in vigour, the Spartan character was distinguished for the sterner virtues; when it relaxed, profligacy and corruption of every species broke in amongst them.

Athens.

Athens did not rise into importance till long after Sparta. Argos was a large city; and Corinth, the entrepôt of trade between the Ægean and Ionian seas, was abounding in wealth before Athens became of any consequence; but they and the other states of Peloponnesus offer at this period little to attract attention.

The tale of the Egyptian Cecrops coming to Attica is a manifest fable. Attica had numerous petty princes, each ruling his own village. A prince, named Theseus, is said to have united several of these little states into one, and collected the people to Athens. But his power could not have been great, as Mnestheus, the second from him, led but forty ships to Troy. At the time of the Dorian irruption into Peloponnesus, the family of Theseus lost the throne; and Melanthius, of Achæan race, from Messenia, coming to Athens, obtained the chief direction of affairs: his son Codrus drove back the Dorians, and forced them to be content with Megara, at that time united with Attica. The legend says, Codrus offered himself up for his country, and that the royal dignity was abolished out of honour to him. The republican spirit had, however, from various causes, been on the increase at Athens. Towards the end of the sixth olympiad *, a regular aristocracy was established: the chief magistrate was called Archon, and his office was annual. A farther change augmented the number of archons to nine, three with peculiar rank and titles, six as presidents of courts of justice. This was the foundation of a rigid aristocracy; but as the people had all along retained the right of assembling to pass laws, it was in a condition, whenever it could get a leader, to assert its rights and better its condition.

But the aristocracy, being in possession of the administration of justice, and being also invested with the sa

The olympiads were periods of four years. The first began B. C. 776.

cerdotal dignities, the people had no sure place of refuge B. C. when aggrieved. Matters fell, therefore, into turmoil 623. and confusion. Draco, in the first year of the thirtyninth olympiad, sought a remedy in the revival of an ancient species of divine law; but its general maxims were too rigid and severe. It suited not the spirit of the times, and became generally detested. The internal troubles still continued; and twelve years afterwards, in a struggle between two aristocratic parties, Cylon, the head of one of them, attempted, by the aid of the tyrant or ruler of Megara, to raise himself to similar power in Athens. His project failed; the nobles, headed by the Alcmæonides, the chiefs of the rival faction, summoned their vassals from the country, and besieged Cylon and his adherents in the citadel. He and his brother escaped; but his followers were dragged from the altars and slain. This offence brought down vengeance from the gods; and though the chief agents were exiled, defeat and sickness visited the city. A prophet, Epimenides of Crete, was summoned to purify and atone for the city. He regulated the religious worship, and prepared the way for the system of legislation projected by his friend Solon.

In the third year of the 46th olympiad, Solon being archon, the land-owners and citizens, debtors and creditors, were in open feud. Solon was called upon to legislate. His first step was to arrange matters between debtor and creditor, which he accomplished by altering the standard, and lowering the rate of interest. He then deprived the nobility of a portion of their former power, by dividing all the people into four classes regulated by property: thus, while he introduced a democracy, founding a new aristocracy. The nobility, as possessors of the largest properties, as the sole members of the court of Areopagus, as possessed of the priesthoods, and directors of religious ceremonies, still retained an ample degree of influence. By the establishment of the Council of Four Hundred an annually rotating college, he at once gave so many families an interest in the new order of things, that there remained no chance of its being totally subverted.

He finally made all the people swear not to make any alteration during the next ten years, deeming that period sufficiently long for habituating them to the new constitution.

Solon's laws did not put an end to the internal broils. The nobility, being the owners of the largest properties, were in the first classes, and the contests for honours and dignities raged among them as hotly as ever. The lowest class, the Thetes, who were excluded from office, and were not liable to taxes, or to serve in heavy armour, formed in the popular assembly a portion of the sovereignty, and sat in courts of justice. They were a ready weapon for any one who knew how to employ it. The old local parties of the Paralians and the Pediæans also still subsisted. Solon had travelled to the East: Megacles, the chief of the Alcmeonides, who had now returned to Athens, was at the head of the Paralians; Lycurgus was the leader of the Pediæans, or country gentlemen; Peisistratus, a descendant of the ancient kings, sought the favour of the lower class. He obtained by their means the supreme power: his rivals, however, united and expelled him. Megacles then gave him his daughter in marriage, and restored him, but again drove him away. After eleven years' absence, Peisistratus returned at the head of an army, and governed Athens till his death. His sway was mild and beneficent; the laws of Solon were observed, and Athens flourished under him. His sons, Hippias and Hipparchus, who succeeded him, trod in his steps; but an act of private revenge deprived the latter of life, and conferred an unmerited immortality on the assassins, Harmodius and Aristogeiton. Hippias grew suspicious and cruel. The Alcmeonides had devoted their wealth to the rebuilding of the temple of Delphi: the priestess, gained by them, incessantly commanded the Spartans to restore liberty to Athens. latter, glad of the pretext, obeyed the oracle. Hippias B. c. abandoned Attica, and retired to his estates in Asia. So- 510, lon's constitution remained; but the heads of parties, to obtain influence, attached themselves to the aristocracy or the people. Isagoras, of ancient lineage, headed the for

The

mer, favoured by the Spartans. Cleisthenes, the Alcmeonide, sought to win the people. When archon, four years after the banishment of Hippias, he shook the whole Solonian constitution, and opened the way to all the future evils of unbridled democracy, by dividing the four original tribes into ten, and altering in like manner all the inferior divisions, and increasing the senate to 500 members, 50 from each of the new tribes. Prompted by Isagoras, the Spartans sent a herald to demand the banishment of those stained with the blood of Cylon's adherents. Cleisthenes was obliged to yield and retire. The Spartans attempted to restore the old aristocracy; the Athenians sought aid of Persia ; Cleomenes, the Spartan, marched an army against Athens; but his allies abandoned him, and his colleague, Demaratus, refusing to join in his project, the Spartans retired, and the democracy of Athens was fully established.

CHAP. IV.

GREECE TO HER SUBVERSION BY THE MACEDONIANS.

The Persian War.

GREECE and Persia now first came into conflict. Cyrus had conquered the Grecian colonies in Lesser Asia: the love of liberty however was not extinct, and the secret advice of Histiæus, tyrant of Miletus, whom Darius detained at his court, threw the Ionian cities into revolt. They called on Athens, as head of the Ionian race, to assist them. The aid was granted, and the anger of the Great King thereby incurred. Darius meditated the conquest of Greece and the islands; he sent his ambassadors to demand homage: many islands, especially Ægina, delivered earth and water. A large army, under Datis and B. C. Artaphernes, was sent to subdue the refractory. The 490. plain of Marathon witnessed the defeat of the Persian

vassals by 9000 Athenians and 1000 Platæans. Datis

and Artaphernes returned to Asia with the discomfited host.

B. C.

The Athenians resolved to punish those who had submitted to the Persian king. Their first enterprise against Naxos, under Miltiades, failed; the general was condemned to pay the costs, and being unable, was treated according to Athenian law, like any other citizen. Aristides, Xanthippus, and Themistocles, took the place of Miltiades, and by employing the proper methods of managing a democracy, raised Athens from a petty town to the rank of a leading state. The threatening war of the Persians showed that Athens' only hope lay in the augmentation of her navy. Themistocles awaked the ancient grudge against Ægina; and the produce of the silver-mines of Laurium, which had been hitherto divided among the citizens, was appropriated to the building of a fleet. Athens and Ægina were in conflict when intelligence arrived of the immense preparations of Xerxes, the Persian king, for the conquest of Greece. All enmity ceased; a bond for common defence was established among the Grecian states. In the spring of the first year of the 75th olympiad, Xerxes led, as is said, two 480. millions of Asiatics over the Hellespont. A fleet of 1200 vessels attended the march of this huge multitude. The progress of the Persian monarch was unimpeded till he reached the ever-memorable pass of Thermopylæ, leading from Thessaly into Proper Greece. The narrow passage between the mountain and the sea was guarded by a resolute band of Spartans, Phocians, Locrians, and others, under the command of Leonidas, the Spartan king. Division after division of the Persian army were repulsed with immense loss in attempting to force their way. At length, a traitor revealed another passage through the mountains: Leonidas, on hearing it, dismissed his allies, and, at the head of his Spartans, attacked the Persian multitudes, and fell, covered with wounds, amidst the heaps of slain. Monuments, song, and story, have conspired to exalt this deed of heroes. Meantime, the Persian fleet had suffered from a storm,