Athens' fleet in 489 BCE, though surely bigger than it had been a decade earlier, consists of only seventy ships, of which twenty have been borrowed from Corinth.

The reason Athens has borrowed these (actually it is a sale at nominal charge) is Athens' war, or series of wars, with Aegina, which has caused it to build a fleet.

Following the Athenian victory over the Persians, Miltiades sets out with the fleet in the spring of 489 BCE on an expedition to conquer those islands that had supposedly sided with Persia.

He attempts to conquer the island of Páros, whose government had aided the Persian invaders.

He fails, and on his return to Athens, there is an outcry of indignation, ably exploited by his rivals, the Alcmaeonids.

Miltiades is prosecuted, fined fifty talents and, unable to pay a large fine imposed on him, imprisoned, although the Alcemeonid faction had demanded the death penalty.

He dies shortly thereafter of gangrene from a leg wound sustained during the expedition.

His son Cimon, after arranging the marriage of his sister to the richest man in Athens, is able to discharge the debt.