This harsh and unjust treatment seems to have led to an estrangement between the Persians and the foremost of the naval nations subject to them, which lasted for fifteen years.  The Persians naturally distrusted those whom they had injured, and were unwilling to call them in to their aid.  The Phoenicians probably brooded over their wrongs, and abstained from volunteering an assistance which they were not asked to furnish.  The war between Persia and Greece continued, and was transferred from Europe to Asia, but no Phoenicians are mentioned as taking part in it.  The Phoenician ships retired from Samos on the approach of the Greek fleet under Leotychides.[14311] No Phoenicians fought at Mycale.  None are heard of as engaged at Sestos, or Byzantium, or Eion, or Doriscus, or even Phaselis.  It was not until—­in B.C. 465—­the war passed from the AEgean to the southern coast of Asia Minor, and their dependency, Cyprus, was threatened, that the Phoenicians again appeared upon the scene, and mustered in strength to the support of their Persian suzerain.

The Persian fleet which fought at the Eurymedon is said to have consisted of three hundred and forty vessels, drawn from the three subject nations of the Phoenicians, the Cyprians, and the Cilicians.[14312] It was under the command of Tithraustes, a son of Xerxes.  Cimon, who led the fleet of the Athenians and their allies, attacked it with a force of 250 triremes, of which Athens had furnished the greater number.  The battle was contested with extreme obstinacy on both sides; but at length the Athenians prevailed, and besides destroying a large number of the enemy’s vessels, took as many as a hundred with their crews on board.  At the same time a land victory was gained over the Persian troops.  The double exploit was regarded as one of the most glorious in the annals of Greece, and was commemorated at Delos by a tablet with the following inscription:—­[14313]

Since first the sea Europe from Asia severed, \ And Mars to rage ’mid humankind began, Never was such a blow as this delivered \ On land and sea at once by mortal man.  These heroes did to death a host of Medes \ Near Cyprus, and then captured with their crews \ Five score Phoenician vessels; at the news All Asia groaned, hard hit by such brave deeds.

It is scarcely necessary to follow further in detail the services which Phoenicia rendered to Persia as her submissive and attached ally.  For the space of about seventy-five years from the date of the engagement at the Eurymedon (B.C. 465-390), the Phoenicians continued to hold the first place among the Persian naval states, and to render their mistress effective help in all her naval enterprises.  They protected Cyprus and Egypt from the Athenian attacks, bore their part in the war with Amyrtaeus and Inaros, and more than once inflicted severe blows upon the Athenian navy.[14314] It was his command of a Phoenician fleet amounting to nearly a hundred and fifty triremes which enabled