CHAPTER IV ATHENS AND SPARTA It is about the beginning of the fifth century B.C. that we may claim to find ourselves in the full light of history. We have l. The Persian come to the tmie when a great writer, Herodotus, war : set himself to write a story of the contest between Herodotus. the Gree kg and the Persians whom they called bar- barians. Herodotus was not himself an eye-witness of the events which he described, but he got his information from people who had been eye-witnesses. He travelled to an immense number of cities, and learnt everything that he could about them; and from this time there were always people who were writing down records of what they saw and heard, so that the authors of the books which have survived always had plenty of sources of information, even though they might not always be particularly skilful in judging how much of what they were told was true and how much was not. About the year 500, then, the Persians were lords of all Western Asia, including the Greek cities of Asia Minor, which had The Ionic been under the rule of the Lydian King Croesus. Revolt. But the Greek cities on the other side of the Aegean Sea, and some of the islands, were independent. The power of the ' Great King,' as the Persian monarch was called, did not extend into Europe. Just at this time some of the Greek cities in Asia Minor revolted against the rule of the provincial governor or Satrap, who was set over them; and they called upon their kins- men from the other side of the sea to come and help them. A band of Athenians did go and take a part in the revolt, though they were recalled to Athens before the end of the contest, and the revolt was put down. 46
