330 HISTORY OF GREECE. Greeks like Themistokles most feared, even after the repulse oi Xerxes), from Samos to Euboua, attacking the intermediate isl- ands in the way. Among those islands was Naxos, which ten years before had stood a long siege, and gallantly repelled the Persian Megabates with the Milesian Aristagoras. It was one of the ms.in objects of Datis to efface this stain on the Persian arms, and to take a signal revenge on the Naxians. 1 Crossing from Samos to Naxos, he landed his army on the island, which was found an easier prize than he had expected. The terrified citizens, abandoning their town, fled with their families to the highest summits of their mountains ; while the Persians, seizing as slaves a few who had been dilatory in flight, burnt the unde- fended town with its edifices sacred and profane. Immense, indeed, was the difference in Grecian sentiment to- wards the Persians, created by the terror-striking reconquest of Ionia, and by the exhibition of a large Phenician fleet in the ^Egean. The strength of Naxos was the same now as it had been before the Ionic revolt, and the successful resistance then made might have been supposed likely to nerve the courage of its inhabitants. Yet such is the fear now inspired by a Persian armament, that the eight thousand Naxian hoplites abandon their town and their gods without striking a blow, 2 and think of noth- ing but personal safety for themselves and their families. A sad augury for Athens and Eretria! From Naxos, Datis despatched his fleet round the other Cy- clades islands, requiring from each, hostages for fidelity and a contingent to increase his army. With the sacred island of Delos, however, he dealt tenderly and respectfully. The De- lians had fled before his approach to Tenos, but Datis sent a herald to invite them back again, promised to preserve their per- sons and property inviolate, and proclaimed that he had received express orders from the Great King to reverence the island in which Apollo and Artemis were born. His acts corresponded with (his language; for the fleet was not allowed to touch the island, Herodot. vi, 95, 96. i~nl ravrr/v (Naxos) yap J# -xpuTTjv iTrel%ov crpa- revecr&ai ol H?paai, fiefivrmevoL rui> TTporepov.
- The historians of Naxos affirmed that Datis had been repulsed froaj
the island. We find this statement in Plutarch, De Malign. Herodot. a 16, p. 869, among his violent and unfounded contradictions of Hcrodotu*.
