CHAPTER X.

HISTORY OF GREECE,

FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE PERSIAN WARS TO THE ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. FROM B. C. 500 TO B. c. 336.

SECTION I.-The First Persian War.

FROM B. C. 500 TO B. c. 490.

WHEN Daríus Hystas'pes invaded Scythia, he intrusted the guard of the bridge of boats that he had constructed over the Danube to the Greeks of Asia and Thrace, who had been so recently brought under subjection to the Persians. Many of those were anxious to recover their freedom, and they deliberated seriously on the propriety of destroying the bridge, and leaving the Persians to perish without resource in an inhospitable desert. The proposal was strenuously advocated by Miltíades, the king or tyrant, as he was called, of the Thracian Chersonese; but he was opposed by Histiæ'us, the tyrant of Milétus, whose selfish counsels finally prevailed. Miltiades retired to Athens, his native city, where he subsequently rose to the highest honors; Histiæ'us accompanied the monarch he had saved to the court of Persia. But the gratitude of absolute princes is not permanent: Histiæ'us soon found that the very magnitude of his services exposed him to danger; and he concerted with his nephew, Aristag'oras, a revolt, which inIcluded all the Ionian colonies. In order that the insurrection should have any reasonable prospects of success, it was necessary that it should be supported by the Grecian states; and to engage this assistance, Aristag'oras came to Lacedæ'mon.

Being repulsed at Spar'ta, Aristag'oras proceeded to Athens, where he was more generously received (B. c. 500). Twenty ships were prepared for him with all convenient speed; and these being reinforced by five more from the little state of Eret'ria, in the island of Eubœ'a, sailed over to the harbor of Milétus, and commenced the war. The allies were at first very successful. Sar'dis, the wealthy capital of Lydia, was taken and plundered; but Aristag'oras had not the talents of a general; the fruits of success were lost as soon as won; the several divisions of the army quarrelled and separated; and the Asiatic Greeks were left to bear the brunt of the vengeance of their merciless masters. Milétus was taken, its walls razed, and its citizens massacred; several minor cities suffered similar calamities. Aristag'oras

fled to Thrace, where he was murdered by the barbarians; and Histiæ'us, after a vain attempt to escape, was crucified at Sar'dis by command of the Persian satrap.

Daríus next turned his resentment against the Greeks, who had aided this revolt; he sent ambassadors to demand homage from the Grecian states, especially requiring the Athenians to receive back Hip'pias, their exiled tyrant. All the states, insular and continental, except Athens and Spar'ta, proffered submission; but those noble republics sent back a haughty defiance, and fearlessly prepared to encounter the whole strength of the Persian empire.

Daríus, having prepared a vast armament, intrusted its command to his son-in-law Mardónius, who soon subdued the island of Thásus, and the kingdom of Macedon (B. c. 493). But his fleet, while doubling Mount A'thos, was shattered by a violent storm; three hundred vessels were dashed against the rocks, and twenty thousand men are said to have perished in the waves. Mardónius returned home to excuse his disgrace, by exaggerating the cold of the climate, and the dangers of the Ægean sea.

A second and more powerful armament was prepared (B. c. 490), over which Daríus placed his two best generals, Dátis, a Mede, and Artapher'nes, a Persian nobleman. The fleet passed safely through the Cyclades, and arrived at the island of Eubœ'a. Thence the Persians crossed the Eurípus, and, by the advice of the exiled Hip'pias, encamped with an army said to exceed five hundred thousand men on the plains of Mar'athon, within forty miles of Athens.

The Athenians could only muster an army of ten thousand citizens, and about double that number of slaves, who were armed in this extremity. The little city of Plata'a sent an auxiliary force of a thousand men ; but the Spartans, yielding either to superstition or jealousy, refused to send their promised aid before the full of the moon. Miltiades dissuaded his countrymen from standing a siege, because the immense host of the Persians could completely blockade the city, and reduce it by starvation. He led the army to Marathon; but when the Persian hosts were in sight, five of the ten generals, commanding jointly with himself, were afraid to hazard a battle; and it was not without difficulty that Callim'achus was prevailed upon to give his casting vote in favor of fighting. But when the bold resolution of engaging was adopted, all the generals exerted themselves to forward the wise plans of their leader (B. c. 490).

Miltiades formed his lines at the foot of a hill that protected his rear and right flank; his left was secured by an extensive marsh, and his front protected by trunks of trees, strewn for some distance, to break the force of the Persian cavalry. The Athenian citizens occupied the right wing, the Plateans the left, while the raw levies of slaves were stationed in the centre. Dátis saw the advantages of this position; but confident in his superior numbers, he gave the signal for battle. The Greek centre was broken at the moment that the two wings had routed the divisions opposed to them: this had been foreseen; and Miltiades directed the victorious wings to attack the Persians rushing incautiously through the broken centre on both flanks. Surprise is fatal to an oriental army; in a few minutes the Asiatics

were wholly routed, and fled in confusion to their ships. The Greeks pursued them vigorously, and destroyed seven of their vessels. But the Persian fleet was still powerful, and its commanders deemed it possible to suprise Athens before the army could return. Miltiades, however, baffled this attempt by rapidly marching from the field of battle to the city, and securing the posts before the hostile navy could get round the promontory of Súnium. Thus disappointed, the Persians took advantage of a favorable gale, and returned to Asia.

Miltiades was subsequently accused of having taken a bribe, convicted on rather doubtful evidence, and sentenced to pay a heavy fine, which not being able to pay, he was thrown into prison, where he died of his wounds.

Themistocles, the most able statesman, and Aristides, the most uncorrupt patriot of Greece, for a time shared the power that had been previously possessed by Miltiades. Their struggle for power ended in the banishment of Aristides; but when his wise counsels were required in the hour of emergency, he was recalled on the motion of his successful rival. Themistocles directed all his efforts to improving the naval power of Athens, and he succeeded in securing for his country the complete supremacy of the Grecian seas.

In the interval between the two Persian wars nothing remarkable occurred in any other of the Grecian states, save that in Spar'ta, one of its kings, Demarátus, was deposed and driven into exile by the intrigues of the other, Cleom'enes. Demarátus sought refuge in the court of Persia; Cleom'enes perished by his own hand, a victim to remorse. Leoty'chides succeeded the former, Leon'idas the latter.

SECTION II.-The Second Persian War.

FROM B. C. 480 To B. c. 449.

NINE years after the battle of Marathon, Xer'xes, the son and successor of Daríus, resolved to attempt the conquest of Greece, and for this purpose collected an army, which, after making every allowance for the exaggerations of historians, appears to have been the most numerous ever assembled. When he reached the pass of Thermopylæ, through which lay the road from Thessaly to Greece, he found a body of eight thousand men, commanded by the Spartan Leon'idas, prepared to dispute the passage. The haughty Persian instantly sent a herald, commanding these warriors to surrender their arms, and was maddened by the contumelious reply, "Come and take them."

After many ineffectual efforts to break the Grecian lines, all of which were repulsed with great slaughter, Xer'xes was on the point of retiring in despair, when the treachery of Ephial'tes, a Trachinian deserter, revealed to him a path leading to the top of the mountain, that secured the Grecian flank. Leon'idas advised his allies to retire, declaring that he and his Spartans were forbidden by law to abandon their posts. Retaining with him only a thousand men, he resolved to attack the Persian camp by night, hoping in the confusion and darkness to reach the royal tent, and, by the slaughter or capture of Xerxes, to put an end to the war. The plan had nearly succeeded when morning dawned on the assailants, wearied with slaughter; they then retreated

to the upper part of the pass, where they were soon surrounded by multitudes; but they still fought with all the energies of despair, until they sunk, fatigued rather than vanquished.

About the same time the Greeks obtained a victory over the Persian fleet off the headland of Artemis'ium, in the island of Eubœ'a; but this triumph was rendered fruitless by the loss of the pass of Thermópylæ; and Themis'tocles persuaded the allies to remove the navy into the Saronic gulf, where they anchored off the island of Sal'amis. Xerxes, having entered Phócis, divided his army, sending a large detachment to plunder and destroy the temple of Del'phi. They were attacked by the Phocians, and hewn down almost without resistance. A miserable remnant escaped to Xer'xes, who, having destroyed Thes'piæ and Platæ æ, was rapidly advancing against Athens. On his approach, the Athenians, by the persuasion of Themis'tocles, abandoned their beloved city; those capable of bearing arms retired to the island of Sal'amis, while those whom age or sex rendered unfit for war, found shelter in the hospitable city of Træzéne. Athens was burned to the ground; and Xerxes, in the pride of success, resolved to annihilate the last hopes of Greece in a naval engagement.

Eurybíades, the Spartan, who commanded the allied fleet, was induced by Themistocles to adopt the plan of hazarding an engagement. Fearing, however, some change, the crafty Athenian sent a spy, as a pretended deserter, to Xer'xes, informing him that the Greeks were preparing to disperse and escape; upon which the whole Persian navy was sent to blockade the harbor of Sal'amis. Themis'tocles learned the success of his stratagem from Aristides, who crossed over from Ægína in a small boat with the intelligence; a circumstance that at once put an end to the rivalry between these great men.

Xer'xes witnessed the battle of Sal'amis from Ægaléos, a rocky eminence on the coast of Attica: he had the mortification to see his magnificent navy utterly annihilated. From that moment Xerxes resolved to return into Asia, leaving three hundred thousand men under Mardónius to prosecute the war. When he reached the Hellespont, he found his magnificent bridge broken down, and he was forced to cross the strait in a common fishing-boat.

Mardónius having wintered in Thes'saly, before opening the next campaign, sent the king of Macedon as an ambassador to the Athenians, offering them the rebuilding of their city, and the friendship of his master, on condition of their seceding from the alliance. These offers were rejected. The confederates encamped at the foot of Mount Citha'ron, in front of the Persian lines. Several skirmishes took place, in all of which the Greeks had the advantage; but being distressed for want of water, they broke up their camp to seek a better position.

Mardónius, believing that his enemies were in full retreat, ordered his soldiers to pursue the fugitives and complete the victory. A battle ensued not far from the city of Plata'æ, which ended in the total defeat of the Persians, and the annihilation of their army, with the exception of forty thousand that escaped to the Hellespont under Artabázus. Two hundred thousand of the barbarians are said to have fallen in this memorable battle, and the value of the plunder found in the Persian

camp exceeds calculation. On the very same day (September 22d, B. c. 479), an equally important victory was gained by the confederate fleet, commanded by the Athenian Xanthip'pus and the Spartan Leoty'chides at Mycále, on the coast of Asia Minor. Dreading the heroism of the Greeks, the Persians had drawn their ships on shore, surrounded them with fortifications, and protected them with an army of sixty thousand men. The allied Greeks, with far inferior numbers, landed their troops, stormed the works, destroyed the navy, and put the greater part of the Persians to the sword. The plunder taken by the Greeks was immense, but the most splendid results of these victories were the overthrow of the Persian power in the Ægean sea, and the freedom of the islands. It is probable that the colonies in western Asia might have regained their independence if they desired it; but, with the exception of the Ionians, most of the Asiatic Greeks preferred the tranquil supremacy of Persia to an alliance with the Grecian republics. During the half century which followed the battle of Plata'æ, the Athenian republic attained the summit of its greatness, and became the first state, not only of Greece, but of the civilized world. Themis'tocles rebuilt the defences of the city, fortified the harbor of the Peiræ'us, and joined it to Athens by what were called "the long walls."

In the meantime the Spartan Pausanias, at the head of the confederate Greeks, continued to wage war against the dependancies of the Persian empire in the Ægean sea and on the coast of Thrace. Byzan'tium, already regarded as a strong and flourishing city, was taken after a short siege (B. c. 470), and its vast wealth became the prey of the conquerors. Among the captives were many distinguished Persian noblemen, and even relations of the king, who paid large sums to redeem them from captivity. But this sudden influx of riches proved fatal to Pausanias; he resolved, by the aid of the Persians, to become supreme master of Greece. Secret information of their general's treason was conveyed to the Spartan senate; he was recalled, and brought to trial; but escaped the first time, it is said, by bribing his judges. Fresh evidence being obtained against him, he was secretly warned of his danger, and fled for safety to the temple of Miner'va. The Spartans did not dare to drag the traitor from the sanctuary; they blocked up the door of the temple with huge stones, stripped off its roof, strictly guarded all its avenues, and left the wretch to perish by cold and hunger. In consequence of the tyranny of Pausánias, the Spartans were deprived of the supremacy by sea, and the Athenians were chosen to lead the naval confederacy of the islands and colonies. Aristides was elected treasurer of the allies, and to prevent any complaints, he selected the island of Délos as the, point of reunion, and the sanctuary where their contributions should be deposited under the protection of Apollo.

Themistocles, by the artifice of the Spartans, was involved in the fate of Pausanias: he appears to have been acquainted with the plot, but he strenuously denied that it had ever received his sanction. He was banished by ostracism for ten years; but the malice of his enemies pursued him in his exile, and, to save his life, he was forced to seek refuge at the court of Persia. He soon however ended his life by poison. Nearly at the same time Aristides died full of years and hon