Its climate was softer than that of Ecbatana and Persepolis, less sultry than that of Babylon.

Its position was convenient for communicating both with the East and with the West.

Its people were plastic, and probably more yielding and submissive than the Medes or the Persians.

The king, fatigued with his warlike exertions, was glad for a while to rest and recruit himself at Susa, in the tranquil life of the Court.

For some years he appears to have conceived no new aggressive project; and he might perhaps have forgotten his designs upon Greece altogether, had not his memory been stirred by a signal and extraordinary provocation.
The immediate circumstances which led to the Ionian Revolt belong to Greek rather than to Persian history, and have been so fully treated of by the historians of the Hellenic race that a knowledge of them may be assumed as already possessed by the reader.