Schools were established, athletic sports
were encouraged, aesthetic taste was developed, until in the arts, in
philosophy, in science, and in literature the Greeks took the lead of
all peoples.
6. As population increased, colonies went out, settling upon the
adjacent coasts of Asia and upon the islands farther west. In Asia the
Greek colonists were subject to the Persian Empire, which then
extended its rule over all Western Asia, and claimed dominion over
Africa and Eastern Europe. The Greeks, fresh from the freedom of their
native land, could not patiently endure the extortions of the Persian
government, to which their own people submitted without question;
hence conflicts arose which finally culminated in Persia taking
complete possession of the Asiatic Greek cities.
7. But the ties of kinship were strong, and the people of Greece
keenly resented the tyranny which had been exercised over their
countrymen, and an irrepressible conflict arose between the two
nations. The Persian king, Darius, determined to put an end to all
annoyance by invading and subjugating Greece. Before the final march
of his army, Darius sent heralds throughout Greece demanding soil and
water as an acknowledgment of the supremacy of Persia, but Herodotus
says that at Sparta, when this impudent demand was made, the heralds
were thrown into wells and told to help themselves to all the earth
and water they liked.
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