Key to Easy Latin Stories for beginners/Part IV/XIII
XIII.THE IONIC REVOLT.
The burning of Sardis.
171.The lonians revolted from Darius at the instigation of Aristagoras. Accordingly twenty Athenian ships came to Miletus, which five triremes of the Eretrians followed, as a help to the Ionians. Then Aristagoras undertook an expedition against Sardis. They take the city, but this prevented them from being able to plunder the captured city. Very many houses at Sardis were made of reeds. When one of the soldiers had set one of these on fire, the fire, from that beginnings destroying everything else, proceeded to destroy the whole city. Then the Persians, having made a sortie fh>m the citadel, attacked the enemy. A sharp contest ensued. The lonians were defeated with great slaughter. It is well known that a great number of them were slam by the Persians.
The anger of Darius against the Athenians.
172.Meanwhile it is announced to Darius that Sardis has been burnt by the Athenians and Ionians, and the author of that disturbance, by whose help this was undertaken, is Aristagoras of Miletus. On receiving this news, taking no notice of the Ionians, whom he knew would have to pay a certain penalty, the king is said to have asked, ‘Who (on earth) were the Athenians?’ Then when he had heard, to have demanded a bow, and to have shot an arrow laid on the bow into the air, exclaiming, ‘Jupiter, may I be allowed (may it happen to me) to take vengeance on the Athenians! Having said this, he ordered one of his servants, as often as supper was served up before him, to say thrice, ‘Lord, remember the Athenians.’