ATTACK OF MILTIADES ON PAROS-HIS TRIAL AND DEATH.

ILTIADES now rose to the utmost height of popularity and influence, insomuch that when he requested a fleet of seventy ships, without declaring how he meant to employ them, but merely promising that he would bring great riches to Athens, the people readily agreed. He led them to the isle of Paros, under the pretence of punishing its people for their compelled service in the Persian fleet, but really to revenge a personal injury of his own. He demanded one hundred talents as the price of his retreat; but the Parians refused, and resisted him bravely; and in an attempt to enter the town he received a wound, and was obliged to withdraw his army. On his return he was brought to trial for his life by Xanthippus, a man of high consideration, on account of the failure of his promises made to the people. His wound disabled him from defending himself, but he was brought into the assembly on a bed, while his friends defended him, principally, by recalling his former services. The memory of these, with pity for his present condition, prevailed on the people to absolve him from the capital charge: but they fined him fifty talents (about $60,000). He died soon after by the mortification of his wound, but the fine was paid by Cimon, his son.

The treatment of Miltiades has been, with little reason, alleged as a gross instance of popular ingratitude. In truth, the most blamable act of the Athenians on this occasion, is one which can only be excused by the fervour of their gratitude-the entrusting an armament entirely to the pleasure of a man, who, however eminent as a warrior, seems to have given little proof of probity or moderation. His attack on Paros was an atrocious abuse of public authority to the gratification of individual revenge; and it would have been most unjust that such misconduct should go unpunished; though

it is to be feared that the popular resentment was excited less by the iniquity committed than by the failure of the promised riches. With respect to the fine, it seems little likely, considering the enormous wealth of Cimon, that it could materially injure either him or his father; and it was probably owing to gratitude and compassion, that Miltiades escaped a heavier punishment, which his recent conduct certainly deserved.

PREPARATIONS OF DARIUS FOR A SECOND INVASION OF GREECE. REVOLT OF EGYPT-DEATH OF DARIUS.

ARIUS' anger against Athens rose yet higher when he heard of the defeat at Marathon. He ordered to be made ready a mightier armament for the conquest of Greece, and for three years all Asia was disturbed with warlike preparation. But happily for mankind, there is generally a limit to the growth of empires formed by conquest, on passing which, they either fall to pieces, or at least become feeble through the want of a steady control over the distant provinces. These were to the successors of Darius a source of weakness more commonly than of strength; since, though they might swell the royal armies with lukewarm or doubtful adherents, they were ever liable to revolt; while the Persian governors were frequently encouraged, by the remoteness and magnitude of their commands, to conduct themselves as independent princes, rather than as officers under a common master. The first symptom that the empire had reached its greatest height, was the revolt of Egypt, which happened in the fourth year after the battle of Marathon, and divided the attention of Darius with the purposed conquest of Greece. While preparing for both objects, he was diverted by the contending claims urged to the succession by his eldest son,

Artabazanes, and Xerxes the eldest born to him, after his accession, of Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus. After some delay, he decided in favour of Xerxes; but he died before completing his preparations against either enemy.

MAGNIFICENT PREPARATIONS OF XERXES-SUBMISSION OF EGYPT-SECOND PERSIAN INVASION OF GREECE.

ING Xerxes succeeding Darius, in the second year brought Egypt to submission, and then resolved on the invasion of Greece. To this he was stimulated by Mardonius, and by many Grecian refugees, particularly the Pisistratida. Four years passed in preparation, and in the fifth he moved towards the Hellespont, with an army gathered from all Asia, between the borders of India and the Mediterranean. A bridge was formed of ships across the Hellespont, a difficult undertaking, from the breadth of the strait and the rapidity of the current; and when this was broken by a tempest, Herodotus tells us, that Xerxes, in the madness of absolute power, commanded that the workmen should be all slaughtered, and the sea scourged for disobedience to its lord. Another being made, the army passed over, and seven days and seven nights were occupied unceasingly in its passage. The foot is stated at one million seven hundred thousand men, the horse at eighty thousand. Some time before, to avoid the dangerous navigation round the promontory of Athos, where the fleet of Mardonius had been ruined, a canal had been dug across the isthmus which joins that mountain with the mainland; a work of which the enormous labour and expense appeared so far to exceed the utility, that it was thought to have been chiefly done as a proof and memorial of Xerxes' power.

NOBLE DEVOTION OF SPERTHIAS AND BOULIS.

ow the army advanced, unresisted, through Thrace and Macedonia. Every Grecian city on its way had been commanded to prepare it a meal in the most splendid manner, and many towns were almost ruined by the expense. The fleet moved along the coast to the Thermaic bay, where it was rejoined by the land force; and while the armament paused here the heralds returned, whom Xerxes had sent to demand earth and water from the cities of Greece. Of those who gave it, the most considerable were the Thessalians and the Thebans, with all the Boeotians, except those of Thespia and Platea. To Athens and Sparta no heralds were sent, on account of the murder of those sent by Darius. The atonement demanded for this crime, by the religion of the age, gave occasion to a splendid instance of patriotism. Proclamation being made in Lacedæmon, that there was need of some to die for the commonwealth, Sperthias and Boulis, two noble Spartans, offered themselves as the sacrifice, and were delivered to the Persians. Offers were made to them of high preferment if they would enter the royal service, but they refused; and being brought to the king, they declared that they came to pay the penalty of murder for the Lacedæmonians. Xerxes replied, that though the Lacedæmonians had broken the universal law of nations, by murdering heralds, he would not imitate the cruelty he abhorred, nor would he take the lives of two individuals, as a satisfaction for the national guilt. He accordingly dismissed them, and they returned home.

A

THEMISTOCles.

MONG the Grecian states which had refused submission the alarm was great at this juncture in affairs. The Athenians consulted the oracle at Delphi, and received a most threatening answer. Sending again, to beg for one more favourable, they received an ambiguous answer;

in a part of which they were told, that when all else was destroyed, the wooden wall might preserve them. Some interpreted this of the Acropolis, which had been anciently surrounded by a palisade; others, of the navy. A young man, by name Themistocles, had recently become a leader in Athens. When it was proposed to distribute to every citizen ten drachmæ (a silver coin about ten pence) from the produce of the silver mines at Laureium, Themistocles had prevailed on the assembly to reject the proposal, and to spend the money in building ships for the war with Egina. These were now ready, and he urged his countrymen to build more, and to rely for safety on their naval power; and the adoption of this counsel saved Greece. At a meeting of deputies from all the cities which had refused submission to the invader, a general reconciliation was effected of all quarrels, and particularly of that between Athens and Egina. Two embassies were sent, the one to invite the concurrence of Argos, which was refused, whether from fear or from jealousy of Sparta; the other to Gelon, tyrant of Syracuse in Sicily, and then the greatest Grecian potentate. Gelon, however, did not join the league.

BATTLES OF THERMOPYLE-SELF-DEVOTION OF LEONIDAS WITH THE SPARTANS AND THESPIANS.

ROVIDED their territory were defended the Thessalians had at first been willing to join the Grecian confederacy, and ten thousand heavy-armed foot being sent into Thessaly, were joined by the powerful cavalry of that province. But the Gre

cian commanders, thinking themselves unable

to defend the passes, fell back on the southern districts, and the Thessalians not only submitted to the invader, but served him actively. The Greeks now chose for defence the narrow pass of Thermopyla, the only tolerable outlet southward from Thessaly: and here were posted rather more than