Note 86 — Chapter V · THE ENTR’ACTE: B.C. 490–480.
Reading edition
Ephoros [Fragm. 107, Fragm. Histor. Græc.] attributes the raising of the siege to the fact that the Athenian fleet imagined that a signal implied that the Persian fleet was still at the neighbouring island of Mykonos.
He thus seems to assume that the Parian expedition followed immediately upon Marathon.
It cannot be said that the vague direct evidence on the question determines this point. It is, however, in the highest degree unlikely that the expedition was undertaken in the same year as Marathon; and the detail with regard to the Persian ships seems to have been inserted in the story either by Ephoros or his original authority,
either (a) in order to rationalize a story in which the motive was inadequate,
or (b) because the version followed was one favourable to Miltiades.
Despite his chronological vagueness, Herodotus (vi. 132) clearly implies an interval between Marathon and the Parian expedition, in which Miltiades’ reputation stood very high.