happened at that very moment to be blockaded by an Athenian fleet. In this conjuncture Themistocles adopted one of those decisive resolutions which never failed him in the hour of danger. Having summoned the master of the vessel, he disclosed to him his real name, and the peril which menaced him in case of discovery. He then conjured the master not to make the land, at the same time threatening that, if detected, he would involve him in his own ruin by representing him as the accomplice of his flight; promising, on the other hand, a large reward if he would secure his escape. These representations induced the master to keep the sea in spite of the weather; and Themistocles landed safely at Ephesus. § 13. Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes, was now upon the throne of Persia, and to him Themistocles hastened to announce himself. Having been conducted to Susa, he addressed a letter to the Persian king, in which he claimed a reward for his past services in favouring the escape of Xerxes, and promised to effect much for Persian interests if a year were allowed him to mature his plans. Artaxerxes welcomed the arrival of the illustrious stranger and readily granted his request. According to the tales current at a later period, the king was so transported with joy as to start from his sleep at night and thrice to cry out, "I have got Themistocles the Athenian." At the end of the year, Themistocles having acquired a sufficient knowledge of the Persian language to be able to converse in it, entertained Artaxerxes with magnificent schemes for the subjugation of Greece, and succeeded in gaining his entire confidence and favour. Artaxerxes loaded him with presents, gave him a Persian wife, and appointed Magnesia, a town not far from the Ionian coast, as his place of residence. In accordance with Eastern magnificence, the revenues of that place, amounting to the yearly sum of fifty talents, were assigned to him for bread, whilst Myos was to supply condiments, and Lampsacus wine. At Magnesia Themistocles was joined by his family; and after living there some time, was carried off by disease at the age of sixty-five, without having realized, or apparently attempted, any of those plans with which he had dazzled the Persian monarch. Rumour, which ever dogs the footsteps of the great, ascribed his death to poison, which he took of his own accord, from a consciousness of his inability to perform his promises; but this report, which was current in the time of Thucydides, is rejected by that historian, though it was subsequently adopted by writers of no mean note. The tale was probably propagated by the friends of Themistocles, who also asserted that, at his express command, they had carried his bones to Attica, and had secretly buried them in his native land. In the time of the Roman empire his tomb was shown upon the promontory at the right hand of the entrance of the great harbour of Piræus. This was doubtless the invention of a later age; but the imagination could not have chosen a fitter spot for the ashes of the founder of the maritime greatness of Athens. Hence we find in an ancient epigram, supposed to have been inscribed upon his tomb : "By the sea's margin, on the watery strand, Themistocles is one of those characters which exhibit at once all the greatness and all the meanness of human nature. Acuteness in foreseeing, readiness and wisdom in contriving, combined with vigour and decision in acting, were the characteristics of this great statesman, and by these qualities he not only rescued his country from the imminent danger of the Persian yoke, but enabled her to become one of the leading states of Greece. Yet his lofty genius did not secure him from the seductions of avarice and pride, which led him to sacrifice both his honour and his country for the tinsel of Eastern pomp. But the riches and luxury which surrounded him served only to heighten his infamy, and were dearly bought with the hatred of his countrymen, the reputation of a traitor, and the death of an exile. § 14. Aristides died about four years after the banishment of Themistocles. The common accounts of his poverty are probably exaggerated, and seem to have been founded on the circumstances of a public funeral, and of handsome donations made to his three children by the state. But in ancient times these were no unusual marks of respect and gratitude towards merit and virtue; and as he was archon eponymus at a time when only the first class of the Solonian census was admissible to this office, he must have enjoyed a certain amount of property. But whatever his property may have been, it is at least certain that he did not acquire or increase it by unlawful means; and not even calumny has ventured to assail his well earned title of the Just. RISE AND GROWTH OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE.-FROM THE BATTLE OF EURYMEDON TO THE THIRTY YEARS' TRUCE WITH SPARTA. § 1. Cimon leader of the aristocratical party at Athens. § 2. Revolt of Naxos. § 3. Battle of Eurymedon. § 4. The Athenians blockade Thasos, and attempt to found colonies in Thrace. § 5. Earthquake at Sparta and revolt of the Helots. § 6. Decline of Spartan power. § 7. Cimon assists the Spartans to suppress the revolt, but without success. The Spartans offend the Athenians by dismissing their troops. § 8. Parties at Athens. Character of Pericles. § 9. Attack upon the Areopagus. § 10. Ostracism of Cimon. § 11. Administration and foreign policy of Pericles. § 12. Expedition of the Athenians into Egypt against the Persians. § 13. Hostilities with Corinth and Ægina. Defeat of the Corinthians at Megara. § 14. The long walls of Athens commenced. § 15. The Lacedæmonians march into Bootia. Battle of Tanagra. § 16. Recall of Cimon. § 17. Battle of Enophyta, and conquest of Boeotia. Conquest of Egina. § 18. The five years' truce. Expedition of Cimon to Cyprus. His death. § 19. Conclusion of the war with Persia. § 20. The Athenian power at its height. § 21. Decline of Athenian power. Revolution in Bœotia. Other Athenian reverses. Invasion of Attica by the Lacedæmonians under Pleistoanax. § 22. Pericles recovers Euboea. Thirty years' truce with Sparta. § 1. ON the death of Aristides, Cimon became the undisputed leader of the aristocratical or conservative party at Athens. Cimon was generous, affable, magnificent; and, notwithstanding his political views, of exceedingly popular manners. He had inherited the military genius of his father, and was undoubtedly the greatest commander of his time. He employed the vast wealth acquired in his expeditions in adorning Athens and gratifying his fellow-citizens. He kept open house for such of his demos (the Laciada) as were in want of a meal, and appeared in public attended by well-dressed slaves, who were often directed to exchange their comfortable garments with the threadbare clothes of needy citizens. But his mind was uncultivated by arts or letters, and what eloquence he possessed was rough and soldierlike. § 2. The capture of Eion and reduction of Scyros by Cimon have been already related. It was two or three years after the latter event that we find the first symptoms of discontent among the members of the Confederacy of Delos. Naxos, one of the confederate islands, and the largest of the Cyclades, revolted in B.C. 466, probably from a feeling of the growing oppressiveness of the Athenian headship. It was immediately invested by the confederate fleet, and after a blockade of unknown duration reduced and made tributary to Athens. It was during this blockade that Themistocles, as before related, passed the island in his flight to Asia. This was another step towards dominion gained by the Athenians, whose pretensions were assisted by the imprudence of the allies. Many of the smaller states belonging to the confederacy, wearied with perpetual hostilities, commuted for a money payment the ships which they were bound to supply; and thus, by depriving themselves of a navy, lost the only means by which they could assert their independence. § 3. The same year was marked by a memorable action against the Persians. Cimon, at the head of 200 Athenian triremes, and 100 furnished by the allies, proceeded to the coast of Asia Minor, where he expelled the Persians from several Grecian towns in Caria and Lycia. Meanwhile the Persians had assembled a large fleet and army at the mouth of the river Eurymedon in Pamphylia. Their fleet already consisted of 200 vessels, chiefly Phonician; and as a reinforcement of 80 more was expected, Cimon resolved to lose no time in making an attack. After speedily defeating the fleet, Cimon landed his men and marched against the Persian army, which was drawn up on the shore to protect the fleet. The land-force fought with bravery, but was at length put to the rout. These victories were still further enhanced by the destruction of the 80 vessels, with which Cimon happened to fall in on his return. A victory gained on the same day both by sea and land added greatly to the renown of Cimon, and was commemorated on the tripod dedicated to Apollo as one of the most glorious of Grecian exploits. § 4. The successes of the Athenians, and their undisputed power at sea, led them to extend their empire by means of colonies. Some of the Athenians who had settled at Eion on the Strymon after the expulsion of the Persians, had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the surrounding country, which was principally occupied by Edonian Thracians, and was distinguished not only by the fertility of its soil, but also by its gold mines on Mount Pangaus. But in their attempts to form a permanent settlement on this coast, the Athenians were opposed by the inhabitants of the opposite island of Thasos, who were possessed of considerable territory upon the continent of Thrace, and derived a large revenue from the mines of Scapté Hylé and other places. The island of Thasos was a member of the Confederacy of Delos, with which, however, this quarrel does not appear to have been in any way connected. The ill-feeling soon reached such a pitch, that Cimon was despatched in B.C. 465 with a powerful fleet against the Thasians. In this expedition the Athenians gained various successes both by sea and land, but totally failed in their attempt to found a colony on the main land, near Eion. This result, however, was owing to the hostility of the native tribes. A body of ten thousand Athenians and their allies, who had taken possession of Ennea Hodoi, a place on the Strymon, about three miles above Eion, were attacked by the Thracians and nearly all of them slain. Nevertheless the Athenians did not abandon the blockade of Thasos. After a siege of more than two years that island surrendered, when its fortifications were razed, its fleet and its possessions in Thrace were confiscated, and it was condemned to pay an annual, as well as an immediate, tribute. § 5. The expedition to Thasos was attended with a circumstance which first gives token of the coming hostilities between Sparta and Athens. At an early period of the blockade the Thasians secretly applied to the Lacedæmonians to make a diversion in their favour by invading Attica; and though the Lacedæmonians were still ostensibly allied with Athens, they were base enough to comply with this request. But their treachery was prevented by a terrible calamity which befel themselves. In the year B.C. 464, their capital was visited by an earthquake which laid it in ruins and killed 20,000 of the citizens, besides a large body of their chosen youth, who were engaged in a building in their gymnastic exercises. But this was only part of the calamity. The earthquake was immediately followed by a revolt |