Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/359

 THE ATHENIANS ASK AID FROM SPARTA. 3|j guing century and a half. Aristeides and Miltiades were both elected among the ten generals, each for his respective tribe, in the year of the expedition of Datis across the ^Egean, and prob- ably even after that expedition was known to be on its voyage. Moreover, we are led to suspect from a passage in Plutarch, that Themistokles also was general of his tribe on the same oc- casion, 1 though this is doubtful ; but it is certain that he fought at Marathon. The ten generals had jointly the command of the nrmy, each of them taking his turn to exercise it for a day : in addition to the ten, moreover, the third archon, or polemarcb, was considered as eleventh in the military council. The pole- march of this year was Kallimachus of Aphidnae. 3 Such were the chiefs of the military force, and to a great degree the admin- istrators of foreign affairs, at the time when the four thousand Athenian kleruchs, or settlers planted in Euboea, escaping from Eretria, now invested by the Persians, brought word to their countrymen at home that the fall of that city was impend- ing. It was obvious that the Persian host would proceed from Eretria forthwith against Athens, and a few days afterwards Hip- pias disembarked them at Marathon, whither the Athenian army marched to meet them. Of the feeling which now prevailed at Athens we have no de- tails, but doubtless the alarm was hardly inferior to that which had been felt at Eretria : dissenting opinions were heard as to the proper steps to be taken, nor were suspicions of treason wanting. Pheidippides the courier was sent to Sparta immediately to solicit assistance ; and such was his prodigious activity, that he per- formed this journey of one hundred and fifty miles, on foot, in forty-eight hours. 3 lie revealed to the ephors that Eretria was already enslaved, and entreated their assistance to avert the same fate from Athens, the most ancient city in Greece. The Spartan authorities readily promised their aid, but unfortu nately it was now the ninth day of the moon : ancient law or cus- tom forbade them to march, in this month at least, during the Plutarch, Aristeides, c. 5. z Herodot. vi, 109, 110. 3 Mr. Kinneir remarks that the Persian Cassids, or foot-messengers, will travel for several days successively at the rate of sixty or seventy miles a lay (Geographical Memoir of Persia, p 44).