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masters of a fortress, from which they took frequent opportunities to come forth, and make depredations upon the neighbouring territory. The Spartans, suffering from these irruptions, appealed to Athens for assistance; and Cimon, who wished to promote friendship between the republics, recommended that succours should be sent to Sparta.

14. Soon after the Athenian troops arrived in Sparta, the Spartans refused their assistance, because they presumed that the Athenians designed to take part with the rebellious slaves. The Athenians were offended at this conduct of the Spartans, and thus provoked, readily listened to an accusation against Cimon. It was alleged that he had promoted this impolitic aid to Sparta, and that when he took the gold mines of Thrace from the Persians, he had foreborne to carry the war into Macedonia. Cimon answered to this, that his duty called upon him to punish the enemies of Greece, but not to carry arms among an unoffending people, and that he did not take upon himself any enmity against mankind. This defence was unavailing, and he was banished for ten years, B. C. 460.

During the life of Pericles, the Parthenon, a celebrated temple of Minerva, was erected, and many other edifices, the ruins of some of which still remain. These, and other temples of Greece, are considered the most beautiful productions of architecture; and men of modern days have delighted to repair to this celebrated country that they may behold the monuments of a people, whose genius.

taste, and industry, have ever been accounted su perior to that of any other nation of the earth.

2. On some slight pretences the Athenians made war with Thebes, Corinth, and Megara; and all these states, submitted to their arms. About this time Egypt revolted from Persia, and the Athenians took part with the Egyptians, but they failed in their enterprise, and were forced to recal Cimon from his banishment, after he had been absent from Athens five years.

3. Cimon prosecuted the war with the Persians, but fell sick and died at Citium in Cyprus; his dying advice to those under his command, enabled the Athenians to conclude the war; and the Persian king solicited peace. The conditions of the peace demanded by the Athenians were, that all the Greek colonies of Asia should be independent, and that no Persian vessel should appear in all the Egean and Mediterranean seas. 'The war thus concluded, had lasted from the burning of Sardis, fifty-one years.

4. The Greeks no longer had the Persians to contend with, and the different states carried on hostilities among themselves: Athens was for twenty years supreme. After the Persian war, that called the Peloponnesian is most remarkable. It lasted twenty-seven years; the history of the first twenty-one years was written by Thucydides in Greek, and that of the remaining six by Xenophon, another Greek historian. The Spartans and Athenians were rivals, that is, each state wished to be of the most importance; both loved to bring the other states under subjection, and both gave each other cause of offence as often as they could do so.

5. The Corcyreans and Corinthians made war with one another, the Athenians took part with the Corcyreans, and the Spartans with the Corinthians; and each state engaged other smaller states in the controversy, so that a most destructive warfare was carried on among all the republics during the time lately mentioned. This war ended B. C. 404. Athens was captured, its fortifications destroyed, and a tyrannical government set over it by the Spartans, who then assumed the chief control in Greece.

6. During the Peloponnesian war lived Socrates, and his distinguished countryman, Pericles. Pericles died in an early period of the war, of the plague, a disease extremely mortal in different countries and ages since. Pericles, on his deathbed, rejoiced that he had caused no man to wear mourning. He meant, that he had caused no death nor affliction. He forgot that he had beer unjust to Cimon, and induced his countrymen to banish him.

7. Nothing has been said of Alcibiades; he was an Athenian who served in the armies of Greece. He was of the richer class of the citizens, educated by Socrates, in part, but more admired for his genius than his virtues; capable of serving his country, yet neither benefitting it by his counsels nor his example. His history may be found in Plutarch's lives.

8. The Spartans set thirty magistrates over Athens, who tyrannised in that city without mercy. After the taking of Athens by the Spartans, Alcibiades had taken refuge in the Persian dominions; and Lysander, king of Sparta, fearing that he would return to his country and persuade the Athe

nians to revolt, induced Pharnabazus, the Persian governor of the province where he resided, to murder the unfortunate exile. After this event, Thrasybulus, a virtuous and spirited patriot, at the head of his fellow citizens, expelled the thirty tyrants, and re-established the former government of Athens.

9. The political power of the state was almost extinguished, but genius and learning survived. Xenophon and Plato lived, though Thucydides and Socrates were no more. Philosophy was taught, arts were still cultivated, industry revived, and the harbour and walls of the city were rebuilt, B. C. 394. The city of Thebes in Boeotia, may be seen on the map: at this time Thebes was destined to attain to some eminence. The Spartans attacked Thebes; Epaminondas, a man of great wisdom and ability, undertook the defence of that city, and afterwards, at the head of a considerable army, defeated the Spartans at Leuctra.

10. Epaminondas deemed it to be his duty to punish the foes of all Greece, as he considered the Spartans, to the extent of his power, and he marched his army into the territory of Laconia. In Laconia the Theban general endeavoured to do justice to the unhappy Messinians, who had been subject to the most cruel ravages of their neighbours, but an end was put to all his projects by the battle of Mantinea in Arcadia, where he fell, B. C. 371. (The life of Epaminondas may be found in Plutarch.) After the death of Epaminondas the Thebans had no commander to complete his designs, and they were no longer known in Greece as a people to be feared.

PHILIP OF MACEDON.

1. Philip, a prince of Macedonia, was educated at Thebes, and he afterwards returned to his native country, where he made himself king, though he was not the hereditary sovereign of Macedonia. He was a man who possessed talents for government, and the desire of extending his dominions; and soon made himself master of Illyria and Thrace. On the coasts of Thrace were cities subject to Athens. Philip showed no regard to the rights of Athens, in respect to these cities, and willingly made them the occasion, first, of disputes with the Athenians, and afterwards of a war.

2. The states of Greece united to oppose the invasion of Philip, who marched against their confederated armies, but in vain; he met the allied army at Cheronea, B. C. 338, and defeated them. From this time Athens became dependent upon Macedonia, and when that country was subdued by the Romans, Athens also fell under the dominion of the conquerors. Athens was taken by Mithridates, an Asiatic prince, at war with the Romans, and retaken by Sylla, a Roman general, B. C. 87. Sylla demolished its walls, butchered its inhabitants, and reduced it to a most deplorable condition. You will remember that the Persians, the Spartans, and the Romans, successively laid waste this beautiful metropolis of the civilized world.

3. Some of the Roman emperors regarded Athens with favour, repaired the ravages of war, and embellished it with new edifices. Alaric, the Goth, pillaged Athens, A. D. 396, demolished the

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