Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/330

 812 fflbTORY 01 GREECt. quence of the cruelties with which the suppression of the revolt had been accompanied. In regard to Miletus, Herodotus tells us that the Persians retained for themselves fche city with its cir- cumjacent plain, but gave the mountain portion of the Milesian territory to the Karians of Pedasa. 1 Such a proceeding would naturally call for a fresh measurement and assessment of tribute ; and there may have been similar transfers of land elsewhere. I have already observed that the statements which we find in He- rodotus, of utter depopulation and destruction falling upon the cities, cannot be credited in their full extent ; for these cities are all peopled, and all Hellenic, afterwards. But there can be no doubt that they are partially true, and that the miseries of those days, as stated in the work of Hekatoeus, as well as by contem porary informants with whom Herodotus had probably conversed, must have been extreme. New inhabitants would probably be admitted in many of them, to supply the loss sustained ; and such infusion of fresh blood would strengthen the necessity for the organization introduced by Artaphernes, in order to deter- mine clearly the obligations due from the cities both to the Per- sian government and towards each other. Herodotus considers that the arrangement was extremely beneficial to the lonians, and so it must unquestionably have appeared, coming as it did immediately after so much previous suffering. He farther adds, that the tribute then fixed remained unaltered until his own day, a statement requiring some comment, which I reserve until the time arrives for describing the condition of the Asiatic Greeks after the repulse of Xerxes from Greece proper. Meanwhile, the intentions of Darius for the conquest of Greece were now effectively manifested : Mardonius, invested with the supreme command, and at the head of a large" force, was sent down in the ensuing spring for the purpose. Having reached Kilikia in the course of the march, he himself got on ship-board and went by sea to Ionia, while his army marched across Asia Minor to the Hellespont, His proceeding in Ionia surprises us, and seems to have appeared surprising as well to Herodotus himself as to his readers. Mardonius deposed the despots throughout the various Greek cities, 2 and left the people of each 1 Ilerodot. vi, 20. 1 Herodot. vi, 43. In recounting this deposition of the Jespots by Mar