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 Platæ'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 Egean 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 Pausanias, 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.

Themis'tocles, 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

ors, having administered the public finances with so much integrity, that he did not leave behind him a sum sufficient to defray the expenses of his funeral. A sum was issued from the public treasury to pay for the last rites to his corpse, to complete his son's education, and to portion his daughters.

Címon, the son of Miltíades, succeeded Aristides as leader of the Athenian republic: he continued the war against the Persians with equal vigor and skill, reducing all their cities and forts, not only in Europe and the islands, but even on the coast of Asia. At length he completely destroyed the whole Persian navy off the coast of Cy'prus (B. C. 470), and then dressing his men in the vestures and arms of his prisoners, surprised the Persian camp at the mouth of the river Eurym'edon on the very same day, and before the barbarians could recover from their confusion, completed their destruction. The war continued twenty-one years, during which the naval power and commercial wealth of the Athenians were continually increasing; both sides at length began to entertain thoughts of peace. The articles were soon arranged, and they were worthy of the valor that the Greeks had shown in this great struggle (B. c. 449). It was stipulated that the independence of the Greek cities in lower Asia should be restored; that no Persian vessel should appear between the Cyanean rocks and Chelidonian islands, that is, between the northern extremity of the Thracian Bos'phorus and the southern promontory of Lycia; that no Persian army should come within three days' journey of the seacoast; and that the Athenians should withdraw their fleets and armies from the island of Cyprus. Thus gloriously were terminated the Persian wars, which, reckoning from the burning of Sar'dis, had lasted, with little intermission, during fifty-one

years.

SECTION III.-The First Peloponnesian War.

FROM B. C. 431 TO B. c. 422.

WHILE the Athenians were acquiring wealth and glory in the war against Persia, the Spartans, jealous of their rival's rising fame, were secretly preparing to weaken the Athenian power by a sudden war. But their animosity, before it broke into action, was diverted by a calamity equally great and unexpected. Lacónia was laid waste by an earthquake, which destroyed one hundred and twenty thousand of its inhabitants, and overwhelmed the city of Sparta (B. c. 469). The oppressed Hélots and the remnant of the Messenians took advantage of this calamity to make a vigorous effort for the recovery of their freedom; they failed in surprising Sparta; but they made themselves masters of their ancient fortress Ithóme. Though aided by the Athenians, whose assistance they repaid with ingratitude, the Spartans had great difficulty in subduing the insurgents, and were finally forced to allow them to retire from the Peloponnésus with their families and properties.. These exiles were hospitably received in the Athenian colony of Naupac'tus; and they repaid the kindness shown to them by subsequently adhering, through every vicissitude of fortune, to the cause of Athens. The Argives had declined to support the general cause of Greece in the great struggle with the Persians; and the dependant

states, despising their treachery, had thrown off obedience to the capital. Mycéna was the only city on which the Argives could wreak their vengeance; the rest, supported by Spar'ta, maintained their independence. From similar reasons, Thebes had lost her supremacy over the Baotian cities; but here the Athenians embraced the cause of the minor states, while Sparta supported the sovereignty of the Botian metropolis.

Athens had now attained the summit of its greatness, under the brilliant administrations of Per'icles. That eminent statesman, though sprung from a noble house, had risen to power by warmly supporting the cause of the people, and procured the banishment of his rival Címon, on account of his partiality to Sparta. To secure his influence, Per'icles weakened the power of the great aristocratic court, the Areopagus, by removing various causes from its jurisdiction to that of the popular tribunals. He adorned the city with the most splendid monuments of architecture, sculpture, and painting; and in order to defray the necessary expenditure, he augmented the contributions imposed on the allied states, under the pretence of supporting the Persian war, and removed the treasury of the confederates from Délos to Athens. Finding that the Spartans were supporting the cause of the Theban supremacy, he sent an army to maintain the independence of Bæótia, which, though at first worsted near Tan'agra, won a decisive victory on the same ground in the following year (B. C. 457). A fleet at the same time ravaged the coasts of the Peloponnésus, and made the Spartans tremble for their own safety. The recall of Címon, and the defeat of the Athenians in an enterprise against Thebes, through the rashness of their leader Tol'midas, led to a truce for five years (B. c. 450), which might probably have led to a permanent peace, but for the death of Címon before the walls of Cit'ium. The close of the truce led to a brief renewal of war; but a second truce was concluded for fifty years, which gave Per'icles time to mature his favorite policy of making Athens mistress of the maritime and insular states. Some of the islands revolted, but they were successively subdued; and the subjugation of Sámos, the chief city in the island of that name, gave Pericles the fame of a military leader as well as a statesman. About the same time he completed the overthrow of the aristocratic party, by procuring the banishment of its leader, the elder Thucyd'ides; and secured the popular favor by his unrivalled shows and theatrical exhibitions. The brilliancy of Athens, however, provoked a host of secret enemies, especially in the Peloponnésus, who only waited an opportu nity of combining for her destruction.

Athens now formed the metropolis of an extensive territory which some of the ancients have denominated a kingdom. In that narrow space of time which intervened between the battle of Mycále and the memorable war of Peloponnésus, Athens had established her authority over an extent of more than a thousand miles of the Asiatic coast, from Cyprus to the Thracian Bos'phorus; taken possession of forty intermediate islands, together with the important straits which join the Euxine and the Ægean; conquered and colonized the winding shores of Thrace and Macedon; commanded the coast of the Euxine from Pon'tus to the Tauric Chersonese; and overawing the barbarous na

tives by the experienced terrors of her fleet, at the same time rendered subservient to her own interests the colonies which Milétus and other Greek cities in Asia had established in those remote regions. Thus the Athenian galleys commanded the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean; their merchantmen had engrossed the traffic of the adjacent countries; the magazines of Athens abounded with wood, metal, ebony, ivory, and all the materials of the useful as well as the agreeable arts; they imported the luxuries of Italy, Sicily, Cyprus, Lyd′ia, Pon'tus, and the Peloponnésus.

The circumstances that gave rise to the first Peloponnesian war originated in the unsettled state of colonial relations among the ancient Greeks. Corcy'ra, originally a Corinthian colony, had risen so rapidly in wealth and power, that it more than rivalled the parent state, and possessed many flourishing colonies of its own, among which one of the most important was Epidam'nus, called in Roman history Dyrac'chium (Durazzo), on the western coast of Macedónia. The people of Epidam'nus, pressed by their barbarous neighbors, sought aid from the Corcyreans; but finding their request unheeded, they applied to the Corinthians, who readily sent an armament to their assistance (B. c. 436). Nothing could exceed the rage of the Corcyreans when they received this intelligence; a fleet was instantly sent to the harbor, and its citizens were haughtily commanded to dismiss the Corinthians, and receive a Corcyrean garrison. This mandate was spurned with contempt, and Epidam'nus was immediately besieged. The Corinthians sent a powerful navy to raise the siege; but they were encountered by the Corcyreans in the Ambracian gulf, and completely defeated. Epidam'nus immediately surrendered; contrary, however, to the general expectation, its inhabitants were treated with great leniency. But the haughty islanders abused their victory by ravaging the territories of the states that had assisted Corinth, and provoked universal indignation by burning the city of Cyllene, on the sacred coast of E'lis. Both powers applied to Athens, as the head of the maritime states, to decide their quarrel. By the advice of Per'icles, a defensive alliance was concluded with the Corcyreans, and a fleet sent to their aid, which fortunately arrived at the moment when the Corinthian navy, having obtained a decisive victory, seriously menaced the island. On the arrival of the Athenians, the Corinthians retired; but as they returned, they surprised the garrison of Anactórium, on the coast of Epírus, which enabled them to bring home twelve hundred and fifty Corcyrean prisoners. The fatal effects produced by this capture will soon demand our attention.

Potidæ'a, a Corinthian colony on the Macedonian coast, which had been for some time subject to Athens, revolted during the Corcyrean war, and was instantly besieged. The Potidæ'ans sought aid from their ancient parent; and the Corinthians, too weak to afford efficient protection, besought the assistance of the Spartans. About the same time, ambassadors arrived from the city of Meg'ara, complaining that they had been, by an unjust decree, excluded from the ports and harbors of Attica, soliciting the Spartans, as heads of the Dorian race, to procure a reversal of so unjust a law; and emissaries came from Ægína to represent the miserable condition to which that island had been reduced

by Athenian oppression. After some affected delay, the Spartans resolved that the Athenians had violated the principles of justice, and should be coerced to redress the injuries they had inflicted; but to give their proceedings an appearance of moderation, it was resolved to send ambassadors to Athens with demands which they knew well would be refused. They required that the siege of Potidæ'a should be raised, the decree against Meg'ara repealed, the island of Ægína abandoned, the independence of the maritime states respected, and the descendants of Cy'lon's murderers banished. This last demand was levelled at Per'icles, whose maternal ancestor had headed the aristocratic party when that sacrilegious murder was committed; and it was urged at a favorable moment, when Per'icles was suspected of impiety on account of his protecting the philosopher Anaxag'oras.

But the haughtiness with which the Spartan ambassadors urged their injurious demands roused the fiery spirit of the Athenian people, and it required all the influence of Per'icles to induce them to couch their refusal in temperate and dignified language. While the declaration of war was yet withheld intelligence arrived at Spar'ta of the Thebans having been foiled in an attempt to surprise Platæ æ, and that their defeat was owing to the instigation and aid of the Athenians (B. c. 431). War was instantly proclaimed, and the Spartan king Archida'mus elected chief of the Peloponnesian confederates.

Athens, supported by the insular and maritime states, was supreme mistress of the sea; Spar'ta, on the other hand, was joined by the chief powers on the Grecian continent, and was consequently superior by land. Both began the war by displaying their strength on their own peculiar element: a Spartan army ravaged At'tica, an Athenian fleet plundered the coasts of the Peloponnésus. The Spartans were thus forced to return home to the defence of their own country; and no sooner had they withdrawn, than Per'icles invaded Meg'anis, and laid the whole of its narrow territory desolate. Early in the next summer the Peloponnesians again invaded At'tica; but the Athenians were assailed by a more dreadful calamity-a plague of unparalleled virulence had been introduced into the Pira'æus from Asia, and it raged fiercely in a city crowded by the peasants who had sought refuge within the walls on the approach of the Spartans. At length, two years and six months after the commencement of the war, Pericles himself fell a victim to the pestilence (B. c. 429). His death-bed was surrounded by his friends and admirers, who recited the many illustrious exploits of his glorious life. "You forget," said the dying patriot, "you forget the only valuable part of my character; none of my fellow-citizens was ever compelled by any action of mine to assume a mourning robe."

The war was supported by mutual ravages, and the success of the contending parties nicely balanced. Potida a surrenderd to the Athenians, its inhabitants were banished, and their place supplied by fresh colonists; Platæ'æ, after a brave and protracted defence of five years, was yielded to the Spartans, and the whole garrison was mercilessly butchered (B. c. 427). In the same year that the Spartans had stained their national character by the atrocious massacre of the Plataans, the Athenians narrowly escaped being disgraced by a similar atrocity. The Lesbians of Mityléne had revolted, and sought the assistance of the