Page:The story of Greece told to boys and girls.djvu/215

 CHAPTER LII

THE BATTLE OF PLATAEA

Mardonius stayed with his troops in Thessaly during the winter months. But in the spring of 479 he determined to win Athens from the league which she had formed with the other Greek states, or if he failed to do this, to drive the citizens once again away from their city and occupy it himself.

So he sent an ambassador to the Athenians to offer, in the name of Xerxes, not only to repair all the harm that the Persians had done to Athens and to the country round about the city, but to give them new lands and to treat them as independent allies, if they would make a treaty with the great king.

The Spartans were afraid that the Athenians would accept so generous an offer, and they knew that alone they could not hope to conquer the large Persian army which Mardonius commanded. So they sent to the Athenians to beg them to be true to the league, promising that if they were so, Spartan soldiers would be sent to help them against the attacks of the enemy.

But the Athenians did not need to be entreated to refuse the offer of the great king, for they loved their city and their liberty.

'Tell Mardonius,' they said to the ambassador whom the Persian general had sent, 'so long as the sun moves in his present course we will never come to terms with Xerxes.'

After receiving this defiant message, Mardonius marched with his army against Athens. The Spartans, in spite of