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Meanwhile
the Persians had been fighting their way north-westwards till they had
reached the Aegean and conquered most of the Greeks and Phoenicians
there. Then the Greeks at Athens sent a fleet which landed an army
that burnt the city of Sardis, an outpost of Persian power. Thereupon
King Darius, friend of the Prophet Daniel, vowed vengeance on Athens,
and caused a trusty servant to whisper in his ear each day, "Master,
remember Athens!"
Now, the Persians were landsmen, with what was then the greatest army
in the world, but with a navy and a merchant fleet mostly manned by
conquered Phoenicians and Greek colonists, none of whom wanted to see
Greece itself destroyed. So when Darius met the Greeks at Marathon his
fleet and army did not form the same sort of United Service that the
British fleet and army form. He was beaten back to his ships and
retired to Asia Minor. But "Remember Athens!" was always in his mind.
So for ten years he and his son Xerxes prepared a vast armada against
which they thought no other force on earth could stand.


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