governments were incessantly armed against each other. Separated thus by mistaken interests, they could perform nothing great, and external pressure was necessary to develop their forces in behalf of the common safety of Greece. The Persian wars laid the foundation of Grecian, and particularly of Athenian grandeur. While Athens was rising to an ascendency over her neighbours, she was extending a silent but more certain and beneficial influence by her literary men. Eschylus fought at Salamis; Euripides was born on the very day of the battle, and Sophocles was seventeen years old.

EXILE OF THEMISTOCLES.-Themistocles, vanquisher of the Persians at Salamis, used his influence to persuade the Athenians of the necessity of maintaining their superiority by means of a powerful navy. In spite of the jealous opposition of the Spartans, the walls of Athens were reared, the Piræus was built, and funds were voted for the yearly construction of new vessels. These services of the patriotic leader were badly requited. He was accused of participating in the conspiracy of Pausanias; and although nothing was proved against him, he was, by the popular ballot, condemned to exile, in 471. He took refuge at the court of Artaxerxes Longimanus, where he died, whether by poison or disease is uncertain.

CIMON, the son of Miltiades, now became the prominent actor in the affairs of Greece. This great man was said to unite the courage of his father with the prudence of Themistocles and the integrity of Aristides. He had already acquired renown by his conquests in Thrace, and his successes over the Persians in Asia Minor. At the battles of the Eurymedon, in 466, he utterly defeated the troops of Artaxerxes, both by land and sea; whereby he struck such a blow at the power of that sovereign, that a treaty was concluded, by which the freedom of the Ionian cities was guaranteed, and no Persian horseman allowed to approach within a day's journey of the sea. In a subsequent expedition, Cimon recovered the Thracian Chersonese; and by the surrender of Thasos in 463, the Athenians obtained the gold mines on the opposite coasts of Thrace.

PERICLES, Son of Xantippus, the conqueror at Mycale, now appeared on the stage of Athenian politics. He joined the popular faction in order to oppose Cimon, who was at the head of the aristocracy; and the third Messenian war, which led to the exile of that chief, left him without a rival, 461. Thebes and Argos, which, during the struggle with Persia, had deserted and betrayed the Greek party, became the cause of a severe contest between Athens and Sparta; the latter declaring for the Thebans, the former for the Argives. On the field of Tanagra, in Boeotia, victory favoured the Spartans (457), but

the successes of Myronides shortly after turned the scale. Nearly all the states of Boeotia were revolutionized, and garrisons of friends every where established. Faction was not, however, quieted, and to preserve the state from ruin, Pericles himself solicited the recall of the banished Cimon, 456. By his intercession, the two republics were united in a common expedition against Persia, during which this pacificator died, though not until he had seen the conclusion of the war, 449 B. c.

REVOLT OF THE HELOTS-THIRD MESSENIAN WAR.-While Athens was steadily pursuing her career of aggrandizement, Sparta was almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake, unequalled in horrors, except by that of Lisbon in 1755 a. d. The earth opened into immense chasms, the tops of mountains were cleft, and enormous fragments rolled down into the plains, destroying every thing in their course. In the city, five houses only were left standing, and 20,000 of its inhabitants perished in the ruins, 464 B. C. The Helots, taking advantage of this awful catastrophe, rose in rebellion, hoping to emancipate themselves and avenge their wrongs. The prudence of King Archidamus saved Lacedæmon; the Helots were gradually dispersed, and at last blockaded in Ithomé, the capital of Messene, which they had fortified. From this circumstance the insurrection is known by the name of the third Messenian war. At the outbreak of the revolt, the assistance of Athens was solicited, and granted at the suggestion of Cimon, for which act he was afterwards banished.

ADMINISTRATION OF PERICLES.-After the death of Cimon, Pericles became the leading man at Athens. Bold and artful, eloquent and rich, he managed the fickle populace at his will, and principally by flattering them that each mechanic knew something of the affairs of the state. Abroad he was every where triumphant, particularly in the Samian war, 440; and Athens became the Queen of the Sea. During forty years he governed with kingly power, and his reign was one of the most brilliant epochs in the history of civilisation. The arts and sciences, with commerce, made rapid advances; schools of philosophers and orators were formed; and elegance and perspicuity of expression became an enviable distinction. It is to the patronage of Pericles that Athens owes the glory of being the country of literature and the arts. How great the contrast offered by Lacedæmon, where grossness of manners and severe laws prevented all moral development! At Sparta, it was said, men learn to die for their country; at Athens, to live for it.

Pericles, however, had not brought Athens to this pitch of elevation without some degree of injustice; since he applied to the use of his own city part of the funds intrusted to her by the other states of Greece for carrying on the war against Persia. When remonstrated with for this appropriation, he replied in so arrogant a manner as greatly to offend the allies, and particularly the Spartans, who beheld the present prosperity of Athens with envy, and the insolence of Pericles with indignation. These and other causes of irritation soon rendered war between the rival states inevitable.

Two petty contests-that of Corcyra, which Athens supported against the parent city of Corinth; and that of Potidea, also a Corinthian colony, which Athens wished to reduce under its own power-led to a rupture with Corinth, and this again to the great Peloponnesian war. A congress of the cities forming the Peloponnesian alliance assembled at Sparta, and after long deliberation, hostilities against Athens were resolved on.

The cause of Sparta was embraced by all the Peloponnesus, with the exception of Argos and Achaia; by Bœotia (Platea excepted); by Phocis, Locris, Etolia, Megara, Leucadia, &c. Its army amounted to 60,000 men; but its fleet was insignificant, being composed of none but Corinthian vessels, and its finances were at the lowest possible depression. On the other hand, Athens reckoned as allies all Acarnania, Platæa, Corcyra, Naupactus, several princes of Thessaly, and had at its disposal the forces of the Cyclades (save Melos and Thera), of numerous free cities in Asia, Thrace, and on the Hellespont; it had an army of 16,000 men, besides a militia (or burgherguard) of 16,000 for the defence of Attica; its navy consisted of 300 triremes; and the treasury contained the large sum of 600 talents, or nearly 12 millions of our money.

Archidamus, the Spartan king, twice invaded Attica in person (431, 430), but retired each time after laying waste the country, and without venturing to attack the capital. While the country population of Attica were safely sheltered within the walls of Athens, Pericles ravaged with his fleet the Spartan coasts: the rebellious Egina was reduced, and the Corinthian ships were defeated on the shores of Acarnania. But in 430, Attica, a prey to the horrors of war, was devastated still more by the scourge of pestilence, which carried off many of the principal men. Pericles, who was considered the author of their evils, was deposed and fined; but he was soon besought by the common voice to resume the cares of government. He

did not long enjoy his triumph; he caught the dreadful infection, of which he died, lamented alike by friends and enemies, 429.

Read: Account of the Plague of Athens, in Anacharsis.

SICILIAN EXPEDITION.-Cleon, a currier, succeeded the great Pericles, and an unbridled democracy was preparing the most lamentable consequences. Sparta, in her young and valorous general Brasidas, threatened a dangerous rivalry to Athens; but he perished too early, before Amphipolis, a victim to his own courage, 422. A short time previous to this event, Lacedæmon had been the theatre of a terrible domestic tragedy. Under the pretence of enrolling the Helots among the troops destined for the Thracian expedition, 2000 of the flower of the slave population were selected, and while enjoying the festival of their newly gained liberty, with the garlands of freedom still encircling their heads, in the emphatic and significant language of the historian, they disappeared.

A truce of fifty years was now concluded by the management of Nicias, but as it displeased all the allies, it could not last. Almost within a year the war was revived by the ambition of Alcibiades. This young man united the advantages of extreme beauty, wealth, and noble birth, with the most eminent talents. He was the pupil of Socrates, and the ward and nephew of Pericles, whom he endeavoured to imitate, but without his maturity of judgment. Embracing the popular side, by his well-timed flattery and florid descriptions, he persuaded his countrymen to undertake the fatal expedition to Sicily. Grecian colonies had long been settled in that island; the principal town, Syracuse, was built by Corinthians in the eighth century. The Carthaginians had endeavoured to obtain its mastery, but they were utterly defeated at Panormus on the day of the battle of Thermopylæ. The oppressions exercised by Syracuse over the weaker towns compelled them to look abroad for aid; Egesta applied to Athens for help, which was readily granted in despite of the warning voice of Nicias.

A fleet was equipped, and intrusted to the command of Alcibiades, with Lamachus and Nicias for his associates, 415 B. C. But scarcely had the armament sailed, than he was accused of sacrilege; and fearing to obey the orders of recall, he fled to Sparta, where he became the enemy of his country. During this time, the fleet and army of the Athe

nians were destroyed after the fatal siege of Syracuse, by the counsels and the aid furnished by Gylippus, 413 B. C.

This rash expedition was a blow to the power of Athens from which it never recovered. Alcibiades was forthwith recalled, and the period of his second government was the most brilliant of the whole war (411-407). The repeated victories of his countrymen over the Spartans, commanded by Mindarus (who in his distrust of Tissaphernes, had formed an alliance with Pharnabazus, satrap of Northern Asia Minor), obliged the Lacedæmonians themselves to sue for peace, which the haughty Athenians unhappily refused. Another great naval victory was gained at Arginusæ, between Mitylene and Asia, in which Callicratidas, the admiral, was killed, 406. For not picking up the dead bodies in the stormy weather after the battle, six of the commanders were unjustly put to death, Socrates alone venturing to raise an opposing voice.

VICTORY OF LYSANDER.-In the following year, Lysander detached Ephesus from the Athenian party, and made an alliance with Cyrus the younger, governor of Western Asia. Being reinforced by this prince, in 405, he destroyed the enemy's fleet at Egos Potamos, in the Thracian Chersonese, and killed 3000 men, Conon alone, with eight vessels and the sacred ship Paralus, escaping the general havoc. The fate of Athens was now sealed. Lysander proceeded with his victorious squadron to the Piræus, when the city, closely pressed by land and sea, was compelled to surrender, 404. Peace was granted on the following hard conditions :—that the fortifications should be demolished; that all the warships, save twelve, should be given up; that the tributary cities should be emancipated; that the exiles should be recalled; and that no war should be carried on except under the orders of the Lacedæmonians. Athens, to complete its misfortunes, beheld its government violently changed. The democracy was destroyed, and all authority placed in the hands of thirty archons, known as the THIRTY TYRANTS. Thus ended the Peloponnesian war.

"The victory of Egos-Potamos," says Muller, "destroyed only the dominion, not the greatness of Athens; an enlightened nation, which does not forget itself, secures a dignity which is independent of the vicissitudes of events." The consequences of the Peloponnesian war were more injurious to the morals than to the policy of the Greeks. A factious spirit usurped the name of patriotism, and each nation saw a rival or an enemy in the other. Athens lost her preponderance, and was replaced by Sparta; but the bond of unity was broken, and the despotism of the Thirty Tyrants was more burdensome to the tributary states than that of independent Athens.