when the representation of the Ionian race at Delos had been left mainly to the Athenians. Peisistratus, when despot of Athens (560–527 B.C.), purified Delos, "in accordance with the oracles" (ἐκ τῶν λογίων), by removing to another part of the island all the graves which could be seen from the temple[1]. A more signal act of homage is ascribed to Polycrates (circ. 550–522 B.C.), tyrant of Samos, whose naval power had given to him the empire of the Aegean islands. Having taken Rheneia, he consecrated it to the Delian Apollo, and attached it by a chain to Delos[2]. It was probably his object to secure a religious sanction for a naval Ionian league under Samos, which would derive both lustre and strength from a revival of the Pan-Ionic festival in the sacred island. Meanwhile Delos had been receiving the first tributes of a nascent art: the infancy of Greek sculpture—as we shall presently see—has its memorials in the birthplace of Apollo.
Nor was it by Greeks alone that Delos was revered. At the approach of the Persians in 490 B.C. the Delians fled to Tenos. But, as the fleet drew near, Datis, the Persian general, sailed ahead, and directed his ships to anchor, not at Delos, but off Rheneia. He then sent a herald to Tenos, with this message:—"Holy men (ἄνδρες ἱροί), why have ye fled away, and judged me so harshly? It hath been enjoined on me by the king,—yea, and I myself have wit enough,—not to harm the place in which the Two Gods were born,—no, nor the dwellers
