479.

liberty and independence of Greece, established B. C. the Athenian supremacy among the Grecian states, and rendered the name of Themistocles immortal. Xerxes, who, in the meantime, had burnt Athens to the ground, fled with the greatest precipitation back to Asia, followed by his army, which suffered severely from privation and sick

ness.

Still, 300,000 men remained on the northern frontier of Greece, who, 479 B.C., made another incursion, and penetrated as far as Athens, as before, but suffered so terrible a defeat that the proud Persians never again ventured to attack the Greeks amid the narrow passes and fastnesses of their own native land.

CHAP. XXII.

THE SPARTANS AND ATHENIANS, AND THEIR
RESPECTIVE CHARACTERS.

THE two principal races of ancient Greece, the B. c. Spartans and the Athenians, differed widely in 488. character and institutions. The Spartans were rude and warlike. Their laws, well calculated to train up a nation of warriors, were given them, in the year 888 B.C., by Lycurgus, a man of royal parentage, who, by the extent of his travels, had acquired great experience. Lycurgus divided the

D

800.

B. C. land into equal parts; arms and agricultural implements were in common; their meals were eaten in a common hall, and consisted of plain but wholesome food: the black broth, of which we all have heard, formed their principal diet. Their coinage was of iron; they were forbidden to travel into foreign countries, and foreigners were rarely permitted to settle in Sparta. No Spartan town was allowed to be fortified with walls, the arms of its inhabitants being considered the best defence. The health and strength of the female constitution was secured by stated exercises. It was the pride of the Spartan woman to be the mother of men, and much deference was paid both to a mother's praise and censure. The Spartan education was a system of severe discipline. Every infant was examined as soon as born, and, if found to be deformed or imperfect, it was exposed and left to perish on the hills. The boys were accustomed to sleep without covering on beds of rushes, and to practise their gymnastic exercises in a state of nudity. The young were expected to be silent in the presence of their elders, and only to speak when spoken to. No idle or frivolous conversation was permitted; on the contrary, one point of their education consisted in learning to express themselves briefly and to the purpose. They were taught to endure with patience hunger and sleepless nights, heat and cold, and even corporal punishment. Thus the Spartans grew up a race of warriors; but paid no regard to the arts and

444.

sciences, and were strangers to all the more gentle B. C. virtues. The Athenians were not wanting in courage, either morally or physically; but they encouraged at the same time a taste for the arts and sciences, such as sculpture, painting, the beauties of architecture, and all the masterpieces of human genius; but more especially poetry and oratory. Great orators, such as Pericles, who lived in the year 444 B.C., were heard with delight and enthusiasm by all the citizens of Athens. The Grecian temples have been taken as the models of some of our most beautiful churches. All the public buildings of Athens, their marketplaces, and their streets, were adorned with statues, the works of their most celebrated sculptors, while the interiors of their houses were embellished with the chastest ornaments and classic vases. Yet this very fondness for works of art led the Athenians insensibly into extravagance, encouraged luxury and licentiousness, and thus lured them to their fall.

431.

CHAP. XXIII.

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR - PERICLES

ALCIBIADES.

B. C. THROUGH the victory obtained over the Persians, Athens had become the most important state of Greece; but a consciousness of superiority is very apt to be abused: such was the case with Athens; she made a bad use of her supremacy, aimed at an entire ascendancy with her fleet, and wished to reduce all the smaller states to the condition of tributary allies. The feelings of bitter jealousy which naturally resulted from this design were keenly entertained by Sparta, that envious rival of Athens; and nothing was wanting but a fair opportunity to cause every discontented state to rise up in arms against the tyranny of the Athenians. Such an opportunity soon offered, in the manner following:- Athens had taken part with the island of Corcyra against the rich commercial city of Corinth. The Corinthians laid their complaint before the other states of Greece, who, finding the complaint was well grounded, formed a confederacy, and claimed of Athens the restitution of all the rights and privileges of every city or state that Athens had subdued. Confiding in the counsel of Pericles, the Athenians positively

refused, and an appeal to arms was found neces- B. c. sary to enforce the claim. Hence originated the 431. famous Peloponnesian war, of twenty-eight years, between Athens and Sparta, from the year 431 to 404 B.C. Soon after the commencement of this war, a plague broke out in Athens, committing great havoc in the city. This, however, caused no diversion to the war, but slaughter and devastation were carried on with relentless cruelty. The precise form in which injurious consequences resulted from the plague of Athens consisted in the general immorality to which the plague gave rise; and, indeed, it was the puerile inconstancy, and want of all fixed principle in the Athenian character, that eventually caused their destruction. There was one occasion in 422 B. C., on which they had actually determined on making peace, and a peace would certainly have been concluded; but, unfortunately, there was a young man named Alcibiades, in all the vain confidence of youth and general popularity, the well-known friend of that noble Grecian sage, Socrates, and he persuaded his countrymen to make an expedition to Sicily. Scarcely had Alcibiades set sail, when he was accused of desecrating some images of Mercury, and of open irreverence regarding the form of religion practised in his country. On this, he immediately went over to the Spartans, who, aided by his valuable services, were on all sides victorious. Alcibiades, however, was soon obliged to leave the Spartan army, and, despairing of