Within a generation afterwards the Athenians’ love of liberty and their readiness to die for it was demonstrated on a much grander scale, in their resistance of the Persian invader. It is said that the first time Darius heard of the Athenians was after the burning of Sardis, in which they rendered assistance to the Asiatic Ionians. On their name being mentioned to him Darius asked who they were, and, being told, he shot an arrow to the sky, and exclaimed, “O Zeus, grant me to revenge myself on these Athenians,” at the same time bidding an attendant to repeat in his hearing every day at dinner the words, “Remember the Athenians.” His generals, Datis and Artaphernes, now landed on the Attic shore with about 100,000 men, under the guidance of Hippias, who had accompanied his father Peisistratus by the same route to Athens nearly fifty years before, when he was returning from exile the second time to take possession of the city. But Athens was a very different community now from what it was then. It had enjoyed more than twenty years of self-government, and its citizens were now united as one man in the determination to resist the eastern despot to the uttermost. Seldom has a more heroic stand been taken by any nation in defence of its liberties. The Persians had hitherto been regarded as invincible, and their numerical superiority was overwhelming. But the Athenians did not for a moment hesitate. They at once despatched a swift messenger to Sparta appealing for assistance, who is said to have accomplished the journey of 150 miles in forty-eight hours. But the Spartans were slow to move, owing to their superstitious dependence on the full moon, for which they had to wait five days. No other Greeks shared in the glory of the occasion, except 1000 soldiers from Platæa, whose generous and timely succour won the undying gratitude of the Athenians, and was annually mentioned at the anniversary services which were regularly held to celebrate the victory. Of the ten Athenian generals who were in command of the forces it fell to Miltiades to act as chief. If his advice had been taken by the Ionians who were left in charge of the bridge which they had built over the Danube for Darius shortly before, the invasion of Greece would have been averted. The sixty days during which Darius had ordered them to preserve the bridge for his return had expired, and Darius was beset with difficulties in Scythia, which would soon have overwhelmed him; but the Ionian leaders refused to destroy the bridge, as Miltiades advised--for the selfish reason that their tenure of power in their respective cities depended on Persian support. Darius was thus saved, and his cruel conquest of Eretria was the result--the prelude, as it seemed, of a like fate for Athens and for all Greece.