ter age called Heracleía, founded by a Samian colony; on the European side of the Thracian Bosphorus was Byzan'tium (Constantinople); and over against it, on the Asiatic coast, Chalcedon (Scutari), both colonized from Meg'ara.

The first Greek city on the Black sea was Heracleía, on the Bithynian coast, which appears to have been successively colonized from Meg'ara and Milétus.

Sinópe, in Paphlagonia, was the most powerful of the Greek states on the Euxine sea. Amísus,in Pon'tus, was, next to Sinópe, the best harbor on the Euxine sea. After having been long subject to Milétus, it was seized by the Athenians in the age of Per'icles, and its name changed to Peira'æus. During the days of its prosperity, Amísus is said to have become the parent of a colony that soon surpassed itself in importance, Trap'ezus (Trebisonde).

On the eastern coast of the Euxine were Phásis, Dioscúrias, and. Phanagória. In the Macedonian age, Phanagória became the capital of the Greek cities on the Asiatic side of the Bos'phorus: its prosperity was owing to its being the chief mart for the slave-trade, which has always prevailed in the countries round the Caúcasus, and also to its being the staple for the goods brought from central and southern Asia by the route of the Caspian sea and the Oxus.

The Milesians formed several establishments in the Tauric Chersonese (Criméa), and wrested the greater part of that peninsula from its barbarous inhabitants. The city of Panticapa'um was the most important, and probably the most ancient, of these settlements. It became the capital of the little Greek kingdom of the Bos'phorus, and continued to maintain its independence until, in the Roman age, it was seized by Mithridátes the Great, who laid there the foundations of his subsequent power.

The coasts of Thrace and Macedon were covered with Greek colonies, principally derived from Corinth and Athens.

On the coasts of Africa was the celebrated Greek city of Cyréne, long the commercial rival of Carthage, founded by a Dorian colony from the island of Théra (B. c. 651), in obedience to the directions of the Delphic oracle. The government was at first monarchical, the crown being hereditary in the family of Bat'tus, the founder. About B. c. 450, royalty was abolished, and a republic formed; but the citizens of Cyréne never were able to form a permanent constitution; and their state continued to be rent by factions until it was annexed to the Egyptian kingdom, in the age of the Ptolemies.

The history of the Greek states in Sicily and southern Italy being closely connected with the Roman wars, will be found in the chapters on Italy.

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 Miltiades, 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. Miltíades 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 included 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 Sparta, 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 Marathon, 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 Platæ'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 Callimachus 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 advan tage 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 Idied 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 Miltíades. 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 Sparta, 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 Mar'athon, 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 himn 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 Xer'xes, 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 Eube'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. Xer'xes, 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 Xer'xes, 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 Themis'tocles 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. Themistocles 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.

Xerxes witnessed the battle of Sal'amis from Egaléos, a rocky eminence on the coast of At'tica: he had the mortification to see his magnificent navy utterly annihilated. From that moment Xer'xes 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 Platæ 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