1. Who and what were the Persians? § 1.

2. What were their relations with the Medes? Book I, 39; Book II, 2.

3. What led to the revolution in the Medo-Persian dominion? 3, 4.

4. Describe the wars of Cyrus. 5, 7, 9.

5. His treatment of the Lydians. 6.

6. What led to the return of the Jews? 8.

7. What was the character of Cambyses? 12.

8. Describe his Egyptian campaign. 13.

9. His operations beyond Egypt. 14, 15.

10. His behavior at Memphis. 17.

12. The last days of Cambyses. 18.

13. The reign and dethronement of the false Smerdis. 19.

14. The revolts against Darius Hystaspes. 20.

15. His system of government. 21, 22.

16. His court and retinue. 23, 24.

17. Compare the religious systems of the Persians, Hindus,

and Medes. 25-28.

18. What causes of corruption in the Persian court? 29.

19. Describe the wars of Darius I. 30-32.

20. The causes and incidents of the Ionian revolt. 33, 34.

21. The Persian measures of revenge against the

Athenians. 35-40.

22. The memorials of Darius Hystaspes. 41 and Note.

23. Describe the beginning of Xerxes’ reign. 42, 43.

24. His preparations against Greece. 44-46.

25. The passage of the Hellespont. 47.

26. The magnitude of the army. 48, 49.

27. The first battle with the Greeks. 51.

28. The disasters by sea. 52.

29. What occurred at Delphi? At Athens? At Salamis? 53-55.

30. Describe the retreat of Xerxes, and his subsequent career. 56, 58.

31. The operations of Mardonius in Greece. 57.

32. The accession of Artaxerxes Longimanus. 59.

33. The revolts during his reign. 60, 61.

34. The affairs of the Jews under Artaxerxes. 62-64.

35. Who were the next three kings? 65-67.

36. What was the condition of the kingdom under Darius II? 67, 68.

37. Describe the enterprise of Cyrus the younger. 69-71.

38. Its results to the Greeks. 72, 73.

39. The reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon. 74.

40. The reign of Artaxerxes III. 75-77.

41. Who succeeded him? 78.

42. What was the character of Darius III? 79.

43. Compare the armies of Alexander and Darius. 80, 82, 83.

44. Describe the battles of Issus and Arbela. 81, 84.

45. The fate of Darius. 85.

46. How long had the Persian Empire continued?

47. How many kings, commencing with Cyrus?

48. What was its greatest extent, described by boundaries?

49. What is meant by a _satrapy_?

[Illustration]

BOOK III.

GRECIAN STATES AND COLONIES FROM THEIR EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE ACCESSION

OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.

GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE OF GREECE.

=1.= Of the three peninsulas which extend southward into the

Mediterranean, the most easterly was first settled, and became the seat

of the highest civilization which the ancient world could boast. Its

southern portion only was occupied by Greece, which extended from the

40th parallel southward to the 36th. Continental Greece never equaled

in size the state of Ohio. Its greatest length, from Mount Olym´pus to

Cape Tæn´arum, was 250 miles; and its greatest breadth, from Actium to

Marathon, was but 180. Yet this little space was divided into twenty-four

separate countries, each of which was politically independent of all the

rest.

=2.= The most peculiar trait of the Grecian peninsula is the great extent

of its coast as compared with its area. It is almost cut into three

distinct portions by deep indentations of the sea, northern Greece being

separated from the central portion by the Ambra´cian and Ma´lian, and

central Greece from the Peloponnesus by the Corinth´ian and Saron´ic

gulfs. A country thus surrounded and penetrated by water, of necessity

became maritime. The islands of the Ægean afforded easy stepping-stones

from Europe to Asia. Opposite, on the south, was one of the most fertile

portions of Africa; and, on the west, the Italian peninsula was only

thirty miles distant at the narrowest portion of the channel.

=3.= The northern boundary of Greece is the Cambu´nian range, which

crosses the peninsula from east to west. About midway between the two

seas, this range is intersected by that of Pin´dus, which runs from north

to south, like the Ap´ennines of Italy. This lofty chain sends off a

branch toward the eastern coast, which, running parallel to the Cambunian

at a distance of sixty miles, incloses the beautiful plain of Thes´saly.

West of Mount Pindus is Epi´rus, a rough and mountainous country

inhabited by various tribes, some Greek, some barbarian. Its ridges,

running north and south, were alternated with well-watered valleys.

Through the most easterly of these flows the Achelo´us, the largest

river in Greece. Near its source were the sacred oaks of Dodo´na, in the

rustling of whose leaves the voice of the supreme divinity was believed

to be heard.

=4.= Central Greece was occupied by eleven states: At´tica, Meg´aris,

Bœo´tia, Malis, Ænia´nia, eastern and western Locris, Phocis, Doris,

Æto´lia, and Ac´arna´nia. Between Ætolia and Doris, Mount Pindus divides

into two branches. One of these runs south-easterly into Attica, and

comprises the noted summits of Parnas´sus, Hel´icon, Cithæ´ron, and

Hymet´tus; the other turns to the southward, and reaches the sea near the

entrance of the Corinthian Gulf.

Attica is a triangular peninsula, having two sides washed by the sea

and its base united to the land. Protected by its mountain barriers of

Cithæron and Par´nes, it suffered less from war in early times than other

parts of the country; and the olive, its chief production, became for all

ages a symbol of peace.

=5.= Southern Greece contained eleven countries: Cor´inth, Sicyo´nia,

Acha´ia, E´lis, Arca´dia, Messe´nia, Laco´nia, Ar´golis, Epidau´ria,

Trœze´nia, and Hermi´onis.

The territory of Corinth occupied the isthmus between the Corinthian and

Saronic gulfs; and by its two ports, Lechæ´um and Cen´chreae, carried

on an extensive commerce both with the eastern and western seas. Thus

admirably situated, Corinth, the chief city, was noted for its wealth

even in the time of Homer.

Sicyonia was considered the oldest state in Greece, and Argolis next.

The ruins of Tir´yns and Myce´næ, in the latter, existed long before the

beginning of authentic history.

Elis was the Holy Land of the Helle´nes. Every foot of its territory was

sacred to Zeus, and it was sacrilege to bear arms within its limits.

Thus it was at peace when all Greece beside was at war; and though its

wealth surpassed that of all the neighboring states, its capital remained

unwalled.

Arcadia, the Switzerland of the Peloponnesus, was the only Grecian state

without a sea-coast. Its wild, precipitous rocks were clothed in gloomy

forests, and buried during a great part of the year in fogs and snows.

Its people were rustic and illiterate; they worshiped Pan, the god of

shepherds and hunters, but if they returned empty-handed from the chase,

they expressed their disgust by pricking or scourging his image.

Messenia occupied the south-western corner of Greece, and encircled

a gulf to which it gave its name. Laconia embraced the other two

promontories in which the Peloponnesus terminates, together with a larger

tract to the northward. It consisted mainly of a long valley bounded by

two high ranges, whence it was sometimes called _Hollow_ La´cedæ´mon.

Down the center of the vale flowed the Euro´tas, whose sources were in

the steep recesses of Mount Tay´getus. Sparta, the capital, was the only

important town. It lay on the Eurotas about twenty miles from the sea,

inclosed by an amphitheater of mountains which shut out cooling winds and

concentrated the sun’s rays, so as to produce intense heat in summer.

=6.= Although the name of Greece is now strictly limited to the peninsula

which we have described, it was often more generally applied by the

ancients to all the homes and colonies of the Hellenic race. The south of

Italy was long known as _Mag´na Græ´cia_; the eastern shores of the Ægean

constituted Asiatic Greece, and the cities of Cyrene in Africa, Syracuse

in Sicily, and Massilia in southern France, were all, to the Greeks,

equally essential parts of Hellas. The description of the numerous and

important colonies belongs to a later period. A few of the islands more

immediately belonging to Greece will alone be mentioned here.

=7.= Chief of these was Eubϫa, the great breakwater of the eastern

coast, which extended a distance of 100 miles in length and 15 in width.

Nearly as important, though smaller, was Corcy´ra, on the western

coast; and south of it lay Paxos, Leuca´dia, Ith´aca, Cephalle´nia, and

Zacyn´thus. On the south were the Œnus´sæ and the important island of

Cythe´ra. On the east, among others were Hy´drea, Ægina, and Salamis.

Besides these littoral, or coast, islands there were, in the northern

Ægean, Lemnos, Imbros, Thasos, and Samothra´ce; in the central, the

Cyc´lades; and, in the southern, the large island of Crete.

HISTORY OF GREECE.

PERIODS.

I. Traditional and Fabulous History, from the earliest times to

the Dorian Migrations, about B. C. 1100.

II. Authentic History, from the Dorian Migrations to the

beginning of the Persian wars; B. C. 1100-500.

III. From the beginning of the Persian wars to the victory of

Philip of Macedon at Chæronea, B. C. 500-336.

=8.= FIRST PERIOD. The name of Greece was unknown to the Greeks, who

called their country _Hellas_ and themselves _Helle´nes_. But the Romans,

having probably made their first acquaintance with the people of that

peninsula through the _Grai´koi_, a tribe who inhabited the coast nearest

Italy, applied their name to the whole Hellenic race. A more ancient

name, _Pelas´gia_, was derived from the earliest known inhabitants of the

country—a widely extended people, who may be traced by the remains of

their massive architecture in various parts of Italy as well as Greece.

The _Pelasgi_ were among the first of the Indo-Germanic family to migrate

from Asia to Europe.

=9.= By conquest or influence, the Hellenes very early acquired the

control of their neighbors, and spread their name, language, and customs

over the whole peninsula. They were then regarded as consisting of four

tribes, the Dorians, Achæ´ans, Æo´lians, and Ionians; but the last two,

if not all four, were probably members of the earlier race.

=10.= Though of the same family with the Medes, Persians, Bactrians, and

the Brahmins of India, the Greeks had no tradition of a migration from

Asia, but believed that their ancestors had sprung from the ground. They,

however, acknowledged themselves indebted, for some important elements

of their civilization, to immigrants from foreign lands. _Ce´crops_, a

native of Sais in Egypt, was said to have founded Athens, and to have

established its religious rites. The citadel bore, from him, the name

Cecro´pia in later times. Better authorities make Cecrops a Pelasgian

hero. _Da´naus_, another reputed Egyptian, was believed to have founded

Argos, having fled to Greece with his fifty daughters. To him the tribe

of the Da´nai traced their name, which Homer sometimes applied to all the

Greeks; but the story is evidently a fable.

_Pe´lops_ was said to have come from Phrygia, and by means of his great

wealth to have gained the kingdom of Mycenæ. The whole peninsula south of

the Corinthian Gulf bore his name, being called Peloponnesus. A fourth

tradition which describes the settlement of the Phœnician _Cad´mus_

at Thebes, in Bœotia, rests upon better evidence. He is said to have

introduced the use of letters, the art of mining, and the culture of

the vine. It is certain that the Greek alphabet was derived from the

Phœnician; and Cadmus may be regarded, in this elementary sense, as the

founder of European literature. The fortress of Thebes was called, from

him, Cadme´a.

=11.= The earliest period of Grecian history is called the Heroic Age.

In later times, poets and sculptors loved to celebrate its leaders as a

nobler race than themselves, ranking between gods and men; differing from

the former by being subject to death, but surpassing the latter both in

strength of body and greatness of mind. The innumerable exploits of the

Heroes must be read rather in Mythology than History. The three who had

the strongest hold in the belief, and influence upon the character of the

people, were Hercules, the great national hero; The´seus, the hero of

Attica; and Minos, king of Crete.

The “Twelve Labors of Hercules” represent the struggle of Man with

Nature, both in the destruction of physical evil and the acquisition of

wealth and power. To understand his reputed history, we must bear in mind

that, in that early age, lions as well as other savage beasts were still

numerous in southern Europe; that large tracts were covered by undrained

marshes and impenetrable forests; and that a wild, aboriginal race of

men, more dangerous than the beasts, haunted land and sea as robbers and

pirates.

=12.= Theseus was the civilizer of Attica. He established a

constitutional government, and instituted the two great festivals, the

Panathenæa[32] and Synoikia, in honor of the patron goddess of Athens.

The Isthmian Games, in honor of Neptune, were also traced to him.

=13.= Minos, king of Crete, was regarded by the Greeks as the first

great law-giver, and thus a principal founder of civilization and social

order. After his death he was believed to be one of the judges of souls

in Hades. It is worth noticing that the traditional law-givers of many

nations have borne similar names; and Menu in India, Menes in Egypt,

Manis in Lydia, Minos in Crete, and Mannus in Germany may all be mythical

names for _Man_ the Thinker, as distinguished from the savage.

[Sidenote: B. C. 1194.]

[Sidenote: B. C. 1184.]

=14.= Of the many remarkable enterprises of the Grecian heroes, the last

and greatest was the Siege of Troy. Zeus,[33] pitying the earth—so says

the fable—for the swarming multitudes she was compelled to sustain,

resolved to send discord among men that they might destroy each other.

The occasion of war was found in the wrong inflicted upon Menelaus, king

of Sparta, by Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy. All the Greek princes,

resenting the injury, assembled their forces from the extremities of

Hellas—from Mount Olympus to the islands of Ithaca, Crete, and Rhodes—and

crossing the Ægean under the command of Agamem´non, spent ten years

in the siege of Troy. The story of the tenth year must be read in the

Iliad of Homer.[34] It is impossible to separate the historical from the

poetical part in his spirited narration. Some historians have assigned a

definite period to the siege, while others have doubted whether Troy, as

described by Homer, ever existed.

=15.= Though much doubt may be felt as to the character of their heroes

and events, the poems of Homer give us a true picture of the government

and manners of the Greeks at this early age. From them we learn that each

of the petty states had its own king, who was the father, the judge, the

general, and the priest of his people. He was supposed to be of divine

descent and appointment. But unlike the blind believers in “divine right”

in modern times, the Greeks demanded that their kings should prove

themselves superior to common men in valor, wisdom, and greatness of

soul. If thus shown to be sons of the gods, they received unquestioning

obedience.

=16.= A council of nobles surrounded the king and aided him by their

advice. The people were often assembled to witness the discussions in

the council and the administration of justice, as well as to hear the

intentions of the king; but in this early age they had no voice in the

proceedings. The nobles, like the king, were descended from the gods,

and were distinguished by their great estates, vast wealth, and numerous

slaves.

=17.= The Greeks of the Heroic Age were distinguished by strong domestic

attachments, generous hospitality, and a high sense of moral obligation.

Every stranger was welcomed and supplied with the best cheer before he

was asked his name or errand. If he came to seek protection, the family

were under a still stronger obligation to receive him, even if he were an

enemy; for Zeus had no mercy on him who turned away from the prayer of a

suppliant.

=18.= The manners of the age were simple and homely. The sons of the gods

cooked their own dinners, and were proud of their skill in so doing.

Ulysses built his bed-chamber and constructed his raft, beside being

an excellent plowman and reaper. The high-born ladies, in like manner,

carded and spun the wool of their husbands’ sheep, and wove it into

clothing for themselves and their families; while their daughters brought

water from the wells, or assisted the slaves to wash garments in the

river.

=19.= Though simple, these people were not uncivilized. They lived in

fortified towns, adorned by palaces and temples. The palaces of the

nobles were ornamented with vases of gold, silver, and bronze, and hung

with rich Tyrian draperies. The warriors were protected by highly wrought

and richly embellished armor. Agriculture was highly honored. Wheat,

flax, wine, and oil were the chief productions.

=20.= The arts of sculpture and design had already made some progress.

Poetry was cultivated by minstrels, who wandered from place to place

singing songs of their own composition, and were sure of an honorable

welcome in every palace. In this way, doubtless, the blind Homer[35]

related the brave deeds done before the walls of Troy, and praised the

heroes of that epoch in the houses of their descendants.

=21.= The religion of the Greeks had some of its first elements in common

with that of the Hindus. Zeus, the king of gods and men, who reigned

upon the snowy summit of Olympus, was doubtless the same conception with

Dyaus´, the Bright Ether or Serene Heaven of the Brahmin worship. But as

the forces of Nature were the objects of adoration, each system borrowed

its distinctive features from those of the country in which it was

developed, and that of the Greeks became incomparably the more delicate

and refined. The Asiatic origin of their faith was recognized by the

Greeks themselves, in the fable that Zeus had brought Euro´pa, daughter

of Age´nor (the same with Canaan), in her early youth, across the

Hellespont and through Thrace. An old tradition said that the people of

the ante-Hellenic age worshiped all the gods, but gave names to none; a

mystical expression of the truth that the Greeks, like most other ancient

people, had descended from the worship of One God to the belief in many.

Watching with keen eyes the various and apparently conflicting operations

of Nature, the Greeks, unaided by revelation, were led to believe

in many distinct and sometimes hostile gods; for their science, as

imperfect as their religion, had not yet arrived at a perception of unity

beneath the apparent variety, nor taught them that all forces may be

resolved into one. Hence we read of conflicts and jealousies among the

divine inhabitants of Olympus, of which the most ignorant child should

be ashamed. In more enlightened ages, philosophers severely censured

this ascription of unworthy passions to the gods, and taught that they

should only be conceived as serene, beneficent, and superior to human

excitements.

=22.= Much of the mythology of the Greeks belonged merely to poetry, and

had no religious character whatever. Many stories of the gods may be

explained by the familiar appearances of nature. E´os, the dawn, was the

sister of He´lios, the sun, and Sele´ne, the moon. She dwelt upon the

banks of Ocean, in a golden-gated palace, whence she issued each morning

to announce to gods and men the approach of her greater brother. She was

the mother of the Winds and of the Morning Star. I´ris was the messenger

of the gods. The many-colored rainbow was the road over which she

traveled, and which vanished, when she no longer needed it, as suddenly

as it had appeared.

=23.= The twelve who constituted the Olympian Council were Zeus, the

supreme; Posi´don, the god of the sea; Apollo, the sun-god, and patron

of music, poetry, and eloquence; A´res, the god of war; Hephæs´tus, of

fire and the useful arts; Her´mes, the herald of the gods, and promoter

of commerce and wealth; Hera, the great goddess of Nature; Athe´na, the

favorite daughter of Zeus, and patroness of all wisdom, civilization,

and art; Ar´temis, the goddess of the moon or of hunting; Aphrodi´te, of

beauty and love; Hestia, of domestic life; and Deme´ter, the bountiful

mother of harvests,—six gods and six goddesses.

=24.= Beside these, and in some cases equal in rank, were Hades, the god

of the under-world; Helios and Hec´ate; Diony´sus, the patron of the

vine, whose rites bore some resemblance to the drunken So´ma worship of

the Hindus; the nine Muses, daughters of Zeus and Memory, who presided

over music, literature, and all the arts; the Oceanids and the Nereids,

daughters of Posidon; and multitudes more, whom to enumerate would

require a volume, instead of a few pages.

=25.= The religion of the Greeks, properly so called, consisted in

reverence toward a moral Ruler of the world, ever present and actively

concerned in human affairs; and in obedience to him by truthfulness in

thought, word, and deed. Zeus himself was believed to watch over the

sacred performance of all oaths. Athena was the divine Wisdom, especially

as exercised in civil affairs. Nem´esis was the divine Justice, as

heard either in warnings of conscience within or the reproaches of the

world without. The Erin´nyes, or as they were flatteringly called,

Eumen´ides,[36] were the avengers of crime, older than all the Olympian

divinities, and dreaded alike by gods and men. The cries of the injured

aroused them from their dark abode in Tartarus; and to the guilty man

they appeared as fierce, implacable furies, with flaming eyes and

extended talons, who never slept, but walked or waited constantly by

his side from the moment of his crime till its punishment; while to the

innocent victim, whom they avenged, they wore the form of serene and

stately goddesses, with faces beautiful though stern.

=26.= At a later period, new elements entered into the religious life

of the Greeks, through their intercourse with other nations, especially

with Egypt, Asia Minor, and Thrace. The most important of these was the

idea of purification for sins, which was unknown to Homer and Hesiod,

and was probably borrowed from the Lydians. The earliest sacrifices were

merely expressions of gratitude, or means of obtaining the favor of the

gods, and had nothing of the character of sin-offerings. In case of

crime, it was impossible to turn aside the wrath of the Eumenides, either

by prayers or sacrifices; the guilty person must suffer the extremest

consequences of his guilt. But under the new system it was believed that

the divine anger might be averted, and the stain of sin removed.

Persons guilty of homicide, whether intentional or accidental, were

excluded from the society of man and the worship of the gods until

certain rites had been performed. In earlier times, a chief or king might

officiate in the ceremony of purification, but later it was intrusted to

priests, or to persons supposed to be specially marked for the favor of

heaven by holiness of life. In case of public calamity, such as plague,

famine, or defeat in war, whole cities or states underwent the process of

purification, with a view to appease the supposed wrath of the gods for

some hidden or open crime.

=27.= Among other foreign observances were the ecstatic rites in honor

of various divinities. Such were the Bacchanalian dances, celebrated

at Thebes and Delphi, in honor of Dionysus, in which troops of women

spent whole nights upon the mountains in a state of the wildest frenzy,

shouting, leaping, clashing noisy instruments, tearing animals to pieces

and devouring the raw flesh, and even cutting themselves with knives

without feeling the wounds. Those who abandoned themselves freely to

this excitement were supposed to secure the favor of the god and escape

future visitations, while those who resisted were punished with madness.

[Illustration: MAP OF ANCIENT GREECE and the ÆGEAN SEA.]

=28.= Among the most solemn rites were the Mysteries celebrated at

Eleusis in honor of Demeter and Perseph´one. These could only be

approached by a long and secret course of preparation, and it was a crime

even to speak of them in the presence of the uninitiated. They commanded

the deepest reverence of the Greeks, and the participants were regarded

as more secure than others, both in temporal and spiritual perils. When

exposed to shipwreck, passengers commonly asked each other, “Have you

been initiated?”

The Eleusinian Mysteries, at least in their earlier form, are supposed to

have been a remnant of the old Pelasgic worship, and thus “grounded on a

view of nature less fanciful, more earnest, and better fitted to awaken

both philosophical thought and religious feeling” than the Hellenic

mythology.

=29.= Another custom adopted from abroad was the formation of secret

societies, whose members bound themselves by ascetic vows, and the

obligation to perform, at fixed seasons, certain solemnities. Such were

the Orphic, and afterward the Pythagorean brotherhoods. Those who entered

upon the “Orphic Life,” as it was called, promised to abstain wholly

from animal food, except the mystic sacrificial feast of raw flesh, and

wore white linen garments like the Egyptian priests. Though worshipers

of Dionysus, the Orphic brotherhood abstained from all wild and unseemly

demonstrations, and aimed at the most severe simplicity and purity of

life and manners. Their reputation for wisdom and holiness was abused by

certain impostors, who used to visit the houses of the rich and offer to

release them from the consequences both of their own sins and those of

their forefathers, by sacrifices and expiatory songs prescribed in the

Orphic books.

=30.= We have anticipated the five or six centuries which followed the

Heroic Age, for the sake of giving a connected though brief account of

the religious beliefs and customs of the Greeks, without which their

history could not be understood. It only remains to mention those oracles

through which, from the earliest times to the latest, and even long after

the civil existence of Greece was ended, the gods were believed to make

known their will to man.

=31.= The oldest of the oracles was that of Zeus at Dodona, where the

message of the god was believed to be heard in the rustling of the

sacred oaks and beeches, and interpreted by his chosen priests or

prophetesses. At Olympia, in Elis, the will of Zeus was read in the

appearance of victims sacrificed for the purpose. The oracles of Zeus

were comparatively few. The office of revealing the divine will to man

devolved usually upon Apollo, who had twenty-two oracles in European and

Asiatic Greece.

=32.= Of these the most celebrated was at Delphi, in Phocis, where was a

temple of Apollo containing his golden statue and an ever-burning fire

of fir-wood. In the center of the temple was a crevice in the ground,

whence arose a peculiarly intoxicating vapor. When the oracle was to

be consulted, the Pythia, or priestess, took her seat upon the sacred

tripod over this opening; and when bewildered or inspired by the vapor,

which was supposed to be the breath of the god, she uttered a response

in hexameter verses. It was often so obscure,[37] that it required more

wit to discern the meaning of the oracle than to determine the best

course of conduct without its aid. But so great was the reputation of the

Delphic shrine, that not only Greeks, but Lydians, Phrygians, and Romans

sent solemn embassies to consult it concerning their most important

undertakings.

=33.= What Europe has been to the rest of the world, Greece was to

Europe. The same peculiarities of coast and climate which made Europe the

best adapted to civilization of all the continents, long made Greece its

most highly civilized portion. But as Europe had her northern barbarians,

always pressing upon the great mountain barrier of the Pyrenees, Alps,

and Carpathians, sometimes bursting their limits and overrunning the more

civilized but weaker nations to the southward, so Greece suffered, toward

the close of the Heroic Age, from the incursions of the Illyrians on her

north-western frontier. The time of this movement was fixed by Greek

historians at sixty years after the fall of Troy, or, in our reckoning,

B. C. 1124.

Though the Illyrians did not enter central or southern Greece, their

southward movement produced a general change among the tribes of the

peninsula. The Thessalians, who had previously been settled on the

western coast of Epirus, now crossed the Pindus mountains, and cleared

for themselves a place in the fertile basin of the Pene´us, hitherto

occupied by the Bœotians. The Bœotians, thus dispossessed of their

ancient seats, moved southward, across Mounts O´thrys and Œta, to the

vale of the Cephissus, whence they drove the Cadmians and Minyæ. These

tribes were scattered through Attica and the Peloponnesus. The Dorians,

moving from the northward, occupied the narrow valley between Œta and

Parnassus, which thus became _Doris_; while the Dryo´pians, earlier

inhabitants of this region, took refuge in Eubœa and the islands of the

Ægean.

=34.= B. C. 1104. Twenty year’s later, a still more important movement

took place. The Dorians, cramped by the narrow mountain limits of their

abode, united with their western neighbors, the Ætolians, to invade

the Peloponnesus. It is said that they were conducted by Tem´enus,

Cresphontes, and Ar´istode´mus, in pursuance of the claims of their great

ancestor, Hercules, who had been expelled from the southern peninsula a

hundred years before. The Dorian migration is therefore often called the

Return of the Heraclidæ. Aristodemus was killed by lightning when about

to cross the Corinthian Gulf. His brothers were completely victorious

over the king of the Achæans, then the most powerful monarch in the

Peloponnesus, and proceeded to divide the peninsula between themselves

and their allies. The Ætolians received Elis, on the western coast; the

rest of the peninsula, except its northern border on the Corinthian

Gulf, remained to the Dorians, who continued for five centuries to be

the dominant race in Greece. The Heraclid princes then divided the

various crowns by lot. That of Argos fell to Temenus; that of Messenia,

to Cresphontes; and that of Sparta, to Eurysthenes and Procles, the twin

sons of Aristodemus.

=35.= The conquered Achæans were forced either to emigrate to Asia

and Italy, or to content themselves with the northern coast of their

peninsula, from which they expelled its Ionian inhabitants, and gave it

their own name, Achaia. The Ionians, after resting a few years in Attica,

whose people were their kinsmen, sought more space in the Cyclades, in

Chios and Samos, or on the neighboring coasts of Asia Minor. In the

fertile region between the Hermus and Mæander, and on the islands, twelve

Ionian cities[38] sprang up, and became rich and flourishing states.

Though independent of each other in government, they were united in the

worship of Posidon at one common temple, the Panio´nium, which crowned

the headland of Mycale.

=36.= The Æolians had already been driven from their ancient home in

central Greece, and had found refuge in Lesbos and the north-western

coast of Asia Minor, between the Hermus and the Hellespont. They, also,

formed twelve independent cities, but Mytile´ne, on the isle of Lesbos,

was considered the metropolis.

=37.= The Dorians, extending their migrations beyond the conquered

peninsula, took possession of the south-western coast of Asia Minor,

with the islands of Cos and Rhodes. Their six cities—sometimes called

the Doric Hexapolis—were Cni´dus and Halicarnassus, on the mainland;

Ial´yssus, Cami´rus, and Lindus, on the isle of Rhodes; and Cos, on the

island of its own name. Like the Ionians, they worshiped at a common

sanctuary, the temple of the Triopian Apollo.

RECAPITULATION.

Greece was first occupied by the Pelasgi, but its ancient name

is derived from the Hellenes, who early became the predominant

race. Many arts were introduced by foreigners, among whom

Cecrops and Danans of Egypt, Pelops of Phrygia, and Cadmus of

Phœnicia, are most famous in tradition. The Heroic Age was

illustrated by the achievements of sons of the gods, the last

and greatest of their works being a ten years’ siege of Troy.

Greece was governed at this period by many absolute monarchs:

kings and nobles, as well as people, led simple and industrious

lives. Not only tillage, weaving, and the manufacture of

metals, but architecture, sculpture, music, and poetry were

cultivated to a high degree. Greek religion was the most

refined and beautiful form of Nature-worship. Six gods and six

goddesses constituted the Supreme Council of Olympus, and a

multitude of inferior divinities peopled the mountains, woods,

and waters. Conscience was personified in Nemesis and the

Erinnyes. Rites of atonement for sin, ecstatic celebrations,

and ascetic brotherhoods were adopted by the Greeks from

foreign nations. Of many oracles, the most celebrated was that

of Apollo, at Delphi. The Heroic Age ended with a general

migration of the tribes of Greece, which resulted in the

settlement of the Dorians in the Peloponnesus, and the planting

of many Ionian and Æolian colonies on the shores of Asia Minor.

SECOND PERIOD. B. C. 1100-500.

=38.= The Heroic Age had ended with a general migration among the tribes

of Greece, which for a time interrupted their improvement of manners. But

Grecian liberty arose out of the ruins of the Heroic Age; and instead of

absolute monarchies, various forms of free government were established in

the several states. A state, indeed, was nothing more than a city with a

small portion of land surrounding it. Except in Attica, no city at this

time had control over any other town.

=39.= All the Greeks—though existing under a multitude of governments,

and divided by rivalries and jealousies—considered themselves as children

of one ancestor, Hellen, and gave the common name of _barbarians_, or

_babblers_, to all other nations. The poems of Homer, which were chanted

at the public festivals and repeated at every hearth-stone, described

all the Greeks as united against a common foe, and made the feeling of

brotherhood stronger than any occasional animosity. Beside the community

of blood, language, and national history, the Greeks were strongly bound

together by their equal interest in the oracles and the celebration of

religious rites, and their participation in the great national festivals.

[Sidenote: B. C. 884.]

=40.= THE GAMES. Of these the oldest and most celebrated were the Olympic

Games. The date of their foundation is lost among the fables of the

Heroic Age, but it is certain that these athletic contests were the

favorite diversion of heroes in those primitive times. They were revived

and invested with new importance in the time of Iph´itus, king of Elis,

and Lycur´gus, regent of Sparta. In the next century their celebration,

once in four years, began to afford the Greek measurement of time.

The first Olympiad was B. C. 776-772. The scene of the festival was

upon the banks of the Alpheus, in Elis, near the ancient temple of the

Olympian Zeus. During the month of the celebration wars were suspended

throughout Greece. Deputies appeared from all the Hellenic states, who

rivaled each other in the costliness of their offerings at the temple.

The games were in honor of Zeus and Hercules. They were open to all

Greeks, without distinction of wealth or birth; but barbarians, even of

royal blood, were strictly excluded. They included running, jumping,

wrestling, boxing, the throwing of quoits and javelins, and races of

horses and chariots. The only reward of the victor was a crown of wild

olive; but this was esteemed by every Greek as the highest honor he could

attain. Its happy wearer was welcomed home with processions and songs

of triumph; he entered the town through a breach made in the walls, to

signify that a city possessed of such sons needed no other defense;

he was thenceforth exempt from all taxes, as one who had conferred

the highest obligation upon the state; he occupied the chief place

in all public spectacles; if an Athenian, he ate at the table of the

magistrates; if a Spartan, he had the privilege in battle of fighting

near the person of the king.

=41.= Three other periodical festivals, which were at first confined to

the states where they occurred, were at length thrown open to the whole

Hellenic race. The Pythian Games, in honor of Apollo, were celebrated on

the Cirrhæ´an plain, in Phocis, the third year of every Olympiad. They

included competition in music and poetry as well as in athletic sports,

and were, next to the Olympic, the most celebrated festival in Greece.

The Ne´mean and Isthmian Games were celebrated once in two years; the

former in the valley of Nemea, in Argolis, in honor of Zeus, and the

latter on the Isthmus of Corinth, in honor of the sea-god, Posidon.

Thus every year was marked by at least one great national festival, and

every second year by two, reminding the throngs which attended them

of their common origin, and the distinction between themselves and

barbarians. Beside keeping alive that athletic training which increased

the strength of Grecian youth, these yearly assemblies served also the

purposes of the modern European fairs, of the lecture hall, and, to

a certain extent, of the printing-press; for booths were erected all

around the sacred grove, in which the industries of all the Hellenic

states and colonies found a ready market; while, in the intervals of

athletic display, poets chanted to the eager throng their hymns and

ballads; historians related the deeds of foreign and native heroes;

and philosophers unfolded to all who were wise enough to listen, their

theories of mind and matter, and the relation of gods to men.

=42.= Another bond of union among the Greeks was found in the

Amphic´tyones, or voluntary associations of neighboring or kindred

tribes, usually for the protection of some common temple or sanctuary.

Such a one had its center at Delos, the religious metropolis of the

Cyclades; and the three tribes of Dorians, Ionians, and Æolians in

western Asia Minor had each its federal union on the same principle. But

the most celebrated and lasting was the Amphictyonic league of twelve

tribes, which had its semi-annual meetings, in the spring at Delphi, and

in the autumn at Anthela, near Thermopylæ.

=43.= After the Dorian Conquest, Argos was for several centuries the

leading power in Greece. In the earliest part of its history, the

government was a monarchy, like those of the Heroic Age, the kings

claiming descent from Hercules. But the spirit of freedom having been

awakened in the people, they gradually took away power from their kings,

and established a republic, though retaining the name of monarchy. About

780 B. C., one Phi´don came to the throne, who, having more talent than

his predecessors, won back all the powers which they had lost, and made

himself absolute with the now first-used name of “tyrant.” He extended

the dominion of Argos over the whole Peloponnese, and sent forth colonies

which rendered the Argive name famous in Crete, Rhodes, Cos, Cnidus,

and Halicarnassus. His intercourse with Asia led to the first use of

coined money in Greece, and of a system of weights and measures which is

supposed to be the same with the Babylonian. After the death of Phidon,

Argive power rapidly declined. The subject and allied cities threw off

the oppressive rule which he had exercised, and a new state was now

gaining power in the Peloponnese which was destined to eclipse all the

glories of Argos.

SPARTA.

=44.= When the Dorians invaded Peloponnesus, the former inhabitants still

retained their foothold in the country, and for three hundred years their

fortress of Amy´clæ stood at only two miles distance from the Doric

capital of Lacedæmon, defying assault. The Lacedæmonians consisted of

three classes: 1. The Doric conquerors; 2. The subject Achæans of the

country towns; and, 3. The enslaved Helots, who were bought and sold with

the soil.

=45.= The government of Sparta was a double monarchy, its two kings being

descended respectively from Procles and Eurysthenes, the twin sons of

Aristodemus. They possessed little power in peace, but as generals, in

these early times, they were absolute in war. They were held in great

honor as the descendants of Hercules, and thus as connecting links

between their people and the gods. The Spartan Senate consisted of

thirty members, each of whom had passed the age of sixty, and had been

a blameless servant of the state. The popular assembly was of little

importance, though, as a matter of form, questions of peace or war and

the election of certain officers were referred to it. At a later time,

however, this assembly by a free vote chose five Ephors, who had absolute

power even over the kings and senate, as well as over the people.

=46.= However subservient they might be to kings or senate, the people

held themselves proudly above the industrious but dependent inhabitants

of the towns. There was more difference of rank between Spartan and

Achæan than between the meanest Spartan and his king. The Helots were

marked for contempt by a garment of sheep-skin and a cap of dog-skin; and

every year stripes were inflicted upon them for no fault, but that they

might never forget that they were slaves.

=47.= About 850 B. C., arose Lycurgus, one of the most celebrated of

ancient law-givers. He was of the royal family of Sparta; and upon the

death of his brother, King Polydec´tes, he exercised supreme command in

the name of his infant nephew, Charila´us. His administration was the

most wise and just that the Spartans had known; but his enemies raised

a report that he was seeking the crown for himself, and he resolved to

withdraw from the country until his nephew should be of age.

The Spartans missed the firm and wise government of their regent. The

young king came to the throne, but disorders were not checked, and a

party of the better sort sent a message to Lycurgus urging his return.

He first consulted the oracle at Delphi, and was hailed with the title,

“Beloved of the gods, and rather a god than a man.” To his prayer that he

might be enabled to enact good laws, the priestess replied that Apollo

had heard his request, and promised that the constitution he was about to

establish should be the best in the world. Those who might envy the power

and deny the authority of Lycurgus as a man, could not refuse obedience

to his laws when thus enforced by the god. He effected a great revolution

in Sparta, with the consent and coöperation of the king himself.

=48.= The laws of Lycurgus lessened the powers of the kings and increased

those of the people, but their chief end was to secure the continuance of

the state by making every Spartan a soldier. Modern nations believe that

governments exist for the people; in Sparta, on the contrary, each person

existed only for the state. His right to exist was decided upon the

threshold of life by a council of old men, before whom each newly-born

infant was presented. If it seemed to promise a vigorous and active life,

it was accepted as a child of the state, and assigned a nine-thousandth

part of the Spartan lands; but if weakly and deformed, it was cast into a

ravine to perish.

At seven years of age every boy so allowed to live was taken from his

home and subjected to a course of public training. The discipline of his

body was considered of more importance than the improvement of his mind.

He endured heat and cold, hunger and fatigue; and beside the gymnastic

exercises, he was subjected to all the hardships of military service. His

garment was the same summer and winter; the food given him was too little

to sustain life, but he was expected to make up the deficiency by hunting

or stealing. If caught in the latter act, he was severely punished;

but it was not for the dishonesty, but for the awkwardness of allowing

himself to be detected. It must be remembered, however, that where there

was no property there could be no theft in any moral sense. Every thing

in Sparta was ultimately the property of the state, and every interest

was subordinate to the training of citizens to dexterity in war.

=49.= Another means of training the Spartan youth to fortitude, was a

cruel scourging for no offense at the shrine of Artemis, which they

endured without a sound, although the altar was sprinkled with their

blood, and some even died under the lash. Those who were educated by such

inhuman severities, were not likely to become either just or merciful

toward others. The wretched Helots afforded a never-failing exercise for

their skill in war. Under the institution called Crypti´a, they were

frequently attacked and murdered by the select bands of young Spartans,

who ranged the country by night in quest of military practice. When the

Helots became more numerous than their masters, so as to be regarded with

apprehension, these massacres became more frequent and general.

=50.= Spartan discipline did not end with youth. At thirty a man was

permitted to marry, but he still lived at the barracks and ate at the

common table. Public affairs were discussed at these tables with a

freedom which partly repaid the suppression of speech in the assembly.

The youth were permitted to attend in silence, and thus received their

political education. The remaining hours of the day were divided by the

men between gymnastic exercises and the instruction of youth. Not until

his sixtieth year was a man released from this martial life.

=51.= Spartan girls were subjected to nearly as rigorous a training as

their brothers. Their exercises consisted of running, wrestling, and

boxing, and their characters became as warlike as those of men. Like

other citizens, the Spartan women considered themselves and all that were

most dear to them as the absolute property of the state.

=52.= That the minds of the Spartans might never be diverted from

military pursuits, Lycurgus permitted no citizen to engage in

agriculture, trade, or manufactures, all occupations which could be

pursued for gain being left in the hands of the subject Achæans. To shut

out foreign luxuries, he adopted a still more stringent measure. The

possession of gold or silver was forbidden, and money was made of iron

rendered worthless by being heated and plunged into vinegar. This bore

so low a nominal value in proportion to its weight, that the amount of

one hundred dollars was a load for a pair of oxen. So cumbrous a medium

of exchange was despised by other nations; the ports of Sparta were

unvisited by trading ships, and her villages by traveling minstrels or

merchants; and as Spartans were forbidden to journey in other lands

without the leave of their magistrates, while, with very rare exceptions,

no foreigner was permitted to reside in their capital, the selfish

exclusiveness of the nation seemed complete.

Love of country was limited to Laconia, and never included Hellas. Except

when Sparta was threatened, they never united with the other Grecian

states; and, in time of peace, bore more hatred to Athens than to Persia.

The free, intellectual life of the Athenians was the object of their

especial disgust; and the philosophy and eloquence which made the glory

of Athens, were the scorn of the Spartans, who considered it a crime to

use three words where two could be made to suffice.

=53.= Unlike other cities of Greece, Sparta was never protected by

walls. The high mountains on the north and west were a safeguard against

assaults by land, while the rock-bound coasts to the eastward prevented

invasion by sea. The whole city was a camp, where each man knew his

hourly duty, and endured more privation in time of peace than in war.

The laws of Lycurgus were successful in making a race of soldiers,

narrow-minded, prejudiced, and avaricious; destitute of those finer and

sweeter traits which belonged to the higher order of Grecian character,

but brave, hardy, self-sacrificing, and invincible.

=54.= Having completed his legislative work, Lycurgus secured its

perpetuity by a sacrifice of himself. He declared that it was necessary

to consult the oracle, and exacted an oath from kings, senators, and

people that they would obey his laws until his return. He then went to

Delphi, made offerings to Apollo, and received an assurance that Sparta

should be the most glorious city in the world so long as she adhered to

his laws. Having transmitted this message to his countrymen, Lycurgus

resolved never to return. He is said to have starved himself to death.

The time and place of his death are unknown. Cirrha, Elis, and the island

of Crete claimed his tomb, while other accounts declare that his remains

were brought to Sparta, and that a stroke of lightning gave the seal of

divinity to his last resting-place.

=55.= Sparta kept her oath five hundred years, and during a great portion

of that time maintained the first rank among Grecian states. Amyclæ was

taken a few years after the departure of Lycurgus. From a mere garrison

in a hostile country, Sparta now became mistress of Laconia, and began

to make war with her northern neighbors, Argos and Arcadia. The chief

object of her enmity was Messenia, another Doric kingdom to the westward,

separated from Sparta by the ridge of Mount Taygetus.

=56.= FIRST MESSENIAN WAR. B. C. 743-724. The Messenians had adopted

a more liberal policy toward their Achæan subjects than prevailed at

Sparta, and the jealousy of the two nations had led to frequent mutual

insults, when, at length, a slight occasion plunged them into open war.

A distinguished Messenian, who had been crowned at the Olympic Games,

pastured his cattle by agreement upon the lands of a certain Spartan. But

the Spartan, seizing the opportunity for a fraud, sold both the cattle

and the Messenian herdsmen who tended them, and crowned his iniquity

by murdering the son of the owner, who came to demand the price. The

unhappy father went to Sparta to demand justice from the kings, but his

grief was disregarded and his claims unpaid. He then took revenge into

his own hands, and murdered every Lacedæmonian who came in his way. The

Spartans called upon the Messenians to surrender their countryman, but

they refused to give him up, and war broke out.

[Sidenote: B. C. 738.]

[Sidenote: B. C. 730.]

[Sidenote: B. C. 724.]

=57.= For the first four years the Messenians made effectual resistance,

and their invaders gained nothing; but in the fifth a partial reverse

compelled them to shut themselves up in the strong fortress of Itho´me.

The Spartans took a solemn oath never to return to their families until

they had subdued Messenia. In the thirteenth year, Theopompus, king

of Sparta, marched against Ithome, and a great battle was fought, in

which the king of Messenia was slain. Aristodemus was chosen in his

place, and the war went on. In the eighteenth year, Arcadia and Sicyon

sent forces to aid the Messenians, while Corinth joined the Spartans. A

third great battle was fought, in which the invaders were defeated and

driven in disgrace to their own country. But at this time the oracles

began to favor the Spartans, while dreams and visions dismayed the soul

of Aristodemus. He slew himself, and, with his life, success departed

from the Messenians. Ithome was abandoned, the Spartans razed it to the

ground, and the Messenians were reduced to slavery.

[Sidenote: B. C. 685-668.]

=58.= For thirty-nine years they endured a galling weight of oppression,

but at the end of that time a hero of the royal line arose for their

deliverance. The exploits of Aristom´enes form the chief history of the

Second Messenian War, though almost the entire Peloponnesus was engaged.

The Corinthians, as before, fought for Sparta, while the Argives,

Arcadians, Sicyonians, and Pisatans took part with the Messenians.

After losing one battle, the Spartans sent to Delphi for advice, and

received the unwelcome direction to apply to Athens for a leader. The

Athenians, too, feared to disobey the oracle; but desiring to render no

real assistance to their rivals, they sent a lame school-master, named

Tyrtæ´us, to be their general. They found, as usual, that the Pythia was

not to be outwitted. Tyrtæus reanimated the rude vigor of the Spartans by

his martial songs, and it is to these that their final success is mainly

attributed.

[Sidenote: B. C. 683.]

=59.= The Spartans were slow in regaining their former ascendency. In the

battle of Stenycle´rus they were defeated with great loss, and pursued by

Aristomenes to the very summit of the mountains. In the third year the

Messenians suffered a signal defeat through the treachery of an ally,

and Aristomenes retired to the fortress of Ira. The Spartans encamped

around the foot of the hill, and for fourteen years the war was actively

prosecuted, the Messenian hero often issuing from his castle, and

ravaging with fire and sword the lands held by the enemy. Three times he

offered to Zeus Ithomates the sacrifice called Hecatomphonia, in token

that he had slain a hundred enemies with his own hand.

[Sidenote: B. C. 668.]

=60.= But neither the valor nor the good fortune of the leader availed

to save his country. Ira was taken by surprise. Aristomenes ended his

days at Rhodes. His sons led a large number of the exiled Messenians into

Italy, and settled near Rhegium. A few who remained were admitted to the

condition of the subject Achæans; but, as before, the mass of the people

were reduced to serfdom, and remained in that condition three hundred

years. The conquest of Messenia was followed by a war against Arcadia

which continued nearly a hundred years. The sole fruit to Sparta was the

capture of the little city of Tegea.

=61.= From the earliest times Sparta had been the rival of Argos, which

then ruled the whole eastern coast of the Peloponnesus. Soon after

Lycurgus, the boundaries of Laconia were extended eastward to the sea,

and northward beyond the city of Thyr´ea. About B. C. 547, the Argives

went to war to recover this portion of their former territory. They were

defeated and their power forever humbled.

[Sidenote: B. C. 547.]

=62.= Sparta was for a time the most powerful state in Greece. Her own

territories covered the south of the Peloponnesus, and the neighboring

states were so far subdued that they made no attempt to resist her

authority. That authority had hitherto been exerted within the narrow

limits of the Peloponnese, but about this time an embassy from Crœsus,

king of Lydia, acknowledged her leadership in Greece, and invited her

to join him in resisting the Persians. At this point began the foreign

policy of Sparta. Her influence among the Grecian states was always in

favor of either oligarchy or despotism—against such a government by the

people as existed in Athens; and the aristocratic party in every city

looked to Sparta as its natural champion and protector.

RECAPITULATION.

After the Dorian migrations, republics replaced most of the

monarchies in Greece. Though divided into many rival states,

the Hellenes were one race in origin, language, religion, and

customs. The Olympic, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian Games

promoted civilization by the free interchange of ideas. The

Amphictyonic Council, at Delphi and Thermopylæ, united twelve

Hellenic tribes for mutual defense. Phidon, king of Argos,

founded many colonies, and first introduced weights, measures,

and the coinage of money from the East.

The Spartan government consisted of a double line of Heraclid

kings, a senate, and, in later times, five ephors. Lycurgus,

as regent, reformed the laws by subjecting every person

to military rule, forbidding lucrative employments, and

discouraging all intercourse with foreign nations. By two long

wars the Spartans enslaved their neighbors, the Messenians;

and their power was always opposed to free institutions in the

states of Greece, among which Lacedæmon held for some centuries

the foremost rank.

ATHENS.

=63.= The history of Athens presents an infinitely greater variety of

character and incident than that of Sparta. Unsurpassed by the Spartans

in patriotism or valor, the Athenians differed from them in their love

for rare sculpture, magnificent architecture, and the refined diversions

of music, poetry, and the drama. The consequence is, that while the

Spartans won the world’s admiration only by their sacrifice of personal

interests to those of the state, the Athenians were at once the models

and the leaders of all civilized nations in the arts which give grace

and loveliness to life. An Athenian visiting Sparta, and seeing the

appointments of the public tables, said that he no longer wondered at

Spartan bravery in battle, for life so nourished could not be worth

preserving.

[Sidenote: B. C. 1050-752.]

=64.= In the Heroic Age Athens was governed by kings. Theseus subdued the

country towns of Attica, and made the city the capital of a centralized

monarchy. Codrus, the last of the kings, fell in resisting the Dorian

invaders, who had conquered the Peloponnesus and designed to subjugate

Attica. The invasion was repelled, but the kingdom was not reëstablished.

The eupatridæ, or nobles, secured the election of an archon for life, who

was in a certain degree responsible to them for his actions. Though of

the royal race of Codrus, he had neither the name nor the dignity of a

king. This succession of archons continued about 300 years.

[Sidenote: B. C. 684.]

=65.= An important change was then made by limiting the term of office to

ten years. At the expiration of his service, the archon could be tried

and punished if his conduct was proved to have been unjust. At first the

election was made, as before, from the descendants of Codrus; but one of

these being deposed for his cruelty, the office was thrown open to all

nobles. A third change appointed, instead of a single magistrate, a board

of nine, who were chosen yearly from among the eupatrids. Nobles alone

had the right to vote, and for sixty years the government of Athens was a

pure aristocracy.

[Sidenote: B. C. 621.]

=66.= But the people of Athens, afterward to fill so important a part

in history, now made themselves heard in a demand for _written laws_,

which should stand between them and the arbitrary will of their rulers.

The nobles acceded to the demand, but avenged their injured dignity by

appointing Draco to prepare the code. This first Athenian law-giver made

a collection of statutes so severe that they were said to be indeed the

work of a dragon, and to be written not with ink, but with blood. The

smallest theft, not less than murder and sacrilege, was punished by

death, and the life of every citizen was left absolutely at the mercy of

the ruling order.

[Sidenote: B. C. 620.]

[Sidenote: B. C. 596.]

=67.= Great dissatisfaction arose among the Athenians in consequence

of these laws, and Cylon, an aspiring young noble, aided by his

father-in-law, the tyrant of Megara, took advantage of the disturbance

to seize the Acropolis, with a view to making himself tyrant of Athens.

The archons quelled this rash rebellion, but in so doing they themselves

incurred the guilt of sacrilege, for the criminals were put to death at

the very altar of the Eumenides.[39] While the people were thrown into a

tumult of superstitious fear, a plague broke out, which was believed to

be a judgment of the gods. The Delphic oracle being invoked, commanded

that Athens should be purified by priestly rites. Epimen´ides, a sage and

seer, who was reputed to have great insight into the healing powers of

Nature, was brought from Crete, and by his sacrifices and intercessions

the plague was believed to be arrested. The archons, however, saw a cause

of their recent danger, deeper than the transient outbreak, and they

appointed Solon, the wisest of their number, to frame a new code of laws.

=68.= The condition of Attica demanded immediate remedies. The three

factions, consisting of the wealthy nobles of the Athenian _Plain_,

the merchants of the _Shore_, and the poor peasantry of the Attic

_Mountains_, were opposed to each other by the most bitter enmities.

Some of the latter in their need had been compelled to borrow money, at

exorbitant interest, from the nobles, and being unable to pay, had become

the slaves of their creditors.

[Sidenote: B. C. 594.]

=69.= Solon, though a noble, had been forced by the ruin of his fortune

to engage in commerce, choosing this means of support, however, with a

view to the improvement of his mind by observation of foreign lands.

While he was exchanging his Attic oil and honey for Egyptian millet, at

Naucratis, he had not failed to study the laws of the Pharaohs, or to

observe their effects upon the interests and character of the people.

His wisdom and integrity commanded the confidence of all classes of his

fellow-citizens, and he was made sole archon for life, with unlimited

power to alter the existing state of things.

=70.= His first object was to improve the condition of the poor debtors,

not merely by alleviating present distress, but by removing its causes.

To this end he enacted a bankrupt law, canceling all contracts in which

the land or person of a debtor had been given as security; and to avoid

such evils in the future, he abolished slavery for debt. The rate of

interest was abated, and the value of the currency lowered, so that the

debtor gained about one-fourth by paying in a depreciated medium. Above

all, provision was made against a recurrence of the same distress, by

requiring every father to teach his son some mechanical art. If this was

neglected, the son was freed from all responsibility for supporting his

father in old age. Foreigners were not allowed to settle in the country,

unless skilled in some form of industry which they engaged to carry on.

=71.= The chief design of the new constitution was to set up a free

and moderate government, instead of the oppressive tyranny of the

nobles. Solon divided the people into four classes, according to their

possessions. The poorest were permitted to vote, but not to hold office.

The upper three classes alone were subject to direct taxation, which fell

with greatest weight upon the wealthiest. The code of Draco was repealed.

Instead of severe punishments, Solon introduced the fear of shame and the

hope of honor as preventives of crime. Among the rewards for faithful

citizenship were crowns presented by senate or people; public banquets

in the hall of state; statues in the Agora or the streets; places of

honor in the theater or popular assembly. As persons distinguished by

these various honors were constantly seen by the youth of Athens, their

ambition was kindled to deserve similar rewards.

=72.= A new legislative Council of Four Hundred was formed, consisting

of one hundred members from each tribe, to be chosen yearly by a free

vote in the popular assembly. The source of power was in the assembly of

all the people, which elected the archons and councilors, accepted or

rejected the laws proposed by the latter, and judged the former at the

end of their term of office. Popular courts of law were also instituted,

to which a criminal might appeal when condemned by another tribunal. The

Council of the Areopagus continued to be the highest court in the state,

and was especially charged with the maintenance of religion and morals.

Originally it included all the nobles, but Solon restricted it to those

who had worthily discharged the duties of the archonship.

=73.= There were no professional lawyers in Athens, for the knowledge

and enforcement of the laws were held to be the duty of every citizen.

In case of popular sedition, every man was to be dishonored and

disfranchised who took no part on either side. This rule was designed

to stimulate public spirit, and to supply the want of a regular police

or military force by the active interference of the citizens. Already

a large body of wealthy and respectable men kept themselves aloof from

public affairs, which fell thus into the hands of unscrupulous and

ambitious plotters.

[Sidenote: B. C. 570.]

=74.= Solon is reckoned the greatest of the Seven Wise Men[40] of Greece,

and some of his sayings have been the maxims of the best legislators of

all ages. When asked how injustice could be banished from a republic,

he replied, “By making _all_ men feel the injustice done to _each_.”

His new constitution failed, however, to satisfy all classes of his

fellow-citizens. The nobles blamed him for having gone too far; the

common people, for having withheld too much. He himself admitted that

his laws were not the best possible, but the best that the people would

receive. He obtained, however, from the government and people, an oath

to maintain the constitution ten years; and then, to rid himself of

perpetual questions and complaints, he departed into foreign lands.

[Sidenote: B. C. 560.]

=75.= On returning to Athens, Solon found that the flames of faction

had broken out with more fury than ever. The _Plain_ had for its leader

Lycurgus; the _Shore_, Megacles; and the _Mountain_, Pisis´tratus, a

kinsman of Solon. The latter was idolized by the people for his personal

beauty, his military fame, his persuasive eloquence, and his unbounded

generosity. But beneath many real virtues he concealed an insatiable

ambition, which could not rest short of supremacy in the state. When his

plans were ready for execution, he appeared one day in the market-place

bleeding with self-inflicted wounds, which he assured the people he had

received in defense of their rights, from the hands of his and their

enemies, the factious nobles. The people, in their grief and indignation,

voted him a guard of fifty clubmen. Solon saw the danger that lurked in

this measure, but his earnest remonstrances were unheeded.

Pisistratus did not limit himself to the fifty men allotted him, but

raised a much larger force, with which he seized the Acropolis and

made himself master of the city. Notwithstanding his resistance to the

usurpation, Solon was treated with great deference by his cousin, who

constantly asked his counsel in the administration of affairs. But the

aged law-giver did not long survive the freedom of Athens. After his

death his ashes were scattered, as he had directed, around the island of

Salamis, which in his youth he had won for the Athenians.

[Sidenote: B. C. 560-554.]

=76.= THE FIRST TYRANNY OF PISISTRATUS was not of long duration. For six

years he had maintained the laws of Solon, when the two factions of the

Plain and the Shore combined against him, and he was driven from the

city. An incident which occurred during his first reign had an important

bearing on the later history of Greece. A noble named Milti´ades, of

the highest birth in Athens, was sitting one day before his door, when

he saw strangers passing whom he knew to be foreigners by their spears

and peculiar garments. With true Athenian hospitality, he invited them

to enjoy the comforts of his house, and was rewarded by a singular

disclosure.

They were natives of the Thracian Chersonesus—that narrow tongue of

land which lies along the north shore of the Hellespont—and had been

to consult the oracle at Delphi concerning the war in which their

countrymen were now engaged. The priestess had directed them to ask the

first man who should offer them hospitality after leaving the temple,

to found a colony in the Chersonesus. They had passed through Phocis

and Bœotia without receiving an invitation, and they now hailed their

host as the person described by the oracle, and entreated him to

come to their assistance. Miltiades and his family were regarded with

especial enmity by Pisistratus, and were discontented under his rule. He

accepted the invitation of his guests, collected a party of the similarly

affected among his fellow-citizens, and with them planted an independent

principality on the Hellespont. It was his nephew who commanded at

Marathon.[41]

[Sidenote: B. C. 548, 547.]

[Sidenote: B. C. 537.]

=77.= SECOND TYRANNY. Within six years from the expulsion of Pisistratus,

his rivals quarreled between themselves, and Megacles, the leader of the

Shore, invited him to return and resume the sovereignty. But Athens could

not yet remain at peace. In a short time Pisistratus offended Megacles,

who had brought him back, and who again united with Lycurgus to expel

him. This time the tyrant was ten years in exile, but he was constantly

engaged in raising men and money in the different states of Greece. He

landed at length with a powerful army at Marathon, and, joined by many

friends, advanced toward the city. He had pitched his tent near the

temple of Athena before his enemies had mustered any force to oppose him,

and their hastily gathered troops were then signally defeated. The people

willingly changed masters, and Pisistratus became for the third time

supreme ruler of Athens.

[Sidenote: B. C. 537-527.]

=78.= THIRD TYRANNY. He now established his government upon firmer

foundations, and the people forgot its arbitrary character in the

liberality and justice which marked his administration. He maintained all

the laws of Solon, and in his own person set the example of strict and

constant obedience. He took care to fill the highest offices with his

own kinsmen, but the wealth which he accumulated was at the service of

all who needed assistance. His library, the earliest in Greece, and his

beautiful gardens on the Ilissus, were thrown freely open to the public.

He first caused the poems of Homer to be collected and arranged, that

they might be chanted by the rhapsodists at the greater Panathenæ´a,[42]

or twelve days’ festival in honor of Athena. He ministered at once to the

taste and the necessities of the people, by employing many poor men in

the construction of magnificent public buildings with which he adorned

the city. The opinion of Solon was justified, that he was the best of

tyrants, and possessed no vice save that of ambition.

[Sidenote: B. C. 527.]

[Sidenote: B. C. 527-514.]

=79.= After a reign of seventeen years in all, Pisistratus died at an

advanced age, and his eldest son, Hippias, succeeded to his power, his

brother Hippar´chus being so closely associated with him that they were

frequently mentioned as the Two Tyrants. Their united government was

carried on in the same mild and liberal spirit that had distinguished

their father, and their reign was considered a sort of Golden Age in

Athens. They reduced the tax on produce from a tenth to a twentieth,

and yet, by a prudent management of resources, continued to add

embellishments to the city.

Fourteen years had thus passed in peace and prosperity, when Hipparchus

gave serious offense to a citizen named Harmo´dius, who thereupon united

with his friend Aristogi´ton in a plot to murder the two tyrants.

Hipparchus was slain. Hippias saved himself by promptness and presence

of mind; but from that day his character was changed. His most intimate

friends had been accused by the conspirators as concerned in the plot,

and executed. Though the charge was false and made only for revenge, the

suspicions of Hippias never again slept. The property and lives of the

citizens were alike sacrificed to his cruel and miserly passions.

[Sidenote: B. C. 510.]

=80.= The faction of the Alemæon´ids, who had been exiled under their

leader, Megacles, now gained strength for an active demonstration. They

bribed the Delphic priestess to reiterate in the ears of the Spartans

that “Athens must be delivered.” These brave but superstitious people

had a friendship of long standing with the Pisistrat´idæ, but they

dared not disobey the oracle. An army was sent to invade Attica: it was

defeated and its leader slain. A second attempt was more successful:

the Thessalian cavalry which had aided the tyrant was now defeated, and

Hippias shut himself up in the citadel. His children fell into the hands

of the Spartans, who released them only on condition that he and all his

kin should withdraw from Attica within five days. A perpetual decree of

banishment was passed against the family, and a monument recording their

offenses was set up in the Acropolis.

=81.= Clisthenes, the head of the Alemæonidæ, now rose into power.

Though among the highest nobles, he attached himself to the popular

party, and his measures gave still greater power to the people than the

laws of Solon had done. Instead of the four tribes, he ordained ten,

and subdivided each into demes, or districts, each of which had its

own magistrate and popular assembly. The Senate, or Great Council, was

increased from 400 to 500 members, fifty from each tribe, and all the

free inhabitants of Attica were admitted to the privileges of citizens.

To guard against the assumption of power by one man, as in the case of

Pisistratus, Clisthenes introduced the singular custom of _ostracism_,

by which any citizen could be banished without accusation, trial, or

defense. If the Senate and Assembly decided that this extreme measure

was required for the safety of the state, each citizen wrote upon a tile

or oyster-shell the name of the person whom he wished to banish. If

the name of any one person was found upon six thousand ballots, he was

required to withdraw from the city within ten days. The term of his exile

was at first ten years, but it was afterward reduced to five.

=82.= Isag´oras, leader of the nobles, disgusted by the rise of his

rival, called again upon the Spartans to interfere in Athenian affairs.

Cleom´enes, king of Sparta, advanced upon Athens, and demanded the

expulsion of Clisthenes and all his family, as accursed for the sacrilege

committed, nearly a hundred years before, in the murder of Cylon.

Clisthenes retired, and Cleomenes proceeded with his friend Isagoras to

expel seven hundred families, dissolve the Senate, and revolutionize the

city. But the people rose against this usurpation, besieged Isagoras

and his Spartans in the citadel, and only accepted their surrender on

condition of their withdrawing from Attica. Clisthenes was recalled and

his institutions restored.

[Sidenote: B. C. 507.]

=83.= Cleomenes had been stirring up Greece to aid his vengeance against

Athens. He advanced with a considerable army and seized the city of

Eleusis, while the Bœotians ravaged the western, and the Chalcidians

from Eubœa the eastern borders of Attica. Undismayed by this threefold

invasion, the Athenians marched first against Cleomenes; but the

irrational conduct of the Spartan had disgusted his allies and defeated

his designs before a battle could take place. The Athenians turned upon

the Bœotians and defeated them with great slaughter; then pressed on

without delay, crossed the channel which divided them from Eubœa, and

gained an equally decisive victory over the Chalcidians.

Hippias now covered his old age with infamy, by going over to the king

of Persia and exerting all his eloquence in directing the power of the

empire against his native city. The Athenians sent to Artaphernes,

begging him not to place confidence in one who had been banished only for

his crimes. “If you wish for peace, recall Hippias,” was the peremptory

reply.

GRECIAN COLONIES.

=84.= The history of the other continental states is more or less

involved in that of Sparta and Athens; but before entering upon the

Persian wars, we will take a rapid survey of those foreign settlements

which afforded an outlet for the enterprise and the crowded population

of the Hellenic peninsula. In very early times, colonies were led forth

from Greece by leaders who were afterward worshiped as heroes in the

states they founded. Fire, the emblem of civilization, was carried from

the _prytaneum_ of the mother city, and placed upon the new hearth-stone

of the colony. The Agora, the Acropolis, the temples, and the peculiar

worship of the older city were imitated in the new. The colonists bore

part in the religious festivals of the metropolis by delegates and

offerings, and it was considered sacrilege to bear arms against the

parent state.

=85.= There was, however, a great difference in the relations of the

several colonies with the states from which they sprang. The Æolian,

Ionian, and Dorian settlements in Asia, and the Achæan in Italy, were

independent states. Commerce, literature, and the arts flourished at

an earlier period on the eastern side of the Ægean than in the cities

of Greece. Homer, the father of Greek poetry, was an Ionian. Alcæ´us

and Sappho, the greatest of Greek poetesses, were natives of Lesbos.

Ana´creon was an Ionian of Teos; and four of the Seven Wise Men of Greece

lived in the Asiatic colonies.

[Illustration: Coin of Ephesus, enlarged one-half.]

=86.= _Miletus_ was for two centuries not only the chief of the Asiatic

colonies, but the first commercial city in all Hellas. Her sailors

penetrated to the most distant corners of the Mediterranean and its

inlets, and eighty colonies were founded to protect and enlarge her

commerce. _Ephesus_ succeeded Miletus as chief of the Ionian cities. Its

commerce was rather by land than sea; and instead of planting distant

colonies, it extended its territory on the land at the expense of its

Lydian neighbors. _Phocæa_, the most northerly of the Ionic cities,

possessed a powerful navy, and its ships were known on the distant coasts

of Gaul and Spain. The beautiful city of Massilia (now Marseilles) owed

to them its origin.

=87.= The first Greek colony in Italy was at _Cumæ_, near the modern

Naples, which sprang from it. It is said to have been founded about

1050 B. C., and continued five centuries the most flourishing city in

Campania. _Syb´aris_ and _Croto´na_ were Achæan colonies upon the Gulf

of Taren´tum. Several native tribes became their subjects, and their

dominions extended from sea to sea across the peninsula of Calabria. The

Crotonians were early celebrated for the skill of their physicians, and

for the number of their athletes who won prizes at the Olympic Games. The

Sybarites were noted for their wealth, luxury, and effeminacy. In public

festivals they mustered 5,000 horsemen fully equipped, while Athens could

only show 1,200 even for the grand Panathenæa.

The fall of Sybaris, B. C. 510, was occasioned by war with the sister but

now rival city Crotona. The popular party had supplanted an oligarchy

in Sybaris, and the exiled citizens had taken refuge in Crotona. The

Sybarites demanded their rendition. The Crotonians trembled, for they

had to choose between two great perils: they must incur either the wrath

of the gods by betraying suppliants, or the vengeance of the Sybarites,

whose army was supposed to number 300,000 men. Pythagoras urged them to

adopt the more generous alternative, and his disciple, Milo, the most

celebrated athlete of his time, became their general. In a battle on the

Trais the Crotonians were victorious. They became masters of Sybaris,

and determined to destroy it so thoroughly that it should never again be

inhabited. For this purpose they turned the course of the river Crathis,

so that it overflowed the city and buried its ruins in mud and sand. To

this day a wall can be seen in the bed of the river when the water is

low, the only monument of the ancient grandeur of Sybaris.

=88.= The people of _Locri_ were the first of the Greeks who possessed a

body of written laws. The ordinances of Zaleucus, a shepherd whom they

made their legislator by the command of the Delphic oracle, were forty

years earlier than those of Draco, which they resembled in the severity

of their penalties. The Locrians, however, held them in so high esteem,

that if any man wished to propose a new law or repeal an old one, he

appeared in the public assembly with a rope around his neck, which was

immediately tightened if he failed to convince his fellow-citizens of the

wisdom of his suggestions.

=89.= _Rhegium_, on the Sicilian Strait, was founded by the Chalcidians

of Eubœa, but greatly increased by fugitives from the Spartans during the

first and second Messenian wars. The straits and the opposite town in

Sicily, formerly called Zan´cle, received a new name from these exiled

people. _Taren´tum_ was a Spartan colony founded about 708 B. C. Its

harbor was the best and safest in the Tarentine Gulf, and after the fall

of Sybaris it became the most flourishing city in Magna Græcia. Though

its soil was less fertile than that of other colonies, its pastures

afforded the finest wool in all Italy. Tarentine horses were in great

favor among the Greeks; and its shores supplied such a profusion of the

shell-fish used for coloring, that “Tarentine purple” was second only to

the Tyrian. So extensive were the manufactories of this dye, that great

mounds may even yet be seen near the ancient harbor, composed wholly of

broken shells of the _murex_.

=90.= The prosperity of Magna Græcia declined after the close of the

sixth century B. C., when the warlike Samnites and Lucanians began to

press southward from their homes in central Italy. The Greek colonies

gradually lost their inland possessions, and became limited to mere

trading settlements on the coast.

=91.= _Massilia_, in Gaul, has already been mentioned as a colony of the

Ionic Phocæans. It exerted a controlling influence upon the Celtic tribes

by which it was surrounded, and who derived from it the benefits of Greek

letters and civilization. A Massiliot mariner, Pytheas, navigated the

Atlantic and explored the western coasts of Europe, as far, at least,

as Great Britain. Five colonies on the Spanish coast were founded by

Massilia.

=92.= The fertile island of Sicily early attracted the attention of

the Greeks. The Carthaginians already occupied the western side of the

island, but for two and a half centuries the commercial settlements

of either people flourished side by side without collision. Twelve

flourishing Greek cities sprang up within 150 years, among which

_Syracuse_, on the eastern, and _Agrigentum_, on the southern coast, were

the most important. Syracuse, the earliest, except Naxos, of the Sicilian

colonies, was founded by Corinthians, B. C. 734. Its position made it

the door to the whole island, and in Roman times it was the capital of

the province. In its greatest prosperity it contained half a million of

inhabitants, and its walls were twenty-two miles in extent. Agrigentum,

though of later origin (B. C. 582), grew so fast that it outstripped its

older neighbors. The poet Pindar called it the fairest of mortal cities,

and its public buildings were among the most magnificent in the ancient

world.

=93.= AFRICAN COLONIES. Greek colonization was at first confined to the

northern shores of the Mediterranean, Egypt and Carthage dividing between

them the southern. But the policy of Psammetichus, and, after him, of

Amasis, favored the Greeks, who were thenceforth permitted to settle at

Naucratis, and enjoy there a monopoly of the Mediterranean commerce of

Egypt. Twenty years after the first establishment at Naucratis, _Cyrene_

was founded by the people of Thera, a Spartan colony on the Ægean. Unlike

most Greek colonies, Cyrene was governed by kings during the first two

centuries of its existence.

=94.= The peninsula of Chalcid´ice, in Macedonia, was covered with the

settlements of colonists from Chalcis and Eretria, from the former of

which it derived its name. _Potidæ´a_, on the same coast, was planted

by Corinthians. _Byzantium_ was founded by Megarians, on the strait

which connects the Propontis with the Euxine. Few cities could boast

so splendid a position; but the power of the Megarian colony bore

little proportion to what it was afterward to attain as the capital of

Constantine and the mistress of the world. The most northerly Grecian

settlement was _Istria_, founded by Milesians near the mouth of the

Danube.

RECAPITULATION.

Codrus, the last king of Athens, was succeeded during three

centuries by archons for life, chosen from his family. Seven

archons afterward reigned successively ten years each, and the

government was then intrusted to a commission of nine, annually

elected. The people demanding written laws, Draco prepared

a code of inhuman severity. A more moderate constitution was

framed by Solon, one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece; but the

contention of the three rival factions of the _Plain_, the

_Shore_, and the _Mountain_ soon resulted in the subjection

of Athens to the tyranny of Pisistratus. Twice expelled,

Pisistratus twice re-established his power, and by his justice

and liberal encouragement of all the arts, consoled the people

for his unwarranted seizure of the government. His son Hippias

was expelled by the Alemæonidæ, with the aid of the Spartans.

Clisthenes completed the liberal reforms of Solon, and

introduced the singular custom of ostracism. In three attempts

to overthrow the free constitution of Athens, the Spartans and

their allies were signally defeated.

THIRD PERIOD. B. C. 500-338.

=95.= The details of the Ionian Revolt (B. C. 499-494) have been found

in the History of Persia.[43] Reserving his vengeance for the European

Greeks who had interfered in the quarrel, Darius sought to console

the conquered Ionians for the loss of their political independence by

greater personal freedom. Just laws, equal taxes, peace and good order

began to restore their prosperity; and when Mardonius, the son-in-law of

Darius, succeeded Artaphernes in the satrapy, he signalized his reign by

removing all tyrants and restoring to the cities a republican form of

government. All this was done to secure their friendship or neutrality in

his approaching expedition against Greece. That expedition (B. C. 492)

failed, as we have seen, in its principal object.

[Sidenote: B. C. 491.]

=96.= The next year messengers were sent by Darius to each of the states

of Greece, demanding earth and water, the customary symbols of obedience.

None of the island states and few on the continent dared refuse. The

people of Athens and Sparta returned an answer which could not be

mistaken. The latter threw the envoys into a well, and the former into a

pit where the vilest criminals were punished, telling them to get earth

and water for themselves.

=97.= The youth and ill success of Mardonius led Darius to recall him,

and place the command of his new expedition against the Greeks in the

hands of Datis, a Mede, and Artaphernes, his own nephew. In the spring

of 490 B. C., the great host was drawn up off the coast of Cilicia—a

fleet of 600 triremes, carrying not less than 100,000 men. They sailed

westward and ravaged the isle of Naxos, but spared Delos, the reputed

birth-place of Apollo and Artemis, because the Median Datis recognized

them as identical with his own national divinities, the sun and moon.

The fleet then advanced to Eubœa, Eretria being the first object of

vengeance. Carystus, refusing to join the armament against her neighbors,

was taken and destroyed. Eretria withstood a siege of six days; but the

unhappy city was a prey to the same dissensions which constituted the

fatal weakness of Greece.[44] Two traitors of the oligarchical party

opened the gates to the barbarians. The place was given up to plunder,

the temples burnt, and the people enslaved.

=98.= A swift-footed messenger was now dispatched from Athens to Sparta

imploring aid. The distance was ninety miles, and he reached his

destination the day after his departure. The Spartans did not refuse

their assistance, but they declared that religion forbade their marching

before the full moon, and it was now only the ninth day. The Persians

were already landed on the coast of Attica, and, guided by Hippias,

advanced to the plain of Marathon. The Athenian army, posted upon the

heights, had to consider whether to await their tardy allies or meet

these overwhelming numbers alone. At the last moment there arrived an

unexpected reinforcement, which, though small in numbers, raised the

spirits of the Athenians by the friendliness it expressed. It was the

entire fighting population of the little town of Platæa, a thousand men

in all, who came to testify their gratitude for a former service rendered

by the Athenians.

=99.= All the other generals, who were to have commanded in turn, gave

up their days to Miltiades, whose genius and experience alike won their

confidence; but he, fearful of arousing envy, waited until his own

turn came, and then gave orders for battle. The sacrifices and prayers

were offered, the trumpets sounded, and, chanting a battle-hymn, the

eleven thousand Greeks rushed down from the heights where they had been

encamped. Instead of the usual slow march of the phalanx, they traversed

the mile or more of level ground which separated them from the Persians

at a full run, bearing their level spears in a straight, unwavering

line.[45]

The front rank of Asiatics fell instantly before this unusual assault;

but the resistance was not less determined. Rushing upon the spears of

the Greeks, in the attempt to make an opening in the phalanx where their

short swords and daggers might serve them, the Persians freely sacrificed

their lives. It was the belief of many on the field that the gigantic

shade of Theseus, the great Attic hero, might be seen in the ranks. Night

approached before the desperate conflict was decided. But the Greeks,

though wearied with the long action, never wavered, and at length the

shattered remains of the Asiatic host turned and fled.[46]

=100.= The Persians had brought with them a mass of white marble, with

which they meant to erect upon the field of Marathon a monument of

their victory. It was carved by Phid´ias into a gigantic statue of

Nemesis, the impersonation of divine vengeance. From the brazen spoils

of the Persians was cast that colossal statue of Athena Promachos, whose

glittering spear and helmet, from the summit of the Athenian citadel,

could be seen far off at sea beyond the point of Sunium. The armed

goddess, “First in the Fight,” seemed to be keeping a perpetual guard

over her beloved city.

[Sidenote: B. C. 489.]

=101.= For a time after the victory at Marathon, Miltiades was the best

beloved of the Athenians. Even while prince in the Chersonesus, he had

won their gratitude by annexing Lemnos and Imbros to their dominions. To

this claim on their regard he now added that of having delivered them

from their greatest peril, and there was no limit to their confidence.

When, therefore, he promised them a still more lucrative though less

glorious enterprise than the recent one against the Persians, they were

not slow to consent, though the conditions were a fleet of seventy ships

and a large supply of men and money for his use, of which he was to

render no account until his return. They were granted, and Miltiades set

sail for the isle of Paros, which had furnished a trireme to the Persians

during the recent invasion. The chief city was besieged and on the point

of being taken, when suddenly, for no sufficient cause, Miltiades burnt

his fortifications, drew off his fleet, and returned to Athens, having

no treasures and only disgrace and loss to report as the result of his

expedition.

[Illustration: Coin of Athens, enlarged three-fourths.]

=102.= The glory of Miltiades was now departed. He was accused by

Xanthip´pus, a leader of the aristocracy, of having accepted a bribe from

the Persians to withdraw from Paros. Severely wounded, Miltiades was

brought into the court upon a couch; and although his brother Tisag´oras

undertook his defense, the only plea he cared to make was in the two

words, “Lemnos” and “Marathon.” The offense, if proved, was capital; but

the people refused to sentence their deliverer to death. They commuted

his punishment to a fine of fifty talents; but before it was paid he

expired from his wound.

=103.= The greatest citizen of Athens, after the death of Miltiades, was

Aristides, called “the Just.” He was of noble birth and belonged to the

Alcmæonid party, but he was ardently devoted to the interests of the

people. Stern toward crime, whether in friends or foes, he was yet mild

toward all persons; and so proverbial were his truth and impartiality,

that when he held the office of archon the courts of law were deserted,

all suitors preferring to submit their causes to his arbitration.

=104.= His chief rival was Themis´tocles, a young man of great talents,

and, perhaps, still greater ambition. At length his opposition rose to

the pitch of proposing the ostracism, and Aristides was banished. It is

said that, during the voting, the great archon was requested by a man who

could not write, to inscribe the name of Aristides on an oyster-shell for

him. “Has he ever injured you?” Aristides asked. “No,” said the man, “nor

do I even know him by sight; but it vexes me to hear him always called

the Just.” Aristides wrote his name on the shell, which was cast into the

heap. As he left his native city he said, with his usual generosity, “May

the Athenian people never know a day which shall force them to remember

Aristides!”

=105.= Themistocles was now without a rival in Athens. His acute mind

perceived what his countrymen too willingly ignored, that the Persian

invasions were only checked, not ended. Proud of the victory of Marathon,

the Athenians believed that the Persians would never again dare to attack

them. But Ægina was yet powerful, and a fierce enmity had long existed

between the two states. Their merchants regarded each other as rivals

in trade, while the free people of Athens hated the oligarchy of Ægina.

Themistocles resolved to turn this enmity to account, in arming Athens

against the greater though more distant danger. He persuaded the citizens

to construct a fleet which should surpass that of Ægina, and to apply

to that purpose the revenues from the silver mines of Laurium, near the

extremity of the Attic peninsula.

Two hundred triremes were built and equipped, and a decree was passed

which required twenty to be added every year. Hitherto Attica had been

more an agricultural than a maritime state; but Themistocles clearly

saw that, with so small and sterile a territory, her only lasting power

must be upon the sea. So strenuous were his exertions, that in the ten

years that intervened between the first and the second Persian wars, the

Athenians had trained a large number of seamen, organized their naval

power, and were ready to be as victorious at Salamis as they had been at

Marathon.

=106.= In 481 B. C., a Hellenic Congress was held at Corinth. The command

of the Greek forces, both by land and sea, was assigned to Sparta. An

appeal for coöperation was sent to the distant colonies in Sicily, as

well as to Corcyra and Crete. Emissaries were also sent into Asia to

watch the movements of the Persian army. They were seized at Sardis, and

would have been put to death, had not Xerxes believed that their reports

would do more to terrify and weaken than to assist their countrymen. He

caused them to be led through his innumerable hosts, and to mark their

splendid equipments, then to be dismissed in safety.

=107.= The most difficult duty of the Congress was to silence

the quarrels of the several states. Athens, by the entreaties of

Themistocles, consented to peace and friendship with Ægina, and all the

delegates formally bound their states to act together as one body. Still

many elements of disunion remained. Bœotia, with the honorable exceptions

of Thespiæ and Platæa, sent earth and water to the Persian king. Argos

was at once weakened and enraged against Sparta by the massacre of 6,000

of her citizens, who had been burned, by order of Cleomenes, in a temple

where they had taken refuge. Unwilling to refuse her aid in the common

danger, she consented to join the league only upon terms which Sparta

refused to accept.

=108.= Even the gods seemed to waver, and the timid answers of the Pythia

prevented some states from engaging in the war. The Athenian messengers

at Delphi received an oracle that would have appalled less steadfast

minds. “Unhappy men!” cried the Pythia, “leave your houses and the

ramparts of the city, and fly to the uttermost parts of the earth. Fire

and keen Ares, compelling the Syrian chariot, shall destroy; towers shall

be overthrown, and temples destroyed by fire. Lo, now, even now, they

stand dropping sweat, and their house-tops black with blood, and shaking

with prophetic awe. Depart, and prepare for ill!”

=109.= The Athenians put on the mourning garb of suppliants, and

entreated Apollo for a more favorable answer, declaring that they would

not depart without it, but remain at his altar until they died. The

second response was still more obscure, but possibly more hopeful.

“Athena is unable to appease the Olympian Zeus. Again, therefore, I

speak, and my words are as adamant. All else within the bounds of

Cecropia and the bosom of the divine Cithæron shall fall and fail you.

The wooden wall alone Zeus grants to Pallas, a refuge to your children

and yourselves. Wait not for horse and foot; tarry not the march of the

mighty army; retreat even though they close upon you. O divine Salamis!

thou shalt lose the sons of women, whether Demeter scatter or hoard her

harvest!” Themistocles, who had, perhaps, dictated the response, now

furnished an apt solution. The “walls of wood,” he said, meant the fleet,

in which the citizens and their children should take refuge. The last

sentence threatened woe not to the Athenians, but to their foes, else why

was Salamis called “divine”?

[Sidenote: B. C. 480.]

=110.= Arriving with his vast army at the head of the Malian Gulf,

Xerxes sent a spy to ascertain the force sent against him. The messenger

saw only the Spartan three hundred. They were engaged either in

gymnastic exercises or in dressing their long hair as if for a festival.

Demaratus, an exiled king of Sparta, was with the Persian army, and he

was questioned by the great king as to the meaning of this behavior in

the face of overwhelming danger. Demaratus replied, “It is manifestly

their intention, sire, to dispute the pass, for it is the custom of

the Spartans to adorn themselves on the eve of battle. You are about to

attack the flower of Grecian valor.” Xerxes could not yet believe that

such a handful of men meant serious resistance. He waited four days

to give them time to retreat, but sent a messenger in the interval to

Leonidas, demanding his arms. “Come and take them!” replied the Spartan.

=111.= BATTLE OF THERMOPYLÆ. On the fifth day the patience of the great

king was exhausted. He sent a detachment of Medes and Cissians into

the pass, with orders to bring its defenders alive into his presence.

The assailants were repulsed with loss. The Immortal Band were then

sent forward, but with no better success. The next day the contest was

renewed, with great loss to the Persians and no signs of yielding on the

part of the Greeks. But treachery now accomplished what force had failed

to do.[47] A council of war was held among the defenders of the pass,

and it was resolved to retreat, since defeat was certain. Leonidas did

not oppose, but rather favored the decision on the part of the other

generals; he only remarked that it was not permitted to Spartans to fly

from any foe. He knew, too, that the Delphic oracle had declared that

either Sparta must fall or a king of the blood of Hercules be sacrificed.

He believed that he should save at least his hereditary kingdom, if not

the whole of Greece, by the voluntary devotion of his life.

The Thespians insisted upon sharing the fate of the Spartan three

hundred. The four hundred Thebans, whose loyalty had been suspected from

the first, were held as hostages. The remainder of the Greeks hastily

withdrew before the arrival of the Persians. Thus left alone, the

Spartans and Thespians went forth to meet the immense army, which was

now in motion to attack them. The Orientals, when their courage failed,

were driven into battle by the lash, and thousands were doomed to perish

before the desperate valor of the Greeks. At length Hydar´nes, with his

Immortal Band, appeared from behind, and the Spartans drew back to the

narrowest part of the pass, where they fought to the last breath, and

were crushed at last by the numbers, rather than slain by the swords of

the Persians.

=112.= The memory of Leonidas was honored by games celebrated around

his tomb in Sparta, in which none but his countrymen were allowed to

have part. A lion of stone was placed, by order of the Amphictyonic

Council, on the spot where he fell; and other monuments at the same place

preserved the memory of his brave companions. That of the Three Hundred

bore these words: “Go, stranger, and tell the Spartans that we obeyed the

laws, and lie here!”

=113.= Learning the fate of Leonidas and his men, the fleet retired

southward for the protection of the coast. The Spartans acted with their

accustomed selfishness, by leaving Athens and the rest of Greece to their

fate, while they employed their land forces in fortifying the isthmus,

to bar the entrance of their own peninsula. It was with difficulty that

Themistocles even persuaded his maritime allies to remain at anchor off

Salamis, long enough to allow some measures to be taken for the safety of

the Athenian people.

=114.= ABANDONMENT OF ATHENS. Nor was it easy to persuade the

Athenians themselves to leave their beloved city to the revengeful

hands of barbarians. But as no other means remained for averting total

destruction, Themistocles had recourse, as usual, to a stratagem. The

serpent sacred to Athena suddenly disappeared from the Acropolis, the

cakes of honey were left untasted, and the priests announced that the

goddess herself had abandoned the city, and was ready to conduct her

chosen warriors to the sea. The people now consented to depart. Women,

children, and old men were hastily removed to places of greater security,

while all who could fight betook themselves to the fleet. Only a few

Athenians, either too poor to meet the expense of removal, or still

convinced that the “wooden walls” of the oracle meant the citadel,

remained and perished, after a brave but useless resistance, by the

swords of the Persians. Beautiful Athens was reduced to a heap of ashes,

in revenge for the destruction of Sardis, twenty years before.

=115.= The commanders of the fleet now resolved to withdraw from

Salamis, and station themselves near the isthmus to coöperate with the

Peloponnesian land forces. The Athenians strongly opposed this retreat,

which would leave the refuges of their wives and children at the mercy

of the barbarians. It was midnight, and the council had broken up, when

Themistocles again sought the ship of Eurybi´ades, and convincing him at

length of the greater wisdom of his own plan, persuaded him to reassemble

the council. The leaders were recalled from their ships and a violent

discussion ensued. The Corinthian, Adimantus, opposed Themistocles not

only with argument, but with insult. Alluding to the recent destruction

of Athens, he maintained that one who had no longer a city to represent

should have no voice in the deliberation.

Themistocles kept his temper and replied with dignity and firmness. He

showed that the naval advantages of the Greeks in the present war had

always been in the narrow seas, where the immense numbers of the Persians

gave them no superiority, while their better discipline and acquaintance

with the currents and soundings were all in favor of the Greeks. He

argued that by transferring the war to the Peloponnesus they would only

attract thither the armies and ships of the Persians; while, by defeating

them before they could arrive at the isthmus, they would preserve

southern Greece from invasion. He ended by declaring that, if Salamis

were abandoned, the Athenians would abandon Greece, and taking their

wives and children on board their fleet, sail to the coasts of Italy,

where the oracle had commanded them to found a new city.

=116.= Lest even this argument should not be sufficient, Themistocles had

recourse to another of his wiles. He retired a moment from the council

and dispatched a trusty messenger to the Persian fleet, assuring its

commander that the Greeks, struck with consternation, were preparing to

flee, and urging him to seize the opportunity, while they were divided

among themselves, to gain a decisive victory. The Persian admiral knew

too well the frequent dissensions of the Greeks to doubt the truth of

the message. He immediately moved his squadrons to cut them off from the

possibility of retreat.

In the meantime Themistocles was again called from the council by the

arrival of a messenger. It was his ancient rival, the brave and upright

Aristides, still in exile through the influence of Themistocles, but

watchful as ever for the interests of his country. He had crossed from

Ægina in an open boat to inform the Greeks that they were surrounded by

the Persians. “At any time,” said the just Athenian, “it would become

us to forget our private dissensions, and at this time especially, in

contending only who should most serve his country.” Themistocles led him

at once to the council. His intelligence was soon confirmed by a Tenian

deserter, and the leaders were now forced to unite in preparation for

immediate battle.

[Sidenote: B. C. 480.]

=117.= BATTLE OF SALAMIS. When the sun arose upon the straits of Salamis,

the Attic shores were seen lined with the glittering ranks of the Persian

army, drawn up by order of Xerxes to intercept fugitives from the Grecian

fleet. The king himself, on a throne of precious metals, sat to watch

the coming contest. His ships were fully three times the number of the

Greeks, and no serious disaster had yet stayed his progress. The Greeks

advanced, singing that battle-song which the great poet Æschylus, who

himself fought on this memorable day, has preserved for us: “On, sons

of the Greeks! Strike for the freedom of your country! strike for the

freedom of your children and your wives—for the shrines of your fathers’

gods, and for the sepulchers of your sires! All, all are now staked upon

your strife!”

Themistocles held them back until a wind began to blow, which usually

arose in the morning, causing a heavy swell in the channel. This

seriously incommoded the cumbrous vessels of the Persians, while the

light and compact Greek craft easily drove their brazen beaks into the

sides of the enemy. The Athenians, on the right, soon broke the Phœnician

line which was opposed to them; and the Spartans, on the left, gained

victories over the Ionian allies of the Persians. The sea was strewn with

dead bodies, entangled in the masts and cordage of the ships. Aristides,

who had been waiting with his command on the coast of Salamis, now

crossed to the little island of Psyt´tali´a, and put the Persian garrison

to the sword. Xerxes, from his throne on Mount Ægaleos, helplessly

watched the confusion and slaughter of his men. The contest lasted until

evening, when the straits of Salamis were abandoned by the barbarians.

=118.= When morning came, the Greeks were ready to renew the battle. The

Persians had still a large fleet and a numerous army; and, in the night,

the Phœnician transports had been joined so as to make a bridge between

Salamis and the mainland. But this was only a feint to cover the real

movement. The fleet was already under orders to sail to the Hellespont,

and the army retired in a few days to Bœotia. Leaving 300,000 men with

Mardonius to renew the war in the following year, Xerxes hastened into

Asia. His army was reduced on the way by famine and pestilence, and it

was but a fragment of the great host which had crossed the Hellespont in

the spring of 480, that returned in the autumn.

[Sidenote: B. C. 479.]

=119.= As spring opened, Mardonius prepared to renew the war; but first

he sought to accomplish by diplomacy what he had hitherto failed to do

by force. Deeply impressed with the valor of the Athenians, he was sure

that if he could withdraw them from the confederacy, the rest of Greece

would be an easy prey. To this end he sent Alexander I., king of Macedon,

his ally, but a former friend of the Athenians, to flatter them with

promises of favor and solicit their alliance. The Athenians refused him

an audience until they had time to summon delegates from Sparta. When

the Spartans had arrived, Alexander delivered his message. The great

king offered to the Athenians forgiveness of the injuries they had done

him, the restoration of their country and its extension over neighboring

territories, the free enjoyment of their own laws, and the means of

rebuilding all their temples. He urged the Athenians to embrace so

favorable an offer, for to them alone of all the Greeks was forgiveness

extended.

=120.= The Athenians replied: “We are not ignorant of the power of the

Mede, but for the sake of freedom we will resist that power as we can.

Bear back to Mardonius this our answer: So long as yonder sun continues

his course, so long we forswear all friendship with Xerxes; so long,

confiding in the aid of our gods and heroes, whose shrines and altars

he has burnt, we will struggle against him for revenge. As for you,

Spartans, knowing our spirit, you should be ashamed to fear our alliance

with the barbarian. Send your forces into the field without delay. The

enemy will be upon us when he knows our answer. Let us meet him in Bœotia

before he proceed to Attica.”

=121.= The Athenians had rightly judged the immediateness of the danger.

Scarcely was their answer received when the Persian general was in

motion, and advanced by rapid marches to the borders of Attica. He was

re-enforced at every halt by northern Greeks, moved either by terror

of his power or by long-standing jealousies against the members of the

League. The Attic territory was utterly desolate and Athens a second time

deserted. Taking possession of that city, Mardonius dispatched a Greek

messenger to Salamis, repeating his former propositions, which were as

instantly rejected as before.

The Athenians were a second time homeless, and, for the moment, standing

alone against the enemies of Greece. The Spartans were engaged in

some long-continued solemnities—perhaps the funeral of their regent,

Cleom´brotus—and allowed the Athenian messengers to wait ten days for an

answer. Not until the indignant envoys had threatened to make terms with

Mardonius and leave Sparta to her fate, did the ephors bestir themselves,

but then it was with true Spartan energy and dispatch. Five thousand

Spartans and 35,000 slaves were sent, under the command of Pausanias,

the new regent, to whom the ephors added a guard of 5,000 heavy-armed

Laconians.

=122.= Hearing of the advance of the Spartans, the Persian thought best

to retreat. He again set fire to Athens, leveled to the ground whatever

remained of its walls and temples, and retired into Bœotia. Here he

arranged his camp on a branch of the Asopus, not far from the city of

Platæa. The Spartans followed, having been joined at the isthmus by the

Peloponnesian allies, and, at Eleusis, by the Athenians. The Greek forces

occupied the lower slopes of Mount Cithæron, with the river before them,

separating them from the Persians.

=123.= BATTLE OF ERYTHRÆ. The battle was opened by the Persian cavalry,

commanded by Masis´tius, the most illustrious general in the army, except

Mardonius. His magnificent person, clad in complete scale-armor of gold

and burnished brass, was conspicuous upon the battle-field; and his

horsemen, then the most famous in the world for their skill and bravery,

severely harassed the Megarians, who were posted on the open plain.

Olym´piodo´rus with a select body of Athenians went to their assistance,

and Masistius spurred his Nisæan steed across the field to meet him. In

the sharp combat which followed, the Persian was unhorsed, and as he lay

along the ground was assailed by a swarm of enemies. The heavy armor,

which prevented his rising, protected him from their weapons, until, at

length, an opening in his visor allowed a lance to reach his brain. His

death decided the fate of the battle.

=124.= After this victory the Greek army moved nearer to Platæa, where

was a more abundant supply of water and a more convenient ground. It was

the strongest force which the Persians had yet encountered in Greece,

numbering, with allies and attendants, 110,000 men. For ten days they

lay facing each other with no important action. The Persians, however,

intercepted convoys of provisions, and succeeded in choking up the

spring which supplied the Greeks with water, while, by their arrows and

javelins, they prevented their approach to the river. Pausanias then

resolved to fall back to a level and well-watered meadow still nearer to

Platæa.

[Sidenote: B. C. 479.]

=125.= BATTLE OF PLATÆA. The Spartans were attacked while on the march,

and sent immediately to the Athenians for aid. The latter marched to

their assistance, but were intercepted by the Ionian allies of the

Persians, and cut off from the intended rescue. Pausanias, thus compelled

to engage with a small portion of his army, ordered a solemn sacrifice,

and his men stood awaiting the result, unflinching, though exposed to a

storm of Persian arrows. The omens were unfavorable, and the sacrifices

were again and again renewed. At length Pausanias, lifting his eyes

streaming with tears toward the temple of Hera, besought the goddess that

if fate forbade the Greeks to conquer, they might, at least, die like

men. At this moment the sacrifices assumed a more favorable aspect, and

the order for battle was given.

The Spartan phalanx in one dense mass moved slowly but steadily against

the Persians. The latter acted with wonderful resolution, seizing the

pikes of the Spartans or snatching away their shields, while they

wrestled with them hand to hand. Mardonius himself, at the head of his

chosen guards, fought in the foremost ranks, and animated the courage of

his men both by word and example. But he received a mortal wound, and his

followers, dismayed by his fall, fled in confusion to their camp. Here

they again made a stand against the Lacedæmonians, who were unskilled

in attacking fortified places, until the Athenians, who had meanwhile

conquered their Ionian opponents, came up and completed the victory. They

scaled the ramparts and effected a breach, through which the remainder of

the Greeks poured into the camp. The Persians now yielded to the general

rout. They fled in all directions, but were so fiercely pursued, that,

except the 40,000 of Artaba´zus, who had already secured their retreat,

scarcely 3,000 escaped. The victory was complete, and immense treasures

of gold and silver, besides horses, camels, and rich raiment, remained in

the hands of the Greeks.

=126.= Mounds were raised over the brave and illustrious dead. Only to

Aristodemus, the Spartan, who had incurred disgrace by returning alive

from Thermopylæ, no honors were decreed. The soil of Platæa became a

second “Holy Land.” Thither every year embassies from the states of

Greece came to offer sacrifices to Zeus, the deliverer, and every fifth

year games were celebrated in honor of liberty. The Platæans themselves,

exempt henceforth from military service, became the guardians of the

sacred ground, and to attack them was decreed to be sacrilege.

=127.= On the day of the victory of Platæa, a no less important

advantage was gained by the Greeks at Mycale, in Ionia. Here a large

land force, under Tigra´nes, had been stationed by Xerxes for the

protection of the coast, and hither the Persian fleet retired before

the advance of the Greeks. The Persians drew their ships to land, and

protected them by intrenchments and strong earth-works. The Greeks,

finding the sea deserted, approached near enough to make the voice of

a herald heard, who exhorted the Ionians in the army of Tigranes to

remember that they, too, had a share in the liberties of Greece. The

Persians, not understanding the language of the herald, began to distrust

their allies. They deprived the Samians of their arms, and placed the

Milesians at a distance from the front to guard the path to the heights

of Mycale. The Greeks, having landed, drove the Persians from the shore

to their intrenchments, and the Athenians first became engaged in

storming the barricades. The native Persians fought fiercely, even after

their general was slain, and fell at last within their camp. All the

islands which had given assistance to the Medes were now received into

the Hellenic League, with solemn pledges never again to desert it.

RECAPITULATION.

Athens incurred the vengeance of the Persian king by aiding a

revolt of the Asiatic Greeks. The first invasion of Greece, by

Mardonius, failed; a second and larger force, under Datis and

Artaphernes, ravaged Naxos and part of Eubœa, but was defeated

by Miltiades and 11,000 Greeks, at Marathon. An unsuccessful

attempt, upon Paros destroyed the fame of Miltiades, and

he died under a charge of having received bribes from the

Persians. Aristides succeeded him in popular favor, but was at

length exiled through the influence of Themistocles. The latter

urged the naval preparations of his countrymen, and Athens then

first became a great maritime power. A congress at Corinth,

B. C. 481, united the Greek forces under Spartan command. The

Delphic oracle promising safety to the Athenians only within

walls of wood, they abandoned their city and took refuge on

the fleet. A few hundreds of Spartans and Thespians withstood

the Persian host at Thermopylæ, until betrayed by a Malian

guide. The invaders were totally defeated in a naval combat at

Salamis, and Xerxes retired to Persia. Mardonius, failing to

end the war by diplomacy, was finally overthrown in the battles

of Erythræ and Platæa; and the land and naval forces of the

Persians were at the same time destroyed at Mycale, in Asia

Minor.

GROWTH OF ATHENS.

=128.= Though their immediate danger was past, the Greeks did not suffer

their enemies to rest. A fleet of fifty vessels was prepared, with the

intention to rescue every Greek city in Europe or Asia which still felt

the power of the Persian. Though Athens, as before, furnished more

ships than all the other states, Pausanias commanded. He first wrested

Cyprus from the Persians, and then proceeded to Byzantium, which he also

liberated and occupied as a residence for seven years.

[Sidenote: B. C. 478.]

=129.= SIEGE OF SESTUS. The Athenians resolved to win back the colony

founded by Miltiades in the Chersonesus. The whole remaining force of the

Persians made a last stand at Sestus, and endured a siege so obstinate

that they even consumed the leather of their harness and bedding for

want of food. They yielded at last, and the natives gladly welcomed back

the Greeks. Laden with treasures and secure of a well-earned peace,

the Athenians returned home in triumph. Among their relics, the broken

fragments and cables of the Hellespontine bridge of Xerxes were long to

be seen in the temples of Athens.

[Illustration: ATHENS.]

=130.= Notwithstanding her losses, Athens came forth from the Persian

wars stronger, and with a higher rank among the Grecian states, than she

had entered them. Her efforts and sacrifices had called forth a power

which she was scarcely conscious of possessing, and with the consent

of Sparta, whose constitution illy fitted her for distant enterprises,

Athens was now recognized as the leader of the Greeks in foreign affairs.

In the meantime important changes had occurred in her internal policy.

The power of the great families was broken, and the common people, who

had borne the brunt of hardship and peril in the war, were recognized as

an important element in the state. Aristides, though the leader of the

aristocratic party, proposed and carried an amendment by which all the

people, without distinction of rank or property, obtained a share in the

government, the only requisites being intelligence and moral character.

The archonship, which had hitherto been confined to the eupatrids, was

now thrown open to all classes.

Themistocles was the popular leader. His first care was the rebuilding

of the walls of Athens, and he provided means by levying contributions

upon those islands which had given aid to the Persians. The jealous

opposition of the Spartans was overcome by gold and management. To

accommodate the greatly increased navy, he improved the port of Piræus

and protected it by strong walls. He hoped, by building up the naval

power of Athens, to place her at the head of a great maritime empire,

comprising the islands and Asiatic coasts of the Ægean, thus eclipsing

the Spartan supremacy on the Grecian mainland.

=131.= Pausanias, now commanding at Byzantium, had lost all his Spartan

virtue in the pride of conquest and the luxury of wealth. After the

victory at Platæa, he had engraven on the golden tripod dedicated

to Apollo by all the Greeks, an inscription in which he claimed for

himself the exclusive glory. His government, justly offended, caused

this inscription to be replaced by another, naming only the confederate

cities, and omitting all mention of Pausanias. Both the pride and the

talents of the Spartan commander were too great for the private station

into which he must soon descend; for though so long generalissimo of

the Greeks, he was not a king in Sparta, but only regent for the son of

Leonidas. The conversation of his Persian captives, some of whom were

relatives of the great king, opened brilliant views to the ambition and

avarice of Pausanias. His own relative, Demara´tus, had exchanged the

austere life of a Spartan for all the luxury of an Oriental palace, with

the government of three Æolian cities. The greater talents of Pausanias

would entitle him to yet higher dignities and honors.

In view of these glittering bribes, the victor of Platæa was willing to

become the betrayer of his country. He released his noble prisoners with

messages to Xerxes, in which he offered to subject Sparta and the rest

of Greece to the Persian dominion, on condition of receiving the king’s

daughter in marriage, with wealth and power suitable to his rank. Xerxes

welcomed these overtures with delight, and immediately sent commissioners

to continue the negotiation. Exalted by his new hopes, the pride of

Pausanias became unbearable. He assumed the dress of a Persian satrap,

and journeyed into Thrace in true Oriental pomp, with a guard of Persians

and Egyptians. He insulted the Greek officers and subjected the common

soldiers to the lash. Even Aristides was rudely repulsed when he sought

to know the reason of this extraordinary conduct.

Reports reached the Spartan government, and Pausanias was recalled. He

was tried and convicted for various personal and minor offenses, but the

proof of his treason was thought insufficient to convict him. He returned

to Byzantium without the permission of his government, but was expelled

by the allies for his shameful conduct. Again recalled to Sparta, he was

tried and imprisoned, only to escape and renew his intrigues both with

the Persians and with the Helots at home, to whom he promised freedom

and the rights of citizenship if they would aid him to overthrow the

government and make himself tyrant.

[Sidenote: B. C. 471.]

He was caught, at length, in his own snares. A man named Argilius, whom

he had intrusted with a letter to Artabazus, remembered that none of

those whom he had seen dispatched on similar errands, had returned.

He broke the seal and found, together with much treasonable matter,

directions for his own death as soon as he should arrive at the satrap’s

court. The letter was laid before the ephors, and the treason being now

fully proved, preparations were made to arrest Pausanias. He was warned

and took refuge in the temple of Athena Chalciϫcus. Here he suffered the

penalty of his crimes. The roof was removed, and his own mother brought

the first stone to block up the entrance to the temple. When he was known

to be nearly exhausted by hunger and exposure, he was brought out to die

in the open air, lest his death should pollute the shrine of the goddess.

=132.= On the first recall of Pausanias, B. C. 477, the allies had

unanimously placed Aristides at their head. This was the turning-point of

a peaceful revolution which made Athens, instead of Sparta, the leading

state in Greece. Cautious still of awakening jealousy, Aristides named,

not Athens, but the sacred isle of Delos, as the seat of the Hellenic

League. Here the Congress met, and here was the common treasury, filled

by the contributions of all the Grecian states, for the defense of

the Ægean coasts and the furtherance of active operations against the

Persians. In the assessment of these taxes, Aristides acted with so much

wisdom and justice, that, though all the treasures of Greece were in

his power, no word of accusation or complaint was uttered by any of the

allies.

[Sidenote: B. C. 476.]

=133.= Having thus laid the foundation of Athenian supremacy by his

moderation, Aristides retired from command, and was succeeded by Cimon,

the son of Miltiades. This young noble was distinguished by his frank and

generous manners, as well as by his bravery in war, which had already

been proved against the Persians. The recovery of his father’s estates

in the Chersonesus gave him immense wealth, which he used in the most

liberal manner. He kept open table for men of all ranks, and was followed

in the streets by a train of servants laden with cloaks, which they gave

to any needy person whom they met. At the same time he administered to

the wants of the more sensitive by charities delicately and secretly

offered. Though doubtless injurious to the spirit of the Athenian people,

this liberality was gladly accepted, and resulted in unbounded popularity

to Cimon. His brave and sincere character commended him to the Spartans,

and of all the Athenians he was probably the most acceptable leader to

the allies.

=134.= His first expedition was against the Thracian town Ei´on, now

held by a Persian garrison. The town was reduced by famine, when its

governor, fearing the displeasure of Xerxes more than death, placed

himself, his family, and his treasures upon a funeral pile, and perished

by fire. The place surrendered, and its defenders were sold as slaves.

Cimon then proceeded to Scyrus, whose people had incurred the vengeance

of the League by their piratical practices. The pirates were expelled,

and the place occupied by an Attic colony. As the fear of Asiatic

invasion subsided, the bond between the allies and their chief relaxed.

Carystus refused to pay tribute, and Naxos, the most important of the

Cyclades, openly revolted. Cimon was on the alert. Carystus was subdued,

and a powerful fleet was led against Naxos. The siege was long and

obstinate, but it resulted in favor of Athens. The island was reduced

from an ally to a subject.

[Sidenote: B. C. 466.]

=135.= BATTLE OF THE EURYMEDON. The victorious fleet of Cimon now

advanced along the southern shores of Asia Minor, and all the Greek

cities, either encouraged by his presence or overawed by his power,

seized the opportunity to throw off the yoke of the Persians. His force

was increased by their accession when he came to the river Eurymedon,

in Pamphylia, and found a Persian fleet moored near its entrance, and

a powerful army drawn up upon the banks. Already more numerous than

the Greeks, they were expecting reinforcements from Cyprus; but Cimon,

preferring to attack them without delay, sailed up the river and engaged

their fleet. The Persians fought but feebly, and as they were driven to

the narrow and shallow portion of the river, they forsook their ships and

joined the army on the land. Cimon increased his own fleet by two hundred

of the deserted triremes, beside destroying many.

Thus victorious on the water, the men demanded to be led on shore, where

the Persian army stood in close array. Fatigued with the sea fight, it

was hazardous to land in the face of a superior enemy still fresh and

unworn, but the zeal of the Greeks surmounted all objections. The second

battle was more closely contested than the first; many noble Athenians

fell, but victory came at last; the field and the spoils remained to the

Greeks. To make his victory complete, Cimon proceeded to Cyprus, where

the Phœnician reinforcements were still detained. These were wholly

captured or destroyed, and the immense treasure which fell into the hands

of the victors increased the splendor of Athens. The tide of war had

now rolled back so powerfully upon Persia, that the coasts of Asiatic

Greece were free from all danger. No Persian troops came within a day’s

journey on horseback of the Grecian seas, whose waters were swept clear

of Persian sails.

=136.= Aristides was now dead, and Themistocles in exile, having been

ostracised in 471 B. C. Cimon was therefore both the greatest and

richest of the Athenians; and while his wealth was freely used for the

adornment of Athens and the pleasure of her citizens, it continually

added to his power. He planted the market-place with Oriental

plane-trees; laid out in walks and adorned with groves and fountains

the Acade´mia, afterward made celebrated by the teachings of Plato;

he erected beautiful colonnades of marble, where the Athenians long

loved to assemble for social intercourse; and he caused the dramatic

entertainments to be celebrated with greater elegance and brilliancy.

With this increase of wealth, the tastes of the citizens became

luxurious, and Athens rose from her poverty and secondary rank to be not

only the most powerful, but the most magnificent of Grecian cities.

=137.= Though of the opposite political party to Themistocles, Cimon

carried forward that statesman’s great design of exalting by all means

the naval power of Athens. To this end he yielded to the request of

the allies, who desired to commute their quotas of ships or men for

the general defense into a money payment. Other admirals had been less

accommodating, but Cimon masked a profound policy under his apparent

good-nature. The forces of the other states became enfeebled by want of

discipline, while the Athenians were not only enriched by their tribute,

but strengthened in the hardy drill of the soldier and sailor, which

Cimon never suffered them to relax.

=138.= The fall of Themistocles was indirectly brought about by that of

Pausanias. The great Athenian, living in exile, but watchful as ever

in all that concerned the interests of Greece, had entered so far into

the intrigues of Pausanias as to become possessed of all his plans. The

Spartan ephors, finding his letters among the papers of Pausanias, and

glad of such a pretext against their old enemy, sent them to Athens,

accusing him of a share in the conspiracy. The party led by Cimon and

friendly to Sparta was now predominant in Athens, and the people listened

too readily to these suspicions. A combined force of Spartan and Athenian

troops was sent forth, with orders to seize Themistocles wherever he

could be found.

[Sidenote: B. C. 466.]

The exile, after many adventures, took refuge at the court of Persia,

that power which, more than any man living, he had contributed to

destroy, but which was ever personally generous toward its foes. The

three cities, Myus, Lamp´sacus, and Magnesia, were assigned him for his

support. In the latter city he passed his remaining days in affluence and

honor. Two accounts have been given of his death. The more probable one

is, that when Egypt revolted and was aided by Athens (B. C. 449), the

Persian king called upon Themistocles to make good his promises and begin

operations against Greece. But the Athenian had only wished to escape

from his ungrateful countrymen, not to injure them, and he could not help

to destroy that supremacy of Athens which he had spent the best years

of his life in building up. Falsehood to the great king seemed to him a

less heinous crime than treason against his country. He made a solemn

sacrifice to the gods, took leave of his friends, and ended his days by

poison.

[Sidenote: B. C. 465.]

[Sidenote: B. C. 464.]

=139.= The Thasians, meanwhile, had a contest with Athens for some gold

mines in Thrace. Cimon conducted a fleet to Thasos, gained a naval

victory, and began a three years’ siege of the principal town. The

Thasians sent to Sparta for help, and that state was preparing to render

it with great alacrity, when her attention was suddenly absorbed at

home by unforeseen calamities. An earthquake of unprecedented violence

first destroyed the city. Great rocks from Mount Taygetus rolled into

the streets, and multitudes of persons were engulfed or buried beneath

the ruins of their houses. The shocks were long-continued, and terror

of the supposed wrath of Heaven was added to the anguish of poverty and

bereavement. The dreaded vengeance soon appeared in human form; for the

persecuted Helots, hearing the signal of their deliverance in the stroke

of doom to Sparta, flocked together from the fields and villages, and

mingled their revenge with the commotions of Nature.