200 HISTORY OF GREECE. time, to be absolved from onerous obligations towards the Ionian^ and to throw upon Athens either the burden of defending or the shame of abandoning them. The first step was thus taken, which we shall quickly see followed by others, for giving to Athens a separate ascendency and separate duties in regard to the Asiatic Greeks, and for introducing first, the confederacy of Delos, — next, Athenian maritime empire. From the coast of Ionia the Greek fleet sailed northward to the Hellespont, chiefly at the instance of the Athenians, and for the purpose of breaking down the Xerxeian bridge ; for so im- perfect was their information, that they believed this bridge to be still firm and in passable condition in September, 471) B.C., though it had been broken and useless at the time when Xerxes crossed the strait in his retreat, ten months before, about November, 480 B.c.i Having ascertained on their arrival at Abydos the destruc- tion of the bridge, Leotychides and the Peloponnesians returned home forthwith ; but Xanthippns with the Athenian squadron resolved to remain and expel the Persians from the Thracian Chersonese. This peninsula had been in great part an Athenian possession, for the space of more than forty years, from the first settlement of the elder Miltiades 2 down to the suppression of the Ionic revolt, although during part of that time tributary to Persia : from the flight of the second Miltiades to the expulsion of Xerxes from Greece (493-480 B.C.), a period during which the Persian monarch was irresistible and full of hatred to Athens, no Athenian citizen would find it safe to live there. But the Athenian squadron from Mykale were now naturally eager both to reestablish the ascendency of Athens and to regain the properties of Athenian citizens in the Chei-sonese, — probably many of the leading men, especially Kimon, son of Miltiades, had extensive possessions there to recover, as Alkibiades had in conjunction of free states, like the Greeks, they must have been imprac- ticable. See Von Hammer, Geschichte des Osmannischen Reiehs, vol. i, book vi, p. 251, for the forced migrations of people from Asia into Europe, directed by the Turkish Sultan Bajazet (a.d. 1390-1400). "' Herodot. viii, 115, 117 ; ix, 106, 114.
- See the preceding volume of this history, ch. xxx, p 119; eh. xxxiT,p.
271 ; ch. xx.xv, p. 307.
