The fact that the Persians did not, in spite of their knowledge of the treachery within the town, attempt a direct assault on Athens, points to the same conclusion, which is suggested by other considerations, namely that the expedition was not on a very large scale. It was, indeed, formed, and it acted throughout, upon the assumption that it would receive a large measure of assistance from Athens itself. ◆H. vi. 103.◆ On hearing that the Persians had landed at Marathon, the Athenian army marched to that place. Before leaving the city, the generals had despatched a professional despatch runner named Philippides[71] to Sparta, to summon assistance. ◆H. vi. 106.◆ He made a marvellously quick journey, for he is stated to have arrived at Sparta on the day after leaving Athens; and if, as would be presumably the case in a matter so urgent, he communicated his message immediately to the Spartan authorities, he arrived there on the 9th day of the month, and thus left Athens on the 8th.[72] #ATTITUDE OF SPARTA.# ◆H. vi. 106.◆ It is unnecessary to insist on the verbal accuracy of the message which is put into his mouth by Herodotus; but the matter of it contains what are, no doubt, the historic facts:— (1) That the news of the fall of Eretria reached the Athenians _before_ they started for Marathon. (2) That Philippides was despatched after this news arrived, but (inasmuch as there is no mention of the landing of the Persians in Attica) before the news of their landing had reached Athens. The appeal to Sparta, and the Spartan answer, show that there must have existed some agreement between the two states, to the effect that Sparta would come to the aid of Athens in case of invasion. If, then, the Persians had reckoned that the presence of Hippias with their army would be sufficient to ward off Spartan interference, they had reckoned on the stable policy of a government whose policy was in those years most markedly unstable and uncertain. But, though expressing themselves willing to come to the aid of Athens, the Spartans alleged that they could not, without breaking the law, start before the full moon; in other words, that their coming would be delayed at least a week.[73] On what day of the month the Athenians received the news of the landing at Marathon, Herodotus does not say; but, inasmuch as the battle must have taken place about the 16th,[74] and the armies were face to face with one another for several days before the engagement took place, the news can hardly have arrived later than the 10th day of the month. On receipt of it, the Athenians started for Marathon. It would be a long day’s march, and a hard journey over the rugged upper road. On arriving there they encamped in the sacred precinct of Herakles. ◆H. vi 108.◆