But the great king was displeased that his general had not sent the Greek to him alive. ‘If Histiaeus had been sent away alive to King Darius,’ says Herodotus, ‘he would not, I think, have suffered any harm, but his trespass would have been forgiven him.’ Even as it was, Darius was determined to show what honour was yet possible to his faithless servant. For he ordered his slaves to ‘wash the head and adorn it well, and to bury it as the head of one who had done much good to himself and to the Persians.’ In 494 B.C., four years after the Athenians had sailed to the help of the Ionians, the revolt was crushed. Miletus, where the rebellion had begun, was punished more severely than the other rebellious cities. CHAPTER XL DARIUS DEMANDS EARTH AND WATER The Ionic revolt was ended, but Darius had yet to punish the Athenians for burning the city of Sardis. Eight years had now passed since she had been destroyed, yet his anger against the Greeks was as fierce as ever. Daily during all these years a slave had said to him as he sat at dinner, ‘Sire, remember the Athenians,’ and now, at length, his vengeance was at hand. Mardonius, one of the king’s generals, was ordered to invade Greece and to bring back with him to Susa the Athenians who had dared to destroy Sardis. So Mardonius crossed the Hellespont, and began to march through Thrace and Macedonia. His fleet, with part of his army, was to meet him later, beyond the perilous promontory of Mount Athos. The country through which Mardonius marched was wild, and inhabited by rough and savage tribes. These tribes attacked the Persian troops so fiercely that more than half of them were slain. Meanwhile the fleet had encountered a terrible storm, and three hundred ships were dashed to pieces upon the rocks near Mount Athos, while twenty thousand men were drowned. When Mardonius heard of this terrible disaster he knew that his troops would not now be strong enough to invade Greece. So he went back to Persia. But Darius was as determined as ever to punish the Athenians. He spent two years in preparations, and then, before he set out for Greece, he sent heralds to the different states, demanding from each earth and water. To give earth to the great king was to acknowledge him as ruler of their land, to give water was to own that he was monarch of the sea. Many of the states were afraid to refuse, and sent the earth and water which Darius demanded, but among these was neither Athens nor Sparta. So indignant were these two cities that a barbarian, as they called Darius, should send such a demand to the free States of Greece, that they treated his heralds with scant courtesy. The Athenians flung the messenger who came to their city into a deep pit, while he who went to Sparta was tossed into a well and told that there he would find the earth and water that his king desired.