the ready consent of Darius, a large armament was forthwith equipped, under the command of the Persian Megabates, to be placed at 1 Herodot. v, 31. Plutvrch says that Lygdamis, established as despot at Naxos by Peisistratus (Herodot. i, 64), was expelled from this post by the Lacedaemonians (De Herodot. Malignitat. c. 21, p. 859). I confess that I do not place much confidence in the statements of that treatise, as to the many despots expelled by Sparta: we neither know the source from whence Plutarch borrowed them, nor any of the circumstances connected with liam.