Athens incurred the vengeance of the Persian king by aiding a revolt of the Asiatic Greeks. The first invasion of Greece, by Mardonius, failed; a second and larger force, under Datis and Artaphernes, ravaged Naxos and part of Eubœa, but was defeated by Miltiades and 11,000 Greeks, at Marathon. An unsuccessful attempt, upon Paros destroyed the fame of Miltiades, and he died under a charge of having received bribes from the Persians. Aristides succeeded him in popular favor, but was at length exiled through the influence of Themistocles. The latter urged the naval preparations of his countrymen, and Athens then first became a great maritime power. A congress at Corinth, B. C. 481, united the Greek forces under Spartan command. The Delphic oracle promising safety to the Athenians only within walls of wood, they abandoned their city and took refuge on the fleet. A few hundreds of Spartans and Thespians withstood the Persian host at Thermopylæ, until betrayed by a Malian guide. The invaders were totally defeated in a naval combat at Salamis, and Xerxes retired to Persia. Mardonius, failing to end the war by diplomacy, was finally overthrown in the battles of Erythræ and Platæa; and the land and naval forces of the Persians were at the same time destroyed at Mycale, in Asia Minor. GROWTH OF ATHENS. =128.= Though their immediate danger was past, the Greeks did not suffer their enemies to rest. A fleet of fifty vessels was prepared, with the intention to rescue every Greek city in Europe or Asia which still felt the power of the Persian. Though Athens, as before, furnished more ships than all the other states, Pausanias commanded. He first wrested Cyprus from the Persians, and then proceeded to Byzantium, which he also liberated and occupied as a residence for seven years. [Sidenote: B. C. 478.] =129.= SIEGE OF SESTUS. The Athenians resolved to win back the colony founded by Miltiades in the Chersonesus. The whole remaining force of the Persians made a last stand at Sestus, and endured a siege so obstinate that they even consumed the leather of their harness and bedding for want of food. They yielded at last, and the natives gladly welcomed back the Greeks. Laden with treasures and secure of a well-earned peace, the Athenians returned home in triumph. Among their relics, the broken fragments and cables of the Hellespontine bridge of Xerxes were long to be seen in the temples of Athens. [Illustration: ATHENS.]