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signalized themselves by one of the most remarkable exploits recorded in history this was the retreat of the ten thousand.

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On the death of Darius Nothus, his eldest son Artaxerxes Mnemon succeeded to the empire, while his brother Cyrus was by their father's will invested with the government of Lydia and several of the adjoining provinces. The ambition of this young man early conceived the criminal project of dethroning his elder brother, and seizing upon the throne of Persia; but though his design was detected, he obtained his pardon from Artaxerxes, upon the entreaties of Parysatis, the queen-mother, and with a singular measure of generosity was even continued in the full command of his provinces. This humane indulgence he treacherously abused, by secretly levying a large army in different quarters of the lesser Asia, under the feigned pretence of restraining some of the disorderly satraps, but in reality with the purpose of a sudden attack against his unprepared and unsuspecting brother. In the army of Cyrus were a chosen body of 13,000 Greeks from the Peloponnesus, under the command of Clearchus, Lacedæmonian, an officer of great experience and prowess, to whom alone of all his captains Cyrus confided the nature and object of his enterprise. It was with infinite address upon the part of Clearchus, that the Greeks, together with the rest of the army, were led on from province to province till they came within a few days' march of Babylon, where Cyrus at length imparted to them the purpose of the expedition, and reconciled them to its hazards by a large increase of present pay and an assurance of unbounded rewards in the event of final success. But this they were not destined to experience. In a decisive engagement at Cunaxa, in the plain between the Tigris and Euphrates, the Greeks put to flight that wing of the Persian army which was opposed to them. Cyrus, after the most extraordinary exertions of persona' valor, espying Artaxerxes amidst the strong body of his guards, singled him out for his attack, and after twice wounding his brother and dismounting him from his horse, fell himself a victim by the hand of Artaxerxes, who pierced him to the heart with his javelin. Thus this ambitious youth, who seems to have been in other respects an accomplished and heroic character, met with his deserved fate. It is surprising that Xenophon, who has admirably written the history of this expedition, should have bestowed the most unbounded encomium on this prince, without the smallest censure of his most culpable enterprise.

The Greek army, diminished by its losses and by desertions to 10,000 men, made a most amazing retreat. Harassed by the Persian troops under Tissaphernes, who hung continually upon their rear, Clearchus brought them again to a pitched battle, in which the Greeks defeated the barbarians a second time and put their army to flight. Perceiving, however, that in a country of enemies, where they must fight at every step of their progress,

they must perish, even though victorious in every action, Clearchus willingly listened to a proposed accommodation with Tissaphernes, who invited him for that purpose, together with the rest of the Greek commanders, to a friendly conference. With great weakness, Clearchus and four of the principal officers repaired to the enemy's camp, attended by a very slender escort. They had no sooner entered the tent of Tissaphiernes than, upon a given signal, they were all massacred. The consternation of the Greeks at this horrible treachery was extreme. They saw that they had nothing to trust either to the faith or mercy of the barbarians, and that their only safety lay at the point of their swords. In a midnight consultation of the troops, Xenophon, then a young man and in no high command, took upon him to counsel and to harangue the despairing army. By his advice they immediately chose new generals in the room of those who had perished, and Xenophon himself, with four others, being invested with this important charge, his admirable conduct, perseverance, and valor, brought his countrymen at length safely through all their difficulties. They began by burning all their useless baggage, every man retaining only what was absolutely necessary for the march. They proceeded with indefatigable resolution and almost daily conflicts with the enemy, ignorant of the roads and of the defiles, crossing wide and dangerous rivers, and often breast-deep in the snow, to make their way through the mountainous country eastward of Mesopotamia, to Armenia and the farther provinces bordering upon the Euxine. Ascending a steep mountain on the borders of Colchis, the vanguard of the army set up a prodigious shout, which Xenophon, in the rear, supposed to be the signal of a sudden attack from the enemy, and urged on the main body with haste to the summit; whren, to their inexpressible joy, they found it was the first sight of the sea which had occasioned this exclamation. With one sudden and sympathetic emotion, the soldiers and commanders rushed into each other's arms and shed a torrent of tears; and then, without any order, each man striving to outdo his fellow, they raised an immense pile of stones upon the spot, which they crowned with broken bucklers and spoils they had taken from the enemy. Arriving soon after at Trapezus, a Greek colony upon the Euxine, they celebrated splendid games with great joy and festivity for the space of several days; and finally embarking at Sinope, after many turns of fortune and various adventures in the course of their progress homewards, this eventful expedition, in which the Grecian army traversed a space of 1155 leagues, was terminated in the course of fifteen months.

The narrative of this expedition by Xenophon is one of the most valuable compositions that remain to us of antiquity. In the form of a journal it gives a mmute detail of every day's transactions, the counsels, plans, and different opinions of the principal officers, a vivid description of the places, cities, rivers, and mountains, upon

the line of march; the productions of the different countries; the singular manners of many of the rude nations through which they passed; and, finally, the extraordinary incidents which befell this hardy and resolute band of adventurers, through every stage of a campaign of greater duration, difficulty, and danger than was ever performed by any army of ancient or of modern times. In fine, the Anabasis of Xenophon, with the veracity of genuine history, has all the charms of an interesting romance.

The cities of Ionia had taken part with the younger Cyrus against Artaxerxes. The greater part of the Greeks in the service of Cyrus in that expedition were, as we have seen, Lacedæmonians. Sparta was now engaged to defend her countrymen, and consequently was involved in a war with Persia. There was an inherent weakness in the constitution of the Persian monarchy, arising from the high power and almost supreme authority exercised by the satraps, or governors of the provinces. It is easy to imagine how formidable to the monarch of Persia must have been the confederacy of two or three of these satraps, and of consequence that it was his chief interest to keep them disunited by fomenting mutual jealousies. The state maxim of the Persian kings was, therefore, to divide, in order to command; a rule of policy which is a certain proof of the fundamental weakness of that government where it is necessary to adopt it. In Persia, the satraps might, by this management, be kept in a state of unwilling dependence on the crown, but it left the monarchy itself weak and defenceless.

Had the Greeks at this period been sensible of their real interest; had they again united as a nation, making Sparta the head of the confederacy, as in the former war with that power they had done Athens, it would not have been a difficult enterprise to have overthrown this vast empire. But experience does not always enlighten; and with the Greeks it was not easy for a sense of general or national advantage to overcome particular jealousies. The haughty Athenians, in spite of their humiliation, would have ill brooked the degradation of ranging themselves under the banners of Sparta; much less was it to be expected that the Spartans, justly elevated with their success in the Peloponnesian war, would ever again stoop to act a subordinate part to Athens.

Conon, the Athenian, who, in the conclusion of that war had lost the decisive battle of gos-Potamos, had retired to the isle of Cyprus, where he only waited an opportunity of regaining his credit, and recommending himself to his country by some active service against her rival, Sparta. In this view, he threw himself under the protection of Artaxerxes, who gave him the command of a fleet which he had equipped in Phoenicia.

The Lacedæmonians, on receiving this intelligence, resolved to prosecute the war with the utmost vigor; and Agesilaus, one of the Spartan kings, in that view crossed into Asia with an arn.y. He had, in his first campaign, such signal success, that the Persian

monarchy seemed to threaten a revolution. The Asiatic provinces began to court the alliance of Lacedæmon; the barbarians flocked to her standards from all quarters Artaxerxes thought it advisable to attempt a diversion in Greece. He employed Timocrates, a Rhodian, to negotiate with some of the tributary states belonging to Lacedæmon, and to excite them to throw off her yoke, and assert their independence. He found the most of them well-disposed to this attempt, and a proper application of the Persian gold hastened their insurrection. A league was formed against Sparta by the states of Argos, Thebes, and Corinth; and Athens soon after joined the confederacy, which gave a sudden turn to the fortunes of Lacedæmon.

sea.

The Spartans raised two considerable armies, and commenced hostilities by entering the territory of Phocis. They were defeated; Lysander, one of their generals, being killed in battle, and Pausanias, the other, condemned to death for his misconduct. Much about the same tine, the Persian fleet under the command of Conon vanquished that of Sparta, near Cnidos, a city of Caria. This defeat deprived the Lacedæmonians of the command of the Their allies took the opportunity of this turn of affairs to throw off their yoke, and Sparta, alinost in a single campaign, saw herself without allies, without power, and without resources. reverse of fortune experienced by this republic was truly remarkable. Twenty years had not elapsed since she was absolute mistress of Greece, and held the whole of her states either as tributaries or allies, who found it their highest interest to court her favor and protection. So changed was her present situation, that the most inconsiderable of the states of Peloponnesus spurned at her authority, and left her singly to oppose the united power of Persia and the league of Greece.

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To escape total destruction, the Lacedæmonians made an overture of peace to the Persians. Antalcidas, commissioned for that purpose, applied to Terebasus, the governor of Lydia. He laid before him three articles as the conditions of amity and alliance. By the first, the Spartans abandoned to Persia all the Asiatic colonies; by the second, it was proposed that all the allied states of Greece should enjoy their liberty, and the choice of their own laws and form of government; and by the last, it was agreed that such of the states as might acquiesce in these conditions should unite in arms, and compel the others to accede to them. Artaxerxes accepted these propositions, but stipulated further, that he should be put in possession of Cyprus and Clazomene, and that the Athenians should get possession of the islands of Scyros, Lemnos, and Imbros. Some of the principal states of Greece, and Thebes in particular, refused at first to consent to this, which they justly regarded as a humiliating treaty; but, too weak to make an effectual opposition, they yielded to the necessity of their situation.

CHAPTER III.

REPUBLIC OF THERES-Pelopidas and Epaminondas-Battle of Leuctra-of Mantinea-General Peace and its consequences-Philip of Macedon-The Sacred War-Demosthenes-Battle of Charonea-Designs of Philip against Persia-His death.

WHILE the two great republics of Greece, Sparta and Athens, were thus visibly tending to decline, another of the Grecian com monwealths, which had hitherto made no conspicuous figure, now suddenly rose to a degree of splendor which eclipsed all her contemporary states. This was the republic of Thebes, whose sudden elevation from obscurity to the command of Greece is one of the most remarkable occurrences in history.

As Sparta, by the late treaty with Persia, seemed to be regarded as the predominant power in Greece, and to have negotiated (as it may be termed) the fall of the nation, she was naturally inducedto endeavor by every means to maintain this character of ascendency, and for that end had her partisans and political agents in all the principal states. The natural consequence of this policy was to excite and maintain in all of them two separate factions; the one the patriotic supporters. of liberty and independence, and the other the mean slaves of Lacedæmonian interest. Such, among the rest, was, at this time, the situation of Thebes. The patriotic party in this republic which supported its ancient constitution and independence, was headed by Ismenias; while the opposite faction, which aimed at the establishment of an oligarchy, had for its chief supporter Leontiades, a man firmly devoted to the interest of Sparta. It happened, at this time, that Phæbidas; a Lacedæmonian general, was sent with an army to punish the people of Olynthus, a Thracian city, for an alleged infraction of the late treaty of peace, by making conquests over some of the neighboring states. The Spartans considered themselves as the guarantees of that treaty which they had so main a hand in negotiating, and which professed to secure the independence of the several republics. We shall see how faithfully they discharged this guarantee. Leontiades, the head of the party of the oligarchy at Thebes, prevailed on Phæbidas to second his attempts against the liberties of his country. The Spartan general readily gave his aid, and introducing his army, took possession of the citadel; while the unsuspicious Thebans, trusting to the faith of the treaty, were employed in celebrating the festival of Ceres. Ismenias,

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