From a small spark, kindled by a sedition at Naxus, a great flame arose, which gave occasion to a considerable war. Naxus was the most important island of the Cyclades in the Ægean Sea, now called the Archipelago.
Darius immediately sent away Datis and Artaphernes, whom he had appointed generals in the room of Mardonius. Their instructions were, to give up Eretria and Athens to be plundered; to burn all the houses and temples therein; to make all the inhabitants of both places prisoners, and to send them to Darius; for which purpose they went
provided with a great number of chains and fetters. They set sail with a fleet of five or six hundred ships, and an army of five hundred thousand men. After having made themselves masters of the isles in the Ægean Sea, which they did without difficulty, they turned their course towards Eretria, a city of Euboea, which they took after a siege of
seven days by the treachery of some of the principal inhabitants; they reduced it entirely to ashes, put all the inhabitants in chains, and sent them to Persia. Darius, contrary to their expectation, treated them kindly, and gave them a village in the country of Cissia for their habitation, which was but a day's journey from Susa, where
Apollonius Tyaneus found some of their descendants six hundred years afterwards. (Rollin.)
ALEXANDER.
Alexander the Great, the son of Philip, succeeded to the throne of Macedonia, at the age of 20 years. He passed out of Europe into Asia and began to lay waste the Persian empire 330 years B. C, and 206 years from the time of Cyrus the Great.
Alexander marched toward Jerusalem, intending to besiege it. Jaddus the high priest, hearing of it, put on his priestly ornaments, and accompanied with the people all in white, went out to meet him. Alexander, seeing his habit, fell prostrate before him, saying, that whilst he was in Macedonia, a man appeared unto him in the very same habit, who invited him to come into Asia, and promised to deliver the Persian empire into his hands.
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