Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/327

 MOVEMENTS OF HISTLEUS. 309 refused to him. But the Chiang, weakened as they had been by the late battle, were in little condition to resist, so that he defeated their Iroops and despoiled the island. During the present break- up of the Asiatic Greeks, tb./re were doubtless many who, like the Phokaean Dionysius, did not choose to return home to an en- slaved city, yet had no fixed plan for a new abode: of these exiles, a considerable number put themselves under the temporary com- mand of Histiaeus, and accompanied him to the plunder of Thasos. 1 While besieging that town, he learned the news that the Pheni cian fleet had quitted Miletus to attack the remaining Ionic towns ; and he left his designs on Thasos unfinished, in order to go and defend Lesbos. But in this latter island the dearth of provisions was such, that he was forced to cross over to the continent to reap the standing corn around Atarneus and in the fertile plain of Mysia near the river Kaikus. Here he fell in with a consid- erable Persian force under Harpagus, was beaten, compelled to flee, and taken prisoner. On his being carried to Sardis, Arta- phernes the satrap caused him to be at once crucified : partly, no doubt, from genuine hatred, but partly also under the persuasion that, if he were sent up as a prisoner to Susa, he might again become dangerous, since Darius would even now spare his life, under an indelible sentiment of gratitude for the maintenance of the bridge over the Danube. The head of Histiaeus was embalmed and sent up to 8usa, where Darius caused it to be honorably buried, condemning this precipitate execution of a man who had once been his preserver. 2 We need not wonder that the capture of Miletus excited the strongest feeling, of mixed sympathy and consternation, among the Athenians. In the succeeding year (so at least we are led to think, though the date cannot be positively determined), it was selected as the subject of a tragedy, The Capture of Mi- letus, by the dramatic poet Phrynichus; which, when per- formed, so painfully wrung the feelings of the Athenian audi- ence, that they burst into tears in the theatre, and the poet was condemned to pay a fine of one thousand drachmae, as " having 1 Hcrodot. vi, 26-28. ayuv 'luvuv icai AioXeuv
 * Iljrodot. vi, 28, 29, 30.