Athens, 136 (in which place the origin and genealogy of the Macedonian kings are interposed, 137-139); the Athenians, however, spurn the conditions of Mardonius, and exhort the Spartans to come speedily to their assistance, 140-144.

BOOK IX. CALLIOPE.

MARDONIUS, at the opening of spring, marches into Attica, and takes Athens once more, although deserted, 1-3. He renews in vain his solicitations to the Athenians, to make peace with the King, 4 seq.; but as the Spartans, after long delay, send at last assistance, 10, 11, and all the forces of Peloponnesus are pouring towards the isthmus, he returns into Boeotia, and pitches his camp in the Theban territory, 15. Soon after, the Greeks come up, and pitch their camp at Erythræ, 19: afterwards, having engaged with success the barbarian horse, they shift their station to the Plataan territory, 25. Some days are passed, during which the two armies remain in view, the victims boding success to neither party, in the case of an engagement: at last, Mardonius, in spite of the victims, prepares to give battle, 26-42: his design is communicated to the Greeks, by Alexander of Macedonia, 44. The Greeks, deprived of water and victuals, resolve to shift their station at night, but are attacked by the barbarians: a bloody battle ensues, in which Mardonius is slain, and the Persians are driven back to their camp: Artabazus alone escapes, with forty thousand men, into Phocis, 69. The camp of the barbarians is stormed, and a dreadful slaughter ensues, 70 seq. The movers of the Theban defection to the Medes are delivered up to Pausanias, the leader of the Spartans, and put to death, 88. In the mean time, the naval forces of the Greeks, according to the invitation of the Samians, take their departure from Delos, 90-92. A digression concerning Evenius of Apollonia, the father of Deiphonus, the divine of the Greeks, 93 seq. The Persians, informed of the approach of the Greek fleet, haul up their ships on the strand of Mycale, and fortify them with a wall. The Greeks, pursuing them, debark, and overcome the Persians in a sharp engagement: they capture the camp, and set fire to the ships. Ionia once more secedes from the Persians, 96-107. The Peloponnesians return into Greece: the Athenians, also, after capturing Sestos, return into Greece, 114 to the end.

INTRODUCTION.

LIFE OF HERODOTUS.

HERODOTUS was born at Halicarnassus', a considerable town of Asia Minor, four hundred and eighty-four years before the Christian era: he was, therefore, about four years of age at the time that Xerxes quitted Sardis, on his expedition against Greece. He was of an illustrious family, originally Dorian, and both his parents were of high rank in the state. Among his relations was Panyasis, an uncle either by the father's or mother's side: the works of this person have, unfortunately, not reached our day; although he was so celebrated, that some of the ancients do not scruple to assign to him the second rank after Homer, in poetical excellence. Soon after Herodotus had reached the age of early manhood, he entered, it appears, on a course of travelling: it cannot now be determined, whether he adopted this plan of practical education in the design of giving to the world the result of his researches, after the examples of some writers who had preceded him, all of whom came from the same quarter of the world as himself", and whose success in the field of History may be reasonably supposed to have stimulated the ambition of a youth, whose natural endowments were evidently great, and much improved, no doubt, by the education which an illustrious birth placed within his reach: or, whether he merely quitted his country in order to gratify that curiosity which, in minds created for

The Preface to Clio. 3 Suidas in Ηρόδοτος.

2 Wessel. Herod. Vita.

4 Suidas in Пavúασis.

Hecatæus of Miletus, Xanthus, Hellanicus of Miletus, and Charon of Lampsacus. See Wessel. Herod. Vit.

the contemplation of human nature, is an irresistible passion. Be that as it may, to his travels he was indebted for many of the fascinating beauties scattered over his works; from which we gather, that he visited all the most remarkable parts of the world then known-Egypt, Syria', Palestine, Colchis", probably Babylon" and Ecbatana", the northern parts of Africa", the shores of the Hellespont, the Euxine Sea13, and Scythia". He pursued, in all those countries, his researches with unwearied industry convinced that circumstances, which at the first view appear trifling, are frequently the cause of that variety which human nature assumes in different climates, he dedicated the same patient attention to the religion, the history, the morals, and the customs, of all the nations he visited.

On his return to Halicarnassus, he found that his uncle Panyasis had been put to death by the tyrant Lygdamis, grandson of the celebrated Artemisia, who accompanied Xerxes in his disastrous campaign. Thinking, perhaps, his life not secure in his native country, Herodotus withdrew to the neighbouring island of Samos. This voluntary exile gave him leisure, of which it is fair to presume he profited, to arrange the researches he had made in his travels, and to form the plan of his History. But the love of liberty, innate in the Greek, combined with a justifiable desire of vengeance for the death of his kinsman, inspired him with the idea of overthrowing the tyrant, and restoring freedom to his country. Halicarnassus was not wanting in citizens discontented with the tyranny of Lygdamis; the talents and experience of Herodotus gave decision and unanimity to the counsels of the malcontents; and when his plans were ripe for execution, he appeared once more in his native land, and at the head of a formidable party.