Histories

Thus the Persians escaped. The Scythians sought the Persians, but missed them again. Their judgment of the Ionians is that if they are regarded as free men they are the basest and most craven in the world; but if they are reckoned as slaves, none love their masters more, or desire less to escape. Thus have the Scythians taunted the Ionians.

Darius marched through Thrace (region (general)), EuropeThrace to +Sestos [26.4,40.2833] (Perseus) Sestos on the Gelibolu Yarimadasi (peninsula), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaChersonesus; from there, he crossed over with his ships to Asia (continent)Asia, leaving Megabazus as his commander in Europe (continent)Europe, a Persian whom he once honored by saying among the Persians what I note here:

Darius was about to eat pomegranates, and no sooner had he opened the first of them than his brother Artabanus asked him what he would like to have as many of as there were seeds in his pomegranate; then Darius said that he would rather have that many men like Megabazus than make all Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas subject to him.

By speaking thus among Persians, the king honored Megabazus; and now he left him behind as his commander, at the head of eighty thousand of his army.