This chronology of the prelude to the revolt in Cyprus is not merely in accord with calculations which may be made from Herodotus’ statements, but is also in agreement with his general assumption that the outbreak concurred with the similar outbreaks in the Hellespontine region and in Caria. After mentioning the beginning of the siege of Amathus, Herodotus transfers the scene of his narrative to Susa, where he describes the reception by Darius of the news of the burning of Sardes by the Athenians and Ionians. The details of the story cannot be cited as serious history, but it contains the record of what are undeniably historical events. As is so often the case with famous stories, the historical matter has become involved in a mass of graphic detail which cannot be supposed to rest on anything but the slenderest foundation of fact. There are two features of Herodotus’ version which, though not, it may be, historical, are of both interest and importance to the student of Herodotus’ history; they are (1) the prominence given to the Athenian participation in the opening campaign of the revolt; (2) an incidental reference to the Ionians. #DARIUS HEARS OF THE REVOLT.# ◆H. v. 105.◆ “When the news was brought to King Darius that Sardes had been captured and burnt by the Athenians and Ionians, and that Aristagoras the Milesian had been leader of the coalition, so that he had devised those things, he is said in the first instance, on hearing this, to have recked nothing of the Ionians, knowing well that they would not come off unpunished for their revolt, but to have asked who the Athenians were; and afterwards, when he had been informed on this point, he is said to have asked for his bow, and to have taken an arrow, and, placing it in the bow, to have shot it towards heaven, exclaiming in so doing: ‘Zeus, grant that I be avenged on the Athenians.’ Having thus said, he ordered one of his attendants that whenever his dinner was laid before him, he should say three times, ‘Master, forget not the Athenians.’” The tale then passes on to a reported conversation with Histiæus. The historical fact underlying this story amounts in all probability to no more than that Darius was both exasperated and alarmed at this first instance of an active interference of the European Greeks in his West Asian dominions. It was, indeed, the realization of a trouble which he seems to have foreseen. The references to the Athenians and Ionians, though they cannot be regarded as historical, are undoubtedly made with intent to give a certain colouring to the history of the time. It is therefore important to try and form some judgment as to their significance. Whatever their origin, there can be no doubt that they give _that colouring to events which Herodotus himself believed to be the true one_.