within his house, as if he was mourning for his brother. The
principal men of the Chersonese, hearing of this, assembled from
all the towns and districts, and went together to the house of
Miltiades on a visit of condolence. As soon as he had thus got
them in his power, he made them all prisoners. He then asserted
and maintained his own absolute authority in the peninsula,
taking into his pay a body of five hundred regular troops, and
strengthening his interest by marrying the daughter of the king
of the neighbouring Thracians.

When the Persian power was extended to the Hellespont and its
neighbourhood, Miltiades, as prince of the Chersonese, submitted
to King Darius; and he was one of the numerous tributary rulers
who led their contingents of men to serve in the Persian army in
the expedition against Scythia. Miltiades and the vassal Greeks
of Asia Minor were left by the Persian king in charge of the
bridge across the Danube, when the invading army crossed that
river, and plunged into the wilds of the country that now is
Russia, in vain pursuit of the ancestors of the modern Cossacks.
On learning the reverses that Darius met with in the Scythian
wilderness, Miltiades proposed to his companions that they should
break the bridge down, and leave the Persian king and his army to
perish by famine and the Scythian arrows. The rulers of the
Asiatic Greek cities whom Miltiades addressed, shrank from this
bold and ruthless stroke against the Persian power, and Darius
returned in safety. But it was known what advice Miltiades had
given; and the vengeance of Darius was thenceforth specially
directed against the man who had counselled such a deadly blow
against his empire and his person. The occupation of the Persian
arms in other quarters left Miltiades for some years after this