haved himself with great severity, and sarcastically compared the Delphians to floating sticks which appear large at a distance, but are nothing when brought near.

The Delphians. offended with his caustic remarks, accused him of some act of sacriege, and pretending to have proved it against him, threw him down from a rock. He is said to have been short and deformed in his person.

4. Solon was born at Salamis and educated at Athens. After devoting the early part of his life to philosophical and political studies. he travelled over the greatest portion of Greece; but was distressed with the dissentions that prevailed among his countrymen.

Having, however, been elected archon and legislator of Athens, he made a reform in every department of the government. He instituted the Areopagus, regulated the Prytaneum, and his laws flourished in full vigour above 400 years. He died, as some report, in Cyprus, at the court of king Philocyprus, in his 80th year, about 558 B. C.

5. Thales was born at Miletus, in Ionia. Like the rest of the ancients, he travelled in quest of knowledge, and for some time resided in Crete, Phoenicia, and Egypt. Under the priests of Memphis he was taught geometry, astronomy, and philosophy, and enabled to measure with exactness, the height and extent of a pyramid, by its shadow.

His discoveries in astronomy were great, and he was the first who Like Homer, he looked calculated accurately a solar eclipse. In founding the Ionic upon water as the principle of every thing. sect of philosophy, which distinguished itself for deep and abstruse speculations, his name is memorable.

He died in the 96th year of his age, about 548 years B. C. His compositions are lost.

6. Cyrus subdued the eastern parts of Asia, and made war against Croesus, king of Lydia, whom he conquered, B. C. 548. He invaded the kingdom of Assyria, and took the city of Babylon, by drying the channels of the Euphrates, and marching his troops through the bed of this river, while the people were celebrating a grand festival.

He afterwards marched against Tomyris, the queen of the Massagetæ, a Scythian nation, and was defeated in a bloody battle, B. Č. 530. The victorious queen, who had lost her son in the previous encounter, was so incensed against Cyrus, that she cut off his head, and threw it into a vessel filled with human blood, exclaiming, "Satisfy thyself with blood, which thou hast so eagerly desired."

According to Xenophon, Cyrus possessed many excellent traits of

character.

7. Anacreon had a delicate wit, but he was certainly too fond of pleasure and wine. All that he wrote is not extant; though his odes remain, and their sweetness, gayety, and elegance have been adınired in every age. With "flowers, beauties, and perpetual graces," they have a hurtful moral tendency.

He lived to his 85th year, and after every excess of pleasure and debauchery, choked himself with a grape stone, and expired. His statue was placed in the citadel of Athens, representing him as an

old drunken man, singing, with every mark of dissipation and intemperance.

8. Pythagoras was born at Samos. In his 18th year he obtained the prize for wrestling at the Olympic games. He afterwards travelled in Egypt, Chaldæa, and the east, and at length, in his 40th year, he retired to Crotona, in Magna Græcia.

Here his universal knowledge gained him friends, admirers, and disciples, and a reformation took place in the morals of the people. The world is indebted to him for the demonstration of the 47th proposition of Euclid, respecting the square of the hypothemuse. By his ingenious discoveries in astronomy he traced the true solar system. The time and place of his death are unknown.

PERIOD VII.

The Period of Grecian Glory, extending from the Battle of Marathon, 490 years B. C. to the birth of Alexander, 356 years B. C.

GREECE.

1. The GREEKS, soon after the expulsion of Hippias, the king of Athens, became involved in a war with Persia. Under Darius, the Persians invaded Greece, 496 years B. C. His first fleet was wrecked; but a second of 600 sail, containing 500,000 men, ravaged the Grecian islands, and an immense army poured down on Attica.

Miltiades, at the head of the Greeks, met the Persian hosts, and defeated them on the plain of Marathon. The Persians lost 6300 men in that battle, while the Greeks lost but 190. The Grecian force did not exceed 10,000 men. The date of this engagement is 490 years B. C. and one of the most important in its consequences that history records.

§ Ambition and revenge in the breast of Darius, gave rise to his project of invading Greece. The Athenians had rendered assistance to the people of Ionia in attempting to throw off the Persian yoke, and had ravaged Sardis, the capital of Lydia. Darius soon reducing the Ionians to submission, turned his arms against the Greeks; while the exile Hippias, basely seconded the plans of the Persian monarch. One expedition in a great measure failed; and it was some time before another could be gathered and prepared to act, so that it was six years from the period in which the Persian invasion first com menced, to the battle of Marathon. Previously to the descent on Attica, the Persians, under Mardonius, had attacked Thrace, Macedonia, and the neighbouring provinces.

Marathon, where the Grecian and Persian forces met, was a small town by the sea side. The Greeks were led by ten generals, each

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whom was to command for one day by turns, and Miltiades was of whom to take his turn as the others, although he was chief general.

Aristides, (one of the ten,) had sense enough to see the evil of such a plan, and generosity to give up his honours, for the benefit of his country. When it was his day to command he resigned it to Miltiades, because, as he said, "Miltiades is the best general." The other generals saw the propriety of this conduct, and resigned to their commander in like manner.

Miltiades, however, thought it his duty not to act till his proper day came round, but he probably made the necessary preparation. The armies engaged in a fierce and obstinate battle. Themistocles, a brave man, and the compeer of Aristides, fought nobly by his side. From the skill with which Miltiades had placed his troops, as much as from the valour of those troops, the battle of Marathon was won by the Greeks.

A soldier covered with the blood of the enemy ran to Athens with the news, and had just strength enough left to say, "Rejoice! the victory is ours!" and then fell down dead, from his fatigue and wounds.

Not long after this service rendered to his country, Miltiades, who at first was loaded with honours, died in prison, where he was thrust by the Athenians, because he could not pay a fine which they ordered him to pay. On a false pretence of treachery to his country, this great general had been condemned to death, and afterwards the sentence of death was changed to the paying of a fine.

Greece, particularly Athens, abounded with great men about this time. A little tale or two concerning Themistocles may be interesting here. At a time when he was great in power, he laughingly said, that "his son was greater than any man in Greece." "How is that?" said a friend. "Why," replied Themistocles, "the Athenians govern Greece, I command the Athenians, his mother commands me, and this boy commands his mother."

Themistocles was an able general, and saved his country in one instance or more. But he was not an amiable man. Ambition was his god. Plutarch relates that after the battle of Marathon, in which Miltiades gained so glorious a victory, Themistocles was observed to court solitude, and indulge in a profound melancholy.

Upon inquiry made of him respecting the cause of his mental dejection, he replied, that " the trophies of Miltiades would not permit him to sleep." Indeed all his feelings and conduct showed how completely ambition had gotten the mastery over him, and how much, consequently, he wished to be master of Athens and of Greece. Yet under the ungrateful treatment, which he afterwards received from his countrymen, he would not betray the land that gave him birth, though he had an opportunity of doing it.

2. On the death of Darius, his son Xerxes prosecuted the war against Greece. During the early part of this war were fought the celebrated battles of Thermopylae and Platea on land, of Salamis and Mycale on water.

The battles of Thermopyla and Salamis took place 480 years B. C.; and those of Plataa aru Mycale, 479. Leoni das, Themistocles, Aristides, Pausanias, and several others, distinguished themselves in the defence of Greece, and acquired lasting renown by their achievements.

Xerxes brought over with him 2,000,000 of fighting men, besides vast numbers of women and domestics-the largest army and assemblage of persons recorded in history. This immense force was effectually resisted, during two days, at the pass of Thermopyla, by 6000 Greeks.

Their valour, though it could not finally arrest the progress of the Persians, cost the latter the lives of 20,000 warriors. Athens was soon reached, which the Persians pillaged and burnt. The women and children, however, had been previously conveyed to a place of safety, and the men betook themselves to their fleet.

§ Xerxes was a vain mortal. He ordered a passage to be cut through the high mountain of Athos, in Macedonia, and thus a canal was made for his ships. He is said to have written a letter to Mount Athos, in which he "commanded it not to put stones in the way of his workmen, or he would cut it down and throw it into the sea," and he ordered the labourers to be chastised to make them work faster.

When he saw, from a high hill, the plain covered with his soldiers, and the sea with his ships, he at first, in the pride of his heart, called himself the most favoured of mortals; but when he reflected, that in a hundred years, not one of the many thousands whom he beheld would be alive, he burst into tears at the instability of all human things.

Almost all the small cities of Greece submitted to the Persian king when he sent to them, as was the custom, for earth and water; which was the same as to ask them, whether they would receive him as their conqueror. Sparta and Athens, with the small towns of Thespia and Platæa, alone refused to receive the heralds and to send the token of homage.

Every thing gave way before the march of Xerxes, until he came to the pass of Thermopyla. On this spot Leonidas, one of the two reigning kings of Sparta, with his 6000 of brave soldiers, awaited his coming. Xerxes, after a weak attempt to corrupt him, imperiously summoned him to give up his arms. "Let him come and take them," was the short answer of this true native of Laconia.

The bravest of the Persian troops were ordered out against Leonidas, but they were always driven back with disgrace. At last a wretch went and informed the king of a secret path, by which he could mount an eminence which overlooked the Grecian camp. The Persians gained this advantageous post during

of whom was to command for one day by turns, and Miltiades was to take his turn as the others, although he was chief general.

Aristides, (one of the ten,) had sense enough to see the evil of such a plan, and generosity to give up his honours, for the benefit of his country. When it was his day to command he resigned it to Miltiades, because, as he said, "Miltiades is the best general." The other generals saw the propriety of this conduct, and resigned to their commander in like manner.

Miltiades, however, thought it his duty not to act till his proper day came round, but he probably made the necessary preparation. The armies engaged in a fierce and obstinate battle. Themistocles, a brave man, and the compeer of Aristides, fought nobly by his side. From the skill with which Miltiades had placed his troops, as much as from the valour of those troops, the battle of Marathon was won by the Greeks.

A soldier covered with the blood of the enemy ran to Athens with the news, and had just strength enough left to say, "Rejoice! the victory is ours!" and then fell down dead, from his fatigue and wounds.

Not long after this service rendered to his country, Miltiades, who at first was loaded with honours, died in prison, where he was thrust by the Athenians, because he could not pay a fine which they ordered him to pay. On a false pretence of treachery to his country, this great general had been condemned to death, and afterwards the sen tence of death was changed to the paying of a fine.

Greece, particularly Athens, abounded with great men about this time. A little tale or two concerning Themistocles may be interesting here. At a time when he was great in power, he laughingly "How is said, that "his son was greater than any man in Greece." that?" said a friend. Why," replied Themistocles, "the Athenians govern Greece, I command the Athenians, his mother commands me, and this boy commands his mother."

Themistocles was an able general, and saved his country in one instance or more. But he was not an amiable man. Ambition was his god. Plutarch relates that after the battle of Marathon, in which Miltiades gained so glorious a victory, Themistocles was observed to court solitude, and indulge in a profound melancholy.

Upon inquiry made of him respecting the cause of his mental dejection, he replied, that "the trophies of Miltiades would not permit him to sleep." Indeed all his feelings and conduct showed how completely ambition had gotten the mastery over him, and how much, consequently, he wished to be master of Athens and of Greece. Yet under the ungrateful treatment, which he afterwards received from his countrymen, he would not betray the land that gave him birth, though he had an opportunity of doing it.

2. On the death of Darius, his son Xerxes prosecuted the war against Greece. During the early part of this war were fought the celebrated battles of Thermopyla and Platea on land, and those of the straights of Salamis and Mycale on water.