Miltiades, the deliverer of Greece, received, was a picture painted, by order of the Athenians, representing him at the head of the ten commanders, exhorting the soldiers to duty. And the gratitude of the Athenians towards this great general was but of short duration; for being charged with the command of reducing the revolted islands, he executed his commission with honor, with respect to most of them, but was unsuccessful in an attack on the isle of Paros. He was dangerously wounded; the enterprise miscarried, and he returned to Athens. With the basest ingratitude he was tried for treason, on an accusation brought against him by his political antagonist, Xanthippus, of his having taken Persian gold to betray his country; and being unable, from his wound, to appear to defend himself, he was condemned to death; this punishment was commuted to a fine of fifty talents (about £9,400 sterling), a sum which being utterly unable to pay, he was thrown into prison, where he died of his wounds.

EXERCISES.

By whose treachery was the Persian army led to Marathon?

Under whose command was the second Persian army sent into Greece ?

Give some account of Pisistratus and his family.

What was the amount of the forces on both sides previous to the battle of Marathon?

How was the Grecian army dispersed ?

Who was chosen commander-in-chief by the Athenians?

What was the issue of the battle?

What honors were decreed Miltiades?

DARIUS

CHAPTER XXIX.

AND

RESOLVES ΤΟ MAKE WAR AGAINST EGYPT GREECE; IS PREVENTED BY DEATH. DISPUTES BETWEEN HIS SONS REGARDING THE SUCCESSION TO THE CROWN.

A. M. 3517.
A. C. 487.

On receiving news of the defeat of his army at Marathon, Darius was so enraged, that, far from being intimidated by ill success, he resolved to make war against Greece in person, and dispatched orders to all his subjects to arm themselves for this expedition. After spending three years in preparations for war, Darius had intelligence of a revolt in Egypt: this, however, did not deter him from his purpose, he resolved to make war against both at the same time, and to attack Greece in

person with the main body of his army, whilst the rest of his troops should be employed in the reduction of Egypt.

According to the ancient custom observed by the Persians, Darius was not allowed to go to war without naming who should succeed him on the throne. Darius had seven sons, three born before he became king, and four who were born after their father's election to the throne. Artabazanes was the eldest of the former, and Xerxes of the latter. Artabazanes alleged, that as he was the eldest of all the brothers, the right of succession, according to the practice of all nations, belonged to him. Xerxes argued, that as he was the son of Darius, by Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, who founded the Persian empire, it was more just that the crown of Cyrus should devolve upon one of his descendants, than upon one that was not: he added also, that although Artabazanes was the eldest son of Darius, he was the eldest son of the king, and, on this ground, had a right to the crown. The right of succeeding was accordingly decided in favor of Xerxes. No sooner had judgment been passed in favor of Xerxes, than Artabazanes prostrated himself before him, acknowledging him as his master, and placed him on the throne with his own hand, thus showing a greatness of soul superior to all human dignities. was it an artful policy that led him to act thus, but a sincere respect for the laws, and affection for his brother, to whose interests he continued firmly attached through life, and he died fighting in his cause at the battle of Salamis. Shortly after this Darius died, and Xerxes was immediately saluted king. Immediately on his accession to the throne, he employed himself in carrying on the preparations, begun by his father, for the reduction of Egypt. In the second year of his reign, he marched against the Egyptians, and having reduced and subdued these rebels, he made the yoke of their subjection more heavy; then giving the government to his brother Achemenes, he returned about the latter end of the year to Susa.

Nor

Xerxes, elated with his success against the Egyptians, determined to make war against the Greeks. He would no longer, he said, buy the figs of Attica (which were very excellent), as he resolved to eat no more of them till he was master of the country. In order to promote the success of the undertaking, Xerxes entered into a confederacy

with the Carthaginians, (at that time the most potent people of the west,) and made an agreement with them, that while the Persian forces attacked Greece, the Carthaginians should fall upon the Grecian colonies in Sicily and Italy, in order to prevent their giving assistance to the mother country.

To

Having collected an immense army, which some historians say amounted to five millions, Xerxes, unwilling to encounter the delay that would occur in the transportation of so vast a multitude across the Egean Sea, ordered a bridge of boats to be constructed between Sestos and Abydos, which was destroyed by a tempest as soon as completed. revenge himself, he ordered that those who had superintended the work should be beheaded; and to punish the sea, for its insolence in impeding his progress, he threw into it a pair of iron fetters, and gave it three hundred lashes. After this piece of foolery, he ordered a second bridge to be built, consisting of two ranges of vessels, fastened together by chains and cables, and across this the army passed in seven days and nights. To prevent a disaster like that which had befallen the fleet under Mardonius, and to enable them to attend to the motions of the army, Xerxes ordered a canal to be cut through the promontory of Mount Athos, wide enough to allow two ships to sail abreast.

Xerxes, in this expedition, intended to chastise Athens, for the assistance she had afforded the inhabitants of Lesser Asia, in their revolt against Persia. Such an invasion could not have been made at a more unfavorable juncture, for, at this time, Athens was the seat of domestic faction, and was divided between the partisans of Themistocles and Aristides. The latter was a virtuous and patriotic Athenian, who, from his rigid integrity, was surnamed "the Just." In early youth, he had exhibited a steady and determined character, and studied, with most persevering industry, the laws of his country. Such a man was not long without enemies, and Aristides soon found one in Themistocles, whom he had impeached of embezzling the public treasures. At the battle of Marathon, Aristides was second in command to Miltiades, and highly distinguished himself by his valor. The following year he was appointed archon, after which Themistocles contrived to alarm the people with his growing influence, and succeeded in obtaining his banishment by ostracism, (that singular

expedient in Athenian policy,) by which the city was rid of any person whose popularity might be deemed dangerous. Such was the state of Athens when Xerxes drew up his host upon the plains of Thessaly.

The greater number of the states of Greece either remained neuter, or sent to Xerxes the required tokens of submission; and even Lacedemon, although expressing a determination to oppose the common enemy, yet sent no more than three hundred men to the Athenians; these, however, were a band of heroes, having for their commander Leonidas, their brave and virtuous king. The Corinthians, Thespians, Plateans, and Eginetes, each contributed a small force.

Xerxes, having given orders for his fleet to follow him along the coast, now proceeded, by rapid marches, towards the pass of Thermopyla, and on arriving there, was strangely surprised to find the Greeks prepared to dispute his passage. Xerxes had always flattered himself, that on the first news of his arrival, the Grecians would betake themselves to flight; and so fully persuaded was he they would yet do so, that he waited four days in order to give them time to retreat; but finding that they still retained their position, he concluded that nothing remained but to engage the Lacedemonians. Accordingly Xerxes commanded his Median forces to march against them, with orders to take them all alive, and bring them to him. These Medes were all shamefully put to flight, and thus proved that Xerxes had a great many men, but few soldiers. The next troops sent to face the Spartans, were those Persians called the Immortal Band, which consisted of ten thousand men, (the best troops in the whole army,) but these had no better success than the former. Xerxes, having lost all hope of forcing his way through troops who seemed resolved to conquer or die, was strangely perplexed, but was at length relieved by the treachery of some Thessalians, who discovered to him a secret and unfrequented passage, by which access might be obtained to the other side of the pass. He quickly dispatched a detachment thither, which, marching all night, arrived there at break of day, and possessed themselves of that advantageous post. The Greeks were soon apprized of this misfortune, and Leonidas, seeing that it was now impossible to repulse the

enemy, obliged the rest of the allies to retire, but resolved, with his three hundred Spartans, to maintain his position to the last extremity, determined to give the Persians a just idea of the foe they had to encounter, and whom they vainly hoped to subdue. This brave little band were all cut off to one man, who brought the news to Sparta, where he was treated as a cowardly fugitive, till he effaced that disgrace by his bravery at the battle of Platæa. Xerxes, enraged to the last degree against Leonidas, for daring to oppose him, caused his dead body to be hung upon a gallows, adding, by this base act, to his own shame. Some time after these transactions, by order of the Amphictyons, a magnificent monument was erected at Thermopyla, to the honor of these brave defenders of Greece, with an inscription written by Simonides, remarkable for its simplicity. It was as follows: "Go, passenger, and tell at Sparta that we died here in obedience to her sacred laws."

Forty years afterwards Pausanias, who obtained the victory of Platæa, caused the bones of Leonidas to be carried from Thermopyla to Sparta, and erected a magnificent monument to his memory, near which was one also erected to himself. Every year, at these tombs, a funeral oration was pronounced to the honor of those heroes, and public games celebrated, wherein none but the Lacedemonians had a right to partake, in order to show, that they alone were concerned in the glory obtained at Thermopylæ. In this affair, Xerxes lost upwards of twenty thousand men, among whom were two of the king's brothers. Dismayed at a victory that had cost him so dear, Xerxes inquired of Demaratus, (a Spartan king, who, some time previous, had been banished his country, and had taken refuge in his court,) whether the Lacedemonians had many such soldiers? That prince replied, that the Spartan republic had many cities belonging to it, of which all the inhabitants were exceedingly brave, but that the inhabitants of Lacedemon, who were properly called Spartans, and who were about eight thousand in number, surpassed all the rest in valor, and were all equal to those who had fought under Leonidas.

The conduct of Leonidas, with his three hundred Spartans, was not the effect of rashness or despair, but a wice and noble conduct; and to the result of that famous