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So Miltiades, having got the armament, sailed against Paros, with
the object, as he alleged, of punishing the Parians for having gone
to war with Athens, inasmuch as a trireme of theirs had come with the
Persian fleet to Marathon. This, however, was a mere pretence;
the truth was, that Miltiades owed the Parians a grudge, because
Lysagoras, the son of Tisias, who was a Parian by birth, had told
tales against him to Hydarnes the Persian. Arrived before the place
against which his expedition was designed, he drove the Parians within
their walls, and forthwith laid siege to the city. At the same time
he sent a herald to the inhabitants, and required of them a hundred
talents, threatening that, if they refused, he would press the
siege, and never give it over till the town was taken. But the
Parians, without giving his demand a thought, proceeded to use every
means that they could devise for the defence of their city, and even
invented new plans for the purpose, one of which was, by working at
night, to raise such parts of the wall as were likely to be carried by
assault to double their former height.
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