V'ii KiucmjmjmM ■ ■ m m r JCDCL ip ARNES ^H ISTORICAL ERIES mjouuaa: '^: GIFT OF Philip McCombs Education Dept. N^ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/briefhistoryofgrOOsteerich HELLAS OR GREECE Scale of English Miles RUSSELL & BTRUTHMS, ENQ'8 N.Y. I' I' BARNES'S ONE-TERM SERIES. Brief History GREECE; READINGS FROM PROMINENT GREEK HISTORIANS. A. S. BARNES & COMPANY, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO. 1883. tidnc. Dftpt Copyright, 1883, 3jy ^ . 5. Barnes &" Co. PREFATORY NOTE THE first ninety pages of this little book are from Barnes' Brief History of Ancient Peoples, and give the Political History and Civilization of Greece. These are followed by select readings of Grecian History, which cover many centuries and report a people whose records fill whole libraries, whose literature still inspires the world, and whose influence on the thought and feel- ing of, the world will endure for ages to come. These Headings are compiled from the best authors. They give a series of word-pictures from many painters of history. It is hoped that these specimens may lead our readers to consult the larger works of the authors represented. J. H. V. New Haven, Conn., July 10, 1883. [vi55963 CONTENTS. HISTORY OF GREECE. PAOB The Political History 1 Sparta 7 Athens 9 The Persian Wars 13 Age of Pericles 23 Peloponnesian War 27 Lacedaemon and Theban Dominion 34 Macedonian Empire 36 Alexander's Successors 41 The Civilization 46 The Manners and Customs 71 Scenes in Real Life 80 Summary 88 Reading References 89^ Chronology 90 READmGS m GREEK HISTORY. Unity of Greece Rawlimon 93 Argos Rawlinson 94 Lycurgus Schmitz 94 Olympic Games Thirwall 95 Wars of Messenia Schmitz 97 IV CONTENTS. PAGE Cjpselus and Periander Cox 100 Laws of Draco &mith 103 Conspiracy of Cylon , Orote 104 Legislation of Solon Fyffe 106 Last Days of Solon— Pisi stratus Cox 108 Hippias and Hipparchus Cox 110 Battle of Marathon Fyffe 113 Battle of Thermopylje Ooldsmith 114 Death of Leouidas Cox 117 The Battle of Salarais Curtius 118 Themistocles Orote 120 Battle of Plataea Fyffe 122 Aristides Orote 124 Cimon. Wars. Death of Ephialtes Smith 126 Pericles ... Cox 129 Education of an Athenian Citizen Macaulay 130 Corinth and Corcyra ^ Schmitz 131 Death of Pericles TJdrwall 133 Alcibiades Cox 134 The Sicilian Expedition 135 Preparations for Invading Sicily ThirwaU 135 Mutilation of the Hermae Orote 139 Fall of Athens Oilliea 140 The Thirty Tyrants Thirwall 141 Life of Socrates Cox 143 Death of Socrates Orote 147 The Expedition of Cyrus Schmitz 150 Battle of Cunaxa Smith 151 The March to the Sea Cox 152 Battle of Cnidus Orote 156 Battle of Coronea Orote 157 The Battle of Leuctra Smith 161 Battle of Cynoscephalae Smith 162 Death of Epaminondas Orote 163 Characterization of Philip Smith 165 Demosthenes Orote 166 Last Days of Olynthus Curteis 167 CONTENTS. y PAGE Causes of the Sacred War 169 Death of Philip Orote 170 Youth of Alexander Orote 172 Destruction of Thebes Cox 174 Battle of the Granicus Gillies 175 The Gordian Knot Grote 178 Battle of Issus Smith 179 The Fall of Tyre Thirwall 181 Battle of Arbela Smith 184 Victory over Porus Grote 186 Death of Clitus * Curteis 187 Death of Alexander Grote 188 GREECE By J. DOEMAN STEELE, Ph.D. 1. THE POLITICAL HISTORY. From East to West. — The student of History having traced the beginning of civilization among the oldest peo- ples of antiquity next turns to Europe. Its history, so far as we know, began in Greece. The story of that little penin- sula became, about the time of the Persian wars (p. 13), the record of civilization and progress, to which the history of the East is thenceforth but an occasional episode. The Difference between Eastern and Western Civ- ilization is marked. The former rose to a considerable pitch, but, fettered by despotism, caste, and polygamy, was soon checked. The monarch s were absolute, the empires vast, and the masses passive. In Greece, on the contrary, we find the people astir, every power of the mind in full play, and little states all aglow with patriotic ardor. Assy- rian art, Egyptian science, and the Phoenician alphabet were absorbed, but only as seeds for a new and better growth. Much of the life we live to-day, with its political, social, and Geoffraphicai Questions.— Bovaxd Greece. Name the principal Grecian states. Tlie principal Grecian colonies (Frontispiece). Tlie chief islands iu the ^gean Sea. Locate the Peloponnesus. Arcadia. Where was Ionia ? .^olis ? Athens ? Sparta ? Thebes ? Argos ? Corinth ? Delphi ? Marathon ? Plataea ? The pass of Ther- mopylae ? Ilium ? The Hellespont ? The isle of Rhodes ? Mount Parnassus ? Vale of Tempe ? Mount Ossa ? Mount Pelion ? Salamis Island ? Syracuse ? Magna Graecia ? Chaeronea? a GREECE. inteHecfcual a dv&tages ; its music, painting, oratory, and l^^'^s^ijilpt^r^! ; its thirst for knowledge, and its free institutions, was kindled on tlie shores of the -^gean Sea, was transmitted by the Greek to the Roman, by him to the Teuton, and so handed down to us. The Geographical Features of Greece had much to do with fixing the character of its inhabitants. The coast was indented, like no other, with bays having bold promon- tories reaching far out to sea, and forming excellent harbors. Nature thus afforded every inducement to a seafaring life. In striking contrast to the vast alluvial plains of the Nile and the Euphrates, the land was cut up by almost impassable mountain ranges, isolating each little valley, and causing it to develop its peculiar life. A great variety of soil and climate also tended to produce a versatile people. The Early Inhabitants were our Aryan kinsfolk, and the Pelasgians,* a simple, agricultural people, were the first to settle the country, Next, the Helle'nes, a warlike race, conquered the land. The two blended and gave rise to the • Grecian language and civilization, as did, in later times, the iNorman and Anglo-Saxon to the English. Hellas and Hellenes. — The Greeks did not use the name by which we know them, but called their country Hellas and themselves Hellenes. Even the settlements in Asia Minor, and in the isles of the -^gean and Mediter- ranean, were what Freeman happily styles "patches of Hellas." All those nations whose speech they could not understand they called Barbarians. Grecian Unity. — The different Grecian states, though always jealous and often fighting, yet had much in common. * Bemains of the Pelasgian architecture still survive. They are rude, massive stone structures. The ancients considered them the work of the Cyclops— a fabulous race of giants, who had a single eye in the middle of the forehead. THE POLITICAL HISTORY. 3 All spoke the same language, though there were several dia- lects. They had many common customs, and a common inheritance in the poems of Homer (p. 50) and the glory of the Hellenic name. There were, moreover, two great ''holding-points" for all the Greeks. One was the half- yearly meeting of the Amphictyonic Council,* and the other the national games or festivals (p. 74). All Hellenes took part in the latter, and thus the colonies were united to the parent state. The Grecian calendar itself was based on the quadrennial gathering at Olympia, the First Olympiad dating from 776 B. c.f Legendary History. — The early records of Greece are mythical. It is not worth the effort to pick out the kernels of truth around which these romantic legends grew. They chronicle the achievements of the Heroic Age of the poets. Then occurred the Argonautic Expedition in search of the Golden Fleece, the Twelve Labors of Hercules, the Siege of "Troy divine," the Hunt of the Caledonian Boar, and the exploits of heroes whose adventures have been familiar to each succeeding age, and are to-day studied by the youth of every civilized land. J * In early times twelve tribes in the north agreed to celebrate sacrifices together twice a year, in the spring to Apollo at Delphi, and in the autumn to Ceres at An- thela, near Thermopylae. Their deputies were called the Amphictyonic Council (council of the neighbors or co-religionists), and the meetings from being, at first, purely religious became great centers of political influence. The temple at Delphi belonged to all the states, and the Delphic oracle attained celebrity, not only among the Greeks bat also among foreign nations. t This was twenty-nine years before the era of Nabonasser, and half a century before the Captivity of the Ten Tribes by Sargon. X Thus read the legends: (1.) Jason, a prince of Thessaly, sailed with a band of adventurers in the good ship Argo. The Argonauts went through the Dardanelles, past the present site of Constantinople, to the eastern coast of the Euxine sea. Jason there planted a colony, took away the famous Golden Fleece, carried off the beautiful princess Medea, and returned to Thessaly in triumph. (2.) Hercules was the son of Jupiter and Alcmena. Juno, Queen of Heaven, sent two serpents to strangle him in his cradle, but the precocious infant killed them both and escaped unharmed. Afterward his half brother, Eurystheus, imposed upon him twelve difficult under- takings, all of which he successfully accomplished. (3.) Soon after the return of the 4 GREECE. Grecian Governments. — In legendary times, as we learn from the Iliad, each little city or district had its hereditary king, supposed to be descended from the gods. He was ad- vised by the Council of the Elders and the AsseynUy, the latter being a mass meeting, where all the citizens gathered THE DEPARTURE OF ACHILLES (fROM AN ANCIENT VASE). Argonautic expedition several of the Grecian warriors— Meleager, Theseus, and others— joined in an ^olian war, which the poets termed the *^Hunt of the Caledonian Boar.''^ iEnens, king of Calydon, father of Meleager, having neglected to pay homage to Diana, that goddess sent a wild boar, which was impervious to the spears of ordinary huntsmen, to lay waste his country. AH the princes of the age assembled to hunt him down, and he was at last killed by the spear of Meleager. (4.) The story of the Siege of Troy is the subject of Homer's Iliad. Venus had promised Pans, son of Priam, king of Troy, that if he would pronounce her the most beautiftiJ of the goddesses, he should have for wife the handsomest woman of his time, Helen, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. Paris granted the boon, and then going to Sparta carried off Helen to Troy. Menelaus, smarting under this wrong, appealed to the Grecian princes for help. They assembled tinder his brother Agamemnon, king of My- cenae. One hundred thousand men sailed away in eleven hundred and eighty-six ships across the Eg6an, and invested Troy. The siege lasted ten years. Hector " of ^ the beamy helm," son of Priam, was the bravest leader of the Trojans. Achilles, the first of Grecian warriors, slew him in single combat, and dragged his body at his chariot-wheels in in- solent triumph around the walls of the city. But the "lion-hearted" Achilles fell in turn, •' for EC the fates had decreed." Troy was finally taken by stratagem. The Greeks feigned $6 retire, leaving behind them as an offering to Minerva, a great wooden horse. This vyas reported to be purposely of such vast bulk, in oider to prevent the Trojans from taking it into the city, as that would be fatal to the Grecian cause. The deluded PROW OF AN EARLY GREEK SHIP. THE POLITICAL HISTORY. 5 to express their views upon political * affairs. The power of the kings gradually diminished until most of the cities became republics, or commonwealths. In some cases the authority was held by a few distinguished and ancient families. If good, it was styled an aristocracy {aristos, best) ; but if bad, an oligarchy (oligos, few). In a democracy, any citizen could hold office and vote in the assembly. At Sparta there were always two kings, although in time they lost most of their power. The Dorian Migration was one of the first clearly- defined events of Grecian histoiy. After the Trojan war the ties which had temporarily held the princes together were loosed, and a general shifting of the tribes ensued. The Dorians — a brave, hardy race — descended from the mountains, and moved south in search of homes, f They conquered the Achaeans in the Peloponnesus, and occupied the chief cities — Argos, Corinth, and Sparta. (About the eleventh century b. c.) Grecian Colonies. — Hellas was greatly extended in con- sequence of these changes. A part of the Achaeans fled northward, dispossessing the lonians, many of whom emi- grated to Asia Minor, where they founded the Io}iic colonies, among*which were Ephesus {Acts xix. 1 ; xx. 15) and Mile'- inhabitants fell into the snare, and eagerly dragged the unwieldy monster within their walls. That night a body of men concealed in the horse crept out, threw open the gates and admitted the Grecians, who had quietly returned. From the terrible mas- sacre which ensued, .^n^as, a famous Trojan chief, escaped with a few followers. His subsequent adventures form the theme of Virgil's yEneid, the famous Latin poem. Homer's Odyssey tells the wanderings of the crafty Ulysses, king of Ithaca, during his journey home from Troy, and the trials of his faithful wife Penelope during his absence. * It is curious that the word " politics " is derived from the Greek word for city, and meant in its original form only the affairs of the city. The Hellenes, unlike most other Aryans (.except the Italians, who were of the same swarm), from tiie very first gathered in cities. t This event is known in Grecian history as " The Return of the Heraclei'dae. The Dorians were induced by the descendants of Hercules to support their claim to the throne of Argos, whence their ancestor had been driven by the family of Pelops. 6 GKEECE. tus. Similarly, the ^olians had already founded the ^oUc colonies. Finally the Dorians were tempted to cross the sea and establish the Doric colonies^ chief of which was Rhodes (map opposite). In subsequent times of strife many Greek citizens gi-ew discontented, and left their homes to try their fortune in new lands. The colonial cities also soon became strong enough to plant new settlements. Every opportunity to extend their commerce or political influence was eagerly seized by these energetic explorers. In the palmy days of Greece, the Euxine and the Propontis (Sea of Marmora) were fringed with Hellenic towns. The Ionian cities, at the time of the Persian conquest (p. 12), " extended ninety miles along the coast in an almost uninterrupted line of magnificent quays, warehouses, and dwellings." On the African shore was the rich Gyrene, the capital of a prosperous state. Sicily, with her beautiful city of Syracuse, was like a Grecian island. Southern Italy was long called Magna Graecia (Great Greece). The Phoenicians, the seamen and traders of these times, almost lost the commerce of the eastern Mediterranean. On the western coast, the Greeks possessed the flourishing colony of Massilia (Marseilles), and had it not been for the rising power of Carthage would have secured nearly the entire shore, and transformed the Mediterranean into a " Grecian lake." "Wherever the Greek went, he remained a Greek. He carried with him into barbarian lands the Hellenic language, manners, and civilization. In the colonies the natives learned the Grecian tongue, and took on the Grecian mode of thought and worship. Moreover, the transplanted Greek matured faster than the home-growth. So it happened that in the magnificent cities which grew up in Asia Minor, philosophy, letters, the arts and sciences, bloomed even sooner than in Greece itself. ■E d LEMNOS ope 8. X^NOROS I. B jk ^ lACARIA if^ «■* 1 e g^ 8 ^ V W-^NAXOS 8ERIPH0S I. %L ^/ 8IPHN0S 1.^ *l\ \. ^(r^r ^ ^■^ >fi c e » TMERA ir^ HEJLLAS or GREECE. IN THE HEROIC AGE HELLAS or GREECE, AFTER THE DORIC MIGRATION. I l /Colians 1 i lonians I I Achaeans EZZU Dorians 1I.WEULS, OEU SumZJ i StTMt)ur;£nf^ t,X_, T. f- i l;5, (. '., 1.,/ ;, THE POLITICAL HISTORY. 7 Sparta and Athens. — The Dorians and the lonians came to be the leading races in Greece. Their diverse characteristics had a great influence on its history. The Dorians were rough and plain in their habits, sticklers for the old customs, friends of an aristocracy, and bitter ene- mies of trade and the fine arts. The lonians, on the other liand, were refined in their tastes, fond of change, demo- cratic, commercial, and passionate lovers of music, painting, and sculpture. The rival cities, Sparta and Athens, repre- sented these opposing traits. Their deep-rooted hatred was the cause of numerous wars which convulsed the country. For, in the sequel, we shall find that the Grecians spent their best blood in fighting among themselves, and Grecian history is mostly occupied with the doings of these two cities. SPAETA. Early History. — One of the Dorian bands occupied Lacedaemon, called also Sparta from its grain fields [sparte, sown land). The former owners (termed pericelci, dwellers- around) were allowed to keep the poorest of the lands, and to be tradesmen and mechanics. But they could neither have voice in the government nor intermarry with their Dorian conquerors, who now came to be called Spartans. The latter took the best farms, and compelled their slaves (helots) to work them. The helots were captives or rebels, and were at first few, but in the succeeding wars rapidly increased. The Spartans (only nine thousand strong in the time of Lycurgus), planted thus in the midst of a hostile population, were forced to live like soldiers on guard. In the rest of the Peloponnesus the Dorians betook themselves to peaceful pursuits and mingled with the 8 GREECE. [850 B.C. natives. But in Sparta there was no relaxation, no blending. The Dorians there kept on their cold, cruel way. They were constantly quarreling among themselves, and so little gain did they make that two and a half centuries passed and the Achagans were still fortified only little over two miles away from Sparta. Lycurgus (850 b.o.), a member of the royal family, finally crystallized into a constitution all the peculiarities of the Spartan character. His whole aim was to make the Spartans a race of soldiers. Trade and travel were pro- hibited. No money was allowed except cumbrous iron coins, which no foreigner would take. Most property, as slaves, horses, dogs, etc., was held in common. Boys were removed from home at the age of seven, and educated by state officers. The men ate at public tables, slept in barracks, and could visit their homes only occasionally.* Private life was given up for the good of the state and devoted to military drill. The two kings were retained "5 but their power was limited by a senate of twenty-eight men over sixty years old, and an assembly of all the citizens. Five epliors (overseers) were chosen annually by the assembly, and these were the real rulers. No popular discussion was allowed, nor could a private citizen speak in the assembly without special leave from a magistrate. Thus the government became in fact an oligarchy under the guise of a monarchy. The people having promised to live under this 'constitution until he should return, Lycurgus left Sparta and was never heard of again. The Supremacy of Sparta dates from this time. ** A mere garrison in a hostile country, she became the mistress * Agis, a man of high rank, on his return ft-om a long and triumphant expedition, ventured to send for his broth, that he might eat his first meal at home vrtth his wife^ This foolish show of sentiment was punished by a heavy fine. 743-668B.C.] THE POLITICAL HISTORY. 9 of Laconia." The conquest of Messenia in two long, bloody wars, made her dominant in the Peloponnesus. This was preceded and followed by several minor wars, all tending to increase her territory and establish her authority over her neighbors. At the beginning of the 5th century b. c. the Spartans were ready to assert their position as the leaders in Grecian affairs, and had already repeatedly carried their arms across the Isthmus into Attica, when, at this juncture, all Greece was threatened by the Persian forces (p. 12). ATHENS. Early History. — Athens, like the other Grecian cities, was governed for a time by kings. Cecrops, the first ruler, according to the legends, taught the people of Attica navigation, marriage, and the culture of the olive. Codrus, the last monarch, fell (1050 b. c.) while resisting the Dorians. After his death the nobles selected one of the royal family, as archon or chief. At first the archon ruled for life; afterward the term was shortened to ten years, and finally to one, the nobles choosing nine archons from their own number. Thus Athens became an aristocratic republic. Draco (624 B.C.).— But the demo- cratic spirit was rife. The people com- plained that they got no justice from the nobles, and the demand for ivritten laius became so urgent that Draco was directed to prepare a code. His laws were so merciless that they were said to have been written COIN OF ATHENS, 10 GREECE. B.C. SOLON'S TABLETS. in blood, every offence being punished with death. To avoid the popular indignation, Draco fled, and his name is to this day synonymous with cruelty. Solon* (594 B.C.).— Party strife now prevailed. The state being threatened with anarchy, Solon was appointed to draft a new constitution. He repealed the harsh edicts of Draco ; relieved those who were in debt ; f bought the free- dom of many who had been sold as slaves ; forbade parents to sell or pawn their children; ordered every parent to teach his sons a trade ; and required sons to support their father in old age, provided he had given them an education. His plan was to weaken the nobles and to strengthen the people. He therefore gave every free-born native of Attica a vote in the assembly, where laws were enacted, archons elected, and officers held accountable for their conduct. Property, instead of birth, now gave rank. The people were divided into four classes according to their income. Only the three richest classes could hold office, but they had to pay the taxes and to equip themselves as soldiers. The wealthiest could serve as archons, while only those who had held that office were eligible to the ancient Court of Areopagus. J This court repealed laws which were hurtful * This famous Athenian lawgiver was descended from the ancient kings, but poverty forced him to earn his livelihood. Gaining a fortune by commerce he retired f\-om business. He then, according to the custom of the scholars of that day, traveled to the East in search of knowledge. Such was his sagacity and judgment that he was reckoned one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. t In that age a man unable lo pay his debts was liable to be sold into slavery. See Nehemiah v. 3. 5 ; 2 Kings iv. 1. The punishments in early times were all severe. Bead Matt. v. 38. X So called because the meetings were held on the hill known by that name {Acts xvii. 19). 560B.C.] THE POLITICAL HISTORY. 11 to the state, looked after the morals of the people, and re- buked any person who lived unworthy of an Athenian, or who was not properly bringing up his children. A senate of four hundred, selected annually by lot, was to prepare the business presented in the assembly. Tyrants.* — Athens prospered under Solon's wise manage- ment. The people got their rights. The mortgage-pillars f disappeared. But moderate measures, as is often the case, pleased neither extreme of society. Local factions strove for power. One day Pisis' trains, a noble aspiring to office, rushed, besmeared with blood, into the market-place, and, pointing to his self-inflicted wounds, asked for a guard, pretending that the other nobles had attacked him because he was a friend of the people. J This request being granted, ere long he seized the Acropolis and became the first tyrant of Athens. His rule, however, was so beneficent that one would fain forget how craftily he secured his place. He established Solon's laws, erected beautiful public build- ings, encouraged art, founded the first library, and collected and published the scattered ballads of Homer. The tyrant's sons, Hippias and Hipparchus, trod in his steps. But the latter having been assassinated, the brother became moody and cruel. His enemies, led by the Alcmaeo- nidae, § bribed the oracle at Delphi, so that when the Lace- * The Greeks applied this name at first to a person who became king in a city where the law did not authorize one. Afterward the Tyrants became cruel, and tho word took on the meaning which we now give it. t It was customary among the Greeks, when a farm was given as security for the payment of money, to set up a stone pillar at the comer with the sum loaned and the name of the lender engraved upon it. X Solon detected the sham and with bitter wit declared, " You are but a bad imi- tation of Ulysses. He wounded himself to delude his enemies ; you to deceive your countrymen." § This name came into prominence in the following way: At the time Draco's etern laws aroused so much feeling, a noble named Cylon attempted to make himself tyrant. He seized the Acropolis but was defeated, and his followers, half dead with hunger, were forced to take refuge at the altars of the gods. The archon MegScles 12 GREECE. [510 B.C. daemonians consulted the priestess, they received the reply, ** Athens must be freed." The Spartans accordingly invaded Attica and drove away the tyrant (510 b. c). Hippias went over to the Persian court, and was henceforth the declared enemy of his native city. We shall hear from him again. Democracy Established.— It turned out, however, that aristocratic Sparta had only paved the way for a republic. For Cleis'thenes, an Athenian noble, the head of the Alcmae- onidae but now the candidate of the people's party, became archon. All freemen of Attica were admitted to citizenship. In order to break up the four old tribes, and prevent the nobles from raising parties among the people of their clans, or according to local interests, he divided the country into districts, and organized ten new tribes by uniting non- adjacent districts. Each tribe sent fifty representatives to the senate, and also chose a strategus or general, the ten generals to command the army in daily turn. The triumph of democracy was complete. Four times a month all Athens met to deliberate and decide upon public questions. "The Athenians then," says Herodotus, "grew mighty, and it became plain that liberty is a brave thing." It was now near the beginning of the 5th century b. c. Both Sparta and Athens had risen to power, ■w:hen all Greece was threatened by a new foe. The young civilization of the West was, for the first time, called to meet the old civiliza- tion of the East. In the presence of a common danger the warring states united. The next twenty years were stirring ones in the annals of freedom. induced them to surrender on the promise of their lives. Scarcely, however, had they left the altars than his soldiers cut them down. Soon after, a plague broke out, ■which was considered a judgment of the gods for this impious act. The Athenians, believing that a curse had thus fallen on their city, finally forced the Alcmceonidce (the clan of Megacles) into exile, and called Epimenides, a prophet of Crete, to atone for and purify the city. . The Alcmseonidse were wealthy, and to make amends for their impiety they undertook to rebuild the temple at Delphi, which had been burnt down. The contract called for common stone, but they faced the building with fine marble, thus gaining the favor of the Delphic oracle. 500 B. c] THE POLITICAL HISTORY. 13 THE PERSIAjST WARS. Cause. — The Persian empire now reached the borders of Thessaly. The Grecian colonies in Asia Minor had fallen into the hands of Cyrus; and the conquering armies of Darius were already threatening the freedom of Greece it- self, when an act of Athens hastened the struggle. The GREECE, TIME OF THE PERSIAN WARS GREECE IN TIME OF THE PERSIAN WARS. Ionian cities having tried to throw off the Persian yoke, the mother city sent them aid.* The Great King subdued the Ionic revolt, and then turned to punish the haughty foreign- ers who had dared to meddle in the affairs of his empire, * Dnring the brief campaign of the Athenians in Asia Minor, Sardis, the capital of Lydia, was accidentally burned. When Darius received this news he took a bow and shot an arrow to the sky, with a prayer to Ahura Mazda for help ; and that he might not forget the insult he ordered that, at dinner each day, a servant should call out thrice, " Master, remember the Athenians." 14 GEEECE, [493 B.C. and also to force the Athenians to receive back Hippias (p. 12) as their tyrant. The First Expedition (493 B.C.) against Greece was sent out under Mardonius, the son-in-law of Darius. The land troops were defeated in Thrace, and the fleet was shat- tered while rounding Mount Athos. Mardonius returned without having set foot into the region he went to conquer. Second Expedition. — Darius, full of fury, began at once raising a new army. Meanwhile heralds were dispatched to demand the surrender of the Grecian cities. Many sent back earth and water, the oriental symbols of vassalage ; Sparta and Athens refused, the former throwing the envoys into a deep well, bidding them find there the tokens of sub- mission. Battle of Marathon (490 b. c). — This time the Persian fleet of six hundred triremes safely crossed the ^gean, and landed a large army on the famous field of Marathon, only twenty-two miles from Athens. Miltiades (to whom the other strategi had surrendered their days of command) went out to meet them with but ten thousand sol- diers. The usual prayers and sacrifices were of- fered, but it was late in the day ere the auspices became favorable so that he dared hazard an attack. Finding that the Persians had placed their best troops at the center, Miltiades put opposite them a weak line of men, and stationed heavy files of his choicest soldiers on the wings. Giving the enemy no time to hurl their javelins, he imme- ...;r;^-%to. PLAIN OF MARATHON MAP OF THE PLAINS OF MARATHON. 490B.C.] THE POLITICAL HISTORY 15 VIEW OF THE PLAINS OF MARATHON. diately charged at full speed, and came at once to a hand- to-hand fight. The strong wings swept all before them, and then, wheeling, fell upon both flanks of the victorious Persian center. In a few moments the Asiatic host were wildly fleeing to their ships.* * The Spartans had promised aid, but from religious scruples the troops were unwilling to march until the full moon, and so did not arrive till after the battle, A thousand men from Plataea— all the little city had— stood by the side of the Athenians on that memorable day. When the victory was won, Phidippides, the swiftest run- ner in Greece, ran with the tidings, and, reaching Athens, had breath only to tell the news when he fell dead in the street. Seven of the Persian vessels were captured by the pursuing Greelcs. The brother of JSschylus. the poet, is said to have caught a trireme by the stern, and to have held it until his hand was hacked off by the enemy. Hardly had the Persians and Athenians separated from the last conflict on the beach when the attention of both was arrested by a flash of light on the summit of Mount Pentelicus. It was the reflection of the setting sun on the glittering surface of an uplifted shield. Miltiades at once saw in this a signal from the traitors in Athens inviting the fleet to join them before he returned. Not a moment was to be lost, an;l he ordered an instant march to the city. When the Persian ships arrived they found the heroes of Marathon drawn up on the beach awaiting them. 16 GREECE. [490 B.C. The effect* of this victory was to render the reputation of Athens for valor and patriotism equal, if not superior, to that of Sparta. The Persian invasion made a union of the Hellenic states possible, and Marathon decided that Athens should be the leader. Greece was saved, and her deliverer, Miltiades, was for a time the favorite hero, but a disgraceful expedition to the isle of Paros cost him his popularity, and soon after his return he died. Themistocles and Aristi'des, generals associated with Miltiades at Marathon, now came to be the leading men in Athens. The former was an able but often unscrupulous statesman; the latter a just man and an incorruptible patriot Themistocles foresaw that the Persians would make a fresh attempt to subdue Greece, and that Athens with its excellent harbor and commercial facilities could be far stronger on sea * " So ended what may truly be called the birthday of Athenian greatness. It stood alone in their annals. Other glories were won in after times, but none ap- proached the glory of Marathon. It was not merely the ensuing generation that felt the effects of that wonderful deliverance. It was not merely Themistocles whom the marble trophy of Miltiades would not suffer to sleep. It was not merely iEschy- lus, who, when his end drew near, passed over all his later achievements in war and peace, at Salamis, and in the Diony^ac theatre, and recorded in his epitaph only the one deed of his early days— that he had repulsed the ' long-haired Medes at Marathon.* It was not merely the combatants in the battle who told of supernatural assistance in the shape of the hero Theseus, or of the mysterious peasant, wielding a gigantic ploughshare. Everywhere in the monuments and the customs of their country, and for centuries afterward, all Athenian citizens were reminded of that great day, and of that alone. The frescoes of a painted portico— the only one of the kind in Athens— exhibited in lively colors the scene of the battle. The rock of the Acropolis was crowned on the eastern extremity by a temple of Wingless Victory, now sup- posed to have taken up her abode forever in the city ; and in its northern precipice, the cave, which up to this time had remained untenanted, was consecrated to Pan, In commemoration of the mysterious voice which rang through the Arcadian moun- tains to cheer the forlorn messenger on his empty-handed return from Sparta. The one hundred and ninety-two Athenians who had fallen on the field received the honor— unique in Athenian history — of burial on the scene of their death (the tumulus raised over their bodies by Aristides still remains to mark the spot) ; their names were invoked with hymns and sacrifices down to the latest times of Grecian freedom; and long after that freedom had been extinguished, even in the reign of Trajan and the Antonines, the anniversary of Marathon was still celebrated, and the battle-field was believed to be haunted, night after night, by the snorting of unearthly chargers and the clash of invisible combatants." 482 B.C.] THE POLITICAL HISTORY. 17 than on land. He therefore urged the building of a fleet. Aristides, fond of the old ways, condemned this measure. Themistocles, dreading the opposition, secured the ostracism * of his rival. Third Eispedition. — Darius died ere he could make a new attempt to punish Athens. But his son Xerxes assem- bled over a million soldiers, whom he led in person across the Hellespont and along the coast of Thrace and Macedonia. A fleet of twelve hundred war-ships and three thousand transports kept within easy reach from the shore, f Battle of Thermopylae (480 b.c.).— At the pass of Thermopylae his march was cheeked by seven thousand Greeks under Leonidas, a Spartan. Xerxes sent a messenger to demand their arms. He received the laconic reply, " Come and take them." For tv/o days the Greeks repulsed every attack, and the terrified Persians had to be driven to the assault with whips. On the third day a traitor having pointed out to Xerxes a mountain-path, he sent the Immortals into the rear of the Grecian post. It was the Spartan law that a soldier should die but not yield. So Leonidas, learn- ing of the peril, sent away his ajlies, retaining only three hundred Spartans and seven hundred Thespians, who wished to share in the glory of the day. The little band prepared * This measure was introduced by Cleisthenes. An urn was placed in tlie assem- bly, and any citizen could drop into it a shell {ostrakon) bearing the name of the person he wished exiled. When six thousand votes were thrown against a man he was banished for ten years. It is said that, on this occasion, a countryman coming to Aristides, whom he did not know, asked him to write Aristides on his shell. "Why, what wrong has he done?" inquired the patriot. "None at all," was the reply, "only I am tired of hearing him called the Just." t Two magnificent bridges of boats which he built across the Hellespont having been injured in a storm, the story is that Xerxes ordered the sea to be beaten with whips, and fetters to be thrown into it to show that he was its master. The vast army was seven days in crossing. The king sat on a throne of white marble in- specting the army as it passed. It consisted of forty-six different nations, each armed and dressed after its own manner, while ships manned by Phoenicians covered the sea. Xerxes is said to have burst into tears when he thought how in a few years not one of all that iuunense throng would be alive. 18 GREECE. [480 B.C. for battle — the Spartans combing their long hair, according to custom — and then, scorning to await the attack, dashed down the defile to meet the on-coming enemy. All perished, fighting to the last.* ^ICJNITY PASS OF THERMOPYLAE. * VICINITY OF THERMOPYLiE. * "Xerxes could not believe Demaratus, who assured him that the Spartans at least were come to dispute the Pass with him, and that it was their custom to trim their hair on the eve of a combat. Four days passed before he could be convinced that his army must do more than show itself to clear a way for him. On the fifth day he ordered a body of Median and Cissian troops to fall upon the rash and insolent enemy, and to lead them captive into his presence. He was seated on a lofty throne from which he could survey the narrow entrance of the Pass, which, in obedience to his commands, his warriors endeavored to force. But they fought on ground where their numbers were of no avail, save to increase their confusion, when their attack was repulsed : their short spears could not reach their foe ; the foremost fell, the hinder advancing over their bodies to the charge ; their repeated onsets broke upon the Greeks idly, as waves upon a rock. At length, as the day wore on, the Medians and Cissians, spent with their efforts and greatly thinned in their ranks, were recalled from the contest, which the king now thought worthy of the superior prowess of his own guards, the ten thousand Immortals. They were led up as to a certain and easy victory ; the Greeks stood their ground as before ; or if they ever gave way and turned their backs, it was only to face suddenly about, and deal tenfold destruction on their pursuers. Thrice during these fruitless assaults the king was seen to start up from his throne in a transport of fear or rage. The combat lasted the whole day ; the slaughter of the barbarians was great ; on the side of the Greeks a few Spartan lives were lost ; as to the rest, nothing is said. The next day the attack was renewed with no better success ; the bands of the several cities that made up the Grecian army, except the Phocians, who were employed in defending the mountain-path by which the defile was finally turned, relieved each other at the post of honor ; all stood equally firm, and repelled the charge not less vigorously than before. The confidence of Xerxes was changed into despondence and perplexity.^* 480 B. c] THE POLITICAL HISTORY. 19 LEONIDAS AT THE PASS OF THERMOPYL^ The sacrifice of Leo?iidas became the inspiration of all Greece, and has been the admiration of the lovers of free- dom in every age. The names of the three hundred were familiar to their countrymen, and, six hundred years after, a traveler spoke of seeing them inscribed on a pillar at Sparta. Upon- the mound where the last stand was made a marble lion was erected to Leonidas, and a pillar to the 20 GREECE. t480B.c. three hundred bore this inscription, written by Simonides (p. 52): " Go, Btranger, and to Lacedsemon tell That here, obeying her behests, we fell." Battle of Sal' amis,— At first, however, the loss at Ther- mopylae seemed in vain, and the Asiatic deluge poured south over the plains of Greece. Warned by the oracle that the safety of Athens lay in her '' wooden wall," the inhabitants deserted the city, which Xerxes burned. The ocean, how- ever, seemed to "fight for Greece." In a storm the Persian fleet lost two hundred ships. But it was still so much supe- rior that the Greeks were fearful, and as usual quarreling,* when Themistocles determined to bring on the battle, and accordingly sent a spy to the enemy to say that his country- men would escape if they were not attacked immediately. Thereupon the Persians blockaded the Hellenic fleet in the harbor of Salamis. Animated by the spirit of Thermopyla? the Grecians silenced their disputes and rushed to the fray. They quickly defeated the Phoenician ships in the van, and then the very multitude of the vessels caused the ruin of the Persian fleet. For while some were trying to escape and * "All the Thessalians, Locrians, and Boeotians, except the cities of Thespiae and Plataea, sent earth and water to the Persian king at the first call to s^ubmit, although these tokens of subjection were attended by the curses of the rest of the Greeks, and the vow that a tithe of their estates should be devoted to the city of Delphi. Yet of the Greeks who did not favor Persia, some were willing to assist only on con- dition of being appointed to conduct and command the whole ; others, if their coun- try could be the first to be protected ; others sent a squadron, which was ordered to wait till it was certain which side would gain the victory ; and others pretended they were held back by the declarations of an oracle."— An oft-told story, given in con- nection with this engagement, illustrates the jealousy of the Grecian generals. They were met to decide upon the prize for skill and wisdom displayed in the contest. When the votes were collected, it appeared that each commander had placed his own name first and that of Themistocles second.— While the Grecian leaders at Salamia were deliberating over the propriety of retreat and Themistocles alone held firm, a knock was heard at the door, and Themistocles was called out to speak with a stranger. It was the banished Aristides. " Themistocles," said he, " let us be rivals still, but let our strife be which best may serve our country." He had crossed from ..Sgina in an open boat to inform his countrymen that they were surrounded by the enemy. 480 B. C.J THE POLITICAL HISTOEY. 21 some to come to the front, the Greeks, amid the confusion plying every weapon, sunk two hundred vessels and put the rest to flight. Xerxes, seated on a lofty throne erected on the beach, watched the contest. Terrified by the destruction of his fleet he fled into Asia, leaving three hundred and fifty thousand picked troops under Mardonius to continue the war. Battle of Himera. — While the hosts of Xerxes were pour- ing into Hellas on the northeast, she was simultaneously assailed on the southwest by another formidable foe. An immense fleet, consisting of three thousand ships-of-war, sailing from Carthage to Sicily, landed an army under Hamilcar, the famous Carthaginian leader, who laid siege to Himera. Gelo, the tyrant of Syracuse, marched to the relief of that city and, on the very day of Salamis, utterly routed the Phoenician forces. The tyranny of the commer- cial oligarchy of Carthage might have been as fatal to the liberties of Europe as the despotism of Persia. Battle of Platcea (4t9 B.C.). — Mardonius wintered in Thessaly, and the next summer invaded Attica. The half- rebuilt houses of Athens were again leveled to the ground. Finally the allies, one hundred and ten thousand strong, 'took the field under Pausanias, the Spartan. After the two armies had faced each other for ten days, want of water compelled Pausanias to move his camp. While en route Mardonius attacked his scattered forces. The omens were unfavorable, and the Grecian leader dare not give the signal to engage. The Spartans protected themselves with their shields as best they could against the shower of arrows. Many Greeks were smitten and fell, lamenting not that they must fall, but that they could not strike a blow for their country. In his distress Pausanias lifted up his streaming eyes toward the temple of Hera, beseeching the goddess that, 22 GREECE. [479 B.C. if the fates forbade the Greeks to conquer, they might die like men. Suddenly the sacrifices became auspicious. The Spartans charging in compact rank, shield touching shield, with their long spears swept all before them. The Athenians coming up stormed the intrenched camp. Scarcely forty thousand Persians escaped. The booty was immense. Wagons were piled up with vessels of gold and silver, jewels, and articles of luxury. One tenth ot all the plunder was dedicated to the gods. The prize of valor was adjudged to the Plataeans, and they were charged to preserve the graves of the slain, Pausanias promising with a solemn oath that the battle-field should be sacred forever. That same day the Grecian fleet having crossed the -^gean, destroyed the Persian fleet at Mycale in Asia Minor. The effect of Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, Plataea, and Mycale was to give the death-blow to Persian rule in Europe. Grecian valor had saved a continent from eastern slavery and barbarism. More than that, the Persian wars gave rise to the real Hellenic civilization, and Marathon and Sala- mis may be looked upon as the birth-places of Grecian glory. Athenian Supremacy. — Greece was now, to paraphrase the language of Diodorus, at the head of the world, Athens at the head of Greece, and Themistocles at the head of Athens. The city of Athens was quickly rebuilt. During the recent war the Spartan soldiers had taken the lead, but Pausanias afterward proved a traitor, and as Athens was so strong in ships she became the acknowledged leader of all the Grecian states. A league, called the Oonfederation of Delos (477 b. c), was formed to keep the Persians out of the -^gean. The different cities annually contributed to Athens a certain number of ships, or a fixed sum of money for the support of the navy. The ambition of Themistocles was to form a grand maritime empire, but his share in the treason 478B.C.] THE POLITICAL HISTORY. of Pausanias having been discovered, be was ostracized. Aristides, seeing the drift of affairs, had changed his views, and was already the popular commander of the fleet. Though the head of the party of the nobles, he secured a law abolishing the property qualification, and allowing any person to hold office.* VICINITY OF ATHENS AND SALA3IIS VICINITY OF ATHENS. AGE OF PERICLES. (479-429 B.C.) The leading men at Athens, after the death of Aristides, were Pericles and Cimon. The heroes of the Persian In- vasions had passed from the stage, and new actors now appeared. * The thoughtful student of history cannot but pause here to consider the fate of these three great contemporary men— Pausanias, Themistocles, and Aristides. Pausanias fled to the temple of Minerva. The Spartans, not daring to violate this sanctuary, blocked the door (the traitor's mother laying the first stone), tore off the roof, guarded every avenue, and left the wretch to die of cold and hunger. Themis- tocles was welcomed by Artaxerxes, then king of Persia, and assigned the revenue of three cities. He lived like a prince, but finally ended his pitiable existence, it is said, with poison. Aristides the Just went down to •*'«i grave full of honors. The treasurer of the league, he had yet been so honest that he did not leave enough money to meet his funeral expenses. The grateful republic paid these rites, finished the education of his son, and portioned liis daughters. 24 GEEECE. [466 B.C. Cimon * renewed the glory of his father Miltiades, the victor at Marathon. He pushed on the war in Asia Minor against Persia with great vigor, finally routing their land and sea forces in the decisive battle of the Eurymedon (466 B. c). As the head of the nobles he was naturally friendly to aristocratic Sparta. The Helots and Messenians, taking advantage of an earthquake which nearly destroyed that city, revolted, and a ten-years struggle (known in his- tory as the Third Messenian War) ensued. The haughty Spartans were driven to ask aid from Athens. By the in- fluence of Cimon this was granted. But the Spartans were fearful of such allies, and ungraciously sent the army home. All Athens at once rose in indignation at this outrage. Cimon was ostracized (461 B. c). Pericles,! who was the leader of the democracy, now * Cimon was the richest man in Athena. He kept open tahle for the public. A body of servants laden with cloaks followed him through the streets, and gave a garment to any needy person whom he met. His pleasure-garden was free for all to enter and pluck fruit or flowers. He planted oriental plane-trees in the market-place ; bequeathed to Athens the groves, afterward the Academy of Plato, with its beautiful fountains ; built marble colonnades where the people were wont to promenade ; and gave magnificent dramatic entertainments at his private expense. t " To all students of Grecian, literature Pericles must always appear as the central figure of Grecian history. His form, manner, and outwai-d appearance are well known. We can imagine that stem and almost forbidding aspect which repelled rather than invited intimacy ; the majestic stature ; the long head — long to dispro- portion—already before his fiftieth year silvered over with the marks of age ; the sweet voice and rapid enunciation— recalling, though by an unwelcome association, the likeness of his ancestor Pisistratus. We knew the stately reserve which reigned through his whole life and manners. Those grave features were never seen to relax into laughter—twice only in his long career to melt into tears. For the whole forty years of his administration he never accepted an invitation to dinner but once, and that to his nephew's wedding, and then stayed only till the libation (p. 87), That princely courtesy could never be disturbed by the bitterest persecution of aristocratic enmity or popular irritation. To the man who had followed him all the way from the Assembly to his own house, loading him with the abusive epithets with which, as we know from Aristophanes, the Athenian vocabulary was so richly stored, he paid no other heed than, on arriving at his own door, to turn to his torch-bearer with an order to light his reviler home. In public it was the same. Amidst the passionate gesticulations of Athenian oratory, amidst the tempest of an Athenian mob, his self- possession was never lost, his dress was never disordered, his language was ever studied and measured. Every speech that he delivered he wrote down previously. Every time that he spoke he offered up a prayer to Heaven that no word might escape his lips which he should wish unsaid. But when he did speak the effect wae almost 461 B.C.] THE POLITICAL HISTORY. 35 had everything his own way. A mere private citizen, living plainly and unostentatiously, this great-hearted man was able during his lifetime, by the spell of his eloquence and the force of his genius, to shape the policy of the state. He was bent on keeping Athens all-powerful in Greece, and on making the people all-powerful in Athens. He had perfect confidence in a government by the masses, if they were only properly educated. There were then no common schools, or daily papers, and he was forced to use what the times supplied. He paid the people so they could afford to sit on jury and attend the Assembly to listen to the discussion of public affairs. He had the grand dialogues of ^schylus, Euripides, and Sophocles performed free before the multi- tude. He erected magnificent public buildings, and adorned them with the noblest historical paintings. He made the temples of the gods grand and pure with beautiful architec- ture and the exquisite sculptures of Phidias. He encouraged poets, artists, philosophers, and orators to do their best work. Under his fostering care the Age of Pericles became the finest blossom and fruitage of Hellenic civilization. Athens Ornamented and Fortified. — Matchless colonnades and temples- were now erected, which are yet the wonder of the world. The Acropolis was so enriched with awful. The ' fierce democracy ' was stnick down before it. It could be compared to nothing short of the thunders and lightnings of that Olympian Jove whom in majesty and dignity he resembled. It left the irresistible impression that he was always in the right. ' He not only throws me in the wrestle,' said one of his rivals, ' but when I have thrown him he will make the people think that it is I and not he who has fallen.' What Themistocles, what Aristides, what Ephialtes, what Cimon said, has perished from the memory of their hearers. But the condensed and vivid images of Pericles, far more vivid in Grecian oratory, from their contrast with the general simplicity of ancient diction, than they would be now, were handed down from age to age as specimens of that eloquence which had held Athens and Greece in awe. ' The lowering of the storm of war' from Peloponnesus—' the spring taken out of the year' in the loss of the flower of Athenian youths— the comparison of Greece to 'a chariot drawn by two horses '—of ^gina to ' the eyesore of the Piraeus '—of Athens to ' the school of Greece '—were amongst the traditionary phrases which later w^riters preserved, and which Thucydides either iutroduced or imitated in the Funeral Ora- tion which he has put in his mouth.'* 26 GEEECE. [455 B. C. magnificent structures that it was called " the city of the gods." The Long Walls were built two hundred yards apart, and extended over four miles from Athens to Pirasus — its harbor. Thus the capital was connected with the sea, and, while the Athenians held the command of the ocean, their ships could bring them supplies, even when the city should be surrounded by an enemy on land. A SCENE IN ATHENS IN THE TIME OF PERICLES. The wonderful spirit and enterprise of the Athenians are shown from the fact that, while they were thus erecting great public works at home, they were during a single year (458 b.c.) waging war in Cyprus, in Egypt, in Phoenicia, off ^gina. 450B.C.] THE POLITICAL HISTORY. 27 and on the coast of Peloponnesus. The Corinthians, know- ing that the Athenian troops were occupied so far from home, invaded Megara, then in alUance with Athens, but the "boys and old men" of Athens sallied out and routed them. So completely was the tide turned that (450 b. c.) Artaxerxes I. made a treaty with Athens agreeing to the independence of the Grecian cities in Asia Minor, and promising not to spread a sail on the ^gean Sea, nor bring a soldier within three-days march of its coast. PELOPONNESIAK" WAR (431-404 B.C.) Causes of the War. — The arrogant meddling of Athens in the affairs of her allies, and the use of their contributions (p. 22) in erecting her own public buildings, had aroused the bitterest hatred. Sparta, jealous of the glory and fame of her rival, watched every chance to interfere. The real question at issue, however, was the broad one whether the ruling power in Hellas should be Athens — Ionic, democratic and maritime, or Sparta — Doric, aristocratic and military. A quarrel having arisen between Corinth and her colony of Corcyra, Athens favored the latter ; Sparta, the former. Nearly all Greece took sides in the quarrel, according to race or political sympathy. The lonians and the democracy aided Athens ; the Dorians and the aristocracy, Sparta. Both parties were sometimes found within the same city contending for the supremacy. Allies of Athens. All the islands of the ^gean (except Melos and Thera), Corcyra, Zac)Tithus, Chios, Lesbos, and Samos ; the numerous Greek colonies on the coast of Asia Minor, Thrace, and Macedon ; Naupactus, Plataea, and a part of Acar- iiiiaia. AUies cf Sparta. All the states of the Peloponnesus (except Arcros and Achaia, which re- mained neutral) ; Locris, Phocis, and Megara; Ambracia, Anactorium, and the island of Leucas ; and the strong Boeotian League, of which Thebes was the head. 28 GREECE. [431 B. C. Conduct of the War. — The Spartan plan was to invade Attica, destroy the crops, and persuade the Athenian allies to desert her. As Sparta was strong on land and Athens on water, Pericles ordered the people of Attica to take refuge within the Long Walls of the city, while the fleet and army ravaged the coast of the Peloponnesus. When therefore Archidamus, king of Sparta, invaded Attica, the people flocked into the city with all their movable possessions. Temporary buildings were erected in every vacant place in the public squares and streets, while the poorest of the populace were forced to seek protection in squalid huts beneath the shelter of the Long Walls. Pitiable indeed was the condition of the inhabitants during these hot summer days as they saw the enemy, without hindrance, burning their homes and destroying their crops, while the Athenian fleet was off ravaging the coast of Peloponnesus. But it was worse the second year, when a fearful pestilence broke out in the crowded population. Many died, among them Pericles himself (429 B.C.).* This was the greatest loss of all, for there was no statesman left to guide the people. * " When, at the opening of the Peloponnesian War, the long enjoyment of every comfort which peace and civilization could bring was interrupted by hostile invasion; when the whole population of Attica was crowded within the city of Athens ; when to the inflammable materials which the populace of a Grecian town would always afford, were added the discontented landowners and peasants from the country, who were obliged to exchange the olive glades of Colonus, the thymy slopes of Hymettus, and the oak forests of Acharnae, for the black shade of the Pelasgicum and the stifling huts along the dusty plain between the Long Walls ; when, without, were e^een the fire and smoke ascending from the ravage of their beloved orchards and gardens; and, within, the excitement was aggravated by the little knots which gath- ered at every comer and by the predictions of impending evil which were handed about from mouth to mouth ; when all these feelings, awakened by a situation bo wholly new in a population so irritable, turned against one man as the author of the present distress, then it was seen how their respect for that one man united with their inherent respect for law to save the state. Not only did Pericles restrain the more eager spirits from sallying forth to defend their burning property— not only did he calm and elevate their despondency by his speeches in the Pnyx and Ceramicus— not only did he refuse to call an Assembly — but no attempt at an Assembly was ever made. The groups in the streets never grew into a mob, and even when to the hor- rors of a blockade were added those of a pestilence, public tranquillity was never for a moment disturbed— the order of the constitution was never for a moment infringed. 429 b. C] THE POLITICAL HISTORY. 29 Demagogues now arose, chief among whom was Cleon, a cruel, arrogant boaster, who gained power by flattering the populace. About this time, also, the Spartans began to build ships to dispute the empire of the sea, on which Athens had so long triumphed. The memorable siege of Flataea, which began in the third year of the war, illustrates the desperation and destruc- tion which characterized this terrible struggle of twenty- seven years. In spite of Pausanias's oath (p. 22), Archidd- mus with the Spartan army attacked this city, which was defended by only four hundred and eighty men. First, the Spartan general closed every outlet by a wooden palisade, and then constructed an inclined plane of earth and stone, up which his men could advance to hurl their weapons against the city. This work cost seventy-days labor of the whole army, but the garrison undermined the mound and destroyed it entirely. Next, the Spartans built around the And yet the man who thus swayed the minds of his fellow-citizens was the reverse of a demagogue. Unlike his aristocratic rival, Cimon, he never won their favor by indiscriminate bounty. Unlike his democratic successor, Cleon, he never influenced their passions by coarse invectives. Unlike his kinsman, Alcibiades, he never sought to dazzle them by a display of his genius or his wealth. At the very moment when Pericles was preaching the necessity of manful devotion to the common country, he was himself the greatest of sufferers. The epidemic carried off his two sons, his Bister, several other relatives, and his best and most useful political friends. Amidst this train of calamities he maintained his habitual self-command, until the death of his favorite son Paralus left his house without a legitimate representative to maintain the family and its hereditary sacred rites. On this final blow— the greatest that, according to the Greek feeling, could befall any human being— though he strove to command himself as before, yet at the obsequies of the young man, when it became his duty to place a garland on the dead body, his grief became uncontrollable, and he burst into tears. Every feeling of resentment seems to have passed away from the hearts of the Athenian people before the touching sight of the marble majesty of their great statesman yielding to the common emotion of their own excitable nature. Every measure was passed which could alleviate this deepest sorrow of his declining age. But it was too late, and he soon sank into the stupor from which he never recovered. As he lay apparently passive in the hands of the nurse, who had hung round his neck the amulets which in life and health he had scorned ; whilst his friends were dwelling with pride on the nine trophies which on Bceotia and Samos and on the shores of Peloponnesus bore witness to his success during his forty-years career, the dying man suddenly broke in with the emphatic words, ' That of which J am most proud you have left unsaid— No Athenian, through my fault, was ever clothed in the black garb of mourning.' "—(Quarterly Eeview. 439-427B.C.] THE POLITICAL HISTOKY. 31 city two concentric walls, and roofed over the space between them so as to give shelter to the soldiers on guard. For two long years the Plataeans were shut in and endured all the horrors of a siege. Provisions now ran low, and one stormy December night a part of the men stole out of the gate, and placing their ladders against .the Spartan wall, climbed to the top, killed the sentinels, and escaped through the midst of the enemy with the loss of only one man. The rest of the garrison were thus enabled to hold out some time longer. But at length their food was exhausted, and they were forced to surrender. The cruel Spartans put every man to death, and then, to please the Thebans, razed the city to the ground. Heroic little Plataea was thus blotted out of the map of Greece. Alcibiades, a young nobleman, the nephew of Pericles and pupil of Socrates, by his wealth, beauty, and talent, next won the ear of the crowd. Reckless and dissolute, with no heart, conscience, or principle, he cared for nothing except his own ambitious schemes. Though peace had then come through the negotiations of Nicias, the favorite Athenian general, it was broken by the influence of this demagogue, and the bloody contest renewed. Expedition to Sicily (415 B.C.). — The oppressions of the tyrants of Syracuse, a Dorian city in Sicily, gave an ex- cuse for seizing that island, and Alcibiades advocated this brilliant scheme, which promised to make Athens irresistible. The largest fleet and army Hellas Iiad yet sent forth were accordingly equipped. One morning, just before their de- parture, the busts of Hermes that were placed along the roads of Attica to mark the distance, and in front of the Athenian houses as protectors of the people, were found to be muti- lated. The populace in dismay, lest a curse should fall on the city, demanded the punishment of those who had com- 32 GREECE. [415 B. C. mitted this sacrilegious act. It was probable that some drunken revelers had done the mischief; but the enemies of Alcibiades made the people believe that he was the offender. After he sailed he was cleared of this charge, but a new one impended. This was that he had privately performed the Eleusinian mysteries (p. 72) for the amusement of his friends. To answer this heinous offence, Alcibiades was summoned home, but he escaped to Sparta, and gave the rival city the benefit of his powerful support. Meanwhile the exasperated Athenians condemned him to death, seized his property, and called upon the priests to pronounce him accursed. The expedition had now lost the only man who could have made it a success. Nicias, the commander, was old and sluggish. Disasters followed apace. Finally GyUppus, a famous Spartan general, came to the help of Syracuse. Athens sent a new fleet and army, but she did not furnish a better leader, and the reinforcement served only to increase the final ruin. In a great sea-fight in the harbor of Syracuse the Athenian ships were defeated, and the troops attempt- ing to flee by land were overtaken and forced to surrender (413 B. c). Fall of Athens. — The proud city was now doomed. Her best soldiers were dying in the dungeons of Syracuse. Her treasury was empty. Alcibiades was pressing on her destruction with all his revengeful genius. A Spartan gar- rison held Deceleia, in the heart of Attica. The Athenian allies dropped off. The Ionic colonies revolted. Yet with the energy of despair Athens dragged out the unequal con- test nine years longer. The recall of Alcibiades gave a gleam of success. But victory at the price of submission to such a master was too costly, and he was dismissed. Persian gold gave weight to the Lacedaemonian sword and 405 B.C.] THE POLITICAL HISTORY. 33 equipped her fleet. The last ships of Athens were taken by Lysander, the Spartan, at JEgos Potdmos (Goat's-river). Sparta had got control of the sea, and Athens, its harbor blockaded, suffered famine, in addition to the horrors of war. The imperial city surrendered at last (404 b. c). Her ships were given up ; and the Long Walls were torn down amid the playing of flutes and the rejoicings of dancers, crowned with garlands, as for a festival. " That day was deemed by the Peloponnesians," says Xenophon, "the com- mencement of liberty for Greece." Thus ended the Peloponnesian War twenty-seven years after its commencement, and seventy-six years after Salamis, which laid the foundation of the Athenian power. Athens had fallen, but she possessed a kingdom of which Sparta could not deprive her. She still remained the mistress of Greece in literature and art. The Thirty Tyrants. — A Spartan garrison was now placed in the Acropolis at Athens, and an oligarchy of thirty persons established. A reign of terror followed. The " Thirty Tyrants " put hundreds of citizens to death without form of trial. After they had ruled only eight months the Athenian exiles returned in arms, overthrew the tyrants, and re-established a democratic government. Retreat of the Ten Thousand (401 b.c). — Now that peace had come at home, ten thousand restless Greeks* were away helping Cyrus the Younger, satrap of Asia Minor, to dethrone his elder brother, Artaxerxes. At Cunaxa, near Babylon, they routed the Persians. But Cyrus fell, and to complete their misfortune their chief officers were induced to visit the enemy's camp, where they were treacherously taken prisoners. Left thus in the heart of the Persian em- * Greece at this time was ftill of soldiers of fortune— men who made war a trade, and served anybody who was able to pay them. 34 GREECE. [401 B. c. pire the little army chose new captains, and decided to cut its way home again. All were ignorant alike of the route and the language of the people. Hostile troops swarmed on every side. Traitors misled them. Famine threatened theni. Snows overwhelmed them. Yet they struggled on for months. When one day ascending a mountain, there broke from the van the joyful shout of *' The Sea ! The Sea !" It was the Euxine, a branch of that sea whose waters washed the shores of their beloved Greece. About three-fourths of the original number survived to tell the story of that wonderful march. Such. an exploit, while it honored the endurance of the Greek soldier, revealed the weakness of the Persian empire. LACEDiEMON AND THEBAN DOMINION. Lacedaemon Rule (405-371 B.C.). — Tempted by the glittering prospect of Eastern conquest Sparta sent Agesila'us into Asia. His success there made Artaxerxes tremble for his throne. Again Persian gold was thrown into the scale. The Athenians were helped to rebuild the Long Walls, and soon their flag floated once more on the ^gean. Conon, the Athenian admiral, defeated the Spartan fleet off Cnidus, near Khodes (394 b. c). In Greece the Spartan rule, cruel and coarse, had already become unendurable. In every town, Sparta sought to establish an oligarchy of ten citizens favorable to herself, and a harmost, or governor. Wherever popular liberty asserted itself, she endeavored to extinguish it by military force. But Corinth, Argos, Thebes, and Athens struck for freedom. Sparta was forced to recall Agesilaus. Strangely enough she now made friends with the Great King, who dictated the Peace of Antalcidas 387 B.C.] THE POLITICAL HISTORY. 35 (387 B. c.),* which ended the war, and gave up Asia Minor to him. So low had Hellas fallen since the days of Salamis and Plataea ! Theban Rule (371-362 B.a).— At the very height of Sparta's arrogance her humiliation came. The Boeotian League (p. 27) having been restored, and the oligarchical governments favorable to Sparta overthrown, a Spartan army invaded that state. At this juncture there arose in Thebes a great general, Epaminondas, who made the Theban army the best in the land. On the famous field of Leudra (371b. c), by throwing heavy columns against the long lines of Spartan soldiers, he beat them for the first time in their history, f The charm of Lacedaemonian invincibility was broken. The stream of Persian gold now turned into Thebes. The tyrannical Spartan harmosts were expelled from all the cities. To curb the power of Sparta the inde- pendence of Messenia, after three centuries of slavery, was re-established (p. 9). Arcadia was united in a League, having as its head Magalopolis, a new city now founded. A wise, pure-hearted statesman, Epaminondas sought to com- bine Hellas, and not, like Athens or Sparta, selfishly to rule * This peace was an incident of mournful import in Grecian history. Its true character cannot be better described than by a brief remark and reply, cited in Plutarch : " Alas for Hellas," observed some one to Agesilaus, " when we see our Laconians Medizing ! " " Nay," replied the Spartan king " say rather the Medes (Persians) Laconizing." t The Spartan lines were twelve flies deep. Epaminondas (fighting en echelon) made his, at the point where he wished to break through, fifty files deep. At his Bide always fought his intimate friend Pelopidas, who commanded the Sacred Band. This consisted of three hundred brothers-in-arms, men who had known one another from childhood, and were sworn to live and die together. In the crisis of the struggle, Epaminondas cheered his men with the words, " One step forward." While the by- standers after the battle were congratulating him over his victory, he replied that his greatest pleasure was in thinking how it would gratify his father and mother. Soon after Epaminondas returned from the battle of Leuctra, his enemies secured his election as public scavenger. The noble-spirited man immediately accepted the office, declaring that " the place did not confer dignity on the man, but the man on the place "; and executed the duties of this unworthy post so efficiently as to baffle the malice of his foes. 36 GREECE. [362 B.C. it. Athens at first aided him, and then, jealous of his suc- cess, sided with Lacedaemon. At Mmitinea (362 B. c), how- ever, Epaminondas fought his last battle, and died at the moment of victory."* He alone made Thebes great, and she dropped back at once to her former level. Three states in succession — Athens, Sparta, and Thebes — had risen to take the lead in Greece. Each had failed. Hellas now lay a mass of quarreling, struggling states, waiting the strong hand of a conqueror to mold them in his grasp. MAOEDOI^JIAN EMPIEE. Rise of Macedonia. — The Macedonians were allied to the Greeks, and their kings took part in the Olympian games. They were, however, a very different people. In- stead of living in a multitude of free cities, as in Greece, they dwelt in the country, and were all governed by one king. The polite and refined Athenian looked upon the coarse Macedonian as almost a barbarian. But about the time of the fall of Athens these rude northerners were fast taking on the Greek civiHzation. Philip (359-336 b. c.).— When Philip came to the throne of Macedonia he determined to be recognized, not only as a Greek among Greeks, but as the head of all Greece. To this he bent every energy of his strong, crafty, and cruel mind. He enlarged the boundaries of his kingdom, and consolidated it into a compact empire. He thoroughly organized his army, and formed the famous Macedonian * He was pierced with a javelin, and to extract the weapon would cause his death by bleeding. Being carried out of the battle, like a true soldier he asked first about his shield, then waited to learn the issue of the contest. Hearing the cries of vic- tory, he drew out the shaft with his own hand, and died a few moments after. 359 B. c] THE POLITICAL HISTORY. 37 PORTRAIT OK PHILIP OF MACEDON. phalanx* that, for two centuries after, decided the day on every field on which it appeared. He craftily mixed in Grecian affairs, and took such an active part in the Sacred War f (355-346 B. c.) that he was admitted to the Amphictyonic Council (p. 3). Demosthenes, the great Athenian orator, seemed the only man clear-headed enough to detect Philip's scheme. His eloquent Philippics (p. 61) at last aroused his apathetic countrymen to a sense of their danger. The Second Sacred War, declared by the Amphictyons against the Locrians for alleged sacrilege, having been intrusted to Philip, that monarch marched through Thermopylae, and his designs against the liberties of Greece became but too evident. Thebes and Athens now took the field. But at ClicBronea (338 b. c.) the Macedonian phalanx annihilated their armies, the Sacred Band perishing to a man. Greece was prostrate at Philip's feet. In a congress of * The peculiar feature of this hody was that the men were armed with huge lances, twenty-one feet long. The lines were placed so that the front rank, composed of the strongest and most experienced soldiers, was protected by a bristling mass of five rows of lance-points, their own extending fifteen feet before them, and the rest twelve, nine, six, and three feet respectively. Formed in a solid mass, usually six- teen files deep, shield touching shield, and marching with the precision of a machine, the phalanx charge was irresistible. The Spartans carrying spears only about half as long could not reach the Macedonians. t The pretext for the First Sacred War is said to have been that the Phocians had cultivated lands consecrated to Apollo. The Amphictyonic Council, led by Thebes, inflicted a heavy fine upon them. Thereupon they seized the Temple at Delphi, and finally, to furnish means for prolonging the struggle, sold the riches accumulated from the pious offerings of the men of a better day. The Grecians were first shocked and then demoralized by this impious act. The holiest objects circulated among the people and were put to common uses. All reverence for the gods and sacred things was lost. The ancient patriotism went with the religion, and Hellas had forever fallen from her high estate. Everywhere her sons were ready to sell their swords to the highest bidder. 38 OEEECE. [337-6B.C. all the states except Sparta, he was appointed to lead their united forces against Persia. But while preparing to start he was assassinated at his daughter's marriage feast. A TETRADRACHM OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. Alexander,''' Philip's son, succeeded to his throne and ambitious projects. Though only twenty years old he was * On the day of Alexander's birth, Philip received news of the defeat of the niyrians, and that his horses had won in the Olympian chariot-races. Overwhelmed by such fortune the monarch exclaimed, " Great Jupiter, send me only some slight reverse in return for so many blessings 1 " That same day also the famous Temple of Diana, at Ephesus, was burned by an incendiary. Alexander was wont to consider this an omen that he should himself kindle a flame in Asia. On his father's side he was said to be descended from Hercules, and on his mother's from Achilles. He became a pupil of Aristotle (p. 64), to whom Philip wrote announcing Alexander's birth, saying that he knew not which gave him the greater pleasure, that he had a son or that Aristotle could be his son's teacher. The young prince at fourteen tamed the noble horse Bucephalus, which no one at the Macedonian court dared to mount; at sixteen, he saved his father in battle ; and at eighteen, defeated the Sacred Band upon the field at Chaeronea. Before setting out upon his Persian expedition he con- sulted the oracle at Delphi. The priestess refused to go to the shrine, as it was an unlucky day. Alexander thereupon grasped her arm. "Ah, my son," exclaimed she, "thou art irresistible 1 " "Enough," shouted the delighted monarch, "I ask no other reply." He was equally happy of thought at Gordium. Here he was shown the famous Gordian knot, which, it was said, no one could untie except the one des- tined to be the conqueror of Asia. He tried to unravel the cord, but failing, drew his sword and severed it at a blow. Alexander always retained a warm love for his mother, Olympias. She, however, was a violent woman. Antip'ater, who was left governor of Macedon during Alexander's absence, wrote complaining of her conduct. " Ah," said the king, " Antipater does not know that one tear of a mother will blot out ten thousand of his letters." Unfortunately, the hero who subdued the known world had never conquered himself. In a moment of drunken passion he slew Clitus, his dearest friend, who had saved his life in battle. He shut himself up for days after this horrible deed, lamenting his crime, and refusing to eat or to transact any business. Yet in soberness and calmness he tortured and hanged Callisthones, a Greek author, because he would not worship him as a god. Carried away by his success, he finally sent to Greece ordering his name to be enrolled among the deities. Said the Spartans in reply, " If Alexander will be a god, let him.** 336B.C.] tHE l»OLIi:iCAL SlSTOKY. 30 more than his father's equal in statesmanship and military skill. Thebes having revolted, he leveled the city to the ground, and sold its inhabitants as slaves, sparing only the house of Pindar the poet. This terrible example quieted all opposition. He was at once made captain-general of the Grecian forces to invade Persia, and soon after he set out upon that perilous expedition from which he never returned. Alexander's Marches and Conquests. — In 334 b. c. Alexander crossed the Hellespont with thirty thousand in- fantry and four thousand five hundred cayalry. He was the first to leap on the Asiatic shore.* Pressing eastward, he defeated the Persians in two great battles, one at the river Granicus, and the other at Issus, \ Then he turned south and besieged Tyre. To reach the island on which the city stood, he built a stone pier two hundred feet wide and half a mile long, on which he rolled his ponderous machines, breached the wall, and carried the place by a desperate assault. Thence passing into Eg3rpt, that country fell with- out a blow. Here he founded the famous city.of Alexandria. Next he resumed his eastern march, and routed the Persian host, a million strong, on the field of ArMla. The Greeks entered Babylon in triumph. Persepolis was burned to avenge the destruction of Athens one hundred and fifty years before (p. 20). Darius was pursued so closely that, to prevent his falling into the conqueror's possession, he was slain by a noble. * Alexander was a great lover of Homer and always slept with a copy of the Mad under his pillow. While his army was now landing he visited the site of Troy, offered a sacrifice at the tomh of Achilles, hung up his own shield in the temple, and taking down one said to have helonged to a hero of the Trojan War, ordered it to be henceforth carried before him in battle. t Just before this engagement Alexander was attacked by a fever in consequence of bathing in the cold water of the Cydnus. While sick he was informed that his physician Philip had been bribed by Darius to poison him. As Philip came into the room Alexander handed him the letter containing the warning, and then, before the doctor could speak, swallowed the medicine. His confidence was rewarded by a speedy recovery. 40 GREECE. B.C. The mysterious East still alluring him on, Alexander exploring, conquering,* founding cities, at last reached the river Hyph'asis, where his army refused to proceed further in the unknown regions. Instead of going directly back, he built vessels, and descended the Indus ; thence the fleet cruised along the coast, while the troops returned through Gedrosia (Beloochistan) suffering fearful hardships in its inhospitable deserts. f When he reached Babylon, ten years had elapsed since he crossed the Hellespont. The next season, while just setting out from Babylon upon a new expedition into Arabia, he died (323 B.C.). With him perished his schemes and his empire. Alexander's plan was to mold the diverse nations which he had conquered into one vast empire, with the capital at Babylon. Having been the Cyrus, he desired to be the Darius of the Persians. He sought to break down the distinctions between the Greek and the Persian. He married the Princess Koxana, the *^ Pearl of the East," and induced many of his army to take Persian wives. He enlisted twenty thousand Persians into the Macedonian phalanx, and appointed natives to high office. He wore the Eastern dress, and adopted in his court Oriental ceremonies. He respected the rehgion and the government of the various countries, restrained the satraps, and ruled more beneficently than their own monarchs. The Results of the thirteen years of Alexander's reign have not yet disappeared. Great cities were founded by * Poms, an Indian prince, held the banlcs of the Hydaspes with three hundred war-chariots and two hundred elephants. The Indians being defeated, Porus waa brought into Alexander's presence. When aslied what he wished, Porus replied, " Nothing except to be treated like a king." Alexander, struck by the answer, gave him his liberty and enlarged his territory. t One day while Alexander was parched with thirst a drink of water was given him, but he threw it on the ground lest the siglit of his pleasure should aggravate the enffering of his men. 336-323 B.C.] THE POLITICAL HISTORY. 41 him, or his generals, that are still marts of trade. Com- merce received new life. Greek culture and civilization spread over the Orient, and the Greek language became, if not the common speech, at least the medium of communi- cation among educated people from the Adriatic to the Indus. So it came about that when Greece had lost her national liberty she suddenly attained, through her con- querors, a world-wide empire over the minds of men. But while Asia became thus Hellenized, the East exerted a reflex influence upon Hellas. As Eawlinson well remarks: " The Oriental habits of servility and adulation superseded the old free-spoken independence and manliness ; patriotism and public spirit disappeared ; luxury increased ; literature lost its vigor ; art deteriorated ; and the people sank into a nation of pedants, parasites, and adventurers." ALEXAISTDER'S SUCCESSORS. Alexander's principal generals, soon after his death, divided his empire among themselves. A mortal struggle of twenty-two years followed, during which these officers, released from the strong hand of their master, "fought, quarreled, grasped, and wrangled like loosened tigers in an amphitheatre." The greed and jealousy of the generals, or kings as they were called, were equaled only by the treachery of their men. Finally, by the decisive battle of Ipsus (301 B. c), the conflict was ended, and the following distri- bution of the territory made : Ptolemy received Egypt, and conquered all of Pal- estine, Phoenicia, and Cyprus. Lysim'acJms received Thrace and nearly all of Asia Minor. Sdeucua received Syria and the East, and he af- terward conquered Asia Minor, Lysim- achus being slain. Cassander received Macedon and Greece. Ptolemy founded a flourishing Greek kingdom in Egypt. The Greeks, attracted by his benign rule, flocked thither in 4:2 GKEECE. [323 b. a multitudes. The Egyptians were protected in their ancient religion, laws, and customs, so that the stiff-necked rebels against the Persian rule quietly submitted to the Macedonian. The Jews * in large numbers found safety under his paternal government. This threefold population gave to the second civilization which grew up on the banks of the Nile a pecu- liar and cosmopolitan character. The statues of the Greek gods were mingled with those of Osiris and Isis ; the same hieroglyphic word was used to express a Greek and a lower Egyptian; and even the Jews forgot the language of Palestine, and talked Greek. Alexandria became under the Ptolemies, what Memphis was under the Rameses — a center of commerce and civilization. The building of a commo- dious harbor and a superb light-house, and the opening of a canal to the Eed Sea, gave a great impetus to the trade with Arabia and India. Grecian architects made Alexandria, with its temples, obelisks, palaces, and theatres, the most beautiful city of the times. Its white marble Pharos was one of the Seveu Wonders of the World. At the center of the city, where its two grand avenues crossed each other, in the midst of gardens and fountains, stood the Mausoleum, which contained the body of Alexander, embalmed in the Egyptian manner. The Alexandrian Museum and Library founded by Ptolemy I. (Sotor), but gi'eatly extended by Ptolemy II. (Philadelphus), and enriched by Ptolemy III. (Euergetes), were the grandest monuments of this Greco-Egyptian kingdom. The Library comprised at one time, in all its collections, seven hundred thousand volumes. The Museum was a stately marble edifice surrounded by a portico, beneath which the philosophers walked and conversed. The pro- ♦ They had a temple at Alexandria, similar to the one at Jerusalem, and for their use the Old Testament was translated into Greek (275-250 b. c). From the nimiber of BCholars engaged in thlB work it is termed the Septuagiut version. 323-222 B.C.] THE POLITICAL HISTORY. 43 fessors and teachers were all kept at the public expense. There were connected with this institution a botanical and a zoological garden, an astronomical observatory, and a chemical laboratory. To this grand University resorted the scholars of the world. (See Steele's Astronomy, p. 19.) At one time in its history, there were in attendance as many as fourteen thousand persons. While wars shook Europe and Asia, Archimedes and Hero the philosophers, Apelles the painter, Hipparchus and Ptolemy the astronomers, Euclid the geometer, Eratosthenes and Strabo the geographers, Manetho the historian, Aristophanes the rhetorician, and Apollonius the poet, labored in quiet upon the peaceful banks of the Nile. Probably no other school of learning has ever exerted so wide an influence. When Caesar wished to revise the calendar, he sent for Sosigenes the Alexandrian. Even the early Christian church drew, from what the ancients loved to call '^the divine school at Alexandria," some of its most eminent Fathers, as Origen and Athanasius. Modern science itself dates its rise from the study of Nature that began under the shadow of the Pyramids. Last of the Ptolemies, — The first three Ptolemies were judicious monarchs. Then came ten weak-minded and often corrupt successors. The last Ptolemy married his sister, the famous and fated Cleopatra, and shared with her the throne. At her death Egypt became a province of Bome (30 b. c). Seleucus was a conqueror, and his kingdom at one time stretched from the ^gean to India, comprising nearly all the former Persian empire. He was a famous founder of cities, nine of which were named for himself, an4 sixteen for his son Antiochus. One of the latter, Antioch in Syria (Acts xi. 26, etc.), became the capital instead of Babylon. The descendants of Seleucus (Seleucidae) were unable to 44 a R E E C E . [65 B. c. retain his yast conquests, and one province after another dropped away until the wide empire finally shrank into Syria, which was grasped by the Eomans (65 B. c). Several independent States arose in Asia during this eventful period. Perganms became an independent king- dom on the death of Seleucus I. (280 b. c), and, mainly through the favor of Eome, absorbed Lydia, Phrygia, and other provinces. The city of Pergamus, with its school of literature and magnificent public buildings, rivaled the glories of Alexandria. The rapid growth of its library so aroused the jealousy of Ptolemy that he forbade the export of papyrus ; whereupon Eumenes, king of Pergamus, resorted to parchment, which he used so extensively for writing that this material took the name of pergamena. By the will of the last king of Pergamus, the kingdom at last fell to Rome. Partliia arose about .255 b. c. It gradually spread until at one time it reached from the Indus to the Euphrates. Never absorbed into the Roman dominion, it remained through the palmy days of that empire its dreaded foe. The twenty-ninth of the Arsacidae, as its kings were called, was driven from the throne by Artaxerxes, a descendant of the ancient line of Persia, and, after an existence of about five centuries, the Parthian empire came to an end. It was succeeded by the new Persian monarchy or kingdom of the Sassanidae (226-652 A. d.). Pontus, a rich kingdom of Asia Minor, became famous through the long wars its great king Mithridates V. carried on with Rome. Greece and Macedonia, after Alexander's time, pre- sented little historic interest.* The chief feature was that nearly all the Grecian states, except Sparta, in order to make * In 279 B. o. there was a fearful irruption of the Ganls under Brennus. (See Brief History of France, p. 10.) Greece was ravaged by the barbarians. They were finally expelled, and a remnant founded a province in Asia Minor named Gallatia, to whose people in later times St. Paul directed one of his Epistles. THE POLITICAL HISTORY. 45 head against Macedonia, formed leagues similar to that of our government during the Revolution. The principal ones were the Achcean and the JEtolian. But the old feuds and petty strifes continued until all were swallowed up in the world-wide dominion of Rome. Athens under the Romans was prosperous. Other centers of learning arose — Alexandria, Marseilles, Tarsus ; but still scholars from all parts of the extended empire of Rome flocked to Athens to complete their education. True, war had laid waste the groves of Plato and the garden in which Epicurus lived, yet the charm of old associations continued to linger around these sacred places, and the Four Schools of Philosophy (p. 63) maintained their hold on public thought.* The Emperor Hadrian established a library, and built a pantheon and a gymnasium. The Antonines began a system of state endowments. So late as the close of the 4th century a writer describes the airs put on by those who thought themselves "demigods, so proud are they of having looked on the Academy and Lyceum, and the Porch where Zeno reasoned." With the fall of Paganism, however, and the growth of legal studies — so pecu- liar to the Roman character — Athens lost her importance, and her schools were closed by Justinian (529 A. d.). * It is strange to hear Cicero, in De Finibus, speak of these scenes as already in his time classic ground : " After hearing Antiochus in the Ptolemaeum, in the com- pany of Piso and my brother, and Pomponius and my cousin Lucius, for whom I had a brother's love, we agreed to take our evening walk in the Academy. So we all met at Piso's house, and, chatting as we went, walked the six stadia between the Gate Dipylum and the Academy. When we reached the scenes so justly famous we found the quietude we craved. 'Is it a natural sentiment,' asked Piso, or a mere illusion, which makes us more affected when we see the spots frequented by men worth remembering than when we merely hear their deeds or read their works ? It is thus that I feel touched at present, for I think of Plato, who, as we are told, was wont to lecture here. Not only do those gardens of his, close by, remind me of him, but I seem to fancy him before my eyes. Here stood Speusippus, here Xenocrates, here his hearer Polemon — ' 'Yes,' said Quintus, 'what you say, Piso, is quite true, for as I was coming hither, Colonus, yonder, called my thoughts away, and made me fancy that I saw its inmate Sophocles, for whom you know my passionate admi- ration.' ' And I, too,' said Pomponius, ' whom you often attack for my devotion to Epicurus, spend much time in his garden, which we passed lately in our walk.' " 46 GREECE 2. THE CIVILIZATION. Bt Mrs. J. DORMAN STEELE. Athens and Sparta. — Though the Greeks comprised many distinct tribes, inhabiting separate cities, countries, and islands, having different laws, dialects, manners and customs, Athens and Sparta were the great centers of Hellenic life. These two cities differed widely from each other in thought, habits, and tastes. Sparta had no part in Grecian art or literature. " There was no Spartan sculptor, no Laconian painter, no Lacedaemonian poet." From Athens, on the contrary, came the world's master-pieces In poetry, oratory, sculpture, and architecture. GREEK GALLEY WITH THREE BANKS OF OARS. Society. — The Athenians boasted that tbey were Autochthons,* i. .— {Prometheus to Mercury.) *' Let the locks of the lightning, all bristling and whitening, Flash, coiling me round. While the ether goes surging 'neath thunder and scourging Of wild winds unbound 1 Let the blast of the firmament whirl from its place The earth rooted below, And the brine of the ocean, in rapid emotion, Be it driven in the face Of the stars up in heaven, as they walk to and fro 1 tHE CiVlLlZATiOii'. 65 Let him hurl me anon, into Tartarus — on— To the blackest degree. With Necessity's vortices strangling me down ; But he cannot join death to a fate meant for me ! " —Mrs. £rowning''8 Translation. Sophocles (495-405 b. c), the sweetness and purity of whose style gained for him the title of the Attic Bee, was only twenty-seven years old when he won the prize away from ^schylus, then ap- proaching sixty. Athens was just entering upon the most brilliant period in her career, the magnificent interval of intellectual glory following Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea, and continu- ing through the Peloponnesian war. ^schylus had been a gallant soldier ; Sophocles was a true gentleman. Less grand and impetu- ous, more graceful and artistic than his great competitor, he came like sunshine after storm. The tragedies with which the elder poet had thrilled the Athenian heart were tinctured with the un- earthly mysteries of his Eleusinian home ; the polished creations of Sophocles reflected the gentle charm of his own native Colo'nus. Sophocles improved the style of the tragic chorus, and attired his actors in " splendid robes, jewelled chaplets, and embroidered gir- dles." Of him, as of iEschylus, we have only seven tragedies remaining, though he is said to have composed over one hundred. CEdipus the King was selected by Aristotle as the master-piece of tragedy. (Edipus, so runs the plot, was son of Laius, king of Thebes. An oracle having fore- told that he should " slay his father and marry his mother," Jocasta, the queen, to avert this fate, exposes him to die in the forest. Here a shepherd finds and rescues him. He grows up to manhood, unconscious of his story, and journeys to Thebes. On the way he meets an old man, whose chariot jostles against him. A quarrel en- sues, and he slays the gray-haired stranger. Arrived at Thebes, he finds the whole city in commotion. A frightful monster, called the Sphinx, has propounded a riddle which no one can solve, and every failure costs a life. So terrible is the crisis that the hand of the widowed queen is offered to any one who will unravel the enigma and save the state. CEdipus is the successful man, and he weds Jocasta, his mother. After many years come fearful plagues and pestilences. The oracle, again consulted, declares they shall continue until the murderer of Laius is found and punished. The unconscious CEdipus actively pushes the search, and at last is confronted with the revelation of his own unhappy destiny. Jocasta hangs herself in horror, and (Edipus, tearing a golden buckle from her dress, thrusts its sharp point into both his eyes and goes out to roam the earth. In (Edipus at Colonus the subject is continued. Here the blind old man, attended by his faithful daughter, Antig'one, has wandered to Colonus, where he unwittingly sits down to rest within the precincts of a grove sacred to the Gentle Goddesses. The indignant citizens come out, and, discovering who the old man is, command him to depart from their borders. Meantime, war is raging in Thebes between his two sons, and an oracle has declared that only his body will decide success. Every means is used to obtain it, but the gods have willed that his sons shall slay each other. CEdipus, always " driven by fate," follows the Queen of Night, upon whose borders he has trespassed. The last moment comes ; a sound of subterranean thunder is heard ; his daughters, wailing and terrified, cling to him in wild embrace ; a mys- terious voice calls from beneath, " (Edipus ! King (Edipus 1 come hither ; thou art wanted I " The earth opens, and the old man disappears forever. 56 GREECE, The following is from a famous chorus * in OEdipus at Colonus, describing the beauties of the surrounding scenery : " Here ever and aye, through the greenest vale, Gush the wailing notes of the nightingale, From her home where the dark-hued ivy weaves With the grove of the god a night of leaves ; And the vines blossom out from the lonely glade, • And the suns of the summer are dim in the shade, And the storms of the winter have never a breeze That can shiver a leaf from the charmed trees. ******* And wandering there forever, the fountains are at play, And Cephissus feeds his river from their sweet urns, day by day ; The river knows no dearth ; Ado\vn the vale the lapsing waters glide, And the pure rain of that pellucid tide Calls the rife beauty from the heart of earth." —Bulwer's Translation. Euripides (480-406 B.C.), the Scenic Philosopher, was born in Salamis on the day of the great sea-fight.f Twenty-five years after- ward—the year after ^schylus died — his first trilogy was put upon the stage. Athens had changed in the half-century since the poet of Eleusis came before the public. A new element was steadily gaining ground. Doubts, reasonings, and disbeliefs in the marvellous stories told of the gods were creeping into society. Schools of rhetoric and philosophy were springing up, and already " to use dis- course of reason " was accounted more important than to recite the Biad and Odyssey entire. To ^schylus and to most of his hearers the Fates and the Furies had been dread realities, and the gods upon Olympus as undoubted personages as Miltiades or Themistocles ; Sophocles, too, who avoided everything that might disturb the serenity of his art, accepted the Homeric deities as he found them ; * An interesting incident is connected with this chorus. Sophocles, then an old man, had been accused by a covetous son of being incapable of managing his prop- erty. The action was brought into court, whither the aged poet came and, as his only defence, recited some lines on Colonus which he had just written. The jury burst into applause, the case was hastily dismissed, and the white-haired Sophocles returned to his home to spend the remainder of his days in greater honor than before. " We can imagine Sophocles in his old age recounting the historic names and scenes with which he had been so familiar ; how he had listened to the thunder of ' Olympian Pericles ' ; how he had been startled by the chorus of Furies in the play of ^schylus ; how he had talked with the garrulous and open-hearted Herodotus ; how he had fol- lowed Anaxagoras, the great Sceptic, in the cool of the day among a throng of his disciples ; how he had walked with Phidias and supped with Aspasia."— CoWiw5. t The three great tragic poets of Athens wei*e singularly connected together by the battle of Salami^ ^schylus, in the heroic vigor of his life, fought there; Euripides, whose parents had fled from Athens on the approach of the Persians, was born near the scene, probably on the battle-day ; and Sophocles, a beautiful boy of fifteen, danced to the choral song of Simonides, celebrating the victory. THE CIVILIZATIOK. 57 but Euripides belonged to the party of " advanced thinkers," and believed no more in the gods of the myths and legends than in the prophets and soothsayers of his own time. Discarding the ideal heroes and heroines of Sophocles, he modeled his characters after real men and women, endowing them with human passions and affections.* Of his eighty or ninety plays, seventeen remain. Mede'a is his most celebrated tragedy. A Colchian princess skilled in sorcery becomes the wife of Jason, the hero of the Golden Fleece. Being afterward thrust aside for a new love, she finds her revenge by sending the bride an enchanted robe and crown, in which she is no sooner clothed than they burst into flame and con- sume her. To complete her vengeance Medea murders her two young sons— so deeply wronged by their father, so tenderly loved by herself— and then, after hovering over the palace long enough to mock and jeer at the anguish of the frantic Jason, she is whirled away with the dead bodies of her children in a dragon-borne car, the chariot of her grandsire, the sun. Feom Medea.— (if(?«?ea ix) her sons.) " Why gaze you at me with your eyes, my children ? Why smile your last sweet smile? Ah me 1 ah me ! What shall I do ? My heart dissolves within me. Friends, when I see the glad eyes of my sons 1 Yet whence this weakness ? Do I wish to reap The scorn that springs from enemies unpunished ? Die they must ; this must be, and since it must, I, I myself will slay them, I who bore them. O my sons 1 Give, give your mother your dear hands to kiss. O dearest hands, and mouths most dear to me, And forms and noble faces of my sons ! O tender touch and sweet breath of my boys 1 '* —Symonds's Translation. Comedy. — When AristopTianes appeared with the first of his sharp satires, Euripides had been for a quarter of a century before the public, and the Peloponnesian war was near at hand. The new poet whose genius was so full of mockery and mirth was a rich, aristocratic Athenian, the natural enemy of the ultra-democratic mob-orators of his day, whom he heartily hated and despised. In the bold and brilliant satires which now electrified all Athens, * Aristophanes ridiculed his scenic art, denounced his theology, and accused him of corrupting society by the fJdsehood and deceit shown by his characters. The line in one of his plays, " Though the tongue swore, the heart remained unsworn,'' caused his arrest for seeming to justify perjury. When the people were violent in censure, Euripides would sometimes appear on the stage and beg them to sit the play through. On one occasion when their displeasure was extreme he tartly ex- claimed, " Good people, it is my business to teach you and not to be taught by you." Tradition relates that he was torn to pieces by dogs, set upon him by two rival poets, while he was walking in the garden of the Macedonian king, at Pella. The Athenians were eager to honor him after his death, and erected a statue in the theatre where he bad been so often hissed as well as applauded. 58 GREECE. every prominent public man was liable to see his personal peculiar- ities paraded on the stage.* The facts and follies of the times were pictured so vividly that when Dionysius, the Tyrant of Syracuse, wrote to Plato for information as to affairs in Athens, the great philosopher sent for answer a copy of The Clouds. Aristophanes wrote over fifty plays, of which eleven, in part or all, remain. Of these, The Frogs and the WomarCs Festival were direct satires on Euripides. The Knights was written, so the author declared, to "cut up Cleon the Tanner into shoe-leather." t Tha Clouds ridiculed the new-school philosophers ; % and The Wasps^ the Athenian passion for law-courts. Fbom the Clouds.— (AS^cewe ; Socrates, absorbed in thought, swinging in a basket^ surrounded by his students. Enter Strepsiades, a visiter.) Str. Who hangs dangling in yonder basket ? Stud. HIMSELF. Str. And who's Himself? Stud. Why, Socrates. Str. Ho, Socrates 1 Sweet, darling Socrates ! Soc. Why callest thou me, poor creature of a day ? Str. First tell me, pray, what are you doing up there f Soc. I walk in air and contemplate the sun 1 Str. Oh, thaVs the way that you despise the gods — You get so near them on your perch there — eh f Soc. I never could have found out things divine, Had I not hung my mind up thus, and mixed My subtle intellect with its kindred air. Had I regarded such things from below, I had learnt nothing. For the earth absorbs Into itself the moisture of the brain. It is the same with water-cresses. Str. Dear me I So water-cresses grow by thinking 1 The so-called Old Comedy^ in which individuals were satirized, died with Aristophanes, and to it succeeded the New Comedy^ por- traying general types of human nature, and dealing with domestic life and manners. Menander (342-291 b. c), founder of this new school, was a warm * Even the deities were burlesqued, and the devout Athenians, who denounced Euripides for venturing to doubt the gods and goddesses, were wild in applause when Aristophanes dragged them out as absurd cowards, or blustering braggarts, or as " Baking peck-loaves and ftying stacks of pancakes." t The masks of the actors in Greek comedy were made to caricature the features of the persons represented. Cleon was at this lime so powerful that no artist dared to make a mask for his character in the play, nor could any man be found bold enough to act the part. Aristophanes therefore took it himself, smearing his face with wine lees, which he declared " well represented the purple and bloated visage of the demagogue." X It is said that Socrates, who was burlesqued in this play, was present at its per- formance, which he heartily enjoyed ; and that he even mounted on abench that every one might see the admirable resemblance between himself and his counterfeit upon the stage. THE CIVILIZATION" 69 friend of Epicuras (p 65), whose philosophy he adopted. He ad- mired, as heartily as Aristophanes had disliked, Euripides, and his style was manifestly influenced by th^t of the tragic poet. He ex- celled in delineation of character, and made his dramatic personages so real that a century afterward it was written of him, " O Life, and O Menander I Speak and say Which copied which ? Or Nature, or the play f " Of his works only snatches remain, many of which were household proverbs among the Greeks and Romans. Such were: " He is well cleansed that hath his con- science clean," "The workman is greater than his work," and the memorable one. quoted by St. Paul, " Evil communications corrupt good manners." THE GREAT HISTORIANS OF GREECE. History. — Here also we have an illustrious trio: Herodotus (484-420), Thucydides (471-400), and Xenophon (about 431-355). Herodotus of Halicarnassus we recall as an old friend met in Egyptian history. Having rank, wealth, and a passion for travel, he roamed over Egypt, Phoenicia, Babylon, Judea, and Persia, studying their history, geography, and national customs. In Athens, where he spent several years, he was the intimate friend of Sophocles. His history was divided into nine books, named after the nine muses.* The principal subject is the Greek and Persian War; but, by way of episode, sketches of various nations are introduced. His style is artless, graphic, flowing, rich in description, and interspersed with * Leonidas of Tarentnm, a favorite writer of epigrams, who lived two hundred years after Herodotus, thus accounted for their names : " The muses nine came one day to Herodotus and dined, And in return, their host to pay, left each a book behind." 60 GREECE. dialogue. He has been described as having " the head of a sage, the heart of a mother, and the simplicity of a child." Tliucydides is said to have been won to his vocation by hearing the history of Herodotus read at Olympia, which charmed him to tears. Rich, noble, and educated, he was in the prime of his man- hood when, at the opening of the Peloponnesian War, he received command of a squadron. Having failed to arrive with his ships in time to save a certain town from surrender, Cleon caused his dis- grace, and he went into exile to escape a death penalty. During the next twenty years he prepared his History of the Peloponnesian War. His style is terse, noble, and spirited ; as a historian he is accurate and impartial. " His book," says Macaulay, " is that of a man and a statesman, and in this respect presents a remarkable contrast to the delightful childishness of Herodotus." Xenophon's historical fame rests mostly on his Anabasis* which relates the expedition of Cyrus and the Retreat of the Ten Thousand. He was one of the generals who conducted this memorable retreat, in which he displayed great firmness, courage, and military skill. A few years later the Athenians formed their alliance with Persia, and Xenophon, who still held command under his friend and patron, the Spartan king Agesilaus, was brought into the position of an enemy to his state. A decree of banishment having been passed against him in Athens, his Spartan friends furnished him with a beautiful country residence about two miles from Olympia, where he spent the best years of his long life. Next to the Anabasis ranks his MemoraUlia (memoirs) of Socrates,! his friend and teacher. Xenophon was said by the ancients to be " the first man that ever took notes of conversation." The Memorabilia is a collec- tion of these, in which the character and doctrines of Socrates are discussed. Xenophon was the author of fifteen works, all of which are extant. His style, simple, clear, racy, refined, and noted for colloquial vigor, is considered the model of classical Greek prose. Oratory.— Eloquence was studied in Greece as an art. Pericles, * This word means the " march up," viz., from the sea to Babylon. A more ap- propriate name would be Katabasis (march down), as most of the book is occupied with the details of the return journey. t There is a story that Xenophon, when a boy, once met Socrates in a lane. The philosopher, barring the way with his cane, demanded, "Where is food sold?" Xenophon having replied, Socrates asked, "And where are men made good and noble?" The lad hesitated, whereupon Socrates answered himself by saying, " Follow me and learn." Xenophon obeyed, and was henceforth his devoted disciple. THE CIVILIZATION, 61 though he spoke only upon great occasions, was famed for his powers of address, but Demosthenes (385-323 B.C.) was the unrivaled orator of Greece, if not of the world. An awkward, sickly, stam- mering boy, by his deter- mined energy and persever- ance he " placed himself at the head of all the mighty masters of speech — unap- proachable forever." — (Lord Brougham.) His first address before the public assembly was hissed and derided ; but he had resolved to be- come an orator, and nothing daunted him. He employed every means to overcome his natural defects,* and at last was rewarded by the palm of eloquence. In his style there was no efibrt at display, but every sentence was made subservient to the great end of his argument. " We never think of his words," said Fenelon ; " we think only of the things he says." His oration Upon the Crown f is his master-piece. Philosophy and Science. — The Seven Sages. They lived about 600 B. c.X They were celebrated for their moral, social, and political wisdom. One of them, named DEMOSTHENES. * That he might study without hindrance he shut himself up for months in a room underground, and, it is said, copied the history of Tbucydides eight times that he might be infused with its concentrated thought and energy. Out on the seashore, with his mouth filled with pebbles, he exercised his voice until it sounded full and clear above the tumult of the waves ; while in the privacy of his own room, before a full-length mirror, he disciplined his awkward gestures till he had schooled them into grace and aptness. + It had been proposed that his public services should be rewarded by a golden crown— the custom being for an orator to wear a crown in token of his inviolability while speaking, .^schines, a fellow -orator, whom he had accused of favoring Philip, opposed the measure. The discussion lasted six years. When the two finally appeared before a vast and excited assembly for the closing argument, the impetuous eloquence of Demosthenes swept everything before it. In after years, though his whole life had proved him a zealous patriot, he was charged with having received bribes from Macedon. Exiled, and under sentence of death, he poisoned himself. X About this time lived ^sop, who, though born a slave, gained his freedom and the friendship of kings and wise men by his peculiar wit. His fables, long preserved by oral tradition, were the delight of the Atheniansj who read in them many a pithy 0/5 GREECE. ThaUs^ who had studied in Egypt, founded a school of thinkers. He taught that all things were generated from water, into which they would all be ultimately resolved. During the next two centuries many philosophers arose, among whom the following are especially noted : Anaximander, the scientist, invented a sun-dial — an instrument which had long been used in Egypt and Babylonia — and wrote a geographical treatise, enriched with the first known map. Anaxagoras discovered the cause of eclipses, and the difference between the planets and fixed stars. He did not, like his predecessors, regard fire, air, or water as the origin of all things, but believed in a Supreme Intellect. He was accused of atheism,* tried, and condemned to death, but his friend Pericles succeeded in changing the sentence to exile. Contemporary with him was Hip'pocrates^ the father of physicians, who came from a family of priests devoted to ^sculapius, the god of medicine. He wrote many works on physiology, and referred diseases to natural causes and not, as was the popular belief, to the displeasure of the gods. Pythagoras, the greatest of early philosophers, was the first to assert the movement of the earth in the heavens; he also made some important discoveries in geology and mathematics. At his school in Crotona, Italy, his disciples were initiated with secret rites ; one of the tests of fitness being the power to keep silence under every circumstance. He based all creation upon the numerical rules of harmony, and asserted that the heavenly spheres roll in musical rhythm. Teaching the Egyptian doctrine of transmigration, he professed to remember what had happened to himself in a previous existence when he was a Trojan hero. His followers reverenced him as half-divine, and their unquestioning faith passed into the proverb, Ipse dixit (He has said it). Socrates (470-399 b. c.).— During the entire thirty years of the Peloponnesian War a grotesque-featured, ungainly, shabbily-dressed, bare-footed man might have been seen wandering about the streets of Athens, in all weathers and at all hours, in the crowded market- place, among the workshops, wherever men were gathered, inces- santly asking and answering questions. This man was Socrates, a public lesson. His statue, the work of Lysippus (p. 71), was placed opposite to those of the Seven Sages in Athens, Socrates greatly admired ^sop's fables, and during his last days in prison amused himself by versifying tliera. * The Gkeeks were especially angry because Anaxagoras taught that the sun is not a god. It is a curious fact that they condemn(>d to death as uu atheist the flret jnan among them who advanced the idea of One Supreme Deity. THE CIVILIZATION. 63 self-taught philosopher, who believed that he had a special mission from the gods, and was attended by a '' divine voice " which coun- seled and directed him. The questions he discussed pertained to life and morality, and were especially pointed against the Sophists, who were the skeptics and quibblers of the day. His earnest elo- quence attracted all classes,* and among his friends were Alcibiades, Euripides, and Aristophanes. A man who, by his irony and argu- ment, was continually "driving men to their wits' end," naturally made enemies. One morning there appeared in the portico where such notices were usually displayed the following indictment: " Socrates is guilty of crime ; fii-st, for not worshipping the gods whom the city worships, but introducing new divinities of his own ; secondly, for corrupting the youth. The penalty due is death." Having been tried and convicted, he was sentenced to drink a cup of the poison-hemlock, which he took in his prison chamber, sur- rounded by friends with whom he cheerfully conversed till the last. Socrates taught the unity of God, the immortality of the soul, the beauty and necessity of virtue, and the moral responsibility of man. He was a devout believer in oracles, which he frequently consulted. He left no writings, but his philosophy has been preserved by his faithful followers, Xenophon and Plato. The Four Great Schools of Philosophy (4th century b. c). — The Academic school was founded by that devoted disciple of Socrates, Plato (439-347), who delivered his lectures in the Academic Gardens. Plato t is perhaps best known from his argu- * " Amidst the gay life, the beautiful forms, the brilliant colors of an Athenian multitude and an Athenian street, the repulsive features, the unwieldy figure, the naked feet, the rough threadbare attire of the philosopher, must have excited every sentiment of astonishment and ridicule which strong contrast can produce. It was (so his disciples described it) as if one of the marble satyrs, which sat in grotesque attitudes with pipe or flute in the sculptors' shops at Athens, had left his seat of stone, and walked into the plane-tree avenue, or the gymnastic colonnade. Gradually the crowd gathered round him. At first he spoke of the tanners, and the smiths, and the drovers, who were plying their trades about him ; and they shouted with laughter as he poured forth his homely jokes. But soon the magic charm of his voice made itself felt. The peculiar sweetness of its tone had an effect which even the thunder of Pericles failed to produce. The laughter ceased— the crowd thickened— the gay youth, whom nothing else could tame, stood transfixed and awe-struck in his pres- ence—there was a solemn thrill in his words, such as his hearers could compare to nothing but the mysterious sensation produced by the clash of drum and cymbal in the worship of the great mother of the gods— the head swam— the heart leaped at the sound— tears rushed from their eyes, and they felt that, unless they tore themselves away from that fascinated circle, they should sit down at his feet and grow old in listening to the marvelous music of this second Marsyas." t The Greeks had no family or clan names, a single appellation serving for an individual. To save confusion the father's name was frecjuently added. Attic wit 64 GREECE. ments in regard to the immortality of the soul. He believed in one eternal God, without whose aid no man can attain wisdom or vir- tue, and in a previous as well as a future existence. All earthly knowledge, he averred, is but the recollection of ideas gained by the soul in its former disembodied state, and as the body is only a hin- drance to perfect communion with the " eternal essences," it follows that death is to be desired rather than feared. His works are written in dialogue, Socrates being represented as the principal speaker. The abstruse topics of which he treats are enlivened by wit, fancy, humor, and picturesque illustration. His style was considered so perfect that an ancient writer exclaimed, " If Jupiter had spoken Greek, he would have spoken it like Plato." Tlie fashionables of Athens thronged to the Academic Gardens to listen to " the sweet speech of the master, melodious as the song of the cicadas in the trees above his head." Even the Athenian women— shut out by custom from the intellectual groves — shared in the universal eager- ness, and, disguised in male attire, stole in to hear the famous Plato. 3. The Peripatetic school was founded by Aristotle (384-322), who delivered his lectures while walking up and down the shady porches of the Lyceum, surrounded by his pupils (lience called Peripatetics, walkers). An enthusiastic student under Plato, he remained at the academy until his master's death. A few years afterward he accepted the invitation of Philip of Macedon to become instructor to the young Alexander. Returning to Athens in 335 B.C. he brought the magnificent scientific collections given him by his royal patron, and opened his school in the Lyceum Gymnasium. Suspected of partisanship with Macedon and accused of impiety, to avoid the fate of Socrates he fled to Euboea, where he died. Aristotle, more than any other philosopher, originated ideas whose influence is still felt. He was the father of zoology and of logic, the principles which he laid down in the latter study having never been superseded. His books include works on metaphysics, psychol- ogy, ethics, poetics, rhetoric, and various other subjects. He taught that all reasoning should be based upon observation of facts. His style is intricate and abstruse. He differed much from Plato, and supplied abundant nicknames, suggested by some personal peculiarities or cir- cumstance. Thus this philosopher, whose real name was Aristoclcs, was called Plato because of his broad brow. He was descended on his father's side from Codrus, the last hero-king of Attica, and on his mother's from Solon ; but his ad- mirers, not content with even this distinguished lineage, made him a son of the god Apollo, and told how in his infancy the bees had settled on his lips as a prophecy of the honejred words which were to fall from them. THE CIVILIZATION. 65 though he recognized an infinite, immaterial God, doubted the exist- ence of a future life. 3. The Epicubeans were the followers of Epicurus (340-270 b. c), who taught that the chief end of life is enjoyment. Himself a man of the purest morals, he recommended virtue for the sake of its happy results, but his doctrines were so perverted by his followers that the word " Epicurean " has become a synonym for loose and luxurious living. — The Cynics (Jcunikos, dog-like) went to the other extreme, and, despising pleasure, gloried in pain and privation. They scofied at the courtesies of society, and disregarded the ties of family or country. The sect was founded by Antisthenes, a disciple of Socrates, but its principal representative was Diogenes, who, it is said, ate and slept in a tub which he carried about on his head. He was noted for his caustic wit, which he indulged without reference to persons,* and for his rude manners, the outgrowth of his creed. 4. The Stoics were headed by Zeno (355-260 b. c), and took their name from the painted portico (stoa) under which he gathered his pupils. Pain and pleasure were equally despised by them, and in- difference to all external conditions was considered the highest type of virtue. For his example of integrity, Zeno was decreed a golden chaplet and a public tomb in the Ceramicus. Later Greek Writers. — Plutarch (50-120 a.d.) was the great- est of ancient biographers. His Parallel Lives of Oreelcs and Romans still delights hosts of readei-s by its admirable portraiture of the most celebrated men of antiquity. Ludan (120-200 a.d.) wrote witty dialogues, in which he ridiculed the absurdities of Grecian mythology and the follies of false philosophers. His Sale of the Philosophers humorously pictures the founders of the different schools as being j)ut up at auction by Mercury. Libraries and Writing Materials. — Few collections of books were made before the Peloponnesian War, but in later times it became fashionable to have private libraries,t and after the days of the tragic * It is said that Alexander the Great once visited the surly philosopher, whom he found seated in his tub, basking in the sun. "I am Alexander," said the monarch, astonished at the indifference with which he was received. " And I am Diogenes," returned the cynic. " Have you no favor to ask of me ? " inquired the king. " Yes," growled Diogenes, " to get out of my sunlight.'''' This story, though perhaps apocry- phal, illustrates the character of the " snarling philosopher." He was vain of his disregard for the decencies of life. At a sumptuous banquet given by Plato he en- tered uninvited, and, rubbing his soiled feet on the rich carpets, cried out, "Thus I trample on your pride, O Plato ! " The polite host, who knew his visitor's weakness, aptly retorted, " But with still greater pride, O Diogenes !" t Aristotle had an immense library, which was sold after his death. Large 66 QEEECB, poets Athens not only abounded in book-stalls, but a place in the Agora was formally assigned to book -auctioneering. The manu- script copies were rapidly multiplied by means of slave labor, and became a regular article of export to the colonies. The Egyptian papyrus and, afterward, the fine but expensive parchment were used in copying books ; the papyrus being written on only one side, the parchment on both sides.* The reed pen was used as in Egypt, and double inkstands for black and red ink were invented, having a ring by which to fasten them to the girdle of the writer. Waxed tablets were em- ployed for letters, note-books, and other requirements of daily life. These were written upon with a metal or ivory pencil (stylus), pointed at one end and broadly flattened at the other, so that in case of mistake the writing could be smoothed out and the tablet made as good as new. A large bur- nisher was sometimes used for the latter purpose. Several tablets, joined together, formed a book. Education. — A Greek father held the lives of his young children at his will, and the casting out of infants to the chances of fate was authorized by law throughout Greece, except at Thebes. Girls were especially subject to this unnatural treatment. If a child was rescued, it became the property of its finder. The Athenian boy, when seven years old, was sent to school — the school-hours being from sunrise to sunset. Until sixteen years of age he was always attended in his walks by a pedagogtie — usually A GREEK TABLET. libraries have been found in the remains of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and some of the volumes, although nearly reduced to coal, have by great care been unrolled and published. ♦ The width of the manuscript (varying from six to fourteen Inches) formed the length of the page, the size of the roll depending upon the number of pages in a book. When finished the roll was coiled around a stick, and a ticket containing the title was appended to it Documents were sealed by tying a string around them and affixing to the knot a bit of clay or wax, which was afterward stamped with a seal. In libraries the books were arranged on shelves with the ends outward, or in pigeon- holes ; or several scrolls were put together in a cylindrical box with a cover. The reader unrolled the scroll as he advanced, rolling up the completed pages with his Other hand. THE CIVILIZATION. 67 some trusty and intelligent slave, too old for hard work — who, how- ever, never entered the study room, no visitors, except near relatives of the master, being allowed therein on penalty of death. The boy was first taught grammar, arithmetic, and writing. His chief books were Hesiod and Homer, which he committed to memory. The moral lessons they contained were caiefully enjoined, for, says Plato, " Greek parents are more careful about the manner and morals of the youth than about his letters and music." Discipline was enforced with the rod. All the great lyric poems were set to music, which was universally taught, the lyre and other stringed instruments having most favor. "Here again," says Plato, " the teach- ers look carefully to virtuous habits ; and rhythms and harmonies are made familiar to the souls of the young that they may become more gentle, and better men in speech and action." Robust health and a symmetrical muscular development were considered so important that the young Athenian between sixteen and eighteen years of age spent most of his time in gymnastic exercises. This was a period of probation, and though the j^edagogue was dismissed, the youth's behavior was carefully noted by his elders. At eighteen he was solemnly enrolled in the list of citizens. Two years were now given to public service, after which he was free to follow his own inclinations. If he were scholarly-disposed, and had money, and leisure,* he might spend his whole life in learning. The little an Athenian girl was required to know was learned from her mother and nurses at home. ^The Spartan lad of seven years was placed under the control of the state. Hencefprth he ate his coarse hard bread and black broth at the public table,! and slept in the public dormitory. Here he A GRECIAN YOUTH. * Our word school is derived from the Greek word for leisure. The education of men was obtained, not so much from books as from the philosophical lectures, the public assembly, the theatre, and the law courts, where the most of their unoccupied time was spent. t The principal dish at the mess-table was a black broth, made from a traditional recipe. Wine mixed with water was drunk, but toasts were never given, for the Spartans thought it a sin to use two words when one would do. Intoxication and the symposium (p. 85) were forbidden by law. Fat men were regarded with sus- picion. Small boys' sat on low stools near their fathers at meals, and were given half rations, which they ate in silence. Oo GREECE. was taught to disdain all home-affections as a weakness, and to think of himself as belonging only to Sparta. All the Persian devices for making hardy men were improved upon. He was brought up to despise, not only softness and luxury, but hunger, thirst, torture, and death. Always kept on small rations of food, he was sometimes allowed only what he could steal. If he escaped detection, his adroitness was applauded ; if he were caught in the act, he was severely flogged ; but though he were whipped to death, he must neither wince nor groan.* EAST END OF THE PARTHENON (aS RESTORED BY FERGUSSON). Monuments and Art. — The three styles of Grecian architecture — Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian — are distinguished by the shape of their columns (see cut, p. 70). Of the Doric, which was originally borrowed from Egypt, the splendid Parthenon at Athens, and the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, were among the most celebrated. The Parthenon or House of the Virgin, situated on the Acropolis, * The Spartan lad had a model set before him. It was that of a boy who stole a fox and hid it under his short cloak. He must have been somewhat awkward— no doubt the Spartan children were warned against this fault in his morals— for he was suspected, and ordered to be flogged till he confessed. While the lashes fell the fox struggled to escape. The boy, with lus quivering back raw and bleeding, and his breast torn by savage claws and teeth, stood sturdily and flinched not. At last the desperate fox reached his heart, and he dropped dead— but a hero I THE CIVILIZATION. 69 was sacred to Pallas Athena, the patron goddess of Attica. It was built throughout of fine marble from the quarry of Mt. Pentelicus, near Athens, its glistening whiteness being here and there subdued by colors and gilding. The magnificent sculptures * which adorned it were designed by Phidias— that inimitable artist whom Pliny desig- nates as " before all, Phidias the Athenian." The statue of the god- dess within the temple was forty feet high ; her face, neck, arms, hands and feet were ivory; her drapery was pure gold.f The Temple at Olympia was built of porous stone, the roof being tiled with Pentelic marble. It stood on the banks of the Alpheus, in a sacred grove (Altis) of plane and olive trees. The statue of the Deity, by Phidias, was so superstitiously venerated that not to liave seen it was considered a real calamity. J 'The most celebrated Ionic temple was that of Artemis (Diana) at Ephesus, which was three times destroyed by fire, and as often re- built with increased magnificence. Corinthian architecture was not generally used in Greece before the age of Alexander the Great. § The most beautiful example is the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates (p. 76) in Athens, * These sculptures, illustrating events in the mythical life of the goddess, are among the finest in existence. Some of them were sent to England by Lord Elgin when he was British ambassador to Turkey, and are now in the British Museum, where, with various other sculptures from the Athenian Acropolis, all more or less muti lated, they are known as the Elgin Marbles. t The Greeks accused Phidias of having purloined some of the gold provided him for this purpose ; but as, by the advice of his shrewd friend Pericles, he had so at- tached the metal that it could be removed, he was able to disprove the charge. He was afterward accused of impiety for having placed the portraits of Pericles and him- self in the group upon Athena's shield. He died in prison. X The statue, sixty feet high, was seated on an elaborately-sculptured throne of cedar, inlaid with gold, ivory, ebony, and precious stones ; like the statue of Athena in the Parthenon, the face, feet, and body were of ivory ; the eyes were brilliant jewels, and the hair and beard pure gold. The drapery was beaten gold, enameled with flowers. One hand grasped a scepter, composed of precious metals, and sur- mounted by an eagle ; in the other, like Athena, he held a golden statue of Nike (the winged goddess of victory). The statue was so high, in proportion to the building, that the Greeks were wont to say that " if the god should attempt to rise he would burst open the roof" The effect of its great size, as Phidias had calculated, was to impress the beholder with the pent-up power and majesty of the greatest of gods. A copy of the head of this statue is in the Vatican. The statue itself, removed by the emperor Theodosius I. to Constantinople, was lost in the disastrous fire (a. d. 475) which destroyed the Library in that city. At the same time perished the Venus of Cnidos, by Praxiteles (p. 71), which the ancients ranked next to the Phidian Zeus and Athena. § The invention of the Corinthian capital is ascribed to Callimachus, who, seeing a small basket covered with a tile placed in the center of an acanthus plant which grew on the grave of a young lady of Corinth, was so struck with its beauty that he executed a capital in imitation of it.-~Westropp's Band-book of Architecture, 10 GREECE. The Propylea, which formed the entrance to the Athenian Acropolis, was a magnificent structure, and opened upon a group of temples, altars, and statues which has never been equalled. All the splendor of Grecian art was concentrated on the state edifices, archi- tectural display on private residences being forbidden by law. After the Macedonian conquest, dwellings grew luxurious, and Demosthenes once severely rebuked certain citizens for living in houses whose ornamentation surpassed that of the j)ublic buildings. Doric. Ionic. THREE ORDERS OF GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. Corintliian. {j^ shaft : 1, capital: "i, architrave ; ^, frieze: s, cornice. The entire part above the capital is the entablature. At the bottom of the shaft is the base, which rests upon the Pedestal^ The Athenian Agora (market-place), which was the fashionable morning resort, was surrounded with porticoes, one of which was deco- rated with paintings commemorativeof glorious Grecian achievements. Within the enclosure were grouped temples, altars, and statues. Paintings were usually on wood ; wall-painting was a separate and inferior art. The most celebrated painters were : Ai^ollodorus of Athens^ sometimes called the Greek Rembrandt ; Zeuxis and Paj'rha- sius, who contended together for the prize — Parrhasius producing a picture representing a curtain, which his rival himself mistook for a real hanging, and Zeuxis offering a picture of grapes, which de- ceived even the birds; Ajjelles, the most renowned of all Greek artists, who painted with four colors, which he blended with a THE MAKKERS A K B CUSTOMS. 71 varnish of his own invention; his friend Protogenes, the careful painter, scul^jtor, and writer on art ; Mcias, who having refused a sum equal to seventy thousand dollars from Ptolemy I. for his master- piece, bequeathed it to Athens ; and Pausias, who excelled in wall- painting, and in delineating children, animals, flowers, and ara- besques. The Greeks tinted the background and sometimes the bas-reliefs of their sculptures, and even painted their inimitably- carved statues, gilding the hair and inserting glass or silver eyes. In statuary, both marble and bronze, and in graceful vase- painting, the Greeks have never been surpassed. Of arts and ornamentation in general, all those which we have seen in use among the previous nations were greatly improved by the Greeks, who added to other excellencies an exquisite sense of beauty and a power of ideal expression peculiar to themselves. Besides Phidias, whose statues were distinguished for grandeur and sublimity, eminent among sculptors were Praxiteles, who excelled in tender grace and finish ; Scopas, who delighted in marble allegory ; and Lysippus^ a worker in bronze, and the master of portraiture.* 3. THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Religion and Mythology. — Nothing marks more strongly the poetic imagination of the Greeks than the character of their religious jj^orship. They learned their creed in a poem, and told it in marble sculpture. To them Nature overflowed with deities. Every grove had its presiding genius, every stream and fountain its protecting nymph. Earth and air were filled with invisible spirits, and the sky was crowded with translated heroes — their own half -divine ancestors. Their gods were intense personalities, endowed with human passions and instincts, and bound by domestic relations. Such deities appealed to the hearts of their worshippers, and the Greeks loved their favorite gods with the same fervor bestowed upon their earthly friends. On the summit of Mt. Olympus, beyond the impenetrable mists, accord- ing to their mythology, the twelve f great gods held council. * The master-pieces of Praxiteles were an undraped Venus sold to the people of Cnidos, and a satyr or faun, of which the best antique copy is preserved in the Capitoline Museum, Rome. This statue- suggested Hawthorne's charming romance, The Marble Faun. The celebrated Niobe Group in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, is the work of either Praxiteles or Scopas. The latter was one of the artists employed on the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. Lysippns and Apelles were favorites of Alexan- der the Great, who would allow only them to carve or paint his image. t They were called the Twelve Gods, but the lists vary, increasing the actual number. Roman mythology was founded on Greek, and as the Latin names are now in e:eneral use they have been interpolated to assist the pupil's association. 72 GEEECE. Zeus (Jove or Jupiter) was supreme. He ruled with the thunderbolts, and was king over gods and men. His symbols were the eagle and the lightning, both asso- ciated with great height. His two brothers, Poseidon (Neptune) and Hades (Pluto) held sway respectively over the sea and the depths under ground. As god of the sea, Poseidon had the dolphin for his symbol ; as god over rivers, lakes, and springs, his symbols were the trident and the horse. Hades had a helmet which conferred invisibility upon the wearer. It was in much demand among the gods, and was his symbol. The shades of Hades, wherein the dead were received, were guarded by a three-headed dog, Cerberus. Hera (Juno), the haughty wife of Zeus, was Queen of the Skies. Her jealousy was the source of much discord in celestial circles. The stars were her eyes. Her symbols were the cuckoo and the peacock. Demeter (Ceres) was the bestower of bountiful harvests. Her worship was con- nected with the peculiarly-sacred Eleusinian mysteries, whose secret rites have never been disclosed. Some think that ideas of the unity of God and the immortality of the soul were kept alive and handed down by them. Demeter's symbols were ears of corn, the pomegranate, and a car drawn by winged serpents. Hestia (Vesta) was goddess of the domestic hearth. At her altar in every house were celebrated all important family events, even to the purchase of a new slave, or the undertaking of a short journey. The family slaves joined in this domestic worship, and Hestia's altar was an asylum whither they might flee to escape punish- ment, and where the stranger, even an enemy, could find protection. She was the personification of purity, and her symbol was an altar-flame. Hephoestos (Vulcan) was the god of volcanic fires and skilled metal-work. Being lame and deformed, his parents, Zeus and Hera, threw him out of Olympus, but his genius finally brought about a reconciliation. Mt. Etna was his forge, whence Pro- metheus stole the sacred fire to give to man. His brother. Ares (Mars) was god of war. His symbols were the dog and the vulture. Athena (Minerva) sprang full-armed from the imperial head of Zeus. She was the goddess of wisdom and of celestial wars, and the especial defender of citadels. Athena and Poseidon contested on the Athenian Acropolis for the supremacy over Attica. The one who gave the greatest boon to man was to win. Poseidon with his trident brought forth a spring of water from the barren rock ; but Athena produced** an olive-tree, and was declared victor. As a war-goddess she was called Pallas Athene. Her symbol was the owl. Aphrodite (Venus) was goddess of love and beauty. She arose from the foam of the sea. In a contest of personal beauty between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, Paris decided for Aphrodite. She is often represented with a golden apple in her hand, the prize offered by Eris (strife), who originated the dispute. Her symbol was the dove. ApoUon (Apollo), the ideal of manly beauty, was the god of poetry and song. He led the muses, and in this character his symbol was a lyre ; as god of the fierce rays of the sun, which was his chariot, his symbol was a bow with arrows. Artemis (Diana), twin-sister to Apollo, was goddess of the chase, and protector of the water-nymphs. All young girls were under her care. The moon was her chariot, and her symbol was a deer, or a bow with arrows. Hermes (Mercury) was the god of cunning and eloquence. In the former capacity he was associated with mists, and accused of thieving. The winged-footed messen- ger of the gods, he was also the guide of souls to the realms of Hades, and of heroes in difficult expeditions. As god of persuasive speech and success in trade he was popular in Athens, where he was worshipped at the street crossings.* His symbol was a cock or a ram. * The "Hermes" placed at street comers were stone pillars, surmounted by a human bead (p. 31). THE MAKNERS AKD CUSTOMS. 73 JDUmysos (Bacchus), god of wine, with his wife Ariadne^ ruled the fruit season. Hebe was a cup-bearer in Olympus. There was a host of minor deities and personifications, often appearing in a group of three, such as the Three Graces,— beautiful women, who represented the brightness, color, and perfume of summer; the Three Fates,— stern sisters, upon whose spindle was spun the thread of every human life ; the Three Hesperides, — daughters of Atlas (upon whose shoulders the sky rested), in whose western garden golden apples grew ; the Three Harpies,— mischievous meddlers, who personated the effects of violent winds ; Three Gorgons, whose terrible faces turned to stone all who beheld them ; and Three Furies, whose mission was to pursue criminals. There were Nine Muses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory), who dwelt on Mt. Parnassus, and held all gifts of inspiration : Clio presided over History ; Melpomene, tragedy ; Thalia, comedy ; Calliope, epic poetry ; Urania, astronomy ; Euterpe, music ; Polyhymnia, song and oratory; Erato, love-songs ; and Terpsichore, dancing. PRESENTING OFFERINGS AT THE TEMPLE OF DELPHI. Divination of all kinds was universal. Upon signs, dreams, and portents depended all tlie weighty decisions of life. Birds, especially crows and ravens, were watched as direct messengers from the gods, and so much meaning was attached to their voices, habits, manner of flight and mode of alighting, that even in Homer's time the word Urd was synonymous with omen. The omens obtained by sacrifices were still more anxiously regarded. Upon the motions of the flame, the appearance of the ashes, and, above all, the shape and aspect of the victim's liver, hung such momentous human interests that, as at Plataea, a great army was sometimes kept waiting for days till success should be assured through a sacrificial calf or chicken. Oracles. — The temples of Zeus at Dodona and of Apollo at Delphi were the oldest and most venerated prophetic shrines. At Dodona three priestesses presided, to whom the gods spoke in the rustling 74 GBEECH. leaves of a sacred oak, and the murmurs of a holy rill. But the favorite oracular god was Apollo, who, besides the Pythian temple at Delphi, had shrines in various parts of the land * The Greeks had implicit faith in the Oracles, and consulted them for every important undertaking. Priests and Priestesses shared in the reverence paid to the gods. Their temple duties were mainly prayer and sacrifice. They were given the place of honor in the public festivities, and were supported by the temple revenues. Grecian religion included in its observances nearly the whole range of social pleasures. Worship consisted of songs and dances, proces- sions, libations, festivals, dramatic and athletic contests, and various sacrifices and purifications. The people generally were content with their gods and time-honored mythology, and left all diflBcult moral and religious problems to be settled by the philosophers and the serious- minded minority who followed them. Religious Games and Festivals. — The Olympian Games were held once in four years in honor of Zeus, at Olympia. Here the Greeks gathered from all parts of the country, protected by a safe transit through hostile Hellenic states. The commencement of the Festival month having been formally announced by heralds sent to every state, a solemn truce suppressed all quarrels until its close. The competitive exercises consisted of running, leaping, wrestling, boxing, and chariot- racing. The prize was a wreath from the sacred olive-tree in Olympia. The celebration, at first confined to one day, came in time to last five days. Booths were scattered about the Altis (p. 181), where a gay traflSc was carried on ; while in the spacious council-room the ardent Greeks crowded to hear the newest works of poets, philosophers, and historians. All this excitement and enthusiasm were heightened by the belief that the pleasure enjoyed was an act of true religious worship. The Pythian Games, sacred to Apollo, occurred near Delphi, in the third year of each Olympiad, and in national dignity ranked next to the Olympic. The prize-wreath was laurel. The Nemean and the Isthmian Games, sacred respectively to Zeus and Poseidon, were held once in two years, and like the Pythian had prizes for music and poetry, as well as gymnastics, chariots, and horses. The Nemean * A volcanic site, having a fissure through which gas escaped, was usually selected. The Delphian priestess, having spent three days in fasting and bathing, seated herself on a tripod over the chasm, where, under the real or imaginary effect of the vapors, she uttered her prophecies. Her ravings were recorded by the attending prophet, and afterward turned into hexameter verse by poets hired for the purpose. The Bhrewd priests, through their secret agents, kept well posted on all matters likely to be urged, and when their knowledge failed, as in predictions for the future, made the responses so ambiguous or unintelligible that they would seem to be verified by any result. THE MAKiN^ERS AKD CUSTOMS. 75 crown was of parsley, the Isthmian of pine. Sparta took interest only in the Olympic Games, with which she had been connected from their beginning, and which, it is curious to note, were the only ones having no intellectual competition. Otherwise, Sparta had her own festivals from which strangers were excluded. The Pannthenaia,* which took place once in four years at Athens, in honor of the patron goddess, consisted of similar exercises, termi- nating in a grand procession in which the whole Athenian population took part. Citizens in full military equipment ; the victorious con- testants with splendid chariots and horses ; priests and attendants leading the sacrificial victims ; dignified elders bearing olive-boughs ; young men with valuable, artistic plate ; and maidens, the purest and most beautiful in Athens, with baskets of holy utensils on their heads, — all contributed to the magnificent display. Matrons from the neighboring tribes carried oak-branches, while their daughters bore the chairs and sunshades of the Athenian maidens. In the center of the procession was a ship resting on wheels, having for a sail a richly- embroidered mantle or peplos, portraying the victories of Zeus and Athena, wrought and woven by Attic maidens. The procession having gone through all the principal streets round to the Acropolis, marched up through its magnificent Propylea, past the majestic Parthenon, and at last reached the Erechtheium, or Temple of Athena Polias (p. 82). Here all arms were laid aside, and, amid the blaze of burnt-offerings and the ringing paeans of praise, the votive gifts were placed in the sanctuary of the goddess. The Feast of Dionysos was celebrated twice during the spring season, the chief festival continuing for eight days. At this time those tragedies and comedies which had been selected by the archon — to whom all plays were first submitted — were brought out in the Dionysiac theatre f at Athens, in competition for prizes. * The Panathenaic Procession formed the suhject of the sculpture on the frieze around the Parthenon Cella, in which stood the goddess sculptured by Phidias, Most of this frieze, much mutilated, is with the Elgin Marbles. t This theatre was built on the sloping side of the Acropolis, and consisted of a vast number of semicircular rows of seats cut out of the solid rock, accommodating thirty thousand persons. The front row, composed of white marble arm-chairs, was occupied by the priests, the judges, and the archons, each chair being engraved with the name of its occupant. Between the audience and the stage was the orchestra or place for the chorus, in the center of which stood the altar of Dionysos. Movable stairs letl from the orchestra up to the stage, as the course of the drama frequently required the conjunction of the chorus with the actors. The stage itself extended the whole width of the theatre, but was quite narrow, except at the center, where the representation took place. It was supported by a white marble wall, handsomely carved. There was a variety of machinery for change of scenes and for producing startling effects, such as the rolling of thunder, the descent of gods from heaven, the rising of ghosts and demons from below, etc. The theatre 76 GREECE. Each tribe furnished a chorus of dancers and musicians, and chose a choragus, whose business was not only to superintend the training and costumes of the performers, but also to bear all the expense of bringing out the play assigned to him. The office was one of high dignity, and immense sums were spent by the choragi in their efforts to eclipse each other ; the one adjudged to have given the best enter- tainment received a tripod, which was formally consecrated in the temples and placed upon its own properly-inscribed monument in the Street of Tripods, near the theatre. The Actors^ to increase their size and enable them the better to per- sonate the gods and heroes of Greek tragedy, wore high soled shoes, padded garments, and great masks which completely enveloped their heads, leaving only small apertures for the mouth and eyes. As their stilts and stage-attire impeded any free movements, their acting con- sisted of little more than a series of tableaux and recitations, while the stately musical apostrophes and narrations of the chorus filled up the gaps and supplied those parts of the story not acted on the stage.* TJie 'performance began early in the morning and lasted all day, eating and drinking being allowed in the theatre. The price of seats varied according to location, but the poorer classes were supplied free tickets by the government, so that no one was shut out by poverty from enjoying this peculiar worship. f Each play generally occupied from one and a half to two^ hours. The audience was exceedingly demonstrative ; an unpopular actor could not deceive himself ; his voice was drowned in an uproar of whistling, clucking, and hissing, was open to the sky, but an awning might be drawn to shut out the direct rays of the sun, while little jets of perfumed water cooled and refreshed the air. To aid the vast assembly in hearing, brazen bell-shaped vases were placed in diflfercnt parts of the theatre. * In comedy, the actors themselves often took the audience into their confidence, explaining the situation to them somewhat after the manner of the commenting " sisters, cousins and aunts," during Buttercup's confession in the PinaJ'