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 a peace, which the haughty Athenians unhappily refused. Another great navai 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 menof-war, 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. It was easy to foresee that Greece would fall a prey to the first foreign power that ventured to attack it. It is some feeble consolation, that during this dark and stormy period, Athens was laying the foundation of an empire which Sparta could not destroy, and which the lapse of years has rendered more powerful. Literature and the fine arts attained their highest eminence. Aschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, still delight and form our taste. The ruins of the Parthenon are yet an object of veneration, and from the mutilated sculptures of Phidias the best modern artists have drawn their inspiration. After the battle of Egos-Potamos, Lysander placed a Lacedæmonian governor, with ten archons, in all the cities of Caria, İonia, the Hellespont, and Thrace. He returned in triumph to Sparta with immense riches, the fruits of his conquests. His ambition was not satisfied with his success; he endeavoured to seize upon the crown, but on finding himself deserted by his partisans, he was compelled to abandon his pretensions. THRASYBULUS.-This illustrious Athenian, in company with other exiles, had taken refuge at Thebes from the cruelty of the Thirty Tyrants. Putting himself at the head of 500 soldiers, raised at the expense of the orator Lysias, he succeeded in taking the Piræus, and in defeating the Thirty, who had hastened thither with their troops, 403. Thus by the wisdom and moderation of a single man, Athens recovered liberty and peace, while the ancient form of government was renewed, in defiance of all the exertions of Lacedæmon. The despots had been replaced by a council of Ten members, not less absolute than their predecessors. By this body the aid of Lysander and his mercenary army was invoked, but the victory remained with king Pausanias, who had come to the support of Thrasybulus and his adherents. On the deposition of the Ten, the democratic government was restored, and a general amnesty proclaimed. Forms may be easily re-established, but the departed spirit of a nation can never be recalled. DEATH OF ALCIBIADES.—Alcibiades, accused by Thrasybulus of having ruined the Athenian commonwealth, was a second time deprived of the chief command. He at first retired to his Thracian estates, but was compelled to leave them to avoid the machinations of his enemies, and to seek an asylum in Bithynia. The people, in their distress, again turned their thoughts towards him, and agitated his recall; but the Thirty Tyrants counselled Lysander to demand him alive or dead, from the satrap, who was base enough to comply with their wishes; and he accordingly perished beneath the weapons of the barbarians, at the age of forty, 404 B. C. Read: Life of Alcibiades, in Anacharsis. OSTRACISM. In this extraordinary proceeding, each citizen wrote upon a shell or piece of broken ware, the name of the person he desired to banish. Whenever the number amounted to 6000, they were sorted, the man was exiled for ten years whose name was found on the majority, although no crime might have been alleged, and no defence was allowed. A similar custom existed at Argos, and also in Sicily, under the name of Petalism. Athens spared neither the lives nor fortunes of her heroes. Miltiades, the conqueror at Marathon, died in prison; Aristides the Just, and the benevolent Cimon, who fought at Eurymedon, were banished. Paches, the conqueror of Mitylene, committed suicide to avoid the results of an unjust accusation. Themistocles saved his life by fleeing to Persia; Herodotus the historian found an asylum in Southern Italy; Thucydides fled from the jealousy of the demagogue Cleon; the amiable Xenophon was driven into exile; Socrates was poisoned; Timotheus the son of Conon, who had rebuilt the walls of Athens, died of extreme want; Iphicrates and Chabrias withdrew to avoid a similar fate; Phocion was condemned to die at the advanced age of eighty-four; Demetrius of Phaleræ sought refuge in Egypt; and even in more recent days, the father of the his torian Chalcondylas, met with no return for his services but ingratitude. N. B. Let the student give the particulars from Plutarch's Lives, Lempriere's Dictionary, or any other authentic source. PERSIA. XERXES I., 485.-The last days of Darius were embittered by disputes between his sons about the succession; until at length Xerxes, born to him by his second wife, Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, was declared heir. He marched against the Egyptian rebels, and placed the subject country under the severe treatment of his brother, the Satrap Achæmenes He is the Ahasuerus. —a title, not a proper name - who confirmed the Jews in all the privileges granted by his father, and forced the Samaritans to contribute to the building of the temple. His cruelties and dissolute life were terminated by assassination; his murderers gave out that he fell by the hands of his son Darius, 465, who shortly afterwards perished in a similar manner. The results of the invasion of Greece have been mentioned in another place. ARTAXERXES I. Longimanus, on his accession, 465, found the provinces in rebellion. His brother Hystaspes, in Bactria, was subdued after two battles; and Egypt, whose submission was neither certain nor durable, was recovered, though not without difficulty, in 455. The Greeks, meanwhile, retaliated upon Persia the evils inflicted by Mardonius. The kindred cities of Ionia were re-established, and Cimon, having in one day destroyed both ships and army at the Eurymedon, 466, compelled the great king to accede to an inglorious peace. No Persian governor was to reside within three days' journey of the Mediterranean, and none of his war-vessels were to sail between Palestine and the Chersonese. RETREAT OF THE TEN THOUSAND, 401.-Rapid and violent revolutions, with rebellions in the provinces, particularly in Egypt, 414, under Darius II. Nothus, led to the reign of Artaxerxes II. Mnemon, 405. He had scarcely ascended the throne when he was compelled to defend it against his brother Cyrus the younger, governor of Asia Minor, who claimed the throne from being the first born after his father's accession. His army of 100,000 barbarians under Ariæus was reinforced by 13,000 Grecian volunteers, commanded by Clearchus. The hostile armies met at Cunaxa, about twenty leagues from Babylon, where Cyrus, engaging in battle with his brother, who had 120,000 men under his command, lost his life, 401. The Greeks maintained the reputation of their country not only in this fight, but in that memorable retreat, in which, at the end of fifteen months, after having overcome every obstacle of nature, and triumphed over all the attacks of the nations on their route, they again beheld their native shores. The Anabasis of Xenophon, their general, has immortalized this unexampled march. Sketch a Map of the March to Cunaxa and of the Retreat. ROME. THE CONSULS.-On the abolition of royalty, the power of the kings was transferred to two consuls, annually elected, of whom Brutus and Collatinus were the first, 509. A conspiracy was formed to restore the exiled sovereign, and among its members were two sons of Brutus; but the plot being discovered, the criminals were apprehended. The father himself presided on the trial, and condemned his children to the scourge and the axe. Such heartlessness and cruelty, not required by any state of society, is too frequently held out as an example worthy of imitation. Ambition and stoical pride could alone have excited a parent to pursue a line of conduct which would now meet with universal execration. Tarquin's only remaining resource was arms; and, assisted by the Etruscan Porsenna, he overran the country, defeated the Romans, compelled them to surrender a third part of their territory, and to give hos tages from their noblest families. The deposed dynasty was not, however, restored, and the king, after many adventures, and having outlived all his children, died at Cumæ, B. C. 494. The most important monument of the authenticity of early Roman history is the first commercial treaty with Carthage, 509, in which Rome, although a free state, does not appear as the head of Latium. The first consuls were of the family of Tarquin, the name and not the power of the supreme ruler being changed. They were first called prætors, the name of consul being given after the decemvirate. DICTATOR.-Scarcely had Rome been freed from the regal yoke, when the people began to suffer from patrician tyranny. The equitable constitution of Servius being laid aside, the office of dictator was created, 498, and Lartius was the first who filled this office. The law of appea. established by Valerius Poplicola was by this means evaded, and unlimited authority was exercised over the commonalty. The oppression of the nobles was principally manifested in withdrawing the election of the consuls from the centuries, and by reducing their unfortunate debtors to the rank of slaves (nexi). An accident drove the commons (plebs) into sedition; the legions deserted their generals and retired to the Sacred Mount, while the plebeians occupied the Aventine and Esquiline Hills. After long resistance, the Valerian laws were restored, and all debtors set at liberty. The fable of Menenius Agrippa (the belly and the members) refers to this period, 493 B. C. TRIBUNES.-The sole purpose of these officers (who owe their creation to the preceding disturbances) was to uphold the Valerian laws and check the consular power. At first they were a plebeian, afterwards a national magistracy, and their number was increased from two to ten. CORIOLANUS, who had distinguished himself against the Volsci, obstinately resisted the right they claimed of summoning patricians before the tribunal of the commons. Being driven into exile (475), he headed a band of Romans in a like situation with himself, and nearly endangered the existence of his native city. The tears of a mother availed more than the entreaties of the Senate. He concluded a gloricus peace, and when he died, at an advanced age, among the Volscians, the Roman matrons mourned him during a whole year, and he was justly honoured as an upright patriot.—In acknowledgment of the service rendered by Veturia, a temple was erected at Rome to Female Fortune. AGRARIAN LAWS.-These famous laws concerned the public lands alone, setting no limit to the landed property of any class or individual. When a hostile territory was subdued, one-third was appropriated for the benefit of the people generally; and the quantity to be held by each man was limited, the commons having generally five acres, subject to all assessments. The patricians managed to hold much larger portions, and as these lands were the only pay of the legionary soldiers, the conquerors were not unfrequently compelled to give up their booty to the public treasury. The dispute, in which the commonalty finally prevailed, was, whether they should have an equitable share, or the aristocracy possess the whole. Spurius Cassius, one of the wisest of Roman statesmen, in his third consulate proposed an Agrarian law, by which he hoped to attach the plebeians firmly to the state; but means were taken to evade the execution of this statute, and he himself suffered death as a traitor, 484. The call for these laws, however, did not cease: the people refused to serve in the legions, and when drawn up in battle, allowed themselves to be defeated without a blow. At last, to settle the differences, ten men (decem-viri) were appointed to draw up a code, which should unite the commons and the patricians, by placing them on an equal footing: a supreme magistracy was also to be instituted in place of the consulate. The first decemvirs were worthy men, but their successors abandoned themselves to cruelty, avarice, and licentiousness; hence the support shown to them by the patriciate excited the indignation of the people. Among their victims was Sicinius Dentatus, whom Niebuhr styles the Roman Roland. The brutal outrage of Appius against Virginia caused the abolition of the decemvirate, and the restoration of the tribunes, B. c. 449.* Amid various disputes, and the alternation of tribunitial and consular power, the rights of the people were advancing; and freedom was secured by reviving old or framing new laws. The prohibition of intermarriages between the patricians and plebeians raised an insurmountable barrier between the two classes; but this regulation was repealed in 445. The struggle for the admission of the commons to the consulate continued eighty years. The jealousy of the privileged orders was provoked by the generosity of Spurius Mælius, who expended a large fortune in supporting the people during a period of famine. To avert the supposed danger, the well-known Cincinnatus was a second time chosen dictator; and in full assembly of the people, the benefactor of his miserable fellow-citizens was barbarously murdered (440 B. c.), a victim to a cruel and ruthless faction.t Rome, as the head of the Latin confederation, was engaged in continual wars with those states that felt or imagined themselves to be oppressed by her rule. Though insignificant feuds in themselves, they were the means by which Rome became a conquering nation, and which laid the foundation of the senatorial power. Among the most important was the last war against Veii, 404-395. VOLSCIAN AND VEIENTINE WARS.-The Equian war is included by Gellius in his list of memorable epochs. The Æquian and Volscian armies were composed of picked men, bound by awful oaths to fight till death. On the 18th June, they were attacked by the dictator Tubertus, and defeated after a bloody conflict. The Veientines, an Etrurian people, long maintained a powerful opposition against the Romans, and nearly took their city. But fortune changed; Veii was in its turn blockaded, and taken by Camillus, 396 B. C., after a protracted siege, though the manner of its capture is apocryphal. This war was signalized by the devotion of the Fabian family, who raised an intrenched camp on the Cremera, as the Spartans did at Deceleia, whence they ravaged the Veientine territory. They all, but one man, perished by stratagem, within sight of a Roman force. These wars first introduced the system of winter campaigns, and of paying the soldiers, thus gradually forming a standing army. *Appius and M. Claudius found imitators in the Duke of Fronsac and others of the same cast, in the reign of Louis XV. Niebuhr, vol. ii. |