500 B. C.—and follow events in chronological order, with a fair appreciation of their import. Just before the close of the last century, Darius Hystaspes, the king of Persia, sent an army into Europe, to the north of Greece, to chastise the Scythians, and it conquered Thrace. The Greek colonies in Asia Minor, which had been recently added to the Persian empire, became restive under foreign control, and when the Persian army returned home, 500—organized a rebellion and took and burned the city of Sardis, the ancient capital of Lydia. They were assisted by the European Greeks; but the vast resources of Persia soon enabled Darius to take vengeance on them, and Miletus was besieged and destroyed. Darius summoned the Grecian states to offer their submission, but Athens and Sparta sent back a defiance. Darius thereupon gathered a large armament and prepared to invade 495—Greece, which he commenced by the conquest of Macedon. But a tempest destroyed his ships and 20,000 men, and the expedition returned to Persia. In the same year the Roman plebeians obtained their first success against the patricians, by which the debts of the poor plebeians to the wealthy patricians were cancelled and Tribunes of the People appointed. 490—This year the glory of Greece broke forth. Darius having sent another and larger army into Greece, it advanced on Athens and encamped at Marathon, within twenty-two miles of the city. The Persian host was said to number from 100,000 to 200,000 men. The Athenians had but 10,000 citizens, but armed 20,000 slaves, and the city of Platæa sent them 1,000 troops. Miltiades, the very able Athenian general, marched out and, taking a good position, offered battle. It was the 20th of September. The little army of the Greeks obtained a complete victory and the Persians returned home in confusion. The great services of Miltiades were rewarded with imprisonment, on a frivolous charge, and he died there of his wounds. 485—Darius Hystaspes, the Persian king, died while preparing a still larger armament for the invasion of Greece. 484—An insurrection in Egypt completely subdued by the Persians. 480—Xerxes, king of Persia, invaded Greece with a million soldiers. The battle at the pass of Thermopylæ was fought by a thousand Spartans under Leonidas, their king, and all but one slain. The Persian fleet was beaten the same day by Themistocles, the Athenian admiral. Xerxes soon advanced on Athens, which was abandoned by its inhabitants and burned by the Persians. Soon after, Themistocles fought the Persian navy again at Salamis and totally destroyed it. Xerxes, leaving a large army in Greece, returned to Asia.