this retired from Athens to the court of his kinsman Hegefiftratus, in the city of Sigeum, in the Troade on the Afiatic coaft.

N° L.

LISTHENES and Ifagoras had now ef

CLI

fected a complete revolution in favour of liberty, but being men of ambitious spirit and of equal pretenfions, the state was foon thrown into fresh convulfion by their factions. Clifthenes made his court to the people, Ifagoras again had recourse to the Lacedæmonians.

Lacedæmon, always difpofed to controul the growing confequence of her neighbours, and fenfible of the bad policy of her late measures, had opened her eyes to the folly of expelling Hippias upon the forged responses of the Pythia, of whofe corruption and false dealing fhe had now the proofs: She complied with the requifitions of Ifagoras fo far as related to her interference at large, but in the mode of that interference she by no means met his wishes, for it was immediately refolved to invite Hippias into Sparta, where he was publicly acknowledged

and

and received, and a herald fent to Athens with a haughty meffage to Cliftkenes and his party. The Athenians, intimidated and divided, threw themselves upon new and defperate refources, fending an embally, or rather petition, to the Perfian fatrap Artaphernes, brother of the reigning king Darius, and governor of Lydia.

The Perfian had not at this time ever heard the name of Athens, and peremptorily demanded homage; the ambaftadors yielded to the demand, but the ftate revoked it at their return with indignation; for the Corinthians had in the mean time taken meafures very favourable to their interefts, by feparating from the Lacedæmonian alliance and protefting ftrongly against the propofal of restoring Hippias their opposition seems to have been founded in principle, having lately experienced a tyranny of the fame fort in their own perfons, and they carried their point by compelling Hippias to return in defpair to Sigeum, from whence he betook himfelf to Lampfacus, where he began to cabal in the court of Eantides the tyrant, who was in great favour with the Perfian monarch. By this channel Hippias introduced himself to Darius, and with all the inveteracy of an exiled fovereign, not! abated by age or length of abfence, became a principal inftrument for promoting his expedi

tion into Greece, which concluded in the memorable battle of Marathon, at which he was prefent, twenty years after his expulfion.

It was fortunate for the liberties of Athens, that, when she fent her embassy to Artaphernes, he required as an indispensable condition of his aid that Hippias fhould be re-established in his tyranny. A more dangerous ftep could not have been refolved upon than this of inviting the affiftance of the Perfian, and in this applauded æra of liberty it is curious to remark fuch an inftance of debasement, as this embaffy into Lydia The memory however of paft oppreffion was yet too fresh and poignant to fuffer the Athenians to fubmit to the condition required, and nothing remained but to prepare themselves to face the refentment of this mighty power: With this view they gave a favourable reception: to Aristogaras the Milefian, who was canvaffing the feveral states of Greece to fend fupplies to the Ionians, then on the point of falling under the dominion of Perfia: Lacedæmon had refufed. to listen to him, and peremptorily difiniffed him out of their territory: From Athens he obtained the fuccours he folicited, in twenty gallies well manned and appointed: The Athenian. forces, after fome fuccefsful operations, fuffered a defeat by fea, and the breach with Perfia became incurable.

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incurable. Before the ftorm broke immediately upon Athens, the Persian armies were employed against the frontier colonies and iflands of Greece with uninterrupted fuccefs: They defeated the Phoenician fleet and reduced Cyprus; many cities on the Hellefpontic coaft were added to their empire; in the confines of the Troade feveral places were taken; impreffions were made upon Ionia and Æolia by the forces of Artamenes and Otanes, and in further process of the war the rich and beautiful city of Miletus was befieged and taken, and the inhabitants of both fexes removed into the Perfran territory, and colonized upon new lands: The ifles of Chios, Lefbos and Tenedos fhared the fame. fate, and not a city in Ionia, that had been involved in the defection, but was fubjected in its turn: In the Hellefpont and Propontis every thing on the European fhore was reduced, together with the important ftation of Chalcedon; the like fuccefs followed their armis in the Thracian Cherfonefus. Thefe operations were fucceeded by the next year's campaign under the conduct of Mardonius, the fon of a fifter of Darius, a young and inexperienced general; and the check, which the power of Perfia received this year by the wreck and difperfion of their fleet off the coaft of Macedonia, under

Mount

Mount Athos, in the Singitic bay, afforded the first seasonable respite from the ill-fortune of the

At length the formidable torrent, which had fo long threatened Athens at a distance, seemed ready to burst upon her, and furely a more unequal conteft never occupied the attention of mankind. Mardonius, who had been so unsuccessful in his firft campaign, was now fuperfeded, and the vast army of Persia was put under the joint command of Datis a Mede, and the younger Artaphernes, nephew to king Darius and fon to the Prefect of Lydia. These commanders purfued a different route by fea from what Mardonius had taken, avoiding the unlucky coast of Macedonia, and falling upon Euboea in the neighbourhood of Attica by a ftrait course through the Egean Sea. Having reduced the city of Caryftus, they laid fiege to Eretria the capital of Euboea; the Athenians had reinforced the garrifon with four thousand troops; but although the Eretrians for a time stood refolutely to the defence of their city, it was given up by treachery on the feventh day and pillaged and deftroyed in a most barbarous manner, the very temples being involved in the common ruin and conflagration.

Having ftruck this ftroke of terror under the