And thus it came about, that the Greeks who lived in Asia lost their independence, and became subject to the Great King of Persia. [1] Odyssey, XV. [2] Euripides: _Iphigenia in Tauris_, translated by Gilbert Murray. [3] Diogenes Laertius. [4] Poem of Sappho, translated by Sir Rennell Rodd in _Love, Worship and Death_. [5] Herodotus, I. [6] Herodotus, I. [7] Herodotus, I. [8] Ibid. {118} CHAPTER VIII THE BEGINNING OF THE PERSIAN WARS[1] I. DARIUS AND THE IONIAN REVOLT The rule of the Lydian Kings over the Ionian cities in Asia Minor had not been a hard one, but that of the Persians was different, for they established tyrants in all the Greek cities, and required the assistance of their soldiers and sailors in their wars, things which were very bitter to the freedom-loving Greeks. When Darius had become King, he determined, like the Great Kings before him, to add yet more lands to his empire, and so made ready an army which was to invade Scythia, the region north of the Black Sea. As the Persians themselves were not naturally sailors, the Greeks in the Ionian cities were forced to send a large number of ships to the help of this expedition. Darius and his army set out, and, arriving at the River Ister (now known as the Danube), were joined by the Ionian ships. Here Darius commanded that a bridge of boats should be built, and then taking a {119} cord in which he tied sixty knots, he called the Ionian leaders together and said to them: Men of Ionia, do ye now keep this rope and do as I shall say:--So soon as ye shall have seen me go forward against the Scythians, from that time begin, and untie a knot on each day: and if within this time I am not here, and ye find that the days marked by the knots have passed by, then sail away to your own lands. Till then, guard the floating bridge, showing all diligence to keep it safe and to guard it. And thus acting, ye will do for me a very acceptable service. Having said this Darius hastened forward on his march. Scythia was a land totally unknown to the Persians, and strange tales were told in after years of the adventures of the King and his army. The Scythians were a nomad people, and they believed themselves to be invincible. When they heard that Darius was in their land with the intention of conquering it, they "planned not to fight a pitched battle openly, but to retire before the Persians and to drive away their cattle from before them, choking up with earth the wells and the springs of water by which they passed and destroying the grass from off the ground." For some time Darius pursued this mysterious people, but he could never come up with them.