XI. who had been engaged in the expedition against LETTER Naxus, if he could not draw them over by persuasion to his interest. Itagoras succeeded beyond expectation: he seized all the chiefs he could not persuade 123. And Aristagoras, rendered confident by his good fortune, determined instantly to set at defiance the power of the Persian monarch. As a prelude to such a measure, he resigned to the Milesians their native liberties, and placed himself on a footing with his fellow-citizens; depending solely upon his personal importance, for the lead which he wished to take in their affairs 124. From Miletus Aristagoras went to the other Ionian cities; every where erecting the standard of liberty, and expelling the tyrants, or Grecian governors under Darius. So that all Ionia was soon united in a league of freedom and independency 125. And the Eolian and Dorian cities afterward acceded to that confederacy. Meanwhile Aristagoras, aware that the whole body of the Asiatic Greeks were not able to oppose the arms of the Persian monarch, assisted by the naval force of the Phenicians, their rivals in commerce, resolved to engage the European Greeks in his cause. He accordingly set sail for Grecce, and went first to the court of Sparta 126. The Lacedæmonians, as I have frequently had occasion to observe, had been considered as the leading people in Greece, ever since the conquest of Messenia. And they had often asserted their superiority with a high hand. They were now governed by Cleomenes and Damaratus; joint kings of Lace 123. Herodot. lib. v. cap. xxxvii. 124. Id. ibid. 125. Herodot. lib. v. cap. xxxix. 126. Id. ibid. dæmon Ant. Chr. 500. Olympiad. lxx. 1. PART I. dæmon or Laconia, agreeable to their constitution. But the chief authority was vested in Cleomenes, because of his transcendant military talents 27. Aristagoras applied to Cleomenes for assistance. "Wonder not," said he, "at the trouble I have "taken to come hither. The business is important. "To behold the posterity of the free-born Ionians "reduced to the condition of slaves, is extremely "grievous and mortifying to their leaders, and must "also be to you; for the Lacedæmonians are the "arbiters of Greece, and the asserters of liberty. "I conjure you, therefore, by the Grecian gods, to rescue the Asiatic Greeks from barbarian servi"tude! The enterprise will not be difficult to a prince, and a people, who have attained the sum"mit of military glory 128 " To these arguments, addressed to the pride and generosity of Cleomenes, Aristagoras added others, calculated to work upon his ambition, and that of the Spartan senate. With this view, he produced a plate of brass, on which was engraved a geographical delineation, or map of the world, as far as then known, with all its seas and rivers. To that plate he pointed, and described the rich province of the Persian empire, from Sardis to Susa. The motives for undertaking the conquest of these, he represented as many, and the dangers to be encountered few; as the barbarians were not only inferior to the Greeks in valour, but in weapons of war; in arms both offensive and defensive. You will not have to "contend," said he, "with a people like "the Messenians, Arcadians, or Argives, equal to yourselves in prowess: and the prize will be in"finitely greater. For if you should become masters ❝of Susa, and the treasures of the Persian monarch, 127. Herodotus, lib. v. passim. 128. Id. cap. xlix. " all "all Asia will submit to your sway; and you may LÉTTER compete with Jove in wealth and power 29." Cleomenes, having listened with attention to this artful speech, desired three days to deliberate on the proposal of Aristagoras. What resolution he might have formed, during that interval, is not known. But the Ionian ambassador no sooner entered the presence of the Spartan king, to learn the issue of his negociation, than Cleomenes asked, in what time an army could march from the coast of Ionia to Susa, "In three months," answered Aristagoras unguardedly. Begone from Sparta, Milesian stranger! "before the setting of the sun," said Cleomenes sternly:-" nor farther attempt to engage the Lace❝ dæmonians in so distant an expedition'30." Sensible of the mistake he had committed at his public audience, in mentioning the distance of Susa, Aristagoras clothed himself in the habit of a suppliant, and followed the Spartan prince to his own house. Having gained admittance in this humble character, he attempted to work upon the avarice of Cleomenes; offering him first ten, and afterward fifty talents; or nine thousand, six hundred, and eighty pounds sterling: an immense sum in Greece at that time, if he would persuade the Lacedæmonians to undertake the defence of the Asiatic® Greeks. But finding presents as ineffectual as promises, the Ionian chief took his departure from Sparta, according to the former command of the king/31. Aristagoras went next to Athens, in order to prefer his suit. The Athenians, were then in al temper well adapted to his views. Hippias, whom" 129. Id. ibid. 130. Herodotus, lib. v. cap. 1. 131. Id. Historiar. lib. v. li. VOL. II. R we XI. PART I. we have formerly seen expelled Attica, because of his tyrannical administration 132, after attempting, by various means, to recover his authority over his fellow-citizens, had applied to Artaphernes, satrap of Sardis. And Artaphernes had ordered the Athenians to restore Hippias, if they would avoid the displeasure of the great king 133. But fully to understand the state of Athens at this time, it will be necessary to take a retrospective survey of the affairs of that republic, from the expulsion of the Pisistratidæ, in the year five hundred and ten before the christian æra, until the arrival of Aristagoras. The Athenians justly dated the era of their prosperity, from the recovery of their political freedom. But they had many struggles to encounter, before they could break the machinations of usurping citizens, defeat the designs of the exiled tyrant, and establish that freedom on a firm basis. After the banishment of Hippias, two men of illustrious birth swayed, and divided the Athenian republic; Clisthenes, the chief of the Alcmæonids, who was archon at that time, and Isagoras, his rival in politics, a man of superiof talents, and also of noble blood 134. Clisthenes, in order to preserve the ascendant, which his family connexions and political situation gave him, adopted several popular measures. He formed the Athenian citizens into ten, instead of four, tribes 135; and directed fifty senators to be chosen out of each tribe; so that the great council of the state, which had hitherto been composed of four hundred, henceforth consisted of five hundred members 136. And on purpose to secure his consequence, XI. as he possessed the favour of the people, and to LETTER guard the state against the danger of tyranny, he instituted the Ostracism 137; a law by which the majority of the Athenians, in the popular assembly, could banish, for ten years, but without the confiscation of his estate, any powerful or ambitious citizen, by writing his name upon tiles or shells; provided the shells, on which his name was inscribed, amounted to six thousand 138. Cleo Isagoras, thus borne down by his political competitor, and in danger of exile, had recourse to the assistance of Cleomenes, king of Sparta; whose friendship he had gained by acts of hospitality, during the expulsion of the Pisistratida '39. menes, glad of an opportunity of displaying the power of Sparta at Athens, and of humbling that rival state, which he had formerly been incautiously led to exalt, by a collusive response of the delphic oracle, readily complied with the request of Isagoras. He sent a herald to Athens, and obtained the banishment of Clisthenes and his principal adherents 140 He afterward went thither in person, attended by a military force; expelled seven hundred Athenian families, at the instigation of Isagoras; and attempted to dissolve the council of five hundred, and vest the administration of the state in three hundred partizans of that chief11. “The Athenians," says 137. Ælian. Var. Hist. lib. xiii. cap. xxiv. 138. Plut. Vit. Themist. et Vit. Aristid. Diodorus Siculus (lib. xi.), adopted not this institution so much "with a view to punishment, as from an idea, that spirits too high "and soaring ought to be sent to evaporate in exile." When it was proposed to banish any person by the ostracism, it appears that his friends accused one or more of his reputed enemies, in order to divide the number of shells, and prevent the greatest majority from amounting to six thousand (Plut. Vit. Aristid.). Most of the Grecian republics had a similar mode of expelling such of their citizens as excited public jealousy. Aristot. Plut. lib. iii. cap. xiii. 139. Herodot. lib. v. cap. lxx.. 141. Herodot. lib, v. cap. lxxii. 140. Id. ibid. Roused |