But one incident, the full importance of which the reader must wait a while to perceive, I shall in this place relate.

Among the most powerful of the Athenians was a noble named Miltiades, son of Cypselus.

By original descent he was from the neighbouring island of Aegina, and of the heroic race of Aeacus; but he dated the establishment of his house in Athens from no less distant a founder than the son of Ajax.

Miltiades had added new lustre to his name by a victory at the Olympic games.

It was probably during the first tyranny of Pisistratus [236] that an adventure, attended with vast results to Greece, befell this noble.