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The naval and military power of Persia was completely broken by these repeated defeats; and all further hostile operations against their formidable enemy were abandoned for a considerable length of time. The military glory of the Greeks seems at this period to have been at its highest elevation. They had maintained a long and successful war, and at length established an undisputed superiority over the greatest and most flourishing of the contemporary empires of antiquity. The causes of this superiority. are sufficiently apparent. Greece undoubtedly owed many of her triumphs to those illustrious men who had the command of her fleets and armies; to Miltiades, to Aristides, to Themistocles, and to Cimon. But the noblest exertions of individuals would have availed little, without that spirit of union which bound together her separate states in defence of their common liberties. Greece was only formidable while united. The Persian empire infinitely superior in power, and inexhaustible in resources, derived from the force of a despot an involuntary and reluctant species of association, very different from an union arising from the spirit of patriotism. The armies of the Persians, immense in their numbers, were like the heavy and inanimate limbs of a vast and illorganized body. They yielded a sluggish obedience to the will of the head, but were totally incapable of any spirited and vigorous exertion.

But a season of rest from the annoyance of a foreign foe was ever fatal to the prosperity and to the real glory of the Greeks. Their bond of union was no longer in force. The petty jealousies and quarrels of the different states broke out afresh, with an acrimony increased from their temporary suspension.

Athens, which during the war had firmly attached to her allıance a great many of the smaller states, who, in return for protection, cheerfully contributed their supplies for carrying it on, was equally desirous of maintaining the same ascendant in a season of peace, and thus gradually sought to extinguish the original independence of the smaller states, and perpetuate their vassalage. But these were jealous of their freedom, and utterly scorned to become the slaves or tributaries of that ambitious republic. Unable, however, to withstand her power, they had no other means of withdrawing themselves from her dominion, than by courting an alliance with her rival Lacedæmon: for to show that they could at pleasure join themselves to either of these rival states, was, as they flattered themselves, a demonstration that they were not dependent on either. The smaller republics were therefore continually fluctuating between the scales of Athens and Lacedæmon; a circumstance which fomented the rivalship of the latter states, and imbittered their animosities; while it increased the national dissensions, and ultimately induced that general weakness which paved the way for the reduction and slavery of Greece.

From this period, too, the martial and the patriotic spirit began

alike to decline in the Athenian republic. An acquaintaince with Asia, and the importation of a part of her wealth, had introduced an imitation of her manners, and a taste for her luxuries. But the Athenian luxury was widely different from that of the Persians. With the latter it was only unmeaning splendor and gross sensuality; with the former it took its direction from taste and genius: and while it insensibly corrupted the severer virtues, it is not to be denied that it led to the most elegant and refined enjoyments of life. The The age of Pericles was the era of a change in the national spirit of the Athenians: a taste for the fine arts, which had hitherto lain dormant from the circumstance of the national danger engrossing all the feelings and passions of men, began, now that this danger had ceased, to break forth with suprising lustre. The sciences, which are strictly allied to the arts, and which always find their chief encouragement from ease and luxury, rose at the same time to a great pitch of eminence.

The age of Pericles is not the era of the highest national glory of the Greeks, if we understand that term in its best and proudest signification; but it is at least the era of their highest internal splendor. Under this striking change, which is evidently preparatory to their downfall, we shall proceed to consider them.

CHAPTER II.

Administration of Pericles-Peloponnesian War-Siege of Platæa-Alcibiades -Lysander-The Thirty Tyrants-Thrasybulus-Death of Socrates-Retreat of the Ten Thousand-War with Persia terminated by the Peace of Antalcidas.

THE death of Cimon left Pericles for some time an unrivalled ascendency in the republic of Athens; but as the more his power increased, he used the less art to disguise his ambitious spirit, a faction was gradually formed to oppose him, at the head of which was Thucydides, the brother-in-law of Cimon, a man no less eminent for his wisdom and abilities than estimable for his integrity. He had powerful talents as an orator, which he nobly exerted in the cause of virtue and the true interest of his country; but he was deficient in those arts of address in which his rival Pericles so eminently excelled. While Pericles amused the people with shows, or gratified them with festivals, and while he dissipated the

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public treasure in adorning the city with magnificent buildings, and the finest productions of the arts, it was in vain that Thucydides, ardent in the cause of virtue, presented to their minds the picture of ancient frugality and simplicity, or urged the weakening of the power and resources of the state by this prodigal expenditure of her treasure. Pericles flattered the vanity of his countrymen by representing their power as insuperable, and their resources as inexhaustible. It is probable that he was himself blinded by his ambition and vanity. He published an edict, requiring all the states of Greece to send against a certain day their deputies to Athens, to deliberate on the common interest of the nation. The Athenians looked on themselves as the masters of all Greece; put they had the mortification to find that no attention was paid to their presumptuous mandate. Pericles, to palliate this wound to their vanity, from which his own credit was in some danger of suffering, ordered the whole fleet of the republic to be immediately equipped, and hastened to make an ostentatious parade through the neighboring seas, by way of evincing the power and naval superiority of the Athenians. This, however, was a wise policy, and shows that Pericles knew human nature, as well as the peculiar character of the people whom he ruled. It was necessary to keep the Athenians constantly engaged, either with their amusements or some active enterprise; and in dexterously_furnishing this alternate occupation lay the art of his government of a people which surpassed any other in fickleness of character.

Fostered in their favorite passions, the Athenians grew every day more vain and presumptuous. They planned the most absurd schemes of conquest; no less than the reduction of Egypt, of Sicily, of that part of Italy called Magna Græcia-and the subjection of all their own colonies to an absolute dependence on the mother state. Pericles now perceived that he had gone too far, and that, in flattering their vanity, he had given rise to schemes. which must terminate in national disgrace and in his own ruin. It was fortunate, both for him and for his country, that a seasonable rupture with Sparta gave a check to these romantic projects; and the sagacious demagogue, from that time, discovered that to cherish the luxurious spirit of his countrymen was a safer means of maintaining his power than to rouse their vanity and ambition. The finances, however, of the republic were exhausted, and the taxes of course increased. The party of Thucydides complained of this in loud terms, and with great justice. But Pericles had the address to ward off this blow, by proudly offering to defray from his own fortune the expense of those magnificent structures which he had reared for the public. This was touching the right cord; for neither the generosity nor the vanity of the Athenians would allow this offer to be accepted; and the result was a great increase of popularity to Pericles, and the complete humiliation of the party of his enemies. He now signalized his triumph by

procuring the banishment of Thucydides; and on the pretence of establishing a few new colonies, he dexterously got rid of the most turbulent of the citizens who traversed and opposed his govern

ment.

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The allies of the commonwealth, however, loudly complained that the public treasures, to which they had largely contributed, and which were intended for their common defence and security against the barbarous nations, were entirely dissipated, in gratifying the Athenian populace with feasts and shows, or.in decorating their city with ornamental buildings. Pericles haughtily answered, that the republic was not accountable to them for the employment of their money, which was nothing more than the price they paid for the protection which they received. The allies might have replied with justice, that in contributing supplies, they did not discharge a debt or make a purchase, but conferred a deposit, to be faithfully employed for their advantage, and of the expenditure of which they were entitled to demand a strict account but they durst not call Athens to account; and Pericles and Athens were of one opinion.

But an event now took place, which silenced all inquiries of this nature, and bound the subordinate and confederate states in humble submission to the principal,-this was the war of Pelopon

mesus.

The state of Corinth had been included in the last treaty between Athens and Lacedæmon. The Corinthians had for some time been at war with the people of Corcyra, when both these states solicited the aid of the Athenians. This republic, after some deliberation, was persuaded by Pericles to take part with Corcyra; a measure which the Corinthians with great justice complained of, not only as an infraction of the treaty with Sparta, but on the ground that Corcyra was their own colony; and it was a settled point in the general politics of Greece, that a foreign power should never interfere in the disputes between a parent state and its colony. A less important cause was sufficient to exasperate the Lacedæmonians against their ancient rival, and war was solemnly proclaimed between the two republics.

The detail of this war, which has been admirably written by Thucydides, one of the best historians as well as one of the greatest generals of antiquity, though it concerned only the states of Greece, becomes, by the pen of that illustrious writer, one of the most interesting subjects which history has recorded. Our plan excluding all minute details, as violating the due proportions in the comprehensive picture of ancient history, necessarily confines us to a delineation of outlines.

The greater part of the continental states of Greece declared for Sparta. The Isles, dreading the naval power of Athens, took part with that republic. Thus the principal strength of Sparta was on land, and that of Athens at sea; whence it may be judged,

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that the opposing states might long annoy each other, before any approach to a decisive engagement.

The army of the Lacedæmonians, which amounted to above 60,000 men, was more than double that of the Athenians and their allies. But this inequality was balanced by the great superiority of the marine of Athens. Their plan of military operations. was, therefore, quite different. The Athenian fleet ravaged the coasts of Peloponnesus; while the army of the Lacedæmonians desolated the territory of Attica and its allied states, and proceeded with little resistance almost to the gates of Athens. The Athenians, feeling the disgrace of being thus braved upon their own territory, insisted, with great impatience, that Pericles should allow them to face the enemy in the field; but he followed a wiser plan of operation. He bent his whole endeavor to fortify the city, while he kept the Lacedæmonians constantly at bay by skirmishing parties of horse; and, in the meantime, the Athenian fleet of 100 sail was desolating the enemies' coasts, and plundering and ravaging the Spartan territory. The consequence was, the Spartans, abandoning all hope, which they had at first conceived, of taking Athens by siege, ended the campaign by retreating into Peloponnesus. The Athenians, in honor of their countrymen who had fallen in battle, celebrated magnificent funeral games, and Pericles pronounced an animated eulogium to their memory, which is given at large by Thucydides.

In the next campaign, the Lacedæmonians renewed the invasion of Attica; and the invaded had to cope at once with all the horrors of war and pestilence; for Athens was at this time visited by one of the most dreadful plagues recorded in history. The particulars of this calamity are painted in strong and terrible colors by Thucydides, who speaks from his own experience, as he was among those who were affected, and survived the contagion. One extraordinary effect he mentions, which we know, likewise, to have happened in other times and places from the same cause. The general despair produced the grossest profligacy and licentiousness. of manners. It seems to be common, too, to all democratic governments, that every public calamity is charged to the account of their rulers. Pericles was blamed as the occasion, not only of the war, but of the pestilence; for the great numbers cooped up in the city were supposed to have corrupted the air. The Athenians, losing all resolution to struggle with their misfortunes, sent ambassadors to Sparta to sue for peace; but this humiliating measure served only to increase the arrogance of their enemies, who refused all accommodation, unless upon terms utterly disgraceful to the suppliant state. Although Pericles had strongly dissuaded his countrymen from what he thought a mean and pusillanimous measure, they scrupled not to make him the victim of its failure, and with equal injustice and ingratitude, they de prived him of all command, and inflicted on him a heavy fine.

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